Hong Kong: STEM intern scheme well received The STEM Internship Scheme has been well received by participating universities and the business community. It attracted more than 3,000 university students and 1,500 companies and organisations in the summer and winter of 2021-22. The Innovation & Technology Commission today said the figures represent a year-on-year increase of more than 80% in the summer and close to 50% in the winter. According to the findings of surveys conducted by participating universities after the completion of the internships, among the students who joined the scheme in 2021-22, 98% of them gained a better understanding of the innovation and technology (I&T) field upon completion of their internship, while 97% would consider pursuing careers in I&T in the future. Furthermore, almost all participating employers considered that the interns' job performance had met or even exceeded their expectations and planned to join the scheme again. The findings reflect that the scheme has met the expectations of students, companies and organisations and its effectiveness is recognised by the universities and business community. Participating universities noted that the scheme had encouraged employers to provide more I&T-related internship places, offering students the opportunity to apply their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) knowledge in the workplace. It had also motivated STEM students to enrol in I&T-related internships, thus enabling them to understand the I&T work environment and culture. In addition, some SME employers said that the scheme had helped them hire interns with STEM knowledge. The STEM Internship Scheme has been well received by universities and the business community since its launch in summer 2020 and it was regularised last year. Entering the scheme's third summer break, the commission said it looks forward to the participation of more employers and students. Apart from providing students with internship opportunities, the scheme assists companies in recruiting suitable I&T talent, thereby enlarging the local I&T talent pool, it added. The scheme provides university students in STEM disciplines with internships of at least four consecutive weeks with a monthly allowance of $10,500 for up to three months in every academic year. This story has been published on: 2022-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Vietnam to reach net zero emissions in 2050 There is a great potential for green transition in Vietnam, which by 2050 can become a net zero-carbon economy according to the Vietnam Energy Outlook Report 2021 (EOR21) which was released on Thursday morning in Hanoi. At the launching event The report, which is the third in a series of outlook publications, was developed in close cooperation between the Danish Energy Agency (DEA), the Electricity and Renewable Energy Authority (Vietnam), and the Embassy of Denmark. It provides mid- to long-term perspectives on possible development paths for Vietnams energy system towards 2050, guides policy makers and inspires deliberations on a green transition. Particularly, the EOR21 examines a scenario for Vietnam to reach the net zero emissions by 2050 and an in-depth study on the green transport sector with higher share of electrification and a modal shift towards collective means of transport which resulted in a significant reduction of CO2 emissions and air pollution. It is expected that the report will give concrete inputs to the implementation of Vietnams National Power Development Plan No. 8 (PDP8), the National Energy Master Plan, the Vietnamese Climate Change Strategy and other governmental plans and strategies. Speaking at the launching of the report, Vice Minister for Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An said that the report provided valuable information about short-term and long-term energy and power system development, in conformity with the Vietnamese Government's direction for sustainable energy development along with environmental protection and energy security. Director General of DEA Kristoffer Bottzauw told the event that Vietnam had already come a long way with its green transition, which Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs net zero pledge at COP26 in Glasgow illustrates. "With the Vietnam Energy Outlook Report2021 developed in a close collaboration with the Vietnamese Energy Authorities,we aim to display how this target can be reached in time and at the lowest cost possible to the benefit of the country, its people and, not least, the global climate, he said. Potential for reaching the 2050-target of net-zero emissions In recent decades, Vietnam has experienced average annual growth rates of around 7 percent in GDP and the growing economy has led to significant increase in energy consumption as well as in CO2-emissions. Vietnam is an important partner for Denmark when it comes to green economy transition," said H.E. Mr. Kim Hjlund Christensen, Ambassador of Denmark to Vietnam at the launch. "We are happy to share with our local counterparts solid and well-proven Danish solutions, knowhow and best practices gained during the past 30 years to support Vietnam in realizing its great potential for green transformation and the countrys commitment to combat climate change and achieve net-zero by 2050 in the most efficient and just way." Dubai South, the largest single-urban master development, has signed a deal with International Humanitarian City (IHC), which will take IHC humanitarian-aid shipments to a new level of efficiency and accuracy. As per the memorandum of understanding, IHC, the largest humanitarian hub in the world, will implement Masary, an e-gate pass system, to track and trace shipments within a secure network and ensure efficient management of cargo movement. The agreement was signed during the two-day Seamless Middle East Summit in Dubai, which concludes on June 1, by Giuseppe Saba, CEO of IHC, and Abdul Basit AlMarzouqi, Director of the Logistics District at Dubai South, in the presence of senior members from both entities. Logistics crucial Saba underlined the importance of the e-gate pass system, saying: Logistics play a crucial part in IHCs operations, and the e-gate pass system will strengthen the efficiency of IHC communitys emergency response. It will save time on aid shipment processing and, ultimately, save the lives of people in need. We would like to consider the signing of this agreement as a starting point for our partnership with Dubai South. Through this partnership, we hope to further develop any tool or facility that could help IHC and its community achieve the goals identified by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, when he founded IHC. AlMarzouqi said: As a prominent logistics hub, we are committed to facilitating optimal smart operational solutions for our clients to ensure seamless services and the uninterpreted flow of goods. Dubai Souths Logistics District will continue to enhance its portfolio of offerings and address the increasing complexity involved in the movement of goods. As such, it will promote best practices and establish a tech-enabled dynamic ecosystem that would allow our valued clients to thrive in this competitive market. Master-planned city Dubai South was launched as a Dubai Government project in 2006, representing an emerging 145-square-kilometre, master-planned city based on the happiness of the individual. The city is identified as Dubais flagship urban project and is designed to create 500,000 jobs in an integrated economic environment that supports all types of businesses and industries. IHC, which was founded in 2003 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, is the only non-profit, independent, humanitarian free-zone authority, hosting a community of around 85 members comprising UN organisations, non-profit and non-governmental organisations and commercial companies. The international humanitarian community in Dubai consists of about 500 people, representing around 80 nationalities, thus positioning itself as the largest humanitarian hub in the world.-- TradeArabia News Service Anyone who's tried to ride a bike east to west across central Missoula, from the university to Fort Missoula or vice versa, knows it's fairly difficult and unsafe in many spots. Now, the city is one step closer to having one more connector route. The Missoula Redevelopment Agency's board recently approved $305,000 in Tax Increment Financing to pay for improvements to the Kent Avenue Neighborhood Greenway. Essentially, the money will go to pay for infrastructure construction costs to build traffic calming features near Tremper's Kent Plaza. A new speed bump, a new roundabout, sidewalk and crosswalk improvements, rapid flashing beacons and signage will help pedestrians and bicyclists get from Regent Street to the west side of Russell Street. "Since Trempers Kent Plaza has been completed, traffic has increased on Kent between Brooks and Russell Streets, creating confusion and unsafe conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists," explained Annette Marchesseault, a project manager for the agency. "The city has received numerous requests for safety improvements in this area, particularly at the Kent Avenue/Oxford Street intersection." The new roundabout will be at the intersection of Kent Avenue and Oxford Street near the U.S. Post Office. The new pedestrian and bike crossing infrastructure, including the flashing lights, will be at the intersection of Kent Avenue and Russell Street. Aaron Wilson, the city's infrastructure and mobility planning manager, showed the board a few maps to illustrate how hard it is to get east to west, or vice versa, across Missoula on a bike. "For any of you who do bike, the Brooks/Russell/South Avenue intersection is not a great place to bike even though we do have bike lanes," he said. The only quick east-to-west routes in all of Missoula are the Milwaukee Trail bike path, Third Street and 39th Street, none of which are near the part of Missoula where the new greenway is being constructed. "The vision of this greenway is a complete east/west connection from Fort Missoula and Big Sky High School all the way to the University of Montana," Wilson explained. It will be a "low stress route" for all ages and abilities, he said, because people will have safe crossings at busy streets and intersections. Most of the route is on neighborhood streets, and the new Montana Rail Link Park is a big part of that connection. "This is a huge connection for this neighborhood," he said. All the new businesses at Tremper's Kent Plaza, including a new Thai restaurant, a new brewery, an eye doctor, a beauty salon and an ax-throwing facility, are attracting lots of visitors. The greenway will increase safety and provide more access to those businesses, Wilson explained. "Within the context of the transportation system, these sections might seem like a small amount but it's really a key barrier we're addressing with this project," he said. The method of improving small-but-difficult sections on existing connections is a comparatively low-cost way of increasing mobility he said, considering the city doesn't have to pay for all-new infrastructure like roads or bike paths. "This isn't just a traffic-calming project for the Tremper's development, it's part of a larger connection," he said. "We are looking at other funding for Bancroft and Higgins and then we'll have an east/west route that connects in the middle of Missoula where we currently have no east/west connection. So it's a small amount of money but really big connectivity created with these projects." Ruth Reineking, a member of the board, said she appreciates the project. The board voted unanimously to approve the funding, which comes out of Urban Renewal District III. "That block through Tremper's is kind of a nightmare for pedestrians and cyclists," she told Wilson. "I appreciate you are tying this into all the other strategies for multi-modal transportation." Tasha Jones, another member of the board, said that concerns about traffic in the area are very concrete. "There have been 19 reported accidents in this exact vicinity in the five years between 2015 and 2019 and that is before we are drawing more traffic into the area because of the great space and the excellent businesses that now occupy that space," she said. "This isn't just a concept that there might be a problem. There is a problem that exists by virtue of the data that's been collected." At a separate recent meeting this spring, the agency's board also approved $10,680 in Tax Increment Financing to help a private developer clean up a site at 1417 S. 2nd St. W. Developer John Bateman is removing a vacant, dilapidated structure on the site and is building a new duplex as a rental property, according to Marchesseault. Taxes on the old structure are $1,038 a year and the new duplex will generate about $4,200 per year in property taxes. "This project is expected to have a positive impact on the adjacent neighborhood," Marchesseault told the board. "It will replace a derelict property with two attractive, much-needed housing units. This project is an example of 'smart' urban redevelopment." That's because, she said, the new duplex will be located in an existing residential area on a previously developed site that already is served by all necessary utilities. The board voted unanimously to approve the funding. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 2 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. Missoula police took a male suspect into custody after a daylong standoff at a South Hills home on Thursday. Police were still in the area as of 6 p.m. processing the scene. No injuries were reported, according to a Missoula Police Department Facebook post, which said the situation had been resolved safely. Missoula SWAT teams were at the scene negotiating with the man barricaded in the South Hills neighborhood house for hours prior to the arrest. Only one individual was inside the house at the 100 block of Black Pine Trail and there was no hostage situation, Missoula police spokesperson Lydia Arnold said. Around 3:30 p.m., a team from the Kalispell SWAT joined in on the action. Teams sent two robot devices into the residence where the suspect was barricaded. The robots allowed officers to approach the scene safely, Arnold explained. She didnt specify what theyre being used for in the house. Arnold said there were weapons involved in the calls for service that led up to the incident on Black Pine Trail. Witnesses say they heard a commotion and a police presence starting at about 10 p.m. Wednesday evening. Officers are still asking people to stay away from the area. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 3 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. Biden appeals for tougher gun laws: 'How much more carnage?' WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to act on gun control. In an address to the nation Thursday night, he called on lawmakers to restore limits on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He says that if legislators fail to act, voters should use their outrage to turn gun violence into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Biden is trying to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter laws, though such efforts have failed in the wake of past violence. The speech follows recent mass shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Texas senator: School police chief didn't know of 911 calls UVALDE, Texas (AP) A Texas state senator says the commander at the scene of a school shooting in Texas was not informed of panicked 911 calls from inside the school building. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said during a news conference Thursday that the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator who represents the city called it a system failure that the calls were going to city police but not communicated to Arredondo. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety has said police didnt confront the gunman more quickly because Arredondo believed the situation had morphed from an active shooting to a hostage situation. Nineteen children and two teachers died. Police: Tulsa gunman targeted surgeon he blamed for pain Police say a man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the shooter as 45-year-old Michael Louis. He says the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love. Harini Logan wins spelling bee in 1st-ever tiebreaker OXON HILL, Md. (AP) Harini Logan has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, defeating Vikram Raju in the bee's first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker. Both spellers got four words wrong during their grueling showdown before Scripps went to the 90-second spell-off. Harini was faster and sharper throughout, spelling 21 words correctly to beat Vikram by six. The 13-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, will take home a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Harini was a four-time participant in the bee and a sentimental favorite who endured the pandemic to compete again in person for the first time since 2019. Queen Elizabeth II to miss Jubilee service amid 'discomfort' LONDON (AP) Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a church service to mark her Platinum Jubilee after experiencing discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace says that with great reluctance the 96-year-old monarch has decided to skip Fridays service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed todays Birthday Parade but did experience some discomfort. Britain is marking the monarchs 70 years on the throne with four days of events over a long holiday weekend. Elizabeth is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to serve for seven decades. Many royal followers camped out overnight in London in hopes of getting a glimpse of the queen. Jan. 6 committee sets prime-time hearing date for findings WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will go public with its findings in a prime-time hearing next week, launching into what lawmakers hope will be one the most consequential oversight efforts in American history. The six hearings, set to begin June 9 and expected to last until late June, will be the first time the committee discloses what it has discovered in the course of a sprawling 10-month investigation that has touched nearly every aspect of the insurrection. More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the panel, and only brief snippets of that testimony have been revealed to the public, mostly through court filings. NY passes bill raising age to buy, own semi-automatic rifles ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorks legislature has voted to ban banning anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle. The legislation is a major change to state firearm laws. It was passed Thursday, less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. Other new legislation will restrict civilian purchases of bullet-resistant armor, which was worn by the killer in Buffalo. Bills would also require new guns to be equipped with microstamping technology that can help law enforcement investigators trace bullets to particular firearms. Legal fights over the legislation are expected. 2 doctors, receptionist and visitor killed in Tulsa shooting The four people killed in a shooting inside a Tulsa medical building included two doctors, a receptionist and a former soldier who was accompanying his wife during a checkup. Police, officials at Saint Francis Health System and others who knew the victims provided details about them on Thursday. Police say Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and Army veteran William Love were fatally shot. Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Jersey environmental protection officials said Thursday they hope to have a law that guards communities from overbearing pollution in full effect by the end of this year. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in September 2020 in Newark, but rulemaking, public comment and other procedures have yet to be completed. Officials with the state Department of Environmental Protection said they hope to approve rules spelling out the details of the law by Dec. 31, which would mark the point where the law was fully implemented. In the meantime, DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette has issued an administrative order requiring current and future projects to comply with its spirit and goals. He said the order has the practical effect of placing us where the rule ultimately would. Murphy signed the law in order to prevent communities often low-income, minority neighborhoods from having to bear the brunt of too many sources of pollution. This is a big deal, LaTourette said during a briefing for reporters on where the law currently stands. We have wrestled with those hard questions. We believe we have landed at the right place. Because it is not yet in full effect, the law does not directly affect one of the most hotly contested environmental justice cases in the state, the proposed addition of a backup gas-fired power plant at a sewage treatment facility in Newark's Ironbound section. That neighborhood already suffers from multiple sources of pollution from nearby power plants, an international airport, numerous highways and heavy truck traffic through residential neighborhoods. LaTourette said he would not prejudge the application, which is already being considered by his agency. But he and other DEP officials said there are steps that the power plant and other applicants could take to lessen pollution in the area, including in places off their own property. In January, the governor directed the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission to pause a plan to build the largest part of a $180 million backup power plant, designed to kick in when the main facility is knocked offline. The commission has proposed measures including the adoption of state of the art pollution controls that go beyond the states own requirements. The commission says it will only run the backup power plant during emergencies and for basic maintenance only; in a year in which no emergencies occur, the backup plant would operate for a maximum of 12 days a year. The commission also has dropped a plan to use the backup power plant on days of high electric demand, which it says will eliminate 700 hours of operation. It also says it plans to install all of the technically feasible solar power it can. It also plans to convert from natural gas to cleaner fuels as soon as that becomes feasible, including the use of battery power. The backup power plant is designed to avoid a repeat of what happened during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when nearly a billion gallons of raw sewage flowed into nearby waterways when the plant went offline due to a lack of electricity. The commission says that without the backup plant, the streets of the Ironbound section could be awash in raw sewage during a serious storm that knocks out power to the sewage treatment facility. LaTourette predicted numerous legal challenges to the law once it takes full effect. "Lawyers will build entire careers on splitting its hairs," he said. Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 HELENA, Mont. (AP) Montana's top schools official was fined $100 after she pleaded no contest to a citation alleging she illegally passed a stopped school bus while children were boarding. Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen on Wednesday entered the plea meaning that she did not not admit guilt but was not contesting the charge, according to Helena Municipal Court records. Arntzen was cited last week for illegally passing the bus in a residential subdivision on the morning of May 19. She said she does not recall the incident, but the East Helena Public Schools bus driver recognized her and wrote down the license plate of the pickup truck that passed the bus, according to police reports. The school district also gave Helena police two photos from the school bus video camera showing the incident. Helena Municipal Court Judge Anne Peterson suspended $400 of the $500 fine and ordered that Arntzen could have the citation removed from her driving record if she has no traffic violations over the next two months, court documents said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Montana, we are at a crossroads. As I travel the district running for this new seat, I hear how quickly our state is changing in every single town, no matter the size. In a recent study, three out of four Montanans named housing as their top concern. Twenty-seven percent of Montana adults face medical debt, many forced to forgo medication or treatment because they cant afford it. And the rising prices of gas, diesel and groceries are forcing working families to visit food banks for the first time. I know exactly what this feels like these struggles are what my own family faced in the '80s, when I was growing up in Bozeman. When I was a baby we lost my father to injuries he sustained in a lumber mill accident, and if we had been closer to good care he may have survived. Later my stepfather, a union carpenter, couldnt find good work any closer than Great Falls three hours away. We were forced to leave behind the community that raised me to find work elsewhere. I watched my mom and stepdad work hard to make ends meet and provide for my siblings and me. These experiences shaped me into the person I am today, and I have dedicated my life and career working to ensure other families dont have to face the same hardships mine did. Over the past 25 years, I have founded and led multiple non-profit organizations that improve health care for rural and underserved communities, spur job creation, and protect our public lands throughout Montana and the country. Im running for Congress because we deserve a representative with a personal understanding of what Montana families are facing right now, and one who has the experience and backbone to stand up to Washington and fight for the Montana we love. From Congress, I will work with my colleagues to preserve and even increase funding for Federal Housing Administration loan programs, and expand public-private partnerships, tax and investment incentives, and USDA rural housing initiatives to ensure we have access to housing we can actually afford. To address the cost of living everything from gas prices, to prescription drugs, groceries and more I will go after price gougers, including putting pressure on the FTC to investigate oil and gas companies anti-consumer policies. The invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder of our need to increase domestic energy production, and we can do this by increasing investments in renewable energy infrastructure. Finally, we have to ensure that our families have access to the good jobs and wages that fuel our towns and main streets. The growth in Montana has to benefit Montanans our businesses, our workers, and our families so families who have lived here for just a few years or even generations can afford to stay. My campaign has the support of Montanans who arent the normal political insiders, but whose communities and livelihoods are on the line: Tribal leaders, farmers and ranchers, union leaders, hunters and anglers, healthworkers, service industry workers and more. Together, were building a movement that can win in November. Because this is about ensuring that families like mine and yours can keep calling the Montana we love home. My husband and I are raising our two teenage children here, surrounded by four generations of family. Montana has everything they could need to build great lives we just need a leader who is hellbent on ensuring they have access to it. And thats why Im running. Cora Neumann is a candidate for U.S. Congress and founder of We Are Montana. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 US-COURT-DEPP-HEARD Actress Amber heard arrives at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 1, 2022. Credit - BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIGetty Images After weeks of testimonies from dozens of witnesses, the high-profile defamation case between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has finally reached an end. The verdict Following a six-week trial and less than three days of deliberation, the jury in the defamation case between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard ruled that Heard defamed Depp on all three counts, awarding Depp $15 million dollars in damages. In Heards countersuit, Depp was found guilty of one of three charges, with Heard awarded $2 million dollars in compensatory damages. Depp filed a $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard in 2019, alleging that a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post, in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse but did not mention Depp by name, harmed his reputation and career. Heard countersued for $100 million after Depps lawyer called her allegations a hoax. What led up to this Throughout the trial, Depp and Heard presented their own versions of several shocking instances of alleged abuse. In his testimony, Depp accused Heard of leaving human feces on his bed and severing his finger by throwing a vodka bottle at him, and attempted to explain audio recordings and text messages that detailed abuse against Heard. On the stand, Heard alleged that Depp abused her physically during their relationship, describing multiple instances of alleged violence. She detailed an altercation in which she hit Depp, claiming it was in defense of her sister, Whitney Henriquez, who interfered during an argument. I just, in my head, instantly think of Kate Moss and stairs, and I swung at him, Heard said. Moss later testified that Depp never pushed her down the stairs. The trial also included testimonies from an array of witnesses that included the chief operating officer and general counsel of the ACLU, Terence Doughertywho walked the jury through the organizations involvement with Heards op-ed and detailed the timeline of Heards pledged donations to the organizationand the manager of Depps Bahamas Islands estate, who described arguments between the couple. Story continues The case is Depps second defamation lawsuit involving his relationship with Heard. In 2020, Depp lost a libel case against the U.K. tabloid, The Sun, after he sued its publisher over a 2018 headline that referred to him as a wife-beater. After hearing from a range of witnesses, the presiding judge ruled that 12 of the 14 instances of abuse by Depp had occurredand that The Suns article was substantially true. What happens next In a statement posted shortly after the verdict was announced, Heard expressed her disappointment in the verdict. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband, she said. An 89-year-old woman from Morganton has been reported missing. Nina Thompson Anderson, who is described as a 5-foot, 2-inch white female who weighs about 95 pounds and has white hair, was last seen around 9 a.m. Wednesday, said Lt. Josiah Brown with the Morganton Department of Public Safety. Anderson, who was driving a white 2003 Buick Century, was headed to a hair appointment Wednesday morning but missed it because her cars battery died, Brown said. She got the battery fixed but her family hasnt heard from her since. The Buick has a North Carolina license plate of WVF-8074, Brown said. She does not meet the criteria for a Silver Alert to be issued, he said. Anyone with information on her whereabouts should call MDPS at 828-437-1911. Nina Thompson Anderson, 89, had last been seen around 9 a.m. Wednesday when she headed to a hair appointment, said Lt. Josiah Brown with the Morganton Department of Public Safety. She missed the appointment because her car battery died and got the battery fixed, but her family didn't hear from her after that. Seeley International, a global leader in evaporative cooling products, is this year celebrating its Golden Jubilee - marking five decades of operational excellence and launch of its innovative climate control solutions. The Australia-headquartered company also marks its 10-year partnership with UAE distributor Climagulf Trading this year. The company, which was founded by Frank Seeley in 1972 has come a long way from its humble beginnings to become Australias largest air conditioning manufacturer with award-winning brand names including Breezair, Coolair, Climate Wizard and Coolerado. To celebrate this incredible milestone, Seeley hosted an exclusive event recently in Dubai which was attended by biggest names in the industry along with ASHRAE Falcon Chapter members. Some of the group's top execuives including Jon Seeley, Group Managing Director, travelled from Australia along with Frank Seeley AM, Company Founder and Executive Chairman. The extraordinary journey of Seeley International began in 1972 when Frank and Kathy Seeley took Seeley Bros from a sales and marketing business and transformed it into a manufacturing company. Established and sustained by Innovation, this is a key factor in why Seeley has played a major role in HVAC leading solutions globally through five decades, said senior officials at the ceremony held at the Marriot Hotel ballroom. In his welcome address, Seely highlighted the company's various milestones since its foundation was laid 50 years ago. He pointed out that Seeley Internationals vision was to lead the world in creating climate control solutions which continue to be highly innovative, of premium quality and inspirational in their delivery of energy efficiency. "We have a large R&D investment, focused on energy efficiency, peak demand reduction and extreme climate performance capability. Particularly in the industrial and commercial sector, we are seeing the convergence of sustainability and health, with the growing challenge for buildings required to have high indoor air quality, with the delivery of fresh outside air supplied efficiently," said the top executive. "This is something that Seeley Internationals technology has been providing for decades. For this reason, we offer to the UAE our premium range of energy efficient indirect evaporative cooling solutions, delivering temperatures that rival those of refrigerated systems, but only using water and a small amount of electricity to run," he added. Senior officials - Sam Peli (General Manager Sales EMEA) and Sabu Abraham (CEO Climagulf Trading) - ealborated on how Seeley started business in the UAE and how it has enjoyed a successful partnership doing business together for 10 years. The company exports in more than 120 countries around the world through its global distributor network. With sales offices in US, UK, France, Italy and South Africa Seeley International ensures a strong level of commitment to the local markets and an everyday support to dealers and distributors. Sales Manager Xavier Delaigue then spoke in detail on Seely's successful Makkah mission wherein it had installed 50,000 evaporative coolers in Mina tent city and also its fascinating logistic milestone of 100,000 tents hosting pilgrims travelling yearly to Makkah. "We successfully completed the worlds largest order for evaporative air conditioners, resulting in around 50,000 Breezair evaporative coolers being installed in the tent city in Mina Valley, Saudi Arabia, the accommodation for pilgrims travelling to Makkah," he explained. Breezair, he stated, was found to outperform more than 200 other A/C brands and delivered spectacular results against a comprehensive set of criteria that included energy-efficiency, reliability, performance and low environmental impact. Being awarded this significant supply contract provided the opportunity for Seeley International to showcase its ability to deliver on large scale orders within a very short and specific timeframe, he added. Seeley said this year the company was also celebrating a spectacular 10-year partnership with Climagulf Trading, its official distributor for the UAE. Based in Dubai, Climagulf takes care of distribution of all Seeleys brands of evaporative cooling products to renowned companies, including Dewa, RTA testing centers, RAK Ceramics, Interplast and Huhtamaki group. During the event, Seely also showcased some important installations, with testimonials from end users, consultants and specifier.-TradeArabia News Service Share this: June 2, 2022 by Eric Lowell Category: Financial Reporting , Gift of Public Funds MRSC gets a fair number of questions each year concerning donations to and from local governments. This blog will look at two broad issues: how a local government can receive donations and how a local government can make a donation without violating the gift of public funds prohibition. Receiving Donations Local governments in Washington State are allowed to receive donations. For example, RCW 35.21.100 states: Every city and town by ordinance may accept any money or property donated, devised, or bequeathed to it and carry out the terms of the donation, devise, or bequest, if within the powers granted by law. If no terms or conditions are attached to the donation, devise, or bequest, the city or town may expend or use it for any municipal purpose. While there is not a similar statutory provision for counties, counties nonetheless have inherent authority to accept donations. In general, special purpose districts may also accept gifts (see, for example, RCW 70.44.060(1), which authorizes public hospital districts to accept donations). However, the manner in which special purpose districts can receive these donations may differ (For example, the board of commissioners for ports must approve donations of real and personal property, per RCW 53.08.110). Receiving gifts raises a host of issues, most commonly policies and procedures, reporting, and how to manage gifts with requirements. Lets look at each. Reporting requirements One common question is whether or not donations to a local government are tax deductible. The IRS Code at 26 U.S.C. 170(c)(1) states that a donation is tax deductible when it is to: A State, a possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of any of the foregoing, or the United States or the District of Columbia, but only if the contribution or gift is made for exclusively public purposes. Note that the donation is to be for public purposes, so it should not be intended to benefit a particular individual or group. Additionally, the IRS requires certain documentation of the donation, as explained in Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements. As noted on page four, if a donor wishes to claim a tax deduction for a donation to a local government that exceeds $250, the donor must obtain a written acknowledgment from the local government that contains the following: the name of organization the amount of cash contribution a description (but not the value) of non-cash contribution a statement that no goods or services were provided by the organization in return for the contribution, if that was the case a description and good faith estimate of the value of goods or services, if any, that an organization provided in return for the contribution However, it is not necessary to include either the donors Social Security number or tax identification number on the written acknowledgement. Policies and procedures A best practice is for local governments to develop a donation acceptance policy and include any limitations on donations. The City of Lakewood accepts donations as follows: The City may accept and use donations only for purposes related to those powers granted to the City by law. Any donation to the City that is accompanied with any contingency, term, or condition on the use by the City of such donation that is inconsistent with this chapter or contrary to law shall be declined by the City. The City may decline to accept any donation that is inconsistent with the policies, plans, goals, or any other ordinance of the City. What to do when gifts come with restrictions If the donation has no restrictions attached to the gift, it may be used for any municipal purpose. However, some cash donations, such as a bequest, may come with requirements on how the funds may be spent. If a local government accepts a donation with requirements on how the funds must be spent, the donation must then be spent for that purpose. If the local government is unable to spend the funds for that purpose, it must reject the donation. Note: For financial reporting purposes, any unspent donations at year end with restrictions attached to them would be reported in restricted ending fund balance. That covers the basics of accepting donations. Some local governments seek corporate and community partnerships to sponsor community programs, events, and facilities as part of their business plans for funding. For examples of sponsorship/naming policies adopted by local governments, visit our Corporate Sponsorships and Naming Policies webpage. Making Donations In general, local governments are not allowed to make gifts of public funds. Article 8, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution prohibits any local government entity from bestowing a gift or lending money, property, or the entitys credit to a private party. Section 7 does allow public funds to be used in providing necessary support for the poor and infirm. An example would be utility assistance programs that provide payments or reduced rates to low-income customers or individuals with disabilities. Outside of supporting the poor and infirm, a donation from a local government would need to meet certain criteria. The courts have used a two-step process to determine whether or not a local government has bestowed a gift of public funds. First, they will look to see if the funds were used to carry out a fundamental purpose of government. If the answer is yes, then there has not been a gift of public funds. Second, the courts will determine whether the government had donative intent and whether it received an adequate return for any transfer of funds. Visit MRSCs Gift of Public Funds webpage for a more in-depth analysis of this constitutional prohibition. Use of surplus Many local governments can run into a gift of public funds issue when donating surplus property. Local governments should have surplus procedures and policies in place and ensure adequate consideration is made to avoid gifting the surplus. In some instances, surplus items will have de minimis or no monetary value. The local government could likely justify donating such items if it includes certain steps as part of the surplus process. For example, the governing body should declare such items surplus and include a description which demonstrates the items have little to no value (e.g., outdated, obsolete, broken, etc.) In 2014 the City of White Salmon was getting rid of old, obsolete tasers. The resolution for the surplus of these tasers notes that the city will donate the taser batteries and holsters to Skamania County, and it lays out the justification for this: The county still used the same model of taser being surplused, so the city decided to donate the holsters and batteries as spare parts. The city was able to justify donating these parts since the county is another local government and the citizens of the city receive services from the county on occasion. As such, there was no gift of public funds problem. In Conclusion Local governments should have policies and procedures in place for receiving and giving donations. The implications of accepting or giving a donation should be considered. Proper procedures for donations should be followed in order to avoid a gift of public funds issue. MRSC is a private nonprofit organization serving local governments in Washington State. Eligible government agencies in Washington State may use our free, one-on-one Ask MRSC service to get answers to legal, policy, or financial questions. MISSOULA Richard Daniel White, 35, of Butte was sentenced Wednesday to 54 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, after he admitted to illegally possessing nine firearms. White, who was on state supervision for felony convictions, pleaded guilty in February to prohibited person in possession of firearms. According to court documents, the government alleged that in February 2020, White, a convicted felon, possessed nine firearms and ammunition in his residence during a probation search. State probation officers conducted the search based on a positive urine analysis test for methamphetamine and information that White possessed stolen firearms. One of the semiautomatic firearms White had in his possession was capable of accepting a large capacity magazine, and there were several magazines capable of accepting more than 15 rounds of ammunition in his bedroom. At the time of the offense, White was on state supervision for three separate felony cases of criminal endangerment, criminal possession of dangerous drugs and attempted theft and criminal mischief. The U.S. Attorneys Office prosecuted the case, with U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presiding. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Montana Probation and Parole and the Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Agency. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 A Butte Police SWAT team charged into a house Wednesday night after a two-hour standoff with a man involved in a domestic incident and took him into custody. The man was armed with several knives and police believed he might also have a handgun but the ordeal ended with nobody injured, Sheriff Ed Lester said in a news release issued at 10:20 p.m. Police went to the house in the 4800 block of South Utah Street after the man was involved in a domestic dispute and barricaded himself in the residence, Lester said. Negotiators did communicate with the male for over two hours, Lester said. At approximately 9 p.m., the SWAT Team forced entry to the house and the male was taken into custody. Nobody was hurt but an ambulance and Butte Fire Rescue were staged at the house in event of an injury. Lester said more information would be provided when available. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 9 Sad 2 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. A judge ordered Thursday that construction on a Loves truck stop off of I-90 near Ramsay be halted until the Butte-Silver Bow Zoning Board takes up an appeal by residents in the small community west of Butte. Technically, District Judge Robert Whelan cited a county ordinance and told county officials to suspend building permits they had issued on April 29 that allowed work to begin. But the bottom line for Loves is the same, at least until a Zoning Board hearing in two weeks. In the meantime, the reading of the ordinance would instruct that those permits are stayed and in so being stayed, Loves is not permitted to continue work on site until such time as the appeal is complete, Whelan said during a hearing in his Butte courtroom. Residents in the tiny community have been fighting the project for years but had lost every round until Thursday. About two dozen attended the hearing and applauded when Whelan made his ruling, even though it might only derail the project temporarily. They told us not to cheer but nobodys had to give us that advice because we have never won before, said Ramsay resident Jim Ayres, who has help lead opposition to the truck stop. The Montana Standard reached out to the Oklahoma City-based truck stop giant for comment following the ruling. It also left a phone message with the company for a previous story this week but never heard back. Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores announced plans to locate a truck stop next to Ramsay in January 2017. It had 410 locations across the U.S. then and now has more than 530 in 41 states, including in Missoula and Hardin in Montana. The one at Ramsay would include a large convenience store, an Arbys restaurant, a casino, a tire shop and parking for at least 110 semis. Numerous Ramsay residents have opposed the project from the start, saying the truck stop will bring traffic, noise, pollution, transients and crime to their quiet community of about 40 houses 7 miles west of Butte. Contractors on bulldozers and excavators started major dirt work at the site and brought in piping and other materials only days after the county issued the building permits. County officials said Loves had met all requirements for the permits but Planning Director Dylan Pipinich said they cautioned the company about starting construction because residents had promised an appeal to the Zoning Board. And when they appealed, we called them and told them, This is at your risk. We will make you put everything back (if you lose), Pipinich told the Standard. The Zoning Board will likely hold a hearing on the appeal at its next regular meeting on June 16 or a few days prior. Ramsay residents were told two years ago they could appeal decisions on the permits to the Zoning Board once they were made, and though they did so within days, construction had already started. The residents, through attorneys, sought a stay on the permits from the county and when that was rejected, asked the courts to intervene. Their motion asked Whelan to stay the permits pending the Zoning Board hearing and ruling. Residents are worried that if construction continues in the meantime, it will be harder from a practical standpoint to stop the project. The county contends that the permits have been issued so under their reading of an appeal ordinance, there are no more proceedings for county officials to stay. Sean Peterson, a deputy county attorney for Butte-Silver Bow, told Whelan that residents should have sought an injunction against Loves to stop construction instead of asking the county to stay permits. Loves was the entity that took a risk by starting construction before an appeal was settled, he said. Kim Wilson Jr., an attorney for the residents, argued the county could and should stay the permits under an ordinance governing Zoning Board appeals. Whelan agreed, saying residents had filed a timely appeal and work at the site was to stop until the matter was taken up by the Zoning Board. This is super big, Ayres said. Finally somebody is actually listening to what we think is the legal side of this thing. Residents say Ramsay has had zoning regulations on the books for decades that do not authorize a truck stop. They say Butte-Silver Bow changed zoning maps in 2019 based on a crayon drawing, but past maps show the entire complex falls within Ramsay zoning. Because of that, they say, Loves should be required to get a special use permit or some kind of variance to locate there. They tried to make that case to the Zoning Board during a July 2020 meeting but were told their appeal was premature. They plan to make their case again during the upcoming board hearing. Love 24 Funny 9 Wow 9 Sad 1 Angry 24 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. In a recent opinion piece, state legislators Tom France and Pat Flowers (Montana Standard May 25) try to make the case that Governor Gianforte is planning to privatize Montanas elk herds at the behest of greedy ranchers. In a bizarre twist of logic, the foundation of their thesis is the fact that those same ranchers are suing the Gianforte administration for improper elk management. Even if their narrative quickly unravels under scrutiny, it deserves a response. France and Flowers know perfectly well that no governor can privatize elk. Commercial elk farms were banned in Montana with the passage of I-143 in 2000. Elk, like all wildlife, are a public resource managed by government trustees for the benefit of all. In Montana, no one can own elk this is not in dispute. The lawsuit brought against the state by United Property Owners of Montana (UPOM) is not an attempt to privatize elk, its objective is to address the significant damage some ranchers are suffering due to elk policies that have resulted in explosive, unsustainable population growth in a few areas. Its noteworthy that Flowers and France do not challenge the merits of this lawsuit or offer a counterargument. Instead they rely solely on demagoguery and apply false motives to their opponents to arrive at a conspiracy theory easily debunked. If they thought there was a good legal argument against the lawsuit, they would have said so. Here are the facts. The Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) has set a statewide elk population objective of 92,000 animals. As of 2021, we have an estimated 175,000 elk. These elk are not evenly distributed, with some hunting districts well below the objective level, and some districts with populations more than ten times the level recommended by FWP. State law requires FWP to both set a population objective for elk in each hunting district, and to manage those elk so the population is at or near the objective level. When populations fall below objective, FWP is supposed to manage more conservatively to increase numbers. When populations are over objective, FWP is supposed to manage more liberally to bring numbers down to sustainable levels. The problem the UPOM lawsuit addresses is that in some areas FWP has persisted in managing conservatively despite population levels far above where they are supposed to be. In these over-population areas, FWP has actually limited hunting by requiring a limited-draw permit. These limited-permit areas have become popular with hunters as sought-after trophy areas, but they come at great expense to the ranchers who provide habitat. For instance, hunting district 417 near Lewistown has an elk population about ten times over objective an estimated 4,300 elk. In this district FWP allocates only 225 either-sex elk rifle permits and 300 archery permits. With such limited hunting opportunity its no wonder the population has spiraled out of control. Earlier this year FWP recommended liberalizing hunting in 417 and several other districts that are grossly over population objectives. But the Fish & Game Commission chose not to adopt this recommendation after intense lobbying from hunters. This situation exposes a flaw in how we set wildlife policy in Montana. There is an imbalance between the people who are materially affected by wildlife management decisions ranchers because they are outnumbered by the beneficiaries hunters. Fortunately, our law is set up to protect the minority. Suing to fix mismanagement of elk is the extreme option but its where we ended up after exhausting all other options. And this is the situation that results when politicians like Flowers and France are willing to lie to foster political division rather than work to bring people together to achieve balanced elk management. Chuck Denowh is the executive director of United Property Owners of Montana. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 The police agency that patrols New York Citys main bus terminal has agreed to stop sending plainclothes officers into its public bathrooms to try and catch people propositioning strangers for sex. Activists have criticized those sting operations as a discriminatory relic of an era of crackdowns predominantly aimed at gay men. Under a legal settlement entered in federal court Tuesday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will give its new police recruits LGBTQ+ sensitivity training for the next three years. The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought by people who had been arrested as a result of the patrols by the Port Authority Police Department. Many had claimed that the charges were baseless. NEW YORK (AP) The police agency that patrols New York Citys main bus terminal has agreed to stop sending plainclothes officers into its public bathrooms to try and catch people propositioning strangers for sex, a type of sting long criticized by activists as a discriminatory relic of an era of crackdowns predominantly aimed at gay men. Under a legal settlement entered in federal court Tuesday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will give its new police recruits LGBTQ+ sensitivity training for the next three years and only reinstate the so-called public lewdness patrols at the Port Authority Bus Terminal if approved at the highest levels. The settlement, announced on the first day of Pride Month, resolves a lawsuit brought by people arrested as a result of the patrols by the Port Authority Police Department. Many had claimed the charges were baseless, brought by officers who targeted men using the restrooms if they perceived them as gay, largely to inflate their arrest statistics. The two named plaintiffs, Cornell Holden and Miguel Mejia, had similar experiences at the bus terminal in 2014, according to the lawsuit. Both described standing at a urinal and having a plainclothes officer stand at the urinal next to them, then step back in an apparent attempt to see their hands and genitals. Police arrested Holden and Mejia on charges of public lewdness, claiming they were spotted masturbating. Both men said they were falsely accused and both were ultimately cleared. The Manhattan district attorneys office dismissed the charges against Holden. Mejia went to trial and was acquitted. This kind of blatant homophobia has no place in policing, and the reforms achieved in this lawsuit aim to safeguard against future abuses like the ones experienced and challenged by Mr. Holden and Mr. Mejia, Molly Griffard, an attorney for The Legal Aid Society, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement. Under terms of the settlement, Holden will receive $15,000. Mejia will receive $25,000. Port Authority officials have denied any misconduct by officers. In an email, a spokesperson for the authority, which also runs area airports and seaports, said it hasnt conducted the patrols in several years and is committed to proper standards of conduct at all its facilities. The training for officers will be performed in conjunction with the Gay Officers Action League. In addition, the Port Authority agreed to designate single-stall, gender-neutral restrooms at the bus terminal and make it easier for people to find complaint forms on the authority's website. Attorney Seth Spitzer, also representing the plaintiffs on behalf of the law firm Winston & Strawn, called it a just outcome for which we simply should not have had to fight so hard. The Port Authority terminal serves roughly 200,000 riders per day at its location on 42nd Street, including commuters and people arriving in the city on long-distance trips from all parts of the U.S. The city's Pride Month culminates in a massive march marking the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, when a crowd of hundreds of people fought back against a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan. 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 MUSCATINE With summer beginning and hundreds of openings at area businesses, Rebecca Paulsen, interim CEO of the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said she was happy to see many of the people attending the chambers yearly job fair Thursday were teenagers. About 40 employers from the Muscatine area gathered in the Muscatine High School activity center to promote jobs and training programs. Also at the event was IowaWorks, which helps place young people with jobs. IowaWorks is part of the Mississippi Valley Workforce Development, a Quad Cities-based state group that provides a variety of programs to enhance the job market. I did kind of strategically pick the first week in June knowing that college students are home and high school students are out so those who are kind of eligible in that age range and looking for jobs could find something, Paulsen said. Youth outreach specialist DaShawn Banks and youth career navigator Kenzie Failyer worked the IowaWorks table at the fair. They offered young people the chance to get on a career path or get some idea of what kind of work they want to do in the future. Failyer said she provides job assistance to people between the ages of 14 and 24. She has a spot at the Musser Public Library she mans from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays. She can help with finding specific training or the completion of a general equivalency diploma. She said there are also a variety of internships she can help young people get involved with. We have certain eligibility for our programs so we work with anyone who may be low income, food stamps, or someone who might have a disability, Failyer said. We work with people in schools who may be pregnant or parenting. We work with people who may already have something going on in their life and we really want to help them get unsubsidized employment when they are done with our program. Information about employers in the area seeking workers will be posted on the chambers Facebook page for people who were unable to attend the job fair. People wishing to set up a time to speak with Failyer outside of the Wednesday hours can call (563) 279-4283. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 MUSCATINE Last year, Brandi Knorr gave birth to her now eight-month-old daughter, Rhyleigh. While she survived health issues as a premature newborn, Rhyleigh is only uses hypoallergenic formula because of a milk protein allergy, which has intensified the difficulty in finding an already scarce formula. Its been crazy, Knorr said. We actually havent had too much of a problem up until now. I had heard that the shortage was supposed to be getting better, but apparently in Muscatine its just getting worse. While friends have offered her breastmilk, Knorr was unable to accept it because of her daughters allergy. Knorr searched local grocery stores and checked with her pediatrician's office to see if they have hypoallergenic formula available. Knorr turned to Muscatine Community Chat, a group on Facebook, where she formed a connection with someone who is able to get her the formula she needs. Muscatine Community Chat is a really good source in this town if you ever need anything. Its the only place where we can all communicate with one another equally. Still, Knorr acknowledged she isnt the only local parent who has been negatively impacted. (The shortage) has been extremely frustrating and sad, because there are a lot of babies out here that are going without, and their parents are spending hundreds of dollars on gas trying to find the formula that they need. The formula shortage began in early May during the global supply chain crisis, which has impacted several industries. Recalls of some brands of formula also worsened the situation. Some states have been hit harder than others, and many stores across the country are still seeing empty shelves in the formula aisle. Muscatine County Public Health Director Christy Roby referred to a recent report made by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to the Senate Health Committee on when to expect the shortage to improve. Calliff anticipates the shortage will end in July. In the meantime, both Muscatine County Public Health and the Iowa Department of Public Health have continued to educate parents. IDPH warns babies should not drink homemade formula, as it can lack important nutrients. Cows milk and not-dairy milks like soy, almond or oat milk can do more harm than good if the baby is under one year old. In the meantime, parents should be sure to mix their babys formula according to the directions on the can, since watering down formula can lead to serious nutrition and health problems. Parents should also only mix what they know their baby will eat in order to limit what they throw away, reducing the chance of waste. Additionally, as many doctors have pointed out, breastfeeding is also a viable option for most babies. We would always encourage women to reach out to their primary healthcare provider for support and/or referrals for breastfeeding consultations, Roby said. By going through Iowas Women, Infants and Children (WIC), parents may be able to receive milk through a breast milk bank. Iowa WIC can also be used to assist with buying formula. Previously, WIC provided Knorr with 10 cans of formula a month. But as the shortage continues, WIC is unable to approve her purchase of the Gerber brand of formula, the only formula brand that Knorr could find amongst the empty shelves. Since I wasnt able to find the brand that WIC covers, I had to pay out of pocket $45 for a tiny can of formula. Knorr hopes the shortage ends sooner rather than later and encourages parents to be considerate when shopping. I just want people to be mindful when theyre going to the store and buying 10 cans all at one time that there are other babies in this town. For breast milk bank information contact Mothers Milk Bank of Iowa. For information about WIC call 563-264-0855. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said. It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene," Dalgleish said. The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that's what led them to the second floor." Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week's deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked. Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available. Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims. This campus is sacred ground for our community," said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community." Bynum added: Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight." Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his fathers room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows. Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his fathers hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard code silver and level 1 trauma announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room. I wasnt particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me, he said. But it was definitely a this is happening here moment. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school. The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. This story has been corrected to show that information about number dead, weapons used and police response should be attributed to Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. This story has been corrected to show that gunman at Robb Elementary School used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle. Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Saudi mining company Maaden has signed a deal with GlassPoint, a leader in industrial solar steam, to develop the world's largest solar process heat plant at its alumina refinery in Ras Al Khair on the kingdom's east coast. One of the fastest-growing mining companies in the world, Maaden operates the largest and most efficient vertically integrated aluminum complex in the world. When complete, the 1,500 MW facility will help Maaden achieve sustainability goals by reducing carbon emissions by over 600,000 tonnes annually. This represents more than 50% reduction of carbon footprint in Maaden's Alumina refinery and 4% of its overall carbon footprint, said the statement from the Saudi mining group. Under this agreement, Maaden and GlassPoint will work together developing a more sustainable way to produce aluminum, which is a crucial metal for many global industries and the energy transition. This MoU also represents GlassPoint's reemergence as a leader in solar process heat. The deal was signed at Maaden HQ in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Riyadh Al Nassar, the Senior Vice President of Maaden's Aluminum Business and Rod MacGregor, CEO and Founder of GlassPoint in the presence of Maaden CEO Robert Wilt and GlassPoint CCO Jacob Drejer. "As the third pillar of the Saudi economy, we aspire to be a role model in ESG in the kingdom," remarked Wilt. "This significant development will dramatically reduce our carbon footprint and bring us closer to our mandate of carbon neutrality by 2050. As the world moves towards green aluminum, Maaden intends to help lead the way in this transition," he added. On the new venture, Al Nassar said: "The proposed new facility, Maaden Solar 1, will be located within our alumina refinery in Ras Al Khair, and will harness the power of the sun to produce steam. This steam will inturn be used to refine bauxite ore into alumina." "Alumina is a critical feedstock to Aluminum, which is one of the world's most crucial metals for many global industries going into a future that is focused on environment and sustainability," he explained. "Maaden is leading the way to reduce industrial carbon emissions at scale by replacing fossil fuels with solar power to create heat. This facility when built will be the largest industrial solar steam plant in the world and the first deployed in both Saudi Arabia and in the aluminum supply chain," remarked MacGregor. "With this MoU, GlassPoint is entering a new phase of growth to help decarbonize a range of industries seeking to lower their carbon footprint," he added. A major player in the mining industry, Maaden said its mine-to-market aluminum business comprises the Al Ba'itha mine and fully integrated refinery, smelter, rolling and export facilities in Ras Al Khair. It provides high-quality billets, ingots, slabs and flat-rolled aluminum products to customers across the globe, including multinational automakers and consumer brands. As a global energy producer, Saudi Arabia is committed to advancing the fight against climate change. The Kingdom has unveiled the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) to help the country become an international leader in sustainability. Last year, the SGI unveiled a first wave of more than 60 initiatives, amounting to a SR700 billion ($186 billion) investment to accelerate the green economy across Saudi Arabia and beyond.-TradeArabia News Service Uvalde school police chief says hes still cooperating The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last week's deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, said Wednesday that he's talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating. In a brief interview, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo told CNN that he's speaking regularly with Texas Department of Public Safety investigators. "Ive been on the phone with them every day, Arredondo said. The chief has been the focus of ire in the community and beyond over allegations that he delayed sending officers into the school on May 24, believing that the gunman was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and the shooting had morphed into a hostage situation. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Funerals began this week, and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona attended Wednesday's services for teacher Irma Garcia, who was killed in the attack, and her husband, Joe Garcia, who died of a heart attack two days later. The district announced Wednesday that students and staff would not return to that campus, though plans were still being finalized on where the less than 600 students would attend classes in the fall. 4 killed in shooting at Tulsa medical building, shooter dead A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said. US and Germany agree to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The U.S. and Germany pledged Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east. Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the U.S. announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The U.S. is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory. The Kremlin accused the U.S. of pouring fuel on the fire. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east. Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him $10M FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depp's lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couple's apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million. The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious marriage. Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Its a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously, she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. Sheryl Sandberg, long Facebook's No. 2 exec, steps down SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life, Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. Sandberg has led Facebook now Metas advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. As the company's second most-recognized face after CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sandberg has also become a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. As one of the most prominent female executives in the tech industry, she was also often criticized for not doing enough both for women and for others harmed by Facebook's products. Her public-speaking expertise, her seemingly effortless ability to bridge the worlds of tech, business and politics served as a sharp contrast to Zuckerberg, especially in Facebook's early years. But Zuckerberg has since been catching up, trained in part for the several congressional hearings he's been called to testify in to defend Facebook's practices. Uvalde shooting highlights role of doors in security plans Doors both the one the gunman entered and the one police did not open for over an hour have been at the center of the investigation into the killing of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the police response to the massacre. School officials under pressure to balance accessibility and safety confront a variety of decisions about the seemingly mundane act of going in and out of a building or classroom. But as the attack on Robb Elementary School showed, such choices can sometimes spell the difference between life and death. State police initially said the gunman entered through an exterior door that had been propped open by a teacher. But a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that the teacher closed the door after realizing a shooter was on campus, but it did not lock as it should have. Inside the school, officers waited for more than an hour to breach the classroom, and state authorities have blamed the head of the school districts small police department for wrongly believing children were no longer at risk. Officials said a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitors key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman. State and federal panels charged with reviewing individual mass shootings have repeatedly advised limiting access to school buildings by locking exterior doors, forcing visitors to enter through a secure door and requiring teachers to lock classrooms while classes are in session. Former Corinthian students get federal student debt erased WASHINGTON (AP) Hundreds of thousands of students who attended the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain will automatically get their federal student loans canceled, the Biden administration announced Wednesday, a move that aims to bring closure to one of the most notorious cases of fraud in American higher education. Under the new action, anyone who attended the now-defunct chain from its founding in 1995 to its collapse in 2015 will get their federal student debt wiped clean. It will erase $5.8 billion in debt for more than 560,000 borrowers, the largest single loan discharge in Education Department history, according to the agency. As of today, every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep." Tens of thousands of former Corinthian students were already eligible for debt cancellation, but they had to file paperwork and navigate an application process that advocates say is confusing and not widely known about. Now, the relief will be made automatic and extended to additional borrowers. Those who have a remaining balance on their Corinthian debt will also get refunds on payments they have already made, Education Department officials said. But the action does not apply to loans that have already been paid off in full. Slave reparations advocates hail historic California report SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The slavery reparations movement hit a watershed moment Wednesday with the release of an exhaustive report detailing Californias role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans, a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology and case for financial restitution. The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people even today, long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century, through discriminatory laws and actions in all facets of life, from housing and education to employment and the legal system. Longtime reparations advocate Justin Hansford, who is a law professor at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington called the moment exciting and monumental. To have an official detail of these histories coming from the state is important," he said. "I know a lot of people say we dont need to keep doing studies, but the reality is until it comes from some source that people think is objective, then it is going to be harder to convince everybody of some of the inequalities described. The report comes at a time when school boards and states across the U.S. are banning books or restricting what can be taught in classrooms, with parents and lawmakers largely opposed to topics of sexuality, gender identity or race. State lawmakers have tried to bar schools from teaching the 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning report that reframes American history with enslaved people at its heart. US Open's $10M purse offers hope for gender pay equality SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (AP) Dottie Pepper recalls being paired with Meg Mallon for the final round of the 1991 U.S. Womens Open with what she viewed as an impressive $110,000 first-place prize on the line. Things have changed, but Lydia Ko says not enough. Mallon would win that tournament and earn the record-breaking payday. It was the first time a winning check was six figures," Pepper said. That was a big deal. Pepper has a hard time believing that a little more than three decades later, the top female golfers in the world will be competing for a record $10 million purse, including a winners share of $1.8 million at the U.S. Womens Open that begins Thursday at Pine Needles, after the USGA secured a major sponsorship from ProMedica. Vocab questions reduce spelling bee to 3 letters: A, B or C OXON HILL, Md. (AP) The Scripps National Spelling Bee was rolling smoothly through the second day of its first fully in-person competition in three years. Then it transformed into the SAT. An onstage vocabulary round during Wednesday's semifinals introduced an element of randomness into the venerable bee, forcing spellers to demonstrate a different skill set and knocking out some of the bee's most accomplished competitors. Vivinsha Veduru and Roy Seligman, who tied for fourth place in last year's bee: gone. Deetya Vuppala and Yash Shelar, the co-champions of this year's expert-level SpellPundit online bee: also gone. All denied a shot at Thursday's finals without spelling a word incorrectly. I thought it was tragic, said Grace Walters, a coach to multiple previous Scripps champions. Walters' only pupil this year, four-time bee participant Harini Logan, made it through the vocabulary round and was one of a dozen finalists. She'll be joined on stage Thursday night by Sahasrad Satish, Ekansh Rastogi, Vikram Raju, Aliyah Alpert, Abhilash Patel, Sahana Srikath, Kirsten Santos, Nitya Kathiravan, Vihaan Sibal, Shijay Sivakumar and Saharsh Vuppala Deetya's twin brother. 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 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which "really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The U.S. Coast Guard says a woman from Illinois was killed and two children injured when a sudden storm prompted a boat captain to cut loose their parasail in the Florida Keys. The inflated parasail then dragged the three tourists across the ocean and slammed them into a bridge. The three were airborne and tethered to a speedboat when a sudden storm blew in. The winds were so strong that the boat below was being dragged, so the captain cut the line. They hit the water but the inflated parasail dragged them across the surface until they slammed into Old Seven Mile Bridge. A fishing guide raced to rescue them, but the 33-year-old woman from Schaumburg, Illinois, was dead by the time they reached the dock. Her 10-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew were taken to hospitals. Google has started rolling out the replacement for its Movies and TV app, Google TV, to iOS and Android smartphones. Google TV is currently available to iOS users, while Android support is still expanding in the coming months. The tech giant told 9to5Google that Google TV would soon be rolling out to Android devices in South Africa. Googles support page indicates that the Smart TV version of the app is already available to South African users. Google TV aggregates content from various streaming services although it currently excludes Netflix and allows users to build a centralised watchlist. Android TV and Chromecast with Google TV users can also use the application as a remote control. Google TV will also let users access any movies and TV series they bought or rented from Google Play Movies & TV. In 2020, Google TV launched exclusively for US Android devices, with the company planning to use it as a replacement for the Play Movies & TV application. Google TV became available in 14 more regions in 2021, which were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Following this expansion, Google continued to add more countries to the list. Google TV for Android is now available in more than 100 countries, and 9to5Google noted that although listed as supported countries, the service has yet to launch in Aruba, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, and South Korea. In March 2022, Google announced that it would remove the Play Movies & TV tab from its mobile application marketplace, Google Play Store. This change has already rolled out to iOS devices, with Android devices seeing a phased implementation dependent on the region. Now read: Google merging Duo and Meet into a single app Former MTN SA CEO Godfrey Motsa has been appointed as the non-life chief executive officer of Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH) for brands including Auto & General, 1st for Women, Dialdirect, and Budget. MTN announced in mid-December that Motsa would step down effective from 1 January 2022, after almost five years in the role. Charles Molapisi stepped in as the new CEO of MTN SA. TIH is part of the international BHL group, which has a footprint in eight countries including South Africa, the UK, Australia, France, Turkey, China, Thailand, and Singapore. We have spent significant time looking for a Non-Life CEO with extremely strong credentials, and I am delighted that we have been able to attract a candidate of Godfreys calibre, stated TIH Group CEO Tom Creamer. Godfrey has the energy, passion and entrepreneurial spirit that is synonymous with TIH, and his curiosity for digital innovation, coupled with his drive and determination, will no doubt be a great addition to our strong leadership team. Prior to MTN, Motsa worked at the Vodacom Group, The Coca-Cola Company, and The Kellogg Company. Pushing innovation and tech for this industry and its adjacencies presents an attractive and challenging opportunity for me, Motsa said. I am excited to join this highly regarded and entrepreneurial organisation that has massive potential for further growth. The South African government says it has charged Riccardo Fluffypony Spagni with 378 counts of fraud, forgery, and uttering in a R1.5-million dispute with his former employer. Spagni served as lead maintainer of the privacy-focussed Monero cryptocurrency for five years. He stepped down in December 2019. He has waived his right to an extradition hearing in the US and asked the court to expedite his return to South Africa to face the charges. US law enforcement arrested Spagni in Nashville, Tennessee when the private jet carrying him to a cryptocurrency conference in Los Cabos, Mexico stopped to refuel. According to court documents, he had recently emigrated from South Africa to the US and had bought property in New York. The state accused Spagni of defrauding his former employer, Cape Cookies, of R1,453,561.47. Spagni allegedly intercepted invoices between Cape Cookies and IT supplier Ensync. He is accused of fabricating invoices from Ensync to Cape Cookies and placing his own companys bank account details and VAT number on the documents. The court documents state that Spagni inflated the invoice amounts, and it was found that Ensyncs actual invoices were then paid at a later date. Spagni also stands accused of generating false invoices for three different fictitious IT suppliers. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Spagni travelled to the US during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and missed his court date, saying he mistakenly believed he did not need to be present. South African law enforcement issued a warrant for Spagnis arrest and asked US authorities to detain him for extradition. He was released from prison in September 2021 after South African authorities failed to file the necessary paperwork for his extradition hearing. I am actively working with my attorneys on a way to return to South Africa as soon as possible so I can address this matter and get it behind me once and for all, Spagni stated. In court papers filed in May 2022, it was revealed that South Africa had issued a warrant for Spagnis arrest on 378 separate counts: 126 counts of fraud or contraventions of the VAT Act 126 counts of forgery 126 counts of uttering Spaganis legal team moved to strike these papers from the record, arguing that the governments late filing violates due process protections. The court denied the motion after Spagni waived his right to an extradition hearing. On 25 May, Spagni filed an affidavit waiving his right to an extradition hearing and asked the US court to expedite his return to South Africa. I hereby waive my rights under the extradition treaty and the applicable sections of Title 18 of the United States Code, and agree to be transported in custody, as soon as possible, to South Africa, Spagni stated. The court ordered that Spagnis bail conditions remain in place until his extradition. The United States shall notify Spagni of the date on which duly authorized representatives of the Government of South Africa will depart South Africa to effectuate his arrest, US magistrate judge Alistair Newbern ordered. The transfer of Spagni and any seized evidence shall be at a time and place mutually agreed upon by the United States Marshal and the authorized representatives of the Government of South Africa. In a separate order, the judge granted the temporary release of Spagnis passport so that he may apply for a Social Security Number, suggesting he intends to return to the US full-time. Counsel shall maintain possession of the passport and shall accompany Spagni to complete the necessary documentation to obtain a Social Security Number, Newbern ordered. Counsel shall not transfer possession of the passport to Spagni at any time. MyBroadband contacted Spagni regarding his extradition from the United States. [I have] no comment at this time, he said. Fluffypony extradition waiver affidavit Now read: Solana blockchain hit by outage Eskoms power plant fleet is performing at its worst level ever, and there appears to be nothing the utility can do about it until government speeds up power procurement. One of the best indicators of Eskoms overall plant performance, and the severity of load-shedding required to prevent a national blackout, is its Energy Availability Factor (EAF). This number illustrates the proportion of Eskoms fleet producing electricity relative to its maximum potential generating capacity. According to Eskoms latest system adequacy report, the utility recorded an average EAF of roughly 59% across the first 21 weeks of 2022. That compares to a figure of about 62% in 2021. The year before that, Eskom had an EAF of 65%. The preceding years also saw a drop from 72% in 2018 to 67% in 2019. These EAF figures show a continued decline in generating capacity in the past few years. At the same time, Eskom has also seen dispatchable generation reduce from 224,202GWh in 2018 to 210,022GWh in 2021. From 1 January 2018 to 29 May 2018, the utility sent out 90,641GWh, compared to just 84,871GWh for the year-to-date. The graph below shows the energy availability factor (EAF) from 2018 to 2022. Many South Africans have pointed fingers at Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and COO Jan Oberholzer for the decline, but the utilitys generation woes go back way further. Eskoms EAF started declining from at least the 2009/2010 financial year, long before Oberholzer or De Ruyter came onto the stage. In its 2009/2010 financial year, Eskoms EAF stood at just over 85% and dropped each year before hitting about 71% in 2015/2016. There appeared to be a brief recovery in EAF during corruption-accused Matshela Kokos term as COO. However, there are questions over whether policies employed under Koko had a long-term detrimental effect on plant performance. Under Koko, Eskoms power stations used a strike-card system that punished station managers for taking units offline. While it positively influenced EAF, an internal report from Eskoms audits and forensics division claimed it pressured station managers to run units close to breaking point, severely impacting their long-term performance. What raises further questions is that there appeared to be much lower unplanned outages during the same period, which is why the report speculates that partial load losses might have been underreported. The years following Kokos tenure saw a massive surge in unplanned maintenance, suggesting that the fleet had become less reliable. Even though Eskom has intensified maintenance in recent months compared to previous years, the system has remained highly unreliable. Time after time, Eskoms load-shedding announcements have painted scenarios where the utility barely returns one unit before two others at different stations trip, often within the same hour. Oberholzer recently highlighted that the average age of the coal fleet was 54 years, when not including the newer Kusile and Medupi plants. While Eskom could extend their lifetimes by up to 50 years, they have grown increasingly unreliable and cant be taken offline for protracted life-extension maintenance to avoid even more severe stages of load-shedding. Eskom is also facing an onslaught of sabotage at several stations, with employees suspected to be involved. The solution to Eskoms woes is simple it needs more power plants which it cannot build on its own. To maintain a sufficient level of maintenance and eliminate load-shedding with its current fleet, the utility has repeatedly said it needs an additional 4,000MW to 6,000MW of capacity in the short term. That does not include all the additional capacity it will have to add to replace the 50% of coal generation capacity slated for decommissioning in the next 12 to 15 years. Eskom has to service an enormous heap of historical debt and does not have the money to build new power stations, which is why it will increasingly have to rely on private power producers. Several energy experts have agreed that this is where the solution to South Africas energy crisis lies. Eskom up for it but government dragging its heels De Ruyter and Oberholzer have concurred with this view, giving their blessing for private power generation to take the strain off Eskom. De Ruyter recently went as far as to say the already much-improved 100MW threshold for licencing was arbitrary and suggested that businesses be allowed to generate even more of their own power. However, the government has been slow in bringing about the changes necessary to realise this transition. The announcements of bid windows for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have been repeatedly delayed, resulting in new solar and wind generation taking longer to come online. Energy minister Gwede Mantashe also appears to be at odds with the lobby for more private renewable power, instead expressing significant support for coal, gas, and oil projects. Professor at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University, Mark Swilling, has called for a coordinated emergency plan between Eskom and civil society to solve the energy crisis. The target for such an emergency energy plan is simple: the installation of at least 10,000MW of new solar and wind generation, plus 5,000MW of storage by the end of the 24-month period. That will bring load-shedding to an end, Swilling argued. Now read: Fourth Kusile unit enters commercial operation Angry Kulula.com ticketholders have accused the airlines operator of using a sale on Tuesday to raise capital a day before it grounded flights. Comair which operates Kulula and British Airways flights in South Africa shocked the industry with the unexpected announcement on Tuesday evening that it had suspended all flights, effective immediately. The company said it was forced to halt operations because it required additional funding. The companys business rescue practitioners have advised that the process to raise the necessary capital is in progress and that there is reason to believe such funding may be secured, Comair said. It offered Kulula ticketholders affected by flight cancellations a full refund or credit for future bookings, while British Airways flyers would be accommodated on other airlines, where possible. Comairs airlines account for roughly 40% of the low-cost flight market in South Africa. Several ticketholders vented their frustration at the decision, asking why Kulula continued to sell tickets while it was aware of its liquidity issues. You guys have known about this for some time now. So why did you continue to sell tickets knowing you couldnt provide the service? said Martin Stabrey. Jacques Botha pointed out that Kulula had offered a winter warmer sale with up to a 30% discount on flights between 31 May 2022 and 30 November 2022. Comair denied it was using the money raised from the sale to fund its operations in a response sent to MyBroadband. It explained the sale had been planned and implemented a week ago. Once it became evident that our operations would need to be suspended, we closed the sale, the company stated. Importantly, Comair does not receive the cash from sales until the air service is provided, so the cash is safe for passengers to claim a refund. Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond also told Bruce Whitfields The Money Show that the cash was safe and assured passengers would be refunded. Poor corporate governance The Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA) also released a statement in the wake of the uproar, criticising poor corporate governance on the part of Comair. At this stage, it is not clear whether this was simply a disastrous example of the left and right hands not knowing what either was doing or an indication of a more serious ethical breach. But either way, irate customers are putting the blame on the board and the CEO, said Parmi Natesan, IoDSA CEO. IoDSA said the most likely scenario was that the marketing and sales team introduced the promotion to get more passengers into Comairs planes to make up for revenue lost when the airlines licence was suspended in March. Because the CEO and his or her executive team are responsible for day-to-day operations, the board would probably not have known the specifics like the date of the sale of this operational activity, the institute stated. However, it believes the senior management, as the link between the board and operational teams, should have briefed the relevant decision-makers to be cautious during a period of financial instability. Whatever the truth of the matter, one thing is clear: Comair has aggravated one of its most important stakeholder groups its clients and if it does return to service, the board will have its work cut out to repair a severely damaged reputation alongside all the other challenges it faces. Several South African passport holders who attempted to fly to and from the United Kingdom (UK) claim they had to pass a general knowledge quiz in Afrikaans before they could board their planes. The frustrated travellers headed to Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit to share their experiences. MyBroadband spoke to a South African expat who said she and her 11-year-old son were denied their boarding passes from Ireland West Airport Knock to the UK two weeks ago. She got three out of the 15 questions wrong. They were returning from a visit to her daughter in the Republic of Ireland for a weekend. She had lived in the UK with her husband for two-and-a-half years. When arriving at the check-in counter, she was given the test in Afrikaans. The border control official told her that the form had been put in place by the British government. While she had a relatively solid understanding of the language, she still asked for the test in English. She explained that South Africa had 11 official languages and that she was not fluent in Afrikaans. The official could not provide her with a test in another language and told the expat to do her best. The test questions are reproduced in the table below, in the left-hand column. MyBroadbands English translations of the questions are on the right. General knowledge test questions for UK entry Original question English translation Watter van die volgende is Suid-Afrikaanse hoofstede? (Keuses: Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein) Which of the following are South African capital cities? (Options: Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein) Wat is Suid-Afrika se amptelike geldeenheid? What is South Africas official currency? Noem drie van Suid-Afrika se amptelike tale. Name three of South Africas official languages. Aan watter kant van die pad moet n mens bestuur in Suid-Afrika? On which side of the road must you drive in South Africa? Wat is Suid-Afrika se internasionale landkode? What is South Africas international dialling code? Wat is die naam van die grootste stad in Suid-Afrika? What is the name of South Africas biggest city? Wie is die huidige president van Suid-Afrika? Who is the current president of South Africa? Noem een van Suid-Afrika se nasionale vakansiedae. Name one of South Africas national public holidays. Wat is die naam van die hoogste berg in Suid-Afrika? What is the name of the highest mountain in South Africa? Wat is die naam van die bekende berg in Kaapstad wat sommige glo is een van die oudste berge in die wereld? What is the name of the famous mountain in Cape Town that some believe is one of the oldest in the world? Wat is Suid-Afrika se nasionale blom? What is South Africas national flower? Wat is Suid-Afrika se nasionale dier? What is South Africas national animal? Waar is die Uniegebou? Where are the Union Buildings? Wat is Suid-Afrika se nasionale kleure? What are South Africas national colours? Watter een van die volgende is n bekende Suid-Afrikaanse rivier? Which of the following is a famous South African river? MyBroadband has seen several photos online from different posters that appear to show varying copies of the test. The expat said she saw no official stamps or branding on the questionnaire to indicate it was an official document. She also did not have to write down her passport or personal details. She suspected her test was scanned and sent somewhere for verification. Despite providing the officials with her and her sons biometric residence permits (BRPs), she was forced to leave the airport and return to her daughter after not getting full marks on the test. She contacted her immigration consultant, who confirmed she had wrongly been refused the right to board as their visas and passports were valid. Her husband then flew to Dublin to fetch them, and they managed to leave via Dublin Airport. She suspected they managed to get through on the second attempt due to her husbands British passport. She described the experience as terrible and said it felt like she had been discriminated against. Several other members of the South Africans living in London Facebook group complained about similar experiences. One said they received the form while travelling from the UK to Dublin. Another expat living in Dublin said an official told her if she could not complete the test in Afrikaans, it proved she was not South African. Another South African working in the UK told SAfm that several of her colleagues with UK work permits were also presented with the form. She said a friend flying from Ibiza airport to London was handed the test. Many of the complaints seemed to be coming from travellers who had flights booked with Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair. The British High Commission in South Africa said in a post on Twitter that the questionnaire was not a UK government requirement. MyBroadband reached out to the British High Commission in South Africa, the Embassy for Ireland in South Africa, and Ryanair for comment on the test, but did not receive feedback by the time of publication. We also contacted the Irish foreign affairs department, the South African High Commission in London, and the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation. None answered their phones or responded to text messages and email. A South Africans in London group member claimed a forensic investigator who dealt with Home Affairs issues had told her the form was related to an influx of people carrying fraudulent South African passports entering Europe. Independent crime and policing analyst Professor Johan Burger recently told The Sunday Times that the South African passport risked being devalued further as international crime syndicates were increasingly using it for illegal activities. Now read: Kulula owner accused of using sale to raise cash one day before stopping flights Assault fighters of 128 separate mountain assault Transcarpathian brigade landed a high-precision enemy drone "Cube-UAV". This was reported in the telegram channel of the brigade. According to the information, the device was developed by the Kalashnikov concern and was presented for the first time in 2019. It can hang in the air and attack the target with a vertical dive. The "cube" is also called a kamikaze drone, after launch it does not return to the operator but hits the target or dive, or parachutes, waits for the right moment and explodes. Cube-UAV About 128 brigade 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade - a unit of mountain infantry of the Land Forces of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine, servicemen of the 128th Brigade have taken up positions in the Luhansk region, in the Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, and Rubizhne districts. On April 24, 2022, the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Golden Star was awarded to Colonel Denis Chayuk, Deputy Commander of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade. Great job Ukrainian combat drone Read also: Operational update on invasion of Russia at 06.00 June 2, 2022 Pushylin's terrorist was covered by artillery fire in Lyman, he was wounded Ukraine will buy about 60 Polish KRAB ACS - Polish media Lieutenant Colonel Dimayev and 40 other Kadyrovites were killed in Lyman 14 OMBR shot down occupant drone correcting fire (PHOTOS) Russia's casualties in the war in Ukraine amounted to about 30,700 - the General Staff of the Armed Forces 25-year-old defender caused irreparable damage to the invaders: the story of Hero of Ukraine Serhiy Parkhomenko At least ten occupiers were burned: cadres of successful work of the Armed Forces SOCIETYBattle group K2 effectively defeated enemy tanks in Donetsk region (VIDEO) Ukrainian pilots broke into Azovstal defenders seven times, delivering ammunition and necessary equipment. VIDEO Veterano Brownie founder opens charity auction to buy drone for the Armed Forces e& enterprise, part of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), has launched an Enterprise AI as a Service (AlaaS) offering to support government and private firms in their digital transformation journey. For this, e& enterprise has entered into a strategic three-year alliance with DataRobot, a US-based leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform provider. AIaaS is an end- to-end cloud offering for building, training, deploying, and managing AI and Machine Learning solutions and scaling the AI life cycle at a fraction of the cost compared to in-house AI capabilities. Use-case-driven AI solutions AIaaS enables governments and private enterprises to implement use-case-driven AI solutions and create business value with minimal investments in AI expertise. To further accelerate the successful adoption of AI, e& enterprise and Datarobot will also establish a first-of-its- kind AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE). The AI CoE, a centralised experts group, will ensure continuous capability building, deliver best AIaaS practices and guarantee value creation by overseeing the implementation of organisation-wide AI projects. The partnership strengthens the Groups position as the market leader in innovation and digitalisation as it adds business value for enterprise customers who seek to accelerate AI adoption as part of their digital transformation journey. The new service model offers faster time to value in alignment with enterprise business needs while developing and deploying AI applications for industry verticals. Digital footprint Through this collaboration, customers of e& enterprise will be able to adopt the AIaaS offering, powered by a locally deployed DataRobot platform, where fully scalable and use-case-driven enterprise AI applications can be implemented. Customers will benefit from the digital footprint and managed services expertise of e& enterprise, coupled with DataRobots AI platform capabilities. We stand ever ready to seek new strategic partnerships that will add value to government and enterprises so that they can become more data-driven and technology-enabled, efficient and cost-effective in the digital space. The AI as a Service delivery model enables these companies to implement and run advanced AI solutions at a fraction of the cost of building and maintaining their own system. Our strategic partnership with DataRobot will influence and accelerate regional markets for AI adoption; our managed services will unlock tremendous value for all industry sectors, said Salvador Anglada, CEO, e& enterprise. We are excited to partner with e& enterprise to bring the transformative power of AI to even more organisations around the world, said Dan Wright, CEO of DataRobot. Our common goal with the Enterprise AI as a Service and AI Centre of Excellence is simple - to democratise and accelerate the use of AI, and give companies in these key regional markets the tools they need to unlock the full potential of their data to drive unprecedented business value. Real-time data e& enterprise has always enabled enterprise customers to make smart and well-informed decisions based on actual and real-time data by transforming data into intelligent information. As one of the leading digital enablers for enterprises and governments within the Menap region, e& enterprise uses its deep technology expertise to act as an enabler of digital transformation for government, corporates and large-scale organisations by providing complete end-to-end solutions. DataRobot is one of the most widely deployed and proven AI platforms globally, delivering over a trillion predictions for leading companies around the world. As a unified platform designed to democratise and accelerate the use of AI across industries, DataRobot helps businesses harness the power of AI to drive transformative growth.-- TradeArabia News Service The United Kingdom is asking the United States to sign a plan to send advanced volley fire missile systems to Ukraine. This is stated in an article in the British newspaper The Times. The proposal to send volley fire missile systems came after the White House announced the sending of similar weapons. According to sources in the American publication POLITICO, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson spoke with Biden about the transfer of M270 multiple rocket launchers. This was followed by a discussion between British Foreign Secretary Liz Trass and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Liz Trass and Anthony Blinken. Photo: dosja.al The United States must formally approve the move through export regulations, although the Biden administration will almost certainly give the green light. Some Western officials are concerned that giving Kyiv missiles that could strike Russia could provoke President Vladimir Putin to escalate the conflict, including with the use of chemical or even nuclear weapons. The news came the day after the Biden administration announced that it had decided to send a highly mobile artillery missile system and ammunition with a range of about 70 km to Kyiv. Another person familiar with the discussions between the United States and Ukraine said this week that one of the factors influencing the Biden administration's decision to send HIMARS to Ukraine was the desire to set an example and encourage allies to send their own MLRS to Ukraine. M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). Photos from open sources Britain is expected to follow suit in the coming days by sending the M270B1 multiple rocket launcher to Ukraine. American missile systems have different levels of capability depending on the ammunition provided. The M270 has a launch system mounted on a crawler chassis borrowed from Bradley's infantry fighting vehicle. The M142 HIMARS has a smaller launch system mounted on the chassis of a 6 6 family of medium tactical FMTV vehicles. Read also: Operational update on invasion of Russia at 06.00 June 2, 2022 Pushylin's terrorist was covered by artillery fire in Lyman, he was wounded Ukraine will buy about 60 Polish KRAB ACS - Polish media Lieutenant Colonel Dimayev and 40 other Kadyrovites were killed in Lyman 14 OMBR shot down occupant drone correcting fire (PHOTOS) Russia's casualties in the war in Ukraine amounted to about 30,700 - the General Staff of the Armed Forces 25-year-old defender caused irreparable damage to the invaders: the story of Hero of Ukraine Serhiy Parkhomenko At least ten occupiers were burned: cadres of successful work of the Armed Forces SOCIETYBattle group K2 effectively defeated enemy tanks in Donetsk region (VIDEO) Ukrainian pilots broke into Azovstal defenders seven times, delivering ammunition and necessary equipment. VIDEO Veterano Brownie founder opens charity auction to buy drone for the Armed Forces Armed Forces blew up enemy landing combat vehicle (VIDEO) In response to a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft majority opinion that shows the court may overturn abortion rights in the near future, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson joined with many of Napa Countys women leaders Wednesday to advocate for the need to protect those rights in front of the historic Napa County Courthouse. The draft opinion, if passed by the court, would largely strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973. Overturning that decision would lead to immediate limits on abortion throughout many South and Midwestern states, many of which have prepared to pass abortion bans immediately once possible. Such a decision would not require states to ban the procedure, however. California is even preparing to be something of a haven for abortion rights through legislation that would provide financial assistance to women traveling to California to terminate their pregnancies and more, according to a report from Cal Matters. 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. Thompson said briefly that the groups of roughly 25 leaders were there because they believe abortion should be legal and safe. Many of the leaders then elaborated about the importance of maintaining abortion rights. I think it needs to be noted in my life this will be the first time we have lost a right, Thompson said. The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to take away a right, a right that women have had for nearly 50 years. So we need to be concerned, we need to not agonize, we need to organize and make sure we can put a stop to these things. Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, the first to speak after Thompson, said the leaked opinion represents an attack on women, our bodies, and our right to privacy. She said she was old enough to remember the injuries and deaths that resulted from the lack of Roe v. Wade protections. Overturning long-standing court precedents will not stop abortion, and will put barriers in place for women of color, low income families and other marginalized communities throughout our country to prevent them from exercising their rights, Aguiar-Curry said. Aguiar-Curry also talked about Californias legislation to improve abortion access within the state, including legislation shed worked on to reduce financial barriers by eliminating co-pay for abortion services and an effort to appropriate roughly $127 million to expand and improve access to reproductive services. While other states, and even the Trump Supreme Court, try to return us to an oppressive past, we will be the national beacon of reproductive justice, Aguiar-Curry said. Lynette Leighton, medical director of the OLE Health south Napa campus and family medicine doctor, told a story about one of her patients, who became pregnant after forgetting to pick up birth control pills. After consulting with Leighton, the patient received medicine to terminate her pregnancy at a Planned Parenthood. The patient, Leighton said, expressed gratitude because she didn't have to leave the workforce and could continue to support her family. Leighton noted that roughly 16% of maternal deaths before Roe v. Wade decision were attributable to botched abortions, and outlawing abortions in many states could lead to similar results, particularly for people who dont have the means to get an abortion in a state that allows them. Those with means will fly to California or other states and get a safe procedure, at least for now, Leighton said. But there are so many people who dont have those means, who are disproportionally represented minorities in poverty and those people will be forced to seek local unsafe care. It is vital for everyone to realize that restricting abortion does not make it go away, it only restricts access to safe abortions and risks womens lives. Napa County supervisor Diane Dillon said she appalled at the draft decision, and that everyone should be fighting against it. County supervisor Belia Ramos said women deserve dignity and equality, and that the right to have an abortion is important for that. Central to being American is the protection of the fundamental right of liberty, Ramos said. And liberty is exactly what were protecting here, what we seek to protect, what we seek to advocate for. Napa County Office of Education superintendent Barbara Nemko said that every child born in the United States should be born to mothers who want them and have the ability to take care of them. Furthermore, she said, the decision of whether to have a baby belongs to the woman who will have it. Napa City Councilmember Liz Alessio quoted former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the importance of women having a choice when it comes to abortion, given that individual women are the only ones who know the personal circumstances of their lives. Councilmember Mary Luros noted that women are only able to live a healthy and fulfilling life if they have the ability to control their reproductive decisions. Without the freedom to make our own decisions regarding reproductive rights, we no longer have equality, we no longer have dignity, we no longer are able to direct our own lives or protect our own health, Luros said. This is not just about legal abortion or access to birth control, this is about our right to life, our right to health, our right to privacy and our right to education, Luros said. Editor's note: a previous version of this article misstated a statistic about the percentage of maternal deaths attributed to botched abortions before Roe v. Wade. That statistic has been corrected. You can reach Edward Booth at 707-256-2213. 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. Google fined $100M over Google Photos' facial recognition feature Resistance Movement announces upcoming actions The World Bank worsens forecast for global economy Janet Yellen: US faces unsustainable inflation Germany is ready to increase its military mission in Lithuania in response to war in Ukraine European Parliament commends recent rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia Representatives of Japan and NATO agree to intensify military cooperation North Korea ignores numerous US dialogue initiatives Germany does not recognize Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan 10 people detained in case of clashes at Demirchyan and Proshyan streets intersection in Yerevan Athens is in full readiness for even most extreme scenario from Ankara Blankspot: New documents give unique insight into how talks went after Karabakh war European Parliament won't be silent on latest violations of fundamental freedoms in Turkey NEWS.am digest: Protests continue in Yerevan, stun grenades reportedly fired at people Australia to bring coal-fired power plants back on line to tackle energy crisis Taliban consider topic of human rights politicized White House: Increase in Saudi oil production is not the central issue with Riyadh Defense Ministers of Russia and Turkey discuss security of navigation in Black Sea Armenia Deputy PM discusses with French Ambassador work on unblocking regional transport communications WSJ: Saudi Arabia, Israel are moving towards rapprochement through US mediation EU Special Representative for South Caucasus visits Turkey Armenia Parliament Speaker to visit Iran Armenia FM receives relatives of POWs What will Lavrov and Cavusoglu discuss during meeting in Ankara? Non-cash summer: a chance to win 22 travel vouchers for the clients of Ameriabank Shoigu: Total number of Ukrainian servicemen who surrendered reached 6,489 Minor detained in connection with June 3 clashes in Yerevan is released Armenia deputy PM, American envoy reflect on unblocking of regional transport communications 4 tons of cocaine seized in Italy Russia lifts transport communication restrictions with Armenia, Kyrgyzstan Dollar, euro still weakening in Armenia Wizz Air kicks off Larnaca-Yerevan-Larnaca flights Turkey plans to buy Ukrainian grain at a discount of over 25% Municipality to re-launch Armenias Dilijan Textile Factory as multi-functional urban space IBM closes business in Russia Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises military reserve training preparatory program underway Armenia finance minister: More than AMD 157bn were spent in 2021 from funds allocated to health ministry Believers in Azerbaijan prisons go on hunger strike Japanese government alarmed by fall of yen against dollar Kremlin has no information on CSTO peacekeepers possible engagement in Donbas, Peskov says High-tech industry minister briefs Russia Ambassador on details regarding Armenia's first space satellite Minister: Armenia health ministry spent about $79M in 2021 to fight coronavirus Increasing healthcare spending in Armenia cannot be considered complete solution, minister says First flight of latest carrier-based drone to take place in 2025 Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan cooperation documents signed Artsakh Diocese Primate: Azerbaijan wants to replace Dadivanks Armenian clergy with Bakus Russian Diocese servants Summit of Americas to adopt 5 documents Secretary General to speak about work related to CSTO crisis response mechanism Armenia opposition MP: Police use stun grenades in front of EU embassy but latter is silent US expresses readiness to support progress, including as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Venice Commission chair to arrive in Armenia on official visit Azerbaijan defense minister visiting Turkey World oil prices on the rise Resistance Movement marching towards EU Delegation to Armenia office Envoy to US has remote meeting with Co-Chairs Pallone and Speier of Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues Johnson retains post as UK Prime Minister Newspaper: Artsakh Defense Army ex-commander summoned for questioning about 20 times Newspaper: Armenia authorities' efforts to stop waves of protest in diaspora are in vain Minister shot dead in Dominican Republic Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker hopes for signing peace treaty between Yerevan and Baku Armenia Defense Minister: At this stage we see no danger of war with Azerbaijan Armenia Defense Minister: Head of General Staff of Armed Forces will be appointed after structural changes France is negotiating with UAE regarding supply of oil, diesel fuel Ishkhan Saghatelyan presents program of actions for tomorrow Hungarian FM agrees with Zelenskyy's 'psychological problems' opinion Germany to need 5 billion euros per year due to Russian gas sanctions Elon Musk names release date for Tesla robot Flights between Makhachkala and Baku canceled by Azerbaijani authorities NATO drills to be held in Turkey from 20 to 28 June Resistance Movement procession starts in Yerevan Reuters: US to allow Venezuelan oil supplies to Europe Ministry of Economy: Armenia's trade with Iran and China increased in 2021 Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to meet in Baku NEWS.am digest: Over 2,000 people detained in Yerevan protests, 50 injured Lebanon calls for US mediation after vessel appears in waters disputed by Beirut Armenia MFA: European partners assure they are ready to liberalize visa regime with Armenia Iran, Iraq and Turkey trilateral meeting in Baghdad on water rights Resistance Movement holds rally in Yerevan Rashid Nurgaliyev: Washington is satisfied with the Karabakh conflict UK to supply Ukraine with MLRS, which can hit targets at distance of up to 80 km Samsung sued for technology theft Armenia opposition: Today we met with leaders of Artsakh opposition political forces Taliban condemn Indian party member's remarks against Prophet Muhammad Parliament Speaker: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is matter of rights of Armenians to live in their homeland in security Armenia MFA: Issue of return of Armenian POWs is raised on various international platforms Armenia PM receives participants of CSTO PA Council meeting Armenia FM: Foreign Ministry's 2021 business trips are less than planned Iran to respond to any action taken at IAEA meeting MFA: There will be no delays in European financial aid to Armenia on EUR 2.6 billion IAEA: Iran close to possessing significant atomic bomb material Defense Ministers of Turkey and Ukraine discuss issues of safe passage of commercial dry cargo ships One citizen injured in June 3 incident in Yerevan remains in hospital Iranian Foreign Minister's visit to Turkey postponed Japan predicts power shortage for 1.1 million homes in winter Dollar, euro continue depreciating in Armenia Lavrov: Russia and Turkey are interested in solving emerging food issues Mirzoyan: Most important priority of our foreign policy is to ensure security of Armenia, Karabakh MFA: Armenia continued to deepen allied relations with Russia in 2021 FM: All communications must operate under jurisdiction of country through which they pass FM: Armenia MFA needs considerable, consistent staff renewal The US is "mindful of the escalation risk, and everything it is doing" in the Ukraine conflict, including the recent decision to provide four HIMARS systems to Kiev, but ultimately "Russia doesn't get a veto over what we send to the Ukrainians." This was announced by Colin Kahl, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. President Biden has made clear: we have no intention of coming into direct conflict with Russia. We don't have an interest in the conflict in Ukraine widening to a broader conflict or evolving into World War Three. So, we've been mindful of that, but at the same time, Russia doesn't get a veto over what we send to the Ukrainians, Kahl said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has assured Joe Biden that Ukraine will not escalate the conflict if the United States provides HIMARS systems to Ukraine, Kahl added. So, the assurances have been given at multiple levels of Ukrainian government. [US Defense Secretary Lloyd] Secretary Austin has raised these issues with [Ukrainian Defense] Minister Reznikov and their numerous calls. They're talking to each other once or twice a week; that has been true since the beginning of the conflict. But this particular assurance goes all the way to the top of the Ukrainian government to include President Zelenskyy, Kahl said. The United States has decided to send four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)with a 70-kilometer-rangeto Ukraineand instead of more long-range weapons demanded by the Ukrainians. We don't assess that they need systems that range out hundreds and hundreds of kilometers for the current fight. And so that's how we settled on it, Colin Kahl added. Google fined $100M over Google Photos' facial recognition feature Resistance Movement announces upcoming actions The World Bank worsens forecast for global economy Janet Yellen: US faces unsustainable inflation Germany is ready to increase its military mission in Lithuania in response to war in Ukraine Armenian national team holds pre-match training in Glasgow (photo) Can loneliness be 'reflected' in blood? European Parliament commends recent rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia Representatives of Japan and NATO agree to intensify military cooperation North Korea ignores numerous US dialogue initiatives Germany does not recognize Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan 10 people detained in case of clashes at Demirchyan and Proshyan streets intersection in Yerevan Edgar Babayan returns to Randers Athens is in full readiness for even most extreme scenario from Ankara Joaquin Caparros and Artak Grigoryan press conference (live) Blankspot: New documents give unique insight into how talks went after Karabakh war PSG decide not to sell Sergio Ramos European Parliament won't be silent on latest violations of fundamental freedoms in Turkey NEWS.am digest: Protests continue in Yerevan, stun grenades reportedly fired at people Australia to bring coal-fired power plants back on line to tackle energy crisis What diseases increase risk of heart attack? Taliban consider topic of human rights politicized ATP250: Karen Khachanov starts tournament with victory White House: Increase in Saudi oil production is not the central issue with Riyadh Defense Ministers of Russia and Turkey discuss security of navigation in Black Sea Armenia Deputy PM discusses with French Ambassador work on unblocking regional transport communications WSJ: Saudi Arabia, Israel are moving towards rapprochement through US mediation Queen to release previously unknown Freddie Mercury song Real Madrid to pay 100 million for Tchouameni EU Special Representative for South Caucasus visits Turkey Armenia Parliament Speaker to visit Iran Armenia FM receives relatives of POWs What will Lavrov and Cavusoglu discuss during meeting in Ankara? Non-cash summer: a chance to win 22 travel vouchers for the clients of Ameriabank Shoigu: Total number of Ukrainian servicemen who surrendered reached 6,489 Minor detained in connection with June 3 clashes in Yerevan is released Armenia deputy PM, American envoy reflect on unblocking of regional transport communications 4 tons of cocaine seized in Italy Russia lifts transport communication restrictions with Armenia, Kyrgyzstan Dollar, euro still weakening in Armenia Wizz Air kicks off Larnaca-Yerevan-Larnaca flights Queen appears in surprise sketch with Paddington Bear ahead of Jubilee Concert Turkey plans to buy Ukrainian grain at a discount of over 25% Municipality to re-launch Armenias Dilijan Textile Factory as multi-functional urban space IBM closes business in Russia Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises military reserve training preparatory program underway Real and PSG want to get Croatian national team player Armenia finance minister: More than AMD 157bn were spent in 2021 from funds allocated to health ministry Believers in Azerbaijan prisons go on hunger strike Japanese government alarmed by fall of yen against dollar Kremlin has no information on CSTO peacekeepers possible engagement in Donbas, Peskov says High-tech industry minister briefs Russia Ambassador on details regarding Armenia's first space satellite Minister: Armenia health ministry spent about $79M in 2021 to fight coronavirus Shakira and her ex-Pique still spending time together after breaking up Increasing healthcare spending in Armenia cannot be considered complete solution, minister says Lukaku wants to return to Inter First flight of latest carrier-based drone to take place in 2025 Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan cooperation documents signed Artsakh Diocese Primate: Azerbaijan wants to replace Dadivanks Armenian clergy with Bakus Russian Diocese servants Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson brings mom to tears by giving her another house Summit of Americas to adopt 5 documents Francis Kurkdjian's Baccarat Rouge 540 leaves behind Dior Sauvage To what dangerous disease can obesity lead teenagers? Secretary General to speak about work related to CSTO crisis response mechanism Armenia opposition MP: Police use stun grenades in front of EU embassy but latter is silent Armens: Lebanese-Armenian designer Krikor Jabotian on his endless love for his roots and collaborations with stars US expresses readiness to support progress, including as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Venice Commission chair to arrive in Armenia on official visit Azerbaijan defense minister visiting Turkey World oil prices on the rise Resistance Movement marching towards EU Delegation to Armenia office Envoy to US has remote meeting with Co-Chairs Pallone and Speier of Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues Manchester City intend to sell Raheem Sterling How to protect children from junk food? Johnson retains post as UK Prime Minister Newspaper: Artsakh Defense Army ex-commander summoned for questioning about 20 times Newspaper: Armenia authorities' efforts to stop waves of protest in diaspora are in vain Armenia weightlifting team welcomed back at Yerevan international airport (PHOTOS) Nations League: Denmark beat Austria Nations League: Croatia, France play draw Minister shot dead in Dominican Republic Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker hopes for signing peace treaty between Yerevan and Baku Warner Bros. is preparing to launch 'Joker' sequel Armenia Defense Minister: At this stage we see no danger of war with Azerbaijan Armenia Defense Minister: Head of General Staff of Armed Forces will be appointed after structural changes France is negotiating with UAE regarding supply of oil, diesel fuel What foods restore liver? Ishkhan Saghatelyan presents program of actions for tomorrow Chris Rock ignores Will Smith's wife's call for reconciliation Hungarian FM agrees with Zelenskyy's 'psychological problems' opinion Germany to need 5 billion euros per year due to Russian gas sanctions Elon Musk names release date for Tesla robot Flights between Makhachkala and Baku canceled by Azerbaijani authorities NATO drills to be held in Turkey from 20 to 28 June Resistance Movement procession starts in Yerevan Reuters: US to allow Venezuelan oil supplies to Europe What drink can prolong life? Ministry of Economy: Armenia's trade with Iran and China increased in 2021 Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to meet in Baku NEWS.am digest: Over 2,000 people detained in Yerevan protests, 50 injured Stellantis and Toyota Motor Europe (TME) have announced the expansion of their existing partnership with an agreement for a new large-size commercial van, including a battery electric version. The new vehicle marks the third body type under the agreement, completing a full LCV line-up, with compact-, mid- and now also a large-size LCV. Stellantis will supply TME with the new large-size commercial van for sale in Europe under the Toyota brand. The new vehicle will be produced at Stellantis plants in Gliwice, Poland and Atessa, Italy. Planned for mid-2024, the new large-size commercial van marks TMEs first entry into the large-size commercial vehicle segment. Operational excellence Operational excellence is by definition recognised in this expanded deal, said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO. With this third successful engagement, Stellantis is further demonstrating its expertise in the commercial vehicle segment and in developing battery electric technology built to support a full range of needs. This agreement strengthens our leadership in the EU30 for LCVs and low emission vehicles and moves us a step closer to realising our Dare Forward 2030 goal of becoming the undisputed global light commercial vehicle leader, in terms of technology, manufacturing, market share and profitability. Stellantis and TMEs collaboration started in 2012 with the Toyotas mid-size LCV produced at Stellantis Hordain plant in France, followed in 2019 by a competitive and appealing addition to the compact-size LCV segment, produced at Stellantis plant in Vigo, Spain. Completing LCV line-up The large-size LCV deepens the collaboration enabling Toyota to complete a full LCV line-up in Europe, while allowing both companies to benefit from development and production cost optimisation. We are pleased that we can extend this successful partnership through the introduction of a new large-size commercial van. It represents an important addition and completes our light commercial line-up for Toyotas European customers. The new LCV will represent a key contribution to Toyotas growth targets for its overall LCV line-up, alongside the Hilux pick-up, Proace and Proace City, enabling Toyota to provide a mobility solution in all segments of the LCV market, commented Matt Harrison, President and CEO at Toyota Motor Europe.-- TradeArabia News Service During a briefing in the Armenian government, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan did not announce the date of the second meeting of the commission on the border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Grigoryan said that, "Of course, there will be matters on the agenda related to the delimitation and demarcation of the border. As a continuation of the first meeting, the commissions will discuss how they will move forward in the process. As for the day and time, the [respective] statement will definitely be publicized when [respective] information will be received from the Deputy Prime Minister." Answering the question why the Armenian commission is half the number of members of the Azerbaijani commission, it consists exclusively of PM Nikol Pashinyan's appointments, and it has no cartographers and historians, the head of the Security Council said that the number of commission members is not important, as all matters are discussed interdepartmentally. "Before the meeting, the working group is preparing. If a deputy minister is represented in the commission, it does not mean that the other employees of the ministry do not participate in the preparation of the process. I do not see any problem with the number. As for the specialists, we have discussed with the specialists many times in various formatsfrom November 2019 until today," Grigoryan stated. To the question why there are no representatives of the opposition in the aforesaid Armenian commission, Grigoryan called not to make political statements. "As for the authorities, the opposition is not represented in the executive at alland that is logical. As soon as they are represented, they will stop being an opposition. Our [political] teamthe CC [(Civil Contract)]is represented in the National Assembly by about 66% and has the mandate of the citizens," Grigoryan said, when asked whether the ruling party wants to engage the opposition, at least to share the responsibility. Israel, Egypt, and the European Commission are holding intensive consultations on how to export surplus gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe, Kathimerini reported. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson is pushing for the signing of a memorandum of understanding ahead of the upcoming meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) in Cairo on June 16 and 17, which EC President Ursula von der Leyen will probably attend. The memorandum of understanding provides for an agreement to export Israeli and Egyptian natural gas to Europe. How this will be done is not yet specified. In the case of Greece, it will involve transporting gas through pipelines that will go either to Crete or mainland Greece. Transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) also remains a priority. However, Ankara still considers Turkey to be the best solution for such a project. However, the solution that all players consider the most viable is to transport gas in the form of LNG. The question remains whether LNG will stop at a Turkish port other than the Greek port. The consultation comes amid pressure on Europe because of the war in Ukraine to diversify its energy sources, and this is one of the reasons why Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar decided to announce a new tender for the exploration of hydrocarbons in offshore fields, despite the fact that a year ago this prospect was excluded. Commenting on the memorandum of understanding between Israel, Egypt and the EC, she said that it would provide infrastructure for transportation of Israeli gas through Egypt. She also said that the agreement will allow natural gas trading companies to make their own deals for exporting Israeli gas to Egypt and from there to liquefy and transport it to Europe. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and allies including Russia, known as Opec+, have agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and 648,000 bpd in August. This came at the 29th Opec and non-Opec Ministerial Meeting which was held via video-conference today. The meeting noted the most recent reopening from lockdowns in major global economic centers. It further noted that global refinery intake is expected to increase after seasonal maintenance. The meeting highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets for both crude oil and refined products. It has been agreed to "advance the planned overall production adjustment for the month of September and redistribute equally the 0.432 mb/d production increase over the months of July and August 2022. Therefore, July production will be adjusted upward by 0.648 mb/d as per the attached schedule," Opec said in a statement following the meeting. The members agreed to extend the compensation period until the end of December 2022 as requested by some underperforming countries and request that underperforming countries submit their plans by 17 June 2022. Compensation plans should be submitted in accordance with the statement of the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting. They reiterate the critical importance of adhering to full conformity and to the compensation mechanism. It has also been agreed to hold the 30th Opec and non-Opec Ministerial Meeting on June 30. More than 100 military objects of different purposes will be built by the USA on the territory of Poland during the next 10 years, American Ambassador to Poland Marek Brzezinski said on Thursday. His remarks came while speaking at a ceremony to begin construction of U.S. ammunition depots in Powidz (Wielkopolskie Voivodeship) in central Poland. More than 110 construction projects are planned over the next ten years, the ambassador added. According to him, all this is necessary in order to seriously increase military readiness. As Brzezinski emphasized, these will be, for example, educational facilities, but also canteens, barracks and other facilities. The construction of the warehouses in Powidza is underway in Poland as part of an expanded allied presence in the country. The project consists of two areas - the creation of ammunition depots and a complex of warehouses for weapons and equipment storage. These activities are part of the implementation of the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) approved at the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales. As a result, 56 depots and administrative facilities will appear in Poland. Five warehouses will be placed at the disposal of the Polish side, and 51 will be placed at the disposal of the U.S. side. Expansion of the infrastructure is foreseen. Oman Air, the national airline of the Sultanate, was commended for extending its support to the Oman Pavilion throughout Expo 2020 Dubai In a recent ceremony at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC) Qais Mohamed Al Yousef, Oman Minister of Commerce & Industry & Investment Promotion handed over an official certificate of appreciation to Dr Khalid Al Balushi (PhD), Senior Manager Government Affairs at Oman Air. Oman Airs longstanding commitment to national projects underscores the airlines vital role in the Sultanates broader tourism strategy and its ongoing participation in the realization of Oman Vision 2040 objectives as a key enabler of travel into the countrylinking Oman to important source tourist markets regionally and internationally. The Oman pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai was an exceptional opportunity to showcase the Sultanates deep connection to frankincense while promoting the countrys benefits as a truly distinct travel destination in the Middle East. As national carrier, Oman Air, along with several other public and private institutions, was active at the Oman pavilion to support projects and community programs. The link between aviation and tourism development is significant and the role of airlines as enablers in the broader tourism ecosystem is especially significant given the challenges facing post-pandemic travel, said Abdulaziz Al Raisi, Chief Executive Officer, Oman Air. As the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, our readiness to support important tourism and country branding projects is absolute, and our presence throughout Expo 2020 Dubai was a national initiative we were delighted to take part in, and one which contributes to Omans economic development in travel-related sectors. In addition to boosting flight frequencies on its Muscat-Dubai corridor, Oman Air established an on-site presence at the Oman pavilion for six months. In conjunction with the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, its team was on hand to promote the airlines connectivity to Oman and respond to visitor enquiries; it was actively involved in supporting Oman National Day, the arrival of the Oman Youth Ship at the Dubai Tourism Port, Omani Youth Day, Omani Womens Day, World Education Day, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, International Film Day, World Education Day, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and the closing ceremony for Expo 2020 Dubai. To facilitate travel to and from Expo 2020 Dubai for 200 youth volunteers, Oman Air offered subsidized tickets and streamlined its departure and return procedures at airports in Muscat and Dubai. Parallel to activities and events throughout Expo 2020 Dubai, and in line with its commitment to support economic activities that benefit the local community, Oman Air signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tayseer, the commercial platform tasked with managing the mini-commercial centre at Expo 2020 Dubai and providing shipping services and travel for affiliate SMEs. TradeArabia News Service Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that Ankara is open to cooperation with all countries to create a security corridor for exports of Ukrainian grain to the world markets. The minister's remarks from a meeting with students at Eskisehir University were quoted by TRT television. "We are working on creation of a safe corridor, which after clearing the water area will allow vessels with grain to take grain from Ukraine to the world markets. We are constantly being called and asked to be included in this system. Of course, we are open for cooperation with all countries. I hope to create a center in Istanbul, which will deal with these issues. We will hold technical talks in the coming days," the Turkish foreign minister said. Cavusoglu reminded that the initiative to create a safe corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain was put forward by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He discussed it on 30 May in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "On 8 June, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov arrives on a visit [to Turkey]. He is coming together with a military delegation. Outside of the bilateral talks, we will conduct work related to the creation of a security corridor and the export of Russian and Ukrainian products," Cavusoglu noted. Turkish media reported on Thursday that the issue of creating a "grain center" in Istanbul and the preparation of a road map by representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the UN to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain and its exports through the Black Sea and the Straits Zone was being worked out. The implementation of these plans will allegedly make it possible to export about 20 million tons of grain to world markets. Miami Herbert Business School seizes its role as the leading research and teaching institution in the heart of Miamis thriving cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. A dynamic ecosystem within the digital technology space flourishes as high startup activity, international reach, and regulatory incentives draw executives, investors, and innovators to the city. In tune with the growth, Miami Herberts governance team and faculty already lead academic programming, research, and initiatives to prepare future leaders and further an understanding of the booming field. Crypto and blockchain are allowing for new business models, and a major part of the action is happening every day within our city, says Miami Herbert Dean John Quelch. We have prepared well for the intensity of activity by developing a well-respected business technology department and supporting our local community through the highest level of educational and scholarly resources. Among the major developments, Quelch and the business technology faculty prepare to reposition the Schools Intelligent Computer Systems Research Institute. The re-imagined center will focus on research, case studies, and executive development within AI, blockchain and cryptocurrency, and related intelligent systems. With secured initial funding, the leadership team is currently recruiting a director and forming an advisory board for a tentative launch this fall. The institute will be about bold leadership through the dissemination of knowledge at the executive level, top-level research, and engaged scholarship, says Business Technology Department Chair and Professor Robert Plant. We are excited about what is to come, which will involve a closer look at new concepts like smart connected devices and helium tokens. Plans also include a one-day academic cryptocurrency and blockchain conference, a hackathon, a speaker series, and short, technical courses for practitioners that seek new or enhanced skills. Institute programs will complement cutting-edge research already underway at the business school. Faculty examine top-of-mind issues encompassing ethics and security, data privacy, blockchain in health care, and the emergence of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), a new form of organization that creates opportunities for peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. Faculty also collaborate with one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in North America on a teaching case related to the mining of todays largest cryptocurrency. In a separate collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the researchers analyze the impact of TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled shipping solution jointly developed by Maersk and IBM in 2018. Many people may view crypto as only a form of market speculation, but it is also about the use of blockchain for private endeavors such as in the global supply chain through TradeLens, explains Professor of Business Technology Ola Henfridsson, the Schein Family endowed chair and one of the researchers involved in the study. The energy toward transformative technology extends to curricula across undergraduate and graduate programs. Undergraduate students get an early introduction through regular content and electives, and additional coverage as fintech majors or scholars of the Foote Fellows Honors Program. At the graduate level, electives span themes in technology and innovation, the Internet of Value, programming for distributed systems, cloud technology, management of digital transformation, and coming soon, smart contracts and product management. The concentrated classes cover critical topics such as risk assessment, regulatory limitations, and Web 3.0, giving MBA and specialized masters students the skills necessary for coveted product management roles. MBA students learn that they need to be able to speak to data scientists, to the people who develop new technologies and products, while at the same time seeing how to transform their work into value propositions for customers. Thats exactly what one can do with such technology and with the right skills, Henfridsson says. Students receive the added value of hearing directly from leaders and trailblazers in the local blockchain community. Recent speaker events organized by the student-led Cryptocurrency Club and the Herbert Half Hour speaker series have featured alumnus Scott Spiegel, founder of BitBasel and the Miami community lead for the Florida Blockchain Business Association, alumnus Kyle Sonlin, founding partner and CEO of Security Token Group, and Jason Albanese, general partner and CEO of Lightning Capital, a leading crypto asset management firm. Further blockchain-related initiatives include Miami Herberts new Fintech Boot Camp and, upcoming in the fall, the next UScale accelerator program, which will bring to campus innovators from around the world with crypto-tech products ready for entry into the United States market. All efforts cultivate talent for continued industry growth and support a city in the spotlight as crypto and blockchain technology undergoes, as Henfridsson describes, the fastest adoption of any technology since the internet. Wang Yi heads to PNG amid tensions over election Wang Yi was visiting Vanuatu on Wednesday, as part of his regional trip. File photo: AFP Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Papua New Guinea on Thursday, as he continued on his regional trip to shore up relations with Pacific island nations. A Xinhua commentary published on Thursday said Wang's 10-day trip has reflected Beijing's sincerity and commitment to deepening the "comprehensive strategic partnership" with countries in the region. It highlighted that these partnerships feature "mutual respect and common development", adding China has accumulated a great deal of experience in socio-economic development and is always ready to lend a helping hand. In Papua New Guinea, tensions are high in the lead-up to a national election, with an official telling media that Beijing's proposal for a regional security pact has caused resentment. On Monday, a virtual meeting hosted by Wang in Fiji with counterparts from 10 island nations deferred consideration of a sweeping regional agreement spanning policing, security, fisheries, data and a free trade zone, proposed by Beijing. "There has been resentment over the Pacific agreement on security matters," Papua New Guinea's Foreign Affairs secretary Elias Wohengu was quoted as saying by the Post Courier newspaper. He indicated Papua New Guinea was unlikely to sign a security deal. "On the security status of Papua New Guinea, we will deal with it ourselves," he added. The timing of Wang's visit has also been criticised by the country's former prime minister Peter O'Neill, who is campaigning for the top job. In a series of media interviews, he said it would be "improper" for China to donate security equipment or offer security support for the election. The United States and its allies have expressed concern about Beijing's ambitions for security ties with Pacific island nations which control vast areas of resource-rich oceans and access to a region with strategic military significance. Meanwhile, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday arrived in Samoa, and will also visit Tonga on Friday, days after Wang visited both nations. (Additional reporting by Reuters) Ex-lawmaker Ted Hui found guilty of contempt of court Prosecutors have asked for a custodial sentence for Ted Hui, who is not in Hong Kong. File photo: RTHK The High Court on Thursday found self-exiled former lawmaker Ted Hui guilty of four counts of contempt of court. Hui left Hong Kong for Denmark in 2020 while he was on bail facing multiple protest-related charges, saying he would be visiting lawmakers there. He later announced that he was going into exile and would not return. Handing down his sentence in Huis absence, Justice Andrew Chan said the former Democratic Party legislator had misled the police into believing that he would return to Hong Kong to stand trial and that he had breached a bail condition by failing to turn up for court hearings. Chan said Hui had worked with Danish politicians in fabricating an itinerary and an invitation letter for his trip. The judge added that by missing court hearings deliberately, Hui had caused delays and disruption to court proceedings, perverted the course of justice, and undermined the publics confidence in the SARs legal system. Prosecutors have asked for a custodial sentence for Hui, who is still overseas. The hearing was adjourned for sentencing at a later date. Beijing speaks out against US-Taiwan trade talks US President Joe Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an economic partnership with 12 Asian countries. File photo: AFP Mainland officials on Thursday have spoken out against the launch of talks to deepen trade ties between the United States and Taiwan, an initiative that follows an agreement US President Joe Biden announced last week with a number of Asian economies. The Commerce Ministry said Beijing opposes any form of official contact between Taiwan and foreign countries, adding Washington should prudently handle trade and economic ties with Taiwan. The initiative in some ways parallels the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an economic partnership with 12 Asian countries that he launched last week during a visit to Seoul and Tokyo, which excluded the island. In a statement, the US Trade Representative said that "both sides will work ... to develop an ambitious roadmap for negotiations for reaching agreements with high-standard commitments and economically meaningful outcomes." Following Biden's Asia trip last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a speech reiterated his country's commitment to the one-China policy over Taiwan, after Biden said the US would get involved militarily should the mainland attack the island. Responding to the speech, the Foreign Ministry said the Taiwan issue is "purely China's internal affairs". (AFP/Reuters) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that there are risks of involving third countries in the war with Ukraine if Kiev received US multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). "Such risks, of course, exist. What the Kiev regime demands, and unequivocally, economically... from its Western patrons. Firstly, it goes beyond decency and diplomatic communication, and secondly, it is a direct provocation to involve the West in hostilities," Lavrov said, as per Ria Novosti. According to him, these risks are "understood by conscious Western politicians", Ukrayinska Pravda reported. "Not everyone, frankly, in the European Union, especially in its northern part. There are politicians who are ready to resort to this madness in order to satisfy their ambitions. "But serious countries in the European Union, of course, are well aware of the unacceptability of such scenarios, and we recently heard signs of reasonable estimates from Washington," Lavrov said. The US is "adding fuel to the fire" by supplying weapons to Kiev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday in response to US President Joe Biden's decision to provide more advanced missile systems to Ukraine, CNN reported. "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire," Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call. The Ukrainian authorities have long asked the United States to supply high-tech, medium-range rocket systems. Biden said Tuesday the US is providing Ukraine "more advanced rocket systems and munitions" as its war with Russia grinds on. "Such supplies do not contribute to the Ukrainian leadership's willingness to resume peace negotiations," Peskov said, CNN reported. Peskov also added the Kremlin does not trust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's words that Kyiv would not use multiple launch rocket systems to attack the Russian territory if they receive them from the US. --IANS san/arm ( 316 Words) 2022-06-01-22:32:01 (IANS) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI/ATK): Mrs India Inc 2022 powered by Joy Ebike is coming up with its final edition that is going to be held on June 15, 2022 at NESCO Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai. A prestigious and one of the best beauty pageants for Married Women across the globe, the beauty pageant will witness 53 stunning and strong women across India. Mrs India Inc is a platform which believes in giving woman a chance to follow their dreams, a chance for redemption. The pageant stands to search for the most Confident, Courageous, Humble and Gorgeous Queen to represent our country at Mrs World. The Semi-Finalist have started their preparations in full swing for the Finale and are leaving no stone unturned for the competition ahead. The contestants are mentored and trained by Cherag Bambboat, Pravin Banodkar, Noureen Hemani, Dr Varun Katyal, Jinni Shaikh and Kamalrukh Khan. The esteemed jury panel will comprise of celebrities like Soha Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Mohammad Azharuddin, Former Mrs World Aditi Govitrikar and Mohini Sharma-Founder and CEO of Mrs India Inc. The new queen will be crowned by the outgoing queen Navdeep Kaur. Let us meet 53 Semi-Finalists wearing Pink Peacock Couture created by Massumi Mewawalla who is also on the Jury panel. One of the semi-finalists, Dr Nita Hazarika is among the top contestants to represent the state at national level. A survivor, women leader and a courageous woman, Nita was born in Assam and brought up in a humble background. Her mother being a sole earning member of the family made her learn resilience and strength at a very early age. A consultant anesthesiologist by profession and happily settled in the capital city of Delhi with her husband and son, she is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, a brand ambassador of a fitness brand and a social worker too. After donning many hats, she is now at this stage to prove herself and others that you can achieve anything and everything even after going through tough times. She believes she is destiny's child. She has been through the toughest of times in life but never lost hope. A lot of confidence and self-belief makes her a great example for women who have self-doubt. She has invested all her energy and positivity to be part of Mrs India Inc. This story is provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK) Radisson Hotel Group has signed Radisson Blu Hotel, Amman Galleria Mall in the Jordanian capital, bringing its Middle East portfolio to 74 hotels in operation and under development. With construction already under way, the hotel is scheduled to open by the summer of 2023. The newly built hotel will be located inside the Galleria Mall, which is one of the biggest shopping malls in Jordan, located in the heart of Amman, and only a 30-minute drive from Queen Alia International Airport. We thank the partners of Al Yaqout Real Estate for their trust in Radisson Hotel Group in Jordan, an important destination in our expansion strategy. The presence of the Radisson Blu brand in the countrys capital will be a steppingstone for further development in key cities and locations in Jordan, said Elie Milky, Vice President Development for the Middle East, Pakistan, Cyprus and Greece. The signing of Radisson Blu Hotel, Amman Galleria Mall showcases our faith in the Radisson Hotel Group and Jordans bright future. It is an important partnership with countless benefits to all stakeholders in the most strategic commercial district of Amman. The hotel will be a state-of-the-art hotel concept that is perfectly designed to complement our corner stone property The Galleria Mall, said Samer Al-Tawil, Chairman and CEO of Amwaj Properties, the holding company of Al-Yaqout Real Estate Company. Radisson Blu Hotel, Amman Galleria Mall will perfectly complement Radisson Hotel Group's growing portfolio by introducing the core, upper-upscale brand to the country. The hotel will consist of 178 keys across various room types, including one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom apartments offering plenty of space with 155 sq m. The hotel will feature an all-day dining restaurant and one specialty restaurant. Additionally, guests will be able to enjoy a fitness studio and state-of-the-art meeting facilities. TradeArabia News Service New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI/GPRC): Hercules Hoists Ltd., a Bajaj Group Company in the material handling solution space, witnessed a 43 per cent growth in the company's Annual Turnover in FY 2021-22. In addition, the company's Profit Before Tax has increased by 93 per cent, while the hike in Earnings Per Share has been a whopping 92 per cent. With set higher and well-defined goals, Hercules Hoists has worked on strengthening the relationships with the key customers, launched new products & solutions as per the market requirements, optimized the pricing strategies, improved service policies, streamlined the sales process, and integrated the latest tools & technologies to enable measurable and consistent growth. The latest achievements are also the results of the brand's focus on international expansion, robust online presence, and customer-centric approach. Incorporated in 1962, Hercules Hoists Ltd., erstwhile Indef, is a Bajaj Group Company that offers the highest grade quality hoisting solutions and innovative material handling products at an affordable price to the Indian industries. The company shares the capability of catering to the material handling requirements across industry segments, making it a leader in the hoisting solutions space. The list of its diverse range of material handling solutions includes EOT Cranes, Stacker Crane, Manipulator, Wire Rope Hoists, Chain Electric Hoists, Mechanical Hoists, Trollies, and Light Rail Crane. It also specializes in services like Site Support Services, Technical Support Services, and Modernisation, Overhaul & Refurbishment Services. Moreover, it maintains an ISO 9001:2015, ISI, and CE certified Quality Assessment System to retain its leadership position in the market. In a statement, Amit Bhalla, President & CEO of Hercules Hoists Ltd., congratulated all the stakeholders for the impressive figures achieved in FY 2021-22. "Since its inception, Hercules Hoists has been consistently working towards championing the material handling solutions space. Needless to say, the company excels in hoisting and material handling technology, solidifying its leadership position in the national market. The latest achievements testify to the same. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues, employees, business partners, vendors and company stakeholders for their hard work, dedication, and loyalty. We have come a long way and have longer to go. We want to create, communicate and deliver value through our products and services that are totally aligned to current and emerging requirements of customers and offer our customers, solutions at best ROI." he said. For large companies with huge manufacturing units and big warehouses, efficient material handling plays a significant role in lowering the operational cost, protecting the integrity of the goods, increasing the workplace's productivity, and enhancing the safety and well-being of the workers. Hercules Hoists has successfully mastered the science and art of lifting, shifting, and storing material in any form. After securing remarkable growth, Hercules Hoists Ltd. is now aiming to emerge as the go-to solution provider for all material handling requirements across the globe. This story is provided by GPRC. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/GPRC) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI/TPT): The Director of Rapid Organic Pvt Ltd, Yogesh Joshi, was recently honoured with the Spice Icon of the Year Award during the 9th Global Spice Summit & Excellence Awards held on May 13, 2022. Yogesh Joshi was given the award in the presence of Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan (Minister of State for Communications, GoI) and Rajendra Gehlot (Member of Parliament-Rajya Sabha). The 9th edition of the Global Spice Summit & Excellence Awards was organised in a grand way and the award show was held at the NDMC Convention Centre, opposite Jantar Mantar located at the Sansad Marg in the National Capital. The award ceremony was hosted by Rajesh Gupta (MD, NNS Online Pvt Ltd) and Akshay Gupta (MD, NNS Events & Exhibitions Pvt Ltd) and several distinguished personalities graced the ceremony with their august presence. Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan (Minister of State for Communications, GoI) was invited as a Chief Guest while Rajendra Gehlot (Member of Parliament-Rajya Sabha) was named as a guest of honour. Apart from this, there were several special guest invited which also included Yogesh Joshi (Director of Rapid Organic Pvt Ltd) alongside names like Babu Jhalani (Chairman, CIBA Taaza Spices), Sanjeev Sahu (MD, Govind Food Pvt Ltd), Madhup Madhav (Director, CEE PEE Masale), Makarand Mandke (MD, Sesotec India Pvt Ltd), Sarat Kumar Sahoo (MD, Ruchi FoodLine), Sandeep Kumar Tulsiyan (MD, RD Udyog Pvt Ltd). Apart from being the special guest and winning the Spice Icon of the Year Award, Yogesh Joshi also presented a comprehensive presentation on the demand and forecast of Organic Spices in the domestic and the international market. The award ceremony also witnessed numerous speakers keeping their view on the aspects of Spice markets and the challenges the industry has been facing in recent times. These speakers included Sukhram Gehlot (Director, Etiyash Masale), Sahil Jhalani (Director, CIBA Taaza Spices), Dinesh Soni (MD, Shree Shyam International), Dr.A.K. Tyagi (Executive Director, Haldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd). Expressing happiness after being felicitated with the Spice Icon of the Year Award, Yogesh Joshi, Director of Rapid Organic Pvt Ltd, stated "It is an honour for me to have received such a prestigious award and that too from such big people. It makes me happy and at the same time, makes me feel more responsible as an entrepreneur. I am hopeful that I would be able to fulfil my responsibilities and contribute to the betterment of the market." The 9th edition of the Global Spice Summit & Excellence Awards was sponsored by Diamond Sponsor- Catch Spices, Gold Sponsor- Siba Taaza Spices and Govind Masale. This story is provided by TPT. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/TPT) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI/PNN): The annual Bundelkhand Literature Festival is scheduled for October this year. The upcoming festival aims to provide a platform for regional artists, literature, and farmers. The Association of Bundelkhand with the Indian history and heritage can be traced back to the 8th century. The region has gifted many prominent names to the Indian historical honour. The region is also known for preserving Indian culture and traditions for many centuries. From Jhansi and Orchha to Agra and Mathura, it gives glimpses of ancient Indian cultural, architectural, artistic, and royal abundance. The upcoming Bundelkhand Literature Festival, which is expected to be held in October 2022, strives to spotlight the region's rich heritage and showcase the work of artists and artisans of the region. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak are expected to attend the event. The final dates and venue of the event are yet to be disclosed. Pratap Raj initiated the concept of the Bundelkhand Literature Festival. A native of Lalitpur district that comes under the region has researched its historic, spiritual and cultural characteristics. After realizing its importance in Indian history, Pratap Raj decided to conserve it and pass it to the next generation. The festival provides a common platform where established and budding litterateurs can collectively discuss social, fundamental, and research-specific subjects. The festival also hosts a farmers'-meet to focus on different agricultural issues faced by the farmers of the region and introduce them to new advancements in the agro-industry, technology and policies. This is an attempt to solve the modern agricultural problems the farmers face. The October event will be the second edition of the festival. The festival was launched in 2020 and was a 3-day event attended by the leading names from literature, art, and media personalities. The luminaries who attended the festival last year included Metraiyee Pushpa, Padmashree Kailash Madbaiya, Richa Aniruddh, Anikta Jain, Naveen Chaudhary, Aazam Quadri, Prahlad Agrawal, Indrajeet Singh, Dinesh Shankar Shailendra, Indiara Dangi, Kuldeep Raghav, Geet Chaturvedi, Vivek Mishra, Raja Bundela, Sushmita Mukherjee, Dr, Sharad Singh, Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi and Deepak Dua. A special Agriculture Awareness fellowship was organized during the festival in association with the state agriculture department. Pratap Raj says, "The Indian society is standing on the cusp of change. Our efforts through the festival are to inspire youth to shoulder the responsibility of preserving the heritage in the form of literature, art, and culture. This was initiated with the sole aim to bring the brilliance of intellectuals, artists, and writers under one roof and to discuss various social issues, development prospects, and future options." The festival founder-director Pratap Raj is a noted litterateur, social activist, and philanthropist from Bundelkhand. His humanitarian and research work in the Bundelkhand region is highly recognized. He has been proactively working in the region for society and farmers. He has also developed an Agro Mart for the region's farmers to provide them with a single facility where they get the resolution of the maximum problems. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI/GPRC): India Exhibition Services, Confederation of RWAs (CoRWA-A Pan India National Apex Body of RWAs) and Green Society of India are organizing an All-India Mayors & RWAs Summit 2022 in association with Confederation of RWAs-Uttar Pradesh(CoRWA-UP), Confederation of NCR RWAs(CONRWA), Delhi Residents Joint Front, United Residents Joint Action (URJA), United Residents Delhi (URD), Flat Owners Federation Ghaziabad (FOFG) and many other RWA Federations with the main theme "Waste Management" on 4th June 2022 at Hall No.7,Pragati Maidan, New Delhi (India) as a part of World Environment Expo-2022. It is Supported by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India. On the World Environment Day that is 5th Jun , a World Conference is also being organised at the same venue. This Conference will cover topics like Environment Protection, Climate Change, Use of Clean energy, new technological advances, electric vehicles and the like. An international Exhibition is also being organised side by side on environmental issues. High quality professional, leaders, industry experts, decision makers, Delegates, Central and State Government Departments, Public Sector Units, Private Sector Companies, Municipal Bodies, Development Authorities from India and abroad are being invited for the World Environment Expo 2022 . 10,000 sq. mt. of Exhibition space, 200 plus Exhibitors and provision for visit of about 10,000 high calibre Environment & Allied Industry Professionals is being catered for. Resolutions passed in the Summit will be sent to the central & state Govts for necessary action and will be followed up. Col Tejendra Pal Tyagi, Veer Chakra, Chief Convener, CoRWA& Summit 2022 Swadesh Kumar, President, Green Society of India, Sr Convener Summit 2022 Major Sushil Goel Registration Partner This story is provided by GPRC. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/GPRC) Vijay Kumar, Branch Manager, Arreah branch of Ellaquai Dehati Bank (EBD), a Srinagar-headquartered Regional Rural Bank sponsored by SBI was shot dead on Thursday in the branch premises by a terrorist. Vijay Kumar, who belonged to Rajasthan, was just 29 years old and had joined Ellaquai Dehati Bank in March 2019. "Vijay Kumar was one of many such bankers hailing from different parts of the country, who are working in the Kashmir Valley and other difficult places to ensure delivery of uninterrupted banking services to the public," SBI said in a statement. SBI, as the sponsor of Ellaquai Dehati Bank, remains committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all its employees, including those posted in the Valley, the government-run lender said. State Bank of India also assured to provide financial support to the family of Vijay Kumar. "The EDB shall ensure that the bereaved family is provided with necessary support - financial and otherwise - on priority," SBI said. (ANI) Popular American actor Johnny Depp on Wednesday won a high-profile defamation case between him and his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Following his win, several Bollywood celebrities expressed their support for the decision made by the jury in favour of Johnny Depp via social media. Global star Ali Fazal took to his Instagram stories, clearly, the 35-year-old star was watching the Johnny Depp's verdict's live coverage. In his first story, he wrote, " OK this is next level aniticipation :::. Anyone else watching this. #depp #heard #verdict" In another story, Ali shared a picture of Johnny's win. Bollywood actor Disha Patani shared a picture of Johnny Depp in her IG story, she wrote, "Nobody can ever replace you, @johnnydepp" Actor and producer Neil Nitin Mukesh also shared a heartfelt IG story for Johnny Depp, he wrote, "And there is justice" with a big heart. South Indian star Shruti Haasan congratulated Johnny Depp via her Instagram story, with a quirky message. She wrote, "Congratulations! I adore you. Now please go get sober" Bollywood celebrity Sophie Choudry shared a message of support in her Instagram story, "Tell the world, I Johnny Depp, a man, am a victim too of domestic violence. See how many people believe or side with you." 6 years later he told his truth & he won both in and out of court. #AbuseHasNoGender #JusticeForJohnnyDepp #JohnnyDeppVsAmberHeard." The jury has awarded Johnny Depp USD 15 million in damages. Amber Heard has also won part of her libel case against Johnny Depp over articles in a privately owned newspaper, in which Johnny Depp's former lawyer described her claims of domestic abuse as a hoax. The jury has awarded Amber Heard USD 2 million in damages. For the unversed, after several years of dating, Depp and Heard married in a very private ceremony in their home in Los Angeles in 2015. On May 23, 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and obtained a temporary restraining order against the Oscar-nominated actor. She alleged that Depp had physically abused her during their relationship, and said it was usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. (ANI) With the Bihar government on Wednesday announcing a caste-based census, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav termed it a victory for his party President Lalu Prasad Yadav and the party. "Lalu Ji was demanding a caste-based census for a long time. We have taken initiatives for it several times, like when I had written a letter to the Chief Minister for an all-party delegation to meet the Prime minister. Over all, we have fought at every stage for caste-based census. So it is a win for us and Lalu Ji," Tejashwi Yadav, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said. "During the last census, then (Union) Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley said that the data related to the census went corrupt. Hence, it was not appropriate and useful for us. The Centre is conducting a census and if it would have agreed on adding one more column, there would be no need for an additional caste-based census to be conducted separately by state governments. It may help poor states like Bihar. "Unfortunately, the Centre does not agree on it. Even 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha MPs of Bihar are from NDA but they were not advocating it with the Narendra Modi government. If caste-based census would happen in the entire country, it would be in the national interest and helpful to make policies according to the status of particular caste and community," he added. He also said that during the meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, where the decision was taken, his party had suggested to pass the proposal in the next cabinet meeting. "As there is a flood situation in Bihar every year, I have suggested that he start the survey from November this year. At that time, a large number of migrant people return home for the celebration of Chatth festival," he added. --IANS ajk/vd ( 320 Words) 2022-06-01-20:28:02 (IANS) As per the preliminary information, seven persons were injured and they were shifted to a private hospital for treatment. Of the seven, the condition of four persons was said to be critical. Inspector of New Port Police Station, Ramu said to ANI that seven people got injured in the incident and were shifted to a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, fire fighting officials have reached the spot and fire dousing operations are underway. The police is yet to ascertain the cause of the incident. More details are awaited on the incident. Earlier, a conveyor belt caught fire at a loader of Vedanta Private Limited in Vizag Port Trust (VPT) on Monday evening. No causalities or injuries were reported. Port workers suspect that the fire erupted due to a rupture or a short circuit. (ANI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Wednesday that it has attached 23 bank accounts of Popular Front of India (PFI) having collective balance of over Rs 59 lakh, and 10 bank accounts of PFI's front organisation Rehab India Foundation (RIF) having collective balance of over Rs 9 lakh as part of its the ongoing money laundering investigation into PFI and its related organisations. Thus, a total amount of over Rs 68 lakh has been provisionally attached under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED investigation revealed that huge amount of money, including cash, from questionable sources have been received by the PFI and the RFI. "An amount of more than Rs 60 crore has been deposited in the accounts of PFI since 2009, which includes cash deposit of more than Rs 30 crore. Similarly, around Rs 58 crore has been deposited in the accounts of RIF since 2010," said an ED official. During the investigation, the ED learnt that PFI, in active collusion with other associated accused persons, indulged in laundering of proceeds of crime. The ED has alleged that the proceeds of crime mobilised in the form of cash were deposited in its bank accounts by falsely projecting them as cash donations from sympathisers. "Similarly, in order to obliterate the fund trail and circumvent the regulatory rigour, proceeds of crime were mobilised in the form of cash and deposited by PFI leaders in the bank accounts of various individuals and immediately thereafter these funds were transferred from bank accounts to PFI's bank account," the official said. The ED alleged that PFI was covertly mobilising funds through well-organised networks in Gulf countries as part of criminal conspiracy and these proceeds of crime were secretly and clandestinely sent to India through underground and illegal channels and by way of foreign remittances into the bank accounts of sympathisers, office-bearers, members and their relatives, and thereafter these funds were transferred to the bank accounts of PFI, RIF and other individuals, entities. "In this way, the proceeds of crime have been placed, layered and integrated and therefore projected as untainted money in the bank accounts of PFI as well as RIF," the ED official said. "This has been done as part of a larger criminal conspiracy of PFI and its related entities to raise funds within the country and abroad to carry out various unlawful activities which have resulted in the registration of numerous FIRs, complaints against them for commission of scheduled offences over time and the filing of charge sheets & conviction of its members, office-bearers," the official added. The ED had already filed a charge-sheet on February 6, and a supplementary charge-sheet on May 6 against members/office-bearers of PFI and Campus Front of India before a special ED court in Lucknow. The court had taken cognisance of the charge of money laundering against all the accused persons. --IANS atk/uk ( 497 Words) 2022-06-01-20:32:02 (IANS) 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 Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday launched a new mobile application to curb corruption in the state. If any government officer demands a bribe, the citizens can lodge their complaint on the 'ACB 14400' app. The Chief Minister said anyone who were asked for bribe from anyone and anywhere including Collector's office, RDO's office, Sub-Registrar's office, Mandal level office, Police Station, Village/Ward Secretariats, Volunteers, should download ACB 14400 app and record the conversation through audio or video and this would reach Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). He added that ACB would directly report to the Chief Minister's Office. 'ACB 14400' application is available in Google Play Store for download. An OTP will be sent to a mobile number and once it's registered, the app is ready for use. There are two key features in the app. One is to live record a photo, audio or video and lodge a complaint instantly and another is to send the documents, photos, videos and other proofs and lodge a complaint. A reference number would be sent to the registered mobile number once the complaint is lodged. An IOS version of the app would be released soon. During the Spandana video conference held with district Collectors and Superintendents of Police at his camp office here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said there should be no scope for corruption in the state. He said the government has taken many initiatives in this regard. The Chief Minister pointed out that the state government has disbursed Rs 1.41 lakh crore directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries transparently without corruption and discrimination. He claimed that this had never happened in the history of Andhra Pradesh or in any state in the country. Jagan Mohan Reddy made it clear every Collector and SP is responsible for curbing corruption and everyone should work with dedication and respond to the complaints. He said it is the responsibility of everyone to deliver corruption free governance and added that stringent action would be taken against anyone who resorts to corruption. --IANS ms/vd ( 354 Words) 2022-06-01-20:36:01 (IANS) According to the police, the incident took place at around 4 p.m. at plot number 2953 in Sector 57 when Mohammad Mihal, 22, and Hashim, 28, both natives of Bihar were digging the basement. "One of the labourers died on the spot while another was declared dead in the hospital. The incident took place after they got buried under the dug-up mud during the construction work. They were under a pit when some portion of the earth caved in and the dug-up mud fell on the labourers," Sector 56 SHO Amit Kumar told IANS. "We are probing the matter and if we found any negligence during construction work, action will be initiated against guilty," he said. However, no case was registered yet, he added. --IANS str/vd ( 161 Words) 2022-06-01-20:42:02 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu government's pension bill is set to increase to Rs 40,000 crore this financial year as around 20,000 government employees are retiring from service. As many as 5,200 Tamil Nadu government employees retired on Tuesday and around 15,000 will retire in December 2022, thus leading to a huge number of vacancies in various government departments. The state government will however have to deal with a huge volume of payments to the retired employees including their benefits and recurring monthly pension. The state government has spent an amount of Rs 26,410 crore in the financial year 2021-22 as retirement benefits and pension to the employees retired and now the estimated expenditure for 2022-23 for retirement benefits will be around Rs 40,000 crore. However, a senior official with the state Treasury Department told IANS that this was not the amount for those retiring this year and instead this includes regular pensioners, family pensioners, and those opting for one-time settlement. The official said that the state government has funds to settle the benefits of the retired government employees, which include four senior Additional Secretaries and 45 other officials from the state Secretariat. Sources in the state government told IANS that the government was not in a hurry to recruit the replacements for those who are retired and who are retiring by December 2022. It is learned that the state has now a total of only 9 lakh government employees instead of the sanctioned strength of 15 lakh. While this huge deficit in the number of government employees may cause administrative difficulties, the DMK government will not be posting new hands all at once and will conduct recruitments in a phased manner. --IANS aal/vd ( 296 Words) 2022-06-01-20:46:02 (IANS) A 22-year-old youth has been stabbed to death by three men after the former refused to give them beer, an official said on Wednesday. Police have arrested the three accused -- identified as Ankit Kumar a.k.a. Muhbada (21), Brijesh Mathur a.k.a. Sadhu (20) and Himanshu Kumar a.k.a. Katappa (20). DCP (northwest) Usha Rangnani said a PCR call was received at Adarsh Nagar police station on May 29 around 11 p.m. regarding an injured person lying in a pool of blood near Vardhman Mall, GTK Road, Azadpur. The police immediately reached at the spot and the injured, identified as Durgesh Shukla, was rushed to BJRM Hospital where he was declared brought dead. On inspection of his injuries, the doctor said that he had a single stab injury on his left side of ribs which seemed to have punctured the heart. Accordingly, a case under section 302 of the IPC was registered in Adarsh Nagar police station and investigation taken up. During investigation, the police examined several CCTV footage in the vicinity of the crime spot and all the three accused were arrested from different locations of the city. The three accused disclosed that on May 29, they came to Azadpur from Mukundpur at about 8 p.m. They purchased 6 beer bottles from a wine shop at Adarsh Nagar and consumed it. Further, they went to Lal Bagh and again purchased 8 beer bottles and consumed the same there. Later, they began roaming at the GT Road in an intoxicated state. At around 10.45 p.m., when they were present at service road in front of Vardhman Mall, they saw Durgesh Shukla coming from the Mall side, carrying a plastic bag containing beer bottles. They asked him to give them the beer bottles but he refused which led to a fight. Things soon escalated, and Brijesh and Himanshu caught him while Ankit stabbed him on his chest. --IANS uj/pgh ( 328 Words) 2022-06-01-20:46:03 (IANS) The accused persons also reportedly made threatening calls to people. The police have seized 16 SIM box devices, 2 SIP trunk call devices, 9 primary rate interface (PRI) devices, 5 laptops, 6 routers, and 205 BSNL SIM cards, which were used by the accused to convert international calls into local calls. The police busted the racket after conducting raids in Bengaluru and Kerala. Two cases have been registered in this regard in Bengaluru. The accused operated from the Mahadevapura locality in Bengaluru. They obtained the SIP device from Airtel, which is used in call centres. They had opened a fraud company in the name of Icon Tours and Travels and had taken a landline connection with 180 ports to carry out their nefarious plans, the police said. Using these devices, the accused converted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls to local GSM calls, the police said. The accused obtained BSNL SIM cards from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and other states. --IANS mka/arm ( 205 Words) 2022-06-01-21:14:51 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against installing a statue of late former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late M. Karunanidhi in the state's Tiruvannamalai. The court deferred the order after it was informed that the statue would be unveiled on June 3, the birth anniversary of the late Chief Minister. A division bench of Justices Mohammed Shaffiq and M.S. Ramesh took the decision after E.V. Kumaran of Jeeva Educational Trust filed an application to vacate an interim injunction granted by the court on May 19 restraining the trust from installing the statue. E.V. Kumaran is the son of state PWD minister and DMK leader, E.V. Velu. Senior counsel S. Prabhakaran, representing the trust, informed the court that no public land was encroached on for constructing the statute and that it was on private land owned by the trust. He also sought an urgent hearing on the matter as the birth anniversary of the late Chief Minister was on June 3. Additional Advocate General, J. Ravindran representing the official respondents questioned the PIL filed by a person named Karthik, who was a scrap dealer in Chennai, wondering how he, as a Chennai resident, was in the know of the ground situation at Tiruvannamalai. He also stated that according to law, the litigant filing the PIL will have to disclose the specific sources from which he or she had collected information with respect to the allegations levelled, noting that in this PIL, the petitioner had made a general statement that he had made inquiries from locals. The court asked the litigant's counsel as to how his client was in the know of things in Tiruvannamalai and also wanted to know why a PIL was filed against installing a statue at a private party's land. As counsel replied that the 'patta' (land rights) document were fabricated, the court said that the PIL should have been against the validity of the 'patta' and not against the installation of the statue. --IANS aal/vd ( 351 Words) 2022-06-01-22:08:05 (IANS) Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday, in a veiled attack on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot questioned why the Congress-led government could not be repeated in Rajasthan while it could be done in Delhi, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and other states. "Even when (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi was not there (in the Centre), the Congress government could not be repeated. We have to accept the fact that once we were left with only 50 MLAs, and next time, we were left with 21 MLAs. What is the reason that people give majority of votes to our party but then next time, we are unable to repeat the government in Rajasthan?" the Congress leader said while interacting with the mediapersons before the start of a two-day party workshop. "This is the atmosphere that has been created after the arrival of PM Modi (at Centre). Even before this, we were not able to repeat the government. We will also discuss these reasons. In the workshop, we will also take a resolution on how to fight the elections with solidarity and how the Congress government can be repeated." --IANS arc/pgh ( 203 Words) 2022-06-01-22:55:39 (IANS) The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) on Wednesday accused the Central government's representative for peace talks for "giving wrong interpretation in order to confuse the common people". Without mentioning the name of Central government representative and former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau A.K. Mishra, the dominant Naga outfit, in a statement, said: "NSCN leaders have categorically stated time and again that they will uphold the Framework Agreement (signed on August 3, 2015) in letter and spirit. "But the representatives of the government of India have started giving wrong interpretations in order to confuse the common people. We too feel apprehensive about the clandestine plot of imposing another accord on the Nagas or hijacking the issue through their surrogates. The Nagas are again placed at a critical juncture where they have to make a decision to save their national future or perish. This is going to be the turning point of history. And now is the time to decide our destiny." After sharp open differences between then central interlocutor and Nagaland Governor, R.N. Ravi, who had on a number of occasions rejected the NSCN-IM's demands of a Naga national flag and Naga Constitution, the Centre had appointed Mishra in his place. After Ravi was transferred to Tamil Nadu last year, Mishra visited Nagaland twice since September last year and held a series of meetings with all stakeholders, including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too, who is also the Convener of the North East Democratic Alliance, the northeast unit of the National Democratic Alliance. In his second week-long visit from April 18, he met Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, leaders of the NSCN-IM, Naga National Political Groups, core committee on Naga political issues, as well as the Naga civil society and discussed the matter. The NSCN-IM, in its statement on Wednesday said that on the eve of the British departure, the Naga people took a decisive decision and declared their independence on August 14, 1947. In 1950, the Constituent Assembly invited the Nagas to join the Union of India, but the Naga people outrightly rejected the invitation. "That historic decision saved the future of the Nagas," it said. "In 1960, a section of Nagas made an agreement with the government of India called the 16-point agreement, betraying the Naga national principle. But it was rejected and condemned by the Naga people. On November 11, 1975, another agreement called athe Shillong Accord was made to be signed within the parameters of the Indian Constitution. "The National Assembly, held on August 16, 1976, condemned the Shillong Accord as a sell-out and reaffirmed the national principle. Had it not been condemned by the national assembly and saved the nation, the history and the future of the Nagas would have been murdered by that very accord of treason," the statement said. After 'Emergency National Assembly', held on Tuesday at its General Headquarters at Hebron Camp, near Dimapur, the NSCN-IM said: "How can we forfeit the Naga national flag and Naga Constitution in the name of Naga political solution ? What belongs to us... that defines our political identity can never be compromised for the sweet morsel in the name of Naga political settlement. We cannot be made a laughing stock before the world by tamely succumbing to pressure or temptation." The NSCN-IM's repeated insistence on a separate Naga flag and Constitution have become a big hurdle in the way of resolving the Naga issue. --IANS sc/vd ( 588 Words) 2022-06-01-22:55:40 (IANS) The protest was organised by the National Students Union of India (NSUI) to voice opposition over the textbook revision issue. It has been alleged the NSUI activists burnt Khaki shorts during the protest, and also tried to barge into the Minister's residence. Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said that there was an information that attempts were also made to set Nagesh's home on fire. "There is no place for such 'goondaism' in the state," he said. The police have taken 15 people into custody in connection with the incident and also seized two vehicles, he added. He also visited the residence of Minister Nagesh. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has stated that strict action would be initiated against the "miscreants". BJP National General Secretary C.T. Ravi has slammed the incident, and blamed the Congress party for it. --IANS mka/pgh ( 186 Words) 2022-06-01-23:28:03 (IANS) The Assam CID team has arrested a man on Wednesday, who allegedly duped students on the pretext of admission to medical colleges. The accused Vimal Kumar Choudhury has been absconding for the last few years. He was arrested from his hideout at Siliguri and was produced before a local court for transit remand, and is being brought back to Assam for further action in connection with the case. The case was registered based on complaints of several victims, who had paid huge amount of money to the accused for admission of their children in MBBS or BDS courses. The police said the accused published fake advertisements in newspapers with contact details like email and phone numbers for admission into medical and dental colleges. Though, the case was registered in 2014, the accused could not be arrested. As per the order of the Gauhati High Court, an SIT was formed in 2014 in connection with investigation of the case. The SIT searched the accused using various means and it had been found that another case with a similar modus operandi was registered against the latter in Delhi's Krishna Nagar police station in 2015. Based on the FIR number, the CID team found that a bail application of the accused got rejected by Delhi High Court in 2016. The accused Vimal Kumar Choudhury was in Tihar jail for two months in connection with the case registered with Krishna Nagar police station. Based on details found in the e-prison portal, passport details of the accused person was collected. The mobile number of the wife of the accused was found in the passport. Based on the analysis of the call detail records, the mobile number of the accused was traced. The movements of the accused were continuously traced as he travelled between Ghaziabad and Siliguri. Two teams of Assam CID were formed and sent to Siliguri and Ghaziabad to apprehend the accused and the latter was arrested from Siliguri, said the CID Superintendent of Police. --IANS tanuj/khz/ ( 348 Words) 2022-06-01-23:30:02 (IANS) A 31-year-old schoolteacher was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants in Ayodhya on Wednesday afternoon, said Uttar Pradesh police. The victim was identified as Supriya Verma, wife of Uma Nath Verma. In a conversation with ANI on Wednesday, the Superintendent of Police of Ayodhya, Vijay Pal Singh said, "On Wednesday, unidentified miscreants killed a pregnant teacher in broad daylight with knives. This incident took place in the Shri Ram Puram colony of Ayodhya's Kotwali area when the teacher was alone in her house." Police teams have been formed and the attackers will be caught soon, he assured. Teacher Supriya Verma, a resident of Pathanpur Atrauli in Sultanpur district, lived here with her husband and mother. Husband Umesh Verma is also a teacher. "On Wednesday, around 11 o'clock, husband Umesh Chand Verma had left his wife at her in-laws' house and went to the bank with her mother-in-law. When he returned from there, he opened the door and found his wife covered in blood. Immediately, she was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared that Supriya was brought dead. The marks of stab wounds were found on the body of the deceased," he said. The police said that the attackers are being searched through CCTV cameras. The police lodged an FIR of murder under Section 302 of the IPC at Ayodhya police station and further investigations were underway, he said. Expressing grief over the incident, former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet, questioned the safety and security of women in the state. He said the incident happened when the police force was deployed in the city at every nook and corner. Yadav said teachers were the target of state government as well as criminals. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of Ram Mandir's Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) in Ayodhya, paving the way for the construction of the grand temple's superstructure. The Chief Minister and top seers performed a 'Shila Pujan' as they placed the first carved stone at the temple site amidst chanting of mantras. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mohit Kamboj has been granted interim bail from arrest on suspicion of fraud. A day prior to his bail grant, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police registered a case of fraud against BJP leader Mohit Kamboj following a complaint by the manager of Indian Overseas Bank. The BJP leader filed an anticipatory bail petition, to which Kamboj got his bail from the court. However, the bail has been granted with conditions. The police have to cooperate in the investigation and the BJP leader has to appear before the police for investigation on June 2 and 3. Kamboj's movement out of the city has also been restricted, he is allowed to move out of Mumbai city with the permission of the Police. As per the Mumbai police, the manager alleged that Kamboj was one of the three directors of a company that took a loan of Rs 52 crores and used it for a purpose other than the intended purpose. A case has been registered under sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Kamboj and the other two directors, Mumbai Police said. In April this year, the BJP leader had alleged that an attempt to "kill" him was made by Shiv Sena workers and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. However, he said that no one was injured in the incident. Following the incident, the Mumbai police had received complaints from both sides. Kamboj lodged a complaint alleging that a mob of Shiv Sena workers attacked his car at Kalanagar junction on Friday. It is the place where Matoshree - the private home of Uddhav Thackeray - is located. While the Shiv Sena, in its complaint, alleged that Kamboj was doing a recce of the Chief Minister's residence and had weapons in his car. (ANI) Former Congress leader Hardik Patel, who quit the party last month, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday, months ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat. He joined the BJP in the presence of party state chief CR Patil at the party head office here. Earlier today, Patel said that he is joining the BJP to work. "Today I'm starting a new chapter. I will work as a small soldier. I have never put forth any demands before anyone for any post. I am joining the BJP to work," he said "When people are connecting with the ongoing development works in the country under the leadership of PM Modi, then I should also do the same. PM Modi is the pride of the entire world," Patel added. Patel also said that he would launch a campaign to wean away Congress leaders in Gujarat. Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the pride of the world, Patel said that after joining the BJP he would do an event every 10 days to ask Congress leaders, including MLAs, to join the BJP. Hardik catapulted to the political centre stage in 2015 when he spearheaded the Patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat, building the campaign in the run-up to the 2017 state Assembly elections. Initially, Patel demanded the OBC status for the Patidar community. Subsequently, it was transformed into a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). His emergence on the political scene in the state put the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in a spot. In 2016, Anandiben Patel announced her resignation from the post. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patel joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He, was then, appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee in Gujarat in 2020. However, he accused Congress leadership of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party in 2022. On May 19 this year, Patel resigned from the party and stated that Gujarat Congress leaders were least bothered to address real issues of the state but were more focussed on ensuring that the leaders who come from Delhi to Gujarat get "chicken sandwich" on time. (ANI) After the Enforcement Directorate issued summons to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav on Thursday asked them to declare their wealth. Notably, the agency had closed the case in 2015 and the reopening of the case followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case. Rahul was asked by the Agency to join the probe on June 2 while Sonia Gandhi on June 8. However, Rahul did not show up for the probe on Thursday as he is out of the country. Speaking to ANI, Yadav said, "No criminal admits that he is a criminal. If they are innocent, why are they worrying? What is the source of income of the Gandhi family? They should tell the country about their wealth." Responding to Congress' charge against the BJP of playing 'vendetta politics', Yadav said that strict punishment should be given to those indulging in corruption. "Every criminal says this. The ones who are indulged in corruption should be punished and they should be given strict punishment," he said. "We have completed eight years at the Centre, but not a single allegation of corruption has been levelled against any minister. The BJP works on zero tolerance to corruption," Yadav added. Taking a jibe at the Congress party over its poor performance in the Assembly elections concluded early this year, the BJP MP said that the grand old party is "vanishing". "Congress is vanishing from the political sphere completely. Nobody would like to sit in a sinking ship. Therefore the leaders are leaving the party and this rush is on the rise," he said. "Nehru-Gandhi family is solely responsible for the present condition of the Congress party. Why does it not leave the party leadership?" Yadav asked. (ANI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) approached the Delhi High court on Thursday challenging the order of a special court allowing Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain to have counsel during interrogation. Special Judge Geetanjali Goel on May 31 granted the custody of Jain to ED till June 9 in a money laundering case. Advocate Zoheb Hossain for ED mentioned the matter before the bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi. The Court agreed to hear the petition on Friday. The special judge at the request of Satyendar Jain had allowed his counsel to be present during interrogation at distance from where he can see but cannot hear the questioning. The ED had sought custody of Jain in the money laundering matter to unearth the trail of money and its source. It was alleged that the accused was involved in money laundering through accommodation entries in the companies. On May 30, the ED arrested Jain in connection with alleged hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company. Jain was arrested after a special ED team raided his place in Delhi. On August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against Jain in a money laundering case. The ED had registered a criminal case against the AAP leader based on this FIR in which it had been alleged that Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder. Jain had reportedly floated or bought several shell companies in Delhi. He also allegedly laundered black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators of Kolkata. Jain allegedly owned a large number of shares in companies named Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan. However, after becoming Minister in Kejriwal's government, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015, as per reports. These companies used to transfer cash payments to their Kolkata counterparts and these companies would later, under the ruse of buying shares, "route back the money" to Jain by employing legal means. The companies have reportedly laundered money to the tune of Rs 16.39 crores from 2010 to 2014 to Satyendar Jain. As per government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Jain surrendered black money in form of cash of Rs 16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 on benami names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain. In November 2019, the Home Ministry approved the prosecution of Jain in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering. (ANI) Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Thursday clarified that none of its workers was involved in the brawl between two student groups in Ramjas college on Tuesday. "A few students suffered minor injuries in a brawl between two groups on the Ramjas College campus on Tuesday", said Delhi Police adding that it has initiated legal action as per the law in the said matter. According to ABVP, SFI activists had claimed that their group was violently involved in a fight with ABVP karyakartas. "It is a completely false assertion made against ABVP," said the ABVP. "It has also come to light that a girl, studying at Ramjas college, has filed a complaint of molestation against activists of SFI on an incident after which the scuffle happened. The attempt to shape the incident into a political agenda is extremely unfortunate. ABVP has nothing to do with the entire incident and we condemn the violent brawl on campus premises," stated ABVP. Earlier, a Delhi Police FIR copy mentioned, "A brawl took place between two groups of students of Ramjas College, on Tuesday. Reportedly, one group having affiliation with the Students' Federation of India (SFI), edited a caste-based slogan that was initially painted by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supporters over a wall and changed it to another caste-based slogan." The student group requested media houses "not to condone such fake news and inquire prior stance of the organisation before quoting." Police said that two-three students from both sides have suffered minor injuries. "Complaints have been received from both groups. Legal action is being initiated as per law", added police. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Uttar Pradesh on Friday to attend the UP Investors Summit and lay the foundation stone of 1406 projects worth more than Rs 80,000 crores. According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO), at around 11 am, PM Modi will reach Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow, where he will attend the Ground Breaking Ceremony @3.0 of the UP Investors Summit. During the Ground Breaking Ceremony, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 1406 projects worth more than Rs 80,000 crores. "The projects encompass diverse sectors like agriculture and allied, IT and electronics, MSME, manufacturing, renewable energy, pharma, tourism, defence and aerospace, handloom and textiles etc. The ceremony will be attended by top industry leaders of the country," the PMO said in a statement. The Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018 was held on February 21 to 22 in 2018, with the first Ground Breaking Ceremony being held on July 29, 2018, and the second Ground Breaking Ceremony on July 28, 2019. During the first Ground Breaking Ceremony, the foundation of 81 projects worth more than Rs 61,500 crore was laid, while in the second Ground Breaking Ceremony, the foundation of 290 projects with investments of more than Rs 67,000 crore was laid, it said. At around 1:45 pm, Prime Minister will reach Paraunkh village, Kanpur, where he will accompany President Ram Nath Kovind to visit Pathri Mata Mandir. Thereafter, at around 2 pm, they will visit Dr B R Ambedkar Bhawan, which will be followed by a visit to Milan Kendra at 2:15 PM. The Kendra is the ancestral house of the President, that was donated for public use and converted to a community centre (Milan Kendra). Subsequently, they will attend a public function at Paraunkh village at 2:30 pm. (ANI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condemned the killing of a bank manager, a resident of Rajasthan, in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. Vijay Kumar was a resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan and was working in Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Expressing his grief on Twitter, CM Gehlot said, "The killing of Mr. Vijay Kumar, a resident of Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, working in Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir, by terrorists is highly condemnable. I pray to God to give peace to his soul and courage to his family." The incident occurred at the Ellaqie Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora in Kulgam. The Rajasthan resident later succumbed to his injuries. Gehlot went ahead to criticize the NDA government for its 'failure at restoring peace in Kashmir. "The NDA government has failed to restore peace in Kashmir. The central government should ensure the safety of citizens in Kashmir. Such killing of our citizens by terrorists will not be tolerated," said Gehlot on Twitter. Meanwhile, people, belonging to the Hindu community employed in Kashmir, staged a protest in Jammu and demanded security for members of their community. Earlier on Tuesday, a 36-year-old migrant Kashmiri Pandit and high school teacher Rajni Bala was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last two months, two civilians - including Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat, an employee of the Tehsil office in Budgam district's Chadoora, were shot dead by terrorists on May 12, and three off-duty policemen were killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha are likely to hold a high-level meeting here in the national capital on June 3 over the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory in the last few days, official sources said. (ANI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday announced that the Akshay Kumar, Manushi Chillar-starrer 'Samrat Prithviraj' will be tax-free in the state. "We announce that the movie 'Samrat Prithviraj' will be made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh so that a common man can also watch this movie," the chief minister told ANI. This announcement from the Yogi Adityanath government came after a special screening of the movie was held for the Yogi cabinet on Thursday. The film's lead pair of Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chillar were present at the special screening alongside director Chandra Prakash Dwivedi. Earlier on Wednesday, Home Minister Amit Shah also attended a special screening of the film. Seeing the film, the Home Minister was elated and praised the cast and producers. He said, "As a student of history, I not only enjoyed watching this film depicting India's cultural heritage but also understood its importance for Indians." Shah revealed that after 13 years, he has seen a film in a theatre with his family. "I have seen a film in the theatre with my family after a gap of almost 13 years. It was a very special day for our family as we sat in the last row of the theatre with the cast and producers of the film," the Home Minister said. Highlighting the importance of the film to our culture and women empowerment, Amit Shah said, "The film firmly displays the political power and freedom of women to make choices in the medieval period." Notably, this film will release in theatres on June 3. For the first time, 2017 Miss World Manushi Chhillar will be seen in this film with Akshay Kumar. This is Manushi's debut film. This film is directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi. (ANI) New Dantri Bridge built in Yen Bai Dantri/Dtinews Newspaper on Wednesday started construction of a new bridge for people in a remote village in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai. Dantri/Dtinews Newspaper starts construction of a new bridge for people in a remote village in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai in June 1. The new bridge to be built in Suoi Hoc Village, Yen Binh District will replace the current one which has seriously deteriorated. The project has an investment of VND 1.5 billion (USD 65,217) including VND 1 billion donated by the family of Nguyen Thi Hong Ha from Hanoi, VND140 million donated by readers of Dantri/Dtinews, with the remainder from the district budget. The bridge will benefit 111 households with 456 people including over 200 children of the Tay ethnic group who use it every day to go to work or school. In a letter sent to be read at the bridges groundbreaking ceremony, Nguyen Thi Hong Ha said that through Dantri/Dtinews Newspaper she knew about the need to have better bridges in some difficult localities in Yen Bai Province, and she decided to donate VND1 billion to help build the new Suoi Hoc Bridge. "I hope that the project will help ensure safer travel for local people, especially children, as well as facilitate economic development in the area," she wrote. Also at the event, the vice-chairman of the Vietnam Study Promotion Fund Management Board, Pham Huy Hoan presented 200 scholarships worth VND 500,000 each to local students. Chairman of Yen Binh District People's Committee, Nguyen Xuan Truong, expressed his sincere thanks to Nguyen Thi Hong Ha and other kind donors for helping to build the new bridge for local people. This is the 25th bridge project that Dantri/Dtinews Newspaper has carried out so far. The Srinagar Airport authorities on Thursday denied Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's claim of the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. The authority's clarification came after Rahul Gandhi in a tweet claimed that many innocent people are being killed in Jammu and Kashmir and a fresh exodus of Kashmiri Pandits has started in the Valley. The airport authorities also urged not to spread such rumours. "We strongly rebut this sensational rumour-mongering. We handle between 16 thousand to 18 thousand passengers everyday. Today also the number of passengers is average. There is no heavy rush of the minority community as rumoured by this tweet. Please do not spread rumours like this," Srinagar Airport said in a tweet. The Congress leader also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate steps to restore peace in the union territory. Further attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ), the Congress MP said those who should be protecting the Kashmiri Pandits are busy promoting a film. "Bank managers, teachers and many innocent people are getting killed everyday, Kashmiri Pandits are fleeing. Those who have to protect them, they have no time to promote the film. BJP has only made Kashmir its ladder of power. Take immediate steps to restore peace in Kashmir, Prime Minister," he said in a tweet. Meanwhile, BJP leader Kavindra Gupta said that the government and security forces have worked in the past and will continue to do so and these people will not survive. He also assured that the situation will come under control soon. "For the last two years, the security forces, and the government have made efforts to maintain peace in Kashmir. For the condition which has been created for a few days, the administration has made a new way for the security. Yesterday the administration also said that all the people should be taken to a safe place," said Gupta. Attacking the previous governments in the Valley, the BJP leader said, "The governments of those who have been running for 70 years, whether it was Rahul Gandhi's Congress or the PDP government around it, this is started during that period. These are the people who support Pakistan, today they remembered all of these things, these are the people who question the security forces and the surgical strikes, and don't take them seriously." He said that after the incidents of killing it is obvious that there is a palace of fear and the Home Minister Amit Shah has said that a major operation is needed. Another BJP leader, Ravinder Raina said that terrorism has flourished in Kashmiri because of the wrong policies of Rahul Gandhi's Congress. It is the Congress party, which has contributed to terrorism in the Vallery. Rahul Gandhi and his party have sympathies with terrorists, who have killed lakhs of Kashmiris. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Digvijaya Singh, Shashi Tharoor have glorified Pakistan and the terrorists of Pakistan, May I ask whose leaders are they?" He further said that the whole world knows that the sympathies of the Congress party have been with the forces supporting the separatists and Pakistan. "Congress has always supported Pakistanis," he added. Earlier in the day, a bank manager was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. On Tuesday, a 36-year-old migrant Kashmiri Pandit and high school teacher Rajni Bala was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last two months, two civilians - including Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat -- and three off-duty policemen were killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha are likely to hold a high-level meeting here in the national capital on June 3 over the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory in the last few days, official sources said. It is learnt that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh will also participate in the meeting that is expected to start on the scheduled date in the first half of the day. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, as well as Director-General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldeep Singh and Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, are also expected to attend the meeting. (ANI) The President of India Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh on Friday, for his four-day trip. During the visit, the President will visit his native village, apart from the various other places as a part of his visit to pay tributes and address public gatherings. As per an official release by Rashtrapati Bhavan, Kovind will visit his native village Paraunkh in Kanpur Dehat on Friday, where he will be addressing a public gathering. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also grace the occasion," said the statement. The President will address the celebrations of the 90th year of the Merchants Chamber of UP at Kanpur and will later grace the centenary celebrations of Gitapress in Gorakhpur. "The President will address the 90th year celebrations of the Merchants Chamber of Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur. On the same day, he will also grace the centenary celebrations of Gitapress at Gorakhpur," it read further. Kovind will be visiting Maghar on Sunday (June 5) to pay his tributes to Sant Kabir Das and for inaugurating the Santkabir Academy and Research Centre and Swadesh Darshan Yojana. The statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan also informed about his scheduled address during a special joint session of UP Vidhan Mandal on Monday (June 6). "On June 6 the President will address the special joint session of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Mandal," it read. Recently on Monday, he visited the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya at Teen Murti Bhavan with his wife Savita Kovind and saw the distinctive displays there. The 'Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya' is a building constructed on the premises of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) that recognizes the contribution of all Prime Ministers. The building was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on April 14. The building begins with the gallery of India's second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and covers the history of all Prime Ministers with a gallery of Dr Manmohan Singh by the end. (ANI) Citing the ever-increasing cyber crimes in the country, the Karnataka Minister for IT BT Ashwath Narayan on Thursday said that cyber solutions are the need of the hour. "It is important to be cyber-responsible for everyone including the general public as well as experts" and added, "cyber awareness is the key to diving into the ocean of the Internet and swimming without worrying about getting phished," Narayan said in his address after unveiling the anniversary edition of 'Cyber Vartika'. Cyber Vartika is a monthly Kannada newsletter- by CySecK, the state government's K-tech Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security. The IT also remarked, "The newsletter carries the most relevant cyber security news of the month related to updates, threats, frauds, and breaches, which makes it a guidebook for both the users and the cyber security enthusiasts. The newsletter comes with informative posters and contests related to cyber security." The Centre Head of CySeck Karthik Rao Bappanad explained the concept of 'Cyber Vartika' and its objectives to make the public aware of the various ways in which cyber fraudsters trick people. Several industry experts who spoke at the event noted that post- Covid, cyber security has become crucial to everyone from teens to the older generation using the internet. Professor Ashok Raichur, Secretary, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST), Meena Nagaraj, MD, Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), H. Hemanth Kumar, Executive Secretary, KSCST, Professor A Nagarthna, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Suryaprakash BS, Daksh, Chidanandam Arunachalam- Sumeru Solutions, Seshadri PS of Unisys were also present at the event. (ANI) Earlier in the month of April, AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited the Sabarmati Ashram in 'Gujarat's Ahmedabad. The Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal urged the people of Gujarat to give one chance to his party in the forthcoming elections in the state. He further said that his party will end the cycle of corruption in the state after coming to power. Charged with its landslide victory in the recently held Punjab Assembly elections, AAP is seeking to expand its footprint in other states. AAP plans to contest all 182 assembly seats in Gujarat, Kejriwal had said last year. The party had made its debut in Gujarat in the 2017 assembly polls, but could not open its account. Gujarat will go for assembly polls this year. AAP's Gujarat hope has been fuelled by its performance in the February 2021 Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) polls in which BJP won 93 seats, while Aam Aadmi Party bagged 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation election and Congress drew a blank. (ANI) Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Thursday lashed at Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) over Charminar controversy saying that there is an internal understanding between these parties and they are doing it to gain minority votes. The statement from Sanjay comes after the state Congress leader Rashid Khan on Tuesday started a signature campaign to hold a sit-in protest to allow the Charminar in Hyderabad to be opened for offering prayers. Speaking to the media, the state BJP chief said, "Congress and TRS have an internal understanding. AIMIM party is with the TRS party, so to get the minority votes, they need to do something sensational." Attacking AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Sanjay said Owaisi is using his Muslim minority as a vote bank. "We never said Charminar to be removed. We held a meeting at the Charminar and held prayer at Bhagyalakshmi temple. We always wanted the old city to be developed. The AIMIM party is with TRS and party chief Owaisi is trying to increase his assets and to save his assets, he is using his Muslim minority as a vote bank and never developed the old city," he said. "We asked the same thing, why can't the old city become a new city? Why no flyover in the old city? Why are youth not getting jobs in the old city and why are youth not getting passports in the old city? Why is the old city becoming a shelter for terrorists, who is the reason for this? The Muslim intellectual need to think about it," Sanjay quested. Responding to the terrorist attacks in the city, the BJP chief asked wherever the bomb blast happens in the country, why is the old city blamed? "Who put the bomb in the Gokul chat, who put the bombs in Sai Baba Temple and Lumbini park. Who supported them financially? Congress, TRS and AIMIM need to answer it," he said. While reacting to Rashid Khan who started a campaign to hold a sit-in protest to allow the Charminar to be opened for offering prayers, Sanjay said "Today suddenly you remember namaaz there, since I started padayatra from Bhagyalakshmi temple as the goddess is very powerful there, you started the Namaz issue." "If Namaz was held there, in the beginning, we won't object to that. If you want to do Namaz as a competition then even the Muslim community will not forgive you," he said. On Tuesday Congress's Rashid Khan claimed that prayers were earlier held at the Charminar, an Archeological Survey of India protected site, however, Muslims were debarred from offering prayers at the site two decades ago. (ANI) The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police on Thursday arrested a man from Kashmir for his alleged links with Junaid Mohammed, accused of having links with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), said ATS on Thursday. For the last few days, three teams of ATS were conducting searches and making enquiries at various places in Kargil, Ganderbal, and Srinagar areas in coordination with the local district police. The man was arrested during the investigation of Junaid Muhammad who was arrested by ATS from Pune. On Wednesday evening, a team of Maharashtra ATS, 28-years-old Aftab Hussain Shah from Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Shah is accused of being the link between Junaid Mohammed and a LeT operative based in a foreign country. Shah was produced before the competent court of that jurisdiction and he was handed over to ATS, Maharashtra on three days transit remand. He shall be produced before the competent court for police custody on his arrival in Maharashtra. Accused Aftab Hussain Shah was born and brought up in Kishtwar. He is a carpenter by profession and owns land in Kishtwar. The 28-year-old accused Mohammad Junaid, as per the Maharashtra ATS is an Indian national, residing in Pune and was connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) terror network. "The team has got some information about Junaid's links with the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. ATS also recorded the statement of his family members," said ATS. According to an ATS official, Junaid was in touch with active members of LeT Kashmir and was trying to recruit youth for the banned organisation from various parts of the state. "Later these recruits were taken to Jammu and Kashmir for training, to conduct terrorist activities." The official informed of a transaction between Junaid and the LeT. "Prima facie investigation revealed that Junaid was also trying to disturb the National security and communal harmony and trying to create a religious rift among communities by posting various comments etc through various social media like Facebook and WhatsApp etc," the ATS said. Junaid has been booked under sections 153A (attacks upon the religion, race, etc), 121A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the State), 116 (bribing public servant) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. As per the ATS, Junaid was using 10 SIM cards. "All these SIM cards were used to interact and coordinate with whom the top bosses for training in J-K and how to proceed further." He destroyed all the SIM cards after using them. Junaid's suspicious role had emerged during the operation in Jammu and Kashmir for three months, for which he had shifted from Akola to Pune. So far, the ATS has identified three handlers of LeT during the investigation, an official said. (ANI) The police interrogation of Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu in the sexual assault case registered against him has been completed. Babu who appeared before the police to face interrogation for the second day was quizzed for 11 hours. Police on Thursday interrogated Vijay Babu for eleven hours. It started at 9:00 am in the morning and ended at 8:00 pm. He appeared at Ernakulam south police station. On Wednesday, the police questioned him for nine hours. Meanwhile, the interim pre-arrest bail has been extended till Tuesday by the Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas. The court directed Vijay Babu to cooperate with the investigation and to refrain from tampering with the probe. Court also directed him to not interact through or with any social or other media. The Court posted the matter to next Tuesday after the prosecution sought time. Vijay Babu, who has been granted interim pre-arrest bail in a sexual assault case, arrived in Kerala's Kochi from Dubai on Wednesday. While hearing the matter on Tuesday, the single-judge bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas noted, "If I refuse to grant him interim bail now, he will remain abroad and elusive. How many people have been elusive in our country? Several agencies have been trying, but have they been successful? This is what I'm trying to avoid here." The bench said the accused has been granted two days of interim bail with protection so that he could return to India. There are two cases registered against him. One is the sexual assault case and the other one is for disclosing the identity of the complainant through social media. The complainant alleged that she has been sexually assaulted by Vijay Babu in a flat in Kochi. The offence was repeated by the accused more than once, she said in the complaint. The complaint said Babu committed the offence on the pretext of offering roles in movies to the woman. Following the accusations, Vijay stepped down from the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) in May. The actor said that he will stay away from the Executive Committee of the organization till he is proven innocent in the sexual assault case to save the association from 'disgrace'. (ANI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday directed the Ladakh Lieutenant Governor RK Mathur to exercise the powers and discharge the functions of the appropriate government under the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 in the Union Territory to curb Ponzi schemes, unregulated deposits. The move was made public through a notification issued on Thursday by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Gazette of India. "In pursuance of clause (1) of article 239 of the Constitution, the President hereby directs that the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh shall, subject to the control of the President and until further orders, exercise the powers and discharge the functions of the appropriate Government under the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 (21 of 2019) within the said Union territory," reads the notification. The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 was notified on February 21, 2019, for providing a comprehensive mechanism to ban unregulated deposit schemes, other than deposits taken in the ordinary course of business, and to protect the interest of depositors. The Bill was introduced in 2015 as the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes and Protection of Depositors' Interests Bill. The BUDS rules define the term 'competent authority' as an authority appointed by the appropriate government under Section 7 of the BUDS Act, according to which the authority has the same powers as vested in a civil court under the civil procedure code (CPC) while conducting investigation or inquiry in respect of offences under the Act. For provisionally attaching a deposit-taker's property, the competent authority would consider any complaint against the promotion or operation of an unregulated deposit scheme, whether the complainant is a depositor in the said unregulated deposit scheme or not, the rules say. However, to make the attachment absolute, the competent authority will have to file an application before the designated court. The rules also outline procedure to be followed by the designated court and lay down the material to be searched by the officer-in-charge of a police station for investigating into any offence under the BUDS Act. The rules further state that the designated authority would operate a central database to the public, containing information relating to deposit-takers, including a list of deposit-takers operating in India, the extent and areas of their operation. Importantly, as per the rules, the government can direct any newspaper or publication to a full and fair retraction, unequivocally withdrawing any offer, promotion or inducement made earlier in any advertisement, statement or information. "The Government shall direct the owner of any newspaper or other publication of any nature either in print or in electronic form, to publish a full and fair retraction, unequivocally withdrawing any offer, promotion or inducement made earlier in any advertisement, statement or information to any person to become a member of any Unregulated Deposit Scheme," the rules say. (ANI) Soon after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level meeting to review the preparedness to deal with flood situations in the country, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director-General Atul Karwal said NDRF is in touch with all state governments adding that states have demanded a total of 67 teams to tackle the situation. Speaking to ANI, Karwal said, "Union Home Minister today took a review meeting with all agencies on flood preparedness in view of the onset of monsoon. NDRF is in touch with all state governments, and they require 67 teams to battle with the situation as compared to 54 teams last year. Of the 67 teams, 14 teams have already been deployed." Earlier in the day, Shah had directed to continuously strengthen coordination between the Central and state-level agencies to establish a permanent system for providing the lowest level prediction of flood and water level rise in the major catchment areas of the country. The Union Minister's direction came in a high-level meeting he chaired at his office to review the overall preparedness to deal with floods in the coming monsoon. Taking stock of flood preparedness for the coming monsoon season, Shah also reviewed the preparations made by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in the flood-affected areas under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Home Minister instructs India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Central Water Commission (CWC) to continue upgrading their technologies for more accurate weather and flood forecasting. He also directed NDRF to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in collaboration with states for issuing rain early warnings at local, municipal and State levels in areas with heavy rainfall. Earlier, the Minister also directed the officials to make the 'Damini' app available in all local languages. 'Damini' app gives three hours of lightning warning which can help in minimizing loss of life and property. He further directed for timely dissemination of warnings about lightning to the public through SMS, TV, FM radio and other means. The Home Minister took a similar meeting last year on June 15. Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Gajendra Shekhawat, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director General of India Meteorological Department, Director General National Disaster Response Force, and DG Central Water Commission among other officials concerned participated in the meeting. The meeting was held in Hybrid mode. A large area in India is prone to floods in which the Ganga and the Brahmaputra are the main flood basins. Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are the most flood-prone states. (ANI) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Thursday gave approval to a caste-based census, informed Bihar Chief Secretary Amir Subhani. The government has allocated a budget of Rs 500 crore for the survey. The exercise will be completed by February next year. At the state level, the survey will be carried out by the General Administration Department, and on the district level, DM will be the nodal officer. Both of these will be incharge of the panchayat level and block level. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Kumar earlier in the day. Leaders of all nine political parties were present in the meeting and gave some important suggestions to the Chief Minister. While talking to the mediapersons, Subhani said, "Caste-based survey approved, to be carried out by the state. At the state level, it will be carried out by the General Administration department on the district level, DM will be the nodal officer. Both of these will be incharge of panchayat level and block level." "During this, efforts would be made to take surveys on an economic basis. Rs 500 crores will be given for the survey. An aim to complete it by 2023 has been set," he added. Earlier on Wednesday, the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, "In the all-party meeting, we unanimously decided that a caste-based census will be conducted in a set time frame. Soon a cabinet decision will be taken and it will be available in the public domain." The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav had declared the announcement as a "win" and said, "It's a caste-based survey, not a census. It's our win. Today we suggested (in the all-party meeting) that social anthropologists should be included in this and the Central government should also support it financially." "This survey is in the interest of the people of Bihar," Yadav had added. "We have said to bring the bill in the next cabinet meeting and start it in November, as the people who reside outside Bihar will also come to the state during Chhath puja and by then we too will complete preparations for it," he had said further. Highlighting the importance of the caste-based census, CM Kumar on May 25 had said that it would enable the government to work for the development of various sections of the society. (ANI) Ghulam Nabi Azad, who started his political innings with Indira Gandhi, has refused to work in the number two position in the Congress, as per sources. In the upcoming Rajya Sabha election, Azad wasn't offered a ticket. However, before declaring the candidate for Rajya Sabha, Sonia Gandhi met Azad and spoke to him expressing Congress' plan for him. According to sources, in his conversation with Sonia Gandhi, they did not talk about the Rajya Sabha election but asked Azad whether he would be comfortable working in the number two position in the organization. In response to this question, Azad said, "Today a generation gap has come between the youth running the party and us. There is a difference between our thinking and their thinking. So the youth are not willing to work with the party veterans." Azad has been ill for the past few days and was also admitted to the hospital. In fact, the party decided to send Imran Pratapgarhi, the chairman of the party's minority wing, to the Rajya Sabha, while working toward uplifting the youth leadership. This decision was taken by Rahul Gandhi to which Sonia Gandhi agreed, said sources. Imran is both 'youth' and 'minority', so he can hit the targets in Congress. As Congress could not give tickets to the minorities, Sonia Gandhi asked to accommodate Azad in the organization, stated sources. With Azad going to the Rajya Sabha, the equation of the leadership of the Congress inside the Rajya Sabha would have deteriorated. At present, Mallikarjun Kharge is the Leader of the Opposition, a post earlier held by Azad. Kharge was appointed the Leader of the Opposition after Azad retired. Azad is currently a member of the party's working committee and a member of the political affairs group recently constituted by Sonia Gandhi. Sources said, for the past few days, Azad is not even taking much interest in the party works. In the Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur, Azad spoke very little in the meetings of the committee. "After reshuffling in Haryana following Bhupendra Hooda's pact with Rahul Gandhi, Hooda was no longer active in G23. Sibal also left the party. Wasnik and Vivek Tankha got the Rajya Sabha, due to which Azad's importance or rather power as the leader of this group has been greatly reduced. Seeing the right opportunity, the party also offered not to send him to the Rajya Sabha and work in the organization", added sources. However, according to sources, Sonia Gandhi did not tell Azad his specific role as to how he would get the number two status. "Will he be made the Vice President or the Working President or the General Secretary of the organization, this was also one of the reasons that Azad did not show interest in Sonia Gandhi's offer", sources added. Now all eyes are on Azad's next step. Azad, who has worked for the Congress for several decades, was offered to send to the Rajya Sabha by a regional party from Bihar. He turned it down saying that 'his last time will be spent under Congress' flag.' (ANI) A man was held at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 34,500 US dollars, by hiding it in the false bottom of his sweet boxes. "On June 1, at about 12. 25 pm, on the basis of behaviour detection, CISF surveillance and intelligence staff, noticed suspicious activities of a passenger at the Check-In area near "J" row, Terminal-3 of IGI Airport. The passenger was later identified as Ravi Kumar (Indian) who was supposed to travel to Dubai by Air India Express Airlines flight No. IX-141 (STD 1.30 pm)", stated the CISF. On suspicion, he was diverted to a random checking point for thorough checking of his luggage. On checking his handbag through the X-BIS machine, some foreign currency concealed in the "False Bottom" of some gift packed boxes of sweets was noticed. Thereafter, the passenger was allowed to complete the check-in formalities and was kept under close watch through physical and electronic measures. The matter was also informed to Senior Officers of CISF and Customs officials. As the passenger cleared the check-in and immigration formalities, he was intercepted by CISF surveillance and intelligence staff. The passenger along with his handbag was brought to the Departure Customs office, where on physical checking 15 gift packed boxes of sweets/spices were noticed inside his baggage. On close scrutiny of the boxes, it was noticed that "False Bottom" was created in the boxes and US Dollars were concealed to avoid detection. In total, 30,000 US Dollars were detected from the false bottom of the sweet boxes. On checking his wallet, 4,500 US dollars were found inside the wallet. On enquiry, he could not produce valid documents to carry such an amount of foreign currency. The passenger along with the detected 34,500 US Dollars worth approximately Rs 27 lakh was handed over to Customs officials for further action in the matter. (ANI) The two-day state-level workshop of the Congress unit in Chandigarh culminated here on Thursday with the concluding address by Harish Chaudhary, AICC General Secretary, with an assurance to implement the recommendations of the party activists, comprising at least 50 per cent office-bearers below 50 years of age. Over 250 delegates of the party attended the workshop where they have detailed discussions to find out the solutions to the problems that are plaguing the party. Among others, Partap Singh Bajwa, Head Congress Legislative Party, Punjba, Pawan Bansal, AICC treasurer, and Raja Warring, President of Punjab Congress, took part and shared their inputs on strengthening the party. During the workshop, the overwhelming opinion of the workers was to elect Congress committees at all levels with at least 50 per cent office-bearers below 50 years of age. The election management strategy of the party is all set to change. Emphasis shall be laid on people-to-people contact and door-to-door campaigns, which will be a regular feature through booth-level, mandal-level and block-level committees. A disciplinary committee to enquire into the episodes of anti-party activities and recommend suitable action shall also be formed soon. Bajwa said the party needed to decide about the candidates a few weeks in advance before the elections. He castigated the BJP for unleashing its religious agenda, which is detrimental to the interest of the country. Warring felt that adequate respect must be given to the workers, who are the backbone of the party. "If the workers are happy and work whole-heartedly, no one, including the BJP, can defeat the Congress party." He urged the party activists to work among the people day and night, so that they begin to feel again that it is only the Congress party, which can address the problems of the people. Bansal said it was a matter of satisfaction that unlike other political parties, the Congress workers can discuss difficult questions facing it openly. He stressed the need to have training programs for the workers and the leaders of the party to apprise them of the rich legacy of the party. --IANS vg/skp/ ( 358 Words) 2022-06-02-19:14:02 (IANS) One migrant labourer, identified as 17-year-old Dilkhush Kumar from Bihar, was killed and another injured after terrorists shot at them in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam on Thursday evening. The non-local labourers were employed at a brick kiln in Chadoora village in Budgam district. "#Terrorists fired upon 02 outside #labourers working in a Brick Kiln in Chadoora area of #Budgam. The duo was shifted to hospital for treatment where one among them #succumbed. @JmuKmrPolice," tweeted the Kashmir Zone Police. At about 9.20 pm on Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir Police received information about a terror crime incident at Magraypora Chadoora area of Budgam where terrorists had fired upon two outside labourers. Senior police officers along with reinforcement reached the site of the incident. The preliminary investigation reveals, as per the official press release, that terrorists had indiscriminately fired upon two outside labourers identified as Dilkhush Kumar, a resident of Bihar and Rajan, a resident of Punjab, working in a Brick Kiln, at Magraypora Chadoora area of District Budgam. In this incident, the duo had received critical gunshot injuries and were immediately shifted to the hospital for the treatment of their injuries. However, one of the injured Dilkhush has succumbed to his injuries whereas; the condition of the other injured is stated to be stable. The Police have registered a case in this regard under relevant sections of law. An investigation is in progress and officers continue to work to establish the circumstances which lead to this incident. The area has been cordoned off and the search in the area is going on. Notably, this attack comes only hours after a bank manager from Rajasthan, identified as Vijay Kumar, was shot dead in Kulgam. He was shot right outside his office. The Resistance Front, a shadow outfit of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack. A couple of days ago, Hindu woman teacher Rajni Bala, hailing from Jammu's Samba district, was shot dead by terrorists at a government school in Gopalpora, Kulgam. (ANI) Union Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday once again hit back at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the arrest of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, and asked him not to disrespect investigating agencies and the High Court. On Wednesday, Irani slammed Kejriwal and raised several questions related to the money laundering case in which Jain was arrested. She asked Kejriwal not to disrespect investigating agencies and the High Court and answer whether he considered his minister Jain is honest who used black money and grabbed 200 bighas of land. "The people of the country await your clear reply. I urge you to tell the country -- why have you maintained silence over the High Court order in this case. You had told the country that you saw all papers, then why have you not commented on Delhi High Court order," Irani asked. She claimed that the Delhi High Court in its order said that black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through help from Hawala operators were transferred by Satyendar Jain showing his partnership in four shell companies. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said that the sources had informed him of Health Minister Satyendar Jain's arrest a few months ago, have told him that the Central government will also arrest Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the coming days. "I had already announced a few months ago that the Central government is going to arrest Satyendar Jain in a fake case. Reliable sources have suggested to me that Manish Sisodia is going to be arrested soon," Kejriwal said at a press conference. "Conspiracy theorist strikes back! By not answering a single pointed question, Kejriwal has in a way admitted to the Hawala nexus of his Minister. It would be easier to come out 'clean' for once instead of peddling fake sob stories which do not have any takers anymore," Irani has tweeted. The Union Minister said that Delhi Chief Minister did not reply to her questions about 200 bigha land bought in the vicinity of unauthorised colonies out of this laundered and unaccounted income in the name of shell companies. "The country eagerly awaits your answers. Do not disrespect the country's investigative agencies and Delhi High Court," she said. --IANS ssb/pgh ( 393 Words) 2022-06-02-20:34:01 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday asserted that his government would not implement the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Speaking at a function organised to mark the conclusion of his government's first anniversary celebrations here, he said, "The government has a clear position on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). That will continue." The Chief Minister said that "our country works on the principle of secularism as mentioned in the Constitution of India. Nowadays, attempts are being made to destroy secularism. A certain group of people are greatly concerned about this. In a recent incident, a group of people were determining citizenship on the basis of religion. Kerala government has taken a firm stand against this incident." He added, "Several surveys are being conducted in different parts of the country to create communal tension among people. But here, a survey has been completed to identify the most impoverished families in our society. Further steps will be taken as part of this survey." While speaking at the first anniversary celebrations of the LDF government, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that the state would not implement Citizenship (Amendment) Act. "The State government has taken a firm stand that citizenship would not be determined based on religion," Vijayan added. Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said in Siliguri in West Bengal that the law would be implemented once the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. "We will implement Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on ground the moment COVID-19 wave ends," Union Home minister Amit Shah said in West Bengal's Siliguri city. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which was passed by the Parliament of India on December 11, 2019, but is yet to be implemented, aims to grant citizenship to those members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who faced persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The CAA was notified on December 12, 2019 and came into force on January 10, 2020. It aims to facilitate grant of citizenship to migrants belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who had come to India on or before December 31, 2014. (ANI) According to the police, the shooter is also dead. "We can confirm 4 people are deceased, including the shooter, in the active shooting situation at St. Francis hospital campus," Tulsa Police said in a statement on Wednesday. Authorities responded to a call about a man who was armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, according to an earlier Facebook post from the Tulsa Police Department, CNN reported. The shootout incidents in the US have been increasing. On Tuesday (local time), an elderly woman was killed and two other persons were injured after gunfire erupted at a high school graduation ceremony in New Orleans. Prior to that, a mass shooting incident took place last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas in which several people including 19 children were killed. Notably, US President Joe Biden yesterday sought advice from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over tackling violence in the United States as shooting incidents in America have been increasing in recent days. Biden referred to the 2019 Christchurch slaying of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims. The incident prompted New Zealand to ban military-style rifles. A gun buy-back was also instituted. "We need your guidance," Biden said during the meeting with Arden in the Oval Office. "Your leadership has taken on a critical role in this global stage -- and it really has -- galvanizing action on climate change; the global effort to curb violence, extremism, and online, like happened in Christchurch," he added. (ANI) Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu reviewed the progress in the relationship between India and Senegal during a meeting with the President of Senegal, Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace in Dakar on Wednesday (local time). Naidu met the President of Senegal at the Presidential Palace in Dakar yesterday which was followed by delegation-level talks in Dakar. Both the leaders agreed to further strengthen cooperation in various fields including agriculture, health, defence, railways, energy and culture. "Vice President @MVenkaiahNaidu and President @Macky_Sall of Senegal held tete-a-tete followed by delegation level talks in Dakar today. Reviewed the progress in our ties & agreed to further strengthen cooperation in agriculture, health, defence, railways, energy, culture, etc," Spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi said in a Tweet. As part of his three nations tour, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu arrived in Gabon on May 30 on his first-ever high-level bilateral official visit from 30 May to 1 June 2022. Naidu will be in Senegal from June 1 to June 3. 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, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). "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," Dammu Ravi, Secretary (ER) of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). 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. 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. Africa has a huge potential of joining collaboration in the exploration of Oil and Gas, especially in Western Africa, the MEA said. (ANI) Japan and the United States held their first strategic dialogue Wednesday on Southeast Asian affairs as part of broader policy coordination amid increasing Chinese influence in the region. Senior officials from both the countries met virtually after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden agreed during talks last week in Tokyo to boost ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kyodo News reported. The new dialogue focused on how the two allies can bring ASEAN member states closer to a US-led group of free and democratic countries, as China has apparently been striving to alter the status quo in the East and South China seas and other areas in the Indo-Pacific with force and coercion. "Southeast Asia is key to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific," Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Hikariko Ono told a press conference after the virtual talks, as per Kyodo News. South-East Asia suddenly became the power theatre of the East as the United States steps up to leave the rivalry with China behind in wooing the ASEAN. ASEAN made no bones of the fact that it realises it is stuck between China and the US and wants concessions on its own terms as part of its strategy to be wooed by the big powers. Joanne Lin, a lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore told CNBC, "ASEAN would probably like to see more US support towards its ASEAN-led mechanisms, as opposed to US-led minilateral groupings such as the Quad and Aukus." However, China has been wooing ASEAN as well, "and not just with the trade and investment that are likely its most powerful levers of influence in Southeast Asia" because in the past one decade, "Beijing has steadily expanded its media influence in these countries in four key ways, as a means of shaping their views", according to Asian media reports. Compared to the high-profile wooing campaigns of President Biden, China's attempts have been subtle and consistent over a period of time. The communist government has banked upon its extensive propaganda machinery to constantly target ASEAN nations with its specialised content. For instance, Xinhua, China's official state media agency, has print bureaus in every Southeast Asian country. TV news channels CCTV-4 and the English-language CGTN also have bureaus in this region. China Radio International airs multilingual content in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. (ANI) At least 6,650 people have been displaced by the rains, which caused major flooding and landslides that buried dozens of houses, causing most of the deaths in the state capital Recife and its metropolitan area. The death toll makes this the second-worst tragedy in Pernambuco's history, after floods in May 1966 left 175 people dead. Firefighters and the Brazilian Army were focusing on finding the bodies of those still missing with the help of trained rescue dogs. As many as 24 Pernambuco municipalities have declared a state of emergency, and the federal government has announced it will earmark about 200 million US dollars to rebuild affected areas. Rescue work had to be suspended intermittently on Tuesday as heavy rainfall continued, which, the fire department warned, could lead to new landslides and flooding in the area. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced on Monday that the government will allocate 1 billion reals (about 210 million U.S. dollars) for the reconstruction of the affected areas. The rains also took a toll on the states of Sergipe, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas, where three people were killed and more than 18,000 were evacuated. (ANI/Xinhua) US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting incident at a hospital campus in Oklahoma's Tulsa city, the White House said, adding that it is "closely monitoring the situation" In a statement on Wednesday (local time), the White House said that it is also reaching out to state and local officials to offer support. Four people including the shooter were killed in a shooting incident at a hospital campus today. "We can confirm 4 people are deceased, including the shooter, in the active shooting situation at St. Francis hospital campus," Tulsa Police said in a statement on Wednesday. Authorities responded to a call about a man who was armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, according to an earlier Facebook post from the Tulsa Police Department, CNN reported. The shootout incidents in the US have been increasing. On Tuesday (local time), an elderly woman was killed and two other persons were injured after gunfire erupted at a high school graduation ceremony in New Orleans. Prior to that, a mass shooting incident took place last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas in which several people including 19 children were killed. Notably, US President Joe Biden yesterday sought advice from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over tackling violence in the United States as shooting incidents in America have been increasing in recent days. Biden referred to the 2019 Christchurch slaying of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims. The incident prompted New Zealand to ban military-style rifles. A gun buy-back was also instituted. "We need your guidance," Biden said during the meeting with Arden in the Oval Office. "Your leadership has taken on a critical role in this global stage -- and it really has -- galvanizing action on climate change, the global effort to curb violence, extremism, and online, like happened in Christchurch," he added. (ANI) Taliban forces killed four members of the National Resistance Front during the clearing operation in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, a local media reported. The incident took place on Tuesday morning in Tagab district, Khaama Press reported citing Bakhtar state news agency. Taliban's Director of Information and Culture in Badakhshan, Moizuddin Ahmadi, confirmed the news and also said that their air force has also participated in the operation. The Taliban's allegation of killing four National Resistance Front members and demolishing the group's hideout has elicited no response from the National Resistance Front, reported Khaama Press. Meanwhile, The National Resistance Front on Monday claimed that they have killed over 15 Taliban fighters in an ambush in Panjshir province. Ali Maysam Nazari, the National Resistance Front's head of foreign relations, said that their people have killed more than 15 Taliban fighters on the outskirts of Panjshir. The Taliban have yet to make any comment on the resistance's claim. Earlier this month, in a statement, Sebghatullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the National Resistance Front, claimed that 22 Taliban militants had been killed in battles with the front, but local Taliban leaders in Panjshir refuted the claims, saying that only three had been wounded, reported Khaama Press. "Hostilities had grown in Dara district, but a small-scale damage had been done to Taliban troops, including the destruction of three vehicles and the injury of three members," Abu Bakr Siddiqui, spokesman for the Taliban governor in Panjshir province, told the media. Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman for the province claims that their "operation" to clear the members of the NRF in the AbdullahKhel village has forced them to flee to the mountains. The bodies taken to Kabul were also said to have been returned to the provinces, according to the media. Videos have also surfaced on social media saying that the Taliban abused residents after defeating the National Resistance Front and inflicted high fatalities. The Taliban have yet to respond, and tensions in Panjshir appear to have escalated. (ANI) Highlighting the plight of the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), human rights activist and chairman of United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) Shaukat Ali Kashmiri said that the Pakistani government has cut the PoK development budget by Rs 2.5 billion and the normal budget by Rs 7 billion and termed the situation as "alarming". Taking to Twitter, the exiled leader from PoK wrote, "The Pakistan government has cut PoK developmental budget by Rs 2.5 billion and normal budget by Rs 7 billion." In another tweet, Kashmiri wrote that earlier the government had agreed to a Rs 49.9 billion total budget for 2021-22. However, as per the latest update, the budget has been cut short by a huge amount, he added. The PoK authorities lamented that the federal government has even frozen the 'Line of Control (LoC) Package Fund'. Kashmiri cautioned that the situation is alarming and should be addressed on a "war footing". He noted that, unfortunately, political leaders do keep claiming that the literacy rate in PoK is more than any other province of Pakistan but the truth is different. "We still have the pass-fail system," he added in the twitter post. He said that concern has been expressed over pathetic conditions of primary schools at the union council level in PoK where students are "compelled to sit on the ground below open sky with no washrooms, clean drinking water facilities". The UKPNP chairman said that apart from this sorry state of affairs, "there is an acute shortage of teachers as well." This comes after the government of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Monday accused the Shehbaz Sharif-led federal government of slashing the development grant provided to PoK and warned that it could lead to a severe financial system disbalance, if not reviewed. Speaking at a press conference here, PoK Minister for finance and inland revenue, Abdul Majid Khan alleged that the PoK's development budget, which is provided by the federal government in totality, stood at Rs 28 billion in the ongoing fiscal year, but the federal finance division had unilaterally slashed it by Rs 5.2 billion, Pakistan newspaper, the Dawn reported. "During the ongoing fiscal year, the federal government was supposed to provide Rs 49.9 billion to PoK as its 3.64 per cent share in the federal taxes pool (variable grant) but that too had been slashed by Rs 4.4 billion," the Dawn quoted the Minister as saying. The 3.64 per cent share from the federal taxes pool which was agreed under a financial arrangement between Islamabad and Muzaffarabad in 2018 is equalled to Rs 74.32 billion in Financial Year 2022-23, but the federal government had recently informed that it would provide only Rs 60 billion," the Minister said. "This will create a shortfall of Rs 14 billion in our income which we cannot bridge from any other source," he added. Majid Khan asked the federal government to review the development grant and warned that if not reviewed, the government's decision could affect PoK's financial system beyond control. (ANI) Marking 30 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, India and Israel adopted a "vision statement" which will pave the way for strengthening defence cooperation in future. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Israeli counterpart Benny Gantz on Thursday held bilateral talks in New Delhi. The two leaders discussed defence cooperation and the prevailing global and regional scenario. Taking to Twitter, Rajnath Singh wrote, "Warm and productive meeting with the Defence Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Gantz in New Delhi. Discussed key issues pertaining to defence cooperation and global & regional scenarios during the bilateral meeting. We place great value on our Strategic Partnership with Israel." "Glad that both the countries adopted a 'vision statement' which will pave the way for defence cooperation in future. There is a broad consensus between both the countries on further strengthening the bilateral strategic and defence cooperation," he added. Gantz, who arrived in India on Thursday, received a Tri-Service Guard of Honour in the presence of Rajnath Singh and laid a wreath at National War Memorial in New Delhi. "I am humbled to begin my visit to India by honouring fallen troops and learning about the legacy of this nation at the National War Memorial. This is a symbolic tribute as we prepare to mark 30 years of flourishing relations and defense ties between our countries," Benny Gantz tweeted. Israeli Minister Gantz arrived in India yesterday. The visit was meant to take place in March but got cancelled. Before taking flight for India, Gantz had tweeted, "I am currently taking off for India for a visit that marks 30 years of diplomatic defence ties between Israel and India. During the visit, I will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the expansion of our cooperation." Earlier in March, Israel's Defence Minister during a call with Rajnath Singh informed him that his proposed visit to India from March 30-31 had been postponed due to some unavoidable reasons. According to Israeli local media, the meeting in March was scheduled to include talks on improving security relations between India and Israel. The report added that Tel Aviv has sought to enhance defence ties with New Delhi in recent years, especially in the fields of air and missile defence. The year 2022 marks 30 years of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar paid an official visit to Israel from 17-21 October 2021. During the visit, Israel signed the instrument of ratification of the International Solar Alliance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the sidelines of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow on 2 November 2021. The annual India-Israel Joint Working Group (JWG) on Defence was held in Israel on October 26-27, 2021. (ANI) Copenhagen [Denmark], June 2 (ANI/Xinhua): Denmark has voted to join the European Union's defence pact and scrap its 30-year-old opt-out from the bloc's common security and defence policies. In a referendum held on Wednesday, a vast majority, or 66.9 per cent, of Danish citizens, have voted for the move, according to the preliminary results from Statistics Denmark, which gives the Nordic country a seat at the EU table to discuss military cooperation. The vote occurred with a turnout of 65.76 per cent of the 4,260,944 electoral roll. "I believe that it is the right thing for Europe and for Denmark and our future," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after casting her ballot earlier in the day, believing that Denmark may be more united than ever on EU policy. Due to the defence opt-out, Denmark could not participate in EU military operations or cooperation on the development and acquisition of military capabilities within the EU framework. Furthermore, the country was not obligated to provide military support or supplies to EU-led efforts in conflict zones, nor to participate in any operational decisions or planning. In March, the Danish Parliament decided to hold on June 1 the referendum, part of a new multi-party agreement on defence, amid mounting concerns over the Russia-Ukraine military conflict.In addition, Denmark aims to meet NATO countries' target defence spending of 2 percent of GDP by 2033, with efforts starting to be made in 2024, according to the agreement. (ANI/Xinhua) The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday sought the intervention of the United Nations against the alleged harassment of their workers and leaders by the federal government. In a letter written to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari demanded an independent and impartial investigation into these 'state excesses' and human rights violations, The Express Tribune reported. In the letter, by the words 'state excess', PTI meant the crackdown by the police ahead of the long march that was scheduled to take place on May 25. To manage the law and order, Shehbaz Sharif-led government deployed the police in the Red Zone. There, Police used tear gas and baton-charge in the early hours of the D-Day. Mazari has also requested the UN official to "take urgent notice of the issues raised as they not only threatened democracy in Pakistan but also the lives of former PM Khan, his party leadership...and intervene on these with the government of Pakistan". The PTI also asked the UN to intervene to end "harassment of the PTI" members and save them from "political" cases against them. It also demanded that the government stop censorship of the media as this was a "violation of basic democratic norms and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Pakistan is a party". PTI further urged the UN to stop the federal government of Pakistan from denying the basic right of holding a peaceful protest through repressive measures, reported The Express Tribune. The letter by Mazari came a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee to investigate the claims made by PTI leaders that they carried weapons during the long march on May 25. A few days ago, the PTI chief had conceded that some participants of his "Haqeeqi Azadi March" were armed. Meanwhile, PTI spokesman and former Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that the videos of police violence against their activists will be presented to the International Human Commission and alleged that police ransacked homes of the activists, they will also register criminal complaints in Pakistan, according to Pakistan media outlet. Earlier, on Wednesday, PTI moved to the country's top court to direct the Shehbaz Sharif government and other authorities not to create hindrances in the party's second march on Islamabad, days after the first one was suspended following several clashes in the federal capital. Imran's party made the request in a plea filed in the Pakistan Supreme Court today, detailing an account of the circumstances of the PTI's last march on May 25, the Dawn newspaper reported. (ANI) Pro Uyghur groups are calling for the resignation of the UN rights chief, stating that she failed to denounce the repression of Uyghurs, during her six-days trip to China. They say the visit has turned out to be a "propaganda opportunity" for China to whitewash its crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghur people. Bachelet provided no transparency about the trip and that a prison visit in Xinjiang was a "Potemkin-style sham," Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported citing the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs. "The high commissioner has disgraced herself and her office by refusing to investigate China's genocide and adopting, repeating the Chinese regime's narrative, further cementing their propaganda in the UN," Rushan Abbas, the organization's executive director, told RFA on Tuesday. "Her comments seem custom-made for Beijing's propaganda machine, and she neglects the duties of her office and the founding principle of the UN," she said. Abbas called on Bachelet to step down from her post. According to the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), the statement by the High Commissioner confirms that this was not an investigative visit into the atrocity crimes and genocide occurring in East Turkistan. Bachelet stated that she was ''unable to assess'' the full scale of the violations in the Vocational Education and Training Centers (VETCs). Reacting to this statement of the UN rights chief, WUC expressed its serious disappointment in the outcomes of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. WUC President Dolkun Isa said Bachelet missed a historic opportunity to hold China accountable for the Uyghur genocide. "The impression is that now the UN is in bed with communist China, a regime that has been committing the Uyghur genocide for the past five years," he said Tuesday. "It is truly stunning to see that Ms. Bachelet did not act as the highest human rights official at the U.N. but rather as a mouthpiece of the Chinese communist government during and after her trip. "She has completely discredited the role of her office and the authority of the United Nations as a champion of human rights in the world," Isa said. Isa also called for Bachelet's immediate resignation, RFA reported. (ANI) Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday warned his predecessor Imran Khan against making provocative statements after the PTI chief predicted the division of Pakistan into three parts and said that the country could lose its nuclear arsenal. Imran Khan in a controversial interview aired on Wednesday said that if the country's establishment does not make the right decisions, Pakistan could split into three parts and also lose its nuclear deterrent capabilities. The ousted Prime Minister made these remarks in an interview with a private television channel. "While I am in Turkey inking agreements, Imran Niazi is making naked threats against the country. If at all any proof was needed that Niazi is unfit for public office, his latest interview suffices. Do your politics but don't dare to cross limits & talk about division of Pakistan," Shehbaz said in a tweet. When asked about his equation with the Pakistan establishment and prospects of him coming back to power, Imran Khan said, "The actual problem here is of Pakistan and the establishment. If the establishment does not take the right decision, then I will give it to you in writing that they will be destroyed, and the armed forces will be the first ones to be devastated." "Pakistan will be broken in three parts," he added. The PTI chairman Imran Khan warned that once the country's economy is destroyed, it would go into default, and the world would ask Pakistan to move towards denuclearisation -- as was done to Ukraine in the 1990s, The News International newspaper reported. He also said that Pakistan is on the brink of "self-destruction" and will go "bankrupt." Reacting to the former premier's comments, former president Asif Ali Zardari slammed Khan and said that no Pakistani could talk of tearing this country apart. "This language is not of a Pakistani but of Modi. Imran Khan's power is not everything in the world, be brave and learn to stand on your feet and do politics now," he said.Zardari directed the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) workers to protest the remarks of Imran Khan throughout the country. The PPP coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry said that having lost power, Imran Khan has started talking about the country breaking up and losing nuclear assets. "We want the Supreme Court to answer whether or not we have the fundamental right to hold a peaceful protest. We will announce the date for our next long march as soon as the apex court rules on the petition," he told a social media conference in the provincial capital, as per the media portal. This comes in the backdrop of a tiff between the federal and provincial governments in Punjab and the use of force during Imran Khan's "Azadi March" that led to large-scale clashes in Islamabad. (ANI) India said on Thursday that the visit of its team to Kabul relates to delivery operations of its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Addressing a regular media briefing here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian team will meet senior members of the Taliban and representatives of international organisations who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. "A multi-member team headed by Joint secretary JP Singh is in Kabul. The team will meet senior members of the Taliban. They'll also meet representatives of international organisations who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. This is one focus area," Bagchi said. He said the Indian team will try to visit places where its programmes are being implemented but did not give further details. Bagchi also answered queries related to the re-opening of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan "Post-August 15 last year, in the light of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, it was decided to bring back all India-based personnel and India-based officials. But local staff have continued to function and ensure proper maintenance and proper upkeep of the premises," he said. He noted that this is the first such visit to Kabul since the Taliban took over. On queries about the visit being a pointer to recognition of Taliban dispensation in the future, the spokesperson said that the visit pertains to the humanitarian assistance. "I think you are reading far too much into this visit. This visit is about humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. We have been providing humanitarian assistance in various forms. The ongoing visit is to oversee the delivery of this assistance," he said. India announced earlier in the day that it has sent a team to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The statement said that in response to the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, India has decided to extend humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. It said that in this endeavour, India has already dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance consisting of 20,000 MTs of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID Vaccine and winter clothing. These consignments were handed over to the India Gandhi Children Hospital, Kabul and UN specialized agencies including WHO and WFP. India is in the process of shipping more medical assistance and foodgrains to Afghanistan. "In continuation with our developmental partnership with Afghan brethren, we have gifted one million doses of India-made COVAXIN to Iran to administer to Afghan refugees in Iran. We have also assisted UNICEF by supplying almost 60 million doses of polio vaccine and two tons of essential medicines," the MEA statement said. "India's development and humanitarian assistance has received a widespread appreciation across the entire spectrum of Afghan society. In this connection, the Indian team will meet the senior members of the Taliban, and hold discussions on India's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan," it added. (ANI) Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who is on his 3-nation tour, visited the Monument of African Renaissance in Dakar, Senegal on Thursday. "The Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu visiting the Monument of African Renaissance in Dakar, Senegal today," tweeted the Vice Presidential secretariat. The monumental structure made of bronze & copper stands tall at 52 meters and symbolises the 'dignity of the African continent as well as its vision of a better future. Moreover, Naidu and his spouse Usha Naidu paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the African Renaissance Monument, following which the Vice President also visited the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar. The Museum is a repository of African art, culture and history and aims to highlight Africa's cultural and scientific contributions to the world. Complimenting Senegal for positioning itself as one of Africa's model democracies, the Vice President said that India, as the world's largest democracy, appreciates Senegal's success in this regard. He further said that these shared values of democracy and secularism form the basis of warm and friendly relations between the two countries. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu met the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, at the Presidential Palace in Dakar on Wednesday and reviewed the progress in the relationship between India and Senegal during the meeting. Both the leaders agreed to further strengthen cooperation in various fields including agriculture, health, defence, railways, energy and culture. "Vice President @MVenkaiahNaidu and President @Macky_Sall of Senegal held tete-a-tete followed by delegation-level talks in Dakar today. Reviewed the progress in our ties & agreed to further strengthen cooperation in agriculture, health, defence, railways, energy, culture, etc," Spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi said in a Tweet. Naidu will be in Senegal from June 1 to June 3 and will be holding delegation-level talks with the President of the National Assembly Moustapha Niasse and other dignitaries, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). (ANI) An Indian delegation led by MEA Joint Secretary JP Singh is on a visit to the capital of Afghanistan to oversee the delivery operations of our humanitarian assistance to the country. Besides meeting the Taliban leadership, they also visited Indian projects including the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) in Kabul. The IGICH is the main hospital in Afghanistan, set up with Indian assistance in the '70s that caters to the well-being of children. An MEA statement earlier today said the India team will meet Taliban leadership and representatives of the International Organisations involved in the distribution of humanitarian assistance. "India has historical and civilisational ties with the Afghan people and these longstanding linkages will continue to guide our approach," the MEA added. A Taliban spokesperson on Twitter said the Indian team met with leaders of the Islamic group and discussed bilateral trade and humanitarian assistance. "Today, Maulvi Amir Khan Mottaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, met with GP Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs of India and his accompanying delegation. During the meeting, diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and India, bilateral trade and humanitarian assistance were discussed," Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter. India today said that the visit of its team to Kabul relates to the delivery operations of its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Addressing a regular media briefing here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian team will meet senior members of the Taliban and representatives of international organisations who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. "A multi-member team headed by Joint secretary JP Singh is in Kabul. The team will meet senior members of the Taliban. They'll also meet representatives of international organisations who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. This is one focus area," Bagchi said. He said the Indian team will try to visit places where its programmes are being implemented but did not give further details. (ANI) Zelenskyy made these remarks while addressing Luxembourg's lawmakers on Thursday. As the Russia-Ukraine war enters the fourth month, the focus has now shifted to the eastern part of the country. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar last week said the fighting has reached its maximum intensity. "As of today, about 20 per cent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers, almost 125 thousand square kilometres. This is much larger than the area of all the Benelux countries combined," CNN quoted Zelenskyy as saying. He said fighting continues along the front line that is stretched over "more than a thousand kilometres." Moreover, he added Ukraine's Donbas region is "simply devastated," describing it as "once one of the most powerful industrial centres in Europe." According to Zelenskyy, over 30,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began over three months ago. However, these figures could not be verified. "That's greater than the death toll of the Soviet Union in 10 years of war in Afghanistan, greater than Russia's death toll in two Chechen wars," he claimed. Furthermore, the Ukrainian president requested additional sanctions on Russia, asking for more weapons to support Ukraine's fight along the front line. He also invited Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel to visit Kyiv and asked for the deputies to support the country's ambition to join the EU. (ANI) Amid the rising water crisis in the provinces, the blame game between Punjab and Sindh continues as Sindh officials accuse their counterparts in Punjab of not agreeing to an independent evaluation by the Wapda's International Sedimentation Research Institute (ISRIP). However, the Punjab officials blamed Sindh for choosing an irregular site at Guddu for monitoring and for 'mal-regulation' at the barrage, Dawn reported. The committee members of ISRIP visited Sukkur and Guddu barrages on May 14 and 15. The measurement done by Wapda's ISRIP actually substantiated Sindh's claim about less water flows at Taunsa downstream. Despite a mathematical mistake seen in Guddu upstream flows, the upward recording of flows "supports Sindh's claim of missing flows between Taunsa and Guddu", an official said, adding that Sindh's reported discharge at Guddu upstream (45,748 cusecs as reported on May 15 at Guddu by Sindh versus 36,567 cusecs of ISRIP) The Sindh official said the sites for inspection in the province were chosen by Punjab's representatives and in Punjab by Sindh under the committee's decision, according to Dawn. In another statement, a Punjab irrigation official said, the Badani site was suggested by Sindh officials when Punjab representatives pointed out that the 300-ft downstream Guddu site was not straight, talking to Dawn. He further claimed that the Punjab representative was dismounted from the boat in a kutcha area when he demanded applying 'moving bed correction' on the ADCP and the incident was reported to the committee immediately. There was no bar on giving any suggestion or raising any objection to the activity and this flexibility was evident when the task of monitoring river flow was shifted from Sukkur to Guddu after a two-hour mutual discussion, he added. According to MNA Magsi, issues of trivial nature had cropped up during the measurement exercise, which had been discussed in the committee's May 25 meeting as well. "If we keep sticking to those issues, then we will not be making a productive contribution to resolving water issues between two provinces," he said in a statement discussing the issue. Amid the ongoing water shortage in Pakistan and incessant rise in water theft, a high profile committee has been appointed during the proceedings of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Water Resources in Islamabad to deal with the alarming crisis. The water situation in Sindh has worsened with little water flowing into its Indus-linked canals province from the upstream region of Punjab, sparking a small kerfuffle between the irrigation and water ministers of the two provinces. The situation worsened this year with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah pointing out a water shortage of nearly 40 per cent. Highlighting how dire the situation has been in the province, he asked rice farmers to avoid cultivating the water-intensive crop this year, the report said. (ANI) Kigali [Rwanda], June 2 (ANI/Xinhua): Rwanda has welcomed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)'s decision to release its soldiers who were captured last month, the government spokesperson said Thursday. Rwanda said two of its soldiers, a corporal and a private, were kidnapped while on border patrol and accused the DRC army together with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels of shelling rockets into its territory which injured civilians. Media reports said Wednesday that President Felix Tshisekedi of DRC had agreed to release the two soldiers, as part of efforts to ease the tensions. Angolan President Joao Lourenco announced the move following his meeting with Tshisekedi. Yolande Makolo, Rwandan government spokesperson, while appearing on a talk show on local radio Royal FM, maintained that the soldiers were kidnapped while on patrol. "They were soldiers on patrol along our border, they were grabbed by armed elements from probably FDLR and handed over to DRC authorities," Makolo said. "So we're very happy that they've agreed to release them. We look forward to welcoming them back home. We hope they are unharmed and it's a good sign," she said. She, however, added that the move to release the soldiers was not enough as it doesn't "answer why the shells were launched across the border." Makolo urged Rwandans traveling across the border to DRC to be vigilant in the face of growing anti-Rwanda sentiments. "We are not interested in conflicts, we are not interested in crisis, we have had enough of that. We want stability, we want peace for all," she said. Tensions between the two neighboring countries intensified last month after DRC accused Rwanda of supporting March 23 Movement (M23) rebels in North Kivu in renewed fighting.Rwanda has denied the charge. Addressing the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Rwanda's ambassador to the UN Claver Gatete said Rwanda has no interest in destabilizing the DRC and instead accused Congolese forces (FARDC) of allying with the FDLR whose elements are blamed for the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. Gatete castigated the resurgence of anti-Rwanda hate speech in DRC and urged the Council and the international community not to keep silent in view of what happened in Rwanda in 1994. Since March armed violence has displaced more than 117,000 people in DCR's Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Thursday. Lourenco also reportedly held a videoconference with his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame and agreed to a face-to-face summit with Tshisekedi to be convened in the Angolan capital of Luanda, on a date to be announced, according to media reports. (ANI/Xinhua) In a veiled attack, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan targeted the Pakistan Army for his ouster and accepted that his government was "weak". Khan on Wednesday admitted he did not enjoy absolute power and his hands were tied as Prime Minister, indicating that the actual centres of power in the country lay elsewhere and "everyone knows where that is," reported Pakistan Today. In an interview with Bol News, Imran Khan said his government was "weak" when it assumed power and had to seek support from its coalition partners, adding that if the same situation were to arise again, he would opt for re-elections and seek a majority government or none at all. "My hands were tied. We were blackmailed from everywhere. Power wasn't with us. Everyone knows where the power lies in Pakistan so we had to rely on them," he said. "We relied on them all the time. They did a lot of good things too but they didn't do many things that should've been done. They have the power because they control institutions such as NAB (National Accountability Bureau), which wasn't in our control." He claimed that while his government had the responsibility, it did not have all the power and authority, reported Pakistan Today. "No management works if I have responsibility but have no complete power and authority. A system works only when responsibility and authority are in one place." Imran said it was imperative for the country to have a "strong army" due to the threat posed by the enemies but said there was also the need to strike a "balance" between having a strong army and a strong government. The PTI chief said the current political situation was a problem for the country as well as the establishment. "If the establishment doesn't make the right decisions, then I can assure in writing that (before everyone else) they and the army will be destroyed because what will become of the country if it goes bankrupt," he said. (ANI) China on Thursday agreed to refinance Pakistan with USD 2.3 billion worth of funds amid the dwindling foreign exchange reserves of the country. "Good News: The terms and conditions for refinancing of RMB 15 billion deposit by Chinese banks (about US$ 2.3 billion) have been agreed. Inflow is expected shortly after some routine approvals from both sides. This will help shore up our foreign exchange reserves," Ismail tweeted. This development comes as the restoration of the country's delayed International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme depends on the government's capacity to make a fiscal adjustment of about 2.5 per cent of the GDP. The fiscal adjustments can be made by increasing the revenues and reducing the expenditure in the next budget, Geo News reported citing The News. In order to demonstrate its commitment to implement the 'reform agenda', the Pakistan government must end the subsidy of petrol and diesel prices, raise electricity tariffs by Rs 8 per unit via an increase in base tariff and fuel price adjustments and increase gas tariffs by 20 per cent on average. The Pakistan Finance Minister on Tuesday said that the staff-level agreement with the IMF was expected to take place in mid-June of this year. It also indicates that the agreement is expected to be made only after the announcement of the next budget, in line with the IMF programme's objectives. However, the IMF wanted rapid adjustments on the fiscal front in order to bring the economy back on the stabilisation path. The announcement of the next budget for 2022-23 aligned with IMF policies will set the stage for a stabilisation path, but here is the catch-22 situation: the government will have to take tough decisions, instead of doling out resources to gain political support, Geo News reported citing sources. In such a scenario, the IMF is asking to jack up the Federal Board of Revenue's tax collection target up to PKR 7.5 trillion for the next budget and reduce development funds as well as subsidies. Although the government wanted to keep the petroleum product prices unchanged at the existing level from June 1, 2022, it will have to pass on the burden to consumers after the announcement of the budget. The latest estimates suggest that despite raising the petroleum products prices by PKR 30 per litre, the subsidy on petrol still stood at PKR 39 per litre, which was earlier standing at PKR 17 per litre after raising the prices on May 27. (ANI) Commenting on the art exhibition curator and research repository, Asian Heritage Foundation, Yamini Dand Shah said, "Suprematism is at its best here... as Kazimir Malevich deconstructed art itself. I was intrigued, and to put it in the words of Lissitzky, the 'ultimate illusion of irrational space' posited alongside a spiritual and spatial understanding of the third dimension magnifies Abhay K.'s outlook. It illuminates the urge for expansion of art practice, ideation, perspectives and conviviality." "The paradigm of planetism, Vasudhaiva Kutambakam are not only tropes for art exhibits but translates into a worldview that Abhay K. inhabits and enables others to envision. In the Kantian way, Abhay K. exudes a 'universal state of human' kindness," Shah added. Abhay K. has earlier exhibited his paintings in St. Petersburg, Paris, Delhi and Brasilia. He used various media, geometrical forms and colours to highlight the beauty of the universe which prefers to call UniVerse or One Verse. Art critic Stanislav Savitsky says, "In his artworks, Abhay creates an allegory of planetary consciousness -emblems of the unity of the people. He draws images of spiritual unity and futuristic reworking of figurative and suprematic motives." Abhay Kumar is an Indian poet-diplomat. In 2018, he was appointed as the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Madagascar. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met visiting Defence Minister of Israel Benjamin Gantz and discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries and contribute to global stability. This visit comes as 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the official diplomatic ties between India and Israel. Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Prime Minister Modi: "We have a great opportunity to deepen defense cooperation between our countries and to build on our shared values in order to contribute to global stability." During his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Minister Gantz emphasized the opportunity to invest further in defense cooperation between the two countries, while building on shared values in order to contribute to global stability. "India is an industrial superpower and Israel is a technological superpower - cooperation between our countries will expand the capabilities of both countries to contend with developing challenges," said Gantz. Earlier today, Minister Gantz met with Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. A wide range of issues concerning bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation were discussed during the meeting. Rajnath Singh and Gantz reviewed the existing military-to-military activities which have increased despite the challenges due to COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed ways to increase cooperation in all domains with a focus on Research & Development in future technologies and defence co-production. Both the Ministers acknowledged mutual security challenges and their convergences on a number of strategic and defence issues. They expressed commitment to work together to enhance cooperation in all forums. With the intention to further strengthen the existing framework of the Indo-Israeli defence cooperation architecture, both sides adopted the India-Israel Vision on Defence Cooperation. A Letter of Intent on enhancing cooperation in the field of Futuristic Defence Technologies was also exchanged between the two Ministers. Earlier in the day, the Defence Minister of Israel visited the National War Memorial and paid homage to the fallen heroes by laying a wreath at the monument. He was accorded a Ceremonial Guard of Honour before his bilateral meeting with Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh. The visiting dignitary reached New Delhi on the morning of Thursday on an official visit to India. It was his first visit to India with an aim to strengthen the defence ties between the two countries. Defence cooperation has been one of the significant pillars of bilateral cooperation. (ANI) A panel discussion on 'India-EU Cooperation in Green Hydrogen: Towards Sustainable Energy Transition' on Thursday said that Cooperation with the EU is very valuable to scale up production and utilization of Green Hydrogen in India. Vandana Kumar, Additional Secretary Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) @mnreindia addressed the conclave on India-EU Connectivity Partnership cooperation on Green Hydrogen and highlighted India's mega renewable energy transition efforts and practical agenda on India-EU cooperation. "Cooperation with EU is very valuable to scale up production and utilization of Green Hydrogen. Partnership in Technology innovation and regulation crucial to harness Green Hydrogen potential for energy transition," said Vandana Kumar. The opening remarks were made by Dr Seshadri Chari, Member Governing Council RIS, a think-tank for fostering effective policy dialogue and capacity-building among developing countries on global economic issues. He said that hydrogen as a viable source of energy is possible and inevitable. "India has been pioneering research in this field even before others are forced to look at it as an alternative due to geopolitical compulsions. Storage and transportation are challenges and the National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM) will address these." Tudor Constantinescu, Principal Adviser, for Energy 4 Europe also addressed the India-EU connectivity partnership forum online and highlighted investment, infrastructure, storage, R&D, and standards/regulation for green Hydrogen. Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan also participated in the event. He highlighted the potential of the India-EU partnership in Green Hydrogen and collective action on climate change mitigation. "Glad to participate in this seminar organized by RIS. The potential of EU-India cooperation in Green Hydrogen is very significant!" he said. Sandeep Chakravorty, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs also highlighted emerging pathways and modalities of the India-EU Connectivity partnership with a preeminent focus on green Hydrogen and associated technology. The India-EU Leaders' Meeting on May 8, 2021, announced a Connectivity Partnership, which envisaged a multi-pillar approach covering energy, digital, people-to-people and transport sectors, with an emphasis on rule-based, inclusive, quality and resilient connectivity. As the green transition is a priority to both India and the EU, a series of workshops on important topics under the Connectivity Partnership is being organized. RIS, along with the Ministry of External Affairs, the Government of India and the Delegation of the European Union to India, organized a hybrid programme on 'India-EU Cooperation in Green Hydrogen: Towards Sustainable Energy Transition'. (ANI) The final rites of the victims of the Tara Air crash which included 4 Indian and 16 Nepali were performed today. The final rites were performed at various locations in Kathmandu after the authorities performed autopsies on the body of the victims and handed them over to the family members of the victims. The cremation of Indian nationals Vaibhawi Bandekar, Ashok Kumar Tripathi, DhanushTripathi and, Ritika Tripathi from Mumbai, Maharastra was performed at Pashupatinath Temple in Nepali capital Kathmandu later in the afternoon on Thursday. "We have cremated the bodies at the electric crematorium that lies in the Pashupatinath Temple area here in Kathmandu. We will return to India tomorrow. I lost my brother and his entire family in the crash, they were here on vacation," said Rajen Tripathi, brother of Ashok Kumar while talking to ANI as he waited for the body at the morgue. Bodies of the victims were ferried to the capital Kathmandu on Monday and Tuesday by Nepal Army MI-17 helicopters for their autopsies, following which a mass cremation ceremony was held at the Swayambhu area of the capital Kathmandu to cremate those without kins. The victims hailed from the Dhanusha district in the Southern plains of Nepal and also happened to go out on a family vacation to Muktinath Temple. Makar Bahadur Tamang, Sukumaya Tamang, Rajan Gole, Indra BahadurGole, Ram Maya Gole, Purushottam Gole and Tulasha Devi Tamang were from single family who lost their lives on the slopes of Mustang district. "They were from the same family. The father, elder daughter and son-in-law, youngest daughter and son-in-law, elder son and daughter-in-law and a grandchild all died in the crash," Hari Lama, a relative of the deceased Gole family told ANI. Few members of the Gole family who couldn't travel along with the deceased at the time of the crash survived, the relative informed. According to the relatives, the family had planned for a trip to Mustang for months and had finally been to the pilgrimage site when the disaster struck the family. Tara Air twin-otter aircraft which was more than two decades old crashed onto the hillside of Mustang District on Sunday, killing all 22 people on board which included 13 Nepali, 4 Indian, 2 German nationals and 3 crew members. The wreckages of the Twin Otter were found on Monday on a cliff beneath the Manapathi Peak. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, those on the plane were Captain Prabhakar Prasad Ghimire, co-pilot UtsavPokhrel, air hostess KismiThapa, passengers IndraBahadurGole, PurushottamGole, Rajan Kumar Gole, Basant Lama, Ganesh Narayan Shrestha, Raveena Shrestha, Rashmi Shrestha, Rozina Shrestha, Prakash Sunuar, MakarBahadurTamang, RammayaTamang, SukamayaTamang, Tulasa Devi Tamang. Mick Grat and YuviWilner were two German nationals who were on board the ill-fated aircraft. Mustang is one of the mountainous and fifth-largest districts of the Himalayan nation which hosts the pilgrimage of Muktinath Temple. The district is also known as "Land beyond the Himalayas" is located in the Kali Gandaki valley of the Himalayan region of Western Nepal. Mustang (from the Tibetan Muntan meaning "fertile plain") the traditional region is largely dry and arid. The world's deepest gorge that goes down three miles vertical between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna mountains runs through this district. (ANI) EU and Central Asia Special Representatives and Special Envoys for Afghanistan expressed strong concern about the recent and repeated announcement of policies affecting the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and encouraged the Taliban to ensure that all women and girls can attend school, work and participate fully in public life. Special Representatives and Special Envoys from Europe and Central Asian countries held a meeting on May 31 in Almaty, Kazakhstan where they raised a host of issues affecting Afghanistan. In continuation of the ongoing dialogue between the participants, THEY The participants reaffirmed the joint ambition for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan that will assume its role as a partner in regional economic cooperation. They welcomed the renewed mandate for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN role in Afghanistan." "Recalled the February 2022 statement by the EU and Central Asia Special Representatives and Special Envoys on the importance of good governance, promotion of the rule of law, universal human rights and freedom for all Afghans, in particular women and girls, and the establishment of an inclusive and representative government through a credible and legitimate political process in which meaningful participation by all ethnic, religious and political stakeholders, including women and minorities, is respected and that Afghan territory should not be used as a base for hosting, financing or exporting terrorism or violent extremism to other countries," the joint statement said. They expressed strong concern about the recent and repeated announcement of policies affecting the rights and freedom of women and girls in Afghanistan and encouraged the Taliban to ensure that all women and girls can attend school, work and participate fully in public life. The representatives also encouraged the Taliban to fulfil the commitments made to the Afghan people and the international community. "Remained concerned about the serious socio-economic situation in Afghanistan and welcomed the support from the international community. All participants have shown a willingness to contribute and facilitate assistance to the people of Afghanistan," the statement said. They also reiterated the need for continued dialogue in the regional format and bilaterally with the stakeholders in Afghanistan in order to ensure stability and security in Afghanistan and the region. (ANI) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from the concerned authorities regarding May 25 riots in Islamabad. Disappointed that its efforts were disrespected on May 25, the apex court directed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other relevant authorities to submit a report before the court explaining whether the judiciary's orders were violated during the Islamabad riots, reported Daily Times. The Supreme Court's directives were issued in a written order on the plea filed by the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) against the government's decision to block roads to stop Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI's) "Azadi March", called on by ousted prime minister Imran Khan. In the written order, the court said it was "disappointed" to note that riots took place in the federal capital despite its order to create a balance between both sides - the PTI and the government, reported Daily Times. "This balance was recorded in good faith by the Court whilst trusting the representations made on behalf of the two opposing parties before it. We are disappointed to note that the bona fide effort made by the Court was disrespected," the apex court said. Multiple scuffles took place between the police and PTI marchers after Imran Khan and his convoy entered Islamabad 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. Imran Khan called off his long march and sought help from the Pakistan Supreme court. After getting out of power, he has been consistently making allegations about a foreign conspiracy against him and calling for early elections.(ANI) In a blow to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI's) plea regarding protection from the law enforcement agencies for the Islamabad riots on May 25, the Supreme Court on Thursday returned its plea. The Supreme Court's registrar raised objections to the petition, noting that the top court had already issued an order on the matter, and the PTI had not moved the relevant forum, reported Geo News. "The petitioner (PTI) has not approached any other appropriate forum available under the law for the same relief and has also not provided any justification for not doing so," the SC's registrar said while raising the objection. Imran Khan-led party (PTI) planned on holding a second-long march -- after the first one ended abruptly last week. Among other issues, the top court's registrar said the plea mentions were "controversial issues" in paragraphs 4, 5, 12, and 14. These paragraphs are related to an illegally orchestrated vote of no confidence, illegal removal of Punjab's Chief Minister, and holding of several rallies and gatherings all across the country. PTI Chairman Khan had abruptly announced the end of his "Azadi March" on March 26 and had given the government a six-day ultimatum to announce a date for a general election. He had later said he called the march off due to fear of "bloodshed". Just after PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar filed the plea in the apex court yesterday morning, Khan had announced that his next plan of action would rely on the court's ruling, reported Geo News. In an address to a rally in Shangla, Khan reiterated that he would not rest till fresh elections are announced and would reveal his plan of marching to Islamabad after SC's orders. The PTI's long march to Islamabad last week caused riots across the country in which three people, including a police constable and two PTI workers, lost their lives. A day earlier, in a written order, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other relevant authorities to submit a report before the court explaining whether the judiciary's orders were violated during May 25 Islamabad riots. (ANI) The US on Thursday congratulated Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee and an official birthday. "On behalf of the United States of America, I congratulate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the people of the United Kingdom on the occasion of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee and official birthday," read a press statement from US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. The British Queen is the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum jubilee after marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, Realms and the Commonwealth. "Her Majesty's unprecedented 70 years of service to the United Kingdom are an inspiration to Americans, who deeply admire the Queen and are grateful for her decades of friendship with the United States. Through our special relationship, common history, and shared values, we work together to uphold democracy, human rights, and the rule of law worldwide. Our countries collaborate closely on virtually every significant challenge and opportunity the world over precisely because we have no closer partner," added the statement. Blinken further sent his heartfelt wishes for peace, prosperity, and good health to Her Majesty and all the people across the United Kingdom. The first of four days of nationwide celebrations in Britain to commemorate her reign started with fanfare on Thursday. Various international leaders wished Queen Elizabeth on her Platinum Jubilee. "Jill and I wish Your Majesty a joyful Platinum Jubilee celebration. On behalf of the United States, congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on an unprecedented 70 years of service to the UK and Commonwealth and thank you for your friendship to the American people," tweeted US President Joe Biden. "Your Majesty, it is my privilege to extend to You, on behalf of the French people, my heartfelt congratulations on Your Platinum Jubilee," tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron. (ANI) India on Thursday said that it looked forward to the next senior commander-level meeting with China at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement on all friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Responding to queries about working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) meeting held on May 31, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said both sides agreed to continue discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues. "WMCC India-China border talks happened on May 31st, I don't have much to add to it. To be honest, as in our press release, we said that as instructed by our two Foreign Ministers, both sides agreed to continue discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues, so as to create conditions for the restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations. We have been saying this repeatedly," he said. "What is important is that they agreed to hold the Senior Commander-level talks at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement on all friction points along the LAC in the Western sector in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols. I am not aware of any particular date that I can share with you at this point. I would like to emphasize that we look forward to this Commander level talk at an early date," he added. Following the standoff due to the actions of Chinese Army in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020, India and China have held several rounds of diplomatic and military talks and have achieved disengagement from some areas but some friction points remain. The two countries have held 15 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks. Regarding Indian students who are enrolled in Chinese universities and want to go back to complete their study, Bagchi said that India has been "regularly raising the issue of Indian students pursuing medicine from Chinese Universities being unable to return to China to attend classes". Answering a query about remarks of External Minister S Jaishankar concerning Quad that there should not be attempt to strait-jacket or impose congruence over convergence for the grouping to keep growing, Bagchi said, the minister made a very simple point he has been talking about - "what Quad stands for, positive approach, agenda, what four countries want to do and he just made a comment that perhaps they shouldn't be straight-jacketed and seen from a particular prism." Answering queries on reports about back-channel talks with Pakistan, he said ........these were speculative media reports. "I do not want to comment on it. On dialogue, our consistent position has been that we desire normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in a conducive atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence. Our respective High Commissions are functioning and are in touch with their interlocutors. Regarding trade relations with Pakistan, he said, "We never wanted that trade ties should stop, we have always been pushing for it. From our side, we are not holding back on it." (ANI) Queen Elizabeth will skip Platinum Jubilee festivities on Friday at St Paul's Cathedral after experiencing "some discomfort" during an event outside the Buckingham Palace on Thursday, New York Post reported citing a Palace statement. The 96-year-old monarch will skip the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral "with great reluctance" on the second day of the four-day celebration. "The Queen greatly enjoyed today's Birthday Parade and flypast but did experience some discomfort," the palace said in a statement, as per New York Post. "Taking into account the journey and activity required to participate in tomorrow's national service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, Her Majesty with great reluctance has concluded that she will not attend," it added. The British Queen is the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum jubilee after marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, Realms and the Commonwealth. "Her Majesty's unprecedented 70 years of service to the United Kingdom are an inspiration to Americans, who deeply admire the Queen and are grateful for her decades of friendship with the United States. Through our special relationship, common history, and shared values, we work together to uphold democracy, human rights, and the rule of law worldwide. Our countries collaborate closely on virtually every significant challenge and opportunity the world over precisely because we have no closer partner," added the statement. The US on Thursday congratulated Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee and an official birthday. "On behalf of the United States of America, I congratulate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the people of the United Kingdom on the occasion of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee and official birthday," read a press statement from US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. Blinken further sent his heartfelt wishes for peace, prosperity, and good health to Her Majesty and all the people across the United Kingdom. The first of four days of nationwide celebrations in Britain to commemorate her reign started with fanfare on Thursday. Various international leaders wished Queen Elizabeth on her Platinum Jubilee. "Jill and I wish Your Majesty a joyful Platinum Jubilee celebration. On behalf of the United States, congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on an unprecedented 70 years of service to the UK and Commonwealth and thank you for your friendship to the American people," tweeted US President Joe Biden. "Your Majesty, it is my privilege to extend to You, on behalf of the French people, my heartfelt congratulations on Your Platinum Jubilee," tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron. (ANI) Announced by President Emmanuel Macron in an April decree, the reforms would affect at least 700 senior career diplomats, who would be merged into a "state administrative corps", in which they would no longer be attached to a specific administration. Instead, they would be asked to change administrations regularly throughout their career, Xinhua news agency reported, citing BFMTV news channel. The reforms would also affect two historic bodies of France's diplomacy, ambassadors and foreign affairs advisors, whose portfolios would be either merged or gradually phased out. Protests were planned to be held in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs buildings in Paris and Nantes, where the diplomatic archives are located. Many of those affected consider reforms "an end to professional diplomacy" in France, the media outlet reported. --IANS int/shs ( 162 Words) 2022-06-02-20:32:02 (IANS) US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and discussed the implications of war between Russia and Ukraine for transatlantic security. "The leaders discussed the implications of Russia's war on Ukraine for Transatlantic security and the importance of strengthening NATO's deterrence and defense, in addition to ensuring NATO is properly resourced to address a wide range of challenges, from cyber to climate change," a White House said in a statement on Thursady (local time). Baiden and Kamala Harris met with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) chief to prepare for the June 29-30 NATO Summit in Madrid. "They also welcomed the applications by Finland and Sweden for NATO membership, and President Biden conveyed his strong support for efforts by Secretary General Stoltenberg to facilitate a rapid accession process that addresses the security concerns of all Allies," the statement read further. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met separately with Secretary General Stoltenberg, it added. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has the summit between NATO leaders in June will assess the military alliance's future relationship with Russia, which has soured since the start of "military operation" in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a notice today in which it published the names of 71 newly blacklisted Russian entities, including aircraft and shipbuilding companies. "In response to the Russian Federation's (Russia's) further invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Department of Commerce is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding 71 entities... to the Entity List. These entities have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security interests or foreign policy of the United States," the BIS notice said. The sanctioned entities include the Chkalov Novosibirsk Aviation Plant, Irkutsk Aviation Plant, St. Petersburg Shipbuilding Institution Krylov 45, Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Center and the All Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, among others, as per reports. (ANI) China is looking to expand its trade and investment in various sectors including high-tech, energy, maritime and life sciences and health sectors in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, according to a media report. China is attracted to the Netherlands for investment in various sectors, despite the fact that Amsterdam is not a formal signatory of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), From 2012 to 2017, the number of Chinese companies located in the Netherlands nearly doubled from 245 at the end of 2012 to 470 at the end of 2017, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Postal Plus reported. As per the latest update, Chinese companies have established some 570 operations in the Netherlands and the country is the third biggest investment destination for Chinese enterprises in the EU. Chinese companies have invested in the Netherlands in a wide range of areas including ICT, agri-food, chemicals and energy. The number of Chinese nationals residing in the Netherland increased from barely 7,500 in 2000 to 36,500 in 2019. Out of every 10 Chinese firms operating in the Netherlands, 4 are involved in wholesale trade mainly in non-food, ICT equipment and industrial machinery - more than 10 per cent of them are Chinese companies engaged in manufacturing. The presence of Chinese entities in strategic sectors like energy is viewed with apprehension in the Netherlands. Apart from Kuwait Petrol Netherlands, owned by China, Jereh, China's largest privately-held listed integrated oil and gas company, agreed to establish its subsidiary in the Hague in 2016. Notably, an agreement was signed between the Deputy Mayor of The Hague Karsten Klein and the CEO of Jereh Group, Weifie Sun. Recently, there is increasing caution against Chinese companies on the suspicion of their penetration in advanced technology sector of the Netherlands and stealing patents and copyrights, "The biggest threat to the Netherlands by far in the field of economic espionage comes from China," an annual report (2018) of the Dutch external intelligence agency (AVID) had said. The report explicitly pointed out that "the espionage is fuelled by Chinese economic policy plans, such as 'Made in China 2025' and the 'New Silk Roads', with which the country can increase its economic and geopolitical influence". There is an increasing cynicism seen in the Netherlands about enhancing economic engagement with China, especially since 2019 when the EU published its EU-China strategic outlook. Following the year, the Dutch government also presented its own China strategy. Meanwhile, the previous Chinese strategy published in 2013 emphasized the importance of attracting Chinese investments to the Netherlands. Six years later, Chinese investments in Europe and the Netherlands started to be seen as security threat. (ANI) NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) A demonstration in Kenya against the threats posed by wildlife turned deadly when security forces killed four protesters, police said Thursday. The protesters clashed with security forces, resulting in the fatal shootings, Mashuru town police chief Charles Chepkonga confirmed. Kajiado county Gov. Joseph Ole Lenku in a statement called on police to avoid using excessive force and also urged Kenyan wildlife authorities to keep their animals away from our people. Thursdays demonstration blocked the Nairobi-Mombasa highway for hours, as protesters placed rocks and burning tires on the road, leading police to intervene. Residents have repeatedly called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to find a solution to the conflicts between people and animals, with farmers upset that elephants destroy their crops and at times kill people. These deaths could have been avoided with a little more understanding that the local communities are getting frustrated by the loss of human lives to wildlife, the governor said. Principal Mental Health and Well-Being Series Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Principal Financial Group With or without global volatility, good financial education and reassurance about long-term retirement savings strategies, portfolios, and other aspects of personal budgeting can help remove money as an extra worry that only compounds other stress. 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Principal Milestones, for instance, offers financial wellness tools, resources, and education (with Enrich and ARAG) to all our retirement plan participantsfor every stage of their lives. 3. Offer emergency financial relief. Consider timely ways your business can assist employees affected by the numerous climate disasters or other emergencies that may sap their personal finances. Principal, for example, offered relief funds to employees who were victims of a Midwest inland hurricane (with 140-mile-per-hour straight-line winds) known as a derecho. 4. Help employees organize their finances. Encourage employees to spend a rainy morning and tackle these 5 steps to organizing your personal finances, so theyre not only ready for the next unexpected event, but their family is also prepared to handle financial basics without the additional stress of uncertainty over where to find all the crucial information. Even better, show how serious you are about this planning by providing them paid time at workmaybe with free food in a relaxed atmosphereand gentle guidance in the form, say, of one of our Principal webinars (principal.com/learnnowondemand). Story continues 5. Help employees fund their futures. Offering a robust retirement plan with a company match is one of the primary ways to help your employees engineer their long-term financial security. Your employees also can follow our step-by-step guide to building your own financial planto set their financial goals, create a budget, plan for taxes, and more. What's next Want to talk more in depth about employee mental health, employee benefits, and your business? Consult your financial professional, or we can help you find one in your area. 1 The value-added resources provided through ARAG Services, LLC (ARAG Please remember that the ARAG legal documents, DIY Docs are accurate and useful in many situations. Due to possible changes by a state, it is a good idea to periodically review a template used to be sure it is the most current template. Whether or not the document is right for you and your situation depends on your circumstances. If you want specific advice regarding your situation, consult an attorney. This information is intended to be educational in nature and is not intended to be taken as a recommendation. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Principal Financial Group on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/5-tips-to-help-boost-employee-financial-wellness-723555895 WASHIR, Afghanistan (AP) Afghanistans Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the countrys massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. On a recent day in Washir district in southern Helmand province, armed Taliban fighters stood guard as a tractor tore up a field of poppies. The fields owner stood nearby, watching. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning poppy cultivation throughout the country. Those violating the ban will be arrested and tried according to Sharia laws in relevant courts, the Taliban deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund, told The Associated Press in Helmands provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Afghanistan is the worlds biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia. Production spiraled over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation. But the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive. The ban comes as Afghanistans economy has collapsed, cut off from international funding in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Most of the population struggles to afford food, and the country has been suffering under its worst drought in years. Noor Mohammed, who owns one poppy field in Washir that was torn apart by Taliban tractors, said his plot of land is small and lacks water, so he cant survive by growing less profitable crops. If we are not allowed to cultivate this crop, we will not earn anything, he said of his poppies. Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. Story continues Helmand is the heartland of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It appeared the new eradication campaign was targeting mainly those who planted their crops after the ban was announced. Many others who had planted earlier succeeded in harvesting, going from plant to plant, slicing the poppys bulb, then scooping up the sap that oozes out, the raw material for opium. Akhund, the deputy interior minister, said the Taliban were in touch with other governments and non-governmental organizations to work out alternative crops for farmers. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the eradication campaign will take place across the country. We are committed to bringing poppy cultivation to zero, he told the AP. Its not known how many poppies were planted this season, how much was harvested and how many fields the Taliban have eradicated so far. But Afghanistans production has steadily risen, reaching new heights every year in recent years. In 2021, 177,000 hectares (438,000 acres) were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the U.N.s Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020. The total value of Afghanistans opiates production in 2021 was $1.8-$2.7 billion, up to 14% of the countrys GDP, exceeding the value of its legal exports, the UNODC said in its most recent report. During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the United Nations. However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies. Over the next nearly 20 years, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it only steadily increased: In 2002, around 75,000 hectares were planted with poppies, producing some 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that. During the years-long Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistans opium output is greater than all other opium-producing countries combined. Nearly 80% of the heroin produced from Afghan opium reaches Europe through Central Asia and Pakistan. UK holidaymakers have faced disruption this week including delays checking-in luggage Airline passengers should take just one carry-on bag on holiday with them and not check-in luggage to avoid delays, according to industry figures. The GMB union, which represents aviation workers, said if people don't check-in luggage it "limits the disruption". Hundreds of flights have been cancelled this week due to staff shortages across the sector. The industry has met with the government to address the problems. "It is one less thing to worry about. If people can check in online and do not take bags, that limits the disruption," Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB, told The Daily Telegraph. "It's not a magic bullet but it does reduce the chance of there being problems." Meanwhile Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy PC Agency, said: "The smaller the bag, the less time you spend in security queues. That would reduce the queues during the busiest weekend of the year so far." John Irving, chief executive of Liverpool Airport, said he was not advising travellers to limit their luggage. But he told the BBC's Today programme: "I think people have to make their own decisions to be honest on what they think is right for them, whether or not that's carrying hand luggage or getting there three hours earlier than their flight." So far, at least 377 flights out of the UK have been cancelled since 25 May, according to flight tracking firm Cirium, affecting thousands of people who booked holidays over the half-term break and the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. Workers Before Covid, airports and airlines across the UK employed around 140,000 people, according to industry body Airlines UK, but thousands of jobs were cut as travel ground to a halt. More than 30,000 members of staff were laid off from UK airlines alone. The industry says it is now working to refill the vacancies. Following a meeting with the travel industry on Wednesday evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he understood the sector's staffing problems but added it "does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service". Story continues He said airline bosses should have been preparing for a "surge in passenger demand following two years of travel closures". The BBC understands that at the meeting, airlines and airports asked Mr Shapps to add industry workers to the government's shortage occupation list which would allow companies to recruit staff from overseas. However, Mr Shapps rejected the idea. David Evans, group joint chief executive of Collinson Group, which operates airport lounges across the UK, said Mr Shapps should reconsider. "I think if we're going to get levels back to what we expected, if we're going to get the economy going then we've got to look again at bringing in workers from other countries," he told the BBC. "The industry has suffered a huge amount of uncertainty throughout Covid - the sort of yoyo-ing of rules and regulations meant that a number of staff left the industry." Transport Secretary Grant Shapps met with the aviation sector to address the disruption seen at airports But plans to quickly rehire those workers have been hit by strict background checks carried out on aviation workers. British Airways alone said "thousands" of new recruits were still waiting for their security clearance. The aviation industry has asked for direct access to HM Revenue & Customs tax records in order to speed up the vetting process for potential new hires. Despite data privacy concerns, it is hoped that the move will remove red tape and streamline recruitment in the sector. Other ideas for avoiding travel chaos this summer were put forward in Wednesday's meeting between the government and the industry. But a spokesperson for the Department of Transport did not elaborate on what policy proposals had been made, or accepted. (Instagram/sarakalee) An Alaska woman has drawn praise after she expertly removed an opossum by the scruff of its neck from a crowded bar in Brooklyn. The lost marsupial became scared of the crowd after it wandered into Temkins Bar in New York Citys Greenpoint neighbourhood and began running around looking for a way out. Viral video of the incident then showed Sara Fulton, a native of The Last Frontier state, step forward, telling a friend, Hold my phone. Im from Alaska. She then picked up the animal with minimal fuss and escorted it outside to cheers from drinkers, before letting it go. I was outside hanging out with my friend outside the bar, the door was open, and then all of a sudden we see this critter run in, and we looked at each other, and we just were like, Was that a dog? Is that a rat? she told NBC New York. We both looked at each other and were like, That was too big to be a rat! It has to be an opossum. She said that her experience growing up in her home state served her well in the unusual big-city situation. Im from Alaska and I used to go camping with black bears hanging out at my campsite, she told NBC New York. I think it was just instinctual, I just like went up to him and I was like, hey I know youre afraid ... and I was like alright, I think Im just gonna scruff you and take you out because that would be the least painful for you. And she added: For me, its just a wild animal. But I have to realise Im not in Alaska, and thats not something you see every day. After completing the removal, Ms Fulton had a row of drinks lined up for her by other customers. I mean everybody just lost their minds, we couldnt believe it was happening, said bartender Rachel Bessemer. I grabbed my phone, didnt know who to call, I was like, this is not what people do. Everyone bought her so many rounds, it turned into a party afterward. A lawyer representing Amber Heard in her defamation trial against Johnny Depp has spoken out following the verdict to say that an enormous amount of evidence was suppressed during the weeks-long trial. Attorney Elaine Bredehoft appeared on The Today Show on Thursday morning, hours after a jury determined Ms Heard defamed Mr Depp on all three counts in his lawsuit against her regarding a 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post about being a victim of domestic abuse. The jury also found in favour of one of three claims in Ms Heards countersuit, determining that Mr Depps lawyer had called her abuse allegations against her ex-husband a hoax. Ms Bredehoft shared her reaction to the verdict with NBCs Savannah Guthrie. Well, you know, really what happened here is its a tale of two trials. Johnny Depp brought a suit in the UK for the same case, Ms Bredehoft said in reference to Mr Depps 2020 UK libel case against The Sun, which had labeled him a wife beater over Ms Heards allegations. The burden of proof was easier for him there, The Sun had to actually prove that it was true. And the court found there and we werent allowed to tell the jury this but the court found that Mr. Depp had committed at least 12 acts of domestic violence, including sexual violence against Amber. So what did Depps team learn from this? Demonize Amber and suppress the evidence. We had an enormous amount of evidence that was suppressed in this case that was in the UK case. In the UK case when it came in, Amber won and Mr. Depp lost. Among the evidence suppressed were very significant medical records which showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist, Ms Bredehoft said. The attorney confirmed that Ms Heard will be filing appeal, saying: She has some excellent grounds for it. She also said that Ms Heard will absolutely not be able to pay the millions in damages awarded to her ex-husband. Story continues The Aquaman actress reacted to the verdict herself in a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying she was heartbroken. The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband, she said. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously. And she added that the result was an attack on freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly. Amber Heard. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images A jury largely sided with Johnny Depp in his defamation trial with Amber Heard on Wednesday. Experts told Insider that Heard lost because she wasn't believable on the stand, and isn't as big a star. "The jurors loved him, the public loved him, everyone on social media loved him." Amber Heard lost her defamation case with Johnny Depp because she didn't come off as credible, and lacks her ex-husband's star power, experts told Insider hours after the verdict was announced on Wednesday. Depp took Heard to trial, claiming she ruined his reputation by insinuating in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that she had been the victim of domestic violence. Heard countersued, and spent several days on the stand describing multiple incidents where she said Depp physically and sexually assaulted her during their relationship. On Wednesday, the jury in the case largely sided with Depp, finding that Heard defamed Depp on all three statements that she was sued over, and awarded Depp a total of $15 million in damages. The jury also found Depp defamed Heard, but only on one of the three statements that she sued him over, and awarded Heard just $2 million in damages. Following the verdict, Insider spoke to two legal experts who broke down where they thought Heard's case went wrong. Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Insider that he felt Heard had a credibility problem. "She lost because she lied and she exaggerated in a case that was all about likability and credibility," Rahmani said. "Depp was the much more likable and credible witness. The jurors loved him, the public loved him, everyone on social media loved him. And now Amber Heard is one of the most despised women in America. Instead of being the face of the #MeToo movement, she's the face of a false accusation." Actor Johnny Depp testifies in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, April 25, 2022. STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Rahmani said Heard appeared to lie about "things she didn't need to lie about," and that cost her credibility in the end. He specifically referenced how Heard maintained that she never leaked video of one of her arguments with Depp to TMZ, or tipped off the paparazzi that she would be appearing in court with a bruised face to take out a restraining order against Depp. Rahmani said it was also hard to believe Heard's side of the story on why she never fulfilled her pledge to donate her divorce settlement from Depp to charity. Story continues The pictures of Heard's injuries also didn't line up with her graphic descriptions of Depp's alleged beatings, Rahmani said. "She told jurors that she thought Depp was going to kill her. Heard told the jurors that Depp kicked her so many times she lost count. She's talking about an attempted murder or felony assault and the pictures, at best, support misdemeanor battery," Rahmani said. "When someone is lying and exaggerating, jurors can disregard their testimony entirely and they did and they punished her," Rahmani added. David Ring, a partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm Taylor & Ring, agreed that Heard "lost credibility" during the trial. "Some of the testimony just was not credible, it seemed over-exaggerated and overdone," he said. But Ring also said that the case may have come down to who had the bigger star power, and it was clear Depp won in that department. "I think Johnny Depp is obviously the bigger star and I don't say that facetiously. I think star power in a courtroom is incredibly important," Ring said. "I think stars like that win the vast majority of the time, and obviously, Johnny Depp is a charismatic guy. The jury overlooked all his flaws, the really horrible behavior. They set all that aside and said she defamed him and awarded him a lot of money." "I just don't think she was as likable as Johnny Depp," Ring added. "I'm not going out on a limb saying that either. The jury had to pick one or the other and they went for Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp won in the court of public opinion, he won in the courtroom, and he's going to win going forward with this." Read the original article on Insider Hours after a jury found that Amber Heard defamed Johnny Depp in an op-ed published in The Washington Post and awarded Depp $10.35 million in damages, Heard is feeling "heartbroken," her lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredehoft told "CBS Mornings" on Thursday. "One of the first things she said when she came back from the verdict when we went into the conference room, was 'I am so sorry to all these women,'" Bredehoft recalled. "She felt like she had let down all of these women because she had more evidence than most people do. And yet they still didn't believe her." Bredehoft called the verdict in which Depp was also found liable for a statement his attorney made to the Daily Mail calling Heard's claims a hoax and ordered to pay Heard $2 million a "major setback for women." She said the jurors' verdict sent a message to all domestic abuse victims. "Amber had an enormous amount of evidence, although a lot of it was suppressed in this case as opposed to the U.K. But look at all the women who have no evidence. All these women who suffer from domestic violence, domestic abuse, and they don't have evidence," she said. "And basically what this jury said is unless you pull out your cell phone and you tape record your spouse beating you, you're out of luck." Actor Amber Heard waits before the jury said that they believe she defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp while announcing split verdicts in favor of both her ex-husband Johnny Depp and Heard on their claim and counter-claim in the Depp v. Heard civil defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S., June 1, 2022. / Credit: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / REUTERS Heard's lawyer said that evidence was suppressed during the six-week trial held in Virginia, compared to a 2020 libel lawsuit against the U.K.'s Sun newspaper, which referred to Depp as a "wifebeater." Depp lost that case. "What they learned from the U.K. case is to demonize Amber, which is what they did, and to try to suppress as much of the evidence that came in in the U.K. and did not come in in the United States," she said. She also believes that Depp's celebrity status, cameras in the courtroom, and social media played a role in the verdict. "We had cameras in the courtroom. Here, we had not only did we have a group of Depp fans that were there every day, 100 were allowed in, they lined up at one in the morning for wristbands to be in that courtroom, but we had everything on camera, and we had tremendous social media that was very, very, very much against Amber," said Bredehoft. Story continues Heard's lawyer does admit that there were some things that her team wishes they could have done differently. She added that she thinks the atmosphere of the trial was what played the ultimate role. "Are any of us perfect? No. Is there something else we feel we should have done? Yes. Absolutely. I always, I redo my closings 100 times afterwards, whether I win or lose. That's part of being a good lawyer, a good trial lawyer is that there's always something," she said. "But I think that there were a lot of influences here that were beyond our control. And I think the social media, it was like a Roman coliseum, is the best way to describe the atmosphere here." Bredehoft said that Heard plans to appeal the verdict. Thousands celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee; Queen seeks reign record The Free Store Project puts donations in the hands that need them most At least four killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma shooting; gunman took his own life Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting at the Kremlin on January 11, 2020. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Merkel denounced the Ukraine war as a "barbaric" act of aggression by Russia. The former German leader has faced criticism over her handling of relations with Putin. Merkel expanded Germany's reliance on Russian energy during her tenure. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel decried Russia on Wednesday for launching a "barbaric war of aggression" in Ukraine. "My solidarity goes out to Ukraine which has been attacked and raided by Russia," Merkel said at a German trade union event in Berlin, per CNBC, in what marked her first public speech since leaving office after 16 years as Germany's leader. Merkel described the Ukraine conflict as a "glaring breach of international law" and a "far-reaching turning point." The former German leader until recently one of the most influential leaders in the world has been the target of criticism over her handling of relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and for strengthening economic ties with Russia even as the dynamic between Moscow and the West became increasingly contentious. Many of Merkel's critics have zeroed in on the central role she played in pushing for the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was meant to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. Opponents of the pipeline project, which was halted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a result of Russia sending troops into Ukraine, contended it would give Moscow dangerous leverage over Europe. Former President of the European Council Donald Tusk in November said Nord Stream 2 was Merkel's "biggest mistake" during her historic run as the German leader. "From the perspective of EU interests, Nord Stream 2 is a bad project," Tusk said, as DW reported at the time. Ukraine has accused the EU of funding Putin's war machine via ongoing purchases of Russian energy. Since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the EU has taken steps to end its reliance on Russian energy. The bloc recently agreed to a partial embargo on Russian oil imports. "This will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Monday. The EU embargo bans imports of Russian oil by sea but exempts pipeline imports. But Germany and Poland both said they would halt pipeline imports. Since Merkel left and following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany has adopted a number of historic policy changes including a decision to provide weapons to Kyiv to aid Ukraine in its fight. That said, the German government continues to face calls to do more and speed up the delivery of lethal aid to Ukraine as Russia makes some progress despite its earlier failings. Read the original article on Business Insider 56th Assembly District candidate Eduardo Garcia speaks to the Desert Sun editorial board on Thursday, September 20, 2018 in Palm Springs As California hospitals prepare for seismic upgrades, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, is hoping to secure a $1 billion state budget appropriation to ease costs for public district hospitals. The Alquist Hospital Seismic Safety Act, or Senate Bill 1953, was established in 1995 in response to unexpected poor seismic performance of hospitals during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. California law mandates that all hospitals rebuild or retrofit by Jan. 1, 2030, and must remain fully functional in the event of an earthquake. The next milestone for hospitals to complete is a full nonstructural engineering evaluation to be reviewed and approved by the California Department of Health Care Access and Information by January 2024. "In light of the $97.5 billion budget surplus, the undersigned members of the California State Assembly and Senate respectfully request the inclusion of $1 billion for Public District Hospitals, for the purpose of meeting the 2030 Seismic Mandate," Garcia wrote in a May 19 letter addressed to the chairs of the state Assembly and Senate budget committees. "This request seeks a one-time expenditure of $1 billion, in Fiscal Year 2022-23, for the 32 District Hospitals to fund new or ongoing infrastructure seismic compliance projects. Without this funding, these public hospitals will struggle to meet the deadline and face closures," he added. Garcia told The Desert Sun on Wednesday that close to 20 legislators have voiced their support for the request. Negotiations between both state legislative houses and the executive office are currently underway. "If were successful in getting a part of this current request, well go back and make an additional request in the following budget cycle," Garcia said. "But whats important to note is any allocation toward this will be a significant victory, and I think at that point we need to come up with some specific guidelines on how that money is distributed and looking at areas that are medically underserved." Story continues The representative also hopes the effort could potentially open up other pathways available to secure federal funding for infrastructure improvements. The Legislature has until June 15 to submit a revised balanced budget to Gov. Gavin Newsom for final approval. A medical worker walks into Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, April 3, 2020. Health care and hospital districts are special districts that are independent from city or county governments and typically serve rural, low-income areas that do not have ample access to medical care, according to the California Healthcare Foundation. Of the 76 healthcare districts in the state, 32 have hospitals, 17 of which are critical access, Garcia said in the letter. The Desert Healthcare District serves 443,239 residents, on 2020 Census data, in the Coachella Valley. Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs is owned by the district, while Tenet Healthcare operates the hospital. In order for these districts to receive funding for projects, they must go to voters to approve a bond or tax or to leverage government financing. "These initiatives often fail, and given the current economy, are likely to remain unsuccessful," Garcia wrote in his letter. "With no additional revenue or support, District Hospitals struggle to even secure financing to begin these projects. Additionally, as public entities they must already pay prevailing wage, which significantly increases the costs of these projects." The Desert Healthcare District estimates the cost to meet retrofit requirements at Desert Regional to be $119 million to $180 million, which includes estimates of soft costs associated with professional fees, inspection and other items. Desert Healthcare District CEO Dr. Conrado Barzaga said Garcia's proposal to state lawmakers is crucial, especially for the 17 critical access hospitals. "Those are hospitals located in rural California and communities where there is very high levels of poverty. It would be impossible for those districts and hospitals to raise the capital through new taxes to do those seismic retrofits," the CEO said. "That is pretty much forcing many of those hospitals to close down, and that would be a significant loss for the California health care infrastructure." If the $1 billion cannot be secured in time, Barzaga said the district "will have to look into every financial alternative that there is." Desert Regional retrofit plans Structural seismic retrofits are needed at three buildings the main hospital and additions, east tower and north wing and nonstructural retrofits at 20 buildings at Desert Regional's campus, according to a 2019 report from engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. In the main hospital, retrofit options include thickening deficient walls and replacing steel braced frames with reinforced concrete walls. The engineering company identified deficiencies in the east tower with chord and collector connections, frame beams and connections and foundations. Similarly, there are issues between beams and walls in the north wing. The direct construction costs for structural retrofits at these three sites total $56,553,186. But accounting for general conditions, general requirements, insurance, fee, a 10% contingency and a 20% escalation (based on starting construction after 2024), the cost comes to $92,954,297. Nonstructural retrofit efforts that need to be made include upgrading fire sprinkler systems in a few buildings. Evaluation reports will need to be completed for several of the older buildings on the Desert Regional campus. Barzaga said the district has met "every deadline that has been laid out for hospitals and we're presenting our findings, our recommendations, our plans to make sure the state of California knows we're doing everything that they're asking of us." Hospital spokesperson Richard Ramhoff said in a statement, "we continue to work closely with the district on engineering studies, surveys, and assessments as we collectively approach the Jan. 1, 2030, seismic compliance deadline. Garcia told The Desert Sun that conversations with the district have been "very helpful to put things into perspective" in regards to the allocation proposal. Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, announced on Aug. 15, 2019 that it plans to open a birthing center by 2021. Another component that the health care district has to consider is its 30-year lease with Tenet, which runs out in 2027. Barzaga said initial conversations about renewing the lease took place before the pandemic, but were put on hold over the last two years. Those conversations are being renewed, he said. "We have an oversight role, but we have to make it clear that the infrastructure is ours, that hospital belongs to the health care district. It is ultimately our responsibility to ensure that this remains a valuable public asset for our community, and Tenet has its responsibility," Barzaga said. "When they assumed the operation of the hospital, they assumed meeting every requirement, any regulation that the state of California enacts ... as long as they're operating the hospital." If a new lease agreement is made between the Desert Healthcare District and Tenet Healthcare, district voters will "ultimately have the opportunity to weigh in and approve or not approve that transaction," the CEO said. Status of other area hospitals Nonpublic hospitals in the desert do not depend on taxpayer money or government funds to complete seismic retrofits. In 2015, through donations by Dennis and Phyllis Washington and other Eisenhower Health donors, the Rancho Mirage hospital began the process of seismically retrofitting its original hospital building. There were also projects done at the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion, which addressed bed replacement in response to seismic requirements, and the emergency department and Renker Pavilion, which included some seismic retrofits, spokesperson Lee Rice said. The total cost of the projects was $300 million. Rice said Eisenhower Health met 2020 requirements of SB 1953 which involved retrofitting the highest risk buildings by 2020 nearly two years ahead of schedule. "The main hospital building was retrofitted to meet the requirements and will remain an inpatient services building until 2030," Lee said in a statement. "All beds have been removed from the building and only a handful of other services remain that will be moved to other parts of the hospital by 2030. The main hospital building would continue as an outpatient services building post 2030." Nonstructural seismic retrofits still need to be completed at the main hospital. Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree and JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, also operated by Tenet Healthcare, continue to work toward meeting the next phase of the seismic mandates, which is the January 2024 deadline for the nonstructural engineering evaluation. "We do not yet have a final project scope or cost estimate. However, both hospitals are less complex buildings than Desert Regional, and both are predominantly one-story facilities," Ramhoff said. "We do not expect the work to be anywhere close to the scale of upgrades for Desert Regional. Our company will fund the capital improvements needed to meet seismic requirements. Ema Sasic covers health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia seeks $1B for hospital seismic retrofits The New York Times SALT LAKE CITY If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, heres whats in store: The lakes flies and brine shrimp would die off scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joked Thursday that his own birth was somewhat delayed by Queen Elizabeth II because his pregnant mother had insisted on driving past a tribute to the British monarch on her way to the hospital. Albanese made the comments before lighting a beacon in the capital, Canberra, to mark the queen's seven decades on the throne. Beacon lighting is a traditional element of British royal celebrations that began as a way for people far from London to take part in festivities. Elizabeths Platinum Jubilee is being celebrated in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth over several days. Albanese said his country's relationship with the queen had changed over time. Australians hold Queen Elizabeth in respect and affection, even as the bond between our nations is no longer what it was at the dawn of her reign, he said. Its no longer parent and young upstart. We stand as equals. More importantly, we stand as friends. The British monarch remains Australias official head of state, although these days the role is considered primarily ceremonial. In her seven remarkable decades on the throne, the queen has been a rare constant," Albanese said. An enduring, inspiring, growing presence of calm, decency and strength." As well as lighting beacons, Australia marked the jubilee by illuminating landmarks in royal purple. During her reign, the 96-year-old monarch has visited Australia 16 times. She became the first reigning monarch to visit in 1954. In 1973, she opened the Sydney Opera House, and four years later returned for a trip that coincided with her Silver Jubilee celebrations. She most recently visited in in 2011. Soldiers. Illustrated | REUTERS, Getty Images, iStock Russian forces have seized control of most of the strategically important Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. Here's everything you need to know: Why is Sievierodonetsk important? Sievierodonetsk the name of which means "North Donetsk" is a manufacturing city located in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast just across the Siverskyi Donets River from twin city Lysychansk. The two cities had a combined pre-war population of around 200,000. In May 2014, pro-Russian fighters captured the city and prevented residents from voting in that year's Ukrainian presidential election. Ukrainian government troops took back the city two months later. Last month, having been driven back from Kharkiv further north, Russia refocused its eastern offensive on the twin cities, surrounding them on three sides and destroying the bridges connecting them, but failing to achieve a full encirclement. Then, last week, Russian forces launched an all-out assault on Sievierodonetsk, supported by withering artillery barrages. If the city falls, Russia will have eliminated the last major pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk Oblast. Russian state media claims the goal of the offensive is to "liberate" Ukrainian-held territory belonging to the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics, which Russia declared independent countries prior to the invasion. U.S. officials believe the republics' Russian-backed sovereignty is a temporary arrangement, however, and that the Kremlin plans to hold phony referendums to annex those territories very soon. The battle for Sievierodonetsk "The Russians are storming, consolidating in the center of Sievierodonetsk, while continuing to destroy infrastructure and industrial facilities," Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Tuesday on Telegram. Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), said Tuesday that around a third of the city had been captured. The same day, Haidai estimated Russian forces controlled about half of Sievierodonetsk before upping his estimate to 70 percent early Wednesday. He also wrote that Lysychansk remains "completely under Ukrainian control." Story continues On Wednesday, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said Russian forces held 60 percent of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian forces held 20 percent, and the remaining fifth was a contested "no-man's land." Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov whose troops are fighting in Sievierodonetsk alongside Russian and LPR forces said Wednesday that the city's "residential sector" was "under full control" and that only a "mopping-up operation" remained. Kadyrov admitted, however, that some Ukrainian fighters who he called "shaitans" or evil spirits were still conducting operations in the industrial zones in the western part of the city, closer to the river. Haidai confirmed this, writing on Telegram that Ukrainian troops had engaged in "street fights," launched "test counterattacks," and even captured six "racists." If Ukrainian forces continue to hold this territory, the Battle of Sievierodonetsk could become a repeat of the Battle of Mariupol, where Ukrainian defenders held out inside the city's massive steel plant for over a month. Scorched-earth tactics Pasechnik told Russian state media outlet TASS on Tuesday that his forces were aiming "to preserve the city infrastructure first and foremost." That may have been the goal, but sources on the frontlines describe the situation very differently. "Almost 100 percent of the city's critical infrastructure has been destroyed, 90 percent of the housing stock has been damaged, 60 percent of which critically, i.e. it cannot be restored," Haidai wrote on Telegram, denouncing the Russian attackers as "uncultured orcs." The two sides also swapped blame over who was responsible for blowing up a nitric acid tank at Sievierodonetsk's Azot chemical plant. According to The Washington Post, Haidai accused the Russians of "exposing residents to toxic fumes," while the LPR military claimed Ukrainian forces destroyed the storage tank in order to obstruct Russia's advance. Quentin Sommerville of BBC described watching "from a rooftop in Lysychansk as, on the horizon, its twin city of Sievierodonetsk was being bombed indiscriminately. Shells were landing every minute on its length and breath. Sievierodonetsk was burning." Haidai estimated that around 1,500 civilians, including more than 50 children, had been killed. Russian forces are reportedly relying heavily on their artillery advantage, launching heavy barrages ahead of any ground advance. "There's a lot of artillery. Bombardments are like a nightmare, we shoot one round, they shoot 10," a Ukrainian soldier named Vladimir told Sommerville. Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven, told the Post Russian forces were "bludgeoning their way through" Sievierodonetsk with artillery. The shelling got so bad that, as Russia began its assault, Haidai told the 13,000 civilians still trapped in the city to shelter in place. Safe evacuation was impossible. Ukrainian troops even gave up on trying to assess their losses. Both Vladimir and Haidai issued pleas for more Western artillery to close the gap. The U.S. is sending advanced medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine as part of its latest military aid package, but they might not reach the front in time to make a difference. The big picture On Saturday, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War described the Battle of Sievierodonetsk as indicative of just how much Russia has lowered its ambitions since the invasion began on Feb. 24. Far from seizing the capital and toppling the government, Russia is now engaged in a "desperate and bloody offensive to capture a single city in the east while defending important but limited gains in the south and east," the think tank assessed. On Tuesday, the ISW suggested that Ukraine has decided to allow Sievierodonetsk to fall, a decision that is "strategically sound, however painful." By refusing to match Russian President Vladimir Putin's "mistaken prioritization" and desire for "largely symbolic gains," Ukraine can conserve its forces to launch counterattacks where they're needed most, the ISW assessed. You may also like COVID vaccines can't keep up with new Omicron subvariants Elon Musk tells Tesla employees to return to office or resign Goats are giving firefighters in Northern California an assist The Biden administration lifted Trump-era flight restrictions that prevented U.S. airlines and chartered flights from going to other cities in Cuba besides Havana on Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said revoking the prohibition was in support of the Cuban people and in the "foreign policy interests of the United States." He made a written request with the U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday and the department made the change on Wednesday. The Trump administration had issued several travel restrictions on Cuba between 2019 and 2020, which the Biden administration has said in recent weeks it plans to ease. MORE CUBANS IMMIGRATING TO THE US BY CROSSING FROM MEXICO Cuba "uses tourism and travel funds to finance its abuses and interference in Venezuela. Dictators cannot be allowed to benefit from U.S. travel," former President Trumps secretary of state Mike Pompeo said at the time, according to Reuters. The Biden White House also plans to lift restrictions on money that immigrants can send to people on the island. The administration said it would also move to reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which has a backlog of more than 20,000 applications and increase consular services and visa processing. "With these actions, we aim to support Cubans aspirations for freedom and for greater economic opportunities so that they can lead successful lives at home," State Department spokesman Ned Price said last month. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Biden administration will wipe out $5.8 billion in student loan debt for people who attended Corinthian Colleges, the United States Department of Education announced Wednesday evening. Corinthian, a for-profit university company, went out of business in 2015 following a lawsuit filed by Vice President Kamala Harris when she was Californias attorney general. The U.S. Department of Education will spend $5.8 billion to cancel remaining loans for 560,000 borrowers who attended one of the companys schools or subsidiaries, including Heald College, Everest College and WyoTech. It is the largest single loan discharge in the U.S. Education Departments history, according to its announcement. Harris is expected to announce the debt cancellation Thursday at the U.S. Department of Education. For these borrowers, whose only mistake was trusting Corinthian Colleges with their higher education dreams, debt relief has been hard fought and long overdue, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement on Wednesday. He lauded the moving, saying it is the final chapter in a legal battle that has spanned nearly a decade and three attorneys general. Nearly 93,000 Californians will receive an estimated $960 million in federal student loan debt relief as a result, according to a release from the attorney generals office. The office had been suing the U.S. Department of Education since 2017 for debt relief to students who attended Corinthian Colleges. The office expects the litigation to end once borrowers get relief, a spokesperson who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. Harris, who served as Californias attorney general from 2011 to 2017, sued Corinthian and its subsidiaries in 2013 over advertising and recruitment practices, alleging that the company misrepresented job placement rates and students ability to transfer credits. She claimed the company intentionally targeted low-income individuals through deceptive advertisements. Story continues A San Francisco Superior Court judge sided with Harris in 2016, ruling that the company misled students. Judge Curtis Karnow ordered that Corinthian pay $820 million in restitution to students and more than $350 million in penalties, amounting to almost $1.2 billion in relief. Corinthian, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., acquired several for-profit colleges across the country and enrolled more than 110,000 students across 105 campuses at its peak in 2010. It sold most of the campuses in 2014 and shut down for good in April 2015. It filed for bankruptcy in May 2015. After Harris investigation, several other state and federal regulators, including the U.S. Education Department, started their own inquiries into Corinthians advertising and recruitment methods. The Education Department will begin notifying eligible borrowers soon, the agencys release read, with discharges coming in subsequent months. The administration has approved $25 billion in loan relief since taking office. It comes while activists and lawmakers call for President Joe Biden to erase student loan debt more broadly. California attorneys general have long pressed the Biden administration to offer relief to students affected by predatory lending practices. Bonta called on the U.S. Department of Education to swiftly relieve Ashford University students from their federal student loan debt in March 2022 after a judge at the San Diego Superior Court found that the school gave students false information about career outcomes, costs, financial aid, transfer credits and pace of programs. In January, Californias and dozens of other attorneys general announced a settlement with student-loan giant Navient over allegations of misconduct in its lending practices. As a result, Navient will cancel $1.7 billion in private loan debt for certain borrowers and offer $95 million in restitution for borrowers across the country. McClatchyDCs David Lightman contributed to this story. President Biden is reported to be closing in on a plan to cancel $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower, but some advocates are concerned about the impact it will have on Black borrowers, who data shows are likely to owe more to cover the costs of education. Many Democrats at the helm of student loan forgiveness efforts have promoted broad-based cancellation as a way to advance racial equity, often citing data showing the disproportionate burden faced by Black borrowers, especially women. But, as more reports surface of Bidens plans narrowing in on a decision on some student debt forgiveness, advocates are dialing up the pressure. The impact that $10,000 would have would be so minor, that it wouldnt really address the real issue for Black borrowers, said Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division. Data from The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) found that Black graduates, who advocates acknowledge often have less access to intergenerational wealth due to historical racial discrimination, were more likely than other racial groups in 2016 to take on student debt, and more of it. In the report, which cites figures from the Department of Education, 80 percent of Black bachelors degree recipients also were found to have graduated with an average debt of $34,000 at the time, more than their white, Hispanic, Latino, and Asian peers. The data also adds to research from the Brookings Institution finding Black graduates are more likely than their white peers to default, and less likely to own a home than white Americans without a high school diploma. A number of advocates and lawmakers say the White House should go as far as possible in cancellation to address the disproportionate amount of federal student debt carried by Black borrowers, pushing for total cancellation of the debt. The calls build upon a growing push by Democratic lawmakers calling for Biden to support more significant cancellation, including approving as high as $50,000 in loan forgiveness. Story continues People are drowning in debt, especially Black borrowers, 10 years after taking out these loans. Two thirds of black borrowers hold more than they did when they started, more. Twenty years out they owe 95 percent of the loan. So, its also a racial equity issue here, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) told reporters last month after a meeting with Biden on the matter. The campaign adds pressure to Biden ahead of the pivotal midterm races in November, amid ongoing attacks from Republicans over the student loans push they say is unfair, and as some experts warn of the effects limited debt action could have on economic efforts to promote racial equity in the long run. Despite calls to go higher, reports that have surfaced in recent weeks signal the White House is most seriously looking at providing $10,000 in cancellation for some borrowers, in keeping with a previous campaign pledge by the president. A recent version of the plan reported on by The Washington Post involved income caps for eligibility, restricting cancellation to individuals that brought in under $150,000 in 2021, and $300,000 for couples. With those restrictions in place, student loan expert Mary Jo Terry said the intent appears to be aimed at helping lower to middle class individuals in this scenario, which is going to help the racial divide. Sandy Baum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institutes Center on Education Data and Policy, also said last month that the proposed cancellation could make a difference for borrowers who hold just a little bit of debt and are struggling financially. About a third of the people who have student debt, hold only 4 percent of the debt, so, in other words, a third of borrowers owe less than $10,000 that all together as up to 4 percent of all the outstanding debt, Baum said. But at the other end of the spectrum, you have about 7 percent of borrowers who owe more than $100,000. Some advocates have pushed back against applying means testing for eligibility, given fluctuations in income and economic instability during the pandemic, among other reasons. Frederick Bell Jr., organizer at the Debt Collective, called the reported plan to attach income caps to debt forgiveness a very slippery slope, adding he often views means-testing as a way to silence the right. Cole similarly expressed concerns about the reported income restrictions, arguing the impact it could have on shutting out Black women, as he said more are continuing to seek higher education and degrees to support their families, and to support the community. Income is not the same as wealth, and its very important that the administration consider the debt-to-income ratio, when thinking about a solution that is going to be equitable for all, Cole said, adding the way your dollar may stretch doesnt look the same, from the Black community to the white community. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Andrew Chung (Reuters) - As President Joe Biden and Congress ponder how to respond to the latest U.S. mass shootings, the Supreme Court is due to decide a major case that could undermine new efforts to enact gun control measures while making existing ones vulnerable to legal attack. The justices are expected to rule by the end of this month in a challenge by two firearms owners and the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, an influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, to that state's restrictions on carrying concealed handguns in public. Oral arguments in the case held last November indicated that the court's 6-3 conservative majority was ready to shoot down New York's restrictions. Such a ruling could set the stage for other state-level gun restrictions to be undone, including bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. The ruling in the New York case could clarify the way judges evaluate whether firearms restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms - a potential new test emphasizing the provision's text and the history and tradition of gun regulations dating back centuries. Such a focus "would result in courts being more likely to invalidate restrictions that lower courts have up to this point in time validated," said Royce Barondes, a University of Missouri School of Law professor who teaches firearms law. Gun rights, cherished by many Americans, are a contentious issue in a nation that has experienced high levels of firearms violence and numerous mass shootings. These include the May 24 attack at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two teachers and the May 14 attack at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York that killed 10 people. Biden since taking office last year has urged Congress, narrowly controlled by his fellow Democrats, to pass new gun restrictions. Democratic-led congressional efforts to enact such measures typically have been stymied by Republican opposition for decades. Story continues Biden has sought to appeal to what he called "rational" Republicans to join Democrats in curbing high-caliber weapons and taking other federal action. Talks led by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and Republican Senator John Cornyn are underway, with no assurance of success. Most Americans support stronger gun laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week. In the poll, 84% of respondents expressed support for background checks for all firearms sales, while 70% backed "red flag" laws enabling authorities to confiscate guns from people found to be a threat to public safety. In the absence of federal action, a number of primarily Democratic-led states have enacted restrictions like these in recent years. Gun control advocates fear that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the New York case could make it easier to challenge existing state and local measures or future restrictions. A few other cases involving gun laws are awaiting the court's review. These include challenges to a Maryland ban on assault-style weapons and a New Jersey ban on firearm magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition - laws that legislatures in both states passed in response to mass shootings. Legal experts expect the justices, after issuing their decision in the New York case, to order lower courts to reconsider rulings upholding those other restrictions. HISTORICAL COMPARISONS A test set out by the justices based on history and tradition would not automatically jeopardize gun restrictions, according to Joseph Blocher, co-director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law. But it could require judges to analogize, for instance, between modern weapons such as assault-style semiautomatic rifles and historical ones such as muskets, leaving room for "personal, ideological predispositions," Blocher said. "A person with a broad view of gun rights is likely to see a modern AR-15 as being relevantly similar to a black powder musket, while a person more supportive of gun regulations might see them as quite different," Blocher added. New York's law requires people to show a "proper cause" for carrying a concealed handgun - including an actual, rather than speculative, self-defense need - to receive permission from a state firearms licensing officer. Unrestricted licenses are granted more freely in the state's rural areas than densely populated New York City. The plaintiffs challenging that law lost in lower courts, but the Supreme Court's conservatives have taken a broad view of gun rights. The case could yield the most important gun rights ruling since 2010. The court in 2008 recognized for the first time an individual's right to keep guns at home for self-defense, and two years later applied that right to the states. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone) Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday honored Queen Elizabeth II in a statement, celebrating her 70 years on the British throne. The Platinum Jubilee kicked off on Thursday as the 96-year-old ruler continues to serve as Great Britains longest-reigning monarch. On behalf of the United States of America, I congratulate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the people of the United Kingdom on the occasion of Her Majestys Platinum Jubilee and official birthday, Blinken wrote. The festivities for Platinum Jubilee will go on for four days with street parties around the country, military displays and a concert at Buckingham Palace, the Associated Press reported. Her Majestys unprecedented 70 years of service to the United Kingdom are an inspiration to Americans, who deeply admire the Queen and are grateful for her decades of friendship with the United States, Blinken said in her statement. Through our special relationship, common history, and shared values, we work together to uphold democracy, human rights, and the rule of law worldwide. Our countries collaborate closely on virtually every significant challenge and opportunity the world over precisely because we have no closer partner. The queen is expected to attend parts of the celebrations despite her recent health troubles that have caused her to skip some events and duties she has had. The United States joins the British people in celebrating this historic and joyous occasion. I send my heartfelt wishes for peace, prosperity, and good health to Her Majesty and all the people across the United Kingdom, Blinken concluded. Queen Elizabeth has received congratulations from other world leaders, along with senior royals such as Prince Harry and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle traveling from California to join the festivities, according to the AP. The queen said she is inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm in a statement released for the holiday. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. StockSeller_ukr / Getty Images/iStockphoto With support from Healthy Acadia and Healthy Peninsula, Blue Hill Farmers Market is now accepting EBT cards at the markets information booth. Maine Pine Tree Cards are connected to SNAP accounts, which provide eligible low-income families with benefits to supplement their monthly food budgets. Discover: In Less Than a Decade, You Wont Be Able To Afford a Home in These Cities More: 9 Bills You Should Never Put on Autopay This is a big step for the market, and we are hopeful that customers will find it to be an added convenience when shopping at the Blue Hill Farmers Market, says Despe Lebel of Healthy Acadia, reports The Ellsworth American. To shop using your Pine Tree Card, visit the Blue Hill Farmers Market info booth to receive a clipboard to track your eligible purchases from the market. Once youre finished, return to the booth with your list of purchases and check out with your EBT card. Blue Hill Farmers Market says that you will receive qualifying Harvest Bucks for additional purchases on the same day or during future visits in the same season. Harvest Bucks are issued to SNAP customers at markets based on the amount of SNAP benefits spent. Maine Harvest Bucks increase the spending power of SNAP customers at farmers markets. For every $2 spent on SNAP-eligible items, you will receive $1 in Maine Harvest Bucks. Jimmy DeBiasi, executive director at the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets, says that more than half a million dollars in SNAP and Maine Harvest Bucks were spent in Maine last year, per The Ellsworth American. More than 30 farmers markets across the state participate in Maine Harvest Bucks and were excited to have the Blue Hill Peninsula as an access point for our program. See: POLL: Do You Make a Weekly Meal Plan or Other Regular Household Budget? Live Blog: SNAP (Food Stamps), Social Security Benefits and More The market takes place at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds every Saturday from 9-11:30 a.m. until October. For two weeks in late August, The Ellsworth American noted, the market will be relocated to First Congregational Church of Blue Hill. Story continues More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Blue Hill Farmers Market Now Accepts Maine Harvest Bucks EBT Food Stamps TheBlast On Tuesday morning, Lyssa Chapman told the world that she was officially married to her girlfriend, Leiana Evensen, who she calls Lei. Chapman is the daughter of Dog the Bounty Hunter, who didnt seem to be in attendance at a beautiful wedding ceremony in Hawaii. The two have been together for five years and finally [] ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports Perhaps the most significant development from Monday in the Deshaun Watson situation was no development at all. Specifically, the lack of a response from Watsons team to the 24th lawsuit could end up creating significant consequences for Watson with the league and/or the team. Attorney Rusty Hardin issued a statement on Monday indicating that hes [more] BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) The white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate-motivated domestic terrorism and other charges. A prosecutor called the evidence against him overwhelming. A lawyer entered the plea for Payton Gendron, 18, in the first case to make use of New York's domestic terrorism hate crime law. Gendron didn't speak during the brief hearing with a heavy security presence. Witnesses, police and Gendron's own writings and livestreamed video have incriminated him as the gunman who used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle May 14 to target shoppers and employees of a Tops Friendly Market, and he surrendered at the crime scene after putting his rifle to his neck. Authorities said he chose the store because of its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood. There is overwhelming proof of the defendants guilt, Assistant District Attorney John Fereleto said. The defendant was caught at the scene of the crime with the weapon in his hands. Gendron has been held without bail since the shooting and is due back in court July 7. He was charged with murder shortly after the attack. On Wednesday, a new indictment expanded the case to include the domestic terrorism charge, along with 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon and three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime. When you hear the phase throw the book at someone, well, in this case right here, the defendant just got War and Peace, District Attorney John Flynn said at a news conference after the arraignment. The domestic terrorism hate crime charge officially, domestic acts of terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree was added to state law just two years ago, after a mass shooting targeting Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The offense carries an automatic life sentence upon conviction. Until now, no arrests or arraignments or arraignments under the law have been reported to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, spokesperson Janine Kava said. Story continues In Gendron's case, the charge accuses him of killing at least five people because of the perceived race and/or color of his victims. Outside court, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called Gendron a racist, hate-filled outsider who came to our community with the stated intent to kill as many Black people as possible. Prosecutors said Gendron drove about three hours to Buffalo from his home in Conklin, New York, to target African Americans. Shortly before opening fire, he posted documents that outlined his white supremacist views and revealed he had been planning the attack for months. Federal authorities also are investigating the possibility of hate crime charges against Gendron. The slain victims ranged in age from 32 to 86. Three other people were wounded. The bloodshed, followed 10 days later by a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has renewed a national debate about gun control. Meanwhile, a 911 dispatcher was fired Thursday after being accused by a Tops employee of hanging up on her during the rampage. The dispatcher, who was put on administrative leave two days after the shooting, was terminated after a disciplinary hearing Thursday, Erie County spokesperson Daniel Meyer said. County Executive Marc Poloncarz last month called the handling of the 911 call completely unacceptable and said the county would seek to fire the employee. The dispatcher's union, the Civil Service Employees Association, said Thursday it had ensured that disciplinary due process provisions were followed fairly and appropriately here. The dispatcher told The Buffalo News late last month she was sorry about what the caller went through during the shooting, adding that more facts would come out at the hearing. A message was left Thursday at a possible phone number for her. ___ Peltz reported from New York. THURSDAY, 2 JUNE, 2022, 10:31 During the night between June 1 and 2, Russian troops shelled Kharkiv, killing one person and wounding one. Source: Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Synehubov on Telegram Quote: "Last night, the Russian occupiers fired on the Kyivskyi and Slobidskyi suburbs of Kharkiv. In [the suburb of] Saltivka, a shell hit a school building. One woman was killed and one man injured. Another three women at the school were rescued by State Emergency Service officers." Details: Two more civilians in Kharkiv were injured in daytime shelling. Telegram Synehubov reminded residents that hostilities continue in the region. On the Kharkiv and Izium fronts, Russian forces are mainly focused on defending and holding the occupied territories. According to the regional head, all attack attempts by Russian troops have been unsuccessful, and the Ukrainian military continues to inflict losses on the enemy. 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. CHICAGO A Chicago police officer was expected to spend the night at a hospital after she was shot and seriously wounded during a traffic stop late Wednesday afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood. Meanwhile, police were searching for at least two suspects, police Superintendent David Brown told reporters. About 5:45 in the 6100 block of Paulina Street, two uniformed officers driving a marked squad car tried to make a traffic stop, Brown said. The driver of the car they were trying to pull over sped off, then slowed down, coming parallel with the police car, Brown said. Suddenly, someone inside the car fired at the officers, wounding a female officer, according to Brown, who said she was in serious but stable condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she will spend the night. Earlier, Brown described her condition as critical. The suspects crashed the car moments later and ran, Brown said. Witnesses told police they may have run in different directions and fled into nearby buildings, Brown said. Officers found a gun in the area where the car crashed and found car keys that were dropped near the gun, Brown said. Its too early to determine whether or not this is the gun, Brown said. But we have found a gun in the immediate area where the offender fled after crashing the car. Helicopters and police surrounded the area where the shooting happened. At about 6:30 p.m. near the hospital, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., officers were directing traffic. Southbound Cottage Grove Avenue was blocked at 55th Street while northbound traffic on Cottage Grove was diverted east or west at 57th Street. Additionally, about a dozen police cars were stationed nearby and around the hospitals emergency room. _____ KRIV Houston police say a woman was chased through a gas station parking lot, knocked to the ground, punched and then robbed. The incident occurred around 2 a.m. May 23 in the parking lot of a gas station the 7600 block of Airline in Houston. Police need the public's help to identity the three female suspects. (Video: Houston Police Department) CHICAGO -- Just two years ago, the American Library Association honored Chicago Public Schools librarian Nora Wiltse with an award for her courageous efforts to raise awareness about the effects of district cuts to library and school media positions. Now Wiltse says her own job is in jeopardy. She expects to receive a pink slip in the next week after 19 years as a CPS librarian, the last 14 at Coonley Elementary. The 900-student school in the North Center neighborhood is one of several in CPS that may cut positions because of budget constraints, even though the district is sitting on more than $1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. CPS officials have repeatedly said every bit of this money will be spent, but they do not want to fund positions the district cannot afford after the coronavirus money expires in 2024 especially as enrollment continues to decline systemwide. A campaign to save Wiltses job continues in the meantime. An online petition demanding a fully funded and staffed library at Coonley has garnered nearly 500 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. Wiltse has been referenced in heated budget discussions at recent public meetings. Those who know her insist Coonley and its library program would suffer without her. She inspires a love for reading in her kids. I see them come to the library. Theyll talk about books or shell recommend a book. She knows what people are reading, and she reads the same things that the kids do so she can talk to them about it, parent and library volunteer Michelle Blose told the Tribune. She just brings a lot to the Coonley community, and it would make me sad to see her not be there anymore. CPS released proposed budget figures for individual schools in March. These are the numbers used to determine staffing for the upcoming school year. Coonleys budget for this school year is $7.32 million, according to CPS. The district proposed a $7.37 million budget for the next school year. The raw numbers dont tell the whole story when you consider contractual raises, Wiltse said. Story continues When Coonleys Local School Council met in April, a budget presentation revealed three positions were on the chopping block for the next school year a teacher, an enrichment position and a teacher assistant. The school would gain a counselor. Wiltse said her enrichment position is getting the ax. The problem is Coonleys enrollment declined the last two years, which has been blamed on the phasing out of the schools regional gifted program, a measure taken to ease overcrowding. Coonley lost 89 students between the last school year and this one, according to data captured on the 20th day of instruction. At the districts monthly board meeting last week, Coonleys LSC chairperson, Brooke Roark, expressed frustration with CPS budget allocation formula. Roark said in an email to the Tribune that Coonleys LSC is very concerned with the budget cuts impacting schools across the city. We have voiced these concerns to Chicago Public Schools and the mayor. Coonleys principal did not immediately return a Tribune request for comment. On May 19, CPS released new budget figures that showed every district-run school was on track to receive more money than what was announced in March. Coonleys proposed budget was adjusted upward by $16,920. That same day, Chicago aldermen grilled CPS officials about budget concerns. Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, had a fiery exchange about Coonley with Charles Swirsky, senior adviser to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. With Coonley and other schools, their enrollment was either going up or stabilizing until the pandemic hit, so were talking about a one- or two-year loss. And you and I have talked about it and (you) said, Well, alderman, you can go door to door and talk with folks to either get those families to return or get new, young families to come, Martin said to Swirsky. And as I told you, its really hard to do that if Im telling them youre losing three instructional and support staff members, including one of the most talented and beloved librarians in our entire school system, who is constantly the subject and rightly so of local and national acclaim. Thats a really hard position that were in, Martin said before raising the prospect of using unspent COVID-19 funds to keep Wiltse employed for at least one more year. Swirsky shot back: Again, the one-time funds have to last beyond the next school year also. CPS officials said the district has spent about 40% of the $2.8 billion federal COVID-19 funds it is expected to be reimbursed over five fiscal years. CPS overall budget for the coming school year is still being formulated. But officials said the budget is expected to include at least $600 million of the coronavirus money, which is set to expire in September 2024. When discussing the budget, CPS stresses it has only 68% of the local and state resources it needs to be adequately funded. I think we all would love for every child in this district to have five specials (such as art and music) and a fully stocked library and a librarian. And right now we dont have the funds to do it because were being funded by 68%, Chicago Board of Education member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said at last weeks board meeting. Wiltse said if her $97,780-a-year position is cut, she would have to find a school with a librarian position thats willing to take her in her 20th year. Coonley, meanwhile, would be at risk of losing thousands of dollars of grant money earmarked for schools with staff librarians, she said. She estimates 33,000 books have been circulated this school year. When librarians have left (other schools), I have done analyses on what happens, and its just exactly what you would think. It just drops down to zero or drops down to like 100, Wiltse said about circulation numbers. So 33,000 books this year circulating. Next year, I dont think any will circulate. Wiltse said each Coonley classroom comes to see her once a week. She has been focused on making reading as easy as possible for these kids after noticing a decline in reading habits during the pandemic. She also teaches information literacy, leads author discussions and encourages her students to write book reviews. She said in her time with CPS, shes seen 300 librarian positions cut and libraries turned into rooms for taking exams. Shes been outspoken against these casualties, even serving on the bargaining team of the Chicago Teachers Union in the 2019 labor contract negotiations. Its this advocacy that earned her the 2020 Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award from the American Library Association. When someone like that, whos really at the top of their game, is in that position, its hard. It affects everyone, Coonley eighth grade teacher Patricia Meegan said about Wiltse. Obviously, if it happens to someone like that, who really has been an advocate and so talented and really a force for leading the fight for librarians, I think that speaks volumes. ___ Two Chicago-area women have been arrested on charges alleging they entered the U.S. Capitol shortly after rioters breached a Senate wing door and later tried to get back in the building before being turned away by police. Trudy Castle, 57, and Kimberly DiFrancesco, 55, were both charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering a restricted government building. The women are related, but their exact relationship was not stated in the charges. Castle, who works as a property manager for a downtown real estate company, was arrested Wednesday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain, who released her on her own recognizance. A lawyer for Castle was not listed on the court docket as of Thursday, and she did not return messages left at her office. DiFrancesco, of Elmhurst, was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to appear before McShain later in the afternoon. The women are the 29th and 30th Illinoisans to have been charged so far in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal probe in the countrys history. Nationwide, about 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, Castle and DiFrancesco were both seen on surveillance footage entering the Capitol building through a Senate wing door shortly after it had been breached by the unruly mob. Images included in the complaint allegedly showed the two as they walked through the building to the elevator bank near the visitors center. In one of the images, Castle, dressed in a white jacket and red and blue Trump hat with a pom-pom, could be seen walking past chairs from an earlier clash with police that had been strewn on the floor. Castle was also captured on surveillance going under a security door just after rioters interfered with its operation, according to the complaint. The images showed Castle walking through the breached door using her arm in what appears to be an effort to protect her head or move the door up should the door deploy downward again, the complaint stated. Story continues Castle and DiFrancesco left the Capitol building after about 40 minutes, where Castle met up with her adult son, according to the complaint. About an hour later, the women appeared to try to get back in the building through the same breached Senate door but were unsuccessful, according to the complaint. At that time, law enforcement officers pushed away the rioters, and the women appear to depart, the complaint stated. The women were identified by law enforcement after a tipster called the FBI field office in Dallas on Jan. 15, 2021, and reported that DiFrancesco had sent photos from her cell phone from inside the Capitol, according to the complaint. Last week, Matthew Bokoski, of Chicagos Uptown neighborhood, was also charged with misdemeanor counts alleging he and his father entered the Capitol 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. jmeisner@chicagotribune.com As Phoenix, along with other cities in the U.S., deal with a growing homeless crisis, there are differing approaches on how to fix the problem. In the final part of a four-part series, FOX 10's Justin Lum takes a look at what leaders are doing in one Texas city to address the crisis, and what one politician in Arizona is proposing. By Clyde Russell LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - Indian oil refiners are sucking up cheap Russian crude, but the risk is that their exports of refined products will eventually attract sanctions from countries determined to cut Russian energy out of global markets. Imports of Russian crude by India hit a record high in May, and will likely rise again in June, according to data compiled by commodity analysts Kpler. India imported 840,645 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude in May, up from 388,666 bpd in April and 136,774 bpd in May last year, Kpler data showed. June imports are estimated at 1.05 million bpd, meaning that Russia's share of India's total imports will rise to just under one quarter, a dramatic spike considering that they were around 2% of the total last year. Indian refiners are happy to buy heavily discounted Russian crude, which is being offered at up to $40 a barrel below benchmark Brent crude prices. Russia's crude exports have been targeted by Western countries as part of sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. The European Union announced this week a ban on seaborne imports from Russia, and together with Germany and Poland committing to ending pipeline imports, about90% of Russia's exports to the 27-nation bloc will end. Other importers of Russian crude have said they also aim to either end or reduce their purchases, including major buyers of Russia's Pacific exports such as Japan and South Korea. However, China, the world's biggest crude importer, and India, the third largest, have thrown a lifeline to Russian exporters, buying increasing volumes to take advantage of the cheaper price relative to other suppliers. The risk for India's refiners is that buyers of their refined product exports start to target these cargoes, given the possibility that some of the diesel or gasoline was refined out of Russian crude. India's Reliance Industries is a case in point. Story continues It operates a 1.2 million bpd refinery complex at Jamnagar on India's west coast and while it does supply fuel to the domestic market, much of the output is exported. The port of Sikka handles Reliance's crude imports, and Kpler data shows that 10.81 million barrels of Russian crude arrived in May, or about 348,000 bpd. The same port exported 2.0 million barrels of diesel, or about 64,500 bpd, to Australia in May, according to Kpler. Australia imposed a ban on imports of Russian oil and refined products on March 11, which came into force on April 24. It's not clear whether the ban applies to fuel refined from Russian crude in a third country, such as India. But it's likely that the Australian government is going to be asked these questions and will have to work out whether it extends the ban on Russian fuels to those coming from third country refineries. The port of Sikka also exported 2.56 million barrels of diesel to Europe in May, while it shipped 890,000 barrels of gasoline to the United States in April. SECONDARY SANCTIONS It's not just Reliance that may be exporting refined fuel made from Russian crude, with Nayara Energy, which operates India's second-largest refinery, also at risk. Nayara is owned by a subsidiary of Russia's Rosneft and a subsidiary of commodity trader Trafigura and it operates a refinery at Vadinar on India's west coast. This port exported 340,000 barrels of diesel to Australia in May, which Kpler said was sold by Nayara. Overall, it's likely that at some point countries buying and processing Russian crude, and then exporting refined fuels, such as India and possibly China, will find themselves under scrutiny from those governments trying to isolate Russia's energy exports. There is the risk of secondary sanctions being imposed, but also of measures to make the physical trade more difficult, such as sanctions on ships that have visited Russian ports, bans on insuring Russian crude cargoes, or cargoes of refined products made from Russian oil. As the world has seen with the sanctions against Iran's oil and product exports, countries and organisations facing such measures try to stay one step ahead, employing subterfuge to mask the true origins of cargoes. A new game of cat-and-mouse involving Russia's energy exports is just getting started. (Editing by Kim Coghill) The corporate boardrooms of the nations largest companies have fewer men and fewer white men than they did just two years ago. New data shows that companies in the S&P 500 shuffled their slate of corporate directors after the murder of George Floyd, adding more African Americans and more women of color to the line-up. In raw numbers, Hispanic and Black women saw some of the biggest gains, though they still trail their participation in the workforce, according to a USA TODAY analysis of information compiled by data firm DiversIQ. Hispanic women, who are 7.3% of the workforce, hold 3.1% of board seats. Black women have 4.6% of board seats but account for 6% of all U.S. workers. If corporations keep up the current rate of change, Black women and Hispanic women could reach parity in the boardroom in the next year or two, USA TODAY found. Black woman corporate executives: Black women still denied top jobs at largest companies 2 years after George Floyd pledges 'A racist and sexist society: How top companies in US are struggling to diversify leadership For years, corporations have pledged to right historic racial and gender inequities on overwhelmingly white and male corporate boards. Following the national uprising over Floyd's death under the knee of a white police officer, pressure from investors and regulators intensified. California even passed laws requiring publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to add women and people from underrepresented groups to their boards of directors or face hefty fines. The laws were effective in boosting diversity on boards but were struck down in the courts. As the nation gets less white and more diverse, corporate America is adapting to better serve that changing market. Studies have linked board diversity with better financial performance and returns for investors. Board members, who are appointed by the company and then voted on by the shareholders, hail from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. For executives, these part-time gigs confer prestige, power and a paycheck. At the largest 100 companies, board member compensation tops $300,000. Story continues A woman looks at a mural on the wall of Cup Foods during a vigil for George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. It has been two years since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis Police. Prior to 2020, you wouldn't have people publicly talking about structural or systemic racism in boardrooms and in C-suites and now it happens all the time, said James D. White, a veteran corporate executive who sits on the boards of Honest Company and Affirm and is author of "Anti-Racist Leadership: How to Transform Corporate Culture in a Race-Conscious World." "The fact that the conversation has changed gives us at least some opportunity to make progress in the real world that impacts peoples lives. The number of men and white men in board seats is declining Since May 25, 2020, the day Floyd was killed, the number of Black board members at S&P 500 companies increased to 11.7% from 8.4%. The representation of people of color on corporate boards also increased, accounting for nearly 23% of board seats today up from about 18%. S&P 500 companies have changed more than 1,000 board members in that period, with 43% of those seats going to directors of color and nearly 26% to African Americans. Of the 500 companies, 225 have added at least one Black director. A far smaller number 32 have added two Black directors. Only three companies American Express, Crown Castle and First Energy have added three. At the same time, the once ironclad grip of men especially white men on corporate board seats is slipping, the USA TODAY analysis shows. Men account for 53% of the U.S. workforce and are 36% of board members today, down from 72.2% in 2020. White men, who held 60% of board seats in 2020, now hold 23%. They still make up more than half 54% of executives at the nations largest companies. Of the S&P 500, 343 companies have boards where white men hold half or more of the seats. There are 17 companies where they hold 75% or more, including Kinder Morgan, Charter Communications, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, DISH Network, Fox Corp., and Sysco. That is down from 2020 when 418 company boards were at least 50% white male and 72 companies were at least 75% white male. Boards up until recently have been pretty entrenched, said Lisa Wardell, executive chairman of AdTalem Global Education who sits on the board of American Express. That is changing. The push for greater diversity made room for more white women, who are 30% of the U.S. workforce. They were 22% of corporate directors in 2020. Today, they hold 54% of seats, more than doubling their ranks on corporate boards. Black men now hold a higher percentage of board seats 7.1% than their representation in the U.S. workforce 5.2%. Boards up until recently have been pretty entrenched, said Lisa Wardell, executive chairman of AdTalem Global Education who sits on the board of American Express. That is changing. Boards are getting more diversity, the executive suite not so much Leading business and diversity scholars warn against placing too much stock in the composition of corporate boards, which they say are often window dressing to conceal the lack of diversity in the executive suite. Even as corporate boardrooms have added African Americans, the executive suite has not, and that includes companies with diverse boards. Take Black women as an example. They hold 4.6% of corporate board seats but only 1.9% of executive jobs, according to USA TODAY analysis of available workforce data. Black men hold 7.1% of board seats but only 2.5% of executive roles. The demographic differences between the boards and executives can be illustrated by two companies with significant numbers of people of color among their corporate directors. About 60% of board seats at both Accenture and Mastercard are held by nonwhite people. Yet, their executive leadership looks different. Only 17% of executive jobs at Accenture and 30% of those posts at Mastercard are held by nonwhite people. Still, having a diverse board is a critical step to making real change inside American corporations, Wardell said. Boards hire and fire CEOs. Period. Full stop, she said. It takes a diverse board, for the most part, to hire a diverse CEO. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fewer men, more Black directors: Corporate board diversity is growing Two women praying for justice one whose daughter was murdered and one whose son was convicted of the crime attended a federal appeals court hearing Wednesday to hear lawyers argue about whether a new trial might be in order. At issue are approximately 8,000 pages of unreleased documents contained in Bloomington Police Department and FBI files from the years-long investigation into the disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Jill Behrman. The defense argued the documents could have been relevant to jurors, while the state contended Myers' lawyer had access to grand jury proceedings and pertinent investigative reports back in 2006 and nothing was kept back. Behrman, an Indiana University student who lived with her parents in Bloomington, disappeared on a Wednesday morning bike ride on May 31, 2000. The search for her continued until her body was found by a turkey hunter in a Morgan County woods in 2003. More on the case: Twenty years ago today, Jill Behrman went on a bike ride and never returned An examination of her remains showed Behrman had been shot in the head with a shotgun. Three years later, John Myers, who lived near Ellettsville, was convicted of her murder by jurors in Morgan County who heard a case based on circumstantial evidence. Myers maintains his innocence, as does his mother, Jodie Myers, who said so outside the federal courthouse in Indianapolis Wednesday when a TV reporter inquired. The victim's mother, Marilyn Behrman, told the FOX 59 reporter she is convinced Myers killed her daughter. She told The Herald-Times she thought the arguments went well on Wednesday. She said the lawyer from the attorney general's office who represented the state made clear the police reports in question were not relevant to the outcome of the case. Clifford Berlow, from the law firm Jenner & Block, is representing Myers in this appeal, one of several that have advanced to the federal level. He said all of the information available from police agencies should have been turned over to Myers' trial lawyer. Story continues "Powerful evidence in those files casts serious doubt on Mr. Myers guilt," Berlow said in a statement. "We believe that when the court reviews those materials it will come to the only possible conclusion: that Mr. Myers did not receive a fair trial and was wrongfully convicted. U.S. District Judge James Sweeney, whose ruling in Myers' favor in a previous appeal was overturned, took the case under advisement. Appeal: Federal judge orders Myers' release from prison in two weeks Myers was sentenced to a 65-year prison term, the maximum for murder in Indiana. With credit for good behavior, his prison term ends in 2037. Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967. This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Could 8,000 pages of police reports mean a new trial for John Myers? Barbados has removed the Queen as head of state (PA Wire) The Duke of Cambridge signalled that the monarchy will support any decisions made by countries to remove the Queen as head of state and become a republic. Prince William said in a speech in the Bahamas that although relationships evolve between countries, friendship endures, amid a string of protests that marked his and Kate Middletons Platinum Jubilee tour of three Caribbean countries. His comments come as Jamaica indicated it has started the process to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state - following in the footsteps of Barbados, which became the latest Commonwealth country to do so in November 2021. Barbados became a republic during a ceremony last year after 40 years under the British monarchy. The Queen sent her warmest good wishes to the new republic of Barbados, and said she anticipated the continuation of the friendship between our two countries and people. Her Majesty said: As you celebrate this momentous day, I send you and all Barbadians my warmest good wishes for your happiness, peace and prosperity in the future. Other Commonwealth countries have proposed replacing the Queen as head of state in recent years, including Australia. Of the 32 countries she has acted as sovereign over during her 69 years on the throne, 17 have removed her from that position. But what is the Queens current position in the remaining countries, and how much power does she have over them? Which countries still recognise Queen Elizabeth II as head of state? The Queen was once the recognised head of state for all the Commonwealth countries and ruled over them the same way she does in the UK. She was recognised as such after the death of her father, King George VI, who was the head of the Commonwealth as stated in the London Declaration of 1949. Today, the Queen is head of state of 15 countries in the Commonwealth realm, including the UK. The other nations are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Story continues She is also recognised as head of state in a number of overseas territories belonging to the UK, Australia and New Zealand, which are not in the Commonwealth, such as Gibralta, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Which countries is the Queen no longer the head of state? While Barbados was the latest country to gain independence and replace the Queen with a president, it is not the first to do this. The last country to take the same action was Mauritius in 1992. Prior to that, Dominica did the same in 1978, Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Guyana in 1970. Will other countries remove the Queen as head of state? Jamaicas prime minister Andrew Holnes suggested to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit there earlier this week that his country may be the next to become a republic. He told the Cambridges, when he welcomed them to Kingston on Wednesday, Jamaica was moving on and intended to fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country. Belize has also indicated that it is considering doing the same. After the Cambridges left Belize, Henry Charles Usher, minister for constitutional and political reform, reportedly told the countrys parliament: Madame Speaker, the decolonisation process is enveloping the Caribbean region. Perhaps it is time for Belize to take the next step in truly owning our independence. But it is a matter that the people of Belize must decide on. Australia has also had several debates on the matter. The last time the country held a referendum to remove the Queen as head of state was in 1999, but 54.9 per cent voted in favour of keeping her. In 2008, former prime minister Kevin Rudd said he was committed to removing the Queen as head of state, but she remains in that position today. Does the Queen have power as head of state? Similar to the UK, the Queen is recognised as a ceremonial ruler in countries where she is the head of state, and has no real power. Each country is run independently of the monarch and has its own elected governors and laws. A Governor-General who acts as the Queens representatives carries out ceremonial duties day-to-day that the Queen is usually expected to do. This can involve duties such as appointing ministers and ambassadors, or giving royal assent to legislation. It Figures is Yahoo Life's body image series, delving into the journeys of influential and inspiring figures as they explore what body confidence, body neutrality and self-love mean to them. Courtney Stodden is working to reclaim their relationship with their body. The 27-year-old, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, is just over two years out of a marriage with actor Doug Hutchison, who married the 16-year-old teenager when he was 51 years old. After speaking out about the reality of the couple's relationship and alleging that they were sexually groomed and verbally assaulted throughout the course of the nearly decade-long marriage, Stodden is recounting the impact that it had on their body image and self-esteem. "My relationship with my body today is so much more healthy than it was even a year ago. I do believe that I am on a trajectory of really learning what it is to be confident in myself. Truly, truly confident," they tell Yahoo Life. "Still, I struggle every day." Born and raised in Washington state, Stodden grew up participating in beauty pageants and had aspirations of modeling and acting before being introduced to The Green Mile actor as their acting coach. In 2011, when Stodden's parents gave parental consent for the teen to marry Hutchison, they quickly became tabloid fodder. While being labeled as a "child bride" in the media, Stodden was also highly objectified. Seeing paparazzi photos of their body "made me hate myself," they explain. "I was a very insecure teenager. I had very horrible self-talk, very negative thinking. And it didn't help to find myself in a slut-shaming storm of my undeveloped body, which just exacerbated my insecurities within myself," they continue. "I was broken down to the point of analyzing every inch of my body and it got to the point of body dysmorphia." Story continues Stodden recalls feeling like they weren't "living up to the standards of society of what a woman is supposed to look like." Although they were just a teen at the time, they wanted to look more grown-up. "I wanted to fashion myself after Pamela Anderson. That was the like ultimate woman," Stodden explains. "I think that was the image that was in my head that I needed to portray to overcome my own insecurities." At the age of 18, Stodden got breast implants, the news of which was notoriously shared with the public. "I made sure that I got a breast augmentation because I had the body of a child but my personal situation behind closed doors and then obviously my career at the time really called for this overtly sexual image that I couldn't necessarily completely fulfill." "I was just trying to look more like a woman for him as well," Stodden says of their ex-husband who they believed desired a more mature figure. "He told me that I was gonna be grotesque after I got my breasts done." Yahoo Life reached out to Hutchinson for comment but did not receive a response. It wasn't until the self-hatred persisted after altering their body that Stodden recognized the toxicity within the relationship and how it was impacting the way they found value in themselves. "I quite frankly hated the way that I looked. I hated almost everything about myself and to have that exploited was really damaging to my self-worth and my self-image," Stodden reflects. "It just shows what a toxic situation I was in." And that toxicity didn't end when the relationship did. Just after getting out of their marriage, Stodden scheduled another surgery for themselves to get butt implants to fashion their figure after the latest beauty standards and trends. "I was so insecure about my butt. I mean, it just never ends. It was the breasts and it's the butt, and then it's gonna be something else," they explain. "A week and a half before the surgery, I was looking in my mirror in the bathroom and I started crying. I said out loud to myself, 'You are beautiful. Why are you doing this to yourself? Is this for society? Is this for Instagram? Is this for likes? Is this for you? Is this gonna be healthy for you? And that was the first time that I had any kind of self-love talk to myself." Stodden canceled the surgery as a result and sat in the realization that this was a part of the healing process. "I am overcoming the sexual trauma, the brainwashing that the most powerful tool we have as women are our bodies," they recall thinking. "Being from a background where I have been sexually groomed really made me think that that was my worth, honestly, that is where my worth came from. That [my body] is basically the most important thing about myself, which in retrospect and now as an adult is so disgusting. And I'm in therapy dealing with a lot of this stuff." Since announcing their official divorce from Hutchison on March 3, 2020, Stodden has found support from multiple therapists. "I don't just have one. I have a few to try to help me out with all of this," they clarify. Much of the work is focused on their relationship with body image and sexuality as they regain control over both. "I've realized that my temple, my body, it belongs to me. It doesn't belong to anybody else. I mean, even our sexual partners or society. It doesn't belong to anybody else other than ourselves," they say. They've also made a practice of lessening the worth placed on their appearance. "Some days I don't look in the mirror and I completely rid myself of that importance because for so long my reflection was really my main purpose," Stodden explains. "And now, I spend maybe three days without looking at myself in the mirror a week and it has helped me a lot." Most notably in the journey to connect with their identity rather than their appearance, Stodden came out as nonbinary to allow themselves to push past a boundary that they felt trapped within. "My gender and the way I presented really has never been in my control. It's been something that I was groomed into believing that was something that I was always going to be," they say, reflecting on the impact of being sexualized from a young age. "I really found safety in [identifying as] nonbinary. I found healing. I found a reemerging within myself. And I think being trapped for so long and [by] so many perspectives and labels, I feel free." If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorders Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237. For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you're unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522. -Video produced by Olivia Schneider Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. President Cyril Ramaphosa says there is no basis for the claims that he had acted illegally South Africa's former spy chief has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of kidnapping and bribery in a case he has registered with the police. Arthur Fraser said the case related to the alleged attempted theft of $4m (3.2m) in 2020 at one of the president's properties and the alleged efforts to conceal what happened. Mr Ramaphosa said "there is no basis for the claims of criminal conduct". Mr Fraser is seen by some as an ally of former President Jacob Zuma. Some believe the allegations could be linked to wrangles within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) ahead of a leadership race in December. The police have confirmed that a case has been registered with them and that "due processes will follow", which includes an initial investigation. Mr Fraser, who ran the country's State Security Agency (SSA) between 2016 and 2018, has said he has handed photographs, bank account details and video footage over to the police. In a statement, he alleged that criminals broke into a farm in Limpopo province in February 2020 to steal more than $4m. They were then detained and interrogated on the property and paid to keep quiet about what had happened, the statement alleges. In response, Mr Ramaphosa's office confirmed that there was a robbery at his farm in Limpopo "in which proceeds from the sale of game were stolen". The president, who was out of the country at the time, reported the incident to the police's presidential protection unit, the statement from his office said. He "stands ready to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation of these matters", it added. After running the SSA, Mr Fraser went on to head the country's prison service. Last September, he was responsible for ordering Zuma's release on medical parole nearly two months into his 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court - a decision which was criticised by many South Africans. He has also been accused of enabling graft while he was running the SSA by witnesses at an inquiry into corruption in the country during the Zuma presidency known as the Zondo commission. Mr Fraser has accused the witnesses of lying about him. Story continues Mr Ramaphosa became president in February 2018 after Zuma resigned in the face of numerous corruption allegations, which he denied. The ANC remains divided between supporters of the two men. It is due to choose later this year who will be its presidential candidate for the 2024 elections. The president has made combatting corruption a priority of his government. But his commitment to this has been questioned as the misuse of state funds, especially over money earmarked for fighting Covid-19, has continued during his presidency. Before he became deputy president in 2014, Mr Ramaphosa was a prominent businessman with stakes in mining, telecoms, media, beverage and fast food companies. In 2014, he declared to parliament that he owned $5m in shares as well as 30 townhouses. But it is widely believed that his wealth is greater than that. Gov. Mike Dewine will award $15 million in grants to meat processors throughout Ohio in the hopes of helping strengthen the local meat supply chain. Grants are awarded through the Ohio Meat Processing Grant Program. During this round, which is the second, 75 Ohio meat processors will receive funding, according to a release. Each business can receive up to $250,00 in grants that can be used for expenses like new or upgraded machinery, personnel training costs, food safety certification costs and more. >> Ohio Senate passes controversial bill allowing adults to carry guns in schools with less training Meat processors have struggled with the supply chain issues that have also impacted other industries, Lt. Governor Husted said in the release. These grants will help meat processors increase productivity, which means they can increase the supply and lower costs for the consumer. The funding available for the program was increased from $10 to $25 million in April after state officials found businesses needs for grants exceed the original funding amount. Ten processors across the Miami Valley have been awarded grants. For more information about the grant visit the Ohio Department of Developments website and to see the full list of grantees visit here. The shooting at a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday claimed the life of a doctor who started his career in Boston. Dr. Preston Phillips graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1990 according to his physician profile with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine and he did two fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston in 1986 and 1996, and a fellowship with Boston Childrens Hospital according to his hospital profile. Dr. Phillips trained in Spine Surgery at BIDMC in 1996 and has since remained closely engaged with our community, said Edward K Rodriguez MD, Chief, Department of Orthopaedics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was an exemplary surgeon and individual who represented all that is best in Orthopedics. He was always devoted to his patients and a remarkable role model for residents and fellows. He will be very much missed by everyone who knew and worked with him. On behalf of the entire Boston Childrens Hospital community, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues -- current and former -- of Dr. Preston Phillips and the other victims of the Tulsa shootings, said Boston Childrens President and CEO, Dr. Kevin Churchwell. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and violent act that took Dr. Phillips talented and committed life. This is yet another reminder of the pressing need for strong, effective and comprehensive national gun safety legislation that addresses the escalating public health crisis of gun violence, Dr. Churchwell continued. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said Thursday that the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery was Dr. Preston Phillips. Dr. Phillips was killed along with Dr. Stephanie J. Husen who specialized in sports medicine, receptionist Amanda Glenn and patient William Love. Story continues Authorities say the man who opened fire at a Tulsa medical office, Michael Louis, had purchased an AR-style rifle hours before the shooting. Authorities said the gunman carried a rifle and handgun during the shooting at the medical building on a hospital campus, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. This person didnt come to a hospital looking to shoot random people for any reason he had very specific purpose today he went to this floor he went to this building cause he had intent, Capt. Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department said. Fox 23 in Tulsa reports the call came in for an active shooter at 4:52 p.m. Wednesday. By 5:01 p.m., Tulsa police were on the second floor of the Natalie building where they found the gunman and the victims dead. Dominica Smith, a nurse who works in the Natalie Building described the scene as chaotic and scary. We were able to text family and ask them to keep us in prayer, and keep in touch with our family to let them know were ok, Smith said. Im very shaken up, I mean, Ive seen it on TV the last couple of weeks, and its just, just startling to just have to go through that. its very scary, its scary. The Natalie Building houses an orthopedic center. KOKI reported that St. Francis has canceled appointments due to Wednesdays shooting. This campus is sacred ground for our community, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said Wednesday. For decades, this campus has been a place where people come to work - heroes have come to work - to save the lives of people in our community. Just in the last few years, in the greatest public crisis our city has had to face, this has been the facility more than any other that has worked to save the lives of people in this city. MORE COVERAGE: Police: Tulsa suspect targeted surgeon he blamed for pain Material from the Associated Press contributed to this story This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW PARIS (AP) Rafael Nadal showed up at Roland Garros with his personal doctor along for the trip, hoping to get some help with the chronic pain in his left foot thats been an off-and-on problem for years. Nadal, as is his wont, has downplayed his chances at a 14th French Open trophy and 22nd Grand Slam title overall both of those numbers would add to records he already holds and repeatedly said he has no idea whether each match might be the last of his career in Paris. Still, he sure looked just fine from up-close, playing with his usual resilience and joie de vivre all the while. Never more so than during the victory over No. 1 seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic that moved Nadal into the semifinals on Friday the Spaniards 36th birthday at the clay-court major tournament that he has lorded over for so long. At the 1:15 a.m. conclusion of that 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) triumph as the calendar flipped from Tuesday to Wednesday, Nadal turned toward his guest box in the stands and smiled quite a wide smile, then covered his face with his taped-up fingers. I (was) emotional because, of course, the last three months and a half for me ... havent been easy, Nadal said, referring to both a rib injury and the foot issue that limited both his number of matches and his hours on a practice court. A victory over No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany on Friday would allow Nadal to continue on the path to another championship at the French Open. And if he also were to go on to win Sundays final against either 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia or No. 8 Casper Ruud of Norway, who meet in Fridays other semifinal, there also would be this to consider: Nadal would own the first two legs of a calendar-year Grand Slam for the first time. Hard to believe, maybe, but Nadal never has managed to get halfway there. His lone Australian Open title before this January came in 2009, the year he lost at Roland Garros for the first time, eliminated in the fourth round by Robin Soderling. Story continues Nadals French Open record is 110-3 (two of the defeats came against Djokovic, in 2015 and a year ago) and he is into his 15th semifinal there. The prospect of how many more contests he might have left has been something he has addressed more than once in recent days. Asked after defeating Djokovic how much the raucous crowd support he received in Court Philippe Chatrier helped, Nadal said: Probably, they know that Im not going to be here for a lot more times. Moments later, after mentioning his doctors presence, Nadal said: I am putting everything that I have to try to play this tournament with the best conditions possible, no? I dont know what can happen after, honestly." When a reporter wanted to know how thoughts about his future affect him, Nadal replied: I dont know whats going to happen after here. I mean, I have what I have there in the foot, so if we are not able to find an improvement or a small solution on that, then its becoming super difficult for me. Nonetheless, he managed to win two matches that each lasted more than four hours, against No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round, then against Djokovic. Im not surprised at all, Djokovic said. Its not the first time that he is able, a few days after hes injured and barely walking, to come out 100% physically fit. Nadal's opponent, Zverev, was the runner-up at the 2020 U.S. Open and a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics. The 25-year-old, who is under investigation by the ATP after being accused of abuse by a former girlfriend, is playing in the Roland Garros semifinals for the second consecutive year. Zverev owns a single victory in 12 Slam matches against opponents ranked in the top 10; that came Tuesday when he eliminated No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz. Cilic, 33, and Ruud, 23, are making their semifinal debuts in Paris. For Ruud, its his first appearance in the final four at any major. For Cilic, it completes a set of at least one semifinal at each major. He won a Grand Slam before, (been in) several finals, so he has more experience than me, Ruud said about Cilic, so I have everything to win and nothing to lose. While the other semifinalists have combined for one major title, Nadal can increase his lead to two over Djokovic and Roger Federer in the career Grand Slam count. They are both at 20. There is always a conversation about the player who finished with more Slams or who is the best (in) history, but from my perspective, doesnt matter that much," Nadal said. "We achieve our dreams. We make history in this sport, because we did things that didnt happen before. ___ More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Queen in October 2021 (Getty Images) The platinum jubilee celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth IIs 70 years on the throne are fast approaching, with a whole host of events to mark this special occasion. Four days of celebrations are scheduled to honour the monarch, including a platinum jubilee concert, Trooping the Colour, a pageant and a Service of Thanksgiving. However, the question of whether the 96-year-old will be fit to attend all the events is still up for debate due to episodic mobility issues suffered by the Queen since autumn last year. Such difficulties were cited as the justification for the monarch to pull out of the state opening of parliament earlier in May, prompting Prince Charles to stand in for her at the last minute. Her absence was the first time the Queen was not present at the annual event in nearly 60 years. So, what events is her majesty expected to attend over the bank holiday weekend? Heres everything we know so far. What events will the Queen attend over the platinum jubilee bank holiday weekend? Members of the Welsh Guards march during the Trooping the Colour parade in June 2019 (Getty Images) In early May, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that the Queens attendance at the platinum jubilee celebrations may not be confirmed until the day itself. Speaking ahead of the four-day bank holiday weekend, the spokesperson explained: The Queen is looking forward to the weekend and will be taking part in the celebrations but her presence will not be confirmed until much nearer the time or even on the day itself. Despite this, the monarch is currently expected to attend the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Thursday 2 June and a Service of Thanksgiving at St Pauls Cathedral on Friday 3 June. There will be no ceremonial journey to the Service of Thanksgiving and the Queen is expected to use a separate entrance so as not to walk up the main stairs. The Queen was initially scheduled to attend the Epsom Derby on Saturday 4 June, but her attendance has been called into question with The Sunday Times reporting it to be increasingly unlikely. Story continues Buckingham Palace said Her Majestys attendance would likely only be confirmed the day-of. What events are scheduled to take place over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend? A series of events held across the four-day bank holiday weekend include: Thursday 2 June: the Trooping the Colour parade and the platinum jubilee beacons. Friday 3 June: a Service of Thanksgiving. Saturday 4 June: The Derby at Epsom Downs and the Platinum Party at the Palace. Sunday 5 June: The Big Jubilee Lunch and The Platinum Jubilee Pageant. Buckingham Palace has now revealed the exact timings of all of these events. (Getty Images for the Invictus Ga) Fans are fawning over the stunning navy dress Meghan Markle donned for an appearance at the Queens platinum jubilee celebrations on Thursday amid speculation she recycled one of her old wedding outfits. The Duchess of Sussex arrived at the Trooping the Colours parade, accompanied by husband Prince Harry, as they watched Queen Elizabeth IIs birthday event from the Major Generals office. At the parade, Markle wore a navy, off-the-shoulder dress and a large and white hat with a navy bow, which is thought to be designed by British milliner Stephen Jones. Some fans have said that her outfit looks a little bit familiar, as she wore a similar navy dress, designed by Roland Mouret, ahead of her royal wedding in 2018. Is Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex wearing her @RolandMouret Roland Mouret Navy Barwick Dress at #TroopingTheColour today?, one Twitter user wrote, along with a photo of Markle at the parade and a photo of Mourets dress. It seems like Princess Meghan wore this dress before on the week of her wedding, another person wrote. Regardless of the similarities between the outfits, fans have continued to praise Markles look for the Jubilee celebration. Story continues Meghan looks ab-so-lu-te-ly stunning and beautiful in her show stopping outfit, one Twitter user wrote. A real Queen. Meghan Markle looks beautiful and elegant, another person wrote. A third fan added: Our favourite duchess #MeghanMarkle flawless, stunning and perfect. Meghan looks ab-so-lu-te-ly stunning and beautiful in her showstopping outfit. A real Queen. Kids have a good sense for fake people. Nice to see them interact with Meghan in a playful manner #MeghanMarkle #HarryandMeghan #PrincessHenryofWales HarryMeghanTrueForces4Change (@Madelei28864095) June 2, 2022 The mother-of-two was also seen with Peter Phillips daughters, Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, and Mike and Zara Tindalls children, Mia, eight, and Lena, three, as the military event went on. In photos obtained by theDaily Mail, Markle playfully shushed the children. Markle and Prince Harry arrived in the UK this week with their three-year-old son and daughter Lilibet, who will be turning one on Saturday. The couple are expected to stay for the four-day celebrations at their old home of Frogmore Cottage. Since stepping down from their royal duties in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been living in the US, as this week is Markles first royal appearance in the UK in two years. Prince Harry visited London in July 2021 for the unveiling of a statue of his late mother, Princess Diana, at Kensington Palace. Follow our live coverage of the Queens platinum jubilee celebrations here. PARIS (AP) Members of the French diplomatic corps dropped their traditional reserve on Thursday to go on a rare strike, angered by a planned reform they worry will hurt their careers and Frances standing in the world. It was the second such strike in nearly 20 years. About 100 diplomats dropped the veil of invisibility that often defines their work to demonstrate in full view of the imposing Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs that is the home base for the foreign service. In overseas posts, ranging from Tokyo to the Middle East and Washington, numerous diplomats, including some ambassadors, honored the day-long strike. They want President Emmanuel Macron to scrap a plan to merge career diplomats with a larger body of civil servants, starting in January, or at least hold a dialogue. The action, announced by Macron in an April decree, will reportedly affect about 800 diplomats. Opponents claim thats just the beginning. We risk the disappearance of our professional diplomacy, a group of 500 diplomats, wrote in a commentary published last week in Le Monde newspaper. Today, (diplomatic) agents ... are convinced it is the very existence of the ministry that is now being put into question. The planned change comes amid the war in Ukraine and complex negotiations over Irans nuclear program, and while France holds the European Unions rotating presidency. Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, herself a career diplomat, has not commented. Demonstrators held a large banner reading Professional Diplomats on Strike during the protest across from the ministry, best known as the Quai d'Orsay for its location by the River Seine. To say that diplomacy is in danger, that word may be too strong, said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a former ambassador to China, Japan and Britain, who was taking part in the public protest near the ministry. But, he added, diplomacy will be weakened, at a time when those skills are especially needed. Story continues To become an ambassador, before getting to the top of the ladder, it is necessary to actually tick some boxes," said another demonstrating diplomat, identifying himself only as Benjamin. "And this reform supports the idea that there is no need for such skills." Like others not yet at the top rung, he declined to give his full name. The government reform is meant to modernize and diversify France's diplomatic corps, which was created in the 16th century, and to bring down the walls of what some in the government see as an elite institution turned in on itself. It will put diplomats into a large pool from all branches of public service, encouraging switches to other ministries and forcing personnel to compete with outsiders for prized diplomatic posts. Diplomats contend their job requires specialization and expertise acquired over years in posts around the world and has no room for amateurs. Today, I am on strike, Deputy Ambassador to the United States Aurelie Bonal tweeted. "Diplomats negotiate, talk, compromise. They generally do not go on strike." Among concerns over the reform, Bonal raised yet another concern of protesting diplomats who contend the change could generate: cronyism. Without a diplomatic corps, it will be much easier for the (government) to appoint friends at all levels of diplomatic jobs, she tweeted. Dominique de Villepin, a former prime minister and foreign minister known for an eloquent 2003 speech at the United Nations in which he declared French opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, labeled the pending reform in a tweet last month A historic fault. For France, the loss of diplomats separate status in the civil service means a loss of independence, a loss of competence, a loss of memory that will weigh heavily on the years ahead, Villepin tweeted. Even before Macrons decree, anger and frustration had festered in the foreign ministrys halls over cuts in funding, personnel and outsourcing. The group commentary in Le Monde deplored decades of marginalization of the ministrys role within the (French) state as well as a vertiginous reduction in personnel down by 30% in 10 years, the diplomats claim. Funding, they said, is but 0.7% of the state budget. The Twitter hashtag, #diplo2metier, shows a number of ambassadors around the world joining in or supporting Thursday's strike. I will be on strike ... to protest the reform of the diplomatic corps and the continued reduction of means for our diplomacy, French Ambassador to Kuwait Claire Le Flecher tweeted on her personal account. Bonal, the deputy ambassador to the United States, said the job of diplomat is more than gorging on Ferreros in touristic countries. The truth is we also visit morgues & jails; we work very late hours, not always in safe countries," she tweeted. Its a vocation, not a 3-year experience. Bonal said she was among those who went on the first such strike in 2003, a protest over budget cuts. ___ Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed. Police respond to the mass shooting at St. Francis Hospital on June 1, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J Pat Carter/Getty Images) The gunman who killed four people at a Tulsa hospital bought a rifle just hours before the shooting. Authorities said an AR-15 style rifle was purchased shortly before Wednesday's mass shooting. Thirty bullet casings from a semi-automatic rifle and seven from a handgun were found at the scene. The gunman who killed four people at a Tusla hospital on Wednesday bought an AR-15 style rifle just hours before the mass shooting, authorities said. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said at a Thursday press conference that the gunman purchased a semi-automatic rifle from a local gun store at 2 p.m. on June 1, three days after buying a semi-automatic handgun at a pawn shop. Just a few hours later at 4:52 p.m., a series of 911 calls from the hospital began to stream in about an active shooter in a medical building at St. Francis Hospital, Franklin said. The gunman had come to the hospital with the intent to kill a doctor whom he blamed for pain after a recent back surgery, Franklin said. A letter found at the scene leads investigators to think the gunman was prepared to shoot "anyone who got in his way," Franklin added. Franklin said the doctor is among the dead, including the gunman who apparently died by suicide. Authorities said investigators found 30 bullet casings from a semi-automatic rifle and seven from a handgun at the scene. Read the original article on Insider Ninh Binh national park receives more rare animals Two more rare animals have been handed over to Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern province of Ninh Binh after being rescued. According to the management board of Cuc Phuong National Park, the agency co-operated with Save Vietnam's Wildlife to save one Sunda pangolin and one pig-tailed macaque. The Sunda pangolin was rescued in Haiphong The Sunda Pangolin was found at Du Hang Kenh Ward in Haiphong City and the pig-tailed macaque was raised by a family in Trung Trac Commune, Van Lam District. The two animals, which are being kept at Cuc Phuong National Park, are in stable health condition. Both the pig-tailed macaque and the Sunda Pangolin are listed in Vietnam's Red Data Book. The pig-tailed macaque is an endangered and rare species. A Muslim family says McDonalds workers purposely stuffed slices of bacon into a fish sandwich and charged extra for it in Massachusetts, according to a civil rights group. It is commonly known that Islam forbids Muslims from eating pork, a June 1 news release from the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MA) said. It called the incident a case of religious discrimination. The organization, along with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), filed a complaint against McDonalds on behalf of a mother who ordered a plain fish sandwich for her 7-year-old son in Chicopee in June 2021. My children now wonder if they are welcome in their own country. They ask me, Do they hate us?, the mother, who emigrated from Yemen and now lives in Chicopee, said in a statement. How is a mother supposed to answer that question? The franchise owner and operator of McDonalds, Jorge Gomez, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement that these claims go against everything we stand for, and were actively looking into the matter. My organization has an unwavering commitment to ensure that, at every interaction, all are welcome, comfortable and safe. McClatchy News left a message with a representative from Gomez Enterprises LLC, the company that runs the McDonalds in Chicopee and was also named in the complaint. When the woman in the claim goes out in public, she wears a hijab and an abaya, which is consistent with her Muslim faith, the complaint said. In June 2021, she arrived at the Chicopee McDonalds, where she ordered a plain fish sandwich for one of her twin sons, according to the complaint. This was reiterated by the children, whom she asked to repeat the order in case the employee did not understand her due to her accent. One son told the worker he wanted a plain fish sandwich with nothing on it. After receiving the sandwich and a few other items from another worker, the trio walked to a playground to eat, the complaint said. When the one boy saw his fish sandwich, he exclaimed, its khinzir (pig)! Alamhar looked and saw that roughly four strips of bacon were added. Story continues The complaint notes that this is more bacon than would typically be given upon request. Additionally, the woman saw she was charged extra for the bacon on the receipt. This made her and her children feel unwanted and worthless and that the workers were punishing them for their faith and religious convictions, the womans statement said. She did not want her son to eat the sandwich, but he was hungry so she reluctantly let him eat a small portion of it, the complaint said. A few hours later, the womans husband was shown what was left of their sons sandwich, as well as the receipt, and he went to speak with the manager at the McDonalds in Chicopee, according to the complaint. The manager acknowledged that it was highly unlikely the employee who took the order added bacon by accident and gave a refund, the complaint said. Religious discrimination at a place of public accommodation is not only illegal, but also morally reprehensible, said the legal director of CAIR-MA, Barbara J. Dougan, in a statement. McDonalds and Wendys are deceiving you about their burgers, lawsuit says Muslim prayer leader attacked at mosque, told to go somewhere else, NJ cops say Customer with HIV was refused service at Chicago salon, feds say Chipotle worker endured daily sexual harassment that went ignored, lawsuit says (Lila Barth / For The Times) If it werent for her twin daughters, Heidi Schreck says she wouldnt have wanted to get out of bed for a few days after news broke that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade. I felt so depressed and sad, she says of that day in early May when a leaked draft opinion made it clear that the constitutional right to an abortion was under immediate threat. Schreck will be the first to say that she is no constitutional scholar, but as a playwright she has distinguished herself as a person with valuable thoughts on the document with her Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me. The production was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and emerged as one of the most critically acclaimed and talked-about pieces of theater in 2019. Three years later, Schreck (who also starred in the production) and the original Broadway cast are returning to the stage for a one-night-only reading to benefit the National Network of Abortion Funds, which provides financial and logistical support to women seeking abortions. The event takes place June 9 inside the Great Hall at Cooper Union college in New York City where she will stand behind a lectern where great orators of the past, including President Abraham Lincoln, have spoken before audiences. The hall was also the site of rallies supporting the NAACP and women's suffrage. That this particular play will be staged in support of womens access to safe and legal abortions or that Schreck takes this subject extremely seriously will come as no surprise to fans of her work. Via sometimes painful, always illuminating personal stories and family history, What the Constitution Means to Me examines the countrys founding document and the ways it has neglected, and failed to protect, women and other marginalized groups throughout history. The subject of abortion and a womans right to control her own body is of prime importance throughout the play. In it, Schreck recalls growing up in a abortion-free zone in Washington state and eventually obtaining her own abortion after getting pregnant while starring in a small theatrical production in Seattle. Story continues Schreck spoke with The Times about taking to the stage again and what she hopes to accomplish by it a week after 21 people, including 19 children, were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. If her emotions about this moment in American history were raw after the leaked Supreme Court decision a month ago, they are doubly so now. She expressed feelings of grief, rage and despondency but maintained a resiliency of spirit in the face of those emotions. She hewed firm to a belief that it is necessary to continue working for change that activists she admires do it every day and that small actions by many can build into a movement larger than the sum of its parts. I have these two kids for whom I have to keep trying, says Schreck, adding that in looking for a way to contribute to positive forward motion, she landed on returning to her play. I have this show that makes a personal case for why bodily autonomy is one of our fundamental freedoms, why it matters, why it can crush someones life if they dont have it. Plus, repeatedly performing the personal and provocative play in 2018 and 2019 ultimately galvanized her, Schreck says. Going through that journey every night made me feel hope, she says, and feeling hope made her feel better, which she now believes will help her her take more action. I'll be able to go out and protest, I'll be able to keep calling my reps, I'll be able to keep trying to donate money to state races and to local races where I think a lot of fundamental change actually can be made. As for the Constitution itself, Schreck feels deeply ambivalent. She says the document has been used to rectify great wrongs, although she says that has mostly been accomplished through the 13th and 19th Amendments and also through the 14th, which she believes is one of the greatest additions to the document. But at this moment in time, she says, she feels like the Constitution is being invoked by those who want to roll back crucial human rights. "I have these two kids for whom I have to keep trying," says Schreck. (Lila Barth / For The Times) The extent to which the document is treated like a holy document, by people on both sides, I think, is a problem, she says. Because it can be interpreted, and it does become like a Rorschach test. You can see whatever you want. This makes Schreck long for a modern Constitution one written in the 20th rather than the 18th century. What if we had to write it today? What would we want this document to say? she asks. What do we care about as a society, as a culture, as a country? Schreck does not believe America is as hopelessly broken as it may seem to those regularly consuming news of a great, unscalable partisan divide. She says polls show time and again that a majority of Americans are in favor of legal abortion and common-sense gun control. She cites structural problems baked into politics, including rampant voter suppression and gerrymandering that has resulted in a minority of people with very conservative views" dictating policy for the country. That's what's really happening, she says. I think there's more agreement in America than we like to acknowledge. Much has changed in the few years since Schreck last performed What the Constitution Means to Me. She gave birth to twins at the beginning of the pandemic, so her life radically transformed in tandem with the worlds own radical transformation. In that context, her play has taken on layers of added meaning. Schreck admits to feeling some trepidation revisiting the stage and the autobiographical material. But when those feelings wash over her, she thinks of the women in her life who showed bravery, compassion and kindness in the face of difficulty, including those who helped her at the clinic where she got her abortion many years ago. They were so kind to me, and they told me that I have the right to make a decision about my body and my future in a really loving supportive way, she says. They made what could have been a horrific experience for me into a positive one, and I think about that a lot because thats where I think the small actions matter. "What if we had to write it today? What would we want this document to say?" Schreck asks. "What do we care about as a society, as a culture, as a country?" (Lila Barth / For The Times) This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. In 2020, the COVID pandemic cancelled graduations across the country. In Florida, Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School came up with an alternative: a beach walk in their caps and gowns 6feet apart. The event was so popular, it is now a tradition the day before their actual graduation. Illinois reported 36,843 new cases of coronavirus in the week ending Sunday, down 8.3% from the previous week. The previous week had 40,193 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. Illinois ranked seventh among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 11.3% from the week before, with 702,236 cases reported. With 3.81% of the country's population, Illinois had 5.25% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 32 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. Henry County reported 66 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 106 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 13,056 cases and 121 deaths. Across Illinois, cases fell in 46 counties, with the best declines in Cook County, with 16,301 cases from 18,084 a week earlier; in DuPage County, with 3,030 cases from 3,778; and in Lake County, with 2,403 cases from 2,898. >> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases Illinois ranked 21st among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 76.7% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.7%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart. In the week ending Wednesday, Illinois reported administering another 122,081 vaccine doses, including 11,405 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 118,794 vaccine doses, including 14,140 first doses. In all, Illinois reported it has administered 22,673,553 total doses. Within Illinois, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Logan County with 486 cases per 100,000 per week; Sangamon County with 473; and Peoria County with 390. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Story continues Adding the most new cases overall were Cook County, with 16,301 cases; DuPage County, with 3,030 cases; and Lake County, with 2,403. Weekly case counts rose in 54 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Sangamon, St. Clair and Peoria counties. In Illinois, 45 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 56 people were reported dead. A total of 3,286,377 people in Illinois have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 36,239 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 83,984,644 people have tested positive and 1,004,733 people have died. >> Track coronavirus cases across the United States Illinois's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, May 29. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state: Last week: 3,197 The week before that: 3,039 Four weeks ago: 2,498 Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation: Last week: 55,952 The week before that: 52,036 Four weeks ago: 41,964 Hospitals in 34 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 33 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 35 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows. The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Henry County reported 66 additional COVID-19 cases this week this week Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty Images Megan Markle and Prince Harry attended Trooping the Colour with their children on Thursday. The family didn't appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the Queen's birthday celebration. According to The Times of London, only working royals were due to appear on the balcony. Trooping the Colour is the annual celebration to mark Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday. The Queen's actual birthday is on April 21, but because British weather can be unpredictable she also has an official birthday that takes place in June, when the public can participate in the monarch's festivities. The parade typically involves the extended royal family making an appearance alongside the monarch on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, along with Prince Andrew, were noticeably absent from the balcony this year as non-working royals were excluded from any formal proceedings, as Insider previously reported. On May 6, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Insider in a statement: "After careful consideration, The Queen has decided this year's traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd June will be limited to Her Majesty and those Members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of The Queen." The Times of London reported that the Sussexes were located in a VIP section to watch Trooping the Colour and a royal source said the couple will attend "at least" one other public engagement during the public holiday, as well as the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral on Friday. Working royals in attendance on the balcony included Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Princess Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, and Princess Alexandra. Also in attendance on the balcony were the Cambridge children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis and the Wessex children Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn. Also in view was Princess Anne's husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, who the Queen was happy to receive "as a frequent attendee and support to the Princess Royal on official engagements," a royal source told Town and Country. Story continues The Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace following the Queen's Birthday Parade, the Trooping the Colour. DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images Thursday's parade of royal officers and horses, overseen by Major General Christopher John Ghika, marked the start of the four-day Platinum Jubilee festivities celebrating the Queen's 70-year reign. Though they weren't seen during the event, it marked the first time Markle and Harry have attended a royal event as a family with their children Archie, 3, and Lilibet, who is due to turn 1 year old on Saturday. A spokesperson for the Sussexes told Insider that the Queen will meet Lili, who is named after the monarch, for the first time, and see Archie for the first time since 2020. Markle and Harry have attended two Trooping the Colour parades in the past, with their first appearance taking place shortly after they married in 2018, and their second appearance in 2019, Insider's Mikhaila Friel previously reported. Town and Country further reported that there could be a final balcony appearance after the pageant on Sunday that may feature additional family members such as the Sussexes. Read the original article on Insider Jared Kushners cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia has long drawn scrutiny. Now its the subject of a House investigation. House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) on Thursday sent a letter to Kushner seeking information about a $2 billion investment the Saudi government made in Kushners brand-new investment firm just six months after he left the White House. The Committee is concerned by your decision to solicit billions of dollars from the Saudi government immediately following your significant involvement in shaping U.S.-Saudi relations, the eight-page letter says. Your close relationship with Crown Prince bin Salman [and] your pro-Saudi positions during the Trump Administration ... create the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work during the Trump Administration. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) reportedly made the investment over the objections of its own advisers, who, among other things, were concerned about Kushners inexperience and a $25 million yearly management fee. They were overruled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who developed a relationship with Kushner during his time in the White House that was so close it reportedly alarmed senior government officials. Just how close were they? After Salman personally approved the operation to assassinate and dismember Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and fierce critic of his policies, he enlisted Kushners help in cleaning up the political mess. The two often communicated via personal WhatsApp texts. Your support for Saudi interests was unwavering, the letter notes, even as Congress and the rest of the world closely scrutinized the countrys human rights abuses in Yemen, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi assassins tied to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Saudi Arabias crackdown on political dissidents at home. In April, a presentation that Kushners firm gave to prospective clients was obtained by The Intercept, an investigative nonprofit news organization. The business model described therein, as characterized by the Oversight Committee, focuses on trading on the relationships [Kushner] built while working for [his] father-in-law in the White House. Story continues A spokesperson for Kushner told The New York Times that Kushner fully abided by all legal and ethical guidelines both during and after his government service. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Washington In an emotionally charged hearing that has at times devolved into partisan bickering, the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a package of bills that would harden the nation's gun laws, marking the first action from lawmakers as they search for a legislative solution to a pair of mass shootings in a 10-day span that shocked the nation. Called the "Protecting Our Kids Act," the Democratic-led panel passed the legislation in a party-line vote of 25 to 19. Action from the full House is expected as soon as next week, though the package faces steep odds of passing the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans each control 50 seats and bills require 60 votes to advance. A bipartisan group of senators has been engaged in negotiations this week to find common ground on measures to curb gun violence, and some members participating in the talks have expressed optimism about reaching consensus on a proposal that would garner support from Republicans and Democrats alike. But Democrats in the House have insisted they must act swiftly to respond to the latest mass shootings, and the House Judiciary Committee interrupted a two-week congressional recess to mount the first attempt at legislative action following the devastating massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 students and two teachers dead. The shooting in Uvalde came 10 days after 10 people were killed by a racist gunman at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. On the eve of the Judiciary Committee's hearing, four people were fatally shot at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The legislation advanced by the House panel is a package of eight bills that, among other plans, would raise the minimum purchasing age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21; bar large-capacity magazines; incentivize safe firearm storage and establish requirements regulating storage of guns on residential premises; and build on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' regulatory ban on bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic rifles to fire more rapidly. Story continues "You say it's too soon to take action? That we are politicizing these tragedies to enact new policies? It has been 23 years since Columbine, 15 years since Virginia Tech, 10 years since Sandy Hook, seven years since Charleston, four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It has been three years since El Paso, it has been a week since we learned again that gun violence can reach any of our children and grandchildren at any time, and that no number of armed guards can guarantee their safety. It has been 24 hours since the last mass shooting, and who knows how long until the next one," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York. "Too soon?" he continued. "My friend, what the hell are you waiting for?" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution as she speaks in front of photos of victims of the recent Uvalde, Texas, mass school shooting during a House Judiciary Committee markup on gun control legislation on June 2, 2022. / Credit: Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO via AP Images Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, chastised Democrats for rushing to take up the package, calling it "regretful" and an act of "political theater." "Protecting children is not a Republican or Democrat issue," he said. "This is not a real attempt, in my judgment, to find solutions." Emotions ran high throughout the hearing, underscoring the fierce partisan divisions on the issue of gun control and difficulties Congress has encountered in prior unsuccessful attempts to pass legislation to address gun violence. Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, appeared remotely and displayed his numerous handguns during the hearing to argue those firearms would be banned under Democrats' proposal because of their magazine capacities. On the opposing side, Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat, recalled losing her 17-year-old son to gun violence in 2012 and asked, "Do we as a nation have the God given right to live free from this scourge of gun violence, of senseless suffering, of death and despair?" Democrats blamed Republicans for failing to feel a sense of urgency to protect young lives, while Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights. "There's a willingness to just ram through this package and the answer is, 'We don't have any patience for you if you're objecting.' The voices are raised, the accusations are made, Republicans are complicit," GOP Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina said. "I can tell you this and let me be clear: You are not going to bully your way into stripping Americans of fundamental rights." Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania followed: "I'm stunned by some of the words that we're hearing on the other side of the aisle. Where is their outrage over the slaughter of 19 fourth graders and their two teachers? Why don't they feel an urgency to do something?" While Democrats favor plans to make it more difficult to obtain firearms and restrict access to high-capacity magazines, Republicans instead believe efforts should be focused on bolstering mental health resources and making schools more secure, including by expanding the ranks of school resource officers. President Biden, meanwhile, has repeatedly urged Congress to send to his desk legislation stalled in the Senate that strengthens background checks and has called on lawmakers to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. Baltimore sues ghost gun maker Polymer80 Why Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee is significant Ukrainian forces await more Western weapons as conflict nears 100-day mark NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A team of Indian officials met the acting Taliban foreign minister of Afghanistan on Thursday to discuss bilateral ties and humanitarian aid, the Taliban said, in what was the first such visit to Kabul since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last year. Poverty and hunger have rocketed in Afghanistan since the Islamist militants took power after the United States pulled out, and India has sent food grains and other aid. The Taliban administration's acting foreign minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, met with an Indian foreign ministry delegation led by senior official J.P. Singh. "The meeting focused on India-Afghan diplomatic relations, bilateral trade and humanitarian aid," Taliban foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on Twitter. Balkhi said the minister called the visit a "good beginning in ties between the two countries". Asked if New Delhi now officially recognised the Taliban administration, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters they were "reading far too much into the visit". The ministry earlier said in a statement the officials would oversee the delivery of humanitarian assistance and visit areas targeted by Indian-backed programmes or projects. India has donated about 20,000 tonnes of wheat, 13 tonnes of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and items of winter clothing, with more medicine and food grains on the way, it said. India pulled its officials out of Afghanistan last August and closed its embassy, although it is keen to retain ties with the country where its regional rival Pakistan wields considerable influence. Bagchi declined to say when the embassy might be reopened, except to say that local staff had continued to function and ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of its premises there. (Reporting by Krishna N. Das and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and David Holmes) Aerial view of the excavation site, with Bronze Age architecture partly submerged. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO Receding waters during an extreme drought revealed a 3,400-year-old city along the Tigris River. Iraq has been experiencing climate change-induced drought for months. Archaeologists are rushing to preserve artifacts exposed or destroyed by climate change. A severe drought brought on by climate change revealed an ancient Bronze Age city in Iraq, and gave archaeologists a chance to map it, researchers announced Monday. The drought hit the region in December, prompting locals to draw large amounts of water from a reservoir on the Tigris River, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, to prevent crops from drying out. The lower water levels resurfaced ancient structures from a 3,400-year-old city along the river. Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world, according to the United Nations. Warming temperatures have made the country drier and prone to drought, threatening agriculture and the livelihoods of those who live there. "Water reserves are far lower than what we had last year, by about 50 percent," a senior adviser at Iraq's water resources ministry told AFP in April. The advisor attributed the concerning situation to "the successive years of drought: 2020, 2021 and 2022." Researchers have long known of the city's remains, but can only investigate them when they periodically resurface during droughts. They last emerged during a dry spell in 2018, and researchers aren't certain when they'll be back. The team said the ancient city has a palace with 20-foot-tall walls, several towers, and multistory buildings. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO In January and February, a team of Kurdish and German archaeologists frantically rushed to the archaeological site called Kemune to excavate and map most of the city, which includes a palace with 20-foot-tall walls, several towers, and multistory buildings. Archaeologists say the city dates back to the time of the Empire of Mittani, a kingdom which controlled large parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria between 1550 and 1350 BC. A large earthquake destroyed the Mittani city around 1350 BC, causing the upper parts of the walls to come crashing down on buildings and burying them. Experts say being buried beneath the fallen walls might have helped preserve the ancient structures after years of being submerged underwater. Story continues "The excavation results show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire," Hasan Ahmed Qasim, an archaeologist, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization, and a lead of the excavation team, said in a statement. Researchers found 100 cuneiform tablets, including one tablet still in its original clay envelope. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO Researchers also discovered five ceramic jars with more than 100 cuneiform tablets, or slabs of writing used during the early Bronze Age including one tablet still in its original clay envelope. The tablets date back to just before the earthquake destroyed the city. "It is close to a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay survived so many decades underwater," Peter Pfalzner of the University of Tubingen, who was also part of the excavation team, said in a statement. After the team completed their work, they covered the site with plastic foil to protect it from rising waters. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO The ancient city is now completely underwater. According to a press release, upon finishing up their excavation in February, the archeologists covered the site with plastic sheets to prevent further deterioration when the city, once again, became submerged. The team is not the only group of researchers rushing to preserve artifacts being exposed or destroyed by the effects of climate change. Receding waters, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels are unearthing and sometimes damaging new finds. For instance, in Nevada's Lake Mead, long-submerged bodies have cropped up due to receding water levels. In Hawaii, ancestral remains, which are traditionally buried along the shore, are under threat from coastal erosion and rising seas. "Encroaching seas are eroding those burials out and human remains are going to continue to be exposed," Jennifer Byrnes, a forensic anthropologist, told Insider in May. Read the original article on Business Insider sturti / Getty Images The IRS which had one of the most challenging tax seasons this year due in part to pandemic backlogs and lack of workforce said it will hire 4,000 contact representative positions at several IRS offices nationwide this summer. See: 22 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job Find: 8 Items Around Your Home That May Be Worth More Than You Think The IRS intends for the move to boost its workforce and better help taxpayers and businesses, the IRS said in a press release. The agency explained that a contact representative provides administrative and technical assistance to individuals and businesses primarily over the phone, through written correspondence or in person. These are full-time positions that fall under a special hiring condition called direct-hire authority. Full-time bilingual (Spanish) positions are also available. The IRS continues to increase its workforce in 2022 to improve the taxpayer experience, IRS Taxpayer Experience Officer and Wage and Investment Commissioner Ken Corbin said in the release. We have a variety of jobs available all over the country. Contact representatives, among other things, deal directly with taxpayers by helping them with their tax obligations. POLL: Have You Skipped Any of These Essential Expenses Due to Rising Prices? The IRS said that shift availabilities vary by location, with openings for day shift (between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.), mid shift (between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.) and swing shift (between 2 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.) available in 22 cities nationwide, including Puerto Rico. The IRS will hold both virtual and in-person hiring events. An event schedule is posted here, on the IRS website. For the virtual events, job seekers can register online. In-person events will be held in June and are open to the public. They will be held in Andover, Mass.; Atlanta; Philadelphia; Fresno and Oakland, Calif.; Brookhaven, N.Y.; Cincinnati; Memphis, Tenn.; and Caguas, Puerto Rico, the IRS said in the release. Story continues The IRS announced in March that it would hire 10,000 new employees and create a 700-person surge team to process new returns, according to a March 10 Treasury Department press release. The IRS said at the time it was hiring more than 5,000 positions in its service processing centers located in Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Mo,; and Ogden, Utah, as GOBankingRates previously reported. More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: IRS Seeks To Offer Jobs to Thousands of Workers This Summer Sacred Rose has a new addition to its music lineup: Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. The previously announced music festival is coming to SeatGeek Stadium in southwest suburban Bridgeview Aug. 26-28. Tickets are already on sale. According to an announcement Thursday, Tweedy will play a headlining set Friday, Aug. 26 alongside Phil Lesh (formerly of the Grateful Dead) and Nels Cline (also of Wilco). Theyll perform as Phil Lesh & Friends, aka Philco. They join headliners Khruangbin, War On Drugs, Black Pumas, Umphreys McGee, Joe Russos Almost Dead, Goose, STS9, Greensky Bluegrass, Kamasi Washington, Animal Collective and Margo Price. Nels and I are honored to be asked to join Phil, Tweedy said in part in the announcement. There has been so much about Phil and the Dead to be inspired by over the years. No word yet on what Philco will play, other than the hint it will see Tweedy channel Jerry Garcias vocal power. Sacred Rose, which also borrows from classic Grateful Dead rose imagery and poster styles in its billing and website, is a new-this-summer, three-day festival with a mix of music styles, including Americana, psych-rock, jam, indie, soul, funk and bluegrass. It will be set on three genre-specific stages on the SeatGeek Stadiums new campus, which promises to be more than just a parking lot. According to the festival website, the stages will take advantage of new, padded astroturf fields next to the air-conditioned dome. Attendees can watch the stages from the comfort of grass and take a break in the shaded dome AC. Its being presented by Chicago-based producers Collectiv Presents, also behind the long-running North Coast Music Festival (and also back in Sept. 2022 at SeatGeek Stadium with headliners Armin van Buuren, Illenium and Porter Robinson; more at www.northcoastfestival.com.) Tweedy will also perform a free concert July 21 at Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of the Millennium Park Summer Music Series. The concert, also featuring the Peoples Music School, will be 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; more at www.chicago.gov. Story continues Chicagos hometown Wilco last performed here in sold-out concerts April 22-24 at the Auditorium Theatre to celebrate its 20-year-old album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Sacred Rose will be Aug. 26-28 at SeatGeek Stadium, 7000 S. Harlem Ave., Bridgeview. Tickets start at $67.23 plus fees for single day and are on sale (ages 17+); 3-day passes and VIP tickets are also available, several options are sold out; www.sacredrosefest.com FULL LINEUP Phil Lesh & Friends aka Philco Khruangbin The War On Drugs Black Pumas Umphreys McGee Joe Russos Almost Dead Goose STS9 Greensky Bluegrass The Disco Biscuits Kamasi Washington St. Paul & The Broken Bones Punch Brothers Dawes Animal Collective Hiatus Kaiyote The Wood Brothers City and Colour Yves Tumor Lettuce Moon Taxi Cory Wong Lotus The Infamous Stringdusters with Molly Tuttle Special guest Margo Price dgeorge@chicagotribune.com 20th Century Films The new trailer for Hulus The Princess wants you to know that Joey King is not your average dainty damsel. Shes the sort of groundbreaking princess who is strong-willed and adept at martial arts. You know the kind. She beats up big burly guys in armor! Shes not concerned with ladylike behavior and she absolutely does NOT need a man. She is a hashtag-girlboss princess. Directed by Vietnamese filmmaker Le-Van Kiet, The Princess is a medieval action movie starring King as the titular royal. Her father has promised her in marriage to a cruel, controlling suitor played by Dominic Cooper, who seems like a real asshole in this movie but will always be the sunkissed hunk from Mamma Mia! in our hearts. King refuses to go through with the wedding, however, declaring, Im not a piece of property to be traded. (#Girlboss!) Thus, she is shackled and locked away in a tower. Based on the trailer, though, our heroine does not remain a prisoner for long. These guys fucked with the wrong princess, she narrates in a faux British accent as two scary-looking henchmen lumber into her chamber. She wastes no time in whacking one of them across the face with a rusty metal chain and tying up the other before sending him flying out the window with an acrobatic roundhouse kick. Cartoon-ish blood splatters across the screen and each blow lands with an icky squelch. Joan Jetts Bad Reputation begins playing, because of course it does. It turns out that after King refused to marry Coopers sociopathic prince, the jilted groom launched an effort to steal her fathers throne. Its up to the escaped princess to defend her family, which means she will have to punch lots of other people and even swing a sword or two. Throughout the trailer, her long wavy hair becomes increasingly wild and messy to signify that she doesnt care about vain princessy things like being pretty. Whats left of her wedding gown is caked with the blood of her adversaries. Story continues How Legally Blonde Birthed the #GirlBoss and Made Reese Witherspoon a Hollywood Player Theres oddly little information available about the project (like character names, for example) beyond whats offered in the trailer, but we can only hope it is executed with equally heavy doses of irony and fun considering how tired the damsel-not-in-distress trope is in This Year of Our Lord 2022. With its badass redheaded princess who defies quote-unquote conventional gender norms, the preview drew comparisons online to Shrek, a movie that came outchecks notes21 years ago. Were not exactly sure who the target audience is for this film, but whoever you are, you can stream The Princess on Hulu beginning on July 1. 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. Angelo Colon-Ortiz, the man charged with killing Vanessa Marcotte in Princeton in 2016, in court. WORCESTER A judge Thursday set trial for December in the case of the man accused of murdering Vanessa Marcotte as she jogged in Princeton in 2016. Worcester Superior Court Judge Janet Kenton-Walker, after conferring with lawyers at a status hearing Thursday morning, set Dec. 8 as the date for jury empanelment and Dec. 12 for the start of evidence. The date is not binding its not unusual for court cases to be delayed though Kenton-Walker noted before asking lawyers for their input that she wanted to pick a realistic date. Thursdays hearing was scheduled after a single justice of the states highest court declined a request for an interlocutory appeal that the defendant, Angelo Colon-Ortiz, filed on a ruling Kenton-Walker issued in January. Vanessa Marcotte Kenton-Walker in January declined to throw out DNA evidence prosecutors said links Colon-Ortiz to the murder, ruling that errors in Spanish translation of a DNA consent form he was given did not rise to the level of invalidating his consent. Interlocutory appeals in which a higher court takes up an appeal before a trial are rarely granted and court records show a single Supreme Judicial Court justice issued a two-paragraph denial of the motion in late April. The denial paves the way for prosecutors to use the DNA evidence against Colon-Ortiz at trial. It does not prohibit Colon-Ortiz from raising the translation issue with a higher court again should he be convicted and appeal. Marcotte, a popular Google employee killed while out for a run in her hometown in August 2016, fought her attacker, prosecutors have said, and his DNA was allegedly found under her fingernails. That DNA matches a sample police obtained from Colon-Ortiz, say authorities, who also have other evidence including a gas station receipt they argue ties him to the crime. Colon-Ortiz last summer requested that the DNA evidence be thrown out, arguing a Spanish version of a DNA consent form he signed was poorly translated and that a state trooper who explained the man his rights was not fluent enough in the language. Story continues While she sharply criticized the state police form deeming there was no excuse for a litany of errors it contained Kenton-Walker determined that, given the totality of evidence about the interaction, Colon-Ortiz was aware of what he was doing when he signed the consent form and provided his sample. Contact Brad Petrishen at brad.petrishen@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BPetrishenTG This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Judge sets trial date for Angelo Colon Ortiz, man accused of murdering Vanessa Marcotte A Spanish housing cooperative that allowed its residents to weather the COVID lockdowns together has just won the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Emerging Architecture prize. Computer rendering for La Borda co-op shows the configuration of bedrooms and common rooms around a large central courtyard. Designed by the Catalan architecture co-op Lacol, La Borda was built in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona a little over a year before the pandemic hit. When Spains lockdowns (some of the strictest in Europe) went into effect, the communal nature of the building made it possible for residents to continue socializing in shared spaces like the kitchen, laundry, and multipurpose room, avoiding the severe isolation many in single-family dwellings experienced. Residents of Barcelona's La Borda housing co-op gather in a large common area. La Borda residents gather on the building's fourth floor overlooking the central courtyard. The 28-unit structure was also designed with enough flexibility to adapt to the needs of its members during a pandemic. It was a privilege to live through COVID here, says Cristina Gamboa, one of the two principal architects on the project and a resident of La Borda. It showed that these spaces allow for the sort of interaction that wouldnt be possible in a conventional apartment block. For example, the guest rooms couldnt be used because no one was traveling, so they became workspaces. Spacious modern apartment unit inside Barcelona's La Borda housing co-op. The idea of the cooperative development was hatched in 2011, when the abandoned Can Batllo industrial site was occupied by locals as part of a campaign to return the land to the community. The next year, a plan was formed to revitalize the area with a co-op residential building, as well as a school, bar/restaurant, publishing house, and carpentry workshop. Spacious hallway inside La Borda housing co-op lined with plants. La Borda residents cohabitate in the building's communal kitchen area. When the Lacol architects were tasked with creating the co-op, they outlined three fundamental principles for the project. The first was to redefine the collective housing program by encouraging social interaction in every corner of the design. All 28 living units, the kitchen-dining room, guest spaces, health and care rooms, storage, and patios are centered around a multi-story courtyard, providing for maximum community contact. Communal outdoor deck space enjoyed by La Borda residents. The second goal was to incorporate sustainability and environmental quality. The architects explain: We started from the conviction that the best strategy is to reduce the initial demand of all the environmental vectors of the building (energy, water, materials, and waste), especially at the energy level, where we prioritized passive strategies to achieve maximum use of existing resources. For example, 20 solar panels on the roof provide a quarter of the buildings energy needs. Story continues Modern wooden stairway inside the Lacol-designed La Borda housing co-op. Third, Lacol designers sought to foster user participation. The collective management of La Borda means that residents are in charge of determining the use of the space. The building is located on a piece of public land set aside for social housing that the co-op board can lease for up to 75 years. Co-op members do not own their flats and cannot sell or sublet them, emphasizing the use value above the exchange value of the units. While members do have to pay a one-time refundable fee of 18,500, the monthly rent is still 30 to 35 percent below market rates. With rents and housing prices climbing quickly, 80 percent of Spains 18 to 30-year-olds still live with their parents. Living spaces like La Borda would make it much more affordable for people to establish their own households. As a testament to its desirability, the co-op already has a 50-person wait list. Industrial-style bike and scooter storage inside La Borda housing co-op. The Mies van der Rohe Foundation praised the design as a role model and an active tool for promoting political and urban change from within the system, based on social, ecological, and economic sustainability. Exterior view of the multi-level La Borda housing co-op in Barcelona, Spain. Lacol was awarded the honor and the 20,000 at an official ceremony on May 12th. The company adds that some of the money will be used for a celebratory dinner for the La Borda renters and those who helped make the project a reality. The post La Borda Housing Co-Op Wins Prestigious Award for COVID-Savvy Design first appeared on Dornob. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging Veterans Affairs officials to consider quick fixes to the departments home loan program in order to ensure users can compete in the still surging housing market. Historically, VA mortgage loans were appealing and competitive to sellers, the group wrote in a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough on Thursday. Unfortunately, the current housing market and the rise in cash and conventional loans with waived contingencies can leave veterans unable to compete with other buyers. It is imperative that veterans receive a competitive loan that provides them the opportunity to purchase a home. According to statistics from the National Association of Realtors, the median sales price of a home in America as of February 2022 was up 15% from the year before. VA home loans grow in popularity, but challenges for buyers remain Lawmakers led by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., a Navy veteran said they are concerned the VA home loan benefit has not kept up with the demands of home buyers and sellers and risks forcing eligible individuals into abandoning the benefit to secure a home purchase. VA borrowers are less successful than borrowers using conventional loan products, with 11% of VA borrowers changing loan products during their housing search, compared to only 1% of conventional borrowers who change financing methods, the lawmakers wrote. In fiscal 2021, department officials guaranteed more than 1.44 million loans valued at roughly $447 billion, a record high and up 15 percent from the previous year. In a VA home loan, the federal government does not provide any money to the homebuyer but does agree to back the loan against the possibility of default. That allows veterans to put no money down on their home purchase and avoid some other associated home-buying fees. But it does require special qualifying and appraisal rules, which can slow down completion of a home purchase. In testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee in December, VA officials said the average wait time for a department appraisal is about 15 business days. For non-VA loans, that process is usually around two days. Story continues 5 tips for troops and vets buying their first homes Witnesses said the department is looking for ways to streamline the process, but not at the risk of defaulting on more loans or putting veterans in substandard housing. The lawmakers who wrote to McDonough this week are asking VA officials to look at improvements to lessen the burden on buyers and sellers involved in the program, and also for ways to improve the public perception of the VA mortgage loan program. Outside groups said real estate agents looking for quick and easy sales may often ignore VA home loans because of the extra work involved in the process. In March, the National Association of Realtors and VA released a video series for home buyers, sellers and real estate agents designed to dispel myths around the program and explain how the process differs from conventional loans. Police said an active shooter opened fire at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa Police Department/via Facebook A gunman killed four people at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday. Police also confirmed that the shooter, who was armed with a rifle, died by apparent suicide. Authorities said the gunman bought an AR-15 style rifle hours before the mass shooting took place. The gunman who killed 4 people inside a Tusla hospital bought his AR-15 style rifle just hours before the mass shooting, police say Police respond to the mass shooting at St. Francis Hospital on June 1, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J Pat Carter/Getty Images) The gunman who killed four people at a Tusla hospital on Wednesday bought an AR-15 style rifle just hours before the mass shooting, authorities said. According to Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, the gunman purchased a semi-automatic rifle from a local gun store at 2 p.m. on June 1, three days after buying a semi-automatic handgun at a pawn shop. The first 911 calls from the hospital about an active shooter came in just under three hours later at 4:52 p.m., Franklin said. Read Full Story The Tulsa hospital gunman who killed 4 people was targeting a doctor whom he blamed for pain after a recent surgery, police say Emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting at the Saint Francis hospital campus, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 2022. REUTERS/Michael Noble Jr. Authorities said the gunman who killed four people at a Tulsa hospital on Thursday was targeting a doctor whom he blamed for ongoing pain after a recent surgery. The gunman killed Dr. Preston Phillips, and wounded several others, inside a medical building at St. Francis Hospital, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said at a Thursday press conference. Officers found a letter with the gunman who they believe died by suicide following the attack that made it clear he went to the hospital with "the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way," Franklin said. The gunman blamed Phillips for post-surgical pain following a May 19 operation. He was released from the hospital on May 24, but called back several times over the next few days to complain of his pain and wanted additional treatment. Read Full Story Tulsa officials promise to give update at Thursday morning press conference Story continues Police respond to the mass shooting at St. Francis Hospital on June 1, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J Pat Carter/Getty Images) Tulsa officials will host a press conference on Thursday morning at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma to give an update on Wednesday's mass shooting. The media briefing will take place at 10.15 a.m local time, according to FOX23 News. Tulsa's mayor and police chief are expected to speak, along with the hospital's chief medical officer and CEO. Read Full Story Police report at least 4 killed and 'multiple' injured following a shooting at a Tulsa hospital Tulsa police captain Richard Meulenberg on Wednesday described the "catastrophic scene" inside the Oklahoma medical center which became the site of a mass shooting on Wednesday. At least four people were killed by a gunman who opened fire inside the Natalie Medical Building at the St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa. According to the Tulsa police, the man was carrying both a rifle and a handgun. The shooter later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, per law enforcement. "There are over 10,000 people that are part of the St. Francis Health System that every day commit their lives to taking care of people in need," Cliff Robertson, the CEO of the Saint Francis Health System, said. "This senseless, horrible, incomprehensible act is not going to change that." Read Full Story Police described a 'catastrophic scene' at the hospital. J Pat Carter/Getty Images Police reported that at least four people were killed and multiple injured after a gunman opened fire at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday. The shooting suspect was also reported dead. Police responded to calls Wednesday afternoon about a man armed with a rifle and a handgun inside a medical building at St. Francis Hospital. They said they responded within minutes and that they believe the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "[We are] grieving the loss of four members of our family," the St. Francis Health System said in a statement released Wednesday night. "As a faith-based organization, the only recourse we have at this moment is to pray while we navigate this tragedy." Read Full Story Police say Tulsa shooting connected to a bomb threat at a home in Muskogee, about 50 miles away Police said an active shooter opened fire at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa Police Department/via Facebook Officials said a shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday was related to a bomb threat in Muskogee, located about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. Police said at least four were killed in the shooting in addition to the shooter, who they believed died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Muskogee Police Department said it was investigating a possible bomb inside a home, KTUL reported. The Tulsa Police Department contacted MPD with information they received that said the suspect may have left a bomb in the residence. MPD told News on 6 reporter Brian Dorman that the home was searched and no bomb was found. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt released a statement Wednesday night praising first responders who "did their best to contain a terrible situation." SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images "What happened today in Tulsa is a senseless act of violence and hatred. Sarah and I are praying for the families of those who lost their lives and for those who were injured," Stitt tweeted. "I am grateful for the quick and brave actions of the Tulsa Police Department and other first responders who did their best to contain a terrible situation. I have offered Mayor G.T. Bynum any state resources that may be needed, and I ask all Oklahomans to come together in support of the Saint Francis Health System community and to grieve with those whose lives have been forever changed." Senator James Lankford also released a statement that in part read: " We are praying for the families of the lives that were taken far too soon and for a full recovery for those who were injured today. It is hard to process the anger that motivates someone to commit such violence, especially at a place that provides care and healing." The gunman was reportedly searching for a specific doctor during his St. Francis Hospital shooting spree. Police respond to the scene of a mass shooting at St. Francis Hospital on June 1, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At least four people were killed in a shooting rampage at the Natalie Medical Building on the hospital's campus, according to published reports. The shooter is also dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police. J Pat Carter/Getty Images Tulsa City Councilman Jayme Fowler told KOTV CBS 6 reporter Shannon Rousseau the St. Francis Hospital gunman was reportedly seeking out a specific doctor during the shooting spree. "It wasn't random," Captain Richard Meulenberg told reporters. "This wasn't an individual who just decided he wanted to go find a hospital full of random people. He deliberately made a choice to come here and his actions were deliberate." This is the first mass shooting in the state of Oklahoma since 1986. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit organization advocating for gun control, an average of 686 people die by guns in the state of Oklahoma every year, making it the state with the 10th highest rate of gun deaths. Tulsa, in particular, has a rate of 19.8 gun deaths per 100,000 people. Mass shootings are not common in Tulsa. Mother Jones' online database of all the mass shootings that took place in the US from 1982 to 2022 only lists the medical building shooting on Wednesday.The last listed instance of a mass shooting in Oklahoma took place in 1986, when a postal worker opened fire at a post office before committing suicide, killing 15 people. Other more high profile shooting incidents that don't qualify for the label of a "mass shooting" (four or more people killed) have however also occurred in the state of Oklahoma. Days ago, for instance, a 26-year-old gunman opened fire at an outdoor festival in eastern Oklahoma, killing one person and injuring at least seven people. Read the original article on Insider For the latest coverage of the mass shooting at a Tulsa hospital, click here for live updates from Thursday. Multiple people were killed in a shooting at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, authorities said, adding that the suspected shooter was also dead. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead. He said the gunman died apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Oklahoman will provide live updates here as they come in. Check back often for the latest information. Highway patrol clears Muskogee home An Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad used dogs to clear a home in Muskogee after police were notified the Tulsa hospital shooter may have left a bomb inside, the Muskogee Police public information officer said. "No devices were found," Lynn Hamlin said. Tulsa police investigators arrived after that search "and took over the scene," she said. - Nolan Clay Tulsa official: Shooter was targeting specific doctor, didn't find him Tulsa City Councilor Jayme Fowler said the gunman was targeting a specific doctor, and began shooting after not finding him. "I'm getting that from some different sources" including a police official, he told The Oklahoman. The site of the shooting is in Fowler's City Council district and he said he grew up five minutes away. "We saw Uvalde, Texas. We saw Buffalo, New York," he said, referencing other recent mass shootings. "And you would never dream that something like this would happen in our sleepy little town." - Nolan Clay Tulsa native responds to hospital as Red Cross mass shooting specialist Staff from the American Red Cross and Salvation Army arrived Wednesday evening to provide food, water and emotional support at the reunification site. Tulsa-area native Johnnie Munn specializes in mass shooting response for the Red Cross as a senior disaster program manager. He's attended to victims at the site of the deadliest U.S. mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, where 60 people were killed. Story continues This time, he responded to a fatal attack in his home town. "It's surreal and aggravating," Munn said. "You're like, 'Why?' It's no surprise that it's happening more often." - Nuria Martinez-Keel Tulsa hospital: Thankful for quick response of Tulsa Police Department Saint Francis Health System asked for prayers Wednesday night as it grieves "the loss of four members of our family." "As a faith based organization, the only recourse we have at this moment is to pray while we navigate this tragedy," the health system said in a statement posted to Facebook. The health system said it wouldn't comment on or share the names of those who were injured or killed in the shooting out of respect for the victims' families. St. Francis thanked Tulsa police and other first responders for their response during the shooting. "And, our deepest gratitude extends to the members of our own Saint Francis family who cared for their own during this incident," the health system's statement said. - Dana Branham Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.: 'We must all do more' - Ryan Sharp Oklahoma medical official: We stand with physicians from Tulsa hospital Oklahoma State Medical Association President Dr. David Holden said in a statement the organization was heartbroken to learn of the loss of lives at the Tulsa hospital. Oklahomas hospitals, clinics and doctors offices are places for healing and should be safe for all, Holden said. And while there will be much to discuss regarding this tragedy in the days and weeks to come, we stand with our fellow physicians and health professionals in mourning those who were killed and injured due to this devastating event. - Dana Branham Police believe Tulsa shooter may have planted bomb in Muskogee home Muskogee police went to a residence there Wednesday night after being notified by Tulsa police that the shooter may have left a bomb inside. Muskogee is about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. "At this time we have evacuated the house and have notified everyone in the area to stay inside their homes," the Muskogee Police public information officer said. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad was at the residence preparing to search it once police get a search warrant, the officer, Lynn Hamlin, said. - Nolan Clay More: What we know about shooting at Tulsa medical center Gov. Kevin Stitt issues statement on Tulsa medical center shooting What happened today in Tulsa is a senseless act of violence and hatred. Sarah and I are praying for the families of those who lost their lives and for those who were injured. I am grateful for the quick and brave actions of the Tulsa Police Department and other first responders who did their best to contain a terrible situation. I have offered Mayor G.T. Bynum any state resources that may be needed, and I ask all Oklahomans to come together in support of the Saint Francis Health System community and to grieve with those whose lives have been forever changed. - Ben Felder Lawmakers respond to Tulsa medical center shooting U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who lives in Tulsa, tweeted his condolences Wednesday night, saying "one thing is clear: tragedy is in the loss of life." "Kay and I are praying for comfort for the victims families and loved ones as they go through this hard time as well as those who suffered injury. I am thankful for the law enforcement officers and first responders who responded to the situation swiftly and with bravery." U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he was "heartbroken" in a statement issued after the shooting and that he and his wife Cindy were praying for the families. "It is hard to process the anger that motivates someone to commit such violence, especially at a place that provides care and healing," Lankford said. "I am in touch with local officials in Tulsa and will continue to receive updates on the situation. Our law enforcement and first responders were prepared and equipped to respond to a situation to which no one ever wants to respond. Im grateful for their quick reaction to prevent any further loss of life." Representative Kevin Hern echoed similar thoughts in a statement on Twitter Wednesday evening. "My prayers are with those who lost loved ones tonight, and with the entire Tulsa community as we recover from this tragedy," Hern tweeted. "I am thankful for our law enforcement officers who responded quickly." - Jessie Christopher Smith Police provide timeline for Tulsa medical center shooting Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish spoke to press during a brief Wednesday evening and provided a brief timeline of the shooting. At 4:52 p.m., dispatch received a call of an active shooter at the Natalie Medical Building. At 4:56 p.m., police officers arrived at the location. At 5:01 p.m., officers made contact with victims and the suspect on the second floor after hearing gunshots. Killed were "four innocents, one shooter." Police said they believed the shooter's gunshot wound was self-inflicted. One witness was found locked in a closet. At the time of the briefing, police had not yet identified the suspect but said they "were getting close." - Nolan Clay Death toll rises in Tulsa medical center shooting Tulsa police tweeted that at least 5 people are dead, including the shooter, in the Natalie Medical Building on the St. Francis Medical Center campus. What we know so far: Tulsa medical center shooting Officers responded to a report of a man armed with a rifle at the St. Francis medical campus, which "turned into an active shooter situation." St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. Police said officers were going room-to-room in the building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. People were asked to avoid the area. At least three people are dead in addition to the shooter. It was unclear how the shooter died or what prompted the deadly assault. ACTIVE SHOOTER UPDATE: We can confirm 4 people are deceased, including the shooter, in the active shooting situation at St. Francis hospital campus. Officers are still clearing the building. More info to follow. Tulsa Police (@TulsaPolice) June 1, 2022 Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. Aerial footage from a TV helicopter appeared to show first responders wheeling someone on a stretcher away from the hospital building. Dozens of police cars could be seen outside the hospital complex, and authorities shut down traffic as the investigation went on. Kevin Foristal, of Broken Arrow, waited for his wife at the designated reunification area at Memorial High School just over a block away from the hospital campus. Foristal said his wife was receiving outpatient therapy at the infusion center in the main hospital building at the time of the shooting. Memorial High School in Tulsa where police have set up the high school as a reunification center after a gunman killed multiple people at a medical center She told him hospital staff turned out the lights, locked the doors and covered windows with cardboard, Foristal said. He said he is "elated" to have good news from his loved one, but "there's people out there where that's not going to happen." It also was the second mass shooting this week in Oklahoma. A woman was killed Sunday and seven others were injured during an annual Memorial Day festival in Taft, a small town near Muskogee, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reported. The shooting suspect later turned himself in. The shooting in Tulsa comes after two high-profile shooting massacres in Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were killed, and Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in May. USA TODAY and The Associated Press contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Live updates Tulsa, Oklahoma shooting: Multiple killed, injured An abandoned business near Indian School Road and 12th Street was set on fire Tuesday. Police arrested a man on suspicion of setting the fire. A man was arrested on suspicion of starting a fire at an abandoned business near Indian School Road and 12th Street on Tuesday. Court documents state witnesses saw a fire had just started in the business and saw the suspect, identified as Leon Malcolm Lonjose, 31, walking away from the fire. When they asked him why he started the fire, Lonjose didn't answer and left. A Phoenix police officer saw Lonjose throwing objects at the business a few minutes before the fire started, according to court documents. The officer then saw smoke coming from the business. When firefighters arrived a witness told them Lonjose started the fire. It is unclear if it was the same witness who asked Lonjose why he started the fire. The officer, who according to court documents was familiar with Lonjose, found him nearby that same day with a lighter in his pocket and detained him. Witnesses identified Lonjose as the suspect and told police no one else was near the building when it was burning. Lonjose was charged on suspicion of arson of structure or property and was being held on a $5,000 bond. He was also arrested on Feb. 26 on suspicion of reckless burning in the same place, according to court documents. Reach breaking news reporter Angela Cordoba Perez at Angela.CordobaPerez@Gannett.com or on Twitter @AngelaCordobaP. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Leon Malcolm Lonjose arrested on suspicion of setting fire at business Fire and rescue personnel in L.A.'s Westlake neighborhood after a fatal blaze. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) A former gang member was found guilty of 12 counts of murder Tuesday for his role in setting a 1993 fire in a crowded apartment building in Westlake at the center of the neighborhood's unchecked drug trade. The fire killed seven children and three women, two of whom were pregnant. Ramiro Valerio, 49, bowed his head as the clerk read the verdict. Because the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with several special circumstances, he must be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors had argued to jurors that Valerio decided to set fire to the apartment building after its manager reported to police the constant drug sales that took place outside the building. The complaints threatened a stream of thousands of dollars in protection money that Valerio and his gang were collecting from the dealers every week, prosecutors said. Valerio, who testified in his defense, acknowledged that he collected taxes from dealers who sold heroin and rock cocaine in his gangs territory, but he denied sparking the fire or ordering that it be done. The building at 330 S. Burlington Ave. was home to many immigrants from Mexico and Central America who, while aware of the drug dealing and gang violence outside their doors, could not afford to move anywhere else. At the time, prosecutors said, Westlake was the crack cocaine capital of Los Angeles, and Valerios gang, the Columbia Lil Cycos clique of 18th Street, controlled Burlington Avenue, a lucrative drug corridor that ran through the heart of their territory. One drug trafficker, Johanna Lopez, testified that she gave $7,000 a week to Valerio, who was nicknamed Greedy, for permission to staff Burlington Avenue with dealers who sold crack cocaine in shifts. By the time of the fire, that figure had risen to $25,000, she said. In 1993, Lopez complained to Valerio and another member of the gang, Juan Termite Romero, that the property manager at the building was calling the police and changing the locks to keep the dealers and gang members from fleeing inside the building. Lopez testified that Valerio and Romero told her they would take care of the problem. Story continues Around 4:30 p.m. on May 3, 1993, smoke began to billow out of the 67-unit building. Residents jumped out of balconies to escape the smoke that was engulfing the third floor. Ten died of smoke inhalation: Lancey Mateo, 1, Alejandrina Roblero, 29, Yadira Verdugo, 6, Leyver Verdugo, 10, William Verdugo, 8, Rosalia Camargo, 6, Jesus Camargo, 4, Jose Camargo, 4, Olga Leon, 24, and Rosalia Ruiz, 21. Leon and Ruiz were pregnant. The source of the fire was a mattress that had been doused in lighter fluid and ignited at the door to the manager's apartment. After the fire, Valerio went on to become a key informant for the FBI, which was building a racketeering case against the Columbia Lil Cycos and its imprisoned boss, Francisco Puppet Martinez. The Los Angeles Police Department, however, was eyeing Valerio as a suspect in the fire. Interviewed by detectives several times over the decades, he consistently denied having anything to do with it. In 2017, Valerio was arrested at a Rite Aid in Santa Clarita where he worked as a manager and charged with 12 counts of murder. Detectives had secured the testimony of new witnesses and gleaned fresh details from old ones. The witnesses mostly aging gang members and drug dealers testified that Valerio had discussed sending a message to the property manager, even proposing once that they light a little fire. Lopez, the dealer whose complaints set the catastrophe in motion, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and agreed to testify against Valerio in exchange for a 22-year sentence. Romero, accused of setting fire to the mattress, remains a fugitive. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, prosecutors said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Chicago police have taken into custody a suspect who injured three women in two separate attacks at CTA Red Line platforms in South Loop. The 29-year-old man was reportedly standing by the CTA Cermak-Chinatown platform when he stabbed a 22-year-old woman in the face with a sharp object at around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The man then allegedly tried to stab a 20-year-old woman, who was able to avoid the attack. The assailant punched the woman in the face before fleeing the scene, according to the police. The suspect also approached a 23-year-old woman at the CTA Roosevelt station just 13 minutes later and hit her with a construction cone. More from NextShark: Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Positive and Safe Results The 22-year-old and 23-year-old women went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where they are reportedly in good condition. According to police, the attacker was taken into custody and was brought to the Jackson Park Hospital for a mental health evaluation. More from NextShark: 325 Passengers from Coronavirus Cruise Ship in Japan Have Recovered, Prime Minister Reports Feature image via CBS Chicago Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Taal Volcano in the Philippines Erupts During Couple's Wedding Ceremony 'Anton! Anton!': Man's Parrot Yells His Name to Wake Him During Fire, Saves His Life A man was arrested after a deadly crash on Interstate 75 early Thursday, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Troopers said the crash happened around 2:45 a.m. near mile marker 323 in Sumter County. A pickup truck towing a trailer was traveling southbound on I-75 in the center lane when a car collided with it. Troopers said the crash caused the pickup to flip and hit a guardrail. It then traveled over the guardrail and overturned. READ: Police find SUV involved in hit-and-run that killed man walking dog in Seminole County, troopers say The pickup truck driver, a 32-year-old man from Tennessee, died in the crash. There were three other passengers in the pickup truck who suffered serious injuries, including another 32-year-old man, a 31-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy. Troopers identified the man driving the car as John Henderson of Kissimmee. READ: Record gas prices: Heres how much they jumped overnight in Florida Troopers said they arrested Henderson on charges of DUI manslaughter, DUI serious injury and DUI property damage. Henderson was taken to the Sumter County Jail. 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. For up to four months in late 2019, Keshaun Sheffield tried to maintain the belief his boyfriend was still alive, prosecutors in Pennsylvania say. He accessed the social media accounts of his boyfriend, 22-year-old Rashid Young, and used Youngs phone to communicate with his family. Sheffield, 20, was even accessing the bank account of Young, the heir of a $2 million trust fund, according to a June 1 news release from the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office. But Young was killed on Aug. 19, 2019, when his boyfriend stabbed him in his apartment, officials said. Youngs body was buried in a Philadelphia arboretum, and a landscaper found his remains about six weeks later, according to the district attorney. An autopsy revealed Young suffered multiple stab wounds in the left upper back, right mid back, left lateral chest and his neck, according to an affidavit. Those remains were not identified until Friday, May 27, when detectives in Montgomery County used dental records to identify Young as the victim. Detectives have since arrested Sheffield, accusing him of the murder of his boyfriend. Since August 2019, a family has been searching for information about their missing son, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement. Today, we shared with them the tragic details of his death and we will be able to return his remains to them for a proper burial. Young and Sheffield were in a relationship for around two years until Youngs 2019 death, officials said. A motive in the killing isnt known. The apartment where Young was killed was intentionally flooded, doors were broken and holes were in the walls, prosecutors say. The damage from the apartment exceeded $20,000, and the property owner received a text message from Youngs phone number staying, I am responsible and will pay for the damages, according to an affidavit. As police were responding to the apartment flooding, Sheffield was moving his boyfriends body with the assistance of a friend, Steele said. Story continues Sheffield dug a hole at Awbury Arboretum in Philadelphia, then returned later to bury Youngs body, the district attorney said. Despite Sheffield attempting to maintain belief Young was still alive, his family declared him missing in December 2019. Sheffield had already made numerous withdrawls from Youngs bank account, according to the district attorney. From July to December 2019, 15 transfers were made from Youngs account to Sheffields, records show. Young was getting $800 trust deposits into his account every two weeks until December. When Young was declared missing, his bank account was frozen, prohibiting Sheffield from accessing more funds from the $2 million account, officials said. The relationship between Young and Sheffield, who was 17 at the time of the alleged murder, was described by friends and family members as volatile and at times, violent, prosecutors say. A private investigator hired by Youngs family encouraged Montgomery County police to look into his disappearance, the district attorney said. That investigation tied Youngs disappearance and subsequent death to Sheffhield through the use of a confidential informant (and) cellphone records, according to Steele. Youngs mother told detectives she and other family members believed messages they received from Youngs number in late 2019 were not sent by Young, according to the affidavit. Detectives suspected Sheffield maintained possession of Youngs phone following his disappearance and had access to Youngs social media accounts, prosecutors said in the affidavit. Investigators received data from Facebook in May 2022 that showed messages sent from Youngs account after his disappearance were sent from the block where Sheffields mother lived, the affidavit states. An analysis of Youngs movements through his phone further tied Sheffield to the killing, prosecutors say. A witness involved in an intimate relationship with Sheffield told detectives on May 28, he received a call from Sheffield after the killing. Sheffield told him he stabbed and killed Young because he had to, according to the affidavit. (The witness) stated he did not believe Sheffield at first but later saw the evidence, court records show. The witness also revealed to detectives he helped Sheffield bury the body. The witness said Youngs body was put in a recyclable container, then he and Sheffield spent hours digging the hole, prosecutors said in the affidavit. Sheffield was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, theft, receiving stolen property, possessing an instrument of crime and access device fraud. Ex-boyfriend of missing Alexis Gabe shot dead by officers, California police say Woman smashes semi into boyfriends home, is charged with attempted murder, AL cops say Man kills wife, teen girls before shooting himself in front of police, Alabama cops say Two council members in Memphis, Tennessee said on Wednesday they plan to present a resolution calling on the local police department to decline escorting former President Trump when he visits the area later this month. Trump is slated to attend an installment of the American Freedom Tour on June 18, which the event website describes as a celebration of faith, family, unalienable rights and God-given American freedoms with prominent conservatives. The event will be held at the Landers Center in Southaven, Miss., located less than 20 miles from Memphis. Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley Jr., a Democratic candidate for Tennessee governor, and Councilman Martavius Jones said they would present the resolution at the councils meeting next Tuesday. [Trump] will most likely be flying into Memphis International Airport, Smiley said in a statement. As we know, the Memphis Police Department is already experiencing a shortage of officers to patrol our communities, he said. I do not believe that it is a prudent use of police manpower and Memphians taxpayer dollars to escort the former president to an event in Mississippi. Smiley also noted billboards have been erected in the city advertising Trumps visit. The event will also include appearances by Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, conservative commentators Candace Owens and Dinesh DSouza and Mark Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal County, Ariz., according to its website. Todd Mastry, the executive director of the Landers Center, told the Hill that the Secret Service will be in charge of protective measures at the event, as the agency was when Trump visited the venue in 2018 as president. There could be differences since he is now a former president rather than a sitting president, as is normal, he said. The Hill has reached out to the Memphis Police Department, the Secret Service and Trumps office for comment. Story continues Trump has continued to stump for Republican candidates and conservative causes since leaving the White House. The former president addressed the National Rifle Associations annual meeting in Houston on Friday in the wake of the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, calling on Democrats to pass school security bills. The next day, he traveled to Casper, Wyo. to stump for Rep. Liz Cheneys (R) primary challenger, Harriet Hageman. Cheney had drawn the ire of Trump and his allies for voting in favor of the former presidents second impeachment and serving on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the Capitol. Trump has also in recent weeks traveled to Pennsylvania to support Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz. He stumped for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance (R) and held two rallies in Nebraska for gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster (R), who went on to lose the primary. Updated at 1:27 p.m. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. NY Daily News A condiment-obsessed Queens murder suspect hoarded sweet-and-sour duck sauce in his refrigerator but not enough to stop him from killing a Chinese food delivery worker in a feud over his wish for more, a police source said Tuesday. When cops opened accused killer Glenn Hirschs refrigerator, they found it full of items to flavor up his food including lots of duck sauce of the kind given ... After much debate about how his residency in Nassau County would affect the office he holds, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams announced Thursday that he would retire from office on Friday, June 10 to avoid a court battle. Term-limited Williams had one more year left as sheriff. He originally told Action News Jax last week that he has no plans to resign and would fight being ousted in court. Action News Jax obtained a copy of a draft opinion from the Office of General Counsel, which had made the determination that the office of Jacksonville sheriff is vacant as of 2 p.m. That opinion ended up not being officially issued since Williams announced his retirement. Action News Jax reached out to all the candidates who have filed to run for sheriff in the 2023 Unitary Election Cycle about Williams retirement. Heres what they had to say: Lakesha Burton (D): Sheriff Williams has had a tremendous career of service. I respect his decision to retire and I wish him and his family the best. My focus remains on the reason I decided to run to be your next sheriff the urgent need for change in Jacksonville. The sooner that change begins, the better. Its time for a new approach to leading the men and women of the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, time to build stronger relationships between JSO and the community so we can fight violent crime together. Im ready to be the sheriff that Jacksonville deserves, ready to lead our city Forward Together toward the better day we all so badly want. Wayne Clark (D): It is very unfortunate for Sheriff Williams to end his career this way. We appreciate his 31 years of service. To be one of the top leaders in this city requires knowing all of the rules of the elected office. The City Charter has long established that all elected officials must live in the county during their elected term. To be a leader in this city demands that you live in this city. I have lived my entire life in Jacksonville, and I plan to continue living in Jacksonville. Story continues I think the Governor should not appoint any of the current candidates as the interim Sheriff, rather choose someone outside, or elevate the Undersheriff until the citizens decide their choice during the special election. Wayne Clark Tony Cummings (D): I am running to become your next elected sheriff because the citizens of Jacksonville, Florida have endured enough trauma in the past 7-years under Sheriff Mike Williams leadership, or the lack thereof. Abandoning the citizens of Jacksonville is NEVER an okay option for any elected official, much less the citys top cop. I pray that the citizens are BOLD enough to reject the establishments handpicked candidate this election cycle, because this sheriff, in his abandonment of our city, has left far too much work to be done. Its time to turn the page on this sad and humiliating chapter in our citys history. Ken Jefferson (D): In an effort for a better Jacksonville, we must have and keep a mindset that allows us to work together. By working together, we can achieve anything. There will be challenges and we may not agree on everything but we can develop a stronger community if we seek to understand each other and work together. Its preposterous for us to believe, we are going to get better with anyone who stands with, or supports leadership that operates in dishonesty. We need to understand that in all things truth prevails. Truth has prevailed and revealed that the heart of our current leadership checked out some time ago. I believe, this Sheriff has resigned being fully aware of said consequences. There is a level of respect and transparency that is needed for leadership. We can no longer expect law-abiding citizens to conduct themselves in harmony with the law and we are in violation. Jacksonville deserves equal and fair leadership straight across the board. I believe we are in a crucial place in our society where many have suffered long enough. Crime has increased under the current leadership. Many have been overlooked in times when they needed someone the most. This is our opportunity to make a change! This change includes leadership you can trust that will not abandon or disrespect this office. This includes holding anyone who violates the law accountable for their actions. I believe this is an opportunity for us to instigate change and move our city in the direction of safety. We cannot allow the current leadership or anyone that they endorse to interrupt the moment that has been forced on us. Its time for us to understand that change is needed and necessary. We can get better, we will get better and with my leadership, we will make Jacksonville a better place to live. Lets work together!!!!!!!! Mat Nemeth (R): Nemeth did not issue a statement, but Action News Jax spoke to him on the phone and thanked Williams for his service and wishes him all the best. Mathew Nemeth Action News Jax has also reached out to candidate Thomas TK Waters (R) and we are waiting to hear back. Earlier this week, we asked all of the candidates running for sheriff, If elected, will you live in Duval County or do you already live in Duval? All candidates answered yes. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) Militants attacked a civilian bus in eastern Syria on Thursday, killing three people and wounding 21, Syrian state TV reported. The TV said the bus was attacked near a village in a desert area of the province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq. It did not say whether the bus was attacked with machinegun fire, a missile or a roadside bomb. The report gave no further details and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Large parts of Deir el-Zour were once controlled by the extremist Islamic State group, which in 2014 proclaimed a so-called caliphate" in a third of both Iraq and Syria. In the past, Syrian authorities have blamed such attacks on IS and its sleeper cells, which have been active in eastern and central Syria, despite IS militants losing areas they once controlled in 2019. The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.' So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. As with many other companies Morgan Sindall Group plc (LON:MGNS) makes use of debt. But the more important question is: how much risk is that debt creating? When Is Debt Dangerous? Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. Of course, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together. See our latest analysis for Morgan Sindall Group What Is Morgan Sindall Group's Net Debt? You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of December 2021 Morgan Sindall Group had UK110.6m of debt, an increase on UK67.7m, over one year. However, its balance sheet shows it holds UK468.6m in cash, so it actually has UK358.0m net cash. How Healthy Is Morgan Sindall Group's Balance Sheet? According to the last reported balance sheet, Morgan Sindall Group had liabilities of UK1.13b due within 12 months, and liabilities of UK106.5m due beyond 12 months. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of UK468.6m as well as receivables valued at UK553.9m due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling UK210.9m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined. Story continues While this might seem like a lot, it is not so bad since Morgan Sindall Group has a market capitalization of UK942.9m, and so it could probably strengthen its balance sheet by raising capital if it needed to. But we definitely want to keep our eyes open to indications that its debt is bringing too much risk. While it does have liabilities worth noting, Morgan Sindall Group also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely. Even more impressive was the fact that Morgan Sindall Group grew its EBIT by 106% over twelve months. That boost will make it even easier to pay down debt going forward. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Morgan Sindall Group's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts. Finally, while the tax-man may adore accounting profits, lenders only accept cold hard cash. While Morgan Sindall Group has net cash on its balance sheet, it's still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Happily for any shareholders, Morgan Sindall Group actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last three years. That sort of strong cash generation warms our hearts like a puppy in a bumblebee suit. Summing up While Morgan Sindall Group does have more liabilities than liquid assets, it also has net cash of UK358.0m. The cherry on top was that in converted 114% of that EBIT to free cash flow, bringing in UK103m. So is Morgan Sindall Group's debt a risk? It doesn't seem so to us. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Morgan Sindall Group that you should be aware of. When all is said and done, sometimes its easier to focus on companies that don't even need debt. Readers can access a list of growth stocks with zero net debt 100% free, right now. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. The National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will welcome a new commander Thursday. Colonel Ariel Batungbacal will replace former commander Colonel Maurizio Calabrese who has been promoted to brigadier general. Batungbacal previously served as the commander of the Air and Cyberspace Intelligence Group at NASIC. >> Air Force hopes Top Gun: Maverick inspires next generation of military pilots The change of command ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in the National Museum of the United States Air Force. NASIC is the Department of Defenses main source for foreign air and space threat analysis, according to their webpage. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the alliance was in touch with Turkey to find a "united way" forward to address Ankara's concerns over Sweden and Finland's bid to join the pact. Finland and Sweden said on Wednesday they would continue a dialogue with Turkey over their bids for NATO membership, but did not say whether there had been progress on overcoming Ankara's objections to their joining the military alliance. A bid to join NATO requires unanimous backing from the alliance's current 30 member states. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington) Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov has announced that he plans to auction off the money he won from his Nobel Peace Prize in an effort to support displaced Ukrainian children amid Russias ongoing invasion of the country. Muratov, who was the editor of the now-suspended news publication Novaya Gazeta, said that the $500,000 prize money will be used to support various charitable foundations, The New York Times reported. Muratovs Nobel Peace model will be auctioned off by Heritage Auctions in New York on June 20. One hundred percent of the auctions proceeds will be donated to the United Nations agency UNICEF. June 20 is also World Refugee Day, according to Heritage Auctions. One successful bidder will walk away from this auction with a gold medal representing Mr. Muratovs lifes work and sacrifice. Still, it is his wish that EVERYONE participates by donating what they can to UNICEF, the auction website said. The goal is to use this event to foster awareness of refugee crises and for the giving to continue long after the auction on June 20th. In an interview last month, Muratov said hes conducting the auction to help support Ukrainians who were displaced due to the conflict, calling the situation a tragedy, according to the Times. If we look at the number of refugees, we basically have World War III, not a local conflict, Muratov told the Times. This has been a mistake, and we need to end it. This comes after Muratov initially announced his plans to auction off his Nobel Prize medal in March, a month into Russias invasion of Ukraine. Muratov won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize award along with fellow journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines, both recognized for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. Novaya Gazeta and I have decided to donate the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund, Muratov told the Times. Story continues There are already over 10 million refugees, Muratov added. I ask the auction houses to respond and put up for auction this world-famous award. Russias invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has killed thousands on both sides and led about 6.8 million Ukrainian refugees to flee the country to escape ongoing fighting. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. CBS News Videos Dozens of people were hurt and many were killed in mass shootings across the U.S. over the weekend. CBS News national correspondent Jericka Duncan reports from Philadelphia, where one official is calling for reform after three were killed in a shootout in the city's business district. Then, CBS News' Anne-Marie Green and Vladimir Duthiers spoke with CBS News Philly's Ross DiMattei about what the community wants to see done about the violence. OPEC+ nations on Thursday agreed to increase oil output by about 50 percent for the next two months after initially standing by a 400,000-barrel release. Ministers announced the agreement to increase output in July and August to 648,000 barrels a day. Gas prices in the U.S. saw another spike heading into the Memorial Day holiday, while across the Atlantic, European Union members reached an agreement on banning Russian oil imports in response to the countrys invasion of Ukraine. As recently as earlier Thursday morning, U.S. prices hit another record average high of $4.71 a gallon. The move represents a reversal after the oil-producing nations had previously refused to budge on output, even after oil prices soared following Russias invasion of Ukraine. On May 5, its second most recent meeting, OPEC+ announced it would stick to the 400,000-barrel figure in the wake of the initial EU sanction announcements. Russia, a member of the OPEC+ bloc of oil-producing countries that are aligned with OPEC but not members, has also seen its production fall amid international sanctions. Russia is the worlds third-largest oil producer, behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. OPEC+ data indicated crude production in Russia fell by nearly 9 percent in April, before the EU announcement but after numerous international sanctions, including an American import ban. The Biden administration had previously appealed to Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, to produce more to handle the energy crunch in the U.S., but to no avail. White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said in a statement Thursday the U.S. welcomes the news. This announcement accelerates the end of the current quota arrangement that has been in place since July of last year and brings forward the monthly production increase that was previously planned to take place in September, she said. It remains to be seen how the increase will affect gas prices, if at all. Saudi officials argued in May an increase would have no effect. Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, defending that months smaller increase, said there remain physical impediments that no producer can solve. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Maha El Dahan, Rowena Edwards and Aziz El Yaakoubi DUBAI/LONDON/RIYADH (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ states agreed to bring forward oil production rises to offset Russian output losses to ease surging oil prices and inflation and smooth the way for an ice-breaking visit to Riyadh by U.S. President Joe Biden. OPEC+ said it had agreed to boost output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July - or 0.7% of global demand - and a similar amount in August versus the initial plan to add 432,000 bpd a month over three months until September. The move will be seen as a sign of willingness by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC Gulf nations to pump more after months of pressure from the West to address global energy shortages worsened by Western sanctions on Russia. Oil rose on the news towards $117 a barrel as analysts said the real production boost will be insignificant as most OPEC members except for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are already pumping at capacity. Earlier this year, oil came close to an all-time peak of $147 hit in 2008. OPEC+, an alliance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producing nations, includes Russia, whose output has fallen by about 1 million bpd following Western sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. diplomats have worked for weeks on organising Biden's first visit to Riyadh after two years of strained relations because of disagreements over human rights, the war in Yemen and U.S. weapons supplies to the kingdom. U.S. intelligence has accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, of approving the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a charge the prince denies. Saudi Arabia and its neighbour the United Arab Emirates have been frustrated at the Biden administration's opposition to the military campaign in Yemen and failure to address Gulf concerns about Iran's missile programme and its regional proxies. With the Ukraine war adding to a tight crude market, the U.S. administration has sought more supplies from Gulf allies such as Saudi Arabia, as well as from Iran whose output has been restricted by U.S. sanctions that could be lifted if a nuclear deal is reached, and Venezuela, also under U.S. sanctions. Story continues BIDEN'S APPROVAL RATINGS Rocketing gasoline prices have driven U.S. inflation to a 40-year high, hitting Biden's approval ratings as he approaches mid-term elections. Biden has refused so far to deal with MbS as Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler. A source briefed on the matter said Washington wanted clarity on oil output plans before a potential Biden visit for a summit with Gulf Arab leaders, including MbS, in Riyadh. A second source familiar with discussions about Biden's visit said the issue was not only tied to oil production, but also to Gulf security issues and human rights. The source said both Riyadh and Washington had been showing more readiness to listen to the other's concerns. The White House said it welcomed Thursday's decision and recognised the role of Saudi Arabia in achieving OPEC+ consensus. Western sanctions could reduce production from Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, by as much as 2 million to 3 million bpd, according to a range of industry estimates. Russia was already producing below its OPEC+ target of 10.44 million bpd in April with output running at about 9.3 million bpd. A Western diplomat said Russia might be ready to agree to other members of OPEC+ to fill a gap in its output to preserve unity in the group and maintain support from the Gulf, which has tended to take a neutral stance over the Ukraine war. OPEC+ agreed to cut output by a record amount in 2020 when the pandemic hammered demand. By September, when the deal expires, the group will have limited spare capacity to lift output further. Saudi Arabia is producing 10.5 million bpd and has rarely tested sustained production levels above 11 million bpd. Riyadh says it is working on boosting its nameplate capacity to 13.4 million bpd from the current 12.4 million by 2027. The only other OPEC state with significant ability to produce more oil is the UAE, although OPEC is estimated to have less than 2 million bpd of spare capacity in total. Amrita Sen, co-founder of Energy Apsects think-tank, said, the real production boost over July-August would amount to around 560,000 bpd - compared to the scheduled 1.3 million bpd - because most members have already maxed out their production. "These volumes will barely make a dent to the deficit in the market," she said. (Reporting by Alex Lawler, Rowena Edwards, Ahmad Ghaddar, Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh and Andrew Mills in Doha; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Jason Neely, Edmund Blair and Barbara Lewis) JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the last two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions. The Israeli military said forces operating in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem opened fire after being pelted with rocks and makeshift bombs. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Ayman Mheisen, 29, was killed. The health ministry later said a teenager was shot by Israeli troops near the separation barrier west of the city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered. The Wafa news agency, run by the Palestinian Authority, identified the deceased as Auda Sadaqa, 17. The Israeli military said three suspects hurled a firebomb at forces operating near the barrier, who responded with live fire. No soldiers were wounded. Late Wednesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Yabed, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to destroy the family home of a slain Palestinian attacker who had methodically gunned down five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in March. The military said Palestinians attacked the soldiers with stones and firebombs, and that the troops exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Bilal Kabaha, 24, was killed. The Islamic militant group Hamas said he was one of its fighters. Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building and lighting up the night sky. Israel routinely demolishes the homes of slain or captured Palestinian militants, saying it serves as a deterrent, despite an internal army report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. The Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment. The Israeli rights group HaMoked said the attacker's parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the home. It filed a petition against the demolition that was rejected by Israel's Supreme Court. Story continues Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops in the southern West Bank killed a Palestinian woman who they say approached them with a knife. The West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago. In recent months, Palestinians have carried out a wave of attacks against Israelis that have left 19 people dead. The military has launched near-daily operations across the West Bank that it says are aimed at breaking up militant networks to prevent more attacks. Clashes at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and the killing of a well-known Palestinian-American journalist have further heightened tensions. The Palestinians and witnesses say Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli fire, while Israel says its not clear if soldiers or Palestinian gunmen fired the deadly bullet. The Palestinian Health Ministry says 63 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year. It does not differentiate between civilians, militants and those who were killed after carrying out deadly attacks. The ministry's count includes Abu Akleh, as well as an unarmed woman and two people who appear to have been bystanders during clashes. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday announced the House will vote on a sweeping gun package next week, less than a month after two mass shootings that killed more than 30 people in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. The package, which the House Judiciary Committee marked up on Thursday, would raise the age requirement for purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old, prohibit civilian use of high-capacity magazines and bump stocks and mandate that purchases of so-called ghost guns are subject to background check requirements. Additionally, the package includes measures that would bolster firearm storage requirements and would disallow straw purchasing of guns, which is when someone who is unable to pass a background check buys a firearm through a proxy buyer. In a letter to colleagues on Thursday, Pelosi said the package will make an enormous difference in our fight against gun violence. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) also told reporters on Thursday that the House will bring the package to the floor next week. The vote will come less than a month after a gunman reportedly targeting a Black community opened fire at a grocery store in Buffalo, killing 10 people. Ten days later, another gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. And on Wednesday, a gunman killed four people at a medical clinic in Tulsa, Okla. The House is also slated to vote on a separate bill next week that would nationalize red flag laws, which seek to keep firearms away from people who are deemed a danger to themselves and others. That legislation, according to Pelosis letter, will keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others by implementing a nationwide extreme risk law and encouraging states to enact their own extreme risk laws. The Speaker on Thursday also announced that the House will bring the Active Shooter Alert Act to the floor in the coming weeks. The bill, sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), would establish a program to inform the public when active shooters are in their area. It would be similar to the AMBER Alert system used by law enforcement. Story continues She also said the House will soon hold a hearing regarding a bill to ban assault weapons, which she first announced at an anti-gun violence event in San Francisco on Wednesday. Nadler told reporters on Thursday that the House is working on the assault weapons ban, adding and if we have the votes then well take that to the vote, too. It is, however, unlikely the gun measures will all clear the Senate and head to President Bidens desk. The leading piece of legislation appears to be the bill to establish red flag laws, which some Senate Republicans have expressed an openness to. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Officer Tyler Moldovan with the Phoenix Police Department returned home on Thursday, following months of recovery after he was shot multiple times during an investigation. Moldovan arrived at Deer Valley Airport around noon, from where he was taken home in an ambulance, according to a statement from the Phoenix Police Department. Moldovan, 22, was shot up to eight times on the morning of Dec. 14, 2021, while conducting an investigation. He was hospitalized and put on life support. About a month after the shooting, he was taken to a rehabilitation facility to receive further treatment. Moldovan graduated from the Phoenix Regional Police Academy in March and recently became a solo officer, officials previously said. He celebrated his 22nd birthday in November. His family, including his wife, live in Arizona. Tyler and Chelsea Moldovan. Moldovan's wife, Chelsea Moldovan, said in a statement tweeted by the Phoenix Police Department in January that her husband had "been a miracle" and his recovery was "marvelous." At the time, Moldovan said her husband had "extensive neurologic injuries" but remained on a ventilator in stable condition. Her husband had opened his eyes, recognized people around him and responded through facial expressions. Moldovan said her family was "overwhelmed" by the outpouring of support from the community in the weeks since the shooting, which has included a Phoenix Law Enforcement Association fundraiser and various tributes and vigils for her husband. Dec. 14 shooting Moldovan was among several officers who responded to calls of vehicles speeding and "doing doughnuts" near 19th Avenue and Camelback Road just after 2 a.m. on Dec. 14, according to court documents. While investigating, officers saw a man, later identified as Essa Williams, 24, jump over a wall and run. Williams at the time was on probation and prohibited from having a firearm, court documents state. He had previously served three years in prison for theft, aggravated assault and armed robbery committed in 2014 and 2015, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections website. He was released from prison in April 2020. Story continues Moldovan found Williams hiding in a patio shortly after he tried to escape and asked him if he had any weapons to which Williams said no, according to court documents. Williams then retrieved a handgun from his waist area and began firing at Moldovan multiple times, according to the court documents. "The police officer fell to the ground after the first initial gunshots fired at him," court documents state. "The male subject continued to shoot at the police officer while he was lying on the ground unresponsive." It was not immediately clear if Williams was one of the people suspected of driving erratically. Williams was arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, resisting arrest and prohibited possession of a weapon, according to court documents. His bond was set at $3 million. Williams pleaded not guilty to the charges in late December, according to court records filed on Jan. 4. Williams' trial started on April 28. Republic reporters Chelsea Curtis, BrieAnna J. Frank and Amaris Encinas contributed to this report. Reach breaking news reporter Laura Daniella Sepulveda at lsepulveda@lavozarizona.com or on Twitter @lauradNews. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police officer Tyler Moldovan returns home after being shot The Platinum Jubilee, unfolding over a four-day bank holiday in the U.K., commemorates Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne. She is the longest-ruling monarch in the nation's history. The festivities include pageants, parties, lighting of beacons, horse races and, of course, an official dessert, with notes of lemon and amaretto. Platinum Jubilee Pudding, as the dessert is called, was found via a competition held by the department store Fortum & Mason with the intention of finding a dessert "fit for a queen." Over 5,000 recipes were submitted for a celebratory tart, cake or pudding. The top five recipe-writers all home bakers gathered for a competition, judged by Mary Berry and Monica Galetti. The entire selection process was televised in a May 2022 special called "The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking." Think "The Great British Bake Off" but with notes of royalty. The winner, chosen by unanimous decision, was Jemma Melvin, who created a lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle. Melvin, a 31-year-old copywriter from the seaside town of Southport, told the Evening Standard the experience was "surreal." She entered the competition at her friend's encouragement. "I just thought I might as well go for it, get my name in the hat," Melvin said. By winning, Melvins dessert falls in line with other foods aligned with British monarchs, like coronation chicken, created during Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, and Victoria sponge cake. Queen Victoria had a cake made for her 60-year celebration in 1897. A trifle, for those of us across the pond, is a category of cold British desserts that feature sponge cake, commonly soaked in alcohol, and layered with custard, fruit, gelatin and topped with cream. Platinum Jubilee (James Manning / PA Images via Getty Images) Melvin's seven-layer trifle has lemon curd and custard, St. Clements jelly, a mandarin coulis, candied peel, chocolate shards and crushed amaretti biscuits. Speaking to the Evening Standard, Melvin said her recipe was inspired by her two grandmothers and "the Queen herself." One grandmother taught her to bake; the other had a love of trifles. She incorporated lemon into the flavors because the Queen had a lemon posset at her wedding to Prince Philip. Story continues The recipe was designed to be accessible for other home bakers. I just want everyone to make it and if people make it around the world then that is amazing," Melvin told NBC News. However, bakers in the U.K. who tried to recreate Melvin's recipe which is available on the BBC's website were somewhat daunted by all the homemade components. Already, modified recipes are popping up to make the dessert even more within reach. Jemma Melvins Platinum Pudding. (NBC News) Whether they're following the original recipe or the abridged version, people are posting their takes on the lemon Swiss roll on Instagram. Nicole Freeman, a cooking teacher and hypnotherapist based in London, taught a special Platinum Jubilee Pudding class with her cooking school, the Kid's Kitchen. She simplified the recipe for the kids to make it challenging but still manageable to achieve in two hours. Freeman used store bought trifle sponges and purchased amaretti biscuits and lemon curd, but made homemade jelly, custard, coulis, chocolate decorations and whipped cream. "Were making this to eat something delicious, homemade and a bit special for the Jubilee, but were not all trying to win a pudding competition so it doesnt need to be so fancy," Freeman told TODAY in an email interview. Freeman enjoyed the final product especially since she soaked the sponges in mandarin juice, her own twist on the recipe. She said her husband, a "trifle hater," even liked it. Having made the recipe, Freeman recommends cooks simplify it, especially if they're just starting out in the kitchen. "Id much rather people simplified it, enjoyed the taste and the process and had fun doing it so they are more likely to cook something again," she said. This might not be the last the U.K. sees of the Platinum Pudding. Judge Roger Pizey, the executive pastry chef of the department store that put on the competition, thinks the recipe is built for longevity. "I really think well be making Jemmas trifle for at least the next 50 to 100 years, without a doubt," Pizey told the Agence France-Press. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shown in December 2021. Strategic U.S. interests in oil and security are pushing President Biden toward meeting with the prince during an overseas trip later this month. (Bandar Aljaloud / Associated Press) President Biden has decided to travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks and is expected to meet with the kingdoms crown prince, whom he once shunned for his brutality. It's a visit that is coming together as OPEC+ announced Thursday it will pump more oil amid skyrocketing energy costs around the globe. Biden's first trip to the Saudi kingdom as president is likely to occur this month, but details have not been finalized, a person familiar with the planning told the Associated Press. The White House on Thursday praised Saudi Arabia for its role securing an OPEC+ pledge to pump more oil, and the president himself lauded the Saudis for agreeing to a cease-fire extension in its 8-year-old war with Yemen. "Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the U.N.-led truce, Biden said in a statement after the 60-day extension of the cease-fire was announced Thursday. Those warm words mark a sharp contrast with some of Biden's earlier rhetoric about the oil-rich kingdom. As a candidate, he pledged to treat the Saudis as a pariah for the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's brutal ways. U.S. intelligence officials determined that the prince probably approved the killing. Biden administration officials have been working behind the scenes to repair relations, discussing shared strategic interests in security and oil with their Saudi counterparts. The effort has played out as the fallout of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the world's No. 2 crude exporter after Saudi Arabia, and a Saudi-Russian brokered cap on oil production have raised crude prices and sent prices Americans pay at the pump to record highs. Biden and Democrats face rising voter anger over the high prices, making the tight oil supply a top political liability. Appeals from the U.S. and its allies for the OPEC+ group OPEC nations plus Russia to boost production appeared to bear results Thursday. OPEC nations announced they would raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for a struggling global economy. Story continues The increase did not appear to ease concerns about tight supply, and oil prices actually rose after OPEC+ announced the increase. In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged what she said was Saudi Arabia's role in achieving consensus" among the oil producers' bloc. She thanked the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq as well. Jean-Pierre also directly cited the leadership of King Salman and the crown prince in Thursday's announcement of an extended U.N. cease-fire in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces have led an unsuccessful war to rout that country's Houthi rebels. The White House is weighing a Biden visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person. Such a meeting could ease a tense and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the killing of Khashoggi. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Mohammed, Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden probably would also visit Israel. Israeli officials in their engagement with the Biden administration have pressed their point of view that U.S. relations with Arab capitals, including Riyadh, are critical to Israels security and overall stability in the region. The visit could also provide an opportunity to kick off talks for what the administration sees as a longer-term project of normalizing Israel-Saudi relations. And while the Biden administration continues to be concerned about the Saudis' human rights record, the president's advisors credit Saudi Arabia for showing greater restraint in its conflict with Yemen since Biden took office. White House officials expect criticism from Democratic allies and human rights advocates charging Biden is backtracking on human rights, but suggest that in the long term a credible Middle East strategy without key leaders in the kingdom is not tenable. Biden, through the early going of his presidency, has repeatedly said the world is at a key moment in history where democracies must demonstrate they can out-deliver autocracies. The administration doesn't want to see countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia with troubling human rights records fall into the camp of Moscow and Beijing. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told a Washington audience Wednesday that Biden's intent coming into office was to recalibrate the relationship with Saudi Arabia and to make sure that that relationship was serving our own interests as well as our values as we move forward but also preserving it. And thats largely what weve done, Blinken said. U.S. officials were recently in the region for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and the war in Yemen. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight oil supply helps Russia fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Persian Gulf region as the United States tries to focus on China. Those gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year to bring control of its forces in Israel under the U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israels U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, now a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. By Marek Strzelecki WARSAW (Reuters) -More work needs to be done on the rule of law in Poland, the European Commission president said on Thursday during a visit to Warsaw after Brussels approved billions of euros in COVID-19 economic recovery funds for the country. Poland's access to 23.9 billion euros in grants and 11.5 billion euros in cheap loans had been blocked due to a dispute over judicial independence. But on Wednesday the Commission said it was approving Poland's recovery plan, opening the way for Warsaw to get the cash. Nevertheless, it said that Poland would have to fulfill milestones related to judicial independence, reinstating unlawfully dismissed judges and reforming its disciplinary system, before funds could start flowing. "We are not at the end of the road on the rule of law in Poland," Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference. A first payment would only take place when reforms were in place, she said. Poland rejects accusations that it has sought to politicise the judiciary, arguing that its changes aim to wipe away a residue of Communist-era influence and remove judges who see themselves as above the law. It has also said that withholding the funds at a time when more than 3.5 million refugees have crossed the border from Ukraine is unjustified. Central to the rule of law dispute is a disciplinary chamber for judges which critics say is used as a tool of political influence. Lawmakers in the lower house of parliament have voted in favour of a bill that would replace the chamber with a new body, but critics say it does not tackle the core problem of the politicisation of the judiciary. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, has proposed amendments to the bill that would ensure judges who were dismissed return to their previous roles and that all decisions of the disciplinary chamber would be annuled. However, these are likely to be rejected when the bill returns to the lower house. "The Commission has removed any incentive for the authorities which control the lower chamber to take seriously all the positive amendments proposed by the Senate," said Wojciech Sadurski, a law professor at the universities of Sydney and Warsaw. (Reporting by Alan Charlish, Marek Strzelecki, Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP A teenage boy was arrested in Berkeley, California, on Monday after police received a tip he was recruiting other high school students to participate in a mass shooting and/or bombing at a local high school. When authorities searched the teens home they found parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives and electronic devices that could be used to create additional weapons, police said. The arrest comes in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Since that massacre which unfolded less than two weeks after a gunman killed 10 and injured three at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York authorities across the US have made multiple arrests for threats against schools. Police in Berkeley said they procured a search warrant for the teens home after receiving the tip. The youth services unit then assumed control of the investigation. Investigators interviewed witnesses, examined evidence and obtained an arrest warrant. The teen surrendered to police and was arrested on suspicion of threatening to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury, and possessing destructive device materials, authorities said. Education officials said they were in very close contact with police. The school district said it relied on the expertise of [Berkeley police] in their assessment of any ongoing risk to our school community after police confiscated what they describe as parts of weapons. We were also in steady communication with police about the whereabouts of this student, officials said, saying they alerted administrators and security staffers about the investigation. Throughout the investigation period, we were assured that this individual did not pose an immediate threat to the Berkeley high school community, they said. Education authorities said that they were committed to conducting their own parallel investigation. On Monday, a high school student in Wellington Village, Ohio, was arrested for alleged threats against a school. The students behavior was considered a reliable threat, 19 News in Cleveland reported. Story continues In New York, an 18-year-old student from Long Island was arrested on Tuesday for stating his desire to conduct a violent act towards students and faculty members at his school, police said. The teen was suspended from school in May after his alleged involvement in several fights, ABC4 New York reported. Police in Florida arrested a 10-year-old fifth-grader after allegedly learning of a threatening text message. The boy was charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, the Lee county sheriff said. Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. Its not funny, the sheriff, Carmine Marceno, said in a statement. This child made a fake threat, and now hes experiencing real consequences. The Daily Beast Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty ImagesRoyalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.The queens enforcers reportedly told Harry and Meghan no chance when the couple asked for a photograph of the monarch meeting their child Lilibet for the first time.The revelation of the denied photograph emerged as Harry and Meghan issued their own picture of their daughter to celebrate her first birthday.In honor of their daugh (AFP) Social media users have said Prince Louis stole the show at todays Trooping the Colour ceremony and subsequent Buckingham Palace balcony appearance. The four-year-old royal, who is the youngest child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the younger sibling of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, made his first appearance at the parade today along with his siblings. Louis, George and Charlotte shared a carriage with their mother Kate and the Duchess of Cornwall during the royal procession. Louis also stood next to the Queen as working members of the royal family made an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the RAF flypast following the parade. It was here that social media users noted Louis pulling funny faces and a sweet interaction that happened between him and his great-grandmother, the Queen. Prince Louis reacts on the balcony of Buckingham Palace (PA) At one point, during the flypast, Louis was shown covering his ears and making a screaming face. One social media shared the image of Louis and wrote: Prince Louis, stealing the show! Another likened the conversation between Louis and the Queen to one similar to one Her Majesty had with Prince George during Charlottes christening in 2015. The Queen has a conversation with four-year-old Prince Louis.#PlatinumJubilee pic.twitter.com/jFdXR3dCTU Royal Central (@RoyalCentral) June 2, 2022 Prince Louis talking with the Queen, right away made me think of the conversation Prince George had with her at Princess Charlottes christening, the user wrote. Story continues Prince Louis talking with the Queen, right away made me think of the conversation Prince George had with her at Princess Charlottes christening pic.twitter.com/PCUbKKo2ia Kates Power Suit (@KatesPowerSuit) June 2, 2022 Little Prince Louis chatting his head off to the Queen, one user wrote, alongside several cry-laugh emoji. Other users were quick to share more memes of Louis as he enjoyed himself during the ceremony. Prince Louis is stealing the show on the balcony #TroopingTheColour #Jubilee pic.twitter.com/RMo38B9HbG Lucy Jones (@ByLucyJones) June 2, 2022 Others said Prince Louis was their favourite royal after the proceedings today, with one person writing: Once again Prince Louis earning the title of Boss Baby. Prince Louis covers his ears from the balcony of Buckingham Place (AP) Earlier during the royal procession, Charlotte was shown putting a stop to Louis enthusiastic waving. As Louis was waving to the crowds, his big sister gently placed his hand back on his lap. But it didnt stop Louis who began waving again a second later. Follow our live coverage of the Queens platinum jubilee celebrations here. WASHINGTON Security officials at a Donald Trump-headlined rally over the weekend appeared to block the entry of a man who wore a shirt adorned with the logo of the Proud Boys until he reversed the shirt to hide any identification of the extremist far-right group. In a viral video that underscored the complicated relationship between the ex-president and nationalist groups, a man heard but not seen said Trump organizers invited him to the event held Saturday in Casper, Wyoming. "Youre kidding me, right? The Trump campaign gave us VIP tickets!" the man said. "This is really happening? Can I ask why Proud Boys arent allowed? One security official told the man: "You can't have any logos or insignia ... It's the logo it's the shirt." USA TODAY was unable to verify who taped the video. Members of most any organization including extremist groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are allowed at Trump rallies, but they cannot wear clothes or carry signs advertising any non-Trump related organizations, said Trump officials and the security officers. The former president's messaging on extremist groups has been mixed, including during a 2020 debate with now-President Joe Biden in which Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by." The group took the statement as a call to arms, emblazoning it across merchandise and bragging about their status on social media. More: Donald Trump sidesteps call to condemn white supremacists and the Proud Boys were 'extremely excited' about it Previously: Trump defends response to Charlottesville violence, says he put it 'perfectly' with 'both sides' remark The Wyoming incident took place at a rally for U.S. House candidate Harriet Hageman, who is challenging incumbent and Trump critic Rep. Liz Cheney. People familiar with security at Trump rallies said organizers have long forbidden outside groups from displaying non-Trump logos of any kind, whether it's a nonendorsed candidate, a politically-minded nonprofit organization or extremist groups like the Proud Boys. Story continues The idea, they said, is to control the messaging of the event. However, that policy has not always been in force, with photos showing Q or other logos at Trump events through the years. Some extremist groups are supportive of Trump and cited his inspiration as a reason to breach the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Philadelphia Proud Boys leader Zachary Rehl, left, and Seattle Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean, right, walk toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Both have been charged in the insurrection. The no-logo policy is also a way to insulate Trump from these organizations, said Ron Filipkowski, a Florida-based attorney who monitors Trump's political activity and extremist organizations and who tweeted out the video of the Wyoming incident. "Its a bad look for them," Filipkowski said. Trump's team is "very conscious of what is shown on camera," he said. "Everyone who sits directly behind Trump is specifically selected. Also the networks that cover them - RSBN, Real Americas Voice, Newsmax - go out of their way to try to avoid interviewing" members of groups like Q-Anon or the Proud Boys. Filipkowski said he found the video on social media, but he and aides have not been able to learn the man's name. In an extended version of the video Filipkowski shared with USA TODAY, the man is seen, in shadow, taking off his shirt, reversing it and wearing it with the logo hidden, allowing him entry to the event. Proud Boys, prison and Jan. 6 After rising to prominence before the 2020 presidential election, the Proud Boys have been muted in the 16 months since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The organization has been hobbled by civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions related to the riot, and most of its leaders are in prison facing trial. In April, Henry Tarrio, who goes by Enrique and who used to be the national chairman of the Proud Boys, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges related to Jan. 6. He is one of six senior Proud Boys charged with the conspiracy, one of the most serious prosecutions brought by the federal government against Jan. 6 defendants. Enrique Tarrio (C), then-leader of the Proud Boys, uses a megaphone to address people gathered at the Torch of Friendship to remember the one year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2021 in Miami, Florida. Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S. To the extent the Proud Boys ever had a national spokesperson, it was Tarrio, who is in custody awaiting trial. In his wake, nobody has openly stepped up to lead the organization, said Samantha Kutner, a lead researcher at the Khalifa Ihler Institute, a think tank that studies approaches to combating extremism. But that doesnt mean there isnt some organization going on behind the scenes, Kutner, who has studied the Proud Boys for years, said. There does appear to be some coordination, she said, I think it's important to see how they're re-coagulating how they're trying to reform, regroup, re-strategize." Members of the Proud Boys are still sporadically showing up at conservative events, but for more than a year now some chapters have told their members not to appear in public in the groups trademark yellow and black colors. On Wednesday, dozens of Proud Boys channels on the secure messaging app Telegram were silent about the video apparently showing a member nearly being turned away from a Trump rally. A USA TODAY analysis of Proud Boys accounts on social media also showed no signs of the group discussing the event. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Proud Boys' can attend Donald Trump rallies but no logos allowed A sign along Genessee Street in Utica, N.Y. reinforces its welcoming attitude toward resettling refugees, who have helped revitalize the old industrial city. (Hans Pennink / Associated Press) In the mid-19th century, Utica, N.Y., was home to more people than Detroit, Cleveland and even Chicago. Those cities soon outpaced this remote industrial town, but it continued growing, reaching 100,000 people in 1930 before plateauing for four decades. Then the inexorable decline that began across the Rust Belt took hold and Utica grew smaller and poorer. But theres a twist: After bottoming out in 2000 at 60,000 people, Utica turned a corner and it began growing again, revitalizing its downtown, thanks in large part to refugees. Many of the people who helped foster this rebirth arrived in Utica after experiencing hell on Earth in their war-torn homelands, be it Vietnam, Burma, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia or Iraq. In her new book, City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life Into a Dying American Town, Susan Hartman illuminates the humanity of these outsiders while demonstrating the crucial role immigrants play in the economy and the soul of the nation. Most Americans havent had contact personally with refugees, Hartman noted in a recent video interview. They feel worried and see them as people who will be a drain on the economy, with huge families on public assistance. I hope this book dispels the myths and puts a human face on the refugees, showing the reality of how hard they work. Hartman began exploring Utica and its refugees in 2013, publishing a story on the topic the following year for the New York Times. In the course of her reporting, she came to know the subjects of what would become her book: Sadia, a rebellious teenage girl in a Somali Bantu family of 12 headed by a single mother; Ali, an Iraqi who had worked for the U.S. during the war; and Merisha, who had fled Bosnia in the 1990s. This was very much an accidental book, Hartman says. These three people just hooked me. I was riveted by their stories and had no idea what was going to happen. I was always waiting for the next trip. Story continues Hartman kept going back for an additional seven years, learning the most intimate details about three families while putting their challenges and accomplishments in the context of the way Utica along with cities like Buffalo, N.Y.; Dayton, Ohio; and Detroit was regaining its footing thanks to newcomers from a wide array of countries. Im a miniaturist and love the details of peoples lives, she says. I started with a story, not an agenda. I didnt feel a need to make big statements. I felt it would be there if someone wanted to discover. Still, politics wormed its way into the book when Donald Trump became president by pushing a xenophobic agenda and not only continued to attack immigrants relentlessly but also slashed the United States refugee program. It might make the book feel more political, because you become aware the city was on an upswing and beginning to thrive because of the refugees, but when the pipeline was cut, the city suffered, Hartman says, noting that President Biden has reversed Trumps attitudes and policies. (Biden has, however, received criticism from refugee advocates for his half-measures regarding people fleeing the war in Ukraine: He initially promised to welcome 100,000 refugees but then switched to the more precarious offer of humanitarian parole.) They are excited in Utica about welcoming more refugees, Hartman says. The companies and factories and the resort need them, and there is a hospital going up too. For all the uncertainty of the last few years, the political debate rarely touched the refugees themselves. They are not as upset as you might think; they are focused on work and surviving, Hartman says. The refugees who were already here felt secure; they were Americans or on their way to becoming Americans and didnt feel personally threatened. And the older people were not getting news from American sources but were focused on getting news from their home country. Its also worth pointing out that replacement conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the refugees were hardly politically monolithic. Ali voted for Trump in 2016, though he did not reveal his choice in the last election. He liked the Republicans economic policy and chose to compartmentalize his more xenophobic rhetoric. If you come from an authoritarian country youre used to Saddam Hussein, Hartman says; by comparison, Trump never seemed particularly dangerous to Ali. Hartmans immersive reporting over eight years allows for such nuance to come through as the families carry on with their lives. Ali falls in love with an American woman named Heidi, but even as they begin creating a life together and save money to buy a home, he misses his native country and is eager to help it rebuild, returning to Iraq to work again for the American government. Sadia, meanwhile, gets kicked out of her mothers house for displaying an independent streak that feels too American to the family. Readers may be aghast at her mothers cold-hearted behavior, but Sadia, despite her loneliness and struggles, manages to carve her own path. Hartman tries to put the familys reaction in a cultural context. They saw Sadia as impossibly disrespectful, and her mother felt that shed come back, Hartman says, adding that she felt sympathy for the mother, whose 11 children led her to parent with a triage approach. Merisha and her husband work hard and raise a family, but her ambitions lead her to start cooking and selling Bosnian food, prompting the family to pitch in and put everything on the line for her to open a restaurant which launches in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold. Opening a restaurant is such a gamble, and when I went there, Merisha was absolutely exhausted and couldnt even think about the pandemic, Hartman says. The family adapted on the fly, with the children finding other jobs to help pay the bills, while everyone scrambled to create a to-go restaurant during the shutdown. They didnt mourn, Hartman says, adding that the restaurant survived and is thriving. So is Ali and so is Sadia, who has a baby, a husband and supportive in-laws, along with plans for her future. No matter their journeys, success is a matter of perspective, one thing these newcomers all have in abundance. When just about anything happens, Hartman says, these refugees can say, Ive been through worse. Their resilience is enormous. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Reuters Videos STORY: Police said it was one of the largest such seizures in Europe and came at the end of an international investigation that resulted in arrest warrants being issued for 38 people in six countries: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Colombia.The investigation lasted more than a year and involved both the Colombian judiciary and U.S. Homeland Security. Besides the cocaine, police also confiscated 1.85 million euros in cash.Colombian authorities said last November they were focused on breaking up the Clan del Golfo gang, whose network extends to 28 countries around the world, after the capture of the group's leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias "Otoniel", in October."Another hard blow to the most important group among Colombian narcotics gangs," Italian investigators from the northeastern city of Trieste said of the seizure. The time has come today for the Rolling Stones to introduce the 1966 song Out of Time into their setlist. Improbable as it may seem, given how often the song has been covered by others or licensed for the movies, the band had never performed the tune live until it showed up at the Stones European tour opening Wednesday night in Madrid, Spain. There was a rumor the song might show up, as eavesdroppers on tour rehearsals had heard the Stones trying out Out of Time, although there are typically rarities that they test during rehearsal periods that seldom or never make it onto a tour. So its actual appearance at the Metropolitano Stadium opener was considered a blessed event indeed. More from Variety Given the enduring popularity of the song among fans, some might assume it was released as a single in 66, but that wasnt the case after it first appeared as an Aftermath album cut. It was a quickie cover version by British artist Chris Farlowe produced by Mick Jagger (with Jimmy Page on guitar) that reached No. 1 in the U.K. later in 1966; that cover never cracked the Hot 100 in America. In 1975, a Stones version of the song was finally belatedly released as a single, albeit as it appeared in a different, patched-together form on the Metamorphosis compilation album put out by Allen Klein after the band was out from under his auspices. That version of the song used the backing track from the Jagger-produced Farlowe single of 1966 and featured the demo vocal Jagger recorded to guide Farlowe. But, as a single, this new creation wasnt a hit it peaked at No. 45 in the U.K. and No. 81 in the U.S. So why do people imagine the Stones had a big hit with it? Beyond the fact that its a strong enough kiss-off that it could have been a smash, the song has been licensed a decent amount over the years for end of an era usage in films and TV. Story continues In Hal Ashbys post-Vietnam drama Coming Home in 1978, it was used over the opening credits, a montage that mixes footage of veterans in rehabilitation with shots of the Bruce Dern character jogging on the beach, suggesting that he may be the one whos run out of time. The song reappeared over the end credits. Much more recently, Quentin Tarantino had the entire Metamorphosis version play out late in the running time of 2019s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, at the start of a sort of epilogue sequence that has Leonardo DiCaprios character returning from a long sojourn filming overseas, with a new, counterculture look. Although the Stones never collectively considered it worthy of a live airing until 2022, that hasnt stopped other artists from performing it. According to setlist.fm, it has been performed by Elvis Costello, with and without the Imposters, at least 47 times, and was included on the 2011 live album The Return of the Spectacular Singing Songbook. (Costello sang it on tour as recently as last year.) Van Morrison is also listed as having sung it in concert at least 12 times. On record, its been covered by the Ramones, among others compare the Costello and Ramones versions, below. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. EXCLUSIVE: Russia's war in Ukraine has sparked a global crisis, and experts warn that hunger poses the greatest worldwide security threat as millions face famine and starvation. "The conflict in Ukraine isnt just increasing hunger conditions within the country or even within the region," Steve Taravella, senior spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), told Fox News. "The number of people who are on the brink of famine is now about 48.9 million in 43 countries. "That is really dramatic." Taravella said that roughly three-quarters of a million people are facing starvation in just five nations across the globe, including Ethiopia, Yemen, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia. RUSSIA WAR WILL HAVE 'SHATTERING' EFFECT ON FOOD SHORTAGES IN AFRICA: 'YOU'RE GOING TO SEE GOVERNMENTS FALL' In this picture taken April 13, 2022, a Russian soldier stands guard at the Luhansk power plant in the town of Shchastya. Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images "These arent people who just dont know where their next meal is coming from," he continued. "These are people who are really facing starvation." These highly vulnerable nations have been embroiled in brutal conflicts, which has not only made providing humanitarian care more difficult but has also stunted global production. "The link between conflict and hunger is really essential for understanding what is happening in Ukraine," Taravella said. "Bottom line: When people are fighting theyre not farming." ZELENSKYY TAKES JAB AT PUTIN OVER G20 SUMMIT, HOPES 'NO OCCUPIERS' WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE Global drought and the coronavirus pandemic had already created serious hunger conditions for the most vulnerable nations, but Russias war in the grain-rich sector of the world has pushed dangerous conditions into catastrophic realities. "Hunger is soaring to terrifying levels, and the global situation just keeps on getting worse. Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm and now the Ukraine war is piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe," David Beasley, head of the U.N. WFP, tweeted this week. Story continues U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed these comments last month when he told the Biden administration that global hunger levels had reached "a new high." "In just two years, the number of severely food insecure people has doubled, from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today," he said. "More than half a million people are living in famine conditions an increase of more than 500% since 2016." But Russias war in Ukraine has brought a new reality to the alarming situation. "Its a global storm with a global impact," Taravella explained. In 2019, Ukraine provided a staggering 42% of the worlds sunflower oil. In addition, it also provided 16% of the worlds corn exports, 10% of all barley exports, and nearly 9% of all wheat exports also came from Ukraine. Kyiv also contributed 40% of all wheat exports the WFP received to assist vulnerable nations worldwide before it became the target of a deadly conflict. As much as 25 million tons of grain remain holed up in storage facilities in Ukraine as Russian naval vessels hold an export blockade over ports located along the Black Sea. Taravella explained that not only is there an urgent need to distribute the grain to assist with food demands now, but its circulation is also needed to ensure that any current grain harvesting can be stored. Food prices have risen worldwide, but countries with the lowest GPD index will see the greatest spikes in costs at the market. ZELENSKYY'S GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS PREDICTION MAY BE 10 WEEKS AWAY, UN OFFICIAL SAYS: 'SEISMIC' "The people who now have to cough up the dramatically greater amounts of money for food are the very people who can least afford it," the WFP official told Fox News. This is largely due to the fact that countries in the Middle East and Africa have been highly reliant on Ukrainian exports and food assistance programs like the WFP which is also incurring substantially greater costs. Before the war, Lebanon received 80% of its wheat imports from Ukraine while Tunisia, Libya and Pakistan all received nearly 50% of their wheat needs from the former Soviet nation. Iraq imported nearly 88% of its sunflower oil from Ukraine, while India and Egypt relied upon Ukraine for 76% and 54% of their sunflower oil needs, respectively. Experts are concerned the food crisis will not only lead to a spike in global hunger but pose a major security threat worldwide. "One of the drivers of the conflict in what we now call the Arab Spring was the inability to get affordable food. When people are hungry, they become desperate and they turn to desperate measures," Taravella said. "We are all very nervous that as the numbers of hungry grow around the world, political instability could grow with it. "The last thing the world needs is more conflict. How many more countries in conflict can the world sustain?" Russian President Vladimir Putin. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Russian oil and gas sales could hit $285 billion this year, outstripping last year's takings by 20%. Europe is a major buyer of Russian energy products, accounting for about 50% of its crude oil exports and 75% of its natural gas exports in 2021. Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy in the first two months of the war. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is entering its 100th day on Friday, with no clear end to the war in sight. Despite intensifying sanctions, Russia could still rake in $800 million a day from oil and gas revenues this year amid soaring energy prices, according to Bloomberg Economics. Russia's coffers have been bolstered by a rally in oil prices, which have risen about 50% this year and are at 13-year highs. The gains could bring Russia's oil and gas sales to a total of $285 billion this year, Bloomberg forecasts. That's 20% higher than the country's $235.6 billion takings from oil and gas in 2021. Much of the windfall can be traced back to the European Union (EU), due to the bloc's reliance on Russian energy. The EU gets about 40% of its natural gas from Russia and has been struggling to wean off the fuel. Some EU countries including Germany, Europe's largest economy are heavily reliant on the product. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Europe is a key destination for Russia's energy exports. Overall, Europe is a major buyer of Russian energy products, accounting for about 50% of the country's crude-oil exports and 75% of its natural-gas exports in 2021, according to the EIA. In the first two months of the Ukraine war, which started on February 24, the EU splashed out 39 billion euros ($41.5 billion) on Russian fossil fuels, accounting for 70% of the country's exports. This made the bloc "by far" the largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) published on April 27. Germany was the biggest individual buyer, spending 8.3 billion euros ($8.9 billion) on the imports, according to the report. The second-largest EU buyer was the Netherlands, which spent 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion.) Italy came in the third with 4.3 billion euros ($4.6 billion) in purchases. Story continues Sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine have "been undermined by continued fossil fuel imports from Russia, particularly to the EU," the CREA said in its report. "Fossil fuel exports are a key enabler of Russia's military buildup and brutal aggression against Ukraine," it added. The research organization acknowledged the EU's efforts in setting new clean energy targets as the bloc weans itself off Russian energy, but added that it will not be an immediate fix. "These steps will provide a replacement for Russian fossil fuels over the next few years, but they have essentially no effect on Russia's fossil fuel export revenue in the short term," per the CREA. Germany will wean itself off Russian gas by 2024, the country's economy minister Robert Habeck said in a March 25 press release. Read the original article on Business Insider The U.K. defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Thursday that Russia has taken over most of Sieverodonetsk, a Ukrainian city in the Luhansk region. The ministry said that over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters. The main road into the Sieverodonetsk pocket likely remains under Ukrainian control but Russia continues to make steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery, officials added, noting that Russian forces have sustained losses in the process. Luhansks regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, also tweeted on Wednesday that Russian forces controlled about 80 percent of the area. Nearly 100 days into Russias invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has sought to target areas used to ferry in weapons from Ukraines Western allies, Reuters noted in a report on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also warned the West against offering their support. During a call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the Wests help would cause further destabilization of the situation and aggravation of the humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has announced that it would send long-range rocket systems as part of a $700 million weapons package to Ukraine. We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table, Biden said in a guest essay for The New York Times published earlier this week. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Ukrainian military inspects the broken Russian equipment after one of the battles in the Donbas 6.44 p.m: U.S Department of Treasury has expanded the anti-Russian sanctions list, reads the latest update published on its website. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Putin's cello player friend Sergei Roldugin, Russian businessman God Nisanov, Russian Transport Minister Vitaliy Saveliev, and many others were included in the new list of US sanctions. The companies Skyline Aviation, Severstal, Marine Investment, Graceful, and Olympia superyachts, allegedly tied to Putin were also included in the sanctions list. 4.42 p.m: Irish Senate (Seanad Eireann) has acknowledged Russia's invasion of Ukraine as genocide, Senator Mark Daly said in a tweet. The resolution also said that during the invasion, Russian troops committed murders, rapes, and large-scale use of heavy weapons against people, as well as bombing with heavy military equipment, attacks on civilians, and sniper fire on civilians leaving burning homes. The resolution also acknowledges that Russia's attack on Ukraine was an "unprovoked act" and contrary to international law. 2.41 p.m: Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February Russia has occupied more than 3600 Ukrainian settlements, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to the parliament of Luxembourg. "Russian troops entered 3,620 settlements in Ukraine, 1,017 of which were liberated. Another 2,603 are to be released, "he said. 2.07 p.m: Ukrainian forces counterattacked in Severodonetsk and managed to push Russians out of several streets, Luhansk Oblast governor Serhiy Hayday said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists. Overnight Russians had no success in Severodonetsk, Hayday said. "Although they reported that they occupied and fully controlled the entire city. Unfortunately, they indeed control most, but not the whole city. The fighting continues," the governor said. At the same time, the Ukrainian army pushed the aggressors out of several streets, and during the counterattacks, Ukrainians managed to take Russian prisoners. Story continues Morning Digest Overnight Russians shelled transport infrastructure in Lviv Oblast, injuring five people, the local oblast council has reported. Today dozens of trains are delayed. At the same time, Russians also shelled Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy Oblasts, injuring three more people. A Russian fighter jet fired three missiles at the Krasnopil community of Sumy Oblast. "One house was destroyed by a direct missile hit. Several more houses were damaged, large-scale destruction in households, "said Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of the Sumy Regional State Administration. Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast remain the place of the heaviest fights for several weeks already. Russians now control almost 80 percent of Severodonetsk and gained a certain success storming Komyshuvakha, Ukrainian Army General Staff has reported. Last night, Russian troops shelled the chemical plant Azot several times. "They hit one of the administrative buildings and the warehouse where methanol was stored. In Lysychansk, the city hospital building was damaged. The Russians are simply destroying and looting our region," Luhansk governor Serhiy Hayday said in his Telegram. Ukrainian forces withdrew to the nearby city Lyman, yet they continue to fight for Severodonetsk and yesterday night captured several Russian prisoners of war. In the Kharkiv region, Russian occupiers have been trying to stop the Ukrainian offensive. While in the north of Kherson Oblast Ukrainian forces have liberated more than 20 settlements. Read also: Russians fortify their positions in Severodonetsk, Ukraine loses up to 100 soldiers every day While Russia has concentrated most of its forces on capturing Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainians started a counterattack on the southern front. Ivan Yakovina, NV's international observer has reported that the Ukrainian sudden counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast has caused panic among the Russian forces there. And today one of the Russian proxy regiments in Kherson published a video, asking for withdrawal from the region due to a lack of proper weapons, medical supplies, and food. via Facebook At least two people were shot at a burial on Thursday afternoon for a young man fatally shot by police in Wisconsin in May, according to information from Racine police and attendees. Mourners were paying their last respects to 37-year-old DaShontay L. King when gunfire erupted at Graceland Cemetery, witnesses said. One attendee, who identified himself as the grandfather of one of Kings four sons but asked not to be named, said the incident came as a complete shock. It was real quiet, the pastor was lowering the body into the ground, and all of a sudden they just started shooting, he told The Daily Beast. The only thing I can say is, I just saw people diving. I didnt see this coming, and I was standing there. I dont think most people saw this coming. Some people thought it was firecrackers. Cortaisha Thompson, 23, was there and said her aunt, Kendra Gamble, was wounded and is now in critical but stable condition. She was shot at the gravesite, Thompson told The Daily Beast. We just left the hospital, she was sent on Flight for Life to Milwaukee. Were going to Milwaukee now, they just took her there. Thompson said Gamble is expected to survive but was helicoptered elsewhere so she can get better care. Police said late Thursday that a girl was also shot and was later treated and released, according to WISN. The viewing began at 10 a.m., with the service getting underway at noon, according to a funeral announcement sent out by Kings family. In a statement, Racine Police said multiple shots were fired at the cemetery at 2:26 p.m. There are victims but unknown how many at this time. The scene is still active and being investigated, the statement said. Unnamed family members told local NBC affiliate TMJ4 that five attendees suffered gunshot wounds, though that number was later revised down to two by police. King was shot and killed by a police officer in Racine during a traffic stop on May 20. Cops said King stepped out of his vehicle holding a gun and refused to comply with orders to drop it. The officer then opened fire, and King was pronounced dead at the scene. Story continues Im not going to sit here and sugar coat and act like he is a completely innocent person, that hes never done any wrong, because he has, Kings sister Natasha Mullen told local ABC affiliate WISN 12 the next day. But she said the family believed King would have eventually dropped the weapon and continued running, as they said hes done in the past, the outlet reported. In the same May 21 interview, Mullen described King as all of our protectors. Not just his children, his nieces, his nephews too. 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. By Casey Hall and Martin Quin Pollard SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As many Shanghai residents rushed onto the streets this week to reunite with friends and pop champagne to celebrate the end of a two month-long lockdown, Li Menghua was busy packing up his hair salon, a casualty of the draconian quest to stamp out COVID-19. Li, 24, set up his salon three years ago after leaving home in Henan province to seek his fortune in China's largest and most prosperous city. "Our business was really good, always busy with customers. But because of the pandemic, a lot of shopfronts have to close," he said. "Not many people can survive more than two months without a salary," he said. While China has declared victory over the virus in Shanghai, residents are grappling with the trauma of their experience - from lost incomes, the loss of freedom, the death of friends and relatives, and even hunger. Many struggled to buy food or medicine. Hundreds of thousands were sent to crowded quarantine centres, sometimes dragged away by police against their will. Many people died after being unable to access essential medical care. Mothers were separated from their children in the early days until a public outcry moved authorities to revise the policy. Others woke to find their front doors barricaded in by fences. A pet corgi dog was beaten to death after its owner tested positive. Many emerging from lockdown described a sense of apprehension and worry for the future, disillusionment, and anger towards authorities. "I feel that peoples trust in the government has plummeted, with many unbelievable things happening," said Reddick Chen. "Too much has been lost and now we worry it will come again." LINES CROSSED Many residents expressed disbelief that their lives were upended so quickly. One, who requested anonymity, described how her 89-year-old grandfather had taken his own life after three weeks of isolation and inability to attend his normal medical check-ups left him in pain and despair. Story continues He lived just 25 minutes away from the family. Hu Changgen, a migrant working as a security guard, said he had worried so much about food during lockdown that at one point he hoped to get COVID so that he could be sent to a quarantine centre and get three meals a day. A woman described how she had received multiple threatening calls from government agencies after posting online about her experience during lockdown. Censors scrambled to suppressed the flood of complaints and criticisms voiced online during lockdown. "Before COVID hit, we lived fine, we have high salaries ... it has been a shock," she said. "This time, every bottom line has been crossed." She plans to leave China for good. SHAME, HUMILIATION Therapists and psychologists told Reuters anxious calls had surged during the period. Sharon Yen, a clinical psychotherapist at the United Family Hospital, said she was especially concerned about the lockdown's impact on children. She expects to see more children seeking help, but she is even more worried about those who need help but do not get it due to stigma around mental health. "I feel like the greatest impact will be the lost sense of time. Over time, they just kind of lose motivation to do things they used to enjoy." On Wednesday, marketing consultancy chairman Hua Shan wrote on the Weibo social media platform to his 596,000 followers expressing frustration at how people were sending congratulations about the lockdown lifting. "I don't want your congratulations after more than two months of humiliation," he said. "This has been a huge shame for Shanghai and for all of us - the dead, the unemployed, the closed businesses - if we celebrate as though we're fine, we're no better than beasts." The post had disappeared by Thursday. Shanghai authorities have acknowledged problems such as issues with obtaining food supplies and striven to loosen bottlenecks, but had relented little on their adherence to zero-COVID curbs after Beijing urged a doubling down. City officials thanked the public on Wednesday for their cooperation but this prompted calls for them to issue an apology. State media said on Thursday that zero-COVID was the most appropriate strategy for China's situation. (Reporting by Casey Hall and Engen Tham in Shanghai, Martin Pollard in Beijing; Additional reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Brenda Goh and Angus MacSwan) Jerry Robinson speaks in the Greenville County courthouse for a court hearing, Thursday, April 14, 2022. Robinson pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse/aiding and abetting in connection to the death of a 3-year-old girl in 2021. A Simpsonville man who pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse in the death of a 3-year-old girl was sentenced to 20 years in prison during a court hearing Thursday. Judge Letitia Verdin handed down the sentence for Jerry Austin Robinson. He was given credit for 505 days already spent in custody. Robinson pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse/aiding and abetting on April 14, more than a year after the January 2021 death of Victoria Rose Smith. Robinson entered the courtroom Thursday with teary eyes along with attorney Lucas Marchant. In attendance were his family, Victoria's biological family and community activist Traci Fant. Robinson addressed Verdin and expressed that a day doesn't go by that he doesn't think of Victoria. He said he loved her and wished he would've handled things differently. "To Tori's family, I am truly sorry for all of this. I hope that one day you all can forgive me," he said. Sobs could be heard from both families across the courtroom. Jerry Robinson shares two children with Ariel Robinson who he was able to see during visitations in-person in November twice a month. Robinson said his children had gotten used to see him. He asked the judge to consider his children with her decision and leave him on house arrest. Robinson pleaded guilty, which meant he could not be given only house arrest and would be sentenced. "They don't deserve to have both of their parents behind bars," Jerry Robinson said. Judge Verdin told Jerry Robinson that he not only failed Victoria but his own children on Jan. 14, 2021 "You didn't go to stop it. You said 'She's gone too far this time,' that means there have been other times. You didn't call, you tried to half measures that wouldn't get you or your wife in any trouble. You went to CVS on your own, you could've done something then," Verdin said. Jake Erwin, the attorney of the biological family of Victoria, said the next steps of the process to try to bring accountability from the Department of Social Services. Story continues "It was a massive failure," he said. Michelle Urps, the family spokesperson said they were relieved it was over but DSS had too many gaping holes in their system. "We need to fix the system in place" Urps said. Ariel Robinson, Jerry Robinson's wife, was sentenced to life in prison on May 12 after a jury returned a guilty verdict to homicide by child abuse. During the four-day trial, Jerry Robinson took the stand and explained that he wasn't truthful on Jan. 14, 2021, when Ariel Robinson blamed Victoria's 7-year-old brother for the injuries on her legs. He said in court he was trying to "protect both sides." Victoria was found unresponsive in the Robinson's Sellwood Circle home. She died from blunt force injuries and internal bleeding, according to the Greenville County Coroner's Office. Simpsonville: 'System failed' 3-year-old Simpsonville girl who died in abuse case, family member says Jerry Robinson's charges carry a sentence of 20 years up to life in prison. Victoria had "physical signs of abuse" with patterns of linear and loop patterns that appeared to be like an object to hit a child, medical professionals said during Ariel Robinson's trial. Check back for more on this developing story. Tamia Boyd is a Michigan native who covers breaking news in Greenville. Email her at tboyd@gannett.com, and follow her on Twitter @tamiamb. This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Simpsonville man guilty of homicide by child abuse gets 20 years A Singaporean performance coach shared a video on TikTok on Sunday explaining the serious risks that come from posting photos of plane tickets on social media. The video starts with the TikTok user, Jason Ho, listing the potential consequences of posting photos of plane tickets online, including flight revisions and exposure of an individuals sensitive information, such as their full name, the last four digits of the credit card used to purchase the ticket, date of birth, email and passport number. He then explained that he used a photo posted by an influencer on Facebook for educational purposes and was able to easily access her personal information and make changes to her existing flight. More from NextShark: Fans show support for 'Single's Inferno' star Ji-a on TikTok with trend showing off fake designer products Please warn all your friends about this. This is something that anybody can do with some ill intentions [and] they can get into a lot of your details, Ho said in the video. Ho showed viewers a photo of the influencers post where he blacked out her personal information and pointed to the areas on the ticket that provide sensitive information. He then goes to Singapore Airlines website and clicks on manage booking, where he types in the information found on the influencers ticket. After pulling up an image of the tickets receipt, Ho pointed out the handful of personal information that can be accessed including the traveler's seat and flight number. He also explained that the flight can be modified and canceled by clicking on change flights and cancel flights. More from NextShark: Japanese Dad Builds Mini Sushi Conveyor Belt and Oden Stand at Home for His Son Its so dangerous; you can get your mobile number, your Gmail address, your passport number, your passport expiry, so many other things [exposed]. Never, ever do this, and if you want to take a photo, please cover [the ticket] with your thumb or something, the e-ticket number especially, Ho said. Story continues Ho reassured viewers that the influencers information is safe and that he has warned the influencer of posting her plane tickets online in the future. The video has garnered over 337,000 views and 31,000 likes since uploading. More from NextShark: Elderly Laundromat Owners Model the Clothes Left Behind by Customers Feature Image via @coachjasonho/TikTok More from NextShark: South Korea Sends the Most EPIC 'Care Packages' For Citizens in Quarantine By Sisipho Skweyiya JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - As South African artist Fhatuwani Mukheli paints a portrait of a woman at his Johannesburg studio, he is creating not only the work before him but also a digital asset destined to adorn a virtual world. Mukheli uses The Tree, an online marketplace for South African artists to promote and sell their art as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). "There's a virtual world where people are buying land in it," said Mukheli, referring to the metaverse, a three-dimensional digital reality that tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook say is the future of the internet. "People have properties there ... and your art can be on those walls." Mukheli's customers receive both the actual canvas and the NFT, while other artists on The Tree sell up to five limited edition NFTs for each piece, akin to digital prints. Mukheli has already made thousands of dollars by using the platform. "I think it's important as an artist and a creative to always play where the ball is going and not necessarily where it's at," said Trevor Stuurman, one of the four other artists currently showcasing their work on The Tree. Critics say blockchains, digital ledgers used to store information, are not climate-friendly because they guzzle computing power. The Tree says it saves energy by running on Polygon, a blockchain that uses a fraction of the power, and offsets each transaction by sending money to Greenpop, an environmental organisation that plants trees across Sub-Saharan Africa. "It's not just about art and artists and the story, it's about making sure that this growth in technology for artists doesn't come at a cost to the planet," said Dan Portal, co-founder of The Tree. (Reporting by Sisipho Skweyiya; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alison Williams) FPA Queens Road, an investment management firm, published its FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund first-quarter 2021 investor letter a copy of which can be downloaded here. FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund ("Fund") returned -3.3% in the first quarter of 2022. This compares to a -2.2% return for the Russell 2000 Value Index in the same period. Try to spend some time looking at the funds top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022. In its Q1 2022 investor letter, FPA Queens Road mentioned South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1910, South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) is a Folsom, New Jersey-based public utility company with a $4.2 billion market capitalization. South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) delivered a 32.47% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by 25.54%. The stock closed at $34.60 per share on June 01, 2022. Here is what FPA Queens Road has to say about South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) in its Q1 2022 investor letter: "South Jersey Industries (NYSE:SJI) shares rose 40% on Feb. 24, 2022, on news that Infrastructure Investment Funds, a private equity fund managed by JP Morgan Investment Management, would take the company private. The deal is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of 2022." Electricity Our calculations show that South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) fell short and didnt make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) was in 36 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to 13 funds in the previous quarter. South Jersey Industries, Inc. (NYSE:SJI) delivered a 0.14% return in the past 3 months. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. When the Columbine massacre happened in 1999, locals acted as if it youd never see such a thing on Aquidneck Island. When a twisted 18-year-old man murdered 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school last week, surely we all realized it could happen anywhere. The Uvalde, Texas, massacre was a disaster that mightve been averted with police coordination and clear thinking. The young man had posted sick rantings online. He shot his grandmother in the face, and she called police to warn them that he was violent and on the loose. He was toting two AR-15 rifles, which he purchased on his 18th birthday with the ease of buying a Hershey bar. Jim Gillis. He smashed his truck into a ditch and walked out with guns in tow. He then headed unchecked into the Robb Elementary School school through an unlocked (not propped open) door. And we, more or less, know how it went from there. Spare Change: Wayfinder fire is a reminder of blazes I've covered in the past Weve learned that 19 local and school cops stood 40 or so minutes in a hallway, a short distance from where the gunman may have still been using children for target practice (while some kids were calling 911). Majority accounts say the school police chief told officers to hold back. Eventually, Border Patrol police charged the classroom and killed the killer. The saddest scene of the week to me was parents providing DNA in order to identify their slaughtered children. Police and firefighters get paid to enter scary situations most would avoid. We understand it, but could never relate to it. As a reporter, I met cops who earnestly wanted to serve and protect. And I met some all-time jumpy paranoid weirdos. Spare Change:Tucker Carlson and factless theories partly to blame for Buffalo massacre Bottom line: Most of us wouldnt last a week in law enforcement (my hand is up). I know this much: When kids are under fire, officers dont need to deliberate. Just go! I went to high school at a time when fears were bullies and maybe a surprise chemistry quiz. It was not always that simple. But high school mostly felt like a safe haven. Story continues Here, local schools are conscientious about security. There are sign-in areas, and you have to be buzzed in. Schools have resource officers on duty. Of course things still happen mostly threats. A shorthand version of a Portsmouth High School incident 2018: A young man banged on a gym door. He was met there by a teacher, though forced his way in. He assaulted a physical education/health teacher, who fought hard. He punched and kicked her, knocking her down. He told another teacher he wanted to see the principal, and she steered him to the office. Spare Change: Outdoor dining in Newport is welcome, but it needs a long-term plan Portsmouth police, including the resource officer, arrested him there. Two positives: No students were hurt. And he never pulled out the military-style knife in his backpack. Yes, something wildly horrific could happen in these parts. But the stats deem it unlikely. Major school shootings (justifiably) get a lot of attention, but smaller-scale school violence is more common. Gun control? I doubt the needle will move much. There will be continued uproar for a while. Then it will fade. And Robb Elementary will join Columbine, Parkland, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and others that led to national grief and little change. Spare Change: I picked up COVID at a funeral and soon I was the one feeling like death After Sandy Hook, a good chunk of Americans decided dead students were a fair exchange for unfettered access to powerful weapons. So, when will the trail of tears lead to the highway of outrage? Perhaps Bob Dylan had it right when he sang, Now aint the time for your tears." Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com. This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: SPARE CHANGE: What will change after Uvalde massacre? Likely not much. FIRST ON FOX: Stacey Abrams serves as a board member of a UPS family foundation that awards millions of dollars to professors and scholars who advocate anti-capitalist and prison abolitionist views, Fox News Digital has learned. Abrams, who is taking another shot at running for Georgia governor, is currently listed as a board member at the Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation, a private grant-making foundation named after Marguerite Casey, the sister of UPS founder Jim Casey. The far-left foundation has repeatedly voiced support for defunding and abolishing the police. Abrams, who has tried to distance herself from the hardline rhetoric of the #DefundThePolice movement in the past, has received at least $52,500 in income from the foundation, according to her financial disclosures. STACEY ABRAMS SERVES AS BOARD MEMBER, GOVERNOR OF FOUNDATION THAT SUPPORTS #ABOLISHTHEPOLICE Stacey Abrams, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Georgia, speaks during a news conference in Atlanta, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images Abrams' campaign told Fox News Digital last week that Abrams, who joined the foundation's board in May 2021, does not hold the same views as the foundation. In December, the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Group Health Foundation announced the recipients of the 2021 Freedom Scholars Awards, which gave $250,000 to each of six professors who are "leading research in critical fields including abolitionist, Black, feminist, queer, radical, and anti-colonialist studies." The $1.5 million annual award, established in 2020, "counters the limited financial resources and research constraints frequently faced by scholars whose work supports social movements," the foundation said. One of the professors who received an award was Robin D. G. Kelley, who teaches African American history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has argued that capitalism is inherently racist. In a February NPR segment, Kelley said, "The secret to capitalism's survival is racism." "So any true liberation has to be anti-capitalist," he said. "There's no way capitalism can save us. And even if you could create a capitalism that's somehow non-racial, which of course, is impossible - but let's say in theory you can do that. We still have deep exploitation and inequality produced by it." Story continues During the same NPR interview, Kelley said his "goal" growing up was to be a "communist for life." "I was involved in a study group organized by the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, AAPRP, and we'd study Walter Rodney, Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James, Angela Davis, I mean, Kwame Nkrumah. So this was outside the classroom. This is where I got the real education," Kelley said. "I wanted to be a communist for life. I wanted to make revolution," he continued. "And it's like, of course, you've got to be a historian to be a real good communist, not the other way around." During another segment of the NPR interview titled, "There are no utopias," Kelley argued that a truly communist country has never existed throughout history. "I'm the first to say that what we think of as state socialism or communism has been a disaster," he said. "I'm the last one to defend what actually becomes, in the case of Soviet Union, for example, not socialism at all, but state capitalism that's redistributive. That's what the Soviet Union became. And China's the same thing. China did amazing things in terms of being able to raise the basic standard of living. But China is a state capitalist neoliberal society. We don't have a communist country anywhere in the world. We've never actually had one. It has never happened." GEORGE SOROS THROWS $1M BEHIND STACEY ABRAMS' SECOND GUBERNATORIAL RUN Stacey Abramw sits on the board of a foundation that has repeatedly voiced support for defunding and abolishing the police. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images Another professor awarded $250,000 by the Marguerite Casey Foundation was Lorgia Garcia Pena, a former Latinx-studies professor at Harvard University whose tenure was rejected in 2019, sparking weeks of protests at the Ivy League school. According to the New Yorker, some members had complained that Garcia Penas work amounted to activism rather than scholarship. Garcia Pena, who is now a professor in Tufts Universitys Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora, argued in June 2020 that ethnic studies is an "urgent" area of study "from elementary schools up to college," because it is "charged with filling in the immense gap left by our Eurocentric education systems." "What we teach at every school right nowwhat we consider to be the standard humanities and social science curriculumis actually grounded in white supremacy, but is masked as objectivity," she told Boston Review at the time. During the same interview, Garcia Pena said she "was part of a program" called "Freedom University" at the University of Georgia, which supported "undocumented students when the governor banned their enrollment." "I was part of a program, Freedom Universitywhich created a parallel university system to support University of Georgias undocumented students when the governor banned their enrollmentand because we had students and we had teachers we had a school," Garcia Pena said. "Literally, that is all you need, and then everything else is extra. So its critical to support students and support their demands." Other recipients of the 2021 Freedom Scholars Awards included Angelica Chazaro, a Critical Race Theory (CRT) professor at the University of Washington School of Law who advocates for prison abolition, and Amna Akbar, an Ohio State University professor and proponent of "movement law," which she describes as the "approach to legal scholarship grounded in solidarity, accountability, and engagement with grassroots organizing and left social movements." In 2020, the Marguerite Casey Foundation awarded $3 million to its Freedom Scholars. Those recipients included Alisa Bierria, a gender studies professor at UCLA who recently argued that the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade signaled "a broader attitude by this government that treats womens lives as disposable and trans peoples lives as disposable." Stacey Abrams and Gov. Brian Kemp Drew Angerer, Getty Images | Nathan Posner, Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The foundation also awarded $250,000 to Ananya Roy, an urban studies professor at UCLA who has argued in support of abolishing private property, which she says is rooted in whiteness. She also supports the government using eminent domain to turn hotels into housing for the homeless. The foundation also awarded $250,000 to Charlene Carruthers, founder of the Black Youth Project 100, which she described in 2019 as "a political home for anti-capitalists, radical Black feminists, abolitionists, artists, educators and many more types of freedom fighters." Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic nominee, will face Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for a second time in November. If elected, she will be in charge of appointing members to seven-year terms on the Board of Regents, which oversees the public colleges and universities that comprise the University System of Georgia. Abrams' campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digitals separate inquiry about whether she supports the Marguerite Casey Foundation's efforts to fund the aforementioned academics. As the Kansas City police department faces scrutiny over the arrest of Leonna Hale, protesters and activists gathered Wednesday near the site where the 26-year-old woman was shot and seriously wounded by two officers, condemning the police for the way they handled the situation. Roughly two dozen people organized in the parking lot beside the Family Dollar at Sixth Street and Prospect Avenue in the Independence Plaza neighborhood. Several challenged the official narrative that has been given by authorities that Hale was armed and presented a threat to the officers. We do not care how they tried to vilify our sister, Dawn Oliver, a community activist, said to the group Wednesday evening. We will show up for ours and we will continue to support her through this long and challenging journey. Hale was shot and hospitalized Friday after authorities say she pointed a gun at officers while police were attempting to arrest her in connection with a carjacking. Her medical condition remained stable as of Wednesday. In the days since, criticism of the department has been swift as reports emerged, including from The Star, based on the account of a witness who said Hale appeared to be unarmed and running away from police when she was shot. The witness, who filmed the aftermath and shared videos on Facebook, also said she overheard Hale telling police that she was pregnant at one point during the encounter. Authorities now say Hale was seen on police body cameras pointing a gun at officers before she was shot, though the use of force is still under investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Jackson County Prosecutors Office. Officials have declined to say whether she was pregnant at the time, and attempts by The Star to reach Hales family have been unsuccessful. On Wednesday evening, organizers set up folding tables with poster boards, markers and photographs of the young woman used to make signs that called for justice for Hale. Speakers raised a host of issues including mass shootings, white nationalism, poverty, the racial disparities in police use-of-force and the portrayal of Black people in the news media. Story continues Dawn Oliver finishes a sign dedicated to Black women lost to police violence as people gather Wednesday evening, June 1, 2022, to protest the Kansas City police shooting of Leonna M. Hale, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas. Hale was shot as she fled an arrest Friday, May 27, 2022, at the Family Dollar, 634 Prospect Ave. After review of body cam footage, Hale was charged with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, Prosecutor Jean Peters Bakers office said on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Mvyonne Payne speaks to people gathered Wednesday, June 1, 2022, to protest the Kansas City police shooting of Leonna Hale, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas suspected of a carjacking at the Family Dollar, 634 Prospect Ave., on Friday, May 27, 2022. Hale was charged Wednesday with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, Prosecutor Jean Peters Bakers office said. The protest began less than an hour after prosecutors announced the filing of criminal charges against Hale stemming from the arrest. Prosecutors also released a photograph that appeared to show Hale in a running stance holding an object that authorities say was a firearm a rare disclosure in open police shooting investigations. Steve Young, another activist present for the protest, questioned the motive behind releasing the picture, saying the move appears to have been made to head off potential unrest. The block was getting hot because we know that they did something wrong, said Young, adding: I still want to see the video. Because we still do not believe KCPD. People gathered Wednesday, June 1, 2022, to protest the Kansas City police shooting of Leonna M. Hale, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas. Hale was shot as she fled an arrest Friday, May 27, 2022, at the Family Dollar, 634 Prospect Ave. After review of body cam footage, Hale was charged with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, Prosecutor Jean Peters Bakers office said on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Details of shooting Kansas City police officers on patrol were investigating an armed carjacking of a Chrysler Town and Country reported earlier that evening from across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas. The officers then found the vehicle in the parking lot of the Family Dollar at 634 Prospect Avenue. Dispatch advised officers that a man and a woman, possibly armed with a gun, were sought in connection with the carjacking, police have said. As they were attempting to arrest the two suspects, police said, a man exited the drivers side door and began to run away. Hale then got out of the passenger side and ran to the parking lot of the Family Dollar, where she was shot. Police have said the only gunfire immediately confirmed came from two officers. Hale is accused of having a gun in her hand when the officers shot her. Police said a gun was found on the ground and taken as evidence. Hale charged On Wednesday evening, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced that Hale was charged with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest. Baker released a statement Wednesday saying that her office had seen the police body camera video that showed Hale continually displayed a weapon during her encounter with police officers despite reports to the contrary. Our job, as prosecutors, is to remain neutral and review all evidence, Baker said. Our review of body cam videos provided the actual accounting of events that night. Charging documents allege Hale pointed a handgun at officers as she ran through a grassy field beside the Family Dollar parking lot. In statements to detectives, police officers said she refused commands to drop the weapon, including one of the officers who recalled fearing for her life as she reported seeing the firearm pointed at her. Prosecutors released an image showing a woman moments before she was shot by Kansas City police on Friday. During an interview with highway patrol investigators, Hale denied ever having a firearm. She allegedly declined to speak with KCPD detectives outside the presence of a lawyer after being presented with body camera footage and audio recordings captured by the officers involved in the shooting. STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden will provide Ukraine with more economic aid and military equipment, including anti-ship missiles, rifles and anti-tank weapons, Finance Minister Mikael Damberg and Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist said on Thursday. "The proposals that are submitted (to parliament) mean that allocated funds for the central government budget will increase by SEK 1.0 billion ($102 million) in 2022," the Nordic country's finance ministry said in a statement. "In solidarity with Ukraine, and as part of the international response to Russia's actions, the government sees a continuing need to support Ukraine," it said. Sweden in February announced it would send military materiel including 5,000 anti-tank weapons, helmets and body armour to Ukraine, and in March announced it would send another 5,000 anti-tank weapons. ($1 = 9.7963 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik) Taliban fighters tear up a poppy field in Afghanistan's Helmand province Sunday. (Abdul Khaliq / Associated Press) Afghanistans Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the countrys massive production of opium and heroin but dismaying farmers who fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. On a recent day in Washir district in southern Helmand province, armed Taliban fighters stood guard as a tractor tore up a field of poppies. The fields owner stood nearby, watching. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning poppy cultivation throughout the country. Those violating the ban will be arrested and tried according to Sharia laws in relevant courts, the Taliban's deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund, told the Associated Press in Helmands provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Afghanistan is the worlds biggest opium producer and a major source of heroin in Europe and Asia. Production grew over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation. But the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive. The ban comes as Afghanistans economy has collapsed, cut off from international funding in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Most of the population struggles to afford food, and the country has been suffering from its worst drought in years. Noor Mohammed, who owns one poppy field in Washir that was torn apart by Taliban tractors, said his plot of land is small and lacks water, so he cant survive by growing less profitable crops. If we are not allowed to cultivate this crop, we will not earn anything, he said of his poppies. Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. Story continues Helmand is the heartland of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It appeared that the new eradication campaign was targeting mainly those who planted their crops after the ban was announced. Many others who had planted earlier succeeded in harvesting, going from plant to plant, slicing the poppys bulb, then scooping up the sap that oozes out the raw material for opium. Akhund, the deputy interior minister, said the Taliban was in touch with other governments and nongovernmental organizations to work out alternative crops for farmers. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the eradication campaign would take place across the country. We are committed to bringing poppy cultivation to zero, he told the Associated Press. Its not known how many poppies were planted this season, how much was harvested and how many fields the Taliban has eradicated so far. But Afghanistans production has steadily risen, reaching new heights every year in recent years. In 2021, 438,000 acres were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020. The total value of Afghanistans opiates production in 2021 was $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, up to 14% of the countrys GDP, exceeding the value of its legal exports, the UNODC said in its most recent report. During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the U.N. However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies. Over the next two decades, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it only steadily increased: In 2002, around 185,000 acres were planted with poppies, producing some 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that. During the Taliban's insurgency before it returned to power, the group reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistans opium output is greater than all other opium-producing countries combined. Nearly 80% of the heroin produced from Afghan opium reaches Europe through Central Asia and Pakistan. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Authorities have arrested a 16-year-old in Berkeley, California, and accused him of attempting to mastermind a shooting and bombing at Berkeley High School. A 16-year-old boy was arrested this week after police learned he was allegedly recruiting students to carry out a mass shooting at a high school in Berkeley, California, authorities said. https://t.co/qwKGTwDnDd CNN (@CNN) June 2, 2022 The situation unfolded back on May 21 when the Berkeley Police Department (BPD) got a tip regarding a teen who was actively recruiting other high school students to participate in a mass shooting and/or bombing. A search warrant was eventually obtained, and Berkeleys Mobile Crisis Team was also called in to evaluate the suspect. Upon searching the teens home, authorities discovered parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives, and electronic items that could be used to create additional weapons. An arrest warrant was resultingly issued, and the 16-year-old turned himself in on Monday, May 30. He was specifically charged with suspicion of possessing destructive device materials and threatening to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury. Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) Superintendent Brent Stephens released a statement on Tuesday. As the police investigation proceeded last week and culminated in an arrest yesterday, we have maintained very close contact with BPD, Stephens noted. Throughout the investigation period, we were assured that this individual did not pose an immediate threat to the Berkeley High School community. We are committed to conducting our own separate investigation, within the parameters of our authority as a school district, and as the evidence warrants, pursuing all possible steps, including discipline, that will support student and community safety, he added. Story continues Its currently unclear whether the suspect and those he tried to recruit were students at Berkeley High School. This curbed incident comes amid an uptick in mass shootings and similar threats across the United States. Less than two weeks ago, 21 people including 19 young children were slaughtered at the hands of an 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas. Ten days ahead of this tragedy, 10 Black people were massacred in a racist attack conducted by an 18-year-old perpetrator in Buffalo, New York. Its also worth adding that a slew of bomb threats hit various historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) right around Black History Month, as Blavity previously reported. However, these bomb threats thankfully proved to be hoaxes. A 15-year-old girl recorded a Texas man groping her on a flight last year, federal officials said. Now Vincent Harry Kopacek, 76, of Fredericksburg, is going to prison for 20 months on a charge of abusive sexual contact, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Montana said in a news release. Kopacek was sentenced on Wednesday, June 1, after pleading guilty to the charge in February, the release states. An attorney for Kopacek did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment. Prosecutors said a 15-year-old girl recorded Kopacek sexually assaulting her on an Allegiant Airlines flight from Austin to Bozeman, Montana, on July 8, 2021, according to the criminal complaint. The teen told investigators she was sitting in the seat directly ahead of Kopacek with her mother and sister. Before the plane took off, she said Kopacek reached around her seat and touched her body, prosecutors said in court documents. Hes accused of then touching the teen multiple times throughout the flight, including grabbing and squeezing her arm and touching her chest and breasts. He also tried to touch near her waistline, prosecutors said. The teen said she got up several times to use the bathroom, all while Kopacek appeared to be asleep, according to court documents. Prosecutors said no one was seated next to the man during the flight. The girl recorded 20 videos of Kopacek touching her and took photos of him with her phone, according to documents. In addition to his 20-month sentence, Kopacek was also ordered to five years of supervised release and to pay $363 in restitution. Vince cannot explain his decisions and actions on that flight. It (is) the opinion of his friends and family, as well as the undersigned, that Vince is as shocked as anyone that he committed this act, his attorney wrote in his sentencing memorandum. Passengers punch knocks United Airlines worker through the counter, NJ video shows NC woman sued Frontier Airlines over vomit-covered seats. Now lawsuit is settled Passenger accused of opening plane door, assaulting attendant going to prison, feds say An El Paso man allegedly threatening to commit a murder was stopped at gunpoint by Texas state troopers Wednesday evening on Interstate 10, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman said. The felony stop occurred about 5:20 p.m. on I-10 near Bassett Place during the evening freeway commute, Texas DPS Sgt. Marc Couch said. A search began after Texas DPS was notified about a phone call in which Cesar Omar Hita, 47, allegedly was threatening to commit a robbery and a murder, DPS officials said. More: Doctor stepped up to provide care after El Paso, Uvalde mass shootings A loaded handgun was found in Hita's vehicle after he was located and stopped by Texas DPS and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, officials said. He was taken into custody without incident. Hita was arrested on a terroristic threat charge. He is being held at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown under a $50,000 bond. Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter. Courts: El Paso man sentenced in death of homeless man found nude, strangled in Lower Valley canal More: El Paso police seek burglar who stole $18,000 in jewelry from East Side store This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas DPS arrests El Paso man in terror threat case in I-10 stop The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and its unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a system failure that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School on May 24. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Seventeen more were injured. Funerals for those slain began this week. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Story continues Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshal Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said its unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. A Texas state senator accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday of trying to bamboozle Texans into thinking that were actually going to do something following a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last month that left 21 people dead. During an interview on CNN, anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D) to respond to Abbotts announcement earlier in the day that he had requested the lieutenant governor and Texas House Speaker to convene special legislative committees focusing on school safety, mental health, social media, police training and firearm safety. Gutierrez, whose district includes Uvalde, said the call for committees, like similar actions after previous mass shootings in the state, would not bring about meaningful reform, adding that there was no process to convene special committees unless the governor called a special session. He has tried to bamboozle, I think, this community into thinking that were actually going to do something, the state senator said of Abbott. He did this this is the same deal that he did after Santa Fe and El Paso and Sutherland Springs, roundtables, recommendations, and nothing led to any meaningful legislation. The only thing that can get us into that building is a special session called for a date certain that only he can call, he added. Gutierrezs remarks come roughly one week after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde left 19 children and two adults dead. The shooting has reignited calls to pass gun reform legislation, and Texas Democrats and some Republicans have urged for a special session in the wake of the shooting, which would allow for the state legislature to change, eliminate or add new laws, according to KSAT 12. Abbott is the only official who can call a special session, since the state legislature only works during a five-month period once every other year, the ABC affiliate noted. The Hill has reached out to Abbotts office for comment. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Four people were killed after a shooter opened fire inside a medical building at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, hospital campus on Wednesday, officials said. The shooter is also dead, Tulsa police said, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tulsa police officers were dispatched to St. Francis Hospital just before 5 p.m. after receiving a call about a man armed with a rifle in the Natalie Building at the hospital complex. The incident prompted a massive police response, with dozens of cars surrounding the campus. Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish said the call came in at 4:56 p.m. and officers arrived at the hospital within three minutes. The first officers on the scene heard gunshots coming from the second floor of the building, where they encountered the shooter and found the four victims, police said. In a statement released Wednesday night, St. Francis Hospital declined to identify the victims but said it is "grieving the loss of four members of our community." The hospital also said the orthopedic office on the second floor would be closed until further notice. The suspect, who was armed with one long gun and a handgun, is believed to have killed himself at the scene, Dalgleish said. Authorities are still working to confirm the identity of the shooter, he added. Tulsa police captain Richard Meulenberg told the Washington Post that the shooter had "purpose" and "didnt go in there and randomly pick the second floor of the facility to start shooting people." Police continued searching the building for about two hours, going room by room. Local TV news aerial footage showed armed officers searching one building's roof. The hospital shooting took place in what was been a dark, deadly month, with multiple mass shootings plaguing the country. On May 14, a shooter opened fire in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, targeting Black shoppers and killing 10 people in what has been deemed an act of domestic terrorism. On Wednesday, the suspect was indicted by a grand jury on charges including domestic terror and murder as a hate crime. Story continues Ten days later, 21 people were killed in a shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, including 19 children. The American Public Health Association says gun violence in the US is a public health crisis. It is a leading cause of premature death in the country, responsible for more than 38,000 deaths annually. As of June 1, at least 18,086 people have died from gun violence this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. More on this The Queens Platinum Jubilee takes place this weekend, marking the British monarchs 70th year on the throne. As part of the weekend-long celebrations, the BBC is holding a Platinum Party At The Palace concert, which will see a range of high-profile musicians and bands perform. Twenty-two thousand people will attend the event, including 10,000 members of the public who won tickets in the public ballot, which closed on 23 March. Over 7,500 tickets were designated for key workers, members of the armed forces, volunteers, and charities. Read on for all the details on how and when to watch the concert in full. When and where is the Platinum Party at the Palace? The Platinum Party At The Palace is set to take place at the Queens London home, Buckingham Palace, on Saturday 4 June. Alicia Keys is set to perform at the Jubilee concert (Getty Images) According to the Jubilees official website, the Platinum Partys design consists of three stages, linked by walkways, which create a 360-degree experience in front of Buckingham Palace and The Queen Victoria Memorial. There will also be 70 illuminated columns, each representing a year of the Queens reign. According to Sky News, the open-air concert will begin at 8 pm and last two and a half hours with members of the royal family arriving at 7.4 pm. How to watch For those who were unable to get tickets in the limited ballot, the concert is being broadcast live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and BBC Radio 2. Charlotte Moore, the BBCs Chief Content Officer, said in a statement: We are thrilled to be bringing the nation together for this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime event, broadcast live across the BBC with an amazing star-studded line up of performers to celebrate The Queens momentous 70 years on the throne. Who is performing? The concert will be hosted by Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp. Diana Ross will headline the show (Getty Images for AIDS Healthcare) The event will be opened by Queen, with guitarist Brian May saying: Twenty years after playing the Queens glorious Golden Jubilee were very happy to be invited again. Then there was a moment when I wondered... after Buckingham Palace roof where can you go? Well... you will see! Story continues Closing the show will be Diana Ross with what is her first UK live performance in 15 years. Ross said in a statement: I have had the honour of meeting The Queen many times throughout my life, including when I was with my family. Her Majesty has and continues to be such an incredible inspiration to so many across the world and I was absolutely delighted to receive an invitation to perform on such a momentous and historic occasion. Sir David Attenborough, Emma Raducanu, David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Dame Julie Andrews, The Royal Ballet and Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds will all make appearances. Alicia Keys, Nile Rodgers and Andrea Bocelli will all be performing, along with Duran Duran, composer Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel and Elbow, as well as the UKs Eurovision competitor Sam Ryder. See all the line-up details here. WASHINGTON A hiring wave, process overhauls, and new tools and equipment have helped a U.S. Air Force base cut by more than half the time it takes to repair and overhaul F-35 engines, from an average 244 days to 106. And the commander of the bases Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex hopes that in two years, if it gets the necessary resources, Tinker Air Force Base will be able to repair anywhere from 105 to 120 F135 power modules per year. That would be more than double the 51 it handled in 2021, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey King said in a May 26 interview. The air logistics complex is a massive facility at Tinker the largest of three depots in Air Force Materiel Command that maintains a variety of aircraft and engines for the Air Force, including the F135. A scarcity of working and available F135 engines has plagued the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and increasingly dragged down the jets mission-capable rate. The Government Accountability Office told Congress in April that, across the militarys fleet, F-35s were unable to fly due to a lack of spare parts for about 17% of the time in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021. A lack of functional power modules the engines core, which contains key controls and components that generate the thrust to propel the aircraft was the top reason those F-35s werent mission capable, the watchdog agency said. Improving the capacity of depots that perform the heaviest maintenance on F135 engines is one of the key ways the military is trying to tackle that worsening shortage. By far, Tinker AFBs Heavy Maintenance Center handles the most F135 maintenance work. The military is also trying to reduce the amount of necessary work on engines, in part by extending how long they can stay on a jet before they need to receive maintenance. The reduction of flow days from 244 down to 106 [between the beginning of 2021 and today] was not by accident, and it was not by just lobbing off fat, King told Defense News. It was a deliberate, meticulous application of [process improvements]. We changed up how we inspected parts when they were removed, we changed how we trained our personnel. We redesigned shop floors and redesigned shop processes to eke every day out of the production process to go faster. Story continues The F-35 Joint Program Office in fall 2020 put in place a plan to fix the engines sustainment troubles, focusing on improving depot capacity and keeping engines on aircraft longer. The number of major F-35 flaws is shrinking, but the Pentagon is keeping details of the problems under wraps Tinker also increased the number of power modules it maintains each year, from 14 in 2020 to 51 in 2021. This year, King said, its likely to turn around more than 70, beating its goal of 60. And next year he hopes the depot will be able to finish about 90, paving the way for it to hit between 105 and 120 in 2024. Jennifer Latka, vice president for the F135 program at Pratt & Whitney, which makes the engines, said in a May 18 interview that the militarys investment in depots got a slow start because the F-35s engines performed well initially. But that meant when the engines started having problems, the depot capacity wasnt there to handle them, she said. Over the last two years, she explained, the military and the company focused on improving depots ability to maintain more engines. And this year, she added, all sites maintaining F135s including Tinker, Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Edwards Air Force Base in California and international sites are expected to beat their combined target of 122 engines, far more than the 76 all sites maintained last year. Tricks of the trade In early 2021, Tinker personnel, the F-35 Joint Program Office and Pratt & Whitney began mapping out processes used to maintain engines, said Bobby Hager, director of the 544th Propulsion Maintenance Squadron at Tinker. At the same time, they kept an eye out for bottlenecks that led to extra work, or otherwise hindered how fast the center could turn around engines. Base personnel found several constraints, she said, including sluggish training for mechanics. They also realized several types of equipment necessary to disassemble and reassemble engines werent available on the shop floor, Hager added. We realized that, as we get deeper and deeper into the maintenance of this engine, there were certain critical pieces of tooling that we either didnt have available or didnt have experience with, just because weve never used it before, said Lam Dinh, the F135 propulsion flight commander in the 544th. Some of those [assembly] toolings were new to us, as we were learning how this engine goes together or comes apart. The lack of equipment and of proper specialized training was felt most acutely during heavier work, King said. A Pratt & Whitney F135 engine undergoes ground testing at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. (Rick Goodfriend/U.S. Air Force) The center is working to get more of the right kind of equipment into mechanics hands, Hager said. But in the meantime, officials are reorganizing processes so work is performed at different times, when some of that equipment is available. King said Tinker mechanics have traveled to Pratt & Whitney sites, including in Middletown, Connecticut, where the engines are built, to learn tricks of the trade. Those visits helped Tinker personnel pick up subtle techniques that quicken and improve the assembly process, he added, and they are now cataloguing those lessons to share with a new F135 maintenance center set to open at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida. Latka said the Jacksonville site will handle a comparable number of engines to Tinker when it comes online in a few years. As Tinker personnel work on engines, they are also replacing older turbine blades with fresh blades featuring a new coating that better resists degradation from salt and sand. This became an issue in the Middle East and during deployments at sea. Latka said about 35% of the F-35 fleet now has blades with the new coating, up from roughly 25% last October. The entire fleet should have the fresh coating by 2030, she added, if not sooner. Faster responses, more hires Two years ago, when Tinker needed Pratt & Whitney to clear up an engineering or process question, King said it could take up to two weeks to get an answer. Now, he said, the company tends to answer complex questions in two days, if not in minutes if the right engineer is on the shop floor. And that was another issue altogether. Tinker faced a challenge when it first started working on F135 engines in 2015, Dinh explained: It had experienced mechanics working on aircraft engines, but none on that specific mission, and virtually no outside experts it could hire. And so the base turned its attention to training its mechanics on the engine in as short a time as possible by micro-gating an approach that breaks down a process into several smaller tasks in order to better train mechanics on each individual step. This meant mechanics would repeatedly perform the steps until they could excel at them, Dinh said. Dinh said this was better than trying to teach mechanics to soak everything in all at once, and at the end of the day, get nothing out of it. King agreed it was advantageous. That depth brought about proficiency, which brought about speed and quality. The first of Britain's new supersonic strike fighters are accompanied by a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B aircraft as they fly over the North Sea in 2016. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Tinker has also dramatically increased the number of mechanics working on F135s and has plans to bring in more. Dinh said that when he started working on the program around the beginning of 2017, there were about 17 other mechanics working on F135s there. As of about a year and a half ago, that workforce had grown to 79 over a single shift. With 103 mechanics now focused on the F135, Tinker added a limited second shift and expanded the number of power modules it could work on simultaneously from nine to 21. All but three of those mechanics are civilians, which provides more continuity since they dont get transferred every few years, King said. Tinker plans to hire several dozen more mechanics over the next few years so the base can work on 30 power modules at once, King added. Funding, equipment and tools are also on the way to allow the base to handle those additional engines, he said essentially doubling the size of the current shop. King said plans are under consideration to expand Tinkers capability to maintain 40 engines at once, though that effort hasnt received funding. And in 2024, Tinker expects to begin conducting preventative engine maintenance scheduled in advance at full scale, with about a handful of scheduled engine removals planned for 2023. Currently, only unscheduled engine removals that is, repairs that must be done when problems arise are performed on F135s, King noted. But above all, King explained, Tinker will keep looking for ways to bring down the cost of maintaining F-35 engines. Pratt and Whitney said its found ways to cut the cost of the F135s first scheduled maintenance visit by about 40%, which it said would save more than $14 billion over the life of the program. Those cost-saving strategies include extending the life of parts until their next maintenance cycles and finding new ways to repair engine components that avoid replacing parts with new spares. Now that weve gone from a pediatric to an adolescent engine, cost control is exceptionally important, especially as we field more F-35s and put more F135 engines into the field, King said. Weve got to go faster, the quality needs to stay high. But weve got to do it cheaper. The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) 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, negotiated a guilty plea agreement in the McNairy County Circuit Court, according to a release from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Under this court-approved agreement, if the plaintiff successfully completed four years of probation, the charges would be expunged. A criminal charge is removed from all public records after expungement. 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 release said. 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. 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 release said. 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 release said. The chancery court allowed the plaintiff to seek an appeal of this ruling before going further with the case. Story continues 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 the 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 release said. 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 the 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. Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Trending stories: While essentially all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted across much of Canada and in several countries around the world, Don Cleary, President of Marriott Hotels of Canada, is reflecting on restoring traveller confidence. [Canada] put in place tight restrictions, literally forbidding travel between provinces and closing the border, advising against travel, all of that, I think, put out the message to people, Canadians, don't travel, it was unsafe to travel, Cleary told Yahoo Canada in April. I think much of the data that we know now is that travel wasn't what was spreading the virus and perhaps we were unfortunate that we were impacted so heavily by the restrictions. The lifting of the restrictions, I think, is the biggest factor in rebuilding confidence When the restrictions came down and the border testing requirements lifted, people [were] booking and people are coming. While stressing that the Public Health Agency of Canada made decisions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that were in the best interest of Canadians at any given point in time, from a public health perspective, Cleary highlighted that in retrospect, some of those decisions may have unduly put the burden on the hospitality and tourism industries, which certainly took on the brunt of restrictions. There was a narrative that travel spreads the virus and therefore, shut down travel and people gathering, which means getting together in bars and restaurants, and ballrooms and hotels, he said. All of that hit the hotel and tourism industry harder than other industries, we like to say we were the first hit, hardest hit and we'll be the last to recover. The good news is the wage subsidy was a great godsend to our hotels and our owners to help mitigate the significant losses all hotels experienced during COVID People made the decisions they thought were necessary, they did do a good job of protecting Canadians, their focus is not overwhelming hospitals and we understand that. Our industry did our part, we all put in place enhanced safety and cleanliness protocols The reality is, you can still travel and you can still gather, if you follow reasonable safety precautions. Story continues MISSISSAUGA, ON - MAY 12 - Passengers lineup at Pearson Airport at Gate D to begin to clear security, the line disapated quickly in Mississauga. May 12, 2022. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) 'There is demand at all levels' More recently, people around the world have been inundated with images of long lines at airports as we race towards any and all opportunities to travel. The Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable is now calling on the federal government to take additional actions to relieve the pressure on Canadas travel system, particularly at airports, by June 15. This includes removing vaccine mandates for Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) workers, and removing random testing at Canadian airports. Businesses and individuals seem to have the money to travel and now, combine that with the desire to travel, I think we're seeing strong demand across all tiers, Don Cleary said. Whether it's our roadside Fairfield Inns and [Courtyard Marriotts], Four Points hotels, but also our luxury hotels. There is demand at all levelsthe good news is, I think, the demand and the wherewithal to do it right now." That being said, the President of Marriott Hotels of Canada did identify that the tourism sectors in urban city centres have had a longer way to go in terms of recovery, being the hardest hit destinations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They really suffered greatly, because they're primarily big business destinations and they depend on groups and conventions, and all of that was shut down, Cleary explained. People did feel less comfortable in urban environments, and preferred to be out in secondary and tertiary cities. But the demand is coming back everywhere and since the cities were hardest hit, they have the furthest to come. So if you look at week-over-week improvements, it's maybe more dramatic in our urban centres, and that's only because they're coming from a lower base. TORONTO, ON- APRIL 15 - The Sheraton and Hilton hotels just off of University Avenue in the downtown are lit with hearts facing Hospital Row as people in Toronto are encouraged to keep physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Toronto. April 15, 2020. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) The rise of 'bleisure' travel One trend that Don Cleary is seeing is whats being called "bleisure" travel, where people are taking off on a business trip but tacking on a few days for their own leisure stay. The leisure segment of travel is stronger today than it was before COVID, he said. So that segment came back fairly strong. We're beginning to see really good group bookings,... the individual business traveller is the one that is lagging the most but it's being offset by those that are doing it, are staying longer and adding this leisure element to it. Digital enhancement. All logos and signs have been removed 'We've got to change the narrative that has been we're closed, don't come here' Historically, Canada has been a big draw for international travellers, with the country largely being seen as a safe place to visit. The border didn't open until the end of August so we really lostthe American and European travellers, Don Cleary said. We're hoping we can attract some of those people back this summer now that the border's open and the testing requirements have gone, and we know there's a lot of demand. Canada is a great destination for people and I think in today's world, given how high the vaccination levels are, we have a real opportunity to have a good summer with attracting international people We've got to change the narrative that has been we're closed, don't come here, for the last two years, to we're open and come back. He added that Canada also needs to get the message out that not only is the country a great choice for a leisure trip, but also for business travellers and large-group travel, like conventions. Ultimately, the President of Marriott Hotels of Canada hopes to never see a complete shutdown of the travel and tourism industry ever again. The data seems to suggest now that didn't stop the spread of the virus, it just did more economic and I think psychological harm to people, he said. There are things that we can do we, of course, have our cleanliness and safety protocols in place in the hotels, and they have them at the airports and airlines too, but let's not go back to shutting down. Going forward, we're going to have to learn to live with the virus and safety first, but not necessarily closing food and beverage outlets or restricting meeting space, or restricting cross border travel or cross provincial travel. I think those were the things that hurt our industry, and I hope going forward we can learn to be safe but not shut us down. Plan, plan, plan. That was the word of the morning Thursday as Florida's Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis came to Lee County as a part of his disaster preparedness initiative, Prepare Florida. "You gotta prepare now for the hurricanes," Patronis said. "This week is hurricane preparedness week. So, what does that mean? It means we're going to give you discounts, we'll give you your sales tax back, on things like batteries, lanterns, supplies, even dog food." Patronis promoted the Preparefl.com website and could not urge planning enough, stressing that residents getting everything in place for a possible hurricane, even if one doesn't come, provides peace of mind. Aerial view of the devastating impact Hurricane Michael left behind along the Florida Panhandle's coastal town of Mexico Beach, Florida. Drone image was captured Tuesday, October 16, 2018. "With Hurricane Michael (Oct. 10, 2018) everyone went to bed the night before on October the 9 and it was a (category) 2 out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and most people are not going to take a Cat 2 very seriously," he said. "By that morning it was a strengthening Category 4 and it was too late to evacuate." First storm? Tropical disturbance could become first named storm of the year as wave works its way across Gulf La Nina strong: Above-average tropical storm, hurricane activity expected this year as La Nina lingers into summer Disaster training: Surfside first responders from SWFL to get state funds for equipment, training Patronis said shelters of all types will be ready and open in the event of a hurricane. "We want you out of harm's way," he said. Patronis urged residents to make a record of the outside and inside of their homes, condos or apartments and store it in a safe spot in the event of a disaster so that damage could be compared to original condition. Becky Daniel reacts to seeing her Beacon Hill home next to Mexico City, Fla on October 11, 2018. The area was ground zero for Hurricane Michael. "Your smart phone is actually a pretty good tool when it comes to disaster preparedness," he said. "If you do nothing else, go take a picture of the outside of your house, take a little video, you know, point out that there are no trees leaning on your house. Do the same thing inside your house, you know, your TV, your floor coverings, your wall coverings." Story continues Patronis suggested emailing that visual record to yourself. "Put it in a virtual place," he said. "Here's the reality. Disaster is going to strike. Unfortunately Mother Nature loves coming to Florida." Approaching tropical disturbance to bring weekend deluge The briefing came at an appropriate time with a strong weather system likely bearing down on the southern end of the state. A weekend forecast from The National Weather Service in Tampa said that, regardless of development, areas of heavy rainfall are likely to spread across southern and central Florida and the Florida Keys on Friday. The Friday night forecast includes with heavy rains that could cause scattered to numerous flash floods across South Florida and the Florida Keys. The weather system is the remnants of Hurricane Agatha that transitioned across Mexico earlier in the week and, as of Thursday, was positioned just off the Yucatan Peninsula and scraping the southwestern shore of Cuba. Patronis was joined by Fort Myers Fire Chief Tracey McMillion, Lee County Commissioner vice chairman Ray Sandelli, Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson, Larry Antonucci, CEO and president of Lee Health, and Shane Sibert, program manager for Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 6. All hammered home hurricane preparedness in SWFL. "It's time to get prepared," McMillion said. "Just a reminder. Last year Hurricane Elsa developed very early, somewhere around July 2 or so, and became a storm. We as Floridians know this, we know it all too well, that the next big storm or hurricane could come our way at any time. So we urge you to plan and prepare." Bookmark this link: Track all active storms with this interactive map Assess your risk McMillion said the best time to plan and find what your risks are is well before a disaster hits. Destroyed vehicles from Hurricane Michael on Beacon Hill Fl. A day after the Category 4 storm made landfall. Beacon Hill is the next community over from Mexico Beach. "Some of the questions you should be asking 'What are my evacuation zones, do I live in a flood zone," he said. "Hopefully, you are prepared with your essential supplies by now and have an emergency supply kit. If not, do it today." McMillion urged residents to take advantage of the sales tax holiday that runs through June 10. A sales tax holiday on disaster preparedness items is running through June 22 in Florida. Sandelli also highlighted the sale tax week: "With the 2022 Hurricane Season starting this week, now is the time to get the necessary supplies and plan in place. When the power is out and resources are limited, you will thank yourself for having a well thought out disaster plan in place. Antonucci stressed that Lee Health would remain open during any hurricane event. "Lee Health is ready," the hospital CEO said. "We have been working for weeks" Patronis also lauded the members of USAR 6, based in Southwest Florida, for their dedication to disaster response. "They deal with extraordinary conditions, but, you know what? They signed up for this job because they love this job," Patronis said. "They're public servants, they don't do it for the money, they do it because they care about what they do for this state. They are the same men and women who responded to Surfside, the same men and women who responded to Hurricane Michael. It doesn't matter where the disaster is." Florida's Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis, center, came to Lee County Thursday, June 2, as a part of his disaster preparedness initiative, Prepare Florida. Patronis was joined by, from left, Shane Sibert, program manager for Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 6, Fort Myers Fire Chief Tracey McMillion, Larry Antonucci, CEO and president of Lee Health, Lee County Commissioner vice chairman Ray Sandelli and Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson. Behind are members of the USAR6 team. Patronis also highlighted the $10 million appropriated by the Florida legislature in the past year, the first such funds since 2006, for the state's eight urban search and rescue teams. The 90+ member task force is composed of firefighters, paramedics, and specialists from over 12 agencies within the Southwest Florida region. Task force members also include volunteer specialists in structural engineering, emergency medicine, canine search & other specialties. Hurricane information As part of the sales tax holiday, some stores are also offering hurricane classes. For example, on Saturday all Lowes stores in Florida will host a free in-person hurricane prep workshop beginning at 10 a.m. Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Tropical system in Gulf of Mexico a reminder to plan ahead Officials identified the man suspected of shooting and killing four people at a medical clinic in Oklahoma, alongside all of his victims. Tulsa Police Department police chief Wendell Franklin said that Michael Lewis, who they believe also died of self-inflicted wounds, was a patient at Tulsa medical clinic and was admitted to the facility on 19 May for back surgery and called several times afterward complaining about pain and sought additional treatment. On May 31 Dr Phillips saw Mr Lewis again for additional treatment. Yesterday June 1 Mr Lewis called Dr Phillips office again and wanting additional assistance, the police chief said in a statement. Now we know through the help of our ATF and our gun tracing that on 2 pm at June 1 he purchased a semi-automatic rifle from a local gun store, Chief Franklin said. That firearm was an AR-165 rifle, he added. The man then proceeded to purchase a semi-automatic handgun on 29 May from a local pawn shop, the police chief said. All firearms, according to Chief Franklin, were purchased legally and the force has ruled out race as a potential motivating factor as the police chief noted that there was nothing about race that caused this incident to take place. Michael Lewis, the suspected shooter from the Tulsa hospital attack, left a note outlining his intent to kill his doctor for the pain he was suffering after a back surgery the physician performed on him in May, authorities said. (Tulsa Police Department) On Wednesday, officers responded to reports of a man with a rifle at St Francis Hospitals Natalie Building, which then turned into an active shooter situation. The building houses an outpatient surgery centre and a breast health centre. The Tulsa Police Department said five people were dead in total, including the shooter. Authorities revealed the identities of the four people killed during Wednesdays mass shooting, which included three emloyees of Saint Francis Healthcare system and one patient. The victims were identified by TPD as Dr Preston Phillips, Dr Stephanie Husen, Amanda Glenn and William Love. Glenn was identified by police as a receptionist at the facility, while Love was a patient. They stood in the way, and Lewis gunned them down, the police chief said during a press conference. Story continues Authorities went on to reveal during Thursdays press conference that theyd found a letter on the suspect, which they said made it clear he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and added that the shooter also said hed kill anyone who got in his way. This is what he planned to do, said Chief Franklin. That letter lead us and told us the story. Chief Franklin later went on to praise his staff for their fast response to Wednesdays shooting. I cannot begin to thank the men and women of the TPD for the immediate response they had to the incident yesterday, he said. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, thats exactly what our officers do. Lewis wife and Chief Franklin confirmed that the gunman had complained about his ongoing back pain issues after being discharged from hospital on 24 May and blamed Dr Phillips following his surgery, according to Tulsa World. The shooting in Tulsa that left four people and the shooter dead came just eight days after the Uvalde massacre, where 19 children and two teachers were brutally murdered by a teenage gunman, and a couple weeks after a self-proclaimed white supremacist and racist shot dead 10 Black people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Tulsa police on Thursday provided a detailed description of the mass shooting Wednesday at a Tulsa medical center that left two doctors, an office receptionist and a visitor dead before the gunman killed himself. The gunman opened fire about 4:52 p.m. at the Natalie Building of the Saint Francis Health System campus, shooting the four people using at least two firearms a rifle or "long gun" and a handgun, according to Tulsa police. Photos: Tulsa police give shooting update on Thursday Here is a timeline of events leading up to and including the time during the shooting at Saint Francis as described by Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin. Days leading up to the Tulsa shooting May 19: Dr. Preston Phillips, an orthopedic surgeon, performs back surgery on Michael Louis in Tulsa. May 24: Louis is released from the hospital. In the days after his release, he contacts Phillips' office several times seeking further treatment for pain. May 29: Louis buys a semi-automatic handgun at a pawn shop in Muskogee. May 31: Phillips sees Louis again in his Tulsa office for additional treatment. Day of the Tulsa shooting, June 1 June 1: Louis calls Phillips' office again seeking more treatment for continued pain. Read: Tulsa shooting draws reactions from Oklahoma lawmakers, elected officials About 2 p.m.: Louis buys an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle at a Tulsa gun store. 4:52 p.m.: Someone on a video call with a doctor at Saint Francis calls police after the doctor on the video call told the person there was a shooting taking place at the hospital. 4:53 p.m.: Multiple 911 calls are made to Tulsa police reporting a shooting at Saint Francis. 4:55 p.m.: Callers to 911 say the shooting is on the second floor of the Natalie Medical Building at Saint Francis. 4:56 p.m.: The first Tulsa police officers arrived at the Natalie Medical Building. The officers go the second floor and begin shouting, "Tulsa Police!" 4:58 p.m.: The officers hear a single gunshot, which is believed to be the shot Louis fired to kill himself in the waiting room. Officers find one victim next to Louis. Story continues A woman who survived is found hiding under a desk near Louis' body. Phillips is found dead in an examination room. Another victim is found dead near a nurses' station. A shooting victim found in another examination room is taken to the hospital and dies there. About 5:30 p.m.: The Cherokee County sheriff's office contacts Tulsa police to say a woman has reported her husband intended to kill Phillips. A letter found on Louis' body "made it clear he intended to kill Dr. Phillips," Chief Franklin said. About 7 p.m.: The Muskogee Police Department says it was notified by Tulsa police that the shooter may have planted a bomb at a Muskogee home. Muskogee police notified nearby residents and prepared to search the house. About 9:30 p.m.: Muskogee police say the Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad used a bomb dog to determine there was no explosive device inside the home. The scene was turned over to Tulsa police investigators, Muskogee police said. What we know: Tulsa medical center shooting The aftermath of the Tulsa shooting 3 a.m. on June 2: Homicide detectives and other investigators finish working the crime scene, which is tuned back to Saint Francis officials. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: A timeline of the shooting spree at a Tulsa hospital that left 5 dead Storyful Two grizzly bears enjoyed a relaxing bath while chewing on an elk antler in Tennessees Memphis Zoo, as seen in footage released on June 7.Video released by the Memphis Zoo shows the bears, named Cochise and Yukon, with the elk antler.The zoo said the antler enrichment helps the bears practice their chewing. It said the antler was shed last year and was given to the bears to enjoy. Credit: Memphis Zoo via Storyful Wendell Franklin. J Pat Carter/Getty Images The gunman believed responsible for a shooting at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical center Wednesday night specifically targeted and subsequently killed the doctor who performed his back surgery last month, police said Thursday. The gunman also shot and killed three others before dying from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooter, identified by Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin as 45-year-old Michael Louis, had called the clinic repeatedly to complain of back pain, for which he blamed his surgeon, Dr. Preston Phillips. Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn, and patient William Love were also killed. Franklin said Louis was carrying a letter showing he both intended to target Phillips and believed him responsible for his continued discomfort post-surgery. Authorities also said Louis had recently purchased the guns used in the shooting, including the AR-15 style rifle he bought just hours before. The Wednesday attack arrives on the heels of two other high-profile massacres: a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York that left 10 dead, and an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 21, including 19 children. In response to the unrelenting violence, President Biden is scheduled to call for legislative action in a speech Thursday evening. You may also like Goats are giving firefighters in Northern California an assist Harvey Weinstein fails to get his sexual assault conviction overturned What the Battle of Sievierodonetsk tells us about Russia's goals Bayraktar TB2 Read also: Lithuanias Defense Ministry gets green light from Turkey to buy Bayraktar drone for Ukraine Lithuania will instead use the collected money to purchase ammunition for the drone, as well as to spend it on other means of supporting Ukraine, said Anusauskas. Andrius Tapinas, a Lithuanian TV host, raised EUR 5 million ($5.3 million) in just three days to buy a Bayraktar TB2 drone for Ukrainian defenders. The fundraising campaign started on May 25, and hit its goal during a special broadcast on the evening of May 28. Two Tracy juveniles have been arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Hayward woman about 1 a.m. June 1 near Tracy Boulevard and Valpico Road, Tracy, authorities said Thursday. A 17-year-old youth was also seriously injured in the shooting. Tracy police reported that as officers responded to the area, a local hospital reported that two gunshot wound victims had been brought to its emergency room. In California: Police arrest 16-year-old after tip he was recruiting students for mass shooting By early morning police had arrested two Tracy residents, a 17-year-old and 16-year-old. Both were booked into San Joaquin County Juvenile Hall. Police are requesting anyone with information on the shooting contact Detective Jeff Berdosh at (209) 831-6531 or Jeff.Berdosh@TracyPD.com or Tracy Crime Stoppers at (209) 831-4847 or tracycrimestoppers.com. This article originally appeared on The Record: Two Tracy juveniles arrested after fatal San Joaquin County shooting The New York Times The Kremlin-backed mayor of the Ukrainian town of Enerhodar was standing on his mothers porch when a powerful blast struck, leaving him critically wounded. A week later, about 75 miles away, a car packed with explosives rocked the office of another Russian-appointed official in the occupied southern city of Melitopol. In a rarity, both Ukrainian and Russian officials confirmed the blasts, which struck deep inside Russian-controlled territory. And both explosions appeared to be the work of what The occupiers will have to suspend the offensive in the Donbass, stated the British Defense Ministry Read also: Russia suffering devastating losses among mid- and junior-ranking officers, says UK intelligence Reports suggests that the road to Lysychansk remains under tentative Ukrainian control, but Russian troops continue to make incremental progress there. Seizing Severodonetsk comes at the cost of significant losses to Moscow, UK intelligence noted. The Siverskyi Donets river poses a natural obstacle to further Russian advance, and the invading force would have to cross it, in order to make attempts at seizing Donetsk oblast. Read also: Ukrainian intelligence warns that the Russo-Ukrainian war may last throughout 2022 Potential crossings are between Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, and at Lyman. At both sites, the river line is under Ukrainian control, and existing bridges have been destroyed. It is likely Russia will need at least a short tactical pause to re-set for opposed river crossings and subsequent attacks further into Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian armed forces have prepared defensive positions, UK intelligence said. Read also: Ukrainian intelligence chief says Russia only has resources for 12 months of normal war To do so risks losing some of the momentum they have built over the last week. Help NV continue its work reporting on the Russian invasion KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons it had been begging for for shooting down aircraft and destroying artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities overnight and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. Story continues Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after the Russians' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading Ukraine. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Military analyst Zhdanov said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports by ships threatens a global food crisis Nikolenko was responding to an earlier suggestion by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said that Russia would allow grain ships to pass if Ukraine clears its ports of mines. Read also: Business community urges international organizations to help lift Russias blockade of Black Sea ports Step one, Russia must withdraw its naval presence away from Ukrainian shores, guaranteeing against attacking ports and merchant convoys, said Nikolenko. Read also: hina advocates green lane for export of Ukrainian grain through Black Sea Ukraine remains committed to looking for ways to avoid a global food crisis, by reopening maritime trade in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. He urged countries, concerned about their food security, to put pressure on Moscow to lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports and end the war. Reuters Videos STORY: The photograph, taken by Reuters on May 26, shows a soldier atop a Russian tank, marked with the letter 'Z', laden with a cardboard box and blankets, driving past destroyed buildings in the city of Popasna in Luhansk region.Alina Koreniuk, who has escaped with her two children to Britain, said her husband sent her the photograph and she immediately recognized her personal possessions - including children's bed linen - which she had left behind when fleeing in April.When you are left with nothing, you look closer at everything. I realize that so many people have looked at this photograph, and sadly, it turns out that they are my belongings, she said.Reuters could not independently confirm Koreniuk's account.I just want to make the point that the Russian army is not only destroying, they are also stealing what has not been destroyed, she told Reuters on June 1.Russia has not responded to widespread allegations of looting by soldiers in parts of Ukraine. An MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle. Reuters The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones, Reuters reported. The drones, which can fly for up to 30 hours, can be armed with Hellfire missiles. The sale may not proceed if Congress votes against the President's plan. The Biden administration plans to provide Ukraine with four drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles, Reuters reported. The MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones would allow Ukrainian troops to conduct longer missions as they can fly for at least 30 hours and can gather huge amounts of data for intelligence purposes, according to the report. Sources told Reuters that the sale of the drones could still be reversed if Congress votes against the plan. Drone expert Dan Gettinger from Vertical Flight Society told Reuters: "Generally the MQ-1C is a much larger aircraft with a max take-off weight around three times that of the Bayraktar-TB2, with commensurate advantages in payload capacity, range, and endurance." Ukraine forces have used smaller shorter-range unmanned aerial systems against Russia, such as the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE, and the Turkish-made Bayraktar-TB2. According to the news agency, the sale would be significant because it would give Ukraine advanced reusable US systems capable of multiple deep strikes. President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the new security assistance to Ukraine: "This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System] with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances." The drones, made by General Atomics, are also compatible with a greater variety of munitions than the ones Ukraine currently uses. The Bayraktars are equipped with 22 kg Turkish-made MAM-L missiles, for example. Sources told Reuters that arming the drones with Hellfire missiles would be done via a future Presidential Drawdown Authority, but only once training has been completed. Story continues Gettinger said training operators for the drone systems usually takes months, but plans to speed up that process have been drawn up, the news agency reported. The White House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider DAKAR (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) committed 75 million euros ($80 million) on Thursday to finance construction of a new facility in Senegal that will produce COVID-19 and other vaccines for use across Africa. The plant, run by the Dakar-based Institut Pasteur, is intended to help Africa reduce its dependence on vaccine imports, which currently account for 99% of the continent's needs. It will produce vaccines against COVID-19, yellow fever and other endemic diseases. The EIB and the European Union had already donated 5 million euros in 2021 for feasibility studies and project preparation for the plant. Institut Pasteur hopes the facility will begin producing vaccines before the end of the year. At full capacity, it should produce up to 300 million vaccine doses per year, the EIB said in a statement announcing the new financing. Africa's reliance on outside manufacturing delayed the rollout of COVID vaccines last year. Doses have since arrived in force, but inoculation rates remain low in many countries due to logistical challenges and vaccine hesitancy. "It is essential to create decentralised vaccine manufacturing capacity to address this imbalance and ultimately build a safer and healthier world," said Amadou Alpha Sall, Institut Pasteur's director in Senegal. The institute in the capital Dakar is jointly run by the Senegalese government and the Paris-based Institut Pasteur. "Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have maintained that no one is safe until everyone is safe, said Irene Mingasson, the head of the EU delegation to Senegal. There have been several initiatives during the pandemic to boost vaccine manufacturing in Africa, but some have struggled. South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare said last month it might slash its capacity to package and sell the COVID vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson after receiving no orders. ($1 = 0.9348 euro) (Reporting by Aaron Ross; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Texas School Shooting (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) Our country is standing at the confluence of what I call guns and Google: the evil symbiotic relationship between gun violence and social media. Posting violent content and murder on social media is not free speech it is undermining the very fabric of our society. It is savagery. The shooter in Uvalde, Texas, frequently posted online threats and plans to kidnap, rape, or kill, and finally to shoot his grandmother and kill school children and was ignored because those who saw the posts said that it was just how online is. The families of those killed in Buffalo, New York, have to live with the fact that the last moments of their loved ones were shared on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Social media abuse and gun violence are inextricably linked, from the ability to illegally purchase firearms to the radicalization of the shooters. For years Ive maintained that Facebook and Google profit from the video of my daughter Alison Parkers televised murder in 2015 and violate what they advertise to the public that they dont allow violent content on their platforms. Both companies have denied it, but we know better. When someone with insider knowledge, like Frances Haugen, confirms it as she did in her 2021 Senate testimony its difficult to seriously argue the other side. Social media will continue its malpractice because until Congress acts, they have complete immunity from any liability. The fight for sensible gun legislation has been thwarted by Republican lawmakers in the pockets of the gun lobby all cowards who only offer the usual thought and prayers, or tell the public that now is not the time to talk about gun control. When there were no gun safety laws passed after Sandy Hook, we realized that these people are willing to sacrifice everyone for their ideology. They consider our children collateral damage and truly do not care about the carnage. Even in the face of seemingly non-stop mass shootings the latest in Tulsa this morning, at a hospital campus so many members of the GOP turn a blind eye and maintain that any reasonable gun legislation is tantamount to taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. That is a completely ridiculous assertion, and those who say it need to be voted out of office before its too late. Story continues If now isnt a time for a call to action, there never will be one. Over the years, Ive beseeched Congress to get off their asses and do something to address the malevolence. The overwhelming majority of Americans agree. And Im not just talking in the vague language of general activism. I have recommendations based on sound research and global policy. On guns, its simple: Implement universal background checks; pass national red flag laws; ban the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. On social media, first and foremost, we need to reform Section 230(c)(1). It should be amended so that it reserves immunity for platforms acting like responsible guardians of our privacy, but if those platforms dont take reasonable steps to prevent unlawful uses of service that create harm to others, they dont get immunity. We also need to incentivize these online platforms to proactively tackle illegality, hate speech, bullying, radicalization and violent content, rather than encouraging it. Concurrently, we can support two pieces of antitrust legislation that would rein in these tech giants. S.2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, and S.2710, the Open App Markets Act, would ban Facebook and Google, as well as Amazon and Apple, from acting like gatekeepers of information and competition. Its the first major action we can take to show these companies that we will not tolerate their egregious behavior. These proposals are the foundations for my new political action committee, Andys Fight. I formed it in the aftermath of my aborted Congressional bid. I cant be in Congress fighting for these ideas, but I can help elect candidates who will commit to the reforms Ive outlined. The safety and the social fabric of our country depend on it. I ask you to join my fight for me, for your family, and for Alison. Authorities investigate the scene of an officer-involved fatal shooting in Prince George County Wednesday, June 1, 2022. PRINCE GEORGE The man shot to death Wednesday in an altercation with Hopewell and federal law enforcement was a suspect in the disappearance and murder of his wife just days earlier in Pennsylvania, Virginia State Police said Thursday afternoon. Derrick Glen Avey, 42, of Newberg, Pennsylvania, was killed after state police said he "confronted" a deputy and police officer from Hopewell and a federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent at the intersection of Temple Avenue and River Road near Fort Lee. Shortly after Avey was killed, the Pennsylvania State Police found the body of his wife, 41-year-old Kyline Avey, in a wooded area near the family home in Franklin County, about 45 minutes south of Harrisburg. PSP spokesperson Trooper Megan Ammerman said Kyline Avey had not been seen or heard from in several days prior to Wednesday. After an investigation, Derrick Avey was named a suspect in her disappearance. Kyline Avey died of multiple gunshot wounds, Ammerman said. Related: State police say driver 'confronted' Hopewell authorities but do not say if he shot first Hopewell Sheriff Travis Stanley said a motorist on Interstate 295 reported seeing a black 2016 Ford Explorer run into a guardrail. Stanley's office was alerted because his deputies regularly patrol I-295 between the Appomattox River and Hopewell. A deputy attempted to stop the vehicle on Oaklawn Boulevard to no avail, Virginia State Police Sgt. Jessica Shehan said. The slow-speed pursuit continued out of Hopewell and onto Temple Avenue heading toward Colonial Heights. The police officer and ATF agents went to the intersection of Temple and River Road in an effort to block Derrick Avey's vehicle. When he stopped, Shehan said he "confronted" the officers with a weapon and was subsequently shot multiple times. He died at the scene. Shehan said she was not sure if Derrick Avey fired his weapon before he was shot by the authorities. The VSP is conducting an investigation into the shooting at the request of Hopewell Police, the Hopewell sheriff and the Richmond ATF field office. Story continues "Once the Virginia State Police has completed its investigation, the investigative findings will be turned over to the commonwealth's attorney for final review and adjudication," Shehan said in an email. The status of the officers involved in the shooting is unknown at this time since none of the agencies have commented on the investigation. It traditionally is procedure that any law-enforcement officer involved in a shooting, deadly or otherwise, be placed on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted. More from The Progress-Index: State police say driver 'confronted' Hopewell authorities but do not say if he shot first More from The Progress-Index: 'He saved my life': Petersburg barber opens shop in tribute to his mentor who died of cancer Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist and daily news coach for USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region which includes Virginia. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com. This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Driver shot to death after Virginia pursuit wanted for murder in Pa. Dozens of high school and middle school students in Olympia, Washington, walked out of schools to protest gun violence Wednesday after 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed last week at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The walkout was organized by members of the Olympia High School Feminism Club, The Olympian reported. These sort of walkouts are the only type of thing that makes voices heard, Club President Alayna Winstead-Coby said. The Washington State Patrol estimated about 100 students gathered for the rally on the steps of the state Capitol. Hannah Martin read an open letter to officials. If theres a shooter, hide in the corner, jump out those windows, dont be the hero, save yourself, she read. Because if we wont, who will? You surely wont. Instead, you stand outside an elementary school for an hour because its not safe, but still, you expect us to feel safe when you, a trained professional, refused to go in yourself, she continued. Organizers also read the names of the students and teachers killed in the Uvalde shooting before taking a moment of silence. Students in Seattle and Tacoma have also been staging walkouts in support of measures to reduce gun violence. More news from KIRO 7 DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP (Getty Images for the Invictus Ga) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have confirmed they will be attending Queen Elizabeth IIs Platinum Jubilee celebrations along with their two children this month. The scheduled June visit to the UK, which comes after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a secret visit to the Queen in April before travelling to The Hague, Netherlands for the Invictus Games, will mark the first time the 96-year-old monarch has met the couples daughter, Lilibet Diana, 11 months. However, the visit also raises the question of where the couple will stay during their time in the UK. According to The Sun, the duke and duchess, their daughter, and their son, Archie Harrison, three, will stay in their old home, Frogmore Cottage, during their time in the UK, as the outlet reported that heightened security measures are already being put in place ahead of the Sussexes arrival. The couple lived in the Windsor home before they stepped back from their roles in the royal family and relocated to the US in April 2020. However, at the time, it was reported that the duke and duchess, who undertook a $3m renovation of the cottage, would continue to keep the residence so that they would still have a home in the UK. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their UK family home, Buckingham Palace confirmed in 2020. In February 2022, it was also reported that the couple, who currently live in California with their children, had renewed their lease of Frogmore Cottage. According to The Telegraph, which noted that the lease was set to expire on 31 March, the duke renewed the lease on the home so that he could continue serving as one of the Queens four counsellors of state. On the official Royal Family website, it states that the counsellors of state will be appointed by Letters Patent to act in Her Majestys place in the event that the Queen cannot undertake her official duties as Sovereign on a temporary basis due to illness or absence abroad. Story continues The current counsellors of state are Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. However, in order to continue being a counsellor, Prince Harry had to be domiciled in the UK. As Prince Harry and Meghan have only returned to the UK together once since they stepped down from royal duties, Frogmore Cottage has since become the residence of the dukes cousin, Princess Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank. The couple live in Frogmore Cottage with their one-year-old son August. According to The Sun, it is expected that Princess Eugenie and Jack will host the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the guest rooms of Frogmore Cottage during their visit to the UK next month. The duke also stayed in the residence when he returned home to attend his grandfather Prince Philips funeral in April of last year. While Prince Harry, Meghan, and their children will attend the weekend of celebrations, they will not be appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour, as the Queen has limited the balcony appearance during her official birthday celebration to working members of the royal family only. The decision means that Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties in 2019, will also not be present on the balcony during the Thursday 2 June celebration. Although the Sussexes will not be present on the balcony during the monarchs birthday parade, they are likely to make appearances during other celebrations over the weekend commemorating the Queens 70 years on the throne. Other family members will be invited to events. Weve always made that clear and they are likely to be public events, a palace source said. The confirmation that the Sussexes will be returning for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations comes amid Prince Harrys case against the Home Office over police protection in the UK. Harry brought a claim against the Home Office earlier this year to challenge the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which told him he would no longer be given the same degree of personal protective security when visiting from the US. The Queens Platinum Jubilee will be celebrated with a four-day public holiday starting 2 June and ending 5 June. At around 1:45 a.m. on April 23, Adam M. Peters allegedly punched someone so hard at a Gulfport bar that the man had to have surgery to repair a broken nose and orbital socket. That day, Gulfport police issued a probable cause affidavit to arrest Peters, 28, the son of Pinellas County commissioner and former state Rep. Kathleen Peters, on a felony aggravated battery charge. When one month passed with no arrest, the alleged victim, Kyle Harris, 37, wondered if hed ever get accountability. Harris, of St. Petersburg, is facing $10,000 in medical bills so far. He said hes been unable to work his automotive services technician job as he recovers. Adam Peters eventually was arrested at his St. Petersburg apartment around 8 p.m. on May 23, seven hours after the Tampa Bay Times emailed Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent and investigating officer Cory Smith asking why they had not been able to locate the son of a Pinellas County elected official for 30 days. Vincent said the department did not know Peters was the son of a county commissioner before the Times inquiry. The chief said Smith made five attempts to locate Adam Peters prior to the arrest: once by visiting his apartment the day of the alleged battery, three times by phone in early May and once by asking St. Petersburg Police to visit his home on May 17. We dont care who hes related to, said Gulfport Police Cmdr. Joshua Stone. We want to know the victim in a case gets justice. But its not like TV. These things dont get solved in half an hour. At the time of Adam Peters arrest, the Gulfport Police Department had one other felony probable cause affidavit that had been open for more than 30 days, according to Vincent. Prior to her election in 2018 to commission District 6, which represents mid-Pinellas and the southernmost beaches, Kathleen Peters served in the Florida House for six years and as mayor of South Pasadena from 2009 to 2012. In a text message to the Times, the commissioner said she had no contact with Gulfport police about the incident involving her son. The insinuation that there was potentially foul play is not only offensive to my family, but to law enforcement, she said. Story continues Brooke Bennett said she was at OMaddys Bar & Grille near closing time the morning of April 23 when she was chatting with Adam Peters about a teacup chihuahua. When Peters touched her arm, Bennett said she told him she had a boyfriend. Then Peters began to grab her by the waist, Bennett said. By then her boyfriend, Tyler Jaworski, saw what was happening and walked over. Peters and Jaworski began arguing and moved to a sidewalk outside, Bennett said. Harris said he watched Peters unwanted advances on Bennett and then his argument with Jaworski, so he decided to try to break up the fight. Bennett and Jaworski said they saw Peters punch Harris once in the head, sending him to the ground. Surveillance video captured Peters striking Harris with a closed right fist, according to the arrest affidavit. Harris underwent surgery at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg on his broken nose and had a titanium rod placed in his left orbital socket. Harris said Smith, the investigating officer, called him the night of April 23. He said they were looking for the suspect and the charge would be felony aggravated battery. Harris said he called Smith twice over the next two weeks for an update and was baffled about why Adam Peters had not been arrested. In mid-May, Harris said he learned Peters was the son of a county commissioner. It made him wonder whether the relationship had to do with why his case had stalled. I feel like its an awfully strange coincidence that hes been given all this accommodation, he said. Stone declined to release the case file, citing the open investigation, but said nothing in the records indicates police knew Peters relation to a county commissioner. He said Smith was on vacation the week after the incident, which caused an initial delay. After the Times inquiry on May 23, Stone said he spoke with Smith for an update. The officer told him he was planning to make more steps to locate this person. Thats when Smith contacted the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorneys Office to schedule a meeting to request a warrant for Adam Peters arrest, Stone said. The officer also contacted St. Petersburg Police to attempt to locate Peters, he said. Peters was arrested hours later. Second Silk Road Friendship Award Ceremony held online People's Daily Online) 18:26, June 01, 2022 The second Silk Road Friendship Award Ceremony was held online on May 31. Themed on sharing the stories of the builders of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the event attracted over 500 participants from home and abroad. (Photo/Global People Magazine) The event was jointly hosted by the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC) and the Global People Magazine of Peoples Daily, and co-organized by the China International Culture & Arts Co. Ltd. (CICAC) and the Peace Culture Development Group. The event was attended by many celebrities and political heavyweights. Yang Chuantang, Vice Chairman of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and Chairman of the CICEC, recognized the fruitful achievements of the BRI since its inception nine years ago in his speech, and said that sharing the stories of the builders of the BRI will contribute to the building of a better planet, the only home for mankind. Yu Shaoliang, Editor-in-Chief of Peoples Daily, said in his speech that the new achievements of the high-quality development of the BRI could not be made without the wisdom and actions of people living along its route. Sharing the stories of these builders will facilitate friendly exchanges among people of all countries, as well as a community with a shared future for mankind. He called on more Ambassadors of Silk Road Friendship to contribute their efforts for a better future. Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Gulnar Shaimergenova from Kazakhstan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Mohanad Ali Moh'd Shalabi from Jordan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Normunds Kotans from Latvia (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov from Uzbekistan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Chai Yang from Laos (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Sean Dara from Cambodia (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Athuai Deng Akok from South Sudan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Rehmat Ali from Pakistan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Simon Williams from Australia (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Sonja Muhlberger from Germany (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Li Yang from Thailand (Photo/Global People Magazine) Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship Ahmed Waqas Bhatty from Pakistan (Photo/Global People Magazine) Dr. Ramon Maria Calduch from Spain addresses the ceremony on behalf of a group of recipients who became Ambassadors of Silk Road Friendship (Photo/Global People Magazine) Twelve individuals received the honorary title of the Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship. The recipients are listed as follows: Gulnar Shaimergenova from Kazakhstan, a scholar who helped her country send its wheat to Vietnam via China for the first time; Jordanian businessman Mohanad Ali Moh'd Shalabi, a dispute mediator in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province; Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov, Minister of Innovative Development of Uzbekistan who contributed to a community of health along the Silk Road; Chai Yang, a young man from Laos who became a veteran worker in housing construction under the China-Laos Railway project with the help of his Chinese supervisor; Sean Dara, a Cambodian youth committed to China-Cambodia cooperation; Athuai Deng Akok, an employee of China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. from South Sudan who protected his Chinese colleagues and guarded the compound of his company whenever armed conflict broke out; Rehmat Ali, a Pakistani doctor who followed in the footsteps of his father and worked on the upgrading of the Karakoram Highway; Simon Williams, an Australian wind power specialist who has provided an example of cooperation in the area of renewable resources between China and Australia; Sonja Muhlberger from Germany, who has committed time and effort to recording the history of Jewish refugees in Shanghai; Li Yang, a musician who promoted friendly relations between China and Thailand through a traditional Chinese musical instrument called the guzheng; Ahmed Waqas Bhatty, a Pakistani doctor who promoted cooperation in organ transplantation between China and Pakistan; and, Normunds Kotans, a Latvian expert at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games who participated in the design of the National Sliding Centre, dubbed the "Flying Snow Dragon." Another group of recipients who became Ambassadors of Silk Road Friendship included six supporters of traditional Chinese medicine from different countries along the Belt and Road. A Silk Road Fund Announcing Session was also held during the event. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) The perils of climate change are both well known and easily seen in the weather extremes that have become all too common. Walking hand-in-hand with it, however, is another crisis that is devastating in its own right: the rapid decline of our biodiversity. Few, if any, places on the globe have been unaffected, and as beautiful as the commonwealth is, the potential losses here are still considerable. According to Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, one in 26 species within our borders is at risk of extinction, while we have protected only about 7% of our 25 million total acres, the lowest percentage of our surrounding states. Only two states have a greater aquatic biodiversity than Kentucky, underscoring how much more is at risk. Worldwide, its estimated that as many as one million species are on the verge of extinction, and many more are not too far behind. More: Here's why Brood X cicadas could be reemerging in Louisville this year Declining biodiversity affects more than just our wildlife and environment. It also has a direct and lasting impact on our security, economy, health and well-being. There have been numerous stories and studies detailing what this means. Steep declines in honeybee colonies, for example, are threatening broad areas of our agricultural industry and the loss of so many varieties of apples, coffee and wheat makes these staples much more vulnerable to disease and infestation. Globally, declining numbers of species can have ripple effects that weaken entire ecosystems and destabilize countries and economies. It also can take away countless medical cures. Consider that the first effective treatment for the H.I.V. virus was derived from compounds found in a Caribbean sponge, while an important heart medicine can trace its roots quite literally to the foxglove plant native to Europe and Northern Africa. On the animal side, horseshoe crab blood plays a major role in developing vaccines, and snake and spider venom are the foundations of medical advances treating such diseases as cancer and epilepsy. Story continues Another driving factor behind our lack of diversity is the introduction of invasive species, something Kentucky has, unfortunately, become all too familiar with. The Asian carp has overrun many Western Kentucky waterways, and the emerald ash borer has added Kentucky to the list of 30 states that have lost tens of millions of ash trees. Kudzu, the invasive weed that has overtaken countless hillsides, this time of year, didnt arrive in the United States until the late 1800s and didnt become prevalent in the South until well after WWII. More: Largest US grid operator puts 1,200 mostly solar projects on hold for 2 years Lists like these go on and on, with each example remaking habitats that took tens of thousands of years to establish. Kentucky and many other states have taken action to reverse this decline, but our country needs a much more comprehensive solution. Thats why I have joined with more than 360 other state legislators across the United States and our territories calling for a national biodiversity strategy. We sent a letter to President Biden on Endangered Species Day, which was May 20th. It is a fitting moment, given the record losses of so many irreplaceable plants and animals and the need to raise global awareness as we look ahead to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference being held in October. As a state legislator, I know that species dont recognize political boundaries, which is why its crucial that we do not undertake this work alone. I believe Kentucky should join other states that have already introduced memorials or tributes in support of this comprehensive strategy. This year, at least 12 states have sought to protect nearly a third of their land and water by the end of the decade. States like Oregon and Maryland are working to stop the spread of wildlife diseases, and the Vermont legislature has passed a bill specifically designed to protect its biodiversity. I believe the Kentucky General Assembly should enact similar laws next year. Once these species are gone, theyre gone forever. For us, but especially for future generations, we cannot allow this to happen. My hope is that my fellow legislators, our leaders in Washington, D.C., and concerned citizens like you will join this effort, because the time for a comprehensive biodiversity strategy is now. Nima Kulkarni is an American immigration attorney and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 40 since January 2019. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Why we must protect biodiversity in the face of climate change: Opinion By Howard Schneider NEW YORK (Reuters) - Innovations in digital payments and the potential adoption of a central bank digital currency could force central banks to overhaul how they conduct monetary policy, potentially increasing their balance sheets and the tools used to control interest rates, Lorie Logan, executive vice president of the New York Federal Reserve, said on Thursday. Logan, who heads the market operations for the New York Fed, was speaking generically about the impact of digital innovations on all central banks, not on the implications of a central bank digital currency for the Fed. The ultimate impact, she said, would depend on how a digital offering is designed, how broadly it is offered to banks, firms or households, and whether it pays interest. But she and other speakers at a Columbia University and New York Fed symposium agreed that central banks' potential journey into the world of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins could prompt dramatic changes in how monetary policy is conducted, and pose challenges in keeping control of interest rates and setting the size of the central banks' balance sheets. "The innovation occurring in money and payments has the potential to alter the existing...monetary system upon which current monetary policy implementation frameworks are designed," said Logan, who will be taking over as president of the Dallas Federal Reserve this summer. "How things evolve from here is uncertain, and the impact of these innovations could be revolutionary, or more evolutionary." Most global central banks are at least exploring whether to establish their own version of a digital currency. If those end up drawing deposits away from legacy banks, for example, it could force central banks to increase their own balance sheets to provide more liquidity to the system. "In some circumstances, the balance sheet could need to adjust rapidly because of unexpected large shifts in liability demand," she said. Story continues "In an environment with new public and private digital currencies, liquidity backstops for traditional banks may become even more important," she said, referring to traditional short-term lending tools that central banks offer to commercial banks and other financial institutions. Digital currencies "could enhance market efficiency," she said, "but it may also lead to swings in deposit flows" that could effect the short-term interest rates central banks try to control. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci) With approval of a new Virginia state budget Wednesday, $25 million was included that Lynchburg-area officials eagerly hoped for to benefit future redevelopment of the Central Virginia Training Center site. The states biennial fiscal year 2023-24 budget contain a request from Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, for the $25 million in state money to defease outstanding bonds associated with CVTC in Madison Heights, which closed in 2020 and is now a prospect for future development. Defeasance is a term related to all methods by which an outstanding bond issue can be made void, legally and financially, by the state. In short, the vision cannot succeed until the bonds are eliminated, the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance said in an April news release about redevelopment plans. Without bond defeasement the CVTC property will sit and rot likely becoming a significant blight on the regions urban core. The state's debt that will be settled in the new budget is on a cluster of more modern buildings on the CVTC campus known as Lower Rapidan and those outstanding bonds, along with the cost of demolishing many structures on the site, are significant impediments to any development, according to the alliance. The alliance in April unveiled the CVTC Master Redevelopment Plan, a 200-plus page document that describes at length the development potential at the site used for many decades as a medical facility for people with disabilities. I fought for many years for individuals to remain in CVTC because they had intensive medical needs and I believe that was the most appropriate and safest setting for them to receive care, Newman said in a news release. However, with the closure of CVTC in 2020, my focus shifted to ensuring the property is repurposed for the highest economic use. The one-time funding for paying off the outstanding bonds settles the debt 14 years ahead of the payment schedule, according to Newman. It positions the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance and Amherst County government to advertise the training center site on 350 acres overlooking the James River and Downtown Lynchburg for a new chapter. This appropriation represents a tremendous opportunity for economic development in the Central Virginia area, Newman said. I am proud of our community coming together to get this important work done. Newman said state delegates Kathy Byron, Terry Austin and Wendell Walker, who represent localities in the Lynchburg area with a stake in the CVTC property redeveloping, were supportive of the effort. In 2017, the Virginia General Assembly appropriated $270,000 for an environmental site assessment needed to assess the CVTC property. The General Assembly the following year appropriated $250,000 for the next phase of the environmental study at CVTC. According to a state report done that year the schedule for defeasing the outstanding bonds would be paid off in 2037. The alliance noted in its April release the bonds cant be defeased in increments and must be paid all at once and the success of the redevelopment plan, first and foremost, hinges on the debt getting settled. The plan calls for a walkable urban community and a mixed-use of more than 100 acres through housing such as townhomes, cottage homes, estate-style houses and commercial buildings, offices, parks and recreational facilities, tourist sites such as a brewery, and a funicular down to the James River to connect the site with Downtown Lynchburg. The plan can be viewed online at: trainingcentermasterplan.com Amherst County Administrator Dean Rodgers said he is pleased the state stepped up to its responsibility to the community regarding the closure of CVTC. We are all hopeful that CVTCs new life, whatever that ends up being, will be a great benefit to the county and the entire Lynchburg region, Rodgers said. 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. Thousands of years ago when swords were all the rage in Japan, master swordsmiths were revered. Sword-making was a pastime undertaken by numerous aristocrats of that era. Katana and various Samurai swords were not only made from a piece of beautiful steelthey were the result of a sacred ritual. Mentioned below are 5 things to look out for before getting a Japanese Sword. Things to Take Note of Before Getting a Japanese Sword Several things need to be looked into before getting a Japanese Sword. They include; It should be created by hand To be considered a genuine katana, a sword must be handcrafted in Japan by a skilled artisan, and the Hamon tempering line must be visible as evidence. It should have a sharp edge Japanese swords are known for their razor-sharp blades. So, if you're thinking of acquiring one, ensure that it has a sharp blade. The body should be made of steel The steel used to make a Japanese Sword is important to consider while purchasing one. Steel is OK, but any type of steel should not be used. Stainless steel is the only option. It should glow and sparkle Always look for a high-gloss finish on a Japanese sword or Katana whenever purchasing one. This way, you may be sure that what you're receiving is unique. It should have a Mekuki A Mekuki is a peg that secures a blade to its grip. Whenever purchasing a Japanese sword, take caution to look for the Mekuki. Types of Japanese Swords It's hardly surprising that Samurai swords have evolved through time, given their extensive heritage. It is common to discern genuine katana swords from fakes by their length, history, and curve. The numerous varieties of samurai swords are listed below. Tachi Throughout the Koto era, these Japanese swords had a curvy blade grip and were held with the blade pointing downwards. Uchigatana The uchigatana was the next in line after the tachi. It had straight handles as well as a variety of options for the curve, which made it unique. When we classify "Uchi" and "gatana" into their parts, we get "hit" and "sword," respectively. Uchigatana swords, which initially were of poor grade, eventually supplanted the Tachi nearly totally. The uchigatana is the immediate ancestor of the vast amount of real current katana swords. Shin Gunto Swords from the west that were made with lesser grades replaced Japanese katanas in the late 1800s and early 1900s throughout the West. Patriot pride swept Japan in the 1930s and ushered in the traditional Japanese costume, with few contemporary tweaks. As a consequence, the shin-gunto ("new military sword") was created and was later used to kill prisoners of war throughout World War II. After World War II, the durability of shin-gunto swords deteriorated because of a lack of materials in Japan. Daisho Traditionally wielded by Warriors, the Daisho (which translates to "big and small") is a set of katana blades (the daito as well as the shoto). Bottomline The Japanese sword, also known as the katana, is not just any sword. It represents a lot of things and has a lot of meaning, it is a sword held in high esteem. allkpop.com - Jun 07 One of the famous subcultures that are prevalent in Japan is male host entertainment. "Hosuto Kurabu," or the male host club, are nightclubs in Japan that provide male entertainment and companionship to women at these nightclubs. Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience allows patrons to stroll through three dimensional projections of the Dutch masters most well-known works, and its coming to Council Bluffs later this month. The brainchild of Mathieu St-Arnaud, the French-Canadian co-founder and creative director of Montreals Normal Studio, Beyond Van Gogh features more than 300 of Van Goghs paintings brought to colorful, swirling life through high resolution digital projections in a multimedia narrative of the painters life. There was this natural evolution with his work, art historian and Beyond Van Gogh consultant Fanny Curtat, said. (It) begins where hes learning himself in the Netherlands, getting inspired by other artists, learning with other teachers, but its much, much darker tones. It wasnt until Van Gogh arrived in Paris in the mid-1870s that his work blossomed. You have the brightness, the discovery of something else, a new light, Curtat said. And then he gets to the south of France, and then you have this explosion of color and really this combination of movement at the end of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. The exhibit uses Van Goghs dreams, thoughts and words, many taken from letters he exchanged with his brother Theo, a Paris art dealer who supported his brother throughout his adult life, to propel people through the projection-swathed walls and floor that warp and refocus into the flowers, cafes and landscapes of his artwork. Many people know who Van Gogh is less for his paintings and more for the time he cut off his left ear during a fit of anger and depression. Curtat, who is working on her PhD at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, wants people to come away from the exhibit with a different impression of the artist. When you look at his words, you dont see this darkness, and thats really how we focused it into this dialogue, Curtat said. We created this during the pandemic, and so to have an artist that was famous for struggling in his life for mental illness issues, but also poverty to have somebody who was in an asylum cell and yet was able to paint Starry Night, there was something that just resonated really strongly in that. Curtat stressed that deep knowledge and understanding of Van Goghs work is not necessary to enjoy the exhibit and take away something meaningful from the experience. You dont need to know a lot about Van Gogh to come in, Curtat said. This way, itll just be a great way of discovering his work. Its incredible for kids because they get to run around and follow the brushstrokes, twirl with the petals. But, if you do know a lot about Van Gogh, then its just about the fantasy of being inside the painting you know and love. So theres really no specific audience. Its really, truly for everyone. Beyond Van Gogh can be experienced at the Mid-America Center from June 23 through Aug. 14. Adult ticket prices (ages 16 and up) start at $39.99 per person and tickets for children ages 5-15 start at $23.99. Children ages 4 and younger can enter for free when accompanied by an adult with a ticket. For more information about Beyond Van Gogh, or to purchase tickets, visit vangoghomaha.com. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told a roomful of Eastern Iowa law enforcement on Wednesday hes hopeful the U.S. Senate will reach a bipartisan compromise on gun control legislation. The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley held a roundtable discussion in Davenport with law enforcement leaders from Scott and Linn counties. Grassley said there is a serious bipartisan attempt that I think can be successful so long as something more controversial is not thrown into the legislation such as a ban on assault weapons. I think the most difficult thing to come to is what do you do with eliminating some class of guns? Grassley said. Beyond that, I think its possible to reach almost any compromise that will get 60 votes. Members of the Democratically-controlled house are preparing legislation in response to calls for new gun legislation in response to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas. House Judiciary Committee members plan to hold a hearing Thursday on the Protecting our Kids Act a package of eight bills that includes calls to raise the age limits on semi-automatic rifle purchases from 18 to 21 years old; create a grant program to buy back large-capacity magazines; establish voluntary safe practices for firearms storage and build on executive measures to ban bump stock devices and so-called ghost guns made from 3-D printing. The proposal, though, has little chance of passing the evenly divided Senate, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers met this week on a separate proposal to curb gun violence. Both Davenport and Cedar Rapids have witnessed a spike in shootings and gun crimes in recent years. Grassley said a bipartisan compromise on gun laws would be high on the agenda for the U.S. Senate as members of Congress grapple again to come to an agreement in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, whos running for a full term as a Democrat this fall, urged to Grassley to support so-called red flag laws. The measures allow local law enforcement with a court order to temporarily prevent someone deemed as a threat from buying or possessing firearms. Maybanks said such laws could be a vital tool to keep law enforcement safe and blunt a rise in gun violence nationwide. Im just asking, praying upon you to listen to some of those ideas that may come to you, including the red flag laws and, and some of the limits there might be on purchasing or repurchasing or stockpiling ammunition because were teetering on the edge of something really more serious happening to our officers being ambushed on a regular basis, Maybanks said. Grassley didnt rule out support for red-flag legislation but worried such measures could result in guns can be confiscated without due process. He called the Second Amendment very, very important part of personal protection. With the process of instituting the red-flag law for any individual, make sure that theres due process in making the determination that they shouldnt have a gun, Grassley added. Grassley voted against a proposal earlier this month that wouldve investigated domestic terrorism threats focused particularly on threats posed by white supremacists and Neo-Natzis. Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski, who participated in Wednesdays roundtable, said keeping guns out of peoples hands could make Davenport safer, but that he would leave it up to the federal lawmakers to bring a compromise together. I know that there are people out there in my community that if we could keep guns out of their hands, it would make our community safer, Sikorski told reporters. So if our federal partners and legislators can do that... it would benefit us in our community. In Davenport, gun violence spiked in 2020, prompting the mayor to form a violent crime task force and the city to pursue a Group Violence Intervention strategy, which pinpoints focus on engaging with the fraction of the population that are members of loosely organized groups driving a majority of violence. Other communities, including Cedar Rapids and South Bend, Indiana, have implemented the strategy. Davenport recorded 282 confirmed cases of gunfire in the city in 2020. Fifty-six people were shot and eight died. In 2021, that number dropped to 208 confirmed shots fired calls, 50 people shot and six deaths. One issue the department heads underlined was a shortage of law enforcement staff. Sikorski said Davenport has 10 openings its trying to fill, and when law enforcement departments do fill positions, they are often pulling officers away from other departments or offices. He and other round table members called on Grassley to promote law enforcement as an honorable profession to help generate interest as applications pools shrink and departments struggle with staffing shortages. Sikorski, too, asked for more federal assistance to hire crime analysts to assist investigators in reviewing data from new technology such as doorbell cameras and cellphone data, which proves time-consuming for law enforcement. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany ODonnell asked Grassley for support for mental health advocates in law enforcement departments, saying a program in Cedar Rapids where counselors go with law enforcement on certain calls has had real successes. Addressing mental health, meeting people where they are proactively, if we could get more money for more counselors, that would be awesome, ODonnell said. Heartland Family Services will hold its 18th annual Strike a Chord Gala from 6 to 9 p.m. on June 10 at the Mid-America Center. The evening will start with cocktails at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the live auction and program at 7:30. It will be the first time the event has been held in person since before the pandemic, said Larry Williams, development manager and coordinator of the event. Were really excited about it, he said. We want people to show up, get out in the community and (we want to) actually bring the community together. The event is the agencys biggest fundraiser of the year for its programs that serve individuals, families and communities in southwest Iowa, Williams said. The theme hearkens back to a decade 100 years ago, the Roaring 20s. The nations culture was changing rapidly, thanks to the Model T, radio, phonograph records, motion pictures, Prohibition and household appliances. The Omaha Jitterbugs will demonstrate some old-fashioned dance moves during the cocktail hour, he said. After the dinner, the live auction will get rolling, as Byron Menke seeks bids on a vacation to Costa Rica, a trip to Bel Lago Condominiums in Colorado, tickets to a Minnesota Vikings game and lunch with Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh. Silent auction items will be posted online on June 9 or June 10, Williams said. Next, a Hope for Families bidding session will be held where people offer to pay for certain items needed by southwest Iowa families, according to Sara Cartwright, communications coordinator. During the program, Heartland will honor Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh with the Salute to Leadership award for his dedication to the community and celebrate the success of HFS client Kathryn Hunter with the Salute to Achievement award. Attire is casual, but guests are invited to dress up in their zoot suits or flapper dresses, if desired, Williams said. Its business casual, but we hope people will dress up and have fun with it, he said. Were trying to really emulate the fashions of the time. Honorary chairs of the event are Angela and Ryan Avis. Proceeds from the event will benefit Heartlands southwest Iowa programs, including its K-12 Therapeutic School for students with major mental health diagnoses; housing and support services for families experiencing homelessness; professional mental health counseling for children and their parents; and prevention, education and treatment for those struggling with substance use and problem gambling. To purchase tickets, go to heartlandfamilyservice.org/events/strike-a-chord-gala-2022/. To register for the auctions go to one.bidpal.net/strikeachord. For more event or sponsorship information, contact Larry Williams at LWilliams@HeartlandFamilyService.org or call 402-552-7475. 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. Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told a roomful of Eastern Iowa law enforcement on Wednesday he's hopeful the U.S. Senate will reach a bipartisan compromise on gun control legislation. The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley held a roundtable discussion in Davenport with law enforcement leaders from Scott and Linn counties. Grassley said there "is a serious bipartisan attempt that I think can be successful" so long as something more controversial is not thrown into the legislation such as a ban on assault weapons. "I think the most difficult thing to come to is what do you do with eliminating some class of guns?" Grassley said. "Beyond that, I think it's possible to reach almost any compromise that will get 60 votes." Members of the Democratically controlled house are preparing legislation in response to calls for new gun legislation in response to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas. House Judiciary Committee members plan to hold a hearing Thursday on the Protecting our Kids Act a package of eight bills that includes calls to raise the age limits on semi-automatic rifle purchases from 18 to 21 years old; create a grant program to buy back large-capacity magazines; establish voluntary safe practices for firearms storage and build on executive measures to ban bump stock devices and so-called ghost guns made from 3-D printing. The proposal, though, has little chance of passing the evenly divided Senate, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers met this week on a separate proposal to curb gun violence. Both Davenport and Cedar Rapids have witnessed a spike in shootings and gun crimes in recent years. Grassley said a bipartisan compromise on gun laws would be "high on the agenda" for the U.S. Senate as members of Congress grapple again to come to an agreement in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, who's running for a full term as a Democrat this fall, urged to Grassley to support so-called red flag laws. The measures allow local law enforcement with a court order to temporarily prevent someone deemed as a threat from buying or possessing firearms. Maybanks said such laws could be a vital tool to keep law enforcement safe and blunt a rise in gun violence nationwide. "I'm just asking, praying upon you to listen to some of those ideas that may come to you, including the red flag laws and, and some of the limits there might be on purchasing or repurchasing or stockpiling ammunition because we're teetering on the edge of something really more serious happening to our officers being ambushed on a regular basis," Maybanks said. Grassley didn't rule out support for red-flag legislation but worried such measures could result in guns can be confiscated without due process. He called the Second Amendment "very, very important part of personal protection." "With the process of instituting the red-flag law for any individual, make sure that there's due process in making the determination that they shouldn't have a gun," Grassley added. Grassley voted against a proposal earlier this month that would've investigated domestic terrorism threats focused particularly on threats posed by white supremacists and Neo-Natzis. Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski, who participated in Wednesday's roundtable, said keeping guns out of people's hands could make Davenport safer, but that he would leave it up to the federal lawmakers to bring a compromise together. "I know that there are people out there in my community that if we could keep guns out of their hands, it would make our community safer," Sikorski told reporters. "So if our federal partners and legislators can do that ... it would benefit us in our community." In Davenport, gun violence spiked in 2020, prompting the mayor to form a violent crime task force and the city to pursue a Group Violence Intervention strategy, which pinpoints focus on engaging with the fraction of the population that are members of loosely organized groups driving a majority of violence. Other communities, including Cedar Rapids and South Bend, Ind., have implemented the strategy. Davenport recorded 282 confirmed cases of gunfire in the city in 2020. Fifty-six people were shot and eight died. In 2021, that number dropped to 208 confirmed shots fired calls, 50 people shot and six deaths. One issue the department heads underlined was a shortage of law enforcement staff. Sikorski said Davenport has 10 openings it's trying to fill, and when law enforcement departments do fill positions, they are often pulling officers away from other departments or offices. He and other round table members called on Grassley to promote law enforcement as an honorable profession to help generate interest as applications pools shrink and departments struggle with staffing shortages. Sikorski, too, asked for more federal assistance to hire crime analysts to assist investigators in reviewing data from new technology such as doorbell cameras and cellphone data, which proves time-consuming for law enforcement. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell asked Grassley for support for mental health advocates in law enforcement departments, saying a program in Cedar Rapids where counselors go with law enforcement on certain calls has had "real successes." "Addressing mental health, meeting people where they are proactively, if we could get more money for more counselors, that would be awesome," O'Donnell said. The Associated Press contributed to this story. When the Harrison County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a mask mandate in October 2020, Mondamin resident Rebecca Wilkerson felt like she needed to take action. Thats my God-given right to breathe air freely, and I dont think that anyone has the right to take that away, Wilkerson said in an interview with the Daily Nonpareil. After the county board ultimately decided to enact a mask mandate, in part due to 21 straight days of a COVID positivity rate at or above 20%, Wilkerson began attending county board and school board meetings. She was blown away by what she witnessed. They want more government, Wilkerson said. They want more government control of our lives, and Im, like, nope, thats not right. Wilkerson began to travel to Des Moines to speak with legislators about Iowans medical freedoms, and when a bill was proposed to protect those freedoms, Wilkerson found herself appointed to the task force that helped write it. The task force, led by House Rep. Jon Jacobsen, came up with HF 2545, a medical freedom bill that would have prohibited businesses from requiring any vaccines, inquiring about vaccination status or mandating masks, but the bill never made it to the House floor. It never got brought to the floor as we wrote it, Wilkerson said. Thats basically when I said, we need someone down there thats going to stand up for all of our freedoms. And thats when Wilkerson decided to run for state legislature in District 15 against seven-term incumbent Matt Windschitl, a fellow Republican and current Iowa House Majority Leader. Wilkerson is originally from New Hampshire, and her family moved to Iowa when she was 11. She grew up outside Magnolia and moved to Mondamin when she and her husband of 34 years found a piece of property that they liked. After graduating from Logan Magnolia High School at the top of her class, Wilkerson chose not to attend college. She married two days after turning 18 and knew that she wanted to have children sooner rather than later. I said, you know, why go to four years of college and then stay home? Wilkerson said. I knew my kids were my most important thing to me. Wilkerson has two daughters, both of whom she homeschooled, and four grandchildren. She was also a proponent of HF 2369, which would have provided public money for students wanting to attend private schools. It also would have required public school teachers to post lesson plan material for parental review. Wilkerson said that while western Iowa doesnt have very many private schools, the children in the urban areas, its like theyre locked in to where they are. They cant go to private schools, their parents cant afford it, Wilkerson continued. And thats the thing, thats the parents tax dollars. And people are screaming that this is, you know, this is public money. Well, their parents and grandparents pay taxes. So its their money. Wilkerson was also dismayed by how the county had decided to spend some of its American Rescue Plan funds. The Harrison County Board of Supervisors committed $1 million in ARPA funds to the construction of a new building at the Willow Lake Nature Center, which Wilkerson thinks is a misuse of the funds due to a misinterpretation of the law. Dont get me wrong, Wilkerson said. I am not against the Willow Lake recreation area. Its a very nice place, but to take ($1 million) of our taxpayer dollars, that was not okay. ARPA funds were supposed to go to help businesses that were hurt during COVID. Her displeasure with the Harrison County Board fuels another reason why she decided to run for the state legislature. Iowa does not currently have a mechanism in place for the recall of local officials, such as county board members. Wilkerson would like to change that. If these people are doing things that they shouldnt be, that arent necessarily illegal, but theyre not right, then there should be a provision in Iowa for county level and below that we can recall them, Wilkerson said. Say they do something egregious in the first year theyre in office, we have to wait three years to vote them out. Wilkerson also takes exception to the states biofuels bill, which Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law last month. Under the bill, most gas stations will be required to sell E15 gasoline gasoline that is 15% ethanol by 2026. The bill provides $5 million a year in grants for retailers that upgrade their equipment to sell E15 and higher ethanol blends. Smaller retailers are exempt from the law. Dont get me wrong, Wilkerson said. I have a farm. Im all for selling corn, but Im not for mandates. Thats what Im against. Much like with mask and vaccine mandates, Wilkerson simply doesnt want to see the government telling private businesses what they have to do. Wilkerson is aware that some voters might simply think of her as a housewife and a stay-at-home mom, and she concedes that she has a lot to learn, but shes also confident that she can do it. I think that if I can figure out how to teach my children, then I can figure out what I need to do, she said. Wilkerson is running against Matt Windschitl in the primary election, which is June 7. 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. Lawmakers are calling for a federal investigation by the Department of Justice into USP Thomson following the deaths of seven inmates in two years and ongoing allegations of abuse, including the continued overuse of solitary confinement by correctional officers. U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline; referenced a report published May 31 by The Marshall Project and NPR that describes correctional officers intentionally pairing inmates together who are known to attack each other; staff encouraging assaults against sex offenders and informants; abusive shackling that leaves scars known as the "Thomson tattoo," often in a room known as the "torture room," where men would lie shackled to a bed for hours in their own urine and feces without food or water; the highest rate of pepper-spray usage in the Bureau of Prisons (BOP); and an incident in which staff allegedly laughed and joked at the expense of a Jewish man they were guarding as he lay dying in a hospital following an assault that occurred after staff placed him in a recreation cage with known white supremacists. The federal prison in Thomson, Ill., currently houses 929 inmates: 797 in the maximum security facility and 132 at the adjacent minimum security camp. "If these reports prove accurate, they describe conduct that would almost certainly contravene numerous BOP policies, as well as infringing the civil rights of individuals in BOP custody and possibly violating federal criminal statutes," the lawmakers wrote in a news release. "The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is responsible for protecting the integrity of Department of Justice components, including BOP, as well as the health and safety of the people in BOP custody. The NPR and Marshall Project report raises serious and troubling allegations about the conduct of staff at USP Thomson." In a joint letter sent June 1 to U.S. Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the lawmakers demanded immediate action. "We respectfully request that your office immediately open an investigation into allegations included in a disturbing report published by NPR and the Marshall Project concerning the deaths of seven incarcerated men and serious abuses by staff at the United States Penitentiary Thomson in Illinois," they wrote. "Five of the deaths were reportedly the result of homicides by fellow Special Management Unit (SMU) residents; the remaining two were suicides." AFGE Local 4070 President Jonathan Zumkehr declined Thursday to comment on the investigation. "I'm not aware of any of these incidents happening," Zumkehr said. "We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, but we have been fighting to fully staff USP Thomson. We are currently short 105 staff members, including 78 from custody. We are committed to fully staff USP Thomson and we have hosted monthly job fairs to bring new staff to USP Thomson." Durbin also asked the OIG to investigate the role that staffing shortages may have played in contributing to the deaths and alleged incidents of abuse. In addition to the investigation, Durbin announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will soon hold a hearing on the continued overuse of solitary confinement and restricted housing in federal prison facilities, including USP Thomson. Nearly 8 percent of BOP inmates are housed in a form of restricted housing. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. No one will ever accuse me of being an art connoisseur. I have an eclectic collection of decor on my walls, some of which people would call art and much of which people would definitely not call art and might even call tasteless. Morocco mulls building nuclear power plants to enhance further its low-carbon energy mix and speed up its green economy transition by adopting smart technologies to maximize efficiency, reduce costs and CO2 emissions. These projects have been unveiled by minister of Energy Transition & Sustainable Development, Leila Benali at the House of Advisors (Parliament upper house). She said that her department has carried out a study on the possibility of resorting to nuclear energy to enable the Kingdom meet its electricity needs. This option has already been recommended and the study findings will be presented at the Parliament this year, she said. Morocco has invested in solar and wind energies, and it is now eyeing nuclear power to meet its electricity needs We need a national decision to start producing electricity from nuclear energy, underlined Mrs. Benali. In 2011, Moroccan government approved the setting up of an agency to ensure nuclear plant safety, paving the way for building its first nuclear reactors. Last year, Morocco opened first national Training Centre in Nuclear Science and Technology as an extension of the National Centre for Nuclear Energy, Sciences and Techniques (CNESTEN) in Maamora, near Rabat. The new centre aims to equip Moroccos nuclear scientists with the necessary skills to be qualified to safely and sustainably use of nuclear techniques. It also seeks to strengthen regional capacities in Africa in the field of nuclear sciences and related technologies, within the framework of international and regional cooperation programs. Italy will organize an international Conference on Libya on June 22 as Rome is championing a new deal on the oil-rich African country, Italy news agency Nova reports citing diplomatic sources. The conference, defined as technical table, will include the three Western permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, namely France, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany, Turkey and Egypt. The date of June 22 marks the end of the road map of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), which gave authorized mandate to the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. The meeting is scheduled to take place in a neutral Arab country, the sources told the agency. The stabilization of Libya is a matter of national interest for Italy, Nova quoted the sources as saying. We are trying to organize a meeting to bring Egypt and Turkey to an agreement. Italys relations with Turkey are better now than they were two months ago. The real challenge now is the relationship between Ankara and Cairo, the diplomatic sources said, adding that the minimum objective is to help lower the tension through the involvement of Egypt and Turkey before the deadline of June 22. Libya currently has two rival governments. The GNU PM Dbeibeh was ousted in February by the house of Representatives (HoR) which hand-picked former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha as PM. Dbeibeh, who came to power as result of LPDF in March last year, has refused to relinquish power and denied Bashagha entry to Tripoli. The chairperson of the African Union, President Macky Sall of Senegal, will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday as the war in Ukraine exacerbates food insecurity on the continent. Macky Sall, accompanied by Moussa Faki Mahamat, the African Union Commission chairperson, is expected in Russia this Thursday and will meet Putin in Sochi on Friday. This visit is part of the efforts of the current chairmanship of the Union to contribute to the lull in the war in Ukraine, and the release of stocks of grain and fertilizer whose blockage particularly affects African countries, the presidential office said in a statement, adding that the visit takes place at the invitation of Mr. Putin. In a video message addressed on Tuesday to the leaders of European countries meeting in Brussels, the Senegalese president warned that the food supply shortage in Africa was very serious and alarming combined with generalized price increases. He asked to do everything to release the grain stocks available in Ukraine but blocked because of the Russian blockade in the Black Sea and prohibition of access to the port of Odessa. He pointed out that the current crisis followed the Covid-19 crisis, which had already worsened hunger in Africa. The worst may be ahead of us, he said. He recalled that many African countries, including his own, are heavily dependent on grain imports from the region. He was also concerned about the consequences of European sanctions excluding Russian banks from the international Swift system, a secure messaging platform allowing crucial operations such as money transfer orders. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the Nigerian Presidency has authorized the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to enter into an agreement with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, informed State House officials of the decision after the FEC meeting, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, June 1, at the Presidential Palace in Abuja. According to Nigerias official news agency NAN, Timipre Sylva said the Nigeria-Morocco pipeline project was still at the initial engineering design stage, after which the projected cost of the project would be determined. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented three memos to the Council. In the first memo, the Council authorized NNPC Ltd to sign a memorandum of understanding with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. This pipeline should supply 15 countries in West Africa with Nigerian gas, up to Morocco and, via the Kingdom, to Spain and Europe, he said. The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline mega-project had been first discussed during the official visit of King Mohammed VI, in December 2016 to Abuja, and a related agreement had been signed, on June 10, 2018, during a visit to Rabat of the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari. The projects feasibility study was started in May 2017. The project is the subject of an agreement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM). The pipeline would connect Nigerian gas to all West African coastal countries, namely Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote dIvoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania, ending in Tangier, Morocco and Cadiz, Spain. At the end of last April, it was announced that the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) would contribute $14.3 to the funding of the second phase of the Front-End Engineering Study (FEED) of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project. The legal documentation relating to the $14.3 million financing granted by the OPEC Fund to the ONHYM had been signed by Economy and Finance Minister Nadia Fettah, alongside OPEC Managing Director, Abdulhamid Al khalifa, and ONHYM Managing Director, Amina Benkhadra. Through its support for this project, a model of South-South cooperation, OPEC Fund strengthens its financial cooperation relations with Morocco and contributes to the economic and social dynamics of the Kingdom. The study, ahead of the construction of the worlds longest offshore pipeline connecting Nigeria to Morocco, is co-funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The study consists in preparing the documentation for the implementation of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project and in finalizing the related technical, financial and legal analyses. The 7,000-kilometer-long pipeline, crossing territorial waters of 13 countries, is intended to be a catalyst for the economic development of the North-West African region. It carries a strong desire to integrate and improve the competitiveness and economic and social development of the region. It also aims to boost the regional economy through the promotion of economic development in North West Africa, the development of job-generating industries, the reduction of gas flaring and the use of reliable and sustainable energy. Last February, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari expressed, during a phone call with King Mohammed VI, his countrys determination to carry out the pipeline project as soon as possible. A two-day cruise through Nebraska this weekend will cover roughly 500 miles and make stops in 19 cities and towns along the way. The Nebraska Rod & Custom Associations Tour Nebraska, an annual cruise in its 29th year, will start from North Platte at 7 a.m. on both June 4 and 5. Lin Hoskins, the tour coordinator and vice president of the NRCA, previously said the 400-vehicle limit for this years cruise was filled in 27 days after the registration opened at midnight on New Years Day. The vehicles must be at least 30 years old to participate under the NRCA guidelines. The opening day trip will pass through Tryon, Mullen, Valentine and Thedford in a loop before a return to North Platte. The schedule includes a two-hour lunch break in Valentine. The final day includes a dozen stops on the way to Kearney to take part in the Classic Car Show. The trip includes stops in Maywood, Curtis, Farnum, Gothenburg, Arnold, Merna, Broken Bow, Arcadia, Ord, Loup City and Pleasanton. The stops in Arnold and Ord will be the longer visits on the route. A NRCA media release said the tour will involve roughly 1,000 drivers and passengers. Previous tours have covered more than 17,000 miles of roads in Nebraska. The group passed through roughly 25 cities in towns around the Grand Island area last year. To participate in the cruise, individuals must be a member of the NRCA a $15 annual fee and pay an additional $30 for the event. A portion of the funds the NRCA receives goes to scholarships for students who are going into the automotive technology and auto body programs, or any training that is related to the industry. The group handed out $1,000 to 10 individuals in April. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The North Platte Community Redevelopment Authority approved resolutions Wednesday to recommend the City Council approve two redevelopment plans. Both proposals will be forwarded to the City Council for additional discussion and an eventual final decision. The chamber wants to install streets and utilities for a 51-lot development of modular and stick-built homes at West 17th Street and Adams Avenue area. The second resolution approved was to develop the western part of Twin Rivers Industrial Park to lure additional business construction in the undeveloped part of the park, which is located on East State Farm Road. The North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp, are planning to use tax increment financing to recover costs for the two projects estimated at $1.87 million for the 13.2 acre housing project, and at $2.8 million for the business park work. The City Council will make a decision on the recommendations at its next meeting scheduled for June 7. The CRA also voted to grant authority to the chair to forward redevelopment plan submittals to the Planning Commission for public hearing and recommendations without formal action by the CRA membership vote. CRA members are Greg Wilke, chair; Robert Stefka, vice-chair; Tim Brouillette, Don Lucas and Edy Patterson. 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 good old days, preconviction. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Celebrity attorney and Donald Trump antagonist Michael Avenatti had a swift rise, but his fall is going to last a lot longer. On Thursday, U.S. District Court judge Jesse Furman sentenced Avenatti to four years in prison for stealing from his former client Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who received a six-figure hush-money payment from Trump during the 2016 campaign to hide their alleged affair. Earlier this year, Avenatti was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing $300,000 of a book advance from Daniels, faking her signature to send nearly half of the payments for her 2018 memoir to his bank account. Among other things, prosecutors say he spent the money to pay his Ferrari lease. Avenatti, who presented himself as a hero of the so-called resistance against the Trump administration, is already in prison. Last summer, he was convicted of extortion and wire fraud in California for trying to get Nike to pay out $25 million in exchange for withholding bad press about the company, for which he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Furman said in court in lower Manhattan on Thursday that the first 18 months of Avenattis sentence for the Daniels conviction will be served concurrently with the Nike sentence; after that, he will serve an additional two and a half years in prison. Furman also ordered the criminal lawyer to pay $148,750 to Daniels and $297,900 to the federal government. Avenattis bad year in court is not over. In July, he will be transferred back to California to face a retrial for allegedly embezzling $10 million in settlement funds from former clients after a judge last year declared a mistrial because prosecutors did not turn over relevant financial evidence. Jay Hovey is listed as the winner of the Republican primary for Alabama State Senate District 27, but incumbent Tom Whatley, trailing by a single vote, still has time to challenge for a recount. The Alabama Secretary of State office received election results from the Republican Party on Wednesday afternoon and has posted the names slated to appear on the primary runoff ballot. Hovey, the challenger in last weeks election, is listed on the secretary of states website as the Republican candidate for Alabama State Senate District 27. If Hoveys win becomes official, he will run against Democrat candidate Sherri Reese of Opelika in the general election in November. Hovey clung to a four-vote lead over Whatley on election night after all the votes were tallied from the polling places in Lee, Tallapoosa and Russell. After the provisional ballots were counted on Tuesday, Hovey remained in the lead by just one vote. Cameron Mixon, director of external affairs for the Alabama Secretary of State Office, said as far as he knows, Whatley has not decided whether to contest the results. Outside of Sen. Whatley, I dont think anyone knows for sure until the deadline passed or the request occurs, Mixon wrote in an email. Whatley did not return calls from the Opelika-Auburn News on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. One of the candidates can choose to contest the election, Mixon said. There is no automatic recount in Alabama for the primaries. Itll have to be contested by one of the candidates. If a recount is requested, Mixon stated, it will be filed with the party and administered by the probate judge. The state law requires that the recount be conducted in the same manner as the initial election. The candidates have 24 hours from the end of canvassing to file a contest and they have 48 hours to request a general recount, Mixon stated in an email. A contest must be resolved by the party within five days, but we see no deadline for a general recount. Mixon said that if Whatley were to request a recount and the outcome were to change, Hovey would not be able to request another recount. Any request, by either candidate or both candidates, for a general recount must be filed within 48 hours, Mixon stated in an email. Lee County Probate Judge Bill English said it would cost about $4,000 to request a recount. If it changes the outcome of the election, the county will pay the fee, but if the outcome remains the same, the candidate will pay it. Mixon said the cost covers the use of machines and personnel from the probate office. Recap On election night, Hovey appeared to be cruising to victory to those monitoring the results in Lee County, where he piled up 6,610 votes in that county to Whatleys 3,942, or about 62% of the vote. But despite Tallapoosa and Russell counties having far fewer voters than Lee County, Whatley dominated both counties to such a great extent that he nearly wiped out the entire deficit. Whatley won Tallapoosa by 3,540 votes to 1,555, or about 70%, and Russell by 881 to 202, or about 81%. At that point, Hovey led Whatley 8,367 votes to 8,363, but the two candidates still had to wait a week for the provisional ballots to be counted. On Tuesday, officials at the Lee County Meeting Center gathered to count the provisional ballots, which are votes where there was initially a question about the voters eligibility. The vote is counted once that question is resolved. There were 87 total provisional ballots in the three-county district, including 67 in Lee, 14 in Tallapoosa and six in Russell. Of those provisional ballots, 15 had the District 27 race on the ballot and were accepted to be counted, including 10 in Lee County and five in Tallapoosa County. Russell County did not have any accepted provisional ballots in the race. Whatley beat Hovey on provisional ballots in both counties, winning 6-4 in Lee and 3-2 in Tallapoosa. After adding those provisional votes to the precinct totals, Hovey still led by one vote, with a total of 16,745 votes cast, or 8,373 for Hovey and 8,372 for Whatley. Fuck Ezra Miller. Thats all. Reply Thread Link I wish them an ounce of luck with the press interviews. News of their violent behaviour and arrests will resurface. Reply Thread Link I'm super curious about this too, so imagine the flash is a massive success are WB really going to roll out Ezra Miller for press? Not only will past acts be brought up but Ezra seems unable to conduct themselves properly in public anymore. Reply Parent Thread Link "We think ya'll will have forgotten about the Terror of Hawaii by the time the movie comes out." Reply Thread Link that really is their thought process, isn't it? have they been on the internet. people remember things you did a decade ago, they're definitely not going to forget all this. Reply Parent Thread Link I wonder if theyre gonna spin this as a mental health awareness thing a la "Were not gonna give up on them just bc theyre struggling, we are a family (but like only bc we have tons of money riding on this)" Reply Parent Thread Link Strangely, only people with certain kinds of bodies get to be woobies when it comes to mental health it seems. Reply Parent Thread Link see even that would reflect badly on WB bc it would be like "... okay so if they're struggling so hard why are you trotting them out on an extensive press tour instead of getting them some help?" Edited at 2022-06-02 10:00 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Just looking at the JDrep bs, this doesn't surprise me one bit. Hollywood will continue to support assholes until they are hardcore pressured to do otherwise. Reply Parent Thread Link But Amber is tossed to the side? Fuck AMAB. Reply Thread Link Seriously, imagine the DCEU stans had rallied their terrifying power to support her. We'd be having a different conversation yesterday & today, very possibly. Reply Parent Thread Link had Snyder used his cult for good, this would have been a very different story Reply Parent Thread Link 'fuck assigned male at birth' let me type out that transphobic statement out for you in full. ezra sucks but there was no reason to take a swipe at trans women with this unless the end goal is 'everything male is evil'. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Can we not be transphobic?? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This is exactly what I said to my sister when I read this Reply Parent Thread Link mte They'll continue to support all these asshole men to the ends of the Earth but women? Yeah, we're fucked. Reply Parent Thread Link The Flash simply cost too much money to be scrapped and it likely will not generate the revenues needed to turn a profit without playing in theaters. Wait, it's coming down to MONEY?! Over a person's terrible and harmful behavior?!?! WHY I NEVER lol, I read the AV Club article earlier today and they had a slightly different interpretation (of the same Variety piece): https://www.avclub.com/warner-bros-ezra-miller-the-flash-cant-recast-1849008505 Wait, it's coming down to MONEY?! Over a person's terrible and harmful behavior?!?! WHY I NEVER Reply Thread Link It was always about money. WB is a commercial film studio, same as Disney and Sony and the rest of them. It's impractical to replace him in the film, VFX is too expensive and time consuming. Getting VFX done in time is what caused WB to move many of their films to later dates. They're hoping he doesn't get in more trouble before the film opens, but it's a long way off and that's a big hope. You know Disney/Fox still released Death on the Nile with Armie Hammer all over it. Cheaper than trying to reshoot or CGI someone else in. Reply Parent Thread Link This is the real reason they aren't replacing Ezra too - it would cost way too much money to go in and reshoot a whole movie and replace the main character, especially with a perpetually delayed movie that's probably in real danger of not making its budget back. Plus by the time it does come out, chances are the internet will have forgotten both their arrests and how hard their last franchise also flopped. The movie is also probably their reset button that they're gonna use to keep and throw out elements of the established DCEU so it needs to be out. Reply Parent Thread Link confident in the plague of hawaii but want amber out? but of course Reply Thread Link Don't forget Ray Fisher was the original co-lead of this film. Hamada is trash Reply Parent Thread Link really? so he got screwed out of two of these movies? wb is garbage Reply Parent Thread Link no they're not but they can't denounce the lead of the movie they've invested millions of dollars into. if this movie flops he will be quietly dropped. if it's a success they'll release a statement saying they support him in his rehabilitation. Reply Thread Link If Walter Hamada said this we've known he is a complete dumbass for years so I'd take it with a grain of salt. Reply Thread Link what kinda toe nail grip do they have over these ppl Edited at 2022-06-02 09:13 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link Ofcourse! x1000 Reply Thread Link And what about amber heard and aquaman????????? Reply Thread Link I understand it's a lot of money and countless efforts of soooooo many people, but how is there never any other solution besides "let the unhinged, aggressive white man get away with it" Reply Thread Link Theyre not going to scrap an entire finished film he starred in. Anyone expecting otherwise is on some clown shit. Reply Thread Link Its Ansel and WSS all over again. Reply Parent Thread Link I hope this dies like that died. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link the film was completed in 2021, the movie has been pushed back to 2023 what if erza continues getting into trouble and making headlines? is WB going to push it back even more? Because like damn... is it gonna be 2050 when the film is released? Reply Thread Link yeah it really feels like ezra is taunting wb to can it with their actions Reply Parent Thread Link Ive thought this too. Seems like theyre intentionally self sabotaging. Its sad but def still doesnt make it ok for them to be running around assaulting people and terrorizing an island. Reply Parent Thread Link The OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is recommending an increase in production by 648,000 barrels per day higher than what was originally agreed, according to Tweets from Amena Bakr, Chief OPEC Correspondent at Energy Intelligence. The proposed 648,000 bpd output increase would be for July, and another 648,000 bpd increase in August. All members of the JMMC were in agreement, according to reports. Under the proposal, OPEC+ would bring forward the planned September hike and spread it across July and August, resulting in an 648,000 bpd increase in each of those months. There would be no planned hike, then, in September. Until Thursday, the overarching sentiment from the masses was that OPECs JMMC would rubber-stamp the 423,000 bpd output increase that was already baked into the agreement. But reports began to filter in, led by the Wall Street Journal, that OPEC was considering exempting Russia from the agreement. Those reports later morphed into rumors that OPEC might agree to increase production to make up for what would surely be Russias lost oil production in the wake of Western sanctions, including the EUs Russian oil import ban that was agreed to earlier in the week. According to Amena Bakr, the proposal for a 648,000 bpd increase was discussed as being an overall increase for the OPEC+ group, to be divided among its members equally. In reality, however, there are numerous OPEC+ members that cannot meet their current quotas and are highly unlikely to meet a new, even higher quota. Such an increase would, however, afford Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iraqall of which are thought to have excess spare oil production capacitythe ability to increase production. If this proposal is agreed to by the OPEC+ ministers, it will come as a relief to the White House, which has been begging OPECespecially Saudi Arabiafor additional oil output as the United States continues to battle high gasoline prices in the runup to mid-term elections. Oil prices were trending down on Thursday morning on the prospect of additional oil coming from the group. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: When it comes to oil, natural gas, and even mining for renewable energy minerals, the battle in Alaska is one between the environment and the growing demand for energy. Russia, which sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, is currently benefitting from sky-high oil prices, prices which would drop if Alaskan production were to soar. Alaska has the potential to provide the US with more oil, but it all boils down to one question: whats more important, energy security or the environment? This issue is currently being toiled over by Bidens administration and the Alaskan state government. As oil firms are committed to continuing major oil and gas operations in Alaska, will they be allowed to support the growing North American energy demand or will the U.S. government halt operations in favor of progressing climate policy? Several discoveries last year showed that Alaska still has huge oil potential. As well as major investments from Australian firm 88 Energy, American major ConocoPhillips has a major stake in Alaskan oil. If it can develop its delayed $8 billion Willow project in the state, it can expect to provide around 160,000 bpd for the next three decades, with a total output of 590 million barrels by 2050. But Conoco has been back and forth with the project, lobbying for the development which was approved near the end of President Trumps time in office to get off the ground. Thanks to improvements in drilling technology and innovations in oil recovery through gas injection, further exploration could allow oil and gas companies to pump billions more barrels of oil in Alaska. This would add to the projects that are already underway on Alaskas North Slope, with the average daily output totaling nearly 500,000 bpd. Ironically, the arctic state that holds the potential to help North America ensure its energy security was sold to the U.S. by Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. The discovery of gold in the late 1800s and, later, black gold has put Alaska on the map. At the beginning of 2021, Alaska had around 2.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, as well as nearly 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, much of Alaskas untapped oil is likely located in national parks and unexploited federal land, leading environmentalists to campaign strongly over further exploration. This has been supported by President Bidens Green New Deal, which strives for an energy transition away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives. This was largely the reason for Bidens announcement for the cancellation of Alaskas oil and gas lease sale in May. Despite calls on the American president to boost U.S. oil production to meet energy needs, Biden decided to halt the leasing of a 1-million-acre area in the Cook Inlet in Alaska. The government cited a lack of industry interest in the area as the reason for stopping the lease. This comes after the cancellation of two other leases in the Gulf of Mexico due to conflicting court rulings. But Biden has been criticized by opponents for suggesting there is a lack of interest in the site. Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski explained, Cook Inlet is the sole source of the natural gas that more than 400,000 people in Southcentral Alaskaand significant military bases that are critical to our national securitydepend on Alaska's industry does have interest in lease sales in Cook Inlet. To claim otherwise is simply false, not to mention stunningly short-sighted. Related: OPEC Considers Extra Large Hike In Oil Production To Compensate For Russia Experts question whether the Biden administration cited the lack of interest to avoid entering into a discussion on climate change, at a time when oil and gas prices are soaring, and global shortages are leading to rapidly rising consumer energy costs. But environmentalists are praising the move which will prevent underwater pipelines and platforms from being constructed, which could have caused damage to the environment in the area. A week after Biden canceled the lease, his administration announced a move to ban the disposal of mining waste in Alaskas Bristol Bay watershed. This could delay the Pebble Mine project, a mining development for copper, gold, and other metals, which has been in the works for around a decade. The ban would help protect one of the worlds largest salmon fisheries. The global demand for metals, such as copper, has increased significantly over the last year as energy firms require these materials to develop renewable energy projects and batteries. Alaskan energy is an increasingly complicated issue for a U.S. government that is balancing the development of renewable energy projects with the task of not causing damage to the environment. John Shively, CEO of the mines developed Pebble Limited Partnership, stated I find it ironic that the President is using the Defense Production Act to get more renewable energy minerals such as copper into production while others in the administration seek political ways to stop domestic mining projects such as ours. Going forward, Biden must consider how to boost U.S. energy security while considering the detrimental impact on the environment. To meet his climate change goals, he must reduce Americas reliance on oil and gas. But at a time when the world is facing severe energy shortages, the cancellation of leases and, in addition, the halting of renewable energy projects will not be a popular decision for many. By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The European Commission has argued that an oil price cap should only be used in the case of an emergency, but there appears to be some support for a natural gas cartel. The plan faced strong opposition from the Netherlands and Germany, two of the largest importers of Russian oil. Italy's prime minister has hatched a radical plan to contain the oil price rally, a plan that involved creating a cartel of oil consumers to increase their bargaining power. The summer driving season is here again, and U.S. motorists are feeling real pain at the pump as gas prices continue taking out fresh highs. The national average for unleaded gas hit a new high of $4.67 per gallon on Wednesday, with the average price at $4 per gallon or above in all 50 states for the first time ever. President Biden is scrambling to lower gas prices ahead of the midterm elections, but is short of options after the historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 1 million barrels a day for six months did little to slow the oil price rally. The situation is not any better in Europe, with energy prices skyrocketing as the world contends with supply chain bottlenecks, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering effects of Covid-19 lockdowns. OPEC has not been of much help, either, although the Wall Street Journal has reported that some OPEC members are exploring the idea of suspending Russia's participation, which could pave the way for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other OPEC producers to pump significantly more crude. But Italy's prime minister, Mario Draghi, has hatched an even more radical plan to contain the oil price rally. The former European Central Bank president has floated the idea of creating a "cartel" of oil consumers at a meeting with Joe Biden in order to increase their bargaining power, similar to how the biggest oil-producing nations came together through OPEC to agree on annual oil production quotas. The two met at the White House on Tuesday to coordinate their positions on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the economic fallout from the conflict. "We are both dissatisfied with the way things work, in terms of oil for the US and in terms of gas for Europe. Prices don't have any relationship with supply and demand," Draghi has said. According to Brussels think tank Bruegel, since September 2021, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain--four of the largest EU economies--have each spent 20bn-30bn to artificially lower energy prices. However, these subsidies are viewed as less than ideal since they help to fund Moscow, drain public finances and harm the environment. Source: CNN Oil Price Cap Draghi and Biden have also discussed implementing a cap on wholesale gas prices, an idea pushed by Italy within the EU for the past three months. Indeed, Italy has managed to get many EU states on board for an oil price cap, but is facing strong opposition from the Netherlands and Germany, two of the largest importers of Russian oil. The EU executive is also not buying it. According to the European Commission, an oil price cap should only be a last resort for an emergency, such as in the event Russia cuts off all gas to the EU. The EC's decision appears to have been swayed by a cross-section of analysts who have argued that caps could imperil the EU's climate goals, by encouraging more consumption of fossil fuels. Related: Why You Should Care About The Price Of Diesel Roberto Cingolani, Italy's minister for ecological transition, is not taking the opposition lightly: "Countries that oppose [the idea] defend the concept of a free market this free market has allowed gas prices to increase five or six-fold without there being a real physical reason, for example a shortage, which has affected the cost of electricity. Citizens are unable to bear the costs, and businesses suffer the high energy costs of manufacturing," he has told the Guardian. But it appears European leaders are more receptive to the idea of creating a natural gas buyers' cartel after the EU agreed in March to use the union's considerable heft to get better gas prices. "We have important leverage. So instead of outbidding each other and driving prices up, we should pull our common weight," the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has declared. This probably makes more sense, considering that more than 40% of EU gas and 25% of its oil came from Russia before the Ukraine invasion. On Monday, the European Union agreed on a partial ban on Russian oil imports, which immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, according to European Council chief Charles Michel. That said, other plans to curb the price of crude could end up gaining traction and becoming a reality considering that some high-powered figures in Germany are open to the idea. Last week, Germany's economy minister, Robert Habeck, revealed that the commission and the U.S. were working on a proposal to cap global oil prices. Meanwhile, Michael Bloss, a German Green MEP, has suggested that the EU should create an oil consumers' cartel with other developed countries, including the U.S., UK, Japan, and South Korea, which represent "a huge share of oil consumption" on the global market. "If they together say this is the price we are going to pay, but not more, the sellers, they will have to abide by it This special time needs special action." By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, headed a high-level delegation to Iran last week, with the Kremlin-orchestrated invasion of Ukraine still in full swing. According to Irans Petroleum Minister, Javad Owji, part of Russias US$5 billion funds for Iranian energy, agricultural, and transport projects has now been allocated, and the two countries plan to increase their annual trade to a minimum of US$40 billion by 2025. Crucially from the Wests perspective, though, and from the perspective of any new Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or colloquially the nuclear deal) between Iran and the U.S., Owji highlighted that this significantly increased cooperation between Tehran and Moscow will also encompass the financial and banking sector, oil, gas, petrochemicals, and nuclear energy. He added that the two sides have also now agreed to conduct their bilateral trade in their own currencies. This latest trip by Novak follows the visit to Moscow in January of Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi the first visit of an Iranian president to Russia in almost five years at that point which laid the groundwork for the finalization of the new 20-year cooperation deal between Iran and Russia that has been pending for some time. Although the new 20-year deal was not finalized in full at that January meeting, it was decided that the two countries active areas of cooperation would be significantly expanded going forward. Since Raisis visit to Moscow in January, the immediate focus for bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbons sector has been in the petrochemicals field. Iran has always regarded this sector as a cornerstone of its resistance economy model - the concept of generating value-added returns by leveraging intellectual capital into significant revenue, profit, and technology-acquisition streams wherever possible, as analyzed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets. The sector has also always carried with it the advantage of occupying a legal grey area in the various sanctions regimes imposed against it over the past 40 years or so. Given that Russia is now facing the same sort of sanctions constraints as Iran, it was no surprise that Tehran has invited Moscow deeper into the development of its petchems business, with a view to Iran becoming the Middle Easts top producer and exporter in the sector by 2027. Specifically, as also analysed by OilPrice.com, the new chief executive officer of Irans National Petrochemical Company (NPC), Morteza Shahmirzaei, invited Russian companies to help it further exploit opportunities in its petrochemicals industry. These latest talks have built on this cooperation in petchems to include reintegrating Russia back into several of the oil and gas projects from which it had been marginalized both in the run-up to the JCPOA and in the interim period from 2018 (when the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the deal) to February this year (when Russia invaded Ukraine). This period also saw an agreement between Russia and China on a more even split in their taking over oil and gas sector exploration and development projects in Iran when the 25-year China-Iran deal was originally agreed upon in 2019. Prior to this, though, Moscow was on the verge of taking over several new major oil and gas projects in the Islamic Republic. As it became clearer in 2015 that sanctions would be rolled back [in 2015], Russias committed investment plans for Irans oil and gas sector increased to over US$50 billion and was broadened out in scope, a senior oil and gas industry source who works closely with Irans Petroleum Ministry exclusively told OilPrice.com. This was a strategic plan by Russia to position itself front and centre for when sanctions were eventually removed and contracts for field development were on the table, he said. This resulted in initial agreements being signed by GazpromNeft for feasibility studies for the Changouleh and Cheshmeh-Khosh oilfields, Zarubezhneft for the Aban and Paydar Gharb fields, and Tatneft for the Dehloran field. These were on top of the previous memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed by Lukoil and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for studies of the Ab Teymour and Mansouri oil fields, resulting in Russian firms being assigned seven field studies, the most of any country to that point. Even more significantly, though, was that these deals were only a part of a very wide-ranging 22-point MoU signed by Irans deputy petroleum minister, Amir-Hossein Zamaninia, and Russias deputy energy minister, Kirill Molodtsov, at the time, which included not just the studies and plans for exploration and extraction of oil but also for the transfer of gas, petrochemical swap operations, research on the supply and marketing of petrochemical products, the manufacture of oil equipment together with local Iranian engineering firms, and technology transfer in the refinery sector, said the source. During the visit of Raisi to Moscow in January, there were certain areas of cooperation that the Russians did not want to move head on in any meaningful timetabled manner, according to the Iran source, but this has now changed, in light of its invasion of Ukraine, and this was reflected in last weeks visit of Novak to Tehran. Even before the U.S. withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran had also been asking Russia for means to defend itself better against any attacks, especially those that might come from Israel or the U.S. specifically the S-400 missile defense system and the latest jet fighters which Russia had been promising for years but without any results, the source exclusively told OilPrice.com. However, the bulk of the main meeting between Putin and Raisi [on 19 January 2022] was taken up with discussion over Russia finally providing Iran with the S-400 missile defense system and Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, with payments to be made through favorable terms for oil and gas sector deals, and last weeks meetings between high-level figures from Irans defense, intelligence, and energy sectors and their Russian counterparts went deeper into these subjects, and with some success from the Iranian side, the source added. Related: How Russia Has Remained One Step Ahead Of Western Sanctions Russia, though, has perennially linked these military hardware requests from Iran not just too favorable terms for its companies in the Islamic Republics oil and gas sectors but also to other of its own security concerns across the Middle East. Syria, in particular, was an area in which Iran and Russia had long sought to come to a decisive working arrangement. On the one hand, Iran perceives Syria to be its exclusive sphere of influence, but on the other hand, the Iranians have a sound understanding of the situation and understand that Moscows and Tehrans interests on Syrian lands dont necessarily contradict each other, said Gevorg Mirzayan, associate professor of the department of political science and mass communication at the Financial University, in Moscow. Russias long-term military presence in Syria complicates any of the Americans and Turks military and political plans in the Levant, and in the Middle East as a whole, he underlined. Therefore, Russian military bases per se help and will help the Iranians neutralize external threats, he added. It may well be, then, that recent reports that Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have taken over some of Russias bases in Syria because Moscow needs to redirect the resources to Ukraine are simply part of this wider cooperation, with Iran effectively only holding on to the sites for Russia before it can return its troops to them later. In addition to these discussions during last weeks meetings, further progress was made on the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), with several agreements reached in the rail, road, maritime, and air transport sectors, according to Owji. Novak added that Moscow is also interested in developing the corridor, a rail cargo route from Russia to India that would boost trade from the Caspian and the Persian Gulf regions. These routes would also provide many opportunities for dual purpose use both civilian and military, as analyzed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets and the build out of the NSTC is being linked currently to Russian companies developing Irans strategically vital South Pars Oil Layer, as exclusively highlighted by OilPrice.com. The last part of this broader and deeper cooperation relates to Irans nuclear program. The U.S. has now made it clear that there will be no change in the IRGCs status as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and Russia had already tried to sabotage the deal even before that. News that talks with Moscow continue on the second and third phases of the expansion of the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant, according to Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, may well spell the end of the road for any new iteration of the JCPOA any time soon. By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Over the past several weeks, Russian troops have slowly expanded their control of territory in the Donbas, pounding Ukrainian defense forces with artillery bombardments and reducing towns and villages to rubble. Setbacks for the Ukrainian military in the east contrast with the course of the war in the weeks after Russias February 24 invasion, when Kyiv's forces kept the attacking troops out of the capital and other key cities, picking off Russian tanks with anti-armor weapons. Russia has since concentrated its forces in the east for a large-scale artillery fight reminiscent of World War II battles. Experts say Moscow hopes to take advantage of having the upper hand in terms of manpower and weapons, something visible in its nonstop bombardments of Ukrainian forces in the Donbas in recent days. Now the West is taking steps to arm Ukraine for the new reality of the war before it is too late. On June 1, U.S. President Joe Bidens administration formally announced a new tranche of military aid totaling $700 million that includes powerful high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) capable of pulverizing enemy forces from miles away. Likening the artillery war in the Donbas to two boxers slugging it out in the ring, a senior NATO official said on condition of anonymity on May 30 that the outcome will depend on "who has more rounds of artillery ammunition, who has more rockets, who has more people to actually put on the ground in the fight." With Russia close to capturing the whole of the Luhansk region, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, the West is hoping to change the tide of the fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made capturing the Donbas a key military aim. Russia currently has about 110 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) in Ukraine, according to the United States. Each group could have six to eight artillery pieces such as howitzers or rocket launchers, Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and a senior adviser at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told RFE/RL, an estimate that would put the total as high as 900, with the majority concentrated in the Donbas. Wesley Clark, NATOs supreme allied commander in Europe from 1997 to 2000, warned last week that Ukrainian forces lack the artillery to fight the new phase of the war effectively and said Western military aid was so far "insufficient" to drive the Russian forces back. "Ukraine needs to be further reinforced. It has the fighting capacity and the determination to force the Russians out; it does not have the means," he told RFE/RL in an interview on May 27. "This is a fight that could be lost," he said. Ukraine's military industry has been partially crippled by missile attacks since Russia launched the full-scale invasion, undermining its defense capabilities. And the Ukrainian military is also lacking ammunition for its Soviet-made artillery, including its 152-milimeter howitzers, hindering its ability to destroy Russian weapons. Globally, the largest suppliers of such ammunition are Russia and China, according to Cancian. "The United States has literally been scouring the world to find Soviet-standard ammunition to give to the Ukrainians. And my suspicion is that we're running out of places that will sell us that kind of ammunition," he said. Provocative Move? For weeks, as its soldiers were slowly pushed back from some of their positions in the Donbas, Ukraine had been asking Western nations for greater military aid, including howitzers and rocket launchers to destroy Russian artillery. In a guest essay in The New York Times on May 31, Biden wrote that his administration had agreed to provide Ukrainian forces "with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine." However, he added that the United States was "not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders." The United States has hesitated to turn over such heavy artillery amid concerns it could provoke Russia, analysts said. Some analysts say the administration's internal debate on weapons supplies has lost precious time for Ukraine. "All of our decisions have been late," Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army Europe, told RFE/RL. "The administration has overexaggerated the concern that whatever we do might provoke the Russians. They don't need provocation. They attack without provocation," he said. "We've lost weeks when [rocket systems] could have been delivered," added Hodges, who is now a military analyst for the U.S.-based Center for European Policy Analysis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told his nation on May 30 that the situation in the Donbas was "extremely difficult," saying Russia had concentrated its military's "maximum combat power" in the region. Earlier in May, he said Russian attacks were killing from 50 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers a day. That intense bombardment is putting Ukrainian supply lines under extreme pressure, making it difficult to get Western weapons quickly to the soldiers at the front line, analysts said. Western military aid is brought into Ukraine from Poland by train and taken further by truck to the front lines. Russia is seeking to cut off those transport links to the Donbas. Hodges said Ukrainian forces will face a few "pretty rough" weeks before they start feeling the "positive effect" from all the U.S. and other Western artillery starting to arrive. Clark sees a two-month window starting in July for Ukrainian forces to drive the Russians out of the Donbas if they receive enough heavy artillery. By then the ground will be parched, making it easier to attack, while Russia will have yet to mobilize more forces, he said. Menu Of Weapons The United States began sending heavy artillery to Ukraine in April, including the powerful M777 howitzer, which can strike targets as far as 40 kilometers away. On May 26, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said it had delivered 85 M777 howitzers to Ukraine, as well as 190,000 projectiles for use in those weapons systems. The Biden administration has promised a total of 108 M777s and 209,000 projectiles, though that could be increased as the war goes on. The howitzers can fire a variety of 155-milimeter projectiles including guided munitions, which Cancian said were a "potential game changer" in the Donbas fight because it has greater potential of hitting and destroying Russian artillery. It is unclear how many guided projectiles for the M777 Ukraine has received. Cancian says it takes time to train soldiers to operate and maintain howitzers, calling it a "constraint" on their quick deployment to the front lines. Related: Chinas New Economic Stimulus Could Bolster Metals Demand The United States has trained more than 400 people to operate the M777 and about 50 have learned to maintain them, the U.S. official said. Eight soldiers are required to operate an M777. The HIMARS just approved by the Biden administration are just as devastating. Glen Howard, a military expert and president of the Jamestown Foundation, said HIMARS can "pulverize" an area where enemy forces are gathering for an attack. "They just saturate an area," he said. The HIMARS consists of a pod of six rockets launched from a truck. Unlike the howitzer, which can fire continuously, it takes about five minutes to reload a pod. The HIMARS and the howitzers "complement each other," Cancian said. "If you want to smother a target at long range, [HIMARS are] excellent. On the other hand, if you want to keep firing at some enemy position to make them keep their heads down or try to destroy it with a lot of ammunition, artillery cannon is great." The United States has authorized the delivery of four HIMARS along with rockets capable of traveling up to 70 kilometers, Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said on June 1. The United States may ship additional HIMARS to Ukraine as needed, but troops must first learn how to use them, a process that will take about three weeks, he said. Kahl warned the HIMARS were no silver bullet, saying that "no system is going to turn the war. It is a grinding, hard conflict." HIMARS can launch missiles as far as 300 kilometers -- but delivering missiles with such a range might violate Biden's determination not to encourage Ukraine to target Russian soil. "The Biden people are obsessed with something being offensive, because it means escalation," Howard said regarding the limitation. "And that's why the [M777 munitions] were so slow in arriving." Howard suggested the HIMARS along with new Western anti-ship missiles could potentially deter Russia from attacking ships exporting grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Russia is currently blockading Ukrainian ports, driving up grain prices and raising concerns about a global famine. Its warships and submarines are patrolling the waters between Crimea and Snake Island, a small rocky outpost just 48 kilometers from Ukraine's shore. Denmark has recently delivered Harpoon anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine to bolster its low supply of domestic weapons. Ukraine claims to be responsible for the April sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia, which captured Snake Island earlier in the war, is placing air- and missile-defense systems there in an attempt to hold the strategic outpost. While the HIMARS rockets approved by the Biden administration cannot reach Russian artillery on Crimea, they can reach Snake Island. It is unclear whether Ukraine will place the HIMARS along its Black Sea coast. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: European Union ambassadors approved on Thursday the proposed partial ban on Russian oil imports into the EU as part of a sanctions package that also aims to cut Russia off the tanker insurance market and limit its ability to redirect seaborne oil exports to third countries. After weeks of negotiations, the EU leaders clinched a deal late on Monday to ban Russian oil imports via sea by the end of the year. For weeks, Hungary had blocked a decision on an embargo after the European Commission proposed a full ban by the end of the year on all Russian oil imports. The initial proposal was watered down to an agreement on a ban on seaborne imports by the end of the year, with pipeline crude exempted, for now. EU envoys who met on Thursday approved the plan to ban Russian seaborne imports of crude in six months and refined products in eight months, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The six sanctions package also kicks Russias biggest bank, Sberbank, out of the international banking payment system SWIFT. In one of the farthest-reaching measures yet, the sanctions package includes a ban on tanker insurance for Russian shipments to third countries, to take effect six months after the package is formally adopted. The UK and the European Union have agreed to jointly shut off Russias access to oil cargo insurance, the Financial Times reported earlier this week, which would severely affect its ability to export crude. This will likely contribute substantially to the already considerable turmoil in international oil markets, ultimately pushing prices even higher. Its hard to underplay how significant a move this is by the UK and EU. Taking out insurance will have a huge impact on Russias ability to export its oil. Its one of the toughest sanctions Europe has in its armoury, said RBC Capital markets Helima Croft, as quoted by the FT. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russia is confident that it will be able to restore in June oil production lost in March and April, with this month seen as maximum recovery relative to previous levels, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TV channel Rossiya 24 on Thursday. Our production fell slightly in March and April. It recovered to some extent in May. We see a bigger recovery in June, Novak said, as carried by Russian news agency Interfax. We are finding a point of equilibrium in the situation that is emerging due to restrictions, changes in logistics chains, and rising shipping costs. I think in June we will have the maximum recovery relative to previous levels, the Russian official added. Speaking to Russian agency TASS on Thursday, Novak also warned that there could be a huge deficit of petroleum products in the European Union following the EUs decision to ban seaborne imports of Russian crude and products within eight months. The deputy PM also expressed confidence that Russia will find new buyers for its oil after the EU embargo. I am confident the market will be balanced; new transport and logistical chains will be built. There will be new relations, new markets, TASS quoted Novak as saying. Russias assurances that it will see a recovery in its oil production and find new buyers come just as Moscow and fellow OPEC+ members decided to ramp up the monthly oil production increase of the group to nearly 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) for July and August. Despite the expected production boost that Russia claims, it will find it increasingly difficult to move its oil even to third countries outside the EU, after the EU and the UK initiated moves to isolate Russia from access to oil cargo insurance, which would severely affect its ability to export crude. Russia is boosting exports to India and China, but analysts doubt the Asian market would be able to absorb all the 4 million bpd of oil Russia was sending to Europe before the war. Russia could see about 2 million bpd 3 million bpd of its oil exportsor about a quarter of the countrys oil productiondisappear from the global market by end-2022, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday. We believe that redirecting of all Russian oil and products volumes may not be possible due to infrastructural limitations, buyers self-restrictions and logistical complications, such as potential restrictions on providing insurance for cargos carrying Russian oil, Fitch added. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: UK authorities issued on Wednesday their final approval to Shell's Jackdaw gas field development in one of the biggest projects in the North Sea in recent decades as the government looks to boost domestic gas supply to reduce dependence on imports. Shell's Jackdaw field development plan received its final approval this week, and the field is planned to begin production in late 2025. The field, located east of Aberdeen, has the potential to pump 6.5 percent of the UK's total gas production. Shell has had to amend the field development proposal after regulators rejected an earlier plan last year. UK Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng welcomed the decision of the regulators to give the green light to the field development. "Jackdaw gas field - originally licensed in 1970 - has today received final regulatory approval," Kwarteng said on Twitter. "We're turbocharging renewables and nuclear, but we are also realistic about our energy needs now. Let's source more of the gas we need from British waters to protect energy security," he added. Shell also welcomed the decision, saying it comes at "a time when UK energy security is critically required." "Responsibly produced, local gas production plays an essential role in the UK's transition to net zero, will support thousands of jobs and forms part of Shell's broader intent to invest 20 to 25billion in the UK, with 75% intended for low and zero-carbon products and services," Shell said. "However, as we have repeatedly stated this can only happen with a stable fiscal policy and we continue to look to the government for those assurances," the supermajor said. This comes days after the UK slapped a 25% Energy Profits Levy on oil and gas companies as part of a package to ease the cost-of-living crisis stemming from huge rises in household energy bills. The windfall tax legislation also contains a so-called investment allowance, under which operators developing new fields or improving existing facilities could claim huge additional reliefs against the new tax, Wood Mackenzie said. "The move is unlikely to render new or existing projects uneconomic and it could even accelerate 'ready to go' developments, such as Rosebank and Cambo," said Neivan Boroujerdi, Research Director, North Sea upstream, at WoodMac. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: BOSTON (AP) A suspect in the 1984 killing of a South Boston man that authorities say was linked to mobster James Whitey Bulger's control of the drug trade in the neighborhood is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Michael Lewis, 61, faces a first-degree murder charge in Suffolk Superior Court in connection with the fatal shooting of Brian Watson, according to a statement from the Suffolk district attorney's office. The defense attorney for Lewis has yet to be determined, the district attorney's office said. Watson, 23, was last seen alive on July 16 or 17, 1984, and was reported missing by his mother on July 28 that year, authorities said. His body was found hidden among the trees and bushes by a motorist who had pulled over on Interstate 93 in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Sept. 16, 1984. According to the prosecution's account of events, the then 24-year-old Lewis and an another man involved in the drug trade drove around the neighborhood in July 1984 looking for a drug dealer they thought had told Bulger that Lewis' associate was selling angel dust in South Boston. As a result, Bulger had demanded a $5,000 payment plus another $1,000 per week from the man, whose name was not disclosed by prosecutors. Bulger was known to shake down drug dealers doing business in South Boston. The pair encountered Watson, who agreed to help them find the other dealer and got in their car, prosecutors said. While the three men drove around South Boston, Lewis suddenly turned, shot and killed Watson," the district attorney's office said in a statement. Authorities do not allege that Lewis or Watson were tied directly to Bulger, who was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia in 2018. He was 89. Bulger, who spent 16 years as a fugitive, was convicted in 2013 of participating in 11 killings. Federal authorities developed a significant break in Watson's case in 2009, but not enough to secure an indictment, the district attorney said. But new information was developed within the past year that led to Lewis' indictment on Friday. Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden thanked New Hampshire law enforcement agencies and federal authorities for their efforts in securing an indictment. This was a true team effort to help indict and charge a homicide that hearkens back to a very different Boston," he said. "Brian Watson was a young father cut down seemingly on a whim. A remarkably cold-blooded whim. Mr. Watsons family has endured many, many years of loss and heartache. At the very least, they now have some answers. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. ISLAMABAD (AP) The Pakistani Taliban said Thursday they have indefinitely extended a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad, following two days of talks with a delegation of Pakistani tribal elders that were hosted by the Afghan Taliban. According to Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan group or TTP, the decision was made after substantial progress in the talks with the 50-member team of elders. He did not elaborate and there was no immediate confirmation from the Pakistani government about the extension of the truce. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in their country last August as the U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan. The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 14 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the countrys former tribal regions. Khurasani, the TTP spokesman, said the talks in Kabul would continue in the coming days. There was no statement from the Afghan Taliban, who in the past have only said they offer neutral ground for the talks. The Taliban in Afghanistan have also been encouraging the new government in Pakistan to reach a peace agreement with the Pakistani Taliban. The previous truce between the two sides expired on May 30. So far, none of the cease-fires have paved the way for more permanent peace. The Pakistani Taliban have for years used Afghanistans rugged border regions for hideouts and for staging cross-border attacks into Pakistan and have now been emboldened by the return to power of the Afghan Taliban. The group wants Pakistani government forces pull out of former tribal regions of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, release all the TTP fighters in government custody and revoke all the legal cases against them. The government in Islamabad, on the other hand, wants the Pakistani Taliban disbanded and for the insurgents to accept Pakistans constitution and sever all their ties with the Islamic State group, another Sunni militant group with a regional affiliate that is active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pakistani tribal elders were sent to Kabul as intermediaries because under Pakistans constitution, the government cannot negotiate at least not directly with those waging an insurgency against it. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Since the Columbine High School massacre more than 20 years ago, police have been trained to quickly confront shooters in the horrific attacks that have followed. But officers in Uvalde, Texas, took more than an hour to kill a shooter who massacred 19 children, a lapse of time that will likely be a key part of a Justice Department probe into the police response. The rare federal review comes amid growing, agonized questions and shifting information from police. Authorities now say that several officers entered the elementary school just two minutes after alleged gunman Salvador Ramos and exchanged fire with him, but he wasnt stopped until a tactical team entered a classroom more than an hour later. Thats a confounding timeline for law enforcement experts like Jarrod Burguan, who was the police chief in San Bernardino, California, when the city was hit by a terrorist attack that killed 14 people in 2015. Officers entered that facility, a training center for residents with developmental disabilities, within two minutes of arriving. Columbine changed everything, Burguan said Monday. Officers are now trained to form up and enter buildings to confront shooters as quickly as possible to prevent them from killing more people. This has been drilled into this industry for years now. Justice Department officials probing the Texas slayings will examine a host of questions about the police response in Uvalde. A similar review that largely praised the response to the San Bernardino mass shooting was over 100 pages long. In announcing the review, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said it would be conducted in a fair, impartial and independent manner and the findings would be made public. It could take months. Handling the review is the departments Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. One key question for Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, is why a school district police chief had the power to tell more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway at Uvaldes Robb Elementary. The key question for me is, who designated him to be in charge? she said. Officials have said he believed the suspect was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and there was no longer an active threat. But school police officers dont typically have the most experience with active shooters, and Haberfeld questioned why people with more specialized training didnt take the reins. A U.S. Border Patrol tactical team finally used a janitors key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman, raising more questions about the choice of entry. Its not some fortified castle from the Middle Ages. Its a door, she said. They knew what to do. You dont need the key. The Justice review won't investigate the crime itself, or directly hold police civilly or criminally liable. What it will likely do is examine things like how police communicated with each other, said Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. Its not yet known why the school chief, Pete Arredondo, thought the shooter was barricaded and he hasnt commented. I think we need to be a little patient on that and wait to ensure we understand what that mindset was, Eells said. It goes back to communication. What information did they have? The review will also likely examine how well officers were prepared with gear like weapons and body armor. The shooter wore a tactical vest and was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, a powerful weapon capable of piercing basic bulletproof vests. In previous shootings reviewed by the Justice Department, non-specialized law enforcement units did not have the kind of body armor needed to fully protect themselves. At the 2016 massacre that killed 49 people and hurt dozens more in the LGBT community at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a detective on the scene exchanged gunfire with the suspect, knowing his handgun was no match for the weapon being fired in the club. Despite that, the first officers on the scene formed up in a team to enter the club quickly and begin searching for the shooter, according to the report. In San Bernardino, meanwhile, only one of the first officers on scene had a shotgun and several did not have body armor. But they still used their training on active shooter situations to form up in a four-officer team to immediately enter the complex. Moving quickly is important not only to stop a shooter from killing more people, but to help the wounded. In San Bernardino and Orlando, the Justice Department reviews credited the quick response in getting the wounded transported to treatment within a golden hour where victims are mostly likely to survive. It is unclear what impact the delayed entry into the Texas classroom might have had on any of the children who were wounded and needed treatment more than an hour away in San Antonio. Police do have to quickly analyze the risks to themselves and others in a violent, quickly changing situation but theyre also trained to stop people from getting hurt, Eells said. Making an entry into that room is very, very, very dangerous, he said. But we are going to incur that risk, knowingly and willingly, because our priorities are to help those that cannot help themselves. ___ Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writer Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Katie Martin went through a lot to become a mom. Earlier last month, the Omaha woman delivered her third child. Luke, like his older siblings, was conceived with the help of in vitro fertilization. But Martin, 37, is concerned that the passage of new laws further restricting access to abortion in the United States and the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade could have the unwanted side effect of preventing her and others from taking that route to add to their families. Its emotionally and financially taxing and worth every bit of it, she said of in vitro fertilization, which helped her become a mom. And Im here for the fight. Martins concerns are shared by doctors with the states two fertility clinics, both of which are in Omaha, as well as other patients and family members. A number of them have formed a new Facebook group called Save IVF Nebraska to advocate for ensuring access to fertility treatments in the state. Formed last Monday, it had more than 640 members by Thursday. Dr. Elizabeth Constance, a reproductive endocrinologist with the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine, said she cant count the number of patients who messaged her within minutes of the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion outlining the proposed overturning of Roe v. Wade. The patients wondered whether they still would be able to use the frozen embryos held by the clinic or proceed with a planned egg retrieval, one of the early steps in the in vitro process. These are people who have had to work very hard, often for multiple years, spending tens of thousands of dollars, to build the family theyve always dreamed of, Constance said. To have even the possibility of having that taken away from them is very scary. Of particular concern is a bill adopted by the Oklahoma Legislature that bans most abortions. It defines an unborn child as a human fetus or embryo in any state of gestation from fertilization until birth. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the measure, the nations most restrictive, into law Wednesday. Dr. Abigail Delaney, a reproductive health specialist with Methodist Reproductive Health Specialists, said that definition calls into question whether clinics can freeze extra embryos for future use. Reproductive health specialists typically fertilize several eggs at a time in order to maximize the chances that one embryo results in a successful pregnancy. With such language, Delaney said, specialists also wonder whether they still would be able to freeze eggs and sperm collected from cancer patients about to undergo treatment that will leave them infertile, which makes up a considerable portion of the work the specialists do. Those patients later will require in vitro fertilization to create babies. Another question: Will they still be able to conduct genetic testing on embryos for viability and to check whether they carry genes for deadly ailments such as Huntingtons disease or Fragile X syndrome? So-called trigger laws in 13 states use similar definitions to Oklahomas. The laws would ban abortion in those states if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. A similar trigger bill, Legislative Bill 933, died in the Nebraska Legislature this spring. Gov. Pete Ricketts has said he wont decide whether to call a special session focused on abortion until the Supreme Court releases its official opinion on the issue. Ricketts has said, however, that Nebraska needs to be ready to outlaw abortion, and he strongly supported LB 933. LB 933 also defines an unborn child as throughout the embryonic and fetal stages of development from fertilization to full gestation and childbirth. The language of these bills really matters ... (as) to whether or not we can do what we do every day so patients can build the families they want, Delaney said. Sandy Danek, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, said the same bill may be brought back in either a special session or the regular legislative session. The language, she said, may need to be clarified. But the measure, she said, is not intended to apply to in vitro fertilization or to treatments for women who suffer miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, the potentially life-threatening situation in which a fetus begins to develop outside the uterus. Were concerned about the intentional act of killing a child in the womb, Danek said. Proponents of the bill, she said, did their best to answer such questions during debate on the bill and will continue to do so. Its unfortunate when those misunderstandings are put out there in the public eye, she said. But Scout Richters, an attorney with the ACLU of Nebraska, said the language in the law, not the intent, is what matters. When proponents of LB 933 were asked on the legislative floor to address concerns about in vitro fertilization and birth control, she said, they couldnt point to any specific language that would not implicate those things. Defining fertilization as the key point for banning abortion, she said, means that in vitro fertilization, emergency contraception and some forms of birth control all could be affected. Constance said such a law would make it difficult for the clinic to recruit new physicians and embryologists. Candidates wont want to risk losing their livelihoods or facing prosecution. Delaney noted that more large companies are covering fertility treatments. Hindering access to them could affect their recruitment. And if such treatments no longer were available, patients would face the added cost in both time and money of traveling to other states to get them. Delaney said she already has patients who drive from western Nebraska for the treatments. Constance said the specialists first goal is to educate Nebraskans about the impact such bills could have. The roughly one in eight couples who experience infertility already are aware. But even those who dont face such challenges know someone who does. The second aim, she said, is to encourage legislators not to support bans because one appears likely that dont have clear and specific language that excludes in vitro fertilization. Day in and day out, 100% of our time and energy and passion is funneled into helping people have highly desired pregnancies, Constance said. Theres truly no more pro-family aspect of health care than what we do. Martin, the Omaha mom, and her husband, Joel, turned to in vitro fertilization after all other methods failed to produce a child. Two attempts at intrauterine insemination resulted in ectopic pregnancies. One ended with a medication abortion, the other with the removal of one of her fallopian tubes. After that point, she said, she was told that to have children, in vitro fertilization was the route the couple would have to take. Now the Martins are busy with three young children. Martin said she recognizes that Nebraska is a conservative state. She said she doesnt have to have opinions on every part of the Roe v. Wade debate. But she does on this one. This issue is not so black and white, she said. Theres no right-wrong way to build a family. When people think of Roe v. Wade, they think of unwanted pregnancies. It has so many more fingers and tentacles that need to be researched and addressed. 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. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across the vast country. They include children from orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their families. The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday, which was International Childrens Day. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would punish those responsible but first it would show Russia on the battlefield that Ukraine cannot be conquered, that our people will not surrender and our children will not become the property of the occupiers. Zelenskyy said 243 children have been killed so far in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing, adding that it could be more as his government doesnt have a full picture of the situation in areas occupied by Russian troops. He then described the deaths of 11 children, calling them by their first names and saying how they were killed. KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Report: China bars Russian airlines with foreign planes US sending medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine Italy imports more Russian oil despite impending embargo High prices, Asian markets could blunt EU ban on Russian oil Sanctioned Russian oligarchs megayacht hides in a UAE creek Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: LVIV, Ukraine A regional governor in western Ukraine said a Russian airstrike on transport infrastructure wounded two people Wednesday. Lviv region Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy didnt name the target of the Russian strike near the city of Lviv. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the countrys interior minister, said the Russians hit the Beskidy railway tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains in an apparent effort to cut a key railway link and disrupt shipments of weapons and fuel. The Lviv region has served as a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies. KYIV, Ukraine The Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Wednesday said two monks and a nun have been killed in the shelling of a historic monastery in eastern Ukraine. The church said in a statement that three monks were also wounded by Mondays shelling, which heavily damaged the Sviatohirsk monastery in the Donetsk region. It didnt give further details. The monastery, located on the steep right bank of the Seversky Donets River, is one of the most important historic Orthodox monasteries in Ukraine. The monastery provided shelter to civilians fleeing the fighting and had previously been hit by Russian shelling as the Russian troops were pressing their offensive in Donbas. KYIV, Ukraine A regional Ukrainian governor on Wednesday said Russian troops have taken control of about 80 percent of the key city of Sievierodonetsk. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops were advancing amid fierce street battles with Ukrainian defenders of the city. He noted that in some districts the Ukrainian troops managed to push the Russians back. Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has been the focus of Russias offensive in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. It has come under relentless Russian bombardment, and Haidai said Tuesday that Russian air strike hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical factory, releasing toxic fumes. COPENHAGEN, Denmark Two exit polls by Danish broadcasters show that around two thirds of voters in Wednesdays referendum backed abandoning Denmarks 30-year-old opt-out from the European Unions common defense policy. TV2 broadcaster said that 66.6% voted in favor of ending the opt-out which would have limited practical effect for either Denmark or the EU and 33.4% against. Public broadcaster DR had the figures at 69% for and 30.9% against. The polls were published just after voting ended. The referendum was the latest example of European countries seeking closer defense links with allies in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. The main effect of abandoning the opt-out will be that Danish officials could stay in the room when EU colleagues discuss defense topics and Danish forces can take part in EU military operations. PARIS The head of Interpol on Wednesday raised alarms about a possible uptick in weapons trafficking once the war in Ukraine ends. Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock told the Anglo-American Press Association that he has no doubt illegal arms trafficking will increase. We have seen that in the Balkans region, Stock said. We have seen that in theaters in Africa that, of course, organized crime groups try to exploit this chaotic situation, availability of weapons and even weapons that are used by the military. Small weapons are the main concern, he said. Stock encouraged Interpols 195-member countries to intensively use available databases that can help trace and track weapons, for instance those stolen in another country. No country in our region can deal with it in isolation because the criminals Im talking about are operating globally, Stock said. Interpol, based in Lyon, France, does not carry out investigations but provides training for police and customs officers to, for instance, identify trafficking routes, Stock said. KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday thanked Poland for its military support. Speaking at a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Zelenskyy hailed what he described as unprecedented defense support from Warsaw. He also voiced gratitude to Poland for hosting Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country during the war, praising its warm and humane attitude to our people. Our relations have progressed through the war of Russia against Ukraine from warm and good-neighborly relations to another stage of strong and historic ties, Zelenskyy said. WASHINGTON NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said hes convening a meeting of senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey to try to overcome Ankaras objections to the two Nordic countries joining the alliance. Stoltenberg told reporters that the talks will be held in Brussels in a few days with senior officials, but provided no further details. Im confident that we will find a way forward, he said. Roused by security concerns over Russias war on Ukraine, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last month. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blocking their path. He has said theyre not doing enough to fight Kurdish extremism. Asked how long it might take to end the standoff, Stoltenberg said his goal is before the NATO summit. U.S. President Joe Biden, Erdogan and their NATO counterparts are meeting in Madrid from June 28-30. We want to make sure that all allies have their security concerns taken into account, and that includes Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. THE HAGUE, Netherlands The Dutch government on Wednesday announced what it is calling the biggest boost in its military spending since the end of the Cold War as war rages in Ukraine. Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said threats in the world and the war in Ukraine show that peace and security cannot be taken for granted. Ollongren unveiled 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) a year in increased military spending. The extra money will fund military hardware purchases in coming years including six new F-35 fighter jets and a doubling of the militarys fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones from four to eight. The Defense Ministry said the investment means the Netherlands will meet the NATO agreed defense spending of 2% of its gross domestic product in 2024 and 2025. It also aims to ease shortages in military supplies and equipment. That will enable military personnel to work with the best equipment and train a lot without constant shortages of spare parts, transport and ammunition, the ministry said. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said international sanctions are affecting Russias ability to export its own grain amid fears of a global food shortage. Speaking during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Lavrov said Russian grain exports may not be directly under sanctions, but the ships carrying the grain face extra hurdles. Although the West very loudly reminds that grain was not subject to sanctions, for some reason they shyly keep silent that ships that carry Russian grain did fall under the sanctions, he said. They are not accepted in foreign ports, in European ports, and they are not insured. And, in principle, all the logistical and financial chains related to the supply of grain to world markets, they were under the sanctions of our Western colleagues. Russia has also been accused of preventing Ukraine from exporting its grain harvest and of looting Ukrainian grain supplies for Russian use. BERLIN Germanys foreign minister says the West must give Ukraine long-term support, and is defending the time its taking to deliver weapons systems to Kyiv. Annalena Baerbock told the German parliament that Russian President Vladimir Putin has fundamentally changed his strategy after failing to take Ukraine quickly. She said that he is now counting on having more staying power than we who support Ukraine. Baerbock said Wednesday that we need staying power in supporting Ukraine. The minister fended off criticism of perceived delays in fulfilling promises to send weapons, telling lawmakers that the stuff has to arrive and above all the soldiers must be able to use it. Her comments came hours after Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany will send modern air-defense missiles. Baerbock said those were originally supposed to go to another country, which she didnt identify. She said that we need these medium- and long-term signals that we havent given up on Ukraine in three months, but that we are defending it durably as we can without participating in this war ourselves. STOCKHOLM United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there is progress in talks to allow the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets. I think that there is progress, but we are not yet there, Guterres said Wednesday, adding these are very complex things, because everything is interlinked. Russias war on Ukraine has closed the countrys Black Sea ports, halting food exports to many developing countries. Guterres reiterated that the world should have access to the Russian production of fertilizers and foods that is also essential for global markets in the present situation. Guterres spoke in Stockholm where he met with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson ahead of a climate and environment conference Thursday and Friday. MOSCOW A leading Russian scientist has urged Moscow not to shut itself off from scientific cooperation with unfriendly countries such as the United States. Alexander Sergeev, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a state-backed body linking research institutes and labs across the country, said ties between scientists in Russia and abroad certainly must continue, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency Wednesday. The Russian government has drawn up an official list of unfriendly countries, including those which have issued sanctions against Russia such as the U.S., Britain, Japan and European Union members like France and Germany. We should not in any case, on our own initiative, perhaps following the slogans of various hotheads, break off relationships with our colleagues in unfriendly countries, Sergeev said. MOSCOW A Kremlin spokesman says Moscow negatively views U.S. plans to supply more weapons to Ukraine. The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems. Ukrainian leaders have begged for rocket launchers as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his daily conference calls with journalists on Wednesday that Moscow doesnt trust Kyivs assurances that the multiple-launch rocket systems supplied by the U.S. will not be used to attack Russia. U.S. officials say the aid package expected to be unveiled Wednesday tries to strike a balance between the desire to help Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages while not providing arms that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia and trigger an escalation in the war. Peskov nonetheless accused the U.S. of deliberately and diligently pouring fuel into the fire. The U.S. sticks to the line of fighting with Russia until the last Ukrainian (left standing), he said. WARSAW, Poland Polands prime minister says the European Union member country will serve as an economic hub for neighboring Ukraine, helping it export grain and other products while Russia blocks Ukraines export routes, chiefly its ports. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke Wednesday in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, near Kyiv. Morawiecki was in the heavily damaged settlement to inaugurate a series of container houses for homeless residents that was funded by Poland. Morawiecki said Poland is working on expanding its infrastructure and capacity to facilitate the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and other agriculture products. Poland is receiving EU funds for the purpose, Morawiecki said. He stressed that North Africas countries rely heavily on Ukraine grain and could face problems feeding their populations without it. LISBON, Portugal Portugal has sent 146 Marines to join a NATO force stationed in Lithuania as part of efforts to bolster the alliances eastern flank in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. The deployment includes divers specializing in deactivating mines and other explosive devices. Portugals defense ministry said the aim of the mission is to support high levels of readiness and discourage direct or indirect threats against NATO members, especially in the Baltic Sea region. The detachment which departed Wednesday is to remain in Lithuania for three months. COPENHAGEN, Denmark Polling stations are open in Denmark for voters to decide whether to abandon their countrys 30-year-old opt-out from the European Unions common defense policy. The referendum on Wednesday is the latest example of European countries seeking closer defense links with allies in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. It follows Sweden and Finlands historic bids to join NATO. Some 4.2 million Danish voters are eligible to cast ballots in the referendum. The yes side - in favor of getting rid of the 1992 opt-out - has been ahead in recent months. Polls showed it with around 40% support and the no side with 30%. KYIV, Ukraine A regional governor in southern Ukraine says Russian troops are retreating and blowing up bridges to obstruct a possible Ukrainian advance. Mykolayiv region governor Vitaliy Kim claimed Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that Russia was on the defensive. They are afraid of a breakthrough by the (Ukrainian Armed Forces), but we are not afraid and we support our troops, he wrote. Kim didnt specify exactly where the retreat he described was happening. The parts of the Mykolayiv region which have been held by Russian forces in recent days are close to the large Russia-occupied city of Kherson. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters had seen some success in the Kherson direction. Russia is concentrating most of its military power on trying to capture all of eastern Ukraines Donbas region. BRUSSELS The European Unions asylum agency says the number of people from former Soviet countries seeking international protection in Europe has skyrocketed since Russia launched its war in Ukraine. The agency said Wednesday that about 14,000 Ukrainians sought asylum in March, a figure some 30 times higher than before the war that started Feb. 24. The number is on top of the estimated 3 million Ukrainians who have applied for emergency protection under an EU program that provides shelter, access to jobs, medical treatment and education to war refugees. The biggest increases in asylum-seekers were recorded among citizens from Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. But the EU agency says its not clear whether these people came from their home countries or were living in Ukraine when the war started. The number of Russians seeking asylum in the EU also rose to 1,400 in March, the highest level since 2018. Asylum is usually granted to people in danger of suffering serious harm due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a social group, and to those fleeing war, torture and degrading treatment. BERLIN German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, stepping up arms deliveries amid criticism that Germany isnt doing enough to help Kyiv. Scholz told German lawmakers on Wednesday that the government has decided to provide Ukraine with IRIS-T missiles developed by Germany together with other NATO nations. He said Germany will also supply Ukraine with radar systems to help locate enemy artillery. The announcements come amid claims at home and abroad that Germany has been slow to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The White House says a small private airplane entered restricted airspace near President Joe Bidens Delaware vacation home on Saturday, and that led to the brief evacuation of the president and first lady. The White House says there was no threat to Biden or his family and that precautionary measures were taken. After the situation was assessed, Biden and his wife, Jill, returned to their Rehoboth Beach home. The Secret Service said in a statement that the plane was immediately escorted from the restricted airspace after mistakenly entering a secured area. The agency said it would interview the pilot who, according to a preliminary investigation, was not on the proper radio channel and was not following published flight guidance. A 23-year-old man from rural Dodge, Nebraska, died Wednesday night when the tractor he was driving went into a ditch and rolled over. Samuel Christensen was pronounced dead at the scene, the Dodge County Sheriffs Office said. Deputies were called to County Road 4 just south of Nebraska Highway 91 about 7:25 p.m. Investigators determined that Christensen was driving a John Deere tractor north on the county road while pulling a baler. The tractor entered the east ditch, rolled over and came to a rest in a farm field. Family members notified authorities after they became concerned when Christensen did not return home. Personnel from the Dodge Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department assisted at the scene. 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. Faced with a continuing staff shortage, Omaha Public Schools officials Wednesday announced a plan to temporarily boost pay for district employees. The pay increase proposal, which would apply to all certified and classified full-time and part-time staff for the next two years, follows an exodus of teachers that occurred last month. Some employees cited poor working conditions that werent improving. Under the districts proposal, which will go before the school board for approval Monday, certified and classified full-time staff would receive an additional $4,500 per year, while part-time staff would receive an additional $2,250 per year provided they work 20 or more hours a week. The raises require approval by the school board and the Nebraska Department of Education, since the money will come from federal COVID-19 relief, known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER). Because ESSER funds expire in 2024, the proposed stipends would be limited to the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. Superintendent Cheryl Logan said at a Wednesday press conference that the district would move money from its ESSER plan for long-term facilities maintenance to cover the new stipends. The stipends, if approved, would be distributed in three installments throughout the school year. Those needs are not disappearing, but we see the time-sensitive need to invest in our current staff, our returning staff, Logan said. This acknowledges the additional needs and challenges of this time. The district received 594 certified staff resignations and retirements as of May 19, according to a media release. That is a more than 43% increase from last year, when OPS only had 415 resignations and retirements. Logan said the district also plans to meet with the Omaha Education Association to discuss compensation for teachers covering for others during their planning period. Robert Miller, OEA president, said he was pleased to see the district recognize the work of all staff members and their dedication to students. Its a great start and we look forward to working together to address the various concerns within the classrooms and buildings, he said. OPS, like other districts in the metro area and beyond, has struggled to retain staff during the pandemic. During Wednesdays press conference, Logan said she expects there to be about 230 unfilled positions when the 2022-23 school year starts. She did not know the exact number of unfilled positions in previous years but said it is in the three-digit range. The district will be reorganizing classes within schools to help with the staff shortage, which will result in some larger class sizes, Logan said. Some students will not notice a change in their classroom, Logan said. For others, the number of students could change from two to five students. One OPS teacher said she feels the move is a great start for teachers to feel appreciated, but she hopes the district doesnt stop there. The teacher spoke on the condition that The World-Herald withhold her name due to concerns it could impact her job. It is something, but we still need support from administration, and most importantly, parents. We want your child to be the best he or she can be, she said. For them to be successful, they need to be read to, know manners and not argue with teachers. Logan said the district will be taking on a herculean effort to establish in-depth relationships with families to help with student misbehavior. This could include in-home visits that staff would be compensated for, she said. One of the key things that we want to happen this year is to deepen those family relationships and to ensure we have common expectations for student behavior in the classroom, she said. Last year when we started school, I talked to (superintendents) about student behavior last fall. No one anticipated what we were faced with. Candice Balkovic, who resigned from Lewis and Clark Middle School in January, said she wondered why the district decided to offer stipends now instead of earlier in the year. When we looked at where we were in terms of our needs, thats where we landed, Logan said when asked about the timing. We did 70 input sessions and took the information from our input sessions to create our initial budget. Balkovic said the new stipend wont make her return to OPS. Im in a new position where I make $20,000 more with a cost of living increase and bonuses coming every July, so $4,500 extra ... nope, she said. That stipend amount is the amount many companies give employees as a bonus regularly. 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. Representatives of several city, county and state departments will present information and field people's questions at a public meeting this evening about the Nox-Crete chemical plant warehouse fire. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at The Berkley, 1901 Leavenworth St. in downtown Omaha. Representatives are expected to be there from the Omaha Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments, the Douglas County Health Department, and the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, among others. The meeting is open to the public, but it's intended for people living in neighborhoods near Nox-Crete's burned warehouse, 1415 S. 20th St., particularly those from the area evacuated during the fire. That was 13th to 20th Street, from Martha to Leavenworth Streets. Each department or agency is being asked to give a two- to five-minute presentation, then people from the public can ask their own questions, said Douglas County Board Member Roger Garcia, whose district includes downtown and South Omaha. He organized the meeting because so many of his constituents have questions and concerns about the fire. For people who can't attend in person, the meeting will be on Zoom here (use passcode: 165546). The meeting will also be streamed live on the Douglas County Facebook page. 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. Frustrated and scared by Mondays massive chemical fire in their neighborhood, Omaha residents again sought answers Wednesday evening at a public meeting, and again came away with little information. If anything, the meeting laid bare the citys seeming unpreparedness for the unfolding disaster: Firefighters arriving at the Nox-Crete plant near 20th Street and Woolworth Avenue didnt know what chemicals were in the building. Yes, the department had that information, but it wasnt available to those at the scene. (The buildings owner showed up and provided information.) The fire department lacked sufficient chemical firefighting tools for a fire of this magnitude. At least two people recommended carbon dioxide, which is one method of fighting this type of fire. Thats not something the Omaha Fire Department carries. It does have access to foam and began applying it about 2 hours into the fire, according to Assistant Fire Chief Kathy Bossman. Firefighters used 875 gallons of foam before running out, she said. This fire was so big, so hot, and there was such an extreme volume of fire, the amount of foam we had to suppress it was limited, Bossman said. Although some in the audience disputed the wisdom of using water, Bossman said it was the best choice available. The emergency alert was only in English. Thats not good for a metro area where 120 languages are spoken, said Kimara Snipes, a former board member with the Omaha Public Schools. Douglas County Emergency Manager Paul Johnson said future alerts would also go out in Spanish. To residents who wanted to know what chemicals were stored in the building, the answer was largely: Look it up. Its on the website of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy under facility number 10550. None of the officials at the meeting, from the Douglas County Health Department to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, devoted significant time to walking people through the types of chemicals likely stored at the building and how a fire there might affect their health. The confusion and lack of answers brought to mind residents frustrations with the citys response to last years natural disasters: a windstorm that blocked streets with trees and caused extensive power outages, and flash flooding that damaged an unknown number of homes and businesses. Joe Giitter, who lives in the neighborhood affected by the fire and who has worked previously in emergency management and fire protection at the federal level, raised a number of concerns with the response. There were some command and control issues that Id like to see addressed, Giitter said, calling for a thorough after-action review. Among Giitters concerns: The fire department lacked CO2 as a suppressant and used water, which he said can worsen some chemical fires. Additionally, the voluntary evacuation was undertaken based on outdated wind information because the wind had shifted, he said. Thus, people who found themselves affected by the smoke were outside of the area of official concern. And why, he asked, echoing the concerns of many, werent mobile air samples taken since the main Douglas County Health Department air monitor was upwind of the fire? Id like to see some lessons learned, because this event could have been a lot worse, he said. Resident Jodi Hillhouse pointed out that many residents in this area cant afford a doctors visit, so they will be dependent on publicly available information. And she noted that future disasters need to take into account that many residents dont have access to a car if they need to evacuate. Another resident, identified only as Alex, said she was glad were making a really big deal like this. We cant normalize things like this happening. And two of those attending asked why Mayor Jean Stothert was not in attendance Wednesday. Tom Buell, an administrator for monitoring and remediation for Nebraskas environmental regulators, said the federal Environmental Protection Agency sent staff to Omaha Wednesday to formulate a plan to test the area for contaminants. He said its probable that the testing will include soil and wipe-testing of objects. It may not include air sampling. The agency is still formulating its response, he said. Roger Garcia, a member of the Douglas County Board who arranged Wednesdays meeting, said he will recommend that a multi-jurisdiction after-action review be undertaken. The goal of the meeting was to give residents a chance to question officials face to face. I did not feel that a simple press release was enough, he said. Its still too early, he said, for answers to some of the residents questions. Environmental samples, especially, will take time, he said. Nox-Crete did not send a representative to the meeting, but the company did issue a statement Wednesday afternoon, thanking first responders for being able to "control the situation in a way that has resulted in no injuries, for which we are grateful beyond description." The company statement said the Omaha Fire Department and other authorities "are conducting a full investigation into the cause of the blaze. Nox-Crete continues to cooperate with local authorities and will defer to their expertise regarding questions about the fire." The company acknowledged that nearly 2,400 of its neighbors lost power during the fire and it expressed its appreciation for the work of utility workers to quickly restore power as well as the efforts of the City of Omaha. Nox-Crete noted that it has been on the same site in Omaha since 1956, employing nearly 50 Omahans. "The fire affected Nox-Crete's main warehouse but did not affect our nearby offices or production facilities," the company said, "and as such, our team is back at work." 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. Biden appeals for tougher gun laws: 'How much more carnage?' WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to act on gun control. In an address to the nation Thursday night, he called on lawmakers to restore limits on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He says that if legislators fail to act, voters should use their outrage to turn gun violence into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Biden is trying to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter laws, though such efforts have failed in the wake of past violence. The speech follows recent mass shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Texas senator: School police chief didn't know of 911 calls UVALDE, Texas (AP) A Texas state senator says the commander at the scene of a school shooting in Texas was not informed of panicked 911 calls from inside the school building. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said during a news conference Thursday that the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator who represents the city called it a system failure that the calls were going to city police but not communicated to Arredondo. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety has said police didnt confront the gunman more quickly because Arredondo believed the situation had morphed from an active shooting to a hostage situation. Nineteen children and two teachers died. Police: Tulsa gunman targeted surgeon he blamed for pain Police say a man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the shooter as 45-year-old Michael Louis. He says the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love. Harini Logan wins spelling bee in 1st-ever tiebreaker OXON HILL, Md. (AP) Harini Logan has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, defeating Vikram Raju in the bee's first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker. Both spellers got four words wrong during their grueling showdown before Scripps went to the 90-second spell-off. Harini was faster and sharper throughout, spelling 21 words correctly to beat Vikram by six. The 13-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, will take home a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Harini was a four-time participant in the bee and a sentimental favorite who endured the pandemic to compete again in person for the first time since 2019. Queen Elizabeth II to miss Jubilee service amid 'discomfort' LONDON (AP) Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a church service to mark her Platinum Jubilee after experiencing discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace says that with great reluctance the 96-year-old monarch has decided to skip Fridays service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed todays Birthday Parade but did experience some discomfort. Britain is marking the monarchs 70 years on the throne with four days of events over a long holiday weekend. Elizabeth is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to serve for seven decades. Many royal followers camped out overnight in London in hopes of getting a glimpse of the queen. Jan. 6 committee sets prime-time hearing date for findings WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will go public with its findings in a prime-time hearing next week, launching into what lawmakers hope will be one the most consequential oversight efforts in American history. The six hearings, set to begin June 9 and expected to last until late June, will be the first time the committee discloses what it has discovered in the course of a sprawling 10-month investigation that has touched nearly every aspect of the insurrection. More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the panel, and only brief snippets of that testimony have been revealed to the public, mostly through court filings. NY passes bill raising age to buy, own semi-automatic rifles ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorks legislature has voted to ban banning anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle. The legislation is a major change to state firearm laws. It was passed Thursday, less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. Other new legislation will restrict civilian purchases of bullet-resistant armor, which was worn by the killer in Buffalo. Bills would also require new guns to be equipped with microstamping technology that can help law enforcement investigators trace bullets to particular firearms. Legal fights over the legislation are expected. 2 doctors, receptionist and visitor killed in Tulsa shooting The four people killed in a shooting inside a Tulsa medical building included two doctors, a receptionist and a former soldier who was accompanying his wife during a checkup. Police, officials at Saint Francis Health System and others who knew the victims provided details about them on Thursday. Police say Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and Army veteran William Love were fatally shot. Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Uvalde school police chief says hes still cooperating The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last weeks deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, says hes talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo told CNN in a brief interview Wednesday that hes speaking regularly with Texas Department of Public Safety investigators. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Also Wednesday, the district announced that students and staff would not be returning to the Robb Elementary campus. Plans are still being finalized on where students will attend classes in the fall. 4 killed in shooting at Tulsa medical building, shooter dead Police officials say four people have been killed in a shooting at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead Wednesday in the latest wave of mass gun violence occurring across the country. He also said the shooter was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The motive for the attack was unclear. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. US and Germany agree to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The U.S. and Germany are pledging to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long craved for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery. Germany said Wednesday it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. The U.S. said it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The arms shipments aim to bolster Ukraines defense as its troops battle a grinding Russian offensive that is closing in on capturing a key city in the east. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military. Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him $10M FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) A jury sided with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. The verdict issued Wednesday awarded the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million Wednesday and vindicated his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depps lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages. Sheryl Sandberg, long Facebook's No. 2 exec, steps down SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps along the way, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. Meta did not immediately respond to a message for comment. Sandberg has led Facebook's now Metas advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into a more than $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. Uvalde shooting highlights role of doors in security plans Doors have been at the center of the investigation into the massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Those include both the door the gunman entered and the one police did not open for over an hour. School officials under pressure to balance accessibility and safety confront a variety of decisions about the seemingly mundane act of going in and out of a building or classroom. But as the attack on Robb Elementary School showed, such choices can sometimes spell the difference between life and death. Former Corinthian students get federal student debt erased WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration says it will forgive all remaining federal student debt for former students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain. Under the new action, anyone who attended the chain from 1995 to its collapse in 2015 will get their federal student debt automatically canceled. It will erase $5.8 billion in debt for more than 560,000 borrowers, the largest single loan discharge in Education Department history. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans. Slave reparations advocates hail historic California report SAN FRANCISCO (AP) California released an exhaustive report detailing how government laws and policies perpetuated discrimination against African Americans. Wednesdays report is a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology from California and the case for financial reparations. The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century. It comes as states and school boards move to limit what can be taught in U.S. schools. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with such a study and plan. US Open's $10M purse offers hope for gender pay equality SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (AP) Dottie Pepper recalls being paired with Meg Mallon for the final round of the 1991 U.S. Womens Open with what she viewed as an impressive $110,000 first-place prize on the line. Things have changed, but Lydia Ko says not enough. Mallon would win that title in 1991, collecting the first six-figure payout in womens golf history. Pepper says, That was a big deal. Three decades later, Pepper can hardly comprehend that the top female golfers in the world will be competing this week for a record $10 million purse. That includes a winners take of $1.8 million at the U.S. Womens Open at Pine Needles. Ko, the No. 3-ranked womens golfer in the world, said shes grateful for steps toward equal pay but added theres still a ways to go. Vocab questions reduce spelling bee to 3 letters: A, B or C OXON HILL, Md. (AP) An onstage vocabulary round introduced a new element of randomness into the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The multiple-choice vocabulary questions forced spellers to demonstrate a different skill set and knocked out some of the bee's most accomplished spellers during Wednesday's semifinals. Among those who were eliminated without spelling a word incorrectly were Roy Seligman and Vivinsha Veduru, who tied for fourth place in last year's bee. Veteran spelling coach Grace Walters called the vocabulary results tragic. Among the words and phrases that spellers failed to define were Stockholm syndrome, ragout and rumbustical. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) One of the bidders in an oil and gas lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year has canceled the lease it bought, the U.S. Interior Department said. Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of Australia-based 88 Energy Ltd., was one of three entities that won leases during the sale held in the waning days of the Trump administration. It was the only oil company to win a lease in the first-of-its-kind sale for the refuge's coastal plain, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Regenerate Alaska requested the cancellation and its money back, according to a statement provided by the Interior Department's media office that said the lease was canceled and that the Office of Natural Resources Revenue refunded (the) full bonus bid and first year rentals. The statement did not include the amount of the refund. The company bid about $800,000 for the lease along the western boundary of the coastal plain. That part of the refuge is closest to existing oil field infrastructure. ExxonMobils Point Thomson development is to the west on state land. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last summer said it was moving ahead with a new environmental review of oil and gas leasing in the refuge after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said she found multiple legal deficiencies in a previous review that provided a basis for the lease sale. A law passed by Congress in 2017 called for two lease sales. Another sale has not been held. Chevron and Hilcorp previously canceled interests in older leases on a tract of land owned by an Alaska Native corporation within the refuges borders. The energy companies paid $10 million to end their deal with Arctic Slope Regional Corp. The newspaper said 88 Energy did not respond to its requests for comment. The company did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press left through the company's website. Peter Winsor, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement to the AP called the lease cancellations the clearest sign yet that there is zero interest out there in industrializing the wildest place left in America. In last year's sale, Knik Arm Services, a real estate company, won a lease, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority state corporation acquired seven leases. The state corporation is suing the federal government over the lease suspension. Mark Graber, who owns Knik Arm Services, said he's paying attention to the lawsuit. Theres no plan to do anything until the lawsuit is resolved and we can move forward, he said. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Anchorage Daily News. BALTIMORE (AP) The city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit against one of the largest manufacturers of ghost gun kits in the United States on Wednesday, the same day Marylands ban on the untraceable weapons went into effect, news outlets reported. Mayor Brandon Scott said the suit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court against Nevada-based Polymer80, which sells kits for customers to assemble themselves, and Hanover Armory, an Anne Arundel County gun store. The suit alleges that Polymer80 intentionally undermines federal and state firearms laws by designing, manufacturing, and providing kits and parts without serial numbers to buyers who do not undergo background checks. Takedowns are not enough. Legislation is not enough, Scott said during a news conference. We have to crack down on the companies that are profiting off of destruction and death in our communities. The new state law expands the definition of a firearm to include an unfinished frame or receiver. Anyone who sells or transfers a ghost gun faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. When a second phase of the law takes effect in March 2023, a person who possesses a ghost gun will face two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Polymer80 did not respond to requests for comment and a person who answered the phone at Hanover Armory declined to comment, the news outlets reported. Its unclear whether either business has been served. The lawsuit was filed by the citys affirmative litigation division, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Sanford Heisler Sharp, a national public-interest law firm. It is similar to ones filed by the cities of Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. While the suit doesnt specify what damages it seeks, City Solicitor James Shea said officials are working on an estimate that would be substantial. City police have said ghost guns have been used in an increasing number of shootings. No ghost guns were seized in the city until 2018, but last year police recovered 324, 14% of all firearms recovered, officials said. So far this year, ghost guns accounted for 19% of all guns seized. Ninety-one percent of ghost guns recovered by police in Baltimore from January 2020 until this April were Polymer80 guns, according to the complaint. Ghost guns are a devastating menace to the people of Baltimore, Scott said. This lawsuit shines a light on Polymer80 and individuals who routinely create a marketplace for deadly, untraceable weapons. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Baltimore Sun. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which "really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Nebraska state auditor found reason to question whether the state received nearly 400,000 COVID-19 tests promised in a contract with the Utah-based company that operated TestNebraska. The question over the tests was just one issue the Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts found with the TestNebraska contract between the state and Nomi Health in its audit of financial statements, according to a management letter released Wednesday. As of November, state agencies had signed at least five no-bid contracts with Nomi Health, worth up to more than $69 million total. The auditors findings related to the first of those contracts, for the effort to provide free COVID-19 testing across the state, known as TestNebraska. The auditor noted issues with providing supporting documentation and keeping contract language clear and unambiguous both issues that can increase risk for loss or misuse of funds, according to the letter. The contract, signed April 21, 2020, stated that Nebraska would receive 1.2 million test kits, according to the letter. But the Department of Administrative Services, which handles state contracts, didnt have documentation proving the state received more than 803,000 of them. It had a list showing 1.23 million kits were received, but it couldnt be traced to supporting documents, such as receipts, according to the letter. That led the auditor to question if the state had actually gotten nearly 397,000 of the kits valued between $9.9 million and $12.9 million. And, the letter states, the auditor couldnt verify that all the tests were received by dates set out in the contract. In its response, DAS said that it provided records supporting that the test kits required by the contract where shipped. DAS own records indicate that there was a lack of packing slip documentation maintained during the pandemic, particularly in the early months of June, July, and August 2020, however, such test kits were received, it reads. Records of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) show that tests were administered at TestNebraska sites in these months. It provided the number of tests performed according to lab records and a count of warehouse inventory, saying that those show the state received at least 995,900 kits. DAS said Nomi provided documentation that supports more than 1.2 million. The department told teams receiving the kits about documentation procedures and expectations, which included filling out a form. However, DAS acknowledged some did not adhere to those expectations. DAS will ensure that such performance issue will not occur again in the next pandemic, it said. Another issue: An amendment to the contract in October 2020 required Nebraska to pay Nomi Health for services its asked to provide associated with the collection sites. Those payments, the letter says, were largely retroactive, for services already performed. They totaled more than $2.9 million. And, language in that October amendment wasnt clear that there would be additional service and management fees, according to the letter, yet those charges were on every invoice received by the state over five months the auditor analyzed. Consequently, during that five-month period, the State paid Nomi $3,489,063 in direct costs and an additional $548,231 for management and service fees, the letter reads. Agreements to make retroactive payments are often problematic, according to the letter, and could violate a provision in the states constitution that bars state and local governments from making extra payments for past services. In its response, DAS insisted it didnt violate the state constitution. When the State accepted and utilized these essential services in responding to the pandemic, the State became legally responsible to compensate the contractor for such costs, whether pursuant to an oral contract, implied contract, or quasi-contract, the DAS response reads. Its best practice that agreements should be in writing, DAS wrote, but there werent any disagreements between Nomi and DAS. DAS has procedures in place to ensure that deliverables are accurately tracked and documented, contracts are stated clearly, and agreements are put into writing before payment becomes due, it reads. In this circumstance, there were gaps in performance in following these procedures under the stress of a global emergency. DAS will strive to ensure that such gaps do not occur. Nebraskas initial contract with Nomi was worth about $27 million, but it grew to about $62 million. That contract ended July 31, 2021. In a statement, CEO and founder Mark Newman said "Nomi Health delivered all COVID-19 tests under its contract with the State of Nebraska ahead of schedule." He also noted that the audit was critical of DAS' record keeping, and that Nomi itself was not the subject of the audit. He pointed to DAS' response to the audit. "In the States own words: all test kits required under the contract were shipped, the contract was fulfilled and there was no violation. Anything beyond that is invalid," Newman said. "We are honored to help power one of the nation's leading COVID responses in Nebraska. Gov. Pete Ricketts and others have praised TestNebraska for its role in helping the state double its testing early on in the pandemic as other states struggled. But the practice of inking no-bid contracts with Nomi has drawn criticism in Nebraska and elsewhere. Four state lawmakers in Nebraska called for the state to cancel its initial contract. Newman previously said Nomi doesnt seek out no-bid deals but serves as a last stop in emergencies. In other Nebraska contracts, Nomi committed to provide staff for COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, provide COVID-19 vaccine scheduling services, provide nursing staff at the Central Nebraska Veterans Home and run a call center to help hospitals find beds for patients. Ahead of the call center contract, Nomi made a $20,000 donation to the Nebraska Republican Party. A Ricketts spokesperson has said the donation didnt influence the states work with Nomi. In 2021, state financial disclosure records show the company also donated $5,000 each to GOP gubernatorial candidates Jim Pillen and State Sen. Brett Lindstrom. It donated another $10,000 to Pillen, who went on to win the nomination, on May 2. Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from Mark Newman, CEO and founder of Nomi Health. 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 hometown Omaha hero from World War II is finally getting some of the honors he deserved. Charles Jackson French saved the lives of his shipmates after their destroyer was sunk near Guadalcanal in September 1942. A Navy mess steward, French swam for several hours through shark-infested waters while towing a lifeboat filled with wounded comrades. His story was widely told at the time and French, then 22, was called the hero of the Solomon Islands. An African American, French had been recommended by his commander for a Navy Cross, the Navys second-highest award for valor. But at a time of prejudice and discrimination in the U.S. military and elsewhere, French received only a letter of commendation. A number of efforts have been launched in recent years to ensure that Frenchs heroism is finally properly recognized. Last week, the Senate passed a bill that will rename the Benson postal facility at 6223 Maple St. the Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French Post Office. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., earlier was passed by the House of Representatives. A year ago, Bacon also had written a letter to the acting secretary of the Navy, asking for a review of Frenchs file to determine whether he had received the proper awards. That, in turn, led to an award ceremony last month where Frenchs relatives were presented in San Diego with a posthumous Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the services highest award for non-combat heroism. In addition, the pool used for training swimmers at Naval Base San Diego was renamed in Frenchs honor. Omahans may remember World-Herald reporter Steve Liewers story about French last June and the tribute paid to him by USA Swimming during the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha. French was born in Arkansas but moved to Omaha as a youth to live with his married older sister. He enlisted in the then-segregated Navy in 1937. After saving his shipmates, who were all White, he remained in the Navy until the end of the war, then took a civilian job with the Navy in San Diego. He died in 1956. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who led efforts for the post office naming bill on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol, called its passage wonderful news. This post office renaming is important to his family, the community of Omaha and the state of Nebraska, Fischer said. Im proud we could come together to recognize his legacy of service and sacrifice. Frenchs selfless valor has inspired people for 80 years, but as time has passed too many have forgotten his extraordinary efforts. Its fitting that Omahans are learning about him again, and that the Benson post office will stand as a permanent reminder for the future. The gunmen in two of the nations most recent mass shootings legally bought the semi-automatic rifles they used in their massacres after they turned 18. Thats prompting Congress and some governors and state lawmakers to revisit the question of whether to raise the minimum age for purchasing such high-powered weapons. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. Advocates argue that such a limit might have prevented the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead and the racially motivated supermarket attack in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10. NORMAL The Illinois State University Planetarium begins its summer season a week early with "Flight Adventures," a show that welcomes families and young audiences to explore the history of manned flight. "The seats towards the back tend to be the better ones, since it's all going to happen overhead, but that puts it in front of you as well," said planetarium director Tom Willmitch. Willmitch said the summer season starts slow, but audiences soon grow. "This show, pretty quickly, gets to be popular. I think they like the air conditioning," he said. "Flight Adventures" will air every Wednesday at 2 p.m. and Friday at 7:30 p.m. until July 22. The show, created by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, follows a child and her grandfather as they journey through the ages and learn about humanity's quest to travel the skies. Willmitch said he selected the show intending to draw younger audiences. "This show I thought was just a little bit more younger-person-friendly," he said, "and it seemed perfect for the summer." Bryce Heiniger, a sophomore geography major at ISU, works in the planetarium. He said he likes giving "star talks" to audiences after the shows, where he talks about constellations and deep space objects that might be in the night sky. "They see a show and see how it applies to them here in town," he said. Tickets for planetarium shows are available for cash purchase in the ISU Planetarium gift shop in Felmley Hall off West College Avenue. 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 Local officials marked the beginning of the Bloomington Public Librarys $25.2 million expansion and renovation project with a ground-breaking ceremony Thursday morning. It feels great, said library director Jeanne Hamilton. Were so excited to be able to offer this expansion to the community, expand our library services, and this will really just improve the future of Bloomington. Representatives from the Illinois State Library, the Golden Prairie Public Library District, the Bloomington Public Library Board of Trustees, and the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board were in attendance along with other library staff, city officials, major donors, and residents from the area. During the ceremony, Bloomington Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe spoke about the importance of library services such as internet access and training programs, while mentioning his children, who use both the Bloomington and Normal public libraries. My father was a teacher and had been an administrator and as such, he was a fierce advocate for education, Mwilambwe said. Through him and my travels around the world and the nation, I learned that a community that does not invest in the education of its people, particularly the young, is bound for decay, if not extinction. The project will add 21,339 square feet of space to the current facility at 205 E. Olive St. while renovating the existing 57,394 square feet. Additionally, parking will increase by 91 spaces with the construction of a second-level structure to the parking lot along East Jackson Street, south of the library. The project will also add a partial third floor to the library, a permanent drive-thru, and a second entrance facing Olive Street. Bloomington Public Library is only going to get better and better, said Ruth Novosad, president of the Golden Prairie Public Library Board of Trustees. We have excellent communication with them; we meet every month with the library staff, and theyre very receptive to our ideas, so were fully committed to this expansion, both in spirt and monetarily. The Golden Prairie Public Library District serves residents from Arrowsmith, Bloomington, Dale, Dawson and Old Town townships, working with the Bloomington Public Library to expand access to library cards and online resources, and driving the Bookmobile, which stops in each of the five townships and circulates approximately 3,000 books, audiobooks, movies and games to patrons, Novosad said. Indoor portions of the project will increase the number of digital spaces while upgrading Wi-Fi capabilities and adding electrical outlets. Other aspects include increasing the number of study rooms from one to nine, adding two audio recording studios, and introducing a computer lab and three community rooms that will be able to open up into one larger room. For students and families, an innovation lab to work on STEAM skills and a Discovery Zone for children to interact with with new activities or topics will be created alongside two large childrens programming spaces, a sensory-friendly room, a nursing nook, wider aisles and more accessible shelving. Julian Westerhout, president of the Bloomington Public Library Board of Trustees, said the additional space and new services will help the library adapt and be more flexible in offering young people and adults various opportunities to create and learn. Time doesn't stand still, Westerhout said. Almost every day, the library staff encounters situations where wed like to have a slightly different collection or a bigger collection of materials, books, media or different opportunities for organizations to come in and a space that (was) built in 1976 isnt really designed for that. Funding sources for the project include a $5.68 million grant from the state Public Library Construction Act Grant. The library is using $4.1 million in reserve funds for the project and has an additional $1.25 million in donations from the community. During Thursday's ceremony, State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, recalled being a young man going to the Withers Library, before it was renamed the Bloomington Public Library in 1977. From the Illinois House of Representatives, we send our congratulations. We send our best wishes and from the state of Illinois, were going to be sending money, Brady said. The City of Bloomington also approved issuing a $14.2 million obligation bond, with the library expected to pay approximately $1 million annually over the next 20 years as part of the bonds related debt services. There is still also about 2%, or approximately $600,000, left to be funded for the project, with organizers fundraising to meet that amount. Felmley-Dickerson Co. of Bloomington will serve as general contractor, with Phase 1 of the project set to run through May 2023. During this time, the west half of the current building will be renovated and the three-floor addition will be built on to the library's west side, repurposing the existing first-floor parking to become part of the library. Phase 2 of the project, slated to begin sometime between June and September 2023, will focus on the east side of the building. Hamilton said the library will continue to offer services to the community throughout construction. However, at times, parking will be reduced, portions of the librarys collection will become temporarily unavailable, and some resources, such as copy machines and public computers, may be relocated to other parts of the building. According to the library website, the 1976 building was designed for a population of 41,000 people. In 2006, the library increased space by 25% to improve accessibility and programing, but the citys population has grown by 92%. Ward 6 alderwoman De Urban said the project is long overdue, and that citizens deserve a space that can serve their needs and the needs of the younger generation who will benefit from the addition in the long run. We expect the library to be used by hundreds of people at a time, so we incorporated everything that they were asking for and went forward with the project because we knew that we needed to move our city forward, Urban said. Fall of 2023 when the projects completed, I just hope everybody in the city will embrace that we have such gem and make good use of it over time. To learn more about the project or support the librarys expansion and renovation project, go to bloomingtonlibrary.org/building-project. 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. Editor's note: Photos that show a hanging figure, included as exhibits in the Illinois attorney general's court filing, appear in the story below. Readers may find the images disturbing. SAVANNA The Illinois Attorney General's office has filed a hate crime lawsuit against a Savanna mother and her adult son, accusing them of hanging an effigy of their Black neighbor from a tree near his property as well as covering their home with swastikas, Confederate flags and a racial slur in retaliation for him reporting her son to police. Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office said it was the first time his office had filed a hate crime lawsuit. Cheryl Hampton, 67, now of Streator, and Chad Hampton 45, now of Victoria, are accused of harassing their neighbor for months in 2020, resulting in several violations of the Illinois Hate Crimes Statute. The lawsuit seeks penalties of at least $100,000. According to the lawsuit filed in Carroll County Court, the Hamptons committed hate crimes against Gregory Johnson, 67, "by lynching an effigy of Johnson in plain view of Johnson's home in order to intimidate him." The life-sized effigy "resembled Johnson by design," according to the lawsuit. "I looked out of my new home at a Black-faced mannequin shackled and lynched on a tree branch, (a racial slur) scrawled upon a window, and swastikas," Johnson said in a news release announcing the suit. "Our American flag was replaced with their Confederate flag. Have we not come any farther than this? This lawsuit is about tearing off the shackles that still restrain us to this day. It's about never giving up on the mission of our United States Constitution. We, as a nation, are better than this." Raoul filed the lawsuit following an investigation by his office's Civil Rights Bureau with assistance by the Carroll County State's Attorney's office, the city of Savanna and the Savanna Police Department. The case marks the first time Raoul has utilized expanded authority granted to his office under a 2018 amendment to the Illinois Hate Crimes Act that allows for civil lawsuits against perpetrators of hate crimes, the release said. Johnson bought his two-story home on the 300 block of Bowen Street on Oct. 16, 2019. The Hamptons lived next door, in a rental. A little more than 6 months after Johnson moved in, on July 12, 2020, he told police his orange retractable fence was cut in half the day after Cheryl Hampton told him she would tear it down. He erected the fence after noticing damage he thought was caused by a riding lawnmower coming onto his property, he told police. Savanna Police Lt. Daniel Nevills responded to the home, where Cheryl Hampton used a racial slur and told Nevills she did not want to live next door to a Black person, the lawsuit said. While Nevils and Hampton were talking, Chad Hampton walked to the front of their yard and raised a Confederate flag on their flagpole, according to the lawsuit. Later that day, Johnson reported Chad Hampton to police after Hampton allegedly sprayed his yard with weed-killer. Johnson took photos of the spraying, the lawsuit said. As a result of the yard damage, the 45-year-old Hampton was charged Sept. 22, 2020, with criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor, Carroll County Court records show. The next day, Hampton spray-painted large black swastikas on a garage that faced Johnson's home, the lawsuit said. Police visited the home and asked him to remove them. Chad Hampton was arraigned Oct. 19 on the misdemeanor, and the effigy appeared less than a week later. It bore a mask painted black and had a curly black wig with patches of white, altered to resemble Johnson's salt-and-pepper hair, according to the lawsuit. The clothing also resembled clothes Johnson wore, and a large chain bound the head, arms and torso. It was hanged in a tree by a rope noose a few feet from Johnson's property, the lawsuit said. The Hamptons also wrote a racial slur on their window in black marker, draping a Confederate flag behind it. The scene, photos of which were filed along with the complaint, was done in retaliation against Johnson, who had contacted Savanna police repeatedly about other "aggressive actions" by the Hamptons, the lawsuit said. Savanna police visited the Hampton home again on Oct. 26. Cheryl Hampton "admitted the display targeted Johnson," because, she said, they were tired of his complaints against them, according to the lawsuit. She told police she would file a harassment suit against Johnson if his complaints continued. "Even after authorities asked Cheryl Hampton to move the lynched effigy out of view of Johnson's home, or to at least change its appearance, she refused," the lawsuit said. The next day, Nevills and then-Mayor Chris Lain went to the Hamptons' home to discuss the hanging figure. Cheryl Hampton told them that she was tired of Johnson's complaints, angry that her son had to take a day off work to attend court, that the figure was a "Halloween decoration" that she had hung herself, and that she would not move it out of Johnson's view. Nevills offered to get white paint and a white wig and repaint the figure, according to the lawsuit. She refused the offer, the lawsuit said. Cheryl Hampton was arrested and charged later that day with harassing a witness, a felony that carries 3 to 7 years in prison. The effigy, which was so heavy and bulky police did not think the 5-foot-2 Hampton could have hung it alone, was removed. On Nov. 1, a few days after his mother was charged, Chad Hampton called Savanna Police seeking to file an official complaint for damage to his property because police cut down the effigy, the suit said. Cheryl and Chad Hampton are each accused in the attorney general's civil suit of two counts of commission of a hate crime by intimidation, and two counts of commission of a hate crime by disorderly conduct. The suit seeks a $25,000 penalty for each count, and asks the court to forbid the pair from participating in any similar conduct, including electronically, or from having any contact with Johnson or his property and for any other relief the court deems appropriate. "The Hamptons intentionally invoked the long, vicious legacy of lynched Black men in America to terrorize Johnson because he is a Black man," and to stop him from participating in Chad Hampton's prosecution, Assistant Attorney General Alison V. Hill said in the suit. "Our complaint alleges the defendants intentionally used the shameful history of lynching and racism in America to terrorize and instill fear in their next-door neighbor simply because he is Black. No one should be subjected to this kind of hate," Raoul said in the release. "I am committed to continuing to partner with law enforcement agencies across Illinois to prosecute hate crimes and send a message that hate and bigotry of any kind are not welcome and will not be tolerated." Intimidation and disorderly conduct are predicate offenses under the Illinois Hate Crimes Statute, and a 2018 amendment to the law allows the attorney general to sue on behalf of the people of Illinois, "independent of any criminal prosecution." Wednesday, Johnson's attorney, James Mertes of Sterling, filed an application to intervene in the case, which if granted will allow Johnson to personally sue each of the Hamptons for damages. Johnson's suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $50,000, punitive damages to be decided by the court, for civil penalties of up to $25,000 for each for violation of the hate crimes statute, and for court costs and attorney's fees. A hearing on the civil suit will be held Sept. 1 before Carroll County Judge John "Jerry" Kane. The criminal cases will proceed once the issue of representation is settled. READ THE DOCUMENT: Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Amazon has been obstructing a congressional investigation into the companys labor practices during severe weather events by failing to produce materials requested of them more than two months ago, according to a letter members sent to CEO Andy Jassy. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which launched the investigation in late March, had given the Seattle-based e-commerce company a list of materials to hand over by mid-April. But the company still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by Committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the Committee requested in March, said the letter, signed by the committee chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from New York, as well as progressives Reps. Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Unfortunately, Amazon has failed to meaningfully comply with the Committees requests, obstructing the Committees investigation, they wrote in the letter made public on Thursday. Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company's labor policies during extreme weather events has been under more scrutiny since the deadly collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville in December, where six people died and another was critically injured in the tornado strike. Last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrapped up its own probe into the incident, concluding that Amazon met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering. But regulators also found safety risks and called on the company to improve its procedures. The House letter said the company has not produced any internal communications related to the Edwardsville tornado to the committee, which is doing its own investigation. Over the course of nearly seven weeks, Amazon produced only an incomplete set of policies and procedures, the letter said. The committee is also seeking documents showing how Amazon managed its workforce during other natural disasters, including wildfires in California in 2018. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Brenden Moore State Government Reporter Follow Brenden Moore 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 One of the benefits of being a political reporter is that everyone feels the need to save the campaign literature they get in their mailboxes during election season for me. Every time Ive walked into our Decatur office the past few weeks, Ive been greeted by a new batch of mailers for various candidates and causes. And I save them all after all, it gives a good taste as to what type of messaging candidates are using to gain support for their campaigns or to drive it away from their opponents. Despite being a more old school approach, direct mail remains a core part of most campaign persuasion strategies alongside digital and television ads. Former House Speaker Michael Madigans political organization was notorious for sending out extremely negative mailers against opponents of his preferred candidates, taking a kernel of truth and stretching it into something misleading but effective. This type of campaigning is not particularly effective in swaying general election voters, but can still have an impact on primary voters, according to a 2017 study from the University of California, Berkeley. With several heated primaries, most notably the Republican primary for governor, upcoming in the next few weeks, voters have faced a deluge of campaign mailers. So, I thought I would have a little bit of fun with it. I took the campaign mailers Ive collected and ranked them based on aesthetics, message and accuracy, averaging the score to rank their overall effectiveness. A more complete list is available on our website, but here are some general takeaways from the mailers I ranked: Richard Irvin hammers home message When I asked my friends, colleagues and followers on social media to send me what they have, I got a lot of repeats many of them from the governors race and specifically from Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, easily the best-funded GOP candidate in the race. And a pattern started to develop. Nearly every Irvin advertisement was a negative hit on fellow candidates state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan. The ads essentially accuse Bailey and Sullivan of being Never Trump Republicans who have supported Democrats like Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the past. These claims are misleading at best and downright false at worst. Bailey was a 2020 Trump delegate, for instance. At the same time, Irvin has not said whether he voted for Trump in 2016 or 2020. And hes pulled Democratic primary ballots more than hes pulled Republican ballots in recent years. These claims, which the campaign is clearly trying to hammer home, led to several Irvin ads being dinged for inaccuracies. Design-wise, several did not hit the mark simply because they tried to fit in too much information. Irvins best attack ad, both visually and content-wise, is where he points out Democratic meddling the Democratic Governors Association and Pritzker campaign have been running ads against Irvin in the Republican primary. Though some of the talking points on the front side of the ad continue to mislead, the back is effective in using clippings of newspaper headlines to validate the message. On the front, the black-and-white photos of Bailey and Sullivan give the pair a negative connotation. It simply looks like an attack ad. I gave it a 4 out of 5. Another Irvin ad that I liked was a cartoonish one in which it appeared Bailey and Sullivan were on a late night talk show. It features quote bubbles filled with negative statements the pair and their running mates have allegedly made about Trump. Again, much of these were taken out of context and have a misleading effect. But it is visually appealing. It got a 3.66 out of 5. With Bailey, less is more My two highest-ranked mailers, 4.66 out of 5, came from Baileys campaign. And the reason is simple: they adhere to the principle of less is more. The first ad, a biographical piece introducing Bailey and running mate Stephanie Trussell, does not attempt to overload the voter with information, just featuring quick bullet points outlining the broad strokes of his positions in the bottom left corner. In the top right is a picture of a smiling Bailey and Trussell. Its balanced aesthetically and the message is clear. The second one is an issue-oriented mailer focusing on the popular concept of term limits that also keeps it simple. And that's a good thing. It's easy on the eye and makes good use of all-caps and the highlight tool to make sure that the reader sees the words "conservative" and "career politicians are what's wrong with Springfield." If that's all they take from the mailer, it's a win. Mary Miller plays Trump card U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, is in a heated Republican primary against U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, for the 15th Congressional District. Davis has more money, experience with retail politicking and support among the districts Republican establishment. But, Miller has a trump card the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. In one of her mailers, she states clearly that she has Trumps complete and total endorsement on one side and features a picture of her with the former president on the other. Its the type of advertisement you want to run in a Republican primary in a district that voted for Trump with nearly 70% of the vote in 2020. You cant miss all the Trump visuals and the short, to-the-point bullet points do not distract from that. Well executed. Check out all the mailers I rated one our website. Also, it is a running list, so please keep sending me pictures of the mailers you receive. My email is brenden.moore@lee.net. Contact Brenden Moore at brenden.moore@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13 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. Bailey stood against the harsh COVID lockdowns and the seemingly endless emergency orders the governor foisted on the citizens of Illinois for the past two years. These oppressive orders hurt our economy, cut the income of many hard-working people, and affected Illinoisans in countless adverse ways. Senator Bailey has stood for the people of Illinois by fighting tax increases in Springfield. Bailey will stand firmly for the rights of the unborn and for the Second Amendment. Unlike Pritzker, he is not a Chicago insider. A farmer from Southern Illinois, Darren Bailey is not afraid of the hard work needed to reform Illinois. Please join me in voting for Darren Bailey in the Republican gubernatorial primary on June 28. I retired from the Illinois State Police in 2007, graduated from law school in 2010, then returned to the Bloomington/Normal area to take a position with the Mclean County States Attorneys Office. I left the States Attorneys Office in 2016 but still practice law in Mclean County. During my career, I have had the pleasure of working alongside the current Mclean County States Attorney, Don Knapp, and his father, who is a retired Illinois State University Police Captain. I have nothing derogatory to say about Mr. Knapp or his potential to become a competent judge. Since her 2016 appointment to the bench, Judge McFarland has proven to be an exemplary judge. She is the presiding judge of the Family Division and Recovery Court. Among many other activities, Judge McFarland serves on the Illinois Courts COVID-19 Operations Task Force and is the acting Co-Chair of the Illinois Judicial Colleges Guardian ad Litem Education Committee. I have witnessed her preside fairly and insightfully over extremely contentious divorce cases. In the past six years, Judge McFarland has acquired the experience and expertise we should expect of a Circuit Judge. Please join me in supporting Judge Amy McFarland for Circuit Judge. Please join me in voting for Judge Amy McFarland for Circuit Judge in the June 28 Republican Primary. Judge Amy has served as a judge since 2016, presiding over the Family Law Division. She has earned the respect and support of her colleagues and peers. She is the only candidate endorsed by her fellow retired judges (14 of them), and the clear choice among my fellow attorneys in the bar association poll (a 90% rating). Judge Amy became a judge after successfully starting and running her own business--a law practice. As a fellow attorney and business owner myself, and as a former board chair of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, I appreciate how difficult that is to do, and to do well. In this election, each of us voters is like an employer, looking to hire a judge. In Judge Amy, we have before us the ideal candidate to hire. Proven track record. Impeccable references and credentials. Faced with the perfect candidate, Judge Amy is the obvious choice to "hire" and elect as Circuit Judge. Judges are elected obviously, but we hold them ethically to a different standard than mere politicians. When considering judicial candidates, one must consider the possibility that we, or one dear to us, might someday appear in court seeking justice and a fair hearing. Judge Amy has a proven track record of just that, and in her courtroom particularly helping families and their children navigate some of the most trying life experiences they will face. The importance of this cannot be overstated. We can vote for Judge Amy as Circuit Judge with confidence because she has already proven herself in the job. There is no need to look further. Please join me in voting Judge Amy for Circuit Judge. Nathan Hinch, Bloomington Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said the $1.2 million World Bank grant for digital literacy will be channelled into resourcing deprived basic schools identified across the country. He said the money would be used for the provision of furniture and teaching and learning materials to enhance the learning environment. Dr Adutwum added that the Ministry of Education executed the teachers digital literacy project from its own resources as a condition precedent before the World Bank disbursed the grant, saying the replaced fund could be channelled into improving infrastructure in basic schools, including those described as schools under trees. I have been able to do the project with zero cost to the government. I've used existing resources, leveraged the government's expenditure on the one-teacher, one-laptop initiative and used that platform to accomplish something that was not done before I took over, he said. Dr Adutwum was interacting with the Daily Graphic Editorial Conference, an assembly of editors and gatekeepers, chaired by the Editor of Graphic, Kobby Asmah, yesterday. With the minister were the Technical Advisor for School Performance Improvement, Angela Affran, and the Head of Corporate Affairs, Kwesi Abankwah, both of the ministry. It was the second time the minister had called to interact with the Editorial Team. He also took time to visit G-Pak, the printing subsidiary of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, which is printing some government textbooks. The minister also visited the Managing Director of the GCGL, Ato Afful, where the former reiterated the fact that the ministry would partner the Junior Graphic to ensure that the newspaper was made available to all basic schools. Digital literacy Dr Adutwum said the teachers digital literacy project was expected to train 40,000 teachers in digital literacy to trigger the disbursement of $1.2 million from the World Bank under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP). However, he said, he executed the project using an existing governmental educational platform set up without paying for the building of a new platform, which would have cost the government about $200,000. That, he said, saw the training of more than 41,000 teachers in computer literacy, stressing that the $1.2 million from the World Bank was safe and at the bank. Project financing changes Dr Adutwum said World Bank project financing had changed significantly. In recent years, it has decided to no longer hand over a pot of money and say use it to do this or that because of corruption. So what it does is Resource let funding, he said. He also said in the case of the IT training of teachers, it was a grant tied to the loan. The minister noted that the World Bank conducted due diligence before the $1.2 million was disbursed. "The World Bank logged onto the website from Washington, DC, checked everything and was satisfied. And then it asked the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), as the lead developing partner in Ghana, to also constitute a team of IT experts and check it again. They too checked the entire platform, verified the numbers and then certified the project. And on April 19, 2022, $1.2 million was handed over to us, Dr Adutwum said. Independent check The Daily Graphic checked from the World Bank Country Office for an independent confirmation of the ministers assertions. The World Bank confirmed that under GALOP, financing was disbursed against the achievement of pre-agreed and independently verified results. In a response provided by the Senior Education Specialist, The World Bank, Africa Region, Eunice Yaa Brimfah Ackwerh, the development bank said per the protocol, the Ministry of Education provided the details of the number of teachers trained in using distance learning methods, which were verified by the Development Partners Group and accepted by the World Bank. The financing was released upon this confirmation. The World Bank remains committed to supporting Ghana in its efforts to improve education for all, Ms Ackwerh said. Ghana Education Service The minister also disclosed that until recently, the Ghana Education Service (GES) had been in charge of school supervision, including private schools, but the new educational reforms, backed by law, had created some new entities that had assumed those responsibilities. When it comes to school supervision, now that is being done by the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA). The GES was in charge of professional development and teacher training, but now that is being done by the National Teaching Council (NTC). The GES was also in charge of curriculum review and development through the Curriculum Review and Research Division (CRRD), but now that work is being done by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA)," Dr Adutwum explained. He said it was the legal structures that had mandated that all those functions be taken away, not that the minister wanted to be over-assertive. The last one is the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service that took away all the 45 technical and vocational schools from the GES. All these schools are now with the TVET Service and no longer with the GES, he said. Commendation Mr Asmah expressed appreciation to the minister for the visit and expressed the hope that it would further deepen the relationship between the ministry and the GCGL. He appealed to the minister to keep his doors open for the GCGL for timely and accurate information on the ministry and its works. "We are going to knock at your door every step of the way and engage you because your sector is very important in the architecture of this country. If this nation would do very well, your ministry would lead the way," he said. Mr Asmah added that the Daily Graphic and its sister publications were ready to partner the ministry to make the educational sector chalk up more successes. 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 World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea's claims of progress in the fight against a COVID-19 outbreak, saying it believes the situation is getting worse, not better, amid an absence of independent data. North Korean state media has said the COVID wave has abated, after daily numbers of people with fever topped 390,000 about two weeks ago. Pyongyang has never directly confirmed how many people have tested positive for the virus but experts suspect underreporting in the figures released through government-controlled media, making it difficult to assess the scale of the situation. "We assume the situation is getting worse, not better," WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said during a video briefing Wednesday. He said the WHO did not have access to any privileged information beyond the numbers publicly reported by state media. "We have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground," Ryan said, adding that the WHO is working with neighbours like South Korea and China to try to get a better picture. The WHO has offered assistance on multiple occasions, including vaccines and supplies, he said. North Korea reported 96,610 more people showing fever amid its nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the impoverished country's first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, state news agency KCNA said on Thursday. The media, however, did not mention whether there were any new deaths. KCNA said provinces were "intensifying" their anti-epidemic campaigns, including enforcing some lockdowns and coastal blockades, increasing production of drugs and medical supplies, and carrying out disinfection work. Key work such as farming continued, however. North Korean Premier Kim Tok Hun inspected a pair of pharmaceutical factories, amid a push to put the country's drug industry on a "on a new higher level," including meeting international standards, KCNA reported. "Sufficient production and supply of medicines serve as a prerequisite to protecting the people's lives and health in the current rigorous anti-epidemic campaign," he said. Source: REUTERS Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 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. The Supreme Economic Council for Arab-African Economy will invest 2.8 billion in the country to improve healthcare delivery. The amount will go into the construction of mobile clinics in all the 16 regions and the establishment of a medical university and hospital to provide training for the next generation of medical professionals. The President of the council, Hani Abu Zaid, who made this known, said a significant portion of the investment would be used to resource existing medical facilities with modern technologies and equipment. He was speaking at the maiden Supreme Economic Council For Arab-Africa Economy Summit in Accra yesterday. Participants at the summit, including business leaders and policymakers, will discuss the investment climate in the country and identify areas that need critical and urgent investment. The council is an economic-diplomatic body recognised by the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). It specialises in promoting and facilitating investments and trade in member nations and affiliates to strengthen their economies. Resource rich Mr Zaid noted that Ghana is a natural resource-rich nation with fertile lands suitable for agricultural investment that could improve the economy. "The economic development is a gateway to achieving sustainable development in every country which will make it possible for its citizens to gain purchasing power and also end the issue of unemployment in the country," he said. He said foreign investment would help develop the economy and create job opportunities. Mr Zaid said the council would also establish a Smart City project that would offer jobs to more than 150,000 people. Technology transfer The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Africa-Arab Investment Hub, Hajj Mukaila A. Akuamoah, said the council was focused on exploring issues around technology transfer to help train local experts and encourage private sector participation in the development of the country. He said changing global dynamics made it imperative for Arab and African countries to partner and grow their various economies. There are opportunities for the prospect of higher growth and living standards for Africans working closely with Arab countries by promoting enhancement in trade between us, Hajj Akuamoah, who is also the Executive Director of the Supreme Economic Council for Arab-African Economy in Ghana, said. Trade partnerships A Deputy Minister of Health, Mahama Asei Seini, said although intra-African trade had increased in recent years to 15.4 per cent, Asia and Europe still remained the main trading partners of the continent. The reasons for these not-too-encouraging statistics cannot be far-fetched because Africa generally has small, fractured and partly isolated markets, with low performance in trade indicators, he said. The deputy minister explained that the nature of African economies had contributed to significant economic development gaps, both between Africa and the developed world and among African countries. He said the summit provided a unique opportunity for the Arab-Africa region and Ghana in particular to competitively integrate into the global economy by leveraging platforms such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for maximum effect. Mr Seini said Ghana's trade and investment landscape had evolved into making the country the preferred destination for foreign direct investments (FDIs) and partnerships of various forms in many sectors of the economy. Healthcare Touching on health care, he said the Universal Health Coverage road map for Ghana (2020-2030) had been developed to complete the policy framework for health in Ghana till 2030. He said the government was, therefore, providing health infrastructure and modern equipment at all levels of the health system for the benefit of the ordinary Ghanaian. The national philosophy, therefore, is an all-inclusive approach to delivering timely, high-quality health care without any financial burden at the point of use to all people living in Ghana. The Essential Health Services Package for Ghana (EHSP), which is the policy framework for the package of services to be delivered at all levels of health care along the Life Course Approach (LCA), has also been developed for use, 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 Police in Wa have arrested 25 people for attempting to forcefully release three suspects who were in Police custody for flogging the victims in the Wa viral video. The 25 were part of a mob who attacked the Wa Police Station on Wednesday to demand the release of the three suspects, Sidiki Osman, Bushiran Khigir and Issahaku Mahama. According to a Police statement, the irate mob pelted the charge office and adjoining offices with stones and other implements. The youth also set vehicle tires ablaze on some major streets in the municipality. In addition, they emptied the contents of dust bins on these roads and caused damage to some street lights and poles as well as some private properties along these roads, the statement said. The statement added that all the suspects would be put before court to face justice. 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 Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has condemned the flogging of suspects in the sex tape saga in Wa. A tricycle driver and a ticket seller at the Wa Central Market in the Upper West Region received 20 lashes each after their sex tape leaked on Social media. The two were flogged after the Overlord of the Waala Traditional Area, Wa-Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV allegedly ordered their caning by some youth in Wa. According to reports, the lady in question uploaded the sex video on social media on Sunday, May 29, 2022. The Waala Traditional Area constituted a by-law in late 2021, banning such practices after it was observed that leaked sex tapes were on the surge amongst the youth in the Wa municipality. Condemning the act in a statement, the GBA said the flogging of the two young persons is humiliating, dehumanizing, demeaning, degrading and amounts to the violation of their fundamental human rights. According to the statement, The barbaric act contravenes Articles 12 (2) and 15 (1) (2) (a) and (b) of the (:onstitution, l 99?., which provide,12. (2) Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest. The GBA is therefore calling on the relevant security agencies to arrest all persons involved in the physical abuse of the two young persons, investigate the incident and perpetrators are prosecuted in accordance with law. The GBA has also advised the general public to desist from taking the law into their own hands by meting out punishments to people they suspect to have contravened the law or of having broken any moral codes of any community. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Delegation from the family of the late Emmanuel Torli, a 17-year coconut seller who was struck by lightning in Ho on Monday, has been sent to Nogokpo, a shrine at Ketu South Municipality. One Mr Nicolas Nfodjo, who described himself as a grandfather of the deceased, disclosed this to the media that the delegation was sent to the shrine on Tuesday to find out what led to the lightning incident. He said the family believed the shrine would give knowledge of what happened and would provide appropriate steps to be taken to convey the body. Mr Aaron Kofi Amedzo, Ho Municipal Environmental Health Officer, who was at the scene with his officers told the media his outfit was making efforts to contact family members to convey the body from the scene. He said the rumour in the air was that the incidence had some spiritual dimension, the reason the body was still left at the scene. When we explain the scientific aspect of the incident to them in a respectful manner, I believe they will listen to us, he said, noting that it was important to convey the body before it begins to decompose. The deceased, Emmanuel Torli, a student of the Sokode Senior High School, was struck to death during a sparse rainfall around 1630 hours at a point opposite the Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana under a mango tree, where he used to ply his trade. According to eyewitnesses, the deceased, who was hawking coconut by the roadside as he normally does after school hours and on weekends, was left dead on the trail by a loud lightning strike. Two other persons who were carrying out their economic business near the victim were also affected by the force of the lightning and were conveyed by personnel of the Ambulance Service for medical attention. Hospital sources said they were recuperating at the Ho Municipal hospital, while the body of the deceased was still lying in a position covered with plantain leaves. Deaths caused by lightning could be because of the wrath of a thunder god, the reason for consultation by the deceased family. This seems to have been reinforced in a post on the official Facebook page of the Nogokpo Shrine, a popular deity. The shrine reacted to media inquest saying, There is a thunder God that strikes, and it is true. It is never a superstition. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A total of 4,648 National Identification Cards, representing 35.58 percent of cards printed are yet to be collected by the applicants at the Tema West Municipal of the National Identification Authority (NIA). Ms. Constance Pokua Osei, Tema West NIA Director disclosed this at the General Assembly of the Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA) and out of a total of 13,442 cards printed for the area, 8,749 had been issued with 4,648 representing 35.58 percent yet to be collected Ms. Osei added that the total enrolment between November 2021 and May 27, 2022, was 3,931. She said when the deadline for the registration of all sim cards with the Ghana Card was extended to July, residents stopped going for their printed cards, adding that in a day only about 20 people go for their cards while an average 15 people go for the registration. She added that it had also led to low enrolment as the long queues that used to be seen at the office had vanished with staff virtually hoping that it would improve daily. Now there is no queue, people just walk in and have their data captured in no time, sometimes in mornings we even have less than 10 people available to collect their cards. We still have over 4,000 cards lying there to be issued, and they are just not coming. I understand them, it is frustrating after visiting the office many times and the cards were not ready, she stated. She, therefore, pleaded with Assembly Members to inform their residents that the cards were ready. On other challenges, Ms. Osei said bigger office accommodation and staffing was a problem, as currently the premises they were operating from was small. She said there were only four members of staff, which she said were not enough, and therefore, appealed for some National Service Personnel to be attached to the office. Meanwhile, Assembly Members of Tema West have expressed misgivings about the conduct of some officers of the NIA in the municipality, saying their customer relations were poor. Mr. Kwesi Poku Bosompem, Assemblyman for Sakumono Electoral Area, and Tema West New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman described the conduct of the workers at the NIA office as rude. Mr. Bosompem, who is a former Presiding Member of the Assembly said staff and contract workers of the office needed to be re-oriented and given customer service skills to relate better with the public. Mr. Henry Ubor, Assemblyman for Klagon said he has been to the NIA office many times to monitor the queue for residents of Klagon to go and register and could say that their services were poor. Mr. Ubor said: If the NIA Tema West Director was reporting to them that people were not going for their cards, it was not true as most people were turned away. It is not like the people are not going for the cards, they have rejected the cards to them because anytime they go and queue, they are turned away. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Queen sent a car and security detail to pick up Harry, Meghan and their children after they arrived in the UK for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The Sussexes were reportedly greeted by three of Her Majestys protection officers, who drove them from Farnborough Airport in Hampshire to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. An insider told The Sun that "the Queen believed it was the right thing to do" to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The trip to the UK comes after Harry was assured by the Met Police that his family would be safe, following a legal row with the UK Home Office over his security. The Sussexes landed in England after a non-stop flight from Santa Barbara, California, bringing a small team of staff with them. They have been given prime seats to watch the Trooping the Colour later today, though they will not appear alongside the Queen on the royal balcony. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A phone app that allows women in the Palestinian Gaza Strip to report domestic abuse anonymously is allowing growing numbers of victims to seek help while avoiding the shame and reprisals that put many off going to the authorities directly. The "Masahatuna" or "Our Spaces" app was developed by local computer engineer Alaa Huthut, who saw the need for a way to seek advice safely in a society where family pressures keep much domestic violence hidden out of sight. "Privacy was very important as fear is usually the main cause women don't contact or visit centres," she told Reuters. The app allows women to register with the service without giving their names or leaving a trace of their contacts with care centres on their own phones. "If anyone looks at the phone they wouldn't know she made contact," Huthut said. Gaza, run by the Islamist Hamas group, is home to some 2.3 million people, nearly half of them women, according to Palestinian records. In 2019, the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics said 41% of women in Gaza had faced domestic violence and women's groups say that, as in many other countries, the problem worsened during coronavirus lockdowns. "I faced verbal and physical violence for many years," said a Gaza woman, 28, who asked not to be named. Following her divorce two years ago, the woman said she faced threats from her former husband and his family who threatened to take her 7-year old son away. Kholoud Al-Sawalma of the Gaza Community Media Centre said 355 women had downloaded the app and 160 had contacted help centres that provide psychological and legal support. Last month, a Gaza court handed down the death penalty to a man who beat his wife to death. But women's groups say more needs to be done to stop domestic violence in Gaza, where they say some women who report abuse at times get directed to clan leaders to resolve it. In some cases where women have died due to abuse, some men may try to escape severe punishment by accusing their partners of adultery or fake mental health problems, law advocates said. Source: REUTERS Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has disclosed that he has the capacity to partner Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia should he win his flagbearership contest. According to him, having served in parliament and taken up major roles in his time as a parliamentarian, he posses the qualities and working skills to help in the administration of the country. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that he is however not the only person in the party with such qualities. "There are a lot like me in the party who can equally take up the charge should they be appointed as running mate to the Vice President in case he is elected," he said. "I believe that it is still too early to even think of considering to be running mate to Dr. Bawumia". He said anybody who wins the flagbearership slot has their own strategy to lead the party and so think we should leave it to the aspirants to decide who ever they deem fit to partner them into election 2024. "But I can tell you that I'm more than qualified to be a running mate for any candidate who deems it fit to select me, but like I said let's leave that for Bawumia in case he is elected to lead the party," he added. Watch Video Below The Regional elections of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the weekend have taken a new twist with supporters of the Bawumia and Alan factions in the party assessing their favorite candidates' performance to win the flagbearer position based on the outcome of the Regional elections.The elections have been tilted in favor of either faction as from the Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen's camp, his supporters claim he amassed 10 Regions namely; Eastern, Oti, Volta, Upper West, Upper East, Bono, Greater Accra, North East, Western and Ahafo Regions, and are optimistic he will be elected as the party's 2024 Presidential candidate.On the flip side, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia's camp rather believe their candidate swept more regions than the Trade Minister.The Regional elections is described as a forecast of the upcoming contest between Dr. Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen.Addressing the issue on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, the Managing Director of the State Transport Corporation(STC) and a former Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea has asked the party to consider Dr. Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen on the same ticket.He called on the two factions to agree and push the two leaders to run as Presidential candidate and Running Mate. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Bernard Allotey Jacobs has taken a swipe at the British High Commissioner over her tweet regarding an arrest of the Convener of "FixTheCountry" Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor. Oliver Barker-Vormawor was arrested for threatening the security of Ghana and recently re-arrested for traffic offences. In the tweet, the High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson said: Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes But her tweet didn't sink well with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare as he rebuked her for passing such a comment. The IGP, in a strong-worded statement, cautioned the British High Commissioner to learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you". He also described Miss Harriet Thompson's tweet as "misguided, unwarranted and biased". "Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position. However, we have learnt from previous, painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country. "For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements. The saying goes: 'di wo fie asem' it means learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you, the statement added. "What is more, we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country", the statement further read. Discussing the issue during Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Allotey Jacobs blasted the British High Commissioner for her audacity to interfere in Ghana's internal affairs, asking "is she the one financing them (FixtheCountry Movement)?" He wondered why she would make such tweet about a sensitive issue bordering on the country's security and at a time when the security agencies are on the alert to avert any attempts of terrorism. "She is an ambassador and we are looking for Visa to Britain, so we shouldn't talk about her? Maybe she's an agent for destruction", Allotey fumed. He also reprimanded the opposing commentaries against the IGP's statement to the High Commissioner, saying "so, you're calling a nationalist a bad person. You have given him that position to protect the security of this country. The Army is there to protect the sovereignty of this country. He is doing his job. So, now he has turned into a bad person. For political sake, he is become a bad person. That is where Ghana has ended; that someone who is helping us to have peace is a bad person". Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has castigated British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson over her tweet on the arrest of Oliver Baker-Vormawor, the convener for FixtheCountry Movement. In the tweet, she said Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes But the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Dampare Akuffo has warned her to stay clear off the country's internal matters. In a strong-worded statement, the IGP told Miss Harriet Thompson to learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you". "Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position. However, we have learnt from previous, painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country. "For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements. The saying goes: 'di wo fie asem' it means learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you. "What is more, we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country", excerpts of the statement read. Reading the tweet on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, Kwamena Duncan found it "very irritating" and cautioned her to remain in the boundaries of her diplomacy. "My goodness! British High Commissioner; a diplomat!! I'm sure she doesn't have a good understanding of what she is here for", he said. Kwamena believed the British High Commissioner lack understanding of her mandate, so sought to educate her saying "you are a diplomat. First and foremost, you must understand what it is to be a diplomat...A diplomat has all kinds of immunities. They have what they even call the diplomatic bag; a country has no power even to search the diplomatic bag. All kinds of immunities, that is what the world has agreed on, then the reciprocal is that you don't go and meddle. That is the reciprocal that, giving you all these things, you don't go and poke your nose into the internal affairs of the receiving country. You don't do that". As if to borrow the words of the IGP, Kwamena asked Miss Thompson to stop poking her nose in the internal affairs of the country. "What this tweet, what it meant was that the Police institution was being lawless. That how could they go ahead and arrest an individual who was already in the jaws of the law?...Apart from it offending us, which was imperialist, neo-colonialist and unacceptable; she sought by that tweet to bring the entire institution down." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kwamena Duncan, former Central Regional Minister, has commended the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Dampare for his reply to British High Commissioner's tweet on the arrest of the FixtheCountry Movement convener, Oliver Baker-Vormawor. Oliver Baker-Vormawor was arrested for traffic offences, which is a subsequent arrest to his initial arrest for nursing a desire to stage coup d'etat. After his arrest, the British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson, tweeted; Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes The IGP Dampare responded to the tweet in a statement cautioning Miss Thompson to mind her business. He told her to learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you". Portions of a statement signed by the IGP also read; "Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position. However, we have learnt from previous, painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country." "What is more, we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country." "For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements. The saying goes: 'di wo fie asem' it means learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you. Making his submissions on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Kwamena Duncan was happy the IGP straightened out matters to the British High Commissioner to keep her from meddling in the affairs of Ghana. "We applaud him to have the courage that the thousands in this country and not in slavery, if this woman thought that we were still in those 400 years ago when his [her] ancestors or whoever came and enslaved us, if she is still in that mood, cursed in that mode and therefore she can say anything; she should be educated. She should be told that we are not in that era", he said. He opined that Miss Harriet Thompson sought by her tweet to bring the Police administration down but warned her to respect her diplomatic mandate. " . . I'm sure she doesn't have a good understanding of what she is here for . . . you are a diplomat. First and foremost, you must understand what it is to be a diplomat . . . a diplomat has all kinds of immunities. They have what they even call the diplomatic bag; a country has no power even to search the diplomatic bag. All kinds of immunities, that is what the world has agreed on, then the reciprocal is that you don't go and meddle. That is the reciprocal that, giving you all these things, you don't go and poke your nose into the internal affairs of the receiving country. You don't do that," he stated. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Deputy Seneral Secretary of the New Patriotic Party Nana Obiri Boahen has joined the opposition NDCs call that government renders account for the COVID-19 funds. He says it is only in n Africa that it becomes a crime for somebody to render accounts for monies expended on a project. The Minority in Parliament has indicated that it will re-file a motion for a probe into COVID-19 expenditure. The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, indicates that this has been strengthened by a viral audio from a regional executive of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that suggests that COVID funds were distributed to party functionaries. Haruna Iddrisu said, this is just a tip of the iceberg. We were here when our Foreign Affairs Committee reported how monies adding up to about GH66 million were spent on behalf of the ministry. Since when has the Ministry of Finance begun a procurement entity for the Ministry of Foreign affairs? Nana Akufo-Addo is presiding over the gigantic spending and disbursement of COVID-19 expenditure. We will renew our position. We will refile the motion. Speaking on Okay fms Ade Akye Abia program, he stood surety for the fact that the NPP conducted due diligence with the various donations and grants received during the COVID 19 pandemic, and that its only proper for the government to heed to the NDCs call and give detailed account on how the funds were disbursed. "The NDC, as a responsible opposition for me, is doing the right thing and I support their call. At least this is not one of their propagandist activities, they are ensuring value for money. "I also believe that if government does render accounts to the good people of this country on how the COVID-19 cash was used, it will clear the minds of individuals who may have doubt about how the money was expended," he added. Watch Video Below Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The General Secretary of the governing NPP, John Boadu, on Tuesday, 31st May, 2022, officially declared his intention to contest for re-election as the Partys General Secretary and proceeded to hold a media campaign launch, on the theme, Breaking the 8: Making History Together With The Time-Tested General #Adwenk3se3. The media launch was attended by constituency and regional executives from the various regions led by their chairmen including Chairman Wontumi of Ashanti, Chairman Samba of Northern, Chairman Divine of Greater, Chairman Armah of Western North among others. Also in attendance were MMDCEs, Members of Parliament from the various Regions many of whom were from the Ashanti and Northern Regions. Government appointees including CEOs of many state state institutions were not left out. Equally, party stalwarts including past and present national officers were in attendance. Notable names at the Launch were Hon Freddy Blay (Current National Chairman), Rt. Hon. Prof. Mike Aeron Quaye (former Speaker of Parliament), Madam Rita Talata Asobayire (1st National Vice Chairperson), Hon. Fred Oware (former 1st National Vice Chair & Chief of Staff, Office of Dr. Bawumia), Lord Commey (former National Organizer and Director of Operations), Hon Joe Gartey (MP and Flagbearer Hopeful), Carlos Von Brazi (Deputy Chief of Staff), Alhaji Amadu Business (a Founding Member of the NPP), Hon Habib Iddrisu (MP Tolon and Deputy Majority Chief Whip). Other were Sammi Awuku (National Organizer), Kate Gyamfua (National Youth Organizer) Abdul Aziz Futa (National Nasara Coordinator), Hon Farouk Aliu Mahama (MP, Yendi), Hon Sylvester Tetteh (MP, BNA), Hon Ekow Vincent (MP, Old Tafo), Hon. Abdul Aziz Musah (MP, Old Tafo), Hon Akwasi Afrifa (MP Amasaman), Hon Abdallah Iddi (Salaga North), Elvis Figo (Upper East Regional Secretary), Abibata Shani Mahama (CEO MASLOC), Dr. Louise Carol Serwaa (CEO, ALP), Nana Akomea (CEO, STC), Dr. Bernard Oko Boye (CEO, NHIS) among several others. Speakers after speakers, took turn to extol the virtues of John Boadu (aka Adwenkese), giving personal testimonies about his age-long commitment to the Party, and his vast experience spanning over two decades particularly in party organization, operations and administration, which experience including his election-winning track record, they strongly opined, would be needed by the NPP in order to be able to break the 8 come December 2024. On his part, John Boadu highlighted the need to elect officials with experience to run the affairs of the party, especially as the party aims to break the 8 by defying the traditional eight-year election cycle which Ghanas democracy has become noted for. He indicated that although he had calls from certain segments of the party to retire following the expiration of his term, he could not heed such calls, knowing full well that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is rallying its experienced executives old and new for the battle ahead. My position is fortified by the fact that our great party is seeking to do what no political party in the Fourth Republic has been able to do, which is to break the 8 and win; thus win three successive general elections. To achieve this, the party needs to put forward its best foot forward, and here, experience will count a lot. This is the time the rich experience that I have acquired in working for the party will be needed the most. He stressed the need for the party and its delegates to retain his organisational and election-winning prowess as General Secretary particularly as the party goes into the difficult elections of 2024 with a new National Chairman, new National Organizer, new National Treasurer, new National Youth Organizer, New Running Mate and a new Flag bearer. Now more than ever, the party needs my experience as the longest-serving national officer of the party, having spent more than two decades at the party headquarters as a party officer, to guide and assist the new national executives and the new presidential candidate and new running mate deliver the much-needed victory for the party, he concluded, amid loud applause from the audience. 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 Bernard Antwi Boasiako, alias Chairman Wontumi, has dismissed claims by a 'hardworking member of his team,' that he (Wontumi) spent over one trillion old Ghana cedis to secure re-election as Ashanti Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP. A statement issued by his special aide, Andy Owusu, said that Duncan Opoku Boateng - who made the allegation in an interview with Top FM - was either making fun or speaking out of ignorance. "We wish to put on record that, Chairman Wontumi NEVER spent such an amount of money to win the Regional Chairmanship contest. Just like all other aspirants, Chairman Wontumi provided means of transportation to delegates and that can NEVER amount to over 1 trillion. "Maybe Duncan Opoku Boateng was either making fun or speaking out of ignorance. Does he know the value of 1 Trillion? Does the total GDP of Ghana even reach 1 trillion? Does the Rich person in Ghana even have 1 Trillion? Let's be serious for once," the statement read in part. In the said interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Opoku Boateng said that he was surprised by the amount of money Wontumi spent and that it was during the polls that he believed that his boss was really rich. He added that no candidate in the NPPs Ashanti Regional election spent more money on the election than Wontumi. This was an elastic election from day one if we add all the expenditure we have inquired in Chairman Wontumis camp, we have spent not less than 1 trillion (cedis) I am telling the truth we have spent not less than 1 trillion (cedis). I can give you the breakdown. People say that Chairman Wontumi is rich. I hadnt seen his physical cash before but this election has made me believe that he is really rich. The man spent over 1 trillion (cedis). Nobody spent more money than Wontumi," he added. Opoku Boateng, however, indicated added that his boss did not win the regional chairmanship of the party only because of the money he spent but also because of his track record of delivering for the party. STATEMENT: Wontumi Never Spent Over 1 Trillion In Winning Regional Election The attention of the Office of the newly elected Ashanti Regional Chairman of NPP, Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako popular known as Chairman Wontumi has been drawn to an online publication by www.ghanaweb.com with the headline, "Wontumi Spent over 1 trillion in winning the regional election-Aide Alleges" According to www.ghanaweb.com, it was an interview between Top FM and Duncan Opoku Boateng. We wish to put on record that, Chairman Wontumi NEVER spent such an amount of money to win the Regional Chairmanship contest. Just like all other aspirants, Chairman Wontumi provided means of transportation to delegates and that can NEVER amount to over 1 trillion. Maybe Duncan Opoku Boateng was either making fun or speaking out of ignorance. Does he know the value of 1 Trillion? Does the total GDP of Ghana even reach 1 trillion? Does the Rich person in Ghana even have 1 Trillion? Let's be serious for once. We would like to also put on record that, the ONLY OFFICIAL AIDE and OPERATION MANAGER of Chairman Wontumi is Mr Andy Owusu. Mr Duncan Opoku Boateng is one of the Harding working team members for Chairman Wontumi but not the special Aide. We would like to entreat the general public, media houses and the New Patriotic Party to completely disregard the misleading publication by Top FM and www.ghanaweb.com. For and on behalf of Chairman Wontumi Signed Mr Andy Owusu Special Aide to Chairman Wontumi Source: ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, Nana Obiri Boahen, has said he is the driver of the Mamprusi bus, in reference to his support for Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, one of the flag bearer hopefuls for the 2024 elections. Im driving the bus all the way to the North East Region, the hometown of the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, he told Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman, sit-in host of Accra100.5Ms morning show, Ghana Yensom. We are currently warming the engine of the bus en route to North East Region with the Mamprusi man at the helm of affairs, he said. Dr Bawumia is a Mamprusi from the North East Region, which was carved out of the Northern Region by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2020. In my life, as a politician, and in the history of the party, all the flag bearers I have supported won, he said. I supported the late Prof. Adu Boahen, J.A. Kufuor, and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; they all won to become flag bearers on the ticket of the party, he said. So will Dr Mahamadu Bawumia also win the slot to lead the party for the 2024 general elections, he noted. I have supported candidates who won the partys slot of the party and never won the general elections but came back and worked hard and won. Source: class fm 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 Founder and Leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Percival Kofi Akpaloo has opined that most Ghanaians do not pay critical attention to wisdom from politicians or listen well to their campaign messages but rather chase money to vote for them. It has been widely alleged that most delegates take bribes from aspirants to vote for them during elections. Speaking on Atinka TVs morning show, Ghana Nie, with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, Percival Kofi Akpaloo said, For those who are enlightened, they do not need someone to give them money before they will vote for them, but there are people who will vote for someone because of GHC10 or GHC20. This is because there are some people who are okay to get GHC10 or GHC20 because he or she may not know the importance of election. Recounting his votes for the 2020 elections, he said the LPG had about 8000 votes, adding that they paid nothing to anyone. However, Mr Akpaloo accused the NPP of paying bribes to many Ghanaians who voted for them during the 2020 elections irrespective of their campaign message. If you tell me there was no money involved, it will worry me. Can you say the delegates who went for the NPPs regional congress did not take money? If you were there and you saw that the delegates take money to vote, you will also do same when it is your turn. When it gets to the national election, they will tell you to pay so that they will vote for you, Mr Akpaloo added. Meanwhile, a research he did indicated that although Ghanaians love and vote massively for the two major political parties, they also vote for the smaller parties during elections. That, he said informed him to find out why the smaller parties were not winning the elections despite having some votes. Mr Akpaloo again said there were no MPs from the smaller parties, attributing it to the fact that most of the MPs paid their way to win the election. It is about money, so today, if someone wants to be MP, he has to carry himself as though he has money, and not that he is coming to serve the country, he stressed. Meanwhile, he said there was still hope for Ghanaians to change from the two major political parties and elect smaller parties to lead as long as the LPG exists. 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 Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has waded into controversies surrounding the cancellation of July 1 as a national holiday that marks the celebration of when Ghana became a Republic. Upon the assumption of power, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reviewed the number of national holidays in the country, cancelling July 1 as Republic Day holiday, and September 21, which marked the birthday of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In its place, the president introduced new holidays like Constitution Day which is celebrated on January 7 of every year, Founders Day on August 4, and Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day on September 21. But the Speaker of parliament has said he disagrees. Speaking in parliament, he explained that there is a significance to why Republic Day was instituted, as it marks a significant period in Ghanas history. He further said that he does not see how a Constitution Day would be given more relevance than the Republic Day and called for a review of this new decision. We did not get 1st July for nothing. That was the time we decided to become a sovereign nation, no longer under the rule and thumb of the queen. Thats why it was named a republic and so unlike Canada, Australia and the rest, we dont have the queen visiting us as they do; they dont. Thats why we became a republic. That 1st July, we must continue to celebrate it as independent day: freedom and justice. And freedom and justice we must. If we have to look at the law again, we can look at it. I dont think that 7th January is more important than 1st July; I dont. I dont buy that argument, he said. 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 Oliver Barker-Vormawor is a shameful example of what is wrong in Ghana as a country, he spewed rhetoric that so many believe willingly, that has no basis in fact. He, along with those that support him need to be held accountable," Fixing the Country Movement has said. Police statement The Ghana Police Service on Wednesday responded to a group intending to embark on a three-day 'armed' demonstration. The group made up of broadcasters Captain Smart and Okatakyie Afrifa, convener of the #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vormawor and Benjamin Darko intends to demonstrate on June 4 and picket at the Ghana Police Headquarters and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). However, according to the police, the demonstration has the potential to disrupt public order and public safety; hence they should reconsider and organize a lawful and peaceful protest". Nation Wreckers Fixing the Country Movement, speaking to the media on Thursday said "we're honestly at a loss at how idiotic these political self-seekers who are mere politicians of fortune and their enablers have been. We're also appalled by the reckless behavior of these guys and by the lack of respect shown for our institutions, constitution and our law enforcement". "This anarchist of an activist pretending to believe in Democracy described our military as "USELESS," and because the "useless" military has abstained from partisan politics and conducted themselves professionally, he will do the coup himself. He also posted a random video of a burning V8 vehicle with the caption "Has the REVOLUTION started?" And this same guy is asking the police administration to allow him demonstrate with weapons. Ladies and gentlemen, how would you describe this recklessness by Oliver Barker-Vormawor and his gangster friends? Oliver Barker-Vormawor is a shameful example of what is wrong in Ghana as a country, he spewed rhetoric that so many believe willingly, that has no basis in fact. He, along with those that support him needs to be held accountable. Warning The group has meanwhile, cautioned Oliver Barker-Vormawor to "take heed...lest he follows the corpse to the grave like the stubborn fly". "In the words of the great French Military and Political Strategist, the man widely considered one of the greatest military generals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte, in politics, stupidity is not a handicap. He also averred that there are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind. Let Oliver Barker-Vormawor take heed of advise and listen to these words of wisdom, lest he follows the corpse to the grave like the stubborn fly". Read the group's statement below Statement By Fixing The Country Movement At A Press Conference Held On Thursday 02/06/2022 In Accra On June 4 demonstration. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we are compelled to assemble you here once again to do justice to some pertinent issues. We have become aware of a letter from the police administration detailing the request made on the state by a group of NDC-aligned elements including Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Mensah Thompson, Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah and Captain Smart. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what these nation wreckers are basically seeking to do is to stage demonstrations for four consecutive days with their own armed security detail. They essentially want to demonstrate with their registered weapons and they're prepared to come with their private security, and they are also forcefully demanding to be allowed to address the Nation with their grievances on GTV. As a matter of fact, these nation wreckers are asking the state to look on while they engage in total madness with guns on the street. In other words, they're calling for total anarchy. Thankfully, the Police in a clear language has told the group that the PUBLIC ORDER ACT, 1994 ACT 491 does not make room for such prepositions. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, although we recognize the importance of the constitutionally protected rights to assemble and protest, Fixing The Country Movement abhors and rejects the acts that perpetuate systemic violence and undermining of institutions of state. It is horrific and ultimately tragic to note that there are people in this country who want the disruption of the relative peace that we're enjoying. The Fixing The Country Movement cherishes the free speech right of the people peaceably to assemble to share their grievances. But that this whole demonstration has nothing to do with "peaceably assemble." Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of this gang, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, an appendage of the John Mahama led NDC is already facing treasonable charges for threatening a coup detat. He's seeking to use this opportunity to follow through with his coup rhetoric. This anarchist of an activist pretending to believe in Democracy described our military as "USELESS," and because the "useless" military has abstain from partisan politics and conducted themselves professionally, he will do the coup himself. He also posted a random video of a burning V8 vehicle with the caption "Has the REVOLUTION started?" And this same guy is asking the police administration to allow him demonstrate with weapons. Ladies and gentlemen, how would you describe this recklessness by Oliver Barker-Vormawor and his gangster friends? For us, we're honestly at a loss at how idiotic these political self-seekers who are mere politicians of fortune and their enablers have been. We're also appalled by the reckless behavior of these guys and by the lack of respect shown for our institutions, constitution and our law enforcement. These so-called Fix the country gangsters are calling for accountable governance but their hearts and minds are stained with impunity. Oliver Barker-Vormawor is a shameful example of what is wrong in Ghana as a country, he spewed rhetoric that so many believe willingly, that has no basis in fact. He, along with those that supports him need to be held accountable. Ladies and gentlemen, all over the world, throughout history, the treatment against traitors to a nation has always been the same: arrest swiftly, prosecute vigorously, sentence harshly. These gang should be treated the exact same way. We must stand togetherregardless of political party or point of viewto condemn this irresponsible behaviour, and to uphold, protect and defend our homeland Ghana. My father's people have this saying that "no matter how beautiful a coffin looks, no one at the funeral wishes for death." Oliver Barker-Vormawor and company needs to be told in plain words that their conduct warrant psychiatric evaluation. No sane person engages in such recklessness in the name of public advocacy. Let it be on record that the only legitimate means of changing our government is through the ballot box. The only acceptable form of governance in this 21st century is through democratic elections. It is the only way to install and the only way to change an administration. The days of coups and government without votes are over. Ghana is held in the highest esteem as the first post-colonial country to gain independence and the first African country to hold multi-party elections by universal suffrage. Ghana is the first, true African democracy. As such, the INVISIBLE GHANAIAN YOUTH are on red alert to protect and defend the constitution and deal with any recalcitrant elements seeking to undermine our democratic gains. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, Martin Luther King Jr., American Baptist Minister, led the struggle against racial discrimination in the 1960s, inspiring supporters with the power of his rhetoric. He advocated the principle of non-violent protest, affirming that opposition should be tackled with compassion rather than aggression. That's the essence of public advocacy. We engage in advocacy for a positive transformation and not endless whingeing and calls for coup detat. Citizens are entitled to call for accountable governance and leadership but in doing so, we must watch out for people who have hidden agendas and pretending to be more Patriotic than the rest of us. In the words of the great French Military and Political Strategist, the man widely considered one of the greatest military generals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte, in politics, stupidity is not a handicap. He also averred that there are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind. Let Oliver Barker-Vormawor take heed of advise and listen to these words of wisdom, lest he follows the corpse to the grave like the stubborn fly. Enough is Enough. Signed; Ernst Kofi Owusu Bempah - Political Strategist and Convener of fixing the country movement 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 Friends of the Port Harcourt big girl who died from a plastic surgery, have shared video of the doctor allegedly behind the process being confronted. A young lady named Christabel allegedly died at the hospital in Lagos few days ago. Her friend claimed on Twitter that before Christabel's death, she complained to the clinic that did her surgery that she was bleeding. The friend claimed the clinic told Christabel it was a normal post-surgery experience and the bleeding will stop. Sadly, it proved fatal. She said when friends didn't hear from Christabel for days, they searched at the hospital where she went for the surgery and the hospital allegedly gave them a letter showing that her body has been deposited at the morgue. The friend said the hospital didn't contact any of Christabel's relatives to let them know of her death, until they went to the hospital. A friend of the deceased shared a video of the doctor alleged to have conducted the surgery being confronted with the caption "Wicked goat, look at the doctor, he took my friend's life". Watch the video below... View this post on Instagram A post shared by Follow @Ghanafuo_ho_nsem2 (@ghanafuo_ho_nsem2) 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 organisers of the Ghana Music Awards France have announced a shortlist of its nominees for the maiden edition set to take place on July 23, 2022, in Toulouse, France. The nominations feature some tough competition in the 27 categories, including Artiste of the Year, which has the likes of Sarkodie, KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Diana Hamilton, Kofi Kinaata, Fameye, and Black Sherif. This years awards ceremony, themed Portraying Ghana Through Music, seeks to expose Ghanaian music to an international audience, especially those in France. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra, Madam Annie Sophie Ave, French Ambassador to Ghana, said Ghanaian artistes deserved the maximum support because of the talent they possessed. When I arrived in Ghana, I realised the amazing talents Ghana had, coupled with the catchy hit songs, and I thought we had to take it to France because the French people found Ghanaian songs amazing. Your artistes are your best ambassadors and I think they deserve to be put out there. I have been following a few of them who are having a blast in Europe and it was for this major reason that I needed to support them, especially with the organisation of such events, she said. Mr. Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey, popularly known as Abeiku Santana, Chairman of the Ghana Music Awards France, lauded the French Ambassador for her tremendous support for the arts industry, suggesting that she deserved a statue for her contribution to Ghanaian music. Artiste recognition is one of the forces driving music globally, and I believe Ghana Music Awards France as a project will contribute highly to the existing bilateral relationship between Ghana and France, and will also deepen our prospects with regard to our tourism products with music at the forefront. Music tourism is a huge contributor to our music dispensation and with the rise of globalisation, the tourism and the travel industry have also seen expansion, and I can confidently say music is the driving force, Abeiku Santana said. The astute broadcaster urged corporate Ghana, the government, and other stakeholders to come on board and support the vision of taking Ghanaian music internationally because it had the talent to reach the pinnacle of world music. Madam Mavis Osah Frimpong, Founder of Ghana Music Awards France, stated that the idea of holding awards gala in France began 15 years ago as she sought to contribute her quota to the growth of Ghanaian music. 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 Soil Factory, a large, unremarkable warehouse on the southern edge of Ithaca, has become a collaboration center in 2021 for students, scientists, artists, community members and everyone in between. Credit: The Soil Factory Solving societal problems such as climate change could require dismantling rigid academic boundaries, so that researchers from varying disciplines could work together collaborativelythrough an "undisciplinary" approach, a new Cornell study suggests. Instead of rallying around a specific mission, it's best to incorporate a human approach and fixate on the process to find solutions. The work published May 16 in Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. "The research topic is remarkably unimportant as motivation to engage in collaboration, which flies in the face of relying on engagement merely around an important crisis such as climate change," said co-author Johannes Lehmann, Cornell's Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "Collaborating among disciplines effectively is much more about how to approach problems, finding a common way of interacting. That was intriguing," he said. "In academia, we may want to question the way 'disciplines' constrain a common vision." In the paper, the authors recount how the Soil Factory, a large, unremarkable warehouse on the southern edge of Ithaca, became a collaboration place in 2021 for students, scientists, artists and everyone in between. The Soil Factoryonce an actual soil factoryhosted classes, art installations and exhibitions, experiments in the bionutrient circular economy, Friday night film screenings, salons, chats, outdoor concerts and panel discussions. It dissolved academic boundaries and participants began having conversations about scientific perspectives and community engagement. Through unstructured workshops, the authors found that who participates tends to be less important than how they interact. "It's refreshing to be in spaces with people who aim to cross boundaries in their work," said co-author Verity Platt, professor and chair in the Department of Classics in the College of Arts and Sciences, who has an interest in the environmental humanities. Traveling between science and the arts is inspiring. "Since I work on ancient Greece and Rome, crossing these boundaries helps me think about bigger questions," Platt said. "And it has helped me better reach students majoring in the sciencesbut who may be interested in the arts and humanities." For Rebecca J. Nelson, professor, School of Integrative Plant Science and the Department of Global Development (CALS), one of the original researchers behind the Soil Factory notion, the factory is a node on a much larger network. "Our network in and around Ithaca has brought together a wonderful and diverse cast of characters, who come together to work on different things for different reasons, with intersecting interests around environmental issues and a willingness to explore and learn from each other," Nelson said. "One theme that intrigues meas well as several of the scientists and artists who spend time at the Soil Factoryhas to do with excreta (human waste) and the circular bionutrient economy," Nelson said. "It's a taboo topic that has a lot of potential to address a snarl of contemporary crises. Our local network connects with a global one that actively engages people in the U.S., India, Kenya and elsewhere." To test the impact of undisciplinary approaches as drivers for engagement, after the workshops the researchers confirmed their results at the Soil Factory experimental center. Lehmann said the results clarified the importance of both synchronous and asynchronous interactions in a common spacelike the Soil Factorylarge enough to allow uninhibited ideas flow. "Our process suggests that universities may benefit from tolerating a more-porous structure on behalf of their faculty, staff, student body and especially surrounding communities," Lehmann said. The learning, sharing and catalytic social and intellectual action was understood to have been emergent from the university. Lehmann said, "The trick behind getting diverse stakeholders from different disciplines into breaking down academic silos is decentralization, dispersion and undisciplining." Explore further New soil models may ease atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change More information: Andrew Freiband et al, Undisciplining the university through shared purpose, practice, and place, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2022). Andrew Freiband et al, Undisciplining the university through shared purpose, practice, and place,(2022). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01195-4 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Because environmental justice screening tools will affect community members impacted by disproportionate environmental burdens, soliciting input from the environmental justice community is crucial to developing and using screening tools, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. A key takeaway from the research is that meaningful input from those affected by environmental pollution needs to be at the center of the decision-making process and incorporated into environmental justice screening tools, which help identify communities disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards. "Obtaining the input of affected communities, whose expertise in environmental justice issues has developed over decades of advocacy, will be key as state governments set out to address environmental injustice and consider the development of EJ screening tools," said Delia Mayor, one of the study's co-authors and a graduate of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. "Without their input, states risk creating tools that don't accurately reflect the challenges of impacted communities and don't address environmental injustice as experienced by affected residents." In March, the state of Michigan released the draft Michigan Environmental Justice Mapping and Screening Tool (MiEJScreen), which is based on a prototype developed by Mayor, Laura Grier and Brett Zeuner when they were U-M master's students. In the new study, which used Michigan as a case study, the researchers partnered with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition to conduct 30 in-depth interviews with environmental justice advocates in the state of Michigan, including affected community members, professionals and academics. The researchers sought community views about the relevant environmental, socioeconomic and health-related challenges that impacted communities across Michigan, and how screening tools would best reflect those challenges. They also wanted to understand what environmental justice advocates perceive to be the potential benefits and concerns of a Michigan-specific environmental justice screening tool. "Through our interviews, we heard that members of low-income and nonwhite communities live through disproportionate levels of pollution, and they experience the impacts of pollution on top of other socioeconomic and health-related challenges," including emotional and psychological effects like stress, burnout or depression, said Grier, one of the study's co-authors, who is also a graduate of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. These environmental, socioeconomic and health-related challenges are not always accurately reflected in advocacy and decision-making tools that are currently in use, Grier said. Therefore, "developing state-specific environmental justice screening tools is one opportunity to reflect the cumulative impacts of environmental exposures and incorporate cumulative impacts into advocacy efforts and environmental decision-making processes." Mayor said their research can serve as a model for other states considering an environmental justice screening tool. "We use Michigan as a case study. However, the findings we present are relevant to any state interested in developing a tool, while the research process we used can serve as a model for gathering community input," she said. "Interviewees were clear that a screening tool needs to be accompanied by strong policy in order to advance environmental justice, so we are eager to see how Michigan (and other states) puts their screening tool to use." The findings were published online June 1 in the Environmental Law Reporter. The other co-authors are Zeuner and Paul Mohai, a professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. Explore further Study: Lessons learned from environmental justice screening tool development and resistance More information: Community Input on State Environmental Justice Screening Tools. Community Input on State Environmental Justice Screening Tools. www.elr.info/sites/default/fil general/52.10441.pdf Researchers cooled superfluid helium-3 to near absolute zero (minus 273.15C) inside this rotating refrigerator, where two time crystals were created and brought into touch. Credit: Aalto University/Mikko Raskinen Scientists have created the first "time-crystal" two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics. It comes after the same team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of matter. Time crystals were long believed to be impossible because they are made from atoms in never-ending motion. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, shows that not only can time crystals be created, but they have potential to be turned into useful devices. Time crystals are different from a standard crystallike metals or rockswhich is composed of atoms arranged in a regularly repeating pattern in space. First theorized in 2012 by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek and identified in 2016, time crystals exhibit the bizarre property of being in constant, repeating motion in time despite no external input. Their atoms are constantly oscillating, spinning, or moving first in one direction, and then the other. EPSRC Fellow Dr. Samuli Autti, lead author from Lancaster University's Department of Physics, explained: "Everybody knows that perpetual motion machines are impossible. However, in quantum physics perpetual motion is okay as long as we keep our eyes closed. By sneaking through this crack we can make time crystals." "It turns out putting two of them together works beautifully, even if time crystals should not exist in the first place. And we already know they also exist at room temperature." A "two-level system" is a basic building block of a quantum computer. Time crystals could be used to build quantum devices that work at room temperature. An international team of researchers from Lancaster University, Royal Holloway London, Landau Institute, and Aalto University in Helsinki observed time crystals by using Helium-3 which is a rare isotope of helium with one missing neutron. The experiment was carried out in Aalto University. They cooled superfluid helium-3 to about one ten thousandth of a degree from absolute zero (0.0001 K or -273.15 C). The researchers created two time crystals inside the superfluid, and brought them to touch. The scientists then watched the two time crystals interacting as described by quantum physics. More information: Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals, Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30783-w Graphical abstract. Credit: Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2021.12.021 In this new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, researchers discuss emerging vaccine nanotechnology. Looking retrospectively at the development of humanity, vaccination is an unprecedented medical landmark that saves lives by harnessing the human immune system. During the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, vaccination is still the most effective defense modality. The successful clinical application of the lipid nanoparticle-based Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines highlights promising future of nanotechnology in vaccine development. Compared with conventional vaccines, nanovaccines are supposed to have advantages in lymph node accumulation, antigen assembly, and antigen presentation. They also have unique pathogen biomimicry properties because of a well-organized combination of multiple immune factors. Beyond infectious diseases, vaccine nanotechnology also exhibits considerable potential for cancer treatment. The ultimate goal of cancer vaccines is to fully mobilize the potency of the immune system as a living therapeutic to recognize tumor antigens and eliminate tumor cells, and nanotechnologies have the requisite properties to realize this goal. In this review, the authors summarize the recent advances in vaccine nanotechnology from infectious disease prevention to cancer immunotherapy and highlight the different types of materials, mechanisms, administration methods, as well as future perspectives. Explore further Vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna can be combined More information: Chan Feng et al, Emerging vaccine nanotechnology: From defense against infection to sniping cancer, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (2022). Chan Feng et al, Emerging vaccine nanotechnology: From defense against infection to sniping cancer,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2021.12.021 Provided by Compuscript Ltd Pellikka and his group at Taita in 2018. Farmer Francis dug a pit in order to collect rainwater for his croplands in the lowlands of Taita. Credit: Petri Pellikka Earth Change Observation Laboratory, a research group operating at the Taita Research Station in Kenya and on Kumpula Campus in Helsinki, investigates environmental change with the help of field surveys and remote sensing datasets. For investigating the water cycle in Africa, the Taita Hills in Kenya offer an excellent location. In this region, a significant share of the water originating in the atmosphere is mist. The forest soil absorbs water more effectively compared to fields or pastureland. Ground litter slows down the flow rate of water, and the roots of trees make the soil porous. When the mist comes into contact with trees, leaves, branches and the mosses that grow on them, they capture the moisture and the water falls to the ground in drops. "The research group's findings can be generalized to apply to sub-Saharan Africa, as the Taita-Taveta county can be considered a model of the continent," says Professor of Geoinformatics Petri Pellikka from the University of Helsinki. Because of varied elevation, the landscapes and land types in the region range from arid savanna grassland to humid cloud-covered forests. A total of 60% of the county is conservation area. Greenhouse gas emissions are lowest in natural bushland Sheila Wachiye, a Kenyan doctoral researcher, will defend her doctoral thesis on greenhouse gas emissions and the land-use types of the Taita-Taveta county on 3 June on the University of Helsinki's Kumpula Campus. In Wachiye's doctoral thesis, which is currently being examined, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released from the soil of near-natural bushland was found to be lower than from areas adopted for other types of land use. These include grazing land, cropland, sisal plantations and savanna grassland in conservation areas. Natural bushlands as a land type also sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it in wood. The reduction of trees also increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with fewer trees to bind the compound and at the same time store it as wood. "We are shooting ourselves in the foot by clearing forests and bushland for food production," Pellikka says. According to Pellikka, the surface temperatures of the soil rise, less water is bound by vegetation and the habitats for insectsthe pollinators of agricultural cropsare reduced. Conservation is not always good Conservation can also have an adverse effect on ecosystem services. Because of heat, large numbers of mammals, elephants in particular, use the leaves and bark of trees as food in addition to grass, killing the trees. This generates savanna grassland. In the doctoral thesis of Edward Amara from Sierra Leone, the biomass of woody vegetation on both sides of the boundary were compared using laser scanning data. The boundary is steep, with the conservation area offering less biomass and trees as well as biodiversity and habitats for insects pollinating agricultural plants, among others. Forests are also important producers of volatile gases. When condensed in the atmosphere, these gases act as a nucleus for humidity that ultimately generates rainif not over the forest, then elsewhere. However, the humid mountain forest patches in Taita are too small to generate rain. Nevertheless, the first white clouds always appear over the forests. Change in land use accelerates climate change In SmartLand, a recently concluded project funded by the Academy of Finland, the topic of research was a model of climate-smart agriculture and landscape in the Taita Hills and the surrounding plains. With the help of satellite images, it was found that clearing bushland into open field elevates soil temperatures, with less water evaporating from the field into the atmosphere compared to bushland. In the ongoing ESSA project funded by the European Commission, measurements carried out by Temesgen Abera demonstrated that the clearing of forests and bushland into fields elevates land surface temperatures both during the day and at night, whereas changes in land use elevated surface temperatures only in the daytime. According to Abera's measurements, the temperature of the land surface averaged 8 degrees lower beneath bushland or the forest canopy than above the canopy measured by satellite in the same location on the Taita plains. In the future, research related to food security will be conducted also at the Taita Research Station. Together with Laura Alakukku and Janne Heiskanen, Pellikka will launch a project investigating the potential for agricultural adaptation to climate change in the different elevation zones of the Taita Hills as well as from the lowlands to the central highlands of Kenya as a whole. The project will be funded by the Academy of Finland. The findings of Pellikka's research group are expected to indicate that the loss of natural vegetation increases temperatures in the soil, on the land surface and in the air, while decreasing the sequestration of carbon dioxide from the air by trees and the storing of carbon in vegetation. The dizzying rate of population growth in Africa necessitates a boost in food production. While elsewhere in the world this is carried out through agricultural technology, the means used in sub-Saharan Africa is the clearing of agricultural landwhich, according to research, accelerates climate change. In this light, African agriculture should be intensified not through field-clearing but with irrigation systems, fertilizers and pest control agents, logistics chains, and other technical solutions. Explore further Acacia bushlands prevent climate warming in Eastern Africa Xi sends condolences to Bolsonaro over severe floods in Brazil Xinhua) 07:56, June 02, 2022 BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent a message of condolence to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro over severe floods that have caused heavy casualties in the country. In the message, Xi said he was shocked to learn of the major floods in northeastern Brazil, which had caused heavy casualties and property losses. The Chinese president offered his deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families as well as to the people in the disaster-hit areas. He also wished the injured an early recovery. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Thermal image of the divided bumblebee colony: left with glyphosate, right untreated. Credit: Anja Weidenmuller Bumblebee colonies exposed to glyphosate are significantly affected in times of resource scarcity. Dr. Anja Weidenmuller, biologist at the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz, describes this finding in a study published in the journal Science. The decline of insects, and in particular pollinating insects, threatens ecosystems and economies around the world. The dimensions are staggering: Between 1989 and 2016, the biomass of all flying insects in Germany decreased by 76 percent, according to the Krefeld study (2017). The ever-increasing use of pesticides in agriculture is considered a driver of this phenomenon. The world's most widely used herbicide glyphosate may contribute more to this development than was previously known. Dr. Weidenmuller is studying the ability of bumblebee colonies to regulate the temperature of their brood. Bumblebee colonies that have sufficient nectar available as 'fuel' keep their broods at a constant temperature of about 32 degrees. "Just as we humans keep our body temperature constant, the animals in a colony collectively show homeostasis in the temperature regulation of their brood," says Weidenmuller. This joint thermoregulation is of outstanding importance for colony development. Only at such high temperatures does the brood develop quickly from egg to bumblebee and the colony from a single queen to a colony of several hundred individuals. The current study shows a clear impact of glyphosate on the collective thermoregulatory capacity of bumblebee colonies. Time pressure for bumblebee colonies when resources are scarce "When resources become scarce, you see very clearly that the collective thermal behavior of colonies that have been chronically exposed to glyphosate is affected," says Weidenmuller. "They cannot keep their brood warm for as long." This effect is the main result of her study, which she conducted together with four researchers from the University of Konstanz, the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz and the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. "Bumblebee colonies are under really high pressure to grow as quickly as possible within a short period of time," says Weidenmuller. If they cannot maintain the necessary brood temperature, their brood will develop more slowly or not at all. This limits the growth of the colony. "Only when they reach a certain colony size during the relatively short growth period are they able to produce the sexually reproductive individuals of a colony, i.e. queens and drones." Divided bumblebee colony: left with glyphosate, right untreated. Credit: Anja Weidenmuller Reproduction endangered In times of resource scarcity, however, bumblebee colonies contaminated by glyphosate are less able to keep their brood warm, if at all. Due to the predominant agricultural landscape in Germany, fewer wild flowers are available to insects, resulting in increased resource scarcity. "The combination of resource scarcity in cleared agricultural landscapes and pesticides can therefore pose a massive problem for colony reproduction," says Weidenmuller. Rethinking the approval procedure for pesticides "It's worth taking a closer look," Weidenmuller emphasizes. So far, approval procedures only test how many animals have died after being fed or coming into contact with a substance after 24 or 48 hours. "Sublethal effects, i.e., effects on organisms that are not lethal but can be seen, for example, in the animals' physiology or behavior, can have a significant negative impact and should be taken into account when pesticides are approved in future," she says. In her study, the bumblebees exposed to glyphosate also lived an average of 32 days, thus reaching an average bumblebee age. Glyphosate is currently approved for use in the EU until 15 December 2022, according to information from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The Glyphosate Renewal Group (GRG) applied for renewal in 2019. In principle, Weidenmuller's research approach can be applied to all pesticides. For many of the commonly used pesticides, such as other herbicides and fungicides, we still know next to nothing about their effects on wild bees and other pollinators, she says. In our discussion of future agricultural approaches, test procedures used for assessing the risks involved with our heavy use of chemicals should be reconsidered. Explore further Bumblebees' nutrition influences their pesticide resistance More information: Anja Weidenmuller, Glyphosate Impairs Collective Thermoregulation in Bumblebees, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf7482 Journal information: Science Anja Weidenmuller, Glyphosate Impairs Collective Thermoregulation in Bumblebees,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abf7482 "Honey bee colonies must collect and store foraged pollen and nectar to support a large population and continuous brood-rearing over the growing season, so changes in colony weight are closely tied to changes in food availability over time," said Gabriela Quinlan, postdoctoral scholar in entomology at Penn State. Credit: Courtesy Natalie Boyle, Penn State Warm, wet weather conditions and changing climate negatively influence the nectar intake and nutritional health of honey bees, but maintaining large tracts of grassy natural habitat with flowering plants around apiaries may help to mitigate the detrimental effects of climate, according to a new study by an international team of researchers. The pollination provided by bees and other insects is critical for crop production and ecosystem health, but some wild and managed pollinator populations have declined significantly around the world, the researchers noted. A major driver of these declines is loss of habitat and flowering plantsthe food sources for pollinatorslikely due to climate change and shifts in land use. "However, the effects of land cover can be specific to a particular location," said lead author Gabriela Quinlan, postdoctoral scholar in entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Previous research looking at the influence of land cover, weather and climate on bee health found a greater impact from weather and climate," she said. "But no studies have monitored colonies over sufficient time and space to determine how climate and weather interact with landscape quality to affect honey bees' ability to gather nectar in North America." A variety of factors affect the availability of flowering plants across locations and time periods, Quinlan explained, so researchers needed a standard, low-effort method for surveying honey bee colonies' intake of food resources. They found that the use of automated hive scales can provide colony-level measurements of hive performance by monitoring changes in honey bee colony weight within and across days and seasons. "Honey bee colonies must collect and store foraged pollen and nectar to support a large population and continuous brood-rearing over the growing season," she said. "So, changes in colony weight are closely tied to changes in food availability over time. This colony weight data may be a proxy for estimating landscape-level flowering resources." To estimate the relative importance of climate, weather and land cover on flowering plant resources, the researchers combined hive scale data from several honey bee studies spanning five years, 162 apiary locations and 644 colonies in seven statesMichigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin. They focused on the period of late summer nectar flow in July and August, a critical time when colonies must collect sufficient resources to survive the winter. For each apiary, the researchers obtained temperature and precipitation data and quantified the total areas of various land covers within a 2-kilometer radius, which is the average foraging distance that honey bees travel. Land covers were categorized as grass crops, woody-herbaceous crops, grassy-herbaceous natural land, woody natural land or developed land. The team performed a statistical analysis to model the maximum weight gain of colonies across the region, taking into account land cover, weather and climate variables. The researchers, who published their results recently in Environmental Research Letters, found that colonies gained an average of almost 20 kilograms (nearly 44 pounds) in July and August and that colonies in wet and warm climates had the lowest weight gain compared to colonies in cool, dry climates. "There was a positive correlation between the proportion of grassyherbaceous natural land around the colonies and greater colony weight gain, indicating that this type of land cover can help moderate the detrimental effects of warm and wet climates," said study co-author Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of Penn State's Center for Pollinator Research. "Our data indicated that grassyherbaceous land can enhance colony weight gain by up to 3.5 kilograms across climates," she said. "On the other hand, woody natural land was negatively correlated with rates of colony weight gain." For colonies in warm and wet climates to gain weight comparable to the worst-performing colonies in cool and dry climates, grassyherbaceous land must account for more than 25% of the land area within 2 kilometers of the apiary, Grozinger noted. The researchers said that long-term monitoring across climactic zones using hive scales could offer a wealth of information on which climates support the most productive floral communities for bees and how the ranges of these plants may shift as the climate continues to change. "Based on our findings, better models could be developed using climate and weather data to predict outcomes for honey bee colonies ahead of the growing season to help support beekeeper decision making," Quinlan said. "Land managers could also improve floral resources for managed and wild bees by preserving grassyherbaceous land covers and planting climate-resilient mixes of flowering species across the northcentral United States." Explore further Study reveals important flowering plants for city-dwelling honey bees More information: Gabriela M Quinlan et al, Grassyherbaceous land moderates regional climate effects on honey bee colonies in the Northcentral U.S., Environmental Research Letters (2022). Journal information: Environmental Research Letters Gabriela M Quinlan et al, Grassyherbaceous land moderates regional climate effects on honey bee colonies in the Northcentral U.S.,(2022). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac7063 Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study has exploded four common myths around human trafficking in Australia, debunking the perception that offenders are exclusively male, foreigners, unknown to their victims and use physical force to control them. The stereotypes, perpetuated in the media, popular culture and by governments, couldn't be further off the mark, according to University of South Australia anti-trafficking researchers Kyla Raby and Dr. Nerida Chazal. Citing international and Australian trafficking statistics in a journal article published in Anti-Trafficking Review, the UniSA researchers show that women play a key role in human trafficking, not just as victims, but offenders as well. "Of 25 people convicted of human trafficking in Australia in 2021, 14 were men and 11 were women," Raby says. "Some of those female offenders were leaders, some were former victims, and some were in relationships with male co-offenders." The popular narrative that most trafficking victims are unknown to their victims is also rejected. Dr. Chazal says women usually bond with male traffickers through a common background, language, friendship and nationality, where trust and often an intimate relationship is established from the outset. "This trust is then exploited by traffickers using subtle, coercive, psychological controlnot physical violenceto co-opt them into sex work and slavery." And while violence is part of this mix, physical force is not commonly used to recruit and control victims. Social, economic and geographical isolation are used instead. The pervasive stereotype that human traffickers are foreign and carrying out their activities overseas, is also dismissed. "The myth that trafficking is rooted in foreign cultures and international travel is perpetuated through American films and popular culture," Raby says. "However, a report published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2020 found that 74 percent of convicted traffickers were citizens of the country where the offences took place." The researchers cite two recent cases in Australia, in 2021, involving sexual exploitation and allegations of slavery and servitude involving 'home grown' male and female offenders. One case involved a 35-year-old man and two 23-year-old womenall white, Australian citizenscharged with multiple offences relating to a sexual slavery ring. Stupefying drugs were used to control the victims' living, financial and work conditions. The other case related to a 40-year-old Australian man arrested and charged with keeping six women as sex slaves on a remote property in NSW. "Despite numerous reports about the man over several years, and blogs and videos documenting his treatment of these women, neither the police nor the public recognized this situation as slavery," Dr. Chazal says. "It took years for the man to be charged, mainly due to the stereotype around trafficking as a foreign or cross-border issue, and a lack of understanding of the central role that coercive control plays in facilitating trafficking. "In both of these cases, psychological coercion was present, including allegations that offenders used substances to control victims and ensuring the women were completely dependent on the offender." The researchers say narrow stereotypes surrounding offenders can have dangerous implications and that authorities need to have a better understanding of coercive control in trafficking. Explore further Human trafficking in Europe disproportionately affects women, little spent on specialised support for victims More information: Kyla Raby et al, The Myth of the 'Ideal Offender': Challenging persistent human trafficking stereotypes through emerging Australian cases, Anti-Trafficking Review (2022). Kyla Raby et al, The Myth of the 'Ideal Offender': Challenging persistent human trafficking stereotypes through emerging Australian cases,(2022). DOI: 10.14197/atr.201222182 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain One suggested way to save humankind in the event of a deadly pandemic or other extreme global catastrophe is establishing a safe refugeon an island or in such far-out places as the moon or under waterwhere a portion of the human population can stay alive. A new paper published in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that a refuge is a viable concept and may not need to be geographically isolated or in an exotic location. In their analysis, the authors explore how and why both China and Western Australia served as successful refuges during the first two years of the pandemic. Seth Baum, a geographer and executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute in Washington, D.C., and Vanessa Adams, a geographer at the University of Tasmania, conducted a case study of China and Western Australia, both political jurisdictions that share their borders with others yet managed to keep COVID-19 infections low. From March 2020 to January 2022, China's estimated cases per 100,000 people were 1,358 compared to 98,556 in the United States and 142,365 in India. Western Australia's official cases were 48.8. Previous research has shown that island nations like Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand are good candidates for a refugebased on their success in keeping COVID-19 infections low in the first nine months of the pandemic. (A pandemic refuge is a place with low medical risk where a pathogen has not spread significantly.) The new study, covering nearly two years of the pandemic, suggests that geographic isolation (or being on an island) is not a prerequisite for a pandemic refuge. "China is a very clear case in point," says Baum. "It has succeeded despite having the world's longest land border." In their paper, Baum and Adams examine both the differences and similarities between China and Western Australia. China is authoritarian, collectivist, and heavily populated in the most populous region of the world. Western Australia is democratic, individualist, and sparsely populated in one of the most remote regions of the world. Yet the two jurisdictions are similar in other, important ways. Both have a high degree of centralization and a high capacity for self-isolationChina via its authoritarian government, Western Australia via its social isolation and strong economy driven by a booming mining industry. Both also have strong in-group cohesion and have been highly motivated to avoid pathogen spread. Both China and Western Australia have also maintained extensive trade with outside places throughout the pandemic. "This is encouraging because it suggests that pandemic refuges can provide a high degree of economic support for outside populations during pandemics, an important element for achieving the global objective of refugesthe continuity of civilization," says Baum. "Pandemic refuges are a risk management policy concept worthy of serious consideration," adds Adams, "alongside other public health measures such as vaccines and physical distancing." Explore further New Zealand could be lifeboat to save humanity from extinction in a catastrophic pandemic, researchers say Provided by Society for Risk Analysis Credit: CC0 Public Domain Nothing drives hurricane experts crazier than the sentiment, "Oh, it's just a Category 1." It's not just an annoying attitude, it's a deadly one. Hardly a hurricane season goes by without a fresh example of a low-category storm causing more trouble than people expected. Last year, Hurricane Ida swept from Louisiana to New York, killing 87 people. But more people died in the Northeastwhere the remnants of the storm, not even a tropical depression at the time, caused catastrophic flash floodingthan in Louisiana, where Ida hit as a Category 4. Sixteen years earlier, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in nearly the same spot, cementing its place as one of the most destructive hurricanes in modern history. More than 1,800 people died. It was "only" a Category 3. Scientists have long argued that the familiar Category 1 to 5 system that hurricane watchers are familiar with doesn't do a good enough job explaining the risk of a storm. And they've proposed all kinds of new ways to categorize them. "If Katrina is a 3 on a 1-to-5 scale, then that scale is broken. We need to do something else," said Phil Klotzbach, a Colorado State University meteorologist. The main problem is that the scale, developed by Coral Gables civil engineer Herbert Saffir and National Hurricane Center director Robert Simpson in 1973, was only designed to categorize storms based on wind speed. But that's not how the public sees it. "It's effectively morphed not just to be the wind threat but all threats from a hurricane," Klotzbach said. And there are many. Hurricanes and tropical storms not only can bring devastating strong winds, but also high waves of storm surge, flooding rains and even tornadoes. With another "above-average" six-month hurricane season starting June 1, scientists like Klotzbach wonder if a new category system could better explain the tremendous danger these storms carryand help save lives. New indexes and scales suggested The issue some scientists have with the Saffir-Simpson scale is that the wind speeds don't necessarily translate on land. They're usually measured thousands of feet in the air with hurricane hunter planes while storms are over the ocean. "You're never gonna find a 150 mph wind sustained on land," Klotzbach said. "The minute that storm goes on land that wind doesn't exist anymore." And one measurement doesn't speak for the whole storm. Hurricanes aren't a single point. They cover a huge swath, with the strongest winds usually on the eastern side of the direction a storm is moving. That's where an alternate metricthe Integrated Kinetic Energy scalecomes in. It ranks storms from a 0.00 to a 4.99 based on the energy of a storm's entire wind field. Scientists say it offers a more realistic picture of a storm's total strength. There's also the Cyclone Damage Potential Index, which scores storms 1-10 based on wind speed, size of the storm and how fast it's moving. That can be helpful for differentiating between a storm with a high-wind speed that zooms by and a weaker one that lingers in one spot for longer. Private industry is in with the alternative scales, too. In 2019, Accuweather introduced the RealImpact Scale, a six-point scale that evaluates wind speeds, storm size, flooding potential and the population of the area a storm is expected to strike. Klotzbach favors a 1-5 scale based on barometric pressure, which drops as a storm strengthens. Hurricane hunters measure pressure by dropping a sensor into the heart of the storm that beams data back to researchers as it falls. In a 2020 paper, he and other researchers found categorizing storms based on pressure correlated better with damage and deaths than wind speed alone. They also found that this scale matched closely with the real impacts of older storms; it didn't register any powerful storms as weaklings, or vice versa. "That's my argument. Simplicity," he said. The role of rainfall For Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia's atmospheric sciences program, the biggest problem with the current hurricane ranking system is rain. He pointed to Hurricane Florence, which came roaring toward the Atlantic coast as a Category 4 but collapsed to a Category 1 before coming ashore in North Carolina. When the category downgrades made news in 2018, some residents decided to ignore earlier evacuation orders and stay put. But rain and storm surge from the weaker storm still caused record-breaking flooding that killed dozens and left hundreds in need of rescue evacuations. Over a career of research, Shepherd has found that small storms can pack a huge punch in terms of rainfall, one that storm watchers only paying attention to categories may be unprepared for. "We get all geared up as we should for Cat 3, 4, 5 but often the most impactful in terms of rainfall can be a tropical storm," he said. "I see debates on Twitter all the time, is it a Cat 2 or a strong Cat 1? And I'm saying it doesn't matter, the impacts are the same." Shepherd and other researchers proposed a metric to address this problem, one that goes alongside hurricane categories. They call it the "extreme rainfall multiplier." Researchers found that historic storms fell between a 1 and a 7 on the scale. Hurricane Florence ranked 5.7 on the day it made landfall, the second highest of any historical storm after Hurricane Harvey. Shepherd said the scale could be used for all rainstorms, not just hurricanes. People die every year after driving on flooded roads and bridges because they don't understand the danger. "Until we fundamentally amplify the risk of flooding and water in general for rainstorms, that's always a backdrop challenge to conveying hurricane risk as well," he said. 'A pretty institutionalized thing' The fact that the Saffir-Simpson scale doesn't accurately convey the danger of a storm is no mystery to the experts at the National Hurricane Center. But it's hard to do away with one of the most recognizable scales in the world. "It's a pretty institutionalized thing; even if we choose not to make use of it, people are going to talk about it," said Michael Brennan, branch chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the hurricane center. In defense of Saffir-Simpson, Brennan said it works well for ships and some of the more mountainous Caribbean islands, where the major threat of a storm is the winds. And besides, there's no main contender for a replacement. "There's really not any other single scale that would encapsulate all the risks in a way that would be easy to communicate to the public," he said. Instead, the hurricane center's approach has been to de-emphasize the scale and focus on individual hazards. The center has launched a map that shows the estimated arrival time of hurricane-force winds and another that predicts how much storm surge a community might see. The hurricane center has also debuted a new set of storm surge watches and warnings alongside its hurricane watches and warnings. "If you tell someone it's a letter X storm, what does that person do about that? It doesn't tell them anything about it," Brennan said. "How do you get actionable info to people that they take the appropriate action on." 2022 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Nighttime view of Hurricane Ida making landfall in Louisiana on August 30, 2021, as seen by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season has officially started, and NASA scientists are working with partners at NOAA, FEMA and other organizations to help communities prepare for these storms and respond to their aftermath. To gain a better understanding of how hurricanes are intensifying and becoming stronger in the face of climate change, NASA is developing technology and missions to study our home planet as a complex, dynamic system. But what's the recipe for hurricane formation, and how is the behavior of these storms changing as Earth's long-term warming trend continues? NASA research answers these questions to help you understand how excess heat in Earth's oceans is changing the way hurricanes form and evolve. 1. What's the recipe for a hurricane? The general name for "hurricanes" is tropical cyclones. Outside the United States, people also call these storms typhoons or simply cyclones. In short, tropical cyclones are storms with winds swirling rapidly around a center of warm air. Hurricanes depend on four main ingredients to form. First, they need heat or energy stored in the upper layer of the ocean. This ocean heat content powers a storm similar to how fuel powers an engine. Second, they need high humidity in the air, achieved by evaporation of ocean waters above 79F (26C). As this humid air rises and interacts with cooler air above, it creates and grows increasingly larger clouds and thunderstorms. Third, hurricanes need favorable winds. At different heights in the atmosphere, these winds need to be weak enough to avoid ripping the storm apart. Fourth, hurricanes need background rotation to organize scattered thunderstorms into one larger storm that spins increasingly faster into a cyclone's characteristic spiral form. Some of this spin comes from Earth's own spin as it rotates around its axis. 2. How does climate change interact with a hurricane's ingredients? Ocean heat, air humidity, windall these ingredients factor into hurricane formation. And all are affected by climate change. The map above shows sea surface temperature anomalies on July 14, 2020 indicating how much the water was above or below the long-term average (2003-2014) temperature on that same day. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory The ocean has absorbed 90% of the warming that has occurred in recent decades due to increasing greenhouse gasses, and the top few meters store as much heat as Earth's entire atmosphere. But the way winds interact with this heat or energy in the ocean also plays an important role in the fate of a storm, explained Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "If you get a storm moving over a shallow layer of warm water, the stronger winds can mix up the ocean enough that it pulls up that deeper, colder water, and reduces the energy available for the storm," Braun said. "However, if the depth of the warm layer is fairly large, the storm can't really tap into that cooler water, so there's less chance of that cooler water acting to weaken the storm." Changes in wind speed and direction at different heights, called vertical wind shear, can make or break a hurricane. It can impede storm formation by dispersing heat and moisture. If it's strong, it can also break apart an existing storm by blowing its top away from its bottom. "Let's say you've got an environment where at low levels, the winds are out of the east at five miles an hour, and at the top, they're out of the west at five miles an hour," Braun said. "You've got winds trying to move the storm in different directions as a function of height, and that tends to tilt over the storm and potentially rip it apart." In future climate projections of hurricane behavior, wind shear is the biggest wildcard, as it may weaken or strengthen storms in different regions. Research suggests some areas of the world might get stronger winds than others as a result of global warming, but it is uncertain how that will play out. 3. Does climate change mean more hurricanes each season? No. Even though a warm ocean is a key ingredient for hurricane formation, research shows this warming has not significantly influenced the number of Atlantic hurricanes that form each year. The map above shows the tracks of all 30 Atlantic storms in 2020, highlighting a few of the named storms. Three of themEta, Iota, and Deltasaw their winds intensify by at least 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour in 24 hours. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory However, because projections suggest that as the ocean warms the atmosphere will also hold more moisture to form clouds and feed storms, scientists are anticipating stronger and wetter hurricanes in coming years. That is, although oceanic warming isn't yet increasing the frequency of hurricanes, this excess heat appears to be affecting different characteristics of hurricanes that do form. This is why Dr. Mayra Oyola-Merced, an atmospheric physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, encourages people living in places constantly exposed to hurricanes to follow guidance from local authorities before a storm hits. "We know that in terms of a warming climate with increasing sea surface temperatures, we have a higher probability of hurricanes in the extreme portion of the scale," Oyola-Merced said. "Sometimes even though it's a Category 1 storm, you can get a lot of damaging rain, winds and storm surges that can put lives and property in danger." 4. How is climate change affecting hurricane intensity? Research suggests that with rising temperatures, it will be more likely that storms will undergo rapid intensification, which is defined as an increase in hurricane wind speeds by 35 mph (or about 56 kilometers per hour) within 24 hours. These quick changes can leave local authorities and communities in the path of a hurricane without time to prepare. Already, rapid intensification appears to be one of the major influences of a warming ocean on hurricane behavior. While rapidly intensifying storms occurred less frequently in past decades, the Atlantic is now producing about one of these storms per season, Oyola-Merced said. And as this phenomenon has happened more often in recent decades, scientists are just beginning to understand how to predict it. "The reason we don't know much about that is because until around 2005, this was a very rare thing to happen," Oyola-Merced said. "This gets tricky because if you have a forecast when something like this happens, and the model is not able to capture this rapid intensification, it means that you have the wrong information, and you're giving the public the wrong information." Natural color image of Hurricane Iota in the Gulf of Mexico from NOAA's GOES-16 geostationary satellite. Credit: NOAA/NASA Earth Observatory 5. Is climate change slowing down hurricanes? Yes. In recent decades, hurricanes have been stalling more as they approach coasts, dropping more rainfall over confined locations. Research shows Atlantic hurricanes are experiencing a reduction of roughly 17% in forward motion speeds than in previous decades, which translates into an increase of about 25% in rainfall, Oyola-Merced explained. "The longer a system spends over the ocean getting warm by now this extremely heated water, you're also going to increase its rainfall," Oyola-Merced said. "When you have land that's already saturated, where it's constantly raining, and then you come with another storm that's packed with precipitation, it's a recipe for disaster." With data from more than 20 satellites, NASA plays a foundational role in hurricane science. Before, during, and after a hurricane strikes, NASA satellites are in a prime position to identify impacts and help communities prepare, respond, and recover. With tools like the Disasters Mapping Portal, the agency supports regional governments and disaster management agencies. When it comes to operational forecasting, NASA's main role is through its crucial partnership with NOAA. NASA designs, builds, and launches NOAA's suite of satellites that provide the data that specifically feed numerical weather prediction models. Location of ecological sites and settlements across the Bird's Head Seascape. Ecological treatment sites (n = 59) are represented by white circles, ecological control sites (n = 28) are represented by green circles, and settlement sites (n = 32) are represented by yellow diamonds. MPAs are bounded in blue. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl8929 A team of researchers affiliated with multiple entities in Indonesia and the U.S. has found that allowing Indigenous people to participate in management of protected marine areas is more effective than simply assessing penalties for violators. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their study of the volume of biomass in several parts of Bird's Head Seascape in Indonesia, which is part of what is known as the Coral Triangle. Over the past several years, officials in Indonesia have recognized the need to protect parts of the sea surrounding their many-islanded nation. To that end, they have designated some areas as wholly protected and others as multiuse marine protected areas (MPAs), which means that they are protected in general, but fishing and some other activities by some people is allowed. Also, some MPAs are protected by laws that prohibit certain activities such as taking more than a certain number of fish; other MPAs are protected by the Indigenous people that live there. In this new effort, the researchers looked at the two approaches to determine which works best. The approach involved analyzing a decade's worth of data from entities working in the Bird's Head Seascape area. The data covered hundreds of sites in four specific MPAs where fishing by Indigenous people is allowed. To measure the degree of protection at a given site, the team used the amount of fish biomassthe total mass of all the fish in a given area. Biomass measurements were obtained via questionnaires, discarded fishing equipment and camera surveillance. The team then compared the total biomass in a given area over time with the way the area was managedby penalties or by Indigenous people running things. The researchers found larger sustained amounts of biomass in areas controlled by Indigenous people compared to those controlled by state officials doling out penalties for infractions. The researchers suggest that allowing Indigenous people to manage MPAs is a better approach than heavy-handed penalties. They further suggest that more MPAs should be handed over to Indigenous people as a means for protecting coastal areas throughout Indonesiaand perhaps other parts of the world. Explore further Overfishing and other human pressures are severely harming marine protected areas worldwide More information: Robert Y. Fidler et al, Participation, not penalties: Community involvement and equitable governance contribute to more effective multiuse protected areas, Science Advances (2022). Journal information: Science Advances Robert Y. Fidler et al, Participation, not penalties: Community involvement and equitable governance contribute to more effective multiuse protected areas,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl8929 2022 Science X Network When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States in early March 2020, the James B. McClatchy Foundation was in the midst of hosting roundtables to better understand our community in Californias Central Valley and the organizations serving it. While many foundations engage in this process, we believe these conversations are critical to the impact of our work, as it helps us understand what is happening in our community while building relationships and trust with key partners. Even as COVID-19 case numbers began to rise and shutdowns were announced, our new chief impact officer, Misty Avila, was deep in the field, hosting meetings with community leaders. As the foundations CEO, I felt responsible for her safety in the face of this new public health threat; after a few moments of wrestling with what to do next, I called her and asked her to cancel her appointments and return home. It soon became clear that this crisis would directly affect our work and our lives. We paused our community roundtables. Rather than just shifting in-person meetings to virtual ones and continuing with our plan, we took a moment to recognize how this global event was impacting the communities we cared about. At the end of March, we convened our community of grassroots leaders and sincerely asked the only question that really mattered: How are you doing? I look back at that defining moment as the cornerstone of our work. At that meeting, one of the leaders shared that by standing in a food line with a client, he was also able to do some census outreach. This act of caring, combined with activism in that same moment, helped me to gain a deeper understanding of what grassroots activism means. It means acting on an unselfish drive to seek out opportunities, even in grim conditions, to improve peoples lives, because the future matters. While this leader was helping an elder navigate an unfathomable crisis, he also saw a future in which an accurate census count could help that elder. And as funders, we need to act in a similar fashion.... Read the full commentary by Priscilla Enriquez, CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation. (Photo credit: Getty Images) HUDSON FALLS Hudson Falls police had responded earlier in the day for a report of a domestic incident at a Meadow Road residence, where a man later died by suicide after firing at officers. David Greenwood died after a standoff with police at his 23 Meadow Road residence. Hudson Falls Police Chief Scott Gillis said Wednesday that police had been called to the residence earlier on Saturday for a domestic incident and an order of protection was issued preventing a woman from having contact with Greenwood. The woman went back to the home at around 10 p.m. A neighbor, who asked a Post-Star reporter to not mention her name, said that the woman came to her porch to call police. The woman said she had been locked out for the second night in a row and was planning to move to Michigan as her relationship was ending. The neighbor said authorities had responded to the residence before, but not two nights in a row. Police arrived about 10 minutes after the woman called. The officer was talking to the woman in the front of the house when Greenwood fired two shots from the backyard in the officers direction, the neighbor said. At that point, the officer grabbed the woman by the arm and pulled her behind his SUV to safety, according to the neighbor. The officer grabbed a service rifle. Gillis said the officer observed Greenwood pointing his rifle at him. The officer jumped for cover and a round went off, Gillis said. Gillis said he is unsure whether Greenwood fired a handgun in the direction of the officer or up at the sky. After a shot was fired, about 40 officers from the Hudson Falls Police Department, the Washington County Sheriffs Office, the Warren County Sheriffs Office and state police responded to the scene, according to Gillis. The Hudson Falls Fire Department also assisted in shutting down roads such as Meadow and other surrounding streets including Lark Street, Spruce Street, Brook Road, Circular Drive, Burgoyne Avenue between Pearl Street and Burgoyne Avenue and Maple Street between Spruce Street and Burgoyne. Residents had been advised to stay indoors. Another neighbor said he saw police take positions on roofs and yards across the street. Greenwood fired about 10 shots during the course of the standoff, according to Gillis. At one point, Greenwood apparently took cover in a shed in the backyard. Bullet holes could be seen in the door following the incident. The New York State Police Special Operations Team and Warren County Special Emergency Response Team were dispatched in addition to state police crisis negotiators. Police reached Greenwood on the phone multiple times during the course of the standoff, according to Gillis. He had made several threats against law enforcement and himself, Gillis said. State police deployed its armored vehicle to the scene. They were able to knock out a front window and fly a drone in and thats when he was found deceased by the drone, Gillis said. No one else was hurt. No police officers discharged their weapon during the incident, Gillis said. The incident was declared over by about 5 a.m. Sunday. It was 7 hours of pure hell, the neighbor said. Greenwood did not have a valid permit for the weapon, according to police. Gillis said he contacted the state Attorney Generals Office, which is going to do an independent investigation of the incident. Under a law that took effect in April 2021, the Attorney Generals Office of Special Investigations assesses every incident reported to it in which a police encounter results in the death of a civilian. Gillis said he is pleased with how police responded. Thats what training is for still nerve-wracking, but youre able to keep yourself calm, he said. Michael Goot is night and weekend editor of The Post-Star. Reach him at 518-742-3320. 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. SEARSBURG, Vt. Vermont State Police have arrested a man on a murder charge in the 2019 death of a Ballston Spa woman following the identification of her jawbone and other remains found in a gravel pit. Deven Moffitt, 32, of Bennington was taken into custody on a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday in the death of Jessica Hildenbrandt, 43, police said in a news release. Detectives determined that Hildenbrandt and Moffitt had been in a relationship while Moffitt was incarcerated in Vermont on a previous conviction, police said. Moffitt has been jailed without bail and was scheduled for an arraignment Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. Police said their investigation goes back to Sept. 17, 2019, when a man reported finding what appeared to be a human jawbone at a gravel pit in Searsburg. Police eventually found more remains at the site. In July 2020, the Vermont Forensic Laboratory identified the remains as those of Hildenbrandt through DNA analysis. The Vermont Chief Medical Examiners Office ruled her death a homicide that September. In March 2019, Hildenbrandt reported to the Windsor County States Attorneys Office and later to state police that she feared for her life if Moffitt were to be released from prison, police said. A detective interviewed Hildenbrandt, but she ultimately stopped cooperating with the investigation, and law enforcement was unable to pursue the matter further, police said in the news release. In the course of the complex, lengthy investigation, detectives spoke with numerous witnesses and associates of Hildenbrandt and Moffitt; analyzed cellphone calling, text-message and location data; executed digital search warrants; and reviewed call records from the Department of Corrections, the news release said. After the discovery and identification of Hildenbrandts remains, the Vermont State Police learned that Hildenbrandt had posted bail for Moffitt on July 8, 2019, in a newly filed criminal case. Evidence in the Hildenbrandt case indicates she was killed in mid-July 2019, police said. The race for the Democratic nomination in the new 44th Senate District, which includes all of Saratoga County, offers a choice between legislative experience and life experience. As a Schenectady County legislator, I fight for the things we care about: thriving schools, high-quality child care, safe roads and bridges, more sidewalks, reliable health care for all our communities, and rising to the challenges of climate change with courage and optimism, said Michelle Ostrelich of Niskayuna, one of two candidates. I have that lived experience that gives me a full grasp on issues that my constituents might come to me with, said Thearse McCalmon of Schenectady, the other candidate. As I move up, I am going to bring my constituency with me. McCalmon said she got interested in politics when she and her family were homeless in 2003. We experienced a lot of discrimination a lot of fiery hoops I call them to try to get back on our feet, she said. She thought at the time that there must be a more efficient way for people to get help. She volunteered on several political campaigns, and worked for one session as an aide to state Sen. Neal Breslin, D-Albany. Her first bid for elected office was a Democratic primary for Schenectady mayor in 2019, which she lost by 105 votes. That energized me to keep going, she said, leading to an unsuccessful run for state Senate in 2020 and now her current run. She now is an adult education instructor at BOCES, working with students who are preparing to take the GED examination. Ostrelich, a former health care, labor and business lawyer who took time off from her career to raise her children, was appointed to the Schenectady County Legislature in 2019, and won election to the seat that November. She is chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee. Ostrelich said serving as a county legislator provides good perspective for serving in the Senate. Ive seen the many mandates and funding streams that hinder or help our progress of the county here, she said. In 2020, Ostrelich co-founded the Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare, a public interest organization to monitor the merger of Ellis Hospital with Trinity Health, and to advocate for the interests of patients as the merger process continues. Our role was really to educate folks on the merger, she said. The group was able to identify a new health care organization to run a dental clinic that was going to be shut down as part of the merger, she said. McCalmon said that Ostrelich switched her party enrollment from Republican to Democratic in 2016. I think what sets us apart is I am actually more progressive. She just recently woke up, McCalmon said. Ostrelich said that her mother worked for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a moderate Republican who was governor from 1959 to 1973. So I was raised in a foundation of what today are Democratic values, she said. Ostrelich said she changed her enrollment because the Republican Party was changing. As a legislator, she has focused on achieving bipartisan consensus on consolidation of local fire and police dispatching into a countywide system, in eliminating overdue fines in the county public library system, and on coordinating public awareness communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theres a real need to have deeper relationships with people to erase the divide, she said. Asked about specific policy differences between the two, McCalmon said the differences are subtle. In health care, for example, I want to make sure that everyone is covered. She says that everyone should have access. Under her policy, the government makes sure that everyone is covered, while under Ostrelichs policy, people must figure out on their own how to get health insurance, she explained. Ostrelich said it is a difference in terminology, not in policy. I dont see a large distinction between our perspectives on health care. I think we see the same problems, she said. Ostrelich said that she, like McCalmon, supports state legislation to establish a universal health care system in New York. It would be the solution to all those cracks and holes, in the system, she said. The challenge, she said, is how to pay for it. The new 44th District includes all of Saratoga County and the city of Schenectady and town of Niskayuna in Schenectady County. Sens. James Tedisco, R-Glenville, and Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, are seeking the Republican and Conservative nominations, running in primaries brought on by redistricting. Tedisco currently represents 15 of the municipalities in the new district, and Jordan nine. Both Democratic candidates have previously run for state Senate, McCalmon in 2020 and Ostrelich in 2018, both losing to Tedisco but carrying the Schenectady County portion of the district. Democrats now have an enrollment advantage in the new district. Maury Thompson covered local government and politics for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He continues to follow regional politics as a freelance writer. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 There is, not inappropriately, uneasiness about the role of social media in the racist shooting that took 10 lives in Buffalo this month. The accused killer absorbed some of the worst impulses of humankind through its channels, which he also used to livestream his murderous assault. Yet the First Amendment protects social media, as surely as it does speech, religion or the press. Combine those factors with Second Amendment excuses that routinely thwart efforts to restrict the spread of high-capacity weapons, and the ability to respond to an obvious public threat can seem beyond addressing. Its not. All our constitutional rights have limits; the challenge is identifying where they lie and then summoning the political will to write them into law. Plainly, there is something to be concerned about. The internet and social media, in particular, are tremendous resources that have benefited billions of people, but they are also enablers of human trafficking, facilitators of exploitation and purveyors of hatred. They are, in a word, neutral unconcerned, at root, with ideas of right and wrong. Like language, itself, they can be forces of light or darkness, depending on the intentions of their users. That, in its extremes, is what social media companies need to come to terms with in the aftermath of the May 14 shooting in Buffalo and similar crimes. If they dont, governments must. In Albany, that work is already underway. Only days after the tragedy, Gov. Kathy Hochul asked Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the online platforms used to broadcast and amplify the acts and intentions of the suspect. Among those James announced she would investigate are Twitch, 4chan, 8chan and Discord. Twitch is owned by Amazon. In traditional private sector media, owners are responsible for what goes out in print, on the air or over the internet. Its called editing, an essential intervening step between writing and publishing. But with social media, there are no intermediaries. The writers are the editors and, with the permission of the platforms owner, they are also the ones to click the button to publish. The only recourse for error or horror is after the fact. Thus, the shooter in Buffalo had no trouble posting a hateful screed about Blacks and Jews and could easily attach a camera to his helmet and livestream his killing spree. Indeed, he knew it was possible, based on the livestreamed murders of 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, three years ago. That attack, he said, was an inspiration to him. Plainly, the existing patterns and practices of social media could make tougher standards difficult to implement, but maybe something in its current configuration needs to change. One way to influence that change is to rethink part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 of that law shields internet companies from liability for users postings, granting them legal protection for good faith efforts to remove in appropriate content. That may have been workable in 1996, but needs to be reviewed, at least as it applies to social media platforms. The Constitution allows room for reasonable regulation. The Constitution protects free speech, for example, but it famously excludes the right to yell Fire! in a crowded theater. It protects freedom of the press, but doesnt permit the publication of child pornography. It enshrines freedom of religion, but not if it violates other laws. Slander and libel can both cost their practitioners, regardless of constitutional guarantees. Limits exist. It would be odd and irresponsible if social media were exempted from them, especially given the demonstrably heightened risk they pose. The same concept, as we noted in a recent editorial, applies to firearms. So concluded one of the Supreme Courts most conservative recent members, the late Antonin Scalia in a 2008 ruling. Its a reflection of the difficulties involved to observe that, while Twitch claims to have taken down video of the Buffalo attack within two minutes, it was still enough time for it to be shared over other social media platforms. It was quickly seen more than 3 million times. Hochul said the stream should have been taken down faster. It should certainly be the goal. In the meantime, social media owners such as Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Amazons Jeff Bezos are billionaires many times over. No one need begrudge them their success. What they can do is to demand there are better controls and accountability. Americans like to think of themselves as problem solvers. Social media has shown itself to be a problem. So is mass murder. We cant continue to simply throw up our hands. Conservatives and liberals both should be able to acknowledge that obvious truth. But they need to do something about it. Looking away can no longer be an option. This editorial was first published in The Buffalo News. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP A skunk retrieved from the 200 block of Pine Avenue has tested positive for rabies, making it Atlantic Countys eighth case this year. The skunk also is the fourth from the township to test positive for the virus since February, county health officials said Thursday in a news release. A homeowner found the animal dead on their property and reported it to animal control, which collected it and sent it to a lab, where it tested positive for rabies Wednesday. The homeowner was directed by the Atlantic County Division of Public Health to confer with their health care provider for treatment needs, officials said. Cape May County vaccinating wild animals for rabies, officials say CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE Vaccine-laden baits for wild rabid animals will be spread across Cape Rabies can be fatal if left untreated. It often is transmitted through direct contact with saliva through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose or mouth, officials said. Anyone bitten by an animal should immediately wash the wound with soap and water and receive medical attention. All bites should be reported to the Atlantic County Division of Public Health at 609-645-5971. A rabies vaccination is recommended for domestic animals to protect both the animal and their owners, officials said. Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin 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. In-person early voting sites open for the primary election at 10 a.m. Friday in seven locations in Atlantic County, three in Cape May and Cumberland counties, and 10 in Ocean County. The hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. No appointments are needed, and voters may use any location in the county in which they are registered. Early voting debuted in New Jersey in Novembers general election and was considered underused. Only about 3.5% of Atlantic County registered voters and 4.6% of those in Cape May County opted to try early voting by machine in its inaugural year, election officials said. The statewide percentage was even lower. Election officials hope that as people get more accustomed to the option they will use it more. In New Jersey, to vote in a primary you must have either already declared membership in a party or be an independent who declares membership when voting. State law requires three days of early voting by machine for primary elections and nine days for general elections. Computerized electronic poll books and new voting machines that can pull up any county voters personalized ballot were purchased to make early voting possible, said Atlantic County Superintendent of Elections Maureen Bugdon. Her office is responsible for overseeing voting machines and poll books, voter registration and registration records, for making sure election law is followed and more. The new electronic poll books can update immediately, preventing a voter from going to a different location and voting again. They will be used in early voting and on Nov. 2, but Election Day voters will use the old, traditional voting machines, Bugdon has said. Drop boxes also are set up around the four counties. They can be used to return vote-by-mail ballots instead of mailing them. Ballots are picked up daily by Board of Elections staff. Locations for every countys drop boxes are available at state.nj.us/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml on the voter information portal. Election officials get a day off on the Monday before Election Day to prepare for opening all poll locations in every town. It's go time! Early voting starts today Its all systems go for the states first in-person early voting, set to start Saturday and The primary is Tuesday. Atlantic County early voting sites Atlantic City: Quaremba at St. Michaels, 10 N. Mississippi Ave. Buena Vista Township: Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center, 661 Jackson Road, Newtonville Egg Harbor Township: Atlantic County Library, 1 Swift Ave. Galloway Township: Galloway Library, 306 E. Jimmie Leeds Road Hamilton Township: Atlantic County Library, 40 Farragut Ave. Hammonton: Hammonton Family Success Center, 310 Bellevue Ave. Northfield: Shoreview Building, 101 Shore Road Cape May County early voting sites Lower Township: Lower Township Library, 2600 Bayshore Road, Villas Middle Township: Middle Township Library, 30 Mechanic St., Cape May Court House Upper Township: Upper Township Library, 2050 Route 631 Cumberland County early voting sites Bridgeton: Bridgeton Public Library, 150 E. Commerce St. Millville: Millville Womens Club, 300 E. St. Vineland: Landis Marketplace, 624 E. Elmer St. Ocean County early voting sites Berkeley Township: Berkeley Library, 30 Station Road, Bayville Brick Township: Brick Library, 301 Chambers Bridge Road Jackson Township: Jackson Library, 2 Jackson Drive Lacey Township: Charles A. Smith Community Center, 15 E. Lacey Road, Forked River Lakewood Township: Municipal Building, 231 3rd St. Lavallette: Upper Shores Library, 112 Jersey City Ave. Little Egg Harbor Township: Little Egg Library, 290 Mathistown Road Manchester Township: Manchester Library, 21 S. Colonial Drive Stafford Township: Ocean County Southern Resource Center, 179 S. Main St., Manahawkin Toms River Township: Toms River Library, 101 Washington St. For a full list of locations, visit nj.gov/state/elections/vote-early-voting.shtml. 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. Some hero pups are back home in South Jersey after providing comfort to those impacted by last weeks shooting in Uvalde. Three Jersey-based dogs and handlers of Crisis Canines spent much of the past week in the small Texas town that was shattered by the killings of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. Axel, a Rottweiler from Gloucester Township; Exon, a black lab from Pitman; and Tarik, a German shepherd from Mullica Hill; flew to Uvalde last Thursday and returned Tuesday, said Crisis Canines CEO and President Andrea Hering. They were among several groups of therapy dogs from across the country that attended memorials and visited Robb Elementary. They also went to hospitals; churches; police, fire and EMS departments; and grocery stores. Theyre a sense of comfort. A lot of times counselors want to ask questions. With the dogs, its unspoken communication, Hering said. Sometimes people talk to the dogs or simply hold onto them. Funerals begin: White gloves, small casket, overflow crowd A week after a gunman ran into a Texas grade school and started shooting, the first of 21 funerals began on Tuesday. Hundreds of mourners turned out for an afternoon Mass to remember Amerie Jo Garza. Six pallbearers wearing white shirts and gloves carried her small casket into Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which turned away several people after reaching capacity. Maite Rodriguezs funeral was scheduled for later Tuesday at one of the funeral homes in Uvalde, Texas. The two 10-year-old fourth graders were among 19 children and two teachers killed when the 18-year-old gunman burst into a classroom on May 24 and began firing a military-style rifle. In Uvalde, handlers reported that even some residents who were fearful of dogs gravitated toward the pups, Hering said. Children in particular are sometimes more likely to open up about trauma in the presence of an animal, she added. These three dogs were chosen to go to Uvalde based on the skill sets of the canines and handlers, Hering said, with the hot, humid environment top of mind. The trio are experienced, she said, with Exon having been dispatched in the wake of nearly every major national tragedy since the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas in 2017. In total, more than 30 New Jersey-area dogs and their handlers are part of Crisis Canines, Hering said, and they work in the community when not responding to larger-scale crisis events. The organization is composed of volunteers who undergo certification and regular training in psychological first aid. They have provided comfort in the wake of more than two dozen other major tragedies, including the deadly shootings at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Davenport man to more than 12 years in prison on gun and drug charges. Julian Darnell Black, 28, must serve 12 years for possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of methamphetamine and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Iowa. Black must also serve five years of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence. Federal court records state that, on June 12, 2021, Black had the drugs and a loaded rifle. The case against Black began while the Davenport Police Department was investigating a domestic incident in which he was considered a suspect. Officers seized two baggies of methamphetamine and the rifle from Black. He pleaded guilty to the charges on Jan. 24 as part of a plea agreement, according to court records. As part of the arrangement, a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm was dropped. 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. Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told a roomful of Eastern Iowa law enforcement on Wednesday he's hopeful the U.S. Senate will reach a bipartisan compromise on gun control legislation. The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley held a roundtable discussion in Davenport with law enforcement leaders from Scott and Linn counties. Grassley said there "is a serious bipartisan attempt that I think can be successful" so long as something more controversial is not thrown into the legislation such as a ban on assault weapons. "I think the most difficult thing to come to is what do you do with eliminating some class of guns?" Grassley said. "Beyond that, I think it's possible to reach almost any compromise that will get 60 votes." Members of the Democratically controlled house are preparing legislation in response to calls for new gun legislation in response to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas. House Judiciary Committee members plan to hold a hearing Thursday on the Protecting our Kids Act a package of eight bills that includes calls to raise the age limits on semi-automatic rifle purchases from 18 to 21 years old; create a grant program to buy back large-capacity magazines; establish voluntary safe practices for firearms storage and build on executive measures to ban bump stock devices and so-called ghost guns made from 3-D printing. The proposal, though, has little chance of passing the evenly divided Senate, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers met this week on a separate proposal to curb gun violence. Both Davenport and Cedar Rapids have witnessed a spike in shootings and gun crimes in recent years. Grassley said a bipartisan compromise on gun laws would be "high on the agenda" for the U.S. Senate as members of Congress grapple again to come to an agreement in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, who's running for a full term as a Democrat this fall, urged to Grassley to support so-called red flag laws. The measures allow local law enforcement with a court order to temporarily prevent someone deemed as a threat from buying or possessing firearms. Maybanks said such laws could be a vital tool to keep law enforcement safe and blunt a rise in gun violence nationwide. "I'm just asking, praying upon you to listen to some of those ideas that may come to you, including the red flag laws and, and some of the limits there might be on purchasing or repurchasing or stockpiling ammunition because we're teetering on the edge of something really more serious happening to our officers being ambushed on a regular basis," Maybanks said. Grassley didn't rule out support for red-flag legislation but worried such measures could result in guns can be confiscated without due process. He called the Second Amendment "very, very important part of personal protection." "With the process of instituting the red-flag law for any individual, make sure that there's due process in making the determination that they shouldn't have a gun," Grassley added. Grassley voted against a proposal earlier this month that would've investigated domestic terrorism threats focused particularly on threats posed by white supremacists and Neo-Natzis. Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski, who participated in Wednesday's roundtable, said keeping guns out of people's hands could make Davenport safer, but that he would leave it up to the federal lawmakers to bring a compromise together. "I know that there are people out there in my community that if we could keep guns out of their hands, it would make our community safer," Sikorski told reporters. "So if our federal partners and legislators can do that ... it would benefit us in our community." In Davenport, gun violence spiked in 2020, prompting the mayor to form a violent crime task force and the city to pursue a Group Violence Intervention strategy, which pinpoints focus on engaging with the fraction of the population that are members of loosely organized groups driving a majority of violence. Other communities, including Cedar Rapids and South Bend, Ind., have implemented the strategy. Davenport recorded 282 confirmed cases of gunfire in the city in 2020. Fifty-six people were shot and eight died. In 2021, that number dropped to 208 confirmed shots fired calls, 50 people shot and six deaths. One issue the department heads underlined was a shortage of law enforcement staff. Sikorski said Davenport has 10 openings it's trying to fill, and when law enforcement departments do fill positions, they are often pulling officers away from other departments or offices. He and other round table members called on Grassley to promote law enforcement as an honorable profession to help generate interest as applications pools shrink and departments struggle with staffing shortages. Sikorski, too, asked for more federal assistance to hire crime analysts to assist investigators in reviewing data from new technology such as doorbell cameras and cellphone data, which proves time-consuming for law enforcement. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell asked Grassley for support for mental health advocates in law enforcement departments, saying a program in Cedar Rapids where counselors go with law enforcement on certain calls has had "real successes." "Addressing mental health, meeting people where they are proactively, if we could get more money for more counselors, that would be awesome," O'Donnell said. The Associated Press contributed to this story. 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. Edith Dawson stepped on a plane for the first time to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She and her family made the trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this week from Mount Vernon, where the 13-year-old joined 233 other kids from across the U.S. to vie for the title of Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. She made it to the quarterfinals before getting tripped up by "torrefaction," which is defined by Merriam-Webster as the act or process of drying or roasting with fire. If Edith had had just a couple minutes more to remember what she knew of the word she only got two minutes before having to give an answer she said she would have figured it out. A group of 40 students were eliminated before the semifinals, Edith among them. But a trophy and title didn't mean as much to Edith as all the knowledge she's gained in trying to win them. "If you work hard enough at something, you can achieve it," Edith said. "I know I didn't make it to the semifinals but I still made it to the quarterfinals, and I feel like I have a much larger vocabulary and words I can spell, and that's what really matters." Erica Dawson, Edith's mother, said her daughter was crushed by the loss, after working incredibly hard over the past couple of months. The whole family Edith's parents and her two younger brothers helped her study thousands of words, meanings and language roots from around the world. "She sets really high goals for herself and she works so, so hard to get there and because of her high standards, it's super disappointing when she doesn't make it there," Erica said. However, Edith said getting knocked out in the morning took a weight off her shoulders, so she doesn't have to be so stressed for the rest of the trip. The family has gotten to go sight-seeing outside of the competition, and Edith has met many kids who love spelling just as much as she does. William Dawson, Edith's father, said all kids should try out spelling bees, as they could have an amazing experience and learn a ton, like Edith has. Edith is already looking to what comes after the spelling bee, her parents said. As she will age out of the competition this year, Erica said her daughter plans to train younger students in competitive spelling, and maybe her younger brothers one day. One of Edith's good friends, Elliot, has actually won more spelling bees, she said, and she wants him and anyone else interested to go as far as she did. "I just want everyone to be able to have this amazing experience," Edith said. Edith's trip to Washington was paid for by the Dispatch-Argus, which also sponsors the local qualifying bee. 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. Two sitting city council members in Scott County are pitching different resumes to voters in a GOP contest for an open state senate seat. Barry Long, a LeClaire city council member, and Scott Webster, a Bettendorf alderman, are running for Iowa Senate District 47, which includes Eldridge, Bettendorf, Riverdale, Panorama Park, and parts of LeClaire and Davenport. Bettendorf doctor Mary Kathleen Figaro is the Democrat running for the seat. She does not face a primary opponent. Long is a Republican union member who was inspired to run for LeClaire city council 13 years ago by Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and said hes with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds agenda 100%. Webster is a home-builder and business owner who has experience in crafting and recommending state policy. There is a little daylight between the two on key issues before the GOP-controlled Iowa Legislature. Both say they support taxpayer-funded scholarships for private school expenses, abortion restrictions and lowering taxes, but differ on how far they'd go. In interviews, however, Long gave a full-throated backing of Reynolds priorities. Webster, by contrast, supported Reynolds priorities with some caveats. Long said he absolutely would support Reynolds proposal for tax-payer-funded scholarships for 10,000 students to pay for private school expenses and would support 100% eliminating Iowas income tax. Right now, I feel that Iowa is in a great position, Long said, citing the states $1.2 billion general fund budget surplus. "I think Iowa right now is very well-run. I support Kim Reynolds agenda 100%. Lawmakers failed to come to an agreement for the second year on the Reynolds-backed bill that wouldve diverted state per-pupil funds for scholarships for 10,000 students to offset the costs of switching to private schools. Webster said he supports using public funds for helping families with private school expenses, but was concerned about sending leftover per-pupil aid to districts with fewer than 500 students, a change Reynolds proposed this year to try to win over some rural Iowa Republican lawmakers who feared the plan would pull students and resources from rural schools. I was concerned with that, Webster said. I don't understand why we would create a bill that would send that $2,500 to rural counties. I would much prefer to see that money stay within that school district. Long said he'd support the educational savings accounts regardless of whether the provision for rural schools was in it. "I don't believe this bill was designed to take away from public schools," Long said. On another Republican priority, asked if he supports eliminating Iowas income tax completely, Webster said: If we had the revenue from other sources to be able to make the state budget work, I would. Iowa lawmakers passed major tax legislation this session that would gradually reduce state income taxes to a 3.9% rate for the vast majority of workers. Lawmakers also eliminated taxes on retirement income. Webster says what differentiates him is his experience on state boards and committees. He is the former president of the Iowa Homebuilders Association and has been a member of the Iowa League of Cities Legislative Policy Committee since 2019. I obviously come from a bigger city than my primary candidate. So I'm used to a little bit bigger budget and a little bit more of the bigger city concerns," Webster said. "I think I can relate with the smaller cities that are within the district because I have relationships there, too." On a local issue, Long emphasized that as a council member, he voted against bringing speed cameras to Interstate 80 near LeClaire. Proponents say speed cameras reduce crashes and make it safer for police departments to enforce speed limits in high-traffic areas. Critics say the speed cameras are an overreach and used as a cash grab by cities and companies that install them. I do not believe in big government, Long said. If I was elected to the Senate, I would sponsor a bill that would ban all speed cameras in the state of Iowa. When asked about speed cameras, Webster said he didnt like them, but they are sometimes used for legitimate safety purposes. I don't think they're a good thing in most cases, Webster said. But some smaller cities may have a use for them in lieu of hiring extra police officers. But if we make a compromise to keep them, it's got to offset property taxes. It's got to pay for public safety. 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. More Davenport homeowners and businesses could receive a tax break for new construction and property improvements under a new proposal. And it's one Davenport aldermen say will provide the city an additional tool in case private investment were to be made in the sprawling city-owned Annie Wittenmyer complex. Davenport has averaged 86 applications annually in the last five years for its Urban Renewal Tax Exemption (URTE). The program seeks to encourage private investment in targeted areas of the city by softening the tax burden that can result from new development and property improvements, by providing a partial property tax exemption over several years. Improvements like a new addition, roof or siding, tend to bump up a property's value, increasing the owner's property tax bill. Large swaths of homes and businesses in central, downtown and southwest Davenport and along major thoroughfares like I-80, Harrison and Brady streets, Locust Street and Hickory Grove Road are eligible for the tax exemption. City officials would add a wedge of Davenport between Telegraph Road and Locust Street, as well as industrial and commercial properties in central and northern Davenport under the proposal. In particular, the city recommended adding the Annie Wittenmyer complex, a sprawling area once home to an orphanage for children of civil war soldiers that the city purchased in 1976 and now houses nonprofits such as Family Resources. On 32 acres of land on Eastern Avenue and E. 29th Street, some buildings on the Wittenmyer complex date back to the 1800s, and maintenance and repairs are ongoing. At-large Alderman Kyle Gripp said adding the Annie Wittenmyer complex to the tax incentive program would be one more tool for the city to address the long-term sustainability of the complex. "It is a significant long term liability to the city," Gripp said. "It has never really reached the point of being a top-five focus for the council. But I would hope in the next five years that the council would be able to address it. And by putting it into the URTE, it would just give us more potential tools as we look at ways that we can keep Annie Wittenmyer there in whatever fashion that looks like for the long term." The city's six-year capital improvement budget includes a $150,000 project to replace the roofs of the Annie Wittenmyer aquatic center in 2023 as well as $75,000 to repair a maintenance building at the complex. Another high-profile property that is already included in the tax exemption program is Amazon's 2.9 million gross square foot robotic fulfillment center in northwest Davenport, which the e-commerce giant has said is delayed until 2024. Aldermen approved Amazon's application in February. According to the county assessor's website, the gross assessed value of the Amazon property so far is $15.6 million, of which the land is worth about $6.18 million and the new building $9.4 million. That means 80% of the increase in property value from construction, about $7.5 million, is exempt from being taxed for the first year. The exemption will continue to be phased out over a period of 10 years, and Amazon is expected to apply for a separate tax exemption upon opening. It's not yet clear how much in taxes Amazon would be exempt from or would pay, but using the Scott County tax calculator, it appears Amazon would pay nearly $260,000 in taxes on $8 million to local entities. The city plans to notify property owners in the proposed new areas July 1. The Davenport city council is expected to hold a hearing on proposed changes Aug. 3. The ordinance would then receive a final vote Oct. 12 to take effect for the Feb. 1, 2023, application cycle, according to the city. "This is tremendously important for an older city like Davenport," said Alderman Marion Meginnis. "I'm glad to see it out into some of the areas where you know the apartments that will need attention, certainly I think this as extremely important. And, you know, it's a wonderful incentive that we have that. Yes, it costs us money upfront, if you look at the taxes, but only if the work is done." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 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. Circuit Judge Robert Gusinsky told Tywon Adams, 45, Youre just trying to look for excuses. Youre trying to minimize what happened here, before sentencing him on Thursday morning at the Pennington County courthouse to 20 years in prison for a third-degree rape he committed in April 2015 in Rapid City. The judge suspended two years and applied three and half years of time served. Adams will also have to pay attorneys' fees, $21.40 in medical fees, $2,676.70 in extradition costs and $18.75 for grand jury costs. Third-degree rape applies when the victim is incapable of giving consent because of any intoxicating, narcotic or anesthetic agent or hypnosis, according to the indictment charging Adams. The victim told a medical professional she had woken up on the floor of a bathroom at a house party with her pants down not knowing what happened. She received a medical examination at the hospital 13.3 hours after the incident and a lab determined her blood alcohol content was anywhere between 0.14 and 0.28 at the time of the assault, according to court records. The legal limit for driving is .08. Lab results determined Adams DNA was present in semen samples collected during the examination, a result the judge said Adams challenged multiple times. Deputy States Attorney Rachel Snyder said Adams will have to serve 75% of his sentence before being eligible for parole. The earliest Adams could be out of prison would be 2038. Gusinsky noted that the reason Adams has so much time served is because he delayed court proceedings. Adams went through eight defense attorneys and absconded in 2017 for two years before being extradited back to South Dakota in 2019. The judge said some of those attorneys had to withdraw for reasons outside of Adams' control, but that he had physically threatened his seventh attorney, causing the judge to have to remove him as counsel. He has done everything in his power to tie up the court system, the victims father said in his statement to the court at sentencing. The father said he specifically chose not to address Adams because he is incapable of taking responsibility, but spoke to the court instead. He told the judge he felt Adams was purposely trying to run out the clock in county jail so he wouldnt have to serve as much time in the state penitentiary where offenders like him are on the lowest level. Ultimately he could not outrun his day of judgment, he said. (Adams) is a criminal narcissist incapable of empathy, compassion and taking responsibility. The 31-year-old victim, who was 23 at the time of the assault, chose not to speak at the sentencing hearing. She attended through video teleconference because she had since moved out of South Dakota. Snyder referenced the two years Adams absconded, the violent nature of the crime, Adams lack of remorse and him not knowing the victim, which she argued increased the possibility he would re-offend in the future. Gusinsky spoke to the results of Adams psychological-sexual evaluation before announcing his sentence. He said the doctor wrote in his report that Adams was defensive, portrayed himself as virtuous, and Adams minimization exceeded an acceptable level. Thats the story of this case: minimization, Gusinsky said. The judge said Adams lied to police and claimed he never even had sex with the victim. After a jury convicted him, he admitted they did have sex but refused to acknowledge that it was non-consensual and claimed he was wearing protection at the time. That makes zero sense, so youre not truthful with the court, said Gusinsky, who added that people who are remorseful and accept the consequences are less likely to re-offend. Gusinsky also referenced Adams' prior felonies, which are four or five. The judge said the number was unclear because some of those felonies occurred in another state. He said he sentenced Adams as if he had four prior felonies to ensure that he gave him the benefit of the doubt. Adams defense attorney, Matthew Stephens, did not paint Adams in a particularly positive light. Stevens said Adams psychological-sexual evaluation pointed towards narcissism but not sexual deviance, and that he is of average propensity to re-offend. Stephens said Adams is an opportunist, the type of person who would walk through an alley, find an unlocked car and break into it, but that he's not at risk to seek out a similar crime. He requested the judge to consider suspending some of his sentence, so Adams would be under supervision when released. If parole wanted, they could keep a better eye on him, Stephens said, when the judge asked him to speak to what assurance the court would have that the community would be kept safe if Adams was out on parole. After taking a short break to speak with his attorney privately, Adams addressed the court. I dont have the vocabulary to try to get forgiveness. No matter what I say it wont change the judgment or what people want to think about me, Adams said. He stated that hes not a monster and that he does have good qualities. He vaguely apologized to the victim and her parents, but did not admit guilt. Im sorry for what they think about me, he said. Contact Shalom Baer Gee at sgee@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 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 city of Box Elder is set to begin construction Monday on the Box Elder Pedestrian Way, according to the South Dakota Department of Transportation. The shared-use path, a five-foot wide concrete sidewalk, will be constructed along North Ellsworth Road from Frontage Road to Liberty Boulevard, along Liberty Boulevard from North Ellsworth Road to Briggs Street and along Briggs Street from Liberty Boulevard to Patriot Drive. SDDOT reported traffic will be maintained in both directions with temporary traffic control devices and flaggers guiding motorists through the work zone. Work on Briggs Street will require temporary detours to adjacent streets to allow for the construction of the shared use path. Drivers are asked to be aware of workers and drive cautiously through the work zone. The $824,920 project, awarded to Ti-Zack Concrete, Inc out of Le Center, Minn., is scheduled for completion the end of October. Mondays construction will begin phase 1 of a three-phase project. The overall project is estimated at $2.5 million, with phases 2 and 3 taking place in ensuing years, according to Matt Connor, city of Box Elder public information officer. Phase 2 will make use of a $400,000 grant the city received from SDDOT, intended to improve public safety and recreational connectivity for the area. Phase 3 will involve special design considerations, Connor said, to cross over the Route 14/16 divided highway. 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. The campaign manager for Pennington County Sheriff candidate Ryan Mechaley plans to file a municipal code of conduct complaint against Rapid City Council member Pat Jones in response to an opinion column Jones wrote that was published in the Journal Wednesday. Jordan Mason is Mechaley's campaign manager and is also a former city council member. Mason told the Journal Wednesday he feels Jones libeled him in his opinion column. I find it incredibly unbecoming of a city council person and I have already reached out to the city council to talk about a code of conduct complaint for his violation, Mason said. Jones, a council member for Ward 1, wrote an opinion column stating he had been subject to a disturbing campaign tactic. In the column, he wrote Mechaley is one of his former students and the two talked about his run for sheriff. He wrote that he was proud of his efforts and encouraged him to seek the position back in January. Jones wrote it wasnt his intention to endorse any candidate during the election cycle, but saw his endorsement on Mechaleys website and later on campaign mailers in May. He wrote that he contacted Mechaley and told him he didnt give him permission to use his name or photo, Mechaley apologized and said he would speak with Mason and ensure it wouldnt happen again. He said he later heard from Mason that it was too late to remove him from a new mailer and nothing could be done. Mechaley told the Journal Wednesday hes had a relationship with Jones since he was in elementary school. He said he spoke with Jones at an event about medical marijuana and told him he was considering running for sheriff. He said he thought Jones has done a great job as a Ward 1 council member and asked for an endorsement, and sent him the endorsement link. He said all Jones had to do was type what he wanted to say. Mechaley said his staff took Jones biography off of the city council webpage and his picture and published it on the campaign website Jan. 7. Mechaley sent the Journal text message screenshots between himself and Jones from January that show Jones asking for Mechaley to update his biography information regarding his employment. Thank you very much. Happy to give my recommendation, Jones wrote in the text message. The next text message communication shown is from May 20, with Mechaley asking to call Jones and again May 23 asking to visit regarding one of Jones Facebook posts. Jones told the Journal Wednesday that he never intended to offer an official endorsement as Pat Jones City Councilman. He said when he saw his endorsement on Mechaleys website, he shouldve asked for it to be totally removed. I didnt want to have Ryan think Im not being supportive of him in a role as an adult mentor, he said. I decided to let it go. Jones said he called Mechaley May 20 when he found out he was on Mechaley's campaign mailers. He said there was no reason for it to be a confrontation, and it wasnt. He said Mechaley apologized. Jones said Mason called him May 26 stating it was too late to be removed from an upcoming mailer and there was nothing that could be done. Sometimes people mistake my kindness for weakness, but Im not just going to stand by and let this lie perpetuate, Jones said. I want people to know the truth and I have to take every stand I can to make sure the record is correct. In a copy of an email Mason sent to Jones dated May 26, Mason said he sent off the last postcard for Mechaleys campaign to be printed, packaged and mailed at 1:05 p.m. May 17. He said three days later, he heard Jones wanted to retract his endorsement or not have support publicly visible. When Ryan spoke to me shortly thereafter, I told him there was nothing left to send out from his campaign, so there shouldnt be an issue with your picture or endorsement being used any further, Mason wrote. Unfortunately, it has occurred to me that this last mail piece which was mailed on the 17th has not hit mailboxes yet and is now in the possession of the United States Postal Service. According to the email, Mason told Jones it would be the last mail piece with his picture or any association with him, and his endorsement had been removed from the website. For him to indicate that he didnt endorse us, which is what his opinion column clearly is saying, is pretty shocking to me because that recommendation hes talking about was on an endorsement page on a political paid for by website, Mason told the Journal on Wednesday. He said theres been a real public perception of a lack of accountability and trustworthiness in politics. He said when someone makes an endorsement, its like a stamp of approval. Its not uncommon for people to give me a, Hey, I dont know this guy as well as Id like, I wish I knew more, Im not comfortable doing that, Ill give you a no, Mason said. But if they give a yes, then thats a pretty solid deal. Kent Bush, Nathan Thompson and Siandhara Bonnet contributed to this report. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 1 Editor's Note: This article was updated at 10:19 a.m. June 3 to correct an error in the fourth paragraph. Dozens of well-wishers gathered Wednesday afternoon at Rapid City High School to honor outgoing Rapid City Area Schools Superintendent Lori Simon and her six years of leadership in the district. Simon was named superintendent in 2016 and made the decision in February to resign effective the end of the 2021-2022 school year. At the reception Wednesday, Simon told the Journal that she is proud of all of the work the school district has done for students, but said the past two years have been challenging. She specifically said the failure of the 2020 school bond election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the politicization of her job have been difficult to deal with. "As I've reflected especially the last couple of years, you know, I think there's a reason why there's a mass exodus of superintendents right now across the country, because the job for reasons beyond our control became politicized. And that that took a lot of the joy out of the work," Simon said. "None of us mind working long hours, when it's the things that are important. But the last couple of years have definitely been a challenge." Simon said there were mistakes that she, her staff and administrators made through the pandemic, but Simon said the decisions made were always in the students' and staff members' best interest. "With the information I had in any given day, I felt like I did my best to keep my students safe, helping my staff stay safe and healthy, and to keep school in session and kids learning," she said. "Was it perfect? No. When you get to these levels of leadership, you can't second guess your decisions." "You need to know in your heart and your soul and your mind at the time with the information that you have what the best decision for the day is. If you put your students and your staff at the center those decisions, then you can rest easy with the decisions that you've made." Simon said she was proud of seeing the daily growth in students during her tenure. She said when she watches students have special moments in school and that culminating in events like graduation, it brought her great joy and satisfaction. She said she believes she improved working relationships with school staff and opened up new lines of communication that were lacking previously. Simon said she's also proud of the district's strategic plan that was developed during her first year. "That really paved the way for a lot of good work to happen, and I'm really proud of how hard our staff have worked to accomplish really good things for kids," Simon said. She said leaving the school district is bittersweet for her, but it was time to get back to her family and "decompress." "I just need to decompress a little bit and put my husband, and my sons and their wives, and my grandchildren and myself first. It's time to do that," Simon said. Simon said she plans on staying in the Rapid City community and will continue to stay "very supportive" of the school district. She said there are some other opportunities that she's been approached about, "but I'm going to take some time away to just really decompress before I make any future decisions," Simon said. She gave some advice to the person or administrative team that will succeed her in RCAS leadership. "I think first and foremost, listen and learn. These last couple of years have been really hard on everybody. Staff are exhausted. Families are exhausted. We're all dealing with things beyond our control," Simon said. "Listen and learn from our staff, our school leaders, our district leaders, our families, our board members really the entire community. "It truly has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the superintendent of the Rapid City Area Schools. I've loved my time here and wish everyone in the district the very, very best." Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. 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. POWHATAN Max Timberlake Jr. was just a farmer, plain and simple. At least that is how he described himself, even including it as part of the signature on emails he sent. The longtime Powhatan farmer, president of the Powhatan Farm Bureau Federation and all-around advocate for preserving rural Powhatan died May 23 after an illness. He was 75. Timberlake was remembered by friends and family last week for his devotion to Powhatan County, preserving its agricultural history and seeing those traditions live on in younger generations. Timberlake had been president of the Powhatan Farm Bureau since 2013, served on the board of directors starting in 2011 and was a member of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation since 2007, said Charlene Spigler, senior member service specialist for the federation. He used his position to both educate people about agriculture and its role in everyones lives and advocate for ways to celebrate and preserve it. Timberlake grew up in Powhatan, graduating from Powhatan High School in 1965, said Virginia Merle of Powhatan, his sister. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving for three years, including being deployed to Vietnam. She said her brother tested well when he first joined, which eventually led him to a role that saw him dealing with sensitive communications in Vietnam. When he returned, he was stationed at Ft. Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, where he met Kathleen Snoots-Blair. The couple married in 1970 and were together until she died in 1984. They had four children together, Max, James, Betty and Virginia. After leaving the military, he began working for AT&T as a project supervisor responsible for establishing and maintaining communications. He received the Spirit of Service gold award for his work setting up communications after the 1982 tornado in Marion, Illinois. He retired from AT&T after 27 years or service. He was an active member of his community at the Libertytown Volunteer Fire Department as both an EMT and treasurer, a member and treasurer of the Johnsville United Methodist Church, and a member of the Frederick Jaycees. Timberlake returned to Powhatan in the early 2000s to help take care of his elderly parents, Anne Virginia and Max Sr., his sister said. Timberlake and his brother went into the hay business. The more he got involved in the business as a farmer, the more Timberlake expanded his interest in the farming community as a whole and preserving that way of life, Merle said. He wanted to keep the rural character of Powhatan and promote farming for the betterment of everyone, Merle said. He loved educating people on understanding on the whole cycle of where your food comes from. Whether it is dairy farming or hay farming or whatever, there is not much you eat anymore that doesnt come from a farm somewhere, somehow. She added that some people thought her brother was against Powhatan growing. She thought it was more that he just wanted growth in a way that didnt detriment Powhatans history and rural character. Former Powhatan Cooperative Extension agent Johns Bailey said he had known Timberlake for decades, and the two men shared a common interest in promoting agriculture, keeping the county as rural as possible and working with youth in the 4-H and FFA programs. He agreed Timberlake was passionate about reminding the public about where their food comes from that the produce, milk and meat they put in their carts at the grocery store all got its start on a farm. Timberlake lobbied on agriculture issues at the local and state levels and helped forge relationships with other agencies with shared goals, such as the Cooperative Extension and Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District, Bailey said. Those relationships flourished because of the personality he brought to the table. He was just really a good, down-to-earth person with a lot of common sense, a lot of good people skills and communication, Bailey said. He was a good person who would ask questions on different things. He didnt just rubber stamp what somebody else said. He would dig down into it and get to the bottom of something and get to the root of what the issues were. Timberlake was instrumental in working with the board of supervisors to promote a Share the road sign campaign several years ago. He was a huge proponent of the Virginia Century Farm Program, which recognizes and honors those farms that have been in operation for at least 100 consecutive years. Extension agent Rachel Henley recalled how Timberlake embraced the idea of getting more Powhatan farms into the program to recognize their longevity and history. Max took that as his challenge and mission. There might have been one or two at the time, she said. He got it to 13 farms. He personally went to these people and helped them with the application, helped them with all the parts. He wouldnt want the glory for that, because that wasnt him, but it was him. He worked his butt off. For the last few years, Timberlake and former supervisor Carson Tucker had been turning that same type of passion to getting local landowners interested in Agricultural and Forestal Districts, serving on the Agricultural and Forestal Districts Advisory Committee until January 2022, when Timberlake wasnt reappointed. Henley had the opportunity to interact with Timberlake on plenty of projects, including Farm Days held for elementary students and Powhatans Celebration of the Horse and Ag Expo, which lasted five years. Maybe not to everyones knowledge he silently brought people together to better people, whether it was supporting 4-H and FFA, encouraging kids to farm or support of fire and EMS. He was always an encourager, she said. At the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors meeting held May 23, several supervisors spoke about Timberlake and his contributions to Powhatan. David Williams, who represents District 1, said learning earlier that day about Timberlakes passing was a gut punch. After Timberlake became ill, Williams said he started having conversations in the evenings and was grateful to get to know the farmer and fellow Vietnam veteran better. We talked about his experience in Vietnam, I would talk about mine and what was going on in the world back in those times. I have to say I probably got more out of those conversations than he did. I dont mind telling you, it hurts. I really miss him, said Williams, describing Timberlake as a lovely guy who always had a smile on his face, loved his family and loved Powhatan County. Bill Cox, District 4, said Timberlake was a good friend who did more for agriculture and keeping Powhatan rural than anyone he knows. He was a recognized leader in the statewide Farm Bureau family who brought a number of awards to the local organization, a long-time advocate and a hardworking farmer. Beyond what he has done for the county, I am going to miss his laugh Max had a wonderful laugh and I am going to miss him, he said. Cox said later that as kind and affable as Timberlake was, he could also be passionate and fierce. For instance, if someone called a solar facility a solar farm, his eyes would change and there would actually be fire in them. That was his commitment and his emotional love of farming and what it did for people and what it did for the community, Cox said. Wait. Whoa! What? Did she just say what I think she said? Oh yes, you heard her right, and theres plenty more where that came from. So get ready to just sit back and surrender. Because the multitalented comedian Chelsea Handler has a lot on her mind, and shes not afraid to share and even overshare every blunt, piercing, honest detail of her life and times. Scooping up inspiration from her self-described wild-child New Jersey youth and the vagaries of a comedy career that now spans nearly 30 years, Handler has long regaled her stand-up audiences with witty, wry observations on such subjects as flaky girlfriends, pokey airport vendors, questionable intoxicants, narcissistic mothers, annoying traits and habits of the men she meets, and the ongoing ups and downs of her peekachoo (her pet term for lady parts). Handler brings her latest stand-up comedy show, the Vaccinated and Horny tour, to Richmonds Carpenter Theatre at the Dominion Energy Center for a single performance Thurday. This material that Im doing now is just kind of coming off of COVID and how ridiculous we all behaved during this pandemic and all the ridiculous things that we all got up into, Handler said, laughing, by phone from New York, where she recently kicked off her tours summer dates. Ah, COVID-19. Too soon to joke about? Not for Handler, 47, who is unmarried and laughs at how her own hypervigilance during the COVID-19 pandemic actually helped her screen male suitors who visited her Bel Air, Calif., home. I had COVID tests at my home where I would test guys that came over in my backyard, she said. It would take about 30 minutes to run the diagnostics, but during that time, I would use that as sort of an interview time, and if they said anything annoying, or if I saw any man jewelry, I would just tell them, You have COVID, and you need to quarantine for two weeks! The youngest of six kids born to a Jewish father and Mormon mother, Handler remembers growing up in an oddball family that was scarred by the death of her 21-year-old brother, Chet, in a hiking accident when she was 9 years old. But Handlers irrepressible energy, tinged with lasting grief over her brothers death, helped cultivate a brash and quirky independent streak. Boarding a plane to California to attend her grandfathers funeral, for example, Handler recalls asking her parents about the people sitting in the front of the plane. Oh, honey, this is first class, her mother told her. Were never going to sit here. And I was, like, Speak for yourself! Handler recalled. The next time we went away to California, I had saved up all my babysitting money and gotten my own first-class ticket, and when my mom and my sister and I boarded the plane, I sat in seat 1A and said, Ill see you at the end of the flight! By her own account and in stories familiar to her diehard fans Handler spent her teenage years firmly in the fast lane. Once out of high school, she decided to skip college entirely. I just didnt think college was going to be a good use of anyones time the colleges or mine, she said. It was just going to be basically four years of me having a party. And I wanted my life to begin. Plopping behind the wheel of a used Audi Quattro her father gave her, Handler headed west at age 19 with no clear plan. She arrived in Los Angeles and immediately moved in with her aunt and uncle and their nine children. I became their de facto nanny if you can call it a nanny, she said, laughing, because I would take them all to school in the morning in a giant minivan, listening to Howard Stern while I had 6- and 7-year-olds in the car. Handler waited tables for several years and eventually landed a variety of small acting parts. But even as friends and acquaintances delighted by her deadpan wit and kooky takes on daily life kept urging her to try stand-up comedy, she froze at the idea of putting herself out there. But then I thought: Alone? On stage? With a microphone? she recalled. Thats exactly what someone like me should be doing! Im not good at taking direction from a lot of people. Im kind of a one-man show. So I did it, and it was the best decision I ever made, because it just opened up the doors in so many ways for me careerwise, she said. When youre a stand-up, you kind of create the world youre in. Everything is kind of created around you. Any creative endeavor is focused on you. Youre not an actor-for-hire being placed in a role. Youre kind of in charge of your own destiny, so to speak. Ever the character but never a caricature, Handler has grown into something of a comedy overachiever, venturing into multiple television and film projects that have given audiences a more intimate look at her personal life and showcased her talents as an unexpectedly empathetic listener and cultural observer. A 2006 talk show on the E! Network, The Chelsea Handler Show, lasted for two seasons and was followed by Chelsea Lately, an E! late-night comedy series that ran from 2007 to 2014. More recently, Handler took time out from her stand-up work to produce a documentary series in 2016 for Netflix titled Chelsea Does, four one-hour episodes that explored the subjects of marriage, racism, drugs, and the culture of Silicon Valley. That same year, she presented Chelsea, a comedy talk show for Netflix, which ran for two seasons. Handler, who has also written six bestselling books, is currently working on a seventh. She returned in force to the stage in 2020 with Chelsea Handler: Evolution, a stand-up comedy special for HBO Max based on her 2019 book, Life Will Be the Death of Me, that mixes snappy comic skewering with more candid memories of her family and early career. The book is being developed as a television series starring Handler for NBC Universals Peacock streaming platform. Her unflinching and impatient yet surprisingly vulnerable takes on lifes complications have also found a place in the audio universe with her advice-oriented podcast, Dear Chelsea, which began broadcasting in 2021 on iHeart Radio. Still, it is her stand-up comedy performances that bring us Handler at her most unfiltered and frank. I took about six years off from stand-up, but now that Im back doing it, its kind of brought me back to my roots, Handler said. To come back to it at this phase in my life where I do have so much to say, she said, and I am so focused, and Im so dedicated to my craft, and learning that its better to do a couple of things at the same time instead of eight or nine poorly, that its better to do two or three really well, it shows in the integrity of my work, and Im really, really proud of that. So if theres still no telling what this comedy star might say next, what should her stand-up audiences be ready to hear now? Just my honesty. They know Im not full of s---, Handler said, dropping a dose of her trademark salty language. If Im saying something, its because I believe it. Thats what anyone expects from me. Whether you like me or not, Im not a liar, she added. Im a truth teller. And I tell my truth. A suspect being pursued by Hopewell law enforcement was killed Wednesday afternoon after city officers and a federal agent blocked the suspects path with their vehicles and fired shots when the driver confronted officers with a firearm, Virginia State Police police said. At about 12:28 p.m., a slow-speed pursuit was started in Hopewell by a Hopewell sheriffs deputy. During the course of the pursuit, the suspects 2016 Ford Explorer headed north on Temple Avenue, state police Sgt. Jessica Shehan said in a statement. As the vehicle approached River Road, the driver encountered several Hopewell police officers who positioned their vehicles to contain the suspects SUV and end the pursuit, police said. At this stage of the investigation, state police have determined that the suspect pulled his SUV nose-to-nose with the police vehicles, and the adult male driver confronted the officers with a firearm, Shehan said. The Hopewell police officers and an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then discharged their police-issued firearms. The driver died at the scene, Shehan said. His body was taken to the state medical examiners office for an autopsy. State police are withholding the suspects name until his relatives can be located and notified. No law enforcement officers were injured during the course of the pursuit, Shehan said. The incident remains under investigation. State police did not disclose how many officers discharged their weapons and number of shots fired. State police referred questions about the origins of the pursuit to the Hopewell Sheriffs Office. They could not immediately be reached. After the shooting, Prince George police posted a Facebook message about 1 p.m. that Temple Avenue from Oaklawn Boulevard to Puddledock Road was shut down in both directions for an extended time, and urged motorists to avoid the area. State police are investigating the shooting at the request of Hopewell Police Chief A.J. Starke and the Richmond Field Office of the ATF. Police responded to two separate incidents Wednesday in Henrico County in which a student was arrested for bringing a firearm on school grounds. The first incident occurred at Hermitage High School around 11:06 a.m. after a student alerted school administrators that another student was in the restroom displaying a firearm in plain view. The Henrico County Police Division and the school resource officers recovered the firearm from the students backpack. The juvenile faces several charges, including possession of a firearm, possession of a weapon on school property and possession of marijuana. Around 11:41 a.m., police were informed of another incident at Varina High School in which a school resource officer searched a students belongings. School officials said the student had a strong smell of marijuana that prompted the search. The items they discovered prompted a search of the students vehicle, where officials found a firearm. Police arrested the 18-year-old and charged him with possession of a firearm on school property. In connection with said incident, there is no known threat to any school, police said in a news release. Envigo, the Cumberland County breeder that a federal judge lambasted for its torturous abuse of dogs and puppies, has relinquished 446 beagles that authorities seized last month after finding them in acute distress. The disclosure is in a new joint filing by federal officials and Envigo. It seeks to extend Judge Norman Moons temporary restraining order for 14 days so the parties can work out a settlement to satisfy issues raised by the judge and federal prosecutors. The Parties have determined that the best path forward is to work together toward a settlement to address the issues raised in the Complaint and temporary restraining order, the joint motion says. The Parties respectfully request a short extension of time to work out the details of their settlement, which will include non-governmental organizations and other third parties. Agents had already seized 145 dogs as of May 19, when Chris Kavanaugh, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, filed a federal enforcement action against Envigo, asking the judge to halt the breeders violations of federal animal welfare laws and regulations. Two days later, the judge, finding extraordinary relief is warranted, issued a temporary restraining order against Envigos Cumberland breeding facility in an effort to halt its torturous mistreatment of beagle dogs and puppies. Moon ordered Envigo to immediately cease breeding, selling, or otherwise dealing in beagles at the Cumberland Facility, until in full compliance with his order, which requires a long list of corrective actions, including that Envigo provide its dogs quality food, water, shelter and veterinary care. The judge also halted Envigo from euthanizing any beagle at the Cumberland site without the consent of the U.S. Attorneys Office, or a court order if the federal prosecutor does not consent. The new joint motion asked the judge to hold off on a hearing on the preliminary injunction that was slated for Thursday. Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., hailed the news that authorities had rescued nearly 450 beagles from Envigo. Weve spent months pressing the Department of Agriculture to take action against Envigo following its persistent and egregious abuses of animal welfare laws, and are glad to see enforcement efforts come to fruition, the senators said in a joint statement. We will continue to follow this case closely and do everything in our power to prevent Envigo from causing further harm to innocent animals. Envigo had said in a May statement that while it was fully cooperating with federal authorities at the facility, it denies the allegations in the complaint and will vigorously defend against the lawsuit. Daphna Nachminovitch, a senior vice president at PETA, said in a statement: These docile, long-neglected dogs will be spared untold suffering in cruel and deadly experiments, and they can leave behind Envigos relentless stress, sweltering sheds, barren cages, and chronic deprivation of their basic needs. PETA is celebrating a new beginning for these dogs and what we hope will be the end of Envigos horrific hell on Earth for thousands of dogs. On April 4, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation to protect dogs and cats at breeding facilities a bipartisan legislative effort that stemmed from dozens of animal welfare violations at the Cumberland beagle mill. Former House Speaker Kirk Cox will return to Capitol Square in a new role for an old cause the advancement of higher education and its relationship with the needs of Virginias business community. Cox, who retired from politics last year after 32 years in the House of Delegates and an unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, will become president of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council on July 1, following the retirement of longtime leader Donald J. Finley. The council has become an influential partner of politicians and business leaders over the past 25 years under Finley, who served as education secretary under Gov. Gerald Baliles and has worked in state higher education policy for more than 50 years. As president of VBHEC since its founding, Don Finley has served with extraordinary dedication, foresight, energy and grace, Council Chairman Dennis Treacy said this week. His work has improved the lives of all Virginians who serve in, or benefit from, our top-ranked public higher education system. Cox should be an easy fit with the council. A retired high school government teacher, he led a series of major legislative initiatives to boost Virginias colleges and universities, encouraging them to expand degree and credential programs to fill the needs of a fast-changing workforce, but also to moderate tuition increases to make higher education affordable. This is where the business community rightly wanted to go for a long time, he said in an interview on Thursday. Cox, 64, sponsored only one piece of legislation in 2019 during his term as speaker, creating individual performance agreements for colleges and universities to focus on producing degrees for students in fields where business needs skilled talent. The legislation also boosted the Innovative Internship Fund, now known as the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership, which awards grants to colleges and universities to work with businesses to offer internships to students looking for pathways to careers in Virginia. The partnership will receive $13 million as part of a $33 million package of programs in the newly adopted state budget to focus on higher educations role in workforce development. Thats a really good way to jump-start the program, Cox said. The budget includes almost $1 billion in new funding for colleges and universities, including money to hold tuition increases at no more than 3% a year, increase financial aid for needy students, and the states share of 10% raises for college faculty and employees over two years. Those investments align with the business councils Growth4VA initiative, which pushed last fall for $880 million in new state investments in higher education, both to expand access for students to attend colleges and universities and to create opportunities for them to develop the right skills for careers in high-demand fields. This ought to be a major step forward for college access, Finley said in an interview on Thursday. We are extremely pleased with the budget, he added. Finley also is happy with the choice of Cox as his successor. In the last 10 to 15 years, hes been a champion for higher education, Finley said. Hes a great find for the organization. He has relationships that are much more current. Among those relationships is Makola Abdullah, president of Virginia State University in Coxs old House district, chairman of the Council of Presidents for state higher education institutions and a member of the business councils board of directors. Former Speaker Cox has dedicated his life to teaching and public service, Abdullah said in a statement. His personal leadership on major legislative and budget actions for well over a decade shows his deep commitment to higher education and to preparing all of Virginias young people for excellent job opportunities and fulfilling lives. On a personal note, I have long appreciated the dedication, positive spirit, and collaborative approach that Kirk Cox brings to the educational mission, he added. He was the delegate representing Virginia State University for a number of years, and I worked closely with him to bring additional resources to our campus and keep college affordable for our students. For Cox, it was a relatively short retirement from public life, but hes enthusiastic about the business councils mission. I love policy, he said. I really wanted something that was policy-oriented. Illinois announced its first probable case of monkeypox on Thursday one of a small but growing number of cases across the country. This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC) The case is in a male Chicagoan who recently traveled to Europe, according to the Chicago and Illinois departments of public health. The person did not require hospitalization and is in good condition, isolating at home. Advertisement The case remains isolated, and at this time there is no indication there is a great risk of extensive local spread of the virus, as monkeypox does not spread as easily as the COVID-19 virus, according to a news release from the health departments. The city and state health departments are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify people who may have been in contact with the infected person. Initial testing was conducted at an Illinois Department of Public Health laboratory. Advertisement In all, 21 confirmed cases have been reported nationwide, according to the CDC. Monkeypox is a rare viral illness that typically begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes before progressing to a rash on the face and body. The illness typically lasts two to four weeks. It can be spread from person to person through close physical contact with monkeypox sores; items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores, such as clothing or bedding; or through respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to-face contact, according to the state and city health departments. Anyone can get monkeypox, but, so far, many of the cases have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, according to the CDC. People with new, unexplained rashes, sores or symptoms should see a health care provider, and they should avoid being intimate with anyone until the provider sees them, according to the state and local health departments. Confirmed U.S. cases have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Dr. Sharon Welbel expects to see more cases. But that doesnt mean people should panic, she said. Advertisement Chicago should not be worried, said Welbel, Cook County Healths director of hospital epidemiology and infection control and prevention. Monkeypox is less transmissible than COVID-19 and the flu, she said. The virus needs prolonged contact to transmit through respiratory droplets, and the skin lesions that might more easily pass on the disease through contact can be avoided because they are often clearly visible, Welbel said. The monkeypox rash grows to look like a large pimple and often starts on the face, she said. The rash can resemble herpes, chickenpox and syphilis, she said. If monkeypox does spread, an FDA-approved vaccine and several antiviral agents can be used to treat and prevent it, Welbel said. This isnt something that we havent seen before, she added. There have been monkeypox outbreaks outside of Africa in the past. A 2003 outbreak linked to pet prairie dogs that had been kept near imported small mammals from Ghana led to 47 confirmed and probable cases across the U.S., including in Illinois, according to the CDC. In Africa, where the disease is endemic, people have sometimes been exposed through bites or scratches from rodents and small mammals, preparing wild game, or coming into contact with an infected animal or animal products. Though monkeypox has again spread beyond western and central Africa, global cases have not grown exponentially, said Dr. Michael Angarone, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University. Advertisement I think we should be paying attention, but not be concerned at all, he said. And though many of the recent worldwide cases have involved men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with other men, its currently unclear how that factor promotes infection, he said. Other American cases have involved travel outside of the country. People who fall in population groups that have seen more cases of monkeypox and develop a fever followed by a rash should get evaluated by health professionals, Angarone added. The west African monkeypox strain that epidemiologists currently expect is behind the American outbreak has a mortality rate near 1%, he said. Almost everyone recovers from this, Angarone added. While Petersburg officials celebrate the passage of state budget language that they said paves the way for a casino in their community, Richmond officials and the would-be developer of a Richmond casino are decrying the legislation as unlawful. In a news conference Thursday morning, Petersburg leaders, joined by Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, heralded state lawmakers for including a budget provision barring Richmond from holding another casino referendum this November after voters there rejected plans for the nearly $600 million One Casino and Resort last fall. However, in a joint statement a few hours after the event, Richmond officials and Urban One Inc., the national media company hoping to build a casino resort in Richmond, suggested that they might file suit in an effort to let a second casino vote go forward this fall in accordance with an order from Richmond Circuit Court that OKd a new vote and pre-certification from the Virginia Lottery. This retroactive budget language seeks to unconstitutionally invalidate a final Court Order and inappropriately constrain the Virginia Lottery in fulfilling its regulatory authority in the same manner as it has done for other casinos, the statement reads. We will partner with the City of Richmond, including through litigation, to ensure that the people of Richmond have the final say on what happens in their community and that the rule of law is protected. The budget language approved by the General Assembly on Wednesday which would become law upon the signature of Gov. Glenn Youngkin says the city of Richmond cant hold another voter referendum on a casino until November 2023. The provision means Richmond could not hold a second vote on a casino until after a feasibility study Morrissey sought of a potential rival casino location in Petersburg. Were disappointed the Virginia General Assembly has amended the state budget in a way that will deliberately harm the city of Richmond by denying economic opportunities for its residents, said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. We are still assessing our legal options but remain firm in our belief that the citizens of Richmond should not be disenfranchised just months before they would have the opportunity to vote. Under a new state gaming law ratified in 2020, casinos have been approved and are under planning in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville and Bristol. The General Assembly also authorized Richmond to host a casino, but voters in the city narrowly rejected a proposed casino in the November election last year. Morrissey said Thursday that he will introduce legislation in January that will designate Petersburg, and not Richmond, as the Virginia locality that will be able to host the states fifth casino. Richmond leaders want to hold another referendum again this fall, but Morrissey said the new law will block them from doing that. If Richmond tries to take the issue to court, the capital city will face a losing fight and waste its money, Morrissey said. So the [Richmond] mayor, if he is desirous and wants to fight in court, fine. It wouldnt be the first time that hes wasted city of Richmond funds to fight a losing battle, said Morrissey, who lost to Stoney in Richmonds 2016 mayoral election. The city selected Urban One for the referendum last year after soliciting multiple bids for the project. Officials said the proposed One Casino and Resort would generate $30 million in annual tax revenue and create 1,500 jobs. The deal also included an agreement that the Maryland-based media company would immediately pay the city $25 million if voters approved the ballot measure. After it failed to pass last year, Stoney and other officials have sought to retry the vote. In an attempt to sway voters, the mayor and other officials have floated a plan to reduce the citys real estate tax rate by 2 cents if the project passes this fall. Morrissey backed the Richmond casino plan last year but said the voters have spoken and, now, its Petersburgs turn. This is about transforming the city of Petersburg, and for our love and our passion of our city, and what we want it to look like for many decades to come, said Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham, who joined Morrissey at the Petersburg library Thursday. It is time for you to move on, Morrissey said in a message to Richmond leaders. The benefits of a casino to Petersburg far, far outweigh the benefits to Richmond. That includes a 30% to 40% increase in general tax revenue, he said. He and Parham also thanked Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie, for helping secure budget language that advances Petersburgs casino interests. Thanks to fighting Senator Joe Morrissey and our delegate, Kim Taylor, they both worked hard and kept the city of Petersburg at the forefront and got this budget amendment passed, Parham said. Morrisseys office counted the number of lobbyists who worked against the Petersburg language; the city of Richmond, Colonial Downs and Maryland-based Urban One hired 23 lobbyists combined who worked strategically to fight Petersburg, according to Morrisseys office. The states Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission will do the study on Petersburgs suitability to host a casino, Morrissey said. Based on a preliminary study, he said, Petersburg will meet the right metrics. Its location directly off interstates 95 and 85 make it a great spot, officials said. Morrissey and Parham thanked Youngkin for his support of the city. I am confident that the governor fully supports a casino coming to Petersburg, Morrissey said. Petersburg officials also thanked Morrissey for helping designate more than $29 million in federal money for grants to Petersburg for water and wastewater upgrades at the citys Poor Creek Pump Station, which is important for a growing pharmaceutical company hub. Patrick Wilson pwilson@timesdispatch.com; (804) 649-6061; Twitter: @patrickmwilson Follow Patrick Wilson Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today The Gainsboro neighborhoods historic significance to Roanoke was honored Wednesday during dedication of a walkway across the Roanoke Higher Education Center campus. Community leaders, elected officials, university representatives, students and other neighborhood residents totaling more than 100 people gathered for a plaza dedication ceremony Wednesday afternoon, introduced by Kay Dunkley, executive director of the Roanoke Higher Education Center. This is a courtyard that we envisioned for our students to eat, to study and to visit, Dunkley said. Its also most importantly an opportunity for us to recognize the rich history of the Gainsboro community. Etched into black granite markers along a new brick walkway stretching between the centers main building and its Claude Moore Education Complex, pedestrians can read details of Roanokes historic Gainsboro neighborhood, said Carla James, senior director of academic & student services for the center. This community was once a thriving area for African Americans, and contributed greatly to the economic vitality of Roanoke, James said. You will observe gray engravings on the granite markers that provide highlights of the history surrounding the Gainsboro community from 1835 to 1970. In addition to history inscribed on the sidewalk, there is also a mobile phone application and a Gainsboro History Project website including more detail and multimedia elements, to enrich recollections of the neighborhoods past, James said. Its an ongoing, dynamic project, she said, thanking neighborhood historians, other volunteers and individuals for their contributions. We look forward to hearing from you if you have photographs or stories to add, or even if you feel we overlooked an important event or detail, James said. Just as we are committed to this community, we remain committed to the Gainsboro History Project and its ongoing development and enhancements. Area legislators, including Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, who is also chairman of the centers board, helped secure $448,000 in state funding to design and construct the plot, which was a roughly 10,000-square-foot parking lot previously owned by the city. If you want to know the history of Roanoke, take a look at that app as well, because you can only get so much on a granite slate, Edwards said. Thank you for honoring the history of Roanoke. This is our history, and I appreciate all the work that so many of you have done. Discussions for the plaza began in 2018, with delays caused by scarce construction materials, Dunkley said. The plaza in 2019 stirred controversy because Gainsboro neighborhood advocates and residents at the time said they were not included in project planning. Appalachian Power Co. on Wednesday provided scholarships totaling $13,500 to five area students who are pursuing higher education to kick-start or further their careers, as presented by Larry Jackson, AEP director for external affairs. We all know how difficult it is for students to come up with finances necessary to complete a degree or earn a certificate, Jackson said. All of the organizations that are working to help these students achieve their dreams, that is what the Roanoke Higher Ed Center is all about. Bestowals to those five students marked the higher education centers first scholarship opportunity, Dunkley said. Your future is very bright, Dunkley said. Were going to play just a really, really small role in helping you reach the career in the program and the degree that you want. The Roanoke Higher Education Center, located at 108 N. Jefferson St., opened in 2000 and now offers to the community more than 200 programs of study, from job training to postgraduate studies through member universities, according to its website. Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea said he always feels a sense of pride whenever he spends time in the historic Gainsboro neighborhood. The higher education centers presence here opens new possibilities for upcoming generations, he said. The center is unique in the number and types of organizations that have joined forces in one location to expand access to educational opportunities at every level, Lea said. Citizens of this region are able to earn a GED, or receive an associate, bachelors, masters or doctorate degree, or gain access to workforce certifications and endorsements. Thats a big deal. 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. Beginning this week, Roanoke school parents and guardians can pick up free gun locks to use in their homes. The gun locks were made available to the school division by the citys Gun Violence Prevention Commission, which bought 8,000 locks for about $27,000 through a local government contractor. Joe Cobb, a city council member and the chair of the commission, said he hopes the locks will reduce city youth access to guns. The hope for impact is that it will prevent incidents of gun violence, accidental or intentional, Cobb said Wednesday. Were also hoping that it will reduce the number of guns that are accessible to children. And it will increase safety conversations in the household. I think one of our big questions is always access, particularly underage youth who cannot legally purchase guns, he continued. How do they get access to them? And while the distribution of these locks may not fully answer that question, I think it will give us some insight into that bigger question. Roanokes school division said in a post on its Facebook page Tuesday that its interoffice mail team was busy delivering gun locks to area school buildings. Families were invited to call their students respective schools to receive a lock. We basically had them shipped to the main administrative office, Cobb said. Then Chris Perkins, the chief operating officer, his role was to get them distributed out to all of the different schools. As parents come in for end of school things, they can have access to a gun lock. Gun locks are also available at several Carilion Clinic locations and the citys police department, the city schools Facebook post said. Cobb said city schools will provide opportunities for parents to pick up locks during the summer, too. They were also going to utilize events during the summer, like RCPS+, and then the Back-to-School Extravaganza, the councilman said. Its not just going to be a one and done thing here at the end of school. Its going to really go throughout the summer and the back to school stuff this fall. Cobb suspected parents may have mixed responses to the distribution of the locks, but added the effort to make them available indicates that the city cares about the safety of its children. This is a tangible way that we can confirm our efforts towards safety, Cobb said. The distribution of the locks comes about a week after 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The gunman in that incident carried an AR-15-style assault rifle. Cobb said Roanokes free gun locks dont address the larger question of assault rifle bans. Weve banned firearms in all of our public buildings that the city has authority over, including the Roanoke City Public Schools, but that clearly hasnt stopped people from bringing them in. We can only do legally what the state allows us to do as a locality. That has been dictated by what the federal laws are, Cobb said. Were just going continue to do our prevention and intervention efforts. 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. STAFFORD As soon as Emily Peck starts walking among the fenced-in pig pens, the concert begins. Some of those in the grassy pastures of Stafford County grunt as she approaches. Others oink. Some let out a combination of the twomaybe a groink? along with a chorus of snorts and squeals, barks, cries and high-pitched whines. Pigs are loud, Peck pointed out, busily moving from one group to another on a steamy morning. While the 28-year-old has been a horse person for years, shes also partial to pigs, and got a black pot-bellied one named Leo as a wedding present. But the dozens of swine gathered around her on a recent hot day are not ones she and husband Brandon bought after they married in 2015. Theyre ones saved from demise when their owners realized that pigs advertised as teacup size became more like soup bowls. Abandoned pigs sometimes were found roaming rural roads of the Middle Peninsula, where Peck used to live. Not a lot of people adopt pot-bellied pigs, and she always came to the rescue for us, said Jacky Wilson, a senior officer with the Gloucester County Animal Control Shelter near Williamsburg. She was just a super-sweet soul who took in animals because she had the space. Peck was able to care for animals when her parents, Ken and Eileen Gedicke, ran a campground in Gloucester. The animal operation snowballedas rescues often doand the Gedickes and Pecks decided to go whole hog. They sold the campground and bought the 114-acre Willowdale Farm in the White Oak area, several miles off State Route 218. The rescue Peck started in 2016 at the campground evolved into Campfire Critters Animal Sanctuary as the group earned nonprofit status in 2020 and moved to Stafford a year ago. Theyve spent months carving large pastures into smaller fields and adding shelters for pigs and horses, alpacas and llamas, goats and donkeys, rabbits and barn cats. They havent openly advertised their shelter, which is primarily for abandoned farm animals, but word of mouth has spread. Campfire Critters has a menagerie of more than 80 animals. More will be accepted when proper pens, fences and space are available, Peck said. Donations and grants have helped to this point, but Campfire Critters is looking for local volunteers and funding. We have the land, she said. I have a plan of where everything could go if we had the money to do it. Campfire Critters will host an open house from 14 p.m. Sunday to give the public a chance to take in the sights and sounds of the farm. The address is 160 Willowdale Lane, Fredericksburg. There will be pony rides, a petting zoo, games and food trucksall vegetarian, of course. Admission is free but donations are required with an activity called Cow Encounters. More information is available at campfirecritters@gmail.com, or on Campfire Critters Animal Sanctuary website or Facebook page. Merilyn Highfield lives near the sanctuary and serves on its board of directors. Her late father-in-law owned Willowdale Farm and shes thrilled with the work of the new owners. Its so wonderful how much progress theyve made, said Highfield who also volunteers at the farm and has seen Pecks pace. She does 95% of the work at this point. Thats in addition to the job from which earns Peck a salary giving riding lessons and training horses at the newly built barn and show ring on the property. Peck also is the mother of two sons under age 3. She said she doesnt believe in sending children to day care, so her husband and mother watch the boys while shes working. Like Peck, Highfield is fond of pigs. She calls them whip smart and says shed put their intelligence level up against dogs any day of the week. But there also are plenty of other four-legged critters that need attention. Theres a lot of work to be done, even socializing animals that have never been socialized, Highfield said. You can be a professional petter, just sit there and pet them or be near them and not be scary and wait until they come around. Peck got Sydney and Sicily, mother and daughter Arabian horses, from a kill pen in North Carolina. They were slated for slaughter because each has a gait thats slightly off of the trot, Peck said, and neither was ever ridden. These two were completely untouchable when they got to us in November, Peck said. It wasnt even formal training or anything. Honestly, it was just consistency and love. They decided it was OK, and now they stand there and let us pet them. While the Arabians were a little jumpy from the clicking of a cameras shutter, Sydney still approached visitors and rubbed her muzzle against them. In another field, goats climbed into the utility vehiclessometimes when riders were still aboard looking for food or attention. A feisty girl named Mary Poppins grabbed a notebook from a reporters hand and tried to steal her water bottle. Another goat named Baathoven rubbed his head against the visitors, then climbed into the front seat of the vehicle as if he were ready for a ride or to take the wheel. Livestock that couldnt be caught when a nearby farmer got out of the cow-calf business also have become part of Campfire Critters. Brandon Peck spent a lot of time with them and they are friendly to the point of getting too close for comfort. Three cows and seven calves were named after characters in childrens books theres always a theme with the namesand a red Angus named Clifford the Big Red Moo stuck a stinky large head into the utility vehicle. Peck gently pushed it back, saying: Can you get your cow-poop ear off of me? Like every other animal on the place, the cattle will live at the sanctuary until they die or are euthanized as part of what Peck calls a mercy kill. That may eventually be the fate of Spartan, a quarter pony with a genetic disease that causes his skin to stretch and tear. Peck regularly checks the sheet draped over him for new signs of blood. Just rubbing against a fence will cause his skin to rip. Basically, hell stay here for as long as hes comfortable, she said. The only animals not interested in human contact seemed to be a few skittish donkeys and alpacas and the barn cats that do not make their presence known. Soon after moving to the county last year, Peck contacted Stafford County Animal Control to offer the farm as a resource. Stafford doesnt get many livestock, but has feral cats, and asked Peck if she could take them, said Nicole Bates, animal shelter manager. After the cats were vaccinated, spayed or neutered, they have the run of the farm and can live their lives in peace with an endless food supply, according to the sanctuary website. Bates looks forward to more interaction with Campfire Critters and Peck. She seems very willing to help and get involved, Bates said. Were very excited to see in the future what we can send over her way. What a difference a week makes! On April 27, more than 500 people attended the Virginia March for Life and Rally in Richmond at the Capital. Pro-lifers were joined by pro-life Gov. Glenn Youngkin on the General Assemblys Veto Day. We walked peacefully through the streets of Richmond in support of legal protections for unborn children and their mothers. One week later, after a harmful leak from an unknown source at the U.S. Supreme Court, a few hundred people held a loud and angry pro-abortion protest in downtown Richmond in support of legalized abortion for any reason. The hysteria generated by pro-abortion groups about the leaked draft is reprehensible. There has been no final decision handed down yet. Therefore, the only result has been more confusion and lots of false flags thrown by groups like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and other abortion promoters who have fanned flames of anxiety and fear. The reporting in the media hasnt helped either. Pushing a narrative that this draft will be the probable outcome, is dangerous, as witnessed by aggressive protests occurring in cities around the country. Among some pro-life groups, the news is leading some to premature celebration that may mean more questions once the final ruling is made. The fact of the matter is that the removal of Roe v Wade, as important as it is, does not automatically make abortion illegal. Simply overturning Roe would mean for many states, including Virginia, a very long, complicated road to passing effective pro-life laws that could protect unborn children and their mothers from the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood of Virginia and Pro-Choice Virginia have both boasted that the commonwealth is currently a safe haven for abortionists to operate virtually unrestricted and that they will fight to keep it that way. Make no mistake! Abortion promoters are on the move right now to push an agenda of unrestricted abortion in Virginia! From the ACLU of Virginia: Despite the alarming threat against abortion rights, were prepared to initiate advocacy on every level through our legislature, our communities, and our courts to ensure that Virginia remains a safe haven for abortion rights and reproductive justice. From Planned Parenthoods Twitter account this week: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and our partners will fight like hell to protect access to safe, legal abortion here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Radical abortion groups have discovered a wonderful new way to manipulate the public and raise funds for their deadly agenda. They are using red herring arguments and misinformation to stir fear and outcry. They make no mention of the numerous and expansive programs offered free of charge to the women and girls of Virginia to help them make decisions about pregnancies that uplift both mother and child. In fact, they are determined to shut down such programs because they undercut the abortion industrys business. Abortion supporters claim to care about women, but they are silent on the other human life affected by every abortion: the baby who dies. Pro-lifers see both mother and child and value each equally. In fact, there are more than 40 pregnancy resource programs around Virginia that provide free assistance to any pregnant individual! At this juncture, it is very important to stay calm and to recognize that abortion supporters are deliberately using this moment to manipulate all of us! They have never told the truth about what abortion really does and to whom, ignoring the science of life in the womb, including the information about the unborn childs ability to feel pain and other development markers of prenatal life. Pro-lifers want laws passed that recognize the science and the value of every human life. Abortion has failed women and their children for too long. Regardless of what the Supreme Court does this year, we must work harder to see rational pro-life laws passed as soon as the votes are there. It is our responsibility to society to do so. Turner is the president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, the oldest single issue pro-life organization in Virginia, founded in 1967. Turner has served as president since 2007. She is also the national director of American Victims of Abortion and has spoken on the pro-life issue in all 50 states. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. 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. The 2022 Elks Rodeo returns to Santa Maria's Unocal Event Center on Thursday evening with six PRCA events, Mutton Bustin', Bull Riding, Bronc Riding, bareback Riding, Tie Down Roping, Steer Wrestling, WPRA Barrel Racing, the Flying Cowboys and much more! Get ready for the action with this collection of preview stories. See more information and purchase your tickets on the Elks Recreation website, ElksRec.com. Starbucks barista Brick Zurek, standing in front of the downtown Starbucks, 155 N. Wabash St., on May 11, 2022, has been organizing with colleagues for union representation with Starbucks Workers United. The Wabash Avenue location was the first Starbucks site in Chicago to file for union representation with the NLRB. An election date has been set for early June. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Last year, Brick Zurek, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks in the Loop, found working conditions at the store becoming increasingly untenable. People coming into the store threatened and screamed at baristas. One person, after being served a cup of scalding hot water, poured it on the manager, Zurek said. On top of that, the store was short-staffed, sometimes with just a few baristas tasked with serving a line out the door. Advertisement Zurek had read on Twitter and in the news about Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York, who were pushing to unionize their stores. Zurek thought about the threats, the violence, the unrelenting workload, and wondered: What if we had a bigger say? What if we could make it so that wasnt allowed? Advertisement Zurek has worked for Starbucks for about two and a half years, and at the Loop store at Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue since it opened in October. Last fall, workers there began discussing the possibility of forming a union. Zurek reached out to Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that now represents Starbucks workers across the country. In January, baristas at the store became the first in Chicago to file for union representation. Votes in a union election there will be counted June 7. Nine Chicago-area stores followed Zureks in filing for union representation. Last week, baristas at two Starbucks in Edgewater won union elections, becoming the first in the city to unionize. Union elections for four other Chicago Starbucks are scheduled in June. Nationally, workers at more than 270 Starbucks have filed for union elections, according to late-May data from the National Labor Relations Board. The company has pushed back, prompting numerous complaints from the agency alleging violations ranging from illegally firing workers who are seeking to organize to illegal surveillance. The NLRB has filed federal court actions seeking reinstatement for workers in two states. Of the 121 elections that have been held nationwide as of Monday, baristas have lost 14. (A handful of results are being contested.) The Starbucks campaign is one of the most visible in a recent upsurge in labor organizing: Between October 2021 and the end of March, union representation filings with the National Labor Relations Board were up 57% when compared with the same period in the prior fiscal year. Workers in industries that have traditionally been thought of as difficult to unionize are organizing in greater numbers, in campaigns spearheaded by workers themselves in which professional labor organizers have taken a backseat. Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island stunned the mainstream labor world when they voted to unionize with the Amazon Labor Union, although their win has yet to be replicated in another Amazon facility. During the pandemic, Chicago saw its first major museum union form at the Art Institute, where museum workers were joined by support staff at the museums school. Last month, adjunct professors and lecturers at the school announced they would attempt to join them. Last week, Chicago employees at Intelligentsia Coffee announced they had filed with the NLRB to vote on unionizing with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which also represents workers at Colectivo Coffee. Last year, workers at Amazon warehouses in the city staged walkouts, as did employees at the El Milagro tortilla company. Both groups say their activism led to material gains in their workplaces. (Both companies dispute that worker activism led to those improvements.) Workers at Moline-based John Deere went on strike, as did workers at snack-food giant Mondelez. In the last couple of months, technicians at WTTW and graduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago went on strike before both groups reached agreements with their employers. Workers at two city McDonalds walked out in May. Workers at a McDonalds restaurant on Chicago's South Side walk out demanding safer working conditions on May 18, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Workers, labor organizers and academics say the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an existing trajectory set in motion by low wages, income inequality, poor working conditions and a pervasive feeling among workers that they lack a voice on the job. And from hospitals to grocery stores, many workers took note of how their workplaces failed to protect them from the virus. Advertisement I had to risk my life every single day to sell magnets, said Alexa Reymann, a retail sales associate at the Art Institutes museum store who returned to work in early 2021 before vaccines were widely available, and when many people on public transit eschewed masks. People really saw the willingness of their bosses to let them die, said Gabriel Winant, a labor historian at the University of Chicago. At the same time, said Robert Bruno, who directs the labor studies program at the University of Illinois, economic changes brought on by the pandemic, like a tight labor market, have given workers more leverage. Because of the pandemic, and supply chains and labor shortages, the conditions structurally have now aligned with their level of grievance and raised consciousness, Bruno said. And they feel and theyre correct to feel this way that they have more power. At first, some of Zureks fellow baristas at the Loop Starbucks were hesitant about signing union authorization cards, the first step toward seeking union representation. What turned the tide, Zurek said, was when a man came to the store in December, threatened and harassed people, then threatened to come back with a gun and shoot all of us. We had been asking for a security guard there for months, said Zurek, who uses the pronoun they. And the answer was always, Oh, weve got to wait to hear from Seattle and see what they say. Advertisement The next morning, shift supervisors at the store had a meeting with corporate Starbucks employees, whom Zurek felt were dismissive of the baristas safety concerns. (About two weeks after the workers filed for a union election in January, Starbucks placed a security guard in the store, they said.) Starbucks did not respond to requests for comment on the shooting threat or its response. Shortly after the man threatened to shoot employees at the Loop Starbucks, he came back and glared and gestured at baristas from outside the store, Zurek said. Thats when the cards got signed, they said. Then it was very clear, this is how we keep ourselves safe, right? Because theyre not going to do it for us. Were the ones that are moving all the packages The first legal step workers take toward joining a union is to sign union authorization cards. If the majority of employees in a workplace sign cards, their employer may choose to voluntarily recognize their union. If the employer does not, the union drive moves to an election, which can occur when 30% of employees have signed authorization cards. After winning an election, workers bargain for a legally enforceable contract with their employer, a process that can take months to years. Labor organizers see a contract as the gold standard for workers to ensure better wages and treatment in a workplace. Advertisement Even though there are things that we do enjoy about working there, theres no guarantee that theyre going to be there tomorrow, said Anna Feuer, an acquisitions and collections manager who works in the Art Institutes library, unless we put it in a contract and make sure that they cant take it away from us. The Art Institute union began bargaining with museum leadership in May. In a statement, a museum spokesperson said the Art Institute supported the right of staff to unionize, and said it looked forward to working toward an agreement that meets the needs of all parties while allowing all of us to continue to deliver on our mission of sharing our singular collections with our city and the world. The Art Institute also said it met or exceeded all local and state health guidelines during the time before vaccines were widely available. The museum heard and was responsive to staff concerns and made a number of accommodations, including for those who take public transportation, the museum spokesperson said. Public approval of unions in the U.S. is at 68%, the highest its been since 1965, according to Gallup polling. Union approval is higher among young people and people of color, with 74% of workers 18 to 24 saying theyd support a union in their workplace, a percentage that rises to 75% among Hispanic workers and 80% among Black workers, according to a White House task force report released in February. Black women were the demographic most likely to say theyd vote in favor of a union, with an approval rate of 82%. Advertisement Those statistics arent surprising, said DeAngelo Bester, the executive director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice in Chicago. When youve been exploited on the job, or were excluded from jobs for years, you know that collective bargaining and collective action is the way to go, he said. Members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) nontenure-track faculty announce that they are organizing with Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU) outside of the the Art Institute in Chicago on May 10, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Despite the uptick in organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, union membership in Illinois remains similar to pre-pandemic levels, with 13.9% of wage and salary workers in the state belonging to a union in 2021, compared with 13.6% in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, 10.3% of workers belonged to unions in 2021, the same percentage that belonged to unions in 2019. If were going to see the actual level of union density in this country change, its going to take the kind of activity were seeing now continuing and in fact growing over a period of years, rather than months, Winant said. Filing for an election with the NLRB can be a daunting process. Workers are often fearful they could lose their jobs or face other kinds of retaliation from companies. Federal law protects workers from being fired or retaliated against for union activity, but employers sometimes break the law. A 2019 analysis of unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB found that employers were accused of illegally firing workers in 20% to 30% of union elections. And the process of unionizing can take a long time. On average, it takes 409 days for a newly certified union to sign its first collective bargaining agreement, according to a 2021 analysis by Bloomberg Law. In Chicago, teachers at the Old Town School of Folk Music have been bargaining for their first contract after voting overwhelmingly to unionize with the Illinois Federation of Teachers more than three years ago. Advertisement Speaking at a May rally outside the school in Ravenswood, the Rev. C.J. Hawking, the executive director of Arise Chicago, a workers rights organization, noted the organization had been working with the music teachers for four years. Sweet Lord! a member of the crowd called out. Sweet Lord, Hawking said. Can I get a witness? The schools executive director and CEO Jim Newcomb said he rejected the suggestion that the school is dragging out negotiations in any way, and said its relationship with the staff is 100% a partnership between the two teams at this point. Some employees who organize their workplaces choose not to pursue formal union elections with the NLRB. In Chicago, thats a strategy being taken by Amazon warehouse workers who are part of the group Amazonians United Chicagoland. Advertisement A few days before Christmas 2021, Ted Miin, a Chicago Amazon worker, helped organize walkouts at Amazon facilities in Gage Park, where he works unloading and sorting packages for delivery, and in west suburban Cicero. Workers had learned that employees at other Amazon facilities had received raises that pushed wages up to $18 an hour; at the time, the starting wage at Miins Gage Park facility was $15.80 per hour, he said. Workers wanted $3 raises and sufficient staffing levels. Were the ones that are moving all the packages in here, said Miin, who has worked at Amazon for over three years and is a member of Amazonians United Chicagoland. About a month after the walkout, Miin said, workers won raises of about $2 per hour. Sufficient staffing is still a challenge, he said. In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Richard Rocha said the raises were part of a regular wage review process that occurred over several months. Miin said Amazon employees in Chicago, wary of turning their energy toward what could become a drawn-out legal process, dont plan to file for an election like the one in Staten Island. The group continues to organize; last week, workers at the Gage Park facility walked out in protest of a workers firing. Advertisement Were happy for our coworkers trying this strategy, Miin said. For us, we would rather engage in the type of organizing were doing now. Laura Garza, worker center director at Arise Chicago, which has coordinated with El Milagro employees on their organizing campaigns, said many workers at the company would like to see a labor union represent them. Still, she said, there is fear of retaliation. Garza said shortly after employees sent a demand letter to the company last summer, El Milagro brought in a consultant from an anti-union firm, though workers were not seeking to form a union. Some employees are scared their immigration status could be used against them. It terrifies people, Garza said. Risking your own livelihood is not easy. A person inside an El Milagro store watches El Milagro production workers and supporters rally outside in Little Village during a temporary walkout to protest working conditions on Sept. 23, 2021. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) Employers that are opposed to unions often argue that workers are better off without a union in between themselves and management, sometimes describing unions as middlemen or outsiders without workers best interests at heart. Starbucks has said it believes the company and its employees are better together as partners, without a union between us, for instance. I think some peoples perceptions sometimes of how a union comes to be in a workplace is a little skewed, said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Unions dont come about, Reiter said, when someone rolls up in a car one day with a bunch of union authorization cards. Advertisement Most successful union organizing campaigns are organic, Reiter said. They start in the workplace and they build over time. A ripple effect Pedro Manzanares has worked for the El Milagro tortilla company for almost two decades. Over the last five years, he said, working conditions deteriorated as demand for the companys high-quality tortillas increased. Instead of hiring more workers, they just increased the speed of the production machines, said Manzanares, a member of the workers organizing committee at El Milagro. If they had the machines at 50%, they just rose it to 75% and kept the same number of workers, and there came a time when it tired us all. Last September, workers at Manzanares plant in Little Village walked out, protesting low pay and unsafe working conditions. In March, the Illinois Department of Labor found the company had committed flagrant violations of state labor law for allegedly denying workers proper meal breaks. In April, El Milagro workers announced some improvements in pay and working conditions, saying they were no longer required to work seven days a week and the company had installed air conditioning in lunchrooms. Pedro Manzanares, a worker at El Milagro and a member of the factory's organizing committee, stands outside his Little Village home on May 13, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Manzanares, who said he had never received a raise of more than $1 at a time in his 19 years at the company, saw his salary increase from $15.30 to $18.50 an hour. He now works five days a week instead of six. The company has disputed the raises are the result of workers activism. It also disputes the Department of Labor findings, saying in April the company welcomes an unbiased review of the evidence, including facts that should have been considered as part of a fair and reasonable investigation. Advertisement We have achieved some things in regard to salaries and work conditions, but there is still a long way to go, Manzanares said. And were not going to give up on this. After working with El Milagro employees, Arise heard from workers at the El Ranchero tortilla chip factory who said they had been inspired by the efforts at El Milagro, a ripple effect common with organizing campaigns, Garza said. Workers at El Ranchero, which is operated by a company called Authentico Foods, alleged during a public protest last month they had been unjustly fired after seeking support from Arise in addressing low pay and alleged labor law violations. The one thing that workers said to us, Garza said, was, Well, we saw what the workers at El Milagro did, and we said why cant we organize? Why cant we have our own demands of the company? In a statement, Authentico President Alejandro Castro said the company did not comment on employee concerns. We have an open-door policy through which our employees are welcome and encouraged to discuss and resolve their concerns with management, Castro said. We value our employees and always have their best interests in mind. Whether these ripple effects will translate into significant union growth in the U.S. remains to be seen. Advertisement Winant said a renewal of the labor movement on a massive scale is unlikely without legislative or regulatory change. The NLRB, plagued by staffing and budget issues, lacks the capacity to administer unionization cases at a fast clip. Winant also said the agency lacks the legal teeth required to curb employers power. You need some legal mechanism, Winant said. And the legal mechanism is broken right now. In April, the NLRBs general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, filed a brief asking the board to reinstate a legal doctrine called Joy Silk, which would make it significantly easier for workers in the U.S. to join unions by requiring employers to recognize and bargain with most unions if the majority of workers sign union authorization cards. Despite challenges ahead, workers in Chicago speak about the future with cautious optimism. Reymann, the retail associate at the Art Institute museum store and a member of the museum workers bargaining committee, had never been in a union before the Art Institute staff voted for one. Many of her past jobs were not full time. I started working when I was 16 in a pizza shop in Ohio, she said. Ever since then, everything afterward has been retail. Advertisement This is a new road that Im going down, Reymann said. For not just AIC, but for myself and for my colleagues. CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. Quantum entanglement can be used as a noise filter for recording speech. Credit: Florian Kaiser Online conferences have become essential to work. However, these meetings become annoying if the audio quality is noisy due to poor performance of the microphones. This is also the daily experience of hearing aid or cochlear implant users, who have to struggle with a poor signal-to-noise ratio in noisy environments. To address this issue, engineers developing commercial microphones focus on eliminating technical sources of noise, such as that found in the signal amplifiers. But even when the technical noise sources are addressed, there is still a fundamental noise stemming from the quantum nature of any measurement. For high-sensitivity microphones that can perform close to this fundamental noise level, laser-based devices are top candidates. They measure the slightest displacements of microphone membranes in a fashion that resembles a microscopic version of gravitational wave interferometers. Such devices are currently being used for measuring wear in industrial machines, as well as in espionage. Beating the performance of a laser microphone Entangled photons can make use of quantum correlations to measure small displacements with an improved signal-to-noise ratio compared to laser light. However, the generally complex experimental setting of quantum physics experiments leads to a tremendous resource overhead and complicated data processing, which results in measurement rates of a few data points per second, at most. This is obviously incompatible with recording sound, where at least tens of thousands of data points per second need to be recorded to reconstruct the waveform. In our study published in PRX Quantum, we found a new method that combines several fundamental quantum optics concepts to realize a quantum optical displacement sensor that is simple, robust, and operates below the classical noise limit at sampling rates up to 100 kHz. If you are like most physicists, you would now sit down on your desk, write a paper about your quantum displacement sensor, and then call it a day. But we wanted to show that this high measurement rate can actually be useful. Thus, we used a loudspeaker, placed it in front of our membrane, and then played 26,400 words from a medically approved speech recognition test. We then recorded the membrane displacements with a classical laser sensor and with our quantum optical sensor. Unsurprisingly, the data revealed that the signal-to-noise ratio was improved using quantum light. However, we wanted to go even further. Thus, we went to our local hospital, which also hosts a research department, including a calibrated sound studio environment. There, we used the recorded words to conduct a speech recognition test on 45 patients, which turned out to be quite a challenge during the COVID crisis. Nevertheless, our data showed that more than 71% of the subjects were able to hear the improvement provided by the quantum microphone. On average, our patients understood words correctly at a 0.57 dB reduced sound pressure level. In other words, humans were able to hear the quantum advantage for the first time. What's next? We are now developing a compact version of our experiment to present it at conferences and exhibitions, thus allowing more people to listen to the sound quality produced by the quantum microphone. Additionally, we see a great potential of our technique in the framework of imaging of light-sensitive bio-samples. Here, it is crucial to use as little light as possible to obtain a sharp image. In the appendix of our work, we have showed that commercially available improvements on our scheme can realistically make it a competitor for classical bio-imaging techniques. We find ourselves in a time when the combination of quantum optics and quantum sensing promise exciting developments in the 21st century: the century of the photon. This story is part of Science X Dialog, where researchers can report findings from their published research articles. Visit this page for information about ScienceX Dialog and how to participate. More information: Raphael Nold et al. A Quantum Optical Microphone in the Audio Band. Accepted for publication in PRX Quantum. Currently available on doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.12429 Florian Kaiser studied Physics at Stuttgart University (Germany). He obtained his PhD degree in 2012 from Universite Nice Sophia Antipolis (France, Tanzilli group) for his work on fiber-based quantum networks with entangled photon pairs. In 2013, he obtained the Thesis Prize of the European Physical Society. After a one-year stay at the DESY in Hamburg (Germany), he returned as a PostDoc to France, where he developed quantum frequency converters and high-accuracy quantum optical sensors. Since 2017, he is a permanent researcher and group leader in the team of Jorg Wrachtrup (Stuttgart). He set up a team of 10-15 young students who are devoted to the development of quantum technologies. His main interests are nanophotonic integration of SiC color centers in the perspective of quantum networking/computing, as well as quantum optical sensing based on entangled photons. In May 2011, cancer patients and their health care providers faced grave uncertainty as they experienced a shortage of the essential oncology drug paclitaxel . Crucial for many who are treating ovarian, breast, lung and colon cancers, this IV chemotherapy drug is one of many that become prone to sudden scarcity due to manufacturing interruption. When these pharmaceutical drug shortages occur, health care providers must compensate for the lack of life-saving medication by rationing, seeking alternatives or even suspending treatment altogether. To address the growing problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a new mandate in 2012 requiring all drug manufacturers to report any manufacturing interruption that might lead to shortages. Canada followed with its own mandate in 2017 and policymakers in multiple countries have since either implemented or are considering similar mandates to curb shortages. To explore if and how the FDA's mandate has affected drug shortages, researchers analyzed policy changes and data from the U.S. and Canada following both countries' mandate rollouts. Their findings are detailed in the paper "Alleviating Drug Shortages: The Role of Mandated Reporting Induced Operational Transparency," published in Management Science by co-authors Junghee Lee of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, Hyun Seok "Huck" Lee of the Korea University Business School and Hyoduk Shin and Vish Krishnan of Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. "In terms of just pure numbers, shortages appear minimal, and so some have argued that only 200 out of 5,000 drugs experience shortages. So it's less than 4 percent, and therefore we're doing good," said Lee, assistant professor of information technology, analytics and operations and an expert in innovation and technology management in supply chains and health care operations. "However, the impact is rather significant because we're talking about our health care. For example, according to a 2017 study, the shortage of norepinephrine in 2011 is associated with about a 4 percent increase in in-hospital mortality." Realizing that these policies are still in their early stages, the researchers wondered if these mandates actually impact drug shortages and whether more transparency about manufacturing interruption affects competition. Additionally, can policymakers do even more to influence the pharmaceutical industry and decrease drug shortages? Using drug-shortage records from the U.S. between 2010 and 2015 and from Canada between 2017 and 2019, the researchers paid special attention to the time-to-recovery (TTR) for individual drug shortages (i.e., how long before a stalled drug is replenished) and annual-days-of-shortage (ADS) for each drug. Their research shows that mandated reporting policies do reduce both TTR and ADS; however, the success of the policy hinges on the level of competition in the industry concerning the drug in question. "Before the mandate, it took competitors in the industry much more time to recognize when one firm was failing to supply a drug and then realize it was an opportunity for the competitor to ramp up production," said Lee. "To increase production takes timesometimes a week, sometimes a month. But this mandate forces the manufacturer to report any kind of issue and make their operational situation more transparent, which induces more healthy competition." This mandated transparency appears most effective in a duopoly where competition is split evenly, or close to evenly, between two competitors. For a drug that is produced by one manufacturer, or mostly by one manufacturer, there is little that transparency can accomplish as that supply is lost either way. Lee and the research team initially presumed that the mandate would be more effective for drugs with more competition, but were surprised to find the opposite was true. "If I'm a manufacturer and there are 10 other companies producing the same drug, then my market share is small," said Lee. "Therefore, I have less economic incentive to hurry up and fix my production. But if I have 50 percent market share and if I'm on the verge of losing it, I will be very desperate." Despite there not being any direct penalty for incurring shortages, firms are more inclined to report interruptions than they were before the mandate in order to work quickly to recover losses before competitors step in to fill the gap. "I was a little bit suspicious," said Lee. "But indeed, they took this mandate very seriously, and they anticipate what's coming after revealing their issue. That's due to competition." However, relying solely on industry competition to eradicate drug shortages has its limits, as shown not only via monopolies and highly competitive oligopolies, but also through operational structures. Lee explained that another angle for researchers to explore is what can be learned from the manufacturing process itself. "It's very typical that one big generic manufacturer produces hundreds of drugs and not surprisingly, that same company experiences drug shortages multiple times, even for the same drug," he said. "Can a firm improve if they experienced a shortage before? Because at least some group of their employees have already resolved that issue for one instance and if they are facing another issue, then can't they better resolve this next one?" Overall, Lee hopes the outcome of this study will encourage more policymakers across the globe to adopt mandates similar to those in the U.S. and Canada since the empirical data suggests that operational transparency does lessen the number of drug shortages. The researchers also concluded that policymakers should use inventory data to better monitor the severity of shortages in order to develop more advanced warning systems and mitigate the shortages before they occur. Ultimately, though, Lee wishes to see even more supply-chain transparency. "As consumers, or patients, we can ask where do these drugs come from? Who manufactures them? And then potentially we're willing to pay a couple more bucks if it's domestically manufactured or sourced from proven suppliers," said Lee. "If we have those intentions more explicit, then the change will be expedited and then we're going to have a transparent supply chain sooner." More information: Junghee Lee et al, Alleviating Drug Shortages: The Role of Mandated Reporting Induced Operational Transparency, Management Science (2021). DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3857 Provided by University of Notre Dame Seguin, TX (78155) Today Mainly clear. Low around 75F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low around 75F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Hoping it is not yet time to give up on passage of the EQUAL Act | Main | "'Tough Talking' Sacramento District Attorney Presides Over Homicide And Violence Surge While 'Liberal' San Francisco Enjoys Major Decreases" June 2, 2022 Another federal judge gives Michael Avenatti another below-guideline sentence, as he gets now 48 months for defrauding Stormy Daniels In what is becoming almost a summer tradition, disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced by a federal judge below the federal sentencing guidelines today. Sentencing fans may recall that last July Avenetti got a way-below-guideline 30-month sentence for extorting Nike (details here). Today was judgment day for defrauding Stormy Daniels, as Reuters reports and as excerpted here: Michael Avenatti, the brash California lawyer who took on then-President Donald Trump, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for defrauding his best-known former client, the porn actress Stormy Daniels. A federal jury convicted Avenatti in February of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after a two-week trial, agreeing with prosecutors that he embezzled nearly $300,000 in book proceeds intended for Daniels. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman imposed the sentence in federal court in Manhattan, calling Avenatti's conduct "brazen and egregious." But he said guidelines calling for Avenatti, 51, to serve a sentence of five or six years were "unreasonable," in part due to Avenatti's prior successful legal career. Avenatti, who appeared in court wearing prison garb and ankle shackles, recounted a string of legal victories he had secured for clients he called "underdogs," and disputed prosecutors' assertion that he took on Daniels as a client to gain a national platform for himself. "No one else had the guts to take her case," Avenatti said before Furman handed down his sentence, speaking from the courtroom lectern with a U.S. marshal standing beside him. "I believed we could take down a sitting U.S. president who was the biggest threat to our democracy in modern times." Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, is known for receiving $130,000 from Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, in exchange for remaining quiet before the 2016 presidential election about sexual encounters she says she had with Trump, which he has denied. Avenatti vowed to appeal the guilty verdict in the Daniels case.... He had already been serving a 2-1/2-year sentence stemming from his 2020 federal conviction for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc. He has appealed that conviction. Eighteen months of the Daniels sentence will run concurrent with the Nike sentence, meaning Avenatti faces a combined five years in prison. He is still charged in California with stealing millions of dollars from other clients. Prosecutors had recommended that Avenatti receive a "substantial" prison term in the Daniels case, including a mandatory two-year term for identity theft. Avenatti, who represented himself during the trial, proposed a three-year sentence, with one year running concurrent with his Nike sentence. June 2, 2022 at 02:24 PM | Permalink Comments Mr Berman Your work is very important and I thank you for it. I have sent an email to you with what I feel will become a vitally important case in the realm of what is now the number one area of federal criminal prosecutions with corruption and misconduct on the part of the government involved. It is becoming all too easy to create criminal cases out of whole cloth where no case at all really exists. We must pay close attention to this trendin prosecutions as it alone can impact thousands of people more so than any other area of criminal actions...........thanks again for your work. I am an inmate in fed custody working as always on legal help for other inmates in California, filing over 200 actions to date for them all.........I know the subject here well. CV 22 21 BU DLC MONT FED Posted by: joseph b loftis | Jun 3, 2022 10:22:08 AM Post a comment John Hinckley, Prez Reagan's would-be assassin in 1981, due to be fully released this month 40 years after being found not guilty by reason of insanity | Main | Hoping it is not yet time to give up on passage of the EQUAL Act June 2, 2022 "Gentlewomen of the Jury" The title of this post is the title of this notable paper recently posted to SSRN authored by Vivian Rotenstein and Valerie P. Hans. (The recent verdict in a high-profile state civil trial with a small, mostly male jury perhaps makes this research especially timely.) Here is the paper's abstract: This Article undertakes a contemporary assessment of the role of women on the jury. In 1946, at a time when few women served on U.S. juries, the all-male Supreme Court opined in Ballard v. United States that The truth is that the two sexes are not fungible; a community made up exclusively of one is different from a community composed of both; the subtle interplay of one on the other is among the imponderables. Three-quarters of a century later, the legal and social status of women has changed dramatically, with increased participation in the labor force, expanded leadership roles, and the removal of legal and other barriers to civic engagement, including jury service. Theoretical developments and research have produced new insights about how gender-conforming individuals enact their gender roles. We combine these insights with a substantial body of jury research that has examined the effects of a jurors gender on decision-making processes and verdict preferences in criminal and civil cases. We also consider how nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming people might bring distinctive perspectives and experiences to the jury. After a review of the historical record, describing shifts over time in womens jury participation in the face of legal and societal barriers, we summarize the evidence from decision-making research, gender scholarship, and jury studies to examine whether women bring a different voice to jury service. Our review, which shows substantial overlap as a function of a jurors gender along with significant areas of divergence, underscores the importance of full and equitable participation on the jury. June 2, 2022 at 11:08 AM | Permalink Comments Post a comment Tech Veteran Mark Clayton will oversee GTM strategy across the Asia Pacific region SINGAPORE, June 02, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Datto Holding Corp. ("Datto") (NYSE:MSP), the leading global provider of security and cloud-based software solutions purpose-built for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), today announced the appointment of Mark Clayton as Vice President, Asia Pacific at Datto, responsible for delivering security solutions to MSPs in the region. Based out of Dattos Singapore office, Clayton will drive Go-To-Market efforts across Asia Pacific and expand its footprint in the region. In addition, he will be responsible for driving business growth and capturing the regions enormous opportunity by leveraging MSPs and indirect channels to market. With over three decades of experience in the enterprise technology industry including 10 years of which were spent in Asia Clayton has a successful track record of delivering complex IT solutions to global enterprises and service providers. Prior to joining Datto, he held leadership positions in management, operations, and sales functions for global technology leaders such as Nutanix, Dell Technologies, and Cisco in North America and Asia. Clayton was most recently Vice President overseeing Asia Pacific Japan and China (APJC) service provider sales at Nutanix, where he established and grew the companys MSP business into a multi-million dollar business unit. "Home to some of the worlds largest digital economies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asia Pacific are in critical need of reliable security solutions," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Revenue Officer at Datto. "I am pleased to welcome Mark to the team to accelerate the market presence in this region. His deeply entrenched understanding of regional business requirements, combined with extensive strategic and sales experience, will be a key asset to delivering important security solutions to this market." Story continues According to IDC, Asia Pacific is leading the global shift to digital business, accelerated by disruption from the pandemic. It is forecasted that 1 in 3 companies in the region will generate more than 30% of their revenues from digital products and services by 2023. To fortify their businesses, vital organisations need to invest in security, disaster recovery, and network management capabilities. "SMEs are faced with similar cybersecurity challenges as large enterprises; however, their ability to confront these threats is impeded by limited IT resources," said Clayton. "I am excited to work with MSP partners to accelerate efforts in securing their clients, building their cyber-resilience and future readiness. I look forward to accelerating continued growth in one of the fastest digitalising regions today, empowering businesses with mission-critical IT capabilities to succeed." About Datto As the leading global provider of security and cloud-based software solutions purpose-built for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Datto believes there is no limit to what small and medium businesses (SMBs) can achieve with the right technology. Dattos proven Unified Continuity, Networking, Endpoint Management, and Business Management solutions drive cyber resilience, efficiency, and growth for MSPs. Delivered via an integrated platform, Dattos solutions help its global ecosystem of MSP partners serve over one million businesses around the world. From proactive dynamic detection and prevention to fast, flexible recovery from cyber incidents, Dattos solutions defend against costly downtime and data loss in servers, virtual machines, cloud applications, or anywhere data resides. Since its founding in 2007, Datto has won numerous awards for its product excellence, superior technical support, rapid growth, and for fostering an outstanding workplace. With headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, Datto has global offices in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Learn more at www.datto.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005921/en/ Contacts Media Contacts Datto KB Thiam | +65 9100 8128 kthiam@datto.com Team LEWIS Yanchang Tan | +65 9474 5338 DattoSG@teamlewis.com Company Logo Dublin, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Data Center Power Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on Covid-19 is included in this Europe Data Center Power Market Report The Europe data center power market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.05% during 2022-2027 KEY HIGHLIGHTS 5G will help in increasing edge data center investments. 5G is expected to increasingly be used in enterprise applications and AI integrated platforms in Europe. This is going to impact the data center market in Europe positively Increasing procurement of renewable energy will drive the data center power market in Europe. About 25 European cloud and data center operators, including Equinix, Interxion (Digital Realty), OVHcloud, Scaleway Datacenter, Aruba, and others, and 17 industry associations have signed the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact. The rising adoption of modular power infrastructure is contributing to Europe data center power market share. Modular data centers are a portable solution for implementing data processing capabilities where needed, with a small footprint and a large amount of power over time. The emergence of fuel cell generators is also positively impacting the European data center power market. In May 2020, Rolls-Royce and Daimler partnered to develop generator systems with hydrogen fuel cells for data centers to run carbon-neutral facilities. MARKET GROWTH ENABLERS Covid-19 on Data Centers Increasing Data Center Investments Impact of Tax Incentives Growing Power Consumption & Rack Power Density EUROPE DATA CENTER POWER MARKET SEGMENTS UPS systems are being widely adopted to provide backup power for cooling systems installed in the facility. Cooling systems are essential for the smooth operations of data centers since maintaining an optimal temperature will avoid malfunctions caused by overheating. The adoption of lithium-ion batteries is likely to increase during the forecast period as their price will continue to decline. The increasing deployment of edge data centers with a total power capacity of less than 1 MW leads to the adoption of generator systems with a capacity of 0-1.5 MW. The construction of hyperscale facilities in developing regions will also reduce the need for low-capacity generators in the market. Story continues Segmentation by Power Infrastructure UPS Systems Generators Transfer Switches & Switchgears PDUs Other Electrical Infrastructure Segmentation by UPS Systems Less than or equal to 500kVA 500?1,000kVA More than 1,000 kVA Segmentation by Generator Systems Less than 0-1.5 MW More than 1.5?3 MW More than or equal to 3 MW Segmentation by Tier Standards Tier I & II Tier III Tier IV GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS Data center operators in Europe have been early adopters of sustainable innovations in power technology, such as ecodiesel and natural gas generators, and HVO fuel. For instance, Interxion (Digital Realty) has started replacing diesel with HVO for powering its backup generators, with the first one being in its PAR08 data center in Paris, France. Segmentation by Geography Western Europe UK Germany France Netherlands Ireland Switzerland Spain Italy Belgium Other Western European Countries Nordics Sweden Denmark Norway Finland & Iceland Central & Eastern Europe Russia Poland Austria Other Central & Eastern Europe Countries VENDOR LANDSCAPE The Europe market is increasingly adopting software-defined power infrastructure in data centers. For instance, Equinix uses its own data center monitoring software platform, IBX SmartView that provides operators the insights into the data center infrastructure. Various local governments are supporting the adoption of renewable energy by data center operators in the region. For instance, the French government has approved more than 250 wind and solar power generation projects with a capacity of nearly 2 GW in the country. KEY VENDORS ABB Caterpillar Cummins Eaton Legrand Rolls-Royce Schneider Electric Vertiv Group OTHER PROMINENT VENDORS AEG Power Systems Aggreko Aksa Power Generation Ametek Powervar Anord Mardix BACHMANN BENNING Elektrotechnik Und Elektronik Borri Bloom Energy Centiel Cyber Power Systems Delta Power Solutions Enrogen Exide Technologies FG Wilson Fuji Electric Generac Power Systems General Electric Genesal Energy Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) HITEC Power Protection HITZINGER INNIO Metartec Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Panduit Perkins Engines Piller Power Systems Pramac Riello Elettronica Riello Elettronica (Riello UPS) Rittal Systems SAFT (Society des Accumulators Fix et de Traction) Siemens Socomec Toshiba Corporation VYCON WTI - Western Telematic THE REPORT INCLUDES: 1. The analysis of the Europe Data Center Power market provides market size and growth rate for the forecast period 2022-2027. 2. It offers comprehensive insights into current industry trends, trend forecast, and growth drivers about the Europe Data Center Power market. 3. The report provides the latest analysis of market share, growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. 4. It offers a complete overview of market segments and the regional outlook of the Europe Data Center Power market. 5. The report offers a detailed overview of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and critical market strategies to gain competitive advantage. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6lrh08 CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Malaysia's export ban, which take effect on 1 June, include live poultry, whole carcasses, chilled and frozen meat, chicken parts and chicken-based products. (Photo by Zahim Mohd/NurPhoto via Getty Images) By Anuradha Raghu and Low De Wei (Bloomberg) Malaysia reiterated that it will halt exports of all live chickens, shutting off prospects that some restaurants in Singapore could still import free-range or premium birds. The export restrictions, which take effect on June 1, will include live poultry, whole carcasses, chilled and frozen meat, chicken parts and chicken-based products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries said in a statement late Wednesday. Chicken nuggets, patties and sausages will also be banned. Malaysias move is a major blow to Singapore, which imports about a third of its supply from its neighbour. The ban has left Singapore stores selling chicken products in limbo. Consumers are apprehensive about whether they will still be able to enjoy chicken rice, one of Singapores most popular meals. READ: Singapores Famed Chicken Rice to Get Pricier on Supply Halt The ban is the latest in a series of government measures aimed at easing domestic prices as nations around the world battle rising food costs, partly driven by the war in Ukraine crimping food supplies. Indonesia recently banned palm oil exports temporarily, India restricted wheat and sugar exports, and Serbia and Kazakhstan have imposed quotas on grain shipments. Singapore media including Business Times and CNA reported earlier that shipments of some higher-end chickens would still be allowed, citing a spokesman for Aqina Farm, which sells kampung (or free-range) chickens and regular broiler chickens. The company said it had confirmed this via virtual meetings with relevant authorities in Malaysia, according to local media. That situation changed late Tuesday with the Business Times reporting that those products would not be allowed in after all, citing Aqina Farm. The firm didnt immediately respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg News. The Singapore Food Agency said Wednesday that Malaysia has officially said it will prohibit exports of live chicken, whole chicken, chicken cuts and parts from June 1 until further notice. With assistance from Natalie Choy and Ranjeetha Pakiam. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. A chillingly beautiful dare of a movie, David Cronenbergs Crimes of the Future imagines a near-future much like the present, only colder and more feral. Shot in Athens, largely at night, writer-director Cronenbergs first feature since Maps to the Stars eight years ago gathers up a lifetime of personal obsessions in a story Cronenberg conceived late last century, and only now has gotten around to filming, the way no else could. Or would. Advertisement The title comes from an early experimental picture Cronenberg made in 1970, set in a skin clinic where horrible things have happened to patients who used a certain kind of cosmetic, unaware of its dangers. The threats in the new Crimes of the Future, which shares a general theme and a title with the previous one, are everything everywhere all at once. Lea Seydoux (top) and Viggo Mortensen star in David Cronenberg's "Crimes of the Future." (AP) Strange new worlds are being born inside the human body. The body politic in this arid near-future has become a literal body politic in revolt. More and more citizens here, in a time and place in which pain has been nearly entirely eradicated, are coming down with something called Accelerated Evolution Syndrome. This causes bodily organs to self-generate with unpredictable results. Advertisement And theres money in those organs. Performance art happenings have emerged in underground salon settings, with the afflicted slicing themselves open to reveal their brand-new innards to the assembled audience. One of these performance artists is played by frequent Cronenberg collaborator Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises, A History of Violence). His character, Saul Tenser, works with his partner and sort-of lover Caprice (Lea Seydoux), a former trauma surgeon. Their world is one of singular trappings, including a podlike chair that senses pain, causing the arms of the chair to manipulate and soothe the body at hand, like an arthritic masseuse. Tenser and Caprice catch the attention of the shadowy National Organ Registry, which catalogs new organs. (Cronenberg keeps the motives vague.) The registrys apparently two-person staff is made up of Wippet (Don McKellar) and his associate, the twitchy, furtive Timlin. She is played by Kristen Stewart, sneakily hilarious as a true devotee of what Tenser is up to, namely: the most extreme and exotic form of cutting imaginable. If that sounds tasteless, Crimes of the Future will surely be that to many, if only for its blech factor, roughly medium level by Cronenberg standards. He has done everything from Scanners to The Fly to Crash, refining his immaculate technique in different directions over the decades. What makes Crimes of the Future work has everything to do with texture. The interiors and exteriors of Athens, especially at night, have been captured truly and well by Cronenbergs design team. The blood-red and lava-orange opening credits set the mood of sinister allure. What Cronenberg has to say metaphorically about art and artists and, among other themes, environmental collapse, egged on by humans, does not add up to any conventional sense or shape. That is not a flaw, merely a fact. The prologue, which leaves one particularly vulnerable character dead and a corpse up for grabs, establishes the stakes. Rhythmically Crimes of the Future maintains a rigorous sense of calm throughout, which can get a little pokey in some scenes. But Mortensen, Seydoux and especially Stewart invest fully, so some of us, anyway, can too. Crimes of the Future 3 stars (out of 4) MPAA rating: R (for strong disturbing violent content and grisly images, graphic nudity, and some language) Running time: 1:47 Advertisement How to watch: Premieres in theaters June 3 Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. mjphillips@chicagotribune.com Twitter @phillipstribune Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here. Comair, the South African operator of British Airways flights, has grounded all of its planes after running out of cash, the company said. The carrier, which is under administration, also operates budget airline Kulula. Those planes are also grounded, with tickets sales for both airlines suspended. Comair's administrators "have advised that the process to raise the necessary capital is in progress and that there is reason to believe such funding may be secured," the company said in the statement late Tuesday. "Once received, the airline will be able to recommence operations, but regrettably under these circumstances, the practitioners have no choice but to voluntarily suspend all scheduled flights until the funding is confirmed," it added. In May 2020, at the height of pandemic lockdowns, Comair filed for voluntary business rescue -- a procedure similar to bankruptcy protection -- in order to restructure the company. By February this year, the company had regained a 40 percent market share and resumed most flights. South African aviation officials had suspended Comair's flights for five days in March over safety concerns, dealing a new blow to the company. Why You Need Travel Insurance To Travel Even if Some Countries Dont Require One if Youre Fully Vaccinated With more borders easing their Covid-19 requirements for entry to welcome back ardent tourists, many people are eager to hop on the next flight to visit their favourite cities. If youre one of those who are raring to go, please be reminded to obtain travel insurance in Singapore before embarking on your trip because many countries are now imposing mandatory travel insurance requirements. Regardless of whether you're vaccinated or not, this mandate is meant to give you enhanced protection in case of unexpected medical emergencies and travel problems abroad. With the Covid-19 virus still looming large, equipping yourself with one of the best travel insurance in Singapore may just be the extra ticket youll need for a dream vacation. Mandatory Travel Insurance: Which Countries Require It and Which Doesnt Need It Anymore Window view of aeroplane Even if youre fully vaccinated, make sure to sign up for travel insurance package from a trusted insurer like Allianz Travel Insurance before boarding your flight to the following countries: Countries That Require Travel Insurance Anguilla Antarctica Argentina Aruba Austria Bahamas Belgium Belize Bermuda The British Virgin Islands Cambodia Cayman Islands Chile Cuba Curacao Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Indonesia Iran Israel Italy Jamaica Jordan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Nepal Netherlands Norway Panama Poland Portugal Qatar Rwanda Sint Martin Saudi Arabia Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia Spain, St Maarten Switzerland Sweden Thailand The Cayman Islands Turkey Turks and Caicos United Arab Emirates Vietnam Countries That Require Travel Insurance Anguilla Antarctica Argentina Aruba Austria Bahamas Belgium Belize Bermuda The British Virgin Islands Cambodia Cayman Islands Chile Cuba Curacao Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Indonesia Iran Israel Italy Jamaica Jordan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Nepal Netherlands Norway Panama Poland Portugal Qatar Rwanda Sint Martin Saudi Arabia Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia Spain, St Maarten Switzerland Sweden Thailand The Cayman Islands Turkey Turks and Caicos United Arab Emirates Vietnam Story continues If youre travelling to Malaysia, as of April, travel insurance is no longer required for fully vaccinated visitors crossing the Singapore-Malaysia land border. Similarly, Singapore has also waived the need for travel insurance for incoming visitors who are vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated children aged 12 and below. Is Travel Insurance Still Essential? table with map and a book, glasses, camera, magnifying glasses, pencils and polariod photos Regulatory Covid-19 requirements aside, travel insurance is more important than ever to protect travellers from mishaps that may arise from the virus interference. First and foremost, a country opening its border to welcome tourists doesnt necessarily mean the destination is Covid-free and certainly doesnt reduce the risk of things taking a sudden turn for the worse. Reportedly, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a spike in the number of complaints related to trip cancellations. These problems arise when travellers were diagnosed with the virus before their trips or are unable to return to Singapore due to sudden lockdowns or quarantine requirements. Many of these travellers ended up forfeiting their travel deposits or incurring unexpected costs while they were overseas. Sadly, for those who didnt have travel insurance, there was no recourse. They had to bear the full costs. While some may debate that the travel scene is more stable now with less disruptive measures and more vaccinated travellers, there is still a lingering risk of infection when youre abroad. A sudden surge of infection in the destination to cause travel problems is also highly possible. Just look at the sudden rise in infection rate in China, Hong Kong and South Korea in recent months and its not hard to imagine that anyone can still get trapped in another lockdown without prior notice. This is why arming yourself with the best travel insurance in Singapore is still an essential mix in any overseas travel during these uncertain times. Travel insurance not only protects you against financial losses while travelling but also offers peace of mind when you encounter inconveniences in a foreign environment. However, do note that you will need to check the sanction country list as travel insurance typically do not cover sanction countries. How Travel Insurance Can Help When You Encounter Travel Problems man sitting in the airport with luggage It is well and good if you are enjoying a smooth journey. But when things get turbulent, travel insurance often serves as a lifesaver that helps travellers turn things around with minimum financial losses. Here are some scenarios in which travel insurance will come in handy: If You Have To Cancel Your Trip Whether you have to cancel a trip because youre tested positive for Covid-19 before departure or due to natural calamities, youll be entitled to claim forfeiture of deposits or charges such as flights and hotels that are unrecoverable. If You Get Sick or Injured Abroad This is one of the key reasons that many travellers purchase travel insurance. It ensures high-quality medical care and reimburses medical costs so that you dont have to pay out of your pocket. Depending on the coverage, you can also arrange for a medical evacuation if needed. If You Experience Travel Delays Travel delays can leave you stranded and cause all sorts of inconveniences along your journey. If you are protected by travel insurance, you will be reimbursed for any necessary and eligible expenses such as meals, accommodation and transportation during a covered delay. If You Face an Unexpected Crisis If youre caught in a crisis abroad but not sure how to handle it, travel insurance will usually provide 24-Hour hotline assistance. This makes sure that youll not be stranded in a compromising position without any help. Safer travel starts with travel protection. If youre planning to take an overseas trip soon, this is not a time to go without travel insurance. If youre travelling, you can seek the advice of trusted insurers like Allianz Travel Insurance for a suitable travel insurance in Singapore to protect against potential travel problems. At Allianz Travel Insurance youll find comprehensive travel insurance packages ranging from single trip, multi-trip, annual protection and even rental car protector. In addition, Allianz Travel Insurances COVID-19 coverage is the same as their general coverage, and they provide medical and emergency transportation on top of their 24/7 medical assistance. Single Trip Comprehensive Bronze Single Trip Comprehensive Silver Single Trip Comprehensive Platinum Trip Cancellation Coverage S$5,000 S$10,000 S$15,000 Trip Interruption Coverage N/A S$10,000 S$15,000 Travel Delay Coverage N/A S$1,500 S$2,000 Emergency Medical Coverage S$200,000 S$500,000 S$1,000,000 Emergency Transportation Coverage Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Cruise Coverage - Missed Port of Call N/A N/A S$10,000 Cruise Coverage - Cabin Confinement N/A N/A S$1,000 You can check out Allianz Travel Insurance in full here. Ready to book your travel insurance with Allianz? You can do so here. This article was written in collaboration with Allianz Travel. While we are sponsored by them, we still review products and services with an objective lens and stay true to our mission providing you with the best recommendations and advice to make smarter financial decisions. The article Why You Need Travel Insurance To Travel Even if Some Countries Dont Require One if Youre Fully Vaccinated originally appeared on ValueChampion. ValueChampion helps you find the most relevant information to optimise your personal finances. Like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our latest news and articles. 36% B 11% 68 40% 23 11% 6% 53082.14 7.71% 582.56 2% 35.21 544 810102.474 EcoBricks Silicon Hill198 5000 418961.5 5 21 BORRETT ROAD 73844 4 20225100 1400 3040 KYIV, Ukraine The U.S. and Germany pledged Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east. Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the U.S. announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The U.S. is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory. The Kremlin accused the U.S. of "pouring fuel on the fire." Western arms have been critical to Ukraine's success in stymieing Russia's much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east. But as Russia bombards towns in its inching advance in the east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly pleaded for more and better weapons and accused the West of moving too slowly. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, hailed the new Western weapons. "I'm sure that if we receive all the necessary weapons and strengthen the efficient sanctions regime we will win," he said. The new arms could help Ukraine set up and hold new lines of defense in the east by hitting back at Russian artillery pieces that have been battering towns and cities and by limiting Russian airstrikes, said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France's military mission at the United Nations. "The NATO countries the European nations and the Americans have progressively escalated the means that they are putting at Ukraine's disposal, and this escalation, in my opinion, has had the aim of testing Russian limits," he said. "Each time, they measure the Russian reaction, and since there is no reaction, they keep supplying increasingly effective and sophisticated weaponry." Military analysts say Russia hopes to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Defense Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight. The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million package of security assistance for Ukraine from the U.S. that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more. The rockets have a range of about 50 miles and are highly mobile. Ukraine had pushed unsuccessfully for rockets with a range of up to 186 miles. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not trust assurances that Ukraine will not fire on Russian territory. "We believe that the U.S. is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire," he said. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintzev later went even further, directly accusing Ukraine of planning to fire U.S.-provided missiles from the northeastern Sumy region at border areas in Russia. The claim, based on alleged radio intercepts, couldn't be independently confirmed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine's push for more weapons is a "direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting." He warned that the multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict. "Sane Western politicians understand those risks well," he said. As the new weapons shipments were announced, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said five people were wounded in Wednesday's strike, and the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage was still being assessed. Germany's promise of IRIS-T air defense systems would mark the first delivery of long-range air defense weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war. Earlier deliveries of portable, shoulder-fired air defense missiles have bolstered the Ukrainian military's ability to take down helicopters and other low-flying aircraft but didn't give it enough range to challenge Russia's air superiority. Germany has come under particular criticism, both at home and from allies abroad, that it isn't doing enough. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the IRIS-T's surface-to-air missiles are the most modern air defense system the country has. "With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air attacks," he said. The radar systems will also help Ukraine locate enemy artillery. The weapons announcements came as a regional governor said Russian forces now control 80% of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow's efforts to complete its capture of the Donbas, where Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have fought for years and where the separatists held swaths of territory even before the invasion. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops were advancing in the city amid fierce street battles with Ukrainian forces, though he noted that in some districts the Ukrainian troops managed to push the Russians back. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 LE MARS, Iowa -- Aaron Leusink's addiction to painkillers started with one pill. Prescribed hydrocodone after undergoing a vasectomy performed after his fourth child was born 11 years ago, Leusink said he took one of the pills to ease the pain as he recovered from the procedure. "One pill that made me feel good changed my entire life," Leusink told District Judge Roger Sailer. The high from that first pill led Leusink to take all of his prescription, then any unused opiates he could find from family members' past prescriptions. He later turned to theft, using his position as a Plymouth County Sheriff's deputy to steal prescription drugs collected as evidence and from homes while serving search warrants. He broke into pharmacies and stole more. His secrets came crashing down on April 20, 2020, when a state investigator visited his home, asking about the missing drugs. "I had to look my family in the face and tell them who I had become," the former deputy said. He looked his family members in the face again Thursday, this time hugging, kissing and telling them goodbye after Sailer sentenced him to 40 years in prison for burglary, theft and other charges. Leusink had faced up to 60 years in prison, and Sailer said the fact Leusink had sought treatment and has been sober since his arrest two years ago worked in his favor. However, the circumstances surrounding the crimes were "nothing short of outrageous," Sailer said, and the damage done to the integrity of the sheriff's office, law enforcement and the criminal justice system is not easily fixed. "All of these crimes represent a gross, gross violation of the public's trust," said Sailer, who also fined Leusink a total of $3,195. Apologizing to his former co-workers, the community and his family, Leusink asked Sailer for leniency, telling the judge he'd continue his drug abuse rehabilitation and needed to support his family, who he said would suffer financially in his absence, possibly losing their business and home. "I've made some mistakes, your honor, and I fully understand the people I've hurt," Leusink said. "I'm asking you for a chance to right my wrongs but at the same time support my family." Ironically, Leusink served as the department's DARE officer for nine years, educating hundreds of Plymouth County students about the dangers of drugs. Retired Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo said the 30 years he spent in office promoting integrity and trust were shattered by a man he had hired and had sworn under oath to uphold the law. "He used the very system designed to protect the public for his own advantage," Van Otterloo said. "We've been given a black eye by the actions of former deputy Leusink." Earlier, Leusink's wife, April, had asked for leniency, saying the stress of being separated from her husband since he'd been jailed after pleading guilty two months ago has taken a toll on her and their children. "We have not had a family meal since Aaron's been gone, and I can't bring myself to look at the empty seat," she said. "He has never had ill intentions to anyone." Leusink, 43, of Le Mars, pleaded guilty in April in Plymouth County District Court to 11 charges: single counts of first-degree burglary, felonious misconduct in office, fourth-degree theft and unlawful possession of prescription drugs, two counts each of second-degree burglary and third-degree burglary, and three counts of fifth-degree theft. Van Otterloo had asked the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to investigate Leusink in April 2020 after a review of his body camera videos showed him taking prescription drugs from a rural Le Mars home. Leusink was fired later that month. Agents searching Leusink's home found more than 1,600 pills, evidence bags that had been ripped open or were left unsealed, a thumb drive and an iPhone from a case he had previously worked and $5,432 in cash. Opened evidence bags that were missing hydrocodone pills seized in cases Leusink had worked were found at his desk at the sheriff's office. The DCI found evidence linking Leusink to 2019 pharmacy burglaries in Akron and Kingsley and others that dated back to 2017, and video and audio footage from his body camera showed him seizing bottles of prescription medications while executing search warrants at homes in rural Merrill and Hinton. Leusink was arrested in September 2020. An Iowa State Auditor's Office investigation report in November 2020 detailed flaws in the department's evidence procedures. Van Otterloo, who had requested the probe, said after the report was released that his office had implemented auditors' recommendations to improve procedures. Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 3 Sad 8 Angry 3 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. SIOUX CITY -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Le Mars, Iowa, man who said a Woodbury County Sheriff's deputy conducted an unlawful search of his vehicle during a traffic stop. Chief U.S. District Court Leonard Strand ruled that Ryan McMurtrey failed to meet a deadline to confirm he wanted to continue with the lawsuit after his lawyer withdrew from the case. McMurtrey had sued Deputy Kyle Cleveringa in September 2020 in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, arguing that the deputy conducted an illegal search that led to his arrest on drug charges and a three-month stint in jail before his case was dismissed. McMurtrey was seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He said in the lawsuit that Cleveringa violated his federal Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure during an Oct. 2, 2018, traffic stop in which a backpack later discovered to contain methamphetamine and marijuana was seized. Cleveringa stopped McMurtrey and his female passenger near Sloan, Iowa, because McMurtrey's car did not have a front license plate. Cleveringa said he smelled alcohol coming from inside the vehicle and asked McMurtrey if he could search the car for any open alcohol containers. McMurtrey gave his consent. According to the lawsuit, Cleveringa searched backseat pouches, inside other containers and backpacks in the vehicle and found a backpack that had a lock on it. McMurtrey declined to give him permission to search it, so Cleveringa seized it in order to obtain a search warrant. McMurtrey and his passenger were allowed to leave. After the search warrant was obtained, the drugs were found inside the backpack, and McMurtrey was arrested on Dec. 17, 2018. He was unable to bond out of the Woodbury County Jail and remained in custody while his attorney filed a motion to suppress the evidence collected from the backpack. District Judge Jeffrey Poulson granted McMurtrey's motion, ruling the search was illegal because Cleveringa went beyond the limited consent to search for open containers and did not have authority to search the backpack. The Woodbury County Attorney's Office dropped the charges, and McMurtrey was released from jail nearly three months after his arrest. A nearly identical lawsuit in which McMurtrey said Cleveringa's actions also violated Iowa law, is scheduled for a pretrial conference next month in Woodbury County District Court. 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. LINCOLN, Neb. -- A Ponca, Nebraska, man has pleaded guilty in federal court of crossing state lines in order to have sex with a person he believed was a 15-year-old girl. Timothy Daly, 49, entered his plea Thursday via a video hearing in U.S. District Court in Lincoln to one count of interstate travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. According to terms of a plea agreement, a judge will sentence Daly within a range of 84-96 months in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 25. According to court documents, Daly responded to an online ad, offering $200 and some fast food for sex with a 15-year-old girl, who was actually an undercover police officer. On Aug. 26, Daly traveled to his job in Iowa and later went to a hotel in South Sioux City, where he had agreed to meet the girl. Daly waited in his vehicle before leaving, then was pulled over by police and arrested. Charges of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted enticement of a minor will be dismissed at sentencing. Daly's arrest was one of six that were part of Operation United Front, a 12-state undercover human trafficking operation to identify victims and subjects of adult and child human trafficking and/or prostitution. 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. SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man has been arrested and charged with smoking marijuana several times with a female minor. Oscar Gomez, 29, is charged in Woodbury County District Court with one count of distribution of a controlled substance to a person under age 18. He was arrested on a warrant Tuesday. According to court documents, Gomez smoked marijuana with a 14-year-old girl and got her high numerous times from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31 while he lived at a home in the 1500 block of Collins Street. The girl told police that she watched Gomez roll blunts and smoked with him every day or every other day. When police met with Gomez on May 16, he admitted sharing marijuana with the girl several times in order to get her to talk because he was a parent figure or caretaker to her, court documents said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 5 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. SIOUX CITY One suspect involved in a shooting Wednesday night in the west side of Sioux City has not been found, according to authorities. At 5:55 p.m. Wednesday, the Sioux City Police Department received multiple calls reporting shots being fired from a moving vehicle at another vehicle in the 600 block of Myrtle St, according to a SCPD news release. An individual on scene told officers the incident started at a nearby business in the 1300 block of W. 4th St with a physical altercation occurring between himself and two other males. The involved subjects then followed each other in their vehicles for a short distance before the passenger in the suspect vehicle shot at the victims vehicle, according to the news release. The suspects then fled the scene in their vehicle. The identity of the suspects is not known at this time, but initial information suggests that the male parties were acquainted with each other, according to the news release. The person who fired the shots is described as a Hispanic or Native American male in his mid to late 20s with a tattoo on his face. He was last seen in the passenger seat of a black, four door pickup, possibly a Chevrolet Silverado that was lifted and with a loud muffler being driven by a white male. Officers located evidence on scene to confirm shots had been fired. No one was struck or injured during the incident. This is an on-going investigation. Anyone with information on the identity of the suspects is asked to call the Sioux City Police Department or Crime Stoppers at 258-TIPS (8477). 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. "The Project(s)," the story of public housing in Chicago and Paparelli's latest critical hit in what had been a peerless season this year in Chicago theater, is currently playing at the theater company that Paparelli loved and nurtured to a level of artistic success that belied the size of its annual budget. In a conversation just a few days before he died, Paparelli said that some people found him challenging because he was always trying to do the highest quality of work "on a storefront budget." No one who ever saw Paparelli's work at American Theater Company, or who saw what happened to his work thereafter, could possibly contest that statement. MONDAMIN, Iowa -- A Pisgah, Iowa, man was killed and another man injured in a single-vehicle crash Tuesday in rural Mondamin. The Iowa State Patrol said the crash occurred at approximately 6:58 p.m. near East Kelly Avenue and 180th Trail north of Mondamin. Thomas Peasley was driving north on Kelly Avenue in a Silverado pickup truck when he lost control, left the road and rolled several times before landing on the driver's side in the west ditch. Peasley, 22, of Pisgah, was killed in the crash. Another man in the pickup, Michael Rodriquez, 24, of Council Bluffs, was transported to a Missouri Valley, Iowa, hospital for treatment of his injuries. Neither of the men was wearing a seat belt. The state patrol said alcohol is believed to have been a factor in the crash, which is still under investigation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A police captain says three people have been killed in a shooting at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus. Tulsa police Capt. Richard Meulenberg confirmed the number of dead Wednesday. Meulenberg said the shooter also was dead. It was unclear how the shooter died. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Aerial footage from a TV helicopter appeared to show first responders wheeling someone on a stretcher away from the hospital building. Story below will update as the situation develops. Read on for more context about mass shootings. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Reparations experts and advocates largely welcomed a move by California to publicly document its role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans but wondered if the slew of recommendations in its report released this week will result in measurable change. Justin Hansford, a longtime reparations advocate and law professor at Howard University, called the report an exciting development. The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response, said Hansford, who also serves as the director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington, D.C. We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address some of the recommendations. The 500-page document released Wednesday details the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people and how federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts were active in sustaining systemic racism in all facets of life for African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, which was created by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recommended a long list of actions the state can take to address the racial wealth gap, including housing reforms, reducing mass incarceration, creating a state-subsidized mortgage program for qualifying African American applicants and by offering free tuition to California colleges and universities and expanding scholarship opportunities. This country has ignored the harmful history the African American community has faced in this country and the inequities the community continues to face for far too long. This is a monumental moment not only for the State of California but the United States," said Rick Callender, president of the California Hawaii State Conference NAACP in Sacramento, California. When reports such as these are created for the first time in the nations history, they are a compelling model for other states to address the same issues. As California goes, so goes the nation, Callender said in a statement to The Associated Press. The task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all Black people in the U.S. But activist Yvette Carnell said she worries that the California report and others like it could be used as a scapegoat for the federal government to avoid its responsibility to fund a national reparations movement. "I'm not opposed to this, because I think it is all for a good reason, but I would rather see these reparations commissions use that as leverage to force the federal government to do something, said Yvette Carnell, president of ADOS Advocacy Foundation. The Georgia-based grassroots organization, which began in response to a question about Black wealth, has advocated for reparations since 2018. My fear is that all of these states will end up maybe doing something and the government at the federal level will say we support local reparations initiatives. When, truthfully, the only government that has trillions of dollars to pour resources into our community and pay us what was owed is the federal government," said Carnell. Carnell said it feels like the report took every recommendation from Black people around the U.S. and put it all in one report, arguing it could be seen as a Black agenda. But she said she wants to see specific efforts to financially repay what was taken from enslaved people and their descendants, not just repaying them by creating the kinds of programs and offices that are recommended in the report. California was the first state to create a task force on reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year through a $10 million housing project. Cities and universities have since followed. Evanston Councilmember Bobby Burns, who is on the city reparations committee, commended California for being the first state to take action. No one wants to be the first out of the gate and be the first to endure a level of scrutiny that is almost certain when you are doing anything that is truly transformational," he said. "To have now a state step up ... and not only acknowledge wrongdoing but to provide redress for that harm because they're responsible for it is important in the same way that it is important for a city to take the lead on it. Hansford, whose organization provided legal and research support to the city of Evanston, said having local communities tell their stories is important for educating people on why reparations are necessary. California is home to the fifth-largest Black population in the U.S., after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California. African Americans make up less than 6% of Californias population, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation. Mumphrey reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her at https://twitter.com/cheymumph. Associated Press journalist Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Biden appeals for tougher gun laws: 'How much more carnage?' WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to act on gun control. In an address to the nation Thursday night, he called on lawmakers to restore limits on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He says that if legislators fail to act, voters should use their outrage to turn gun violence into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Biden is trying to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter laws, though such efforts have failed in the wake of past violence. The speech follows recent mass shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Texas senator: School police chief didn't know of 911 calls UVALDE, Texas (AP) A Texas state senator says the commander at the scene of a school shooting in Texas was not informed of panicked 911 calls from inside the school building. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said during a news conference Thursday that the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator who represents the city called it a system failure that the calls were going to city police but not communicated to Arredondo. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety has said police didnt confront the gunman more quickly because Arredondo believed the situation had morphed from an active shooting to a hostage situation. Nineteen children and two teachers died. Police: Tulsa gunman targeted surgeon he blamed for pain Police say a man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the shooter as 45-year-old Michael Louis. He says the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love. Harini Logan wins spelling bee in 1st-ever tiebreaker OXON HILL, Md. (AP) Harini Logan has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, defeating Vikram Raju in the bee's first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker. Both spellers got four words wrong during their grueling showdown before Scripps went to the 90-second spell-off. Harini was faster and sharper throughout, spelling 21 words correctly to beat Vikram by six. The 13-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, will take home a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Harini was a four-time participant in the bee and a sentimental favorite who endured the pandemic to compete again in person for the first time since 2019. Queen Elizabeth II to miss Jubilee service amid 'discomfort' LONDON (AP) Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a church service to mark her Platinum Jubilee after experiencing discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace says that with great reluctance the 96-year-old monarch has decided to skip Fridays service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed todays Birthday Parade but did experience some discomfort. Britain is marking the monarchs 70 years on the throne with four days of events over a long holiday weekend. Elizabeth is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to serve for seven decades. Many royal followers camped out overnight in London in hopes of getting a glimpse of the queen. Jan. 6 committee sets prime-time hearing date for findings WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will go public with its findings in a prime-time hearing next week, launching into what lawmakers hope will be one the most consequential oversight efforts in American history. The six hearings, set to begin June 9 and expected to last until late June, will be the first time the committee discloses what it has discovered in the course of a sprawling 10-month investigation that has touched nearly every aspect of the insurrection. More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the panel, and only brief snippets of that testimony have been revealed to the public, mostly through court filings. NY passes bill raising age to buy, own semi-automatic rifles ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorks legislature has voted to ban banning anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle. The legislation is a major change to state firearm laws. It was passed Thursday, less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. Other new legislation will restrict civilian purchases of bullet-resistant armor, which was worn by the killer in Buffalo. Bills would also require new guns to be equipped with microstamping technology that can help law enforcement investigators trace bullets to particular firearms. Legal fights over the legislation are expected. 2 doctors, receptionist and visitor killed in Tulsa shooting The four people killed in a shooting inside a Tulsa medical building included two doctors, a receptionist and a former soldier who was accompanying his wife during a checkup. Police, officials at Saint Francis Health System and others who knew the victims provided details about them on Thursday. Police say Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and Army veteran William Love were fatally shot. Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. 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 Uvalde school police chief says hes still cooperating The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last weeks deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, says hes talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo told CNN in a brief interview Wednesday that hes speaking regularly with Texas Department of Public Safety investigators. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Also Wednesday, the district announced that students and staff would not be returning to the Robb Elementary campus. Plans are still being finalized on where students will attend classes in the fall. 4 killed in shooting at Tulsa medical building, shooter dead Police officials say four people have been killed in a shooting at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead Wednesday in the latest wave of mass gun violence occurring across the country. He also said the shooter was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The motive for the attack was unclear. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. US and Germany agree to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The U.S. and Germany are pledging to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long craved for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery. Germany said Wednesday it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. The U.S. said it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The arms shipments aim to bolster Ukraines defense as its troops battle a grinding Russian offensive that is closing in on capturing a key city in the east. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military. Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him $10M FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) A jury sided with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. The verdict issued Wednesday awarded the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million Wednesday and vindicated his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depps lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages. Sheryl Sandberg, long Facebook's No. 2 exec, steps down SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps along the way, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. Meta did not immediately respond to a message for comment. Sandberg has led Facebook's now Metas advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into a more than $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. Uvalde shooting highlights role of doors in security plans Doors have been at the center of the investigation into the massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Those include both the door the gunman entered and the one police did not open for over an hour. School officials under pressure to balance accessibility and safety confront a variety of decisions about the seemingly mundane act of going in and out of a building or classroom. But as the attack on Robb Elementary School showed, such choices can sometimes spell the difference between life and death. Former Corinthian students get federal student debt erased WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration says it will forgive all remaining federal student debt for former students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain. Under the new action, anyone who attended the chain from 1995 to its collapse in 2015 will get their federal student debt automatically canceled. It will erase $5.8 billion in debt for more than 560,000 borrowers, the largest single loan discharge in Education Department history. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans. Slave reparations advocates hail historic California report SAN FRANCISCO (AP) California released an exhaustive report detailing how government laws and policies perpetuated discrimination against African Americans. Wednesdays report is a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology from California and the case for financial reparations. The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century. It comes as states and school boards move to limit what can be taught in U.S. schools. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with such a study and plan. US Open's $10M purse offers hope for gender pay equality SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (AP) Dottie Pepper recalls being paired with Meg Mallon for the final round of the 1991 U.S. Womens Open with what she viewed as an impressive $110,000 first-place prize on the line. Things have changed, but Lydia Ko says not enough. Mallon would win that title in 1991, collecting the first six-figure payout in womens golf history. Pepper says, That was a big deal. Three decades later, Pepper can hardly comprehend that the top female golfers in the world will be competing this week for a record $10 million purse. That includes a winners take of $1.8 million at the U.S. Womens Open at Pine Needles. Ko, the No. 3-ranked womens golfer in the world, said shes grateful for steps toward equal pay but added theres still a ways to go. Vocab questions reduce spelling bee to 3 letters: A, B or C OXON HILL, Md. (AP) An onstage vocabulary round introduced a new element of randomness into the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The multiple-choice vocabulary questions forced spellers to demonstrate a different skill set and knocked out some of the bee's most accomplished spellers during Wednesday's semifinals. Among those who were eliminated without spelling a word incorrectly were Roy Seligman and Vivinsha Veduru, who tied for fourth place in last year's bee. Veteran spelling coach Grace Walters called the vocabulary results tragic. Among the words and phrases that spellers failed to define were Stockholm syndrome, ragout and rumbustical. 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 The romantic comedy Fire Island is a very gay, very horny, very charming riff on Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice set on present-day Fire Island in New York. There is banter aplenty, a lot of it dirty. Both sweet and filled with spiky humor, it comes from screenwriter Joel Kim Booster, who also stars alongside Margaret Cho and Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang, the latter of whom is one of Boosters closest friends on screen and in real life. Though it touches on everything from beauty standards to classism to racism the snobs in the film are ripped, white and obnoxiously rich Fire Island (which premieres on Hulu on June 3) is resolutely a rom-com with a tender heart. Yangs character isnt looking for casual sex; he wants the fantasy of kissing in the rain and (someone) standing outside my window with a boom box or confessing things in a gazebo. Booster plays a guy slightly more cynical about the whole pairing off thing, and instead encourages his friend to embrace the hookup potential around him: You are going to have missionary, vanilla sex with the man men of your dreams. They each find someone to be with in the end, but its the central friendship between Yang and Booster that carries the movie. Advertisement From left: Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos, Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster and Matt Rogers in the romantic comedy "Fire Island," which Booster also wrote. (Jeong Park/Searchlight Pictures) As a writer and performer, Booster launched his career in Chicagos theater scene. He grew up in Plainfield, Illinois, and aside from Melissa McCarthy, he might be one of the only other notable performers to emerge from this town 45 minutes southwest of Chicago. And Shea Coulee from RuPauls Drag Race, Booster said. We all went to the same high school. Booster also co-stars in the upcoming Maya Rudolph comedy series Loot on Apple TV+, which premieres later this month. Advertisement Q: How did you land on the idea of playing around with Jane Austen? A: The first time I went to Fire Island with Bowen in 2016, I brought Pride and Prejudice with me as my beach read. And I remember reading it there and sort of marveling at how relevant her observations on class, and the ways in which people communicate across class lines, were to what we were experiencing on the island. I kept putting the book down and saying to Bowen, This is crazy, she is speaking to us at this moment. And it started as a joke, honestly. I kept saying that week: Oh, wouldnt it be funny if I wrote gay Pride and Prejudice that was set on Fire Island? And people would sort of boo and hiss and throw things at me. And then over the years, I would come back to Fire Island with Bowen, and every year I would bring a different Jane Austen book with me to read, and slowly it just began to crystallize. Q: How long have you and Yang been friends? A: I moved to New York in 2013 and we met shortly after that. We were introduced by a mutual friend and we performed together in a comedy variety show and we just became fast friends. We had a lot in common there werent a lot of gay Asian men working in comedy at that time. I think there are a lot of people who wanted to pit us against each other because we happened to check a lot of the same boxes, demographically. But we resisted that and rather than being competitive, we wanted to lean on each other, because no one understands what its like to be us in this industry quite like the other. Q: The feeling you were getting from some people was: There can only be one gay Asian guy whos funny. A: Yeah. And this movie is a response to that. Advertisement We so often go in for the same parts, but we dont ever get to work together and I said (screw) that if the industry is not going to afford us this opportunity, Im going to do it myself. Joel Kim Booster, who grew up in Plainfield, Illinois and got his start in comedy in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) I hadnt written a film script prior to this. I had written for television, for The Other Two and for Big Mouth and Billy on the Street. So I had originally written this as a half-hour comedy pilot, on spec, and I took it out and tried to sell it. And nobody wanted to touch it. It was seen as very niche and unsellable. And then Quibi came about (the short-lived streaming service that specialized in episodes chopped up into short quick bites) and, say what you will about Quibis eventual demise and whether or not it was a good idea, they were really taking chances on new talent and I was one of those people. So I developed it with them. I wrote it, it was greenlit and then Quibi crashed. So I thought it was over, that was the end of it. Q: When Quibi collapsed, did all the rights revert to you? A: Yeah. We were supposed to shoot in the summer of 2020, and because of the pandemic we had to postpone, and that ended up being sort of fortuitous. Because we hadnt shot anything, it was pretty simple. Advertisement And then we sent it out and Searchlight very quickly snatched it up. There was a timing thing, certainly: Bowens star was on the rise (having joined SNL) and the holiday movie Happiest Season had just been a big hit for Hulu, so they were hungry for another gay rom-com. And I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Q: How did it go from a series to a film? A: One of the appealing things about the Quibi of it all is that the rights reverted back to you after two years, no matter what, and you could take these short-form quick bites and turn them into whatever you want and repackage and resell them. So when I was developing it, in the back of my mind I was always structuring it as a movie that I would eventually be able to sell. So when I sent it to Searchlight, I just took out the chapter breaks and squashed it together and it worked! Q: The movie is this combination of very sweet and very horny. How did you go about deciding things like how much nudity to show? A: We didnt want to shy away from anything. We didnt want to shy away from the realities of what it is to be on that island, both the sex stuff but also the racism and classism and body expectations. We wanted it to feel like a real Fire Island experience and we were very upfront with the studio about that. And to Searchlights credit, they were very open to letting us go there. Andrew (the films director Andrew Ahn) asked very early on, Can I show (penis)? and they said, You can have as many butts as you want, but no (penis). (Laughs) And we said, Well take it! So that was the extent of the discussions of how explicit we could go. Advertisement Q: In the movie, Yangs character often feels insecure because he isnt considered attractive. I had to suspend my disbelief because he clearly is attractive but is there a sense on Fire Island that he isnt? A: I think youre underestimating the power of gay racism. The scene in the movie where we enter the party and someone says, I think youre at the wrong house that has happened to me personally, twice, on Fire Island. So it is amazing the ways in which we can oppress each other when theres no one around to oppress us when there are no straight people around, we very quickly have the propensity to turn on each other. And as much as this movie is a celebration of chosen family and queer family, I wanted it to be an exploration of that toxicity. From left: Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster as best pals navigating the dating and hook-up scene in "Fire Island." (Jeong Park/Searchlight Pictures) Q: You grew up in Plainfield and became part of the theater scene in Chicago after college. A: Really the thing that inspired me to get out of Plainfield was Margaret Cho. I mean, I can draw a straight line from (her 1994 sitcom) All-American Girl to Fire Island, because it really gave me a window into the possibility that I had as an Asian American in this industry. I had never seen myself reflected on screen before and thats what really changed my life and my conception of what was possible. I was eight or nine when it was on the air, and I was sitting three inches from the screen watching it every week. Q: You were home-schooled for most of your childhood. A: Until I was a junior in high school, and the reason for that (switching to public school) was performing I wanted an opportunity to perform. I always wanted to perform, I was a ham from the jump. All I wanted to do was write, tell stories and perform. Advertisement When I came to Chicago, I came to be a playwright. That was my goal at the time. I was in love with the storefront theater scene and my first play was produced as part of the Chicago Fringe Festival. I became a company member at The New Colony Theatre (which has since changed its name to The New Coordinates) and was working on their play 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche and that was where I met Beth Stelling (who now co-stars on Rutherford Falls) and she was the first person to tell me to do standup. After that, I started to straddle the line between comedy and theater. Thats the beauty of Chicago, its an incredible incubator and it allows you the freedom to sort of dip your toe into a lot of different waters. It slowly became more interesting to me to do comedy because I felt a bit more freedom in that. When I started going out for more on-camera work as an actor, it was so limiting. We werent having the same conversations about diversity that were having now, so I started doing stand-up as an outlet to really express myself and tell an authentic version of my story. I was tired of being called in to audition for Chinese food delivery boy. So I was in Chicago from 2010 to 2013. Moving to New York was a conscious decision on my part to say: OK, Im going to try to make it as a comedian. Q: Yang is obviously on SNL, was that ever of interest to you? A: Oh god, no (laughs), it is not a skill set I possess. And quite honestly, its grueling work. And a little limiting, I think; they really own you during your tenure on that show. I think Bowen is doing an amazing job, he handles it with aplomb, but I never need to be as famous as Bowen Yang, I can tell you that. After going out to gay bars with Bowen? Im very happy with who I am. Q: What is it like to socialize with a friend who suddenly becomes famous? A: He handles it so gracefully, but it is just a constant stream of people coming up and telling him how much he means to them. Its an honor and a responsibility that he takes seriously. Hes great with people. Advertisement But I am his de facto photographer when we go out people will ask me to take a picture of them with him and thats a role I take very seriously, as well (laughs). Joel Kim Booster in a scene from "Fire Island." (Jeong Park/Searchlight Pictures) Nina Metz is a Tribune critic nmetz@chicagotribune.com What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. Sign up for our Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here. An assault-style weapon found at the scene of Wednesday's deadly shooting in an Oklahoma medical building had been bought that day, authorities say. A gunman, who was later found dead, opened fire on the second floor of a medical building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa on Wednesday afternoon, killing four people. Fewer than 10 others were injured, authorities said. According to the Associated Press, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was among those killed Wednesday. We also have a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Read AP's story here: The assault-style weapon was an AR-15 style firearm, a source said. A different weapon, a handgun, was purchased on May 29, a source told CNN. The two firearms, a semiautomatic rifle and a semiautomatic pistol, were both found at the scene, Tulsa police Capt. Richard Meulenberg told CNN earlier. "It was just madness inside, with hundreds of rooms and hundreds of people trying to get out of the building," Meulenberg told CNN. The mass shooting is among the latest instances nationwide of first responders and civilians coming face-to-face with the threat of gun violence in public places. It comes more than two weeks after a racist assault at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a bloody attack at a church in California; and eight days after a heartbreaking massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The Tulsa shooting was one of the 233 mass shootings that have happened in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. CNN and the archive define a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. Law enforcement received a call just before 5 p.m. Wednesday about a person with a firearm at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office facility on the Saint Francis Hospital campus, Tulsa police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish said at a news conference. Responding officers who arrived within minutes "were hearing shots in the building, and that's what directed them to the second floor," Dalgleish said. The gunman was found dead by police as they worked their way inside the building, Meulenberg said, and has not been publicly identified. Police suspect the gunman's fatal wounds were self-inflicted. Two of the deceased were found in the same room as the gunman, the police captain said. It was unclear whether the four people killed were medical staffers, patients or visitors, said Dalgleish, who said the shooting took place at an orthopedic center in the building. In addition, fewer than 10 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Meulenberg said. Authorities are trying to determine if they were wounded by gunfire or during the chaos of escaping the scene, he said. No officers were injured. Investigators are working to determine the gunman's motive, although the shooting was not believed to be indiscriminate, Meulenberg told CNN's Don Lemon. "He very purposefully went to this location, went to a very specific floor, and shot with very specific purpose," he said. "This was not a random shooting by this individual." Witnesses describe frantic first moments Lachelle Nathan told CNN affiliate KTUL that she had arrived in her vehicle with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren for a doctor's appointment when she saw multiple officers race toward the complex. "It's awful, it's sad. My daughter-in-law is from Buffalo, so now it's so close to home. It's not even safe if you come outside anymore, you know?" Nathan said. "I mean, you see it on TV," her daughter-in-law said, "but you don't think it's actually going to happen right in front of your eyes, so this is a wakeup call for my kids, this can really happen anywhere and it's very scary." "You can't even go to a store, you can't even go to school, now you can't go to the doctor?" Debra Proctor was in another building on the hospital campus for an appointment when she heard police sirens. "Police were everywhere in the parking lot, up and down the surrounding blocks," said Proctor, a registered nurse for more than four decades. "They were still arriving when I was leaving." Kalen Davis, a lifelong Tulsa resident, was waiting in traffic around 5 p.m. local time when she saw multiple police cars responding to the scene. In a video she shared with CNN, authorities can be seen running toward a building with their guns drawn. Two officers are seen taking long guns out of their trunks as more emergency vehicles race to the scene. "I just knew that it was a shooting situation because I saw police running with rifles," Davis, 45, told CNN. "That's when I got emotional." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 ATLANTA (AP) Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams waded further into her party's June 21 runoffs for statewide office on Thursday, trying to pick who else will be on the ticket with her as she makes a second bid for governor. Abrams had already endorsed state Rep. Bee Nguyen, an Atlanta Democrat, in Nguyen's runoff contest with former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state. Thursday, she also asked Democrats to vote for Charlie Bailey in the party's runoff for lieutenant governor over Kwanza Hall and for William Boddie in the runoff for labor commissioner over Nicole Horn. She called all three proven leaders in a statement. To build a stronger Georgia, we need leaders who will work for quality, affordable healthcare, defend civil and human rights, protect the right to vote and build an economy that works for everyone, Abrams said. Abrams was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. She'll match up again with incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who narrowly defeated Abrams in 2018 and who on May 24 demolished Republican rivals, including former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who was backed by former President Donald Trump. Trump also endorsed three other challengers to statewide incumbents in Georgia, all of whom lost. Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said of Abrams' endorsements that as with a Donald Trump endorsement, I dont think that its the be-all, end-all, but I do think that it certainly sends cues. Gillespie said Abrams' backing could be particularly beneficial if she uses her organization to mobilize voters in what could be a low-turnout runoff. Bailey was the 2018 Democratic nominee for attorney general in Georgia and had planned to run for that office again. He switched over to a crowded field for lieutenant governor, finishing a distant second with 18% of the vote behind Hall, a former Atlanta City Council member who had 30%. Boddie, a state representative from East Point, led the race for labor commissioner with 28% of the vote over Horn, an entrepreneur, who had 25%. Nguyen led the primary with 44%, while Dawkins-Haigler received 19% of the vote. All three of the Democratic candidates for secretary of state who didnt make the runoff endorsed Dawkins-Haigler against Nguyen on Wednesday. Abrams did not endorse in the Democrats' runoff for insurance commissioner between Janice Laws Robinson and Raphael Baker. She also didnt pick candidates in the partys 1st Congressional District and the 10th Congressional District runoffs. In the May 24 primary, voters chose Democrat Jen Jordan to run for attorney general, Nakita Hemingway for agriculture commissioner and Alisha Thomas Searcy for school superintendent. Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy. 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 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Ten Alaska state lawmakers do not plan to seek reelection this year, and eight others are running for other offices. Fifty-nine of the Legislature's 60 seats are up for election. Those who do not plan to seek reelection include Republican Senate President Peter Micciche, who previously announced his decision, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich. Begich, an Anchorage Democrat, remains listed as a candidate but told The Associated Press on Thursday he's pretty sure he'll withdraw next week. In my heart and my mind, I've moved away from the job, Begich said. He said he spoke with Loki G. Tobin, who has been an aide to him, before Wednesday's filing deadline and told her he may not run again. She filed to run for the seat, for which independent Heather Herndon also has filed. Begich said he felt a sense of relief in indicating he would not run. Tobin, a Democrat, said she was excited and caught off guard when Begich called her. She said she's passionate about her community and ready for the opportunity. Several of the incumbents who opted against seeking reelection cited family considerations, including Micciche and Republican Rep. Sara Rasmussen. Rasmussen said her young family previously relocated to Juneau from their home in Anchorage to be with her during session. But she said her son started kindergarten this year so her family stayed in Anchorage and she commuted back and forth. I was really on the fence on everything, kind of until the end of session, and I felt like the best thing to do was just to prioritize my family at that point, she said. This year's regular session ended within the 121-day constitutional meeting limit but prior years have been grueling, marked in some cases by divisive special sessions. There have been 15 special sessions since 2015, four of them last year. Democratic state Rep. Adam Wool of Fairbanks and Republican state Sen. Josh Revak of Anchorage are among those running for a different office. Both are running for U.S. House. Republican Rep. Christopher Kurka of Wasilla is running for governor. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is seeking reelection. Five House members are running for state Senate, including Democratic Rep. Matt Claman, who is challenging Republican Sen. Mia Costello; Democratic Rep. Geran Tarr, in a race with three other candidates, including Democratic Anchorage Assembly member Forrest Dunbar; and Republican Reps. Kelly Merrick and Ken McCarty. Merrick and McCarty, both from the Eagle River area, are running in the same Senate race. Two Anchorage state House races feature sitting Democratic lawmakers Reps. Harriet Drummond and Zack Fields and Reps. Andy Josephson and Chris Tuck, the House majority leader. The primary is Aug. 16; the withdrawal deadline is June 25. It was just last week that the political boundaries for this year's elections were set following rounds of litigation over the redistricting process. This also will be the first state elections cycle following a split federal appeals court panel decision last year that struck down several campaign contribution caps. The Alaska Public Offices Commission has said there are no longer limits on what an individual can give to candidates or to non-party groups. This year also brings changes to the elections process. Under an initiative passed in 2020, there are no longer party primaries. The four candidates who win the most votes in their primary, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election, in which ranked choice voting will be used. If there are four or fewer candidates in a primary race, all would move on to the general election, the Division of Elections has said. Nearly all the legislative races have four or fewer candidates. Seven races have just one candidate who has filed to run. Jason Grenn, executive director of Alaskans for Better Elections, which advocated for the new elections process, said the changes made by the system are intended to help remove obstacles for people who want to run. In the past, for example, a candidate who wanted to run outside the party structure would have to gather signatures to get on the ballot, he noted. There are other factors involved in one's decision to run, he said, such as relocating to Juneau, leaving one's job or legislative pay. Our team didnt have expectations that wed see 10 or 12 people in each race, he said. And weve heard from people who have said, Im running because of these changes,' or I can run now because these changes happened. The August primary also includes races for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor. 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 MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt, who last month sharply criticized one opponent for not debating in the race, now indicated she will not debate opponent Rep. Mo Brooks ahead of the runoff election. Her campaign said the congressman is seeking a circus" instead of a debate. The Brooks camp accused Britt of hiding. Katie wont participate in the final circus act of Mos career she will continue to work tirelessly and travel to every corner of Alabama to share her conservative message, listen to Alabamians, and answer their questions," Britt spokesman Sean Ross said. Britt and Brooks will face each other in the June 21 runoff that will decide the GOP nomination for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby. Britt, the former president of the Business Council of Alabama and Shelby's former chief of staff, led Brooks in the May 24 primary, but the race must go to a runoff because no candidate captured more than 50% of the initial vote. Britt had sharply criticized Mike Durant, who finished third in the May 24 primary, for not accepting debate invitations ahead of the primary. At the time, the three candidates were considered to be in a tight race to decide which two would make the expected runoff. Brooks accused Britt of being hypocritical after lobbing criticisms at Durant. "Katie Britts debate refusal is an admission of profound weakness at a time America needs fighters in the U.S. Senate, not pushovers. As my record reflects, I am exactly the fighter America needs at this critical juncture in history," Brooks said in a statement. The Alabama Republican Party is seeking to organize a debate ahead of the June 21 runoff. Chairman John Wahl said this week that the offer to the two candidates stands open, and that questions would come from GOP primary voters. Several media outlets had also sought to host a debate. Asked about her past criticisms of Durant, Ross said Britt had been accessible to voters and had appeared at several forums with Brooks. 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 California's legislative leaders say they have reached an agreement on how to spend the state's tax dollars. Leaders of the state Senate and Assembly on Wednesday announced an operating budget of more than $300 billion. Their plan would return nearly $10 billion of that money to taxpayers in the form of rebates, grants and tax credits. But Gov. Gavin Newsom has not yet agreed to the Legislature's plan. Lawmakers are moving ahead with their plan because they must pass a budget by June 15 or else they don't get paid. Lawmakers and the Newsom administration will continue negotiating. Reparations experts and advocates largely welcomed a move by California to publicly document its role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans but wondered if the slew of recommendations in its report released this week will result in measurable change. The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response, said Justin Hansford, a longtime reparations advocate and professor of law at Howard, who called the report an exciting development. We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address some of the recommendations, said Hansford, who also serves as the director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington, D.C. Advertisement The 500-page document released Wednesday details the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people and how federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts were active in sustaining systemic racism in all facets of life for African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, which was created by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recommended a long list of actions the state can take to address the racial wealth gap, including housing reforms, reducing mass incarceration, creating a state-subsidized mortgage program for qualifying African American applicants and by offering free tuition to California colleges and universities and expanding scholarship opportunities. Advertisement This country has ignored the harmful history the African American community has faced in this country and the inequities the community continues to face for far too long. This is a monumental moment not only for the State of California but the United States, said Rick Callender, president of the California Hawaii State Conference NAACP in Sacramento, California. When reports such as these are created for the first time in the nations history, they are a compelling model for other states to address the same issues. As California goes, so goes the nation, Callender said in a statement to The Associated Press. The task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all Black people in the U.S. But activist Yvette Carnell said she worries that the California report and others like it could be used as a scapegoat for the federal government to avoid its responsibility to fund a national reparations movement. Im not opposed to this, because I think it is all for a good reason, but I would rather see these reparations commissions use that as leverage to force the federal government to do something, said Yvette Carnell, president of ADOS Advocacy Foundation. The Georgia-based grassroots organization, which began in response to a question about Black wealth, has advocated for reparations since 2018. My fear is that all of these states will end up maybe doing something and the government at the federal level will say we support local reparations initiatives. When, truthfully, the only government that has trillions of dollars to pour resources into our community and pay us what was owed is the federal government, said Carnell. People line up to speak during a reparations task force meeting at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco on April 13, 2022. (Janie Har/AP) Carnell said it feels like the report took every recommendation from Black people around the U.S. and put it all in one report, arguing it could be seen as a Black agenda. But she said she wants to see specific efforts to financially repay what was taken from enslaved people and their descendants, not just repaying them by creating the kinds of programs and offices that are recommended in the report. California was the first state to create a task force on reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year through a $10 million housing project. Cities and universities have since followed. Advertisement Evanston Councilmember Bobby Burns, who is on the city reparations committee, commended California for being the first state to take action. No one wants to be the first out of the gate and be the first to endure a level of scrutiny that is almost certain when you are doing anything that is truly transformational, he said. To have now a state step up ... and not only acknowledge wrongdoing but to provide redress for that harm because theyre responsible for it is important in the same way that it is important for a city to take the lead on it. Hansford, whose organization provided legal and research support to the city of Evanston, said having local communities tell their stories is important for educating people on why reparations are necessary. California is home to the fifth-largest Black population in the U.S., after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California. African Americans make up less than 6% of Californias population, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation. Mumphrey reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press Race and Ethnicity team. Associated Press journalist Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report. PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona woman indicted in 2020 on accusations of illegally collecting ballots apparently ran a sophisticated operation using her status as a well-known Democratic operative in the border city of San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and in some cases fill out their ballots, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Guillermina Fuentes, 66, and a second woman were indicted in December 2020 on one count of ballot abuse, a practice commonly known as ballot harvesting that was made illegal under a 2016 state law. Additional charges of conspiracy, forgery and an additional ballot abuse charge were added last October. Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor who serves as an elected board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District in San Luis, has a Thursday court date where she may change her not guilty plea. Her co-defendant awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to a reduced charge several months ago. Fuentes is accused of collecting ballots during the 2020 primary election in violation of the law that only allows a caregiver or family member to return someone elses early ballot, and in some cases filling them out. Her attorney, Ann Chapman, has not responded to repeated inquiries seeking comment, including on Wednesday. Republicans have rallied around the possibility of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election where former President Donald Trump was defeated. They've pointed to the charges against Fuentes as part of a broader pattern in battleground states. There is no sign of that in the investigation records, though. They were obtained through a public records request from the Arizona attorney general's office that was first made in February 2021, but was denied. The AP sent a new request last October after more charges were filed against Fuentes. The attorney general finally provided more than 20 documents laying out the investigation late last week. The records show that fewer than a dozen ballots could be linked to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the tightest local races. It is the only case ever brought by the attorney general under the 2016 law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Investigators said it appears she used her position as a powerful figure in the heavily Mexican American community to get people to give her or others their ballots to return to the polls. The alleged illegal ballot collection by Fuentes and her co-defendant happened in plain sight outside a cultural center in San Luis on the day of the primary election, the reports show. Fuentes was at a card table set up by supporters of a slate of city council candidates and was spotted with several mail-ballot envelopes, pulling out the ballots and in some cases marking them. The ballots were then taken inside the cultural center and deposited in a ballot box. It was videotaped by a write-in candidate who called the Yuma County sheriff. An investigation was launched that day, and about 50 ballots checked for fingerprints, which were inconclusive. The investigation was taken over by the attorney general's office within days, with investigators collaborating with the sheriff's deputies to interview voters and others, including Fuentes. Although Fuentes is charged only with actions that appear on the videotape and involve just a handful of ballots, investigators believe the effort went much farther. Attorney general's office investigator William Kluth wrote in one report that there was some evidence suggesting Fuentes actively canvassed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them. Collecting ballots in that manner was a common get-out-the-vote tactic used by both political parties before Arizona passed the 2016 law. Paying for ballots has never been legal. Theres no sign she or anyone else in Yuma County collected ballots in the general election, but investigators from the attorney general's office are still active in Yuma County. The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that search warrants were served last month at a nonprofit in San Luis. The group's executive director is chair of the Yuma County board of supervisors and said the warrant sought the cell phone of a San Luis councilwoman who may have been involved in illegal ballot collection. And at a legislative hearing Tuesday where election conspiracy theorists testified, the Yuma primary election case was again a highlight. Its all about corruption in San Luis and skewing a city council election, Yuma Republican Rep. Tim Dunn said. This has been going on for a long time, that you cant have free and fair elections in south county, for decades. And its spreading across the country. Ballot abuse is a felony that carries a possible sentence of up to two years in prison and a $150,000 fine. 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 A Chicago police officer has been hospitalized in critical condition after she was shot on the citys South Side. In a news conference at the University of Chicago Medical Center, Police Supt. David Brown said that at 5:42 p.m. Wednesday two uniformed officers were in a marked squad car attempting a traffic stop. The car the officers were trying to pull over first sped up, and then slowed down to pull even with the squad car. Brown says that at that point, someone in the car started firing a gun at the officers. He says the officer who was driving was shot and wounded in her upper body. She's in critical but stable condition. Her name hasnt been released. UVALDE, Texas (AP) The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and it's unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshall Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A depiction of the mosaic artwork that initially greets visitors to the state Capitol as they walk toward the Rotunda will adorn new Nebraska motor vehicle license plates for the next six years. The mosaic embedded in the floor at the Capitol's second-floor north entrance depicts stars and lightning, the sun, the moon, a planet and represents "the genius of creative energy," Gov. Pete Ricketts, first lady Susanne Shore and state officials said in unveiling the new design at a Tuesday news conference. The mosaic was the creation of Hildreth Meiere, a renowned American muralist whose artwork adorns Radio City Music Hall and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. "It embodies the spirit of Nebraska," Shore said, in its depiction of energy. Meiere received the gold medal in mural decoration from the Architectural League of New York for her designs at Nebraska's Capitol. "It's kind of a cool thing that we've got things in Nebraska that you may not expect," Ricketts said. Capitol Administrator Bob Ripley described the mosaic as "a great piece of Nebraska fine art." Drew Davies, owner and design director of Omaha-based Oxide Design Co., which fashioned the license plate design, described the choice as "a winner." Shore said Nebraska's license plate will be incredibly unique and she recognizes in advance that it's "a state sport in every state to criticize license plates." But, she said, she believes it will become "a very beloved license plate." The new license plate will be issued beginning in 2023 and remain attached to cars and trucks for the next six years. Answering questions on other topics, Ricketts continued his broad defense of gun ownership rights in the wake of the latest school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and two adults dead. "Absolutely, yes," he said when asked whether an 18-year-old should have been allowed to purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. "We ought not to focus on the gun, but on the person pulling the trigger," the governor said, and that points to "a mental health issue." Some of the criticism now being aired represents "red herrings on how to restrict gun rights," Ricketts said. Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Jim Peters leaned toward the dog who zipped around his feet. Go get the spirits, Jetti, he said. The 3-year-old Queensland blue heeler took off, letting her nose guide her around the damp, grassy field in Genoa, Nebraska a city of 1,000 people that was once home to one of the largest federal Native boarding schools in the U.S. Jetti was on the hunt for a whiff that would indicate the presence of a body beneath the ground. Her search partner, a German shepherd named Rocky, had subtly signaled to Peters the possibility of a scent in the area a few minutes earlier. Jetti was less subtle. She zeroed in on a patch of grass, sniffing aggressively. Then the energetic dog suddenly sat and stared up at Peters, indicating that something beneath the ground had grabbed her attention. With the help of Peters and his dog team, Samaritan Detection Dogs, searchers for the first time last week identified a possible site of the Genoa Indian Industrial School cemetery a potentially seismic development in the ongoing effort to uncover and heal from trauma inflicted in the name of assimilation. Leaders of the search effort, which includes the Nebraska State Archeology Office and Judi gaiashkibos of the Nebraska Indian Affairs Commission, are far from declaring the site the official location of the lost cemetery. But the spot closely matches one marked on a 1920 plat map, and the search team now has a solid lead in the painstaking effort to locate the graves. The use of ground penetrating radar in nearby areas last fall turned up inconclusive results. School records and old maps pointed to several possible locations, but the search team was left with a large perimeter and few ways to narrow the search. Now the team has a better idea of where to look, said David Williams, recently appointed state archeologist. Based on the reaction from Jetti, it seems like we have a result here, Williams said. What comes next is a combination of search methods, including more ground penetrating radar and metal detecting. If graves are discovered, the decision of whether to excavate will ultimately be made by tribal leaders. The cemeterys existence was never doubted, but the number of children buried there and its exact location was lost to history decades ago. The fourth federal boarding school to be built in the U.S., the Genoa Indian Industrial School operated from 1884 to 1934. At its peak in 1932, the schools 640-acre campus housed 599 students, who ranged in age from 4 to 22 years old. The U.S. institutions served as a blueprint for Canadas Indigenous residential schools, where the discovery of hundreds of Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves brought renewed attention to practices that historians have described as cultural genocide. Shortly after the discovery in Canada, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative. The effort led to a massive report, released earlier this month, on the U.S. schools. The federal investigation has so far identified more than 500 deaths at 19 schools, though the Interior Department said that number could climb to the thousands or even tens of thousands. The department has so far found at least 53 burial sites at or near U.S. boarding schools. At least 86 students are believed to have died at the Genoa school. As gaiashkibos watched Peters and his dogs begin their search last week, her mind was on her mother, who attended the Genoa school, and on her grandchildren. Im feeling a bit anxious, gaiashkibos said as she glanced at the expanse of farmland in front of her and the rushing water of the Loup Canal behind her. Were ready to try anything. Its so important. We have to exhaust all measures. Peters and his dog team were one of those measures. The 66-year-old Iowa resident has been involved in search and rescue efforts with and without dogs for almost 30 years. He began working exclusively on cold case investigations six years ago. His dog team has worked to locate burials that are more than 1,000 years old. The dogs are conditioned to connect their toy, a reward, with the odor of gases that remain underground long after a body has started to decompose. They might show interest in, say, deer bones, but their trained response is only connected to the odor of human decomposition, Peters said. Its pretty foolproof. When the school closed, its buildings were demolished or sold. The town of Genoa grew over the years, the Loup Canal was dug on the outer edge and farmland soon filled in what was once the sprawling campus. Through it all, those who died and were buried on school grounds remained. A bundle of sage in hand, gaiashkibos somberly made her way to the potential site. She laid the bundle on the damp ground and stood for a moment among the small group who had gathered that morning to witness or take part in the search. The sage bundle held together with a bright red ribbon may be the first grave marker to honor the schools dead in more than a century. Its also possible that the graves were never marked. As gaiashkibos and others continue the search, they now have a better idea of where to look. This gives me hope, gaiashkibos said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is not expected to take the stand for his impeachment trial, not is anyone else for the defense. Defense attorneys did not turn in a list of witnesses as required by rules for the June 20-21 trial over Ravnsborg's actions surrounding a 2020 fatal car crash, the Argus Leader reported. The parameters set by the Senate in April required both defense attorney Mike Butler and prosecutor Mark Vargo to submit the list by Wednesday. Butler will present his case through cross examination of the prosecution evidence, oral argument and perhaps some exhibits. Ravnsborg, a Republican, was impeached by the House over the crash in which he killed a pedestrian but initially said he may have struck a deer or other large animal. Ravnsborg is the first official to be impeached in South Dakota. Vargo, the Pennington County States Attorney, plans to call to the stand crash investigators, three of whom from the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, as well as former South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation agents who worked under Ravnsborg. The trial format allows both the impeachment prosecutors and Ravnsborgs defense attorney one hour for an opening statement, four hours to present evidence and one hour to close their arguments. Senators may take more time to ask additional questions and debate the articles of impeachment. Ravnsborg last year pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors. The 45-year-old Republican, who took office in 2019, struck and killed Joseph Boever, who was walking along a rural highway. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Argus Leader. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Since launching in five U.S. cities in 2007, Google's Street View cars have been circling the globe, using roof-mounted cameras to map more than 10 million miles of imagery pictures that have been stitched together to build a visual map of much of the world. Yet while these cameras have made it possible for Google to capture many far-flung places, they tend to be bulky, heavy, and require a bunch of computing power that has to be added on inside Street View cars. On Tuesday, Google unveiled a new Street View camera it thinks will make it a lot easier to take pictures of the world, particularly in remote spots such as small islands and mountain tops. The camera weighs 15 pounds (about a tenth the weight of the current camera plus all the electronics the existing one requires); is modular so it can be customized with different sensors such as lidar when needed; and can quickly be connected to the top of a car's roof rack without needing the car to be customized (which will make it possible to connect it to many more kinds of cars). As with the current Street View camera, it includes seven individual cameras, each with a 20-megapixel sensor, so it can take 140-megapixel panoramic images. Last week, Google gave CNN Business an exclusive look at the new camera at the company's Street View garage in Mountain View, California, along with a tour of the array of cameras and vehicles Street View has used over the years. The camera is cute even for a surveillance device. It's about the size of a cat or small dog, and its top-most part is blue, with a white circle surrounding each of its large camera lenses (which look like big bug eyes). Some cut-outs in the plastic make it appear, from certain angles, to have a tiny mustache. The bulk of its oblong body is silver-colored, with two black handles for easy carrying (which, naturally, also look like tiny arms). Maria Biggs, who leads the team that designed and built the new camera, said her team was trying to make the camera so portable that it could be shipped on its own, rather than with a whole car, to different locations where it could then be connected to cars. In order to do this, the electronics that typically have been fit into the backseat of a Street View car have been fit into the new camera. Biggs said that in order to shrink the camera's electronics, her team designed power and processing boards smaller than the size of her hand. It can be powered by a car, or connected directly to a battery. Over the past 15 years, Google Street View has connected its cameras to lots of things other than cars, too think snowmobiles, bikes, backpacks, and even sheep in its efforts to capture places that are off-road as well. (The sheep were part of an effort initiated by Faroe Islands residents in 2016 to gather pictures for Street View of the archipelago's numerous islands). Biggs said the portability of the new camera will make it useful for these other types of picture-taking, and will make it possible to collect pictures in more remote places more frequently. The Street View team is testing the new camera near its headquarters in Mountain View, and plans to start using it widely next year. ___ Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Laws is getting started in Iowa, with hopes of demonstrating to Statehouse Republican leaders that Iowans want an expanded medical cannabis program, decriminalization of marijuana and even legalization of recreational sale and use. Polling underscores their argument that Iowans want a change. The most recent Iowa Poll on the subject found an overwhelming majority of Iowans want to expand Iowas paltry medical marijuana program and a majority now favor legalization. We wish the campaign luck. And it will need plenty to soften the opposition of GOP leaders who remain in the grips of reefer madness. Gov. Kim Reynolds has rejected efforts to expand the medical marijuana program. She strongly opposes legalization, arguing marijuana is a gateway drug, and even attempts to tie the issue to drug smuggling across the nations southern border and to Iowas workforce issues. Apparently, Iowans with access to cannabis will spend more time in the hammocks Reynolds famously used to chide unemployed Iowans. Eleven states have legalized marijuana, including Illinois, and 37 states have medical marijuana programs, most far more robust than Iowas. More than half of Americans currently live in states where marijuana is legal. The sky has not fallen, despite what some prohibitionists would have us believe. Marijuana access certainly is not problem free. But neither is alcohol, which is more accessible than sweet corn in Iowa. Passing more sensible marijuana laws would free up law enforcement and justice system resources that could be focused on combating gun violence and other more serious crimes. Iowa is among the worst states in terms of incarcerating a disproportionate of Black Iowans on marijuana charges, even though Black marijuana use rates are roughly equal to that of whites. Sick Iowans should not need to commit a crime or go to another states to get the cannabis therapies they need to help them deal with serious illnesses. So Iowa is well overdue for a real discussion about how we can reshape our cannabis laws in a way that balances freedom and public safety. We hope the Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Laws gets lawmakers attention and starts that conversation. Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 When you do research prior to an interview with Steve-O, you end up seeing a whole lot of Steve-O. Doing a preliminary Google search, you can see videos of the erstwhile "Jackass" star snorting wasabi, sticking lit firecrackers in his butt cheeks and, in a stunt titled "Poo Cocktail Supreme," being catapulted 80 feet in the air while strapped inside of a Port-a-Pot. "I promise you that the stunts in my Sioux City show will be even more ridiculous than anything I did in 'Jackass,'" Stephen Gilchrist Glover suggested with a laugh. Um ... we guess that's a good thing, right? A stuntman-turned-standup comic, Steve-O will be bringing his "Bucket List Tour" to the Orpheum Theatre at 8 p.m. June 10. During a performance which combines standup comedy and filmed stunt work, Steve-O said he'll attempt insane ideas that were so ill-advised, they've never been tried before. But don't let the macabre name of the tour fool you. "I think I should called this my 'Bottom of the Barrel' tour since many of the stunts were conceived years ago," Steve-O explained. "I just wanted do them before I'm too old to get a laugh." Set to celebrate his 48th birthday on June 13, that is a concern. After all, Steve-O has risked life and limb during two television seasons of MTV's "Jackass" as well as in its related big screen continuations, "Jackass: The Movie" (2002), "Jackass Number Two" (2006), "Jackass 3D" (2010) and "Jackass Forever" (2022). Even before that, he was a bit of a daredevil. The son of a business executive, Steve-O was born in London. Moving from England to Brazil to Venezuela to the United States to Canada before going back to Canada, he bounced around as his family moved around. A constant in Steve-O's life was the video camera his dad bought him as a teenager. "I was a skateboarder who videotaped all of my gnarliest skating tricks, editing out all of the bad falls I took," he remembered. Figuring out that a traditional college wouldn't be to his liking, Steve-O graduated from Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College instead. Once again, he captured as much of his clowning career as possible. All of this was good training for Steve-O, who joined star Johnny Knoxville and the "Jackass" crew in 2000. Steve-O is candid about the addiction problems he experienced during and after his "Jackass" days. Sober for more than 14 years, he gradually added standup comedy to his repertoire. "It wasn't an easy transition because some people wanted to see me fail," Steve-O admitted. "Over time, I created an act that was both cohesive and funny." Initially doing his act in comedy clubs, Steve-O graduated to multimedia shows inside of theaters with his "Bucket List" show. "I'm either setting the bar very high or very low, depending on how you look at things," he said with a chuckle. So, what can we expect to appear on Steve-O's "Bucket List" of Tricks? "When I was in the seventh grade, there was a joke that made me laugh," he said. "The definition of macho is a man who jogged home following a vasectomy." Thank goodness, Steve-O will not be getting a vasectomy on the stage at the Orpheum. "No I won't do that," he promised. "But the stunt will involve general anesthesia and my wiener." Well, it's clear that Steve-O isn't becoming too mellow in middle age. In fact, he will soon become an author for the second time. Already a best-selling memoirist with the 2011 autobiography "Professional Idiot," Steve-O will publish "A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I've Learned From a Lifetime of Terrible Decisions," which is due out in September. "It is part autobiography and part self-help book," he said. "Which is hilarious given the life I've led." Despite that, Steve-O remains the showman he's always been. "In the 'Bucket List,' I'll be doing stuff that will make you laugh and stuff that will gross you out," he remarked. "Multiple grown men have passed out in disgust while attending my show." Huh, that's an interesting claim for any standup comic to make. Then again, Steve-O isn't like any other stand-up. "If there's an insane thing to do, I'll just add it to my bucket list," he said. 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. China looks to prop up retail spending with consumption vouchers Xinhua) 07:57, June 02, 2022 People enjoy themselves at a shopping mall in Chaoyang District of Beijing, capital of China, May 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong) BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- With the latest COVID-19 resurgences abating and a weeks-long shopping festival just beginning, the Chinese government is handing out billions of yuan in shopping vouchers and subsidies to shore up domestic consumption. In one of the latest such moves, the central city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, announced to issue vouchers worth 240 million yuan (about 36 million U.S. dollars) from late May to August to encourage local spending. Meanwhile, south China's economic powerhouse of Shenzhen began distributing the third batch of its 400 million yuan shopping vouchers over the weekend, which could be spent on deals for the June 18 shopping festival held by the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com. The massive voucher giveaway came at a time when the Omicron outbreak weighed heavily on China's domestic consumption, particularly the sales of non-daily necessities and the catering sector, in the first four months of 2022. Retail sales of consumer goods, a significant indicator of China's consumption strength, went down 0.2 percent year on year in the January-April period, official data showed. Shopping vouchers proved to be a powerful leverage to boost spending when the COVID-19 epidemic hit the country in 2020. The 500 million yuan worth of vouchers issued by the local government in Wuhan, the hardest-hit Chinese city by the epidemic, stimulated consumption of more than 5 billion yuan. "Shopping vouchers spur consumption instantly," said Pan Helin, a researcher at Zhejiang University, noting that with certain spending rules in place, vouchers can drive up demand and amplify the effect of fiscal funds. A 2020 Peking University study showed that in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, every 1 yuan worth of government voucher issued can generate 3.5 yuan of extra spending, while in less developed regions like Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the extra amount could reach up to 7.7 yuan. Voucher distribution mainly targets large purchases like automobiles, home appliances and furniture, as well as epidemic-hit sectors such as catering, hospitality and cultural activities. In Shanghai, the local government has offered a 10,000-yuan subsidy to consumers who replace old cars with electric ones. Xu Yongjun, general manager of an automobile dealer in Zhejiang's Tongxiang City, said his store witnessed a nearly 40 percent jump in sales after the local government issued 8 million yuan of auto vouchers. "The pent-up consumption will be gradually released with the containment of the epidemic and production and people's lives returning to normal," said Fu Linghui, a spokesperson with the National Bureau of Statistics. Zhong Zhengsheng, an economist with Pingan Securities, said that he anticipates the distribution of more vouchers in more cities to further facilitate consumption recovery. Zhong also emphasized efforts to help market entities tide over difficulties, which would boost employment and in turn increase people's willingness and capabilities to spend. China's commerce ministry pledged last month to promote consumption by upgrading traditional consumption, speeding up the development of new consumption patterns and improving consumption platforms, so as to enhance the catalytic role of consumption in economic circulation. The impact of the virus on consumption is "temporary" as the strong resilience, great potential and sound long-term development fundamentals of China's consumption remain unchanged, the ministry's spokesperson Shu Jueting has said. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) WASHINGTON The two young men accused of carrying out the massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, followed a familiar path: They legally bought semi-automatic rifles right after turning 18, posted images intended to display their strength and menace and then turned those weapons on innocent people. As investigators and researchers determine how the tragedies unfolded, the age of the accused has emerged as a key factor in understanding how two teenagers became driven to acquire such deadly firepower and how it led them to mass shootings. Advertisement They fit in a critical age range roughly 15 to 25 that law enforcement officials, researchers and policy experts consider a hazardous crossroads for young men, a period when they are in the throes of developmental changes and societal pressures that can turn them toward violence in general, and, in the rarest cases, mass shootings. Six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the United States since 2018 were by people who were 21 or younger, representing a shift for mass casualty shootings, which before 2000 were most often initiated by men in their mid-20s, 30s and 40s. Advertisement We see two clusters when it comes to mass shooters, people in their 40s who commit workplace type shootings, and a very big cluster of young people 18, 19, 20, 21 who seem to get caught up in the social contagion of killing, said Jillian Peterson, a criminal justice professor who helped found the Violence Project, which maintains a comprehensive national database of mass shootings. There is no single, easy explanation for why young men are more likely to engage in mass shootings. (Girls and women make up a small percentage of all perpetrators.) But many of the causes cited most often by law enforcement officials and academics seem intuitive online bullying, the increasingly aggressive marketing of guns to boys, lax state gun laws and federal statutes that make it legal to buy a semi-automatic long gun at 18. The shootings come against a backdrop of a worsening adolescent mental health crisis, one that predated the pandemic but has been intensified by it. Much of the despair among teenagers and young adults has been inwardly directed, with soaring rates of self-harm and suicide. In that sense, the perpetrators of mass shootings represent an extreme minority of young people, but one that nonetheless exemplifies broader trends of loneliness, hopelessness and the darker side of a culture saturated by social media and violent content. A makeshift memorial for the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, June 1, 2022. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/The New York Times) In addition to Buffalo and Uvalde, there was a mass shooting at supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2021 that police said was carried out by a 21-year-old man; a massacre by what authorities said was a 21-year-old gunman targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019 that resulted in 23 deaths; a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, in which a 17-year-old student is accused of killing eight students and two teachers in May 2018; and the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018 by a 19-year-old former student. Only two of the 30 deadliest mass shootings recorded from 1949 to 2017 involved gunmen younger than 21: The first was the massacre of 13 people by two teenagers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, and the second came when a 20-year-old killed 27 people, most of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. A shooting Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which a gunman killed four people and wounded several more before apparently taking his own life, defied the recent pattern. Police said they believed that the gunman, whom they had not identified, was between 35 and 40 years old. Frank T. McAndrew, a Knox College psychology professor who studies mass shootings, said almost all of the young killers he has researched were motivated by a need to prove themselves. These are young guys who feel like losers, and they have an overwhelming drive to show everybody they are not on the bottom, he said. In the case of the Buffalo shooter, it was about trying to impress this community of racists he had cultivated online. In the case of the kid in Uvalde, it was about going back to the place where you felt disrespected and acting out violently. Advertisement Peterson added, And since Columbine, they have tended to study and emulate each other. Its a growing problem. In almost every case, social media or interactive online game platforms played some role, mirroring the ubiquity of online youth culture over the past two decades. In the late 1990s, at the dawn of the social media age, one of the gunmen at Columbine created a blog on AOL to detail his violent thoughts. A 22-year-old college student who murdered six people in Santa Barbara, California, in 2014 offered one of the most direct expressions of a gunmans mentality in a video posted on YouTube: The gun, he said, gave him a sense of power. The Buffalo gunman, emulating the 28-year-old anti-Muslim terrorist who massacred 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, three years ago, livestreamed himself as he methodically killed shoppers because they were Black. The man charged with the killings in Uvalde used Yubo, a relatively new platform, to share menacing messages in which he seemed to telegraph his plans. A makeshift memorial near the Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., May 28, 2022. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) Its a way for kids to flex, said Titania Jordan, with Bark Technologies, an online safety company that monitors the use of platforms for violent content. Its a way for them to show strength if they are bullied or left out. Its just a part of the narrative now in all these cases theres always a social media component. Advertisement There is also a biological one. Scientists have long known the teenage and post-teenage period is a critical time for brain development and a time, for most teenage boys, often characterized by aggressive and impulsive behavior. Girls of the same age, by contrast, have greater control over their impulses and emotions. Overall, boys and young men account for half of all homicides involving guns, or any other weapon, nationwide, a percentage that has been steadily rising. Exactly 50% of all killings in 2020, the last year comprehensive data is available, were committed by assailants under 30, according to the FBIs uniform crime data tracking system. Mass shootings, defined by most experts as involving the deaths of more than four people, are rare; shootings on the scale of Buffalo and Uvalde, with more than 10 victims, are even less common. Around 99% of all shootings in the country involve fewer victims, are the result of crime or personal disputes and are motivated by drug activity, gang conflict, domestic violence and personal disputes, according to statistics compiled by the federal government and academics. Why are a disproportionate number of crimes committed by males in their late teens and early 20s? asked Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University who has worked extensively on issues involving adolescent brain development. The explanation, he said, includes the increasingly well-understood neurobiology of the teenage years. During adolescence, a huge mismatch develops between parts of the brain that cause impulsive behavior and emotional sensitivity and other parts of the brain that regulate acting out on such impulses, Steinberg said. Men, he added, tend typically to have an even higher, faster peak in arousal, while women see a higher peak in regulation at an earlier age and therefore at every age, males are more sensation-seeking. The height of that mismatch tends to be in the late teens or early 20s. Then the regulatory systems start to catch up to the impulses, and youve got this gradual improvement in ability to control thoughts, emotions and behaviors ongoing into the early 20s, Steinberg added. Advertisement The changes in brain development are accompanied by the disorienting societal passage from boy to man, with all the turbulence that entails even in healthy boys. There are major differences in socialization for males and females related to aggressive behavior, appropriate ways to seek support, how to display emotions and acceptability of firearm use, said Sara Johnson, a professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Young men are almost universally in transition in their relationships, living situations, lifestyles, education, occupation, while at the same time they have substantial autonomy from the adults in their lives and may find themselves negotiating with little support or supervision, Johnson said. Yet what differentiates mass killers from other young men who do not act on these impulses is hard to define, and even harder to counter: madness. Still, the vast majority of young men with mental health disorders, even serious ones, never commit acts of violence. They are more likely to be victims, or impulsively hurt themselves, than to painstakingly plot violence against others. Republicans, countering Democratic calls for tightened gun controls, have seized on improving school safety and upgrading mental health services after the recent massacres. Conservatives are also resisting efforts by congressional Democrats to raise the legal age to buy a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21. A Republican-appointed federal judge recently struck down Californias attempt to increase the age. The state enlisted Steinberg and other experts to make the scientific case for keeping such weapons out of the hands of teenagers. Advertisement Their arguments did not prevail. America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army, Judge Ryan Nelson, speaking for a 2-1 majority in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in an opinion released May 11, three days before the rampage in Buffalo. With few policy safeguards, mental health professionals and local authorities have been left to spot and stop potential gunmen, with uneven success. In 2018, the police arrested two boys, 13 and 14, after receiving a tip just before the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. The teenagers were planning to target a school in Uvalde and wanted to rob a neighbors house to obtain weapons. The suspect in the Uvalde massacre was not involved in that plot. Over the years, Jill H. Rathus, a therapist in Great Neck, New York, has seen her share of young men who seemed to be a danger to themselves or others, including one whose mother feared her son would become a gunman. He did not. Rathus and other experts cautioned that there were vast differences between suicidal and homicidal behavior, but she also said she saw some overlap in certain feelings that contributed to growing acts of violence directed at self and at others. Theres an incredible sense of aching despair plus hopelessness, and then theres a sense of a lack of meaningful connections, Rathus said. Then theres access to lethal means, thats the center. Advertisement In 2006, McAndrew and two of his colleagues set out to test the effect of guns on the behavior of young men, monitoring the testosterone levels, and signs of aggression, in 30 male college students when they were given a childrens toy and an actual firearm. The presence of a gun changed their behavior significantly, he said. Just holding a gun gave you guts. c.2022 The New York Times Company When we talk about a crisis of faith, its usually about someone losing theirs. But in Under the Banner of Heaven, the crisis cuts both ways. Fundamentalist Mormon brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty are so radicalized by their faith that theyre able to murder their sister-in-law and her 15-month-old daughter in the name of God. Meanwhile Jeb Pyre, the Mormon detective assigned to their case, finds his belief shaken by the horrors carried out in the name of an extremist version of his faith. Dustin Lance Black, who spent more than a decade adapting Jon Krakauers bestselling book, was himself raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk left the faith in his teens, around the time he came out as gay. Like Krakauers book, the series interweaves the Lafferty familys story with the often-violent early history of Mormonism and adds in a fictional framing story about Andrew Garfields detective and his Native American partner, played by Gil Birmingham. During the course of its seven episodes, the FX/Hulu series has generated plenty of controversy, and it ends with perhaps the darkest chapter in the churchs history: the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which more than 100 men, women, and children passing through Utah in a wagon train were murdered by Mormon militiamen and Paiute Native Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the series wound to its bloody conclusion, Black talked to me via Zoom from his home in London, while fighting off a case of COVID and putting the finishing touches on the final episodes of the series. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Sam Adams: Youve been working on Under the Banner of Heaven for more than 10 years, including trying to make it as a feature film, before turning it into a limited seriesa format that was much less common when you started. How did you decide where you wanted to end the story? Dustin Lance Black: Its a question that has three answers. The Lafferty story is based on a true crime, so I knew where that would end. The Mormon history, Ive known from very early on where that would end, because Im only laying out what I feel serve as clues to solving and understanding the case. So Mountain Meadows and really the installation of the third prophet who talked about the one mighty and strong, which inspired the Lafferty boys. So those two Ive known all the way back to the feature drafts, the truly terrible feature screenplays I was writing 10 years ago that were hundreds of pages long. But the third, the story of the investigation led by Bill Taba and Jebediah Pyre, that was the big question. Where do you land in a story where the tension is between curiosity and faith, and can you have both in this area? Can you ask questions and remain in good standing in the church? And the answer is probably not if the questions start probing too deeply into the history and into the heart of the faith. Advertisement Advertisement I question everything, and Ive come to a place where Im very comfortable with doubt. In fact, it excites me. Dustin Lance Black I knew that this was going to be a show about how curiosity challenges faith. To completely disavow ones faith in the Salt Lake Valley is not just about no longer going to church on Sundays. You risk your place in the community. You risk your eternal family, which means that perhaps your spouse will divorce youand divorce is allowed in the Mormon faith. So you lose family, you lose community, which means you probably lose your job. Youre risking a lot when you start asking questions. And here was an investigator who had to [ask questions] in order to win justice for this young woman and her daughter. Advertisement Advertisement But I also thought it wouldnt be realistic for him to say, Well, there we go. Ive asked so many questions, I no longer believe, and Im out of here. Thats not how life works, and its not how people experience their own loss of faith oftentimes. So I said, well, why dont we leave it in that tenuous place that so many people have to live in? Where when asked, Do you believe in God? Are you faithful? Are you Christian? They say, Yeah. They waffle because its a safer answer. Its a space I think a lot of people, if not most people, live in, where they feel shame around their doubt and they conceal it. This is a much more interesting place to land the series, to say, Hey, youre not alone out there in your doubts, and there may be more people like you out there. Maybe this is a conversation we might need to start having. Its not a clean-cut ending, but I feel like its an honest ending. And I feel like an honest ending will resonate more emotionally than something that might feel too Hollywood and cleaned up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I may just be asking you to undo the nuance of everything you just said, but in your view is Jeb Pyre on his way out of the church? Is he going to find his way back? Or does he just stay in that uncertain space forever? Where do you see him in 10 years? Thats a good question for Jebediah Pyre. I think we leave him on a new path. OK. And its a path where he feels he can ask questions, he does not have to doubt his doubts. Thats huge growth for someone who grew up in this area in this time and in this faith. I dont know where he ends up, but I think there are going to be some very difficult, challenging conversations with his wife and his daughters in the future. If I had to guess, most people I know who start down that path, once you light that fire of curiosity, theres no extinguishing it. Once you know the questions to askwhich Im not sure he knew in Episode 1, but now he doesyou dont stop asking them. So my gut says he will become more curious, hell question more, and hell have many more challenges ahead in keeping his lovely, loving family together. That would be a challenge. 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. How do you identify now with regard to your own Mormon upbringing? Im not a practicing or believing Mormon. Thats a simple sentence to say with a lot of story behind it. That was quite a journey, and it was a very challenging journey to take, to go from a place of complete insulation from the outside world, where all I knew was Mormonism. I never doubted it at all, because its all I ever learned. I thought everyone believed the way I did. But once you crack that kind of fervent belief open, it does make you question everything. Im still in that place. I question everything, and Ive come to a place where Im very comfortable with doubt. In fact, it excites me. Those are the places where you can ask more questions and put more pressure. Id say Im curious about faith and religion in so far as it serves human beings. Im not so curious about notions of afterlifeif that exists, well, I guess well get there. Im not going to slow down the living for what comes next, if there is such a thing. But I remain very, very curious about the rules that faith creates and curious which might make life more livable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The murder investigation is what drives the story, but thematically, some of the most important scenes are the discussions between Jeb Pyre, a devout Mormon, and Allen Lafferty, a former fundamentalist who seems to have lost his faith in the wake of his wife and daughters murder. Allen says things like, What I miss is the days when I still believed our God was love. Thats not the picture of Allen I took away from Jon Krakauers book, and obviously Jeb is your creation entirely, so Im wondering what went into those scenes for you, and where the arc of that relationship goes. Advertisement Advertisement I got to know Allen, interviewed Allen, and really liked meeting Allen in my conversations with him. But I met a man who had processed these things, though he was still trying to figure it out, and that had taken decades. In those interviews with him, I found contradictions, I found confusion. He was willing to share that with me, and I found that really honest. He was 24 when his wife and child were slaughtered by a family member. What I found was a very traumatized and confused young man who did start to question things deeply, but in the end, he does turn back to the familiar. I have encountered that so many times in my experience of faithful people in my interviews for this show, that some people question things incredibly deeply to the point that it begins to shatter a foundation, and thats a moment where some of them, its like turning back to a warm, familiar blanket You know what? Im just going to stay here. Thats a very interesting experience to me. But the dialogue that they have in the series in those interrogation room scenes is invention. Its inspired by all of the research, its inspired by the conversations I had, but Ive tried to be incredibly candid about the fact that it is not based on, its inspired by. Advertisement Advertisement Andrew Garfield has gotten a lot of deserved attention for his performance as Jeb Pyre, but the piece of casting that really intrigues me is Wyatt Russell as Dan Lafferty. He has that charismatic, upbeat quality of someone who could refer to the second coming of Christ as the big party, even when hes serving life for murder. You can see why people would stick by him, even when he starts talking about and doing utterly horrendous things. Advertisement I cant say enough good things about Wyatt. Im so excited for people to meet him as people watch the seriesor meet him all over again, in a way, because hes such a fine dramatic actor. He showed interest in playing the role a decade ago when it was a feature film. I believe he got in contact with Ron Howard, who was going to direct it then, and whos still my right hand and executive producer on this now. He was too young then, but when I saw him again, probably two years ago, he had become the actor that he needed to be to actually tackle the role. In my experience getting to know the real Dan Lafferty in prison, the visits that Ive made and the letters weve exchanged and the calls, he has that cheerfulness that is intoxicating. And you understand immediately why people want to follow him. Hes incredibly charismatic. The brightest eyes you may ever see, very smart, but wicked smart, meaning he can clearly rationalize anything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sitting across from Wyatt in this cafe in New York, he had all the charisma, all the effervescence, all of the joy. Thankfully, hes not a sociopath, so he also has empathy. He has that quality that Im not sure Dan has, where he wont hurt someone and rationalize it in the name of God, but all of the rest of it he has, and also an extraordinary ability to grow a giant beard in no time flat, which was helpful in this show. I thought it was important to put someone in that role who would be able to create that energy the real Dan Lafferty had, because then it feels instructive to me as opposed to it just being the sociopath caricature. What I thought was instructive, and also bone-chilling, is that someone who could do something so heinous could live next door, could be your best friend, could be the life of the party and probably is. So that people will say, Hey, Im hearing this strange, very fundamentalist, backward-looking stuff from this guy, these rationalizations, but man, hes charming, and boy, hes smart and charismatic, so I should follow him, right? If youre paying attention to this show, you go, No, no, no, no, no. That turn toward the past in an unquestioned fashion is dangerous, no matter how charismatic the person is delivering it. So Wyatt was the guy. Frankly, we never considered anyone else. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What has the reaction to the show from the LDS community been like? The reaction has been what I thought it would be from the church, which is defensive, negative, trying to pick at any little detail they can find that they can claim is not accurate. But for the most part, I think theyre wrong and I know theyre wrong. Anyone who thinks that this is pure fiction needs to do their research better, frankly. In terms of authenticity, I think if you got to know these people in this time, you would find it quite authentic. Ive heard a little bit about people saying, Oh, they say Heavenly Father too much. And I say, Well, maybe your Mormon family didnt, but let me send you some of the letters they were writing back and forth. Let me send you some of the audio recordings. This was a very Heavenly Father kind of family. If this doesnt seem familiar to you, good. Im happy for you. I hope it doesnt. But for far too many people, and particularly far too many women, this is ringing incredibly true. Advertisement The predominant reaction Im hearing now that were past the first two episodes is that theres a lot of processing grief in the Salt Lake Valley right now, a lot of people seeing themselves depicted and understanding the trauma theyve been through, understanding that it should be OK to challenge the status quo, particularly in the treatment of women in this faith, in this region. We did a premiere in Utah, and we invited fundamentalist Mormons, mainstream Mormons, experts, LDS historians, and just radical, progressive Salt Lake City. I was concerned, but in the end, there was a tremendous amount of emotion in that room. I think a lot of people understood that it was time to start asking questions in the faith where thats discouraged, and it will make the church uncomfortable. Itll continue to make the church uncomfortable. But the only way that church is ever going to get better is if they allow questions to be asked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jon Krakauers book interweaves Mormon history with the Laffertys case, but there are places where the show takes things further, as with the suggestion that Joseph Smith was essentially set up to be murdered by Brigham Young. I know you worked with historical scholars on the series, so Im curious where that idea came from. Brigham Young, when he blamed Emma Smith, which doesnt make sense. OK. She loved him deeply. She stood by his side the whole time. She was heartbroken when he died. Why would she [turn on him]? And she was incredibly smart. So why do you blame the woman? [Youngs involvement in Smiths death] is not brought up as fact, its brought up as a question in the show on purpose. I tried to be very clear, this is a moment where people whove been taught not to ask questions are asking questions and going, What weve been sold does not make sense. He had been in this position before, understood that he would not receive a just trial and that he would be killed. So why would he do it again? Love Joseph or hate Joseph, he was no fool. He was very smart and strategic. So these are characters asking questions about an assassination that is pinned on his own wife. And I dont buy it. If theres doubt, its because I use common sense and Brigham Young said something that made no sense to me a long time ago. Advertisement Advertisement You also frame the Mountain Meadows Massacre through questions. For years, the Mormon church maintained that the massacre was carried out solely by the Southern Paiute, but as Bill Taba puts it, Thats not how we tell that story. In your version, the Mormons, including the ones dressed up as Native Americans, are the ones who carry out the bulk of the violence. Advertisement Well, the Paiute were there, and then when they realized they were going to be scapegoated for this slaughter, they left. At which point the remaining Mormons disguised themselves as Paiute and then killed a lot of innocent people for no good reason. I dont know that any of that is disputed. I think the thing thats in dispute is who ordered it done, and thats a good question. To me, its very clear. I dont state it in the show, but I think people can figure that out themselves. But certainly, even a cursory read of the history of the Southern Paiute makes it very clear they were not treated well by the Mormons in Utah. The help being provided to the Southern Paiutes was a way of chaining them and turning them into servants, which is not who they are or should have been. So I think its brutal what happened to them and how they were scapegoated for so long. Unfortunately, I guess, for the LDS church historians, there were witnesses and people who wrote down their accounts, and we now know better what happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wanted to ask you about a specific moment in Episode 6 where Ron Lafferty goes to John Bryants polygamist compound, and while hes in the hot tub, hes kissed by another man. We know Ron is short-tempered and extremely straight-laced, and I sort of cringed anticipating he would respond with violence, but you dont play into the gay panic trope. What went into that moment for you? Its no secret that homosexuality, as they would put it, was a part of John Bryants compound and belief system, and that Ron had said himself, in the trials and things, that after he was there, after he participated in what he participated in, that he would forever be haunted by a homosexual spirit. Ill tell you what: Genuinely straight guys probably arent going to be eternally haunted by a homosexual spirit. Theyll probably just be like, Well, that was interesting. So if he was, I feel like his reaction wouldnt be purely defensive, particularly with how inebriated it seemed he was when he was there. His intention going there was to find a place he could bring his wife and kids to a pure Mormonism, so he probably wasnt going to engage much further with John Bryant. But its not a gay panic moment. Maybe because I am a gay guy, I understand it from the inside. Ive also seen such things happen many a time, and thats not how people really react usually. They dont start throwing fists. But I think it did give him pause. And probably got in the way for him more than it wouldve for a purely heterosexual man, because there was something in his spirit, as he said, that was touched. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the almost 11 years youve spent working on Under the Banner of Heaven, what kept you going? I grew up Mormon. I experienced what it felt like to start asking questions and to be slapped on the hand for doing that. Many of the questions I had were about the way my mother was being treated and the other women in society were being treated, particularly when it came to violence, which we experienced in our home. And if you know that there is a problem in your community and your country, a place that needs light to be shown in so that we can fix it, I do believe I have a responsibility to do that. So some of it was responsibility, and that got me through the first few years of, just, terror. Like I said, really long, bad screenplays that did not achieve what I wanted at all. And certainly not what Warner Bros. wanted. And many years passed, and a few years ago, I set it down for a little while. I did When We Rise, wrote a book, got married, had a kid. But what I always understood about it was that this was a family that hit hard times and decided that the path back to safety and prosperity was through fundamentalist originalist interpretations, of first the Constitution and then the Old Testament and New Testament in the Bible. And it was these steps they took back into these dusty documents that led to bloodshed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im not saying anything thats going to be a revelation to you, but three years ago, when I picked it back up, the world had hit hard times, the world was struggling. And certainly nowadays, a pandemic, war in Europe again, great uncertainty, and you watch the world stepping back towards originalist interpretations of ancient documents. Just look at the United States Supreme Court, proud to say that they are returning to originalist interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. These are outdated documents. They were written by men, exclusively, a long time ago. We know so much better now, and we have to do better now. I just find it incredibly dangerous what were doing now in the United States, around the world. And its what these brothers did. They followed the rules to the letter and where did it take them? They turned to the blade, turned to bloodshed, and in that way, became a cautionary tale for our times. This is a warning to the world that you will find no comfort, no safety, and no stability stepping back in time and following the rules of men written to address concerns of a very, very different time in the world. Advertisement Advertisement The Mormons I know dont come from especially strict backgrounds, but talking to people from different kinds of fundamentalist backgrounds, theyve told me the show rings true, but its also been a little bit triggering. A little bit. Its very triggering. Ive not said this to anybody yet, but its triggered me. This is a faith that I loved as a kid. It provided a lot of safety and warmth for me. It protected my family when it needed to be. Most of my familys still in it. Many of my friends are still in it. And its triggered me on many an occasion. I dont think its an exaggeration to say my health is not well nearing the end of this experience, not just because of COVID, but this has been a heavy weight to carry for this long, and ripping open the things inside of me in order to get it to the page and try and be honest about it has been painful. Youre going to make me cry, but its hard. Its hard to be as honest as weve tried to be in this series, because it means you get to see some of the great damage that was done when you were a child. Things that you learned that you shouldnt have had to. And I dont think Im alone. When you tell me people out there are being triggered, yeah, me too. Well, I hope you finish the effects and the sound mix and can find a little bit of comfort once its all over. Eight more days. And then if I have my way, Ill be on a beach in Barcelona, just trying to get my skin to bake off. Do you have any favorite internal affirmations or mantras you like to offer students to help them feel confident in the face of potential bullies or put-downs? Im trying to help out my elementary schooler. Right now Im thinking of sayings along the lines of I am awesome just as I am, or I will not let others define me. Additionally, if there are any great all-purpose verbal comebacks or responses that might be applied generally, those would be helpful and welcome as well. Really, I welcome any suggestions you have for helping my child muster up confidence (with kindness). Advertisement Take That! Dear Take That, I love this question! I speak to my students about this all the time. I believe in the power of personal mantras and use many myselfI even dedicated an entire chapter to this topic in a new book I have coming out. Theres also a great deal of science behind the idea that our brains listen to the words we say as a signal for how it should respond chemically. Say that youre happy, and your brain will make you happier, even if youre not actually happy when you say the words. Positive self-talk really works! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For students who are being bullied, I often suggest mantras like: You tease me because you fear me. Youre only making me stronger. My future is bright. Bullies cant stand that. I am more than enough. You have enemies? Good. That means youve stood up for something, sometime in your life. Advertisement Advertisement That last one is Churchill. In terms of comebacks to unkind remarks, the phrases I suggest to my students include: What is wrong with you? Are you having a bad day? Has someone made you feel so badly about yourself that you feel the need to lash out at others? Can I get you some help? Do you not see that youre the bad guy in this movie? Any comeback that offers sympathysincere or sarcasticis both disarming for a bully. Bullies are unaccustomed to kindness as a defense mechanism, and a kind comeback also keeps the victim out of trouble by preventing them from saying something that might also be construed as inappropriate or cruel by a teacher. Advertisement It also strongly implies that the situation at hand has more to do with the bully than the victim, which is an excellent message to send. Mr. Dicks (fifth grade teacher, Connecticut) Slate needs your support right now. Sign up for Slate Plus to keep reading the advice you crave every week. My rising sophomore has the opportunity to decide between two enriched academic tracks: Taking AP classes or enrolling in an IB program. Do you have any thoughts on the pros and cons of each course of study, whether they are better suited to particular kinds of students, or what youd consider the defining characteristics of either track? Is one more beneficial from a college admissions standpoint, or are they about the same? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crossroads Dear Crossroads, Colleges view IB and AP as relatively equal from an admissions standpoint. Your student should base their decision on what type of student they are, what goals they have, and how they want to spend the rest of their high school experience. IB programs are definitely for extremely dedicated, hard workers. Many of the IB students I know (and many of the teachers I inquired with) have complaints about the amount of studying and notetaking. (This is obviously just an anecdotal snapshot of individuals I spoke with but seemed worth mentioning.) IB programs also have extracurricular components built in. While this can be a great way for focused, school-centered young people to dive deep into their studies while also being required to engage in community service projects, students who already have lots of sports, music, or other interests may find these new commitments daunting. In most districts (not all), the IB program is an all-or-nothing package deal where students take all their core courses in IB. AP, on the other hand, is more a la carte; you take the AP courses you want, in the subjects in which you are confident. There are also no extracurricular requirements for AP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the goal is to get an advanced diploma (students who complete the IB program literally get a different diploma than those at their school who do not), then like IB, AP does have an option: the AP Capstone diploma. Just ask if your childs school offers Capstone. To receive a Capstone diploma, students are required to take and pass exams of any four AP classes of their choosing, plus take and pass two additional courses in the Capstone program: AP Seminar and AP Research. The first (which, full-disclosure, I teach) is a college-level research and writing course. The second is a year-long independent study where students put those skills to use in what many educators in and around the program jokingly call Doctorate Jr. They conduct a research study, write a thesis paper, and present and defend their findings before a panel. Advertisement Advertisement Theres one last factor to consider. While good grades in IB and AP classes can give students impressive GPA boosts, the only way to get college credit for AP courses is to pass the AP exams, which are largely multiple choice. If your student is among the many test-weary kids across this country, consider that IB scores are not solely based on a test and that their tests tend to be more open-ended writing prompts balanced with scores from nested assessments (i.e. things the students do throughout the school year). I spoke with an administrator who has overseen AP and IB programs and she described it this way: AP exams are trying to figure out what you dont know, IB exams are trying to figure out what you do know. Advertisement I know that there is a lot to consider there and you probably now have a few follow-up questions for your rising sophomores guidance department, but I hope this helps as your student considers the best path for themselves. Good luck! Mr. Vona (high school teacher, Florida) I am not sure whether my stance on this issue makes me old or right, or both. In short: Should I insist that my 11-year-old use touch-typing for her typed assignments? My daughter did have some in-school instruction in touch-typing in third grade, pre-pandemic. At home, we have been encouraging/insisting on regular typing practice using an online typing game, with a goal that she practice 15 minutes per night, though in reality we dont manage to fit it in nightly. Advertisement Despite all this, she still much prefers to hunt and peck, and especially if she feels time pressure she really resists touch typing. On the one hand, I know that voice-to-text options are improving at a rapid pace. Maybe by the time shes in college touch typing will be a skill akin to taking shorthand? On the other hand, professionally I work closely with colleagues from other countries, who grew up not being taught computer skills, and one challenge they face is having difficulty typing fast enough to produce the frequent articles and grant applications that are very helpful for promotion and career development in our line of work. So Im very sensitized to the challenges one might have down the line if you never make the jump from hunt-and-peck to touch-typing, and that it is a transition that just gets harder to make when you face a larger volume of academic/professional assignments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My daughter says that her classmates use a mix of touch typing and hunt and peck, and that her teachers dont really push one over the other. What do we do? Hold the course with frequent, game-based practice? Back off and let her do what works for her and trust she will work it out? Let it go because technology will soon make touch-typing obsolete? Old-School Dear Old-School, (Old lady voice) Back in my day we had typing class freshman year of high school. That was perfect because it was about then that we started using computers, writing essays, and whatnot. The great but tough thing about this generation is that theyre on screens in kindergarten but dont get typing instruction until at least upper elementary (if at all), by which point their hunt-and-peck habit is deeply ingrained. Advertisement Its worth trying to break that bad habit. I have no scientific articles to cite here, but the internet and my experience tell me that touch-typing increases speed and accuracy, and it can help in the creative process. That makes sense to me. Most of us think somewhat faster than we type, but we think much, much faster than we hunt and peck. I feel certain long intervals between tapping keys can derail a train of thought. Advertisement Youre right that voice-to-text technology is developing, but as of right now, my high school students still have to type a lot. And they have to type in class. Using voice tech at home is one thing; imagine 25 kids, or even five kids, using voice to take their notes or compose their essays in the classroom. Bedlam. Advertisement I actually make my students practice typing for 5 minutes at the beginning of every class, and I give them extra credit if they meet certain benchmark speeds on typing tests. Im very much Team Touch-Typing, and I encourage your participation! Advertisement Ms. Scott (high school teacher, North Carolina) My 10-year-old daughter is a fourth grader at a pretty decent public school in New York City. The school has a great community, she has good friends, and the teachers really seem to care. But I see her getting As (90 percent, even 100 percent) on tests without putting any work in, and I worry that shes not being challenged. Shes bright but not a genius, so its not that she needs work above her grade level. She just seems to be getting rewarded for doing the bare minimum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As she moves closer to middle school, I worry about her not learning good study skills and not being motivated to achieve in school. What can I do if shes not getting this from her teachers? When I tell her that she should be putting more work into class projects or that she should do the enrichment work thats available, she just points to her grades. Minimum Effort Required Dear Minimum, Ive watched many students who dont have to work hard in elementary school finally hit a wall in middle or high school, when things stop being easy, and a work ethic has not yet been established. In those situations, kids really struggle. In fairness, your daughter might be working very hard during the school day, which is how elementary school should operate. Fourth graders shouldnt be coming home with mountains of homework and hours of studying. Those days are coming but need not arrive quite yet. Its possible that she is putting in outstanding effort in the classroom, but youre just not able to witness it firsthand. Advertisement But if you really think that your daughter isnt working hard, it might benefit her to seek out situations where she is doing something novel or challenging or is engaged in an activity with children older and more experienced than her, so that shes forced to strive for higher ground. Sports, community theater, and scouting are three areas that will require effort, persistence, and determination from your daughter in order to succeed, and they will likely be populated with kids who have more skill and experience than she possesses. That can really light a fire under a kid. Best of luck. Mr. Dicks (fifth grade teacher, Connecticut) More Advice From Slate My 8-year-old daughter is in third grade. She recently shared with me that during lunch last week, a male first grade teacher made a joke that I find inappropriate and not at all funny. What should I do? On May 16, the gun company Daniel Defense tweeted an ad featuring a toddler holding an AR-style riflethe same kind of gun that would be used to kill 21 people in Uvalde, Texas, days later. According to Todd C. Frankel, an enterprise reporter at the Washington Post, ads like these are as routine as the thoughts and prayers Daniel Defense and other gun companies offer up after every mass shooting. There is a Groundhog Day quality to all this, he says. They just follow the same playbook and no variation. On Thursdays episode of What Next, I talked to Frankel about why gun manufacturers arent worried about bad publicity and how guns became identity politics. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Advertisement Mary Harris: Can you just introduce me to Daniel Defense and the people who run it? Its a relatively new manufacturer, right? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todd C. Frankel: Yeah. They are part of this explosion in gun companies weve seen nationwide after the assault weapons ban was repealed in 2004. After that ban was lifted, a lot of room for innovation. Theres an entirely new product line that could be introduced and sold to people, this semi-automatic rifle that looks like it came from the military. And so all these smaller gun manufacturers rushed in to fill this space. Daniel Defense was started by Marty Danielits named for him. Hes a guy who lives outside Savannah, Georgia, and he started his company in 2001. Hes an engineer. Started off with a military contract, supplying the military with one part for one of their rifles, and just kept on growing from there and eventually started introducing his own line of weapons. Advertisement Advertisement Cheeky marketing sort of became baked into Daniel Defense as it got bigger and bigger. What does an ad for a Daniel Defense weapon look like, and how does it compare to an ad for another weapon? Their ads, theyre definitely different than you would see from like a hunting rifle sort of ad, the deer and the guy out in the woods and sort of sitting in a tree stand. Theirs is more aggressive. Theres a twinge of religiosity to it as well. Theres been an interesting crossover with guns and Christianity, sort of hardcore, like this belief of protecting your family and this is one of those God-given rights, to arm yourself. Advertisement A lot of children with guns in their ads. Advertisement Within the culture, it doesnt look as strange. Outside, yes, it looks really bizarre. A week before the Uvalde shooting, they had an online social media ad where theres a toddler sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor with a rifle on his lap. Its clearly unloaded. Theres a finger pointing at him, and theres a proverb quoted above him sort of saying, you know, teach him well now and you wont have to teach him later. Which reads very bizarrely to outside the gun culture. Advertisement Advertisement Theres a lot of stressing on freedom, too. I think one of their taglines is manufacturing freedom, and this idea that the gun industry and guns are constantly under threat and theres no bigger way to show that you support America and freedom than owning one of these guns. Thats a really important marketing tactic to moving these. Advertisement Advertisement So companies kind of created or worked within a culture that would seem bizarre to someone outside of it, but inside of it, it makes complete sense. Its part of whats strange after a shooting like this. Advertisement Advertisement Yeah. Its completely jarring and even offensive in some ways, when the outcome is murdered kids. And then in their marketing they have young kids and youre like, well, jeez, what the heck is going on here? And theres a backlash to it. Theres folks even within the gun industry who I talked to, some on the record, some off the record, who are uncomfortable about this, this sort of shift within the industry, that its going too far in trying to sell its weapons in its marketing, especially when you have these horrible outcomes later on. Advertisement Yeah, one gun critic said Daniel Defense is a perfect illustration of the growing extremism in the gun industry. Do you think thats a fair assessment? Yeah. The rifles that they sell and even the pistols they, to the ordinary eye, do not look like pistols and they look like just smaller semi-automatic military rifles. And the couch commando industry of these folks who sort of want to playact soldier and want to have this real aggressiveits like the guy who drives the big muscle truck with the big muffler and the Calvin pissing on the Ford logo. Its like the Marlboro Man, a tough, rugged guy, and what you do if youre tough and rugged is you get this really aggressive rifle and its, quite frankly, probably what attracts a lot of these mass shooters to using it too. Theyre angry, disaffected. Lets get the most macho thing out there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How much of this marketing is about Marty Daniel, and how much of it is just about the industry changing? Its sort of the chicken and egg. Is Marty Daniel pushing this, or is he sort of shaping his image to go along with what is in demand? Hes even known, within a sort of loud industry, as a bombastic figure, loud and aggressive with his sales pitch. He really enjoys this position of gun as totem in the culture wars playing up the showmanship of it and pushing the envelope perhaps sometimes with his marketing. Are there ways other than marketing that you see Daniel Defense as an interesting illustration of bigger trends in the firearm industry? You mentioned this company is headquartered in Georgia, which is where Marty Daniel lives, but for many years the South was not the cradle of gun manufacturing in the United States. Is that changing, too? Advertisement If anything, we are trying to make guns riskier and more lethal. And thats the selling point. Todd Frankel Yeah, that definitely is changing. The sort of cradle of American gun-making for a really long time was the Northeast, in and around Springfield, Massachusetts. Smith & Wesson, its a publicly traded company, its huge, theyve been based forever in Springfield, Massachusetts. And they announced late last year that they are moving operations to Tennessee. In part they probably blame the gun restrictions in Massachusetts and they said Tennessee is much friendlier to the Second Amendment. And that is partly true. But also, its an economic development issue. They were lured there by the state and theyll face lower taxes. Advertisement Advertisement But its tougher for the gun manufacturers who are still located in those areas, as guns are more and more a cultural war issue. After the Parkland shooting, the shooter used a Smith & Wesson AR-15-style weapon. And there were protests outside of the Springfield, Massachusetts, headquarters of Smith & Wesson. These jobs are good-paying, solid jobs. But there were students and other people who were just out there protesting, angry. Smith & Wessons probably not going to face protests like that when they move to Tennessee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This bifurcation in the country it becomes sort of crystallized when you look at whats happening in the gun industry. Certainly. We talk about blue states and red states, and folks are self-sorting themselves into neighborhoods where their like-minded neighbor is along political lines. And guns are very much a political issue. Its not like Democrats dont own guns and there arent even aggressive Second Amendment Democrats. But it has become very much a sort of symbol on the right. When right-wingers want to intimidate folks in public, the open carry, the AR-15 slung over the shoulder is the image that is projected out there, and theres a reason for that, because that weapons incredibly aggressive. And so you have these gun manufacturers then sort of self-sorting and choosing to relocate. In some ways, these issues get harder to solve when we are divided across geography like that. Advertisement Advertisement Has Marty Daniel ever shown support for greater gun control measures? Once, he did. And his customers did not appreciate it. What happened? The 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, shooting, [the shooter] never should have actually been able to buy the weapons he bought. And so in 2018, a bill sponsored by Republicans, who are loath to tighten gun control measures, they supported a bill to require and encourage more information to be fed into the background check system, so things like this would be caught. And Marty Daniel came out and supported that. You know, hey, lets keep folks who shouldnt have guns from getting guns, this is part of law. And there was a huge blowback, as customers were like, this is a Trojan horseI mean, everythings a Trojan horse to absolutists on the gun rights issue. Any sort of giving an inch, you know, oh, my God, theyre going to come for your guns next. And its really a very tough negotiating position. Advertisement Advertisement So they came at him and he backtracked. He said, Im sorry, I didnt really think this through, I shouldnt support this bill. And he didnt support it. Notably, the Republicans and Democrats passed this bill and President Trump signed it. Advertisement Advertisement It was the one time that I saw where Marty Daniel didnt follow the script that we so often see the gun industry follow. What Ive heard from others is that you dont step out of line. You know, in the gun industry, you have to sort of follow the line that all gun control measures are bad. Theres a strange incentive structure for gun manufacturers that youve nodded to. Like after a mass shooting, sales of firearms go up. Marty Daniel actually told Forbes that the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary drove a lot of sales, which is a really ugly fact. The stock price of Smith & Wesson rose 8 percent in the days following the shooting in Uvalde. Do we have a good idea of how these kinds of incentives influence company decision-making? Advertisement So much of the gun industrys sales and marketing is driven on fear. Fear that someones going to break into your house. Fear that youre going to get accosted by a rapist. Fear that the feds are going to come and take your guns, theres going to be more gun control measures. And so yeah, theres this perverse effect of these mass shootings where they drive stock prices, they drive sales, people get freaked out. Advertisement Theres an inverse to that too. When Hillary Clinton lost unexpectedly to President Trump, the gun industry had been ramping up production, expecting Hillary Clinton to win and expecting gun control to be a main problem and feature of the debate. And that didnt happen. And the so-called Trump slump hit and these gun manufacturers really suffered. Some even went bankrupt. Because fear drives sales, and there was no longer fear of gun control with a Republican in the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Youve said yourself a responsible gun owner might look at the fact that Daniel Defense manufactured a weapon used in mass shootings and say, listen, this isnt the companys fault, it makes a tool that can be used responsibly or irresponsibly. How is Daniel Defense different from, say, Budweiser selling someone beer and then they crash their car? Thats the argument you hear a lot from Second Amendment supporters. You dont hear them doing anything about that other stuff, you know? But we do. Its like, well, actually, Budweiser took a lot of heat for drunk driving and it now runs ads encouraging you to designated driver. Theres been a lot of pushback and lawsuits against bartenders for overserving people. And for automobiles, we have a licensure system, an insurance system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after the assault weapons ban was repealed, Congress also passed basically an immunity shield, a liability shield for gun-makers, so that people cant sue for some of these sort of overreaches and stuff like that. So imagine if Ford or GM or Honda had that too, where you couldnt sue when the car is being used repeatedly in bad ways. But we have seatbelts, we have airbags, weve done all these things to try and make these things safer. And there is nothing to make guns safer. If anything, we are trying to make guns riskier and more lethal. And thats the selling point. The mass shooting at Sandy Hook opened the door to some kind of accountability for some companies. Families sued the Remington company, which made the gun that was used in the massacre. And this lawsuit created a kind of blueprint for suing other gun-makers. It was all based on state law because theres the federal protection that you alluded to there. Is there any evidence that Daniel Defense is thinking about that as a potential liability? Advertisement Advertisement No sense that necessarily Daniel Defense is thinking about that at the moment. These lawsuits do get filed after shootings, and what was notable at the Sandy Hook one against Bushmaster and Remington, the maker of the rifle used there, was how far it did progress. But notably, it was settled last year for I think $73 million. Advertisement So they didnt win. Right. They didnt actually have the judges decide in their favor. And the gun industry is very quick to point out that the insurance companies of the gun manufacturers settled this, and so they are not taking this as any sort of message. But its really interesting to think about if they did not have this liability shield. I mean, they said it was for nuisance lawsuits. But there is some real liability here, when you market your weapon in such a way and just let it out into the wild and then something happens. Without that shield, I think theyd be in a huge bunch of trouble. Advertisement I kind of have the sense that the financial power of the gun industry and its lobby is weakening. But does the evidence show that the power of the gun industry is changing or weakening in any way? I think its changing. Youre right, the NRA has been hobbled by its bankruptcy and Wayne LaPierre being criticized for his leadership style. I think its notable, though, that, like, Mike Bloombergs Everytown for Gun Safety is also a major contributor on the other side. Advertisement Advertisement Everyone wants to blame the NRA. Its not just a political money issue. Its a cultural issue. Its an identity issue for a lot of folks, especially on the right. It is now sort of a culture issue where the money almost doesnt matter in some ways. This is part and parcel of your identity. One former gun industry executive you spoke to compared the gun industry to the opioid industry. I wondered what you made of that. The opioid industry went from making this miracle drug that was hailed and was a breakthrough for treating the pain of cancer patients and stuff. And they got a little heavy in their marketing. They wanted to find a bigger market for their product and they started pushing it out to perhaps places they shouldnt, into pain clinics and script mills, and it became a huge issue that fed this other broader epidemic of heroin and addiction. But it started with a very legitimate company selling something that was very legal and well thought of and just going too far. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts Get more news from Mary Harris every weekday. In 1908, a local scandal gripped the attention of some residents of Portland, Oregon. Authorities arrested a prominent electric healer named J.D. Dunn on allegations that he had sexually abused a 14-year-old patient during an appointment to treat her for goiter. At trial, Dunns entire defense hung on the credibility of his star witness, a certain Mrs. Kruse. Kruse testified that she was physically present in Dunns office when hed allegedly abused the minor patientand that she saw no such thing. Advertisement Prosecutors responded with a tactic familiar to anyone whos seen Law & Order: They tried to discredit Kruse on cross-examination. They got her to admit that she, too, was a patient of Dunns, but they couldnt get her to describe the nature of her treatment. So they called another witness who testified that Dunn had actually performed an abortion on Kruse when she was three months pregnant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What happened next reveals a striking lesson about the legal status of abortion in early America. This lesson casts severe doubt on the historical assertions that underpin Justice Samuel Alitos leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, an opinion that would eliminate the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. Advertisement [Read: Abortion Used to Be No Big Deal. A Few Angry Men Made It One.] In Alitos world, the accusation that Dunn had performed an abortion should have been a jaw-dropping moment in open court. At the time, Oregon had a law declaring any abortion performed on any woman pregnant with a child to be punishable as manslaughter. According to Alito, such language would have made abortion a crime at all stages in pregnancy. Dunn, in other words, had just been accused of an offense even more severe than the one for which he was on trial. But in the real world, Oregon prosecutors never even considered prosecuting Dunn for performing the abortion. Quite the opposite. Appearing before the Oregon Supreme Court, attorneys for the state insisted that abortion is not a crime under Oregon law unless it results in the death of a quick fetus. Dunn had accordingly broken no law because he performed Kruses abortion prior to quickeningthe point at which a fetus makes its first noticeable movement, as early as fifteen or sixteen weeks in pregnancy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is devastating for Alitos argument. Heres why. Recall that the leaked opinion overturns Roe v. Wade on the basis of a particular legal test: The Constitution, it says, can only protect the right to abortion if it is deeply rooted in our nations history and tradition. Alito recognizes that this test is actually terrible for him as of the founding because every state then in the union respected the distinction between pre- and post-quickening abortion and treated the former as no crime at all. Advertisement Advertisement His response is to assert that this tradition changed by the time the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868. By then, Alito claims, three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy. So crucial is this argument to his opinion that he includes a 23-page appendixlonger than many Supreme Court majority opinionsquoting every state law he believes criminalized abortion throughout pregnancy. Advertisement Advertisement Oregon is one of the states on his list. But as the story of J.D. Dunn proves, that cannot be correct. Not unless one thinks Oregon prosecutors lied to their own Supreme Court when they affirmed the states long-standing position that pre-quickening abortions remained perfectly legal under the states abortion law, just as had been true throughout America at the founding. Advertisement Advertisement With Alitos mistreatment of Oregon revealed, the rest of his opinion crumbles. Many of the other state laws concerning abortion that Alito lists in his appendix used similar languageand were also understood to continue the founding-era tradition of permitting pre-quickening abortion (I describe those laws and how they were understood historically in this research paper). Advertisement After combing through the historical record, my best sense is that just 16 of the 37 states actually banned pre-quickening abortions at the time of the 14th Amendments adoption. What is more, even these 16 states should be heavily discounted, given how they were driven by an all-male medical associations peddling of openly misogynistic stereotypes, such as one anti-abortion advocates declaration that pregnant women should not be allowed to judge for [themselves] in this matter because they are too prone to derangement. Correcting the historical record matters. Noted conservative and libertarian originalists like professors Michael McConnell and Randy Barnett have argued that the 14th Amendments original meaning protects unenumerated rights that a substantial majority of states respected for a lengthy period of history. That describes the legal status of pre-quickening abortion throughout our nations early years: It was permitted by every state at the founding and still by a majority of states when the 14th Amendment was ratified. Contrary to Alitos opinion, in other words, history and tradition actually support a constitutional right to abortion for much of early pregnancy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of this should be a surprise to Alito, though. All of the sources Ive drawn on to describe Dunns case and Oregons official interpretation of its abortion ban are publicly available and easy to find through a basic search of any legal database. That Alito and his clerks drafted a 98-page opinion overruling a right belonging to millions of Americans without ever performing such a searchor worse, having done it only to suppress the unfavorable resultsis eye-opening. The only question left is whether the courts more institutionalist-minded conservatives will take off their blinders. Read more of Slates coverage on abortion rights here. This article has been updated because even more apes were stolen. Early last year, when nonfungible tokens arose out of the crypto world to become something of a cultural phenomenon, there was nary a grinning ape in sight. But within a few months, those avatarsprocedurally generated simians sporting hats and sunglasses and drawn, more or less, in the manic style of a Gorillaz videobecame the face of not only NFTs, but in some ways the broader mania around cryptocurrency. Yes, Bored Ape Yacht Club avis are basically just .jpgs stored on a digital ledger, easy for anyone on the web to right-click and save. And yes, though much of the rest of the NFT market has cratered, the apes remain a status symbol, having fetched nearly $20 million just over the past week with an average price of $188,000 per ape, according the website NFT Stats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since April 2021, when the Bored Ape Yacht Club collective auctioned its first NFTs, large corners of Twitter and other spaces have resembled a sillier planet of the apes. Celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton showed off their BAYC-created apes on national TV. Shaq made his ape his Twitter profile picture. Justin Bieber got an ape, though he probably didnt pay for it. By now, youve likely heard about the strange, tragic saga of Seth Greens apes. In exchange for owning these ape avis, users got more than bragging rights, if they were into it. Ones ape token became their ticket to exclusive digital and IRL parties. You could get an ApeCoin, and use the currency to buy a special burger or purchase an expensive land deed in the metaverse. Advertisement Advertisement Then came the hacks. At the very end of 2021, a New York Citybased art gallery owner named Todd Kramer posted a plea that quickly became internet-famous. Advertisement Advertisement All my apes gone was a cri de coeur for our stupid times. How did the apes go? Well, when you purchase and trade NFTs on a digital marketplace like OpenSea, you have the option of storing your tokenswhich are merely certificates denoting your virtual rights to certain images, and not the artworks themselvesin a computerized wallet. This can be either a hot wallet, i.e., an online storage space, or a cold wallet, which lets you keep the access codes for your tokens in a secure, offline drive. Hacks of hot wallets, through phishing emails or access gained to users wallet keys, had not been uncommon before Kramers situation. But his very public complaintand fascinating choice of syntaxbrought wider attention to this particular scam. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like other true believers, Kramer has not abandoned NFTs, even as his all my apes gone tweet became its own token. And even though there were many more ape thefts around the same time, causing OpenSea to temporarily freeze trading, BAYC hasnt lost its cachet. More apes in the market means more apes gone. How many apes gone? Enough that there have been multiple lawsuits filed against OpenSea and BAYC parent company Yuga Labs over the sheer scale of thievery. Advertisement Advertisement Ive assembled a lengthy, though surely incomplete, list of stolen apes and related scams. (Keep in mind that ape thefts alone are only a fraction all NFT and crypto thefts over time. Its an expansive universe! Of scams!) Put on your internet face, whether its a bored ape or not, and read on. Advertisement Animation: If an NFT dealer offers to animate your apes, you probably shouldnt listen to them. Seems someone fell for a new BAYC animation phishing site and lost 3 BAYC NFTs ($900k). Most of the ETH has been sent into Tornado. https://t.co/eejge3PNZk pic.twitter.com/bYwPL46r7M ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 21, 2022 Advertisement BAYC, I hardly knew ye: Sometimes, NFTs are stolen by users impersonating other traders. In January, however, some scammers impersonated the entire BAYC network on OpenSea, with junk tokens in tow. A lotta money was lost. Then, in March, scammers impersonated BAYC founders on Twitter to drop some fake ApeCoins. These wouldnt be the only times something like this occurred. Even Instagram wasnt safe. Advertisement Following Paris Hilton & Jimmy Fallon's discussion of NFTs on the Tonight Show, a number of fake BAYC collections have appeared on OpenSea, including this one that has already raked in 6.9 Eth ($17,500 USD) in sales. This listing has been up for 24 hours. https://t.co/bvuWawZMca pic.twitter.com/n2s3umAFGl NFT thefts (@NFTtheft) January 29, 2022 Advertisement Dating apps: Not an ape swipe, but one random tweeter mocked up a convincing-looking website offering a dating service for BAYC members. It was fake. Unfortunately due to a vastly uneven ratio of men to women who signed up for our waitlist, we have decided to put the BAYC dating app on hold indefinitely. Too many bros! We sincerely appreciate your interest and support.https://t.co/PozZOCph0y y4k (@y4kxyz) May 12, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Discord: In April of this year, as Motherboard reported, Discord channels for BAYC and other NFT networks were hacked by phishers who offered junk links to mint new NFTs in exchange for digital currencies. And no, it was not an April Fools prank on BAYCs behalf. STAY SAFE. Do not mint anything from any Discord right now. A webhook in our Discord was briefly compromised. We caught it immediately but please know: we are not doing any April Fools stealth mints / airdrops etc. Other Discords are also being attacked right now. Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 1, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fr0zenBuffal0: Near the end of 2021, an NFT traders Capetain ape was stolen by a user impersonating a famed crypto figure. Much like with Kramer, his expression of frustration became its own copypasta: This was my kids college. My mortgage. Just absolute shit that some of you out there think its okay that I got ripped off. ILovePonzi: A guy who says he loves Ponzi schemes got tricked into giving access to his NFT wallet to some bad actors back in January. Please touch him! I lost all my apes and mutants just now, any one bought it??? pls touch me! pic.twitter.com/AN5IMt2ntu larrylawliet.eth (@iloveponzi) January 31, 2022 Advertisement Jeff Nicholas: Months before Todd Kramers apes gone, an ordinary NFT trader named Jeff Nicholas, seeking technical support, accidentally entered a Discord channel run by hackers impersonating the identities of OpenSea staffers. As the Verge reported, once Nicholas shared his screen with them, it was all over. Six figures worth of tokens out the walletincluding, of course, apes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Metaverse: In April, BAYC kickstarted an auction of virtual land deeds for its upcoming Metaverse project, Otherside (which looks like an MMORPG-style virtual universe for all types of NFT avatars, like CryptoPunks and Cool Cats). The frantic rush for these deeds made transaction fees surge to ludicrous levels and clogged the blockchain network involved, leading to a lot of wasted moneyand an opportunity for scammers. Some traders moonlighted on Twitter as Otherside deed sellers, tricking users into turning to them for assistance by offering refunds or direct links for land deals. At the end of the rush, about $5 million of apes gone, which also made a dent in the auction prices for BAYC apes. S27: Check out this ravishing series of words: Advertisement Today, bored ape holder "s27" lost their bubble gum ape and matching mutants ($567k at current floors) in an instant. This is a thread on how it happened, and how to prevent something similar from happening to you. 1/ q (@0xQuit) April 5, 2022 Seth Green: The actor and Robot Chicken creator announced at a recent NFT conference that he was debuting a new animated venture starring his very own bored ape. (You have to watch the bizarre trailer.) At least, it was going to happen until, he claimed, Twitter user @DarkWing84 stole four of his apes, including the shows protagonist, named Fred Simian. (If Green doesnt own the NFT, he doesnt own any rights to make a show using Freds likeness.) BuzzFeed News talked to the Australian surgeon who purports to be behind @DarkWing84; he told the outlet that he believed hed purchased the apes in good faith and didnt realize the apes had been stolen from Greens stash. As of this writing, the surgeon has refused to return the apes but has offered to get in touch with Green. Meanwhile, as long as Fred remains far from his wallets, Greens NFT show may be in development trouble. Advertisement Advertisement Spoiled Banana Society: According to the German crypto news site BTC Echo, the Discord server for BAYC and Otherside was hacked on Saturday, leading to the theft of 32 various digital tokens, including metaverse land deeds and, of course, apes. Reportedly, hackers gained control of the Discord account for BAYC community manager Boris Vagner, who runs the Spoiled Banana Society, an nft fantasy football society for BAYC members that can be accessed through the purchase of an SBS-specific token. Once Vagners account was taken over, the culprits launched a series of phishing attacks within the SBS and BAYC Discord servers; the victims apes then gone. After an hour, the SBS Twitter account stated that Weve got back control of the discord and Boriss account. Thank god he didnt delete the server. Bayc & Otherside discord was also hacked pls stay safe . Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dont click on anything if you get a message from @BorisVagner on discord he just got hacked. RichardVagner.eth (@RichVagner) June 4, 2022 Taylor Richie: Pro tip: Its generally recommended to trade NFTs for cryptocurrencies, and not to just swap NFTs with someone else. Should you attempt to do that, you might get screwed, as trader Taylor Richie confessed in a March blog post. (See also: S27.) Advertisement Advertisement Waka Flocka: Poor Wakathe day before Todd Kramers apes went poof, the rapper posted a video to Twitter complaining to OpenSea about a hack to one of his wallets. Turns out, some opportunistic traders stole $19,000 worth of crypto from his wallet, after injecting some fake tokens into his collection to force a sale. @opensea One of me wallets was hacked wtf man pic.twitter.com/BbZ4FKtr6h Waka Flocka (WakaFlocka.eth) (@WakaFlocka) December 28, 2021 Advertisement What have we learned? Well, if you decide youd like to collect or sell any cartoon apes, make sure you watch out for all the potential weak spots in the system: fake accounts on every single social and trading platform, vulnerable online storage systems, sweet-talking snake-oil salespeople, issues with blockchain tech, crashes in the volatile crypto market that wipe out valuations and lead to scammers taking advantage. After all, youre likely going to a pay a lot of money for a static ape on your computer. Still, better for that ape to be bored than gone. From The Mind and the Moon by Daniel Bergner. Copyright 2022 by Daniel Bergner. Adapted courtesy of Ecco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. American science, President John F. Kennedy announced in 1963, would take us to the remote reaches of the mind and would discover new ways to medicate our most troubling psychiatric conditions. Such patriotic optimismand such a clear vision of the physically finite and conquerable nature of our psyches! In the realm of psychosis, where the mind can be overtaken by alternate realities, by voices and visions and private fears, there seemed to be progress in the post-Kennedy 60s. Haldol replaced Thorazine as a more potent antipsychotic. The chemical was discovered by Paul Janssen, a Belgian pharmacologist, whose company would soon be bought by Johnson & Johnson. Janssen had just developed an opioid painkiller and was looking for something even stronger. He employed a team of 50 chemists, most of them self-taught and low-paid, and directed them in a simple method: synthesize chemical offshoots of the original painkiller as quickly as possible, inject the new molecules into mice, and see what happens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the moleculesthe 45th in the series they concoctedhad a curious effect. It didnt seem to work as a painkiller. This Janssen could tell by measuring the pupils of his rodents when they were placed on a hot metal plate. But while the animals did register pain, they seemed paradoxically unconcerned about it. The chemical put them in a trancelike state, apparently unmotivated to lift their paws. Second after second went by30 seconds or more ticked pastand the mice stayed where they were on the scorching surface. The chemical intrigued the pharmacologist. He gave it to Belgian psychiatrists for trial-and-error experiments. It was injected into two alcoholics going through the hallucinations of delirium tremens and then into 18 psych ward patients. We consider its hallucinolytic actionits reduction of voices and visionsto be greater than that of any other neuroleptic, the psychiatrists wrote, referring to Thorazine and other antipsychotics. But they noted that with the new chemical Parkinsonism is the norm. Next, a French psychiatrist who had earlier developed Thorazine tested the new drug. He affirmed its effect on hallucinations but warned about frequent damage to the brain and nervous system. In a French journal, he urged that dosages be kept moderate to lessen the side-effects: a skewed gait, facial rigidity, drooling, torpor, and a range of often irreversible tics, from shoulder-rocking to tongue-thrusting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If it was used judiciously, psychiatrists now had, it appeared, a better molecule to pit against psychosis. Gradually, though, it was not only the drugs safety but its efficacy that was questioned. Much later, the Lancet, Britains premier medical journal, published an analysis spanning backward over more than half a centurys worth of studies assessing antipsychotics: Haldol didnt do impressively welleven when its devastating side-effects were left out and the calculation included only addressing psychotic symptoms. And in America, a careful concern for Haldols side effects never did prevail. Before Haldol, when Thorazine was the star antipsychotic, Nathan Klinea luminary in American biological psychiatry, who had won two Lasker Awards for public service in medicineadvised the field that only massive doses would bring about successful outcomes. U.S. practitioners heeded his advice on Thorazine and kept right on once Haldol took over. Typical Haldol doses doubled between the mid-70s and mid-80s, climbing to levels many times higher than in Europe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reasons for this arent easy to pin down. Johnson & Johnson denied the dangers, and professional organizations did their part. Right after speaking on Oprah about the risks posed by Haldol, one psychiatrist found himself under investigation, fending off an attempt to revoke his medical license. And psychiatrists likely managed to deceive themselves. A potent medicine is a seductive thing to possess and prescribe. But corporate self-interest and practitioner self-deception arent limited to America; they are insufficient explanations for American dosages. Perhaps, then, American culture is especially prone to a faith in cures and a belief that aggressive methods will prove to be remedies, even panaceas. Advertisement Advertisement By the 90s, Haldol was supplanted by a new generation of antipsychotics, though it remains a drug of choice in emergency rooms, where it is injected involuntarily into agitated or menacing patients and tends to subdue them immediately. Studies have found the new generation of drugs to be only somewhat better than their predecessors, or no better at all. They are helpful for some, with severe side effects for many. There have been no great medical solutions, not for psychosis, not for our more common conditions like depression and anxiety. Advertisement Advertisement Neuroscientist after neuroscientist told me that we have made little to no true progress in medicating our psyches for more than half a century. Eric Nestler, the director of the Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and one of our countrys preeminent psychiatric researchers, recalled being in medical school, four decades ago, and professors predicting imminent, precisely tailored cures for cancer. Choosing a career in psychiatry, he had felt equal optimism. And cancer is so dumb-ass simple compared with disorders of the brain, he said. We were so naive. He talked about the reasons for psychiatrys frustrated efforts, but one in particular struck me above all. Consider what philosophers call emergent functions, he saidfunctions that arise as a whole that are not evident in the molecular and cellular constituents of the organ. This occurs only in the brain. In every other organ in the body, the function of the cells matches the function of the organ. Heart cells pump blood. Lung cells add oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. Kidney cells filter the blood. I can cut out a chunk of a kidney, put it in a petri dish, and show you that it does just what it does in the animal. I can show you a single heart cell pumping. The brain is the only organ where this is not so. And thats what makes it really cool! Brain science is unique in medicine. We need to understand how circuits of cells give rise to a thought, an emotion, a behavior. And this will be extremely difficult to penetrate. Advertisement Advertisement I asked if it was even possible that we could solve this dilemma about ourselves. I asked if it was even possible to imagine crossing the chasm between the brain and the mind, between the activity of cells and our thoughts and feelings, between physical matter and consciousness, perceived reality, the self. How do we bridge that divide? That is the crux, he said. If I knew how to cross it, Id be a very special person. Slate receives a commission when you purchase items using the links on this page. Thank you for your support. 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. Its 3 p.m. Saturday, and you check your phone to see if your aunt replied to the message you sent asking how to save your dying plant. The little red circle next to the WhatsApp logo is a promising sign: a new message! You open the app to see, at the top of your active chats, your boss name and photo next to a truly horrific status: typing. The internal conflict begins: Are you expected to answer? Can it wait until Monday? Thankfully, youd already deactivated WhatsApps read receipts and last seen functionsbut still, the online status, which you cant disable, has already betrayed you. Minutes later, you find yourself working on the project your boss messaged you about, ignoring your aunts heart-shaped emojis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For millions of workers around the globe, this scene will likely sound familiar. With its 2 billion users worldwide, WhatsApp is the third most-used social media platform (behind Facebook and YouTube). Even after its 2014 acquisition by then-Facebook, WhatsApp has continued to fulfill its original promise of No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!, while going through a remarkable evolution. It introduced voice messages in 2013 and video calls in 2016 while expanding document sharing, making it a sophisticated communication platformand, for many, a vital part of work. In the U.S., though WhatsApp has a larger number of users, its not really a workplace staple. But in countries like Mexico, where one of us now lives and the other grew up, the use (and abuse) of WhatsApp as a business tool is notable and ubiquitous across professions and ranks. Advertisement Advertisement The apps commonly used for work in the U.S. are just thatused for work. Yes, you technically could set up a family Slack channel, but that would be really weird. But on WhatsApp, there is no barrier between work and life. In Mexico and other WhatsApp-dependent countries, you use the app to communicate with family and friends, but also with your primary care physician, your dogs veterinarian, and your plumber. Your apartment buildings management announces the water will be shut down this afternoon on your buildings WhatsApp group. You have to be extra cautious not to send the message intended for your group chat with your colleagues to the group that includes your boss. And then, of course, there are the WhatsApps from coworkers letting you know that they just sent you an email. Advertisement Advertisement WhatsApp, which came on the scene in 2009 and started to really take off a couple of years later, was launched at a time when sending text messages came with a price tag in Mexico. Offering a free alternative to steep phone bills, WhatsApp gained immediate popularity. The average Mexican WhatsApp user spends 20 hours on the app per month, according to Hootsuite, compared with 7.6 hours for U.S. users (and a whopping 31.4 hours for Indonesian users). The app has an estimated 89 million users in Mexico, a country with a population of 126 million, about a quarter of which is age 14 or under. In other words, the probability that the person you are trying to reach uses WhatsApp is extremely highthey just need a phone number and a WiFi connection or data plan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But because WhatsApp is phone number-based, many must use their personal phone numbers, effectively erasing the boundary between work and life. Communicating with colleagues and supervisors also means being involuntarily available weekends, vacations, and afterhours. If you are chatting with your partner on a Wednesday night, you can reply to your colleague. It also means losing a great deal of your privacy and control over who can contact you and when. A colleague shared your number with a client, and suddenly your WhatsApp inbox is flooded with unwanted messages from someone during weekends and holidays. WhatsApp, after all, has no out of officethe only thing that could come close is changing your status, but doing so is pointless, as everyone just ignores it. (Isabels status has been Available since Oct. 31, 2010.) Could you just ignore the message? Probably, but you cant escape the reminder of your to-do list. WhatsApp has no schedule, and neither can you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unless youre a sales representative or customer service agent using WhatsApp for Business (which actually does let users send auto replies and set schedules!), working on WhatsApp destroys productivity. Yes, communication is fast (assuming the other person replies), but its also chaotic. Its great to message a colleague a quick question, but its hard to concentrate on one task while getting constant, indistinguishable notifications that could either be the reviewed annual budget or pictures of your friends newborn. Chats can be muted, sure, but its simply impossible to mute personal contacts during work hours and switch to mute work contacts during nights or weekends. Work messaging platforms like Teams or Slack that are more common in the U.S. definitely replicate some of the negative features of WhatsApplike the always available culture. But they represent more fenced-in systems. On Slack, youre probably not communicating with people you dont work with, and even then youre really only communicating with people in your company. Americans dont seem to be bothered by pivoting to emailit is like they want to stand up for the right to update the profile picture you want your loved ones to see, without worrying it might look unprofessional to your manager or colleagues. (Another major WhatsApp dilemma! Is it acceptable to have a profile photo of you and your partner, or you on the beach? Is it weird that a consultant you work with sees that photo?) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nodding at the overwhelming nature of WhatsApp groups, the company recently announced a new feature: Communities. WhatsApp Communities will be different from regular WhatsApp groups, the company says, because they will allow for smaller discussion groups within communities, while also offering more control: Announcements can only be shared by admins in the main announcement group and community members can chat in smaller groups created by the admin, who can delete messages. WhatsApp also recently doubled the size of participants allowed in a group to 512 and announced new commercial features aimed at businesses, which will be able to use a cloud-based programming interface to more easily connect with customers. Realistically, though, theres little reason to believe new features like Communities will make a dent in the problems surrounding WhatsApp and work, because the real problems are not about WhatsApp. Theyre about work culture in countries like Mexico. Advertisement We should acknowledge here that while WhatsApp is used across sectors and class divides, many of the problems were talking about relate to workers in the formal economy and with some level of privilege, likely working at a desk. The exploitation of workers in the informal labor market, as well as service workers in the formal market, goes far beyond work-life boundary issues. Advertisement Advertisement Looking at the average employee, Mexico is second only to Colombia for the greatest number of hours worked per year2,124, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. By comparison, the average U.S. worker clocks in 1,767 hours per year, whereas in Germany, which finds itself at the bottom of the list, that number is a glorious 1,332. (And these numbers wouldnt necessarily count nonworking time that employees spend responding to work messages.) Advertisement So, yes, what we really need are labor systems that respect workers and their boundaries. But to get there, we also need an app that does the same. Advertisement Advertisement Real change depends on changing labor laws and company policies, not shifting individual behavior. But that doesnt mean individual behavior isnt important. And this is where the hard part comes inas much as we like to complain about the always working culture on WhatsApp, we also actively contribute to it. Because, yes, its convenient! Its easier to send a WhatsApp to your coworker at 7 p.m. asking her for an update than to wait and remember to email her the next morning (if only WhatsApp added the function to schedule messages!). Its gratifying to get a quick response from your boss because you see shes online, even if it is a holiday. The default status on WhatsApp is Hey there! I am using WhatsApp. It will take work from all of us to switch that status to Hey there! Im not always using WhatsAppand to let others do the same. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Conservations officers are shifting into high gear as the summer season is ramping up at Smith Mountain Lake. As many people are returning to the water, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources is asking boaters to stay safe. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw heavy boating traffic, but no major incidents. It was a very safe overall weekend, said Sgt. James Slaughter with the DWR. While the summer has started on a positive trend, Slaughter said he would like to see that continue with an overall decrease in boating incidents this year on Smith Mountain Lake. Boating incidents hit a recent high in 2021 of 19, just one more than the previous year at 18. Slaughter said the most common factor in a majority of the boating incidents at Smith Mountain Lake is inattention or not keeping a proper lookout. He said boat operators should keep a close eye on their surroundings and other boaters. That is especially important for boat operators when towing others. Conservation officers have witnessed several close calls where individuals being towed by a boat or PWC come dangerously close to a dock or shoreline. Slaughter said some boat operators dont factor in the additional 50 feet of rope when turning a corner and assume everyone is at a same distance. There have been multiple boating incidents at Smith Mountain Lake over the years where individuals being towed have struck a dock resulting in serious injuries. Slaughter also asks that passengers inside a boat stay in the seating compartment of the boat. He has seen a growing number of boaters sitting on the stern of boats which can be dangerous. Hitting a wave could result in the passenger being thrown into the water or into the boats propeller. Boat operators can be charged with reckless operation if passengers are not inside the seating area when the boat is underway, Slaughter said. Another growing concern for conservation officers is boaters using docking lights at night to navigate around the lake. Slaughter said boats should only have the green and red light on as well as a 360 degree white light at the tallest point on the boat. Docking lights or spotlights on a vessel are illegal to use other than when docking or to briefly shine into the water to check for any objects near the vessel. The light obscures the vision of other boaters, Slaughter said. The use of decorative lights on a boat is illegal while a boat is moving. Slaughter said the neon lights have become more popular in recent years. The lights can make it difficult for other boaters to tell which way the boat is moving when the lights are on. It is fine when they are not underway, Slaughter said. Slaughter has seen some positive trends in recent years. He said the use of lifejackets is up and the number of boat operators found to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol is down. The use of designated boat operators has increased, according to Slaughter. He would like to see the trend continue, but encourages experienced boat operators to operate the vessel. He said operation is sometimes left to someone with little to no boating experience while others on the boat may be under the influence and not helpful as a lookout. As for lifejackets, Slaughter said he is glad to see the use increase. However, there is still a lot of room to grow, he said. There are a wide variety of lifejackets on the market in recent years. Slaughter said there are lifejackets that suit a variety of activities on the lake. He said the only requirement is that they are U.S. Coast Guard approved. Boaters are only required to have a lifejacket or PFD for everyone on a boat. Passengers are not required to wear lifejackets, but they are strongly encouraged by conservation officers. Not wearing a lifejacket is a common factors in a majority of the boating related fatalities reported in Virginia in recent years. Slaughter said lifejackets greatly improve a persons likelihood of surviving a major boating incident. Davis, a Rocky Mount native, is seeking the Republican nomination for the 39th District, the boundaries of which were redrawn to cover Franklin County following the 2020 census. State-run company signs a contract with Ukraine on what is seen as a promising boost for the Slovak military and defense industry. News: Receive notifications about new articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The Slovak-made Zuzana 2 howitzers will soon be delivered to Ukraine. The state-run company Konstrukta Defence confirmed that on June 1 it has signed a contract to sell the howitzers it produces to Ukraine, which will receive eight new howitzers. The situation in Ukraine requires our concern and an honest interest, which we certainly do not lack in the department, said Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) as quoted by the SITA newswire. The contract is part of Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine as well as an achievement for Konstrukta, because it helps to support the Slovak defense industry and its potential growth. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Shortly before Nad confirmed that both parties signed the contract, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova visited Kyiv and debated further aid for Ukraine. Slovakia has been actively providing all types of aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded the neighbouring country. Military aid to Ukraine is not limited to fuel and ammunition supplies. Most notably, Slovakia donated its air defence system to Ukraine. In addition to the S-300 system, Slovakia provided Ukraine with mortar and other ammunition, aviation fuel, and the Igla, a man-portable anti-aircraft system. As part of the aid, seized Russian tanks and military vehicles along with damaged Ukrainian military technology are being repaired in Slovakia. In his talk with Caputova in Kyiv earlier this week, Zelensky said that there is still more Slovakia could do, specifically in the form of planes and helicopters. Nad confirmed that there are options and that further aid is a matter of negotiations. Chicago police SWAT team members search a property in the 6300 block of South Bishop Street in Chicago after a Chicago police officer was shot and wounded nearby on June 1, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) A Chicago police officer was shot and seriously wounded during a traffic stop late Wednesday afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood. Meanwhile, officers were searching for at least two suspects and police remained outside a building in the 6300 block of South Bishop Street as of about 9:15 p.m. SWAT officers left the scene before 9:30 p.m. Advertisement About 5:45 in the 6100 block of Paulina Street, two uniformed officers driving a marked squad car tried to make a traffic stop, Superintendent David Brown told reporters. The driver of the car they were trying to pull over sped off, then slowed down, coming parallel with the police car, Brown said. Advertisement Suddenly, someone inside the car fired at the officers, wounding a female officer, according to Brown, who said she was in serious but stable condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she will spend the night. Earlier, Brown described her condition as critical. The suspects crashed the car moments later in the 6400 block of South Bishop Street and ran, Brown said. Witnesses told police they may have run in different directions and fled into nearby buildings, Brown said. Chicago police officer 7th Dist has been shot. The officers being transported to the University of Chicago hospital. Condition unknown. PO in route to the hospital. Further details to follow.#ChicagoPolice Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) June 1, 2022 Officers found a gun in the area where the car crashed and found car keys that were dropped near the gun, Brown said. The crash happened not far from the Englewood District police station, 1438 W. 63rd St. Its too early to determine whether or not this is the gun, Brown said. But we have found a gun in the immediate area where the offender fled after crashing the car. Helicopters and police surrounded the area where the shooting happened. At about 6:30 p.m. near the hospital, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., officers were directing traffic. Advertisement Southbound Cottage Grove Avenue was blocked at 55th Street while northbound traffic on Cottage Grove was diverted east or west at 57th Street. Additionally, about a dozen police cars were stationed nearby and around the hospitals emergency room. In an emailed statement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed her concerns for the outrageous attack on our officers. My family and I will be praying for the injured officer and the entire department as they grapple with yet another heinous and deliberate assault on our officers lives, Lightfoot said. I have asked the superintendent to use every resource possible to find the person responsible for this attempted murder of a police officer and bring them to justice. rsobol@chicagotribune.com scasanova@chicagotribune.com The governments intends to partake of the shared purchase by the European Commission. News: Receive notifications about new articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The Health Ministry has proposed the purchase of 2,000 monkeypox vaccines. Based on recommendations of the European Commission's expert group, Slovakia will be a part of the shared purchase provided by the commission," wrote the Health Ministry for TASR newswire. Monkeypox cases have been reported in some EU countries, including Slovakia's neighbouring Czech Republic. Slovakia has not detected any cases so far. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The Public Health Authority does not anticipate a large-scale epidemic in Slovakia but expects sporadic outbreaks. There is a real risk of the disease developing, the authority said. The disease did not occur in Slovakia in the past. With the upcoming summer, inhabitants of Slovakia might travel to countries with recorded cases and bring the disease back home, the authority adds. The vaccine could help to ease the consequences, The European Medicines Agency said, even though it has not yet authorised any vaccine against monkeypox in the EU. Slovakia is not an endemic area for monkeypox, but the World Health Organisation expects more cases to be reported in non-endemic areas. Available information suggests that human-to-human transmission is occurring among people in close physical contact with cases that are symptomatic. Slovakia to send more military aid to Ukraine, how Slovaks see Russia at the moment. Learn more in today's digest. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Good evening. Here is the Thursday, June 2 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Moral duty to pave the way for Ukraine to join EU Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his speech at the Globsec conference. (Source: TASR) On Thursday, the Globsec conference started in Bratislava. In her speech, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that there was a moral duty to pave the way for Ukraine to join the European Union. The EC president also said that Ukraine needs support not just to win the war against Russia, but also financial help on its way to joining the EU. "Ukraine must win this war and Putin must see that for him it is a severe strategic failure," she said. Von der Leyen added that EU countries must rid themselves of their dependency on Russian fossil fuels if they want to make a dent in the Kremlin's war chest. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke at the conference. He thanked countries for their help, but urged them to do more and called for another sanctions package. "Any division in Europe is an opportunity for Russia to continue its fighting policy," he warned. Further military aid for Ukraine Howitzer Zuzanain a construction hall. (Source: TASR) Slovakia will sell eight Zuzana 2 howitzers to Ukraine. The state-run company Konstrukta Defence confirmed it has signed a contract on the deal. The contract is part of Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine. Military aid to Ukraine is not limited to fuel and ammunition supplies. Most notably, Slovakia has previously donated its air defence system to Ukraine. As part of its military aid, seized Russian tanks and military vehicles along with damaged Ukrainian military technology are being repaired in Slovakia. Earlier this week President Zuzana Caputova visited Kyiv, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and addressing Ukrainian MPs. In her speech she said "howitzers would come soon". Caputova said she supported Ukraine's accession to the European Union as soon as possible. Zelensky said Ukraine was grateful for Slovak help, but that more military aid could be provided, particularly helicopters and airplanes. If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription. Thank you. Refugees from Ukraine 1,621 women, 744 men and 481 children crossed the Slovak-Ukrainian border on June 1 . The number of refugees who have come to Slovakia since the war started is almost 477,000 and more than 79,000 have asked for temporary protection. . The number of refugees who have come to Slovakia since the war started is almost 477,000 and more than 79,000 have asked for temporary protection. According to the International Association of Physicians in Slovakia hundreds of healthcare professionals from Ukraine have come to Slovakia. Many are currently dealing with recognition of their qualifications, including largely dentists, gynaecologists, and rehabilitation health workers. Picture of the day Thanks to an initiative by the Cierne Diery (Black Holes) civic association mean that the Dom Umenia (House of Arts) building in Piestany, a western-Slovak spa town, will now be protected from any unwanted significant changes. Dom Umenia plays an important role in modern Slovak architecture. You can read more about the building here. The interior of Dom Umenia Piestany. (Source: Cierne Diery - Matej Hakar) Feature story of the day Central Europe is, increasingly, adopting a clearly Western orientation. Public opinion in the region, which includes Slovakia, has changed as a result of the war in Ukraine, according to the results of the latest Global Trends report. Forty-four percent of people in Central Europe say they want to be part of the West - an increase of 7 percentage points in the past year. Slovakia, a country that has been exposed to strong Russian propaganda since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, has also started to see itself more as part of the West. Last year, 55 percent of people regarded Russian President Vladimir Putin positively. Today, 71 percent of people in Slovakia perceive him negatively. Find out more about the report by clicking the link below. Less of a brother, more of a threat, Slovaks say of Russia Read more In other news A young woman escaped almost unharmed after coming across a bear and her three cubs as she rode a bicycle with her dog on a forest road outside the village of Liptovske Klacany in the Liptovsky Mikulas district. When the woman saw the animal, she jumped off the bike, lay down on the ground and covered her head with her hands. The bear stepped on the woman's arms but the dog then chased the animal away. The cyclist was only left with minor scratches. According to the State Nature Conservancy, the incident took place in the animal's natural habitat. In the first half of May there was a bear attack in central Slovakia. The number of bear encounters is on the rise, and people are dissatisfied with the government's management policies. When the woman saw the animal, she jumped off the bike, lay down on the ground and covered her head with her hands. The bear stepped on the woman's arms but the dog then chased the animal away. The cyclist was only left with minor scratches. According to the State Nature Conservancy, the incident took place in the animal's natural habitat. In the first half of May there was a bear attack in central Slovakia. The number of bear encounters is on the rise, and people are dissatisfied with the government's management policies. This summer season Ryanair is going to operate two new flights from Bratislava Airport. Travellers will be able to fly to the Greek island of Corfu and to Burgas in Bulgaria. There will be two flights per week. The airline will operate another 21 regular flights from Bratislava. A list of regular flights from Kosice for this summer season can be found here. Travellers will be able to fly to the Greek island of Corfu and to Burgas in Bulgaria. There will be two flights per week. The airline will operate another 21 regular flights from Bratislava. A list of regular flights from Kosice for this summer season can be found here. Slovakia does not have an independent study of energy poverty, but the Slovak Academy of Sciences is to prepare one. The data will be provided by Slovak energy suppliers and distributors. The data will be provided by Slovak energy suppliers and distributors. In just May the Office of the Ombudsman received 108 complaints. In total, there are 179 complaints waiting for the new ombudsperson. The position has been vacant for more than two months, but is expected to be filled this month as MPs reach a decision on a new ombudsperson during the June parliamentary session. In total, there are 179 complaints waiting for the new ombudsperson. The position has been vacant for more than two months, but is expected to be filled this month as MPs reach a decision on a new ombudsperson during the June parliamentary session. The city of Bratislava is continuing to fight mosquitoes using a biocide called BTI. It has recently been used in Rusovce, Petrzalka, Devin, Lamac, Karlova Ves, Jarovce, Dubravka, Vajnory and Raca. The capital has deployed volunteers again as well as drones. The situation is currently "stable", authorities have said. It has recently been used in Rusovce, Petrzalka, Devin, Lamac, Karlova Ves, Jarovce, Dubravka, Vajnory and Raca. The capital has deployed volunteers again as well as drones. The situation is currently "stable", authorities have said. In the near future, police will increase checks on how people follow traffic rules. This comes after an increase in the number of accidents involving vehicles. More on Spectator.sk Warhol's works sell for hundreds of millions while his museum in Slovakia lacks money for renovations Read more Suvisiaci clanok Suvisiaci clanok Rules drawn up to curb advertising in Bratislava Read more Slovakia to purchase monkeypox vaccines Read more If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk. Ukrainian President calls for further sanctions. News: Receive notifications about new articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled We have a moral duty to pave the way for Ukraine to join the European Union, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said today at an international security conference in Bratislava. She said this needs to be done in a combination of investment and reform. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement "Our standards and conditions in any EU accession process must be met. There's neither a wild card nor a shortcut [to accession]. But the speed of such a process depends on the country itself and our support," von der Leyen said in her address to the Globsec conference in the Slovak capital. Related article Related article Less of a brother, more of a threat, Slovaks say of Russia Read more How to hit the Kremlin war chest She mentioned how an expert EU team had been sent to Slovakia when the country decided to join the EU, and emphasised that Ukraine needs support not just to win its war against Russia, but also financial help as it makes its way to EU membership. "Ukraine must win this war and Putin must see that for him it is a severe strategic failure," she said. Dakota Earley, the culinary student who was shot last month during an attempted robbery in Lincoln Park, has been released from the intensive care unit, his mother announced on Twitter Wednesday. Joy Dobbs said she received a call with the news around 1 p.m. Wednesday from a nurse at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Advertisement Praise God, Dobbs wrote at the end of her Twitter announcement later that day after she FaceTimed Earleys grandmother who was with him at the hospital. Dobbs, who lives in Georgia, plans to return to Chicago to visit her son. Advertisement Early, 24, was severely injured on May 6 around 3:05 a.m. on the sidewalk in the 1300 block of West Webster Avenue after his alleged assaulter, Tyshon Brownlee, 19, pointed a handgun at him, and a struggle for the handgun ensued, authorities say. Brownlee got control of the gun and shot Earley twice in the back and once in the head, according to authorities. Meanwhile, David Husser, a Lincoln Park neighbor, heard the shots and was able to call 911, administer first aid to Earley and stay with him until police and an ambulance arrived. After almost a month in the ICU, a partial leg amputation, and both Earley and Dobbs celebrating birthdays last week, his mom said he is making great improvements. Hes no longer on dialysis, his kidneys have healed just fine, she said. Hes doing more physical therapy, sitting up, leaning on his elbow, pushing himself up, and things like that. More upper body stuff that hes doing. Doctors expect him to be in the hospital for four to five more weeks, and then go into rehabilitation, Dobbs said. Doctors expect Earleys mouth will remainwired shut for another three weeks. The day Earley was shot, his family opened a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his medical costs. After raising almost $130,000, they closed it. However, when asked by the Tribune if that would be enough to cover all of his medical costs, Dobbs hesitated. Thats a good question because its something that weve been thinking about as a family, she said. I didnt want to go back to open it up, but thats a question that was kind of posed to me yesterday. ... We are unsure on whether that money will cover his expenses and his (above the knee amputation) prosthetic. Advertisement Two weeks after the shooting, Earley was asked by authorities to identify his assaulter. Earley circled Brownlees picture in a photo array and made a gun with his fingers identifying him as the shooter, authorities say. Were just excited and happy that Dakota is doing well and we just cant wait to be with him, Dobbs said. And I cant wait to hear the first thing hes gonna say. Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C on Jan. 6, 2021. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images) Two Chicago-area women have been arrested on charges alleging they entered the U.S. Capitol shortly after rioters breached a Senate wing door and later tried to get back in the building before being turned away by police. Trudy Castle, 57, and Kimberly DiFrancesco, 55, were both charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering a restricted government building. The women are related, but their exact relationship was not stated in the charges. Advertisement Castle, who works as a property manager for a downtown real estate company, was arrested Wednesday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain, who released her on her own recognizance. A lawyer for Castle was not listed on the court docket as of Thursday, and she did not return messages left at her office. Advertisement According to federal court records, Kimberly DiFrancesco, 55, of Elmhurst, left, and Trudy Castle, 57, of Chicago, are shown in the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. (U.S. District Court records) DiFrancesco, of Elmhurst, was arrested Thursday and also released on her own recognizance. The women are the 29th and 30th Illinoisans to have been charged in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal probe in the countrys history. Nationwide, about 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, Castle and DiFrancesco were both seen on surveillance footage entering the Capitol building through a Senate wing door shortly after it had been breached by the unruly mob. Images included in the complaint allegedly showed the two as they walked through the building to the elevator bank near the visitors center. In one of the images, Castle, dressed in a white jacket and red and blue Trump hat with a pom-pom, could be seen walking past chairs from an earlier clash with police that had been strewn on the floor. Castle was also captured on surveillance going under a security door just after rioters interfered with its operation, according to the complaint. The images showed Castle walking through the breached door using her arm in what appears to be an effort to protect her head or move the door up should the door deploy downward again, the complaint stated. Castle and DiFrancesco left the Capitol building after about 40 minutes, where Castle met up with her adult son, according to the complaint. About an hour later, the women appeared to try to get back in the building through the same breached Senate door but were unsuccessful, according to the complaint. At that time, law enforcement officers pushed away the rioters, and the women appear to depart, the complaint stated. Advertisement The women were identified by law enforcement after a tipster called the FBI field office in Dallas on Jan. 15, 2021, and reported that DiFrancesco had sent photos from her cellphone from inside the Capitol, according to the complaint. Last week, Matthew Bokoski, of Chicagos Uptown neighborhood, was also charged with misdemeanor counts alleging he and his father entered the Capitol through breached a 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. jmeisner@chicagotribune.com Driver Paul MacDonell may be making his first appearance at Legends Day on June 12, but he has been at Clinton Raceway in spirit for all previous 10 editions. A giant photo of him driving Lifetime Dream to victory in the 1993 Breeders Crown Mare Trot for local trainer Butch Elliott is prominently displayed on the back of the Clinton grandstand. I have that connection with Clinton and I always love going there. First of all, Butch Elliott was a good friend who trained her and I like to see him every so often, so its cool to reconnect there, MacDonell said. Lifetime Dreams Breeders Crown victory at Mohawk Raceway near Toronto capped off a wild celebration in Clinton. It was a big day a big thing back then for that community, MacDonell said. So big that MacDonell is guessing he might hear more about Lifetime Dream from Clinton racing fans than another superstar horse he drove: Somebeachsomewhere. Joining MacDonell as a first-time Legends Day legend this year is driver Randy Waples. Both Waples and MacDonell will be officially inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August. At Clinton, they will join fellow Hall of Famers Doug Brown, Steve Condren, Wally Hennessey, Trevor Ritchie and Waples father, Ron, in contesting the $15,000 Legends Day Trot. Hall of Famers John Campbell, Bill ODonnell and Dave Wall will also be at Legends Day to sign autographs. Those appearing at this years Legends Day have collectively earned nearly $1.2 billion in their racing careers. Its quite an honour to even be associated with those guys, thats for sure. Im looking forward to it, MacDonell said. Randy Waples was even more effusive about becoming a Legends Day legend: Im wickedly pumped for it, he said. Though, he stressed he was humbled to even be considered to joining the other superstars on the track and at the autograph table. Say youve got ODonnell on one side and my father on the other side and then someone is coming down the line to get autographs, I think its going to flash into my head, Man, they really dont want to ask me for this autograph, but they dont have a whole lot of choice, Waples said, laughing. I have a tough time putting myself with those guys These are my heroes. Every one of them, they were all my heroes," Waples said. These guys are just in a completely different echelon than I put myself in Though, when I was driving, I was never intimidated by them. I dont think I was intimidated by anybody, but I revered them. Its not just 'Brownie' and 'the Condren,' its ODonnell and the Ronnie Waples and John Campbell its Trevor Ritchie, Paul MacDonell. Watching Trevor behind the gate, he could get his body to go with the trotter. Ive never seen anybody do that He had a way that when a horse would trot that his body would move the same way There were times behind the gate with him when I thought he was going to lose a trotter hed be trotting, but not trotting solid and his body would adjust with the way that that horse was trotting and the next thing you know that horse would set and then hed go. Both Waples and MacDonell said being part of Legends Day likely will solidify the fact they are due to be inducted into the Hall of Fame later this summer. Once I get amongst them and get there and get involved in it, itll probably hit home a little harder then, MacDonell said. Just to be able to hang around those types of guys and be a part of it Im just really looking forward to it. Waples said hes looking forward to driving against his father in the Legends Day Trot. As I get a little bit older and as I watch my father get older hell be 76 this year, I dont know how many more times I have to drive against him, Waples said. Hes my guy In the early days, I think I spent more time watching what he was doing in a race than watching what I was doing in a race. Having two generations of the Waples family appearing at Legends Day will be a treat. Sadly, the opportunity to honour the immense contribution three generations of the clan has made to harness racing was lost when Keith Waples died in 2021 at the age of 97. Keith was Ron Waples cousin. Still, this years Legends Day is sure to be a celebration, particularly after being postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, as it has in recent editions, will raise money for the Clinton Public Hospital Foundation. There will be an online auction from June 5-9 at clintonraceway.com. On Legends Day itself, there will be a silent auction, autographs with the legends from 2-3 p.m., the Legends Day Trot will hit the track at 4 p.m., and a chicken barbeque will follow the races. All the food has been donated and all sales will, again, go to the Foundation. Previous editions of Legends Day have raised more than $260,000 for the foundation. In 2019, Legends Day raised $50,000 before the pandemic put a one-year pause on the, normally, biennial event. (Clinton Raceway) The opening chapter of his racing story wasnt a novel beginning, but life is indeed good these days for Greatest Ending. Dr. Ian Moore recalls the early days spent with the sizable bay colt, a son of the legendary Somebeachsomewhere blessed with a wealth of natural talent but beset by a myriad of maladies and growing pains. When I got him last year as a two-year-old, he was way too big for his age, recalled Moore. His ankles were all filled up, along with other things. I did say to Reg [owner and co-breeder, Petipas] at the time that it might be hard to keep him sound because hes so big. Moores assessment, unfortunately, turned out to be correct. It ended up that we did do two surgeries on him, to have six chips taken out, noted Moore. Two out of each hock and two out of his left hind ankle. He recovered from that and raced a little bit last fall. He trained back just super. Thats where the story takes a significant upturn. After a rookie campaign that yielded one win and four seconds from five starts, along with $23,000 in earnings, Greatest Endings sophomore season, albeit only two starts, has been extremely impressive. On May 7, he lined up behind the gate for a $69,578 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes race at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows. Sent off at 16-1, Greatest Ending, with Dave Palone in the sulky, went wire-to-wire in a front-end 1:51.2 masterpiece, capped off by a :27.2 final quarter that resulted in a 1-1/2-length win. Two weeks later, he was back at Mohawk, facing nine foes in the May 21 evenings first race. While his odds were far lower than in his Pennsylvania score Greatest Ending went off at 1-5 the end result was very much the same. With James MacDonald holding the reins, the duo dashed away from the field down the lane for a 4-1/2-length triumph in 1:51.3. It was an easy mile for him, basically a training mile, said Moore. I think the colt has a lot more to offer. We havent had a chance to see yet, other than what he did in Pennsylvania. Its hard to really evaluate how fast youre going with him because of his gait, the same thing when hes training. Were looking forward to a nice few weeks up here. Eligible to the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup, set for June 18 at Mohawk (with eliminations the week prior), the focus, for now, is on Saturday at the Milton, Ont. oval, specifically, one of two divisions of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes (Race 6). Moore likes what he sees ahead of his sophomore stars upcoming test. Two things, in particular, come to mind for the conditioner who has two Somebeachsomewhere Stakes division crowns to his name, in 2015 with Rockin In Heaven and in 2019 with Century Farroh. I think Greatest Endings gait and the size of him stands out for me. Hes a huge horse. He seems to have a lot of little bad luck things, but other than that, hes a beautiful colt to be around and hes lovely colt on the track. Moore also sends out Lawless Shadow, who will set foot on a racetrack for the first time since the discovery of a slight fracture in his foot late last season sent him to the sidelines for the 2021 Pepsi North America Cup. The now four-year-old Shadow Play gelding comes in off a career season where he ascended to victory in the $700,000 Meadowlands Pace following a disqualification for the first time in the history of the event. The Doc Moore trainee co-owned by Moore with R G McGroup Ltd., Serge Savard and Frank Cannon also snagged the $300,000 Max Hempt at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in 1:48.2 a week before scratching from the North America Cup eliminations. Last Friday at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Lawless Shadow qualified in 1:51.1 for driver Bob McClure, finishing second to Warrawee Vital. "We were okay with it," Moore told Trot Insider of the qualifying effort. "You know, qualifying is much like training to me. He's had lots of miles, and I hummed and hawed about whether I qualify him again or race. Qualifying is like training and so it's not the same. It doesn't matter where we're racing, we're basically going to go in [1:]48 or better anyway, so we might as well give him a shot this week." Starting in the first Graduate division for pacing males, Lawless Shadow will score from Post 7 in the eight-horse contest in rein to regular pilot Mark MacDonald. The 2020 O'Brien Award winner faces a stiff field including the Tony Alagna contingent of Abuckabett Hanover and Rockyroad Hanover, the former returning to the site of his strongest wins as a rookie and sophomore; Messenger Pace winner American Courage, Little Brown Jug champ Lous Pearlman and Ontario Sires Stakes star Bulldog Hanover. Moore noted that horses must race in two of the three Graduate legs to be eligible for the Graduate Final, so that option is at least there should he qualify for the Final points-wise. "It's either that or the Open," Moore continued. "Like I said, lots of solid low-50 miles in him, he's got a good background and he's ready to go." Free past performances, courtesy of TrackIT, for Saturday's program are available here. To view Saturdays harness racing entries, click the following link: Saturday Entries Woodbine Mohawk Park. (With files from Woodbine) Paul Vance (who was born Joseph Paul Florio on November 4, 1929), a world-renowned American songwriter, record producer and Standardbred harness racing owner, passed away Sunday, May 30 at the age of 93. He passed away with his daughter, Paula Vance at his side. Vance, along with co-writer Lee Pockriss, wrote hundreds of songs. His most successful songs were "Catch A Falling Star," "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" and "Tracy." He wrote more than 300 songs during his long career. As a harness racing owner, the United States Trotting Association lists Vance as owning or leasing 167 horses during his career. And he was listed as the breeder of 129 mares during that time period. The best horse Vance owned was the top pacer Secret Service, a 27-time winner of $454,000 with a race record time trial at The Meadowlands in 1:53.2 back in 1981. Secret Service was trained by Vances son Joseph Vance. He son ran the stable for his fathers horses. The last horse that Vance owned in partnership with Tom Haughton was Cathys Princess T, 5, 1:53.1F $123,875, who sadly was killed in the barn fire at Olympia Training Center (formerly South Florida Trotting Center) in Boynton Beach, Florida on March 16, 2016. In a quote from her Facebook page on Tuesday, daughter Paula Vance said. As sad as I am today, I have peace in knowing that in my Dad's last days and weeks of his life, he asked God to forgive him and said the sinners prayer with me more then once. His light went out yesterday but when I look up at the stars at night I will always remember to Catch a falling star and put it in my pocket and never let it fade away! RIP now Daddy, I know you and mommy are dancing to your songs in heaven right now with all of our loved ones in a circle around the two of you clapping as you dance the Lindy in each others arms forever. It has been reported that the service will be private. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Paul Vance. (USTA) GERING Nebraska Extension and Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Public Health, announce plans for the annual tractor safety training courses scheduled at sites across Nebraska, including at Legacy of the Plains. Students will complete the first day of the course either by attending a hands-on event or online through the Extension Foundation Campus website. The Legacy of the Plains event will be held on June 7. Teens 14 or 15 years of age who work on farms, or others who are interested in learning about safe farming practices, are encouraged to register for the certification course. Students under age 14 are not eligible for certification but the hands-on events are open to everyone in the community. Children under 14 years of age must be accompanied by an adult. Federal law prohibits children under 16 years of age from using certain equipment on a farm unless their parents or legal guardians own the farm. However, certification received through the course grants an exemption to the law allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to drive a tractor and to do field work with certain mechanized equipment. Susan Harris, University of Nebraska Extension educator, reports that a common cause of agricultural-related injuries and deaths in Nebraska is overturned tractors and ATVs. She emphasized that this course is designed to train students how to avoid these incidents as well as many other hazards on the farm and ranch. The onsite driving training and exam will include a driving test and equipment operation, and ATV safety lessons. Students must demonstrate competence in hitching and unhitching equipment and driving a tractor and trailer through a standardized course. Instructors will also offer education about safe behaviors and laws for ATVs, utility-task vehicles (UTVs), and other off-road vehicles (ORVs). The cost of the course is $25 and includes educational materials, the online learning link (if applicable) and supplies. Payment will be made at the time of the driving exam. Only checks and cash can be accepted. For information on the tractor safety event held at the Legacy of the Plains, contact contact: Stacy Brown, 308-632-1480. Two people were injured in a crash on Highway 26 Tuesday, according to information released by the Scottsbluff Police Department. Officers from the Scottsbluff Police Department responded to a two-vehicle rollover accident Tuesday, May 31, at about 2:05 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 26 and 14th Avenue, near Target. According to a press release by Scottsbluff Police Sgt. Cody Enlow, the 16-year-old driver of a northbound 2004 Suzuki Grand Vitara failed to yield the right of way to a westbound 2014 Dodge Ram pickup. The driver was not identified by police. The collision caused the pickup to roll onto its side and strike a light pole. The Scottsbluff Fire Department extricated the two occupants within and Valley Ambulance transported them to Regional West Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Enlow said police issued a citation for failure to yield to a motor vehicle to the driver of the Suzuki. Both vehicles were towed due to the extensive damage they received. The Nebraska State Patrol and Nebraska Public Power District also assisted at the scene. Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A folk art Abraham Lincoln given by Samantha Thompson to her father, the late Gov. James R. Thompson Jr., is seen June 1, 2022. The piece is in an upcoming estate sale that includes several items collected by him. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Looking to own a piece Cuban folk art or an antique cast-iron monkey bank? Missing the perfect vintage rug to accent your homes classic style? Or do you simply relish the idea of perusing the many antiques and oddities collected by one of Illinois most notable politicians? Advertisement Any of those desires could be met this weekend when scores of items amassed by the late Gov. James R. Thompson Jr. will be available for purchase at an estate sale in north suburban Winnetka. He was a prolific collector of things, said Samantha Thompson, the governors daughter, who is hosting the sale. The for-sale items are kind of an overview of his collecting career. I wouldnt say anything is more important than anything else, but it shows the breadth of his collection and the things he was interested in, in different periods of time. Advertisement Known as Big Jim, the 6-foot-6 Thompson was Illinois longest-serving governor, holding office from 1977 to 1991. His political accomplishments over four terms notably included securing a new stadium to keep the White Sox in Chicago and restoring Navy Pier. Former Gov. Jim Thompson at his office at the law firm of Winston & Strawn in 2003. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune) He also hosted annual antique fairs on the Governors Mansion lawn and established the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. His hobby did land him in trouble at times, when he set aside items at antiques stores that were later purchased by friends and given to him. Thompson died last August at 84 due to heart problems. Besides his political legacy and a Loop building bearing his name, the Chicago Republican left behind lots of well, stuff. Thompson referred to his preferred pastime as pickin and junkin, said his daughter, who was brought along on those excursions from an early age. During his time in office, the governor would stop in at antique shops in the smallest of Illinois towns, she said. He created the Illinois Artisans Shops, one in downtown Chicago and the other downstate, to feature and promote the work of local artists. Samantha Thompson credits her fathers introducing her to weird and wonderful antiques growing up as the reason why she pursued interior design as a career. The eccentricity runs in the family, she said, noting her fathers influence over her own hunt for antiques and the Patrick Roullier tropical mural she had painted in her foyer last year. Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Finding things of intrinsic value was never the former governors top priority, Samantha Thompson said. Instead he would come upon a quirky piece, research everything there was to know about it, form a collection of similar items, from depictions of Adam and Eve to figurine cocktail shakers, and then move on to something else, she said. Theres something freeing about the way he collected, she said. For him, it was all about educating himself and moving onto something new. Advertisement Thompson didnt keep his treasures packed in a storage unit, preferring to keep as many items as possible on display because he wanted to live with everything in full view, Samantha Thompson said. She is moving with her family to Savannah, Georgia, and while many of her fathers collectibles are for sale, shes holding onto the things that evoke his memory, including items the two of them searched for together, she said. Annie Adams of Nest Estate Sales, which is organizing the event, touted the Thompson estate sale as a treasure hunters dream. Some of her favorite items include: a vintage booze-label bar cart purchased at an auction in the United Kingdom; a Maison Jansen-inspired sunflower floor lamp; and a framed hand fan signed by Cuban American artist Ruben Toledo. Theres also a wide selection of collectible furniture available. A Maison Jansen-inspired sunflower lamp is among the items Samantha Thompson is selling in an estate sale that includes items collected by her father, the late Gov. James R. Thompson Jr., as seen on June 1, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Buyers can bring home a set of black-and-white buffalo check plates for less than $50, or select paintings and furniture at prices upward of $2,000. Photographs of most of the items are included in the estate sales listing, and while most of the pieces for sale are part of the Thompson family collection, there are also more prosaic items like a Peloton exercise bike and a Samsung TV available. Adams anticipates the two days to bring in close to a six-figure sale, she said. But the true value, she said, is the opportunity to rehome Gov. Thompsons treasures, something thats impossible to put a price tag on. This collection is pretty significant, Adams said. Weve got beautiful furniture thats highly collectible a really neat mix. Advertisement Samantha Thompson said she hopes some child whos reluctantly dragged to the estate sale by their parents finds something and catches that spark about collecting and learning about the past, like she did through her father. Shes confident her father would approve of his treasures being sold to others with a similar interest in curating antiques and would enjoy having the pieces out in the world. The sale, which runs Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., is at 159 Fuller Lane in Winnetka. Adams recommends people park on Winnetka Road, especially for the first couple of hours of the sale, when parking is restricted on Fuller. Shoppers will put their name on the sign-up sheet, starting an hour before the sale opens Friday, with people being let in on a first-come, first-served basis. Prices arent negotiable, Adams said, but all items will be half-off from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday as the sale concludes. cspaulding@chicagotribune.com Lawyers for the state have asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging Nebraskas requirements for qualifying ballot initiatives, saying that doing so would drastically change the initiative process. In a 46-page brief filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, attorneys representing Secretary of State Bob Evnen said the complaint filed by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana and the ACLU of Nebraska lacked merit and would upend the initiative process outlined in the states constitution. The lawsuit, filed last month by Crista Eggers, a statewide campaign coordinator for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuanas pair of petitions now being circulated, asserts that the requirements for gathering signatures are unconstitutional. The filing in U.S. District Court, which names Evnen, seeks a preliminary injunction on the requirement ahead of the July 7 deadline for submitting signatures. Nebraskas state constitution requires petitions to obtain the signature of 5% of voters in 38 of the states 93 counties, which Eggers lawsuit alleges violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, and violates the First Amendment rights of voters. Under the current method, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuanas lawsuit states, voters in rural counties, the vast majority of which have fewer than 10,000 residents, claim outsized power when it comes to qualifying initiatives compared to urban areas, where most of the states population lives. Plus, the lawsuit argues, organizers are forced to reallocate resources, which potentially strips voters of the ability to have their voices heard through the petition process. While Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has suggested that the signatures be gathered from each of the states three congressional districts, or 49 legislative districts which are apportioned by population the state said that plan would not work. Replying on behalf of Evnen, the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office said the signature-gathering requirement was integral to the initiative process in the state, and that doing away with it would effectively cut rural Nebraskans out of the qualification process. That, according to Solicitor General James Campbell, would effectively end the initiative process in the Cornhusker State. (T)he multicounty signature requirement is so integral to the initiative right in Nebraska an indispensable part since its inception that if this requirement falls, the entire initiative power must fall with it, Campbell wrote. The Attorney Generals Office argued that the lawsuit fails to state a claim and lacks standing, and argues that it would be impossible to separate the signature requirement from the rest of the initiative process, which was included in the Nebraska Constitution in 1920. This constitutional text and its historical development show that, from the very beginning, the people envisioned an initiative process that guaranteed some measure of broad-based geographical support and involvement, the state wrote in its brief. They did not want a process that operated exclusively in large cities, it continues. They demanded that citizens outside those urban centers be included. Allowing the initiative right to stand without the multi-county requirement would thus do violence to the intent of the (people). The state also said the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment did not apply because the constitutional right to vote is for candidates of representative government not a ballot initiative created under state law. The Supreme Court has never extended the fundamental right to vote into the very different circumstance of this case signing petitions to exercise ones state-created right of initiative, Campbell wrote. Instead, the Attorney Generals Office argued that the rules set up by the state ensured a significant modicum of statewide support for ballot initiatives, as well as one that reduced the possibility of local initiatives advancing. The current rules also promote participation in the initiative process throughout the state, the Attorney Generals Office said, and spread signature verification across several county offices, not just a handful of counties that could be overwhelmed. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is circulating a pair of petitions to qualify for the November 2022 ballot. The first would require the Legislature to enact statutes that protect doctors who recommend cannabis for their patients, and for patients who possess or use cannabis at the recommendation of their doctor. The second would require state lawmakers to pass legislation protecting private entities that produce, supply or distribute cannabis for medical purposes in Nebraska. Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions during a meeting Sunday, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the countrys first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing. The discussion at the Norths Politburo meeting suggests it will soon relax a set of draconian curbs imposed after its admission of the omicron outbreak this month out of concern about its food and economic situations. Kim and other Politburo members made a positive evaluation of the pandemic situation being controlled and improved across the country, the official Korean Central News Agency said. They also examined the issue of effectively and quickly coordinating and enforcing the anti-epidemic regulations and guidelines given the current stable anti-epidemic situation," KCNA said. On Sunday, North Korea reported 89,500 more patients with fever symptoms, taking the countrys total to 3.4 million. It didnt say whether there were additional deaths. The countrys latest death toll reported Friday was 69, setting its mortality rate at 0.002%, an extremely low count that no other country, including advanced economies, has reported in the fight against COVID-19. Many outside experts say North Korea is clearly understating its fatality rate to prevent any political damage to Kim at home. They say North Korea should have suffered many more deaths because its 26 million people are largely unvaccinated against COVID-19 and it lacks the capacity to treat patients with critical conditions. Others suspect North Korea might have exaggerated its earlier fever cases to try to strengthen its internal control of its population. Since its May 12 admission of the omicron outbreak, North Korea has only been announcing the number of patients with feverish symptoms daily, but not those with COVID-19, apparently because of a shortage of test kits to confirm coronavirus cases in large numbers. But many outside health experts view most of the reported fever cases as COVID-19, saying North Korean authorities would know how to distinguish the symptoms from fevers caused by other prevalent infectious diseases. The outbreak has forced North Korea to impose a nationwide lockdown, isolate all work and residential units from one another and ban region-to-region movements. The country still allows key agricultural, construction and other industrial activities, but the toughened restrictions have triggered worries about its food insecurity and a fragile economy already hit hard by border shutdowns because of the pandemic. Some observers say North Korea will likely soon declare victory over COVID-19 and credit it to Kims leadership. Yang Un-chul, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said the Norths recently elevated restrictions must be dealing a serious blow to its coal, agricultural and other labor-intensive industrial sectors. But he said those difficulties wont likely rise to a level that threatens Kims grip on power, as the COVID-19 outbreak and strengthened curbs have given him a chance to boost his control over the population. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Students in Wythe and Bland counties are invited on a scavenger hunt this month in Wytheville that will be as fun as it is educational. Virginia is for Adventurers, is a book about a group of friends who go on a scavenger hunt across the state of Virginia. The main character, Meg, is from Wytheville. Author Tara Fisher said the book is designed to complement the commonwealths fourth-grade social studies curriculum. Along with information about a variety of places across the state, the book includes terms and definitions, writing prompts and more. To make the book even more hands-on, Fisher will conduct scavenger hunts across Virginia with prizes throughout the summer. First up is Wytheville on June 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. The hunt begins at the Bolling Wilson Hotel. Virginia is for Adventurers is about Meg and her friends, who compete in a 10-day scavenger hunt across the state. Each day starts with a clue sheet that reveals a series of outdoor adventures they have to complete to stay in the race. Their journey includes hiking to Devil's Bathtub, sliding down a natural water slide in Shenandoah National Park, discovering shark teeth at Fossil Beach, and kayaking through the Great Dismal Swamp. The hunt begins in Wytheville, Megs hometown, and the book includes information that many adults may not know. For example, the worlds biggest pencil is not the one that hangs over Wythevilles Main Street. There are two things you need to know about my hometown. First, you pronounce it WITH-ville. A lot of people get that wrong, and thats how we know theyre not from here, Meg says in the book. Second, people come here to see a giant pencil that hangs above a store on Main Street. Thats right, our town attracts visitors because of a giant pencil. Its not the worlds biggest pencil. That award goes to a pencil that is 76 feet long and can be found at a museum in Missouri. Our pencil is 30 feet long and can be found hanging above the office supply store on West Main. People come from all around to get their picture taken with our giant pencil, and the jokes about making it a point to stop in Wytheville are never-ending. Meg continues to tell readers about Skeeters and the Skeeterdog. When friends come to visit from out of town, we show them the giant pencil, take them to lunch at Skeeters, and drive them to Big Walker Lookout, Meg says. The lookout is where you can climb a 100- foot tower and see into West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The climb up the tower always makes my knees a little wobbly, but if youre brave enough to make the journey, you can watch bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and black vultures circle the skies at the top. Megs scavenger hunt heats up when she and her friends encounter some bullies who try to throw them off their game. Along their way, Meg and her friends explore several regional treasures and visit the gravesites of all seven U.S. presidents buried in Virginia. Fisher, a Virginia native and University of Virginia graduate, has always loved history. She said the book was inspired by real-life adventures with her family, who enjoyed hiking, biking and kayaking across Virginia. The outdoor adventures were woven together by a scavenger hunt for LOVE signs; the family has visited more than 100 of them. Fisher said her family enjoyed its travels around the state so much that she wanted to share the fun with readers. She also wanted to inspire fourth-graders who spent the year reading about Virginia history to get out and explore the state. A business professor at American University, Fisher said she decided to begin the adventure in Wytheville because her husband and three children always enjoyed visiting the town. There are so many unique things to start the story, she said. Its such a friendly area of the state and we found such great hospitality as we traveled through. Plus, with so much to see in Wytheville, Fisher felt it was a good place to start the book. I think it draws young readers into the story, especially the big pencil; I think that is a fun thing for kids that age, she said. Its just a fun town, all around. She hopes the book brings history to life for students and educates them without them realizing they are learning. And after more than two years of Covid, its a good way for families to get out and explore, she added. The scavenger hunt kicks off in Wytheville June 10 and continues across the state. Each location will offer an adventure and prizes. All participants who turn in a clue sheet are eligible for the grand prize, $250 cash and a $2,500 donation to winner's elementary school or library. Other scavenger hunts will be in Roanoke, Monticello, Richmond, the James Madison Museum in historic Orange, the Occoneechee State Park and the Isle of Wight Museum in Smithfield. After reading this book, I hope that you are inspired to adventure around Virginia too. All of the places mentioned in the book are real, and you can explore each region by creating your own scavenger hunt, Fisher said on the books website. May your journeys be filled with blue mountains, green valleys, and sweet Virginia breezes! For more information on the book and scavenger hunts, visit online at www.virginiaisforadventurers.com. Virginia is for Adventurers is available for $20 at the Bolling Wilson Hotel and on Amazon for $22. The e-book is available for $9.99. When the book was published in March, Fisher donated 10 copies to Spiller Elementary School. To reach reporter Millie Rothrock, call 276-228-6611, ext. 573, or email mrothrock@wythenews.com. Smyth County and Chilhowie leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon with Gov. Glenn Younkin and other state and regional officials at Scholle IPN as the company announced it would invest another $31.1 million to grow its Virginia operation. The Chilhowie plant intends to expand its facility by 73,000 square feet, add more than 800 feet of new rail track and hire 75 additional employees. The Virginia plant competed with Georgia and Illinois operations for the project, according to a release from Youngkins office. Smyth County, the Mount Rogers Regional Partnership and the Town of Chilhowie worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to secure the project in Virginia. Youngkin previously approved a $600,000 grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund to assist the county with the project. Im most excited for the folks who work here and the ones who will work here, Youngkin said at Wednesdays announcement. Growth means opportunity, and when you see a company grow, you know that means opportunity for everybody who works there now and will work there in the future. Youngkin said he spent a lot of time in Southwest Virginia during his campaign. A subject that came up frequently during his visits, he said, was economic opportunities in the region. And I am so excited that we get to be here today to talk about a huge commitment by one of your beloved employers already doubling down in Smyth County, he said. Of Scholles expansion, Youngkin said, This is not a foot in the pond; this is jumping in deep and going under water. I am so excited about it. Headquartered in Illinois, Scholle IPN is one of the worlds largest packaging manufacturers, specializing in packaging solutions like barrier films, ergonomic fitments and universal connectors for bag-in-box fountain drink dispensing systems. Opened in 1997 with a 100,000 square-foot facility that produced packaging for the soft drink industry, the Chilhowie plant underwent its first investment cycle in 2019, said Gil Graham, the companys director of operations and quality for North America. The 2019 expansion saw the plant grow to 150,000 square feet and employ nearly 200 people. Today, the companys workers produce flexible packaging for things like soft drinks, cleaning products and motor oil, and serve big-name businesses like the Kraft Heinz Company, Pepsi and ECO Labs. These are household names that trust Scholle IPN to deliver their products to market, Youngkin said. Graham noted the hard work, dedication and support the company received during its 2019 expansion. He said the decision to invest in the Chilhowie plant was an easy one to make. A lot of times, people will ask me Why Southwest Virginia? Why expand? The answers pretty simple: its the people. All these employees are loyal to us, they work hard every day and they perform at exceptional levels, he said. And then, its the community, our partners that are all around us. Look at how many people are here to support us. And its not just today. Theyre going to support us for months and years to come to make this expansion just as successful as the last one. U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith pointed out that he saw representatives from at least four counties and three towns at the announcement. And thats because when we do economic development in Southwest Virginia, its not just one county thats going to benefit, Griffith said. When you bring 75 jobs and I know you know this, Governorbut when you bring in 75 jobs, that changes the equation in the region, not just in Chilhowie or on one end of Smyth County. It has a far reach and we are very, very appreciative of that. Both Griffith and Rye Valley District Supervisor Lori Deel credited the plants employees for the growth. This wouldnt happen without your hard work, showing up every day and doing a great job, so we appreciate you all so much, Deel said. To Scholle leaders, Deel said, We appreciate your strong community partnership and all you do for us locally and recognizing the opportunity for continued growth here. Thank you for choosing us. Board Chair Charlie Atkins was of similar mind, saying To see Scholle IPNs continued investment and commitment to its Smyth County operations both humbling and exciting. The company continues to be a great corporate partner with the community and we look forward to continued collaborations. In a joint statement, Chilhowie Mayor Gary Heninger and Town Manager John Clark said when the town and county jointly purchased what is now Deer Valley Industrial Park in the 1980s they could not have envisioned then to have such wonderful corporate citizens as Scholle and Innovative Millwork Technology who provide hundreds of good jobs to our community. We sincerely thank Scholle for having confidence in Chilhowie, Smyth County, and the Commonwealth in making this expansion, and we look forward to working with them even more in their expanded roles. Plant Manager Ricardo Bernardo said he looks forward to the new capabilities the expansion will bring. I know that this will make our life easier. Our quality will be better, our performance will be better, and mainly, were going to bring a lot more things for the people here, he said. So, 75 new jobsa lot of opportunity for people to grow, and help develop our community. Wrapping up his part of the announcement, Youngkin presented Graham and Bernardo with a Virginia flag. The flag, Youngkin said, had flown over the states capitol. I would ask that you fly it here in front of this new facility to represent the great partnership that we have and to always know that we are so supportive of your continued success and expansion and appreciative of your commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Youngkin said. Thank you both. Support for Scholles job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System and other higher education partners with funding from The Virginia General Assembly and Youngkins administration. TOUTLE Emma Lienhards high school career has been consumed with babysitting, creative writing honors and learning to manage a chronic disease. Lienhard was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes the summer before eighth grade, and since then, the soon-to-be graduate has learned to balance the ups and downs of her fluctuating sugar levels during busy school days, culminating in her Toutle Lake High School graduation this spring. Lienhard plans to follow in her moms footsteps by studying to become a teacher and fulfill her altruistic goals. 2022 Stand-Out Grads Stand-out Grad is an annual series featuring local public high school seniors who have overcome hardships big and small before graduation. The I love helping people and I love kids, she said. I want to do my best to make a difference. Diagnosis Lienhard was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after she started sleeping constantly, was incessantly thirsty and lost about 60 pounds. My body was shutting down what wasnt essential, she said. Her disease was recognized at Randall Childrens Hospital in Portland. By the time she was dismissed, she could give herself insulin shots and check her blood sugar. Diabetes in itself is pretty complicated and hard to manage, she said. When her blood sugar is low, Lienhard said she grows tired, and needs to eat or drink to kick her sugar levels up. When her blood sugar is high, Lienhard said shes more vocal and stubborn. Its harder to remember school lessons; she gets dizzy. Once, while driving home from school while levels were up, she unknowingly found herself in the wrong lane. She had to pull over and call her dad, an EMT, to pick her up. Emma Lienhard School: Toutle Lake High School. Age: 18. Hometown: Toutle, but attended a Chehalis school before her junior year. Parents: Traci and Garry Lienhard. Plans: Attend Lower Columbia College, then transfer to Washington State University Vancouver to become an elementary school teacher. If you could talk to anyone, living or dead, who would it be? "Probably my grandma. I lost her last December." What would you order for your final meal? "Spaghetti." What is your secret talent? "Probably being able to be with pretty stubborn animals. We have pretty head-strong cattle at our house and I can walk up and pet them." Type 1 diabetes is a genetic condition that prevents the pancreas from making insulin, which controls the amount of sugar in the blood and gives you energy, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and an inactive lifestyle. One in 10 Americans has type 2 diabetes, reports the CDC. So many people who care At Toutle Lake High School, where Lienhard transferred her junior year, classmates are open minded and eager to learn about the disease, she said. Im really blessed where I go to school, she said. Diabetes didnt stand in Lienhards way of success. Her first year at Toutle, fellow students voted for Lienhard to win first place in a creative writing contest in which she wrote about a dog stitched together from different canine body parts in a Frankenstein-like horror tale. Ryan Taft assigned the creative writing assignment. Emma is one of those rare students who reminded teachers why they wanted to teach in the first place, he said. I can honestly say that Emma made my job a joy. Lienhard joined cheerleading in the fall, babysat in her spare time and barreled and transported hay in the summers for extra cash. She said shes overcome battles with anxiety and depression, common conditions of people diagnosed with diabetes. After graduation, Lienhard plans to attend Lower Columbia College for her prerequisite classes, and later transfer to Washington State University Vancouver to become an elementary school teacher. Her mom, and career inspiration, works at a Chehalis elementary school. For people who are experiencing struggles today, Lienhard has one piece of advice: Dont wait to seek help. The longer you wait, the worse you can get, she said. There are so many people who care. Stand-out Grad is an annual series featuring local public high school seniors who have overcome hardships big and small before graduation. The series will run through early June, prior to schools graduation ceremonies. Love 1 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. Amid the glossy expanse of the Portland Expo Center, theres little to indicate a portion of the complex was once a detention center that held nearly 4,000 Oregonians of Japanese descent against their will. But on Saturday afternoon, a framed piece of yellowing parchment displayed inside one of the expos warehouses as part of Portlands annual Vanport Mosaic Festival offered a rare look at evidence of what took place there 80 years before. The document showing detailed plans for how Japanese Americans and other people of Japanese descent would be imprisoned in a former livestock display area was given to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon by Portland Expo Center officials during a brief ceremony. It is such an important piece of American history that we need to recognize and remember so this doesnt happen again, said Alicia Crawford Loos, the centers sales and marketing manager. To impart that human beings have lived here against their will. The Portland Assembly Center was created in 1942 after President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the forced detention of Japanese Americans and immigrants from Japan living in the United States. The 80-year-old engineering plan for the detention center was discovered by an expo center employee about four years ago and shows plumbing plans for the Portland Assembly Center, an incarceration center for Japanese Americans and immigrants from Japan during World War II. Thousands of people of Japanese descent were forced into assembly centers like the one in Portland before being imprisoned in long-term relocation centers. About 120,000 people of Japanese descent two thirds of whom were United States citizens were forcibly removed from their homes and businesses and imprisoned by the end of the war. According to Crawford Loos, the decades-old architectural plan is one of the only pieces of evidence the Expo Center has found detailing the detention centers existence. Most photographs of the warehouse from that era were staged or propaganda-driven, making the historical document they found especially rare, she said. The thin, drawn outlines of the Portland Assembly Center show partitions for restrooms, nurseries and a hospital area. The entire perimeter is depicted as surrounded by barbed wire. For Chisao Hata, creative director of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, learning of the documents existence brought up a mix of glad and sad and mad. This is a story that hasnt been told, that a lot of us dont know, Hata said. But heres another way to help our story, another proof. Before it became the Portland Assembly Center, the warehouse was a livestock exposition hall where animals were auctioned and sold. After Franklin signed his executive order consigning American citizens and other Japanese immigrants to forced detention, wooden planks were hastily laid down over the warehouses dirt and animal remains to make room for families and individuals who were forced to live in stalls formerly inhabited by animals. Many survivors say they still remember the smell, Hata said. Between May and September of 1942, 3,676 people were incarcerated inside the Portland Assembly Center, according to Crawford Loos. The building was returned to its former state as a livestock exposition hall by the end of that year, Crawford Loos said. But Hata said the pain of imprisonment left scars still felt generations later. Hatas parents were incarcerated in a similar detention center in Arizona before she was born. Three years prior, Hata said, her mother had become one of the first Japanese American nurses in the United States. After they were released, Hata said, her parents moved from Arizona to Des Moines, Iowa because they and other Japanese Americans were encouraged not to cluster together or form communities. Neither of her parents spoke about their experiences being incarcerated until she was 15 years old, and they wouldnt speak Japanese, Hata said. Roosevelts order to lock up Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants destroyed thriving Japantowns throughout the United States, including Portlands. Prior to World War II, a 10-block radius of Northwest Portland that was once Nihonmachi Portlands Japantown was home to nearly 3,000 Oregonians of Japanese descent, she said. Many were forced to live there due to racist housing policies and redlining, Hata said. The once-bustling community was destroyed by the end of the war. We dont have any stores or businesses or community centers that we had the museum is it, Hata said. Rare pieces of history like the plans for the Portland Assembly Center are important not only for preserving history, but also for helping generations of Japanese Americans heal, she said. The document is expected to go on display inside the Japanese American Museum of Oregon by the end of this year. This is American history, and we want the true American history the good and the bad and everything that we experience as people of color in America to be told, she said. Thats what were doing, and thats what we continue to do, and we want more people to be able to tell that story. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A sign alerts residents to an early voting site where they can cast ballots. (Scott Olson / Getty Images / Chicago Tribune) On June 28, Illinois voters will head to the polls to select their party nominees in the Illinois 2022 primary. Voters will cast their ballot for every statewide office, as well as one U.S. Senate seat, two seats on the Illinois Supreme Court, all 17 of Illinois representatives in Congress, every state senator and representative in the General Assembly, and scores of county and judicial offices. Advertisement These primary elections set the stage for the general election on Nov. 8. [Election 2022] Read all of our coverage here Advertisement [Sign up now] Get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox To inform voters and to help the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for the Cook County Board of Commissioners. See their answers below. [Editorial: Tribune announces endorsement in Democratic primary for Cook County assessor] [Whats an endorsement, and why does the Tribune Editorial Board do them?] Democratic candidates It's been a year since the Razer Barracuda X (2021) was released, and now there's not only one, not two but three new Barracuda gaming headphones. There's the standard Barracuda, Barracuda X and Barracuda Pro for 2022 with a starting price of RM549. Among the wireless headsets, the high-end one is obviously the Barracuda Pro with a new Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation Technology (ANC). It also has a SmartSwitch Dual Wireless, which allows it to connect to two devices at the same time and switch between the two. All Barracuda models support both Razer HyperSpeed Wireless (2.4GHz) and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, for high-speed gaming performance and mobile-friendly Bluetooth convenience. Barracuda Pro For online communication, the Barracuda Pro features dual integrated beamforming noise-cancelling microphones for peak vocal pick-up. This is further supported by three levels of active noise suppression, selectable through the companion Razer Audio App. Finally, there is a pair of new Razer TriForce Bio-Cellulose 50mm drivers with world-class THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAATM) and THX Spatial Audio. Moving on from the pro variant, the standard Barracuda also has the same TriForce Titanium 50mm drivers, SmartSwitch Dual Wireless connectivity, and THX Spatial Audio. It can last pretty long too with up to 40 hours of use on a single battery charge. On the other hand, the Barracuda X can last even longer up to 50 hours of usage. The latter is the lesser variant among the three, featuring 40mm TriForce Drivers and 7.1 Surround Sound. Barracuda Barracuda X All the three new Razer Barracuda wireless headphones are now available in Malaysia on Lazada and Shopee. For reference, the Barracuda X is the one priced at RM549, whereas the Barracuda Pro and Barracuda are priced at RM1399 and RM899 respectively. For more information, you may visit the official website here and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com. University of Washington researchers worked with screen-reader users to design VoxLens, a JavaScript plugin thatwith one additional line of codeallows people to interact with visualizations. The researchers evaluated VoxLens by recruiting 22 screen-reader users who were either completely or partially blind. Participants learned how to use VoxLens and then completed nine tasks (one of which is shown here), each of which involved answering questions about a visualization. Each task was divided into three pages. Page 1 (labeled with 'a') presented the question a participant would be answering, page 2 (b) displayed the question and the visualization and page 3 (c) showed the question with four multiple choice responses. Credit: Sharif et al, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2022). DOI: 10.1145/3491102.3517431 Interactive visualizations have changed the way we understand our lives. For example, they can showcase the number of coronavirus infections in each state. But these graphics often are not accessible to people who use screen readers, software programs that scan the contents of a computer screen and make the contents available via a synthesized voice or Braille. Millions of Americans use screen readers for a variety of reasons, including complete or partial blindness, learning disabilities or motion sensitivity. University of Washington researchers worked with screen-reader users to design VoxLens, a JavaScript plugin thatwith one additional line of codeallows people to interact with visualizations. VoxLens users can gain a high-level summary of the information described in a graph, listen to a graph translated into sound or use voice-activated commands to ask specific questions about the data, such as the mean or the minimum value. The team presented this project May 3 at CHI 2022 in New Orleans. "If I'm looking at a graph, I can pull out whatever information I am interested in, maybe it's the overall trend or maybe it's the maximum," said lead author Ather Sharif, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. "Right now, screen-reader users either get very little or no information about online visualizations, which, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, can sometimes be a matter of life and death. The goal of our project is to give screen-reader users a platform where they can extract as much or as little information as they want." Screen readers can inform users about the text on a screen because it's what researchers call "one-dimensional information." "There is a start and an end of a sentence and everything else comes in between," said co-senior author Jacob O. Wobbrock, UW professor in the Information School. "But as soon as you move things into two dimensional spaces, such as visualizations, there's no clear start and finish. It's just not structured in the same way, which means there's no obvious entry point or sequencing for screen readers." The team started the project by working with five screen-reader users with partial or complete blindness to figure out how a potential tool could work. "In the field of accessibility, it's really important to follow the principle of 'nothing about us without us,'" Sharif said. "We're not going to build something and then see how it works. We're going to build it taking users' feedback into account. We want to build what they need." To implement VoxLens, visualization designers only need to add a single line of code. "We didn't want people to jump from one visualization to another and experience inconsistent information," Sharif said. "We made VoxLens a public library, which means that you're going to hear the same kind of summary for all visualizations. Designers can just add that one line of code and then we do the rest." The researchers evaluated VoxLens by recruiting 22 screen-reader users who were either completely or partially blind. Participants learned how to use VoxLens and then completed nine tasks, each of which involved answering questions about a visualization. Compared to participants from a previous study who did not have access to this tool, VoxLens users completed the tasks with 122% increased accuracy and 36% decreased interaction time. "We want people to interact with a graph as much as they want, but we also don't want them to spend an hour trying to find what the maximum is," Sharif said. "In our study, interaction time refers to how long it takes to extract information, and that's why reducing it is a good thing." The team also interviewed six participants about their experiences. "We wanted to make sure that these accuracy and interaction time numbers we saw were reflected in how the participants were feeling about VoxLens," Sharif said. "We got really positive feedback. Someone told us they've been trying to access visualizations for the past 12 years and this was the first time they were able to do so easily." Right now, VoxLens only works for visualizations that are created using JavaScript libraries, such as D3, chart.js or Google Sheets. But the team is working on expanding to other popular visualization platforms. The researchers also acknowledged that the voice-recognition system can be frustrating to use. "This work is part of a much larger agenda for usremoving bias in design," said co-senior author Katharina Reinecke, UW associate professor in the Allen School. "When we build technology, we tend to think of people who are like us and who have the same abilities as we do. For example, D3 has really revolutionized access to visualizations online and improved how people can understand information. But there are values ingrained in it and people are left out. It's really important that we start thinking more about how to make technology useful for everybody." Additional co-authors on this paper are Olivia Wang, a UW undergraduate student in the Allen School, and Alida Muongchan, a UW undergraduate student studying human centered design and engineering. More information: Ather Sharif et al, VoxLens: Making Online Data Visualizations Accessible with an Interactive JavaScript Plug-In, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2022). Ather Sharif et al, VoxLens: Making Online Data Visualizations Accessible with an Interactive JavaScript Plug-In,(2022). DOI: 10.1145/3491102.3517431 U2OS (a, b.) and MDA-MB-231 cells (c. and d.) stably expressing an ERK activity reporter (ERK-KTR-Clover) and labeled using SiR-DNA were recorded live using a widefield fluorescence microscope. U2OS cells were recorded live over 3 hours (1 image every 5 minutes) and MDA-MB-231 cells were recorded live over 2 hours (1 image every minute). Cell nuclei were automatically tracked over time by using StarDist in TrackMate. A custom StarDist model was trained to detect the U2OS nuclei using the ZeroCostDL4Mic platform. The Versatile fluorescent nuclei StarDist model was used to track the MDA-MB-231 cell nuclei. For each tracked cell, the average intensity of the ERK reporter was measured in their nucleus over time (directly in TrackMate). Changes in ERK activity are displayed as heatmaps (blue high, yellow low). Heatmaps were generated using PlotTwist. Scale bar = 250 m. Credit: Dmitry Ershov et al, Nature Methods (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01507-1 Object trackingfollowing objects over timeis an essential image analysis technique used to quantify dynamic processes in biosciences. A new application called TrackMate v7 enables scientists to track objects in images easily. TrackMate is a free, open-source tool available as part of the Fiji image analysis platform. "TrackMate allows scientists to tackle complex tracking problems more efficiently, accelerating discoveries in life sciences across fields," says Guillaume Jacquemet, Academy Research Fellow at Abo Akademi University and one of the researchers involved in TrackMate development. In life sciences, tracking is used, for instance, to follow the movement of molecules, subcellular organelles, bacteria, cells, and whole animals. However, due to the sheer diversity of images used in research, no single application can address every tracking challenge. Bacteria growth (Neisseria meningitidis) was followed over time using TrackMate v7. A track and lineage of a single bacterium are highlighted in green, and changes in bacteria shape (area and circularity) over the tracking period were plotted. Bacteria division can be observed through the dramatic changes in the area and circularity. Credit: Nature Methods (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01507-1 TrackMate v7 offers automated and semi-automated tracking algorithms and advanced visualization and analysis tools. To analyze a wide variety of images, the application relies on artificial intelligence solutions and other advanced segmentation algorithms to detect objects from images. "This new feature widely increases the breadth of TrackMate applications and capabilities. For instance, we show that TrackMate v7 can be used to follow moving cancer cells, immune cells, or stem cells. It can also be used to follow bacteria growth," says Jacquemet. "We are currently using the software in the Jacquemet laboratory to study the mechanisms enabling cancer metastasis. We can now produce better and more informative data much faster than ever before," he adds. The development of TrackMate v7 was coordinated by the Jacquemet (Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland) and Tinevez laboratories (Pasteur Institute, Paris, France). Their research is published in Nature Methods. Explore further An easy-to-use platform is a gateway to AI in microscopy More information: Dmitry Ershov et al, TrackMate 7: integrating state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms into tracking pipelines, Nature Methods (2022). Journal information: Nature Methods Dmitry Ershov et al, TrackMate 7: integrating state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms into tracking pipelines,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01507-1 Provided by Abo Akademi University Customers stand near a display of Kindle electronic readers at the opening day for Amazon Books, the first brick-and-mortar retail store for online retail giant Amazon, Nov. 3, 2015, in Seattle. Amazon said Thursday, June 2, 2022 it will shut down its digital Kindle bookstores in China and stop selling the device to retailers in the country. The company said in a WeChat post that the bookstore will stop operating on June 30, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Amazon said Thursday that it will shut down its digital Kindle bookstores in China and stop selling the device to retailers in the country to readjust the focus of its business. The company said in a post on the popular messaging app WeChat that the digital bookstore will stop operating on June 30, 2023. Customers in China will not be able to buy new e-books after that day and won't be able to download books they've already purchased after a year later, the company said. It noted that it will offer refunds for Chinese customers who bought a Kindle this year. Amazon's announcement comes as foreign technology companies have been pulling out or downsizing their operations in China as a strict data privacy law specifying how companies collect and store data takes effect. Such pullbacks have come from companies including Airbnb, Yahoo and Microsoft's LinkedIn, which shuttered the Chinese version of its site last year and replaced it with a jobs board with no social networking functions. However, Amazon said its other businesses in China will continue. "Amazon China's long-term commitment to customers will not change," the post said. "We have established a broad business base in China and will continue to innovate and invest." "As a global business, Amazon is focused on delivering valuable products and services to customers through innovation. At the same time, we continue to adjust the strategic focus of our own business and continue to make efforts in the areas that customers need," the company said in another statement posted on its official Weibo account. The e-commerce giant went on to emphasize its cross-border e-commerce efforts in China, as well as its cloud computing technologies and services. Amazon also said that it had 10,000 employees in China, with offices in 12 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Explore further Amazon to pull plug on China retail operations: report 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Nelson and Narens formulation of a meta-level/object-level theoretical comprising consisting of two structures (meta-level and object-level) and two relationships in terms of the direction of the flow of information between the two levels. The meta-level contains an imperfect model of the object-level. Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-10173-4 A research group from the Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University, has taken a big step towards creating a neural network with metamemory through a computer-based evolution experiment. Their paper appears in Scientific Reports. In recent years, there has been rapid progress in designing artificial intelligence technology using neural networks that imitate brain circuits. One goal of this field of research is understanding the evolution of metamemory to use it to create artificial intelligence with a human-like mind. Metamemory is the process by which we ask ourselves whether we remember what we had for dinner yesterday and then use that memory to decide whether to eat something different tonight. While this may seem like a simple question, answering it involves a complex process. Metamemory is important because it involves a person having knowledge of their own memory capabilities and adjusting their behavior accordingly. "In order to elucidate the evolutionary basis of the human mind and consciousness, it is important to understand metamemory," explains lead author Professor Takaya Arita. "A truly human-like artificial intelligence, which can be interacted with and enjoyed like a family member in a person's home, is an artificial intelligence that has a certain amount of metamemory, as it has the ability to remember things that it once heard or learned." When studying metamemory, researchers often employ a "delayed matching-to-sample task." In humans, this task consists of the participant seeing an object, such as a red circle, remembering it, and then taking part in a test to select the thing that they had previously seen from multiple similar objects. Correct answers are rewarded and wrong answers punished. However, the subject can choose not to do the test and still earn a smaller reward. A human performing this task would naturally use their metamemory to consider if they remembered seeing the object. If they remembered it, they would take the test to get the bigger reward, and if they were unsure, they would avoid risking the penalty and receive the smaller reward instead. Previous studies reported that monkeys could perform this task as well. The Nagoya University team comprising Professor Takaya Arita, Yusuke Yamato, and Reiji Suzuki of the Graduate School of Informatics created an artificial neural network model that performed the delayed matching-to-sample task and analyzed how it behaved. The delayed match-to-sample task that introduced the escape option. Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-10173-4 Despite starting from random neural networks that did not even have a memory function, the model was able to evolve to the point that it performed similarly to the monkeys in previous studies. The neural network could examine its memories, keep them, and separate outputs. The intelligence was able to do this without requiring any assistance or intervention by the researchers, suggesting the plausibility of it having metamemory mechanisms. "The need for metamemory depends on the user's environment. Therefore, it is important for artificial intelligence to have a metamemory that adapts to its environment by learning and evolving," says Professor Arita of the finding. "The key point is that the artificial intelligence learns and evolves to create a metamemory that adapts to its environment." Creating an adaptable intelligence with metamemory is a big step towards making machines that have memories like ours. The team is enthusiastic about the future, "This achievement is expected to provide clues to the realization of artificial intelligence with a 'human-like mind' and even consciousness." Explore further Study finds brain locale of metamemory in macaque monkeys More information: Yusuke Yamato et al, Evolution of metamemory based on self-reference to own memory in artificial neural network with neuromodulation, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Yusuke Yamato et al, Evolution of metamemory based on self-reference to own memory in artificial neural network with neuromodulation,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-10173-4 Ford President and CEO Jim Farley speaks in Glendale, Ky., Sept. 28, 2021. Ford's chief executive says the global auto industry is headed for a huge price war in the coming years as electric vehicle costs drop and multiple companies sell EVs priced around $25,000. Farley told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 that the $25,000 electric vehicle will democratize EVs. Materials to build that vehicle will cost around $18,000, he said. Credit: AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, file Ford's chief executive says he expects the cost of building electric vehicles to fall to the point that in coming years automakers will be battling each other for sales of EVs priced around $25,000. CEO Jim Farley told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday that the $25,000 price tag will democratize EVs. Materials to build that vehicle will cost around $18,000, he said. "So I believe there will be our industry is definitely heading to a huge price war," Farley said. It currently costs much more to build an EV than it does one powered by a gas engine, Farley noted. The company's Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, with a starting price around $44,000 but can run much higher, costs about $25,000 more than a comparable Ford Edge gas SUV, he said. The battery cost alone is $18,000, and the charger adds another $3,000. But big cost reductions are coming with new battery chemistries that use fewer expensive and scarce precious metals such as nickel and cobalt, he said. Plus, EVs will take less time and labor to build, saving more money, Farley said. Ford also plans to cut distribution costs, which amount to $2,000 per vehicle more than Tesla, the world's electric vehicle sales leader, he said. That can be done largely by cutting the expense of keeping a large supply on dealer lots, and cutting advertising costs. Ford, like Tesla, may not have to buy advertising to sell EVs, which now amounts to $500 to $600 per vehicle, Farley said. Ford is designing the next generation of EVs for "radical simplification" of the labor it takes to put them together, Farley said. "Half the fixtures, half the work stations, half the welds, 20% less fasteners," he told the conference. "We designed it, because it's such a simple product, to radically change the manufacturability." New EVs, he said, also will be designed for optimal aerodynamics so they can use the smallest possible battery to get more range. Redesigning the body of an electric full-size pickup truck for lower wind resistance can add 75 miles (120 kilometers) of range from the same size battery, Farley said. The additional range, he said, cuts another $3,000 from the battery cost, he said. "The re-engineering for the vehicle to minimize the size of the battery, since it's so expensive, is going to be a game-changer for these second-generation products," Farley said. Ford has plans to differentiate itself and boost profits by selling software services, including driver-assist and autonomous features that could be rented for a time period or by the mile, Farley said. It all adds up to erasing the $25,000 cost difference and turning profits, even with raw material costs expected to rise, Farley said. A price war already is happening in China, where more than half the electric vehicles in the world are sold today, Farley said. The most popular one is a van made by Chinese manufacturer Wuling that costs about $8,000, he said. Farley conceded that getting to the lower price point will be challenging, with many things to work on at once. Michelle Krebs, executive analyst with Cox Automotive, said Ford has a long way to go to reach the cost reductions that Farley outlined. "It sounds like a lot of things have to fall into place to make this happen," Krebs said. Ford in recent years has had quality control issues with several of its new vehicles, raising costs. But building a $25,000 electric vehicle will attract more buyers to EVs, which the administration of President Joe Biden is banking on to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Research has shown that price is now is the biggest obstacle to people making the change from internal combustion engines, Krebs said. The first of the next-generation electric vehicles at Ford will be ready in 2026, Farley said, as Ford refits older factories to build EVs and builds three new battery plants and one new assembly plant in Kentucky and Tennessee, he said. By then, the company will have lined up the needed raw materials and have new battery chemistry, he said. "It's going to take a little while, but I'm putting pressure on myself to get to making money on these vehicles," Farley said. "It's going to be a good investment." In March, Ford said it would split its electric vehicle and internal combustion operations into two individual businesses to accelerate new technology. Ford plans a major restructuring with two distinct but strategically interdependent auto businessesFord Blue focusing on traditional combustion engines and Ford Model e, which will develop electric vehicles. Farley also confirmed Wednesday that Ford is working on an electric vehicle made specifically for ride-hailing services such as Uber, saying that product would fit well into Ford's other commercial offerings. He gave no other details. 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The LeMo projects dog-like robot is one of the first to have learned to walk through reinforcement learning. Credit: ETH Zurich Robots are learning to walk and work. While robot dogs are not yet man's best friend, real autonomy and reasoning will make them useful companions in industry, search and rescue and even space exploration. But you must walk before you can run and machines are learning lessons from biology for better walking robots. The first chords of the 1960s Motown song "Do You Love Me?" by the Contours sound on the speakers as the robots start to dance. Several models, including a bipedal humanoid version, and a four-legged dog-like contraption, are seen dancing with each other. They shuffle, do pirouettes and swing. Released by the U.S. robotics company Boston Dynamics, the viral video of robots with legs dancing created a stir at the end of 2020. Reactions ranged from people suggesting it was made using CGI, to fear that the robots were going to take over the world. Yet for all the impressive engineering, the video also showed the limitations that legged robots face. Whereas for humans dancing is quite easy, for robots it's incredibly hard, and the three-minute video meant that every movement of the robots had to be manually scripted in detail. "Today, robots are still relatively stupid," said Marco Hutter, professor at ETH Zurich and expert in robotics. "A lot of the Boston Dynamics videos are hand-crafted movements for specific environments. They need human supervision. In terms of real autonomy and reasoning, we're still far away from humans, animals or what we expect from science-fiction." Yet these sorts of robots could be very helpful to humanity. They could help us when disasters strike, they could improve industrial operations and logistics and they could even help us explore outer space. But for that to happen we need to make legged robots better at basic tasks like walking and teach them how to do so without supervision. Virtual learning The ERC-project LeMo is one of the investigations launched by European researchers to make robots move more autonomously. Their core premise is that legged locomotion isn't what it could be, and that machine learning techniques could improve it. LeMo is specifically focused on so-called reinforcement learning. "Reinforcement learning uses a simulation to generate massive data for training a neural network control policy," explained Hutter, who is also the project leader of LeMo. "The better the robot walks in the simulation, the higher reward it gets. If the robot falls over, or slips, it gets punished." The robot they use in the project is a 50 kilogram, dog-like, four-legged robot. On top of it are several sensors and cameras that allow it to detect its environment. This part has become pretty standard for legged robots, yet the advancement LeMo produces lies in the software. Instead of using a model-based approach, where the researchers program rules into the system, like 'when there's a rock on the ground, lift up your feet higher," they 'train' an AI-system in a simulation. Here the robot's system walks over and over through a virtual terrain simulation, and every time it performs well it receives a reward. Every time it fails it receives a punishment. By repeating this process millions of times, the robot learns how to walk through trial-and-error. "LeMo is one of the first times reinforcement learning has been used on legged robots," said Hutter. "Because of this, the robot can now walk across challenging terrain, like slippery ground and inclined steps. We practically never fall anymore." Using this technology, the ETH Zurich team recently won a $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contest in which teams were challenged to deploy a fleet of robots to explore challenging underground areas by themselves. "Legged robots are already used for industrial inspections and other observation tasks," said Hutter. "But there are also applications like search & rescue and even space exploration, where we need better locomotion. Using techniques like reinforcement learning we can accomplish this." Robots with improved locomotive abilities can help in search and rescue operations and space exploration. Credit: ETH Zurich Natural inspiration Another ERC-project, called M-Runners, is working on how to build legged robots that work in outer space. Today when we launch robots to places like the moon or Mars, they are generally wheeled robots. These need to land, and ride on, relatively flat pieces of terrain. "But the interesting things for geologists aren't generally located in the flatlands," said professor Alin Albu-Schaffer, of the TU Munich and the German Aerospace Center. "They are found in places like canyons, where rovers cannot easily go." Which is why there's a strong interest in sending legged robots up into space. But before we can do that, more research needs to happen on making them work better. M-Runner here takes inspiration from nature. "Our hypothesis is that biology is more energy efficient," said Albu-Schaffer. "Our muscles and tendons have some elasticity. Animals, like a horse galloping, use this elasticity to store and release energy. Traditional robots on the other hand are rigid, and don't do that." This means that legged robots are not as efficient as they could be. But really understanding these processes, and transferring them to robots, is quite a challenge. It requires a deep understanding of biology, but also of the mathematics behind how movements are made and repeated. The complex system of the limb, with a high amount of interdependent parts like muscles, tendons and bones, working together very closely to repeat movements like walking or running. "Modelling this mathematically is a scientifically unsolved question," said Albu-Schaffer. Which is what the M-Runner project is trying to solve, and transfer to robots, a quest that's heavily interdisciplinary. "We work on biomechanics and biological systems," said Albu-Schaffer. "But also neuroscience, mathematics and physics. In turn we build tools that apply this to the actual robots." So far the project has already built a prototype robot, a dog-sized variant, on which the researchers are testing different types of running and gaits. The eventual goal is to apply this theoretical research into a role such as space exploration. "We also think about low gravity in simulations," says Albu-Schaffer. "The robot here can do more spectacular jumps and stride farther." Beyond this research, legged robots are already becoming integrated into our economy and society today. "These machines are already in use," said Hutter. "It's not a household item yet. But in industrial contexts it's getting more popular, and in China even household use-cases are being investigated." But their mass market appeal relies on these robots becoming better at walking and acting in the real world. Which is why more research is needed. "Legged robots aren't just about Boston Dynamics," said Albu-Schaffer. "In Europe cutting edge-research is also being done, and we're seeing real advances in the technology." Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Working with research partners from Arup, the UTS team, led by Head of Geotechnical and Transport Engineering Associate Professor Behzad Fatahi with Ph.D. student Ms Noor Sharari, has developed a rigorous computer simulation technique taking in complex loading conditions, such as earthquakes and soil-structure and liquid-structure interactions. "The UTS Interactive High-Performance Computing facility allowed our team to simulate the entire system, including nearly half a million elements with nonlinear behavior," Associate Professor Fatahi said. "We can now optimize the design of these energy storage tanks against large earthquakes, improving their safety and security and mitigating against the significant environmental and economic consequences of failure." At present in Australia there are around ten major LNG production facilities addressing local demand, with nearly 100 million metric tons of LNG exported overseas per year. LNG is usually contained within a vertical circular steel container made of high ductility materials such as 9% nickel steel, while a second container often made of reinforced concrete is needed for external protection and vapor tightness or confinement. Associate Professor Fatahi said the most common locations for LNG tanks are coastal regions, which often have poor ground conditions, requiring deep pile foundations. Thus, construction of LNG plants can cost billions of dollars and there is a great demand to minimize the construction costs while ensuring safety and security. "Our model can increase reliability of LNG tank design to avoid catastrophic failures similar to the damage to the LNG tanks in Japan after the magnitude 7.5 Niigata earthquake, which resulted in uncontrolled fires and explosions with severe pollution of the environment," he said. "We have developed an analysis and design method encompassing the LNG, inner and outer tanks, foundations and the interaction among them, using a single computer model capable of modeling the entire tank system in one step. "Moreover, our findings, recently published in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering and Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, showed the optimization of LNG tank design can result in reduced construction costs of these mega projects. "This will provide an opportunity to build more of these large energy storage facilities, contributing to better global energy security and a growing economy. "War in the Ukraine, recent flooding on the east coast impacting mining works and supply for power stations, seasonal low levels of renewable energy production and plant outages have all been contributing to the current energy supply challenge and sharp price rises in Australia. "Building more LNG storage facilities can allow Australia to store more energy at the right time and use it at the time of high demand without impacting our international export commitments. "These storage facilities may also be used in future for storage of other types of energy such as hydrogen or ammonia as a hydrogen carrier," Associate Professor Fatahi said. The research team is now looking at the use of polymeric materials for seismic protection of large storage tanks for these emerging energy resources. Explore further Emerging hydrogen storage technology could increase energy resilience More information: Noor Sharari et al, Seismic resilience of extra-large LNG tank built on liquefiable soil deposit capturing soil-pile-structure interaction, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (2022). Journal information: Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering Noor Sharari et al, Seismic resilience of extra-large LNG tank built on liquefiable soil deposit capturing soil-pile-structure interaction,(2022). DOI: 10.1007/s10518-022-01384-1 In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sandberg, the No. 2 exec at Facebook owner Meta, is stepping down, according to a post Wednesday, June 1, 2022 on her Facebook page. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. Credit: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. Sandberg has led Facebooknow Meta'sadvertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. As the company's second most-recognized faceafter CEO Mark ZuckerbergSandberg has also become a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. As one of the most prominent female executives in the tech industry, she was also often criticized for not doing enough both for women and for others harmed by Facebook's products. Her public-speaking expertise, her seemingly effortless ability to bridge the worlds of tech, business and politics served as a sharp contrast to Zuckerberg, especially in Facebook's early years. But Zuckerberg has since been catching up, trained in part for the several congressional hearings he's been called to testify in to defend Facebook's practices. Neither Sandberg nor Zuckerberg gave any indication that Sandberg's resignation wasn't her decision. But she's also appeared somewhat sidelined in recent years, with other executives close to Zuckerberg, such as Chris Coxwho returned in 2020 as chief product officer after a yearlong break from the company becoming more prominent. "Sheryl Sandberg had an enormous impact on Facebook, Meta, and the broader business world. She helped Facebook build a world-class ad-buying platform and develop groundbreaking ad formats," said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at Insider Intelligence. But she added that Facebook faced "huge scandals" under Sandberg's watchincluding the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle in 2018, and the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And now, Meta is "facing a slowdown in user growth and ad revenue that is now testing the business foundation that the company was built on," she said. "The company needs to find a new way forward, and perhaps this was the best time for Sandberg to depart." Sandberg is leaving Meta in the fall and will continue to serve on the company's board. Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post that Javier Olivan, who currently oversees key functions at Meta's four main appsFacebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messengerwill serve as Meta's new COO. But it will be a different job than the one Sandberg held for the past 14 years. "It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous," Zuckerberg wrote. While Sandberg has long been Zuckerberg's No. 2, even sitting next to himpre-pandemic, at leastin the company's Menlo Park, California, headquarters, she also had a very public-facing job, meeting with lawmakers, holding focus groups and speaking out on issues such as women in the workplace and, most recently, abortion. "I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products," Zuckerberg wrote. Sandberg, who lost her husband Dave Goldberg suddenly in 2015, said she is "not entirely sure what the future will bring." "But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women," she wrote, adding that she is also getting married this summer and that parenting their expanded family of five children will also be a part of this future. THE ADULT IN THE ROOM Sandberg, now 52, first helped Google build what quickly became the internet's biggestand most lucrativeadvertising network. But she left that post to take on the challenge of transforming Facebook's freewheeling social network into a money-making business while also helping to mentor Zuckerberg, who was then 23 to her 38. She proved to be exactly what the then-immature Zuckerberg and the company needed at the right time, helping to pave the way to Facebook's highly anticipated initial public offering of stock a decade ago. While Zuckerberg remained Facebook's visionary and controlling shareholder, Sandberg became engine of a business fueled by a rapidly growing digital ad business that has become nearly as successful as the one that she helped cobbled together around Google's dominant search engine. Just like Google's ad empire, Facebook's business thrived on its ability to keep its users coming back for more of its free services while leveraging its social networking technology to learn more about people's interests, habits, and whereaboutsa nosy model that has repeatedly entangled the company in debates about whether a right to personal privacy still exists in an increasingly digital age. As one of the top female executives in technology, Sandberg has at times has been held up as an inspiration for working womena role she seemed to embrace with a best-selling 2013 book titled "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead." But "Lean In" received immediate criticism. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called Sandberg a "PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots," and critics suggested she is the wrong person to lead a women's movement. She addressed some of that criticism in a subsequent book that addressed the death of her husband, Dave Goldberg. In 2015 she became a symbol of heartbreaking grief when Goldberg died in an accident while working out on vacation, widowing her with two children as she continued to help run one of the world's best-known companies. CRACKS IN THE FACADE In more recent years, Sandberg grew into a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. Critics and a company whistleblower contend that the consequences have undermined democracy and caused severe emotional problems for teens, particularly girls. The author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," Shoshana Zuboff, said Sandberg is as responsible as anyone for what Zuboff considers one of Big Tech's most insidious invention: the collection and organization of data on social media users' behavior and preferences. For years Facebook shared user data not just with advertisers but also with business partners. Sandberg did this, wrote Zuboff, "through the artful manipulation of Facebook's culture of intimacy and sharing." Zuboff calls Sandberg the "Typhoid Mary" of surveillance capitalism, the term for profiting off the collection of data from social media users' online behavior, preferences, shared data and relationships. "Sheryl Sandberg may fancy herself a feminist, but her decisions at Meta made social media platforms less safe for women, people of color, and even threatened the American electoral system. Sandberg had the power to take action for fourteen years, yet consistently chose not to," said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a gender justice advocacy organization, which has been calling for Sandberg's resignation, in an emailed comment Wednesday. Sandberg has had some public missteps at the company, including her attempt to deflect blame from Facebook for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In an interview later that month that was streamed by Reuters, she said she thought the events of the day were "largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate, don't have our standards and don't have our transparency." Internal documents revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen later that year, however, showed that Facebook's own employees were concerned about the company's halting and often reversed response to rising extremism in the U.S. that culminated in the events of Jan. 6. "Haven't we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?" one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. "We've been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised it's now out of control." Explore further WhatsApp adds messaging tools to attract businesses 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. In this file photo taken on Jan. 19, 2021, the Stellantis sign is seen outside the Chrysler Technology Center, in Auburn Hills, Mich. Automaker Stellantis has reached a deal to have Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide for its electric vehicles in North America. Credit: AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File Automaker Stellantis has reached a deal to have Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide for its electric vehicles in North America. CTR will supply Stellantis, the company that combined PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler, with up to 25,000 metric tons per year of lithium hydroxide over the 10-year term of the agreement. CTR will produce battery grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate along with geothermal energy in California with a resource production capacity in excess of 300,000 metric tons per year. "Ensuring we have a robust, competitive, and low-carbon lithium supply from various partners around the world will enable us to meet our aggressive electric vehicle production plans in a responsible manner," Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement on Thursday. Last month the Biden administration announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries. It's part of the administration's ongoing push to dramatically boost sales of electric vehicles. The new program will offer grants to companies that process or recycle battery components. The grants are intended to help strengthen U.S. energy independence and support Biden's goal to have electric vehicles make up half of all vehicles sales in America by 2030. Rod Colwell, CEO of Controlled Thermal Resources, right, and Tracy Sizemore, the company's Global Director of Battery Materials, walk along geothermal mud pots near the shore of the Salton Sea, where the company is mining for lithium, in Niland, Calif., on, July 15, 2021. Automaker Stellantis has reached a deal to have Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide for its electric vehicles in North America. Credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File In November Stellantis announced that it secured a five-year supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in Europe to support its plans to convert to 98% electrified vehicles by 2025. Stellantis signed a binding agreement with Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. in Germany. Vulcan will supply between 81,000 metric tons and 99,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide over the five-year term of the agreement. Explore further Carmaker Stellantis secures supply of battery-grade lithium 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer, whose father was mayor in the 1980s, will run for City Halls top job, he said Thursday. Advertisement Sawyers declaration marks an extraordinary break with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who selected him to be part of her City Council leadership team as chairman of the health and human services committee. In an interview with the Tribune, Sawyer criticized Lightfoots combative leadership style and said her contempt for aldermen makes it difficult for the City Council to get things done. I dont think I would treat my colleagues as nemesis or an opposing party. Were all partners in this, Sawyer said. Thats the approach we need to take. Advertisement Asked about Sawyers entry into the race Thursday morning, Lightfoot said she will announce her reelection campaign next week and defended her record. Another day, another man who thinks he can do this job better than me, Lightfoot said. A former head of the City Council Black Caucus, Sawyer has been an alderman since 2011, when he won a race to unseat incumbent Ald. Freddrenna Lyle. His father, Eugene Sawyer, also represented the 6th Ward in Chatham until 1987, when Mayor Harold Washington died and the City Council voted to appoint him to the job. Eugene Sawyer lost his bid for a term of his own to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Roderick Sawyers entry into the race follows former Chicago Public School CEO Paul Vallas announcement Wednesday. The increasingly crowded field of those seeking to unseat Lightfoot also includes Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner, Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, and businessman Willie Wilson. [ Who's in, who's out and who's undecided in the Chicago mayor's race ] Although Sawyer is a member of the City Council progressive caucus, he developed a reputation as a pragmatist rather than an ideologue and worked closely with Mayor Rahm Emanuels administration. On his way out the door, Emanuel wrote $20,000 campaign checks to aldermen who had been supportive of his agenda, including Sawyer, who gave the money to local community groups. Despite Lightfoot tapping Sawyer for a committee chairmanship following her election in 2019, their relationship has been fractious. Sawyer told the Tribune the mayor was too slow to implement campaign promises, such as a civilian police oversight board, which she had said was a 100 days priority. Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, during a Chicago City Council meeting on July 21, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) That ordinance passed last summer, after aldermen including Sawyer and North Side Ald. Harry Osterman led a group to negotiate a settlement with Lightfoot. The ordinance establishes a citizen panel to oversee Chicago police but not with all the powers asked for by the grassroots organizers. Advertisement For one, the oversight board would only have the ability to pass a nonbinding no-confidence vote on the police superintendent. The final body has some authority to set Chicago police policies, but Lightfoot has the ability to veto policies she doesnt like, which would then need to be voted on by the City Council. Sawyer also criticized Lightfoot for how she handled the elected school board. Lightfoot campaigned in support of one but criticized the bill that ultimately passed Springfield. Sawyer has had some political struggles of his own that have raised questions about his potential candidacy. In 2019, a little-known candidate forced Sawyer into a runoff, which drew raised eyebrows from aldermen who didnt understand how an incumbent with his family legacy in the ward could be in such a close race against someone without significant campaign resources. Sawyer told the Tribune he was in a funk after Brian Sleet, one of his top advisers and close friends, died, and that helps explain why he was narrowly forced into a runoff. I couldve avoided a runoff if I got 11 votes, 18 votes, but I was there and for a few moments it wasnt in me, Sawyer said. People saw me, I was mourning. Sawyers candidacy could pose an added challenge to Lightfoot by dividing up her expected base of support. In the first round of voting in 2019, Lightfoot emerged first from a 14-candidate field with less than 20% of the vote, much of it from white wards on the lakefront. This time, Lightfoots coalition is expected to rely more heavily on Black voters, but Wilson, Sawyer and Buckner could harm that calculation. Advertisement For his part, Sawyer said he hopes to get broad support. I think Ill have support from business. Hopefully Ill have support from labor. I think I can argue a case where Im best suited for this task, Sawyer said. I think people will see that. Ive already talked to a few business leaders who I think will be supportive. gpratt@chicagotribune.com Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Twitter Inc. employees are enduring the whiplash of public commentary from the social network's future owner, a changeover in leadership and a hiring freeze. On top of all that, some will be assigned new jobs as the company shifts away from its riskier projects. Executives told workers of plans to pull back resources for some long-term ambitions, including audio spaces, newsletters and communities, in favor of focusing on more immediate needs, like user growth and personalization efforts, according to people familiar with the matter. That means many employees will be shuffled within the company's consumer product group, the people said. Jay Sullivan, who took over product leadership earlier this month when Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal fired the division's prior boss, is leading the restructuring. Employees speculate about layoffs, though none are planned, according to the company. "We are making some updates to our consumer product team structure and roadmap to better focus on the areas that will have the greatest positive impact to the public conversation," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. Teams inside Twitter continue to work on an edit button feature, a person familiar with the matter said. The aim is to release the update later this year, allowing users to edit a tweet within a time-limited window of sending it. The tweet's prior history will also be available to view, the person said. It may be months before Twitter is under the control of its future owner, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk. The world's richest man agreed to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share in late April, a price that values the company around $44 billion, but the deal has not yet closed. Employees are struggling with squaring what might be the best financial outcome for shareholders, including themselves, with the chaos of working through the wait. Musk's constant tweeting, including trolling of Twitter employees, has complicated the feeling. Workers' messages in internal Slack groups show Musk has alienated many of them by criticizing Twitter's policies around speech and harassment and singling out the company's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, who is well liked internally. Musk gave employees even more reason for consternation this week after he apparently sent an email to staff at Tesla with a subject line: "Remote work is no longer acceptble" (sic). He said that "anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers." Such a policy would run counter to Twitter's current stance, which is one of the most prominent big tech companies to allow most employees to work from home permanently. In one internal discussion shortly before Twitter's board accepted the deal, an employee asked if anyone was "excited about the idea of having Elon on board?" The question prompted 446 replies from dozens of employees over three days, many of them negative, according to posts reviewed by Bloomberg. Some replied that Musk didn't seem to grasp the challenges Twitter faces around speech, or building a social network more generally. Others were excited about Musk, or at least felt his deal was a better option than staying the current course or selling to private equity. Twitter executives have used recent staff meetings to explain that the company's board has a fiduciary duty to find the best possible outcome for shareholders. In a recent thread, an employee wrote that Musk "puts the douche in fiduciary." News reports on May 19 from Insider that Musk settled a sexual harassment claim with a former SpaceX employee for $250,000 led to a new wave of internal posts. "Is there going to be any response from Twitter leadership around Elon Musk's alleged sexual harassment and sexual violence here?" one employee asked on Slack. "As a woman working at Twitter, I find this radio silence extremely disheartening." Twitter's executives have yet to address the news story with employees, according to two sources. When Musk sent a recent tweet about former CEO Jack Dorsey leaving the company's board, he included a sexual joke that also seemingly mocked the recent harassment report. Dorsey replied with a tweet of his own that included a horse emoji, presumably a nod to a reported detail that Musk offered to buy the victim a horse in exchange for an erotic massage. That exchange also made it to Twitter's internal message boards. "Doesn't everyone feel so proud?" a Twitter employee posted, mockingly. In addition to the uncertainty around the reorganization and the reaction to Musk's unpredictable tweeting, workers are also grappling with a hiring freeze and other cost cutting measures Twitter has implemented to stabilize the business during a tumultuous time for the broader economy. Those reductions included rescinding offers that had already been made to some prospective new employees. In one instance, a worker planning to join Twitter's office in Mexico City from the Bay Area learned just four days before his start date that his job offer had been recalled. That sent him scrambling to get his old job back, and immediately soured his opinion on the company he was excited about. "I told (Twitter's) lawyers, 'Don't talk to me for the future. Don't consider me for anything for the future,' " the person said. "I don't ever want to hear the word Twitter." Explore further Twitter employees to meet with new board member Musk 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Glider tracks from the 2018 (orange), 2019 (purple), 2020 (yellow), and 2021* (blue) hurricane seasons (May to November) generated with data from the Integrated Ocean Observing System Glider Data Assembly Center, with an overlay of tropical cyclone tracks (black dots) from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS). The table in the upper left indicates the yearly breakdown of glider deployments, glider days at sea, and collected profiles. (*2021 data were extracted on Sept. 17, 2021, prior to the completion of the Atlantic hurricane season. Credit: T. Miles With forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (a division of the National Weather Service) predicting above-average hurricane activity this year, a paper published in the peer review magazine Oceanography shows that robotic ocean observing platforms can improve intensity forecasts for hurricanes and tropical storms and should be supported as a crucial component of the ocean infrastructure designed to protect the lives of coastal residents and mitigate the economic impact from storms. The Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins today, is expected to bring 14-21 named storms, including 3 to 6 major hurricanes with winds of 111 mph or higher. In the U.S., hurricanes have caused more than $1 trillion in losses since 1980, and while the landfall forecasts that drive evacuation orders and guide coastal preparations ahead of storms have been steadily improving, storm strength forecasting has lagged. Storm intensity is influenced by many factors, including atmospheric circulation, internal storm dynamics and air-sea interactions, as well as boundary currentsfor instance, the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexicoand even seafloor topography While some existing ocean observing tools provide data useful for numerical storm modeling, they are not responsive enough to fill all the data gaps, especially in the air-sea interfacewhere the ocean and atmosphere exchange heat and energyand upper ocean dynamics, which are critical for forecasting storm strength. Between 2018 and 2021, underwater gliders were deployed more than 280 times and spent 13,000 days at sea in the open Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and off the U.S. East Coast during hurricane seasons to test whether they could help fill the data gaps. Underwater gliders are autonomous underwater robots that collect ocean data in remote locations and at depth and can be programmed and piloted remotely to conduct specific missions. These gliders are equipped to communicate with satellites, allowing them to transmit ocean data to modelers and forecasters in real time or near-real time. In 2021, Saildroneswind and solar-powered vehicles that travel along the ocean's surface to gather datawere also employed. They also communicate via satellite in real time or near-real time. Both types of robots can operate and gather data in hazardous conditions where sending crewed ships would put human lives at risk. And, given their ability to communicate data quickly, information can be utilized for storm forecasting in near-real timeeven while storms are approaching coastal populations. For instance, during the 2021 season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supported the first-time deployment and operation of five extreme weather Saildrones strategically located in the western tropical Atlantic, the Caribbean and East Coast. They continuously measured properties in the near-surface atmosphere and ocean and transmitted one-minute averaged data to the data centers in real time for assimilation into forecast models and for other public use. In the paper, "Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research," authors from more than a dozen governmental, nongovernmental and academic institutions involved in deploying these platforms during the 2021 hurricane season detailed how gliders have improved intensity forecasting and, further, how adding Saildrones operating in close proximity improved intensity forecasting even further. "One of the main objectives during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season was to obtain measurements of the upper ocean and air-sea coupling within a hurricane from co-located platforms at the same time," said the study's lead author, Dr. Travis N. Miles, Assistant Research Professor in the Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership. "These data can help us understand how upper ocean features and the overlying atmosphere co-evolve during hurricanes. This is particularly important with storms like Ida that rapidly intensified over the dynamic coastal ocean before making landfall. Direct assimilation of these data into models, and new model development based on research findings will lead to improved modeling systems and ultimately better intensity forecasts." The study also calls for future deployments to combine simultaneous measurements to continue to improve hurricane modeling and forecasting. "In the ocean observing community, we know that the tools and technologies we bring to bear to help forecast the strength and movement of these storms saves lives and that our predictions have greatly improved over time," says Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, study co-author and Senior Advisor from the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing Organization (GCOOS), which hosts and shares ocean observing data from gliders and other instruments. "We also know that having more ocean observing assets in place could only make things safer for all coastal communitiesin the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. At GCOOS, we continue to advocate for funding to support these tools." GCOOS has developed a tool (nicknamed GANDALF) that tracks and maps gliders currently deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. Users can see how many gliders are currently in the Gulf, their location and access data being collected by the gliders. Data collected includes water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and other parameters, depending on research needs. GCOOS has also created the GCOOS Hurricane Dashboard, a tool that provides information needed to monitor the strength and movement of tropical systems and how to prepare if a storm is heading toward your home. Users can access the current location, intensity, and movement of tropical systems, latest predictions, local emergency contacts, and guidance for storm preparations. More information: Travis N. Miles et al, Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research, Oceanography (2022). Journal information: Oceanography Travis N. Miles et al, Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research,(2022). DOI: 10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-28 Provided by GCOOS-RA Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam 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Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced the seizure of three domains used by cybercriminals to trade stolen personal information and facilitate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for hire. This includes weleakinfo[.]to, ipstress[.]in, and ovh-booter[.]com, the first of which allowed its users to traffic hacked personal data and offered a searchable database containing illegally amassed information obtained from over 10,000 data breaches. The database consisted of seven billion indexed records featuring names, email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, and passwords for online accounts that could be accessed through different subscription tiers. The shutdown of weleakinfo[.]to comes more than two years after a related internet domain named weleakinfo[.]com was confiscated in January 2020, with law enforcement officials arresting 21 individuals in connection to the operation later that year. Last May, one of its operators was sentenced to two years in prison. The other two domains ipstress[.]in and ovh-booter[.]com offered to conduct DDoS services for their clients. DDoS attacks are carried out by flooding a targeted web resource with junk traffic with the goal of rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users of the service. The "comprehensive law enforcement action" involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and the DoJ's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in coordination with authorities from Belgium and the Netherlands. "These seizures are prime examples of the ongoing actions the FBI and our international partners are undertaking to disrupt malicious cyber activity," said FBI Special Agent in Charge, Wayne A. Jacobs, said. "Disrupting malicious DDoS operations and dismantling websites that facilitate the theft and sale of stolen personal information is a priority for the FBI." CARBONDALE Employees of the Starbucks Store at 1025 E. Main St. in Carbondale announced Friday their intention to petition to the National Labor Relations Board for a union election. The workers are organizing with Workers United to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU). By taking this action, they join workers from approximately 280 other Starbucks locations, including Chicago; Buffalo; Cleveland; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Mesa, Arizona; and Independence, Missouri. According to Workers United, an overwhelming majority of eligible employees at this location have signed union authorization cards. In a letter e-mailed early Friday to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and signed by the stores union supporters, Carbondale workers wrote that they are the stores biggest and most inconvenient expense. While customers are led to believe the store is understaffed, staffing with skeleton crews is a deliberate act. Each resource siphoned out of the business is a cut in quality. Each labor cut bears another sloppy Frappuccino. Each price increase begets another irate customer, The letter read. When the store opened a year ago, Meredith Chasteen, district manager for Starbucks, told The Southern the location was the 18th community store in the county and the second in Illinois. Starbucks Community Stores are dedicated to creating pathways for those facing barriers to opportunity. Each store focuses on local hiring, partnerships with local nonprofits, diverse contractors and local artists and a unique in-store gathering space for local events and programs. The workers ask how they can serve the community with a lack of resources. You may be Starbucks Corporation, but we are Starbucks, the letter reads. Barista Ken LeBlanc expressed what it means for the employees at the store to file for a union election. Going public is a weight off our shoulders. We can finally speak openly about our efforts and dont have to feel like were doing something wrong, when all were doing is trying to enact positive change for ourselves and our fellow partners. I feel more united as a team than ever before, LeBlanc said. He added that the Starbucks Corporation couldn't stop this unionization movement if they tried. Hundreds of stores paved the way for the Carbondale workers, and they are doing the same for the Starbucks workers who will follow. Mari Orrego, media relations coordinator for Workers United, said 100 Starbucks locations are fully unionized. They have had an 88% success rate in union elections. To keep up with the employees union attempt, follow the @SBWorkersUnited and @CMRJB. 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 Concerns about the lack of community and elder care have resulted in a new group for aging LGBTQ individuals in Southern Illinois. GRIS - Golden Rainbows of Illinois South is a group hosted by Rainbow Cafe for those 60 years or older. Despite the group forming only in February of 2021, its already grown to be the centers largest with nearly 146 members. Group Co-Founders Billy Rogers, 66, and Carrie Vine started the group because they were both interested in LGBTQ elders and those living with HIV, Vine said. My interest is because I'm living it. I am an elder LGBTQ (member), Rogers said. Socialization After one of the groups first meetings, Rogers and Vine surveyed the members to see what issues were most important to the members. At the top of the list was socialization. Dennis Gauger, from Galatia, spoke to The Southern at one of GRIS' social outings to the Varsity Theater in Carbondale last week. Gauger said socialization is the reason he joined the group. He said he hopes to find friendship and camaraderie in the group. It is difficult to meet other LGBTQ individuals his age, he said. A lot of people down here in Southern Illinois are not out, Gauger said. I think groups like this helps to make it easier for people in the whole community to come out. Healthcare, social supports Vine said elder LGBTQ individuals don't often have the same social supports that heterosexual couples do such as children to support them or help them navigate health care as they age. GRIS is working on creating a health advocacy group because it can be complicated to navigate the medical system, Rogers said. Rogers pointed out that as many hospitals transition to automated call systems, navigating healthcare becomes even more difficult to those who are aging. Rogers said his spouse is 87 and to understand the system, leave call back numbers and to communicate via text with offices and billing departments is increasingly difficult especially for those without a spouse or child as an advocate. GRIS will be hosting a power of attorney clinic for wills, healthcare and finances, in conjunction with the SIU OUTLAWS an organization within SIUs law school that promotes LGBTQ rights. They are in the early stages of planning for this event and a date will be announced at a later time. For more than 30 years, Rogers has carried the medical POA for him and his husband in his backpack wherever they go, and recently, he had to use it this summer at a local hospital. Hal had to have stitches and so I took him to the local hospital here. And his hand, you would think he just had major surgery, after they do a stitch or two, they bandaged his hand up. He couldnt write, Rogers said. Rogers said two women from the billing department came in and asked his husband to sign forms, but he was unable to because of the bandages. He said his spouse Rogers could sign for him. The two women attempted to refuse that as an option, so Rogers pulled out his POA forms. Other barriers LGBTQ elders face include not being able to access their spouses social security benefits and the fear of having to go back into the closet when seeking health and senior care. A report by the AARP of Illinois detailing these challenges found 34% of older LGBTQ adults and 54% of transgender and gender-nonconforming older adults fear they will have to re-closet themselves when seeking senior living. Vine said the challenges are worsened by the stigma still surrounding HIV/AIDS. She said some long term care facilities would refuse patients who were HIV positive. As of 2018, more than half of people living with HIV were over the age of 50, according to the AARP report. Older LGBTQ adults with HIV are more likely than HIV-negative peers to report discrimination, poorer overall social support, a higher likelihood of living alone, and an increased likelihood of mental health issues, the report said. The report found economic disparities worsened by a lifetime of employment discrimination within the community. Older LGBTQ adults have fewer financial resources and are more likely to be low-income relative to non-LGBTQ older adults, the report said. Nearly one-third of LGBTQ older adults live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, compared to a quarter of non-LGBTQ people. Poverty rates are even higher for LGBTQ older adults of color, those aged 80 and older, bisexual older adults, and transgender older adults. Older LGBTQ adults who wed before gay marriage was legalized face additional challenges and are often unable to access their spouse's social security benefits after they die, the report said. As a result, 44% of LGBTQ older adults report being concerned about having to work well beyond retirement age compared to 26% of non-LGBTQ people, according to the report. Legislation GRIS is also concerned with legislation that impacts the LGBTQ community. Vine said two bills that recently passed committee in Illinois, HB4650 and SB3490, are a good start to positive changes. The legislation aims to create an Illinois Commission on LGBTQ Aging to investigate and study the health, housing, financial, psychosocial, home-and-community based services, assisted living and long-term care needs of LGBTQ older adults and their caregivers, according to its synopsis. Rogers said while there are legislation efforts in Illinois that relates to aging LGBTQ populations, there is a lack of downstate support for it. We have a strong, proud, and active LGBTQ population in Southern Illinois in part because of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Rogers said. Living in the red part of the blue state is tough and it is long past due for our downstate legislatures to show up, listen, and stop hiding behind the notion that its the will of their constituents. 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. A new council member will represent Calhoun County Councils District 3 in the future. Two Republican candidates are running for the seat held by Republican John Nelson. Nelson is not seeking re-election after promising 12 years ago he would only serve three terms. Rebecca A. Bonnette and Patrick W. Mack will face each other in the June 14 Republican primary. No Democrat filed for the seat. Bonnette A Columbia native who was raised in the Caw Caw community of Calhoun County, Bonnette says she will serve with transparency. For the past four years, I have been closely involved in advocating for efficient government and transparency, Bonnette said. If elected, I would continue to advocate for transparency in government and keep constituents informed of things that would affect their finances and lifestyle in this rural community. Bonnette says she will also seek to preserve the rural nature of the Sandy Run community. As development organically occurs in the Sandy Run community, I will work hard to minimize the effects of overdevelopment to preserve the essence of rural America, she said. Her priorities include keeping taxes low, defending personal property rights and responsible government. She pledges to serve with honesty, integrity and transparency. I believe that it is time for Republicans in leadership to make the individual, not the government, their top priority, Bonnette said. Bonnette graduated from Orangeburg Preparatory Schools and is an alumna of South Carolina State University, receiving a masters degree in speech language pathology in 2007. Bonnette has worked in the Orangeburg and Calhoun county public schools as a speech pathologist and is currently self-employed in a private practice as a speech pathologist serving children in Calhoun, Orangeburg, Lexington and Bamberg counties. Bonnette volunteers her spare time to clean litter in Calhoun and Orangeburg counties. She is also active in the Calhoun County Republican Party. Bonnette is married to Keith Bonnette and they have four children attending public schools. In her free time, she enjoys boating and fishing with her family. Mack Mack says he will work to ensure emergency responders have the equipment they need to do their jobs. He also plans to help deal with issues associated with the areas growth. Sandy Run is growing rapidly and we need someone with experience in site development and the impacts it will bring to the district, Mack said. He also plans to tackle the water pressure issue in our system. My hope is to bring needed growth to our community, Mack continued. We have needed a grocery store for a long time, and I believe the Sandy Run and surrounding areas can support one. Mack said he would also like to address traffic concerns in the Sandy Run community. The traffic on S.C. Highway 176 is terrible during traffic accidents on I-26, Mack said. Most interstate traffic is re-routed through Sandy Run. One road in particular, Valley Ridge Road, suffers the worst, Mack said. Traffic will get so heavy that residents are unable to pull out of the driveways. I would also like to see a caution light installed at the intersection of S.C. Hwy 176 and Old Sandy Run Road, Mack said. Many accidents have occurred there over the years. Born in Baptist Hospital in Columbia, Mack is a lifelong resident of Sandy Run. He graduated from Swansea High School in 1993. He received his associates degree in civil engineering from Midlands Technical College in 2000. Mack has been employed with the LAD Corporation for 25 years, then, along with partners, formed utility and site contracting company LAD Construction LLC in 2017. The company specializes in water, sewer, grading, storm drainage, paving and curb and gutter work. He has volunteered to help with the Labor Day Festival at Beulah United Methodist Church in Sandy Run for numerous years. He has also assisted in the repair of the county's rural water system. Mack is married to Ginny and they have three teenagers. In his free time, Mack enjoys hunting, fishing and spending time with family. 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. A 19-year-old is the latest person charged in the shooting death of 6-year-old Winston OConner Hunter of Woodford. I said earlier this week that if you were somehow involved, you are going to be arrested, Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said in a Thursday press release. And that is a promise I intend to keep until everyone who even knew about this is in custody, he said. Seth James Phillips, of Karen Place, Farmington, N.Y. is the fourth suspect to face the charge of murder in Hunters death. A warrant accuses Philllips of being present in the vehicle that drove past Hunters McClain Street home on May 13. Occupants of the vehicle allegedly shot at the home, killing Hunter. Others who are already in custody on the charges of murder, three counts of attempted murder and four counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime include: Jeremiah J. Harley, 17, of County Road 50, Canandaigua, N.Y. Hes charged as an adult. Michael Thomas Lloyd, 20, of Pinewood Street, Chillicothe, Illinois Ethan Thorne Anderson, 19, of Greenwood Drive, West Columbia Phillips, Harley and Lloyd are awaiting extradition to South Carolina. Anderson remains at the Orangeburg County Detention Center without bond. If they are convicted, they could face up to life in prison. Harley, Lloyd and Anderson are accused of firing a barrage of bullets into the McClain Street home. Hunters family had just returned home after visiting family and friends. The sheriff has said the suspects shot the wrong home. He alleges they went to Woodford to buy or steal marijuana. Ravenell called Hunters family on Thursday to report the latest arrest. I can tell you this is the last person that was in the car, but I cant tell you this is the last arrest, he said to the family. Family members thanked Ravenell and the other investigative teams who had a part in the arrests, including the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, according to the press release. SLED agents are dedicated to seeking justice for Winston and his family, SLED Chief Mark Keel said. Solving the issue of violent crime that is plaguing communities across the state is going to take everyone - parents, teachers, community leaders, law enforcement, faith groups, legislators, prosecutors, judges, public defenders and mental health practitioners. We must all come together to keep our communities safer. In addition to the sheriffs office and SLED, Ravenell gave credit to the U.S. Marshals N.Y./N.J. Regional Fugitive Task Force, Canandaigua City (N.Y.) Police Department, Ontario County (N.Y.) Sheriffs Department, New York State Police, the North Police Department and the Lexington County Sheriffs Department. As I said, we will not stop until any and everyone connected to this case is charged, Ravenell said. We owe that to little Winston, we owe that to the community. Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 1 Angry 12 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 South Carolina Department of Childrens Advocacys (DCA) Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program will host an online volunteer training beginning July 20. The Orangeburg/Calhoun County Office of the Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem Program is offering the online training program at no cost. Orangeburg/Calhoun residents who are concerned about child abuse and neglect victims can get involved now. If you are over 21 and can give four to five hours a month of your time for a child, you can change a childs life. Those interested in participating in this training are encouraged to submit a completed application by July 10. Visit http://gal.sc.gov for more information and to download an application. The Guardian ad Litem program was founded in 1984 and holds free training courses throughout the state at various times during the year to teach community volunteers how to advocate as Guardians ad Litem for abused and neglected children who have or are involved in family court legal proceedings through the Department of Social Services. GAL volunteers get to know the child, and everyone involved in the childs life, including family, teachers, doctors, social workers and others. They gather information about the child and what the child needs. Their recommendations to the court help the judge make an informed decision about a childs future. GAL volunteers provide a stable presence in a childs life, remaining on each case until the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. The GAL Program is a division of the South Carolina Department of Childrens Advocacy. DCA is an independent state agency led by Director and State Child Advocate Amanda Whittle. Contact David McAlhaney at the Charleston County Office at 843-277-5849 to learn more about this volunteer and training opportunity. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Molina Healthcare of South Carolina, in collaboration with Family Health Centers Inc., will host a drive-thru baby shower for expectant moms, giving 100 families a bag of diapers and other essentials. According to the National Diaper Bank Network, one in three families struggle to afford diapers for their babies, so they cut down on food and childcare services to buy them. This event is supported by I Serve with Joy, Family Solutions, SC Thrive, the Regional Medical Center/Safe Kids, Harvest Hope Food Bank, Orangeburg-Calhoun-Allendale-Bamberg Head Start/Early Head Start Program and Welvista. Those wanting to take part in the drive-thru baby shower must register by sending a text to 843-371-4965. The first 25 people to register will receive a special gift. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at Family Health Centers Inc., 3310 Magnolia St., Orangeburg. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Fourth grader Chen Yuxin, a student at the Beijing School for the Blind, has had a life-long dream of attending a movie at a cinema. Her wish finally came true in September 2021, thanks to a public-service project dubbed "Ever Shining Cinema." Together with her friends and guided by volunteers, the elementary student attended the barrier-free movie My People, My Homeland at the Tiantongyuan cultural arts center in Changping District, Beijing. "I was filled with excitement. I really love the movie," said Chen. "The project and its barrier-free films enable us to enjoy the silver screen, just like sighted moviegoers." The Ever Shining Cinema project was initiated at the end of 2017 by the Communication University of China, Beijing Gehua CATV Network Co., Ltd., and Oriental Jiaying Media Co., Ltd. It aims to produce barrier-free films for visually impaired people through dubbing to meet their spiritual and cultural needs. The production process of barrier-free films is hard in the eyes of Cai Yu, a 26-year-old PhD at the Communication University of China and also a volunteer of the project. During the intervals of dialogues and sounds in the movie, volunteers would describe the characters' actions, expressions and surroundings as much as possible to help the visually impaired audiences better understand the movie, said Cai. "For example, to explain the color 'red,' we would often use the words 'sun' and 'heat,'" said Cai. "A two-hour film often takes volunteers a week to write the narration and four hours to record in the studio." Hard work has borne fruits. By the end of last year, the project had produced 416 barrier-free movies and one barrier-free TV series as well as held 254 public welfare screenings at cinemas, associations for the visually impaired and special-education schools across the country, benefiting over 2 million visually impaired people. China has about 17.3 million people with visual disabilities, according to the second national sample survey on disability. "I hope barrier-free movies can be a light guiding them in this beautiful world," said Cai. Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of diplomatic relations in 2020. Israel's ambassador to the oil-rich UAE, Amir Hayek, tweeted "mabruk" -- congratulations in Arabic -- with a photo of Emirati and Israeli officials holding documents at a signing ceremony in Dubai. The Emirati envoy to Israel, Mohamed Al Khaja, hailed as an "unprecedented achievement" the deal that, according to the Israeli side, scraps customs duties on 96 percent of all products traded. A yacht sails before the skyline of the Emirate of Dubai on April 21, 2022 / AFP "Businesses in both countries will benefit from faster access to markets and lower tariffs as our nations work together to increase trade, create jobs, promote new skills and deepen cooperation," Khaja tweeted. The 2020 deal was part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords that also saw Israel establish diplomatic ties with Bahrain and Morocco. Two-way trade between Israel and the UAE last year totalled some $900 million dollars, according to Israeli figures. UAE-Israel Business Council president Dorian Barak predicted that trade would soon multiply between the regional powerhouse economies. Jerusalem's Old City with the Golden Dome of the Rock seen in the centre of Al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Haram al-Sharif or to Jews as the Temple Mount / AFP/File "UAE-Israel trade will exceed $2 billion in 2022, rising to around $5 billion in five years, bolstered by collaboration in renewables, consumer goods, tourism and the life sciences sectors," he said in a statement. "Dubai is fast becoming a hub for Israeli companies that look to South Asia, the Middle East and the Far East as markets for their goods and services." Nearly 1,000 Israeli companies will be working in and through the UAE by year's end, he said. - Trade diplomacy - Then US president Donald Trump and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File The UAE was the first Gulf country to normalise ties with Israel and only the third Arab nation to do so after Egypt and Jordan. Talks for a free trade agreement began in November and concluded after four rounds of negotiations. The latest was held in March in Egypt between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE's long-time de facto ruler who became president this month after the death of his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa. Israel had in March hosted a meeting of the top diplomats from the United States, UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, at the centre, in March met the UAE's Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, on the left, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett / Egyptian Presidency/AFP/File Sudan in 2020 also agreed to normalise ties with Israel, but the strife-torn northeast African country has yet to finalise a deal. Israel has already struck free trade agreements with other countries and blocs, including the United States, European Union, Canada and Mexico. In February, Israel signed a trade deal with Rabat to designate special industrial zones in Morocco. - Palestinian issue - A Palestinian protester is seen during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration to denounce the annual nationalist "flag march" through Jerusalem, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on May 29, 2022 / AFP/File The Abraham Accords broke with long-standing pan-Arab policy to isolate Israel until it withdraws from the occupied territories and accepts Palestinian statehood. Palestinians condemned the agreements struck under then US president Donald Trump, and the conflict continues to inflame tensions, including between Israel and the UAE. Tuesday's signing came two days after thousands of flag-waving Israelis marched through Jerusalem's Old City during a nationalist procession marking Israel's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1980, a move never recognised by the international community. Israel's stand at the Dubai Airshow in the Gulf emirate, on November 15, 2021 / AFP/File The UAE on Monday "strongly condemned" what it called Israel's "storming" of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam's holiest sites. The UAE "reiterated its firm position on the need to provide full protection for Al Aqsa Mosque and halt serious and provocative violations taking place there", reported the official WAM news agency. Michelin's world-renowned culinary guide has published its latest edition for Belgium and Luxembourg, revealing that two new restaurants in the Grand Duchy have been awarded their first star, while three former holders lost theirs. The unveiling of the 2022 edition of the famous Michelin Guide took place in the Belgian city of Mons. During the ceremony, international director Gwendal Poullenec stressed that "Luxembourg and Belgium's chefs have not lost any of their talent. Despite difficulties, we can look back on a beautiful year, as well as selection of chefs." A total of 16 restaurants across Belgium and Luxembourg were awarded their first ever Michelin star in this year's edition. Two new stars on Luxembourg's culinary sky... Chef Ryodo Kajiwara from restaurant Ryodo in Luxembourg City is one of two Luxembourg-based chefs to receive their first Michelin star this year. He already won the title of 'Chef of the Year 2022', awarded by Gault&Millau. The second new star on Luxembourg's culinary sky is chef Julien Lucas from restaurant La Villa de Camille et Julien, located in Luxembourg City's Pulvermuhle quarter. ...and three former stars removed The new edition of the Michelin Guide was certainly a disappointment for some former star holders here in the Grand Duchy. After 21 years, Le Clairefontaine is no longer part of the culinary guide for Luxembourg and Belgium. The team of Arnaud and Edwige Magnier were not able to hide their surprise over the unexpected decision, but committed to continuing their culinary journey with the same level of conviction, and pursuing the same values: "A love for well-executed work, produce of the best-possible quality, and the art of receiving." Two other Luxembourg-based restaurants fell out of grace with Michelin and had their stars removed: La Cristallerie and Les Jardins d'Anais, both located in the capital. Special recognition Michelin also awards green stars for sustainable cuisine, and chef Rene Mathieu from La Distillerie in Bourglinster was honoured with this special prize. For the past two years, Mathieu's Distillerie was also named the 'Best Vegetable Restaurant' in the world by the 'We're Smart Green Guide'. Overview of Michelin stars in Luxembourg Restaurants with one star: La Distillerie (Bourglinster) Lea Linster (Frisange) Mosconi (Luxembourg) Ryodo (Luxembourg) La Villa de Camille et Julien (Luxembourg) Fani (Roeser) Guillou Campagne (Schouweiler) Restaurants with two stars: Ma langue sourit (Oetrange) Restaurants with a green star: La Distillerie (Bourglinster) Restaurants with the best food for moderate prices ('Bib Gourmand'): Minister of Health Paulette Lenert has confirmed that no cases of monkeypox have been discovered in Luxembourg amid an outbreak in Europe. Lenert's statement came in response to a parliamentary enquiry from MP Nancy Kemp-Arendt from the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) concerned with the implications of a monkeypox outbreak in the Grand Duchy. Kemp-Arendt used the enquiry to ask for confirmation that, as reported by the press, no cases of monkeypox have yet been recorded in the Grand Duchy. Furthermore, the politician wanted to know details about case probability, symptoms, transmission, response preparation, tracing mechanisms, recommendations for the population, and information from the World Health Organisation. The CSV politician had initially framed the document as an "urgent" enquiry, a status that Chamber President Fernand Etgen denied last week. Instead of just seven days, Minister of Health Paulette Lenert thus had the regular response period of one month. In her official response, Minister Lenert confirmed that not a single monkeypox case has yet occurred in Luxembourg (as of 30 May). She further noted that the probability of cases occurring in the Grand Duchy is low. Nevertheless, response mechanisms are being set up to prepare for any eventuality. In terms of measures, the Health Directorate clearly states that people who contract the virus need to isolate for 21 days and that it is mandatory to report an infection to authorities. Minister Lenert further conveyed that the Superior Council of Infectious Diseases in Luxembourg is currently working on recommendations for the general population. Minister Lenert's response also notes that monkeypox is mostly transmitted through intimate contacts. The disease itself may be dangerous for vulnerable people. Ahead of World Tobacco Day, which is commemorated annually on 31 May, the Luxembourg Cancer Foundation published a new survey on smoking habits in the Grand Duchy. According to the Foundation's survey, the number of smokers increased across all age groups between 2020 and 2021. The rate of smokers in the country is now higher than at any time since 2004., which is a cause for concern, notes the Cancer Foundation. Last year, 147,500 Luxembourg residents stated that they smoke, which represents close to a third of the population above the age of 16. In light of this number, the Cancer Foundation argues that stricter measures need to be introduced to suppress smoking. After the smoking rate in Luxembourg had stabilised for a number of years, 2021 saw an undeniable increase across all age groups. Foundation director Lucienne Thommes identified a significant contributor to this tendency: "Over the last two years, the pandemic has been at the centre of attention and driving up consumption, which is also observable in other countries. The same further applies to alcohol." 37% of survey participants aged 18 to 34 stated that they smoke, confirming that people in this age group are most prone to develop a smoking habit. Shishas also remain particularly popular, which may be caused by false presumptions that they are less harmful than other smoking habits. Director Thommes elaborated: "Although it is true that tobacco is not heated up as much, there are still many substances present that are known to cause cancer. And don't forget, a shisha session equals the smoke of 125 cigarettes." The Foundation's survey also revealed that 56% of smokers intend to stop. Thommes thus talked about different ways of abandoning the habit: "Every smoker is different, for some it is the nicotine addiction itself, for others the psychological aspect. It is best to consult a professional, which can be done for free at the Foundation. People might also talk to their general practitioner or someone at a hospital, there are enough possibilities." The Luxembourg Cancer Foundation is most worried about young people starting to smoke, as they often end up fighting the implications of consumption for a long time. In terms of prevention, the Foundation has a number of propositions, such as preventing people from buying cigarettes at every hour of every day. Furthermore, it is problematic that the tobacco section is often the first thing people see when entering a supermarket. The Luxembourg Cancer Foundation thus concludes that a combination of measures is needed to adequately protect people from the implications of smoking, as well as passive smoking. Located under Place de la Constitution in Luxembourg City, the casemates of the Petrusse were officially reopened by the Grand Duke on Thursday. Our colleagues from RTL 5 Minutes provide us with a sneak peek at the new scenography before the opening to the public on Sunday. The casemates in the capital underwent a "major facelift", which took much longer than originally planned. Closed for more than seven years, the casemates of the Petrusse reopen this Sunday 5 June to tourists who will finally be able to revisit one of their favourite attractions in the Grand Duchy's capital. Its fortifications have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. Located in the heart of Luxembourg City and facing the Petrusse valley, the fortifications, which were officially reopened on Thursday by Grand Duke Henri, had their "feet in the water" every time it rained on their "head", i.e. on Place de la Constitution. Water seepage that has jeopardised the safety of the site for tourists over the years. In early 2015, the Luxembourg City Tourist Office (LCTO) and the municipality decided to close the casemates to improve the installations. At this point "the water was running down the stairs and we were walking on rotten boards so we didn't have to wear boots", recalls Jean Hertges, an engineer at Jean Schmit Engineering, whose major technical challenge was to drain the casemates by creating a whole series of collection shafts. Maurice Fick / RTL Maurice Fick / RTL Maurice Fick / RTL Maurice Fick / RTL Maurice Fick / RTL The photos published on this site are subject to copyright and may not be copied, modified, or sold without the prior permission of the owner of the site in question. "Along the way, we said to ourselves: why not showcase the casemates with a scenography," says Tom Bellion, director of the LCTO. The idea was to "offer a unique experience to future visitors" and to keep the site in the top three most visited places in the country. Tido Brussig, a set designer from Munich, explains that the basic idea was to show what really happened in different locations in the casemates. The casemates were used to store bottles of champagne, as a location for beer festivals or plays, and even mushrooms have been grown down there, Brussig explains, before adding that "no shots have ever been fired from here!". Incredible as it may seem, the rock faces have indeed never echoed a shot from a gun or cannon but have been the setting for a whole series of human events and endeavours. This is what tourists who venture there will soon discover, thanks to new light and sound effects. Maurice Fick / RTL Two masterpieces animate the visit which leads through the galleries and 242 steps down to the exit with a view of the Petrusse. The first is a square room in the heart of the fortress, renamed "mainshow". On a bare slab of stone, visitors will be able to see projected images reminiscent of the long history of the E. Mercier Champagne cellar, the mushroom farm of the "Pastetchen" ravelin, the headquarters of the shooting society, and the air raid shelter of the casemates during the last two world wars. The second is the "Golden Rain" designed by the chief set designer: A golden-looking metal passageway in the middle of a long gallery that reflects glittering drops to the tune of bells. It is located right under the base of the 'Gelle Fra', the national monument on Place de la Constitution. With this surprising construction, "we are symbolically rooting freedom in the rock", says Tom Bellion. Maurice Fick / RTL The director of the LCTO is hopeful that the Bock casemates will reopen " sometime during the year". He has even set himself a target that could be reached after this double reopening. "In 2019 (before Covid-19) we welcomed 152,000 visitors to the Bock casemates. In the course of this year, we want to reopen both casemates and keep them open seven days a week to exceed 200,000 visitors per year," Bellion announced. "Place de la Constitution will be renovated in a few years when the works on Place Guillaume II are finished. At that time there will be another entrance to the casemates with a real visitor centre," reveals Marc Angel, president of the LCTO. Tickets can be purchased online at luxembourg-city.com and at the LCTO reception desk at Place Guillaume II. Cost of the visit: 15 for an adult, 12 for students and seniors, 7,50 for children (4-12 years old). Free for children under 4 years old. Fleur Thomas, Her Britannic Majestys Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, addresses the importance of upholding the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in an opinion piece. Peace and stability have been hard-won in Northern Ireland. So much of the progress we have seen rests on the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, which marked the triumph of compromise and tolerance after decades of instability. I remember well the many years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, but my visit to Belfast in March 2020 reminded me just how much has changed. The people of Northern Ireland deserve peace and prosperity, and the United Kingdoms first priority is therefore to uphold the Good Friday agreement in all its dimensions. It established a power-sharing government at Stormont on the basis of consent and parity of esteem for all communities, intensified North-South cooperation on the island of Ireland and enhanced arrangements for East-West cooperation. I have seen those benefits for myself. The successful functioning of the Belfast Agreement and its institutions is crucial to the ongoing progress of Northern Ireland. However, these arrangements are under increasing strain, with the Northern Ireland Executive not functioning fully. This is because the Northern Ireland Protocol does not have the support necessary in one part of the community. Even though the Protocol has yet to be implemented in full due to the operation of grace periods and easements, the practical problems are clear to see. Customs procedures for moving goods within the UK have already meant companies are facing significant costs and paperwork. Many British businesses have withdrawn products from sale in Northern Ireland and some have already given up trading there altogether. As we seek to drive forward our post-Covid economic recovery, rules on taxation mean that citizens in Northern Ireland cannot benefit fully from the same economic decisions as everyone else in our country. This situation is clearly unacceptable and unsustainable, and something no responsible government can countenance. Such issues have contributed to a growing concern that the relationship between Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been undermined. Without resolving these and other issues, we will not be able to re-establish the Executive and preserve the hard-won progress sustained by the Belfast Good Friday Agreement. The people of Northern Ireland deserve to have a fully functioning Executive able to take strategic decisions on matters such as health and education. Our preference of course is to reach a negotiated outcome with the EU. We have worked tirelessly to that end and will continue to do so. The UK has already been engaged in negotiations with the EU to that end for almost 18 months. The UK has proposed what we believe to be a comprehensive and reasonable solution to deliver on the objectives of the Protocol. This includes a Trusted Trader scheme to provide the EU with real time commercial data, giving them confidence that goods intended for Northern Ireland are not entering the EU Single Market. Our proposed solution would meet both our and the EU's original objectives for the Protocol. It would address the frictions in East-West trade, while protecting the EU Single Market and the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The challenge is that genuinely solving the problems requires a change in the Protocol itself, as its current drafting prevents these solutions from being implemented, but the EU's mandate does not allow the Protocol to be changed. This is why, while we welcome the spirit of the EU's current proposals, they are simply not able to address the fundamental concerns. Our shared objective has to be to find a solution that can command the broadest possible cross-community support for years to come and protect the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions. That is why we have announced our intention to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make the necessary, targeted changes to the Protocol. In parallel with the legislation being introduced, we remain open to further talks if we can achieve the same outcome through negotiated settlement, and we will continue to engage with the EU. However, to respond to the very grave and serious situation in Northern Ireland, there is a necessity to act to ensure the institutions can be restored as soon as possible. This is not about scrapping the Protocol. Our aim is to deliver on the Protocol's stated objectives. We will cement those provisions that are working in the Protocol, while fixing those that do not. We remain open to a negotiated solution, but the urgency of the situation means we cannot afford to delay any longer. As the sovereign government of Northern Ireland, the UK has clear responsibilities to ensure parity of esteem and the protection of economic rights. The EU will not be negatively impacted in any way just as we have ensured the protection of the EU Single Market since the existence of the Protocol. We must restore the primacy of the Belfast Agreement in all its dimensions as the basis for the restoration of the Executive. We will do so through technical measures designed to achieve the stated objectives of the Protocol, tailored to the reality of Northern Ireland. We will do so in a way that fundamentally respects both unions: that of the UK and of the EU. And we will live up to our commitments to all communities of Northern Ireland. As co-signatory and co-guarantor of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, the UK will take the necessary decisions to preserve peace and stability. Fleur Thomas HM Ambassador to Luxembourg Debate over the University of Wyomings gender studies department reemerged Thursday when lawmakers who oversee how the state spends its money convened in Casper. Sens. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, and Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, peppered University Provost Dr. Kevin Carmen with questions about the program, the use of public funds and who the universitys constituency is. The discussion came during a meeting of the Legislatures Joint Appropriations Committee. The panel, in conjunction with the full Legislature, sets the budget for the university. In February, Steinmetz pushed lawmakers to slash all funding for the gender studies department. The Senate passed a budget amendment to that effect, but it failed because the House disagreed, meaning the department will maintain its funding for the foreseeable future. UW President Ed Seidel told the Star-Tribune on Thursday that leadership was never consulted, nor was the gender studies department. It was a surprise to all of us, he said. Despite its death, the amendment wasnt entirely done away with. As a compromise, a committee of lawmakers this spring added a provision that required the university to report on the schools general education requirements, as well as any policies or regulations that encourage or discourage students to take certain coursework outside of their majors. Carmen delivered that information to the committee Thursday, including a handout that said there are no policies to incentivize or disincentivize students to take certain classes including those in the gender department outside of their majors. UW is the only publicly funded, four-year university in the state. That prompted a discussion about the vast responsibilities of the school to serve not only its students, but the states residents. Its not the students university, its not the facultys university. Its the University of Wyoming, Hicks said. It belongs to all the people of the state, period. Steinmetz brought that idea back to financial support for the gender studies department. Can you tell me why public funds can be used to support this if there is a vast constituency that doesnt support this? Steinmetz asked. University officials responded that it was important for the school to offer variety of educational programs, even ones that some people in Wyoming may not support. We need to provide a broad education opportunity, so that may include some controversial topics, Carmen said. That is part of what a university is about. He added that nobody at the university is required to take a course in gender studies. Seidel said he understands the unique position that the university is in. We do feel like we have to offer comprehensive programs, he told the Star-Tribune. We really are the only game in town. After the budget amendment was brought in February, the department issued a statement pushing back on the criticism it was receiving from some conservative lawmakers. This attack on gender studies is part of a growing ideological movement toward censorship, and we firmly resist these efforts, the statement read in part. Such legislative overreach into course curricula would set a very dangerous precedent. This is an attack on academic freedom, undermines our democracy, and may also violate national accreditation standards. On Thursday, Steinmetz and Hicks took issue with that response. They said, You attacked us, and were gonna attack you back, Hicks said, adding that he wouldve liked to see a more open dialogue. Maybe that was a blunt instrument, Hicks said of the budget amendment, which he voted in favor of. Maybe we used the wrong tool. Steinmetz, meanwhile, asked if the departments statement was common practice. Theres not a protocol per se, Carmen said. Attempts to strip a university program of funding are rare in recent history. During the budget session, university spokesperson Chad Baldwin said he couldnt think of a specific example that matched this particular situation, although he said that over the years there have been some concerns in the Legislature about certain activities at UW. Carmen said that leadership is very proud of the gender studies faculty and students. Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis. 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. China urges U.S. to practice mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, win-win cooperation Xinhua) 07:58, June 02, 2022 BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday urged the United States to truly practice the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken characterized the Biden administration's China strategy as "invest, align and compete." In response, Zhao told a daily news briefing that China has always believed that building a world of connectivity, diversity, inclusiveness, security and shared benefits is a responsibility and obligation that both China and the United States must undertake. He said China is glad to see the United States achieving development through legitimate investment, but the United States should not make China an "imaginary enemy." How the United States improves its own innovation and competitiveness is up to the United States, but it should not suppress and contain China, interfere in China's internal affairs and harm China's interests, Zhao said. "If such a thing occurs, China will firmly oppose it," he added. He stressed that China does not interfere in the normal coordination and cooperation between the United States and its allies, but such relations should not target or harm the interests of third parties, nor should they violate the basic norms of international relations. Zhao said China does not deny that there is competition between China and the United States in the field of economy and trade. "However, our relations cannot be defined by competition, nor should we pursue zero-sum vicious competition or engage in major power confrontation under the cover of competition." If the U.S. side insists on defining China-U.S. relations by major power competition and pursuing "I win you lose" policy objectives, it will only push the two countries to confrontation and conflict and lead the world to division and turmoil, he said. He pointed out that the U.S. side's recent China policy speech is "just old wine in a new bottle." The "three-point approach" is about using all the internal and external resources of the United States to encircle, suppress and contain China. "As China-U.S. relations stand at an important crossroads, the United States must make the right choice. Instead of quibbling over the wording, it should focus its efforts on the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," Zhao said. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) New book uncovers aspects of the Chinese revolution, and the contribution of key people involved, that have long been overlooked domestically. A forgotten history and a group of unknown heroes from more than 80 years ago are revealed in a new book uncovering many hidden facts about the Chinese revolution. "The book is a tribute to those who sacrificed themselves for the goal of the harmonious coexistence of mankind," says Li Yan, author of The Missing Archives. Li, as a professor of Chinese language and culture studies at Renison University College, affiliated to the University of Waterloo, has been committed to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Canada for more than 20 years. Among the historical figures featured in her book are the highly admired doctor Norman Bethune and his, domestically, much lesser-known contemporary, Bishop Ronald Owen Hall, who also played a significant role in China amid the International Communist Movement. Li's inquiries started with Hall, who had made great contributions to China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and believed that the Communist Party of China was a "good solution" to save the country. According to Li, Hall worked as the bishop of Hong Kong from 1933-66, met former premier Zhou Enlai during World War II, and they became close friends. Hall had held several roles, such as chair of the International Industry Cooperation in China and leader of the International Medical Relief Team to China. When Li started to read the biography of Hall, many questions arose. Why was Chairman Mao Zedong's thankful letter to Hall in 1939 never recorded in Chinese history? Did Hall really send foreign doctors to help Mao's army during wartime? Had Hall been connected to the famous Canadian doctor Bethune? What had been exposed after Bethune's secret police files were released? Why did strange rumors about Bethune's death haunt medical doctors in Canada for more than 60 years? Li believed that there must be some sort of relationship between the two Westerners during the Chinese revolution. They were about the same age and both were born to families of Christian ministers. Both men suspended their university studies to participate in World War I, both fought in France and each was wounded in the leg. Both finished their education after the war, and, both contributed greatly to China during World War II. Hall was invited to visit Beijing in June 1956 and had the honor of attending dinner at then-premier Zhou's home. On the train during his return trip, he wrote a long letter to his brother in England and recounted all the details of his discussion with Zhou. "The talk involved details of the political and economic situations in Hong Kong and the diplomatic relations between China and Britain, reflecting in-depth observations that remain inspiring even today," reads the book. However, such important historical records were all missing from China's official archives. As a result, Hall has been unknown in China for the past 70 years, according to Li. For six years, Li has been searching for historical records and interviewing people she could reach in China and Canada, trying to solve the riddles. She finally discovered that Hall had indeed been connected to Bethune. Li learned that since Bethune arrived in China in early 1938, Hall was trying to support him from Hong Kong by regularly providing medical supplies and personnel. The last effort made by Hall was dispatching a European doctor to assist Bethune when he was in an extremely difficult situation. Two months later, Hall sent the European doctor again-to replace Bethune after he died on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the European doctor was blocked on his way both times and never reached the front lines. "Had he been successful the first time, Bethune might have survived," Li writes. "I have been an admirer of Bethune, whose heroic stories are familiar to everyone in China. I grew up reciting, by heart, Chairman Mao's article, In Memory of Dr Norman Bethune, and regarded him as the most ideal man in the world," Li says. "When many of my classmates in the MA program went to the US, I was the only one applying for further study in Canada, with this hero's image in my mind," Li says. Upon arriving in Canada from China 35 years ago, however, Li was shocked by some of the feedback from the hero's compatriots. Bethune was not seen as perfect as his shining image in China. Instead, he has been ignored and even hated by some in his home country just because he was a communist. "It took me a long time before I figured out the fundamental issue leading people into endless ideological conflicts, and I actually got the inspiration from one of my students in class 20 years ago," says Li, who has taught at the university in Ontario since 1997. In The Missing Archives, Li discusses the original, biblical meaning of Jubilee-a celebratory time, whereby, every 50th year, debts would be forgiven, there was a restitution of property and a sharing of wealth, along with the forgiveness of sins and the freeing of slaves. After consultations with many scholars including Reverend Arnold Bethune in Guelph, Reverend Megan Collings-Moore and Reverend Scott McLeod at Renison University College, she was convinced that the idea of Jubilee was originally set up to curb the greed of human nature. The real meaning of Jubilee has been distorted and abandoned deliberately because of the uncurable human disease. "Finally, I figured out why Bishop Hall, a Christian, and Norman Bethune, a communist, would share so much in common and had dedicated (themselves) to the same goal for improving the world," Li says. "A true Christian could easily turn into a true communist. The main problem today is that there are too many fake believers and liars (using) double standard ideological weapons to fool common people in the world." Before Bethune traveled to China in 1938, where he became a battlefield surgeon for the Chinese Communist Army under Mao, he had worked with many medical workers and social activists in Montreal to advocate for medical care for the poor and needy. He also stated that a doctor should not be concerned with making money. After Bethune died in 1939, he became a national hero in China. Mao wrote: "Comrade Bethune's spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought of self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and his great warmheartedness toward all people. No one who returned from the front failed to express admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained unmoved by his spirit. Every communist must learn this true communist spirit from comrade Bethune." There have been heated discussions among scholars from China and Canada at the conferences organized by Li over the past few years. Some insisted that Bethune represented the spirit of the communist ideal. Some argued that he was in reality a humanitarian under a red cape, and that it was better to portray him that way to defend him more easily against the negative view of communism that has long been propagated in some quarters. "Ever since I figured out the biblical meaning of Jubilee, however, I believe that there should have been no fundamental difference between the two," Li says. "In the unprecedented pandemic facing the whole world today, it is more meaningful for everyone to learn from the spirit of Bethune." Many of Li's writings are focused on comparative cultures, based on real figures in history. In addition to a few books on Bethune, Li has written about James Menzies, the Canadian missionary in China who discovered the site of the oracle bones and became a self-trained archaeologist. His son, Arthur Menzies, who was born in China in a missionary compound, was the Canadian ambassador to China in the 1970s. Li also wrote about an American scholar, Thomas Arthur Bisson, who specialized in East Asian politics and economics. Bisson went to China as a missionary and interviewed Mao in 1937. He was persecuted in the 1950s in his own country and eventually set up the Chinese-language program at Renison University College. "I am often deeply touched by those people's stories since they demonstrated to me what is supposed to be a true Christian," Li says. In The Missing Archives, Hall says: "It is fear that sends presidents, prime ministers and special envoys around the world. Fear that dominates everywhere, fear that a rival race, a rival ideology or rival nation will take away our markets or our freedoms to live. None of us know how today's confusion may end." More than 60 years on, and Hall's concerns still have realistic significance today, according to Li. "People like Bishop Hall and Norman Bethune left us decades ago, but the spirit they demonstrated should not be forgotten. The simple purpose is to understand and achieve a common destiny for all mankind," Li says. In light of continuous battles and wars being waged, Li says she is compelled to think about what a "community with a shared future for mankind" actually means. "By telling the true stories of these historic figures, I have made a humble effort of trying to remove the obstacles on the path to mutual understanding and a peaceful future for the world," she says. Contractors in Tobago, who are owed millions of dollars from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), had a meeting with Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and Division of Infrastructure Secretary Trevor James, on Monday. The meeting was held at the Division of Finance headquarters in Scarborough. This was confirmed by one contractor who spoke to the Express following the meeting. THE State has just one more witness to call against Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Deputy Ch restored: The clock mounted outside the Industrial Court at the corner of Queen and St Vincent Streets, Port of Spain. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday urged efforts to speed up the implementation of a package of policy measures to stabilize the economy. Chairing a State Council executive meeting, Li also called for further strengthening assistance and support for people in need and ensuring their basic livelihoods. The newly added amount of over 140 billion yuan (21 billion U.S. dollars) in value added tax credit refunds should be basically delivered by July, and policy banks will increase the credit line by another 800 billion yuan to provide financial support for infrastructure construction, according to the meeting. The meeting also underlined implementing measures to support platform firms in going public on domestic and overseas bourses in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, as well as relaxing restrictions on car purchases. Efforts will be made to ensure the payment of pension benefits to seniors on time and in full, according to the meeting. School fights are not new. For as far back as anyone can remember, the schoolyard has been a place where teenagers, in particular, settle scores. What is new is the magnifying of school violence through camera phones and video posts on social media, which add an entirely different and more dangerous dynamic to the traditional school fights. Biden appeals for tougher gun laws: 'How much more carnage?' WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to act on gun control. In an address to the nation Thursday night, he called on lawmakers to restore limits on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He says that if legislators fail to act, voters should use their outrage to turn gun violence into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Biden is trying to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter laws, though such efforts have failed in the wake of past violence. The speech follows recent mass shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Texas senator: School police chief didn't know of 911 calls UVALDE, Texas (AP) A Texas state senator says the commander at the scene of a school shooting in Texas was not informed of panicked 911 calls from inside the school building. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said during a news conference Thursday that the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator who represents the city called it a system failure that the calls were going to city police but not communicated to Arredondo. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety has said police didnt confront the gunman more quickly because Arredondo believed the situation had morphed from an active shooting to a hostage situation. Nineteen children and two teachers died. Police: Tulsa gunman targeted surgeon he blamed for pain Police say a man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the shooter as 45-year-old Michael Louis. He says the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love. Harini Logan wins spelling bee in 1st-ever tiebreaker OXON HILL, Md. (AP) Harini Logan has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, defeating Vikram Raju in the bee's first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker. Both spellers got four words wrong during their grueling showdown before Scripps went to the 90-second spell-off. Harini was faster and sharper throughout, spelling 21 words correctly to beat Vikram by six. The 13-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, will take home a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Harini was a four-time participant in the bee and a sentimental favorite who endured the pandemic to compete again in person for the first time since 2019. Queen Elizabeth II to miss Jubilee service amid 'discomfort' LONDON (AP) Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a church service to mark her Platinum Jubilee after experiencing discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace says that with great reluctance the 96-year-old monarch has decided to skip Fridays service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed todays Birthday Parade but did experience some discomfort. Britain is marking the monarchs 70 years on the throne with four days of events over a long holiday weekend. Elizabeth is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to serve for seven decades. Many royal followers camped out overnight in London in hopes of getting a glimpse of the queen. Jan. 6 committee sets prime-time hearing date for findings WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will go public with its findings in a prime-time hearing next week, launching into what lawmakers hope will be one the most consequential oversight efforts in American history. The six hearings, set to begin June 9 and expected to last until late June, will be the first time the committee discloses what it has discovered in the course of a sprawling 10-month investigation that has touched nearly every aspect of the insurrection. More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the panel, and only brief snippets of that testimony have been revealed to the public, mostly through court filings. NY passes bill raising age to buy, own semi-automatic rifles ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorks legislature has voted to ban banning anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle. The legislation is a major change to state firearm laws. It was passed Thursday, less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. Other new legislation will restrict civilian purchases of bullet-resistant armor, which was worn by the killer in Buffalo. Bills would also require new guns to be equipped with microstamping technology that can help law enforcement investigators trace bullets to particular firearms. Legal fights over the legislation are expected. 2 doctors, receptionist and visitor killed in Tulsa shooting The four people killed in a shooting inside a Tulsa medical building included two doctors, a receptionist and a former soldier who was accompanying his wife during a checkup. Police, officials at Saint Francis Health System and others who knew the victims provided details about them on Thursday. Police say Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and Army veteran William Love were fatally shot. Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. A gunman who killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the rampage, police said Thursday. The patient called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then killed himself as police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. President Joe Biden addressed the carnage in recent years from mass shootings with AR-style rifles in an address Thursday night. Since the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school killed 21 people, including 19 children, just over a week ago, there have been 20 mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured," he said. After describing the Tulsa shooting as one of those 20 mass shootings, the president said, "That doesnt count the carnage we see every single day that doesnt make the headlines. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. "He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Franklin said Phillips performed the surgery on May 19 and Louis was released from the hospital on May 24. He said Louis called the doctor's office several times over several days reporting he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for additional treatment. Louis called the office again Wednesday complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance, he said. A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a "consummate gentleman" and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said. Love, a 73-year-old retired Army sergeant, was a patient at the clinic but that day he was accompanying his wife, Deborah, for her six-month checkup, said their daughter, Karen Denise Love. Police have received reports that Love held a door shut in hopes of allowing others to flee from the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to reporters questions. Karen Love said her parents were in an examination room with one of Phillips assistants when the couple heard the commotion outside. When they realized it was gunshots, Karen Love said her father grabbed the door handle from inside the room. As they heard this guy going up and down the hall, they knew it was gunfire, Karen Love said. They thought it was someone just shooting people. My dad was trying to hold the door the best he could. Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Franklin said police believe Louis shot himself about 39 seconds after the first officers entered the building. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance." The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed from Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody from Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York. 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 FRANCISCO (AP) The slavery reparations movement hit a watershed moment Wednesday with the release of an exhaustive report detailing Californias role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans, a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology and case for financial restitution. The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people even today, long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century, through discriminatory laws and actions in all facets of life, from housing and education to employment and the legal system. Longtime reparations advocate Justin Hansford, who is a law professor at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington called the moment exciting and monumental. To have an official detail of these histories coming from the state is important," he said. "I know a lot of people say we dont need to keep doing studies, but the reality is until it comes from some source that people think is objective, then it is going to be harder to convince everybody of some of the inequalities described. The report comes at a time when school boards and states across the U.S. are banning books or restricting what can be taught in classrooms, with parents and lawmakers largely opposed to topics of sexuality, gender identity or race. State lawmakers have tried to bar schools from teaching the 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning report that reframes American history with enslaved people at its heart. California is headed in the opposite direction, said Adam Laats, a historian at Binghamton University who called the document remarkable in its unflinching account, including detailing how police officers and district attorneys in the Los Angeles of a century ago were members of or had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Who children should learn are the main actors in the story of us as a nation has always been a real lightning rod, he said. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with a study and plan. Cities and universities have taken up the cause, with the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, becoming the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year. On Wednesday, Newsom issued a statement praising California for leading the country on a long overdue discussion of racial justice and equity. The state's Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is assisting the task force, said, California was not a passive actor in perpetuating these harms." A similar effort is underway to delve into what Newsom has called California's dark history of violence, mistreatment and neglect of Native Americans. The report by the Truth and Healing Council, due in 2025, could include recommendations for reparations. Many tribes across the country have sought to acquire their ancestral land and co-manage public land. The African American reparations task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all Black people in the U.S. Four hundred years of discrimination has resulted in an enormous and persistent wealth gap between Black and white Americans, said the report by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. These effects of slavery continue to be embedded in American society today and have never been sufficiently remedied. The governments of the United States and the State of California have never apologized to or compensated African Americans for these harms. California is home to the fifth-largest Black population in the U.S., after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation. African Americans make up less than 6% of Californias population yet they are overrepresented in jails, youth detention centers and prisons. About 28% of people imprisoned in California are Black and in 2019, 36% of minors ordered into state juvenile detention facilities were African Americans, according to the report. Black Californians earn less and and are more likely to be poor than white residents. In 2018, Black residents earned on average just under $54,000 compared to $87,000 for white Californians. We dont own homes and if you look at why theres such a huge disparity between African Americans and white Americans and our ability to hold onto and sustain wealth, its because we dont own homes, said Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a task force member. The task force's sweeping initial recommendations include prison system reforms. Inmates should not be forced to work and if they do, they must be paid fair market wages. Inmates should also be allowed to vote and people with felony convictions should serve on juries. The group recommends creating a state-subsidized mortgage program to guarantee low rates for qualifying African American applicants, free health care, free tuition to California colleges and universities and scholarships to African American high school graduates to cover four years of undergraduate education. The committee also calls for a Cabinet-level secretary position to oversee an African American Affairs agency with branches for civic engagement, education, social services, cultural affairs and legal affairs. It would help people research and document their lineage to a 19th-century ancestor so they could qualify for financial restitution. People opposed to paying reparations argue that California did not have plantations or Jim Crow era laws as in the South. But the interim report spells out how California, despite being free, perpetuated harms that have compounded over generations. It noted that Missouri native Basil Campbell was purchased for $1,200 and forced to move to California's Yolo County in 1854, leaving behind his wife and two sons. Campbell eventually paid off his purchase price, married and became a landowner. But when his sons petitioned for a portion of his estate after his death, a California judge ruled that marriage between two enslaved people is not a marriage relation. More recently, it said, the home of Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin was assessed at a much lower price because it was located in a primarily Black part of upscale Marin County, where African Americans were forced to live starting in World War II. The report should offer other cities and states and ultimately the federal government a blueprint for seeking reparations, members said. Over the next year, the task force will take on the difficult task of crafting an apology and creating a reparations plan to compensate for and stop the harm. The big question is: What are they going to do with it? The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response, said Hansford, the law professor. We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address ... the recommendations offered in the report. AP writers Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix, Arizona, and Felicia Fonseca in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed. 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. ST. LOUIS (AP) Two current and one former St. Louis aldermen have been indicted on charges accusing them of taking bribes and misusing their offices for personal gain, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Lewis Reed, president of the Board of Aldermen, Alderman Jeffery Boyd, and John Collins-Muhammed, who resigned last month as an alderman, were indicted on May 25, the U.S. attorney's office said in a news release. All three men pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Thursday afternoon, KSDK-TV reported. All the men face two bribery-related charges. Collins-Muhammad also has been indicted on one count of bribery/wire fraud. Boyd faces a separate two-count wire fraud indictment alleging he sought $22,000 in insurance claims for damage to vehicles that he didn't own. Collins-Muhammed and Reed are accused of helping a small-business owner receive a property tax abatement in exchange for several bribes. Reed also allegedly received a new phone, a car and campaign contributions in exchange for his help. The indictment also alleges that Reed asked the business owner for $20,000 in campaign cash as part of an effort to redraw the ward map to protect Collins-Muhammad from activists who wanted to recall him from office. Boyd is accused of taking bribes to help the same business owner buy a city property for thousand of dollars less than it was worth and to obtain a tax abatement on that property. The business owner was eventually able to buy the property, which was valued at $50,000, for $14,000, according to the indictment. KSDK reported Boyds lawyer said he will not resign as alderman and suggested Reed may also stay on the job. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, KSDK-TV. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. UVALDE, Texas (AP) The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and it's unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshall Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. 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. China will speed up the implementation of a package of policy measures to maintain stable economic performance and ensure that market entities and the people are well-informed of these policy steps and benefit to the fullest extent, according to a decision made at the State Council's Executive Meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. The meeting noted that the policy package, introduced in line with the overall thinking and policy orientation decided at the Central Economic Work Conference and outlined in the Government Work Report, is mainly aimed at increasing the speed and effectiveness of policy implementation. They are crucial and timely measures for overall economic stability with a properly-heightened intensity, as well as fine-tuned execution of macro policies targeting the needs of market entities, in an effort to raise efficiency without compromising long-term interests. Thanks to swift actions across government departments, good progress has been made in rolling out detailed implementation plans for the 33 policies in six aspects. "Since the announcement of the policy package, government departments have all taken proactive steps," Li said. "We must redouble our efforts, in particular to accelerate policy implementation." The meeting stressed the need to fully examine the policy package and further flesh out each and every measure to make sure all those eligible should be fully informed and benefit to the fullest extent. The newly-added amount of 140-billion-yuan value added tax credit refunds should be basically delivered by July. Policy banks will increase the credit line by another 800 billion yuan to provide financial support for infrastructure building, and a mechanism will be set up to meet the needs of key projects. All eligible migrant workers who have lost their jobs, whether covered by the unemployment insurance scheme or not, will receive provisional living allowances or other forms of relief. Primary responsibility for paying such allowances should be made clear. With regard to the deferral of principal and interest repayments on the 90-billion-yuan commercial truck loans extended by centrally-managed auto companies, the enterprises concerned will be encouraged to inform loan-takers of the deferral procedures through online announcements, text messages and other means. Other policies also need to be fleshed out to see that they are operable and can be delivered on the ground. Policy implementation will be closely tracked, and improvements made whenever needed. "Supporting measures and detailed guidelines for the policies are of critical importance. Detailed implementation plans should be swiftly introduced and easy to act on, and all those eligible should be fully informed of the policies and benefit from them, so that market entities and the people can enjoy the policy dividends in a timely way," Li said. The meeting called for deepening reform of government functions. Vigorous steps will be made to see that no deliberate application is required for those eligible to benefit from the policies and that more services will be accessible online. To smooth logistics in both trunk and branch routes and facilitate early resumption of full-capacity production, the bottlenecks must be pinpointed, relevant measures should be improved, and targeted assistance to key enterprises will be intensified. On investment projects, all localities and departments concerned should keep work logs, improve approval procedures and provide greater support in land use and other aspects, to enable the launch of projects as quickly as possible. Free and smooth passage of summer harvest agricultural machinery should be ensured. Measures will be implemented to support the listing of platform companies on domestic and overseas markets in accordance with laws and regulations, and ease the restrictions on car purchases. "We must foster an enabling business environment for economic development through the reform of government functions, and solve difficult issues and unleash the vitality and creativity of market players with reform-based and market-orientated measures," Li said. The meeting urged tighter supervision on policy implementation. The task forces dispatched to 12 provinces by the State Council are required to formulate reports based on on-site inspection as soon as possible, and prominent problems found in the policy implementation will be made public. Major indicators of the second quarter, including local GDP, surveyed urban unemployment rate, fiscal revenue after deducting tax refunds, and consumer prices will be released in a fact-based manner by the statistics authorities together with the finance, human resources and social security, and tax authorities on a province-specific basis, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. PARIS (AP) Members of the French diplomatic corps dropped their traditional reserve on Thursday to go on a rare strike, angered by a planned reform they worry will hurt their careers and Frances standing in the world. It was the second such strike in nearly 20 years. About 100 diplomats dropped the veil of invisibility that often defines their work to demonstrate in full view of the imposing Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the home base for the foreign service. In overseas posts, ranging from Tokyo to the Middle East and Washington, numerous diplomats, including some ambassadors, honored the day-long strike. They want President Emmanuel Macron to scrap a plan to merge career diplomats with a larger body of civil servants, starting in January, or at least hold a dialogue. The plan, announced by Macron in an April decree, will reportedly affect about 800 diplomats. Opponents claim thats just the beginning. We risk the disappearance of our professional diplomacy, a group of 500 diplomats, wrote in a commentary published last week in Le Monde newspaper. Today, (diplomatic) agents ... are convinced it is the very existence of the ministry that is now being put into question. The planned change comes amid the war in Ukraine and complex negotiations over Irans nuclear program, and while France holds the European Unions rotating presidency. Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, herself a career diplomat, has not commented. However, she will meet Tuesday with unions and representatives of the protest movement for an initial listening session, the ministry said. Demonstrators held a large banner reading Professional Diplomats on Strike during the protest across from the ministry, known as the Quai d'Orsay for its location by the River Seine. To say that diplomacy is in danger, that word may be too strong, said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a former ambassador to China, Japan and Britain, who was taking part in the public protest near the ministry. But, he added, diplomacy will be weakened, at a time when those skills are especially needed. "To become an ambassador, before getting to the top of the ladder, it is necessary to actually tick some boxes," said another demonstrating diplomat, identifying himself only as Benjamin. "And this reform supports the idea that there is no need for such skills." Like others not yet at the top rung, he declined to give his full name. The government reform is meant to modernize and diversify France's diplomatic corps, created in the 16th century, and to bring down the walls of what some in the government see as an elite institution turned in on itself. It will put diplomats into a large pool from all branches of public service, encouraging switches to other ministries and forcing personnel to compete with outsiders for prized diplomatic posts. Diplomats contend their job requires specialization and expertise acquired over years in posts around the world and has no room for amateurs. Today, I am on strike, Deputy Ambassador to the United States Aurelie Bonal tweeted. "Diplomats negotiate, talk, compromise. They generally do not go on strike." Bonal raised yet another worry that protesting diplomats contend the change could generate: cronyism. Without a diplomatic corps, it will be much easier for the (government) to appoint friends at all levels of diplomatic jobs, she tweeted. Dominique de Villepin, a former prime minister and foreign minister known for an eloquent 2003 speech at the United Nations in which he declared French opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, labeled the pending reform in a tweet last month A historic fault. For France, the loss of diplomats separate status in the civil service means a loss of independence, a loss of competence, a loss of memory that will weigh heavily on the years ahead, Villepin tweeted. Even before Macrons decree, frustration had festered in the Foreign Ministrys halls over cuts in funding, personnel and outsourcing. The group commentary in Le Monde deplored decades of marginalization of the ministrys role within the (French) state as well as a vertiginous reduction in personnel down by 30% in 10 years, the diplomats claim. Funding, they said, is but 0.7% of the state budget. The Twitter hashtag, #diplo2metier, shows a number of ambassadors around the world joining in or supporting Thursday's strike. I will be on strike ... to protest the reform of the diplomatic corps and the continued reduction of means for our diplomacy, French Ambassador to Kuwait Claire Le Flecher tweeted on her personal account. Bonal, the deputy ambassador to the United States, said the job of diplomat is more than gorging on Ferreros in touristic countries. The truth is we also visit morgues & jails; we work very late hours, not always in safe countries," she tweeted. Its a vocation, not a 3-year experience. Bonal said she was among those who went on the first such strike in 2003, a protest over budget cuts. Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Northeastern State University will start a new bachelors degree program in mechanical engineering to help meet Oklahomas workforce challenges. Debbie Landry, NSU provost and vice president of academic affairs, said there is a growing demand for mechanical engineers to help the state fill in-demand jobs. She added the occupation plays a role in nearly every aspect of modern life and has been identified by Oklahoma Works, the states workforce development initiative housed in the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development, as a critical occupation. According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, employment for mechanical engineers is projected to rise across Oklahoma by 6.2% and to grow in the Tulsa metropolitan area by 7.11% between 2018 and 2028. The university plans to welcome the first cohort of mechanical engineering majors at NSU this fall, adding the institution has begun the enrollment process, Landry said. Students can expect a quality, well-developed curriculum that will be rigorous yet rewarding, she said. Pamela Hathorn, dean of the Gregg Wadley College of Science & Health Professions, said adding a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering degree has been a work in progress for many years. She said when the university developed its applied physics degree this was the beginning of eventually building out to offering an engineering degree. Landry said some current NSU applied physics majors are even considering changing majors. 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. SAND SPRINGS Forever is a very long time. But, then, it was a very long time ago 53 years, to be exact that Webco Industries founder F. William Bill Weber began his company to provide manufacturers of heat exchangers with tubing. On Wednesday, Webco once again looked to the future as company officials turned dirt to mark the beginning of construction on the F. William Weber Leadership Campus. In more than 72,000 square feet of space, the building will house Webcos corporate leadership team, Webco University and the Webco Tech Center. The land was purchased from the Sand Springs Economic Development Authority, and the campus will occupy about 35 acres adjacent to Webcos existing Star Center Tube Manufacturing plant on Oklahoma 51 in Sand Springs. Construction is expected to take about 18 months, and while construction costs are still in flux, Webco reported that the initial building will represent a capital investment in the tens of millions of dollars. Dana Weber, Webco Industries CEO and board chairwoman, said her father, for whom the campus is named, would be so pleased and so proud and so excited for the future, especially because he was so excited about the Technology Center and so excited about Webco U and bringing it all together on this campus. I think he would be very thrilled. She said her father was likely to disagree with only one element of the new campus having his name on it. He always felt like it was everybody doing it together, she said. And hes right, but he was the one who led the way. Bill Weber died in September 2018, just two months before the company began a yearlong commemoration of its 50th anniversary. Mike Jamison of Sand Springs feels like he has been employed by Webco forever and thats a good thing. Officially employee No. 64, he started working for Webco in 1973. You just dont find people who stay in companies that long anymore unless that company is worth staying for, he said. Jamison, a business sales development manager for the company, said he knew Bill Weber very well and thinks the Leadership Campus is a sign that his vision is still alive and well. I think its just going to continue on, he said. Were here for the long term. David Boyer, president and COO of Webco Industries, in explaining to the crowd why Bill Webers vision took time to become reality, said: Sometimes its just not the right time to boldly expand. The right thing is not always next, but the next right thing is how Webco seeks forever best. The F. William Weber Leadership Campus is our next right thing. Sand Springs Mayor Jim Spoon said Webcos expansion in the area has made a huge impact on whats going to happen in Sand Springs in the future. I cant tell you how much ... we love and appreciate Webco being a good citizen, a great part of our community and a great part of what we see as growth and the good things that will happen in Sand Springs, he said. We also love the fact that youre bringing the future to Sand Springs. Oklahoma Executive Director of Commerce Brent Kisling discussed how job creation is not a task best left to the government. Its all of our mission within government to help create an environment where businesses can create jobs, he said. Thats what were celebrating here today. But its not just about jobs and taxes and revenues, he added. The reason we do economic development is so we have opportunities for that next generation to stay close to families, Kisling said. Webco is making that investment here for that next generation. Dana Weber said building the new campus adjacent to the Star Center was an easy decision. We wanted to stay here because we love Sand Springs and theyve been so good to us for so many years, she said. Following the presentation, she and her sisters shoveled dirt onto trees being planted at the site to represent the companys intention to continue to put down roots. Webco also made a donation to Sand Springs Keystone Ancient Forest in recognition of everyone who attended the ceremony. We view investments like our Leadership Campus and Tech Center as an integral part of our path forward, Dana Weber said. They are the seeds were planting today to support Webcos operations long into the future. Maybe even forever. 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. 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. A motorcyclist who reportedly was fleeing from Skiatook police was killed Sunday when he crashed in a construction site in Tulsa. Tulsa Police Department investigators are looking into the fatal pursuit, Capt. Richard Meulenberg said Wednesday. The chase reportedly began on Elm Street near Oklahoma 11 in Skiatook, he said. About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, a Skiatook police officer pursued the motorcyclist into the construction zone at 31st Street and Peoria Avenue in Tulsa. Both vehicles reportedly bypassed road closure signs near the bridge construction, and the motorcycle struck a piece of heavy construction equipment. The police car reportedly struck a construction trailer, but the officer was able to get out of the cruiser and attempt first aid on the motorcyclist. The motorcyclist, whose name has not been released, died at the scene, according to Meulenberg, who said the initial reason for the pursuit remains under investigation. Investigators will attempt to determine whether the motorcyclist was struck by the Skiatook police cruiser, but reports are unclear about the circumstances of the crash, police 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. A judge expressed support Wednesday for two settlement agreements reached in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a man who died after an encounter with police during which he was shocked multiple times with a stun gun. Chief U.S. District Judge John Heil III said at the conclusion of a fairness hearing in Tulsa federal court that he would issue written orders very soon to approve the settlements in the case, brought by the family of Joshua Harvey. Harvey, 25, died at a hospital three days after two Tulsa police officers used stun guns to shock him multiple times at a downtown bank while trying to detain him on Aug. 24, 2018. Harveys estate filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2020, naming the city of Tulsa, the officers involved in Harveys arrest, former Police Chief Chuck Jordan and the ambulance company whose employees treated Harvey, American Medical Response Ambulance Service Inc. Heil said the fairness hearing was required under state law since a portion of the court settlement is designated to go to Harveys minor child. I do find the settlement represents the best interests of the child, Heil said. The city of Tulsa has agreed to pay $175,000 to Harveys estate to settle its portion of the lawsuit, according to court records. In November, Harveys estate reached an undisclosed settlement with the ambulance company that treated and transported him to a hospital after his arrest. The agreements both call for 70% of the settlement proceeds to be deposited in an interest-bearing bank account to be available for his minor son when he turns 18. Roma Presley, Harveys mother, will receive the remaining 30% of the settlement proceeds after attorney fees and costs. Presley, who is the special administrator of Harveys estate, said she will use the proceeds to help fund a nonprofit organization that promotes outreach for substance abuse and mental health awareness. Harvey had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to court documents. Alethea Carroll, Harveys aunt and adoptive mother to his son, said she understood that she would receive nothing from the settlement and that it precluded her from litigating the issue again in the future. Prior to the encounter with police, Harvey had been ranting and ripping off his clothes near the Arvest Bank at Fifth and Main streets, witnesses said. They said a glass door to the bank that was magnetically held shut shattered when Harvey forced it open about the time police reached the unarmed man. One officer used a stun gun on Harvey after the man ran into the bank building. A second officer soon followed suit. Police deployed their stun guns on Harvey a total of 27 times, according to court records. An Oklahoma Medical Examiners Office autopsy report determined that Harveys probable cause of death was a cardiovascular condition exacerbated by drug use and exertion. Court records indicate that the cash settlement from the city will be paid from the citys sinking fund, an account established to pay legal settlements through ad valorem taxes. The city of Tulsa has enough revenue in its sinking fund that it can afford to pay the settlement in full rather than in installments, according to court records. A city of Tulsa spokeswoman declined to comment on the settlement. 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 Cherokee Nation says it no longer intends to turn a north Tulsa commercial property into a courthouse. The announcement comes a week after Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. went on social media to dispel a rumor that the tribe intended to place a jail in the North Pointe Shopping Center. He also agreed to postpone the tribes appearance before a city zoning board until June 28 to give all parties involved, including residents of north Tulsa, more time to discuss the proposal. Cherokee Nation has been listening carefully to the concerns of community leaders of north Tulsa about our potential purchase of the North Pointe property, Hoskin said Tuesday in a prepared statement. Based on these concerns, we are no longer exploring using the space for a courthouse. We are also no longer seeking a zoning variance from the Tulsa Board of Adjustment. However, the tribe does remain open to purchasing the building, which is on the northeast corner of Pine Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Hoskin said the tribe will continue evaluating how the building could be used to support the Cherokee Nations needs and growth in north Tulsa. This process will involve community input and engagement with various community stakeholders, as well as state and local officials, and we look forward to having these discussions, Hoskin said. City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper, who represents the district in which the shopping center is located, welcomed the news. It was Hall-Harper who requested that last weeks BOA meeting be postponed. We will be meeting with the Cherokee Nation so we can determine moving forward what is best for all involved, she said. They obviously had concerns and needs that they are trying to meet through their tribe and their tribal members, but you also are smack-dab in the middle of a community, a Black community, who are not tribal members. How can we work collectively, collaboratively, to try to meet the needs of all concerned? They are willing to do that, and I appreciate that. The Cherokee Nation District Court and Cherokee Nation Supreme Court are in Tahlequah. The part of Tulsa that is roughly north of Admiral Place and east of Tisdale Parkway is within the Cherokee Reservation. According to the tribes rezoning application to the Board of Adjustment, the Cherokee Nation has for several years been looking to establish a location within its reservation where it could provide day-to-day civic services and conduct other operations for its growing population in Tulsa. The need for those services has only increased since the U.S. Supreme Courts historic 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, according to the rezoning application. Hoskins statement Tuesday made no reference to whether the tribe hopes to find another site to establish an additional courthouse. 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. China is carrying out its summer harvest at full throttle in a bid to ensure adequate grain supply. During a meeting last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the summer harvest is of great significance to attaining the country's annual grain production target. He urged the smooth logistics of agricultural equipment and personnel and called on governments at all levels to "waste no time and leave no single grain unharvested" during the harvesting season. Traditionally, the summer harvest spans from May to late June in China every year, with most of the work focusing on reaping winter wheat, a staple grain crop, and oilseed rape. The grain output in the period takes up about a quarter of the annual total. In keeping with the nation's pledge to keep its 2022 grain output above 650 billion kg, the wheat harvest is proceeding smoothly across the country. As of May 28, the harvested area for winter wheat had exceeded 2.5 million hectares, with Sichuan and Hubei, two agricultural powerhouses, having completed the majority of their wheat harvest tasks. AID IN PLACE The province of Henan is China's largest wheat producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of the country's total wheat yields and planting area. However, due to the latest COVID-19 resurgences, tightened prevention measures impeded some rural migrant workers' return to their farmlands in their hometowns. In the face of such challenging circumstances, local governments have made multi-pronged efforts to facilitate summer harvest. Their measures include the formation of emergency crop-harvesting teams and the launch of a green channel through which highway inspections and COVID-19 screenings involving farm equipment transport are expedited. Considering that this year's total area of summer grain remains roughly flat compared with the 2021 level, the provincial authorities expect a bumper summer harvest despite the COVID-19 headwinds. With Henan serving as an example, the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has urged local departments to better coordinate COVID-19 containment with summer harvest, and work concertedly with healthcare, transport and energy departments to unclog the logistics to ensure timely grain production. While ramping up the monitoring and early warning of meteorological disasters, the ministry has also dispatched nine work teams to major wheat-producing provinces such as Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu to provide instructions. In terms of policy incentives, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration recently said that it would raise the minimum purchase prices for rice and wheat in major grain-producing regions, amid efforts to safeguard farmers' interests and stabilize the grain market. Another case in point is the Agricultural Development Bank of China, a policy bank, announcing the loan issuance of 110 billion yuan (about 16.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the purchasers of summer grain. The bank said that the amount, if necessary, would be increased to ensure a "steady and orderly summer harvest." SCI-TECH IMPETUS "Thanks to those new machines, we have harvested two-thirds of our crops in three days," said Han Lei, a villager of Jiazhuang village in east China's Anhui, pointing at four crop harvesters in the oilseed rape fields. The upgraded crop harvesters reduce losses in the reaping process by half compared to conventional methods, Han told Xinhua. Anhui has long been renowned for its rapeseed plantations. On mechanizing agriculture, the province's agriculture authorities have said that some 200,000 units of combine harvesters are to be put into use this year, and the proportion of machine harvesting will remain at around 99 percent across the region. Cutting-edge technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and automatic irrigation systems, are also used in crop fields, increasing production efficiency remarkably. "I have four drones and with their help, I completed spraying pesticide on my crops in eight hours last month," Shang Yue, a wheat farmer in Anhui, told Xinhua, adding that UAVs play a crucial role in his crop management every day, including crop protection and pesticide spraying. "Such comprehensive mechanization has boosted my confidence in crop production," Shang said. Research institutes, meanwhile, are seeking sci-tech breakthroughs to further beef up the country's grain output. Last month, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that it would launch a research and development campaign to help expand the yields of five staple grains -- rice, wheat, corn, soybeans and potatoes. The academy added that it will focus on selecting high-quality varieties, nurturing core technologies and promoting yield-increasing skills. Two orthopedic surgeons, a medical office staffer and a patient visitor were killed in a mass shooting Wednesday on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The gunman reportedly was able to purchase a semi-automatic rifle just hours before the slayings targeting a specific physician, according to investigators. Mayor G.T. Bynum and officials from Saint Francis Health System and Tulsa Police Department offered more details Thursday on the shooting that left four innocent people dead, as well as the gunman. The victims were identified by Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin as Dr. Preston Phillips, 59; Dr. Stephanie Husen, 48; receptionist Amanda Glenn, 40; and William Love, 73. A family member of Glenn's said the chief misspoke when identifying her last name during the news conference. The shooter, who police say killed himself, was identified as Michael Louis of Muskogee, a patient of Phillips' who had recently been treated for back pain following a May 19 surgery. Franklin said Glenn was a receptionist and that Love was a patient, but later a police spokesman said Love was with a patient. "They stood in the way, and Louis gunned them down," the police chief said. He said Love reportedly held a door closed to allow another injured person to escape the office. Franklin said Louis' wife confirmed with police that he blamed Phillips for his ongoing pain issues after being discharged May 24 following his surgery. She said Louis contacted her to let her know what he had done, but Franklin said she was not aware in advance of the shooting. Louis reportedly had been seen by Phillips' office for a follow-up on his pain the day before the shooting. According to investigators, the 45-year-old purchased an AR-15-style rifle about an hour prior to the shooting from a local retailer, Franklin said. Louis bought the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol used in the shootings from an area pawn shop on Sunday. Officers at the shooting scene found 30 shell casings from the rifle and seven from the pistol rounds, Franklin said. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The second of two self-described members of an anti-government extremist group accused in Minnesota of dealing firearm components to informants acting as members of Hamas is headed to prison. Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 24, of Hampstead, North Carolina, was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to four years behind bars. He pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Authorities say Teeter and Michael Robert Solomon, 32, of New Brighton, Minnesota, sold silencers to FBI informants during the unrest following George's Floyd's killing, with the goal of raising money for the boogaloo movement. Solomon was sentenced in March to three years in prison. Teeter and Solomon told an informant in June 2020 about a courthouse in northern Minnesota that they believed was a suitable target for destruction, authorities said. The next month, according to court documents, Teeter and Solomon delivered five silencers to an informant, as well as a 3D printed auto sear they believed would be used by Hamas to convert rifles from semi-automatic to fully automatic. Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyds neck. His death sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. OKLAHOMA CITY House Democrats on Thursday called for massive changes to the states gun laws. The Democrats held a Capitol press conference that they said was set prior to the Wednesday shootings on the Saint Francis Hospital campus in Tulsa, which ended with five dead, including the gunman. The changes they requested arent likely to get much traction in the Republican-controlled Legislature, given the broad support for lifting restrictions on guns. Rep. Monroe Nichols, D-Tulsa, said Democrats are asking that the Legislatures special session call be amended to include the topic of gun control. Gov. Kevin Stitt has called a special session for June 13 to eliminate the sales tax on groceries and reduce the income tax. Meanwhile, lawmakers have called themselves into special session to expedite the spending of $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds. From a state policy standpoint, Oklahoma is not doing enough to prevent mass shootings, Nichols said. He said Democrats are proposing the Stand Against Violence and Extremism Act, dubbed SAVE. Nichols listed Democrats goals: enact a red flag law, repeal the permitless-carry law, repeal the concealed-carry law in zoos and public parks, implement a waiting period and raise the age requirement for the purchase of firearms to 21. Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, chairman of the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus, led a failed effort to repeal the permitless-carry law three years ago. I truly believe that the state of Oklahoma believes in this and our plan, Lowe said. Background checks will prevent dangerous individuals from possessing firearms, he said. Proper training is needed for those who purchase AR-15s, Lowe added. Red flag laws that would identify individuals who have mental illnesses are needed, Lowe said. It is unfortunate that this male-dominated Legislature is mostly concerned with childrens bathrooms and regulating a womans right to health care as opposed to making sure our kids are safe, making sure individuals who are dangerous do not have access to firearms, Lowe said. Lawmakers last session passed a bill that would require students to use the restroom of their biological sex. Lawmakers also passed bills banning abortion. Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, said that all too often bills to lessen gun control whiz across the chamber and are signed into law. I think we all understand it is not a matter of if it is going to happen; it is a matter of when, Goodwin said. Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairwoman Alicia Andrews held a separate press conference to ask residents to vote out politicians who do not support stronger restrictions on guns. Thoughts and prayers dont change anything, Andrews said. She noted that in a single week, Oklahoma has seen two mass shootings, referring to Tulsa and Taft. Andrews was joined by Oklahoma County Democratic Party Chairwoman Robbie White and Sherie Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma. Dickerson said she was disgusted by the lack of response by those in power who could bring real change. If lawmakers will not commit to limit access, they need to be voted out, White said. 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. Oklahoma lawmakers worried about election security stirred up some dust during the recently completed legislative session, but it may have settled on more confusion than change. Most of the dozen or so election-related bills that made it through the sausage grinder into statute are primarily technical in nature. Extreme measures, such as requiring every voter in the state to reregister, did not make the cut. No new laws of substance affect the upcoming June 28 primaries although a few from last year do. Long term, a few of this years bills could complicate the voting process for some Oklahomans, especially those who use absentee ballots, move around or have unusual living arrangements or are dead. To be clear, Oklahomas graveyard vote has grown exceedingly small, but lawmakers were concerned enough to address it this spring, along with such things as canceling registrations of people who move out of state and multiple registrations at one address. Most affected are those who vote by absentee ballot. A law passed last year now requires that requests for absentee ballots be submitted at least 15 days before the election, about a week earlier than previously. Although the law took effect Jan. 1, many voters may be encountering it for the first time this summer. In order to receive a mail absentee ballot for the June 28 primary, the request must be submitted by June 13. Beginning July 1, online requests must include the identification number drivers license number or last four Social Security number digits listed on the persons voter registration. Applicants can list both numbers if they cant remember which is on their registration. An exception to the new law is allowed for registrations without identification numbers, but only through the end of the year. The exception does not apply to registrations with neither identification numbers nor birthdates. Absentee requests using those registrations must be made in person. Most such registrations, said Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax, date from before the mid-1990s, when such information was not standard. Thats led to concerns that those most likely to struggle with the new law will be older people. Well try to make it as easy to comply as possible, Ziriax said. Addresses are also going under the microscope. New state laws are pickier are about where voter identification cards can be sent and quicker to cancel some registrations. With a few exceptions, beginning next year, new voter registration cards will be mailed only to physical addresses rather than post office boxes. Physical address with more than five registered voters will be sent confirmation cards, which if not returned likely will result in cancellation of any or all five registrations. Separately, 10 or more registrations at an address will be subject to investigation by a district attorney. Ziriax said Cleveland County recently looked into 27 registrations at one address and found it to be a United Parcel Service store that rents mail boxes. The people involved were advised to change their registrations, Ziriax said. The law requires cancellation of existing registrations if a person is found to have moved to another county or another state or if a person surrenders their Oklahoma drivers license to obtain a license in another state. New voter registration cards were mailed this spring to everyone on Tulsa Countys rolls and to many registered voters across the state because of Census-related redistricting and precinct reorganization. New laws require all of those returned as undeliverable to be noted on the rolls, as well as subsequently returned cards. It does occasionally happen usually the result of someone submitting an absentee ballot and then dying before election day or a family member submitting an absentee ballot requested by a spouse or parent who died before completing it. There are also new laws about checking the rolls for felons and others ineligible to vote. The stated purpose of the new laws is to make certain people dont vote illegally, although opponents of some of the measures say the new laws are more likely to confuse people and exclude people on the margins, such as those who move frequently or are homeless. In any event, one demographic that almost everyone agrees shouldnt vote are the dead, and the Legislature worked hard to make sure that happens even less than it already does. The State Election Board receives monthly lists of deaths reported to the Oklahoma Department of Health, and the rolls are updated accordingly, but Ziriax said once in a while a name slips through, usually because a name on a death certificate does not exactly match the persons voter registration. The name remains on the rolls until someone, usually a family member, alerts election officials. One of the new laws taking effect next year requires funeral directors to notify the Health Department when someone dies (currently its voluntary) and for death certificates to include the deceased drivers license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, when available. 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. If you drive down Riverside Drive/Parkway or over the 71st Street bridge, one thing may catch your eye: How high the water level seems to be along the Arkansas River this week. And you would be correct. Current levels in Tulsa are the highest they have been in over a years time. It started on May 23-24 when heavy rain of nearly 2 to 6 inches fell over Keystone Lake, as well as the Cimarron and Arkansas rivers that flow into Keystone Lake, causing the lake level to rise to the top of what is known as the conservation pool, according to Nicole McGavock, service hydrologist for the National Weather Service. The top of the conservation pool for Keystone Lake is 723 feet, and the goal of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is to keep the lake at that 723-foot level, McGavock said. Any water above the 723-foot mark is considered flood control pool, or a storage of flood water. Once any flooding downstream is done, then the USACE will release water from the Keystone Dam in balance with the other lakes in the system to help lower the lake levels back down to 723 feet. As of Wednesday morning, the release from the Keystone Dam was at 45,000 cubic feet per second. But that is far less than the 275,000 cfs released during the historic flood of May 2019. Part of the field of operations (at USACE) is balance, said David Williams, chief of hydrology and hydraulics with the USACE. We want to get the reservoirs down in unison together. Keystone had a priority last Wednesday after all the rainfall. So we began to release water at 45,000 cubic feet per second. And while this may seem like a lot of water, and it is, it is still only one-third of capacity. As of Wednesday, the Arkansas River gauge at Tulsa was observed at 9 feet, above the normal 5-foot level, which was recorded just last week on May 25. But it is nowhere near the flood stage of 18 feet. Williams said operators will continue to keep the Keystone release at 45,000 cubic feet per second through the end of the week. At that time, they plan to re-evaluate to see if they decrease the flow through the dam. Based on current conditions, I dont expect any increases at the Keystone Dam at this time, Williams said. Of course, this is subject to any additional rainfall we may see. As of Wednesday, clear skies were forecast for Thursday and Friday, but there is another chance for showers and storms by the weekend. Local Weather Get the daily forecast and severe weather alerts in 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. As post-COVID-19 tourism booms, the homestay industry on Cam (Forbidden) Mountain in An Giang Province is ballooning to meet demand despite provincial regulations forbidding new tourism-related construction. While homestay owners look to cash-in on the boom, other residents in the province, located in Vietnam's Mekong Delta region, worry that rampant, unchecked construction could negatively impact the local way of life. The area near Cam Mountain, in particular, is a homestay hotbed, with the neighborhoods near Thuy Liem Lake and the Maitreye Buddha statue boasting at least seven homestays that are currently in operation and several households that appear to be making preparations to build more facilities ahead of the summer rush. More money, no problems Nguyen Thanh Tung, who owns Mai Tung Homestay, opened his five-room service behind the giant Buddha statue at beginning of the year. The majority of his guests are young people visiting the area to explore the forest and local mountainous landscapes. Room rates at Tungs homestay are VND300,000-450,000 (US$12.8-19.2) per night. I was given a VND4 million [$171] fine for the illegal construction [of my homestay], but my business is thriving and authorities have otherwise left me alone, Tung said. S., the owner of another homestay near Cam Mountain, recently built four wooden rooms and a big stilt house for travelers. I was asked to pay a VND4 million fine when I began building [my homestay]. I accepted the penalty because I believe that tourism is profitable, S. said. Local authorities should make it easier for residents to get involved in the tourist industry. Most of the homestays near Cam Mountain use tents with beds and pillows, rather than traditional rooms, to house guests. Our guests pay VND300,000 to VND500,000 [$21.4] per day for a tent. That doesnt include meals, said Si, the owner of Phu Si Homestay. Though Sis homestay is relatively modest, it does offer running water, electricity, and Wi-Fi to guests. According to an official on the Cam Mountain tourist site management board, the areas growing popularity amongst tourists is owed to the local landscapes and cuisine. Unfortunately, a 20-year ban on building new houses and tourist accommodations in the province has stunted the area's tourism growth. Solutions for improving the local tourism industry are suggested year after year, but how can the sector develop unless more accommodation is built near the mountain? the official said. In my opinion, if homestays built using bamboo, wood, and leaves are popular with tourists, the local government should support the construction of such facilities. Flexible management Tran Minh Hoa, head of the economic-infrastructure bureau of An Giangs Tinh Bien District, said many local residents have switched to tourism, and more and more homestays are popping up on the mountain. Among the seven homestays Hoa is aware of, two feature rooms with electricity and bathrooms. The others are still adding such amenities. I hope the residents on Cam Mountain can improve tourism standards. I suggest that the Tinh Bien Peoples Committee allow the use of simple materials for homestay construction," Hoa said. Its important for homestays to be able to provide amenities such as running water and toilets." Le Trung Hieu, director of An Giangs Trade and Investment Promotion Center, said that Cam Mountain, the highest of the Bay Nui (Seven Mountains), is ideal for tourism development thanks to its cool climate and variety of local fruits. Some households there have been successful with homestay business developed on their own land and are able to bring in lots of tourists," Hieu said. "If the provincial government provides the right incentives, the area will grow in the future. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A man armed with a rifle and a handgun killed four people inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday before fatally shooting himself, police said, in the latest of a series of mass shootings to rattle the United States. Police arrived at the St. Francis Hospital campus three minutes after receiving a call about the shooting on Wednesday afternoon and followed the sound of gunfire up to the Natalie Building's second floor, Tulsa deputy police chief Eric Dalgleish told reporters. The officers made contact with the victims and the suspect five minutes later, Dalgleish said. Emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting at the Warren Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 2022. Photo: REUTERS Police responses have come under increased scrutiny after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas school classroom last week while officers waited outside for nearly an hour. Asked by reporters whether police had refreshed training or thinking about active shooters after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, Dalgleish said: "I think that's probably fresh on everyone's minds." "I will say Tulsa revisits that topic regularly. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said. Emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting at the Warren Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 2022. Photo: REUTERS Wednesday's incident in Tulsa came on the heels of mass shootings that have reignited debates about gun control. Two weeks before the Uvalde shooting, a white gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Police in Tulsa said they were trying to determine the suspect's identity, who they estimated was aged between 35 and 40, and had no details yet on his motive. Emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting at the Warren Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 2022. Photo: REUTERS The Natalie Building contains doctors' offices including an orthopedic center, Dalgleish said, adding he believed the victims included employees and patients. The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and offered support to state and local officials in Tulsa, a city of some 411,000 people that sits around 100 miles (160 km) northeast of the capital Oklahoma City. Editors note: Having attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland last week, Karim Raslan, a Malaysian writer and a well-known Southeast Asian commentator, sent Tuoi Tre News a commentary on two experiences Vietnam should share with the world. Davos, the Alpine resort, attended by the gilded crowds of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a bacchanal that now seems antiquated, if not obsolete. Indeed, Vietnam with only two accredited participants, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai and Hue La, a successful businesswoman, once again underlined the importance of substance over rhetoric. The World Economic Forum is all about making money. Profit and loss are more important than anything else and in this respect, Vietnam is the real thing. Some even whisper that this is the decade where it will surpass Thailand in gross domestic product (GDP). At least in the predominantly Asian circles in which I moved, the constant refrain was: I wonder what the Vietnamese are doing or planning about this Indeed, the hardy Indochinese nation seems to figure in virtually every discussion about supply chains, electric batteries, and technology with policy-makers elsewhere in the region trying to figure out Vietnams next move. However, it would be too simplistic to leave any discussion of Vietnam just at its growing industrialization. Dominating the conference were two major themes, the global food crisis and Chinas mounting strength, where global leaders could learn from Vietnam. Looking at food, the figures are terrifying. Russia and Ukraine account for 12 percent of global calories including 28 percent of all traded wheat and 29 percent of all traded barley. So long as the war continues, much of these supplies will be removed from global circulation. Vietnam, however, is well positioned to ride out the crisis. Decades of investment in agriculture means that almost uniquely in the region, it is a large net exporter of agricultural products. Vietnam is now the larder of Southeast Asia. While Vietnam's rural policies (irrigation, dam-building, road construction, and agricultural training programs) cannot be duplicated overnight, countries conscious of the future would do well to learn from them. The contrast between it and, for example, the Philippines, where decades of underinvestment means that it imported 24.9 percent of its food in 2021, could not be stronger. As for dealing with China, perhaps no country has greater historical experience dealing with it. Subject to repeated invasions, Vietnam has good reason to be wary of China. However, Vietnam's proximity also gives it a unique insight into China's culture and history, to say nothing of the ongoing party-to-party links. It also means Vietnam has long accepted China has to be dealt with as a geopolitical and economic fact of life. The world would do well to learn from this careful balancing of caution and accommodation. As things stand the West, unused to having to deal with China as an equal, is responding to its rise with rather hysterical threats of economic decoupling. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently urged Congress to incentivize American semiconductor manufacturing, warning that its reliance on Taiwan (whose future remains a massive question mark), which supplies as much as 70 percent of its sophisticated computer chips, was untenable. Instead, America must make its own. Whether a liberal White House will truly embrace isolationism is debatable. But what ought to be clear is that even America may not be a reliable customer or trade partner for Asia, regional and global supply chains become the norm thanks to industrial policies in Europe and the U.S. aimed at securing control of vital technologies. Yet, the consequences of such a policy would be disastrous for both Southeast Asia and the West's own interests. The region's wealth has been built largely by exporting to the West. If foreign demand and investment were to disappear, who would step into the gap other than China? Instead, the West would do well to do as Asians do and look to Vietnam. China is not something that can be wished away but instead must be handled wisely, and without precipitate actions. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! It has been a year since the Law on Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) took effect on June 11, 2021. Over the past year, the implementation of the law and the ensuing regulations has provided legal and institutional guarantees for the construction and development of the Hainan FTP, thus becoming an important engine for promoting high-quality economic development and high-level reform and opening up of the province. The "Guiding Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Supporting Hainan to Comprehensively Deepen Reform and Opening Up," the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port," and the Law on Hainan FTP constitute the three institutional cornerstones for Hainan's development, Yang Jianhua, deputy head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, emphasized in an interview with the media on April 28. According to the law, Hainan is able to formulate regulations on the construction of the FTP in light of specific local circumstances and actual needs. Yang emphasized that to effectively implement the law, the right to formulate regulations should be made full use of, and the implementation of the law should be strengthened. As part of the efforts to create a favorable legal environment for accelerating the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics and global influence, Hainan would accelerate the implementation of the institutional arrangements on liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, fiscal and taxation systems, and eco-environmental protection, among others clarified by the FTP law, he said. Since the implementation of the Law on Hainan FTP, Hainan has successively issued supporting regulations on its business environment, fair competition, and combating fraud in consumption, among other areas, ensuring that major reforms and opening up are law-based. Data shows that the quality of Hainan's economic development has improved significantly. In 2021, the province's GDP increased by 11.2% year on year, ranking second in the country, fixed asset investment rose by 10.2% year on year, and total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 26.5% year on year. Cui Jian, deputy director of the Hainan provincial department of commerce, said at a press conference on May 17 that Hainan's actual use of foreign capital had achieved leapfrog growth. In 2021, the province's actual use of foreign capital reached 3.52 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, while its trade volume in goods reached a record high of 147.68 billion yuan, up 57.7% year on year, and 36.1 percentage points higher than the national figure. In addition, Cui also said that the pace of opening up in Hainan's consumer sector has accelerated. By the end of 2021, the number of duty-free shops opened in Hainan had increased from four to 10. Meanwhile, offshore duty-free sales in Hainan reached 60.2 billion yuan in 2021, up 84% year on year, and China's leading duty-free operator China Duty Free Group, which became the world's largest travel retailer in 2020, further consolidated its position in 2021. Going forward, in line with the international high-standard economic and trade rules, Hainan's commerce department would further promote institutional opening-up through improved rules, regulations, management and standards to continuously enhance Hainan's level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation as well as the breadth and depth of its opening up, Cui said. Check out the news you should not miss today: Society -- Trieu Quan Su, a convicted murderer, was captured while walking on a street in the north-central Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoa on Wednesday, one day after his third prison break. -- Three students from the northern Vietnamese province of Phu Tho drowned while swimming in a local river on Wednesday afternoon, an official confirmed, adding that their bodies were found later the same day. -- Two brothers drowned while playing near a pond in Dak Nong Province on Wednesday, according to local authorities. -- The Command of the Vietnam Coast Guard of Zone 4 announced on Wednesday that it had seized a ship stashing around 40,000 liters of illegal diesel oil. -- Police in Thanh Hoa on Wednesday confiscated 10 bricks of heroin and over 22,000 meth tablets from seven individuals of a transnational narcotics network operating across the Vietnam-Laos border. -- An anti-drug police officer from the north-central of Nghe An Province was shot in the thigh while capturing two drug transport and trafficking suspects earlier this week. Business -- The E5RON92 gasoline surged VND600 to VND30,239 a liter while that of RON95-III increased VND920 to VND31,573, as per a notice released by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade at 3:00 pm on Wednesday. ($1 = VND23,201) Education -- All seven members of the Vietnamese national team won medals, including three golds and four silvers at the 2022 Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad held online by Egypt, the Ministry of Education and Training said on Wednesday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A convicted murderer, who broke out of a prison in the north-central Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoa for the fourth time on Tuesday, was recaptured and put back behind bars less than a day following his escape. Trieu Quan Su, 32, was arrested in Thanh Hoas Ha Trung District on Wednesday afternoon, according to the provincial public security department. Su stole a bicycle from a local household following his escape but it malfunctioned so he purloined another, which he wound up selling for VND100,000 (US$4.31). Police officers in Ha Tung Districts Yen Duong Commune then captured Su while he was traveling toward National Highway 1. A manhunt was underway for Su following his escape from T-974 prison in Thach Thanh District, Thanh Hoa at around 5:00 pm on Tuesday. A notice for his capture was put out the same night, and provincial police and militia members were dispatched to search for him. Trieu Quan Su was recaptured on June 1, 2022 after escaping from prison for the fourth time. Photo: Danh Trong / Tuoi Tre This was Sus fourth escape from prison. In 2012, he murdered the owner of a coffee shop in Long Bien District, Hanoi and then robbed the store. In 2013, he received a life-sentence for murder, robbery, and desertion from the army. He escaped custody for the first time and was recaptured later in 2014. At the end of 2015, while serving his sentence in central Quang Ngai Province, Su once again escaped from prison. He was arrested a month later, and was sentenced to three additional years for escaping and another three years for robbery. Trieu Quan Su was recaptured on June 1, 2022 after escaping from prison for the fourth time. Photo: Danh Trong / Tuoi Tre In June 2020, while in prison in Quang Ngai, Su climbed the watchtower and escaped by climbing across a water pipe. He was apprehended 15 days later at a computer game shop in Tam Ky City, Quang Nam Province. He was serving a life sentence for murder, robbery, desertion, and prison break before his fourth escape on Tuesday. Police considered him highly dangerous. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Dominican man who allegedly murdered a Vietnamese student in the Japanese prefecture of Osaka could serve a sentence of 18 years behind bars if convicted. The proposal for the sentence was made at the trial, which started on May 16, for 26-year-old Alberto, a national of the Dominican Republic, according to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA). Alberto, an unemployed man with no fixed place of residence, was charged after intentionally attacking and pushing the victim, who was no longer able to resist, into a river. On August 2, 2021, Alberto beat and kicked the victim, T.T.A., a Vietnamese man, into the Dotonbori River in the Namba Park area in Osaka, causing the victims death on the evening of the same day, according to the indictment. Three days later, Osaka police arrested Alberto and initiated criminal proceedings against him for murder. After conducting an autopsy on the recovered body of the victim, police officers handed the corpse over to a Vietnamese pagoda in Hyogo Prefectures Kobe City to perform rituals for the deceased at the wish of his family. The pagoda conducted a funeral for A. on August 12 and his ashes were transported to Vietnam shortly after, according to VNA. During the trial, Alberto denied the charge and his lawyer argued that the victim was the first to attack and that the defendant only acted out of justifiable self-defense. Osakas prosecutors, however, pointed out clear evidence that Alberto intentionally assaulted A., who could not resist the attack, and then pushed the exhausted student into the river. Concluding that Albertos acts had resulted in the victims death, prosecutors insisted on the 18-year sentence for the defendant. The incident has caused a wave of anger both in Vietnam and in Vietnamese communities in Japan. Many say the proposed penalty is not enough. The court is scheduled to announce its official judgment on the defendant next Monday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Seven celebrates the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeths historic 70-year reign kicking off with the Trooping The Colours at 8.30pm tonight on Seven (Sydney/Brisbane) and 7TWO (Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth). Weekend Sunrise co-host Monique Wright will join Sevens European bureau chief Hugh Whitfeld and UK correspondent Sarah Greenhalgh in London. The Platinum Party at the Palace screens at 7pm on Sunday followed by a repeat of The Queen Unseen. In one of the most hotly-anticipated appearances since their Windsor wedding in 2018, royal rebels Prince Harry and wife, Meghan, will be the star attractions during Thursdays parade of carriages, with a cavalcade of senior royals travelling from the Palace, along The Mall to the Horse Guards parade grounds and back again. With the streets of London expected to be lined with more than 10,000 loyal fans and onlookers, the monarchs annual birthday parade is set to be watched by close to a billion people around the globe and will feature fun-size puppet corgis and a giant 3D wire bust of the Queen along the three-kilometre route. In a break from tradition, Queen Elizabeth is expected to take the salute from her military guards from the Buckingham Palace balcony handing the horseback duties to Prince William, who is expected to be resplendent in the Irish Guard uniform he wore to marry Kate Middleton 11 years ago. A less mobile monarch will be surrounded by her 73-year-old son and heir, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla; Duchess Kate and the three Cambridge children; as well as Princess Anne and Prince Edward with their spouses. Notably missing from the famed balcony snapshot will be the Sussexes and exiled Prince Andrew, who has been banished behind the scenes since being linked to the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise viewers will catch up on all the royal family action, with Wright to report during the breakfast programs and The Morning Show. On Sunday night, join Michael Usher on 7NEWS Spotlight for the gala concert, starring Sir Elton John, Sir Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, Queen + Adam Lambert, Diana Ross and a galaxy of stars set to perform during the 2.5-hour extravaganza. 7NEWS Special: Trooping The Colour 8.30pm tonight on Channel 7, 7two and 7plus 7NEWS Spotlight: Platinum Party At The Palace 7.00pm Sunday on Channel 7 and 7plus At 6pm on June 2, 1962, Australias 26th Television Station CTC 7 commenced transmission. Opening night included a documentary on the construction of the CTC studios, known as the tin shed, a film of the Queens Birthday Procession from the military barracks at Duntroon, The B.P. Super Show hosted by Margaret Fonteyn, detective series Michael Shayne and an epilogue. Broadcasting to Southern New South Wales & ACT, CTC has also had many different identities on-air including CTC-TV, Super 7, Capital 7, 10 TV Australia, Capital Television, Ten Capital, Southern Cross Ten, Channel 9 and Channel 10. CTC was a pioneer of colour television, commissioning the first purpose-built colour production studio and film laboratory in Australia. The new facility in Watson opened in 1974 boasting sales and administration, a full size production studio supplemented by two smaller studios for commercial recordings and on-air presentation. Over 80% of the broadcasts were in colour, five months before the official commencement date of 1 March 1975. Although technically in breach of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board rules, CTC was the first television station in Australia to broadcast the majority of its output in colour. The Watson studios stood until August 2020 when the demolition of the entire studio was completed to make way for a housing development. As the only commercial television station in Canberra, locals would often complain of big name television programs missing from the Canberra schedule, while cheap repeats of American sitcoms such as Bewitched and Gilligans Island were staples until the late 1980s. Hey Hey Its Saturday was never broadcast by CTC nor were Burkes Backyard, Wheel of Fortune, Sons and Daughters and Home & Away. Original shows included An Evening With, Tonight in Canberra, Tonight with Frank Jones, Meeting in the Middle, Constable Kenny on Duty, Rock Till Dawn, and The Up-Late Game Show hosted by Hot Dogs. Now under the ownership of Southern Cross Ten, it switched its affiliation back to Channel 10 from 1 July 2021. A reunion for former employees will be held on Saturday night. Source: Wikipedia Photo: RiotACT Former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes has been granted parole and will be deported to the United Kingdom. In 2014 Hughes was found guilty of 10 child sexual assault offences committed in the 1980s and given a minimum sentence of six years. He has been eligible for parole since April 2020 but has twice been knocked back. The NSW State Parole Authority today granted his application after Hughes had been assessed as at a medium to low risk of reoffending. In granting Hughes parole, the State Parole Authority considered that the offences were historical and took place in particular settings in which the offender abused his power and his position of trust. He no longer enjoys such power or trust, as a direct consequence of the convictions and the consequent widespread adverse publicity. The key reasons for release were said to be his below average risk of committing sex offences, his ineligibility for sex offender programs together with his family support and accommodation in the UK, the State Parole Authoritys determination by chairperson David Frearson SC said. Hughes is understood to be transferred from Long Bay Correctional Centre to Villawood Detention Centre ahead of his deportation. Recntly a dual citizen, he also renounced his Australian citizenship, which will see him return to the UK but subject to notification orders with monitoring by the British authorities under the Sexual Offences Act. INTERPOL has confirmed this would be the case. Former co-star Sarah Monahan, who travelled from the US, last week attended court and addressed media. 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. Source: ABC, Sydney Morning Herald A rebellious American teen finds family, friendship & the perfect wave after landing in a small Australian surfing town. Friday on Netflix. The Boys Physical The Orville Floor is Lava My First Threesome Former minister Tobias Ellwood (Kirsty OConnor/PA) (PA Wire) A Tory former minister has come under fire for suggesting the UK should rejoin the EU single market to ease the cost-of-living crisis. Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East, argued there is an appetite to make course corrections to the current model, claiming recent polling suggests this is not the Brexit most people imagined. If an Army general, mid-battle, is mature enough to finesse his strategy to secure mission success, then Government should do the same Tobias Ellwood The chairman of the Commons Defence Committee said more radical thinking is required if we are to energise our economy through these stormy waters. If an Army general, mid-battle, is mature enough to finesse his strategy to secure mission success, then Government should do the same, he added. He said Brexit in its current form had sparked a number of challenges, including shrinking exports to Europe and issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol, and that these and other problems would disappear if the UK chose to rejoin the single market. But he was met with forceful rebuttals from Tory colleagues, including Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat, who said: Lets plan for the future and stop looking back. This decision is made. No. The UK voted to leave the EU. That meant leaving the Single Market and putting an end to freedom of movement. The end. Yes, there are issues with the Protocol, but @trussliz, @BrandonLewis & @ConorBurnsUK are working to deal with those issues. https://t.co/wZusXEzGlI Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) June 1, 2022 Former chief whip Mark Harper said: The UK voted to leave the EU. That meant leaving the single market and putting an end to freedom of movement. The end. Story continues Treasury minister Simon Clarke said he was pleased to reassure Mr Ellwood that the UK would not be rejoining the single market, as this would extinguish half the freedoms that make Brexit so important. Former Brexit minister Lord Frost appeared to suggest that Mr Ellwood who has publicly said Prime Minister Boris Johnson no longer has his support would not be suited to the top job, saying: Brexit really is not safe in his hands or his allies. 1 We are, thankfully, and rightly, about to stop politics for a few days. However, there is just enough time to note one important & revealing fact: today's @Tobias_Ellwood article shows Brexit really is not safe in his hands or his allies'. /... https://t.co/ygQ1R1fW4E David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) June 1, 2022 Writing in The House magazine, Mr Ellwood conceded his suggestion would require acceptance of some EU regulations, but argued one common standard may be better than two for UK industry. He also acknowledged there are understandable reservations about the free movement of people in relation to benefit claims which would need addressing, but claimed this is not insurmountable. Lets not forget, both Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher endorsed this model, with the view that the potential economic benefits outweigh the drawbacks, he wrote. If joining the single market (with conditions) results in strengthening our economy, easing the cost-of-living crisis, settling the Irish problem at a stroke and promoting our European credentials as we take an ever greater lead in Ukraine, would it not be churlish to face this reality? Speaking to Times Radio on Thursday, Mr Ellwood described the issue as a hot potato, but said people should not shy away from the subject. Joining that single market, I believe, would strengthen our economy because it would remove so much red tape, it would ease the cost-of-living crisis, it would actually settle the difficult Irish problem on the Northern Ireland Protocol and finally, its also to do with boosting our European credentials, he said. Because we are now taking a lead in Europe on Ukraine, but the fact that this Brexit issue particularly on Northern Ireland is unresolved means, you know, were pulled back on this. Two men arrested in Norway and Bulgaria for supporting Al-Qaeda Two men have been arrested in Norway and Bulgaria respectively for "expressing support" online for Al-Qaeda, Norways domestic security agency (PST) said on Wednesday. The suspects had reportedly engaged in internet-based activities linked to the terror organisation, and are understood to be relatives. One of the men was detained in Oslo and the other, identified as a Norwegian student, was taken into custody in the southern city of Stara Zargona, Bulgaria. The prosecutor's office in Sofia confirmed "a Norwegian citizen" had been arrested on charges of "membership in a terrorist organisation, preparing a terrorist attack and inciting terrorism". There was no evidence of a terror cell having been set up in Bulgaria to carry out attacks, they added. Instead, the country's State Agency for National Security said, the student had "encouraged terrorist acts across Europe" and maintained close links online with other radicalised individuals. Invasive species: Are they really threatening the Mediterranean Sea and local fisheries? Invasive species are becoming a global concern. In the last 20 years, the number of non-native species in European waters has increased to almost 1,300. The issue is most acute in the Mediterranean Sea, which is home to 69 per cent of them and although only 10 per cent are categorised as invasive. Species such as the Atlantic blue crab in Catalonia or the lionfish in Cyprus can pose a major threat to local marine life. What are invasive species? A species becomes invasive if it starts to spread in large numbers and cause significant ecological problems - such as outcompeting the local species - or cause problems for people in terms of jobs and livelihoods. How do they get to European waters There are a number of ways these species get introduced into new environments, but the main reason is human activity. Researchers believe the main global culprits are trade and commercial vessels. Small organisms can be brought to new seas either by attaching themselves to ships or being carried inside their ballast water - the water they use to balance the vessel when it is not full of cargo. When the boats release this water to load their cargo, all the small organisms that were sucked in with the water at the beginning get released into the new environment. The second main factor of species invasion is aquaculture and imports. In Northern European seas, for example, researchers believe that around 46 per cent of non-native species arrived via oyster culture imports through propagules - what an organism creates to reproduce itself - in the shells. Because the shells of the oysters are so intricate, you get all of the propagules of lots of other species in there, things like tunicates and seaweeds. And so they've started to spread and invade countries like France, Spain and the UK, said Jason Hall-Spencer, a professor of marine biology in Plymouth. Why has the Mediterranean become such a hotspot for non-native species? Hundreds and hundreds of invasive species have come through the Suez Canal, explained Hall-Spencer, who has also worked in Cyprus to combat the invasion of lionfish in the Mediterranean. Story continues The man-made waterway connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea in Egypt. It is an essential trade route between Europe and Asia because it reduces a ships journey by 9,000 km. For 80 years, the Mediterranean Sea was protected by a natural barrier created by the difference in salinity between the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, and the freshwater from the Nile. But then in 2015, the canal was widened and deepened which meant that what was used to block the spread of these invasive species, which was a high salinity area that would kill most organisms, was removed, meaning they [the invasive species] can easily pass through the canal, explained Hall-Spencer. Now that this natural barrier is down, more and more species are crossing over, despite the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea having very different ecosystems. How do these newcomers survive in Mediterranean waters? The Mediterranean region is warming 20 per cent faster than the global average with sea temperature expected to rise by 3.5 degrees celsius in the next 70 years, according to a United Nations United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) report produced by Plan Bleu, a UNEP/MAP regional activity centre. The Eastern Mediterranean is one of the places in the world that is warming fastest due to climate change. The Eastern Mediterranean is one of the places in the world that is warming fastest due to climate change. And so the conditions that are in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, for example, around Cyprus or Lebanon, are perfect for many Red Sea species. And so we're seeing them invade and do really well, Hall-Spencer said. So it's a combined effect. The canal is the source of the problem, but secondarily is the fact that the temperature of the water is getting more akin to the Red Sea, he added. But climate change and trade are not the only reasons non-native species thrive in the Mediterranean. Overfishing is also a big issue as it is killing off their potential predators. There's an acute biodiversity problem [in the Mediterranean Sea] in all of the big fish, pretty much, being hunted and killed by humans. And it skewed the whole system towards small organisms, said Hall-Spencer. Are all invasive species dangerous? Not all invasive species are a threat but some are voracious predators Some species can be pretty harmless to the environment, such as the Pacific oyster. However, others can have disastrous effects - not only on biodiversity but also for local economies. Fish are a particular problem in the Mediterranean because obviously fish eat other fish and invertebrates and some of them are voracious predators, Hall-Spencer said. The Red Sea pufferfish, for instance, is highly poisonous for humans and cannot be eaten. They are aggressive predators that have even been known to destroy fishing nets to get at the catch inside. And if they are caught in a net with other fishes, they will attack and poison them, spoiling the entire catch. The lionfish arrived from the Red Sea through the Suez canal - Copyright: Guillaume Comparat The lionfish is also a great predator but it has one economic advantage over the pufferfish: it makes for a tasty meal. Hall-Spencer worked on a project funded by the European Union called RELIONMED to find ways to reduce its population size in Cyprus. As part of the project, the group organised teams of divers to hunt the fish. We were able to catch hundreds, Jason said. We were able to get rid of most of the lionfish in Marine Protected Areas [in Cyprus], and then over a period of months, they started to arrive back. So we monitored the situation and then we would remove them again. As part of the project, they have also created incentives to grow a market for the fish in Cyprus. The lionfish actually tastes absolutely delicious, explains Jason. And so there is a hope that by fishing it or even overfishing it, people around the Mediterranean could reduce its population size. But getting people to see the benefits of eating lionfish is a delicate balancing act as you run the risk of making invasive species attractive. If these species become so commercially successful, there will be incentives not to overfish and to protect the stocks and help them build, Hall-Spencer said. What is being done to address the issue? In 2015, the European Commission launched the Invasive Alien Species Regulation. The IAS Regulation provides a list of all non-native species that are restricted in the EU - these restrictions include keeping, importing, selling, breeding and growing. It also provides a set of measures to prevent and tackle species invasions. It has also joined international efforts to protect 30 per cent of the worlds ocean to help rebuild the stocks of large fish and predators. At a global level, in 2017 the International Maritime Organisation implemented a convention that regulates how and where cargo boats release the water they carry in their tanks. However local and international efforts might not be enough if the root of the problem is not addressed. As long as the Suez Canals natural barrier is broken, invasive species will continue to make their way into the Mediterranean. What's needed is the reinstatement of a high salinity area and that can be done using desalination plants, Hall-Spencer said. Egypt has got areas that are quite arid, so it needs to make fresh water using the ocean and the by-product of that is very salty brine and that could be pumped into and into areas of the Suez Canal to raise the salinity to such a high level that would prevent the spread of the invasive, he added. Unless you turn off that tap, the Suez Canal tap of the invasion, then all of these measures won't work, he said. A former environmental health officer who rose through the ranks to become Belfast City Councils first female chief executive has been made an OBE. Suzanne Wylie, who recently ended a three-decade career at Belfast City Hall to become CEO of the Jersey Government, has been recognised for services to local government in Northern Ireland. Mrs Wylie, a married mother of three, said she was shocked and delighted by the honour. Suzanne Wylie speaking to the media following the signing of the Belfast Region City Deal in 2021 (Brian Lawless/PA). (PA Wire) While she and husband John have now settled into a new life on the Channel Islands, the letter informing her of her inclusion on the Queens Birthday Honours list was posted to the family home in Belfast. It had to be opened by my daughter who photographed it and sent it to me, Mrs Wylie told the PA news agency. It did look official, so my daughter opened it for me when she was on the phone and then sent me the pictures. It was a big surprise. I was shocked because I wasnt really expecting it I was delighted. Mrs Wylie joined the council straight from university. Her first job was as an environmental health officer. (PA Graphics) The Belfast-born public servant fulfilled several other roles in the years ahead with a particular focus on public health. She was involved in setting up community safety and district policing partnerships in Belfast, and also in an initiative to deploy antisocial behaviour officers in the city. Mrs Wylie also took on a leadership role in emergency planning operations, heading up the councils response to floods, snowfalls and water shortages. She rose to the position of director of front-line services before being appointed chief executive in 2014, just at a time when Belfast City Council was expanding as part of local government reforms in Northern Ireland. One of the highlights of her time in charge was the signing of the Belfast Region City Deal a partnership involving the UK Government and local authorities that will see 850 million invested in the area in years to come. Her tenure was not without controversy. In 2020, Mrs Wylie apologised for the councils role in the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey after it emerged that his family members were allowed to attend at a Belfast crematorium on a day when other families were denied access due to Covid-19 lockdown rules. Story continues After making history as the first woman to head up Belfast City Council, she broke the glass ceiling again to become the first female chief executive of the government in Jersey. Mrs Wylie is now involved in mentoring other aspiring female executives. Obviously, I want to do the job in the same way that anybody taking on a role, and being really dedicated to what they do, would do, she said. I think though that for other women, its good to see women in leadership roles, because we all know that people need to see what its like to work in those roles. So, its really good for other females to see that. So, I would do quite a bit of mentoring and shadowing for females. I did that in Belfast and Im doing that in Jersey now as well. Mrs Wylie said she is enjoying life in her new home, especially the warmer weather. The weather is different, the weather is definitely different, but you know some of the coastlines of Jersey remind me of some coastlines of Donegal and places like that and it has a really good food scene, just like Belfast clearly has a very good food scene as well. And there are lots of outdoor things to do and thats what I loved doing in Belfast too at the weekends, getting outdoors with the dogs and going for walks on the beach. She says one of the biggest challenges they faced was getting their two dogs a German shepherd and retriever from Northern Ireland to the Channel Islands. A trip, undertaken by husband John, that involved two ferry trips and a lot of driving. Reflecting on her honour, Mrs Wylie paid tribute to all her former colleagues at Belfast City Hall. Im really delighted to get it, though I do feel very strongly that everything that was achieved in Belfast during my time as CEO was a real team effort, she said. It was not just down to me. So, really, I think this award reflects the whole of the team I worked with in Belfast. Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. - Jubilee fete, in Temple, in Glasgow, Scotland, 2nd June 2002.Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert PLATE-spinning at a Temple fete, bold bunting in a Bridgeton pub and almost as much flag-wearing as flag-waving As the Queen prepares to mark 70 years on the throne, these never-before-seen shots from a world-famous Glasgow photographer capture the citys celebrations from her Golden Jubilee, 20 years ago. Glasgow Times: Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. - Jubilee celebrations inside a pub in Bridgeton, in Glasgow, Scotland, 2nd June 2002.Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, whose awardwinning work has appeared in publications including Time, National Geographic and Le Figaro, was commissioned to take the photographs by a Sunday supplement back in 2002, but they were never used. On Thursday (June 2), they are to be released for the first time in a zine by Cafe Royal Books, a publishing house which sells weekly publications focussing on post-war documentary photography linked to Britain and Ireland. The works, which are included in prestigious collections at the Tate, the V&A, British Library and more, provide a valuable resource into cultural and social shifts in Britain and Ireland over the decades. Glasgow Times: Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. - Jubilee celebrations in Bridgeton, in Glasgow, Scotland, June 2002.Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert There are more than 500 books in the series, and subjects range from folk customs and protest to mining and industry, music culture, politics and religion. The publications are bought as gifts and as nostalgic reminders, and have been used as reference for film makers, producers, screen writers and costume designers. Universities collect the books to allow students access to the large collected history of this genre of photography, which had not existed to this extent, in print, before Cafe Royal Books. Jeremys zine, Queens Golden Jubilee, Scotland, 2002, is one of two being published this week his second, Glasgow 1990s, captures life on the city streets 30 years ago, when he had not long graduated from Glasgow College of Building and Printing. Glasgow Times: Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. - Summerlee Heritage Park, in Coatbridge, Scotland, June 2002. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert It was interesting to look back at those early images, when I was just starting out, says Jeremy, whose entire archive almost a million photos was recently acquired by the University of St Andrews. Jeremy has worked across the world, photographing everything from the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan to the Braer oil disaster and shipbuilding on the River Clyde. Story continues For more than 20 years, he has been a contributing photographer for Greenpeace International. READ MORE: Archives reveal what happened to Glasgow's 'terrifying' Green Ladies Being a freelance photographer means you can be in Orkney one minute, Italy the next, but it is always fascinating to look at your own city in depth, he says. Later on, I lived abroad for 10 years, and coming back to Glasgow was really interesting, - seeing the city through fresh eyes. Visit caferoyalbooks.com/scotland or jeremysuttonhibbert.com for more information. Every time I see someone talking about rights lately, I find myself thinking about mitzvot (commandments), the core of Jewish life and practice. There are spiritual mitzvot and ethical mitzvot, mitzvot involving relationship between human beings and God and mitzvot involving relationship between human beings and each other. Taking on the mitzvot means accepting obligations: to each other, to the community, to God. The whole system is rooted in an ethic of obligation and responsibility. Ruth Messenger wrote a lovely piece comparing the notion of rights with the Jewish notion of responsibilities or obligations. She observes -- correctly -- that they're not opposed to each other. There's no reason that being Jewish should be in tension with the notion of human rights. But in this moment, I am increasingly feeling that the American focus on rights and individual liberties is getting in the way of our capacity to recognize our responsibilities to each other and to our community. I told a high school friend on Facebook recently that I can't understand resistance to gun safety measures. Wouldn't a responsible gun owner be willing to operate within greater constraints in order to ensure the safety of others, most especially our children? In response, he told me simply that he's not willing to relinquish any of his constitutional rights, period. This sounds like I'm setting up a straw man, but this conversation really happened. Our worldviews just don't make sense to each other. Intellectually I grasp where he's coming from, but spiritually it feels foreign to me. Part of being in community is balancing what I want with what others need. Living in community means we have obligations to each other. Living in community means giving up some individual control or benefit for the sake of the collective. For instance, most of us might not "want" to give up part of our earnings, but we pay taxes because that's how we ensure roads and schools and necessary services, right? I suspect I'm preaching to the choir. If you already agree with me, you're nodding. If you don't agree with me, I don't know that anything I say will change your mind. But staying silent feels like giving up. 27 school shootings so far this year, and it's only May. (Not to mention shootings everywhere else.) The ready availability of guns that liquefy tissue means that no one is safe. Not at school, not at shul or church or gurdwara, not at a nightclub, not at the grocery store. How are we living like this? Hillel teaches, "Don't separate yourself from the community." (Pirkei Avot 2:5) Torah tells us time and again that we're obligated to protect the vulnerable. Rambam teaches that it's our obligation to give tzedakah -- not "charity," rooted in the Latin caritas, but giving that's fueled by tzedek, justice. Even the poorest person, someone who needs tzedakah, is obligated to give -- because supporting others is fundamental to community. Obligation to others is fundamental to community. And yet in the wake of the Buffalo mass shooting, and the Laguna California mass shooting, and the Uvalde mass shooting, who's framing the gun safety conversation in terms of mutual obligation? I groused to a historian friend: had the Founding Fathers only been Jewish, we might have a very different social compact. To my surprise, she replied that the Founders thought about citizenship not just as a matter of rights, but also as a matter of responsibilities to one another and to the whole! [T]he founders of this country did not believe in unlimited individual freedom.. . [They agreed that] the best form of government was one in which individuals gave up a portion of their total freedom in order to take care of the community. [Source] I don't remember learning that in school. I wish everyone did. We give up a portion of our total freedom -- the freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want, no matter the consequences for others -- in order to live in community with other human beings. We balance what each of us personally wants with some responsibility to the needs of others. That's part of what it means to be a member of a community -- a citizen, part of a bigger whole, responsible to that whole. I wish I believed that this framing would shift our nation's echo-chamber conversations about Constitutional rights. (Rights that initially belonged only to white men, though that's a different conversation.) What would our nation be if we focused less on our rights than on what we owe to each other? At minimum, we owe each other the space to live and breathe without fear of being gunned down. Why is anyone's desire to own an assault weapon more important than that? Two poems that moved me recently: The United States has engaged in a number of operations that span the entire spectrum of cyber engagement against Russia, including offensive, defensive, and information operations. The United States Cyber Command focuses on three main things: protecting the Department of Defense information networks (DoDIN), helping combatant commanders carry out their missions worldwide, and improving the U.S.'s ability to defend itself against cyber attacks and respond to them. The Cyberspace Operations Command unifies how cyberspace operations are run, improves the Department of Defense's (DoD) cyberspace capabilities, and integrates and strengthens the DoD's cyber expertise. The U.S. United States Cybercom Command (USCYBERCOM) helps the DoD improve its ability to run secure, reliable information and communication networks, fight cyberspace threats, and ensure everyone has access to cyberspace. The command also works closely with partners from other government agencies and from other countries to carry out these important missions. USCYBERCOM is making plans for the structure of the cyber force, the training requirements, and the certification standards that will allow the Services to build the cyber force needed to carry out U.S. missions. Army Cyber Command The United States Army Cyber Command directs and runs integrated electronic warfare, information, and cyberspace operations when given permission or told to do so. This is done to ensure that people have freedom of action in and through cyberspace and the information environment and to stop U.S. enemies from doing the same. Fleet Cyber Command Fleet Cyber Command's mission is to serve as the central operational authority for networks, cryptologic/signals intelligence, information operations, cyber, electronic warfare, and space capabilities in support of afloat and ashore forces; to direct Navy cyberspace operations globally to deter and defeat aggression, and to ensure freedom of action to achieve military objectives in and through cyberspace. Organize and direct Navy cryptologic operations worldwide, as directed, and support information operations and space planning and operations; execute cyber missions as directed; to direct, operate, maintain, secure, and defend the Navy's portion of the Department of Defense Information Networks (DoDIN); to deliver integrated cyber, information operations, cryptologic, and space capabilities; to develop, coordinate, and deliver a global Navy cyber common operational picture; to develop, coordinate, and deliver a global Navy cyber common operating picture. Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) The Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) is the first Numbered Air Force of its kind. It is based at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas. The 16th is also known as the Air Force's Information Warfare Numbered Air Force. It integrates multisU.S.ce intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations capabilities across the conflict continuum to ensure that the U.S. Air Force is fast, deadly, and fully integrated into both competition and war. Air Forces Cyber, which is part of the Sixteenth Air Force, is in charge of integrating I.W. into missions at both the operational and tactical levels. It does this because it knows that information can be used to make problems for opponents in competition and, if necessary, in future wars. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command Commander, Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command (COMMARFORCYBERCOM) is the Marine Corps service component commander for Commander, U.S. Cyber Command (CDRUSCYBERCOM). It represents the capabilities and interests of the Marine Corps, advises CDRUSCYBERCOM on how to use and support Marine Corps forces, and coordinates the planning and execution of attached forces' deployment, employment, and redeployment. This week, the United States Cyber Command commander confirmed that the United States' cyber army is assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. The Director of the United States Cyber Command, General Paul Nakasone, made the initial confirmation that the United States had participated in offensive cyber operations in support of Ukraine. In an interview on Wednesday with Sky News, a British television news channel, Nakasone stated that his organization had carried out "a series of operations throughout the full spectrum: offensive, defensive, and information operations." The general stated that the activities were lawful and carried out with civilian control of the military, but he did not disclose any specifics about them. In response to a question from Sky News, he stated, "My duty is to present a series of options to the secretary of Defense and the president," and this is exactly what he does. "We've conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, and information operations," Gen. Paul Nakasone said in an interview with Sky News published on Wednesday. This was the first confirmation that the United States is engaging in a digital conflict with Moscow in support of the government in Kyiv. Although Nakasone, who is also the Director of the National Security Agency, would not provide specifics of the cyber-hacking operations, he did assure the outlet that they were authorized and carried out under the supervision of civilians. Previously, Nakasone stated that his agency had sent a "hunt forward" team to Ukraine in December to assist the country in strengthening its cyber defenses and networks against active threats. However, his most recent remarks are the first time that a U.S. official has declared publicly that the United States has been engaging in offensive cyber operations as a response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The general, speaking in Tallinn, Estonia, told Sky News that the "hunt forward" activities have enabled the United States to seek foreign hackers and identify their techniques before they target the United States. He made this statement while he was in Estonia. During the interview, Nakasone also stated that the United States is working to deconstruct Russian propaganda, namely disinformation tactics that may have an impact on elections. "We had the opportunity to start talking about what the Russian government was specifically seeking to do in our midterm elections. However, it was on a much more manageable size," Nakasone explained. "We saw it again in 2020 when we discussed what the Russians and Iranians were going to do." "The ability for us to share that information, being able to assure it's accurate and it's timely, and it's actionable on a bigger scale, has been very, very powerful in this crisis," he added. "The capacity for us to share that information has been very, very strong in this crisis." Experts have warned that Russia will most likely conduct its cyber operations during the midterm elections in 2022. These operations may take various forms, including hacking elections and disinformation campaigns, but experts agree that they will occur. The analysts also stated that Russia's strategy consists of suppressing voter turnout and attempting to divide the United States along party lines. On Wednesday, the Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, issued a warning that prospective cyber-hacking operations carried out by the Russian government would likely grow "more damaging as the fight keeps going poorly for them." During a symposium on cybersecurity that was hosted at Boston College, Wray made the following statement: "We've observed the Russian government taking explicit preliminary actions towards possible damaging assaults both here and overseas." The Director of the FBI also disclosed that the agency has been operating at a "war tempo" with a command post that is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to combat potential Russian cyberattacks. "We do not relax our vigilance even for a moment. Every single day without fail, I am constantly considering that," I said. When asked about the possibility of an invasion, Nakasone responded by telling Sky News. "Because of this, we are working with a number of partners to guarantee that we prevent it from happening, not only against the United States but also against our allies." Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has had no publicized or known cyberattacks launched against the United States; nevertheless, Ukraine's eastern neighbor has repeatedly launched attacks against Ukraine. What Russia stands to gain from a cyberattack against the U.S. Just Listen to the tone of this breaking news story WATERLOO Two Republicans will compete in Tuesdays primary to represent their party in the Nov. 8 general election for the Iowa House District 54 seat. The race between Joshua Meggers, a trooper with the Iowa State Patrol, and Robert Nazario, a retired member of the U.S. Merchant Marine, features candidates who largely agree on issues but have different priorities. Before the once-a-decade redistricting process, the district included an area from Mason City to just north of Iowa Falls and just west of Waverly. Now it encompasses all of Hardin and Grundy counties and stretches into the western edge of Black Hawk County. Meggers, 42, of Grundy Center, has been an state trooper since 2005. He grew up in Buckingham, about five miles north of Traer, and graduated from Hudson High School. He received his bachelors degree from Upper Iowa University. His biggest focus is tax reform for corporations. He believes lowering corporate taxes would give businesses the incentive to come to Iowa. What Im envisioning is, weve lowered corporate tax brought in corporations, companies, and jobs, Meggers said. You would also increase the number of workers in the state of Iowa, and bring families in. He said the result would be more kids in Iowas school system, which ties into his other main issue: strengthening schools. As a law enforcement officer, he also prioritizes public safety in Iowa, saying he wants to incentivize recruitment for emergency service departments. Robert Nazario, 58, of Iowa Falls, served in the Merchant Marines 36 years before recently retiring. He said the most important issue to him is medical freedom and privacy. He is an advocate for the Medical Privacy and Freedom Act. That legislation would prohibit vaccine mandates and inquiries about vaccine status. Nazario also favors parental rights in education. That includes choosing the school where a child is enrolled and deciding what kids learn in class. He believes LGBTQ+ topics should not be discussed in schools without parental consent. Other big issues for Nazarios include property rights and advancing pro-life policies on abortion. He considers himself as a conservative constitutional Republican and said the Republican party is splintered. Republicans have an overwhelming majority in the House, but they need to vote on a platform, Nazario said. If we all believe in a party platform, there will be a strong republic. Although Nazarios and Meggers top priorities arent the same, they agree on most topics. Nazario didnt talk about taxes but is a big proponent of property rights. Meggers agreed parents should have a right to choose what their child is being taught in school. Both candidates said they are strong supporters of the Second Amendment right to carry a firearm. Meggers said his work experience would be helpful in creating a stronger legislature. I will go into Des Moines with an open mind, Meggers said, if he is elected. I think that, along with work experience with the state patrol, all my experiences put together would be extremely beneficial. Nazario says he is a critical thinker and can speak without a cloud of doubt. My life experiences are far more than (Meggers) 42 years, because I have seen so much more and can relate to it more, Nazario said. There are currently no Democrats running in House District 54. There is also no incumbent due to last years redistricting. Under Iowa law, political parties with a vacancy may hold a convention to nominate a candidate. Much of the area in the new District 54, including cities like Reinbeck and Grundy Center, is part of the current House District 50, where Rep. Pat Grassley serves. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The cause of the blaze wasnt immediately available, but no injuries were reported, according to Chief John Bostwick with Cedar Falls Fire Rescue. Firefighters were called to the 1603 Clay St. around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and found flames and heavy smoke coming from the front of the residence. The resident and a dog had escaped the home, according to fire officials. Crews fought the fire on the inside and outside of the home, and the cause is under investigation. The house took significant fire, smoke and water damage. The American Red Cross was called to assist the family with emergency shelter. 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. Flash Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday urged the United States to truly practice the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken characterized the Biden administration's China strategy as "invest, align and compete." In response, Zhao told a daily news briefing that China has always believed that building a world of connectivity, diversity, inclusiveness, security and shared benefits is a responsibility and obligation that both China and the United States must undertake. He said China is glad to see the United States achieving development through legitimate investment, but the United States should not make China an "imaginary enemy." How the United States improves its own innovation and competitiveness is up to the United States, but it should not suppress and contain China, interfere in China's internal affairs and harm China's interests, Zhao said. "If such a thing occurs, China will firmly oppose it," he added. He stressed that China does not interfere in the normal coordination and cooperation between the United States and its allies, but such relations should not target or harm the interests of third parties, nor should they violate the basic norms of international relations. Zhao said China does not deny that there is competition between China and the United States in the field of economy and trade. "However, our relations cannot be defined by competition, nor should we pursue zero-sum vicious competition or engage in major power confrontation under the cover of competition." If the U.S. side insists on defining China-U.S. relations by major power competition and pursuing "I win you lose" policy objectives, it will only push the two countries to confrontation and conflict and lead the world to division and turmoil, he said. He pointed out that the U.S. side's recent China policy speech is "just old wine in a new bottle." The "three-point approach" is about using all the internal and external resources of the United States to encircle, suppress and contain China. "As China-U.S. relations stand at an important crossroads, the United States must make the right choice. Instead of quibbling over the wording, it should focus its efforts on the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," Zhao said. The slaughter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has stunned a country tragically accustomed to mass shootings. Coming just days after the atrocity at Buffalo, New York, this latest outrage has strengthened calls for tighter gun laws. This time, perhaps, something might actually be done. One approach looks especially promising. So-called red-flag laws measures that allow police or family members to ask a court to intervene when someone poses a threat to himself or others are commanding renewed bipartisan support. They arent infallible: Nothing could be in a country awash with guns. But more than half of mass shooters exhibited clear warning signs before committing their crimes, which makes such laws worthwhile. When it comes to gun control, the combination of efficacy and feasibility is rare. Policy makers should seize the moment. Opponents of red-flag laws call them unfair because they lack due process. In truth, theyre no more burdensome than traditional domestic-protection laws, found in all 50 states. No ones guns are taken away without a judges approval. If a temporary seizure is approved, another hearing is convened within weeks to allow the recipient of the order to offer a defense. In turn, the reporting parties must make their case for extending the order. The process isnt foolproof but, given the stakes, its surely a fair one. A more pressing concern is whether such laws really work. Theyre now on the books of 19 states, but theyre relatively new, so its hard to sure just yet. Still, the research so far is encouraging. In Connecticut, which enacted one of the first red-flag laws, a study estimated that one life has been saved for every 10 to 20 protection orders issued. A California study looked at 21 orders issued against individuals whod made mass shooting threats and found no violence subsequently attributed to any of them. Its unclear to what extent the shooter in Uvalde was known to pose a threat before he began his attack. The Buffalo case also underlines the limits, because New York already had a red-flag law. The killer was known to the authorities and had been subject to a mental-health evaluation. Upon release, with no extreme-risk protection order issued, he was able to go out and buy the murder weapon. Exactly what went wrong is being investigated. These inquiries might yield lessons. Perhaps the responding officers and others were simply unaware of the law. The police need to be trained to apply such orders and the general public needs to be made aware. Legal ambiguities also need to be cleared up. The Buffalo shooter was a minor at the time of his mental-health evaluation and hence forbidden to buy a gun in any case; perhaps the authorities thought the red-flag law was therefore irrelevant. Washington state has updated its red-flag law so that it clearly applies to teens who might have access to guns in the home. Officials will never be clairvoyant. Mistakes will be made. Yet red-flag laws have real potential. In the US, public opinion and the courts constrain what can be done, so policy makers have to make the best of imperfect solutions. Whether red-flag laws are advanced state by state, or by action in the US Congress, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. After the horrors of Buffalo and Uvalde, theres no excuse for failing to act. The editorial was composed by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 From the hotel to the prison. Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria were brought to their new place of residence. Hotels on the Black Sea coast were urgently asked to release them for tourists with money. Instead of hotels, Ukrainians will now live in such cozy cabins fenced with barbed wire. Looks good and will keep them off the streets. These are the Ukrainians that dreamed of the Golden EU WtR Javelins 30k a pop on the Ukrainian segment of the dark net, courtesy of Uncle Sam Wrote this below a few days ago. It has been proven many times since even then Yes, NATO, USA and EU have given the weapons to take out armored cars, trucks and airlines. And bless Ukrainian Peace Picken Hearts, they sell them So everyone can have some fun ~~ Good job ~~ WtR The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine. High-precision air-based missiles have hit 21 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, including command posts of the Ukrainian Nazi formations Kraken and Azov near Kharkov. Operational-tactical, army and unmanned aviation have hit 15 areas of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment concentration. Ammunition and fuel depots of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Dolina and Slavyansk, Donetsk Peoples Republic have been destroyed. The attacks have resulted in the elimination of up to 240 nationalists and up to 39 weapons and military equipment, including 1 Osa-AKM anti-aircraft missile system, 10 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, 3 BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, 7 artillery mounts and mortars, and 17 special vehicles. Fighter aviation have shot down 1 Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian air force near Lubomirovka, Nikolaev Region. Russian air defence means have hit 7 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Odessa, Kamyshevakha, Popasnaya, Zolotoe, Kudryashovka in Lugansk Peoples Republic, Yarovaya in Kharkov Region, as well as Verkhnetoretskoe in Donetsk Peoples Republic overnight. Missile troops and artillery have hit 131 command posts, 146 artillery and mortar batteries at firing positions, as well as 579 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration. In total, 186 Ukrainian aircraft and 129 helicopters, 1,084 unmanned aerial vehicles, 327 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,373 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 460 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,752 field artillery and mortars, as well as 3,350 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation. We note that the inflow of foreign mercenaries to Ukraine to take part in combat operations against the Russian Armed Forces has virtually dried up since the beginning of May. According to the data at our disposal, the total number of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine has now been almost halved from 6,600 to 3,500. At the same time, the number of mercenaries in combat units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National Guard in Donbass has decreased by orders of magnitude. Hundreds of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine were eliminated by Russian long-range precision weapons shortly after their arrival while they were still undergoing pre-training and coordination of tactical units. But most of the mercenaries are destroyed in the war zone due to their low level of training and lack of real combat experience. Separately, I would like to point out that the commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National Guard units, which included mercenaries, are not sparing foreigners in their efforts to reduce losses of their servicemen. Captured mercenaries tell interrogators that they are the first to be sacrificed. Due to the Kiev regimes silencing of the losses and the absence of remains, relatives of the mercenaries in their countries of residence simply do not know about their deaths. Faced with a real combat situation and heavy losses among servicemen of the AFU, the National Guard and foreigners, a significant number of mercenaries prefer to leave Ukrainian territory as soon as possible, but the Kiev regime prevents them from going abroad in every possible way. Let me remind you that under international humanitarian law, mercenaries are not combatants and the best that awaits them is criminal liability. The Kiev regimes urgent attempts to guarantee the mercenaries legal protection by including them in the military units of the AFU or the National Guard, or by issuing them with fresh Ukrainian passports, will not save any of them. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine #Briefing @mod_russia_enjoy WtR Ukrainian armed forces and fighters of Ukrainian nationalist formations continue to use social infrastructure facilities for military purposes: in Odessa, territorial defence units equipped weapons and ammunition depot in the lyceum building (Yelisavetinskaya Street) and trenches and a stronghold near the dormitory and school No. 56 (Tenistaya Street), without evacuating residents from nearby houses; in Nikolaev, fighters of Ukrainian armed formations equipped barracks in schools No. 1 (Aivazovskogo Street) and No. 7 (Potemkinskaya Street), and in kindergarten No. 70 (Faleevskaya Street) and school No. 24 (Lesnaya Street) warehouses with rockets for MLRS; in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Peoples Republic, militants of the Ukrainian armed forces equipped strongholds on the territory of the Machine-Building College (Bolshaya Sadovaya Street) and general education schools No. 10 (Khabarovskaya Street) and No. 16 (Leonid Bykov Street), with armoured vehicles and large-calibre artillery placed in the adjoining territory; in Slavyansk, Donetsk Peoples Republic, nationalists have equipped firing positions in the building of the vocational engineering lyceum (Koltsevaya Street) and placed artillery and MLRS in the courtyard. The militants, knowing that civilians would be victims of such criminal actions, deliberately target Russian Armed Forces positions from residential areas, provoking them to return fire in order to subsequently place responsibility for possible civilian casualties on Russian servicemen. Kiev regime is planning to carry out another inhuman provocation in Shostka city, Sumy Region. Long-range missile systems are expected to be delivered to Shostka from the USA in the near future, with which militants of the Ukrainian armed formations are planning to strike at the Russian Federation border territory directly from residential areas of the town on the orders of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). The Ukrainian neo-Nazis hope to provoke the Russian Armed Forces into returning fire and then accuse them of indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and the killing of Ukrainian civilians. This provocation will involve Ukrainian and foreign journalists at the instructions of the Kiev authorities to prepare fake photos and videos of the alleged killing of civilians by Russians, which will be widely spread by Western news agencies. On May 31, 2022, around 7:00 pm (Moscow time), retreating units of the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the AFU detonated a tanker containing a toxic chemical substance (nitric acid) at Severodonetsk Azot enterprise in order to stop advancing units of the Russian Armed Forces and formations of the Donetsk Peoples Republic by creating a chemical contamination zone. After the explosion, an orange-coloured toxic cloud rose (to an altitude of about one kilometre) and moved towards Kremennaya and Rubezhnoe. The Ukrainian neo-Nazis were not deterred by the fact that innocent civilians had suffered as a result of this terrorist act involving a toxic chemical substance. The Kiev authorities have once again shown their criminal and cynical nature. Terror and genocide against its own people have become the norm in Ukraine. We emphasize once again that in carrying out the tasks of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation treat the local population extremely humanely and do not strike at civilian infrastructure facilities, unlike the Ukrainian armed formations. Top News Today Russia celebrated Northern Fleet Day which turned 289 years old today. Russias military transport aviation turned 91 years old. During the first half of 2022, the MTA command completed all assigned tasks, including the redeployment of peacekeeping contingents of CSTO countries from their deployment points to the Republic of Kazakhstan and back in January 2022. Russian air defence means have shot down 1 Su-25 aircraft of the Air Forces of Ukraine near Sergeevka, Donetsk Peoples Republic and 1 Mi-8 helicopter near Kharkov during the day. Missile troops and artillery have hit 128 command posts, 169 firing positions of artillery and mortar batteries, as well as 623 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration. Ukrainian armed forces and fighters of Ukrainian nationalist formations continue to use social infrastructure facilities for military purposes. Kiev regime is planning to carry out another inhuman provocation in Shostka city, Sumy Region. Long-range missile systems are expected to be delivered to Shostka from the USA in the near future, with which militants of the Ukrainian armed formations are planning to strike at the Russian Federation border territory directly from residential areas of the town on the orders of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). The Ukrainian neo-Nazis hope to provoke the Russian Armed Forces into returning fire and then accuse them of indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and the killing of Ukrainian civilians. Captured AFU fighters told that Ukrainian commanders threatened to force them to take part in combat operations and also noted the good attitude of Russian soldier. More than 428 tonnes of essential goods and food have been handed over to the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics and Kharkiv and Kherson regions overnight. Over 18,000 people have been evacuated to Russia from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics. The Russian Defence Ministry has published footage of the delivery of 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Izyum in Kharkov Region. Footage of combat operations by Uragan multiple rocket launchers have been published. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine #HumanitarianResponse #HumanitarianAid @mod_russia_en WtR Weather Alert ...Heating Up This Week, Then Increasing Winds This Weekend... * Summer's first multi-day period of heat is projected Thursday through Saturday. Highs well into the 90s in Western Nevada and into the 80s for Sierra communities are expected, with potential for some records on Friday. There is a chance of cities such as Reno (15%) and Fallon (50%) of hitting 100 degrees on Friday. Heat health impacts are possible, especially for vulnerable populations and those outdoors for extended periods. Now is a good time to ensure cooling systems are in good working order. For more information, please see the Heat Advisory. * Winds are expected to increase for the upcoming weekend, with Sunday looking to be the windiest day. While not a major wind event, widespread gusts on the order of 30-40 mph are possible Saturday afternoon with gusts 40-50 mph Sunday. This would cause rough water on lakes, tricky travel for high profile vehicles, and increased turbulence for aviation. With dry air expected, these winds could also cause increased concern for rapid fire spread in vegetation that dries out due to the upcoming heat. * The hot temperatures will also result in minor rises on creeks and streams in the Sierra from snowmelt. Slightly higher flows of cold water could impact recreation and camping near streams, however levels will be well short of any flood stages. ...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...High temperatures Friday 95 to 100. * WHERE...Lower elevations of Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra Counties including Susanville, Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area and Northern Washoe County around Gerlach. * WHEN...From 10 AM to 8 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and sunny skies may cause heat illnesses to occur, especially for those sensitive to heat and outdoors for extended periods of time. Since this is the first heat event of the summer season, many people are not yet acclimatized to heat and may be impacted more than normal. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...These are potentially record setting highs for the date, and unusually early to be so close to 100 degrees. The average first 100 degrees for Reno isn't until July 10th. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Now is the time to prepare and ensure your cooling systems are in good working order. On the day of, drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air- conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. && Weather Alert ...Heating Up This Week, Then Increasing Winds This Weekend... * Summer's first multi-day period of heat is projected Thursday through Saturday. Highs well into the 90s in Western Nevada and into the 80s for Sierra communities are expected, with potential for some records on Friday. There is a 20-30% chance of cities such as Reno and Fallon hitting 100 degrees on Friday. Heat health impacts are possible, especially for vulnerable populations and those outdoors for extended periods. Now is a good time to ensure cooling systems are in good working order. * Winds are expected to increase for the upcoming weekend. While not a major wind event, widespread gusts on the order of 30-40 MPH are possible each afternoon Saturday and Sunday. This would cause rough water on lakes, tricky travel for high profile vehicles, and increased turbulence for aviation. With dry air expected, these winds could also cause increased concern for rapid fire spread in vegetation that dries out due to the upcoming heat. * The hot temperatures will also result in minor rises on creeks and streams in the Sierra from snowmelt. Slightly higher flows of cold water could impact recreation and camping near streams, however levels will be well short of any flood stages. Flash China and Vanuatu reached a five-point consensus on bolstering bilateral ties and cooperation on international and regional affairs Wednesday after Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman and his key cabinet members met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Wang said that his meeting with the Vanuatu side highlights the great importance the Pacific island country attaches to its relations with China and the high level of their cooperation. China and Vanuatu have trusted and supported each other for 40 years since they established diplomatic relations, and they have become a model for developing countries for their mutual respect, unity and consultation, he said. He noted that China is willing to work with Vanuatu to sum up their successful experience and plan for their relations for the next 40 years, so as to constantly inject new impetus to a China-Vanuatu community with a shared future. Loughman said Wang's visit to Vanuatu, which he called a historic one, signaled China's commitment to advancing China-Vanuatu relations. Vanuatu and China have given mutual trust and firm support to each other over the past 40 years since they established diplomatic ties, Loughman said. He thanked China for its huge, long-standing assistance to Vanuatu in securing stability and sustainable development, which proved China as a true friend of Vanuatu. Loughman pledged to uphold the one-China principle as a political bedrock, take the joint building of Belt and Road as a guidance for their cooperation, and lift their comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level. The two sides had in-depth exchanges on advancing bilateral ties and boosting cooperation on international and regional affairs, and reached a broad consensus. Firstly, both countries agreed to strengthen political mutual trust, carry forward the tradition of mutual respect and treating each other as equals, and continue to staunchly support each other in safeguarding their core interests and national dignity. Secondly, both sides agreed to uphold win-win cooperation with mutual benefits. They will synergize their development strategies, tap into cooperation potential, jointly advance high-quality construction of the Belt and Road, make full use of the development opportunities offered by China, and expand the export of Vanuatu's quality goods to China. The two sides will develop a blue economy partnership, further explore cooperation highlights including new energy and digital economy, while furthering cooperation in traditional fields such as infrastructure. China will help Vanuatu strengthen its capacity for self-development and enhance its international competitiveness. Thirdly, they agreed to enhance the friendship between the two peoples. Both sides will boost people-to-people exchanges, and consolidate the social and public foundation of bilateral relations. Wang said China appreciates Vanuatu for including the Chinese language teaching in its national education system and stands ready to continue supporting the Chinese language teaching in Vanuatu by dispatching Chinese teachers and conducting two-way language and cultural exchanges, among others, to foster more friendly messengers of the two countries. China will continue to join hands with Vanuatu in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and dispatch more medical teams to help the island country protect the health of its people. Fourthly, both sides agreed to deepen strategic coordination. The two sides pledged to uphold true multilateralism, forge unity in the fight against the pandemic and push forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Loughman spoke highly of the China-proposed Global Development Initiative and stands ready to be part in it. Wang welcomed Vanuatu's support for China's Global Security Initiative, its practice of China's vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and its contribution to world peace. Fifthly, both sides agreed to boost regional cooperation, calling for employing bilateral cooperation and the mechanism of China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting as twin engines for coordinated efforts to accelerate common development. Wang introduced China's Position Paper on Mutual Respect and Common Development with Pacific Island Countries that was released on Monday, saying the document demonstrates China's willingness to deepen political mutual trust, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and safeguard the common interests with the island countries while providing both overall plan and specific measures for the next-stage cooperation. China's cooperation with Pacific island countries is aboveboard, open and transparent, Wang noted, adding that China will stay in unity and continue the mutual help with the island countries for moving forward together. Loughman said his country speaks highly of the important role of the mechanism of China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting, feels encouraged by the vision and proposals in China's position paper, and appreciates China's pledge to continue building six new platforms of cooperation. Loughman believes that cooperation with China will surely help Pacific island countries better seize development opportunities and further upgrade the cooperation between Pacific island countries and China. After the meeting, the two sides witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents, including economy, technology, health and blue economy. Wang is on a visit to Vanuatu as part of his tour to the Pacific island countries, which will also take him to Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste. Before arriving in Port Vila, he visited the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. Completion of Romsey Veterinary Surgery Acquisition Bendigo, June 2, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Apiam Animal Health Limited ( ASX:AHX ) refers to its announcement of 19 May 2022 and confirms that it has completed the acquisition of the assets of Romsey Veterinary Service, effective 1 June 2022.Romsey Veterinary Surgery is located in the fast-growth Melbourne to Bendigo growth corridor and services the mixed animal (including equine) market. The acquisition forms an important part of Apiam's regional expansion growth strategy.The acquisition of Romsey Veterinary Surgery will add $3.3 million in revenue to Apiam on a FY22 proforma basis and 16 staff, including 6 veterinarians.Apiam's Managing Director, Dr Chris Richards said "we look forward to integrating Romsey Veterinary Surgery into our Victorian clinic network and we welcome their staff onboard. The underlying strength of regional veterinary markets in peri-urban locations, as well as the strong track record of this clinic means Romsey Veterinary Surgery is well placed to continue its fast-growth trajectory."Consideration for the Romsey Veterinary Surgery acquisition has been paid via a combination of cash and the issue of 1,165,320 Apiam shares.About Apiam Animal Health Limited Apiam Animal Health Limited (ASX:AHX) is comprised of Australia's leading Production Animal and Mixed Animal veterinary practices. Apiam Animal Health incorporates over 150 highly experienced, industry leading veterinarians with expertise across the pig, dairy, feedlot, sheep, poultry, equine, and companion animal sectors, supported by an experienced administration, nursing, technical services and ancillary team. Apiam Animal Health is fully vertically integrated, including having veterinary wholesale, diagnostics laboratories, custom vaccines, logistics, and other ancillary services. BUFFALO, N.Y. The white man accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on a state domestic terrorism and hate crime charge that would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Payton Gendron is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the new, 25-count indictment, which builds on a previous murder charge hastily prepared in the hours after the May 14 shooting. The 18-year-old has now also been charged with the attempted murders of three people who were shot during the attack, but survived, and with using a weapon while committing a felony. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had told a judge May 20 the grand jury had voted to indict Gendron but did not disclose charges, saying proceedings were ongoing. Gendrons attorney, Brian Parker, said he had not seen the indictment and could not comment, adding that prosecution and defense attorneys have been barred by a judge from discussing the case publicly. The horrific nature of the crime and number of victims was likely to already guarantee a life sentence if Gendron is convicted. New York has no death penalty. But adding a state terrorism charge could carry additional emotional resonance and help authorities send a message about violent extremism. The domestic terrorism charge Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate in the First Degree accuses Gendron of killing because of the perceived race and/or color of his victims. This man was motivated by hate against people he never met for no reason other than the color of their skin, said Buffalo lawyer John Elmore, who represents the families of victims Katherine Kat Massey, 72, and Andre Mackniel, 53. Elmore said he hoped for a conviction on every count. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the domestic terrorism hate crime law in August 2019, in the wake of a mass shooting targeting Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The measure, dubbed the Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act after an attack at a rabbis home in Munsey, New York, was signed into law on April 3, 2020, and took effect Nov. 1, 2020. The law expanded on a previous domestic terrorism statute passed after the 9/11 terrorist attack that was largely envisioned as a way to go after international extremism. Prosecutors said Gendron drove about three hours to Buffalo from his home in Conklin, New York, intending to kill as many Black people as possible. Shortly before the attack he posted documents that outlined his white supremacist views and revealed he had been planning the attack for months. The gunman, carrying an AR-15-style rifle he had recently purchased, opened fire on Saturday afternoon shoppers at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo. Murder charges were filed for each of the victims, who ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included eight customers, the store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the store with their groceries. The shooting, followed 10 days later by a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers inside a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, has renewed a national debate about gun control. Mackniel was in the store to buy a birthday cake for his 3-year-old. Massey was a community activist who had championed gun control and fought against racism, Elmore said. To have her life taken away by a white supremacist extremist at the hands of a weapon of mass destruction is extremely upsetting to me, he said. He is part of a team of attorneys exploring potential legal action against the manufacturers of the weapon and body armor used by the gunman, as well as social media platforms. The attack was livestreamed from a helmet-mounted camera. Somehow were going to find justice for the Massey family, for the Mackniel family and all those others that were affected by this tragedy, Elmore said. Federal authorities also are investigating the possibility of hate crime charges against Gendron, who apparently detailed his plans and his racist motivation in hundreds of pages of writings he posted online shortly before the shooting. Amanda Drury, who lost her 32-year-old sister, Roberta Drury, said she is leaving it to the legal system to say what charges are appropriate in the case. Im going to continue with my trust in the justice system, she said. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Sisak and Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. The gunmen in two of the nations most recent mass shootings legally bought the semi-automatic rifles they used in their massacres after they turned 18. Thats prompting Congress and some governors and state lawmakers to revisit the question of whether to raise the minimum age for purchasing such high-powered weapons. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. Advocates argue that such a limit might have prevented the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead and the racially motivated supermarket attack in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10. Lawmakers in New York and Utah have proposed legislation that would raise the minimum age to buy AR-15 style rifles to 21. A similar restriction is expected to move as soon as next week in the U.S. House, where it has some bipartisan support, but the legislation faces uncertainty in the closely divided Senate. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican who chairs the National Governors Association, said the idea should be up for discussion. I think youve got to be able to talk about the AR-15 style weapons, and whether thats an 18 or 21 age, Hutchinson told CNN this week. You have to at least have a conversation about that. But Hutchinson, who leaves office in January, isnt pushing for the limit in his own state. Any proposed gun restrictions there are unlikely to find support among Republicans who control the Legislature. Arkansas Republicans are echoing their partys calls at the national level to focus instead on beefing up school security or addressing mental health. If we move to 21 and the shooter is 21, then theyll want to move to 25, said Republican state Sen. Bart Hester, who will serve as Senate president next year. We have established that 18 in our society is an adult who can make adult decisions, and Im good with that. A recent survey of governors by The Associated Press highlighted the partisan split over whether the minimum age should be higher. Many Democratic governors who responded supported restrictions such as increasing the age to buy semi-automatic weapons. But only one Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, whose state already has a minimum age of 21 to buy guns, with some exceptions supported such a move. Gun control advocates say raising the age offers one of the clearest steps that could have stopped or prevented the most recent mass shootings. The Uvalde attacker, Salvador Ramos, bought the AR-15 he used shortly after he turned 18. If Ramos hadnt been able to buy the weapon, maybe he would have gotten the mental health treatment he needed and this never would have happened, or maybe someone would have called some signs out to law enforcement that this person was acting erratically, said Sean Holihan, state legislative director with the gun control advocacy group Giffords. But its clear if there had been a law in place where he would have been 21 years old, he wouldnt have been able to purchase that gun. Federal law already prohibits federally licensed dealers from selling handguns to anyone under age 21, but people age 18 to 20 can still buy handguns from unlicensed dealers in their state unless state law sets a higher age limit or other restrictions. Florida is a rare example of a Republican-led state that took swift action on gun restrictions after a mass shooting. In 2018, weeks after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation raising the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, along with a host of other school safety and gun control measures. Scott, a Republican, said at the time that the law balanced our individual rights with the need for public safety. Only months after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, state lawmakers and the governor approved sweeping new restrictions that won support from many Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. They included a ban on retail sales of semiautomatic rifles that accept magazines holding more than five rounds of ammunition to anyone under 21. We saw what transpired at Sandy Hook and what could be done in a very short period of time with that type of firearm and the magazine capacity, said state Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly. I think a response was necessary, and something had to be done. The Buffalo and Uvalde attacks are similarly prompting New York lawmakers this week to consider an age limit increase for buying semiautomatic rifles as part of a package of gun safety bills. Under the proposal, those age 21 and older who want to buy or possess a new semiautomatic rifle would have to obtain a license. New Yorkers deserve to feel safe in schools, in grocery stores, in movie theaters, in shopping malls and on our streets and we must do everything in our power to protect them, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said. A proposal in Utah, which would raise the minimum age to buy any firearm to 21, is more of a longshot in the Republican-controlled Legislature. If you are not able to consume alcohol, why should you be able to buy a gun? Democratic Sen. Derek Kitchen said of his proposal. The age provision in the bill before the U.S. House has some bipartisan support, but it remains unclear which aspects of the legislation will pass and get taken up in the Senate. Any measure there needs support from at least 10 Republicans to pass. The House bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity ammunition magazines and creates a grant program to buy back such magazines. Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown of Maryland is leading efforts to increase the age for buying semi-automatic rifles. He said such guns have no place in our neighborhoods, let alone in the hands of an 18-year-old. Several Republicans have pointed to a ruling by a federal appeals court panel that found Californias ban on the sale of semi-automatic weapons to adults under 21 is unconstitutional. Republican governors who decline to pursue the age increase also cite the political reality in their GOP-controlled legislatures. For Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, raising the age limit to buy an AR-15 style rifle to 21 falls into the category of items the Governor feels would not pass or be considered by the Ohio General Assembly, said press secretary Dan Tierney. Eighteen-year-olds already are allowed to do many things in society, including joining the military, said state Sen. Terry Johnson, a southern Ohio Republican who sponsored the states new law that makes concealed weapons permits optional for people legally allowed to carry a firearm. Theyre adults and theyre Americans, and they are protected by the Second Amendment, Johnson said. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice this week said he supports raising the minimum age for buying an AR-15 style rifle to 21, but isnt proposing such a change in his state. First of all, do I really feel like an 18-year-old ought to be able to walk in and buy an assault weapon? I dont, the Republican governor told reporters this week. Yet he appeared pessimistic about that or any other gun control measure gaining traction in his state. I can call 1,000 special sessions, he said. And if all Im doing is calling 1,000 special sessions for people just to come and talk and get up on a soap box and get nothing done, why? ___ Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C.; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City; and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, here: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting https://apnews.com/hub/buffalo-supermarket-shooting Summer harvest progresses in full swing to ensure food security Xinhua) 08:12, June 02, 2022 Aerial photo shows farmers harvesting wheat in the fields in Huozhuang Village of Wuhe County, east China's Anhui Province, May 23, 2022. (Photo by Li Xiangqian/Xinhua) BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China is carrying out its summer harvest at full throttle in a bid to ensure adequate grain supply. During a meeting last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the summer harvest is of great significance to attaining the country's annual grain production target. He urged the smooth logistics of agricultural equipment and personnel and called on governments at all levels to "waste no time and leave no single grain unharvested" during the harvesting season. Traditionally, the summer harvest spans from May to late June in China every year, with most of the work focusing on reaping winter wheat, a staple grain crop, and oilseed rape. The grain output in the period takes up about a quarter of the annual total. In keeping with the nation's pledge to keep its 2022 grain output above 650 billion kg, the wheat harvest is proceeding smoothly across the country. As of May 28, the harvested area for winter wheat had exceeded 2.5 million hectares, with Sichuan and Hubei, two agricultural powerhouses, having completed the majority of their wheat harvest tasks. AID IN PLACE The province of Henan is China's largest wheat producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of the country's total wheat yields and planting area. However, due to the latest COVID-19 resurgences, tightened prevention measures impeded some rural migrant workers' return to their farmlands in their hometowns. In the face of such challenging circumstances, local governments have made multi-pronged efforts to facilitate summer harvest. Their measures include the formation of emergency crop-harvesting teams and the launch of a green channel through which highway inspections and COVID-19 screenings involving farm equipment transport are expedited. Considering that this year's total area of summer grain remains roughly flat compared with the 2021 level, the provincial authorities expect a bumper summer harvest despite the COVID-19 headwinds. With Henan serving as an example, the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has urged local departments to better coordinate COVID-19 containment with summer harvest, and work concertedly with healthcare, transport and energy departments to unclog the logistics to ensure timely grain production. While ramping up the monitoring and early warning of meteorological disasters, the ministry has also dispatched nine work teams to major wheat-producing provinces such as Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu to provide instructions. In terms of policy incentives, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration recently said that it would raise the minimum purchase prices for rice and wheat in major grain-producing regions, amid efforts to safeguard farmers' interests and stabilize the grain market. Another case in point is the Agricultural Development Bank of China, a policy bank, announcing the loan issuance of 110 billion yuan (about 16.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the purchasers of summer grain. The bank said that the amount, if necessary, would be increased to ensure a "steady and orderly summer harvest." SCI-TECH IMPETUS "Thanks to those new machines, we have harvested two-thirds of our crops in three days," said Han Lei, a villager of Jiazhuang village in east China's Anhui, pointing at four crop harvesters in the oilseed rape fields. The upgraded crop harvesters reduce losses in the reaping process by half compared to conventional methods, Han told Xinhua. Anhui has long been renowned for its rapeseed plantations. On mechanizing agriculture, the province's agriculture authorities have said that some 200,000 units of combine harvesters are to be put into use this year, and the proportion of machine harvesting will remain at around 99 percent across the region. Cutting-edge technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and automatic irrigation systems, are also used in crop fields, increasing production efficiency remarkably. "I have four drones and with their help, I completed spraying pesticide on my crops in eight hours last month," Shang Yue, a wheat farmer in Anhui, told Xinhua, adding that UAVs play a crucial role in his crop management every day, including crop protection and pesticide spraying. "Such comprehensive mechanization has boosted my confidence in crop production," Shang said. Research institutes, meanwhile, are seeking sci-tech breakthroughs to further beef up the country's grain output. Last month, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that it would launch a research and development campaign to help expand the yields of five staple grains -- rice, wheat, corn, soybeans and potatoes. The academy added that it will focus on selecting high-quality varieties, nurturing core technologies and promoting yield-increasing skills. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Flash Cambodia and China on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the construction of a COVID-19 vaccine filling and packaging factory in Cambodia. The MoU was inked by Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng and Gao Qiang, general manager of Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd. via video link. Under the deal, the Cambodia Pharmaceutical Enterprise is given rights to build a COVID-19 vaccine filling and packaging factory and the Cambodian government has contracted to purchase the vaccines from the factory for three years from 2024 to 2026, Bunheng said. "The construction of the vaccine filling and packaging factory is to meet the demand of vaccines among Cambodians and foreigners living in Cambodia," he said at the event. Cambodia has so far administered COVID-19 vaccines to over 15 million people, or 94 percent of its total population of 16 million, the Ministry of Health said, adding that China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines have been widely used in the kingdom's immunization program. Buoyed by its high vaccination rates, Cambodia has resumed all socioeconomic activities and reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers without quarantine since last November. According to the Ministry of Health, the southeast Asian nation has reported no new cases of COVID-19 for the last 25 days, and only four active cases remain in the kingdom. Ani Hovannisian is always on a journey to find the truth. In each project, she searches for it. With her latest, The Hidden Map, she journeyed to modern-day Turkey to unravel some of her familys history. Her family story starts with the Armenian genocide, which began in 1915. During a short time, 1.5 million Armenians were killed or expelled by Ottoman Turks. Those that were affected include Hovannisians family. I grew up with parents and grandparents who not only passed on the trauma, but the determination to overcome it, she says. Its part of me. Being Armenian is my identity as much as being American is my identity. They go together. Hovannisian spent years working on the project and PBS is picking up the documentary and airing it nationwide. The Hidden Map takes viewers beneath the surface of modern-day Turkey, where the forbidden Armenian past has been awaiting discovery for more than a century. The story comes to life as Hovannisian, an American-Armenian granddaughter of genocide survivors, ventures to their lost ancestral homeland in search of long-buried truths. A chance encounter with a Scottish explorer, Steven Sim, leads to a joint odyssey unearthing sacred relics, silenced voices, daring resilience and the hidden map. The result is a story of discovery, heartbreak and hope that belongs to all of humanity. The Hidden Map will air at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 5 and 10:30 a.m. on June 12 on World channel 5.4. It will air on New Mexico PBS at 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, on channel 5.1. Hovannisian wanted to tackle the story because its often one that is not remembered in history. Shes also thrilled that PBS is taking a chance to give her the platform to share the story. Its not a cinematic masterpiece, but it goes deep, she says. The Armenian story has been hidden and forgotten by Turkey intentionally. My grandparents were exiled from that land. Hovannisian had traveled with her father to the area. I had to face the unfathomable loss and the story of my grandparents growing up, she says. I cant tell you how filling that is. Before I worked on this project I was in nonfiction programming. I always knew that I would one day tell the Armenian story in a grand way. Its not only a genocide history lesson. Its much bigger than that. As she traveled back she met Sim, who lived in an old Armenian home. This is where she was able to uncover more stories. That was the turning point, she says of meeting Sim. Here was this guy who spent 30 years of his life finding and discovering our Armenian past. Hes kind of a loner and he cares about the stories. To see these relics that he had was evidence of the genocide. Hovannisian wanted to bring attention to not only the Armenian genocide but to the many crimes against humanity that are allowed to happen without any accountability. She wanted to tell the stories of the silenced and forgotten voices within this tragedy. For me to know that there are going to be 1,000 airings of The Hidden Map across the country makes my heart beat fast, she says. The story has been forgotten for 100 years. These stories have been buried beneath the soil and going to be unearthed. Whats important is that this story is a continuing story. Its a human story. Its the story of every peoples struggle and how critical it is for the truth to be known. Every person has a history that is complicated. This is a jumping off point for others to learn about a piece of history that is always trying to be erased. ON TV The Hidden Map will air at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 5 and 10:30 a.m. on June 12 on World channel 5.4. It will air on New Mexico PBS at 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, on channel 5.1. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Rio Grande flows are dropping fast, and significant river drying could impact farmers and wildlife earlier than expected. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which manages irrigation from Cochiti Dam to Bosque del Apache, warned farmers on Tuesday that the agency could be out of water in two or three weeks unless the region receives rain. Water operations manager Anne Marken said the San Juan-Chama Project is supplying the districts only stored water this season. Thats due to Rio Grande Compact restrictions on native (water) storage and the rehab project on El Vado Dam, Marken said. The San Juan-Chama Project diverts Colorado River Basin water into the Rio Grande. When that water is gone, the agency will be completely dependent on natural Rio Grande flows. The MRGCD has asked the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for an early delivery of its June 15 San Juan-Chama allocation of 1.6 billion gallons to prevent irrigation interruptions. But Marken said even the additional water is not going to last long. Agencies are timing water releases south of San Acacia to protect sensitive fish from the rapidly-drying river. Its not easy to deliver what you dont have, to irrigators, said Glen Duggins, a district board member and Lemitar chile farmer. No doubt theres going to be some hot days and some hot tempers, but well get through it, he said. The timing of low water supplies is not good for farmers cultivating early summer crops. Matt Martinez, who oversees the districts water deliveries, said irrigators should expect extended periods without water. The last few weeks we have had adequate water, but the demand has been relatively low with a substantial number of farmers cutting and baling their crop, Martinez said. Now, demand is increasing as bales come off the fields. About 6.5 billion gallons of water is stored in Abiquiu Reservoir to meet pueblo irrigation needs. The National Weather Service is predicting above-average temperatures for New Mexico this summer. Most of the states central region has equal chances of above- or below-average rainfall. Farmers should prepare for a difficult and dry summer, and as always, pray for rain, Marken said. One of New Mexicos beloved wine lines has a new look. The Lescombes family has been crafting St. Clair wine for more than 30 years and decided to change up its branding. We are super excited, said Sandra Pacheco, national sales director at Lescombes Family Vineyards. Its been a long time in the making, or at least in the thoughts of making the move, and it was just time. It was really just time to freshen it up and make it more representative of the product that it is. It was important to include the consumers and retailers that have supported St. Clair over the years in the rebranding process. We really wanted to put it out to our consumers and customers, Pacheco said. And so what we did is we did a survey with three designs. And we put it out there to probably a good 1,000 people, if not more, both consumers and retailers and asked for their input. We truly wanted this to be a label that was representative of New Mexico since this is primarily a New Mexico brand We wanted it to look and feel like New Mexico. The result is artwork that incorporates the colors of New Mexico on a textured label. The newly-branded wines will hit retailer shelves sometime in June. Updates can be found at stclairwine.com. Were trying to take a different approach, Pacheco said. We want to maintain our loyal customer base that weve had for nearly 30 years, but we also want to introduce the product to new wine consumers. We want them to become as familiar with this brand as our loyal customers have been throughout the years. We want them to also understand the story and the authenticity of the product and how its made, where its made and by whom, all being New Mexico. The St. Clair line is a 100% New Mexico product. The wine is produced from a vineyard in Lordsburg, located in southern New Mexico. The St. Clair brand is pivotal to our success as a winery, Pacheco said. We produce all the varietals. In this vineyard, (there are) 35 different varietals that are grown and we want to introduce some of those varietals to our consumers. A lot of the consumers are used to maybe drinking some of our blends, but we want them to now try some of the variety of wines. St. Clair grapes are grown at an elevation of 4,500 feet. The vineyard produces an average of 7 to 10 tons of grapes per acre, according to a St. Clair news release. St. Clair currently grows cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, moscato, pinot grigio, merlot, chenin blanc and dozens of other varietals. The winery harvests July through September. One of St. Clairs most cherished wine lines, which features one of the top selling wines in the state, Mimbres Red, will soon be branching out on its own. The Mimbres wines are not going to come under the St. Clair brand, Pacheco explained. They have now reached a point where they are going to stand on their own. We are super excited about what thats going to bring in the future. It will always be tied to St. Clair, but its probably going to look more like a Mimbres Wine Works by St. Clair as opposed to St. Clair being the prominent label on that product. But its still part of our portfolio, will always be a part of our portfolio, and we value the Mimbres line. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Authorities say a woman illegally bought her teenage grandson multiple guns in the years leading up to him fatally shooting her brother this year at the familys West Side home. Alberta Trujillo, 62, is charged in federal court with making a false statement in conjunction with the acquisition of a firearm and conspiracy in the case. According to recently released court records, Trujillo told agents she had bought several guns for Domenic Mora since 2019, when he was 16, after he ordered them online. Trujillo could not be reached and her attorney did not return calls for comment. Mora, now 19, is currently jailed in the Jan. 12 shooting death of his granduncle, Daniel Trujillo. Months earlier, according to court records, neighbors filed a restraining order against the family after Mora allegedly pointed a gun at them. It is unclear if either gun used in those incidents was bought for Mora by Alberta Trujillo. Albuquerque police spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said detectives recovered a gun after the homicide, but they are awaiting the results of ballistics tests to confirm if it is the weapon used in the killing. Mora had ordered a machine-style pistol in Alberta Trujillos name before he was arrested, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court. With Mora behind bars, authorities said Alberta Trujillo planned to sell the gun to a relative of Moras girlfriend, Monique Chavez, who is charged with conspiracy. The investigation started Jan. 24, days after Mora allegedly killed his granduncle. According to the search warrant affidavit, an employee of BMC Tactical told the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that Alberta Trujillo may have been buying guns for a young, male family member who accompanied her to the store. Agents located a January 2020 police report in which Alberta Trujillo had bought a gun that was recovered from Mora in association with suspected criminal activity. The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office found the firearm, a black shotgun bought by Trujillo in October 2019, in Moras vehicle after he was arrested at the age of 16 for allegedly leading a deputy on a pursuit on the West Side, according to a BCSO incident report. Federal authorities said the report reflected a 79-day time-to-crime the time between a guns purchase and it being recovered by law enforcement which is considered very short and is potentially an indicator of criminal activity. The time-to-crime rates in New Mexico have skyrocketed since the ATF began tracking the data in 2014, when 38 guns were recovered within three months of purchase. In 2020, the gun recovered from Mora was one of 364 firearms recovered within three months of purchase. As agents looked into Alberta Trujillos background, they found she previously bought six guns five from BMC Tactical between October 2019 and August 2021. On March 5, an employee of BMC Tactical told agents Alberta Trujillo was coming to pick up a Charles Daly PAK-9 machine-style pistol that had been ordered online, according to the affidavit. Agents went to the store as Trujillo, Chavez and Chavezs relatives arrived in a group. Authorities said Alberta Trujillo agreed to speak with ATF agents and initially made a series of seemingly conflicting statements before trying to leave. Agents followed Alberta Trujillo to the parking lot and found Chavez and the others had left her there. The affidavit states agents detained Trujillo and she told them she didnt buy the guns for Mora but he ordered them online in her name to be delivered to the gun store. She said she put the guns away and her grandson obtained them on his own. Authorities said she replied I guess, yeah when asked if Mora was the actual buyer of the guns. Alberta Trujillo told agents she had picked up guns for her grandson three or four times and initially lied to agents because she didnt want to get in trouble. Trujillo told agents Mora also made the most recent purchase online and had the gun delivered to BMC Tactical, according to the affidavit. She said she planned to resell the gun to Chavezs relative to make some money since Mora left (her) with the bill. Authorities said agents found messages from Chavez on Trujillos phone referencing selling the gun to a relative and throwing some drugs to Trujillo for her trouble. A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said. It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene, Dalgleish said. The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and thats what led them to the second floor. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers, Dalgleish said. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked. Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available. Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims. This campus is sacred ground for our community, said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community. Bynum added: Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight. Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his fathers room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows. Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his fathers hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard code silver and level 1 trauma announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room. I wasnt particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me, he said. But it was definitely a this is happening here moment. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school. The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. ___ This story has been corrected to show that information about number dead, weapons used and police response should be attributed to Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. ___ This story has been corrected to show that gunman at Robb Elementary School used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle. ___ Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. I recently attended a CHART (Culture, Healing, Art, Reconciliation, and Truth) -sponsored event by the city of Santa Fe, developed to address underlying issues of inequality and injustice after the Obelisk was toppled in the Plaza. The excellent lecture by urban planner Setha Low repeatedly mentioned how public spaces should always highlight their history and historic inhabitants. I noticed there were no Pueblo or Tewa people in attendance. When we broke out into smaller groups, no one, not even CHART employees, could explain why they werent in attendance. The plaza we were to artistically design wasnt to be our current downtown plaza, but rather a new plaza to be located elsewhere. The Hispanics at our table were adamant the Obelisk should be restored and the plaza left alone. No one disputes Santa Fe was once a Tewa Pueblo. No one disputes (that) intermarriage, Spanish architecture, acequias and the creation of New Mexican cuisine (has created) a hybrid of both cultures. No one disputes blood of the Puebloans runs in the veins of the Spanish, and the blood of the Spanish runs in the veins of Puebloans. Both cultures share local medicines, agriculture, cuisine and pain. What the Pueblo people have endured for hundreds of years, the Hispanics are now experiencing. The downtown plaza belongs to both cultures, and Indian and Spanish Markets are the main tourist attraction for Santa Fe. So why doesnt the plaza represent both cultures? Why doesnt the plaza acknowledge the history and architecture of both? Its absolutely illogical the plaza looks like America at the time it took over New Mexico, complete with trees, grasses and an Obelisk, which are not from here. Hispanics of Santa Fe need to gather with their cousins, the Tewas, and design a plaza they both love, equally, with no colonist oversight or outside interference. Dont worry, all New Mexicans will embrace a Santa Fe plaza of Tewa and Hispanic mutual design. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Take a look at Shelly C. Lowe and one immediately sees the pride in her culture. Decked out in moccasins and turquoise and silver jewelry, the Navajo woman is making a statement. The Gallup native was confirmed by Congress in February as the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Shes had a prestigious journey to her current position one that is filled with hard work. From 2015 to 2021, she served as a member of the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-member advisory body to NEH, an appointment she received from President Barack Obama. Lowes career in higher education has included roles as executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program, assistant dean in the Yale College deans office, and director of the Native American Cultural Center at Yale University. It is no wonder that Shelly Lowe has been tapped to serve the public as Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow. She is an individual of extraordinary experience, insight and wisdom, and she cares deeply about the humanities and the central role they play in all of our lives. Though we will miss her at Harvard, we know that her care and skill will be put to their best use as she works to enlarge and enhance the role of art, culture, and history in this country and elsewhere. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. Humanities include the study of ancient and modern languages, literature, philosophy, history, archaeology, anthropology, human geography, law, religion and art. Grants awarded by the NEH after independent review typically go to cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television and radio stations and to individual scholars. Yet its with her words where Lowe has the biggest impact. We are a very small agency, she said. We have a massive amount of impact that we dont always share with the public. I think when we look at the work that we do, we have a really strong case to show the impact were making. Its my job to make sure that people are aware of the agency and the work we do. Lowe made her first official visit as NEH chair to New Mexico and Arizona in mid-May. Its part of her grassroots plan for the agency. The biggest challenge is people understanding who we are and what we do right, she continued. Part of it, you know, our branding, and people getting over that hurdle of Whats the humanities? And then if you can understand that a little bit. Then you can start getting into what we do. During her visit to Isleta Pueblo on May 15, Lowe met with Gov. Vernon Abeita and 1st Lt. Gov. Virgil Lucero. Lowe heard from representatives of the Yonan An Cultural Center about two Isleta projects that have received NEH support: Archivist Cassandra Smith presented on work done at the Yonan An Cultural Center through an NEH American Rescue Plan grant to create an accessible digital archive to preserve tribal records and historical materials. Lowe toured an NEH-supported traveling exhibition of photography and artworks documenting Pueblo of Isleta history throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. During her trip, Lowe spent time at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Littleglobe in Santa Fe, as well as the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque and gallupARTS. She then went to Window Rock and Ganado, Arizona. Its important to make sure that these stories are archived and preserved, Lowe said. Thats the biggest challenge for me and the agency. The NEH oversees Educating for American Democracy. The program is a civics education program that is available in school systems. Its a partnership that we have in funding to the Department of Education, Lowe said. It was funding to an organization called iCivics. And what they have done is theyve built a road map for civics education for schools and educators to use at multiple levels in the kind of K-12 arena. You can pull from that and then you can design it to fit your community and to fit kind of the civics conversations that are very particular to your region or your state or your very specific county. Lowe knows theres an uphill battle in getting the general public to understand the NEH. She wants Americans to know how important humanities are and what humanities can do for every single one of us. The diversity of our country, the history of our country, and how diverse and different stories and how they intermingle and intertwine is important, she said. Growing up on the Navajo reservation, I was lucky enough to learn Navajo history and government in the high school. But I still meet adults, students and youth today who dont even know that Native Americans still exist, because they have never had that kind of teaching. Im really hoping we start to tell many more of the historical stories. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Democratic state auditor candidate Joseph Maestas is pushing back against claims from a labor union that he received an improper campaign contribution. The local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union this week accused Maestas of taking the $2,500 campaign contribution from Joe Henri, an Atlanta resident who is also a renewable energy executive, in exchange for favorable treatment regarding community solar rules that were adopted in March by the Public Regulation Commission. Henri is a board member of the Coalition for Community Solar Access, a Washington, D.C.-based group that lobbied the PRC during its consideration of new solar energy rules. The group at one point successfully requested more time to file a response in the case, a motion that was backed by other energy groups and the Attorney Generals Office. Maestas, who is the PRC chairman and is running against fellow Democrat Zack Quintero for the state auditor post, said Wednesday he did not know Henri was on the board of the community solar group at the time he received the contribution. These are unsupported and reckless allegations about a contribution that is legal, Maestas told the Journal. He also said the unions criticism of him stemmed from his opposition as a PRC commissioner to a proposed merger of Public Service Company of New Mexico, the states largest utility, with energy giant Avangrid. The union had offered him its endorsement and a $5,000 campaign contribution if the merger were to win approval, Maestas said, but it was unanimously rejected by all five PRC commissioners. I believe in the voters the voters are smart, he added. These are unfounded allegations and they have a smell of petty politics. The electrical workers union has already filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission against Maestas for accepting a separate $250 donation from the executive director of New Energy Economy, a nonprofit group that also regularly testifies before the PRC. In a statement this week, the unions business manager Pete Trujillo called the donation from Henri unethical. I am shocked and enraged that a sitting member of the PRC took this contribution and made a regulatory decision that directly benefited this group, Trujillo said. The primary race between Maestas and Quintero has featured back-and-forth jabs over experience and integrity, with Maestas accusing Quintero of embellishing his resume. The winner of the June 7 contest will be in line to take over as New Mexicos next state auditor in January, as there are no Republicans running for the office thats currently held by Democrat Brian Colon. Quintero, a former state ombudsman, said the contribution is the second received by Maestas from individuals who have interests in regulatory decisions made by the PRC, which will be overhauled next year under a 2020 constitutional amendment approved by statewide voters. New Mexicans deserve better from their public servants, he said in a statement. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the countrys east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britains Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory, he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washingtons first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine WASHINGTON A House panel advanced legislation Thursday that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 as Democrats moved quickly to put their stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by assailants who used such weapons to kill 31 people, including 19 children. The vote came as President Joe Biden gave a prime-time speech about the shootings and told Americans, Lets hear the call and the cry, lets meet the moment, let us finally do something. Partisan positions were clear at the Judiciary Committee hearing, which lasted more than nine hours. In addition to raising the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles, the bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the administrations executive action banning fast-action bump-stock devices and ghost guns that are assembled without serial numbers. The final vote to advance the bill was 25-19, with Democrats accounting for all the yes votes and Republicans accounting for all the no votes. The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last weeks school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised in a letter to Democratic colleagues Thursday that the House will vote on the measure next week, and she promised other votes in the weeks ahead, including on a bill to to create an Amber Alert-style notification during a mass shooting. Pelosi also pledged a hearing on a bill banning military-style semiautomatic rifles. But with Republicans nearly all in opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely putting lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this years elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making rapid progress, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defended his chambers proposals as popular with most Americans. He dismissed Republican criticism. You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are politicizing these tragedies to enact new policies? Nadler said. It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for? Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted the House bill would do nothing to stop mass shootings. We need to get serious about understanding why this keeps happening. Democrats are always fixated on curtailing the rights of law-abiding citizens rather than trying to understand why this evil happens, Jordan said. Until we figure out the why, we will always mourn losses without facing the problem. Our job is to figure out the why. A chief feature of the House bill requires those buying semi-automatic weapons to be at least 21. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, both were 18 and used an AR-15-style weapon. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy an assault weapon. Thats what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? Theyve got a problem, which means weve got a problem, which means those 19 kids and their parents and those two teachers have a problem, forever, Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., pointed to a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found Californias ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 unconstitutional. I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way to stripping Americans of fundamental rights, Bishop said. The hearing featured emotional pleas from Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to the mass shootings after years of gridlock on gun issues, one of the most riveting coming from Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia. She recalled how her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. She said she dreams of who he would have become. She said racial bias led to his death and those of 10 Black Americans in Buffalo last month and is being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency in the United States. We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue, McBath said. And we have solutions that a majority of American people believe in. They are common-sense compromises that will keep American children alive. Several lawmakers participated in the hearing remotely, including Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who brandished various pistols in arguing that the bills provision banning large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds amounted to stopping law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns of their choice. When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, remarked that she hoped one of the guns Steube was holding was not loaded, Steube replied, Im in my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns. It was one of several pointed exchanges during the hearing. Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus. Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure orders requiring the police to seize guns from people considered threats to themselves or others. ___ This version corrects to say Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was the lawmaker who remarked that that she hoped a gun being shown remotely at the hearing wasnt loaded, not Rep. Jerrold Nadler. ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. You are here: World Flash Turkey and Pakistan on Wednesday pledged to strengthen cooperation with a "strategic perspective" on both bilateral and international levels. "We are ready to further strengthen Turkey-Pakistan relations with a strategic perspective in line with the history, friendship and potential of the two countries," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a joint press conference in Ankara with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries last year increased the bilateral trade volume to over 1 billion U.S. dollars for the first time since 2011, Erdogan said, adding that their target is 5 billion dollars. "We are working to improve our cooperation in service sectors such as tourism, education, logistics, civil aviation, communications, and information technologies," he said. Erdogan said he is glad to see concrete projects in defense cooperation, noting that their joint production of corvettes under the MILGEM project "sets an important example in this sense." He said Turkey will start delivering four ships at six-month intervals starting from August 2023. MILGEM is a Turkish warship program that develops multipurpose corvettes and frigates. Sharif, for his part, said Turkey and Pakistan are "embedded deep into history and shaped by shared goals." Pakistan is willing to learn from Turkey's experience in the fields of e-commerce, education and infrastructure, he added. This is Sharif's first official visit to Turkey since assuming office in April. WASHINGTON President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for U.S. gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations. Such a meeting could also ease a fraught and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammeds brutal ways. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. He is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden would also likely visit Israel. Last week, the White House confirmed that Brett McGurk, the National Security Council Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart. McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudis war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire. For Biden, the political dangers of offering his hand to Prince Mohammed include the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggis killing. Saudi Arabia denies his involvement. Still, Biden stood ready to greet the prince at last Octobers meeting of leading rich and developing nations in Rome, but Prince Mohammed did not attend. And any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge during his campaign that Saudi rulers would pay the price for Khashoggis killing risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate. Democrats appear less vocal now in demands that the U.S. take a hard line with Saudi Arabias crown prince. Near-record gas prices are endangering their prospects in the November midterm election. A leading congressional critic of the Saudi government, Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, said in an email the United States should reassess its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia. But he and other Democrats are not publicly telling Biden he shouldnt meet with Prince Mohammed. Lawmakers point especially to Saudi Arabias refusal despite months of Western appeals to veer from an oil production cap brokered largely between the Saudi kingdom and oil-producer Russia. The production cap is adding to oil supply shortfalls stemming from Russias invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have privately urged Biden to work to soothe U.S.-Saudi relations as has Israel, which sees the kingdom as an essential player in countering Iran. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. The United States for decades has ensured U.S. or allied aircraft carriers, troops and trainers and missile batteries remain deployed in defense of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, and in defense of other Gulf states. The military commitment recognizes that a stable global oil market and a Gulf counterbalance to Iran are in U.S. strategic interests. From Saudi Arabia, the United States is looking for real assurances that it is going to be firmly aligned with the United States internationally, and not drift toward or hedge by trying to have comparable relationships with Russia and China. That goes beyond just oil, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Shapiro is an advocate of bilateral Abraham accords that have helped establish closer ties between some Arab states and Israel. The United States needs to have some assurance that its going to provide those security guarantees and it has a real partner thats going to be like a partner, said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, often see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as Washington tries to extricate itself from Middle East conflicts to focus on China. Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israels U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, Shapiro said. Deputy Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited CENTCOM headquarters in Florida last month. Regional coordination was one of the main topics, including, Shapiro said, the possibility of such steps as coordinating the Middle Easts air defense capabilities. Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met last month with the Saudi defense official. Sullivan said he talked energy. CIA Director William Burns visited Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia in April. Biden administration officials bristle at the notion that a stepped-up engagement is simply about getting the Saudis to help ease gas prices. Jean-Pierre said thats a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue, as well as our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis. The presidents words still stand, she added Wednesday, of Bidens pledge that the Saudis would pay a price. ___ Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. ANKARA, Turkey Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has sent a letter to the United Nations formally requesting that his country be referred to as Turkiye, the state-run news agency reported. The move is seen as part of a push by Ankara to rebrand the country and dissociate its name from the bird, turkey, and some negative connotations that are associated with it. Anadolu Agency said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, confirmed receipt of the letter late on Wednesday. The agency quoted Dujarric as saying that the name change had become effective from the moment the letter was received. President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government has been pressing for the internationally recognized name Turkey to be changed to Turkiye (tur-key-YAY) as it is spelled and pronounced in Turkish. The country called itself Turkiye in 1923 after its declaration of independence. In December, Erdogan ordered the use of Turkiye to better represent Turkish culture and values, including demanding that Made in Turkiye be used instead of Made in Turkey on exported products. Turkish ministries began using Turkiye in official documents. Earlier this year, the government also released a promotional video as part of its attempts to change its name in English. The video shows tourists from across the world saying Hello Turkiye at famous destinations. The Turkish presidencys Directorate of Communications said it launched the campaign to promote more effectively the use of Turkiye as the countrys national and international name on international platforms. It was not clear whether the name, with a letter that doesnt exist in the English alphabet, will catch on widely abroad. In 2016, the Czech Republic officially registered its short-form name, Czechia, and while some international institutions use it, many still refer to the country by its longer name. Turkeys English-language state broadcaster TRT World has switched to using Turkiye although the word Turkey slips in by journalists still trying to get used to the change. TRT World explained the decision in an article earlier this year, saying Googling Turkey brings up a a muddled set of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that conflate the country with Meleagris otherwise known as the turkey, a large bird native to North America which is famous for being served on Christmas menus or Thanksgiving dinners. The network continued: Flip through the Cambridge Dictionary and turkey is defined as something that fails badly or a stupid or silly person. TRT World argued that Turks prefer their country to be called Turkiye, in keeping with the countrys aims of determining how others should identify it. A gunman who killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the rampage, police said Thursday. The patient called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then killed himself as police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. President Joe Biden addressed the carnage in recent years from mass shootings with AR-style rifles in an address Thursday night. Since the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school killed 21 people, including 19 children, just over a week ago, there have been 20 mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured, he said. After describing the Tulsa shooting as one of those 20 mass shootings, the president said, That doesnt count the carnage we see every single day that doesnt make the headlines. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Franklin said Phillips performed the surgery on May 19 and Louis was released from the hospital on May 24. He said Louis called the doctors office several times over several days reporting he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for additional treatment. Louis called the office again Wednesday complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance, he said. A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a consummate gentleman and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said. Love, a 73-year-old retired Army sergeant, was a patient at the clinic but that day he was accompanying his wife, Deborah, for her six-month checkup, said their daughter, Karen Denise Love. Police have received reports that Love held a door shut in hopes of allowing others to flee from the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to reporters questions. Karen Love said her parents were in an examination room with one of Phillips assistants when the couple heard the commotion outside. When they realized it was gunshots, Karen Love said her father grabbed the door handle from inside the room. As they heard this guy going up and down the hall, they knew it was gunfire, Karen Love said. They thought it was someone just shooting people. My dad was trying to hold the door the best he could. Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Franklin said police believe Louis shot himself about 39 seconds after the first officers entered the building. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. ___ Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed from Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody from Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York. SEATTLE A man has pleaded not guilty to rape and voyeurism charges in Seattle after completing a prison sentence in New Mexico for raping a Washington woman there in 2017. Redwolf Pope, who leased apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, was arrested in 2018 after his house guests gave police videos from his iPad that allegedly showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. A Santa Fe jury in 2020 found Pope guilty of rape and voyeurism, and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison, with credit for over two years already served. Pope claimed the incident was consensual. Pope was booked May 19 into King County Jail, where he remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail, The Seattle Times reported. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Pope was charged in 2018 with two counts of second-degree rape against two women inside his Seattle apartment in 2016 and 2017, charging papers say. King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Aubony Burns told Chief Criminal Judge Karen Donohue Wednesday that based on additional video evidence he now faces three counts of second-degree rape and three counts of first-degree voyeurism. Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who last Thanksgiving appeared as a spokesperson for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation to discuss Native-American perspectives on Thanksgiving. Popes LinkedIn page describes him as a co-founder for tech startups and lists him as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade. But Popes heritage and resume have come under scrutiny since his arrest. While he received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association previously confirmed he was not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there. Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said theyve found no record of Popes enrollment, though its unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe. Abigail Echo-Hawk, the executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native womens rights, has said Pope created a false identity and posed as a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey upon our Indigenous women. Echo-Hawk said Wednesday she stands by that 2019 statement and that shes grateful police thoroughly investigated his alleged conduct. NEW YORK Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for stealing book proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who catapulted him to fame as he represented her in courtrooms and cable news programs during her legal battles with then-President Donald Trump. The California lawyer, currently incarcerated, learned his fate in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Jesse M. Furman said the sentence will mean that Avenatti will spend another 2 1/2 years in prison on top of the 2 1/2 years he is already serving after another fraud conviction. The judge said Avenattis crime against Daniels was made out of desperation when his law firm was struggling. He called Avenattis behavior craven and egregious and blamed it on blind ambition. He also required Avenatti to pay $148,000 in restitution and forfeit the roughly $297,000 that prosecutors say he stole from Daniels. The judge said he believed the sentence will send a message to lawyers that, if they go astray, they will lose their profession and their liberty. Avenatti wearing a drab beige prison uniform, choked up several times as he delivered a lengthy statement before the sentence was announced, saying he had disappointed scores of people and failed in a cataclysmic way. I have destroyed my career, my relationships and my reputation and have done collateral damage to my family and my life, he said. There is serious doubt as to how or if I will ever recover any semblance of a normal life. Avenatti, 51, said he chose to represent Daniels beginning in February 2018 because she was an underdog and no one else would. Nobody could have predicted the success we would have and the notoriety that would follow, he said. After the sentencing, Avenatti, shackled at the feet, hugged his lawyers and then shuffled out of court. At trial earlier this year, Avenatti represented himself, cross-examining his former client for hours about their experiences in early 2018, when she signed a book deal that provided an $800,000 payout. Prosecutors said he illegally pocketed about $300,000 of her advance on Full Disclosure, published in fall 2018. The books publication came at a time when Avenattis law practice was failing financially even as he appeared regularly on cable television news channels, attacking Trump. Avenatti represented Daniels in lawsuits meant to free her from a $130,000 hush payment she received shortly before the 2016 presidential election to remain silent about a tryst she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denied it. Daniels was not in court. Her current attorney, Clark Brewster, spoke on her behalf, saying it was truly shocking that Avenatti tried to portray himself as a champion of his clients during his statement. In a statement after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Avenatti violated the duty of lawyers to be loyal advocates for their clients when he stole his clients identity and her money in order to line his own pockets. His conviction for aggravated identity theft required a mandatory two-year prison sentence. He was also convicted of wire fraud. Hes already serving a 2 1/2-year sentence for trying to extort Nike. Avenatti was convicted in 2020 of threatening to ruin the shoemakers reputation if it did not pay him up to $25 million. And he faces a retrial in California on charges that he cheated clients and others of millions of dollars there. In a presentence submission, Avenattis lawyers cited an apology letter Avenatti recently wrote to Daniels in which he said: I am truly sorry. But prosecutors in a sentencing submission last week urged that that he should face substantial additional time in prison for a wire fraud conviction and criticized his apology letter, saying Avenatti failed to apologize for his actual crime. And they recalled that during an extremely lengthy cross-examination, he berated his victim for lewd language and being a difficult client, questioned her invasively about marital and familial difficulties, and sought to cast her as crazy, much as he did during the course of his fraud to prevent her own agent and publisher from responding to her pleas for help. The defendant certainly had every right to defend himself at trial. But he is not entitled to a benefit for showing remorse, having done so only when convenient and only after seeking to humiliate his victim at a public trial, and denigrating and insulting her for months to her agent and publisher while holding himself out as taking up her cause against the powerful who might have taken advantage of her, prosecutors wrote. On Thursday, the judge agreed that the apology letter was too little, too late, and said its intentions remained unclear. BURLINGTON, Vt. A Colorado man pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Vermont to kidnapping a man who was later found shot to death in a snowbank in 2018 in what prosecutors allege is a murder-for-hire case stemming from a financial dispute. Federal prosecutors say they believe Jerry Banks, 34, of Fort Garland, Colorado, killed Gregory Davis, 49, of Danville, Vermont, but he has not been charged in the killing. U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered Banks to remain detained until trial, noting the prosecutors concerns about his risk of flight and safety risk to potential witnesses. Someone who would kill for money would likely kill or improperly influence a witness or otherwise seek to influence the course of a trial that would result in his life in prison, Paul Van de Graaf and Jonathan Ophardt, assistant U.S. attorneys for Vermont, wrote in their detention request. They said Banks has a history of living off the grid and no strong connection to Vermont or anywhere else in the country. Banks federal public defender, Mary Nerino, did not contest detention and would not comment on the charges after the arraignment. Davis was abducted from his Danville, Vermont, home on Jan. 6, 2018, and found shot to death the next day in a snowbank on a back road in Barnet. Prosecutors detailed the alleged conspiracy in a filing Monday in federal court in Las Vegas. They wrote that Davis had been threatening to go to the FBI with information that Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, an inventor and the co-founder of a Los Angeles-based biotechnology company, was defrauding Davis in a multimillion-dollar oil deal Gumrukcu and Gumrukcus brother had entered into with Davis in 2015. Gurumkcu was facing felony fraud charges in California in 2017 and was working on a deal that came together soon after Davis death that gave him significant ownership stake in Enochian Bioscience. Gumrukcu therefore had a strong motive to prevent Davis from reporting yet another fraud, and likely threatening the Enochian deal, the filing states. Banks was arrested in April in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. According to an affidavit, FBI investigators used cellphone and automobile records to link Banks to the kidnapping. Prosecutors have also charged Aron Lee Ethridge, 42, of Las Vegas, with kidnapping in connection with the death of Davis. Prosecutors say that after the killing of Davis, Banks called Ethridge, who has since pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping charge. Last week, Gumrukcu, of Los Angeles, and Berk Eratay, 35, of Las Vegas, were arrested on charges of conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire which resulted in the death of Davis. Gumruckus attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment. Eratays attorney said Eratay denies the allegations and looks forward to his day in court. ____ Associated Press writer Wilson Ring in Stowe, Vermont, contributed to this report. WASHINGTON Enough, enough, President Joe Biden exclaimed over and over Thursday night, as he delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into killing fields. If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their outrage to turn it into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and said if Congress wont embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21. How much more carnage are we willing to accept? Biden asked after last weeks shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. Dont tell me raising the age wont make a difference, he said. The most recent shootings came close on the heels of the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as racially motivated violent extremism. This time we have to take the time to do something, Biden said, calling out the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to pass legislation. For all the passion of Bidens address, and for all his big asks and smaller fallback alternatives, any major action by Congress is still a long shot. I know how hard it is, but Ill never give up, and if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people wont give up either, he added. I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Adding a stark perspective to young peoples deaths, he noted that Centers for Disease Control data shows guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America, ahead of car crashes. Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined, he said. Aware of persistent criticism from gun-rights advocates, Biden insisted his appeal wasnt about vilifying gun owners or taking away anybodys guns. We should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave, Biden said. This isnt about taking away anyones rights, its about protecting children, its about protecting families. He called on Congress to end outrageous protections for gun manufacturers, which severely limit their liability over how their firearms are used, comparing it to the tobacco industry, which has faced repeated litigation over its products role in causing cancer and other diseases. Imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where wed be today, Biden said. All major broadcast networks broke away from regular programing to carry Bidens remarks at 7:30 p.m. EDT, before the start of prime-time shows. Biden has given major speeches on the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. But the president has used such addresses sparingly during his nearly 18 months in office, especially during evening hours. Earlier Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the Oklahoma shooting, saying, All of us hold the people of Tulsa in our hearts, but we also reaffirm our commitment to passing commonsense gun safety laws. No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough, Harris said. We need Congress to act. Visiting Uvalde on Sunday, Biden mourned privately for three-plus hours with anguished families. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, the president pledged, We will. In his address, he spoke of being passed a note by a woman in a Uvalde church grieving the loss of her grandchild, calling on people to come together and act. His Thursday night address coincided with bipartisan talks that are intensifying among a core group of senators discussing modest gun policy changes. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said the group is making rapid progress, and Biden has spoken to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, among those leading Democrats efforts on the issue. Democrats are hoping Bidens remarks encourage the bipartisan Senate talks and build pressure on the Republicans to strike an agreement. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is encouraged by congressional negotiations but the president wants to give lawmakers some space to keep talking. The private discussions in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, are not expected to produce the kinds of sweeping reforms being considered by the Democratic-led House which has approved expansive background checks legislation and will next turn to an assault weapons ban. A House package debated Thursday and approved by a committee, 25-19 is less sweeping but includes a provision raising the required age for buying semi-automatic firearms to 21. It still faces slim chances in the Senate. Instead, the bipartisan senators are likely to come up with a more incremental package that would increase federal funding to support state gun safety efforts with incentives for bolstering school security and mental health resources. The package may also encourage red-flag laws to keep firearms away from those who would do harm. While the Senate approved a modest measure to encourage compliance with background checks after a 2017 church mass shooting in Texas and one in Parkland, Florida, the following year, no major legislation cleared the chamber following the devastating massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. __ Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed. UVALDE, Texas The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and its unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a system failure that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary Schoo l on May 24. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Seventeen more were injured. Funerals for those slain began this week. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshall Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said its unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. PUEBLO, Colo. A slide on an 80-foot-high (24-meter-high) coal pile killed two workers Thursday at a southern Colorado coal-fired electricity generating plant, authorities said after a day-long search for the victims. Rescuers found the bodies of the two men buried beneath about 60 feet (18 meters) of coal in the towering pile at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, said Erik Duran, spokesman for the Pueblo Fire Department. Witnesses said the workers were standing about 30 feet (9 meters) up a slope of the pile when the slide occurred about 8:20 a.m., Duran said. Rescuers located the bodies at about 3 p.m. and later were able to recover them, he said. Duran described the victims as a man in his 20s and another in his 30s. The names of the victims were withheld until relatives could be notified. Witnesses reported that the accident happened on a feeder pile for the stations coal-fired power plant, which is Colorados largest and is operated by Xcel Energy. Xcel spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said the workers are employed by Savage, a Salt Lake City-based firm contracted by Xcel to operate and maintain the coal yard at Comanche and at other Xcel coal plants. Xcel is working with Savage and the Pueblo County Sheriffs Office to determine the cause of the accident, said Nygard, who directed questions about the coal slide to Savage. Savage released a statement Thursday evening saying the company was devastated by the deaths and is working with local and federal officials, as well as Xcel, to investigate the cause of the accident. Duran told reporters that Savage would provide additional information and that a company representative was en route to the scene. At Datil sitting somewhere between Magdalena and Pie Town in west-central New Mexico a lonely campground is undergoing a significant upgrade. Construction began at the Datil Well Recreation Area Campground on May 2 and is expected to continue through July, wrote Darren Scott, public affairs specialist for the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the area and is doing the work. Although relatively desolate, the area has strong historical significance in that the area was one of 15 water wells along the old Magdalena Trail Livestock Driveway. Established in the 1880s, it stretched 120 miles from Springerville, Arizona, to Magdalena. The recreation area was first established in 1969, Scott said in response to emailed questions, and many of the original structures and facilities remain from that timeframe and are still in use. The project is designed to ensure facilities are safe and accessible according to the American Disability Relief Act of 1990, while using modern technology and building materials to enhance visitor safety, accessibility, and mobility, he said. The project will upgrade 12 of the 22 campsites, as well as the construction of eight, new steel picnic cabanas. The campsites have barbecue grills and fire pits, although recent closure orders prohibit their use. Other work includes the upgrade of waters systems and restrooms by replacing nine existing water hydrants, replacing more than five thousand feet of water lines, and replacing three restrooms with new toilets and facilities. The project will also reconstruct walkways which provide access from campground roads to the restrooms, trash bins, and campsites, Scott said. The site will also be updated to meet accessibility requirements, including a 40-foot-long concrete pad and retaining wall at the host site. It is a popular destination for RV enthusiasts as it located above the Plains of San Agustin with long views across the expanse. It is relatively centrally located to the Very Large Array, Bosque del Apache, Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the southern end of El Malpais National Monument. In addition, rock climbers flock to nearby Thompson Canyon, looking to test their skills on the challenging Enchanted Tower. Also nearby, the Apache Kid and Withington wildernesses are within close proximity and contact some 190 miles of trails in the Magdalena and San Mateo mountains. The recreation area itself includes three miles of established hiking trails winding through pinon, juniper and ponderosa pine forests. Wildlife such as elk, deer, and pronghorn are not uncommon, and the occasional large predator such as black bear, bobcat and mountain lion are afoot as well. Because of its remoteness, the area makes a fine dark sky site for night viewing the star canopy. The campground will remain open during construction, Scott said. For visitor safety, the areas where construction is taking place have been marked by safety cones and barrels, with signs announcing construction, he said. The Datil Well Recreation Area Campground is off of U.S. 60. Travel one mile west of Datil on U.S. 60 or south on N.M. 12. Flash Denmark has voted to join the European Union's defence pact and scrap its 30-year-old opt-out from the bloc's common security and defence policies. In a referendum held on Wednesday, a vast majority, or 66.9 percent, of Danish citizens, have voted for the move, according to the preliminary results from Statistics Denmark, which gives the Nordic country a seat at the EU table to discuss military cooperation. The vote occurred with a turnout of 65.76 percent of the 4,260,944 electoral roll. "I believe that it is the right thing for Europe and for Denmark and our future," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after casting her ballot earlier in the day, believing that Denmark may be more united than ever on EU policy. Due to the defence opt-out, Denmark could not participate in EU military operations or cooperation on the development and acquisition of military capabilities within the EU framework. Furthermore, the country was not obligated to provide military support or supplies to EU-led efforts in conflict zones, nor to participate in any operational decisions or planning. In March, the Danish Parliament decided to hold on June 1 the referendum, part of a new multi-party agreement on defence, amid mounting concerns over the Russia-Ukraine military conflict. In addition, Denmark aims to meet NATO countries' target defence spending of 2 percent of GDP by 2033, with efforts starting to be made in 2024, according to the agreement. NEW YORK A jury said it was deadlocked Thursday in its deliberations of charges against a Colorado businessman accused of defrauding thousands of investors in a wall along the southern U.S. border hours after 11 jurors turned against one juror, accusing him of political bias and saying hed labeled the rest of them liberals. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected a defense request to declare a mistrial and instead read a so-called Allen charge, designed to spark productive deliberations Friday in the trial of Timothy Shea. Jurors were then sent home. The original four defendants in the case included Steve Bannon, an adviser to ex-President Donald Trump who was pardoned by Trump early last year. Two others pleaded guilty to charges. The prosecution pertained to a We Build The Wall campaign that raised about $25 million for a wall. Only a few miles of wall were built. Prosecutors said Shea and other fund organizers promised investors that all donations would fund a wall, but Shea and others eventually siphoned away hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves. Shea, of Castle Rock, Colorado, owns an energy drink company, Winning Energy, whose cans have featured a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain 12 oz. of liberal tears. Earlier Thursday, 11 jurors said in a note to the judge that they were unanimously requesting that one juror be replaced by an alternate juror because the juror had shown anti-government bias and had accused all the others of being liberals. In their lengthy note, the jurors told Torres that the juror had said things such as government witch hunt and accused the government of bringing the case in New York City because it knew people here vote differently. The note said the juror added that the trial should have been tried in a southern state. The jurors also accused the juror of saying: Tim Shea is a good man. He doesnt beat his wife. After the jurors requested that the juror be replaced, Torres interviewed him in her robing room with lawyers from both sides present. She asked him several questions aimed at determining if he was biased. The hearing, which wasnt open to the public, produced answers that caused the judge to order jurors to resume deliberations. Ninety minutes later, they returned a note that said: We cannot agree on a unanimous verdict on any of the counts. Defense attorney John Meringolo had requested a mistrial hours earlier, contending that the jury had revealed so much about deliberations in their note that they had violated instructions to keep their talks secret. After the deadlock note, he resumed his request for a mistrial and the judge refused it again. Adani airports, the aviation business incubated under Adani Enterprises Ltd, a leader in the integrated infrastructure and transportation businesses offers programmatic advertising enabled digital OOH media across its portfolio of airports in India. With the goal of modernizing Indias leading airports with the latest infrastructure and technology, the adoption of programmatic advertising is a revolutionary step in the airport ecosystem. With eight airports in its management and development portfolio, AAHL is now India's largest airport infrastructure company, accounting for 25% of airport footfall, giving brands and marketers the opportunity to connect with diverse audience segments through the programmatic channel. The current portfolio includes Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram and Concession Agreement (CA) for the three airports i.e., Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (Ahmedabad), Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (Lucknow) & Mangaluru International Airport (Mangaluru). The programmatic connect for all the listed Adani airports is powered by Lemma, a leading platform in providing advanced end-to-end programmatic DOOH solutions globally. Programmatic digital out-of-home DOOH (pDOOH) has become more relevant now than ever in the new normal, and it will be a crucial component for advertising and marketing activities in 2022 and beyond. Going forward, the integration of DOOH in omnichannel media plans and 360-degree campaigns will form the foundation for its growth. Enabling Programmatic ad serving at Adani airports via Lemma would enhance the screens to render dynamic ads, practice audience buying, contextual and real-time ad execution mapped to variables and real-time triggers, the opportunity to adapt campaign budgets and optimize screens individually, and lastly, the ability to measure the campaign and ad impact, remotely. Shashi Sinha, Chief Business Officer - Media and Advertising at Adani Airports says We believe that Digital is the future and enabling our Airport Media for Programmatic advertising is a step towards becoming an omnichannel media destination. Mayuresh Phadke, Co-Founder of Lemma says Lemma is thrilled to onboard Adani Airports, to the growing number of Programmatically enabled DOOH screens managed by us. This media provides Programmatic advertisers additional reach to premium audiences across India. Brightcove Inc., a leading intelligent video streaming, monetization, and communications platform, today announced a key executive hire. David Beck will join Brightcove as its first Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer, leading strategy, business development, and corporate development for the Company. Working closely with recently appointed CEO, Marc DeBevoise, Beck will be focused on developing strategies that enhance current offerings and create opportunities to expand Brightcoves existing businesses. His broad remit will also focus on enabling Brightcove to expand into new markets and lines of business utilizing its market-leading software platform. We are excited to bolster our executive team with the appointment of David Beck as Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer. David is an exceptional strategist and operator with deep industry experience and a proven track record of architecting innovative strategies and initiatives for world-class companies and brands, said Marc DeBevoise, Brightcove's Chief Executive Officer. Im excited to get to work with David and have him help us realize our vision and crystalize our continued growth strategy. Beck brings two decades of experience in strategy, operations, and business development at elite digital brands, most recently having served as the Executive Vice President, Head of Content Strategy and Business Operations at AMC. At AMC, Beck led the strategy to accelerate AMCs streaming business model transformation, including its integrated Linear, SVOD (AMC+), and AVOD/FAST services and partnerships for B2B and DTC distribution. He also drove the modernization of its core operations across AMC, BBC America, Sundance TV, IFC, and WE TV. Prior to his time at AMC, David served as the EVP, Corporate Strategy & Operations at WarnerMedia, and Chief Strategy Officer of TNT & TBS. He is also the co-founder of advisory and investment firm BRAVE Ventures, acquired by Turner (now Warner Bros. Discovery). Brightcove is an innovator and trailblazer in the video communications space, and Im both energized and honored to join the company at such an exciting time, said Beck. With a new CEO developing a focused vision, a fantastic team with building enthusiasm and ready to act, and a best in class technology platform to build on, I am incredibly excited to go after the opportunities ahead of us. IKEA, the worlds leading Swedish home furnishing brand launched a new integrated campaign in India across television, OOH, and digital channels. The campaign focuses on IKEAs wide range of home furnishing solutions providing value for money and serving multiple purposes for each family member. Under this campaign, IKEA has released two TVCs, featuring two of its iconic products for the living room and bedroom. The first commercial showcases IKEAs GAMMALBYN sofa, which has a beautiful ergonomic design, and offers great comfort and space for the full family. The sofas wide range of colours and value for money proposition is highlighted in the commercial. The second commercial focuses on how an ideal bedroom should be, and the significance of having a bed that fits well with the aesthetic of the home. The spotlight is on the multifunctionality of IKEAs SONGESAND bed, which is comfortable, well-designed, offers utility, and comes with ample storage. Commenting on the new campaign, Kavitha Rao, Country Commercial Manager, IKEA India said, At IKEA, we understand the need of having a home that truly resonates with how our customers feel, and therefore, we have designed our offerings to suit our customers needs. We aim to bring great design that is functional and affordable into the lives of our customers and make their everyday better. We offer a wide range of over 8000 products that enable customers to furnish their homes to cater to the diverse needs of the family. India-headquartered integrated communications start-up, CommsCredible on Tuesday announced that seasoned entrepreneur and business growth specialist, Priyanka Wadhwa has joined them to strengthen their venture as Head of Strategy & Growth. She will be leading the companys international expansion plans, and developing its business strategy in alignment with the organization's overall goals. At CommsCredible, she will don the hat of entrepreneur-in-residence and work closely with the founder and core team members. As part of her immediate focus area, Priyanka will be responsible for creating a structured framework for the smooth functioning of operations, ensuring that the company achieves its business and client objectives. With a career spanning over two decades, Priyanka has worked and collaborated with international brands such as Henry Schein, Decathlon, Ariat, Pikeur, Tuff Rider, Dover Saddlery and Kramer Equestrian. In her previous role, she was co-leading the business operations of Kapila Krishi Udyog Ltd, Indias leading cattle feed company. Priyanka played a pivotal role in scaling their revenue from Rs 100 cr to 700 cr. As an experienced professional, she has a proven track record of driving sustainable growth and process improvement across various industries. Talking about her joining, Aman Dhall, Founder of CommsCredible, said, We are delighted to onboard Priyanka in our core team. Her rich experience of scaling up early stage ventures in the international markets, creating distribution networks for global brands, as well operational experience of creating strong frameworks to lead market development for a niche sector player would help us accelerate our next phase of growth. Talking about her appointment, Priyanka Wadhwa said, Coming from a cross-industry background, I see a big potential in the PR industry. The focus areas of CommsCredible, and its global vision excites me. I believe that a large percentage of Indian businesses still dont understand how organic marketing and PR works, how it helps create legacy brands, and mixes its offerings with the advertising industry. My immediate focus will be to strengthen our analytics and tech offering to strengthen our operations, as we stride towards a global scale up in the next phase. Starting in October 2020 as a bootstrapped setup, CommsCredible has quickly grown to achieve an ARR of INR 30 Million as on 31st March 2022. The company has a 14-member workforce, with presence across key geographies in India, including Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore & Delhi, and overseas in Europe and the US. The company is currently working with 20+ partner brands on various internal and external communication mandates. The companies include early-stage consumer internet startups in India such as BASIC Home Loan and Onsurity, as well as global consulting, technology & venture capital firms, such as Grant Thornton, Picus Capital, PTC Inc., CAST Software. The One Club for Creativity has opened the call for entries for Young Guns 20, celebrating international creative professionals age 30 or younger. Young Guns is the industrys only global, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies and celebrates todays vanguard of young creatives. The program is open to creatives age 30 and under who have been working for at least two years, full-time or freelance. Eligible entrants can submit a combination of professional and personal work in graphic design; advertising art direction and copywriting; architectural, environmental and interior design; industrial and product design; digital (UX/UI, experiential design, interactive, web design, apps, game development): film and animation (motion design, television, video); fashion; typography and lettering; illustration and photography. The online entry system is open, with the reduced-fee early deadline of June 30, regular deadline July 14, 2022 and final deadline July 28, 2022. Winners will be announced in the fall. The renowned competitions regularly attract entries from upwards of 45 countries, with more than half coming from outside the US. Winners will be selected by a jury made up of past Young Guns winners and other creative leaders, to be announced shortly. Past Young Guns include rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields, including graphic designers James Victore (YG1), Stefan Sagmeister (YG1), Natasha Jen (YG3) and Jessica Walsh (YG8); ad creatives Rei Inamoto (YG4) and Menno Kluin (YG6); illustrators Christoph Niemann (YG2) and Deanne Cheuk (YG4); fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond (YG14); director Joseph Kosinski (YG4), artist/filmmaker Calmatic (YG16); director/photographer India Sleem (YG17); photographer Ryan McGuinness (YG2); typographers Alex Trochut (YG6) and Gemma OBrien (YG13); film and video director Mike Mills, animation artist Todd St. John (YG1) and others. All Young Guns winners receive a unique version of the iconic Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this years incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the Young Guns website. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year One Club for Creativity membership, permanent membership in the Young Guns network, a chance to be featured in Young Guns events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from Young Guns sponsors. Program branding and design of the Cube award itself is reimagined each year by a past Young Gun winner. This years YG20 branding and award are designed by Zipeng Zhu (YG13), founder and creative director at Dazzle Studio New York, who said of the work YG20 is all about celebration! It's a celebration of the legacy, the now, and the future. He added The identity is inspired by the word 'pump', getting pumped about celebrating and also pumping the balloons for the celebration. Using YG20 in the form of colorful metallic balloons floating in the air in front of a kinetic typography background, the clash of 2D and 3D creates an enormous contrast of the graphic to capture the playful yet daring energy of Young Guns. The font for the YG20 branding is created by NaN Berlin. Young Guns has a unique place in the creative world for considering a body of both professional and personal work from an individual, not just a single design or ad, said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. Winning is special because were celebrating a creative persons individuality, as well as elevating the next generation of creative leaders. The One Club for Creativity, producer of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Type Directors Club Communication Design and Typeface Design awards, Young Guns and Creative Week, is the world's foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community. The One Show is a top global awards show for advertising, design and digital marketing, focusing on the creativity of ideas and quality of execution. Established in 1921, the global ADC Annual Awards are the worlds longest continuously running creative award for advertising and design, honoring excellence in craft, design and innovation. Creative Week takes place in May, and is the preeminent festival celebrating the intersection of advertising and the arts. UTI Mutual Fund and Network18 launches INDIA INVEST KARO powered by UTI Swatantra, a one-stop hub which aims to arm investors with knowledge to make more informed financial decision. The campaign commenced on May 28th where with India Invest Karo, UTI Mutual Fund and Network18 aim to reach out to the smartphone-savvy population using digital media. The focus of the campaign will be to empower the next-age investors in making wise investment decisions by providing the right information at the right time. The mutual fund industry in India has witnessed transformative changes as more and more people are opting for mutual fund as their primary choice for wealth investment. Mr. Imtaiyazur Rahman CEO & Whole-Time Director, UTI AMC Ltd. in a conversation with Network18 said, The AUM has grown from INR 22.85 lakh crore in Dec 2018 to INR 37.56 lakh crore in Mar 2022. The assets of the Indian Mutual Fund industry contributed approximately 16% to our GDP. These are very significant changes and developments in our industry. The objective of this initiative is to resolve complexities for retail investors and make their decision making process simpler. India Invest Karo also aims to reach out to a diverse group of individuals and make them financially aware through digital mediums. The campaign will be spread over a period of 6 months, where byte sized investor education content will be shared through a dedicated micro site in addition toNetwork18 and UTI Mutual Fund digital assets. Mr. Rahman further added, The purpose of our existence is to channelize and help investors realise their financial goal. We are highly committed to making India a financially literate nation. Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Puneet Singhvi CEO & President Digital & Corporate Strategy, Network18 is happy to note that, Information and aggregating experts who are able to impart the knowledge of the financial ecosystem has worked very well in terms of the audience traction that we see on our platform. An initiative like this goes even a step further in adding to the firepower that Network18 already puts together and with industry-leading partners like UTI Mutual Fund. With investors often getting trapped in dubious and fake financial information sources, the existence of a trustworthy and reliable knowledge source like Network18 becomes all the more important. The campaign endeavours to provide insightful, data-driven information in the form of stories that help the investors in managing financial portfolios effectively. To summarise, India Invest Karo is a welcome initiative launched by UTI Mutual Fund and Network18 for mainstreaming financial literacy and is poised to be a game-changer in investor education, benefitting millions of investors. Subsidy applications now open Applications for subsidy for families of children 0 to kindergarten age earning up to $180,000 are now open. Parents already receiving subsidy do not need to reapply. Overview We have successfully negotiated an agreement with the federal government to increase accessible, affordable and high-quality child care, giving families the choice they need. Starting in January 2022, this made-in-Alberta plan has helped to reduce fees for parents of children 0 to kindergarten age by an average of half. By 2026, parents will pay an average of $10 per day. We are helping Alberta families save money in 2 ways: Providing affordability grants for child care operators to lower fees for all parents Expanding child care subsidy eligibility to save parents earning up to $180,000 even more This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Canada-Alberta Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. Almost everything in this world can be divided into two spheres: the image the public sees, and the underlying reality. Sometimes theyre the same. Mother Teresa was a great humanitarian, a Godly woman free of any scandal. Sometimes theyre not the same at all. Bernie Madoff, contrary to his early reputation which he shamelessly exploited, was not an honorable, highly successful investment manager worthy of respect. In actual fact, he was a fraudster and a scoundrel who was sentenced to ten years in prison for embezzlement. When the Democratic Party is examined from this perspective, especially in relation to the Black community, it comes out much closer to the inky slime of Bernie Madoff than it does the sanctity of Mother Teresa. The Democratic Party was associated with the Ku Klux Klan and segregation for most of the 20th Century. But in the 1960s it made a hard turn to the left. It currently claims to act in the best interests of the Black community in a noble battle against racism and White Supremacy. But in example after example, the Democratic party instead causes great damage and permanent harm to these same people that it claims to represent. The case against the Democratic Party is overwhelming. Defund the Police may have been the most counterproductive campaign in American political history. Its stated purpose was to save and protect Black lives from violent suppression in the United States. Yet Defund the Police is soaked in the blood of Black Americans. Murder rates have shot up over 30 percent since 2020 when Defund took hold in our cities. Many experts believe the movement has directly and undeniably caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands of young people of color. New York Mayor Eric Adams has said it best: If Black lives matter, then the thousands of people I saw on the street when [George] Floyd was murdered should be on the streets right now stating that the lives of these Black children that are dying every night matter, Adams said. We cant be hypocrites. The increase in the murder rate has been especially alarming in large metropolitan areas. Los Angeles provides a stinging example. In that politically liberal city, the murder rate increased 44.9 percent between 2019 and 2021. Chicago has seen a 37 percent increase in the murder rate over the same period of time. The Wall Street Journal editorial board concluded, No one factor explains this criminal surge. But its no coincidence that the bloodshed increased as cities slashed police budgets, progressive prosecutors demanded leniency and eliminated bail for criminals, and jails and prisons released thousands of lawbreakers amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Education provides another example of woke, liberal programs causing great harm to those they claim to want to help. Many public schools, especially in Democratic Party-controlled cities are badly failing their students. One prime example out of many is Patterson High School in Baltimore where 77 percent of the students read at an elementary school level. The voucher program proposed by Republicans offers one possible solution. It would allow students to pick any school within a city area that they wished to attend. It would allow all students to choose the very best schools in the city rather than being forced to attend failing schools, which is so often the case. Teachers' unions oppose school choice because many students would then leave failing institutions and enroll in far better schools. This would cause many teachers in the forsaken schools to lose their jobs. The Democratic Party has long since sold out to the teachers' unions. The welfare of Black students education and the ability of those students to compete for jobs and careers is therefore sacrificed for teachers job security. Democrats have made a devils bargain with the unions, with student welfare sacrificed for the sake of campaign donations. Another example of a covenant with the Devil can be found on our southern border. A record of 100,306 people died from drug overdoses in the twelve months ending in April 2021. The majority of these deaths came from opioids, primarily fentanyl. This deadly drug is produced in China and then shipped to Mexico, where cartels bring it across our wide-open border. It is cheap, extremely powerful, and easily available. It is making the drug cartels even richer and more powerful than they already were. Guess which community is being disproportionately killed. All of this has led to a crime surge beyond the ones plaguing our unprotected cities, with Mexican drug gang members entering America unchecked and killing citizens who get in their way. The Democratic Party is in favor of the massively open border so that undocumented workers can be put on a fast-track program to citizenship and then be persuaded -- so they think -- to vote for Democrats. Never mind the people dying of drug overdoses, murdered by drug gangs, or having their lives ruined from opioid addiction. The murder rate in Houston, Texas -- the largest city in border-state Texas is up 51% this year alone. In the state of Texas, 68% of those booked from June 1, 2011, and November 30, 2021, were criminal aliens. Their offenses included 742 murders, 47,737 assaults, 7,524 burglaries, over 11,000 sexual assaults and other sex crimes, and numerous kidnappings and robberies. Not only are they killing Americans, we then pay for their incarceration. This crime wave is harmful to all U.S. citizens regardless of race. Once again the welfare of our citizens is being sacrificed for the Democratic Partys political gain. Eighty-eight to 90 percent of Black voters vote for Democrats in both national and local elections. Simply put, the Democratic Party has betrayed Black voters over and over again. What should you do when someone betrays you? Should you ever put your trust in them again? Todays Democrats are in favor of everything that is killing the Black community and oppose everything that would help us. They want us trapped in violent cities with exploding crime, demoralized police, and failing schools. Their policies create a vortex of death for Black America. The only solution is to leave the Democrats behind, for good. Jared Knott, author of Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters: Thirty-Nine Tiny Mistakes That Changed the World Forever. Knott was a decorated combat infantry officer in Vietnam in the First Air Cavalry Division. Image: Rpalmer262 Theories aplenty are floating about the causes of the increase in mass shootings. The White House and the mainstream media (MSM) have zeroed in on the gun lobby and gun manufacturers. Others point to the physical isolation from the Teachers-Union-abetted world record for remote schooling, and its relationship with mental health problems. Unmentioned is the influence of the racialization of America that commenced early in the pandemic. On May 25, 2020, a Black man whod ingested huge quantities of illegal drugs died while a White cop restrained him as an angry crowd threatened. Democrats seized this incident as an opportunity to reclaim the White House and dominate government by racially dividing the nation. The strategy was easy to execute because, unlike many governments that prohibit collecting data on race due to prior nefarious applications, the U.S. government collects race data on every form. After May 25, Americans became inundated with unvalidated race-based data. The MSM reported on the racial disproportionality in arrests and incarceration, the chances of dying from COVID, infant mortality, educational outcomes, income, medical treatment, and more. The conclusion: all this disproportionality is due to White supremacy/oppression. The MSM and social media buried data explaining the drivers of disproportionality. Drivers are primarily tied to Democratic strategies that encouraged the breakdown of traditional families and values. The data also negate the White supremacy/oppression driver. Buried were race-based statistics about disproportionate rates of marriage, children raised by a single mother, obesity, physical activity, commission of crimes, the presence of pre-existing health conditions, vaccination rates, training on sudden infant death syndrome, time spent studying, welfare recipients and discouraged workers, and medical students. Publishing unopposed claims is un-American. Its a characteristic of dictatorships but the MSM and social media voluntarily dispensed with journalistic integrity to racialize American and get rid of Trump. Propaganda notwithstanding, the data on race is meaninglessunless it is given meaning. To explain, look at how the race hustlers have manipulated racist stereotypes using incomplete racial data. According to the left, there are 235 million U.S. residents who are racially White, irrespective of their points of origin from over 100 countries on five continents. These people of Whiteland are stereotyped as White privileged oppressors. Likewise, the people of Blackland, who number 47 million, come from over 70 countries. They have the racist stereotype of victim and so do the people of Brownland and the people of Mixed-Race land. These last two categories include 61 million people from 33 countries in Latin America; 24 million from 25 Asian countries; 5 million Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Alaskan natives; and 24 million mixed-race people. To impose blanket racial stereotypes on these many cultures is ludicrousyet thats what Democrats do. In the tragedy of hundreds of mass shootings in America (defined as any shooting with four or more victims in close geographic proximity, a definition that describes hundreds of incidents annually, usually gang related), Democrats and the MSM have again leveraged the racialization strategy. Repetitive felon, Darrell Brooks, who is Black, was raised without a father on welfare. He was an unabashed, uncensored anti-White racist who promoted killing White people. A beneficiary of the post-May 25 law enforcement reforms, Brooks left jail and promptly killed six White people and injured 62 others, using his car as a weapon. Image: Federal government racial identification form. Brooks terrorized the 89% White population in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Still, he wasnt charged with a hate crime or domestic terrorism, the media downplayed the racial aspects of his crime, and this horrific tragedy had a news life that rivaled reports that Brooks complained of racism in prison, or the April 12 shooting of ten people on a New York City subway by Black nationalist/supremacist Frank James, and the suggestion that murdering innocent White parade goers was justified because they were White supremacists, like all the people of Whiteland. Significantly, the numerous reports of Buffalo mass murderer Peyton Gendron began with the descriptor White. It was easy to surmise he was a privileged supremacist. Like many locked-down kids, he contemplated suicide, grew paranoid about germs, and whiled away his time surfing the internet. His interest centered on White supremacy, and in 2020 and 2021, there was a media obsession with fingering White supremacy for the cause of racial disproportionalities plaguing America. Gendron ended up shooting thirteen people in a grocery store in Buffalo. Eleven were Black and two were White. He was charged with a hate crime and as a domestic terrorist. There have been over 200 mass shootings so far this year but, unusually, President Biden flew to Buffalo to address the grieving Black community. Focusing on his strategy, he pummeled White supremacism, domestic [White] terrorism, and the White hatred that stains America. To convincingly build a case for mass shootings and racial hatred, Biden should have flown to Waukesha. Blacks are five times more likely to engage in mass shootings and Blacks disproportionately perpetrate hate crimes to the tune of 3:1 versus Whites (a ratio calculated to adjust for Whites being 4.96 times the population of Blacks) and the data on Whites are known to be overstated. The FBI tabulates suspected offenders by race. This is White, Black, Asian, and American Indian. Ninety-six percent of Latinos are categorized as White. The data are even more inaccurate because crimes minorities commit against Whites normally arent charged as hate crimes. Notwithstanding known gross data inaccuracies, recorded hate crimes against Whites, Blacks, and Asians were up a minimum of 25%, and cross-racial murders were up similarly, following what Biden disingenuously called the unifying post-Floyd events. Skyrocketing hate is a foreseeable but inadvertent outcome of the racialization strategy. Why do Blacks commit so many hate crimes? Is it far-fetched to say they cant escape the daily indoctrination of being victims of White oppressors? Or the prophecies of government-aligned and -feted Ibram X Kendi teaching racism cures racism? His teachings undergird Project 1619 and Critical Race Theory, both of which support the Democrats racialization strategy. Salvador Ramos was, like many boys, raised without his dads presence. He was a high-school dropout, a welfare kid, his parents had criminal records, and he became a criminal. He murdered twenty-one, mostly children. Seventeen were brown Latinos, and two were non-Hispanic White. If children hadnt been involved, this horrific event would have been just another mass shooting in America briefly covered by the local media. Whoopi Goldberg explained how non-racist mass casualties were less bad, a claim she supported with reference to the Holocaust. In fact, almost all victims and descendants (99%) of victims of genocides, ethnic cleansings, and massacres have the same race as their oppressors. This is also true of most of the 200+ mass murders in America in 2022. Most victims and oppressors are Black. Most people dont know this because Goldberg, the MSM, and Democrats all hew to a party line to prevent damage to their strategy if Americans were informed of the realities of non-race-based mass murders. As if trapped in the 1950s, the Democrats strategy has a Black and White framework (Blacks as victims of White oppressors). Brown people dont fit the strategy. Indeed, they are a distraction. Their descendants werent enslaved or Jim Crowed in America. Worse, Latinos and Blacks are hardly brothers and sisters in arms. Mutual animosities tied to competition for jobs and other resources and long histories of cross-racism are rife. The distraction of browns is something that irked former President Obama so much that he endeavored to shift the nations sympathies from Uvalde to the origins of the racialization strategy: a Black man killed by a White cop. Biden responded with an executive order to further discredit policing when race-driven anti-police reforms are a contributing factor to the increase in mass shootings. Of all the changes that can influence the drivers of mass shootings, ending the racialization strategy is the easiest and most powerful. American children and adults have no concept of what it means to be American anymore. America is the worlds leading anti-racist nation, but Americans dont know that. The government and MSM have fashioned America into an irredeemable racist pariah. Instead of a land of opportunity, America is painted more like Russia: a land of shameful oppressors and hopeless victims. The MSM and social media need to drop their slavish bias in support of Democratic strategies and return to journalistic integrity. This embodies American values, and it will be unifying at a time when America and Americans need it more than ever. Kathleen Brush, Ph.D. is the author of Reparations for All or None. Tucker Carlson almost said it. He went right up to the edge and then drew back. He wheeled the cannon on stage, but he did not fire it. Carlson almost blurted out the most taboo truth in Washington, the unutterable heresy that the political class suppresses more ruthlessly than any other. He asked us to consider after eliminating all the standard leftist cliches and a few rightist ones why do these young shooters keep committing mass murder? What characteristic do they all share? What is going on here, and why can we not even discuss it? Carlson knows the answer. He knows because he is too intelligent not to know. Furthermore, he knows because I have written about it in his newspaper (repeatedly), and so have others. So there is no need to prove it again now. He even invited me on his PBS show to discuss it, just before they canned him. So he also knows full well that if he states it, he will be eliminated from Fox News as fast as well, as fast as I was dismissed from multiple university posts when I persisted in writing about it. It seemed almost as if he was inviting someone to say what he could not. So I will oblige him. The shooters, the mass murderers, even most of the terrorists, and essentially all violent criminals (plus many drug addicts and a majority of the homeless) share this one quality: they are all fatherless. And no, fatherlessness is not intractable. These destructive and self-destructive adolescents are not victims of impersonal forces that defy remedy still less of "irresponsible" fathers who "abandon" them, as the political class invariably reports without evidence. These falsehoods provide the politicians with excuses to throw up their hands in despair or devise useless, self-serving programs that actually make the problem worse. The shooters are the products of government policies that intentionally remove children from their fathers and proliferate single-mother homes. They are the offspring of the two hatcheries that breed fatherless children: the welfare state and the divorce industry. The social science is unequivocal. Virtually every major social pathology can be laid at the door of fatherless homes and communities not race, not poverty. Single parent homes. That means crime, truancy, addiction, and more single parents. Decade after decade, the problem only worsens until we are left with not only social chaos, but, increasingly, political chaos, too, and even tyranny. It is easily demonstrable that the BLM riots in 2020 that prepared the way for the leftist takeover of the U.S. government were perpetrated by dysfunctional, violent, and fatherless adolescents. The problem will certainly not be ameliorated by feel-good palliatives like those implemented by the Clinton and Bush administrations and recently once again enacted in Florida. These programs claim to confront fatherlessness but in reality funnel more money to the welfare apparatchiks and divorce operators so they can create more fatherless children, on which their business depends. So diabolical is the political class in both political parties that it devises measures to exacerbate the problem in the very process of pretending to address it. If conservatives do not like the liberals' explanations and solutions for the shootings (gun control) and they should not they had better come up with their own, and it had better be something more plausible than ever more incarceration. Sometimes the left and right seem to compete (or collude) in seeing who can devise the most authoritarian punishments, rather than face reality and accept the only solutions. Conservatives do have a better explanation readily at hand the only one. It is a stock conservative platitude that family breakdown will mean civilizational breakdown. Yet now that it is happening, they ignore the fulfillment of their own prophecies. Instead, they enact pointless programs designed by the liberals: fatherhood and marriage "promotion," psychotherapy, child support enforcement, and other make-work for functionaries. Why? Because "fatherhood" and "pro-family" groups also make money on these programs that do more harm than good. Because Republican lawyers (including "Christian" ones) amass huge sums looting families through divorce. Because conservative leaders fear feminists and lack the spine to stand up to them. Because vast powers accrue to judicial operators, including Republican ones, as the divorce juggernaut systematically rolls over every limitation on expanding judicial power. Fatherlessness is not insoluble, and neither is mass violence. They can be overcome, but not on the cheap. We must summon the courage to confront the divorce and welfare lobbies, especially within the Republican Party. The multiple excuses we devise is the proof that so far we lack the courage, as Carlson says, even to discuss it. Stephen Baskerville is professor of political studies at the Collegium Intermarium in Warsaw and the author of The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties, and the Growth of Government Power (2017) and Taken into Custody: The War against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family (2007), where the points in this article are documented. Image via Needpix. Just yesterday, CNN reported that Ilene Steur, 49, who was injured in the shooting attack on the New York City subway in April, is suing gun manufacturer Glock over its marketing practices and distribution strategy that she says allowed the suspect to acquire one of the company's products. Steur's suit names Georgia-based Glock, Inc. and its Austrian parent company as defendants. Steur, a Brooklyn resident, was riding the subway on her way to her office when mass shooter Frank James set off two smoke grenades inside the train car and then opened fire. Ten people were shot in the attack, including Steur. The bullet fractured part of Steur's spine just above her tailbone and ripped through her rectum. Her lawsuit says she suffered "serious and permanent personal injuries" that left her unable to perform normal activities. Steur's lawsuit follows the landmark $73-million settlement in February paid by gun-maker Remington to families of the victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The families argued that the company recklessly marketed the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle to young adults. We must be sympathetic to any victim of violence such as what occurred in Brooklyn. Injuries such as those endured by Steur are life-altering. Healing can takes years. Injuries can be permanent. The pain to the individual and those around him is significant. The psychological scars will always remain in addition to the physical injuries. Steur said in a statement: I always see on the news about people innocent people getting shot, and my heart goes out to the victims and their families. I never thought I would be one of those victims. There has got to be better control of who gets their hands on these guns. The shooter, Frank James, used a Glock 9mm handgun to fire at least 33 rounds on the crowded train, officials said. James has pleaded not guilty to terrorism and gun charges. James had a significant social media presence, appearing in myriad YouTube videos ranting against Caucasian people. He also expressed disgust that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's husband is a white man. On Facebook, James posted a meme with the caption "Oh, Black Jesus, please kill all whiteys." So where does it stop if we go down this road of suing manufacturers? Last year, a car plowed through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin, killing five and injuring at least 40 people, according to the City of Waukesha. Earlier this year, a car plowed into a crowd of early-morning carnival-goers in Belgium, killing six people and injuring dozens of others. Should the car manufacturers be sued for such attacks? The U.K. has strict gun laws, which probably explains the rise in the number of knife-related crimes. By the end of September 2021, U.K. police had recorded over 46,239 knife-related offenses. Should victims be able to sue knife manufacturers? What about cases of drunk driving? Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, crashed his car near San Mateo, California in the early hours of Feb. 22, 1957, the Daily Mail reported. The crash killed Paul's older brother. Paul was recently arrested over suspicion of drunk driving late on Saturday in Napa County, California, after being involved in a two-vehicle crash when his 2021 Porsche ran into another man's Jeep. Should the victims sue Chivas Regal, Courvoisier, Hall Rutherford, or whoever it was who manufactured his undoubtedly luxe adult beverage of choice that night, in addition to Porsche? Let's say you accidentally receive superficial scalds because you unknowingly opened the hot water tap in your hotel bathroom because you had a bit too much to drink. Should the makers of Jack Daniels and the hotel's management be sued in addition to the car manufacturers? How about also taking Kohler to court because it manufactured the taps? What if someone is at an art exhibition and an assailant strikes a victim with a replica of Excalibur? Should the manufacturer of the replica be sued, or should it be the iron smelter? If we go down this road, where do we stop? There is an implicit contract between the buyer and the manufacturer that the appliance will function as specified in the manual and nothing unexpected will occur. A manufacturer can be held responsible only if an appliance malfunctions. Quite often, manufacturers recall defective items from the market. Toyota recently recalled about 460,000 vehicles in the U.S. to fix a software problem that can inadvertently disable the electronic stability control system. If a driver sustains injuries owing to this defect, the manufacturer can be sued. Perhaps an appliance does not have adequate warnings about the risks during usage, which may cause injuries. If so, there is ample reason to initiate legal proceedings. But what the manufacturer cannot be held responsible for is the misuse of their products. If one has the intentions, any item from kitchen appliances to stationery to even a church bell can be used to cause harm. Back to the situation in Brooklyn that caused Ilene Steur life-altering injuries. The only groups Steur should sue are the shooter, Frank James, and perhaps the NYC subway authorities for allowing a heavily armed man with smoke bombs to enter the subway train. She could also sue the New York City mayor and the state's governor for presiding over a crime wave that caused her grievous injuries. In the end, a Glock is a product like any other. If it is legally available in NYC, the manufacturer is at liberty to market its legally available product the way it deems suitable. No manufacturer can be held responsible if a buyer misuses it. But the goal of this lawsuit seems political. It is interesting to note that Steur didn't sue Glock immediately after the Brooklyn subway shooting. It was only after the two other recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and another at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that she choose to take legal action. New York is the only state with legislation, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in March 2021, that allows citizens to bring civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers to hold them responsible for individual misuse of their products. In all other states, federal law protects manufacturers from being held liable for public harm caused by users of their products. If Glock is indeed found guilty, this could set a dicey precedent. Each and every manufacturer will be at risk of being sued following misuse. It won't work the way they think it will work. Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License. In 2016, Hillary Clinton tweeted that "computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank." Michael Sussmann was tried and acquitted for lying to the FBI when he provided evidence of this communication while claiming he was not associated with the Clinton campaign. The computer scientists associated with the Clinton campaign did not uncover the communication between the Trump Organization and the Alfa Bank; they created it. Here is how it can be done: Assume I am working for an I.T. department that manages its own DNS (Domain Name Service) and mail servers (Running Linux). If not, I can lease a server with a block of I.P. addresses and configure it with two DNS servers and a mail server. Now I remotely log in to the mail server (or the leased server) and issue the following command (since these are real addresses, we're using asterisks): echo "Test from trump.org" | mail -s "The Trump Organization" -aFrom: DonJr@tr***.org contact@alphabank.** This will send a message from DonJr@tr***.org to contact@alphabank.** with the subject "The Trump Organization" and message "Test from tr**.org". You can also find actual contact addresses on the Alfa Bank website. When the command is issued, among other things, the Alfa Bank mail server will contact one of its DNS servers, which will contact my DNS server, to check if the hostname of my mail server matches the mail server's IP address. This will leave a nice thumbprint of the Alfa Bank DNS server in my DNS logs. More importantly, the Alfa Bank DNS server will contact the trump.org DNS server to query if my mail server is authorized to send mail for the trump.org domain. (Which, of course, it is not.) This is bona fide "covert" communication between the Russian bank and the Trump Organization server, and will leave a nice entry in the trump.org DNS logs. Since my mail server is not authorized to send mail for trump.org, the Alfa Bank server will close the connection and not accept the message. Nobody except me will know this ever happened. Now I can set up a CRON job on my Linux mail server to send these messages automatically at any day or time. I can also edit my DNS logs using the Alfa Bank's thumbprint, and show it to the FBI claiming it was taken from the Trump Organization server. Apparently, the CIA reviewed the logs and determined that they were more likely user-generated than machine-generated. A nothingburger. Image: Hillary Clinton campaign. During the 1960s, the scientific community conceived specious postulations regarding the environment and weather patterns, with these nascent theories eventually developing into the full blown climate hysteria we witness today. Since then, distinguished politicians and scientists have maintained a near-perfect track record of failed predictions AOC's 12-year doomsday claim, the threat of overpopulation while "most countries globally have a below-replacement fertility," and never-ending claims about exhausted oil reserves. Now they're pushing the "critical" importance of switching from cattle-based protein to insect and plant-based protein. In July of 2021, the World Economic Forum published an article titled "Why we need to give insects the role they deserve in our food systems." The writer concluded that insects as an alternative food supply source "could offer an environmentally friendly solution to the impending food crisis," saying: Insects are a credible and efficient alternative protein source requiring fewer resources than conventional breeding. Studies suggest that for the same amount of protein produced, insects, mealworms in particular, require much less land than other sources of animal proteins. The pattern continued, and in February of this year, the Forum released another editorial "5 reasons why eating insects could reduce climate change" that was officially part of the Davos Agenda. The authors fixated their attention on the need to reduce our "carbon footprint" and battle "greenhouses [sic] gas and climate change" and referred to insects as the "unsung category of sustainable and nutritious protein [emphasis added]." (There's that word "sustainable" again.) A research project starting this week sees the cooperation of four elementary schools in Wales scientists will serve the participants a "conventional mince" combination of plant-based protein and the insect protein. The study is part of a move to make the United Kingdom "greener," to hopefully encourage the rank-and-file plebeians to move away from traditional meat sources and toward insects. From the i news: Researchers hope their findings will give clues as to how best educate [sic] children on the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects across the UK, and potentially overseas and, in turn, their parents, as the world looks to help the environment by cutting meat consumption. Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum, bragged about his ability to germinate his political agenda of one-world governance and a yoke for the common man, saying, "We penetrate the cabinets." Many of the Forum members and Schwab's Young Global Leaders are university professors, so it comes as no surprise that his agenda permeates education and plagues our children. Now that the far-left Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has all but banned guns, liberals should feel safe enough to finally move there. Every time American conservatives get a win, liberals threaten to move to Canada, so I am pleased to urge them to pack up and go. Trudeau's anti-gun bill would place a national freeze on handgun ownership across Canada. In a news conference, he said: What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada. ... Gun violence is a complex problem, but at the end of the day the math is really quite simple: The fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be. If fewer guns mean safer Canadian communities, surely liberals will welcome a move there, right? But Trudeau's logic, not to mention his facts, is dead wrong. In years past, when guns in America were everywhere, gun crimes were not. Further, where people freely and legally can "carry," gun crime goes down, not up. Criminals with guns go where there are no guns, not where people can legally carry, which is why Chicago is a bloodbath of gun violence, where gun laws are very strict. In Canada today, there is no limit on abortion. This is a liberal dream scenario. In Canada, hate speech is not protected by law, which means that if you say something another person finds unpleasant, you can be jailed, fined, or both, not to mention having your livelihood ruined. Bill C-16 mandates that you refer to people by their preferred pronouns. Liberals love this stuff. In Canada, "diversity" programs are mandated in federally incorporated public companies another liberal dream. In Canada, free speech is no longer a thing. In 2016, Bill Whatcott, a Christian, was handing out tracts at a parade warning against homosexuality. A trans person was offended and made a complaint against him, and he was arrested for the crime of "hate speech." This is what liberals enjoy: ruining Christians and conservative thought. Now Canada can offer that to them. You may recall the thousands of Canadian truckers who rallied to protest COVID mandates. Trudeau looked askance at this exercise of free speech and promptly isolated the protesters politically and financially. He froze donations. After that, TD Bank blocked support that was flowing in from thousands of citizens, cutting off donations by sympathizers, which were copious. Free speech became Wile E. Coyote under the anvil of the Trudeau government. So now, in addition to unlimited abortion, total gay rights, and a firm crackdown on free speech, Canadians are no longer able to buy, sell, transfer, or import guns. It's not a total ban, but it's still the perfect liberal dream. It comes closest to what they have always wanted. The only thing left to make Canada a totalitarian communist country acceptable to American liberals would be a prohibition on capitalism, private schools, and private property. That would mean BLM would have to give up its mansions, but it's probably on board with that. In light of all of Canada's recent and enlightened liberalism, I strongly recommend that American liberals move to Canada now, because it's only a matter of time, under Trudeau, before the liberal dream will completely come true, and they will have everything they always wanted. They should not procrastinate. Liberals finally have the opportunity to carry out their promise to move to Canada, where they will finally be safe. With the gun ban, there is no better time than now? Image: Matthew S. Dudoff. Ah, the good old days, when Democrats voted in Democrat primaries and Republicans voted in Republican primaries. Those registered to other parties voted for candidates who held conventions in IHOP restaurants. Not content with one-person, one-vote elections (even including the dead), Democrats used the pandemic to promote mail-in voting to ballot-harvest their way to suspiciously fraudulent victories. Now some Democrats want more dubious election results with open primaries. Currently, 22 states have open primaries that allow crossover voting. Some Democrats plan to take full advantage of the opportunity. Writing in "When Your Vote Doesn't Matter, Try Switching Ballots," Jonathan Robinson and Sean Trende argue that "if your party is going to lose, you can at least have a say in how it loses." In places where electoral competition is lacking, primary elections by and large decide political outcomes. Voters in those places are accustomed to participating in their own party's primaries. But often the opposite party's primary is more competitive and more consequential. So why not strategically vote in the other party's primary? So, yes, Republicans can play the same game, but, overall, most don't view elections the way Vladimir Putin does. (There are definitely exceptions.) Democrats consider it a win if all they do is take down a Trump-endorsed Republican. They were successful in Georgia, where Democrats gave two incumbent NeverTrumps, Governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, resounding wins. The lying media (and we are also including Fox News) rarely offered that crossover voting had a lot to do with their wins. As Terry Paulding wrote in "We're Witnessing a Destructive Political Machine at Work": Let's look at Georgia. Stacey Abrams ran unopposed in the Democrat column. That left the door wide open to force the very unpopular Republican governor, Kemp, who had been way down in the polls, to win with a massive, coordinated Democrat voting in his favor, against Trump endorsed Perdue. The same thing happened with the secretary of state election, where the much-reviled Raffensperger handily defeated Trump-backed Hice. So Georgia Democrats who hate President Trump happily voted for Kemp and Raffensperger. Then in November, they will happily vote for Stacey Abrams. The question is whether disgusted Georgia MAGAs will happily sit home and give Abrams the win. Democrats dream of duplicating Georgia's election results in Wyoming to support the rabid Trump-hating Liz Cheney. For instance, a fanatical progressive with about 80,000 equally fanatical followers, all of whom think Joe Biden is doing a terrific job, posted on May 28: I don't agree with Liz Cheney on anything political. But she has earned my respect with her integrity and fight for the truth. ... She needs votes. I'm just wondering if Wyoming Dems and Indies could help her. In Wyoming, you can vote in the other party's primary. So, it's possible we could save her. Not only would it be a shame if Liz loses, but the woman who would replace her is full-on MAGA and she's repeating Trump's big lie. As much as progressives would like Cheney to win the Wyoming primary against Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, it's not going to happen. The Equality State with just one congressman has a population of fewer than 600,000 and 70 percent of its voters are registered Republicans. Image: Ballot box (edited). Public domain. In California, the top two (from any party) move into the general election. The Golden State has a total of 26 candidates running for governor in its June 7 primary: four Democrats, 11 Republicans, eight independents, and two Green Partiers. Gov. Gavin "Gruesome" Newsom isn't worried about his re-election. Rumor has it that Newsom might spend the entire campaign in front of a mirror admiring his hair since he is likely to sail into a second term. But in the general election, Republicans (34 percent) might be valuable to Democrats (63 percent) in some races where the top two candidates are both Democrats. In Nevada, voters will decide on a complicated open primary initiative called Better Nevada Voting that would also include ranked choice. Opponents say it will make the entire process more confusing. Proponents claim that the changes would engage more people in the primary and general elections. (Maybe voters in the Silver State should just cast their ballots at slot machines.) President Trump talks about the lack of election integrity at all his rallies. At his May 7 Save America rally in Greensburg, Pennsylvania: We should have one day voting with only paper ballots and mail-in ballots accepted only from distant military service members. Distant. If they're not in the country or people who are very, very sick should last one day. What about these elections that last 48 days where they have boxes and boxes and they're in rooms, in storage, nobody watching over them? They're being moved all over the place. ... One day paper ballots, one day election, paper ballots like we used to have. Mail-in ballots, ballot-harvesting, open primaries it's all a sham. In years past, the United States sent election observers to third-world countries to make sure there was election integrity. With so many Democrat shenanigans, especially in the 2020 presidential election, perhaps on November 8, 2022, third-world countries should send election observers to the United States. Robin Itzler can be reached at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com. If the opponents of the Second Amendment are truly honest about their objective, why do they have to keep lying about the weapons they want to ban? A partial revelation is found in the term "military-style"...meaning that a rifle only looks like a soldier's weapon. Actual infantry rifles have select-fire capabilities. They can be set to shoot single shots, shoot bursts of three, or go fully automatic. Ordinary civilians have been banned from owning full-automatic weapons for about 90 years unless they possess a Class Three federal license. Most holders of Class Three licenses are movie producers, so they can use real machine guns in their movies. Prior to the ban, "Tommy" guns were sold even in hardware stores. They were advertised in magazines. In at least one case, a rancher was shown using one to chase away rustlers. Also known as "trench brooms" during WW1, they fired pistol rounds (9mm and .45 cal.) rather than rifle rounds such as the .30-06 used by the Browning automatic rifle (BAR). The functional difference is that rifle rounds go farther and penetrate deeper than pistol rounds. For an interesting perspective, I recommend The Social History of the Machine Gun by John Ellis, published by Johns Hopkins University in 1986. The actual weapon that the "paragons of public safety" have their shorts in a knot over is nothing more than the ordinary semi-automatic rifle, often with a "grip" for the left hand. When one is fired, either the recoil or the gases pushing the projectile throw the slide and automatically chamber the next round. For it to fire again, the trigger has to be pulled again. Many pistols operate the same way...even revolvers. "What about those awful high-capacity magazines?" you may ask. If there were no such thing as a high-capacity magazine, all a wannabe villain would need to do is get a bunch of ordinary magazines, load them with rounds, and stuff them in his pockets. It takes only a couple of seconds to change out a magazine. Another quality found only in a true military weapon is its ability to compensate for the additional heat generated by prolonged rapid fire. The Las Vegas shooter, who used a bump stock to convert regular semi-automatic rifles into rapid-fire weapons, brought numerous rifles to his hotel room. He knew they would quickly jam from the heat, which they did. Early machine guns had water jackets around the barrel. Gatling guns have numerous barrels that rotate around the firing pin so they have time to cool down before firing again. It has to be said that demagogues, who want to motivate people to advocate against their own self-interest, have to seriously exaggerate the threat being opposed. This has been done over and over. Although the horror of the latest school shooting is profoundly disturbing, the reflexive push for the abolition of significant aspects of personal freedom by (ahem) the usual suspects doesn't quite have the ring it used to. Old man Biden keeps calling for the abolition of 9mm weapons. Why? They're roughly equivalent to the .38. Oh, yeah...they're common. Go after the most common a common tactic. Relying on the pervasive ignorance of the public seems to come in handy as well...over and over. Though it still sounds stupid. But, considering the source, I'm not surprised. Image via Pexels. In the first U.S. Congress, the members who represented the largest number of people were the Senators from the most populous state, Virginia, who represented about 750,000 people. For the current Congress, the median district of the House of Representatives includes about 750,000 people. In the first Congress, each member of the House represented around 60,000 people. The average congressional district population in the early days of the Republic dropped to around 40,000 by the 3rd Congress in 1793, or about 6% the size of a current median congressional district. The reason congressional districts have grown to have such a large population now compared to the early Congresses is that the number of members of Congress was frozen at 435 by statute in the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. In 1929 the U.S. population was about 120 million. Today, the U.S. population is around 330 million, meaning that with a fixed 435 House members, district population has grown and will continue to grow until the number of House members is increased or, better yet, linked to population. Concerning the representation in the House, the U.S. Constitution says, "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative." The U.S. Constitution does not set a maximum population for congressional districts. Having congressional districts the size of the largest state at the founding and growing means that members of Congress are more and more removed from the people they are supposed to represent. A not too surprising result of this is that members of Congress now think and act more like senators. Thus, members of the House of Representatives tend to be homogeneous representing heterogeneous districts rather than the members being heterogeneous representing homogeneous districts. That is, members of Congress tend to be more like other members of Congress rather than more like their constituents. This is why House members like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), who more truly represent their districts, stand out. That conservatives rarely agree with AOC but agree with many things MGT supports is beside the point. Each says and is for things a typical member of Congress representing a state-size district wants to hedge on. So what population should a congressional district be? There is a site that supports the congressional districts of 30,000 population. The 30,000 in the U.S. Constitution was a good number for that time and era. One proposed amendment among those that became the Bill of Rights would have eventually required a representative for every 50,000 people. However, since 1790, communication and transportation have improved greatly, and it is currently possible to know and be in touch with more people. I think a Congress where each member of the House would represent 100,000 people would be reasonable. There is clearly room for debate on the exact number, but three-quarters of a million people is too large. Congressional districts of 100,000 would mean that the House of Representatives would have around 3,300 members today. A House with 3,300 members might be harder for the leadership to wrangle. It would cost much less to run for office in a district of 100,000 people than one 7.5 times larger. There might be more debate, and more ideas might be considered by the membership. These members would likely be much more heterogeneous than today. There would likely be some socialists and some libertarians. There would likely be some fundamentalist Christian, Islamic and Jewish members. There would be more AOCs and others like the members of her squad that would drive conservatives a bit crazy, but there would also be more MTGs and others like her who would be a counter-balance to the extreme left. That is, a House of Representatives with 3,3000 members would likely more represent America and less represent Washington, D.C. James L. Swofford is a professor of economics in the Department of Economics, Finance and Real Estate at the University of South Alabama. Image: Lars Di Scenza via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped). In what is becoming a routine occurrence with this White House, President Biden says one thing, and the next day the White House "walks back" the president's statement, and then the president follows up by confirming the "walk back." If the American people find all of this confusing, just imagine what our allies and adversaries are thinking. And in the midst of a war, such confusion can be downright dangerous. On May 30, the president responded to press questions by saying, "We are not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia," thereby rejecting a request from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials. That statement brought immediate and public criticism by Obama's ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, who called it a "losing strategy" that will prolong the war. The next day, administration officials announced that the United States would supply medium-range rockets, but not long-range rockets in an apparent attempt to show support for Ukraine but to allay Russia's fears that Ukraine will have the capacity to strike deep into Russian territory. In fact, the "high mobility artillery rocket systems" that the U.S. has agreed to supply, according to Reuters, "can accurately hit targets as far away as 80 km (50 miles)," according to an unnamed Biden administration official. The administration followed this up with an op-ed piece in major newspapers purportedly written by the president in which he states, "I've decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine." Of course, there is nothing to prevent Ukrainian forces, once armed with those rockets, from striking targets inside Russia. This latest Biden reversal of policy comes on the heels of U.S. support for the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which would add more than 800 miles of new territory along Russia's border to the Western military alliance. This was done in the face of Russia's threat to move hypersonic nuclear-armed missiles closer to the border of those Scandinavian countries. And now, in response to the administration's decision to supply medium-range rockets to Ukraine, Russia, according to Fox News and Newsweek, has conducted nuclear-launch drills near Moscow. The Interfax news agency quoted Russian officials who said that "Strategic Missile Forces" performed the drills in the Ivanovo province, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked that Russian leaders "believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire" by its decision to send Ukraine medium-range rockets. Where this all ends is anybody's guess. Image: World Economic Forum via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. (ANSA) - ROME, JUN 1 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Wednesday that he was working "out in the open" to bring about peace in Ukraine amid controversy over reports of him meeting the Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov after Moscow invaded its neighbour. "You have to work with the ambassadors and governments of many countries, out in the open, communicating with newspapers and TV channels, with the only goal being achieving the end of the war," Salvini said. "I have been doing this and I'll continue to do so. "I hope I will be in the company of the many colleagues who over the last few days have criticised me and chattered, but who don't move a finger to achieve peace, preferring to talk about weapons and war". According to the report in daily newspaper Domani, Salvini had dinner with Razov at the Russian embassy in Rome on March 1, just days after Moscow's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, and the office of Premier Mario Draghi knew nothing about the meeting. Salvini was reportedly accompanied by Antonio Capuano, a foreign-policy advisor to the League leader who is also a lawyer and a former MP for the centre-right Forza Italia party of three-time ex-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi. Capuano is said to have been working on a mooted trip to Moscow by Salvini to seek to broker a peace agreement with a four-point plan, an idea that has caused considerable controversy too. The report in Domani said there were other meetings involving Salvini, Capuano and Razov in the middle of March and early April. The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which, like the League, is part of the coalition supporting Draghi's government, has demanded an explanation. When asked Wednesday about an eventual peace mission by Salvini to Moscow, Franco Gabrielli, the cabinet secretary with the security portfolio and the former chief of police, said "such initiatives are not the responsibility of the heads of parties, but of the heads of government". The League, on the other hand, said that "every initiative" seeking to achieve peace in Ukraine "should be encouraged and supported, not attacked, criticised or even investigated". Adolfo Urso, the president of Copasir, the parliamentary body that oversees Italy's intelligence services, said Tuesday that the committee was looking into Capuano's reported relations with foreign diplomats. Salvini had expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions before the war in Ukraine. The League leader has condemned Moscow's invasion of its neighbour. He has also said he is not in favour of Italy sending any more weapons to Kyiv on top of the ones it has already supplied. Draghi said after a European Union summit Tuesday that Salvini's actions must be "transparent" and that the government is not wavering in its pro-European, pro-G7 and pro-NATO stance. (ANSA). Poland: the World Urban Forum scheduled in Katowice Focus on a green future, urban planning, economy, Ukraine (ANSA) - BELGRADE, JUN 2 - The World Urban Forum (WUF), scheduled for June 26-30, 2022, will take place in Katowice, Poland. The WUF, whose slogan this year is "Let's change our cities for a better future," will be held for the first time in 20 years in a Central European country, the Polish Embassy in Italy announced. Representatives from countries around the world, scientists, entrepreneurs, and ordinary citizens will gather in Katowice to look for solutions that can be turned into practical actions, aiming to make the cities we live in more human-friendly. WUF discussions will focus on six issues: equitable cities, a green future, innovation, and technology, building the resilience of cities, urban planning and management, and urban economy and finance. At Poland's request and in light of the war in Ukraine, the program will also include the issue of rebuilding cities after the conflict. "For the first time, the biggest and most significant event focusing on cities, the World Urban Forum, will take place in Central Europe. This opportunity is prestigious for Poland and represents a certificate of trust from our UN partners. At the event, we will show, among other things, the impressive transformation our cities have undergone and share our experiences," said Polish Minister of Funds and Regional Policy Grzegorz Puda. UN-Habitat created the World Urban Forum, and the first took place in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2002. The event has been held regularly every two years since then. It has already been hosted in Barcelona, Vancouver, Nanjing, Rio de Janeiro, Naples, Medellin, Kuala Lumpur, and Abu Dhabi. To participate in WUF, you will be able to register for free until June 22 at https://wuf.unhabitat.org/ (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved Ukraine: UK will provide M270 rocket system From the United States the Himars (ANSA) - BELGRADE, JUN 2 - The United Kingdom will send multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said, quoted by the CNN. The M270 launchers are able to strike targets up to 80 kilometers away, offering "a significant boost in capability for the Ukrainian forces," according to a statement from the British Foreign Office. The move has been "coordinated closely" with the United States' decision to provide Ukraine with its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) system, the CNN said. (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved Hollywood actor Johnny Depp will join Jeff Beck for the remainder of his UK tour, it has been confirmed. Depp, 58, who on Wednesday won his multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard, 36, had previously surprised audiences and fans when he joined Beck on stage in Sheffield and at Londons Royal Albert Hall. The actor, who previously collaborated with Beck on the 2020 track Isolation, will now perform in Gateshead, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and York. Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in 2015 (Jonathan Brady/PA) Depp sued Aquaman star Heard for 50 million dollars over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post, titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. Leading reputation management lawyer Mark Stephens has said he feels the actor and Heard have both created indelible stains on their careers. Mr Stephens, a partner at Howard Kennedy and expert in reputation management, who was not involved in the case, told the PA news agency: I think they both got indelible stains, thats a major problem for people who make their livings by their reputation. Johnny Depp won his multi-million dollar after jurors returned verdicts in his favour on Wednesday (Steve Helber, Pool/AP/PA) In 2020, Depp took a similar libel action case to the UK court against The Sun newspaper over an article which labelled him a wife beater. However, in this instance, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the Pirates Of The Caribbean stars claim, saying News Group Newspapers (NGN) had proved what was in the article to be substantially true and this was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal. Mr Stephens noted that, initially, he does feel that Depp has come out of the US court case ahead of Heard, given the financial and reputational damages. Depp sued Heard for 50 million dollars over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP) The US case was live-streamed online, which caused it to become a trending topic on social media platforms. The lawyer stated that his theory for the differing outcomes is based on the UK case being decided upon by a judge while the US case was voted on by a jury. He explained that in both countries the same legal device called DARVO was applied, where lawyers deny the allegations, attack the reputation of the victim, and then reverse the roles by saying the defendant is the perpetrator and vice versa. Mr Stephens said: Judges are alert to it and juries are not, so it works with juries most of the time. Jeff Beck waves as he leaves the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead Hotel, where it is believed actor Johnny Depp is staying (Owen Humphreys/PA) I think they were ill-advised to bring the case and I said that right at the beginning because nobody shows themselves off to their best advantage at the break-up of a relationship. Following the verdict, Heard said she was heartbroken but even even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. She added that Depps attorneys had succeeded in getting jury members to overlook freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly, she said. Millions of people across the nation will be celebrating the Platinum Jubilee at patriotic street parties while live music, light projections and life-size cut outs of the Queen herald the historic occasion over the next four days. Events range from family picnics to a record-breaking 5,000-strong street party in the North West, in what the Met Office has said will be a quintessentially British summer bank holiday of drizzle and patchy sunshine. The largest party celebrating the Queens record-breaking 70-year reign is set to be Morecambe Bays Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday, which is hosting around 5,000 people at over 500 tables overlooking the sea. Official celebrations will begin at 1pm with a Samba dance down the promenade, before Lord Shuttleworth the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire cuts a replica cake of the kind the Queen cut at the G7 Big Lunch at Eden last year. Fairlie Drive in Rainhill, Merseyside is decorated ahead of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations (Peter Byrne/PA) Organiser Luke Trevaskis said the Lancashire seaside town is incredibly proud to be hosting Jubilee celebrations. Mr Trevaskis, who is the chief executive at Morecambe Town Council, told the PA News Agency: This is going to be the first major event Morecambe has had coming out of lockdown, which was a very, very difficult period of time for so many people. Its going to be an amazing opportunity for communities to come together and celebrate the Queen being on the throne for 70 years, but also to really celebrate what makes Morecambe special. Morecambe is so multi-cultural, we have a sense of pride in our diversity and people who werent born in Morecambe have a sense of pride in the monarchy just as much as the people who were. Decorations including a life-size cut-out of the Queen at a home in Bromley, south London (Athina Hapeshis) Red, white and blue smoke cannons will be released across the bay at 3.30pm to mark the end of the jubilations. At the opposite end of the country, an LED beacon will be illuminating the south coast from Hove Esplanade in Brighton, East Sussex. The citys mayor, Lizzie Deane, said: The Platinum Jubilee is a historic national occasion and I know many people are looking forward to having a long weekend to spend with friends and family. In Croydon, south London, a thanksgiving service will be held at Addiscombe Catholic Church, where diversity will be celebrated in the Queens 70th year. Organiser Sylvia Wachuku-King said prayers will be said in six languages, while Guides are crafting a quilt representing the jubilee. Meanwhile in nearby Bromley, a committee of seven women have planned a street party for 40 families. The Kesmire committee of women who have organised a Jubilee street party in Bromley, south London (Athina Hapeshis) Hairdresser Athina Hapeshis, 55, said her street came together as a community during the coronavirus pandemic, and they have decorated 72 trees in the area with Union Jack colours in preparation for the party. Mrs Hapeshis, who is a grandmother-to-three and has a life-size cut out of the Queen in her home overlooking the street festivities, said residents can expect cakes, a live DJ and games for the children. She told PA: I remember the Queens Silver Jubilee, and I wanted to make sure my grandchildren and all the children around here have something to remember. When asked what the monarchy meant to her community, she said: Because its such a mix of age groups, everyone will have their own view, but its definitely brought the community together. Platinum Jubilee decorations in Bromley, south London (Athina Hapeshis) The fact the Queen has been serving so many years and shes a woman the children have been learning a lot about it at school. Were just waiting for the weather to say yes, its going to be amazing. The Met Office has said northern areas can expect a cool and showery start to the bank holiday on Thursday, before temperatures pick up on Friday, which is set to be the warmest day of the weekend. Which day of the long weekend will have the best weather where you are? Here is the latest forecast Find out more at https://t.co/HnIV2PM43x Met Office (@metoffice) June 1, 2022 Temperatures are set to soar to 26C in the south on Friday, while north-west Scotland is expected to be the warmest on Sunday. An estimated 10 million people plan to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Department also said that more than 70,000 Big Jubilee Lunches and 200,000 more local events have been planned across the four nations. Many official events will also be collecting money for charities throughout the bank holiday. Across the Commonwealth and the rest of the world, more than 600 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in around 80 countries from Greenland to New Zealand. Vanessa Hudgens says she was hooked on Love Island and will be definitely tuning in to watch the new series when it airs next week. The High School musical actress said she found the UK reality show really interesting and enjoyed watching it get messy along the way. Hudgens is due to host this years MTV Movie and TV awards which will take place on Sunday June 5 in Santa Monica, California. Speaking to the PA news agency about her own television favourites ahead of the event, she said: Love Island really had me hooked so I was there every single step of the way. Its just really interesting to see how people process things and how people identify love. Im definitely tuning in (on Monday). Im still here for it. I want to watch everyone find love and watch it get messy along the way. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the MTV awards and Hudgens said the show would be special featuring multiple celebrity hosts and DJing from US rapper Snoop Dogg. Asked about recent incidents involving award-show hosts, including the now-infamous altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, she said: Im never going to punch anyone down. I always want to lift people up, thats my main thing. But we can have some fun along the way, for sure. The actress, who also co-hosted the red carpet at this years Oscars, added that she was grateful for the hosting opportunities but she did not see it as a career change or a move away from her acting work. I think that were in a really great place in time where you can do whatever, you know, as long as youre honouring your authentic self, she told PA. Thats what Im doing and its a fun change of pace, but its definitely not a full time shift. She added: If you arent grateful for the journey, doors will start closing. So thats definitely a practice of mine is looking back and being grateful for the ride, for the journey, and acknowledging where I am and not taking it for granted. The Queens life has been steeped in tradition, but she has kept up with the vast technological advances during her reign of nearly 70 years. The 96-year-old monarch took part in her first official video conference call in 2020 as part of her public duties, following in the footsteps of other royals as engagements went online during the pandemic. In the early years of her reign, she recorded her first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957 and spoke of the speed at which things change around us. The Queens first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957 (PA) The grainy black and white picture of a young Elizabeth was one of the first strides taken by the monarchy to ensure she was up to date with her ever-changing nation. Since then, the Queen has seen the advent of colour television, mobile phones, the internet and social media. Under her command, television cameras were allowed inside Westminster Abbey for the first time to film her coronation, although she had initial reservations. Five years later, the Queen made the UKs first trunk call when she spoke from Bristol to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh 300 miles away. The view seen by television viewers immediately after the Archbishop of Canterbury placed the crown upon the Queens head during the coronation (PA) In 1976, during a visit to an Army base, she became the first monarch to send an email when the technology was in its infancy. Her website, which began as www.royal.gov.uk, was set up in 1997 during a visit to Kingsbury High School in Brent, north west London. However, it was reported that the Queen took some time to acquaint herself with certain devices. In 2005, she is said to have told Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, that she had not yet used a computer. The Queen speaks on a telephone at the Bristol exchange making Britains first subscriber trunk dialled telephone call in 1958 (PA) The Queen is said to have had a BlackBerry in the past, which she used to check her emails on the move on the advice of her most tech-savvy son, the Duke of York. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie explained the concept of video sharing on YouTube before the British monarchy launched its own channel on the site in 2007. In 2006, the Queens annual Christmas address was sent as a podcast for the first time. She personally uploaded a video to YouTube during a visit to Googles London offices in 2008. The Queen visited Kingsbury High School, Brent, to launch the royal website in 1997 (Fiona Hanson/PA) The Queen strode into the social media sphere and allowed aides to create a Facebook page and Twitter and Flickr accounts, and then an Instagram profile. She has also owned a number of iPods one reportedly given to her as a gift by then US president Barack Obama and another from the Duke of Cambridge which were said to contain classical music, including the Last Night Of The Proms. But the impact of changing technology has not always been welcomed by the monarch. She reportedly said she found it strange to be greeted by a sea of mobiles when out on engagements as members of the public attempted to take her picture on their camera phones. The Queen sends her first royal tweet to declare the opening of the new Information Age Galleries at the Science Museum in London (Chris Jackson/PA) In October 2014, the Queen passed a new technological milestone when she sent her first tweet to mark the opening of a new Science Museum gallery.It read: It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R. In 2019, she shared images, also from the Science Museum, on Instagram for the first time. Touching an iPad screen, she posted photos on the official royal family account of a letter from 19th century inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage to Prince Albert. World leaders have paid tribute to the Queen on her historic Platinum Jubilee as a golden thread binding the UK with its allies. French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Joe Biden and the UKs own Prime Minister are among those to have sent congratulations to the unwavering monarch, who is celebrating 70 years on the throne over a special extended bank holiday weekend. Mr Macron told the 96-year-old sovereign of the deep affection and admiration that the French people hold for her. In a video message to mark the jubilee celebrations, he said that while times may have changed, the Queens devotion to the alliance between Britain and France has not faltered. Mr Macron said: Madame: During the past 70 years, the President of the French Republic has relied on very few constants at the international level. Times have changed, Europe has evolved, our continent is again experiencing war. Through these transformations, your devotion to our alliance and to our friendship has remained, and has helped build the trust that brought freedom and prosperity to our continent. The French president described the Queen as the golden thread that binds our two countries and the proof of the unwavering friendship between our nations. He added: This year, the 70th of your reign, we celebrate your achievements. We are grateful for your courage and we share the respect and love that British people and Commonwealth have always shown you. From across the Atlantic, Mr Biden and first lady Jill Biden both offered their congratulations to the Queen. The president said she had inspired people with her selfless devotion and service to the UK and the Commonwealth for 70 years. Throughout your reign, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States has grown stronger and closer than ever, he said. Mrs Biden said the joy the monarch had brought the American people through her visits to the US, together with the solidarity she had shown in times of tragedy, had deepened the friendship and profound connection between our countries. Joe and I were so touched by the generosity and welcome you showed to us when we visited you at Windsor Castle last year, during our first visit overseas as president and first lady, she said. Australias new prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the sovereign had been a reassuring constant, and shared pictures of a beacon lit in her honour. He tweeted: This week marks the Queens Platinum Jubilee. In her seven decades on the throne, the Queen has been a reassuring constant, projecting calm and strength. Tonight, along with 53 other nations, we light a beacon to give thanks to Her Majesty and send our warmest congratulations. This week marks The Queens Platinum Jubilee. In her seven decades on the throne, The Queen has been a reassuring constant, projecting calm and strength. Tonight, along with 53 other nations, we light a beacon to give thanks to Her Majesty and send our warmest congratulations. pic.twitter.com/1TuU5qUkXN Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) June 2, 2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson included a touch of Latin in his tribute to the Queen. He tweeted: Congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on your remarkable Platinum Jubilee. The whole country, Commonwealth and world thank you for your unwavering duty and service. Vivat Regina Elizabetha! God Save The Queen! Meanwhile, Pope Francis sent cordial greetings and good wishes in a telegram to the sovereign. He said: On this joyful occasion of your Majestys birthday, and as you celebrate this Platinum Jubilee year, I send cordial greetings and good wishes, together with the renewed assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will bestow upon you, the members of the Royal Family and all the people of the nation blessings of unity, prosperity and peace. North Korea also said its leader, Kim Jong-Un, had sent a letter congratulating the Queen and the British people on the Jubilee. The countrys foreign ministry shared the news on its website, and did not provide any further details. FILE - A person holds six electric candles symbolizing the six workers who died while working at the Edwardsville Amazon site in the background, during a vigil, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, in Edwardsville, Ill., after part of the building collapsed due to a tornado the previous week before. Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform are accusing Amazon of obstructing their investigation into the company's labor practices during severe weather events. Amazon's policies have been under more scrutiny since the deadly collapse of a company warehouse last year in Edwardsville. (Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat via AP, FIle) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Amazon has been obstructing a congressional investigation into the companys labor practices during severe weather events by failing to produce materials requested of them more than two months ago, according to a letter members sent to CEO Andy Jassy. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which launched the investigation in late March, had given the Seattle-based e-commerce company a list of materials to hand over by mid-April. But the company still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by Committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the Committee requested in March, said the letter, signed by the committee chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from New York, as well as progressives Reps. Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Unfortunately, Amazon has failed to meaningfully comply with the Committees requests, obstructing the Committees investigation, they wrote in the letter made public on Thursday. Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company's labor policies during extreme weather events has been under more scrutiny since the deadly collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois in December, where six people died and another was critically injured in the tornado strike. Last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrapped up its own probe into the incident, concluding that Amazon met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering. But regulators also found safety risks and called on the company to improve its procedures. The House letter said the company has not produced any internal communications related to the Edwardsville tornado to the committee, which is doing its own investigation. Over the course of nearly seven weeks, Amazon produced only an incomplete set of policies and procedures, the letter said. The committee is also seeking documents showing how Amazon managed its workforce during other natural disasters, including wildfires in California in 2018. Actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes has been granted parole in Australia and will be deported to the UK. Hughes, 73, was imprisoned in 2014 after being found guilty of 10 sexual and indecent assault offences committed between 1984 and 1990. He will be deported to the UK on his release from prison as he is a non-lawful citizen in Australia, having renounced his Australian citizenship in 2020. Hughes starred on the Australian sitcom Hey Dad!, which aired from 1987 to 1994. His victims include a family friend, friends of his daughter and a child actor who worked with him. The New South Wales state parole authority said it had accepted evidence Hughes had consistently been assessed as a below average risk of sexually reoffending. It said that, although Hughes denies the offences, the assessment prevents him from accessing sex offender treatment programmes while he remains in custody. Hughes and wife had given undertakings that once back in the community Hughes would seek treatment with a clinical psychologist specialising in convicted sex offenders who deny their crimes, to assist with his reintegration and reduce his risk of reoffending, it added. The parole authority chairperson, David Frearson SC, said the authority acknowledged the profound and deleterious effects on the victims continue to this day and will probably be lifelong consequences. It must be particularly galling for the victims to observe the offenders continued and obstinate denials in the face of compelling and overwhelming evidence from multiple witnesses, he added. He will be released no later than June 14. Crowds along The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace are celebrating a once in a lifetime moment as the Queens Jubilee parade kicked off. Thousands have travelled from all over the country to join the festivities in central London on Thursday. Army veterans Ronny, 54, Banffy, 59, and Robert, 46, said they had travelled down from Aberdeenshire to celebrate the event. The group said they won tickets after putting their name in a ballot to sit in the stands by Buckingham Palace. Pointing to the palace, Ronny said: A wee wifey that lives in that house, there, and she has had that job for 70 years and she needs a wee bit of celebration, and we highlanders are here to wish her well. Asked what they are most looking forward to, he indicated the lunch box they had been given, joking: The snuff box for a start. Army veterans (left-right, last names not given) Robert, 46, Banffy, 59, and Ronny, 54, won tickets to watch the Trooping the Colour ceremony (Rebecca Speare-Cole/PA) The whole event, he then added. Its a historic celebration of Her Majesty. Emily Hurle, Lauren Stone and Amelia Jull, all 28, and Lauren Keith, 27, who moved to London from New Zealand, came to the Mall wearing tiaras and drinking cocktails. Were here to celebrate the Queen, of course, Ms Keith said. Ms Hurle said: I think shes a fantastic leader and in 70 years shes done exceedingly well. Yup, shes a legend. We love her, Ms Stone added. Ms Keith added: I think the crowds today shows how people feel about her everyone loves her, everyones here to celebrate her, and congrats Lizzie! Shes a big deal in New Zealand as well, Ms Jull said, adding they all watch the Queens Christmas speech back home and their families had asked them if they were coming today. Asked about what they are looking forward to, Ms Hurle said: Hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen. Ms Stone joked: Yes, seeing someone royal would be good. Friends Hillary Mathews, 70, from Hertfordshire, and Peter Aldam, 69, from Essex, said they met in London this morning to celebrate the once in a lifetime event as they waved flags on The Mall. (PA Graphics) Ms Mathews said: Its just fantastic. She has just been so remarkable, the Queen. She has done an amazing job, absolutely who would want to do that that for 70 years? Just magnificent, she added. Speaking about the parade, Ms Mathews said: Being 5ft 1in, I dont suppose Ill see much, but its just being here with the crowds, and well see the flypast from here, so that will be good. Its just lovely to be somewhere where there are nice people. Crowds on The Mall ahead the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Everybody has got the same mission all the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the Queen. Talking about the sunny weather, she said: I was here for Princess Dianas funeral, it was the same day just a long time ago but a happier day today. Mr Aldam added of the monarch: Ive always known her. All my lifetime, shes been there and its just a sign of respect, really. Jonathan and Claire Taylor, from Northampton, also joined the crowds with their daughter Aurelia, eight, decked out in Union flag merchandise. Aurelia said: I just really to see the Jubilee. I wanted to see it because its a really special Jubilee. Ms Taylor added: Were never going to see a jubilee of this 70 years ever in our lifetime or our childs lifetime probably, so we thought, weve just got to be there. Soldiers taking part in the parade along The Mall (MoD/PA) Speaking about the Queen, Ms Taylor said: Shes a really amazing figurehead. Whether you like the royal family or not shes an incredible woman and a great role model for women and for our girls. Aurelia said: Shes made lots of amazing changes and made the world a better place. The eight-year-old added that she would like to ask her what its like to be the Queen, and what her corgis names are. Brian Hobe, 36, a member of the first battalion Irish Guards who was selling programmes to the crowd, said: I volunteered today. I wasnt originally meant to be on but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He went on to say the atmosphere is good, adding that the crowd are enjoying themselves. Crowds on The Mall (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Theyre shouting, screaming, waving their flags, its just multi-cultural, multi-national. Its just been a good day. Gill Essom, 75, from Portland, and Joan Barton, 75, from Barton-on-Humber, said they were very excited to win tickets to sit in the stands by the palace. The pair said they have been friends for 57 years since they met as nurses in the Royal Navy when they were 18. We feel very privileged, Ms Barton said. Immensely proud, because we remember the coronation 69 years ago, Ms Essom added. Speaking about the Queen, Ms Barton added: Shes absolutely amazing. She has reigned for so long and so well. She is an icon. She has done an amazing job for the county, Ms Essom added. Things dont always turn out as planned. Adults have this lesson beaten into them on a near-daily basis a traffic jam throws the whole days schedule off, or an unexpected house repair eats up summer vacation savings. Familiar with disappointment, we adapt. But for kids, its different. A plan that doesnt pan out can feel personal, and it can be tricky for parents to guide their kids through the frustration. Thats the dynamic explored in Channing Tatums new childrens picture book, The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan (Feiwel & Friends, 48 pp., out now). Its the Magic Mike actors second in the Sparkella series inspired by his 9-year-old daughter Everly (or Evie), whom he shares with ex-wife Jenna Dewan. Its a really odd journey that I didnt think I would be taking, Tatum says of being a childrens book author. Im always good at jumping into something I have no idea about and just trying to keep my head above water. Are you man enough to be a princess?: Channing Tatum certainly is with new kids book Sparkella In the new book, illustrated by Kim Barnes, glitter-loving, tutu-wearing Ella loves all things razzledazzle. So when her friend Tam is due for a sleepover, she knows a play castle is required for the occasion. She enlists her dads help building a magnificent castle out of cardboard, but nothings turning out the way it was in her imagination. Then its up to dad to encourage Ella to find joy in creative solutions. This book didnt come as easily to Tatum as his first, he says. I told a story about my daughter and a book kind of came out of it. Then its like, Oh, whats the second book? And Im like, Oh, I dont know, Tatum says. Im now scared because this felt like a good experience and I dont want to mess it up. It was really fascinating going like, What do I want to tell people? What do I want to experience with other parents out there? Tatum spoke with USA TODAY about the cherished experience with his own daughter that served as this books inspiration and about Sparkellas future in Hollywood: Channing Tatum attends the U.K. Special Screening of Question: What was the response like to your first "Sparkella" book? Channing Tatum: It really was beautiful. So many people, even in airports which is always a weird melting pot of a bunch of people coming from all different places TSA agents will be like, Glitter poop! And thats crazy, that they know about glitter poop. Q: What was the inspiration behind the new one? Tatum: I have a little farm, a sort of cabin-y thing outside of LA where I spend the weekend with my daughter. She wanted to make a birdhouse. She had her own plan of how she wanted that to go, and it was never going to yield a birdhouse (laughs). It was never, ever going to get there. And I just had to be like, alright, well, lets start and see how we go. Because Evies just too strong-willed and strong-minded for me to just tell her, Thats the wrong wood. Were not going to be able to make a birdhouse out of that. And she would be like, No, we can do it, just get the nails. And then we would start trying and I would just let her instruct me, and we werent getting anywhere. And it was starting to come apart. And then ultimately we got to, OK, just because its not like how you envisioned it doesnt mean that were done. Guess what, we have all this spray paint right here, we have all this glitter over there. We started pulling things apart and making something new, and it became one of our favorite projects. 'N Is for The Nanny': Fran Drescher talks new book, her most quoted line and iconic laugh Q: Does your ability to help your daughter improvise and come up with a new vision come from your artistic background? I have to think there have been times on movie sets when things didnt go as you envisioned. Tatum: You mean ever? Literally never. I dont think I ever went onto a set and been like, I know exactly how this is going to go, and then it happens exactly like that. I would probably say that my strengths lie more in the improvisational than in the planning. So maybe that is where I could give her a part of myself that Im better at. In maturing, I am getting better at planning, or at least setting myself up to win. I dont know if thats exactly planning or not, but I at least know where Im not the strongest. Q: Theres not a lot of improvisation in making a childrens book though, is there? That seems like its all planning. Tatum: Youre right. I guarantee if you ask our publisher, theyd probably be like, Id really rather this be a lot more planned. I havent taken very many art classes, but I watched one on YouTube on clay because I like to sculpt, and there was a kid talking to the instructor, going like, It hasnt told me what it wants to be yet, like just sort of mashing (the clay) around. That visual of this kid not having a plan on this lump of clay thats sitting in front of him, going, Oh wait, this no, wait, it doesnt want to be that Oh, its a bird! Now were making a bird. Once you have that idea, then you can plan. But I think having the freedom and the openness to allow it to be something that maybe you dont even know and just kind of being free inside of that creating is really important, especially for kids. Q: What does your daughter think of the books? Tatum: Its tough, shes such an aloof kid sometimes. She definitely plays it really cool most times, even if shes really into something. And youre just like, Man, come on! I worked really hard on this, tell me its cool! Q: Whatever kind of success you get, youre still looking for the approval of your kid. Tatum: Totally. And thatll be the way its going to be for a very long time. Q: I've always appreciated your willingness to be silly without embarrassment. Have you always been that way? Has being a dad increased your capacity for silliness? Tatum: I knew from a pretty young age I wasnt cool coolI always felt like I was acting to do that, to try to be that. I didnt know what my cool thing was, and then physicality came in, and sports in general, and dancing and things sort of took over. And I was like, Im actually good at this, I can do this. And I knew pretty assertively I wasnt going to do anything big with them, or in the conventional sense, but I think I definitely had security in knowing I could do at least that well, so I could put down trying to be cool cool. Q: If youre not cool, what hope is there for the rest of us? Tatum: I think thats where it might have changed. I think when I put down the idea of being cool, and I was like, Hey look, Im pretty much just a nerd, thats what it is. Im decent at sports and I can dance a little, but the rest of it, dont expect very much of me. And then it just freed me up to be a clown. Q: You announced there's a "Sparkella" movie in the works. What can you tell me about it? Tatum: Its super early, and movies in general I find have their own sort of spirit in a way that they tell you what they want to be. I love certain movies back in the 80s and the 90s that really transport you into a world. Youre in a normal word world and then you go through a portal and you get to go into another place. And parents and children get to experience something together. Kids are constantly in an imagination world, and parents, maybe they have other stuff going on, and then they all get sucked into this magical world There are definitely certain tones of movies that I want to try to land on, but Im not sure because theyre not movies that are getting made right now. But I think it could be really fresh. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Channing Tatum: 'Sparkella' is back in a new book and soon, a film Married at First Sight stars Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner jumped into action when their 2-year-old son, Hendrix, began to have a febrile seizure. Read article Somethings off with our son, Otis, 35, repeated in terrifying video footage of Hendrixs condition, which she shared via Instagram on Thursday, June 2. Hes going to seize I think. Call 911. Please call 911. The video showed the Bachelor alum holding Hendrix in her arms, crying and comforting her and Hehners 4-year-old daughter, Henley Grace, while she simultaneously asked her husband about the nearest hospital and begged him to call 911. Hendrixs face was red and his eyes began to roll back in his head. This was just moments before my baby became unresponsive, stopped breathing and his lips turned blue. , the Lifetime personality captioned the clip, noting that he seemed perfectly fine throughout the day. (The family was on vacation in the Badlands in South Dakota at the time.) I held him on the couch and felt him. He felt a little warm to me so I checked his temp. He had a mild fever of 101.4, she continued. We IMMEDIATELY gave him Tylenol bc hes had febrile seizures before. I hoped we had caught it in time. Apparently, we did not. Courtesy of Jamie Otis/Instagram Hendrixs legs twitched briefly, his eyes had no focus and rolled to the back of his head, and then he stopped breathing for what seemed like forever, Otis explained, noting that these symptoms were different than the past febrile seizures hes been through. I tried to stay calm for my daughter, but when I looked down at my baby with a grey face, blue lips, a limp body completely unresponsive, not even twitching I lost it, the mom of two wrote. I genuinely thought he was dying. . Otis later profusely thanked the states emergency response team. I ran out of our RV and screamed help!!!! like a maniac bc I thought wed need to do CPR. Doug was on the phone with 911 the whole time & they worked so hard to get to us quickly, she wrote. Interior, South Dakota emergency personnel, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS! . Read article Fortunately, Hendrix became responsive and stable again, the reality star noted, adding a message to all mothers: Doug looked at me and said, you have some instincts! Mamas, even if you think youre being paranoid or anxious trust your instincts. . Otis previously spoke out about the importance of trusting ones instincts when her son had his first febrile seizure in October 2017. He was 17 months old. The doc said Ive never admitted a patient for a fever, the New York native recalled via Instagram at the time, explaining that Hendrix had a 104.7-degree fever. If Im judged as that mom who took my kid to the ER over a fever then so be it . Read article But more than his high temperature, it was his behavior that scared us more than the temp though. It was so strange. The ER doc said that the night where his eyes were staring off & his behavior scared the bejesus out of us, it was likely the aftermath of a seizure, she explained. He thinks it was a febrile seizure. He said kiddos have them often but they usually go undetected. Otis and Hehner met on the first season of MAFS and have weathered many ups and downs since, including multiple miscarriages. In August 2021, the Bachelor Nation alum shared that the two are committed to each other and their family. A couples counseling session ended [with] us holding each other & trying to figure out our next steps TOGETHER, she shared via Instagram at the time, noting that she and Hehner are not giving up on each other. Otis added: I will fight for my family! I mean, sometimes more than they even want me to . But right now, Im fighting for my marriage. For my children. For ME. . After making an indelible mark on TV, Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang is now poised to become a movie star. The 31-year-old comedian, a standout on the sketch comedy show thanks to his quirky, original characters like the iceberg from Titanic, has his first lead film role in Fire Island, a romantic comedy loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The film, directed by Andrew Ahn and streaming on Hulu June 3, follows a group of friends played by Yang, his real-life pal Joel Kim Booster (who also wrote the script), Matt Rogers, Tomas Matos and Torian Miller as they head to the New York hotspot Fire Island for their annual summer getaway. And just like the Bennett sisters from the classic 19th century novel, the characters in Fire Island navigate a society filled with folks who are quick to judge others. In fact, Booster got the idea for the movie when he was reading Austen's book during a getaway to Fire Island with Yang. "It was our first trip together there and he just was like, 'Oh, this is mapping so neatly thematically onto the way people treat each other here. Isn't that so funny?'" Yang tellsPEOPLE. fire island Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang and Tomas Matos Photo by Jeong Park. Searchlight Pictures Booster turned that observation into a feel-good, heartfelt story that's also groundbreaking: The movie is a same-sex love story with a largely AAPI cast, including Margaret Cho. It's a fact that Bowen says he "took for granted" while filming because he was so immersed in the moviemaking. "It just became the unspoken ethos of the whole production," Yang says. "It's only becoming apparent to me now, as we're talking about this movie and that it's about to come out," he continues. "I feel like it is pretty striking that we're putting this chosen family story into a movie that still has entry points for anybody to enjoy it." RELATED: Bowen Yang on Being SNL's First Chinese American Cast Member: 'Some Humility Has to Be Constant' Indeed, the movie is filled with laugh-out-loud one-liners and hilarious scenes including Yang performing Britney Spears' pop ballad "Sometimes" at a bar. "It was really nerve-racking," admits Yang, who says the lyrics about being scared reflect his character, Howie. He even chose the song himself. "My single favorite thing about the movie is that, at least in terms of my contribution, is that I had to send Andrew and Joel a list of songs that could be potentially cleared for [what] he sang. The top of my list was 'Sometimes,'" continues Yang. Yang's major role in Fire Island is bound to make him an even bigger starand earn him even more famous fans, like Kim Kardashian. A clip of the reality star asking the actor for a photo after she hosted Saturday Night Live recently went viral. "It completely blows my mind," says Yang, adding he took her request as a compliment: "[She was] letting me know that she enjoyed her experience or her time on the show and that she enjoyed our time together." Kardashian, who is dating Yang's former SNL costar Pete Davidson, and the Emmy-nominated actor are now texting buddies. "Every now and then, she'll send a nice message and she'll be like, 'You got to come to LA or something,'" says Yang. "I'm like, 'Kim, say the word. I'm there. I'll fly the plane myself.'" RELATED:Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang Recalls Being Put in Gay Conversion Therapy by His Parents But the SKIMS founder is not the most famous person Yang has in his phone. That would be Sandra Bullock. "She's saved underbecause she put it into my phone in herself Sandy Bullock. And I get to call her Sandy now," he says. Yang had a bit part in her movie The Lost City, and the two keep in touch. "She'llreach out and be like, 'Hey, congrats on this. Congrats on that.' She'll just be very keyed into what's going on in people's lives when she's one of the most accomplished actors working." Fire Island streams on Hulu June 3. The Queens style has been an integral part of her public life throughout her 70 years on the throne. Her instantly recognisable wardrobe of vibrant, block colours and matching hats ensures she stands out from the crowd, making her purposely more visible to wellwishers during royal engagements. The Queen in a bold coloured coat, matching hat, black shoes and white gloves and carrying her famous handbag (David Davies/PA) The monarchs neatly curled hair, pristine black or white gloves, black patent Anello & Davide loafers and her trusty black Launer handbags have remained staple parts of her look. They echo the stability associated with her record-breaking reign. The Queen standing out on royal engagements at Reading railway station (Ben Gurr/The Times/PA) The Queen also uses her outfits as diplomatic tools. Colours, motifs and jewellery with special symbolism are used to honour the guests she is greeting, or the countries she visited on her overseas royal tours. Trips to Canada featured red and white ensembles in tribute to the Canadian flag, along with her diamond maple leaf brooch, while her first high profile and diplomatically sensitive visit to Ireland saw the monarch choose green the Republics national colour. The Queen in the colours of the Canadian flag at the Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa (John Stillwell/PA) Angela Kelly, the Queens senior dresser and personal adviser, revealed the behind-the-scenes tricks used for the monarchs attire. She sews in extra layers of lining to cushion the impact of beading and crystals on the Queens back when events require glamorous gowns. Tiny weights are also put into daywear hemlines in case of windy weather, and fabrics that crumple or could potentially develop messy loose strands are avoided. The Queen, in a tiara and evening gown, with then US president Barack Obama at a state banquet (Chris Jackson/PA) Ms Kelly who has the same size feet as the Queen wears in the monarchs handmade new shoes beforehand to ensure they are comfortable when first used. Visits to schools see extra flourishes added to entertain youngsters. When Her Majesty visits a school or a childrens centre, she is always dressed in a bright, jolly colour, and her hat has the kind of details that will appeal to youngsters feathers, twirls, twists, flowers and ribbons, Ms Kelly revealed in her book about her working relationship with the Queen The Other Side Of The Coin. The Queen wearing embellishments on her hat during a visit to St Georges School, Windsor, in 2011 (Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA) At nursing or residential homes, the Queen wears strong colours to help those who are visually impaired, and on walkabouts, the crown and brim of her hat will be taken into account. The thrifty Queen re-wears and adapts her clothes, with the average lifespan of an outfit running to 25 years. Colour co-ordination is key even down to her umbrellas. The monarch has see-through Birdcage brollies made by the Fulton group to match each outfit in case of wet weather, with the edging and handle corresponding to the exact shade she is wearing. The Queen matches her umbrellas to her outfits (John Stillwell/PA) The Queen was a regular wearer of fur but since 2019 only fake fur is used to make sure she stays warm in winter. Over the years, the Queens style has gradually evolved. The start of her reign saw classic couture creations of silk and tulle evening gowns by Sir Norman Hartnell and cinch-waisted dresses by Sir Hardy Amies encapsulating Christian Diors New Look. The Queen inspecting the Royal Marines Guard of Honour aboard the escorting cruiser HMS Sheffield in 1953 (PA) By the 1960s, there were shift dresses and petal-covered hats, and in the 1970s trendy geometric prints and occasionally turbans for day wear and flowing chiffon by Ian Thomas in the evening, while in the 1980s there were pussy-bow blouses. Couturier Stewart Parvin became a favourite and began crafting clothes for the Queen in 2000. The Queen wearing a petal covered hat on a visit to the Isle of Man in 1972 (PA) Ms Kelly is now the Queens in house go-to designer for day and evening wear, and often uses Swarovski crystals to add glamour to grand royal occasions. Off duty, the Queen likes to dress for country life in a blouse and A-line skirt with a green waxed or quilted coat or a rain mac, her wellies and her familiar silk scarf knotted under her chin. The Queen in her headscarf attending the Windsor Horse Trials in 1999 (Andrew Stuart/PA) Nods to her milestone celebrations are often weaved into key pieces for anniversaries and jubilees. The gold dress the Queen wore for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee palace pop concert was influenced by the golden figure on the Queen Victoria Memorial, around which the stage was constructed. The Queen waves to the crowd while on stage outside Buckingham Palace during the Diamond Jubilee Concert (Ian West/PA) The national Platinum Jubilee celebrations offer the perfect opportunity for the nations longest reigning monarch to debut platinum-influenced pieces or jewellery, channelling the historic occasion through her fashion. LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders congratulated Queen Elizabeth on her record-breaking 70 years on the throne on Thursday, the first of four days of nationwide celebrations in Britain to commemorate her reign. Here are some of the messages: U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN "Jill and I wish Your Majesty a joyful Platinum Jubilee celebration. On behalf of the United States, congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on an unprecedented 70 years of service to the UK and Commonwealth and thank you for your friendship to the American people." FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON "Your Majesty, it is my privilege to extend to You, on behalf of the French people, my heartfelt congratulations on Your Platinum Jubilee." POPE FRANCIS "On the joyful occasion of Your Majesty's birthday, and as you celebrate this Platinum Jubilee year, I send cordial greetings and good wishes, together with the renewed assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will bestow on you, the members of the Royal family and all the people of the nation blessings of unity, prosperity and peace." FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA "Your life has been a gift, not just for the United Kingdom, but for the world. And it is with gratitude for your leadership and the kindness that you've shown me and my family that I say, may the light of your crown continue to reign supreme." FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY "For 70 years, Her Majesty has been steadfast in her selflessness, in her dedication to duty & in her commitment to her country. For that we simply say: thank you, Maam. God Save The Queen." FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER JOHN MAJOR "I cannot think of any other public figure, any other celebrity, any other president ... who could possibly have remained so popular. Her life has been played out in public - the highs, the lows, the good bits and not so good bits. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years." (Compiled by Michael Holden and Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Johnny Depp arrives at the High Court in London in 2020. (Alberto Pezzali / Associated Press) Johnny Depp's courtroom victory over ex-wife Amber Heard is being viewed by legal experts not just through the twists and turns of the courtroom drama but also for the wider implications the jury's verdict will have in the larger world. Several experts deemed the verdict in the dueling defamation cases in which Depp was the winner a step back for the #MeToo movement and said it highlighted a distrust and dislike of Heard. Some feared it could set back the cause of women who complain about abuse by powerful men. After a six-week trial, the jury found that Heard had defamed her former husband in a Washington Post opinion piece and acted with malice by casting him as a domestic abuser. The damage, Depp said, cost him millions of dollars and starring roles after decades as an A-list actor. Jurors awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, which were immediately reduced by the judge to Virginias statutory cap of $350,000. Heard, for her part, got a $2-million verdict for defamation after one of Depp's lawyers accused her of creating a hoax that included staging a scene by trashing an apartment and spilling wine to make the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor look guilty of violence. Legal experts, including Greg Smith, a prominent Los Angeles and Texas civil attorney who has racked up tens of millions of dollars in civil verdicts, said Depp was found at fault for defamation because the trial presented no real evidence to defend the hoax allegation. Troubling implications "From a #metoo standpoint, it's ... bad and dangerous," said UC Irvine law professor Susan Seager, a 1st Amendment legal expert who spent decades representing media organizations. "I just think that sends a bad signal to men and women or whoever is the abuser that, you know, you just can sue your victim and ruin them by bringing them to court for a defamation case," Seager said. "It sends a signal that if you have the money to hire a lawyer or even hire a defamation lawyer on contingency, they get a cut of your win you can succeed against an accuser." Veteran lawyer Lara Yeretsian, who was part of convicted murderer Scott Peterson's legal team, said celebrity trials are about the personalities of the participants as much as the lawyers. Yeretsian called Heard "a terrible witness," adding that "when a witness starts embellishing a story, exaggerates and overdramatizes, that witness loses credibility." She said the case also sent a warning to accusers. "The jury sent a clear message with this verdict: Do not make false accusations of domestic violence. If you do, there is a steep price to pay!" David Ring, a Southern California civil attorney who represents numerous sexual-abuse accusers, including those making allegations against Harvey Weinstein, said the case is tough for victim advocates to get behind. "I don't know if you can equate it to a #MeToo case. Obviously, Johnny Depp has a lot of star power and these are two celebrities airing their dirty laundry," Ring said. In the end, Wednesday's decision, which played out in a courtroom in Virginia, may be overturned or appealed. What comes next Heard's lawyers likely will challenge the verdicts, Seager said, noting they were inconsistent and at odds with each other. She said proof of economic loss was not clear-cut and also will be grounds for a challenge. Courtroom drama Smith said jury trials are driven by the narrative told to jurors. He said in the Depp-Heard case, it is surprising how much testimony was allowed on the record that wasn't really relevant. For example, Depp was "allowed to go on about parts of his life and his mother that had little relevancy to the facts of the case." To some degree, Smith said, the judge like many in celebrity cases lost control some of the time, and that makes for strong grounds for appeal. While Yeretsian noted that Depp's team out-lawyered Heard's, she said the strongest takeaway from the case is that men can be victims too. "They are saying that men can be victims of domestic violence, and as an attorney, I have seen that happen when women lie." "Depp won in the court of public opinion, and he won the court of law," said Ring. "At the end of the day, maybe the #MeToo pendulum swung back a little." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The gas grill is "an important part of our Korean food culture," said Park's BBQ owner Ryan Park. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times) Dinner at Parks BBQ in Koreatown inevitably starts with a small flame. Even before a greeting and the drink order, your server lifts the grate on your table grill and turns a knob. Theres the faint smell of gas and a barely audible hiss. At the click of a lighter, the flames start to dance under the grill. Its a ritual that starts the meal, repeated at so many Korean BBQ restaurants around town, readying the table for the procession of meats, vegetables and seafood to come. The tabletop gas grill is an important part of our Korean food culture, said Ryan Park, general manager of Parks BBQ. Its connected to the taste of the food and how we grill the meat. All that may change by 2023 at least in new Los Angeles buildings. The L.A. City Council last week passed a motion that would ban most gas appliances in new residential and commercial construction in the city, citing an effort to combat climate change. L.A. County at large aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The motion requires related city agencies to prepare an implementation plan for approval by the end of the year. The passage of this legislation kick-starts a process with several stages before full implementation, Councilmember Nithya Raman, lead author on the policy, wrote in a statement to The Times. Ultimately, its too early to say what the impact on commercial kitchens will be, the statement added. Traditional Korean BBQ relies on a gas tabletop grill to cook cuts of beef and pork. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles is the latest to move toward phasing out gas in new buildings, following similar ordinances passed in more than 50 other cities and counties in California, including Oakland, Ojai and Santa Clara. But voices in the restaurant world are already sounding an alarm. With the sheer number of restaurants in L.A., this will have a massive impact on the future of the restaurant industry and how many diverse cuisines are offered, said Jot Condie, president of the California Restaurant Assn. Without any specific exceptions outlined for restaurants in Los Angeles just yet, many chefs and restaurants that rely on gas to cook their food are expressing worries. The move could increase the cost of doing business and push some cooking techniques, and many styles of cooking, out of the citys new developments. Leo and Lydia Lee, owners of RiceBox, a Cantonese BBQ restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, use gas to cook the entirety of their menu, with the exception of rice. Gas powers the stoves used to cook dishes in a wok and the custom barbecue oven used to prepare the restaurants signature char siu Duroc pork, roasted low and slow with a sweet honey glaze. The wok itself is really essential to Asian cuisine, Leo said. By taking gas away, youre telling us we cannot use woks anymore, essentially taking away our identity and heritage. It forces us to adapt to American culture. If theres no gas, Lee said he wont even consider opening a second location of RiceBox in Los Angeles. 'Flame is critical' The California Restaurant Assn., which lobbies for California restaurant owners, attempted to block a 2019 phaseout of gas hookups in all newly constructed residential buildings and most nonresidential buildings in Berkeley. In a lawsuit filed against the city, which is still being litigated, the CRA argued that restaurants rely on gas for cooking particular types of food, whether it be flame-seared meats, charred vegetables, or the use of intense heat from a flame under a wok. The suit went on to argue that the CRAs members will be unable to prepare many of their specialties without natural gas and will lose speed and control over the manner and flavor of food preparation. Owner Leo Lee demonstrates making his chile oil at RiceBox in downtown, over gas-powered flames. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times) Flame is critical for [chefs] to create their masterpieces, said Condie of the association members. Its like asking an artist to throw away all their small paintbrushes and start painting with a roller. At Chengdu Taste in Alhambra, one of the city's most lauded Sichuan restaurants, managing partner Sean Xie said everything from the fried rice, to the fiery stir-fried eggplant and the kung pao chicken, is prepared using high heat on gas-powered equipment. There is no substitute if you ban gas equipment, Xie said. "For Chinese cuisine, we use a technique called stir-frying and the temperature is key. Many of the dishes at Chengdu Taste require a jolt of heat to caramelize and sear the surface of the meats, vegetables and seafood; something Xie said can only be achieved by cranking up the heat and getting to a certain temperature, quickly. Electricity just doesnt get to that high temperature in a short period of time, and thats associated with the flavor of the food, he said. A chef cooks with a wok in the kitchen at Chengdu Taste. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times) Wok hei (breath of the wok), the distinct flavor imparted to food when cooked at high temperatures in a wok, is the hallmark of certain dishes. Its that toasted, browned, charred flavor that gives a bowl of noodles, clams in black bean sauce, string beans and anything else cooked this way, that covetable, kissed-by-fire smoky element. Cookbook author and historian Grace Young describes wok hei in her 2004 book The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen as when a wok breathes energy into a stir-fry, giving foods a unique concentrated flavor and aroma. Its an essential component of some of the dishes at Bryant Ngs Cassia in Santa Monica, where 20% of the dishes are cooked using a wok or a tandoor oven, both powered by gas. With the wok its not just the high heat that makes it unique and gives the food that 'wok hei,' its also the natural flaming of the oils and moisture as the food in the wok is tossed and cooked, Ng wrote in an email. You cant really replicate that with something electric without an actual flame. So most dishes in the wok would lose some of that wok hei character, wish is fundamental to many (not all) dishes cooked in the wok. While it would be hard to make the switch to electric or induction, Ng does think it is possible. A cook sears gai lan at Cassia. (Silvia Razgova) Condie is hoping for an exemption for L.A. restaurants, similar to the infeasibility waivers considered for restaurants in Sacramento that can show challenges posed by electrifying the business. For the most part, I do believe most cooking can be done with electric or induction cooking equipment, but it would require a lot of re-training to get there, which isnt necessarily a bad thing and better for the environment, wrote Ng. But youll have to have the resources to do so" Xie estimates that he pays around $500 to $700 a month on gas, and about $1,200 on electricity. Lee said that running an all-electric kitchen would likely double his monthly expenses. Theres also the issue of purchasing new, electric equipment and getting stuck with your existing stoves and ovens, with little chance of reselling them on a secondary market full of other business owners making the transition to electric. It may be prohibitive for many restaurants, wrote Ng. And would discriminate against restaurants owned by POC. But the city appears poised to move forward. "The question," the council motion states, "is not if we will require decarbonized construction for new buildings but when." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. In Ukraine's countryside, Evgenia Molchanova cares for animals in need of refuge from the war, including Fiesta, a golden retriever, and DiShiKa, a black poodle. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) There once was a farmer with 10 sheep, a beekeeper with 41 hives (and a turtle) and a cook with 62 pheasants and peacocks. And they all lived peacefully in the fields and meadows of a place called the Donbas. But then Russian invaders came from the north and east, and rockets rained down around them, and the farmer, beekeeper and cook prepared to leave their homes, joining millions of other Ukrainians in an exodus that has become the largest migrant crisis in Europe since World War II. With their owners getting ready to go, where could the sheep, the bees (and the turtle), the pheasants and the peacocks go? The answer was the Green Grove, a farm and fromagerie in a bucolic corner of the Ukrainian countryside that has become an unexpected sanctuary for an ever-expanding stable of animals displaced by the war and for some of the humans who couldn't bear to part with them. With the conflict in Ukraine in its fourth month and the Russian army piercing deeper into the countrys east, residents have seen their lives upended and their homes obliterated in the torturous artillery duels raging over the towns and villages of the Donbas. But the exigencies of the war have also forced many to leave their animals behind. In the open farmlands of the east, that means less the cats, dogs and other pets abandoned in beleaguered major cities such as Kyiv and more the not-so-easily-transported work animals that represent livelihoods if not companionship. A father and son visit horses rescued from Kharkiv, Ukraine. The animals' owner fled the country because of the war. The horses were so nervous from shelling they fell over in the field. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) After coming to Dnipro, the central Ukrainian city that has become the main waypoint for those fleeing the east, people with animals often find their savior in Evgenia Molchanova, 31, the indefatigable woman who owns and runs the Green Grove with her husband, Anatoliy Pilipenko. When the war began, we felt we have to do this, because there werent any shelters that would take these animals without paying, said Molchanova, in white jeans, a T-shirt and a Green Grove cap. What money can you take from people who have no house? We decided to take them in for free. That decision turned Molchanova and Pilipenkos 14-month-old farm into a Hotel Rwanda of sorts for animals. Aside from the aforementioned guests, the roster now includes dozens of sheep, goats, cows, pigs, horses, geese, African hens and other kinds of fowl, rabbits, dogs, cats and a pair of emus, with every week bringing new additions. DiShiKa was rescued after she was severely burned in a fire at an ammunition storage tent. Fiesta, a golden retriever from Kharkiv, was suffering from severe anxiety because of the Russian shelling. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Of course, that raises questions of management and administration. Can you keep the baby rabbits around the dogs? Where should you put the exotic birds from the Askania-Nova reserve, brought all the way from Russian-occupied Kherson in the south? Is there room for the 18 horses coming soon from Severodonetsk? And where are you going to put all the sheep? In March, one man brought us a crocodile. I told him I wouldnt know what to do with it, so he asked if we had a Jacuzzi, Molchanova said with a tired smile. They ended up sending the reptile to a zoo in western Ukraine. Like millions of humans in Ukraine, the animals at the Green Grove bore the wounds, both physical and psychological, of war. There was DiShiKa, a black poodle whose back had a pair of angry-looking scars cutting through the fur. Her original owner in Donetsk province was gone; some soldiers had taken her in, renamed her after the DShK heavy machine gun and let her sleep in one of their tents when Russian bombs fell on their position. A fire in the tent burned DiShiKa, leaving the marks on her back. Other scars aren't so visible. Some of the horses, Molchanova said, would buckle to the ground from stress whenever they heard the rumble of a plane overhead. When they came here, the horse carriage had broken windows war damage, she said. A constant presence around Molchanova was Fiesta, a golden retriever whose owners had escaped in March to Germany from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian bombardment. They had left Fiesta with friends in Dnipro, who turned in desperation to Facebook to find a home for her. Molchanova reached out and offered her a place at the Green Grove. Evgenia Molchanova took in Fiesta, a golden retriever, after her owners fled the bombarded Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) In the beginning she needed shots to calm her down. She would hear loud noises and just faint, Molchanova said. She seemed happy now, so long as she didn't leave Molchanova's side. Some of her fellow villagers have enlisted in the effort to help the new arrivals cope. Our neighbors here are perfect. Theyve taken dogs, cats and rabbits as pets for a few weeks, just giving them love before returning them here, she said, looking down at Fiesta. Its the best rehabilitation, love is. Molchanova and Pilipenko seem unlikely Dr. Dolittles. As a teenager, Molchanova had worked at her fathers car dealership in Dnipro before she decided to join a university student-exchange program that took her to Anchorage. There she learned cheesemaking, and returned to apprentice at various cheese factories across Europe. In 2014, after protests in Kyiv, the capital, toppled Ukraines then-Moscow-friendly president, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists who fought for control of the Donbas. After taking part in the demonstrations, Molchanova volunteered to go to the front line, going first to a military hospital in Dnipro for training. Thats where she met Pilipenko, a 51-year-old veteran who had fought in Afghanistan and other countries with the much-vaunted Soviet Airborne. He was tasked with teaching new recruits. After two weeks we were living together. And that's all, Molchanova said. Some Ukrainians who volunteered to fight brought their goats to the Green Grove, a farm that agreed to take them in. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) When a shaky cease-fire came into force in 2016, they decamped for the Czech Republic, where Pilipenko had a dried-fruit import business. A year before the pandemic began, they decided to buy a plot of land in Dnipros countryside. When the coronavirus lockdowns began, they returned to their homeland. Business was good in the Czech Republic, but my heart is always here in Ukraine. There's no better place for me. That's how I feel. And my husband felt the same way, Molchanova said. Our dream was to have a good view, nice coffee something that would inspire us to wake up early in the morning. By March of last year, they opened the Green Grove, a place for Molchanova to make and sell cheese, with a coffee shop and a petting zoo for a few sheep and goats they needed for milk. They named the establishment after the village Zelenyi Hai, in Ukrainian. Since then, the new arrivals brought by war have forced a rapid expansion even as visitors still come to enjoy the animals which Molchanova thinks is more important than ever before. Evgenia Molchanova took in two emus on her farm when their owner had to leave Dnipro, Ukraine, because of the war. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Before, we did tours for money, but now it's free for all people. Were open for all who want to come here and be with animals, she said, adding that more than 1,000 children had visited since the war began. It's helpful for us, helpful for the animals too. Beyond the animals, the Green Grove has also become home for some of the people escaping the Donbas, which is now the focus of Russias offensive. Living in the house of Molchanovas grandmother is a family from Lysychansk, one of the last areas of Luhansk province in Ukrainian hands. He came with five dogs and two cats. They were all terrified, she said. Beauty salon worker Anya Savchenka, 32, fled with her family from the town of Soledar, 140 miles east of Dnipro, in April. She, her parents, husband, daughter and nephews are all now involved in the farms upkeep. Savchenkas father and husband were busy behind a barn repairing an ancient-looking push tractor. To the side, her nephews mashed up Egyptian pumpkins for the pigs while her daughter, 3-year-old Yesenia, toddled up to the sheep pen under the eye of Savchenkas mother. My house was still intact when I left, but it was just getting too dangerous. So we came here, since theres still a way to go west if we need, Savchenka said, squatting to put some food in a cage with some baby rabbits. It was a big change for Savchenka, but she seemed to enjoy it she now has plans to open a salon for pets. A proper beauty salon, with manicures and hair-styling, she said, smiling. Children and their parents in Ukraine visit the Green Grove farm, which provides a therapeutic respite from the horrors of the war. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) With its verdant pastures, clear skies and the steady chorus of sheep and goats, the Green Grove can seem to occupy a different dimension compared with much of the rest of the war-torn country. But the conflict can still intrude. Last month, Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Russian cruise missile, which rained fragments near the Green Grove. Moments like these make Pilipenko, who showed a scrapbook with pictures of himself as a soldier, want to join the fight. Molchanova insists that she needs him to stay with her and their two daughters, Ivanka, 7, and Olyana, 2. I cant do this on my own, she said. Coffee in hand, she stood on the porch of the Green Groves store and gazed out at one of the enclosures where a chestnut-brown horse trotted to the fences edge. And the bees buzzed in their hives, and the peacocks strutted about, and the sheep grazed placidly in the fields. Evgenia Molchanova with her husband, Anality Pilipenko. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times) What would be her happily ever after"? In the future, I don't want the animals to have chains or enclosures. They should be free. I think this place will be like a reserve, she said, pausing for a beat to take the scene in. I like my dream. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. President Biden promised Thursday that his call for Congress to pass new laws to curb gun violence was "not about taking away anyone's guns." (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With the country reeling from three mass shootings in the last three weeks, President Biden called on Congress to deliver "common-sense" reforms to curb gun violence, during a rare prime-time address from the White House. Biden has tried to give lawmakers space to find the sort of bipartisan compromise on firearms that has eluded them for decades in the aftermath of many other shootings. But his seizing of the bully pulpit also reflected a determination to show the country his own passion and commitment to eradicate the distinctly American epidemic of gun violence, and to share his optimism that even a deeply polarized Congress and Republicans long opposed to tightening gun laws could be spurred to act. "For Gods sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?" Biden asked. "How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say, Enough?" Promising that his call for reform was "not about taking away anyone's guns," Biden argued in his 17-minute speech for specific measures, including expanded background checks, "red flag" laws, safe-storage laws and other measures that go far beyond what the Senate is currently considering. He also called for a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines or short of that, for raising the minimum age for purchasing such weapons from 18 to 21. Urging Congress to act, he asked lawmakers and the country to imagine the fear of the 10-year-old survivor of last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, who smeared a classmate's blood on her body to fool the gunman into thinking she was already dead. Gun safety advocates rally in front of the Capitol in May. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times) "Imagine what it'd be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again. Imagine what it's like for children who experience this kind of trauma every day in school, in the streets, in communities all across America," Biden said. "Imagine what it's like for so many parents to hug their kids goodbye in the morning, not sure whether they'll come back home. Unfortunately, too many people don't have to imagine that at all." The president's remarks from the White House's Cross Hall, which was lined with 56 candles memorializing shooting victims in all states and territories, came just hours after a congressional committee held an emergency meeting Thursday to begin writing a legislative package of gun violence prevention bills that could set up votes on the House floor next week. The House Judiciary Committee voted on the measure as Biden was speaking from the White House, and advanced it on a 25-19 party-line vote, without a single Republican voting in support. The panel's Thursday morning session was scheduled in the aftermath of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde shootings that prompted Biden to visit both cities in the last few weeks to commiserate with and console their devastated communities. The president met with victims' loved ones, who he said "had one message for all of us: Do something." Tulsa, Okla., joined the growing list of mass shooting sites Wednesday when a gunman opened fire in a medical building, killing four before taking his own life. Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff pay their respects at a memorial at the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 were killed by a gunman. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The Uvalde shooting, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed last week less than two weeks after 10 Black people were killed in a racist attack in Buffalo has jolted Congress into taking action, even if prospects for passage are dim. Democrats narrowly control the House, where legislation is passed by a simple majority. But in the Senate, there's a 50-50 split between the Democratic and Republican caucuses, and most bills need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. That means that although the House can pass bills without any Republican support, GOP backing in the Senate is crucial for any measure to have a chance to become law. There are no perfect solutions, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said as he opened Thursday's hearing. We are painfully aware that we cannot do enough today to save all of these lives. Sweeping majorities of Americans support making background checks mandatory on all gun purchases, something Democratic lawmakers tried and failed to do a decade ago after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 children and six staff members dead. Biden, who was vice president at the time, knows better than most how difficult it is to find enough supportive Republicans to enact new gun laws, given the absolutist position on guns demanded by many GOP voters, especially in competitive primaries. While expressing his support for the bipartisan group of senators working to find a compromise, Biden excoriated most Republican lawmakers, and suggested they would pay a political price this time for blocking gun reforms. A man prays at a memorial for the victims of a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) "The fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable," he said. "We can't fail the American people again." Biden, whose speech was only added to his schedule Thursday afternoon, has kept his involvement in talks on Capitol Hill mostly out of view since last year, after months of negotiations on a domestic spending package fell apart. But with Congress reportedly making progress on firearms legislation, aides worried that he might seem too distant from the process on an issue that has again moved to the front burner. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at a higher-education event, took time to acknowledge the shooting in Tulsa and urge congressional action. "No more excuses," she said. "Thoughts and prayers are important but not enough. We need Congress to act." The House panel convened to take up the Protecting Our Kids Act, a package that Nadler said "links together important, sensible, overwhelmingly popular proposals that will help us to scale back the scope of gun violence in the United States." The package includes provisions to: raise the age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21; make the import, sale, manufacture, transfer and possession of restricted ammunition magazines a new federal offense; crack down on gun trafficking and straw purchasers, and authorize seizure of the property and proceeds; establish safe storage requirements for residences, with criminal penalties for violations; build on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulatory bans on bump stocks and so-called ghost guns. Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) speaks during a news conference with fellow Democratic lawmakers and gun safety law advocates outside the Capitol in May. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Nadler said that each proposal is "wildly popular" with Americans, and dismissed criticisms that in rushing to move legislation, Democrats are politicizing tragedies. "It has been 23 years since Columbine, 15 years since Virginia Tech, 10 years since Sandy Hook, seven years since Charleston, four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh," he said. "It has been three years since El Paso. It has been a week since we learned again that gun violence can reach any of our children and grandchildren at any time, and that no number of armed guards can guarantee their safety." "It has not even been 24 hours since the last mass shooting, and who knows how long until the next one, Nadler continued. Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?" Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, said no one wants to see another tragedy or relive another mass shooting. "Thats why its regretful that Democrats have rushed ... today at what seems more like political theater than a real attempt at improving public safety or finding solutions," he said. Jordan said Democrats never reached across the aisle to seek Republicans' input on the legislation being considered, and accused them of rushing to convene on it to appeal to Democratic primary voters. "The American people expect and deserve more from us than political charades that rehash old ideas and dont actually solve the underlying problems," he said. While Democrats have largely turned their attention back to guns to prevent mass tragedies, Republicans have framed mental health and school safety as the core issues that need to be addressed. In the upper chamber, Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) sought to appeal to conservatives in a Fox News op-ed published Thursday morning. Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building on the St. Francis Hospital campus on Wednesday. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) Murphy, a fierce gun safety advocate, expressed a willingness to accept incremental change in a bipartisan deal to reform the nations gun laws. Murphy is negotiating with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was given Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's blessing last week to pursue a bipartisan deal with Democrats. While acknowledging Americans 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, Murphy argued that constitutional rights have limits. For instance, he said, criminals and people with serious mental illness shouldnt have a right to own weapons, and Congress should be able to determine "which weapons are so dangerous as to be kept exclusively in the hands of the military." Murphy conceded that hed have to accept fewer reforms than he would prefer in order to reach a deal with Senate Republicans. He highlighted the tightening of background checks, incentives for states to create red-flag laws that aim to identify gun owners who may pose a threat, and investments in mental health resources and school security upgrades as examples of "incremental change." "For me," Murphy wrote, "the only thing we cannot do is nothing." "I dont know if any of these reforms would have stopped the massacre" in Uvalde or Buffalo, Murphy acknowledged, but added: "No matter what the defenders of the status quo say about people like me, our agenda isnt radical. My desire is simple to find a way for Republicans and Democrats to come together around a small but meaningful set of changes to our nations gun laws, along with major investments in mental health, that will make it less likely that another Sandy Hook or Uvalde ever happens again." Caren Ray-Arnone of New York wears a message on her sneakers as she attends a rally with gun safety advocacy groups and Democratic members of Congress. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. After more than a decade-long cycle of American mass shootings and congressional gridlock, lawmakers in Congress voiced hesitant optimism this week that they could find a bipartisan answer to the recurring deadly violence. The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to host an emergency meeting Thursday morning to debate the Protect Our Kids Act, a sweeping package that would set new age limits for purchasing weapons, limit magazine sizes, crack down on so-called ghost gun sales and more. A memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Its a real dark place were in right now, and I think we owe it to the American people to do everything we can to provide a more safe and compassionate country, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., the author of the legislation, told Yahoo News Wednesday. A small group of top Senate Democrats and Republicans has also been working closely for more than a week to find compromises that can win enough support to clear the Senates 60-vote filibuster hurdle. Former U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords, gravely injured in a shooting while serving in Congress, speaks as Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) listen during their news conference announcing the introduction of "bipartisan legislation to expand background checks for sales and transfers of firearms" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Back-to-back massacres last month one in which a shooter espoused white supremacist views before attacking customers at grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, N.Y., the second in which elementary school children were gunned down by an 18-year-old shooter with a semiautomatic rifle have shaken the country as well as members of Congress. Senators led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been meeting nearly daily on Zoom calls and over the phone to hammer out a bipartisan framework for new gun restrictions. A senior Republican aide said Wednesday that sweeping House measures supported primarily by Democrats arent likely to fare well in the Senate. The aide referenced earlier House efforts that passed the Democrat-led House but stalled in the Senate this session. Their bills are going nowhere fast in the Senate, said a Senate Republican aide. If a gun bill is signed into law, it will be a Senate bill. Sen. John Cornyn, center, attends a press conference at Uvalde High School on May 25. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images) Indeed, House gun control measures giving law enforcement more time to vet buyers and expand background checks stalled previously in the Senate. And theres little expectation that the reforms House Democrats are pushing would survive bipartisan negotiations in the Senate. Will it be everything that reasonable people think we should have? The answer is, probably not, Thompson said of the emerging legislation. But will it be more than we have now, the answer is yes. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer anointed Murphy, who has been working on gun violence issues since the Sandy Hook massacre a decade ago, to take the lead for the Democrats on the new restrictions. A senior Democratic aide told Yahoo that Schumer has set an eight-to-10-day window to try and come up with a compromise that can pass the Senate. An early framework for the plan being discussed in the Senate has included talks about expanding background checks, bolstering mental health resources, and allocating money for school safety officers and red flag measures to curb purchases by potentially dangerous individuals, the Senate Democratic aide said. Murphy was given the leeway from Schumer to negotiate, to spend this week while the Senate is in recess, negotiating a package across the aisle, the aide said. So we're in that process right now. Emergency personnel respond Wednesday to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building, which is part of the St. Francis Hospital complex in Tulsa, Okla. (Ian Maule / Tulsa World) A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Deputy Police Chief Jonathan Brooks confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent firearm violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old assailant carrying an AR-15-style rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing greater security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record number of gun-related deaths in the country. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, said Deputy Police Chief Eric Dalgleish. It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene," Dalgleish said. The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that's what led them to the second floor." Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., Dalgleish said. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," he said. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week's deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom that was under attack. Tulsa Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said that multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available. Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims. "This campus is sacred ground for our community," said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community." Bynum added: "Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight." Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his fathers room at St. Francis Hospital around 5 p.m. when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows. Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his fathers hospital room for more than an hour, trying to glean scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard code silver and Level 1 trauma announced on the hospital speakers and wondered whether they were safe in the room. "I wasnt particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me," he said. "But it was definitely a 'this is happening here' moment." Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school. The shooting comes more than two weeks after a gunman killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket in what authorities say is a racist attack. The Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings in which four or more people have been killed, according to the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include the gunmen in the shootings. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shown in December 2021. Strategic U.S. interests in oil and security are pushing President Biden toward meeting with the prince during an overseas trip later this month. (Bandar Aljaloud / Associated Press) President Biden has decided to travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks and is expected to meet with the kingdoms crown prince, whom he once shunned for his brutality. It's a visit that is coming together as OPEC+ announced Thursday it will pump more oil amid skyrocketing energy costs around the globe. Biden's first trip to the Saudi kingdom as president is likely to occur this month, but details have not been finalized, a person familiar with the planning told the Associated Press. The White House on Thursday praised Saudi Arabia for its role securing an OPEC+ pledge to pump more oil, and the president himself lauded the Saudis for agreeing to a cease-fire extension in its 8-year-old war with Yemen. "Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the U.N.-led truce, Biden said in a statement after the 60-day extension of the cease-fire was announced Thursday. Those warm words mark a sharp contrast with some of Biden's earlier rhetoric about the oil-rich kingdom. As a candidate, he pledged to treat the Saudis as a pariah for the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's brutal ways. U.S. intelligence officials determined that the prince probably approved the killing. Biden administration officials have been working behind the scenes to repair relations, discussing shared strategic interests in security and oil with their Saudi counterparts. The effort has played out as the fallout of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the world's No. 2 crude exporter after Saudi Arabia, and a Saudi-Russian brokered cap on oil production have raised crude prices and sent prices Americans pay at the pump to record highs. Biden and Democrats face rising voter anger over the high prices, making the tight oil supply a top political liability. Appeals from the U.S. and its allies for the OPEC+ group OPEC nations plus Russia to boost production appeared to bear results Thursday. OPEC nations announced they would raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for a struggling global economy. The increase did not appear to ease concerns about tight supply, and oil prices actually rose after OPEC+ announced the increase. In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged what she said was Saudi Arabia's role in achieving consensus" among the oil producers' bloc. She thanked the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq as well. Jean-Pierre also directly cited the leadership of King Salman and the crown prince in Thursday's announcement of an extended U.N. cease-fire in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces have led an unsuccessful war to rout that country's Houthi rebels. The White House is weighing a Biden visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person. Such a meeting could ease a tense and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the killing of Khashoggi. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Mohammed, Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden probably would also visit Israel. Israeli officials in their engagement with the Biden administration have pressed their point of view that U.S. relations with Arab capitals, including Riyadh, are critical to Israels security and overall stability in the region. The visit could also provide an opportunity to kick off talks for what the administration sees as a longer-term project of normalizing Israel-Saudi relations. And while the Biden administration continues to be concerned about the Saudis' human rights record, the president's advisors credit Saudi Arabia for showing greater restraint in its conflict with Yemen since Biden took office. White House officials expect criticism from Democratic allies and human rights advocates charging Biden is backtracking on human rights, but suggest that in the long term a credible Middle East strategy without key leaders in the kingdom is not tenable. Biden, through the early going of his presidency, has repeatedly said the world is at a key moment in history where democracies must demonstrate they can out-deliver autocracies. The administration doesn't want to see countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia with troubling human rights records fall into the camp of Moscow and Beijing. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told a Washington audience Wednesday that Biden's intent coming into office was to recalibrate the relationship with Saudi Arabia and to make sure that that relationship was serving our own interests as well as our values as we move forward but also preserving it. And thats largely what weve done, Blinken said. U.S. officials were recently in the region for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and the war in Yemen. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight oil supply helps Russia fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Persian Gulf region as the United States tries to focus on China. Those gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year to bring control of its forces in Israel under the U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israels U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, now a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Taliban fighters tear up a poppy field in Afghanistan's Helmand province Sunday. (Abdul Khaliq / Associated Press) Afghanistans Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the countrys massive production of opium and heroin but dismaying farmers who fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. On a recent day in Washir district in southern Helmand province, armed Taliban fighters stood guard as a tractor tore up a field of poppies. The fields owner stood nearby, watching. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning poppy cultivation throughout the country. Those violating the ban will be arrested and tried according to Sharia laws in relevant courts, the Taliban's deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund, told the Associated Press in Helmands provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Afghanistan is the worlds biggest opium producer and a major source of heroin in Europe and Asia. Production grew over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation. But the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive. The ban comes as Afghanistans economy has collapsed, cut off from international funding in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Most of the population struggles to afford food, and the country has been suffering from its worst drought in years. Noor Mohammed, who owns one poppy field in Washir that was torn apart by Taliban tractors, said his plot of land is small and lacks water, so he cant survive by growing less profitable crops. If we are not allowed to cultivate this crop, we will not earn anything, he said of his poppies. Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. Helmand is the heartland of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It appeared that the new eradication campaign was targeting mainly those who planted their crops after the ban was announced. Many others who had planted earlier succeeded in harvesting, going from plant to plant, slicing the poppys bulb, then scooping up the sap that oozes out the raw material for opium. Akhund, the deputy interior minister, said the Taliban was in touch with other governments and nongovernmental organizations to work out alternative crops for farmers. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the eradication campaign would take place across the country. We are committed to bringing poppy cultivation to zero, he told the Associated Press. Its not known how many poppies were planted this season, how much was harvested and how many fields the Taliban has eradicated so far. But Afghanistans production has steadily risen, reaching new heights every year in recent years. In 2021, 438,000 acres were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020. The total value of Afghanistans opiates production in 2021 was $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, up to 14% of the countrys GDP, exceeding the value of its legal exports, the UNODC said in its most recent report. During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the U.N. However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies. Over the next two decades, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it only steadily increased: In 2002, around 185,000 acres were planted with poppies, producing some 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that. During the Taliban's insurgency before it returned to power, the group reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistans opium output is greater than all other opium-producing countries combined. Nearly 80% of the heroin produced from Afghan opium reaches Europe through Central Asia and Pakistan. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. TULSA, Oklahoma (AP) A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said. It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene," Dalgleish said. The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that's what led them to the second floor." Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week's deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked. Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available. Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims. This campus is sacred ground for our community," said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community." Bynum added: Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight." Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his fathers room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows. Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his fathers hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard code silver and level 1 trauma announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room. I wasnt particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me, he said. But it was definitely a this is happening here moment. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school. The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. ___ This story has been corrected to show that information about number dead, weapons used and police response should be attributed to Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. ___ This story has been corrected to show that gunman at Robb Elementary School used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle. ___ Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. Students protest at Tehran University in the Iranian capital in December 2017. (Associated Press) A tide of social unrest is washing over Iran as the countrys economy devastated by years of harsh U.S.-led sanctions continues to tank. Farmers, factory workers, teachers, bus drivers and others have demonstrated or gone on strike to protest their deteriorating living conditions, braving the heavy hand of authorities who brook no dissent. At the same time, negotiations in Vienna have stalled between Tehran and world powers over reviving the nuclear accord that collapsed in 2018 when the U.S. withdrew from the agreement. Known as the JCPOA, the deal limited Irans nuclear program while granting the country billions of dollars worth in sanctions relief. Statements by negotiators have veered wildly between optimism that a breakthrough is imminent and deep skepticism that an agreement can be reached. Although President Biden has urged the deals revival, the administrations special envoy for Iran said last week that its prospects were tenuous at best, in part because the war in Ukraine has hardened Russias position. Heres a look at how the recent wave of protests and strikes in Iran and the talks over the nuclear deal are intertwined for the countrys theocratic regime. How are the unrest and the nuclear deal related? After the collapse of the accord four years ago, the U.S. under then-President Trump switched to a maximum pressure campaign that has further strangled the Iranian economy, while Tehran has pressed ahead with enriching its stockpile of uranium to levels that approach weapons grade. In 2019, the deadliest riots since the Islamic Revolution of the 1970s broke out amid popular anger over skyrocketing prices of fuel and other goods. A brutal government crackdown resulted in the deaths of between 350 and 1,500 people. Although the wide-scale protests were crushed, discontent has never stopped simmering, and demonstrations and strikes by various sectors continue to flare up. Dont you guys use cooking oil? Or chicken? Dont you buy sugar or rice? Dont you eat anything? I shouted this to a riot police officer, one protester said on Twitter. Is there anything else fueling the strife? Irans standoff with the West in the early years of the Islamic Republic drove it to implement a massive food self-sufficiency plan, which has resulted in a dire water crisis for the arid country. Frequent farmers riots from 2009 to 2019 were a direct consequence of that plan, which dried up many rivers and lakes through over-consumption of underground water supplies. Over the last year, dozens of cities have been the scene of protests over economic hardship, air pollution and drinking water, including riots over dried-up Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. The governments plans to address the water shortage have been hamstrung by its lack of funds and the effects of international sanctions. Unfortunately, we are almost bankrupt in water resources and have lost 30 billion cubic meters of our renewable underground water resources due to excessive consumption and land subsidence, said engineer Mostafa Fadaeifard, an expert in water management. The country is prone to more and more riots, even much more serious than the ones we had before. Unless the JCPOA is revived and more cash flows into the major desalination projects, the country will be lost. A building collapse May 23 in southwest Iran that killed 37 people has also sparked angry protests, including one Sunday night at which demonstrators booed and shouted down a cleric sent by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to speak to mourners. Video of the event appeared to show police clubbing protesters amid clouds of tear gas. Can a revival of the nuclear deal quell unrest in Iran? The Iranian government is under intense pressure to improve peoples lives, which a reinstatement of the JCPOA could help achieve by relaxing the international sanctions that have strangled the economy. Many Iranians have pinned their hopes for an economic comeback on the revival of the nuclear deal. But as speculation circulated about a possible failure of the talks, Irans currency, the rial, lost 20% of its value. Some politicians and analysts have maintained their confidence that, as one member of parliament recently said, an agreement is at hand. Mojtaba Najafi, a blogger, commentator and professor of media and communications at the Sorbonne in Paris, said he was optimistic about the deals chances, even though current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who succeeded moderate Hassan Rouhani last August, is a conservative hard-liner. Irans supreme leader, Khamenei, still strongly supports revival of the nuclear accord, Najafi said. He didnt endorse it in the final months of Rouhanis government because he didnt want to see a moderate or reformist government reaping its benefits. Yet he doesnt want to see the volatile condition of the country get further exacerbated. Najafi said the accords revival would provide at least some temporary economic relief and allow for space to tackle stubborn structural problems that have held back Irans development. Should the JCPOA come back to life, contrary to what many political advisors believe, it would bring fresh blood to Irans civic society, which is the driving force for real change in Iran, Najafi said. Has Iran been subject to protests and riots before? In the Islamic Republics first two decades, large-scale protests were rare and faced the iron fist of rulers who deemed the protesters to be enemies of God. Demonstrations by elites and students demanding more political and social freedoms were harshly put down in 1999. Some government reforms as well as rapprochement with the West under popular reformist President Mohammad Khatami alleviated some of the discontent for several years. In 2009, the disputed reelection of hard-line President Mohammed Ahmadinejad ignited the worst riots that post-revolution Iran had seen up to that point, in which at least 72 protesters were killed and opposition leaders put under house arrest. The nationwide unrest that rocked Iran in 2019 focused on economic grievances rather than political ones. Those grievances continue to give rise to wildcat strikes and protests like those that the country has experienced in recent weeks. Khazani is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Henry Chu in London contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk. Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen. If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned. I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country. It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously. Vote View Results Marysville, CA (95901) Today Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. David Glass with his family at the LA Zoo during the 2019 Walk to End Alzheimers. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. On June 2, Levon Ayvazyan, Head of the General Department of Defense Policy and International Cooperation of the Republic of Armenia, received the delegation led by the delegation led by Colonel Jeffrey Wright, head of the regional military cooperation directorate of the U.S. European Command As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Defense MInsitry of Armenia, during the meeting issues related to the Armenian-U.S. defense cooperation were discussed. The sides reaffirmed their readiness to develop cooperation in the fields of military education, military medicine, peacekeeping and others. Issues related to regional security were also discussed. In May, seven persons including three policemen and four civilians fell victims to unabated target killings in the Valley People from the Kashmiri Pandit community block Srinagar-Budgam road to protest against the killing of the school teacher Rajni Bala, near Srinagar Airport, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (PTI) SRINAGAR: As targeted killings continue in the Kashmir Valley despite the authorities assertion of an improved security environment, a bank manager from Rajasthan Vijay Kumar was shot and critically wounded by suspected militants in southern Kulgam district early Thursday. He died on the way to hospital, the police and hospital sources said. On Wednesday night, the gunmen had injured a local resident Farooq Ahmed Sheikh in a similar attack in neighbouring Shopian district. On May 31, a female Hindu schoolteacher Rajini Bala was murdered outside the school she worked at in Kulgams Gopalpora area. In May, seven persons including three policemen and four civilians fell victims to unabated target killings in the Valley. Giving the details of the latest attacks, the police and local sources said that Kumar who worked as the head of the local branch of the Ellaquai Dehati Bank, a rural bank sponsored by the State Bank of India, was targeted by gunmen at Arreh Mohanpora in Kulgam. The grievously injured Kumar was evacuated to the hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. The J&K police along with the columns of the Army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has launched a search operation in the area to capture the assailants dead or alive. A police spokesman said, A massive manhunt has been launched for the terrorists who killed the bank manager in cold blood. Earlier during the day on Thursday, three Army soldiers were injured, one of them critically, in a blast inside a public transport SUV being used by them for an counterinsurgency operation in Shopian. Defence spokesman Emroz Musavi said that the blast in the vehicle took place at around 3 am in Shopians Sedow area, leaving three soldiers of the 15 Garhwal regiment injured. The injured identified as Ajab Singh, Parveen Singh and Pawan Rawat are being treated by Srinagars 92-Base Army Hospital. The spokesman said that, based on specific intelligence, the local Army unit launched a cordon-and-search-operation at about 3 am in the general area Patitohalan. While moving to the target area, approximately a kilometre from Sedow, an explosion took place in the civil hired vehicle, being used by the team, resulting in injuries to three Indian Army soldiers. The blast is very likely to be from either an IED or a grenade or a battery malfunctioning in the vehicle, the spokesman said, adding that the details of the incident are being ascertained. He confirmed that while one injured soldier is critical, the condition of the two others is stable. The spokesman further said, The affected area has been cordoned and all likely escape routes have been sealed. Search to nab the terrorists is in progress. This will be the first physical meeting of the BJP's key decision-making body outside the national capital after a gap of five years New Delhi, June 1: With an eye on expanding its footprint in the southern states, the BJP is set to hold its two-day national executive meeting starting July 2 in Hyderabad, Telangana. The saffron party has, in recent years, made rapid gains in the key state in the region and is seeking to emerge as a credible opponent to the K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led party, which is eyeing a third term at the helm, ahead of the assembly polls scheduled towards the end of 2023. This will be the first physical meeting of the BJP's key decision-making body outside the national capital after a gap of five years. And it will be the third meeting in the southern states after coming to power in 2014. The party held two national executive meetings in Bengaluru (Karnataka) in 2015 and Kozhikode (Kerala) in 2016. All top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda, Union ministers and chief ministers of the party-ruled states are expected to attend the meeting. The BJP's national executive meeting is being held in Hyderabad at a time when the party is trying to make further inroads in the state, whereas the ruling TRS is also working on cobbling together a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance to challenge the saffron party at the national level. With an aim to reach out to the people in Telangana, the BJP's state unit president, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, has already carried out a statewide march, 'Praja Sangrama Yatra' in two phases. It was attended by the party's senior leaders, including Mr Nadda and Mr Shah. The meeting is coming at a time when the party is preparing for assembly polls in states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajashthan, and Madhya Pradesh. The last executive meeting was held in 2021, ahead of the assembly polls in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The BJP's national executive comprises leaders from across the country. At the meeting of its key body, the party passes resolutions and decides its future course of action. Li: 'Redouble' efforts to stabilize economy 08:19, June 02, 2022 By WANG KEJU ( China Daily A worker operates at a factory of Harbin Boiler Co Ltd of Harbin Electric Corporation in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, April 14, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua] State Council executive meeting says people must fully benefit from measures China will speed up the implementation of a package of policy measures to maintain stable economic performance and ensure that market entities and the people are well-informed of these policy steps and benefit to the fullest extent, according to a decision made at the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. "Since the announcement of the policy package, government departments have all taken proactive steps," Li said. "We must redouble our efforts, in particular to accelerate policy implementation." The meeting stressed the need to fully examine the policy package and further flesh out each and every measure to ensure that all who are eligible are fully informed and fully benefit. The newly added amount of 140 billion yuan ($20.99 billion) in value-added tax credit refunds should be basically delivered by July. Policy banks will increase the credit line by another 800 billion yuan to provide financial support for infrastructure construction, and a mechanism will be set up to meet the needs of key projects. All eligible migrant workers who have lost their jobs, whether they are covered by the unemployment insurance policies or not, will receive provisional living allowances or other forms of relief. Primary responsibility for paying such allowances should be made clear. With regard to the deferral of principal and interest repayments on the 90 billion yuan in commercial truck loans extended by centrally managed auto companies, the enterprises concerned will be encouraged to inform borrowers of the deferral procedures through online announcements, text messages and other means. "Supporting measures and detailed guidelines for the policies are of critical importance. Detailed implementation plans should be swiftly introduced and easy to act on, and all those eligible should be fully informed of the policies and benefit from them," Li said. The meeting called for deepening reform of government functions. Vigorous steps will be made to see that no deliberate application is required for those eligible to benefit from the policies and that more services will be accessible online. To smooth logistics in both trunk and branch routes and facilitate the early resumption of production at full capacity, bottlenecks must be pinpointed, relevant measures should be improved, and targeted assistance to key enterprises will be intensified. On investment projects, all related localities and departments should keep work logs, improve approval procedures and provide greater support in terms of land use and other aspects, to enable the launch of projects as quickly as possible. Free and smooth passage of summer harvest agricultural machinery should be ensured. Measures will be implemented to support the listing of platform companies in domestic and overseas markets in accordance with laws and regulations, and ease the restrictions on car purchases. "We must foster an enabling business environment for economic development through the reform of government functions, solve difficult issues and unleash the vitality and creativity of market players with reform-based and market-orientated measures," Li said. The meeting urged tighter supervision of policy implementation. The task forces sent to 12 provincial-level regions by the State Council are required to formulate reports based on on-site inspection as soon as possible, and prominent problems found in policy implementation will be publicized. Major economic indicators of the second quarter, including local GDP, the surveyed urban unemployment rate, fiscal revenue after deducting tax refunds, and consumer prices will be released in a fact-based manner by the statistics authorities, together with the authorities in finance, human resources and social security, and taxes on a province-specific basis. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) The other news of the day: Malaysia ends price controls on chicken, South Koreas conservatives boost their power, Australia takes action in the Pacific to counter Chinese influence, Uzbekistan ends subsidy meant to encourage people to walk, two Ukrainian prisoners of war speak about their experience in a Russian detention centre. MYANMAR For the first time, the number of internally displaced people in Myanmar has exceeded one million, the United Nations announced yesterday. The civil war that broke out after the military coup of 1 February 2021 drove 700,000 people from their home. To these must be added some 300,000 already displaced in the country. The vast majority are in Sagaing, a region where fighting has been most intense for months. AUSTRALIA PACIFIC Australia will provide the Samoan Coast Guard with a new patrol boat, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on a visit to the Pacific Ocean country in a bid to counter Chinese influence in the region. Wong is expected to travel to Tonga as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ends a 10-day tour of the Pacific. SOUTH KOREA The conservative People Power Party (PPP) of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was elected in March by a margin of 0.7 per cent, won big in local elections, taking control of the country's two largest cities, namely the capital, Seoul, and Busan. The PPP also won five out of seven by-elections to the National Assembly. The Democratic Party acknowledged its complete defeat. MALAYSIA After banning chicken exports due to a supply crunch that saw prices double, Malaysian authorities announced an end to price controls for chicken and eggs next month, leaving prices to market forces. Instead, direct cash assistance will go to low-income households. It is unclear how long the export ban will stay in place. INDIA India is considering setting up an appeals panel with the power to reverse content moderation decisions by online social media, this despite the fact that Facebook, Google and Twitter already have in-house grievance redressal procedures. The Indian government is among the first in the world in terms of requests to Twitter and Meta for content takedowns. TURKEY SYRIA Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the next military operation in Syria will target the cities of Tal Rifat and Manbij in order to create a 30-kilometre security zone along our southern border. The area is held by a Syrian Kurdish armed group, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG). UZBEKISTAN Uzbekistan ended a state subsidy for people who regularly jog. Introduced in June last year as part of a "Healthy Lifestyle" programme, it paid out 3,000 sum (US$ 0.27) per 10,000 steps. In 2021, it cost a total of around US$ 3.2 million. RUSSIA Two Ukrainian pilots, Ivan Pepelyashko and Oleksiy Chyzh, shot down and held in Russian captivity returned home following a prisoners swap. Speaking about their experience, they said that the Kursk detention centre was hell. Their captors took away their cross, telling them that God did not exist anyway. The two pilots were beaten, their bones broken, in what captors called a massage conversation. Victoria Park will be empty again. The authorities want to erase the memory of the fallen of 4 June 1989 killed by the Chinese government. The organisers of the traditional commemoration are in prison. Even the Catholic Church fears the security law. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) For the third consecutive year, Hong Kong authorities have banned the annual vigil in Victoria Park in memory of the victims of the Tiananmen massacre. On 4 June 1989, the Chinese government ordered a crackdown against protesters in Beijing who were demanding freedom and democracy in the country, resulting in the slaughter of thousands of students and ordinary citizens. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam made it clear recently that all public meetings must comply with anti-COVID regulations and, above all, the national security law adopted two years ago by the central government to stifle the pro-democracy movement. As Hong Kong Free Press reports Lam did not clarify which part of the measure prevents people from gathering to remember the fallen in Tiananmen. Last year, many residents of the former British colony commemorated the 1989 massacre by placing lit candles on their balconies. Others gathered in small groups in different parts of the city. Hundreds defied the ban and showed up near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, only to be turned away by the police. Some managed to lit candles outside the park. Next Saturday, Victoria Park will also be empty because vigil organisers are all in jail or on trial. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that traditionally organised the event, was dissolved last September after police targeted it under the national security legislation. For the first time, the Catholic Church will not celebrate Mass in memory of the Tiananmen dead. The local diocese is concerned that memorial services for the events of 1989 could be punished under the security law. A year ago, banners appeared in front of seven Catholic churches warning Catholic authorities not to celebrate Mass for Tiananmen. According to the people who put them up, public service in remembrance of the events of June 1989 were contrary to the law. Still Mass was celebrated in each church. In one of them, Card Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, mentioned the brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives for our democracy and our freedom. Presently, the cardinal is awaiting trial for his role in a charity fund that helped thousands of people involved in the 2019 pro-democracy protests. However, Catholics have not ruled out action on Saturday. In an attempt to get around the ban, the Ward Memorial Methodist Church in Yau Ma Tei held a prayer on Tuesday in memory of Tiananmen. Like mainland China, Hong Kong authorities have taken steps to wipe away physical and (virtual) references to what happened in 1989. Online discussions are tightly controlled, while statues and works of art commemorating the massacre have been removed from public spaces. The most striking case is that of the Pillar of Shame, which was removed after 25 years from the campus of Hong Kong University; however, a replica will be inaugurated on 4 June in Taiwan. The authorities have also closed the city museum dedicated to the massacre. School textbooks only have vague references to the events of 33 years ago, whilst teachers avoid discussions on the subject for fear of reprisal. Books on the subject have also disappeared from public libraries, and the public broadcaster RTHK removed images of the slaughter from its archive, Nikkei Asia reports. Publicly people can only refer to what happened as the events of 1989. by Vladimir Rozanskij On a state visit to Iran, Tajik President Rahmon met with Irans Khamenei and Raisi. The delicate situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and the search for an ally to replace Russia in the border dispute with Turkey-backed Kyrgyzstan are speeding up the thaw in relations that began in the summer 2019. Dushanbe (AsiaNews) Tajik President Emomali Rahmon ended his state visit to Iran with the signing of 16 cooperation agreements between the two countries. The documents touch not only mutual support in social and economic development, but also shared positions on security and the fight against terrorism and extremism, drug trafficking, international crime syndicates and cyber crime. Relations with Afghanistan topped the agenda. The main agreements include an accord on developing new technologies, cultural exchanges between the national museums of the two countries, youth and sports, migrants as well as cooperation in the fields of energy, water resources, roads and infrastructures. The two countries have also inked a major agreement in tourism, and agreed to set up joint commissions to delimit their shared border, environmental protection, and trade. With issues that divided Tajikistan and Iran over their respective role in Islamic terrorism and related conflicts settled and put behind them, President Rahmon met with Irans Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, and President Ebrahim Raisi, to discuss the delicate situation in neighbouring Afghanistan, which represents a threat to both countries. Another reason why Rahmon is seeking Iranian support concerns Tajikistans border conflict with Kyrgyzstan, which is militarily supported by Turkey. Hitherto, Dushanbe always counted on Moscows backing, but Russia is currently unable to provide support due to the war in Ukraine, and, in any case, it has followed a policy of neutrality in the dispute between Dushanbe and Bishkek. According to Tajik political scientist Abdumalik Kadyrov, Iran is the only country that can now intervene in favour of Tajikistan. What is more, the ice of mistrust in relations between Dushanbe and Tehran has long since melted. For one of Rahmons advisors, Sayfullo Safarov, deputy director of the Institute of the Tajikistan President Strategy Research, the centuries-old cooperation between the countries has stood the test of time. We have never had, do not have and will not have problems with the people of Iran. Iran was the first country to recognise Tajikistans independence after the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, and the two countries are very similar culturally and linguistically. Until they began to drift apart in 2015, Iran was one of Tajikistans main foreign partners and investors, along with Russia and China, including US$ 220 million for the construction of the Istiqlol tunnel (ex Anzob) and the Sangtuda 2 Power Plant. However, trade between the two countries came to a virtual stop over reciprocal accusations of supporting Islamic terrorism. As Dushanbe began softening its position, relations between the two Farsi-speaking countries began to thaw three years ago. Since then, relations have improved. Diplomatic contacts resumed on 1 June 2019 when Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin met with then Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and his counterpart, Javad Zarif, to discuss security issues. Russias weakening international standing further rekindled Irans interest in this strategic central Asian country. by Steve Suwannarat As the country evolves and the questionable behaviour of various religious leaders is exposed, fewer people under 20 opt for the monastic life. The relevance of Buddhism in everyday life is increasingly a topic of conversation in the media. Bangkok (AsiaNews) In Thailand, the Land of Smiles, Buddhism is part of the countrys identity, but lately, it has come under increasing pressure. Not only evolving lifestyles, but also the questionable behaviour of certain religious leaders is driving many away from the faith as well as out of temples and monasteries. The declining number of young Thai males under 20 opting for the monastic life is symptomatic of the situation as is the increasingly shortened duration of temporary monastic experiences. Likewise, permanent ordinations are down and more and more monks are trading in their orange robes for civilian clothes. Although the authorities still claim that monks represent a 300,000-strong community out of a population of 70 million, the real count is very likely much lower. A string of scandals, ranging from broken vows to actual crimes against people and property, has fuelled a debate about the relevance of Buddhism in daily life, especially in Thai media. The loss of interest in religion has accelerated in the last 20 years for various reasons. Among them are the extreme casualness with which many monks and monasteries have accumulated wealth. One of the latest cases involves Luang Pi Kato, a 23-year-old monk (phra), well known for his insouciant approach to sermons. A few weeks ago, he was turfed out from his monastic community for an inappropriate relationship, but he found a way to use his media fame with brief but well-paid stints at public events. Another reason for the crisis is that Thai Buddhism appears unable to renew itself. Many accuse the Sangha, the Buddhist Order of Thailand, which is governed by the Supreme Sangha Council, to be too attached to formal rules, offices and practices, rather than the Buddhist precept of non-attachment. It is also evident that there is a problem of methods and language to spread the Buddhist message in the age of the Internet and social media. Ignoring these stimuli for change risks making Buddhism a form without substance," says Woraphat Phucharoen of the Bojjhanga Foundation, an organisation that offers the latest methods in the fields of teaching, meditation and religious practice. For Prof Soraj Hongladarom of the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, In Thailand, there is news about chaotic politics in religious organisations. This makes people sceptical about the role of monks in society. What is left is the practice of spiritual retreat, which allows anyone, whatever their age, to include the religious experience in their life. by Shafique Khokhar Another Christian girl was kidnapped for marriage. Her captor is known and there are witnesses against him, but even the court hearings have not yielded any results. For Human Rights Focus Pakistan, Pakistans new government should adopt a proposed bill against forced conversions. Faisalabad (AsiaNews) A Christian girl was abducted two months ago by a co-worker. In court, eyewitnesses said they saw the incident with their own eyes, but police so far have failed to locate her. Saima Gulzar lived in Faisalabad. Hers is just another tragic case of kidnapping for the purpose of forced conversion to Islam and marriage. The 16-year-old was employed by a local factory. On 5 April, as she made her way home, a co-worker, Muhammad Sajid, and two unknown persons, shoved her into a waiting white car and drove off. During the kidnapping, Saima shouted for help, attracting passers-by, including Arshad Masih and Irfan Masih, who witnessed the incident. Both tried to stop the car, but the kidnappers were armed and threatened them before making their escape. When Saima's father, Gulzar Masih, was informed of his daughters abduction, he went to the factory owner, Muhammad Shehbaz, and told him what had happened, asking for help to bring his daughter back home. The factory owner said he would not take any legal action against the kidnapper, but reassured the worried father that he would get his daughter back within a couple of days. He later changed his tune, refused to help Saimas father, and said that she had embraced Islam and married Muhammad Sajid. The father filed a First Information Report (FIR) with police but the latter proved uncooperative. For this reason, thanks to the legal support of Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP), a complaint was filed with the District and Session Court in Faisalabad. The first hearing was held on 21 May, followed by a second one today; on both occasions, police failed to show any progress in their investigation. In two months, the police have still not been able to locate Saima Gulzar and her kidnapper, said HRFP president Naveed Walter, The kidnapper has been clearly identified, two eyewitnesses have made statements in court, the owner of the factory has admitted the kidnapping by the co-worker: Why hasn't the police taken action yet? "When minority girls are kidnapped, the police are more often than not prejudiced and offer more protection to the guilty than to the victim. For this reason, Walter wants Pakistans new government to reintroduce a bill against forced conversions, dropped by the previous government of Imran Khan because it was opposed by the Islamic establishment. In addition to electoral reforms, changes are also needed in legislative procedures to reduce the influence of Islamist ideology which views most of the bills on minorities as anti-Islamic. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Weve already seen ammonia being considered to power vessels, trucks, and theyre also flirting with the idea of using it in aviation . Now, its being tested as an alternative fuel for heavy-duty vehicles as well. Brooklyn-based company Amogy aims to decarbonize transportation by offering emission-free and high-energy-density power solutions that can replace our traditional fuels. The company recently announced that it reached an important milestone in its journey, using ammonia to power a tractor for the first time ever.Amogy integrated its highly-efficient ammonia-to-power technology into a John Deere mid-size standard tractor. The demonstration was held in New York, in the Research & Development Park at Stony Brook University.Amogys system, which consists of a standard liquid-storage tank and ammonia-cracking modules integrated into a hybrid fuel cell system, can produce enough power for several hours of operation per refueling. As for the refueling process itself, Amogy claims it's no more time-consuming or challenging than filling up the tank of your car at a gas station. During the demonstration, the modified John Deere tractor was driven for separate periods, with a refueling session in between.Amogy says that ammonia has the potential of becoming a leading fuel for heavy-duty vehicles, as it offers a high energy density and there are plentiful existing infrastructures such as pipelines, terminals, and storage methods to support such a transition, not just in the U.S. but also globally.This isnt the company's first success with ammonia as fuel. Back in 2021, the company also demonstrated what it claims to have been the worlds first ammonia-powered drone flight. And it doesnt plan to stop here, announcing its intention to also prove the benefits of its technology in trucking and shipping. In the next 12 months, its demonstrations will also include Class 8 trucks and shipping vessels, all with the ultimate goal of replacing polluting diesel engines with its next-generation, emission-free solution. One megayacht that wont fall into strangers' hands is Motor Yacht A, the smallest and least expensive second yacht of EuroChem Group founder and billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. Motor Yacht A is a 2008 build designed by Philippe Starck and constructed by Blohm & Voss, worldwide famous and instantly recognizable for the blade-shaped hull that makes it look as if it's upside down and which allows it to travel full throttle with almost zero wakes. Motor Yacht A is the sister ship of the $600 million Sailing Yacht A , which Starck also designed and which still holds the record for the biggest sail-assisted ship. This one was seized in Italy in March this year. Within days, Motor Yacht A sailed out of Dubai and turned off its AIS (automatic identification system) tracking and disappeared in the Arabian Sea. The last time we reported on it , its location and port of destination were unknown, and it hadnt been seen on the radar for more than two months.As it turns out, Motor Yacht A didnt really stray too far from its port of departure. Financial Times found it hiding in plain sight in the port of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, some 90 minutes away from Dubai by car. Its been there for weeks, the publication says; in fact, sources at the marina say it must have been there since April 18.By placing his yacht in the UAE, Melnichenko has put it beyond the reach of western governments enforcing sanctions on those deemed supportive of Russian president Vladimir Putins war on Ukraine, the publication notes. UAE is openly ambivalent on the topic of the war in Ukraine: on one hand, its dispatching aid to the population of Ukraine, while on the other, its welcoming Russian oligarchs and their prized assets with open arms because money knows no allegiance.Melnichenko isnt the first and will certainly not be the last Russian oligarch to find a safe haven for his superyacht in the UAE. Other safe havens include Turkey, Seychelles, the Maldives, and, until the seizure of $325 million Amadea by the U.S. government, Fiji. Designed for use by the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), the F-35B had its first SVTOL test all the way back in 2010, and has been at it ever since.To be able to do that, the plane uses power generated by its engine, sent directly downward through a swiveling jet pipe that rotates 95 degrees in 2.5 seconds. Backed by additional lift fans, the plane generates 40,000 pounds of vertical thrust, enough to allow it to land or take off without problems.Also, with a little work, some degree of hovering is also possible, and that is when the sight of the supersonic F-35 floating in the air is truly spectacular. But what happens when you have more of them doing that at the same time?Well, thats probably when you get the feeling youre about to witness an alien invasion. Like you can see in the video below, some one minute in.The clip was released on the first day of June by the U.S. Navy , and shows flight operations on the deck of amphibious assault carrier USS Tripoli (LHA 7). The planes belong to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, and are seen here in all sorts of instances, from resting on the deck to taking off and landing.The most impressive scene, of course, is that which shows two of them hovering at the same time, both getting ready to land. A historical moment of the first nine Geespace satellites launched. 63 more are expected to be placed in orbit by 2025. pic.twitter.com/O3kiMeuJt8 Geely Group (@GeelyGroup) June 2, 2022 Tesla CEO Elon Musks SpaceX has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit for its Starlink network, so Geely becomes the second major automaker globally to have an allied space business.Geely is looking to build its own satellite network to offer more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles. The company launched its self-designed GeeSAT-1 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest Sichuan. The company said it expects to launch another 63 in orbit by 2025 and eventually have a maximum of 240.While just coming to the limelight, autonomous driving technology has been in research for several years. Satellites are a big part of the technology, and as EVs evolve, the need for driverless cars is sparking a new space race.Low Earth orbit satellites such as the Starlink network and Geely are crucial in processing vast amounts of data required by cars for autonomous driving. According to a recent study , autonomous vehicles will generate an estimated 40 terabytes of data in an hour from cameras, radar, and other sensors.The Chinese automaker said apart from offering high-precision positioning support for self-driving vehicles. Its network will serve other commercial functions, such as providing communication services.Since the satellites have an operating lifespan of five years, the company expects them to eventually disintegrate into the earths atmosphere without leaving any space debris.Earlier in the year, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried up to 46 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit after a geomagnetic storm fried 40 satellites While most new cars come with a modem that lets them receive data through cellphone towers, the same cant be applied to autonomously driven vehicles. As EVs advance, theres a need for constant updates and real-time location accuracy , only available through satellite technology. The future long-range air assault mission is about delivering troops and equipment to exactly where they are needed, fast. By maintaining the same operational footprint as the Black Hawk, #DEFIANTX is the right fit for the @USArmy.@Sikorsky ???? @BoeingDefense pic.twitter.com/eMEHckuK5e Sikorsky (@Sikorsky) May 26, 2022 Released by Sikorsky in the last days of May, the computer generated clip shows a bunch of Defiant X helicopters in action, painting pretty much the same picture we have in our brains when imagining the Vietnam War.A small army of them is seen flying over some jungle, in a bid to find a clearing and set down. They find it, and the virtual helicopters land, unloading scores of equally simulated troops. For some reason, it all happens in absolute silence.Were not entirely sure what the purpose of this clip is, as its nothing more than a simulation of some things we already knew the Defiant is capable of. That doesnt make it less spectacular, though, and, for some of us, is a trip back in time.In the real world, there already is a prototype doing the rounds. Defiant X is a Sikorsky-Boeing entry in the U.S. Armys Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program, meant to find a replacement helicopter for the Black Hawk.The most recent bit of info about the prototype came our way in early April, when the flying machine left Florida , the place where its being put together, for the first time, and traveled a little over 800 miles (1,287 km), its longest flight so far. It did that in legs, not non-stop, but an achievement nonetheless.When ready, and if selected by the Army (theres another one in the program, the Bell V-280 Valor ), the Defiant should be the fastest assault helicopter in history, capable of reaching 282 mph (454 kph). As part of this weeks celebrations, Jaguar Land Rover is a proud Partner of the @Jubilee_Pageant. On Sunday, 26 @Jaguar and @LandRover vehicles will feature in the Pageant that will take in The Mall and Buckingham Palace.https://t.co/AQ4MlXjBlZ#PlatinumJubilee pic.twitter.com/FaPF0EMpUz Jaguar Land Rover (@JLR_News) June 1, 2022 Jaguar Land Rover is joining in the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations , following her seventy years of service. The two British brands will be sending 26 of its cars to the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, held on Sunday, June 5.Due to Her Majestys patronage of the British Red Cross, the brand will also commission a new Defender 130 to support the case in the UK. The Land Rover engineers will be working closely with representatives from the charity to adapt the vehicle before it goes into service.We are delighted to be receiving the Defender 130 and look forward to working with the team at Land Rover to modify this over the coming months, Chris Davies, Head of Crisis Response shared. As the longest version of this vehicle ever produced, we will be able to utilise the increased capacity to incorporate new and unique features that will better support our emergency response and ambulance support work. The vehicles off-road capabilities will give us the freedom to access remote areas and reach people affected by emergencies and disasters across the UK.Among the 26 cars from Jaguar and Land Rover will be two of Her Majestys beloved Land Rover Defenders , three Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles from the James Bond films, and a collection of rare Jaguar convertibles.Chris Thropp, Chief of Staff at Jaguar Land Rover shared: It is a true honour for our vehicles to play a part in this momentous occasion to mark Her Majestys Platinum Jubilee. As the UKs longest reigning monarch, Head of the Commonwealth, patron of more than 600 charities as well as a mother, grandmother and great grandmother, the Queen is a remarkable role model and we are delighted to celebrate with her today.A bespoke Jaguar 1965 Series 1 E-type Roadster in metallic blue inspired by the Union Flag will be making its public debut during the parade, alongside the first Land Rover the world ever saw, introduced at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show.Given Jaguars move towards a more sustainable environment, the brand will also feature an F-PACE Hybrid and an all-electric I-PACE from the E-Trophy racing series.But the vehicles wont be the only iconic things in the Pageant. The people who attend the open-to-the-public event will also get a chance to see several famous names behind the wheel of the vehicles, including actor Luke Evans , adventurer Bear Grylls OBE, model David Gandy, former rugby player Jason Robinson OBE, and British motorsports racing driver Jess Hawkins.The parade will cover a 3 km (1.86 mi) route moving down The Mall and past Buckingham Palace, similar to the route of the Coronation 70 years ago. All thanks to NASA's Artemis program, the first significant attempt at a manned landing on the surface of another heavenly body in half a century. Today, let's take a deep dive into the mission NASA promises is on the cusp of re-igniting the space race. Along the way, we'll discover that its creation was never guaranteed.Announced in 2017, the Artemis Program is an initiative rewriting the playbook for manned beyond Earth exploration. But as much as it's a historical feat of engineering, it's also a bureaucratic miracle that almost didn't make it out of the prototype phase.Before the Artemis program, a slew of different proposals for NASA's next-generation manned space exploration program came and went from their administration. All but one failed to materialize much more than a few neat-looking CGI promo art pieces.Only a single proposal, dubbed project Constellation, produced anything more. These exceedingly rare tangible results in manned spaceflight came in the form of the Ares I and V launch vehicles, as well as the Lockheed Martin-Airbus Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.Using its American-built Command Module and ESA manufactured Service Module, the Orion capsule was designed to be capable of short and long-term lunar excursions and possibly voyages to worlds beyond. A very basic boilerplate variant called the Ares I-X was even launch tested at the Kennedy Space Center launchpad 39B on October 28, 2009.Had the Obama administration not canceled the Constellation program outright, it could have ferried the state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin-Airbus Orion Space Capsule into a translunar orbital mission similar to the Apollo 8 mission as early as 2019.This potentially puts the program on a trajectory for the first manned lunar landing mission since 1972 as soon as this year. Alas, it wasn't to be. But from the rib of the now-defunct Constellation program, the foundations of Artemis would be born. Not before six years of work between 2011 and 2017 in a herculean effort to keep NASA's hopes of a new age of Lunar exploration from vanishing once again.NASA ultimately pulled it off by reorganizing the existing Constellation infrastructure into a new, more streamlined program with a new rocket dubbed the Space Launch System (SLS) and receiving its new Greek-derived project name soon after. In Greek mythology, the mighty Artemis, goddess of wild animals, vegetation, and fertility, was the twin sister of Apollo, god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy.Hence, when you break down the Apollo and Artemis programs into their basic components, you can't help but find a strikingly profound parity. As with Apollo, Artemis would be nothing without the solid foundation of a well-sorted booster rocket. The first example of this 98.1-meter (322.0-foot) tall SLS Block-I rocket is rivaled only by the Apollo Program's Saturn V rocket in terms of power and scale.The Soviet N1 rocket may also have been in the same ballpark, but that was an elaborate bomb more so than a functioning rocket. The SLS launch vehicle consists of three stages, an exploration upper stage, two solid rocket boosters took right from the Space Shuttle program , and a massive core stage that holds the rocket's main fuel tank, also derived from Shuttle service.There's also a handy launch abort system ready to whisk astronauts away from the rocket in the event of an emergency. With quad Aerojet-Rocketdyne RS-25 rocket engines in its core stage, SLS Blocks I and II are expected to deliver 8.8 million pounds-force (4 million kgf) of thrust at launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.That's a full 15% more power than Saturn V's 7.5 million pounds (3.4 million kg) or the Space Shuttle's, 7.8 million pounds-force (3.5 million kgf). This figure should be enough power to hopefully exceed Saturn V's max orbital payload of 129,300 kg (285,000 lb)Perhaps the biggest difference between the Saturn V and SLS Block I is that the former had to haul both a Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and a full command module to the moon on its own. With the Artemis Program, the honus for this task is put on a different spacecraft entirely, the Gateway Lunar Station.Once launched in 2024, this small space station will stay parked in lunar orbit. Here, it will stow away an integrated LEM-type vehicle that astronauts can use to make the short but treacherous jaunt down to the lunar surface in a process NASA calls "Pre-Staging." Although, recent reports have brought the requirement of such an advanced space station into question. Leading us to infer that SLS and Orion are capable of transporting a Lunar Module type vehicle within their own storage if need be or will be accessible by other means.For the first time in history, it's possible the first person to step foot on the lunar surface on this day might not be an American national. NASA has agreed to fly one Canadian astronaut aside from an American team of three for Artemis II, the first human-crewed journey to Lunar orbit since Apollo 13. On top of all of this, we've yet to discuss SpaceX's StarShip HLS and the role it seems ready to fill in the Artemis Program beginning with the third launch in 2025.In fact, a litany of different companies and agencies from across the globe are deeply involved with the ins and outs of Project Artemis. Not the least of which is a recently announced deal from Collins Aerospace to supply the EVA suits NASA plans to use to set the American flag back down on the moon five-plus decades post-Apollo.The mission is slated to be the first manned lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. This time, however, we can anticipate going there to stay, and from there, the stars beyond. From June 2 to June 5, the UK will celebrate a four-day bank holiday to honor the Queens Platinum Jubilee. Prince Harry and his wife, former actress Meghan Markle, officially known as Duchess of Sussex, will also be in attendance.The couple started dating in July 2016 and announced their engagement in 2017. They officially married in a lavish ceremony at St. Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018. But not long after, the two announced they will step back from their role as senior members of the Royal Family in January 2020.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently attended the Invictus Games in The Hague, where they raced in kiddie cars during the Land Rover Challenge . But they havent been together with the Royal Family on duty since the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 after their exit as senior members.Now, they have officially returned to the UK for the Queens Platinum Jubilee. The couple arrived in their Embraer private jet with their two children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, on Saturday, following a ten-hour flight. After landing, the two had bulletproof cars waiting for them.According to The Sun , the VW people carrier and the Range Rover from the previous generation that drove them from Farnborough Airport to Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, were courtesy of Queen Elizabeth. An insider told the outlet: The Queen believed it was the right thing to do.The Platinum Jubilee, which starts today, honors the Queens seventy years on the throne. It will include huge festivities, with lots of celebrities, members of the Royal Family, and the general public. Billionaire Andrey Molchanov is one of the youngest Russian billionaires. The 51-year-old owns the major stake in Russia s largest producer of construction materials and real estate developers, LSR Group. His floating luxury toy is a majestic 242-footer (74 meters) built by Lurssen just five years ago.Designed by the world-famous Winch Design studio, this spectacular yacht was initially named Project Gatsby due to its Art Deco style inspired by the 1920s. Boasting enough space for up to 16 guests and what Lurssen calls custom, state-of-the-art lighting across each deck, Aurora is also capable of a greater speed than the average for its size category up to 17 knots (19.5 mph/31.4 kph).This $120 million superyacht is now safe after having been just one step away from getting seized by authorities. The most recent marine tracking data indicates that Aurora is now close to joining all the other oligarch-owned superyachts that ran to the safe haven of Turkey. Unlike other vessels that had to travel incredible distances after the sanctions, Aurora was luckier and didnt get to put its impressive range of over 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 miles/7,408 km) to the test.Back in March, Aurora was undergoing repairs that were allegedly secret at a Barcelona yard. According to media sources , it was moored right next to Valerie, another targeted superyacht. But while Valerie was seized, the investigation of Aurora turned out to be much more complicated due to the infamous issue of determining and proving the exact ownership of Russian yachts. Taking advantage of this, the vessel wrapped up its repairs and quickly sailed away.While the spectacular Aurora is safe in a Turkish port, its billionaire owner is reportedly one of the many oligarchs looking to move to Dubai, another well-known safe haven. Whenever I watched cartoons as a child, I always rooted for the unpopular, ill-fated character, whether it was Tom over Jerry or Sylvester over Tweety. And every time the Wile E. Coyote hopped on one of his ACME rockets, Id pray that itll reach its desired destination because that darn bird was always so smug.But if the poor coyote was constantly losing its battles, Robert Maddox, a.k.a the Rocketman, seems to always have fortune smiling on him, no matter how much he pushes his luck. Even though hes in his 60s now, hes still the daredevil he was as a kid, when he first found his passion for rockets Bob became fascinated with thrust-powered machines from early childhood, and he built his first rocket-powered balsa wood airplane when he was just 10, using Jetex rocket motors. Fast-forwarding to 1991, Maddox saw the schematic of a pulsejet-powered German V-1 buzz bomb, and that changed him forever. That was the moment when he decided he wants to build his own pulsejet engines and make a career out of it.Now, the crazy Rocketman has a YouTube channel where he constantly posts videos with his creations, riding the most insane vehicles, if we can call them that. He builds all kinds of flamethrowers, whether theyre bikes, cars , pulsejet-engine-powered go-karts , and skateboards, and a lot of them are for sale.This thing youre seeing him ride in the video below is a so-called ACME jet engine-powered skateboard", a tribute to the beloved Wile E. Coyote. And while ACME is a fictional corporation featured in Warner Bros. cartoons, the rocket skateboard is as real as they get. It can hit 50 mph (80 kph) and Maddox just took it for a ride. Enjoy! In April 2020, Jaunt Air Mobility was officially introducing i ts flagship eVTOL, Journey. Based in Dallas, Texas, the companys design and manufacturing are carried out in Montreal, Canada. That is where Journey was born, an electric aircraft that promises to offer the best of both helicopters and airplanes.We can guarantee that you will never spill your martini when riding in a Jaunt Journey, Kaydon Stanzione, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility, was stating at the time, according to Robb Report. Thats because this eVTOL is based on the Slowed-Rotor Compound (SRC) technology, which allows it to take off and land vertically but fly like an airplane. By reducing the rotor speed once it reaches cruise mode, drag and vibration are reduced. The results are almost imperceptible levels of noise, plus exceptionally efficient flight.Also, even if the aircraft sufferes a total loss of propulsion, this technology will allow it to land safely by auto-rotating or gliding.The manufacturer announced the signing of a purchase agreement with Vertiko Mobility for 70 Journey electric aircraft and two hybrid aircraft , with an option for 25 additional units. The letter of intent will be turned into a contract by mid-2025 when manufacturing is set to begin. Until then, the prototypes will kick off flight tests next year.In the meantime, Vertiko Mobility will focus on developing a dedicated vertiport network. The company intends to have five vertiports built by March 2025 and is currently discussing with potential partners for the construction project.In addition to providing the Journey air taxi for a UAM network, Jaunt will also provide training for future pilots and aircraft maintenance services. The pioneering air taxi in Canada will be able to transport up to four passengers at a cruising speed of 175 mph (282 kph). kWh EV Toyota started pre-orders for its O-Uchi Kyuden System. It is based on an 8.7-stationary storage battery that can store the energy generated by solar panels or just recharge from the grid or your electric car which shows its main advantage is integration. Deliveries should start in August.Considering Tesla vehicles do not offer V2L (vehicle-to-load) capability, the O-Uchi Kyuden System would not take advantage of the Americanmakers products. It could only supply energy to them, which would only give them a few miles of range. On the other hand, the Toyota bZ4X will do the trick. The Japanese carmaker did not disclose if the 8.7-kWh uses LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells or nickel-metal hydride, the chemistry it uses in its hybrid vehicles. Toyota believes its system will stimulate more people to buy solar panels for their houses. It also said that the O-Uchi Kyuden System would be controlled by an app that will allow owners to select if the system should store energy or deliver it to the home. Thats an excellent way for solar panel users to use all the energy their panels can provide instead of selling it for cheap to the power grid.Regarding BYD , the company announced it delivered its first BYD Cube T28 units in North America. To be fair, it sells it since 2019 in China. According to CNEVPost , this energy storage station made with these ESSs (energy storage systems) has already delivered 1.6 GWh overall in North America until May 30. Unfortunately, BYD did not disclose where this station is located nor how many CUBE T28 units it uses.Each of these ESSs occupies an area of 16.66 square meters (178.7 sq-ft) and has an energy storage capacity of 2.8 MWh. BYD is particularly proud of its high-energy density and supports 1,300V DC. The company did not even have to mention it uses its Blade Batteries on the storage station: BYD said the Cube T28 is the first grid-scale energy storage system to pass UL9540A thermal runaway testing and technical evaluation in China. We cannot say the same about the Megapack, as the Victorian Big Battery fire sadly proved. Following a two-year hiatus, the long-awaited return of the Isle of Man TT has finally happened on May 30, and Qualifying week is well underway. One of the riders to look out for is, of course, the legendary John McGuinness, who will be making his 100th TT start at this years edition with Honda Racing UK.Joined by newcomer Glenn Irwin under HRCs banner, McGuinness is set to pilot the unrelenting CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP in the Superbike and Superstock classes. A CBR600RR is his weapon of choice for the Supersport category, and you will also be seeing him take part in the Milwaukee Senior TT on Friday, June 10.Currently, there are only three days separating us from the opening RST Superbike TT race, which will occur on June 4 alongside the first fixture of the 3wheeling.media Sidecar TT. As such, we reckon its time to start getting pumped with some juicy onboard footage from the Qualifying sessions.Our adrenaline levels will always get pretty intense as we watch riders tackle the Snaefell Mountain Course at speeds exceeding 186 mph (300 kph). Seeing this YouTube video of McPint's first run on the CBR liter-bike was a genuine treat, and we bet it'll make you feel more buzzed than a gallon of black coffee!Even though he turned 50 less than a month ago, the Englishman still appears to be in good form, albeit notably slower than riders like Dean Harrison or Hawk Racings Michael Dunlop at least for now. According to the current standings , Johns best result in the Superbike class ranks at an average speed of 128.644 mph (207 kph) and a lap time of 17:35.842.By comparison, the leaderboard is topped by Harrison of DAO Racing Kawasaki, whod managed to pull off an impressive pace at 131.767 mph (212 kph). He is followed closely by Davey Todd and Peter Hickman, the current leader of the Superstock division. 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. Ishkhan Saghatelian, the main speaker at the anti-government protests, insisted that they are not dying down and are on the contrary gaining momentum. Armenias main opposition groups represented in the parliament have rallied thousands of supporters on a virtually daily basis since setting up a tent camp in a central Yerevan square on May 1. They accuse Pashinian of renouncing Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh and making other concessions to Azerbaijan that will jeopardize the very existence of Armenia. Pashinian and his political allies dismiss the demands for his resignation. They say that the opposition has failed to attract popular support for its civil disobedience campaign. The main question preoccupying our fellow citizens is how we are going to achieve regime change, Saghatelian told reporters. There is only way to achieve this The disobedience actions, the protests must reach a scale that will make it impossible for the current authorities to cling to power through the use of brute police force. Its now time to increase the number of tents, he said. A deep disappointment awaits all those who have prepared texts to play the blame game in case the movement doesnt succeed. As part of their campaign, the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs drafted last week a parliamentary resolution rejecting any peace accord that would restore Azerbaijans control over Nagorno-Karabakh. The pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament mas made clear that it will boycott and thus thwart an emergency debate on the draft resolution slated for Friday afternoon. It has accused the opposition of exploiting the Karabakh conflict for political purposes. Saghatelian said that he and other opposition lawmakers will go to the National Assembly on Friday despite the announced boycott. In a Facebook post, Saghatelian urged opposition supporters to gather at Yerevans France Square, the site of the protest camp, in time for the scheduled parliament session. He said the protest leaders will decide our next actions depending on processes that will take place in the parliament. Dear compatriots, this is a battle of nerves, he wrote. We are now obliged to stay strong and continue the process of dismantling these authorities. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today A clear sky. Low around 65F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A clear sky. Low around 65F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. On top of limitations imposed by COVID-19 and the heat wave, local ag companies and their workers are now having to deal with extraordinarily You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter. The pattern that's emerged over the last decade is devastatingly clear: Atlantic hurricanes are becoming more violent, frequent and costly. This year is forecast to add more even more evidence. The 2022 season, which officially kicks off Wednesday, is expected to be the record seventh straight year with an above-average number of storms that reach tropical strength or greater. The U.S. National Weather Service expects up to 21 such storms will form -- well above the annual average of 14. Colorado State University predicted 19 in its April forecast. AccuWeather and WeatherTiger warn of above-normal activity, too. "It does have the potential to be a bad year," said Paul Walker, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc., which has called for 16 to 20 named storms in the Atlantic this year. An above-normal season would be the latest in a string of extreme weather events, including wildfires, floods and tornadoes, that have unleashed devastation across a wide swath of the globe over the past few years. Scientists say climate change is contributing to the destructive power of hurricanes, triggering heavier rainfall and worse storm surge. This year, storms threaten to disrupt supplies of everything from food to oil at a time when pandemic-driven snags are already sending commodity prices into the stratosphere. The National Hurricane Center names storms when they reach tropical strength, with winds reaching at least 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour. The first one in 2022 that reaches that mark will be called Alex, which could come this week as remnants of the Pacific storm Agatha cross over Mexico. Tropical storms become hurricanes when their winds reach 74 miles an hour. Two major factors are creating ideal conditions for hurricanes to take shape this year. One is warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic, which provide fuel for storms to intensify. The other is La Nina, a weather pattern that weakens wind shear, or sudden changes in wind speed and direction, and makes it easier for tropical cyclones to form. Forecasters are calling for La Nina to continue through the fall. An overcharged hurricane season this year would continue a pattern of heightened activity that began in 1995 and reached the pinnacle in 2020, when the Atlantic produced a record 30 named storms. Better satellite coverage and changes to forecasters' methodology have contributed to the increase, but even with those factors taken into account, more tropical cyclones are emerging. The U.S. National Weather Service is predicting 14 to 21 named storms this year. As Atlantic storms become more frequent, they're also getting more intense. The past few years have seen an uptick in so-called major hurricanes- those with winds of at least 111 miles per hour - slamming into the U.S.. Because of warmer ocean waters, it's also becoming more common for storms to undergo a deadly shift called rapid intensification, in which winds increase by at least 35 mph within 24 hours of landfall. Hurricanes that quickly gain power are more likely to catch people unawares, with catastrophic consequences. Since 2017, 16 hurricanes have hit the U.S. and seven of those were major hurricanes, said John Cangialosi of the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Of the 16, half underwent rapid intensification. Since 1980, hurricanes and tropical storms have caused $1.16 trillion in damages and losses in the U.S. and lead to deaths of at least 6,708 people, more than any other climate disaster, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information. In recent years, an increasing number of storms inflicted at least $1 billion of damage on the U.S.. The U.S. had its longest drought of major hurricanes hitting the Lower 48 states between October 2005, when Wilma pummeled Florida, and August 2017, when Harvey struck the Texas coast. Part of the reason for the lapse was a low-pressure trough that often settled along the eastern edge of the country in those years, nudging storms away, said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of Colorado State University's forecast. But since then, high pressure in the Atlantic has edged closer to the U.S. most summers, allowing storms to crash into the Gulf Coast and East Coast. Wind circulation on the south side of the high pressure system is from East to West, which "helps push hurricanes closer to the U.S.," Klotzbach said. - - - Bloomberg's Will Wade contributed to this report. SAN DIEGO (AP) A former U.S. Marine who ran a ring that ferried tons of cocaine into the country from South America through Mexico has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison, it was announced Wednesday. Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr., who holds both U.S. and Mexican citizenship, was sentenced Tuesday in San Diego after pleading guilty last fall to conspiracy to launder money and traffic drugs internationally, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Ramirez, 50, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, will receive credit for nearly six years he already has served behind bars. Prosecutors said Dominguez ran a group calling itself El Seguimiento 39, El Seg 39 or simply The Company, that was allied to Mexican drug operations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the notoriously violent Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. At its height, the organization smuggled about 10 tons (9,072 kilograms) of cocaine a month into the United States and sent at least $10 million in drug proceeds back to Mexico month, authorities estimated. Wiretap evidence demonstrates that he controlled every aspect of his organization, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Martin wrote in a sentencing memorandum. The group used its contacts with corrupt high-level Mexican officials to thwart investigations, authorities said, including Ivan Reyes Arzate, a federal police commander who in February was sentenced in New York to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking. In her own sentencing memorandum, Ramirez's lawyer said his decision to turn to crime was influenced by trouble finding ways to support himself after a 1994 accident in North Carolina where Ramirez swerved on a back road to avoid hitting a deer. His car flipped off a bridge into water. The crash killed his two daughters, ages 3 and 4, and Ramirez was seriously injured, ending his Marine career. He has never made an excuse for the direction he took, only to say that after the accident, he stopped caring. He was numb, attorney Nancee Schwartz wrote in the memo, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. He didnt think or care about consequences because he had experienced the worst. Struggling to find work, Ramirez was 27 when he agreed to deliver a load of marijuana from Mexico but was arrested in Texas and served about a year in federal prison. A construction company he started with his brother-in-law failed and Ramirez moved his family to Mexico in 2007 to work with a cousin who was an architect. There, he met drug smugglers and saw the work as a way to support his family, his lawyer said. He was arrested in 2016 and was extradited to San Diego, where he pleaded guilty the conspiracy charges. During a multi-national investigation, authorities seized more than 4.74 tons (4,300 kilograms) of cocaine. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania's Republican candidate for governor, is perhaps the state's most prominent peddler of former President Donald Trump's lie that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election. A state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel, Mastriano says he wants to make everyone re-register if they want to vote again. The concept flatly violates federal law, legal scholars say, and may conflict with state law, not to mention constitutional protections. It is also a throwback to laws designed by white people in past eras to keep Black people or newer European immigrants from voting. But Mastriano, who was present at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and was endorsed by Trump, is undeterred, discussing his plan for re-registration both before and after winning the Republican nomination for governor on May 17. Pennsylvania is one of the few states where governors appoint a secretary of state who oversees elections. That means a Mastriano victory in November could make Pennsylvania a premier presidential battleground state a test case of whether laws meant to protect voter access to the polls can be undermined. WHAT HAS MASTRIANO SAID? Its unclear where Mastriano got the idea, and he has not responded to repeated interview requests on this or any other topic. But he has pitched re-registration as a necessary step to scrub the voter rolls of dead voters and ghost voters voters registered to nonexistent addresses in time for the 2024 presidential election. In a gubernatorial primary debate in April, Mastriano said that, if elected, he would require voters to re-register. Were going to start all over again. In an interview on the conservative broadcaster Newsmax three days after the primary election, Mastriano suggested that it is a step that his appointed secretary of state can take without approval by the Legislature. We might have to reset, as far as registration, start that whole process over here, Mastriano said. Theres still a lot of dead on the rolls, and what have you, and theres ghost phantom voters that we found, as well, at various address. If he is elected, he said, taking that and other steps is of the utmost urgency: So were going to take that very seriously and move really hard. Basically we have about a year to get that right before the 2024 presidential election. IS IT LEGAL? Scholars who specialize in election law said they had never heard of a state doing anything similar recently probably because there are laws designed to prevent it. It is certainly barred by the National Voter Registration Act, at least for federal elections, and likely runs into significant protections under the federal and possibly the state constitution and laws, constitutional law scholars say. No, a state couldnt just unilaterally require everyone to re-register for federal elections, said Edward Foley, a law professor at The Ohio State University who directs the school's election law program. Federal law aside, Pennsylvania law says no registered voter can be required to register again while they live at the same address. The National Voter Registration Act allows states to remove voters from rolls at a person's request and requires states to make a reasonable effort to keep voter registration lists free of people who died or moved away. But it also restricts the power of states to unilaterally purge voter rolls. Under Pennsylvania law, that means someone who has not voted for five years cannot simply be removed without an effort to contact them by mail followed by a grace period of two more federal elections. HOW WOULD IT WORK? Legal issues aside, making voters re-register would be an administrative nightmare, putting an immense strain on local election offices, said Edgardo Cortes, an election security consultant and Virginia's election commissioner under former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat. Its just a bad idea all the way around, Cortes said. In any case, it probably solves nothing: Forcing everyone to re-register would not stop voters from dying or moving away, Cortes said. The minute you re-register everyone, you run into these things again," Cortes said. HAS THERE EVER BEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS? Southern states, following Reconstruction, imposed annual re-registration requirements, with some of those laws lasting until at least 1971. The laws were regarded as one of the mechanisms used by those states to try to keep Black people from voting. So it definitely does not have a favorable history, said Michael Morley, a Florida State University law professor who specializes in constitutional and election law. Northern states did, too, imposing it in the early 20th century on big cities such as Philadelphia and New York City, where there were higher populations of newer immigrants from Europe, researchers say. Perhaps its most modern comparison is to a law in Texas, enacted in 1966 soon after the 24th Amendment outlawed poll taxes. The Texas law limited voting to people who re-registered annually, setting aside a four-month time frame within which to register. A three-judge federal court panel struck that down in 1971, calling it a direct descendant of the poll tax." WHAT EFFECT COULD IT HAVE? U.S. District Judge John V. Singleton wrote in the 1971 opinion that it is beyond doubt that the requirement disenfranchised multitudes of Texas citizens otherwise qualified to vote" and cited research by a University of Texas professor who found that registration and turnout were much lower in states with annual registration laws. Separate research cited by Singleton by a Washington University professor found that such laws also had a strong class bias and effectively suppressed the vote of working- and middle-class residents, in addition to minorities. Political scientists said they knew of no modern day research on such a law. But Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said purging the voter rolls and requiring voters to re-register would mirror the inequities inherent in the current system. Over time, the people most likely to get registered are often the most educated, most wealthy, older individuals, Borick said. "They will most likely be the first to re-register if required. People that will be least likely are the ones who are harder to get to register and maybe ... over time took an incredible effort and even years to bring them into the system. DO DEAD PEOPLE VOTE? Voters sometimes die between the time they mail in a ballot and when it is counted. Pennsylvania counties are supposed to be notified of deaths twice a month by the state so that they can remove those names from voters rolls. Meanwhile, a handful of people were caught voting in the name of a dead relative in Pennsylvanias 2020 presidential election nowhere near the numbers necessary to have an impact on any election outcome. DO GHOST VOTERS EXIST? If there are ghost voters on Pennsylvania's rolls, it's unclear who or where they are. Someone who registers to vote must swear that they are a U.S. citizen and are asked to provide either a drivers license number or a Social Security number. Someone who cannot provide either one must still show a form of identification that meets Pennsylvania law the first time they vote. One of Mastriano's colleagues, Republican state Sen. Cris Dush, cited ghost voters to issue a subpoena to state election officials last year requesting detailed voter registration records. Dush has yet to issue a report or cite any evidence of ghost voters. ___ Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at twitter.com/timelywriter. ___ Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at twitter.com/ap_politics. BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) A Colorado man pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Vermont to kidnapping a man who was later found shot to death in a snowbank in 2018 in what prosecutors allege is a murder-for-hire case stemming from a financial dispute. Federal prosecutors say they believe Jerry Banks, 34, of Fort Garland, Colorado, killed Gregory Davis, 49, of Danville, Vermont, but he has not been charged in the killing. U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered Banks to remain detained until trial, noting the prosecutors' concerns about his risk of flight and safety risk to potential witnesses. Someone who would kill for money would likely kill or improperly influence a witness or otherwise seek to influence the course of a trial that would result in his life in prison, Paul Van de Graaf and Jonathan Ophardt, assistant U.S. attorneys for Vermont, wrote in their detention request. They said Banks has a history of living off the grid and no strong connection to Vermont or anywhere else in the country. Banks' federal public defender, Mary Nerino, did not contest detention and would not comment on the charges after the arraignment. Davis was abducted from his Danville, Vermont, home on Jan. 6, 2018, and found shot to death the next day in a snowbank on a back road in Barnet. Prosecutors detailed the alleged conspiracy in a filing Monday in federal court in Las Vegas. They wrote that Davis had been threatening to go to the FBI with information that Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, an inventor and the co-founder of a Los Angeles-based biotechnology company, was defrauding Davis in a multimillion-dollar oil deal Gumrukcu and Gumrukcu's brother had entered into with Davis in 2015. Gurumkcu was facing felony fraud charges in California in 2017 and was working on a deal that came together soon after Davis' death that gave him significant ownership stake in Enochian Bioscience. Gumrukcu therefore had a strong motive to prevent Davis from reporting yet another fraud, and likely threatening the Enochian deal, the filing states. Banks was arrested in April in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. According to an affidavit, FBI investigators used cellphone and automobile records to link Banks to the kidnapping. Prosecutors have also charged Aron Lee Ethridge, 42, of Las Vegas, with kidnapping in connection with the death of Davis. Prosecutors say that after the killing of Davis, Banks called Ethridge, who has since pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping charge. Last week, Gumrukcu, of Los Angeles, and Berk Eratay, 35, of Las Vegas, were arrested on charges of conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire which resulted in the death of Davis. Gumrucku's attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment. Eratay's attorney said Eratay denies the allegations and looks forward to his day in court. ____ Associated Press writer Wilson Ring in Stowe, Vermont, contributed to this report. For years California, Florida, Oregon, Washington, and other states have relied on incarcerated men and women to fight wildfires. They are trained to perform grueling work while earning just a few dollars, sometimes as little as $2 a day. Incarcerated workers who serve as volunteer firefighters help contain and combat blazes as wildfires have become more frequent and intense while the U.S. Forest Service has struggled with staffing shortages due in part to low pay. Now a nonprofit group with help from foundations and others is helping incarcerated people who have been trained as firefighters secure careers in the profession once they leave prison. Navigating the hurdles to a steady firefighting job isnt easy. Brandon Smith knows those challenges firsthand. In 2012, he was at Wasco State Prison, near Bakersfield, Calif., about eight months into his sentence for nonviolent charges, when his prison counselor suggested he move to a fire camp. He would be able to live there and learn to fight fires while earning the same certifications as Californias seasonal firefighters. At Bautista Conservation Camp in Riverside County, Smith came to love firefighting. It was one of the first times he was out in nature, and he was good at what he did. He became the leader of his hand crew, wielding a chainsaw at the front of a team that cut back flammable brush and trees to create perimeters that contain fires. When youre incarcerated, you have this stigma of being a public nuisance, but being a firefighter provided an opportunity for me to give back to the community and also give myself a sense of pride, Smith said. It was something that I wanted to continue as a way of giving back to the community once I came home. But after completing his sentence in 2014, the pathway to a firefighting job wasnt clear. The certifications he received while incarcerated didnt count, and he couldnt even apply for some positions due to his criminal record. Together, Smith and Royal Ramey, who became a close friend in the fire camp, enrolled in a state-run fire academy to re-earn their required certifications. The classes were familiar they had been through this before and they graduated as the top two in their class. Betty Ashe, a now-retired U.S. Forest Service battalion chief, helped them get their first jobs fighting the Lake Fire, which burned more than 31,000 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest in 2015. They both spent several years as wildland firefighters. Smith and Ramey understood how a lack of access to information or networks could hold their peers back, so they began helping other incarcerated and previously imprisoned firefighters find their way. The two eventually founded the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program and now work there full time. The nonprofit offers training so participants can get the credentials they need for some entry-level state, federal, or private firefighting jobs. Participants spend time in the classroom and in the field doing fire-prevention work such as thinning forests on public lands and removing flammable vegetation from around peoples homes. Participants earn $17.50 an hour while they train. A nearly $500,000 grant from the state of California helped the organization grow from a strictly volunteer effort. And in recent years, foundations began taking notice. Early supporters included Google.org, which provided $500,000. Venture-philanthropy organization New Profit gave $40,000, and the Workers Lab, which supports efforts to make workers more safe and secure, granted $150,000. Current foundation donors include the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which gave $304,000; the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which gave $120,000; and the JM Kaplan Fund, which gave $175,000. This year the James Irvine Foundation presented Smith and Ramey with its Leadership Award, which came with a $250,000 prize. We really need people who are trained and who can help fight these wildfires, said Charles Fields, vice president of program implementation at the Irvine Foundation. At the same time, we have a lot of folks who are coming out of jails and prisons and who are looking for opportunities to become productive citizens in our society. Its not easy to get back on your feet and find a job with the skills that are going to pay a living wage. The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program takes those two important challenges and brings them together, Fields said. The nonprofit now has a $3.4 million budget and has trained more than 3,000 people and helped more than 140 get jobs. Through a partnership with the University of Southern California, students who are studying to get masters degrees in social work serve as case managers to help trainees find housing, get drivers licenses, and access mental-health services, if needed. In addition, the nonprofit works with other partners to help participants navigate the court system. In 2020, California passed a law that allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to petition the courts to expunge their convictions upon release. If they win approval, they dont have to wait until their parole ends to apply for jobs within municipal and county fire departments or to pursue the EMT credentials required of most full-time, higher-paying firefighting positions. With the help of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the fire recruitment program has successfully filed 38 petitions, 12 of which have been granted so far, and 21 of which are pending. The fire training organization plans to continue expanding its work. A Bay Area grant maker, Tipping Point Community, provided $150,000 to help the Los Angeles-based group expand to Oakland, where it will soon begin working with fire-camp alumni who return to the Bay Area. And last year, it launched the Buffalo Fire Crew, a private nonprofit firefighting group that includes many graduates of the training program. Our program is here to help people make that 180-degree transition, Smith says. To go out and truly be public servants; to go out and prove to the community that my past does not define me. ____ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. WFO LUBBOCK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING Severe Weather Statement National Weather Service Lubbock TX 1146 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN HALE COUNTY IS CANCELLED... The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1230 AM CDT FOR NORTHWESTERN FLOYD...SOUTHEASTERN SWISHER AND SOUTHERN BRISCOE COUNTIES... At 1146 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles east of Claytonville, or 12 miles southwest of Silverton, moving southeast at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Caprock Canyon State Park and Claytonville. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. The National Weather Service in Lubbock has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Southwestern Hall County in the panhandle of Texas... * Until 1245 AM CDT. * At 1147 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 2 and 3 inches of rain have fallen. The expected rainfall rate is 0.25 to 0.5 inches in 15 minutes. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... mainly rural areas east and northeast of Turkey in Southwestern Hall County Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. The National Weather Service in San Angelo has issued a Southern Taylor County in west central Texas... * Until 245 AM CDT. * At 1145 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 2 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. Expect flash flooding over the Messquite Heat Burn Scar and along US 277 between Buffalo Gap Road and View. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. Abilene, Tuscola, Buffalo Gap, Lawn, Coronados Camp, Bradshaw, View, Happy Valley, Lake Abilene, Camp Tonkawa, Ovalo, Shep and Camp Butman. This includes the following Low Water Crossings... FM 89 crossing Scott Hollow, FM 89 crossing Elm Creek, Craig Street at Catclaw Creek, FM 89 crossing Elm Creek, FM 1086 crossing Red Lake Creek, County Road 226 crossing Cottonwood Creek, County Road 221 crossing Spring Creek, County Road 221 crossing Cottonwood Creek, County Road 221 crossing Valley Creek and County Road 209 crossing Valley Creek. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Stephens County through 1215 AM CDT... At 1149 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 10 miles northwest of Breckenridge, moving south at 20 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and half inch hail. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Highway 183 northwest of Breckenridge. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe shelter inside a building or vehicle. LAT...LON 3295 9909 3295 9892 3267 9892 3267 9910 TIME...MOT...LOC 0449Z 007DEG 17KT 3291 9904 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.50 IN MAX WIND GUST...55 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather A passenger reads on a train running on the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya, May 23, 2022. (Photo by Eric/Xinhua) by Xinhua writers Bai Lin and Naftali Mwaura NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has now found a new lifeline in the Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) since its launch on May 31, 2017. The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, mainly financed by China and constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), which began construction in 2014 and finished in 2017, has become a case study in the transformation of mobility, trade and leisure in Kenya. EASING MOBILITY Farahana Mghoi, a Nairobi-based insurance sales executive and a mother of two, has found respite from chaotic road transport thanks to the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR commuter train that she uses every weekend to travel to her hometown of Voi about 328 km southeast of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to meet potential clients. "My experience of using the SGR passenger train since 2018 has been satisfactory. It is very convenient and affordable. I am able to reach my destination on time and negotiate for a business opportunity with ease," Mghoi told Xinhua during a recent interview on the train ahead of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR's 5th anniversary. She takes four hours to commute from Nairobi to Voi to meet new clients using the modern train as opposed to seven hours using public service vehicles, locally known as Matatus that are laden with the risk of accident and delay. Mghoi, who has traveled more than 70 times between Nairobi and Voi using the SGR commuter train, belongs to a growing army of local skilled workforce and tourists, who have embraced it amid the guarantee of seamless mobility. The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR cut travel time between the two cities by half, from an average of ten hours at the century-old meter-gauge railway to approximately five hours, boosting the movement of cargo and skilled labor along its corridor. Besides the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, the Chinese-built SGR project also includes the Nairobi-Suswa SGR that connects Nairobi to Suswa, a small town inhabited by the Maasai people. The 120 km Nairobi-Suswa SGR started operation on Oct. 16, 2019. Data from Afristar, the SGR operator, show the modern railway has transported more than 7.7 million passengers in the last five years. In addition, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR runs six passenger trains daily, says Afristar, adding that in the first five months of 2022, the number of passengers transported through the modern railway reached 962,000, a 63 percent year-on-year increase. ENHANCING CARGO MOVEMENT Edward Opiyo, the terminal manager at the Autoports Freight Terminals Limited, a logistics firm, said the launch of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR freight service in January 2018 ushered in an era of speedy, affordable and safe means of transporting imported cargo from the port of Mombasa to the hinterland. Currently, it takes eight hours to haul bulk cargo including raw materials for local industries from the port of Mombasa to Nairobi via the modern railway, as opposed to three days using the century-old meter-gauge railway, says Opiyo. He added that the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has eased congestion at Mombasa port, and reduced operational costs among local manufacturers besides enhancing the efficiency of local and regional supply chains. Ernest Ondego, the terminal manager at Grain Bulk Handlers Limited, another Kenyan logistics firm, said that thanks to efficiencies offered by the modern railway, his clients including wheat importers have been able to generate 25 percent savings. "With the SGR, we have been able to bring losses to zero," said Ondego, adding that importers used to lose up to 100 kg of grains per truckload. James Siele, business, commercial & operations expert team leader at Kenya Railways Corporation, said one freight train has eliminated the use of 110 trucks for transporting bulk cargo by road from the port of Mombasa to Nairobi, boosting the country's quest for transition to a green and resilient future. According to Siele, enhanced movement of bulk cargo including raw materials from the port of Mombasa to Nairobi has cut down on operational costs among local manufacturers, leading to reduced prices for essential consumer goods. Data from Afristar show the modern railway has transported more than 1.7 million TEUs of containers in the last five years. In addition, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR runs 16 freight trains daily, says Afristar, adding that the volume of cargo transported by SGR freight train in the last five months stood at 2.54 million metric tons, an 8.3 percent year-on-year increase. BOOSTING SKILLS TRANSFER During its five years of safe operation, the modern railway has provided a platform for Kenyan youth to hone their skills, grow their careers and earn a decent income. In particular, female locomotive drivers like Tabitha Kiplimo, a 30-year-old electrical engineering major, admitted that their lives had been transformed after securing employment with the SGR commuter service. An internship with China Road and Bridge Corporation soon after graduation paved way for Kiplimo's storied journey from a simple rural girl to a confident locomotive driver. A two-month course on locomotive operations in China, followed by tutelage by a Chinese instructor soon after the SGR commuter service started operations in June 2017, prepared her adequately for the task of shuttling the train on the modern railway. Kiplimo is among eight Kenyan female locomotive drivers who have broken the glass ceiling, thanks to training and mentorship provided by their employer, the operator of SGR. Other beneficiaries of skills transfer that is embedded in SGR localization include John Pius, a 32-year-old mechanical engineering major who in February joined the first cohort of independent Kenyan locomotive drivers. Pius has been operating the Nairobi-Suswa SGR commuter train independently since February, having acquired adequate skills from a Chinese tutor after he was recruited by CRBC in 2016. While skills transfer and employment creation have been key features of the SGR operations in Kenya, its positive impact on key economic sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and tourism has been enormous in the last five years. Siele believed the SGR had a brighter future in Kenya and the East African region since it is expected to enhance connectivity, cross-border trade and free movement of skilled labor, adding that the modern railway has stood out as a beacon of hope in a continent yearning for economic development and social progress. A worker unloads a container from a train in Nairobi freight terminal in Nairobi, Kenya, May 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Long Lei) A relative of Palestinian Ayman Muheisen mourns outside a hospital in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, June 2, 2022. A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, medics and eyewitnesses said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Ayman Muheisen, 29, died in a Palestinian hospital after Israeli soldiers shot him during clashes in the refugee camp. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua) RAMALLAH, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, medics and eyewitnesses said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Ayman Muheisen, 29, died in a Palestinian hospital after Israeli soldiers shot him during clashes in the refugee camp. The ministry said two other men were injured. There has been no immediate response from the Israeli army to the incident. Israeli army forces stormed the refugee camp on Thursday morning, Palestinian eyewitnesses said, adding that clashes broke out between dozens of young men and Israeli soldiers. On Wednesday, two Palestinians, including a 29-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli soldiers near the West Bank cities of Jenin and Hebron. Over the past few weeks, tensions have flared up between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank. Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of escalating violence against the Palestinians and called on the international community to intervene. A relative of Palestinian Ayman Muheisen mourns outside a hospital in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, June 2, 2022. A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, medics and eyewitnesses said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Ayman Muheisen, 29, died in a Palestinian hospital after Israeli soldiers shot him during clashes in the refugee camp. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua) Relatives of Palestinian Ayman Muheisen gather around his body in a hospital in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, June 2, 2022. A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Al-Dheisheh refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, medics and eyewitnesses said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Ayman Muheisen, 29, died in a Palestinian hospital after Israeli soldiers shot him during clashes in the refugee camp. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua) A worker from Bangladesh prepares food in his cabin at a quarter in Kuala Lumpur, June 19, 2011. Malaysia has agreed to hire 500,000 Bangladeshi workers over the next five years, with the first batch of documented workers from Bangladesh since 2018 due to leave later this month, a minister in Dhaka said Thursday. Four years ago, similar efforts were suspended over allegations of malpractice in the recruitment process for Bangladeshi migrants, many of whom were hired for low wages in menial but strenuous jobs on plantations, construction sites and other sectors of Malaysias economy. This time around, the Malaysian government will select the recruiting agency from Bangladesh, which will be involved in the process, said Imran Ahmed, Bangladeshs minister of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment. Today we reached a consensus over the issue. Very soon, definitely within the month of June, we will send our people to Malaysia, he told a press conference in Dhaka following a meeting here with M. Saravanan, the Malaysian human resources minister. Malaysia will hire a total of 500,000 workers from Bangladesh in five years. We are hopeful about sending 200,000 workers in the first year, Ahmed said. Late last year, Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh to recruit workers to overcome a nationwide labor shortage. On Dec. 10, the Malaysian cabinet decided to reopen the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in several sectors including plantations, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, construction and domestic service, among others. In 2018, Malaysia had suspended the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers over allegations that a syndicate was using it as a human trafficking scheme to exploit Bangladeshi laborers, leading to high fees incurred by immigrant workers to get jobs. Ahmed said Thursday that Bangladesh had given Malaysia a list of 1,520 registered recruitment agencies for Malaysia to select from, Ahmed said. [T]his is the right of the Malaysian government, they will hire people through the recruiting agencies as they want, Ahmed said. Additionally, Bangladesh will provide a list of workers to Malaysia and the latter will select people from the list under the conditions of the agreement signed between the two countries in December, Ahmed said. Under the agreement, workers will earn a minimum wage of 1,500 ringgit (U.S. $341.61) a month. The Bangladeshi minister said that migration costs for the workers would also be reduced compared with the earlier $1,795. The Malaysian minister told us that his government is working towards zero-cost migration in the future, he said, explaining that workers will not need to bear any of the costs to go to Malaysia in the future as their employers and the Malaysian government would do so. For his part, Saravanan said that he and Ahmed discussed issues to do with the welfare of the Bangladeshi workers. Both Malaysia and Bangladesh are committed to protecting the interests of the workers, based on international standards, Saravanan said on Facebook after the meeting. Meanwhile, as Ahmed and Saravanan were meeting, some private recruitment agencies held a press conference about an alleged move by Malaysia to select a group of 25 recruiters. Muhammad Faruk, the president of an organization called the Joint Coordination Front of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, said the group was akin to a syndicate and would put the recruitment initiative in danger like it did in 2018. He said all registered recruiting agencies must be allowed to participate in Malaysias labor hiring program. According to the Bangladeshi Bureau of Manpower and Employment and Training, Malaysia informed Bangladesh in January that it had selected 25 recruiters through which to hire workers, and the issue became contentious between the two countries. When asked about it after his meeting with Ahmed, Malaysias Saravanan merely said, Our cabinet will take the decision. Officials at Ahmeds office were not immediately available for comment. We informed Bangladesh about the welfare and wellbeing of workers, he said. Mohammad Ullah, 46, who used to work in Malaysia and wants to return there, said the restart of recruitment was exciting news. Not only I, but many of my relatives and neighbors are also waiting for the reopening of the market, he told BenarNews. He said, though, that he was confused about the recruitment agencies and processes. I need to know more details. Myanmars military is sending more troops into Rakhine state amid fears that an informal ceasefire with the Arakan Army (AA) is about to collapse. A submarine arrived at Kyauk Phyu township on May 31 after sailing through the Bay of Bengal and traveling up the Than Zit river, according to locals. They said a warship arrived the following day. A resident who declined to be named for safety concerns told Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news affiliate of BenarNews, the ship was equipped with heavy artillery and helicopter landing pads. The warship is huge, the resident said. It docked at Number Three Port in Kyauk Phyu and I saw soldiers disembark. I dont know how many there were but I estimate that hundreds of soldiers were on board. The ship and submarine moved to Number 15 Port at the Thit Pote Taung Naval Base in Kyauk Phyu after the troops disembarked. The township is home to one of Chinas largest infrastructure projects in Myanmar, including the Kyauk Phyu Deep Sea Port. The resident speculated that the troop reinforcements were sent to protect Chinas business interests amid fears of clashes between the military and the AA. There are a lot of Chinese projects here, the local said. The construction of deep-sea ports for docking submarines was also done by Chinese companies. So if the fighting intensifies I think the military is being deployed to protect Chinas economic projects. Some locals told RFA they were concerned about being able to get basic supplies such as rice, cooking oil and salt following the military reinforcement. Meanwhile, a junta spokesman denied that more troops had arrived on May 31 when contacted by RFA. At a news conference on May 19, the spokesman said the military could not be blamed if fighting breaks out in Rakhine state. Tensions between the military council and the AA have been high since early May, with locals and Rakhine politicians concerned that fighting could intensify. An NGO which is monitoring the crisis released a report on Wednesday urging both sides to refrain from fighting. International Crisis Group (ICG) said people in Rakhine state would suffer if battles break out again. Millions live in Rakhine The AA began as a resistance group in 2009 and grew into a powerful ethnic army. It fought a two-year war with Myanmars military, which ended with an informal ceasefire in November 2020. The ceasefire has not been formalized and the AA says it is committed to establishing an independent state for ethnic Rakhines. Clashes between AA fighters and the military in two villages near Paletwa township on May 26 raised fears the uneasy truce is about to crumble. The resumption of a full-scale conflict could put the lives of millions of ethnic minority residents of Rakhine State at risk, according to ICG. It said AA moves to gain territory in the north are likely to affect the lives of as many as 3 million ethnic Rakhines and Rohingya. Tom Kean, ICGs senior adviser on Myanmar, told RFA the humanitarian consequences probably would be worse than during the two-year war. Myanmars shadow National Unity Government has invited the AA to join an alliance of regional armies to fight the military, which IGC said could also lead to an escalation in violence in Rakhine state. A member of a police bomb squad checks a passenger bus after an on-board explosion of an improvised bomb in Koronadal city, southern Philippines, May 26, 2022. Government troops killed an alleged pro-Islamic State militant and captured another after a shootout in the southern Philippines, while hunting for suspects linked to a bus bombing last week, military officials said Thursday. The military identified the suspects as Monir Lintukan and Randy Saro, and said they were members of Daulah Islamiyah, the local name for the Islamic State (IS) group. Lintukan was killed and Saro captured following the 30-minute gunfight near Mlang, a town in Cotabato province. Due to our intensified intelligence gathering, we immediately tracked down the suspects, resulting in a firefight that killed one of them, army Col. Jovencio Gonzales told BenarNews. Officials blamed the pair for having roles in the bombing of a bus that injured two people in Koronadal city, in South Cotabato province, on May 26 as well as a second bomb blast that occurred at a vacant lot near a bus station in another town minutes later. No one was injured in the second explosion. Gonzales said troops also recovered weapons and ammunition left behind by other militants. The troops were conducting focused military operations when they encountered the militants, he said. The two suspects belonged to a Daulah Islmiyah, a faction within the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) militant group that professes loyalty to IS. Many BIFF members are wanted for a string of crimes, including kidnapping for ransom and extortion, according to the military. Military officials had previously blamed militants linked to BIFF for two roadside bombings that killed three and injured dozens of people in January 2021. And this past January, a 5-year-old boy was killed and six others, including his two younger siblings, were injured in a bus bomb attack in Aleosan town. Since then, at least six people were injured in April when a homemade bomb exploded aboard a passenger bus in Parang town. Your army along with other government forces will continue to pursue those suspects responsible for the bombings here in our area, said Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat, acting commander of the 6th Infantry Division and the militarys Joint Task Force Central. The JTF Central and the infantry division will sustain the military operations until the remnants of the terrorist group operating in South and Southcentral Mindanao will be neutralized and the area will be free from any terror group, he said. SAO PAULO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Palmeiras are in advanced talks to sign highly rated Argentine striker Jose Manuel Lopez from Lanus, according to Brazilian media reports. The 21-year-old has been monitored by the Sao Paulo club since last year and is considered a priority target in Brazil's next transfer window, which opens in July, according to Globo Esporte. Lopez has scored 22 goals in 57 appearances across all competitions since being promoted from the Lanus youth academy in January last year. He is contracted to the Argentine top-flight side until December 2025. Palmeiras currently lead the 20-team Brazilian Serie A standings with 15 points from eight matches, ahead of Atletico Mineiro and Corinthians on goal difference. 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. BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China will see a rebound in railway passenger trips during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday travel rush from Thursday to Sunday, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) said Thursday. During the period, average daily railway passenger trips are expected to reach 5.4 million, up 2 million trips per day from the May Day holiday, China Railway said. Starting on Wednesday, the railway authority adjusted the pre-sale period of railway tickets to 15 days from 5 days, as the Omicron outbreak has largely been brought under control. The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, the holiday runs from Friday to Sunday. In the aftermath of mass shootings like those we have seen in recent days, gun sales typically spike in America as residents feel their Second Amendment rights are jeopardized amid calls for stronger regulations. PITTSFIELD A Pittsfield man who remains in jail for allegedly bilking customers in the Berkshires and across five states in a construction scam has been indicted on 48 counts. Fred Lewis Senter Jr., 40, allegedly stole more than $400,000 through false pretenses, according to a statement from Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harringtons Office. The scam allegedly took place between February 2020 and September 2021, through his company, Northern Steel Buildings & Structures LLC. Mr. Senter is accused of contracting and accepting payments from more than 40 victims across five different states to build steel structures with no intent of completing the work, Harrington said in a Facebook post, noting that Senter was first arrested and investigated by Pittsfield Police before state police detectives attached to the DAs office began their probe. Among the victims was the Richmond Fire Association, which paid Senter a deposit of $52,967.50 to construct a new steel building, according to the statement. He allegedly provided the blueprints and trusses for the project, but never completed the work or refunded the deposit. Harrington asks that any other potential victims contact local police or state police detectives in her office. Courtney Soto, of Pittsfield, said the backyard garage Senter was supposed to replace with a steel version is still deteriorating. It doesnt sound good in terms of ever getting our money back, she said, noting she gave him a deposit of more than $9,000. Soto also said detectives are looking into some of Senters close associates to whom he gave the money and might have been spending it on luxury items. Senters alleged victims stretch across Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and include multiple residents, businesses and a church. Four Berkshire residents reached out to The Eagle in September and described how Senter lured them into trust with good eye contact and a charming manner as he took their 50 percent deposits and didnt do the work. Senter, they said, used the pandemic and its supply chain problems to excuse his delays. The victims said they had joined forces on a chat group with others who had also been defrauded, and called Pittsfield Police, who arrested him on Sept. 16. His bail had been revoked at the time due to an open case in Central Berkshire District Court on which he was out on probation. Senter, who is originally from North Carolina, was accused of stealing sheet metal in 2018 from TNT Carports and Metal on Industrial Drive. In 2019 he was arraigned, also in Pittsfield, for being a fugitive from justice without a warrant after he was charged with grand larceny in Columbia County, N.Y. That charge was dismissed. Senters company was dissolved by court order on June 30, 2021. He pleaded not guilty in Berkshire Superior Court on Thursday to 30 counts of larceny over $1,200; 12 counts of larceny over $1,200 from a person over the age of 60; four counts of larceny under $1,200; and single counts of operating as an unlicensed home improvement contractor and common and notorious thief. Judge Maureen Hogan ordered him held on $25,000 bail. This story was modified to correct the name of the organization in Richmond that was allegedly victimized. WILLIAMSTOWN The Williams College Museum of Art is planning a new building with more gallery space and more visibility to the public. College officials are planning to construct the new building on the site of the old Williams Inn, which closed in July 2019 and was demolished the following year. A new inn was built at the bottom of Spring Street. Its a tremendous location, right at the gateway to Williamstown, said Pamela Franks, director of WCMA. Its highly visible and more accessible. The museum is currently located in Lawrence Hall on Main Street, around the corner from Spring Street. It is tucked away, with a main entrance that doesnt face the street. It shares the space with the colleges art department. On Wednesday, college officials announced that architectural firm SO-IL will design the new museum, a process expected to take roughly eight months. The project provides the first stand-alone structure for WCMA, whose collection with about 15,000 pieces has been housed in Lawrence Hall since 1851. The project is contingent on a vote of approval from the Williams College Board of Trustees Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., SO-IL principals Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg established the practice in 2008. The firm has become known for projects including the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California at Davis, and an art campus for the nonprofit arts organization Amant in New York. Williams College President Maud Mandel selected SO-IL on the recommendation of a 12-member Architect Selection Committee. The committee considered nearly 40 national and international architecture firms, then narrowed the candidates to a shortlist of four. The decision came after a two-year planning and program study conducted in consultation with Deborah Berke Partners in New York. Art is at the center of everything we do for our students, our campus, and our community, and so building a new home for Williams College Museum of Art is a focal point of the Colleges strategic plan, Mandel said in a prepared statement. While the caliber and creativity of all the shortlisted candidates were awe-inspiring, SO-ILs inventive and enthusiastic approach to our museums teaching mission stood out. Strategically, the new museum will be in plain site to the hundreds or art lovers coming to visit the Clark Art Institute and Mass MoCA, who will drive right by it to come in or out of Williamstown. Franks said the college wants the design of the new museum to reflect the natural vistas and the college campus. It will be a beautiful sign about how important the arts are to the college and the region, she said. We are honored to be working with the Williams community to envision the new Williams College Museum of Art, a project the brings together our passion for the arts with our commitment to education, said SO-IL co-founders Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg in a prepared statement. The new museum will connect the campus to the larger cultural ecosystem of the Northern Berkshires and provide an opportunity to advance innovative, sustainable building and museum practices. Reporter Greta Jochem, a Report for America Corps member, joined the Eagle in 2021. Previously, she was a reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She is also a member of the investigations team. BOSTON A passenger rail extension into Western Massachusetts looms as one of the most impactful projects on the table now that Gov. Charlie Baker and federal officials have identified a path forward for it, but lawmakers still will not say what if anything they will do in the next two months to get the idea off the ground. Representatives and senators on the Bonding Committee on Wednesday pressed Bakers transportation and environmental secretaries about features and omissions in a more than $9.7 billion infrastructure bond bill moving on Beacon Hill. After a lengthy presentation by administration officials, co-Chair Rep. Danielle Gregoire called east-west rail the elephant in the room that went unaddressed. However, neither Gregoire nor her fellow co-chair, Sen. Nick Collins, committed to redrafting the latest version of the bill to make the long-sought project more of a focus or to create the passenger rail authority that Baker and U.S. Richard Neal have said is necessary. I dont know the answer to that yet, Gregoire told the News Service when asked if her panel would add dedicated east-west rail funding to the bill or create the new rail agency. We have a lot of options on the table right now, she added, noting the July 31 deadline to wrap up formal lawmaking business for the two-year session. We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Weve got eight weeks at this point to get this nine-plus billion dollars out the door. I think everythings on the table at this point. Baker filed his bill in March and urged the Legislature to act expeditiously, calling for prompt action to maximize the impact of a new federal infrastructure law set to steer billions in guaranteed formula dollars to Massachusetts and make even more money available through competitive grants. The Transportation Committee late last month produced its own redraft of the bill, slightly bulking up its bottom line. Democratic legislative leaders have given no indication of when they intend to bring the bill up for floor votes, but action is expected this month or in July. Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler told lawmakers that the bill, filed about a month before the administration and federal officials announced the east-west rail breakthrough, targets competitive grant funds to drive investment in the project. States must put matching dollars on the table to qualify for reimbursement from any of the new or expanded grants. For the purpose of this bill, I would point to the $3.5 billion in competitive matching (funds), Tesler told Gregoire. For rail improvements in the commonwealth, including east-west rail, I would point to that as the target we put in the bill. When they announced they had agreed to advance the effort, Baker and Neal described plans for the Legislature to create a new rail authority to oversee the extension west of Worcester, where the MBTAs commuter rail network ends. The plans call for extending the line to Springfield and Pittsfield. Neal at the time said the agreement pivoted on using a pending infrastructure bond bill to create that new authority, but the Transportation Committee did not add any such language to its redraft of the legislation. An aide said Wednesday that Neal, who chairs the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and served as mayor of Springfield in the 1980s, continues to hold conversations with Speaker Mariano, Senate President Spilka, and MassDOT to ensure that this authority is included in the end of year package making its way through Beacon Hill. One lawmaker at Wednesdays Bonding Committee hearing questioned whether standing up a new agency should be a prerequisite to launching expanded train service, saying the Amtrak Downeaster route between Boston and Brunswick, Maine, began running before officials agreed to its permanent governance. Im just wondering: since we dont need the authority to get the federal money, why take that approach? said Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton. Tesler replied that Massachusetts faces an unprecedented environment of competition. There isnt any clear, bright line about what you absolutely need versus what you want, Tesler said. Do you absolutely need it? I cant say that. But were just trying to give the best advice, and that was the conversation weve been having with everybody relative to what we think puts us in the strongest position to outcompete other areas for some of the grants I just mentioned and future grants. Lawmakers also floated concerns about funding for commuter rail electrification. Collins, a South Boston Democrat, said he is frustrated that the bill focuses on electric vehicle charging infrastructure and electric bikes but does not go as far on shifting the commuter rail system away from diesel vehicles. I dont know how we can put a bill forward like this that doesnt ensure that happens now, Collins said. In November 2019, the MBTA oversight board at the time voted unanimously in favor of electrifying the commuter rail system and increasing the frequency of train service through the most dense corridors. Transit advocates have grown frustrated in the ensuing years at what they decry as a lack of follow-through on that vote, which came from a panel that has since dissolved and been replaced. Tesler said Wednesday that the MBTA and MassDOT will need to build out infrastructure before committing to an electrified commuter rail network, similar to the work underway to construct or retrofit bus garages equipped to handle electric vehicles. The MBTA filed an application for grant dollars to put toward a commuter rail maintenance facility south of Boston, Tesler said. In order to move to that future and to address some of your points and others concerns, we do need to have the facilities to support that, Tesler said. While he was more noncommittal on east-west rail, Collins told the News Service that his panel is considering ways to push for faster electrification across the MBTA commuter rail network. Weve got to be mindful of the fact that this is long overdue, Collins said. We cant keep coming up with disparities on health and still doing the same thing. What we heard today was encouraging by the leadership at transportation, [energy and environmental affairs] and the MBTA, but I think we need to speed it up, and I think were going to look at ways to do that in this bill. State House News Service writer Michael P. Norton contributed reporting. Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Wynn was one of several law enforcement leaders to speak out against a potential vote on regulations related to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission recertification process. BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Thursday expressed firm opposition to the discussion and signing of any agreement with implications of sovereignty or of official nature between the United States and China's Taiwan region. Ma made the remarks in response to a recent announcement by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities about the launch of a so-called "initiative on 21st-century trade" with the U.S. side. He said the DPP authorities colluded with external forces to seek "Taiwan independence" and selfish political gains at the cost of the interests of the island's enterprises and people. The spokesperson also urged the U.S. side to adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, warning that attempts to use the "Taiwan card" to contain China are bound to fail. Gov. Charlie Baker, left, shares a laugh with Rep. John Barrett, D-North Adams, and Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, during a press conference in 2021. All three have in favor of an east-west rail service to connect the state, but leaders at the State House voiced concerns Wednesday that Baker's infrastructure bill bond does not make clear how the executive branch will pursue the project. SOUTHWICK, ID - On Wednesday, June 1 at approximately 12:30 p.m., Nez Perce County dispatch received a call reporting a house fire on King Road in Southwick, ID. Nez Perce County Fire units responded to the scene along with assistance from Kendrick and Juliaetta Fire. Fire crews were also assisted by a number of others with water and equipment, including The McGregor Company of LeLand, Hasenoehrl Farms, Silflow Farms, Earl Lawrence and many neighbors. According to a press release from the Nez Perce County Sheriff's Office, the occupants of the home were able to remove their pets and get out safely, however the home was a complete loss. The Red Cross has been contacted to assist with the family's needs. DILLON, MT - An Idaho man was sentenced for his role in a case involving the trafficking and commercialization of wildlife parts in Montana. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) reports Yan Fong of Pocatello, Idaho unlawfully bought 11 black bear gall bladders, four black bears, 24 black bear paws, three mountain lions, two mule deer, one elk and seven bobcats in Montana and transported them back to Idaho in 2017 and 2018. Fong was charged with one felony count of unlawful sale of a game fish, bird, game animal or furbearing animal; and one felony count of unlawful possession, shipment or transport of a game fish, bird, game animal or furbearing animal. He is facing pending charges for similar conduct in California and Idaho according to FWP. Yan Fong of Pocatello was sentenced to 10 years with the Montana Department of Corrections with all but 100 days suspended and was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000, as well as court fees. Fong also lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in Montana and 46 other states for six years. US govt 'biggest producer of terrorism within or outside America,' victims around the world should sue: experts By Yang Sheng (Global Times) 08:22, June 02, 2022 After frequent gun shooting cases nationwide in the US that caused heavy casualties, including children, the White House and Capitol Hill are trying to show that they are trying to find a solution under pressure from society, as US President Joe Biden said Congress "must act to pass gun control legislation." Biden vowed that he will continue to push relevant reforms, but he also said "I can't dictate this stuff" as it's ultimately up to the House and the Senate. However, ironically, Biden and Congress with endless partisan struggles can reach an agreement and easily pass weapon supplies worth billions to Ukraine to earn money from the wars in regions far from the US, said analysts, noting that although Democrats and Republicans have differences on domestic issues like gun control, they all serve the military industrial complex, and benefit in different ways. After the Buffalo shooting that was motivated by white supremacy in May, Biden called it "domestic terrorism, straightforward terrorism." Outside the country, US arms sales and military operations have directly or indirectly encouraged and helped the growth of terrorists, separatists and extremists in regions like the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. Analysts said the US government who fails to protect its own people from gun shootings and spreads chaos worldwide is the "biggest producer of the terrorism," whether within or outside the US. They encourage victims around the globe to sue the US government in relevant international legal institutions. Failed gun control legislation caused endless shootings that have killed many people in America for decades and we have seen slogans like "enough is enough" since the 1990s. But so what? This problem is still there and no one can see the hope of solving the problem fundamentally," said Lu Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This is a systemic problem, and Biden is right, the president is unable to solve the problem and the two-party political structure of Congress just makes all gun control efforts about "fixing the surface" and a gun ban is impossible for the country with such a special culture and an "out-of-date" Constitution, analysts said. The US really cares about the issue and would like to consider some measures to control the problem, and politicians from the two parties can use the case to gain political interests. But on the issue of weapons exports to other countries that would kill non-Americans, US politicians never care, and they even try to maximize their profits, Lu told the Global Times. According to the Sludge, an independent, nonprofit news outlet that produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics, data in 2020 shows that many legislators from both parties own huge amounts of stock in Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and other top defense contractors, and they are the ones who profit from wars. US gun violence intensifies in 2022. Graphic: GT In May, Biden announced $800 million in new arms supplies to Ukraine. The House emphatically approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package on May 10 as lawmakers beefed up Biden's initial request, signaling a magnified, bipartisan commitment to thwart "the Russian invasion to Ukraine." Europol head Catherine De Bolle has warned that weapons currently being delivered to Ukraine could eventually end up in the hands of criminals operating on the continent, according to Russia Today. In her interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on Saturday, De Bolle said that one of the things which were of concern to her organization was the "whereabouts of the weapons that are currently being delivered to Ukraine." She explained that when the conflict ends, Europol wants to "prevent a situation akin to that of 30 years ago in the Balkan war." "The weapons from that war are still being used by criminal groups today," she said. Compared to the gun business in the US, the arms sales around the globe is the real major profit center of the military industrial complex, and using defense cooperation with its allies to impose influence over more countries and to instigate wars and tensions in many regions to boost the international weapons market, US arms sales or weapons transfers could also help terrorists and criminals worldwide, said analysts. On US human rights abuses like the gun issue and the racial problem, as well as the disasters it has brought to other countries like wars and chaos, some analysts said the UN and relevant international organizations should launch an investigation and hold the US accountable. In response to a question on whether the Office of the High Commissioner will investigate the US' human rights violations, including racial problems and the gun control issue, UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet said that they have presented a report at the Human Rights Council on racial discrimination and problems of law enforcement in many countries, including the US and Europe. Bachelet said that in order to stop racial discrimination, countries need to look at the history of slavery and dismantle all systematic discrimination, if they really want to ensure the rights of minorities. Lu said in the US there are many issues about human rights abuses which should be investigated by the UN. But on matters like the gun issue, the US could always use "freedom" as an "umbrella" to respond to concerns and demands for an investigation. The US is a superpower and this prevents international organizations from enforcing the law on it even if it has violated international laws many times, and it is also a hegemony able to manipulate public opinion, so it can ignore criticism and groundlessly accuse others with disinformation, Lu noted. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT There are many victims of US hegemony around the globe such as the people in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Serbia, and the governments or civic groups or individuals of these countries have the right to sue the US for war crimes with support from the international community in institutions like the International Court of Justice. But due to US power and influence among the West and most international organizations, the lawsuits would be difficult and even if they won, no one can impose the decisions on the US, said analysts. However, these legal efforts should be supported by the international community so that they could put pressure on Washington and at least restrain US hegemonic acts in the future, experts noted. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) UNITED NATIONS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on Thursday celebrated the two-month renewal of truce in the war-torn nation. "By agreeing to implementing and now renewing the truce, the parties have provided a rare glimmer of hope to Yemenis that an end to this devastating conflict is possible," Grundberg said in a statement. The extension came into effect at 7:00 p.m. Thursday local time, under the same terms as the original UN-brokered agreement, which began on April 2. The conflict began in 2014. In the past two months, the people of the country have seen the tangible benefits of the truce, said Grundberg. The number of civilian casualties has dropped significantly, fuel deliveries through Hudaydah port have increased considerably, and commercial flights are now available again at Sanaa's main airport. Also, the parties have been meeting under UN auspices for the first time in years to advance the process of opening roads in Taiz and other war-ravaged governorates and implementing nation-wide military de-escalation mechanisms. "I commend the parties for taking these steps, and for agreeing to extend the truce," said Grundberg. "The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties." In particular, he pointed out that more needs to be done on road openings and commercial flight operations. The UN envoy will work with the parties to fully consolidate all elements of the truce and achieve a sustainable political settlement. "I count on the parties' continued cooperation in good faith to build trust and take meaningful steps towards providing a peaceful future for all Yemenis," he said. Grundberg also thanked the international community for its support in implementing and renewing the truce. TUMWATER - This summer, employers in Washington state will be required to monitor temperature and air quality to protect outdoor workers from heat and smoke hazards. Employers will need to track these details from June 15 through the end of September. On Wednesday, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) filed emergency outdoor heat exposure and wildfire smoke rules to protect farm and construction workers, roofers, road crews, and anyone else whose job keeps them outside. The new rules are designed to help keep workers safe this summer as L&I continues to develop permanent rules to address the serious hazards posed by extreme heat and exposure to wildfire smoke. The record-setting heat wave last summer underscored the importance of protecting outdoor workers, said Craig Blackwood, L&Is assistant director for the Division of Occupational Safety & Health. Add in the smoke from more frequent and devastating wildfires, which is a proven hazard, and its a recipe for danger every summer. Outdoor heat exposure rules When temperatures are at or above 89 degrees, the emergency heat rules combined with existing rules will require employers to: Provide enough sufficiently cool water for each employee to drink at least a quart an hour; Provide sufficient shade that is large enough for and close enough to workers; Encourage and allow workers to take paid preventative cool-down breaks as needed; and, Require a 10-minute, paid cool-down break every two hours. Existing rules already require ready access to at least one quart of drinking water per worker per hour, an outdoor heat exposure safety program with training, and an appropriate response to workers who are experiencing heat-related illness symptoms. Depending on the type of clothing workers are wearing, the temperature at which the requirements kick in may be even lower. Employers must monitor temperatures and have a system in place, like a mandatory buddy rule, regular check-in by phone or radio, or other effective method to catch signs of heat-related illness. If there are signs of illness, employers must relieve workers from duty, provide shade or other means of cooling down, and determine if additional medical attention is needed. Wildfire smoke rules Smoke from wildfires contains fine particles that can reach the deepest parts of the lungs, causing serious health problems. L&Is emergency rule now requires employers to monitor air quality and take action when outdoor workers are exposed to wildfire smoke and the Air Quality Index (AQI) is at 101 or higher. Some actions are required at an AQI of 69. When workers show signs of injury or illness related to smoke, employers must monitor those workers to determine if medical care is needed, and cannot prevent workers from seeking medical treatment. If the AQI is at 69 or higher, employers are encouraged to limit their workers exposure to smoke by: Reducing, rescheduling, or relocating work; Providing enclosed buildings or vehicles where the air is filtered; and, Reducing the work intensity or increasing rest periods. L&I also recommends employers take action to reduce employee exposure to dangerous air at even lower AQI levels, especially for sensitive groups including those with asthma or other lung conditions. Additional details on these new rules are available on L&Is wildfire smoke web page. 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 There is no shortage of transformational ideas for healthcare in the metaverse, from using Blockchain technology to properly 'owning' and effectively managing and sharing medical records to the birthing of a 'digital twin' not just for the moment, but also at a future age. Source: iStock. Enabling healthcare access for all Safety challenges in metaverse healthcare The promise of these technologies lies in the power of convergence and will radically change the inherent healthcare silos across the world.Sheraan Amod, chief executive officer of RecoMed - an online healthcare booking platform in South Africa, says that from the very beginning, digitisation needed to bridge the divide by offering innovative forms of healthcare, therapies and techniques that are easily accessible to all. It would be interesting to see this come to life in a metaverse world where technology will transcend time and space in a seamless manner in order to facilitate diagnosis and treatment.Since healthcare traditionally involves bringing people together in the same room for consultations, medical training, procedures and treatments, there have been physical and logistical barriers to mass roll-outs across the globe. Providing distributed populations with fair access to healthcare has always had logistical barriers for various reasons, such as the actual medical professionals being dispersed in areas where the demand is concentrated.The pandemic demonstrated first-hand that not all health-related consultations require in-person assessments and now, with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities taking centrestage, its not hard to imagine that telemedicine access will soon be found on every corner in cyberspace, says Amod.These services in the metaverse will reach new heights. Empowered by VR headsets with facial-recognition technology and VR haptic gloves, providers and patients will be able to interact virtually in a hyper realistic manner, allowing them to feel like they are actually in the same room together. This technology can surpass any geographical boundaries - a doctor in Cape Town can easily consult with a patient in Cairo.From a business perspective, technology services companies will need an enabling regulatory environment that fosters innovation. From a population perspective, governments are going to need strategies to foster adoption, which will include affordable consumer access to the technology and connectivity that they need to engage in the metaverse.Developing countries, where access to quality healthcare is an ongoing problem are going to have greater challenges to ensure accessible healthcare opportunities in a digitalised world.It is likely that the democratisation of metaverse healthcare wont happen by default; it will require the interventions and the investments of a government and all their countrywide healthcare stakeholders, as well as a population willing and able to explore and inhabit a new frontier.Initially, metaverse medical services will be seen as a second option to physical consultations, but as with video telehealth today, popularity will increase over time as the convenience and cost benefits are unlocked by consumers, service providers, and funders, explains Amod.The world is already grappling with significant digital safety and privacy issues; and the transformation to increasingly digitised healthcare will only highlight the importance of ramping up digital and information security.As it is evident during the latest geopolitical events in Europe, real-life catastrophes are digital catastrophes too, and cyber security is more paramount than ever. As the metaverse evolves and expands, so too must the capacities for safety and security in this cyber-realm in order to ensure that consumers are protected.Adoption depends on it, and there will be no democratisation of healthcare in the metaverse without the protection of data and personal healthcare information, ensuring its users' safety and security in this new territory.The standards of securing healthcare data are progressing rapidly, and theres no reason to think that we wont be ready to protect healthcare data and access in this new digital future. concludes Amod. Email marketing is the most cost-effective form of marketing for most businesses, offering unparalleled return on investment (ROI). Especially for consumer-focused businesses, newsletters have never been more important than they are now. You've put the time in to test email subject lines and links, you've engaged a writer for creative copy, and you have a well-designed template. But you're not seeing the returns you hoped for. Look at the delivery rates of your email to see whether its going through to senders Clean up your database by removing old email addresses and corralling recipients who have not opened or clicked on any emails from you for a long time. Check the credibility of your email service provider and consider using one with higher quality credentials. Engage with a leading ESP to strategise. If your emails are blocked before they even reach your audience, the investment youve already made is going to waste. The scariest thing might be that you are unaware that your messages are going to junk.By optimising your delivery systems, your chances of click-throughs are much higher and that results in higher engagement and, ultimately, higher sales.Email delivery is more complicated than most people realise. Lets consider a postal service, with a mailman who has been asked to deliver mail to residents of an apartment building. If the mailman is trusted, the building supervisor lets him in. If the mailman abuses that trust, bringing in unsolicited messages or doesnt follow the building rules, then the supervisor could deny him entry. This is exactly how spam monitoring organisations act with regard to email services.Building supervisors are much more likely to allow in a mailman who can show theyre authorised to deliver a process called email authentication. IP addresses are checked to see if they align with the email service provider (ESP) delivering the mail on behalf of the sender. When emails are properly authenticated, they are less likely to be marked as spoofing or phishing. Both the ESP and the sender must have good reputations for mail to be authenticated.But authentication isnt enough on its own. If a trusted mailman delivers poor-quality mail, unsolicited spam, or tries to deliver to residents who have already moved out, recipients will start to complain and the building supervisor will eventually revoke the mailmans access by blocking the IP address affecting all the other email senders who played by the rules but used the same mailman as someone who didnt. If your business sends emails to old domains or spam trap email addresses, the spam monitoring service notices that either you or your mailman are not actively managing your database.You can keep your database clean by monitoring bouncebacks and removing undeliverable email addresses.We all agree that spam is unwanted mail. Previously, spam was seen as mail that you didnt request, but now the definition has broadened to also include mail from senders you previously consented to but no longer interact with. So if a recipient signs up for a mailing list but doesnt open or interact with mail from that sender over a period of months, the sender may also be guilty of sending spam. Spam monitoring organisations may act against you as a result. In a worst-case scenario, you could be blacklisted, which blocks your mail from being delivered at all, and unless youre monitoring very closely be unaware this action has been taken against you.If your promotions are no longer performing as expected, or your invoices arent being delivered to your clients, you may have been blacklisted by a spam monitoring organisation.The cause of the issue can be difficult to detect, and businesses often take a week or longer to realise they have been blacklisted, which can substantially affect revenue. Blacklisting is too often detected because of its consequences, rather than proactive email management to prevent it.A credible email service provider such as Everlytic adds its own positive reputation to each email it delivers while monitoring feedback from large mailbox providers such as Gmail and Outlook to check that its IP addresses are welcome. ESPs have hundreds of IP addresses, so if one IP is blacklisted, other addresses remain usable. If content from a particular IP address is marked as spam, ESPs need to examine that content to maintain their own reputation. They may ask senders to do a re-engagement campaign or may choose not to work with some senders.ESPs dont edit or delete content. Their job is to give senders the best chance of having their emails delivered. Your emails are delivered using a range of different IP addresses so that if one IP address is blocked the other emails still get through. Leading ESPs prioritise more engaged recipients on their best IP addresses with the highest reputations so that delivery to your most loyal customers is assured.If youre blacklisted, its important that you take action to protect your own companys reputation and improve the effectiveness of your communication. Magic828 is pleased to announce the launch of their dynamic new line-up that will come into effect on 1 June 2022. This means an exciting new mix of familiar faces who will be bringing back the magic to your airwaves and online. Left to right: Amit Makan, Graeme White, Lynita Crofford, Brandon Baatjies, Nic Pretorius, Megan Edwards, Viasen Soobramoney, Adrian Larger, Tabitha Kirstein, Sean Loots Amit Makan (seated) and Viasen Soobramoney Left to right: Lynita Crofford, Adrian Larger, Graeme White,Viasen Soobramoney, Megan Edwards, Amit Makan, Sean Loots and Brandon Baatjies Since the advent of the National State of Disaster due to Covid-19, Magic828 had partnered with LM Radio to simulcast programming. With the end of the state of disaster, both stations will revert to broadcasting independently. The new line up includes experienced radio talent Graeme White, Adrian Larger, Megan Edwards and Seano Loots. The stations new tagline Your music and more will give you an indication of the thrilling new journey they will be embarking on with an energetic new leadership team.As part of their growth strategy, Magic828 has brought onboard senior business executive Amit Makan and digital strategist Viasen Soobramoney who will assist the station with their commercial and audience imperatives. Amit Makan said: Magic828 is a special brand with an extremely loyal audience. Our exciting new line up is guaranteed to make waves and help position the station for growth. We are committed to providing our audiences with high quality content and programming but also creating value for advertisers and commercial partners.Viasen Soobramoney said that Magic828 had all the right ingredients for a successful and popular multimedia business.We have highly talented and experienced radio talent, great facilities, innovative ideas and a digital first approach to how we will operate, but most importantly we have good music. This combination will help us bring back the magic, said Soobramoney. Station manager, Graeme White said: The excitement within the Magic team is tangible and its in sync with the response from Magics loyal and passionate listener base. Its fantastic! On a personal level, to be jumping in behind the Magic mic, and reconnecting with our listeners again, is a dream come true.Magic828 is a commercial radio station that services the Cape Town metropolitan area and is available nationally and internationally via a high quality livestream. They play the big hits from the '80s, '90s and 2000s. Magic828 is available on the 828 AM frequency on radio, online at www.magic828.co.za or via their dynamic smartphone app which is available to download from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store Additionally, they have partnered with African Community Media (ACM) in Cape Town to carry the Magic828 livestream player on selected online titles within their stable.Follow Magic828 on Facebook for all the latest updates, competitions and station news. See our website article here Listen to Magic828 by clicking here www.magic828.co.za South African Tourism (SA Tourism) has announced the appointment of Nomasonto Ndlovu as the organisation's new chief operations officer. Ndlovu will officially commence her role on 1 July 2022. Source: Supplied | Nomasonto Ndlovu, COO, SA Tourism Ndlovu is currently employed by Transnet in the capacity of executive manager: tourism, heritage and hospitality, a role she has occupied since November 2020.Ndlovu has held various leadership positions in the tourism sector including her role as global manager: business tourism when she was previously at SA Tourism between 2008 and 2012, before joining the City of Tshwane as strategic executive director communications, marketing and events.She has gained extensive experience in marketing operations, brand management, communications, stakeholder management and media relations.Prior to joining Transnet, Ndlovu was at the helm of the Limpopo Tourism Agency in the position of chief executive officer. Ndlovu also mentors young upcoming tourism professionals."Our plans for the recovery of the tourism sector are well underway. As we move towards ensuring that we achieve this goal for our organisation and the greater tourism sector, it is important that we have strong leadership at SA Tourism. I am thrilled to welcome Nomasonto back to SA Tourism. Given her experience and expertise, I am confident that her extensive knowledge will be invaluable and will help SA Tourism achieve its mandate. I wish her every success in her new role at SA Tourism," says Themba Khumalo, acting chief executive officer."The time to re-engineer the global positioning of South Africa and the rest of the African continent has come, and should be led by SA Tourism. It is time for the re-birth of the industry and the recalibration of the people in the sector and I am looking forward to being a part of this," said Ndlovu. Paid Media Specialist - Digital/Media and Data Remuneration: cost-to-company Location: Woodstock, Cape Town Job level: Mid/Senior Job policy: Employment Equity position Type: Permanent Reference: #PaidMediaSpecialist Company: King James Job description Proficient in Digital Media Planning Propose new Digital channels for a client when they become available and are relevant Ability to set KPIs for campaigns and budgets if they are not pre-defined Conduct research and find the insight in the research for proposals and campaigns Identify the right audiences and channels for a campaign Effectively manage media channels to deliver on Cost, Quality, and Timing targets Creative thinking on campaign execution using multiple Digital media channels Successfully implement social campaign set-ups Implement media plans Manage budgets spends accurately Manage program execution and financial performance while ensuring that we deliver to KPIs Review live data and recommend changes to affect overall campaign performance Manage key conversion points in the marketing funnel Manage and optimize landing pages, website calls-to-action (CTAs), and lead-generating forms A/B test and continually measure the performance of CTAs Collaborate with teams responsible for blogging, email, social media, in order to optimize each conversion path Optimize our marketings conversion paths Increase conversion rates and drive marketing-qualified leads Optimize the lead-to-customer conversion rate Increase funnel marketing efficiencies Achieve and in most cases exceed KPIs for the business Proactively use optimisations and insights for future campaigns/iterations Derive insights and propose tactics and recommendations Propose changes and channel experimentation for enhanced results Tertiary qualification in Digital Marketing Google Certifications (Google Analytics, Google tag Manager, Google Ads - Search, Display and Video) Facebook Certifications (Blueprint) GMP Stack Experience (DV360, SA360, experience in Campaign Manager) LinkedIn Campaign Manager Proficient in MS Office (i.e., Word / Excel / PowerPoint / Keynote etc.) Minimum 4 years working experience as a Paid Media Specialist in an Advertising Agency or Digital Advertising Agency as a Paid Media Specialist in an Advertising Agency or Digital Advertising Agency Well versed in Digital (full digital eco-system / digital media landscape) Knowledge of Websites and UX (for KPI setting on a lead model) Knowledge of the Google Adwords and media offering across all areas (GDN, PPC, Programmatic) and keep abreast of all new offering Knowledge of programmatic service providers and their offerings Knowledge of analytics and reporting tools A strong ability to glean insights from data for reporting and proposals Intimate knowledge of other platforms that are mainstream and become widely adopted in our clients space. Ability to engage with clients and engage on robust conversations that focus on performance and interrogate strategies for improvements. A good command of the English language (both verbal and written) Strong time management skills Strong presentation skills Strong multitasking skills (ability work on multiple briefs at any given time) Team player with the ability to work independently Ability to remain calm in a pressurized environment Able to receive constructive criticism and advice Accountable Deadline driven Solution driven Reliable Resilient Proactive Meticulous with attention to detail Self-starter Other: Comfortable work on site (King James office) and comfortable to work on alcohol brands King James Part of Accenture Song is currently looking for a (Digital) Paid Media Specialist to join their Digital: Media & Data team. This role is focused on performance and delivering measurable results for our clients businesses The successful individual has a crucial role in strategic performance planning and recommendations, social campaign optimisation and insights reporting of our digital media campaigns as well as fulfil thefunction within the media team in our business.Media PlanningImplementationOptimisationReportingInterested in joining the purple blood team? Submit a concise CV to careerskj@kingjames.co.za. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 1 week after submitting your application, kindly consider your application as unsuccessful. Posted on 02 Jun 08:59, Closing date 30 Jun Digital Media Strategist Remuneration: cost-to-company Location: Woodstock, Cape Town Education level: Diploma Job level: Mid/Senior Job policy: Employment Equity position Type: Permanent Reference: #DigMediaStrat Company: King James Job description Interrogate and understand client briefs to translate into effective strategies Build and manage strong client relationships Work with agency brand strategists, creative and operational teams to ensure Digital Media lens is applied upfront relationship health drives strength of integration Attend client briefing sessions - feedback, Q&A and reverts Develop digital media roadmap for clients that grows digital maturity Ensure objectives and KPIs are being met or adjusted when necessary, relating to Media Strategies required to work with Campaign Managers and Paid Media Specialists to track campaign performance against strategy Where applicable, engage media owners and specialist suppliers to enhance strategy and channel recommendations. Represent the media team in pitches and compiles relevant documentation to support RFP / new business proposals Build and strengthen client relationships through knowledge and expertise Keep abreast on industry trends, new ad formats and digital innovation in accordance with industry best practices Develop and define the digital media strategies for: Annual Planning Campaigns Always On Tactical Present the digital media strategy to client team and deliver on requirements Demonstrate and show an unrivalled understanding of the digital landscape, industry tools and data interpretation Ability to set KPIs in accordance with industry benchmarks aligned to client budgets Audience mapping and segmentation abilities to enable excellent targeting Research on consumer insights (digital media) and constantly update changes in behaviour Able to plan with small to large media budgets Ensure objectives and KPIs are being met or adjusted when necessary, relating to Media Strategies required to work with Campaign Managers and Paid Media Specialists to track campaign performance against strategy Where applicable, engage media owners and specialist suppliers to enhance strategy and channel recommendations. Represent the media team in pitches and compiles relevant documentation to support RFP / new business proposals Build and strengthen client relationships through knowledge and expertise Keep abreast on industry trends, new ad formats and digital innovation in accordance with industry best practices Relevant tertiary qualification Proficient in MS Office (i.e., Word / Excel / PowerPoint etc.) Minimum 5 years working experience as a Digital Media Strategist in an Advertising Agency or Digital Advertising Agency Well versed in Digital (full digital eco-system / digital media landscape) Strong focus on performance media In-depth understanding of performance media tactics: Re-marketing / A/B testing / CRO A good command of the English language (both verbal and written) Strong time management skills Strong presentation skills Strong data analysis and interpretation skills Strong multitasking skills (ability to work on multiple briefs at any given time) Understand the creative agency process and partners to develop high performing campaigns Team player with the ability to work independently Ability to remain calm in a pressurized environment Able to receive constructive criticism and advice Creative Accountable Deadline driven Solution driven Reliable Resilient Proactive Meticulous with attention to detail Other: Comfortable work on site (King James office) and comfortable to work on alcohol brands King James part of Accenture Song is currently looking for a Digital Media Strategist to join their Media & Data team. The purpose of the Digital Media Strategist is to develop an in depth understanding of the clients business and marketing goals and translate channel strategies into focused KPI objectives. It is imperative that the Digital Media Strategist builds key relationships within clients businesses to drive digital media spend competencies.Interested in joining the purple blood team? Submit a concise CV to careerskj@kingjames.co.za. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 1 week after submitting your application, kindly consider your application as unsuccessful. Posted on 02 Jun 09:00, Closing date 30 Jun Junior Animator - 2D/3D/Motion Graphics/VFX (Fixed Term Contract) Remuneration: cost-to-company Location: Woodstock, Cape Town Education level: Degree Job level: Junior/Mid Job policy: Employment Equity position Type: Contract Reference: #JnrAnimator Company: King James Job description Design and animate motion graphics for a variety of small to large scale projects Work collaboratively with design teams to create innovative and compelling work Generate content and assets to be used by the extended team such as: visual directions, layouts, storyboards, animatics, 2D/3D assets, AE templates, grading, tracking, editing footage etc. Keep abreast of industry trends and techniques in accordance with industry best practices BA Degree or similar in Visual Communication (with a major in Animation / Multimedia) Minimum 1 years working experience as an Animator Working experience in an Advertising Agency or Digital Advertising Agency Proficient in MS Office Proficient in Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop Knowledge of and experience in 2D (vector) animations Skilled in Cinema 4D or 3D applications Strong sense of motion, design, and typography A good command of the English language Strong time management skills Strong multitasking skills (ability to work on multiple briefs at any given time) Team player with the ability to work independently Ability to remain calm in a fast-paced environment Ability to accept constructive feedback Resilient Reliable Accountable Creative thinker Deadline driven Meticulous with attention to detail Other: Comfortable to work on-site (King James Office) and comfortable to work on alcohol brands King James Part of Accenture Song is looking for a Junior Animator to join the creative studio. The successful candidate must be able to implement artwork from creative into various cross platforms (i.e., digital, broadcast, social etc.) deliverables effectively and on time. An appreciation for the craft of design & storytelling is essential!Interested in joining the purple blood team? Submit ato careerskj@kingjames.co.za. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 1 week after submitting your application, kindly consider your application as unsuccessful. Posted on 02 Jun 09:04, Closing date 30 Jun Copywriter Remuneration: market-related Location: Cape Town Job level: Junior/Mid Job policy: Employment Equity position Type: Permanent Reference: #CopwritLou Company: ninety9cents Job description Has proven cut-throat writing skills to work on a large national Retail brand. Able to work across various target markets, platforms and channels. A proven understanding of retail brands. Keeps a cool head and delivers exceptional results under pressure, against fast and tight deadlines and in volume. Able to work collaboratively in a team and is resourceful; focused and level-headed. Requirements At least three years' relevant work experience as a copywriter in an advertising agency, a television and radio portfolio is required Solid knowledge/understanding of digital platforms in conjunction with more traditional channels essential Solid working knowledge and understanding of social content including: SEO and SEM AdWords Analytics Reporting Strong conceptual ability Advanced brand copywriting Ideally a degree/diploma in Copywriting or Journalism Be proficient in PowerPoint/Keynote, MS Word Attention to detail. A portfolio that reflects creative copywriting proficiencies. Understanding of advertising as a selling tool. Capability to take on campaigns with multi-element tasks which require a concept and a thought through process. Accept guidance and respond well to criticism. Resilient can accept setbacks. Finely honed copywriting skills and latest techniques. Have an understanding of writing for SEO and keywords. Must demonstrate creative insight and brilliance for client solutions across all media platforms. Create copy across multiple channels. Consistently produce creative elements against a deliverables list. Lead brainstorms and conceptualization. Lead the craft and design of an idea. Detail-obsessed big thinker, passionate and hard-working, self-motivated team player with the ability to grasp a client's strategy and brand, and deliver beautiful, insightful, polished work. Our Cape Town office is looking for a Senior Copywriter to join our Creative Team.Minimum relevant experience and skills:Technical skills/knowledge:Attributes:Interested candidates must please submit a concise CV and salary expectation. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within three weeks after submitting your application, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful. We remain committed to the principles of employment equity. Posted on 02 Jun 11:32, Closing date 1 Jul WINDHOEK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibia will host the 4th Industrial Revolution Conference and Expo from June 7 to 8 in Windhoek, the country's presidency announced on Thursday. The event to be hosted by the Namibia Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Task Force that was appointed by the country's president will run under the theme, "4IR as an enabler of green and inclusive industrialization." "Set out under the Economic Advancement Pillar of the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, the Task Force is tasked with conducting a country assessment on the readiness of Namibia for the 4IR and making recommendations towards a coherent policy and legislative framework," the presidency said in a statement. The conference, which will be officially opened by Namibia's President Hage Geingob, is expected to host invited local, regional and international delegates. The official opening on June 8 will be preceded by an exposition on June 7 that will be open to the public. The Expo will showcase emerging technologies from various sectors and provide a platform for networking and public education, said the statement. ACCRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia urged central banks in Africa Wednesday to build gold reserves as a buffer against global economic headwinds that keep devastating the continent's economies. Bawumia made the call during the opening of the three-day West Africa Mining and Power Exhibition and Conference in the Ghanaian capital. He said the aftermath of the pressure unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict could redefine the global economic landscape in the future due to disruptions in supply chains and drastically reduced access to essential commodities. "This calls for greater self-reliance, from producing own medicines to enhancing agriculture production. But the greatest emphasis should be on building up gold reserves to protect the value of our currencies and provide a balance of payment support," the vice president urged. To make this goal possible, Bawumia said the central banks should partner with the gold mining companies working in Africa "to enable us to achieve these objectives." Bawumia emphasized that African countries needed self-sufficiency to brace up for the coming storm, and reiterated the need for African countries to seek home-grown solutions to address the impending challenges. JOHANNESBURG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The UNICEF in South Africa on Thursday congratulated the country for vaccinating more than half of South Africa's adults with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. UNICEF said the "milestone" has been achieved 15 months since the first COVID-19 vaccine arrived and called on the government to reach their 70 percent target by the end of 2022. They also expressed concern over the youth's hesitancy in taking the jab. "We have reached a critical stage in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out. The challenge now is to further increase coverage by encouraging and actively engaging young people in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out," said Toby Fricker, UNICEF South Africa Chief of Communication. A UNICEF U-Report poll of August 2021 showed that 86 percent of youth, aged 15 to 24 years, think the COVID-19 vaccine is important for their health to some degree but only 55 percent would get vaccinated. Fricker said there are still vaccination barriers including not knowing where to go, concerns over the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and cost and time in accessing health facilities. Besides, there is misinformation online and offline that influences young people to shun the COVID-19 vaccines. "Vaccination provides the best protection from hospitalization and death. That's why this milestone is very welcome because the majority of adults in South Africa have taken the decision to better protect themselves from the virus," he said. 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. HANOI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Police of southern Vietnam's Binh Duong province have arrested a local man and seized more than eight kilograms of synthetic drugs, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Thursday. The 37-year-old man from the central Nghe An province was arrested in late May with 23,200 ecstasy pills. The man admitted that the drugs had been bought from abroad for domestic use, the news agency reported. On Wednesday, border guard forces of the northern Son La region and relevant authorities arrested a 22-year-old local man for transporting 2,000 pills of synthetic drugs, according to a VNA report. A day later, the local authorities arrested another man, aged 38, and seized 400 pills of synthetic drugs, according to the report. Under the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces the death penalty. AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 2 (Xinhua) -- An overseas promotion event for the Fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) 2022 was held in New Zealand's largest city Auckland on Thursday. Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong said in his remarks for the Fifth CIIE Road Show that China has done its best to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on economic and social development. China is the only major economy to report economic growth for 2020, and its economy grew 8.1 percent in 2021. "The Chinese economy's great potential, resilience, and vitality remain unchanged," Wang said, adding that the latest round of COVID-19 outbreak has been brought under effective control in Shanghai and Beijing. In the opening speech of the promotion event, New Zealand's ambassador to China Clare Fearnley said via video that New Zealand businesses have had "an active and strong presence at each and every CIIE." Last year, despite the pandemic, more than 50 New Zealand businesses participated in the event, primarily in the food and agriculture sectors, as well as in the medical equipment and healthcare categories, Fearnley said, adding that businesses found the value in CIIE participation in the promotion of their commercial interests in the Chinese market, as well as in the opportunity to strengthen their relationships with local Chinese partners. She said she hopes to be in Shanghai in person again at this year's edition of the CIIE, which was scheduled from November 5 to 10, to see a wide range of New Zealand businesses participating in the expo. Over the past four years, more than 200 New Zealand companies participated in the annual event. Fonterra, a major dairy producer, and Zespri, the world's largest marketer of kiwifruit, have expressed interest to attend the fifth edition to be held in Shanghai. Alistair Crozier, executive director of the New Zealand China Council, said this year's CIIE is going to take place in "unique and challenging circumstances" as the world is still struggling to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this just increases the value of the opportunity that the CIIE provides for New Zealand companies to remain connected to its largest market, Crozier told the road show. "China never stands still, even in a pandemic," he said. The Fifth CIIE Road Show, co-hosted by the China International Import Expo Bureau and the China Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand, was attended by some 300 delegates from the business sector and officials of the two countries. KABUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A wild fire has scorched 185 acres of forest in Norgaram district of Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province, the local TV channel Tolonews reported on Thursday. Quoting local officials, the TV reported that the forest fire burned for the 10th day in Norgaram district on Thursday and it would destroy more jungles if uncontained. "Our firefighters are not equipped with modern equipment to put out the fire. The firefighters' vehicles can't go to the mountainous area to extinguish the fire, although we are trying our best," Tolonews quoted Mawlawi Jan Mohammad Sayeq, an official with the State Ministry for Disaster Management, as saying. Sayeq, according to the local TV, has hinted at seeking help from neighboring countries if the authorities fail to extinguish the forest fire. The mountainous Nuristan province is largely covered with dense forest and the wild fire would negatively impact the income of local people, local experts believed. LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Advertisement Advertise With Us LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II watches from the balcony of Buckingham Place after the Trooping the Color ceremony in London, Thursday, June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP) Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II symbolically leads the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Thursday June 2, 2022, on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Over 1500 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories will come together to light a beacon to mark the Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarchas 70 years of service. (Steve Parsons/Pool via AP) The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed" Thursday's events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The Queen's guards march during the Trooping the Color parade at Horse Guards, London, Thursday, June 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Friday's service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. Britain's Prince Charles, left, with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis her grandson, covering his ears with his hands, next to his mother Kate Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte her daughter, at right, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. From left: The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Tim Lawrence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor and Prince Edward gather on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, as they watch a flypast of Royal Air Force aircraft pass over. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP) Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. Royal fans sing the national anthem as they gather along the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. A handful of workers walk down the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Royal fans take a selfie as they stand alongside the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. "Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. ___ Follow AP's coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii WINNIPEG As a new allegation of sexual assault surfaced against the grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the organizations executive council says it will make no decision on Arlen Dumas until the original investigation has been completed. Advertisement Advertise With Us FILE/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Earlier this year, Arlen Dumas was suspended after a woman who worked at the AMC alleged the grand chief had sexually assaulted and harassed her. WINNIPEG As a new allegation of sexual assault surfaced against the grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the organizations executive council says it will make no decision on Arlen Dumas until the original investigation has been completed. In a statement released Wednesday, the AMC executive council said while its constitution allows for the removal of a grand chief from office, "removal cannot occur for rumours or unsubstantiated allegations." "The executive council of chiefs received an update that the investigators report will be completed by the end of June. The results of this report will provide the chiefs with the information needed to determine whether disciplinary action or removal from office proceedings will occur." Dumas was suspended earlier this year after a woman who worked at the AMC alleged the grand chief had sexually assaulted and harassed her. The woman filed a complaint with Winnipeg police. No charges have been laid and the matter has not been before the courts. When the staff member sent the executive council a letter about the allegations, which contained no details, the AMC launched a workplace investigation, it said Wednesday. The investigation was later handed over to a law firm to complete after the letter was leaked to media. APTN reported Tuesday a second woman had come forward, alleging she was sexually assaulted in Winnipeg in 2009 when Dumas was chief of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation. The woman filed the allegations in a third-party report, where an alleged victim talks to members of an agency, which then brings the information to police, APTN said. Police put that information in a special database, but it does not spark an investigation. Acting AMC grand chief Cornell McLean, chief of Lake Manitoba First Nation, told the Winnipeg Free Press Wednesday he was unaware of the latest allegation. Sandra DeLaronde, a facilitator who has spent decades advocating for Indigenous Manitobans, said, while she has no knowledge on the latest allegation, she is glad the woman made a report. "Im grateful there is a third-party reporting process," said DeLaronde, one of the women who are putting together an open letter to the AMC calling for the removal of Dumas as grand chief. A draft copy was leaked to media this week. The group began putting the letter together after the AMC declined two requests for them to meet with the acting grand chief, DeLaronde said. "The AMC does not honour the [AMC] constitution or the very women served by the governance and decision making of the chiefs of Manitoba," the draft says, in part. "It is imperative that the AMC chiefs be accountable and support victims of violence and sexualized violence. "The women who have spoken out deserve a responsive, accountable and culturally appropriate response from leadership to address these issues." DeLaronde said she is hoping Dumas himself makes the decision before the AMC does. "At some point, as a leader you have to think what is in the best interests of the people," she said. "Dont make them force him to resign just resign." Winnipeg Free Press The passing of a bereavement bill is being welcomed as a step in the right direction, but the real fight is still being waged in Manitoba and across Canada to save people from substance poisoning. Advertisement Advertise With Us The passing of a bereavement bill is being welcomed as a step in the right direction, but the real fight is still being waged in Manitoba and across Canada to save people from substance poisoning. Bill 234, a private members bill to set aside a provincial day of bereavement for families who lost loved ones due to overdoses was read a third time in the legislature on Wednesday and passed with unanimous support. There was one amendment made, said NDP MLA Bernadette Smith, who serves as the partys mental health and addictions critic the date was changed to state it will be the first Sunday in May, instead of the day before Mothers Day. Smith said the day and wording in the bill was changed so it wouldnt appear it was a day of bereavement for just mothers. In previous comments, she explained this was a day for families and friends of people who have died as a result of substance poisoning. It will move on to receive royal assent. While she was glad it passed, Smith said there was a lot of frustration over how long it took to reach third reading. "There were some procedural issues that I dont think were necessary because this government has shown it can act quickly when it wants to," she said shortly after the bill was passed. In earlier comments, House leader and Justice Minister Kevin Goertzen said it was a scheduling issue, adding the government would work to pass the bill. Its a symbolic day, but it will be helpful in showing anyone who has lost someone close to them there is support for their cause. Now that there is a day to grieve, Smith said there is still work to be done to get people struggling with substance use safe supplies and help. "Its great we are allowed to publicly mourn, but now we want to stop people from dying altogether," she said. "This is why I am working to get Bill 217 passed so we can have accurate reporting and warn people when there is a toxic drug supply out there. We shouldnt be getting our data from the media." That bill, the Fatality Inquiries Amendment Act, which would require the chief medical examiner to publicly report the number of drug overdose deaths in Manitoba for each month, as well as identify the type of drug linked to each overdose. This is all coming as the federal government announced it is working with B.C. to decriminalize small amounts of drugs for personal use. Smith said she is watching to see how this unfolds, but it is related to her push to have safe consumption sites in Manitoba. She reiterated that she has visited several in the country and no one using these sites had died from an overdose, she said. In addition, people who go to safe consumption sites are more likely to seek out treatment. In other comments to the media, Goertzen said Manitoba isnt moving to decriminalize small amounts. Instead, the government is pushing to cut off the illegal drug supply while offering treatment options for users. A day to recognize those who are grieving is good, said Antoinette Gravel-Ouellette, chair for the Brandon and Area Overdose Awareness, but echoed Smiths sentiment that they need to stop deaths from happening. The group had a vigil on Sunday to mark the 407 people who died from substance poisoning last year, adding its still a shock to herself and the public to see how many have died. "Its fantastic that the bill got passed, but I was at that vigil and people came by asking if these 407 were all of Canada and they were shocked to hear it was just for Manitoba and just last year," she said. "I have to ask, you are OK with bereaved mothers, but you are not OK with stopping people from dying?" Its a slow and frustrating process in the province and across the country, she said. This isnt a justice issue, but rather a public health issue, and the country cannot police its way out of this. Gravel-Ouellette said she has been watching decriminalization efforts in British Columbia, but wants the federal government to work with their own experts and do more directly rather than leave it to individual provinces to decide what to do about substance use. The hope Bill 217 and the federal Bill C-216 would pass was shared by the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network, said co-ordinator Solange Machado. Bill C-216, a private members bill tabled by NDP mental health and harm reduction critic Gord Johns, who is MP for Courtenay-Alberni in B.C., as meant decriminalize simple possession, provide a pathway for people convicted of simple possession and create a national policy to create a safer supply of drugs. However, the bill was defeated in a vote Wednesday in the House of Commons. Machado agreed that having the bill for a day of bereavement is good to see, but real laws and regulations have to change as well if anyone wants to see positive changes. "Its good to recognize the day and it will make people feel that they are not alone," she said. "But then again, it would be good to have the stats to go along with that so people will know what they are supporting on that day." On B.C.s decriminalization, Machado said she and the network want to see how the laws are developed. She wants to know what happens to someone if they are caught above the decriminalized amount. Her hope is the laws dont create more legal problems for people if they are found with more than the decriminalized amount. kmckinley@brandonsun.com Twitter: @karenleighmcki1 WINNIPEG Survivors of residential schools in Manitoba who want to go to Alberta in July to hear the Popes apology to Indigenous people may be eligible for funding from the Catholic Church. Advertisement Advertise With Us WINNIPEG Survivors of residential schools in Manitoba who want to go to Alberta in July to hear the Popes apology to Indigenous people may be eligible for funding from the Catholic Church. Former Assembly of First Nations regional chief Ken Young suggested that possibility following a meeting of the National Indian Residential School Circle of Survivors and three Catholic bishops in Winnipeg Wednesday. We asked the bishops to be involved in the planning, said Young, a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Plans call for chartered buses for survivors, he said, adding the church was asked to help with costs. Our biggest priority is how to get survivors to the meetings with the Pope, he said. The Circle of Survivors met for two and a half days to discuss the papal visit, and ways to deepen engagement with the Catholic Church. Speaking on behalf of the group, which includes former national grand chief Phil Fontaine, Young said survivors would like to see the Popes apology in Canada go further than what he said in his personal apology in Rome in March. He has to say I am sorry for what happened on behalf of the Catholic church, he said. Young, who attended a residential school for 10 years, said he wants the Catholic Church to accept ownership and responsibility for what happened to First Nations people and their families, for the negative experience we all had. He said he understands the Pope will decide the content of the apology, and he expects it will be done in the right way. Participants at the meeting talked about the creation of a covenant with Canadas Catholic bishops to deal with outstanding issues related to reconciliation, Young said. I feel the church stands behind us, to support us in seeking our inherent rights, treaty implementation and reconciliation, he said. About 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools. More than half were run by the Catholic Church. The three bishops at the meeting were Albert LeGatt of St. Boniface, Richard Smith of Edmonton and Don Bolen of Regina. Smith called the meeting the start of a conversation. A lot was put on the table, more than we could discuss today, he said. We are committed to walking with survivors and Indigenous people. The most important work between the church and Indigenous people will occur after next months papal visit, Smith said. The Vatican is open to suggestions from the Canadian bishops about the Popes visit and what he says in his apology but the Vatican has the final say, Smith said. My personal sense is he will do and say the right thing, Smith said. He really wants this to be a step forward in the reconciliation process. The Pope met with representatives of Indigenous organizations and residential survivors in Rome in late March. The clearest indication of how important this issue is to the Pope is that he is coming at all, Smith said, given his health problems. I wouldnt be surprised if there are some in the Vatican advising him not to travel, he noted. Smith said there is little likelihood the Pope will add to his itinerary, which includes stops in Quebec City, Iqaluit and Edmonton, during his July 24-29 trip. In a statement, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said it is committed to addressing outstanding issues related to records, fundraising and Indigenous artifacts. As we continue on this journey, we will listen to the experience of Indigenous people, especially to the survivors of residential schools, to guide our path forward, the statement said. Winnipeg Free Press Brandon-area motorists definitely felt the pinch at the pumps on Wednesday, with gas prices climbing to an average of $1.951 per litre city-wide, according to the Canadian Automobile Association. Advertisement Advertise With Us Brandon-area motorists definitely felt the pinch at the pumps on Wednesday, with gas prices climbing to an average of $1.951 per litre city-wide, according to the Canadian Automobile Association. This represents a significant jump from the $1.879 per litre prices that were registered on Tuesday, which is itself a massive increase over the $1.259 per litre average locals had to contend with last year. The cheapest fuel in the city remains at the Waywayseecappo Gas Bar, where regular gas cost $1.839 a litre as of Wednesday afternoon. While these comparatively low prices drew plenty of customers to the business over lunch, all of the motorists who chatted with the Sun seemed resigned to the idea that this upward trend would continue, since province-wide gas prices have increased by almost 70 cents per litre within the past year. "I dont even know what to say about it anymore," said a local Manitoba Hydro worker, who wished to remain anonymous. "It just keeps going and going and going. When is it going to stop?" Beyond filling up his full-size truck for day-to-day activities, this hydro worker said that these high gas prices are also bleeding into his professional life, since he travels around 3,400 kilometres every two weeks for work. "It seems like robbery," he added. Even though Curtis Arthurson doesnt travel nearly as far for work, living near the community of Forrest, he told the Sun that he still drives around the region to run his heating and air conditioning repair business. And because of rising fuel costs, Arthurson said hes being forced into a position where he has to charge his customers more to compensate for the money hes losing on gas. "I feel guilty because theyre paying enough as it is for everything, so I just try to work it into my prices as best I can," he said. Meanwhile, over at the Co-op Gas Bar at 300 18th St. North, where regular fuel cost $1.969 per litre on Wednesday, local resident Eric said that hes paying around $200 every time he has to fill up his half-ton truck these days. Because of this, Eric, who declined to provide his last name, said his summer travel plans have been drastically reduced. Motorists gas up at the Canadian Tire gas bar in Brandon on a windy Wednesday. Gas prices shot up to just under two dollars a litre at most Brandon stations. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) "Im not taking a vacation this year," he said. "Im not going anywhere outside of maybe Souris to see the swinging bridge or something like that." All three of these motorists also told the Sun they expect gas prices to crack $2 per litre sometime this summer. "I wouldnt even be surprised if we saw it at $2.50. Its just unreal," Eric said. Canadians for Affordable Energy president Dan McTeague largely agrees with this assessment, telling the Winnipeg Free Press in May that prices will likely remain high due to demand, even if the cost of oil drops. "Summers always a quirky time of the year," McTeague said. In terms of what is driving this steady increase in gas prices, University of Manitoba economics professor Irwin Lipnowski believes it is due to a number of different factors, from geopolitical conflicts, environmental concerns and supply chain issues. Talking to the Sun in mid-May, when local fuel costs jumped from $1.79 a litre to $1.87 a litre, Lipnowski said this upward trend in pricing is a lot more complicated than a simple supply-and-demand problem. "The oil cartels say supply and demand and they are in a way right, but what they are doing is they see an opportunity and they are taking it and frankly, Im surprised they didnt take advantage of this sooner," he said. "People perceive there is a shortage, places like Germany are under pressure to not buy oil or gas from Russia, so they go on the world market, and that puts pressure on the oil supply." This latest spike in Manitobas gas prices comes mere days after the European Union agreed to pursue a partial ban on Russian oil imports, seeking to punish the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine. The ongoing conflict in Europe has had a massive impact on the global energy market, with Russia being one of the three top oil producers in the world behind the United States and Saudi Arabia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, gas prices in fossil fuel-dependent nations like Canada have continued to spike. According to the fuel-tracking website GasBuddy, residents of Newfoundland have to deal with the highest average gas prices in the country at $2.227 per litre as of Wednesday. However, Manitoba remains the third-cheapest province for gasoline with an average of $1.947 per litre, lagging behind only Alberta and Saskatchewan at $1.758 per litre and $1.91 per litre, respectively. kdarbyson@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press Twitter: @KyleDarbyson After enduring two years of virtual instruction, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School continued to usher in the return of its in-person STEM programming on Tuesday, hosting an hour-long workshop that gave students the opportunity to learn about different medical techniques. Advertisement Advertise With Us KYLE DARBYSON/THE BRANDON SUN Dr. Paige Baldwin teaches some Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School students the proper way to suture a wound on Tuesday afternoon in Brandon. After enduring two years of virtual instruction, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School continued to usher in the return of its in-person STEM programming on Tuesday, hosting an hour-long workshop that gave students the opportunity to learn about different medical techniques. This workshop was led by Dr. Paige Baldwin, a Crocus graduate who, alongside a group of her fellow physicians, taught these high school students the proper way to suture a wound, intubate a patient and deliver a baby. Talking to the Sun before this session took place, Baldwin said she is excited to be able to provide this kind of in-person instruction again, since these complex techniques cannot be properly communicated using the online format thats dominated school curricula throughout much of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Hands-on [learning] lets them really see what things we get to do in medicine and discover the practical aspects of it, the procedural aspects," she said. "We can talk about it all we want, but theyre not going to appreciate it the same unless they get to do it themselves." KYLE DARBYSON/THE BRANDON SUN Dr. Shelby Schill shows Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School student Faith Kasprick how to properly deliver a baby during Tuesday's in-person STEM workshop. Tuesdays workshop was organized by Crocus STEM for Girls program, which was originally created by student Zeel Patel in 2018-19 to highlight career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math to underrepresented groups. Physics teacher Christopher Sarkonak, who helped Patel get STEM for Girls off the ground, said he is happy that the loosening of COVID restrictions throughout the current school year has allowed in-person events to return, even if the program survived the pivot to digital in 2021. "We managed to get some world-renowned women in science to go ahead and be our speakers [online], because the pandemic kind of freed up their schedules," Sarkonak said. "But this year we got back to doing in-person events and honestly its most successful when we have our own teachers and even local people going ahead and doing it." Even though Baldwin obtained her doctorate at the University of Saskatchewan and is pursuing a residency in Winnipeg, she still maintains a lot of direct connections to the Brandon community and Crocus specifically. Not only do her mother, father and husband work as teachers at the school, but Baldwins two younger sisters are currently enrolled as students. Baldwins sister Faith is currently the main student in charge of the STEM for Girls program and actively sought out her older sibling to lead this workshop, hoping she would inspire her fellow students to enter the medical field. "Ive always wanted to do it since age 11 or 12, probably when my sister went into university and I started seeing what she was doing," Faith said. "It really piqued my interest." With graduation on the horizon, Faith is getting ready to follow in her sisters footsteps, having enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan to study biomedical sciences. In terms of advice for students like Faith who are looking to pursue medicine in a post-secondary environment, Baldwin emphasizes the importance of adopting a holistic and community-based approach to their studies. "You want to know whats going on in the community, you want to be able to help people and you want to see the kind of life theyve been living," she said. "So volunteering, in that aspect, is really important." kdarbyson@brandonsun.com Twitter:@KyleDarbyson On Tuesday, about 50 German police raided the Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Banks asset management arm, DWS Group and sent shockwaves through the $US30 trillion ($41.8 trillion)-plus environmental, social and governance sector. DWS and the sector should, however, have seen it coming. The raid, which sparked the resignation of DWS chief executive Asoka Woehrmann within hours, was triggered by allegations last year by a former head of sustainability at DWS, Desiree Fixler, that the fund manager had made false and misleading claims about its ESG credentials. The group had claimed in 2020 that half the $US900 billion of assets it managed were invested under ESG criteria. Fixler described DWS claims as a marketing tool. The raid on Deutsche Banks asset management arm was triggered by allegations last year by a former head of sustainability at DWS, Desiree Fixler, that the fund manager had made false and misleading claims about its ESG credentials. Credit:AP DWS wouldnt be the first and wont be the last to embellish its ESG credentials to try to cash in on the tide of money flowing towards funds that invest within an ethical framework. Nor is it only fund managers who try to benefit from the trillions of dollars flowing towards ESG-labelled funds and away from companies perceived as having weak ESG characteristics, particularly on climate-related issues. ISLAMABAD, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Thursday that his country would leave no stone unturned to counter a malicious disinformation campaign against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative. "CPEC has over the years been a victim of a malicious disinformation campaign by the detractors of CPEC and China ... exploitation of extremist and ethnic elements to sabotage the construction of CPEC cannot be overruled," the speaker said while addressing the CPEC Media Forum here. The media has a responsibility to report fairly and factually on CPEC, said Ashraf, adding that there is a need for large-scale outreach efforts towards mitigating the apprehensions of local communities for those vicious propaganda campaigns. Ashraf said that a multi-dimensional outreach strategy comprising all stakeholders both from Pakistan and China is the need of the hour. "Think tanks, media and educational exchanges will also prove instrumental in this effort ... We all need to come together to ensure the success of this valuable corridor," he said. The speaker believed that through CPEC, China has given a vote of confidence in Pakistan's potential to build a better future, saying the country's pursuit of being a geo-economic hub in the region is linked with the success of CPEC. "I have witnessed the high-quality execution of the CPEC projects across the country. It is heartening that the scope of CPEC has expanded to include other priority areas including socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, and industrial and agricultural cooperation through special economic zones," he said. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic when almost every economic project in the world hit the snag, Ashraf said the professionalism and consistency through which the Chinese enterprises continued to work on CPEC have been lauded by the international community. On the occasion, Pang Chunxue, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, said that China and Pakistan need to encourage the strengthening of narrative building and join hands in combating fake news regarding CPEC. The media of China and Pakistan will have to play a more active role as a bridge, telling true stories of China-Pakistan cooperation, and consolidating "the all-weather friendship between the iron brothers", she added. Its beginning to look a bit like the late 1990s. Labor has appointed Matt Thistlethwaite as assistant minister for the republic, with a referendum on Australias head of state on the cards for a potential second term. A new government and an ageing Queen could spell trouble for Australias monarchists. And while its early days, so far its the republican side with all the firepower ex-Socceroo turned human rights advocate Craig Foster is the latest big name to throw his weight behind a republic push which counts Peter FitzSimons and Malcolm Turnbull as key supporters. Members of the Australian Monarchist League, including Philip Benwell (second from left), at a gathering in Sydneys Paddington in April Credit:Steven Siewert Meanwhile, its all looking a bit pale, male and stale on the side of constitutional monarchy, with many of its staunchest defenders ageing into obscurity when did anyone last listen to David Flint? But the monarchists insist theyre not panicking, and they believe a youthful silent majority could be won over to the Crown. The Secret of Emu Field by Elizabeth Tynan HISTORY The Secret of Emu Field Elizabeth Tynan NewSouth $34.99 While on research, I visited the Polygon, an area in remote north-eastern Kazakhstan where the USSR conducted hundreds of nuclear tests. It was late summer and the battered earth was carpeted in wildflowers. The situation in our rump-sprung four-wheel drive had become tense. Our guide, a former Soviet nuclear physicist, baulked at a question asking whether the Polygon had been evacuated of Kazakh tribespeople before testing had begun. Incensed, he turned to me: You are from Australia, no? Why dont you research about the British and the Aboriginals in South Australia?! So I did and stumbled onto my own ignorance that, although no defence, is shared by too many Australians. If given the reception it deserves, Elizabeth Tynans new book, The Secret of Emu Field, will help plug this gap. Totem 1 and Totem 2 were two British nuclear tests performed at Emu Field, South Australia, in October 1953. They have all but vanished from our popular memory, drowned out by the larger tests performed 200 kilometres up the road at Maralinga. Yet, they remain an important chapter in Australias Cold War story which, faithful to the genre, still has details redacted from the public record. Matthew Reilly has lost count of the number of stories he has had optioned by Hollywood with the promise of a big-budget action movie to follow. Oh my God, at least eight, he says, before rattling off the projects Ice Station, Seven Wonders, Tournament, Hover Car Racer and the studios (Warner, Fox, Disney, Sony) that have tempted him with the promise of bringing his bestselling novels to the screen. Which was, famously, the reason he started writing them in the first place. Matthew Reilly on the set of his film Interceptor. Credit:Nick Moir Now, the 47-year-old best-selling Australian author has finally made it with Interceptor, a $US15 million ($21 million) action blockbuster for Netflix that looks like it cost a lot more than that. And best of all, he not only wrote this one he directed it too. The film stars Elsa Pataky as an army officer assigned to a missile platform in the middle of the ocean as punishment for blowing the whistle on sexual harassment. The base is hijacked by terrorists who plan to launch 16 stolen Russian nukes at the US. Panic, mayhem and a whole lot of action all standard-issue Reilly ingredients ensue. East Timor will sign agreements with Beijing covering air services, healthcare, economic and technical cooperation, ending Foreign Minister Wang Yis tour of the region with a swag of deals in Australias closest neighbour. Landing in Dili on Friday afternoon, Wang was expected to sign off on the pacts driven by East Timorese Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak who is looking to leverage infrastructure investment from Australia, Japan and China. Timorese government figures confirmed the deal would also include an agreement with Chinese state TV to digitise the countrys national radio and television services, expanding Chinas reach just as the ABC prepares to step up its presence in the Pacific. Wang left Papua New Guinea on Thursday after committing to buying more gas from PNG, and helping Port Moresby with green development, as well as COVID-19 and anti-narcotics programs. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who flew to Samoa and Tonga this week, urged Pacific Island nations to consider their independence, debt levels and regional security before signing any deal with Beijing. Chinas aggressive push into the Pacific has put some countries offside. On Friday, Tonga - which is heavily indebted to Chinas infrastructure bank - became the latest country to raise concerns about attempts to shape the regional order. Samoa and New Zealand had criticised Chinas approach on Thursday. Read more: Beijing targets East Timor, four deals set to be signed An elderly couple perished in a house fire in Sydneys west on Friday morning as a result of a faulty refrigerator. Emergency services arrived at the single-storey house in Glendenning on Armitage Drive, near Mount Druitt, at 4.45am and found it alight. The 74-year-old woman was pulled from the bedroom of the house, and she died at the scene while NSW Ambulance paramedics attempted CPR. As Fire and Rescue crews attempted to save the wheelchair-bound 77-year-old man, the roof of the house began to cave in. His body was later recovered. A physiotherapist who sexually assaulted two clients on the same day in separate consultations at his practice in Brisbanes inner north has been jailed. Scott Alexander Stuart Mackay caused caused irreparable damage to the trust of those two patients, the judge found. Credit:Facebook Scott Alexander Stuart Mackay, 48, was found guilty by jury of two counts of sexual assault after a trial in Brisbane District Court this week. Mackay was found not guilty of a count of rape. The offences occurred in January 2019 at his physiotherapy practice in Windsor. That business was initially for sale, but Mackay had since given it away because of the case against him. A court has been told of rumours that some Queensland police officers refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine to avoid being assigned to border patrol work. The speculation was heard during the week-long trial for parties opposed to the state vaccine mandates, with two cases brought by Queensland Police Service workers and the other by Queensland Ambulance Service staff. Queensland police officers at the Griffith Street border checkpoint in Coolangatta in August 2021. (File image) Credit:Chris Hyde - Getty Images Lawyers representing the objecting police employees and ambulance staff outlined their cases on Monday. The states top cop, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, was grilled on Wednesday. In total, 61 QPS and 12 QAS workers are involved. Other similar vaccine mandate challenges are ongoing in Queensland courts, but not at the trial stage. The board of Star casino is only now grasping the extent of its unsuitable associations and uncontrolled money laundering risks because of a revealing public review, lawyers for the inquiry say. Directors of the embattled casino group should have picked up on multiple signals and asked more questions, as scandal engulfed Stars only Australian competitor, Crown Resorts, it was claimed during the inquirys hearing on Thursday. Naomi Sharp, SC, counsel assisting the inquiry into The Star. There is a tension here because we have senior management which is not adequately reporting to the board, but at the same time, a board that is not engaging in active stewardship and being curious, suggested counsel assisting the inquiry Naomi Sharp, SC. Thats the dynamic here and part of the culture of the organisation. When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his ministry this week, one appointment jumped out to many observers: Matt Thistlethwaite, assistant minister for the republic. For the first time, a government MP has been given official responsibility for shepherding the country towards embracing a native head of state. By a quirk of fate, it was just as Buckingham Palace prepared to host lavish celebrations for Queen Elizabeths Platinum Jubilee. Assistant minister Matt Thistlethwaite says the republic is a two-term proposition for Labor. Credit:James Brickwood Albanese will light a beacon for the Queen in Canberra on Thursday night as part of Jubilee celebrations occurring throughout the Commonwealth. Peter FitzSimons, chair of the Australian Republic Movement, said republicans felt joyous about Thistlethwaites appointment after having little to celebrate since the crushing defeat of the 1999 referendum. Singapore: Beijing has put one of its key Pacific partners offside by attempting to push through a security deal and threatened New Zealand for supporting opposition to the regional agreement. As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi enters the final stages of his 10-day Pacific tour, Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Mataafa accused China of attempting to ram through a Pacific-wide trade, policing and security deal without enough time for consultation. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, right, holds a joint press conference with Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa in Apia, Samoa. Our position was you cannot have regional agreements if the region has not met to discuss it, Mataafa said. To be called into discussion and have an expectation that there will be an outcome was something we could not agree to. Mataafa, who became prime minister in May, also revealed that many of the deals signed by her and Wang on Saturday which spanned climate change, economic recovery and police fingerprinting were already in place. Most of them have started a number of years ago, and it was the formalising process which is a normal process, she said. It just seemed a bit abnormal because the [Chinese] Minister of Foreign Affairs is here. SEOUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's ruling People Power Party won a sweeping victory in local elections, election watchdog data showed Thursday. The governing party won 12 out of 17 races for metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, including the capital Seoul, the west port city of Incheon, the southeast port city of Busan, and Gyeongsang provinces, a stronghold for the conservative bloc, according to the National Election Commission. The main opposition Democratic Party won the remaining five races for mayors and governors, including Gyeonggi province and Jeolla province, home turf of the liberal bloc. Out of the 226 races to elect local council chiefs, the People Power Party won 145 seats, with the Democratic Party garnering 63. Seventeen independent candidates won 17 races. The People Power Party won five parliamentary seats out of the seven by-elections, and the Democratic Party gained the remaining two. It came less than a month after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office on May 10. All of the Democratic Party leaders decided to quit the interim leadership committee to take responsibility for the election defeat. Major manufacturers warn thousands of local jobs are at risk unless gas is held back from being exported as the Albanese government calls emergency meetings with Queenslands gas producers and state ministers to address spiking energy prices. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Thursday declared there were already positive signs for Australias gas supply outlook, but pledged to take necessary action to help businesses overcome a perfect storm that has sent east-coast energy prices soaring. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says hes holding emergency talks with state ministers and gas producers. Credit:James Brickwood. Wholesale power and gas prices have been surging across the eastern seaboard as a result of cold weather driving up demand for heating, a series of outages at coal-fired power stations and spiking commodity prices because of the war in Ukraine. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) this week imposed a rarely used price limit on wholesale gas prices and issued a warning of dangerously low reserves in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Tulsa, Oklahoma: A gunman who killed four people and then himself at an Oklahoma medical building on Wednesday (US time) had gone there to kill a doctor who he blamed for back pain felt after surgery, authorities have revealed. The suspect entered a building on Tulsas St Francis Health System campus with a semi-automatic weapon he had bought earlier in the day and opened fire at anyone he encountered, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said during a news briefing. Two doctors and two other people were killed. Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at the St Francis Health System campus earlier this week. Credit:Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP The suspect came in with the intent to kill Dr [Preston] Phillips and anyone who came in his way, Franklin said. Authorities found a letter on the gunman that made it clear the attack was targeted. Phillips, 59, the surgeon who treated Lewis, was killed along with Dr Stephanie Husen, a 48-year-old sports medicine specialist. Latest News Westpac lifts variable interest rate First of the big four banks to move How are Australians reacting to second rate rise? Home loan enquiries running hot, group says The popularity of suburbs an hour away from states and territories central business districts is climbing, as more people look into staying in the area instead of buying a unit there to break into the housing market. Data from PropTrack has recently shown South Australia to be the most affordable state for homes less than 40km from the city. Elizabeth South, just 21km from Adelaide, features homes with a median sale price of only $221,068. In Elizabeth Vale, likewise 21km from the CBD, the median sale price for a unit is $146,173. For 12 months Ive been looking for either other rentals or to buy, but with the cost of rentals it makes more sense to just buy and pay your own mortgage, accountant manager Kellie Walduck told news.com.au on her recent purchase of a home in Elizabeth Vale for $340,000. Now, she claims, you couldnt pay me enough to live in the city. Her home is close to shopping centres, schools, and ample public transport. The unit itself has huge backyard space, decent[-sized bedrooms], and a lock-up garage, a safety feature Walduck deemed important as a single mom with a toddler. Mortgage Choice broker Caroline Jean-Baptiste said a property in the suburbs that failed to tick every box would still be desirable for other factors, such as being a new suburb, having a good school, or being affordable. Still, she said that buyers need to be realistic when buying their first homes, calling them a stepping stone into the property market. And once youre in the market, it becomes easier to upgrade to your dream home, she told news.com.au. Investors also look in [homes an hour from each states CBD], because rental yields on the outskirts of cities tend to be much greater than they are closer into the city centre, said PropTrack director for economic research Cameron Kusher. COVID has also driven some people who already own homes to move to these areas, if they are looking for that lifestyle, but also dont need to go back into the office as regularly as they used to. But demand has pushed prices higher in these outer suburbs over the last five years. They have increased in popularity and since the onset of the pandemic we have seen more affordable suburbs in most cities outperform, in terms of price growth, in the areas closer into the city, Kusher said. UNITED NATIONS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Wednesday granted Turkey's request to change its name from Turkey to Turkiye, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters. The change came into force immediately at the time when the world body received a letter from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the UN chief with a request to change the country's name, the spokesman said. Cavusoglu reportedly said that the change in the spelling was adopted as part of the steps aimed at increasing the country's prestige in the international arena. A week after opening bookings for its much-anticipated first in the Indian market at an initial price of Rs 3 lakh, Kia is now set to launch the EV6 in the country on Thursday, June 2. This will take the count of Kia models in India to five, with the firm having previously launched Seltos, Sonet, Carnival and Carens. This premium EV model by Kia will be in the league of Volvo XC40 Recharge and Hyundai Ioniq 5, say reports. Let's take a look at some specifications and the likely price. Kia EV6 specifications The Kia EV6 will spot a decent 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system together with a 12.3-inch driver display. It will be equipped with wireless charging, a three-pin socket, and electric sunroof. The car will offer good safety features as it comes with the ADAS system. Kia EV6 will be available in two variants, namely GT and GT-Line AWD. One of the most significant differences between the two is that the GT version has a maximum output of 229 hp and 350 Nm torque, while GT-Line AWD is the more powerful version, capable of a maximum output of 347 hp and 605 Nm torque. Based on the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), which is an EV platform by Hyundai Group, Kia EV6 will come with a 77.4 kWh battery. According to the WLTP cycle, it will offer about 528 km on a single charge. The Kia EV6 can go from zero to 100 kmph in just 3.5 seconds and its top speed is estimated to be 192 kmph. Kia EV6 Price in India The Korean carmaker is offering the vehicle in India as a Completely Built-up Unit (CBU) initially, and will only sell 100 units of EV6 this year. These will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The Kia EV6 ex-showroom price in India will likely be around Rs 60 lakh. The company will reveal the official price tomorrow. India on Thursday forayed into the electric vehicle segment in the country with the launch of EV6, priced at Rs 59.95 lakh (ex-showroom). Built on a dedicated EV platform -- the electric-global modular platform (E-GMP), the EV6 marks the beginning of Kia's EV journey in the country. The model would be available in two trims -- priced at Rs 59.95 lakh and Rs 64.95 lakh respectively. Speaking at the launch, India Managing Director and CEO Tae-Jin Park said the company will invest in scaling up its presence in the EV sector. The company's parent, Corporation has already announced investment of around USD 22.22 billion in its business operations over the next five years. A part of this investment will be made in developing products that will be sold in India and in setting up infrastructure. "We are fully capable of manufacturing EVs for India. The company is evaluating various battery (BEVs) for the market," Park said. The company plans to bring an India centric EV by 2025, he noted. As part of its EV journey in the country, the company plans to introduce various body styles to cater to both mass market and premium segments. "The diverse customer base of India inspires us, and our strategy is to be in sync with their aspirations, and our efforts are targeted towards fulfilling the evolved customers' needs. Now, we are ready for the next phase of our India journey with our investment in R&D, manufacturing, and development of EV infrastructure in India," Park noted. The company will offer futuristic and sustainable BEVs developed ground up to offer matchless in-cabin experience, long-range to reduce range anxiety, he added. "Our EV announcement for the country which includes an India centric BEV in RV body type to be launched in 2025, is a testament to our commitment towards India and our new-age Indian customers by providing them with a sheer electric performance in the future," Park said. The aggressive push from the Indian government towards a sustainable future of the country supports the company's move to electric vehicles, an industry which is still at the nascent stage in the country, he noted. Commenting on EV6 launch, he said the product will be a gamechanger as its other products which are there in the country. "With its eco-friendly materials, advanced technology, and highly efficient electrified powertrain, the EV6 is not just another product but a demonstration of our technological prowess and capabilities," Park said. Kia will sell the EV6 through 15 dealerships across 12 cities. The dealerships would be equipped with 150 kw fast chargers. The company noted that it has received 355 bookings for the model so far. "We are now planning to increase the numbers," Kia India Chief Sales Officer Myong-sik Sohn stated. The company had earlier announced that only 100 units of EV6, which comes as a completely built unit (CBU), would be available for sales in India this year. On a single full charge, the EV6 can travel up to 528 kilometres and can sprint from 0-100 km/h in just 5.2 seconds. The vehicle can be charged from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in as little as 18 minutes using a 350KWh charger. It comes with an all-wheel drive (AWD) system (in select trims), sunroof, multiple drive modes, forward collision avoidance assist, lane keep assist and over 60 connected features. Globally, Kia plans to accelerate its EV transition, aiming to be the world's leading EV maker with plans to expand its BEV line-up to 14 models by 2027. Furthermore, Kia Corporation aspires to sell 1.2 million BEVs by 2030. Kia Corporation is targeting a 6.6 per cent global EV market share and 25 per cent share of its sales from eco-friendly vehicles by the end of 2025. (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 Emirate of is keen on housing more Indian startups in its 'Hub71' ecosystem after having already met with some successes, officials said. Hub71 is designed as an ecosystem which can help startups across sectors in all its needs, from getting them access to venture funding to finding the right talent, the government media office (ADGMO) said. In the last one year, the platform has attracted and supported startups at different stages of growth from sectors such as fintech, artificial intelligence, software development and healthtech from many countries, including India. At present, it has 100 startups from 25 countries from 18 sectors, which also include enterprises from robotics, big data analytics, mobility and logistics, the statement from the emirate said. Used car-focused Cars24 was the first Indian company to move into the space and is already the largest used car platform in the United Arab Emirates having a valuation of USD 1.84 billion and revenues of over USD 600 million, it said, adding that three more startups, whose founders are from India, have also set shop at the facility. Giving a peek into its focus going forward, the statement said, "We are also open to supporting visionary founders from India in securing opportunities that will boost their growth prospects in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and vice versa." The three other startups with Indian founders include Arcab, Hafla and Funder AI, the statement said. Arcab, a mobility service that is transforming the commute to work using shared vans. The company works with 40-plus operators, including Europcar, Avis and Dubai Taxi corporation with over 3,000-plus buses in its supply pool. Hafla is the world's first Artificial Intelligence-based event ideation, recommendation and aggregated sourcing platform for venues, equipment, services, and catering, with a team of approximately 50 employees. Funder Al, a digital financing platform for SMEs and Salaried Personnel with a team of approximately 10 employees, is also part of our community, it said. Backed by Mubadala, which is like a sovereign wealth fund of UAE, Hub71 is aiming to fuel the country's aspirations of becoming an 'Entrepreneurial Nation' by 2031. The aggregate valuation of Hub71 startups is at AED (Emirati Dirham) 5.87 billion and it has created close to 1,000 jobs since its inception in 2019. "Hub71's strong performance in 2021 exemplifies the enabling business environment that we have established in . We aim to position technology for growth, and our priority remains to enable a flexible and favourable business environment that supports creative ideas and scales solutions to address society's most pressing challenges," said Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, chairman of Hub71. (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.) With Tata Motors subsidiary taking over Fords passenger vehicle (PV) manufacturing unit at Sanand in Gujarat, uncertainty over the future of Fords Maraimalai Nagar unit in Tamil Nadu continues, with workers protesting on Thursday demanding a better severance package. There are over 2,000 employees working at the unit. On Thursday, there was a meeting between agitating employees and the state labour department. The workers started protests at the Chennai unit after Tata Passenger Electric Mobility signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with India and the Government of Gujarat for acquisition of Fords PV manufacturing plant at Sanand. The management is reportedly going for a loss of pay option for the striking employees. We continue to remain engaged with employees and union representatives on all outstanding matters, including compensation. As we hold dialogues, we continue to have all manufacturing employees on the rolls in Chennai, said a India executive. The employees at the Chennai unit had started protests on Monday after a deal was signed for the Sanand unit takeover. According to the state government, it is still looking at various options regarding the future of the plant. Motor Company announced in September last year it was shutting its factories in India. A total of 4,000 employees at both units were expected to get directly affected because of the decision. Protesters indicated they would continue with the stir as long as demands regarding their future and compensation package are not met. A company source said unions and employees have to agree to an expressed assurance on peaceful dialogue minus disruption. They chose to instead sit outside and not give us that assurance. We want to ensure everyones safety, he added. According to Ford, no steps are being taken to affect the jobs of protesting employees. Although the engine plant at the unit was shut during the first quarter of the current year, employees from the unit are still on company rolls. The Chennai unit is spread across 350 acres and has an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and 340,000 engines. The site was known for manufacturing the EcoSport and the Endeavour. It had seen investments of $1 billion and at one time, exported cars to 37 countries. After an initial round of protests, the unions went silent because of speculation that Tata Motors may take over the Tamil Nadu unit. Later, there were reports that may use the facility as part of its ambitious electric vehicle plan in India after applying for a production-linked incentive scheme. A source in the Government of Tamil Nadu said several rounds of talks are on regarding the future of the Ford unit. was suffering operating losses of $2 billion in India. This led to the exit of the company from manufacturing in India. It had only around 1-2 per cent market share in India before the announcement. The Mittal family is in talks with several investment banks, via promoter entities, to raise Rs 15,500 crore through onshore/offshore credit lines, according to a report in Economic Times. The money will be used to buy a portion of Singapore Telecommunications' (Singtel's) holding in . As ET reported, Mittals are in talks with some major banks like BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan, and to raise over $2 billion. Mittals and own 50.56 per cent and 49.44 per cent, respectively, of Bharti Telecom. Bharti Telecom holds 35.85 per cent stake in . In addition to this, and the Mittal family directly hold 14 per cent and 6.04 per cent, respectively, in through investment firms. In totality, the Mittal family holds 24.13 per cent in Bharti Airtel, while owns 31.72 per cent. Singtel has been a stakeholder in Bharti Airtel since 2000. In late May, Moody's Investors Service upgraded Bharti Airtel's rating to Baa3, citing continued strengthening of its operational metrics as well as stabilisation of the financial profile. It has withdrawn the company's Ba1 corporate family rating. Moody's has also changed the outlook for the company to stable from positive. Bharti's Baa3 rating considers the company's position as one of the largest telecom service operators globally in terms of subscribers (491 million), its solid market position in India's high-growth mobile market and its large spectrum holdings, a statement by Moody's said. The company had posted more than two-fold jump in consolidated net profit for March quarter 2021-22 to Rs 2,008 crore, buoyed by a lift in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain. on Thursday said its board had approved an investment of Rs 12,886 crore ($1.66 billion) to increase the cement maker's annual capacity by 22.6 mtpa with a mix of brownfield and greenfield expansion. This would be achieved by setting up integrated and grinding units as well as bulk terminals. The additional capacity will be created across the country. Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said: "This ambitious capacity expansion plan is a significant milestone in the ongoing transformational growth journey of UltraTech. The company has more than doubled its capacity over the last five years and is committed to meeting India's future needs for housing, roads, and other infrastructure. "This investment is backed by a strong conviction on India's growth potential as well as a deep and nuanced understanding of the market dynamics of the cement industry. Given the size of the investment outlay, I am confident that this new capacity creation will have a multiplier effect leading to jobs and growth across multiple regions in India." Commercial production from these new capacities is expected to go on stream in a phased manner by FY25. UltraTech's current expansion program is on track and estimated to be completed by the end of FY23, it said. Upon completion of the latest round of expansion, the company's capacity will grow to 159.25 mtpa, reinforcing its position as the third largest cement company in the world, outside of China, it said in a stock exchange filing. The investment comes at a time when last month Holcim India's swiss parent company had signed a binding agreement with the Adani Group to sell its business in India in a deal estimated to be around $10.5 billion. Adani Group, owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, currently has no cement-making operations but said the firms were a good fit given its ports and logistics, energy and real estate businesses. Under the deal, Adani Group will pay $6.4 billion in cash to acquire Switzerland-based Holcim's 63.1% stake in Ambuja Cements Ltd and 54.5% holding in ACC Ltd, Holcim said. The rest of the companies' shares will be bought via an open offer, Adani said in a separate statement. UltraTech has 22 integrated manufacturing units, 27 grinding units, one clinkerisation unit and 8 bulk packaging terminals. It has a network of over 100,000 channel partners across the country and has a market reach of more than 80%. Its nearest rival was Holcim India, which had a combined installed production capacity of 70 mtpa. Gujarat-based electric two-wheeler maker WardWizard Innovations on Thursday said it has recorded over a three-fold jump year-on-year in to 2,055 units in May, driven by the growth in the low-speed category. The company, which sells its two-wheelers under the 'Joy e-bike' brand, had sold 479 vehicles in the market in May last year, it said in a statement. WardWizard Innovations also announced that it will commence deliveries of its high-speed scooters this month. The company, early this year, made its entry into the high-speed scooter segment by launching three scooter models -- Wolf+, Gen Next Nanu+ and Del Go. Del Go caters to the fleet management segment. "WardWizard Innovations and Mobility Ltd sold 2,055 units of e-two-wheelers in May 2022, clocking a growth of 329 per cent as compared to 479 units sold in May 2021," the company said in the statement. "As the demand for electric mobility witnesses substantial growth across the country, we are also expanding our operations. With our entry into the high-speed scooter segment, we are focusing on this category too," said Yatin Gupte, Chairman and Managing Director, Wardwizard Innovations and Mobility Ltd. Last month, the EV maker signed an initial pact with Singapore-based renewable energy management consulting firm Sunkonnect to set up a Li-ion advance cells manufacturing unit at its electric vehicle ancillary cluster in Vadodara. The collaboration is aimed at facilitating a feasibility study and identification of potential partners, it said. "We have streamlined and strategised our production, beginning with the deliveries of our new high-speed scooter models in a phased manner from June," Gupte said. The production of these models has already begun at the company's Vadodara manufacturing facility, 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.) More than 2,000 workers are on at automaker Ford's plant here leading to halting of production at the facility since May 30, sources said on Thursday. The workers are demanding better compensation. "We have been on since Monday and there has been no production at the unit since then. We have asked for a better compensation package which the management is not willing to accept...," a workers' union official told PTI. According to the union official, some employees have been sitting on inside the sprawling facility at Maraimalai Nagar, which is about 40 kilometres from here, while others are protesting outside the unit. "This time, we have decided to go ahead with the strike as the severance package will take at least 15 days to settle. And June 30 is expected to be the last working day, we have resorted to the strike in advance," he said. When contacted, a Ford spokesperson told PTI that the halt in production since Monday in the vehicle assembly plant is "unfortunate" against the backdrop of ongoing discussions with union representatives on all outstanding matters, including 'compensation'. "Given the ongoing nature of the discussions with the union, we may not be able to share details at this point and will have more to share later," the spokesperson said. The employees had staged a protest seeking better pay soon after the car major, in September 2021, announced that it would stop vehicle production at its two plants -- Sanand in Gujarat and Maraimalai Nagar near in Tamil Nadu -- as part of its restructuring exercise. An employee said the negotiations with the management were going on at "snail's pace". "Since there is a doubt whether all their demands will be fully accepted, we have joined the strike...," he said. According to another employee, the demand is for payment for 300 days as compensation, but management may negotiate it and settle for less. "They (management) want the settlement package to be much lower, which is contrary to our demand. But due to the strike, we hope they may change their stand" he said. According to industry sources, the Tamil Nadu government expected that the Ford's plant would be taken over by another automaker, but there has been no positive results so far, leading to uncertainty over the future of the workers. Recently, Tata Motors announced the signing of a tripartite pact with Ford and the Gujarat government to acquire the American auto major's vehicle manufacturing unit at Sanand. (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.) 'Samrat Prithviraj' - a Bollywood movie starring which releases on Friday will be tax free in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami made the announcement on Thursday. Sharing the information on social media, the Chief Minister said,"People must see this film based on the life of emperor Prithviraj Chauhan and full of the spirit of patriotism and valour." The film with and Manushi Chillar in lead roles releases in the theatres on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh and have also declared the movie tax-free. (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.) Hong Kong: Stranded vehicle measures extended The facilitation measures for cross-boundary vehicles with expired Hong Kong vehicle licences to be returned to the city from the Mainland or Macau for examinations and licence renewal will be extended to December 31, the Transport Department announced today. The measures were rolled out last December and allow cross-boundary vehicles stranded in the Mainland or Macau to return to Hong Kong for vehicle examinations and renewal of Hong Kong vehicle licences from December 27 last year to June 30 this year. Eligible cross-boundary vehicles may be driven back to the city on a specified date via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) port along a designated route to a specified car park or location in the HZMB Hong Kong Port for parking. The vehicle may then be transferred through a self-arranged towing service to a local designated car testing centre for examination prior to the licence renewal. Vehicle owners should apply to the department two weeks ahead of the planned date of return. The approved vehicle should be driven by a designated driver who has successfully made an appointment under the Return2hk or Come2hk Scheme on the date specified in the approval letter. As a daily limit is set for the number of returning vehicles, car owners should submit their applications as early as possible in person or through an agent by email, post or via a drop-in box. The department will publish a notice in the gazette to exempt the cross-boundary vehicles approved to return to Hong Kong on a specified date from the regulations on vehicle registration and licensing. Call 2804 2600 for enquiries. This story has been published on: 2022-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese language contest held in Czech Republic Xinhua) 08:28, June 02, 2022 PRAGUE, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Czech national qualifications for the 15th "Chinese Bridge" -- Chinese Proficiency Competition for foreign secondary school students -- were held here on Wednesday. Six students participated in the event organized by the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic. Martin Wojdyla from the International School of Prague won the competition and will represent the Czech Republic at the finals. Meanwhile, a Chinese show for primary school students in the Czech Republic was also held. Solo Uniacke from the Riverside School won the top award. Addressing the event, Zhang Maoming, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic, noted that the "Chinese Bridge" competition, as the world's most authoritative Chinese proficiency competition, has become well-known for promoting international people-to-people and cultural exchanges. The active participation here demonstrates people's enthusiasm for the Chinese language as well as their interest in Chinese culture, he said. Last month, the "Chinese Bridge" -- Chinese Proficiency Competition for Czech college students was held at the Institute of Technology and Business in Ceske Budejovice in the country. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) My boyfriend broke up with me in the last week of the last term of journalism school and it was ugly. I received his text message on a Sunday evening, and I spent a better part of the night crying over the phone to my best friend. The tears flowed long after the goodnights were exchanged. I tried pulling myself together for class on Monday, but a simple question like How was your weekend? triggered another round of tears. I must have looked like a wreck, walking around campus with swollen eyes and tissues balled up in my fists. Questions like, Why would he do this to me? and What did I do wrong? went through my mind. In my eyes, I had been nothing but the sweetest girlfriend any person could hope to have. I remembered every single birthday and anniversary, and was always ready to lend him an ear whenever he was feeling down. But the reality was, we were not suited for each other. We both had different life goals, and had different ways of pursuing them. I had plans of working and travelling overseas, while he was quite happy to continue living in New Zealand. I was irritated by what I felt was a lack of ambition and direction on his part, while he found me spoilt and over-reliant on people. Unfortunately, I was blind to our differences. I was a young and naive 23-year-old who could not see anything beyond the tip of my nose. So I got angry when things did not work out. I thought I was unlucky in love, and that happiness was meant for other people. You see, a year before I started this relationship, I had just got out of another relationship which had ended when I found out my then-boyfriend had been unfaithful to me. By the time he called it quits, I was exhausted, angry, and sick and tired of being hurt. I wanted to re-arrange his face as if it was a Mr Potato Head toy, and at one point, I even flew to Australia to visit friends and family simply because I couldnt bear to be in the same country as him. No wonder author Greg Behrendt in Its Called A Breakup Because Its Broken said, Being brokenhearted is like having broken ribs. On the outside it looks like nothing is wrong, but every breath hurts. Are you in a similar situation as I was? Let me share a few tips that I hope youll find useful. 1) Take your pain to God I cant even begin to tell you how many nights I had spent face down on my bed and all I could offer God between my tears was a simple, Dear God. . ., but couldnt find the strength to finish my prayer. Ill also be honest and admit it was the pain of the breakup which forced me to look to God. C.S. Lewis said, Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Likewise, my pain was Gods way of pulling me back to Him. So I turned to Him and cried my heart out like I would to my earthly father in times of sadness. I found great comfort in Psalm chapter 147, verse 3, in which the psalmist declares, He [God] heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. When I felt like I was truly alone after my latest breakup, I was also comforted by John chapter 16, verse 32, which described Jesus loneliness and His full assurance that God was with Him. A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home, He told his disciples. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. Dont be tempted to go for quick fixes like a strong drink, alternative medicine, or the arms of another person. They can not only be risky, but also leave you feeling even more vulnerable. Rather, go for true healing: God, the Master Healer, is near to the brokenhearted, and is more than able to nurse your broken heart back to wholeness. 2) Remember you are loved by God The days following the breakup process were most challenging. I felt that I was unattractive, that I didnt matter, and that I was a pawn in someones chess game. I wanted to eat potato chips all day long and wallow in my misery. Negative thoughts became my constant companion, invading my head with ideas like, If only I was prettier, smarter, held a glamorous job One day, as I was busy lamenting to God about how unloved I felt, I sensed God say to me, But youve forgotten. I love you. That was a pretty big revelation for me. While I grew up singing Sunday school songs such as Jesus Loves Me, I never really understood just how much He loves me. But at that moment, in my weakest, and probably my ugliest (lets face it, I was in my pyjamas with my messy bed hair, and snivelling away like a broken dam), I felt a calm assurance that Jesus still loves me. In that instant, all the thoughts of inadequacy and the insecurities I felt since the breakup went away. Can I encourage you not to define yourself by your breakup, and see yourself the way God sees you? Your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend might have failed to appreciate your worth, but to God, you are precious and honored (Isaiah chapter 43, verse 4), you are complete in Him (Colossians chapter 2, verse 10), and you are His workmanship, created to do good things (Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10). Remember who you are in Christ, and that you are greatly loved by God (Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4). 3) Look forward to the future It can be tempting to reminisce about your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend, but this can hinder you from moving forward. I deleted every text message and email, and threw out every present my ex-boyfriend gave me. But I hung on to a Peter Rabbit stuffed toy, because I just could not bear to give the wee rabbit away. And I also found myself listening to songs with breakup themeson repeat. The Bible tells us to forget what lies behind, and to press on towards what is ahead (Philippians chapter 3, verse 13). So I forced myself to stop dwelling on the past, and used the time to re-prioritize my commitments. I decided to spend more time with God, and to look forward to the start of my working life as a journalist. I also started thanking God for the breakup. You knew all along this relationship would eventually end, I told God, You hold my world in Your hands. It was comforting to know that God foresaw the breakup (Psalms chapter 139, verse 16), and had allowed it to happen, because He had better things in store for me. At that point, I didnt know what the better things were, but I blindly clung on to His promises knowing He is God and He cares. 4) Count your blessings Time crawled to a standstill when I was working through my breakup. The days were long, and the nights even longer. People say time heals all wounds, but time seemed to pass too slowly for me. During this difficult transition period, I found it useful to keep myself busy. I kept busy by counting my blessings, and that was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. When I had a boyfriend, it was so easy to be grateful for life, and to feel blessed. Thank you God for a boyfriend, for family, for friends who love me. But when it was taken away (the boyfriend, not the family and friends), I had to make a conscientious effort to be thankful for the little things. I kept a diary listing the things I was grateful for on a daily basis. I thanked God for being able to go to the movies with my friends, lunch and dinners with my family, a new skirt (if I had gone shopping that day). For me, having to count my blessings stopped me from reverting into a state of anger, bitterness, and resentment. It can seem like a bit of a cliche to be told to count your blessings but Bible says we are to give thanks in everything, for this is Gods will for us in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18). It doesnt mean we have to start jumping in joy, telling everyone how glad our partner has broken up with us; for me, it meant maintaining an attitude of gratitude and quietly thanking God for being with me during the difficult time. 5) Forgive the other party Ill be absolutely honest with you and admit that I did not want to forgive my ex-boyfriend. Forgiving him felt like I was giving him a jail-free card, and really, why should I give him that privilege? Then I remembered a conversation I had with God while praying over a scholarship which would allow me to work in a Beijing newspaper for three months. I was telling God how much I really, really wanted the scholarship, and God said, But you must first forgive your ex-boyfriend. No way was I doing that, I replied. But the Holy Spirit reminded me of Mark chapter 11, verse 25, And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. I resented the idea of having to forgive my ex-boyfriend, but I knew it had to be done. I didnt exactly rush out with my arms wide open, ready to hug my ex-boyfriend with a warm embrace, telling him I had forgiven him. For me, forgiving him meant I had to slowly let go of any resentment I had harbored towards him in my heart. I knew I couldnt call myself a Christian if I couldnt find it within myself to forgive someone who had hurt me. I was glad I forgave him because a few weeks later, I received an email offering me the scholarship to Beijing. I believe God was testing me and building my character at the same time. He wanted me to forgive others as He has forgiven me (Matthew chapter 6, verse 14), love my enemies (Luke chapter 6, verse 27), and to bless those who hurt me (Luke chapter 6, verse 28). Breakups are hard, messy, and take a big toll on your emotions. The good news is, these dark nights will not last forever. Youll get through them, even if its hard to see past the current pain at the moment. But remember, God loves you and cares for you. Missionary Frank Laubach once said, Christ is interested in every trifle, because He loves us more intimately than a mother loves her babe. Originally published on YMI at https://ymi.today/2016/04/how-to-get-over-a-breakup/. Republished with permission. Terrorists shot dead a bank employee from inside the bank premises in Kashmir's Kulgam district on Thursday, the eighth targeted killing in the Valley since May 1 and the third of a non-Muslim government employee. Vijay Kumar, a manager with the Ellaqui Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora branch in the south Kashmir district, received grievous gunshot injuries and died on his way to hospital, officials said. The latest killing led to a chorus of condemnation from political parties across the spectrum, including the National Conference and the BJP. Kumar, a resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan, had joined the Kulgam branch only a week ago. He had earlier been working in the Kokernag branch of the bank, co-owned by the Central government, the administration and the State Bank of India. Security forces have cordoned off the area and a hunt has been launched to nab the attackers, the officials said. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condemned the killing of the resident and said the NDA government has failed to restore peace in Kashmir. "The killing of Mr Vijay Kumar, a resident of Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, working in Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir, by terrorists is highly condemnable. I pray to God to give peace to his soul and courage to his family," Gehlot tweeted. , Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) June 2, 2022 Congress also condemned the killing and lashed out at the Centre for its alleged failure to ensure safety and security of the people. "The incident calls for urgent and effective measures to save innocent lives in Kashmir," said Ravinder Sharma, chief spokesperson, Pradesh Congress Committee. Terming the security situation in kashmir "very grim", he said how long will the nation tolerate the targeted killing of innocents, especially minorities in the valley, contrary to the claims of normalcy in kashmir by the Centre and Union Territory administration. Two days ago, on May 31, Rajni Bala, a Hindu woman teacher from Jammu's Samba district, was shot dead by terrorists at a government school in Gopalpora, Kulgam. On May 12, Rahul Bhat, a clerk, was shot dead inside the tehsildar's office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district. Of the eight targeted killings in Kashmir since May 1, three victims were off-duty policemen and five were civilians. The Eastern Railway (ER) has written to the government over not being informed of the proposed inauguration of a rail over bridge at Kamarkundu in Hooghly district on Friday by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, for the construction of which it spent the lion's share, a railway official said. Banerjee is scheduled to inaugurate the Kamarkundu rail over bridge from Bajemelia in Singur block on Friday at 3 pm, a senior official of the Hooghly district said. He said arrangements have been made for the programme. A railway official said that the ER has provided Rs 26.7 crore of the total Rs 44.86 crore cost of the project, while the government's share was Rs 18.16 crore. "Our share for the rail over bridge at Kamarkundu is 60 per cent, while that of the state government is 40 per cent," he said. The official said that the ER has written to the state government over it not being informed of the proposed inauguration of the bridge, the length of which is nearly a kilometre. He said that the ER had earlier written to the state government proposing a date for the inauguration of the bridge but had been informed that the chief minister would be part of the programme. (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 probe in the Yes Bank-DHFL bank fraud case has brought under the scanner the role of Pune-based auto driver-turned- baron Avinash Bhosale who as middleman allegedly received kickbacks of over Rs 360 crore from another developer for facilitating loans from DHFL which turned into non performing assets, officials said Thursday. The has stumbled upon two payments of over Rs 68.8 crore and Rs 292 crore to arrested ABIL chairman Avinash Bhosale's companies made by Radius Developers, whose owner Sanjay Chhabaria was recently arrested in the case, they said. Queries seeking comments from ABIL group on the allegations remained unanswered. The payments were shown as consultancy fee and loan but the alleged that these were kickbacks from Chhabaria to facilitate loans worth over Rs 2,420 crore from DHFL which were later turned into non-performing assets, they said. The CBI for the first time is focussing alleged middlemen and secondary and tertiary level beneficiaries in a bank fraud, a novel approach in such cases where it normally used to charge bank officials and primary beneficiary with respective offences, an official claimed. under had disbursed Rs 3,983 crore to DHFL which were "proceeds of crime", the CBI had recently told a special court. Out of this amount, DHFL had sanctioned and disbursed loans aggregating Rs 2,420 crore to three groups concerns of Radius Group, headed by Sanjay Chhabria who was arrested by CBI recently, it had alleged. The loans sanctioned to Radius Group concerns were siphoned off and became NPA in the books of DHFL with an outstanding liability of Rs 2,130 crore, the CBI alleged. Bhosale, who was being investigated in Mumbai, was shifted to Delhi for further questioning in connection with alleged kickbacks to facilitate disbursal of funds from DHFL to Radius, they said. During the searches at the premises of Bhosale, the CBI has stumbled on two boxes of documents which are being studied by the agency, the sources said. The CBI had registered the FIR in 2020 alleging that Kapoor had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Kapil Wadhawan of DHFL for extending financial assistance to DHFL through in return for substantial undue benefits to himself and his family members through companies held by them, the officials said. According to the CBI FIR, the scam started taking shape between April to June, 2018 when invested Rs 3,700 crore in short term debentures of scam-hit DHFL. The funds secured from Yes Bank were further circulated to other companies by DHFL. DHFL is already facing a separate probe for allegedly siphoning off Rs 31,000 crore out of total bank loans of Rs 97,000 crore using shell companies In return, Wadhawan allegedly "paid kickback of Rs 600 crore" to Kapoor and family members in the form of loan to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, they said. DoIT Urban Ventures is held by daughters of Kapoor -- Roshini, Radha and Rakhee -- which are 100 percent shareholders of the company through Morgan Credits Pvt Ltd, it alleged. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Thursday filed a charge sheet against former Maharashtra home minister and others in connection with its probe into the Rs 100 crore allegations levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against him, officials said. The move comes a day after a special court in Mumbai allowed a plea of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze to turn an approver and seek pardon in the case. In his application filed before the special court, Waze claimed he had co-operated with the before and after his arrest, following which his confessional statement was recorded before a magistrate under provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The CBI has filed its charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai against Deshmukh and his personal staff members Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The agency had booked Deshmukh and others under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and section of Prevention of Corruption Act for "attempt to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of public duty". After he was removed from Mumbai Police Commissioner's post, Singh, in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had alleged Deshmukh had asked him to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants of Mumbai, they said. "The preliminary enquiry prima facie revealed that a cognizable offence is made out in the matter, wherein the then home minister of Maharashtra, and unknown others have attempted to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duty," the CBI FIR has alleged. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister on Thursday claimed the has directed its agencies to arrest his deputy in "false" cases to hinder the progress made by the city in the field of education, even as he took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrest all his ministers in one go. The supremo also said the progress of several important projects of like Yamuna cleaning and opening of new mohalla clinics has been hampered following the arrest of Health Minister Satyendar Jain. Jain was arrested by the (ED) in a money laundering case on Monday. On Tuesday, he was sent to ED custody till June 9 by a court here which noted that his interrogation was required to unearth the alleged larger conspiracy. Kejriwal said he had learnt about the arrest of Jain from credible sources a few months back and had shared that information (in the public domain) and the same sources have informed him about Sisodia's arrest. The is fabricating false charges against Sisodia just like they did to arrest Satyendar Jain. The has directed all its agencies to allot all their resources on framing bogus cases to arrest Sisodia," he claimed during a media briefing. Referring to Sisodia as the pioneer of India's education revolution and perhaps the best education minister of independent India, the chief minister said he is a ray of hope for not just Delhi, but for the children of the entire country. "It is because of him they are confident that someone can transform their schools too. He has brought fame to India on a global stage and people like him should be transforming schools all over India instead of being sent to jail," he said. Accusing the Union government of wanting to stop the progress of Delhi's health and education sector by jailing Jain and Sisodia, Kejriwal recalled that even five years ago, over 20 MLAs were arrested by the Centre's agencies, but they all were acquitted in the court of law and the courts had rapped the investigators. "Today, we take pride in saying that Modi himself has given us a certificate of honesty. Will all the central agencies keep wasting our time by filing cases one by one against us? How will we be able to work like this?" he questioned. With folded hands, I request the prime minister to consider my humble appeal. Mister prime minister, instead of putting us in jail one by one, please put all the ministers and MLAs in jail at once. Please ask all your agencies to take out investigations against all of us at once only. Get done with it once and for all. Such gimmicks hinder your public interest project," he said. Exuding confidence that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will "once again get the certificate of the most honest 'deshbhakt' (patriotic) party of India once this slander campaign ends", the chief minister said he does not understand politics. Some people are saying this is happening in the run up to the Himachal Pradesh polls. Some call it a consequence of our victory in Punjab. We do not understand politics. We do not care for it. We are not scared of going to jail," he said. He also said the arrests of Sisodia and Jain are a loss to the nation. "Eighteen lakh children study in our government's schools. Not just the future, but the present of these children was in a misery. I ask the students and their parents, do you think a man like your education minister, a man of the pedigree of can ever be corrupt?" he said. Crediting Sisodia, he said Delhi's Model of Education is not only spreading its wings in India, but all over the globe, and leaders from across the globe are requesting the government to teach them to run Happiness and Entrepreneurship classes. "It is because of Manish Ji that an education system from India got fame at the international level. These people want to hinder Delhi's progress in education and healthcare by framing Sisodia and Jain in fake cases. I pledge to not let this system break at any cost. ... All I know is that putting them behind the bars is a tragic loss for the country," he said. Listing out the implications of Jain's arrest, Kejriwal said his minister was working on cleaning the Yamuna, increasing the number of Mohalla Clinics and supplying drinking water to every household 24x7 here, but now the progress of these projects will get hindered. "If people who revolutionise governance and make life easier for the public can be judged corrupt, then the parameters of honesty must be in a different paradigm altogether, he said. Over half a dozen portfolios allocated to Jain have been handed over to Sisodia, according to an official notification. (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.) Amid reports of rejecting an Indian consignment on quality concerns, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey on Thursday said the government has sought details from the Turkish authorities on the matter as the concerned exporter has claimed that the shipment of 60,000 tonnes had all the required clearances. Meanwhile, after banned exports on May 13, the secretary said five-six countries have requested for Indian and the government has formed a committee to clear the grain for export to such nations. "Some decisions have happened," he added. He also said retail are showing a declining trend after the export restrictions were imposed. Asked about rejecting the Indian on phytosanitary concerns, Pandey told reporters: "We checked up on this report. It was ITC and it met all the requirement of the quality." The consignment had around 60,000 tonnes of wheat, he said. ITC, a major wheat exporter, has informed the government that it had sold the wheat to a Geneva-based company, which further sold the commodity to a Turkish firm. All financial transactions had happened, Pandey said. "Before payment, all local clearances must have been done. Quarantine had happened in also. This is what the company has told us. ...Their financial transaction...including Turkish importer was complete," he added. The secretary further said the Agriculture Department and agri-export promotion body APEDA have got in touch with the Turkish quarantine authorities on this issue. "They have not heard anything from them. There is no formal communication as yet," he noted. banned wheat exports on May 13 to keep local prices under control amid a slight estimated fall in domestic output. However, it allowed shipment of those consignments which were registered before the ban came into force. (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 is commissioning a study for long-term surveillance of children less than 18 years who have received Covid-19 vaccine shots, said a senior government official. The Immunization Technical Support Unit (ITSU) provides techno-managerial support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will conduct the study. There will be surveillance for children for the long term after they receive their Covid-19 vaccine shots. Cohorts will be assembled to follow them up for the long term this could be five, 10, 15 years or more. There is a study in the offing for this purpose, said NK Arora, chief of the Covid-19 working group of the Technical Advisory Group of Immunisation (NTAGI). Arora said the permission for such a study had been granted. The data generated is not for immediate use as such. This is creating long-term data if another pandemic strikes us tomorrow, we will have some ready databank to formulate policies, he said. For breakthrough infections, symptoms if the children get sick, how many get serious disease, which vaccine have they received, and what has been the trajectory of infections if they got any, any side-effects, etc are key epidemiological data that would help design policies for the future. At the moment, we have immunogenicity data on the vaccines that are given to children. This implies that we know that the vaccines induce the desired immune response once given. But, experts have been pointing out that there is a need to have a larger data bank to understand the implications of vaccinations, Covid-19 disease and design policies accordingly. Gagandeep Kang, microbiologist and professor at CMC, Vellore, said: We need to monitor how children respond to vaccines over time lets say we give it to a two-year old, and then will he/she need another dose at the age of 10? We have immunogenicity data on the available vaccines now. We need to create a database on outcomes in children. We need to monitor children we vaccinate for a period of time to track the incidences of disease in them. Covid-19 disease has typically affected adults. Children have not reported very serious disease cases, apart from those who had serious co-morbidities like cancer, other underlying ailments. Kang said around 80 per cent sero-positivity had been reported in children. If we look back, we know for sure that 80 per cent of Indias children did not get severely sick. When children get this infection, their immune system works to fight it, they are usually easily able to control infection well, she added. Therefore, this is the right time to create databanks for the future, experts felt. The Union Territory is on the edge after a string of targeted killings. Vijay Kumar, a manager with the Ilaquai Dehati Bank, was shot in Kulgam district on Thursday. Kumar was from Rajasthan. A migrant labourer was shot dead in Kashmir's Budgam district on Thursday, hours after the killing of a bank manager in Kulgam. Another worker was injured in the attack and is being treated in a hospital.A facility of Deepak Nitrite Company caught fire after an explosion in Nandesari town near Vadodara city in Gujarat, news agency ANI reported. More details are awaited.The security cover of more than 420 people will be restored from June 7, the Punjab government said on Thursday, after singer Sidhu Moose Wala--whose security cover was curtailed--was shot dead on Sunday. India on Thursday said it is looking forward to the next round of military talks with China at an early date for the resolution of the remaining issues in eastern . The comments by (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi came two days after the two sides held diplomatic talks on the lingering border standoff. "I am not aware of any particular date that I can share with you at this point, but I would like to emphasise that we look forward to this commanders' meeting at an early date," Bagchi said. In the diplomatic talks on Tuesday, India and China agreed to hold the next round of the Senior Commanders' meeting soon to achieve complete disengagement from all friction points in eastern . After the talks, the MEA said it was agreed to hold the next round of military talks at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement from all friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols. The standoff began in early May of 2020. As a result of the military talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC are key for the overall development of the bilateral ties. Asked about media reports of back-channel talks between India and Pakistan, Bagchi said he would not comment on speculative reports. He said India desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in a conducive atmosphere, free of terror, hostilities and violence. On India's trade ties with Pakistan, he said New Delhi never felt that trade relations should be stopped. (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.) With rising cases of Covid in Maharashtra, Chief Minister has called a meeting of the state task force on Thursday. Thackeray also said people should use face masks, vaccinate themselves and follow discipline if they don't wish to experience Covid-19 restrictions again. Meanwhile, the Mumbai civic body has also asked the jumbo Covid centres to be fully staffed and be on a standby. I S Chahal, commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, told Business Standard that all jumbo centres in the city had been asked to recall their staff and have full staff capacity in case there is a spike in cases. On Wednesday, the state crossed 1,000 daily cases a three-month high. Mumbais daily positivity rate touched 8.4 per cent. On Thursday, Mumbai reported 704 cases, marginally down from the previous day. Cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported in the state. Sanjith Saseedharan, consultant and head critical care, SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim A Fortis Associate, says The rise in Covid cases in Mumbai is due to two main reasons. One, is the probable presence of BA.5 and BA.4 and the growth advantage this type of variant possesses. Two, is that due to reduced social distancing rules and minimum use of masks, infection is much higher. He, however, says that although the positivity rate is high, it is not resulting in increased hospital admissions and fatalities. To tackle the high positivity rate in the state, hospitals have ramped up facilities. It is also important to note that admissions to hospitals and intensive care units, oxygen requirements, and the mortality rate are relatively low, even in the current scenario, says Saseedharan. Doctors in the city feel that the recent strain of the virus may, however, affect the elderly with comorbidities who may require greater care and/or hospitalisation. A "tremendous" rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai is driving a surge in new infections in Maharashtra over the last few days, data showed, with a top official expressing fear that the approaching monsoon could herald a spate of symptomatic cases. Maharashtra had recorded 169 new cases on May 1, while on May 31 the daily rise in cases in the state was 711. Of 9,354 cases added by the state in May, 5,980 cases, or nearly 64 per cent, were contributed by Mumbai, data showed. In a worrying sign, the Dharavi area of Mumbai, among the densest urban sprawls in the world, on June 1 recorded 10 cases, taking its active count to 37. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had received praise from the World Health Organization during the earlier phases of the pandemic for successfully containing the spread of the virus in the area where over six lakh people live. On Wednesday, Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal asked officials to ramp up testing on war-footing and also keep staff at 'jumbo' COVID hospitals on alert amid the steady climb in the number of infections. "The new cases (reported) daily have gone up tremendously in Mumbai, and with monsoon round the corner, we will now see a rapid rise in symptomatic cases," Chahal told BMC officials. On Tuesday, the daily addition to the caseload went beyond the 500-mark for the first time since February 6, while a sharp spike was seen the very next day when 739 new cases came to light. Health experts are stressing that pandemic norms like wearing of masks and social distancing, which were rolled back to "voluntary mode" on April 2 this year amid a fall in cases, will have to be observed diligently again. "The rise in cases could be due to multiple reasons. Vaccination coverage has slowed down, and is poor in the under-18 and booster dose segments. Moreover, the virus undergoes mutations to form new variants that are either more transmissible, or the immunity acquired by vaccination does not fully protect against them," said Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious Diseases specialist at the city's Masina Hospital. "But, in this relatively immune population, the symptoms are still milder. Therefore, there is no reason to panic since there is no increase in hospitalisations or deaths despite the rising number of cases," Gilada pointed out. She also said the pattern observed in these case is not very different from what is seen in other respiratory viral illnesses like influenza, with a minor surge being seen every few months. "We should focus on ramping up vaccination, both for those below 18 years and the administration of booster doses. The mandatory gap between second dose and booster dose should be six months rather than the current nine months. With close to 20 crore vaccines lying with states and nearly three crore with Maharashtra alone, boosters should be made free for those eligible and who are willing, Gilada said. Dr Laxman Jessani, infectious diseases specialist at Navi Mumbai's Apollo Hospital, said new variants seem to be escaping immunity, which could be the reason behind the rise in cases. "More than 90 per cent (of newly infected persons) have received the first dose, but second dose and booster dose coverage is still not optimum. Infection control measures like masks, social distancing, and washing hands regularly need to be reinforced," Jessani asserted. As of June 1, as per the state health department data, 16,68,98,518 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Maharashtra. As many as 22,28,678 first doses and 9,89,303 second doses were administered to those in the 12-14 age group. A total of 7,14,92,608 first doses have been administered to those between 15 and 59 years of age, while this segment has also been given 5,80,94,133 second doses and 2,68,043 precautionary doses. The first dose has been administered to 1,33,65,415 people in the 60-plus segment, while the second and precautionary doses given to this senior citizens' group stood at 1,13,09,644 and 16,44,989, respectively. Dr Sanjith Saseedharan, consultant & head Critical Care at Mahim's S L Raheja Hospital, said the rise in cases may be due to the presence of BA.4 and BA.5 variants and the growth advantage these may be possessing. The state health department had announced on May 28 that for the first time, four patients of BA. 4 variant and three cases of BA. 5 variants of the Omicron sub-lineage of had been found, all in Pune. "It is also important to note that this strain of the virus is not highly virulent, and might not cause an exponential rise in hospital admissions, including increase in ICU cases. However, this may not be true for elderly patients with comorbidities who may require higher care, including hospitalisation. So we must continue to maintain social distancing and wear masks whenever possible, he said. He also said the increase in mobility of the general population after the relaxation or removal of COVID-19 curbs could also be resulting in the rise in cases. Saseedharan, however, said the healthcare industry was now well-equipped to tackle a surge. State health minister Rajesh Tope had recently said people in districts witnessing a spike must raise the level of caution and start wearing masks again. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Thursday wished a speedy recovery to Congress president from COVID-19. The Congress said earlier in the day that Gandhi has tested positive for the virus and has isolated herself. The party's chief spokesperson said Gandhi had a mild fever Wednesday evening and was found Covid positive on testing this morning. Modi tweeted, "Wishing Congress President Smt. Ji a speedy recovery from COVID-19. (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 rising Covid cases in neighbouring states of and have raised concerns in the health department. recorded 1,081 Covid cases on Wednesday and the state health department has called it the highest spike after February 24. has recorded 1,370 new Covid cases. Though 630 people have recovered, the death of six people succumbed to the infection. This was a cause of concern, said the health department officials in . Sources in health department said since there was heavy movement of people from both the states to Karnataka, especially capital Bengaluru, hence measures need to be initiated. Karnataka has reported 178 new Covid cases in a span of 24 hours as per the statistics of the health department. The positivity rate for the day was recorded at 0.89 per cent. There are a total of 2,001 active cases in the state. 19,846 Covid tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours. There were 5,422 Omicron cases in the state and Delta and its sub lineages reported till date were 4,623. Bengaluru Urban reported 158 new Covid cases. There are 1,895 active Covid cases in Bengaluru. The Karnataka health department is concerned over the spike in cases in and as the state suffered much during the first and second wave due to unhindered movement of the people. During the third wave strict rules were enforced by Karnataka and the movement of people and vehicles from both these states was restricted. --IANS mka/dpb (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 Right To Information (RTI) activist was allegedly shot dead by unidentified persons in front of the Public Works Department (PWD) office here on Thursday evening, police said. Ranjeet Soni (36), the victim, also worked as a government contractor, said Additional Superintendent of Police Samir Yadav. The assailants escaped from the spot after the incident, he added. Soni, while working as a contractor for various government departments, used the to get information, often for issues related to government contracts, he said. Personal enmity could be the reason behind the incident but police are probing all angles, 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.) Govt allows small amount of to move out after ban India has allowed shipments of 469,202 tonnes since banning most exports last month, but at least 1.7 million tonnes is lying at ports and could be damaged by looming monsoon rains, government and industry officials told Reuters. Shipments that have been allowed moved mainly to Bangladesh, the Philippines, Tanzania and Malaysia, said a senior government official, who also stated the total quantity. Read more Congress president tests positive for Covid, isolates herself Congress President on Thursday tested positive for COVID-19 and has isolated herself, the party said. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said she had developed a mild fever on Wednesday evening and was found COVID positive on testing this morning. He said the Congress President has been meeting leaders and activists over the last week, some of whom have been found COVID positive. Read more NSE case: SAT gives more time to Chitra Ramkrishna to deposit Rs 2 crore The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has given more time to former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna for depositing an amount of Rs 2 crore in a case pertaining to governance lapses at the bourse. "The period to deposit the money by our order dated 11th April, 2022 is extended for a further period of four weeks," the appellate tribunal said in an order passed on May 31. Read more DGCA fines Rs 10 lakh for letting untrained pilot land flight Aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on for letting an improperly trained pilot land an aircraft with passengers on board at the Indore airport, officials said. The pilot, who was the first officer on the flight, landed the aircraft at the Indore airport without first getting the requisite training in a simulator, officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. Read more , After claiming that the monkeypox infections, now spread to about 30 countries with more than 550 confirmed cases, can be contained, the has admitted that it is not sure whether the virus can be kept in check. WHO officials, had earlier, stated that the monkeypox outbreak "is a containable situation", and "collectively, the world has an opportunity to stop this outbreak. There is a window". However, now, Dr Hans Kluge, head of the WHO's Europe office, said "we do not yet know if we will be able to contain its spread completely". He said that although the monkeypox response should not mimic the scale of Covid-style restrictions, health authorities do need to take "significant and urgent" action to mitigate the threat. According to Kluge, Europe remains at the epicentre of the largest and most geographically widespread monkeypox outbreak ever reported outside of endemic areas in western and central Africa. The learning curve has been steep over the past two weeks. "We now have a critical opportunity to act quickly, together, to rapidly investigate and control this fast-evolving situation," he said. Based on the case reports to date, the current outbreak is being transmitted through social networks connected largely through sexual activity, primarily involving men who have sex with men. Many -- but not all cases -- also report fleeting and/or multiple sexual partners, sometimes associated with large events or parties. However, it isn't clear yet as to "whether the monkeypox virus can also spread from one person to another through semen or vaginal fluids". There is also no clarity on "whether the virus could persist in these bodily fluids for longer periods of time", Kluge said. While the first case was reported from the UK on May 7, he noted it may have been circulating since mid-April. "Even as new patients present every day, investigations into past cases show that the outbreak in our region was certainly underway as early as mid-April," Kluge said. This was also reiterated by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who said the monkeypox virus may be spreading "undetected". "The sudden appearance of monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests there may have been undetected transmission for some time," Ghebreyesus said. The virus may have been transmitted for months or years undetected though investigations are ongoing and there are clear no answers yet, he added. In Europe, the transmission has been linked to recent raves, parties, and adult saunas. "The potential for further transmission in Europe and elsewhere over the summer is high," Kluge warned. "Over the coming months, many of the dozens of festivals and large parties planned provide further contexts where amplification may occur." He emphasised the need to actively engage community groups and leaders and civil society organisations to increase awareness on how people can reduce their risk of exposure, and also urged people to reduce the number of sexual partners they have. However, Kluge warned against stigmatising the LGBTQ+ community. --IANS rvt/vd (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The coal ministry has floated a draft note for seeking inter-ministerial views on the proposal to list 25 per cent shares of Coal India arm BCCL. As a part of Coal India (CIL) restructuring, the government has decided for an initial listing of 25 per cent shares of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL). "Draft note for initial listing of 25 per cent of shares of... BCCL has been approved by the Minister of Coal," a source said, adding that "the draft note in respect of BCCL has been sent for IMC consultation." A query sent to a Coal Ministry official on the same, remained unanswered till the filing of the story. CIL had last month said that it is planning to divest 25 per cent stake in its unlisted arm BCCL and will go for the subsequent listing of the subsidiary on stock exchanges after obtaining further clearances. A meeting of the board of directors to this effect was held on March 10, 2022, CIL had said in a regulatory filing. "As advised by MoC (Ministry of Coal), CIL Board in its 438th meeting held on March 10, 2022 had accorded its 'in-principle' approval to divest 25 per cent of paid-up share capital of BCCL held by CIL and its subsequent listing on stock exchanges and advised to forward the proposal to Ministry of Coal for obtaining further clearances," the filing had said. Stating that the company's board had given only "in principle" approval to the proposal, CIL said that only after getting further clearance from the government, subsequent action would be initiated. "On receipt of further clearance from MoC the same would be placed to CIL board and the decision of CIL board would be promptly disseminated to stock exchanges," the filing had said. In FY '21, against the target of 37.13 MT BCCL achieved a production of 24.66 million tonnes (MT). The net turnover of the company during FY'21 was Rs 6,149.81 crore against the previous year turnover of Rs 8,967.56 crore. This significant fall in sales affected the bottom line of the company's finances, according to the annual report of BCCL. As a result of which, the company could not maintain its profitability unlike previous years and incurred a net loss (LBT) of Rs 1,577.06 crore. Its PBT (profit before tax) stood at Rs 991.12 crore in 2019-20, the report said. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. BCCL was incorporated in January, 1972 to operate coking coal mines operating in the Jharia and Raniganj Coalfields. It was taken over by the government on October 16, 1971. It is a Public Sector Undertaking engaged in mining of coal and allied activities. (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 Clyde Russell LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - Indian oil refiners are sucking up cheap Russian crude, but the risk is that their exports of refined products will eventually attract sanctions from countries determined to cut Russian energy out of global markets. Imports of Russian crude by India hit a record high in May, and will likely rise again in June, according to data compiled by commodity analysts Kpler. India imported 840,645 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude in May, up from 388,666 bpd in April and 136,774 bpd in May last year, Kpler data showed. June imports are estimated at 1.05 million bpd, meaning that Russia's share of India's total imports will rise to just under one quarter, a dramatic spike considering that they were around 2% of the total last year. Indian refiners are happy to buy heavily discounted Russian crude, which is being offered at up to $40 a barrel below benchmark Brent crude prices. Russia's crude exports have been targeted by Western countries as part of sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. The European Union announced this week a ban on seaborne imports from Russia, and together with Germany and Poland committing to ending pipeline imports, about90% of Russia's exports to the 27-nation bloc will end. Other importers of Russian crude have said they also aim to either end or reduce their purchases, including major buyers of Russia's Pacific exports such as Japan and South Korea. However, China, the world's biggest crude importer, and India, the third largest, have thrown a lifeline to Russian exporters, buying increasing volumes to take advantage of the cheaper price relative to other suppliers. The risk for India's refiners is that buyers of their refined product exports start to target these cargoes, given the possibility that some of the diesel or gasoline was refined out of Russian crude. India's Reliance Industries is a case in point. It operates a 1.2 million bpd refinery complex at Jamnagar on India's west coast and while it does supply fuel to the domestic market, much of the output is exported. The port of Sikka handles Reliance's crude imports, and Kpler data shows that 10.81 million barrels of Russian crude arrived in May, or about 348,000 bpd. The same port exported 2.0 million barrels of diesel, or about 64,500 bpd, to Australia in May, according to Kpler. Australia imposed a ban on imports of Russian oil and refined products on March 11, which came into force on April 24. It's not clear whether the ban applies to fuel refined from Russian crude in a third country, such as India. But it's likely that the Australian government is going to be asked these questions and will have to work out whether it extends the ban on Russian fuels to those coming from third country refineries. The port of Sikka also exported 2.56 million barrels of diesel to Europe in May, while it shipped 890,000 barrels of gasoline to the United States in April. SECONDARY SANCTIONS It's not just Reliance that may be exporting refined fuel made from Russian crude, with Nayara Energy, which operates India's second-largest refinery, also at risk. Nayara is owned by a subsidiary of Russia's Rosneft and a subsidiary of commodity trader Trafigura and it operates a refinery at Vadinar on India's west coast. This port exported 340,000 barrels of diesel to Australia in May, which Kpler said was sold by Nayara. Overall, it's likely that at some point countries buying and processing Russian crude, and then exporting refined fuels, such as India and possibly China, will find themselves under scrutiny from those governments trying to isolate Russia's energy exports. There is the risk of secondary sanctions being imposed, but also of measures to make the physical trade more difficult, such as sanctions on ships that have visited Russian ports, bans on insuring Russian crude cargoes, or cargoes of refined products made from Russian oil. As the world has seen with the sanctions against Iran's oil and product exports, countries and organisations facing such measures try to stay one step ahead, employing subterfuge to mask the true origins of cargoes. A new game of cat-and-mouse involving Russia's energy exports is just getting started. (Editing by Kim Coghill) (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.) 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 India cannot sign trade agreements with large markets without reducing tariffs on alcoholic beverages, according to a report by think tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). India, to gain market access for, must offer phased tariff liberalisation in high-growth areas such as wine, said the report titled 'Liberalisation of Wine Trade under the India-Australia CECA' by Arpita Mukherjee and Drishti Vishwanath. Alcoholic beverages will be a key sector in the discussions although products may varyfor example, whiskey for the UK and wines for EU and Australia. Given that imports are only one per cent of domestic consumption and are not a major source of customs revenue, and India has strong domestic producers who now export, India can offer phased tariff liberalisation in this sector to gain market access in sectors of its interest, the report said. India is negotiating trade agreements with the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada. India signed a trade pact with Australia in April, liberalising tariff on wines for the first time. India levies a tariff and cess of 150 per cent on alcoholic beverages, making it one of the highest such tax in the world. Under the India-Australia economic cooperation and trade agreement (ECTA), tariffs on wine with a minimum import price of $5 per bottle will be reduced from 150 per cent to 100 per cent on the trade deal's implementation and subsequently to 50 per cent over 10 years. The duty on bottles with a minimum import price of $15 will be reduced from 150 per cent to 75 per cent, and subsequently to 25 per cent over 10 years. The report pointed out that even though India has agreed to reduce duty on Australian wines, the duty reduction will benefit only the upper end of wine imports and high-income consumers. This means that the threshold as agreed in the agreement only covers 2 per cent of all wine imports from Australia into India. The rest of wine imported from Australiaabout 98 per cent, which is consumed by middle income consumers - continues to attract a duty of 150 per cent, the report said. Among alcoholic beverages, tariffs are the highest on wine, resulting in the price of imports ranging at between 200 and 400 per cent of the global average price. For more than two decades, Australia and the US have expressed concerns about Indias high import duties, it said. Chief Minister of Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday the competition for is in the US, which serves as a global centre for high technology and innovation. He said the government would go the extra mile to support startups. "The government will go any miles in supporting startups. We are not worried about the competition. It keeps us going and growing. We convert the competition into acceleration," said Bommai during a conversation with Claude Smadja, President of Smadja & Smadja advisory at the India Global Innovation Connect conference in Bengaluru. While addressing an audience of startup founders, investors, business executives and industry leaders from India and countries like Singapore, Israel, Switzerland, the US, Japan, Korea, and Germany, Bommai said everybody is welcome to be part of Karnatakas growth as a tech hub. Government can change, but our policies and approach toward the development of the State and technology will never change, said Bommai. We have a cosmopolitan approach. We welcome everybody such as (workers) from Assam and Bangladesh. The international community in Bengaluru is huge. experience offers several valuable lessons, according to the experts. It has earned its reputation as the global tech hub as it is home to success stories such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and countless others. continues its reign as the worlds pre-eminent . In 2022, the number of residents employed in tech in the region rose from 25 per cent to 29 per cent according to the 2022 Silicon Valley Index. Silicon Valley remained the top ecosystem for venture investing, with $105 billion in capital flowing to the areas startups in 2021, double the 2020 total, according to the Startup Genome report. Thanks to Stanford University and the regions other top educational institutions, the ecosystem is well supplied with fresh talent. Total early-stage funding in the Silicon Valley (2019 H2-2021) was $25 billion compared to the global average of $687 million in the same period. Also, the ecosystem value (2019 H2-2021) was $2 trillion compared to the global average of $28.6 billion in the same period, according to the Startup Genome report. However, Bengaluru has been described as the worlds fastest-growing tech hub and the Indian city is home to the R&D centres of some of the worlds most famous tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google. Its IT sector employs over four million people and accounts for an estimated $130 billion in exports every year. Total early-stage funding in the Bangalore-Karnataka (2019 H2-2021) was $2.1 billion compared to the global average of $687 million in the same period. Also, the ecosystem value (2019 H2-2021) was $105 billion compared to the global average of $28.6 billion in the same period, according to the Startup Genome report. Bommai said Karnataka is at the forefront of startup innovation. It is home to 400 of the Fortune 500 companies and no other country in the world has as many such companies. Startup is not new to Karnataka and Karnataka is the top destination for startups and not one of the top states, he said. Claude Smadja, who is also a former managing director of the World Economic Forum said India has always been a land of great entrepreneurial promise for him. As the 4th Industrial evolution has begun, it is pertinent to acknowledge that India will play the role of a catalyst, especially with its ability to innovate solutions for itself and the world, said Smadja. India now has the world's third-largest start-up ecosystem. As a result, the India Global Innovation Connect highlights the potential of how India's start-up and innovation story is becoming global. Its emergence as the new Silicon Valley of the world will lead to a greater, safer, and stronger tomorrow. This week dealers of petrol and diesel went on a days strike in Gurugram , bringing home to New Delhi their concerns. It might seem crazy that even as oil prices touch dizzy heights, the margins of retail sellers should take a hit. Yet it has happened. It is also part of a larger trend in the year 2022, when it is not certain that shooting commodity prices will necessarily mean more profits for all categories of sellers. The choice of Haryana to stage the token strike was significant, as data shows it accounts for 12 per cent of the country's sales and is ranked just after Uttar Pradesh (14 per cent) and Maharashtra (13 per cent). 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 In a first in the country, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Thursday announced the launch of the IIMA-SFarmsIndia Agri Land Price Index (ISALPI) in collaboration with agri-land marketplace SFarmsIndia. The index has been designed to record and present quality controlled data of prices of agricultural land across the country. The Misra Centre for Financial Markets and Economy at IIMA, under which this index is being launched, will be hosting the index on its official website. According to IIM-A, the index will act as a reliable source in terms of benchmarking land prices in rural and semi-urban areas and help in signalling potential conversion of agricultural land into real estate. Given the complexity of developing an index for land parcels due visible price differences in different listings caused by a slew of factors including the market wide supply-demand factors, the ISALPI index has been prepared to address the said disparities and ensure accuracy. The premier B-school stated that the ISALPI index has been put together using the regression-based hedonic pricing methods. Citing data, IIM-A director Errol D'Souza said that with just over 200 million hectares, India houses just two per cent of the worlds cropped land; but feeds over 15 per cent of the worlds population. "Recently, we have witnessed a surge in entrepreneurial interest in Agri land and allied professions: From agricultural engineering to precision farming, from food technology to supply chain management and green energy. We believe it is the right time to launch such an index for India. With ISALPI, we hope to build better data sources for all stakeholders to be able to make informed decisions at national as well as regional levels and support the agribusiness activities," D'Souza added. While currently ISALPI is based on land listing data from six states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, arrival of more data from other states of India is awaited. Going forward, with more data from other states, the index is expected to offer superior representation of the national context as well as offer a more granular index at regional levels. In addition, the index would benefit stakeholders across the spectrum including policy makers, local governments, environmentalists, investors, real estate developers and financiers. "For instance, the index can be used by local governments to compensate the people who lose land for highway expansion," IIM-A stated. According to Prashant Das, project lead and associate professor of Real Estate Finance at IIMA, investors could use information in the index to assess the historical risk and return in the past and predict these metrics for the future to decide on their investment positions. "Fund managers and producers could use this information to broadly benchmark their own performance. Financiers and insurers could use this information to assess the risk in the company related to the asset class reflected in the index. Researchers could use this information to study how economic events and factors are associated with price movements in a specific asset class. Policy makers (e.g., the central bank) may use it to modulate their policies," Das further stated. At least 11 people were killed and 33 were missing after Hurricane Agatha made landfall in the Mexican state of Oaxaca on Monday afternoon, media reports quoting governor of the state Alejandro Murat said. Murat on Wednesday noted that the figures were preliminary, since Agatha was still a low pressure system. "Today Oaxaca is in mourning," he said, adding that local authorities set up 240 shelters to assist people affected by the storm, particularly on the Pacific Coast and in the highlands, Xinhua News Agency reported. Meanwhile, electricity was knocked out in nine municipalities, which affected over 40,000 people. Laura Velazquez, National Coordinator of Civil Protection, explained that heavy rains led to landslides, fallen trees, overflowing rivers and the collapse of two bridges, Xinhua further reported. Agatha is the first hurricane of the 2022 season, making landfall as a category 2 hurricane in Oaxaca before weakening. CNN reported that the heaviest rain was set to fall in the state of Oaxaca, where up to 16 inches was forecast, with isolated areas of 20 inches possible. Ahe remnants of Agatha's remnants may contribute to the gradual development of a tropical system in the "far southwest Gulf of around mid-week or in the northwest Caribbean by the latter part of this week," according to the National Hurricane Center's Atlantic Tropical Weather Outlook. "Regardless of development, locally heavy rains will be possible across southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize through the week," the center had said, as per CNN. A slight risk of flooding is currently in place across extreme South Florida for Saturday, according to the Weather Prediction Center's (WPC) excessive rainfall outlook. Gusty winds also could be a threat, the WPC 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.) At least two people caused a disturbance at a military parade in London which launches celebrations for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee on Thursday, running out in front of marching soldiers before being arrested, TV pictures showed. Two men ran out from behind barriers where tens of thousands of people had gathered on the Mall boulevard, which leads to Buckingham Palace, and lay down in front of a marching band, footage showed. One of the individuals appeared to hold up a banner, before police dragged away the men, one of whom was wearing a gold crown on his head. "A number of arrests have been made of people who attempted to enter the ceremonial route in The Mall. The arrests were public order related for highway obstruction," police said on Twitter. "Thank you to the crowd who showed their support by clapping our officers who returned to their post after dealing with the incident swiftly." The colourful 'Trooping the Colour' military parade, which takes place annually to celebrate the queen's official birthday, involves some 1,500 soldiers and officers. Elizabeth used to take part in the parade herself on horseback until 1986 - five years after a man had fired six blank shots at her as she rode by, managing to control her startled horse in the process. She was unharmed and the man was arrested. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton) (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.) Four people were killed and 14 injured after a powerful measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted the city of Ya'an in China's Sichuan province, authorities have confirmed. The struck Lushan county at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Networks Center (CENC). The epicentre, with a depth of 17 km, was monitored at 30.4 degrees north latitude and 102.9 degrees east longitude, Xinhua news agency quoted the CENC said as saying. The temblor was followed by a 4.5-magnitude aftershock at 5.03 p.m. in Baoxing county. The casualties were reported in Baoxing County, the city's earthquake relief headquarters said, adding that the four people who died were hit by falling rocks, while the injured have been sent to hospital for treatment. Telecommunication in parts of the two counties was damaged due to the quake, but some optical cables have been restored after emergency repairs. Ya'an has activated the second-highest level of emergency response for the earthquake and is conducting damage assessments. More than 4,500 people from emergency rescue, the armed police, the fire department, the medical sector and other departments were dispatched to the earthquake-hit areas to search for and rescue the injured, repair roads and relocate affected residents. --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.) President is leaning towards making a visit to a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit to that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes at a moment when overriding US strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for US gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations. Such a meeting could also ease one of the most fraught and uncertain periods in a partnership between Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, and the United States, the world's top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the US leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a newspaper critic of many of the brutal ways that Prince Mohammed operates. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June. He could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. The president would also likely visit Israel should he extend his upcoming travels to include Saudi Arabia. Last week, the White House confirmed that NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart. McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudi's war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire. (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.) has once again come to the rescue of cash-strapped as Minister Miftah Ismail said on Thursday that the Chinese banks have agreed to refinance his country with USD 2.3 billion worth of funds which will "shore up Pakistan's ." "The terms and conditions for refinancing of RMB 15 billion deposit by Chinese banks (about USD 2.3 billion) have been agreed," Minister Miftah Ismail tweeted. "Inflow is expected shortly after some routine approvals from both sides. This will help shore up our foreign exchange reserves," he added. Pakistan's are under severe stress and declined by USD 190 million to USD 10.308 billion during the week ended on May 6, according to the State Bank of (SBP). The country is heavily dependent on foreign loans but they are not easy to come by. The Ministry of Economic Affairs data earlier this month showed that received only USD 248 million in foreign loans in April, including USD 100 million worth of on deferred payments from . Pakistan is looking towards the Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore a USD 6 billion package agreed in 2019. So far half of the promised money had been given. Pakistan would immediately get a USD 1 billion loan tranche from the once the two sides sort out differences. With the economy in tatters and political instability looming large due to protests by former prime minister Imran Khan, there is increasing threat of Pakistan going the Sri Lankan way if quick measures are not taken. Before he was ousted, Khan had requested Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to further refinance the RMB 15 billion loan that was extended to the country three years ago for another three years on existing terms and conditions. According to official sources, the country would have to pay USD 20-21 billion in the next fiscal year starting from July 1. It would also need another about USD 15 billion to meet the trade deficit. (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.) residents' relief over the easing of a two-month COVID-19 lockdown is giving way to frustration as they face hours waiting in line for virus tests and must show negative results to be permitted to enter public spaces. China's biggest city and business hub lifted lockdowns for most of its 25 million residents on Wednesday. But citizens are required to have proof they have taken a COVID test within the last 72 hours in order to enter areas like malls and offices - or even to use subways and buses. Authorities have built 15,000 testing sites and trained thousands of workers to swab throats. Still, long queues amid early summer heat became a common sight on Wednesday and Thursday, with some people saying they queued for two hours. One picture posted on social media showed a sign at a booth warning of a 4-and-a-half hour wait. "I left the lockdown nightmare only to enter the 72-hour PCR testing nightmare," said one resident on Weibo, declining to provide her name. "It is troublesome, but we have no choice," said another, named Xu Xiaojun. "This is for everyone's good." Xia Kejia, a city official responsible for PCR screening, apologised for the queues at a news conference on Thursday and said more workers would be deployed and booths' opening times extended to try to resolve the issues. Other cities including Beijing and Shenzhen have imposed similar requirements under a national zero-COVID policy that aims to cut off every infection chain. Despite the discontent caused by Shanghai's stringent curbs, has vowed to stick with its approach. It says the zero-COVID policy is needed to save lives and prevent its healthcare system from being swamped, even as much of the world tries to return to normal despite ongoing infections. That increasingly means COVID testing is becoming a feature of daily life. China's goal is to have testing sites within a 15 minute walk for everyone in large cities. The ruling Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper published a commentary on Thursday in which it said the zero-COVID policy was most appropriate for China's situation. It also carried a front-page article describing how was returning to normal. "Great, phased results have been achieved in the defence of Shanghai," it said. On Edge Still, some 2.5 million in the city remain under lockdown and the consequences of testing positive are the same as before. All positive cases will be sent to central quarantine and close contacts - including neighbours - barred from leaving home. This has left many Shanghai residents remaining on edge. Two told Reuters that they were informed on Thursday by their compounds that they were required to go back under lockdown and undergo daily testing. On Thursday, videos shared on social media showed people fleeing the luxury Finance Centre (IFC) mall in the Lujiazui financial district after it stopped people from entering or exiting - a common practice at venues when a positive COVID test result is found. The IFC mall later issued a notice saying that it had reopened at 12.30 p.m. local time after carrying out a full disinfection without confirming whether there had been a positive COVID test at the site. The mall did not respond to calls seeking further comment. Other residents still under lockdown expressed mounting frustration over their situation. Aden Hogan, a British citizen, said his Shanghai compound had not been released as two "abnormal" test results had been found among his neighbours this week. While they were later told that these were false positives, they were still being made to undergo multiple tests and not allowed to leave, he said. "People have done nothing wrong. We've taken the test anytime that they have said...and they have been forcing us to have tests in the middle of the night. It makes you feel like a criminal." Shanghai reported eight new asymptomatic coronavirus cases for June 1 and five new symptomatic cases. On Thursday, officials said they upgraded four areas to medium-risk after finding seven new coronavirus cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is turning to state-owned policy banks once again to help rescue an under strain, ordering them to provide 800 billion yuan ($120 billion) in funding for infrastructure projects. The stimulus, announced at a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, could help finance a significant chunk of infrastructure costs this year and give some relief to local governments grappling with plunging revenues. President has called for an all-out effort to boost infrastructure this year, turning to an old playbook of driving up growth through public investment. Funding the extra spending has proven to be tricky though, after a plunge in land sales and widespread Covid outbreaks battered government revenue. We think the three key ingredients for investment projects, financing and incentive are all falling into place this year, said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater and North Asia at Standard Chartered Plc. The additional 800 billion yuan loans from policy banks will help fill the financing gap. Standard Chartered forecasts infrastructure investment will grow 10-15% this year, although that may still not be enough to offset the headwinds to economic growth. Bloomberg Economics estimated Chinas infrastructure spending came to 23 trillion yuan in 2021. Beijings calls for faster implementation of growth-boosting policies have intensified since official data showed that economic activity contracted in April and unemployment rose sharply. High-frequency indicators suggest the decline continued in May, leading Li to warn last week of risks from a possible year-on-year contraction in the second quarter. Nomura Holdings Ltd. estimates the government has a 6 trillion yuan funding gap this year, created in part by a sharp contraction in revenue from land sales, a key source of funding of infrastructure investment by local governments. The 800 billion yuan funding announced by the State Council accounts for nearly half of the 1.65 trillion yuan in new policy bank lending in 2021, economists led by Lu Ting wrote in a note. Finding support Chinas policy lenders include Development Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank of and the Export-Import Bank of China. They are considered key stabilizers of the economy, and are often called upon to provide financing support for big projects, including infrastructure. The State Council didnt say in its latest announcement how the policy banks would fund the lending. The development banks main source of funds come from issuing bonds or loans from Chinas central bank. The banks may be able to raise the money by selling bonds likely long-term ones with tenors of five, 10 or 20 years to fund an expansion in credit, according to economists from Nomura, NatWest Group Plc. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. seeks to secure around $5 billion in funding this year to cover repayments for fuel imports and other items bought through credit lines, and another $1 billion to bolster its foreign reserves, the prime minister's office said on Thursday. The island nation is grappling with its worst financial crisis in over seven decades with a severe foreign exchange shortage that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports including food, fuel, fertilisers and medicines. Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves stood at $1.81 billion in April. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office last month after mass protests forced the resignation of his predecessor, has raised taxes to shore up government revenues and plans to cut expenditure sharply in an interim budget to be presented within weeks. is also negotiating a bailout package with the Monetary Fund, which could potentially enable it to borrow at least $3 billion via the lender's extended fund facility. He elaborated that discussions with the are proceeding and he was hopeful that negotiations would conclude by the end of the month, Wickremesinghe's office said in a statement, referring to a discussion between the prime minister and local chambers of commerce. Wickremesinghe said that any bridging finance would depend on reaching an agreement with the IMF, the statement added. So far, Sri Lanka has received two credit lines worth $1.5 billion from India for fuel and essential imports. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Popular American actor on Wednesday won a high-profile between him and his ex-wife, . The jury in Fairfax, Virginia, began deliberating on this matter on last Friday. Depp sued Heard for USD 50 million after she wrote an op-ed for 'The Washington Post' in 2018 in which she called herself a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Heard countersued Depp for USD 100 million in which said she claimed that she has endured domestic violence during their 15-month marriage. The jury has awarded USD 15 million in damages. has also won part of her libel case against over articles in a privately owned newspaper, in which Johnny Depp's former lawyer described her claims of domestic abuse as a hoax. The jury has awarded USD 2 million in damages. Soon after this verdict came out, Johnny Depp officially released a statement on his Instagram account which read, "Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye." "False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already travelled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled," Depp wrote. "My decision to pursue this case, knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable worldwide spectacle into my life was only made after considerable thought. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that," Depp said. Depp mentioned, "I am, and have been, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media. I wish to acknowledge the noble work of the Judge, the jurors, the court staff and the Sheriffs who have sacrificed their own time to get to this point, and to my diligent and unwavering legal team who did an extraordinary job in helping me to share the truth." Depp said that the best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. "Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes," he said. On the other hand, Heard expressed disappointment over the verdict. She penned out a note on Twitter which read, "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously." "I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK. I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American -- to speak freely and openly," she said. After several years of dating, Depp and Heard married in a very private ceremony in their home in Los Angeles in 2015. On May 23, 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and obtained a temporary restraining order against the Oscar-nominated actor. She alleged that Depp had physically abused her during their relationship, and said it was usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. (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.) Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders pledged to raise the legal age to purchase an AR-15 in to 21 years old from 18, and pass a package of measures to tighten gun laws before the end of the states legislative session this week. Citing the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, local officials said they wanted to close loopholes and address the gaps in laws exposed by the back-to-back massacres. The bills would prohibit the purchase of body armor for civilians, require a license to purchase a semiautomatic rifle, make threatening mass harm a crime and strengthen the states red flag laws. The measures would also require new pistols to be equipped with microstamping technology, which uses lasers to imprint markings on a firearm to make it easier to trace guns to registered owners. The bill to raise the age to buy assault rifles would bring in line with states like Illinois, Washington, Hawaii and Florida, which passed the law in response to the 2018 Parkland High School shooting. On microstamping, it would align the laws in with California, which became the first jurisdiction to enact legislation requiring the technology in 2007. Our nation has been brought to a moment of reckoning due to weapons of war that have been too easily accessed by those seeking to kill, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. These weapons have made places in our communities like schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, and concerts, places of carnage. In these devastating times in New York and across the nation, we have worked with Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and members of the Democratic Legislature to step up and send a message that this path of gun violence is unacceptable and we need real change. were little changed after erasing early losses on Thursday after OPEC+ agreed to boost crude output to compensate for a drop in Russian production. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and 648,000 bpd in August, a source told Reuters. could get more support later on Thursday if analysts' forecasts are correct that U.S. crude inventories declined by around 1.4 million barrels last week. The American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, said on Wednesday that U.S. crude stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels in the week ended May 27. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will issue the official report at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Thursday, a day later than usual following Monday's U.S. Memorial Day holiday. Brent futures rose 40 cents, or 0.3%, to $116.69 a barrel by 9:36 a.m. EDT (1336 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 49 cents, or 0.4%, to $115.75. The benchmarks have mostly marched higher for several weeks as Russian exports have been squeezed by U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, an action Moscow calls a "special military operation". The market has also seen support from China's gradual emergence from strict COVID-19 lockdowns. fell earlier on Thursday ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on expectations and other members could boost oil output to offset a drop in Russian production. Russian production has fallen by around 1 million bpd following sanctions. One OPEC+ source familiar with the Russian position said Moscow could agree to other producers raising production to compensate for its lower output but not necessarily making up all the shortfall. The Kremlin says it can re-route oil exports to minimize losses from EU sanctions, but analysts remain skeptical. "The extent to which this will prove achievable is questionable, however. Russian oil production is therefore likely to fall again in the coming months," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, who also questioned OPEC+'s ability to add considerably more oil to the market. As recently as Wednesday, sources expected OPEC+ to stick to its modest monthly increases in oil output, despite seeing tighter global . (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 Laura Sanicola (Reuters) -Oil prices edged higher on Thursday after U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected amid high demand for fuel and OPEC+ agreed to boost crude output to compensate for a drop in Russian production. U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell last week by 5.1 million barrels to 414.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop. Brent futures rose $1.16, or 1%, to $117.45 a barrel by 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.51, or 1.3%, to $116.77. Prices, however, were also supported by the European Union's sixth package of sanctions against Russia, approved on Thursday, which will include an immediate ban on new insurance contracts for ships carrying Russian oil and a six month phase-out on existing contracts. The benchmarks have mostly marched higher for several weeks as Russian exports have been squeezed by U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, an action Moscow calls a "special military operation." The market has also seen support from China's gradual emergence from strict COVID-19 lockdowns. Oil prices fell earlier on Thursday ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on expectations Saudi Arabia and other members could boost oil output to offset a drop in Russian production. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and 648,000 bpd in August, a source told Reuters. "While OPEC+ agreed to increase their production quota by a bit more than the market expected, in reality it does very little to add additional supplies as OPEC+ was already falling short of its existing quotas by over 2 million barrels per day," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston Russian production has fallen by around 1 million bpd following sanctions. One OPEC+ source familiar with the Russian position said Moscow could agree to other producers raising production to compensate for its lower output but not necessarily making up all the shortfall. The Kremlin says it can re-route oil exports to minimize losses from EU sanctions, but analysts remain skeptical. "The extent to which this will prove achievable is questionable, however. Russian oil production is therefore likely to fall again in the coming months," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, who also questioned OPEC+'s ability to add considerably more oil to the market. (Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Rowena Edwards in London and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Barbara Lewis) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the Russia- war neared its 100th day, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Luxembourg parliament via a video link, on Thursday, that Russian forces had seized 20 percent of his nations territory, including the annexed Crimean peninsula and territory in the east held by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014. Today, about 20 percent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers, he said during an address to lawmakers in Luxembourg, as Russian forces were solidifying their hold on the eastern Donbas region and pushing towards Ukraines de facto administrative centre there. also claimed a counteroffensive had made gains in the south, while Moscow tried to encircle a key city in the east. Donbas in focus Zelenskiy said that battle frontlines now stretched more than 1,000 km (620 miles). Russian forces, backed by heavy artillery, control most of Sievierodonetsk now largely in ruins after days of fierce fighting in which they have taken losses, Britains defence ministry said in its daily intelligence report. Ukraines armed forces general staff said, that besides its assault on the city Russian forces were also attacking other parts of the east and northeast, where at least four civilians were killed and 10 wounded, according to other officials. Russia denies targeting civilians. The capture of Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets river, would give Russian forces control of all of Luhansk, one of two provinces with Donetsk in the Donbas claimed by Moscow on behalf of separatists. Seizing Luhansk would fulfil one of Russian President Vladimir Putins stated aims and further shift battlefield momentum in Russias favour. The has welcomed the first commercial flight from Yemen's Sanaa airport to Cairo, a UN spokesman said. The first commercial flight took off on Wednesday. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told the regular press briefing on Wednesday that "this was the seventh flight operating under the terms of the UN brokered two-month nationwide truce and represents an important element of the truce." A total of 2,495 Yemenis have travelled so far between Sanaa, Amman and Cairo, Xinhua news agency reported. Dujarric said the UN thanks the Egyptian government for the invaluable support in bringing about this important achievement, and the government for their constructive role in making this possible. "Despite the good news today on the Cairo -- and the improved humanitarian situation the truce has delivered over the last two months, we must be clear that humanitarian needs in remain high," the spokesman added. Nearly 19 million people will go hungry this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. More than four million people have been displaced since the war started. Severe needs persist across all sectors, according to the spokesman. Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year. So far, only 26 per cent has been funded. "This means that core programmes like food assistance, healthcare and other activities are scaling back when they should be expanding," Dujarric said. --IANS int/khz/ (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.) President will speak on Thursday night on the recent spate of mass shootings and his plans to press Congress to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day," the White House announced. The 7:30 pm speech follows a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, last week, as well as one Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. Biden said earlier this week that the Second Amendment was never an absolute and that he thought rational Republicans in Congress would work with Democrats to pass restrictions that could limit high-powered weapons like the ones used in Uvalde. Lawmakers from both parties have been negotiating small steps on gun limits since shortly after the Uvalde shooting, and the House is planning to move forward with a vote on an assault weapons ban that likely wouldn't pass the Senate. (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.) and the United States held their first strategic dialogue Wednesday on Southeast Asian affairs as part of broader policy coordination amid increasing Chinese influence in the region. Senior officials from both the countries met virtually after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden agreed during talks last week in Tokyo to boost ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kyodo News reported. The new dialogue focused on how the two allies can bring member states closer to a US-led group of free and democratic countries, as has apparently been striving to alter the status quo in the East and South seas and other areas in the Indo-Pacific with force and coercion. "Southeast Asia is key to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific," Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Hikariko Ono told a press conference after the virtual talks, as per Kyodo News. South-East Asia suddenly became the power theatre of the East as the United States steps up to leave the rivalry with behind in wooing the . made no bones of the fact that it realises it is stuck between China and the US and wants concessions on its own terms as part of its strategy to be wooed by the big powers. Joanne Lin, a lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore told CNBC, "ASEAN would probably like to see more US support towards its ASEAN-led mechanisms, as opposed to US-led minilateral groupings such as the Quad and Aukus." However, China has been wooing ASEAN as well, "and not just with the trade and investment that are likely its most powerful levers of influence in Southeast Asia" because in the past one decade, "Beijing has steadily expanded its media influence in these countries in four key ways, as a means of shaping their views", according to Asian media reports. Compared to the high-profile wooing campaigns of President Biden, China's attempts have been subtle and consistent over a period of time. The communist government has banked upon its extensive propaganda machinery to constantly target ASEAN nations with its specialised content. For instance, Xinhua, China's official state media agency, has print bureaus in every Southeast Asian country. TV news channels CCTV-4 and the English-language CGTN also have bureaus in this region. China Radio airs multilingual content in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. (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 top two cocoa growers are stepping up efforts to pressure the global industry into paying more to help support poor farmers. For the past few years, Ivory Coast and Ghana have charged $400-a-ton surcharge for cocoa in a bid to gain greater control of the market and boost livelihoods of their farmers, many of whom live below the poverty line. The so-called Living Income Differential (Lid) came on top of a separate quality premium for beans from the two countries that has long been implemented. The problem is that it hasnt really worked. The LID came in just as Covid-19 hurt demand in the $100 billion sector. Buyers responded by negotiating the country premium down and even to a discount which rendered the LID surcharge ineffective. But even as the world gets back on track, companies are still not paying up. That prompted Ivory Coast and Ghana to this week start publishing the country premium on a monthly basis in a bid to encourage greater compliance. The country differential is being played to offset the LID, said Alex Assanvo, executive secretary of the Ivory Coast-Ghana Cocoa Initiative. Anyone who goes below the published premium can be named and shamed. Cocoa discount Ivory Coasts regulator sold about 1.4 million tons of cocoa for the upcoming season as of mid-May at discounts of between $158 to $177 a ton, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. The volume is more than half of its expected production. For June, the differential will amount to a discount of 125 pounds ($157) to market prices for Ivorian beans and a discount of 60 pounds for supplies from Ghana. The discount is applied before the LID. Ivory Coast and Ghana have in the past threatened to call out companies that undermine the premiums such as by paying the LID but not paying the country differential. In 2020, when some buyers were accused of trying to avoid paying up, the producers cancelled sustainability programmes that they were involved in. Nestle SA said it pays a fair price for cocoa and has paid the LID since it began, believes farmers should earn enough to live adequately and has started a direct cash-incentive programme for growers. The company also said it will find a transparent and durable solution for cocoa pricing. Lindt & Spruengli AG said it will continue to buy cocoa with full LID pricing and that it supports farmers through its own programme. Hershey Co said it continues to support and pay the LID, and has programmes to support farmers. Mars Inc last year urged support for the LID. For now, it looks like the cocoa-growing giants will continue to struggle to receive the full combined premiums. Shares of were locked at 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 17.35 on the BSE on Thursday, on the back of heavy volumes. Till 10:15 am; around 11.68 million equity shares, representing 5.6 per cent of total equity, had changed hands on the NSE and BSE. The stock traded close to its 52-week high of Rs 18.20 that it had touched on October 19, 2021. It also traded at its highest level since August 2011. In the past three weeks, the stock has zoomed 77 per cent from Rs 9.83 on May 12, 2022. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up nearly 5 per cent during the same period. Earlier, the stock had hit a record high of Rs 111 on April 8, 1992. Meanwhile, the exchanges sought clarification from on May 30, 2022 with reference to significant movement in price, in order to ensure and safeguard investors on latest relevant information about the company. The reply is awaited. That apart, the company was compelled to declare 'suspension of work' at its Uttarpara Plant on May 24,2014 due to low productivity, growing indiscipline, shortage of funds and lack of demand for products. In its FY21 annual report, the company had said that it aimed to revive operations and had started process of rationalising cost post suspension of work at Uttarpara plant. Also, the company has been engaged in scouting tie-ups with potential investors or strategic partners who can introduce newer product portfolios in the market and infuse capital into the company. Besides that, the company is considering various measures including alternative use of fixed assets to generate revenue. "The suspension of work at Uttarpara Plant and lay off at Pithampur Plant are continuing as it is unviable to operate the two plants under present business conditions. The company is also in the process of selling identified assets subject to necessary approvals to improve net worth as well as immediate cash generation to meet its financial obligations," the company said. Australian share market finished session lower on Thursday, 02 June 2022, as investor sentiment was dented by an overnight fall on Wall Street on rekindled concern over the U. S. Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary tightening plans in response to help tame an overheated economy. Also, weighing the market sentiment was hawkish rhetoric from the Bank of Canada and JP Morgan's warning on the economy. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon warned investors on Wednesday of a coming economic hurricane that requires preparation. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 declined 58.04 points, or 0.8%, to 7,175.94. The broader All Ordinaries index decreased by 62.09 points, or 0.83%, to 7,400.76. Total nine of 11 sectors ended lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index, with information technology, healthcare, telecommunication services, and financials issues suffered the largest percentage losses. Energy was the best performing sector, gaining +3.06%. The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were WOODSIDE ENERGY and TABCORP HOLDING, up 5.2% and 5% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in this index were MEGAPORT and POLYNOVO, down 6.04% and 5.86% respectively. Tech stocks led losses, with Block and Xero losing 5% and 3%, respectively. Energy stocks advanced, with Woodside Energy surging 5.2% after JP Morgan on Wednesday handled a $1.1 billion block trade in the company's shares. CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was at $0.7181, against an earlier high of $0.7203. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To commence Thai visa applications services from 06 June 2022 BLS International announced today that it has been authorized by the Royal Thai Consulate-General, Mumbai recently. BLS will be accepting visa applications on behalf of Royal Thai Consulate-General, Mumbai from 6 June 2022 onwards. BLS will be providing Thai visa application services along with several value-added services like form filling assistance, primetime submission, SMS tracking, photocopy & printing, photographs, travel insurance and courier services for the convenience of the applicants. BLS centres are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and has the capability to service other countries as well. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cipla announced the commercial operation of additional capacity of captive renewable energy power plant in Maharashtra & Karnataka. In Jan'21, Cipla had commissioned 30 MWp solar project at Tuljapur, and now further added 16 MWp of solar capacity for supplying the renewable energy for its manufacturing units/ facilities in Maharashtra. These projects have been commissioned in partnership with AMP Energy India and is one of the largest solar open access projects in the state set up by a corporate. The project will support the Company's green energy requirements for its manufacturing units at Kurkumbh & Patalganga and R&D centre at Vikhroli in Maharashtra, replacing around 70 % of total consumption for these unit to green energy. In Karnataka wind solar hybrid captive power plant with capacity as 9 MWp solar + 2.7 MVA of wind has been commissioned in partnership with CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions, this project will help in migrating the 85 % of power requirement to renewable source for its manufacturing units in Karnataka. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This is the first ever high level Indian visit to Senegal. India's Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is on a three-nation tour, reached Senegal (West Africa) yesterday. Naidu led delegation level talks with the President of Senegal, H.E. Mr Macky Sall and assured Senegal of India's continued commitment to support the socio-economic development of Senegal through all means, bilateral, regional and international frameworks. During these talks, three MoUs were signed by both sides to further deepen their bilateral partnership in various areas. The first MoU pertains to visa-free regime for Diplomatic and Official passport holders which would strengthen cooperation between the two countries through seamless travel of officials/diplomats. Second agreement relates to renewal of Cultural Exchange Progarmme (CEP) for the period 2022-26. Third MoU seeks to enhance bilateral cooperation in youth matters. Naidu began his tour with Gabon from 30 May to 1 June 2022. He will be in Senegal from 1-3 June. The last leg of the tour will be the visit to Qatar from 4-7 June 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 benchmark indices extended gains and were trading near the day's high in the early afternoon trade. The Nifty was hovering above 16,550 level. Oil & gas, IT and media shares supported the indices while auto, financial services and FMCG stocks corrected. Trading was volatile ahead of the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE today. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, S&P BSE Sensex was up 239.59 points or 0.43% to 55,620.75. The Nifty 50 index rose 48.30 points or 0.29% to 16,571.05. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.55% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.24%. The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,771 shares rose while 1,376 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged. Derivatives: The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 0.03% to 20.8375. The Nifty 30 June 2022 futures were trading at 16,553.65 at a discount of 17.4 points as compared with the spot at 16,571.05. The Nifty option chain for the 30 June 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 22.7 lakh contracts at the 17,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 38.1 lakh contracts was seen at 16,000 strike price. Buzzing Index: The Nifty IT index rose 1.37% to 29,662.15. The index fell 1.66% in the past two sessions. Among the components of the Nifty IT index, Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 3.08%), L&T Technology Services (up 2.74%), Mindtree (up 2%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.82%) and Mphasis (up 1.8%) were the top gainers. Stocks in Spotlight: Religare Enterprises surged 11.06% to Rs 131.80 after the company said its lenders in principally agreed to the proposed one time settlement of Religare Finvest. Religare Finvest Limited (RFL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Religare Enterprises (REL), has been a victim of siphoning off of funds by its erstwhile promoters. It has initiated and pursuing legal actions for recovery and now begun its path towards revival. Post RFL's one time settlement completion, it will have healthy prudential ratios well above those prescribed by RBI, REL said in a statement. Greaves Cotton rose 1.98% to Rs 173.40 after the company announced strategic investment by Abdul Latif Jameel in its electric vehicle (EV) arm Greaves Electric Mobility. Greaves Electric Mobility (GEMPL), Greaves Cotton and and Abdul Latif Jameel International DMCC (investor) have executed a share subscription agreement and a shareholders' agreement for a proposed investment by the investor in GEMPL of $150 million for subscription by the investor to 68,35,450 equity shares of GEMPL to be issued and allotted to the investor on a preferential allotment through private placement basis resulting in a shareholding of 35.80% on a fully diluted basis in GEMPL. Vedanta rose 1.16% to Rs 319.45 after the company said that its board will meet on Saturday, 4 June 2022, to consider raising funds by issuing non-convertible debentures in one or more tranches. The company proposes to offer rated, secured, redeemable, non-cumulative and non-convertible debentures aggregating up to Rs 4,100 crore. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reliance Industries said that Reliance Brands (RBL) and Plastic Legno SPA have signed a joint venture arrangement through which RBL will acquire a 40% stake in Plastic Legno SPA's toy manufacturing business in India. RBL is a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures, which is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL) and holding company of all the retail companies under the RIL Group. RBL has a strong play in the Toy industry with its portfolio of Hamleys, the British toy retailer and homegrown toy brand - Rowan, making RBL one of the leading toy distributors. Hamleys currently has a global footprint across 15 countries with 213 doors and is India's largest chain of toy stores. This investment by RBL serves a dual purpose, bringing in vertical integration for RBL's toy business and helping diversify the supply chain with a long-term strategic interest in building toy manufacturing in India. Plastic Legno SPA is owned by the Sunino group that boasts of more than 25 years of toy production experience in Europe. The Group started it's India business in 2009 out of a need to develop a strong production hub that would cater to global markets, but more importantly to the fast evolving and growing Indian market. Reliance Brands spokesperson said: Keeping with our honourable Prime Minister's vision of Atmanirbhar India, this collaboration with Plastic Legno's deep experience in world-class toy manufacturing coupled with our strong footing in the global toy retail industry would open new doors and unparalleled opportunities for toys manufactured in India. It is imperative for RBL to build design to shelf capability for a strategic advantage over the competition and to be an accelerator in building a robust toy manufacturing ecosystem in India not only for domestic consumption but also for global markets. Reliance Industries is a Fortune 500 company and the largest private sector corporation in India. Its activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services. On a consolidated basis, RIL reported 20.2% increase in net profit to Rs 18,021 crore on 38.64% rise in net sales to Rs 207,375 crore in Q4 March 2022 over Q4 March 2021. The scrip rose 0.93% to currently trade at Rs 2656.80 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.) WardWizard Innovations and Mobility sold 2055 units of electric two-wheeler in May 2022. With that, the company has clocked a growth of 329% as compared to May 2021, when the company had sold 479 units. Inspired by the growth in its low-speed category, WardWizard recently forayed into the highspeed scooter segment with Wolf+, Gen Next Nanu+ and fleet management electric scooter Del Go. The brand intends to cater to all kinds of electric mobility requirements in the country with this expansion. In the month of May, WardWizard had further signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore-based renewable energy management consulting firm Sunkonnect, to set up a Li-ion advance cells manufacturing unit at its electric vehicle ancillary cluster in Vadodara. The association is aimed at facilitating a feasibility study and identification of potential partners. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) East Pipes Integrated Company, the associate company of Welspun Corp, has signed a contract with the Saline Water Conversion Corporation valued at 490 million Saudi Riyal. The order is for supplying and deliver steel pipes for a water transmission project, which will span a period of 12 months. The financial impact will reflect in East Pipes' financial statements in 2022/2023. The water transmission systems are managed by SWCC, which is responsible for developing and operating power desalination plants to supply various regions in the Kingdom with desalinated water. This is in line with the government's programme to expand the country's water pipeline infrastructure through investment from the private sector. Mohammed Al Shaheen, chief executive officer at East Pipes said, The domestic economy is emerging from the pandemic stronger than ever, and is on a sustained path of recovery, following temporary project delays. The two major new contracts secured with SWCC this year, are testament to that, and we look forward to continue to collaborate, to achieve the Kingdom's infrastructure goals in line with Vision 2030. The current infrastructure sector and economic environment in the Kingdom is conducive to growth, and East Pipes anticipates an increase in demand resulting from a large pipeline of projects over the next 2 to 3 years, thus translating into a robust performance for the company in the medium term, Shaheen added. Ali Al Makrami, vice president of commercial at East Pipes said, The new project win is a clear indication of the trust and confidence instilled in East Pipes by our partner in success, SWCC. With nearly SAR 1 billion contracted for delivery over the next 12 months, we are ready to build on our track record of effective execution, to deliver on these significant new projects. East Pipes Integrated Company for Industry (East Pipes) is one of the leading manufacturers of Helical Spiral Arc Welded (HSAW) pipes in Saudi Arabia, which are used in critical infrastructure sectors, predominantly water and oil & gas applications. Welspun Corp is a one-stop service provider offering end-to-end pipe solutions. The company's consolidated net profit declined 22.9% to Rs 236.14 crore despite of 3.5% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 1986.56 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21. Shares of Welspun Corp were up 0.61% at Rs 231.30 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.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who attended a special screening of period action drama "Samrat Prithviraj" with his cabinet colleagues, on Thursday declared the movie tax-free in the state. The screening of the movie was held at Lok Bhawan here, and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, female lead Manushi Chillar and director Chandra Prakash Dwivedi were in attendance. "I announce that the movie will be tax-free in the state," the chief minister said. Adityanath, who was on a visit to Kanpur Dehat to oversee the preparations of the visits of President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, reached late for the screening. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Transport Minister Daya Shankar Singh, J P S Rathore, A K Sharma, Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi and others were also present at the screening. (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.) Rajasthan Chief Minister accused the BJP-led Union government on Thursday of misusing central agencies, referring to reports in a section of the media that two MLAs in the state have been issued notices by such agencies. "Amid the Rajya Sabha election, there is news in the media about notices to two MLAs," Gehlot told a press conference here after a workshop of the Congress party when asked about the reports of notices to Congress MLA Wajib Ali and Independent legislator Omprakash Hudla. The chief minister said raids by the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in poll-bound states have become a common thing. Targeting the Centre, he said, "When it got to know that these MLAs (Ali and Hudla) will not support (the BJP), it re-opened old cases. It has made law a joke. How will people be safe if there is no rule of law?" Earlier, addressing the Congress workshop, Gehlot said "these (BJP) people have created so much terror". Meanwhile, state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra also reacted to the reports of notices to the two MLAs. "It is its (BJP's) fixed agenda.... It runs the agenda of communal frenzy, misuse of the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax department," Dotasra said. The contents of the reports, however, could not be confirmed. Ali, who was in Alwar with a few other MLAs, said he had not received any such notice. Hudla could not be contacted for comments. Sources said he went to the SMS hospital for a health check-up after he felt uneasy. (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.) Seeking to consolidate its position in Rajya Sabha, the is banking on independents for four additional seats and is seeking to capitalise on the infighting within the in as many states in the June 10 biennial election. The entry of two independents - media barons Subhash Chandra in Rajasthan and Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana - has pepped up the Rajya Sabha polls and made the contest interesting and somewhat difficult for the . To put its flock together, the is shifting its MLAs in Rajasthan to a resort in Udaipur and those in Haryana to Chhattisgarh before the June 10 election, sources said. In a first, the has also appointed Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as its in-charge for the polls in Rajasthan and Haryana respectively. The party also appointed Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and G Kishan Reddy as in-charge for the in Maharashtra and Karnataka, two other states headed for a contest with more candidates in the race than the number of seats. The elections are being held to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states that will be falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. In Rajasthan and Karnataka, will be held for four seats, in Maharashtra for six seats and in Haryana for two. The BJP's support to independents partly comes from the discontent that has crept in the Congress ranks due to selection of candidates from outside the state. Sources in the said its game plan is set around twin objectives of capitalising on defections within Congress and wooing independents and other non-UPA parties. In Haryana, the BJP is lending its support to Kartikeya Sharma, who is the son of former union minister Venod Sharma and son-in-law of former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. While Kartikeya is said to be close to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his mother is also the current mayor of Ambala. Incidently, both Venod Sharma and Kuldeep Sharma are considered close to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, whose position will turn vulnerable in case the official Congress candidate Ajay Maken loses. The Congress has 31 votes required to win the election for the second seat, but its MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi has not turned up at the CLP meeting convened by the party recently to support the candidature of Maken. The Congress may also get support from independents. The BJP has 40 MLAs and the JJP has 10, leaving the alliance with 19 additional votes. They have to get 12 additional votes and are wooing the INLD which has one seat, seven independents and one HLP seat. Sharma is hoping that in case he manages to get two Congress votes in cross-voting, he can make it home with the help of second preference votes of the BJP. In Rajasthan, the Congress has 108 of its own votes and the BJP has 71, which can get two seats and one seat easily. The Congress is seeking the support of 13 independents, besides three of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, two each of CPI-M and one of RLD to bag the third seat of Pramod Tiwari. The Bharatiya Tribal Party with two votes has decided to bastain in the Rajya Sabha poll. The BJP has fielded its own candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari, a former minister in the state. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday claimed that the Congress will win three out of four seats. He said despite not having a majority, the BJP has backed an independent candidate, who "will face defeat". He said the BJP was "playing tricks of horse-trading" but the party will not be successful. The BJP has fielded additional candidates - Dhananjay Mahadik in Maharashtra and Lahar Singh in Karnataka, and is working on discontent within the Congress and other parties to win. The battle in Karnataka has turned interesting as both the parties are seeking to corner the JDS votes for the fourth seat. While the BJP has 119 MLA votes to ensure the victory of its candidates Nirmala Sitharaman and actor-turned-politician Jaggesh. The Congress also has enough votes to ensure victory of its candidate Jairam Ramesh, but has fielded Mansoor Ali Khan, son of senior party leader Rahman Khan, and is wooing the JDS votes to bag the second seat. The BJP, which is left with 29 additional votes and needs 16 more votes for another seat, has fielded its third candidate Lahar Singh Siroya in Karnataka. The BJP has fielded three candidates from Maharashtra while the ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP has four, with the two rivals seeking to outmanoeuvre each other in cornering additional votes required to make the third BJP nominee. With the nomination of former MLA and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) candidate Haridas Bharadwaj for RS poll rejected, paving the way for the unopposed election of Congress's Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Thursday threatened to go on agitation if the government does not cut taxes on fuel in the next 15 days. Speaking to reporters, state president Sukanta Majumdar said the state government should give some relief to the people when the Centre has cleared all the GST dues. " has received its GST dues from the Centre. It should now bring down the prices of fuel. They should reduce the price of petrol by at least Rs 5, and price of diesel by Rs 10," he said. "The Centre has twice reduced fuel prices, but the state government has not lowered taxes even once," he claimed. The would wait for 15 days, and if the state does not take any steps, it would hit the streets, Majumdar said. "If they don't reduce the fuel prices, we will hit the streets. We will also march to state secretariat Nabanna to fight for people's rights," he said. The Centre has cleared the entire GST compensation payable up to May 31 by releasing Rs 86,912 crore to the states, as per the Finance Ministry. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in the country on July 1, 2017 and states were assured of compensation for the loss of any revenue arising on account of the implementation of GST for a period of five years. TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the state government would reduce the taxes on fuel, once the Centre clears all the dues. "The state government has already said that once the Centre clears its dues amounting to Rs 97,000 crores, it would reduce the taxes on fuel prices. Once they clear the dues, the state won't levy taxes on oil for the next five years," Ghosh said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The central will arrest Manish Sisodia, Delhis deputy chief minister, under false charges after harassing another minister similarly, said Chief Minister on Thursday as he alleged a campaign against his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) . The Enforcement Directorate, the federal financial crime-fighting agency, arrested Delhi Health Minister in a money laundering case on Monday. A court in Delhi on Tuesday sent Jain to EDs custody till June 9. The Centre is fabricating false charges against Sisodia just like they did to arrest . The Centre has directed all its agencies to allot all their resources on framing bogus cases to arrest Sisodia," said Kejriwal at a media briefing, according to news agency PTI. Kejriwal said very credible sources have told him about the "plot" against Sisodia. He claimed that he had made a similar prediction about Jain based on the information from the same sources. Sisodia, who handled finance, planning, and education, will now also look after health, home, power, water, and industries--ministries Jain handled. The Delhi CM alleged that the action against the ministers was intended to stop Delhi's progress in public healthcare and education. was working on several new mohalla clinics, water projects, and Yamuna River cleanup. Now all these projects will get delayed he said. Kejriwal dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrest all MLAs and ministers at once and hold a common investigation by all investigative agencies, instead of detaining them one by one. "We are not afraid of getting arrested, Kejriwal said. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday greeted the people of on its formation day while Chief Minister showcased the achievements of his government as a role model and alleged that the discriminated against . The central government is conspiring to weaken the states financially, Rao alleged while leader Rahul Gandhi said was born out of people's aspirations for a better future, but it has suffered from 'misgovernance'. Telangana Formation Day was celebrated in a grand manner across the state. Apart from the state government, political parties, including ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, opposition and Congress, and several other outfits organised a string of programmes. Rao alleged that the NDA government at the discriminated against Telangana since its formation and went on to list several issues like merger of Telangana's 7 mandals with Andhra Pradesh. The has miserably failed in procuring the paddy cultivated in Telangana and it has washed off its hands, he alleged. He recalled that he held a protest in Delhi against the Centre's "adamant attitude" over paddy procurement. Highlighting the achievements of the state government during the past eight years, the Chief Minister said Telangana's Gross State Domestic Product more than doubled to Rs 11.55 lakh crore during the last eight years after the state was formed in 2014, besides showing similar trend in per capita income which is pegged at Rs 2.79 lakh in 2021 from 1.24 lakh in 2014. Telangana is the only state in the country, which is supplying 24-hour uninterrupted quality power for all the sectors and free electricity to the farmers said and the state has emerged as a role model for other states in various spheres, he said. When the state was formed, the installed capacity of power generation was only 7,778 MWs. With the efforts put in by his dispensation the same is now at 17,305 MWs. Addressing the Telangana State Formation Day celebrations here, the Chief Minister targeted the Centre, over ' of hate' and said it would take the country backwards by 100 years. "The government currently in power at the Centre is based on the frivolous doctrine of "strong Centre - weak states". Alleging that the union government is conspiring to weaken the states financially, he said the Centre is shifting taxes in the form of cess to evade the constitutionally due share of the states from the taxes levied by the Centre. It is a known fact that the Centre is squandering crores of rupees due to the states, he alleged, adding that the union government is arbitrarily imposing various kinds of sanctions, undermining the economic freedom of the states. Though the Centre insisted that the states abide by the provisions of FRBM, it did not do so, Rao said. The Centre's attitude has become a stumbling block for states like Telangana, which maintains financial discipline by managing loans and investment expenditure within FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits, he said. "I demand that the Centre immediately reconsider and immediately lift the economic sanctions imposed on the states and stop any further violation of the rights of the states," he said. Telangana is losing Rs 5,000 crore every year as it refused to implement the "anti-farmers" power reforms of the Centre. In five years, the state lost Rs 25,000 crore, Rao said. On the overall national political scenario, he said the country does not have a common aim. The country is drifting like a boat, which had no anchor. "Even after 75 years of independence why we still have poverty?" he asked. It is not about a political front replacing another at the Centre, and only a progressive agenda that could steer the country out of its problems is needed. The country is in a dangerous situation due to the of hate. "There is no other discussion or debate in the country other than the religious madness. People's needs took a backstage. It is dangerous to gain political advantage out of communal clashes," he said. President Kovind greeted the people of Telangana on its statehood day, and said the state has made commendable progress on development indicators and emerged as a hub of industries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the people of Telangana and said they are synonymous with hardwork and unparalleled dedication to national progress. Rahul Gandhi, targeting the ruling TRS said during the last 8 years the state has suffered from extreme misgovernance. He reaffirmed his party's commitment to build a glorious Telangana, a model state focused on bringing prosperity. Rao hoisted the National Flag and paid homage to martyrs who sacrificed their life for the sake of separate statehood cause. (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.) Election strategist-turned-politician, Prashant Kishor, on Thursday said in Bihar has been a complete failure but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar "does not want to accept this reality. While addressing a gathering, as a part of his 'Jan Suraaj' campaign, in Hajipur in Vaishali district on Monday, Kishor, said, The enforcement of liquor ban has totally failed in Bihar. Despite Bihar being a dry state, those who want can easily get liquor here. Therefore, in the Bihar has been a complete failure. However the Bihar chief minister "does not want to accept this reality, he added. While targeting the Bihar government, the election strategist on Thursday ran a poll on Twitter questioning the effective implementation of liquor in the state. Kishor asked respondents to give a 'yes' or 'no' answer to his poser - prohibition of liquor in Bihar has completely failed." Social media users started giving their opinion on this poll. The state government had on April 5, 2016 banned the manufacture, trade, storage transportation, sale, consumption of liquor including IMFL in the state and made it a punishable offence for those violating the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016 which has so far been amended several times. (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.) Giving credit to Prime Minister for the reduction in "discrimination against students of the northeast", Assam Chief Minister has said the progress took place due to the PM's outreach to the region in the last few years. The remarks of the Chief Minister came while addressing a press conference on Wednesday where he said that such discrimination against the students has "gone down to a huge extent". "If you look at the last 2-3 years, because of PM Modi's huge outreach to the northeast now racial discrimination against students of the northeast has suddenly gone down to a huge extent," Sarma said. Later in the day, the Assam CM took to Twitter to laud PM Modi's "visionary leadership", and said that he has "repositioned India as a strong global power". "A new wave of growth & development has swept across NE in the past 8 years under Adarniya @narendramodi ji's guidance. On behalf of the people of Assam, I express my heartfelt gratitude to Hon'ble PM for unlocking NE's potential, making it new engine of India's growth," he tweeted. Earlier, Sarma on Wednesday said that the State Cabinet will decide by August 15 on a separate classification for indigenous minorities who have not migrated to Assam from other places. The chief minister said, "We are in process of identifying another set of minority people who are not migrated to Assam, their origin to this soil. The committee which was constituted for this purpose has given us certain parameters that who should be considered an indigenous minority. I think the cabinet will come to a decision on this before August 15." "Muslims are recognized as minorities as of now along with Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and other communities irrespective of their migration status. Till the Supreme Court does not make any other interpretation, whoever is following Islam they are the minority as per the definition of the Minority Commission. There is no problem to identify it. But, Assam is on another journey to identify the indigenous minority," Sarma 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.) The Thursday moved 28 of its to Raipur in Chhattisgarh in an attempt to avoid poaching of legislators and thwart any possibility of cross-voting during the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls for two seats. The has fielded its general secretary for the elections, while the has nominated Krishan Lal Panwar. Kartikeya Sharma, son of former union minister Venod Sharma and son-in-law of former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, has also entered the fray as an independent with the is supporting him, making the contest for the second seat interesting. As many as 31 MLA votes are required to win the first seat, and 30 for the second. The BJP, which has 40 MLAs, is sure to get one seat and it will have nine surplus MLA votes. The ruling party is seeking to disturb the Congress' calculations with the help of 10 of the JJP, cross-voting and by wooing Independents and lawmakers from other parties. The has 31 in total and needs as many votes to win a seat, but a sulking Kuldeep Bishnoi could throw a spanner. With the entry of Kartikeya Sharma as an Independent, the main opposition party in does not want to leave anything to chance in order to secure one Rajya Sabha seat. The sources said the party had summoned all its 31 legislators from the state to Delhi for a meeting on Thursday to build support for Maken's candidature, but Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi did not turn up. The 30 party legislators arrived at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda in Delhi this morning and 28 of them later left for the airport in a bus, the sources said. They later boarded flights to Raipur in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and have been lodged in a resort there, the sources said. They said Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kiran Chaudhary have not gone to Raipur and are in the capital. ally Jannayak Janta Party has already said that its 10 MLAs will support Sharma. The JJP had also expressed hope that Sharma would be able to get the necessary support for his victory. The Rajya Sabha polling is also being linked to the prestige of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as it will be his first challenge after the party appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan as the state unit chief in place of Kumari Selja. Though the Congress is confident that its candidate will not face any problem in his victory, the party sources said that the cross-voting on the polling day could not be ruled out. For the first seat, the BJP candidate needs support of 31 candidates and for the second seat, the candidate needs 30 votes. The Congress has 31 MLAs, the number which is enough for ensuring victory to its candidate. But as Kuldeep Bishnoi has been sulking over not being considered for a party post during the revamp of state unit, it is going to be a task for the party to keep the flock together. Bishnnoi could not be contacted. In the 90-member Assembly, the BJP has 40 MLAs while the Congress has 31. The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the Indian Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party one each. There seven Independents. Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra, who was elected as an independent with the BJP's support, and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring. Polling for two Rajya Sabha seats will be held on June 10. Meanwhile, around 40 Rajasthan Congress MLAs and some Independents were also moved to a hotel in Udaipur as the party tries to keep its flock together before the June 10 . (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.) TV app, which aggregates content recommendations from streaming services and lets users create a universal watchlist of their favourites, is now available on iOS. The tech giant said that it will replace the previous Play Movies and TV app in the App Store, so if users have already got that installed, they should be able to update it to the TV experience, reports The Verge. The software, already available on Android, also allows users to rate what they have previously viewed to improve future recommendations. More important for Android TV or Chromecast with Google TV owners is that users can use the Google TV app as a remote control for those devices by tapping the remote icon. Not every major streaming service allows its content to be included in Google TV's rows of aggregated recs, Netflix is the big holdout, the report said. The company bowed out of Google TV integration very shortly after the release of the 2020 Chromecast, and Google has been unable to bring Netflix back into the fold ever since. The Google TV app will also contain a library of rentals and purchases from Google. --IANS vc/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.) South Korean tech giant is reportedly once again working with tech giant to create the next 2nd Generation Tensor SoC that will be underpinned in the upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. is collaborating with to create the Tensor 2 SoC and the South Korean tech giant will begin mass-producing Google's second-generation Tensor chipset on the 4nm process from June, citing Naver News, GizmoChina reported. The Tensor 2 chip will power the Pixel 7 series which is expected to be released in October. It is to be noted that Electronics also manufactured the first-generation tensor chip used in the Pixel 6 series. It will also power the Pixel 6a, which will launch in July. The previous Tensor chip was made using a 5nm process, however, the second-generation tensor is said to be made using Samsung's 4nm approach. The report also mentions that the chip will be manufactured using panel-level packaging (PLP) technology. "PLP is a packaging technique in which chips cut from a wafer are placed on a rectangular panel. It is possible to minimise the discarded edges, thereby reducing cost and improving productivity," as per the report. Samsung has already supplied with DRAM and NAND flash components, as well as the chipsets used in Waymo's autonomous vehicles. The company is also said to be in talks with Google to create chips for additional purposes, such as Google's server processors. --IANS vc/dpb (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.) Microblogging site Twitter's dashboard application for management, TweetDeck, will no longer be available as a standalone Mac app from July 1. When launching the TweetDeck for the Mac app, has started placing a blue banner at the top warning users that it will only be available for one more month, reports 9To5Google. "We are saying goodbye to TweetDeck for the Mac app to focus on making TweetDeck even better and testing our new Preview," a tweet from the TweetDeck team reads. "July 1 is the last day it will be available," it added. As per the report, TweetDeck for Mac just got an overhaul last year that brought it in line with the web version. At the time, the company admitted the app had not been getting "a lot of love" and that it was an example of "a Twitter-owned and operated service that we will continue investing in," it added. Another strange part of the abrupt cancellation of the TweetDeck Mac app is that it should not require any maintenance effort for since it is a website wrapper implementation. Last year, the microblogging site announced a new and improved version of TweetDeck. At that time, it was testing the new features with a small group of users in the US, Canada and Australia. --IANS vc/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.) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 2 (ANI/NewsVoir): A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP, widely recognized as a pioneer in Hi-tech soil-based Vertical Farming in India and one of the largest turmeric producers has announced their investment in Shark Tank fame farmer Pandurang Taware's startup Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC). The move is a positive step towards bringing attention to Agri Eco-Horti Tourism in India and work on a combined vision of providing the maximum benefits to the farmers, the company statement shared. The joint venture together aims to create an ecosystem that is Sustainable, Economic and boosts the Environmental Development of Villages through Agriculture Tourism. "Agriculture has lot of potential in many ways and if given the right direction, farmers can contribute a lot in the country's growth. We are looking at working together and bringing hi-tech cluster vertical farming projects under the belt of Agri Eco-Horti Tourism in India. This will serve as a joint platform to further the agenda of helping the farmer community become financially self-sufficient and independent," shared Dr Prashant Zade, Founder, A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP. While 80% of the world's turmeric is grown in India, the country only exports 8-10% of the yield due to stringent export standards requiring more than 4.5 per cent of curcumin content. The turmeric produced by A S Agri is consistent in quality, variety, growing method, and contains levels of curcumin suitable for export - giving access to a huge international market. The company strongly supports and advocates NDA Government led by the Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and campaigns of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India, Vocal for Local and Startup India. Pandurang Taware, Founder, Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) shared, "A S AGRI, with its immense expertise has given the much-needed confidence to the farmers to start their own Agri Eco Horti tourism centres. Coupled with vertical farming clusters, the new projects will definitely play an important role in future food production of the country." The company has also announced the state-of-the-art Vertical Farming cluster projects under its aegis which is slowly gaining momentum amongst groups of farmers, farmer cooperatives, investors looking at buying land in rural Maharashtra and more alike. A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP offers the B-O-B i.e., Build-Operate-Buyback Model, wherein we handle construction, operations, maintenance, production, and buyback. "We're seeing good reception so far with this model with more than 1500 projects running and this is only going to grow in the coming years with the cluster projects being announced which will benefit lacs of farmers," Dr. Zade shared. A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP, a pioneer in hi-tech soil-based vertical farming technology recently supported and participated in the much-loved Maha Utsav held at the ND Studios founded by Ace Art Director Nitin Desai to create awareness on the revolutionary production of Turmeric through Vertical Farming methods. The AS Agri's vertical farming display was the highlight of the 4-day extravaganza. "We are sponsoring community events and also showcasing our products and services at Agri-Tech exhibitions all over the country. Our team is also interacting and conducting sensitization meetings with villagers, farmer communities, community leaders, activists, and high-profile personalities. There's a long way to go but we are going to keep giving our best efforts," he further adds. Maharashtra has been at the forefront of implementing and promoting Agri-Tourism, rural tourism and sustainable tourism in the country. The Maharashtra government has also been taking ground-breaking initiatives to promote them. Established in 2018, 'A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP' is led by a group of professionally competent and dedicated professionals with sensitivity towards the farming community, experience in varied industries, and exposure to international markets. With its head office located in Thane (Maharashtra), the company has established a national footprint, along with a presence in countries like UAE, Qatar, UK, and Sri Lanka, thus promoting innovative Agricultural practices and ensuring that the Indian farmer lives a sustainable, self-sufficient, and independent lifestyle across the borders. To lead the transformation of the technologically stagnant Indian agriculture ecosystem through innovation and development, the company also aims to partner with the government and national and international organizations to Formulate, Develop and Enhance agriculture in India with advancements in technology. For more information, please visit (https://asagriaqua.com). This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Zhang Tao, a former deputy chief at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to head its Asia-Pacific office, as the bank looks to further boost cooperation among central banks in the increasingly influential region. Zhang, 58, who is currently supervisory board chairman at state-owned insurer The Peoples Insurance Co. (Group) of China Ltd. (PICC) (601319.SH), will join the BIS as chief representative for Asia and the Pacific, according to a press release by the bank on Wednesday. The appointment will make Zhang the first Chinese to join the BIS senior management team in its 92-year history. Today is the first day of Chinas national college entrance examinations, known as the gaokao. Anxious parents gather outside testing sites to wait for their children. This year, around 300,000 examination rooms have been set up, which is fewer than last year as Shanghai postponed the citys gaokao to July due to its Covid outbreak. The number of examinees set a new record at 11.93 million Jun 07, 2022 07:49 PM Its normal for car manufacturers to focus on their highest variants. They are, after all, seen as the image leadersthe one that carries th... China to expedite delivery of policy package to keep economy stable Xinhua) 09:06, June 02, 2022 BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China will speed up the implementation of a package of policy measures to maintain stable economic performance and ensure that market entities and the people are well-informed of these policy steps and benefit to the fullest extent, according to a decision made at the State Council's Executive Meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. The meeting noted that the policy package, introduced in line with the overall thinking and policy orientation decided at the Central Economic Work Conference and outlined in the Government Work Report, is mainly aimed at increasing the speed and effectiveness of policy implementation. They are crucial and timely measures for overall economic stability with a properly-heightened intensity, as well as fine-tuned execution of macro policies targeting the needs of market entities, in an effort to raise efficiency without compromising long-term interests. Thanks to swift actions across government departments, good progress has been made in rolling out detailed implementation plans for the 33 policies in six aspects. "Since the announcement of the policy package, government departments have all taken proactive steps," Li said. "We must redouble our efforts, in particular to accelerate policy implementation." The meeting stressed the need to fully examine the policy package and further flesh out each and every measure to make sure all those eligible should be fully informed and benefit to the fullest extent. The newly-added amount of 140-billion-yuan value added tax credit refunds should be basically delivered by July. Policy banks will increase the credit line by another 800 billion yuan to provide financial support for infrastructure building, and a mechanism will be set up to meet the needs of key projects. All eligible migrant workers who have lost their jobs, whether covered by the unemployment insurance scheme or not, will receive provisional living allowances or other forms of relief. Primary responsibility for paying such allowances should be made clear. With regard to the deferral of principal and interest repayments on the 90-billion-yuan commercial truck loans extended by centrally-managed auto companies, the enterprises concerned will be encouraged to inform loan-takers of the deferral procedures through online announcements, text messages and other means. Other policies also need to be fleshed out to see that they are operable and can be delivered on the ground. Policy implementation will be closely tracked, and improvements made whenever needed. "Supporting measures and detailed guidelines for the policies are of critical importance. Detailed implementation plans should be swiftly introduced and easy to act on, and all those eligible should be fully informed of the policies and benefit from them, so that market entities and the people can enjoy the policy dividends in a timely way," Li said. The meeting called for deepening reform of government functions. Vigorous steps will be made to see that no deliberate application is required for those eligible to benefit from the policies and that more services will be accessible online. To smooth logistics in both trunk and branch routes and facilitate early resumption of full-capacity production, the bottlenecks must be pinpointed, relevant measures should be improved, and targeted assistance to key enterprises will be intensified. On investment projects, all localities and departments concerned should keep work logs, improve approval procedures and provide greater support in land use and other aspects, to enable the launch of projects as quickly as possible. Free and smooth passage of summer harvest agricultural machinery should be ensured. Measures will be implemented to support the listing of platform companies on domestic and overseas markets in accordance with laws and regulations, and ease the restrictions on car purchases. "We must foster an enabling business environment for economic development through the reform of government functions, and solve difficult issues and unleash the vitality and creativity of market players with reform-based and market-orientated measures," Li said. The meeting urged tighter supervision on policy implementation. The task forces dispatched to 12 provinces by the State Council are required to formulate reports based on on-site inspection as soon as possible, and prominent problems found in the policy implementation will be made public. Major indicators of the second quarter, including local GDP, surveyed urban unemployment rate, fiscal revenue after deducting tax refunds, and consumer prices will be released in a fact-based manner by the statistics authorities together with the finance, human resources and social security, and tax authorities on a province-specific basis, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Netflix has revealed first footage of its upcoming four-part event series Oni: Thunder Gods Tale from Berkeley, California-based Tonko House Inc. The world of Oni is a world filled with Japanese mythological oddball gods and monsters. One of those creatures free-spirited daughters, Onari, is determined to follow in the footsteps of the mighty heroes from her favorite stories, except unlike those heroes she doesnt have any great powers yet. Over four episodes the young protagonist will learn if she has what it takes to fight to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching threat of the gods mysterious enemies, the Oni. Netflix also unveiled the full voice cast for the series, which features Momona Tamada (The Baby-Sitters Club), Archie Yates (Jojo Rabbit), Craig Robinson (The Office), Tantoo Cardinal (Wind River), Brittany Ishibashi (Runaways), Omar Miller (8 Mile), Seth Carr (Black Panther), Anna Akana (Jupiters Legacy), Charlet Takahashi Chung (Overwatch), Miyuki Sawashiro (Kamen Rider Decade), Yuki Matsuzaki (Letters from Iwo Jima), Tonko House co-founder Robert Kondo, and George Takei (Star Trek). Photo: The Canadian Press The United Nations said Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The announcement is a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war, though significant obstacles remain to lasting peace. The cease-fire between Yemens internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels first came into effect on April 2 the first nationwide truce in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab Worlds most impoverished nation. However, both sides have accused the other of violating the truce at times. The announcement, which is the outcome of UN efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties, U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. He said he will mediate talks between the warring parties to solidify the new truce, and to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. The fighting erupted in 2014 when the Houthi rebels descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around the besieged city of Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the Houthi rebels. In recent weeks, commercial flights have resumed from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and fuel shipments have arrived. However, the opening the roads around Taiz remains a contested issue. Both sides have yet to agree on a framework for lifting the blockade on the key city. Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided during the truce, which started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. Yemens war has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians. It has created now one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The Norwegian Refugee Council welcomed the truce extension as a sign of a serious commitment to end the conflict. The Council's Yemen Director Erin Hutchinson expressed hopes that the ceasefire could lead to further progress on the reopening of roads so that humanitarian aid could reach the needy, and so that more displaced Yemenis could return to their homes. Many Yemenis and observers point to the fact that fighting has been reduced, but not completely stopped. According to the Norwegian humanitarian group, the original truce resulted in a more than 50% drop in the number of civilian casualties in the first month. The head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, welcomed the truce extension in a statement, expressing hopes it would be conducive to a comprehensive peace in Yemen. The GCC, a Saudi-based bloc representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, makes economic policies across these Gulf Arab nations, serving as a Sunni-led Arab counterweight to Shiite power Iran. Photo: The Canadian Press A Russian cargo plane stranded at Toronto Pearson International Airport is racking up parking fees of more than $1,000 per day. The Russian-registered Antonov 124 operated by cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr has been parked at Pearson since Feb. 27. The plane arrived in Canada to deliver a shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests. But, hours later, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced Canada was closing its airspace to all Russian aircraft in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Toronto Pearson spokeswoman Tori Gass says the stranded plane is subject to the airport's standard aircraft parking rates for as long as it remains on the property. She says those charges currently amount to $1,065.60 per day. Photo: The Canadian Press An animal rights group says it has sent a letter to Kevin Costner urging him to step away from the Calgary Stampede. The Hollywood actor was named parade marshal for this year's event. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says in a news release that the event has caused the deaths of more than 70 animals including in 2019 when the Stampede last held chuckwagon races. The organization, also known as PETA, says horses have suffered fractured legs, broken backs and heart attacks. It is asking Costner, who has been in movies shot in the Calgary area, to dissociate himself from the event. This year's Stampede is to run from July 8 to July 17. Photo: Madison Erhardt Nina Sora waives a Ukrainian flag outside Kelowna City Hall in February. Ukrainians who've recently arrived in Canada after fleeing war in their home country are now eligible for transitional financial assistance from the federal government,. The federal government announced Thursday that Ukrainians can now apply for a one-time payment of $3,000 for an adult and $1,500 for those 17 and under, to help cover their basic needs. Our commitment to Ukrainians fleeing Russias illegal war doesnt stop once theyve arrived in Canada, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said in a press release. We will continue to help those seeking refuge live and thrive in communities across the country. This one-time financial assistance will be crucial in addressing the immediate challenges faced by Ukrainians who have left so much behind to find a safe haven in Canada. The government says payment of the funds should come through direct deposit within five days of submitting the application. Applicants must have a bank account with a Canadian financial institution. To date, Canada has received more than 259,000 Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel applications, and more than 120,000 have been approved. From Jan. 1 to May 22, 35,455 Ukrainian citizens arrived in Canada. The government of Canada has chartered three flights from Poland to bring Ukrainian refugees to safety in Canada. The third flight will be arriving in Halifax Thursday. Dozens of Ukrainian families have arrived in the Okanagan in recent months, and the local grassroots organization, Kelowna Stands With Ukraine, has been helping these recent arrivals get settled. Elena Radchenko, 27, arrived in Kelowna from Kyiv last month. She told Castanet that it's been a very emotional time for her and it was difficult leaving her country. But she said Kelowna Stands With Ukraine has been extremely helpful during the transition process. We've had a good experience here, some amazing people met us and give to us everything we need, Radchenko said last month. We are happy we're here. Ukrainians and their family members who are in Canada with a valid work permit, study permit, temporary resident permit or visitor record under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel are eligible for the recently announced financial assistance. Photo: The Canadian Press Texas state sen. Roland Gutierrez, speaks during a news conference held at a town square in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, June 2, 2022. 19 students and two teachers were killed in last week's elementary school shooting in the town. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The commander at the scene of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside the building as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator called it a system failure that calls were going to the city police but were not communicated to Arredondo. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference, adding that no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. However, he said, Gov. Greg Abbot should accept much of the responsibility for the failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo. Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo believed the situation had turned into hostage situation and made the wrong decision to not order officers to attempt to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls was being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him school district police chief did not know. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Funerals for those slain began this week. Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a local grocery store in Aylmer, Que., on Thursday, May 26, 2022. Trudeau is to visit a First Nation east of Calgary today for a signing ceremony. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting a First Nation east of Calgary today for a signing ceremony. Trudeau and Marc Miller, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, are to spend much of the day at Siksika Nation. A notice on the nation's website inviting its members to the event says it's a signing ceremony for the 1910 Global Settlement Agreement. The settlement includes various land claims and comes with a one-time payment of $1.3 billion. The Siksika website says each member is to receive $20,000 in July as part of the settlement. Trudeau says he's at Siksika to right a wrong from the past. If the government is not prepared to punish criminals, then gun control changes will do nothing to stem current concerns. The government is currently more concerned about making political points than it is about actually curbing illegal guns, the criminal importation of, and the use of those illegal guns. To listen to the government narrative, youd think that all those shootouts in Ontario and elsewhere were taking place at a licensed firearm shooting range. I think Canadians know that the licensed and vetted legal firearm owners, including sport shooters, are not part of the criminal gangs that are using guns on the street. Its just more Liberal lip service for the uninformed and a cheap ploy to pretend that theyre tough in crime. The Liberals are only tough on the law-abiding, the criminals have nothing to fear from this government. Don McPhail Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has failed to persuade Pacific island countries to sign an agreement on security and economic cooperation, amid concerns that the proposal would threaten regional stability. Chinese Foreign Minister went to Fiji in person to convince the Foreign Ministers of 10 Pacific island nations, including Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Samoa, to accept his proposal 'China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision' but failed to reach any agreement, Global Strat View reported. Some countries expressed their concern regarding China's proposal. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told the media that consensus is not easy. "Geopolitical point-scoring means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas, whose job is being lost to the pandemic, or whose family is impacted by the rapid rise in the price of commodities." Meanwhile, the President of Federated States of Micronesia was apprehensive about the deal and said it is "the single most game-changing proposed agreement in the Pacific in any of our lifetimes" and "threatens to bring a new cold war era at best, and a world war at worst." A rebuffed Wang told the island nations: "... don't be too anxious and don't be too nervous", adding that he will "continue to have ongoing and in-depth discussions and consultations to shape more consensus on cooperation." "There has been general support from the 10 countries. But of course, there are some concerns on some specific issues and we have agreed that these two documents will be discussed afterwards until we have reached an agreement," Fiji Qian Bo said as quoted by the media. To convince Pacific island nations, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote a personal letter to their heads of government, which was read at the foreign ministers' meeting. President Xi said that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Pacific island countries features mutual respect and common development. He further said that the relationship has made steady progress and yielded fruitful results, setting a good example for South-South cooperation. Over island nation's concern, the Chinese President said, "China stays committed to equality of all countries regardless of size, and remains guided by the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests and the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith in developing friendly ties with Pacific island countries." He even gave them a personal assurance to them: "No matter how the international landscape may evolve, China will always be a good friend that shares the same ideal and follows the same path, a good brother going through thick and thin as well as a good partner forging ahead side by side of Pacific island countries." The Pacific island nations are still wary of him. According to the media, the entire Pacific region is suddenly becoming the latest arena for the war of attrition between the United States and China. (ANI) Also Read: China: Beijing cracks the whip in run-up to Tiananmen Massacre anniversary Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan in another controversial statement said that if the country's establishment does not make right decisions, the country could split into three parts and also lose its nuclear deterrent capabilities. The ousted PM made these remarks in an interview with a private television channel. The TV interviewer asked Imran Khan, "If the establishment is not with you irrespective of your popularity as was the case with Benazir Bhutto, you will not be able to come back in power. Keeping this in mind, what is your future strategy?" "The actual problem here is of Pakistan and establishment. If the establishment does not take the right decision, then I will give it to you in writing that they will be destroyed, and the armed forces will be the first ones to be devastated," he told the interviewer adding, "Pakistan will be broken in three parts". The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan warned that once the country's economy is destroyed, it would go in default, and the world would ask Pakistan to move towards denuclearisation -- as was done to Ukraine in the 1990s, reported The News International. He also said that Pakistan is on the brink of "self-destruction" and will go "bankrupt." Reacting to the former premier's comments, former president Asif Ali Zardari slammed Khan and said that no Pakistani could talk of tearing this country apart. "This language is not of a Pakistani but of Modi. Imran Khan's power is not everything in the world, be brave and learn to stand on your feet and do politics now," he said. Zardari directed the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) workers to protest the remarks of Imran Khan throughout the country. The PPP coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry said that having lost power, Imran Khan has started talking about the country breaking up and losing nuclear assets. "We want the Supreme Court to answer whether or not we have the fundamental right to hold a peaceful protest. We will announce the date for our next long march as soon as the apex court rules on the petition," he told a social media conference in the provincial capital, as per the media portal. This comes in the context of the federal as well as Punjab governments resorting to the use of force against the participants of the Imran Khan's so-called Azadi March on May 25 to protest the "corrupt and imported" Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government. (ANI) Also Read: China fails to persuade Pacific island nations to sign security, economic pact 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 Many ornate pieces from the fine houses on Cameron Hill ended up in a homes away from their origin, and at least one temporarily became part of a farm. Lynn Phillips Durham, who lives in a senior neighborhood in Nashville, soon after she was born went to live far up Cameron Hill. It was a house on Arcadia Avenue that had been occupied for a number of years by the family of Morris Feld, who was the proprietor of the Model Store. The Felds previously lived at 16 E. 4th St. and then on the side of Cameron Hill at 207 W. 6th St. Before that the end house on Arcadia had been occupied by Benjamin H. Cox Jr., a traveling salesman. It was first occupied in 1913 by Henry R. Biedermann, who was in the piano business. Later, Martin J. Burelbach, who was scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America, lived there as well. Ms. Durham said, "My paternal grandparents, Louie and Freida Phillips, lived at the end of Arcadia Drive. The house was on a dead end street and next to the many concrete steps with metal banisters that went up and down Cameron Hill. "My grandfather, who was a clerk at the Postal Transportation Service, covered the red brick on the front porch with masonry brick that really added a lot to the look of the house. "There was a two-bedroom apartment attached by the basement of the main house that could be seen as one started down those long steps to the side of the house. My grandfathers brother, Abe Phillips, moved in there with his family for several years. "When my father, Martin "Marty" Phillips, came back from the service, he and my mother and baby me moved into the main house at 520 Arcadia. My paternal grandparents, Louie and Freida, moved into that apartment under the main house (520 1/2 Arcadia). Uncle Abe and Aunt Bertha moved into a house in North Chattanooga." The view from the room my Daddy built onto the back of the house was unbelievable at night as the walls of that room were mostly thick glass. It was as if we were looking out at a gigantic Christmas tree." She noted, "My grandparents could come and go into the main house through the basement. The basement door opened into the main house at the first floors hallway that led to my parents bedroom and also into the kitchen. The fact that they would come into the house unannounced was a sore spot with my mother." She said, " The Phillips family did suffer a tragedy while they were living on Cameron Hill. Her handsome baby brother, Richard Ivan " Ricky" Phillips, was bitten by a cat that had rabies and died when he was just 18 months old from the experimental shots they gave him and Lynn (21 shots in the stomach). Lynn recalls, " I hid under my bed when we had to go get those shots. Daddy had to pull me out. They are reported to have been extremely painful to grown men." That cat was a pet of one of the families that also lived on Arcadia. Lynn says, "When my father got wind of Cameron Hill being torn down, he arranged a sizable buy-out and moved our family on to 44 acres where he took the red bricks from the house on Cameron Hill to build a stable that could hold over a dozen horses. They called that place 'Red Acres' where they hired a riding instructor who gave riding lessons and took people out into the park on trail rides. The TV personality, Bob Brandy, kept his horse at our stable. Red Acres was located at the edge of Chickamauga Park on Old Ringgold Road. There was a trailer park on the left that my parents also ran. The stable was on the right. Both are gone now. The two story colonial-style house is still there. Many changes have been made inside as well as outside of the house. "My two younger sisters developed a strong love of horses during that time. Terre Phillips grew up with horses and has had her own stable in Ringgold, Georgia, (Peavine Creek Stables), for many years. Dayle Phillips Haywood and her husband have a miniature donkey farm with over 30 donkeys (Half Ass Acres in Chapel Hill, Tn.) "As for me, I'm afraid of horses!" As harsh criticism builds over the slow police response in last weeks school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, I am reminded of one of my favorite stories, Run To The Roar. Throughout my lifes adventures it has served me well and it centers on a family of lions called a pride - in Africa. Every pride is ruled by a true King of the Jungle and the old man decides when to travel, when to lay low, when to hunt, who marries who - the whole deal. But as it is in nature, the lead lions hair begin to mat over the years. Theres bursitis in his left hip. His teeth get loose and most of the time hed rather just sleep. As it is with families, the grumbling soon starts and the brave younger lions soon get fed up. There comes the day when one of the brave lions stands up to the old man and whips him so thoroughly the former king tucks tail for a week. But they dont kill him. After all, hes member of the pride. Sure, he gets table scraps instead of the juicy cuts when there is a kill and he switches to senior status when it comes time to hunt. Hes too slow for the chase, you understand, but his roar is the most terrifying in the pride. And his job in the most unique in the hunt. Heres the way it works: Younger lions go out and scout until they see an antelope asleep in a heavy thicket. Thats when they race back to camp and whistle up the strongest and the toughest lions in the pride. They also wake up the old man. When they get back to the thicket, the old man trails wisely, giving the strong and fast time to position at the rear of the thicket. Then the former King of the pride walks to the front of the thicket and begins to sit and roar like a banshee. The antelope wakes up in a panic and dashes out the back door of the bushes. Ka-Wham! It gets blistered by lions from every direction and is quickly eaten up. The moral of the story is that if the antelope had run to the roar, it could have easily out-run and out-dodged the senior lion and so it is with life. If we will only challenge and confront what scares us the most, things will never be as bad as we envision them to be; again Ive run towards the roar all my life and, while at times things did indeed get pretty crummy, never has life with its twists and turns been worse that I had imagined. * * * Pedro Pete Arredondo, the shamed Uvaldi school police chief, has been dodging the state and national news media like a fugitive for the past week, and Wednesday, when he was cornered by a CNN team, he offered a scant response to substantive questions. Obviously well above his pay grade, he appeared scared and unsure of his answers. While he said he was in contact with the Texas Department of Public Safety every day, he said that out of respect for the families who are burying their slain children, he will release no further information until it is deemed appropriate. Arredondo would not answer why it took 19 police officers over 80 minutes to confront and neutralize the 18-year-old or why, when the gunman was shot and killed, it was by a unit from the U.S Border Patrol. Arredondo was sworn in as a member of the Uvalde City Council in a private ceremony on Tuesday. * * * Uvalde, Texas, is located in the southwestern part of the state in what is known as hill country. It is about 80 miles west of San Antonio and 54 miles east of the Texas-Mexico border. The population was 15,217 at the 2020 census. It is 78 percent Hispanic and 20 percent white. Matthew McConaughey, the Oscar-winning actor, is among its native sons. royexum@aol.com The First Cumberland Presbyterian Church is in search of five to 10 more certified lifeguards for the summer season. According to the American Lifeguard Association, nearly half of the nations more than 300,000 pools will likely be affected this summer by a nationwide lifeguard shortage. After years of renovations, high operating costs and COVID setbacks, the First Cumberland Pool, formerly known as Cumberland Youth Foundation, is at risk of reducing its hours if staff cannot find lifeguards to manage the pool."Fewer public pools are opening this summer due to aging facilities, declining visitation and high expenses," officials said.Pools at 11 Tennessee State Parks will not reopen this summer due to complications related to COVID-19. The First Cumberland Pool has served the Brainerd area as a favorite summer swim location with more than 100,000 people utilizing the pool since opening in the late 1950s. You can go out into Chattanooga and you can speak with so many people who love to talk about swimming at this pool as a kid, said First Cumberland Presbyterian Church Director of Ministries to Children and Families Bess Taylor Williams. The community has a connection to this pool.The Cumberland Youth Foundation was founded in 1958. Current ministries provided by First Cumberland Presbyterian Church include The Dayplayers Summer Camp, The Cumberland Currents Swim Team and management of the Olympic-sized swimming pool. We see this pool as an essential outreach in our community, said First Cumberlands Youth and Community Engagement Director Sarah Quattrochi. Keeping the pool going is a way to keep our children exposed to recreational activities, which helps improve physical well-being, emotional health and brain development. This pool is a service to the community and one that we hope people will utilize.The renovations to the pool were significant and having to manage them during the pandemic and supply chain challenges significantly slowed the process. From trying to find the supplies to the contractors to the lifeguards, every step of the way has been hard, said Ms. Taylor Williams. Saturday was opening day and the smiles of the people who came to see us make it all worth it. We hope this pool is a place to have fun and make memories for another 60 years.First Cumberland Presbyterian Church is located at 1505 North Moore Road in Chattanooga. The pool is open to the public Monday through Friday from 4-7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. More information about gate admission, memberships or job opportunities can be found at www.firstcumberland.com. Danny Boyles new limited series Pistol has shed a different light on the Sex Pistols and their music, but Maisie Williams character Jordan steals the show. The actor, best known for her portrayal of Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, has traded in Needle and armor for hairspray, tons of makeup, and punk clothing. Heres what Williams had to say about portraying a punk fashion icon and filming her (that) opening scene. [Warning: This article contains spoilers from Pistol.] Maisie Williams | Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Vanity Fair What is Pistol about? Boyle based Pistol on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones book, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Williams plays Jordan, a sales assistant in Vivienne Westwood, and the bands manager Malcolm McLarens London boutique SEX. Years after the punk revolution, Jordan became a fashion icon with her spiked-up bleach blonde hair, black makeup, and outrageous punk outfits. Meanwhile, Enola Holmes Louis Partridge is Sid Vicious, Anson Boon is Johnny Rotten, and Toby Wallace is Jones. Jacob Slater is Paul Cook, and Christian Lees is the bands original bassist Glen Matlock. The Queens Gambit actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster is McLaren. Sydney Chandler plays Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, Emma Appleton is Vicious girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, and Talulah Riley is Westwood. The limited series follows the punk bands rise to success, spearheading the punk scene, and recording their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols. RELATED: How the Sex Pistols Celebrated Queen Elizabeth IIs Silver Jubilee in 1977 In Pistol, Maisie Williams had an interesting opening scene In Jordans opening scene, she rides through public transportation wearing a see-through outfit. It outrages her fellow passengers so much that a train attendant asks her to move to a vacant First Class compartment. That doesnt stop the men on the train from gawking at her, though. The real Jordan didnt care what people thought of her and her revealing outfit, but it was harder for Williams. She still had a very striking image, Williams told Variety. I was quite intimidated, really. But I dont think that thats anything new to her. But I think that shes just undeniably herself. When you are in the presence of someone who is so confident and calm its rare. And that can be can be overwhelming. Williams got to speak with Jordan to prepare for the role. Jordan explained what wearing the transparent PVC top on the train was like for her. People were really hostile to her when she wore these outfits on the train, Williams said. She would in fact get taken into First Class, mostly because they wanted to protect her from disgruntled people. I think people didnt really understand her expression as as a work of art. They felt it was inappropriate, because it was linked with some kind of fetish or sex work, and for that reason, people were really awful to her. But she wasnt a confrontational person, at all. It was kind of just a storm around her, almost. There is an element of her style that was provocative, but it was never with the intention to harm. It was more the intention to express herself and poke fun at the contradictions of the world that she lived in. RELATED: Sex Pistols: Johnny Rotten Got His Nickname Because His Teeth Were Green Pistol gave Williams another character to connect to Williams told Digital Spy that she thinks talking with Jordan gave her portrayal soul. She learned that Jordan never felt lonely and that she felt proud of herself. I think it definitely made it easier in a way because you dont feel like youre creating something, Williams said. Or despite this being a fictional retelling of these events, it didnt feel like you were creating someone entirely fictional. It felt like it was grounded within yourself and your own experiences and the experiences we recounted [of] the people who were really there. Williams told Variety that she and Jordan had a connection. She grew up in the spotlight, so it was easy for her to connect to Jordan, who had weaponized how people looked at her. There was a lot of liberation in making people avert their attention, Williams continued. For most of my life, all Ive done is sit on trains and have people take pictures and videos of me. It was kind of nice to have the opposite effect in this Jordan get-up. Pistol taught Williams a lot, but what she learned talking with Jordan truly changed her. She found out shes not alone, and thats what the punk movement was all about. Unfortunately, Jordan died before Pistol premiered. However, fans will forever remember her and her contribution to a revolution. RELATED: Sex Pistols: John Lydon Wrote Holidays in the Sun After Officials Barred the Band From Entering the Channel Islands TL;DR: Three Dog Nights name came from a list of 60 names. The name was inspired by a practice from Indigenous Australian culture. The group had many hits in the United States but far fewer hits in the United Kingdom. Three Dog Night | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer Three Dog Night produced many classic rock songs such as Joy to the World. Despite this, the origin of the groups name is unknown to many fans. A founding member of Three Dog Night, Danny Hutton, explained the name has its roots in Indigenous Australian culture. Three Dog Nights Danny Hutton was connected to The Beach Boys and Disney During a 2019 interview with Hamptons.com, Hutton discussed his early days as a musician. [I was] working for Disney and then for Hanna-Barbera, the cartoon company when they started their own recording label, in the early 60s, he recalled. I wrote songs for them. While he was working for animation studios, Hutton met Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. This was during the creation of Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys most acclaimed album. If I had one [mentor] it would have to have been Brian Wilson, but truly it was mostly me, Hutton said. I knew what I wanted to do from the beginning. RELATED: Disney Songwriters Wrote Ringo Starrs Final No. 1 Song Three Dog Nights name was inspired by a magazine article Hutton explained the origin of Three Dog Nights name. I was in my kitchen, and my manager said By Monday I want you to come in with a name, he recalled. We wrote down 60 names however I used to get this magazine called Mankind, my girlfriend at the time showed me an article about the Australian Aborigines with the phrase, a night so cold you will need to take three dogs to bed with you to stay warm, and that was that, Three Dog Night, Hutton remembered. RELATED: Why The Monkees Micky Dolenz and The Carpenters Lost the Chance to Record Three Dog Nights An Old Fashioned Love Song 1st How the bands songs performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom Three Dog Night became successful in the United States. 21 of the groups songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Of those, 11 hit the top 10. Those songs were Shambala, The Show Must Go On, One, Elis Coming, Easy to Be Hard, Liar, Never Been to Spain, Just an Old Fashioned Love Song, Joy to the World, Black & White, and Mama Told Me (Not To Come). The latter three songs topped the chart. Three Dog Night was far less popular in the United Kingdom. According to The Official Charts Company, only two of their singles charted there: Joy to the World and Mama Told Me (Not To Come). The former reached No. 24 while the latter reached No. 3. Three Dog Night was a major force on the charts in the 1970s and their name has an interesting backstory. RELATED: Brian Wilson Said Elvis Presley Was in the Studio When He Was Making 1 of The Beach Boys Songs Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for extracting hydrogen gas from liquid carriers which is faster, less expensive and more energy efficient than previous approaches. The technique makes use of a reusable photocatalyst and sunlight to extract hydrogen gas from its liquid carrier more quickly and using less rhodium than previous techniques making the entire process significantly less expensive. Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for extracting hydrogen gas from liquid carriers which is faster, less expensive and more energy efficient than previous approaches. Hydrogen is widely viewed as a sustainable energy source for transportation, but there are some technical obstacles that need to be overcome before it can be viewed as a practical alternative to existing technologies, says Milad Abolhasani, corresponding author of a paper on the new technique and an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State. One of the big obstacles to the adoption of a hydrogen economy is the cost of storage and transportation. Hydrogen fuel does not result in CO 2 emissions. And hydrogen refueling stations could be located at existing gas stations, taking advantage of existing infrastructure. But transporting hydrogen gas is dangerous, so hydrogen needs to be transported via a liquid carrier. A key obstacle for this strategy is that extracting hydrogen from the liquid carrier at destination sites, such as fueling stations, is energy intensive and expensive. Previous research has shown that it is possible to use photocatalysts to release hydrogen gas from a liquid carrier using only sunlight, Abolhasani says. However, existing techniques for doing this were laborious, time consuming and required a significant amount of rhodium a metal that is very expensive. Weve developed a technique that applies a reusable photocatalyst and sunlight to extract hydrogen gas from its liquid carrier more quickly and using less rhodium making the entire process significantly less expensive, says Malek Ibrahim, first author of the paper and a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State. Whats more, the only byproducts are hydrogen gas and the liquid carrier itself, which can be reused repeatedly. Its very sustainable. One key to the success of the new technique is that it is a continuous-flow reactor. The reactor resembles a thin, clear tube packed with sand. The sand consists of micron-scale grains of titanium oxide, many of which are coated with rhodium. The hydrogen-carrying liquid is pumped into one end of the tube. The rhodium-coated particles line the outer part of the tube, where sunlight can reach them. These particles are photoreactive catalysts that, in the presence of sunlight, react with the liquid carrier to release hydrogen molecules as a gas. The researchers precisely engineered the system so that only the outer grains of titanium oxide are coated with rhodium, ensuring the system uses no more rhodium than is necessary. In a conventional batch reactor, 99% of the photocatalyst is titanium oxide and 1% is rhodium, Abolhasani says. In our continuous flow reactor, we only need to use 0.025% rhodium, which makes a big difference in the final cost. A single gram of rhodium costs more than $500. In their prototype reactor, the researchers were able to achieve a 99% yield meaning that 99% of the hydrogen molecules were released from the liquid carrier in three hours. Thats eight times faster than conventional batch reactors, which take 24 hours to reach 99% yield, Ibrahim says. And the system should be easy to scale up or scale out to allow for catalyst reuse on commercial scale you can simply make the tube longer or merge multiple tubes running in parallel. The flow system can run continuously for up to 72 hours before its efficiency decreases. At this point, the catalyst can be regenerated without removing it from the reactor its a simple cleaning process that takes about six hours. The system can then be restarted and run at full efficiency for another 72 hours. NC State has filed a provisional patent for the technology. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Switchbacks for roads cut through three ridges in the area being worked for Hudbay Minerals Inc. in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson, Ariz., Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. A federal judge has rejected a request by opponents to stop Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. from preparing a planned new copper mine's site in the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson. Its been nearly 50 years since U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam. It marked the end of a tumultuous time in America, when war abroad and discontent at home made for a volatile situation. When the conflict finally ceased, those who had served received, by and large, little national gratitude. Few parades were held in their honor. Little recognition of their bravery was offered. In fact, it was just as likely for someone to turn their back on a Vietnam veteran as it was for them to shake their hand. Caught up in the politics of the moment and the cultural upheaval that marked the 1960s and 1970s, history has for a long time forgotten about the Vietnam vet. That, however, has been changing over the last decade or more as a younger generation seems intent on making amends for the disservice done to many of our service men and women more than 40 years ago. Thats why the arrival of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is so important. We still, as a nation, have a lot of thanking left to do. While the debate over the legitimacy of the Vietnam War continues and will likely never subside, there should be no debate should never have been any debate over the debt owed to those who served during that time period. Perhaps it is coming late for these veterans, but better late than never. With each passing year, we end up further away from the events of the war, and we lose more veterans to Father Time. As we watch the greatest generation get older, we recognize that our ability to both learn from and honor those who served is short. The men who fought in the Civil War and World War I are no longer here to thank. We can only visit gravesites and monuments to acknowledge their heroism and their rightful place in our history. But we can offer a hand shake to those who served in Vietnam. We can also listen to and learn from them. They lived through one of the most impactful times in American history. They fought in a war we now can only read about. They dont need to watch a documentary or the most recent Hollywood depiction of some battle to know what its like to experience combat. They lived it, first-hand. The fact that this wall arrives just a few short days after Memorial Day seems fitting. The names etched on it are the very ones we recognize every last Monday in May. They allow us to put a name, a face, a story, a life, to the saying that Freedom isnt free. When the bill is added up, the payment is their sacrifice. Those who have visited the wall in Washington, D.C., know there is nothing quite like it. The environment around that monument feels different than around virtually any other. A quiet, somber air seems to settle permanently over it, no matter the number of people or the noise that surrounds the wall. Perhaps the smaller replica, erected on a field at Bartlem Park, cant hope to duplicate that exact feeling. However, if 15 years ago is any indication, those who experience the wall for the first time right here in Cheshire are likely to get the next best thing. If you didnt go in 2007, we highly encourage you to make the time this week. If youve never been to the monument in D.C., this experience will almost assuredly set a future trip in motion. The need to honor our Vietnam veterans has not subsided. We owe them, yet the account can never truly be settled. What can we do? Read the names on a wall, and shed reverential tears for what each one represents the end of a life in service of a country. CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle urge Christians to answer God's call: 'He sends the ones who are available' NASHVILLE Christian music superstars including CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle, Michael W. Smith, Danny Gokey and Third Days Mac Powell shared wisdom for the next generation of CCM artists, highlighting the importance of following Gods lead and remaining scripturally sound in a rapidly changing culture. Christian music veterans and newcomers alike gathered at Nashvilles Grand Ole Opry House Sunday for the K-LOVE Fan Awards, a night defined by hope, inspiration and comradery. Ahead of the show, nominees, performers and guests spoke with The Christian Post on the red carpet about their hope for the future of Christian music and the next generation of believers. Matthew West, who hosted the nights show alongside Tauren Wells and was also nominated for Male Artist of the Year, walked the red carpet with two of his daughters. The 45-year-old Dove Award-winner told CP that the best advice he can offer up-and-coming artists is to stay humble, stay focused on the lane that God has put you in, and youre going to have a major impact on society and culture. I hope I've been a positive role model for other young artists who come in, he said. And I'd say the biggest encouragement I can give is always put God first in your life. And don't worry about comparing yourself to others. You know, artists can be just like everybody else on social media, where you're comparing, What does this artist have going on? How high is this song on the charts? And you can let that stuff rule you. And when it rules you, it robs you of the true understanding of how God is using you in life. Winans and Daigle, who performed together at Tuesdays show and have countless awards and chart-topping singles between them, both encouraged younger believers to just be who God has called you to be. God has empowered them to be more than enough for this generation, Winans said. I think, God is so amazing that every generation, He gives the talents, the gifts, exactly what they need. I just want the young people to be who they are, and take all the limits off. God will take you further than what you could ever imagine. Daigle added that God has wired each person so creatively, adding: There's a thing called a zeitgeist, which is where time and culture intersect. And it's when God decides to say, This is the one I have appointed. This is the one I'm calling out. Let's go; come on. This is how we get the people ready for what's to come. He sends the ones that are uniquely available, I think." If you feel like God is calling you to this or that, He's touched your life in some sort of way. Ask Him to open doors and see the places that He'll take you, she added. Winans said she hopes CCM keeps growing and covers the world, stressing that the world needs to hear the Good News of the Gospel. That's what it's all about, she said. What started as a niche genre in the 1960s at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, CCM is today a multibillion-dollar industry, with many artists finding huge crossover success. According to the Berklee School of Music, the fastest-growing radio market in the United States today is Christian music. Smith, of the most recognizable names in CCM for the last four decades, told CP he believes humility is the key to truly honoring God. The artist, whos won three Grammy Awards, 45 Dove Awards, one American Music Award and was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, was nominated in the Book Impact category for his book, The Way of the Father. Stay humble. It's not about you. And that's the key. I'd rather humble myself; being humbled by God is not a lot of fun. So I just think that's the key. And I think God will exalt you and I think He'll give you a favor and I think He'll do extraordinary things if you stay humble, the 64-year-old artist said. Mac Powell, the former frontman of Third Day who is now a solo artist, encouraged artists to remain biblically sound, stressing the importance of not watering down the message of the Gospel. I think as an artist, you're always wanting to make music that will reach people outside of the walls of the Church, but at the same time, we all often think about that term, we're preaching to the choir, he said. I've gotten criticized in the past for making very Gospel-forward music because you go, Well, you're just preaching to the choir. Well, I know I was in the choir, and I needed to be preached to. So artists can do both. We can do music and art that reaches outside of our walls, but at the same time, encourage our brothers and sisters that are within the Church. American Idol alum Danny Gokey, who was nominated for Male Artist of the Year and was also a presenter, encouraged the next generation to seek first the Kingdom, adding: A lot of us, we want to be famous for Jesus, but He doesn't need our fame, He needs our hearts and our obedience. And He needs us to speak what hes saying, because the words that we put in music speak to people who are in basements, in hospitals, ready to take their lives. I'm telling you, the uniqueness of His voice inside of us and displayed through us is a big deal. And we must be tuned in. He stressed that regardless of what happens in culture, Gods message never changes. God's Word is the most stable foundation to build on, the artist said. For me, it's taking God's Word and formulating it in such a way that it's fresh. When I write, I go to the Lord and say, What do you want to say? And then the packaging is the producing the sound, and we try to get it out there. A lot of times God uses prophetic moments in my life that I write into songs. The K-LOVE Fan Awards will air on TBN June 3, airing back to back at both 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. Leah Sharibu held captive over 1,500 days in Nigeria, but family advocates haven't lost hope For more than 1,500 days, Nigerian Christian teenager Leah Sharibu has been held captive by the Boko Haram terrorist group as Christians continue to be the target of attacks in the West African nation. Gloria Puldu-Samdi, who was with Sharibus family in early May, told The Christian Post in a recent phone interview that despite little tangible hope, they're continuing the search for their daughter, who turned 19 on May 14, marking her fifth birthday in captivity. Late March marked 1,500 days that Shariby has been in captivity. According to reports, it's unlikely that she would be able to escape because she's ordered to stay near Boko Haram commanders. Because of this, it's been claimed that even a military rescue mission would fail. Abducted at age 15, along with around 110 other girls from a school in Dapchi in February 2018, Sharibu is now believed to have given birth to two children fathered by Boko Haram militants. Puldu-Samdi, who leads the LEAH Foundation in honor of the Nigerian teenager whose example of courageous faith has inspired many worldwide, continues to advocate for her release. It has been widely reported that Sharibu has refused to deny Jesus Christ and refused to embrace Islam. That is reportedly why she remains in captivity. The purpose of creating it is so that we can advocate for her, and for other women and girls who are persecuted for their faith and denied education, who have to pay a great price because of who they have chosen to be or who God has made them as women, Puldu-Samdi said. Its painful to see my people denied education, to see my people denied the right to have religious freedom, to see my communities destroyed. Puldu-Samdi has many sisters, and her father, who is both Christian and educated, saw the value of girls receiving an education. For her, Sharibu is emblematic of every woman and girl who has been persecuted. Her ordeal and bravery in refusing to renounce Christ in the face of her terrorist captors is recounted in a book Puldu-Samdi co-authored with Peter Fretheim, titled Leah Hero For Jesus: The Real-Life Story of Leah Sharibu. Her parents continue to call for prayer that the Lord would keep her faith, her faith that is in her heart, that His presence will be with her," Puldu-Samdi said. "That even if she is forced to wear all the [hijab andabaya] things to show that they have forced her to change, that her heart would be hidden and that her heart would be strong and remain firmly, that she will always have the presence of the Lord. And pray for the release of this young child, that she would be able to get her freedom and that her parents would be strengthened. Nigeria is increasingly imperiled politically, and attacks on Christian communities by terrorist groups and radical Fulani herders continue to escalate year after year, Puldu-Samdi added. She lamented the lack of attention the rise in violence is receiving worldwide. On a daily basis, it is saddening, Puldu-Samdi said of the situation in Nigeria. And Im saddened by what is happening in the situation in Ukraine and other places, but we can see and hear the support that Ukraine is getting. But why is the Nigerian Church being destroyed and the governments of the world are not holding the Nigerian government accountable? Why is every international body, the United Nations silent about what is happening in Nigeria? Why have they not investigated? Under the Trump administration in 2020, Nigeria was placed on the U.S. State Departments countries of particular concern list. The CPC designation is placed on countries that allow severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act. The Biden administration lifted the CDC designation from Nigeria in 2021, drawing criticism from Christian human rights advocates and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Puldu-Samdi has been advocating for Nigeria be placed back on the CPC list, particularly as the persecution of Christians intensifies. She highlighted reports about Christian student Deborah Samuel who was brutally murdered by stoning and beating with sticks in the northern Sokoto state of Nigeria. Her Muslim classmates had accused her of blaspheming the Islamic prophet Muhammed. While video footage of the gruesome murder circulated online in mid-May as though it had just happened, a Reuters fact check has since claimed that the footage is from August 2021. Events like these are increasingly common in the villages in the region and are escalating, Puldu-Samdi added, lamenting how the world has largely ignored the plight of Christians in Nigeria. As Nigeria prepares for a presidential election in 2023, Puldu-Samdi said she and others fear the country might implode. And some believe, according to national intelligence reports, that war in the nation is imminent. Open Doors USA, a watchdog organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Nigeria as the seventh worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. Open Doors reports that Christians in northern Nigeria live under the threat of radical Islamic groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, Fulani militants and other criminals who kidnap and murder Christians were "few consequences." Christians in some northern states live under Shariah law and are treated as "second-class citizens," Open Doors reports in a fact sheet. Man charged with hurling Molotov cocktails at North Carolina churches, police say A man investigators say was caught on video hurling Molotov cocktails at two churches in North Carolina has been arrested. Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright announced on Facebook Monday that 57-year-old Terry Wayne Raeford of Fayetteville was arrested in connection with the vandalism of the two churches. In a Facebook post Sunday, Wright noted that sheriffs investigators initially responded to the first incident at Grays Creek Church in Hope Mills just after 10:30 a.m. A half-hour later, New Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville reported a similar incident, Wright said. Arson investigators obtained video footage from both churches, which showed a black male in his 50s pull a gray sedan with tinted windows into a parking lot. No injuries were reported in either incident. Security cameras captured the suspects vehicle at both locations, enabling them to identify Raeford as the man in the video. Raeford was charged with two counts of Manufacture, Assembly, Possession, Storage, Transportation, Sale, Purchase, Delivery, or Acquisition of Weapon of Mass Death and Destruction; Exceptions, and two counts of Malicious Damage of Occupied Property by Use of Explosive or Incendiary; Punishment. Wright indicated that Raeford, who is being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center on a $200,000 bond, is cooperating with the investigation. He made his first appearance in court Tuesday afternoon. The social media pages for both churches appeared to show predominantly black congregations. The motive for the vandalism remains unclear and it is unknown whether any hate crime charges would be filed. The attack against the North Carolina churches marks the most recent acts of vandalism against places of worship. The nondenominational Axis Church in Nashville reported a similar attack involving a Molotov cocktail last September. Federal investigators offered a financial reward for any information on who may have been responsible for the attack. Two months after the incident, church leaders were still working to repair the damage, which forced them to strip everything down to studs and rebuild. New York City police are investigating after thieves decapitated angel statues and ripped a centuries-old solid gold tabernacle worth $2 million from the altar of a local Catholic church. Last month, pro-abortion vandals targeted two separate churches in Colorado with graffiti messages like Abortion Saves Lives and My Body My Choice. Windows were broken and church statues were defaced as well. The vandalism occurred days after Politico published the contents of a leaked draft majority opinion that indicated the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide in the coming weeks. Since the publication of the draft opinion, reports of vandalism and other damage have been reported at churches and pro-life pregnancy centers across the U.S., including in Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Methodist theologians sign statement to retrieve the riches of Wesleyan tradition amid UMC schism A group of over 60 theologians, professors and clergy have signed onto a statement of faith aimed at helping to solidify the identity of the Methodist movement at a time when the world's largest Methodist denomination is facing a schism over sexuality. Titled The Faith Once Delivered: A Wesleyan Witness, the document came out of a gathering of around 50 Christian scholars at the Next Methodism Summit held in January in Alexandria, Virginia. The document, which takes its name from Jude 1:3, states in its introduction that it aims to guide the theological trajectory of Methodism for the next century or more. It is nothing less than a robust affirmation of the historic Christian faith and the particular gifts of the Wesleyan movement within the larger Church, the introduction reads. The document is divided into six sections. The first section focuses on the attributes of God. The second section is centered on the image of God and creation. The third section focuses on Scripture and its authority. The fourth section touches on the nature of salvation. The fifth section focuses on the Church, and the final section is mostly focused on the End Times. Kevin Watson, acting director of the Wesley House of Studies of George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and pastor of discipleship at First Methodist Church of Waco, Texas, served as an assisting editor for the document. In an interview with The Christian Post, Watson said that he participated in the January gathering and crafting of the document because he believes the Wesleyan-Methodist tradition needs to retrieve the riches of its own doctrinal heritage. I believe many parts of the Wesleyan-Methodist tradition are experiencing a crisis of identity. We have forgotten who we are. We have lost the treasure the Lord has entrusted to us and our nerve to spread Scriptural holiness, said Watson. I was encouraged to see more than 60 scholars share the same concern and willingness to invest themselves in a contemporary restatement of the core beliefs of the Wesleyan theological tradition. Watson believes The Faith Once Delivered was different from other statements of faith because of its range of contributors and the timing of the release of the document. This document is not seeking to speak a new word in support of a current cultural moment. Rather, it is seeking to retrieve the basics of the faith that has already been given to us, he continued. Receiving the faith that has already been given to us is the key first step to seeking to discern what faithfulness looks like in the present. Bishop Scott Jones, head of the Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, led one of the working groups at the January gathering and reviewed drafts of the document. Jones told CP that he believes the document articulates a bold future for Wesleyan Christianity and that it will help people make decisions about where God is leading this part of the Christian movement. I hope leaders read it and think more clearly about who Methodists are called to be and how God can use us for His purposes, Jones added. Lane Davis, an ordained elder in the UMC Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, served on the sub-drafting group that wrote Section 4 of the document, titled "Salvation: The Image Restored. Davis told CP that many people, including himself, see a revival beginning in churches of the Wesleyan tradition, but revivals need strong theological foundations to last. There are many of us that we have those foundations in the doctrinal documents of Methodism. I signed The Faith Once Delivered because I believe it is a faithful, concise, summation of those core Wesleyan tenets, he said. The document comes as the UMC, the largest Methodist denomination globally, is facing a schism over its decades-long debate over homosexuality. Although the UMC Book of Discipline officially labels homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching, many theologically liberal church leaders have refused to enforce rules associated with that stance. On May 1, a theologically conservative alternative to the UMC, known as the Global Methodist Church, was officially launched, with manycongregations making efforts to join it. Davis believed that at least one component of why the United Methodist Church finds itself on the brink of schism was a lack of knowledge of the traditions of the Methodist movement. The Wesleyan tradition has a rich theological and doctrinal heritage, and yet Methodists as a whole have not done a great job of communicating and forming our congregations in the particulars of that tradition, he said. Watson said a distinction needs to be made between the formal teaching of the Church and what is happening on the ground in reality across United Methodism. The UMCs official statements of doctrine the Articles of Religion, Confession of Faith, Wesleys Sermons, and the General Rules are in harmony with this document, Watson said. The challenge is that over the past decades, a gap has opened up between official teaching and actual practice in the UMC. Adherence to The Faith Once Delivered would vary widely across the breadth of the UMC, particularly within the United States. Refusing to prosecute abortion protestors is inexcusable One of the strengths of America is our legal system in which we settle our disputes peacefully in courts. We do this without the type of violence, intimidation, and threats against judges that occur in too many other countries around the world. We take for granted that judges in our country can do their jobs without fear of being targeted for doing their job. That was true until someone leaked a draft opinion from the Supreme Court a few weeks ago. Now, even though the Supreme Court hasnt even issued its official opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, pro-abortion protesters are threatening the lives of the five conservative justices who (as of February) were supposedly in the majority of the leaked draft. Not only have they threatened the justices, but they have also engaged in illegal protests outside the homes of those justices each week since the leak, in clear violation of federal and state law. So why arent Attorney General Merrick Garland and Steve Descano, the rogue state prosecutor of Fairfax County, Virginia, enforcing federal and state law to stop pro-abortion extremists invading the neighborhoods of Supreme Court justices in order to intimidate them and their families over the upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson? As can be seen in this video taken in the normally quiet neighborhood in Fairfax County, where Justice Amy Coney Barrett lives, these abortion radicals are foul-mouthed vulgarians who have no regard for the law, civility, or even human life. Their sentiments about the killing of unborn children are entirely captured by one of them saying save the fetus, f the child. They protest every Thursday night at Barretts house and rotate from one conservative justices home to another throughout the week. And this wont stop until Garland or Descano do something about it. Abortion rights groups, emboldened by their abdication of duty to uphold the law, have promised that this will be a summer of rage. Imagine for just a moment that a very important Second Amendment case was pending before the Supreme Court and a memo was leaked indicating that the liberal justices had a majority to do what the progressive left has wanted the court to do for years: erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights as if it has never existed. Gun right advocates from the National Rifle Association and other groups show up at the homes of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan who are leading the court on this case, shouting profanity-laced slogans, disrupting the peace and tranquility of the neighborhood, and scaring the children and families who live there. In other words, acting just like the abortion protesters are now. Is there anyone who doubts that they would have been immediately arrested and the only dispute would have been an argument between Garland and Descano on who is going to prosecute them first? But because Garland and Descano agree with the political views of these protesters, they refuse to do anything to stop them for what they are doing trying to impede, obstruct, intimidate, and influence Supreme Court justices doing their jobs. These protests are disturbing the peace and tranquility of the neighborhood. The Barrett family is being disrupted and threatened by these protesters. Their children, and other kids in the neighborhood, cant play outside, ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac, or just be kids. The Barrett protesters are even using bullhorns to shout their profanity-laced slogans, all obviously intended to pressure, coerce, scare, and intimidate a justice of the United States Supreme Court. There have also been protests at the Alexandria, Virginia, home of Justice Samuel Alito. Even Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., someone who supports abortion, says that what is happening is reprehensible. Stay away from the homes and families of election officials and members of the court, he said. Durbin is right. A recent poll showed that 75% of those polled do not agree with publishing the homes addresses of the five Supreme Court justices nor do they agree with the protests happening at their homes. Federal law is quite clear. Under 18 U.S.C. 1507, it is a criminal violation of federal law to picket or parade near a building or residence occupied or used by [a federal] judge, juror, witness, or court officer with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty. A violation also occurs when any sound truck or similar device is used (like a bullhorn). It seems pretty obvious that these invaders of the neighborhood of Barrett and the other justices who have seen similar protests at their homes are violating this very clear, unambiguous federal law. And the intent behind this law is also crystal clear. While we have extensive First Amendment rights in this country to speak out, including criticizing decisions of federal courts, we do not have the right to try to abuse that freedom by trying to intimidate judges, jurors, and witnesses in ongoing cases to influence their decisions and their testimony if we want to maintain a fully functioning, objective justice system. Yet despite the fact that these protesters are showing up repeatedly in their effort to intimidate and scare justices, Garland refuses to enforce the law and do anything about it. Virginia law is clear also. Under 18.2-419 of the Virginia Code, it is a criminal offense to engage in protests before or about the residence or dwelling place of any individual which disrupts or threatens to disrupt any individuals right to tranquility in his home. The law specifically allows protests at places used for the discussion of subjects of general public interest, thus making the same distinction that Durbin, to his credit, is making. No one wants to restrict peaceful, civil protests in the public arena. But taking that to peoples homes, to their families, is an outrageous and dangerous abuse that should be stopped or no one will want to serve in public office. Yet just like Garland, Descano, the Fairfax County prosecutor, refuses to arrest these radical invaders and prosecute them. Fairfax County Police are positioned at or near these justices homes in Virginia 24/7. They see the crimes being committed. Yet they know that if they arrest them, the gatekeeper to the criminal justice system in Fairfax County Descano wont prosecute them. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has expressed his outrage at the protests, saying that while he supports the First Amendment right to demonstrate and express your views, it is not appropriate nor is it legal to do it at the residences of justices. Youngkin has urged Garland to take action, but he has not yet used his authority as governor to order state police to arrest these agitators in the face of the local prosecutor refusing to take action. Garland and Descano should both be ashamed of their dereliction of duty and the fact that they are allowing their personal bias and partisanship to prevent them from doing their duty to support the Constitution and the rule of law and protect public officials like the members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Originally published at The Daily Signal. What the early church said about abortion While the pro-life position is widely associated with Bible-believing Christians, there are actually professing Christians who identify as pro-choice. In fact, one of my pro-life colleagues was speaking at a church in Michigan when, to his shock, he learned that the pastor had recently taken up an offering to help one of the young ladies in the church get an abortion. How can this be? A pro-life colleague in Charlotte, North Carolina, told me that he knew an abortion doctor in the city who gave a tenth of her earnings to her local church. In her mind, she was doing Gods work. In that same spirit, Breitbart reports that Several left-wing, pro-abortion activist groups led by so-called clergy are ramping up their efforts to make sure women can abort their unborn children, including transporting them to states where abortionists are still operating. In the words of Katie Zeh, a pastor and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Its so central to our faith to care for people, so its no surprise that clergy [prior to Roe v. Wade]were part of the group helping people get abortion care. When we look at the Scriptures, it is clear that the Bible describes the humanity of the baby in the womb. This is a child with potential life and destiny ahead, not a clump of cells. So, the pro-life position is easily deduced from the pages of the Bible. But when we look to the writings of the early Church leaders, their condemnation is even more direct and forceful. And remember: this was without the visual evidence of ultrasounds and without todays massive improvements in fetal viability. Still, they recognized abortion for the evil that it is. One of the earliest Church writings from outside the New Testament is the Didache, also known as The Teaching of the Twelve, as if going back directly to the twelve apostles. It states, The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child (Didache 2:12). Both abortion and infanticide were prohibited, regardless of what the rest of the culture practiced. Such was the counter-culture mentality of the Church, being transformed by the Word rather than conformed to the world (see Romans 12:1-2). Another important source from the early Church is the Letter of Barnabas. It mirrors the Didache, stating, Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born (Letter of Barnabas 19). Its a baby inside the womb and a baby outside the womb. Writing towards the end of the second century, Tertullian said, In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed (Apology 9:8). Skipping ahead 200 more years, to the end of the fourth century, Jerome wrote, Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder (Letters 22:13). And this is just a sampling of the statements of these Church leaders, for whom abortion was a deeply sinful practice. In the words of John Chrysostom, also in the late fourth century, abortion is murder before the birth. In fact, David Bercot, in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, listed more than 20 relevant quotes under the heading of Abortion/Infanticide, indicating how these Church leaders saw abortion and infanticide as two sides of the same coin. (Note that infanticide was widely practiced in the ancient world, with parents leaving unwanted infants outdoors to be killed by animals or nature.) The amount of citations gathered by Bercot also points to the importance of the topic for these Christian leaders, the earliest of whom were the disciples of the apostles. For those of you reading this article who have had abortions or participated in an abortion, it is understandable that these quotations sting deeply. At the same time, there is mercy and forgiveness and healing and restoration at the cross. And if you confess your sin to God and cry out for mercy and grace, the blood of Jesus will thoroughly, completely, and eternally cleanse you. And this includes the sin of abortion. And to every Christian leader who claims to find biblical support for your abortion-supporting position, I leave you with the words of Jesus: See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven (Matthew 18:10). When those babies in the womb are being destroyed, their angels are looking right into the face of the heavenly Father. You will answer to Him on that final Day. New survey: corporations failing to respect religious and political diversity Alliance Defending Freedom and Inspire Investing, under the leadership of Jeremy Tedesco and Robert Netzly, respectively, have just released the first annual Viewpoint Diversity Index. The index is designed to objectively rate companies on how well they respect a wide range of religious and political viewpoints. The survey uses 42 specific questions which are broken down into three main categories: The Business Index evaluates a companys social footprint in three categories of activitymarket, workplace, and public squareto determine its score. "Market" refers to how the business deals with its customers and other business with which it works. "Workplace" refers to how the company treats employees. Finally, "Public Square" refers to the companys dealings with the broader society, especially political engagement and support for various causes. In all three categories the focus is on viewpoint diversity. If companies ban customers or vendors because they dont conform with the religious and cultural views of the company, thats a failure to respect viewpoint diversity. So are employees discriminated against for failing to fall in ideologically. It's similarly a failure if the business offers (for example) LGBTQ employees the privilege of creating and joining mutually supportive gatherings (usually known as Employee Resource Groups, or ERGs), but denies that privilege to specific religions, such as evangelical Christians. And if it publicly endorses legislation which weakens religious liberty, or imposes limitations on charitable giving which exclude religious charities or conservative groups based on vague accusations of hate, it fails in its Public Square diversity support. The results of the first survey are disappointing to advocates of viewpoint diversity (Viewpoint Diversity Score). The average score is just 12 out of a possible 100. The worst company was GoDaddy, the internet domain name vendor, with a score of two. Again, thats not two out of 10; thats two out of 100. Even the best of the 50 companies which have been evaluated, Paychex, only scores 35. This is an indictment of corporate America, but even more it is an indictment of Christian America, which has failed to act as salt and light in corporate boardrooms. This should not merely be a matter of Christians being disproportionately represented among the banned and marginalized voices. If all people are made in the image and likeness of God, than a lack of respect for diversity of opinion is an assault on human dignity, and by extension on God Himself. Of course, many people hold opinions which are wrong, but the answer to that is not to forbid them from holding those opinions. Banning dissenting views short circuits the give and take of debate, which is the only real way, in the long run, to move towards truth. ADF was drawn into this fight of necessity when it found itself banned from Amazons Smile Program. Smile allowed customers to choose charities which would then receive matching grants when the customer completed an Amazon purchase. But after ADF was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center it was banned from the program by Amazon. Even though that policy was challenged by members of congress, and the SPLC was later discredited by media reports as being overly broad and political in its hate group labeling policy, the ban remained in place. The Diversity Index is not designed as a way to build a list of companies to boycott, nor to use to decide which companies investors should divest from. Instead it is intended as an objective yardstick to take to companies in a strategy of active engagement. Activists have created a climate of opinion in which religious charities are routinely singled out as being unworthy of matching grants, Christian employee groups are suppressed, charities which simply affirm basic Biblical truths about gender and sexuality are subjected to bans from social media, and books questioning trans-ideology are disappeared from online platforms. This climate is one which came from Christians being disengaged while opposing social factions were hyper-engaged. Retreating further from annual meetings, proxy votes, and conversations with the companies we hold in our 401(k)s will not make things better. Using the voice that comes with ownership and now, the new knowledge which comes from the Viewpoint Diversity Index, is a good place to start in reversing the damage which has come from past neglect. ELCA head calls for resignation of denomination's first trans-identified bishop The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has called for the resignation of the liberal mainline denomination's first trans-identified bishop amid allegations of racism and other issues. ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton issued a statement last Friday concluding that she will not file official charges against The Rev. Megan Rohrer, who was installed last year as the leader of the California-based ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod. However, Eaton still believes that Rohrer should resign. "While I am not inaugurating formal disciplinary processes at this time, there remain enough serious concerns that influence Bishop Rohrer's ability to remain impactful in their role that I have asked Bishop Rohrer for their resignation, which I believe to be in the best interest of all parties involved," stated Eaton. "I believe that Bishop Rohrer has lost the trust and confidence of many constituents, both within and without the Sierra Pacific Synod. I have asked Bishop Rohrer to attend their assembly, speak and listen to their constituents, and give this the prayerful consideration it deserves after which I will expect their response." Eaton believes that "this decision will not bring closure to individuals on either side" but feels it is "a necessary step so that we can move forward and focus now on additional ways to facilitate healing." "We strive to address the ways that all forms of injustice limit participation and harm people, communities, and the whole body of Christ. That work will never be done, but together, we must continue to do and be better," Eaton concluded. In response to Eaton's request, Rohrer retweeted supportive posts on Twitter, saying, "I'm listening deeply and prayerfully discerning." Last September, Rohrer became the first trans-identified individual to become a bishop in the ELCA. Previously, the bishop served as community chaplain coordinator for the San Francisco Police Department and pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco. After being installed, multiple allegations of racism and other unethical behavior surfaced, with the LGBT group Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries suspending Rohrer's membership. In a statement last December, the ELM board claimed that Rohrer had "an existing pattern of behavior" that put the bishop at odds with "ELM's Mission, Vision, and Values specifically as it pertains to being an anti-racist organization." "This suspension is not only a response to recent harm done by the Sierra Pacific Synod Council and Bishop Rohrer to the Latinx community in Stockton, CA. This is a decision that ELM staff and Board have been discerning for much of 2021," stated the board. In March, the Congregation Council of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, a Fresno-based ELCA congregation with about 50% LGBT membership, passed a resolution calling for the removal of Rohrer and the Synod Council. The resolution cited Rohrer's alleged mistreatment and firing of Pastor Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez of Mision Latina Luterana, litigation surrounding Rohrer's actions as pastor of Grace Lutheran Evangelical Church of San Francisco and other issues. "Rohrer's approach to pastoral ministry is incompatible with the expectations of ordained clergy of the ELCA a pattern of abuse, bullying, manipulation of facts, deceit, and character assassination," stated the resolution. "[T]he episcopate of Bishop Megan Rohrer, the first transgender bishop of the ELCA, should be cause for great celebration but, instead, by their actions as both Pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco and as Bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod, their episcopate is an embarrassment to the LGBTQIA+ members of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church and its Mision Esperanza." In response to the outcry, Eaton created a "listening team" in March that conducted interviews of various people in the Sierra Pacific Synod regarding Rohrer's leadership. "There are profound issues regarding the circumstances surrounding the end of Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez' call to the Mision Latina Luterana community on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a day of such importance to that congregation and community," Eaton said in her Friday statement. "My decision was not made hastily nor without much deep consideration but is necessitated by a careful analysis of both the totality of information available and the disciplinary criteria and processes as described in the Constitution, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA." "Unwise decisions while they may be insensitive or in hindsight seen as misguided are not automatically grounds for discipline," Eaton added. "A high burden of proof exists to translate allegations into substantive findings that can be presented to a disciplinary body. In this situation that high burden was not able to be met. Moreover, disciplinary proceedings that would be likely to arrive at a similar conclusion as my review are time-consuming and risk delay in the necessary healing processes that must occur." Latino group denounces ELCA heads decision not to punish trans bishop A Latino Lutheran group has denounced a decision by the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America not to remove a trans-identified bishop for allegedly racist actions. Last week, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton called for Sierra Pacific Synod Bishop Megan Rohrer to resign, but Eaton refused to pursue official disciplinary charges. In a statement released in response, the Latino Ministries Association of the ELCA said they were deeply saddened and disturbed by the decision not to pursue disciplinary action against Rohrer. In this weak and compassionless statement, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton framed racist actions as unwise decisions and unfortunate events, completely ignoring the suffering of an entire community of color of the church-body she is called to serve, the Latino Ministries Association said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. Communities of color in this church should be concerned about the inability of the presiding bishop to support and protect them against systemic racism. The association called on Eaton to publish the report of the ELCA listening panel that was tasked with this investigation and urged the Sierra Pacific Synod to bring a motion calling for the removal of Bishop Megan Rohrer, and asked the Conference of Bishops to bring disciplinary charges against Bishop Megan Rohrer. While the association considered Rohrer's election to be a significant step forward in the diversity of this church body, they also believed that this advancement has been marred by [Rohrers] actions and subsequent reactions steeped in defensive white supremacy. Other groups that joined the association in its statement include: the LGBT group Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, the African Descent Lutheran Association, the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice, and other ELCA leaders. Rohrer, who uses they/them pronouns, was installed last year as the leader of the California-based ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod, becoming the first openly trans-identified bishop in the progressive Mainline denominations history. After being installed, multiple allegations of racism and other unethical behavior surfaced, including the reported mistreatment and firing of Pastor Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez of Mision Latina Luterana. Concerns over Rohrer led Eaton to approve the creation of a listening team that conducted interviews of people in the synod to determine if Rohrer should be removed from power. Last Friday, Eaton issued a statement calling for Rohrer's resignation, yet also refused to file official charges against Rohrer, arguing that Rohrers decisions are not automatically grounds for discipline. A high burden of proof exists to translate allegations into substantive findings that can be presented to a disciplinary body. In this situation that high burden was not able to be met, Eaton said. Moreover, disciplinary proceedings that would be likely to arrive at a similar conclusion as my review are time-consuming and risk delay in the necessary healing processes that must occur. For their part, the leadership of the Sierra Pacific Synod posted a statement on Tuesday expressing support for Rohrer, saying they believe Rohrer can continue to be effective in [her] role as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod. As a Synod Council, we have not had any direct information that leads us to conclude that Bishop Rohrer has lost the trust of the congregations and pastors within our region or that it is in the best interest of the Synod at large for them to resign, stated the synod. Rohrer led us through difficult times in a difficult situation and acted in consultation with the Synod Council and Churchwide. We are committed to moving towards reconciliation and restoration of all parties, believing in faith that this is possible under Gods grace. Stephen Baldwin celebrates baptizing his mother before her death, praises her example of Jesus The matriarch of the famous Baldwin family, Carol Baldwin, died at 92, and her son, Stephen Baldwin, said he will see her again, as he had the honor of baptizing her. According to her eldest son, Alec Baldwin, Carol Baldwin died in Syracuse, New York, this month. In his post, the actor noted that his mother spent many years of her life advocating for breast cancer research after surviving the disease herself. He honored the impact his mother made in this world. Her youngest son, Stephen Baldwin, also took to social media with a post dedicated to his mother. He, however, spoke of Carols spiritual impact and shared an intimate moment he and his wife, Kenya, shared with his late mom. August 4th, 2014, this was the day I knew for sure I would never have to worry about my mom again, the Baldwin son said on Instagram. The post showed a photo of Carol Baldwin emerging from the water in Skaneateles Lake in 2014 after asking Baldwin and his wife to baptize her. When my mom made this request, I told my wife, No worries we'll do it on our next trip. But Kenya said, No my love we will baptize her tomorrow, he explained. Baldwin said thank God for his wifes encouragement and his mothers willingness to be baptized. In Christianity, baptism is seen as an act of identifying Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, memorializing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. According to Bible Gateway, it's an ordinance "immediately instituted by Christ himself in Matt. 28:19, 20, and designed to be observed in the Church till He come." Thank God for the bold and courageous women in my life, Baldwin shared. His gratitude went most of all to my mom who in our friendship we didn't have to say much as we are similar in our desire to love and serve others. Baldwin added, Thanks mom I might not have found Jesus without your loving example of humility, grace and unconditional love!!! I'm grateful to God that I will see you again. The Least of These actor ended his post by asking his mother to say hi to his aunt Louise and father. Hailey Bieber, Stephen Baldwin's daughter, also shared a post about her grandma. "The matriarch of the Baldwin family completed her journey here on earth," Bieber wrote Friday. "Today I celebrate her, the life she lived, and the legacy she leaves behind. We love you." Alec Baldwin's obituary on social media noted that along with her six children, Carol Baldwin and her late husband, Alexander Rae Baldwin Jr., had 25 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. 35 Arkansas churches considering departure from UMC over homosexuality debate Thirty-five congregations in Arkansas that belong to The United Methodist Church are undergoing processes of discernment for possibly disaffiliating from the mainline Protestant denomination over its ongoing homosexuality debate. As the UMC Arkansas Conference begins to hold its official annual meeting this week, 35 of its 634 member churches are involved in the disaffiliation process. A conference spokesperson confirmed the number of churches under discernment in an email to The Christian Post on Wednesday, adding that she was uncertain as to how many more will undergo the process in the near future, labeling it pure speculation. The spokesperson directed CP to a video of Arkansas Bishop Gary Mueller explaining the options for congregations unsure of whether they will remain in the denomination. This included pointing out that the UMC Book of Discipline still presently maintains a traditional stance on LGBT issues, including a ban on the blessing of same-sex unions and a ban on the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals. The three options included staying with the denomination indefinitely, waiting for the results of the 2024 General Conference, or leaving under the present standards for disaffiliation, which include a congregational vote, communication with conference leadership, and certain financial payments to the denomination. This is not a battle to be won, its not a mixed martial arts cage match. Its a time of grief and discernment, said the bishop. We need to respect the best intentions of others. On May 1, a theologically conservative alternative to the UMC known as the Global Methodist Church was launched in response to the ongoing debate over LGBT issues in the denomination. Since then, churches across the UMC, especially in the United States, have announced plans to disaffiliate from the mainline denomination to join the nascent GMC. The Wesleyan Covenant Association, a theologically conservative UMC group, recently said that 107 UMC congregations in Florida had taken measures aimed trying to join the GMC. The Florida chapter of the WCA said: 107 Florida Methodist churches have chosen to initiate the process to depart the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church 107 represents approximately 20% of the 560 United Methodist Churches in the Florida Conference. This broad group of churches include both large and small congregations along with Anglo, African American, Latino, Korean, and other ethnic communities of faith. These churches will align with the new Global Methodist Church (GMC) which launched on May 1, 2022. I went to church in the metaverse and this is what I found After investing more than $300 to purchase the Meta Quest 2 (previously Oculus Quest 2) VR headset, creating an avatar as close as possible to my likeness, and dressing in my best virtual clothes, I went to church with just a few clicks. I visited the virtual campuses of several churches between Saturday and Sunday. The process was so easy, it was like picking a movie to watch on Netflix. Im sharing my experience at three of these churches where I had some interaction or spent a meaningful amount of time. They are: Life.Church, Lakeland Community Church, and Faith Church. I accessed the VR campuses of all the churches through Altspace VR, a social VR platform owned by Microsoft. I had planned to access the VR world through another online VR platform called VR Chat but I got stuck trying to make the platform accept my personally created avatar so I abandoned that ambition. I was able to get started quite quickly with AltspaceVR using my Microsoft account. Of the three VR church campuses where I spent the most time, the Craig Groeschel-led Life.Church VR campus, which I visited on Sunday, had the most people at any one time. When I entered the Life.Church VR campus there were already a handful of people having conversations in the lobby. I quickly made my way to the auditorium and found close to 10 or so people listening to the churchs worship service streaming on cinema-like screens. I observed for a while before taking a few virtual photos and heading to my seat. Other avatars the virtual representations of real people moved in and out of the auditorium. Groeschel would soon introduce guest Pastor Herbert Cooper of the Peoples Church, who delivered a pre-recorded message on When you feel abandoned by God. A woman with a blonde avatar sat in the row behind me. She would say amen from time to time as Cooper preached. I sometimes lifted my own virtual hands in approval or when the pastor asked the church to pray. When the service was over, the VR campus Pastor Steven Roberts introduced himself to the group, then he spoke with some people individually. We chatted briefly and he invited me to return the following week. Before I left the campus I walked around the building a little and found that there were many rooms and spaces set up for perhaps an expansion of virtual activity at the church. As soon as I entered the VR campus of Lakeland Community Church on Sunday, I was greeted by a staffer named Kim who told me where to go and what to look out for. There was a lot of information on the virtual walls of the building and there was a nice waterfall that you could watch as you entered and exited the auditorium. The waterfront campus, where Stuart McPherson serves as pastor, seemed thoughtfully created. When I entered the auditorium, Senior Pastor Josh Amstutzs live sermon was streaming on the screen. At one point I was the only one in the auditorium. You didnt need to be inside to hear Amstutz speak due to the high volume setting on the livestream, so I spent more time exploring the VR waterfront than listening to the message. For the Missouri headquartered Faith Church which I visited on Sunday evening, their VR campus wasnt as creative as the campuses of Life.Church or Lakeland Community Church. It appeared to be a generic AltspaceVR auditorium with minor modifications. Pastor Obed Martinez preached a message about your condition not being your conclusion. A few people milled in and out of the virtual space until his sermon was over. I waited to see if anything would happen but nothing spectacular did. For the most part, once you get beyond the VR, everything about church in the metaverse felt familiar. There were overt and not so overt invitations to give generously. There were signs inviting you to join a number of small groups, and then there was preaching. I noticed that some people would come into the VR church space and look for a while then leave if they found nothing compelling. In a physical church, leaving a service you didnt find interesting would not be as easy due to social pressure. In the metaverse, because youre in avatar state and arent necessarily reflecting your true name in your profile that others can easily view before deciding to talk to you, that social pressure is almost non-existent. The awareness that there could be a more useful church experience a few clicks away also helps to drive this transient attendance in the metaverse church. The only thing you have to do is go back to the menu of live services and choose the service you find most interesting for the day. If you find a community there then perhaps youll keep going back even if the message isnt great. In his presentation at the recently held Metaverse Church Summit, Bill Willenbrock, a hospital chaplain who has been leading a Christian fellowship on VRChat for about three years, noted that most of the people he has ministered to in the metaverse are particularly young adult males. While a majority of the small audience I observed in the VR churches was also male, it didnt seem to me like the audience Willenbrock referenced in his presentation would be interested in experiencing traditional church engagement in VR because their many questions about God in our increasingly pluralistic culture would still be left unanswered. Last year, a survey from Probe Ministries, a nonprofit that seeks to help the Church in renewing the minds of believers with a Christian worldview, showed that nearly 70% of born-again Christians disagree with the biblical position that Jesus is the only way to God. The survey, which looked at religious beliefs and attitudes toward cultural behaviors, polled 3,106 Americans ages 18 to 55 from all religious groups, including 717 respondents who identified as born-again Christians. The survey also found that among the top reasons given by born-again Christians for not telling others about their faith is the acceptance of pluralism. When asked why they dont share their beliefs with others, born-again respondents chose They can get to Heaven through their different religious belief, We shouldnt impose our ideas on others, and The Bible tells us not to judge others as their top three responses, respectively. A day before attending the VR church services, I found myself in a general faith forum in the metaverse where people from many faiths had open discussion. I stumbled upon a large group listening to a debate between a Christian man and a Muslim woman who used to be a Christian. I soon discovered there were many former Christians in the room including those who had converted to other faiths or no belief in God at all. Soon I was getting all kinds of questions from different people asking me why I believed in Jesus after I declared my faith. I shared that I believe because I had a personal encounter with God that lines up with the Bible. I also explained that I have proven from my lived experience that the spiritual principles contained in the Bible are true. Two men who identified themselves to be in their mid to late 20s told me that they have been trying to hear from God for a long time but all they have heard back is silence. A Muslim man offered to use logic to prove to them that God exists. I listened and waited as he struggled and ultimately failed to convince them. I told them I wouldnt try to use logic to prove that God exists because God is beyond human logic. I told them all I could do is be a witness to how God has moved in my life and trust that they will seek after Him and find answers themselves. They listened but said they were frustrated that God never answers them. I urged them to keep seeking and praying and be patient. I told them about the Holy Spirit. We talked about Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night in the book of John. The conversation was robust but respectful and lasted for at least a couple of hours as people moved in and out of the conversation. Despite all my testimony, one of the two young men said he still had not been convinced that God exists. I told him it was OK, then asked him if I could pray with him. He said yes and I prayed for about two minutes. He asked me again why God doesnt speak to him the way He speaks to me. I asked him how does he know that God hasnt been trying to talk to him through our conversation. He said he wanted a personal visitation from God. I told him that no human flesh can stand in the presence of God and live. In the end both non-believers sent me friend requests. I accepted fully realizing that it had been a very long time since I was asked so many questions about what I believed and why. And even though the young men said they werent yet convinced that God exists, I know that God made a connection with them through our conversation because they opened the door to keep listening. Kidnapped Nigerian pastor freed after 7-month Boko Haram abduction Pastor says terrorists demanded he convert to Islam A Nigerian pastor who was abducted by the Boko Haram Islamic terrorist group seven months ago was finally freed on Sunday and said his captors demanded that he convert to Islam. Pastor Moses Oyeleke of Living Faith Church (also known as Winners Chapel) was released along with a young female named Ndagilaya Ibrahim Umar of the government science secondary school in Nigerias northeast Borno state. According to Sahara Reporters, the captives' release was facilitated by the Department of State Service and the Initiative for Peacebuilding Movement and the Kalthum Foundation for Peace. Oyeleke was abducted on April 10 along with National Youth Service Corps member Abraham Amuta while on their way from Maiduguri to Chibok. On Monday, while visiting Borno's deputy governors office, Oyeleke spoke with reporters about his time in captivity. We were on our way to Chibok when they caught us and took us to Yola; from there, they took a detour and finally took us to Sambisa [forest], Oyeleke said, according to The Cable newspaper and The Punch. It was the two of us, myself and my brother, who was not released. The pastor said he was promised that when discussions are finished that Amuta and Umar's older sister would be released by Boko Haram. Oyeleke said he is very happy and his heart is filled with joy to be able to see his family, friends, and associates again. Oyeleke assured that he stayed peaceful with his abductors throughout the seven-month ordeal even though his captors demanded that he become Muslim. Many times they have requested me to convert to Islam, he was quoted as saying. Their preachers had preached to me a lot of times. But you know, when you have wisdom, you relate with people in a way that would not lead to quarrel. When they came to preach, I paid attention to everything they said. And when they asked me questions about things that I knew would cause problems if I respond, I always told them I dont know, so that I didnt say things that would offend them. According to The Cable, the pastors captors were said to have contacted Oyelekes family and the churchs resident pastor, Victor Samaila, about a month after his abduction to demand a ransom. Umar also spoke with the media at the deputy governors office. She explained that in the forest, the extremists marry little girls and women do not talk to men. [M]ovement is restricted, she said. Since 2013, Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped over 1,000 children in Nigeria. One of the most widely reported Boko Haram abductions occurred in April 2014, when over 276 schoolgirls from the predominantly-Christian town of Chibok were kidnapped. Even though more than 100 of the schoolgirls have been released, more than 100 remain missing. In February 2018, 110 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram in the town of Dapchi. About five of the Dapchi schoolgirls died while all others except one were released weeks later. The one Dapchi schoolgirl who remains in captivity is Leah Sharibu. Reports have indicated that Sharibu was not released with the rest of her classmates because of her refusal to deny Christ. Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2019 World Watch List. In addition to extremist groups like Boko Haram, Christian farming communities have often come under the attack of radical Fulani herdsmen. Thousands of Christians have been killed due to Fulani attacks in recent years. Oyelekes release comes weeks after the release of six Christian schoolgirls and two staff members who were abducted at gunpoint from Engravers College in Kakau Daji village near Kaduna city by suspected Fulani radicals and held for about a month. Leah Sharibu's family responds to reports that she gave birth to Boko Haram commander's son The family of abducted Nigerian Christian teenager Leah Sharibu has spoken out after reports published over the weekend suggested that their daughter has given birth to the son of a Boko Haram commander and that she was forced to accept Islam. A source close to the Borno-based Islamic extremist group told Sahara Reporters that Sharibu has given birth to a baby boy after she was forced to accept Islam and forcefully married to an unnamed Boko Haram commander. Dr. Gloria Puldu, a spokesperson for the family and a lecturer at the University of Jos, considered the reports to be nothing more than rumors. I have seen reports that Leah had a baby boy. That is just a rumor as far as we are concerned, Puldu told The Punch. What we even desire is to see a proof-of-life so that we see Leah by ourselves. If they are able to have Leah safe, we will understand. Sharibu was kidnapped along with over 110 other schoolgirls taken from a school in Dapchi in February 2018. Although about girls five died and all others were eventually released, Sharibu continues to be held by Boko Haram, which is known for its kidnappings and killings across the Lake Chad region. Sharibu was reportedly held back by the terrorist group because she refused to renounce her faith in Christ. Puldu stressed that the most important thing to the Sharibu family is to have their daughter back alive with or without the rumored child. And if she is alive, we will praise God for that, Puldu said. They should release her, despite whatever condition she is in. That is all. It doesnt matter whether she is pregnant or with a baby. Is it not better to have your child alive? So it doesnt matter; all we are interested in is her life and safety. Puldu spoke with one woman who escaped from Boko Haram captivity last week. I was able to speak with her one-on-one and she told us that she did not see Leah in captivity, but she was with Alison Gada, who informed her that Leah was alive, healthy and not dead," Puldu said. Sharibus father, Nathan, told the Hausa service of Voice of America that he has not been contacted by authorities with an update on his daughter and was not sure of the credibility of the recent reports. Nigerian investigative journalist Ahmed Salkida, who regularly breaks news related to Boko Haram, offered his confirmation that Sharibu gave birth to a child. Why, I wonder, do we pretend that leaving Leah behind won't result in pregnancy? Salkida wrote in a tweet. Since the terror group announced condemning her to slavery, is there any step or collective focus on preventing similar occurrences? She's a mother, but I don't know about the gender of the baby. Dede Laugeson, the executive director of the U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Save the Persecuted Christians, told The Christian Post in a statement that Sharibus life is in a constant horrific state of terror, violence, mental anguish, and rape. Save the Persecuted Christians collaborated with the International Committee on Nigeria and the Leah Foundation to bring Sharibus mother, Rebecca, to Washington, D.C., last June to advocate for her daughters release. The story of Leah, and the missing Chibok girls, and the Christian girls of Pakistan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq who are taken, tortured, and killed, cannot be forgotten, Laugeson emphasized. Christians who defend life must defend it even for the least of these mothers no matter how they came to be mothers. Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world for Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Although there were fewer Christians killed in Nigeria in 2020, Open Doors USA notes that it is because of a change of tactic by Boko Haram to focus on more kidnappings. They have gone from assassination and these kinds of things to roadside assaults on Christians and kidnappings, Open Doors USA CEO David Curry said earlier this month. Last week, Boko Haram executed Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigerias chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Andimi was taken captive by the group on Jan. 3. The Christian Association of Nigeria called for three days of prayer and fasting following the news of Andimis killing. Most Americans say allowing kids to use 'preferred pronouns' confuses them about sex, survey finds A majority of Americans believe allowing children to choose a preferred pronoun that does not correspond with their biological sex would only confuse them, according to a new poll. Researchers with Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and Harris Poll conducted a survey in May that asked over 1,900 registered voters whether children should be able to choose between using he, she or they, or whether they should be addressed by their sex. Nearly six out of 10 respondents (59%) said children should be "called by their sex." Forty-one percent of respondents believe "Kids should be able to pick their pronouns." Sixty-one percent of Democrats, 56% of respondents between ages 18 to 34 and 53% of respondents who lived in an urban region said the same. Republicans (77%) and independents (64%) overwhelmingly believe children should be referred to by their biological sex. The majorities of both male (60%) and female (59%) respondents agree. The survey also asked whether allowing kids to pick their pronouns is a move that "prevents discrimination against transgender students" or an "excessive measure that does more to confuse kids about their sex." A solid majority 60% said they believe preferred pronouns are an excessive measure that does more to confuse kids about their sex." The other 40% believe using pronouns preferred by children prevents discrimination. Parents (59%) and non-parents (58%) agreed that children should be called by their biological sex. Most respondents said they think teachers should be able to use whichever pronouns they prefer for their students, with 63% of respondents saying they should have discretion when it comes to pronouns in the classroom. A majority of Democrats (56%) and respondents aged 18-34 (54%) said teachers should be compelled to use pronouns that kids say they want to be used under penalty of losing their job, according to the survey. About 27% of respondents think it should be classified as "illegal discrimination" for failing to use someone's selected pronouns, while 73% said it should not be considered "illegal." The poll was conducted online in the United States from May 18 to May 19, 2022, among 1,963 registered voters. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Far from being hypothetical, the issue of using biological sex pronouns for trans-identified people which the LGBT community refers to as deadnaming has resulted in legal battles for many Christians, particularly those with careers in academia. A federal judge granted a temporary order last month in the case of a Kansas teacher suing her school district over policies requiring teachers to use the preferred names and pronouns of trans-identified students and hide those preferences from parents. U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter partially granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of Fort Riley Middle School teacher Pamela Ricard preventing Geary County Schools Unified School District 475 from disciplining her for not referring to a students preferred name and pronouns in her communications with a trans-identified students parents "within the regular course of her duties." In April, a Christian professor in Ohio who claims he was threatened with punishment by university officials in Ohio for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a trans-identified student was awarded a $400,000 settlement and secured the right to avoid using pronouns that conflict with his beliefs. Last fall, a Pennsylvania university threatened disciplinary action against students who misuse pronouns, including misgendering, pronoun misuse, and deadnaming. In 2018, a school board in Virginia fired teacher Peter Vlaming because he wouldn't agree to use the preferred pronoun of a trans-identified student. Following his firing, a large group of students at West Point High School staged a walkout to protest the teacher's termination. Vlaming filed a lawsuit against the West Point School Board in October 2019. In 2021, another teacher was placed on leave in Loudoun County, Virginia, after he voiced concern at a school board meeting about a proposed policy that has since been enacted requiring teachers to use the preferred pronouns of their trans-identified students. A judge ordered the teacher's suspension to be lifted, and the Virginia Supreme Court rejected the school district's appeal. Nigerian Christian teen escapes captors weeks after abduction, forced conversion to Islam A Nigerian Christian girl who was abducted in January and forced to convert to Islam has finally been reunited with her family in the countrys northcentral Kaduna state. The Hausa Christians Foundation told the independent daily newspaper Vanguard that Sadiya Amos has escaped from her captors and returned to her family in the Kubau Council Area after being held hostage for more than a month. Last month, the Anglican Church and Hausa Christian community in Kubau raised concern over Amos abduction and alleged forced marriage to one of her captors. According to an earlier report from The Guardian, Amos went missing on the night of Jan. 5. Amos father, Amos Chindo, was forced to go to Sharia court on Jan. 7, where he was threatened by a lawyer claiming to be an advocate for Sadiya and a Sharia court judge. Both accused Chindo of preventing his daughter from converting to Islam. The judge and lawyer were accused of forging a birth certificate in which Sadiyas age was raised from under 17 to 19. Additionally, the lawyer and judge refused to give Chindo access to his daughter or tell him about her whereabouts. The trial was adjourned until Jan. 14. According to a statement from the HCF, Amos and her parents attend the church where the Anglican Bishop of Ikara Diocese, Yusuf Ishaya Janfalan, presides. According to Vanguard, Janfalan delegated priests to attend Amos court hearing on Jan. 14 and call for the Sharia court to acknowledge that both parents are Christians and not subject to Sharia law. [T]he judge didnt listen to them or even give them the chance to speak and never even listen to Sadiyas parents, the HCF statement reads. Instead, the Sharia judge went ahead to read his predetermined judgment and closed the case without the Sadiya in court. HCF said that the organization did its best to try to secure Amos' release after the courts decision but had no luck. At a protest in January, Janfalan and leaders from the Hausa Christians Foundation called on the government for an immediate intervention to secure Amos' release. While doing our best to rescue her, we reached a point where we could not do anything due to financial constraint, the HCF statement explains. While praying to God for open doors to speed up her freedom, the Power of our God went ahead and completed the work all to His glory. Sadiya Amos told HCF that she was kept in a room for more than a month and forced to convert to Islam. She said that guards were posted outside her door so that she would not escape. But one day, the guards fell asleep and left the door open. Amos said that allowed her to escape and return to her parents. The case of abducting Christian girls and their forceful conversion to Islam as well as forcing them into marriage has become a watershed issue in Northern Nigeria, the HCF statement reads. The Hausa Christians Foundation in less than three years has rescued 12 of these girls out of the over 30 cases that were reported to us from across Northern Nigeria, especially the Hausa Land. It is unclear as to who Amos captors are. However, kidnappings of hundreds of young girls in Nigeria have been carried out by different actors in recent years. Those actors include the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, its splinter group the Islamic State West Africa Province and radical Fulani herdsmen. Last October, six Christian schoolgirls and two staff members were abducted from a Christian-run high school in Kaduna city by suspected Fulani herdsmen. In 2014, over 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in the town of Chibok in Borno state. Over 112 remain missing. In 2018, 110 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a government school in Dapchi. Although nearly all were released, Christian teen Leah Sharibu was not because she reportedly refused to deny her faith in Christ. After two years, family members and advocates are still calling for her freedom. The moment these girls are abducted, they are subjected to all manners of evil just to take control of their minds, HCF warns. Once they took hold of their minds, these girls will only do everything they are asked to do. "While the parents fight for the release of their daughters, these abductors continue to sexually abuse these girls, hypnotized their food, drinks, clothes, where they sleep, perpetually evoke evil spirit upon them to the point that these girls completely lost their minds and never think of going back to their home. HCF warned that it only takes about one or two weeks for a Christian girl to be abducted and married off. She will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant, HCF stresses. Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List ranks Nigeria as the 12th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. Two-thirds of American Christians don't know any methods for telling others about Jesus, poll finds Most American Christians want to share their faith but only a minority of them have encouraged others to embrace Jesus Christ in the last six months, according to new data released by Lifeway Research that suggests more than six in 10 believers don't know any methods for telling others about their faith in Christ. Released last week, the Lifeway Research survey titled Evangelism Explosion Study of American Christians Openness to Talking about Faith is based on survey responses from 1,011 American Christians who were interviewed between April 1223. With an error margin of plus or minus 3.1%, "quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to reflect the population more accurately." The survey found that 54% of participants said they are either "willing" or "eager" when asked what they think about "telling others about Jesus Christ." However, 52% of Americans who identify as Christian believe that encouraging someone to change their religious beliefs is offensive and disrespectful," and 66% of Christians are not familiar with any "methods for telling others about Jesus." Sixty-eight percent of respondents believe that "it is the responsibility of the pastor to equip the congregation to share the Gospel" and 69% agree that it's "the responsibility of Christians to encourage non-Christians to trust Christ as their savior." However, the survey revealed that 70% of Christians have not shared with a stranger how to become a Christian in the past six months. While 93% say they are "at least somewhat open to having a conversation about faith with a friend," only 52% "shared a story in the last six months about what God has done in their life with a friend or family member who was not a Christian." Additionally, 57% say they have not "invited an unchurched friend or family member to attend a church service or some other program at church in the past six months." And 62% say they have not "shared with a friend or family member how to become a Christian in the past six months." Scott McConnell, the executive director of Lifeway Research, believes there are some Christians who might avoid evangelizing because doing so could be viewed as unkind, and they want to be perceived as loving. For some Christians, their love for others compels them to suggest this offensive thought. For others, this discourages them from speaking up about what they believe, McConnell surmised in a statement. He said it's a "bold idea to encourage someone to consider converting the center of their life to be Jesus Christ." While many Christians don't seem to be evangelizing to friends and family, 64% "have prayed for the salvation of a friend or family member in the past month." Praying for someone to follow Christ comes more easily than talking with someone about it, McConnell said. It isnt clear if the proverbial cat has the tongue of some Christians or if theyre not connecting with non-Christians in settings where these conversations can take place. When broken down by racial demographics, the survey's findings suggest that black Christians were more likely to share their faith with unbelievers than white Christians in the past six months. The findings revealed that half of the white Christian population surveyed (50%) answered that they did not engage in any faith-based conversations with family or friends in the past six months. About 32% of African American respondents said they didnt hold any conversations about faith with a friend or family member who is an unbeliever in the past six months. The survey found that white respondents (64%) were more likely than African American respondents (52%) to say they didn't share "how to become a Christian" with a friend or family member. A higher percentage of African Americans (56%) say that they would be "very open" to holding a conversation with a friend about their faith if given the opportunity. A lower percentage of white Christians (44%) say they would be very open" to sharing their faith with a friend. Additionally, 42% of African American respondents said they are very open to having a conversation about faith with someone they have never met before than whites (30%) and Hispanics (31%). Many Christians say they agree sharing their faith is important, McConnell continued. But many also need encouragement and to be shown how to share the good news about Jesus Christ with others. A higher percentage of white respondents (38%) said they did not pray for salvation for any loved ones, while 24% of black respondents said that they didnt engage in any salvation-focused prayers on behalf of their friends or relatives. John Sorensen, president of Evangelism Explosion (EE), a ministry that trains people on how to share their faith in Christ, said many people are willing to share the Christian faith. Still, not many take the initiative to do so. Now, perhaps more than ever, people are open to conversations about faith, yet this study reveals few Christians actually take the opportunity to engage in personal evangelism, Sorensen noted. Our mission at EE is to equip followers of Jesus to have the confidence to share the Gospel naturally, lovingly and intentionally with family, friends and yes, even strangers, which is why we wanted insights on the evangelistic attitudes of Christians. We imagine a world where every believer is a witness for Christ to His glory. Middle school teacher calls police over allegation student was involved in 'sex work' A Loudoun County, Virginia, teacher recently contacted police after the school librarian allegedly defended the presence of a book containing details about prostitution in the middle school library by claiming that it's helpful to preteen and teenage student sex workers. The conversation reportedly started after the Sterling Middle School teacher asked the librarian if the school had a copy of the book Seeing Gender by Iris Gottlieb, which includes a chapter titled "'Sex Work' Is Not a Bad Term." The teacher, whose name has been concealed for privacy reasons, had seen a May 24 tweet highlighting the chapter and its presence in a Loudoun County middle school library on the LCPS Can Do Better Twitter account. From a Loudoun middle school library, Seeing Gender by Iris Gottlieb. pic.twitter.com/wnoQMLlpKw LCPS Can Do Better (@LCPSDoBetter) May 24, 2022 As The Daily Wire reported, the teacher told police in a recorded conversation that the librarian, whose name is also withheld for privacy reasons, confirmed the library had the book and asserted it was beneficial to students engaged in sex work. The librarian did not provide the names of any current students, only pointing to one that graduated six years before that had allegedly been involved in the practice. "She started talking about how there's kids who come to the library who do sex work, and this makes them feel validated," the teacher said in the interview. "As a teacher, if you get an individual student coming to you because you're abused, you have to go [to] the police immediately." During the teacher's interview with police, Deputy Jamie Holben a former school resource officer for the middle school stated that the school is in a neighborhood where authorities have reason to suspect there are cases of child trafficking. The Christian Post reached out to Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office for comments on the claims. Responses are pending. While police have not yet responded to requests for comment on the incident, the officer that spoke with the teacher stated that authorities would investigate the matter. Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Initiative Kay Duffield said in a 2019 statement to Loudoun Now that Virginia has the sixth-highest number of human trafficking cases in the U.S. Additionally, the director stated that most cases occur in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which includes Loudoun County. The middle school teacher claims the book provides instructions to students about selling their bodies for hormone replacement therapy and other needs. The librarian reportedly replied: "There's no pornography in it, so it doesn't matter." In addition, the librarian allegedly insisted that she marked the book for eighth graders, not the younger middle school students. "I said, 'what happens if a sixth grader checks it out?'" the teacher recalled. "She said, 'I have a conversation with them about it.'" The passage of the book pictured in the tweet explains that "Sex work is also used as a non-stigmatizing term for 'prostitution.' ... Using the term 'sex work' reinforces the idea that sex work is work and allows for greater discussion of labor rights and conditions." The book informs readers that some people in the "sex trade" do not define what they do as a form of labor, "but simply a means to get what they need." In addition to money, the chapter states that someone may "exchange sex or sexual activity for things they need or want, such as food, housing, hormones, drugs, gifts, or other resources." The book also notes that some sex workers operate within "legal working conditions, such as pornography or exotic dancing, and wish to avoid the negative associations with illegal or informal forms of sex work." This incident is not the first time a Virginia school district has faced criticism for reportedly exposing students to sexually explicit materials. During a Sept. 23 school board meeting last year, a parent of a student in Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the U.S., read and shared images from two books available in the district's high school libraries. "After seeing a Sept. 9 school board meeting in Texas on pornography in the schools, I decided to check the titles at my child's school, Fairfax High School," the parent, Stacy Langton, told board members. She discovered that the same books are available in public school libraries in her school district. According to Langton, the books Gender Queer and Lawn Boy depict men and boys having sex and contain graphic sexual descriptions. "Both books describe different acts," she said. "One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male. The other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy." The mother read the curse words and sexual acts featured in both books, maintaining that "this is not an oversight at Fairfax High School." A school board member interrupted her, noting that "there are children in the audience here." Thieves decapitate angel statues, rip $2M gold tabernacle from altar of Brooklyn church NEW YORK In a crime Catholic Church officials in Brooklyn are calling brazen, hateful and disrespectful, the New York City Police Department is investigating after thieves decapitated angel statues and ripped a centuries-old solid gold tabernacle worth $2 million from the altar of a local church. In a statement Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced the theft at St. Augustine Catholic Church, located at 116 6th Ave. in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. "This is devastating, as the Tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound," the church's priest, Father Frank Tumino, said in a statement. "To know that a burglar entered the most sacred space of our beautiful Church and took great pains to cut into a security system is a heinous act of disrespect." Diocese officials said that the tabernacle, which dates back to when the church was built in the late 1800s, "is irreplaceable due to its historical and artistic value." John Quaglione, the diocese's deputy press secretary, told The Christian Post Tuesday that no motive has yet been established for the robbery. The parish has been buoyed by an outpouring of support from across the country. "The faithful of the Church are shocked and greatly upset by what has happened, and are turning to prayer. There is a sense of sorrow among the people of St. Augustine," Quaglione wrote in an email. "People throughout the United States have been calling and contacting the parish and also expressing their prayerful intentions for the return of the Tabernacle. There continues to be a sense of hope that as the story has received so much attention, something as distinctive as this Tabernacle may possibly be returned." Police suspect the theft of the 18-karat gold tabernacle occurred sometime between 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Saturday, according to CNN. The thieves likely used power tools to "forcefully cut open" the altar to get to the tabernacle, according to the New York City Police Department. Thieves decapitated angels flanking the tabernacle and scattered the Holy Eucharist at the altar. Father Tumino, who discovered the theft, detailed in his sermon Sunday how the robbery made him think about quitting his assignment at the church momentarily. "I noticed the doors of St. Augustine were slightly ajar, and if you listen to the news this morning, you'll know that someone very organized and quite violently took the tabernacle from St. Augustine. They cut the doors open," he said. "As I was cleaning after the police left, Eucharist was strewn all over the altar. And as I was cleaning, I felt so abandoned. I was thinking to myself, why am I assigned here? This is not a good assignment. This is nothing but trouble after trouble after trouble." "I was thinking to myself, you know how easy it would be to just say 'it's time to go,'" he said, waving goodbye. "As I was cleaning, I started getting into this place where I said, 'look at this.' No one from the diocese even called me, and then I got into an even deeper depth. I said, 'Look at this. You do all the right things and you don't get any type of reaction.'" Tumino said he rejected the despair that crept upon him once he checked his messages and found that everyone he had called in "administration" about the robbery had called him back from different parts of the world to assure him that "things would be OK." He remembered one profound conversation with a friend who said, "you are so lucky that you're safe." "I said, 'What are you talking about?' And he said, 'I've known you for so many years, and I know that when you walk past your church and you see lights on, you go in,'" Tumino recalled. "And how lucky you are and how lucky the many people that go in and out of St. Augustine Church that no one was there and they caught them in the act." Tumino said he is grateful for that perspective. The priests said some might wonder why the church kept such an expensive tabernacle. "People might tell us, 'Why does the church have something that expensive? That should be sold,'" he said. "That's a gift to us as part of our patrimony of those who have gone before us," he continued. "Those, who like us, waited for the return of Jesus." 7 ways true shepherds protect the flock Shepherds are called to oversee the flock that was purchased with the blood of Jesus (Acts 20:28-30). Part of that role involves guarding and protecting the flock against adversaries, wolves in sheeps clothing, and other challenges. This is why the shepherds have both a rod and a staff. The rod is to fight off wild animals who desire to devour the flock, and the staff is meant to gently tap the sheep to keep them on the correct course. The prototypical Old Testament archetype shepherd is King David, who killed the bear, lion, and Goliath while protecting both sheep and Gods people (1 Samuel 17). Hence, a shepherds calling also involves being a warrior who protects the flock, not just feeding and comforting them. The following are seven ways true shepherds protect the flock: 1. Shepherds guard against false doctrines in the church. One of the primary responsibilities shepherds have is knowing and ensuring that the church remains rooted and grounded in the faith. Jude 3 teaches us to diligently contend for "the faith" that was once for all delivered unto the saints. This means there will be attacks against the faith with deceptive teachings that either water down or pervert the apostles' doctrine (Acts 2:42). "The Faith" refers to the Apostle's doctrine that contains the elementary principles of the faith that Christianity is built upon (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Ephesians 4:4-6, Hebrews 5:12-6:4). 2. Shepherds protect the flock against false brethren. Paul, the apostle, said that he was in danger from false brothers (2 Corinthians 12:27). By implication, this means that he was a threat to them. This is likely because he preached the truth and called out those in the church but who were not really of the church. (False brethren are those who have infiltrated the Church with false teachings or with an agenda or vision different from the purpose, vision, and teachings of Scripture.) Consequently, the job of a true Shepherd is to protect the flock against false brethren. (This includes female deceivers such as we see in Revelations 2:20.) 3. True Shepherds protect the flock against false prophecies. Jeremiah 23 warns against false shepherds and calls upon true shepherds to rise and care for the flock. One of the concerns of this chapter is regarding prophets who only speak out of their spirit. They didn't represent the mind and heart of God. Consequently, the context indicates that true shepherds should protect the flock from the misleading influence of both false shepherds and prophets. Hence, true shepherds are called to help the church discern between true and false prophetic utterances (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, 1 John 4:1). 4. True Shepherds guard the church against division. Paul, the apostle, encourages the church to mark those who cause division in the church (Romans 16:17). To mark means to let the whole church know who to avoid and who to be wary of. Hence, putting a mark on a person indicates to the general public the status of a person in the eyes of God and His church (Genesis 4:15). Paul expects church shepherds to carry out this task of protecting the church from dividers. We see this in his command to Titus (Titus 3:10-11). 5. True shepherds protect the flock against the spirit of control. In 3 John 1:9-11, the apostle John warns against a man named Diotrephes who was exerting unlawful control over a house church. John says that he will call attention to what this person is doing when he comes to that church (verse 10). Consequently, a true shepherd calls out those who wish to exert unbiblical control over the flock of God. 6. True shepherds protect the flock against favoritism. As a true shepherd in the church, the apostle James warns the church against favoring the rich over the poor (James 2:1-9). In todays church, this could also include showing favoritism to the rich and famous above all others in the congregation. True shepherds love and treat all people equally. They never allow a spirit of favoritism to creep into the church because it can create an idolatrous celebrity culture that destroys an authentic Christ-centered culture in a congregation. 7. True shepherds protect the flock against false ministry gifts. Jesus gives a letter to the messenger (lead shepherd) of the church in Ephesus. He praises the church for distinguishing between true and false apostles (Revelation 2:2). Thus, Jesus expects shepherds to vet other spiritual leaders before allowing them to minister in their congregation. Even though God has graced the church with five ministry expressions for church edification, the enemy and presumptuous people desire to infiltrate the church with false representations of ministry to deceive the flock (Ephesians 4:11). True shepherds are expected to enforce biblical standards and have discernment regarding ministry and leadership to ensure that the flock is edified and not abused (Matthew 7:15-20, 1 Timothy 3:1-15). Absentee fathers, not guns, are the problem The father of the teenager who murdered 19 children and 2 adults in Uvalde, Texas said: He probably would have shot me too, because he would always say I didnt love him. The father is also a criminal. He has an apparently lengthy criminal record. His most deadly crime, however, isnt on his record. His most deadly crime is that he is an absentee father. A father who doesnt value his childs life is teaching his child a persons life isnt valuable. Sixty-three percent of teenagers who commit suicide are fatherless. Seventy-two percent of adolescent murderers are fatherless. Seventy-five percent of adolescents in rehab centers for drug abuse are fatherless. Sixty percent of rapists are fatherless. Eighty-five percent of teenagers in prison are fatherless. And especially, 75% of the most-cited school shooters in America are fatherless just like the teenager who walked into Robb Elementary School to murder 21 people. Of course, most fatherless people value life. Fatherlessness doesnt make a person a mass murderer or a criminal. However, fatherless children are significantly more likely to commit crimes. For instance, a 2012 study on juvenile male inmates found that fatherless boys are 279% more likely to carry guns for criminal behavior. Absentee fathers discourage their children and they provoke them to anger (Colossians 3:21, Ephesians 6:4). I know that too well. Eighty-five percent of children with behavioral problems are fatherless that describes my childhood. I was involved in over 20 fights before I was 18 years old. Most of these fights happened when I was between 4-10 years old, especially when other children made fun of me for being fatherless. I didnt know how to maintain my composure when other children blamed me for my fathers absence. After all, it was hard to refute them. My father, indeed, didnt love me. He left my mom and our family after my mom became pregnant with me. Therefore, I lacked discipline and self-control. I didnt know how to respond to insults without anger and violence. By the grace of God, my extraordinary mother, and especially the Gospel, changed me. Nevertheless, I know fatherlessness is one of the most damaging things children can experience. I know the potentially deadly consequences of absentee fathers. I know that if the school shooters father valued his sons life his son would have been more likely to value other peoples lives too. But many of us are unwilling to consider that. After all, Black Lives Matter maintains strong support from our society despite its feminist agenda to disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure. Its horrific to imagine what the school shooters big gun did to the childrens little bodies. Its horrific to think about the gunshots silencing the childrens screams. Its painful to think about. Blaming the school shooting on gun rights, however, isnt helpful. We have a habit of prescribing the wrong solutions to deadly issues. Guns are not the problem. Gun control isnt the solution. Originally published at Slow to Write. Pregnant woman, children among 31 killed at Pentecostal church in Nigeria At least 31 people, including a pregnant woman and children, were killed in a stampede at an annual Shop for Free charity program organized by a Pentecostal church in southern Nigeria, according to a report. The annual fair, organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state and which was meant to offer hope, was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. local time on Saturday but many arrived as early as 5 a.m. to secure their place in line, The Associated Press reported, quoting Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokeswoman. Some people broke open the locked gate, which led to the stampede, the spokeswoman said. A witness, identified only as Daniel, was quoted as saying that he saw a pregnant woman and so many children among the dead, including five from one mother. Out of anger, relatives of the victims attacked some church members after the stampede, another witness was quoted as saying. Many churches and other groups organize such events in Nigeria, where more than 80 million people are poor, the newswire reported. Such tragedies in Nigeria add to the suffering of Christians, who have been under constant attack by Islamist groups. Earlier this month, the Islamic State terror group released a video showing the execution of about 20 Christian civilians in Borno State in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in February. The video, published on an IS-linked news outlet, showed a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while saying it was revenge for the killing of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi Islamic terrorist and the second caliph of the Islamic State. In another recent attack, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara from the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, and two unidentified boys from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of Katsina states Kafur Local Government Area, Vatican News reported. Also this month, radical Islamic militants affiliated with either the Islamic Fulani herdsmen or the Islamic State West Africa Province killed at least eight Christians, including children younger than 5, and wounded several others in an attack in Borno state. Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier. Sheryl Sandberg is leaving her position as chief operating officer at Facebook parent company Meta. Serving as second in command to the social media giant's co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg since early 2008, Sandberg has helped transform Facebook from pure social media site into an advertising behemoth over the years. Recently rebranded as Meta, the company is increasingly ramping up its efforts to enter the metaverse, and it remains one of the biggest players in tech today. Related: Facebook Officially Changes Its Name to Meta In the fall, Javier Olivan, the company's chief growth officer, will assume the role of COO. Why is Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg stepping down? In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sandberg said that she'd only planned to be at the company for about five years, though she ended up there for 14 years. She told the Times that her departure from Meta will allow her to focus on her personal philanthropy and her foundation, Lean In, and that she plans to marry television producer Tom Bernthal. Two of Sandberg's employees told the outlet that the decision to leave the company was her own, and that she called Zuckerberg over the weekend to inform him of it. In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, "Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company," adding that her departure marked "the end of an era." Sandberg will continue to serve on Meta's board. Related: The House Where Mark Zuckerberg Created Facebook (Now Meta) Just Hit the Market for Millions What is Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg's net worth and how did she make her money? Sandberg received her AB at Harvard University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She went on to serve as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers under President Bill Clinton, and she built a reputation for herself in Silicon Valley by helping Google expand its targeted ads business. At Facebook, Sandberg helped develop the social media giant's advertising formats for desktop computers and, ultimately, built out the company's mobile advertising strategy. In 2013, Sandberg published feminist book Lean In, a guide for working women, and in 2017, she co-published Option B, with Wharton professor Adam Grant. Option B explores the aftermath of the sudden death of her husband Dave Goldberg in 2015. Per Forbes, Sandberg has a net worth of $1.6 billion. Related: 21 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Sheryl Sandberg Who is Sheryl Sandberg's fiance Tom Bernthal and what does he do? Sandberg has been married twice before, to businessman Brian Kraff from 1993-1994 and to businessman Dave Goldberg from 2004-2015, with whom she had two children. Sandberg was introduced to Bernthal by her brother in law Rob Goldberg in 2019. During the pandemic, Bernthal and his three children moved from Southern California to Sandberg's Silicon Valley home. In a Facebook post announcing her departure from the company, Sandberg noted that while she's not entirely certain what her post-Meta future holds, she and Bernthal will get married this summer and parent their five children together. Related: Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In 2.0 and Corporate Gender Bias Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said she would leave the social media service after 14 years, marking the departure of one of the most high-profile female executives in the United States at a time of tumult for the company. Sandberg, 52, helped build the world's most profitable social network alongside Mark Zuckerberg, who she met when the CEO was just 23 and still struggling to turn his viral site into an actual business. She is also one of the wealthiest self-made female billionaires in the world, charting her own course as a champion of women's empowerment while writing two best-selling books - one on women in the workplace and the other on grieving for her late husband. She is also a large Democratic donor. But Sandberg's tenure at Facebook was marked by repeated political controversies that tarnished her brand even as she tried to distance herself from them. That includes Russian operatives sowing disinformation on the service during the 2016 election, as well as the 2018 scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a consultancy affiliated with Donald Trump that siphoned data from millions of Facebook users inappropriately. Sandberg, who ran the company's policy division during these incidents, also publicly downplayed Facebook's role in the Jan. 6. 2021, insurrection - a stance that was viewed as a mistake after reports revealed that extensive organizing for the Capitol riots took place on Facebook's services. "I am not entirely sure what the future will bring - I have learned no one ever is," Sandberg wrote on the social media site. "But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women." In an interview with The Washington Post, Sandberg said she told Zuckerberg she would be stepping down over the weekend. "Look, it's a hard job. I'm not going to claim any differently," she said. "But it really was about finding some space and time in my life." Now Sandberg will face the task of reinventing herself as separate from Facebook and its controversies - as the company goes through its own rebranding. Facebook changed its name to Meta last year and is attempting a pivot to becoming a hardware company, a journey that executives have said will take at least a decade and that some industry experts are skeptical will even happen. The company's stock price has fallen 44% since the beginning of the year following poor earnings results and news that it lost users for the first time in its 18-year history. Many executives who did not want to join in on building the next chapter have already left the company, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, over the past year. Sandberg said in addition to focusing on her philanthropy, she would get remarried this summer to marketing executive Tom Bernthal. Her previous husband, Silicon Valley executive Dave Goldberg, died in 2015. She said she would continue to serve on the company's board of directors. Few at Facebook were surprised by her departure, which has been a source of speculation for years. Over the past year, Facebook expanded the roles of some senior leaders so that they would report directly to Zuckerberg. That included elevating a key deputy, Marne Levine, to a newly created role of chief business officer, and elevating Nick Clegg to president for global affairs. Javier Olivan, a close friend and longtime colleague of Zuckerberg, will take on the role of chief operating officer, but the job's purview would be more limited in scope compared with Sandberg's, Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post on Wednesday. The CEO said he didn't plan to replace the full responsibilities Sandberg held with one position. Sandberg for years was among Zuckerberg's most trusted deputies, and people spoke of the two informally as "co-CEOs." Sandberg was an executive at Google when she was brought in to help build Facebook's business. In his blog post, Zuckerberg credited her with "architecting" the company's booming ad business, hiring great people and "teaching me how to run a company." He also described their close personal relationship. "I'm not sure people really appreciate how long her run was," said Nu Wexler, a former Facebook communications manager. "Fourteen years at a social media company is rare for a non-founder, especially at a place that spends every single day in the spotlight." Sandberg leaves as Facebook's business is under threat from younger social media apps, particularly the short-form video service TikTok, which the company is copying with its own product, Reels. Facebook reported this year that it lost daily users for the first time - falling by about a half-million users in the last three months of 2021, prompting the company's stock to plummet. Facebook is also trying to remake itself as a seller of virtual- and augmented-reality-powered devices. Its October name change to Meta signaled that the company plans to stake its future on creating the "metaverse" - a term used to describe immersive virtual environments that are accessed by virtual and augmented reality. Facebook envisions that people will want to work, play and connect in these new digital realms. Sandberg had long been the company's lead promoter in Washington, standing in for Zuckerberg as a former senior adviser in the Clinton administration. She enjoyed warm relationships with Democrats during the Obama administration. In 2015, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., posted a picture with Sandberg in her Capitol Hill office on Facebook, thanking her "for inspiring women across the world to believe in themselves." Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris posed side by side with Sandberg at an Internet safety event at the company's Menlo Park headquarters. In fall 2016, Washington insiders widely speculated that Hillary Clinton would name her to the Cabinet in a role such as treasury secretary if she won the presidency. But those political connections rapidly deteriorated under the Trump administration, when Republicans' surprise rise to power left Sandberg with few powerful relationships in Washington. Sandberg and other Facebook executives struggled to contain the political fallout following revelations of Russian interference on the social network and the subsequent Cambridge Analytica revelations. Sandberg also alienated Democrats and civil rights groups. By September 2018, Sandberg was once again on Capitol Hill - but this time in the hot seat to answer lawmakers' questions about the company's missteps and its preparations for the midterm elections. Harris, by this point a senator, took a distinctly different posture toward Sandberg, grilling the executive over the company's record on hate speech. Rashad Robinson, the president of the racial justice organization Color of Change, said he had numerous meetings and calls with Sandberg, during which the advocacy group made some gains. It pushed the company to publicly release a scathing audit of its handling of civil rights, as well as to hire a chief diversity officer. But Sandberg also made promises the company couldn't or wouldn't deliver on, or defended Zuckerberg and the company through "many indefensible actions," Robinson said. "Facebook continues to be a vehicle that does a lot of harm to our democracy, to civil rights, to so much about our way of life," he said. "Sheryl Sandberg and the brand that she built is at the center of protecting the company through a lot of those actions and a lot of that behavior." Sandberg's reputation became so damaged in the Democratic and civil rights circles she once courted that some leaders, including Pelosi, would not take calls from Facebook lobbyists or executives, The Post previously reported. As Sandberg's reputation fell, Clegg played a bigger role in promoting Facebook's metaverse ambitions politically, while Sandberg focused on talking to foreign heads of state, said people familiar with her activities who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them. Sandberg, who sought for years to position herself as a champion for women in the workplace, authored the best-selling book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead," in which she encouraged women to promote themselves in corporate workplaces. In recent months, Sandberg focused her attention even more fully on being a public champion of small businesses, regularly talking with entrepreneurs around the world about how they were adapting during the pandemic. Sandberg was also often the face of the company's criticism of Apple's new privacy changes, which aimed to curtail targeted advertising. Sandberg and other Facebook executives argued that the new changes would hurt small businesses' ability to tailor their small marketing budgets toward their customers. "I honestly thought Sheryl would be the last man standing," said a former employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "I thought if Sheryl were going to leave she would have left during all the Trump controversies." (Bloomberg) -- Oil edged higher as US crude inventories dropped, exacerbating concerns about a tight market after traders expressed doubt that OPEC+ can deliver on its agreement to accelerate the pace of a supply hike. West Texas Intermediate rose above $116 a barrel, recovering losses of over 3% from earlier in the session. US crude stockpiles fell more than 5 million barrels last week, while New York-area gasoline stockpiles fell to the lowest since 2017, according to an Energy Information Administration report Thursday. Earlier, OPEC+ agreed to boost supply increases by about 50% to add 648,000 barrels. The decision comes after the European Union approved a partial ban on Russian oil imports. The decision suggests that Riyadh has finally assented to Washingtons request for more barrels. However, with the hike spread across the groups member nations the actual production delivered to market is likely to be much smaller than advertised. If increases go pro-rata across members, it will probably result in half of the headline number making its way to market as so many producers are not able to increase, said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management. Bloomberg The cartels output increase will be divided proportionally between members in the usual way. This means that countries that have been unable to raise production, such as Angola, Nigeria and most recently Russia, would still be allocated a higher quota. This could lead to the actual supply boost being smaller than the official figure, as has often been the case in recent months. It doesnt materially change anything, said Jeff Currie, global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in a Bloomberg Television interview on Thursday. The decision by the OPEC alliance simply compresses three production hikes into two months, he said. Earlier in the morning, prices fell amid signs of thawing in the strained relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US. Biden will likely meet de-facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman if he travels to the country. That may pave the way for a production boost from the kingdom and help lower US fuel prices, which have soared to record highs, putting pressure on Biden ahead of Novembers mid-term elections. The Financial Times reported Riyadh had indicated to Western allies that its prepared to increase oil supply. Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs Intl on Bloomberg US TV Oil capped a sixth monthly advance in May, the best winning streak since early 2011, as tightening markets because of the war in Ukraine coincided with a recovery in demand as countries threw off virus restrictions. European Union efforts to approve a partial ban on Russian oil imports hit an obstacle after Hungary raised new or already rejected demands. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Along the edge of the Gulf, Nathaniel 'Natty' Adams details the people, places, culture and moments that make New Orleans one of America's most colorful and vibrant cities. On a warm Saturday night in May a young man stands, red-faced and sweating, in the neon maelstrom of New Orleans Bourbon Street. In one hand he is holding a long, plutonium-green plastic cup and in the other a smartphone, into which he is shouting to be heard above the Trop-Rock music and crowd Dude, I told you, Im in front of Tropical Isle! Theres only one Tropical Isle! There are, in fact, five Tropical Isles on Bourbon Street. And yet, in a sense, there is only one Tropical Isle. Emily Kask/Chron What began as a humble frozen drink stand at the 1984 Worlds Fair in New Orleans has since become a local empire, bolstered by marketing, merchandise, and the ubiquitous Bourbon Street drink no doubt contributing to the young mans confusion: the Hand Grenade. It isdepending on who you askone of the most or least authentic New Orleans experiences, one of the best or worst drinks you will ever taste, and a symbol either of the citys welcoming party atmosphere or the citys wasteful enthrallment to tourism. New Orleans is as famous for its cocktails as it is for its music and food, and its hard to think of a city with more claims on original drinks: the Sazerac, the French 75, the Brandy Crusta, The Ramos Gin Fizz, the Vieux Carre, the Grasshopper, the Hurricane. All of these have become legendarynow classiccocktails in the long decades since their invention. And yet the drink you see far more than any other in the French Quarter is the Hand Grenade. That might partly be due to the high-visibility neon green cups, but the popularity of the drink is undeniable. Tropical Isle began as Tropical Paradise, a drink stand built for the 1984 Worlds Fair by Earl Bernhardt and staffed by Pam Fortner, who would eventually become his business partner at Tropical Isle. Alongside each bars low-key tiki-ish decor are small shrines to Mr. Bernhardt, his family, and Miss Pam, who became an honorary member of the extended Bernhardt clan: press clippings, celebrity visitors, faded photographs from vacations. Whether the typical Isle visitor is lucid enough to notice them among all the other stimuli is less important than the family legacy they represent; a story of locals making good and creating something famous of their own to add to the citys history. This sense of continuity has spread to the staff, many of whom have been hurling Hand Grenades at Tropical Isle for years. Russell Bills has been bartending at the original location on Bourbon and Toulouse for about 10 years. He works the four-day weekend shift, opening at 11 a.m. By noon on a Thursday hes already sold twenty Hand GrenadesTropical Isle wont reveal exact sales figures but bartenders estimate that at each location they sell several hundred on weekdays, thousands on the weekend. The ingredients of the Hand Grenade are supposedly a secret (the staff say they have signed non-disclosure agreements), but some elements of the concoction are obvious: The drink is very sweet and has as its dominant flavor melon with little citrus. Some, though by no means all, of the secret is revealed on the labels of empty boxes of bar mix left out for trash pickup in the morning: high fructose corn syrup and concentrated pineapple juice, along with various common artificial and natural colors, flavors, and preservatives. Emily Kask/Chron At each bar, a thirty-gallon container in the keg cooler behind the scenes is continually refreshed with mix by a barbacksometimes two or three on weekends and special occasionsand combined with the most essential ingredient: some unspecified kind of grain alcohol. How much booze is in each drink is unclear (the bartenders dont necessarily know themselves, because Hand Grenades are pre-mixed in the back and then poured from soda guns directly into the famous green cups), but it is enough that the Tropical Isle website advises against drinking more than four. I had a Russian guy come in here once, Bills recalls. He gave me that usual spiel: Im Russian, I drink vodka every day. Seven Hand Grenades later and next thing you know hes under the lip of the bar saying, Wheres my hotel at? Jimmy Burgin, who has been tending bar for Tropical Isle since 1996, once drank seven hand grenades, too: and thats the last time I drank Hand Grenades. Most people drink two or three and take a nap. That potency, combined with its sweet smoothness, is key to the Hand Grenades appeal. Shannan and Ashley Bell, visiting New Orleans from the Bay Area for the first time, had seen a YouTube video about the drink and came to try it. It doesnt even taste like alcohol, Shannan remarks. Thats the problem, Ashley said, dryly. Melinda and Stephen Lautzenhiser, in town from Indiana, decided to head to Tropical Isle while their hotel room was being readied. Melinda had seen a TikTok video about Hand Grenades. Im not big on alcohol, Melinda says, and I dont even taste the alcohol! Its like a frozen lemonade. Stephen, typically a bourbon drinker, concurred: Its a good mix. Its strong but it goes down smooth. A common criticism is that the drink is too sweet, but Tropical Isle has an answer for that: a Skinny Hand Grenade with less sugar. Theres also a frozen version for hot days and a Hand Grenade Martini which includes an added shot of vodka and is garnished with a neon-green maraschino cherry soaked in grain alcohol. Such market diversification is key to Tropical Isles tremendous success, as is its arsenal of ancillary Hand Grenade-related merchandise featuring the bars anthropomorphic Hand Grenade mascot: spiced nuts, home drink mixes, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, light up Mardi Gras beads, rain ponchos, playing cards, bumper stickers, koozies, fridge magnets, plush dolls, and T-Shirts. There are even Hand Grenade-flavored condoms bearing a drawing of a male Hand Grenade with a visible erection chasing a giggling female Hand Grenade across the packaging while himself drinking a Hand Grenade in an apparent act of cannibalism. The label challenges the readers masculinity: Real Men Use Hand Grenade Flavored Condoms. Emily Kask/Chron Russell Bills, the bartender, points out thatcondoms asideall sorts of people drink Hand Grenades, not just so-called Real Men. You see old, young, men, women, gay, straight, he says, all races, people from all over the world. Bills concedes that locals dont often drink Hand Grenades themselves unless they have friends in town, but all the Tropical Isle bars do have plenty of local regulars. They just tend to order other drinks from the full bar, especially during the weekday Happy Hours which take up a full half of the bars operating hours and which involve something like a three-times heavier pour in each well drink. To some locals, the Hand Grenade is primarily a symbol of cheesy Bourbon Street excess: cheap, plastic, sugary, gaudy, often found semi-digested on their doorsteps. The popular New Orleans Instagram meme account @drdaddyzwhodat regularly features satirical Hand Grenade posts, including an ironic Thin Green Line flag featuring the drink. Emily Kask/Chron Konrad Kantor tends bar at Manolito, a Cuban bar in the French quarter where the top-shelf liquors and fresh juices used in their famous frozen drinks are a point of pride rather than a secret. He believes the success of the neighborhoods ubiquitous green drink has little to do with its flavor: Hand Grenades have become iconic because of the logo and marketingmost people only order them because they believe its the thing to dobut the sweetness levels of the drink go far above what the vast majority of people are looking for in a cocktail, he says. Its very much a part of New Orleans cocktail history, but there are better ways to get hammered in the French Quarter. And yet New Orleans has always been so reliant on tourism that the consensus of locals is never the final word. For many visitors to the city, theres nothing more authentically New Orleans than a trip to tropical Isle for one or three Hand Grenades. Jose Vasquez, visiting New Orleans from Orlando for the second time, was showing two of his friends the city for their first time. Tropical Isle was the first bar they visited. You have to try a hand grenade, he says. Its like a signature New Orleans thinglike getting crawfish or a beignet. If you dont do it you dont get the full experience. His friends sip the drink and wince. Behind the bar Russell Bills smiles. Even if you dont want a Hand Grenade, he says, youre going to come try it. Correction: Pam Fortner was Earl Bernhardt's business partner. A previous version of this story stated that the two were married. A Fairfax County Circuit Court jury found Wednesday that Amber Heard defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp with a 2018 opinion article in which she described herself as a representative of domestic abuse, and agreed with Depp that Heard's statements harmed his reputation, awarding him $15 million. At the same time, the seven-person jury also found that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in one of three counts in her countersuit and awarded her $2 million. The unanimous decision was delivered after about 13 total hours of deliberation that began Friday, ending a trial that featured sometimes-graphic testimony and was hotly debated by viewers and legal experts as it streamed and was televised worldwide for nearly seven weeks. Some cheered for what they saw as a victory for men who are wrongly accused of physical and sexual abuse, while the decision struck others as a cruel statement on the rights of victims to speak out. While the details of the case may have enraptured the millions who watched it -- Law&Crime Network alone saw more than 3 million viewers tune in to its live stream of the verdict -- and saw the social-media vitriol directed at Heard, it leaves behind serious questions about the future of abuse victims' willingness and ability to come forward -- and perhaps their legal options. "The jury gave me my life back," Depp, 58, said in what amounted to a lengthy victory statement. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star, who was seen playing guitar in rock concerts in England over the weekend, chose not to return to the Fairfax County Courthouse for the verdict. "From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome," Depp's statement continued. "Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that." Heard, 36, who solemnly watched in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said in a statement that the "disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women." "It is a setback," the statement continued. "It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously." Depp filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $50 million from Heard over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post, in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. He claimed the piece damaged his career, and he has denied all allegations of abuse. Heard countersued Depp for $100 million after Waldman gave several statements in the media describing her claims as false. The Post was not a defendant in Depp's lawsuit. (Part of the jury's amount awarded to Depp on Wednesday -- $5 million in punitive damages -- will be automatically reduced to $350,000, per Virginia law.) In the minutes after the verdict was announced, Depp fans rejoiced -- at the courthouse, online and elsewhere -- over what they largely characterized as a heavily one-sided victory for Depp. David Ring, a civil trial lawyer based in Los Angeles who specializes in sexual assault cases and civil litigation, agreed with that takeaway. "Johnny Depp is the slam-dunk winner. No question," Ring said. "I think 99 out of 100 cases, when you have a big celebrity involved, the celebrity wins, whether it's criminal or civil. Jurors love celebrities." The courtroom was filled almost to capacity Wednesday, though it was quieter than the days during the trial when Depp fans packed the seats. When the verdict was ready, some of the actor's loyal followers were in attendance, but much of the crowd was composed of curious onlookers. The reading of the first question from the verdict drew soft gasps, but the crowd remained mostly silent afterward -- adhering to Judge Penney Azcarate's warnings about outbursts. After the verdict, Heard left the courthouse from the back entrance, while a woman shouted "liar, liar." Meanwhile, in front of the courthouse, a few hundred people -- mainly Depp supporters -- gathered amid a mass of reporters to cheer on the actor's legal team, who addressed the crowd with a brief statement. "We are also most pleased that the trial has resonated for so many people in the public who value truth and justice," Depp's lawyer Ben Chew said, adding that it's time to turn the page and look to the future. As the lawyers departed, a swarm of fans followed, cheering and chanting: "Johnny for president!" And also "Camille for president!" referring to the actor's lawyer Camille Vasquez. - - - For Depp's claim, the jury weighed seven questions, including whether Heard made or published three statements in the op-ed (which included the headline); if those statements imply or insinuate anything about Depp; and if so, whether they were false and/or made with actual malice. Under Heard's counterclaim, the jury decided six questions, including whether Waldman made the statements on Depp's behalf, and whether they were false and/or made with actual malice. Azcarate ruled Friday that the names of the jurors -- two women and five men, plus one female alternate and one male alternate -- will remain sealed for a year, given the high-profile nature of the trial. Heard alleged a pattern of verbal, physical and, at times, sexual abuse from Depp, which she said worsened with his increased alcohol and drug use. She testified to multiple occasions in which he beat her -- sometimes leaving her fearing for her life -- screamed at her and, on one occasion, sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle. Her lawyers presented many photographs of her alleged injuries, of a passed-out Depp and of property destruction he allegedly wrought. They pointed to text messages he wrote to friends in which he described killing her in gruesome detail. During closing arguments, Heard's attorney Ben Rottenborn stressed that it doesn't matter whether the former spouses abused each other or whether Depp abused Heard multiple times -- all that matters is whether there was a single instance of Depp abusing Heard. Depp, meanwhile, maintained that she was abusive toward him and that her allegations amounted to a "hoax." His team played audio recordings in which Heard insults him, taunts him and discusses hitting him. His lawyers pointed both to a lack of witnesses who saw Depp hit Heard and a lack of medical records detailing any injuries. His team attempted to paint Heard as vindictive, arguing that she purposely destroyed his career with abuse allegations. Vasquez said the actor enraged Heard by seeking a divorce in May 2016, after one year of marriage. "She didn't just want a divorce. She wanted to ruin him," Vasquez said during closing arguments. Wednesday's outcome contradicts the results of a similar case in United Kingdom, in which Depp sued the Sun tabloid for calling him a "wife beater." In that country, libel law has traditionally been more favorable to plaintiffs, even leading to "libel tourism." While Heard was not named in the British lawsuit, she did testify over several days, and a judge ultimately ruled the allegations against Depp were "substantially true," writing in a ruling that "the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard." By contrast, the outcome of Depp's American trial was decided by a jury, not a judge. Depp appealed the U.K. decision and lost. "I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the U.K.," Heard said in her statement on Wednesday. "I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American -- to speak freely and openly." Jill Huntley Taylor, a legal analyst who owns Taylor Trial Consulting, suggested that Heard may have hurt her case by making it more about the abuse allegations rather than the op-ed itself. "She took on a huge burden," Taylor said. "She had nothing she needed to prove in his case against her." Not only did that potentially complicate "simple" legal claims Depp's team brought, it also called into question her credibility and likability -- rather than the legal claims -- and made her testimony much more important than it may have been. "She turned a case about defamation into a case about abuse," Taylor said. During closing arguments on Friday, attorneys from both sides suggested the trial had much more far reaching implications than which celebrity should prevail. Heard's team argued that the future of the #MeToo movement was at stake in the trial, while Depp's team framed the trial as a First Amendment issue. Heard's attorneys had argued that the case -- verdict aside -- would resonate for years to come. "Think about the message that Mr. Depp and his attorneys are sending to Amber, and by extension, every victim of domestic abuse everywhere: If you didn't take pictures, it didn't happen," Rottenborn said. "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." University of Louisville law professor Jamie R. Abrams agreed, pointing out that "watching this are young people who are going to be a victim of sexual assault on their college campus and are going to be even more worried about coming forward with their claims than they would have been even before the #MeToo movement began." Abrams has already been contacted by real people who faced defamation lawsuits for publicly discussing being sexually assaulted. The legal maneuver, which Abrams calls a "hatchet" and a "legal slammed door," could add a tremendous burden on anyone alleging assault, she said. Even if the lawsuit is thrown out, fees could amass. For victims, it could be "a $30,000 cost to tell their story." It's already "happening throughout the country," Abrams said. "Ordinary people in Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana are going to keep their stories silent." - - - Much of the trial played out on social media, where Depp fans dominated by using a few specific hashtags to voice support for the actor and to hurl insults at Heard. The most popular hashtag, #JusticeforJohnnyDepp, has received more than 19 billion views on TikTok. Meanwhile, the roughly 69 million videos tagged #JusticeforAmberHeard are negative toward Heard. Many of these videos are supercuts from trial footage, edited to make Heard's accusations appear unfounded. In the United States, already deeply divided on politics, the trial served as another cultural battleground. After the rendering of the verdict, the official Twitter account belonging to Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tweeted a GIF of Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, standing triumphantly on his ship. "This trial has become a media circus, and it's perhaps the first real media circus of the social media TikTok age. We've now seen what a high-profile celebrity trial looks like on social media, and it's not pretty," said Matthew Belloni, the former editor of the Hollywood Reporter and founder-partner of Puck. He pointed out that it was so inescapable, he doesn't "believe it was possible for these jurors to avoid seeing this social media stuff during the trial." At the courthouse, onlookers began camping overnight in hopes of getting to receive one of 100 admissions into the courtroom. Depp's fans would wave supportive signs, cheer and wave as he came and went from the back entrance; they would boo and jeer Heard. The two actors originally met around 2008 or 2009 when Depp cast Heard in "The Rum Diary," based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson, and began a whirlwind romance as they promoted the film a couple years later. Depp said he thought of her as the "perfect partner," and Heard described their relationship as "a dream. It felt like absolute magic." In 2012, about a year after their courtship began, Depp resumed heavy drinking and drug use, according to Heard. And, as many testified, the two began fighting constantly. Heard said Depp began hitting her. They married in February 2015, but in May 2016, Heard filed for divorce and a restraining order. Heard -- who moved to Los Angeles as a teenager in the early 2000s to seek acting work -- broke out in 2017's superhero film "Justice League" playing an underwater princess named Mera. Depp became a teen idol in the late 1980s after being cast in the Fox TV series "21 Jump Street" and played a string of eccentric characters in Tim Burton films such as the titular "Edward Scissorhands" and Willy Wonka in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." He found global fame in 2003, when he first played Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's billion-dollar "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, earning his first of three Academy Award nominations. His career has been on a downward trajectory during the past decade following a string of critically dismissed box-office bombs such as "Mortdecai" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" -- which he has blamed on Heard's allegations while the defense points to his on his alcohol and drug use as the cause. Belloni said this isn't necessarily the end of either Depp's or Heard's Hollywood careers, though they will likely stall in the short term. "People have short memories, and I've already heard from a couple of producers who say they would be open to casting them. . . . I don't think either will work in a studio movie for a while, but never say never," he said. "It is possible to come back from a bout of negative notoriety," Belloni said. - - - The Washington Post's Helena Andrews-Dyer, Bethonie Butler, Ashley Fetters Maloy, Elahe Izadi and Paul Schwartzman contributed to this report. My experience with electric vehicles is the same as most Americans: I know they're out there, but I've never owned or even driven one. They are an anomaly on the road here, making up less than 1% of the country's 250 million cars, SUVs, vans and pickup trucks as of 2021, according to Reuters. And last year, EVs only accounted for about 3% of all the cars and trucks sold in the United States. And yet, interest in renting them is increasing - especially as gas prices continue to skyrocket - and rental companies are responding accordingly. In October, Hertz announced it was purchasing 100,000 Teslas. There has been a steady increase of EVs on peer-to-peer rental platform Turo, too; Albert James Mangahas, chief data officer for Turo, says they went from hundreds in 2014 to more than 25,000 in 2021. With a road trip on my agenda last weekend, I decided to rent an EV to Westchester, N.Y. - about 600 miles round trip. Going into it, I didn't know what to expect on the cost or availability of rentals, how I would find places to charge - it's called "range anxiety" - or if I could figure out Tesla software. This is what I learned. -It's not always easy to find an EV Back in March, I tried and failed to find an EV rental with the option to pick up in one city and drop off in another. I even enlisted the help of a travel adviser and still struck out. None of the four companies she called had any available, and even if they did, they didn't allow one-way rentals. The problem: "It's still not common yet," says Aaron Gessner, Detroit bureau chief at Cars.com. Even though EV manufacturers want to sell to rental companies, there is a shortage of cars because of high demand from buyers and supply-chain issues. That should get better over time. Ed Peper, U.S. vice president for General Motors Fleet, says EV manufacturers have a good reason to get their cars to renters: exposure. "We're confident that once consumers get to experience an EV for commercial or personal use, they are more likely to consider one," Peper said in an email. -The booking process I fared better over Memorial Day weekend with Hertz. It currently has the Tesla Model 3 sedan and Model Y midsize SUVs and will soon have Polestar 2 hatchbacks. Once Hertz had availability for my dates, I jumped on a reservation without much shopping around; I felt burned from when I tried to reserve one in March. You could also try searching on Turo, or Enterprise, which offers options including the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf and Polestar 2. Avis advertises Teslas and the Kia Niro EV. I chose the Model 3, which seats five adults and has a driving range of up to 260 miles, depending on how fast you're going; higher speeds impact mileage. My three-day rental with insurance came to about $523. It wasn't a big difference from a fuel-powered sedan - $420 with the same insurance - considering gas for the trip would have cost nearly $100. The only drawback was that I could get it only from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which is about an hour from my D.C. apartment. -Picking up the rental I had gone over some of Hertz's Tesla FAQs about what you need to know before driving a Tesla, like how to turn the car on and off and how to use the charge port. But I was not well-versed in the technology when I got the keys (I'm more of a baptism-by-fire kind of person; manuals are for emergencies). "There will be a learning curve when you first get in," Gessner had told me. "Eventually, people figure it out." The learning curve hit fast after I got the keys - or rather, key card - to my blue Model 3. I couldn't open the door. I hovered the key card over parts of the car like I had seen online, but I had no success. I felt a lot like a chimp trying to get into a computer. As I started Googling "how to unlock a Tesla," a Hertz employee appeared and showed me to tap the key card on the passenger-door frame, below a camera I hadn't noticed. And then I was on my own. The touch screen directed me to tap my key card on the console behind or in the cup holders and put the car into drive. If you want to feel more confident before jumping into your EV rental, Gessner recommends watching tutorials from rental car companies or manufacturers. "And if you have questions, ask the rental-car people," he says. -Adjusting to the technology Where you would find a radio or small screen on most cars, you will find a giant touch-screen tablet in a Tesla. It is the center of the car's universe, where you can look up charging stations, sync your smartphone, log into mobile apps such as Spotify, control the temperature, see your battery level and check how far you can drive, among other functions. Some of that was confusing to navigate, but the car has a helpful voice-control function that operates like Siri or Alexa. You hold down a button on the steering wheel and make your request. When rain started pouring, I asked the car to turn on windshield wipers, and it obliged. It was comforting to have my phone handy to look up other challenges I ran into along the way, like how to lock the car or find the hazard lights. -Charging options There are different methods for charging EVs that range from very slow to very fast. You'll want to look up the specifics based on your EV. There are several ways to find a charging station. For example, AAA's TripTik has a search function for finding charging stations. Hotels.com has an amenity filter that allows users to find properties with on-site EV charging points. Anyone can search online for Tesla's 4,500-plus Destination Charging sites - such as restaurants, hotels or resorts - where charging is usually free if you're a customer. Tesla has a network of more than 30,000 Supercharger stations globally. The easiest way to find them is through the car's Trip Planner, which calculates your route with Superchargers along the way. The tool shows stall availability at each station; you can't reserve a charging station in advance. The Tesla Supercharger can bring your battery up to 200 miles in about 15 minutes. Most stations charge a fee, which can depend on your electricity usage and plug-in time (some have on-peak and off-peak rates). If you charge your rental at a third-party station, you pay on the spot. With a Tesla station, Hertz charges the credit card associated with your rental. I paid about $30 in charging fees over four charges. If you want to know how much your trip will cost, you can calculate estimates at the EVAdept site at evadept.com. Before I started my drive, I plugged my destination into the car's GPS, and it automatically pulled up stations along my route. Figuring the car knew best, I accepted its first suggestion to drive to a charging station in Baltimore. In hindsight, I regretted the early detour. I had just started my drive, and the car wasn't at risk of running out of battery. There would be plenty of other stations that were more convenient than this one in a city. Overall, I made two charge breaks each way from D.C. to New York - about 15 to 20 minutes per Supercharge. Even though I knew I could stop easily along the route, "range anxiety" did nag me. -The takeaway The Tesla rental experience was largely straightforward. The car was intuitive enough to figure out, with the help of the Internet, and the charging infrastructure made it easy to find stations. My best move was to talk to other Tesla owners ahead of my trip. My brother-in-law warned me about the car's ability to accelerate intensely, quickly. A friend's parents just traveled across the country in their Tesla and had no problems with charging. This advice gave me confidence for my first drive. RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Luakam Anambe wanted her newborn granddaughter to have a doll something she'd never owned as a child working in slave-like conditions in Brazil's Amazon rainforest. But she wanted the doll to share their Indigenous features, and there was nothing like that in stores. So she sewed one herself from cloth and stuffing. The doll had brown skin, long, dark hair, and the same face and body paint used by the Anambe people. It delighted passersby; while Indigenous dolls can be found elsewhere in Latin America, they remain mostly absent in Brazil, home to nearly 900,000 people identifying as Indigenous in the last census. A business idea was born, and her modest home now doubles as a workshop where she and her daughter produce dolls for a growing clientele. Before, only white dolls existed, then came the Black ones, but Indigenous ones didnt appear, said Anambe, 53, wearing a beaded necklace and a headdress of delicate orange feathers. When Indigenous women see the dolls, they sometimes cry. Since 2013, Anambe has sold more than 5,000 dolls at local fairs and through social media, mailing them across the country, and she is fundraising to attend a German fair with the aim of exporting to Europe. Her burgeoning business in Rio de Janeiro is a world removed from the Amazonian state of Para, where her life of hardship began. She was one of 15 children and Anambes parents sent her and two sisters to live and work at a plantation. Just 7 years old, she was charged with looking after the plantation owners toddler. She remembers being rebuked after asking the owner's wife for a doll; she should work, not play, Anambe recalls being told. And she received no compassion when telling the woman that she had been sexually abused. She never received any pay, and complaints often ended with young Anambe locked in a dark tobacco storeroom, alone. Anambe said she was 15 when the plantation owner forced her to marry his friend, a man two decades her senior, with whom she had a daughter. Anambe soon fled her violent husband, leaving her baby with family. Were fighters, in a fight to survive, she said, referring to Indigenous people who regularly face peril from Amazon land grabbers, loggers, ranchers and miners. Before colonization, there were millions of Indigenous people in Brazil. Today, there are far fewer. And every passing day, less and less. Anambe worked for years as a cleaning lady in Belem, Para states capital. But she felt life had more in store for her and that she should seek opportunities in one of Brazil's biggest cities. She hitched an eight-day ride to Rio with a long-haul trucker and thought of him as a godsend, especially because he didn't abuse her. Her Indigenous features stood out in Rio, and she experienced prejudice. Eventually, she landed a job in a bikini factory and was able to send for her daughter, by then in her twenties. Little by little, they saved enough money to move from their one-room shack to a small home, where she started making clothes for some fashionable Rio brands. With the skills she developed sitting behind her sewing machine, she made her first doll. Its like a mirror, said her daughter, Atyna Pora, who now works with her mother. Through the doll, we see ourselves, and we have to break down the taboo behind it, because we have always been very discriminated against. Anambe and Pora have expanded their portfolio to include dolls bearing face and body paints of five other Indigenous groups. Each is handsewn, dressed in traditional clothes and carefully painted with a sharpened branch from a tree in their backyard, following Indigenous custom. While they were the first to reach a broad audience using social media, others have followed in their footsteps. Indigenous fashion designer Weeena Tikuna, also born in the Amazon rainforest and now based in Rio, started making Indigenous dolls to dress them in her creations. I admire her work, like that of other Indigenous women," Tikuna said of Anambe. "We need that Indigenous representation. Anambe named her first doll after Atynas daughter, Anaty, which became her company's name. And 20% of proceeds go to her nonprofit, Maria Vicentina, named for her mother and grandmother. Based in Para, it will provide seamstress training to women under duress, growing the Anaty doll operation while helping provide them financial independence. When I left the state of Para, I didnt leave just for myself. I went for other women, too, Anambe said. Anaty came to give this empowerment to us, Indigenous women. LOS ANGELES (AP) A fire in a Los Angeles pet business killed two cats but firefighters were able to save a dozen other animals, authorities said. The fire broke out Wednesday evening in East Hollywood at an undetermined type of pet business, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Brian Humphrey. Reparations experts and advocates largely welcomed a move by California to publicly document its role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans but wondered if the slew of recommendations in its report released this week will result in measurable change. Justin Hansford, a longtime reparations advocate and law professor at Howard University, called the report an exciting development. The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response, said Hansford, who also serves as the director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington, D.C. We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address some of the recommendations. The 500-page document released Wednesday details the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people and how federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts were active in sustaining systemic racism in all facets of life for African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, which was created by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recommended a long list of actions the state can take to address the racial wealth gap, including housing reforms, reducing mass incarceration, creating a state-subsidized mortgage program for qualifying African American applicants and by offering free tuition to California colleges and universities and expanding scholarship opportunities. This country has ignored the harmful history the African American community has faced in this country and the inequities the community continues to face for far too long. This is a monumental moment not only for the State of California but the United States," said Rick Callender, president of the California Hawaii State Conference NAACP in Sacramento, California. When reports such as these are created for the first time in the nations history, they are a compelling model for other states to address the same issues. As California goes, so goes the nation, Callender said in a statement to The Associated Press. The task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all Black people in the U.S. But activist Yvette Carnell said she worries that the California report and others like it could be used as a scapegoat for the federal government to avoid its responsibility to fund a national reparations movement. "I'm not opposed to this, because I think it is all for a good reason, but I would rather see these reparations commissions use that as leverage to force the federal government to do something, said Yvette Carnell, president of ADOS Advocacy Foundation. The Georgia-based grassroots organization, which began in response to a question about Black wealth, has advocated for reparations since 2020. My fear is that all of these states will end up maybe doing something and the government at the federal level will say we support local reparations initiatives. When, truthfully, the only government that has trillions of dollars to pour resources into our community and pay us what was owed is the federal government," said Carnell. Carnell said it feels like the report took every recommendation from Black people around the U.S. and put it all in one report, arguing it could be seen as a Black agenda. But she said she wants to see specific efforts to financially repay what was taken from enslaved people and their descendants, not just repaying them by creating the kinds of programs and offices that are recommended in the report. California was the first state to create a task force on reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year through a $10 million housing project. Cities and universities have since followed. Evanston Councilmember Bobby Burns, who is on the city reparations committee, commended California for being the first state to take action. No one wants to be the first out of the gate and be the first to endure a level of scrutiny that is almost certain when you are doing anything that is truly transformational," he said. "To have now a state step up ... and not only acknowledge wrongdoing but to provide redress for that harm because they're responsible for it is important in the same way that it is important for a city to take the lead on it. Hansford, whose organization provided legal and research support to the city of Evanston, said having local communities tell their stories is important for educating people on why reparations are necessary. California is home to the fifth-largest Black population in the U.S., after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California. African Americans make up less than 6% of Californias population, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation. ___ This story has been corrected to say that ADOS Advocacy Foundation began in 2020, not 2018. ___ Mumphrey reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her at https://twitter.com/cheymumph. Associated Press journalist Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BROOKFIELD The status of the search for the 24-year-old man who was reported missing in Candlewood Lake last weekend was unclear Thursday. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection had been sending updates about the suspension and resumption of the ongoing search, but updates were not provided Wednesday night orThursday morning. The department could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Brookfields first selectman and police chief told Hearst Connecticut Media they also had not received any updates from DEEP as of Thursday afternoon. I dont know what theyre doing today. I havent heard, First Selectman Tara Carr said around 1:40 p.m. The search for the swimmer began Sunday evening, after DEEPs conservation police responded to a report of a person reported missing after going into the water from a vessel on Candlewood Lake. DEEP spokesperson Will Healey said the vessel was not moving when the person whose name has not been released was reported missing. Carr said Tuesday the person is suspected to have drowned. Around 1 p.m. Wednesday the fourth day of the search Healey put out a statement asking members of the public who were around the Brookfield Bay area of Candlewood Lake between 5:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sunday to call conservation police at 860-904-8154. The statement also said the search remained ongoing. Healey did not return phone calls or email requests for an update on the search Thursday afternoon. Local fire and police agencies, as well as the state police dive team and Candlewood Lake Authority, have been involved in the search efforts led by DEEP, which has jurisdiction over the lake. Brookfield Police Chief John Puglisi said his departments dive team had been assisting DEEP in the search but they werent called to the lake Thursday. Our dive team has been acting in support of the DEEP operations because they dont have their own dive team, he said, noting that up until Wednesday, Brookfields dive team had been out on the lake helping with the search efforts. They were out full-time and they would swap out, Puglisi said. I think NUSAR (Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue) went out last night, but our dive team operations have ceased until we get called again. Although he doesnt know the status of the search, Puglisi said he does not believe the missing person has been found. We would know if he was because we (Brookfield police) are going to get the call first, he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A gunman who killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the rampage, police said Thursday. The patient called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then killed himself as police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. President Joe Biden addressed the carnage in recent years from mass shootings with AR-style rifles in an address Thursday night. Since the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school killed 21 people, including 19 children, just over a week ago, there have been 20 mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured," he said. After describing the Tulsa shooting as one of those 20 mass shootings, the president said, "That doesnt count the carnage we see every single day that doesnt make the headlines. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. "He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Franklin said Phillips performed the surgery on May 19 and Louis was released from the hospital on May 24. He said Louis called the doctor's office several times over several days reporting he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for additional treatment. Louis called the office again Wednesday complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance, he said. A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a "consummate gentleman" and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said. Love, a 73-year-old retired Army sergeant, was a patient at the clinic but that day he was accompanying his wife, Deborah, for her six-month checkup, said their daughter, Karen Denise Love. Police have received reports that Love held a door shut in hopes of allowing others to flee from the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to reporters questions. Karen Love said her parents were in an examination room with one of Phillips assistants when the couple heard the commotion outside. When they realized it was gunshots, Karen Love said her father grabbed the door handle from inside the room. As they heard this guy going up and down the hall, they knew it was gunfire, Karen Love said. They thought it was someone just shooting people. My dad was trying to hold the door the best he could. Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Franklin said police believe Louis shot himself about 39 seconds after the first officers entered the building. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance." The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. ___ Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed from Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody from Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York. POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) An Idaho man accused of shooting two police officers with a semi-automatic rifle last month has been released from the hospital and jailed on a $1 million bond. Todd Vernon Brewer, 45, of Pocatello, was charged with two counts of felony aggravated battery and using a weapon during the commission of a felony in connection with the shooting on May 5. Both officers survived. The Idaho State Journal reported that Brewer, who was also shot, was released from the hospital late last month and taken to the Bannock County Jail. He is expected to make his first appearance in court next week. Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei said police were sent to a Pocatello home during the early morning hours of May 5 because of a report of domestic violence. Authorities have released few details, but during a press conference after the shooting Schei said Brewer was armed with an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun and that he raised the rifle when officers ordered him to drop the weapons. Schei said the officers shot at Brewer, who returned fire. Officer Mackenzie Handel was shot in the abdomen and Officer Demetrius Amos was in the abdomen and in the face. Amos' hand was injured by gunfire, but Schei said it wasn't clear if the wound was caused by a third bullet or from one of the other two shots. Handel has returned to limited duty police work and Amos is recovering at home, Schei said. Brewer has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea and online court records do not show if he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf. NEW DELHI (AP) Indian officials held talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan for the first time Thursday since the group took control of the country last year to discuss the distribution of humanitarian assistance, the External Affairs Ministry said. India has no formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, but its envoys have met previously with Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where they have an office. The visit by Indian officials to Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, on Thursday was mainly to oversee the delivery of aid, ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi told reporters. India has said it will follow the lead of the United Nations in deciding whether to recognize the Talilban government. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi received the Indian delegation in Kabul and called it "a good beginning in ties between the two countries. The meeting focused on bilateral relations, trade and aid, Muttaqi's spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said in a tweet. The Indian delegation was led by J.P. Singh, a secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. Muttaqi expressed gratitude for Indian humanitarian and medical assistance to Afghanistan, stressing the importance of the resumption of projects by India, its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and the provision of consular services to Afghans, particularly to Afghan students and medical patients, Balkhi said. The Indian officials said they are seeking positive ties with Afghanistan as in the past, the Afghan spokesperson said. India sent 20,000 tons of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothing to Afghanistan to meet shortages there, Bagchi said. The aid was handed over to the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul and U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization and the World Food Program, he said in a statement, adding that more medicines and food were on the way. Before the Taliban took control, India provided Afghan security forces with training and military equipment but had no troops on the ground. It was also the regions largest provider of development aid to Afghanistan. It has no diplomatic presence left in Kabul after it evacuated its staff ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August last year. ___ Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report. DAYTON, Ohio (AP) A county jail inmate receiving treatment at an Ohio hospital shot and killed a security guard, pointed the weapon at others and then killed himself in a parking lot, authorities said. The shooting Wednesday at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton happened before a gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people and himself at a medical building on a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. LOS ANGELES (AP) The presiding justice of the California appeals court in Sacramento has retired as part of a punishment announced Wednesday for delays in deciding 200 cases over a decade that cost litigants money and some criminal defendants their freedom. Justice Vance Raye agreed to step down from the Third District Court of Appeal as part of a public admonishment for excessive delays that lasted years in some cases, the Commission on Judicial Performance said. Justice Raye engaged in a pattern of delay in deciding a significant number of appellate cases over a lengthy period, the commission said. He failed to encourage and adopt reasonable procedures to ensure that priority and older cases were decided first. While there was a high volume of cases in the court, the commission said that alone couldnt explain the delays because not all justices had similar backlogs. California law requires that judges' salaries be withheld if they issue decisions more than 90 days after hearing arguments. But there are no other specific time limits on how long appellate courts take and no rules over how long cases can languish before a case is submitted after argument. Raye never violated the rule that would have withheld his paycheck, but delays prior to arguments dragged on nearly eight years in a civil case and more than 8.5 years in a criminal matter involving a juvenile. In some cases, the appeals became moot as a result of the passage of time, the commission said. Some defendants in criminal cases served time that would not have been served had the appellate decision been issued at an earlier date, and others had served their full term of probation, subject to conditions that were ultimately found to be improper. There was no evidence Raye intentionally disregarded his duty, the commission said. Raye agreed with the commission's findings and stipulated with the discipline, according to the order for public admonishment. He agreed not to serve as a judicial officer again. An attorney for Raye did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Raye, an Oklahoma native, was a U.S. Air Force prosecutor at Beale Air Force Base near Marysville before joining the California attorney general's office. He served as deputy legislative secretary and legal affairs secretary to Gov. George Deukmejian. Deukmejian, a Republican, appointed Raye to Sacramento Superior Court in 1989 and then to the appeals court two years later. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, appointed Raye as presiding justice in 2010. As the court's administrative judge, Raye was responsible for leading the court, establishing policies, supervising personnel, promoting access to justice and providing a forum for fair and expeditious resolution of disputes, according to California court rules. Raye authored a unanimous opinion a year ago upholding Gov. Gavin Newsoms use of emergency powers to make far-reaching policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The opinion overturned a lower court finding that the Democrat had done too much unilaterally. Newsom, who is up for reelection this year, can appoint Raye's successor. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Kentucky Democrat Charles Booker appears on camera with a noose around his neck to condemn Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul for blocking anti-lynching legislation two years ago a personally searing ad for a trailblazing Black candidate who says some of his own ancestors were lynched. The new online ad which comes with a warning about its content shows a grisly photo of a lynching victim dangling from a tree. But it fails to mention that Paul co-sponsored a new version of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act that cleared Congress this year and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. The measure, named for the Black teenager whose 1955 killing in Mississippi became a galvanizing moment in the civil rights era, made lynching a federal hate crime. The ad exemplifies Booker's no-holds-barred approach to confronting racial and economic justice issues in a mostly rural, conservative-leaning state where only about 8% of the population is Black. And it ignores Paul's long-running outreach into mostly Black neighborhoods to discuss criminal justice issues and ways to turn around economically distressed communities, improve schools and combat gun violence. The libertarian-leaning Paul will face Booker in a November matchup in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. The ad shows that Booker, the first Black major party nominee for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, won't shy from raising issues that might make some Kentuckians uncomfortable. Booker's ad zeroes in on Paul's efforts to stall the anti-lynching legislation in 2020. At the time, Paul said the legislation was drafted too broadly and could define minor assaults as lynching. Booker says it's an example of Paul embracing divisive politics. But the ad contains a broader message aimed at the continued assaults on humanity, Booker said Wednesday in an interview, pointing to mass shootings haunting the nation. The choice couldnt be clearer, Booker says in the ad, which debuted Wednesday. Do we move forward together? Or do we let politicians like Rand Paul forever hold us back and drive us apart?" Paul's campaign said the senator worked to strengthen the anti-lynching legislation and overlooking that role amounts to "a desperate misrepresentation of the facts. In his own response, the senator said Thursday that he's made reaching out to Black communities a priority. Ive introduced over two dozen bipartisan criminal justice reform bills, Paul said in a statement to The Associated Press. "I fought to pass a strong anti-lynching bill. To this day, I continue to work hand in hand with community leaders on issues like violence and its effect on Louisvilles youth and their education and look forward to keeping up those efforts when Im re-elected this November. Booker's ad has evoked strong responses. Ricky L. Jones, a professor and chair of the Pan-African Studies Department at the University of Louisville, tweeted: Some people are calling this controversial even disgusting. I think its one of the most powerful political ads Ive ever seen! Lavel White, a community activist, documentary filmmaker and photographer from Louisville said: The African American community is going to buy into it. They're going to understand it. They're going to be like, Charles is speaking the truth. But Booker needs to avoid alienating some white voters who might wonder why he's using a lynching-themed ad to attack Paul, White said. Booker has embraced a hood to the holler theme to promote his progressive agenda and show the shared interests of inner city and rural voters. Booker first gained statewide prominence in 2020 when he marched with protesters as a Senate candidate to demand justice for Breonna Taylor and other Black people killed in encounters with police. His campaign surged, but he narrowly lost the Democratic primary that year to an establishment-backed opponent. Booker routinely invokes his past to promote policy, talking about rationing his insulin as he touts his plan to expand health care access. In the new ad, he talks about how lynchings were "used to kill my ancestors while standing next to a tree, a noose looped around his neck. He had great-great-uncles on his mother's side of the family who were lynched, he told the AP. It was crushing to put that rope around my neck, Booker said Wednesday. I felt the weight of history when I did it. I imagined my uncles, you know. But I feel that being in this unique position gives me a responsibility, and it requires me to be vulnerable so that we can face hard truths. Booker said he realized the ad could cause discomfort for some Kentuckians but hoped they can see my sincerity." The ad includes the eerie creaking sound of rope hanging from a tree branch. Booker's hands grip the rope around his neck as he talks, then he removes the noose and walks away. It's a moment steeped in symbolism aimed at people feeling frustrated and hopeless, he said. I want to tell the story that we can change things, Booker said. That we can get the healing and the brighter future that we deserve, but it's going to require us to stand together. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A lawsuit challenging state control of the Kansas City police department will proceed after a Jackson County judge declined this week to dismiss it. Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, contends in the lawsuit against the Kansas City Police Board of Commissioners that state control of the city's police department is discriminatory and prevents Kansas City residents from having a say in how millions of tax dollars are spent in their city, The Kansas City Star reported. An 18-year-old was undergoing treatment for an eating disorder when she learned she was pregnant, already in the second trimester. A mom of two found out at 20 weeks that her much-wanted baby had no kidneys or bladder. A young woman was raped and couldn't fathom continuing a pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are relatively rare, even more so now with the availability of medications to terminate early pregnancies. Across large parts of the United States, they are also increasingly difficult to obtain. Now, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, women will face even more hurdles in some parts of the country, and may have to travel to another state to get an abortion. That means more women could end up having the procedure later than they wish, and the burden falls more heavily on some groups, such as teens, poor, Black, Latino and Native American women and those who live in states where access to any abortion is limited. Its not because people dont want to have them sooner, said Dr. Diane Horvath, an OB-GYN in Baltimore, Maryland, who has performed abortions for 16 years. Its because barriers and new information cause them to have to push it back to later in pregnancy. The Associated Press interviewed three women who had abortions later in their pregnancy. While their backgrounds and reasons for terminating their pregnancies were varied, none expressed doubt about their decision or said they were traumatized by it and all said they were grateful that they were able to do it. ___ WANTED BABY, MISSING ORGANS Christina Taylor already had two kids when she became pregnant with her third. Everything was going well at the start and she was looking forward to welcoming a new baby into the family. When she was 20 weeks pregnant, Taylor went for an ultrasound and basic anatomy scan that is normally done at this stage. For most people, this is a time to find out the babys sex. For some, its also when fetal abnormalities are detected. I laid down and the ultrasound tech was doing her thing and she was getting really quiet and was taking a really long time, she recalled. She left the room at one point, I need to talk to the doctor. When the tech returned, Taylor could see from the look on her face that something was wrong. When the doctor arrived, he told the couple that there was no amniotic fluid. There were also no kidneys. The baby would likely not survive the pregnancy, or if by some miracle made it to full term, he would die shortly after birth. I told the doctor, look, Im not sure I dont buy the age of viability thing, but for my own mental health and for the health of my family I want to terminate my pregnancy as soon as possible, Taylor recalled. She got a second doctors opinion and an MRI, which not only confirmed that there were no kidneys present, but also no bladder. Fortunately, in Colorado, abortion is legal, as it was at the time, with no gestational limits. In the U.S., nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester of pregnancy. Just over 6% of abortions were performed at 14 to 20 weeks gestation, the second trimester, in 2019 according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 1% took place at 21 weeks or later, in the third, based on the most recent data available. Taylors story shows what getting an abortion with access to good health care, health insurance and no legal obstacles can look like. I had the option to wait it out and see when he passed and then, you know, youd have a stillbirth. But I knew I couldnt do that. Like, I couldnt put my kids through that, Taylor said. On the way home from the MRI she called her insurance company and found that they covered both types of abortion procedures, dilation and evacuation, D&E, and induction and dilation, or I&D. She chose the latter, which essentially would mean inducing labor and going through delivery. This way, she could have the procedure in a maternity ward, with a team of midwives. There was a small chance that he could have been born still alive and we would have been able to hold him and say goodbye when he passed, Taylor said. She labored for a day and a half. Given the circumstances, she recalled it as an overall positive experience, knowing how much worse it could have been had they still lived in Texas, where even in 2017 the procedure would not have been legal. The states current ban of all abortions after 6 weeks makes no exceptions Taylor would have had to travel out of state to receive care, or possibly wait until her baby died in her womb, putting her at increased risk of infections and even death. Only eight states allow abortions at any time during a pregnancy. Twenty states have no specific time limits but prohibit abortions at the time of fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks but depends on a host of other factors besides gestational age. I still grieve to this day for the loss of my son and my husband does too, Taylor, who has been sharing her abortion story to bring attention to experiences such as hers, said. But you know, we accept that thats something that happens sometimes. And especially because of the context of knowing how lucky we were to just not have laws in the way of just doing what felt right. ___ I WAS FEELING SUICIDAL Everyone thinks you present pregnancies the same way. You miss a period, you throw up, you take a test and at five weeks, you know youre pregnant. And that is just not how life shakes out for a lot of people, said Erika Christensen, founder of PatientForward, a nonprofit that helps people access later abortions. Jenn Chalifoux, now 30 and studying law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, became pregnant in 2010, when she was 18 years old and receiving inpatient care for an eating disorder in New York. Her story touches on popular myths that women always know they are pregnant and that women in liberal states with laws that only ban rare late abortions can easily get them. Chalifoux returned home from college in the summer before her sophomore year to receive treatment for restrictive eating. A common symptom of such eating disorders is the loss of ones period. A common though by no means fail-safe sign of being pregnant is also the loss of ones period. I had a medical team of doctors and psychiatrists and stuff that I was working with. And at no point did any of us think that the fact that I hadnt gotten my period was because of a pregnancy, Chalifoux said. As she was starting to recover from the eating disorder, though, her period still hadnt returned. She was on birth control, but just to rule it out, she took a home pregnancy test, which was positive. After confirming the pregnancy through a blood test, she reached out to Planned Parenthood, where she was told that it was too late for a medical abortion and she would need a surgical procedure. I spent probably at least two weeks thinking about the financials, going through the money that I had, Chalifoux said. And a week makes a difference. The cost of an abortion increases significantly as time goes on, from a few hundred dollars to thousands in the second trimester and even tens of thousands later on. For many women, financial barriers to abortion serve to push the procedure later, because it can take time to come up with money. Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-income Americans, does not pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or when the mothers life is in danger. Its really hard to get an abortion in this country, Christensen said. And the idea that people are able to seek care by a certain date is kind of based on the myths that we get all the information we need by a certain time and that we live in equitable environments with equal access to resources and health care. Neither of those are true. Horvath, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said she's already seeing patients from other states in her Maryland practice who have found themselves too far into the pregnancy to be able to have abortions in their state. Realizing that she could not handle it alone, Chalifoux told her parents, who embraced her with support. By this point, weeks had passed since she learned she was pregnant and she started to experience physical symptoms of pregnancy. The experience of not having control over her body as it changed horrified her and she said she getting intrusive thoughts of performing an abortion on herself. I just remember feeling like I wanted to cut myself open or die. The experience of not having control over my body and feeling my body, feeling it change, noticing the changes and knowing that I was getting more pregnant every day was just I mean, it was like horror, she recalled. After going for an initial appointment at a hospital to prepare for the procedure, another ultrasound revealed that she was further along than first thought. In all, Chalifoux said it took about a month from the time she learned she was pregnant until she was able to receive an abortion, a few days after she turned 19. It was such a long time ago that Ive healed from a lot of it, but Im able to recognize that where I used to think that my abortion was traumatic for me, I can realize now that it was the pregnancy that was traumatic. And that the abortion was actually very healing, she said. Today, Chalifoux is studying law, hoping to become a public defender or find work fighting against mass incarceration and speaks publicly about her abortion as part of her reproductive rights activism. Looking back, she says, she does not think she would have survived if she were forced to carry the pregnancy to term. I can remember having this fear that I would be forced to give birth, she said. And I can remember thinking that I would rather die. ___ RAPE AND A DOCTORS MISCALCULATION It was July 2020. The young woman decided to check out her friends stand-up comedy show in a downtown Houston comedy club. She wouldnt know anyone in the audience, but that didnt matter. Working in the service industry and being a social, responsible person who had lived on her own since she turned 18, she wasnt worried. She met what seemed like a group of really cool people. She had some drinks with them and had a good time, she recalled. Looking back, she doesnt recall any women being part of the group. But she trusted herself. Everything kind of happened really fast, said the woman, 31, whom the AP is not identifying because she is the victim of sexual assault. Im pretty sure, pretty sure someone slipped something in one of my drinks. I ended up waking up the next morning in a rundown motel room somewhere in southwest Houston. She had nothing on her except her clothes and shoes. Her phone, wallet and underwear were missing. It was about 10:30 a.m. and the motels management was banging on her door. Instead of offering help, she recalled, they yelled at her and kicked her out. The woman, who is Black, thinks they might have thought she was a prostitute. She walked along the side of the highway until she found a gas station where she could call a family member to pick her up. Time went on, and she didnt tell anyone what happened except one close friend. She started dating someone. In late October, early November of that year, she, took a home pregnancy test. She was on birth control, but she figured maybe it had failed. She was pregnant. After an initial appointment with a doctor who gave her an incorrect gestational age, she followed up at a womens clinic, where she learned that she was actually further along. She did the math, and traced back the start of her pregnancy to the time she was raped back in July. And that was just something that I was not I would not have been able to live with, she said. The young woman said it took her more than a week to absorb the shock of learning that she became pregnant from a sexual assault. More time passed as she searched for an abortion provider, encountering crisis pregnancy centers that tried to steer her away from terminating the pregnancy. One of the centers, she said, was calling her daily at one point. The woman said she felt harassed. There was also the cost. According to medical bills the woman provided to the AP, the cost of her procedure increased by $2,500 between the time she was examined in Austin before her abortion and the time she arrived in New Mexico for the procedure. PatientForward helped cover her costs. She was in her third trimester by the time she got on an airplane, alone, to fly to New Mexico and terminate her pregnancy at 27 weeks of gestation. She hasnt told her family what happened, or any other friends, still coping with feelings of shame and guilt from both the rape and the abortion. She does not know who raped her. I have no idea who did it. No idea, she said. I never went back and pursued it. ___ Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) A judge has ordered a Portland, Oregon, man accused of three shooting deaths this year be committed to the state hospital for mental health treatment after finding he is unable to help in his own defense. Joseph Banks was living in a Portland group home for adults with mental illness when police say he fatally shot the men in what investigators suspect were random attacks, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Under state law, the hospital may keep patients who are under a so-called aid and assist order for the period of time equal to the maximum sentence the court could impose if the defendant had been convicted. Circuit Judge Katharine von Ter Stegge ruled after reviewing a report from psychologist Tasha Phillips. Banks defense lawyers had asked her to evaluate him. The judge shared the psychologists finding with Banks in court Wednesday. She thinks based on your medical history, or conversations with you, that you are at the moment, not in the best place to assist your lawyers in your defense. Do you understand that? And do you agree with that? Banks responded, I dont know, but then nodded that he understood. The judge told him when he is determined to be able to help his lawyers, the case will proceed. Earlier this year, Banks pleaded not guilty to a 15-count indictment charging him in the deaths of Isaiah Hurst, 39; Jeff Ramirez, 35; and Mark Johnson, 55. POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) Authorities are investigating after 15 Union Pacific train cars derailed near Pocatello Thursday morning. Union Pacific spokeswoman Robynn Tysver told EastIdahoNews.com that no injuries were reported in the derailment, which happened around 5:45 a.m. near Bannock Highway. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Democrats in the state Senate on Thursday pitched their proposal to give $200 tax rebates to motorists in North Carolina, who are dealing with historically high gas prices. Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue and other Democrats held a news conference to urge Republicans to consider the gas tax rebate legislation. The bill would direct the windfall be given no later than Oct. 1 to everyone 18 years and older with a valid North Carolina drivers license, media outlets reported. The money, which would come in the form of a check or debit card, could be used for any purpose. It's designed to provide near-term assistance to North Carolina residents and families struggling with higher prices for groceries and other necessities. We want to put more money in their pockets now, Blue told reporters. The tax rebate would cost $1.3 billion and come from the estimated $4.2 billion in revenue overcollections that the state predicts to have at the close of the fiscal year. Republican leaders in the General Assembly also are looking at tax relief as part of their negotiations to adjust the second year of the two-year budget that begins July 1. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said Thursday that the GOP might consider some kind of one-time rebate but that more permanent tax relief is preferred. I would like to see something thats a little more broad-based and long-lasting as opposed to a temporary thing that may help with one tank of gas or two, Berger told reporters. Republicans have mentioned a potential effort to reduce the individual income tax rate more quickly than was laid out in the two-year budget approved last November. That measure is incrementally decreasing the personal rate from 5.25% to 3.99% in 2027. North Carolina's motor fuels tax is currently 38.5 cents per gallon. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea says its leader, Kim Jong Un, sent a letter congratulating Queen Elizabeth II as Britain began a four-day celebration marking her 70 years on the throne. North Koreas Foreign Ministry said on its website Thursday that Kim sent a letter congratulating the queen and the British people. It didnt provide further details. NEW YORK (AP) A pair of Brooklyn attorneys who were facing the possibility of 10 years in prison for firebombing an empty New York City police vehicle during protests over the murder of George Floyd agreed to a new plea deal Thursday that could significantly reduce their time behind bars. Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison sentence of 18 to 24 months for the lawyers, Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman. The two attorneys appeared at a U.S. courthouse in Brooklyn Thursday to withdraw earlier guilty pleas to a charge of unlawfully possessing Molotov cocktails, and plead guilty to conspiracy charges punishable by no more than five years imprisonment. The reduced charges represent a remarkable change from the tough approach initially taken by federal prosecutors, who had initially hit the attorneys, both 33, with serious charges that could have landed them in prison for decades. The pair was arrested amid clashes between protesters and police on May 30, 2020, during an eruption of demonstrations following Floyd's killing by a police officer in Minnesota. Surveillance cameras recorded Rahman, a human rights lawyer, hurling an incendiary device into a parked police vehicle, setting fire to its console. No one was injured in the attack, but the vehicle was severely damaged. Officers arrested the lawyers a short time later and said they found a lighter, a Bud Light beer bottle filled with toilet paper and a gasoline tank in the back of a minivan driven by Mattis, a corporate attorney. Prosecutors allege the lawyers planned to distribute and throw other Molotov cocktails. While other lawyers condemned their conduct, some objected to the severity of the charges, arguing that the case was improperly being handled as if it were an act of domestic terrorism. When the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn asked that the lawyers be detained without bail, 56 former federal prosecutors sent a legal brief to the court criticizing the governments handling of the case. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said he was not bound by the sentencing recommendations under the new plea deal, but would take it into account when he sentences the two attorneys this fall. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that Mattis is 33, not 32. Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Kristi L. Lee, 50, of 208 N. Oak St., Bluffs, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:19 p.m. Tuesday on a violation of an order of protection. Peter J. Ayling, 38, of 407 E. Main St., Concord, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:55 a.m. Sunday on a domestic battery charge. Mary L. Moore, 48, of 401 N. Church St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:06 p.m. Friday on charges of driving under the influence, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, and improper lane use. OTHER REPORTS A truck hit a tree overnight Friday in a yard in the 2900 block of Illinois Route 104. Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Sarah R. Parker, 33, of 414 E. Lafayette Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:47 p.m. Tuesday on a theft charge. She was accused of walking into an assisted living facility, taking the outgoing mail and then leaving. Donald S. Surratt, 54, of 537 Stratford Lane was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:42 p.m. Saturday on a battery charge. Tiffany N. Armstrong, 39, of 901 Beesley Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:07 p.m. May 26 on a battery charge. ACCIDENTS Jeffry L. Knight, 80, of Virginia was cited on a charge of failing to yield after the car he was driving and one being driven by a 16-year-old girl collided at 3:38 p.m. Tuesday at Lincoln and West Morton avenues. Katrina M. Edwards, 35, of Franklin was cited on a charge of driving while license suspended after the pickup truck she was driving struck a drive-up ordering sign at Sonic, 1803 W. Morton Ave., about 2:36 p.m. Tuesday. THEFTS, BURGLARIES Items were stolen about 1:45 p.m. May 26 from a residence in the 900 block of Cox Street, according to a report filed at 6:59 a.m. Tuesday. OTHER REPORTS Police are investigating a girl's report that she was hit in the face about 9:10 p.m. Tuesday while in the 800 block of West College Avenue. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate RACINE, Wis. (AP) Two people were shot at a cemetery south of Milwaukee on Thursday, police said. Racine police described the shooting as a critical incident and urged people to stay away. Police said multiple shots were fired in the direction of a funeral service Thursday afternoon. Sgt. Kristi Wilcox said a juvenile was treated and released and a second person was flown to a hospital in Milwaukee. It was not immediately known if any suspects were in custody. Racine police said on social media that numerous shots were fired about 2:30 p.m. at Graceland Cemetery in Racine, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Milwaukee. Ascension All Saints Hospital, which is next to the cemetery, said it is treating an undisclosed number of victims from the shooting. The shooting comes the day after a gunman killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office. It's the latest in a series of mass shootings in United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ascension All Saints Hospital in Racine was on lockdown out of an abundance of caution following the shooting, the hospital said in a statement. It later lifted the lockdown. Racine Mayor Cory Mason released a statement saying the heinous shooting at a cemetery while a family was already mourning the loss of a loved one is a new low for these perpetrators of violence in our community. The violence has got to stop!" Mason said he was instructing the police department to actively enforce the city's juvenile curfew ordinance through the weekend, meaning anyone under 18 must be home by 11 p.m. Area residents said they heard 20 to 30 shots, the Racine Journal Times reported. Three young men who were playing basketball at Lockwood Park, immediately west of the cemetery, said they heard shots and the fence behind them was repeatedly hit. Tre Brantley, one of the men, started running to his car the moment he heard shots. He and his brother, Kellyn Foster, both got into their car and ducked down, praying they wouldnt get hurt. This has got to stop, Brantley said of the gun violence. The shooting occurred at the interment for DaShontay L. King Sr., who was fatally shot by Racine police May 20, Kings sister, Natasha Mullen said. We were at the gravesite trying to get prepared to bury him, and bullets started flying everywhere, she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A Racine police officer fatally shot King, 37, during a traffic stop about two weeks ago. Police said they were carrying out a search warrant on a vehicle when King, who they said had a handgun, ran from the car. According to police, King ignored commands to drop the weapon and Officer Zachary B. Brenner shot him. The Department of Justice is investigating the shooting. Police are asking people to avoid the area in west Racine around the cemetery. ___ This story has been corrected to show that police say King ignored commands to drop the weapon, This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Seth Wenig/AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 BOSTON (AP) Ringo Starr finally made it to Boston on Thursday to receive his honorary degree from the Berklee College of Music. The school originally announced that the Beatles drummer would receive a doctorate in music at commencement ceremonies in May, but Starr was unable to attend then and instead addressed the graduating class in a recorded statement. HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) Service Wire Co. has committed $1 million for a business center at Marshall University, the school's foundation announced. Service Wire will provide funding and wire and cable products for the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation at Marshall. The Transformative Sales and Service Excellence Center will be renamed in honor of the company. Service Wire has a long-standing history partnering with Marshall University, and we are pleased to continue this legacy, said Louis Weisberg, president and CEO of Service Wire. Service Wire is a family-owned wire and cable manufacturer with locations including West Virginia, Texas and Arizona, according to a news release Wednesday from the foundation. The new facility is to be built on a site that previously held an apartment complex. It's expected to open in January 2024, the release said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Doors both the one the gunman entered and the one police did not open for over an hour have been at the center of the investigation into the killing of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the police response to the massacre. School officials under pressure to balance accessibility and safety confront a variety of decisions about the seemingly mundane act of going in and out of a building or classroom. But as the attack on Robb Elementary School showed, such choices can sometimes spell the difference between life and death. State police initially said the gunman entered through an exterior door that had been propped open by a teacher. But a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that the teacher closed the door after realizing a shooter was on campus, but it did not lock as it should have. Inside the school, officers waited for more than an hour to breach the classroom, and state authorities have blamed the head of the school districts small police department for wrongly believing children were no longer at risk. Officials said a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitors key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman. State and federal panels charged with reviewing individual mass shootings have repeatedly advised limiting access to school buildings by locking exterior doors, forcing visitors to enter through a secure door and requiring teachers to lock classrooms while classes are in session. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tells districts that they may be able to delay an intruder by keeping exterior doors locked when they are not being monitored by staff. But schools will still need to ensure that employees "adhere to policies mandating that all exterior doors remain closed outside of student arrival and dismissal times. In its latest guidance, updated in February, the agency also wrote that districts should consider whether measures such as automatic locks on classroom doors could hinder emergency responders. If a school installs automatic locks on classroom doors, they should provide emergency responders with a means of accessing all locked down areas; the office might therefore place master keys or key fobs in a safe but easily accessible location, or provide local authorities with a copy of these devices when first installing any new lock systems." But there are no federal standards or requirements on these points, leaving the decision up to state or local authorities. Those officials must also balance how to keep people safe in case of a fire or natural disaster and the expense of renovating and maintaining schools. Each killing at a U.S. school increases pressure on school authorities to act, nudged on by security companies claiming new products will harden schools and prevent the next tragedy. Ive had people suggest bulletproof glass everywhere or gunshot-detection systems, and its like How far do you go? said Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center. Would you rather have your resources invested in a great teacher or a school that looks like Fort Knox? After the 2018 shooting that left 10 dead at Santa Fe High School outside Houston, Texas lawmakers approved $100 million for school campus hardening projects. According to a governors school safety report in 2019, that money could be used on older buildings for metal detectors, vehicle barriers, alarm systems, security fences, bullet-resistant glass, door-locking systems and other measures. A state-run survey taken during the 2015 school year reported that 96.1% of administrators reported locking campus doors to limit access to the school. Almost 88% of districts used cameras and 79% had a sign-in process for visitors. It's not clear if Uvalde schools sought or received any of that money before last week's shooting. A Uvalde school district spokesperson declined to answer emailed questions about school security. It's also unclear why it took so long for police to retrieve a key from a school official that allowed a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team to finally get inside the classroom. Stephens said ensuring that law enforcement can get into locked classrooms is a crucial part of a school safety plan. He encourages schools to designate that responsibility to multiple people. Security experts warn that physical barriers can only do so much. Human error, faulty equipment or an attackers determination can overcome security measures. Locked doors certainly arent insurmountable. The gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, shot out a window next to the schools locked entrance doors and opened fire again once he entered. Most research backs a more comprehensive approach focused on training educators to spot warning signs in at-risk kids paired with a rigorous safety plan, training for all staff and partnership with law enforcement and other community groups. Chuck Wilson is the co-founder of the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, a collection of security-focused companies and other school-safety advocates that developed their own set of guidelines for schools. They recommend schools at a minimum lock exterior doors while classrooms are in session and lock classroom doors too. It's a lot less convenient, but it's a lot safer in today's world, Wilson said. People who are intent on harming others, "they are creative. They have a lot of time to think, to watch, to observe the ingress and egress, the class changes, before school and after school activities. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and it's unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a system failure that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary Schoo l on May 24. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Seventeen more were injured. Funerals for those slain began this week. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshall Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. JERUSALEM (AP) The director of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog arrived in Israel on Thursday and is set to hold talks with top officials. The visit comes as Israel expresses mounting concerns about Iran's atomic activities and any return to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but has never publicly acknowledged having such weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said he would meet with Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Friday. Earlier this week, Israel accused Iran of stealing classified documents from the IAEA and using them to deceive international inspectors nearly two decades ago. It released what it said were some of the documents in question. Iran has dismissed the allegations as lies. Israel was a staunch opponent of the 2015 nuclear deal and welcomed the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the agreement, which caused it to collapse. The Biden administration has been trying to renew the accord, which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for limits to and oversight of its nuclear program. Iran has always said its nuclear activities are for purely peaceful purposes but has stepped up uranium enrichment after the collapse of the nuclear accord to near weapons-grade levels. U.S. intelligence agencies, Western nations and the IAEA have said Iran ran an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003. Neither the U.S. nor Israel has ruled out the use of military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Susan Montoya Bryan MEXICO CITY (AP) The United States has extradited a former Mexican border state governor to his homeland, where he is accused of embezzling millions of dollars in state funds. Cesar Duarte, who was governor of Chihuahua state, was sent back to Mexico to face corruption charges stemming from his time in office. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas -- As a massacre unfolded inside an elementary school here last week, a would-be negotiator deployed in a funeral home across the street tried frantically to reach the gunman via cellphone, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said Wednesday. In an interview with The Washington Post, McLaughlin, R, said he rushed to Hillcrest Funeral Home about 15 minutes after "the first call" reporting that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos had crashed his pickup truck nearby. He found himself standing near an official he identified only as "the negotiator," while frightened parents gathered outside the school and police waited well over an hour to storm the classroom. "His main goal was to try to get this person on the phone," McLaughlin said in the interview, which was conducted by Telemundo San Antonio. "They tried every number they could find," but the gunman did not pick up the phone. McLaughlin offered few other new details of the police response to the mass shooting, which is under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety and which state officials have described in contradictory ways over the last 10 days. He said he doesn't believe the negotiator was aware there were children calling 911 and asking police to save them while the gunman was in the classroom. The mayor said he was not aware of those calls, nor did he hear shots fired from inside the school, across the street. The gunman was killed by a phalanx of law enforcement officers that included three Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents, a Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue agent and at least one sheriff's deputy, The Post has previously reported. McLaughlin said he has been told that the group also included at least one officer from the Uvalde Police Department and one from the six-officer school system police force. McLaughlin said he has not been in touch with Pete Arredondo, the embattled head of the Uvalde school district's police department, who served as the incident commander during the shooting and has been criticized for not sending officers in sooner. Arredondo has not spoken publicly about the incident, telling CNN on Wednesday that he would do so after more time has passed and the victims of the massacre are buried. McLaughlin, who uses a walker or a cane and has called himself a "small potato" in politics, has not been shy about speaking out against higher-profile Texas politicians in either party. In the recent Texas primary for governor, he opted not to endorse the Republican incumbent, Gov. Greg Abbott, labeling him a "fraud" over his approach to the border and immigration. And he has appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" multiple times to lambast the Border Patrol's release of migrants into the streets of Uvalde and lament that he cannot get a call back from the state's two Republican senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Last week, in the wake of the shooting, he called Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke a "sick son of a b----" for confronting Abbott about gun control during a news conference. During the interview on Wednesday, however, McLaughlin took a much more conciliatory tone, urging compromise between Republicans and Democrats to find a set of laws that "work for everyone." "Both [parties] have an attitude of 'It's my way or the highway,'" he said. "And that's not what we elected them for. We elected them to go up there and represent the American people, and that means you sit at a table and you sit down and you negotiate." One example of compromise? Background checks for gun purchases, he said. "Why should any of us be afraid of expanding background checks? There's nothing wrong with that, I don't have anything to hide," said McLaughlin, who has also long pushed to build a psychiatric hospital in Uvalde. Tension has been building between local and state law enforcement in Uvalde as questions mount over the shifting public accounts of what happened last Tuesday and who bears the responsibility for the law enforcement response. Last week, Abbott said he was "misled" by law enforcement authorities about the series of events that took place. "The information I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that," he said, sitting next to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, R, and McLaughlin. But McLaughlin rebutted such comments on Monday, saying in a statement that local law enforcement did not "mislead anyone." He reiterated that point in the interview, saying "local authorities have not lied to anyone." "The briefing that the governor and the lieutenant governor and everybody else in that room [had] ... was given by the DPS, not local law enforcement," McLaughlin said. "They've had three press conferences," he added. "In all three press conferences, something has changed." McLaughlin said he hasn't "lost trust" in the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers. Relatives of the 21 people who were killed "need answers," he said. "And we want to make sure they get those answers." On Wednesday, Abbott asked state lawmakers to convene a pair of "special legislative committees" to address the issues of school safety and mass violence. During remarks last week to the National Rifle Association, the governor ruled out new gun restrictions in response to the massacre. In his letter to Patrick, who presides over the Senate, and House Speaker Dade Phelan, R, Abbott asked that both chambers form committees to explore five issues: school safety; mental health; social media; police training; and firearm safety. "As leaders, we must come together at this time to provide solutions to protect all Texans," Abbott said in his letter. Patrick late Wednesday announced the formation of the Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans, which will hold a hearing on or after June 23. He named eight Republicans and three Democrats to the committee. Noticeably absent from the list was Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde and who has been outspoken about the need for gun restrictions. Abbott also announced new instructions for the Texas School Safety Center, a research center focused on campus safety and security that is statutorily responsible for auditing schools for safety processes and establishing best practices. According to a letter Abbott sent to education officials, the governor said the San Marcos-based safety center should start conducting "random intruder detection audits," designed to find weaknesses in campus security systems. Uvalde school officials said Wednesday that they are working to identify safety improvements that may be needed on school campuses in the city. In addition, officials said the Robb campus would not reopen in the wake of the tragedy. Students will be enrolled elsewhere. McLaughlin said he could not imagine the school returning to normal operations. "I hope we tear it down to the ground," he said. "I would never expect a teacher, a student, anyone to go walk back in that building." - - - The Washington Post's John Wagner in Washington and Eva Ruth in Austin contributed to this report. OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) Dozens of high school and middle school students in Olympia, Washington, walked out of schools to protest gun violence Wednesday after 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed last week at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The walkout was organized by members of the Olympia High School Feminism Club, The Olympian reported. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jennifer Selin, Wayne State University (THE CONVERSATION) Six public hearings to be held in June by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection will attempt to answer the question of whether former President Donald Trump and his political allies broke the law in seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. The Jan. 6 hearings are part of a long history of congressional investigation. The first congressional inquiry occurred in the House in 1792 to investigate Gen. Arthur St. Clairs role in the U.S. Armys defeat in the Battle of the Wabash against the tribes of the Northwest Territory. The Senate conducted its first official investigation in 1818, looking into Gen. Andrew Jacksons conduct in the Seminole War. A look back at five of the most noteworthy congressional investigations since those initial probes suggests that Congress regularly has used its constitutional authority to gather facts and draw public attention to important issues in the country. Ku Klux Klan hearings In 1871, Congress established a committee to investigate violence against and intimidation of Black voters in several states. A year later, the committee produced 13 volumes of evidence containing the testimony of over 600 witnesses describing systemic violence including killings, beatings, lynchings and rapes committed by the Ku Klux Klan, known also as the KKK. Despite extensive media coverage and the wealth of information uncovered by the committee, many Americans at that time still questioned the KKKs existence. Such skepticism was supported by the Democratic minority report that accompanied Congress investigation. At a time when Democrats represented the party that had supported slavery, their report legitimized the KKKs actions in undeniably racist language. Segments of the public adopted the bigoted language and ideas contained in the minority report for decades to come. Teapot Dome scandal In 1922, news broke that President Warren G. Hardings administration had secretly leased federal oil fields to political allies. At the time, these no-bid contracts were valued at around $200 million the equivalent of over $3 billion today. The contracts were awarded by Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, a former senator and a friend of the presidents. Congress opened an investigation into the matter, and a UPI news story said on Jan. 22, 1924, The assistance of Department of Justice agents, United States marshals and the federal courts will be invoked if necessary, senators said, to force the truth from reluctant witnesses. As a result of the investigation, Fall resigned and was later convicted of bribery. He was the first former Cabinet official in history to be sentenced to prison because of misconduct in office. Harding is considered to be one of the countrys worst presidents, in part because of the scandal and corruption brought to light by Congress investigation. Organized crime and the Kefauver Committee In 1950, Congress formed a special committee in response to a series of news articles suggesting that organized crime was corrupting many local government officials. It was referred to as the Kefauver Committee after its chairman, Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. The committee launched an investigation, traveling to 14 major cities in the process. The committees hearings rank among the most widely viewed congressional investigations in history. It is estimated that 90% of televisions in America were tuned in to the hearings. In part, what made the investigation such good TV was the cast of characters subpoenaed to testify. Mobsters, their girlfriends, former elected officials and their lawyers paraded into the hearings, all captured on live television. Not all witnesses complied with the subpoenas. In fact, the Senate approved 45 contempt of Congress citations in 1951 alone. Litigation over witness noncompliance continued in most cases even after the committee issued its over 11,000-page final report. Watergate In 1973, after seven men from President Richard Nixons reelection campaign broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, the Senate voted 77-0 to establish a committee to investigate the break-in. Throughout the investigation, President Nixon refused to cooperate with the committees requests for information and directed his aides to do the same. He claimed executive privilege gave him the right to refuse to hand over White House records, including audiotapes, and planned for many of them to be destroyed. The battle between the president and Congress went to court and, hours before the House was scheduled to start debating whether to impeach him, the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon. The tapes showed Nixon had, despite his denials, taken part in the cover-up. Nixon lost the support of prominent Republicans in Congress, and he resigned shortly thereafter to avoid impeachment. Intelligence community and the Church Committee In addition to revealing presidential misconduct, the Watergate Committee investigation found evidence that the U.S. intelligence community was conducting potentially unconstitutional domestic operations, including spying on U.S. citizens. Then, in 1974, The New York Times published an extensive investigation by reporter Seymour M. Hersh suggesting that the CIA maintained at least 10,000 intelligence files on U.S. citizens. In response, Congress established a special committee to investigate. The committees 16-month inquiry exposed the attempted assassinations of foreign political leaders, experiments conducted on U.S. citizens, and covert operations to recruit journalists to monitor private citizens communications and to spread propaganda over the media. The committee found that every presidential administration from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard Nixon had abused its authority. Intelligence agencies have undermined the constitutional rights of citizens, the final report concluded, primarily because checks and balances designed by the framers of the Constitution to assure accountability have not been applied. Mainstream oversight A few common themes run throughout these five noteworthy congressional investigations. First, as the legacy of the Church Committee suggests, public hearings help provide a layer of transparency to government. Congress and the media can be allies in investigation. Investigative reporting like in the work that revealed the Teapot Dome scandal and Watergate can lay the groundwork for congressional probes. And media coverage of proceedings like the Kefauver Committees investigation not only raises public awareness but also puts pressure on federal, state and local government officials to act. But party can get in the way. In one example, partisan infighting and the Democrats rejection of the KKK proceedings hindered Congress effectiveness and provided a narrative that helped justify Jim Crow laws and other racist policies. Similarly, party loyalty led many Republicans to remain vocal in support of Nixon until the full scope of the presidents actions were revealed through the Watergate investigation. These moments in history also illustrate the importance of examining elected officials political support networks. When President Harding assumed office, he placed loyal allies in government positions. While these allies helped reinforce Hardings pledge to reorganize government and return to normalcy, they also perpetuated corruption. Likewise, the Watergate investigation prompted criminal charges against 69 people, including two Cabinet officials. Additionally, dozens of major corporations pleaded guilty to illegally financing Nixons reelection campaign. While the upcoming hearings of the House Jan. 6 investigative committee will be dealing with unprecedented events in American history, the very investigation of these events has strong precedent. Congress has long exercised its power to investigate some of the greatest problems facing the nation. In that way, the upcoming hearings fit squarely into the mainstream of American government oversight. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/what-5-previous-congressional-investigations-can-teach-us-about-the-house-jan-6-committee-hearings-181548. A man in Grand Prairie Texas is in jail for defying city orders for almost 20 years to cut his lawn. Last summer, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Rick Yoes turned himself into the Tarrant County jail on Saturday to do time on $1,700 in fines he'd incurred for overgrown brush in his front yard. Online media have called the penalty excessive, but local law enforcement said city officials had offered Yoes help with his lawn for years. "I can assure you our city would never simply place a citizen in jail for failing to mow their grass," said Officer Mark Beseda with the Grand Prairie Police Department. He said city code enforcement officers, responding to neighbor complaints, had visited Yoes' home 32 times since 1996, issuing 59 violations and six citations for the lawn. Officials with the City of Grand Prairie said citations are issued when grass and weeds exceed 12 inches and trees or shrubs obstruct sidewalks or streets. Photos taken by city officials show vines hanging from a tree, low enough to brush the windshield of a passing truck. "The complaints from neighbors to the city and our attempts to work with him have been generated from his neighbors in an effort to protect their neighborhood integrity and property values," city officials said in a statement. Yoes' violations since 1996 include "overhanging tree limbs," "dilapidated wood fence," "high grass," "inoperable vehicle," "junk in yard" and "swimming pool not maintained." According to Fresno People's Media, which spoke with Yoes' daughter, the man took vacation days and found a replacement for his work as campus electrician at Tarrant County College so he could serve the 17-day sentence instead of paying the fines. The news blog describes Yoes as an eccentric man who displayed his seashell collection on campus and once dressed in 1776-style garb and wig to read the Constitution to students. "We all agree it is unfortunate that exhaustive measures to work with this citizen during each step of the process have failed," city officials said in a statement. "But every city has a responsibility to watch over the best interests of everyone in the neighborhood to retain a high quality of life for all in the community." J Pat Carter/Getty Images Tulsa, Oklahoma Mayor G. T. Bynum said Wednesday, June 1, that Tulsa police "did not hesitate" in response to the mass shooting at a medical building at the St. Francis Hospital. Bynum didn't directly mention Uvalde, but his comment comes while Uvalde CISD police and the Uvalde Police Department are being investigated for their response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School. The shooting in Tulsa occurred Wednesday afternoon when a gunman used an assault-style rifle to kill four people on the second floor of a medical office on the St. Francis Hospital campus, where an orthopedic clinic is located. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was only eight days after the shooting in Uvalde. Susan Walsh/AP WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden will speak Thursday night on the recent spate of mass shootings and his plans to press Congress to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day," the White House announced. The 7:30 p.m. speech follows a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, last week, as well as one Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, sounded off on Thursday about what Democrats have been saying about his political party as lawmakers discuss new gun legislation in the wake of several mass shootings, including the Uvalde tragedy in his home state. Democrats in Congress, bolstered by President Joe Biden, are pushing through a series of gun reform bills after massacres in Buffalo on May 14, where a teen gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store, and in Uvalde, where another teenager killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school. Both were 18 and purchased their weapons legally. During the hearing, Gohmert went on a tirade against Democrats. "I don't think that it's very effective for the children to have people on the other side of the aisle come in and accuse Republicans of being complicit in murder and that we put our right to kill over others' rights to live," Gohmert said. "To infer by rhetorical supposed questions, 'Who are you here for? You must be here for the gunman' is an outrage. How dare you? You think we don't have hearts?" On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee debated a measure to raise the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic gun from 18 to 21, called the Protecting Our Kids Act. The series of bills also addresses straw purchases, regulates untraceable firearms and bans high-capacity magazines. It would also institute a buy-back grant. "We care about people," Gohmert said. "We care about their lives and the lives that have been so trivialized. We care deeply. How dare you, you arrogant people, attributing murder to those of us who want to do things to stop it? We've seen what your ideas do. They create more murder." Watch the congressman's full remarks here: In Gohmert's speech, he repeated the right-wing claim that cities with Democratic majorities often have both more restrictive gun policies and higher murder rates, listing off a slew of placesincluding Philadelphia. That's when Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat who represents communities near Philadelphia, chimed in. "The commonwealth's Republican legislature for decades has blocked city leadership from passing the types of common-sense gun safety laws we are considering today," Scanlon said. "Like most Americans, I am sickened and sick to death of the gun carnage we have experienced in this country every single day. I will not sit idly by watching preventable tragedies play out over and over again, day after day, year after year. Whether the children and teachers slaughtered in Texas last week, the community members murdered in Tulsa last night or Buffalo the week before, or the more than dozen people gunned down in Philadelphia over the Memorial Day weekend." Scanlon added that she believed the measure being considered would help keep guns off the streets. "In cities and towns across the country, we are mourning too many people whose lives have been cut short, including children whose lives have barely begun," Scanlon said. "All it takes is political courage, a willingness to put Americans' lives above gun-maker profits." Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would vote on the measure next week, according to the Associated Press. Pelosi also said she would schedule a hearing for an all-out ban of military-style semiautomatic rifles, among other measures like introducing legislation to create an AMBER Alert-style notice for mass shootings. Meanwhile in the Senate, some lawmakers are working to find a bipartisan solution. WFO LUBBOCK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Lubbock Texas has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Western Hall County in the Panhandle of Texas... Southeastern Briscoe County in the Panhandle of Texas... * Until 900 PM CDT. * At 815 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Silverton, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Silverton, Caprock Canyon State Park and Quitaque. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Northeastern Ector County in western Texas... Southeastern Andrews County in western Texas... Northwestern Midland County in western Texas... Southwestern Martin County in western Texas... * Until 830 PM CDT. * At 756 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Midland, moving southeast at 15 mph. At 7:50 PM Midland International Airport recorded a wind gust of 61 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Midland, Midland International Air and Space Port, Warfield, Cotton Flat, Midland Airpark and Skywest Airport. This includes Interstate 20 between mile markers 126 and 150. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Wilbarger and north central Baylor Counties through 830 PM CDT... At 800 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 6 miles southwest of Grayback, moving southeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts of 40 mph and penny size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Grayback and northeastern Lake Kemp. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. LAT...LON 3377 9917 3389 9941 3400 9922 3394 9895 3393 9895 TIME...MOT...LOC 0100Z 295DEG 12KT 3391 9923 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.75 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Baylor County through 830 PM CDT... At 800 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 8 miles west of Lake Kemp, moving southeast at 15 mph. Lake Kemp. LAT...LON 3375 9948 3382 9933 3373 9909 3362 9934 TIME...MOT...LOC 0100Z 295DEG 12KT 3373 9936 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Just in time for summer, pop duo the Lockyer Boys are back with a brand new single and video 'LATKD' out today on all digital streaming platforms. Watch video here. China, Vanuatu reach 5-point consensus on bilateral ties, int'l cooperation Xinhua) 09:23, June 02, 2022 Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman (3rd R) and his key cabinet members meet with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (4th L) in Port Vila, Vanuatu, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua) PORT VILA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China and Vanuatu reached a five-point consensus on bolstering bilateral ties and cooperation on international and regional affairs Wednesday after Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman and his key cabinet members met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Wang said that his meeting with the Vanuatu side highlights the great importance the Pacific island country attaches to its relations with China and the high level of their cooperation. China and Vanuatu have trusted and supported each other for 40 years since they established diplomatic relations, and they have become a model for developing countries for their mutual respect, unity and consultation, he said. He noted that China is willing to work with Vanuatu to sum up their successful experience and plan for their relations for the next 40 years, so as to constantly inject new impetus to a China-Vanuatu community with a shared future. Loughman said Wang's visit to Vanuatu, which he called a historic one, signaled China's commitment to advancing China-Vanuatu relations. Vanuatu and China have given mutual trust and firm support to each other over the past 40 years since they established diplomatic ties, Loughman said. He thanked China for its huge, long-standing assistance to Vanuatu in securing stability and sustainable development, which proved China as a true friend of Vanuatu. Loughman pledged to uphold the one-China principle as a political bedrock, take the joint building of Belt and Road as a guidance for their cooperation, and lift their comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level. The two sides had in-depth exchanges on advancing bilateral ties and boosting cooperation on international and regional affairs, and reached a broad consensus. Firstly, both countries agreed to strengthen political mutual trust, carry forward the tradition of mutual respect and treating each other as equals, and continue to staunchly support each other in safeguarding their core interests and national dignity. Secondly, both sides agreed to uphold win-win cooperation with mutual benefits. They will synergize their development strategies, tap into cooperation potential, jointly advance high-quality construction of the Belt and Road, make full use of the development opportunities offered by China, and expand the export of Vanuatu's quality goods to China. The two sides will develop a blue economy partnership, further explore cooperation highlights including new energy and digital economy, while furthering cooperation in traditional fields such as infrastructure. China will help Vanuatu strengthen its capacity for self-development and enhance its international competitiveness. Thirdly, they agreed to enhance the friendship between the two peoples. Both sides will boost people-to-people exchanges, and consolidate the social and public foundation of bilateral relations. Wang said China appreciates Vanuatu for including the Chinese language teaching in its national education system and stands ready to continue supporting the Chinese language teaching in Vanuatu by dispatching Chinese teachers and conducting two-way language and cultural exchanges, among others, to foster more friendly messengers of the two countries. China will continue to join hands with Vanuatu in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and dispatch more medical teams to help the island country protect the health of its people. Fourthly, both sides agreed to deepen strategic coordination. The two sides pledged to uphold true multilateralism, forge unity in the fight against the pandemic and push forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Loughman spoke highly of the China-proposed Global Development Initiative and stands ready to be part in it. Wang welcomed Vanuatu's support for China's Global Security Initiative, its practice of China's vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and its contribution to world peace. Fifthly, both sides agreed to boost regional cooperation, calling for employing bilateral cooperation and the mechanism of China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting as twin engines for coordinated efforts to accelerate common development. Wang introduced China's Position Paper on Mutual Respect and Common Development with Pacific Island Countries that was released on Monday, saying the document demonstrates China's willingness to deepen political mutual trust, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and safeguard the common interests with the island countries while providing both overall plan and specific measures for the next-stage cooperation. China's cooperation with Pacific island countries is aboveboard, open and transparent, Wang noted, adding that China will stay in unity and continue the mutual help with the island countries for moving forward together. Loughman said his country speaks highly of the important role of the mechanism of China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting, feels encouraged by the vision and proposals in China's position paper, and appreciates China's pledge to continue building six new platforms of cooperation. Loughman believes that cooperation with China will surely help Pacific island countries better seize development opportunities and further upgrade the cooperation between Pacific island countries and China. After the meeting, the two sides witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents, including economy, technology, health and blue economy. Wang is on a visit to Vanuatu as part of his tour to the Pacific island countries, which will also take him to Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste. Before arriving in Port Vila, he visited the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) ANALYSIS: The Canadian government is set to make a major change to Express Entry that would allow IRCC to invite anyone it wants. Here's a look at the pros and cons. Canada wants to change Express Entry: A look at the pros and cons ANALYSIS: The Canadian government is set to make a major change to Express Entry that would allow IRCC to invite anyone it wants. Here's a look at the pros and cons. Canada wants to change Express Entry: A look at the pros and cons ANALYSIS: The Canadian government is set to make a major change to Express Entry that would allow IRCC to invite anyone it wants. Here's a look at the pros and cons. Canada wants to change Express Entry: A look at the pros and cons ANALYSIS: The Canadian government is set to make a major change to Express Entry that would allow IRCC to invite anyone it wants. Here's a look at the pros and cons. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A The Canadian government is set to make the biggest reform to Express Entry since it introduced the application management system in January 2015. Bill C-19 is currently being evaluated by Canadas Parliament and based on precedent, should become law sometime in June before Parliament recesses for the summer. It contains a provision that would allow Canadas Immigration Minister to create Express Entry groups and then issue Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to these groups. As explained by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the minister would be able to form groups based on occupations in demand, and to address other policy goals, such as welcoming more francophone immigrants. Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration This proposal would give IRCC the ability to depart significantly from the current method it uses to issue ITAs for permanent residence. Since the Express Entry application management system was launched, IRCC has issued ITAs based on Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, and Express Entry program of eligibility. Prior to the pandemic, IRCC generally prioritized ITAs to candidates with the highest CRS score. The rationale being, the CRS is an objective way to forecast an Express Entry candidates likelihood of economically establishing in Canada. That is, candidates with higher CRS scores have a better chance of success in the Canadian labour market. IRCC has temporarily departed from this approach, but will be returning to it in early July when it resumes all-program Express Entry draws. For much of the pandemic, IRCC has been issuing program-specific ITAs. Until September 2021, it invited Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates as it sought to transition as many in-Canada candidates to permanent residence to achieve its goal of landing over 400,000 immigrants last year. It has also been inviting Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates to help the provinces and territories address their labour force needs. While these two methods of issuing ITAs are imperfect, they are still relatively objective and give candidates some form of certainty. Once all-program draws resume in early July, candidates will once again know that their best shot of getting an ITA is to maximize their CRS score. Lack of certainty is one of the major drawbacks of the proposal to allow ITAs to be issued based on groups. Moving forward, IRCC will have significant discretion to issue ITAs based on any criteria the department chooses. This runs the risk of ITAs being issued on non-objective criteria, such as public sentiment. For instance, IRCC may feel pressure from the public or special interest groups to issue ITAs to candidates in a given sector, even if objective economic data does not indicate the sector has labour shortages. Although this is an extreme example, it is meant to highlight a potential limitation of giving IRCC such wide autonomy when it comes to ITAs. The lack of certainty is extremely problematic from a candidates perspective. In theory, having a very high CRS score may no longer result in an ITA. For instance, a candidate with a CRS 480, which was more than enough to guarantee an ITA prior to the pandemic, may no longer receive an ITA, at the expense of a candidate with a CRS 200 who happens to fall under an occupation in-demand. This would occur in the absence of evidence suggesting that it is wise for the Canadian government to select lower scoring candidates ahead of higher scoring ones. When it launched Express Entry, IRCC argued that the CRS was shaped by many decades of Statistics Canada research outlining which human capital criteria best predicted the economic outcomes of immigrants. This explains why candidates get more CRS points for the likes of being young, and having high levels of education, language skills, and having professional work experience. Moving forward, IRCC will be able to issue ITAs in the absence of evidence justifying why certain groupings are more worthy of ITAs than others. Another concern is the lack of public consultations in the lead up to these reforms being proposed. The Express Entry reforms have been included in Bill C-19, which is a collection of various reforms across a spectrum of policy areas that are being proposed together as a means of allowing the ruling federal government to make legislative changes quickly. While there is a time and place to make legal changes quickly, such as during crisis periods like with what we dealt with at the beginning of the pandemic, it is difficult to understand why the federal government feels the rush to implement such important changes to Express Entry with little time for stakeholder consultations, oversight, and debate. The current debate in Parliament appears to be a formality since the ruling Liberal Party of Canada have the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP). This means we are the verge of the biggest change to Express Entry ever without the opportunity for stakeholders to highlight potential problems with the change. IRCC is arguing that if the change becomes law, it will consult with stakeholders before it establishes Express Entry groupings. However, given the lack of consultations leading up to this proposal, why should we feel confident IRCC will consult if the proposal goes into law? On the other hand, there are also potential benefits to be had from the proposal. There are particular areas of the economy that are being hit hard by Canadas over one million job vacancies. Providing IRCC with the tools to issue ITAs to help fill job vacancies in such areas will be beneficial to the economy and to Canadians. For instance, Canada is grappling with a shortage of health care workers due to its aging population and the pandemic, and so prioritizing health care workers in the Express Entry pool will be helpful. In addition, it will be beneficial for IRCC to issue ITAs based on important policy goals, such as strengthening francophone immigration across Canada. As a country with two official languages, English and French, it is crucial the federal government continues its efforts to welcome more francophone immigrants. Looking ahead, the proposal will likely soon go into law but it is unknown when IRCC would begin to employ its newfound authority. We will need to wait to hear more from the department in this regard. In the meantime, we can only hope that IRCC will be as transparent as possible before it establishes Express Entry groups and consults widely before issuing ITAs. There are many expert stakeholders who are available to provide IRCC with objective insights on how to best form Express Entry groups to address Canadas various labour market needs. Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. At Cleveland Clinic, CIO Matthew Kull is seeking to marry two vastly different disciplines: medicine and marketing. Hes succeeding with the help of a new industry cloud that takes care of essential tasks for healthcare providers while enabling Cleveland Clinic to look at patients through a marketing lens. Patients have healthcare records, but they are also customers, asserts Kull. Considering patients as consumers might seem jarring but doing so paid off during the COVID-19 pandemic when Cleveland Clinic needed to reach out to patients who were skipping cancer screenings, like colonoscopies and mammograms, because they were avoiding hospitals. The famed institution used the CRM capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics, which is part of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare to interact with patients and schedule appointments, Kull explains. Matthew Kull Cleveland Clinic Across a broad swath of industries, many organizations are discovering industry clouds that take care of table-stakes needs, freeing them up to innovate in their own ways. Its an accelerator, with pre-defined data models and workflow, so your scarce resources dont have to re-create capabilities that are common to everyone in your industry, and you can focus your energies on things that will differentiate your brand, says Kate Leggett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. The value [of industry clouds] is not in the competitive aspect. Their role is to solve non-competitive issues. Lots of industry clouds are in regulated areas like healthcare or finance in which companies all have to deal with the same things, says Nadia Ballard, research manager for industry cloud and SaaS at IDC. Ballard has compiled a directory of some 300 industry-cloud players but is challenged to define the size of the industry-cloud universe. Its so young, its hard to size the market correctly. But, she adds, We know its growing super-fast. In a new market with vast potential, cloud service providers are jumping in with both feet. The hyperscalers Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Amazon Web Services (AWS) all offer clouds for such industries as financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail, often with partners that add capabilities geared to specific industries. Smaller players such as IBM and Salesforce.com are making their presence felt as well. In its second quarter 2022 earnings call, Salesforce.com reported a 58% annual jump in its industry cloud business. Industry clouds deliver value to diverse organizations At robotics firm Boston Dynamics, CIO Chad Wright chose the Salesforce-based Rootstock manufacturing industry cloud. Having previously outsourced manufacturing operations of its zoomorphic robots, the company wanted to bring production of the devices back in-house. Chad Wright Boston Dynamics Enter Rootstock. Because Boston Dynamics was already using Salesforce for customer support, adding Rootstocks manufacturing cloud to the Salesforce cloud was a logical path to follow, says Wright. It made sense to expand the Salesforce model, so we brought in Rootstock. It was a no-brainer, he says. Also involved in Boston Dynamics manufacturing ecosystem is Nubik, a Rootstock integrator. The new approach is paying off for the robotics maker, which has cut its order-to-revenue time by 75%, according to Wright. In the field of clinical research, Simbec-Orion is a smaller player that needed to up its game to compete with bigger rivals. Providing clinical trial management services for firms developing pharmaceuticals to treat rare diseases and cancer, Simbec-Orion was mired in reams of paper forms. We needed to leapfrog to become industry-leading, says CIO Jim Kendall. Were a relatively small organization, but we were thinking big. We thought about bold process change and moving quickly with a partner that could help us with that change process, Kendall says. Those goals led Simbec-Orion to Veeva, an industry cloud provider whose Clinical Trial Management System handles the ins and outs of drug research and development. Implementing Veeva enabled Simbec-Orion to get rid of paper. We went from 100% manual to digital trial master files in 12 weeks, says Kendall. Key Bank, a Cleveland Ohio-based regional bank that serves 15 states, is using the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to handle 80% of its wealth management business. Brenda Kirk Key Bank It allows us to spend our time and energy on the remaining 20% to add value, says Brenda Kirk, EVP and CIO for commercial bank and enterprise payments at Key Bank. The Salesforce Financial Services Cloud provides a 360-degree view of bank customers, including all customers in a household, based on characteristics such as lending history, account status, and customer service interactions. The cloud also serves up analytic insights to guide banking staff in subsequent customer conversations. The teams no longer spend time to find that information. They can be proactive, says Kirk. By taking care of core functions, the industry cloud permits the banks wealth management professionals to spend 27% less time on administrative tasks, says Kirk. Co-innovation: A two-way street of improvement One trait of industry clouds is the feedback loop for co-innovation between industry cloud users and providers. By garnering input from industry players, platform providers can add features for the benefit of all customers, even competitors of the companies that suggested the improvements. For example, Cleveland Clinics Kull says he has given Microsoft feedback about how data should be structured so that patients medical records can be married to their consumer activity, the better to schedule ongoing interactions and visits. You want to make that frictionless, he says. In addition, Cleveland Clinic is contributing to Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare innovations that will improve the advance identification of degenerative diseases and cardiac illness, which Microsoft will be able to make available to other healthcare organizations. Other industry cloud users are also actively providing input. Boston Dynamics is giving back by establishing a Rootstock user group to influence Rootstock on features the robotics company would like to see added to the platform. Meanwhile, at Simbec-Orion, the presence of four Veeva staffers on-site facilitates ongoing information exchange, according to Kimball. We give Veeva a huge amount of feedback, he says. In one case, Veeva delayed the rollout of a classroom-based training feature so it could incorporate Simbec-Orions recommendations, the CIO says. Wheres the edge? If industry cloud customers all use the same features, including those they suggest themselves, where will they gain a competitive edge? Low-code/no-code development environments provided by many of the industry clouds are enabling citizen developers such as business analysts to innovate their own enhancements, notes Forresters Leggett. Key Bank is benefiting from the Salesforce Financial Services Clouds low-code environment to ease the process of linking data to workflows, according to Kirk. In addition to using Microsoft Cloud for Healthcares low-code/no-code environment, Cleveland Clinic is integrating its systems with a common data model based on the Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard, which defines how healthcare data can be exchanged between different computer systems. We wanted to align with cloud partners using the FHIR common data model across messaging, video, Microsoft Teams, and CRM to create a master data reference across the enterprise, says Kull. Doing so gives clinicians a complete picture of whats impacting patients lives and helps them understand how certain therapies affect diverse patient populations. And the cloud platform enables staff in Cleveland Clinics worldwide locations to access the same information. It all works globally, says Kull. For a smaller firm like Simbec-Orion, simply having a larger partner like Veeva (now a $2 billion company) is an edge. Its hugely important to have Veeva. We tell customers how were going to manage their study with Veeva, says Kendall. Perhaps even more significant, Simbec-Orion gains the ability to contend in a market of competitors that can be six times their size. Were able to punch above our weight against larger companies, Kendall says. Lessons learned As industry clouds gain maturity, implementers are learning how to get the most out of the platforms and what to watch out for. You should rethink what youre doing if you make a move like this thats digital transformation. Lift-and-shift approaches to cloud are probably done in error. Old processes on new technology make for very expensive old processes, advises Kull. Wright of Boston Dynamics takes a similar tack, recommending a thorough business process analysis before signing up. This stage is often overlooked because it takes time, says Wright. Understanding what your current state is, is time very well spent. Sometimes industry cloud users can be tempted to quickly add their own innovations to a platform, but that can be a mistake, says Kirk of Key Bank, because those innovations might soon be included in the platform itself. Make sure youre taking advantage of the products and services that are native to the platform and use extraordinary caution about where you customize, she advises. Forresters Leggett agrees. You might develop some custom functionality, only to have the industry cloud provider add it as a feature six months later. Leggett also counsels caveat emptor for industry cloud customers. Some clouds are just a collection of horizontal bits that have been packaged up and marketed without a lot of core functionality. Some dont have good AI models and only have generic workflows, says the analyst. And as with any cloud service, the total cost of ownership (TCO) can get out of control unless the customer is careful to use only the modules that match their needs, the analyst advises. Network effect fuels growth As customers find their way through industry clouds, the market is growing rapidly, which will fuel further growth as more companies latch onto the platforms, according to IDCs Ballard. A successful industry cloud generates a gravitational force. More and more suppliers need to be on the same industry cloud. That in turn has a network effect. If your industry peers are on the platform, she says, You should be too. Englands University of Cambridge was recognized at the ISC 2022 event in Hamburg, Germany for its Dell-based Wilkes-3 supercomputer, rated 8 in the GREEN500 and 304 in the TOP500, and Cumulus system, rated 94 in the GREEN500 and 316 in the TOP500. Wilkes-3 and the Cumulus system run in an open stack, cloud-native interface which increases flexibility to allow different stakeholders to have customized experiences within that environment. Whats impressive is how the Wilkes-3 performs both quickly and efficiently, reducing energy use while supporting simulations, AI, and data analytics for research across the university and the UK. When youre looking to drive energy consumption down in HPC, you really look towards GPU computing, said Dr. Paul Calleja, director of Research Computing Services at the University of Cambridge, in a recent Inside HPCinterview. In order to get that energy consumption right down, we actually customized the platform by turning down the clock speed of that GPU weve found a reduction in clock speed from 1355 megahertz, which is the default, down to 1095 reduces the LINPACK performance by just 10 or 11 percent, but you save around 35 to 40 percent power. Recent notable research from the University of Cambridge, enabled by energy efficient HPC, includes a study on transformational machine learning (TML) and another on a robotic approach to reproducing research results. Teaching Machines to Learn How to Learn Using HPC from the University of Cambridge, researchers are creating a new method of machine learning whereby the computer learns how to learnwhich could advance studies in drug development and disease treatment. A team from the UK, Sweden, India, and the Netherlands developed the approach, known as transformational machine learning (TML). The work, led by Professor Ross King from the University of Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, teaches computers to learn more like how humans doby building on whats been learned in the past. Its sort of like teaching a child to identify different animals: this is a rabbit, this is a donkey and so on, King said, in a published interview. If you teach a machine learning algorithm what a rabbit looks like, it will be able to tell whether an animal is or isnt a rabbit. This is the way that most machine learning worksit deals with problems one at a time. Whereas most machine learning starts from scratch, using labelled examples to formulate general rules, TML can use similarity to make an identification. King and the team of researchers experimented with thousands of problems from across science and engineering. To ensure the generality and robustness of the evaluation, [the University of Cambridge researchers] utilized thousands of ML problems from three scientific domains: drug design, predicting gene expression, and ML algorithm selection, according to an article in Drug Target Review. The team found TML to significantly improve the predictive performance of all ML methods in all the domains, and TML features to generally outperform intrinsic features. The effectiveness of TML could significantly advance drug discovery. According to the research, an example of ML would be to search for drug molecules of a particular shape, but TML can use the connection of the drugs to other drug discovery problems. I was surprised how well it worksbetter than anything else we know for drug design, said King. Can a Robot Scientist Reproduce Research Results? In support of HPC, scientists note that machines are capable of greater precision than humans. So, a team led by the University of Cambridge is using automated text analysis and a robot scientist named Eve to address a problem in modern sciencethe lack of reproducibility in research results. Working with research papers on breast cancer cell biology, the study found less than one-third to be reproducible. The results, reported in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, demonstrate that it is possible to use robotics and artificial intelligence to help address the reproducibility crisis. Good science relies on results being reproducible: otherwise, the results are essentially meaningless, said King in a recent interview. This is particularly critical in biomedicine: if Im a patient and I read about a promising new potential treatment, but the results arent reproducible, how am I supposed to know what to believe? The result could be people losing trust in science. King developed the robot scientist Eve, an AI-based system capable of conducting scientific experiments. The study used computers to assess scientific papers and Eve to reproduce the experiments. The impact of this work thus far is to prove the effectiveness of automated and semi-automated techniques for addressing the reproducibility crisis. In fact, King sees machines playing a key role in a complete overhaul in the way that a lot of science is done. Green HPC Leads the Way Green is a core value at Cambridge University, celebrating its systems, all based on Dell PowerEdge servers, on the GREE500 list. Green is also a core value at Dell Technologies, which recognizing the responsibility to protect and enrich the planet together with customers, suppliers, and communities. About the system: The Wilkes-3 leverages Dell PowerEdge servers, NVIDIA A100 80GB, InfiniBand HDR200 dual rail, with 26,880 cores, 2.29 Rmax [PFlop/s], 74 Power (kW), and an energy efficiency of 30.797 [GFlops/watts]. *** Intel Technologies Move Analytics Forward Data analytics is the key to unlocking the most value you can extract from data across your organization. To create a productive, cost-effective analytics strategy that gets results, you need high performance hardware thats optimized to work with the software you use. Modern data analytics spans a range of technologies, from dedicated analytics platforms and databases to deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Just starting out with analytics? Ready to evolve your analytics strategy or improve your data quality? 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Primeste notificari pe email Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court issued an order blocking a Texas law that would prevent large social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from removing content, except in extreme cases. (Such exceptions include content involving the sexual exploitation of children, criminal activity, or threats of violence.) The order was triggered by an emergency application from NetChoice, a coalition of online service companies, and the Computer & Communications Industry Associationa group whose members include Google, Facebook, and Twitterwhich together argued that the law is an unprecedented assault on the editorial discretion of private websites and also a breach of the platforms First Amendment rights. Even as it issued the order, however, the Supreme Court noted that the case is still before an appeals court in Texas, and that the issues at the center of the case are so critical that they will likely need to be considered at length by the nations highest court itself. This application concerns issues of great importance that will plainly merit this Courts review, the order, which is brief, states. In a dissenting opinion issued as part of the ruling, Justice Alito said social media platforms have transformed the way people communicate with each other, but that it is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should applyrationale that, to some, would seem to open the door to a challenge to the platforms First Amendment rights. Last week, meanwhile, an appeals court in Florida blocked most of the provisions in a similar state law that would have prevented the platforms from removing accounts belonging to politicians. In its decision, the court stated that it is substantially likely that social-media companieseven the biggest onesare private actors whose rights the First Amendment protects [and] that their so-called content-moderation decisions constitute protected exercises of editorial judgment. Specifically, the court said that prohibiting companies from removing content was not allowed, but that other provisions in the lawrequiring the platforms to provide clear standards for content, for instance, and allowing users to access their datalikely dont violate the First Amendment and therefore can be implemented. One impetus for both the Florida and the Texas laws is a belief that the platforms censor conservative voices more than they do other kinds of content. Twitters and Facebooks banning of Donald Trump is often held up as a prime example, but the belief that the platforms censor right-wing sources was a popular trope for years before the Trump ban took effect. (Researchers say they have found no evidence to support these claims.) In comments made online about the Florida law, Ron DeSantis, the states governor, said he passed it because Big Tech bureaucrats are not the arbiters of truth, adding, Unaccountable oligarchs will no longer have the power to silence Floridians for challenging corporate media narratives or dissenting from the Silicon Valley orthodoxy. The Texas law defines the large social platforms as common carriers, a phrase typically used to describe telephone companies, which by law arent allowed to interfere with the content they carry on their networks. In its emergency application to the Supreme Court, NetChoice and the CCIA argued that the law would compel platforms to disseminate all sorts of objectionable viewpointssuch as Russias propaganda claiming that its invasion of Ukraine is justified, isis propaganda claiming that extremism is warranted, [and] neo-Nazi or KKK screeds denying or supporting the Holocaust. In his response to the Supreme Court application, however, Ken Paxtonthe attorney general of Texascontinued the common carrier argument, calling the platforms the 21st-century descendants of telegraph and telephone companies. Based on previous comments made by Justice Clarence Thomas, the common carrier argument might find some support in the court. In a decision last year, Thomas cited a 1914 Supreme Court ruling that said making a private company a common carrier may be justified when a business, by circumstances and its naturerise[s] from private to be of public concern, and that there is a fair argument that some digital platforms are sufficiently akin to common carriers or places of accommodation to be regulated in this manner. In the same decision, Thomas said that the concentrated control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties was unprecedented, and that the court will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure. Sign up for CJR 's daily email The First Amendment isnt the only legal protection shielding platforms from the Florida and Texas laws. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act also protects them from liability for the content they host, and specifically for the moderation decisions they make. The law has been criticized on both sides of the political aisle: Republican critics argue that Section 230 allows the platforms to censor right-wing voices, and Democrats argue that it enables the platforms to host disinformation. Justice Thomas has views on this as well: in a decision in 2020, he said that, by adopting the too-common practice of reading extra immunity into statutes where it does not belong, courts have [granted] sweeping protection to Internet platformssomething Thomas suggested needs correcting. The platforms could be in for a fight on several fronts, it seems, and sooner rather than later. Heres more on the platforms and speech: Up for grabs : The legislative and judicial turmoil over the platforms and their rights and responsibilities with respect to speech suggest that the First Amendment is to some degree up for grabs, Genevieve Lakier, a University of Chicago law professor and senior visiting research scholar at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told Will Oremus of the Washington Post . These old principles are being pushed and pulled and reimagined in light of changing technological conditions and changing political alignments. Fixing 230 : Last year, I used CJRs Galley discussion platform to host a series of interviews about Section 230 and some of the proposed legislation, from both Republicans and Democrats, aimed at rewriting or even dismantling it. Senator Amy Klobuchar proposed a bill that would carve out an exception for medical misinformation during a health crisis, and Republicans proposed a series of bills aimed at fixing Section 230 , either by preventing platforms from removing certain kinds of content (mostly conservative speech) or by forcing them to remove other kinds, such as cyberbullying and doxing. Dismissed : On May 6, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit launched against Twitter and former CEO Jack Dorsey last year by Donald Trump, the American Conservative Union, and five other individuals, on behalf of themselves and an alleged class of Twitter users who have been de-platformed and censored by the company. Among other things, the plaintiffs asked that Section 230 be declared unconstitutional. Elon Musk, who has said he wants to acquire Twitter, has claimed that he will reinstate Trumps account if his acquisition is successful . Protection : After a gunman killed ten people in a mass shooting in Buffalo earlier this month, Letitia James, New Yorks attorney general, announced that her office was opening an investigation into the social media platforms the shooter used to discuss and amplify his intentions and acts to carry out this attack, including Discord, Twitch, 8chan, and 4chan. New Jersey said it was also looking into the social platforms and their content moderation practices, and whether they broke the states consumer protection laws. Other notable stories: Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on Wednesday that she is stepping down from her position after fourteen years as second in command to Mark Zuckerberg, Metas cofounder and CEO. Sandberg said that she will continue to be a member of the companys board of directors, but that it was time for her to write the next chapter of my life, the New York Times reported. A group of Afghan journalists who worked with members of the UK media say they faced beatings and death threats, and have accused the government of going back on an agreement to bring them to Britain, The Guardian reported . Having fought in vain for clearance to come to the UK since the return of Taliban rule last summer, the eight journalists are now taking legal action against the government, The Guardian wrote. They have reportedly applied for a judicial review, after waiting months for their relocation applications to be processed. On Wednesday, the union that covers about 350 workers at Vox Mediapublisher of websites including Recode, Eater, and SB Nationsaid its members have signed a pledge to go on strike if they dont have a new contract by midnight on June 13, when the old contract expires, the New York Times reported. Union members said the company had not yet agreed to its proposals. A strike pledge means the members are ready to strike if the union calls for one if a deal cant be reached, the Times wrote. The publishers of several independent Canadian news outlets have published an open letter criticizing a proposed law that would force platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers for their content. When the federal government introduced the bill, it said it wanted to sustain local journalism, support innovation in news and ensure diversity in the news industry, the publishers wrote. Bill C-18, the Online News Act currently before Parliament, guarantees none of these things. The publishers blamed secret, backroom deals between the platforms and certain established media outlets. The body that regulates the US court system has a plan to make searches of the federal pacer (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system free, Reuters reported . A newly released report on the Judicial Conference of the United States closed-door March 15 meeting showed that the policymaking body greenlighted making pacer searches free for non-commercial users in any future overhauls of the system, the wire service wrote. Users are currently charged $0.10 per page to search for cases through pacer . A BBC article claiming that some lesbians felt pressured into sex by trans women did not meet the broadcasters standards on accuracy, the corporation has concluded, according to a report in The Guardian . The article was published in October 2021 and became a lightning rod for attitudes towards trans people at the BBC, The Guardian wrote. The broadcaster faced widespread accusations of transphobia and protests outside its offices, while also receiving backing from some gender-critical feminists. Celebrity chef Jose Andres has launched a Substack newsletter called Longer Tables as part of an expansion of his media efforts, a representative said in a news release. The weekly newsletter will include deep dives into food history and the politics of nutrition, profiles of the chefs growing community of food fighters, as well as recipes and video postcards. Andres also plans to launch a podcast, the release said, and for the first six months, all subscription revenue will be donated to World Central Kitchen. John Prideaux, director of podcasts for The Economist , told Press Gazette the number of monthly listeners to the magazines podcasts is more than twice the outlets print subscriber base, and that the podcasts are paying for themselves. The Economist is now being listened to by more than three million people a month. That compares against 1.2 million print subscriberswhile its digital circulation in the second half of 2021 was 995,228, Press Gazette wrote. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The death toll in a catastrophic collapse of a tower in southwestern Iran rose to 37 on Wednesday, officials said, as emergency workers pulled another body from the rubble over a week after the disaster that has prompted an outpouring of outrage and grief in the country. Rescuers continued sifting through the ruins of the Metropol Building in Abadan, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. The governor of the Khuzestan province, Sadegh Khalilian, told state TV that he expects rescuers to find more bodies, based on the number of families still waiting in limbo for word from their loved ones. Its unclear how many people remain unaccounted for. The structural building failure in the oil-rich but impoverished Khuzestan province has focused public attention on shoddy construction practices and prompted allegations of government corruption and negligence. Officials plan to demolish the half of the Metropol Building that has remained standing, Khalilian added, and already have evacuated and rehoused nearby residents. He said he expects the search effort to finish by late Thursday. Footage widely circulating online in recent days has shown angry crowds gathering in mourning and protest at the collapse site, chanting slogans against top officials. Reporting on events in Abadan remains extremely difficult as authorities have disrupted internet access, according to experts, restricting peoples ability to share videos and information. Foreign-based Farsi-language television channels have described tear gas and other shots being fired as security forces dispersed demonstrations. The number of casualties and arrests remains unclear. The disaster has provoked sympathy across the country, with scores of Iranians still tweeting the Farsi-language hashtag (hash)Abadan is not alone 10 days after the collapse. Meanwhile tensions continue to simmer in the wider Middle East after Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard last week seized two Greek oil tankers at sea. Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Wednesday confirmed that one of the two Greek oil tankers seized by Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard remains off the coast of the port city of Bandar Abbas. The Planet Labs PBC images from Tuesday showed the Prudent Warrior between Bandar Abbas and Irans Qeshm Island near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all the worlds oil traded passes. The location of the vessel also matched an earlier position offered by a satellite tracker briefly switched on by the ships crew. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. MEXICO CITY (AP) Hurricane Agatha left at least 11 people dead and 33 missing in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, where it set off flooding and landslides, Gov. Alejandro Murat said Wednesday. More than 40,000 people in the state have been affected, primarily along the coast and in the mountains just beyond, Murat said. Agatha was the strongest hurricane since records have been kept to come ashore in May in the eastern Pacific. It made landfall Monday afternoon on a sparsely populated stretch of small beach towns and fishing villages as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (170 kph), but it quickly lost power moving inland over the mountainous interior. Even as Oaxaca continued to search for the missing and clean up downed trees and flooded homes, Mexican officials were watching another large area of thunderstorms along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula that forecasters said could become a tropical storm later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center gave the system a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next 48 hours. As it took shape, it dumped heavy rain on southern Mexico and Belize. On Thursday, forecasters said the remnants of Agatha will likely become a tropical depression or tropical storm as it moves slowly northeastward over the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Residents in Florida and Cuba were advised to keep an eye on the storms path. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval was headed to Oaxaca to oversee recovery operations. Jerry Harwood couldnt collect workers compensation benefits after he was paralyzed when he was struck by a car while trying to cross US Route 66 after leaving his workplace. But a split decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Wednesday gives him a chance to gain compensation for his injury by suing his employer. In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled that the same 2013 reform law that made Harwood ineligible for workers compensation had opened a door that allowed him to pursue a lawsuit. This is the policy decision expressly chosen by the Legislature when it eliminated parking lot, and other similar, injuries from coming within the course and scope of employment,' the majority opinion, written by Justice Yvonne Kauger says. Harwoods attorney, John L. Harlan, said he warned state workers compensation commissioners when they denied his clients claim. I told them that you dont realize what youre doing, he said. You are setting the employer up for tort liability. Harwood was struck by a car driven by Patrick Thom McLauglan while crossing the four lanes of Route 66 in Sapulpa after finishing his shift at the Ardagh Group glass container factory at about 11:30 p.m. on July 16, 2016.Typically, the crosswalk that employees use to reach their designated parking lot across the highway is illuminated by streetlights and protected by a traffic signal, but those were not functioning on the night of the accident because of a power outage. Harwood filed a workers compensation claim, but the Workers Compensation Commission denied it because he had already clocked out before the accident. The statute adopted in 2013, part of a large package of reforms designed to save costs, excluded from the course of employment any injuries occurring in a parking lot or other common area adjacent to an employers place of business before or after an employees work shift. The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the decision. So Harwood filed a lawsuit against Ardagh and McLaughlan in Creek County District Court. The court granted the employers motion to dismiss it as a defendant, finding that Harwood had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed that decision, but the Supreme Court agreed to review the case this January. Harlan argued that Ardagh had assumed responsibility for the safety of the crosswalk. He said the company had sent an email to all employees directing them to use the crosswalk to enter their workplace. The company had built railings along a walkway that led employees from the fenced parking lot to the crosswalk, which was protected by a traffic signal. Asdagh had built strobe lights to illuminate the crosswalk when the traffic signal wasnt functioning. The Supreme Court majority cited decisions dating back to 1965 that held if an organization assumes responsibility for ensuring safety the organization also assumes liability to exercise reasonable care. The court said the decision to dismiss Harwoods lawsuit was premature, but offered no prediction on whether he will prevail. The courthouse doors are open to the employee, the majority opinion says. Whether or not the actions of the employer were the proximate cause of the injury to the appellant is one for the jury to decide. Chief Justice Richard Darby and Justices James E. Edmondson, Doug Combs and Noma Gurich concurred with the decision. Justices Kane, Winchester, Rowe and Kuehn dissented.Kane and Kuehn said in a separate opinion that the city of Sapulpa, not Ardagh, controlled the crosswalk. While the conditions at the crosswalk were allegedly problematic, they were no more under the control of the employer than they were of the employee, they said. As a result, the employees remedy for injuries sustained is one in negligence against the motorist who hit him as he crossed the public street using the crosswalk not against his employer for negligence. Harlan said he is confident that he will be able to prove that Ardagh assumed responsibility for the safety of the crosswalk, and the resulting damage award will be far more than Harwood would have received through a workers compensation claim. He said Asplagh assigned supervisors to act as crossing guards during shift changes because they knew that motorists on the busy highway frequently ran the four-way stop sign that had been erected to guard the crossing. The crossing guards were gone, however, by the time Harwood tried to cross the highway that night because he had stayed late to take a shower after his shift in the hot room, an area of the plant were glass is heated and shaped, Harlan said. According to the lawsuit, the company has sent a memo to employees warning them that crossing the lawsuit was the most dangerous part of their jobs. They knew that this was dangerous as heck, Harlan said. PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona man is facing multiple theft charges 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 vehicles 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 dont 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 groups 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 owners 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. About the photo: This photo provided by the Phoenix Police Department shows stolen catalytic converters that were recoverd after detectives served a search warrant at a storage unit Phoenix on Thursday, May 27, 2022. The bust came amid a national surge in thefts of the pricy auto parts that play a critical in reducing vehicle emissions and has led lawmakers in 36 states and in Washington D.C. to consider new laws to address the problem. (Phoenix Police Department via AP) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Vijayawada: Minister for water resources Ambati Rambabu assured efforts to complete the execution of the Polavaram irrigation project works expeditiously. The minister told media persons during his visit to Polavaram in Eluru district on Thursday that he had reviewed the progress of works of various components of the project with the officials in order to complete the project. Referring to the damage caused to the diaphragm wall, the minister blamed the previous Telugu Desam regime for causing it. The construction of the diaphragm wall without taking up the cofferdam was a historic blunder committed by the previous TD regime. People in the state will never forgive them, he said. He said that the faulty construction of diaphragm wall resulted in loss to the tune of Rs 400 crore and wondered how the TD leaders were trying to shift the blame on others. He called upon the irrigation experts to discuss the issue and come up with a solution whether to carry out repair to the damaged portion of the diaphragm wall or to reconstruct the diaphragm wall. Referring to the previous TD regimes claim to complete execution of Polavaram project by 2018 and go for polls, the minister asked as to why it failed to do so and also castigated it for asking their government as to whey they would complete the project. He said that their government would certainly complete the execution of the Polavaram project early. Earlier, the minister along with the water resources officials inspected the progress of execution of several components of the project from the early hours of the day. Ewout Rijk de Vries and his wife, Jill, brought America Travel Arrangements to Marco Island almost 40 years ago. They specialize on high end small adventure tours and small safari groups for clientele all over the world, but also are experts on high end cruises with the help of longtime assistant and friend, Michelle Wegman. In combination with his writing and photography, Ewout has visited over 90 countries. Please direct your comments or questions to ewout@photodevries.com as he likes to hear from readers. The Nava Sankalp Chintan Shivir meeting also passed a resolution for Sonia Gandi's (in picture) early recovery. PTI HYDERABAD: Congress leaders and activists offered prayers across Telangana on Thursday for early recovery of AICC interim president Sonia Gandhi after she tested positive for Covid-19. Scores of partymen reached temples, churches and mosques for prayers. All 33 district Congress committee members and other senior leaders offered special pujas and prayers for their leaders speedy recovery. The Nava Sankalp Chintan Shivir meeting also passed a resolution for her early recovery. TPCC political affairs committee convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir along with other leaders offered 'chadar' at the Dargah Hazrat Yousufain at Nampally and prayed for Sonias speedy recovery. The TPCC minorities department chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, OBC cell chairman Nuthi Srikanth, Hyderabad Congress minorities department former chairman Sameer Waliullah, TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, Feroz Khan, Osman Mohammed Khan, Mateen Shareef and other senior leaders also offered special prayers. Shabbir Ali said the entire party cadre was shocked that Sonia Gandhi was infected with Covid-19. He expressed confidence that she would recover soon. "Sonia Gandhi granted Telangana to stop the youths and students from committing suicide on the T-issue. She made a huge political sacrifice by converting the 60-year-old dream of the people here into a reality. She always cared for the people and thought of their well-being. Therefore, all the four crore people of Telangana are praying for her early recovery from Covid," he said. ARVADA, CO - OCTOBER 26: The Colorado Supreme Court, including left to right, justices Carlos A. Samour Jr., Richard L. Gabriel, and Monica M. Marquez, hear two cases at Pomona High School before an audience of students on October 26, 2021 in Arvada, Colorado. The visit to the high school is part of the Colorado judicial branchs Courts in the Community outreach program. (Photo By Kathryn Scott) 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 Hyderabad: Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay said on Thursday that the failed governance styles of the TRS are pushing the state into bankruptcy. A day might come when the people bear the brunt and turn paupers, as has happened in Sri Lanka, he said. Speaking at the Amar-ula Yadilo Udhyama Aka-nkshala Sadhana Sabha, marking the Telangana Formation Day at Tatti Annaram in Nagole, he referred to the suicides by farmers, youths and empl-oyees and put the blame on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos corrupt governance. The state is witnessing suicides not only of RTC workers, but also intermediate students. When we ask questions, we are slapped with legal notices. I shall not yield to such threats, he asserted. Challenging the claims of TRS leaders that the role of the BJP in the separate statehood push had been suspect, Sanjay reca-lled that not only the BJP backed bifurcation, but leaders like Sushma Swa-raj played a major role in Parliament in passing the AP Reorganisation Bill. The people in the state are now having the BJP as the only alternative to the TRS and we shall bring to an end the anarchy under KCR. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, the BJP will continue to rule the country for anot-her 20 years. The BJP is all set to come to power in Telangana, he claimed. Seven years ago, Microsoft surprised the world and its hardware partners by releasing its first laptop: The Surface Book. It was a flop. But, unlike some Microsoft hardware experiments I could mention the Surface tablet, Surface RT, and the infamous Kin phone Microsoft kept hacking away at the Surface Book. Today, its descendants such as the Surface Laptop Studio are darn good laptops. Now Microsoft is going to try something new again: Its first desktop via Project Volterra. Believe it or not, instead of running on an AMD or Intel processor, it's going to be an ARM machine. Now, I know what you're thinking: "This is going to be another fiasco like Windows RT or a limited-use machine like the Surface Pro X, isn't it?" Actually, I don't think so. I think Microsoft is going to get ARM right this time. And, if you know me, you know I'm no Microsoft fanboy. You see, it's all about the developers. Instead of emulating x86 on ARM, which always guaranteed the programs would be slow, Microsoft this time is providing an end-to-end software development kit (SDK) and programming tools that will be ARM native. Project Volterra will include (deep breath): Visual Studio 2022 Visual Studio Code Visual C++ Modern .NET 6 and Java Classic .NET Framework Windows Terminal Windows Subsystem for Linux Windows Subsystem for Android In other words, Microsoft will give programmers everything they need to build programs on ARM that can actually take advantage of its architectural virtues. Leopards can change their spots! I'm not ready to declare that WinARM will replace Wintel, but this is a serious hardware step forward for Microsoft. The Project Volterra PC is expected to run on a yet-to-be-named Snapdragon processor. It will have four of these CPUs and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) programming. Qualcomm Technologies will also be providing a Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK for this new Windows toolkit. Rumor has it that the Surface team is building it with Qualcomm and that it will ship with a flagship Snapdragon System on a Chip (SoC). This would also represent a step forward for Windows on ARM. In the past, Microsoft has shied away from cutting-edge ARM technology. The new machine will also include what Computerworld's Rob Enderle calls an Azure Compute Unit (ACU). This chip is meant to make it easier for the Windows PCs to shift workloads seamlessly between the PC and the cloud as needed. Hmmm, a Windows desktop that relies on the cloud where I have heard that idea before? The desktop PC itself is expected to be about the size of a Mac mini. While Microsoft hasn't released any specs yet, I can already tell you it will have a Gigabit Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6 support, and an HDMI port for the video. With a reliance on Azure, I doubt it will have a very large solid-state drive (SSD), say 512MB, or many USB-C ports. Microsoft will not be trying to sell this to consumers. Its job is going to be to help out developers and AI/ML programmers. That said, I know some of my ARM fan friends are already jonesing to get their hands on one. Me? I think this may be Microsoft's most significant advance in development hardware since Azure. I'll be watching it with great interest to see what Microsoft delivers and how well it performs. Allstate, a 90-year-old American insurance company, had always been an office-centric company, even if most of its employees were technology workers. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit more than two years ago, however, the company didn't fight the inevitable; it embraced remote work, even closing its 5,000-plus employee headquarters campus in Northbrook, Ill. Before the pandemic, only 20% of Allstate employees worked remotely. Now, 75% of them are home-based, 24% are hybrid, and 1% are office-based workers. Hybrid and remote employees can choose when they'd like to use the offices, which are morphing into more localized spaces for collaboration and innovation and not 9-to-5 work from behind a desk. For Allstate, the pandemic became an opportunity to experiment with new ways of accomplishing its established business goals so the company is trying new ways to build and maintain a common culture. For example, most meeting rooms have "smart gallery" technology, which gives equal visibility to employees in a conference room and those at home. When remote workers join a Zoom call, they see each in-office participant in their own square on the screen. Allstate Allstate's Chief Human Resources Officer Bob Toohey Allstate's Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Bob Toohey spoke with Computerworld about the company's various efforts to maintain and even grow company culture, train managers to be better hybrid work leaders, and engage employees to ensure they're being validated and informed. The following are exerpts from that interview: You shuttered a lot of your offices through the pandemic. Of the space you've retained, how has the layout changed? We want people to be together; we want to create connections. We dont want people to come to the office to just work. We want people to come to the office to collaborate, to do purposeful work, to do things that matter, and to engage together as teams. I can go home, back on my computer, and do Zoom and my online work without having to sit in an office. One of the things we're trying to change right now is the footprint; what does that office look like? Is it set up more for collaboration with social space? Chairs, couches in the corner, whiteboards all around, different setups with different seating arrangements? I'm in our downtown Chicago office right now, and we're preparing to change this because the configuration was what an office used to be a bunch of desks, lots of computer boxes. We want to open it up now. Put in high-top, bar-type stands where you can sit in a cafe-style and grab stuff and pull people around you collaboration centers. Bigger conference rooms with the right technology with Zoom inside of them because everybody's not going to be [physically] in there. What are some of the existing concerns with hybrid work? We don't go back five years, because we all remember the day that we were in a conference room and if you were the person at home, you were the one outside of the box. Now, how do we create that 'inside of the box' experience so everybody's in the same place and the playing field is level? I think that's where technology is key, and the setup of the office makes a difference. They're not everywhere, but we're in the process of installing a similar-type thing [to Google], where you have the screens [at face level] there. Where we don't have it, one of the things we tell people who are [physically there] to do is flip open their laptop screens, and that way everyone gets the same experience. It's one of the things that has worked. Some of the conference rooms we're putting in that have videoconferencing capabilities are dynamic, where you could have Zoom look at the conference room, but it's panning the room and it's interactive with a multi-camera setup where you're seeing multiple views, but as people talk, it zooms in to you and then back out, and it's really bringing people together in the room. We haven't gone as far as using VR with headsets and glasses yet. We dont want people to come to the office to just work. We want people to come to the office to collaborate, to do things that matter, and to engage together as teams. What's changed and what does flexibilty in the work environment look like? The days of being able to monitor your employees [because they're in the office] are over. You've got to trust your employees. The productivity will show in the output of the company. The productivity doesn't need to show through checking on an employee to see if they're online. Oh, and by the way, if someone needs to take two hours off in the morning and take their child to school or take two hours off in the afternoon, that's the kind of flexibility we're building in. That's helping people manage their life and manage their work in a way I believe will ultimately bring greater engagement. Prior to the pandemic, a large majority of your employees were in office, and a minority were remote. Today, that's flipped. As a global company, how have you addressed the needs in different regions? I like to say we have global standards but with local applications. Different offices like to do different things. We have more of our staff in India going into the offices because that's how they like to do it there. We have less in other areas. It's just what makes sense for each group. One of the things we're proud of doing is putting out flexibility. We want to be flexible. There's a balance between wanting to work from home all the time and those times when we need you to be in the office; so, how do you strike the right balance? What other ways are you building company culture? It's easy to come together when you're in the office, but we have to come together a lot more through communications. So, how do you create more frequent communications? We do quick pulse surveys to learn what's on people's mind. And, then we quickly go back to them to say, "here's what we've learned," and we use those surveys to find out if we're missing anything if people are feeling they don't have that connection. We're also investing a lot in enabling our managers... to have the information they need to manage their teams. I think we have to double down that the information is getting out to our leaders so they can talk to their employees. Every day, someone is talking to their manager; that's the person who needs to know those answers because that's who your employees call. Employees are customers, too. You have to treat them like customers. They don't come to work to do a bad job. They don't come to work to fail. What has the pandemic taught you about employees? We've learned a lot about each other. This idea that the pandemic put us back into our homes that really opened up the differences in all of us, and how we work, and what we do away from the office. It's great hearing those stories. You start to know people's families and their dog, and all of that. That's OK. People still apologize for their dog barking during a meeting. Who cares? It's OK to have a dog. You know, we have to remember before COVID, we all went to work and pretended everything was perfect. Nothing's perfect. And I think helping people be comfortable with that builds a much better environment. It continues your culture. Look, is it perfect? No. We have to really work at it, and I'm putting a lot of energy into making sure as we go forward we have that [right]. Have you determined certain days or a number of hours employees should be in an office? We just had a meeting with all of our senior leadership and said, "Here's what we're going to do: we're going to build connections, we're going to think about how we work," but one of the main messages was: "We don't have a rule." We're not setting up a rule that every Monday and Tuesday you must be in the office. It's really about doing what makes sense for your group. Tom [Wilson], our CEO, gets the management team together and has frequent meetings. We set a standard on how we'll collectively come together. That dosen't mean the 55,000 other employees do the same thing. So, how do you take the marketing team and make sure our CMO builds that culture, and then make sure cross-functional teams collaborate? We're building tools around that. And then we're going to give managers learning in real time. How do you train and develop all of our people leaders to mange in a remote environment? That's going to change the culture and continue to enhance it. The more we give them, and the more we help them, the more everyone will learn from this and make the culture what it is. Have you seen any really bad examples of hybrid work policies in other companies? A company I wont name, my counterpart there and their CEO decided one of the days they're going to require people to come into the office is Friday. And their reason for that is because nobody will be able to take the day off because they're remote, and we don't trust them. I said, "That's good. Make sure you tell them you don't trust them in the announcement, because that's what you're saying." Friday? Really? You and I know no one wants to come into work on a Friday because the commute and travel and vacation. So what? Let's call it what it is. Friday away from the office would be a relief, because they don't have to commute home Friday night to get to some event with their family. It's interesting when you hear people's philosophy around this. Employees are customers, too. You have to treat them like customers. They don't come to work to do a bad job. They don't come to work to fail. Trust the system; it's going to work. One of the metrics I see a lot in surveys is "people don't quit jobs, they quit their managers." In other words, they don't like how their managers treat them. How are you dealing with helping managers do a better job? Again, that's a "test and learn" model. One way is we do surveys to discover how people are feeling, and you get a good pulse. We have to be visible and ask the questions and learn and listen to employees besides just an online survey. We have to give managers those tools in how to manage and do things in the workplace. Lastly, if I was telling you we have all the answers, I'd be crazy. We don't know what we don't know because we don't see all the managers. So, we have ways people have a voice and make sure they can reach out to somebody if they feel they're being pressured or feel the wrong things are happening with their manager. People are energized when they get together. They miss seeing each other. Do they want that every day? No. Do they want to have flexibility to do that when they need to? Yes. What other issues do you deal with in training your management? We just did our employee engagement survey, and it was at an all-time high. And when we look at our employee engagement surveys, we unpack that all the way down to our managers we don't just look at an aggregate. And we see hot spots, we start to focus on those and help to train and help the managers. I've talked to managers myself who've said, "I want people in the office, but they don't want to come in." I'm like, "Well, that's something we're going to have to help you with, not them." The manager who says, "I don't like it. I like to see my employees," we have to train that manager and give them different tool sets. We're going to launch pilots or live simulation trainings that use different examples to help train managers. That way we can learn from each other. On the flipside, you have the manager who just says they're struggling with employees who won't come in when they actually do need them to. So then, how do you help that manager get that employee in? That's more of a company strategy around "how do we collaborate and bring people together?" If it's one time in a quarter we need you to come together for a meeting, how do we help that manager bring people in? Or if they still choose not to, don't ostracize them. Don't make them feel like an outcast if eight of the employees came in and two didn't. How do you make sure the two who choose not to come in, we at least gave them a choice? Now we have to make sure their career, their manager still moves along appropriately and they're not disadvantaged. I know you closed your headquarters, but how many square feet of office space did you shutter during the pandemic? The campus in Northbrook had 5,000 people. It was a half mile wide and a mile long. It was enormous. That's gone. Around the country, 50% of our real-estate portfolio has moved on. We're a very distributed workforce throughout the globe. As an example of what we're doing, we sold the buildings in Northbrook and then turned around and... opened a new one that can fit 500 to 800 people. Do we ever expect to see that building at full capacity? No. But it's space we put in place so people can get together, socialize, collaborate, and then go back home and do their job. And thats what we're doing around the country. We're looking at "what's the space we need?" and if we need more, well go and get it. We're not sitting here saying we don't need any office space. If we see a need for collaboration or more need to get together, we're going to open it. It sounds like you've gone from more regional offices to local offices to accommodate areas where there may be a confluence of employees in a metro area. How does that work? Yeah, we've got two spaces in downtown Chicago. We're just looking at where there are groups of people who may need to get together, and where there is no space or a smaller group of people, you can rent space for a day. The one thing we want to make sure as we continue to evolve with this, [is that] we let people have places to collaborate and that people have the ability to use the right technology to make hybrid work. Ultimately, we're a hybrid workforce, and we have to keep learning and building on that. It's actually wonderful to see. People are energized when they get together. They miss seeing each other. They miss in-person interactions. Do they want that every day? No. Do they want to have flexibility to do that when they need to? Yes. Clubsaves.com scored 41 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 24 Aug 2015, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Twitter + the total number of clubsaves followers (if clubsaves has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the clubsaves homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if clubsaves has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on StumbleUpon. Basic Information PAGE TITLE SIGN UP TODAY! : ClubSaves DESCRIPTION Clubsaves is a free online wholesale membership club serving in neighbourhoods near you. We are committed to provide our members savings on quality brand name products with the convenience of home and business delivery without any additional cost within o KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS clubsaves, addvariable, services, supplies, paper, tissue, business CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE HTML 4.01 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English UTF-8English DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER nginx/1.8.0 OPERATIVE SYSTEM The language of clubsaves.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for clubsaves.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The type of Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Saleadvantage.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 10 Jun 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the saleadvantage homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the saleadvantage homepage on Twitter + the total number of saleadvantage followers (if saleadvantage has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the saleadvantage homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if saleadvantage has a Facebook fan page). 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Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. The language of saleadvantage.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for saleadvantage.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The URL of the found Facebook page. The type of Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Vanuatu will always be true friend of China: president Xinhua) 09:24, June 02, 2022 Vanuatu President Tallis Obed Moses (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Port Vila, Vanuatu, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua) PORT VILA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Vanuatu President Tallis Obed Moses said on Wednesday that his country will always remain a true friend of China no matter how the international situation changes and what challenges it may encounter in the future. Moses made the remarks in a meeting with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which fell on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Over the past 40 years, Moses said, Vanuatu and China have always respected each other, treated each other as equals and established solid mutual trust. China always pays attention to Vanuatu's needs and gives priority to helping Vanuatu improve people's livelihood and build infrastructure, which has brought great benefits to the Vanuatu people. The Vanuatu government and people will never forget this, Moses said. Vanuatu will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and take it as the cornerstone to push for greater development of bilateral relations, Moses said. Wang said that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Vanuatu, which is of great significance to inherit the past and usher in the future. China-Vanuatu relations have become even more consolidated and solid after 40 years, Wang said, adding that he believes ties will make even greater progress without any disruption. Wang said that with the joint efforts of both sides, China and Vanuatu have deepened their friendship, consolidated mutual trust and yielded fruitful cooperation outcomes that have brought tangible benefits to the people. China is willing to join hands with Vanuatu to review the successful experience gained in bilateral exchanges, chart out the China-Vanuatu comprehensive strategic partnership and open up a new, bright future for bilateral relations, he added. The Chinese foreign minister stressed that different from some major countries, China always adheres to the principle of sovereign equality in its diplomacy and treats all the developing countries, especially small and medium-sized countries, sincerely and equally. At the international and regional levels, especially in the United Nations system, China also firmly upholds the legitimate rights and interests of the developing countries, he added. China will continue to work in solidarity with other developing countries to defend the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and safeguard international fairness and justice, Wang said. Moses said Vanuatu and China share the same desire for development, and that Vanuatu highly agrees with the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, believing that people in different countries should equally enjoy the rights of peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom regardless of race, nationality and class. Both sides agreed to enhance cultural exchanges, increase mutual understanding and promote people-to-people connectivity. Vanuatu is the Chinese foreign minister's sixth stop of his South Pacific island nations tour, which will also take him to Papua New Guinea, as well as Timor-Leste. Before arriving in Port Vila, Wang also visited the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Leaked internal chats from the Conti ransomware gang suggests the group has been researching and developing code to compromise the Intel Management Engine (Intel ME), the out-of-band management functionality built into Intel chipsets. The goal of this technique is to install malicious code deep inside computer firmware where it cannot be blocked by operating systems and third-party endpoint security products. Firmware implants are powerful and are usually used in high-value operations by state-sponsored hacker groups. However, over the past couple of years cybercriminal gangs have also shown an interest, with developers of the notorious TrickBot botnet adding an UEFI attack module in 2020. According to new research by security firm Eclypsium, the Conti ransomware group developed proof-of-concept code to exploit Intel ME firmware and gain code execution in System Management Mode, a highly privileged execution environment of the CPU. What is Intel ME? The Intel Management Engine is a subsystem that's present in many Intel chipsets and consists of a dedicated coprocessor and real-time operating system that's used for out-of-band management tasks. Intel ME is essentially a computer inside a computer and is completely separate from the user-installed OS that uses the main CPU. Depending on chipset and CPU generation, variations of the Intel ME technology are known as the Intel Converged Security and Management Engine (CSME) or Intel Trusted Execution Environment. Not only does Intel ME run independently of the main CPU and OS, it also has a lot of control over them and potentially a way to access the UEFI, the low-level firmware in modern computers that's in charge of initializing hardware devices, starting the bootloader and ultimately the main OS. In February, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a researcher leaked many logs from Conti's internal chat system. By analyzing those logs, researchers from Eclypsium found discussions about targeting Intel ME, through known and previously unknown vulnerabilities to indirectly gain access to UEFI. This is important for several reasons. Some legitimate APIs allow reflashing the UEFI firmware from inside the primary OS, for example for the purpose of updates. However, a properly configured UEFI performs cryptographic signature verification for updates and has write protections enabled. Furthermore, such attempts to reflash the UEFI can be detected and blocked by security software running inside the operating system. Past UEFI attacks and Conti's interest In December 2020, researchers found a new TrickBot module that used a known driver to read information from the UEFI firmware of infected computers, trying to identify those misconfigured with the BIOS control register unlocked. Other groups exploited UEFI misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in the past, such as the APT28 also known as Fancy Bear and believed to be a division of the Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. Another APT group known to have targeted UEFI is known as MossaicRegressor. By exploiting Intel ME and gaining indirect access to UEFI that way, attackers could bypass the normal protections put in place by computer manufacturers. Intel ME has had many vulnerabilities reported and patched over the years. "It is important to note that many systems are vulnerable to CVEs covered in these Intel advisories," the Eclypsium researchers said. "For example, a recent analysis of a production network found that 72.3% of devices were vulnerable to CVEs in Intel SA00391, which contains the potential for network privilege escalation. Likewise, 61.45% of devices were vulnerable to issues covered in SA00295, which also enables privilege escalation over a network. These two security advisories include vulnerabilities from the Ripple20 disclosure and additional remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities in the Treck TCP/IP stack found by Intel as a follow-up to the initial Ripple20 disclosure." In one of the analyzed discussions, one Conti developer tells another member that he has been working on a report on how the Intel ME controller and the Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) that's based on it work. He mentions uncovering undocumented commands using reverse engineering, debugging and fuzzing and mentions previous research by security companies Positive Technologies and Embedi. He says that the goal could be to develop a dropper (malware implant) for UEFI and potentially one that runs in SMM (System Management Mode). The SMM is a highly privileged execution mode of x86 CPUs where all normal code execution from the OS is suspended, and an alternate software is executed. Usually, SMM is used for debugging. In later Conti conversations a screenshot is shown that suggests a proof-of-concept was developed. "An attacker with control over the ME can then use that access to overwrite the UEFI system firmware and gain SMM code execution," the Eclypsium researchers explained. "The details of how this is done will vary depending on the types of protections and settings of the target system. Two of the most important settings in this regard is if BIOS write protection (BIOS_WP) is properly set on the device, and if Intel ME has the privileges to modify different SPI regions in the access control table within the SPI Descriptor." Why criminal groups are interested in firmware exploits The fact that groups like TrickBot and Conti have the resources to hire individuals with expertise in reverse engineering low-level firmware and implementing UEFI and SMM implants is indicative of how lucrative ransomware and data extortion attacks are for cybercriminals. In recent months, the Conti gang attracted a lot of heat after threatening to attack critical infrastructure in support of the Russian government and crippling government agencies in Costa Rica. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a reward for information about the identity and location of the group's leaders and members. Some cybercrime analysts believe the Conti gang is in a process of rebranding itself and splintering off into multiple other specialized groups. This process is believed to have started several months ago, but the tools that have been developed will remain with those groups and will likely be used in the future. If they're successful, more cybercriminal groups are likely to follow suit and start targeting computer firmware because such attacks have a lot of value. "In terms of damage, an attacker can effectively 'brick' a system permanently by overwriting the system firmware," the Eclypsium researchers said. "Similarly, an attacker could use this level of access to wipe the Master Boot Record or other high-value files on a system. Wipers such as WhisperGate and HermeticWiper have played a major and ongoing role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and provide a stark reminder of the damaging potential of low-level attacks on devices. While such low-level wiper attacks have averaged about one major event per year, in the first quarter of 2022, there have been six or more wipers discovered in the wild." Long-time persistence is another reason. By compromising the firmware, attackers can evade detection and remain on a system even after the normal storage has been wiped and the main OS has been reinstalled. Many attackers specialize in selling access to corporate networks to other cybercriminals to deploy their threats and some ransomware gangs have a history of hitting organizations multiple times even after they paid the ransom once. Mitigation for Intel ME vulnerabilities The Eclypsium researchers advise organizations to scan all their computers for known Intel ME vulnerabilities and apply the needed firmware updates. Commercial as well as open-source tools such as CHIPSEC can be used to do this. Organizations should also verify the integrity of the Intel ME firmware on their devices comparing it to valid firmware from Intel. This should ideally be done using mechanisms that are independent of the main operating system, because compromised firmware can feed back fake information to OS-level tools. In addition to Intel ME firmware, security teams should also check the integrity of the SPI flash memory that holds the UEFI/BIOS as well as the integrity of the UEFI itself, the Eclypsium researchers said. EASTON An Easton filmmaker with two films being shown on PBS in the coming days said the men she highlighted are not irrelevant dead people, but champions of inclusion eternally relevant in todays world. These are game changers. They are larger than life individuals who gave the world so much of themselves that it still matters, she said. I happen to have been fortunate enough to get to make films about these individuals and its been the most positive thing thats happened to me. Karen Thorsen said her two films, Joe Papp in Five Acts and James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, are being presented on PBSs American Masters. The former of the films premiers Friday night at 9 p.m. and the latter will be shown at the same time on June 11. Both films will be streamed for free on PBSs website. I think thats a once in a lifetime chance, she said. I dont think they usually schedule films back-to-back like that very often. So, Im very excited. Thorsen, who started off her career as a freelance journalist, but later moved into screen writing and filmmaking, called herself a story teller. She said she got her start working with Albert and David Maysles, a documentarian duo who pioneered the direct cinema style of filmmaking. Basically, that means you follow around someone, ideally someone well known, who is a good storyteller themselves, you follow them around and something is bound to happen in their life, she said. I decided that we should do a film on James Baldwin. Thorsen started collaborating with Baldwin, the famed American writer and activist, in the mid 1980s. When he died in 1987, that project ended up becoming his biography. It premiered on American Masters in 1989, but has been rebroadcast numerous times. As PBS describes it, The Price of the Ticket allows Baldwin to tell his own story: exploring what it means to be born black, impoverished, gay and gifted - in a world that has yet to understand that all men are brothers. Thorsen said the world needs his message of love for fellow man more than ever. She said he believed people could come together to make a better world. People who watch the film get inspired, she said, adding it sparks important conversations. (Baldwin) is still on my shoulder and I believe thats true for huge amounts of people, she said. Thorsen said Joe Papp in Five Acts came about after her collaborator on the film, Tracie Holder, saw the Baldwin Film and wanted to take the same approach in a documentary about the titular man. Papp, an American theatrical producer and director who founded Shakespeare in the Park, felt that art should be for the people, Thorsen said. He also founded The Public Theater in New York City, she said, which has been the source of extraordinary plays such as Hair, A Chorus Line and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Joe, like James Baldwin, had faith in humanity and he believed that (because of) the diversity available to us because of our society, because of who lives in our country, we have a richer society, she said. He wanted to present it in all of its greatness. He changed our cultural landscape. Thorsen said Papp believed humans would be benefited by talking to each other, seeing each other represented in stories. Too many people do not see themselves represented in art, she said, and feel excluded. If we tell their stories, they feel as if they have a right to be in the room, she said. Love is kind of boring and sappy but, in fact, if we were better at loving each other, and we were better at sharing with each other, and we actually stopped being afraid of difference, then we would have a better world to live in. Thorsen said people deserve to know the countrys history and to care about it enough to make things better. Hence, she said, the message of both men: If people paid attention to those labeled as different by others, they would find out much everyone has in common. Thorsen said this work is her form of reparations, as everyone needs to do what they can to make the world a better place. Examples like James Baldwin and Joe Papp, they did that with their lives, she said. They had enormous courage. They took risks and so any small way that I can do that, Im proud to be part of it. joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com 1 June 2022, Libya The Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom has donated over 1.2 million pieces of personal protective equipment to Libya to protect frontline health workers against COVID-19 infection in the course of duty. This timely delivery includes 406 000 isolation gowns, 100 800 face visors, 102 600 protective goggles, 63 000 aprons and 560 000 pairs of gloves. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to health facilities and workers throughout the world, especially the frontline health workers who are the foot soldiers in the battle against COVID-19. The situation has been exacerbated in Libya, where the health system has been badly disrupted by almost a decade of conflict. Almost 6 million people in the country have only limited access to health care services. The generous donation from the UK Department of Health and Social Care will help protect health workers against the disease and enable them to continue their essential services caring for their patients. The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet. These vital supplies will help tens of thousands of vulnerable patients across the country receive timely and adequate treatment and save lives, said Ms Elizabeth Hoff, WHO Representative in Libya. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) Enough, enough, President Joe Biden exclaimed over and over Thursday night, as he delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into killing fields." If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their outrage to turn it into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and said if Congress won't embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21. How much more carnage are we willing to accept? Biden asked after last week's shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. Dont tell me raising the age wont make a difference, he said. The most recent shootings came close on the heels of the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as racially motivated violent extremism. This time we have to take the time to do something," Biden said, calling out the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to pass legislation. For all the passion of Bidens address, and for all his big asks and smaller fallback alternatives, any major action by Congress is still a long shot. I know how hard it is, but Ill never give up, and if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people wont give up either," he added. "I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Adding a stark perspective to young people's deaths, he noted that Centers for Disease Control data shows guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America, ahead of car crashes. Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined, he said. Aware of persistent criticism from gun-rights advocates, Biden insisted his appeal wasn't about vilifying gun owners" or taking away anybodys guns. We should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave, Biden said. This isnt about taking away anyones rights, its about protecting children, its about protecting families. He called on Congress to end outrageous protections for gun manufacturers, which severely limit their liability over how their firearms are used, comparing it to the tobacco industry, which has faced repeated litigation over its products' role in causing cancer and other diseases. Imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where wed be today, Biden said. All major broadcast networks broke away from regular programing to carry Bidens remarks at 7:30 p.m. EDT, before the start of prime-time shows. Biden has given major speeches on the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. But the president has used such addresses sparingly during his nearly 18 months in office, especially during evening hours. Earlier Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the Oklahoma shooting, saying, All of us hold the people of Tulsa in our hearts, but we also reaffirm our commitment to passing commonsense gun safety laws. No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough," Harris said. "We need Congress to act. Visiting Uvalde on Sunday, Biden mourned privately for three-plus hours with anguished families. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, the president pledged, We will. In his address, he spoke of being passed a note by a woman in a Uvalde church grieving the loss of her grandchild, calling on people to come together and act. His Thursday night address coincided with bipartisan talks that are intensifying among a core group of senators discussing modest gun policy changes. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said the group is making rapid progress," and Biden has spoken to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, among those leading Democrats' efforts on the issue. Democrats are hoping Biden's remarks encourage the bipartisan Senate talks and build pressure on the Republicans to strike an agreement. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is encouraged by congressional negotiations but the president wants to give lawmakers some space to keep talking. The private discussions in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, are not expected to produce the kinds of sweeping reforms being considered by the Democratic-led House which has approved expansive background checks legislation and will next turn to an assault weapons ban. A House package debated Thursday and approved by a committee, 25-19 is less sweeping but includes a provision raising the required age for buying semi-automatic firearms to 21. It still faces slim chances in the Senate. Instead, the bipartisan senators are likely to come up with a more incremental package that would increase federal funding to support state gun safety efforts with incentives for bolstering school security and mental health resources. The package may also encourage red-flag laws to keep firearms away from those who would do harm. While the Senate approved a modest measure to encourage compliance with background checks after a 2017 church mass shooting in Texas and one in Parkland, Florida, the following year, no major legislation cleared the chamber following the devastating massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. __ Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed. The number of COVID-19 cases in schools continues to steadily decline from a brief spike last month, according to state data. The state Department of Public Health reported 2,493 school cases 1,900 among students and 593 among staff as of Wednesday. This is about a third of the 7,608 cases reported in schools on May 11, which was a recent high. Of those, 5,917 were student cases and 1,691 were staff cases. So far this year, the largest number of school cases was reported on January 12 with 19,542 cases 16,508 among students and 3,034 among staff. The state in general was seeing a similar trend of declining metrics. The state Department of Public Health reported 3,583 positive cases this past week, a drop from the 7,560 cases reported from May 20 to May 26 and the 9,751 cases reported from May 12 to May 19. Data from the Department of Public Health showed the increasing prevalence of breakthrough cases, or cases of COVID-19 among people who are fully vaccinated. From May 15 to May 28, 70.5 percent of the reported 17,446 total COVID-19 cases were among fully vaccinated people. As of Wednesday, the Department of Public Health has identified 228,839 total breakthrough cases. These cases account for 8.39 percent of the 2.7 million people statewide who are fully vaccinated, the state agency said. The positivity rate has gradually decreased in the past few weeks to10.83 percent on Thursday, from 11.8 percent on May 26 and 14.19 percent on May 20. As cases slowly decline, hospitals appear to be getting some relief. A total of 311 patients were hospitalized with the virus Thursday, 68 fewer than this time last week. Of the 311 patients hospitalized Thursday, some 80 people or about a quarter of the patients are not fully vaccinated. There were 31 people who died from COVID-19 this past week. This brings the virus death toll in Connecticut to 10,972, the state Department of Public Health announced Thursday. Hospitalizations and the positivity rate are still higher than what they were last month. On May 2, the state reported 230 patients hospitalized with the virus and an 8.85 percent positivity rate. And despite the declining cases, hospitalizations and positivity rate, the CDC said most of Connecticut is considered to have a high transmission level. New London County is the lone area that has a medium transmission level. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina Parents' Bill of Rights" legislation that in part would prohibit instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in K-3 public school curriculum was approved Wednesday by the state Senate. The near party-line vote suggests a likely veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper if the bill reaches his desk could doom the Republican measure. The bill's authors said the legislation is needed to give parents more ability to oversee their children's' education and health by laying out specific rights and avenues to access information, and to opt out of certain programs. Republicans said it addresses the frustrations of parents who complain that administrators arent listening to them. This bill is critical. It is common sense and it is a safeguard for all of our students, said Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican shepherding the measure, which she said will empower parents. But LGBTQ activists and other critics have blasted the measure as an election-year attempt at censorship that would harm young people, labeling it a Don't Say Gay" bill similar to one approved in Florida earlier this year amid controversy. This bill is about partisan gain, political mandates and flat out prejudice, said Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Wake County Democrat, adding that it would target our most vulnerable students. Opponents also cite provisions directing schools to notify parents about changes to their childs health and services that they are receiving or before they could change a childs name or pronouns in records. They say such requirements could force children of any grade to reveal their sexual identity changes before they are ready, opening up to parental abuse or bullying by classmates. All Republican senators present and Democratic Sen. Ben Clark of Hoke County who is running for Congress in the fall voted for the measure, which passed 28-18. The bill now heads to the House, where a veto ultimately couldnt be blocked unless a handful of Democrats join with Republicans. Cooper already has signaled his opposition to the measure, saying last week that Republicans should keep the Dont Say Gay culture wars out of North Carolina classrooms. He mentioned the 2016 bathroom bill involving transgender people and signed by GOP Gov. Pat McCrory. The law, also known as House Bill 2, cost the state billions of dollars in lost business, including canceled sporting events and job expansion. Everyone agrees that parents should be involved in their childrens education, Sen. Michael Garrett, a Guilford County Democrat, said during the debate. But this measure, he added, is nothing but HB2, classroom edition." Republicans have said repeatedly that the measure is different from the Florida law, particularly that North Carolina teachers and students could still mention their same-sex family members or spouses, for example. But it's inappropriate to insert LGBTQ topics into curriculum in these early grades, said Sen. Michael Lee, a New Hanover County Republican. Bills have been introduced or considered in at least 32 states this year that would prohibit educators teaching about LGBTQ issues or talking about them, according to to Movement Advancement Project, a think tank emphasizing LGBTQ research. Florida is one of six states that suppresses discussion of LGBTQ people or issues in schools, the group says. The measure would broaden the rights parents already have in state and federal laws. Parents would be provided a guide to student achievement at the start of each school year and notice of how they can obtain information. School districts would be required to create complaint and appeal processes for parents, leading in some cases to litigation. Republicans say schools already are required to report apparent abuse and neglect to social service workers and they shouldnt be keeping information about children from their parents. It is not my right to be involved in the care of my child, said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican. It is my responsibility for the care of my child. On broader health matters, the bill says physicians and nurses could be subject to disciplinary action by licensing boards and fines should they fail to obtain parental consent before completing non-urgent medical treatments for a child that aren't otherwise exempt. After the final Senate vote, a couple of people in the gallery opposed to the legislation began chanting, causing General Assembly police to intervene and Senate leader Phil Berger to stop the floor session for about 10 minutes. PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) A slide on an 80-foot-high (24-meter-high) coal pile killed two workers Thursday at a southern Colorado coal-fired electricity generating plant, authorities said after a day-long search for the victims. Rescuers found the bodies of the two men buried beneath about 60 feet (18 meters) of coal in the towering pile at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, said Erik Duran, spokesman for the Pueblo Fire Department. Witnesses said the workers were standing about 30 feet (9 meters) up a slope of the pile when the slide occurred about 8:20 a.m., Duran said. Rescuers located the bodies at about 3 p.m. and later were able to recover them, he said. Duran described the victims as a man in his 20s and another in his 30s. The names of the victims were withheld until relatives could be notified. Witnesses reported that the accident happened on a feeder pile for the station's coal-fired power plant, which is Colorado's largest and is operated by Xcel Energy. Xcel spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said the workers are employed by Savage, a Salt Lake City-based firm contracted by Xcel to operate and maintain the coal yard at Comanche and at other Xcel coal plants. Xcel is working with Savage and the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office to determine the cause of the accident, said Nygard, who directed questions about the coal slide to Savage. Savage released a statement Thursday evening saying the company was devastated by the deaths and is working with local and federal officials, as well as Xcel, to investigate the cause of the accident. Duran told reporters that Savage would provide additional information and that a company representative was en route to the scene. ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's top elections official appeared Thursday before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election in the state. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was summoned to the Fulton County courthouse where the special grand jury has been meeting, according to a subpoena obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. Other subpoenas seek documents and testimony from five other people in his office. Raffensperger arrived at the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Thursday morning. When a reporter asked how the day would go, Raffensperger replied hopefully short" as he walked up the steps. That wasn't the case, though. Raffensperger left after more than five hours by another exit, avoiding reporters. It's unclear if Raffensperger's testimony concluded Thursday or if he will be called back. Trump directed his ire at his fellow Republican after Raffensperger refused to bend to pressure to overturn the votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden a narrow presidential election victory in Georgia. Raffensperger defeated a Trump-endorsed challenger in last month's Republican primary. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said her investigation includes looking into a January 2021 phone call in which Trump pushed Raffensperger to find the votes needed for him to win Georgia. Trump has said his call with Raffensperger was perfect and that he did nothing wrong. Tricia Raffensperger, the secretarys wife, also testified Thursday, leaving the courthouse after less than an hour. She was present with Raffensperger when he received the Trump phone call. Tricia Raffensperger received death threats during the period after the 2020 election. Raffensperger wrote in his 2021 book Integrity Counts that he perceived Trump as threatening him multiple times during the phone call, a question that could ultimately be critical to whether some criminal charges could be brought. Raffensperger reiterated in an interview aired Wednesday by WAGA-TV that he felt pressured. I heard what the president said. And I understand that he has tremendous positional power, Raffensperger told the television station. But I also know that we followed the law and we followed the Constitution. A Trump spokesman dismissed the Fulton investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt when it became public last February. A number of others have been subpoenaed, including five other people associated with Raffensperger's office. State Attorney General Chris Carr has received a subpoena to appear June 21. The special grand jury will not issue indictments, but is meant to further the investigation and make recommendations to the district attorney, who then decides whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury. Willis said the special grand jury would be able to issue subpoenas to people who have refused to cooperate otherwise. The jury, including 23 grand jurors and three alternates, can serve for up to a year. Willis has also said investigators are looking at a November 2020 phone call between Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina 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. 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. While the district attorneys office will be steering the investigation, grand jurors can question witnesses who appear before them. If they believe there are other witnesses they would like to hear from or documents they would like to see, they have the power to issue subpoenas. WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration said Thursday that children under 5 may be able to get their first COVID-19 vaccination doses as soon as June 21, if federal regulators authorize shots for the age group, as expected. White House COVID-19 coordinator Ashish Jha outlined the administration's planning for the last remaining ineligible age group to get shots. He said the Food and Drug Administration's outside panel of advisers will meet on June 14-15 to evaluate the Pfizer and Moderna shots for younger kids. Shipments to doctors' offices and pediatric care facilities would begin soon after FDA authorization, with the first shots possible the following week. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed" Thursday's events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Friday's service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. "Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. ___ Follow AP's coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. announced new sanctions Thursday on Russian oligarchs and elites, including some of the richest men in Europe and their families, as well as penalties targeting more Kremlin officials, businessmen linked to President Vladimir Putin and their yachts, aircraft and firms that manage them. The latest U.S. penalties imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine also include Sergei Roldugin, considered a custodian of Putins offshore wealth. Also included in the announcement by the departments of Treasury, State and Commerce are sanctions on God Nisanov, one of the richest men in Europe, and Alexey Mordashov, one of Russias wealthiest billionaires, along with his wife and two adult children. Mordashev is the main shareholder and chairman of Severstal, Russias largest steel and mining company. Acting under earlier sanctions, Italian police seized one of his yachts. The actions are part of President Joe Biden's promise, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, to pursue Russian elites' ill-gotten gains" and to ramp up support for the Ukrainians. On Wednesday, the U.S and Germany pledged to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces close in on a key city in the east. Russias elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move, and maintain their wealth and luxury assets, Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial Intelligence, said in a statement. We will continue to enforce our sanctions and expose the corrupt systems by which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves, he said. Earlier this year, Treasury, the Justice Department and other agencies convened a task force known as REPO short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs to work with other countries to investigate and prosecute oligarchs and individuals allied with Putin. Treasury officials have said investigative collaborations with partners in other countries have been imperative to identifying properties across the world. Imperial Yachts SARL, a Monaco-based yacht brokerage and yachts including the Russia-flagged Graceful and Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia, are identified as blocked property connected to Putin. A representative from Imperial Yachts said in an emailed statement that the accusations made against us by the U.S. Government and in the press are false. We will pursue all available legal remedies to resolve this matter promptly." The company added that "we are not involved in our clients financial affairs. Others included in the latest round of sanctions are Yury Slyusar, president of United Aircraft Corp.; Vitaly Savelyev, Russias transport minister; Maxim Reshetnikov, the countrys minister of economic development; Irek Envarovich Faizullin, the minister of construction, housing and utilities; and Dmitriy Yuryevich Grigorenkothe, deputy prime minister and chief of the government staff. The Commerce Department added 71 more people and entities located in Russia and Belarus to its sanctions list, with the intent of restricting the Russian militarys ability to obtain technologies needed to further its invasion. The U.S. has worked closely with allied governments in Europe, Asia and elsewhere to impose thousands of sanctions on Russian elites, oligarchs and banks. Allied governments have done everything from barring individuals from trading in Russian gold in the U.S. to banning companies from providing accounting, legal and consulting services to anyone located in Russia. Western allies have also begun considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions and using the money to rebuild Ukraine, according to government officials familiar with the matter. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters at the Group of Seven finance ministers' meetings in Germany this month that more options are on the table to reduce Russia's influence including secondary sanctions or forming an oil buyer's cartel. There are a lot of possibilities here and nothing has converged, she said. Until recently, the U.S. and EU have largely allowed Russia's oil and natural gas to continue to flow freely to the rest of the world. However, EU leaders agreed late Monday to cut Russian oil imports by about 90% over the next six months, a move that was considered unthinkable just months ago. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, Ukraine is fighting valiantly to defend its people and its independence with unprecedented assistance from the United States and countries around the world. The United States will continue to support the people of Ukraine while promoting accountability for President Putin and those enabling Russian aggression. Nate Sibley, a research fellow at Hudson Institutes Kleptocracy Initiative, said the U.S. could do more to impose sanctions on wealthy Russians, including Vladimir Potanin, who is the richest documented person in Russia worth roughly $30 billion, and Roman Abramovich, who recently sold his stake in Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London. The European Union Council has imposed sanctions on Abramovich, which he is fighting in court. Potanin has largely escaped sanctions. It begs the question, why is U.S. Treasury dragging its feet on this, Sibley said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ANSONIA The city united to stage a parade and car caravan in support a terminally ill 7-year-old girl May 26. Now Ansonia has once again united, this time to mourn Jeilany Vega. Jeilany, a student at Mead Elementary School, was the subject of a Joy for Jeilany Caravan May 26, where the city came out to lift her spirits. Vega died two days later, according to a fundraising page Our special little girl emotionally moved the city and helped everyone realize how precious life really is, said James Chester, a counselor at the school. Jeilany was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 2021 and given months to live. Her parents were not available for comment, but her father Edwin Vega previously said Jeilany could lift the spirits of someone on even the worst day. She brings the best out of anyone, even on the worst day, Edwin Vega said. She was just so joyful. She was super energetic, the neighbors around love her, even my neighbor across the street, her smile is just something else. Vega said she was so strong she gave her whole family strength. We use her strength to keep us going, Vega said. Chester said the school is saddened by Jeilanys death. We as a school community are deeply saddened by the passing of Jeilany. She will always be an inspiration to us all. Jeilany and her family will always be in our hearts and prayers, Chester said. Mead Elementary School Principal Amy Cosciello said the school will remember Jeilany for who she was. She was a positive spirit that we will miss greatly at Mead School, Cosciello said. Jeilany loved school and being with her friends. We will forever keep her spirit alive and remember her bright smile. Ansonia Public Schools has announced there will be a Dress Down day for Jeilany on Friday, June 3. Children district wide will not have to wear their uniforms on that day. The event is a fundraiser for the family, according to School Superintendent Joe DiBacco. Children can donate $1 while adults can donate $5. DiBacco said Jeilany was one of those people whose souls were too beautiful for this earth. I think she's one of those souls, he said. I think it's a sin for a person who's so young and so bright to pass on so early. The family is now raising funds to cover funeral costs. According to the fundraising page, the family had to rely on one income due to her needing constant care. The page has raised $3,510 as of Wednesday afternoon. Her family has not made funeral arrangements yet, but people who wish to honor her memory can plant a tree or send the family flowers via the Bailey Family Funeral Home. LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (AP) The front lawn of Lydia Larces home is strewn with debris: Remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower marble lie between dumpsters. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles more than a year after Hurricane Laura tore through Lake Charles. Larce, like many in Southwest Louisiana, has what she calls storm PTSD. Tornado warnings trigger anxiety. She fidgets and struggles to sleep. "The fear and the unknown it has me on an edge, Larce said. Im scared. A string of devastating hurricanes has torn through this region in recent years. Nationally, too, there have been more Category 4 and 5 hurricane landfalls in the past five years than in the previous 50 years combined. Larce and her neighbors know they are on the front lines of climate change. Her region is now the epicenter of a trend that she fears will make those disasters even more destructive. Developers plan to build a series of liquefied natural gas export facilities across Southwest Louisiana, already the heart of the industry. Even in a state with a heavy industrial base, these facilities are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Louisiana. Theyre an absolute powerhouse for greenhouse gas emissions, said Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy. Thats because these export facilities tend to burn off, or flare, natural gas. Greenhouse gases are raising global temperatures and fueling extreme weather, from wildfires to violent storms like the ones that have pummeled Larces hometown. We all are living in chaos," Larce said. For a while, it looked as though an era of steadily expanding fossil fuel facilities might be ending. Last year, after taking office, President Joseph Biden announced his intention to fight climate change by eliminating fossil fuels from electricity generation by 2035 and by sharply reducing emissions from the rest of the economy. Yet since Biden became president, the U.S. has become the worlds largest exporter of liquefied natural gas as demand for the fuel, known as LNG, has escalated. Russias invasion of Ukraine suddenly intensified the push. It heightened demand for natural gas, especially for countries in Europe that relied on Russian energy but now need to cut those ties. Seizing the opportunity, the natural gas industry promoted U.S.-produced LNG as a way to fill the gaps, and prices for the fuel have skyrocketed. American terminals are now exporting gas at full capacity, which is why the expansion of the terminals has accelerated. It is along the Gulf Coast, in a line from Louisiana to Texas, where the new and proposed export terminals are clustered. Talk to some locals and government officials and you'll hear unqualified support for the facilities in this battered region. Its a significant boon to our economy, because it provides good, high-paying jobs, said Eric Tarver, a member of the Calcasieu Parish School Board and chief financial officer of Lake Charles Toyota. More than that, its a tremendous amount of tax revenue that just dwarfs what weve had from any other industry. But some long-time residents often the ones who've lost the most to the storms dispute those claims, saying that few of those coveted jobs end up going to people who grew up in the region. REGION IN DISTRESS Scattered across the neighborhoods of Lake Charles, blue tarps cover dozens of dilapidated roofs. Bungalows, pockmarked by gaping holes, are marred by broken siding and boarded-up windows evidence of the damage inflicted by Hurricanes Laura and Delta more than a year ago. Yet with few other options, some residents are living here under the tarps. I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb, said Roishetta Ozane, a single mother of six and an organizer for Healthy Gulf. An outspoken critic of the expansion of LNG facilities, Ozane warns her neighbors that the emissions worsen global warming and violent storms and impair their community's air quality. She has raised money, organized food drives and helped neighbors navigate government agencies to obtain relief after disasters hit. Now is the time to get peoples attention, to open their eyes that climate change is real, Ozane said. Theyre going to continue to bring these facilities here. Weve already had these major hurricanes here. Where are we going to live? As she drives around a predominantly Black area of Lake Charles, past shuttered businesses and crumbling homes, Ozane's phone buzzes with requests for help. Are you living in a FEMA trailer? she asks one caller. Text me what you need. There are other helpers here. Cindy Robertson is one of them. In her front yard bursting with daisies and ferns, she refills a pantry box that she stocks each morning to help feed homeless neighbors. By mid-afternoon, its nearly empty. Her neighborhood has endured seven federally declared disasters in two years, and she's grown increasingly concerned, even though her family worked in coal mining. Robertson, 62, runs a nonprofit to help vulnerable people recover. From her house, with its seascape paintings and tapestries, she provides water, sleeping bags and tents. With a succession of LNG terminals opening around her, she worries that her region hasn't yet seen the worst. The more we have more pollution from greenhouse gases," she fears, the worse our storms are going to get. A few miles away, Cameron LNG began exporting LNG in 2019. Further south, Venture Global Calcasieu Pass is shipping its first loads. Still another LNG company, Driftwood, recently broke ground to build an export facility. Thats on top of more than a dozen oil, gas and chemical processing plants surrounding her community. Robertson would much prefer increased investment in renewable energy, in line with Biden's stated priorities when he took office. Instead of focusing on LNG, expanding what they already have... we need to take all that brainpower and all that money and put it into expanding our renewable resources, Robertson said. EXPORTS SURGING The use of wind, solar and other renewable energy has grown as prices of solar components and wind turbines have plunged. But so has the worlds thirst for natural gas. In February, the U.S. exported 317 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas six times times the amount five years earlier. Investment in LNG terminals catapulted from nothing in 2011, before the U.S. export industry existed, to $63 billion over the next decade, according to Rystad Energy. The firm projects that investment could swell an additional $100 billion over the next two decades. That's despite warnings from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure alone would cause global warming to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) a level that scientists say would bring dangerous consequences. Of the eight terminals now exporting LNG, five lie on the coast of Louisiana and Texas. At least 16 more plus four expansions are proposed or under construction, nearly all along that same stretch of Gulf coastline. The projects are backed by Exxon Mobil, Qatar Energy, Total Energies and numerous other global energy giants. Financing for several proposed plants comes from BlackRock, Vanguard and Mitsubishi, according to Global Energy Monitor. At Cameron LNG in Hackberry, Louisiana, storage tanks loom over the wetlands next to rows of intersecting pipes. There, gas is treated to remove impurities. Then it's cooled to a liquid at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to flow onto ships. In a narrow channel, a huge French vessel called LNG Endeavor, escorted by tug boats, heads for the facility, dwarfing the homes it passes. Were delivering a cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuel, said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, the industry's lobbying group. The U.S. can use that to help defuse some of the geopolitical issues around the world by delivering a reliable fuel source. Initially, Biden's administration held off on approving requests that would expand the LNG industry. But after the war in Ukraine began, the Energy Department allowed some facilities to upgrade, increasing how much they could produce. The U.S. is exporting every molecule of liquefied natural gas that we can to alleviate supply issues in Europe, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March, urging the oil and gas industry to ramp up production. Asked whether boosting fossil fuel exports contradicts Biden's climate goals, Granholm told The Associated Press we have got to do both." She said she believes the United States can help its allies, reduce the cost of fuel and transition to more sustainable options. Since the war increased the need for alternatives to Russian gas, some European LNG import projects that had stalled are being revived, said Emily McClain, a vice president at Rystad. Its really showing were not quite ready to table gas and move to cleaner or greener energies, McClain said. Riedl said he would like the administration to do even more, by approving any of the proposed LNG export terminals. Louisiana offers a property tax break of up to 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals. Even with those tax breaks, the increased property tax income provides a windfall for the area, said Tarver, the school board member. With Driftwood LNG beginning construction of a facility, the expected jobs are a shot in the arm after a devastating series of disasters, Tarver said. That the world is looking to the Gulf Coast as an energy supplier is, he said, a source of pride. Thats a very powerful thing to us locally, just because were big Pro-America, proud American people here," Tarver said. Others, like Ozane, argue that the tax breaks give away too much. We have a big homelessness problem," Ozane said. "Our schools look horrible. If LNG is doing so much for the state, why is it like that? CLEANER THAN COAL? Down the road from Cameron LNG, a new export terminal has opened about a mile from John Allaires beachfront home. His property, where he's lived in an RV for 17 years since Hurricane Rita washed away his bunk house, is a refuge for spawning shrimp and diving sea birds. When his children were young, Allaire brought them fishing and hunting there. At sunrise, the dark sky begins to crack into shades of orange and gray. A bright orb on the horizon looks like the rising sun. Its not. Its a flare from Venture Globals Calcasieu Pass LNG, the latest export terminal to open. The flare, a mixture of flames and smoke that pours out when the facility burns natural gas, had been burning non-stop for a week, Allaire said. Thats pure profit and pollution going up the stack, he said. Allaire, 66, a retired environmental engineer for an oil company, doesn't oppose oil and gas use. His property sits on a former oilfield. But he fears the destruction of the wetlands he loves: The soft waving cordgrass where black rails hide, the pelicans diving down over the lapping water to catch fish. Commonwealth LNG has proposed another export terminal, sandwiched between Allaire's yard and the LNG terminal that just opened. It would cover about half the ponds that are packed with blue crabs and mud minnows. Im glad theres still places like this left I really dont want to see it paved over, Allaire said. The wetlands he loves play a beneficial role for climate, too. They absorb carbon dioxide. And they provide a buffer from storm surges. Together, the four LNG export terminals on the Gulf Coast emitted nearly 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 comparable to all of Costa Rica, according to the Global Carbon Project. The LNG plants are tied to climate change in another way, too. Along the whole pathway to export, from the wells where companies drill to the ships getting loaded with LNG, methane the powerful greenhouse gas that's the primary ingredient of natural gas can escape. And it does, from leaky wells, pipelines, compressors and storage tanks. In the Permian Basin, one of the world's richest oil and gas fields, well heads and pipelines are leaking far more methane than previously thought, according to a study that concluded that 9% of the gas produced in New Mexico's side of the basin is leaking. That's a shocking leakage estimate, Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University and chairman of the Global Carbon Project, an international research group, said about natural gas. At that that rate, he said, the leaking methane alone is warming the climate more than the carbon dioxide that would be released if all the produced natural gas were burned. Natural gas proponents say it's better for the climate than burning coal, because it releases fewer emissions when burned. But gas isnt substituting for coal in most places, Jackson noted. Instead, as energy demand grows globally, natural gas is being used in addition to coal and other sources. According to projections by the Energy Information Administration, natural gas use will drive an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. from 2037 to 2050 as the nations population and its reliance on gas grow. To show it's trying to limit its environmental impact, Cameron LNG reduced its emissions by 10% from 2020 to 2021. It's also built 500 acres of tidal marsh, using material it digs up when dredging the canal. But residents who are enduring the trauma of relentless storms know any facility that adds emissions to the atmosphere magnifies the likelihood of destruction in vulnerable communities. In building more LNG export terminals," Jackson said, were locking in emissions for decades to come. ______ Associated Press journalists Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report. Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California moved a step closer Wednesday to creating sites where people could legally use drugs under supervision designed to save them from dying if they overdose, over the objections of opponents who said the state would be enabling dangerous and illegal activity. The full Assembly will now consider allowing test programs in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, more than a year after the proposal narrowly passed the state Senate. We know that we are experiencing a crisis of overdose deaths, and these are preventable," said Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener. This is one way to help keep people safe and to actually help people get into treatment. Assembly Public Safety Committee members advanced the bill on a 5-2 vote after hearing conflicting statistics about the experiences in Canada, Europe, Australia and most recently two sites in New York City. There has been not a single overdose death in the supervised sites, said Wiener and proponents of his bill. But people still are dying around them, attracted to neighborhoods where drug use is overtly sanctioned by the government, countered opponents. There is a magnet effect so that people come into the area, said John Lovell, testifying on behalf of the California Narcotic Officers Association and several other police organizations. What theyre proposing is addiction maintenance. ... I think that we need to embrace addiction recovery," said Michael Shellenberger, author of a book entitled San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities" and a no party preference candidate for California governor. Clean needle exchanges were once also controversial, before they became a largely accepted way of minimizing the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other diseases that can be spread through the sharing of dirty needles, said Vitka Eisen, a former heroin user herself. She now heads the low-income health care provider HealthRIGHT 360 and sits on the boards of the California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies, California Association of Drug and Alcohol Program Executives, and National Council for Behavioral Health. In the face of a crisis, we must do things differently," she said, referring to the national onslaught of opioid deaths, often fed by the prevalence of fentanyl. The governing bodies in each of the California jurisdictions have already asked to be included in the test program if Wiener's bill becomes law. It would remain up to them whether to go ahead and to what extent. The test programs would run until 2028, and the participating governments would have to split the cost of an independent study on the effectiveness of the program and its impact on the community, due by 2027. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed a more limited proposal in 2018, saying then: Fundamentally, I do not believe that enabling illegal drug use in government sponsored injection centers with no corresponding requirement that the user undergo treatment will reduce drug addiction. The new proposal split the Assembly committee along party lines. Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is a co-author of the bill who called it a "potential opportunity for us to be able to address the pandemic that we are facing around drug abuse. California would be creating an enabling program that enables people to continue to do what is very damaging and destructive, not only to themselves but to the public at large," said Republican Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto. The goal, he said, should be to get them off of drugs and get them out of this dependency instead of allowing it. Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago said he, too, was skeptical, until he witnessed the open drug use on Los Angeles' Skid Row. You have to come to the conclusion that it is better that they use it in a facility where it is at least supervised, Santiago said. "It is an attempt to create a safe place for people to use (drugs), to help them when they are at their lowest, and to prevent the worst from happening. The committee's chairman, Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, said he initially was very apprehensive and fought the idea. But he had an uncle and a cousin die of drug overdoses on San Francisco's streets in the 1980s, when the family's attempts at tough love failed to save them. Safe injection sites may not be a perfect solution, Jones-Sawyer said, but "we need to go ahead and try something new. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California's legislative leaders on Wednesday said they want to return nearly $10 billion of the state's record-setting budget to taxpayers, setting up a month of intense negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom over how to best help a weary public battered by soaring inflation. Leaders of the state Senate and Assembly announced an operating budget of more than $300 billion. It includes $8 billion in rebates for most taxpayers, $1.3 billion in aid for small businesses and nonprofits and $400 million to expand assistance for Californians with little to no income. But the agreement does not include Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has the power to veto anything he doesn't like. Legislative leaders are moving ahead anyway because of a state law that says lawmakers don't get paid if they don't pass a budget by June 15. They pledged to keep negotiating with Newsom to reach an agreement by July 1, the start of the state's fiscal year. That means the proposal lawmakers announced Wednesday is more of a placeholder budget since it likely won't be the final version that becomes law. Still, the Legislature's plan brings into sharper focus their priorities and how they contrast with the Newsom administration. The biggest difference is how to help taxpayers keep up with rising gas prices, which hit an all-time high of $6.19 per gallon on Wednesday. The Legislature wants to send $200 checks to taxpayers and their dependents with incomes of up to $125,000 per year for single people and $250,000 per year for couples. A family of five that meets the income requirements would get $1,000. Newsom's plan would send up to $800 checks to people who own cars $400 per vehicle with a limit of two cars per person. For people who don't own cars, Newsom wants to spend $750 million to pay for free rides on public transit for three months. Lawmakers don't like Newsom's plan because they say it would only benefit car owners, leaving out those who can't afford vehicles. Newsom doesn't like the Legislature's plan because it's less money and he says it would take too long to send out the checks. Both sides have said they are confident they will reach a deal. I'd like to be on the higher end. They have a different number, Newsom said last month during his budget presentation. We'll come down and meet together." For business owners, lawmakers want to give them $870 million to offset their increasing unemployment insurance taxes. They also want to give small-business owners and nonprofit organizations $250 million in grants to cover the costs of a new law requiring employers to give workers up to two weeks of paid sick leave. With this budget, we are spreading our state's wealth to hard-working Californians and small businesses like never before," Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said. We look forward to continuing the conversation with Governor Newsom and his office. One of the biggest mysteries of the proposal is how lawmakers would spend $21 billion to combat climate change. The plan commits to spending that amount, but says the details are subject to negotiations. The Legislature's plan has few major policy disagreements with the Newsom administration, but plenty of differences on the details. Newsom has proposed spending $40 million to pay for abortions for women who can't afford them. Lawmakers want to spend $20 million to pay for things like travel, lodging and child care for women in other states who would need to come to California for an abortion should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn federal abortion protections. The Senate and Assembly did not start by asking, What things do we want? We started by asking ourselves, What beliefs do we cherish? Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said. We share a firm belief that our state is strongest when it cares for the weakest among us. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) The National Center for State Courts has awarded a court in Tennessee a grant to help improve housing stability and prevent evictions. According to a news release, Hamilton County's General Sessions Court is one of 13 state and local courts to receive the funding from the nonprofit court organization. Hamilton County received $211,000 under the two-year grant. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MILFORD The state trooper charged with manslaughter in the on-duty shooting of New Haven resident Mubarak Soulemane pleaded not guilty in the case Thursday. With nearly 20 supporters seated behind him in the courtroom and several members of Soulemanes family sitting on the opposite side Brian North stood before Judge Peter Brown as his lawyer, Frank Riccio, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. The judge continued the case to a remote hearing Aug. 2 and a court appearance Sept. 15. North, who was previously arraigned in Superior Court in Milford in May, left the courthouse without commenting as Rev. Kevin McCall, a spokesperson for the family, led supporters in chants of No justice, no peace, Fire Brian North, and Justice for Mubarak. Soulemanes mother, Omo Mohammed, said the state trooper belongs behind bars for the Jan. 15, 2020 shooting of her son in West Haven after a high-speed chase on Interstate 95. I want Brian North to be held accountable for killing my son, she said outside the courthouse. I want Brian North to go to jail for killing my son, for massacring my son. Thats what justice is for. Riccio said it would take some time for he and other lawyers representing North to review and analyze evidence in the case. He is working together with his legal team and working through this, he said of his client. Attorneys representing Soulemanes family, Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Arons, said Thursdays hearing was a first step in the familys quest for justice. We believe that after the jury or the judge is shown the video in this case, pictures of the truth, it will be clear that this was an execution, Rubenstein said. We look forward to the trial. Arons said he hopes the case the first prosecution of a Connecticut law enforcement officer for a line-of-duty shooting in 17 years will send a shockwave across the country to once and for all change policing culture so that shooting is not the first item on the list, its the last resort. TIMELINE: The investigation into the CT state police shooting of Mubarak Soulemane The series of events prompting the case unfolded on Jan. 15, 2020, when Soulemane went to Norwalk following an argument with his brother, according to a report from Inspector General Robert J. Devlins report. Soulemane, 19, suffered from schizophrenia, his mother told investigators. His girlfriend told the state Department of Criminal Justice that Soulemane had become erratic, paranoid and disorganized in the days prior to the shooting. Soulemane, who grew up in Norwalk, pulled a knife while at an AT&T store on Main Avenue, the report stated. Soulemane left the store and got into a Hyundai operated by a ride share driver, according to the report. The driver got out of the car at a nearby gas station after a confrontation with Soulemane, the report stated. Soulemane then stole the car and headed up Interstate 95 where state police engaged in a high-speed pursuit, according to the report. MAP: Tracing the police chase that ended in Mubarak Soulemanes death The pursuit was captured on dashboard camera footage from responding troopers. Soulemane exited the highway at Exit 43 in West Haven, striking a Chevy Trailblazer, according to the report. Troopers Ross Dalling, Joshua Jackson and North effectively blocked-in the vehicle on Campbell Avenue, according to the report. Jackson ordered the driver out of the car, but received no response. He later said that the driver seemed out of it. Jackson then proceeded to the passenger side. North took a position at the driver-side window and Dalling was to the rear. North directed Jackson to use his Taser. West Haven Police Officer Robert Rappa smashed the passenger side window using Jacksons police baton. Jackson then deployed his Taser through the broken out window toward Soulemane. Rappa yelled, hes reaching! Soulemane then moved his arm upward holding a knife pointed toward the ceiling of the car, Devlin wrote in the report. North fired his service weapon through the driver-side window into Soulemanes chest, Devlin wrote in the report, then yelled drop the knife. In a statement, North later told police he saw Soulemanes eyes open wide as Rappa shattered the passenger-side window. He said he believed Rappa was attempting to enter the vehicle at that time, the report stated. North said he saw Soulemane quickly move his right hand into his pocket and remove a knife, then abruptly move in the drivers seat, the report stated. VIDEO: Body camera footage released by state police The suspect was moving and holding the knife in an aggressive manner, and appeared to me to be preparing to attack either (Trooper) Jackson or the West Haven officer. Based on these circumstances, I believed that (Trooper) Jackson and the West Haven officer were at imminent risk of serious physical injury or death, and could have been stabbed in the neck or face as they attempted to enter the vehicle and remove the suspect. As a result, I discharged my duty firearm to eliminate the threat, North said. Rappa later told investigators that he had broken the window to open a line of communication with Soulemane and allow for the use of a Taser. He said he had not intended to enter the vehicle, the report stated. After a two-year investigation, Devlin determined that neither Rappa nor Jackson were in danger at the time and deemed the use of force unjustified. Soulemane was in the drivers seat of the Hyundai and they were outside of the vehicle, Devlin stated in the report. Although Soulemane held a knife, he was not using the knife against them nor presenting any imminent threat to do so, Devlin stated. Devlin also said it was unreasonable to fire seven shots. One shot, he said, might have disabled Soulemane from attacking others yet not kill him. Devlin concluded that when North fired his weapon, no one was at risk of imminent danger. North turned himself in to the states inspector generals office on April 19. He was placed on administrative leave and his police powers were suspended pending the outcome of his case. The Soulemane family has filed a lawsuit and wrongful death claim in the wake of Mubaraks death, alleging negligence. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com NEW YORK (AP) A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld Harvey Weinsteins rape conviction and 23-year prison sentence, rejecting the former movie moguls claim that the judge at his landmark #MeToo trial unfairly allowed women to testify about allegations that werent part of the case. The ruling by a five-judge panel in the states intermediate appeals court affirmed one of the highest-profile verdicts to date in Americas reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures an era that began with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. Weinsteins publicist, Juda Engelmayer, said he is reviewing his options and will seek to appeal the decision to the states highest court, the Court of Appeals. We are disappointed, but not surprised, Engelmayer said. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who took office in January while Weinsteins appeal was pending, said in a statement that prosecutors were gratified by todays decision, which upholds a monumental conviction that changed the way prosecutors and courts approach complex prosecutions of sexual predators. Weinstein, 70, was convicted in New York in February 2020 of forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant, Mimi Haley, in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in 2013. He was acquitted of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actor Annabella Sciorras allegations of a mid-1990s rape. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations, and Haley has agreed to be named. Weinstein is jailed in California, where he was extradited last year and is awaiting trial on charges he assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013. Lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents Haley, Sciorra and another witness, said that she was thrilled Weinsteins conviction was upheld and that her clients many sacrifices for the cause of justice were not in vain. Justice was done, Allred said. But now I am also looking forward to the criminal prosecution of Mr. Weinstein in Los Angeles, where I also represent alleged victims for whom charges have been filed. Former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who oversaw Weinsteins prosecution, told The Associated Press he has always had confidence in the strength of the case. He said he was confident that trial judge James Burkes rulings were fair and would be sustained on appeal. I am also grateful this decision by the appellate court fully credits the powerful testimony of the brave and strong survivors of Mr. Weinsteins abuse," Vance said. Today, they are one step closer to full closure of the legal process, which they deserve. The ruling follows several setbacks for women seeking to hold celebrity men accountable for alleged wrongdoing. On Wednesday, a Virginia jury found that Amber Heards abuse allegations against Johnny Depp were defamatory. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal after a Pennsylvania court threw out Bill Cosbys sexual assault conviction. In Weinsteins case, the appeals court took an unusually long time to rule nearly six months after contentious oral arguments last December that stoked doubts about whether his conviction would stand. The court had been expected to rule in January. At the hearing, some judges were critical of Burke and prosecutors, suggesting they were open to reversing Weinstein's conviction and ordering a new trial. Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels said Burke let prosecutors pile on with incredibly prejudicial testimony" from additional witnesses. But, in the 45-page ruling Thursday, the five judges were unanimous in finding that Burke had properly exercised his discretion in allowing testimony from three women who accused Weinstein of violating them but whose claims did not lead to charges in the New York case. The judges also concurred with Burkes decision to let prosecutors confront Weinstein with evidence about other, unrelated misbehavior if he'd testified, including whether he'd stranded a colleague in a foreign country, told people to lie to his wife, or screamed at restaurant staff while demanding a late-night meal. The judges, in their ruling, said that although the volume of material pertaining to 28 alleged acts of boorish behavior over 30 years was unquestionably large, and, at first blush, perhaps appears to be troublingly so, Burke properly weighed its relevance to the case. Weinstein didn't take the witness stand. The panel also rejected Weinsteins arguments that Burke was wrong in other ways: by keeping a juror who wrote a novel involving predatory older men, and by letting a prosecution expert testify about victim behavior and rape myths. Burke did not allow testimony on similar subjects from defense experts. Rules on calling additional witnesses to testify about prior bad acts vary by state and were an issue in Cosbys successful appeal of his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania. New Yorks rules, shaped by a decision in a 1901 poisoning case, are among the more restrictive. At the December hearing, Weinsteins lawyers argued the extra testimony went beyond whats normally allowed detailing motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan and essentially put the ex-studio boss on trial for crimes he wasnt charged with and hadnt had an opportunity to defend himself against. The jury was overwhelmed by such prejudicial, bad evidence, Weinstein lawyer Barry Kamins told the appellate panel. This was a trial of Harvey Weinsteins character. The people were making him out to be a bad person. ___ Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRIDGEPORT The sister of a Knoll Place woman shot to death Saturday said the victim repeatedly reported the suspects threats to police the last time being the afternoon before he allegedly killed her. She asked for help, Yvette Velez said of her younger sister, 30-year-old Marisol Mita Dumeng. She was asking for help. Even the day before this coward took her life. The suspect, Glenn Pettway, was found dead in Tennessee Thursday. Pettway, 28, fatally shot himself after barricading himself in a house in Jackson, Tenn., Bridgeport Police Capt. Kevin Gilleran said. Velez said Dumengs family was enraged when they heard of Pettways death. Thats a coward taking the easy way out, she said. Face up to what you did. Prior to allegedly killing Dumeng Saturday, Pettway was charged with threatening to kill her and was also out on $1 million bond for a 2018 murder charge. Velez said Pettway threatened Dumeng last only hours before killing her, after which Dumeng called the cops. She told the police, What are you guys waiting for, for him to come, shoot and kill me? Velez said. And then hours later, thats exactly what he did. Dumeng, a mother of four children 16, 12, 5, and 4 would put everyones needs before her own, Velez said. She was always there in everyones time of need, Velez said. She was very outgoing and active. Her children were her one priority. The children are now being cared for by the family, which includes Dumengs mother and many siblings. Velez said many family and friends went to Dumengs home after hearing she had been found there. She said many knew of Pettways background. We think that love can change a person, Velez said. Funeral services for Dumeng are planned for next week. A gofundme page to help Dumengs family had raised more than $12,000 as of Thursday. Her sister said the family is getting through one day at a time while considering what steps they can take. There has to be some type of justice, Velez said. The system failed her. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STRATFORD Superintendent Uyi Osunde proposed reducing 27 positions across the school district in his budget recommendations presented to the Board of Education Finance Committee at a special meeting Wednesday. The cuts to personnel, which total nearly $1.7 million, impact the principal position at Victoria Soto Elementary School, 10 district tutors, three secretaries, three reading teachers, three CIA positions, two nurses, a math coach and a social worker at Victoria Soto, one teacher for the hearing impaired, one secondary coordinator of special education and a lunch monitor at Chapel, according to Osundes presentation. There are also adjustments to summer helper and overtime budgets and some retirement savings. There was no cleaner way to do this, obviously the realities are the realities, Osunde said. We know based on the last four-and-a-half months of work, that it was unavoidable to impact personnel. Osunde said there have been 47 other positions eliminated over the past calendar year already. He said with the 27 proposed in his recommendations and the 47 already cut, it about equates to a staff of an entire elementary school and 7 percent of the district workforce. In total, the district is cutting about $2.5 million from the BOE budget passed in February. The cuts come after the Town Council approved a $123.2 million budget allocation for the BOE in the town budget on May 11, which was $2.5 million less than the $125.7 the BOE had hoped for in its budget. Over two-thirds of the proposed cuts are in personnel, according to Osundes presentation. His administration is also proposing reducing benefit costs by $580,000 and nearly $226,000 in discretionary accounts. Benefit cuts are from a reduction in the health insurance renewal cost and from health and employer tax benefits for the eliminated positions, Osundes presentation said. Reduced discretionary spending will be in the form of repair and maintenance spending and supplies. This is not an easy task, Osunde said. Osunde said the district needs to make sure to help those who may lose their positions find jobs, including notifying them early of opportunities and writing letters of recommendation for new positions elsewhere. Board member Lisa Carroll-Fabian said she will not cut a classroom teacher. I have said from the beginning, I cannot cut a classroom teacher, Carroll-Fabian said. I will not. Its not in me. Its who I am. I am a teacher. Victoria Soto Principal Koren Paul will be retiring following this, according to Osundes statement at a BOE meeting earlier this month. The position will not be re-hired as a part of the cuts, but an administrator will be in place at Soto, according to Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda. This will be a coordinator that is already employed by the district. Osunde reiterated that a written plan for the funding from the states Alliance District designation will be coming sometime this summer. It is estimated to be around $1.1 million for the district, the state Department of Education confirmed in May. The education department typically determines the exact figure sometime in late-July, they said. The BOE cannot use the Alliance funds to balance its budget, district Chief Operating Officer Pam Mangini said Wednesday. The district is looking for grants to continue to employ two psychologists and a social worker at Johnson House, according to Heather Borges, Stratford director of pupil personnel services. mike.mavredakis@hearstmediact.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BANGKOK (AP) The United Nations' humanitarian relief agency says the number of people displaced within strife-torn Myanmar has for the first time exceeded 1 million, with well over half the total losing their homes after a military takeover last year. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says in a report that an already critical situation is being exacerbated by ongoing fighting between the military government and its opponents, the increasing prices of essential commodities, and the coming of monsoon season, while funding for its relief efforts is severely inadequate. Its report covers the situation up to May 26. The military has hindered or denied independent access to areas not under its control, hampering aid efforts. Myanmars army in February last year seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread peaceful protests. When those were put down with lethal force by the army and police, nonviolent opposition turned into armed resistance, and the country slipped into what some U.N. experts characterize as a civil war. OCHA says that fighting has recently escalated. The impact on civilians is worsening daily with frequent indiscriminate attacks and incidents involving explosive hazards, including landmines and explosive remnants of war," the report says. It says that more than 694,300 people have become displaced from their homes since the army takeover, with thousands being uprooted a second or third time, and an estimated 346,000 people were displaced by fighting before last years takeover mostly in frontier regions populated by ethnic minority groups who have been struggling for greater autonomy for decades. The report also says about 40,200 people have fled to neighboring countries since the takeover and more than 12,700 civilian properties, including houses, churches, monasteries and schools are estimated to have been destroyed. As of the end of the first quarter of this year, humanitarian assistance reached 2.6 million people in Myanmar, or 41% of the 6.2 million people targeted, OCHA says. The country's total population is over 55 million. But it warns this years Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan is only 10% funded so far, falling short by $740 million. An official of the military government's Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said Wednesday at a news conference in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw that the government distributed humanitarian aid to more than 130,000 displaced people from May 2021 through May 27 this year. The official, whose testimony was broadcast but who was not identified by name, said 1,255 houses and five religious buildings were burned or destroyed in fighting between the army and local resistance militias, and consequently received government aid for rebuilding. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said last month that the number of people worldwide forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution has crossed the milestone of 100 million for the first time on record. That's more than 1% of the global population and comprises refugees and asylum-seekers as well as people displaced inside their own countries by conflict. Violence and conflicts in countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo had driven the total to almost 90 million by the end of last year. The war in Ukraine pushed the number past the 100 million mark. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an independent Geneva-based non-governmental organization, said 53.2 million people were displaced within their countries as a result of conflict and violence as of Dec. 31. Hearst Connecticut Media file photo / Hearst Connecticut Media WESTPORT A Stratford man has been arrested for using a stolen credit card last summer, the Westport Police Department announced Wednesday. Dean Henton, of Stratford, was charged with third-degree burglary, fifth-degree larceny, eight counts of third-degree identity theft and two counts of criminal attempt at third-degree identity theft, according to police. WESTPORT The superintendent and police chief are reassuring residents about school safety in Westport as more details emerge about the Texas school shooting. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure the Westport community that safety and security in our schools has been and continues to be a top priority, Police Chief Foti Koskinas said in a message to families and educators. The message comes about a week after an 18-year old gunman walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed 19 students and two teachers the worst school shooting in American history behind Sandy Hook. Westport officials responded locally by adding more police officers at the schools the next day even though officials stressed there was no direct threat in town. This week, Koskinas shared information about the polices preparations for these types of incidents. I assure the families of Westport that our officers and the officers assigned to our schools receive and maintain the best training, equipment and preparation available to law enforcement personnel today, Koskinas said. He said, while the message comes in the aftermath of the tragedy in Uvalde, the department has repetitively trained and meticulously examined the best practice responses for shootings for nearly 30 years. Our police department strives to be on the cutting edge of all training and education regarding school shootings and active shooter incidents, he said. We are extremely fortunate to live in a community where our town leadership affords the police department with the resources, equipment and training to be superior in our response to such a catastrophic event. Koskinas and Superintendent Thomas Scarice both stressed the partnership the police and schools have and how closely they work together on school safety and security. Scarice said the district has continued to work collaboratively with law enforcement and first responders since the Texas shooting to maintain the highest standards with regards to safety and security. That partnership recently played out twice within the district, first when two schools sheltered in place for a suspicious person who turned out to be a late student and then when a small electrical fire in the Long Lots auditorium prompted the school to be evacuated. In both instances our collective response within our schools, and in coordination with local law enforcement and first responders, was very successful, Scarice said. That said, we will continue to work closely with our local law enforcement and security experts to continue to maintain the highest standards of safety for our students, faculty and support staff. I can still remember the first time I visited the Emerald office just three years ago. It was two weeks before the spring break of my freshman year, and after applying to write for the arts and culture desk, I was called in for an interview. I got lost trying to find the door to the office and was so incredibly nervous that I stumbled through every single interview question. The smell of freshly printed newspaper permeated the air as reporters working their breaking news shifts typed rapidly in the bullpen behind me. I left the office certain that I didnt get the job. I felt too young, too inexperienced and too unqualified. But, here I am three years later writing a farewell column as the arts and culture editor. Saying goodbye to a job that defined and shaped my college years is more difficult than I ever imagined. It was in our newsroom that my passion for writing grew into a journalistic career. In my three years at the Emerald I have held five different positions, written 62 pieces, conducted over 120 interviews and led a desk of nearly 15 reporters. But, beyond the tangibility of the statistics of my time at the Emerald, I have built incredible friendships, found a community and discovered my love for journalism. Through covering arts and culture events, I have had the opportunity to meet fascinating people in every corner of our community and across the state. I have written about an art program for individuals with dementia to help them find solace, a museum that uncovers Oregons racist history while giving a voice to Black loggers of the past and present, a music program that gives a platform to budding electronic musicians and so much more. The journey did not come without a bit of chaos, and I have enough stories to tell of the tribulations of life as a college newspaper reporter (including interviewing elementary school art students, writing on a camping trip using a lantern and a hot spot, throwing together a cover story in three days and running the A&C desk while living 5,000 miles away). But, I wouldnt change a single thing. Ill never forget the excitement of seeing my first ever printed news story or the pride in watching each of my reporters blossom into incredible journalists. I am so unbelievably thankful for each and every person on the Emerald team for filling my time here with laughs, life long lessons and lovely memories. I am especially grateful for my associate editor Nika Bartoo-Smith for being my sidekick this year as we tackled running our desk through a truly crazy year. Thank you to our editor in chief Sarah-Mae McCullough for being a true constant in my time at the Emerald and for always being tremendously kind, calm and collected. And lastly, thank you to my A&C team for letting me lead you this year. I am so proud of all of you for how far you have come. Words cannot describe how sad I will be to say goodbye to UO, the SOJC, the Emerald and beautiful Eugene, but I am so beyond grateful for the time I had here. All my life, I have had to watch people rip up and tear down beautiful things in a strange search for a gleaming new Utopia. Yet it has always ended in desolation, a vista of treeless wildernesses and cracked concrete, like a giant car park. I have lived to see many of the bright, shiny, ugly new things that they built crumble and peel, and be demolished in their turn, having lasted less than a quarter as long as the structures they replaced. In my childhood, they had a great frenzy for destroying hedges. This would apparently make things more efficient. Wherever they could find a harmonious, handsome old town centre, they delighted in smashing it up and spoiling it with something ugly and new. Railway branch lines were closed and then actively obliterated in case they were opened again. Hundreds of ancient grammar schools were wrecked and replaced by comprehensive schools. It would be easier to unscramble an egg than to put them back as they once were. Crown stamps on pint glasses, like the one pictured here, could make a comeback under the government's new proposals All these things were mistakes. Everybody now knows they were mistakes. But the fascinating thing about them was the zealous fury with which they were done. Almost anyone who tried to stand in the way had about as much chance as the poor man who stood in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square. The poet John Betjeman saved a few good things, but far too few. Then came the changes in our coinage and measures and the hissing, blind rage and contempt you meet if you try to suggest there was anything good about what was lost. In the past week, on social media, I have been ridiculed, sworn at and generally scorned for saying that I hope the Government will do as it promises and stop trying to suppress our lovely customary weights and measures. The smuggest programme on the BBC, Radio 4's More Or Less, yesterday devoted several minutes to an ignorant, giggling mockery of customary measures. As we know, this frenzy led 20 years ago to the criminal prosecutions of traders who dared to sell goods by the pound to customers who liked buying them by the pound. Criminal prosecution? In what sort of country is this a crime? For years I mourned their loss, feeling something good and rather beautiful had gone out of the world. I could not quite work out why it mattered. I was told spitefully that I was 'obsessed' with a trivial matter. Why should I prefer a yard to a metre or a pint to a litre? Silly old fool. But then it came to me. The wiping out of these familiar things was not my obsession. It was the obsession of those doing the destruction. The metric and decimal systems were part of the French Revolution, and a particularly nasty bit of it. The Paris rabble-rousers wished to wipe out all the landmarks of life before they took over so that nobody could remember, or wonder, if times had in fact once been better. It was a cruel process. They killed anyone who got in their way, slicing off their heads or drowning them by the hundreds. They desecrated churches, sometimes getting prostitutes to dance on their altars. They abolished the old French counties, replacing them with numbered 'departments'. They even declared that the world had begun again, renumbered the years and tried to decimalise time. This failed. But only because people hated ten-day weeks in which they got even less rest than before, and because the laws of the universe, which govern the rotation of the Earth and the orbits of the planets, cannot be neatly measured in tens. Britain and the U.S. were spared this revolution, because they were so free and had the rule of law. Noisy zealots wanted to force metres and litres on them, but failed because nobody wanted them. In general, metric measurements arrived in most countries either because they were conquered by a foreign power, which imposed them, or because some sort of revolution brought them into use. The Bolsheviks even while they were busy murdering and imprisoning thousands of opponents, abolishing religion and fighting a giant civil war still found time to metricate Russia. They didn't think it was trivial. Hitchens argues imperial and metric measurements can happily coexist without the need to wipe one system out of existence Almost the only exception to this were the Commonwealth countries, which adopted the metre because they wanted to be different from the mother country. But once again it is all about politics. I don't want to stop anyone using metric measures if they want to. I am not like my opponents, who hate the measures I love and want them to be buried in a museum. I simply wish to end the effort to stamp out something that I regard as poetic, polished in use like the old tools I inherited from my father and grandfather, and above all else, being based on the human body rather than on some invented bureaucratic scale. You will find them in the Bible and in poetry from William Shakespeare to Robert Frost. Their invented metric replacements, inserted in literature or verse, look and sound ugly and out of place, like a botched repair job. Frost's lovely lines about 'miles to go before I sleep' fall flat when converted into kilometres. And imagine a horse race without furlongs. There is absolutely no reason why both systems should not co-exist, now that electronic machines can convert them in an instant. My bathroom scales can tell me how fat I am in stones and pounds (which I understand and respond to) or, at the flick of a switch, tell me how fat I am in kilograms (which mean nothing to me, but might to you). The secret of good government is to leave men alone. Let me keep my pounds and ounces, chains and furlongs, pints and gallons. And you can keep your litres, metres and kilograms. One of my fondest childhood memories is of cuddling up, aged six, with my grandmother in Ghana to watch Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002. Thousands of miles away in London, crowds were thronging the streets. The Red Arrows were roaring past Buckingham Palace as the beaming Royal Family waved to the world. At the heart of it all, of course, was the Queen: a constant presence in the life of her subjects and, indeed, across much of the planet. I have been baffled that in the run-up to the Platinum Jubilee, we have heard so little about the pivotal role our Queen has played in binding together the Commonwealth, Esther Krakue says At the time, I could not have known how profound an effect the Queen would later have on my life and education. But indirectly, Her Majesty and especially her greatest legacy, the Commonwealth have helped shape me, the country in which I grew up and the world at large in deep and vivid ways. As someone who first came to Britain to attend school as a 14-year-old in 2010, I have been baffled that during the run-up to the Platinum Jubilee, we have heard so little especially on the BBC about the pivotal role our Queen has played in binding together the Commonwealth. It is, quite simply, her greatest achievement. The Commonwealth unites untold numbers of people, reinforcing links between Britain and its former colonies and cementing the UK's position in a post-colonial world. As a Ghanaian and now also a British citizen I have seen for myself how this grouping of nations safeguards democracy, promotes equality, supports trade and improves education. Without it, the lives of countless people, myself included, would have been immeasurably poorer. One of my fondest childhood memories is of cuddling up, aged six, with my grandmother in Ghana to watch Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee (pictured) in 2002 Even the most sour-faced republican critics of the monarchy must swallow their pride and acknowledge that she has turned the Commonwealth into a phenomenal force for international progress. Today, 2.6 billion people one in three across the world live in Commonwealth countries. And it is only when you grow up in the Commonwealth that you can truly understand how many of its citizens revere the Queen. Let me be clear: the respect and affection felt for her are not accidental. They are the result of her extraordinary sensitivity and diplomatic skill. Ghana, for instance, was one of the first African nations to declare independence from the British Empire. In 1957, the former Crown Colony of the Gold Coast assumed its new name, and just four years later the Queen and Prince Philip arrived on a royal tour. The visit was a risky enterprise. Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was a hardline socialist with pro-Soviet leanings. Against a backdrop of bombings and anti-British rhetoric in the capital, Accra, royal advisers warned the monarch to call off her trip. She refused to be intimidated. The Queen believed that pulling out would show 'a lack of moral fibre'. In 1957, Ghana declared independence from the British Empire, and four years later the Queen (pictured with president Kwame Nkrumah) arrived on a royal tour. It was a risky enterprise The visit was a phenomenal success, capped by the Queen dancing the foxtrot with Nkrumah at a state banquet. Photographs from the night show her looking happy and radiant but note the joy on the president's face, too. There is a man having the time of his life. When the Queen's plane touched down in Ghana, Nkrumah was prepared to lead his country out of the Commonwealth altogether. By the time she left, he was pledging his 'personal regard and affection' and he spoke for the nation. My grandmother, who died in 2018, never lost that affection, and she passed it on to me. Her family came from a rural town on Ghana's western coast, but when I was a child we lived in Accra as a middle-class urban family. When I arrived in Britain, I expected a sharp culture shock. But I was stunned to realise how alike our two countries were, and how much culture Britain and Ghana actually shared. Both English-speaking democracies, they combine a predominantly Christian history with similar values, ideals and attitudes. Some of this is the legacy of Empire, of course, but there is no doubt, too, that the Commonwealth has helped to tighten these links. Britain, like Ghana, is a truly welcoming country. That friendliness must never be understated. The Queen represents it to her soul. When I first came here, I was struck immediately by Britain's multi-cultural ethos: the Sikh men wearing turbans, African women in gorgeous gold cloth, Orthodox Jewish children holding hands on their way to school, imams in white robes, Irish families (and everybody else) partying on St Patrick's Day. That is why it was so disappointing to read Stephen Fry's recent comments at the Hay-on-Wye book festival, accusing Britain of a vile deep-seated racism. It was disappointing to read Stephen Fry's comments at the Hay-on-Wye book festival, accusing Britain of a deep-seated racism. He was trying to burnish his credentials as a liberal 'British people: we do rather like to think that because we're politer and nicer than Americans, that we're a very tolerant nation,' said the actor. 'We delude ourselves. It's like any self-mythologising: we're not aware of what a white space it is and how unwelcoming it has been for people of colour, especially black people.' Of course, Fry was simply trying to burnish his credentials as a good liberal. But how ironic that he, a white man, presumes to speak with authority on how 'unwelcome' black people supposedly feel in Britain. Then again, that is how the Left always prove to themselves that they are not racist: by accusing themselves (and everyone else) of racism. Regardless, such indiscriminate observations only expose Fry's ignorance. Quite apart from the fact Britain and America have vastly different relationships with race, it is not a 'delusion' to recognise that Britain is a tolerant, open society. So is Ghana, by the way: that's why I feel so at home in both countries. Our shared values and history make our nations natural allies. In the wake of Brexit, I want to see more trade and more travel between Commonwealth countries. Why should a Polish bricklayer have more right to live in the UK than a Ghanaian doctor? That made no sense, and shows why Britain was right to leave the EU. The UK has few historic ties to Romania or Hungary to whose populations our doors were flung open by the EU's migration rules but a rich, deep and shared history with Canada, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Barbados, Belize and all the other members of that great coalition of 54 independent countries. These are the nations that help to cement Britain's spiritual and cultural identity. Brexit's critics called our departure from the EU 'xenophobic', but forcing the UK to shut its doors to the wider world inside a restrictive local trading bloc was the real xenophobia. Yes, many Commonwealth countries are economically disadvantaged much more so than most of Europe. The British tradition of fair play ought to stoke our determination to bolster international trade within the community. That's just one more way in which the Commonwealth can be a terrific force for good. If the Queen had not devoted so much time and energy to the Commonwealth, it might not exist at all today. Without that famous foxtrot, President Nkrumah could easily have pulled out and wrecked the entire diplomatic structure. Naturally, in the coming years, it will have to evolve to fit into a changing world, but tradition is as important as evolution. The Commonwealth is the Queen's great bequest to the world. It has made a fantastic difference to my life and I'm deeply grateful for it. So as I raise a toast to the monarch on her Platinum Jubilee, I will be remembering my grandmother, too and saying thank you on her behalf, as well as my own, for all it has brought the world. Social media users have been left outraged after advice on the NHS website about 'ways to manage chronic pain' went viral. British Twitter user Sarah M shared a screenshot of the advice in a Tweet, which racked up more than 22,500 likes, captioning it: 'Jesus Christ man...95 per cent of that page is offering no advice about managing your pain at all...@NHSUK just say you don't know anything.' The advice was taken from the NHS UK website, under the sections marked 'Live Well' and 'Pain' and reads: 'Ways to manage chronic pain. Exercise and continuing to work if you can are key to managing persistent pain, also known as chronic pain, to help lead a fuller life.' Other Twitter users were stunned by the advice, with some saying it contradicted what they had been told by doctors about managing their pain. One commented: 'It's a 100 per cent certainty that this is written by someone who has never experienced chronic pain.' Social media users have been left outraged after advice on the NHS website about 'ways to manage chronic pain' went viral British Twitter user Sarah M shared the advice online, commenting that the page offered 'no actual advice' about managing pain A second added: 'Yep that's about what we get. 'Surprised they haven't included 'We think you're making it up and it's all in your head' like the physiotherapist told me before giving me a HIIT routine I can't do and then asking me to leave.' And a third said: 'I was literally told exercise was damaging my joints and making my pain worse, what?' Another person commented: 'Let me just pop the pain that makes me cry on a shelf for an hour to do yoga...' Other Twitter users were left equally outraged by page, with some saying they had been advised by doctors to avoid exercising What is chronic pain? Chronic pain is defined as continuous long-term pain that either lasts more than 12 weeks, or persists for an unusual length of time following trauma or surgery. It is widespread: almost ten million Britons suffer almost daily, according to the British Pain Society. The mainstay treatment is normally painkillers. However, a swathe of new studies shows that our most frequently used strong pain medications are not only ineffective for common conditions, they are also dangerous and may even themselves cause chronic pain. Advertisement A fifth wrote: '"We're not going to help you anyway so just carry on as you were."' Another added: 'The NHS is objectively terrible for so many chronic conditions.' 'Chronic pain is such a wide scope of injury/Condition they shouldnt be giving any advice at all,' one commented. 'So basically just push through,' another questioned, 'Thats part of the reason I am where I am, cos I pushed through for so long.' However others disagreed and said the advice on the NHS website had worked for them, with one saying 'this is right on' However others disagreed and said the advice on the NHS website had worked for them. Dance is the greatest medicine! Expert says that doing a jive every day can reduce anxiety, help manage chronic pain Move aside laughter, dancing may be the real natural medicine for treating anxiety and chronic pain. Starre Vartan, a prominent science writer and former-geologist writes for the Washington Post that dance helped her get through tough, lonely, times during the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts agree that the activity can have positive impacts on the brain. While there have been known links between regular physical activity and improved mental health, experts say that there could be some further benefits for dancing. Daily dancing has been linked to lessoning anxiety symptoms, management of chronic pain, and even an overall higher quality of life for people suffering from Alzheimer's. Advertisement One commented: 'TBH, when I do move and keep active in the gym, it helps with my pains.' Another wrote: 'This is right on. 'If pains come from nothing else than old age, got to keep moving or pain will get worse. It's a cycle.' A third added: 'Yeah they don't know. But is this not the best advice they can give for a short and general blurb? 'Honest question, coming from my own unemployment and resulting stir craziness. 'Idk, I'd rather just be encouraged to stay active and engaged than be prescribed painkillers.' Chronic primary pain is a condition in itself which cannot be accounted for by another diagnosis or as a symptom of an underlying condition. Doctors often define chronic pain as any pain that lasts for three to six months or more. It is notoriously difficult to treat, and is characterised by significant emotional distress and functional disability. On the NHS website, the advice comes under sections marked 'Live Well' and 'Pain'. It reads: 'Lying in bed for long periods can make back pain last longer. Lack of activity can make: you stiffen, up, your muscles and bones weaker, you sleep less well, you become lonely and depressed, pain feel worse.' And it adds that a 'better approach' to reducing pain is a combination of: exercise, staying at work, physical therapy and painkillers. The NHS advice also offers specific options for exercise, painkillers and working. It recommends 'light' exercise, including walking, swimming, yoga, dancing or pilates. And the site also suggests talking to a boss or supervisor about your condition, trying to go in and work with tailored changes to suit you. Finally, it mentions physical therapy, saying that a course of it may help with pain and that it will be delivered by a physiotherapist or chiropractor. The NHS website also recommends painkillers but says that adults should try and stick to paracetamol. Evidence suggests cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which is already used in the NHS for chronic primary pain, improves quality of life and is not harmful. A newer type of therapy called 'acceptance and commitment therapy' has been shown in a small number of studies to improve quality of life and sleep, and reduce pain and psychological distress. A Mormon influencer has ignited a scandal online after alleging that she and her soon-to-be ex-husband were 'soft swinging' with friends in their Utah community, claiming they aren't the only ones getting divorced over the drama. Taylor Frankie Paul, 28, has blown up #MomTok a group of TikTok content creators who are mostly Mormon after announcing on the platform that she and her husband, Tate Paul, are getting a divorce. 'In my twenties, getting divorced, started therapy, living on my own for the first time ever along with two kids,' she captioned the clip from May 20, which shows her standing alone in her empty house amid her move. Three days later, she alluded to even more drama when she posted footage of herself lying in bed and packing moving boxes. 'My entire life is falling apart,' she wrote in the on-screen text. 'And I can't even speak on why... without bringing them down with me.' Taylor Frankie Paul, 28, has blown up #MomTok after claiming in a TikTok Live that she and her soon-to-be ex-husband, Tate Paul, were 'soft swinging' with friends in their Utah community According to the Mormon influencer, their friend group had an agreement that they would switch partners but not 'go all the way,' which is known as a 'soft swap' Taylor admitted she 'did step out of that agreement' when she got drunk and went off with a friend's husband, but she noted that 'everyone has hooked up with everyone in this situation' Taylor and Tate have two young children together, a daughter, Indy, and a son, Ocean, and she painted a rosier picture of their separation in a follow-up video. The short clip started with throwback photos of Taylor with Tate in happier times and ended with footage of them packing up their house. 'Excited to co-parent with my best friend,' she wrote in the caption. However, Tate didn't appear to feel the same way, and he deleted all photos and videos of Taylor from his social media pages. Fans didn't know what to think as there has long been speculation that their family life is scripted. Some thought the divorce announcement was a publicity stunt, and the couple was really moving into a new home together. Taylor is known for having a strange sense of humor, and she has joked about swinging and not believing in monogamy in previous videos. Taylor dropped the bombshell that she and Tate are getting divorced in a TikTok video she posted on May 20. The clip shows her standing in her empty home ahead of her move Three days later, she alluded to even more drama when she posted footage of herself lying in bed and packing moving boxes Taylor claimed in another clip that she was 'excited to co-parent' with Tate following their divorce. They share daughter, Indy, and a son, Ocean She's also made video in which she claimed she was 50 and that two of the women in her #MomTok crew were her 25-year-old twin daughters. As rumors swirled that Taylor had been unfaithful, other moms in their content-creation group allegedly unfollowed her and liked comments that suggested she had cheated on her husband, according to Rolling Stone. In a bombshell livestream on TikTok, Taylor opened up about her divorce, claiming that she and Tate were soft swinging with their friends. According to Taylor's account, their friend group had an agreement that they would switch partners but not 'go all the way,' which is known as a 'soft swap.' 'We had an agreement, like all of us, and I did step out of that agreement,' she admitted. 'That's where I messed up, and I, obviously, am losing everything that I have, so that is true.' Taylor alleged that she and the other wives in the group would make out with each other and each other's husbands when they were drinking Taylor is known for having a strange sense of humor, and she has joked about swinging and not believing in monogamy in previous videos She's also made video in which she claimed she was 50 and that two of the women in her #MomTok crew were her 25-year-old twin daughters Taylor (pictured with her fellow #MomTokers) refused to name names, but she stressed that fans could easily figure out which couples were in her alleged swinging group 'No one was innocent. Everyone has hooked up with everyone in this situation,' she claimed. 'So, yes, I'm getting shunned for doing that, but it wasn't like I was going around hooking up with my friend's husband. 'We were at a party, I got belligerent, and we went and messed [around] by ourselves rather than with the whole group,' she explained, insisting it was a 'one-time thing.' 'I was friends with these people, and we spent a lot of time together. We were intimate on several occasions, she added. 'It sucks that I have to admit this because...no one really wants to admit they're involved in something like that.' Taylor noted that she and Tate had other issues in their marriage before they separated, but 'this was like the tip of the iceberg.' 'Tate has made out with several girls and [done] other things, and I've made out with all of the husbands and [done] other things,' she added. She refused to name names, but she stressed that fans could easily figure out which couples she was referring to in the TikTok Live. Taylor noted that she and Tate had other issues in their marriage before they separated, but 'this was like the tip of the iceberg' 'Tate has made out with several girls and [done] other things, and I've made out with all of the husbands and [done] other things,' she said The mother of two did, however, claim Camille Munday and her husband, Sam, were not a part of the swinging because they brought 'too much drama' and Camille didn't want to be involved. Taylor made it clear she has nothing to lose at this point, saying she and Tate had told their families everything that had happened. She admitted her parents were 'disgusted' by the revelation. She insisted that she has proof of her swinging claims in the form of videos and texts if she ever needs it. Taylor also alleged that there are 'three divorces in the friend group,' but one of the breakups is not related to the swinging situation. 'They're going to deny it, and that's fine,' she said. 'I'm speaking my truth, and they can speak theirs.' There is now an entire subreddit dedicated to 'Taylor Paul Drama,' including a lengthy recap of everything that had gone down the week before. There is now an entire subreddit dedicated to 'Taylor Paul Drama,' including a lengthy recap of everything that had gone down the week before Miranda Hope McWhorter claimed she and her husband, Chase, were not involved in the alleged swinging, according to TikTok user @gossipingviv Whitney Leavitt hit back at the rumors on TikTok. 'It's so interesting to me that people are asking Taylor to basically "clear" their name,' she said. 'I'm like f**k that. I'll clear my own name' Taylor shared a video of herself falling onto her kitchen counter and banging her fist last week, writing, 'Every time I open Reddit and search my name.' And she's not the only one being affected. In addition to Camille and Sam, Brayden and Mckenna Rowley; Selver and Victoria Zalic; Chase and Miranda Hope McWhorter; and Conner and Whitney Leavitt are among the names that have been mentioned in regards to the alleged swinging. Many of them have taken to TikTok to deny any involvement with the scandal, including Miranda. TikTok user @gossipingviv shared a screenshot of one of Miranda's comments claiming she and her husband, Chase, 'definitely were not involved.' Miranda also denied the allegations in her own TikTok Live, claiming that she and Taylor had a falling out because she started a rumor that Chase had feelings for her. Amid rumors that Taylor was hit with a cease and desist letter, she took to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday to say that she had spoken to her legal team Meanwhile, Whitney hit back at the rumors in a clip she posted on her own TikTok page last week amid the drama. 'It's so interesting to me that people are asking Taylor to basically "clear" their name,' she said. 'I'm like f**k that. I'll clear my own name' 'I don't even know why MomTok was mentioned,' she added. 'I am not a swinger. I have never swang, and, hey, if you're a swinger and you want to swing, then you do you. But that's not me and Conner.' Amid rumors that Taylor was hit with a cease and desist letter, she took to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday to say that she had spoken to her legal team. 'Good morning,' she wrote. 'I first off wanted to thank my family for being so supportive during this time. Holy s**, family is everything. Also thank you to everyone else checking in without any judgement. I see you, I hear you. I'm overwhelmed though. 'After talking with my legal team I have all rights to share MY story if wanted,' she added. 'However, I feel that I shared a part and will not be sharing anything else from here on out.' Princess Eugenie has kicked off the tributes to the Queen asking her followers to share photos and videos of celebrations to join together in paying tribute to Her Majesty's life of service. The 32-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, who lives in Windsor, reshared a video posted by the Royal Family to her official Instagram page this morning on the first day of the four-day weekend for the Platinum Jubilee. 'Good morning dear followers on this momentous first morning of the Jubilee weekend,' she wrote. 'What are you all doing to celebrate? 'Send me your pictures of videos and I will post some on her so we can all join together in honouring HM The Queen's life of service'. Princess Eugenie has kicked off the tributes to the Queen asking her followers to share photos and videos of celebrations to join together in paying tribute to Her Majesty's life of service. Underneath the message, shared on her story, was a video posted to the Royal Family's page marking the monarch's life of service, including a sweet montage of photos from Her Majesty's life from being a young girl to today. 'On the first day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend and the anniversary of The Queens Coronation, we look back on Her Majestys life of service from her time as a young Princess supporting the war effort to her extraordinary commitment to her role as Monarch.' While Eugenie is not a working royal she has been vocal in support of her grandmother ahead of the historic weekend. Princess Eugenie is expected to more out of her home she shares her husband Jack Brooksbank and their son August this weekend as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning to return to Frogmore Cottage. The 32-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, who lives in Windsor, reshared a video posted by the Royal Family to her official Instagram page this morning on the first day of the four-day weekend for the Platinum Jubilee. In February that the Duke of Sussex had renewed his lease on the cottage, despite living in a sprawling 11million mansion in Los Angeles. It is currently rented to Eugenie. Yesterday, she paid a moving personal tribute to her 'grannie' the Queen. Writing in The Spectator magazine, said she hoped her one-year-old son August would grow to have the Queen's 'patience, her calmness and her kindness while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye'. She described the nation's longest-reigning monarch as having transcended time and been 'a constant rock for so many'. Reflecting on her 'own special little family' with the arrival of August, who was born in February last year, Eugenie said: 'I think of my grannie and what she has stood for, for so many people and for our family during these 70 years. 'I'd love Augie to have her patience, her calmness and her kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye.' Eugenie said that she hopes August, her son with husband Jack Brooksbank, inherits the Queen's patience and kindness In the piece entitled 'My pride in Grannie', the princess said: 'Seventy years is really quite something, isn't it? 'The Jubilee stands as a testimony to a woman who has transcended time and has been that constant rock for so many when the world can feel so fragile.' Of the Queen's 'We meet again' televised address in lockdown during the pandemic, Eugenie said the message connected the nation in the belief that everything would be OK once again. She recalled seeing the Queen and her 'grandpa' the Duke of Edinburgh standing, waving and smiling for eight hours in the rain during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, 'keeping the family and the nation moving forward' as they had done for decades. Princess Eugenie has paid a moving personal tribute to her 'grannie' the Queen in a piece for The Spectator. PIctured together on a rare joint engagement at the Royal Maundy Service in April 2019 The Queen is the first British monarch in history to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. Millions across the country are gearing up to take to the streets for parties and national commemorations held in in her honour during the special extended bank holiday weekend. The Queen, who at the age of 96 has mobility problems, returned to her Windsor Castle home with her dogs on Tuesday after a pre-Jubilee a break at Balmoral as she paces herself ahead of the four days of festivities. Her flight back to London was forced to abort a landing when her 13-seater plane was caught in lightning storm. The commemorations kick-start with the traditional Trooping the Colour military spectacle on Thursday, involving more than 1,500 officers and soldiers and 350 horses from the Household Division. But the Queen's attendance is only likely to be confirmed this morning, with royal fans hoping to see her appear on the balcony with her family for a special flypast, and possibly even review the troops. In the evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen, with the principal Tree of Trees beacon illuminated outside the Palace. There will be no ceremonial journey to the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen on Friday June 3, and the monarch, if she attends, will use a different entrance rather than scaling the steep steps. And the Queen's planned visit to Epsom for the Derby on Saturday is off, with members of the royal family attending on her behalf. Saturday is also the first birthday of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's daughter Lilibet, amid speculation the Queen will get to meet her namesake for the first time and possibly attend her christening when Harry and Meghan fly back for the Jubilee. In the evening, the BBC's Party at the Palace - set on three stages in front of Buckingham Palace - will entertain a live crowd of 22,000 people and a television audience of millions. The line-up includes Diana Ross, Queen + Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys, Nile Rodgers, Andrea Bocelli, Duran Duran, Bond composer Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel, Elbow and George Ezra. Charles and William are preparing to deliver public tributes at the concert to the Queen, who is due to be watching on television from Windsor. On Sunday, millions will gather for patriotic street parties, picnics and barbecues, with more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches being held across the UK. The finale is the Jubilee Pageant through the streets of London, with a cast of 6,000 performers and close to 200 celebrities joining the carnival procession. It is hoped the monarch will make a final appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to round off the weekend to see Ed Sheeran singing the national anthem with a choir made up of Britain's 'national treasures'. The Queen's distant cousin Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has led the foreign royals paying tribute to Her Majesty on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee. Margrethe, 82, who this year celebrates her Golden Jubilee, posted a message on Instagram praising the Queen's 'service and unwavering devotion' over her 70-year reign. The Danish queen, who is affectionately known as 'aunt Daisy' by European royals due to her close personal ties with many reigning monarchs, recently attended the Duke of Edinburgh's Service of Thanksgiving and hosted the Duchess of Cambridge on a solo visit to Copenhagen. Royal well-wishes! The Queen's distant cousin Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has led the foreign royals paying tribute to Her Majesty on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee Heartfelt: Margrethe, 82, who this year celebrates her Golden Jubilee, posted a message on Instagram praising the Queen's 'service and unwavering devotion' over her 70-year reign The message reads: 'Please accept my warmest congratulations on your Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of reign, service and unwavering devotion to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and Commonwealth. 'This unprecedented and remarkable achievement is indeed historic. It underlines the importance of the Monarchy as a strong symbol of national identity and historic continuity in a rapidly changing modern world, where many of our citizens struggle to keep abreast with the pace and risk losing their peace of mind and sense of belonging. 'Throughout these many years Your Majesty has been an unfaltering presence and a pillar of strength, encouraging and inspiring, whatever the circumstances.' Queen Margrethe II enjoys a close personal relationship with the Queen and was related to the Duke of Edinburgh through King Christian IX of Denmark. King Christian IX - dubbed the 'father-in-law of Europe' due to his far-reaching progeny - was the great-great-grandfather of Queen Margrethe and the great-grandfather of the Duke of Edinburgh. The Danish queen is also related to Queen Elizabeth through Queen Victoria. Close ties: Queen Margrethe travelled to the UK on March 29 to attend Prince Philip's Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey Royal welcome: Margrethe was joined by her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Mary in welcoming the Duchess of Cambridge to Copenhagen in February In April the Queen marked Queen Margrethe's Golden Jubilee with a throwback picture on Instagram. The snap shows the two Queens with the late Duke of Edinburgh and the late Prince Henrik of Denmark, during a royal visit to Copenhagen in 1979. Margrethe lost her husband Henrik in 2018. Margrethe ascended the throne upon her father Frederick IX of Denmark's death on 14 January 1972. This year marks the 50th of her reign. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will today be reunited in London with Prince William, Kate, Prince Charles and Camilla for their first official joint engagement together in two years at Trooping the Colour. In what is set to be a gripping - and highly public - family reunion in front of a watching audience of millions, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are also expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one. Treasured memories: The Queen, second left, travelled to Copenhagen with the late Duke of Edinburgh, right, in 1979, where they stayed with Queen Margrethe and Prince Consort Henrik Close personal bond: The Queen and the Danish Monarch, left, at Windsor Castle during a state visit in February 2000 The children are likely to meet their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at long last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for the shamed Duke of York even in a private capacity, showing just how far the Queen's son has fallen from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, and the most widely attended by the Windsors. Many had thought Her Majesty's appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional post-parade flypast would be the most keenly anticipated moment of the day. But it is likely all eyes will, in fact, be on the family reunion playing out 50 yards down the road instead. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been invited by the Queen to join family members watching the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. The room once used by the Duke of Wellington spreads out over the entrance to Horse Guards. It is where dignitaries traditionally watch from if they are not involved in the parade proceedings. The Queen has thanked the nation on the eve of her historic Platinum Jubilee, saying she continues to be inspired by the goodwill shown to her - while an official portrait of Her Majesty has also been unveiled to mark the start of the celebrations The group will not include the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge or the Princess Royal. Her Majesty will remain at Buckingham Palace where she will take the returning cavalry's salute from the balcony there. Charles will be taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He will be joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback. The Duchess of Cornwall, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and many other royals will travel to Horse Guards Parade from the palace in carriages. They will then disembark and watch the rest of the event from the Major General's Office alongside Harry and Meghan, who will arrive by car. The large royal party will also include all grandchildren of the Queen and their spouses. As well as the Sussexes there will be Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack and Anne's children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and their families. Royal fans sing the national anthem as they gather along the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London this morning Royal fans share a laugh as they gather along The Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London this morning Meghan will not have seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while the prince only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, will not be forced to greet the couple in public. And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Advertisement Kate Middleton stunned in a recycled 3,000 Alexander McQueen blazer dress today as she joined her stepmother-in-law Camilla and her three children for a carriage ride down the Mall to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, looked in great spirits as she smiled and waved at adoring crowds. Earlier she was seen riding in a car with Prince William, 39, who sported full military regalia ahead of his journey down the Mall on horseback. Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, also joined Kate on the Buckingham Palace balcony alongside Prince Charles, 73, Prince William, and other working royals, including the Queen. While in the past up to 40 members of The Firm have been spotted on the Buckingham Palace balcony only working royals and their children joined the Queen to get the best view of the flyover today, meaning there will be no spot for Prince Andrew or Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Today, Kate opted for a 3,000 Alexander McQueen coat dress which she also sported last summer as she joined senior royals at the Eden Project for G7 reception. Her Royal Highness is a huge fan of the British brand sporting designs on several occasions, most famously to her wedding in 2011. She added a Philip Treacy hat to the ensemble and paid a sweet tribute to Princess Diana by wearing her late mother in law's earrings and necklace. A bit of all white! Kate Middleton stunned in a 3,000 Alexander McQueen blazer dress today as she joined her stepmother-in-law Camilla and her three children for a carriage ride down the mall to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee The Duchess of Cambridge , 40, looked in great spirits as she smiled and waved at adoring crowds along stepmother-in-law Camilla and her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Kate also sported a sapphire and diamond necklace, which perfectly complemented the bright white dress Prince Louis, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Prince William are seen on the balcony today Kate, pictured with her family, tied her hair back into a sleek plaited bun and showed off her natural beauty with simple make-up look, pairing a light layer of foundation with smokey brown eye and pink lipstick Prince Louis puts his hands over his eyes as he hides from view behind his mothe on the balcony Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, and the Duke of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to view the Platinum Jubilee flypast Kate took centre stage next to the Queen with the two women giggling at young Prince Louis's reaction to the flyover There it goes! The Cambridges stared up over the balcony to watch the fly past today to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Mum duty! Kate joined her youngest son Louis at the balcony to watch the parade go by Ready to party! Today, Kate opted for a 3,000 Alexander McQueen coat dress which she also sported last summer as she joined senior royals at the Eden Project for G7 reception. Ready for action! Kate appeared to peer over the balcony after a carriage ride down the mall to watch her husband perform in Trooping the Colour Kate is seen with Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, as they supported the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla on the Balcony Peek-a-boo! Duchesses of Cambridge and Cornwall peer out over the Buckingham Palace balcony today Kate also paid a sweet tribute to her late mother in law by sporting a pair of earrings she wore on a trip to Canada The Duchess of Cambridge, 38, donned a new diamond and sapphire pendant crafted from a set of Princess Diana's earrings for an audience at Buckingham Palace in 2020 Kate tied her hair back into a sleek plaited bun and showed off her natural beauty with simple make-up look, pairing a light layer of foundation with smokey brown eye and pink lipstick. Her accessories included a Philip Treacy hat - the favourite milliner of royal circles - and diamond and sapphire earrings from Princess Diana's collection, believed to be a present from William before their wedding. The late Princess of Wales visited Ottawa in 1983 alongside Prince Charles and sported the glistening jewels with a pearl choker. Kate also appeared to sport a necklace from Diana's collection. She previously sported the necklace during her first reception at Buckingham Palace following lockdown in 2020, when she welcome President and Olena Zelensky. The design of the necklace is strikingly similar to a pair of earrings worn by Princess Diana, which come from one of Diana's most famous collections of jewels known as 'The Saudi Suite' A wedding present from Crown Prince Fahd, the set includes a sapphire watch, earrings, bracelet, ring and necklace. Diana, who famously loved sapphires, wore the entire set to a Brisbane state reception in 1983, but also experimented with each item separately. The earrings contained detachable sapphire drops, which Diana removed before wearing the resultant chunky studs, each surrounded by ten round diamonds, to mark Harry's birth in 1985. When William gave them to Kate after their engagement in 2010 she too put her own stamp on them, refashioning them into modest drop earrings but wore them in their original state today. The two future Queens looked delighted as they headed to the celebrations this morning, with the youngest royals in tow Taking a peek! Kate appeared to look out on the balcony ahead of the official fly over later Today, Kate opted for a 3,000 Alexander McQueen coat dress which she also sported last summer as she joined senior royals at the Eden Project for G7 reception. Future Queens unite! Stylish Kate paired a navy blue hat with the 3,000 Alexander McQueen dress as she rode down the mall with Camilla Kate Middleton stunned in a white blazer today as she was pictured in the back of a car on the way to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with Prince William and Prince Louis The Duchess of Cambridge , 40, looked in great spirits as she smiled and waved at adoring crowds while William sported full military regalia. Prince William (left) and Prince Louis (right) were joined in the car with Kate ahead of the celebrations down the mall The Duchess of Cambridge has previously sported the earrings but removed the top circular sapphires. Kate was first photographed in the elegant single-drop design in an official portrait at Clarence House on June 3, 2011. This morning, Prince William and Kate said they were 'looking forward to celebrating' the Queen's Platinum Jubilee ahead their first official joint engagement together with Harry and Meghan in two years at Trooping the Colour. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Today, Kate opted for a 3,000 Alexander McQueen coat dress which she also sported last summer as she joined senior royals at the Eden Project for G7 reception (pictured then) The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' They also replied to a tweet from the Irish Guards preparing writing 'Hope today goes well, see you soon!' They also replied to a tweet from the Irish Guards preparing writing 'Hope today goes well, see you soon!' Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. They were followed in the glorious sunshine by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their son James, Viscount Severn, and finally the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (L), in his role as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, Prince William (C), Duke of Cambridge, in his role as Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Princess Anne (2R), Princess Royal, in her role as Colonel of the Blues and Royals, ride their horses along The Mall during Trooping The Colour The two future Queens and future King rode down The Mall this morning ahead of the celebrations They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. It comes ahead of a gripping - and highly public - family reunion in front of a watching audience of millions, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex expected to be there along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one. Meghan and Harry were spotted at the window of Buckingham Palace, with Meghan sharing a joke with some young royals. The children are likely to meet their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at long last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for the shamed Duke of York even in a private capacity, showing just how far the Queen's son has fallen from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, and the most widely attended by the Windsors. The jubilee commemorations kick-started with the traditional Trooping the Colour military spectacle today, involving more than 1,500 officers and soldiers and 350 horses from the Household Division. Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte are part of the procession during Trooping the Colour in London today Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte joined the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall in a carriage The Queen leaves Windsor Castle with her lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey this morning to head to Buckingham Palace The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. The Queen's granddaughter, 18, looked elegant in a pink floral dress as she took her seat alongside Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and James, Viscount Severn, 14, for the procession down The Mall Lady Louise Windsor was the picture of poise as she joined her parents and younger brother for The Queen's Birthday Parade to kick off the Platinum Jubilee celebrations The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground But the Queen's attendance was only confirmed this morning, with royal fans sharing their delight to see her appear on the balcony peeking out at The Mall ahead of joining her family for a special flypast. Today marks another high profile event Kate, with experts previously claiming Her Majesty sees William, and Kate as 'very much as the future' and believes Charles will act as 'interregnum' with the 'burden of monarchy' falling on the Cambridges. Speaking to OK! magazine last month, Princess Diana's biographer Andrew Morton said: 'The thing about Kate is the Queen was impressed she adored and loved William for himself, not for his title'. 'She spends a lot more time supporting and nurturing the relationship between William and Catherine than she did with Charles and Diana. It's pretty clear she wasn't going to make that mistake again.' Many members of the Firm have paid tribute to Her Majesty on the historic occasion, with Princess Eugenie asking her Instagram followers to share photos and videos of celebrations to join together in paying tribute to The Queen's life of service. People attend celebrations of Britain's Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, along The Mall in Londo Harry and Meghan will watch today from the Major General's Office, circled, overlooking Horse Guards Parade in London Duke of Kent speaks to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Trooping the Colour today She has also paid a moving personal tribute to her 'grannie' the Queen. Writing in The Spectator magazine, said she hoped her one-year-old son August would grow to have the Queen's 'patience, her calmness and her kindness while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye'. The Queen is the first British monarch in history to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. Many had thought Her Majesty's appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional post-parade flypast would be the most keenly anticipated moment of the day. But it is likely all eyes will, in fact, be on the family reunion playing out 50 yards down the road instead. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been invited by the Queen to join family members watching the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. The room once used by the Duke of Wellington spreads out over the entrance to Horse Guards. It is where dignitaries traditionally watch from if they are not involved in the parade proceedings. All you need to know about Trooping the Colour in London today The four-day Jubilee celebration kicks off with the lavish Queen's Birthday Parade today. Here is the schedule: Starting at 10am at Buckingham Palace, it snakes down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, with members of the Royal Family on horseback and in carriages joining at around 10.30am. Event turns into traditional Trooping the Colour which has marked the monarch's official birthday for 260 years. The colour is being trooped by the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards - Prince William is Colonel of the Regiment - with up to 1,450 officers and soldiers from the Household Division putting on an extravagant display of military pageantry, together with 400 Army musicians and around 240 horses. Royal Gun Salute. 12.52am: 82 rounds in Hyde Park. 1pm: 124 rounds at the Tower of London. After parade, royals flank the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a special 70-aircraft RAF flypast. Prince Andrew and the Sussexes are not invited to the line-up, which comprises: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. WHERE TO WATCH Public can watch spectacle from The Mall lined with 200 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards or on large screens in nearby St James's Park, Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh or Bute Park in Cardiff. Advertisement The group will not include the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge or the Princess Royal. Her Majesty will remain at Buckingham Palace where she will take the returning cavalry's salute from the balcony there. Charles will be taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He will be joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback. The Duchess of Cornwall, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and many other royals will travel to Horse Guards Parade from the palace in carriages. They will then disembark and watch the rest of the event from the Major General's Office alongside Harry and Meghan, who will arrive by car. The large royal party will also include all grandchildren of the Queen and their spouses. As well as the Sussexes there will be Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack and Anne's children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and their families. Meghan will not have seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while the prince only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, will not be forced to greet the couple in public. And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Millions across the country are taking to the streets for parties and national commemorations held in in her honour during the special extended bank holiday weekend. The Queen, who at the age of 96 has mobility problems, returned to her Windsor Castle home with her dogs on Tuesday after a pre-Jubilee a break at Balmoral as she paces herself ahead of the four days of festivities. Her flight back to London was forced to abort a landing when her 13-seater plane was caught in lightning storm. This evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen, with the principal Tree of Trees beacon illuminated outside the Palace. There will be no ceremonial journey to the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen on Friday June 3, and the monarch, if she attends, will use a different entrance rather than scaling the steep steps. And the Queen's planned visit to Epsom for the Derby on Saturday is off, with members of the royal family attending on her behalf. Saturday is also the first birthday of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's daughter Lilibet, amid speculation the Queen will get to meet her namesake for the first time and possibly attend her christening when Harry and Meghan fly back for the Jubilee. In the evening, the BBC's Party at the Palace - set on three stages in front of Buckingham Palace - will entertain a live crowd of 22,000 people and a television audience of millions. The line-up includes Diana Ross, Queen + Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys, Nile Rodgers, Andrea Bocelli, Duran Duran, Bond composer Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel, Elbow and George Ezra. Charles and William are preparing to deliver public tributes at the concert to the Queen, who is due to be watching on television from Windsor. On Sunday, millions will gather for patriotic street parties, picnics and barbecues, with more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches being held across the UK. The finale is the Jubilee Pageant through the streets of London, with a cast of 6,000 performers and close to 200 celebrities joining the carnival procession. It is hoped the monarch will make a final appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to round off the weekend to see Ed Sheeran singing the national anthem with a choir made up of Britain's 'national treasures'. Advertisement Sophie Wessex was pretty in pink today as she made her appearance alongside other senior royals in London as the celebrations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee kicked off this morning. Donning a custom made gingham coat dress by Suzannah in certified sustainable cloth, and a matching hat, the Countess looked delighted to be marking the monarch's milestone and she rode in a carriage alongside Prince Edward. The 57-year-old royal is married to the monarch's youngest son Edward, 58, with whom she shares children Lady Louise Windsor, 18, and James, Viscount Severn, 14. She is one of the members of the Firm taking part in this morning's Queen's Birthday Parade, the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend. Sophie was spotted riding in a carriage with her husband and children, waving at the crowds as they travelled from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to the parade ground. Sophie Wessex, 57, was snapped riding in a carriage alongside husband Edward, and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn The royal was seen waving to the crowds as she rode in a carriage during the Trooping the Colour parade this morning, accompanied by her family The 57-year-old was seen beaming as she acknowledged the large crowds, waving to the people who had made their way to central London to watch the parade The couple's children, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, were photographed alongside their parents, with Lady Louise also donning pink, while her brother opted for a smart black suit An aerial shot of the Wessex family, showing Sophie, Edward, and their two children Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, as they travel in a horse-drawn carriage during the Queen's Birthday Parade The Wessex carriage was the second of three that left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, riding alongside Kate Middleton, 40, and her children in the first carriage. Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. The third carriage was ridden by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, while Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession. Meanwhile, the Queen left Windsor Castle this morning, travelling by car as she headed to Buckingham Palace. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. The Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis all shared a carriage ride today Kate Middleton, 40, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, also took carriage rides during the event, alongside the three Cambridge children Kate Middleton wore a 3,000 Alexander McQueen blazer dress, paired with sapphire and diamond earrings previously worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, and a white hat for today's festivities Prince George, eight, Prince Louis, four, and Princess Charlotte, seven, waved at crowds while they took part in the carriage procession at Trooping the Colour Prince Louis sat next to his big sister Princess Charlotte, as the pair took a carriage ride from Buckingham Palace down The Mall earlier today Eight-year-old Prince George, third in line to the throne, looked smart in a navy two-piece suit, worn with a crisp white shirt and a periwinkle blue tie Princess Charlotte was photographed squinting in the bright sunshine as she rode in a carriage during the Queen's Birthday Parade this morning, as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester were photographed as they rode in the third carriage that left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning While other senior members of the Firm travelled to Buckingham Palace by carriage or on horseback, Her Majesty was seen leaving Windsor Castle and travelling to central London by car this morning Her Majesty was accompanied by her lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey (pictured, left) as she made her way to Buckingham Palace for the first day of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend this morning Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. According to Animal Rebellion, the activists were protesting against the use of crown lands for hunting, as well as the 'crown's inaction on the climate emergency and their continued support for meat, fishing, and dairy'. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Protestors from Animal Rebellion were arrested after jumping over the barriers and in front of the parade. According to the environmental advocacy organisation, the campaigners were protesting against the use of crown lands for hunting, as well as the 'crown's inaction on the climate emergency and their continued support for meat, fishing, and dairy' Police wrested the activists to the ground, pinning them to the ground and pulling them out of the way of the marching band Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' While the full extent Queen's involvement in the celebrations is yet unknown, due to her recent mobility issues, we are expected to see the monarch three times during today's events. Her Majesty is expected to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony at 12.20pm during Trooping the Colour. Next, she is set to share the balcony with working royals for the RAF flypast at 1pm. For her third appearance today, Her Majesty will reportedly attend the lighting of the principal beacon - a 21-metre Tree of Trees sculpture at the Palace. Huge crowds gathered on Whitehall this morning, as members of the public headed to central London, in a bid to spot members of the Royal Family Royal fans were snapped watching the Royal Procession down The Mall as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off in London this morning The Queen is the first British monarch in history to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. Millions across the country are gearing up to take to the streets for parties and national commemorations held in in her honour during the special extended bank holiday weekend. The Queen, who at the age of 96 has mobility problems, returned to her Windsor Castle home with her dogs on Tuesday after a pre-Jubilee a break at Balmoral as she paces herself ahead of the four days of festivities. Her flight back to London was forced to abort a landing when her 13-seater plane was caught in lightning storm. The commemorations kick-start with the traditional Trooping the Colour military spectacle on Thursday, involving more than 1,500 officers and soldiers and 350 horses from the Household Division. But the Queen's attendance is only likely to be confirmed this morning, with royal fans hoping to see her appear on the balcony with her family for a special flypast, and possibly even review the troops. In the evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen, with the principal Tree of Trees beacon illuminated outside the Palace. There will be no ceremonial journey to the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen on Friday June 3, and the monarch, if she attends, will use a different entrance rather than scaling the steep steps. And the Queen's planned visit to Epsom for the Derby on Saturday is off, with members of the royal family attending on her behalf. Saturday is also the first birthday of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's daughter Lilibet, amid speculation the Queen will get to meet her namesake for the first time and possibly attend her christening when Harry and Meghan fly back for the Jubilee. In the evening, the BBC's Party at the Palace - set on three stages in front of Buckingham Palace - will entertain a live crowd of 22,000 people and a television audience of millions. The line-up includes Diana Ross, Queen + Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys, Nile Rodgers, Andrea Bocelli, Duran Duran, Bond composer Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel, Elbow and George Ezra. Charles and William are preparing to deliver public tributes at the concert to the Queen, who is due to be watching on television from Windsor. On Sunday, millions will gather for patriotic street parties, picnics and barbecues, with more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches being held across the UK. The finale is the Jubilee Pageant through the streets of London, with a cast of 6,000 performers and close to 200 celebrities joining the carnival procession. It is hoped the monarch will make a final appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to round off the weekend to see Ed Sheeran singing the national anthem with a choir made up of Britain's 'national treasures'. Advertisement Princess Beatrice today looked glamourous as she watched the Trooping the Colour festivities on the first day of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. As she stood in the Major General's office, Princess Beatrice, 33, seemed to be in good spirits, pointing at the festivities as they unfolded while standing with Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis. The royal sported a colourful recycled blue floral Vampire's Wife dress for the event celebrating her grandmother's official birthday. As she stood in the Major General's office, Princess Beatrice, 33, seemed to be in good spirits, smiling and waving at the large crowds and sporting a recycled blue floral Vampire's Wife dress She previously wore The Vampire's Wife frock when she went to view her wedding dress in 2020, ahead of going on public display at Windsor Castle Her husband Edoardo looked out of the window along with Kate and William's son Louis, who appears to be showing him something in the Trooping the Colour parade here Princess Beatrice paired her look with a pearl headband and kept her hair loose and relaxed, wavy as it cascaded around her shoulders. She previously wore The Vampire's Wife frock when she went to view her wedding dress in 2020, ahead of going on public display at Windsor Castle. The Trooping the Colour procession today included at least 250 horses and hundreds of military musicians with the parade route extending from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and back again. Traditionally, the Queen, 96, takes the salute and inspects the troops for the Birthday Parade, but after months of mobility trouble, passed the responsibility to her son and first-in-line to the throne, Prince Charles, 73, while the colour was trooped by the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards. Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 38, was seen smiling in the background as the Royal Family watched the Trooping the Colour festivities Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo was seen in the background as he watched the parade with the rest of the Royal Family, including Princess Charlotte, The Duchess of Cambridge and Lady Louise from the Major General's office The Duchess of Cambridge wowed in a white dress while waving at crowds alongside the Duchess of Cornwall in a carriage with Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Prince George Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Prince George smiled and waved at crowds as they participated in the Trooping the Colour parade today alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, wowed as she sat in a carriage waving at crowds in a 3,000 recycled white Alexander McQueen coat dress with a Philip Treacy hat alongside the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, who wore a sky blue Bruce Oldfield outfit and Princess Charlotte, seven, Prince Louis, four, and Prince George, eight- with all three children dressed in outfits to fit a light blue, navy and white colour scheme. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their daughter Lady Louise and son James, Viscount Severn, travelled along the parade route in carriages to the Major General's Office, which overlooks the Whitehall parade ground, to watch the rest of the event. And in the third carriage were the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession with the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The procession left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their daughter Lady Louise and son James, Viscount Severn, travelled along the parade route in carriages to the Major General's Office, which overlooks the Whitehall parade ground, to watch the rest of the event Sophie Wessex smiles and waves at crowds as she joins the Trooping the Colour celebrations with the Earl of Wessex and their children Lady Louise and James The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were seen arriving in a third carriage during the Trooping the Colour parade along the Mall today before going to watch the rest of the celebrations from the Major General's Office As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined the Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - whose cause is not currently known - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade Prince Charles, 73, was accompanied on horseback by Prince William, 39, and Anne, Princess Royal, 71, during the Trooping the Colour parade today Britain's Prince Charles and Prince William ride on horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee today Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined the Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were driven along the Mall as the Royal Family prepared for today's Trooping the Colour celebrations Later on today, the Queen's second appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony will be for the RAF flypast, which will see some 71 aircraft soar over The Mall in a historic display featuring Spitfires, Red Arrow Hawks and a Lancaster bomber. The jaw-dropping show will feature more than three times the number of aircraft which took part in the Queen's last birthday parade flypast in central London in 2019. They will take off from military bases around the UK before joining holding patterns around the south-east of England. The aircraft will then fly directly down the length of The Mall before the first batch reach Buckingham Palace at 1pm. The Duchess of Cambridge was driven along the Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour parade to celebrate the Queen's official birthday Some 18 working royal family members will be watching on from the balcony including: The Queen; Charles and Camilla; William and Kate with George, Charlotte and Louis; Edward and Sophie and their children Louise and James; Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Princess Beatrice's appearance in the Trooping the Colour parade came after her sister Eugenie this morning wished her 'dear followers' a happy Jubilee ahead of today's celebrations and encouraged them to share photographs and videos which she could repost on her page. Underneath the message, shared on her story, was a video posted to the Royal Family's page marking the monarch's life of service, including a sweet montage of photos from Her Majesty's life from being a young girl to today. 'On the first day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend and the anniversary of The Queens Coronation, we look back on Her Majestys life of service from her time as a young Princess supporting the war effort to her extraordinary commitment to her role as Monarch.' Princess Eugenie and Beatrice's appearance in the Trooping the Colour parade came after Eugenie this morning wished her 'dear followers' a happy Jubilee ahead of today's celebrations and encouraged them to share photographs and videos which she would repost on her page While Eugenie is not a working royal she has been vocal in support of her grandmother ahead of the historic weekend. Yesterday, she paid a moving personal tribute to her 'grannie' the Queen. Writing in The Spectator magazine, said she hoped her one-year-old son August would grow to have the Queen's 'patience, her calmness and her kindness while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye'. She described the nation's longest-reigning monarch as having transcended time and been 'a constant rock for so many'. Yesterday, Eugenie paid tribute to her 'grannie' and her 70 years of service. Writing in The Spectator magazine, said she hoped her one-year-old son August would grow to have the Queen's 'patience, her calmness and her kindness while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye' Reflecting on her 'own special little family' with the arrival of August, who was born in February last year, Eugenie said: 'I think of my grannie and what she has stood for, for so many people and for our family during these 70 years. 'I'd love Augie to have her patience, her calmness and her kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye.' In the piece entitled 'My pride in Grannie', the princess said: 'Seventy years is really quite something, isn't it? 'The Jubilee stands as a testimony to a woman who has transcended time and has been that constant rock for so many when the world can feel so fragile.' Advertisement The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children took centre stage today in the first royal carriage down the Mall at the start of Trooping the Colour - as four days of Platinum Jubilee celebration kicked off in style. Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, joined the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall as they made their way down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade for the historic parade. Proving that sibling rivalry can rear its head even on the most regal of occasions, Princess Charlotte was spotted ticking off her little brother Louis for waving too enthusiastically at crowds. An adorable clip sees the seven-year-old, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. Prince William and Kate Middleton's oldest child Prince George, eight, who was dressed in a sharp navy suit, with matching blue tie, looked on as the minor squabble broke out in the royal carriage. Little Prince Louis, stealing the fashion show in a pristine white sailor suit and bearing a striking resemblance to his father at the same age, who wore a similar outfit at the 1985 Trooping the Colour event, looked unperturbed by his sister's chastisement and continued to wave anyway. Scroll down for video The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took a starring role in the royal carriage as they arrive alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall today at the start of Trooping the Colour Kate Middleton offers a beaming smile as she joins her three children and the Duchess of Cornwall to head down the Mall; it's thought the royal told her three children: 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they headed to Horse Guards Parade And we're off: Kate Middleton encourages her children to wave as the horse-drawn carriage makes its way to the ceremonial parade Waves all round! The siblings offered warm waves to those who have queued - some overnight - to catch a glimpse of the royals at Buckingham Palace this morning...but Princess Charlotte wasn't entirely happy with her little brother's enthusiasm for greeting the gathered crowds A moment of respect: The Queen's great grandchildren bowed their heads as they received a royal salute after the Trooping the Colour ceremony A little sibling tension? An adorable moment caught Charlotte and little brother Louis having a few choice words over the youngest Cambridge's commitment to waving A big day! The three children, who will later watch the historic flypast over Buckingham Palace, appeared to be enjoying their moment in the spotlight Charlotte in blue: The young princess wore an elegant chiffon dress, in cornflower blue, by Patachou for the occasion, while her younger brother Louis bore a striking resemblance to his father at a similar age in a white sailor suit George offers well-wishers a shy wave as the family leave Buckingham Palace this morning for Trooping the Colour The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy Louis, four, looked relaxed between his two siblings as the Cambridge children took a central role in the parade - in front of thousands of spectators - in London today Nudged up between his siblings, the young Prince appeared comfortable in the public eye as he looked at the thousands of crowds gathered for the historic spectacle. Clearly enjoying the day too, the Duchess of Cambridge was thought to have told her children 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they bypassed thousands of well-wishers on the Mall. Kate is thought to have added: 'This is wonderful! look at all these people!' Kate looked chic in a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen, wearing her hair loosely plaited and tucked under a glamorous white and navy wide-brimmed hat by A-list milliner Philip Treacy. According to a lipreader, the carriage's young royals were clearly amazed by just how many people had turned out to mark the Platinum Jubilee at Buckingham Palace. The most au fait with royal occasions, Prince George appeared to turn to the crowd and say 'wow', as he noted the thousands of people at all the people. A giggling Princess Charlotte also remarked 'wow', while Prince George was seen saying: 'This is great'. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. Showing respect for their great grandmother, the Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. Seen from above, the horse-drawn carriage makes its way through the crowds this morning towards Horse Guards Parade Chit-chat: According to a lipreader, a giggling Princess Charlotte remarked 'wow' during the short horse-drawn carriage journey while Prince George was seen saying: 'This is great'. Right: Princess Charlotte pictured in the sunshine on the first day of Platinum Jubilee celebrations Kate Middleton is seen chatting to her children as they leave Buckingham Palace on the first day of the bank holiday celebrations The Duchess of Cornwall, looking elegant in pale blue stripes, had a blanket over her legs to stave off any open-top chills...while the Duchess of Cambridge, resplendent in white looked delighted to be in the first carriage to greet crowds That's my boy! Prince William, pictured as a young child watching Trooping the Colour, looked remarkably similar to his youngest child, Prince Louis, who also donned a sailor suit today William was four, the same age of his youngest son Louis, when he had his first carriage ride alongside Princess Diana and the Queen mother at 1988's Trooping of the Colour (pictured) While Prince William and Prince Charles took part in the military parade, the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall enjoyed a more relaxed journey to the Horse Guards Parade The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. Earlier today, the Duchess of Cambridge arrived in a car at Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour, with her son Louis, four, travelling alongside her The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in a car at Buckingham Palace in London this morning for Trooping the Colour The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. The royal family will watch as dozens of aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force will perform a historic flypast over Buckingham Palace. The six-minute display will include attack helicopters, Typhoon fighter jets, surveillance and transport planes and more. It's likely that the three Cambridge siblings will meet their Transatlantic cousins, Lilibet, nearly one, and Archie, three, for the first time today. The Sussexes are thought to have a grandstand view of Horse Guards Parade, as the Trooping the Colour parade took place beneath them. After the historic parade, senior royals will flank the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the special 70-aircraft RAF flypast. Prince Andrew and the Sussexes are not invited to the line-up, although the Sussexes attended Trooping the Colour this morning. By the Queen's side on the balcony will be the Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Earlier today, the Duchess of Cambridge arrived in a royal car at Buckingham Palace ahead of the historic parade with her son Louis, four, travelling alongside her. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Advertisement The Queen was joined by a slimmed-down version of the Royal Family as she stepped out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the Platinum Jubilee flypast following Trooping the Colour. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Royal Family: 1. The Duke of Gloucester; 2. The Duchess of Gloucester; 3. Princess Alexandra; 4. The Duke of Kent; 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence; 6. Princess Anne; 7. The Duchess of Cornwall; 8. Prince Charles; 9. The Queen; 10. Prince Louis; 11. The Duchess of Cambridge; 12. Princess Charlotte; 13. Prince George; 14. Prince William; 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex; 16. James, Viscount Severn; 17. Lady Louise Windsor; 18. Prince Edward Four generations of family: How is the Queen related to the royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony? 1. The Duke of Gloucester: Queen's cousin Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, son of her uncle Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester 2. The Duchess of Gloucester: Wife of the Duke of Gloucester 3. Princess Alexandra: Queen's cousin Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. Daughter of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. 4. Duke of Kent: Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent. Son of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence: Husband of Princess Anne 6. Princess Anne: Queen's only daughter and second eldest child 7. The Duchess of Cornwall: Prince Charles' wife 8. Prince Charles: Queen's eldest son; heir to the throne 9. The Queen 10. Prince Louis: The four-year-old son of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. Their youngest child and the Queen's great-grandson 11. The Duchess of Cambridge: Wife of Prince William 12. Princess Charlotte: The only daughter and second child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Queen's great-granddaughter 13. Prince George: The eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; third in line to the throne. Queen's great-grandson 14. Prince William: Queen's grandson and eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana; second in line to the throne 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex: Wife of Prince Edward 16. James, Viscount Severn: 14-year-old son of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's youngest grandchild. 17. Lady Louise Windsor: Daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's granddaughter. 18. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex: Third son and youngest child of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh Advertisement Following his ejection from public life, after settling a civil court case in America over allegations of sexual abuse against Virginia Giuffre (which he vehemently denies), it was inconceivable that Prince Andrew would be given a spot. Indeed, he was not even invited to join other royal family members including Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex to watch Trooping the Colour at the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. However, in paring the list down to just 17 people to avoid potential diplomatic pitfalls, the Queen has been forced to omit a number of well-liked family members including her much-loved grandchildren and their families. Her cousins, including Prince Michael of Kent, and their families, with whom the Queen enjoys a warm relationship are also out in the cold, with a total of at least 34 royals absent from the balcony. Their father's absence means that Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice also did not appear with their husbands and children. Their cousin Peter Philip's would typically appear with his now ex-wife Autumn and their two daughters, and so the York sisters would reasonably have been expected to be joined by Eugenie's husband Jack Brooksbank and Beatrice's husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi - not to mention the sisters' children Sienna and August, if they felt they weren't too young. (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today Prince Louis puts his hands on his ears during the flypast at Buckingham Palace today, having earlier waved towards the sky Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today Queen Elizabeth II speaks with Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Queen smiles as members of the Royal Family attend Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Queen appears on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon with the Duke of Kent The Queen points at the display from the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today Fighter jets from Britain's RAF fly in formation to form the number '70' during a special flypast over Buckingham Palace today Fighter jets from Britain's RAF fly in formation to form the number '70' during a special flypast over Buckingham Palace today Similarly the Queen's other adult grandchildren, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall have been excluded with their families, even though their mother Princess Anne and stepfather Sir Timothy Laurence joined the Queen. Four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off this morning with the Queen's birthday parade, which took place ahead of Trooping the Colour. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row in the carriage, known as a barouche. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground The Duchess of Sussex put on an animated display with Savannah Phillips (left), her sister Isla (behind) and Lena Tindall Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were seen speaking to the Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent during Trooping the Colour Prince Louis salutes as he watches Trooping the Colour with Princess Charlotte on a balcony at Horse Guards Parade today Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Princess Beatrice and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour from a balcony today Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour in London this afternoon The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Lady Louise looked elegant in a Philip Treacy hat first sported by Sophie Wessex, 57, to Trooping the Colour in 2009, which she paired with a vibrant pink floral dress. The teenager finished the look with a pair of delicate pink earrings. The pink ensemble perfectly complemented her mother Sophie's outfit. The Countess of Wessex opted for a summery pink gingham outfit with matching hat. Meanwhile James, 14, looked smart in a black suit and Prince Edward wore military dress uniform for the occasion. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. The royals, including the Wessexes, watched Trooping the Colour from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Among their number were Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, who have travelled to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday. The Duchess stepped out in an elegant navy blue dress and a dramatic wide-brimmed white hat with an oversized navy bow by British milliner Stephen Jones. The mother-of-two was spotted entertaining Peter Phillips' daughters Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, and Mike and Zara Tindall's girls Mia, eight, and Lena, three, as they grew bored of watching the military display. Meghan pouted, gasped and beamed as she put on an animated display in the window, with Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi watching from behind. At one point the Duchess put a finger to her mouth to 'shush' cheeky Mia Tindall, who was on typically boisterous behaviour. Also in attendance were Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack and Anne's children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and their families. The group did not include the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge or the Princess Royal. Her Majesty remained at Buckingham Palace where she took the returning cavalry's salute from the balcony. Charles took the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards was trooped and inspected the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He was joined by his elder son Prince William and sister Princess Anne, with all three on horseback. Prince Andrew has been entirely cut out of proceedings and will not appear during any part of the day. Following Trooping the Colour, the royal carriages made the return journey down the Mall in preparation of the flypast. The Queen, 96, exclaimed 'incredible!' as she stepped out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the return salute. She was joined on the balcony by her dutiful cousin, the Duke of Kent, who carries out engagements on behalf of the Royal Family. Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte are part of the procession during Trooping the Colour in London today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took a starring role in the royal carriage as they arrive alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall today at the start of Trooping the Colour Waves all round! The siblings offered warm waves to those who have queued - some overnight - to catch a glimpse of the royals at Buckingham Palace this morning...but Princess Charlotte wasn't entirely happy with her little brother's enthusiasm for greeting the gathered crowds Cheers go up from thousands of spectators in The Mall in London as they catch sight of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis with proud parent Kate and the Duchess of Cornwall during Trooping the Colour this morning The Duchess of Cambridge waves to the public as she arrives on a carriage to attend the Queen's Birthday Parade today The Duchess of Cambridge waves to the public as she arrives on a carriage to attend the Queen's Birthday Parade today The Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis ride in a carriage today Princess Charlotte rides in a carriage with her siblings during the Queen's Birthday Parade, the Trooping the Colour, today Prince George sits opposite the Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge during Trooping the Colour in London today After a brief interlude inside, the Queen re-emerged at 1pm to observe the flypast. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Lady Louise Windsor was the picture of poise as she joined her parents and younger brother for The Queen's Birthday Parade to kick off the Platinum Jubilee celebrations The Queen's granddaughter, 18, looked elegant in a pink floral dress as she took her seat alongside Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and James, Viscount Severn, 14, for the procession down The Mall Despite not yet being old enough to be a senior working member of the royal family, Lady Louise was invited to join in the celebrations alongside her parents and brother Lady Louise looked perfectly poised as she rode in a carriage with her brother James, 14, pictured, and her parents Lady Louise smiled and waved as the carriage made its journey from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade today The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. The Royal Family have now finished this portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although they will make other appearances over the course of the next four days. It is a particularly significant trip for the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has not seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while Prince Harry only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Charles is taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He is joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback The Duke of Cambridge takes part in the Royal Procession as he leaves Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour today Princess Anne, Princess Royal rides horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade in London this morning Brigade major James Shaw (centre, top) leads members of the Household Cavalry to Horse Guards Parade this morning Soldiers taking part in the parade along The Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade today Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, was not forced to greet the couple in public. And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Yesterday, the Queen sent a car and a security detail to collect Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet after their private jet landed in the UK from California, ahead of her celebrations. Lilibet has never been in the UK - or met any of her British family - while Archie, who was born in Britain, has not been here since he was a baby. In the latest sign that hostilities between The Firm and the Sussexes are thawing, Her Majesty's Land Rover greeted the family and their children at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire before taking them to Frogmore Cottage. Crowds of people line The Mall as they watch members of the Royal Family appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony today People gather along The Mall for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London this morning Crowds on The Mall ahead the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in London this morning An insider told The Sun that 'the Queen believed it was the right thing to do' to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The couple's Embraer private jet landing at Farnborough, and the Queen's black Land Rover - escorted by a Volkswagen people carrier - driving onto the tarmac. It is thought the family were believed to have got into the blacked-out VW car, and that they travelled without their customary entourage or senior staff working for their Archewell charity. It also said Netflix camera crews - who have been following the couple for an 11million documentary - stayed behind. Harry, Meghan and their two children were not given a police escort for the 40-minutes drive from Farnborough to Windsor. Lilibet will turn one on Saturday, with a party expected at Frogmore likely to be attended by royals such as Princess Eugenie, who is close to Harry and Meghan, and the Queen could also pop in if she doesn't attend the Epsom Derby. It will be the first time the monarch will meet the great-granddaughter named after her. But Prince William and Kate will not be there because they will be representing Her Majesty in Cardiff as senior working royals are sent to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the monarch's 70 years on the throne. Carrie Johnson looked stylish as she watched the Trooping the Colour parade on the first day of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. She stood next to husband Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a large crowd of other attendees. Mrs Johnson, 34, sported a recycled 85 fuschia dress from & Other Stories, a John Lewis hat and Michael Kors shoes. She previously wore the brightly-coloured frock at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2019. The duo appeared without children Wilfred and Romy, standing at the front of a large crowd. Mrs Johnson, 34, sported a recycled 85 fuschia dress from & Other Stories, a John Lewis hat and Michael Kors shoes The duo appeared without children Wilfred and Romy, standing at the front of a large crowd of other attendees Mrs Johnson previously wore the brightly-coloured frock at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2019 It comes after The Queen left Windsor Castle this morning as she headed to Buckingham Palace to take part in her Platinum Jubilee celebrations with other Royal Family members as tens of thousands of people packed London's streets. The Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waved for cheering crowds at Trooping the Colour today before the Queen's arrival, as they began the celebrations in style. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. They were followed in the glorious sunshine by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their son James, Viscount Severn, and finally the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The husband and wife appeared in good spirits as the celebration unfolded in the hot sun, and Mr Johnson sported a suit complete with a grey waistcoat Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Another carriage had the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn Sophie Wessex smiles and waves to crowds during the Trooping the Colour parade through the Mall today Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Advertisement The Royal family have delighted fans with their red, white and blue themed outfits for today's first celebrations of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. While the Queen chose blue, the Duchess of Cambridge looked stunning in white, while Camilla and little Charlotte chose blue, with Zara topping the theme in bright red. Camilla, 74, was in her favourite Bruce Oldfield striped blue outfit, pearl necklace and earrings and a blue Philip Treacy hat. Kate, 40, chose a 3,000 recycled Alexander McQueen dress paired with a Philip Treacy hat and Princess Diana's earrings. And Zara, 41, stunned in a scarlet Beulah London dress and floral hat. Children George, Charlotte and Louis were also in theme. George was suited in a deep blue and a matching blue tie, Louis was dressed in a white sailor suit, and Charlotte looking adorable in a blue dress. The Queen and the rest of the family have delighted fans with their red, white and blue themed outfits for today's first celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations White and blue! George, Charlotte and Louis were also in theme. George was suited in a deep navy blue and a matching blue tie, Louis was dressed in a white and navy blue sailor suit, and Charlotte looked adorable in a blue dress Blue! Camilla, 74, was in her favourite Bruce Oldfield striped blue outfit, pearl necklace and earrings and a blue Philip Treacy hat Red! Zara stunned in a scarlet Beulah London dress and floral hat. This morning Zara and her husband Mike stopped by The Stafford, London, to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity GOSH (the Queen is the patron of the hospital) White! Kate chose a 3,000 recycled Alexander McQueen dress paired with a Philip Treacy hat and Princess Diana's earrings The Queen left Windsor Castle this morning, also in blue, as she headed to Buckingham Palace to take part in her Platinum Jubilee celebrations with other Royal Family members as tens of thousands of people packed London's streets. The Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waved for cheering crowds at Trooping the Colour today before the Queen's arrival, as they began the celebrations in style. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. They were followed in the glorious sunshine by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their son James, Viscount Severn, and finally the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Prince William and Princess Anne during Trooping The Colour in London this morning Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne on horseback for Trooping The Colour in London this morning Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. Camilla, Kate and George look on from their carriage this morning as they travel from Buckingham Palace to Trooping the Colour parade The Duchess looked graceful and relaxed as she chatted with the Duchess of Cambridge and her children in the carriage The Duchess of Cambridge waves to the public as she arrives on a carriage to attend the Queen's Birthday Parade today The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. The Kings Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery ride down The Mall on their way to fire the ceremonial gun in London today The Earl and Countess of Wessex with their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn in London this morning Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Kate Middleton appeared to use distraction techniques to keep her three children calm as they played a central role in the historic Trooping the Colour parade on Thursday. According to a lip reader who examined video footage of the short journey from Buckingham Palace in the horse-drawn carriage, the Duchess pointed out Union Jacks in the crowd and kept talking to Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, to ensure they weren't overwhelmed by the enormity of the big occasion. At one point, the Duchess, 40, appeared to say: 'This is wonderful! Look at all these people!' as she travelled with her three young children and the Duchess of Cornwall towards Horse Guards Parade. An inquisitive Louis is thought to have spotted Prince William, who took part in the parade on horseback, saying: 'Look that's Dad.' Scroll down for video Big day for the Cambridges: Kate Middleton is seen chatting to her children, from left, George, Louis and Charlotte, as they leave Buckingham Palace on the first day of the bank holiday celebrations Kate Middleton offers a beaming smile as she joins her three children and the Duchess of Cornwall to head down the Mall; it's thought the royal told her three children: 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they headed to Horse Guards Parade Prince Louis, four, is thought to have spotted his father Prince William, telling his mother 'Look, there's Dad!' Clearly enjoying the day too, the Duchess of Cambridge was thought to have told her children 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they bypassed thousands of well-wishers on the Mall and a sea of Union Jacks. Kate looked chic in a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen, wearing her hair loosely plaited and tucked under a glamorous white and navy wide-brimmed hat by A-list milliner Philip Treacy. According to the lipreader, the carriage's young royals were clearly amazed by just how many people had turned out to mark the Platinum Jubilee at Buckingham Palace. The most au fait with royal occasions, Prince George appeared to turn to the crowd and say 'wow', as he noted the thousands of people at all the people. A giggling Princess Charlotte also remarked 'wow', while Prince George was seen saying: 'This is great' before asking: 'Mama, where does this stop?' Kate is thought to have answered: 'Thats the entrance. that is where we are going to be stopping.' A little sibling tension? An adorable moment caught Charlotte and little brother Louis having a few choice words over the youngest Cambridge's commitment to waving Kate Middleton encourages her children to wave as the horse-drawn carriage makes its way to the ceremonial parade Showing respect for their great grandmother, the Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children took centre stage as four days of Platinum Jubilee celebration kicked off in style. Proving that sibling rivalry can rear its head even on the most regal of occasions, Princess Charlotte was spotted ticking off her little brother Louis for waving too enthusiastically at crowds. An adorable clip sees the seven-year-old, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. Showing respect for their great grandmother, the Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. Seen from above, the horse-drawn carriage makes its way through the crowds this morning towards Horse Guards Parade Prince William and Kate Middleton's oldest child Prince George, eight, who was dressed in a sharp navy suit, with matching blue tie, looked on as the minor squabble broke out in the royal carriage. Little Prince Louis, stealing the fashion show in a pristine white sailor suit and bearing a striking resemblance to his father at the same age, who wore a similar outfit at the 1985 Trooping the Colour event, looked unperturbed by his sister's chastisement and continued to wave anyway. Advertisement Prince Louis took centre stage at today's London Platinum Jubilee celebrations, stealing the scene with his mischievous antics as he was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour. Louis, four, who is the youngest of the Cambridge children, was also photographed waving enthusiastically at bystanders earlier in the day, as he joined his siblings Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, seven, in a carriage ride down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade for the Queen's Birthday Parade. However, his most attention-grabbing moments came courtesy of the obviously strong bond he shares with his great-grandmother, the Queen, who was seen chatting to the youngster during the flypast, seemingly in an effort to distract him from the loud noise of the aircraft. And Louis seemed entranced, looking up inquisitively at the monarch, and seeking out her attention. At one point, he even broke away from his mother Kate Middleton, 40, to barge past the Queen, much to the bemusement of the Duchess of Cambridge and Camilla. According to a lipreader, during the noisy flypast, as Louis was seen trying to squeeze past the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony, Kate said to Camilla: 'He really is trying to squeeze by!' The Queen is affectionately known as Gan Gan by the Cambridge children - after Prince George created the adorable nickname for his great-grandmother aged two. Meanwhile, ensuring they remain close to Her Majesty, the Cambridges' county home of Anmer Hall in Norfolk is located in the Queen's Sandringham Estate, while London-based William and Kate 'will move to Windsor this summer to be closer to the Queen', it was reported last month. Prince Louis (pictured right) took centre stage at today's London Platinum Jubilee celebrations, stealing the scene with his mischievous antics as he was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour At times, the occasion seemed like too much for the four-year-old, who was snapped pulling a range of faces (pictured) during his public appearance Louis, four, who is the youngest of the Cambridge children, was also photographed waving enthusiastically at bystanders earlier in the day, as he joined his siblings Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte (pictured together), seven, in a carriage ride down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade for the Queen's Birthday Parade Louis (pictured, centre) appears to shared a special bond with his great-grandmother the Queen, who was seen entertaining the young royal during Trooping the Colour At one point while watching Trooping the Colour, the young royal appeared to be overwhelmed by the noise, and was seen covering his ears while shouting After his animated carriage ride, the four-year-old prince (pictured, centre) still had plenty of energy, and was snapped frowning as he saluted while watching Trooping the Colour with his big sister Princess Charlotte (picture, right) on a balcony at Horseguards Parade The Queen stands with members of the Royal Family to watch a special flypast from Buckingham Palace today (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today People pack The Mall as the British Royal Family come onto the balcony of Buckingham Place this afternoon The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today A body language expert today said Louis and the Queen share a 'childlike excitement' and 'natural bond' following their 'chatty and animated' display together during the balcony appearance. Judi James told FEMAIL that 'Louis made this conversation [with the monarch] look like the most natural thing in the world and his lack of anything bordering on fear suggested these two might share a rather close friendship based on shared fun behind the scenes, too.' As the planes flew overhead during today's occasion, Kate said to Louis: 'It's so cool look at that.' Meanwhile, speaking to her great grandson, the Queen said: 'Look up at all that smoke!', according to lip-reader Juliet Sullivan. After the flypast, she turned back to the young royal, and added: 'Lets go its finished now. That really was wonderful, so incredible.' The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' and have a 'natural bond', claims body language expert The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' when on the Buckingham Palace balcony together for the historic Trooping the Colour today, according to a body language expert. 'A rather charming dynamic was unveiled from a slightly surprising source today,' said Judi James. 'While the Queens empathetic and destiny-based bonds with George are well documented, her indulgence, warmth and an almost childlike shared excitement with Louis hasnt really been seen before. 'Looking so much like Charles at his mothers coronation, Louis rushed forward to lean on the balcony before becoming impatient as he waited to see the fly-past. While Kate bent to speak to him several times or stroked his hair in a soothing gesture, the Queens glances suggested affection and approval. 'The bond between the two looked natural and ongoing. While the other royals displayed signals of anxiety or tension in a bid to get it right for the "boss" they clearly still respect, Louis stepped in front of the Queen before tilting his head back to engage her in some animated conversation as they waited for the Red Arrows. 'Louis made this conversation look like the most natural thing in the world and his lack of anything bordering on fear suggested these two might share a rather close friendship based on shared fun behind the scenes, too.' Advertisement The young royal's performance did not go unnoticed, with people taking to social media in their droves to brand Louis a 'mood', and create memes featuring images from the day. Louis' attention-grabbing actions on the balcony followed his eventful ride down The Mall earlier that morning. He'd travelled to the Palace in a horse-drawn carriage with his mother mother Kate Middleton, 40, the Duchess of Cornwall, 74 as well as his siblings George and Charlotte. Video footage of the journey appears to show Charlotte ticking off her younger brother for waving too much at the assembled crowds. A clip of the children shows the seven-year-old princess asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. This prompted a minor squabble between the youngest two royals in the carriage, while their elder brother Prince George looks on. However, despite being told off by his sister, Louis continued to wave animatedly at bystanders, though all three children were snapped showing respect for their great grandmother. The Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. Louis was the spitting image of his father Prince William at Trooping the Colour; the four-year-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge looked adorable in a white sailor suit that is identical to one worn by a two-year-old Prince William to the same event in 1985. Some royal watchers have suggested it could even be the same suit, perfectly preserved for almost 40 years. The Royal Family are known for their love of recycling and handing down clothing, so there is every chance it could be the same. Eight-year-old Prince George, the future king, was given a more grown-up outfit, wearing a smart navy suit with a shirt and blue tie. Meanwhile Princess Charlotte wore a pretty periwinkle blue dress with floaty capped sleeves, adding a matching bow in her hair. At one point when Louis was watching Trooping the Colour with his siblings and cousins he even mimicked his father by pointing out something - just as William did with his cousin Zara in 1985. The young royal appeared to have won a legion of fans thanks to his outgoing behaviour, with many taking to social media to brand the youngster a 'mood' The Queen was spotted travelling from Windsor Castle by car for today's event, while other members of the Firm made public appearances in horse-drawn carriages, with three leaving the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning. The first carriage took the Cambridge children, as well as Kate Middleton and the Duchess of Cornwall. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The royals, including the Wessexes, watched Trooping the Colour from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Among their number were Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, who have travelled to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday. The Duchess stepped out in an elegant navy blue dress and a dramatic wide-brimmed white hat with an oversized navy bow by British milliner Stephen Jones. The mother-of-two was spotted entertaining Peter Phillips' daughters Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, and Mike and Zara Tindall's girls Mia, eight, and Lena, three, as they grew bored of watching the military display. Meghan pouted, gasped and beamed as she put on an animated display in the window, with Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi watching from behind. At one point the Duchess put a finger to her mouth to 'shush' cheeky Mia Tindall, who was on typically boisterous behaviour. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. The young Cambridge siblings (pictured, L-R) George, Louis, and Charlotte were joined by Mia Grace Tindall (far right) and Princess Beatrice (top) while they watched Trooping the Colour Prince Louis (pictured, centre) was snapped pulling faces while he waved animatedly at the crowd while riding a horse-drawn carriage down the Mall during today's Platinum Jubilee celebrations The oldest Cambridge child, Prince George, eight (pictured, left) appeared to wince as Prince Louis waved at bystanders while pulling a face from his horse-drawn carriage The Duchess of Cornwall looks to be enjoying sharing the carriage with children George, Charlotte and Louis, and sitting opposite Charlotte pointing at something in the crowd Despite the animated carriage ride, all three children showed respect to the great-grandmother, bowing their heads as the national anthem played The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took a starring role in the royal carriage as they arrive alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall today at the start of Trooping the Colour The four-year-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge looked adorable in a white sailor suit (right) that is strikingly similar to worn by the Duke of Cambridge, then aged two, to the military event in 1985 (left) Childhood memories: Prince William, then almost three, with his cousin Zara Phillips (left) and Davina Windsor, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at Trooping the Colour in 1985 Charles took the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards was trooped and inspected the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. Prince Andrew has been entirely cut out of proceedings and will not appear during any part of the day. Following Trooping the Colour, the royal carriages made the return journey down the Mall in preparation of the flypast. The Queen, 96, exclaimed 'incredible!' as she stepped out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the return salute. She was joined on the balcony by her dutiful cousin, the Duke of Kent, who carries out engagements on behalf of the Royal Family. After a brief interlude inside, the Queen re-emerged at 1pm to observe the flypast. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. Sophie Wessex looked typically elegant in a pink gingham ensemble while Prince Edward wore military dress uniform Lady Louise looked perfectly poised as she rode in a carriage with her brother James, 14, pictured, and her parents Despite not yet being old enough to be a senior working member of the royal family, Lady Louise was invited to join in the celebrations alongside her parents and brother The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The Royal Family have now finished this portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although they will make other appearances over the course of the next four days. The Queen smiles as members of the Royal Family attend Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today The Queen points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today It is a particularly significant trip for the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has not seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while Prince Harry only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, was not forced to greet the couple in public. Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were seen speaking to the Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent during Trooping the Colour The Duchess of Sussex put on an animated display with Savannah Phillips (left), her sister Isla (behind) and Lena Tindall Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike Charles is taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He is joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback The Duke of Cambridge takes part in the Royal Procession as he leaves Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour today Princess Anne, Princess Royal rides horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade in London this morning Brigade major James Shaw (centre, top) leads members of the Household Cavalry to Horse Guards Parade this morning Soldiers taking part in the parade along The Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade today Crowds of people line The Mall as they watch members of the Royal Family appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony today People gather along The Mall for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London this morning Jubilee security alert as police tackle vegan Animal Rebellion activists holding signs saying 'Reclaim Royal Land' after they break through barriers at The Mall moments before Trooping the Colour Police swooped on up to 25 protesters who smashed through security measures on the Mall ahead of Trooping the Colour. The officers pounced as they raced over barriers to where the parade will be held shortly. Incredibly two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the Mall as the marching band approached. Incredibly two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the Mall for seconds There were a total of around 25 people who had been intending to sit down in the middle of the Mall to disrupt the route Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them avoiding them completely. Minutes later they proudly tweeted: 'Animal Rebels disrupt the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations demanding that Royal Land is Reclaimed. 'This summer, we're taking bigger action against the Dairy industry than ever before, and we need you.' Beau King Houston, amongst those taking action, said: 'The Royal family has had decades to lead the way on a just transition to plant-based farming and has failed to do so. 'This transition is common sense and simple, we all win. 76 per cent of currently farmed land could be rewilded and absorb carbon from the atmosphere. 'This would restore nature, spare billions of animals, and present a solution to the climate emergency, all in one act.' The activists have accused the Crown - one of the largest land owners in the country - continuing to support the meat, fishing, and dairy industry. Protesters say these sectors and industries are leading contributors to the climate crisis. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: A number of arrests have been made of people who attempted to enter the ceremonial route in The Mall at approximately 10.10am today. 'The arrests were public order related for highway obstruction.' Advertisement And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Yesterday, the Queen sent a car and a security detail to collect Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet after their private jet landed in the UK from California, ahead of her celebrations. Lilibet has never been in the UK - or met any of her British family - while Archie, who was born in Britain, has not been here since he was a baby. In the latest sign that hostilities between The Firm and the Sussexes are thawing, Her Majesty's Land Rover greeted the family and their children at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire before taking them to Frogmore Cottage. An insider told The Sun that 'the Queen believed it was the right thing to do' to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The couple's Embraer private jet landing at Farnborough, and the Queen's black Land Rover - escorted by a Volkswagen people carrier - driving onto the tarmac. It is thought the family were believed to have got into the blacked-out VW car, and that they travelled without their customary entourage or senior staff working for their Archewell charity. It also said Netflix camera crews - who have been following the couple for an 11million documentary - stayed behind. Harry, Meghan and their two children were not given a police escort for the 40-minutes drive from Farnborough to Windsor. Lilibet will turn one on Saturday, with a party expected at Frogmore likely to be attended by royals such as Princess Eugenie, who is close to Harry and Meghan, and the Queen could also pop in if she doesn't attend the Epsom Derby. It will be the first time the monarch will meet the great-granddaughter named after her. But Prince William and Kate will not be there because they will be representing Her Majesty in Cardiff as senior working royals are sent to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the monarch's 70 years on the throne. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London was the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend. The event drew huge crowds, with thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders who tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. 'To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. 'Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Red, white and blue-tiful! Royal Family wear colours of the British flag for the first day of Platinum Jubilee weekend celebrations as Kate stuns in Alexander McQueen, Zara dons scarlet, and Queen and Camille opt for blue The Royal family have delighted fans with their red, white and blue themed outfits for today's first celebrations of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. While the Queen chose blue, the Duchess of Cambridge looked stunning in white, while Camilla and little Charlotte chose blue, with Zara topping the theme in bright red. Camilla, 74, was in her favourite Bruce Oldfield striped blue outfit, pearl necklace and earrings and a blue Philip Treacy hat. Kate, 40, chose a 3,000 recycled Alexander McQueen dress paired with a Philip Treacy hat and Princess Diana's earrings. And Zara, 41, stunned in a scarlet Beulah London dress and floral hat. Children George, Charlotte and Louis were also in theme. George was suited in a deep blue and a matching blue tie, Louis was dressed in a white sailor suit, and Charlotte looking adorable in a blue dress. The Queen and the rest of the family have delighted fans with their red, white and blue themed outfits for today's first celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations White and blue! George, Charlotte and Louis were also in theme. George was suited in a deep navy blue and a matching blue tie, Louis was dressed in a white and navy blue sailor suit, and Charlotte looked adorable in a blue dress Blue! Camilla, 74, was in her favourite Bruce Oldfield striped blue outfit, pearl necklace and earrings and a blue Philip Treacy hat. Kate chose a 3,000 recycled Alexander McQueen dress paired with a Philip Treacy hat and Princess Diana's earrings Red! Zara stunned in a scarlet Beulah London dress and floral hat. This morning Zara and her husband Mike stopped by The Stafford, London, to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity GOSH (the Queen is the patron of the hospital) Advertisement Who made it on to the Buckingham Palace balcony? Queen is joined by THREE generations of family including her cousins, three of her children and three great-grandchildren - but Harry and Meghan miss out The Queen was joined by a slimmed-down version of the Royal Family as she stepped out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the Platinum Jubilee flypast following Trooping the Colour. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Royal Family: 1. The Duke of Gloucester; 2. The Duchess of Gloucester; 3. Princess Alexandra; 4. The Duke of Kent; 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence; 6. Princess Anne; 7. The Duchess of Cornwall; 8. Prince Charles; 9. The Queen; 10. Prince Louis; 11. The Duchess of Cambridge; 12. Princess Charlotte; 13. Prince George; 14. Prince William; 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex; 16. James, Viscount Severn; 17. Lady Louise Windsor; 18. Prince Edward Four generations of family: How is the Queen related to the royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony? 1. The Duke of Gloucester: Queen's cousin Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, son of her uncle Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester 2. The Duchess of Gloucester: Wife of the Duke of Gloucester 3. Princess Alexandra: Queen's cousin Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. Daughter of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. 4. Duke of Kent: Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent. Son of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence: Husband of Princess Anne 6. Princess Anne: Queen's only daughter and second eldest child 7. The Duchess of Cornwall: Prince Charles' wife 8. Prince Charles: Queen's eldest son; heir to the throne 9. The Queen 10. Prince Louis: The four-year-old son of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. Their youngest child and the Queen's great-grandson 11. The Duchess of Cambridge: Wife of Prince William 12. Princess Charlotte: The only daughter and second child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Queen's great-granddaughter 13. Prince George: The eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; third in line to the throne. Queen's great-grandson 14. Prince William: Queen's grandson and eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana; second in line to the throne 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex: Wife of Prince Edward 16. James, Viscount Severn: 14-year-old son of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's youngest grandchild. 17. Lady Louise Windsor: Daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's granddaughter. 18. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex: Third son and youngest child of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh Advertisement Following his ejection from public life, after settling a civil court case in America over allegations of sexual abuse against Virginia Giuffre (which he vehemently denies), it was inconceivable that Prince Andrew would be given a spot. Indeed, he was not even invited to join other royal family members including Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex to watch Trooping the Colour at the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. However, in paring the list down to just 17 people to avoid potential diplomatic pitfalls, the Queen has been forced to omit a number of well-liked family members including her much-loved grandchildren and their families. Her cousins, including Prince Michael of Kent, and their families, with whom the Queen enjoys a warm relationship are also out in the cold, with a total of at least 34 royals absent from the balcony. Their father's absence means that Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice also did not appear with their husbands and children. Their cousin Peter Philip's would typically appear with his now ex-wife Autumn and their two daughters, and so the York sisters would reasonably have been expected to be joined by Eugenie's husband Jack Brooksbank and Beatrice's husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi - not to mention the sisters' children Sienna and August, if they felt they weren't too young. Similarly the Queen's other adult grandchildren, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall have been excluded with their families, even though their mother Princess Anne and stepfather Sir Timothy Laurence joined the Queen. How Kate Middleton kept her kids calm: Duchess talked her three youngsters through every step of the parade and pointed out the flags, colours and crowds on their first major royal engagement as a trio Kate Middleton appeared to use distraction techniques to keep her three children calm as they played a central role in the historic Trooping the Colour parade on Thursday. According to a lip reader who examined video footage of the short journey from Buckingham Palace in the horse-drawn carriage, the Duchess pointed out Union Jacks in the crowd and kept talking to Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, to ensure they weren't overwhelmed by the enormity of the big occasion. At one point, the Duchess, 40, appeared to say: 'This is wonderful! Look at all these people!' as she travelled with her three young children and the Duchess of Cornwall towards Horse Guards Parade. An inquisitive Louis is thought to have spotted Prince William, who took part in the parade on horseback, saying: 'Look that's Dad.' Big day for the Cambridges: Kate Middleton is seen chatting to her children, from left, George, Louis and Charlotte, as they leave Buckingham Palace on the first day of the bank holiday celebrations Kate Middleton offers a beaming smile as she joins her three children and the Duchess of Cornwall to head down the Mall; it's thought the royal told her three children: 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they headed to Horse Guards Parade Clearly enjoying the day too, the Duchess of Cambridge was thought to have told her children 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they bypassed thousands of well-wishers on the Mall and a sea of Union Jacks. Kate looked chic in a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen, wearing her hair loosely plaited and tucked under a glamorous white and navy wide-brimmed hat by A-list milliner Philip Treacy. According to the lipreader, the carriage's young royals were clearly amazed by just how many people had turned out to mark the Platinum Jubilee at Buckingham Palace. The most au fait with royal occasions, Prince George appeared to turn to the crowd and say 'wow', as he noted the thousands of people at all the people. A giggling Princess Charlotte also remarked 'wow', while Prince George was seen saying: 'This is great' before asking: 'Mama, where does this stop?' Kate is thought to have answered: 'Thats the entrance. that is where we are going to be stopping.' A little sibling tension? An adorable moment caught Charlotte and little brother Louis having a few choice words over the youngest Cambridge's commitment to waving Her Majesty, 96, was spotted on the balcony looking over the Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour Advertisement The Queen ditched her staghorn walking stick for a brand new walking aid for the Jubilee. Her Majesty, 96, was spotted on the balcony looking over the Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour alongside her cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. The royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. But today, she instead picked a brand new cane, which appeared to have a marble handle and wooden body and which was made by Cumbria-based traditional stick maker Dennis Wall. General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, chief of the general staff, had presented her with the gift as a symbol of the British Army's support. Her Majesty, 96, was spotted on the balcony looking over the Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour alongside her cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. The royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. But today, she instead picked a brand new cane, which appeared to have a marble handle and wooden body. Queen Elizabeth II with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales during Trooping the Colour with her new walking stick on show Elizabeth II and Prince Louis of Cambridge during Trooping the Colour, while little Louis stole the show, the Queen debuted a walking stick The royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip 's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. She is pictured today with a new one The walking stick is made of mottled hazel, locally sourced in Cumbria, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The wood is thought of as a protective talisman in English mythology and is traditionally known in Ireland as the 'Tree of Knowledge', the MoD added. Meanwhile, the handle is made from Highland Cow horn, a breed originating in the Scottish Highlands - said to be known for its hardy and robust constitution. The collar of the stick, made from silver, has been engraved by Sam James Engraving, based in Goldsmiths' Centre in London. It says: 'The Army presents its loyal support to THE SOVEREIGN. Platinum Jubilee MCMLII-MMXXII.' The Army crest is also engraved into the collar. General Sir Mark said: 'It was a great privilege in celebration of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee to hand over a small token of our gratitude and appreciation of our sovereign's contribution to the Army over the last 70 years. 'We wanted something useful and relevant and always to hand that represented our loyal support and which Her Majesty might find helpful. And this beautiful walking stick, fashioned from mottled hazel with a Highland Cow horn handle, fitted the bill perfectly. It's elegant, simple and wonderfully handy.' Last month to kick of the Jubilee celebrations, The Queen favoured a stag horn mobility aid as she enjoyed the first of the jubilee celebrations at Windsor Castle for the Royal Windsor Horse Show. She used the same cane in March at an official engagement at her Windsor Castle home. Staghorn walking sticks are usually used to blend into natural surroundings when walking outdoors. The Queen has been spotted with Philips trusty stick on many occasions since his death aged 99 in April last year. In February, she met estate workers, volunteers and members of the local Womens Institute in her first public engagement for more than three months. The monarch is thought to have taken to using the stick during her stay at Wood Farm, the cottage on the Sandringham estate where the Duke spent his retirement. The Queen left Prince Philip's walking stick at home in May in favour of a stag horn mobility aid as she enjoyed the first of the jubilee celebrations at Windsor Castle She is often spotted with her late husband's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle (pictured in February at Sandringham). Philip is pictured left in 2013 She was spotted with the same cane in March at an official engagement at her Windsor Castle home Though she walked largely unaided, the Queen carried Philips trusty stick as she met estate workers, volunteers and members of the local Womens Institute in her first public engagement for more than three months Prince Philip's biographer Gyles Brandreth told The Telegraph at the time: 'I recognised the stick instantly as it was always kept in a pot by the front door. It was the Duke's stick, and it is very touching that the Queen has started using it.' Philip was last seen carrying the walking stick publicly in 2013, as he returned to royal duties after undergoing abdominal surgery. The distinctive stick features curved handle carved from horn, and is reportedly longer than standard walking sticks. Prior to this year, the Queen was rarely seen with a walking stick, but she has previously been photographed using one on a few occasions, including at engagements in 2003 and 2004. The Queen leaves Windsor Castle with her lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey this morning to head to Buckingham Palace On October 12th last year, Her Majesty was seen using stick for support in public for the first time in nearly 20 years as she marked the Royal British Legion centenary at Westminster Abbey. Two days later, she carried a stick as she as she attended the sixth ceremonial opening of the Senedd at the Welsh Parliament building in Cardiff. The monarch had stayed in Philips's beloved Wood Farm cottage for the 70th anniversary of her father's death, which also marked her Accession Day, on February 6th. The pictures will diminish health fears surrounding Her Majesty that have circulated in recent weeks. The Queen has been forced to cancel a string of engagements in recent months and last week missed the State Opening of Parliament, symbolically asking her son, Prince Charles, and grandson, Prince William, to stand in. But royal aides insist that despite what they describe as 'episodic' mobility issues, the monarch is in good spirits and very much in charge behind the scenes. The Queen left Windsor Castle this morning as she headed to Buckingham Palace to take part in her Platinum Jubilee celebrations with other Royal Family members as tens of thousands of people packed London's streets. The Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waved for cheering crowds at Trooping the Colour today before the Queen's arrival, as they began the celebrations in style. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. They were followed in the glorious sunshine by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their son James, Viscount Severn, and finally the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (L), in his role as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, Prince William (C), Duke of Cambridge, in his role as Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Princess Anne (2R), Princess Royal, in her role as Colonel of the Blues and Royals, ride their horses along The Mall during Trooping The Colour Ready to party! Today, Kate opted for a 3,000 Alexander McQueen coat dress which she also sported last summer as she joined senior royals at the Eden Project for G7 reception. A bit of all white! Kate Middleton stunned in a 3,000 Alexander McQueen blazer dress today as she joined her stepmother-in-law Camilla and her three children for a carriage ride down the mall to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee The Queen's granddaughter, 18, looked elegant in a pink floral dress as she took her seat alongside Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and James, Viscount Severn, 14, for the procession down The Mall Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte are part of the procession during Trooping the Colour in London today Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour People attend celebrations of Britain's Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, along The Mall in London The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Advertisement Cousins Mia Tindall and Princess Charlotte were seen playing together - including some gentle patting - ahead of the Buckingham Palace flypast today, with the Duchess of Cambridge at one point appearing to try and keep the lively duo in line. Spotted through the palace windows as the senior royals prepared to step out onto the balcony ahead of the flypast of aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force, the two cousins looked to be thoroughly enjoying each others' company. Mia, eight, the eldest daughter of the Queen's granddaughter, Zara Tindall and husband Mike, appeared to be leading the sparring with her younger cousin, the daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Earlier, Meghan Markle, appearing for the first time in the UK since leaving for the US with Prince Harry in 2020, also appeared to try and keep the royal children calm as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, chatted with 11-year-old Savannah and sister Isla, 10, together with Lena Tindall, three, and her older sister Mia, eight, appeared to shush the smiling children as they chatted at the window. Scroll down for video Cousins Mia Tindall, eight, and Princess Charlotte, seven, are spotted giggling through the window at Buckingham Palace as they prepared to watch the gun salute and flypast In the background, the Duchess of Cambridge is seen trying to calm her seven-year-old daughter and her cousin as the family prepared to join the Queen on the balcony for the 71-aircraft flypast Close cousins! Charlotte, 7, is just a year younger than Mia, 8, so it's no wonder the pair gravitate towards each other on royal occasions. The girls were seen observing the action from the Major General's Office. Quite a view! Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Mia Tindall on the balcony, with Princess Beatrice in the background Meghan Markle, appearing for the first time in the UK since leaving the country in 2020, appeared to shush the royal children as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall During the royal bout of sparring, Mia, dressed in a cream dress with a floral design, and matched with a red headband, giggled with her younger cousin as they awaited their moment in the spotlight. Seven-year-old Charlotte, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen batting hands with her cousin - with both girls laughing. Later, the pair joined Prince George and Prince Louis to lean out of the window, getting a bird's eye view of the thousands of people lining the Mall below. Following the Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London this morning, the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, senior royals gathered on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the flypast at 1pm. Lady Louise, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex is also spotted in the background as the royals await the 1pm flypast Nailbiting finish! Princess Charlotte was spotted chewing on her finger as she took in all the action Earlier today, Princess Charlotte wasn't entirely happy with her little brother's enthusiasm for greeting the gathered crowds as they left Buckingham Palace, telling the four-year-old to 'stop waving' Earlier, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children had taken centre stage in the first royal carriage down the Mall at the start of Trooping the Colour - as four days of Platinum Jubilee celebration kicked off in style. Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, joined the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall on Horse Guards Parade for the historic event. Proving that sibling rivalry can rear its head even on the most regal of occasions, Princess Charlotte was spotted ticking off her little brother Louis for waving too enthusiastically at crowds. An adorable clip sees the seven-year-old, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. Prince William and Kate Middleton's oldest child Prince George, eight, who was dressed in a sharp navy suit, with matching blue tie, looked on as the minor squabble broke out in the royal carriage. Little Prince Louis, stealing the fashion show in a pristine white sailor suit and bearing a striking resemblance to his father at the same age, who wore a similar outfit at the 1985 Trooping the Colour event, looked unperturbed by his sister's chastisement and continued to wave anyway. Meanwhile Mia Tindall's mother, Zara Tindall, looked stunning in scarlet today as she arrived for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The Queen's granddaughter donned a 450 silk Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. In an Instagram post this morning, he said they were looking forward to the next few days 'celebrating one of the greatest women on this planet'. The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. Zara and Mike Tindall stopped off at The Stafford, London, to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity GOSH, of which the Queen is patron, and artist Carne Griffiths on the release of his portrait 'The Platinum Queen' before heading to Buckingham Palace for the Trooping The Colour ceremony The couple stopped off at The Stafford, London, to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity GOSH, of which the Queen is patron, and artist Carne Griffiths on the release of his portrait 'The Platinum Queen' before heading to Buckingham Palace for the Trooping The Colour ceremony. His portrait depicts the young Queen Elizabeth shortly before her coronation almost seven decades ago. Griffiths, known for using tea, ink and alcohol in his work, is releasing 70 limited edition prints - as well as artist proofs - to mark the monarch's Platinum Jubilee, one for each year of her historic reign. The couple are not part of the parade, but will watch the action with other members of the royal family from the Major General's Office. Advertisement The Queen was joined by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace today in her first balcony appearance since the death of Prince Philip. Before being joined by the rest of her family, the Queen, 96, stepped out on the Buckingham Palace balcony today to watch the parade ahead of the Trooping of the Colour flypast. Her Majesty's first cousin, 86, stepped up to support her. Previously, she was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh, who died aged 99 in April 2021, during the occasion. The Duke, who is the son of Prince George of Kent - the brother of the Queen's father Prince George - also stepped up into the role at the 2013 ceremony when Prince Philip was recovering from surgery. Since the Duke of Edinburgh retired from public duties in 2017, the Duke of Kent has been at The Queen's side for many state events and during the pandemic, he was the only member of The Firm to accompany to her scaled down birthday celebrations. The Queen was joined by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent on the balcony at Buckingham Palace today in her first balcony appearance since the death of Prince Philip. Her Majesty's first cousin, 86, stepped up to support her. Previously, she was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh, who died aged 99 in April 2021, during the occasion. The pair have previously been described as 'whisper-close confidants' and Prince Edward has been praised for his tireless stoicism and work for the Firm. He is 86 now and though the higher-profile activities of young royals such as William, Kate, Meghan and Harry grab the headlines, the Duke of Kent carries serenely on with his duties with a quiet, unfussy dignity and absolute contentment. According to royal expert Richard Kay, it would 'be hard to find another Royal Family member who embodies the qualities of loyalty and obligation to Queen and country more than Edward Kent'. Affectionately known in the family as 'steady Eddie', he is the grandson of George V and Queen Mary, and the nephew of the Queen's father King George VI. Through his mother, Princess Marina, the duke is a cousin of Prince Philip, while his father Prince George was the younger brother of the exiled Duke of Windsor. The Queen was accompanied by her cousin, the Duke of Kent, at this year's Trooping the Colour. They are pictured together in 2013 The Duke of Edinburgh, pictured at Trooping the Colour in 2012, died in April this year The pair appeared to have a lengthy chat today as they observed Trooping the Colour march toward Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty did not personally take the salute on Horse Guards Parade due to ongoing mobility issues but her cousin stood ramrod. BBC's Huw Edwards commented that it was 'fascinating' to see the interaction between the pair. 'I have to say I am fascinated,' the presenter said. 'This long conversation between the Queen and the Duke of Kent. 'They're obviously comparing notes and pointing to this section of the Guard, that section of the Guard. 'I'd love to know what they're saying.' From left: The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence , the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales , Queen Elizabeth II , the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, and the Earl of Wessex on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to view the Platinum Jubilee flypast, on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Kent watch from the balcony during the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Kent watch from the balcony during the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade today The duke is currently writing his memoirs in which he will be telling the inside story 'behind the scenes of the world's most celebrated family'. A key part of the royal family, he has labelled his role in the Quen's Coronation in 1953 'daunting' - and admitted his 'chief anxiety was that I'd forget my lines'. In his new book 'A Royal Life,' Her Majesty's cousin details the events following his uncle King George VI's death at Sandringham at the age of 56 - including the Queen's Coronation. He recalls in his memoir, set for release later this month, how he was nervous about his lines after being told he would have a prominent role in the ceremony. Then aged 17, the Duke was informed he would be seated in front of the peers alongside his cousin Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and his uncle, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, as one of the three royal dukes who would pay homage to the Queen after the Archbishop of Canterbury. 'My chief anxiety was that I would forget my lines. I had been given the impression that I had to remember them so I had learned them by heart,' he recalls. As Vice Chairman of the Overseas Trade Board, and later of British Trade International (1976 2001), The Duke of Kent has undertaken more than 60 overseas trips to promote British trade and exports, including to Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East. He was also the first member of the Royal Family to make an official visit to China. Extremely hard-working, he is involved with more than 140 different charities, organisations and professional bodies which cover a wide range of issues, from commemorating the war dead, to fostering the development of British technology and industry. (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Queen Elizabeth II stands with Prince Charles to watch a special flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony today 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 his cousin the Queen on the balcony. On the second trip, Charles stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling. Huge cheers of 'hooray' erupted outside and as aircraft the approached, the Queen could be seen looking ahead and smiling. Meanwhile, Louis waved towards the sky and could also be seen resting his chin in his hands. Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today Meghan Markle puts her finger to her lips next to Savannah Phillips and Mia Tindall at Horse Guards Parade in London today Cheers go up from thousands of spectators in The Mall in London as they catch sight of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis with proud parent Kate and the Duchess of Cornwall during Trooping the Colour this morning Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour in London this afternoon The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today The Queen could also be seen interacting with Louis, who was standing next to her on the balcony. And the young prince was photographed holding his hands over his ears as the aircraft soared overhead. The monarch smiled throughout the flypast and waved at the crowds before going back into the palace. When the Queen made her appearance on the balcony there was a delayed reaction from the crowds in The Mall and spectators sat in the stands built for tomorrow's Party at the Palace. A cheer went up when they spotted her on screens and she smiled as the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment passed the gates of Buckingham Palace. he troopers took around five minutes to ride past and she could be seen chatting to the Duke of Kent. Other Royal Family members had started off the Trooping the Colour festivities earlier today - with the Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waving for excited crowds. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and three-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row in the carriage, known as a barouche, with Louis the youngest in the middle of his older siblings. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The nation is embracing the special extended four-day bank holiday weekend of pomp, pageantry and star-studded festivities, which will see celebrities and the public gather in their millions in tribute to the monarch. Advertisement Her Majesty followed tradition again this year and gave a nod to her military role by wearing her diamond-encrusted Brigade of Guards brooch for Trooping the Colour. The Queen has worn the brooch to almost every Trooping the Colour since 1987, when she stopped wearing uniform to the birthday parade. Created for Queen Mary, the diamond piece combines the badges of the five regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies, which include Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards. The five symbols are enclosed in an oval frame with the Latin phrase, 'Quinque Juncta In Uno,' which translates in English to 'five joined as one.' Her Majesty followed tradition again this year and gave a nod to her military role by wearing her diamond-encrusted Brigade of Guards brooch The brooch is made out of natural diamonds, and combines the badges of the five regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies, which include Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards The Brigade of Guards Brooch was originally created for Queen Mary, the Queen's grandmother, and it's been in the royal family for more than a century. A replice was created for Queen Mary's daughter, Princess Mary, and was presented to her by from Garrard by the Brigade of Guards for her wedding in 1922. The Queen rode a horse in the annual parade until 1987, and was also required to wear uniform. But when she stopped riding in the event and started to use a carriage she also started wearing her standard day wardrobe, which meant a brooch was also required. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Kent watching from the balcony at Buckingham Palace A few years later she decided on the Guards brooch and shes worn it every year since, wearing it provides a special connection to each regiment, every year. The Queens extensive personal jewellery collection is impressive and awe-inspiring and it's said to include more than 300 pieces. The Monarch's brooches are precious, and The Queen is so fond of the accessory that she is said to have approximately 98 different pieces in her collection. Her Majesty The Queen wears each brooch depending on its history or relevance to the occasion. Her many brooches have either been gifted or commissioned for special occasions. (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today Crowds gather up The Mall towards Buckingham Palace as they await for the family to appear on the balcony Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today The Queen left Windsor Castle this morning as she headed to Buckingham Palace to take part in her Platinum Jubilee celebrations with other Royal Family members as tens of thousands of people packed London's streets. The Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waved for cheering crowds at Trooping the Colour today before the Queen's arrival, as they began the celebrations in style. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. They were followed in the glorious sunshine by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their son James, Viscount Severn, and finally the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Louis sat between his older siblings George and Charlotte in a carriage, with Kate and Camilla sat opposite. The children, who were dressed in a light blue, navy and white colour scheme, waved to the crowds - and at one point Charlotte appeared to push Louis's hand down, while the Princess squinted in the sunshine as the carriage left. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. As Kate, Camilla and the children left in their carriage, a riding groom had an issue with her horse which refused to move. The carriage had to swerve to avoid the animal which was eventually persuaded to join the procession. Fighter jets from Britain's RAF fly in formation to form the number '70' during a special flypast over Buckingham Palace today The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan are set to join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis at last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. Prince William and Princess Anne during Trooping The Colour in London this morning The Kings Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery ride down The Mall on their way to fire the ceremonial gun in London today However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. Crowds on The Mall ahead the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in London this morning The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a tweet on their official account this morning: 'We're looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you're joining us in marking this #PlatinumJubilee weekend.' Advertisement The Queen looked 'anything but frail and was the unquestioning star of the show' as she 'animatedly chatted with Prince Louis' - while Prince Charles and Camilla seemed 'less assured and tense' during today's historic Trooping the Colour, a body language expert has claimed. Her Majesty, 96, was joined by a slimmed-down version of the Royal Family as she stepped out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the Platinum Jubilee flypast in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons following the Trooping the Colour parade. Alongside The Prince of Wales, 73, and The Duchess of Cornwall, 74, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children also joined the nation's longest reigning monarch during the balcony appearance. The Queen, dressed in her Guards brooch and the blue Angela Kelly outfit used in her official Platinum Jubilee portrait, was captured 'animatedly chatting' with the youngest of the Cambridge children, Prince Louis, four, who was standing next to her on the balcony. Charles stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling, however, Judi James told FEMAIL that while the monarch showed she was 'very much in charge of the important moment', her heir appeared to have some 'tension and anxiety', perhaps down to the huge importance of the event. The Queen (left) looked 'anything but frail and was the unquestioning star of the show' as she 'animatedly chatted with Prince Louis' (right) - while Prince Charles and Camilla seemed 'less assured and tense' during today's historic Trooping the Colour, a body language expert has claimed Charles (pictured centre)stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling, however, Judi James told FEMAIL that while the monarch showed she was 'very much in charge of the important moment', her heir appeared to have some 'tension and anxiety', perhaps down to the huge importance of the event Judi told FEMAIL that the 96-year-old monarch (pictured) showed she was 'very much in charge of the important moment' Tim Laurence, from left, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William on the balcony of Buckingham Palace Judi said: 'Despite speculation that Harry and Meghan might upstage or outshine the key royal players with or without their Netflix entourage in tow, it was made clear from the Queens body language from the first time she stepped out onto the balcony that she is still the unquestioning star of the show. 'Dressed like precious Wedgewood porcelain, her body language signals looked anything but frail. Frowning as she stepped alone into the sunlight, she stood watching the birthday salute that came first with a hawk-like stare that took everything in. 'She might have used a stick but there was no rocking to suggest unsteadiness on her feet and nobody hovering to catch her if she had faltered. She looked chatty and animated and very much in charge of the important moment.' She continued: 'When the top-tier royals that make up the new, pared-back face of the Firm arrived around her for the second appearance her leadership and status still looked emphatic. Charles arrived using a sucking in of the lips to suggest some tension and anxiety while Camilla edged warily out behind him. 'Even William wore an unsmiling, earnest look as he steered Kate and the children into position. He and Kate stood with a wide gap between them, presumably to share parental crowd control, but as a visual in the line-up the positioning showed the Queen central and all-powerful, with Kate upright, elegant and unusually serious-looking beside her. Alongside The Prince of Wales, 73, and The Duchess of Cornwall, 74, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children also joined the nation's longest reigning monarch during the balcony appearance. Pictured, The Queen, Prince Louis, Kate and Princess Charlotte The Queen, dressed in her Guards brooch and the blue Angela Kelly outfit used in her official Platinum Jubilee portrait, was captured 'animatedly chatting' with the youngest of the Cambridge children, Prince Louis (pictured), four, who was standing next to her on the balcony The Queen speaks to Prince Louis on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as they watch the Platinum Jubilee flypast, on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations (Left to right) The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence , the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, the Queen, the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, and the Earl of Wessex on the balcony of Buckingham Palace Judi said: 'Despite speculation that Harry and Meghan might upstage or outshine the key royal players with or without their Netflix entourage in tow, it was made clear from the Queens body language from the first time she stepped out onto the balcony that she is still the unquestioning star of the show.' Pictured, the Queen, Prince Louis, Kate, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William Prince Louis puts his hands on his ears during the flypast at Buckingham Palace today, having earlier waved towards the sky 'Charles and Camilla looked less assured and regal to her other side. Even Sophie looked rather low-key compared to Kate and the Queen, while Edward stood close to his daughter, creating some mirrored poses. 'The Queen even threw some indulgent glances at little Louis, who almost stole the show by moving to stand in front of his great-grandmother and nearly combusting with a mix of what looked like impatience, boredom and excitement as he waited for the flypast,' said Judi. 'The Queens official photo might have shown a woman easing back slightly, looking less upright, formal and even regal as she sat in the window seat, but that was not the message she sent out from the balcony today. 'The outfit might have been the same, but with the addition of a hat there was a total change of mood and dynamic. Standing upright, slightly solitary and totally regal to greet her public and hear the cheers she looked like a woman still firmly in control of the line-up.' The body language expert also suggested that Camilla appeared 'awkward and showed signs of inner anxiety' while trying to 'appear more regal' by using a royal style of wave. 'There seems to have been an attempt to present Camilla as a higher-ranking royal today. Arriving in the car she was far more active about leaning and waving to the crowd on both sides of the road, whereas she will normally allow Charles to do most of the waving and follow suit but with less energy,' claimed Judi. 'In the carriage with Kate and the three children that desire to appear more regal showed in her style of wave. Modern royals tend to have dropped the "royal" wave in favour of the more modest and low-status, "friendly" waves that Kate was doing. 'Camilla though raised her hand to above head height and held it there for long periods of time, fluttering it slightly in a circular movement that looked very much like the kind of royal waves the Queen Mother used to perform. The Duchess of Cornwall peaks out of the window to try and find a better view of something at Buckingham Palace while standing next to the Duchess of Cambridge with Lady Louise Windsor standing behind The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were seen speaking to the Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent during Trooping the Colour Meghan Markle puts her finger to her lips next to Savannah Phillips and Mia Tindall at Horse Guards Parade in London today Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour in London this afternoon 'However her other signals suggested the usual levels of awkwardness. She seemed to be chatting to the children and using several pointing gestures but the childrens attention was much more focused on their mother, who had clearly briefed them well for the day. 'Even stepping out onto the balcony, Camilla seemed to edge herself out warily behind Charles. This trait is probably his fault as he could use his own body language to be more attentive to her, rather than just stepping in front. 'The intention then looked to be to present Camilla as the future Queen but some general signals of inner anxiety meant that visual role went to the very upright, elegant and ultimately regal-looking Kate who stood at the Queens side alone while William placed himself further down the line,' concluded Judi. The 96-year-old monarch 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 his cousin the Queen on the balcony. The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today On the second trip, Charles stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling. Huge cheers of 'hooray' erupted outside and as aircraft the approached, the Queen could be seen looking ahead and smiling. Meanwhile, Louis waved towards the sky and could also be seen resting his chin in his hands. The Queen could also be seen interacting with Louis, who was standing next to her on the balcony. And the young prince was photographed holding his hands over his ears as the aircraft soared overhead. The monarch smiled throughout the flypast and waved at the crowds before going back into the palace. When the Queen made her appearance on the balcony there was a delayed reaction from the crowds in The Mall and spectators sat in the stands built for tomorrow's Party at the Palace. A cheer went up when they spotted her on screens and she smiled as the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment passed the gates of Buckingham Palace. he troopers took around five minutes to ride past and she could be seen chatting to the Duke of Kent. Other Royal Family members had started off the Trooping the Colour festivities earlier today - with the Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waving for excited crowds. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. In her favourite Bruce Oldfield striped outfit, pearl necklace and earrings and a blue hat, the Duchess of Cornwall looked graceful and relaxed. Yet Judi suggested she appeared awkward and anxious The Duchess was joined in her carriage by Kate Middleton and her three children George, Charlotte and Louis, all waving to the crowds and enjoying the atmosphere The Duchess looks to be enjoying sharing the carriage with children George, Charlotte and Louis, and sitting opposite Charlotte pointing at something in the crowd The Queen's granddaughter, 18, looked elegant in a pink floral dress as she took her seat alongside Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and James, Viscount Severn, 14, for the procession down The Mall Lady Louise Windsor was the picture of poise as she joined her parents and younger brother for The Queen's Birthday Parade to kick off the Platinum Jubilee celebrations The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (L), in his role as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, Prince William (C), Duke of Cambridge, in his role as Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Princess Anne (2R), Princess Royal, in her role as Colonel of the Blues and Royals, ride their horses along The Mall during Trooping The Colour George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and three-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row in the carriage, known as a barouche, with Louis the youngest in the middle of his older siblings. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The nation is embracing the special extended four-day bank holiday weekend of pomp, pageantry and star-studded festivities, which will see celebrities and the public gather in their millions in tribute to the monarch. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The Royal Family have now finished this portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although they will make other appearances over the course of the next four days. It is a particularly significant trip for the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has not seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while Prince Harry only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. Princess Charlotte looked immaculate in a cornflower blue dress as she arrived with her brothers at Trooping the Colour today. The Queen's great granddaughter, 7, was dressed in a beautiful pastel dress from Patachou when she arrived in a carriage with Prince George, 8, Prince Louis, 4, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall and her mother the Duchess of Cambridge. Crafted from chiffon, the elegant design features a full ruffled skirt, butterfly sleeves and bow detailing, and is still available in a handful of sizes. However, it is selling out fast and has recently been reduced from 77 to 54, which is a 30 per cent saving. Portuguese label Patachou, describes itself as an 'accessible luxury brand' and caters to children aged up to 14. Princess Charlotte, 7, (pictured) looked immaculate in a chiffon blue Patachou dress as she attended Trooping the Colour today The Queen's great granddaughter wore her loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon. The dress (pictured) has a ruffled hem, puffed sleeves and a pretty bow at the neck Charlotte was on typically cheeky form today, and an adorable clip shows the seven-year-old, who wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, telling Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. Prince William and Kate Middleton's oldest child Prince George, who was dressed in a sharp navy suit, with matching blue tie, looked on as the minor squabble broke out in the royal carriage. Little Prince Louis, dressed in a pristine white sailor suit, looked unperturbed by his sister's chastisement and continued to wave anyway. The young royal bore a striking resemblance to his father at the same age, who wore a similar outfit at the 1985 Trooping the Colour event. Charlotte pictured with her brother Prince George, 8, watching a flypast from the balcony of Buckingham Palace The young royal arrived at the event in a carriage with her brothers, Prince George, 8, (left) and Prince Louis, 4, (middle) The mischievous royal was spotted later on playfighting with her cousin Mia Tindall, 8, at a Buckingham Palace window Charlotte arriving at Trooping the Colour, also known as The Queen's Birthday Parade in her elegant Patachou dress The Cambridges watch from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, marking the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee The Queen was also opted for blue as she appeared in a powder blue suit on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Kate, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte Charlotte was later spotted play-fighting with her cousin Mia Tindall, 8, in the window of the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Kate did not look impressed and had to step in to separate them. The Royal Family were beginning to gather inside the room leading to the Buckingham Palace balcony as the Trooping the Colour parade continued below before they all gathered to watch an incredible flypast. People have taken to Twitter and social media to express their delight at the Cambridge children and comment upon Charlotte's sassy nature and stunning apparel. Twitter users expressed their joy at watching all three of the Cambridge children today with one saying 'Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis definitely have stole the show Today!' One user said: 'The Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and the Duchess of Cornwall! Kids are SO adorable!! Kate is stunning!' Another commented: 'Ha ha #bossbaby at his finest by #princesscharlotte is going to be one fierce princess when she grows up, well sassy' A third posted: 'Remi and I thrilled to add to the Royal Ladies, for the first time but not the last HRH Princess Charlotte!! Charlotte is wearing a beautiful chiffon dress from Patachou. Charlotte was so darling today!!' And a fourth posted: 'Thank God the Beautiful Cambridge family are the Future of the British Monarchy! Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis definitely have stole the show Today!' Advertisement A lip reading expert has revealed how the Queen shared a sweet moment with her great grandson Prince Louis while on the Buckingham Palace balcony during today's ceremonial Jubilee flypast, pointing out the smoke trails left behind by RAF planes to the young royal. Adorable footage showed the 96-year-old monarch and the four-year-old stood side-by-side as 71 aircraft flew over the Queen's London residence on the first day of the four-day Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The Queen was joined by senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony today in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons amid joyous scenes at Trooping the Colour as her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations began. According to lip reading expert, Juliet Sullivan, the Queen leaned down to chat with Louis, the youngest royal on the balcony, pointing out the planes above them and saying 'Look, can you see them? Look at that!' When the Red Arrows appeared, the Queen added: 'Here the Arrows come! Look up at all that smoke!' Prince Charles, stood next to the Queen, quickly joined in, pointing out the striking smoke colours to Louis, saying: 'Yes, the Arrows - red, white and blue'. Eyes to the skies: The Queen was joined by senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony today in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons amid joyous scenes at Trooping the Colour as her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations began The Queen and Prince Louis, four, stood side-by-side on the Buckingham Palace balcony today chatting as the flypast roared above them. According to lip reading expert Juliet Sullivan, the Queen leaned down to the youngest royal, pointing out the planes above them and saying 'Look, can you see them? Look at that!' Louis also pointed out some of the planes that particularly caught his eye, says Sullivan, asking his great grandmother if she saw them. 'Have you seen what?' she replies, before four-year-old Louis responds to her, saying: 'Yes, those'. The Queen smiled, saying 'Ah, the jets!' And at the flypast's end, she was thought to be seen telling him: 'Lets go, its finished now' before adding: 'That really was wonderful, so incredible.' What the royals said on the balcony at Buckingham Palace! Queen to Prince Louis 'Look, can you see them? Look at that!' 'Here the Arrows come! Look up at all that smoke!' After Prince Louis asked if she'd seen the planes: 'Have you seen what?' Ah, the jets!' 'Lets go, its finished now. That really was wonderful, so incredible.' Queen to the crowd 'Thank you very much'. Queen to Prince Charles Walking on to the balcony: 'They come down here...lets move over.' Watching helicopter fleet: 'Oh my!' When the planes formed a '70' formation in the sky: '70! Thats very clever. That must have taken a lot of practice!' Prince Charles to Queen Watching helicopter fleet: 'Wow, they are amazing.' When the planes formed a '70' formation in the sky: 'Just look at that. Incredible. Its really the most wonderful sight.' Prince William to his children 'Look up to the skies. Just wait for it!' Prince George to Prince William 'Dad, look at those planes they are so big!' Prince Charles to Louis 'Yes, the Arrows - red, white and blue'. Prince Louis to Princess Charlotte 'Move over' Kate Middleton to Camilla When Louis tried to barge past the Queen: 'Yes, he really is trying to squeeze by!' Kate Middleton to Louis 'Just stay, thats a good boy. Look at all these people down there. Look, can you see all the people below? How wonderful.' 'Look up to the skies now!' Gesturing at the crowds gathered: 'Give them a wave' When the planes formed a '70' formation: 'Look it spells out the number 70 in the sky'.' 'Its so cool, look at that.' Kate Middleton to her children 'Look at that, wow! Here come the bombers! They are just so good...' 'Yay, wow' Prince Louis to Kate Middleton 'Look at me waving!' Kate Middleton 'Wow, you could really feel that in your chest!' Advertisement As the family left, the Queen waved and smiled at the crowd below, saying: 'Thank you very much'. Heir to the throne Prince Charles was by the Queen's side throughout the six-minute extended flypast, pointing out aircraft to the monarch as the show-stopping fly over of British military jets began. Mother and son chatted about where they should stand on the balcony, with the Queen telling Charles: 'They come down here...lets move over.' Although the young royal, who wore a pristine sailor suit, seemed overwhelmed at times by the noise, a few soothing words from his 'Gan-gan' seemed to do the trick and calm him down Louis (pictured, centre) appears to shared a special bond with his great-grandmother the Queen, who was seen entertaining the young royal during Trooping the Colour. When the Red Arrows appear, the Queen appears to tell the youngster: 'Here the Arrows come! Look up at all that smoke!' Prince Charles and the Queen discussed where to stand to get the best view, and marvelled at the '70' formation in the blue skies above them, with the Queen thought to have said: 'Thats very clever. That must have taken a lot of practice!' Mother and son were also thought to have discussed where to stand to get the best vantage point on the fly past Prince Charles is thought to have said: 'Just look at that. Incredible. Its really the most wonderful sight' as he watched the aerial action unfold over Buckingham Palace today Soothing her youngest son ahead of the flypast, Kate Middleton leans into Louis, four, before stroking his hair and saying to him: 'Just stay, thats a good boy.' As the family left, the Queen waved and smiled at the crowd below, saying: 'Thank you very much'. Heir to the throne Prince Charles was by the Queen's side throughout the six-minute extended flypast, pointing out aircraft to the monarch as the show-stopping fly over of British military jets began. Mother and son chatted about where they should stand on the balcony, with the Queen telling Charles: 'They come down here...lets move over.' Little Louis also tried to squeeze past the Queen to position himself right at the front of the balcony, leaving his mother noting to the Duchess of Cornwall: 'Yes, he really is trying to squeeze by!' The youngster then asks his older sister, Princess Charlotte, to 'move over', says Sullivan. Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today The Duchess of Cambridge speaks with Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace this afternoon; it's thought she asked her youngest son to be a 'good boy' Kate Middleton encouraged her young son Louis, four, to wave at the crowds, and watched as he tried to squeeze past the Queen to get the perfect vantage point on the 71-aircraft display Tom Cruise eat your heart out! Prince George is suitably impressed by the Top Gun-style show, saying to his father: 'Dad, look at those planes they are so big!' Soothing her young son ahead of the flypast, Kate Middleton leans into Louis, strokes his hair and says to him: 'Just stay, thats a good boy.' She explains: 'Look at all these people down there. Look, can you see all the people below? How wonderful.' She then puts her hand on her son's shoulder and says: 'Look up to the skies now!' Louis puts his hand over his mouth; his mother removes his hand gently and says: 'Give them a wave!' gesturing at the crowds gathered. Prince Louis then responds: 'Look at me waving!' Queen Elizabeth II stands with members of the Royal Family to watch a special flypast from Buckingham Palace today At times, the occasion seemed like too much for the four-year-old, who was snapped pulling a range of faces during his public appearance At one point while watching Trooping the Colour, the young royal appeared to be overwhelmed by the noise, and was seen covering his ears while shouting After his animated carriage ride, the four-year-old prince (pictured, centre) still had plenty of energy, and was snapped frowning as he saluted while watching Trooping the Colour with his big sister Princess Charlotte (picture, right) on a balcony at Horseguards Parade When the flypast begins, Kate is heard exclaiming: 'Look at that, wow! Here come the bombers! They are just so good...' The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' and have a 'natural bond', claims body language expert The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' when on the Buckingham Palace balcony together for the historic Trooping the Colour today, according to a body language expert. 'A rather charming dynamic was unveiled from a slightly surprising source today,' said Judi James. 'While the Queens empathetic and destiny-based bonds with George are well documented, her indulgence, warmth and an almost childlike shared excitement with Louis hasnt really been seen before. 'Looking so much like Charles at his mothers coronation, Louis rushed forward to lean on the balcony before becoming impatient as he waited to see the fly-past. While Kate bent to speak to him several times or stroked his hair in a soothing gesture, the Queens glances suggested affection and approval. 'The bond between the two looked natural and ongoing. While the other royals displayed signals of anxiety or tension in a bid to get it right for the "boss" they clearly still respect, Louis stepped in front of the Queen before tilting his head back to engage her in some animated conversation as they waited for the Red Arrows. 'Louis made this conversation look like the most natural thing in the world and his lack of anything bordering on fear suggested these two might share a rather close friendship based on shared fun behind the scenes, too.' Advertisement Nearby, the Prince of Wales is particularly impressed by the helicopter fleet that whirred overhead, saying to his mother: 'Wow, they are amazing.' In response, the Queen is thought to have replied: 'Oh my!' When the planes formed a '70' formation in the sky, to mark the Queen's years of reign, the 96-year-old looked up at the skies and exclaimed '70! Thats very clever. That must have taken a lot of practice!' while grinning at her eldest son. Prince Charles is thought to have responded: 'Just look at that. Incredible. Its really the most wonderful sight.' On the other side of the balcony, Princess Charlotte is seen shouting 'So loud!', which makes her mother laugh. The little girl adds: 'Amazing' before jumping up and down. Kate bends down and says to Louis 'Look it spells out the number 70 in the sky', and her son proceeds to point to the number of planes in the sky that make up the number 70 before starting to count on his fingers. Chatting to her three children, Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and an animated Prince Louis, four, Kate Middleton said: 'Yay! Wow!' as the roar of the jets passed over. She tells Louis: 'Its so cool, look at that.' The children quickly cover their ears as Prince William urges them: 'Look up to the skies. Just wait for it!' After the jets roar over, Kate Middleton remarks: 'Wow, you could really feel that in your chest!' Prince George is suitably impressed by the Top Gun-style show, saying to his father: 'Dad, look at those planes they are so big!' Earlier, Kate Middleton appeared to use distraction techniques to keep her three children calm as they played a central role in the historic Trooping the Colour parade on Thursday. According to a lip reader who examined video footage of the short journey from Buckingham Palace in the horse-drawn carriage, the Duchess pointed out Union Jacks in the crowd and kept talking to Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, to ensure they weren't overwhelmed by the enormity of the big occasion. Big day for the Cambridges: Kate Middleton is seen chatting to her children, from left, George, Louis and Charlotte, as they leave Buckingham Palace on the first day of the bank holiday celebrations Kate Middleton offers a beaming smile as she joins her three children and the Duchess of Cornwall to head down the Mall; it's thought the royal told her three children: 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they headed to Horse Guards Parade Prince Louis, four, is thought to have spotted his father Prince William, telling his mother 'Look, there's Dad!' At one point, the Duchess, 40, appeared to say: 'This is wonderful! Look at all these people!' as she travelled with her three young children and the Duchess of Cornwall towards Horse Guards Parade. An inquisitive Louis is thought to have spotted Prince William, who took part in the parade on horseback, saying: 'Look, that's Dad.' Clearly enjoying the day too, the Duchess of Cambridge was thought to have told her children 'Look at these colours and all the flags!' as they bypassed thousands of well-wishers on the Mall and a sea of Union Jacks. Kate looked chic in a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen, wearing her hair loosely plaited and tucked under a glamorous white and navy wide-brimmed hat by A-list milliner Philip Treacy. According to the lipreader, the carriage's young royals were clearly amazed by just how many people had turned out to mark the Platinum Jubilee at Buckingham Palace. The most au fait with royal occasions, Prince George appeared to turn to the crowd and say 'wow', as he noted the thousands of people at all the people. A giggling Princess Charlotte also remarked 'wow', while Prince George was seen saying: 'This is great' before asking: 'Mama, where does this stop?' Kate is thought to have answered: 'Thats the entrance. that is where we are going to be stopping.' Showing respect for their great grandmother, the Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. A little sibling tension? An adorable moment caught Charlotte and little brother Louis having a few choice words over the youngest Cambridge's commitment to waving Kate Middleton encourages her children to wave as the horse-drawn carriage makes its way to the ceremonial parade The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children took centre stage as four days of Platinum Jubilee celebration kicked off in style. Proving that sibling rivalry can rear its head even on the most regal of occasions, Princess Charlotte was spotted ticking off her little brother Louis for waving too enthusiastically at crowds. An adorable clip sees the seven-year-old, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. Showing respect for their great grandmother, the Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. Seen from above, the horse-drawn carriage makes its way through the crowds this morning towards Horse Guards Parade Prince William and Kate Middleton's oldest child Prince George, eight, who was dressed in a sharp navy suit, with matching blue tie, looked on as the minor squabble broke out in the royal carriage. Little Prince Louis, stealing the fashion show in a pristine white sailor suit and bearing a striking resemblance to his father at the same age, who wore a similar outfit at the 1985 Trooping the Colour event, looked unperturbed by his sister's chastisement and continued to wave anyway. Advertisement Princess Charlotte looked delighted to ditch her brothers and join her female cousins today at Horse Guard's Parade ahead of Trooping the Colour. The seven-year-old daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton adorably poked her head out of the window to peer down at the parade alongside her second cousins Savannah and Isla Phillips and Mia and Lena Tindall. Savannah, 11, is the Queen's eldest greatgrandchild and the daughter of Peter Philips and his ex-wife Autumn Kelly. She was joined by sister Isla, 10. Meanwhile, Mia, eight, and Lena, three, are the daughters of Peter's sister Zara and her husband Mike Tindall. Charlotte, who earlier rode down the Mall with her mother Kate Middleton, as well as the Duchess of Cornwall and brothers George and Louis before joining senior members of the Firm on the balcony. The fourth-in-line dressed in a pastel chiffon dress from Patachou and tied her half back. Princess Charlotte looked delighted to ditch her brothers and join her female cousins today at Horse Guard's Parade ahead of Trooping the Colour. The seven-year-old daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton adorably poked her head out of the window to peer down at the parade alongside her second cousins Savannah and Isla Phillips and Mia and Lena Tindall Savannah (left) 11, is the Queen's eldest greatgrandchild and the daughter of Peter Philips and his ex-wife Autumn Kelly. She was joined by sister Isla (second right), 10. Meanwhile, Mia (right) eight, and Lena (front) three, are the daughters of Peter's sister Zara and her husband Mike Tindall The fourth-in-line dressed in a pastel chiffon dress from Patachou and tied her half back as she ditched her brothers for her female cousins Princess Charlotte (left) and Mia Grace Tindall watch the Trooping of the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade. The cousins are close in age and often play together Boy bye! Princess Charlotte left her brothers behind to join her female cousins at the window instead. Prince Louis is pictured left and George right Earlier in the day, cousins Mia and Charlotte were seen playing together - including some gentle patting - ahead of the Buckingham Palace flypast today. At one point, the Duchess of Cambridge appeared to try and keep the lively duo in line. Spotted through the palace windows as the senior royals prepared to step out onto the balcony ahead of the flypast of aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force, the two cousins looked to be thoroughly enjoying each others' company. Meanwhile, Zara Tindall was stunning scarlet today as she donned a 450 silk Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. Brother Peter kept a low profile, but was spotted in the background behind the children at Horseguard's Parade. The cousins are all close, with Mike Tindall previously revealing he heard about the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son, Archie, via a message on the royal cousins' WhatsApp group. Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: '[Harry will] be a great dad. We'll just let him ease into it himself, find out his own way. The thing is, we're so lucky with ours; ours have always slept so hopefully they'll get that as well. 'Obviously, he's godfather to Lena, but we've got a great group of young ones in the family now. Lena and obviously Louis are similar ages and Mia's sort of in between Charlotte and George, and then you've got Peter's children Savannah and Isla who are just a little bit older. Cousins Mia Tindall, eight, and Princess Charlotte, seven, are spotted giggling through the window at Buckingham Palace as they prepared to watch the gun salute and flypast Quite a view! Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Mia Tindall on the balcony, with Princess Beatrice in the background Lady Louise, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex is also spotted in the background as the royals await the 1pm flypast Meghan Markle puts her finger to her lips next to Savannah Phillips and Mia Tindall at Horse Guards Parade in London today 'James (Viscount Severn, Prince Edward's son) is, well not exactly the ring leader, but he's the oldest. So, yeah, it's going to be a good little group. And Harry, he's busy, but he loves playing with them all and he'll be a good dad.' Earlier, Meghan Markle, appearing for the first time in the UK since leaving for the US with Prince Harry in 2020, also appeared to try and keep the royal children calm as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall. Charlotte is likely to meet Lilibet, who turns one tomorrow, for the first time this weekend. Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, chatted with 11-year-old Savannah and sister Isla, 10, together with Lena Tindall, three, and her older sister Mia, eight, appeared to shush the smiling children as they chatted at the window. During the royal bout of sparring, Mia, dressed in a cream dress with a floral design, and matched with a red headband, giggled with her younger cousin as they awaited their moment in the spotlight. Seven-year-old Charlotte, who looked elegant in a cornflower chiffon blue dress with bow detail by Patachou, and wore her hair loose with a neat braid and matching blue ribbon, was seen batting hands with her cousin - with both girls laughing. Later, the pair joined Prince George and Prince Louis to lean out of the window, getting a bird's eye view of the thousands of people lining the Mall below. Meghan Markle, appearing for the first time in the UK since leaving the country in 2020, appeared to shush the royal children as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall Cheers go up from thousands of spectators in The Mall in London as they catch sight of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis with proud parent Kate and the Duchess of Cornwall during Trooping the Colour this morning Earlier today, Princess Charlotte wasn't entirely happy with her little brother's enthusiasm for greeting the gathered crowds as they left Buckingham Palace, telling the four-year-old to 'stop waving' Following the Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London this morning, the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, senior royals gathered on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the flypast at 1pm. Earlier, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children had taken centre stage in the first royal carriage down the Mall at the start of Trooping the Colour - as four days of Platinum Jubilee celebration kicked off in style. Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, joined the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall on Horse Guards Parade for the historic event. Proving that sibling rivalry can rear its head even on the most regal of occasions, Princess Charlotte was spotted ticking off her little brother Louis for waving too enthusiastically at crowds. The Queen was joined by other royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony today in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons amid joyous scenes at Trooping the Colour as her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations began. 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. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did not make an appearance on the Palace balcony but were reunited with some of their relatives as they kept a low profile inside a room of the Major General's Office at the other end of The Mall on Horse Guards Parade, where they watched Charles inspect guardsmen and officers and take their salute. It comes after months of speculation over where the Sussexes would stand and whether they would even attend the Jubilee amid an ongoing security row. In the end, they were only allowed to watch from the room overlooking the Whitehall parade ground after the Queen declared that only senior working royals could join her at the Palace. The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today Wearing sunglasses, the Queen looked joyful as she surveyed the patriotic scenes, giving broad smiles while enjoying the six-minute flypast which involved 70 aircraft, including Apache helicopters, Typhoons and the Red Arrows. Fifteen RAF Typhoons paid a special tribute to the Queen's reign, flying in the formation of the number 70. While Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all appeared, there was no place on the Palace balcony today for Prince Harry, Meghan Markle or Prince Andrew given that none of them are no longer working royals. From their Horse Guards Parade balcony, Meghan and Harry were seen putting their finger to their lips next to Savannah Philips, Mia and Lena Tindall in an apparent attempt to quieten the children. The Sussexes also spoke with the Duke of Kent, who joined his cousin the Queen for both of her trips onto the Palace balcony. Queen Elizabeth II stands with Prince Charles to watch a special flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony today Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. On the second trip, Charles stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling. Huge cheers of 'hooray' erupted outside and as the aircraft approached, the Queen could be seen looking ahead and smiling. Meanwhile, Louis waved towards the sky and rested his chin in his hands. The Queen could also be seen interacting with Louis, who was standing next to her on the balcony. And the young prince was photographed holding his hands over his ears as the aircraft soared overhead. The monarch smiled throughout the flypast and waved at the crowds before going back into the palace. When the Queen made her appearance on the balcony there was a delayed reaction from the crowds in The Mall and spectators sat in the stands built for tomorrow's Party at the Palace. A cheer went up when they spotted her on screens and she smiled as the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment passed the gates of Buckingham Palace. The troopers took around five minutes to ride past as the Queen chatted to the Duke of Kent. Other Royal Family members had started off the Trooping the Colour festivities earlier today - with the Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waving for excited crowds. This morning, three carriages carrying Royal Family members left the forecourt of Buckingam Palace and travelled down the Mall. The Duchess of Cornwall rode alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and three-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row, known as a barouche, with Louis in the middle of his older siblings. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The nation is embracing the special extended four-day bank holiday weekend of pomp, pageantry and star-studded festivities, which will see celebrities and the public gather in their millions in tribute to the monarch. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: 'Congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on your remarkable Platinum Jubilee. The whole country, Commonwealth and world thank you for your unwavering duty and service. Vivat Regina Elizabetha! God Save The Queen!' Advertisement The Royal Family has created something of a social media stir with their choice of Instagram photo to mark today's Trooping the Colour celebrations. The Queen's account shared a photo of today's Buckingham Palace balcony reunion with only eight top members, seemingly highlighting the future of the monarchy as a slimmed-down operation. This year, only working members of the Royal Family were invited on to the balcony at Buckingham Palace to watch the traditional flypast at Trooping the Colour, with a handful of exceptions including Prince William's children and Princess Anne's husband. But despited the fact 18 people were invited, the photo posted on social media featured only the heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and the second in line Prince William with his wife Kate and their children Louis, Charlotte and George alongside the Queen. Prince Charles has long made it known that he wants a slimmed-down monarchy when he becomes King, and the photo certainly hints at the shape of things to come, Instagram followers congratulated The Queen for a fabulous morning, but spotted the sparse balcony, with many commenting how 'sad it was' to see so few relatives alongside her. The Royal family have released their main photo of today's Buckingham Palace balcony reunion with only eight top members 'So I hear Prince Harry was there but he wasn't allowed to stand with them up there??? If this is true, what sort of division is this?' one wrote. And another said: 'What a shame the balcony is so sparse.' In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. Some royal fans noted that the picture made the Buckingham Palace balcony look 'sparse' after The Royal Family's Instagram account highlighted just eight people, even though there was another 10 present In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. In 2020, due to the pandemic the Trooping the Colour was done differently with a more paired down version at Windsor Castle with no public present, but still televised, therefore no balcony shot. And in 2021, the event was again held at Windsor Castle. But this year, after two tumultuous years, just 17 members of her family were invited, including: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Royal Family: 1. The Duke of Gloucester; 2. The Duchess of Gloucester; 3. Princess Alexandra; 4. The Duke of Kent; 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence; 6. Princess Anne; 7. The Duchess of Cornwall; 8. Prince Charles; 9. The Queen; 10. Prince Louis; 11. The Duchess of Cambridge; 12. Princess Charlotte; 13. Prince George; 14. Prince William; 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex; 16. James, Viscount Severn; 17. Lady Louise Windsor; 18. Prince Edward Four generations of family: How is the Queen related to the royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony? 1. The Duke of Gloucester: Queen's cousin Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, son of her uncle Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester 2. The Duchess of Gloucester: Wife of the Duke of Gloucester 3. Princess Alexandra: Queen's cousin Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. Daughter of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. 4. Duke of Kent: Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent. Son of Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark 5. Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence: Husband of Princess Anne 6. Princess Anne: Queen's only daughter and second eldest child 7. The Duchess of Cornwall: Prince Charles' wife 8. Prince Charles: Queen's eldest son; heir to the throne 9. The Queen 10. Prince Louis: The four-year-old son of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. Their youngest child and the Queen's great-grandson 11. The Duchess of Cambridge: Wife of Prince William 12. Princess Charlotte: The only daughter and second child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Queen's great-granddaughter 13. Prince George: The eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; third in line to the throne. Queen's great-grandson 14. Prince William: Queen's grandson and eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana; second in line to the throne 15. Sophie, Countess of Wessex: Wife of Prince Edward 16. James, Viscount Severn: 14-year-old son of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's youngest grandchild. 17. Lady Louise Windsor: Daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. Queen's granddaughter. 18. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex: Third son and youngest child of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh Advertisement Following his ejection from public life, after settling a civil court case in America over allegations of sexual abuse against Virginia Giuffre (which he vehemently denies), it was inconceivable that Prince Andrew would be given a spot. Indeed, he was not even invited to join other royal family members including Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex to watch Trooping the Colour at the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. However, in paring the list down to just 17 people to avoid potential diplomatic pitfalls, the Queen has been forced to omit a number of well-liked family members including her much-loved grandchildren and their families. Her cousins, including Prince Michael of Kent, and their families, with whom the Queen enjoys a warm relationship are also out in the cold, with a total of at least 34 royals absent from the balcony. Their father's absence means that Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice also did not appear with their husbands and children. Their cousin Peter Philip's would typically appear with his now ex-wife Autumn and their two daughters, and so the York sisters would reasonably have been expected to be joined by Eugenie's husband Jack Brooksbank and Beatrice's husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi - not to mention the sisters' children Sienna and August, if they felt they weren't too young. (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today Prince Louis puts his hands on his ears during the flypast at Buckingham Palace today, having earlier waved towards the sky Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today Queen Elizabeth II speaks with Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Queen smiles as members of the Royal Family attend Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Queen appears on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon with the Duke of Kent The Queen points at the display from the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today Fighter jets from Britain's RAF fly in formation to form the number '70' during a special flypast over Buckingham Palace today Fighter jets from Britain's RAF fly in formation to form the number '70' during a special flypast over Buckingham Palace today Similarly the Queen's other adult grandchildren, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall have been excluded with their families, even though their mother Princess Anne and stepfather Sir Timothy Laurence joined the Queen. Four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off this morning with the Queen's birthday parade, which took place ahead of Trooping the Colour. Three carriages left the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall, with the Duchess of Cornwall riding alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row in the carriage, known as a barouche. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground The Duchess of Sussex put on an animated display with Savannah Phillips (left), her sister Isla (behind) and Lena Tindall Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were seen speaking to the Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent during Trooping the Colour Prince Louis salutes as he watches Trooping the Colour with Princess Charlotte on a balcony at Horse Guards Parade today Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Princess Beatrice and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour from a balcony today Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watch Trooping the Colour in London this afternoon The Cambridge children bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. Lady Louise looked elegant in a Philip Treacy hat first sported by Sophie Wessex, 57, to Trooping the Colour in 2009, which she paired with a vibrant pink floral dress. The teenager finished the look with a pair of delicate pink earrings. The pink ensemble perfectly complemented her mother Sophie's outfit. The Countess of Wessex opted for a summery pink gingham outfit with matching hat. Meanwhile James, 14, looked smart in a black suit and Prince Edward wore military dress uniform for the occasion. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. The royals, including the Wessexes, watched Trooping the Colour from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Among their number were Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, who have travelled to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday. The Duchess stepped out in an elegant navy blue dress and a dramatic wide-brimmed white hat with an oversized navy bow by British milliner Stephen Jones. The mother-of-two was spotted entertaining Peter Phillips' daughters Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, and Mike and Zara Tindall's girls Mia, eight, and Lena, three, as they grew bored of watching the military display. Meghan pouted, gasped and beamed as she put on an animated display in the window, with Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi watching from behind. At one point the Duchess put a finger to her mouth to 'shush' cheeky Mia Tindall, who was on typically boisterous behaviour. Also in attendance were Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack and Anne's children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and their families. The group did not include the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge or the Princess Royal. Her Majesty remained at Buckingham Palace where she took the returning cavalry's salute from the balcony. Charles took the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards was trooped and inspected the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He was joined by his elder son Prince William and sister Princess Anne, with all three on horseback. Prince Andrew has been entirely cut out of proceedings and will not appear during any part of the day. Following Trooping the Colour, the royal carriages made the return journey down the Mall in preparation of the flypast. The Queen, 96, exclaimed 'incredible!' as she stepped out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the return salute. She was joined on the balcony by her dutiful cousin, the Duke of Kent, who carries out engagements on behalf of the Royal Family. Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte are part of the procession during Trooping the Colour in London today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took a starring role in the royal carriage as they arrive alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall today at the start of Trooping the Colour Waves all round! The siblings offered warm waves to those who have queued - some overnight - to catch a glimpse of the royals at Buckingham Palace this morning...but Princess Charlotte wasn't entirely happy with her little brother's enthusiasm for greeting the gathered crowds Cheers go up from thousands of spectators in The Mall in London as they catch sight of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis with proud parent Kate and the Duchess of Cornwall during Trooping the Colour this morning The Duchess of Cambridge waves to the public as she arrives on a carriage to attend the Queen's Birthday Parade today The Duchess of Cambridge waves to the public as she arrives on a carriage to attend the Queen's Birthday Parade today The Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis ride in a carriage today Princess Charlotte rides in a carriage with her siblings during the Queen's Birthday Parade, the Trooping the Colour, today Prince George sits opposite the Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge during Trooping the Colour in London today After a brief interlude inside, the Queen re-emerged at 1pm to observe the flypast. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Lady Louise Windsor was the picture of poise as she joined her parents and younger brother for The Queen's Birthday Parade to kick off the Platinum Jubilee celebrations The Queen's granddaughter, 18, looked elegant in a pink floral dress as she took her seat alongside Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and James, Viscount Severn, 14, for the procession down The Mall Despite not yet being old enough to be a senior working member of the royal family, Lady Louise was invited to join in the celebrations alongside her parents and brother Lady Louise looked perfectly poised as she rode in a carriage with her brother James, 14, pictured, and her parents Lady Louise smiled and waved as the carriage made its journey from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade today The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike. The Royal Family have now finished this portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although they will make other appearances over the course of the next four days. It is a particularly significant trip for the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has not seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while Prince Harry only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Charles is taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He is joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback The Duke of Cambridge takes part in the Royal Procession as he leaves Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour today Princess Anne, Princess Royal rides horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade in London this morning Brigade major James Shaw (centre, top) leads members of the Household Cavalry to Horse Guards Parade this morning Soldiers taking part in the parade along The Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade today Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, was not forced to greet the couple in public. And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Yesterday, the Queen sent a car and a security detail to collect Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet after their private jet landed in the UK from California, ahead of her celebrations. Lilibet has never been in the UK - or met any of her British family - while Archie, who was born in Britain, has not been here since he was a baby. In the latest sign that hostilities between The Firm and the Sussexes are thawing, Her Majesty's Land Rover greeted the family and their children at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire before taking them to Frogmore Cottage. Crowds of people line The Mall as they watch members of the Royal Family appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony today People gather along The Mall for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London this morning Crowds on The Mall ahead the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in London this morning An insider told The Sun that 'the Queen believed it was the right thing to do' to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The couple's Embraer private jet landing at Farnborough, and the Queen's black Land Rover - escorted by a Volkswagen people carrier - driving onto the tarmac. It is thought the family were believed to have got into the blacked-out VW car, and that they travelled without their customary entourage or senior staff working for their Archewell charity. It also said Netflix camera crews - who have been following the couple for an 11million documentary - stayed behind. Harry, Meghan and their two children were not given a police escort for the 40-minutes drive from Farnborough to Windsor. Lilibet will turn one on Saturday, with a party expected at Frogmore likely to be attended by royals such as Princess Eugenie, who is close to Harry and Meghan, and the Queen could also pop in if she doesn't attend the Epsom Derby. It will be the first time the monarch will meet the great-granddaughter named after her. But Prince William and Kate will not be there because they will be representing Her Majesty in Cardiff as senior working royals are sent to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the monarch's 70 years on the throne. The young royals have a knack for stealing the show at the Trooping The Colour ceremony at Buckingham Palace - and this year was no exception. Prince Louis took centre stage during his appearance alongside his family today after pulling an array of amusing faces - and sharing an 'animated' chat with the Queen. The four-year-old, who is the youngest of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children, stole the spotlight thanks to his mischievous antics - including being snapped waving enthusiastically. He was also spotted covering his ears and eyes while trying to drown out the loud noise from the flypast - while his great-grandmother, the Queen, was seen chatting to the youngster during his Buckingham Palace balcony appearance, seemingly in an effort to distract him. But Louis isn't the first young royal to cause a fuss at Buckingham Palace. In 2019, Savannah Phillips shushed Prince George in an amusing moment, while Prince William and Kate Middleton's balcony kiss photo in 2011, featured a very grumpy bridesmaid standing to the side of them. 2022: Prince Louis took centre stage at Trooping the Colour today after pulling an array of amusing faces - and sharing an 'animated' chat with the Queen (pictured together). The four-year-old, who is the youngest of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children, stole the spotlight thanks to his mischievous antics - including being snapped waving enthusiastically. But Louis isn't the first young royal to cause a fuss at Buckingham Palace 2019: In this year, young Prince Louis made his first appearance with the royal family on Buckingham Palace's balcony to celebrate the Queen's official birthday - and stole the show. He looked unimpressed as he watched the crowds in front of the palace 2018: Savannah Phillips, the Queen's great-granddaughter, was seemingly not impressed with Prince George's endless chatter and slapped a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet during one moment at the 2018 Trooping The Colour ceremony 2017: This year, Princess Charlotte and Prince George stole the show - with the former copying her brother's actions, while the latter appeared to pull some very unimpressed faces while appearing alongside their parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 2013: James, Viscount Severn, made circular shapes with his hand when attending Trooping the Colour alongside Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, Lady Louise Windsor, Sophie, Countess of Wessex 2011: Bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem appeared to be very grump when standing next to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge following their wedding 2010: Feeling tired? Estella Taylor, daughter of Lady Helen and Timothy Taylor, appeared to need a rest when standing next to Margarita Armstrong-Jones and Eloise Taylor on the balcony of Buckingham Palace 1998: Princess Eugenie, next to her sister Princess Beatrice, made no attempt to hide a yawn during the royals family's appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace Advertisement Princess Eugenie has shared touching photos of her family waving at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee flyover as she shared a glimpse of her Jubilee celebrations online. The Queen's granddaughter, 32, is pictured standing with husband Jack Brooksbank, 36, who is holding their one-year-old son August, in photographs posted to her Instagram stories today. The smartly dressed trio are standing on a London rooftop waving to the Platinum Jubilee flypast, at what appeared to be a jubilee celebration party. Senior members of the royal family - including Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children - appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony for Trooping the Colour today. And while Eugenie has also featured on the balcony in previous years, she was not included this year after the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her to watch the flypast in order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew. Princess Eugenie has shared touching photos of her family waving at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee flyover as she shared a glimpse of her Jubilee celebrations online The Queen's granddaughter, 32, is pictured standing with husband Jack Brooksbank, 36, who is holding their one-year-old son August, in photographs posted to her Instagram stories today The smartly dressed trio are standing on a London rooftop waving to the Platinum Jubilee flypast, at what appeared to be a jubilee celebration party In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Eugenie opted for a pale blue chiffon dress, with embroidered lace sleeves and a full pleated skirt. Her deep brunette locks were curled and she wore a beige fascinator. The princess's son looked cute in his father's arms, wearing a white shirt and cap in the same shade as Eugenie's. Followers of Eugenie's posted comments including 'Absolutely beautiful' and 'aww bless, look how big August has got, sharing in the celebrations of our gracious Queen on her platinum Jubilee celebrations'. Others filled the comments section with love heart emojis. The young family were seen enjoying the first official celebration of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee The princess, the Queen's granddaughter and the daughter of the Duke of York, is 12th in line to the throne. Pictured, her video While Eugenie is not a working royal she has been vocal in support of her grandmother ahead of the historic weekend The princess, the Queen's granddaughter and the daughter of the Duke of York, is 12th in line to the throne. Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank, a bar manager, married in 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in 2018. In February 2021 she gave birth to August at the Portland Hospital in London. He was christened in November at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park at a private service attended by the Queen. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London was the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF flypast at 1pm. Eugenie was the first royal to kick off the tributes to the Queen this morning, by asking her followers to share photos and videos of celebrations to join together in paying tribute to Her Majesty's life of service. 'Good morning dear followers on this momentous first morning of the Jubilee weekend,' she wrote. 'Send me your pictures of videos and I will post some on her so we can all join together in honouring HM The Queen's life of service'. Underneath the message, shared on her story, was a video posted to the Royal Family's page marking the monarch's life of service, including a sweet montage of photos from Her Majesty's life from being a young girl to today. 'On the first day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend and the anniversary of The Queen's Coronation, we look back on Her Majesty's life of service from her time as a young Princess supporting the war effort to her extraordinary commitment to her role as Monarch.' While Eugenie is not a working royal she has been vocal in support of her grandmother ahead of the historic weekend. This morning she asked her followers to join together in paying tribute to Her Majesty's life of service Yesterday, she paid a moving personal tribute to her 'grannie' the Queen. Writing in The Spectator magazine, said she hoped her one-year-old son August would grow to have the Queen's 'patience, her calmness and her kindness while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye'. She described the nation's longest-reigning monarch as having transcended time and been 'a constant rock for so many'. Reflecting on her 'own special little family' with the arrival of August, who was born in February last year, Eugenie said: 'I think of my grannie and what she has stood for, for so many people and for our family during these 70 years. 'I'd love Augie to have her patience, her calmness and her kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye.' Advertisement Get ready to see inside the luxurious $1,400-a-night 'postnatal' hotel in New York City, which serves as a 'retreat' for wealthy new mothers and offers an army of baby experts to help them care for their newborns and recover from childbirth. The Boram Postnatal Retreat is located on the ninth floor of the five-star Langham Hotel in Manhattan, which sits on Fifth Avenue between 36th and 37th street. It offers a slew of lavish amenities for women who recently welcomed a child, including foot rubs on request, and someone to clean their breast pumps between uses. Between it's Swedish Duxiana bed (which cost upwards of $12,000) and its large marble soaking tub, the resort serves as the perfect place for women to unwind and relax after giving birth. There is also a nursery staffed with employees who have backgrounds in infant care, as well as a 'mother's lounge,' where pediatricians, physical therapists, and mental health experts offer seminars on everything from pelvic floor therapy to curing insomnia. Get ready to see inside the luxurious $1,400-a-night 'postnatal' hotel in New York City, which serves as a 'retreat' for wealthy new mothers and offers an army of baby experts to help them care for their newborns and recover from childbirth The Boram Postnatal Retreat is located on the ninth floor of the five-star Langham Hotel in Manhattan (pictured), which sits on Fifth Avenue between 36th and 37th street It offers a slew of lavish amenities for women who recently welcomed a child, including foot rubs on request, and someone to clean their breast pumps between uses Between it's Swedish Duxiana bed (which cost upwards of $12,000) and its large marble soaking tub, the resort serves as the perfect place for women to unwind and relax after giving birth Dr. Alicia Robbins, 39, an obstetrician and gynecologist from Greenwich, Connecticut, recently stayed at the retreat for one month, after the birth of her third child, Otto, on April 5. She explained to the New York Times that the period right after giving birth to Otto was 'way harder' than she expected, adding, 'I kept wondering if it was OK that breastfeeding was so difficult or that I felt anxious. I kept asking myself, "Is this really my new normal?" She had welcomed her son via cesarean section and was struggling to manage being a mom to her newborn, as well as her two young kids - who were four and two - while also recovering from the surgery. According to the outlet, she was 'mentally and physically exhausted' when she arrived at the retreat, but was delighted with the many amenities offered at Boram - especially the nursery, which is run by a former Lenox Hill Hospital N.I.C.U. nurse educator. 'I sent Otto to the nursery within three minutes of being there,' said Dr. Robbins. 'And I went to sleep. I even read a book. This is like heaven for postpartum patients.' Mothers who stay at Boram during what the retreat describes as their 'fourth trimester' will have full access to a 'care team' who are on-hand to assist with childcare and provide lessons in a variety of areas, from breastfeeding to diaper changing. 'Our baby room is open around the clock, allowing you to rest while your baby is looked after by our care team,' the website states. 'At Boram, we follow evidence based protocols to assure safe feeding, cleaning, and sterilization processes.' It continues: 'Our care team helps parents learn and ease their way into parenthood through teachback and experience during their stay. 'Parenting workshops led by experts in the parenting space are an integral part of the postnatal retreat. These classes may be taken before your stay, during and after your stay. Classes range from newborn safety and CPR to lactation, to healthy sleep habits and more.' There is also a nursery staffed with employees who have backgrounds in infant care, as well as a 'mother's lounge,' where pediatricians and mental health experts offer seminars on everything from pelvic floor therapy to curing insomnia The rooms are all equipped with 'hospital-grade bassinets' and 'eco-friendly Coterie diapers' The menu for room service includes foods like steak, seaweed soup, and bone marrow - which are said to help new mother's after giving birth. It also offers 'lactation cookies' Partners are more than welcome to stay at Boram - which translates to 'something fruitful after hard work' in Korean - with the new mothers, but other children are not 'As a mother, you will put your child first in all things. Which is why we put you first,' Boram's website reads. 'We are here to care for you, providing the space, time and support you need to rest and feel ready for home' The rooms are all equipped with 'hospital-grade bassinets' and 'eco-friendly Coterie diapers.' But as well as offering plenty of care for their newborn babies, the mothers themselves are also provided with an array of different services, including massages, footbaths, and a lengthy room service menu. 'We offer postnatal massages to help promote sleep and reduce swelling, head and shoulder massages to release the tension and foot reflexology to help you rest and recover,' the Boram website notes. 'We also provide sitz baths [a shallow bath of warm water used to treat and ease wounds to the genitals and anus] and footbaths to allow for healing and detoxification at the postnatal retreat.' The menu for room service includes foods like steak, seaweed soup, and bone marrow - which are said to help new mother's after giving birth. It also offers 'lactation cookies', which contain ingredients that are meant to aid a woman's natural supply of breastmilk. Jennifer Jolorte Doro, 35, a clinical nutritionist and chef from Millbrook, New York, stayed at the hotel for more than three weeks after she gave birth to her second child, JP, on April 13; and her favorite part of the experience was the food. Melina Hope, 43, a nursing assistant who works at Boram, from North Bergen, New Jersey, stressed the importance of supporting new moms during the 'vulnerable postnatal period' 'The meals are the last thing you think about, but its what you need the most,' she gushed. According to the resort's website, guests are offered a wide-ranging menu of 'nutritious meals' that are 'prepared by an award-winning chef' and are targeted to provide new mothers with all the nutrients they need after giving birth. 'We emphasize a balanced menu as one of the key components to postnatal care,' the website states. 'Your stay includes a full menu of delicious, nourishing foods designed by a certified nutritionist and prepared by an award-winning chef.' Partners are more than welcome to stay at Boram - which translates to 'something fruitful after hard work' in Korean - with the new mothers, but other children are not. According to PostpartumDepression.org, approximately one in 10 women will experience postpartum depression after giving birth. 'Doctors might give you a number to call, but for the most part you have to coordinate things yourself, and you dont even know what you need until you go through it,' explained Dr. Robbins. 'As a mother, you will put your child first in all things. Which is why we put you first,' Boram's website reads. 'Growing a child, bringing them into the world, nourishing them once born you are giving your literal all. 'We are here to care for you, providing the space, time and support you need to rest and feel ready for home. 'During your stay, you will enjoy access to a 24/7 professionally staffed baby room, lactation assistance, essential nutrition, and recovery care.' Boram Nam, who founded the retreat along with her husband, Suk Park, explained that she was inspired by similar institutions in South Korea, known as sanhujoris. Boram Nam, who founded the retreat along with her husband, Suk Park, explained that she was inspired by similar institutions in South Korea, known as sanhujoris, explaining, 'We are there to ease the transition between the hospital and home' She added that she knows the pricey cost for a stay at Boram Postnatal Retreat has not made it accessible to all, but explained that they 'have to charge what they are charging for the services they're providing' 'We are there to ease the transition between the hospital and home,' she said. Nam, who is a mom herself, recalled struggling after she gave birth to her first kid in 2010. 'After my first baby, I was in the bathroom looking for ice packs for vaginal soreness while this little crying thing was in my living room,' she shared. 'I was so traumatized because I didnt feel like I was well taken care of while all my friends back home got to go to these wonderful places.' The mom-of-two added that she knows the pricey cost for a stay at Boram Postnatal Retreat has not made it accessible to all, but explained that they 'have to charge what they are charging for the services they're providing.' 'We are in talks with companies so our retreat can be provided as part of benefits to their employees. Down the road, we want to work with insurers,' she added. Melina Hope, 43, a nursing assistant who works at Boram, from North Bergen, New Jersey, stressed the importance of supporting new moms during the 'vulnerable postnatal period.' 'The difference between how they come in when they arrived and how rested and confident they are when they go home is remarkable,' she said. 'I see my goal as filling in for the "village" to support moms in the vulnerable postnatal period.' Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert has slammed Kim Kardashian for sending a 'dangerous' and 'destructive' message by revealing that she shed 16 pounds in just three weeks in order to fit into the Marilyn Monroe dress she wore to this year's Met Gala. Gilbert, 58, who is best known for playing Laura Ingalls Wilder on the hit series, recently traded in her glamorous lifestyle for a ramshackle cottage in the Catskill mountains with her husband, Timothy Busfield. Now, the TV star has spoken out about why she decided to step away from the spotlight and the pressures of Hollywood, explaining how 'gleeful and happy' it has made her, while urging other women in Hollywood to help 'change the conversation' surrounding the 'aging process.' 'We need to provide examples for young women of what aging well looks like, and what being healthy looks like, as opposed to telling them that it's OK to lose 16 pounds to fit into Marilyn Monroes dress,' she told Yahoo Life recently, throwing a jab at Kardashian, 41, who admitted she lost 16 pounds in three weeks in order to fit into the iconic outfit that she wore to the Met Gala in early May. Little House on the Prairie's Melissa Gilbert (left) has hit out at Kim Kardashian (right) for sending a 'dangerous, destructive' message by losing 16 pounds to fit into her Met Gala gown Gilbert, 58, recently traded in her glamorous lifestyle for a ramshackle cottage in the Catskill mountains with her husband, Timothy Busfield. They are pictured in front of the house While speaking out against Hollywood's unrealistic beauty standards, Gilbert threw a jab at Kardashian over the reality star's admission that she lost 16 pounds in three weeks so she could fit into Marilyn Monroe's iconic Happy Birthday Mr. President dress for the Met Gala on May 2 'I think that is a dangerous [and] destructive message. Hopefully, I'm here to inspire other women to join this movement, to be who we are and know that this is not only is this enough, it's more than enough.' Gilbert is best known for playing Laura Ingalls Wilder on the hit 1974 Western series. She is pictured on the show Kardashian turned heads when she attended the annual gala in the dress that Monroe famously wore when she sang Happy Birthday to president John F. Kennedy in 1962. She later spoke out about the extreme measures she took to get into the gown - revealing to Vogue that she lost 16 pounds after not eating any carbs or sugar for three weeks. 'It was such a challenge. It was like a [movie] role. I was determined to fit [into] it,' she said. 'I haven't had carbs or sugar in about three weeks. We're having pizza and donut party back at the hotel [after the Met Gala].' Gilbert - who was skyrocketed into stardom after she starred in the 1974 Western show when she was just a child - recently purchased a $98,000 14-acre property in upstate New York so that she can enjoy a much more relaxed lifestyle and escape the pressures of being in the public eye. She explained to Yahoo that the decision to make the move came to her after she looked back at old photos and didn't even recognize herself. The TV star (pictured at her new home) spoke out about why she decided to move, and urged other women in Hollywood to help 'change the conversation' around the 'aging process' 'We need to provide examples of what being healthy looks like, as opposed to telling women it's OK to lose 16 pounds to fit into [a] dress,' Gilbert (pictured in 2020 with her husband) said The former child star, who recently released a memoir entitled Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered, underwent multiple plastic surgery procedures throughout her career, and she said it left her thinking, 'Who is that person? That's not me. That's like a shell over what the real me is.' She admitted that she was also having a 'hard time' living her life from a place where the 'external mattered more than the internal.' 'I really wanted to reverse that. I wanted to become more spiritual, more grounded, more at peace, more connected to my community, to my family, to my friends,' she explained. The couple purchased the fixer-upper - which was filled with rotting deer heads, porn, and holy water when they moved in - in 2018, and spent about a year renovating it. She now spends her days raising chickens and growing her own food at her new home, and it turns out, starring in Little House as a kid is what inspired her to want to live so close to nature. 'I actually feel like Little House on the Prairie was sort of the bait that opened my eyes to what could be,' she told the outlet. 'I would be on the set, especially when we were outdoors with the chickens and then the frogs and the pond and horses and cows, and everybody had their dogs with them. Gilbert recently purchased a $98,000 14-acre property in upstate New York (pictured) so she can enjoy a much more relaxed lifestyle and escape the pressures of being in the public eye She explained to Yahoo that the decision to make the move came to her after she looked back at old photos and didn't even recognize herself. She is pictured in 2014 The former child star underwent multiple plastic surgery procedures throughout her career, and she said it left her thinking, 'Who is that person? That's not me.' She is pictured in 2011 'I was outside in Simi Valley on the ranch and it was always dusty, always dirty, but [I was] just gleeful and happy.' The couple purchased the fixer-upper - which was filled with rotting deer heads, porn, and holy water when they moved in - in 2018, and spent about a year renovating it The couple officially moved into the home in late 2019, and she previously recalled to Good Morning America how they spent the height of the COVID-19 pandemic locked down in their new home, saying it was an experience she never wants to forget. 'I would tell myself to remember 2020 as vividly as possible because it really was an extraordinary life-changing time for the entire world, and I was a part of that,' she said. 'I think remembering that will enable me to be more compassionate, more tolerant, more understanding, and not just about COVID but about everything that happened in the summer of 2020 and to remain aware of my own privilege and my own part in all of it.' When they purchased it, the small house had no heat and was covered with mold and mildew. It was also home to a few mice, but Gilbert told Fox News that they saw its 'potential.' Gilbert (pictured with her son) spends her days raising chickens and growing her own food at her new home, and she said starring in Little House made her to want to live near nature 'I would be on the set with the chickens and frogs and horses and cows. It was always dusty, always dirty, but [I was] just gleeful and happy,' Gilbert (pictured bottom on the show) said When they purchased it, the house (pictured before they moved in) had no heat and was covered with mold. It was also home to a few mice, but Gilbert said they saw its 'potential' '[The house] had no heat, and the plumbing was kind of wonky. We had to empty all the stuff that was in the house because it was fully furnished, I mean, to the point where there was cereal in the cabinets and soap in the shower,' she recalled. 'It was like the people had just wrapped up out of the house and it sat there for decades like that. ''Once we cleaned all of that stuff out, we put the wood-burning stove to warm it before we put in an actual heating system. 'There was so much cleaning. I remember my husband with a bucket just cleaning the ceilings with hydrogen peroxide and Clorox. We scrubbed that place within an inch of its life.' Despite having an estimated combined net worth of around $500,000, the couple spent their first night sleeping on a 'mattress on the floor in the living room.' 'We were waiting for the delivery of the fridge, the washing machine, the dishwasher, and stove. I just remember thinking at that moment: "This is home. This is going to be our home,"' she gushed to Fox. 'I think it was that night, that first night that we slept there, is when I realized: "Oh gosh, this is really it. And we're going to be doing this ourselves. And it's going to be incredible."' The Duchess of Cornwall has tied a ribbon for 'all the victims of domestic abuse' during her appearance in a special EastEnders episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee. Charles and Camilla surprised the residents of Walford after Mick Carter, played by Danny Dyer, decided to throw a street party for the Square in celebration of the Queen's 70-year reign. The partygoers are left in disbelief when the royal couple pull up in a car outside the Queen Vic pub, greeted by Mick and Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright. During the episode, Camilla is introduced to Karen Taylor, played by Lorraine Stanley, whose on-screen daughter Chantelle Atkins, played by Jessica Plummer, was murdered in a domestic abuse storyline. The Duchess takes a purple ribbon and ties it around a tree in memory of Chantelle, who suffered months of abuse at the hands of her husband Gray Atkins in the soap. Camilla dedicates it to 'all the victims of domestic abuse' - an issue she has made a cornerstone of her public work. Charles and Camilla surprised the residents of Walford after Mick Carter, played by Danny Dyer, decided to throw a street party for the Square in celebration of the Queen's 70-year reign in EastEnders The Duchess of Cornwall (pictured centre) tied a ribbon for 'all the victims of domestic abuse' during her appearance in a special EastEnders episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee Camilla said: 'This is for your daughter, Chantelle. This is for all victims of domestic abuse. It's very important that she is remembered. My heart goes out to you, I know a lot of people who have lost children.' EastEnders icon Sharon Watts, played by Letitia Dean, said it was a 'proper royal seal of approval'. In the episode, Charles unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit to Albert Square dated June 2. Dyer said: 'We'd like to mark this very special occasion with a memento. We've all had a whip around and there is a collection for you behind the bar in your great-great-great-grandmothers boozer to go to a charity that is close to your heart.' While meeting the residents of Walford, Charles is introduced to greengrocer Martin Fowler, played by James Bye, who explains the history of his market stall dating back generations in his family who have lived on the Square. During the episode, Camilla is introduced to Karen Taylor (pictured right), played by Lorraine Stanley, whose on-screen daughter Chantelle Atkins, played by Jessica Plummer, was murdered in a domestic abuse storyline The Duchess takes a purple ribbon and ties it around a tree in memory of Chantelle, who suffered months of abuse at the hands of her husband Gray Atkins in the soap While meeting the residents of Walford, Charles is introduced to greengrocer Martin Fowler (pictured together), played by James Bye, who explains the history of his market stall dating back generations in his family who have lived on the Square Charles said: 'That's the wonderful thing about London, all the different markets and stalls where people inherit them over the generations.' The Prince of Wales said: 'You lip-read very well' when introduced to Frankie Lewis, played by Rose Ayling-Ellis, and commented: 'I don't know how you keep this lot in order,' to police officer Jack Branning, played by Scott Maslen. Camilla shook hands with fan favourite Shrimpy, played by Ben Champniss, and 'speechless' Harvey Monroe played by Ross Boatman. She was also introduced to 'legend of the square' Patrick Trueman, played by Rudolph Walker, and points out the 'nice little bottle' of rum from Trinidad that Patrick is holding. In unison, they say: 'A drop a day keeps the doctor away,' causing the residents to laugh along with them. In one scene, Camilla points out the 'nice little bottle' of rum from Trinidad that Patrick is holding. In unison, they say: 'A drop a day keeps the doctor away', causing the cast to laugh along with them One scene sees Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright, guiding Charles (pictured centre) through the square The royal couple also met the soap's iconic characters Stacey Slater, played by Lacey Turner, and Sonia Fowler, played by Natalie Cassidy, right In the episode, Charles (pictured) unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit to Albert Square dated June 2 Patrick then asks the duchess if he can interest her in a tot of rum before she leaves, to which Camilla agrees, as the residents cheer in the background. He later asks to pour a dribble into Charles' cup of tea, to which he replies: 'I thought you'd never ask.' The royal couple also met the soap's iconic characters Stacey Slater, played by Lacey Turner, and Sonia Fowler, played by Natalie Cassidy. At the end of the episode, Dyer's character shares a toast to Her Majesty the Queen and 'to all the people up and down the country doing exactly the same thing as us, celebrating'. The EastEnders star discovered in 2016 during filming for Who Do You Think You Are? that he is related to Thomas Cromwell, Edward III, William the Conqueror and Henry III. The royal couple filmed the scenes for the long-running BBC soap opera in March when they visited the new Elstree set and met the cast and crew. In 2001, the Queen visited soap queen Dame Barbara Windsor, who played Peggy Mitchell, on the EastEnders set. The royal visitor stepped behind the bar at the Queen Vic, strolled around Albert Square and through the EastEnders street market, meeting stars of the show. The special Jubilee episode featuring Charles and Camilla aired on Thursday. Advertisement The Queen debuted a new brooch inspired by the UK's four nations as she lit the first of 3,500 beacons that span the length and breadth of Britain in tribute to her 70 years on the throne today. Her Majesty, 96, looked effortlessly elegant in a jade green Stuart Pravin crepe coat with a printed silk dress in shades of jade and taupe when attending the lighting of the beacons event at Windsor Castle. The monarch, who walked slowly and slightly gingerly using her by now familiar walking stick, sported a special new Platinum Jubilee brooch commissioned by the Goldsmiths Company as a gift to Her Majesty to mark her seven decades of service. The brooch was inspired by the four nations which make up the UK, which are represented by four diamond swirls and the national flowers: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock. It also includes the lily of the valley, one of her favourite flowers and used in her Coronation bouquet. It was announced by Buckingham Palace tonight that the Queen has with 'great reluctance' pulled out of Friday's Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral. The monarch, who has been suffering with mobility issues, is said to have experienced 'discomfort' during today's Trooping the Colour events, which kickstarted the four-day celebration to commemorate her 70-year reign. The Queen (pictured) debuted a new brooch inspired by the UK's four nations as she lit the first of 3,500 beacons that span the length and breadth of Britain in tribute to her 70 years on the throne today The monarch, who walked slowly and slightly gingerly using her by now familiar walking stick, sported a special new Platinum Jubilee brooch commissioned by the Goldsmiths Company as a gift to Her Majesty to mark her seven decades of service Tonight, the monarch made a third public appearance of the day to launch more than 3,500 flaming tributes to her 70-year reign by laying her hand on a specially created glittering Commonwealth of Nations globe. The event formed part of a special dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge, waiting 22 miles away at Buckingham Palace where the beacon centrepiece - a 21-metre living Tree of Trees sculpture - was subsequently illuminated in lights on the Queen's command. The monarch was greeted in the castle Quadrangle with a fanfare by the State Trumpeters at the Sovereign's Entrance, close to her private apartments, at 9.30pm. She was accompanied by her private secretary, Sir Edward Younqg, Lady-in-Waiting Lady Susan Hussey and equerry Lt Colonel Tom White of the Royal Marines. Around 130 members of the Windsor Castle community who had gathered to watch the ceremony greeted the monarch, some waving flags. The Commonwealth of Nations Globe - a blue globe, which sits inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion - was specially created for the Beacons project and was placed on a podium by five Yeoman Warders, led by Chief Yeoman Warder Peter McGowran. The brooch was inspired by the four nations which make up the UK, which are represented by four diamond swirls and the national flowers: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock. Pictured, the Queen The brooch also includes the lily of the valley, one of her favourite flowers and used in her Coronation bouquet. Pictured, the Queen, right The beaming Queen symbolically leads the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle this evening The Queen touches the Commonwealth Nations Globe to start the lighting of the Principal Beacon outside of Buckingham Palace in London, from the Quadrangle at Windsor Castle As the sovereign placed her finger on the globe, bright white lights raced along the Quadrangle towards Windsor's famous Round Tower It was created as a symbol representing The Queens previous Jubilees and includes elements of silver, gold, diamonds and platinum. The stones in the Crown signify the coming together of the four nations of the United Kingdom in celebration of the Jubilee and were collected from the top of the four highest peaks - Mount Snowdon, Wales; Ben Nevis, Scotland; Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland, and Scafell Pike, England. As the sovereign placed her finger on the globe, bright white lights raced along the Quadrangle towards Windsor's famous Round Tower, before - by the magic of technology - travelling up the Tree of Trees in London. Although it was a short ceremony, lasting less than 10 minutes, it was late due to the need for it to be dusk and came at the end of an extremely long and gruelling day for the elderly and increasingly frail monarch. Afterwards she turned and walked slowly down the red carpet that had been laid across the gravel, extremely carefully, step by step. When she was on the more even surface of the flagstones she picked up pace, stopping briefly to acknowledge some of the Windsor Castle residents who had come out to see her, who curtseyed and bowed. Beacons will now be lit throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth, and sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen's estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK's four highest peaks. The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize. The Tree of Trees in London is part of the nationwide Queens Green Canopy project to create a living legacy to the monarch by encouraging communities to plant thousands of new trees. Placing the Tree of Trees at the heart of the beacon lighting reflects the Royal Family's long history of championing environmental causes and will pay a fitting tribute to Her Majestys 70 years of service to the nation. The Queen was joined by Bruno Peek, who has overseen the Jubilee Beacons celebration. It comes after the Queen has with 'great reluctance' pulled out of Friday's Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace announced tonight. Prince William pictured smiling as he attended the Lighting Of The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace this evening Mike Bloomberg and the Duke of Cambridge attend The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace, pictured together, right Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Sir Nicholas Bacon attend The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace The 'Tree Of Trees', created by Designer Thomas Heatherwick, at The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace Members of the Yeoman Guard before the Queen symbolically led the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle The monarch, who has been suffering with mobility issues, is said to have experienced 'discomfort' during today's events, which kickstarted the four-day celebration to commemorate her 70-year reign. The Palace said: 'The Queen greatly enjoyed today's Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort.' In a full statement a spokesperson added: 'Taking into account the journey and activity required participate in tomorrow's National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, Her Majesty with great reluctance has concluded that she will not attend. 'The Queen is looking forward to participating in tonight's Beacon lighting event at Windsor Castle and would like to thank all those who made today such a memorable occasion.' The Queen has been forced to cancel a string of engagements in recent months and most recently missed the State Opening of Parliament, symbolically asking her son, Prince Charles, and grandson, Prince William, to stand in. Jubilee Beacons at Windsor Castle that were symbolically lit by Queen this evening - her third public appearance om Thursday Projections displayed on the front of Buckingham Palace depicting the Queen during The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon tonight A picture of the Queen is projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace ahead of the beacon lighting ceremony But royal aides this week insisted that despite what they describe as 'episodic' mobility issues, the monarch is in good spirits and very much in charge behind the scenes. The announcement that the monarch will not attend tomorrow's service followed a jam-packed first day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend, which will end on Sunday with a special Pageant celebrating the life of the nation's longest-reigning monarch. Earlier today, Her Majesty followed tradition again this year and gave a nod to her military role by wearing her diamond-encrusted Brigade of Guards brooch for Trooping the Colour. The Queen has worn the brooch to almost every Trooping the Colour since 1987, when she stopped wearing uniform to the birthday parade. Created for Queen Mary, the diamond piece combines the badges of the five regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies, which include Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards. The five symbols are enclosed in an oval frame with the Latin phrase, 'Quinque Juncta In Uno,' which translates in English to 'five joined as one.' Earlier today, Her Majesty followed tradition again this year and gave a nod to her military role by wearing her diamond-encrusted Brigade of Guards brooch The brooch is made out of natural diamonds, and combines the badges of the five regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies, which include Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards The Brigade of Guards Brooch was originally created for Queen Mary, the Queen's grandmother, and it's been in the royal family for more than a century. A replica was created for Queen Mary's daughter, Princess Mary, and was presented to her by the Brigade of Guards for her wedding in 1922. The Queen rode a horse in the annual parade until 1987, and was also required to wear uniform. But when she stopped riding in the event and started to use a carriage she also started wearing her standard day wardrobe, which meant a brooch was also required. The Queens extensive personal jewellery collection is impressive and awe-inspiring and it's said to include more than 300 pieces. She is said to be so fond of brooches that has approximately 98 different pieces in her collection. The monarch wears each brooch depending on its history or relevance to the occasion and they have either been gifted or commissioned for special occasions. A young woman struggling with her skin after coming off the contraceptive pill has healed her painful skin lesions with just three 'fairy dust' treatments at an exclusive salon in Sydney. Morgan turned to skin specialist Carina Gross from Belameres to help clear up unwanted acne and pigmentation with her exclusive $310-a-session treatments, which worked their magic in just a few weeks. 'Our Fairy Dust Treatment utilises a low-level laser and infuses a micronised hyaluronic acid into the skin,' the Belameres website read. Morgan turned to skin specialist Carina Gross from Belameres to help clear up unwanted acne and pigmentation with her exclusive $310-a-session treatments, which worked their magic in just a few weeks 'Our Fairy Dust Treatment utilises a low-level laser and infuses a micronised hyaluronic acid into the skin,' the Belameres website read 'The treatment starts with the cleansing, exfoliation and neutralisation of the skin - this can sometimes include manual extractions. The skin is stimulated with our laser and HA gel is applied. 'It is free of allergens, preservatives and additives. Your skin will be dewy and glowing straight after. This treatment is great for a routine hit of hydration and is suitable for most skin types, including sensitive. Non-invasive, pregnancy and breastfeeding safe.' The treatment can take up to an hour and a half to complete, with Morgan testing them out since March. The treatment can take up to an hour and a half to complete, with Morgan testing them out since March Transformation photos posted to the clinic's Instagram page on May 23 show how quickly her skin healed, and it earned rapturous applause from her online audience. Carina Gross previously spoke to FEMAIL about how important vitamin A esters, not to be confused with vitamin A acids, are for fighting free radical damage. So sure of its acne-fighting, fine line-reducing properties, Ms Gross only recommends skincare like brand Beaute Pacifique which has the antioxidant included. So sure of its acne-fighting, fine line-reducing properties, Ms Gross only recommends skincare like brand Beaute Pacifique which has the antioxidant included (pictured is one of Belameres' clients) Why is vitamin A so important? Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that also acts as a powerful antioxidant in the body. It plays a critical role in maintaining vision, neurological function, healthy skin and more. Like all antioxidants, its also involved in reducing inflammation through fighting. Often prescribed by dermatologists to fight acne and wrinkles alike, vitamin A esters are revered for their potent skin-enhancing properties. One study out of the University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Dermatology even found that applying retinol topically to the skin significantly improved fine lines and wrinkles, plus increased the skins ability to withstand injury. Source: Dr Ax Advertisement 'I think people are under the impression putting a moisturiser on is a one-stop fix for giving you gorgeous, glowy skin, but it's not true,' she said. 'The moisturiser does nothing else but stop trans-epidermal moisture loss - your skin can still be dehydrated even if you're putting something onto it.' Instead, waking up to a lukewarm glass of lemon water and avoiding coffee early in the morning is a preferred method for jump-starting the skin. 'I think people are under the impression putting a moisturiser on is a one-stop fix for giving you gorgeous, glowy skin, but it's not true,' she said (pictured are Belameres clients) Carina reveals the acid responsible for beautiful, glowing skin Resident skin expert at Belameres, Carina Gross, says that one particular acid found naturally in our epidermis can easily shed a decade off your skin's age if protected. 'I believe hydration is the key. We are born with 100 percent levels of hyaluronic acid but by the time we turn 40 there is only 50 per cent left and by 60 there is 10 per cent,' she told FEMAIL. 'In order to look youthful we need to keep that profile up as high as possible. The acid is connected to our collagen levels and cells - so if you're looking for radiant skin this is the "fairy dust".' Advertisement Caffeine amplifies your cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone, and negatively impacts your bodily systems when taken first thing. Alternatively, exercising as soon as you've leapt out of bed is prone to leaving the body with a dewy sheen and can be seen (begrudgingly) as a better option. 'I recommend a non-invasive low level laser treatment over something like a hot laser. They're quick and extremely effect at stimulating the acid levels under the surface,' she continued. A furious man has revealed he was 'left to starve' while his neighbour feasted on wagyu beef and salt and pepper prawns after collecting his $120 DoorDash order. He said the menu items were his favourites in an angry letter advising the thief to pay-up or face the police on stealing charges. 'If you happened to be the one who accidentally claimed my order as yours, given it cost me $120, I'd love you to get in touch pronto and arrange reimbursement,' he wrote in the scathing letter. A furious man has demanded his neighbour pay him back for stolen dinner in furious note posted in his building's common area He also revealed he knows the identity of the thief and had seen him collecting the meal after going through the building's security footage. The note was posted in the building for all of his neighbours to see, in it the hungry letter writer explained he would head to the police station and lodge a formal complaint if the matter wasn't resolved. 'If you don't reimburse me, I'll have to do that time consuming video/police report thing,' he said. He went on to say he didn't want to name them publicly, or even reveal their floor number as it could lead to embarrassment. He instead referred to them as 'someone' in the longwinded letter. 'If you (reimburse me), I'll assume it was an innocent/drunk/whatever error. If you don't want to get in touch with me directly, all good, just give (blanked out name) the money and he can pass it on to me.' A third neighbour decided the note was the most 'delightfully' passive aggressive thing he had seen and posted it on Reddit. And many people felt bad for the angry, hungry letter-writer noting they would be furious if their meal was stolen on delivery. Poll Who should pay for the meal? The person who ate it! The delivery company, as they gave it to the wrong person. The letter writer! Who should pay for the meal? The person who ate it! 308 votes The delivery company, as they gave it to the wrong person. 50 votes The letter writer! 7 votes Now share your opinion 'If I had $120 worth of food stolen I'd be beyond hangry,' one woman wrote in support. 'I would be smashing doors and wrecking the place,' said another. 'I can't stand scumbag neighbours. I've dealt with many, my next door neighour had her bike stolen from the bike storage locker under the building. In order to access this you need a keyfob for the gate. So you know its someone you share the elevator with. I hope the sh*td**k that took this guy's meal is embarrassed and pays up.' Others revealed they have also been left hungry after their deliveries didn't arrive. 'I once had a very long day and had skipped lunch and was starving. I ordered a salad and they took forever to come then when they dropped off the food in our lobby someone else took it. I waited in case it was a mistake but they didnt bring it back. I wanted to cry,' one woman said. 'One week after I arrived in Oz, I was in quarantine in Queensland and the food was awful so I ordered delivery once per day. One day I had the same story as you except the driver ate my food. I ended up yelling, hitting my head on the wall, cause I hadn't eaten all day.' One woman pointed outa flaw in the delivery system which allows for so much food to go to the wrong people. 'People are incredibly bad at the simple act of checking a name. Unless they're literally trained covert agents, I guarantee they will just say: "Hi, are you Bob?", and then Terry the thief will say "yep".'' Some couldn't believe the man's restraint and said they would have 'hand-delivered' the note to the thief's door. An Aussie mum has shared a unique and amusing solution to feeding her baby girl who's rejecting feeding from a standard bottle. After trying 'every' plastic bottle, the frustrated mum opted to try a clean tomato sauce bottle - and remarkably, it worked instantly. 'Are you having trouble switching from breast to bottle? Try this,' she wrote in a now-viral TikTok video. Another clip shows her baby happily drinking formula milk from the sauce bottle without complaint. Scroll down for video An Aussie mum has surprised thousands online by opting to feed her baby formula milk using a clean tomato sauce bottle Another clip shows her baby happily drinking from the sauce bottle filled with formula milk (pictured) The bizarre tip shocked thousands of parents online, and one video has since been viewed a staggering 3.4million times. As expected, other mums had an array of burning questions to ask. 'Okay but how did you decide one day let's try the sauce bottle?' one woman wrote. The mum explained herself and said: 'She wouldn't take a bottle but would drink from a syringe.. a syringe is a hard plastic and so is the tomato sauce bottle,' she said. 'So [I] thought why not give it a go.' In another short TikTok video, the mum showed her daughter resisting feeding from a baby bottle but instead was happy to fed using the sauce bottle. Others were in disbelief and couldn't believe the trick worked. 'This is a joke right?' one person wrote. 'Desperate times call for desperate measures...my guess is at a certain point of frustration you'd look at anything that could possibly hold liquid,' another wrote. A third wrote: 'I think this is brilliant... but I'm curious why you thought about even trying the sauce bottle to begin with.' Others supported the woman and outlined other struggled mum often face when transitioning from breast feeding to bottle. 'I've seen babies hospitalised and tube fed because they would not take a bottle and they were starving. I'm happy you found something that works!' one woman said. 'My mum always said fed is best so.. do whatever works, its your child at the end of the day,' another added. 'I'm confused about what the problem is if this is how baby wants to feed & mumma needs a break or isn't able to breastfeed what else do people want?' another wrote. The World Health Organization and the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia recommend breastfeeding your child for at least six months with no other fluids or solids. Between 12 to 24 months, breastfeeding should continue combined with solid foods. But in some cases, mums are unable to breastfeed and opt to bottle feed as a suitable alternative. A British woman who has moved to Australia has shared the one bizarre difference she's noticed between the countries when the weather gets colder. In a TikTok video titled 'Aussie culture shock', comedy writer Jordana Grace re-enacted a conversation she has had with Australians living in the UK about turning on the radiator. 'Oh my gosh it's freezing,' the Aussie said. 'Just turn on the radiator,' she replied. At this point Ms Grace claims Australians never know what she means by the 'radiator' and they need help turning the knob to switch it on. 'I'm trying to have patience,' she said. In a TikTok video titled 'Aussie culture shock', comedy writer Jordana Grace re-enacted a conversation she has had with Australians living in the UK about turning on the radiator 'It radiates heat around the house,' she said, to which Australians usually reply 'we have the sun for that'. Earlier Ms Grace poked fun at the time she was walking around an open house with a real estate agent in Sydney only to discover that washing machines are rarely installed in the kitchen. In a separate video she asked the agent where the washing machine was and why it wasn't in the kitchen - but was shocked after being told most Aussie houses have laundry rooms equipped with both a washer and dryer. Most British houses have washing machines under bench tops in the kitchen due to limited space and power outlets in the bathroom. British comedy writer Jordana Grace (pictured) was shocked when she was told most Aussie households have a laundry room equipped with a washing machine, dryer and sink In a now-viral TikTok video, Ms Grace re-enacted a conversation between her and a real estate agent. Ms Grace asked the agent where the washing machine was and why it wasn't in the kitchen Poll Where do you have your washing machine? Kitchen Laundry room Bathroom Other Where do you have your washing machine? Kitchen 1054 votes Laundry room 2926 votes Bathroom 229 votes Other 333 votes Now share your opinion 'I can't see the washing machine in the kitchen,' Ms Grace said in the re-enacted video to which to real estate agent said: 'The washing machine isn't in the kitchen.' Ms Grace was then shown the 'huge' laundry room in a separate area of the house. 'Yeah it's a little small but does the job, and most Aussie houses have them. And it's so hot you won't need to use the tumble dryer, so you'll save money,' the agent told Ms Grace. She was also mind blown over the fact that Aussies tend to avoid using the dryer and instead hang their garments on a clothes line. Ms Grace was then shown the 'huge' laundry room in a separate area of the house she was inspecting to rent The humorous video has since been viewed more than half a million times and received hundreds of comments. 'I was shocked too, laundry rooms are my fave,' one person wrote. Other Aussies seemed puzzled as to why some UK and European homes place the household appliance in the kitchen. 'UK houses aren't big, there's no room for laundry rooms in many older ones and kitchens already have plumbing,' another British woman added. The humorous video has since been viewed more than half a million times and received hundreds of comments. By sharing her 'culture shock' videos, Ms Grace has gained a loyal TikTok following of more than 200,000 people By sharing her 'culture shock' videos, Ms Grace has gained a loyal TikTok following of more than 200,000 people. Last year in another video Ms Grace described driving Down Under as a type of 'laidback Hunger Games', which fails to reflect the stereotype of Australians being cheerful and relaxed. She explained how merging on a highway is a 'terrifying' experience because drivers make it difficult for other cars to get into the lane. Last year in another video Ms Grace described driving Down Under as a type of 'laidback Hunger Games', which fails to reflect the stereotype of Australians being cheerful and relaxed 'You know that lane that helps you merge onto the highway? I found in Australia they tend to be quite short, which is terrifying in itself,' she said in the video. 'But as you're speeding up, looking over your shoulder to try and find a gap to slide in Australians will speed up to try and ram you off the road! 'Okay so not RAM you off the road but they're not letting you in! You have to earn it! If you can get in and survive then you're welcome to stay.' Ms Grace went on to explain another aspect of driving in Australia that annoys her, regarding the courtesy 'thank you' wave you usually receive after letting another driver in the lane. 'You know when you let someone in and you get the courtesy wave to say 'thank you?' I rarely get that!' she said. 'If I have let you in, I want the wave! I want to wave!!!' Kyiv is not happy with Washington's reaction to may stage an exemplary tantrum because they want the MLRS and might attack Russia itself. Volodymyr Zelensky himself has resorted to hysteria whenever the EU refused his requests. It could be reasoned that the White House will not tolerate Azov Nazis using it to worsen the conflict. Ukraine Is Desperate The statement of an aide to Zelensky last Monday, Alexey Arestovich is not pleased with the cancellation of the long-range rockets by US President Joe Biden, reported RT. Washington reconsidered arming Ukraine with heavier weapons for certain reasons. Arestovich, a key figure in Ukraine's military messaging, outlined Kyiv's response if the weapons are not delivered on time, noted the Press United. Zelensky's aide was adamant that Washington give the systems, the reaction of Ukraine would vary if the demands were not met. Why Ukraine Is Going for an Exemplary Tantrum The US promised to deliver multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine, including the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). These platforms can fire ballistic missiles up to 300 km, although the cheaper, shorter-range barrage rocket is preferred. A statement issued by Washington said Joe Biden had reversed the deliveries of the MLRS systems for Kyiv, who might use the weapon to attack Russia beyond the border. Read Also: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022: Did Trump Get Richer Since Leaving the US Presidency? No further explanation was given, but the US leader was not comfortable with Zelensky's people, including Arestovich, as cited by The Thread Times. The president stressed that a seventy-kilometer range is enough, referencing the smaller rockets. Reports by the media say that US officials are not confident that giving the long-ranged missiles will not be used to target Russia itself, the US wants to limit the conflict within the country itself, not draw Vladimir Putin into a deadlier one. Zelensky's forces have made cross-border incidents with civilians injured and even damaged incursions. But the Ukrainians have not denied or verified if it's their handiwork. Though the Azov Nazis and regular forces had Soviet-made multiple rocket launchers available, they still wanted the two US-made rocket launchers because they thought they would stop losses suffered. Humiliation at successive defeats in the face of the Russian offensive has the Ukrainians losing their human shield in the east, just running away in droves and loss. Combine assaults from Russia and DPR, Chechens have the Neo-Nazis surrendering territory in the Donbas. The Ukrainian government has difficulty accepting Russia beating their forces in Mariupol. More than 2000 Neo-Nazis and regulars were trapped and stuck like rats in Azovstal until they surrendered. On February 24, The Kremlin allowed a special operation to enter the Donbas to stop an all-out offensive by Ukraine to retake the LPR and DPR. Zelensky's regime did not intend to honor the Minsk agreement signed in 2014, brokered by Germany and France. The country dropped neutrality by bidding for NATO membership and denies it never provoked Russia. Kyiv could not stand Washington's decision and would do an exemplary tantrum in protest because the MLRS Systems were denied at the last minute. Related Article: Moscow Reports Ukraine Neo-Nazis Uses Civilians as Human Shields in Donetsk and Lugansk Republics After the Battle of Mariupol @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. New NHS advice for trans parents has been described as 'ideological' for failing to mention the word breasts and 'normalising' a potentially dangerous chest-binding technique. The guidance also encourages people to keep taking hormone transitioning drugs when they 'chestfeed', despite admitting 'it is unclear what effect this could have on your baby'. The advice was written a year ago but was only issued online this week after nearly a year of internal wrangling over whether to publish. It has provoked concern among nurses and members of the public, who said the advice fails to warn people about health risks to both parents and babies. A page titled 'chestfeeding if you're trans or non-binary' makes no mention of breasts and refers to breast reduction operations as 'top surgery'. The advice also has a section on binding, a technique used by women transitioning to men to flatten their breasts, usually with extremely tight fitting bras. Experts have previously warned the technique can cause bruised ribs, fractures, breathing difficulties and infections. Even NHS England advice in 2008 said bindings should only be used for short periods of time because they 'may cause back problems' and can distort breast tissue, which could affect any future surgery to remove the breasts. The new NHS pregnancy and breastfeeding advice page which has provoked concerns Critics of the page have said it normalises a potentially dangerous 'binding' technique used to make breasts smaller using fabric and which can cause a variety of health problems The page also says testosterone can pass through breast milk to babies but adds it is 'unclear' what affect passing the hormone on to a baby could have The term chestfeeding if used throughout the page with the term 'breast' omitted. Breastmilk likewise has been replaced with 'milk from the chest' The new NHS page said women who bind may be a higher chance of getting an infection called mastitis, an infection of the breast that which can make it more difficult to breastfeed. A separate page admits 'it is unclear' what effects taking testosterone and 'chestfeeding' will have on the baby. It also adds: 'It is also important to consider your own wellbeing if you are finding that not taking testosterone is triggering dysphoria. ' Kat Barber, a nurse from Shrewsbury, said the NHS failed to adequately highlight the risks involved in its advice. 'There is advice in here that negates to mention that binding during breastfeeding may adversely impact health supply,' she tweeted. 'Specific advice for trans people is great, but they deserve to know the full range of possible harms, and the NHS has a duty to make that clear.' James Esses, a former barrister, who frequently posts about gender issues on social media, accused the NHS of using 'ideologically driven language' instead of acknowledging medical realities. 'It uses the ideologically driven language of chestfeeding', he said. 'Most worryingly, it normalises breast binding, which studies have shown can cause significant physical health problems.' Another user, called Andrea, called the NHS's seeming normalisation of binding 'irresponsible'. 'This is utterly irresponsible. The NHS should not be recommending breast-binding under any circumstances, but for breastfeeding it is verging on criminal,' she said. Dr Karleen Gribble, an expert in nursing and midwifery from Western Sydney University in Australia, said the NHS page was 'misleading'. She said the advice on binding was 'unclear' and failed to highlight the risks of mastitis. 'Binding will increase the risk of mastitis, it's not that it may increase the risk as they say,' she said. 'The literature that has considered binding and lactation universally says that this is not something that should be attempted early in lactation and that if it attempted later on there needs to be great caution taken. 'They are not doing anyone any favours by not saying that it is not recommended or by not linking to the NHS web page that deals with mastitis in detail.' Dr Gribble added there has been very little research on the affects of testosterone in breastmilk. Considering the unknowns she said it was good that people are being asked to speak to a health professional about the issue, but added there were so many unknowns it was difficult to know what guidelines to follow. 'It's good that people are being referred to their doctor or midwife but the question I would have is, where are these health providers going to get information to support them?', she said. 'The information seems to suggest that it is okay in some circumstances for testosterone to be taken, but if so, what are those situations?'. She added while creating health advice for specific groups was welcome trying to cover a varied group such as LGBT people at once was not the best way to go about it, and that such a page should have 'clearer and honest information'. An NHS spokesperson said: 'The NHS website provides information for everyone, and we add pages to the site to keep it in line with the best clinical evidence and make it as helpful as possible to everyone who needs it.' Earlier this year this website revealed a Government funded report said maternity services should use 'inclusive' terms like 'chestfeeding' so trans pregnant people aren't offended. The report, from the LGBT Foundation, made the recommendation after surveying 121 trans Britons on their experience of pregnancy. Some Twitter users said the NHS was using 'ideologically driven language' One nurse said the NHS had a duty to highlight some of the health risk techniques like binding can cause Other members of the public highlighted the NHs advice saying experts seemingly had no idea what impact breastmilk with testosterone could have on a baby A Twitter user called Andrea said the NHS should not be recommending binding under any circumstances Earlier this week the i revealed a series of NHS webpages offering advice to LGBT people had been published after a whistleblower revealed they had been blocked for nearly a year. The whistleblower believed the advice being delayed was evidence of anti-trans views within the institution. However, meetings within NHS England and nhs.uk, the main website for the health service, took place on Monday led to the pages being published. The total number of trans people who have given birth in the UK is unknown. A female-to-male trans person, a transman, can still become pregnant and give birth as long as they are fertile and their womb has not been removed. However, they may struggle to breastfeed if they have had surgery to remove their breast tissue, known as breast reduction or top surgery. Male-to-female trans people, transwomen, cannot give birth as they were not born with a womb. However, scientists believe it is theoretically possible to impregnate a trans woman using IVF, when the eggs are fertilised outside the body and then inserted. But it would require a healthy womb for the child to grow in, and transplant operations are years if not decades away from making that a reality. There are no accurate estimates on how many trans people there are in the UK, however the Government estimates there are between 200,000-500,000. A Morris dancer left in charge of her dead parents' 2million fortune been removed as executor of the estate after being accused of having her 'hands in the till'. Dana Conlin and her brother Eugene were appointed to look after Rosina and Charles' multimillion-pound properties in south Wales after they died in 2012. The will instructed them to look after the family wealth until their dead brother Daniel's children were old enough to in inherit their combined third of the estate. But Dana and Eugene who fell out in 2017 were accused of using the estate for 'personal profit' and have now been sued by their nieces and nephews. They used the estate credit card for personal purchases and put Dana's son up for free in an estate property. Dana devalued her parents' six-bedroom house by 175,000 after putting off buyers with 'smelly rubbish' and 'full ashtrays' while living there, the High Court heard. Now her and her brother have both been removed as executors and trustees by a judge at the London court. Dana was handed a 90,000 costs bill. Morris dancer Dana Conlin (pictured) and her brother Eugene were appointed to look after Rosina and Charles' multimillion-pound properties in south Wales after they died in 2012. They were accused of using the estate for 'personal profit' and were sued by their nieces and nephews Dana used the estate credit card for personal purchases and put her son up for free in an estate property, a court heard The court heard that the siblings' mum Rosina died in 2012 and their dad Charles the following year, having left mirror wills. Their estates included 'significant assets' including Bell House, in Magor, Caldicot, comprising 11 commercial units and worth an unknown seven-figure sum. They also left development land worth 1.2mmillion, and the couple's home, White Heather, in Penhow, which later sold for 650,000. Charles and Rosina had four children, but only Dana and Eugene are still alive. Daniel's three children, Shannon Roberts, 27, Kitty Conlin, 25, and Ethan Conlin 21, are now entitled to inherit just over a third of the estate between them. But Dana and Eugene, who had each been left a quarter share, are the executors and trustees and have still not cashed in the assets in the estate after a drastic falling out between the pair in 2017. They were dragged to court last month by their nieces and nephews, who accused them of mismanaging the estate and using it to cover their personal spending, despite each having already been handed 50,000 of their inheritance. James Poole, lawyer for the nieces and nephews, told judge Master William Hansen that they say both their aunt and uncle have been spending estate money. The court heard that the Dana's mum Rosina (left) died in 2012 and their dad Charles (right) the following year 'Eugene says Dana was using the estate credit card for personal purchases so he started doing so too,' he said. 'Eugene says Dana's son has been living in one of the flats at Bell House and not paying any rent.' He also told the judge that White Heather, whilst marketed for 800,000, had sold for just 625,000. Eugene blames that 'undervalue' and consequent loss to the estate on his sister Dana, who lived in the house for four years before its sale in 2017. 'Eugene says the loss was down to how Dana treated the house,' the barrister said, reading the judge a letter in which Eugene claimed that during viewings the property was 'a complete mess' with 'cars and vans everywhere, full ashtrays, smelly rubbish and maggots and flies'. 'The smell was unbearable,' the letter adds, blaming Dana for 'her abuse of the property...putting buyers off and devaluing the property'. Mr Poole also told the judge that Eugene and Dana 'fell out' in 2017 and since then have been unable to agree on the simplest things to do with managing the estate. He told the judge that one of the commercial tenants at Bell House had been 'trying to pay its rent since 2017 but can't because the defendants cant agree where it should be paid'. Pictured: White Heather in Penhow, Wales 'This exemplifies the level of dysfunction with which these trusts have been administered...it's frankly absurd,' he added. Giving Dana's side, he added: 'Dana says it's Eugene's fault. She denies she had her hands in the till. Her position is that she hasn't done anything wrong.' Eugene however admits to having taken money from the estate and offered to quit his roles as executor and trustee and to pay back what he has taken, he said. 'His position is that both defendants have profited from their roles as executors,' he continued. 'He is offering to pay it back. Dana's position is very clearly that she doesn't have to pay a penny.' The barrister told the judge that 'frightening costs' had been run up through the family fight having to come to court. But Gareth Thomas, Dana's lawyer, told the judge that she finds the situation 'embarrassing and frustrating'. Arguing that she should be allowed to remain in her positions of responsibility and Eugene alone removed, he said removal of an executor is a 'drastic step only to be taken in a very clear cut case'. Dana says she was simply living at the house until it could be sold and denies devaluing it during her occupation. Daniel's three children, Shannon Roberts (left), 27, Kitty Conlin (centre), 25, and Ethan Conlin (right), 21, are now entitled to inherit just over a third of the estate between them 'Dana completely denies this,' said her barrister. 'She says the house was only ever worth 625,000.' Alex Troup, for Eugene, told the judge there are 'many reasons' why Dana should not remain as trustee and executor of the estate. 'Eugene wants both him and his sister to be removed...there is a large degree of hostility between Dana and Eugene,' he said. Removing both from their roles in managing the estate, Master Hansen said there appeared to be 'very significant issues' in the way they had administered the estates. The judge added that the nieces and nephews have 'numerous grounds of complaint against Eugene and Dana individually,' including that Eugene 'has consistently failed to administer the estates in a competent manner'. In Dana's case there is 'a potential claim for occupation rent arising from occupation of White Heather for about five years' and the 'allegation that it sold at an undervalue'. He said: 'This situation cannot be allowed to persist any longer. I therefore propose to make an order removing both defendants as executors and trustees.' He said that the costs run up by the nieces and nephews should be awarded against both defendants, but that Eugene would get indemnity as an executor so his costs would be paid by the estate. But the judge stripped Dana of her indemnity, meaning that 90,000 will come out of her share personally. Chicago has detected a suspected case of monkeypox in a man who recently returned from Europe, health chiefs revealed Thursday. The patient who was not named is the first case to be detected in Illinois since the outbreak began last month. It brings the U.S. tally to 21 cases across as many as 11 states, with Los Angeles today also reporting its first suspected case in an adult 'close contact' of another case. Health chiefs in Pennsylvania also revealed their first case in Philadelphia, but refused to give any further details to 'protect the resident's privacy'. Each department insisted that the risk of the virus spreading to other people in the state was 'low', with contact tracing now underway. Most infections in the U.S., however, have been detected among gay and bisexual men who had recently returned from abroad. It is the latest in a global outbreak with more than 500 cases of the tropical disease spotted in two dozen countries outside of West Africa where it is native. World Health Organization chiefs are calling on people to limit their number of sexual contacts to stop the virus transmitting. Monkeypox has now been detected across 11 U.S. states. Some of these cases have only tested positive for orthopox viruses a family which includes monkeypox but it is overwhelmingly likely these will be confirmed as the tropical disease Pictured above are the early spot symptoms triggered by monkeypox. After the marks appear they become concave and turn black before eventually falling off Pictured above are symptoms triggered by a monkeypox infection. Anyone with these warning signs is being urged to come forward Cut your number of sexual partners to help fight monkeypox, urges World Health Organization People should reduce their number of sexual partners to help fight the spread of monkeypox, the World Health Organization urged yesterday. Dr Hans Kluge, the head of WHO's European division, has warned the current outbreak of the tropical disease 'may not be containable'. He warned Europe had become the new epicentre of the virus, with the outbreak linked to sexual transmission at raves and festivals on the continent. Dr Kluge insisted the virus 'will not require the same extensive population measures' as Covid but said 'significant and urgent' action was needed to prevent more cases. He added that while cases have been concentrated in men who have sex with men, there was nothing stopping it from spreading to other groups. Advertisement Chicago and Los Angeles both announced their first cases today, while Pennsylvania's was revealed in a dashboard update by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In Los Angeles, health chiefs said the case was symptomatic but 'doing well' and did not need hospital treatment. They are in isolation. It was not clear which known monkeypox patient the case the fourth in California had been in contact with. But in the state one case has been reported in Sacramento about 380 miles away in an individual who recently returned from Europe. Two other 'close contacts' of a monkeypox case have been detected in the same city. All today's cases have tested positive for orthopox viruses the family that includes monkeypox and smallpox. They will now be sent for confirmatory monkeypox testing at the CDC. Monkeypox is typically spread through physical contact with infectious skin lesions in patients. People who are infected initially suffer a fever within the first 21 days, before a rash erupts on their face and spreads to the rest of the body. It can take up to four weeks for symptoms to clear as the rash goes through several stages before eventually falling off. Most cases are mild, but between one in 10 and one in a 100 people who are infected die from the disease. In the U.S. New York and California have the most cases followed by Florida which has detected three infections. Colorado and Utah have both spotted two, while Georgia, Massachusetts, Virginia, Washington, Illinois and Pennsylvania have detected one. There are now signs that the virus is spreading on American soil, after four cases were spotted in 'close contacts' of initial patients. However, the outbreak is much worse globally particularly in Europe. Spain has reported the most cases on the continent (208), followed by England (188) and Portugal (119). WHO chiefs suggest that the continent's outbreak is linked to unsafe sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium. Cases are currently mostly among gay and bisexual men, but health chiefs warn there is nothing stopping the disease spreading into other groups. There are also mounting calls for the outbreak to be contained, with experts saying that if the virus is allowed to continue to spread it could spill over into the animal population which would become a reservoir. On Wenesday, the head of the WHO's European division Dr Hans Kluge called on people to reduce their number of sexual partners to help stem the outbreak. He also warned that the tropical disease 'may not be containable' in Europe as there are still undetected chains of transmission. A woman from Florida who went around her doctors to get an experimental cancer treatment that 'gene edits' immune cells saw her lung tumors shrink by 50 percent in just one month. Kathy Wilkes, 71, endured eight rounds of chemotherapy and an operation after she was diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer in 2018. But despite the treatments, the disease had spread from the pancreas and into the lungs within a year of her diagnosis. Desperate to beat the cancer, Wilkes started searching for new treatments online and quickly stumbled across a case study in a prestigious online research journal about a treatment that had already made a 50-year-old woman with colon cancer 'disease free'. She got in touch with the doctors behind the study at Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon and after tests revealed her cancer had the same mutation dubbed KRAS G12D she was also offered the treatment. Within a month her tumors had shrunk by half, and in six months they were down to 28 percent of their original size. Wilkes is not yet cured, but the cancer has not grown since she received the treatment. She told NBC News: 'I knew that that was the trial that was going to save me, save my life. I just had that feeling.' The tale was revealed in a case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the same journal where the original case study she found was published. Kathy Wilkes, 71, from Ormond Beach in Florida, went through eight rounds of chemotherapy and an operation after it emerged she had pancreatic cancer But Wilkes (pictured with her husband) then stumbled across a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine about a treatment that could help with the cancer WHAT IS PANCREATIC CANCER? Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of the disease, and around 95 per cent of people who contract it die from it. Joan Crawford, Patrick Swayze and Luciano Pavarotti all died of pancreatic cancer. About 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease every year. WHAT IS THE CAUSE? It is caused by the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells in the pancreas a large gland in the digestive system. WHO HAS THE HIGHEST RISK? Most cases (90 per cent) are in people over the age of 55. Around half of all new cases occur in people aged 75 or older. One in 10 cases are attributed to genetics. Other possible causes include age, smoking and other health conditions, including diabetes. WHY IS IT SO LETHAL? There is no screening method for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer typically does not show symptoms in the early stages, when it would be more manageable. Sufferers tend to start developing the tell-tale signs jaundice and abdominal pain around stage 3 or 4, when it has likely already spread to other organs. WHAT ARE THE TREATMENT OPTIONS? The only effective treatment is removal of the pancreas. This proves largely ineffective for those whose cancer has spread to other organs. In those cases, palliative care is advised to ease their pain at the end of their life. Advertisement About 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year, estimates the American Cancer Society. It is one of the deadliest cancers, as symptoms are rarely triggered in the early stages, leaving patients un-diagnosed until it reaches an advanced stage and spreads to other organs. Only 11 percent of patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis, estimates suggest. Patients are offered surgery to remove cancerous areas before the disease spreads, and rounds of chemotherapy. But Wilkes said when her doctor suggested this course of treatment it was 'not my answer'. After searching the internet she stumbled across the New England Journal of Medicine study from 2016. The paper told how a 50-year-old woman with colon cancer that had spread to her lungs became 'disease-free' after she was treated with 'gene edited' immune cells. Believing this would help her, Wilkes emailed the study's author Dr Eric Tran, who specializes in novel ways to treat cancer. After tests revealed her cancer had the same mutation as the other patient's even though they had separate types she was offered the treatment. Cancers in different areas of the body often have the same mutations, which may be because specific changes are needed to trigger the disease. For the therapy, scientists first extracted some immune system T-cells which can destroy disease-ridden cells from the patient. They were then 'genetically reprogrammed' in a lab to target cancerous cells that have the specific KRAS G12D mutation. Once this was complete the cells were multiplied billions of times before being injected back into the vein of the patient. Wilkes received her infusion in June 2021, and within a month was already starting to see her tumors shrink. Dr Eric Rubin, the journal's editor-in-chief who was not involved in the study, said it was an 'encouraging result'. 'For the first time, we have an approach that could allow the treatment of a large variety of tumors beyond the small number of tumors that [immune therapy] can be used in,' he said at a briefing, reports NBC. 'The particular mutation [in this case] is common in tumors that arise from epithelial cells, such as lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.' It is not clear how well the treatment will work in other patients, but a Phase 1 clinical trial is now being launched to investigate this. Another pancreatic cancer patient who received the same treatment at the Providence Cancer Institute did not survive. She contacted the doctors and was accepted onto the trial after it emerged her cancer had the same mutation as a previous patient who was treated for colon cancer Her tumors shrunk to less than a third of their original size in six months and have not grown since the treatment Scientists said it may have worked for Wilkes because of the KRAS mutation which is only found in about four percent of patients that have this type of cancer. Wilkes had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the head of the pancreas, which is the most common form of the disease. Research has been ongoing for years to harness the immune system to fight cancer, rather than relying on drugs. Currently, patients with blood cancer are able to get a type of immune therapy called CAR-T to target their disease. An Ohio mother received the shock of her life when she discovered that a lump in her breast she attributed to breast milk was actually a cancerous tumor, while also finding out she was pregnant with her second child. Stephanie Rifici, 35, of Cleveland, Ohio, told TODAY that while she was breastfeeding her son, Luca, that the milk would often calcify in her breasts, creating hard lumps. They would quickly resolve, though, and she did not think much of them. One of these lumps in her breast lasted unusually long, though, worrying her and leading to Rifici getting herself checked out by an OB-GYN - where she learned she was pregnant once again. A week after finding out she was pregnant, Rifici received the devastating news that she had stage 2 triple negative breast cancer. ,Stephanie Rifici (pictured), 35, of Cleveland, Ohio, discovered that she was pregnant with her second child and that she had breast cancer within weeks of each other. Rifici initially worried that cancer treatment would harm the unborn child, but doctors at the Cleveland Clinic managed to find a treatment plan that was safe for pregnancy 'I was very excited but very nervous,' she said. 'A week after I found out I was pregnant I unfortunately got the call that I indeed did have breast cancer.' The diagnosis and the news of the pregnancy put Rifici and her husband, Evan Thorkelson, in a tough spot. They feared that going through with cancer treatment could harm the unborn child, but her dying from cancer would mean neither of her children would grow up with a mother. 'Some people said, 'You've got to look out for Steph [the couple's first child]. She's the mom. You already have a son. You want to make sure that Steph's around for your other son,'' Thorkelson told TODAY. 'We were so happy we were able to get pregnant and have another son... (but) we don't want anything to happen to Steph.' They were informed by doctors at the nearby Cleveland Clinic, one of the country's top medical institutions, that they could safely begin treatment in the pregnancy's second trimester, meaning Rifici would have to wait. An expert at the Cleveland Clinic told TODAY that the mixture of pregnancy and cancer is relatively rare, and requires multiple physicians with different types of expertise to chip in. Rifici's second child, Leo, was successfully born last April, and is now one year old 'Timing is what becomes very critical when taking care of women diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy,' Dr Erin Roesch, an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic said. Doctors at the hospital explained that there are types of chemotherapy which are effective against the cancer she had that do not affect the placenta, protecting the unborn child from radiation. Usually in cases like this, doctors will first recommend chemotherapy, and then surgery after to treat the cancerous growth, though they chose to rearrange for Rifici. 'The tumor board met and they actually decided that in my special case that they'd do my surgery first so they're able to get the tumor out of there with a low risk to the fetus, being so early in my pregnancy,' the expecting mother explained. 'Sometimes going under anesthesia and having surgery can actually put you in early labor.' Eventually, a delivery date was set during a period of rest between chemotherapy sessions, and Rifici's son Leo was born on April 21, 2021. She later completed her cancer treatment, and celebrated Leo's birthday earlier this year, and even plans to return to work now that she is feeling better again. A man who thought his five-month rash was due to eczema has found out it was actually triggered by caterpillar hairs that got stuck on his arm when he climbed a wax apple tree. The man who has not been named was diagnosed with eczema after going to a clinic in Fujian, on China's east coast about 350 miles from Hong Kong, complaining of a painful, red rash on his left wrist. But after steroid creams and anti-histamine pills failed to ease his symptoms the man, who was in his 50s, was sent to the area's First Affiliated Hospital. Scans there revealed hollow structures with 'refractory golden walls' nestled on his skin, which doctors said looked just like the hairs of a caterpillar. Upon questioning, the man admitted he had climbed a wax apple tree swarming in spongy moth caterpillars that were bristling with hairs. He also claimed to have been bitten by an unidentified insect. Doctors shifted to injecting steroids into the his lesions once every 30 days to treat the rash, with the patient recovering five months later. The man in his 50s came to doctors in Fujian, eastern China, complaining of a pain and redness in his wrist (shown). Doctors initially diagnosed him with eczema But then scans revealed hollow structures with 'refractive golden surfaces' on his skin which looked like the hairs of a caterpillar. Doctors re-diagnosed him with another illness Upon questioning the patient admitted to climbing a wax apple tree infested with caterpillars from the spongy moth, or gypsy moth (above), which are covered with irritating hairs The tale was revealed last month in the British Medical Journal by Dr Chao Ji, a dermatologist at the hospital, and others. About 31 million Americans have eczema which causes itchiness and dryness in the skin when it is exposed to an irritant such as laundry detergent or specific fabrics. The condition is triggered by the immune system over-reacting to the outside irritant and starting to attack it. What is eczema? Eczema is when the skin forms a rash and becomes reddened, blistering, and scaling. It usually appears for the first time in childhood, but can effect people of all ages. The condition is thought to be caused by an immune reaction to an irritant from the outside world, such as laundry detergent or a type of material. Treatment focuses on creams and drugs to reduce inflammation. About 70 percent of children who have eczema have seen the condition disappear by their late teens. Source: British Skin Foundation Advertisement In the case report, doctors said the caterpillar hairs had been surrounded by white blood cells showing an immune response had taken place that was causing the rash, redness and sharp pain. They also observed granulomas, or small areas of inflammation triggered by immune cells bunching close together. This led them to diagnose the patient with 'foreign body granulomas' when the immune system is unable to break down an object leading to long term irritation. In the case report, the patient said: 'I had a redness and sharp pain on my left wrist and was diagnosed with eczema five months ago. 'These symptoms did not improve after treatment... [so] I was then transferred to doctor Ji and had an examination. 'The results suggested that the lesion was caused by the caterpillar. This reminded me of the exposure to the insect five months ago. 'I recovered soon after intralesional steroid injection.' It was not mentioned whether the patient had a previous history of the condition. The spongy moth was introduced to Boston from Europe about 130 years ago, and has now spread as far as North Carolina and Minnesota. The critter is considered to be a pest because its caterpillars chomp through hundreds of thousands of hectares of trees including apple trees every year. The hairs covering the caterpillars back are known to cause mild to moderate skin irritation, but this usually wears off within a few hours. States such as New York have launched schemes to control its population through releasing infertile moths and pesticides. Eleven more people in England have been diagnosed with monkeypox, bringing the cumulative number of UK cases to 207. Announcing the new patients today, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reiterated that most cases have been in gay and bisexual men. Officials said it was 'particularly important' these men are aware of new lesions, rashes or scabs and get in contact with a sexual health clinic. The new cases bring the total number confirmed in England to 199, while there have been five in Scotland, two in Northern Ireland and one in Wales. Scientists are still unsure what is driving the current outbreak, now spotted in two dozen countries, given the virus is normally confined to people returning from Africa. In a report published last night, the UKHSA revealed the UK's cluster of cases are linked to gay bars, saunas and dating apps. More than 60 per cent of domestic infections have been among gay and bisexual men, with more than 86 per cent based in the epicentre London. Only two cases have been women. Most of the UK's infections 87 per cent were among people aged 20 to 49. And 111 cases are known to be men who have sex with men. And the majority UK patients caught the virus in the UK rather than abroad. Officials said that contact tracing teams had linked the outbreak back to 'gay bars, saunas and the use of dating apps in the UK and abroad'. MailOnline revealed last week the world's biggest gay dating app Grindr had alerted to users of monkeypox symptoms. In total, there have been 617 confirmed cases of monkeypox across the globe, with 129 more suspected since the first infection was found at the start of May. Behind the UK, Spain (156), Portugal (138) and Canada (54) have logged the highest number of confirmed cases. Officials are urging gay and bisexual men to be aware of new lesions, rashes or scabs and get in contact with a sexual health clinic The infection often starts with small bumps that scab over and are contagious LONDON IS UK'S MONKEYPOX EPICENTRE AND JUST TWO WOMEN HAVE CAUGHT VIRUS London has become the UK's monkeypox epicentre. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said more than 60 per cent of domestic infections have been among gay and bisexual men, with more than 86 per cent based in the epicentre London. Only two cases have been women. Most of the country's infections 87 per cent were among people aged 20 to 49. And 111 cases are known to be men who have sex with men. Most of the UK patients caught the virus in the UK rather than abroad, which is significant because previously the tropical disease was confined to a small number of people with travel links to Africa. Advertisement In a report released on Wednesday night, the UKHSA released its first analysis, covering the country's first 153 cases. By May 31, 132 of the 153 cases in England were among London residents (86 per cent). Only a fifth of cases had travelled from a European country in the past three weeks, suggesting the vast majority picked up the virus in the UK. The report states: 'Investigations to date have identified links to gay bars, saunas and the use of dating apps in the UK and abroad. 'Investigations continue but currently no single factor or exposure that links the cases has been identified.' MailOnline revealed that Grindr issued a warning to its users across Europe last Monday, advising them to contact their sexual health provider if they or any recent sexual partners have unusual sores or rashes. UKHSA is working with the app as well as the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) and the British HIV Association to communicate health risks to gay and bisexual men. The current outbreak has been linked to several super-spreader events, including a gay pride festival in Gran Canaria on May 5-15, a fetish festival in Belgium on May 5-8 and a 'sauna' in Spain. It comes as amid concern among health experts that monkeypox could be transmitted to animals via human medical waste. As the virus circulates outside of Africa, there is an opportunity for spill back into animal populations, which could potentially make the virus endemic in countries beyond Africa. Dr William Karesh, president of the World Organization for Animal Health told a conference today: 'As we've seen with COVID-19, one thing that comes up is... disposable human medical waste because we are concerned about rodents picking this up.' 'Like a rural local clinic that's putting their waste outside until it's disposed of properly later in the week,' he added. Countries in Africa have experienced sporadic monkeypox outbreaks since the virus was first discovered in humans in 1970. In Nigeria, there has been an ongoing outbreak since 2017. The virus was discovered in laboratory monkeys in 1958, and since then various animal species including squirrels and rats have been identified as susceptible to it. It is understood to have jumped to humans from the animals it which it circulates, but which species are implicated in the spillover remains unclear, Dr Karesh said. In the UK, pet rodents of people infected with monkeypox are being isolated as part of efforts to contain the disease. These include pet hamsters, rats and rabbits. Teams from the UKHSA are also 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. Professor Kevin Fenton, London regional director for public health said: 'Monkeypox can affect anyone but we know that many of the most recent diagnoses are in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, many of whom live in, or have links to London. 'We're reminding everyone of the symptoms of monkeypox, and especially gay and bisexual men in particular, to be especially aware and seek advice immediately by calling NHS 111 or their local sexual health clinic if they have concerns. 'As with any new disease outbreak, the risk of stigma and uncertainty is great. 'This is why we're working side by side with the NHS, sexual health, voluntary and community sector organisations in London to share accurate information about monkeypox especially to people and groups at increased risk through representative voices.' Two people in the Bronx borough of New York City have died from Legionnaires' disease after two dozen cases of the rare bacterial infection have been tied to contaminated cooling towers in the area. The New York City Department of Health confirmed the deaths Wednesday, saying both patients were over 50 years old and had factors that put them at risk of severe disease. Cases of the pneumonia have been detected in the Highbridge neighborhood of the city's most northern borough - which includes the region just next to the iconic Yankees Stadium. Officials also confirmed that 24 cases have been confirmed as part of this outbreak, with four patients currently hospitalized. Four cooling towers that tested positive for bacteria that causes the disease have been sanitized. The recent outbreak is one of the last things the city needed, with the Big Apple currently also being slammed by Covid, and leading the nation in positive monkeypox cases early in yet another public health emergency. Two dozen cases, four hospitalizations and two deaths from Legionnaire's in the Bronx borough of New York City have been tied to four cooling towers found to be contaminated with bacteria that causes the rare infection Legionnaires disease is caused by Legionella bacteria which can infect the lungs of a person who either swallows of breathes in water and air that contain it. The bacteria occurs naturally in freshwater environments, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, but it becomes a danger when it finds its way into man made buildings. New York City officials first detected cases of the pneumonia at the start of May, and announced eight cases and one death from the bacterial infection on May 23. Days later, on May 25, the case count had increased to 25 and the city's health department announced that four cooling towers in the Highbridge area had tested positive for the bacteria. Because cooling towers pour exhaust into the air, it is possible that these people inhaled contaminated air or came in contact with contaminated water in the area. The infection kills around ten percent of people who catch it, according to official figures, but that mortality rate may be significantly lower because many cases are asymptomatic. 'While most people exposed to the bacteria do not get sick, Legionnaires' disease can cause severe illness or be fatal for those at higher risk, including people pre-existing chronic health issues,' Dr Ashwin Vasan, city health commissioner, said in a statement last month. 'That's why it's crucial that you seek health care as soon as you experience flu-like symptoms.' Symptoms of the virus often initially match those of either the common flu or a mild case of COVID-19. This puts extra stress on health centers in the city, as officials are recommending people who are feeling slightly ill to not only get tested for Covid, but for the bacterial infection as well. Human-to-human transmission of Legionaries' is not believed to be possible. Another public health emergency is coming at the worst time for the Big Apple. The city's daily Covid infection figures are approaching 4,000 per day once again, continuing a gradual rise in the months since the winter Omicron wave ended. Deaths from the virus have remained low, though, staying in the single digits since March. Monkeypox has arrived in the city as well, though, with the Big Apple having recorded four of the 21 total cases in the U.S. - the most of any individual locality in America. The White House's chief Covid coordinator said Thursday that jabs for children as young as six months old could be available as early June 21 if applications for the shots are approved by regulators in the coming weeks. Dr Ashish Jha, who was recently appointed as the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, said during a briefing that shots for the youngest eligible Americans could be rolling out in only three weeks. His statements come on the back of Pfizer, manufacturer of America's most popular vaccine and the only one to be available to those aged five to 17 in the U.S., announcing Wednesday night that it has completed its application for its three dose vaccine in children six months to four years old. If approved by regulators at both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it would make America the country with the lowest vaccine eligibility age in the world. Experts are split on whether this age group needs the shots, though, as the risk they face from the virus is extremely limited. Key advisors that will weigh in on the decision tell DailyMail.com that it is too early for them to decide whether they will approve the shots. Dr Ashish Jha (pictured), the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, said that he expects the jabs for children aged six months to five years old to be available as early as June 21 Pfizer revealed preliminary data last month showing the vaccine was 80 percent effective at preventing infection from Omicron, though the efficacy rate may change as more trial participants need to be infected before the figures can be finalized. Jha said that the White House is already working with states, pharmacies and physicians to facilitate the rollout of the jabs. The Pfizer jab will come in three doses, unlike the two dose standard set for older age groups. It will also be only three micrograms, a tenth of the size of the standard adult dose, and a third of dosage for children five through 12. The switch was made towards the end of last year when early data showed that only two doses of the jab provided little protection against the virus. Dr Cody Meissner (pictured), the chief of pediatrics at Tufts Children's Hospital and member of VRBPAC, says that with the currently available COVID-19 vaccines, herd immunity is not possible In order for the jabs to get into the arms of children, it will first need approval from both the FDA and the CDC. Later this month, the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will meet on both June 14 and 15 to discuss the shots. The committee, which has been more skeptical of the vaccine rollout than the CDC and other health officials, was passed over on the decision to approve booster shots for five to 11 year olds and fourth doses people 50 and older. The decision to skip VRBPAC was a controversial one, with members like Dr Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Dr Paul Offit, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, both speaking out against the approval. When asked about the recent submission by Pfizer, Offit told DailyMail.com that he would need to review the data first before issuing an opinion. Dr Cody Meissner, also a VRBPAC member representing Tufts Children's Hospital, told DailyMail.com that 'it will be an interesting discussion,' on whether or not the shots get approved. Does the potential benefits in vaccinating that group justify any harm? Thats the question that I think everybody will be thinking, he added. He said that the White House announcing the June 21 date will not pressure the committee into approving the doses, saying that their positions come independent of political pressure. Meissner did say, as he has in the past, that he does not believe that herd immunity is possible, and that vaccinating everyone to stop transmission of the virus will not happen. Because the vaccines are tailored more to prevent serious infection that causes hospitalization or death, and not infection itself all-together, there will still be some transmission of the virus even if only asymptomatic. This raises an interesting question for many officials. If the vaccines can not prevent transmission of the virus outright, and many children suffer limited risk from the virus anyways, then what reason would there to be to approve the jabs. For the mRNA vaccines in particular - the Moderna and Pfizer shots - the CDC warns that young males who receive the shots suffer a very small but still existent risk of developing heart inflammation. Meissner also expressed concerns over the newness of the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer jab. In February he told DailyMail.com that: 'we don't have any experience with these [mRNA] vaccines in young children ... I'm very hopeful that they will turn out to be equally safe and equally effective [as they were for adults], but we don't know that.' The technology has existed for decades, but was largely ignored by the medical community until it was implemented by Moderna and Pfizer for the Covid shots. In the time since, it has been investigated as the base of a potential HIV, flu and cancer vaccines, but because of its limited past use there is no data on how it can affect a person decades down the line. Risks of the jab hurting people in the future are extremely small, though. Some are also concerned about the small sample size used for the trial. When Pfizer first got its jab approved for adults at the end of 2020, trial data included over 40,000 participants. For these trials, just over 1,500 children aged six months to five years old were recruited - a significantly smaller sample. Putting graphic warnings on cigarette packets in America will have 'no effect' on the number of cigarettes smokers have every day but will shame them into hiding their boxes, a study has revealed. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found smokers given packets stamped with images of diseased feet, ill children and throat cancer continued to puff on about 10 cigarettes daily up to a year after receiving them. But six in ten admitted to concealing the packets at least some of the time due to the images, which was up 40 percent from before the study began. America mandated graphic warnings for cigarettes in 2009, in line with more than 120 other countries including the UK and Canada. But the images are yet to appear on packages because the order is currently held up by legal challenges filed by the tobacco industry. Scientists at University of California, San Diego, gave American smokers packs of cigarettes that had graphic warnings on them and monitored whether it made them more likely to conceal the packages and stop smoking. Above is the image of throat cancer They found that graphic warnings - such as the diseased foot pictured above - had 'no effect' on the number of cigarettes they had per day But the scientists did find that the packages led to six in ten smokers concealing them, instead of the normal four in ten. Above is another graphic warning image of a baby Two other groups included in the trial were given either blank cigarette packets (as shown above) or their normal ones. They showed no change in smoking behaviour The above graph shows the proportion of smokers in each group who said they concealed their packets in the three groups (yellow line). Those who got packets with graphic images (GWL pack) were more likely to conceal their packets, but there was no change in the group that got standard US and blank packs Dr John Pierce, a public health expert who led the study, and others noted: 'The inclusion of graphic warnings on cigarette packs had no effect on smoking behavior. '[However], repackaging cigarettes with graphic warnings significantly increased the percentage of smokers who reported pack-hiding behavior at least some of the time from 41 to 57 percent.' Three-fifths of smokers with head and neck cancer kept puffing on cigarettes Most smokers diagnosed with head and neck cancer were still puffing on cigarettes two years after treatment, a study revealed last month. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, tracked 89 people in their 60s who smoked at least five cigarettes a day when they were diagnosed. Of the 61 who were still alive two years after treatment, as many as 38 or 60 percent were still smokers. The researcher team suggested many failed to give up smoking because they went 'cold turkey' at diagnosis cutting out all cigarettes risking a relapse. They called for smokers who were suffering from cancer to be offered counselling and medication to help them quit the habit. Smokers with the cancers were three times more likely to quit in the first six months after diagnosis than at any other time, they said. Advertisement In the study published today in JAMA Network Open , researchers recruited about 400 current smokers from around the San Diego area. Participants were about 40 years old on average, and had no current plans to quit smoking when they were enrolled. A third received cigarettes in packages with the same graphic warnings as on those in Australia for three months. The others were sent either blank packages, or those with the standard U.S. labels on them. Over the three-month study period participants were asked to report every day whether they hid their cigarette packets 'at least some of the time' and how many cigarettes they were smoking. The scientists then followed them for another nine months when they were using their normal cigarette packets. In the group given the graphic packets the proportion that hid them rose from four to six in ten. But once they were again allowed to purchase their normal cigarette packets this fell back to four in ten. For comparison, in the other two groups about four in ten participants said they concealed their cigarette packets 'at least some of the time' throughout the study. Participants in the group that got graphic warnings smoked about 11 cigarettes a day at the start of the trial, which fell to nine by the end. But scientists said this difference was not significant and likely due to other factors. In the other two groups the number of cigarettes they consumed per day fell from 11 to 9 on average. The academics said their study still suggested that graphic warnings should be used because hiding cigarette packets could make it less likely that teenagers will pick up smoking. More than 120 countries already force tobacco companies to put warnings over the side-effects of smoking on their packets. But a growing body of studies suggest that the warnings are becoming less effective as smokers are becoming too used to them. One paper from 2019 found that about 36 percent of smokers in Canada which started using the warnings two decades earlier found them 'not at all' or 'minimally' effective in prompting them to quit. About 31million Americans or one in every eight adults smokes, estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest. This number may now be gradually ticking up with sales of cigarettes rising last year by about 0.4 percent for the first time in two decades. There has also been a surge in the number of young Americans picking up vapes with about 2.5million using tobacco products in 2021. Macao continues to inject vigor into local economy Xinhua) 09:39, June 02, 2022 MACAO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- To boost consumption and secure employment, the government of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has continued to inject vigor into local economy amid fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest move, Macao residents from Wednesday are entitled to a start-up fund of 5,000 patacas (about 621 U.S. dollars) and a discount grant of 3,000 patacas in their electronic payment as part of a government-sponsored plan to boost consumption. As of Tuesday, some 562,000 people had registered to claim the benefits, showed official data. This year, in addition to shopping, the benefits also cover water and electricity bills as well as TV service charges. Shops and local residents agree that the plan will stimulate consumption. Coco, a sales woman at an outlet store located in the center of Macao Peninsula, said that an obviously higher number of customers have shown up on Wednesday, mostly paying with the government-offered benefits. Analysts expect the plan to expand local demand, stabilize business operations and ensure employment. Besides the consumption benefits, the Macao SAR government is still committed to an annual wealth partaking scheme. Starting in April, Macao's permanent residents can receive 10,000 patacas under the scheme, and non-permanent residents get 6,000 patacas per person. Since the end of January, 86,000 residents have registered for package tours and hotel experiences within the city at prices subsidized by the SAR government. According to the government's Tourism Office, in the first quarter of 2022, visitor arrivals to Macao rose 8.0 percent year on year. During the five-day mainland holiday period for Labor Day, Macao received 137,000 visitors, with the average hotel occupancy rate reaching 59.5 percent. The office said that it has been working to promote Macao as a safe and tourist-friendly destination via online and offline platforms, in order to add new elements to tourism projects while encouraging industry players to innovate continuously. The Labor Affairs Bureau has organized specialized recruitment sessions to help locals get employed in the hotel, retailing, and security and cleaning services industries. Lei Lai Keng, head of the bureau's employment department, said that over 3,000 residents had found jobs during the special sessions in the first five months of this year, while vowing to regularly host such events in future. Since September 2020, pandemic-affected Macao residents can apply for free training courses and obtain financial assistance given they get successfully employed in the trained field. So far, over 12,000 people have taken the training courses. Government subsidies have also been offered to businesses that employ residents who have been unemployed for over 60 days. Vong Kok Seng, vice president of Directors Board of the Macao Chamber of Commerce, said he believes that these measures will help relieve public distress and provide targeted assistance, while calling for the business circle and the public to stay confident in Macao's economic prospect. (1 pataca equals 0.1242 U.S. dollar) (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Joe Biden stresses that regime change is not in the US policy as the Ukraine conflict rages with American support. Furthermore, Washington claims that it's not pushing any NATO versus Russia is not on the US agenda. Regime Change in Russia Not on US Agenda Russia's special ground offensive began on February 24, and the Biden presidency has supplied Ukraine with unparalleled financial and military support, totaling $50 billion, reported Sputnik News. But it is not enough for Ukrainians who want more and act as if it deserves it. The President announced that American assistance for Kyiv in the current crisis is not designed to harm Russia and that Washington does not attempt to intensify the conflict in general. President Joe Biden expressed the view that American support for Kyiv in the current crisis is not intended just to hurt Russia, and Washington does not seek to prolong the conflict in general. However, he affirmed that the US continues to give Kyiv sophisticated weaponry, restricting the arsenal to only short ranges. The New York Times published last Tuesday that said the White House had given the aim in Ukraine. Biden said that the US did not want a Russia/NATO conflict and mentioned though he was not happy with Vladimir Putin, there would be no ouster. Though earlier, he expressed this sentiment. He added the administration wants a free and prosperous Ukraine to stop aggression via giving lethal aid in the future. Joe Biden says the Ukraine conflict should be fought on equal terms against Russia, which would be wrong on the negotiating table but denies forced regime change that has failed so far. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth? US Neocons Support Kiev Moreso, the White House does not want Zelensky to cave in to any demand by Putin, so it's a fight to no end though Ukrainian forces are collapsing. Though unfounded, the US calls Russia why Ukrainians didn't want to talk and blamed Russia for dropping diplomacy. He blames the retreat and mounting losses due to Russian forces for making its opponent sore at its weakened position. Even as the US and allies sanction Russia that has instead boomeranged at them, these strong sanctions have a damaging side effect on them too. Despite the extreme losses of Zelensky, the White House sends more weapons that have not been effective in the hands of the Ukrainians. A global food crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine has forced the western alliance to deal with a crisis alleged to be their fault. To the point that Washington claims it can help Europe leave oil dependence, but the KSA and Middle Eastern nations have snubbed Biden, noted Newsweek. The US-led military bloc wants to bolster NATO's east side with lethal weapons from allies. The military block wants Finland and Sweden to join but Turkey blocs them. Putin To Shatter International Order Biden says Kyiv is important to a secure Europe and spins the action of Moscow as not acceptable. Putin called out US action in Syria as examples to think about former US moves. The threat of a nuke attack has been opened up due to the failure to satisfy Russia's demands for security. President Joe Biden says no regime change in Russia as the Ukraine conflict continues; its support for illegal sanctions is starting to unravel despite providing a diminishing narrative. Related Article: Turkey Still Blocks Finland, Sweden From Joining NATO Despite Pressure From the Military Alliance @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. BOOK OF THE WEEK THE ESCAPE ARTIST by Jonathan Freedland (John Murray 20, 400pp) Jonathan Freedland was a 19-year-old student when he went to see Shoah, Claude Lanzmanns epic nine-hour documentary about the Holocaust. It left a deep mark on him, but one interviewee stood out. His name was Rudolf Vrba, hugely charismatic, with the leather-jacketed swagger of Al Pacino. At the age of 19, Vrba had escaped from Auschwitz one of only four Jews who did to tell the world what was happening in the death camp. Equally extraordinary was the fact that so few people had heard of him. Thirty years later, Freedland, by now a highly respected writer, began to look more closely into his life, seeking out those who had known him. It turned out that Gerta, Vrbas teenage sweetheart in war-torn Slovakia who later became his first wife, was now living alone in London, aged 93. She talked to Freedland at length and gave him a suitcase of Vrbas letters. Rudolf Vrba (pictured) at the age of 19 escaped from Auschwitz to tell what was happening. His report found its way to Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt and the Pope Within a few days she had passed away. Vrbas second wife and widow, Robin, was in New York and talked extensively to Freedland, too. Slowly the pieces fell into place, and the result is this portrait of a brilliant but troubled man whose life was scarcely believable. It is compulsively readable, as you would expect from Freedland who, writing as Sam Bourne, is the author of several best-selling thrillers. But it is much more: in an age like ours, when the value of truth is sometimes called into question, this powerful book is about truth itself, and why some people are unwilling to confront it. You wont believe what you cant imagine. Vrba, then Walter Rosenberg (Vrba was his nom de guerre when he went into hiding after his escape), was born in 1924 in what is now rural Slovakia and was precociously brilliant as well as fiercely independent of thought. Vrba memorised every detail of the slaughter he was to witness and documented everything he saw He had an extraordinary memory, a skill he would need when he later memorised every detail of the slaughter he was to witness. In the summer of 1942, Walter ended up at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in German-occupied Poland. Slowly, the full scale of what was going on became apparent. It was a factory of death, specially prepared on Himmlers orders. When the resettlement trains arrived after long journeys with no water, food or toilets for the passengers, most of the women, plus all children and the elderly, would be marched off to the gas chambers. There the doors would be sealed and the Zyklon B pellets or hydrogen cyanide dropped in through holes in the roof by men in gas masks. Trucks started their engines to drown out the victimss screams. He memorised every detail of the slaughter When the screaming stopped, slave workers would enter the chambers to take the dead to the ovens. They found bodies stacked against the doorways, where the desperate had tried to get out. It was murder on an industrial scale, and nobody in the wider world seemed to know. Freedland writes harrowingly about the deadly daily routine of life in the prison camp for the Jewish slave workers: the draining labour, starvation rations, permanent exhaustion, the ever-present threat of a violent beating or a bullet from an SS guards gun. At night, prisoners were forced to choose between soiling themselves in their bunks, their waste infecting the sores on their skin, or defecating in the same bowls from which they would eat. The charismatic and engaging Rudi became a trusted registrar, recording the changing numbers in the camp. This meant he saw just how many people were herded daily to the shower blocks. Vrba reported as they were marched to their death, the SS guards would chat about the jobs they were going to, telling them they were just having a shower and soon would be resting Crucially, he also came to understand that this huge crime relied on deception. The exhausted people falling out of the cattle trucks had been told they were being resettled, that they would build new homes and new lives. As they were marched to their death, the SS guards would chat about the jobs they were going to, telling them they were just having a shower and soon would be resting. The signs to the gas chambers read to the baths. The only way to stop the slaughter, Walter realised, was to escape and sound the alarm. If everyone knew that Auschwitz meant death, few would board those trains so unquestioningly and the killing would at least be slowed. The signs to the gas chambers read to the baths When he discovered the next transport would consist of the last surviving major Jewish community in Europe of Hungary he knew that they had to be warned. The moment came in April 1944. Helped by members of the camp resistance, Vrba and his friend Alfred Wetzler inveigled their way into the lesser guarded outer camp at Auschwitz and dropped into a little cavity at the bottom of a pile of timber being used for the endless construction at the camp. They then sealed their hiding place with petrol-soaked cheap tobacco because the smell was repellent to guard dogs. They knew the search for escapees only ever lasted three days, so they settled down to wait it was the longest three days and nights of their lives, knowing that, if discovered, certain death awaited. When finally the alarms died down, they made their break. They walked for 11 days, pursued by the SS, until they finally reached their native Slovakia. But their problems were far from over. Debriefed by leaders of Slovakias remaining Jewish community, what became the Vrba Wetzler report ran for 32 pages. It was a devastating testimony of the scale of the Auschwitz murder machine. This surely would start to halt the carnage. Eventually, with Vatican pressure on Hungarys Catholic rulers, the trains were halted and, thanks to Vrbas report, it is thought that up to 200,000 Hungarian Jews were saved But no: and one of the most shocking aspects of Vrbas story is how little happened next, though the report would eventually find its way into the hands of Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt and the Pope. Churchill feared public support might be jeopardised if it was thought that the war was being waged to save Jewish lives. In America there was scepticism and lethargy: the report took four months to reach the President. Even the de facto leader of Hungarys Jews, Rezso Kasztner, failed to distribute it, fearing it could undermine his own secret talks with the Nazis to save some Jewish lives, including his own. Eventually, with Vatican pressure on Hungarys Catholic rulers, the trains were halted and, thanks to Vrbas report, it is thought that up to 200,000 Hungarian Jews were saved. In America there was scepticism The ominous words at the entrance to Auschwitz translate as work sets you free, but Vrba knew that only truth made you free. It was a source of much of his subsequent bitterness that the leadership of the Free World had not shared that view. In later life, Vrba became a distinguished biochemist; at the Medical Research Council in Carshalton, Surrey, the jaw-dropping scale of his memory astounded colleagues. He ended up as a senior academic at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Freedland wants Rudolf Vrba to be thought of in the same way as Anne Frank, Primo Levi or Oskar Schindler. This meticulously researched book, shocking but thrilling, and ultimately overwhelmingly inspiring, deserves to achieve that aim. Lest we forget. TAKING STOCK: A JORUNEY AMONG COWS by Roger Morgan-Grenville (Icon 18.99, 368pp) Theres little point chasing after a herd of escaped cows. They like to go in a circle, so will almost always come back to where they started sooner or later. If you do chase after them, you will spook them and leave them stressed for hours afterwards. Many such insights come from the great Dr Temple Grandin, the American scientist whose severe autism has helped her understand animals far better than most of us do. Somewhat like people with autism, cows dislike loud noises, bright lights and flickering shadows. They are most contented when simply left in peace, to potter around their familiar fields. American scientist Dr Temple Grandin says that if you chase cows you will spook them and leave them stressed for hours afterwards Roger Morgan-Grenville adores cows, explaining that he loves nothing more than leaning against a gate and looking at them for hours. Sometimes I feel that, along with eating digestive biscuits, this is what I have been put on earth to do, he says. In Taking Stock he explores the whole business of cows and cattle farming, so perfectly suited to our islands, which have perhaps the finest natural grazing in the world (mild climate and all that rain off the Atlantic). It makes for a funny, insightful and hugely informative book. DNA studies show that British cows have quite a bit of Spanish in them. They also share about 80 per cent of their DNA with us, although geneticists nowadays caution against over-interpreting this. We also share 60 per cent of our DNA with bananas, although that doesnt make us bananas (well, not most of us anyway). By 3,500 BC, we were already using cows to pull our ploughs in Wiltshire. Today, we breed and farm our livestock to maximise production cows that until recently werent expected to produce much more than 15 litres of milk a day are now pushed to produce 60. But it comes at a cost: their lifespans are much shorter. And the many different breeds of hardy, appealing, but lower-yielding British cow, including the Jersey, Ayrshire and Dairy Shorthorn, have mostly been replaced by the standard Euro-blob Holstein Friesian. But there is much here that is heartening and enjoyably educational, with the author like an amiable schoolmaster. He visits various small farms around England, talking to farmers in rebellion against the bullying supermarkets by producing high-quality foods and selling directly to customers. Intensive farming gives us cheap food, while also polluting our rivers on a massive scale, which we the consumer have to pay to clean up. Its bonkers At one farm, Hollis Mead Organic in West Dorset, they only milk their cows once a day, rather than the two or even three times favoured by agribusinesses, and they sell their cheese online. It so happens that I tasted some Hollis Mead cheese at our local market the other day, and it was unbelievably good. Lower productivity for higher quality also benefits wildlife. Fields revert from bright green rye grass to herbal leys, rich in red clover and lucerne, and therefore bees and butterflies, barn owls, kestrels, dung beetles... And who needs to buy in expensive foreign fertiliser when a native beef cow can produce the finest fertiliser known to man: a magnificent, steaming 25kg of manure a day? Morgan-Grenville is withering on the alternatives, for example, a cheap burger from a fast-food chain. McDonalds doesnt even pretend not to be involved in deforestation; its own Impact Statement boasts our commitment to eliminate deforestation from our global supply chains by 2030. In medieval Germany you were likely to find a cow among the mourners, as they alone understood the route to heaven; in Ireland they would tie a candle to a cows tail to deter fairies from stealing the butter Another eight years of deforestation then? So yes, says Morgan-Grenville, you can buy one of their burgers for anything from 89p to 4.39 but youll have to pay as much again in tax. Intensive farming gives us cheap food, while also polluting our rivers on a massive scale, which we the consumer have to pay to clean up. Its bonkers. But in case this makes the book sound too much like a politico-economic harangue, it isnt. Its essentially a love letter to the cow, that beguiling creature which appears in our folklore as a figure of placid wisdom and fecundity. In medieval Germany you were likely to find a cow among the mourners, as they alone understood the route to heaven; in Ireland they would tie a candle to a cows tail to deter fairies from stealing the butter. An unlit candle presumably given the methane... Taking Stock is a charming book by a reflective, funny, sometimes angry man who loves eating beef and loves cows, and it offers much nutritious food for thought. Germany is now once again the 'sick man of Europe', experts have warned. The country is reliant on gas from Russia and trade with China both of which are causing a headache following the Kremlin's war in Ukraine and a slowdown in the People's Republic. Troubles: Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that 'some people were a bit careless in the past' Julian Jessop, economics fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: 'Germany is already the sick man of Europe.' Germany was initially dubbed the 'sick man of Europe' in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It had experienced years of lacklustre growth. But then-chancellor Angela Merkel beefed up its reliance on cheap Russian energy and encouraged trade with China. But as Western countries shun Russia and China, for backing Vladimir Putin those policies mean Germany is bearing the brunt of the pain. Merkel's successor Olaf Scholz said that 'some people were a bit careless in the past'. Jessop said: 'Germany used to be the industrial powerhouse of Europe and is still a major trading partner for the UK, so Brexiteers should not crow too much.' Nelson Peltz is facing a backlash over how he bought his 1.4billion stake in Unilever. Last night sources close to the billionaire confirmed he had been building his 1.5 per cent stake of 37.4m shares in the Dove and Marmite maker since January, using derivatives a series of complex financial instruments. It means New York-based hedge fund Trian, where Peltz is chief executive and founding partner, does not own all the underlying shares. Family fortunes: Billionaire Nelson Peltz and his daughter Nicola But despite not officially owning all the shares, the 79-year-old has managed to muscle his way onto the board and accrue voting rights. Buying the shares in this way is common among activist investors and means they can avoid payments of stamp duty to HMRC. But the practice is criticised for its lack of transparency. Derivatives are complex financial instruments that allow investors to bet on the price of a stock without actually owning it. A source close to Peltz said: 'The stake was gradually bought over time. 'It was done using back-to-back call-and-put options, as well as buying shares. The options can be exercised at any time.' The options mean Peltz may buy all the underlying stock at a later date. While not illegal, the tactics have caused outrage in the City. Danni Hewson, analyst at broker AJ Bell, said: 'This behaviour always angers ordinary investors. I am sure Peltz can cover his positions but it leaves a sour taste.' Peltz's stake building in Unilever has echoes of activist investor Patrick Drahi's method when he bought his holding in BT. The Frenchman has amassed an 18 per cent stake in the telecoms giant using a series of derivative instruments without owning the shares outright. The Government is so concerned by Drahi and his motives that Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng last week launched a 'full national security assessment' of his stake. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said these practices need looking into, adding that the complex tools can undermine confidence in the financial system. He said: 'It is another example of how the super-rich can avoid taxes. Wealth buys lawyers, accountants and choices.' Unilever investors await to see what Peltz will do with his seat on the board. It is hoped that he can revive the struggling consumer giant, having previously successfully agitated for change at Proctor & Gamble. Unilever is trying to repair relations with investors after its failed 50billion tilt at GlaxoSmithKline's consumer division. When fourth grade teacher Nicole Ogburn arrived for work last Tuesday, the school day started like any other taking roll call and rounding up her young students for a morning assembly. But by the time midday recess approached at Robb Elementary, Ogburn found herself facing a teacher's worst nightmare and would later realize it would be a day she and her students will never forget. Speaking to DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview one week after lone gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire at the school in Uvalde, Texas, the schoolteacher recounted the tragic turn of events that forever changed the lives of the community in just a matter of minutes. The 44-year-old spent nearly 80 minutes cowering in the corner of her classroom with her fourth-graders all aged nine or ten whimpering and praying that they were not next in the firing line. Moments before the massacre unfolded, Ogburn said, she and her students were only a few hours into the school day and had just returned to their classroom following an awards assembly. Fourth-grade teacher Nicole Ogburn has described the tragic turn of events at Robb Elementary School last Tuesday that forever changed the lives of the community in just a matter of minutes Heartbreaking photos revealed how young school children were forced to flee through a broken window to get to safety after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at the school Ramos is believed to have entered through an unlocked side door. Ogburn said her classroom would have been one of the first Ramos would've encountered from the outside 'I put on a Disney movie, turned off the lights, and shut the blinds. A few minutes into the movie, several girls in my class asked to go outside early for their noon recess,' she said. By that time, however, it was only 11:21am, and too early to let the students out for lunch, so she asked the students to wait at least 15 to 20 minutes more. It was also a sweltering hot day, and she didn't 'want to be out in the heat for any longer than was necessary,' she admitted. But unknown to Ogburn, there was already something more sinister to fear outdoors. Around that time, Ramos, 18, was already approaching the school armed with two rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He had already shot his grandmother in the face at their home. Just minutes before the deranged gunman entered and embarked on his killing spree, a teacher, according to Texas Department of Public Safety, propped open a side exit door near Ogburn's classroom at 11:27am. Ogburn said the west door, from which the shooter would eventually gain entry, is supposed to remained locked at all times but the exit is often used by faculty members when they need to make a quick run outdoors. 'It's a locked door,' but, she explained, 'It's not uncommon for someone to use a rock and put inside the doorframe so the door can't shut all of the way, when they run out to their car to get something.' She said the door can only be locked from the inside, so if someone goes out of it, they have to keep it ajar and reach inside to turn the key. This is how the shooting played out over the course of nearly two hours from when gunman Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother at home Authorities say Ramos began shooting at the building as he approached. Bullet holes are seen in the window of a classroom In this aerial view, law enforcement works on scene at Robb Elementary School where at least 21 people were killed yesterday This tedious process, she said, is why several of faculty members instead opt for using a rock to temporarily keep the door ajar and prevent it from closing. That day, Ogburn said, the staff member, who she declined to name, had gone out to retrieve a cellphone from her car which was 'just outside the door.' Ogburn said she was told the employee, during her quick foray outside, had spotted the gunman shooting toward a funeral home across the street and then approaching the fence onto school property. 'She ran back inside the same door she came out of in fear for her life. She must have panicked,' she said. Salvador Ramos, 18, barricaded himself in a classroom and killed 19 kids and two teachers before being shot dead by police 'I'm sure she was in fear of her life. Or the door may have had sort of malfunction. I know this employee and she would have never left the door open. She cares about those students, all of us care about those students.' Ogburn admitted that at that time she doesn't know if the rock was still in the doorframe propping the door open or if the door hadn't shut properly from the force the teacher opened it with. She believes that by the time the teacher had made her way back inside the school the shooter had made his way into the actual building. From that entry point, her classroom would have been one of the first Ramos encountered from the outside, almost directly in the line of fire, the teacher explained. Meanwhile, inside, the students still sitting on the floor watching a movie, were unaware of what was about to transpire, until they suddenly heard what Ogburn described sounded like a shovel hitting the building. In hindsight, she believes the noise could have been the shooter trying to unsuccessfully force his way into the building through the south side entrance. The 18-year-old shooter, armed with two rifles and ammunition, drove his grandmother's black Ford F-150 pickup truck to the school just before noon, where he crashed into a culvert before continuing his deadly rampage The scene where the shooter crashed a truck, with damage to the street and drainage ditch still visible One video at the scene appears to show Ramos approach the school while what sounds like gunfire is going off in the background. Police exchanged gunfire with Ramos but were unable to stop him from storming the school It was then that Ogburn went over to the window to what was happening, only to be confronted with her worst fear. 'I saw a silhouette of the gunman through the window. I couldn't see his facial features, but he had dark hair, and dark clothing. He looked like he was carrying something with his left hand and had a gun in his right hand,' she said. 'I told my kids, 'Oh my god he has a gun, get on the ground.' 'The kids, many whom were already on the ground, scurried to the corner of the room, the area where we've practiced in our lockdown drills. 'Seconds later, while on the ground, I heard bullets rip through the window and into the ceiling. 'Pieces of the ceiling debris were falling on to my head.' Amid all the panic, Ogburn said she had left her cellphone on her desk but used her smartwatch instead to call 911. 'I called 911 a total of four times. The first two times the call didn't go through, the third time, it went through, and I heard the 911 operator, but the call dropped. 'I then called again and finally someone answered. I told them, I'm a fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary and there is an active shooter in my building, please, please, hurry! 'The operator then asked if she could stay on the line. She whispered to the operator, 'No I can't I don't want him to hear me.' She then hung up.' After nearly 80 agonizing minutes, Ogburn said she heard police arrive and they told her to instruct her students to exit out the window where they would be met by other law enforcement Children were seen running to safety after escaping from a window during the rescue Days later, Ogburn said after being able to retrieve her phone she noticed she had received a text from the school sent out at 11:32am that read, [EMERGENCY] Lockdown - has been initiated at Robb Elementary School. Log into Raptor Emergency Management now for your immediate tasks. Ogburn explained every employee has a Raptor app on their cellphone where they can send out an emergency notice. She said for more than 30 minutes she sat on the floor with her students' hearing gunshots ring out. She became emotional when she described what she and her students were doing while all huddled together during the rampage. 'We were all comforting each other, praying together, saying 'Please God, don't let this guy come in here.' She said she started quietly reciting the biblical verse John 3:16 to her students. 'They were just holding my hands. There was one little girl who kept whispering, God help us, please God help us, please. Two of the boys in my class told her to get over between them to protect her. 'They were quiet for the most part. I whispered to them. Pray to yourself, pray to yourself. 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 leaving many schools in the country on edge. He legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles, including the one he used in the attack, and more than 300 rounds of ammunition after his 18th birthday the week before 'They weren't screaming. I did hear some whimpering. But they did exactly what we always told them to do in a situation like this. 'The kids were frightened. As a child who is nine or ten years old having to endure that traumatic situation...I can't even imagine. They were brave. I'm proud of them. TIMELINE OF TERROR: HOW THE UVALDE SCHOOL UNFOLDED May 24, 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 through the same door as the suspect. They are later followed by another four, making total of seven officers on scene Three initial officers go directly to the door. Two receive grazing wounds from Ramos while the door was closed. They hang back 11.37: Another 16 rounds are 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: A Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) arrives 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 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 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 They did what they were supposed to do,' Ogburn said tearfully. Finally, after what she said felt like hours, she heard officers outside of her door identifying themselves as police. 'They mentioned their names, but I don't remember them,' she said. Still cautious, Ogburn got up from the floor and made her way over to the front door, she was able to catch a glimpse of the officers in the doors' window to verify that it was law enforcement outside their door. They told her to instruct the students to exit out the window where they would be met by other law enforcement. It was only then she instructed her students to get up and climb out the window. All her students made it out and they ran to a funeral home across the street from the school. One cut their leg on the broken glass from the window, but they were otherwise all okay. Ogburn said days later she saw a text message from one of her fellow teachers who was with her that responded back on the school's system at 12:09pm that 'We are all OK.' She believes they had made it out of their classroom a few minutes prior to 12:09pm. According to officials Ramos was killed by police at 12:50 p.m. Ogburn said while thankful she and her students weren't physically hurt, she is now riddled with a tremendous amount of guilt. 'I still to this day don't understand why he didn't attempt to come into my room. I thank God everyday he didn't. 'But I also feel a lot of guilt because the people who were killed were my friends.' The finger pointing has already begun among law enforcement. Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a briefing Friday, that cops on the scene made the wrong decision when they waited to breach the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself inside with children. 'With the benefit of hindsight, where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision, it was the wrong decision, period,' McCraw said. The blame has mainly been directed at on Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo. There is even speculation he may not have even had his police radio on him when the made the decision to not have law enforcement breach the classroom. But Ogburn says the only person to blame is the shooter. 'The shooter is the person who came in the school and killed my two friends and 19 students. He is the sole blame for this situation. Right now, I'm not going to place the blame on others. 'There are always going to be mistakes made, we are all human. But ultimately the gunman is responsible. Those people didn't deserve to die.' She says she is going to wait for an investigation to be completed before any judgements are to be made. 'We don't have the full story. In order for our country, my community and this world to heal from this we need to come together instead of pulling each other apart.' A third of workers believe there is no drop in productivity working from home A survey found most organisations still want people to come into the office Post-Covid, workers want to stay at home but bosses want them back Bosses and their employees are divided on whether they should keep the flexibility that became the norm during the Covid pandemic - and it could be a looming deal-breaker for many workers. The pandemic forced most of the world to work from home for the past two years but many companies and bosses are convinced it is not good for productivity or teamwork, a new study shows. The study, from Melbourne's RMIT University, found the majority of organisations want people back in the office full-time. The offices that were empty during the Covid period have seen workers come back, but some of them reluctantly, with a survey finding many wanted more time working from home However, bosses have a battle ahead and will need to convince 33 per cent of workers who thought that there was no drop in productivity when they worked from home. The majority of workers surveyed (71 per cent) wanted at least one day working from home and 56 per cent wanted more than one day. While 58 per cent of managers thought workers were as productive at home, there were still twice as many managers (24 per cent) who disagreed with this statement than workers (12 per cent). The view that people can be just as productive working from home as at the office is not as popular among managers as it with workers However, the overwhelming view of workers was that they want flexibility and 93 per cent of those surveyed said it was an important factor in the jobs they accept or stay in. Only one fifth (21 per cent) of those surveyed believed managers and bosses were in alignment on flexible work with almost a third of managers losing or at risk of losing staff over the issue. With businesses who require workers to spend all or the majority of time at the office, the in-office demand accounted for three quarters of people leaving. RMIT Online interim CEO Claire Hopkins says employers who don't allow their workers the flexibility of working from home are at risk of losing or not finding the fight people RMIT Online interim CEO Claire Hopkins told Daily Mail Australia this showed bosses should be ready to lose workers if they did not take into account changing attitudes to working from home and adopting more flexible arrangements. 'Our research tells us that one in three managers have already lost, and will risk losing further staff through inflexible workplace policies,' Ms Hopkins said. 'With increasing competition amongst business for key talent, flexibility will need to be a key consideration for employers seeking to attract and retain staff in a post-Covid workplace.' While having more family time is an important factor in people wanting more flexibility to work from home, another consideration was the mounting cost of commuting to the office each day Over a third of managers (41 per cent) believe being together in the office is better for teams while over half (57 per cent) said that it made workers easier to control. Of the organisations surveyed, just over half had adopted a hybrid model (51 per cent) of working from home and the office. There were 44 per cent who required employees back in the office five days or close to full-time and only five per cent were working entirely remotely. While most of those surveyed said family time was an important reason for working from home, about 60 per cent of workers also noted the reduced costs of getting to and from the office. A new documentary shows doctors claiming prepubescent children are ready to change genders 'whenever they ask for it' and claiming they can safely 'pause' hormone development 'like music'. The documentary, What Is A Woman, aired last night on The Daily Wire at 9pm. It sees filmmaker and author Matt Walsh asking trans activists and doctors to define what a woman is through the lens of today's political and sociological climate. Many fail to give a straight answer. In the trailer for the film, Walsh prompts giggles from African tribesmen by asking them if a 'man can become a woman' and challenging protesters at the Women's March over their idea of what a female is. Scroll down for video Matt Walsh's documentary What Is A Woman aired last night on The Daily Wire and Walsh questioned pediatric professor Dr. Michelle Forcier In their sit-down, she says kids are ready for 'medical affirmation when they ask for it' - even if it's before they have reached puberty. 'Medical affirmation begins when the patient says they're ready for it. Dr. Forcier says she looks after 'hundreds' of trans kids 'That could be a kiddo who is just starting puberty and they're panicking because they're just getting breast buds, or their penis is getting bigger and busier and they're worried about all kinds of masculine changes,' the doctor said. That is when she says doctors can safely prescribe puberty blockers, claiming they are 'completely reversible' and 'don't have permanent effects.' '[They are] wonderful because we can put that pause on puberty, just like you're listening to music. 'You put the pause on and puberty would go right back to where it was, the next note in the song, just delay that period of time.' Dr. Forcier also told him that his sperm doesn't make him male and that an objective truth does not exist. ' 'Whose truth are we talking about?' she said. 'The same truth that says we're sitting in this room right now you and I,' Walsh replied. She shot back: 'No, you're not listening.' Walsh pushed back: 'If I see a chicken laying eggs and I say that's a female chicken, did I assign female? Or am I just observing a physical reality that's happening?' The doctor, rejecting his argument, said: 'Does a chicken have gender identity? Does a chicken cry? Does a chicken commit suicide? A chicken has an assigned gender but a chicken doesn't have gender identity.' She also said it's only an assumption that a chicken laying eggs is female. Among the puberty blockers that are used is Lupron, which can also be used to treat endometriosis and prostate cancer. It has been used in the past to chemically castrate sex offenders. In the documentary, Walsh interviews 'gender affirmation therapist' Gert Comfrey who says gender is 'assigned' to kids at birth by doctors but that there's 'so much more' to the issue than genitalia. 'Some women have penises and some men have vaginas,' they said Dr. Miriam Grossman spoke of the dangers of prescribing kids with the drugs too early and said she'd spoken to the mother of a teenage trans girl who now has osteoporosis When questioned about that in the documentary, Dr. Forcier tried to end the interview after admitting that she prescribed it. 'You know what, I'm not sure that we should continue with this interview because it seems like it's going in a particular direction.' She told Walsh he was being 'exploitive' with his choice of words and was 'malignant and harmful.' 'I'm saying as a pediatrician when you use that terminology you are being malignant and harmful. It's about the context of caring for a child and seeing the suffering that kids can have that have not been in affirmative home situations,' she said. Don Sucher, the owner of Sucher and Sons Star Wars shop, says he won't respect people's transgender pronouns in his store. 'I don't care about your feelings. I'm old!' he said Scott Newgent is a transgender man who started transitioning from female in his forties. He tells the documentary how he has suffered countless infections, medical problems and complications since he started hormone treatment therapy, and how he now fears he won't live 'very long'. 'This is wrong on so many levels. Being a parent is loving the hell out of your kids and helping them see around corners. 'The truth is that medical transition is experimental. We have studies saying it helps mental health with kids - they've all been retracted. 'How many studies do they have on hormone blockers for children? Dr. Miriam Grossman, an adult and adolescent psychiatrist, said she had spoken with a mother whose daughter developed osteoporosis as a result of the blockers. 'I just spoke a month ago with a mother whose 14-year-old daughter was put on blockers, they discovered after two years, this girl has osteoporosis. That's something old women get. 'How can they be removing the healthy breasts of 15-year-old girls? How can they be sterilizing kids? How can this whole thing be happening, Matt?' she said. Later in the documentary, Walsh interviews Selina Soule, female track and field athlete who said she missed out on medals and qualifying spots when two transgender males started competing against her. 'The first race that I competed a transgender athlete was during my freshman year. Walsh went to the Women's March asking people 'what is a woman?' Many failed to answer 'Once the gun went off, the two transgender athletes took off flying and left all of us girls in the dust. 'Throughout all four years of high school, I was forced to compete against biological males. I only competed against them in sprinting events. Every single time, I lost. 'I missed out on so much in my high school career. Between the two of them they won every single event they competed in. 'It is so frustrating and heartbreaking because we elite female athletes train so hard to shave just fractions of a second off of our time. And going into races knowing we'll never be able to win. 'After so many losses it just gets to the point of why am I even doing this? Why am I sacrificing so much and training so hard just to get third place and beyond?' she said. YouTube host Matt Walsh's documentary aired on The Daily Wire He also spoke with a University of Tennessee women's studies professor who said it was 'transphobic, rude and condescending' to seek an objective truth on gender, rather than allowing people to tell you what their gender is. He also spoke with the owner of a Star Wars store in Washington State who clashed with a transgender city councilwoman in a viral video after putting up a sign outside his store saying: 'If you are born with a d**k, you are not a chick.' He stood by his stance, telling Walsh he would not back down on it because he's 'old'. 'One day I just put the sign up here. I said, "oh I recognize you, you're our new city councilman". 'And he said, "no I'm your new city councilwoman" and it was kind of on from there. 'I've never had a problem with anybody whether they're gay, transsexual... anybody.' 'I don't care if you think you're a sheepdog and you come into my store. It don't matter to me just don't come in and try to shove that s**t down my throat. I don't care about their feelings. I'm old. 'How do I know I'm a man? I guess because I got a d**k,' he said. The FBI says it thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children's hospital in Boston by hackers working for the Iranian government. FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Boston College cybersecurity conference Wednesday that his agents learned of the planned digital attack from an unspecified intelligence partner. It then provided Boston Children's Hospital the information it needed last summer to block what would have been 'one of the most despicable cyberattacks I've seen.' 'And quick actions by everyone involved, especially at the hospital, protected both the network and the sick kids who depended on it,' Wray said. The FBI chief recounted that anecdote in a broader speech about cyber threats from Russia, China and Iran, and the need for partnerships between the U.S. government and the private sector. Video below FBI director Christopher Wray speaking at the Conference on Cyber Security at Boston College on June 1 The front entrance of Boston Children's Hospital. FBI director Wray revealed that a cyberattack from Iran against the hospital was blocked by the FBI last summer He said the bureau and Boston Children's Hospital had worked closely after a hacktivist attacked the hospital's computer network in 2014. Martin Gottesfeld launched a cyberattack at the hospital to protest the care of a teenager at the center of a high-profile custody battle. Gottesfeld later was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The attack against the hospital and a treatment home cost the facilities tens of thousands of dollars and disrupted operations for days. 'Children's and our Boston office already knew each other well - before the attack from Iran - and that made a difference,' Wray said. He did not ascribe a particular motive to the planned attack on the hospital, but he noted that Iran and other countries have been hiring cyber mercenaries to conduct attacks on their behalf. In addition, the health care and public health sector is classified by the U.S. government as one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, and health care providers such as hospitals are seen as ripe targets for hackers. Iranians attend a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, at the Azadi Tower in 2019. FBI director Wray said the bureau is watching for cyber attacks from Iran When it comes to Russia, he said, the FBI is 'racing' to warn potential targets about preparatory actions that hackers are taking toward destructive attacks. In March, for instance, the FBI warned that it was seeing increased interest by hackers in energy companies since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine. Hackers from China have stolen more corporate and personal data from people in the United States than all other nations combined, as part of a broader geopolitical goal to 'lie, cheat and steal their way into global denomination of global sectors,' Wray said. The speech took place as the FBI continues to combat ransomware attacks from criminal gangs, a continuing concern for U.S. officials despite the absence of crippling intrusions in recent months. Wray emphasized the need for private companies to work with the FBI to thwart ransomware gangs and nation-state hackers. 'What these partnerships let us do is hit our adversaries at every point - from the victims' networks, back all the way to the hackers' own computers,' Wray said. Martin Gottesfeld, above, hacked Boston's Children's to protest the hospital's care of a teenager in 2014. Wray said the FBI's experience with Gottesfeld helped stop the Iranian attack Ohio Sen. Rob Portman (left), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued a report this year critical of the FBIs response to some ransomware victims The FBI and other federal agencies have been working to assure hacking victims that it is in their best interest to report intrusions and cyber crimes. Many companies attacked by ransomware gangs often do not go to the FBI for a variety of reasons. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued a report this year critical of the FBIs response to some ransomware victims. In two cases, the FBI 'prioritized its investigative and prosecutorial efforts to disrupt attacker operations over victims' need to protect data and mitigate damage,' the report said. One unnamed Fortune 500 company told committee staff that the FBI did not offer any 'helpful assistance' when responding to a ransomware attack. Wray, though, cited the FBI's capacity to get a technically trained agent to any victimized company in an hour - 'and we use it a lot,' he said. A man from Queens with nine previous arrests and who allegedly continuously harassed staff at a Chinese Restaurant over a dispute about duck sauce has been charged with murder for the death of the eatery's longtime delivery driver. Glenn Hirsch, 51, was arrested on Wednesday night at his home near Briarwood and appeared in court Thursday. He was also charged with criminal possession of a firearm for the deadly shooting of Zhiwen Yan, 45, on April 30, according to a statement from the NYPD. Cops also found eight guns while searching Hirsch's wife home, with who he doesn't live with. Yan, a father-of-three who moved to New York from more than two decades ago, was doing delivery-rounds on his scooter in Forest Hills, Queens, cops say, when he was blasted in the chest. The shooting saw Yan and Hirsch, who was believed to be driving an older model of a Lexus RX3 SV at the time, briefly exchange words at a traffic light before Yan was hit near 108th Street and 67th Drive, in what is usually a quiet and close-knit area. Glenn Hirsch (pictured), 51, was arrested on Wednesday night at his home near Briarwood in Queens for the murder of 45-year-old Zhiwen Yan, who had worked for a Chinese restaurant in Queen for more than a decade, known as the Great Wall Zhiwen Yan, 45, (right) in this undated image on the day of his wedding, was making a delivery on his scooter in the Forest Hills neighborhood Queens at around 9:30 pm on April 30, cops say, when he was fatally shot in the chest The altercation, police say, saw Yan and the suspect briefly exchange words before he was shot once in the chest near 108th Street and 67th Drive, in what is usually a quiet, close-knit community. Cops are pictured at the crime scene, looking over Yan's scooter Surveillance video shows Yan getting on his scooter after delivering food to an apartment complex. He pulls out onto 108th street when someone walks up to him and shoots him in the chest. Suspect drives off in a light gray or tan Lexus eastbound on 67 Drive. pic.twitter.com/U3MuDwTnPa Christina Fan (@Christinafantv) May 1, 2022 A witness nearby later told investigators that Hirsch fled the scene. Cops revealed they captured Hirsch on surveillance footage pacing around the restaurant for roughly an hour on the night of the shooting before following Yan. Hirsch's lawyer, Michael Horn, told DailyMail.com that a warrant was issued for Grisch's arrest after the grand jury's proceeding on Wednesday. However, he added that the Queens District Attorney's office 'decided not to honor my professional courtesy to bring [Grisch] in whenever as possible, where's necessary and they basically broke down his door last night and forced their way to a scared man who doesn't know what's going on.' Yan, who worked seven days a week and held three jobs to support his family, had been working at the Great Wall restaurant for more than a decade prior to his death, 53-year-old employee Kai Yang told the New York Daily News. The outlet further reported that Hirsch has an extensive criminal history. He was arrested 9 times between 1995 and 2012, but none of them are disclosed as they are sealed. One of the arrests is related to Hirsch committing a robbery with a gun, police sources told the Daily News. Horn said: 'They're not relevant. We know that accusations are meaningless without any judication... The District Attorney is taking what I consider to be a thin case and trying to put as much garnish as possible to make the sandwich look bigger.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the Queens District Attorney's office for more information on Hirsch's previous arrests. Hirsch, from Queens, was walked out of the 12th precinct with prosecutors strong arming him The suspect allegedly shot Yan after several altercations with the restaurant over the last year, which include one when he vandalized the eatery after being told that he would not get more duck sauce with his order Michael Horn, attorney for Glenn Hirsch, spoke to DailyMail.com outside court on Thursday A restaurant employee, Soi Chung, 70, told DailyMail.com that Hirsch had 'multiple' disputes with staff at the eatery and pulled a gun on staffers during one incident in January. Another incident last year saw the angry customer become peeved over the amount of duck sauce given to him in one of his orders, Chung told The New York Post, spurring a campaign of harassment, vandalism, and threats from the customer. The beef with the rowdy regular, Chung said, spontaneously began at nighttime. 'The customer came in and ordered some food,' Chung, who has worked at the Queens establishment for 20 years, recalled to the Post. The encounter was friendly first, according to Chung - but things quickly turned when the customer deemed the amount of duck sauce he had received with his order to be unsatisfactory. 'He left with the food but then came back and said ''It's not enough,''' Chung said. 'He came to the counter and wanted more food, more duck sauce.' An argument then ensued, Chung told the outlet, spurring Yan's and Chung's employer to get involved. 'They had an argument,' Chung told the Post, 'and the boss said, 'It's enough already.' The veteran restaurant worker said that the jilted customer then walked out of the restaurant in a huff, before returning to vandalize the establishment with - the duck sauce. 'The guy left the restaurant, and later came back and threw the duck sauce, everything, all over the place,' Chung recalled. 'The police came and took a report, but the guy was gone.' According to a colleague of Yan's at Great Wall restaurant (pictured), a Hirsch had 'multiple' disputes with the Forest Hills eatery, and pulled a gun on staffers during an incident last January However, according to Chung, the strange saga was far from over - with Hirsch's harassment campaign only growing more brazen and threatening. 'After that, sometimes, he'd be waiting around outside,' Chung told the Post in April, as cops continued to comb the city in hopes of tracking down Yan's killer. 'He'd say to the boss and to the delivery guy and to one of the chefs, "I remember you. I remember you," the restaurant staffer said, adding that the customer twice vandalized Great Wall staffers' cars, and once slashed the tires on the manager of the establishment's vehicle. The most brazen threat from the customer, Chung said, came earlier this year, when Hirsch menacingly waved a gun at the restaurant workers, spurring them to call 911. Restaurant owner Kai Yang told the Post that the angry customer was put to the ground by employees, which included Yan, shortly after he came inside with the firearm. Horn said on Thursday: 'If my client had an argument with the manager, then why is he having a fight or assaulted a delivery guy who everybody seems to like. There was no delivery.' He added that his client's bail will be determined on Tuesday. Police say the incident transpired immediately after Yan - a father-of-three and Forest Hills resident who moved to New York from China more than two decades ago - had dropped off a delivery at a nearby address in the usually quiet residential neighborhood Meanwhile, Yan leaves behind a wife and three children, aged two, 12, and 14. 'This was a father of three children working three jobs - all food delivery,' Yan's nephew, who identified himself as Michael, said during a presser in April held outside the family's home in neighboring Middle Village. 'He came here in 2001,' the relative went on. 'He has been in this country over 20 years.' He added: 'It's unacceptable that this happened. This is a very peaceful community. This never happened, this kind of issue.' Despite Yan's colleagues claims concerning Hirsch's threatening behavior, it is currently unclear if the delivery man was a specific target. A GoFundMe page, created by Kunying Zhao - Yan's wife - shared to benefit her three children. 'I'm starting a fundraiser for my husband because he passed away last night,' Zhao wrote on May 1. 'He was a hardworking delivery man and always provided for his family The page surpassed its initial goal of $100,000, raising $198,684 as of Thursday morning. Four people alleged to have ties to Middle Eastern organised crime groups have been accused of stealing $2million from the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Officers from the Australian Federal Police raided several properties in Sydney's west and arrested three of the alleged fraudsters on Wednesday morning. Wafaa Al Shamari, 32, at Liverpool, Muna El Shreffy, 37, at Bonnyrigg and Adel Al-Shamare, 27, at Wentworthville, have been accused of fraudulently claiming money from NDIS participants for services that were never delivered. A fourth person, Kareem Al Shamare, 62, was charged on Wednesday night as he re-entered Sydney. All four people are understood to be related. One of the alleged fraudsters was later seen covering their face after being escorted from a home in Sydney's west by police (pictured) In dramatic footage of the raids a sniffer dog is seen entering a home while detectives sift through documents on a dining table. A sealed bag containing stacks of $50 and $100 bills were among the evidence. One of the alleged fraudsters wearing a purple dressing gown was later seen covering her face as exited a home in Sydney's west with police. The taskforce, which is a partnership between the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the AFP and Services Australia allege the group were posing as disability support providers to receive the payments. Police allege the foursome were running companies called Icare Disability Services Pty Ltd, Guardian Carers Pty Ltd, Angel Care and Support Services, Advance Accessibility Services Pty Ltd and Future Founders Pty Ltd. None of these companies currently work with the NDIS, police said. A sealed bag containing stacks of $50 and $100 bills was included among the evidence (pictured) Detectives were seen sifting through documents on the dining table inside a home that one of the alleged fraudsters was seen leaving on Wednesday morning It is also alleged members threatened violence towards NDIS participants and witnesses. Participants impacted by the fraud have had money reinstated to their support plans, the NDIA said in a statement. The multi-agency partnership, which was established in 2018, has a focus on high risk and serious criminal activity targeting the NDIS. The Commonwealth scheme supports more than 500,000 Australians living with a permanent or significant disability. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised an overhaul of the NDIS to boost efficiency and crackdown on those manipulating public funds. The Labor government plans to appoint a senior officer within the NDIS to focus on barriers to services in regional Australia and 'commit to co-designing changes'. The NDIA is a multi-agency partnership which was established in 2018, with a focus on high risk and serious criminal activity targeting the NDIS (pictured, officers at a home in Sydney's west) AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan said the force was passionate about working closely with partners to stop attacks on Australians living with a disability. 'Members of our community have allegedly been targeted, exploited and threatened by groups looking to fill their own pockets and steal public funds that have been set aside for Australians who need that support,' Assistant Commissioner Ryan said. 'The AFP will not stop in its pursuit of these groups who chop and change companies in a pointless effort to hide their criminal behaviour from law enforcement; our level of intelligence sharing with partners is something criminal groups should be extremely apprehensive of.' Wafaa Al Shamari was charged with dishonestly intending to obtain a gain and one count of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth. Participants impacted by the fraud have had money reinstated to their support plans, the NDIA said in a statement (pictured, detectives seal bags containing documents on Wednesday) El Shreffy and Adel Al-Shamare were each charged with one count of conspiring to dishonestly obtain a gain. The trio were scheduled to appear via video-link in Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday while the 62-year-old man is expected to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday. In April, a separate NDIA investigation saw officers from the AFP arrest a woman at Sydney Airport as she re-entered the country. She will face court in July after being charged with defrauding the NDIS of more than $1 million. Four other individuals unrelated to the woman will also face court in coming weeks following a NDIA investigation in Queensland. The group were each charged with general dishonesty, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars. China reports that attempted sabotage on one of its scheduled rocket launches was done with a commercially available jammer. The electronic device can scramble the navigation systems of a rocket going to the Tiangong Space Station. This scrambling device was inside a car parked close to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu about two weeks back; this was on the Yangtze Evening News on Sunday. China's Allegation of Sabotage According to the space center, if it was done by a saboteur or is accidental, the device could scramble navigation and make the rocket miss its destination, reported the Eurasian Times. Beijing has reported the incident as the first before the launch of the Shenzhou 14 mission, going with astronauts to dock with the Tiangong space station scheduled for this coming June 4 on Sunday, noted Space. Beijing plans to launch three astronauts into space. The crew included Liu Yang, China's first woman in space, in 2012. Scientists and engineers detected the jamming signal in early May, and it took days to trace and identify the signs thought to be on and off close to the launch area. Wang Lipeng, an electromagnetic signal technician, and colleagues allegedly tracked down the signal and evaluated security video at the launch site to identify the type of jammer. When Wang could see the car where the jammer was left, everyone was relieved. The South China Morning Post remarked that the device is a hidden jammer with a standard maximum range of 32 feet. These devices can be purchased on Taobao online in China as well. Read Also: Xi Jinping: 5 Things To Know About China's President Taobao is the biggest E-commerce site in China owned by Alibaba, which is owned by Jack Ma, who has been misdealing with President Xi Jinping. A scientist told SCMP the device could disrupt the satellite's signal, which is weak at 12,000 feet in low earth orbit. Such devices are used to hide a device's location or scramble GPS units, these disruptive electronic devices are allowed in China, but it is criminal to have, sell or use in the US and Canada. Tiangong Space Station Shenzhou 14 is scheduled to take off from the Gobi Desert at approximately 10.44 a.m. Sunday, local time on Sunday. Three astronauts are on board the space station for a six-month mission to observe the station's final stages. The spacecraft and its carrier rocket, the Long March 2F, are relocated to the launch pad at Inner Mongolia's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They will undergo final checks and evaluations this week. Staying for six months on the space station are the astronauts; they will conduct the construction of two extra modules in 2022. Called the Wentian and Mengtian labs linked to Tiangong. Zang Fusheng designed the manned spacecraft system and gave details about it. The June launch is part of the six planned to complete Tiangong for full operation after construction. Once completed, the Chinese space station will be like the bigger International Space Station (ISS). An operational lifespan of 10 to 15 years while activities could be conducted, Beijing considers international cooperation on the Tiangong as expressed by Ji Qiming last year. The US competing with China has created problems for cooperation with ISS since 2011. Unfortunately, China is the target of sabotage with a hidden jammer showing attempts to sideline Beijing due to fears of dominating the space race. Related Article: Chinese Astronauts of Tiangong Station Executes First Space Walk, Stayed Out for Seven Hours Working @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The alleged kingpin of the infamous Alameddine crime gang has started a new business venture days after police arrested over a dozen people in a crackdown they claim 'cut the head off the snake'. Rafat Alameddine, who police allege in court is top of the gang, lodged paperwork for a new renovation business on Friday, just three days after NSW police arrested 18 men - all believed to be low and mid-level associates of the Alameddine group. Sydney Lavish Renovations is the latest venture added to the 31-year-old's business portfolio, which includes MSG Group (NSW) Pty Ltd, AAA Top Cut Tree Lopping and Australian Investment Managers. Alleged gang kingpin Rafat Alameddine (pictured, left) started a renovation business three days after police arrested alleged gang members in raids across Sydney's south-west A 450-strong team from the NSW Police Taskforce Erebus raided 29 properties across Sydney's southwest on May 24, following a 10-month-long organised crime investigation. Members of the notorious Alameddine crime network, accused of running a 'dial-a-dealer' drug business raking in over $250,000 a week, were among those taken into custody. Rafat Alameddine was not arrested or charged during the raid. Following the blitz, NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb declared the force had completely dismantled the syndicate and 'cut the head off the snake'. 'Today we smashed an organised criminal network. The entire syndicate has been arrested, including high ranking members of that syndicate,' Ms Webb said at the time. 'I'm confident that we've cut the head off the snake. 'The recent gang related violence that has been plaguing Sydney stems directly from the battle for control of these drug markets and the profits.' A major alleged 'dial-a-dealer' drug syndicate has been shut down by police with after 18 people were arrested and dragged out of their homes on March 24 (pictured) Most of the alleged members of the gang - also known as the 'Merrylands crew' - were marched before the courts last week after being slapped with more than 50 charges collectively. Charges included drug supply, firearm possession, dealing with the proceeds of crime and direct or participate in a criminal group. Australia could separate from the monarchy and become a republic when the Queen dies. On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese surprised Australia by appointing Matt Thistlethwaite as the 'Assistant Minister for the Republic'. Mr Albanese as previously spoken of Australia becoming a republic and has said the change was 'inevitable', but he did not mention his thoughts on the issue during his six-week election campaign. Mr Thistlethwaite said during a series of interviews on Thursday that the death of the Queen would signal an appropriate time to move towards a republic. 'Do we want King Charles or are we mature enough or independent enough to look to appoint one of our own as our head of state,' he told Sky News. In a further interview with ABC radio, Mr Thistlethwaite said: 'As the Queen comes to the twilight of her reign, we should pay respect for her for the wonderful job she's done, but I think Australians are beginning to think about what comes next for our nation.' Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite has revealed plans to separate Australia from the monarchy and appoint a head of state for the country following the queen's reign Mr Thistlethwaite (left with Governor General David Hurley) was recently sworn in as Assistant Minister for the Republic after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese selected him to undertake the unusual portfolio, which the details of have remained unclear 'It's time we start the serious conversation once again...and looking to have one of our own as our head of state, to recognise that independence and maturity going forward.' The Assistant Minister for the Republic appears to hint at making the bold move once the queen's reign comes to an end. But to make the change to a republic would require the government to issue a public referendum so Australians can vote on the change. If a majority of Australians both nationally, and in a majority of states, support the move, then the constitution can be amended. Mr Albanese's move to appoint a Assistant Minister for the Republic has been welcomed by the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian head of state. But others called the decision 'sad and reckless'. The Prime Minister has previously spoken of Australia becoming a republic and has said the change is 'inevitable', but he did not mention his thoughts over the issue during his six-week election campaign The Assistant Minister for the Republic appears to hint at making the bold move once the queen's reign comes to an end. (Pictured with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) 'WE ARE ON OUR WAY!' tweeted prominent republican and author Peter FitzSimons. 'Let the record show, for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, Australia has a member of the Govt singularly devoted to removing the Crown, and helping Australia become a Republic,' he added. Poll SHOULD AUSTRALIA DITCH THE QUEEN? YES NO SHOULD AUSTRALIA DITCH THE QUEEN? YES 440 votes NO 1338 votes Now share your opinion FitzSimons said the revelation is the 'best news' for the ARM a quarter-century. 'Australia's Head of State should live here, be a proud Australian and be able to unify our nation in times of celebration or crisis - something the King or Queen of the United Kingdom could never do or be - and this appointment will help make this a reality,' he said. Over the years, the both Labor and Liberal politicians have at times lent their support to Australia becoming a republic. Australians were given the choice on whether to break away from the Commonwealth in 1999, but 55 per cent voted down the referendum. But the ARM believes support has increased since then and that 73 per cent of the population are now in favour of the change. Staunch monarchists have slammed the timing of the Mr Albanese's appointment. Queen Elizabeth II is pictured being greeted by adoring subjects while visiting Australia in 1981 Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher tweeted: 'A sad and reckless move by Australia's new left-wing Govt. Sends completely the wrong message.' Jack Barton, from the University of Queensland Monarchists League called it a slap in the face to those Down Under loyal to Queen Elizabeth. 'I think it's absolutely ridiculous, it's come at the worst possible time with an utter show of disrespect to the Queen and the Crown. 'Labor has a disregard for any of the people in Australia who want to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.' In another shake-up, Mr Albanese has promised a referendum on giving Aboriginal Australians an institutional role in policymaking that would be amended into the constitution. The Biden administration is set to erase nearly $6 billion in student debt for hundreds of thousands of students who attended the now defunct for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain. On Wednesday the White House announced that anyone who attended Corinthian Colleges from its founding in 1995 to its collapse in 2015 will get their federal student debt wiped clean. The move is set to will erase $5.8 billion in debt for the hundreds of thousands of borrowers- the largest single loan discharge in Education Department history, according to the agency. 'As of today, every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans,' Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. 'For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep,' he added. The move is set to will erase $5.8 billion in debt for the hundreds of thousands of borrowers- the largest single loan discharge in Education Department history, (Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pictured) The Obama administration - working with then California attorney general Kamala Harris- found that scores of campuses were falsifying data on the success of their graduates At its peak, Corinthian was one of the nation's largest for-profit college companies, with more than 100 campuses across the country and more than 110,000 students at its Everest, WyoTech and Heald schools At its peak, Corinthian was one of the nation's largest for-profit college companies, with more than 100 campuses across the country and more than 110,000 students at its Everest, WyoTech and Heald schools. But in 2015 the Corinthian Colleges shut down amid widespread findings of fraud. The Obama administration - working with then California attorney general Kamala Harris- found that scores of campuses were falsifying data on the success of their graduates. In some cases, the schools reported that students had found jobs in their fields of study even though they were working at grocery stores or fast food chains. Hundreds of students told investigators they were pressured to enroll with promises of lucrative employment, only to end up with huge sums of debt and few job prospects. Federal officials also found that the company falsely told students their course credits could be transferred to other colleges. The case inspired a federal crackdown on for-profit colleges, and the Obama administration promised to forgive loans for Corinthian students whose programs lied about job placement rates. Tens of thousands of former Corinthian students were already eligible for debt cancellation, but they had to file paperwork and navigate an application process that advocates say is confusing and not widely known about. But now the relief will be made automatic and extended to additional borrowers. Those who have a remaining balance on their Corinthian debt will also get refunds on payments they have already made, Education Department officials said. But the action does not apply to loans that have already been paid off in full. Libby DeBlasio Webster, senior counsel for the advocacy group Student Defense, said the news gives a 'fresh start' to former Corinthian students, but she noted that many defrauded students from other for-profit colleges are still awaiting help. 'We also hope today's news is a sign that other decisions are on the horizon for thousands of similarly situated students who are waiting for this kind of relief,' she said. The White House's announcement comes as President Joe Biden considers broader student loan forgiveness for millions of Americans. 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. 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. First came the huge explosion in a school yard that damaged 2,400 flats in the early hours of the morning. Minutes later, a missile struck the city centre. The following night another huge bomb dropped on the sleepy outskirts. One thousand pounds of explosives falling from the skies left a huge hole in the ground three times my height. The shockwaves and savage shards of shrapnel ripped through another 100 homes. City officials reached the scene within minutes to find a 90-year-old woman clambering from the ruins of her house. 'Who is doing this to us?' she asked the mayor. 'Why is he doing it?' Surrounded by the obscene debris of war, Oleksandr Honcharenko, the mayor of Kramatorsk, gently replied that it was all the work of one man but they were also baffled by such atrocities. Bombing yesterday pictured just miles from the city in eastern Ukraine 'Well please could you call this man and tell him not to do this any more because we are just peaceful people,' demanded the distraught old woman. If only this hideous war could be solved with a simple phone call to the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Instead Kramatorsk the capital of Donetsk region is preparing for an onslaught from Russian forces 12 miles away that could be the defining battle of this brutal phase of the conflict. The sirens wail almost constantly, the streets are largely deserted, the shops mostly closed and many of the remaining residents rely on food handouts and are reduced to cooking on open fires after gas supply lines were severed last week. Everyone is bracing themselves for a bombardment that they fear might pound this once-thriving city of 220,000 people, with its elegant central square and prosperous industrial plants, into the next Mariupol. 'Fighting civilians and freeing our city from its residents these are the goals the enemy is trying to achieve today,' said Honcharenko. 'The enemy is coming closer. The danger is very close to us.' Having suffered defeat in its attempt to seize Kyiv and Kharkiv, Russia re-focused its military efforts on seizing the whole of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the coal basin of Donbas after arming separatists and grabbing chunks of them in 2014. Evgeniy, Tatiana and their makeshift stove in the capital of the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk This assault relies on intensive long-range bombardment with fighting of 'maximum intensity' against some of Ukraine's most battle-hardened troops. In recent days, the Russians have taken almost all of Luhansk and advanced in Donetsk closing in on their key prize of Kramatorsk after capturing a nearby town, their forces encroaching on three sides. When I arrived on Sunday night, this city about the size of Aberdeen, Norwich or Southampton felt eerie with just one in five of its citizens remaining. The lights, water and trolleybuses were no longer working following a strike on a regional power line that was being frantically repaired by courageous engineers under constant shelling. Wandering down the ghostly streets with no cars or lights, it was as if I had strayed onto the set of a post-apocalyptic film. This feeling was accentuated by the overgrown public spaces, with uncut grass and colourful wild flowers, in a city previously so well kept. The air smelled of wood smoke from hastily made stoves in scores of yards a scent familiar from developing countries, but so alien in a modern European city, as was the sight of people collecting wood for cooking as sunset fell. In a yard between some apartment blocks, I was offered tea by Evgeniy, a construction worker, and his hairdresser wife Tatiana. They brewed it on a cooker built with bricks taken from a building shattered by a missile strike. 'We looked up on the internet how to make an outdoor stove. We did not need to cook outdoors before and I had no clue how it was done,' said Evgeniy, 45. Ekaterina, 74, is evacuated from Pokrovsk, another city that is the focus of Putin's renewed assault The affable couple told me how their windows had been blown out in a bombing, their incomes had collapsed and almost everyone had fled from the surrounding apartment blocks. Only 15 people remained from 115 families that lived there. 'People left gradually. Some on the first day of war, many more when there was shelling and windows blown out. Now it feels like people are not leaving people have made their choice to stay,' said Tatiana. 'At the start of the war we would run into the bathroom to sit and hide when there was shelling. Now we don't even get off the sofa.' The 42-year-old hairdresser said she had earned barely any money since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in late February. 'People are not thinking about looks and style. They don't care about beauty.' Despite the hardship, this pair of patriotic Ukrainians seemed determined to stay in their home. 'Over the past couple of days we see more military. 'This is calming me down. It gives me comfort, the feeling that I am protected,' said Tatiana. Clearly the city is preparing for possible attack with heavily fortified checkpoints, maze-like chicanes built from concrete blocks on entry roads and deep trenches being dug in surrounding fields as the sounds of war rumble in the distance. 'We know they will come for us,' said Ihor Yeskov, spokesman for Kramatorsk city council. 'Every day we can hear the fighting and this fighting is heavy.' Yeskov, born and raised in the city, said he was mystified by Putin's claim to be 'liberating' people in the Donbas a region where more than two-thirds of people speak Russian as their main language but with a majority of ethnic Ukrainians. 'I don't know what their final goal is but we are being deliberately murdered. They say they are liberating us but what are they freeing us from? Our lives? Our homes? From our jobs?' Eight years ago Kramatorsk fell under brief control of Kremlin-backed separatists before it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces then it replaced Donetsk, centre of the Donbas insurgency, as regional capital. Russian assaults have already devastated the city most notoriously in an April missile strike on the rail station at a time when it was packed with thousands of women, children and elderly people trying to flee. Snezhanna, four, with her cat during the evacuation from Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine The monstrous attack believed to have been fired from the Donetsk enclave run by Putin's stooges left 60 people dead, including seven children, with more than 100 injured, many of them losing limbs. One woman told me of relatives, including a girl aged six, having to walk on human flesh to escape. A police officer's wife said he returned from work that day with his uniform covered in 'meat' and blood, unable to talk about the horrors he had seen. Among doctors aiding the victims was Andrei Petrychenko, a surgeon and head of Kramatorsk's medical department who had been attending a nearby meeting. 'If we had not been able to provide fast assistance, many more would have died,' he said. Now he is preparing for another wave of war casualties but with just 40 per cent of his medical staff still in the city. All four city hospitals including one for children have moved operating theatres into basements and stocked up on supplies. 'I am angry since these are attacks on the civilian population,' said Petrychenko, who worked on the Donbas frontline when this war erupted eight years ago. 'There is no explanation for such deeds. I would call this a genocide of our people.' Attacks on the city in recent weeks seem to have targeted residential and industrial areas, destroying up to ten per cent of homes and hammering its major factories including one producing equipment for power plants that was hit five days in a row. 'It is really, really difficult to survive,' said Oksana, 52, who had just fried eggs and boiled potatoes for her dinner on a home-made stove beside her flat. 'I worked in a shop but it is closed now while all the factories have shut down or been evacuated.' Reporter Ian Birrell in front of destroyed flats in Kramatorsk, Ukraine Only one in five shops remains open and prices have surged, especially after the rail station attack cut off the city's main supply route. Even as I bought coffee from one stall, a woman was painting over old prices to put them up due to the rising cost of milk. Most residents who remain appear to be older or from poorer backgrounds, with few children to be seen. Yet some people have been returning in recent weeks, having evacuated to safer areas only to miss their homes or see their money run out. 'They went at the wrong time they should be evacuating now,' said Bogdan, a local journalist overseeing the handing out of emergency food supplies to a queue of weary-looking people clustered on the pavement. I went with him to hand a plastic bag containing canned fish, flour, rice and oil to an elderly man whose daughter had rung from another city to say he needed help. Anatoliy, 83, was sitting on a bench in the sun, his walking stick beside him. 'I'm way past the age when anyone is afraid. I'm not afraid of anything. What should I run away from? If they come for me I'll take a stick and kick them out.' Later I met Natalia, 43, as she collected bricks from a bomb site to build her stove. She told me her windows had been blown out and two schools hit near her home. 'It's all very sad and very bad. We've lived all our lives here,' she said. But she insisted she would not move so she could stay with her mother Anna. 'We have nowhere to go, no relatives to stay with. It is all the elderly people who are left and we cannot leave them behind. She insisted they appreciate the scale of the threat. 'We understand the reality really well. We are sane. The war is moving towards us every day and if it comes closer we can do nothing else but hide since we have no means to leave.' Yet having seen such lethal destruction in the southern port of Mariupol and now in nearby Severodonetsk a city half the size of Kramatorsk officials are redoubling efforts to persuade residents to leave. Police are even going door-to-door in towns near the front to press the case for evacuation. 'The Russians are using weapons that leave no chance for civilians,' said Tetiana Ignatchenko, spokeswoman for the regional authority. 'The only way to preserve lives is evacuation.' The nearest railway station for evacuation is now 50 miles away in Pokrovsk, where exhausted citizens fleeing the war board trains to safety and volunteers told me they were desperately searching basements for survivors in the devastated Donbas cities. Among those I met on the platform was a 74-year-old retired accountant called Ekaterina, who was sitting in a wheelchair clutching her passport beside her sick husband Mikhail, 84, a former miner, following their rescue. She explained how she had been lying on her bed, waiting for death, as she listened to the explosions raging all around her third-floor flat. 'We did not have water or gas or electricity. We had no money, no food. We were so hungry. It was tragic to see this pensioner suffering such trauma, to witness one more life wrecked by the terrible inhumanities of war. 'I had everything, bought everything with my own money. Now I am homeless and I have nothing.' No wonder this proud Ukrainian was left mystified by this senseless conflict just like that other elderly woman emerging from the ruins of her destroyed house. 'Why is Putin doing this to us?' asked Ekaterina in tears. 'What have we done wrong to go through such pain? Why is he fighting me?' When Australia's first Muslim minister strode up to be sworn in at Government House, he held in his hand an object never seen at such a ceremony. Matching his tie, new industry minister Ed Husic placed a bright pink Koran on the table and placed his right hand on it to swear his oath. The surprisingly coloured holy book was steeped in symbolism, and not just as a demonstration of parliament's improving diversity. The pink Koran was provided to Mr Husic by longtime southwest Sydney community worker Maha Abdo, who heard he was looking for a book to take his oath with. Ed Husic is sworn in as Minister for Industry while holding a bright pink Koran, which is the first time the Islamic holy book has been used to swear in an Australian federal cabinet member Despite not knowing him well, she sent the book with a hand-written note: 'I didn't imagine this happening in my lifetime'. Ms Abdo, chief executive of the Muslim Women Association, said she was given the book by young schoolgirls ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. She had never seen a pink Koran before but every one of the young girls had one. Ms Abdo thought the colour would be symbolic of a new era of inclusivity in Australian politics, which prompted her to send it to Mr Husic. 'Pink, what does it stand for? There's so much in it. I didn't realise it was to be gifted to this amazing person who was sworn into parliament,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'For me, it is very much about feminity, purity... it is also hope in the fact that it reminds me, as well, when the sun sets, the sky goes that pinky colour. 'The sun has set, and now it's about to rise.' Maha Abdo, who is long-time community leader in western Sydney, provided the pink Koran used by Mr Husic and said it was gift from some young girls The pink Koran was sent by Ms Adbo to Mr Husic for the swearing ceremony with a hand-written note that read: 'I didn't imagine this happening in my lifetime' Mr Husic, 52, said his heart was 'bursting with pride' when he passed the Koran to Dr Aly, who is also a trailblazer being the first Muslim woman to enter a federal ministry. 'We're all just trying to make a little bit better for the ones that come after us,' he said. In 2013, Mr Husic, who is the son of Bosnian migrants, held a Koran that belonged to his father while he was sworn in to be parliamentary secretary for broadband to then-prime minister Kevin Rudd. This prompted a backlash to his Facebook page with some accusing him of not being loyal to Australia and being part of plot to impose Sharia law. Mr Husic said the attacks were a 'a natural part of democracy' but also labelled them 'harsh words out of dark corners'. 'I think things have changed quite a bit and the country is a lot more understanding and accepting,' he said on Wednesday. Anne Aly (left) also used the pink Koran as Governor-General David Hurley swore her in as Minister for Youth and Early Childhood Education making her the first Muslim woman minister He believed his appointment would send a 'signal to the broader community that people from different backgrounds, different faiths can have a role to play in building a better country'. However, he noted there were still many Muslim Australians who copped hate speech and endured prejudice. The Koran did double duty because after Mr Husic was sworn he passed it to Dr Aly, who was the first Muslim woman elected to federal parliament in 2016. The Western Australian MP used it take oath to become Minister for Youth and Early Childhood Education as part of Anthony Albanese's ministry. Dr Aly, 55, told the ABC she thought of her Egyptian father while travelling to the swearing in ceremony. Her parents immigrated from Egypt to Australia in 1969 when Dr Aly was two. 'I kind of had a conversation in my head with my dad because baba passed away in 2015, one year before I was sworn in as the member for Cowan,' she said. 'For any young girl, who like me, had the dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin and the different cultural background and wasn't quite sure if there was a place for her in this country, I hope this sends out a message to them that there is a place for you. 'You can participate fully in the political, social and economic life of Australia in whichever way that you want.' Tony Burke shows off the family heirloom Bible that he took to Wednesday's swearing in ceremony and which caused some mirth for Anthony Albanese's girlfriend Jodie Haydon Dr Aly, who lectured in counter-terrorism and security at Perth's Edith Cowan University before entering parliament, said she believed Australian attitudes to Muslims had become more welcoming. The pink Koran was not the only holy book to stand out during the swearing in ceremony, where ministers can bring their own scriptures to take their oath with. Tony Burke used Twitter to show off the inside of the family Bible he used to be sworn in as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts Mr Burke said his great grandfather had brought the Bible to Australia on 28 March, 1880 in the wake of the Great Irish Potato Famine New Workplace Relations and Arts Minister Tony Burke lugged in a huge Bible under his arm, which appeared to amuse the prime minister's girlfriend Jodie Haydon. Mr Burke later explained he Bible was his great-grandfather's and was passed down through his family as an heirloom. 'Dad's grandfather came to Tumut [NSW] from Ireland after the famine and bought it on March 28, 1880,' he wrote on Twitter. An inscription inside includes the name of his ancestor Michael Bourke and the date it was bought. This is the moment that police threatened a CNN reporter with trespassing charges if he and his crew didn't leave Uvalde school district grounds. CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz was at Uvalde Independent School District to question Uvalde ISD Police chief Pedro Arredondo about his actions during the Robb Elementary School massacre on May 24. Prokupecz asked Arredondo why he had ordered his officers to wait outside the school while Salvador Ramos, 18, was inside killing 19 kids and two teachers. Arredondo deflected Prokupecz's questions, repeatedly saying that there would be answers once the parents of victims were done grieving. Shortly after confronting the chief, Prokupecz was confronted by a group of Uvalde ISD officers who told him that cops from the Uvalde Police Department were on the way, and that he and his crew would be charged with trespassing if they were still present when they arrived. The school district office called the police to ask the media to leave their property. pic.twitter.com/uhwWLZe3ya Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 1, 2022 A tweet from CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz showing Uvalde Independent School District officers outside their office saying he will be charged with trespassing if he doesn't leave A tweet from CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz showing Uvalde Independent School District officers outside their office saying he will be charged with trespassing if he doesn't leave 'I'm just gonna let you know, Uvalde PD's en route, once they get here, they'll start issuing criminal trespasses for the property,' a Uvalde ISD officer says. 'Yeah, they want us to give you guys the initial warning, and then if you guys are still present, they're going to issue criminal trespasses,' another officer adds. Prokupecz says 'Okay, appreciate that.' 'Cause they themselves have asked y'all to leave, so,' the first officer then says with a frown. CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz. He was threatened with trespassing charges shortly after a heated exchange with Uvalde ISD Police chief Pedro Arredondo Uvalde ISD Police chief Pedro Arredondo. He has come under fire after being accused of giving the order to not have officers enter the room where the active shooter was holed up with students at Robb Elementary School on May 24 The incident comes following reports that Arredondo had stopped cooperating with Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into police's response to last week's deadly school shooting. On Tuesday, Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas DPS, said Arredondo had stopped assisting their inquiries. 'The chief of the CISD did an initial interview but has not responded to a request for a followup interview that was made two days ago,' he told DailyMail.com. Arredondo has been fiercely criticized by state officials, the media and grieving parents for failing to send his officers into Robb Elementary School when it was attacked last week. Arredondo believed that the 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, was barricaded alone inside the building, and waited over an hour before breaching the classrooms - where 19 children and two teachers had been killed by the time they entered. When asked by CNN reporter Prokupecz on Wednesday to defend his moves as the incident commander during the massacre, Arredondo declined, saying: 'We're going to be respectful to the families.' 'Just so you know, we're going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we'll do that obviously,' added Arredondo, referring to the slew of funerals taking place in Uvalde this week. Arredondo also appeared to dispute the claims that he has not been cooperating with an investigation into the shooting and police response by the Texas DPS. 'Just so everybody knows, we've been in contact with DPS every day. I've been on the phone with them every day. Just so you know we've been talking to them every day,' the embattled official said. Prokupecz said that a short time after he confronted Arredondo, a spokesperson from the district came out and provided a statement claiming that the school district was cooperating with the DPS, but that they would not answer questions until the investigation was completed. 'UCISD has and will continue to work with law enforcement who are investigating the event and realize that many questions remain,' the statement read, 'Because the investigation is ongoing and information is evolving, we are going to reserve comment until all state and federal agencies have completed their review.' After the statement was issued, the ISD police told Prokupecz and the CNN crew that police were on the way, and threatened them with criminal charges. A reporter with the San Antonio Express-News, Guillermo Contreras, also claimed that the ISD had issued the same trespassing threat and warning to him, tweeting photos of what he described as 'security detail' surrounding the district office building. A tweet from San Antonio Express-News reporter Guillermo Contreras who says he was issued similar trespassing warnings by Uvalde ISD police San Antonio Express-News reporter Guillermo Contreras described a 'security detail' surrounding the Uvalde ISD office A woman who was found on Wednesday after going missing for two days has vanished again, less than a day after she was found by police. Cara Morrissey, 30, was found on Wednesday afternoon in Melbourne following an extensive search, but disappeared again this morning after spending the night in hospital. Her mother Rhonda Morrissey posted to Facebook on Thursday morning to appeal for help, with the family deeply concerned for her wellbeing. Cara Morrissey (pictured), 30, was found on Wednesday following an extensive search, but has again disappeared without a trace 'Due to a misunderstanding, Cara left hospital early and is still very unwell due to her period of time exposed to the elements,' Ms Morrissey wrote. 'She is still missing. I implore you all to have the same zest with your looking.' The family has 'real fears for her wellbeing', as her mother claimed 'she is quite frail'. 'She is a bit disoriented...who wouldn't be having gone without sleep for three days?' Her mother, Rhonda Morrissey posted to Facebook (pictured) about the horrible situation, with the family deeply concerned about her wellbeing Ms Morrissey said Victoria Police were issuing another missing person appeal. Her dog Holly has been returned safely to her family. The second missing person appeal comes less than 24 hours after Cara was found by police and taken to hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Officers rushed to Kensington Station after the family received a tip off that she had been sighted at that location on Wednesday morning. Her mother said that Cara 'told a woman that she was not well and she gave the woman a number of a friend to call'. 'Unfortunately that person could not pick Cara up.' The family has said that Cara (pictured) experienced memory loss around three years ago when she was staying with friends Ms Morrissey said that 'the woman said Cara told her she was not well but she thought Cara looked calm enough and so she caught her train'. The family said that Cara experienced memory loss around three years ago when she was staying with friends. 'We had forgotten about it...Maybe that has happened to her again,' Ms Morrissey wrote on Facebook. 'Please help us.' Earlier this week, police launched an appeal to find Cara Morrissey after she vanished while taking her dog Holly for a walk around 7.30am in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong North on Tuesday, May 31. Police are again appealing for the public's help to find Cara Morrissey (pictured) after she vanished from hospital on Thursday morning In an update on Wednesday afternoon, Victoria Police confirmed Ms Morrissey and her dog had been found safely. In the first search for Cara, police and SES units cordoned off a section of the carpark at Tirhatuan Park on Somerset Drive on Tuesday afternoon, after she was reported missing. Police were seen at the park patrolling on foot and horses, searching the undergrowth for clues. People living near the park also showed up to assist in the search. Ms Morrissey's parents raised the alarm on Tuesday after she failed to arrive home. 'She hates the cold,' they told the Herald Sun. Amber Heard's supporters have reacted with dismay to the verdict in the defamation case with Johnny Depp, accusing the jury of being sexist and announcing that the result is 'not justice.' Heard, 36, said she was 'heartbroken' after the five men and two women of the jury found her account of being abused by Depp was largely untrue. She was ordered by the court to pay him $15 million in damages. The jury found her partially vindicated, and awarded her $2 million, but the verdict was overwhelmingly in his favor. Heard's fans, who have been massively outnumbered by Depp's vocal and devoted supporters, were shocked and saddened by the decision, at the end of the six week trial in Virginia. 'This jury is a racist, sexist fan-group and nothing more,' said one person, who said they initially backed Depp. 'I have no hope for women - ever.' The jury was a mix of white, black and Asian people. Heard is white. It is not clear why the commenter believes the verdict was racist. Another added: 'My heart goes out to Amber. F*** that sexist jury and f*** this sexist country!' Heard (pictured in court on Wednesday as the verdict was read), countersued for $100million, claiming that Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman made defamatory statements by calling her claims a 'hoax' One woman, Gretchen Summs, who said she was a survivor of sexual assault, denounced the judicial system. 'I stand with you and I believe you, Amber,' she said. 'You were so brave, strong and articulate in sharing your experiences. 'This was not justice. 'Sending you love and strength.' Comedian Amy Schumer posted a Gloria Steinem quote to her Instagram page. 'Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke . . . She will need her sisterhood,' Schumer wrote. Many of Heard's fans, operating accounts such as @istandwithamber, echoed her comments. 'My darling girl, you did everything you could. You did everything RIGHT. I am so proud of you and we will never stop fighting. We are always with you,' said one. 'You'll never ever be alone. We stand by you, now and always. These people were blindsided by a river of lies. Don't ever give up speaking your truth. YOU ARE HEARD!' said another. Depp is seen with his lawyer Camille Vasquez, who became a social media 'star' during the trial Heard, 36, is pictured leaving court on Wednesday after the verdict in the defamation trial Another added: 'I'm so sorry. 'You are and you'll always be the strongest person I know. Don't forget that I love you so much and I'll stand by your side always, no matter what.' One commented: 'You were so amazing and strong these last few days! I'm very proud of you and I didn't stop praying and defending you every day! I never get tired of saying how wonderful you are and how much I love you. YOU ARE HEARD! I've never been as proud of anyone as I am of you!' Another, responding to Heard's statement after the trial, said: 'I'm so sorry angel. your bravery and strength to stand up for yourself & all survivors won't go unnoticed. we'll always stand with you. stay strong there.' Depp's lawyer said on Wednesday that the jury's verdict 'confirms what we have said from the beginning' - insisting that the allegations he abused Heard were without evidence and defamatory. Speaking outside the court in Fairfax, Virginia, a jubilant Camille Vasquez praised the five men and two women of the jury for their decision, reached at the end of a six week trial and after 12 hours of deliberations. They found overwhelmingly in the 58-year-old Depp's favor, and decided that Heard, 36, had defamed him with her 2018 Washington Post op ed. The jury awarded him $15 million in damages, and her $2 million for one part of her counter-claim. 'Today's verdict confirms what we have said from the beginning that the claims against Johnny Depp are defamatory and unsupported by any evidence,' said Vasquez. 'We are grateful, so grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation.' Depp's lead attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew are seen outside of the courtroom after Depp's victory Throngs of reporters and fans are seen crowding around Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew as they speak outside the courthouse after the verdict Depp was not in court for the verdict, having traveled to England to perform with his band. Heard struggled to keep her composure, but was calm. Immediately after she issued a statement, saying she was 'heartbroken' and describing it as a setback for free speech and for women. 'The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,' she said. 'I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. 'I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. 'It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously. 'I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly.' Over six weeks at the court in Fairfax, Virginia, Depp called 38 witnesses while Heard called 24. Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 movie The Rum Diary, turning up on the red carpet together for its London premiere in 2011 Depp, meanwhile, thanked the jury for their verdict, which 'gave me my life back.' 'Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people, who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye,' he wrote. Depp said he was faced with an 'endless barrage of hateful content.' 'From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome,' Depp continued in his statement. 'Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.' He went on to say that he hopes his 'quest to have truth' has helped others who have found themselves in his 'situation' to never give up. Heard could still choose to lodge an appeal against the decision, but legal analysts believe it is unlikely to be effective, unless new evidence emerges. A teenager who died during a mass brawl outside a KFC was allegedly attacked over a love triangle involving his pregnant girlfriend, with devastated loved ones remembering him as a 'hero'. Lachlan Andrews, 17, and Harrison Hone, 18, were allegedly stabbed at the restaurant in Casino in NSW's northern rivers region when a fight involving 20 people broke out around 5.10pm on May 29. Mr Andrews died at the scene while Mr Hone was rushed to hospital in a serious condition before later stabilising. A 17-year-old boy was arrested two hours later and has been charged with murder, reckless wounding, and affray. According to 9News, the brawl was sparked over a love triangle dispute involving Mr Andrews' partner. Mr Andrews' sister Paige Dopson told Daily Mail Australia the baby was not his, but he intended to raise it as his own. Tributes have begun pouring in for Lachlan Andrews, 17, who died after allegedly being stabbed in NSW's Northern Rivers region last month 'He was truly amazing,' she said. 'He was due to turn 18 this month.' Tributes have begun pouring in online for the 'caring and passionate' teenager as his heartbroken family raise funds to have his body brought home to Canberra. Mr Andrews, originally from the ACT, had moved to Murwillumbah with a friend to work on boats. He had gained employment at a Tweed Heads tourism business repairing and building vessels as a vinyl wrapper and was one of the many people who lost their homes when the area was ravaged by floods in March. His sister Paige said Mr Andrews, who was the second youngest of six children, was known as the 'silly monkey' in his family. She said he was a 'strong and hardworking' young man who had 'overcome many life challenges' but 'did so much' to help those around him. 'He always put a smile on our faces and laugh from our belly's and boy did he know how to fight then love and laugh,' she wrote in a GoFundMe page. Mr Andrews and another teenager, 18, were allegedly stabbed at a KFC store in Casino about 5.10pm on Sunday May 29 (pictured is the scene) 'Lachie was a big family man he would always be there if we had plans for getting around for a bog family gathering , singing us his silly songs and "it's a good day to be out fishing". Ms Dopson said her brother was a caring, passionate, person who was one of the 'heroes' helping the Northern Rivers community clean up in the aftermath of the devastating floods. She said he loved everyone around him deeply and always went out of his way to help and make those around him smile and laugh. Loved ones have remembered Mr Andrews as the 'silly monkey' of the family who was always determined to make others laugh and smile 'We were so extremely proud of you Lachlan you were always top subject to talk about how proud we were seeing you drive boats and seeing your life bloom,' she said. 'Thank you for being such a kind brother, beautiful loving son, caring and passionate friend... for sharing with us such a treasured soul. 'There wasn't an ounce of bad in you. you were treasured gold. You'll never be forgotten.' Older brother Brent Dopson said was still in shock over his sibling's untimely death. 'Still doesnt feel real loved hearing your name on the news,' he wrote on Facebook. 'Im going to miss you Little Lachlan Andrews.' His other sister Hayleigh said they grew up like 'twins' because they were closest in age. 'All my life he's been there, supported me. He played dolls with me,' she told the ABC. 'He defended me, laughed with me, cried with me. He was my best friend.' Devastated friends have flocked to social media to pay their respects to the teenager whose life was tragically cut short. Nick Hart, who grew up as Mr Andrews neighbour, said the pair had gone through the Covid-19 pandemic and the floods since moving north together, but always had a 'positive outlook'. Friends say Mr Andrews was a 'hero' helping the community clean up after the Northern Rivers were ravaged by floods (pictured) earlier this year He said the young man had 'respect from all that met him' and a 'massive heart. 'He was one of the many heroes in the floods who helped everyone in the community. Our own workshop was flooded and we lost our house,' Mr Hart said. 'Lachie made friends everywhere he went. He really was a young man who had an amazing future. I will miss him deeply forever.' 'Fly high you beautiful boy,' friend Brittany Green wrote. 'May you Rest In Peace.' Mr Andrews' accused killer appeared at a hearing in the Children's Court earlier this week. He did not apply for bail and he will remain in custody until his next appearance in July. A furious Paralympian has challenged Qantas boss Alan Joyce to explain 'disgraceful' treatment of disabled Australians who keep being banned from taking their wheelchairs on flights. Karni Liddell, who won bronze at the 1996 and 2000 Paralympics, was travelling from Brisbane to the Whitsundays for a paid appearance as a domestic violence speaker but couldn't board a Jetstar flight with her wheelchair. Ms Liddell claimed she has been blocked from flying with Qantas or Jetstar 'at least 10' times and that the Qantas Group is the main offender for banning and breaking wheelchairs. When she complained to a Jetstar worker Ms Liddell was told she was being 'rude'. A Queensland executive and mother, Emma Weatherley, who also uses a wheelchair, described Ms Liddell's treatment as disgraceful and backed calls for Qantas and Jetstar to change. Ms Liddell claimed she has been blocked from flying with Qantas or Jetstar 'at least 10' times and that the Qantas Group is the main offender for banning and breaking wheelchairs Queensland mum and executive Emma Weatherley, who also uses a wheelchair, described Ms Liddell's treatment as 'disgraceful' and shared her story of poor treatment by Jetstar 'I said 'it'd be like me telling you to fly and just take your legs off' and she said 'stop being rude to me',' Ms Liddell said of her conversation with a Jetstar customer service operator. On Thursday Ms Liddell was encouraging her 'brothers and sisters' in wheelchairs to share their stories and videos on social media and tag Qantas to try and get the airline to change. 'Hopefully they might start listening to us,' she said. 'People with disabilities are 'often rejected, yanked off flights, our wheelchairs get broken, often by Jetstar and Qantas unfortunately, for some reason. I'm guessing its training, I'm guessing its policy,' she told Sunrise viewers. 'I'd love to ask Alan Joyce about is why is this happening so regularly?' Karni Liddell (right) lost two days work when Jetstar said she couldn't take her wheelchair on a flight so she challenged Qantas boss Alan Joyce to explain When Ms Liddell complained to a Jetstar worker about how not being able to take her wheelchair on the flight affected her she was told she was being 'rude' The two-time Paralympic bronze medallist was unable to speak at the domestic violence seminar after being denied entry to the plane 'I've been kicked off at least 10 Jetstar and Qantas flights simply because they just see me as the riskiest person in the queue to board, they don't see me as a passenger, they don't see us as passengers or customers,' Ms Liddell said in a social media post on Thursday. Jetstar has a long track record of criticism by people with disabilities. In 2009 the airline was forced to apologise to Paralympian Kurt Fearnley, who lashed out after he had to crawl around Brisbane airport rather than use an unsuitable wheelchair. Ms Liddell said she is a frequent flyer with Virgin, which doesn't stop her from taking her chair on flights. She said air travel is 'the hardest thing' for people with disabilities to do, and regularly leads to them 'fighting' for their rights. Ms Liddell admitted suffering 'severe anxiety' in airports because of how she might be treated. She said there is 'no consistency' in the reasons she's been given for not being able to take her chair - which can include restrictions on the number of wheelchairs on a flight or that the battery is dangerous. She mocked the battery reason, saying the lithium batteries are 'not dangerous' and arrive 'on a plane'. A Jetstar spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Liddell's ticket was bought through a 'travel vendor' and 'did not include the requirement to travel with a 25kg lithium-battery powered wheelchair.' 'Carrying a 25kg lithium-battery on our aircraft requires special clearance in advance of the flights departure.' Ms Liddell said the only consistency she experiences is 'being rejected or denied' and not treated like a customer. Karni Liddell (pictured) with a young competitor at a Sporting Wheelies event in Queensland On social media she also noted the Jetstar ban cost her two days income that she would have made from speaking at the Premier's Domestic and Family Violence Council. On social media Liddell's followers were answering the call to describe their difficulties with Qantas and Jetstar. A Queensland mother and executive described a humiliating experience flying Jetstar when she was made to painfully walk on sticks for an hour through the Cairns terminal to collect her own bags and wheelchair. 'I followed all the processes and it destroyed my confidence to travel independently,' said Emma Weatherley. 'Im flying to Sydney next week and America the week after and this is my biggest concern, just getting my chair there! 'Enough is enough. We are human, we are customers and we deserve to be treated with respect.' 'I have only had bad experiences with Jetstar at Brisbane airport,' another person commented. 'Although, in Bali, Jetstar tried to get me to leave my motor attachment behind even though in Melbourne Id brought it over to Bali a week before.' A Jetstar spokesman told Daily Mail Australia 'we ... have spoken to her today to apologise personally and better understand what took place. 'We have arranged a full refund and as a gesture of goodwill have issued an additional travel voucher.' A 25-year-old woman visiting Yellowstone National Park died after a bison gored and tossed her 10 feet into the air, according to park officials. The National Park Service did not identify the victim, who was a visitor from Ohio, in its news release on Tuesday. The woman approached the female bison as it approached a boardwalk near Old Faithful geyser on Monday morning, according to the park officials. "Consequently, the bison gored the woman and tossed her 10 feet into the air." She was treated onsite by park emergency care personnel before being transported by ambulance to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. After suffering a puncture wound and other injuries, the woman died. Two more persons were within 25 feet of the bison, although it is unknown whether they have sustained injuries. Officials stated they were still looking into the incident, per NBC News. Park Warns Visitors To Stay Away From the Unpredictable Beasts "This is the first reported incident in 2022 of a visitor threatening a bison (getting too close to the animal) and the bison responding to the threat by goring the individual," park officials stated. Bison are known to be unpredictable animals that can charge at any time and run up to 35 miles per hour, but this is the first time a bison has been documented goring someone this year. According to park officials, bison, which may weigh up to 2,000 pounds, have wounded more people than any other animal in Yellowstone. There are between 2,300 and 5,500 bison that dwell at the park, as per a report from The Guardian. Visitors should stay at least 25 yards away from all large mammals, such as sheep, deer, and moose, and 100 yards away from bears and wolves, the park management cautioned. Read Also: Darwinian Evolution Moves Faster at Four Times Than Expected, Researchers States "Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are wild and can be dangerous when approached. When an animal is near a campsite, trail, boardwalk, parking lot, or in a developed area, give it space," according to the press release. "If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in close proximity," it added. More People Attacked by Animals Recently Several people have been critically hurt by bison and other animals in and near Yellowstone in recent years. A bison charged and head-butted a 9-year-old girl as she attempted to flee in a video shot in 2019. A woman approached a bison the following year and was knocked to the ground and hurt by the animal. Last April, a backcountry guide was killed while fishing near the park by a huge grizzly bear that officials believe was protecting a food source. After failing to move out of the path of a grizzly bear and its pups, a woman was sentenced to four days in jail and forbidden from the park for a year. Concerns about bison overgrazing have sparked debate around Yellowstone, per New York Times. Last year, more than 5,000 bison were wandering the park. In December, wildlife officials and tribal entities agreed to kill, shoot, or confine up to 900 bison from the park at the service's Stephens Creek Capture Facility. Related Article: Monkeypox Outbreak: WHO Expert Raises Alarm on Quick Spread of Virus With 550 Cases in 30 Countries @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A vile predator who posed as an Uber driver to sexually assault a teenage girl who was just trying to get home later claimed she had 'made moves' on him. But Melbourne detectives would quickly learn Pakistani student Faizan Abdullah, 29, was far worse than just a disgraceful liar. A search of his mobile phone found it littered with some of the most despicable child abuse material going about, with children as young as six-months old featuring among a gallery of filth. Faizan Abdullah will be sent back to Pakistan for sexually assaulting a teenager Faizan Abdullah, 29, sexually assaulted a teenager who though she had been his Uber driver Faizan Abdullah's brave victim fronted court to tell him how she had ruined her life (stock image) Abdullah had been granted access into Australia as a student on the back of his PHD in Information Technology, of which he had written several scientific papers. His victim, a 17-year old girl who had just started year 12, had enjoyed a night out with friends in trendy Fitzroy - just outside of Melbourne's CBD - in January last year when her world was tipped upside down. Abdullah, 29, had knocked off from a part-time job working security along Lygon Street in Brunswick when he decided to go cruising up and down the popular restaurant strip looking for prey. His young girl had been on the phone to her boyfriend waiting for her real Uber ride when Abdullah pulled up, rolled down his window and said: 'Uber'. Distracted, she climbed into the front passenger seat as Abdullah had cunningly locked the back doors. The Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard on Thursday the teen knew immediately she was in big trouble. Abdullah had no idea where she lived and within minutes of jumping in her real Uber driver began texting her asking where she was. After driving through the backstreets of Brunswick for seven long minutes, Abdullah switched off his phone, got out of his car and opened the boot. His terrified passenger jumped out and as she attempted to call her boyfriend Abdullah struck. The court heard he pushed the teenager up against a fence and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. 'You're gorgeous,' he moaned as his victim begged him to stop. When done, Abdullah apologised before driving away. Faizan Abdullah had been working security on Lygon Street, which is an iconic Melbourne dining strip Faizan Abdullah had worked as an Uber Eats driver. A teenage girl had ordered an Uber, but she was distracted when she jumped into the car of Faizan Abdullah Upon his arrest, Abdullah - who also worked part-time as an Uber Eats driver - cruelly claimed his victim had attempted to seduce him. Dressed in a short 'appealing' dress, she asked him if he had a girlfriend, Abdullah claimed. 'She started moving her hand, I said "this is not right, if you do that you have to get out of my car",' he told police. The terrified teen then supposedly rubbed his leg and put her hand in his lap. She tried to 'attract him', but Abdullah knew she had a boyfriend, he claimed. Abdullah said the teen 'gazed into his eyes' as she tried to approach him. Police failed to swallow his lies. Abdullah pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and sexual assault. On Thursday he was sentenced to 15 months in jail, but with time already served will be released into immigration detention in days. With his student visa cancelled, Abdullah faces deportation unless he can successfully appeal the decision. Magistrate Donna Bakos condemned Abdullah for his 'outrageous' offending. His victim had bravely read a devastating victim impact statement to the court which outlined all the ways her attacker had ruined her life. 'You behaved in the most brazen and outrageous way to a young woman who trusted you were the person who were booked to drive her home,' Ms Bakos said. 'You drove her to a quiet location and proceeded to violate her ... members of the public have the right to feel safe and be safe as they go about their lives without the threat of being preyed upon by a sexual predator.' Advertisement Some 71 aircraft will soar over Buckingham Palace today to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in a historic display featuring Spitfires, Red Arrow Hawks and a Lancaster bomber. The dozens of aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force will fly over the 96-year-old monarch and her close family members as she watches on from the balcony. The fleet, which will fly for an extended six minutes, includes attack helicopters, Typhoon fighter jets, surveillance and transport planes and more. The jaw-dropping display will feature more than three times the number of aircraft which took part in the Queen's last birthday parade flypast in central London in 2019. They will take off from military bases around the UK before joining holding patterns around the south-east of England. They will then fly directly down the length of The Mall before the first batch reach Buckingham Palace at 1pm. Some 18 royal family members will be watching on from the balcony including: The Queen; Charles and Camilla; William and Kate with George, Charlotte and Louis; Edward and Sophie and their children Louise and James; Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. Dozens of aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force will fly over the 96-year-old monarch and her close family members as she watches on from the balcony. (Pictured: Members of the public walk along the Mall on Wednesday ahead of the upcoming Jubilee events starting today) The 71 aircraft which will take part in today's flypast over Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee However Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Prince Andrew and Prince Andrew's daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will not be present. Other royals set to appear for the historic occasion will be Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and the Wessexes' children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn. The MoD said aircrafts including the Red Arrows and aircraft used by the UK Armed Forces on operations around the world would take part. The display will include helicopters from the Royal Navy and the Army and RAF aircraft recently seen responding to events in Kabul and Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. The flypast will also include highlights from the history of the RAF, including aircraft from the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. It will follow the Queen's birthday parade, known as Trooping the Colour - a display of military pageantry involving 1,500 officers and soldiers and 250 horses from the Army's Household Division on Horse Guards Parade. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: 'I'm proud that the Armed Forces are leading the nation in celebration with such a spectacular display. 'Throughout the Platinum Jubilee celebrations we will all enjoy the expertise, skill and talent of our Armed Forces as we celebrate Her Majesty's 70 years on the throne.' The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the cornerstone of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, usually sees the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In paring the list down to little more than a dozen people to avoid potential diplomatic pitfalls, the Queen has been forced to omit a number of well-liked family members. The flypast will also include highlights from the history of the RAF, including aircraft from the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. (Pictured: Members of Britain's royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, watch a Royal Air Force fly pass by, during the Trooping The Colour parade, in central London, Saturday, June 14, 2014) After the flypast, this evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen. (Pictured: Major General Nick Eeles Governor of Edinburgh Castle lights the Diamond Jubilee beacon at Edinburgh Castle in June 2012) The Colonel's Review, the final rehearsal of the Trooping the Colour, at Horse Guards Parade in London last Saturday Participants were greeted by dark clouds and rain during the full rehearsal of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant that will take place on June 5 After the flypast, this evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen. The network of flaming tributes will stretch throughout the country, with beacons at sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen's estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK's four highest peaks. The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize. The principal beacon outside the Palace a 21-metre tall Tree of Trees sculpture for the Queen's Green Canopy initiative will be illuminated by a senior member of the royal family, and images will be projected on to the Palace. After today's events, the monarch is also hoping to be able attend the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday, with her wider family including - it is expected - Prince Harry , Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew . The Queen, 96, is also set to spend time with the Sussexes, who are bringing their children Archie and Lilibet over from the US - and could meet Lili for the first time as she celebrates her first birthday on Saturday. On Sunday, thousands of people will gather across the country as more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches and street parties are staged in celebration of the Queen's record-breaking 70 year reign. Royal Family members will also visit every corner of the UK over the weekend for official engagements - with William and Kate going to Wales; Edward and Sophie travelling to Northern Ireland; and Anne to Scotland. Second home owners in rural Wales could be targeted by a new firebombing campaign amid anger about the soaring cost of housing, it has been claimed. Such attacks were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s by extremists in the Welsh nationalist movement Meibion Glyndwr hoping to force out English owners. Now North Wales councillor Craig ab Iago has warned he has heard 'even middle class and comfortably off people talking about this being an answer'. House prices are rapidly rising in rural and coastal areas of Wales, where picturesque locations such as Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd (pictured) are becoming increasingly popular Meibion Glyndwr was responsible for setting fire to holiday homes with English owners in the 1970s and 1980s A trend for rising house prices has been worsened in rural and coastal areas of Wales by demand for holiday homes. But Mr ab Iago, a member of Plaid Cymru and housing spokesman at Gwynedd Council, said more housebuilding was needed to tackle price rises. He said: 'We need homes, not our homes being burnt down and people ending up in jail. That is where we are at but torching houses is not the answer. 'The real issue across all areas is a lack of affordability in the market every area in the UK is affected in different ways.' Gwynedd's beautiful scenery is one of the many factors which draws second home owners to the area, which is home to some of Snowdonia's best views The Labour-run Welsh government has put forward measures such as allowing local authorities to increase council tax premiums to 300 per cent in a bid to mitigate demand for second homes. They are also increasing the minimum time a property is let before it can qualify for business rates rather than pay council tax. The measures are due to come into force next April. But tourism chiefs and opposition politicians say the solution lies in building more affordable homes rather than targeting a sector which brings thousands of jobs and millions of pounds to the economy. Jim Jones, from North Wales Tourism, said: 'The creation of affordable local housing in Gwynedd is long overdue, this should be a priority. 'However, the targeting of proper tourism businesses which are the backbone within the communities in Gwynedd, to justify the lack of homes and slow progress in building social housing is completely unfair.' Conservative Welsh Assembly member Janet Finch-Saunders, added: 'The housing crisis is a direct result of years of successive Labour-led governments failing to provide opportunities and build enough houses with housebuilding falling below levels before devolution.' Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes will be released from jail on parole in two weeks. The NSW State Parole Authority on Thursday announced its decision after conducting a public hearing for Hughes, who starred as Martin Kelly in the TV comedy from 1987 to 1994. Hughes, 73, was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum 10 years and nine months in prison, which is due to expire in January 2025. He was jailed after a jury found him guilty of 10 charges of sexual and indecent acts perpetrated on four young girls aged between seven and 15 in the 1980s and 1990s. Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes will be released from jail on parole after multiple failed attempts 'Parole is granted. The offender is to be released not later than June 14, 2022,' the parole authority said on Thursday. However the authority noted the 'profound and deleterious effects on the victimscontinue to this day and will probably be lifelong consequences'. 'It must be particularly galling for the victims to observe the offender's continued and obstinate denials in the face of compelling and overwhelming evidence from multiple witnesses,' Judge Frearson said in his determination. The parole authority noted Hughes continued to 'categorically deny' committing all of his crimes, but still assessed him as medium-low risk of reoffending. 'He demonstrates no insight and apportions blame to the victims. Poor victim empathy is said not to increase his risk of sexual recidivism,' it said. The other key reasons for release were said to be Hughes' ineligibility for sex offender programs together with his family support and accommodation in the UK. 'Upon deportation, there will be a considerable level of governance and accountability. The offender and his wife appear committed to appropriate psychological intervention,' the parole authority said. 'A reasonable prospect of appropriate intervention better serves community safety than the certainty of complete absence of intervention. 'It is inevitable that at some point the offender will be released into the community.' Hughes will live with his wife Robyn Gardiner in the UK. Ms Gardiner told the parole authority she will keep him away from children when unsupervised. 'The offender's wife expressed her intention to continue to provide emotional support upon his release,' the authority wrote in its decision. 'Additionally, she advised that she has arranged post release accommodation for the offender to reside with her upon his eventual return to London. 'Whilst she believes in his innocence, she expressed her intention to ensure that the offender does not have unsupervised contact with children. 'She advised that she intends to encourage him to engage in psychological counselling.' Hughes starred as Martin Kelly (second from left) in the TV comedy Hey Dad! from 1987-1994 The authority noted arguments against Hughes' parole included his 'continuing to deny the offences; the support of his wife in his denial; the fact that he is untreated; he will not be supervised; his denials will not be challenged, and his sexual offending will not be addressed.' Hughes' former on-screen daughter and victim Sarah Monahan was present for the Parramatta parole hearing last week and said she wanted the child sex offender to know she was present. 'He's an old man and he's frail but they don't change, and he's a denier, he still thinks he hasn't done anything,' she said. Ms Monahan said Hughes 'looked really, really old' during the hearing and encouraged other child sexual abuse victims to confront their rapists in court. 'Anybody who's going through it and they're scared to go in to the court and see them, absolutely do it because it takes all their power away,' she said. 'I wanted him to see me and that I wasn't scared anymore. 'On the one hand I'd prefer him to stay in jail where he's not hurting kids and on the other hand it's like, just let him go, let him be someone else's problem and then I don't have to deal with it anymore.' His former on-screen daughter and victim Sarah Monahan (pictured) was present for the Parramatta parole hearing last week and said she wanted the child sex offender to know she was present While allegations against Hughes were raised in the 1990s, it took a paid television interview by Ms Monahan in 2010 to spark a broad police investigation into claims of sexual misconduct by the actor. His victims included a family friend, friends of his daughter, and Ms Monahan. Hughes made his third attempt at parole following two failed attempts. His minimum sentence of six years made him eligible for parole on April 6, 2020. Judge Peter Zahra, who died suddenly last month, handed down the sentence with strong condemnation against Hughes. 'He engaged in brazen predatory behaviour; he planned and orchestrated the occasions when the conduct occurred. His conduct was persistent and calculated,' he said. 'He abused his position of trust and exploited the naivety and youth of the children. 'The profound and deleterious effects on the victims for many years, if not the whole of their lives. The victims here remain deeply disturbed by the conduct of the offender.' Hughes was jailed after a jury found him guilty of 10 charges of sexual and indecent acts perpetrated on four young girls aged between seven and 15 in the 1980s and 1990s Hughes' legal aid lawyer Hannah Bruce told the parole authority he should be released because he was assessed to be 'either medium, below risk or low risk of reoffending'. 'Whilst in custody it makes him ineligible for programs, he is ineligible for any sex offender programs there are no further programs that he can complete whilst in custody that would go to reducing his risk of reoffending,' she said at the hearing. 'It's not a situation where he will be completely unmonitored when released to the community. 'He's a gentleman towards the end of his years. His focus on release is maintaining a very low profile.' He will be deported to the UK where he will live with his wife Robyn Gardiner (pictured together) Hughes' victims included a family friend, friends of his daughter, and Ms Monahan, who was a child actress who starred with him on Hey Dad! Hughes said he would engage in counselling with noted psychologist Rachel Pike once he arrived in the UK. He will also be required to report to police within three days of his return to the UK, and once a year from then on and within three days of changing his details. He will be required to provide passport and banking details and must notify police of any intention to travel out of the UK. Hughes must also provide details of where he lives and where he regularly stays if different to his home address. 'There is a requirement to notify police if he going to stay (for a period of at least 12 hours) at a household where a child is present,' the parole authority noted. He will be sent back to jail for up to six months if he fails to fulfil these conditions. Hughes will be transferred from Long Bay Correctional Centre to Villawood Detention Centre ahead of his deportation. Advertisement Revellers were out in force across Britain on Wednesday night as they sought to take full advantage of the four-day weekend to mark the Queen's historic Platinum Jubilee. Young Brits were pictured donning shorts and short-sleeved shirts in the likes of chilly Newcastle, while the streets of Soho in central London were packed with punters gathering outside pubs. One group of lads, rocking garish Hawaiian holiday shirts, chanted as they walked to their local watering hole in Jesmond, Newcastle, with one party goer pictured slung over the shoulder of his pal. Others were dressed in warmer attire as they raised a glass to Her Majesty's 'Platty Joobs' - as it has been dubbed on social media - on the terraces of local pubs and bars. The jovial mood was also felt in Birmingham, where bouncers joked with revellers as they donned face masks depicting the Queen - who is celebrating 70 years in power this weekend. Meanwhile, in Leeds, youngsters posed under rows and rows of Union Jack bunting while one was seen taking a disco nap on a bench. Party goers in Leeds wave Union Jack flags while one dons popular face mask depicting the Queen People making most of the start of the four-day bank holiday weekend, enjoying a drink at the Dog and Duck in Soho, west London on Wednesday night Friends opt for trousers and a top as they celebrate the start to the Platinum Jubilee weekend in Birmingham city centre late on Wednesday night Group of lads don garish Hawaiian shirts as they head to the pub in Jesmond, Newcastle on Wednesday night, with one reveller slung over the shoulder of his pal The Three Greyhounds pub in central London was packed on Wednesday night as celebrations got underway for the Jubilee weekend Young revellers in Newcastle raise a glass to Her Majesty as they kickstart the four day weekend Friends strike a pose while out celebrating the Queen's Jubilee in Birmingham city centre Pals giggle while out in Birmingham on Wednesday as they kickstarted the four day Jubilee weekend A group of friends are all smiles as they pose with Union Jack bunting in Leeds on Wednesday night Friends sing and puff on cigarettes while out in Jesmond, Newcastle on Wednesday night Revellers out in Jesmond, Newcastle Wednesday night as they celebrate the start of a four-day bank holiday weekend to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee It comes as a series of major events has been scheduled, beginning on Thursday and ending on Sunday with a special Pageant celebrating the life of the nation's longest-reigning monarch. Outdoor parties will also take place on Sunday as part of the Big Jubilee Lunch, while there will be a televised concert on the BBC from Buckingham Palace the day before. Though celebrations have - clearly - already started in some places, official events will begin today with a special Trooping the Colour. More than 1,500 officers and soldiers and hundreds of horses from the Household Division will stage the display on Horse Guards Parade in London, with the colour trooped by the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards. Friends sip on pints and cocktails at a pub in Jesmond, Newcastle, as the Jubilee four-day weekend gets underway Revellers took to Birmingham city centre to start the party for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on Wednesday evening The jovial mood was also felt in Birmingham, where bouncers joked with revellers as they donned face masks depicting the Queen - who is celebrating 70 years in power this weekend Meanwhile, in Leeds, youngsters posed under rows and rows of Union Jack bunting while one was seen taking a disco nap on a bench The Queen is then expected to delight crowds with an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony. It is also expected that she will appear again on the balcony after the Pageant parade finale on Sunday. The monarch will not attend the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday, although her wider family will including - it is expected - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The Queen, 96, is also set to spend time with the Sussexes, who are bringing their children Archie and Lilibet over from the US - and could meet Lili for the first time as she celebrates her first birthday on Saturday. On Sunday, thousands of people will gather across the country as more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches and street parties are staged in celebration of the Queen's record-breaking 70 year reign. Royal Family members will also visit every corner of the UK over the weekend for official engagements - with William and Kate going to Wales; Edward and Sophie travelling to Northern Ireland; and Anne to Scotland. Queen Elizabeth II's coronation was held on June 2, 1953 - just more than a year after the then 25-year-old ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952 following her father George VI's death. It was the first coronation ever to be televised, with 27million people in the UK tuning in. An Australian seagrass meadow has been announced as the biggest plant in the world, and is at least as old as Egypt's great pyramids. The aquatic ribbon weed covers about 200 square kilometres of Shark Bay in Western Australia and has been hiding in plain sight. It was long believed to be a collection of genetically varied individuals, but tests have revealed that, genetically speaking, it is all one entity. Scientists have discovered that a seagrass meadow (pictured) in Shark Bay off the Western Australian coast is actually the biggest plant in the world as the grass has repeatedly cloned itself from a single seed The humongous plant, Posidonia australis, began life about 4,500 years ago when the ancient Egyptians were building the pyramids at Giza. There are older seagrasses and terrestrial plants elsewhere in the world, but none are believed to be as large as this. SHARK BAY SEAGRASS Seagrasses are marine plants that produce roots and flowers like land plants They grow in shallow coastal waters with lots of light and sandy or muddy bottoms Shark Bay is buffered from ocean swells that could break the plant apart, and help it tolerate a wide range of temperatures and salinities The meadows also grow in lines parallel to prevailing currents These growing conditions result in the seagrass producing about eight million tonnes of leaf material each year Twelve of the worlds 60 species of seagrass are found in Shark Bay, with wireweed and ribbonweed being the two most common The seagrass banks at the bay are the biggest in the world Many species depend on seagrass, including a large dugong population that moves between different meadows during the year Source: Sharkbay.org Seagrass supports marine life like dugongs, turtles and dolphins as well as thousands of fish species (stock image) Advertisement Flinders University ecologist Dr Martin Breed co-authored a recently published study on the ribbon weed that explains its extraordinary longevity. 'It's like someone's lawn. It grows through rhizomes, these underground suckers, and then it pops up and green shoots appear,' he said. 'What we've observed in Shark Bay is essentially an extremely large lawn that has expanded and grown across a very large area. 'There are some parts of the lawn that have died but there's lots of parts that are still alive.' The study's senior author, University of Western Australia (UWA) evolutionary biologist Dr Elizabeth Sinclair, said the ribbon weed is a polyploid, meaning it has twice as many chromosomes as its oceanic relatives. And that could explain its durability. 'Polyploid plants often reside in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if left undisturbed, and this giant seagrass has done just that,' she said. 'Even without successful flowering and seed production, it appears to be really resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which together would typically be highly stressful for most plants.' The flowers of Ribbonweed are bisexual and self-pollinating. Floating fruits eventually split open and release seeds which sink and germinate in the sand. UWA student researcher Jane Edgeloe said researchers sampled seagrass shoots from across Shark Bay's variable environments and generated a 'fingerprint' using 18,000 genetic markers. She said they were blown away to realise the huge expanse was just one plant - the largest known to exist on earth. 'The existing 200 square kilometres of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonising seedling,' she said. The seagrass meadow is pictured in the waters of Shark Bay off the Western Australian coast Scientists deduced that the seagrass, known as Posidonia australis, cloned itself after they collected shoot samples from ten seagrass meadows in the area and compared the DNA of the shoots Researchers have now set up a series of experiments in Shark Bay to understand how the plant survives and thrives under such variable conditions. Dr Breed said the plant, which provides vital habitat for dolphins, dugongs and fish, took a big hit in 2010 and 2011 when a marine heatwave struck, pushing water temperatures 39.2F (4C) above average. But it has bounced back, and that is cause for optimism in the face of increasing stresses caused by climate change. 'It seems to have a way to hunker down and have the genetic toolkit to survive, no matter what conditions have been thrown at it so far,' he said. The research has been published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Extreme weather events caused by climate change are unfortunately threatening the seagrass. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology says the country has warmed on average by 1.4C since 1910 as a result of climate change, increasing the risk of extreme weather events. Previously the world's largest plant was Pando - a grove of quaking Aspen trees at Fishlake National Forest in Utah in the U.S. From 2010 to 2011, Western Australia experienced a marine heatwave that saw temperatures rise by up to 41F (5C) in some coastal waters, according to UWA. In Shark Bay, around 36 per cent of the seagrass was damaged by this heatwave, with the ecosystem still recovering today. Through its destruction it likely released some of its "locked in" carbon, affecting the animals it supports like dugongs, turtles and dolphins as well as thousands of fish species. The UWA research team have been working with the indigenous rangers of Shark Bay, the Malgana, to figure out how best to restore seagrass in the areas that were most affected. One of the infamous 'cocaine babes' who got busted in Sydney Harbour with 95kg of drugs after sailing around the world on a luxury cruise will break her silence about the extraordinary plot. The saga of the two glamorous women from Canada who sailed on a luxury cruise via South America and Tahiti and got busted worth $21million worth of cocaine in their suitcases is being made into a TV documentary, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. Former escort Melina Roberge and ex-porn star Isabelle Lagace, who made world headlines with the bikini selfies they took at exotic port stops en route, have been released from Sydney prisons and deported back to Quebec. Melina Roberge and Isabelle Lagace posted selfies in exotic ports on their luxury 2016 cruise which was a front for a 95kg cocaine importation for which they were busted when the docked in Sydney Told by the drug cartel to pose for glamorous selfies Lagace and Roberge (above) duly post bikini selfies, unaware Australian Border Force had been tipped off and was waiting to arrest them Lagace, aged 28 when Australian Border Force officials stormed the $20,000 first class cabin she shared with Roberge for 39 nights on the MS Sea Princess, is preparing to break her silence for the first time. Along with Roberge, then just 22-years-old, she was part of a seven-member drug cartel aboard what was described as a 'floating drug warehouse'. However, apart from the girls, just one other associate went to prison. Tipped off about the drugs - collected at Callao, the port of Peruvian capital Lima where four cartel members made numerous trips ashore - the AFP boarded the Sea Princess when it docked in Sydney, at 6am on August 28, 2016. They went straight to Cabin P312, a balcony room on an upper deck shared by the two women where they found 29kg of cocaine in a suitcase, 23kg which would prove to be pure. In C537, an interior cabin on a lower deck occupied by a third French Canadian, Andre Tamine, 63, and similarly packaged in layered Clipseal plastic bags tied up with masking tape was 70kg of cocaine inside three suitcases. Following their arrest and first appearance at Central Local Court, it emerged that Lagace had been a stripper at a Montreal nightclub and moved on into numerous adult short movies and pornography videos. It would later emerge that Roberge had become involved with in a a sexual relationship with an older 'sugar daddy' she had met in a nightclub. Melina Roberge (left) and Isabelle Lagace had both worked in the sex industry in Quebec before lured by money they boarded a luxury cruise as glamorous decoys to a 95kg cocaine importation Lagace and Roberge, whose drug cruise will now feature in a new TV doco, sailed for a month with 29kg of cocaine in their cabin on the Sea Princess (above) before being busted in Sydney and sent to different women's prisons He paid her expenses in return for her working as an escort for men he introduced her to at nightclubs in Morocco and Montreal. The same man promised both women, who had accrued major debts, up to $100,000 if they could walk the 95kg of cocaine through Australian customs undetected. They were offered first class cruise tickets worth $20,000, plus $6000 spending money, and told they should 'take pictures in exotic locations and post them on Instagram' to receive 'likes' to act as glamorous decoys for the real business of the drug importation. Lagace and Roberge were flown first class to the UK and boarded the Sea Princess at Southampton in June 2016. Almost 30kg of cocaine was found by officers in the two women's first class cabin on the luxury Sea Princess when it docked in Sydney in August 2016 Isabelle Lagace, the 28, was a former stripper and adult porn star who stood to earn $100,000 for walking $21m of cocaine through Sydney customs after a luxury cruise The ship sailed with the seven-member cartel to New York, Bermuda, through the Panama Canal, to Ecuador, Peru and Chile, and cross the Pacific via Tahiti to New Zealand. Along the way, Roberge and Lagace duly snapped themselves drinking from coconuts, posing with armed soldiers on a beach, on the back of quad bikes, at port markets, in caves and at coves, mostly in their swimwear. Roberge would later say she had been 'excited' about taking a luxury cruise which she could not have otherwise afforded. One post by Lagace en route, in French read In an online post, Lagace (above) said: 'If I offend you, cry me a river. I'll bring snacks and a raft. I will literally float down your tears; eating chips and working on my tan'. In Sydney, after the cocaine valued at $21 million was seized, it has never been explained what happened to the other four cartel members, who had occupied cabins 706 and 715. The two women and Tamine and hauled off to different prisons, where they remained for more than three months. Melina Roberge (left) and Isabelle Lagace were locked up for more than four years each and their luxury ordeal in prison will Melina Roberge refused at first to plead guilty, pretending that she had no knowledge of 27kg of cocaine in a large suitcase in the tiny cabin she shared with former porn star Lagace who is now breaking her silence on the drug plot In Sydney's Central Local Court on December 16, 2016, Tamine waived his right to have a committal hearing, and Isabelle Lagace entered a plea of guilty to attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine. Lawyer Ragni Mathur tried to argue that young, inexperienced Melina Roberge was unaware of the cocaine stashed in her friend's luggage in the small cabin they shared. The 22-year-old had booked her cruise ticket through a different person to Lagace, and CCTV footage showed Roberge embarking and disembarking the Sea Princess with 'nothing ... except a wallet or mobile phone'. Lagace had an iPhone and BlackBerry and had told detectives they 'wouldn't be getting' her password. 'You dont need two chickens to keep warm a golden egg,' Ms Mathur said. Roberge was committed for trial nonetheless. A former escort in Morocco and Montreal Melina Roberge was deported back to Canada last year, after serving more than four years for importing cocaine into Australia Rewarded a discount for pleading guilty early, Isabelle Lagace was sentenced to a maximum seven years and six months jail, with period of four years and six months, and was released in February 2021. Tamine received eight years and five months jail, with a minimum five years and seven months expiring in March this year. In April 2018, a tearful Roberge fronted the NSW District Court to receive a longer sentence than Lagace because had not pleaded guilty early. The court heard she'd been working as a prison sweeper and had met drug addicts among the women inmates and appreciated the seriousness of what she'd done. Judge Kate Traill blasted the by then 24-year-old's motivations for taking the trip as 'vacuous' and done 'to get self worth relative to posts on Instagram ... where how many likes they receive are their currency'. Roberge is believed to have served her minimum sentence and deported in May last year. Isabelle Lagace signed an exclusive agreement with Montreal production company Urbania Media and Connect 3 Productions to tell 'her personal story (to) dissuade others from getting involved in drug trafficking'. The documentary, which will be released in both French and English, will include interviews with a retired judge, an attorney and a an Australian Border Force officer, to be recorded this month in Sydney. In her 70 years on the throne, the Queen has shared her people's joy, felt their pain, taken pride in their achievements, mourned their losses. As much as our monarch, she has been our friend and fellow traveller on life's unpredictable and often difficult journey. Today, in her Platinum Jubilee message, that warmth and affection shines through. Anticipating four days of festivities, she says: 'I know that many happy memories will be created.' (And quite a few hangovers if the thousands of planned street parties are anything to go by.) But amid the bunting and revelry, we should appreciate how far we have come since that February day in 1952 when the young Princess Elizabeth succeeded her beloved father following his premature death. A war that cost 50million lives (and in which she served) had been over less than seven years, leaving half the world in ruins. Churchill was prime minister, Harry Truman US president and the British Empire, though in rapid retreat, covered vast areas of the globe. As much as our monarch, Her Majesty has been our friend and fellow traveller on life's unpredictable and often difficult journey The Cold War was biting but hadn't reached Absolute Zero. Chairman Mao was still limbering up for his fateful Great Leap Forward. The names of Castro, Kennedy, Guevara and Khrushchev were yet to explode on the world stage. Suez, Cuba and Vietnam were merely names on a map. Meanwhile, the structure of DNA, which would revolutionise medical science, was just being unravelled, trains ran mainly on steam, computers were room-sized and risibly slow. Microchips, information superhighways and mobile phones were the stuff of science fiction, but epoch-making technology was firmly on the march. In this seismically shifting world, Elizabeth II, just 25 years old, took the reins of a great nation trying to find its place in the new order. Fourteen prime ministers and 70 years later, she has presided over a new Elizabethan age. Like her Tudor namesake, she is the embodiment of skilful sovereignty an example to her nation, her Commonwealth and the world. As we celebrate this Platinum Jubilee (something which has never happened before and surely never will again), republicans and those who delight in running Britain down will sneer and cavil. But these shrivelled cynics are a tiny minority. Those with open hearts and minds will see it as a moment for reflection, gratitude and, of course, an enormous knees-up. The Queen's Birthday Honours typify the spirit of this people's Jubilee. There are fewer vacuous celebrities and Buggins' turn bureaucrats than usual and far more of the everyday heroes who really make this country what it is. Scientists who helped us through the worst pandemic in a century, consular staff who worked frantically to evacuate our people from Kabul as their Whitehall bosses floundered. Charity workers, legal campaigners and 11-year-old twins who raised almost 50,000 for the NHS and medical charities. They are the people who prove this is fundamentally a nation of compassion and community. Like so many of her subjects, the Queen has had her share of family heartache. The Duke of Edinburgh's passing after 73 years of marriage was a grievous loss and Prince Andrew's disgrace means he is sidelined from official celebrations. But Her Majesty has offered an olive branch to her intemperate grandson Harry and wife Meghan and is expected to meet their baby Lilibet named in her honour for the first time. A reminder perhaps that conciliation is always possible and no estrangement need be permanent. Her Majesty closes her Jubilee message by looking forward to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. As ever, a message of hope and positivity from a truly great queen. Campaigners voiced their fury today as it emerged Scotland Yard is prosecuting six people they claim broke Covid lockdown rules at a vigil for Sarah Everard - with four of the cases to be heard in secret. Four of the group were listed to be dealt with under the Single Justice Procedure, a paper-based process not held in open court, at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. Another two have been listed at the same court on June 15. Hundreds gathered at the event in Clapham Common, in south-west London , last March to pay their respects to 33-year-old Ms Everard, who was killed after disappearing while walking home Ms Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by serving officer Wayne Couzens Dania Al-Obeid, 27, from Stratford, east London, Vivien Hohmann, 20, from Clapham, Ben Wheeler, 21, from Kennington, south London, and Kevin Godin-Prior, 68, from Manchester, were all named on the court papers. The Met said Jade Spence, 33, of Lambeth, and Jenny Edmunds, 32, of Lewisham, are due to be dealt with on June 15. All six cases have been brought to court because the fines issued for alleged breaches of Covid rules were not paid, the force said. Hundreds gathered at the event in Clapham Common, in south-west London, last March to pay their respects to 33-year-old Ms Everard, who was killed after disappearing while walking home. A total of nine fixed penalty notices were issued. Two were paid, and the other was dropped with no further action. The event had originally been organised by Reclaim These Streets, who cancelled it after the Met said it should not go ahead. But people turned up throughout the day, and officers did not intervene for the first six hours while many came to lay flowers, with Kate Middleton also paying her respects. Couzens was given a whole life sentence, from which he will never be released, at the Old Bailey in September after admitting Ms Everard's murder People turned up throughout the day, and officers did not intervene for the first six hours while many came to lay flowers, with Kate Middleton also paying her respects (pictured) However when crowds refused to leave when asked by police, it led to clashes that saw protesters bundled to the ground and arrested. The Met faced a barrage of criticism, including calls for Commissioner Cressida Dick to resign. The decision to was widely criticised by campaigners on social media today, including Reclaim These Streets co-founder, Jamie Klingler. She wrote: 'Why does the Met Police have a vendetta against women protesting a woman killed by a serving officer? 'Is this payback that we helped get Cressida Dick removed from office? How is wasting more public money prosecuting women that attended the vigil going to rebuild trust?' Ruth Davison, CEO of the women's charity Refuge, was also critical, saying: 'We strongly disagree with this decision by the Met. 'After their application to appeal the judgment against them brought by Reclaim These Streets was refused for the second time, they should have sensed the public temperature and ceased any further action. 'With trust in police incredibly low, it is absurd that the force is attempting to prosecute individuals who attended a peaceful gathering for a young woman who was kidnapped and murdered by a serving officer. 'The fact these attendees are facing prosecution for breaking the same Covid rules that Couzens used to kidnap and kill Sarah is something I cannot comprehend. It is a move that will do nothing to rebuild women's trust in the police. 'The Met would be better advised to focus on improving the charging and prosecution rates for perpetrators of abuse and violence against women and girls and getting their own house in order.' Dania Al-Obeid, Kevin Godin-Prior, Vivien Hohmann and Ben Wheeler were all listed to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court today to face a charge of participating in a gathering of more than two people in public outdoor place in a tier 4 area. This refers to the period of lockdown when the country was divided up into 'tiers' depending on how prevalent the virus was. At the time, London was in tier 4, the harshest level of restrictions, which demanded Britons must not meet with another person socially or undertake any activities with someone outside their household. Court listings say the individuals were at Clapham Common Bandstand on Saturday, March 13, 2021 'without reasonable excuse'. Their cases were due to be dealt with at Westminster Magistrates' Court today under the single justice procedure, which cannot be observed by the public. Following the vigil, Ms Al-Obeid told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she was arrested for breaching Covid-19 regulations. 'I understood police on the ground were following orders,' she said. 'When I did get arrested and spoke to them, and when I was handcuffed in the van, they understood our position. They were just following orders. 'I think that's where the frustration was; the bigger picture here was lost. We felt we were silenced and this could have been avoided if there was some understanding and compassion to the trauma that women feel every single day.' Earlier this year, the High Court ruled the Met had breached the rights of organisers at the vigil, but the unrepentant force refused to apologise over its widely-criticised handling, instead insisting it could appeal. An utterly damning judgement said the constabulary 'failed to perform its legal duty' and did not think if the organisers 'might have a reasonable excuse for holding the gathering'. The ruling added the Met did not even 'conduct the fact-specific proportionality assessment required in order to perform that duty'. Yesterday, the force was refused permission to appeal against the ruling for a second time. Dismissing the appeal bid, Lord Justice Holroyde said in a court order that, while he recognised the application of principles guiding the right to protest 'may be difficult for the police, and that the difficulty may be increased when considering a prospective event' they were 'clear' and no separate guidance is needed. The judge said he could see 'no arguable basis on which it can be said that the (High) Court's decision was wrong'. Ms Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by serving officer Wayne Couzens. He was given a whole life sentence, from which he will never be released, at the Old Bailey in September after admitting Ms Everard's murder. A brave Ukrainian girl has made the 15,000km journey to Australia on her own to escape her war-torn country. Victoria left her small town near the Slovakian border with a little bag containing just a handful of her belongings before crossing into Hungary to board an Emirates flight to Brisbane. It was the first time the young girl had ever left her hometown or boarded a plane. After hugging her parents goodbye indefinitely, the young girl will now wait out the war with family and friends on Queensland's Sunshine coast while her father fights the Russians. Victoria flew across the globe on a solo journey to Australia (pictured) to escape the war in Ukraine Ukrainian-born Australian resident Veronika Rowe attributed Victoria's remarkable courage to embark on the long trip alone to her 'survival instinct'. 'She didn't have any tantrums, she didn't cry,' Mrs Rowe said. 'She just asked, ''Can I sleep on the plane?'' That's what Emirates staff told us." Ms Rowe and her husband Lloyd, an Australian navy veteran, felt a strong urge to help when Russia invaded their southern neighbour in February. Victoria and her father pictured hugging each other goodbye before she moved overseas The mother-of-two immediately began contacting relatives and friends in Ukraine to see how the couple could assist. Victoria had been living in her western Ukraine home with her mother, an old friend of Ms Rowe's, while her military serviceman father fought against Russian troops in the country's east. As gunfire and bombs reverberate across the nation, the mother and daughter were spending up to six hours a day hiding in a bomb shelter, leaving Victoria unable to engage in normal childhood activities, like going to school. During a face call, Ms Rowe asked Victoria if she would like to come to Australia, with the girl taking up the offer hoping to once again see the 'blue sky and sun'. Heartbreaking footage shows Victoria hugging her father in their Ukrainian home for the last time before she headed overseas. Victoria's mother then arranged for a friend to take her daughter to Hungary, where she boarded a flight in Budapest, which stopped over in Doha before continuing to Australia. Since arriving, Victoria has become close friends with the Rowes' eight-year-old daughter Rihanna and has make huge leaps in learning English, which she had never previously spoken. Mr Rowe said it has been a joy for them to see the two girls running around giggling and the pair have a natural ability to communicate as children despite not speaking each other's language. Victoria's father is fighting in the war while her mother remains at their home in the country's west. Pictured: A Russian strike in Kharkiv in March Victoria will live with the Rowes (pictured all together) until it is safe for her to return home to her parents While she does not know when she will see her parents again, she has brought a piece of her homeland with her - a Ukrainian flag - which now hangs above her wardrobe. Victoria's will start Grade 4 at a local primary school in a few weeks and her parents hope she will be able to get a good education in Australia. 'As a mother I always have some worries inside me, but I know that she's safe and that's the most important thing right now,' her mother Tanya said. According to the United Nations, more than 14 million people have fled their homes since Vladmir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine four months ago. Of that figure, more than six million have sought shelter in neighbouring countries, while eight million people are displaced inside the war-ravaged nation. So far, Australia has granted humanitarian visas to about 6000 Ukrainian refugees, which will enable them to work and study Down Under for three years. Actor Johnny Depp, who is famous for several world-class films, achieved a legal victory after a jury sided with him in the high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. The jury awarded the "Pirate of the Caribbean" actor $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. On the other hand, Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages and no punitive damages. Depp vs Heard Defamation Trial Verdict Virginia law states that punitive damages are capped at $350,000, which means that Depp will receive a total of $10.35 million. In a post on Instagram, the actor reacted to the verdict by saying, "False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career." In a statement, Heard expressed her disappointment with the jury's verdict, saying that she was "heartbroken" that even the "mountain of evidence" was still not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of Depp. She claims that the verdict was a setback for other women, as per ABC News. Heard said that Depp's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of "Freedom of Speech'' and ignored evidence that won her case in the UK. The actress said that the result of the defamation trial means she lost her right as an American to speak freely and openly. Read Also: Johnny Depp Suprises Sheffield Fans By Joining His 'Soulmate' On Stage Days After Defamation Trial Began Depp said that six years ago, the lives of his children and him, and those closest to him, were forever changed. He said that the recent verdict means that the jury has given him his life back, saying that he was "truly humbled." According to NBC News, the actor said that his decision to pursue the defamation case, despite the height of the legal hurdles and worldwide spectacle in his life, was only made after considerable thought. Depp said that the goal of the case was always to reveal the truth and said that speaking the truth was something that he owed to his children and the people who have remained steadfast in their support of him. Giving Back Depp's Life Legal analyst Joey Jackson said that the verdict was a "tremendous" legal win for Depp and a repudiation for Heard. They said that what they had to overcome was a First Amendment issue that meant everyone had a right to express their thoughts and opinions. The verdict means that the jury said while one has such rights, people do not have First Amendment rights if they say something that is false that injures someone's reputation and causes damages to them in their industry. A spokesman for Heard, David Shane, said that the actress plans to appeal the verdict. In the courtroom as the verdict was read, Heard kept her eyes down but Depp was not present in the room. On Wednesday, the actor's attorneys thanked the jury and said that it was time to turn the page and look to the future, CNN reported. Related Article: Will Johnny Depp Return to Acting After Court Battle Against Amber Heard? Dwayne Johnson Rumored To Replace Him in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A puppy that was left out in freezing cold conditions by a heartless owner on Wednesday has sadly died. The 10-day-old puppy had been found in a Styrofoam esky on the front lawn on a vacant property in western Sydney on Wednesday morning, with the RSPCA taking a heartbreaking photo to show the tiny animal lying freezing in a dirty esky. The puppy was reportedly dumped as part of a council clean-up in Carpenter St in Penrith. The puppy was found lying limp in a discarded esky on a vacant property in western Sydney on Wednesday but has since died 'Neonatal puppies are unable to thermoregulate, and exposure to these harsh weather conditions would have severely impacted the puppys welfare,' RSPCA NSW said. It was around 8C in Penrith on Wednesday morning, with a 1C windchill. NSW Police is looking into the incident, helped by RSPCA inspectors. RSPCA NSW Inspectors issued an urgent appeal to locate the two members of the public who discovered the puppy between 8.20am and 8.50am on Wednesday morning. One person was described as being a tall, caucasian man of a strong build, approximately 70-80 years of age and wearing a jacket and hat. The second was a tanned man of a regular build, who was accompanied by a yellow labrador with a harness and coat. RSPCA NSW urged anyone who had details about the two men to contact them. The RSPCA also hopes other items found in the esky may lead to clues about who owned the puppy. Inside the esky was a red Puma branded t-shirt, a green childrens singlet with a pineapple print, and a padded item that appeared to be part of a babys car seat. The puppy was transported to RSPCA Yagoona for emergency veterinary treatment. The puppy was transported to RSPCA Yagoona for emergency veterinary treatment (pictured, item found inside the esky) TUI bosses behind the chaos at UK airports were on 'workatations' doing their jobs from beside swimming pools in the med to 'improve their work-life balance' as problems began to mount. Holidaymakers faced hours of delays and snaking queues on Wednesday as TUI cancelled more flights amid a staffing crisis at Britain's travel hubs. Such was the extent of the issues, a TUI pilot was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an 'abandoned' plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours due to staff shortages. But as holidaymakers face mayhem, the airline admitted today that it allowed members of its head office workforce to enjoy its 'Workwide' scheme - allowing staff to work outside the UK for up to 30 days a year. Andrew Willis, head of talent acquisition and workforce management, was among the senior employees to take advantage, The Telegraph reports. He posted online about working poolside at an all-inclusive TUI hotel in Ibiza. Mr Willis said: 'When I finished my work at 5pm, the sun was still there until 8.30pm, so I had plenty of time to swim and relax. In the evenings I could then switch off wonderfully.' Andrew Willis, head of talent acquisition and workforce management, was among the senior employees to take advantage of the scheme Passengers pictured in lengthy queues to check in for their TUI flights at Manchester Airport on Wednesday Millions of Britons have faced travel chaos at UK airports for the last four days amid staffing shortages at airlines and airports A business procurement manager also told of how he worked from Norway while watching the norther lights. And a senior product development manager described using the scheme to work from Gran Canaria. He said: 'I had made sure beforehand that the rooms had a good Wi-Fi connection and so I could work from my balcony or from the pool bar.' Staff have spent 4,500 days working abroad as part of the scheme, which was launched in August last year. On Wednesday TUI took the decision to cut 43 flights a week - 186 in total through June carrying 37,000 passengers from Manchester - just hours after an extraordinary video emerged revealing two police officers were drafted in to tell their irate customers their holiday to Kos was now cancelled as they queued to board the plane. The airline, which decided to cut 8,000 jobs during the pandemic and furloughed 11,000 of its staff, apologised to passengers and attributed delays to 'ongoing challenges in our operation'. British Airways, which has also cancelled more than 100 flights from Heathrow Airport, is another airline to have celebrated staff working from home. Last year, it said it would allow employees to enjoy a hybrid of office and home working. The airline, which has axed more than 10,000 jobs in recent years, heralded its approach to 'offering more agile and flexible ways of working'. Shocking scenes from around the country in recent weeks have shown holidaymakers stuck in huge queues with some forced to sleep on the floor of airports amid long delays. Police were called to help hundreds of passengers disembark an 'abandoned' plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours Holidaymakers are facing yet more travel chaos with painfully-long queues at Manchester airport snaking outside the front entrance this morning Pictured: Passengers queue at the very busy Skylink between Terminal 2 and the railway station at Manchester Airport as people head on Jubilee weekend getaways Airlines are now struggling to rehire workers previously let go, leading to a shortage of security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff. It comes as TUI is still selling holidays from Manchester leaving this weekend despite axing six flights per day from the airport branded 'hell on earth' because of long queues and shops running out of food and water. Despite carnage at Manchester, 180 of Tui's seven-day breaks to destinations including Majorca, Gran Canaria, Morocco and Mexico are still being sold for as much as 1,500 per person, leaving on Friday. A spokesperson for TUI said: 'Were proud of the flexible ways of working we offer our colleagues who work in non-operational, office based roles. 'Weve always had a culture of trust with our colleagues and have offered this style of work for a number of years, and long before the work from home trend after the pandemic. A statement added: 'The TUI Workwide scheme is not open to staff who work in fixed locations, such as pilots, cabin crew, retail and those working in operational aviation roles, like in our operations control centre where this is manned 24/7 from an office location. 'We believe this balance is important for understanding the nature of our global travel business alongside having a fulfilling career and improving overall personal well-being.' Australia's poshest public toilet, that cost a wild $80,000 to complete, was supposed to be a tourism drawcard - instead it's found itself at the centre of a bitter legal battle. The 'Cistern Chapel', dubbed the 'finest public toilet in Australia', was unveiled in the small Queensland town of Maryborough in May after two years of painstaking work. But just a few weeks after it was opened, the town's 'Cistern Chapel Committee' is embroiled in a legal battle with Hungarian artist Akos Juhasz, who claims he has not received appropriate credit for his work. Australia's poshest public toilet (pictured) cost a wild $80,000 to finish and was supposed to be a tourism drawcard The 'Cistern Chapel' (pictured), dubbed the 'finest public toilet in Australia, was unveiled in the small Queensland town of Maryborough in May, two years after the project was started Mr Juhasz, who painted the artworks that adorn the walls of the men's and women's areas, was left furious after he failed to feature in any TV interviews done by the media. The 'astonishing' interest in the revamped toilet blocks included one piece done by the ABC, where the artist tasked with finishing the project stood in front of a piece from Mr Juhasz. Despite the artist 'making it clear' he was not the person who painted it, that part was 'edited out', the committee said. After seeing the ABC piece, Mr Juhasz and his wife took to Facebook to vent their frustrations. 'My husband hadn't even been invited to talk. He was not even mentioned. As if he would not exist. He just was the several artists from the community. No name, no face,' Mr Juhasz's wife Katalin wrote. Mr Juhasz (pictured) is now seeking legal advice to determine whether there has been 'an infringement of his moral rights' as an artist The Cistern Chapel Committee's president Nancy Bates also took a starring role in much of the media coverage, doing interviews with Sunrise on Channel 7 and the ABC, speaking about her 'vision' to salvage the 120-year-old toilet. Mr Juhasz is in the process of seeking legal advice to find out if there had been 'an infringement of his moral rights', The Guardian reported. Mr Juhasz also claims he came up with the 'entire universe' of the toilet, an assertion that is disputed by the Cistern Chapel Committee and Ms Bates. In a statement, the committee said it 'regrets' the response of Mr Juhasz and described his Facebook posts as 'disturbing'. 'All allegations of lies, robbery, violation of copyright, abuse, breaking of contract and corruption are baseless and defamatory of respected citizens of Maryborough who have worked voluntarily for two years to bring a unique and powerful tourist attraction to our city,' it said. 'Mr Juhasz did the artwork in the men's and women's areas of the precinct but he did not "create the universe of the Cistern Chapel alone". 'Many creative ideas, art and special effects came from the Maryborough community.' Mr Juhasz' (pictured) wife wrote in a Facebook post 'my husband hadn't even been invited to talk. He was not even mentioned. As if he would not exist' The committee said its relationship with Mr Juhasz 'became fractious' and he had advised the town it would take him six months at most to paint the entire toilet block. 'Long delays and increased costings ensued. The committee paid him above the original contracted price despite the parenting room not being done,' it said. Due to the delay in getting the toilets open, the committee said it was 'under pressure' to get them up and running and it did so 'before promotional material, signage, rostering and other work was complete'. Mr Juhasz is credited extensively in the promotional material that's now gone out. The Fraser Coast hopes to 'reap millions of dollars' from the revamped toilet block and the committee said it was 'sad' Mr Juhasz had not chosen to portray 'himself positively'. 'Promotion of the Cistern Chapel has only just begun,' the committee said. Mr Juhasz (pictured) has lived in Australia for nine years after moving away from Budapest Mr Juhasz has lived in Australia for nine years after walking away from a 'very wealthy family' in Budapest. 'I am not a street artist, I am a fine artist,' he told The Guardian. 'I do fine art as public art, and that means my artwork has always got a message, meanings and history.' The Atlanta activist Black Lives Matter has appointed to straighten out its finances has been declared bankrupt three times, was ordered by a court to attend financial management lessons, and has more than $120,000 in unpaid debt. Cicely Gay's appointment was announced by BLM's Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) on April 27, as the group struggles to combat accusations that the money donated has not been wisely spent, or properly accounted for. The 44-year-old was one of three people appointed to the board, the organization said in a tweet. She subsequently was described as being chair of the board. She told The New York Times she had been appointed to straighten out the organization's finances, after BLMGFN faced intense scrutiny over its spending of donor cash. 'No one expected the foundation to grow at this pace and to this scale,' said Gay. 'Now, we are taking time to build efficient infrastructure to run the largest Black, abolitionist, philanthropic organization to ever exist in the United States.' On Wednesday, it emerged that Gay has been declared bankrupt three times, according to federal reports obtained by The New York Post. Cicely Gay, 44, has been appointed to the board of directors of Black Lives Matter's Global Network Foundation Gay has spent the past 20 years as an activist and consult in Georgia. She is pictured with fellow board members D'Zhane Parker, left, and Shalomyah Bowers Gay, a mother of three, filed for bankruptcy in 2005, 2013 and 2016. In 2013, she tried to apply for bankruptcy protection, but a federal judge tossed out the application because she failed to pay the $306 fee. In 2015, she founded her public relations and consultancy firm, The Amplifiers. But in 2016, when filing for her most recent bankruptcy, she answered 'no' when asked if she had opened a business in the last four years. The business was dissolved in August 2017. Her most recent filing, from August 2016, showed that she had more than $120,000 in debts, including owing $55,000 in student loans from time spent at Liberty University in Virginia and the University of Kansas. The sum included more than $18,000 for leasing a Lincoln MKZ sedan, and $7,000 in medical expenses. It also included $8,000 owed to two Christian schools, according to the records. The paper reported that Gay was forced by the court to attend courses on managing her money, and she completed one course on December 15, 2016. Gay was able to get most of her debts 'discharged' in 2017, the bankruptcy records state, though it's unclear under what terms. BLM did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Gay, 44, said that she was proud of the work she had done with her family and community Gay told The New York Post: 'I am so proud of the work I've done to support my children and build a better life for them as a single mother. 'In addition to engaging in a thorough vetting process, the Foundation recognized that I not only bring 20 years of extensive professional non-profit experience to the board, but I also bring personal experiences that mirror those of the people we are trying to serve. 'That is the work of the foundation to break down systemic barriers to living full lives by providing the insights, tools and supports necessary for black people to thrive.' BLMGFN has faced intense questions about its handling of donations, which surged in particular during the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. The organization in February 2021 said it had taken in more than $90 million in 2020 and still had $60 million on hand, but it remains unclear how that money is being managed or even where it is. Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of the organization, resigned in May 2021 as director of BLMGNF, amid scrutiny of her own property empire. She has written best-selling books, and has a contract with Warner Brothers to produce content. Then in April this year it emerged that BLMGFN had bought a mansion in Los Angeles for $5.8 million, which they said was to be used as a 'safe space' for activists and for events. The organization responded to the reports in a lengthy Twitter feed, with the group noting that more 'transparency' was required going forward. Black Lives Matter has apologized following an expose that detailed how the organization had used donations to purchase a $6 million home in Los Angeles In a lengthy Twitter thread on Monday morning, the group vowed to be more transparent in the future 'There have been a lot of questions surrounding recent reports about the purchase of Creator's House in California. Despite past efforts, BLMGNF recognizes that there is more work to do to increase transparency and ensure transitions in leadership are clear,' it stated. BLM then proceeded to blame the media for the furore and the 'inflammatory and speculative' reports that saw journalists probing the group's financials saying that it 'caused harm' The reports 'do not reflect the totality of the movement,' the organization claimed. 'We know narratives like this cause harm to organizers doing brilliant work across the country and these reports do not reflect the totality of the movement,' one of the tweets reads. 'We apologize for the distress this has caused to our supporters and those who work in service of Black liberation daily.' 'We are redoubling our efforts to provide clarity about BLMGNF's work,' noting an 'internal audit' was underway together with 'tightening compliance operations and creating a new board to help steer to the organization to its next evolution.' The organization also criticized the original New Yorker article, pictured above, describing it as 'inflammatory and speculative' BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors (above), 38, came under fire last year for a slew of high-profile property purchases. She resigned last year and has called reports investigation the $6 million mansion 'despicable' and claimed that criticisms against her are 'sexist and racist' The home features six bedrooms and a pool in the back. BLM claimed the home was bought to provide a safe house for 'black creativity' but had allegedly tried to hide the home's existence The mansion comes complete with a sound stage (pictured) and mini filming studio which the group had used in one of its video campaigns BLM attempted to justify the purchase of the mansion by saying it was made to encourage 'Black creativity' with the property 'a space for Black folks to share their gifts with the world and hone their crafts as we see it.' The organization also went on to defend how the funds the group raised were spent including the $3 million used for 'COVID relief' and a further $25 million dollars to black-led organizations. 'We are embracing this moment as an opportunity for accountability, healing, truth-telling, and transparency. We understand the necessity of working intentionally to rebuild trust so we can continue forging a new path that sustains Black people for generations,' the group wrote. The barrage of tweets, which notably had their comments turned off, ended with the group announcing they were 'embracing this moment as an opportunity for accountability, healing, truth-telling, and transparency' and 'working intentionally to rebuild trust.' Internal memos from BLM revealed the group wanted to keep the purchase secret, despite filming a video on the home's patio in May The Studio City home - which sits on a three-quarter-acre lot - boasts more than half-dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, a 'butler's pantry' in the kitchen (pictured) Concerns over the groups finances have swirled for years with BLM coming under intense scrutiny in the past. In February the group stopped online fundraising following a demand by the California attorney general tho show where millions of dollars in donations received in 2020 went. The group said the 'shutdown' was simply short term while any 'issues related to state fundraising compliance' were addressed. A Queensland man will face court after he posed as a yoga instructor to allegedly sexually assault women as police launch a public appeal for more potential victims. Police allege the 28-year-old man entered a yoga and pilates studio on Carl Court in the Mackay suburb of Rural View on April 21 and claimed to be an instructor. He then, 'under the guise of pretending to instruct them in some yoga poses', allegedly sexually assaulted two women, both aged in their 20s, police said. A further investigation found the man also allegedly assaulted other women in public spaces over the past five months, including at nearby parks and beaches. The man posed as a yoga instructor before allegedly sexually assaulting two women (stock image) In a public appeal on Thursday, Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Eaton said the alleged assaults occurred during 'daylight hours' and in public with officers taking the reports 'very seriously'. 'We have received a number of reports from women and also through third hand information that suggests there have been other women,' Mr Eaton said. 'We believe that person has approached women stating that he was a yoga instructor or could show them fitness movements and in the course of that they have been (allegedly) sexually assaulted and inappropriately touched.' Police did not confirm the ages of the women assaulted but said the victims were aged in their 20s and older. While there is no established link between between the alleged fitness studio assault and former incidents, police are 'keeping an open mind' in their investigation. The Bucasia man was arrested on April 19 and charged with two counts of sexual assault. The alleged offender was released on bail and will face Mackay Magistrates Court on June 28. Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Eaton (pictured) said the alleged assaults are a 'matter of concern' and police are urging anyone with information to come forward Information gathered by detectives suggests that all the offences have occurred in the Northern Beaches region in Queensland. Police are urging anyone who may have been assaulted or witnessed inappropriate behaviour within the Northern Beaches area to come forward. 'We would very much encourage any of those women to come forward and contact police,' Mr Eaton said. Anyone with information should contact Policelink or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 and quote reference number QP2200910632. Disgraced failed developer Salim Mehajer has been banned from filing lawsuit in NSW after a judge branded him a 'vexatious litigant'. Justice Geoff Lindsay imposed the indefinite ban in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday after finding Mehajer was using the courts for harassment. The last straw was former deputy mayor of Auburn's attempt to sue 17 business associates for $52 million while still in in jail for unrelated crimes. Mehajer blamed the investors, including SC Lowy Primary Investments, for the failed Skypoint Towers project in Lidcombe, western Sydney, that bankrupted him. Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer (above) was banned from taking civil action in any NSW court on Thursday He claimed their actions in 2016 meant he was unable to pay back creditor loans, which led to his bankruptcy declaration in 2018. One of his various allegations was that the defendants caused him 'nervous shock'. Mehajer - who was previously supported by high-power lawyers - represented himself on Thursday from Cooma jail where he is serving a non-parole period of two years and three months for perverting the course of justice. He was previously jailed for 77 counts of electoral fraud. Mehajer told the NSW Supreme Court that he should only be banned from taking further action against his current defendants and that any other ruling would be unfair, the ABC reported. 'It just restricts me entirely if I was to make any future application. It just creates a great burden on me,' he said. 'I think it's an aberration.' Mehajer's ban comes after his attempt to sue 17 defendants for $52 million over the failed residential development of Skypoint Towers in Lidcombe (above) However, Justice Lindsay was unmoved by his argument and proceeded to ban him from all future civil proceedings. The defendants' lawyers also asked Mehajer to be permanently banned for re-visiting the Skypoint Towers lawsuit. They pointed to his history of 10 other failed civil lawsuits, both related to Skypoint and otherwise, as evidence he was a vexatious litigant. However, Justice Lindsay dismissed the request and instead announced the whole case was to be permanently shelved: 'The whole proceedings are to be stayed,' he said. 'It was my intention that the stay proposed... would really bring the proceedings to and end unless they are somehow reinvigorated.' Justice Geoff Lindsay has labelled Mehajer (above) a 'vexatious litigant' - a person who takes legal action simply to harass someone Mehajer's ban was foreshadowed by Justice Lindsay last Friday after publishing a lengthy judgement which outlined a series of recent cases in which Mehajer acted in a vexatious manner. Justice Lindsay's ruling on Thursday means that Mehajer - or anyone representing him - will need to seek a court order before starting any new civil lawsuits. Mehajer was used to be the sole shareholder of the Skypoint Towers project's former parent companies, but is no longer involved at all. Energy Minister Chris Bowen hosting climate change meetings in Canberra during an energy crisis shows Labor is disconnected from average Aussies, Barnaby Joyce has told Daily Mail Australia. In his first external meeting since being sworn in, Mr Bowen hosted ex-fire chiefs who have been demanding stronger climate action and were snubbed by Scott Morrison before the 2019 bushfires. During his first press conference on Thursday morning, he appeared on stage with leading members of Emergency Leaders For Climate Action and declared the new government will take 'real action on climate change'. The minister made reporters wait until the fire chiefs had left before addressing the global energy crisis which could see Australian energy prices double from July, according to comparison site Finder. Chris Bowen (centre) appeared on stage with leading members of Emergency Leaders For Climate Action and declared the new government will take 'real action on climate change' Barnaby Joyce has claimed Labor is out of touch with struggling Aussies. Pictured: Prime Minister Albanese in his first Cabinet At the same time Mr Bowen appeared on stage with the climate activists, Foreign Minster Penny Wong was in Samoa talking up Australia's ambition on climate change. Former deputy prime minister Mr Joyce, who is calling for more coal-fired power to tackle soaring power bills, said Mr Bowen's press conference showed Labor is out of touch with battling Aussies. 'I'm sure after this meeting I'm going to watch the wholesale price of power go down,' he said sarcastically. 'Usually it takes a month or so before the Labor party gets disconnected but this is a remarkable effort, they're doing it in the first days.' Mr Joyce said Australia taking action on climate change will only push up power prices further and will not help reduce global emissions while China, India and other countries burn record amounts of coal. Australia is responsible for 0.5 per cent of global emissions while China makes up 28 per cent. Mr Joyce (pictured in Canberra) insists that Australia taking climate action will not reduce global emissions while China burns record amounts of coal 'This (climate action) is something that will make people in teal street happy and assuaged,' Mr Joyce said in reference to the inner-city suburbs which voted for independent 'teal' candidates on May 21. 'They'll feel a greater sense of virtue while someone in the western suburbs is going to feel poorer and people in regional villages are going to feel poorer.' Sources close to Mr Bowen said Mr Joyce's accusations were unfair because the majority of the press conference was focussed on the energy crisis. Sanctions on major oil and gas exporter Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as well as soaring demand after Covid-19 lockdowns have seen global energy prices skyrocket. Germany has drawn up a bill this week ordering coal power plants that were due to shut down to be maintained on standby in case they are needed at short notice. Mr Bowen said he would not rule in or out any measures to tackle rising power prices, including increasing coal power generation. He said the Coalition is not to blame for the crisis but insisted Australia would be able to handle it better if there had been more investment in renewable energy. But Greg Mullins, former fire and rescue commissioner for NSW, said more fires like 2019 will hit Australia without drastic climate action 'The former government's nine years of denial and delay, their 23 energy policies... have left Australia ill-prepared and our energy markets ill-prepared for the challenges we face today in relation to gas and energy supply,' he said. 'The previous government didn't do the work necessary to increase renewables or storage. 'If we had more storage and renewables and better transmission, we would be much better placed to deal with the current challenges. 'That is exactly what our powering Australia plan seeks to implement but it will take some time to implement. 'As I have said, you don't overturn nine years of dysfunction, denial and delay overnight. But action is necessary.' The new Labor government wants 82 per cent of the nation's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and believes this will bring down power prices because hydro, solar and wind energy is cheaper. Currently about 60 per cent of Australia's electricity comes from coal fired power. Pictured: Hay Point in central Queensland Currently about 60 per cent of Australia's electricity comes from coal, 32 per cent from renewables and eight per cent from gas. Mr Bowen said Labor would not budge on its target to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. But Greg Mullins, former fire and rescue commissioner for NSW, said they should increase, adding: 'I am confident that those targets will be ramped up over the next few years.' The Emergency Leaders For Climate Action want a target of 75 per cent. Mr Mullins warned if drastic climate action was not taken then Australia will face more climate disasters such as floods and fires. He said the 2019 summer which saw drought and fires would become an 'average' summer by 2040 and a 'cool' summer by 2060. 'We must take action now,' he said. Sanctions on major oil and gas exporter Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as well as soaring demand after Covid-19 lockdowns have seen global energy prices skyrocket Even though it was only introduced in October, Mr Joyce claimed Australia's net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target was contributing to rising power prices. 'Every time you pay your power bill, you're paying for the 2050 target. Every time you pay for your petrol price you're paying for the 2050 target,' he said. Mr Joyce said he simply didn't believe Labor's projections that increasing renewables will decrease power bills. He said every time a coal fired power station has shut down then prices have gone up. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Bowen's office for comment. In interviews on Thursday morning, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said there was no quick fix to the energy crisis and would not commit to limiting gas exports under the Australian Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism. 'I don't want to pre-empt any of those kinds of discussions,' he said. 'It has its own challenges and it is not immediate. There is a series of processes that we would need to go through. 'We need to be upfront and recognise that there is not one thing that we can do to fix this overnight.' European nations including Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic plan to burn more coal as a temporary measure while they reduce reliance on Russian gas, while the UK is drilling for more gas in the North Sea. Snow covered hills are seen behind Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday as Australia is hit with a cold start to winter The EU's green deal commissioner Frans Timmermans believes Europe can still meet emissions reductions goals while temporarily burning more coal as long as nations switch Russian gas for renewables at the same time. Of the EU's 27 member countries, 17 have increased their plans to increase renewable energy since 2020, think tanks Ember and the Centre for Research and Clean Air said. If achieved, the countries' latest plans would see 63 per cent of EU electricity produced from renewables by 2030, up from 55 per cent under their 2019 policies, the researchers said. Germany and the Netherlands both hiked their renewable energy goals this year, while countries including Austria, Greece and Ireland have raised theirs since 2020. Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and others set coal exit dates, and France offered renewable home heating subsidies. New Zealand could be joining Australia in China's bad books after the Chinese accused Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of joining a 'disinformation' campaign following her meeting with US President Joe Biden. China has previously favourably contrasted New Zealand to Australia but a joint statement from Ms Ardern and Mr Biden after Wednesday's White House meeting was met with angry denunciation by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. In the statement New Zealand and the US warned a Chinese military base in the Pacific, a possibility raised by China's security agreement with the Solomon Islands, would 'fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region'. It might have been all smiles when New Zealand Prime Minister met US President Joe Biden in the White House but China is far from happy with the joint statement they released afterwards The two nations also expressed a shared concern about China's intentions towards Taiwan, South China Sea territory disputes, the squashing of democratic rights in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded furiously saying these issues had been 'hyped up' or were being raised 'out of ulterior motives to create disinformation and attack and discredit China'. In the joint statement that came out of the meeting of Ms Ardern and Mr Biden New Zealand and the US expressed concern over the prospect of a Chinese military base in the Pacific He denied China intended to set up a military base in the Solomon Islands, saying the communique 'distorts and smears' China's cooperation with Pacific nations and the other matters raised were China's internal affairs. 'China urges the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological bias, stop interfering in China's internal affairs and stop slandering and discrediting China,' he said. 'We hope New Zealand will adhere to its independent foreign policy and do more to enhance security and mutual trust among regional countries and safeguard regional peace and stability.' Chinese President Xi Jinping has put a high emphasis on furthering China's influence in the Pacific, which has led to concerns that they are planning to place a military base in the region China's NZ ambassador Wang Xiaolong on Thursday followed this by warning that New Zealand should not take its friendly relationship with China 'for granted' and make sure it is 'not squandered'. New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta dodged questions over whether there would be an official response to Beijing's criticims. 'We want to make sure, in the way we work with China, that the things we say in private are of no surprise when we say it publicly,' she said. 'So there are things that we can't agree on, and we've made that clear, but they are of no surprise, and we've been very consistent on that front.' New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has reacted cautiously to China's criticisms and has not committed to follow her Australian counterpart's example of visiting Pacific nations Regarding rising tensions over China's activities in the Pacific, Ms Mahuta praised Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's recent trips to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. However, she defended not doing likewise in response to criticism New Zealand is not doing enough to counter China's regional involvement. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been on a prolonged diplomatic mission to the area attempting to secure further security agreements following the one the five-year one his country made with the Solomon Islands in April. During the election campaign the now prime minister Anthony Albanese said this development made Australia 'less secure'. Chinese President Xi Jinping has even weighed in to say China will be 'a good friend, a good brother and a good partner' for the Pacific nations. President Xi shakes hands with Ms Ardern during their meeting at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in 2019 symbolising a relationship between the two countries that up until now had avoided descending in the trade wars that Australia and China have engaged in for two years Ms Mahuta said New Zealand had a different relationship to the Pacific than Australia, one that was 'not defined by China and the way that they are conducting their relationship' in the region and didn't need to 'look desperate'. Australia and China's relations have been stormy for two years which has led to trade restrictions between the two countries, something New Zealand has avoided. Ms Mahuta has previously warned New Zealand's exporters that they need to diversify and not just rely on China trade, which is worth $20.1billion. Queensland could launch an inquiry into its state-run forensics lab amid reports police are reviewing sexual assault cases dating back to 2018. Potential problems with the lab first came to light as a result of The Australian's podcast series Shandee's Story about the investigation into the 2013 death of Shandee Blackburn. The newspaper on Wednesday reported Queensland Police are reviewing hundreds of sexual assault cases involving evidence reported as having 'insufficient DNA for processing'. The government has ordered a review into the systems and processes at the state-run Forensic DNA Analysis Unit. Shandee Blackburn, 23, died after being brutally stabbed more than 20 times while walking home after a shift at Harrup Park Country Club in Mackay, Queensland in February of 2013 Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the investigation may be just the first step. 'That's not to say that there's not going to be a further inquiry,' she told reporters on Thursday. 'Do not for one moment think that I do not think these issues are serious ... the health minister is absolutely committed to seeing what is going on and fixing this.' Terms of reference for the government review were tabled in May and include investigating the appropriateness of threshold limits for DNA samples. Specimens that fall below a certain level are reported as 'no DNA detected' or 'DNA insufficient for further processing', and the review will look at how Queensland compares to other jurisdictions. Liberal National Party spokeswoman for the prevention of sexual violence Amanda Camm called for the lab to be investigated by a Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland Police Service. 'It's incredibly traumatic for a victim of sexual assault to go through a forensic medical examination,' she said. 'They need to have every assurance that they won't be robbed of justice because of the failings of the lab.' Shandee Blackburn, 23, was stabbed multiple times in a frenzied attack metres from her front door as she returned from a late shift at Harrup Park Country Club in Mackay, just after midnight on February 9, 2013. A coronial investigation into her death will be reopened following a request by the state's Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Ms Fentiman asked for further consideration given 'recent issues raised regarding the forensic evidence and testing of evidence in this case', a Coroners Court of Queensland official said in February. The Central Coroner has not yet decided if the inquest will be reopened. Comic and actor Andy Dick - facing a jury trial for allegedly groping a Lyft driver - today lost his bid to prevent prosecutors from using evidence against him from another case where he was convicted of grabbing a womans butt. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office asked Judge Emily Garcia Uhrig to allow testimony from the News Radio stars victim in the butt-grabbing incident which happened in April 2018, just a week before the Lyft episode. And today the judge ruled that his butt-grabbing accuser - identified only as Christina S - can testify in the Lyft driver trial in front of jurors who are being selected during the rest of this week. Citing the similarity between the two offenses and close proximity in time - just one week apart, Judge Uhrig told the court that a reasonable jury could find that the act [the butt-grabbing incident] constituted sexual battery. In the earlier incident, Dick grabbed the buttocks of Christina S, and made sexual references, calling her hot, Deputy DA Rachel Brauer told a pre-trial hearing at LAs Airport courthouse. Dick, 56, was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery - but that charge was dismissed after he pleaded no contest to simple battery and a second charge of lewd conduct. He served probation and community service as a result. In his current legal crisis, the comedian, who showed up in court today in a black suit, white shirt and black tie, is again charged with misdemeanor sexual battery after a Lyft driver - identified as Dylan B - claimed that Dick grabbed his genitals during a car ride, also in April 2018. Hes pleaded not guilty, telling DailyMail.com, It did not happen. Comedian and actor Andy Dick, 56, is charged with misdemeanor sexual battery after a Lyft driver - identified as Dylan B - claimed that Dick grabbed his genitals during a car ride. He is seen leaving Los Angeles Superior Court in a pre-trial hearing last week On Wednesday, a judge ruled that his victim from a butt-grabbing incident in April 2018 can testify in the groping trial - citing 'the similarity between the two offenses and close proximity in time' But this time, unable to get Dick to agree to a plea deal, prosecutors are pursuing the sexual battery charge and intend to bring his butt-grabbing victim Christina S into court to testify against him to show that the Lyft driver episode was not isolated, but part of a pattern of behavior. His legal team has vehemently argued against allowing the butt-grabbing case to be dragged out in front of the Lyft driver jury, saying it would be prejudicial.' And today one of his attorneys, Lauren Horner, told the court that Dick was drunk at the time of his encounter with Christina S. Its the middle of the day in the middle of nowhere. and he is clearly intoxicated, said Horner of Dicks random meeting with Christina S, to whom he said, Youre hot. He puts his arm around her waist and gives her a squeeze - it is not his intent to be offensive. He squeezes her butt twice as he walks along with her. 'He is trying to be nice.hes trying to go somewhere with her. He is not doing it to get sexually aroused. He is absolutely not trying to offend her. And when she says, No, I have a boyfriend, he pushes her away. Horner also insisted that the prosecution has not provided evidence or an argument of what Mr. Dicks intent was. But Brauer countered, telling the court that grabbing or even slapping a womans buttocks constitutes sexual abuse. This [the butt-grabbing case] should be admitted, she added. Judge Uhrig pointed out Tuesday that under California law, evidence from the other case could be used in the upcoming trial if it demonstrated that Mr. Dick showed a propensity to act in a particular way. And today in her ruling to allow the butt-grabbing evidence, the judge told the court that the incident was not so unduly inflammatory that it would unfairly prejudice the jury, against Dick in his Lyft driver case. United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday pins blame on delayed alert regarding the situation that he claims has led to a worsening crisis. The Democrat said he was not immediately notified that the United States was facing a looming shortage of baby formula until April. However, executives of baby formula manufacturers said that they voiced their concerns to retailers two months earlier. Baby Formula Shortage In a statement, the senior vice president at Reckitt, Robert Cleveland, said that they knew from the very beginning that the situation would result in a very serious event. The president's remarks came at a virtual White House meeting between Biden and executives of five baby formula companies. They discussed the Biden administration's efforts to ramp up formula production to address the shortage across the nation. It was the safety-related closure of Abbott Nutrition's formula-making plant in Sturgis, Michigan on Feb. 17 that triggered the sudden crisis. The company is known to supply 46.2% of the U.S. supply of baby formula and about one-quarter was historically produced at the Michigan plant, as per USA Today. Cleveland told Biden that from the moment that the recall was announced, they immediately reached out to retail partners like Target and Walmart to warn them about what could happen. After the 50-minute meeting, Biden said that anyone could have anticipated the impact of the shutdown of the Abbott facility. Read Also: FDA, Abbott Nutrition Agree To Restart Infant Formula Production To Address Nationwide Shortage The Democrat's remarks came shortly after manufacturers said that they had already anticipated a shortage of baby formula. The president said, "They did, but I didn't," adding that he was not made aware of the issue until early April. He noted that his administration did everything in its power from that point on. According to Bloomberg, Biden and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have drawn criticism from lawmakers from both parties for the government's slow response to the baby formula shortage crisis. On the other hand, the Democratic leader said that his administration would have been able to respond more quickly if they had "better mind readers." Being Aware of the Crisis The chief executive of Perrigo Co. PLC, Murray Kessler, told the president that when his firm learned about Abbott's recalls, executives "could foresee that this was going to create a tremendous shortage." In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing that she did not know whether or not the formula manufacturers had contacted the administration about their concerns before April. She said that she did not have the timeline on that particular claim and said that as a whole-of-government approach, the Biden administration was working on the issue since the recall announcement. Jean-Pierre referred back to President Biden's own statement about when he learned about the crisis but said that she was not saying when the president knew or did not know. The press secretary added that she could not say who had alerted Biden himself to the magnitude of the shortage in April without first having "a conversation" with the Democratic president. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said that it took too long for Abbott to agree to a consent decree and noted that once it was clear that the facility was not going to be able to come back online sooner, it would result in a more significant challenge for the United States, CNN reported. Related Article: US Baby Formula Shortage: GOP Rep. Raises Alarm After Discovering Massive Stocks in Border Centers for Illegal Migrants @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Victims of the devastating Brisbane floods that destroyed countless homes and properties in 2011 will soon receive their share of a $450million settlement. In November 2019, the NSW Supreme Court found flood engineers operating the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams had been negligent. It found Seqwater, the Queensland government and another state-owned dam operator SunWater exacerbated flooding by failing to operate the dams properly. Entire neighbourhoods were submerged in the 2011 floods with powerful images from more than a decade ago showing water reaching the tops of peoples roofs (pictured) Entire neighbourhoods were submerged in floodwaters, with powerful images from more than a decade ago showing water reaching the tops of people's roofs. About 23,000 homes and businesses went under following huge water releases to make sure the dams did not fail. Maurice Blackburn lawyer Rebecca Gilsenan told ABC Radio Brisbane that some of the 7,000 people involved in the class action had received an initial payment, in some cases, just a few thousand dollars. 'We are releasing partial payments now so people can get something,' she said. 'We've paid about 300 people so far and we are paying on a rolling basis when people accept their loss assessment, we can pay them.' Ms Gilsenan said it would take for all legal matters associated with the case to be completed before the $450million could be distributed in full. Victims can expect to receive their entire compensation by late 2022, or early 2023. The payout was divided amongst claimants after an assessment of their location in relation to the floods and the damage that was sustained to their homes. The son of Yankees legend and Marlins manager Don Mattingly was arrested for drunk driving after he crashed his car and immediately drove to an Indiana car dealership to sell it. Evansville police arrested 30-year-old Jordon William Mattingly- the son of Yankees legend and Marlins manager Don Mattingly- on Monday night for driving while 3.5 over the legal alcohol limit. Prior to his arrest police said they got up to five calls about a silver Honda driving erratically, according to an arrest affidavit. Evansville police arrested 30-year-old Jordon William Mattingly (pictured) for driving while 3.5 over the legal alcohol limit Witnesses told police that Mattingly continued driving after crashing and pulled into the D-Patrick Honda dealership, where he appeared 'super drunk' Jordan (bottom right) pictured with his father Don Mattingly (center) a Evansville native One witness told police they saw Mattingly crash his SUV into a median at 70 mph causing the car to smoke and get a flat tire. Witnesses told police that despite wrecking the vehicle, Mattingly continued driving until he pulled into the D-Patrick Honda dealership, where he appeared 'super drunk.' Dealership employees told police that Mattingly had actually tried to sell his wrecked car to the car dealership. When officers arrived they observed that the 30-year-old had scratches all over his face, smelled of alcohol and almost fell over multiple times, courierandpress.com reported. Police charged Mattingly with two counts of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, one count of public drunkenness and refusal to submit to a chemical test Mattingly is the son of Yankees legend and Marlins manager Don Mattingly (pictured) Mattingly told police he only had one drink and that the damage to his car was caused by a pothole days earlier. After failing a breathalyzer test he admitted to having 'a lot' to drink, but claimed he didn't hit anything on his way to sell his car, police said. The 30-year-old was then transported to a local hospital to treat his injuries but refused a blood-alcohol test. When officers searched his SUV they later found cans of Four Loko and White Claws in his car. Police charged Mattingly with two counts of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, one count of public drunkenness and refusal to submit to a chemical test. Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar has suffered defeat at his children's high school while his business partner Mike Cannon-Brookes made moves on the AGL board. Mr Farquhar was humiliated in front of other high-profile parents on Tuesday night after publicly campaigning for a refreshed school board that would be open to considering co-education at the elite all-boys Cranbrook School in Sydney. Cranbrook has been around for 104 years and counts high-profile public figures among its alumni including Kerry and James Packer, David Gyngell, Nick Tobias, and Mr Farquhar Atlassian partner Mike Cannon-Brookes. Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar's plans to make elite all-boys school Cranbrook a co-education campus took a hit with the re-election of the previous council The school held its annual general meeting on Tuesday where parents participated in a vote for the school's council. For several months, Mr Farquhar and supporters - including Caledonia co-chief information officer Will Vicars and chair of venture capital firm OneVentures Walter Lewin - have advocated for a renewed council that would allow girls to attend Cranbrook by 2023. Mr Farquhar and wife Kim Jackson showed they were prepared to sponsor scholarships for girl students who are interested in attending the prestigious school. The proposal to enrol 70 senior girls in Years 11 and 12 from 2023 was put forward to the Cranbrook school community during several town hall briefings in early May and was supported by the school principal Nicholas Sampson. However, the opposition also had the support of big names including former Labor minister Graham Richardson, who said he likely wouldn't have enrolled his son at Cranbrook if he'd known co-ed classes were proposed. For several months advocates have proposed enrolling 70 girls in Years 11 and 12 from 2023, a proposal which has been supported by the school principal Nicholas Sampson Mr Farquhar Atlassian partner Mike Cannon-Brookes recently made headlines for using 11.3 per cent share in AGL to dismantle a proposed demerger, with both the chief executive Graeme Hunt and chairman Peter Botten resigning as a result. But unluckily for Mr Farquhar, 80 per cent of parents voted to reelect the school's current council - with some people noting the result was an clear indicator of parents' opinion on co-ed classes. During his election speech, school president Jon North said: 'Cranbrook is not AGL' in a clear dig at Mr Farquhar attempts to oust him. However Mr Farquhar reportedly left the event after the results were announced and likely didn't hear the comment. Days earlier, Mr Cannon-Brookes, Australia's second richest man with an estimated fortune of $27.87 billion, used his 11.3 per cent share in AGL Energy via his private investment company Grok Ventures to kill off the demerger proposal. Shareholders were clearly unimpressed with AGL Energy's share price plunging by 3.38 per cent to $8.57 within the opening half-hour of trade. Australia's biggest energy producer dumps plan to carve off its coal-fired power stations and its bosses QUIT in huge victory for greenie tech billionaire after relentless campaign By Stephen Johnson, economics reporter for Daily Mail Australia Australia's largest energy producer AGL has dumped plans to demerge its coal-fired power stations following a campaign from multibillionaire climate change activist Mike Cannon-Brookes. AGL Energy on Monday morning announced it would kill off plans to separate AGL Energy into AGL Australia and Accel Energy, with both the chief executive Graeme Hunt and chairman Peter Botten resigning as a result. Mr Cannon-Brookes, Australia's second richest man with an estimated fortune of $27.87billion, used his 11.3 per cent share in AGL Energy via his private investment company Grok Ventures to kill off the demerger proposal. Shareholders were clearly unimpressed with AGL Energy's share price plunging by 3.38 per cent to $8.57 within the opening half-hour of trade. Australia's largest energy producer AGL has dumped plans to demerge its coal-fired power stations following a campaign from billionaire climate change activist Mike Cannon-Brookes (pictured is the Liddell power station at Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Valley that is closing in April 2023) AGL Energy told the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday, before the stock market opened, the board wouldn't have the 75 per cent approval threshold among shareholders to make a demerger happen. A shareholder vote was due to be held on June 15 but AGL is now seeking a court order to cancel that meeting. Australia's biggest electricity and gas supplier blamed Mr Cannon-Brookes, without naming him in their media release. 'AGL Energy believes that the Demerger Proposal would have been supported by a majority of shareholders, both retail and institutional, many of whom are long-term holders of AGL Energy shares,' AGL Energy said. 'However, having regard to anticipated voter turnout and stated opposition from a small number of investors including Grok Ventures, AGL Energy believes the Demerger Proposal will not receive sufficient support to meet the 75 per cent approval threshold for a scheme of arrangement.' Chief executive Graeme Hunt and chairman Peter Botten are both resigning after their replacements are found. Jacqueline Hey also quit as a non-executive director, effective Monday. Diane Smith-Gander will resign from the AGL Energy board following the release of its full-year results in August. Mike Cannon-Brookes, Australia's second richest man with an estimated fortune of $27.87billion, used his 11.3 per cent share in AGL Energy via Grok Ventures to kill off the demerger proposal (he is pictured with wife Annie) Mr Botten conceded defeat. 'While the Board believed the Demerger Proposal offered the best way forward for AGL Energy and its shareholders, we have made the decision to withdraw it,' he said. 'The Board will now undertake a review of AGL's strategic direction, change the composition of the Board and management, and determine the best way to deliver long-term shareholder value creation in the context of Australia's energy transition.' Mr Cannon-Brookes, a co-founder of workplace software giant Atlassian, wants AGL Energy to bring forward the closure of its coal-fired power stations, with the Liddell plant at Muswellbrook in the New South Wales Hunter Valley already fully closing in April 2023. Last month, AGL Energy announced the Liddell plant, commissioned in 1971, would be converted into am 'integrated, low-carbon industrial energy hub' within a year. In February, AGL said it would bring forward by up to five years the closure of the nearby Bayswater power plant, announcing it could shut between 2030 and 2033 instead of 2035. It also announced the Loy Yang A plant in Victoria's Gippsland region would close between 2040 and 2045 instead of 2048 but Mr Cannon-Brookes wants that brought forward by a decade to 2030. He is Australia's third richest individual after mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest, making him Australia's second richest man on The Australian Financial Review Rich List for 2022 with an estimated fortune of $27.83billion. Health chiefs are racing to find the source of a new monkeypox outbreak after a third Australian was diagnosed with the potentially lethal disease. The man in his 50s had recently returned to Sydney from Queensland but has had no contact with the previous cases identified in Melbourne and a second case in Sydney. The disease - which can kill up to one in 10 people - was detected after the man became ill several days after arriving home and was confirmed by urgent testing. 'The man is currently being cared for in hospital,' said NSW Health. 'He lives alone and investigations to date have identified no high-risk contacts in NSW. 'Several people who had other lower level contact with the case are being contacted to advise to monitor for symptoms.' But health chiefs have yet to find the cause of the initial infection and are now working with Queensland health to trace where it came from. Health chiefs are racing to find the source of a new monkeypox outbreak after a third Australian was diagnosed with the potentially lethal disease (seen here in a stock image) NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said there was no cause for concern, insisting it was 'a rare viral infection that does not spread easily between people'. The case comes two weeks after Australia's party scene was put on high alert after the nation recorded two cases of monkeypox which were believed to be sex-related. The two men from Sydney and Melbourne both returned from Europe infected with the rare tropical disease. The Victorian case was known to have been in the UK where there are currently 196 cases, which are mainly among men from the gay and bisexual community, with just two women infected. Worldwide, WHO this week reported 377 confirmed or suspected cases in the unprecedented outbreak. Dr Chant last month warned gay men in particular to watch out for symptoms - which include unusual rashes - and seek immediate help if worried. 'We know it's transmitted by that close skin to skin contact - you can be infectious and that close droplet contact in a very sort of close prolonged way,' Dr Chant said. 'We're particularly urging men who are gay or bisexual, or men who have sex with men, to be aware of any unusual rashes or lesions and to contact by phone a sexual health clinic or GP without delay if they have any concerns.' Australian health authorities are on high alert over fears a global outbreak of deadly monkeypox could arrive Down Under after the UK was rocked by a string of cases A Sydney man in his 40s developed a mild illness several days after arriving home and his GP found the tell-tale monkeypox symptoms of blisters and rashes. Another case in Victoria has also now been reported in a man in his 30s who had been on a trip to the UK and developed symptoms after his return on May 16. Urgent testing identified the Sydney man has been infected with a probable case of monkeypox and medics are now conducting follow up tests for final confirmation. The Australian cases come after new cases were detected in Italy and Sweden, just days after nine cases were found in the UK. The Italian patient tested positive at a hospital in Rome after returning from the Canary Islands and the Swede was diagnosed in Stockholm. The latest cases bring the number of countries outside of Africa with confirmed or suspected cases to eight. Patients with confirmed monkeypox have now also been recorded in the UK, US, Spain and Portugal, while Canada is probing potential cases. Experts fear the known cases are the tip of the iceberg, with the majority of patients not linked to each other, suggesting it is spreading more widely. NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said the disease may currently be spreading like wildfire through Europe and the US as a result of the current warm weather party season. 'In Europe and North America, they've come out of COVID and there's a lot of partying going on.' he said. 'This virus is something which particular groups in the community are more likely to have and to convey as a result of the close associations that occur with people during this partying season in Europe.' On Friday, NSW's chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant sent out the urgent warning for gay men in particular to watch out for the symptoms and seek immediate help if worried Dr Chant added: 'It is important to be particularly vigilant if you returned from overseas from large parties or sex on premises venues overseas. 'You can imagine that some settings, such as sex on premises venues or other events and gatherings may lead to sort of what we've seen as super spreading events. 'It is important that people who have recently returned from Europe who attended such parties be particularly alert given the worldwide case reports today.' The outbreak has been described as 'unusual' by experts because person-to-person transmission of monkeypox was thought to be extremely rare. One in ten of those infected can die from the rare African-originated disease which leaves victims pockmarked with painful, ugly blisters and rashes over their body. It's highly infectious between people in close proximity but can only be spread through bodily fluids or very close face-to-face contact in droplets of breath. In the UK and Spain, the virus outbreak appears to have been confined to gay or bisexual men - but none of the latest cases had a direct connection with Africa. Until now, it had never been found to be transmitted sexually. But it was known that it could be passed on through close contact with the likes of body fluids, respiratory droplets and lesions meaning it was theoretically possible to transmit through sex. Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay 'alert' to patients who present with a new rash or scabby lesions (like above) Dr Chant said NSW Health has taken steps to ensure it identifies and reacts to any potential cases, including alerting sexual health clinics. 'NSW Health has issued a clinician alert to GPs and hospitals across the state,' she said, 'We will be speaking with GPs about this issue again today. 'Cases are occasionally reported in non endemic countries in returning travellers or their close contacts, or in owners of imported pets. 'The infection is usually a mild illness and most people recover within a few weeks.' NSW Health said it will continue to work closely with colleagues throughout Australia to monitor for cases and ensure the best clinical response if any are identified. There is no vaccine or treatment for monkeypox, but anti-viral drugs have shown some effectiveness and NSW Health said they were exploring those as a treatment. The smallpox vaccine has been found to be 85 per cent effective against the disease, but it is in short supply across the world after the disease was eradicated globally 40 years ago and smallpox jabs were no longer required. Pharmaceutical firm Bavarian Nordic plans to release a monkeypox version of a modified smallpox vaccine, but it will not be available before 2023. The US has placed an initial $170 million order for the prospective long-life freeze-dried vaccine, with an option for another $255million order, for a total of 13 million doses, costing around $30 a dose. MONKEYPOX: Strain 'spreads sexually' and is as deadly as the original Wuhan Covid variant - but a jab exists What is monkeypox? Monkeypox is a rare viral infection which people usually pick up in the tropical areas of west and central Africa. It is usually spread through direct contact with animals such as squirrels, which are known to harbour the virus. However, it can also be transmitted through very close contact with an infected person. 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 until now and they were confined to people with travel links to the continent. How deadly is it? Monkeypox is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. Yet, the disease can prove fatal. However 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 shuts down some aspects of your body's ability to fight infections. Because of the presence of other viruses and bacteria which your body can't fight off, in the worst cases patients can succumb to a lethal shock throughout the body and blood poisoning. Death is more likely to occur in younger patients. The skin lesions are painful and disfiguring, and can be the source of further infections. 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 Is there a cure? Because monkeypox is closely related to the virus that causes smallpox, jabs for smallpox can also protect people from getting monkeypox. One vaccine, Imvanex, was shown to be around 85 per cent effective in preventing monkeypox infection. Antivirals and pooled blood from individuals vaccinated against smallpox can be used to treat severe cases. How does it spread? Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection by nature, though it can be passed on by direct contact during sex. Contagious lesions, through which infections are most likely to be passed on, can appear on any part of the body. The infection can also be passed on through contact with clothing or linens used by an infected person. Until now, monkeypox had only ever been detected in four countries outside of Africa - the UK, US, Israel and Singapore. And all of those cases had travel links to Nigeria and Ghana. Are gay men at greater risk? Most of the British and Spanish cases are gay or bisexual men, which officials say is 'highly suggestive of spread in sexual networks'. The sexuality of patients in other countries has not been disclosed. Health chiefs in the UK have issued a direct plea to men who have sex with men, telling them to come forward if they develop a rash on their face or genitals. What are the symptoms? Initial symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. But its most unusual feature is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to other parts of the body, commonly the genitals, hands or feet. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. What do I do if I have symptoms? Anyone worried that they could be infected with monkeypox is advised to make contact with clinics ahead of their visit. Health chiefs say their call or discussion will be treated sensitively and confidentially. Advertisement Until now, monkeypox cases were confined to travellers and their relatives returning from western and central Africa, where the virus is endemic. Initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, then spreading to other parts of the body including the genitals. The rash changes and goes through different stages, and can look like chickenpox or syphilis, before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. Monkeypox has an incubation period of up to 21 days, meaning it can take three weeks after an infection for symptoms to appear. Positive cases and their contacts are being made to isolate for 21 days. Monkeypox can kill up to one in ten people who get it but the new cases have the West African variant, which is deadly for around one in 100. Macquarie University Emeritus Professor Peter Curson warns that it will be very difficult to prevent the spread of monkeypox Sydney's Macquarie University Emeritus Professor Peter Curson told Daily Mail Australia the virus is very difficult to screen for. 'It's certainly a serious viral infection once it's broken out and it would be very difficult to screen for it. 'We really do not fully understand what it is, how it is or what we should do.' 'We're really not fully apprised of how to control it or what drugs to use, or indeed, perhaps, to recognise some of the symptoms early on. 'You can go and visit a place like the Congo or Nigeria, be exposed to an infection, and a week or two later, get a flight to Australia showing no symptoms. 'And yet within a week or two after that you can go down with an interesting viral infection.' He said the Covid pandemic had shown medical science was still in a life or death battle with disease. 'We do honestly believe that we have beaten have won the fight against infectious diseases, but nothing can be further from the truth as Covid demonstrated,' he said. 'Given the tremendous movement of people around the world - and the quickness one can return home having been exposed while showing absolutely no symptoms - how does one control the spread of an outbreak of new infectious diseases? 'It will be very difficult.' Australian medics have been told to watch out for symptoms which can be confused with less dangerous conditions like chickenpox, measles, syphilis or shingles The announcement the virus has arrived in Australia comes as nine people have been diagnosed with monkeypox in the UK. Two are known to each other but have no connection to any of the previous cases, in a sign the virus is spreading in the community for the first time. All seven UK cases have tested positive for the West African strain of the virus, which is believed to be milder than other versions. Health authorities in the UK have now launched an urgent investigation to discover the source of the new infections. The initial case of the UK outbreak is believed to have been brought into the country by a victim who contracted the disease while travelling through Nigeria, where the virus is endemic. Sexual health clinics in London have now reportedly introduced strict social distancing rules in waiting rules in a bid to avoid any further infections. Although 10 per cent of victims can die from monkeypox, most recover within a few weeks after suffering the painful lesions and flu-like symptoms. Unusually though, studies in Africa found the incurable disease was more deadly in younger people. The tropical disease is carried in the wild by monkeys, rats, rabbits, squirrels and other small mammals. An outbreak in the US in 2003 was traced to the importation of exotic pets into the country from Africa. It can spread to humans through direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or lesions of an infected animal, or eating under-cooked meat of infected animals. It is potentially far more infectious than Covid-19, with the World Health Organisation saying its R number is 2, compared to the various strains of Covid which has seen R numbers range from 0.6 to 1.6. However in practice, monkeypox symptoms are far more obvious and the disease is more easily contained, limiting its real world spread. An outbreak in the US last year saw more than 200 people being tracked for symptoms after a Texas man returned from Nigeria with the disease. A second case was later found in Maryland. A 2020 WHO report said human-to-human transmission of the virus is rare and that the longest chain of cases appears to only have been six people before it ended. The report said: 'The epidemic risk for humans is considered to be small.' Daniel Andrews has taken a shot at Scott Morrison upon unveiling plans for Victoria's grand rail network. Mr Andrews was speaking to reporters in Melbourne's south-east on Thursday about the state's Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project which Anthony Albanese promised his government would commit $2.2billion towards. The Victorian Premier suggested former prime minister Mr Morrison lost the vote from many in his state ahead of the election because they felt they 'didn't get our fair share' when he was in power. The Victorian Premier suggested former prime minister Scott Morrison lost the vote from many in his state ahead of the election because they felt they 'didn't get our fair share' from his government 'We've had nine years where we didn't get our fair share and I think all Victorians know that,' Mr Andrews said, referencing Mr Morrison who refused to fund the project aimed at connecting Melbourne's major train lines. 'That may well have been one of the reasons why Victorians supported Anthony's government so strongly was that there is a recognition that we had not received our fair share.' Mr Andrews again made a dig towards Mr Morrison by declaring the new PM as 'a friend to Victoria'. 'He knows where Victoria is, he knows that Victoria matters and he'll be a friend to Victoria ... I think we'll have a true partner in Canberra and that's exactly what we need,' he added. Earlier on the campaign trail Mr Morrison made a last ditch effort to scare Victorians against voting for Labor claiming that Mr Albanese will be controlling like the state premier After Mr Albanese said his government would support the SRL's funding, Mr Morrison described him as a 'pushover'. 'What would happen with Anthony Albanese, he'll be happy to pay for the failures of state Labor governments with federal taxpayers' money,' he said. Mr Andrews hit back, saying: 'Every federal dollar that Victorians get from the miserable Morrison government, (it's like) we ought to bow our head and treat it like it's foreign aid,' he said. Earlier on the campaign trail Mr Morrison made a last ditch effort to scare Victorians against voting for Labor claiming that Mr Albanese will be controlling like the state premier. The prime minister warned voters the Opposition leader found power to be 'very intoxicating' and that he would govern in a similar style to Mr Andrews. 'It's something that I'm sure Anthony Albanese would develop a very fast taste for, and I think that is very troubling for Victorians, who I think have had a gutful of governments that love getting in their lives and telling them what to do,' he said. 'They've had enough at a state level could you imagine if you had it doubled down at a federal level?'. The SRL is set to begin services in 2035 but the full project won't be complete until 2053. A man was found disemboweled inside his New York City apartment with police believing a drunken brawl led up to the gruesome killing. Jose Gonzalez, 35, was identified as the person who was found dead at his home on the fourth floor of his building in Corona, Queens on Tuesday evening. A neighbor, who was also Gonzalez's landlord discovered his body after he had gone over to the apartment to collect rent money. Jose Gonzalez, 35, was found disemboweled in his bed on Tuesday evening Police declared the man's death to be a homicide on Wednesday morning Gonzalez's body was found by his landlord who had gone to collect rent money. Pictured, the apartment building on 40th Road near 100th St. in Corona, Queens Gonzalez, who was the father to a teenage son living in Ecuador, was found facedown on his bed and covered in his own blood. Police suspect that he may have been killed by his new roommate that he shared the space with. Neighbors told cops that the pair would drink together. The NYPD detailed how Gonzalez was stabbed in the neck, shoulder, arms and stomach with wounds running so deep his intestines were found hanging out of his body. His face and abdomen were also covered in dried blood. Police were on site for much of the day on Wednesday as the attempted to uncover more details about the killing Cops say the man from Queens, New York was lying on his bed with 'severe trauma to his torso' Gonzalez was last seen at 3pm on Sunday. One neighbor explained how they saw 'red liquid' leaking out from behind Gonzalez's door but had assumed it was a spilled drink. One day later, the mess had been cleaned up, likely by his killer who was still living in the apartment. 'He was already dead when they found him in his room. I know nothing about the Colombian,' Gonzalez's niece Erica Sumba, 22, told the Daily News. 'I feel really terrible about what happened to him. He is my only family in this country. I have no words,' she said as she spoke of her deceased uncle who had lived in New York for 13 years and performed construction and restaurant work. 'He has one son, and he was divorced. Our whole family is in Ecuador,' Sumba said. 'He was very responsible. He was such a great workingman. ... He sent money home faithfully to support his 17-year-old son.' So far, no arrests have been made but police are looking to speak with Gonzalez's roommate. While murders and shootings are down 9 and 6.5 percent respectively from 2021, overall crime in the Big Apple is up 38.42 percent so far in 2022. That includes an 18.4 percent rise in felony assaults, a 16.1 percent increase in rapes and a 39.3 percent jump in robberies. Members of the NYPD are seen chatting in the middle of the street after the road was closed The New York Medical Examiner was on site as part of the investigation to determine Gonzalez's cause of death FDNY EMT were also on scene together with officers from the NYPD as they set about tracking down the killer, believed to be Gonzalez roommate An Australian billionaire has slammed Elon Musk after leaked emails sent out by the Tesla CEO demanded all employees work in the Tesla office for a minimum of 40 hours or quit. Scott Farquhar, the co-founder of Australian software company Atlassian, labelled the content of Musk's emails as 'like something out of the 1950s' in a post to Twitter on Thursday and subsequently criticised the world's wealthiest man. Musk, 50, sent out the first email to Tesla executive staff on Tuesday, and then issued a follow-up email to all of his team which reiterated the content of the first email. Both emails were leaked online as business leaders and fellow CEOs, like Mr Farquhar, 41, became divided about whether Musk's harsh tone was appropriate. An Australian billionaire has slammed Elon Musk (pictured) after leaked emails sent out by the Tesla CEO demanded all employees work in the Tesla office for a minimum of 40 hours or quit Scott Farquhar (pictured), who is the co-founder of Australian software company Atlassian, labelled the content of Musk's emails as 'like something out of the 1950s' Farquhar said Musk's emails felt 'like something out of the 1950s' and explained that his company had a 'different approach' to how and where employees worked. 'Atlassian employees choose everyday where and how they want to work - we call it Team Anywhere. This has been key for our continued growth,' he wrote. 'Why? This is the future of how we will work. Highly distributed, highly flexible. Yes, right now it's not perfect, but we have to experiment to get it right.' The Australiam billionaire went on to reveal that 42% of Atlassian's newly-hired employees resided 'two or more hours away from the office'. He said this decision to hire outside of the immediate area is because 'there is great talent all over the world - not just within a 1hr radius of our offices'. Mr Farquhar (pictured) was ranked fifth on the Financial Review 2021 rich list with a reported net worth of $20billion Australian Mr Farquhar stated that his company is looking to grow its employee base to 25,000 before boldly asking if any Tesla employees were interested in joining Atlassian. Atlassian was co-founded by Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2002. The company has its global headquarters in Sydney and US headquarters in San Francisco. Mr Farquhar was ranked fifth on the Financial Review 2021 rich list with a reported net worth of $20billion Australian. Musk's first email read: 'Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers.' The Tesla chief executive said that if 'exceptional contributors' prevent workers from being in the Tesla office, he would 'review and approve those exceptions directly'. He stressed that the 'office' he refers to in the email must be 'the main Tesla office' and 'not a remote branch officer unrelated to job duties'. In a follow-up email to all staff, Musk again requested all employees to be in the Tesla office for 40 hours a week and 'not some remote pseudo office.' 'If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned,' he added. The business magnate continued: 'The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence.' 'That is why I lived in the factory so much - so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.' One Twitter user messaged Musk and asked what he'd say to those who think 'coming into work is an antiquated concept'. The tech billionaire responded: 'They should pretend to work somewhere else.' In a follow-up email to all Tesla staff, Musk stated all employees needed to be working in the Tesla office for a minimum of 40 hours a week or quit. (Pictured: Tesla staff) Advertisement AT A GLANCE: How are things shaping up for travel today amid the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations? Manchester Airport: THREE HOUR DELAYS Holidaymakers can expect delays today of up to three hours, with travellers reporting painfully-long queues at check-in and the security desks. Passengers have also reported 'abandoned luggage' left in 'stacks' at baggage reclaim. Bristol Airport: TWO HOUR DELAYS Passengers have reported delays of up to two hours in arrivals and departures this morning. Traveller, Danielle Witt, tweeted this morning: 'Landed after an 8 hour night flight, sat in baggage claim for an hour to finally have an announcement that our luggage won't be out for another hour not acceptable!' Birmingham Airport: UP TO TWO HOUR DELAYS The Airport tweeted: 'Arrive and check in bags on time (3 hours before departure) for the original scheduled departure time.' Heathrow Airport: UP TO TWO HOUR DELAYS Terminal 2 at Heathrow is experiencing long queues at their check-in desk this morning. The airport tweeted this morning: 'Queue times across the airport have risen. We do not have information of how much longer the queues may be at one given time. To save time please make sure you're following airline guidance for the quickest check in experience.' Gatwick Airport: UP TO TEN HOUR DELAY Passengers have reported delays of over three hours for departures, whilst passengers arriving have said there are 'exceptionally long queues' at baggage reclaim. Meanwhile, Wizz Air customers complaining of a '10-hour delay' for departing flights. The airport tweeted to passengers this morning: 'The airport is operating normally today but will be busy. We continue to advise passengers to arrive at the airport as soon as check-in opens for their flight. Typically, this is 3 hours for long-haul and 2-2 for short-haul.' Eurostar: TWO HOUR DELAYS Eurostar services have also seen severe delays this morning following reports of a person who has been hit by a train. Traffic has now resumed following delays between Lille and Calais. Advertisement Holidaymakers are facing huge queues again this morning as Britain's airports and Eurostar are severely delayed - as Britons are warned to only take carry on bags to avoid their luggage being lost. Hundreds of passengers travel plans for the four-day Jubilee celebrations have been thrown into disarray after a 'shambolic' week of flight cancellations as the staffing crisis continues to cause mayhem at Britain's travel hubs. Eurostar services have also seen severe delays this morning following reports of a person who has been hit by a train. Traffic is currently interrupted between Lille and Calais, with all services to Paris delayed. So far, the Eurostar has seen delays of around two hours each way - with all of this morning's services affected. Families have been advised to pack light and only take a rucksack of essentials with them to avoid facing further delays and painfully-long queues - meaning they will have to purchase toiletries and clothing while abroad. Britons returning from their holidays have complained of 'three hour delays' and 'abandoned luggage' left in 'stacks' in baggage reclaim across UK airports - travellers have also said 'their luggage has been diverted to another airport', while others have reported their baggage missing altogether. Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union that represents aviation workers, said it was 'disingenuous' for the Transport Secretary to speak out about chaotic scenes at Britain's airports as issues with staffing 'have been on the radar for a long time'. Mr Prendergast told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme on Thursday: 'This unfortunately was a foreseeable problem, it was one we warned about at the point at which the mass redundancies were made. 'We asked the Government to look at the aviation industry as a special case and they refused. And now, quite frankly, for Grant Shapps to come out as he has in the last 24 hours is a little bit disingenuous considering these problems have been on the radar for a long time.' The reason for the ongoing chaos has been due to a aviation staffing crisis - recruiting for roles such as security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff which is seeing passengers advised to arrive much earlier than normal for their flights because they are facing long queues While many businesses in the aviation sector are struggling to rehire staff after many were let go during the pandemic due to a collapse in demand thanks to successive lockdowns, high levels of staff sickness for those who are still employed is also having an impact. The airport chaos has been described as the 'perfect storm' by travel experts due to the ending of Covid restrictions encouraging more people to travel amid the four-day bank holiday weekend. Today holidaymakers are facing even more travel chaos - with exceptionally lengthy queues at Bristol and Manchester Airport at 4am this morning. Armed police were also seen patrolling the check-in area at Manchester airport today as the bank holiday Jubilee break begins. The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic. The chaotic scenes came after one pilot was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an 'abandoned' plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours due to staff shortages. Holidaymakers were left onboard the aircraft at Manchester Airport on Monday evening, with the TUI flight due to take-off for Tenerife, before officers were called in by the exasperated crew. Manchester Airport: Lengthy queues are still built up at the check-in area, with reports of severe delays ongoing Manchester Airport: Andy Prendergast, GMB union's nationwide secretary who represents aviation workers, said Britons should 'consider packing lightly and travelling with a small bag they can take on board the aircraft' Heathrow Airport: Passengers wait in a long queue as holidaymakers face huge queues again this morning as Britain's airports are warned to only take carry on bags to avoid their luggage being lost St Pancras International: Eurostar services have also seen severe delays this morning following reports of a person who has been hit by a train. Traffic is currently interrupted between Lille and Calais, with all services to Paris delayed. So far, the Eurostar has seen delays of around two hours each way - with all of this morning's services affected Bristol Airport: Hundreds of passengers have had their travel plans for the four-day Jubilee celebrations thrown into disarray after a 'shambolic' week of flight cancellations as the staffing crisis continues to cause mayhem at Britain's travel hubs Bristol Airport: Families have been advised to pack light and only take a rucksack of essentials with them to avoid facing further delays and painfully-long queues - meaning they will have to purchase toiletries and clothing while abroad Bristol Airport: Several disgruntled passengers have taken to social media to complain in recent days about flight cancellations and 'luggage being lost' Manchester Airport: Armed police were also seen patrolling the check-in area at Manchester airport today as the bank holiday Jubilee break begins Manchester Airport: Painfully-long queues were seen this morning at Manchester airport early Thursday morning Heathrow Airport: Lengthy queues are pictured at Heathrow Airport at the start of the four-day bank holiday weekend today Heathrow Airport: A busy terminal two at Heathrow Airport this morning amid the ongoing staffing crisis Gatwick Airport: Airlines are now struggling to rehire workers previously let go, leading to a shortage of security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff Gatwick Airport: George Morgan-Grenville, chief executive of Red Savannah Luxury Travel, added: 'It is an unfortunate perfect storm and airlines and airports are trying to ramp up again after the pandemic @manairport @swissportNews @TUIUK @TUIUKPR This is unacceptable. No care for peoples belongings. No staff at baggage reclaim. Hope this might help people locate their suitcase because the airport isnt going to. Mine has been lost for over a week pic.twitter.com/H4W3B8zwJK Laura Pritchard (@HazeyLaura) June 2, 2022 Have YOU been hit delays today? Please email: kaya.terry@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement Families had already been delayed by a few hours in boarding the plane, which was due to depart at 5.50pm, eventually getting into the craft at 7pm. Ground crew took so long to load luggage that the flight was cancelled, before 'abandoning' them on the tarmac. Passengers were then stuck waiting side the hot plane for three hours before being helped off the aircraft by police by 10pm. George Morgan-Grenville, chief executive of Red Savannah Luxury Travel, added: 'It is an unfortunate perfect storm and airlines and airports are trying to ramp up again after the pandemic. 'The travel industry is not an industry that can be turned on and then off again and it was inevitable it was going to take time. My own feeling is I don't think we are going to see a problem-free summer by any stretch of the imagination. If it is as bad as it has been purported to be, I think you will get a lot of very upset people.' Manchester Airport has experienced chaotic scenes all week - with new figures revealing 332,000 passengers are booked to fly through the travel-hub over the Jubilee weekend. There had been hopes that bosses at Manchester Airport were getting to grips with the staffing crisis which resulted in security queues and disruption earlier in the year. But the scenes emerging from the terminals over recent days have raised questions around how well the hub and its partners are weathering the storm as they emerge from the pandemic. Meanwhile, Jonny Hardy and his fiancee Sophia Raouna bumped into Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi earlier today while queuing at Manchester Airport. Mr Hardy posted a picture with the star on Instagram, with the caption: 'Queues weren't so bad at Manchester. What a guy.' Manchester Airport: Police were called to help hundreds of passengers disembark an 'abandoned' plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours on Monday Reports include queues which extend into car parks, missing baggage spotted from 1,300 miles away, police rescues after flights failed to take off and even food shortages for those passengers actually able to board their flights. More than 30,000 TUI customers have received messages cancelling their trips, while easyJet and Jet2.com passengers have also been affected. Last month, Charlie Cornish, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) boss, issued a candid apology, admitting that the staffing crisis - caused by mass redundancies during the pandemic then a sudden surge in passengers when restrictions were lifted - meant service was suffering. Many of the workers who left the hub have now found other jobs. This year, more than 800 workers have been hired to replace them. Of those, 340 are already on the floor, with a further 500 going through security and background checks. As a result, bosses say that in May, 91 per cent of passengers got through security in less than 30 minutes, and 70 per cent under 15 minutes. They said security queues could still take up to an hour at busy times but that, if passengers arrive three hours early over the coming days, they are confident they will 'get them through on time'. But it's become increasingly clear that the airport's success relies on a number of moving parts - and that many of those parts aren't moving as they should. Staffing issues extend beyond the direct management of the hub to its many partners; including airlines like TUI and agents, like Swissport, which deal with baggage handling and check-in - now the major problem areas. Manchester Airport: Manchester Airport has experienced chaotic scenes all week - with new figures revealing 332,000 passengers are booked to fly through the travel-hub over the Jubilee weekend. There had been hopes that bosses at Manchester Airport were getting to grips with the staffing crisis which resulted in security queues and disruption earlier in the year. But the scenes emerging from the terminals over recent days have raised questions around how well the hub and its partners are weathering the storm as they emerge from the pandemic Manchester Airport: Currently, employers such as Manchester Airport are bound by EU legislation which means they must delve into years of previous employment, a time and resource-consuming task. Westminster was searching for a 'post-Brexit' workaround to shorten how far back these searches have to go, potentially fast-tracking this stage of recruitment Manchester Airport: Aviation bosses were yesterday ordered to 'do their bit' and 'run services properly' by the transport secretary amid the ongoing half term travel chaos Meanwhile, aviation sources say that, in fact, it's not hiring that's the main problem, but that vetting new recruits and issuing passes to get them airside to do their jobs is causing the biggest headache. At Manchester, Swissport currently has around 760 staff, while 782 would be a full team. However, 200 of these workers are on 'white passes', meaning they can't go airside unaccompanied. These pass delays are, internally, being blamed on the Government. In April, the Department for Transport (DfT) told the Manchester Evening News they were 'looking at ways' to help hubs like Manchester Airport speed up background checks for new starters. Currently, employers such as Manchester Airport are bound by EU legislation which means they must delve into years of previous employment, a time and resource-consuming task. Westminster was searching for a 'post-Brexit' workaround to shorten how far back these searches have to go, potentially fast-tracking this stage of recruitment. Shocking scenes from around the country in recent weeks have shown holidaymakers stuck in huge queues with some forced to sleep on the floor of airports amid long delays. Industry chiefs have pointed the finger at mass layoffs during the pandemic which saw staff let go because of the collapse in demand for travel during the various lockdowns. Airlines are now struggling to rehire workers previously let go, leading to a shortage of security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff. Aviation bosses were yesterday ordered to 'do their bit' and 'run services properly' by the transport secretary amid the ongoing half term travel chaos. Speaking at a 'tense' urgent meeting on Wednesday, Grant Shapps said while he understands there have been 'resourcing strains on the aviation sector', that is 'no excuse' for poor planning and overbooked flights, as he pushed for 'automatic refunds' for affected passengers and declared: 'We do not want to see repeat of this over the summer.' He described scenes at airports with lengthy queues and flight cancellations as 'heart-breaking', particularly as some holidaymakers had hoped to take their first trips abroad after the years-long Covid pandemic. Meanwhile, a mum said her two children were forced to sleep on the floor at Manchester Airport after Ryanair cancelled their flight. Kelly Kavanagh and her two children, aged five and three months, were flying back home after a holiday in Lisbon. The family arrived at the airport in Portugal way before their scheduled flight time of 9.15pm on May 31. But the family didn't manage to get another flight until over 12 hours later. In the meantime Kelly said the three were forced to sleep on the airport floor without food and water. Kelly told the Liverpool Echo she'd 'never had an experience like it'. The 39-year-old from Dingle, Liverpool, said people were 'left to sleep like dogs on the floor' with no communication from Ryanair about what was happening and when there next flight might be. Kelly Kavanagh and her two children, aged five (pictured) and three months, were flying back home after a holiday in Lisbon. The family arrived at the airport in Portugal way before their scheduled flight time of 9.15pm on May 31 The family experienced flight issues travelling from Manchester Airport out to Lisbon but were put in a hotel until their next flight. But on the return Kelly said Ryanair 'acted like they didn't care' and people 'just had to figure out what was happening'. Kelly said: 'I was just left to get through the airport carrying a baby, a five-year-old and a car seat. The treatment we were getting just felt so wrong - like there wasn't a sympathetic bone in their body. 'It felt like Ryanair were trying to avoid helping as much as possible. We were then left to sleep on the airport floor like dogs with no food or water, nothing to sterilise my baby's bottles and no communication. 'It was a good thing I brought extra diapers and baby formula with me. You think as I had a new-born baby there would be an offer of help.' Kelly said her five-year-old was 'exhausted' after sleeping on the floor. She added the young girl had a 'panic attack' on the flight home because of the stress of the extended journey. Kelly finally made it back to Manchester after boarding another flight which was also delayed. She arrived back in the early afternoon on Wednesday. The mum-of-two added: 'It just made me feel sick to my stomach to see people sleeping on the floor like that with so little offers of help. There was no communication, no announcements, no information. 'It's something I never want to go through again.' Manchester Airport: Over the Jubilee weekend, 332,000 passengers have booked to fly through Manchester Airport Ryanair apologised and said: 'This flight from Lisbon to Manchester (31 May) was delayed ahead of take-off as the inbound flight was delayed, causing the crew to reach their permitted daily flight hours and prohibiting them to fly back to Manchester that night. Affected customers were notified of the delay via email and received subsequent updates via the Ryanair app. 'Overnight accommodation was offered to passengers, however, due to limited availability of accommodation in Lisbon, some passengers remained at the airport and were provided with food & drink vouchers. This flight departed the following morning (01 June) at 09:30am. Ryanair sincerely apologised to all customers affected by this delay.' It comes after more than 150 UK flights were cancelled alone on Wednesday, which saw a blame game emerge between the government and industry leaders - as one trade union told Brits to travel with just a rucksack to avoid any baggage mayhem. Meanwhile, issues with e-gates at Eurostar in France risked causing further chaos, causing delays to immigration checks for travellers returning to the UK. Mr Shapps had earlier said the government had 'done its bit' and that companies should have been more prepared, particularly as they were given 8bn in relief to help cope with the predicted surge in bookings. But travel firms, trade unions and the Labour Party said the Government had failed to provide enough support to the sector. Elsewhere, MailOnline revealed yesterday how travel firms were still selling cut-price holidays and flights in June despite scores of such bookings being axed, while families have had trips cancelled even as they boarded planes. Speaking at an urgent meeting on Wednesday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said while he understands there have been 'resourcing strains on the aviation sector', that is 'no excuse' for poor planning and overbooked flights, as he pushed for 'automatic refunds' for affected passengers Mr Shapps described scenes at airports with lengthy queues and flight cancellations as 'heart-breaking', particularly as some holidaymakers had hoped to take their first trips abroad after the years-long Covid pandemic. (Pictured: Man and woman wait on the floor of Gatwick Airport amid reports of hours-long delays on Wednesday) BRISTOL AIRPORT: Holidaymakers face huge delays at Bristol Airport at 4am on Wednesday as the airport chaos continues Issues with e-gates at Eurostar in France risked causing further chaos, causing delays to immigration checks for travellers returning to the UK. (Pictured: Long queues at St Pancras on Wednesday) Others have been stuck at airports for 48 hours after flights were delayed or had to wait for hours for their luggage to arrive due to a shortage of staff. On Wednesday, Mr Shapps and aviation minister Robert Courts led what the Department for Transport (DfT) described as a 'productive meeting' with senior leaders from the aviation industry including airports, airlines and ground handling companies. He emphasised to them his concerns that airline passengers are being unfairly sold tickets for holidays they cannot go on, and said he will continue to discuss options for introducing automatic refunds for passengers. Following the meeting, Mr Shapps warned that there cannot be a repeat of such disruption over the summer. He said: 'We're grateful to those airlines and operators who have continued to deliver good services despite the current pressures and we recognise that not all operators have been affected in the same way. 'I also understand the resourcing strains on the aviation sector but it does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service. The companies who have seen the most disruption need to learn from those who ran services smoothly. 'We will continue to monitor the situation closely to make sure consumers don't lose out from any further disruption.' He said he and Mr Courts 'have made the changes needed to allow the sector to prepare for summer, but now we need industry to do their bit'. He added: 'We have been crystal clear - run services properly and according to schedule or provide swift, appropriate compensation. We do not want to see a repeat of this over the summer - the first post-Covid summer season - and will be meeting again in the coming weeks to understand the progress that is being made.' The chief executive of Airlines UK said the problem is not 'an airline issue or an airport issue or a Government issue'. Tim Alderslade said: 'We want to work collaboratively with ministers to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, in good time for the summer peak, and it was good to discuss options with the Transport Secretary during what was a productive meeting. 'We ultimately have to work together to solve this. Aviation is a complex eco-system with lots of moving parts and we can't operate in isolation. 'This isn't an airline issue or an airport issue or a Government issue. We're in this together and we look forward to exploring options with ministers to move the sector forwards as we approach the summer.' Chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, Karen Dee, described the meeting as a 'good opportunity to discuss the challenges currently facing airports following the devastating impact of the pandemic' and to set out how the industry is 'putting its full effort behind getting passengers away smoothly this weekend and preparing for the summer'. Those in attendance at the meeting included British Airways, easyJet and TUI Airways. TUI bosses behind air chaos were on 'workations' doing their jobs from beside swimming pools in the med to 'improve their work-life balance' as problems mounted By Jamie Phillips TUI bosses behind the chaos at UK airports were on 'workatations' doing their jobs from beside swimming pools in the med to 'improve their work-life balance' as problems began to mount. Holidaymakers faced hours of delays and snaking queues on Wednesday as TUI cancelled more flights amid a staffing crisis at Britain's travel hubs. Such was the extent of the issues, a TUI pilot was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an 'abandoned' plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours due to staff shortages. But as holidaymakers face mayhem, the airline admitted today that it allowed members of its head office workforce to enjoy its 'Workwide' scheme - allowing staff to work outside the UK for up to 30 days a year. Andrew Willis, head of talent acquisition and workforce management, was among the senior employees to take advantage, The Telegraph reports. He posted online about working poolside at an all-inclusive TUI hotel in Ibiza. Mr Willis said: 'When I finished my work at 5pm, the sun was still there until 8.30pm, so I had plenty of time to swim and relax. In the evenings I could then switch off wonderfully.' Andrew Willis, head of talent acquisition and workforce management, was among the senior employees to take advantage of the scheme Passengers pictured in lengthy queues to check in for their TUI flights at Manchester Airport on Wednesday Millions of Britons have faced travel chaos at UK airports for the last four days amid staffing shortages at airlines and airports A business procurement manager also told of how he worked from Norway while watching the norther lights. And a senior product development manager described using the scheme to work from Gran Canaria. He said: 'I had made sure beforehand that the rooms had a good Wi-Fi connection and so I could work from my balcony or from the pool bar.' Staff have spent 4,500 days working abroad as part of the scheme, which was launched in August last year. On Wednesday TUI took the decision to cut 43 flights a week - 186 in total through June carrying 37,000 passengers from Manchester - just hours after an extraordinary video emerged revealing two police officers were drafted in to tell their irate customers their holiday to Kos was now cancelled as they queued to board the plane. The airline, which decided to cut 8,000 jobs during the pandemic and furloughed 11,000 of its staff, apologised to passengers and attributed delays to 'ongoing challenges in our operation'. British Airways, which has also cancelled more than 100 flights from Heathrow Airport, is another airline to have celebrated staff working from home. Last year, it said it would allow employees to enjoy a hybrid of office and home working. The airline, which has axed more than 10,000 jobs in recent years, heralded its approach to 'offering more agile and flexible ways of working'. Shocking scenes from around the country in recent weeks have shown holidaymakers stuck in huge queues with some forced to sleep on the floor of airports amid long delays. Holidaymakers are facing yet more travel chaos with painfully-long queues at Manchester airport snaking outside the front entrance this morning Pictured: Passengers queue at the very busy Skylink between Terminal 2 and the railway station at Manchester Airport as people head on Jubilee weekend getaways Airlines are now struggling to rehire workers previously let go, leading to a shortage of security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff. It comes as TUI is still selling holidays from Manchester leaving this weekend despite axing six flights per day from the airport branded 'hell on earth' because of long queues and shops running out of food and water. Despite carnage at Manchester, 180 of Tui's seven-day breaks to destinations including Majorca, Gran Canaria, Morocco and Mexico are still being sold for as much as 1,500 per person, leaving on Friday. A spokesperson for TUI said: 'We're proud of the flexible ways of working we offer our colleagues who work in non-operational, office based roles. 'We've always had a culture of trust with our colleagues and have offered this style of work for a number of years, and long before the work from home trend after the pandemic. A statement added: 'The TUI Workwide scheme is not open to staff who work in fixed locations, such as pilots, cabin crew, retail and those working in operational aviation roles, like in our operations control centre where this is manned 24/7 from an office location. 'We believe this balance is important for understanding the nature of our global travel business alongside having a fulfilling career and improving overall personal well-being.' Anthony Albanese will rename an island in the Queen's honour to celebrate her platinum jubilee despite wanting Australia to become a republic. The new Prime Minister has announced that Aspen Island in Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin will be renamed Queen Elizabeth II Island. The Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen's 70 years on the throne - a milestone she reached on February 6 - from today until Sunday. The new Prime Minister has announced that Aspen Island (pictured) in Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin will be renamed Queen Elizabeth II Island Pictured: The Queen on a visit to Australia in 2006. She is now 96 and has ruled for 70 years Australia will illuminate iconic buildings and monuments across the country in royal purple from tonight. The locations include the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Parliament House and Brisbane's Victoria Bridge. Mr Albanese, who has previously declared his respect for the 96-year-old Queen even though he is a republican, said he would be honoured to rename Aspen Island in a ceremony on Saturday. 'Today I have the great privilege of lighting a beacon as part of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons and to commence Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Australia,' he said in a statement. 'Australia will honour and pay tribute to the remarkable dedication and service of Her Majesty The Queen over the course of the Platinum Jubilee official celebrations. 'I look forward to officially renaming Aspen Island to Queen Elizabeth II Island later this week as a mark of Australia's appreciation and respect for Her Majesty.' The ceremony to open the island will include a 21-gun salute, and a Royal Australian Air Force flypast. The Governor-General and his wife are in London representing Australians at the jubilee celebrations. A contingent from Australia's Federation Guard is also in London to participate in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on Sunday. Mr Albanese has previously declared his respect for the 96-year-old Queen even though he is a republican It comes after Mr Albanese appointed Matt Thistlethwaite as minister for the republic in the hope of building support to ditch the monarchy if he wins government again in 2025. Mr Thistlethwaite said during a series of interviews on Thursday that the death of the Queen would signal an appropriate time to move towards a republic. 'Do we want King Charles or are we mature enough or independent enough to look to appoint one of our own as our head of state,' he told Sky News. In a further interview with ABC radio, Mr Thistlethwaite said: 'As the Queen comes to the twilight of her reign, we should pay respect for her for the wonderful job she's done, but I think Australians are beginning to think about what comes next for our nation.' 'It's time we start the serious conversation once again...and looking to have one of our own as our head of state, to recognise that independence and maturity going forward.' Australia's new minister for immigration says the role he played in the notorious incident that shut the nation off to asylum seeker boats convinced him to enter politics but has not committed to overturn the controversial policies from that time. Andrew Giles was sworn in as immigration minister on Wednesday, two decades after he acted as a solicitor representing 433 asylum seekers trying to get to Australian territory aboard the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa In 2001. The Howard Government's hardline response of sending SAS troops to board the Tampa when it entered Australian waters and eventually transfer the refugees to Nauru became a template for the so-called Pacific Solution of offshore processing. New Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles represented asylum seekers stuck on board the Norwegian freight MV Tampa in 2001 during what became a pivotal moment in border politics Boat arrivals became an even more hot-button issue shortly after when HMAS Adelaide picked up 223 people from a sinking boat and false reports emerged that asylum seekers had thrown their children overboard to ensure rescue. Mr Giles, who was elected as the Labor MP representing the north Melbourne electorate of Scullin in 2013, said this experience convinced him to run for office. 'Before September 2001, I had not given much thought to Australia's policies in relation to asylum seekers or the politics of this question,' he told parliament in 2014. 'I suspect I am not alone. Since then, it has been very different. The arrival of the people on the MV Tampa in Australian waters clearly represented a watershed moment in Australian politics and society. 'In 2001, I was a small part of the legal team that acted on behalf of the asylum seekers on the Tampa. This involvement, more than anything else, led me towards seeking election to this place. 'We shouldn't forget the story of the Tampa, in all its dimensions. It changed me a young lawyer acting on behalf of refugees.' Asylum seekers guarded by Australia SAS troops huddle aboard the MV Tampa awaiting their fate, which eventually would be to go into offshore detention on Nauru as part of the Howard Government's so-called Pacific Solution to border protection However, when Mr Giles became Labor's shadow minister for multicultural affairs in 2019, he walked away from his previous efforts to get the party to scrap the policy of turning back asylum seeker boats at a 2015 ALP national conference. 'Of course we're in 2019 now and I'm much more concerned with what's happening in the immigration policy that's being administered by Peter Dutton than anything I said four years ago,' he told The Australian at the time. 'My views have evolved over time and I think that's probably true of the party as a whole.' In tweeting his delight at being named the immigration minister, Mr Giles did not give any specific indication of how he would tackle the role. 'It's an incredible honour to take on the role of Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs in the Albanese Labor Government,' he said. 'There's so much work to be done, and it's so important to who we are, and how we rebuild. Can't wait to get started.' It's perhaps a reflection of how the issue of asylum seeker boats has subsided that Mr Giles' ministry is not in the federal cabinet. Asylum seeker boat crew are led into detention as part of the Howard Government's strong border protection measures in 2001, which created a political storm that persists today The Rudd Government's softening of Howard-era offshore processing policy in 2007 saw asylum seeker boats begin to return to Australia after they had ceased. This led to Liberal opposition leader Tony Abbott campaigning that he would 'stop the boats' as part of his winning electoral pitch in 2013. Successfully keeping this promise elevated Abbott's immigration minister Scott Morrison's political stocks on his way to becoming prime minister in 2018. Left-wing activist Sally Rugg expressed hope on Twitter that Mr Giles would bring a change in the policies that have bitterly divided Australia. 'When Andrew Giles was practising law he acted for asylum seekers trapped aboard the Tampa,' she tweeted. 'In parli hes consistently stood w former refugees & their allies campaigning for sense and compassion in the way Aus treats asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.' Protesters interrupt Andrew Giles' speech during the boat turn-back debate during the 2015 ALP National Conference in Melbourne Mr Giles has previously vowed to pursue a more compassionate stance on asylum seekers. 'We have to change this. We have to give Australia's hopeful side a fair chance to prevail over the politics of fear, and division,' he said in a 2019 speech. Mr Giles has spoken out against temporary protection visas, another element along with boat turn-backs and indefinite offshore detention still in place from the Howard-era border protection policies According to officials, at least four people were killed and several were injured in a shooting at a medical facility in Oklahoma on Wednesday. Four individuals were killed, including the gunman, according to the Tulsa Police Department, and authorities were still evacuating the building as of Wednesday evening. Officers were dispatched to St. Francis Hospital after reports of a man with a gun, which quickly escalated into a "active shooter incident." Tulsa Hospital Shooting Suspect Suspected Dead ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION UPDATE: See our Facebook for more info: pic.twitter.com/dla5NWukWM Tulsa Police (@TulsaPolice) June 1, 2022 Jayme Fowler, a member of the city council, told KOTV 6, a local news station, that the gunman seemed to have killed himself. According to a police officer who was inside the facility, the shooter was equipped with a rifle and a pistol. One of the bodies was discovered wearing a doctor's uniform, while the other two were dressed as nurses. "Officers are presently combing through every room in the building screening for additional threats. We know there are several injuries and the possibility of multiple deaths," the Tulsa Police Department said. Around 4:50 pm local time, a witness said she saw an absurd quantity of police officers descend on the area from her office window, The Independent reported. Officers are already scouring the Natalie Building for any potential threats. In a statement, a Tulsa police spokesperson stated, "This developed into an active shooter scenario." First responders looked to be bringing someone on a stretcher away from the hospital building, according to aerial footage from a TV helicopter. Per The Hill, an outpatient surgical clinic and a breast health center are located in the Natalie Building. Meulenberg further stated that numerous individuals had been injured and that the medical complex was a "catastrophic sight," with dozens of police cars parked outside the hospital. Read Also: Mona Lisa Cake Attack Goes Viral, Video Shows Vandalism on Leonardo da Vinci's Painting Tulsa Hospital Temporarily Shuts Down A reunion center for families looking for their loved ones has been established at a neighboring high school. A representative with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said agents from the agency were also on the scene. Because of the incident at the Natalie Medical Building, St. Francis Health System shut down its campus on Wednesday afternoon, as per AP News. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, and the White House has offered its assistance to state and local officials. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives have also gone to the site, according to agency officials. The incident occurred little over a week after an 18-year-old gunman massacred 19 students and two instructors at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. An organization that analyzes shootings said nine people were killed and more than 60 were injured in shootings with more than four victims across the United States over the Memorial Day weekend. Authorities said a woman was killed and two men were injured in a shooting in New Orleans on Tuesday at a high school graduation site on the campus of Xavier University, NBC News reported. Related Article: Raul Valle Case: Connecticut Teen Accused of Stabbing Lacrosse Star to Death Freed on $2 Million Bond @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A female school cleaner in Tasmania who persistently sexually abused a 13-year-old student over several months could spend as little as half a year behind bars. The 28-year-old, who has since lost her job, abused the boy at her home, his home, and in a car between June and September last year. She became friends with the boy's mother in early 2021 and communicated with him on social media mobile phone application Snapchat. '(You were) viewed as an aunt figure. You also worked at (his) school as a cleaner,' Justice Tamara Jago told the Supreme Court of Tasmania in Burnie on Thursday. Justice Jago outlined nine instances of sexual abuse, including one in which the woman performed a sexual act on the boy during a trip to McDonald's that was witnessed by one of his friends. A 28-year-old female school cleaner in Tasmania pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old male student between June and September last year The woman was told by the boy's mother not to contact him after she found evidence of the abuse on his phone. The woman instead set up a new Snapchat account under an alias and continued to communicate with him. Justice Jago said she took advantage of the boy's family, breached their trust and exposed other young people to inappropriate sexual behaviour. In an initial interview with police, the woman 'minimised' her behaviour and later told investigators the relationship would probably still be going if she hadn't been caught. She was sentenced to two years' jail with one year suspended and a non-parole period of six months. The woman was sentenced to two years' jail with one year suspended and a non-parole period of six months after the court noted the young boy had self-harmed, received support for his mental health and lost friends after the abuse She had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of persistent sexual abuse of a young person. Justice Jago noted the woman had lost her job with the education department and that the consequences of her crime had been significant. She said the woman had a long-standing history of depression stemming from a poor upbringing and neglect, and suffers a debilitating lack of confidence and self-esteem. Justice Jago said the woman's mental health contributed to the offending, which she described as not predatory or manipulative, but only to a limited extent. The woman has since resumed taking anti-depressant medication, has a new job and was remorseful. Her prospects for rehabilitation were solid and the risk of her committing another similar offence was low, the judge added. Since the abuse, the boy has self-harmed, received support for his mental health and lost friends, Justice Jago said. The woman will be placed on the sex offender register for three years after her release from prison. Lifeline 13 11 14 Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25) A group of diners were kicked for breaching the rules at a popular restaurant renowned for its hilariously rude wait staff and poor service. Police were called to Melbourne's famous dining strip Lygon Street on Wednesday night following reports of an altercation between staff and patrons at Karen's Diner in Carlton. The family had been escorted from the venue by the time police arrived. Karen's Diner confirmed a group of customers were asked to leave for 'being out of order toward staff'. A bizarre alteration took place between staff and patrons at Karen's Diner Melbourne, where wait staff are hilariously rude to customers 'Unfortunately we had some customers who breached the rules and were being out of order towards staff and therefore, they were asked to leave the venue,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. The restaurant manager said the incident 'ended amicably in the end', the Herald Sun reported. Victoria Police confirmed officers attended the restaurant but said no criminal offences were reported by either party. 'No offences were detected and the parties requested no police action,' a spokeswoman said. The 1950s style burger restaurant franchise was established 12 months ago to provide a unique dining experience where staff are deliberately rude and provide terrible service to customers. Police attended Karen's Diner Melbourne (pictured) on Wednesday night following an incident 'Our staff are rude, our manners are non existent and we're the perfect place for Karen's every-where to vent their anger and dismay at the world,' its website states. 'Come on, ask for the manager...WE DARE YOU. We want your complaints.' The restuarnt is renowned for its burgers, coktails and sassy staff. Karen's Diner currently has restaurants in the Sydney CBD, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sheffield in the UK and will soon open in Ryde and on the Gold Coast. The Carlton venue has four star review rating online and was fully booked for the evening when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Thursday night. Ukraine is losing up to 600 troops per day including 100 killed in action, President Zelensky has admitted as he gave the clearest indication yet of the blood-debt his military is paying to hold back the Russian invasion. Zelensky said the situation in Donbas, where the fiercest fighting is taking place, is 'very difficult' but insisted his soldiers are 'holding our defensive perimeter' despite advances by Putin's men in recent days. 'We're losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action,' he said - lifting the lid on Ukrainian casualties which have been a closely guarded secret throughout the war. The battle for Donbas has now largely descended into brutal trench warfare, with Ukraine digging defences that are pounded by Russian artillery before troops try to rush through gaps in the line - not unlike the battlefields of the First World War. Out-gunned by the Russian side, Ukraine has been begging allies for better artillery to strike back at Putin's men - with Joe Biden revealing on Tuesday that America will be sending advanced rocket systems to aid in the fight. Ukrainian soldiers help their wounded comrades on the Donbas frontline as President Zelensky admits 100 are being killed and up to 500 wounded each day The heaviest fighting is taking place around the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk (pictured), which are the last two Ukrainian strongholds in the Luhansk region Russia is pushing to capture the eastern city of Severodonetsk which will put Putin's forces on the cusp of taking the Luhansk region, while Ukraine is counter-attacking to the south The heaviest fighting is currently ongoing in the city of Severodonetsk, which is now largely under Russia control. Capturing it entirely would put Putin's forces on the cusp of taking Luhansk province - one of his key war aims. Ukrainian forces in the region are taking heavy losses. Neil Hauer, a journalist who has spent time on the frontlines, revealed one soldier he is in contact with saw 56 men in his 60-man squad killed in a recent rotation to the front. But the fighting is taking a huge toll on Russian forces as well. Though their tactics have improved since the botched effort to take Kyiv, Putin's generals are facing Ukrainians who are better armed and prepared than they were in the opening weeks of the war. Western officials briefing journalists on Wednesday estimated that Russian forces have been ground down to around half the strength they had before the war started - when between 150,000 and 190,000 troops were massed on the border. More than 1,000 tanks have been destroyed by Ukraine, the West believes, which Russia is struggling to replace as sanctions deprive the country of key components needed to build more. Russian forces are expected to keep advancing through the next days and weeks - targeting the city of Lysychansk after Severodonetsk falls, which is located just a few hundred yards away across the Donets River. If they are able to take Lysychansk then the next targets will be Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, located some 35 miles to the West. Those cities are two of the last remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region. Control over that region and Luhansk will allow Putin to claim 'liberation' over Donbas, which he says is the sole aim of his 'special military operation'. A woman flees from her burning house in the city of Lysychansk, which has come under Russian bombardment as troops push into nearby Severodonetsk A destroyed house is seen after a Russian missile strike hit the city of Slovyansk, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas People salvage what they can from the ruins of their home in Slovyansk, which is likely to become one of Russia's next targets after Severodonetsk falls Sergiy Tarasyuk, 49, sits on his bed in his destoyed house after a missile strike in the city of Slovyansk, in the Donbas region But, as Russia's forces are ground down in combat and occupy an ever-larger portion of Ukrainian territory, it remains to be seen whether they can hold it. Ukraine has shown the ability to mount successful counter-attacks in areas where Russia is weak, such as around Kyiv just before Putin withdrew his troops and to the north of Kharkiv last month - pushing Russia back to its own border. A fresh counter-attack is currently underway in the south, towards the city of Kherson which has been occupied since the early days of the war. Ukrainian tanks and armoured personnel carriers have been filmed crossing the Inhulets River in recent days, and have pushed Russian defenders back from several small towns on the other side. Fighting is believed to be ongoing in the region with Russian believed to be moving reinforcements to try and hold their defensive lines, though the exact situation is unclear with Ukraine's military saying little. The industrial hub of Severodonetsk has become a key target for Moscow, and the local governor said that 80 per cent of the city was now under Russian control. 'Street fighting continues,' said Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday on Telegram, pledging Ukrainian forces 'will fight for Severodonetsk until the end'. 'The most difficult situation is in the Lugansk region, where the enemy is trying to displace our units from their positions,' said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, according to a statement from the military. Ukrainian troops sit on an armoured vehicle as they move back from the front line near the city of Slovyansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas A Ukrainian service member loads ammunition into cartridges at his new position retaken by the Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region 'The enemy has a decisive advantage in artillery,' Zaluzhnyi told France's top general, Thierry Burkhard, in a phone call, adding he want his units to be equipped with weapons of the type used by military alliance NATO. 'It will save lives'. American is soon expected to send HIMARS rocket systems to Ukraine, bolstered by stocks of other rocket systems sent by the UK and Germany. The weapons are considered to be 'game-changers' by Kyiv because they have much longer ranges than their current guns and are specifically designed to counter Russian systems. They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package unveiled Wednesday that also includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of 'adding fuel to the fire' with the new weapons, although US officials insist Ukraine has promised not to use them to strike into Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there were no signs of Russia pulling back its forces: 'As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict.' Elsewhere, a missile struck transportation infrastructure near the comparatively stable western city of Lviv, injuring five people, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said. A destroyed Ukrainian armoured vehicle is seen in a ditch alongside a highway near the town of Rubizhne, which was recently taken by Russian forces West of Severodonetsk, in the city of Sloviansk, AFP journalists saw buildings destroyed by a rocket attack in which three people died and six others were hurt. And on Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw. The European Union has also sent weapons and cash for Ukraine, while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow. Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline. EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent. The sanctions are biting - a panel of investors said Wednesday Russia has failed to pay $1.9 million of accrued interest on a sovereign bond. And Russian energy giant Gazprom said its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year between January and May after losing several European clients. New legislation would see Australians caught in possession of drugs handed a $400 fine rather than a court date in a massive overhaul to the current legal system. New South Wales Attorney-General Mark Speakman proposed the scheme which comes off the back of recommendations from the Special Commission of Inquiry Into Ice, released in 2020. The AG said he was 'disappointed' the state government hadn't taken any advice from the $10million inquiry and put his voice behind alternative methods to addressing the country's illicit drug problem. Mr Speakman outlined a plan that put the honus on police to decide whether to hand out $400 penalties for people caught in possession of drugs in a 'pre-cour drug diversion scheme'. He said offenders should be given up to two infrigement notices, with fines to be waived if they undertook health intervention programs. New legislation would see Australians caught in possession of drugs handed a $400 fine rather than a court date in a massive overhaul to the current legal system The $400 fee he offered is higher than the penalty a first-time offender would see if they went to court - saying his idea is 'not soft on drug use'. 'Such a scheme would be connecting drug users with appropriate health treatment,' Mr Speakman said. 'An infringement notice scheme was backed by former Police Commissioner Mick Fuller in his submission to the Ice Inquiry and also by, for example, former Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione. 'It is more modest than Ice Inquiry recommendation 12 which suggested three notices.' New South Wales Attorney-General Mark Speakman (pictured) proposed the scheme which comes off the back of recommendations from the Special Commission of Inquiry Into Ice Former premier Gladys Berejiklian's war on drugs saw her 'close the door' on pill testing despite a spate of overdoses and deaths at festivals. Then-deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame handed down a report that recommended the use of pill testing, but instead Ms Berejiklian ignored the advice and sent more police officers to monitor music events. The Attorney-General said his new approach was 'hardly radical' but instead a necessary step forward given previous leglisation has done little to discourage young people from taking drugs. 'We already have an infringement notice scheme in place for drugs at music festivals, but without health interventions,' he said. 'Severe penalties for supply and trafficking would remain in place. I welcome Cabinet debate of this and other ways to tackle the scourge of illicit drugs in our communities.' The Attorney-General said his new approach was 'hardly radical' but instead a necessary step forward Matt Noffs, the CEO of Australia's largest drug and alcohol treatment service for people under 25 the Noffs Foundation, welcomed the change in tact from Mr Speakman. 'The NSW AG should firstly be congratulated on proposing changes to our drug laws,' he said in a statement. 'It's quite obvious to every family, to every police officer, to every social worker and even for politicians that our drug laws are an abysmal failure. The AG's proposed changes are a step forward but do not go far enough. It is time to think big.' Mr Noffs pointed to the injecting room in Kings Cross and pill testing in ACT as trials that have been successfully rolled out and encouraged lawmakers to continue to think outside the box when it came to drugs. 'Locking kids up for experimenting is not only a waste of money but a waste of life. Locking kids up transforms them into criminals and often for life,' Mr Noffs said. 'Recidivism rates are tragic. Yes, treatment is cheaper and works and our laws need to support easier pathways to it. We can't imprison our way out of drug problems.' A Catholic school that enforced a strict dress code at its recent Year 12 formal has gained support by hundreds of concerned parents. Students were outraged when Mary MacKillop College in Brisbane requested photos of the girls' gowns to be approved prior their big night on Saturday. The school also issued a formal booklet stating strict attire rules and had photographic examples of appropriate and inappropriate dresses. Plunging necklines, low backs below the waist and high slits were among the banned outfits. And while students were less than impressed, many parents approved of the rules. Students said dresses banned from Mary MacKillop College's school formal (pictured) include ones with plunging necklines, low backs below the waist and high slits Poll Should the school have the right to approve formal dresses? No Yes Undecided Should the school have the right to approve formal dresses? No 123 votes Yes 333 votes Undecided 32 votes Now share your opinion One person wrote that conservative dresses for formals have more class compared to other dress examples looking like 'swimwear'. While another said, 'people can't seem to cope with boundaries and rules these days. Good on the school for having some standards for decency'. Another punter wrote it wasn't about telling women what to do and was common sense given the age of the girls. 'It's a school formal with the majority of the girls underage one would assume,' they wrote. 'No issues with standards for both the girls and the boys.' The college copped more criticism this week when a graduated student complained that a group formal photo showed her cleavage had been altered in a school yearbook. Students said the religious school issued a formal booklet stating strict attire rules and had photographic examples of appropriate (pictured) and inappropriate dresses The 2021 graduate, Olivia Aloisi, 18, said she was 'embarrassed' by the doctored photo, and took her gripe to the school. The former student said she was told the change was made for marketing reasons. 'I went to talk to the vice principal at the time and said ''that's just not okay'',, and she basically said, ''well, you're standing front row, and you're in a low plunge dress it's just not appropriate if we want to use that photo as marketing material for the school'',' Ms Aloisi said. A Brisbane Catholic Education spokesperson described the formal event, which took place last Saturday, as an outstanding success without incident where Year 12 students were 'both beautifully dressed and beautifully behaved.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted the school and Brisbane Catholic Education for further comment. Chinese media outlets have been banned from referring to Shanghai's months-long Covid limits as a 'lockdown'. Restrictions in China's largest city were finally eased on Monday after two months of draconian blocks on day-to-day life. Yet a leaked memo issued by local authorities insists that journalists refer to the restrictions as 'static management-style suppression and suspensions'. Shanghai residents relax at a riverside park yesterday as the city's strict lockdown was eased Shoppers run errands in the freshly reopened city this morning, where limits have been eased It states: 'Do not use the phrase ending the lockdown. Unlike Wuhan, Shanghai never declared a lockdown, so there is no ending the lockdown. 'All parts of Shanghai underwent static management-style suppression and suspensions, but the citys core functions kept operating throughout this period.' The order, released to US-based blog China Digital Times, continued: 'Emphasize that related measures were temporary, conditional, and limited.' The underground in China's largest city was crowded once again with commuters this week Shanghai officials announced a gradual reopening of the city on Sunday evening. Shanghai's Communist Party chief and Xi Jinping ally Li Qiang said the city had 'passed the test under extreme conditions and completed the arduous task'. Libraries, museums, theatres and gyms have reopened, though with strict limits on numbers, in districts that have seen no community Covid cases for seven consecutive days. Busy roads signal the return to normalcy in the formerly shuttered city (image from yesterday) Shops can also reopen at three-quarters capacity. Restaurant dining has also returned. The easing applies in low-risk areas where 22.5million of the city's 25million population resides. China's controversial pursuit of a Zero Covid strategy has been associated with human rights abuses and a mass economic slowdown. Shoppers stand by a supermarket in Jing'An District earlier today after two months indoors Flashpoints of rare civil unrest have included street protests, the breaking of road barriers and scuffles with hazmat-wearing Covid protection guards. While the easing will allow many factories and businesses to resume operations, there are concerns that the recovery will not be immediate. 'I definitely have some worries, things are beyond your control... You can't tell with a pandemic,' said cafe owner Chen Ribin. The move came amid a steady rollback in compulsory measures that have upended daily life for millions while severely disrupting the economy and global supply chains. Negative Covid PCR tests taken within the previous 48 hours remain standard in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere for permission to enter public venues. 'With the lockdown lifting, I feel very happy. I feel today how I feel during Chinese New Year - that kind of mood and joy,' said Wang Xiaowei, 34, who moved to Shanghai from the inland province of Guizhou just a week before the lockdown began. Liu Ruilin, 18, said she wasn't sure her building's security guard would let her and others out on Tuesday night. The restriction ended exactly at midnight, she said. 'Then we said, 'Let's go to the Bund to have fun,'' she said in the city's historic riverside district. 'We thought there wouldn't be too many people here, but we were surprised after coming over that a lot of people are here. I feel pretty good - quite excited.' Health authorities on Wednesday reported just 15 new Covid-19 cases in Shanghai, down from a record high of around 20,000 daily cases in April. The lockdown has prompted an exodus of Chinese and foreign residents, with crowds forming outside the city's Hongqiao Railway Station, where only some train services have resumed. Restrictions on social contact and public transport use in Beijing are also being lifted gradually as cases fall. Pro-democracy blog China Digital Times is run by the University of California. It was set up by professors in 2003 and is supported by the American National Endowment for Democracy. Since 2006 it has been banned in China. Advertisement Johnny Depp tucked into a traditional British fish and chips and washed his meal down with Newcastle Brown Ale on a surprise visit to Tyneside yesterday, staff have revealed, as he celebrated winning his high-profile defamation case with Amber Heard. The Pirates of the Caribbean star left fans stunned after he was spotted sitting inside a pub with musician Sam Fender, just as jurors reached a verdict in his multimillion-dollar US lawsuit against his ex-wife. Onlookers said he thoroughly enjoyed his meal at The Bridge Tavern in Newcastle, where a portion of ale-battered fish, triple-cooked chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce costs 14. The meal is clearly a regular hit with customers, with one Tripadvisor review stating: 'Round up all of the Fish and Chip shop owners in the North East, treat them to easily the best beer battered Fish, Chips, Mushy Pes and Tartar Sauce north of Whitby and show them how it's done properly.' Alongside his food, Depp drank a bottle of the city's favourite Newcastle Brown Ale before also downing a pint of Guinness, trainee assistant manager Naomi Holliday revealed today. She said: 'I was on the day shift and it had been a normal day and he just waltzed in. He walked through the front door and sat on the table in the corner and had some scran. 'He was drinking Brown Ale and had some food. He was really sweet and told us he'd never been to Newcastle before. He ordered fish and chips with his Brown Ale and he had a Guinness after that as well.' The actor was seen shaking hands with supporters upon leaving the pub last night, where staff hailed his friendly demeanour as he chatted with one barmaid about her baby bump. Johnny Depp tucked into a traditional British fish and chips and quizzed punters about the Tyne Bridge on a surprise visit to Newcastle yesterday, staff have revealed - just hours before winning his high-profile defamation case with Amber Heard Onlookers said he thoroughly enjoyed his meal at The Bridge Tavern in Newcastle, where a portion of ale-battered fish, triple-cooked chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce costs 14 Depp was seen in a pub in Newcastle shaking hands with fans on Wednesday as the verdict was being reached Depp was seen in the pub with musician Sam Fender, just hours before a verdict was reached in the high-profile defamation case Depp washed his fish supper down with a bottle of the city's favourite Newcastle Brown Ale Naomi, 22, added: 'Sam Fender came in a couple hours afterwards which was mad. We didn't have the heads up that they were coming so we ended up giving them the area upstairs. 'Nobody was bothering Johnny inside, but there were some people waiting outside, which you can understand. 'People were just excited he was here. I got to chat to him in the outside area. It wasn't for long but it was nice. 'He was asking about Newcastle because he had never been before and he was interested in the Tyne Bridge and the pub. He seemed genuinely interested and for him to come here was amazing. 'There was no mention of the court case or anything like that. We are Geordies so we like to keep things casual. We probably won't ever have another shift like that again. I've only ever seen actor Daniel Ryan in here before. 'The whole thing was just so crazy but it was also fun. Everyone was in good spirits and the pub was busy which was good. He was the soundest bloke ever and was happy to stop and chat to people. 'After we locked up last night I checked social media and it was crazy. I know he's playing at the Sage tonight and who knows he might even come back!' General manager Janine Latchford added: 'Johnny came in first, he was with some friends but he was quite cool. He didn't want anyone to see who he was. 'We gave him a private space and he was the loveliest man I have ever seen in my life. My assistant is heavily pregnant and he was telling her how beautiful being a parent was. He was really down to earth, he was lovely. 'He was incredible. He gave me a hug and I told him that I loved him pretty much as soon as I saw him! He loved the art work and he was asking questions about the Tyne Bridge. He said he'd never been to Newcastle before. 'He was having fish and chips, he said the food was amazing.' The 33-year-old, who lives in Jesmond, said that when Depp first came into the pub at around 5pm he was sat in the corner eating his food. She said the pub gave him the room upstairs where he met Fender, who is from North Shields. Janine said: 'I don't think Sam had met Johnny before. Johnny is doing a show [later] at The Sage. Whoever he was with must have known Sam Fender so they arranged to meet. Sam Fender came about half an hour later when the terrace was closed off.' Janine added: 'It was unbelievable for the pub, I have never seen anything like it before. It has been the most surreal day of my life without doubt! It's insane.' Meanwhile, pregnant bar manager Lauren Whittington posed with the star as he touched her baby bump and passed on some parenting wisdom. She told ITV: 'He noticed I'm pregnant and was asking me how long I have left, then he was giving me some advice on nappies, lack of sleep, and the first few weeks of parenthood, saying it'll be the greatest gift I ever receive and I won't know love like it until I look into her eyes for the first time. 'He was also talking about his kids, who are grown up now, and how magical being a parent is. 'He left about an hour before the verdict and said he had a zoom call about it, so we wished him luck and thanked him for being so kind, and he thanked us for having him.' An excited punter, who did not want to be identified, described seeing the pair in the pub. She said Johnny was wearing sunglasses and a cap. The woman said: 'He was here enjoying a soft drink. Sam Fender was chilling with him. I felt sheer excitement, it's Johnny Depp in Newcastle! He wasn't disguising himself, he was just smiling.' Gary Spedding chatted with the 58-year-old celebrity in the pub and posed for a picture with him, before telling the Guardian: 'He took the time to acknowledge me and look at me even though his security wanted him out of there. He was very gracious and his manner was quite calm. He seemed quite humble and straightforward. 'He couldn't stop for a photograph because his security were worried about him getting mobbed so he was straight out, more or less. 'He seemed to be relaxed and relatively happy. There were people saying hello to him and wishing him well.' Rugby player Gary added: 'He had been sitting in the beer garden downstairs, but he was getting a lot of attention so he was moved to a private area upstairs. I am not the type to get starstruck, but I enjoyed meeting him.' The jury ruled in Johnny Depp's (right) favour yesterday in his blockbuster defamation case against Amber Heard (left) Heard, 35, countersued for $100million claiming that Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman made defamatory statements by calling her claims a 'hoax' Depp's lead attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew are seen outside of the courtroom after Depp's victory As she left court Heard looked downcast while climbing into a truck with blacked out windows with her sister Whitney. A member of her legal team could be seen putting her hand on her back as she got in Over six weeks at the court in Fairfax, Virginia, Depp called 38 witnesses while Heard called 24. Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 movie The Rum Diary, turning up on the red carpet together for its London premiere in 2011 Depp yesterday declared he had 'got his life back' after it was ruled he was defamed in his libel case with Heard and was awarded millions in damages. After less than three days of deliberation, the jury ruled in favor of all three of Depp's defamation claims against Heard, finding that she had falsely accused him of domestic abuse. The actor was awarded $15million - $10million in compensation and $5million in punitive damages. Heard meanwhile won just one of her three countersuit claims, which related to statements made by Depp's lawyer suggesting she and friends had trashed their apartment before calling the police out. She was awarded $2million in compensatory damages out of the $100million she was seeking in her countersuit against her ex-husband and received zero dollars in punitive damages. The judge later reduced Depp's $5million punitive damages award to the Virginia maximum of $350,000, reducing Depp's total to $10,350,000 minus the $2million he was ordered to pay Heard, meaning Depp walks away from the case with $8.35million. Heard said in a statement following the verdict: 'The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. 'I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.' As she left court, Heard looked downcast while climbing into a truck with blacked out windows with her sister Whitney. A member of her legal team could be seen putting her hand on her back as she got in. Heard's spokesperson Alafair Hall told The New York Times she now plans to appeal the jury's verdict, though it is not clear on what grounds she seeks to do so. To be granted an appeal, Heard would likely need to demonstrate that there were errors in the trial, or in the presiding judge's reading of the law. She would also need to post bond of the full $10,350,000, plus interest charges over the course of an appeal trial. Social media - which has been overwhelmingly pro-Depp throughout the duration of the trial - exploded in when the verdict was announced, with the hashtags #TruthWins and #JusticeForJohnny trending for hours. Depp is expected to make an appearance on stage with Jeff Beck during his show at The Sage in Gateshead this evening. Emmanuel Macron has led world leaders in congratulating the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee as France gifted Her Majesty a horse to mark her historic 70 years on the throne today. Macron described the Queen as the 'golden thread that binds our nations together' as he praised her 'devotion to our alliance and to our friendship' in a video message from the Elysee Palace this morning. His warm wishes came ahead of a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe during which the French and British national anthems will both be played, and after France gifted Her Majesty a horse as a nod to her love of all things equestrian. The horse - a seven-year-old grey gelding called Fabuleu de Maucour - previously carried that French Republican Guard standard bearer during the May 8 anniversary parade in Paris marking victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Emmanuel Macron led world leaders in paying tribute to the Queen today, congratulating her on a record-breaking 70 years on the throne It was delivered to Windsor Castle on Wednesday with a ceremonial saddle and cavalry sabre display. Addressing the Queen today, Marcon - speaking mostly in English but partially in French, which Her Majesty speaks fluently - congratulated her on her record-breaking reign which he said had been a 'constant reliance' for France. 'Times have changed, Europe has evolved, our continent is again experiencing war,' he said. 'Throughout these transformations your devotion to our alliance and to our friendship has remained.' He recalled 'the dark days when your family welcomed General de Gaulle in your home' during World War II, when the leader of the Free French and later founding president of France's Fifth Republic took refuge in London from the Nazis. Since then, in 'a lifetime of devotion', Macron said the Queen had 'shared our joys, and seen the deep affection and admiration that the people of France have for you.' Switching to French, he added: 'Celebrating you today is celebrating the sincere and deep friendship which unites our two countries.' Macron's tribute led world leaders in paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth today. In a sign of one of the most-significant aspects of her reign, tribute came from Ireland's Sinn Fein - once the political wing of the Provisional IRA. The Provisional IRA was responsible for the August 1979 bombing which killed Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin, along with two of his family and a friend. Michelle O'Neill, the party's vice president, wrote to the Queen to praise her 'significant' contribution to the peace process in Ireland and to acknowledge her 'dedicated public service to the British people' Ms O'Neill thanked the Queen for her 'warmth and unfailing courtesy' on the occasions when the pair have met and wrote of the 'value and respect' she had for the monarch's contribution to reconciliation France also gifted the Queen a horse - a seven-year-old gelding called Fabuleu de Maucour - as a nod to her love of all things equestrian The horse, which carried the French Republican Guard standard bearer during this year's Victory Day parade in Paris, arrived at Windsor Castle yesterday Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is also expected to name an island after her later today - despite being a Republican. Aspen Island, located in the middle of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin, will be renamed Queen Elizabeth II Island instead. Mr Albanese, who has previously declared his respect for the Queen, said it will be 'an honour' to take part in the ceremony. 'I have the privilege of lighting a beacon as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons and to commence Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Australia,' he said. 'Australia will honour and pay tribute to the remarkable dedication and service of Her Majesty The Queen over the course of the Platinum Jubilee official celebrations. 'I look forward to officially renaming Aspen Island to Queen Elizabeth II Island later this week as a mark of Australia's appreciation and respect for Her Majesty.' The ceremony to open the island will include a 21-gun salute, and a Royal Australian Air Force flypast. For the next four days, the UK and its Commonwealth are celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee - 70 years since she was coronated, and a milestone that no monarch of these isles has passed before. Elizabeth, then 25, became queen on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI. Her formal coronation took place on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey. Now aged 96, she is this country's longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach seven decades on the throne. Anthony Albanese, the new Australian Prime Minister who is also a Republican, will rename an island in Canberra after Queen Elizabeth later today Boris Johnson has been urged to force the hand of 'self-indulgent narcissists' trying to topple him by calling for a vote on his leadership, as allies of the embattled Prime Minister rallied around him. Amid claims that the number of backbench rebels prepared to demand he goes could reach critical mass next week, Cabinet ministers are said to have suggested he try to catch them off-guard. The PM believes he will survive a confidence vote, it is understood, and some Cabinet ministers privately want him to 'force the issue' by holding a vote ahead of two by-elections on June 23 to limit the number of rebels. The results in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton could push more wavering backbenchers into open rebellion if they are bad for the party amid the fallout from Partygate. One Cabinet minister told the Times: 'He doesn't care whether he wins by 100 or 10. He will plough on. Colleagues are frothing at the mouth in a way the public is not.' Mr Johnson is also believed to have delayed plans for a Cabinet reshuffle this month as he seeks to keep senior ministers and lower ranks onside. Changes were mooted after the May local elections, but they are now expected no earlier than July, with a source telling the Telegraph they were still 'only just sweeping the debris off the deck' after the Sue Gray report reopened Partygate wounds. Last night Priti Patel led Cabinet ministers in rallying around the PM and told plotters aiming to remove him from power to 'forget it'. Amid claims that the number of backbench rebels prepared to demand he goes could reach critical mass next week, Cabinet ministers are said to have suggested he try to catch them off-guard. Line of duty: Priti Patel yesterday walking in Pall Mall, central London Tory rebels think they could get enough support for a confidence vote next week, and the Prime Minister is said to be increasingly frustrated with open rebellion among some Tory politicians. But the Home Secretary has warned MPs that voters will not forgive the party if it descends into civil war instead of tackling issues such as the cost of living crisis. In an interview with the Daily Mail, she denounced those writing no confidence letters as creating a 'sideshow' rather than finding solutions. Mr Johnson asked what the 'point' of a vote would be while discussing the issue with colleagues, and one ally said: 'There's no alternative strategy, no alternative plan, no big ideological divide. 'MPs have been telling us for weeks that we need to focus on cost of living pressures. 'Would it not be the most self-indulgent, narcissistic and contemptuous thing to decide that now is the time for another three months of Conservative navel-gazing?' It comes after Cabinet ministers yesterday dismissed suggestions Mr Johnson could face a confidence vote from Tory MPs next week following the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries warned a challenge would be an 'indulgence' as she accused plotters of doing Labour's work for them. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said the 'vast majority' of Tories want Mr Johnson to 'get on with the job' as he rejected claims the rebels have the numbers to remove him. And Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, said the PM should not resign as 'the country is lucky to have him'. Their support came just a day after Dame Andrea Leadsom criticised the PM over Partygate while MP John Stevenson announced he was writing a letter of no confidence. On a visit to The Mall yesterday to see police preparations for the Jubilee, Miss Patel urged her Tory colleagues not to overshadow the celebrations with rows over leadership. 'Events like this are about celebrating our country, our nation, our values, and our monarchy. This is about Her Majesty the Queen I think that's where all the focus should be,' she told the Mail. 'Just coming here, the mood, you can see the heart and soul of the nation will be lifted. This weekend is going to be all about the long-standing dedicated service that Her Majesty the Queen has given that nation. Everyone should rally behind that.' Miss Patel urged Tory rebels and those who see themselves as leadership contenders to stop creating a distraction, adding: 'Our job is to deliver for the people. End of story. 'This isn't about a parade [of leadership candidates] or a contest or letters. We need to concentrate on doing our jobs. Look at what is going on in the world right now, look at the challenges that we face domestically. We can't ignore those. 'Writing letters is a sideshow, quite frankly, rather than focusing on the real challenges that we have to find solutions to.' She urged MPs wanting to get rid of Mr Johnson to 'forget it' as she praised his role on the international stage. 'Look at our standing in the world when it comes to Russia and Ukraine,' she said. 'Look at the leadership that has been provided. 'Our job is to deliver on the people's priorities. They won't thank the Conservative Party for talking about itself at a time when people have anxieties, concerns, apprehensions. Our job is deliver for them.' Miss Patel urged Tory rebels and those who see themselves as leadership contenders to stop creating a distraction. Pictured yesterday in Green Park, London She added: '[Mr Johnson] is the man that won us the election, a man that has worked hard to deliver for us right now. There's no question about that. But on top of that, he's a man that's focused on the people's priorities and this government is focused on the people's priorities.' Under Conservative Party rules, Mr Johnson will face a confidence vote if 54 Tory MPs write to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, demanding one. Critics would then need more than half of the party's MPs to support removing him. Mr Raab yesterday said he did not believe a vote will be triggered next week as he 'doubts' there are even 40 letters in. He also dismissed suggestions Mr Johnson could call an early election as 'highly unlikely'. Mrs Dorries also claimed efforts to topple Mr Johnson were being co-ordinated by a handful of ambitious individuals. Asked who was behind the campaign, she told BBC Radio 4 she had 'no idea' but said 'the overwhelming number' of Conservative MPs back the PM. ONE of the plotters attempting to topple the PM has called for the UK to rejoin the EU's single market to ease the cost of living crisis. In an article for the Politics Home website, Tobias Ellwood said the Brexit deal had 'strangled' industry. He added that economic challenges 'would disappear' if a softer model was used. The family of a British software engineer shot and killed in Mexico said he was in 'the wrong place at the wrong time'. Software engineer Ben Corser, 37, was murdered while picking up shopping in Colima, western Mexico last Tuesday (May 24). Ben was sitting in a car on Camino Real Boulevard when he and two friends, Claudio and Alfredo, were shot and killed. Ben Corser, 37 (left and right), was picking up groceries in Colima, western Mexico when he was shot dead alongside two pals sitting in their car. He worked as a software developer in London Ben was 'in the wrong place at the wrong time', his parents wrote in a moving Facebook tribute The Cornishman had been in Mexico since January as a tourist. His parents, former headteacher Andrew Corser and Lorraine Downes, and his brother Tom Corser, said he was in 'the wrong place at the wrong time'. They said Ben had 'become part of the community' in western Mexico. Ben's body will be returned to the UK for a funeral in St Just, Cornwall. The Corser family said: 'Ben has been in Mexico since January 2022, where he had been having a very happy and sociable time, living in different parts of Mexico, becoming part of the community, and also moving around a bit. The adventurous Brit had been in Mexico since January but was caught in a fierce crime wave The Cornishman was living with a Mexican-American family near Colima when he was killed 'Most recently, Ben was living with a Mexican-American family near Colima city. Two of the young men in the household (Claudio and Alfredo) were skateboarders and Ben joined them skating. 'On Tuesday evening, May 24 2022, Ben and Claudio come back on the bus from Guadalajara and Alfredo picked them up in the car. 'They went along the main boulevard in Colima and stopped at a supermarket to get some food for Mamma. 'While they were in the car, outside the supermarket, all three young men, including Ben sitting in the back seat, were shot dead. Ben was one of the three men killed in their car on Camino Real Boulevard (pictured) last week Ben and his pals were murdered outside the Macaza supermarket in Colima, western Mexico 'We have had no explanation, no reasons given, no suggestion of robbery, kidnapping or anything else. 'No doubt the police will eventually conclude their investigation and tell us what they think happened - there had been a dramatic upsurge in Colima in the last few weeks, although this was not directed at all at tourists. 'It it most likely that this was a question of Ben (and Claudio and Alfredo) being tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time. 'Thank you for all your lovely expressions of regret and support, and all of the offers of help - St Just, Ben's large network of friends, have given the family vital comfort in this appalling time of grief. Thank you.' Father Andrew posted this moving tribute and thanked well-wishers for their 'lovely' messages People took to social media to pay tribute. One user wrote: 'Sincere condolences to you all. I haven't seen Ben since school, but it goes without saying that he was bursting with charisma. 'What an absolute tragedy. Love and strength to you all x.' Another added: 'I would say to his parents, your son was not in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had every right to be where he was. 'It was the perpetrators who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. My condolences to you and all family and friends for your loss.' A Facebook commenter wrote: 'I'm so sorry Tom, sending much love to you and your mum and dad. 'I have fond memories of Ben, he was so much fun and just a really nice lad.' Cornish businessman Chris Cleave, 54, was shot and killed in Cancun in March And another added: 'So sorry to hear this Tom..thoughts with you and the family pal.' Officials said they have been in touch with the UK government to organise the repatriation of Ben's body. State Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Gustavo Adrian Joya Cervera said: 'We are in contact with several instances of the government at the federal level for the purpose of clarifying this issue.' There has been a spate of violence in Colima, the capital city of the Mexican state of the same name. Local reporter Bertha Reynoso tweeted: 'Engineer Ben Marshall Corser is the first foreigner victim of this wave of violence that has been experienced in Colima since January 25.' Nearly 400 people have reportedly been killed in the crime wave. Ben is also the second person from Cornwall to be shot and killed in Mexico this year. Chris Cleave, 54, was driving through Playa del Carmen in Cancun, on the opposite side of the country, when he was killed in March. On Wednesday, a grand jury charged the White 18-year-old suspect in the deadly shootings of ten Black persons at a Buffalo supermarket with domestic terrorism motivated by hatred and ten counts of first-degree murder. Payton Gendron, who has been in custody since the May 14 shooting, is expected to appear in Erie County Court on Thursday. The 25-count complaint also includes counts of murder and attempted murder as a hate crime, as well as weapons possession. The suspect had already been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting, which also injured three persons. Payton Gendron Pleads Not Guilty Gendron pled not guilty. Prosecutors notified a court on May 20 that the grand jury had voted to indict the suspect but was continuing its investigation. Federal investigators are also looking into the prospect of hate crime charges being brought against the suspect, who purportedly explained his intentions and racial motivations in hundreds of pages of writings he put online soon before the shooting. A helmet-mounted camera was used to webcast the attack. According to detectives, the suspect traveled nearly three hours from his residence in Conklin, New York, with the intent of killing as many Black people as possible. His attorney, Brian Parker, said he hadn't seen the indictment and couldn't comment, noting that the prosecution and defense counsel had been forbidden from discussing the matter publicly by a court, CBS News reported. Following the assault, Mayor Byron Brown stated that the suspect traveled there to take as many black lives as possible. Since then, a 180-page essay purportedly written by the accused attacker has emerged, in which he labels himself as a fascist and white supremacist. The gunman, clad in military attire, pulled into the Tops Friendly Market parking lot and began live-streaming the shooting spree. A security guard fired six bullets at the assailant, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, according to authorities. The shooter is suspected of murdering the guard before proceeding with his attack. Read Also: Brazil Landslides: At Least 91 Dead, Many More Are Missing as Heavy Rains Trigger Disaster Zone Buffalo Shooting Leads NY to Investigate SocMed Firms The ten persons that were slain were all black. Among those killed were a dad purchasing cupcakes for his son's birthday and a woman who had gone shopping after seeing her spouse in a nursing facility. Separately, the top prosecutor in New York is looking into whether social media firms facilitated the assault by allowing it to be aired, promoted, or organized through their platforms. Twitch, the website where the attack was televised, claimed the footage was removed less than two minutes after it began, but not before it was cloned and spread on other streaming sites. The United States is now facing an epidemic of gun-related violence, with the CDC reporting that 54 Americans are killed by a weapon every day. Only ten days after the Buffalo massacre, an 18-year-old shooter holding the identical AR-15 type assault weapon assaulted a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, murdering 19 children and two adults. Following the Uvalde assault, US President Joe Biden urged American politicians to implement common-sense gun legislation. Democratic legislators are pressing for stronger limits on firearms and are presently debating which national changes to present to Congress, such as bans on specific types of weapons or further limitations on who may acquire guns. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated on Wednesday that an assault weapon ban is also being explored. However, considering how few Republican senators are sympathetic to additional gun regulation, Senate Democrats will have a difficult time obtaining the 60 votes required to pass an assault weapons ban. According to Fox News, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated last month that the Justice Department is examining Gendron's acts as a "hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism." Gendron reportedly live-streamed the shooting before it was removed from social media. He also allegedly uploaded a dozens-page treatise describing his obsession with White supremacist ideas, as per BBC. Related Article: Texas Shooting Gunman Salvador Ramos Was a Bully and 'Loved Hurting Animals', Classmates Say @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement **What are you doing to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee?** Please email: lizzie.may@mailonline.co.uk and pictures@mailonline.co.uk with your pictures** Advertisement As the nation begins its jubilant festivities for the Queen's record-breaking 70 years on the throne, MailOnline readers are showing off their best bakes, cakes, dressed-up scarecrows and even well-timed clouds which look like the shape of the UK, all for Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations... The first of a four-day bank holiday weekend for Great Britain begins with the Queen's Birthday Parade, known as Trooping the Colour, which has been a tradition to honour the monarch for 260 years. Her Majesty is set to make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace Balcony today, first to watch her son and heir, Prince Charles, who will inspect the troops of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards along with more than 1,500 officers and soldiers from the Household Division. The procession will include at least 250 horses, hundreds of military musicians and members of the royal family will go on horseback during the parade. Prince Charles will be accompanied on horseback by Prince Willam and Anne, Princess Royal. Later on today, the Queen's second appearance on Buckingham Palace balcony will be for the RAF flypast, whichwill see some 71 aircraft soar over The Mall in a historic display featuring Spitfires, Red Arrow Hawks and a Lancaster bomber. But for those not watching festivities unfold first-hand on The Mall, plenty have found other ways of honouring the Queen for this unprecedented celebration of Her Majesty's 70 years on the throne. Lucky Summer-Rose Jeffries shares her birthday with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - and couldn't be happier with her special three-tiered Victoria Sponge cake, adorned with strawberries, raspberries and bluberries, courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad. There have been a fair few scarecrows scattered around the country dressed up to look like Her Majesty, with one in Launton, Oxfordshire, depicted enjoying a glass of gin in her dog-walking gear wearing a sign that reads, 'Cheers to 70 years!'. St Mary's Church in Launton, Bicester, is fundraising via the Jubilee by hosting a trail from 28th May to 12 June, where participants have to find 42 royally themed scarecrows and royal displays around the village. Here are some of the best patriotic pictures from MailOnline readers... Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appears in the background Lucky Summer-Rose Jeffries shares her birthday with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - and couldn't be happier with her special cake, courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad Ready for the celebrations: One expert baker, aptly named Vanda Baker, channelled her inner Mary Berry to make this patriotic cake in Bicester, Oxfordshire The Queen is depicted enjoying a glass of gin in her dog-walking gear in the Oxfordshire village of Launton, wearing a sign that reads, 'Cheers to 70 years!' Natalie Baker from Bicester, Oxfordshire shows off her patriotic red, white and blue nails, even featuring a tiny union jack within a love heart Deborah James, of Hampstead in North London, has put up a flag pole and bunting outside her house to celebrate the Jubilee Jane Wood's Platinum Jubilee-themed display at her home in Charlton Mackrell in Somerset, where she has covered her wooden gate with Union Jacks, purple Jubilee bunting and some of the Queen's most famous portraits St Mary's Church in Launton, Bicester, is fundraising via the Jubilee by hosting a trail from 28th May to 12 June. One of the scarecrows looks like a corgi with a Jubilee flag placed in its mouth Number 26 on the Launton scarecrow trail, which is being done to fundraise for St Mary's Church, has a scarecrow dressed like The Queen in her winter dog-walking wear complete with wellies and a tweed blazer Participants of the Launton trail have to find 42 royally themed scarecrows and royal displays around the village. One of them is pictured Launton has scarecrows and royal displays around the village, as pictured, with a purple satin pillow to showcase a homemade crown complete with colourful stick-on jewels to match that of Her Majesty's One house in Oxfordshire, taking part in the scarecrow trail in the village of Launton, displayed their very own Duchess of Cambridge, who wore a crown with blue and red hearts and a red, white and blue outfit Another scarecrow placed in Launton, Bicester, Oxfordshire, for the trail is of the Queen's Guard with a red jacket, gold button details and drawn-on facial features, who is being sheltered by the rain Pictured left, a medieval jester scarecrow, and right, a suit-wearing scarecrow, which may be one created to liken Prince Charles, who wears a medal with the Queen on in and holding a sign celebrating the 70 years on the throne Number 31 in the scarecrow trail in Launton has a grey curly wig, possibly to depict the Queen, wearing a silver crown complete with red jewels and a long pearl necklace Another scarecrow in Launton depicts Anne, Princess Royal who accompanied Prince Charles on horseback alongside Prince William for Trooping the Colour Wendy Malone, from Surrey, pictured second from right in the left photo, spent the day on The Mall watching Trooping the Colour with her grandchildren, pictured from left to right in left photo, beside the police officer: Tilly, Blake, Vinnie, Niamh, Wendy and Carol Malone, and in the right photo, Niamh, Macie and Tilly Malone This display at the front of a house in Launton shows scarecrows of a Queen's Guard sat with Her Majesty as they enjoy a cup of tea in front of a Union Jack and the Ukrainian flag This house in a village near Harrogate, north Yorkshire, put a cardboard cut out of the Queen to look as though 'she is on the balcony', waving at passing people and traffic The celebrations have gone further than just the UK though - with one patriotic German joining in with putting up flags of the UK's four nations, the Royal Standard, and even miniature black-hatted redcoats which look as though they are guarding his home like they do the royal residences in Britain Stephen Rosner, 57, who lives near Mainz, western Germany, decorated his home (pictured) with every royal ornament to hand. He told MailOnline he will be celebrating the Jubilee with some friends for tea at 5pm this bank holiday Thursday Stephen Rosner's home, near Mainz, in western Germany, has also got involved in the celebrations. He said: 'At the time of the Queen's visit to Germany in 1978, I was 14 and happened to be watching television when the festivities were broadcast. It made a deep and lasting impression on me and it turned out that this moment would quite literally change my life' Chris Whewell shared a picture of preparations for his garden party in Bridgwater, which already has a seaside theme. He said it 'marries with all our Union Jack items' Even those not on home soil have enjoyed a touch of Jubilee celebrations to their holidays, with Italian global cruise line, MSC Cruises, based in Geneva, which is currently in Oslo, Norway, presenting a gigantic cake (2.7x4.8m) shown to all those on board which sat in the lobby area of the ship. Ian Sherwood, a councillor from Swaffham, Norfolk, pictured left on board the ship with his wife Julie Julie Sherwood, also pictured on board MSC Cruises, also had Jubilee-themed chocolate displays, with one depicting the Imperial State Crown and another of Her Majesty's favourite dog breed, a corgi Lyn Warren pictured the hedge outside her home in East Leake, Loughborough, which she has decorated with a scarecrow-like figure, with the face of Her Majesty sat on a plastic horse Lyn Warren's home in East Leake, Loughborough, Leicestershire, also added the head of a plastic horse by the front door as well as another scarecrow-like Queen sat on a chair with a corgi on her lap Henry Watkinson, 11, enjoyed celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on Thursday by heading down to London donning a card Jubilee crown and holding a Union Jack flag **What are you doing to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee? Please email: lizzie.may@mailonline.co.uk with your snaps** Boris Johnson and wife Carrie led political homage to the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee today as tributes were paid to the Monarch's decades of public service. Mrs Johnson was in a cerise pink outfit with frill detail and large matching hat as she accompanied the Prime Minister - in sober morning dress - to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in central London this morning. Politicians from across the political divide came together today to praise the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee, with tributes pouring in from MPs who highlighted the monarch's years of selflessness. Former prime minister Theresa May tweeted: 'For 70 years, Her Majesty has been steadfast in her selflessness, in her dedication to duty and in her commitment to her country. For that we simply say: thank you, Maam. God Save The Queen.' And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: 'The Queen has shared our greatest moments and suffered with us in our darkest days. This weekend, we celebrate Her Majesty.' Mrs Johnson was in bright pink as she accompanied the Prime Minister - in sobre morning dress - to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in central London this morning. He had earlier left No10 with senior military officials to join a day of pageantry. Former prime minister Theresa May tweeted: 'For 70 years, Her Majesty has been steadfast in her selflessness, in her dedication to duty and in her commitment to her country. For that we simply say: thank you, Maam. God Save The Queen.' Senior Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said the weekend of events was 'a celebration of the Elizabethan Age that has seen our lives transformed'. The former British Army officer said: 'Queen Elizabeth may not have decreed it but she gave the feeling of stability that allowed a speed of change and innovation that left others struggling with unrest and revolution.' Members of the Royal Family including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived for Trooping the Colour today as Prince Harry and Meghan join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at last. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: 'The Queen has shared our greatest moments and suffered with us in our darkest days. This weekend, we celebrate Her Majesty.' The Sussexes are also set to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion - and the children are likely to meet their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at last. Members of the Royal Family including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived for Trooping the Colour today as Prince Harry and Meghan join senior royals at an official engagement for the first time in more than two years. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty set to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional flypast. Thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined the Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. Australia's torrid summer of rain has left thousands of homes covered in mould and now there are fears it could have serious health rammifications. From the back of photo frames and wall-mounted bedheads to hand woven baskets and storage canisters, thousands of households are battling the dangerous growth and discovering it in hard to spot areas. Canberra resident Caitlin Ross recently underwent a chest scan after having difficulty breathing - revealing she had mould spores growing in her lungs. 'I had intense pain in my lung and I knew something was really, really wrong,' she told Nine News. 'I'd been through three different courses of antibiotics and nothing had worked. I was pretty lucky at that point to even be alive.' Caitlin Ross says she will have breathing difficulties for the rest of her life after doctors found mould spores growing in her lungs Australia's wettest year on record has seen mould spring up on everything from surfaces to shoes and clothes, but the longterm health impact is still yet to be fully measured. Doctors say people with previous conditions including asthma should be extremely vigilant, with recovering Covid patients also encouraged to monitor for potential mould. Ms Ross has struggled breathing for two years but admitted she doesn't know where she was exposed to the harmful spores but said the agony was constant. 'I was a bit disgusted, to be honest, mould is something you think is a bit gross and icky and that was inside of me,' she said. 'I have permanent scarring in my lungs. If I breathe too hard or exercise too hard that will pull on the scarring and cause a lot of pain.' Ms Ross has permanent scarring on her lungs as a result of mould spores that grew in her organs She said doctors told her the pain was 'never going to go away' and she would 'never live life without pain', confirming the winter months were particularly difficult. Professor John Blakey, a respiratory specialist with Asthma Australia, said people could be breathing mould spores without necessarily having it in their home. 'It's not just the mould you can see, we are all breathing in lots of mould spores every day,' he said. Mould has become a common part of Australian society after the wettest year on record 'In the most extreme circumstances, people with depleted immune systems can get a pure infection and that can be very serious.' While Professor Blakey said Australians shouldn't panic but be aware of its potential problems, Ms Ross had a more stark warning. 'You may not think it's very dangerous, but I nearly died from mould, so it's something you should be aware of, that you should take seriously,' she said. Advertisement Britons adorned in red, white and blue have today been raising a glass to the Queen up and down the country to mark Her Majesty's unprecedented 70th anniversary on the throne. The Queen's Platinum Jubilee has led the nation to throw a four-day party fit for a royal, with families, schools, and entire towns coming together to rejoice in celebrating the British monarch. Excited royal fans have set up tables in the streets of Wales, while shopping precincts in Manchester have been covered in Union flag bunting. Meanwhile, in Windsor - where the Queen has spent much of her time in recent months - people have been seen raising a glass on park benches to her Majesty's record-breaking reign. This morning's official celebrations kicked off with the Queen's Birthday Parade, led by Prince Charles and accompanied by Prince William and Anne, Princess Royal on horseback, where the heir has inspected the troops of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards along with more than 1,500 officers and soldiers from the Household Division. Her Majesty has made one of two appearances on the Buckingham Palace Balcony today, to watch the RAF flypast, which will saw some 71 aircraft soar over The Mall in a historic display featuring Spitfires, Red Arrow Hawks and a Lancaster bomber. The Red Arrows displayed the number 70 in a jaw-dropping formation for Her Majesty. The show featured more than three times the number of aircraft which took part in the Queen's last birthday parade flypast in central London in 2019. The fleet took off from military bases around the UK before joining holding patterns around the south-east of England. Then flew directly down the length of The Mall and over Buckingham Palace - to the delight of the Royal Family and the thousands of watching fans. Across the rest of the country, Britons have been finding their own ways to honour the Queen, by way of street parties, miles of bunting and even scarecrows transformed into members of the royal family. Around 500 people took to Middleton Street in Llandrindod, Wales, for a Platinum Jubilee street party, pictured. Attendees wore party hats with Union Jacks on them and waved flags Hundreds of residents in the picturesque village of Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire attended a huge street party this afternoon in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Families and friends joined in on Jubilee celebrations at Upton Country House in Poole, Dorset, waving Union Jacks and sitting in the June sunshine Villagers in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire brought along food to share and also enjoyed flowering, pudding and drawing competitions on a 60-metre-long table outside the village hall, with around 200 people in attendance Three-year-old Elodie Tennant, pictured, enjoys the festivities at a family fun day to celebrate the Jubilee as she wears a headband with Union Jacks waving from springs above her head in Poole, Dorset today Ladies pictured enjoying a royal cup-of-tea on a sunny bank holiday Thursday in celebration of the Queen's 70 years on the throne. Pictured in Upton Country House, Poole, Dorset These four women brought out their camping chairs and sombrero, as well as a few cans of Pimms, to enjoy celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee which kicked off today Sue Carter, left, and Kim King, right, are pictured in Windsor on a sunny bank holiday Thursday where they enjoyed a glass of fizz sat on a bench outside of Windsor Castle Across the country, Britons have been finding their own ways to honour the Queen, by way of street parties, miles of bunting and even scarecrows transformed into members of he royal family. Pictured is Canal Street in Manchester Great Britain has brought out the red, white and blue bunting in full force this bank holiday weekend to come together for Her Majesty's unprecedented 70th anniversary on the throne - pictured, a man adding more Union Jacks to the display outside Churchills Bar on Canal Street, Manchester This building in Sonning, Berkshire, displayed Union Jacks from the gutters for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this weekend Windsor in particular looks very colourful for the Platinum festivities, with a huge Union Jack flag and bunting hung up everywhere to welcome those travelling into the royal borough's train station. The high street is equally as red, white and blue with plenty of flags covering lampposts in the area. Plenty of homes and pubs have special decorations including balloons and Jubilee posters in the national colours of the United Kingdom. In Manchester's Canal Street, the entire street has been covered in Union Jacks and red, white and blue bunting which has been hung from the trees to the bars just above those sat enjoying a bank holiday beverage. Nell Gwynn's tearoom in Windsor has a special painting of the Queen placed front and centre in the shop front window, surrounded by some Platinum Jubilee bunting. Even those not on home soil have enjoyed a touch of Jubilee celebrations to their holidays, with Italian global cruise line, MSC Cruises, based in Geneva, which is currently in Oslo, Norway, presenting a gigantic cake shown to all those on board. They have also displayed Platinum Jubilee flags on the communal areas. Ian Sherwood, a councillor from Swaffham, Norfolk, shared his pictures of the 9x16 ft (2.7x4.8m), which sat in the lobby area of the ship. One family went to Windsor with their Union Jack flags to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee near Her Majesty's castle. Pictured on Thursday morning The Queen Charlotte pub in Windsor decorated their building by hanging up plenty of Union Jack flag bunting which went out into the high street The Queen's Platinum Jubilee has led the nation to throw a four-day party fit for a royal, with families, schools, and entire towns coming together to rejoice in celebrating the British monarch. Pictured, a windowfront in Windsor Her Majesty is set to make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace Balcony today, first to watch her son and heir, Prince Charles , who will inspect the troops of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards along with more than 1,500 officers and soldiers from the Household Division. Pictured is a home in Windsor celebrating on bank holiday Thursday Windsor in particular looks very colourful for the Platinum festivities, with the high street painted red, white and blue with plenty of flags covering lampposts in the area. Pictured, The Carpenter's Arms on Market Street in Windsor on Thursday Plenty of homes and pubs have special decorations including balloons and Jubilee posters in the national colours of the United Kingdom, like this front door, which even has a cardboard corgi decorated with red, white and blue roses Residents at a street in Westminster, central London, are pictured eating lunch at their very own street party, complete with red, white and blue bunting above them Residents of Payne Avenue in Hove, east Sussex, celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with a street party as celebrations take place throughout the country over the next few days Four women draped themselves in Union Jack flags as they relaxed in London's St James's Park, not far from Buckingham Palace following the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the Queen One man donned a Union Jack t-shirt as well as a wooly aviator hat coloured in red, white and blue as he chats to others at St James's Park in central London on Thursday afternoon Members of the public donned the Great British flag, like the man pictured, in the afternoon of the Platinum Jubilee's first day of events in London There have been a fair few scarecrows scattered around the country dressed up to look like Her Majesty, with one in Launton, Oxfordshire, depicted enjoying a glass of gin in her dog-walking gear wearing a sign that reads, 'Cheers to 70 years!'. Lucky Summer-Rose Jeffries shares her birthday with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - and couldn't be happier with her special three-tiered Victoria Sponge cake, adorned with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad. Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appears in the background. Around 500 people took to Middleton Street in Llandrindod, Wales, for a Platinum Jubilee street party, pictured. Attendees wore party hats with Union Jacks on them. Around 200 people sat down for a tea party on a 60-metre-long table outside the village hall as most of the village joined in the celebrations Villagers brought along food to share and also enjoyed flowering, pudding and drawing competitions at the Jubilee Street Party in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire, on Thursday afternoon The jubilee cake competition at Little Shelford's Jubilee Street Party (pictured) was judged by local chef, Ben Orpwood, who appeared on the Great British Menu Hundreds of residents in the picturesque village of Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire attended a huge street party this afternoon in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Around 200 people sat down for a tea party on a 60-metre-long table outside the village hall as most of the village joined in the celebrations. Villagers brought along food to share and also enjoyed flowering, pudding and drawing competitions. The jubilee cake competition was judged by local chef, Ben Orpwood, who appeared on the Great British Menu. Some 18 royal family members watched on from the balcony including: The Queen; Charles and Camilla; William and Kate with George, Charlotte and Louis; Edward and Sophie and their children Louise and James; Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York did not make an appearance on the balcony. Prince Andrew has tested positive for Covid so will not be able to attend the thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral tomorrow. This morning, the Queen sent a car and security detail to collect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with their two young children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, who will turn one on Saturday, after their private jet landed at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire from on Wednesday. Her Majesty's Land Rover greeted the family, who live in California, and their children at before taking them on a 40-minute drive to their UK home, Frogmore Cottage, just a stone's throw away from Windsor Castle. Erika Ruby, age three, is pictured holding a donut at the Mayfair Jubilee Street Party on North Audley Street in central London People at street party on Payne Avenue, in Hove, toast to the Queen on the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations A jubliant man lifts his pint of beer up as he celebrates with other residents of Payne Avenue, Hove, in east Sussex, for the Platinum Jubilee A 'surprise visit' from the royals: This group, pictured in the walled gardens of Upton Country House in Poole, Dorset, try on face masks of Prince Charles, the Duchess of Sussex, The Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen and a corgi Plenty of Union Jacks were waving around Upton House in Poole, Dorset today, with some even wearing dedicated t-shirts for the Jubilee Warwick town centre held a community celebration in Market Square, organised by Warwick Town Council. There has bee live music as well as food and drink being provided from local eateries An Elvis Presley impersonator with two corgis entertain people during Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Warwick town centre Warwick Mayor Richard Edgington is pictured with two corgis outside Jayne of Warwick Florest on Brook Street during celebrations in the town centre Poppy Gillespie, age two, wears a costume fit for a royal while holding her cuddly toy as she walks into the Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Hillsborough Castle in Royal Hillsborough, Northern Ireland on Thursday Northern Ireland's Hillsborough Castle held a Jubilee garden party on Thursday. The Queen visited the Castle and Gardens on her Coronation tour in 1953 Lynsey Davidson, pictured, wears a crown as she toasts during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland Chris Whewell shared a picture of preparations for his garden party in Bridgwater, which already has a seaside theme. He said it 'marries with all our Union Jack items' The celebrations have gone further than just the UK though - with one patriotic German joining in with putting up flags of the UK's four nations, the Royal Standard, and even miniature black-hatted redcoats which look as though they are guarding his home like they do the royal residences in Britain Stephen Rosner, 57, who lives near Mainz, western Germany, decorated his home (pictured) with every royal ornament to hand. He told MailOnline he will be celebrating the Jubilee with some friends for tea at 5pm this bank holiday Thursday Stephen Rosner's home, near Mainz, in western Germany, has also got involved in the celebrations. He said: 'At the time of the Queen's visit to Germany in 1978, I was 14 and happened to be watching television when the festivities were broadcast. It made a deep and lasting impression on me and it turned out that this moment would quite literally change my life' The monarch had been hoping to be able attend the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday, but has since had to pull out after experiencing 'discomfort' on the first day of celebrations. Her wider family including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will still attend. Outdoor parties will also take place on Sunday as part of the Big Jubilee Lunch, while there will be a televised concert on the BBC from Buckingham Palace the day before. It is also expected that she will appear again on the balcony after the Pageant parade finale on Sunday. The Queen, 96, is also set to spend time with the Sussexes, who are bringing their children Archie and Lilibet over from the US - and could meet Lili for the first time as she celebrates her first birthday on Saturday. On Sunday, thousands of people will gather across the country as more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches and street parties are staged in celebration of the Queen's record-breaking 70 year reign. Royal family members will also visit every corner of the UK over the weekend for official engagements - with William and Kate going to Wales; Edward and Sophie travelling to Northern Ireland; and Anne to Scotland. And they will be welcomed by thousands of Union Jacks as the country has pulled no punches when it comes to decorating its high streets with plenty of bunting. This house in a village near Harrogate, north Yorkshire, put a cardboard cut out of the Queen to look as though 'she is on the balcony', waving at passing people and traffic The monarch, 96, will make an extra Jubilee appearance at Windsor Castle at 9.25pm today. It forms part of special dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge. Pictured is inside Windsor and Eton Riverside Station Nell Gwynn's tearoom in Windsor has a special painting of the Queen placed front and centre in the shop front window, surrounded by some Platinum Jubilee bunting Number 26 on the Launton scarecrow trail, which is being done to fundraise for St Mary's Church, has a scarecrow dressed like The Queen in her winter dog-walking wear complete with wellies and a tweed blazer St Mary's Church in Launton, Bicester, is fundraising via the Jubilee by hosting a trail from 28th May to 12 June. One of the scarecrows looks like a corgi with a Jubilee flag placed in its mouth Jane Wood's Platinum Jubilee-themed display at her home in Charlton Mackrell in Somerset, where she has covered her wooden gate with Union Jacks, purple Jubilee bunting and some of the Queen's most famous portraits The Queen is depicted enjoying a glass of gin in her dog-walking gear in the Oxfordshire village of Launton The celebrations have gone further than just the UK though - with one patriotic German joining in with putting up flags of the UK's four nations, the Royal Standard, and even miniature black-hatted redcoats which look as though they are guarding his home like they do the royal residences in Britain. Stephen Rosner, 57, who lives near Mainz, western Germany, decorated his home with every royal ornament to hand. He told MailOnline he will be celebrating the Jubilee with some friends for tea at 5pm this bank holiday Thursday. He said: 'At the time of the Queen's visit to Germany in 1978, I was 14 and happened to be watching television when the festivities were broadcast. It made a deep and lasting impression on me and it turned out that this moment would quite literally change my life. 'Ever since then, I have been fascinated by everything connected with Great Britain, including its history, its people, its way of life, its royal family and especially Her Majesty.' Even those not on home soil have enjoyed a touch of Jubilee celebrations to their holidays, with Italian global cruise line, MSC Cruises, based in Geneva, which is currently in Oslo, Norway, presenting a gigantic cake (2.7x4.8m) shown to all those on board which sat in the lobby area of the ship The MSC cruise line, based in Geneva, which is currently in Oslo, Norway displayed Platinum Jubilee flags on the communal areas Drinkers don fancy dress in Leeds to celebrate the Thursday bank holiday as the nation goes Jubilee crazy. Two girls are pictured holding Union Jack bunting as they spend the day off work These men in Leeds dressed up as the Queens Guards, complete with 'bearskins' and golden chin straps as they enjoy pints on the bank holiday Thursday. They were also joined by a cardboard cut-out of the Queen Back in the UK, Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appeared in the background. St Mary's Church in Launton, Bicester, is fundraising via the Jubilee by hosting a trail from 28th May to 12 June, where participants have to find 42 royally themed scarecrows and royal displays around the village. For the official celebrations later on today, the Queen is to symbolically lead the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon this evening as part of a chain of more than 3,500 flaming tributes to her 70-year reign. The monarch, 96, will make an extra Jubilee appearance at Windsor Castle at 9.25pm today. It forms part of special dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge. Summer-Rose Jeffries shares her birthday with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - and couldn't be happier with her special three-tiered Victoria Sponge cake, adorned with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appears in the background Councillor Elizabeth Turpin wore a shimmering Union Jack dress for the first day of Jubilee festivities William will be waiting 22 miles away at the Palace, where the beacon centrepiece - a 21-metre Tree of Trees sculpture - will be illuminated in lights on the Queen's command. The newly-announced engagement is an additional entry to the Queen's busy diary over the four-day weekend, which includes Trooping the Colour and a service of thanksgiving. At Windsor, the Queen will greeted in the castle Quadrangle with a fanfare for the ceremony at the Sovereign's Entrance. The Commonwealth of Nations Globe - a blue globe, which sits inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion which was specially created for the Beacons project - will be placed on a podium by Yeoman Warders. The Queen will touch the globe, symbolically triggering the lighting of the Tree of Trees beacon outside the Palace. Lights will chase along the Quadrangle towards Windsor's famous Round Tower, before travelling up the Tree of Trees in London. The Queen will be joined by Bruno Peek, the Pageantmaster, who has overseen the Jubilee Beacons celebration. Beacons will be lit throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth, and sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen's estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK's four highest peaks. The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize. A teenage girl is fighting for life and her friend has suffered facial injuries after a car smashed through a fence and into a home in regional Queensland. Bree Critch and Cassi West, both 16, were airlifted to separate hospitals after their Toyota Landcruiser crashed into a house in Chinchilla, 300kilometres west of Brisbane, on Tuesday evening. Cassi, a dance instructor at Xpression Dance Academy, is currently fighting for her life in an induced coma at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Bree is also in a coma, and is currently being treated at Toowoomba Hospital with 'non-life threatening' facial injuries. A neighbour who was the first on the scene has opened up about the frantic first moments, revealing the male driver, 18, appeared to be in shock as he tried to help both passengers. Bree Critch (pictured) and Cassi West, both 16, were airlifted to separate hospitals after their Toyota Landcruiser crashed into a house 300kilometres west of Brisbane on Tuesday evening The accident scene in Chinchilla, (pictured) 300kilometres west of Brisbane after a car drove through a fence with three teenagers inside the vehicle 'The boy driving the car got her out and put [Cassi]in the recovery position, he couldn't get the other girl out of the car,' the woman told the Courier Mail. 'I called triple-0 straight away and stayed with Cassi the whole time.' 'This is a terrible thing that should never have happened. It's tragic.' Another person present at the scene said they heard a horror 'metal on metal' screech as the car made impact. She said she attended to the boy, while her daughter helped one of the girls until paramedics arrived. Kirty Mitchell, the stepmother of Bree, thanked people for their support in a Facebook post published on Wednesday night. 'Thanks everyone for your support. Our baby girl Bree needs it more than you know,' she wrote. 'We need time to process what has happened and need some privacy for the coming weeks.' Cassi (pictured), a dance instructor at Xpression Dance Academy, remains in a coma in Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane Bree (pictured is also in a coma, and is currently being treated at Toowoomba Hospital Kirty Mitchell, the stepmother of Bree, thanked people for their support in a Facebook post published on Wednesday night Queensland Police said there was a light coloured Landcruiser Prado that had been involved in the incident, and urged anyone who saw both cars to contact them. The Forensic Crash Unit is investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash. Both girls attend Chinchilla High School, with classmates currently being offered counselling while they remain in intensive care. Social media users found an unlikely hero during this morning's coverage of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, as they took an Irish wolfhound to their hearts. Among the festivities today was the Irish Guards arriving at a march at Horse Guards Parade in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their furry mascot. Turlough Mar, better known as Seamus, was hailed for his role in the parade, as Twitter lit up with adulation for the dog as he was walked along The Mall. Social media users found an unlikely hero during this morning's coverage of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, as they took an Irish wolfhound to their hearts Among the festivities today was the Irish Guards arriving at a march at Horse Guards Parade in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their furry mascot Presenter Lorraine Kelly led the tributes, tweeting: 'Loving Seamus the Irish Wolfhound - effortlessly stealing the show #TroopingTheColour' Another wrote: 'This Irish Wolfhound really thinks the parade is for him, doesn't he? #whatagoodboy' A third said: 'Seamus the Irish wolf hound has my heart', while another added: 'Highlight of the jubilee coverage so far is definitely the BBC interviewing Seamus the Irish Wolfhound, mascot of the Irish Guards.' Seema Malhotra, the MP for Feltham and Heston, added: 'Last year I had the honour of meeting Seamus, the gorgeous mascot of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards before they left Hounslow. 'Am super proud that Seamus will be taking centre stage in the Trooping the Colour parade shortly. Go Seamus!' The two-year-old canine, who was trained with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, was accompanied by his handler, Drummer Adam Walsh, throughout the parade. He told Sky News: 'As you can imagine it's quite loud in front of the band and his hearing is very amplified. 'So for him to stay cool, calm and collected takes a lot of training and a lot of prep. 'We went up to Melton Mowbray which is where they train all the army dogs and we spent about two and a half months doing training about obedience. You have to make the dog fit the role, rather than the role fit the dog. 'He has his own room where we all live. He's a pampered pooch, he's treated as one of the lads.' Drummer Walsh added: 'Not much fazes him. He's a key personality in the battalion. 'We almost have that kind of unseparable bond now and we just love working with each other. 'We've done so much practice for it now it's almost second nature to him, he's going to be great.' Luis Lorenzo, actor, pictured, and his wife Arancha, were arrested for the alleged murder of her aunt Isabel, 85, due to poisoning, in Madrid A Spanish actor and his wife have been arrested and accused of poisoning her aunt in order to seize an early inheritance. Spanish actor Luis Lorenzo Crespo, 61, was arrested on May 27 along with his wife Arancha Palomino, 37, near Madrid for reportedly murdering 85-year-old aunt Maria Isabel in June 2021. The duo invited aunt Isabel to stay with them and used heavy metals to poison her, police said. Officers went to Lorenzo's house after he confirmed she was living with them, as relatives had not heard from her in several days. The elderly woman had somehow spent large amounts of money during leading up to her death, police found. She had apparently updated her will to leave her entire estate to her niece only months before she passed away. The duo invited aunt Isabel to stay with them and used heavy metals to poison her, police said Standing outside court in nearby Arganda del Rey, Lorenzo said: 'I am convinced that this will be cleared up.' He added: 'Obviously, I think it is a very complicated situation, especially for the children' Homicide detectives found bundles of 100, 50 and 20 euro bills hidden among the clothes and in plastic bags when police searched their address, adding up to at least 142,000 euros in total. The investigation also found the couple had around 50,000 in their bank account, as well as the cash. The aunt was originally thought to have died of natural causes brought on by dementia last year, but her suspicious brother requested a second autopsy, which discovered she had been poisoned. The autopsy's findings revealed on 31st May that Isabel had 200 times the normal level of cadmium and 20 times the normal level of manganese in her body. The metals are present in dyes, batteries and fungicides, and is also present in industrialised areas. The report suggests the elderly woman would have had to swallow the toxic metals. Lorenzo's lawyer Francisco Perez said the elderly woman was poisoned after consuming fish with high levels of mercury. The couple said they were looking after the elderly woman, taking her to see specialists following her diagnosis with dementia in an attempt to explain the spending. But the Civil Guard said there was no record of a dementia diagnosis, while neighbours claimed the couple neglected her. The Spanish actor has appeared in such shows as 'El Comisario', a gritty police drama and the comedy 'La Que se Avecina'. Lorenzo has starred in several successful TV series, such as gritty police drama 'El comisario' and situation comedy 'La que se avecina' The couple were at first arrested and then released on bail, though they have not been officially charged as the investigation into their finances is not yet complete. Standing outside court in nearby Arganda del Rey, Lorenzo said: 'I am convinced that this will be cleared up.' He added: 'Obviously, I think it is a very complicated situation, especially for the children.' Lorenzo refused to testify both before the Civil Guard and in court, but Arancha decided to respond to the sitting judge. 'I don't know since when my husband has kept it at home. He had it hidden in case they came to steal. He's the one who had it at home because he doesn't trust banks,' said Arancha, according to El Confidential. The couple were at first arrested and then released on bail, though they have not been officially charged as the investigation into their finances is not yet complete. Arancha was transferred to La Paz hospital after attempting suicide shortly after being arrested, reported El Debate. Irish republicans Sinn Fein have congratulated the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee, hailing her 'dedicated' service and 'significant' contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland. In a letter to the monarch, the party's vice president and leader in Ulster Michelle O'Neill thanked the Queen for her 'warmth and unfailing courtesy' when they had met. She also wrote of the 'value and respect' she had for the monarch's contribution to reconciliation. The letter is a significant moment for the party, whose ultimate aim is the reunification of Ireland, and shows how serious it is about political power. It also has historically close ties to the IRA, among whose victims during the decades of the Troubles was Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Mountbatten was the Duke of Edinburgh's uncle and was close to Prince Charles before he was murdered in a bomb attack on his boat in Northern Ireland in 1979. Former DUP leader Dame Arlene praised Ms O'Neill's gesture, telling BBC Radio Ulster the Jubilee celebrated three things - the Queen's public service and dedication; the institution of the monarchy; and the concept of Britishness. 'I think for republicans, like Michelle O'Neill, like Nicola Sturgeon, they have recognised in Her Majesty the Queen the first of those, the fact that she has given so much service to the country,' Dame Arlene said. 'They're recognising that and I think that that is something that is to be welcomed.' In a letter to the monarch, the party's vice president and leader in Ulster Michelle O'Neill thanked the Queen for her 'warmth and unfailing courtesy' when they had met. She also wrote of the 'value and respect' she had for the monarch's contribution to reconciliation. The Queen is pictured meeting former Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness in Belfast in 2012. The letter is a significant moment for the party, whose ultimate aim is the reunification of Ireland. It also has historically close ties to the IRA, among whose victims during the decades of the Troubles was Lord Mountbatten of Burma (left), the Duke of Edinburgh's uncle Former DUP leader Dame Arlene praised Ms O'Neill's gesture, telling BBC Radio Ulster the Jubilee celebrated three things - the Queen's public service and dedication; the institution of the monarchy; and the concept of Britishness Ms O'Neill's letter to the Queen, which was sent last month and reported by the Belfast Telegraph on Thursday, read: 'I thought it best to write to you personally as you mark 70 years of dedicated public service to the British people as Monarch. 'Your Platinum Jubilee is an historic moment, especially for all those from the unionist and British tradition on the island of Ireland, and across these islands whom with great pride and devotion hold you very dear. 'Personally, I wish to thank you for your warmth and unfailing courtesy on the occasions in which both I and my late colleague, Martin McGuinness, met with you in Belfast in 2012 during your Diamond Jubilee, and thereafter at Windsor Castle during the State Visit of President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins to the UK in 2014. 'I wish to record the value and respect I place on the significant contribution you have made to the advancement of peace and reconciliation between the different traditions on our island, and between our two islands during those years of the peace process. 'As incoming First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive I, like you, will take every opportunity to strengthen the bonds of friendship and renew the spirit of co-operation between those of us in the world of politics and public life from different traditions, and also the people and communities we proudly represent.' Beacons will be lit at Northern Ireland's highest peak and most westerly town later to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The official four-day celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Queen's coronation will include street parties, exhibitions, church services and lunch events. Thursday will mark the start of a long bank holiday weekend which will also include a visit from the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The Royal couple are expected to carry out two engagements in the region on Saturday. A gun salute will take place at Hillsborough Castle, the Royal family's official residence in Northern Ireland, while in Belfast the HMS Pembroke will be alongside for the weekend and open to visitors with pre-booked tickets. The UK's most westerly town, Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh, will enjoy one of the busiest celebrations. Visitors can enjoy a special exhibition at Enniskillen Castle which will include a maid of honour gown and page outfit worn by local people who played key roles at the coronation. It will also host a special church service at St Macartin's Cathedral on Thursday evening where the Queen visited in 2012 during her Diamond Jubilee, before beacons are lit. As part of 1,500 beacons being lit across the UK between 9.15-9.45pm, many locations in Northern Ireland will host a lighting including Titanic Belfast in the capital city and St Columb's Cathedral in Londonderry as well as the region's highest peak. The Walking With The Wounded charity will hike a beacon up Slieve Donard in Co Down, while their colleagues do the same at the other UK peaks, Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon. On Sunday, big lunch events will be taking place across the region, including on the Shankill Road and in the town of Bangor, Co Down which was made a city as part of the Jubilee celebrations. Conscripted troops sent to fight for Russia in Ukraine have mutinied on camera, saying they have been sent to the frontlines without equipment, medicine or food. In footage posted on Telegram, the soldiers - who claimed to be from the 113th rifle regiment of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic - say they have been fighting for months in 'hunger and cold' without proper kit or medical care. Their commander says men with chronic medical conditions, who should have escaped the draft, have instead been sent into the midst of the fighting alongside carers and those with young children. 'The higher command interpret our complaints as sabotage,' he says. 'But what is there to be gained from sending your soldiers to die?' The video emerged amid bitter and bloody fighting between Ukraine and Russia in Donbas, of which Donetsk is a part, though the unit in the video is thought to have been stationed near Kherson - an occupied city hundreds of miles to the south west. A company commander from the so-called Donetsk People's Republic army has complained that his men are being sent to the frontlines without food, kit or medicine He says men with chronic medical conditions have been sent into the thick of the fighting and that any complaints are treated as 'sabotage' In the footage, the commander can be heard saying: 'Our company, consisting of the 5th Infantry Battalion of the 113th Infantry Regiment, was on the frontlines in the Kherson region of Ukraine. 'For that time the personnel overcame cold and hunger and for a considerable period we did so without material support, medical supplies or food. 'The mobilisation of our unit took place without any medical examinations, and there are those among our unit who in accordance with the laws of the Donetsk People's Republic should not be mobilised. 'There are members of our personnel who suffer from chronic diseases and others who are guardians of people with mental illnesses.' 'For those who are fathers to children and taking into account the duration of our continues presence on the frontlines, many questions arise that are ignored by command.' He then speaks separately to troops who voice their concerns, but say they are being ignored by their commanders. 'The higher command interpret our complaints as sabotage,' he says. 'Show respect for your officers. What is there to be gained from sending your soldiers to die?' Russian troops have been occupying Kherson since capturing it during the early days of the war, but have faced attack by pro-Ukraine rebels there A Russian military transport with the letter 'Z' painted on the side stands guard on a street in Kherson, close to where the separatist soldiers were fighting 100 Ukrainian soldiers dying every DAY in the Donbas, Zelensky says Ukraine is losing up to 600 troops per day including 100 killed in action, President Zelensky has admitted as he gave the clearest indication yet of the blood-debt his military is paying to hold back the Russian invasion. Zelensky said the situation in Donbas, where the fiercest fighting is taking place, is 'very difficult' but insisted his soldiers are 'holding our defensive perimeter' despite advances by Putin's men in recent days. 'We're losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action,' he said - lifting the lid on Ukrainian casualties which have been a closely guarded secret throughout the war. The battle for Donbas has now largely descended into brutal trench warfare, with Ukraine digging defences that are pounded by Russian artillery before troops try to rush through gaps in the line - not unlike the battlefields of the First World War. Out-gunned by the Russian side, Ukraine has been begging allies for better artillery to strike back at Putin's men - with Joe Biden revealing on Tuesday that America will be sending advanced rocket systems to aid in the fight. The heaviest fighting is currently ongoing in the city of Severodonetsk, which is now largely under Russia control. Capturing it entirely would put Putin's forces on the cusp of taking Luhansk province - one of his key war aims. Ukrainian forces in the region are taking heavy losses. Neil Hauer, a journalist who has spent time on the frontlines, revealed one soldier he is in contact with saw 56 men in his 60-man squad killed in a recent rotation to the front. But the fighting is taking a huge toll on Russian forces as well. Though their tactics have improved since the botched effort to take Kyiv, Putin's generals are facing Ukrainians who are better armed and prepared than they were in the opening weeks of the war. Western officials briefing journalists on Wednesday estimated that Russian forces have been ground down to around half the strength they had before the war started. Advertisement Kherson - a strategically important city which spans the Dnieper River close to where it joins the Black Sea - has been occupied by Russia since the early days of the war. However, the region has been hotly contested with heavy Ukrainian shelling in areas to the west and now counter-attacks out of the nearby city of Mykolaiv. Kherson has also been the scene of attacks by pro-Ukraine saboteurs operating partisan-style behind enemy lines. Valery Kuleshov, a pro-Russian blogger, was shot dead in the area last month in his car after a reward of 15,000 was offered for the head of pro-Moscow officials. Threats have been posted on social media, telephone poles, trees and walls. 'Russian occupiers and everyone who supports them. We are close, already operating in Kherson. Death awaits you all!' warned posters that appeared on the day of Kuleshov's execution. Ukraine's flag also keeps appearing on buildings, along with the national colours of blue and yellow. 'This is a local partisan resistance,' said Serhiy Khlan, adviser to the head of Kherson Regional Administration. 'It leaves the occupants uneasy every day, reminding them about the fact that Kherson is Ukraine.' Mr Khlan said more organised efforts were starting in Kherson as Russia tries to impose its currency and language before the planned annexation. 'It's too early to talk about it but we have cases already when collaborators just disappear,' he said. Areas of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk which were occupied by pro-Russian rebels before the start of the war - so-called 'People's Republics' - announced a general mobilisation in late February, just before the war broke it. All men under the age of 55 were banned from leaving the territory, and put on notice that they might be called up to join the fighting. Since then, Denis Pushilin - leader of the Donetsk People's Republic - has been forced to raise the age to 65, because so few men have been found to join the army. Those in the occupied areas - many of whom consider Ukraine to be their home country - have described thousands of men going into hiding to avoid the draft. Fighting-age men are said to be hiding in the basements and back-rooms of houses where no males are registered, since the draft is organised by address. Residents who spoke to The Guardian last month said many come out at night, when military patrols looking for conscripts are less frequent. 'When I walk my dog at 11pm I could see the silhouettes of men smoking behind the curtains, with a window open,' said one person who asked for anonymity. Heavy fighting is underway in the eastern Donbas region, but battles are also taking place to the west of Kherson as Ukraine counter-attacks Russian troops and dogs patrol the streets of Kherson, which has been under occupation since early March when Putin's men captured it 'It usually takes 45 minute to fix a problem with my tyres, and I just grab a coffee nearby,' said another woman. 'But last time I was asked to drop my car and leave it over the weekend so that they could bring a guy to fix it at night.' All those who did not avoid the conscription have been sent away to the frontlines, often poorly armed and with ageing Soviet equipment - some of it dating back to the Second World War. DPR units have been photographed fighting in Mariupol, across the Donbas, and in the southern Kherson region. Russian forces have taken heavy losses during the war, which is now a little over three months old, and DPR forces have been no exception. In an update late last month, the government gave total casualties as 1,912 soldiers killed and 7,919 wounded since the start of the war. In 2015, it was estimated the DPR's total military was between 30,000 and 35,000 men, meaning almost a third of that force is now out of action. The Tartan Army sings with Ukraine during emotional play-off match in Glasgow Ukraine's emotion-filled quest to qualify for the 2022 World Cup drew one step closer with a 3-1 win over Scotland on Wednesday in a pulsating playoff semi-final, which saw Scottish fans singing the national anthem of their opposition. The two sides met at Glasgow's Hampden Park, with the match being Ukraine's first competitive game since their territory was invaded by Russia's armies on Feb. 24. The play-off match was rescheduled from its initial March date due to the impact of the war, with the build up being dominated by the emotional toll the brutal conflict has taken on the team's players, coaching staff and fans. Ukraine's emotion-filled quest to qualify for the 2022 World Cup drew one step closer with a 3-1 win over Scotland on Wednesday in a pulsating playoff semifinal. Pictured: Ukraine fans celebrate in Glashow's Hampden Park on June 01, 2022 Ukraine's Roman Yaremchuk celebrates scoring their second goal with Ukrainian fans Scottish fans were asked to sing along with Ukraine's travelling supporters before the match in a show of solidarity, with language education app Duolingo printing out flyers with a phonetic version of the lyrics to help the non-Ukrainian speakers. The Ukrainian players all walked onto the field each with a blue and yellow national flag draped on their shoulders, and were met with huge applause. When the time came, Ukraine's national anthem 'Shche ne vmerla Ukrainas' - which translates roughly to 'Ukraine has not yet died' - was belted out by Ukrainians and the Tartan Army alike, while Scottish pipers played along. Many fans stayed after the game to salute their victorious opponents off the field, and Ukrainian flags were waved by some home fans. Several were pictured with the yellow and blue flag painted on their faces, alongside St Andrew's Cross. Ukraine's squad was made up of players who mostly have not played a competitive game for six months because of the war at home, and most of Ukraine's squad play for home-based clubs whose league was shut down after Russia's invasion. After the match in March was postponed, FIFA and Scotland agreed to give the Ukrainian team a fair chance to prepare for games that have become a focus of national identity and pride. Two Scottish fans are seen with the Scottish and Ukrainian flags painted on their faces A Scottish fan is shown in the stands holding a flag which reads 'Stand with Ukraine' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave his blessing for Ukraine's players and coach Oleksandr Petrakov to leave their homeland to prepare for and play the game. A month-long training camp in the safety of Slovenia has featured warm-up games arranged against clubs in Germany, Italy and Croatia, giving players from Ukrainian clubs like Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv a chance to get match sharp. But the lack of competitive action did not seem to hinder Ukraine. Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk's header in the 49th to make it 2-0. Ukraine dominated for much of a deserved win but had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game. Ultimately, Scotland lacked the class needed and its wait for World Cup soccer now extends beyond the 24 years since it went to the 1998 tournament. As for Ukraine, the team needs just one more famous win to reach Qatar 2022 - which would be its first World Cup finals tournament in 24 years. The message from Musk, shared by Twitter user @SamNissim, bears the subject line 'To be super clear' and was sent to a list labeled 'Everyone' at 10:51 pm Outspoken Elon Musk has doubled down on his new work-from-home ultimatum sent to Tesla staff Tuesday, sending out a second email to say 'if you dont show up, we will assume you have resigned.' 'Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,' Musk, 50, wrote in a second email sent to staff just hours after the first, which was leaked and reported by Teslarati. The message, shared by Twitter user @SamNissim, bears the subject line 'To be super clear' and was sent to an email list labeled 'Everyone' at 10:51 pm. In it, Musk reasserted his commitment to statements made in the previous message - and seemed to take a shot at woke Silicon Valley companies for their remote policies in the process. 'The office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office,' it reads, reiterating assertions from the prior email, which stated staff would only be allowed to work from home if they worked 40 hours a week in-office. Musk then declared: 'If you dont show up, we will assume you have resigned.' Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has now sent out a second email to Tesla staff, clarifying a previous assertion sent to execs saying they will be fired unless they return to the office fulltime 'Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,' Musk wrote in a second email sent to staff hours after the first, which was leaked and widely shared The email proceeds to clarify statements made by Musk - whom has been vocal of his opposition to remote work in the past - in the previous email, which was sent to the carmaker's senior staff at 1:19 pm, screenshots show. 'The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,' Musk wrote. 'That is why I lived in the factory so much - so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.' The South-African mogul then seemed to take a shot at Silicon Valley companies that have implemented increasingly remote work polices in the years after the pandemic, as cases plummet and infection rates drop. 'There are of course companies that dont require this,' the CEO wrote - adding, 'But when was the last time they shipped a great new product? Its been a while.' 'Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth,' Musk continued. 'This will not happen by phoning it in,' the head exec wrote, before signing off with, 'Thanks, Elon.' DailyMail.com reached out to Tesla Thursday morning to confirm the authenticity of the email but did not immediately hear back. The message was sent just hours after the first email announcing the policy was leaked, sending the Internet into a frenzy. In the leaked email, which bore the miss-spelt subject line 'remote work is no longer acceptble', Musk wrote that any executive staff who wish to work remotely must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week 'or depart Tesla.' He added that the requirement for executive staff to work at least 40 hours in the office is 'less than we ask of factory workers'. Musk continued: 'If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.' Musk went on to write in the email that the office 'must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties, for example being responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office in another state'. Responding to a question on Twitter from a follower about whether he has a comment to 'people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept,' Musk sniped: 'They should pretend to work somewhere else.' The message was sent hours after this leaked email sent to workers with the miss-spelt subject line 'remote work is no longer acceptble.' Musk wrote that any executive staff who wish to work remotely must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week 'or depart Tesla' Elon Musk doubled down on his new, leaked work-from-home ultimatum sent to Tesla staff Tuesday in the new message, and seemed to take a shot at woke Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Apple for their lax remote-work policies in the process Musk has previously hit out against remote working policies and blasted Americans for 'trying to avoid going to work at all' and compared them to staff in China who stay at the factory 'burning the 3am oil'. In April, staff at Tesla's Gigafactory were made to sleep at work when production resumed after a three-week shutdown. The factory started operating as a 'closed loop system to avoid further shutdowns caused by China's strict Zero Covid policy. Workers were given a sleeping bag and mattress and part of the factory floor to camp out on. Responding to a question on Twitter from a follower about whether he has a comment to 'people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept', Musk wrote back: 'They should pretend to work somewhere else' Food of around $63 a day was provided to each employee but they were expected to work 12 hours a day, with one day off every six days. Before the temporary measures were imposed, staff reportedly worked eight-hour shifts with four days on and two days off. Before Shanghai's lockdown on March 28, the Gigafactory produced 2,000 cars a day and made half of the vehicles the company delivered worldwide last year. Last month, Musk, who is currently in negotiations with Twitter over buying the social media giant, seemingly took aim at the company's lax remote working policies. He said he asked his Twitter followers if he should transform the company's Silicon Valley headquarters into a homeless shelters 'since no one shows up anyway'. It comes after Twitter brass - who offered staffers the option of working from home 'forever' during the pandemic - reopened its offices March 15, with remote work remaining an option for staffers. More than a month later, as Silicon Valley's tech workers are starting to filter back to the office as Covid-19 cases plummet, it looks as if the CEO's faith in staffers' desire to return to work in-person was misplaced - something new board member Musk seemed to hone in on with his evidently mocking post. Google, for instance, told employees in April that it would begin requiring employees to return in person at least three days a week. Apples's headquarters in Cupertino, California, are pictured above. The company delayed plans to bring employees back to the office three days per week citing Covid surges Last month, Apple announced it was delaying plans to bring employees back to the office three days a week as Covid cases in its home state of California surged once again. The tech company blamed recent Covid-19 surges in California for the delay of the three day a week requirement. Workers must still come in two days a week, but it remains unclear when the three-day-a-week rule will be enforced. The now-suspended plan required employees to work from the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Employees have been going to the Apple office two days a week since April, and there has been no indication that requirement will be changed. Apple blamed surging Covid-19 cases as the reason for the requirement's delay, but the three day per week plan has been controversial among staff since it was announced. Meanwhile, world's richest man Musk is currently embroiled in a months-long deal to buy Silicon Valley social media giant Twitter for roughly $44 billion - and his stark anti-remote sentiments would likely fly in the face of the company's more relaxed work from home rules - which allow employees to work remotely forever. In April, after the deal was announced, Musk seemed to take a shot at this police, asking his followers if he should transform the company's Bay Area headquarters into a homeless shelter - citing that 'no one shows up anyway.' Twitter brass - who offered staffers the option of working from home 'forever' during the pandemic - reopened its offices March 15, with remote work remaining an option for staffers. Meanwhile, world's richest man Musk is currently embroiled in a months-long deal to but Silicon Valley social media giant Twitter for roughly $44 billion - and his stark anti-remote sentiments would likely fly in the face of the company's more relaxed work from home rules In April, after the deal was announced, Musk seemed to take a shot at this police, asking his followers if he should transform the company's Bay Area headquarters into a homeless shelter - citing that 'no one shows up anyway.' 'Its been almost two years since we closed our offices and travel and Im excited to announce that were ready to fully open up business travel and all our offices around the world!' Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote in a note to employees posted to Twitter March 3. 'Business travel is back effective immediately, and office openings will start on March 15,' the exec wrote. In the statement, Agrawal, who was promoted to CEO from CTO in November, said that he would be honoring a policy put in place by former head exec Jack Dorsey during the early days of the pandemic, that said staffers could work remotely 'forever' if they wanted to. 'Our top priority since the beginning of the pandemic has been to keep you all safe and this will continue,' Agrawal wrote. 'Now we are returning to a stage where youre living your lives, adjusting to local health guidelines, and deciding what works best for you. 'So, the decisions about where you work, whether you feel safe travelling for business, and what events you attend, should be yours,' the exec added, in a sentence this time set in bold. 'As we open back up, our approach remains the same,' Agrawal, 37, went on. 'Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work and that include working from home full-time forever,' the CEO wrote, in another bolded sentence. 'Office every day? That works too. Some days in the office, some days from home? Of course.' More than a month later, as Silicon Valley's tech workers are starting to filter back to the office as Covid-19 cases plummet, it looks as if the CEO's faith in staffers' desire to return to work in-person was misplaced - something new board member Musk seemed to hone in on with his evidently mocking post. Twitter has not issued any in-person requirements for its staffers. The deal is expected to close later this year. Kathleen Buhle, the ex-wife of Hunter Biden, has revealed in a new book how she learned of her spouse's affair: from her children. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's younger son, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years. He has acknowledged having an adulterous affair with the widow of his late brother, Beau Biden, who died of brain illness in 2015. Kathleen Buhle Recalls Painful Relationship With Hunter Biden Buhle remembers the agonizing moment she discovered the affair in her new book, 'If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing.' She adds that after Beau's death, Hunter worked with his sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, to establish a nonprofit in his honor. Soon after, something seemed off. Debbie, Buhle's family therapist, supported Hunter Biden's absences. Buhle claims that in the summer of 2015 she discovered a crack pipe in an ashtray and realized Hunter Biden had relapsed. He moved into an apartment when she threw him out of the house. Then, in the fall of 2016, more terrible news arrived. Kathleen Buhle dashed to the therapist's house, where she discovered Finnegan sobbing in a chair. Naomi, Finnegan's sister, was also on speakerphone, but neither daughter could face the thought of telling their mother what they knew. Debbie finally spoke up. The therapist informed Kathleen, "Hunter is having an affair with Hallie. For a little while," Buhle stood still. As stated in her memoir, she was struck, but not saddened, according to Independent. She reflected on how different their upbringings were: she, a working-class Chicago girl, and he, the son of a US senator. Years ago, there were ominous hints of what was to come, according to Buhle. Read Also: Republicans Request More Information on Hunter Biden's Financial Information; Allies Reportedly Try To Flip Infamous Laptop Scandal Hunter Biden's Daughter Was First To Discover His Affair With Beau's Widow She also told how her daughter Finnegan discovered her father's romance with Beau Biden's widow Hallie and informed her. Buhle said in an interview that she had lost herself in her marriage to the now-son. president's Years ago, there were ominous hints of what was to come, according to Buhle. The pair married in 1993, and by 2001, Hunter Biden was suffering from alcoholism. Buhle had an especially difficult time in 2015 and 2016, leading up to the couple's divorce in 2017, Daily Mail reported. The bombshell intra-family adultery was disclosed exclusively by Page Six the following March. Hunter Biden subsequently told The New Yorker that his father, President Joe Biden, first found out about his romance with Hallie Biden when Page Six contacted him for comment. Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle divorced in October 2015, alleging him of lavishly spending on his hobbies, such as drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and presents for people with whom he has sexual connections while leaving the family with no means to pay legitimate expenditures. Kathleen Buhle told that she has since forgiven him and revealed that she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer after their divorce but has been cancer-free for the past four years. Hunter Biden's exwife also allegedly stated that she does not get alimony from him and has nothing to say to the federal grand jury that is investigating the first son for suspected tax fraud, money laundering, and lobbying offenses, as per New York Post. Related Article: [Report] Nancy Pelosi's Husband Paul Killed His Older Brother 65 Years Prior to Drunk Driving Case @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Senior prosecutors have been criticised after hiring a transgender activist who made potentially derogatory comments about biological women. Sophie Cook, 54, has taken up a key diversity and inclusion post at the Crown Prosecution Service, despite previously calling for the word woman to be replaced with 'womxn'. The activist has also shared several tweets with the acronym TERF trans-exclusionary radical feminist a loaded term aimed at women who believe sex is biological and cannot be changed. In her new 31,000-a-year role as the CPS' 'speak-out champion', Ms Cook will be 'responsible for improving confidence amongst our employees in being able to speak openly about their experiences'. According to the CPS job advert, Ms Cook will work just four days per week and it will mostly be from home, however she is obliged to attend meetings in person if necessary. But lawyers and campaign groups have called for reassurances that women employees who express concerns about trans activism won't be silenced or discriminated against. They have raised concerns that Ms Cook could use the influential role to 'embed' her beliefs at the heart of the agency responsible for prosecuting serious crime in England and Wales. Transgender activist Sophie Cook has taken up a key diversity and inclusion post at the Crown Prosecution Service, despite previously calling for the word woman to be replaced with 'womxn' She's pictured with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 when she stood for Labour in Tory safe seat East Worthing and Shoreham Ms Cook appeared on Newsnight in 2018 where she supported replacing the word woman with 'womxn' She has also tweeted several times using the acronym TERF - which is widely regarded as a pejorative description of women who believe biology cannot be changed Ms Cook describes herself as a 'writer, speaker, actor, broadcaster and photographer' and claims to be the '13th most influential figure in Brighton'. On her website, she says she is also a 'LGBT & mental health campaigner', a Royal Air Force veteran and 'self-harm and suicide survivor'. After being appointed this week, Ms Cook tweeted: 'This is an amazing role which gives me the opportunity to make a real difference.' However, concerns were raised over historic tweets in which Ms Cook uses the term TERF, The Times reported. Last September, she tweeted: 'Apart from menstruate and give birth (just to keep the TERFs happy (are they ever happy?) nothing. I may not be able to do everything well, but I could potentially do anything just as long as there isn't a required grade.' Ms Cook also appeared on Newsnight in 2018 where she supported replacing the word woman with 'womxn'. She said at the time: 'I do wonder why people are so offended by it... actually the word was invented by feminists, they were quite happily using these words a few years ago... all of a sudden, they're taking offence.' After being appointed this week, Ms Cook tweeted: 'This is an amazing role which gives me the opportunity to make a real difference' We Are Fair Cop, a group of gender-critical lawyers, has demanded 'urgent reassurance' to 'female gender-critical employees' at the CPS that their 'political belief will not leave them vulnerable to unlawful discrimination'. Sarah Phillimore, a barrister, also tweeted: 'What would happen to a female member of the CPS workforce who objected to [your] new 'Speak Out Champion' referring to her in this derogatory way? Would she be heard? Or sacked?' A CPS spokesman told The Times the body was 'proud to have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. One of our core values is treating everyone with respect and all our staff must adhere to this.' Ms Cook previously made headlines when MailOnline reported she had become the first trans person to work in the English Premier League. She served as AFC Bournemouth's team photographer when she made the switch from Steve to Sophie in 2016. The following year she attempted to become the first transgender person to become an MP, when she stood for Labour in Tory safe seat East Worthing and Shoreham. Amber Heard's lead attorney has spoken out following her stunning civil suit loss and says the actress is unable to pay the $8.35 million in damages she owes Johnny Depp. Lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredhoft, who represented Heard at trial, appeared on the Today Show on Thursday and said that Heard has 'excellent grounds' to appeal the verdict and plans to do so. Asked if the Aquaman actress would be able to pay the damages she owes Depp after a jury vindicated his claims that she lied by accusing him of abuse during their marriage, Bredhoft replied: 'No, absolutely not.' In a blockbuster verdict, a jury in Virginia on Wednesday awarded Depp more than $10 million in damages. In a split decision, Heard also won a $2 million verdict against Depp, leaving her owing him a little more than $8 million. Lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredhoft, who represented Heard at trial, appeared on the Today Show on Thursday and said that Heard has 'excellent grounds' to appeal Amber Heard's lead attorney has spoken out following her stunning civil suit loss and says the actress is unable to pay the $8.35 million in damages she owes Johnny Depp 'It's a horrible message. It's a setback, a significant setback because that's exactly what it means,' Bredhoft said of the verdict. 'Unless you pull out your phone and you video your spouse or your significant other beating you, effectively, you won't be believed.' The attorney insisted the jury in the case had been influenced by public opinion including on social media, despite strict orders from the judge not to read anything about the case outside of court. 'There's no way they couldn't have been influenced. It was horrible. It was really, really lop sided,' Bredhoft said of public sentiment against Heard in the case. 'It's like the Roman coliseum, how they viewed this whole case.' Bredhoft said that Depp's legal team had tried to 'demonize amber and suppress the evidence.' 'We had an enormous amount of evidence suppressed in this case that was in the UK case,' she said, referring to Depp's defamation suit against the Sun, which he lost. 'In the UK case when it came in, Amber won, Mr. Depp lost.' A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard 'It's a horrible message. It's a setback, a significant setback because that's exactly what it means,' Bredhoft said of the verdict At trial, Bredhoft faced off against Johnny Depp's attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, seen above before the verdict was delivered on Wednesday Asked whether the verdict meant that the jury simply didn't believe Heard, Bredhoft doubled down, responding: 'That's because she was demonized here.' 'A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed and it caused the jury to be confused,' she said. Bredhoft said that Heard was feeling the 'burden' of Wednesday's verdict. 'One of the first things she said is, I am so sorry to all those women out there. This is a setback. For all women in and outside the courtroom. And she feels -- she feels the burden of that,' the attorney said. The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious and dysfunctional marriage. Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken. 'I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Its a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,' she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. Actress Amber Heard departs the Fairfax County Courthouse on Wednesday in Fairfax, Virginia after jury delivered a verdict in favor of her her ex-husband Depp Johnny Depp signs a statement after a jury vindicated his claims against Amber Heard Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said 'the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.' 'I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,' he said in a statement posted to Instagram. Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as 'a public figure representing domestic abuse.' His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name. The jury found in Depp's favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece. Advertisement An animated Meghan Markle appeared to playfully 'shush' a group of young royals as she made her first appearance at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, from a window overlooking Horse Guards Parade in central London. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, chatted with 11-year-old Savannah Philips and her sister Isla, 10, together with Lena Tindall, three, and her older sister Mia, eight, as she appeared to joke that the girls should be quiet during the Trooping the Colour while it took place in the parade square below them. Her husband Prince Harry, 37, also appeared to 'shush' the children in a separate photo, before the couple were seen talking to the Duke of Kent, who was dressed in his red military tunic, adorned with medals. Harry seemed to be in a morning suit, rather than the military uniforms his father Prince Charles and brother Prince William wore to the parade, after he was stripped of his honorary titles as part of his Megxit deal with the Queen to step away from royal duties. Meghan joined her husband and royals including the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Their appearance ended months of speculation on whether the Sussexes would attend the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. However, while they appeared at Horse Guards Parade with some royals, they were absent when the Queen, Prince Charles, the Cambridges and their children watched the flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony. The balcony appearance was reserved for working royals and their families. The couple's Jubilee appearance is their first official royal engagement in more than two years. They were expected to bring three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion, though their children have not yet been spotted. Lilibet has not been introduced to the Queen, or her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old, after his parents relocated to LA to pursuse their private enterprises, and a life outside the royal circle. Meghan's appearance came after Princes George and Prince Louis were spotted peeking from one of the windows overlooking Horse Guards Parade. They were joined by sister Princess Charlotte, and their mother Kate Middleton. Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. Meanwhile, Princess Beatrice appeared to point something out to the Cambridge children as they watched Trooping the Colour. At one point, Princess Charlotte appeared to be told off by mother Kate as the young royal played with Mia Tindall. Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla and Sophie Wessex were also seen at a window. But there was no sighing of disgraced Prince, Andrew, who received no invitation - even in a private capacity - after his fall from grace. Meghan Markle appeared to shush the royal children as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall Prince Harry also appeared to shush the same group of young royals as they appeared at the window to watch Trooping the Colour Prince Harry, sporting a suit, was spotted alongside Meghan as they had a conversation with the Duke of Kent near the balcony Harry and Meghan's jubilee appearance is their first official engagement in more than two years. They are expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one The Duchess of Sussex was all smiles as she chatted with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall and appeared to be popular with the young royals George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. Meanwhile, the Queen exclaimed 'incredible!' from the Buckingham Palace balcony in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons as she made her first apperance. The 96-year-old monarch, who wore her Guards brooch and the blue Angela Kelly outfit used in her official Platinum Jubilee portrait released last night, took the salute this afternoon after arriving from Windsor Castle. Royal superfans adorned themselves in Union flag clothing, flags and hats as they lined The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square - where large crowds also gathered - to watch the Queen's historic birthday parade kick off. Groups were spotted cracking out glasses of Champagne and began singing God Save the Queen as early as 8am today - waking up the hardcore fans who had slept in chairs, tents and even on the pavement overnight to secure a prime spot for today's celebrations. Princess Charlotte pulls a face as she joins her brothers and her mother at a window at Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour Several young royals appeared at the window during the parade - with some older ones including Princess Beatrice also spotted Prince Louis salutes as he watches Trooping the Colour with Princess Charlotte on a balcony at Horseguards Parade The Duchess of Cambridge intervenes as Princess Charlotte plays with Mia Tindall as they watch Trooping the Colour from a balcony Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall watch the Trooping of the Color from a window Princess Beatrice points something out to Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis as they watch Trooping the Colour Princess Charlotte watches from a window as the Horse Guards Parade take place. She was joined by several other young royals Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. With mother Kate in the background Kate, Camilla and Sophie Wessex all appeared at the window ahead of the official flyover. Meghan Markle also made an appearance Some had even flown in from as far and wide as Australia, Canada and the United States specially for the historic event, while others flocked from European countries including Germany and Italy to soak in the momentus occasion. The sun was shining and spirits were high among the crowds as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. Several handmade signs hung over the barriers, with one simply saying, 'thank you'. Crowds were packed eight rows deep as they scrambled to watch the celebrations and were desperately trying to get a view of the royal action on their phones. As the pomp and pageantry got underway, crowds cheered and clapped loudly as troops in bright red uniforms and bearskin hats made their way down The Mall towards Horse Guard Parade. And an even bigger cheer erupted as the royals made their way down The Mall in carriages, led the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, and a beaming Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, accompanied by her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. They were followed by Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, 14, and then Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Charles on horseback. President Joe Biden is preparing to finalize a first-of-its-kind deal with Spain to resettle refugees from the Western Hemisphere that continue to flood into the U.S., a Wednesday evening report revealed. The pledge from Spain is coupled with Canada significantly expanding its refugee commitment in the region, according to an internal planning document reviewed by Axios and could help the U.S. deal with the prevailing migrant crisis at the southern border. Both deals appear to be linked and contingent on bringing in migrants for work in both Spain and Canada. The commitments are expected to be announced at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California next week, which is being held in the U.S. for the first time since 1994. Deals with Spain and Canada could provide Biden and, in turn, the Democratic Party a political boost ahead of the 2022 midterms where the border crisis and national security have taken a front seat. While the deal with the two nations is promising, one Canadian government official told Axios: 'Conversations are still ongoing and no decisions have been taken regarding specific commitments on migration at next week's summit.' The number of refugees that would be resettled in Spain would be 'modest', the document details, adding it would be 'symbolically important.' President Joe Biden (pictured center on Wednesday) is preparing to close a deal at the Summit of the Americas next week with Spain and Canada to accept more migrants from the western hemisphere for work in their respective countries The deal is meant to help the U.S. as it faces hundreds of thousands of migrants illegally entering over the southern border from Mexico and is aimed to assist with labor shortages in Spain and place migrants in jobs in Canada. Pictured: Immigrants pray after coming over the border into Yuma, Arizona on May 23, 2022 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border in April, a new high for the Biden administration and an overall 22-year high and a 5.8% increase from the 221,303 encounters in March The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said that the deal 'only symbolizes real action to end the border crisis' and is not enough to address the real reasons for the migration surge. 'It would do absolutely nothing to address the root cause of the crisis their intentional weaponization of asylum loopholes and their continued refusal to follow plain law,' FAIR's Government Relations Manager Preston Huennekens told DailyMail.com. 'If the Biden administration thinks they can keep beating around the bush by offering Potemkin Village solutions to a problem that they refuse to address head-on, they're sorely mistaken,' he added. 'The American people have had enough of their border being overrun and cannot be easily fooled.' Spain, which is experiencing a massive labor shortage coming off of the coronavirus pandemic, is expected to agree to double or triple the amount of temporary workers from Central America they accept into the employment-based migration program. Canada is planning to announce new 'recruitment and promotion' efforts to bring Haitians to the North American country for work. A recent report shows that the Department of Homeland Security intelligence is tracking 10,000 Haitians waiting just south of the U.S. border in preparation to cross. It comes after a group of 10,000 Haitian migrants created a makeshift encampment under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas in September, which was ultimately cleared but brought more attention to the crisis asylum-seekers are facing. Canada is also expected to announce a new target of accepting 5,000 refugees over the course of multiple years from the Western Hemisphere, which is a minuscule amount compared to the hundreds of thousands who have attempted to cross into the U.S. over the last year. Despite the modest goal, this would still be a massive increase for Canada, which accepted less than 1,500 migrants from the western hemisphere between January 2015 and March 2022. Canada is planning to announce new 'recruitment and promotion' efforts to bring Haitians there for work as more than 12,000 from the island wait to enter the U.S. south of the border April saw a 20-year high in illegal immigration to the U.S. with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountering 234,088 migrants attempting to cross the southern border from Mexico. It was an increase from the record-setting high the month prior where 222,144 encounters are on record for March. These figures are only expected to increase into the summer months, where temperatures get so high that the dangerous trip becomes even more deadly for those attempting to seek asylum in the U.S. The Summit of Americas, which Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will attend next week, has been riddled with threats of boycotts following reports the administration would not allow the authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to participate. Migration issues are sure to be a focus of the ninth ever Summit of the Americas, which occurs every three to four years since the first under then-President Bill Clinton in Miami, Florida in 1994. Similar to the U.S. plan to offshore migrants to Spain and Canada, the United Kingdom is also sending immigrants that arrive there to Rwanda. But UK's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab admitted last month that the number deported to Rwanda is likely to only be in the 'hundreds' each year compared to the tens of thousands Prime Minister Boris Johnson said could be sent. Raab said he wants to 'manage expectations' regarding the plan to give illegal immigrants to the UK a one-way ticket to Rwanda. 'I would have thought it was more likely to be in the hundreds,' Raab told BBC's Radio 4's Today program. The five-year deal announced by Johnson last month will cost British taxpayers 120 million, which comes to about $150.5 million. Advertisement Prince Harry has been pictured at Buckingham Palace in a smart dark suit - after having to give up his military titles and uniform after stepping down as a working Royal. Harry leaving the spotlight meant he was stripped of his honorary royal titles including Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington in Suffolk and Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command. He also had the role as Captain-General of the Royal Marines - handed down to him by his grandfather Prince Philip - taken from him as part of the final deal for him and Meghan Markle, 40, to step back as front line royals. It means he has been unable to wear his military uniform after losing those titles. Earlier his wife Meghan appeared to playfully shush young royals as she made her first appearance at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on a balcony over Horse Guards Parade. The Duchess of Sussex was all smiles as she chatted with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall and appeared to be popular with the young royals. Harry and Meghan's jubilee appearance is their first official engagement in more than two years. They are expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion, though the children have not yet been spotted. Prince Harry and Megan Markle at Trooping The Colour to mark the Queen's history-making Platinum Jubilee celebrations The Queen, Prince Andrew, Meghan the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry stand on a balcony to watch a flypast of Royal Air Force aircraft pass over Buckingham Palace in London, Tuesday, July 10, 2018 Meghan Markle appeared to shush the royal children as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall Harry and Meghan's jubilee appearance is their first official engagement in more than two years. They are expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one The Duchess of Sussex was all smiles as she chatted with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall and appeared to be popular with the young royals The Duchess of Cambridge intervenes as Princess Charlotte plays with Mia Tindall as they watch Trooping the Colour from a balcony Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old. But there is no invitation for shamed Prince Andrew even in a private capacity after his fall from grace. Her appearance came after Princes George and Louis were spotted taking a look over The Mall. They were joined by sister Charlotte with Kate, Camilla and Sophie Wessex also appearing at the balcony. Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. Meanwhile, Princess Beatrice appeared to point something out to the Cambridge children as they watched Trooping the Colour. At one point, Princess Charlotte appeared to be told off by mother Kate as the young royal played with Mia Tindall. George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. Prince Louis salutes as he watches Trooping the Colour with Princess Charlotte on a balcony at Horseguards Parade Princess Beatrice points something out to Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis as they watch Trooping the Colour Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. With mother Kate in the background Kate, Camilla and Sophie Wessex all appeared on the balcony ahead of the official flyover, though there was no sign of Harry and Meghan They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. Royal superfans adorned themselves in Union flag clothing, flags and hats as they lined The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square - where large crowds also gathered - to watch the Queen's historic birthday parade kick off. Groups were spotted cracking out glasses of Champagne and began singing God Save the Queen as early as 8am today - waking up the hardcore fans who had slept in chairs, tents and even on the pavement overnight to secure a prime spot for today's celebrations. Some had even flown in from as far and wide as Australia, Canada and the United States specially for the historic event, while others flocked from European countries including Germany and Italy to soak in the momentus occasion. The sun was shining and spirits were high among the crowds as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. Several handmade signs hung over the barriers, with one simply saying, 'thank you'. Crowds were packed eight rows deep as they scrambled to watch the celebrations and were desperately trying to get a view of the royal action on their phones. As the pomp and pageantry got underway, crowds cheered and clapped loudly as troops in bright red uniforms and bearskin hats made their way down The Mall towards Horse Guard Parade. And an even bigger cheer erupted as the royals made their way down The Mall in carriages, led the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, and a beaming Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, accompanied by her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. They were followed by Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, 14, and then Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Charles on horseback. Dozens of migrants were rescued in small boats in the English Channel today with the number of people making the treacherous crossing to the UK nearing 10,000 people so far this year. As the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday celebrations began, it is understood up to 100 people were brought into the harbour at Dover throughout the morning although official figures are yet to be confirmed. Around 40 were seen being brought ashore on the Border Force vessel Typhoon, the group were mainly men - some elderly. Another 10 were seen on board the smaller Border Force boat Searcher. They were brought ashore in the harbour and escorted up the gangway to an immigration processing centre. Dozens of migrants were picked up in the English Channel this morning and brought into the harbour at Dover (pictured) According to the official figures nearly 10,000 people have crossed the channel in 305 boats this year Pictured: A migrant arrives at Dover Harbour after being brought by Border Force this morning A group of up to 60 migrants were brought into Dover Marina by Border Force Hurricane this morning (pictured) It comes after 198 migrants were detained on Wednesday in four small boats according to official Ministry of Defence figures revealed today. Bringing the total to 479 so far this week with 32 people rescued on Monday and 249 on Tuesday - In May there were 2,918 people rescued. It takes the number so far this year to 9,918 people in 305 boats this year, according to officials. In 2021 a staggering 28,526 made the crossing - compared to 8,410 who arrived in 2020. On Tuesday one group of migrants resorted to using tyre inner tubes as life jackets. Around 20 of the rubber rings were seen discarded in one dinghy towed into the Port of Dover. Among the group brought in on Tuesday included a number of small children. Data released by the MoD reveals that 2,918 people reached the UK during the month of May Weather conditions were relatively calm on the English Channel this morning but are expected to pick up later According to official figures, 9,918 people have arrived in the UK this year. In 2021, 28,526 people crossed the Channel - significantly higher than the 8,410 who arrived in 2020 Inside one of the dinghies were several inflatable rubber rings that could be used as a buoyancy aid if the migrants fell into the water On Tuesday a number of small children were brought into Dover from the channel A soldier in Army fatigues was seen carefully carrying one child up the gangway to the immigration processing centre on the quayside. A dad wearing a face mask was also seen carrying his young son off a Border Force vessel after making the treacherous 21 mile crossing. The French regional operational surveillance and rescue centre (CROSS) in Gris-Nez also identified several boats in difficulty in the Calais Strait on Tuesday. The all-weather boat, Jean Bart, recovered 41 migrants from the Channel and dropped them at the port of Dunkirk, while the Maritime Affairs patrol boat, Jeanne Barret, picked up 45 shipwrecked people and escorted them to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. They were then taken care of by the French border police and the departmental fire and rescue services. Some illegal immigrants already in Britain will be told they will be sent to Africa and will only have a week to provide detailed reasons as to why they should not be removed from the UK Around 200 migrants have made the journey across the English Channel this month already Pictured: Migrants disembarking the Border Force vessel in Dover this morning Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, has said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' Sheryl Sandberg, who just stepped down as the chief operating officer of Facebook parent company Meta, said she plans to refocus her work on women's issues and philanthropy as Roe v Wade is under assault. 'This is a really important moment for women. This is a really important moment for me to be able to do more with my philanthropy, with my foundation,' Sandberg, 52, told Fortune Wednesday after having announced her departure from the social media giant. Sandberg, one of the most powerful women in tech and the top lieutenant to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made the decision to leave Meta over the weekend after having worked at the company for 14 years. 'I'm really focused on what I'm going to do,' she explained. 'Next, philanthropically and I am staying on the board and I have a leader of the philanthropy now.' Sandberg is no stranger to advocacy work. She is the co-founder and board chair of the Lean In Foundation, which acts a global community dedicated to helping foster leadership, advancement and inclusion for women in the workplace. Last month, she took to her public Facebook page to condemn the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealing the court had voted to strike down Roe v Wade, despite the fact that Meta's Respectful Communication Policy banned employees from discussing abortion. Sheryl Sandberg (pictured in January 2018), who just stepped down as the chief operating officer of Facebook parent company Meta, said she plans to refocus her work on women's issues and philanthropy as Roe v Wade is under assault Sandberg told Fortune that although there is never a 'perfect moment' to leave a company, she decided that right now her focus needs to be on advocacy work, noting that her role at Meta left little time for outside priorities. 'It's just not a job that leaves room for a lot of other stuff in your life,' she explained, adding that the current political climate is a 'very important moment for women.' The 52-year-old, whose book Lean In advocated for women to play larger roles in corporate leadership, reiterated that even though she's leaving Meta to focus on philanthropy, she won't be too far removed from the company. 'My transition is going to be long. I'm not leaving until the fall and I'm staying on the board,' Sandberg explained. When questioned why she chose to step down now, while Meta is facing criticism from lawmakers and its advertising agency battles privacy concerns, the executive stated there won't ever be a 'perfect' time to step down. 'There's never one perfect moment. You know, there's no end or beginning of the ads business. There's no clean. There's no, you know, distinct or definitive chapters on the Metaverse,' she said, noting that when she joined the Facebook family in 2008, when the company was still a start-up, she only intended to work there for five years. The COO said she has no plans to become a CEO anywhere else and even noted that Zuckerberg was supportive of her departure. 'He was what he always is, is really supportive, really supportive,' she said, noting that working with him was the 'the honor and privilege of a lifetime.' She claims she made the decision to step down over the long Memorial Day weekend and told Zuckerberg shortly after, adding: 'Mark and I are so close and have known each other for so long.' Sandberg then issued a public statement Wednesday revealing her resignation from Meta's leadership team this upcoming fall. 'This is a really important moment for women. This is a really important moment for me to be able to do more with my philanthropy, with my foundation,' Sandberg said. She is pictured with her Lean In Foundation at a women's march in January 2019 Sandberg (pictured at a women's march in January 2019) is the co-founder and board chair of the Lean In Foundation, which acts a global community dedicated to helping foster leadership, advancement and inclusion for women in the workplace 'Sitting by Mark's side for these 14 years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime,' she wrote in Wednesday's statement. 'I am so immensely proud of everything this team has achieved.' 'When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life.' In his own Facebook post on the C-suite shakeup, Zuckerberg called Sandberg's departure 'the end of an era.' 'I'm going to miss running this company with Sheryl,' he wrote. 'I'm sad that the day is coming when I won't get to work as closely with Sheryl. But more than anything, I'm grateful for everything she has done to build Meta.' Zuckerberg in a lengthy note said that he doesn't plan to replace Sandberg in the company's existing structure. Javier Olivan will serve as Meta's new COO. Sandberg leads Meta's advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. Zuckerberg said Olivan's 'role will be different from what Sheryl has done. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous.' 'I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products,' he said. Olivan has worked at Meta for more than 14 years and has led teams handling Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Sandberg, one of the most powerful women in tech and the top lieutenant to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced her departure from Meta on Wednesday However, despite Zuckerberg and Sandberg's mutual praise for each other, there is still speculation over whether the COO voluntarily left Meta or was pushed out. Last year, The Wall Street Journal revealed the share of Meta employees who reported to Sandberg had declined in recent years while other managers, including Olivan, saw growth. Regardless of her alleged dwindling staff, Sandberg consistently served as Meta's fall-person and continued to publicly defend the platform on a host of issues including election inference and instigation of violence. The newspaper, in October, reported that under Sandberg the company's legal team had grown about 60 percent faster than Meta overall, as the social media giant battled antitrust challenges, shareholder lawsuits and other legal problems. Sandberg alluded to these efforts in a Bloomberg interview Wednesday, saying her tole at the platform was 'not the most manageable job anyone has ever had.' 'It's a decision I didn't come to lightly,' she added, before reiterating: 'I want to make more room to do more philanthropically, to do more with my foundation.' A Harvard University graduate, Sandberg is the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead While she said taking another job in business or politics was 'pretty unlikely' Sandberg added: 'I learned a long time ago - Never make any predictions about the future.' Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. She has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion, and is a noted philanthropist in addition to authoring the bestselling book in support of professional women, Lean In. Her Lean In Foundation has started 60,000 'circles,' similar to networking groups, that consist of women helping other women achieve personal and professional goals. In 2015, Sandberg's husband Dave Goldberg died tragically and unexpectedly at age 47, after suffering a heart arrhythmia on a treadmill. The couple had shared two children together. Sandberg later dated Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, but split with him in 2019 after a three-year relationship. In February 2020, Sandberg announced her engagement to Kelton Global CEO Tom Bernthal. It's unclear whether a wedding date has been set. Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under former President Bill Clinton. Her impressive resume also includes stints as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and an economist with the World Bank. A Harvard University graduate, Sandberg is the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. However, despite Zuckerberg and Sandberg's mutual praise for each other, there is still speculation over whether the COO voluntarily left Meta or was pushed out In early May, Sandberg reiterated her stance on abortion rights, taking to Facebook to say the medical procedure was 'one of our most fundamental rights.' 'Every woman, no matter where she lives, must be free to choose whether and when she becomes a mother,' she posted. 'Few things are more important to women's health and equality.' The day after she publicly supported Roe v Wade, Meta reportedly dropped the hammer and started enforcing its communications policy, which prohibits employees from discussing 'opinions or debates about abortion being right or wrong, availability or rights of abortion, and political, religious, and humanitarian views on the topic.' However, Meta employees seemingly disregarded the ban and were allegedly discussing the controversial topic on the company's internal message boards. In early May, Sandberg reiterated her stance on abortion rights, taking to Facebook to say the medical procedure was 'one of our most fundamental rights.' She made the post, despite the fact that Meta's Respectful Communication Policy bans employees from discussing abortion Meta VP of HR Janelle Gale held town hall meeting on May 19 telling staff abortion discussions had become 'the most divisive and reported topic' on the company's internal chat system. She said the topic isolated certain employees, was harmful to the work environment and put the organization at 'an increased risk' of being seen as a 'hostile work environment,' The Verge reported at the time. 'Even if people are respectful, and they're attempting to be respectful about their view on abortion, it can still leave people feeling like they're being targeted based on their gender or religion,' Gale said during the meeting. 'It's the one unique topic that kind of trips that line on a protected class pretty much in every instance.' The communication policy was met with criticism from employees who argue the policy banning abortion discussions contradicts rules allowing workers to talk 'respectfully' about other hot-button issues like Black Lives Matter, immigration and transgender rights. It is unclear if the abortion communications policy played a role in Sandberg's departure from Meta. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams serves as a board member of the woke Marguerite Casey Foundation, which has donated millions to radical professors and scholars who teach that capitalism is inherently racist and advocate for the abolition of prisons and private property. Abrams, who is once again challenging Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, became a board member for the Seattle-based grant-making organization, named after UPS founder Jim Casey's sister, last May, Fox News reported. For the last two years, the woke organization has hosted a Freedom Scholars Award ceremony that dishes out $250,000 to those 'leading research in critical fields including abolitionist, Black, feminist, queer, radical, and anti-colonialist studies.' Although Abrahams received at least $52,500 in income from the foundation last year, her campaign told Fox that she does not hold the same views as the group, which has donated to professors who are anti-capitalist, believe private property is 'rooted in whiteness,' think ethnic studies in the U.S. are 'too white,' and who teach Critical Race Theory and advocate for prison abolition. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams joined the woke Marguerite Casey Foundation in 2021 despite claiming she doesn't share the group's views Last year, the group awarded $250,000 to Robin D.G. Kelly, University of California professor who claims capitalism is inherently racist and said his childhood dream was to be a communist The foundation also awarded $250,000 to Tufts University professor Lorgia Garcia Pena (pictured) who believes that ethnic studies in the U.S. are 'grounded in white supremacy' and need to be changed and taught in elementary schools Among the most controversial scholars to receive funding from the foundation in 2021 includes University of California professor Robin D.G. Kelley, who believes that capitalism is inherently racist. Kelley, who once told NPR that his childhood goal was to be a 'communist for life,' claimed capitalisms survives through racism and could never exist in a truly just society. Speaking to the radio outlet in February, Kelly said: 'Any true liberation has to be anti-capitalist. There's no way capitalism can save us. 'And even if you could create a capitalism that's somehow non-racial, which of course, is impossible - but let's say in theory you can do that, we still have deep exploitation and inequality produced by it.' Tufts University professor Lorgia Garcia Pena was another 2021 Freedom Scholars Award recipient, with far-left leaning views. Pena, a former Latinx-studies professor at Harvard who was denied tenure in 2019 after members of the Ivy League school claimed her work was more activism than scholarly education, now teaches in Tufts' Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora. In 2020, Pena told the Boston Review that ethnic studies needed to be taught in elementary schools and shift away from 'Eurocentric education systems.' 'What we teach at every school right nowwhat we consider to be the standard humanities and social science curriculumis actually grounded in white supremacy, but is masked as objectivity,' she told the Review. University of Washington School of Law professor Angelica Chazaro (above) was also awarded by the foundation last year and is an advocate for the abolition of prisons Ohio State University law professor Amna Akbar was another recipient of the $250,000 award. She believes that modern law scholars should learn from radical social movements University of Washington School of Law professor Angelica Chazaro also received $250,000 from the Marguerite Casey Foundation last year. Chazaro teaches CRT, poverty law and immigration law at the university and advocates for the abolition of prison and co-founded La Resistencia, a Washington-based organization working to end the detention of immigrants. She had served as chief negotiator during the 56-day hunger strike at the Norwest Detention Center in 2014, where more than 700 immigrant detainees refused to eat in protest of their conditions at the jail. Chazaro has advocated for the end of private prisons and detention centers as part of the nationwide prison reform movement, which gained traction in recent years but has recently garnered criticism as liberal cities that embraced the changes continue to suffer soaring crime rates. Ohio State University law professor Amna Akbar was another recipient of the $250,000 award. Akbar is a proponent of 'movement law,' which she described in the Stanford Law Review as an 'approach to legal scholarship grounded in solidarity, accountability, and engagement with grassroots organizing and left social movements.' She wrote in the New York University Law Review that modern law scholars should focus and learn from radical social movements in the U.S. 'By studying not only the critiques offered by radical social movements, but also their visions for transformative change, the edges of law scholarship can be expanded, a deeper set of critiques and a longer set of historiesof colonialism and settler colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade and mass incarcerationcentered, and a bolder project of transformation forwarded,' Akbar wrote. In 2020, the foundation awarded $250,000 to Ananya Roy, an Urban Studies professor at UCLA who has claimed that private property is 'rooted in whiteness' and should be abolished Charlene Carruthers (above), a black, queer feminist activist who supports Critical Race Theory and founded the Black Youth Project, which she described as a 'political home for anti-capitalists, radical Black feminists and abolitionist also received the award in 2020 In 2020, the Marguerite Casey Foundation also awarded $250,000 to Ananya Roy, an Urban Studies professor at UCLA who has claimed that private property is 'rooted in whiteness' and should be abolished. In a 2021 essay in Society and Space, Roy argued that private property laws were established in the U.S. to secure the wealth of white, landowning men and claims the concept continues to undermine black women. Roy also called for the dismantling of university police forces and urged colleges to end contracts with outside police forces and security agencies in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020. Also awarded in 2020 was Charlene Carruthers, a black, queer feminist activist who supports Critical Race Theory and founded the Black Youth Project, which she described as a 'political home for anti-capitalists, radical Black feminists, abolitionists, artists, educators and many more types of freedom fighters.' She was recognized as one of the Top 10 most influential African Americans by The Root 100 and as one of Ebony Magazine's 'Woke 100.' The child actress sexually abused by her on-screen dad believes he'll never apologise for his heinous actions as she prepares to move on with her life. Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes will be released from jail on parole within two weeks after following a decision by the NSW State Parole Authority. The actor who played Martin Kelly in the Aussie comedy sitcom has spent the last eight years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of 10 charges of sexual and indecent acts perpetrated on four young girls aged between seven and 15 in the 1980s and 1990s. The news is bittersweet for victim Sarah Monahan, who played Hughes' youngest daughter Jenny on the hit show. She recently travelled from the US to attend his recent parole hearing. While she's emotional and angry about Hughes' release, she's also relieved. Hughes was jailed after a jury found him guilty of 10 charges of sexual and indecent acts perpetrated on four young girls aged between seven and 15 in the 1980s and 1990s 'He will never say sorry and I'm fine with that. He'll never say it. I'm not going to beg for it; I'm not going to ask for it,' she told A Current Affair. 'There's just been so much over so long and I guess it is now ... it's just ... it's over.' Monahan now just wants to wipe Hughes from her life. 'This has consumed my entire life for the last 12 years, 14 years, so I guess I'll have to find a new me now,' she said. 'I don't want to be a victim anymore.' Hughes, 73, was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum 10 years and nine months in prison, which is due to expire in January 2025. 'Parole is granted. The offender is to be released not later than June 14, 2022,' the parole authority said on Thursday. However, the authority noted in its 13 page judgement the 'profound and deleterious effects on the victimscontinue to this day and will probably be lifelong consequences'. Victim Sarah Monahan who played Hughes' youngest daughter Jenny on the hit show and recently travelled from the US to attend his recent parole hearing Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes will be released from jail on parole after multiple failed attempts 'It must be particularly galling for the victims to observe the offender's continued and obstinate denials in the face of compelling and overwhelming evidence from multiple witnesses,' Judge Frearson said in his determination. The parole authority noted Hughes continued to 'categorically deny' committing all of his crimes, but still assessed him as medium-low risk of reoffending. 'He demonstrates no insight and apportions blame to the victims. Poor victim empathy is said not to increase his risk of sexual recidivism,' it said. The other key reasons for release were said to be Hughes' ineligibility for sex offender programs together with his family support and accommodation in the UK. 'Upon deportation, there will be a considerable level of governance and accountability. The offender and his wife appear committed to appropriate psychological intervention,' the parole authority said. 'A reasonable prospect of appropriate intervention better serves community safety than the certainty of complete absence of intervention. 'It is inevitable that at some point the offender will be released into the community.' Hughes will live with his wife Robyn Gardiner in the UK. Ms Gardiner told the parole authority she will keep him away from children when unsupervised. Hughes starred as Martin Kelly (second from left) in the TV comedy Hey Dad! from 1987-1994 'The offender's wife expressed her intention to continue to provide emotional support upon his release,' the authority wrote in its decision. 'Additionally, she advised that she has arranged post release accommodation for the offender to reside with her upon his eventual return to London. 'Whilst she believes in his innocence, she expressed her intention to ensure that the offender does not have unsupervised contact with children. 'She advised that she intends to encourage him to engage in psychological counselling.' The authority noted arguments against Hughes' parole included his 'continuing to deny the offences; the support of his wife in his denial; the fact that he is untreated; he will not be supervised; his denials will not be challenged, and his sexual offending will not be addressed.' Hughes' former on-screen daughter and victim Ms Monahan was present for the Parramatta parole hearing last week and said she wanted the child sex offender to know she was present. 'He's an old man and he's frail but they don't change, and he's a denier, he still thinks he hasn't done anything,' she told reporters last week. She said Hughes 'looked really, really old' during the hearing and encouraged other child sexual abuse victims to confront their rapists in court. 'Anybody who's going through it and they're scared to go in to the court and see them, absolutely do it because it takes all their power away,' she said. 'I wanted him to see me and that I wasn't scared anymore. 'On the one hand I'd prefer him to stay in jail where he's not hurting kids and on the other hand it's like, just let him go, let him be someone else's problem and then I don't have to deal with it anymore.' His former on-screen daughter and victim Sarah Monahan (pictured) was present for the Parramatta parole hearing last week and said she wanted the child sex offender to know she was present While allegations against Hughes were raised in the 1990s, it took a paid television interview by Ms Monahan in 2010 to spark a broad police investigation into claims of sexual misconduct by the actor. His victims included a family friend, friends of his daughter, and Ms Monahan. Hughes made his third attempt at parole following two failed attempts. His minimum sentence of six years made him eligible for parole on April 6, 2020. Judge Peter Zahra, who died suddenly last month, handed down the sentence with strong condemnation against Hughes. 'He engaged in brazen predatory behaviour; he planned and orchestrated the occasions when the conduct occurred. His conduct was persistent and calculated,' he said. He will be deported to the UK where he will live with his wife Robyn Gardiner (pictured together) 'He abused his position of trust and exploited the naivety and youth of the children. 'The profound and deleterious effects on the victims for many years, if not the whole of their lives. The victims here remain deeply disturbed by the conduct of the offender.' Hughes' legal aid lawyer Hannah Bruce told the parole authority he should be released because he was assessed to be 'either medium, below risk or low risk of reoffending'. 'Whilst in custody it makes him ineligible for programs, he is ineligible for any sex offender programs there are no further programs that he can complete whilst in custody that would go to reducing his risk of reoffending,' she said at the hearing. 'It's not a situation where he will be completely unmonitored when released to the community. 'He's a gentleman towards the end of his years. His focus on release is maintaining a very low profile.' Hughes' victims included a family friend, friends of his daughter, and Ms Monahan, who was a child actress who starred with him on Hey Dad! Hughes said he would engage in counselling with noted psychologist Rachel Pike once he arrived in the UK. He will also be required to report to police within three days of his return to the UK, and once a year from then on and within three days of changing his details. He will be required to provide passport and banking details and must notify police of any intention to travel out of the UK. Hughes must also provide details of where he lives and where he regularly stays if different to his home address. 'There is a requirement to notify police if he going to stay (for a period of at least 12 hours) at a household where a child is present,' the parole authority noted. He will be sent back to jail for up to six months if he fails to fulfil these conditions. Hughes will be transferred from Long Bay Correctional Centre to Villawood Detention Centre ahead of his deportation. The great grandfather of one of the Uvalde school shooting victims has gone viral after challenging the embattled local police force over their inability to stop the gunman, amid reports that Salvador Ramos' grandmother knew he had a gun well before the massacre. Ruben Mata, whose great-granddaughter Alexandria Rubio was murdered at just 10 years old by Ramos' gunfire last week, was seen on video angrily confronting officers in Uvalde in a video taken by left-wing media outlet Status Coup. The ten-year-old was shot dead just hours after posing for a photo with her parents at the school's honor roll ceremony. Mata, standing among the memorials in Uvalde Sunday and wearing a jacket identifying him as a Vietnam veteran, passionately pled for police action while holding a knife. He noted that they immediately responded when it was discovered he was wielding the knife and noted 'it didn't take you but a few minutes' to get to him, comparing it to the response time at the shooting. Ruben Mata, whose great granddaughter Alexandria Rubio was murdered at just 10 years old by Ramos' gunfire last week, was seen on video angrily confronting officers in Uvalde in a video Mata, standing among the memorials in Uvalde Sunday, passionately pled for police action while holding a knife before eventually giving it up to show he's not a threat He noted that they immediately came when it was discovered he was wielding the knife and noted 'it didn't take you but a few minutes' to get to him, comparing it to the response time at the shooting He ends by pointing to the memorial for his granddaughter and asking: 'That's my great-granddaughter. Where were you people?' 10-year-old Alexandria was shot dead just hours after posing for a photo with her parents at the school's honor roll ceremony Salvador Rolando Ramos killed 21 people, including 19 children, at Robb Elementary School Uvalde School District Police Chief Arredondo has been fiercely criticized by state officials, the media and grieving parents for failing to send his officers into Robb Elementary School immediately when it was attacked last week. Arredondo incorrectly believed that the 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Rolando Ramos, was barricaded alone inside the building, and waited over an hour before breaching the classrooms - where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The officers who responded to Mata were from Conroe, Texas, about 300 miles away. They've been brought to Uvalde to assist in the wake of the shooting. As he pleads with them to tell him where they were, they note that they 'don't work in this town.' As the video continues, people watching on ask him to calm down, but he continues. 'I'm gonna show you something,' he says, reaching into his pocket. 'I got a knife. Pull your gun out! I'm not going to kill nobody! But I got a knife! Let's see how brave y'all are with your guns.' It's been revealed that Salvador Ramos' grandmother - who was eventually shot by her grandson - ordered him to get rid of a gun from her house Just moments before the rampage at Robb Elementary, Ramos shot his grandmother Celia, forcing her to be air-lifted to a hospital in San Antonio, 75 miles away, where she is currently recovering in the ICU He then hands over the knife to one of the onlookers, who gives it straight to one of the cops. 'Oh, you're gonna put me in jail?' Mata says, holding up his wrists in surrender as the police approach. 'Go ahead.' Finally, Mata walks to a memorial of the dead and points to one of the displays. 'That's my great-granddaughter,' he says. 'Where were you people?' Eventually, Mata calms down and sits down in a folding chair but remains heartbroken and visibly upset at the loss. 'My great granddaughter, I spoke to her sister and said "Mija, how are you?" and she says "Grandpa, my sister ain't coming back!"' Meanwhile, it's been revealed that Salvador Ramos' grandmother - who was eventually shot by her grandson - ordered him to get rid of a gun from her house, according to a neighbor who spoke with The Daily Beast. 'We heard them yelling,' said Rudy Martinez, who lives in the neighborhood. 'I asked Sally what they were fighting about this time, and she told me that her and her sister or someone had found out that Salvador had brought guns into her house. She didn't want them there.' The 18-year-old, armed with two rifles and ammunition, then drove the black Ford F-150 pickup truck to Robb Elementary School where he crashed into a culvert before going on his killing spree The street in Uvalde, Texas, where Gallegos's home can be seen on the right, opposite Gonzales's DailyMail.com visited the backyard area (pictured) where Gallegos tended to his wounded neighbor after she ran over to his home covered in blood 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 deadly rampage began when the 18-year-old shot his grandmother in the face, hitting her in the jaw and shattering her teeth, at her home. The truck outside the home is not the one Ramos drove to Robb Elementary School Martinez said this happened on May 19, the same day Ramos' aunt, Natalie Salazar, told police they had discovered a semi-automatic rifle in a duffle bag. They demanded the eventual killer get rid of it because his grandfather has a criminal record and is not allowed to possess guns. The next day, Ramos purchased a second weapon, law enforcement sources told The Daily Beast. Four days later, the 18-year-old, armed with two rifles and ammunition, then drove the black Ford F-150 pickup truck to Robb Elementary School where he crashed into a culvert before continuing his deadly rampage. Just moments before, Ramos shot his grandmother Celia, forcing her to be air-lifted to a hospital in San Antonio, 75 miles away, where she is currently recovering in the ICU. Relatives say the grandmother was in critical condition after the bullet her grandson fired entered her cheek, shattering her teeth, before exiting under her ear. Denmark has voted to join the European Union's defense policy after a referendum on Wednesday, marking a historic moment in a series of shifts among Nordic countries in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The country is the only EU member that is not part of the bloc's defense and security policy and the referendum marks the first time a government has succeeded in abolishing one of several exemptions secured in a 1993 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. Final results showed that almost 67% of voters were in favor of removing an opt-out to the EU's so-called Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Denmark To Join EU Defense Policy The massive show of support is the largest recorded show of support in a referendum on an EU matter in Denmark. The vote to abolish the opt-out is a major win for those who are in favor of greater EU cooperation while those against it argued that the EU's defense pact is strained by bureaucracy and noted that Denmark's participation will be too costly. In a statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that they have already sent a signal to the country's allies in NATO in Europe. She noted that they have sent a clear signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Denmark's stance, as per Reuters. Frederiksen added that when Putin invades a free and independent country and threatens peace and stability they will all move closer together. While the results of the vote will not have major practical implications for the European Union, it will be viewed positively in Brussels, said Christine Nissen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Ally Proposes To Kidnap NATO Defense Minister in Ukraine To Discover What West Orders to Kyiv Amid Russia's Invasion Attempt She said that the vote was part of a general trend right now where countries are moving closer together to fight a security threat. Earlier this month, in historic policy shifts, Finland and Sweden decided to apply for NATO membership while both Denmark and Germany have already promised to sharply raise defense spending. According to CNN, Frederiksen said that Denmark cannot stay neutral when a freedom threat knocks on Europe's door. She expressed his support for Ukraine and its people amid Russia's continued aggression and unprovoked invasion. Historic Policy Shift In a Twitter post, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that she welcomed the strong message of commitment to the common security sent by the Danish people. She noted that the country's expertise in defense is highly valued and said that she was convinced that both Denmark and the EU will benefit from the decision. The leader of the Danish Conservative Party, Soren Pape Poulsen, said that after 30 years, Danes have decided that it was time to get rid of the opt-out and build closer cooperation in Europe. He noted that close cooperation with Denmark's allies has not been more important since the Cold War. The primary effect of abandoning the opt-out will be that Danish officials could stay in the room when EU colleagues discuss defense topics and Danish forces can take part in EU military operations, such as those being conducted in Africa, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, the Associated Press reported. Related Article: Finnish, Swedish Officials Meet With Turkish Counterparts Over NATO Membership Amid Latter's Demand of 'Concrete Steps' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Turkey will now officially be known as Turkiye after the country's government moved to swerve associations with the ground-feeding festive bird and a term for failure. The United Nations will adopt the new name from this week at Ankara's request. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the change came into place 'from the moment' a letter sent by Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. President Erdogan ruled in November that goods manufactured in the country must now be labelled 'Made in Turkiye'. President Erdogan, pictured at an Ankara school earlier today, said the changed spelling expresses Turkish 'culture, civilisation and values' - although critics claim it is a distraction The alternative spelling expresses Turkish people's 'culture, civilisation and values', he said. Turkiye is pronounced Tur-key-yay, in line with how Turks annunciate the country's name. The president and his advisers are said to be embarrassed by their country's association with the festive bird and the slang term for 'something that fails'. 'The association with the bird genuinely annoys Erdogan and the people around him', according to Selim Koru from the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, pictured yesterday, submitted a request to the UN 'Their claim is that Turkiye conveys Turkey's eternal spirit more than the English word', he told BBC News. President Erdogan is said to be 'annoyed' by the current name's association with the bird The Cambridge English Dictionary lists 'turkey' to describe not only the ground-feeding bird but also 'something that fails badly' and 'a stupid or silly person'. Critics have accused Erdogan of using the plot to distract Turks from economic hardship. Ankara is also launching a new military offensive in Syria at the same time as it is blocking Finland and Sweden's bids to join NATO. Contrary to popular belief, the country actually gave its name to the bird. Ground-feeding cocks and hens were exported by the Ottoman Empire during the Middle Ages. That led English-speakers to refer to the birds as Turkeys as they were from 'the land of the Turks'. Turkey has been known by its current name since around 750AD. With the official spelling change to come into place shortly, it won't be for much longer. Joe and Jill Biden paid tribute to the Queen's 70 years on the throne on Thursday, praising her 'selfless devotion and service' to the people of the United Kingdom. In a video message posted to their social media accounts to make the Queen's platinum jubilee, the president and first lady recalled the 'generosity' she showed them when they visited her at Windsor Castle in June 2021. And they said the Queen helped bring the United States and United Kindom closer together. 'Congratulations on your Platinum Jubilee,' President Biden said in his message. 'For 70 years you've inspired people with your selfless devotion and service to the people the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Throughout your reign, the relationship between the United Kingdom United States has grown stronger and closer than ever.' Jill Biden added: 'Throughout the years, the joy your visits to the United States have brought Americans and your solidarity with the American people in times of tragedy, have deepened the friendship and profound connection between our countries. And Joe and I were so touched by the generosity and welcome you show to us when we visited you at Windsor Castle last year, during our first visit overseas as President and First Lady.' Joe and Jill Biden paid tribute to the Queen's 70 years on the throne in a video message markng her platinum jubilee celebration Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Kent on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during her Platinum Jubilee celebration Biden then chimed in: 'On behalf of the people in the United States, we send your best wishes to you and people around the world marking this momentous and historic occasion.' And Jill concluded the message with: 'Congratulations, Your Majesty, and have a wonderful Platinum Jubilee celebration.' In 2021, while in the United Kingdom for a G7 meeting, the Bidens stopped at Windsor Castle to meet the Queen. They had a private tea with her inside. And Biden also held an Inspection of the Guard of Honor on the castle grounds. The day was so bright the president, at one point, donned his signature aviator sunglasses. At the meeting, President Biden, who is known for being touchy-feeling, appeared to reach out as if to offer The Queen his arm to escort her off the dais. But he seemed to draw back at the last minute. It is a breach of protocol to touch The Queen although the president kept a hand close to her back as they walked off the stage. After that meeting, Biden told reporters the Queen reminded him of his mom Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, known to the family as Jean. 'I don't think she'd be insulted but she reminded me of my mother, the look of her and just the generosity,' the president said. Jean Biden was a devout Catholic mom-of-four who raised the future president in Pennsylvania and helped him overcome his childhood stutter. She died in 2010, aged 92, but is still frequently quoted by the president in his political speeches. DON'T TOUCH JOE! President Biden, who is known for being touchy-feeling, came close to touching the Queen, a violation of royal protocol, during the June 2021 visit at Windsor The Queen hosted the Bidens for a private tea in their visit to her The president also said that during tea with the Queen, the Queen asked him about world leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said she also asked what life in the White House was like. 'We could fit the White House in the courtyard,' he said he told her, referring to Windsor Castle. Asked if he had invited her to the White House, Biden responded: 'yes.' The Queen marked her 70 years on the throne Thursday with an appearance on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. She was joined by four generatons of the Royal Family as tens of thousands of Britons cheered and waved the Union Jack. (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today Crowds look up from The Mall as the RAF Red Arrows fly overhead after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London today 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. Senior royals including Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William and Kate and their children, stood bysde her. 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. Wearing sunglasses, the Queen looked joyful as she surveyed the patriotic scenes, giving broad smiles as she enjoyed the six-minute flypast which involved 70 aircraft, including Apache helicopters, Typhoons and the Red Arrows. Fifteen RAF Typhoons paid a special tribute to the Queen's reign, flying in the formation of the number 70. Earlier, the Queen had made a surprise appearance on the balcony earlier to inspect the troops, known as Trooping the Color. Thursday marks the first of four days of festivities. It featured a military parade with hundreds of Army musicians, 240 horses, a Royal Air Force flyover and a gun salute. The 10-year-old boy whose mugshot was posted on the Internet after he 'jokingly' threatened to shoot up his Florida elementary school is still locked up in a detention center, DailyMail.com can reveal. Daniel Marquez was ordered to be detained for 21 days by a judge last weekend after being charged with making a written threat after he sent three texts to a friend that allegedly suggested he was plotting to shoot up Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral. Those texts two stock images and a message to his friend saying he was looking forward to the last day of school have been taken totally out of context by authorities, the boy's lawyer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. 'It was an attempt at humor but fifth-grade humor,' Douglas Molloy said. Daniel was handcuffed at his home and hauled off by sheriff's deputies during a 'perp walk' shared online by the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Authorities also released the boy's mugshot on Monday while warning that 'fake threats' result in 'real consequences.' DailyMail.com can reveal the boy is being held in Collier County Juvenile Detention Center in Naples. Florida 55 miles from his home where he lives with Army veteran father Dereck Marquez, 35, his elder brother, and grandmother. Fifth-grader Daniel Marquez, was walked out of a Lee County Sheriff's office following his arrest on Saturday. He is now being held at a juvenile detention center, DailyMail.com can reveal The 10-year-old was arrested and charged with making a written threat after sending a text allegedly suggesting he was going to commit shoot up his school in Cape Coral, Florida The boy was ordered to be detained for 21 days at Collier County Juvenile Detention Center in Naples, Florida 55 miles from his home Daniel's nightmare began when the father of the boy who received the messages got concerned and reported them to the Lee County Sheriff's Department, which then unleashed the full force of the law on the elementary school honor student. The alleged 'threat' came just four days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a teen gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last week. According to the arrest report, Daniel sent a text to a friend saying: 'I scammed a friend', along with a Google image of cash. 'I bought this,' he added a few seconds later, and included an image of four assault rifles. He later sent another message saying: 'Get ready for water day,' referring to an end-of-school year event in which students participate in water activities. In a radio interview after the incident, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said his team did not 'wait one second,' adding, 'We investigate every threat as if it's real.' 'I did a campaign. Fake threat, real consequence. While I understand the boy is 10 years old, his brain's not fully developed. He's a juvenile. I have to tell you: When a 10-year-old presses a trigger, the aftermath is the same regardless of the age,' the sheriff explained. However, attorney Molloy who is fighting for his release from detention insists the texts were child-like humor and were taken out of context. Daniel lives with his father, Dereck Marquez, older brother and grandmother in Cape Coral. The single dad moved to Florida in 2018 after serving in the infantry on Iraq and now works as a realtor The attorney representing the young boy said his father - seen doting on his two sons in a TikTok video above - is very emotional about the arrest and what has happened to his child 'Based on a review of what has been supplied to me, Daniel was texting a friend and they were going back and forth, a stream of texts about a variety of subjects,' Molloy told DailyMail.com. 'And within that was what I can only call an attempt at humor but fifth-grader humor. 'He made an unfortunate reference to assault rifles, but only in some joking way, not related to any kind of attack on a school.' Molloy said the next conversation they had which was 'a little removed in time' was about how excited the boy was for the Water Day celebration at school, which is a traditional end to the school year. 'There was no reference tying the two things together. Somewhere in there was supposed to be something funny,' he added. 'He didn't directly say he was going to shoot up a school. It is drawing a conclusion. There's further conversation, back and forth about Water Day and the events. 'But nothing, absolutely nothing related to shooting it up or referencing the guns.' Molloy, who was r state and federal prosecutor for 30 years, revealed the texts were spotted by the friend's father. 'The dad had occasion to review them, I'm not sure why,' he said. 'And this is a time when there is a heightened sensitivity to those two words, assault rifles. 'And while Daniel didn't use those words, he used some stock photo he got somewhere. The father called Mr. Marquez and said: "I've got some concerns about this text, what does it mean?" 'Mr. Marquez was unfamiliar with them and said, "well this is just goofing around." So the other father let him know that he had contacted the sheriff's department.' The young boy is accused of sending a text that seemed to suggest he was going to shoot up Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral where he just completed fifth grade The boy's attorney said Daniel is an 'honor roll student' and claimed his text message was taken out of context The fifth grader was awarded the 'English Language Arts Award' just a day before his arrest He also received a certificate for successfully completing fifth grade at the Cape Coral elementary school Officers arrived at the Marquez single family home in Cape Coral on Saturday. Single dad Dereck moved to Florida in 2018 after serving in the infantry on Iraq and now works as a realtor. He declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com. 'Daniel's father told the deputies he understood why they were there and handed them the phone,' said Molloy. 'And he was told that this could be perceived as a threat simply because they are in the same chain of events. Then they arrested Daniel. 'They handcuffed him at his home and put him in the back of a patrol car. Mr. Marquez was not allowed to go in the car with him, I believe he met his son at the sheriff's department sub-station. Attorney Douglas Molloy is now fighting for Daniel's release and insists the boy is a 'happy' student who comes from a loving and stable home 'Next Daniel was processed for making the threat and appeared before a judge at Lee County Courthouse, who had to decide if there was probable cause.' Molloy continued: 'At that time Daniel was being represented by the first person Mr. Marquez could get on the telephone, a very good lawyer who contested the probable cause. He said look there's no threat here, there's no probable cause to hold him. 'The judge disagreed and said there was, and that Daniel had to be held for 21 days. He was taken to the juvenile detention center in Collier County because the one in Lee County is under construction. He's still there.' Molloy said Daniel was 'crying all day' after his arrest. 'I have reached out to the state attorney's office and we will be talking about possible release,' he added. 'My job is to get him out and to get him his life back to not have everyone in that 10-year-old's life look at him differently, forever. To have people still look at him as the honor student he is and that this was tragic collateral damage amid the cancer that pervades American society at this time. 'His dad is visiting him tonight and I will see him tomorrow. I'm moving everything from my desk for this because we all have a 10-year-old in our lives somewhere. 'I have a grandson and I do not wish to visit that in my brain how that might feel if he was in this situation.' Molloy said Daniel comes from a loving and stable home, adding: 'He's a boy scout, a child who excels at his studies, he is bookish. He has a good sense of humor and is very intelligent. Sheriff Carmine Marceno laid into Marquez for his 'sickening' text message after he was arrested on Saturday Following the massacre in Uvalde, the sheriff of Lee County appeared in a video assuring residents his community that their kids were safe at school 'He's quiet and reserved, a very loving child. He's not troubled he doesn't fit the perceived profile of a loner, he's just a happy fifth grader. 'What has happened to him is something that goes beyond unfortunate.' Molloy said he didn't know if Daniel knew about the recent mass shootings in Texas and other parts of the country. 'His father handed over the phone to officers because he believed it was just something goofy, maybe not the brightest thing to do,' he said. 'I have no idea how much Daniel knew about Texas, or the tragedy in Buffalo.' Asked if the boy's father condemns the hardline actions of Sheriff Marceno as over-reaction, Molloy said: 'Mr. Marquez is very emotional about the arrest and what has happened to his son. In Uvalde, Texas, Salvador Ramos, 18, barricaded himself in a classroom and killed 19 kids and two teachers before being shot dead by police last week 'We are talking about a single father here who is active in school activities, who volunteers at the school. His concerns are all about Daniel, I don't believe he has really thought beyond that, about the actions of the sheriff's office. 'His brain and his emotions are for his son right now. It is the only reason he is not sitting here talking himself is because he is having a difficult time processing it. 'He is just concerned about his son's present and future now. He's thinking about, what happens when Daniel goes back to school, how's he going to be treated, how's he going to be perceived?' Molloy himself would not be drawn to criticize the sheriff's office, saying he understood the need for an investigation. 'I can't fault it and I can understand the reason for it,' he said. 'You never know with any situation, so that's why I don't fault the investigation. 'That being said, there is a 10-year-old who is being churned up because of this problem we have in this country. You have to ask the question: Would Daniel have been handled the same way if the tragedy of Texas not occurred just so soon in our memories?' He said he did not know if Daniel is being held in a separate room at the detention center because of his age. But he added: 'The people in the juvenile justice system here are all dedicated professionals. They are sensitive to his age and who he is. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visit and lay flowers at a memorial in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas 'This is a system geared to the individual, and when you have an anomaly in the system, they are on heightened sensitivity. 'I know he is being treated as well as possible under these circumstances. His dad has been in communication with him. I know he is polite and responsive kid in his detention.' Asked if there were weapons in the Marquez house, Molloy replied: 'I don't believe there are weapons in that home, certainly not any assault rifles. I asked if there were any unsecured firearms in the house, and that answer was no.' Sheriff Marceno, a politically-connected Republican who calls himself 'Florida's Law and Order Sheriff,' has been in office since he was appointed by former state governor Rick Scott in 2018. He won election in 2020. He is friends with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, who called him an 'incredibly hard-working, law-abiding official who is a dedicated public servant.' After the boy's arrest, Marceno defended the perp walk, saying: 'Every single threat is real. Every threat is real until you prove not.' He added: 'You don't get to come into one of my schools in my county and present deadly force. Because we meet deadly force without hesitation.' The heartbroken family of a newlywed bride found dead in a Swansea tanning salon is raising cash to fly her home to New Zealand. Piata Tauwhare, 30, collapsed in the tanning booth after booking an appointment for an 11-minute session. The alarm was raised when her worried husband Ifan Jones, 23, was unable to contact her following the visit. He called his mother Emma Collyer-Miles, 42, who then went to try to find Piata at Lextan in Swansea, South Wales, on Saturday. The family is now raising money to fly tragic Piata home to New Zealand after her body was discovered on the ground in an upstanding tanning booth. It is believed she suffered sudden arrhythmic death syndrome before she was found up to two hours later. Ifan Jones, left, pictured with his wife Piata Tauwhare, right. Mr Jones paid tribute to his 'selfless' wife who died last weekend in a South Wales tanning salon Ms Tauwhare, pictured, had booked an 11 minute tanning session on Saturday. Her mother-in-law Emma Collyer-Miles went to the salon after Ms Tauwhare failed to answer her phone when her body was discovered Ms Tauwhare collapsed at Lextan in Fforestfach, Swansea on Sunday Mr Jones paid tribute to his 'compassionate, selfless' wife who worked as a mental health worker. He said: 'Anyone who has ever had the pleasure to grace the presence of Piata Tauwhare will know that she was one of the kindest and purest souls they have ever and will ever remember. 'Her gleaming smile, eternally set on her sun-kissed face will live happily in our hearts forever. Even when she didn't understand a word our weird Welsh accents were saying, her teeth still glistened courteously and reassuringly to make us feel heard. 'That was her in a nutshell, a compassionate, selfless woman, putting others first, even when she couldn't understand a bloody word we were saying. 'Pi was the most caring, special daughter, sister, cousin, friend and wife.' The couple married in September before moving back to Mr Jones' hometown of Swansea. Mother-in-law Emma described her as 'an angel to us all' and said the horrific incident will 'stay with me forever.' Family and friends have now raised over 5,500 to get Piata back to New Zealand. A spokesman for Lextan said: 'We can sadly confirm that a customer died while at our Fforestfach salon on Saturday, May 28th. 'We give our condolences to the deceased's family and friends, and we have also offered counselling to any affected staff. 'We are cooperating with the investigation into this case by South Wales Police and any further enquiries should be made to them at this time.' Police called to the salon at 4.05pm by paramedics but Piata was pronounced dead the same day. Detective Inspector Gareth Jones of South Wales Police said: 'South Wales Police was called around 4.05pm on Saturday, May 28, by the Welsh Ambulance Service following reports that the body of a woman had been found at commercial premises on Carmarthen Road, Fforestfach. 'Emergency services attended and found the body of a woman in her 30s. There are believed to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.' Ukraine's first lady appealed to America and the world not to grow accustomed to her nation's pain before being interrupted by blaring air raid sirens during her first-ever one-on-one interview since the start of war in her country. 'Do not get used to this war. The war may be [happening] far, far away. There [are] some distant territories... But don't get used to that,' Olena Zelenska said, as she was overcome with emotion, while speaking to Good Morning America's Robin Roberts. 'Otherwise, we are risking [having] a never-ending war,' she said. Speaking through a translator, Zelenska sent the heartfelt message to the West as the war enters its fourth month leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. But the interview was suddenly stopped when raid sirens went off, forcing Zelenska and Roberts to briefly pause the questioning and hunker down. 'Let's hope it's a false alarm,' Zelenska muttered, remaining composed and seemingly accustomed to this new normal in the besieged country. The sit-down interview was resumed 30 minutes later, as Ukraine's first lady appeared determined to expose the harsh reality of the ongoing conflict launched by the Kremlin in February. Speaking to Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, Olena Zelenska sent a heartfelt message to the West as the war enters its fourth month But the interview was suddenly stopped when raid sirens went off, forcing Zelenska and Roberts to briefly pause the questioning and hunker down Zelenska, who has been married to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for nearly two decades and shares two children with him, said she vividly remembers the first moments when the war started. In the early morning hours of that fateful Thursday, February 24, Zelenska said she and her family were awakened by the sounds of bombardment in the vicinities of Kyiv. The first lady said despite the previous week of rising tension between the Kremlin and Ukraine, the severity of the situation did not immediately dawn on her. 'Well, I would say in that very moment, it was hard for us to understand the level, the extent of [the] threat that we were facing,' she said. 'Because we heard all these sounds but looking at the damage that was caused to the suburbs of Kyiv, only then we realized how fast they could go further on, how fast they could reach the city.' What followed were weeks filled with uncertainty and fear for all Ukrainian households, including the first family, which also had to separate. Pledging to serve his country and support the thousands of military men and women fighting Russian troops, President Zelensky separated from his children and wife to lead Ukraine through the invasion. The sit-down interview was resumed 30 minutes later The first lady was determined to expose the harsh reality of the ongoing conflict launched by the Kremlin in February 'We say goodbye to each other the very first day. And over the next two months, we only had a chance to speak via the phone. I'm really proud of the fact that the world has uncovered the true identity of my husband,' Zelenska said. Zelenska added that while it was easier to explain to her 17-year-old daughter what is going on in the country, her nine-year-old son questioned where his father was. 'I believe that the children clearly realized everything from the very first moment,' she said. 'My son, well, he tried to keep himself brave enough and courageous. He kept asking about dad, about what he's doing for the sake of defending the country.' The first lady also spoke about the false sense of normalcy in some parts of the country and the persisting threats in others. 'There's this very strange feeling because you can see people walking down the streets as if there's no war. There's an air raid warning or the signals that may be announced and some of the people are ignoring that,' she said. Zelenska has been married to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for nearly two decades ad shares two children with him. Above, the couple pictured on May 17 A rescuer walks among ruins of a school in Kharkiv, partially destroyed by a rocket on June 2 Two elderly women clean potatoes in the vicinity of a building destroyed by Russian bombing Despite the lingering concerns as the end of the war remains but a wish, Zelenska said she was incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the West. 'We truly feel the support coming from the people. From the United States. It's really important because you feel you are not alone,' she said. When told by Roberts that Biden had committed to sending more weapons and machinery, Zelenska said, 'I hope so,' and nervously laughed. The first lady was adamant that her country would not give up territory in efforts to end the conflict, arguing that the move would only bolster the Kremlin's intimidation techniques and attacks. 'You just can't concede parts of your territories, it's like conceding freedom,' she told Roberts. 'And besides, I would like to say that... even if we would concede our territories, the aggressor would not stop at that. He would continue pressing. He would continue launching more and more steps forward, more and more attacks on our territory.' Zelenska added that while it was easier to explain to her 17-year-old daughter what is going on in the country, her nine-year-old son questioned where his father was A boy looks at the remains of destroyed houses. As the city of Kyiv tries to return to normality, the streets are a reminder that the war is still raging A man walks through the streets of Kyiv amid the wreckage of Russian armoured cars on June 1 On Thursday, Russian forces tried to assault the east Ukrainian village of Berestove that lies on a main road linking the Luhansk region's city of Lysychansk to the rest of the country, a Ukrainian general said. Russia is close to capturing all of Luhansk, which is one of two Ukrainian regions that make up the region known as the Donbas. Russian forces are also trying to attack the town of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region, General Oleksiy Gromov told a press briefing. As the brutal invasion approaches its fourth month, the Ukrainian civilian death toll has risen to at least 4,000, the UN said. However, the organization warned the real number is 'likely considerably higher,' and satellite images of mass graves in Ukraine suggest more than 10,000 residents have been killed in the war. Ukraine has lost 20,000 troops, Russia claimed, but Kyiv estimated just in April the number was 3,000, POLITICO reported. Zelenskyy's country has claimed that more than 30,000 Russian troops have been killed, although latest figures released by the Kremlin in March put the number at 1,351. A South Carolina man reportedly high on meth has been charged in the shooting death of an eight-year-old boy. The suspect identified as 40-year-old Charles Montgomery Allen allegedly shot at three cars at random as they drove by his home on Old River Road near the city of Florence, South Carolina, CBS Boston reported. Allen was arrested at his home in Old River Road after a brief standoff with a SWAT team, according to the Florence County Sheriff's Department. He now faces charges of murder, attempted murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He is being held without bond at Florence County Detention Center. The young victim, Quarius Naqua Dunham, who was from Portsmouth, New Hampshire was on a family vacation in South Carolina for the Memorial Day holiday when the unthinkable tragedy took place. The youngster was struck in the neck. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, and placed on life support before he succumbed to his injuries and passed away. The young victim, Quarius Naqua Dunham, who was from Portsmouth, New Hampshire was on a family vacation in South Carolina for the Memorial Day holiday when the unthinkable tragedy took place. Dunham is pictured here from a TikTok he had posted on a special day, in what appears to be some type of graduation celebration The suspect identified as 40-year-old Charles Montgomery Allen was arrested at his home in Old River Road after a brief standoff with a SWAT team, according to the Florence County Sheriff's Department The boy's father, who was driving the vehicle, was shot in the leg and is expected to survive. The mother who was also in the vehicle was uninjured. A motive has yet to be determined, but Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye called the tragic shooting a 'senseless act, WBTW reported. 'No motive. Just probably methed up,' Joye said. 'He's got a history. He's incarcerated now without incident.' On Tuesday, Charity Mills, the victims sister posted a heartbreaking message to Facebook with broken-heart emojis. Baby boyy. Omggg. It hurts so bad. LORDDD GIVE ME SOME STRENGTH PLS . I loveeee you quarius. I wish you could return home to your game and friends,' she wrote. In a separate post, Mills shared the unbearable pain she was feeling on the loss of her youngest sibling. 'If I knew what I knew now, that last hug wouldve been a whole lot tighter,' she wrote, in part. 'You fought a good fight baby. You was so innocent baby.. remember the words I said to you .. and always know I love you so much, in my heart you will always have this special place.' Portsmouth superintendent of schools Stephen Zadravec sent out a letter informing parents, students and staff about the tragic news of their third-grade student. 'His family was on vacation and were victims of a random shooting in South Carolina. An event like this touches our community as a whole,' Zadravec said, in part. 'Our hearts are with the family as we support each other through this unbelievable tragedy.' Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern called the tragedy, 'unimaginable.' 'Our hearts go out to the family and when they do return to Portsmouth we will show them just how strong of a community they have,' Mceachern said, in part. The fatal shooting took place on Saturday when deputies responded to a call of multiple shots fired into moving vehicles at approximately 2:00 p.m. on Old River Road near the city of Florence, South Carolina. According to deputies, there were reports of two victims, including an eight-year-old child passenger in one of the vehicles, who suffered gunshot wounds. A SWAT team and law enforcement officials are on the scene after the weekend shooting The scene where Saturday's fatal shooting took place at Old River Road near the city of Florence, South Carolina that killed Quarius Naqua Dunham, 8, and injured his father Allen is pictured in court The victims were transported to an area hospital for medical treatment. On Friday, an autopsy is scheduled at the Medical University of South Carolina. Parent Laura Stroll told WBZ-TV in Boston that she struggled to tell her son, who was friends Dunham, that his friend won't be returning to school. 'It's just really heartbreaking and it's terrible to have to tell your child news like this, Stroll said, in part. Portsmouth School Department Superintendent said: 'For parents looking for support in speaking with their children, The Child Mind Institute has some resources about dealing with and talking about grief in a developmentally appropriate way that you may find helpful.' He said there will be additional counseling support for those and staff who may need assistance. The investigation is ongoing, deputies said. McLaughlin asserted that he did not believe the negotiator knew there were children calling 911 and pleading police for rescue at the time McLaughlin asserted that he did not believe the negotiator knew there were children calling 911 and pleading police for rescue at the time 911 calls had been made by several students locked in the classroom with Ramos, as the men waited for more than an hour It has since been revealed that 911 calls had been made by several students locked in the classroom with Ramos, as the men waited for more than an hour Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom - where he would kill 19 kids and two adults - as cops who reportedly thought Ramos was alone in the room waited McLaughlin, who has come under fire for lawmen's shifting accounts of the day's events, said he met the man across the school as cops waited to engage Ramos He said that Ramos - an 18-year-old high school dropout who shot his grandmother in the face before storming the school - never picked up 'They tried every number they could find,' he told the outlets in the sit-down interview, held at Uvalde's City Hall 'His main goal was to try to get this person on the phone,' McLaughlin said in an interview with The Washington Post and Telemundo San Antonio Wednesday Uvalde's mayor has revealed that a 'negotiator' frantically tried to contact teenage gunman Salvador Ramos during last week's mass shooting, and that the school where the massacre took place will likely be demolished. 'His main goal was to try to get this person on the phone,' Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an interview with The Washington Post and Telemundo San Antonio Wednesday of the would-be negotiator, whom he did not name. 'They tried every number they could find,' he told the outlets in the sit-down interview, held at Uvalde's City Hall. He said that Ramos - an 18-year-old high school dropout who shot his grandmother in the face before storming the school - never picked up. McLaughlin, who has come under fire for law enforcement's shifting - and conflicting - accounts of the day's events, said he met the city official at a funeral home across from the school, after he rushed to the scene after learning of the shooting. During that time, Ramos had barricaded himself in a classroom where the gunman would kill 19 kids and two teachers - as officers with the Uvalde School District's police force, who reportedly thought Ramos was alone in the room, waited outside. It has since been revealed that 911 calls had been made by several students locked in the classroom with Ramos, as the men waited for more than an hour. Uvalde's mayor Don McLaughlin revealed Wednesday during a sit-down interview from the town's City Hall that a 'negotiator' tried to contact teenage gunman Salvador Ramos during last week's mass shooting. He also said the school will likely be razed in the coming months Several victims died during this time span, law enforcement officials have since conceded. McLaughlin asserted that he did not believe the negotiator knew there were children calling 911 and pleading police for rescue at the time. Eventually, Border Patrol agents who rushed to the scene after hearing the incident unfold on scanners breached the locked classroom door, fatally shooting Ramos after disobeying direct orders from School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo to stay put. 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. The mayor added that he thought it was likely that Robb Elementary (at right) would be razed to the ground in the coming months so that members of the community can move on from the massacre The mayor added that he also was not aware that those 911 calls were being made, telling the outlets that he had not heard shots being fired from inside the school. He also said he not been in touch with Arredondo, who oversaw the response to the shooting and has faced growing criticism over his decision to wait to confront the gunman - a move Texas Department of Public Safety head Steven McCraw has slammed as 'the wrong decision.' McLaughlin's school district police chief Pete Arredondo is facing scrutiny 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 kids as they called 911 The sit-down did not see McLaughlin offer any new details as to the much-talked about police response to the shooting, which is currently being investigated by the DOJ due to a number of inconsistencies in police accounts of what happened. One such irregularity to surface regarding the botched police response is that Eva Mireles, one of the fourth-grade teachers murdered in the attack, spoke to her husband, a school district police officer, on the phone before she died. The officer, according to a senior county official, was on the scene when he received the call - which came as officers waited outside the classroom with the gunman inside. The call suggests the officer at the scene had information that Ramos was not alone in the classroom and indeed had hostages - putting the decision to delay entering the classroom further into question. McLaughlin, pictured at left outside the school during the shooting, said he he met the city official at a funeral home across from the school, after he rushed to the scene after learning of the then ongoing massacre 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. McLaughlin said that he did not believe the negotiator knew there were kids calling 911 and pleading for rescue 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. The response is currently under investigation The timeline of police's reported response. McLaughlin has come under fire for his city's officers' shifting - and conflicting - accounts of the day's events It is unclear whether Mireles husband, Ruben Ruiz, told commanding officer Arredondo, 50, who made the call to delay entry, about the phone call. Compounded with the slew of calls dispatchers received from kids in the classroom during that span, and the fact Arredondo has reportedly stopped cooperating with officials' investigation, the district's response has become the focus of the case in the wake of the tragedy - the worst school since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. McLaughlin Wednesday deflected blame for those inconsistencies on the state's public safety department, which is participating in the investigation into officers' response, maintaining that local authorities 'have not lied to anyone.' 'The briefing that the governor and the lieutenant governor and everybody else in that room [had]... was given by the (Department of Public Safety), not local law enforcement,' the mayor said. 'Theyve had three press conferences - in all three press conferences, something has changed.' The interview also saw the mayor assert that one officer from the school's four-officer police force was part of the team that took Ramos down. DailyMail.com was not immediately able to verify if that was the case. McLaughlin added that he thought it was likely that the school would be razed to the ground in the coming months, just as officials in Sandy Hook did following the massacre by then 20-year-old Adam Lanza, which left 26 dead - 20 of whom were children between six and seven years old. 'I hope we tear it down to the ground,' the mayor said, as the small-town community continues to look to move past the heinous incident. He asserted: 'I would never expect a teacher, a student, anyone to go walk back in that building.' Salvador Ramos, 18, from Uvalde, fatally shot 19 children and two adults in Tuesday's shooting. Ramos shared photos of guns to social media in the days leading up to the massacre. They mayor said he did not respond to the unnamed negotiator's repeated calls during the attack In this aerial view, law enforcement works on scene at Robb Elementary School where 21 people were killed Law enforcement are seen at the scene of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. details continue to emerge about the school shooting in Uvalde that complicate law enforcements shifting accounts of the days events The Justice Department and the state are currently investigating the police response. On Wednesday, CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz traveled to Uvalde in an attempt to question chief Pedro Arredondo about his department's actions the day of the massacre, and why he had ordered his officers to wait outside the school. During the encounter, Arredondo deflected Prokupecz's questions, repeatedly saying that there would be answers once the parents of victims were done grieving. Shortly after confronting the chief, Prokupecz was confronted by a group of Uvalde school district officers who told him that cops from the Uvalde Police Department were on the way to charge the journalists with trespassing. The school district office called the police to ask the media to leave their property. pic.twitter.com/uhwWLZe3ya Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 1, 2022 On Wednesday, CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz traveled to Uvalde in an attempt to question chief Pedro Arredondo about his department's actions the day of the massacre, and why he had ordered his officers to wait outside the school. The DOJ and the state are currently investigating the department's response to the shooting A tweet from CNN reporter Simon Prokupecz showing Uvalde Independent School District officers outside their office saying he will be charged with trespassing if he doesn't leave 'I'm just gonna let you know, Uvalde PD's en route, once they get here, they'll start issuing criminal trespasses for the property,' one officer said during the encounter, which was recorded by CNN cameramen. 'Yeah, they want us to give you guys the initial warning, and then if you guys are still present, they're going to issue criminal trespasses,' another officer added. A reporter with the San Antonio Express-News also claimed that the ISD had issued the same trespassing threat and warning to him, tweeting photos of what he described as 'security detail' surrounding the district office building, seemingly to protect the embattled police chief. The journalists were then forced to leave the scene. Uvalde ISD Police chief Pedro Arredondo. He has come under fire after being accused of giving the order to not have officers enter the room where the active shooter was holed up with students at Robb Elementary School on May 24 Meanwhile, reports that Arredondo has stopped cooperating with Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into his department's response have been rife, further putting the force's credibility into question. On Tuesday, Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas DPS, announced Arredondo had stopped assisting their inquiries. 'The chief of the CISD did an initial interview but has not responded to a request for a follow-up interview that was made two days ago,' he told DailyMail.com. Arredondo has been fiercely criticized by state officials, the media and grieving parents in the wake of the attack. When asked by Prokupecz on Wednesday to defend his decision, Arredondo declined, saying: 'We're going to be respectful to the families.' He added, 'Just so you know, we're going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we'll do that obviously,' referring to the slew of funerals taking place in Uvalde this week. Eva Mireles, one of the fourth-grade teachers murdered in the attack, spoke to her husband, a school district police officer, on the phone before she died. The call suggests the cop had information that Ramos was not alone in the classroom and indeed had hostages - putting the decision to delay entering the classroom further into question Arredondo then rejected claims that he has not been cooperating the DPS, saying his office had been in contact with them 'every day' since the incident. 'Just so everybody knows, we've been in contact with DPS every day,' Arredondo, who was inducted into Uvalde's city council days after the shooting, said. 'I've been on the phone with them every day. Just so you know we've been talking to them every day.' Prokupecz said that a short time after he confronted Arredondo, a spokesperson from the district came out and provided a statement claiming that the school district was cooperating with the DPS - but that they would not answer questions until the investigation was completed. 'UCISD has and will continue to work with law enforcement who are investigating the event and realize that many questions remain,' the statement read, 'Because the investigation is ongoing and information is evolving, we are going to reserve comment until all state and federal agencies have completed their review.' A tweet from San Antonio Express-News reporter Guillermo Contreras who says he was issued similar trespassing warnings by Uvalde ISD police Joe Biden is preparing for another weekend away in Delaware as the president is on track to take more vacation than any other of his predecessors. So far since taking office, Biden has spent 188 full or partial days away from the White House vacationing in either of his two Delaware properties, at Camp David or on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. This is broken down by 130 days in either Rehoboth or Wilmington, Delaware, 52 days at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Frederick, Maryland and six days on the luxury island of Nantucket. By Sunday, when Biden will be at his beach house in Delaware, once again, the president will have reached 500 days in office. While reaching this landmark, Biden will have spent more than one-third of his time in office vacationing away from the White House. At the rate of vacation days he is currently at, the president is on track to spend around 550 days away from the White House in the four years of his first term and would amount to just 1,106 for two terms. Biden has previously referred to the White House as a 'gilded cage'. 'Every time I get a chance, I go home to Delaware,' Biden said in February. 'You think I'm joking. I'm not.' President Joe Biden is on track to spend the most time in office vacationing away from the White House than any other president in U.S. history. So far, Biden has spent 188 days on vacation and is preparing for a weekend away in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. If he continues at this rate, he will spend 1,106 days vacationing over the course of two terms Biden often visits his two properties in his home state of Delaware in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington. Pictured: Biden and first lady Jill walk and play fetch with their German Shepherd Commander on the beach during a weekend in Rehoboth in December 2021 He has kept true to this comment, taking every chance he gets to go back to his home state of Delaware especially on weekends. Stacking this up against past presidents, Biden, 79, is on track to be the most highly vacationed president in U.S. history. During former President Donald Trump's one term in office, he spent 381 days vacationing away from the White House at his several properties across the country but mostly in Mar-a-Lago, Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey. Like all presidents, Trump insisted that a lot of his trips out of Washington, D.C. were 'working vacations.' Trump, during his candidacy for president, would often slam his predecessor Barack Obama for being a 'habitual vacationer'. But former President Obama took only 328 vacation days in his two terms or eight years in office, which is 53 days less than Trump took in just half the time in office. Obama's trips broken down included 29 vacations spanning 235 days as well as 39 visits to Camp David that added up to 93 full or partial days away from the White House. Many of Obama's trips were to Martha's Vineyard island off of Massachusetts, as well as several trips to Hawaii, which is where he was raised. Biden is seen leaving a restaurant on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts during Thanksgiving vacation in November 2021. He has spent six days on Nantucket since becoming president Biden's projected 1,106 vacation days in two terms will surpass the previous most vacationed president George W. Bush. Bush Jr. took 1,020 vacation days over his eight years, preferring to spend time on his ranch in Texas than in Washington, D.C. When asked about the visits to his home state, Bush told AP at the time: 'I'm able to clear my mind, and it helps me put it all in perspective.' While president, Bush visited his ranch 77 times spanning all or part of 490 days. He also made 11 visits to his parents home in Kennebunkport, Maine over 43 full or partial days, and 149 visits to Camp David for 487 days. The families of September 11th victims are urging President Joe Biden on Thursday to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the terror attacks if he meets with the Middle Eastern nation's de-facto leader later this month. The president is reportedly eyeing a face-to-face with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, known colloquially as MBS, in an upcoming visit to the Gulf. Biden would also meet with other allies in the oil-rich Gulf if he does embark on the trip later this month, the Washington Post reported. Advocacy group 9/11 Families United urged the president to 'prioritize accountability' for the attacks in any conversations with MBS or other Saudi officials and royalty in a letter sent to the White House on Thursday. Late last year, the president declassified a trove of FBI documents revealing the extent of its investigation into what, if any, ties the Saudi government had to the terrorists. Brett Eagleson, 36, whose father Bruce Eagleson died while aiding rescue efforts after one of two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, told DailyMail.com that Biden's move was 'instrumental' but called on him to 'fully commit' to seeking justice if he meets with MBS. 'We're now hoping that President Biden fully commits to help the family members, because he started to help us and he's halfway there,' Eagleson said. 'But now finally, bring this issue home, put it to rest and bring closure to the 9/11 community by forcing the Saudis to be held accountable for the actions their government did 20 years ago.' The families of 9/11 victims are urging President Biden to bring up the terror attacks after it was reported that he might be meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman later in June The reported meeting spurred 9/11 Families United, which represents roughly 3,000 friends and relatives of victims, to write a letter to Biden urging him to abstain from normalizing relations with the Saudis until they are held accountable for the attacks 9/11 Families United National Chair Terry Strada said in the Thursday letter that the release 'reaffirms our long-held beliefs regarding Saudi Arabias deep involvement in the murders of our loved ones.' 'Accountability should be the cornerstone of any engagement, and the Saudi response should inform your approach to other concerns including energy production and regional security,' Strada said in the letter, obtained by DailyMail.com. Otherwise, he said 'it would signal to the world that you are willing to indulge years more of Saudi obfuscation and obstruction, and that America prioritizes the interests of foreign powers and economics more than the lives of its citizenry.' Saudi Arabia has for two decades denied any involvement in the attacks, though 15 of the 19 men who hijacked and crashed four planes that day in New York City, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon were Saudi nationals. The FBI released documents from its investigation, dubbed Operation Encore, in November 2021 after Biden ordered them to be declassified. The Bureau had explored, among other things, whether three people including one Saudi Embassy official in the US had advanced knowledge of the attacks. An earlier memo released in September detailed the 'significant logistic support' two of the hijackers had received once within the country including 'procuring living quarters and assistance with assimilating.' But the investigation ultimately failed to produce concrete links between the terrorists and the Saudi government, nor had it ''identified additional groups or individuals responsible for the attack other than those currently charged.' Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed when four planes crashed into New York City's twin towers, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and a field in Pennsylvania Eagleson, not affiliated with 9/11 Families United, was part of an effort by 1,900 relatives of 9/11 victims to ask Biden not to come to the 20th anniversary memorial of the attacks unless he declassified the documents. He said his group wants Biden and MBS to make a 'commitment' to discussing September 11th if they do meet this June, acknowledging the de-factor ruler did not have a direct role in the attacks. 'MBS was not a part of 9/11. He was 16 years old when 9/11 happened. So were not pointing a finger at MBS, but were pointing a finger at his country, and the kingdom that was in power 20 years ago, Eagleson said. 'And he as the ruler, or the de facto ruler of the kingdom, needs to acknowledge the actions of his country 20 years ago.' 9/11 Families United, which represents 3,000 people who lost friends and relatives in the attacks, also applauded Biden's 'historic' move in declassifying the documents. The probe also 'underscores the importance that you do not reward the Kingdom and Crown Prince with a presidential visit that allows it to continue escaping responsibility for its role in the most horrific attack in our nations history,' the group's leader Strada stated in the Thursday letter. 'We have watched presidents avoid the hard conversations required with the Kingdom for more than 20 years, and we continue to hope that you will be different,' Strada implored. 'The historic failure to hold the Kingdom to account for aiding and abetting al Qaeda and the 9/11 hijackers is the original sin in the U.S.-Saudi relationship and the source of the American peoples hostility to that nation.' Strada said Americans believe Saudi Arabia has 'moral and legal culpability' for the tragedy. Brett Eagleson, who's father Bruce Eagleson was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, said he hopes Biden and MBS can make a 'commitment' to discussing 9/11 on the trip Eagleson helped lead an effort last year that culminated in a letter demanding that Biden stay away from the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks unless he declassifies the FBI's investigation into them - which he did shortly thereafter. His father Bruce had been working on the 17th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower, and was helping others escape to safety before he died 'Americans view of the Saudi government, as unsavory and retrograde, has been amplified by the Kingdoms more recent cruel and reckless acts, but September 11 looms over them all,' Strada added likely in reference to the killing of US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Strada pleaded with Biden to abstain from normalizing relations with the Saudis until the Middle Eastern nation stopped denying involvement in 9/11. 'No reset of our nations relationship with Saudi Arabia can or should be possible without proper reconciliation for the attacks on September 11, 2001,' he said. 'Please stand where no other President since 9/11 has stood, with the September 11 community in our pursuit for justice, and prioritize a full and complete discussion of the Saudis continued denial of their complicity in the attacks.' The Thursday letter is a follow-up from a similar plea that 9/11 Families United sent to Biden in March, when a potential meeting with MBS was first reported after Russia's invasion of Ukraine plunged the global energy supply chain into chaos. Eagleson, however, believes in normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia - after it makes a 'formal acknowledgement' of its role in the terror attacks. 'I think that youll find that a number of the 9/11 family members, we are in support of normalizing relations. We are in support of bringing, you know, peace, right, between the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, but at the same time, we want to be heard, and we want our voices to be heard, and we want we want there to be justice for for the wrongdoing,' he said. The families want any government information on Saudi support for the Sept. 11th attacks Asked what he wants to come out of the meeting, Eagleson said: We want formal acknowledgement by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that there were elements within their government that led to the success of the 9/11 hijackers.' 'We want formal acknowledgement by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that there were things that they could have done 21 years ago, to prevent 9/11 from happening ,and they failed to do that.' He added that the 'simple acknowledgement' would be 'an exoneration for all the families' who have been fighting for justice for 20 years. Nearly two decades after the terror attacks, MBS was accused of orchestrating the brutal dismemberment and murder of Khashoggi - a prominent critic of his. The Crown Prince had denied ordering the killing. Biden had pledged to make Saudi Arabia a 'pariah' on the world stage after the Washington Post journalist's murder and said there was 'very little social redeeming value' in their current government. But now in the White House rather than on the campaign trail, it appears the president is trying to iron out a different strategy. On his reported upcoming trip, Biden may try to persuade MBS and the US's other allies in the region into aiding with the growing energy crisis. It puts the president in a tough spot between sticking to his pledge to call out human rights abuses and easing Americans' financial discomfort as the nationwide average price at the pump rose yet again on Thursday to roughly $4.71 per gallon. A top legal scholar has argued that the American Civil Liberties Union shares in the blame for defaming Johnny Depp, after the group drafted an essay for Amber Heard that was at the center of his claims against her. During the six-week defamation trial, it emerged that Heard's 2018 Washington Post op-ed claiming domestic abuse was actually ghostwritten by staffers working for the ACLU. On Wednesday, a jury in Virginia found that several passages of that essay were defamatory, even though it didn't mention Depp by name. 'The ACLU really does deserve a really a front row seat in terms of blame. You know, they played a critical role,' argued legal scholar Jonathan Turley, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School, in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. 'They helped draft a defamatory statement. They disregarded the countervailing arguments of Depp or the possibility might be innocent, and they elevated this person as the presumptive spokesperson for all abused spouses,' he added. Legal scholar Jonathan Turley argued that the ACLU is partly to blame in Amber Heard's defamation of Johnny Depp, after ghostwriting her 2018 op-ed about domestic abuse Actress Amber Heard departs the Fairfax County Courthouse on Wednesday after the jury's verdict in the case meant she owed Depp a net $8.35 million in damages The 2018 essay was key in the jury's $10.35 million verdict, which vindicated Depp's claim that Heard defamed him by accusing him of abuse during their brief marriage. The jury also found that Depp's attorney defamed Heard by accusing her of perpetrating a hoax, awarding her $2 million. At the time the essay was published, the ACLU described Heard as its 'ambassador on women's rights, with a focus on gender-based violence.' Heard had pledged to donate half of her $7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU after her 2016 split with Depp, but it emerged at trial that she has so far only given a small fraction of that amount. In his remarks, Turley questioned why the ACLU, which historically focused on defending Constitutional rights and liberties, was even involved in Heard's domestic abuse allegations against Depp. 'Many people have been critical for the ACLU for years, and how it's changed. It used to be an organization was focused on free speech, due process and this mission of protecting individual rights,' he said. 'It's become more and more political. It's drifted, and in this case we found out that ACLU staffers helped write this defamatory opinion piece and many of us are saying: 'What what were you even doing in this realm? Why were you even involved?'' he continued. During the six-week defamation trial, it emerged that Heard's 2018 Washington Post op-ed (above) claiming domestic abuse was actually ghostwritten by staffers working for the ACLU Johnny Depp arriving at Sage Gateshead the UK on Thursday, where he is due to join Jeff Beck on stage on Thursday evening 'The ACLU selected her as their spokesperson for abuse, and they just simply seemed to accept her allegations and reject the claims of Depp that he was not an abuser,' added Turley. A spokesperson for the ACLU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, #MeToo was trending following Wednesday's verdict, with supporters and detractors of the movement debating what impact the case would have. Writing for The Times, columnist Douglas Murray argued that the movement which began with the 2017 allegations against Harvey Weinstein may now 'be sputtering to an end.' Murray argued that the trial, which exposed a messy and dysfunctional relationship between Depp and Heard, served as 'a reminder that while some cases of domestic violence are clean-cut, others most certainly are not.' 'And blurring the line between the two is a serious societal mistake,' he argued. He contended that the public's overwhelming support for Depp in the case could be due to an 'overdue realisation that life, and relationships, are more complex than the hashtags of five years ago.' Journalist Michelle Celarier declared in a tweet: '#metoo is officially over.' Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum said the Depp verdict 'puts a bit of a stake of the heart in the notion that you believe all women.' Even supporters of the MeToo acknowledged that the verdict had profound implications, and expressed fears that it would discourage victims of sexual and domestic abuse from speaking out. CNN legal analyst Areva Martin acknowledged the blow that the verdict had delivered to the cause, tweeting: 'this will have a chilling effect on abused women!' 'Clearly this sets women back decades and erodes the progress we had made with #metoo,' she wrote. Likewise, columnist Moira Donegan wrote for the Guardian that the verdict 'will have a devastating effect on survivors, who will be silenced, now, with the knowledge that they cannot speak about their violent experiences at men's hands without the threat of a ruinous libel suit.' 'In that sense, women's speech just became a lot less free,' added Donegan. Saved By The Bell actress Kiersten Warren had a different take, tweeting: '#MeToo was not set back. Woman are not muzzled or treated less than in light of this verdict.' 'I think we all heard her, we all took her seriously, but a lot of us, including the jury just didn't ultimately believe her or find her credible. That's it,' she added. 'That's all.' The World Health Organization (WHO) believes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is growing worse, not better, despite the secretive country's recent assurances that COVID-19 is slowing there. At a news conference on Wednesday, WHO's emergency head, Dr. Mike Ryan, asked North Korean officials for further information about the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, adding "we have genuine concerns." WHO Voices Concern on North Korea's COVID-19 He stated that WHO has not received any privileged information on the pandemic, in contrast to regular epidemics in which governments may share more sensitive data with the organization for it to assess global public health risks. WHO has already expressed worry over COVID-19's impact on North Korea's population, which is thought to be entirely unvaccinated. According to the WHO, the country's frail health services may struggle to deal with a surge of cases caused by the super-infectious Omicron variant and its subvariants. North Korea's assertions that it has managed COVID-19 without mass vaccination, lockdowns, or medications have been viewed with suspicion, notably its claim that just a few dozen people have died out of many millions sick - a considerably lower mortality rate than found anywhere else in the world. According to North Korean authorities, around 3.7 million individuals have a fever or are suspected of having COVID-19. However, it provided little data regarding the severity of the sickness or how many patients recovered, making public health specialists' attempts to assess the scope of the outbreak difficult, according to CBC. North Korea recorded over 96,000 new fever cases on Thursday, with the daily count maintaining below 100,000 for the third day in a row. Over 24 hours ending at 6 pm, more than 96,610 persons experienced fever-like symptoms, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), citing statistics from the state emergency epidemic prevention center. It did not disclose any further information on subsequent deaths. As of 6 pm, the total number of fever cases since late April had surpassed 3.83 million. It stated that more than 3.66 million people have recovered and at least 165,390 are being treated as of Wednesday. Read Also: Finland Reveals Deployment of US-Made F-35 Stealth Jets Near Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle Lifting Lockdowns in North Korea Worsened the Situation Since peaking at over 392,920 on May 15, the country's daily fever tally has been falling. After topping 100,000 on Sunday, the daily figure has fallen below 100,000 since Monday. North Korea revealed its first COVID-19 case on May 12, while claiming to be coronavirus-free for nearly two years, and proclaimed a switch to the highest emergency virus management system, Korea Herald reported. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has acknowledged the scarcity of medication, ordering the army to distribute its stockpiles. According to Hwang-sun, North Korean hospitals and pharmacies have been without medication for years. Doctors write prescriptions, and it is up to the patient to identify what they need and buy it, either from someone selling directly from their home or a local market. On the day the pandemic was declared, the authorities imposed a nationwide lockdown. It raised fears that many might go hungry if they couldn't procure food. Some, however, appear to have been able to leave their houses to work and farm. Pictures shot by the monitoring website NK News across the border in South Korea show agricultural laborers in the fields in the days following the shutdown. People have been reported to have been confined to their houses in areas with high rates of illness, including the capital Pyongyang. Lee Sang-yong, the editor of the Seoul-based Daily NK, has a network of informants within North Korea. He claims that, at the border town of Hyesan, residents were not permitted to leave their houses for 10 days in May. When the lockdown was lifted, more than a dozen people were discovered collapsed in their houses, debilitated by a lack of food, according to his source, as per BBC. Related Article: Monkeypox Outbreak: WHO Expert Raises Alarm on Quick Spread of Virus With 550 Cases in 30 Countries @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Vladimir Putin of Russia had treatment for advanced cancer in April and survived an assassination attempt a month earlier, according to a U.S. intelligence report. Putin's health has been the source of endless rumor and speculation, as analyst pore over footage of his every public appearance for evidence of physical decline. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied ill-health and U.S. officials have also warned against wishful thinking. But now three senior intelligence figures have told Newsweek that Putin's health is the subject of intense scrutiny by the Biden administration and that a classified report confirms reports of cancer treatment. 'Putin's grip is strong but no longer absolute,' one of the senior intelligence officers said. 'The jockeying inside the Kremlin has never been more intense during his rule, everyone sensing that the end is near.' The sources - drawn from Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Intelligence Agency - agree that Putin's health is more grave than previously believed. They said that his physical exhaustion was matched by Russia's own exhaustion, as the conflict enters its fourth month. Analysts have pored over images like this one, trying to gauge the state of Vladimir Putin's health. His puffy face has raised speculation that he is sick Three intelligence source said the state of Putin's health matched his country's own exhaustion from the war in Ukraine. Smoke is seen rising here in the city of Severodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in the eastern Donbas region A man walks next to heavily damaged buildings and destroyed cars following Russian attacks in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine And the intelligence assessments also confirm an assassination attempt was made in March, the officials say. However, they cautioned that some sources of intelligence had evaporated since the war began and that Putin's isolation had made it harder to assess his condition. 'What we know is that there is an iceberg out there, albeit one covered in fog,' said the DNI leader. Meanwhile the DIA official said Putin's reduction in meetings with outsiders had also choked off information. 'Putin has had few meetings with foreign leaders,' the source said. 'Putin's isolation has thus increased levels of speculation.' That speculation has brought repeated denials from the Kremlin. On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Putin was ill or dying. 'President Vladimir Putin appears in public every day,' he told French television. 'You can watch him on screens, read and listen to his performances. I don't think that sane people can see signs of some kind of illness or poor health.' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the fact that viewers can watch Putin on screens and read his speeches disproved any notion that the Russian leader was unwell He added that reports of Putin's poor health should be left 'on the conscience of those who spread such rumors.' His statements come amid reports that the Kremlin was reusing old footage of Putin for several meetings. An FSB officer was quoted in media outlets on May 29 warning that Putin has just three years left to live as speculation abounded over his health. And former British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote a dossier on Donald Trump and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections, has also suggested that Putin is in poor health. 'Certainly, from what we're hearing from sources in Russia and elsewhere, is that Putin is, in fact, quite seriously ill,' he told Sky News recently. But he admitted that it was unclear what was ailing him. 'It's not clear exactly what this illness is whether it's incurable or terminal, or whatever. But certainly, I think it's part of the equation,' he added. A former Soviet spy has claimed that Putin has Parkinson's disease while the Proekt investigative website said that Russian leader is thought to have thyroid cancer. Heavy fighting is under way in the eastern Donbas region, but battles are also taking place to the west of Kherson as Ukraine counter-attacks One source of intrigue is Putin's April 21 meeting with his defense minister. Putin gripped the table with his right hand as soon as he sat down, and held it throughout the meeting. Some observers took it as evidence of Parkinson's disease while others suggested it was simply his old KGB weapons training and he was staying ready to reach for a gun. 'Someone once seen as omnipotent was now mostly seen as struggling with the future, his own in particular,' said the DNI leader. Top-ranking Russian officials are said to be plotting a government without Putin after Kremlin sources claimed the Russian president has turned almost everybody against him amid the invasion of Ukraine. A government source told Russian-Latvian outlet Meduza last week that 'there are almost no people who are satisfied with Putin' among Kremlin officials and Russian elites. 'Businessmen and many members of the government are unhappy that the president started the war without thinking about the scale of the sanctions - it is impossible to live with such sanctions,' the source said - a sentiment which was later corroborated by two other government insiders. Meanwhile Israeli journalist Mark Kotlyarsky said he was told by medical informants in the Kremlin that Putin has pancreatic cancer - and may have just three months left. Mr Kotlyarsky wrote: 'It is possible that in the event of a fatal outcome, the country will be headed by a special State Council.' 'It is assumed that this body - as a transitional one - will govern Russia indefinitely in order to try to at least minimise the damage caused by the confrontation with Ukraine. 'The war will certainly be stopped, the troops will be withdrawn.' And earlier this week an FSB officer described the Russian president's condition as a 'severe form of rapidly progressing cancer'. Fugitive Boris Karpichkov said Putin has 'no more than two to three years left' and is losing his sight. They added Putin is refusing to wear glasses over fears it would admit a form of weakness - and is lashing out at subordinates with 'uncontrolled fury'. Biden sanctions Putin's 'money man' and godfather to one of his children, two yachts as well as two private jets By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.com The Treasury Department unveiled new sanctions Thursday meant to claw back prizes amassed by Vladimir Putin's inner circle and their family members including seizing a 324-foot yacht valued at $150 million belonging to a member of the state Duma. This time the government's sanctions seek to go deeper into the Russian president's financial network as Russia's war on Ukraine surpasses its 100th day. The sanctions hit five oligarchs and elites, including Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who has trashed the U.S. in her public statements. The sanctions also target Sergei Roldugin, identified as the money manager for Putin's offshore wealth, as well as the godfather to one of Putin's daughters. Treasury describes Roldugin as a 'close friend' to Putin, as well as his 'middle-man'. He is also a cellist and conductor of the state-owned St. Petersburg Music House. His wife Elena Yuryevna Mirtova is a soprano singer and actress. New Treasury sanctions hit Russian billionaire and businessman Sergei Roldugin (L), a cellist and conductor described as a friend to President Vladimir Putin as well as a 'middle-man' who manages his offshore empire The sanctions also go after 'Putin-linked yachts and Kremlin aligned yacht brokerages.' These include the Graceful, flagged in Russia, and identified as blocked property in which Putin 'has an interest,' and the Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia. Putin 'has taken numerous trips on these yachts, including a 2021 Black Sea expedition where he was joined by Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who is also designated by Treasury as corrupt. Belarus allowed Putin to use its country as a staging ground for the Ukraine invasion. Treasury sanctions also target two additional yachts linked to Putin, the Shellest and the Nega, which are owned by a Russian company. 'Shellest periodically travels to the coast where President Putins infamous Black Sea Palace is located, and President Putin uses Nega for travel in Russias North,' according to a Treasury statement. Roldugin is a 'close friend' to Putin, as well as his 'middle-man'. He is also a cellist and conductor of the state-owned St. Petersburg Music House The Madame Gu has a helicopter landing pad Russian billionaire Andrei Skoch's Superyacht 'Madame Gu" (99m) pictured in Port Hercules for the 26th Monaco Yacht Show. It is flagged in the Cayman Islands. The 324-foot vessel has a helicopter, an elevator, a beach club, and a gym The sanctions also blocked a private plane, and Airbus A319. 'The Russian economy is staggering under the weight of financial and trade sanctions, export controls, and the exodus of approximately 1,000 U.S. and multinational businesses,' according to a White House fact sheet. But Bloomberg News reported that Russia was expected to collect $285 billion from its oil and gas industry this year, helping finance its war even as Europe takes measures to cut off importation of some Russian oil. The sanctions also identify jet aircraft owned by San Marino-based SRL Skyline Aviation, which were transferred in a complex scheme were transferred to an anonymous offshore company managed by the chief of staff of Russian banker Andrei Kostin, CEO of VTB Bank. Another yacht, Sea Rhapsody, flagged in the Marshall Islands and linked to Kostin, was identified as property in which Kostin has an interest, and is valued at $65 million. Yet another yacht designated as blocked property, the Madame Gu, is flagged in the Cayman Islands. The 324-foot vessel has a helicopter, an elevator, a beach club, and a gym, and has a yearly painting budget of $1 million. It is linked to sanctioned Duma member and billionaire Andrew Vladimirovich Skoch. The sanctions also blocked a private plane, and Airbus A319. An Indian climber banned from Mount Everest for allegedly photoshopping photos of him at the top has climbed the world's tallest mountain for real but still insists it's his second visit. Narender Singh Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami said they had climbed Mount Everest in 2016 with a certification by the tourism department, but the authorities stripped him of the award and banned him from Nepal. He reached the peak of the worlds highest mountain early on May 27 only six days after the end of his ban, which prohibited him from entering the country for two years. This time, whether it be his first or second visit to the mountain, Yadav made sure to take plenty of photos. 'It was to show to all the people who defamed me. I have suffered a lot,' said Yadav. 'For me, May 27, 2022, is my rebirth. Its a new beginning.' An Indian man accused of faking photos to prove he climbed Mount Everest in 2016 has climbed the mountain in 2022 Narender Singh Yadav said he has now been reborn, climbing the mountain in only six days without acclimatisation - with the average mountaineer taking two months to climb Everest Yadav made sure to take photos of what he says is his second visit to Mt Everest in six years Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Fastest Everest Expedition-2022 Summit Of Mt. Everest (8848.86 M) Summit date 27 May 2022 Summit Time 5:02 Am Total 7 days Base camp to base camp . . . Special Thanks to @pioneer_expeditions @nivesh.karki @ngatenjisherpa @mingmaofficial Posted by Narender Singh Yadav on Sunday, May 29, 2022 Death zone South Col Camp 4 . . . . Posted by Narender Singh Yadav on Tuesday, May 31, 2022 When he submitted the photos in 2016, mountaineers said the photos showed an oxygen mask with no tube connecting it to an oxygen tank, a lack of reflections of snow or mountains in sunglasses, and limp flags in a place known for experiencing strong winds. Yadav was slated to received India's prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award from the president. But right after his achievement was announced, authorities launched an investigation into his submission. They concluded that the photographic evidence the climber had used to 'prove' he reached the top of the world's tallest mountain was in fact doctored. When the news broke, Indian mountaineers and the media reacted with outrage. 'I had done everything for the award,' he told The New York Times. 'But suddenly, they told me, "Deposit the coat and go home."' Yadav said his parents were humiliated by relatives and neighbours in the village they are from. 'Villagers called me fake, a fraud,' he said. 'For them, it was a matter of shame.' The couple and their team leader were banned by Nepal after an investigation was launched when they could not provide verifiable evidence of their summit. Now, Yadav said he has now proved himself beyond doubt, climbing the mountain in less than a week without acclimatisation - with the average mountaineer taking two months to climb Everest. The son of an Indian Army soldier, Yadav said he had practiced his summit for two years during the coronavirus lockdown, when all mountaineers were banned from climbing Everest. 'This campaign took me seven days from base camp to base camp. Another world record,' he wrote on Facebook. But the World Record for climbing Everest is in fact held by Pemba Dorje Sherpa, from Nepal, who climbed from the Everest South Base Camp to the summit in eight hours and 10 minutes. The fastest assent from the Everest North Base Camp was achieved by Italy's Hans Kammerlander in 16 hours and 45 minutes, meaning that Yadav has not beaten either record. 'It was to show to all the people who defamed me. I have suffered a lot,' said Yadav. 'For me, May 27, 2022, is my rebirth. Its a new beginning' Narender Singh Yadav is pictured with the award he says should have been his in 2016. 'This campaign took me seven days from base camp to base camp. Another world record,' he wrote on Facebook. The World Record for climbing Everest is in fact held by Pemba Dorje Sherpa, from Nepal, who climbed from Southern Base Camp to the summit of Mt Everest in a time of 8 hr 10 min Pictured is the 2016 submission of Yadav atop Everest, which community members say is photoshopped. They said the lack of an oxygen pipe connected to his mask, reflections in the goggles and wind are key giveaways of the doctoring - but Yadav is adamant he was wronged In addition to the two-year ban which applied to the two climbers and their team leader Naba Kumar Phukon started retrospectively from May 2016, but has now lifted. A previous New York Times report said the couple had both made it into what is known as the 'death zone' of elevation on Everest, more than 27,000 feet from sea level and only 2,000 feet short of the summit. The report said their guide warned their oxygen was depleted and they could not reach the summit, calling rescue and retrieving the pair. But Yadav said he had a falling out with the guide, which led to the man accusing them of faking the climb to the summit. He filed a police report complaint against his guide in Nepal. Seven Summit Treks, which organised the expedition was fined 50,000 rupees (just under 500), while their supporting Sherpa was also fined 10,000 rupees (100). Reaching the summit of Mount Everest, standing at 29,029 feet (8,848 metres) in the Himalayas, is considered to be an outstanding feat for mountaineers globally. Climbers that reach the summit have often gone on to become motivational speakers, or have written books about their journey to reach the peak. Approximately 800 people climb Mount Everest (pictured) every year. More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit since New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay first reached the summit in 1953 Climbers that reach the summit have often gone on to become motivational speakers, or have written books about their journey to reach the peak Currently, the system requires photos and reports from team leaders and government officers stationed at the base camp as proof of reaching the summit. But the potential rewards mean the system is open to attempts at fakery, and this is not the first time climbers have been banned for doctoring photographs. The number of people attempting to fake climbs has sharply increased over the last decade. In 2016, another Indian couple - both police constables - were banned for 10 years for faking photographs that they claimed showed them at the top of Everest. The couple superimposed themselves and banners onto photos that had been taken by another Indian climbers - Satyarup Siddhanta - at the summit. Approximately 800 people climb Mount Everest every year. More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit since New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay first reached the summit in 1953. Advertisement The pinnacle of today's celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee was the flypast of 71 aircraft that included Spitfires, a Lancaster Bomber and the Red Arrows. Her Majesty beamed from the Buckingham Palace balcony as she watched the planes and helicopters fly overhead whilst standing next to senior royals including Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William and Kate and their children. Also seen in the skies were 15 Typhoon fighter jets, which paid a special tribute to Her Majesty's long reign by flying in the formation of the number 70. Bar the Red Arrows - which are the Royal Air Force's famous aerobatics team - the planes that took part have all featured in military operations for the UK, most recently in the evacuation of Kabul last August and in NATO operations to defend Eastern Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February. Leading the formation were helicopters including the Wildcat, Merlin and Apache aircraft. They were followed by Britain's most famous Second World War planes - the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and the Lancaster Bomber. More recent aircraft trailed behind them, including the Hercules C-130 - which was among those used to evacuate people from Kabul after the Taliban's takeover. The last planes to feature were the Typhoon FGR4 - the RAF's main fighter aircraft - and finally the Red Arrows, which streaked across the sky with their trademark red, white and blue smoke. The pinnacle of today's celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee was the flypast of 71 aircraft that included Spitfires, a Lancaster Bomber and the Red Arrows. Also seen in the skies were 15 Typhoon fighter jets (above), which paid a special tribute to Her Majesty's long reign by flying in the formation of the number 70 The Red Arrows streaked across the sky with their trademark red, white and blue smoke. Above: They are seen as crowds wave Union Jack flags on The Mall Fighter jets fly in formation to form the number '70' during the special flypast earlier today as huge crowds lining The Mall watch on The Red Arrows perform a flypast over Horseguards Parade during the Trooping the Colour festivities for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee today The Red Arrows continued their journey over Buckingham Palace as the Royal Family and thousands on the Mall looked on today The Red Arrows pictured during a flypast over Buckingham Palace as the Queen and members of the Royal Family watched on from the balcony A VIP Voyager from the RAF is seen flying whilst flanked by four F35B aircraft. It flew behind an RAF Voyager, Typhoon and F35B Her Majesty beamed from the Buckingham Palace balcony as she watched the planes and helicopters fly overhead whilst standing next to senior royals including Prince Charles , Camilla, Prince William and Kate and their children Crowds watch as Queen Elizabeth makes an appearance in the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to watch the special flypast by the RAF The massed bands of the Guards division parade down the mall as they return from the trooping of the colour ceremony earlier today Thousands filled the streets of The Mall around Buckingham Palace to see the Royal Family and a number of spectacular flypasts Wildcat, Merlin, Apache, Puma and Chinook helicopters RAF, Royal Navy and Army helicopters were at the front of the flypast formation. Leading them was the one Royal Navy Wildcat. It is the Navy's latest generation of helicopter and flies from frigates and destroyers. It boasts a top speed of 181mph (157 knots) and can carry Sting Ray torpedoes, a door-mounted heavy machine gun and anti-surface guided weapon missiles. Alongside the Wildcat were two of the Navy's Merlin aircraft. It has a crew of five and has a lifting capacity of 3.8tonnes. Its main job is to hunt for submarines whilst it is also used for general maritime patrols. It is armed with Sting-Ray Torpedoes, depth charges and a .50 calibre machine gun. It can also be used for ferrying troops, evacuating casualties and search and rescue. Members of the public fill The Mall as they walk towards Buckingham Palace, ahead of a flypast, during the Queen's Birthday Parade RAF, Royal Navy and Army helicopters were at the front of the flypast formation. Leading them was the one Royal Navy Wildcat The Navy's Merlin aircraft has a crew of five and has a lifting capacity of 3.8tonnes. Its main job is to hunt for submarines whilst it is also used for general maritime patrols. Above: A Merlin helicopter is seen taking off from the deck of the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier The Puma is used in a variety of combat roles, including the movement of troops, weapons and ammunition. Above: A Puma flying over south-west London in February British Apache helicopters participate in the Swift Response 22 military exercise at the Krivolak army training polygon in the central part of North Macedonia, on Thursday, May 12, 2022 Behind the Puma were three Chinooks, which are used by the RAF for a variety of roles, including the carrying of troops and evacuating casualties. They can also help to resupply troops on the ground. Above: A Chinook is seen at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire during practice for today's flypast Handout photo issued by the Ministry of Defence of crowds in The Mall around Buckingham Palace in London ahead of the Platinum Jubilee flypast Following the Merlin was one Army Wildcat, three Army Apaches and then three of the RAF's Puma helicopters. The Army says that the Apache, an attack helicopter, is probably the most sophisticated piece of equipment in the world that is available to frontline troops. It is designed to find and destroy air defence units, tanks and armoured vehicles. It can be equipped with 16 Hellfire missiles, 76 Hydra 70 rockets and 1,200 30mm cannon machine gun rounds. The Puma is used in a variety of combat roles, including the movement of troops, weapons and ammunition. It can also be used to rescue casualties and has helped in humanitarian and disaster relief operations. It can carry 16 passengers, 12 fully equipped troops or two tonnes of freight. It can also be used in casualty evacuation. It boasts two 7.62mm general purpose machine guns. Behind the Puma were three Chinooks, which are used by the RAF for a variety of roles, including the carrying of troops and evacuating casualties. They can also help to resupply troops on the ground. Lancaster Bomber A Lancaster Bomber flew today behind the RAF's Chinook helicopters, flanked by three Spitfires and two Hurricanes. The Lancaster was one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War. By the end of the war, 7,377 Lancaster Bombers would have carried out more than 150,000 missions including the supremely audacious Dambuster Raids of 1943 and dropped more than 600,000 tons of bombs on the enemy, a feat unequalled by any other plane. The men who flew them, in the RAF's Bomber Command, had the most perilous posting of the entire war - 3,249 aircraft and their crews would be lost in action. The first prototypes of the Lancaster were built in 1941. They impressed test pilots immediately. One reported that the plane 'took off like a startled stallion'. By 1942, the plane was ready for active service. Lancasters were used that year in raid on Augsburg in 1942. A Lancaster Bomber flew today behind the RAF's Chinook helicopters, flanked by three Spitfires and two Hurricanes. Above: The planes seen today The Lancaster was one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War. By the end of the war, 7,377 Lancaster Bombers would have carried out more than 150,000 missions including the supremely audacious Dambuster Raids of 1943 and dropped more than 600,000 tons of bombs on the enemy, a feat unequalled by any other plane From 1942 onwards, the planes played a leading role in every major raid on German cities. Of the 791 planes which dropped bombs on Hamburg on the night of July 24/25 in 1943, 247 of them were Lancasters. Lancasters were also modified to be able to carry bouncing bombs so they could be used in the famous Dambusters raids. However, the human cost of the raids which the Lancasters were involved in was enormous. Tens of thousands of German civilians were killed and cities were devastated. As for the pilots, in 1943, only one airman in six could expect to survive his first tour of 30 sorties. Spitfire Three Spitfires flew alongside the Lancaster in today's flypast. The fighter plane is the most famous of the Second World War, hailed for its role in helping to repel Nazi bombing raids as well as taking part in British attack missions. Designed by RJ Mitchell in the 1930s, the Spitfire was produced in greater numbers than any other during World War Two, with more than 20,000 churned out in less than a decade. During the Battle of Britain the Spitfire aided by the bulkier Hurricane helped down 1,887 German planes in little more than three months. At the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940, as the Germans sustained increasing losses in the face of the heroic RAF, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring summoned the top Luftwaffe fighter ace Adolf Galland to his headquarters. Frustrated by the Reich's failure to gain aerial supremacy over southern England, a vital precursor to Hitler's planned invasion, Goring asked Galland what he needed. 'Give me a squadron of Spitfires,' came the reply. Three Spitfires flew alongside the Lancaster in today's flypast. The fighter plane is the most famous of the Second World War, hailed for its role in helping to repel Nazi bombing raids as well as taking part in British attack missions Designed by RJ Mitchell in the 1930s, the Spitfire was produced in greater numbers than any other during World War Two, with more than 20,000 churned out in less than a decade. Above: The plane seen flying during the war Those words perfectly encapsulate the unequalled reputation that the fighter plane had earned in combat. Its power, speed and manoeuvrability were a source of terror to the Germans and reassurance to the British. When it first entered service in 1938, the Spitfire was not only the first all-metal monoplane but also by far the fastest aircraft in the RAF, able to reach 350mph. Perhaps the Spitfire's greatest asset was its manoeuvrability, due to its sleek, aerodynamic design, its thin, elliptical wings and the responsiveness of its controls. 'There was no heaving or pushing or pulling or kicking. You breathed on it. I've never flown anything sweeter,' said George Unwin of 19 Squadron. Hawker Hurricane Two Hawker Hurricanes featured in today's flypast. Although less famous than the Spitfire, the Hurricane arguably had a bigger impact on Britain's war effort. Originally designed in the 1930s, the aircraft came about as a result of demands from the RAF for a new, more modern fighter plane. Designed around a 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine, the Hurricane was able to carry eight machine guns on its wings, while it was also around 100mph faster than any other RAF fighter plane when it came into service. Two Hawker Hurricanes featured in today's flypast. Although less famous than the Spitfire, the Hurricane arguably had a bigger impact on Britain's war effort. Above: A Hurricane during the war The power of the engine, which was known as the Merlin, enabled the plane to be modified for different uses and during the war it was used as both a fighter and a bomber. While the Spitfire, which was developed at around the same time, was faster, the Hurricane had more than double the combat range and was able to travel 600 miles on missions. During the Battle of Britain Hurricanes played a key role in ensuring the German Luftwaffe didn't reign supreme in the skies, destroying more enemy aircraft than all other air and ground defences combined. Following the conclusion of the Battle of Britain, squadrons using the aircraft made vital contributions in the defence of Malta, the war in North Africa and in the Far East in the war against Japan. The Red Arrows The famous Red Arrows are the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force. Flying the BAE Hawk jet aircraft, they are made up of 11 pilots and based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. At today's flypast, they were the last planes to feature, releasing red, white and blue smoke as they appeared over Buckingham Palace whilst the Queen watched on. Their commanding officer is Wing Commander David Montenegro, who this year penned a book about the unit. The Red Arrows' name stems from the planes they flew until 1979 - the Folland Gnat - which boasted swept-back wings. The unit's most famous formation is Diamond Nine, where Red 1 - the codename for the most senior pilot - flies at the front, with the other eight fanned out behind him. For the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, they added the Deep Diamond, with different planes at different heights to create a 3D effect. Formed in 1964, the Red Arrows have featured at major royal events and other special occasions, as well as airshows around the country. The famous Red Arrows are the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force. Flying the BAE Hawk jet aircraft, they are made up of 11 pilots and based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshir At today's flypast, they were the last planes to feature, releasing red, white and blue smoke as they appeared over Buckingham Palace whilst the Queen watched on RAF Red Arrows perform a flypast over the crowd gathered at The Mall during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations Although the pilots do not risk their lives in combat, their role is not totally safe. Ten pilots and one engineer have lost their lives since the team's formation. Four pilots died in the same incident in 1971, when two planes collided during a practice session. Wing Commander Montenegro was involved in an accident in 2010 but was able to land safely and the other pilot survived after using his ejector seat. In 2018, RAF engineer Corporal Jonathan Bayliss, 41, died when his Hawk T1 crashed while flying at RAF Valley on Anglesey. The pilot Flight Lieutenant David Stark, was seriously injured after ejecting moments before the plane hit the ground. RAF Atlas, RAF Hercules, RAF C-17 Four C-17s, an RAF Atlas and a Hercules all took part in evacuation efforts in Kabul, Afghanistan, last year. The Atlas can carry a 37-tonne payload as part of its primary purpose to provide tactical airlift - complimenting the Hercules and C-17s. It can accommodate 116 troops, as well as vehicles, helicopters and nine aircraft pallets. The Hercules, meanwhile, has been the RAF's primary tactical transport aircraft since it was introduced in 1999. Its crews are highly skilled in low-level flying as part of its ability to drop paratroopers and stores. They will remain in service until 2030. A Royal Air Force Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft, carrying evacuees from Afghanistan, departs from Al-Maktoum International Airport in August last year Two RAF Hercules pictured during the flypast over Buckingham Palace today - part of the 70 aircraft that took part in the event People disembark off a C-17 following a flight from Afghanistan to Al-Maktoum International Airport in the United Arab Emirates in August last year The C-17s primary purpose is the rapid delivery of troops and all types of cargo to the RAF's worldwide operating bases. It can carry large and complex items, including Chinooks and other military vehicles - up to 100,000lbs. It was used as a humanitarian aircraft during the Afghanistan evacuation. RAF Typhoon and Voyagers RAF Typhoons and RAF Voyagers formed part of the flyover today having recently taken part in NATO missions in Eastern Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Februrary. Within 24 hours of the invasion, RAF Typhoons took to the skies to contribute to the security of Europe, the Ministry of Defence said at the time. The Typhoons, which from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, are armed with state-of-the-art air-to-air missiles and a full suite of defensive aids. Their missions in eastern Europe were supported by RAF Voyagers, which provided air-to-air refuelling from its base at RAF Brize Norton. An RAF Voyager is flanked by four F-35B's as it flies over Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour parade earlier today Fifteen RAF Typhoons flew in a special formation marking the number '70' to pay tribute to the Queen during their flypast today The Voyager offers additional fuel for the fighters, enabling greater range and endurance, showing the reach of UK air power to support NATOs defence mission. Earlier today, the 15 Typhoons flew in a special formation marking the number '70' in tribute to Her Majesty. RAF Phantom and Texans An RAF Phantom and four RAF Texan planes also formed part of the flyover earlier today. The Phantom was a major part of the air force for more than 20 years and was among the world's most capable strike fighters. It was one of the UK's principal aircraft from the 1960s through to the early 1990s, serving in a number of different roles including providing air defence over Britain, close air support and tactical reconnaissance. An RAF Texan (right) flies below a Spitfire during a special flight to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in September 2020 The RAF Texan is used as a basic fast jet training aircraft for students. It has capabilities of generating simulated air-to-air targets and scoring against the release of simulated air-to-ground bombing. It was chosen to replace the Tucano and is based at RAF Valley. RAF Poseidon The multi-role maritime aircraft is equipped with sensors and weapons systems to take on submarines, but is also used for search and rescue operations. The Poseidon is fitted with torpedoes, high-resolution mapping and sonobuoys for maritime warfare. Since 2020, the aircraft has operated from RAF Lossiemouth in north east Scotland. Royal Air Force Boeing P-8 Poseidon lands at Newcastle Airport in October last year. The aircraft are based in north east Scotland RAF Rivet Following the Poseidon was a single RAF Rivet during the flypast over Buckingham Palace today. The RAF Rivet is a dedicated electronic surveillance aircraft employed on strategic and tactical missions. Its primary purpose is to survey and derive intelligence for commanders by soaking up electronic emissions through its sensors. Death at 45 of Kasia Gallanio, the ex-princess of Qatar who accused the emir's uncle of incest The former Qatari princess who died of a suspected overdose after fighting a toxic custody battle over her daughters tried to give designer clothes to her cleaner before her death. Kasia Gallanio, 45, whose billionaire ex-husband is the uncle of the current Emir of Qatar was found dead in her bed last Sunday in her luxury 2 million penthouse. MailOnline can reveal that shortly before she died, she sent a video to her devoted cleaner Teodora Poma showing bags of clothes that she wanted to gift to her. Bolivian-born Ms Poma, 43, now believes that her employer might have made the gesture to say farewell to her, knowing that she was possibly going to take her own life. Ms Galliano also asked her and a colleague to come round and clean her seventh floor apartment in the up-market Spanish resort of Puerto Banus near Marbella. But when Ms Poma tried to message her back to confirm arrangements to come round on Monday this week, she got no reply. She now believes it was because her socialite employer who mingled with Hollywood stars and had more than 500,000 followers on Instagram was already lying dead inside her home. MailOnline can reveal that shortly before she died, she sent a video to her devoted cleaner Teodora Poma showing bags of clothes that she wanted to gift to her. Bolivian-born Ms Poma, 43, now believes that her employer might have made the gesture to say farewell to her, knowing that she was possibly going to take her own life MailOnline can reveal that Ms Gallanios devoted pet Pomeranian dog called Honey was with her when she died. The dog has now been returned to her daughters. Ms Poma said Ms Gallanio went to Paris in April this year to fight her ex-husband Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, 73, for the custody of their three daughters two twins aged 17 and a 15-year-old girl. But a French court ruled the girls should stay in France where their billionaire father lives after reportedly hearing that Ms Gallanio was prone to nervous breakdowns and had visited detox clinics in her battle against alcohol use. The court heard allegations that the prince had sexually abused one of his daughters, although he fiercely denied the claims, according to reports in French newspaper Le Parisien. The Paris Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the claims that the girl was abused between the ages of nine and 15, and forced to sometimes share a bed with her father. Other friends of Ms Gallanio are said to have dismissed claims that she drank or took drugs, and say that she lived a healthy lifestyle, enjoying yoga and running. Ms Poma was taking time off work to undergo medical treatment for a liver condition in hospital by the time her employer had returned to Spain. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the heartbroken cleaner said: She was giving me a lot of moral support to get me through this treatment. She was a really lovely person, very loving and a real fighter for her daughters. She was always saying that she wanted to be with her daughters and she loved them very much. But because the girls were with the father, she could not see them for long periods. When I was in hospital, she sent me a video showing stuff she wanted to give me. It was bags of clothes. She always used to give me stuff when she cleaned a wardrobe out. She might have been saying goodbye by trying to give me all this stuff. The 7th floor Penthouse apartment in Marbella where Kasia's body was found is pictured. As well as being depressed about the custody battle over her daughters, she was also said to be devastated by the recent death of a close friend Sheikh Ahmed Ashmawi A porter with access to the penthouse unlocked the door for two police officers who discovered her at around 8am on Sunday Kasia told me that she was going through all this trouble with the court case. She didnt want to share all the details and I didnt ask. She was in quite a good mood, but my colleague and I could tell she was depressed. She wasnt right. At the last minute she asked if we could come back this week to get her flat sorted and I said I would try and organise it. After that she didnt answer. I didnt hear from her again. I sent a message and didnt get a reply so I imagined that she might have gone back to Paris or somewhere. When she didnt reply, I thought, What has happened here?, but then I thought she had gone to see her daughters. Ms Poma said she was shocked to be told that her friend and employer had died. Ms Gallanio who grew up in Los Angeles was found dead after one of her daughters alerted Spanish police after trying in vain to contact her mother for four days from Paris. A porter with access to the penthouse unlocked the door for two police officers who discovered her at around 8 am on Sunday. Forensic tests on Ms Gallanios body are said to have been hampered by her having been dead for four days in her home in the Playas del Duque complex, a minutes walk from the Puerto Banus marina packed with multi million pound yachts. Spanish media has reported that she is believed to have had alcohol and other substances in her body, suggesting that she had overdosed. The autopsy into the death of Kasia Gallanio was opened on Tuesday after she was found 'overdosed' in her penthouse in Marbella Forensic tests on Ms Gallanios body are said to have been hampered by her having been dead for four days in her home in the Playas del Duque complex, a minutes walk from the Puerto Banus marina packed with multi million pound yachts A spokesperson for Marbella Police told MailOnline that her death was not being treated as suspicious, saying: The police investigating this case are not looking for any other suspects. She added: The autopsy into the death of Kasia Gallanio was opened on Tuesday. So far there has been no result. Reports in the media saying that forensic personnel have found alcohol or other substances have not been substantiated by official sources. Ms Gallanios twin daughters and her French lawyer Sabrina Boesch flew from Paris on Monday to identify her body. One of the girls was seen visiting her mothers penthouse on Wednesday morning before leaving in tears and being driven away in a chauffeur-driven car. Ms Boesch told Le Parisien that her client had been left devastated by the custody proceedings and revelations in court. She said: I think that, above all, she has died of grief. Ivan Romero, 24-year-old hair stylist, pictured, said Ms Gallanio used to make weekly visits to the Lorena Morlote salon where he works under the Playas del Duque apartments Paris Hilton, Victoria Beckham and actress and producer Salma Hayek all attend the salon Hair stylist Ivan Romero, 24, said Ms Gallanio used to make weekly visits to the Lorena Morlote salon where he works under the Playas del Duque apartments. Other well-heeled clients of the salon include Paris Hilton, Victoria Beckham and actress and producer Salma Hayek. Ivan told MailOnline: Kasia was very friendly and a nice lady who was always very courteous. We are very surprised and shocked by her death. She was always a discreet lady and would never speak of her private life, but she seemed happy and upbeat. She came in once a week to have her hair tidied and brushed and once a month she would have her extensions done. She would also have other beauty treatments. I miss her a lot. She was the sort of person who made you want to love her. Her twins also used to come in when they were staying here, but we didnt see much of them as they were in Paris. She was always happy when they were around. Ms Gallanio had married the Qatari prince after he wooed her when she was a 19-year-old student in Paris, despite their 28-year age gap, but the pair split in 2007 and later divorced. Hair stylist Ivan Romero said: 'Kasia was very friendly and a nice lady who was always very courteous. We are very surprised and shocked by her death' Ms Gallanio was known as 'la Sheiquesa' in Marbella in a nod to her Royal links in Qatar The mother-of-three had claimed recently that she had been forced to sell some of her jewellery to make ends meet. Ms Gallanio was known as 'la Sheiquesa' in Marbella in a nod to her Royal links in Qatar. As well as being depressed about the custody battle over her daughters, she was also said to be devastated by the recent death of a close friend Sheikh Ahmed Ashmawi, according to Spanish publication Vanitatis. The report quoted one of her best friends, identified only as GH, saying: None of us had any idea what had happened until another friend of ours posted it on social networks on Sunday. We hadn't seen her for several days. Now they are saying in Marbella that Kasia has committed suicide, but we cannot believe it. She would never do that because she knew the pain it would cause her daughters, whom she adored, and she would not take her own life. She was feisty, joyful and full of light. Another close friend, Spanish socialite Carmen Lomana said: She was always with me in Marbella. She never missed one of my summer birthdays. We had a great time this year and now she's gone. The ex-husband of the deceased, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, is pictured in Paris in 1980 In recent years, the legal and judicial battle, led by serious accusations by her ex, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, had weakened her because she always told me that she did not want her twins to live in Qatar, that life there was free of freedom for women and that she was going to fight to the end so that her daughters would stay here. Ms Gallanio gave an interview in April, describing her life as like living in a 'golden cage', saying how she wanted freedom from her ex-husband. She told Women's World: 'Money is a curse because it isolates you from a lot of people. It's a different world. The former princess revealed she even had to sell her own jewellery as a result of her long and bitter divorce, despite living in her luxury penthouse. She said: 'I get criticised that I want money but I have to take care of my kids 'Abdelaziz likes to control me through the children which I think is not very polite and only hurts them.' Talking about the alleged abuse of her daughter she added: 'Power, diplomatic immunity and money shouldn't allow you to be able to do things above the law. 'I hope it's not true however when my daughter says it, I do believe my daughter 'It's a horrible story, something that hit me very hard. It's every mother's nightmare.' French media reports have claimed Abdelaziz made his daughters sleep in the servants quarters of his palatial 50,000-square-foot Parisian home in the eighth arrondissement after they visited their mother until they apologised. He was exiled there following a coup led by his half-brother Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in 1995. The White House on Thursday thanked Saudi Arabia and OPEC for its bigger-than-expected oil release as high gas prices plague the U.S. and President Joe Biden weighs a trip to Riyadh. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to increase its output by more than 200,000 barrels a day, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gas prices in the United States continue to hit record levels with seven states now at an average of $5 or higher per gallon. At Thursday's meeting between OPEC and 10 non-OPEC producers, the group known as OPEC+ agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels a day in July and in August. Previously the output was around 400,000 barrels a day. The Biden administration praised the move. 'The United States welcomes the important decision from OPEC+ today to increase supply by more than 200,000 barrels per day in July and August based on new market conditions,' said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement. 'This announcement accelerates the end of the current quota arrangement that has been in place since July of last year and brings forward the monthly production increase that was previously planned to take place in September.' 'We recognize the role of Saudi Arabia as the chair of OPEC+ and its largest producer in achieving this consensus amongst the group members. We also recognize efforts and positive contributions of UAE, Kuwait, and Iraq. The United States will continue to use all tools at our disposal to address energy prices pressures,' she said. The White House thanked Saudi Arabia and OPEC for its bigger-than-expected oil release as high gas prices plague the U.S. and President Joe Biden weighs a trip to Riyadh Biden is under pressure to do something about high gas prices in the U.S. - the national average for a gallon of gas is at $4.671 for regular unleaded gas The move comes as President Bidenis considers visiting Saudi Arabia. But such a trip would bring him face-to-face with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler whom Biden called a killer after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The White House is weighing a visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, a person familiar with White House planning told the Associated Press. Biden would be expected to sit down with MBS at such a stop, which could be tied to the president's expected attendance at the G7 and NATO meetings in Europe later this month. Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. But the president's administration is under heavy pressure to do something about high gas prices, which are hitting Americans in the pocketbook and hurting Democrats ahead of November's midterm election. The national average for a gallon of gas is at $4.671 for regular unleaded gas as of June 1 while diesel gas prices are at $5.54 per gallon. Saudi Arabia is world's top oil exporters. But relations between Washington and Riyadh have been tense during Biden's presidency. Biden has been openly criticial of MBS and his reported brutal regime. Tensions also have simmered over human rights, the war in Yemen and U.S. weapons supplies to the kingdom. At the start of his presidency Biden had said he would only speak to the aging King Salman instead of MBS, the heir to the throne. But the administration has been working behind the scenes to smooth relations. And increasing Saudi oil production has been a central element in talks about a possible Biden visit. Brett McGurk, the National Security Council Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the Gulf region to try and pave a path forward. President Biden is weighing a trip to Saudi Arabia but he would have to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (above), who he has called a killer Saudi Arabia is a member of OPEC, the powerful bloc of 13 countries that together control 40% of global oil production. Russia is a member of the OPEC+. It is one of the worlds three largest oil producers, along with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Moscow is working to keep its alliance with OPEC strong. In 2016, it joined with OPEC to form OPEC+, a combined group that controls half the world's oil supply. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks regularly with MBS. OPEC's decision comes the day after the European Union agreed to a partial ban on Russian oil purchases. The U.S. has banned all Russian oil. The series of sanctions, which came in the wake of Moscow's invasion of the Ukraine, has seen Russian oil production drop by 700,000 barrels a day in the past two months. Before its invasion of the Ukraine, Russia pumped 11.3 million barrels a day, about 11% of global supplies. Russian oil is one of the biggest revenue generators for Putin's government. The smaller line-up on the Buckingham Palace balcony today was a clear indication of the Royal Family shifting towards a slimmed-down monarchy, an expert has said. The Queen, 96, decided she wanted to be accompanied only by working royals to watch the flypast today as she focuses on those at the top of the line of succession. There was room today for Prince Charles and Camilla; Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex; and Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Others on the balcony included Prince William and Kate and their children Charlotte, Louis and George, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra. But there was no sign of Prince Harry and Meghan after they quit as working royals in 2020, or Prince Andrew, who stepped down over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. It was in stark contrast to the appearance of the Palace balcony for a flypast three years ago in June 2019 when it was packed with wider members of the Royal Family. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline today: 'The line up on the iconic balcony of Buckingham Palace after Trooping the Colour today of royals who conduct official duties put the focus where it should be, on the Queen, on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee. 'It was the second powerful statement she has used this unique milestone to send out. 'The first was to give her blessing to the Camilla becoming Queen Consort, Princess Consort was a historical nonsense. If left, it might have caused considerable difficulty when Charles ascended the throne as it has never been popular. 'The centre of the celebrations for the Queen will undoubtedly be the Service at St Pauls as she is deeply religious. However, for the press and public, it is this annual display of unity by the royal family on the balcony that makes the most impact. 'The absence of Andrew was inevitable and this makes it clear he has no future part in royal life. The Archbishop of Canterburys recent plea that she should be forgiven was hastily withdrawn. His popularity is non-existent.' The Royal Family's official Instagram account posted a picture of an apparent slimmed down monarchy following today's Trooping the Colour TODAY -- (Left to right) The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence , the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales , Queen Elizabeth II , the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, and the Earl of Wessex (hidden) at Buckingham Palace today 2019 -- (From left) Albert Windsor, Prince William holding Prince Louis, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Kate, Camilla, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Prince Charles, Princess Beatrice, Princess Anne, the Queen, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, Meghan, Isla Phillips, James Viscount Severn, Savannah Phillips, Peter Phillips, Autumn Phillips, Lyla Gilman, Eloise Taylor and Lady Helen Taylor stand with other members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast on June 8, 2019 Mr Fitzwilliams added: 'Harry and Meghan were not widely seen during todays ceremony. The Queen, whilst believing they are much loved members of the royal family, is fully aware of how unpredictable and whimsical they can be. 'They rely totally on their royal connections for their contracts with Netflix and Spotify and their profile. 'The continuation of the rift is in neither their interest or in the royal familys, but their interview on Oprah was very destructive and has affected the monarchys popularity, especially with the young. It was also given whilst Prince Philip was ill. 'Their future status is as royal outsiders and todays balcony line up made this clear.' Heirs to the throne, future queens and minor royals who have dedicated decades of their lives to supporting the monarch joined her for the balcony appearance today. The Queen limited those taking to the famous Palace frontage for the flypast to working members of her family after 'careful consideration', royal officials had said. With no Harry, Meghan or Andrew, some 18 other royals including the Queen stepped out at about 1pm to watch the high-profile display by 70 aircraft. The key players on the royal stage included future king Prince Charles and Camilla, who was backed by the Queen in her Jubilee year to one day take the title of Queen. There also was second in line Prince William, and Kate, also a future Queen, and their children Prince George - a future monarch - Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Queen Elizabeth II stands with Prince Charles on the Buckingham Palace balcony today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Louis, Charlotte and George at the Palace today The Queen's other children - the Princess Royal, known for her hard-working, no-nonsense approach to royal duties, and the Earl of Wessex - took pride of place. They were with spouses Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the Countess of Wessex, along with the Wessexes' children - Lady Louise Windsor and Viscount Severn. The Queen also invited her cousins Princess Alexandra, the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester, with his wife the Duchess of Gloucester, to attend. The dukes and their sister Alexandra are close to the monarch and have spent their lives working quietly and dependably behind the scenes on royal engagements. It was notable the Queen asked the Duke of Kent - known as Steady Eddie for his reliability and good grace - to be at her side to take the salute from Trooping soldiers during her earlier balcony appearance the same day. Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, Kate, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon (From left) The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace this afternoon This Jubilee line-up was a marked change from the Diamond Jubilee, with a return to the wider supporting cast of royals - more similar to the Golden Jubilee celebrations. In 2012, a slimmed-down version of The Firm stepped out to greet the mass crowds celebrating the Queen's 60-year reign. Just six royals waved to the well-wishers - the Queen and only those at the very top of the succession list and their wives; Charles, Camilla, William, Kate and Harry. The decision was said to be part of Charles' vision of streamlining and modernising the institution. Ten years earlier during the 2002 Golden Jubilee, 20 members of the royal family had packed the balcony of the Queen's London home to watch a traditional flypast. Shocking video footage has captured the bizarre moment a young man abandons his girlfriend as they are being mugged by two men on a motorcycle in Mexico. The couple, whose names are unknown, can be seen in the surveillance video holding hands as they are walking down a sidewalk in the city of Ecatepec last Tuesday. One of the assailants jumped out from the rear seat and tries to grab the young woman's boyfriend, who quickly takes off running. The suspect turns back and restrains the frightened woman and appears to grab her cellphone. Muggers on a motorcycle approached a young couple in Ecatepec, Mexico, last Tuesday. A young man wound up leaving his girlfriend behind as one of the suspects stole her cellphone A young man is captured on camera fleeing from two muggers and leaving his girlfriend behind in the Mexican city of Ecatepec last Tuesday A suspect robs a young woman of her cellphone in a shocking mugging that was captured by a surveillance camera in Ecatepec, Mexico, last Tuesday The woman doesn't fight off her aggressor and walks away as he hops back on the motorcycle to flee with his accomplice. Social media users were taken aback by the man's decision to abandon his girlfriend instead of defending her from the robbers. 'Why do you want enemies with a boyfriend like that?' @MrElDiable8 wrote on his Twitter account after sharing the CCTV footage. The mugger was able to snatch the young woman's cellphone while a resident was attempting to open the gate to a home and chose not to get involved and come to victim's aid The young woman walks away moments after she was mugged in Mexico in broad daylight Another Twitter user took a jab a Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's strategy of combating crime with 'hugs and not bullets.' 'There is peace in Mexico and there are no criminals,' @cavo_71 chimed in. However, one person did defend the boyfriend's decision to run away and said the mugging could've turned violent had he confronted the muggers. 'I think that when he first ran it was by instinct, she didn't react the same way,' @AnallyPaduano tweeted. 'But I think it could be worse if he came back to defend her or tried to.' A mother-of-one who was left with a rare spine condition after a freak accident involving a ceiling fan has undergone life-saving surgery in Spain thanks to a stranger's 130,000 donation. Rachel Pighills, 35, was left at risk of being 'internally decapitated' at any moment following an accident in August 2018. She had been moving into a new house when she struck her head on a ceiling fan while standing on a bed. Rachel was left with atlantoaxial instability and basilar invagination - meaning her brain was sinking into her spine and her skull sliding down onto her neck. It meant she could no longer turn her head the wrong way as each time she did her spine would partially dislocate increasing her risk of paralysis or death. Rachel Pighills, 35, was able to have life-saving surgery in Barcelona for her rare spinal condition which puts her at risk of internal decapitation after an unknown person donated 130,000 Rachel's symptoms began back in 2017 when she started her vomiting and losing 38kg (6st) in just six weeks, just before her wedding to Guy Pighills. She is pictured on the big day with her now husband Husband Guy said a picture of the surgery looked like Rachel had been 'attacked by a shark'. Pictured: stitches along Rachel's neck and spine after the surgery To have the surgery, Guy had to drive Rachel 1,000 miles to Barcelona in a second-hand ambulance Rachel and husband Guy, 41, have spent the last few years trying to raise 350,000 for pioneering treatment that only three surgeons in the world are able to do. They finally reached the milestone last month thanks to a staggering 130,000 donation from an anonymous benefactor who had seen her story. Mum-of-one Rachel set off on the 1,055 mile, 17 hour journey to Barcelona in a second hand ambulance driven by Guy as she was too unwell to fly. She underwent the 13-and-a-half hour procedure to fuse her neck and skull at Teknon Hospital on May 20 which has left her looking like she had been 'attacked by a shark.' Quality inspector Guy said: 'Initial signs are looking good, but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet. I'm being as positive as I can be, but I'm just reserving myself. 'The recovery time for this operation is 12 months minimum. 'The neurosurgeon Dr Gilete showed us a picture of the operation and it looked like a shark attack, which shows how severe it is 'Rachel is still in so much physical pain, but she does feel like she has had some slight improvements.' After multiple visits to her GP and meetings with experts, an MRI brain scan led to her diagnosis. As well as atlantoaxial instability, Mrs Pighills also has curvature of the spine, a build-up of fluid in the brain and brain stem compression Scan showed an excessive gap, which leads to too much movement, between her top vertebrae Rachel had led a very active lifestyle with Guy before her symptoms began Guy said he had also noticed a change in his wife's voice since the operation and added: 'She used to have quite a husky voice, almost like a smoker, but now she sounds different.' The couple now intend to stay in Spain till June 8 before returning to the UK to continue Rachel's recovery. Following her accident, doctors told Rachel her neck can no longer support the weight of her head and one wrong move could cause total dislocation. She has been confined to a wheelchair and must wear a neck brace for hours a day to stop her neck from slipping. Friends and family set up a fundraising page before a mystery benefactor from Warwickshire - a woman in her 60s - came forward with the 130,000. Rachel's three-stage operation in Barcelona lasted for 13-and-a-half hours Rachel, of Pershore, Worcestershire, said previously: 'No amount of words can express what it means to us and how grateful we are. She really is our guardian angel. 'I can't believe somebody I've never even met could do such a thing for us. 'I'm a determined person and I have to try and do what I can. I know I can't give up.' Guy had said the situation had become 'soul destroying' for the couple and their 14-year-old daughter. He said: 'All she wants is her health and independence back, and to stop living in fear of dying and leaving her family behind.' Rachel used to be fit enough to go horse riding, but is now on a long road to recovery after her major surgery Rachel had been fit and healthy until August 2017, which corresponds with when she started a new medication for an overactive immune system. She began vomiting without warning, which landed her in hospital three times between September and October. This also caused her to lose 38kg (6st) in just six weeks. This left her thinking she may subconsciously be trying to shed the pounds ahead of her wedding. Even though she stopped taking the medication almost straight away, the symptoms continued. After an MRI scan ruled out a brain tumour, she was told she had Addison's disease in October 2017. This occurs when the body does not produce enough of the hormones cortisol and aldosterone. WHAT IS ATLANTOAXIAL INSTABILITY? Atlantoaxial instability (AAI) is defined as excessive movement at the junction between the spine's first two vertebrae. It is unclear how common it is. Neurological symptoms, such as dizziness, headaches and fatigue, can occur if the spinal cord or its surrounding nerve roots are affected. In severe cases, AAI can cause spinal compression, which can be deadly. AAI arises due to an abnormality with the bone or ligaments in the spine. This can be brought on by conditions that are present at birth. However, AAI more often occurs due to a traumatic accident or inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Infections may also trigger inflammation. Mild cases are often treated by just relieving AAI's symptoms. 'Cervical immobilisation', such as wearing a neck brace, may be required. In extreme cases, surgery may be needed to stabilise the spine. Advertisement She was treated with steroids to help correct her cortisol levels, but it soon became clear the steroids were not easing her symptoms. 'I was having tremors in my hands, caused by adrenaline, I was exhausted all the time and would just fall asleep at any moment,' Rachel said in 2019. 'It got to the point where I could not drive my daughter to school in case I fell asleep at the wheel.' She was forced to move closer to work and her daughter's school to cut down her commute. It was while moving into her new home, she struck her head on a ceiling fan. 'A week after that I went into adrenal crisis due to water retention and was admitted to hospital,' Rachel said. 'It happened again a week later and I was back to hospital.' An adrenal crisis is a medical emergency that occurs when a person's cortisol levels fall significantly. 'After I returned home I was in constant pain,' she said. 'My head felt really heavy on my shoulders, and I would get dizzy and lightheaded.' She paid to have an MRI scan, which came back clear. With her symptoms continuing, she made additional visits to the GP and was eventually referred to a cardiologist. The medic carried out an electrocardiogram to test her heart's rhythm and electrical activity. This revealed her heart was beating faster than normal, which lead to her being diagnosed with PoTS. After she saw a neurologist, who diagnosed her with Chiari malformation. This occurs when the brain tissue extends into the spinal canal. 'I posted my MRI scan in a Chiari malformation Facebook group and people were saying Chiari was the least of my problems,' Mrs Pighills said. 'The dizziness was getting worse. It felt my head was too heavy for my neck. At work I would have to prop up my head with my hands. It felt like an enormous weight. I couldn't hold it myself. 'I was getting really bad headaches. The worst was at the bottom of my head. It felt like something was pushing and going to pierce through my head. Sitting up would be agony.' Eventually Rachel was able to see another neurologist, who diagnosed her with platybasia. This is defined as the abnormal flattening at the base of the skull. It was then she was also told she had basilar invagination, which occurs when the top of the spine pushes into the base of the skull, causing pinching and pressing on the brain stem. She paid for another a private, upright MRI scan. The images of which she asked to be sent to a Barcelona-based neurosurgeon Dr Gilete, who she came across on the Chiari Facebook group. The medic was then able to diagnose Rachel with atlantoaxial instability, as well as curvature of the spine, hydrocephalus - build-up of fluid in the brain - and cervical medullary syndrome - brain stem compression. Johnny Depp and his attorneys shocked many legal experts by winning his US defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard after having previously lost a similar libel case in the UK. After 23 days of testimony and less than three days of deliberation, a jury ruled in favor of all three of Depp's claims against Heard, finding that she had falsely and willfully accused him of domestic abuse with the intention of damaging his reputation. In 2020, Depp lost a libel case in the UK, after the actor had sued The Sun, a British tabloid, for calling him a 'wife beater.' In that case, a judge concluded that much of the domestic abuse that Heard alleged had, in fact, occurred. That is why Depp's victory in the US legal system, which sets a higher bar for proving libel of a public figure, came as a surprise to some legal analysts. It is traditionally easier to win a libel lawsuit in the UK because in that legal system the defendant has to prove the truth of their allegedly defamatory statements, whereas in the US, it's the plaintiff who has to prove that the allegedly defamatory statements were false. Johnny Depp proved victorious in his American defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard after having previously lost his case in the UK, despite the notion that it's easier to prevail in a libel case in Great Britain than in the US. Depp is seen waving to supporters outside the Fairfax County Courthouse on May 27 For a public figure plaintiff in the US it's even harder, because he has to prove the statements were also made with 'actual malice,' meaning the defendant knew the statements were false when she made them. DailyMail.com spoke with several legal experts on Thursday to explain the key differences between trial and what may have tipped the scales in the Depp's favor. Attorney Nicole Haff, partner and Chair of the Litigation Department at Romano Law, said that she believes the fact that Depp had a jury trial was a huge factor in his win. FULL STATEMENT FROM JOHNNY DEPP'S UK LEGAL TEAM Johnny Depp lost a libel case against the Sun newspaper in 2020 after it called him a wife beater. The decision was made by a single judge, rather than a jury. As Johnny said himself on the stand in the US, the UK case had various limitations. Ms Heard was not a party to those proceedings and the disclosure and evidence from her was therefore severely limited. There were no experts, in contrast to the wealth of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, metadata experts and others in the US trial. Certain elements, such as Ms Heard's failure to pay the proceeds from her divorce to charity, despite stating under oath in the UK that she had donated all of it, were not yet discovered at the time of the UK trial. Crucially, due to the format of UK proceedings, Johnny was unable to give oral evidence of his own position, as opposed to just cross examination from the Sun's counsel, which will arguably have had the biggest impact on the jury in the US. We are delighted that Johnny got his chance to explain what he went through, as painful as that must have been. In the aftermath of the UK judgment, Johnny said that it would not change his fight to tell the truth, that his resolve remained strong, and that he intended to prove that the allegations him were false. We believe that he has now finally managed to achieve that, and we could not be happier for him. - Legal spokesperson from Schillings Advertisement 'Juries are unpredictable,' she said. 'The UK case was decided by a judge and not a jury. Many trial techniques that are effective on jurors just don't work on judges. 'Remember, most judges were trial attorneys before taking the bench, so trial technique holds less weight with a judge.' Criminal attorney Joshua Ritter, who previously served as a prosecutor with the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, agreed with Haff's analysis. 'The system we have here is a jury of your peers. Judges are not in the category of our peers. They live their lives day-in and day-out analyzing the law, which is different than than our 'peers,'' he said. 'Juries look at cases from a much more common sense, Plain Joe way. 'Heard testified in such a 'dramatic, emotional' way and jurors used common sense to say 'we don't believe you're being truthful with us,'' Ritter said. He argued that if jurors thought Heard was lying on some accounts, it would lead them to believe she could be lying on others. 'Heard couldn't produce evidence to collaborate her story so the jury thinks 'at best you're exaggerating to us, at the worst you're lying,'' he added. In the US case, Depp's attorneys employed the DARVO strategy, an acronym for deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender, which transformed Depp from the alleged abuser to the victim. 'Depp's team did a masterful job on all fronts of that type of strategy,' Ritter said. 'They gave not an inch to anything Heard had to testify too, which is hard when you're dealing with a female alleged victim of both of domestic and sexual violence. 'You have to go after that person in cross examination with a delicate touch, but Heard pushing back and being argumentative gave them permission to go against her.' Ritter concluded that, 'Depp did a good job of presenting himself as 'far more authentic and believable as someone who had been suffering at the hands of domestic violence' than Heard, even though he wasn't in the trial as a victim.' Haff echoed the claim, telling DailyMail.com: 'In the US case, Depp's team effectively called Heard's credibility into question.' 'This is important because Depp's attorneys had to convince the jury that the statements in Heard's 2018 op-ed were either knowingly false or were made with reckless disregard for the truth. Legally, this is a difficult task. They did this by attacking Heard's credibility, especially as it relates to Depp. 'Depp's team presented evidence that the relationship between the actors was highly dysfunctional. Depp's lawyers also painted Heard as the abuser and Depp as the good guy and victim of abuse.' Depp's British law firm Schillings told DailyMail.com Thursday that his 'UK case had various limitations' that likely impacted the verdict, including the absence of a jury, Heard acting as only a witness instead of a party in the case, lack of expert testimony and Depp's inability to give oral evidence of his own position. He is pictured leaving the Royal Courts of Justice in London on February 26, 2020 Haff also believes that the testimony of Kate Moss, who was called as a surprise last-minute witness by Depp's team and denied a rumor cited by Heard that Depp once pushed her down the stairs, was 'also not helpful to Heard.' Lastly, the experts believe the media circus surrounding the US trial undoubtedly played a role in the verdict. Although the jury was not sequestered, they were instructed not to watch the news, follow media media on the case or conduct their own research. However, both lawyers argue it was nearly impossible that the in-court presence of the media and publicity of the trial did not hold weight in their minds. 'Given the length of this trial and the massive amount of publicity it received, it's hard to imagine that all of the jurors abided by the judge's instruction,' Haff argued. 'It would be hard to think they didn't run into media coverage on accident,' Ritter added. 'They knew the media was in the courtroom. It had to have had effect on the jury in some way, but I don't think it effected their verdict in anyway that was a misconduct of justice. Experts also believe the fact that Depp had a jury trial was a huge factor in tipping the US case in his favor. One legal analyst argue 'juries are unpredictable' while another said they look at evidence presented in court with a 'common sense' approach. Heard is pictured on May 26, testifying during the defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Court In the end, the US jury awarded Depp $15million in total - $10million in compensation and $5million in punitive damages. The judge later capped the damages at the Virginia commonwealth's legal maximum of $350,000 in punitive damages leaving Depp with a total of $8.35million. Heard won just one of her three countersuit claims, which related to statements made by Depp's lawyer suggesting she and friends had trashed their apartment before calling the police. She was awarded just $2million in compensatory damages out of the $100million she was seeking, and zero dollars in punitive damages. Her spokesperson Alafair Hall said she plans to appeal the verdict. From Ireland to India, and Argentina to America - newspapers around the globe honoured Queen Elizabeth as she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee today. Beaming photos of Her Majesty graced the front pages of most news sites as readers as far apart as New York and New Delhi revelled in a show-stopping day of British tradition and pageantry to rival the best in the world. All eyes were on the Buckingham Palace balcony as the 96-year-old monarch stood flanked by Charles and Camilla, William and Kate - children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to mark an historic 70 years on the throne. 'This sight is so good!' proclaimed Germany's Bild newspaper alongside a photo of the Queen and her family, who was said to have wiped away a tear as she watched proceedings - the first of four days of celebrations to mark her record reign. 'Here, everyone celebrates Queen Elizabeth,' said Norway's VG newspaper, saying the streets of Britain were filled with 'festive people who want to mark the Queen's Platinum anniversary'. And Denmark's Berlingske carried a message from their country's own Queen Margrethe - a close friend of Elizabeth - who praised her as a 'pillar of strength.' German tabloid Bild said straightforwardly 'this sight is good!' in response to a happy Queen And Norway's VG news website featured all the working royals together on the balcony Berlingske in Denmark quoted Copenhagen's queen as describing her as a 'pillar of strength' La Vanguardia in Spain led on the Queen's smiling face - and left a note on Meghan Markle, too Perhaps surprisingly - the Irish Independent carried the story on the front of its news site, a fitting tribute to Elizabeth's personal involvement in helping to bring about peace in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday Agreement. Earlier in the day, Michelle O'Neill, vice president of Sinn Fein - the political arm of the Provisional IRA which assassinated the Queen's cousin - had also written to Her Majesty to thank her for her service. American newspapers were predictably in thrall to the Royal spectacle, with the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post all featuring the celebrations prominently. Just as notable was the fact that none of those papers made a prominent mention of Meghan's presence - despite the California-born actress being present at a Royal event for the first time since 'Megxit'. Even Russian news site Kommersant found space to feature the Royals on its site, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and the UK's strong support for Kyiv. El Mundo, one of Spain's largest newspapers, carried a message from Elizabeth on its front page as she told the nation to look forward with 'confidence and enthusiasm'. It did not the return of Meghan to royal engagements, though said her appearance came 'with many buts'. La Nacion and Globo 1, the largest news sites in Argentina and Brazil, also carried photos of the event - noting that four days of celebrations are now underway. The New York Times blushed about the 'four days of Platinum Jubilee festivities' ahead America's Wall Street Journal complimented the proceedings' 'Royal Style' and featured Louis Meanwhile the capital's Washington Post led with the royals' balcony appearance earlier on The Irish Independent described the 'Jubilee Queen' appearing on the Palace balcony today French President Emmanuel Macron was the first world leader to congratulate the Queen on her incredible 70-year reign in a video message posted earlier today. Macron described the Queen as the 'golden thread that binds our nations together' as he praised her 'devotion to our alliance and to our friendship' in a video message from the Elysee Palace this morning. His warm wishes came ahead of a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe during which the French and British national anthems will both be played, and after France gifted Her Majesty a horse as a nod to her love of all things equestrian. El Mundo in Spain took a positive tone via its correspondent in London, with a smiley Queen Kommersant in Russia told the story straight, referring to a 'parade in honour' of the Queen Global News in Canada referred to the incredible fly past as 'unique' and described excitement Addressing the Queen today, Marcon - speaking mostly in English but partially in French, which Her Majesty speaks fluently - congratulated her on her record-breaking reign which he said had been a 'constant reliance' for France. 'Times have changed, Europe has evolved, our continent is again experiencing war,' he said. 'Throughout these transformations your devotion to our alliance and to our friendship has remained.' Le Figaro, France also referred to the Queen as 'acclaimed' by 'cries and applause' of onlookers He recalled 'the dark days when your family welcomed General de Gaulle in your home' during World War II. During the war, the leader of the Free French and later founding president of France's Fifth Republic took refuge in London from the Nazis. Since then, in 'a lifetime of devotion', Macron said the Queen had 'shared our joys, and seen the deep affection and admiration that the people of France have for you.' De Telegraaf, Netherlands focused on the 'iconic Buckingham Palace balcony' in its coverage Le Parisien, France said the Queen was 'acclaimed' at the ceremony and 1,200 soldiers present Italian newspaper La Reppublica went for a podcast, explainers and plenty of adoring images In a sign of one of the most-significant aspects of her reign, a tribute also came from Ireland's Sinn Fein - once the political wing of the Provisional IRA. The Provisional IRA was responsible for the August 1979 bombing which killed Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin, along with two of his family and a friend. Michelle O'Neill, the party's vice president, wrote to the Queen to praise her 'significant' contribution to the peace process in Ireland and to acknowledge her 'dedicated public service to the British people' Ms O'Neill thanked the Queen for her 'warmth and unfailing courtesy' on the occasions when the pair have met and wrote of the 'value and respect' she had for the monarch's contribution to reconciliation. TVN24 in Poland offered a nostalgic tribute, featuring a black and white image from the 1950s NDTV, India angled on cheering crowds in the tens of thousands outside Buckingham Palace Globo 1 in Brazil made claimed the proceedings intend to 'clean up the monarchy's image' La Nacion, Argentina led with a picture of Kate Middleton looking admiringly at the Queen Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is also expected to name an island after her later today - despite being a Republican. Aspen Island, located in the middle of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin, will be renamed Queen Elizabeth II Island instead. Mr Albanese, who has previously declared his respect for the Queen, said it will be 'an honour' to take part in the ceremony. 'I have the privilege of lighting a beacon as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons and to commence Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Australia,' he said. 'Australia will honour and pay tribute to the remarkable dedication and service of Her Majesty The Queen over the course of the Platinum Jubilee official celebrations. 'I look forward to officially renaming Aspen Island to Queen Elizabeth II Island later this week as a mark of Australia's appreciation and respect for Her Majesty.' Chinese, Russian scholars urged to help boost bilateral ties Xinhua) 09:41, June 02, 2022 BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday called for in-depth communication between Chinese and Russian scholars with a view to boosting bilateral ties. Wang delivered a video speech at a high-level think tank forum for scholars of the two countries, calling on them to contribute wisdom to make the world more peaceful, safer and more prosperous. Wang said the Chinese side is willing to work with the Russian side to uphold and practice the correct view on democracy, development, security and order, and promote the development of the global governance system in a more just and reasonable direction. The forum, held annually since 2018, was jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Russian International Affairs Council. This year's forum focuses on topics such as the high-quality development of China-Russian economic cooperation, green cooperation, and global and regional governance. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) The royal family has allegedly given Prince Harry ironclad promises that he, his wife Meghan Markle, and their two children would be protected by police when they arrive in the UK on Wednesday to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. According to the Mirror, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, their son, Archie, 3, and daughter, Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday, will fly from their home in California with their special security officers. Queen Elizabeth To Finally Meet Prince Harry, Meghan Markle's Daughter They will be protected by the Metropolitan Police's Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit once they arrive on British territory, according to an arrangement that took weeks to finalize. The arrangement, according to the Mirror's royal editor, calls for the 37-year-old duke and his family to be guarded by specially trained Met cops only while staying at their Windsor residence, Frogmore Cottage, or attending official engagements commemorating Queen Elizabeth II's 70th year on the throne. If the jet-setting pair chooses to attend any private events during their vacation, they will need to make their security arrangements and pay for them. It will be Meghan Markle's sole visit to her husband's homeland in more than two years when the pair provoked a global uproar by abandoning their royal responsibilities in 2020 and traveling to California through Canada. The visit comes less than three months after Prince Harry filed a lawsuit against the British Home Office for refusing to allow him to pay for police security while in the UK, claiming that Met policemen were not firearms for sale. His legal team stated at the time that the duke has been unable to bring his former Suits star wife and children to visit his family because it is too dangerous without police protection, and their private security team from California lacks proper jurisdiction abroad, as well as access to intelligence resources. As part of a four-day national celebration, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to attend the Queen's Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on Friday, followed by the BBC's Party at the Palace on Saturday. The 96-year-old grandmother of Prince Harry has not seen her great-grandson, Archie, since he was a newborn, and she has never seen her great-granddaughter Lilibet, who was called after Queen Elizabeth's childhood nickname, New York post reported. Read Also: Jaylen Brown Net Worth 2022: Celtics Star Is Getting Nearly $1 Million as Bonus After NBA Finals Berth How Will Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Stay in the UK? The military performance kicks off a four-day bank holiday weekend commemorating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have traveled from the United States, will be among those watching as Prince Charles acts in place of the queen, who will not attend the event on Thursday. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, together with other members of the Royal Family, will observe from the Duke of Wellington's former office overlooking Horse Guards Parade as the Prince of Wales inspects and salutes the guardsmen and officers. Following the event, the Queen will hail the returning Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment from Buckingham Palace's balcony alongside her cousin, Colonel of the Scots Guards, the Duke of Kent. The 96-year-old, who has mobility limitations, will also be on the balcony for the usual flypast with members of the Royal Family. Prince Charles, who typically takes part in the ceremonial on horseback as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, will take the salute and examine the troops of the Household Division on behalf of the Queen. The successor to the throne will be accompanied on horseback by Prince William, Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Princess Anne, Colonel of The Blues and Royals. Camilla, Kate, Prince Edward, Sophie, and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn will proceed to Troop in the annual carriage procession. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, as well as Princess Royal's husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, will arrive in a horse-drawn carriage at Horse Guards Parade. Lord Snowdon and his sister Lady Sarah Chatto, the Queen's sister Princess Margaret's children, have been invited to the ceremony and will join the royal party in the Major General's Office overlooking Horse Guards Parade. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are staying at Frogmore Cottage, their old Windsor residence. On Friday, the couple is also anticipated to attend a thanksgiving ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in central London, as per Express. Related Article: How Will Prince Charles' Reign Differ from Queen Elizabeth When He Becomes King? Prince of Wales Starts To Take Greater Public Role @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement Four members of the Tulsa, Oklahoma community were murdered on Wednesday when a gunman stormed St. Francis Hospital. Dr. Preston Phillips was a Harvard graduate who travelled the world providing surgeries to underprivilege kids. William Love was a retired US Army veteran, who was shot while holding a door open so others could escape. Receptionist Amanda Glenn was a devoted mother-of-two. And Dr. Stephanie Husen was a well-respected orthopedic surgeon. New details about the victims are emerging as police revealed that the killer, Michael Louis, 45, was found with a letter that stated his intent to kill Dr. Phillips and 'anyone who got in his way.' Michael Louis, 45, (left) entered the St. Francis Hospital on Wednesday to kill his back surgeon, Dr. Preston Phillips (right) and 'anyone else who got in his way' when murdered the doctor and three others before shooting himself According to police, Dr. Phillips had operated on Louis' back on May 19. Louis had been released from the hospital on May 24 but called Phillips about lingering back pain and saw the doctor again on May 31, before returning the following day to kill him. After carrying out his massacre, Louis killed himself as police closed in. Tulsa Police chief Wendell Franklin also revealed that Louis used an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle that he purchased at a local gun shop less than three hours before the shooting. He was also armed with a .40 caliber handgun, which he purchased on May 29 at a pawn shop. Police have recovered a total of 37 shell casings at the hospital, 30 from the rifle and seven from the pistol. The deadly shooting took place eight days after an 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas, shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School. St. Francis Hospital staffers mourned the deaths in the hospital as one surgical technician, Dr. Ruth Folly, revealed that Phillips traveled yearly with the Folly family's Light in the World Development Foundation, which provides surgeries and medical assistance to children and adults in the developing world. Lamenting the death of his friend on Facebook, Folly said Phillips was preparing to go to Togo with the group, again, this year after trips in 2020 and 2021 were postponed because of COVID-19. Folly added that Philips has traveled every years since 2016. 'Dr. Phillips, I thought we were preparing to go on a surgical mission in Togo, but I found out yesterday during a shooting at work that a gunman took you away from me, our mission team, your family, your patients, and the Togolese people,' Kolly wrote on Facebook. (Left) Dr. Preston Phillips was a Harvard graduate who travelled the world providing surgeries to underprivilege kids (Right) Husen, a graduate from the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, specialized in internal medicine and pediatrics. Also caught in the crossfire was hospital receptionist Amanda Glenn (left) and patient William Love (right) A woman cries while talking on the phone outside at Memorial High School where people were evacuated from the scene The shooting took place in the Natalie Building of the hospital, where police heard Louis' final gunshot when they arrived TULSA HOSPTIAL SHOOTING TIMELINE: May 19: Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, enters the St. Francis Hospital to get back surgery from Dr. Preston Phillips. May 24: Louis is released from the hospital following the procedure, but he continues to call Phillips' office daily about lingering back pain and wanting additional treatment. May 29: Louis purchases a .40 caliber handgun at a local pawn shop. May 31: Louis returns to Phillips' office to discuss additional treatment for his back. June 1: At around 2 p.m., Louis purchases a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle from a local gun shop. 4:52 p.m.: Tulsa police are alerted to an active gunman situation at the St. Francis Hospital. 4:55 p.m.: Police identify that the shooting is taking place at the Natalie Medical Building. 4:56 p.m.: Officers arrive at the building and the tactical unit readies to enter as people run out of the hospital. 4:57 p.m.: Police make their way to second floor as they instruct those inside to quickly evacuate. One of the victims is found lying on the floor and taken to an ambulance. 4:58 p.m.: Officers hear a gun shot ring out in the building. They find Louis dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, along with Phillips and two others. Advertisement 'You always call me a son and I call you father. You told me last week at work during lunchtime to not stop this project in Togo in case something happens to you. I did not know that you were giving me the last advice for our journey. 'I am so sad to see you go without a goodbye. Your work will continue. You will be missed. I love you. See you in heaven one day.' Also killed was Phillips colleague, Husen, who worked with the surgeon in the hospital's Warren Clinic Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine office. Husen, a graduate from the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, specialized in internal medicine and pediatrics. Like Philips, Husen has a 5-star rating on WebMD based on reviews from patients. Glenn, a mother of two, was the third employee at the hospital who was shot and killed by Louis. Her brother, Jim Massengill, said he was crying hysterically after learning about the loss of his sister, who he described as the kindest person he knew. 'My sister Amanda Glenn was killed in the hospital shooting yesterday more than me, her husband and children need all the love and support everyone can give them,' he wrote on Facebook. My sister was one of the most kind and caring individuals to ever live I wish I had more to say but Im still in complete shock.' Hospital President and CEO Dr. Cliff Robertson teared up as he recounted what happened in the hospital and lamented the loss of three of his staff members. 'These were three of the best people in the entire world committed to taking care of others,' Robertson said. 'They didn't deserve to die this way.' Love was the only non-hospital employee to die in the shooting. He was a retired U.S. Army veteran who had just purchased an RV with his wife weeks before the tragedy, KOTV reported. According to Tulsa police, Love held a door open to allow people to escape the shootout and was subsequently struck by gunfire and killed. Deadly weekend: More than 150 were killed across America during Memorial Day weekend - as gun violence soared days after Uvalde school massacre left 21 dead Dr. Ruth Folly lamented the loss of his long-time friend and colleague, Phillips, noting that the surgeon was preparing to travel to Togo to provide surgeries to the underprivileged Hospital receptionist Amanda Glenn's brother said he was distraught upon learning about his sisters death Franklin said police got a call at 4:52 p.m. on June 1 about the shooting taking place at the medical center, with police arriving at the scene four minutes later. Officers breached the building at 4:57 p.m., hearing a gun shot seconds later believed to be the final shot that Louis fired to kill himself in Phillip's office. Louis's niece told The Daily Beast police contacted her family, adding that they did not want to be identified because they're 'disgusted' over the shooting. 'We are so distraught,' she said. 'I dont even want to be associated because Im so disgusted. 'Its just so shocking. Like, if he had killed himself, okay. But those innocent people, thats what Im hurting about,' she added. In Oklahoma, private sellers who are not licensed dealers are not required to conduct background checks. Licensed vendors and pawnshops in the state, however, do conduct background checks, which are done by contacting the FBI directly. Authorities had also investigated if the gunman planted a bomb at a residence in Muskogee but said no explosives were found in the house following a search. Tulsa police responded to the scene of the shooting within minutes and arrived while the shooting was ongoing, Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish said at a press conference. 'The officers that did arrive were hearing shots in the building, and that's what directed them to the second floor,' he said. Once gunfire ceased authorities searched the building 'floor-by-floor, room-by-room,' Captain Meulenberg said. Aerial footage from a TV helicopter appeared to show first responders wheeling someone on a stretcher away from the hospital building. Captain Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department told reporters: 'It's a catastrophic scene' when describing the chaos police encountered when they first entered the hospital The Tulsa Police Department seen outside a St. Francis medical building in Tulsa responding to the shooting on Wednesday Police tape outside of the Natalie Medical Building in Tulsa as police respond to a shooting that killed five people Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt also released a statement condemning the 'senseless' shooting and said he is offering Mayor G.T. Bynum any state resources that he may need. 'What happened [Wednesday] in Tulsa is a senseless act of violence and hatred. Sarah and I are praying for the families of those who lost their lives and for those who were injured. I am grateful for the quick and brave actions of the Tulsa Police Department and other first responders who did their best to contain a terrible situation,' he said. 'I have offered Mayor G.T. Bynum any state resources that may be needed, and I ask all Oklahomans to come together in support of the St. Francis Health System community and to grieve with those whose lives have been forever changed,' Stitt added. The mass shooting comes just eight days after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers before authorities shot and killed him The tragic shooting has reignited the conversation around gun control. House Democrats are already planning a vote next week on 'red flag' legislation, which allows a judge to ban dangerous individuals from having a firearm, and the Judiciary committee is holding an emergency session on Thursday to mark up right gun-violence bills, which includes measures to raise the minimum age for buying certain weapons to 21. While Republicans see improving security at schools and tackling mental health problems as a more pressing need than restricting the availability of guns. Andrew Stephenson intervened after furious residents in Nelson, Lancashire, complained on social media that the council was bringing shame on the former cotton mill town A Tory junior minister has ordered councillors to take down a Palestinian flag flying over a Lancashire town hall in Jubilee Week and replace it with the Union Jack. Andrew Stephenson intervened after furious residents in Nelson complained on social media that the council was bringing shame on the former cotton mill town. The flag was raised on May 27 after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead last month in Jenin on the West Bank. Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot attending the ceremony in Nelson. Mr Stephenson said it is vital the death by investigated, but said the flag should be taken down at once. He said: 'I do not think it appropriate that that this flag should be flying in the week of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. 'I was unaware that this was going to happen and I was not invited to the ceremony when it was run up the pole. The only flag that should be flying there now is the Union Flag.' Earlier, people in the town questioned why the Union Jack was not being hung in the town hall on Facebook. Councillors voted unanimously to fly the Palestinian flag at Nelson dubbed 'Little Moscow' because it was so Left-wing in the early 20th century. The flag was raised on May 27 with Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot attending the ceremony They said Ms Akleh had been assassinated 'by Israeli government forces'. Labour group leader Mohammed Iqbal, who was awarded an MBE by the Queen last year, moved the motion which was supported by Tory colleagues. But Mr Stephenson told the Jewish Chronicle: 'My long-standing view is that local councils should focus on local issues, not foreign policy.' Earlier, Yvonne Pointon posted on the 'Nelson, Lancashire Then and Now' Facebook page, saying she was embarrassed by the lack of Union Jacks on show. She said: 'Went into Nelson centre today and I am embarrassed to say not one stitch of a Union Jack or anything to represent or celebrate the Queen's jubilee was on show. 'It looked like a ghost town, we've had royalty visit this town how come no one can be a***d to celebrate shame on the town. 'This is when we should be throwing all disagreements out the window and coming together and celebrating an English monarch serving 70 years on the throne. 'It will never happen again. Shouldn't be anything to do with religion, race, royalist etc. Just embrace the fact.' Peter Kelly said: 'The council need to remember this is England they should explain why no Union Jack on display.' Robert Carson said: 'Why is a town named after one of Britain's greatest heroes ashamed to show its loyalty to the Crown. Admiral Lord Nelson must be turning in his grave.' Kathleen McLennan added: 'It's a disgrace to Nelsonians. Councillors get your finger out, engage your brains. History needs celebrating.' Anne Salter said: 'Get the flags out and support your wonderful Queen.' And Bobby Sethi added: 'There should be flags everywhere. It's a national celebration. Extremely disappointed by the council!' Advertisement Royal fans today bemoaned the absence of Archie and Lilibet from the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations as an animated Meghan Markle appeared to playfully 'shush' other children within the family. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, chatted with 11-year-old Savannah Philips and her sister Isla, 10, together with Lena Tindall, three, and her older sister Mia, eight, as she appeared to joke that the girls should be quiet during the Trooping the Colour while it took place in the parade square below them. Her husband Prince Harry, 37, also appeared to 'shush' the children in a separate photo, before the couple were seen talking to the Duke of Kent, who was dressed in his red military tunic, adorned with medals. However, the non-appearance of the couple's own children, Archie, three and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday, was noted by many on social media. One wrote: 'I'm praying the Queen gets some time with Archie and Lilibet. She's been waiting so long. I also hope that there is a special christening for Lilibet before Harry returns to the USA.' Another tweeted: 'Where is their family? I can understand the baby staying with the nanny, but where was Archie? Why wasn't he at the window watching with the other children?' A third added: 'Queen Elizabeth n Louis on the balcony were just a grandmother n her grandson!! Wish Archie n Lilibet were with her!!' Meghan Markle appeared to shush the royal children as she appeared on a balcony with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall Prince Harry also appeared to shush the same group of young royals as they appeared at the window to watch Trooping the Colour The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been pictured at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, but their children Archie (left) and Lilibet (right) are yet to be seen Harry seemed to be in a morning suit, rather than the military uniforms his father Prince Charles and brother Prince William wore to the parade, after he was stripped of his honorary titles as part of his Megxit deal with the Queen to step away from royal duties. Meghan joined her husband and royals including the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Their appearance ended months of speculation on whether the Sussexes would attend the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. However, while they appeared at Horse Guards Parade with some royals, they were absent when the Queen, Prince Charles, the Cambridges and their children watched the flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony. The balcony appearance was reserved for working royals and their families. The couple's Jubilee appearance is their first official royal engagement in more than two years. They were expected to bring three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one, for the public family reunion, though their children have not yet been spotted. Lilibet has not been introduced to the Queen, or her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old, after his parents relocated to LA to pursuse their private enterprises, and a life outside the royal circle. Meghan's appearance came after Princes George and Prince Louis were spotted peeking from one of the windows overlooking Horse Guards Parade. They were joined by sister Princess Charlotte, and their mother Kate Middleton. Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. Meanwhile, Princess Beatrice appeared to point something out to the Cambridge children as they watched Trooping the Colour. At one point, Princess Charlotte appeared to be told off by mother Kate as the young royal played with Mia Tindall. Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla and Sophie Wessex were also seen at a window. But there was no sighing of disgraced Prince, Andrew, who received no invitation - even in a private capacity - after his fall from grace. Prince Harry, sporting a suit, was spotted alongside Meghan as they had a conversation with the Duke of Kent near the balcony Harry and Meghan's jubilee appearance is their first official engagement in more than two years. They are expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one The Duchess of Sussex was all smiles as she chatted with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Lena and Mia Tindall and appeared to be popular with the young royals George was dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie for the occasion, while Louis was wearing a sailor-style white and navy top echoing an outfit worn by his father at the 1985 Trooping event. Charlotte's hair was down, dressed up with two fine plaits fastened with a blue ribbon, and she wore a cornflower dress. She peered out of the central window at Horse Guards Parade as Louis pointed out towards the ceremony. They arrived at Horse Guards Parade alongside their mother and grandmother in a carriage. The Duchess of Cambridge was wearing a white coat dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Philip Treacy. Riding horses were the Prince of Wales on George, the Duke of Cambridge on Derby and the Princess Royal on Sir John. The Prince of Wales went ahead of the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal as they rode diagonally across the forecourt and under the arches of Horse Guards. Charles wore his scarlet Colonel of the Welsh Guards uniform and green thistle sash riding a horse named George. William rode on Derby in his Irish Guards uniform and Anne on a horse named Sir John in her Colonel of the Blues and Royals uniform as part of the colourful parade. Meanwhile, the Queen exclaimed 'incredible!' from the Buckingham Palace balcony in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons as she made her first apperance. The 96-year-old monarch, who wore her Guards brooch and the blue Angela Kelly outfit used in her official Platinum Jubilee portrait released last night, took the salute this afternoon after arriving from Windsor Castle. Royal superfans adorned themselves in Union flag clothing, flags and hats as they lined The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square - where large crowds also gathered - to watch the Queen's historic birthday parade kick off. Groups were spotted cracking out glasses of Champagne and began singing God Save the Queen as early as 8am today - waking up the hardcore fans who had slept in chairs, tents and even on the pavement overnight to secure a prime spot for today's celebrations. Princess Charlotte pulls a face as she joins her brothers and her mother at a window at Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour Several young royals appeared at the window during the parade - with some older ones including Princess Beatrice also spotted Prince Louis salutes as he watches Trooping the Colour with Princess Charlotte on a balcony at Horseguards Parade The Duchess of Cambridge intervenes as Princess Charlotte plays with Mia Tindall as they watch Trooping the Colour from a balcony Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall watch the Trooping of the Color from a window Princess Beatrice points something out to Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis as they watch Trooping the Colour Princess Charlotte watches from a window as the Horse Guards Parade take place. She was joined by several other young royals Louis was spotted waving at Prince William and Prince Charles as the parade took place. With mother Kate in the background Kate, Camilla and Sophie Wessex all appeared at the window ahead of the official flyover. Meghan Markle also made an appearance Some had even flown in from as far and wide as Australia, Canada and the United States specially for the historic event, while others flocked from European countries including Germany and Italy to soak in the momentus occasion. The sun was shining and spirits were high among the crowds as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. Several handmade signs hung over the barriers, with one simply saying, 'thank you'. Crowds were packed eight rows deep as they scrambled to watch the celebrations and were desperately trying to get a view of the royal action on their phones. As the pomp and pageantry got underway, crowds cheered and clapped loudly as troops in bright red uniforms and bearskin hats made their way down The Mall towards Horse Guard Parade. And an even bigger cheer erupted as the royals made their way down The Mall in carriages, led the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, and a beaming Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, accompanied by her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. They were followed by Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, 14, and then Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Charles on horseback. Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for cheating client Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who catapulted him to fame, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in book proceeds. The California lawyer, currently incarcerated, learned his fate in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Jesse M. Furman said the sentence will mean that Avenatti will spend another two-and-a-half years in prison on top of the two-and-a-half years he is already serving after another fraud conviction. The judge said Avenatti's crime against Daniels was made 'out of desperation' when his law firm was struggling. He called Avenatti's behavior 'craven and egregious' and blamed it on 'blind ambition.' Prior to sentencing being announced, Avenatti, wearing his prison uniform, choked up several times as he delivered a lengthy statement, saying he had 'disappointed scores of people and failed in a cataclysmic way.' He told the judge: 'I have destroyed my career, my relationships, and my reputation. 'Ive brought embarrassment and ridicule upon myself and innocent third parties, including my family, my children, my friends, and the legal profession.' He appeared in court wearing a beige prison outfit over a long-sleeved T-shirt after the judge denied his request to wear a suit. Former attorney Michael Avenatti is seen in this court sketch in the courtroom before he is sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding Stormy Daniels Michael Avenatti stands beside his lawyer Bob Baum as U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman sentences him to four years in prison Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for cheating client Stormy Daniels (pictured together in 2018) The judge said Avenatti's crime against Daniels was made 'out of desperation' when his law firm was struggling (Avenatti and Daniels are pictured together in 2018) At trial earlier this year, Avenatti represented himself, cross-examining his former client for hours about their experiences in early 2018, when she signed a book deal that provided an $800,000 payout. Prosecutors said he illegally pocketed about $300,000 of her advance on 'Full Disclosure,' published in fall 2018. The book's publication came at a time when Avenatti's law practice was failing financially even as he appeared regularly on cable television news channels. In the appearances, he attacked then-President Donald Trump as he represented Daniels in lawsuits meant to free her from a $130,000 hush payment she received shortly before the 2016 presidential election to remain silent about a tryst she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denied it. Daniels was not in court. A lawyer spoke on her behalf, saying it was 'truly shocking' that Avenatti tried to portray himself as a champion of his clients during his statement. His conviction for aggravated identity theft required a mandatory two-year prison sentence. Hes already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for trying to extort Nike. Avenatti was convicted of threatening to ruin the shoemakers reputation if it did not pay him up to $25 million. And he faces a retrial in California on charges that he cheated clients and others of millions of dollars there. In a presentence submission, Avenatti's lawyers cited an apology letter Avenatti recently wrote to Daniels in which he said: 'I am truly sorry.' But prosecutors in a sentencing submission last week urged that that he should face 'substantial' additional time in prison for a wire fraud conviction and criticized his apology letter, saying the 51-year-old failed to apologize for his actual crime. The California lawyer is already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for trying to extort Nike. Avenatti was convicted of threatening to ruin the shoemakers reputation if it did not pay him up to $25 million And they recalled that during 'an extremely lengthy' cross-examination, he 'berated his victim for lewd language and being a difficult client, questioned her invasively about marital and familial difficulties, and sought to cast her as crazy, much as he did during the course of his fraud to prevent her own agent and publisher from responding to her pleas for help.' 'The defendant certainly had every right to defend himself at trial. But he is not entitled to a benefit for showing remorse, having done so only when convenient and only after seeking to humiliate his victim at a public trial, and denigrating and insulting her for months to her agent and publisher while holding himself out as taking up her cause against the powerful who might have taken advantage of her,' prosecutors wrote. Democratic cities in Republican areas are vowing to serve as 'sanctuaries' for abortion rights as states prepare to fully ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned as a new poll shows that more than two-thirds of Americans are in favor of upholding a woman's ability to terminate their pregnancy. A Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday shows that 68 percent of Americans want the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case that made woman's right to terminate a pregnancy federally protected. Controversy over the ruling and abortion rights in general entered the spotlight last month when a draft opinion from the Supreme Court was leaked showing the conservative majority overturning Roe v. Wade. Thirty percent of Americans, according to the WSJ poll taken May 9-17 in the weeks following the leak, say that they want the ruling overturned. A separate poll from Gallup published Thursday, June 2 shows that 55 percent of Americans identify as pro-choice meaning the decision for a woman to have an abortion should be left up to her and her healthcare provider rather than controlled by any laws. In response to public outcry over the leaked draft opinion written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, blue cities situated in red states claim they will not enforce prosecution if abortion us outlawed at a state level. Thirteen GOP-led states have so-called 'trigger laws' that would immediately ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Those states include Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Democratic safe haven cities in red states are vowing to protect abortion rights as the Supreme Court nears overturning Roe v. Wade. Pictured: Pro-life protesters counter pro-abortion demonstrators in Washington, D.C. on May 14, 2022 A new poll released Thursday shows 68% more than two-thirds of Americans want Roe v. Wade upheld by the Supreme Court in order to maintain federal-level protections for abortion rights Local officials in some liberal enclaves in these states say they won't enforce those bans. A city council member in Austin, Texas, Jose 'Chito' Vela, has proposed a resolution that would decriminalize abortion at a local level if the state fully bans it. Texas already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. Currently abortion is illegally at the point where a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around the six-week point in a pregnancy. Many women who seek abortions are unaware they are pregnant at this point in the first trimester. Vela's spokesperson Jenna Hanes said his office has been in contact with lawmakers in several Texas cities, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, who are interested in advancing similar measures to protect abortion, according to Axios. The idea of these 'sanctuary cities' is an echo of the term used for cities that refused to aid the federal government in enforcing immigration laws. Prosecutors in some cities in Texas, Georgia and Tennessee say the will not make abortion-related cases a priority and some say they will not enforce state bans whatsoever. Demonstrators gather in Houston, Texas on May 14 for nationwide 'Bans Off Our Bodies' rallies Prosecutors in New Orleans, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee; DeKalb County, Georgia, which is the eastern part of Atlanta; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Durham County, North Carolina have all said abortion-related cases will not be a high priority. Some have directly said they won't enforce state bans. New Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Roger Williams said he 'will not shift priority from tackling shootings, rapes and carjackings to investigating the choices women make with regard to their own bodies.' The Supreme Court is expected to release the official opinion regarding Roe v. Wade at the end of June along with other cases the bench heard in its term. Meanwhile, the Court is conducting an investigation into who leaked Alito's draft opinion, specifically focusing the probe on clerks for the nine Supreme Court Justices. With a 6-3 conservative majority, and five of the six right-leaning Justices on board with the overturn, the 50-year-old abortion ruling is likely to become moot by the end of the month. The Supreme Court case stemmed from the Mississippi case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which would see abortion banned in the state at the 15-week point of a pregnancy. The WSJ survey taken last month shows that 34 percent of respondents support banning abortion at this point, while 43 percent are in opposition and 21 per cent say they neither support or oppose it. A hilarious image of the smiling Queen next to Prince Louis' with his hands over his ears perfectly sums up the nation's divide over the social media slogan 'Platty Joobs' for the Jubilee. The young prince was the star of the show today, with his delightful antics on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as he stood next to Her Majesty melting the hearts of the public. The four-year-old had been pictured waving at bystanders earlier in the day, and was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour, while he covered his ears during the noisy flypast. The latter of these reactions has been seized upon by social media users who are digging battle trenches over the term 'Platty Joobs' - a shorthand of Platinum Jubilee. While many have taken the light-hearted phrase in their stride and even embraced it, others are staunchly against it. Use of the phrase Platty Joobs as a shorthand for Platinum Jubilee has deeply divided people on social media @geraintgriffith tweeted his disdain for it, writing: 'I've just been confronted with the phrase 'platty joobs',so everything can f**k off. Everything. F*****g all of it.' But the power of the phrase might be too much for people to withstand, with some being seduced into using it against their will. Journalist and author Caitlin Moran tweeted: 'The Paltinum Jubilee being called "The Platty Joobs" might be the worst thing to have ever happened in my lifetime. And yet... I've started whispering it to myself.' Former Love Island winner Amber Gill added: 'I wasn't interested AT ALL until it's been renamed the Platty Joobs now I'm all over it. Stick the Union Jack on my forehead thank u.' Prince Louis (pictured right) took centre stage at today's London Platinum Jubilee celebrations, stealing the scene with his mischievous antics as he was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour At times, the occasion seemed like too much for the four-year-old, who was snapped pulling a range of faces (pictured) during his public appearance Meanwhile, @Pandamoanimum said you can a lot about a person who uses the phrase. They said: 'People who use the term Platty Joobs no doubt also count down in sleeps till they go on their holibobs with their gawjus famalam to chillaz and have a totes amazeballs time because it's like wine o'clock all the time so can legit go for a cray cray cheeky sesh whenevs babez.' @bigdybbukeenergy said: 'Just saw someone referring to the jubilee as the platty joobs and it has sent me over the edge.' While some social media users have grown to love the term, others can't contain their hatred of it @AAEmerson complained not about the phrase itself, but the way it was spelt. They said: 'I'm disgusted with the term Platty Joobs. What an insult and a disgrace. It's clearly Platty Jubes.' TV Critic and broadcaster Tony Earle remarked on its similartiy to the famously nonsensical names in Star Wars, tweeting: 'Not seen the latest Star Wars, who's Platty Joobs?' Earlier in the day social media users found an unlikely hero in the form of an Irish wolfhound. Turlough Mar, better known as Seamus, accompanied the Irish Guards as they marched down Horse Guards Parade in front of vast crowds enjoying the festivities. The pooch was a hit with people on social media too Social media users found an unlikely hero during this morning's coverage of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, as they took an Irish wolfhound to their hearts Among the festivities today was the Irish Guards arriving at a march at Horse Guards Parade in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their furry mascot Presenter Lorraine Kelly led the tributes, tweeting: 'Loving Seamus the Irish Wolfhound - effortlessly stealing the show #TroopingTheColour' Another wrote: 'This Irish Wolfhound really thinks the parade is for him, doesn't he? #whatagoodboy' A third said: 'Seamus the Irish wolf hound has my heart', while another added: 'Highlight of the jubilee coverage so far is definitely the BBC interviewing Seamus the Irish Wolfhound, mascot of the Irish Guards.' The two-year-old canine, who was trained with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, was accompanied by his handler, Drummer Adam Walsh, throughout the parade. He told Sky News: 'As you can imagine it's quite loud in front of the band and his hearing is very amplified. 'So for him to stay cool, calm and collected takes a lot of training and a lot of prep. 'We went up to Melton Mowbray which is where they train all the army dogs and we spent about two and a half months doing training about obedience. You have to make the dog fit the role, rather than the role fit the dog. 'He has his own room where we all live. He's a pampered pooch, he's treated as one of the lads.' Drummer Walsh added: 'Not much fazes him. He's a key personality in the battalion. 'We almost have that kind of unseparable bond now and we just love working with each other. 'We've done so much practice for it now it's almost second nature to him, he's going to be great.' President Biden is set to deliver a plea for gun control Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET on the heels of another mass shooting in Tulsa, Okla, as Vice President Kamala Harris insisted there are 'no more excuses' not to act. 'No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough. We need Congress to act,' the vice president said in remarks Thursday. Biden has said there is little left for him to do from the executive branch and urged Congress to take up measures that would ban assault weapons and strengthen universal background checks. On Wednesday a gunman opened fire at a Tulsa hospital, killing four people with an AR-15 he purchased three hours before the attack. The shooting came just over a week after a gunman mowed down 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, using an AR-15 he'd purchased days earlier for his 18th birthday, which came just after a white gunman opened fire in a Buffalo grocery store, killing 10 black shoppers. Biden is set to deliver a plea for gun control Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET on the heels of another mass shooting in Tulsa, Okla 'No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough. We need Congress to act,' the vice president said Thursday Bloodshed rocked the nation over Memorial Day Weekend - 150 died as a result of gun violence. Earlier on Thursday the House Judiciary Committee held a markup session for the 'Protecting Our Kids Act,' which combines eight pieces of legislation in the latest Congressional gun control push. The bill would raise the purchasing age of certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles from 18 to 21 - as the shooters in Buffalo and Uvalde were both 18. It also goes after high-capacity magazines, ghost guns and bump stocks and mandates certain requirements for firearms storage on residential facilities. Speaker Nancy Pelosi also promised to have a hearing and markup of the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has also set a vote for next week for red flag legislation offered by Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose son was a victim of gun violence a decade ago. Republicans remained firm in their resistance and the eight-piece measure is unlikely to make it through the Senate after the House passes it. But a bipartisan group of senators led by Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are working on a slimmed-down gun control measure that focuses on on state-based red flag programs, school safety and mental health programs. Nineteen states currently have red flag legislation, which allows law enforcement to take away firearms from those who are deemed by a cour to be a threat to themselves or others, on the books. As the president visited Uvalde over Memorial Day Weekend, he expressed optimism that legislation could pass by claiming Republicans are 'getting more rational.' Biden specifically called Cornyn and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell 'rational,' though he said he didn't know the status of the talks. Asked if he had his own responsibility to act, Biden replied: 'I cant dictate this stuff.' He implied the onus was on Congress to enact lasting change. 'I can do the things Ive done, and any executive action I can take, Ill continue to take. But I cant outlaw a weapon. I cant change a background check. I cant do that,' the president said. Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida argued that the law limiting high-capacity magazines would have unintended effects - and he held up his own guns to demonstrate, while participating in the hearing virtually. Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado argued that AR-15s, the gun style of choice in most recent U.S. mass shootings, had practical purposes. 'In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens,' Buck said. 'That is the gun of choice for killing a fox.' The bill lawmakers are debating does not ban AR-15s. Police tape outside of the Natalie Medical Building in Tulsa as police respond to a shooting that killed four people Two people hug outside at Memorial High School where people were evacuated from the scene of a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Wednesday, June 1 Family members hug as they are reunited at Memorial High School after being evacuated from the scene of a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Pictured: A map showing the states that saw the highest number of gun violence deaths over the weekend, that saw more than 150 people killed in total across the United States Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California suggested that 'woke district attorneys' aren't using the laws already on the books - bringing up a favorite GOP punching bag, first son Hunter Biden. 'Hunter Biden illegally acquired a handgun despite being an admitted drug addict. A handgun that ended up being taken out of a public trash can 500 feet from a school. He also lied on his firearms application,' McClintock said. 'Nobody's prosecuting him.' McClintock was referring to Biden answering no on a 2018 firearms permit to the question, 'Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?' Biden had already been discharged from the Navy Reserve over his cocaine use. By Alyssa Guzman for DailyMail.com SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, DECEMBER 2012: 27 DEAD, 2 INJURED Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 elementary school students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the largest school shooting in the US In December 2012, the deadliest school shooting in America took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Lanza arrived to the school with three guns - a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle, and two pistols after killing his mother, Nancy - with whom, he reportedly only communicated via email. When he arrived to the school around 9.30am, the doors were locked as part of a new safety feature the school had recently rolled out. He allegedly 'shot the entrance into the building,' according to CNN. The school psychologist and vice principal went to investigate after hearing 'popping' noises and the psychologist was shot by Lanza. The elementary school was placed in lockdown and students were ushered into restrooms and closets to hide. Lanza moved toward kindergarten and first-grade classrooms first. In one of the classrooms, he shot all 14 kindergarteners and six first-graders. By the time law enforcement arrived to the scene, 20 students and six staff members were killed. Little angels and stuffed animals lined the dirt in honor of the elementary schoolchildren who died in the shooting As law enforcement approached the 20-year-old, he shot himself. Although his motive is unknown, Lanza's old writings were discovered years later and shed light into the young man's mind. He had written to a fellow gamer that he had a 'scorn for humanity' and had been 'desperate to feel anything positive for someone for my entire life.' A child advocate's for the state of Connecticut also said Lanza had severe mental health problems and suffered from anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and was on the autism spectrum. He was also preoccupied with violence, according to CBS News. With ease of access to his mother's weapons and being home-schooled, the advocate said it was 'proved a recipe for mass murder.' MARYSVILLE PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOL, OCTOBER 2014: 4 DEAD, 1 INJURED Jaylen Fryberg, 17, killed his four 'ride or die' friends at lunch in October 2014 and said he 'needed to do this' Marysville student Jaylen Fryberg, 17, gathered his friends around a table in the Washington state's school cafeteria and shot each of them in the head one-by-one to take them to 'the other side,' in October 2014. He shot them with a 'blank stare' and shot them 'left to right.' Fryberg had sent a photo of the handgun to a friend just moments before he would open fire, killing four. He told the person he texted to call him before he did 'the thing.' After shooting the four students as others watched on, he shot himself as a teacher ran toward him, the Washington Post reported. The teen had methodically planned the massacre, even leaving a note for his parents with his funeral arrangements and what to do with his assets, if he had any. He had texted his father: 'Read the paper on my bed. Dad, I love you.' Students hug and cry after the shooting that took the lives of four and injured one Inside the note, he told his parents he wanted to be 'fully dressed in Camo in my casket' and all his 'trust money or whatever goes to my brother.' Fryberg also apologized to his friends' parents, but said he needed 'ride or dies with me on the other side.' 'I LOVE YOU FAMILY! I really do! More then anything,' he wrote. 'I needed to do this tho[ugh]I wasnt happy. And I need my crew with me too. Im sorry. I love you.' UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, OCTOBER 2015: 9 DEAD, 9 INJURIED Student Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, killed himself after the shooting Student Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, opened fire in Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, in October 2015 around 10.45am. He killed eight students and one teacher before police arrived. Authorities and Mercer engaged in a brief shootout, before Mercer turned the gun on himself and took his own life. More weapons were found in his apartment, which he shared with his mother, and he had handed a student a USB drive with his manifesto on it. 'It's pretty well laid out that he was a dejected failure,' Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said at the time. 'The only thing that I can conclude from it is he was mentally and emotionally ill.' His manifesto detailed a life of a lonely virgin, who self-described himself as the 'most hated person in the world' and said he hated black men, whom he said only cared about their 'penises.' Mercer also reportedly said he was constantly 'under siege' by 'morons and idiots,' the Oregonian reported. Mercer wrote: 'What was it that was supposed to happen, what great event was it that was supposed to make me realize how much there was going for me? 'But for people like me there is another world, a darker world that welcomes us. For people like us this all that's left. My success in Hell is assured.' Police arrived on campus in bulletproof vests and rifles after Mercer killed eight students and one teacher Hundreds gathered for a vigil for victims of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College The young man also reportedly said he was 'denied' everything he deserved and likened himself the Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook shooters. 'Though we may have been born bad. Society left us no recourse, no way to be good,' he reportedly wrote. 'I have been forced to align myself with demonic forces. What was once an involuntary relationship has now become an alignment, a service. I now serve the demonic Heirarchy(sic). When I die will become one of them. A demon. And I will return to kill again and again.' NORTH PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, APRIL 2017: 2 DEAD, 1 INJURED Cedric Anderson, 53, shot and killed his wife at North Park Elementary, killing one student and injuring one other Cedric Anderson, 53, entered the San Bernardino, California, school around 10.30am in April 2017, where his wife Karen Elaine Smith, also 53, worked as a special-education teacher. He told administrators he was there to see his wife and walked into her classroom, which was positioned near the office. He fired six shots from a Magnum revolver when he entered the classroom, killing his wife and an eight-year-old student and injuring another child. He reloaded the revolver and shot himself. Although the motive is unknown, many suspected his wife - who had recently divorced him - was being abused, according to the San Bernardino Sun. Since the shooting, her classroom IB, no longer exists. The classroom walls have been knocked down and it is now an open space for students to work on projects. The school remodeled its building and outfitted every classroom with tempered glass windows, installed steel doors with locks on the inside, and a door that leads to the outside, which is mandated by law. Although his motive is unknown, many suspect he abused his wife and that's what led to their divorce AZTEC HIGH SCHOOL, DECEMBER 2017: 2 DEAD, 0 INJURED William Atchison, 21, shot and killed two students at Aztec High School Former student William Atchison, 21, disguised himself as student and hide in a bathroom with a Glock on the second floor of the New Mexico school, according to Fox News. The custodian reported ran down the hallways screaming about an active shooter and telling teachers to go into 'lockdown.' He killed a male student who walked into the bathroom before killing a girl in the hallway and then turned the gun on himself. The shooter had left a manifesto on a USB drive that was found on his body, where he had allegedly wrote: 'Work sucks, school sucks, life sucks. I just want out...' Atchison had been on the FBI's radar since 2016 after he allegedly asked in a forum: 'Where to find cheap assault rifles for a mass shooting?' He told investigators he just liked to troll online forums and authorities found that he was not in possession of any weapons at the time after interviewing him at his parent's house. MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS - PARKLAND, FEBRUARY 2018: 17 DEAD, 17 INJURIED Nikolas Cruz, then 19, shot and killed 14 students and three staff members in February 2018. He pleaded guilty and now faces the death penalty The now-third biggest school shooting in US history happened in February 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine's Day. Nikolas Cruz, then 19, shot and killed 14 students and three staff members and injured an additional 17. The shooter, who was adopted, shot students with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. He began shooting students outside of the school before working his way inside, according to NBC News. After the shooting, he slipped past authorities by hiding among the crowd running out of the school. For years, Cruz was a subject of police attention as his parents had called 911 several times on him for being out of control and had been tripped off to the FBI about concerning behavior, NPR reported. Starting when Cruz was 10 years old, his mother reported seeing violent behavior and had called the police after he and his other adopted brother Zach had gotten into a fight. She also reported Cruz had pushed her up against a wall after taking an X-Box game away and he had used a BB gun to shoot a chicken. Students were ushered out of the building with their hands on each other's backs after the Valentine's day shooting Hundreds of memorial items were gathered around the school sign after the shooting, which killed 17 and injured 17 others. It is the second largest school shooting in the US After his mother died, he went to live with a family friend and had reportedly gotten in a fight with their son. He told police: 'The thing is, I lost my mother a couple days ago. So like, I'm dealing with a bunch of things right now. I kind of got mad. And I started punching walls and stuff and a kid came at me and threw me on the ground. And he kicked me out of the house.' The family claimed he put a gun to their son's head and had done it to his adoptive mother as well before. Cruz (pictured in 2022) was adopted and showed signs of violent behavior the age of 10 Cruz had also been expelled from two school, was self-harming and had reportedly been diagnosed with depression, NPR reported. He pleaded guilty in October 2021 and now faces the death penalty. SANTA FE HIGH SCHOOL, MAY 2018: 10 DIED, 12 INJURED Dimitrios Pagourtzis, then 17, shot up Santa Fe High School and now awaits trial and faces up to 40 years in prison Dimitrios Pagourtzis, then 17, killed 10 and injured 12 others at Santa Fe High School in Texas in May 2018. A student said Pagourtzis hid a shotgun and a handgun under his trench coat before opening fire in a first-period art class. The then-student told police he did not kill anyone he liked because he wanted them to be able to tell the story, AP reported. Authorities say Pagourtzis planned the killings, carried out with weapons owned by his father. Though Pagourtzis allegedly wrote about his intention to carry out the attack, authorities have not indicated a motive for the violence. Although the motive is unknown, a student's mother said her daughter had rejected Pagourtzis romantically and her daughter, Shana Fisher, had made clear that she was not interested in him. Police gather outside the high school, where 10 died and 12 were injured 'He continued to get more aggressive,' the mother told AP. 'She finally stood up to him and embarrassed him.' The incident took place one week before the shooting and it is unclear if that drove Pagourtzis to kill. Police also said they found multiple IEDs, pressure cookers, Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, propane tanks, and other homemade explosives near the school and parking lot after the shooting. He had engaged in a 25-minute shootout with police before surrendering after being injured. Pagourtzis is currently awaiting trial. He faces 40 years in prison. SAUGUS HIGH SCHOOL, NOVEMBER 2018: 2 DEAD, 3 INJURED Nathaniel Berhow, 16, attempted suicide after the shooting and later died in the hospital Nathaniel Berhow, 16, killed two students and injured two others at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, in November 2018. Authorities said the attack was planned, but the victims were chosen at random. 'It was a planned attack; it was deliberate. He knew how many rounds he had, for example,' Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at the time, according to NBC Los Angeles. Berhow was dropped off at the school by his mother and was standing in the quad alongside other students. Authorities said he was standing away from students and was still before moving toward the center of the quad, where he dropped his backpack and began firing at students. He shot five people in 16 seconds, NBC Los Angeles reported. Berhow also shot himself in an attempted suicide and was taken to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. The motive for the attack is still unknown. Students mourned outside the high school after the shooting that killed two and injured three OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL, NOVEMBER 2021: 4 DIED, 7 INJURED Ethan Crumbley, 15, faces life in prison and is scheduled to go to trial in September The most recent well-known school shooter is 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan after a guidance counseling meeting with his parents at the school. Four students were killed and seven more people were injured in the shooting. Crumbley had a meeting with school administrators, and his mother was contacted via voicemail by the school about her son's inappropriate ammunition-related internet search. According to the prosecutor, the mother and father also failed to ask Ethan if he had his gun with him, or where his gun was, and did not inspect his backpack. Instead, the teen returned to class and the shooting occurred later. His parents were also arrested after a large-scale manhunt. James and Jennifer were captured in the basement of a building in Detroit, less than half a mile from the Canadian border. All the Crumbleys are being held at the Oakland County Jail. His parents are currently facing trial for four counts of manslaughter and have requested their trial be moved out of Oakland County. Ethan is awaiting trial, which is schedule for September, and he faces life in prison. Students gather around the school sign to place flowers after the shooting that killed four and injured seven others One of the survivors of the Uvalde school massacre, who was trapped in her classroom with the gunman, is speaking about the shooting that killed 21 people, including 19 children. Khloie Torres, 10, spoke to Fox News Wednesday and said that she naturally feared for her life in those terrifying moments. 'I was scared To be like, 'what were my last words going to be?' I was really scared,' Torres said. Torres was attending class with hero slain teacher Irma Garcia when the shooting took place, as recess had just ended and, being the end of the school year, turned on a movie when things took their awful turn. 'She told us we were going to go on a quick lockdown,' Torres said. 'So, my friend, he got up and turned off the TV because that's what we had to do. And, right when she went out to find the key and lock the door from the outside, we heard gunshots.' Khloie Torres, one of the survivors of the Uvalde school massacre, who was trapped in her classroom with the gunman, is speaking out and saying that Salvador Ramos did not fire randomly when he killed 21 people, including 19 children Torres' was attending class with hero slain teacher Irma Garcia when the shooting took place, as recess had just ended and, being the end of the school year, turned on a movie when things took their awful turn Torres said that at that moment, Garcia had tried to close the door, but deranged gunman Ramos forced his way inside. She said the Garcia began to guard the children while her friend and classmate Armory used a friend's phone to try to dial 911. 'When she did that, he started saying, 'you'll die!' Garcia started to pleading and begging with Ramos while trying to defend her kids but to no avail. 'He shot my friend and my teachers. And then after that, he said 'goodnight,' and he started shooting everybody.' Torres was attending class with hero slain teacher Irma Garcia when the shooting took place, as recess had just ended and, being the end of the school year, turned on a movie when things took their awful turn Torres said the Garcia tried to guard the children while her friend and classmate used a friend's phone to try to dial 911 Torres said that Ramos walked around the classroom and shot at everyone he could see before arriving at her. 'He shot the girl next to me, and she said, 'I've been shot!' And, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want him to come over and shoot me. So, I stayed quiet. He came back and shot her again because she wouldn't be quiet.' Then, she says, the gunman moved over to the classroom connected to hers and continued to fire away. Once the gunfire stopped and she heard Ramos move into the hallway, she ran into that classroom to find out if anyone had survived. 'It's hard because there were bodies everywhere!' she said. People continue to pay their respects to the victims, including Irma, at the Uvalde town square memorial following the shooting at Robb Elementary. A similar tribute to Joe, who died days later of a heart attack, has also been placed A cross was added to the memorial for Joe Garcia, who died two days after his wife, Irma Garcia Torres said she tried to contact the police several times but kept getting told that officers were already at the school. Ruben Torres, Khloie's father, said that he had been misinformed when the tragedy was going on. 'I heard it from a co-worker of mine telling me that it was a high-speed chase. And, that's common around here, so I didn't think anything of it,' he said. 'If I had known an active shooter was on her campus, I would have left work immediately.' For now, Torres is focused on making sure his daughter recovers from the horrible things she had to endure. 'It's going to be a long road. This will never go away for her.' A cardboard cutout depicting the fourth-grade teacher Irma Garcia at the memorial outside Robb Elementary Joe and Irma Garcia were childhood sweethearts and raised four children Khloie has been to the funeral of Garcia and is likely going to attend the services of her classmates. However, according to mother Jamie, she will no longer be attending school from this point on and will instead be homeschooled. 'The way everything was handled was so poor,' she said. 'I have to be able to trust that she will be safe.' After last week's slaughter at the hands of 18 year-old gunman Salvador Ramos, dozens of stories have emerged of individual tragedies and acts of heroism. Garcia, who according to multiple accounts gave her life to protect the children, was one of the 21 victims. Her husband Joe died of a heart attack just two days later. Israeli troops shot dead a teen in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the fourth Palestinian killed in the occupied territory in two days. The ministry identified the Palestinian as 17-year-old Odeh Odeh, who was hit in the chest by what it said was an Israeli bullet near Al-Madiya village, west of Ramallah. The Israeli army said 'three suspects threw a firebomb' at soldiers 'operating near the security barrier' adjacent to Al-Madiya. 'The soldiers responded with fire toward the suspects, and a hit was identified,' the army said. It came hours after a Palestinian man, 24, was killed during a clash with Israeli forces conducting an arrest operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. Israeli troops shot dead a teen in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the fourth Palestinian killed in the occupied territory in two days. Pictured: People attend funeral ceremony for Palestinian Eymen Mahmud, who was killed in an Israeli raid, June 2 Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the killing. 'The escalation in field executions is clear evidence that the ruling Israeli coalition is implementing the plans and policies of the right and far right in the occupying state,' it said. The Palestinian Prisoners Club, which advocates on behalf of Palestinians in Israeli jails, said the man killed had been released from an Israeli jail in 2014. It did not elaborate on the reasons for his detention, but the Islamic militant group Hamas said he was one of its fighters. On Wednesday, a woman approaching soldiers with a knife was shot, and later that day a man was killed in an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank. The Israeli security forces have stepped up their operations in the West Bank in recent months, carrying out almost daily raids to arrest suspects after a spate of deadly attacks inside Israel, that has left several civilians dead. Tensions in the region are at their highest since last year's so-called 11-day war, also known as the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis, which saw clashes in the West Bank as well as air and rocket strikes fired across the border of the Gaza strip. The army said troops had entered Dheisheh to arrest a Palestinian 'suspected of terrorist activities' and were met with volleys of petrol bombs and cement blocks. They responded with live rounds. Late Wednesday, Israeli troops mounted an incursion into the village of Yabad outside the flashpoint northern district of Jenin. They were there to demolish the home of an assailant who carried out a March attack that killed five people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak. The health ministry said that after that raid a Palestinian man died in hospital in Jenin. He had been admitted in critical condition, having been 'shot by live bullets in the chest and thigh'. The Israeli army blows up the family house of Diaa Hamarsha, a Palestinian who in March killed five people in a gun attack in Bnei Brak, an Orthodox Jewish city near Tel Aviv, in the village of Yabad near the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, on June 2, 2022 Palestinian news agency Wafa said that six Palestinians were wounded in the raid. The army said it had also arrested the 'terrorist's father'. It said it had informed the family of the shooter, Diaa Hamarsha, on April 17 of the demolition order against the family home. Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building and lighting up the night sky. Smoke rose up amongst the surrounding homes. Israel routinely demolishes the homes of slain or captured Palestinian militants, saying it serves as a deterrent, despite an internal army report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. The Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment. The Israeli rights group HaMoked said the attacker's parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the home. It filed a petition against the demolition that was rejected by Israel's Supreme Court. Israeli troops use laser beams near the family house of Diaa Hamarsha, a Palestinian who in March killed five people in a gun attack in the Orthodox Jewish city Bnei Brak, after blowing it up in the village of Yabad near the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, on June 2, 2022 On Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank near Hebron shot dead Ghofran Warasnah, 31, after she 'advanced' towards soldiers with a knife, the army said. Nineteen people, mostly Israeli civilians - including 18 inside Israel and a Jewish settler - have been killed in attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs since late March. Israeli security forces have responded with raids inside Israel and the West Bank, particularly in and around Jenin. Three Israeli Arab attackers and a police commando have died. Thirty-nine Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank - suspected militants but also non-combatants, including an Al Jazeera journalist who was covering a raid in Jenin and bystanders. The West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago. People gather in front of the destroyed family house of Diaa Hamarsha, in the village of Yabad near the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, on June 2, 2022 The recent death come amid a period of heightened tensions in Israel, An Israeli newspaper reported Thursday that Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians but no Jews during a nationalist march through Jerusalem this week in which crowds of Jews chanted racist slogans, assaulted Palestinians and vandalized Palestinian property. Israeli police had said after Sunday's march that over 60 people were arrested, but have refused to give a breakdown, despite queries by The Associated Press. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that it checked arrest records name by name, and found that no Jews were among those detained. It said two Jews were arrested in a separate, related incident. Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists participated in Sunday's parade - an annual march that celebrates Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians consider the event a provocation. Israeli police cleared out the area for the marchers, who passed through a Palestinian neighborhood before proceeding to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City to pray at the Western Wall. Demonstrators waving the Israeli flag and the banner of the far-right Jewish group 'Lehava' (Flame) are seen behind the star and crescent symbol of the small Shurbaji mosque as they gather with Israeli flags during the Israeli 'flags march' to mark 'Jerusalem Day' after crossing through the Damascus Gate into the old city on May 29, 2022 Israeli army soldiers take aim during clashes with Palestinian protesters following a demonstration to denounce the annual nationalist 'flag march' through Jerusalem, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on May 29, 2022 Large crowds, many of them young Orthodox Jewish youths carrying Israeli flags, gathered at the entrance to the Old City's Muslim Quarter, dancing and chanting slogans such as 'Death to Arabs,' before continuing on their way. Inside the Old City, the marchers pounded on the gates of Palestinian businesses and scuffled with angry Palestinian residents. Videos captured on social media showed marchers spitting, beating and spraying pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. Fights broke out along the route, as police mainly intervened to protect Jews and forcibly disperse Palestinians. According to the Haaretz report, nearly all of those arrested Thursday were Palestinian. Two Jewish suspects were arrested after the parade in the beating of a Palestinian journalist during unrest outside the Old City, it said. The newspaper compiled the statistics by going through court records in the days after the parade. Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said only a small minority of the flag marchers was responsible for the bad behavior and vowed to prosecute anyone who broke the law. Several other journalists were physically assaulted while covering the march, according to the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media outlets operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It said Israeli participants verbally and physically assaulted a BBC team, and assaulted a France 24 reporter on air. A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl an object at Israeli forces during clashes following a demonstration to denounce the annual nationalist 'flag march' through Jerusalem, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on May 29, 2022 Palestinians and Jews clash in Jerusalem's Old City as Israelis mark Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the Old City during the 1967 Mideast war, May 29, 2022 It said Quique Kierszenbaum, a freelance photographer and producer covering the march for foreign media, was pepper sprayed by an Israeli participant and punched in the face by an Israeli Border Police officer. 'It is unacceptable for a police officer to attack a clearly identified photojournalist who was wearing the wristband police distributed to identify accredited journalists at the event,' it said. The association called on police to take action against the officer and Israelis who attacked reporters. 'Those who attack reporters should be arrested, not protected, by police,' it said. 'Unfortunately, such violence against journalists has become routine. 'We expect Israeli authorities - who profess to respect freedom of the press - to put their words into action.' Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem have long complained of a double standard in which Palestinian crowds are frequently arrested and violently dispersed by police with clubs, tear gas and rubber bullets, while Jewish settlers often carry out attacks and vandalism with virtual impunity. Israeli police deny such charges, saying they are merely enforcing the law. The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally and considers part of its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Human rights groups say that discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in east Jerusalem is part of a broader system that amounts to apartheid. Israel vehemently rejects that label as an assault on its legitimacy rooted in antisemitism. Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Two separate shootings in South Carolina, one in Charleston and one in Florence, resulted in the death of an eight-year-old child and injury of at least 13 others, including three law enforcement personnel in the latest in gun violence crimes in the U.S. In Florence, police say a man was shooting at cars passing him home on Saturday and has already been charged with murder after fatally shooting an eight-year-old boy that was struck in the neck and died of his injuries the next day. South Carolina Shootings The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Charles Montgomery Allen, was also charged with attempted murder, four counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. In a statement, Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye said that there appeared to be "no motive" for the shooting of the young boy. The victim was later identified by the Florence County Coroner's Office as young Quarius Dunham. Joye said that Allen was most likely methed up, noting that the suspect had a history and has been incarcerated before. He called the incident a "senseless act," as per Fox news. Authorities also said that the suspect thought people were "out to get him" and immediately began shooting at random vehicles over the weekend after shooting up his own house. After a brief standoff with police officers, the suspect was arrested and taken into custody. Allen is being held without bail at the Florence County Detention Center. Read Also: Teenage Buffalo Shooting Suspect Indicted with 25 Charges Including Domestic Terrorism After Incident Left 10 People Dead, 3 Injured The eight-year-old victim was on vacation in South Carolina with his family at the time that he was struck by the bullet that Allen fired. He was sitting in the passenger seat of the car as his father, whose name has not been released, was struck in the leg while driving the vehicle. According to People, the victim's family made the difficult decision of removing him from life support due to the severity of his injuries. In a statement, the Florence County Sheriff's Office's SWAT team located the suspect on Old River Road. Series of Mass Shootings In a separate shooting in South Carolina, this time in Charleston, 10 people were injured, four of which were critical, along with three law enforcement officials on Monday night after gunfire erupted in the area. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg called the Memorial Day rampage a mass shooting and said, "we're counting our blessings that no one in this incident was killed." Gunshots were fired in the area of 41 South Street at around 11:40 p.m. on Monday, the site of a vacant lot where a large party was taking place. The event was attended by more than 100 people, said Charleston Police Chief Luther T. Reynolds during a Tuesday news conference. Reynolds noted that a 17-year-old was among the injured while the rest of the victims were adults. An officer with the Charleston Police Department responded to the scene following a noise complaint and was shot at while inside a police cruiser. The police chief said that the particular officer was not struck directly but suffered injury from shrapnel and was later hospitalized and released, NBC News reported. Related Article: Tulsa Hospital Shooting: Police Report 4 Dead, Multiple Injured After Gunman Opens Fire at Medical Clinic @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Wyoming voters are praising Rep. Liz Cheney as 'civil and serious' and say she 'can stand up to bullies' in the Republican's first TV commercial of her heated primary campaign, released on Thursday. Cheney's ad comes after a recent poll showed her slipping behind her Donald Trump-endorsed challenger, attorney Harriet Hageman, with mere months to go until the August 16 primary election. The ex-president recruited Hageman to challenge Cheney after the lawmaker angered him by voting for his impeachment after the January 6 attack. Trump's name, notably, was not heard one in the roughly one-minute advertisement - likely an effort to not alienate herself from GOP voters in the deep-red state. It focuses on 'everyday Wyomingites praising Liz Cheneys leadership, highlighting the work she has done on behalf of the state, and explaining why they are voting for her,' according to her campaign. But Hageman argued that Cheney is 'deeply unpopular' with her own constituents in a statement to DailyMail.com. 'Liz Cheney had to find other people to speak for her because she knows how deeply unpopular she is in Wyoming,' the GOP candidate said. 'People have already decided that she has abandoned Wyoming at the expense of her personal war with President Trump and were all fed up. When Im the next congresswoman from Wyoming, Ill never forget who hired me for the job.' Cheney not featured very prominently in her TV ad, which shows residents of her state talking about why Cheney appeals to them. 'As a mom, I want a statesman not a politician. I want someone who is civil and serious and someone my children can look up to,' says one person identified as Laura from Cheyenne. Ronna from Casper said: 'So many people today claim to be a constitutional conservative. Liz truly is one.' Another voter said Cheney has 'always fought hard for veterans' while someone else praised her for fighting for 'recreational access on our public lands in Wyoming.' The roughly one-minute ad featured Wyoming residents praising Cheney for standing up for veterans and the state's energy industry In a nod to the state's status as the second-biggest net energy supplier in the country, a Wyomingite named Shane said in the video, 'We are very lucky to have Liz as a strong advocate for the oil and gas industry and for the state of Wyoming.' And in an indirect swipe at Trump and his allies' steady stream of attacks, one voter said Cheney 'has the courage to do the right thing to stand up to bullies.' It also appears to be a nod to her work on the Democrat-led House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, which earned her backlash and censures from Republicans on the state and national level. The efforts along with her criticism of Trump cost her the No 3. role in the House GOP as Republican Conference Chair, which then went to the former president's ally Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. Now it looks like her once-safe seat could be up for Hageman's taking, after a new poll taken by the anti-Cheney Club For Growth showed her trailing Hageman by 30 points. If the primary were held now, 56 percent of Wyoming Republicans surveyed said they would support Hageman while just 26 percent backed Cheney, according to the survey. An additional 12 percent said they would vote for Wyoming state Senator Anthony Bouchard, another Trump supporter, and six percent were undecided. The ad campaign came at a six-figure price tag, a source suggested to DailyMail.com. Trump hosted a Save America rally for Hageman over Memorial Day weekend. His confidence in the lawyer's candidacy was reflected by the litany of high-profile GOP guests the former president invited to speak before him. Trump recruited attorney Harriet Hageman to challenge Cheney after the lawmaker angered him with her impeachment vote House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy delivered taped remarks - though he was booed - as did Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. A video message also came from Stefanik, who touted her leadership victory over the Wyoming incumbent: 'I know what it takes firsthand to beat Liz Cheney, and Im telling you, Harriet has what it takes.' Reps. Lauren Boebert and Andy Biggs spoke in person at the indoor venue, the Ford Wyoming Center. Trump blasted Cheney as 'a lapdog for Pelosi and a human sound bite machine' during his own marquee speech. 'Liz Cheney hates the voters of the Republican Party and she has for longer than you know,' the ex-president said. 'Wyoming deserves a congresswoman who stands up for you and your values not one who spends all of her time putting you down and going after you president in the most vicious way possible.' Cheney has billed herself as an authentic Constitutional conservative, and has not hesitated to speak out against the pro-Trump faction that now dominates her party. But her race is part of a wider battle for control over the future of the GOP between the establishment and the bombastic 'Make America Great Again' Republicans. Cheney officially filed for re-election late last month. Her critics' latest argument seeks to paint the lawmaker as part of the Washington, DC swamp and Virginian rather than a true Wyoming resident. She defended herself against those attacks in a video released last week marking her 2022 campaign. Cheney touted her deep Wyoming roots - followed by another swipe at the fellow Republicans trying to unseat her. 'When I know something is wrong, I say so. I won't waver, I won't back down, I won't surrender to pressure or intimidation,' Cheney said in the video. 'I know where to draw the line and I know that some things aren't for sale.' The View's Sunny Hostin sparked outrage after calling for the GOP party to be abolished and called Republicans a 'party of white supremacy' and 'gun massacres.' Hostin, 53, wasn't afraid to make her opinion known on Thursday's episode of as the ladies of 'The View' discussed recent mass shootings, including the Tulsa hospital shooting on Wednesday. The native New Yorker began ranting after she admitted to not 'always agreeing with Joy [Behar]' - who started the discussion - but she did agree with her co-host, 79, about Republicans. Behar said earlier in the segment: 'I always say: "Don't vote for Republicans.''' Sonny agreed, stating: 'So I'm now with you, Joy. Get rid of Republicans, get rid of the party. Because as the party stands now, it's the party of white supremacy, it's the party of insurrectionists, the party of massacres at this point. It's the party... you can't trust it.' Sunny Hostin, 53, sparked outrage after calling for the GOP party to be abolished and called Republicans a 'party of white supremacy' and 'gun massacres.' She said: 'Get rid of Republicans, get rid of the party. Because as the party stands now, it's the party of white supremacy, it's the party of insurrectionists, the party of massacres at this point' Joy Behar, 79, sparked the conversation on Thursday's episode by telling viewers not to 'vote for Republicans' until gun reform is completed Behar encouraged the conversation, saying: 'Here's the motto: Vote for Democrats and save a Republican's job. '[Americans] can go back to [voting for Republicans] after we get gun laws. 'I think, for now, the way to save their jobs - because Republicans are going to get voted out if they vote for gun safety,' she continued. 'The only way to preserve their jobs is to vote for Democrats. Then they can do whatever they want in the Republican Party and we'll have more Democrats to get the laws done,' the Behar said. Hostin agreed that Republicans were blocking gun reform and slammed Mitch McConnell as a 'liar.' The two woman strongly advocated for the temporary abolishment of the Republican party to get Democrats in lawmakers seat to reform gun laws. Behar (left) told viewers they could 'can go back to [voting for Republicans] after we get gun laws' 'You can't trust Mitch McConnell and his word, ever, because he's a filthy liar and has been for quite some time,' she blasted. 'Republicans get in lockstep against gun safety because all they care about is power. 'Get the AR-15s off the planet, in my view. Get rid of bump stocks, get rid of these weapons of war and it's not going to happen with Republicans in power,' she said. Guest host Tara Setmayer also agreed, saying: 'That's why I left the Republican party.' Earlier in the week, controversial host Whoopi Goldberg also said AR-15s should be banned and that owners should be 'put in jail.' 'Report them and we'll put them in jail.' she said on Wednesday. The host also said they would 'come' for guns if women can no longer receive abortions. Since the segment aired this morning, Twitter has been alight with criticism toward the two hosts. Behar has taken the brunt end of the criticism, as the liberal has been quite vocal on Twitter about voting out 'power hungry congressmen,' like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The host even retweeted a post about Republicans being the reason 'democracies die.' Behar has been extremely vocal on Twitter about voting Republicans out in the last few weeks Behar's recent attacks toward the Republican party mainly focus on gun violence, which she brought up on Thursday's episode. The Williamsburg native grew passionate and emotional when she told viewers that more than 600 children have died in 2022 from gun violence, making her reiterate her point about voting out Republicans. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) have documented 20 more last shootings since the May 24 Uvalde shooting. GVA defines a mass shooting as four or more people being shot or killed. May 26 is the only day in the last week that hasn't had a mass shooting, according to the group. The majority of people believe the Royal Family has risked reputational damage after Harry and Meghan attended the first day of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations yesterday, a poll has found. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and royals including William and Kate to watch Trooping the Colour from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground yesterday. An animated Meghan appeared to playfully 'shush' a group of young royals as they stood at a window overlooking the parade, while Harry was later seen mimicking the gesture in a separate photo. Their appearance, a first official royal engagement in more than two years, ended months of speculation on whether they would attend the celebrations. However, they were absent when the Queen, Prince Charles, the Cambridges and their children watched the flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony, while children Archie and Lilibet were also not seen. It comes as a poll yesterday found that Britons believe their attendance is risking reputational damage to the Royal Family. The poll, conducted by OnePoll, found that 54 per cent of the 2,000 Britons it questioned believe Harry and Meghan should have stayed away from the celebrations, GB News reports. A smiling Meghan Markle looks out of the window as she and Prince Harry travel through crowds near Buckingham Palace yesterday Harry and Meghan's jubilee appearance is their first official engagement in more than two years. They are expected to bring along three-year-old Archie and Lilibet, nearly one Prince Harry also appeared to shush the same group of young royals as they appeared at the window to watch Trooping the Colour The royals, without Prince Andrew, Harry and Meghan pictured on the Buckingham Palace balcony yesterday The Red Arrows pictured during their flypast over Buckingham Palace earlier today as thousands gathered along The Mall A further 58 per cent also said the couple should not be allowed to film Netflix content during the bank holiday weekend. And just under a third said the issues and drama surrounding whether Harry and Meghan would appear has made the Platinum Jubilee celebrations less enjoyable. It comes after Meghan rolled down her car window and flashed a smile at the watching crowds on Thursday. The Duchess appeared to be in high spirits as she gazed out of the window, with a more reserved Harry peeking over her shoulder while they travelled through throngs of royal fans near Buckingham Palace at around 12.20pm. Building manager Emily Sevenoaks, 28, said she had no idea it was the Sussexes when she decided to start filming on Cleveland Row in St James, central London. 'I Honestly had no idea it was them,' she told MailOnline, 'I heard police escorts and flew over with the camera ready and then I realised mid filming... I was very lucky!' She said the black Audi and police escort had come out of the gated Stable Yard road, which allows access to Clarence House and St James's palace. The couple were believed to be on their way to Buckingham Palace ahead of the historic flypast, which featured 71 aircraft The poll today also found that a high number of young adults do not feel patriotic or believe the importance of the monarch. Other findings included 77 per cent of respondents believing that William will be a better king than his father Prince Charles. 2019 -- (From left) Albert Windsor, Prince William holding Prince Louis, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Kate, Camilla, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Prince Charles, Princess Beatrice, Princess Anne, the Queen, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, Meghan, Isla Phillips, James Viscount Severn, Savannah Phillips, Peter Phillips, Autumn Phillips, Lyla Gilman, Eloise Taylor and Lady Helen Taylor stand with other members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast on June 8, 2019 TODAY -- (Left to right) The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence , the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales , Queen Elizabeth II , the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, and the Earl of Wessex (hidden) at Buckingham Palace Two thirds also said the Queen was right to block Prince Andrew from making an appearance following his settlement with Virginia Giuffre. It comes as the smaller line-up on the Buckingham Palace balcony yesterday was a clear indication of the Royal Family shifting towards a slimmed-down monarchy, an expert has said. The Queen decided she wanted to be accompanied only by working royals to watch the flypast today as she focuses on those at the top of the line of succession. There was room today for Prince Charles and Camilla; Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex ; and Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Others on the balcony included Prince William and Kate and their children Charlotte, Louis and George, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra. But there was no sign of Prince Harry and Meghan after they quit as working royals in 2020, or Prince Andrew, who stepped down over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. It was in stark contrast to the appearance of the Palace balcony for a flypast three years ago in June 2019 when it was packed with wider members of the Royal Family. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline yesterday: 'Harry and Meghan were not widely seen during todays ceremony. The Queen, whilst believing they are much loved members of the royal family, is fully aware of how unpredictable and whimsical they can be. 'They rely totally on their royal connections for their contracts with Netflix and Spotify and their profile. 'The continuation of the rift is in neither their interest or in the royal familys, but their interview on Oprah was very destructive and has affected the monarchys popularity, especially with the young. It was also given whilst Prince Philip was ill. 'Their future status is as royal outsiders and todays balcony line up made this clear.' Dan Wootton Tonight airs on GB News at 9pm from Monday-Thursday. Kyle Rittenhouse said Johnny Depp's win in the defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard is 'fueling' him to file lawsuits against Mark Zuckerberg and up to 15 others for allegedly defaming him. Rittenhouse, 19, who was acquitted on murder charges last year after fatally shooting two men during the 2020 Kenosha riots, tweeted on Wednesday that he plans to file against those who labeled him a 'murderer' and a 'white supremist.' 'Johnny Depp trial is just fueling me, you can fight back against the lies in the media, and you should,' Rittenhouse wrote, saying the news would be announced on Fox News and on his fundraising website The Media Accountability Project. Attorney Todd McMurtry, who is representing Rittenhouse, told Fox News on Thursday that there will be about 10 to 15 lawsuits filed against 'large defendants,' including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Kyle Rittenhouse said he is preparing to file is lawsuits against those who allegedly defamed him when they labeled him a 'murderer' and a 'white supremacist' Rittenhouse's attorney named Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, pictured, as a key figure who will be sued by the 19-year-old, along with nine to 15 others Rittenhouse said he was fueled to speed up the lawsuits following Johnny Depp's (pictured) victory against ex-wife Amber Heard in their $100 million defamation lawsuit McMurtry singled out Zuckerberg over Facebook's alleged designation of the Kenosha shootings as a 'mass murder incident.' 'This was not a mass murder incident,' McMurtry told Fox News. 'It was clearly factually false.' 'To call somebody a mass murderer is seriously defamatory. And then to use the power of social media to basically censor any views that would take opposition to that mass murderer statement is a serious effort to destroy his character,' he said. 'It was seriously mistaken and seriously defamatory.' 'Facebook has an outsized voice, they can do a lot of damage, as compared to somebody maybe who has a small blog with 100 subscribers. But we're going to look at everything that we have access to and that's been published, and decide which ones are actionable,' he added. McMurtry previously represented Nicholas Sandmann, a high school student who sued NBC, CNN and the Washington Post after they labeled him a racist when he was spotted beside fellow Covington Catholic High School students shouting slurs at Indigenous protestors. Sandmann had claimed he was there to try and defuse the tense situation, and settled the lawsuits on undisclosed terms. Earlier this year, Rittenhouse suggested that The View's Whoopi Goldberg and Cenk Uygur, of the Young Turks, would be among the people he plans to sue. Rittenhouse (right) had told Tucker Carlson back in February that Whoopi Goldberg and Cenk Uygur, of the Young Turks, could be among the people he sues Speaking to Tucker Carlson in February, Rittenhouse said:' 'We are looking at quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes, Whoopi Goldberg is on the list. 'She called me a murderer after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that, and there's others.' He also revealed that Cenk Uygur the founder of the Young Turks show is a potential target of his lawsuit. The Young Turks show is a liberal and left-wing news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels. 'We're going to hold everybody who lied about me accountable, such as everybody who lied called me a white supremacist,' Rittenhouse told Carlson. 'They're all going to be held accountable. And we're going to handle them in a courtroom.' Last year, a Wisconsin jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all charges. The charges ranged from murder to reckless endangerment. 'My trial exposed a deep corruption in our media that cannot go unanswered. Their blatant lies, defamation, and propaganda were malicious attempts to tear our nation apart and destroy my life and I am committed to holding them accountable,' he said following the verdict. 'Me and my team have decided to launch The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the lies they said and deal with them in court,' he explained. 'I don't want to see anybody else have to deal with what I went through. So I want to hold them accountable for what they did to me, because I don't want to see anybody have to go through what I went through.' McMurtry told Fox News that Rittenhouse and his team will be able to prove damages to the 19-year-old's reputation and that his 'job prospects are permanently diminished.' 'Not to mention what they call perpetual reputational harm, which means that Kyle is never going to have an interaction with anybody where they don't know who he is. And this is going to follow him around for the rest of his life,' the lawyer added. 'Everybody's going to prejudge him in every new interaction that he has with everybody for the rest of his life, and that's called perpetual reputational harm. The social media hysteria caused all this because people can't act reasonably and rationally in certain circumstances.' The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into whether Jared Kushner used his White House position to attain a $2 billion investment from a Saudi Arabian wealth fund. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee, wrote Kushner a letter on Thursday offering him a two-week deadline to provide documents related to the deal. Six months after Kushner left the White House, his newly formed private equity firm Affinity Partners secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's state-owned sovereign wealth fund, according to a New York Times report. Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former White House senior adviser, secured the massive deal despite being flagged for its 'inexperience' and 'public relations risks' by a panel of economics experts who screen the Saudi wealth fund's investments. 'Your support for Saudi interests was unwavering, even as Congress and the rest of the world closely scrutinized the countrys human rights abuses in Yemen, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi assassins tied to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Saudi Arabias crackdown on political dissidents at home,' Maloney wrote in her letter to Kushner. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee, wrote Kushner a letter on Thursday offering him a two-week deadline to provide documents related to the deal Kushner, pictured above with wife Ivanka Trump on Memorial Day, secured a $2billion deal for his private equity firm from a Saudi fund six months after leaving the White House 'This investigation will inform the Committee about whether federal ethics laws should be strengthened to prevent senior public officials from taking advantage of their position within the federal government to reap a financial windfallbefore, during, or after government employment.' A veteran GOP strategist said that the investigation was 'utterly unreasonable.' It is traditional for people who gain expertise in a certain field while in government to then specialize in that area in their post government lives,' the strategist told DailyMail.com. There are so many examples. Off the top of my head I can think of Karl Rove, George Stephanopoulos, Jen Psaki, Al Gore, Timothy Geithner, Jack Lew and Anita Dunn to just name a few. Meanwhile, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has filed a FOIA request with the State and Defense departments for records on Kushner's official trips to Saudi Arabia in September 2020, November 2020 and January 2021, just before Trump left office. 'If Jared Kushner used taxpayer funds to advance his business dealings with Saudi Arabia, Americans should know,' CREW said. During his time in the White House, Kushner was known for his close personal relationship with Saudi Arabia's de facto leader Mohammed bin-Salman and for helping him secure a $110 billion arms deal. He was among the Saudi royal family's staunchest defenders within the administration amid international outrage over its murder of US-based journalist and MBS critic Jamal Khashoggi. He also was one of the chief architects of the Abraham Accords, a historic peace agreement between some Arab states and Israel which MBS was in support of. But when it comes it his experience running a new private equity firm, the Saudi panel reportedly found Kushner's Affinity Fund to be 'unsatisfactory in all aspects.' The panel also expressed serious reservations about Kushner's limited areas of expertise and lack of domestic investors. Despite that, however, the $620 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) reportedly led by MBS approved the $2 billion just days after business experts raised their concerns at a June 30 meeting. It's twice the amount they invested in Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's firm, despite Mnuchin's vast experience in the financial industry. The Saudis' PIF also reportedly got at least 28 percent ownership of Kushner's company in the deal. A letter obtained by the Times from July of that year shows staff for the MBS-run wealth fund maintaining 'this investment aims to form a strategic relationship with the Affinity Partners Fund and its founder, Jared Kushner.' The business deal raises ethics concerns mentioned in the report over whether crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman is seeking to pay Kushner back for his allyship at the White House or possibly preemptively seeking influence if Trump runs and wins again in 2024 As to the panel's concerns about why invest so much with Kushner when he had little prior experience to show for it, staff reportedly said any cuts 'may negatively or fundamentally affect the framework of the agreed strategic and commercial relationship.' The fund's staff also said the investment was worth the risk because of the ability to 'capitalize on the capabilities of Affinitys founders deep understanding of different government policies and geopolitical systems.' The business deal raises ethics concerns mentioned in the report over whether MBS is seeking to pay Kushner back for his allyship at the White House or possibly preemptively seeking influence if Trump runs and wins again in 2024. Affinity's pitch deck, obtained by The Intercept, touts the political connections: 'Affinity's unique network and experience makes us a differentiated partner for companies navigating the rapidly evolving global political and economic environment. Advertisement The Queen symbolically lit a chain of Platinum Jubilee beacons stretching around the world in her honour tonight in a touching ceremony at Windsor Castle. Putting her mobility issues to one side, the 96-year-old monarch made a third public appearance of the day to launch more than 3,500 flaming tributes to her 70-year reign by laying her hand on a specially created glittering Commonwealth of Nations globe. The event formed part of a special dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge, waiting 22 miles away at Buckingham Palace where the beacon centrepiece - a 21-metre living Tree of Trees sculpture - was subsequently illuminated in lights on the Queen's command. The monarch was greeted in the castle Quadrangle with a fanfare by the State Trumpeters at the Sovereign's Entrance, close to her private apartments, at 9.30pm. She was accompanied by her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, Lady-in-Waiting Lady Susan Hussey and equerry Lt Colonel Tom White of the Royal Marines. Around 130 members of the Windsor Castle community who had gathered to watch the ceremony greeted the monarch, some waving flags. The Queen approaches the Commonwealth Nations Globe to start the lighting ceremony at Windsor Castle this evening, despite admitting difficulties earlier today Projections displayed on the front of Buckingham Palace depicting the Queen during The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon tonight As the sovereign placed her finger on the globe, bright white lights raced along the Quadrangle towards Windsor's famous Round Tower The Queen touches the Commonwealth Nations Globe to start the lighting of the Principal Beacon outside of Buckingham Palace in London, from the Quadrangle at Windsor Castle Jubilee Beacons at Windsor Castle that were symbolically lit by Queen this evening - her third public appearance om Thursday he Commonwealth of Nations' Globe, a blue globe which sits inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion - was specially created for the Beacons project and was placed on a podium by five Yeoman Warders, led by Chief Yeoman Warder Peter McGowran The Queen was pictured smiling as she prepared to commence the lighting ceremony by touching the blue globe Fireworks explode above Windsor Castle during the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon ceremony earlier this evening A firework display followed the lighting of the beacon at Windsor Castle, which saw the Queen symbolically touch a blue globe before a spectacular illuminous display Prince William pictured smiling as he attended the Lighting Of The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace this evening The 'Tree Of Trees', created by Designer Thomas Heatherwick, at The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace Members of the Yeoman Guard before the Queen symbolically led the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle The Queen pictured departing the ceremony at Windsor Castle this evening - as her grandson William attended a beacon lighting outside Buckingham Palace The Commonwealth of Nations Globe - a blue globe, which sits inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion - was specially created for the Beacons project and was placed on a podium by five Yeoman Warders, led by Chief Yeoman Warder Peter McGowran. It was created as a symbol representing The Queens previous Jubilees and includes elements of silver, gold, diamonds and platinum. The stones in the Crown signify the coming together of the four nations of the United Kingdom in celebration of the Jubilee and were collected from the top of the four highest peaks - Mount Snowdon, Wales; Ben Nevis, Scotland; Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland, and Scafell Pike, England. The Queen, wearing a jade green Stuart Pravin crepe coat with a printed silk dress in shades of jade and taupe, walked slowly and slightly gingerly using her by now familiar walking stick. She sported a special new Platinum Jubilee brooch commissioned by the Goldsmiths Company as a gift to Her Majesty The Queen to mark her 70 years of service. The brooch was inspired by the four nations which make up the UK, which are represented by four diamond swirls and the national flowers: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock. It also includes the lily of the valley, one of her favourite flowers and used in her Coronation bouquet. As the sovereign placed her finger on the globe, bright white lights raced along the Quadrangle towards Windsor's famous Round Tower, before - by the magic of technology - travelling up the Tree of Trees in London. Sir Nicholas Bacon, Prince William and Designer Thomas Heatherwick speak during the event The 'Tree Of Trees' created by Designer Thomas Heatherwick ahead of The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon The Tree of Trees illuminated outside Buckingham Palace following the ceremony earlier this evening, where William was in attendance A Platinum Jubilee beacon is lit on Lyle Hill, Greenock. Over 3,000 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories, and each of the capital cities of Commonwealth countries are lighting beacons to celebrate the the Queen's 70-year reign An animated beacon illuminated Piccadilly Circus in central London this evening - part of a chain of virtual beacons also kit across the UK Fireworks explode above Blackpool Tower during the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon earlier this evening Platinum Jubilee beacons are lit outside the Royal Liver Building, Liverpool - one of 3,500 that have been lit across the UK this evening The Platinum Jubilee beacon at Edinburgh Castle as the UK's capitals mark the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth this evening Large television screens showed her the scene at her official residence where her grandson was representing her and she watched them intently. Although it was a short ceremony, lasting less than 10 minutes, it was late due to the need for it to be dusk and came at the end of an extremely long and gruelling day for the elderly and increasingly frail monarch. Afterwards she turned and walked slowly down the red carpet that had been laid across the gravel, extremely carefully, step by step. When she was on the more even surface of the flagstones she picked up pace, stopping briefly to acknowledge some of the Windsor Castle residents who had come out to see her, who curtseyed and bowed . Beacons will now be lit throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth, and sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen's estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK's four highest peaks. The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize. The Tree of Trees in London is part of the nationwide Queens Green Canopy project to create a living legacy to the monarch by encouraging communities to plant thousands of new trees. Placing the Tree of Trees at the heart of the beacon lighting reflects the Royal Family's long history of championing environmental causes and will pay a fitting tribute to Her Majestys 70 years of service to the nation. The Queen was joined by Bruno Peek, who has overseen the Jubilee Beacons celebration. Buildings in Sydney, Australia - including the Harbour Bridge - are illuminated with a royal purple as the beacons were lit around the Commonwealth this evening The city's Central Business District was also illuminated to mark the Queen's 70-year reign. Beacons were lit around the world A beacon is lit at JED's Star HQ Premises Vaitoloa, Apia, Lepea, Samoa, as more than 3,000 towns and cities mark the Platinum Jubilee A picture of the Queen is projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace ahead of the beacon lighting ceremony Gregory Porter performs during The Lighting Of The Principal Beacon at Buckingham Palace this evening Speaking after the ceremony, he said: What an honour it was, she loved it. She loved the number of beacons as we have more 3,300 across the UK and Commonwealth this year, which is a record. '"She said: More beacons! Every time you do it you have more beacons! Which was great, really funny. It was so nice to be with her again. To be able to stand next to your monarch commemorating a unique anniversary and moment in her life, is such a privilege. It was the end of a very long day for her but she looked like she didn't want to leave. I would really like to thank all the people around the world who have put themselves out and made this work for her Majesty The Queen. What a beautiful end to a wonderful day. I am so chuffed. She was here and she has never missed one yet. Speaking about the dual ceremony in London with Prince William he said: Gregory Porter [The singer] approached us off his own back. No fee or anything, he just really wanted to get involved out of respect. The Queen listened and it was marvellous. After the beacon lighting Prince William watched as the London Community Gospel Choir and singer Gregory Porter sang the official Beacons song, A Life Lived with Grace, in honour of Her Majesty The Queen. Following the performance, the duke told the US musician: 'Your voice gets even more impressive every time I see you. It's even more moving. It's brilliant.' William joked about where the sculpture should end up, saying: 'Have you got any ideas where it should go next?' Porter replied: 'Hyde Park. One more tree', with William laughing and agreeing. The duke wished Porter well, telling him: 'Look after those vocal cords.' William also described the start of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations as 'a big day' and 'pretty impressive'. Speaking to Mike Bloomberg, sponsor of the Tree of Trees principal beacon, the duke said: "It was a big day today, It was pretty impressive. Did you see the flypast?' More than three thousand Beacons will be lit by charities, community and faith groups throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Overseas Territories. Beacons will also be lit by groups and young leaders throughout all 54 Commonwealth countries including cities, capitals, across five continents, to celebrate The Queens service to the people of the Commonwealth. A Zambian woman who was trafficked by her own father spoke of the 'surreal' experience of lighting the UK's first beacon this evening. Alina Karimamusama, who works with the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, ignited the large brazier at Coutts bank in central London. She said: 'It represents the possibilities that young people from communities like mine, young people like me, can reach when they are given the right support. 'The work that I do is centred around protecting children, protecting young people, providing spaces for them. 'I know what it's like to be scared and confused and hurt, and not knowing who to trust or who to go to anymore.' Queen PULLS OUT of tomorrow's Thanksgiving service: Monarch says 'with great reluctance' she will not be at St Paul's Cathedral due to suffering 'discomfort' during today's Birthday Parade and Flypast - but WILL still light a beacon at Windsor tonight By Laurence Dollimore for MailOnline The Queen has with 'great reluctance' pulled out of Friday's Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace announced tonight. The 96-year-old monarch, who has been suffering with mobility issues, is said to have experienced 'discomfort' during today's events, which kickstarted the four-day celebration to commemorate her 70-year reign. However the head of state will still make an appearance at tonight's lighting of the beacons event at Windsor Castle. The Palace said: 'The Queen greatly enjoyed today's Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort.' In a full statement a spokesperson added: 'Taking into account the journey and activity required participate in tomorrow's National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, Her Majesty with great reluctance has concluded that she will not attend. 'The Queen is looking forward to participating in tonight's Beacon lighting event at Windsor Castle and would like to thank all those who made today such a memorable occasion.' The Queen has been forced to cancel a string of engagements in recent months and most recently missed the State Opening of Parliament, symbolically asking her son, Prince Charles, and grandson, Prince William, to stand in. But royal aides this week insisted that despite what they describe as 'episodic' mobility issues, the monarch is in good spirits and very much in charge behind the scenes. The announcement that the monarch will not attend tomorrow's service followed a jam-packed first day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend, which will end on Sunday with a special Pageant celebrating the life of the nation's longest-reigning monarch. The Queen has with 'great reluctance' pulled out of Friday's Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace announced tonight. (Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II stands with Prince Charles to watch a special flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday) The 96-year-old monarch, who has been suffering with mobility issues, is said to have experienced 'discomfort' during today's events, which kickstarted the four-day Platinum Jubilee celebration to commemorate her 70-year reign. (Pictured: The Queen arrives back at Windsor Castle following Thursday's Trooping the Colour) (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today The Queen smiles as Prince Louis covers his ears during the flypast over Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Queen Elizabeth II points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon The Queen was joined by other royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony today in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons amid joyous scenes at Trooping the Colour as her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations began. The 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 royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. But today, she instead picked a brand new cane, which appeared to have a marble handle and wooden body and which was made by Cumbria-based traditional stick maker Dennis Wall. General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, chief of the general staff, had presented her with the gift as a symbol of the British Army's support. On October 12th last year, Her Majesty was seen using a stick for support in public for the first time in nearly 20 years as she marked the Royal British Legion centenary at Westminster Abbey. Two days later, she carried a stick as she as she attended the sixth ceremonial opening of the Senedd at the Welsh Parliament building in Cardiff. The royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip 's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. She is pictured today with a new one The royal has been using a stag horn mobility aid in recent weeks and is often spotted with her late husband Prince Philip's walking stick - which is dark wood with a marble handle. But today, she instead picked a brand new cane, which appeared to have a marble handle and wooden body. Elizabeth II and Prince Louis of Cambridge during Trooping the Colour, while little Louis stole the show, the Queen debuted a walking stick Meghan Markle puts her finger to her lips next to Savannah Phillips and Mia Tindall at Horse Guards Parade in London today Meghan Markle is seen with Savannah Phillips and Mia Tindall at Horse Guards Parade in London this afternoon Royal fans cheer near Buckingham Palace during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London this morning Prince George (left), Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte bow their heads as they receive a salute in London today Following today's Trooping the Colour, the Queen then returned to the balcony at Buckingham Palace 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. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did not make an appearance on the Palace balcony but were reunited with some of their relatives as they kept a low profile inside a room of the Major General's Office at the other end of The Mall on Horse Guards Parade, where they watched Charles inspect guardsmen and officers and take their salute. It comes after months of speculation over where the Sussexes would stand and whether they would even attend the Jubilee amid an ongoing security row. In the end, they were only allowed to watch from the room overlooking the Whitehall parade ground after the Queen declared that only senior working royals could join her at the Palace. Wearing sunglasses, the Queen looked joyful as she surveyed the patriotic scenes, giving broad smiles while enjoying the six-minute flypast which involved 70 aircraft, including Apache helicopters, Typhoons and the Red Arrows. Fifteen RAF Typhoons paid a special tribute to the Queen's reign, flying in the formation of the number 70. While Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all appeared, there was no place on the Palace balcony today for Prince Harry, Meghan Markle or Prince Andrew given that none of them are no longer working royals. From their Horse Guards Parade balcony, Meghan and Harry were seen putting their finger to their lips next to Savannah Philips, Mia and Lena Tindall in an apparent attempt to quieten the children. The Sussexes also spoke with the Duke of Kent, who joined his cousin the Queen for both of her trips onto the Palace balcony. On the second trip, Charles stood on the Queen's right-hand side and the pair could be seen chatting and smiling. Huge cheers of 'hooray' erupted outside and as the aircraft approached, the Queen could be seen looking ahead and smiling. Meanwhile, Louis waved towards the sky and rested his chin in his hands. The Queen could also be seen interacting with Louis, who was standing next to her on the balcony. And the young prince was photographed holding his hands over his ears as the aircraft soared overhead. The monarch smiled throughout the flypast and waved at the crowds before going back into the palace. When the Queen made her appearance on the balcony there was a delayed reaction from the crowds in The Mall and spectators sat in the stands built for tomorrow's Party at the Palace. A cheer went up when they spotted her on screens and she smiled as the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment passed the gates of Buckingham Palace. The troopers took around five minutes to ride past as the Queen chatted to the Duke of Kent. People pack The Mall as the British Royal Family come onto the balcony of Buckingham Place this afternoon Queen Elizabeth II speaks with Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today Prince Andrew is pictured riding in Windsor yesterday on the eve of the Jubilee celebrations. The Duke of York will now miss tomorrow's Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen after testing positive for coronavirus. Members of the Household Division Foot Guards' bands march past Buckingham Palace during the Birthday Parade today Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte wave to the crowds during Trooping the Colour in London this morning The Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis ride in a carriage today Crowds on The Mall ahead the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in London this morning Other Royal Family members had started off the Trooping the Colour festivities earlier today - with the Duchess of Cambridge and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis waving for excited crowds. This morning, three carriages carrying Royal Family members left the forecourt of Buckingam Palace and travelled down the Mall. The Duchess of Cornwall rode alongside Kate Middleton and her children in the first carriage. George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and three-year-old Louis smiled and waved enthusiastically as they sat in a row, known as a barouche, with Louis in the middle of his older siblings. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The nation is embracing the special extended four-day bank holiday weekend of pomp, pageantry and star-studded festivities, which will see celebrities and the public gather in their millions in tribute to the monarch. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: 'Congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on your remarkable Platinum Jubilee. The whole country, Commonwealth and world thank you for your unwavering duty and service. Vivat Regina Elizabetha! God Save The Queen!' Meanwhile the Duke of York will now miss tomorrow's Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen after testing positive for coronavirus. The Duke of York is understood to have seen his mother the Queen in the last few days but she has tested negative - and he has not seen her since testing positive. Andrew, 62, was expected to join his royal relatives at the Service of Thanksgiving in London tomorrow despite him no longer being a working member of the family. But, in a dramatic development just hours before the service, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said this afternoon: 'After undertaking a routine test The Duke has tested positive for Covid and with regret will no longer be attending tomorrow's service.' Andrew was not on the Buckingham Palace balcony today for the Flypast after the Queen limited those appearing alongside her to working members of her family. Prince Louis steals the show! Mischievous young royal takes centre stage as he chats constantly to the Queen on balcony, picks his nose and even barges past Her Majesty By Maria Chiorando and Jessica Green for MailOnline Prince Louis took centre stage at today's London Platinum Jubilee celebrations, stealing the scene with his mischievous antics as he was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour. Louis, four, who is the youngest of the Cambridge children, was also photographed waving enthusiastically at bystanders earlier in the day, as he joined his siblings Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, seven, in a carriage ride down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade for the Queen's Birthday Parade. However, his most attention-grabbing moments came courtesy of the obviously strong bond he shares with his great-grandmother, the Queen, who was seen chatting to the youngster during the flypast, seemingly in an effort to distract him from the loud noise of the aircraft. And Louis seemed entranced, looking up inquisitively at the monarch, and seeking out her attention. At one point, he even broke away from his mother Kate Middleton, 40, to barge past the Queen, much to the bemusement of the Duchess of Cambridge and Camilla. According to a lipreader, during the noisy flypast, as Louis was seen trying to squeeze past the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony, Kate said to Camilla: 'He really is trying to squeeze by!' The Queen is affectionately known as Gan Gan by the Cambridge children - after Prince George created the adorable nickname for his great-grandmother aged two. Meanwhile, ensuring they remain close to Her Majesty, the Cambridges' county home of Anmer Hall in Norfolk is located in the Queen's Sandringham Estate, while London-based William and Kate 'will move to Windsor this summer to be closer to the Queen', it was reported last month. Prince Louis (pictured right) took centre stage at today's London Platinum Jubilee celebrations, stealing the scene with his mischievous antics as he was snapped pulling faces and picking his nose during Trooping the Colour At times, the occasion seemed like too much for the four-year-old, who was snapped pulling a range of faces (pictured) during his public appearance Louis, four, who is the youngest of the Cambridge children, was also photographed waving enthusiastically at bystanders earlier in the day, as he joined his siblings Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte (pictured together), seven, in a carriage ride down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade for the Queen's Birthday Parade Louis (pictured, centre) appears to shared a special bond with his great-grandmother the Queen, who was seen entertaining the young royal during Trooping the Colour At one point while watching Trooping the Colour, the young royal appeared to be overwhelmed by the noise, and was seen covering his ears while shouting After his animated carriage ride, the four-year-old prince (pictured, centre) still had plenty of energy, and was snapped frowning as he saluted while watching Trooping the Colour with his big sister Princess Charlotte (picture, right) on a balcony at Horseguards Parade The Queen stands with members of the Royal Family to watch a special flypast from Buckingham Palace today (From left) Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William and Sophie, Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace today People pack The Mall as the British Royal Family come onto the balcony of Buckingham Place this afternoon The Red Arrows perform a flypast over The Mall on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London today A body language expert today said Louis and the Queen share a 'childlike excitement' and 'natural bond' following their 'chatty and animated' display together during the balcony appearance. Judi James told FEMAIL that 'Louis made this conversation [with the monarch] look like the most natural thing in the world and his lack of anything bordering on fear suggested these two might share a rather close friendship based on shared fun behind the scenes, too.' As the planes flew overhead during today's occasion, Kate said to Louis: 'It's so cool look at that.' Meanwhile, speaking to her great grandson, the Queen said: 'Look up at all that smoke!', according to lip-reader Juliet Sullivan. After the flypast, she turned back to the young royal, and added: 'Lets go its finished now. That really was wonderful, so incredible.' The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' and have a 'natural bond', claims body language expert The Queen and Prince Louis shared 'childlike excitement' when on the Buckingham Palace balcony together for the historic Trooping the Colour today, according to a body language expert. 'A rather charming dynamic was unveiled from a slightly surprising source today,' said Judi James. 'While the Queens empathetic and destiny-based bonds with George are well documented, her indulgence, warmth and an almost childlike shared excitement with Louis hasnt really been seen before. 'Looking so much like Charles at his mothers coronation, Louis rushed forward to lean on the balcony before becoming impatient as he waited to see the fly-past. While Kate bent to speak to him several times or stroked his hair in a soothing gesture, the Queens glances suggested affection and approval. 'The bond between the two looked natural and ongoing. While the other royals displayed signals of anxiety or tension in a bid to get it right for the "boss" they clearly still respect, Louis stepped in front of the Queen before tilting his head back to engage her in some animated conversation as they waited for the Red Arrows. 'Louis made this conversation look like the most natural thing in the world and his lack of anything bordering on fear suggested these two might share a rather close friendship based on shared fun behind the scenes, too.' Advertisement The young royal's performance did not go unnoticed, with people taking to social media in their droves to brand Louis a 'mood', and create memes featuring images from the day. Louis' attention-grabbing actions on the balcony followed his eventful ride down The Mall earlier that morning. He'd travelled to the Palace in a horse-drawn carriage with his mother mother Kate Middleton, 40, the Duchess of Cornwall, 74 as well as his siblings George and Charlotte. Video footage of the journey appears to show Charlotte ticking off her younger brother for waving too much at the assembled crowds. A clip of the children shows the seven-year-old princess asking Prince Louis to 'stop waving!' as they made their journey through the crowds. This prompted a minor squabble between the youngest two royals in the carriage, while their elder brother Prince George looks on. However, despite being told off by his sister, Louis continued to wave animatedly at bystanders, though all three children were snapped showing respect for their great grandmother. The Cambridge children dutifully bowed their heads when the national anthem was played on their arrival into Horse Guards Parade. Louis was the spitting image of his father Prince William at Trooping the Colour; the four-year-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge looked adorable in a white sailor suit that is identical to one worn by a two-year-old Prince William to the same event in 1985. Some royal watchers have suggested it could even be the same suit, perfectly preserved for almost 40 years. The Royal Family are known for their love of recycling and handing down clothing, so there is every chance it could be the same. Eight-year-old Prince George, the future king, was given a more grown-up outfit, wearing a smart navy suit with a shirt and blue tie. Meanwhile Princess Charlotte wore a pretty periwinkle blue dress with floaty capped sleeves, adding a matching bow in her hair. At one point when Louis was watching Trooping the Colour with his siblings and cousins he even mimicked his father by pointing out something - just as William did with his cousin Zara in 1985. The young royal appeared to have won a legion of fans thanks to his outgoing behaviour, with many taking to social media to brand the youngster a 'mood' The Queen was spotted travelling from Windsor Castle by car for today's event, while other members of the Firm made public appearances in horse-drawn carriages, with three leaving the forecourt of Buckingham Palace carrying members of the Royal Family down The Mall this morning. The first carriage took the Cambridge children, as well as Kate Middleton and the Duchess of Cornwall. They were followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex with children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn; then the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the third carriage. The royals, including the Wessexes, watched Trooping the Colour from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. Among their number were Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, who have travelled to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday. The Duchess stepped out in an elegant navy blue dress and a dramatic wide-brimmed white hat with an oversized navy bow by British milliner Stephen Jones. The mother-of-two was spotted entertaining Peter Phillips' daughters Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, and Mike and Zara Tindall's girls Mia, eight, and Lena, three, as they grew bored of watching the military display. Meghan pouted, gasped and beamed as she put on an animated display in the window, with Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi watching from behind. At one point the Duchess put a finger to her mouth to 'shush' cheeky Mia Tindall, who was on typically boisterous behaviour. Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne rode on horses during the traditional carriage procession which left Buckingham Palace ahead of Trooping the Colour, also known as the Birthday Parade, at the start of festivities. The young Cambridge siblings (pictured, L-R) George, Louis, and Charlotte were joined by Mia Grace Tindall (far right) and Princess Beatrice (top) while they watched Trooping the Colour Prince Louis (pictured, centre) was snapped pulling faces while he waved animatedly at the crowd while riding a horse-drawn carriage down the Mall during today's Platinum Jubilee celebrations The oldest Cambridge child, Prince George, eight (pictured, left) appeared to wince as Prince Louis waved at bystanders while pulling a face from his horse-drawn carriage The Duchess of Cornwall looks to be enjoying sharing the carriage with children George, Charlotte and Louis, and sitting opposite Charlotte pointing at something in the crowd Despite the animated carriage ride, all three children showed respect to the great-grandmother, bowing their heads as the national anthem played The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took a starring role in the royal carriage as they arrive alongside their mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall today at the start of Trooping the Colour The four-year-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge looked adorable in a white sailor suit (right) that is strikingly similar to worn by the Duke of Cambridge, then aged two, to the military event in 1985 (left) Childhood memories: Prince William, then almost three, with his cousin Zara Phillips (left) and Davina Windsor, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at Trooping the Colour in 1985 Charles took the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards was trooped and inspected the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. Prince Andrew has been entirely cut out of proceedings and will not appear during any part of the day. Following Trooping the Colour, the royal carriages made the return journey down the Mall in preparation of the flypast. The Queen, 96, exclaimed 'incredible!' as she stepped out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the return salute. She was joined on the balcony by her dutiful cousin, the Duke of Kent, who carries out engagements on behalf of the Royal Family. After a brief interlude inside, the Queen re-emerged at 1pm to observe the flypast. In order to avoid any awkwardness surrounding the presence of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew, the Queen decreed that only working members of the Royal Family would join her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the flypast. Sophie Wessex looked typically elegant in a pink gingham ensemble while Prince Edward wore military dress uniform Lady Louise looked perfectly poised as she rode in a carriage with her brother James, 14, pictured, and her parents Despite not yet being old enough to be a senior working member of the royal family, Lady Louise was invited to join in the celebrations alongside her parents and brother The balcony appearance, which is often seen as the centrepiece of major royal occasions, including Trooping the Colour and weddings, previously saw the Queen's extended family gather to watch a flypast and is a rare chance for fans to see the entire extended family together. In 2019, there were 40 members of the family present, including her grandchildren and their families, as well as more distant relatives like her cousins' children. But this year just 17 members of her family were present: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, The Princess Royal and Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The Royal Family have now finished this portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although they will make other appearances over the course of the next four days. The Queen smiles as members of the Royal Family attend Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis wave during the flypast as they stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony today The Queen points as she stands next to Prince Louis on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in London this afternoon Camilla, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of the Trooping the Colour parade today It is a particularly significant trip for the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has not seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while Prince Harry only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace. Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother's actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, was not forced to greet the couple in public. Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were seen speaking to the Queen's cousin the Duke of Kent during Trooping the Colour The Duchess of Sussex put on an animated display with Savannah Phillips (left), her sister Isla (behind) and Lena Tindall Meghan Markle, 40, joined her husband Prince Harry, 37, and senior royal family members to watch the spectacular military event from the Major General's Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground The Duchess of Sussex put on a showstopping display as she made her first royal appearance in two years at Trooping the Colour The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall donned a Beulah London Darsha dress teamed with a Juliette Botterill 'Floral Blossom Percher' hat and her Rolex watch as she got ready to watch Trooping The Colour with her husband Mike Charles is taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch's behalf. He is joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback The Duke of Cambridge takes part in the Royal Procession as he leaves Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour today Princess Anne, Princess Royal rides horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade in London this morning Brigade major James Shaw (centre, top) leads members of the Household Cavalry to Horse Guards Parade this morning Soldiers taking part in the parade along The Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade today Crowds of people line The Mall as they watch members of the Royal Family appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony today People gather along The Mall for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London this morning Jubilee security alert as police tackle vegan Animal Rebellion activists holding signs saying 'Reclaim Royal Land' after they break through barriers at The Mall moments before Trooping the Colour Police swooped on up to 25 protesters who smashed through security measures on the Mall ahead of Trooping the Colour. The officers pounced as they raced over barriers to where the parade will be held shortly. Incredibly two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the Mall as the marching band approached. Incredibly two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the Mall for seconds There were a total of around 25 people who had been intending to sit down in the middle of the Mall to disrupt the route Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them avoiding them completely. Minutes later they proudly tweeted: 'Animal Rebels disrupt the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations demanding that Royal Land is Reclaimed. 'This summer, we're taking bigger action against the Dairy industry than ever before, and we need you.' Beau King Houston, amongst those taking action, said: 'The Royal family has had decades to lead the way on a just transition to plant-based farming and has failed to do so. 'This transition is common sense and simple, we all win. 76 per cent of currently farmed land could be rewilded and absorb carbon from the atmosphere. 'This would restore nature, spare billions of animals, and present a solution to the climate emergency, all in one act.' The activists have accused the Crown - one of the largest land owners in the country - continuing to support the meat, fishing, and dairy industry. Protesters say these sectors and industries are leading contributors to the climate crisis. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: A number of arrests have been made of people who attempted to enter the ceremonial route in The Mall at approximately 10.10am today. 'The arrests were public order related for highway obstruction.' Advertisement And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow's service of thanksgiving for the Queen's 70-year reign at St Paul's Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty. Yesterday, the Queen sent a car and a security detail to collect Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet after their private jet landed in the UK from California, ahead of her celebrations. Lilibet has never been in the UK - or met any of her British family - while Archie, who was born in Britain, has not been here since he was a baby. In the latest sign that hostilities between The Firm and the Sussexes are thawing, Her Majesty's Land Rover greeted the family and their children at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire before taking them to Frogmore Cottage. An insider told The Sun that 'the Queen believed it was the right thing to do' to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The couple's Embraer private jet landing at Farnborough, and the Queen's black Land Rover - escorted by a Volkswagen people carrier - driving onto the tarmac. It is thought the family were believed to have got into the blacked-out VW car, and that they travelled without their customary entourage or senior staff working for their Archewell charity. It also said Netflix camera crews - who have been following the couple for an 11million documentary - stayed behind. Harry, Meghan and their two children were not given a police escort for the 40-minutes drive from Farnborough to Windsor. Lilibet will turn one on Saturday, with a party expected at Frogmore likely to be attended by royals such as Princess Eugenie, who is close to Harry and Meghan, and the Queen could also pop in if she doesn't attend the Epsom Derby. It will be the first time the monarch will meet the great-granddaughter named after her. But Prince William and Kate will not be there because they will be representing Her Majesty in Cardiff as senior working royals are sent to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the monarch's 70 years on the throne. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London was the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend. The event drew huge crowds, with thousands of people draped in Union Jack flags, party hats and plastic tiaras lined The Mall in the warm sunshine today. Some of those at the front brought camping chairs, having arrived over the past few days to get the best spot, and spirits were high as members of the public chatted and joked with police maintaining the perimeter. However, police then swooped on four intruders who tried to smash through security on The Mall. Two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the road as the marching band approached. Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them, avoiding them completely. The Irish Guards were among the first to arrive at a march at Horse Guards Parade this morning in front of the sitting crowds in the bright sunshine, led by their mascot, an Irish Wolfhound called Seamus. And as huge crowds descended on the capital to witness the historic weekend, police and park authorities said the areas were full. The Metropolitan Police said: 'The viewing areas in central London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations are now full. 'To avoid the disappointment of not being able to enter the viewing areas please avoid the area.' And the Royal Parks added: 'Crowds have flocked to St James's Park for Trooping the Colour and public viewing areas are now at full capacity. 'Please do not head to St James's Park but enjoy the Jubilee celebrations elsewhere.' Passsengers are pretending to be disabled to avoid horrific queues at airports caused by a shortage of staff. Bosses at Birmingham airport said there was a 20 per cent rise in people asking for assistance and it has had to buy more wheelchairs and take on extra staff to push them. An insider at a meeting of industry leaders on Wednesday with Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said: If people are pretending its potentially stopping genuinely disabled people from getting a place, and thats pretty grim. The source added: You cant just say to people, no, youre lying. Another industry boss said: There should be a special place reserved in hell for people who pretend to be disabled. UK airports have faced criticism due to reported 10-hour delays faced by passengers. It comes as the industry finds itself in the middle of a recruitment crisis due to a spike in demand since covid restrictions were lifted (Pictured - Birmingham airport) Disabled passengers can skip queues at security and, for a small fee, use fast-track lanes and get help through immigration, customs and baggage reclaim. Hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled in recent weeks and passengers have faced waits of several hours in arrivals and departures. Steve Heapy, the boss of Jet2, said that airports were struggling to recruit staff because people would rather live off benefits and sit on their a****es. The industry wants post-Brexit rules relaxed so that they can hire foreign staff, rather than relying on British applicants who have increasingly missed interviews or failed aptitude tests. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said pressure in the jobs market 'does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service' (Pictured - Bristol airport) Mr Shapps said the Home Office was unlikely to make an exception for the aviation industry, which he blamed for the problems. Pressure in the jobs market does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service, he added. Yesterday easyJet axed another 36 flights from Gatwick to places such as Nice, Marseille and Montpellier. That takes its tally of cancelled flights over half-term to more than 200. TUI has cancelled six a day from Manchester until the end of the month, and British Airways has removed 16,000 flights until autumn. Travel chiefs are braced for more chaos this weekend, with 10,794 flights carrying 1.9million people due to take off. Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, called for a regulator with real teeth so that airlines face proper punishments. Passengers were pictured sitting on the floor and a baggage carousel at Birmingham airport Passengers have reported long delays at baggage drop-off and pick-up as airlines in particular struggle to find the staff they need to keep airports moving (Pictured - Manchester airport) Mr Boland said: The shameful scenes at UK airports this half-term are the result of an industry in which some airlines feel they can get away with ignoring consumer rights and acting with near impunity. It is clear that passenger rights need to be strengthened ... and the Civil Aviation Authority must be given the power to issue direct fines so it can hold airlines to account when they flout the law. Michael OLeary, the boss of Ryanair, told ITV News that the Army should be drafted in to man security desks and thus get rid of the queues. A Jet2 spokesman said: During a meeting with government and industry, Mr Heapy expressed his frustrations with the current employment market as Brexit has taken hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people out of the job market. He added: To clarify, the other rumours being circulated are categorically not the views of Mr Heapy or our proudly UK-based company. Two people have died in a house fire in western Sydney. Emergency services were called to a burning single-storey house in Glendenning, near Mount Druitt, at 4.45am on Friday. A woman was pulled from the building before she died while the body of another person was later found inside the premises. Two people have died in a house fire in western Sydney prompting firefighters to urge a dire warning about the use of heaters during winter Fire and Rescue NSW are investigating the cause of the fire. Incident Commander Michael Johnstone urged residents to be aware of the dangers of using a heater during winter. 'At this point we are still investigating, but it's a reminder to people in winter months we have to be vigilant with the safety of heaters and working fire alarms,' he said. More to come Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath recalled the 2012 murder of her 17-year-old son during Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on gun control. 'Do we have the courage right here in this body to imagine the phone call parents in Uvalde received last week?' she asked. 'The phone call that confirmed our fear - our singular fear that my child is dead. That I was unable to protect them. Because I know that phone call,' the Georgia lawmaker said. McBath's son Jordan Davis, who was black, was murdered by a white man at a Florida gas station following an argument over the volume of Davis' music. Michael David Dunn fired his gun at Davis and three other teenagers, killing Davis. McBath's political career was propelled by her national reputation as a gun control advocate in the wake of Davis' death. At Thursday's hearing she remarked that that the Buffalo supermarket shooter was inspired by the 'same racially motivated violence' that got her son killed. McBath also went after Republican lawmakers who proposed an amendment to the bill that would bar red flag laws. 'I'm talking to you now not as a legislator, but as a gun violence survivor, who spends a lot of time and days and hours and months and weeks, talking to others like myself, talking to other individuals across the country who recognized that their loved ones were in crisis, who recognized that their loved ones needed hlpe, who recognized that their loved ones had access to firearms and ammunition and had no recourse,' McBath said. 'No legal recourse whatsoever to protect their loved ones from themselves or them doing bodily harm to others in their community.' 'Walk a day in my shoes, when I have to sit there and listen to the stories over and over again from law enforcement who even said their hands were tied,' she continued. 'Walk a day in my shoes, you can spew all the hypotheticals that you want, but until you live those experiences, don't you dare try to tout that red flag doesn't work.' 'Don't you dare ever sit here and try to just hypothetically scare people with scenarios of fear-mongering,' she added. 'Don't you dare - the American people deserves far better than this and they deserve to have their livs cared for - which you seem to know nothing about.' Lawmakers held a markup session for the 'Protecting Our Kids Act,' which combines eight pieces of legislation in the latest Congressional gun control push on the heels of mass shootings in Buffalo, Robb Elementary School in Uvalve, Texas and Wednesday night's killings in Tulsa. The bill passed out of committee after nearly 10 hours of debate, 25-18, in a party-line vote. Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath recalled the murder of her son, a black boy who was shot by a white man over his music being too loud, remarking it was the 'same racially motivated violence' that inspired Buffalo's supermarket shooter Jordan Davis was gunned down and killed by a white man in 2012 over his playing of music at a Florida gas station The bill would raise the purchasing age of certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles from 18 to 21 - as the shooters in Buffalo and Uvalve were both 18. It also goes after high-capacity magazines, ghost guns and bump stocks and mandates certain requirements for firearms storage on residential facilities. Republicans remained firm in their resistance. Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida argued that the law limiting high-capacity magazines would have unintended effects - and he held up his own guns to demonstrate, while participating in the hearing virtually. 'I hope that gun isn't loaded,' Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee uttered at the sight, with Steube responding, 'I'm at my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns.' Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado argued that AR-15s, the gun style of choice in most recent U.S. mass shootings, had practical purposes. 'In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens,' Buck said. 'That is the gun of choice for killing a fox.' The bill lawmakers are debating does not ban AR-15s. 'Blaming the gun for what's happening in America is small-minded,' Buck also said. 'It is a problem when we tell the American people that we have solutions and we don't have easy soluations for what's happening right now.' Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida displayed his own collection of guns over Zoom during Thursday's heated House Judiciary Committee hearing marking up gun control legislation 'I'm at my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns,' Rep. Greg Steube told Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee during Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, remarked: 'I hope that gun isn't loaded,' when watching Rep. Greg Steube display his guns over Zoom Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado argued that AR-15s, the gun style of choice in most recent U.S. mass shootings, had practical purposes like killing raccoons and foxes Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California suggested that 'woke district attorneys' aren't using the laws already on the books - bringing up a favorite GOP punching bag, first son Hunter Biden. 'Hunter Biden illegally acquired a handgun despite being an admitted drug addict. A handgun that ended up being taken out of a public trash can 500 feet from a school. He also lied on his firearms application,' McClintock said. 'Nobody's prosecuting him.' McClintock was referring to Biden answering no on a 2018 firearms permit to the question, 'Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?' Hunter Biden had already been discharged from the Navy Reserve over his cocaine use. Republican after Republican argued that pushing the bill through was 'premature' since the Uvalve shooting - where 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24 - was still under investigation. The Judiciary Committee meeting was called during recess as an emergency session. Republican Rep. Tom McClintock (left) of California suggested that 'woke district attorneys' aren't using the laws already on the books - bringing up a favorite GOP punching bag, first son Hunter Biden (right) A congressional staffer sported a rifle-shaped pin during Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on gun control 'You guys are smasming over this reflexive response,' Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said at one point. 'And you call it an emergency hearing, right? And the basis for the emergency is what happened in Uvalve, and we all agree it was awful and tragic, but you're not providing any thoughtful solutions that would actually reduce the likelihood of that.' 'Spare us the spirited screaming,' he urged Democrats. Earlier he had suggested that arming more Americans might be appropriate. 'I sort of like Congressman Massie's legislation that maybe everyone who's a voter on their way to vote ought to have the opportunity to carry a firearm to ensure that they're not subject to any intimidation,' Gaetz mused. Democrats argued that it wasn't just Uvalve, listing off mass shooting after shooting, starting with 1999's Columbine. 'As the youngest member of this committee, I need to address my Republican colleagues on the behalf of the generations of young people whom Republicans have condemned to grow up in fear that they will be gunned down in school,' said 35-year-old Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, who was 11 when Columbine happened. 'You guys are smasming over this reflexive response,' Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said at one point. 'Spare us the spirited screaming,' he urged his House Democratic colleagues Rep. Mondaire Jones (left), a New York Democrat, pressed Republican Rep. Dan Bishop on what measures he would support to decrease the number of mass shootings Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline said of Bishop's response: 'I can translate that for you, he's willing to do nothing' Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert participated in Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing virtually Later Jones pressed Republican Rep. Dan Bishop on what measures he would support to decrease the number of mass shootings. 'I wouldn't let teachers prop doors open. I would make sure that police are not discouraged from going in and saving children who are being assaulted while the assault is going on,' Bishop said. 'I would not intimidate police and tell them they ought to cease to exist,' he added, apparently alluding to progressive calls to 'defund the police.' Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline was not impressed. 'I can translate that for you, he's willing to do nothing,' Cicilline said. Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania did yell about Uvalve. 'Where is the outrage over the slaughter of 19 4th graders and their teachers?' she asked her colleagues. 'One of the children recounted how she took the blood of her dead friend lying near her and smeared herself with that blood to pretent to be dead. What have we taught our children? This is on our watch. Where is the outrage?' she asked. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (left), a New York Democrat, Rep. Dan Bishop (center), a North Carolina Republican and Rep. Jim Jordan (right), an Ohi Republican, listen to a colleague during Thursday's hearing Dean pointed to polling that indicated that a majority of Americans want stricter gun control laws. 'I will tell my friends on the other side of the aisle who for some reason stand against these common sense measures that would save lives not all lives but would save lives, you're way behind the curve,' she told Republicans. 'Gun owners, Americans by and large, want these measures.' 'I don't know what bubble you're living in,' she said. 'I guess surrounded by a powerful gun lobby trying to hold on to your seats. But the America is way ahead of you.' An annoyed Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, asked Republicans at one point, 'Are you here for our kids, or are you here for the killers?' Much of the afternoon was eaten up by a discussion over amendments proposed by Republicans, but even GOP Rep. Tom Tiffany who proposed one of them, admitted he wouldn't vote for the final bill even if his amendment got added. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and prominent libertarian, proposed expanding the carve-out in the bill that allows for military members ages 18 to 20 to have guns to all men aged 18 to 20 that sign up for the selective service, which is mandatory for that gender and age group. The amendment would essentially hollow-out the age requirement in the legislation, but only for males, Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania pointed out, calling Massie's amendment 'bizarre.' The amendment was voted down 24-19. As the hearing stretched through dinnertime, things got heated again as committee members discussed an amendment barring red flag laws proposed by Gaetz. Jackson Lee of Texas held up a print-out of a news article about a shooting that occurred in Wisconsin in the hours the committee had been meeting. 'My colleagues here are arguing about saving lives,' she said. She noted 'how valuable' the 'privileges of the Constitution ... are to the people of the nation.' But she also pointed out that it's been inequally applied - pushing back on Republican claims that any form of gun control would violate the Second Amendment. 'In my skin I've had much of that denied over history,' noted Jackson Lee, who is black 'I was denied due process, I had property taken away, I was considered property, in terms of ancestors,' she said. She then segued to pointing out that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham had previously supported red flag laws. At the end of her time, she then dinged Republican Rep. Chip Roy, commenting that he must be 'sleeping' because he didn't immediately turn his camera on in Zoom. 'Well, the old shot there about sleeping,' Roy fumed. 'It's not my rules that allow for this crap of a proceeding.' Roy then blasted the Democrats for trying to take away Americans' guns. Gaetz then threatened Senate Republicans who might be wavering on gun control. 'See, this isn't just about gun, it's about power. And what the Democrats want is to ensure that the government has the ower to take your guns away without giving you due process. And shame on any Republican in the Senate that would pave the way to that type of deprivation of our liberty and our constitutional rights,' Gaetz said. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland characterized the Republicans' resistance to gun control as extreme. 'You're confusing people by saying that somehow any form of gun control safety regulation violates the Second Amendment,' Raskin said. 'That's nonsense. That's bull. That's ridiculous,' he added. Cicilline echoed Raskin's sentiment. 'Spare me the bulls**t,' he said at Republicans' saying that gun restrictions were in violation of the Second Amendment. At around 7:45 p.m. the committee finally took a vote, passing the legislation on to the full House. The bill is expected to pass the Democrat-led House and will receive a vote next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday in a memo to members. It is expected to stall in the Senate due to the upper chamber's filibuster rules. The House Judiciary Committee vote was happening as President Joe Biden addressed the nation's gun violence problem in a speech Thursday night. A three-year-old boy is dead after being mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in front of a daycare centre as police hunt for the person behind the wheel. The child was struck in front of his 'distraught' mother and a number of other witnesses on McIntyre Rd in Sunshine North, Melbourne's west, at about 6:30pm on Thursday. Emergency services rushed to the scene immediately and desperately tried to treat the boy's life threatening injuries. He was taken to hospital where he later died. Detectives are now desperately searching for the driver of a red Toyota Camry urging the motorist to 'hand themselves in'. A three-year-old boy is dead after being mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in front of a daycare centre as police hunt for the person behind the wheel (scene pictured) The child was struck in front of his 'distraught' mother and a number of other witnesses on McIntyre Rd in Sunshine North, Melbourne 's west, at about 6:30pm on Thursday (scene pictured, with a single shoe left in the middle of the road) Investigators at this stage suspect the boy may have 'run out onto the road' and that the driver failed to stop because they 'panicked'. 'These kind of collisions, sometimes they bring out the worst and the best in people,' Detective Acting Sergeant Leigh Miller told 9News. 'In this case, you have the driver of a car for unknown reasons, they have failed to stop and help this child. 'I can just only hope they didn't know that it was a child, but if they did, what else can we say about them?' CCTV footage taken from the scene shows the car travelling through the area Detectives are now desperately searching for the driver of a red Toyota Camry urging the motorist to 'hand themselves in' (scene pictured) Officers from Victoria's Major Collision Unit scoured the crime scene overnight, cordoning off the busy road and knocking on the doors of nearby homes and businesses asking for CCTV vision of the incident. A child's shoe lay in the middle of the road as police examined the scene. 'Investigators are appealing for anyone with information and the driver to come forward and contact police,' police said. 'Anyone who witnessed the incident, has dashcam footage or any other information that could assist police with their enquiries is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.' The man who shot and almost killed US President Ronald Reagan in 1981, John Hinckley Jr, will be released unconditionally in June from psychiatric supervision, according to a US Court. Prosecutors, Hinckley's legal team, and mental health experts had convinced a judge that the 67-year-old is now in a sound mental state, per CBS News. Hinckley shot Reagan as the president was exiting a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981, puncturing a lung and causing severe internal bleeding. Three others were also wounded. He was found not guilty because of insanity in 1982 and remained hospitalized until 2006. He was allowed to live with his mother in 2016. Hinckley suffered from acute psychosis when he shot the president and had developed an obsession with the actress Jodie Foster, believing the attack would impress her. Judge Paul L. Friedman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia announced in September that he would release Hinckley from all remaining limitations on June 15 if he continued to do well in the Virginia neighborhood where he has lived for years, as per a Forbes Advocate report. Hinckley Passed All Tests During a one-hour hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Friedman said Hinckley has continued to do well. The judge made no revisions to his plans for total freedom from court supervision. Friedman noted that Hinckley has been "scrutinized" and "passed every test." "He's no longer a danger to himself or others," Friedman said during the hearing. Friedman spent much of the session talking about the case's "long" route, which he was assigned at random two decades ago as the case's third judge. Read Also: Biden Claims US Not Seeking Regime Change for Russia, Focus on Aid for Ukraine A Deeply Troubled Individual Back Then He said Hinckley was deeply troubled when he shot Reagan but has received mental health care. The judge noted that Hinckley had shown no evidence of active mental illness since the mid-1980s and has demonstrated no violent behavior or interest in weaponry. After a jury ruled him not guilty because of insanity in the attempted assassination of Reagan, Hinckley was confined to a mental institution in Washington for more than 20 years. In 2003, Friedman began allowing Hinckley to spend greater and longer periods in the community, with conditions such as attending therapy and limitations on where he may roam. He's been living in Virginia full-time since 2016, but he's still subject to restrictions. Reagan survived the assassination on March 30, 1981, but his press assistant, James Brady, who died in 2014, was partially paralyzed. Timothy McCarthy, a Secret Service agent, and Thomas Delahanty, a Washington police officer, were also injured. Reagan passed away in 2004. Hinckley began paying trips to his parents' house in Williamsburg, Virginia, in the 2000s, with the judge's permission. His father died in 2008, but he was allowed to live with his mother full-time in 2016. Despite this, he was obliged to attend individual, and group therapy sessions, was prohibited from speaking to the press and was restricted to a specific travel region. Periodically, the Secret Service would track him. In 2021, Hinckley's mother passed away. He has since left her residence and has generated money in recent years by selling stuff at an antique mall and selling books online, according to an Australian Associated Press news story published on Yahoo! News. On his YouTube account, Hinckley announced the launch of his own record company, Emporia Records, with his first release being a 14-song CD of his music. He also uses Twitter to promote his work. Related Article: Johnny Depp Verdict: Why Was Amber Heard Awarded $2 Million Despite Depp's Win? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Kim Jong-un was among the world leaders, global icons and religious leaders who paid tribute to the Queen yesterday, hailing her tireless dedication to duty. Presidents, prime ministers, pop stars and sporting legends all came together to congratulate her on 70 years of service. Even North Koreas rogue leader Kim Jong-un sent a letter to the Queen. The states foreign ministry confirmed on its website that Mr Kim sent a letter congratulating the Queen and the British people. North Korea and Britain established diplomatic relations in 2000 and have maintained embassies in each others capitals despite a steady decline in relations. Kim Jong-un, leader of North Korea, congratulated the Queen on the first day of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations US President Joe Biden led the rest of the plaudits, saying: For 70 years, you have inspired people with your selfless devotion and service to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Throughout your reign, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States has grown stronger and closer than ever. French president Emmanuel Macron described the Queen as the golden thread that binds our two countries. Prime Minister Boris Johnson even included a dash of Latin in a congratulatory tweet, saying: The whole country, Commonwealth and world thank you for your unwavering duty and service. Vivat Regina Elizabetha! God Save the Queen. The Queen stands with Prince Charles to watch a special flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony earlier today Pope Francis also sent cordial greetings and wished the Royal Family and all the people of the nation blessings of unity, prosperity and peace. Even Sinn Fein commended the monarch in a letter sent last month, it emerged yesterday. Party vice president Michelle ONeill wrote: Your Platinum Jubilee is an historic moment, especially for all those from the unionist and British tradition on the island of Ireland, and across these islands whom, with great pride and devotion, hold you very dear. Chief of Staff for President Biden's press office Amanda Finney (pictured) is departing the west wing amid reports of a 'Black staffer exodus' from the White House The White House is pushing back on a report of a 'Blaxit' of staff departures, following a public report on 21 minority staffers leaving the staff since the start of the year. The defense came in the form of a top Biden assistant, and went to every member of the entire executive office staff of an administration the president regular lauds as the most diverse in history. The email, by Anne Filipic, assistant to the president and director of Management and Administration, gave assurances about the administration's commitment to hire diverse staffers and foster minority staffers who are already helping guide the administration. It even made a specific commitment on the interview process for open jobs, pledging to vet 'no less than four candidates for each open White House role, with at least 50% of candidates identifying as diverse.' The memo was obtained by the Grio, a publication that focuses on issues relevant to the African Americans. It commits the administration to building 'from the ground up,' and says the administration is determined to 'further invest both in the experience of current staff and ensure that the White House team continues to be representative of America.' White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre hailed departing staffer Amanda Finney Thursday and talked up a new program to pay White House interns, which she said would bring diversity to the administration It also pledges 'concrete actions' on recruitment and retainment. At the same time, White House officials told the publication the departing aides were 'seeking to get a needed break from the demands of government work and high-stakes politics.' It comes from an administration that includes the first black woman vice president and the Senate confirmation of the first black female Supreme Court Justice, but nevertheless is facing complaints from staff members about their own circumstances. The memo follows a Tuesday Politico report identifying the 'Blaxit' and featuring complaints by minority staffers about opportunities to move up the ladder. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the first black and openly gay person to hold the position, provided a sendoff to one of the departing staffers, Amanda Finney, days after it was revealed she is leaving to take on a new role in the Energy Department. 'As you know, our dear Amanda Finney is leaving us though her official title is Chief of Staff, Jen long ago gave her the honor the title of Mayor of the West Wing,' said Jean-Pierre, referencing her recently departed predecessor Jen Psaki. 'I know many of you do and adore her as we do you know that Amanda shines thanks to her charisma, her humor and ability to simply get things done,' she gushed, with Finney seated inside the White House briefing room. She also touted a new policy of paying White House interns and pitched it as a diversity proposal. 'President Biden and Vice President Harris know that for too long and too often. unpaid federal internships have been a barrier to hard working and talented students and professionals preventing many of them from contributing their talents and skills to the country. Paying White House interns will help ensure that those who receive internships at the White House reflect the diversity of America starting today,' she said. White House officials also point to normal turnover, and natural departures for burned out staffers, some of whom also toiled on the campaign, as the administration approaches the 18 month mark. Finney's departure was revealed the day after publication of the damning report Finney is moving to the Energy Department for a senior communications post there following her boss White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's departure. 'Amanda is a brilliant leader whose skills have strengthened our team since the first days of the administration,' Jean-Pierre said in a statement to Bloomberg on her departure. 'We call her 'Mayor Finney' for a reason -- her passion, dedication and insight drives our team forward and have been critical to our success.' Jean-Pierre has not yet named anyone to fill Finney's former role. Biden's press shop is facing a big turnover, with a number of junior aides expected to leave in coming weeks for more senior roles in the federal government. It all follows Psaki's departure last month. The turnover comes amid reports of an exodus of black staffers at least 21, according to a Tuesday report due to the low prospect for promotion and low pay. Finney will serve as the deputy director for public affairs at Energy and manage a team of nearly two dozen communication aids for the department. 'Amanda is simply indispensable and irreplaceable, and I am so grateful that I worked with her by my side every single day during my time as the press secretary,' Psaki said of Finney. 'I have no doubt she is going to continue to knock the socks off of everyone she works with in her next chapter.' Finney's departure comes just weeks after former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (pictured May 25 on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show) left her post and the White House prepares for a big shake up in the press office with a string of exits Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said: 'She keeps the trains running and juggles the chaos with grace and smarts.' Nearly two dozen black White House staffers have left the administration since late 2021 or are planning to leave soon due to an unsupportive work environment and little chance for promotion. One former White House official told Politico in a Tuesday report that the noticeable number of black staffer departures has led to some aides calling it a 'Blaxit', or 'Black Exit'. 'We're here and we're doing a lot of work but we're not decision-makers and there's no real path towards becoming decision-makers,' a current black White House official said, according to the report. 'There is no real feedback and there's no clear path to any kind of promotions.' Another black employee said that low pay is what leads to many minority staffers leaving especially in a city with one of the highest costs of living in the country. 'The pay in the White House is not traditionally very good and a lot of Black folks in these roles don't come from wealthy families,' the White House official said. Entry-level salaries at the White House start at $48,000. The first notable exit from this 'Blaxit' movement came in December 2021 when Vice President Kamala Harris' chief spokesperson Symone Sanders announced she was leaving. She landed at MSNBC where her self-titled show is debuting deuted on May 7. In the weeks and months following into early 2022, Harris senior aides Tina Flournoy, Ashley Etienne, and Vincent Evans all departed as well as her public engagement head Cedric Richmond. Including those departures starting late last year, now at least 21 black staffers have either left the White House or are planning to in coming weeks and months. The White House is having a hard time holding onto black staffers, with some dubbing the recent departure of 21 black White House employees a 'Blaxit.' Pictured: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30 The exodus started in December 2021 with Harris' chief spokesperson Symone Sanders (left) who landed at MSNBC with her own show. Her public engagement head Cedric Richmond (right) also departed, which hit some black staffers particularly hard as they described Richmond as a 'big brother', 'voice of the folks' and a 'nucleus' for black staffers Black staffers who have left the White House in the last five months include public engagement aide Carissa Smith; gender policy aide Kalisha Dessources Figures; National Security Council senior director Linda Etim; digital engagement director Cameron Trimble; and associate counsel Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo. Departures also include Chief of Staff Ron Klain advisers Elizabeth Wilkins and Niyat Mulughetal; press assistant Natalie Austin; National Economic Council aides Joelle Gamble and Connor Maxwell; and presidential personnel aides Danielle Okai, Reggie Greer and Rayshawn Dyson. Other black administration staffers who plan to leave in coming weeks include Deputy White House counsel Danielle Conley and Council of Economic Advisers aide Saharra Griffin, according to the Politico report. Some staffers left on good terms, including for other jobs within the administration and graduate school opportunities, while others said they wanted to refocus after spending years in a tense work environment with little time off or support from superiors. In the first few weeks and months of 2022, Harris senior aides Tina Flournoy, Ashley Etienne, and Vincent Evans (pictured right) all departed as well as her public engagement head Cedric Richmond Harris' former Chief of Staff Tina Flournoy (left) and her ex-communications director Ashley Etienne both departed the White House after Sanders 'I worked for both the President and the Vice President during the campaign cycle, and considered the chance to serve the American people in the Biden-Harris White House nothing short of an honor,' Austin said on her departure. 'I loved my experience on the press team, and left because I wanted a chance to spend more time with family after nearly three years straight of campaigns and government work.' Many black White House staffers said Richmond's departure was particularly difficult for them. They described the former Harris aide as a 'big brother', 'voice of the folks' and a 'nucleus' for black staffers. His departure, they added, has left people 'a little nervous'. 'They brought in a ton of Black people generally to start without ever establishing an infrastructure to retain them or help them be successful,' a black White House official said. 'If there is no clear infrastructure of how to be successful, you become just as invisible in this space than you would be if you were not in it.' Richmond, now a senior adviser at the Democratic National Committee, told Politico that the White House gave young Black staffers more responsibility than other administrations and that many leaving were doing so for jobs with higher compensation. 'A lot of people have been at this grind [for a while] and it's a hard grind [so] a slowing down of the work pace and a better salary becomes more attractive,' he said. 'For young African American staffers who can make these types of salaries, it doesn't just change their plight but their family's plight.' The exodus of black staffers had raised concerns from those who are pushing for diversifications in government offices. 'I have heard about an exodus of Black staffers from the White House 'Blaxit' and I am concerned,' president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Spencer Overton said to Politico. Recently, Karine Jean-Pierre (pictured on May 26, 2022) took over from Jen Psaki as White House press secretary she is the first black and LGBTQ person to serve in this position The president of the group, which tracks staff diversity numbers in government, added: 'Black voters accounted for 22 percent of President Biden's voters in November 2020.' 'It is essential that Black staffers are not only recruited to serve in senior, mid-level and junior White House positions, but are also included in major policy and personnel decisions and have opportunities for advancement.' One White House official pushed back on criticism, claiming that 14 percent of current Biden and Harris staffers at are black, which is in line with the 13.4 percent black population of America. Biden's new Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: 'The president is incredibly proud to have built what continues to be the most diverse White House staff in history, and he is committed to continuing historic representation for Black staff and all communities.' 'This is a normal time for turnover across the board in any administration and Black staff have been promoted at a higher rate than staff who are not diverse,' she added. A new consent ad has been pulled after it was revealed one of its actors made several TikTok videos where he asked women about sex positions and threesomes. The NSW government launched a sexual consent campaign and released a series of videos with one of them featuring actor Paul Sterrantino. The ad was quickly removed after it emerged Sterrantino later starred in a number of his own videos on social media asking women inappropriate and vile questions. A new consent ad has been pulled after it was revealed one of its actors made several TikTok videos where he asked women about sex positions and threesomes In one video, Sterrantino asks two women, 'Where's the worst place you've had sex?' One of the women laughs in shock before answering, 'I can't answer that one'. More videos show Sterrantino asking women if they are a virgin, the worst 'love triangle' they have ever been in, or if they're a 'freak'. 'What's something you don't want your mum knowing?' he asks one woman. She reveals she had slept with multiple people at the same time before Sterrantino presses her for more details including, 'how did you recover?' Daily Mail Australia contacted Sterrantino for comment. The TikTok videos came to light after a distraught father recognised Sterrantino featuring in the consent video before making a complaint to 2GB. 'Ben, the state government needs to have a long hard look at itself,' he told host Ben Fordham. 'The recent ad campaign regarding consent features an actor called Paul Sterrantino. 'Take one look at his social media - this bloke is promoting some extremely questionable content that flies in the face of respect for women. 'The ads should be pulled off air and all material featuring this hypocrite should never see the light of day again.' Fordham added: 'Now, these girls knew they were being filmed, but it's pretty clear some of them are affected by alcohol.' The NSW government launched a sexual consent campaign and released a series of videos with one of them featuring actor Paul Sterrantino More videos show Sterrantino asking women if they are a virgin, the worst 'love triangle' they have ever been in, or if they're a 'freak' Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the TikTok videos appeared to have been made after the consent videos were produced. New 'affirmative consent' laws came into effect on Wednesday. Consent must be 'clearly communicated' and 'ongoing' meaning all parties must say or do something that demonstrates their willingness to continue. Mr Speakman says the affirmative consent model 'sets clearer boundaries for consensual sex and reinforces the basic principle of common decency.' 'Consent is a free choice involving mutual and ongoing communication, and reinforces that consent should not be presumed,' he said. 'It does not require a written agreement or script, or stifle spontaneity. It's a matter of common sense and respect. 'Under our reforms, if you want to engage in sexual activity with someone, then you need to do or say something to find out if they want to have sex with you too. It's that simple.' Airlines responsible for inflicting travel misery on thousands of holidaymakers were last night condemned for offering eye-watering pay packages to senior executives which could total 33million this year. The biggest package of more than 27million could be reaped by TUIs top eight executives across Europe including the tour operators German chief executive Friedrich Joussen, who could receive a maximum of 6.4million. EasyJets top two chief executives could receive up to 5million in pay and benefits between them depending on performance. The biggest package of more than 27million could be reaped by TUIs top eight executives across Europe including the tour operators German chief executive Friedrich Joussen, who could receive a maximum of 6.4million Its Swedish chief executive Johan Lundgren could receive a package totalling 3.145million including a basic salary of 740,000 plus a bonus of up to 200 per cent of his salary and shares of up to 125 per cent. Kenton Jarvis, the chief financial officer, could earn up to 1.95million. And British Airways owner International Airlines Group is to pay chief executive Luis Gallego a basic salary of 820,000. It does not include pension and benefits or incentives. His total 2021 package was 1.11million, including a 738,000 salary. The details can be revealed after weeks of chaos in which hundreds of flights were cancelled. Its Swedish chief executive Johan Lundgren could receive a package totalling 3.145million including a basic salary of 740,000 plus a bonus of up to 200 per cent of his salary and shares of up to 125 per cent Most cancellations and delays have involved BA, Easyjet and TUI which have struggled to recruit staff to replace those laid off during the pandemic. Tory MP Greg Smith, a member of the Commons transport committee, said: High salaries are fine when the business is providing a reliable, satisfactory service to consumers. The airlines simply are not. The figures were also met with fury by passengers. Habiba Adam, 41, from Blackburn, who was part of a family group of 13 who paid 12,000 for a TUI holiday to Turkey which was cancelled, described the wages as absolutely appalling. Disclosure of the pay packages came as it emerged Mr Lundgren used a meeting with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday to complain about how difficult it was to recruit staff in the 17,000 to 24,000-a-year salary bracket. Is this set to be the raunchiest Love Island EVER? Contestants reveal their biggest turn ons and favourite body parts in racy new promo clip (and sex is still on the menu in the villa!) The parents of slain Melbourne mum Samantha Fraser remain on a mission to provide her three children a happy life despite them living with the knowledge she was killed by their own father. Adrian Basham, 44, murdered his estranged wife in the garage of her parents' Phillip Island home on July 23, 2018. The hulking brute had made it look like a suicide just days before he was due to front court over allegations he had repeatedly raped her. Samantha Fraser was a loving mum who would never have taken her own life, a court heard Adrian Basham was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife Samantha Fraser The cold blooded killing saw the couple's children effectively orphaned, with Basham remanded in custody up until his conviction over his ex-wife's murder in April. Basham faces decades behind bars over the murder and subsequent cover-up. Ms Fraser's children Jemima, Rex and April have been in the care of their maternal retired grandparents Trevor and Janine. Their daughter had been expected to pick the kids up from school on the day she was murdered. The doting mother's absence at the school gates that day had set off alarm bells. After suffering for years in silence awaiting justice for his daughter, Mr Fraser has now gone public with his grief, but only in the hope that it benefits his grandchildren. 'After the events of the last two years, the lockdowns, the home-schooling and all this grief and trauma, the children have dreams of doing some special things,' Mr Fraser stated. A GoFundMe page has been established in the hope of helping the Frasers provide everything the children would have enjoyed financially if their mother was still alive. 'The much-valued assistance and kindness of society will help make these dreams a reality. Any donations are greatly appreciated,' Mr Fraser stated. Since the death of their mother, the children have not only had to deal with their own unimaginable grief, but two years of Covid-19 lockdowns. Samantha Fraser fought hard for her life, but could not overpower the hulking beast who murdered her Adrian Basham is accused of killing Samantha Fraser (pictured) inside her Phillip Island home in 2018 Rodney Boyle, who initiated the fundraiser, said Mr and Mrs Fraser had experienced what no parent should. 'And in the midst of their grief, theyve been parenting her children, supporting them through their grief, bearing the financial costs of raising children again, and dealing with the psychological effects this type of loss endures,' he stated. 'Covid-19 has impacted the kids' ability to go to school, socialise and reap the benefits of the amazing Phillip Island community whose support has been unwavering over the last four years.' 'Janine and Trevor want to give their beloved daughters kids a life full of love, adventures and positive experiences.' It was Ms Fraser's devotion to her children that immediately cast doubt on her supposed suicide. Her battered body had been found hanging from the garage door of her parents' fortified Seagrove Way home on Phillip Island - south east of Melbourne. Basham had struck while her parents had been away on a trip to the United States. Police alleged he snuck into the garage as Ms Fraser returned home after meeting with friends. DNA evidence showed that Basham's biological material was found under both fingernails of Ms Fraser's hands. Basham had long denied murdering Ms Fraser but in the end it took the jury a little over a day to find him guilty of the calculated murder. Basham had faced multiple charges of raping Ms Fraser both in 2014 and 2016. Ms Fraser had alleged Basham had first raped her in 2014 while she was grabbing food out of their pantry. Basham makes his getaway after murdering the mother of his children and making it look like she had suicided The Cowes home where Samantha Fraser was allegedly murdered in 2018 Basham would allegedly rape her again that very same year, this time while she slept. The third rape allegedly took place in 2016, also while Ms Fraser was fast asleep. The jury heard Ms Fraser had been terrified of how Basham would react to her fronting him at court about the upcoming rape case. It was his prime motive for killing her. The jury heard Basham had repeatedly threatened harm against his ex-wife, telling Ms Fraser 'If I can't have you no one will'. Ms Fraser was certain Basham had been tracking her phone. Although Basham had an active intervention order out on him, she feared it would not stop him from doing her harm. The court heard Ms Fraser weighed just 57kgs and was considerably smaller in height than Basham. She had fought bravely for her life, but was no match for the cowardly brute. In closing the Supreme Court of Victoria trial against Basham in April, Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC told the jury there was 'no way on earth' she would have committed suicide and abandoned her young children. 'She was a loving mother, loved and devoted to her children,' she said. 'This was a staged suicide by the accused with the nice touch of the knocked over step ladder, very close to the hanging body,' she said. Basham will return to court for a pre-sentence plea hearing in September. Samantha Fraser told her new boyfriend in a text message the night before her death that she had been looking forward to her future Adrian Basham bashed and murdered his wife before attempting to make it look like a suicide Samantha Fraser had been expected to pick-up her children from school, but never arrived In closing the defence case, Basham's barrister Ashley Halphen told the jury they ought have a reasonable doubt in the case against him, because Ms Fraser may have killed herself. 'We submit Mr Basham left the garage at Seagrove Way when Samantha Fraser was still alive. Nothing has changed since this was raised when we first addressed you way back when,' he said. 'It is a possibility, that we submit is reasonable, and cannot be excluded on the evidence. 'The only possible explanation then for the death of Samantha Fraser is suicide.' The court heard Basham had been sighted on Phillip Island in the days leading up to the alleged murder. The home where Ms Fraser was staying has been described as a 'fortress', the jury heard. 'This house was fortified, for want of a better word,' Ms Rogers said. 'There was no means of access at all to the house by the would-be burglar, fortified by the pieces of timber in the window tracks and door tracks.' A Melbourne teenager had been enjoying a rare night out with friends after enduring a year of lockdowns when a child predator duped her into a ride-share from hell. Pakistani student Faizan Abdullah, 29, had cruised up and down Lygon Street, just outside of Melbourne's CBD, searching for prey on February 6 last year when he spotted the 17-year old girl with a phone in her hand. She had been waiting for an Uber driver, but not the the off-duty Uber Eats one that stopped and waved her inside while she was distracted. Faizan Abdullah will be sent back to Pakistan for sexually assaulting a teenager Faizan Abdullah, 29, sexually assaulted a teenager who though she had been his Uber driver Faizan Abdullah's brave victim fronted court to tell him how she had ruined her life (stock image) What happened next was the stuff of nightmares as Abdullah drove her around the backstreets of Brunswick before violating her in despicable ways. Abdullah had been granted access into Australia as a student on the back of his PHD in Information Technology, of which he had written several scientific papers. His victim, who had just started year 12, had enjoyed dinner in trendy Fitzroy - just outside of Melbourne's CBD - when her world was tipped upside down. Abdullah, 29, had knocked off from a part-time job working security along Lygon Street in Brunswick when he decided to go cruising up and down the popular restaurant strip looking for prey. His young girl had been on the phone to her boyfriend waiting for her real Uber ride when Abdullah pulled up, rolled down his window and said: 'Uber'. Distracted, she climbed into the front passenger seat as Abdullah had cunningly locked the back doors. The Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard on Thursday the teen knew immediately she was in big trouble. Abdullah had no idea where she lived and within minutes of jumping in her real Uber driver began texting her asking where she was. After driving through the backstreets of Brunswick for seven long minutes, Abdullah switched off his phone, got out of his car and opened the boot. His terrified passenger jumped out and as she attempted to call her boyfriend Abdullah struck. The court heard he pushed the teenager up against a fence and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. 'You're gorgeous,' he moaned as his victim begged him to stop. When done, Abdullah apologised before driving away. Faizan Abdullah had been working security on Lygon Street, which is an iconic Melbourne dining strip Faizan Abdullah had worked as an Uber Eats driver. A teenage girl had ordered an Uber, but she was distracted when she jumped into the car of Faizan Abdullah Upon his arrest, Abdullah cruelly claimed his victim had attempted to seduce him. Dressed in a short 'appealing' dress, she asked him if he had a girlfriend, Abdullah claimed. 'She started moving her hand, I said "this is not right, if you do that you have to get out of my car",' he told police. The terrified teen then supposedly rubbed his leg and put her hand in his lap. She tried to 'attract him', but Abdullah knew she had a boyfriend, he claimed. Abdullah said the teen 'gazed into his eyes' as she tried to approach him. Police failed to swallow his lies. When detectives checked his phone they were confronted with some of the sickest child porn images going up, some of which showed babies being abused. Abdullah pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and sexual assault. On Thursday he was sentenced to 15 months in jail, but with time already served will be released into immigration detention in days. With his student visa cancelled, Abdullah faces deportation unless he can successfully appeal the decision. Magistrate Donna Bakos condemned Abdullah for his 'outrageous' offending. His victim had bravely read a devastating victim impact statement to the court which outlined all the ways her attacker had ruined her life. 'You behaved in the most brazen and outrageous way to a young woman who trusted you were the person who were booked to drive her home,' Ms Bakos said. 'You drove her to a quiet location and proceeded to violate her ... members of the public have the right to feel safe and be safe as they go about their lives without the threat of being preyed upon by a sexual predator.' If you've been off-roading before, it's likely you remember bouncing around the back of a 4x4. But the days of clinging on for dear life could soon be a thing of the past, if a new concept car is anything to go by. The concept vehicle, called The Huntress, features wheels that can twist autonomously to cope with uneven terrains. If you've been off-roading before, it's likely you remember bouncing around the back of a 4x4. But the days of clinging on for dear life could soon be a thing of the past, if a new concept car is anything to go by The concept vehicle, called The Huntress, features wheels that can twist autonomously to cope with uneven terrains The Huntress is an electric off-road concept car designed by Connery Xu, that wouldn't be out of place in the Transformers franchise. The two-seater vehicle features an independent suspension system, which allows each wheel to move autonomously in response to different conditions. Half of the car's body is also able to twist off-road according to different conditions, such as uneven terrains and bumpy roads. The Huntress is an electric off-road concept car designed by Connery Xu , that wouldn't be out of place in the Transformers franchise The front of the car features an unusual set of headlights that can rotate horizontally, according to Mr Xu's sketches The front of the car features an unusual set of headlights that can rotate horizontally, according to Mr Xu's sketches. As the lights rotate, they reveal another set of headlights, providing drivers with better visibility in dark or foggy conditions. Meanwhile, the electric motor is placed at the rear of the car, with spare tires also positioned between the two back wheels. Unfortunately, the car is currently still a concept, and it remains unclear when, or if, it could become a reality. Half of the car's body is also able to twist off-road according to different conditions, such as uneven terrains and bumpy roads Unfortunately, the car is currently still a concept, and it remains unclear when, or if, it could become a reality However, it offers an interesting glimpse at what the future of off-roading could look like. The Huntress isn't the first concept car to hit the headlines in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Hyundai's 'walking car' concept moved a step closer to reality after the vehicle manufacturer unveiled a new $20 million (16 million) development centre to expedite its arrival. The aim of the New Horizon Studio, which has opened in Montana in the US, is to build vehicles for future customers who want or need to travel over terrains which are challenging for conventional ground vehicles. The Huntress concept car offers an interesting glimpse at what the future of off-roading could look like It will focus on the development of Ultimate Mobility Vehicles (UMVs), including a car with legs that can simply walk over anything it struggles to drive over. The South Korean firm previously showcased designs for UMVs at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019. The Elevate concept, which resembles the All Terrain Armoured Transport (AT-AT) walkers found in the Star Wars universe, combines a traditional wheel with a leg that unfolds for dangerous terrain. Advertisement Over the Platinum Jubilee weekend, many of us will take a look back at the Queen's achievements from her historic reign - but did you know that her love for Corgis may well have saved the breed from extinction? The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is now one of the UK's most popular breeds according to The Kennel Club, despite being listed as 'vulnerable' in 2014. Adorable in their own right, Corgis have four short legs, a long snout and two huge pointed ears, but are more famous for being the royal breed of choice - the Queen has owned over 30 during her reign so far. The trend in the breed's popularity appears to follow milestones in Her Majesty's life, as she took to royal duties with her pack - currently just pure-breed Muick - closely in tow. In 1944, the Queen announced she had been given a Pembroke Corgi puppy, Susan, for her birthday and the breed jumped in popularity by 56 per cent. Over the years, peaks and troughs in the number of Corgis sold in the UK traced the dogs' airtime, coinciding with advances in broadcasting and the release of popular TV series like 'The Crown'. This month, The Kennel Club has announced it received the highest number of Corgi puppy registrations in 30 years in 2021, marking the Queen's historic 70 years on the throne and as Patron of The Kennel Club. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is now one of the UK's favourite breeds despite being listed as 'vulnerable' in 2014. The trend in its popularity appears to follow milestones in the Queen's (pictured last year) life, as she took to duties with her Corgis in tow Queen Elizabeth II with one of her corgis at Sandringham, 1970. She has owned over 30 during her reign so far The Queen celebrates her Platinum Jubilee today, and Brits across the country are celebrating the milestone with merchandise themed on her Majesty's favourite dog breed - the Pembroke Welsh Corgi CORGI POPULARITY TIMELINE 1933 - Princess Elizabeth was given her first Corgi puppy, Dookie, and a photo of them together was published in the press 1944 - The Queen was gifted beloved Corgi Susan for her 18th birthday 1957 - The Queen's first televised Christmas address, marking advances in broadcasting and increasing access to the Royal family and their pooches 1960 - Corgi registrations peaked at nearly 9,000 puppies, just over seven years after the Queen's coronation 2007 - Ban on tail-docking - the practice of cutting off the animal's tail - which was standard practice for the breed at the time 2009 - Pembroke Welsh Corgi was first added to The Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list of British breeds, when annual registrations numbered between 300 and 450 2014 - The Kennel Club noted a record low of just 274 Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies born, and was added to the 'Vulnerable Native Breeds' list 2017 - The Queen's corgis were portrayed in hit Netflix series ' The Crown' by canine actors Lily and Prince 2018 - The Pembroke Welsh Corgi was removed from The Kennel Club's list of 'At Watch' breeds, following an increase of 16 per cent 2021 - The Kennel Club recorded the highest number of Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy registrations in 30 years; 1,223 2022 - Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrated Advertisement Bill Lambert, spokesperson for The Kennel Club, said: 'We are delighted to see so many dog lovers flying the flag for our native British and Irish breeds, and especially to see the Pembroke Welsh Corgi once again becoming a beloved breed nationwide, during such an important year for the Queen. 'The breed has certainly seen a boost in recent years, largely down it would seem to their starring roles in The Crown, but the Queen did play an integral part in introducing Corgis to the public consciousness originally, so what a wonderful testament to her 70th year on the throne, to see her beloved breed having a resurgence in popularity. 'We have such a wide variety of pedigree breeds in this country, each with completely different characteristics, so it is so encouraging to see so many people starting to opt for those vulnerable breeds that had been at risk of disappearing from our streets and parks, but who do in fact have the potential to be a wonderful pet for the right owner.' After the Queen got her first Pembroke Welsh Corgi while she was still a princess, the number of them in the country rose steadily. Corgi registrations peaked at nearly 9,000 puppies in 1960, seven years after the Queen's coronation. This came during a time of vast advances in broadcasting technology - the Queen's first televised Christmas address was in 1957 - and that allowed more access to the Royal Family and its pooches. Over the years, the popularity of the breed slowly declined, and in 2009 the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was first added to the Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list of British breeds when annual registrations numbered between 300 and 450. The decline is thought to have been influenced by a 2007 ban on tail-docking - the practice of cutting off the animal's tail. This was a cosmetic tradition that meant a Corgi would adhere to the breed standard, but may have originated to prevent the dog being injured while working in the fields. Despite this, it has remained popular in the USA and placed 11th on American Kennel Club list of most popular breeds in 2021. The dogs featured in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, when they took part in a James Bond skit with Her Majesty herself and actor Daniel Craig. The starring role did not have an immediate effect on their popularity in the UK, in 2014 The Kennel Club noted a record low of just 274 puppies born. This led to the breed being placed on the 'Vulnerable Native Breeds' list, which monitors those breeds that number fewer than 300 annual puppy registrations each year. It didn't stay that way for long though, as canine actors Lily and Prince became stars of the Netflix television series 'The Crown' in 2017, portraying royal Corgis alongside both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman. The next year the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was removed from The Kennel Club's list of 'At Watch' breeds, following an increase of 16 per cent. These most recent figures are the first time that the breed's numbers have surpassed 1,000 since 1994. In 2021, there were 1,223 Pembroke Welsh Corgis registered - the highest number recorded for the breed in almost 30 years, coinciding with the start of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the Queen. The popularity of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi reached an all time high after canine actors Lily and Prince became stars of the Netflix television series 'The Crown' in 2017, portraying the royal dogs alongside both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman Corgis took part in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, when featured in a James Bond skit with Her Majesty herself and actor Daniel Craig. A few years later, the breed experienced a surge in popularity with UK dog-owners ALL THE ROYAL CORGIS - THAT WE KNOW OF! Dookie Jane Carol Crackers Susan Tiny Heather Sugar Honey Bee Spick Span Monty Flash Foxy Bushy Brush Bisto Oxo Emma Linnet Willow Noble Holly Whisky Sherry Cider Berry Vulcan Candy Muick Fergus Advertisement Diana King, a Vice-President for the Welsh Corgi League, said: 'It is great to see that the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is firmly back in the hearts of the British public. 'However, with the breed growing in popularity, it is more important than ever that anyone looking to buy a Corgi puppy takes the time to research their decision and doesn't simply choose a breed based on seeing it on TV. 'Instead, they should speak to breed experts to find out more about the Pembroke Welsh Corgi's characteristics and how it may fit in their lifestyle, as well as choosing a responsible breeder who will always prioritise the health and welfare of the breed.' The Queen's first involvement with the breed dates all the way back to her childhood in the early 1930s, when her and sister Margaret first met the Pembroke Corgis of their family friends and wanted to have one too. Their parents, then the Duke and Duchess of York, bought Rozavel Golden Eagle, or 'Dookie', from a breeder in Surrey and a press photo of Princess Elizabeth and the puppy published in 1933 sparked an interest in the breed. The family later bought another Corgi from the same breeder called Rozavel Lady Jane, known simply as 'Jane' at home, leading to an illustrated photo book for children, 'Our Princesses and Their Dogs' being published in December 1936. Jane had two puppies, Carol and Crackers, that joined the royal pack before Susan was given to the Princess as a gift for her 18th Birthday when she ascended the throne. A beloved companion, Susan even accompanied the Queen on her honeymoon in 1947, and she was the first in a long line of Windsor Pembroke Corgis that continued for 15 generations. Susan died in 1959, and there is a gravestone for her at Sandringham that reads 'Susan / born 20 February 1944/ died 26 January 1959 / for almost 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen.' She was succeeded in a vast lineage that saw the Queen's Corgi pack continue to, and, in 1981, it was reported that no less than 13 Corgis accompanied her to Balmoral for her summer holiday. Her final litter was born on 9 July 2003, but after that Her Majesty stopped breeding, a decision thought to be influenced by the deaths of her mother and sister. Despite royal duties, the Queen has always been a hands-on pet owner; she attends their meal times of food prepared in the Royal kitchens in the 'Corgi room', where their wicker sleeping baskets are also kept. Currently, the Queen just has one Corgi called Muick, who she purchased for 2,650 just over a year ago, and he is named after Loch Muick, a lake on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. She also bought Fergus, a dachshund-corgi mix named after her war hero uncle Fergus Bowes-Lyon, around the same time, but he sadly passed away a few months later. Princess Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth II, with two corgi dogs at her home at 145 Piccadilly, London, July 1936 The Queen and her beloved dog Susan pictured together at the Royal Lodge, Windsor in 1946, alongside the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Susan was the first in a line of Windsor Pembroke Corgis that continued for 15 generations Despite royal duties, the Queen has always been a hands-on pet owner; she attends their meal times of food prepared in the Royal kitchens in the 'Corgi room', where their wicker sleeping baskets are also kept. Pictured with one of her corgis in 1952 The Queen with some of her corgis at the Windsor Horse Trials (left) and walking with two of the dogs in the the grounds of Windsor Castle (right) Queen Elizabeth II stops to view a group of corgi dogs following her visit to the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, Alberta May 24, 2005. She has owned at least one corgi since 1933, when her family bought pure-bred Dookie The word 'Corgi' is Welsh for 'Dwarf Dog', and there are two types; the Pembroke, which is the Queen's breed, and the Cardigan Corgi, a descendent Teckel family of dogs, which also produced the Dachshund. Pembroke Welsh Corgis originated in Pembrokeshire, Wales from the Spitz family of dogs which are characterised by long, thick fur and pointed ears and muzzle. Corgis are a cattle herding breed that can be traced back as far as 1107 AD, but were registered as a native British breed by The Kennel Club in 1925. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is not the only native breed taken off The Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list this year, as the Bedlington Terrier, Bullmastiff, Cairn Terrier, Irish Terrier, Norfolk Terrier, and the Parson Russell Terrier have all risen in demand. The Bearded Collie, Old English Sheepdog and the Miniature Bull Terrier have all moved from being 'Vulnerable' to 'At Watch', with the latter having almost doubled in popularity. Last year saw the highest number of annual puppy registrations ever recorded by The Kennel Club, with 349,013 across all breeds, exceeding the previous record set in 1989 of 283,915 puppy registrations. Nationwide lockdowns implemented throughout 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic saw millions of owners purchasing and adopting a puppy companion. Between October and December 2020, more than 1,800 people called the Dogs Trust wanting to hand over dogs aged under one year old. Still the demand drove average prices up to 2,237 last year, but the market 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 Kennel Club's Bill Lambert added: 'Our dogs have been an undeniable source of comfort over the past two years and of course, while we know how rewarding dog ownership is, it is so important that those considering buying a puppy do their homework first into finding both the right breed for the lifestyle, as well as a responsible breeder who will give their puppy the very best start in life. 'With dog ownership at an all-time high, it has never been more crucial to be carrying out thorough, extensive research, taking time to find the right dog and breeder, as well as preparing for your new arrival and being a responsible owner.' It was launched to look back in time to the dawn of the universe and to capture what happened just a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang. Now, six months after the launch of astronomy's new super space telescope, NASA is finally ready to release the first, real colour images taken by the James Webb observatory. Astronomers say the pictures are 'sure to deliver a long-waited "wow"' when they are revealed to the public on July 12. NASA added that it will be 'a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before'. The US space agency, which leads the Webb project, has previously released a set of engineering pictures to demonstrate that all the hardware is working as it should on the $10 billion (7.4 billion) telescope. Six months after the launch of astronomy's new super space telescope, NASA is finally ready to release the first, real colour images taken by the James Webb observatory (pictured) Two images of the Large Magellanic Cloud captured by Spitzer (left) and Webb (right). The Webb image not only shows the foreground stars in sharp detail but also more subtle details such as wispy clouds of interstellar gas and hundreds of background stars and galaxies 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 stabilise the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations. Advertisement Those images showed slightly different views of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, but it is unclear what the first full-colour images will capture. Webb has been going through a six-month period of preparation before it can begin science work, calibrating its instruments to its space environment and aligning its mirrors. It was launched to space on December 25 last year and later settled into orbit one million miles from our planet. Scientists hope the observatory a replacement for the 32-year-old Hubble telescope will be able to peer back in time 13.5 billion years to a point within a mere 100-200 million years of the Big Bang. It has an ambitious mission to study the early universe, work out how fast it is now expanding and analyse objects throughout the cosmos ranging from galaxies to exoplanets. The telescope has a famous golden mirror that is made up of 18 individual hexagonal segments, each controlled by seven actuators that allow for precise movement and focusing. They had to be slowly and meticulously deployed over the past six months to prepare James Webb for its science mission. 'As we near the end of preparing the observatory for science, we are on the precipice of an incredibly exciting period of discovery about our universe,' said Eric Smith, a Webb program scientist at NASA's headquarters in Washington. 'The release of Webb's first full-colour images will offer a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before 'These images will be the culmination of decades of dedication, talent, and dreams but they will also be just the beginning.' NASA said Webb was now at 'full power' and 'ready to begin its science mission'. Deciding what the telescope should look at first has been a project more than five years in the making. It involved an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which is home to Webb's science and mission operations. 'Our goals for Webb's first images and data are both to showcase the telescope's powerful instruments and to preview the science mission to come,' said astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb project scientist at STScI. 'They are sure to deliver a long-awaited "wow" for astronomers and the public.' Once each of Webb's instruments has been calibrated, tested, and given the green light by its science and engineering teams, the first images and spectroscopic observations will be made. 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 The team will proceed through a list of targets that have been preselected, before the images are processed for the public. While careful planning for Webb's first real pictures has been underway for a long time, NASA said the new telescope is so powerful that it is difficult to predict exactly how they will look. 'Of course, there are things we are expecting and hoping to see, but with a new telescope and this new high-resolution infrared data, we just won't know until we see it,' said STScI's lead science visuals developer Joseph DePasquale. The new images will be the first in full colour and the first to showcase Webb's full science capabilities. In addition to imagery, Webb will be capturing spectroscopic data detailed information astronomers can read in light, while all of the data taken while aligning the telescope and preparing the instruments will also be made publicly available. After capturing its first images, the observatory's scientific observations will begin, continuing to explore the mission's key science themes. Teams have already applied through a competitive process for time to use the telescope, in what astronomers call its first 'cycle', or first year of observations. These observations mark the official beginning of Webb's general science operations the work it was designed to do. Lift off: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully blasted into space on December 25 Astronomers will use Webb to observe the infrared universe, analyse the data collected, and publish scientific papers on their discoveries. Beyond what is already planned for Webb, there are the unexpected discoveries astronomers can't anticipate. In 1990, when Hubble was launched, dark energy was completely unknown. Now it is one of the most exciting areas of astrophysics. Scientists are now eagerly-awaiting what secrets James Webb might unlock and what this could mean for our understanding of the universe. Described by NASA as the premier space-science observatory of the next decade, Webb will mainly view the cosmos in the infrared spectrum, allowing it to gaze through clouds of gas and dust where stars are being born. In comparison, its predecessor Hubble has operated primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths since its 1990 launch. Webb is about 100 times more powerful than Hubble, enabling it to observe objects at greater distances, thus farther back in time, than Hubble or any other telescope. NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will work in tandem for a while. James Webb began development in 1996 and was originally envisaged to launch in 2007, but a major redesign in 2005 put this back and a series of further delays led to it eventually making it to orbit at the end of last year. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will soon show its full capabilities to the world. The space agency recently announced it would release Webb's first full-color images and spectroscopic data in mid-July, some days after the telescope is expected to receive its commission. The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas day 2021 and is expected to be a fully commissioned space telescope by the end of June, per Space.com. Webb's First Photos as Commissioned Space Telescope According to NASA's announcement, it will release Webb's first full-color images and spectroscopic data on July 12 - a time when the space telescope already has its commission. Spectroscopic data are detailed information astronomers can read in light, with which they can see the temperature, distance, and speed of a star or planet. NASA mentioned that Webb's first photos and spectroscopic data will be taken once each of Webb's instruments has been calibrated, tested, and approved for use by its science and engineering teams. Afterward, NASA's team will proceed through a list of targets decided by an international committee to exercise Webb's capabilities. Although NASA is keeping Webb's first official subjects for its photographic capabilities a secret, as a separate Space.com article reports, the space telescope's subjects have been selected by NASA with the help of the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Space Telescope Science Insitute (STScI) in Baltimore. Read More: 'Top Gun: Maverick' Star Glen Powell Creates 'Hangman's Direct Hits' Playlist on Spotify - What Songs Are in It? Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at STScI, mentioned that their goals for Webb's first images and data are to showcase Webb's instruments and preview the science mission the space telescope will undertake. "They are sure to deliver a long-awaited 'wow' for astronomers and the public," Pontoppidan added. Meanwhile, NASA gave a clue on what the subjects will, saying that the first image package of materials would showcase the science themes that inspired the mission and will be the focus of its work: the early universe, the evolution of galaxies through time, the life cycle of stars, and other worlds. The space telescope was recently set to study the geology of two super-Earths, which could be the subject for the "other worlds" part of NASA's statement. While Webb's first images will be in color, it is difficult to predict exactly how they would look due to the space telescope's instruments. However, Joseph DePasquale, STScl's lead science visuals developer confirmed that there are things NASA's experts are expecting and hoping to see, but they won't know until they see them due to Webb being a new telescope and "this new high-resolution infrared data." What's Next for Webb? NASA plans to start scientific observations after Webb has captured its first images with the intention of continuing to explore the mission's key science themes. These observations mark the official beginning of Webb's general science operations, which it was designed to do. STScI mentioned that during Webb's first cycle, it would study various celestial bodies, such as brown dwarfs, star clusters, protostars, and Deep Fields. Related Article: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Set To Stdy Geology of 2 Super-Earths It's a widespread problem at schools in cities around the world, and now a new study has warned that noise pollution can affect children's memory. Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health studied children attending 38 schools in Barcelona. They found that children at schools with higher traffic noise had slower cognitive development. 'Our study supports the hypothesis that childhood is a vulnerable period during which external stimuli such as noise can affect the rapid process of cognitive development that takes place before adolescence,' said Jordi Sunyer, an author of the study. It's a widespread problem at schools in cities around the world, and now a new study has warned that noise pollution can affect children's memory (stock image) How much does noise affect cognitive development? The study found that a 5 decibel increase in noise levels resulted in: 11.5 per cent slower working memory development 23.5 per cent slower complex working memory development 4.8 per cent slower attention capacity Advertisement In the study, the researchers studied 2,680 children aged 7-10, who attended 38 schools across Barcelona. To assess the possible impact of traffic noise on cognitive development, the researchers assessed the children's attention and working memory. Over a 12-month period, the children completed cognitive tests four times. Noise measurements were also collected over the same period from the schools' playgrounds and classrooms. An analysis of the results revealed that the progression of working memory and attention was slower in students attending schools with higher levels of traffic noise. For example, a 5 decibel increase in outdoor noise levels resulted in working memory development that was 11.5 per cent slower than average, and a complex working memory development that was 23.5 per cent slower. It also resulted in attention capacity development that was 4.8 per cent slower than average. In the study, the researchers studied 2,680 children aged 7-10, who attended 38 schools across Barcelona In terms of how outdoor and indoor noise compared, the researchers found that children in schools with noisy playgrounds performed worse on all tests. However, noisy classrooms only appeared to affect the children's attention, and not their working memory. 'This finding suggests that noise peaks inside the classroom may be more disruptive to neurodevelopment than average decibel level,' said Dr Maria Foraster, lead author of the study. 'This is important because it supports the hypothesis that noise characteristics may be more influential than average noise levels, despite the fact that current policies are based solely on average decibels.' The researchers also looked at the children's average noise levels at home, based on a road traffic noise map of Barcelona. Surprisingly, they found no link between residential noise and cognitive development. 'This could be because noise exposure at school is more detrimental as it affects vulnerable windows of concentration and learning processes,' Dr Forester said. 'On the other hand, although noise measurements were taken at the schools, noise levels at the children's homes were estimated using a noise map that may be less accurate and, in any case, only reflected outdoor noise. This, too, may have influenced the results.' While the reason for the findings remains unclear, the researchers hope their findings will spark further studies on road traffic and its effect on children's cognitive development. Advertisement Satellite images have revealed that the consequences of global warming can be seen from space as the Alps are turning greener. The European mountain range is famously covered in a blanket of snow for the majority of the year, attracting skiers and snowboarders across the world. But new data has found that vegetation above the tree line has increased in nearly 80 per cent of the Alps over the last 38 years. Although the new plants may assist in reducing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, this is threatening biodiversity in the mountains. Shrubs that are better suited to the new climate conditions will out-compete many Alpine plants, researchers from the University of Lausanne and the University of Basel said. They also discovered that snow cover had decreased significantly in almost 10 per cent of the area measured. Lead author and assistant professor Sabine Rumpf concluded that the observations were the result of climate change, and are likely to get worse. Slide me Satellite images reveal the consequences of global warming can be seen from space as the Alps are turning greener. Aerial photographs of the Alps taken in 1998 (left) and 2021 (right) show an increase in vegetation because it is slightly greener This is a black and white aerial photograph of the Swiss Alps taken in 1984 when the study was started. Over the next 38 years, global warming caused an increase in vegetation and decrease in snow cover as noted by scientists in Switzerland Graphics showing changes of vegetation and snow cover in the European Alps from 1984 to 2021; A - Vegetation productivity, B - Summer snow, C - Year-round snow. Bar chart D shows these changes as a proportion of coloured pixels in the graphics She said: 'The scale of the change has turned out to be absolutely massive in the Alps. 'Greener mountains reflect less sunlight and therefore lead to further warming and, in turn, to further shrinkage of reflective snow cover.' Mountain landscapes are biodiversity hotspots and provide a host of important ecosystem services. For example, meltwater from alpine glaciers and snow provides nearly half of the world's freshwater resources. However, mountain environments are also more susceptible to climate change, and are warming roughly twice as fast as the global average. This is suspected to be a result of the peaks losing their white blanket of snow that reflects the sun's radiation, and is replaced with darker-coloured ground which absorbs heat. The new colouration is thought to supplement the heat-trapping effect of greenhouse gases, and are heating up more quickly relative to land that never had snow cover. Yet, while melting glaciers have become a symbol of climate change in the Alps and Arctic regions, the reduction in snow is not the biggest consequence on the mountains, according to the researchers. Vegetation above the tree line in the Alps has increased in nearly 80 per cent of the Alps, while snow cover had decreased in almost 10 per cent of the area measured, since 1984 This graphic shows the 'greening' and 'browning' in the Alps over the last 38 years. The green pixels are proportional to vegetation increase, and brown pixels represent a vegetation decrease. Glaciated areas are transparent as they were not considered in the study Professor Rumpf from the University of Basel, with Professor Gregoire Mariethoz and Professor Antoine Guisan from the University of Lausanne, investigated the change in vegetation using Landsat images from 1984 to 2021. Their study found that plant biomass above the tree line increased in more than 77 per cent of the observed area. This growth is called 'greening', and is because plants are colonising new areas of the Alps and the vegetation is generally becoming denser and taller. It is a result of changes in precipitation and longer vegetation periods as a result of rising temperatures, and predominated in warmer areas. Additionally, less than one per cent of the observed Alpine area experienced 'browning', where plant productivity declined. 'Alpine plants are adapted to harsh conditions, but theyre not very competitive,' said Professor Rumpf. As environmental conditions change, she says, these specialised species lose their advantage and are out-competed. She added: 'The unique biodiversity of the Alps is therefore under considerable pressure.' The new study has been published in the journal Science. GLOBAL WARMING AND MOUNTAINS Certain gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat similar to the glass roof of a greenhouse, and they are called greenhouse gases During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere and Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight At night, the Earth's surface cools, releasing heat back into the air, but some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere Human activities, for example burning fossil fuels like coal and oil, puts more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere Too much of these greenhouse gases can cause Earth's atmosphere to trap more and more heat, causing the planet to warm up Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earths global average temperature by about 1.8F (1C), a number that is currently increasing by 0.36F (0.2C) per decade Permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets are all struggling to stay in tact in the face of the warmer climate Some animal and plant species rely heavily on cold conditions and are migrating to higher altitudes to find suitable habitat This is putting severe strain on the ecosystems as more animals and more species are living in an ever-shrinking region On top of the environmental pressure, the lack of ice on mountains is vastly increasing the risks of landslides and volcanic eruptions Permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets are all struggling to stay in tact in the face of the warmer climate that is a result of the greenhouse effect Advertisement Alongside colleagues in the Netherlands and Finland, the scientists also used the high-resolution satellite data to study reduction in snow cover over the last 38 years. Excluding regions below 1,700 meters, glaciers and forests, they looked at the satellite images to see which areas had become "snow-free" over time. The results found that the change in snow cover above the tree line had declined significantly in almost 10 per cent of the area. This peaked at colder temperatures, driven predominantly by precipitation changes brought on by climate change. Antoine Guisan said: 'Previous analyses of satellite data hadnt identified any such trend, 'This may be because the resolution of the satellite images was insufficient or because the periods considered were too short.' They could not use the images to draw conclusions about snow depth, however they claim previous studies taking ground-based measurements have shown a decrease. As global warming increases, the "greening" is also likely going to contribute to snow recession along with the rising temperature. More of the glaciers will melt which may lead to landslides, rockfalls and mudflows, and the thawing of permafrost could release "locked in" greenhouse gases. This will likely have consequences on snow sports, tourism and the drinking water supply, as well as threatening fragile alpine plant and animal communities. Mountain environments are also more susceptible to climate change, and are warming roughly twice as fast as the global average, thought to be because the snow once reflected the sun's rays but is now being melted by the rising temperatures Climate change has dramatically altered the Swiss Alps by transforming glaciers into nearly 1,200 new lakes since 1850 and 1,000 of them still exist today. A team of scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) combined aerial photo data of the massive mountain range and years of data on glaciers in Switzerland to determine the inventory of lakes. The analysis also revealed 180 of the existing lakes had only been created from 2006 through 2016, when 18 new bodies of water appeared each year. According to the scientists, glaciers lost a full two percent of their volume in 2020 alone. Climate change has dramatically altered the Swiss Alps by transforming glaciers into nearly 1,200 new lakes since 1850 and 1,000 of them still exist today. Pictured is Steisee, Canton of Berne Scientists warned that the growing number of glacial lakes increases the risk of such outbursts and thus the danger of flood waves for the settlements below. Pictured is Griesseeli, Canton of Uri, between Clariden and Klausenpass A quarter of the newly formed lakes have either shrunk or disappeared altogether. For the study, the team recorded the location, elevation, shape and area of the 1,200 lakes at different times, along with the type and material of the dam, surface drainage and recorded development of the lake. The assessment showed that there was an initial peak in glacial lake formation in the Swiss Alps between 1946 and 1973, when nearly eight new lakes appeared on average each year. From there a brief decline was observed, but then picked up again between 2006 and 2016, when 18 new lakes appearing each year on average, while the water surface swelled by over 4,300 square feet annually. It's commonly thought the giraffe evolved to grow its six-foot-long neck so it could reach leaves on the highest branches. But a new study by Chinese experts claims the mammal's distinctive neck evolved over millions of years because it was an effective weapon. Researchers came to this conclusion following an analysis of fossils from a 'strange' early giraffoid species called Discokeryx xiezhi, which roamed the Xinjiang region of northwest China 17 million years ago. Results suggest giraffes evolved long necks for hitting other males in the fight for a female, because the longer a neck allowed them to generate more power and speed. Scroll down for video Fossils of a strange early giraffoid have revealed the key driving forces in giraffe evolution, say Chinese researchers. This illustration depicts two fighting males of the extinct early giraffoid species (Discokeryx xiezhi, foreground) and two fighting males of the modern day Northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis, background) D. XIEZHI: A 'STRANGE' EARLY GIRAFFOID Discokeryx xiezhi is an extinct species in the superfamily Giraffoidea. It lived in the Xinjiang region of China up to 17 million years ago. Researchers describe it as 'strange', because it had a more stumpy neck than today's giraffes, and also a single dome-shaped ossicone on its head. It had highly complex head-neck joints that were suited for whacking an opponent in a fight for mates. Advertisement Unlike modern giraffes, D. xiezhi had only one ossicone the skin-covered bone structure at the top of the head but it was shaped more like a dome or a disc. D. xiezhi is so-called because its single ossicone resembles that of the xiezhi, a one-horned creature from ancient Chinese mythology. The new study was led by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. 'Both living giraffes and Discokeryx xiezhi belong to the Giraffoidea, a superfamily,' said study author Wang Shiqi at IVPP. 'Although their skull and neck morphologies differ greatly, both are associated with male courtship struggles and both have evolved in an extreme direction.' Today, the neck of a giraffe can be six feet long - taller than the average man - and can weigh up to 600 pounds. Millions of years ago, the giraffe had a more stumpy neck, but competition for food drove the steady increase in neck length over many generations. Longer necks allowed giraffes to browse for edible treetop leaves in the African Savannah woodlands that would otherwise be out of reach, according to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The theory suggested giraffes with the longest necks were able access the required food to survive and pass on their genetic code to subsequent generations. However, as observation of giraffe behaviour increased, scientists began to realise that the neck serves as a weapon in male courtship competition. This is evident in clips that circulate online today, showing two males brutally whacking each other. D. xiezhi is so-called because its single ossicone resembles that of the xiezhi, a one-horned creature from ancient Chinese mythology (depicted here as a sculpture in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China) The characteristic long neck of the modern giraffe the tallest land animal and largest ruminant on Earth has long been considered a classic example of adaptive evolution and natural selection since Darwin first penned the concepts GIRAFFES PICK SIMILAR-SIZED OPPONENTS FOR A FAIR FIGHT In an honorable example of fair play, giraffes pick similar-sized opponents to ensure a 'square go', a study reveals. From observations in South Africa, researchers at the University of Manchester found males practiced head butts with males of similar stature. Giraffe males fight for 'access to a large number of females' by launching their ossicones the two skin-covered bone structures at the top of their heads at their opponents, using their long necks for leverage. Read more Advertisement Longer necks tend to generate more speed and power, so the longer the neck, the greater the damage to the opponent. In fact, neck size of male giraffes is directly related to social hierarchy, and courtship competition is the driving force behind the evolution of long necks. The fossils in this study were found in early Miocene 'strata' (a layer of rock or sediment) from about 17 million years ago on the northern margin of the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang. A full skull and four cervical vertebrae belonging to Discokeryx xiezhi were part of the find. Analysis indicates the ancient species had helmet-like headgear, more like a dome than a sharp point, and particularly complex head and neck joints. Complicated articulations between the skull and cervical vertebrae of the species was particularly adapted to high-speed head-to-head impact, researchers found. This structure was far more effective than that of living animals, such as the musk ox, that are well adapted to head impact. In fact, D. xiezhi may have been the vertebrate best adapted to head impact ever, researchers think. Results suggest the ability to whack an opponent with their necks, and the associated survival benefits, has been a key part of giraffe morphology for millions of years. Computer modeling shows the 'complicated' joints between cranium and vertebrae of Discokeryx xiezhi Pictured, two giraffes go at each other in a head-to-head position. Longer necks tend to generate more speed and power, so the longer the neck, the greater the damage to the opponent Depicted is the community of wildlife in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China, around 17 million years ago. Discokeryx xiezhi are in the middle The research team also compared the horn morphology of several groups of ruminants, including giraffoids, cattle, sheep, deer and pronghorns. They found that horn diversity in giraffes is much greater than in other groups, with a tendency toward extreme differences in morphology. This indicates that courtship struggles are generally more intense and diverse in giraffes than in other ruminants. Results also suggest D. xiezhi was living in dry open grasslands and may have migrated seasonally. For animals of the time, the grassland environment was more barren and less comfortable than the forest environment. In fact, the species' violent fighting may have been related to survival-related stress caused by the environment. The new study has been published in the journal Science. He left Made In Chelsea back in 2016 after just a one year stint. But while James Dunmore may not be looking to return to the high brow reality show, he did find love with former co-star and new wife Lucy Watson. And in an exclusive chat with MailOnline, the 33-year-old star opened up about married life with Lucy, following a sun-soaked Seychelles honeymoon for the pair. Married! James Dunmore, 33, has shared details of married life with Lucy Watson in an exclusive chat with MailOnline Lucy and James tied the knot in a romantic Kefalonia ceremony last year, but the star has admitted that the label didn't change much for the couple. 'We already lived together and have been together for seven years so I'm not a massive believer in once you get married that life drastically changes, it is what it is, we seem to be coping so far,' he explained. And while the couple are settling into married life well, Lucy's sister Tiffany joined the club as she said 'I do' with beau Cameron McGeehan just last week. 'i'm not a massive believer in once you get married that life drastically changes, it is what it is, we seem to be coping so far,' explained James Short and sweet: After meeting Lucy on Made In Chelsea, he left the show back in 2016 after just a one year stint Ever the supportive brother-in-law, James shared that he was 'excited to see Tiffany in the next stage of her life'. But amongst weddings and honeymoons, the former Made In Chelsea star admitted he's in 'no rush' to return to TV. Ruling out a comeback to the E4 reality series, James revealed: 'I can safely say it's probably a no for returning to the show'. 'My wife'! Lucy and James were every inch the picture perfect couple as they posed for the camera, after tying the knot in a romantic ceremony in Kefalonia James is currently working with evian for the release of their new canned sparkling water, describing the brand as his 'dream' to work with. Confirming that he is focusing more on this work than TV at the moment, the reality star explained: 'I think everyone needs to just be a bit conscious environmentally, nowadays there is such a throwaway culture so I really admire the work that evian is doing. 'I don't have any immediate rush to go back television,' he concluded. James is working with evian after the brand launched its first-ever sparkling water, Evian sparkling is available to buy in supermarkets throughout the UK, in a 33cl recyclable aluminium can and 100% recycled bottle. Over it: Ruling out a comeback to the E4 reality series, James revealed: 'I can safely say it's probably a no for returning to the show' Bachelor couple Snezana and Sam Wood are still in the baby bubble with their newborn daughter, Harper Jones, days after returning home from hospital. Snezana, 41, posted three selfies on Instagram on Wednesday along with a heartfelt message. The mother of four kept things casual in a black longsleeve top as little Harper stole the show in a white onesie covered in a woodland print. 'Precious little Harper': Bachelor couple Snezana and Sam Wood are still in the baby bubble with their newborn daughter, Harper Jones, days after returning home from hospital Family: Snezana shared the snaps to commemorate exactly four weeks since she gave birth Snezana shared the snaps to commemorate exactly four weeks since she gave birth to her third child with Sam, and fourth overall. She wrote in the caption: 'I honestly can't believe it. 'Four weeks ago today since I gave birth to my precious little Harper. Feels only like yesterday.' Outfits: The mother of four, 41, kept things casual in a black longsleeve top as little Harper stole the show in a white onesie covered in a woodland print Caption: She posted three selfies on Instagram on Wednesday along with a heartfelt message Snezana added: 'Weeks have passed but I'm not sure where and how. 'It's all been such a blue but my goodness I'm so happy and grateful that I was chosen to be my itty bitty little Harper's mama'. Harper was born a month premature and had to be taken to the ICU after picking up an infection, while Snezana was taken to another hospital to battle sepsis. Time flies: 'Time has flown by,' she said. 'Weeks have passed but I'm not sure where and how' 'You are my everything': Harper was born a month premature and had to be taken to the ICU after picking up an infection, while Snezana was taken to another hospital to battle sepsis Difficult time: Proud dad Sam, 41, is seen cradling his baby daughter in hospital Sepsis is a life-threatening infection, with symptoms including fever, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure and a fast heart rate. During the challenging time, Snezana kept her fans up to date with photos of her husband Sam, 41, cradling daughter Harper, and thanking him for all the support. The couple have been together since meeting on The Bachelor Australia in 2015. They tied the knot in Byron Bay, NSW, in 2018. After a number of years of changing plans and storyline shifts, shooting for the highly-anticipated prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, titled Furiosa, is currently underway. One of the forthcoming film's stars, Chris Hemsworth, confirmed the news on his personal Twitter and Instagram pages on Wednesday. 'A new journey in the Mad Max saga begins,' captioned the Australian actor, who uploaded a snap of a movie clapperboard being used on set. Confirmed! Chris Hemsworth, 38, confirmed the shoot for the Mad Max: Furry Road prequel Furiosa is underway with a couple of Instagram posts on Wednesday 'A new journey in the Mad Max saga begins,' captioned the Australian actor, who uploaded a snap of a movie clapperboard being used on set Hemsworth, 38, had shared the same clapperboard image to his Instagram Stories, writing: 'Here we go.' The spin-off is based on the Fury Road character Imperator Furiosa, who was previously played by Charlize Theron, according to Variety. For this go-around, Anya Taylor-Joy steps into the role, playing a younger version of the renegade warrior, who turned against Immortan Joe, in the predecessor, in order to free his female concubines (or breeders), dubbed The Five Wives. Franchise creator George Miller is back as director and co-writer of the film, alongside Nico Lathouris, as well as his longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell. Miller, 77, has described the prequel as 'a saga,' that will be told over a 15-year period, which is much different from Fury Road, which spanned three days in its timeframe. Here we go! Hemsworth, 38, had shared the same clapperboard image to his Instagram Stories, writing: 'Here we go' The brains: Creator George Miller, 77, is back as director and co-writer of Furiosa, which is the fifth film in the Mad Max franchise, and second of the reboot that started with Fury Road (2015) So far there's no official world on exactly who Hemsworth will be playing, and the same goes for co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. In the lead-up to the shoot, Miller revealed that he will again work with Dutch composer Tom Holkenborg, otherwise known as Junkie XL, on the movie score. Holkenborg had also been onboard to do the music for Fury Road. From the looks of the clapperboard in Hemsworth's Instagram post, Simon Duggan is stepping in as the cinematographer for the now retired John Seale, who received an Oscar nomination for his work on Fury Road. Academy Award-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan is also returning as the films costume designer. In an interview with Variety, Beavan revealed that Taylor-Joy was hoping she would be shaving her head for the role, like Theron previously did for the first film of the frachise reboot. Following in the footsteps: Anya Taylor Joy, who plays a younger version of Imperator Furiosa, is hoping director Geroge Miller will want her to shave her head for the role, like he did when Theron played the character 'She wants to [shave her head], but George [Miller] doesn't want her to. So I don't know whether she will or not,' said Beavan. In recent years, Taylor-Joy, 26, has gotten high praise for her roles in Peaky Blinders (2019-2022), which she starred in the fifth and sixth seasons, as well as the films Emma (2020) and The Queen's Gambit (2020). Although it wasn't the blockbuster hit that some had expected, Mad Max: Fury Road did go on to rake-in $374.7 million on a budget that was between $154.6185.1 million. Plus, the reboot went on to be nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning six Oscars for Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. Initially, Warner Bros. announced the film would be released in June 2023, but the premiere date has since been pushed back to May 24, 2024. He famously wore the same suit on air for 12 months to make a point about sexism. And Karl Stefanovic recycled his wardrobe yet again on Wednesday as he stepped out in Sydney wearing a rather familiar-looking outfit. The Today show host, 47, wore the same striped pyjama pants and Ugg boots he was pictured wearing five years ago as he dropped his Range Rover off for a service. That's thrifty! Karl Stefanovic recycled his wardrobe on Wednesday as he stepped out in Sydney wearing a rather familiar-looking outfit Same look: The Today show host, 47, wore the same striped pyjama pants and Ugg boots he was pictured wearing five years ago as he dropped his Range Rover off for a service Karl kept warm in the blue checkered pyjama pants, while his personalised Uggs had his initials monogrammed on the front. He completed his look with a black jumper and jacket, a grey scarf and fedora hat. The Channel Nine presenter was joined by his wife, Jasmine, who dressed casually in Jaggad leggings, a purple jumper and black Ugg boots. Dressing for comfort: Karl kept warm in the blue checkered pyjama pants, while his personalised Uggs had his initials monogrammed on the front Warm: He completed his look with a black jumper and jacket, a grey scarf and fedora hat The model-turned-shoe designer swept her long blonde hair into a bun, and went makeup free for the outing. Karl met Jasmine at a boat party in Sydney just months after he separated from his first wife, Cassandra Thorburn, in 2016. The couple married at the five-star One&Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, in December 2018. Casual: The Channel Nine presenter was joined by his wife, Jasmine, who dressed casually in Jaggad leggings, a purple jumper and black Ugg boots Natural beauty: The model-turned-shoe designer swept her long blonde hair into a bun, and went makeup free for the outing Karl and Jasmine welcomed their daughter, Harper May Stefanovic, on May 1, 2020. She was born at North Shore Private Hospital in Sydney. Last month, the couple celebrated Harper's second birthday with a Cocomelon-inspired birthday party at a local park. Karl also shares daughter Willow and sons Jackson and River with his ex-wife. History: Karl met Jasmine at a boat party in Sydney just months after he separated from his first wife, Cassandra Thorburn, in 2016 Amber Heard has been ordered to pay her ex-husband Johnny Depp more than $10million after losing her defamation case against the actor on Wednesday. And Australian radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson are now asking the question on everyone's mind: how exactly will Heard pay her damages? The Aquaman star's financial situation is not known, but testimony at the trial has raised questions about whether Heard's pockets are deep enough to fork out such a large sum. Questions: Sydney radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson discussed on Thursday how exactly Amber Heard will pay her damages after losing her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp. (Heard is pictured in court on Wednesday) 'I wonder where she's going to get the money from?' Sandilands asked his co-host on their KIIS FM breakfast show on Thursday. Henderson suggested Heard may avoid having to pay the damages if she wins an appeal against the Virginia court's ruling. '[People] reckon no matter what happened with the verdict - and look, this may not be the case - but it will be appealed again because they hate each other so much,' Henderson said. Chat: Discussing the Virginia court's ruling on their radio show on Thursday, Henderson (right, with Sandilands) said Heard may avoid having to pay the damages if she wins an appeal Appeal: '[People] reckon no matter what happened with the verdict... it will be appealed again because they hate each other so much,' Henderson said. (Pictured: Depp in court on May 3) 'Oh, this could go on forever,' Sandilands said, to which Henderson replied: 'It could be appealed. We could be going through this all again.' It comes amid speculation about Heard's ability to immediately cover the damages, which includes $10million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages. The latter amount was reduced from $5million due to Virginia's cap on such awards. Payment: It comes amid speculation about Heard's ability to immediately cover the damages, which includes $10million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages During the trial, Heard admitted she was unable to donate $7million to charity after her divorce from Depp in 2017, because her ex-husband had filed a $50million lawsuit against her. 'I still fully intend on honouring all of my pledges,' Heard said regarding the money she had pledged to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 'I would love him to stop suing me so I can.' Pledge: During the trial, Heard said she was unable to donate $7million to charity after her divorce from Depp in 2017, because her ex-husband had filed a $50million lawsuit against her Heard has been awarded $2million in damages in her countersuit against Depp. She will likely have to post bond for the full $10.35million judgment, plus interest, if she decides to appeal Wednesday's ruling. If she can't fulfil her obligation to pay, the court may chose to garnish part of her wages, if it is found Heard has the requisite earning potential. Countersuit: Heard has been awarded $2 million in damages in her countersuit against Depp Heard will next appear in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to Aquaman, which is slated for release in 2023. It comes after Heard called the ruling a 'setback for women' and a loss for freedom of speech. In a statement following the verdict on Wednesday, she expressed disappointment at a number of consequences from the jury's ruling. Speaking out: It comes after Heard called the ruling a 'setback for women' and a loss for freedom of speech. In a statement following the verdict on Wednesday, she expressed disappointment at a number of consequences from the jury's ruling 'The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,' Heard said. She added that the verdict was 'a setback' for women 'to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated'. Heard then blamed star attorney Camille Vasquez and Depp's other legal experts. 'I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK,' she said, referencing her previous legal victory over Depp in Britain in 2020. Statement: 'I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK,' Heard said, referencing her previous legal victory over Depp in Britain in 2020 She ultimately considers the defeat, despite her own ruling for $2million in a countersuit, a loss for her freedom of speech. 'I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American - to speak freely and openly,' she said. Depp, meanwhile, thanked the 'outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world' in his own statement, which he said 'overwhelmed' him. 'I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media,' he added. Oscar winner Anne Hathaway chatted with Belgian director Olivier Masset-Depasse (Sanctuary, Illegal) on the New Jersey set of their early sixties-set film Mothers' Instinct on Tuesday. The 39-year-old actress wore a Jackie Kennedy-style wig and pearl necklace, while clad in her own clothing and Birkenstocks, ahead of shooting a scene as grieving mother Celine. Anne - who's also producing - then donned her costume consisting of a patterned cardigan over a black A-line shirt-dress and matching slingbacks. Action! Oscar winner Anne Hathaway chatted with Belgian director Olivier Masset-Depasse (L) on the New Jersey set of their early sixties-set film Mothers' Instinct on Tuesday The psychological thriller reunites Hathaway with her Interstellar castmate and 'incandescent buddy' Jessica Chastain, who produces and stars as Celine's neighbor/best friend Alice. The Bulgari brand ambassador and the 45-year-old Oscar winner also co-starred in James Gray's film Armageddon Time, which received a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19. Mothers' Instinct is a remake of Masset-Depasse's own 2018 film Duelles starring Anne Coesens and Veerle Baetens. 'Life's perfect harmony is suddenly shattered after a tragic accident,' the logline for the American reboot read. BTS: The 39-year-old actress wore a Jackie Kennedy-style wig and pearl necklace, while clad in her own clothing and Birkenstocks, ahead of shooting a scene as grieving mother Celine Period film: Anne - who's also producing - then donned her costume consisting of a patterned cardigan over a black A-line shirt-dress and matching slingbacks 'Guilt, suspicion, and paranoia combine to unravel their sisterly bond, and a psychological battle of wills begins as the maternal instinct reveals its darker side.' Both Mothers' Instinct and Duelles are loosely based on Barbara Abel's 2012 novel Derriere la Haine. 'It takes actors of Jessica and Annes caliber to communicate the intricacy of these two roles,' Olivier, winner of the Cannes SACD Prize, said in a statement. Blonde ambition: The psychological thriller reunites Hathaway with her Interstellar castmate and 'incandescent buddy' Jessica Chastain (pictured Wednesday), who produces and stars as Celine's neighbor/best friend Alice Origin: Mothers' Instinct is a remake of Masset-Depasse's own 2018 film Duelles starring Anne Coesens (L) and Veerle Baetens (R) 'The relationship between a mother and child is the most powerful connection between two human beings. 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.' On May 11, Deadline reported that Neon (Pig, Titane, Spencer) has already acquired US rights to distribute Mothers' Instinct. Kim Kardashian and boyfriend Pete Davidson's relationship is only getting stronger. And a source recently divulged to Us Weekly that the couple are already discussing 'future plans,' including the potential of 'moving in together.' Kim is currently hunkered down on the West Coast in her sprawling Calabasas, California mansion, while Staten Island native Pete currently resides in New York City. Talks of the future: Kim Kardashian and boyfriend Pete Davidson's relationship is only getting stronger. And a source recently divulged to Us Weekly that the couple are already discussing 'future plans,' including the potential of 'moving in together'; Pete and Kim pictured in April But with his eight-year stint on Saturday Night Live having recently come to an end, the 28-year-old comedian is no longer bound to the Big Apple and is free to make a move to the West Coast. 'Their relationship continues to grow. They're very secure with their relationship and talk future plans and moving in together,' the source dished. Aside from talks of major relationship milestones, Us Weekly's insider also revealed that Kim and Pete are looking forward to what summer has to offer. Specifically, the funnyman and the mother-of-four are 'looking forward to vacationing together this summer and having romantic alone time' award from the four children Kim shares with ex-husband Kanye West, 44. Secure: 'Their relationship continues to grow. They're very secure with their relationship and talk future plans and moving in together,' the source dished; the couple pictured in April Kim and Kanye split in February 2021, with the SKIMS founder filing for divorce and being declared legally single by March 2022. She kicked off her unlikely romance with Pete in November of last year after sharing a televised kiss during her first-ever Saturday Night Live hosting gig in October. It came amid Kanye's failed bid to win back his wife of nearly seven years, which would later inspire him to wage attacks on Pete on Instagram and in his music. Despite the drama, Kim has continued to date Pete and has even opened up about their romance in recent interviews, as well as on her family's new Hulu series The Kardashians. Summer lovin'! Aside from talks of major relationship milestones, Us Weekly's insider also revealed that Kim and Pete are looking forward to what summer has to offer. Specifically, the funnyman and the mother-of-four are 'looking forward to vacationing together this summer and having romantic alone time' award from the four children Kim shares with ex-husband Kanye West, 44; Pete and Kim pictured in May The King Of Staten Island actor has since met Kim's kids, is often featured on her Instagram page and even accompanied by the brunette bombshell to the 2022 Met Gala in early May. All in all, Us Weekly's insider stressed that Pete 'just wants to make [Kim] happy' and he is actively 'making up for not being able to go with her to Kourtney's wedding.' Kourtney Kardashian wed Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker for a third time during a lavish ceremony held in Portofino, Italy late last month, which was attended by the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan. Pete was unable to attend because the ceremony was held the same weekend he was set to shoot his final Saturday Night Live episode. Happiness: All in all, Us Weekly's insider stressed that Pete 'just wants to make [Kim] happy' and he is actively 'making up for not being able to go with her to Kourtney's wedding' MIA: Kourtney Kardashian wed Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker for a third time during a lavish ceremony held in Portofino, Italy late last month, which was attended by the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan; Kourtney and Travis pictured Though he missed out on the family festivities, there doesn't appear to be any tensions between the pair as they're currently vacationing together in London, England. On Sunday, Kim uploaded a sweet clip of herself and Pete sharing a smooch as they showed off their matching bleach blonde hair. The dynamic duo also coordinated in terms of their attire, with Kim sporting a black top and Pete donning a black windbreaker. Kim continued with the loved-up videos on her Instagram Stories, posting a black and white clip of the pair sticking their tongues out. Microsoft has detected a zero-day vulnerability in Windows. Hackers have been taking advantage of a zero-day hole in a Windows utility that hackers have been attacking through malicious Word documents. However, Microsoft has provided administrators with a solution that will safeguard their networks against the flaw temporarily. According to ZDNet, security analysts discovered the zero-day vulnerability over the weekend of a malicious Word document that had been posted to VirusTotal, which is owned and operated by Google, on May 25 from an IP address located in Belarus. Exploit on Microsoft's Search Windows Microsoft's Windows vulnerability has been tracked as CVE-2022-30190, according to Bleeping Computer. Yesterday, May 30, the company published a security advisory regarding a vulnerability in Windows that affected the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT). Microsoft has confirmed that its MSDT contains a new zero-day weakness that could allow remote code execution to be implemented in a user's system. According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, this vulnerability affects all products of Windows and Windows Server. To those who are not familiar, MSDT is a service offered by the company that is available on Windows Server, Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7. This platform allows Microsoft representatives to analyze diagnostic data and help resolve the problems that their customers are experiencing. When MSDT is called from a calling program employing the URL protocol, such as Word, there is a vulnerability that allows for the remote execution of code. If a malicious actor exploits this vulnerability, this actor can have the ability to run arbitrary code with the permissions of the program that is called it. This can also mean that they can control a user's account, install applications, read, alter, or remove data, or establish new accounts within the context allowed by the user's rights. The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) has provided its description of the "MSDT in Windows vulnerability" and detailed remedies, as well as updated Defender with signatures for the attack. However, despite the mitigation and detection, it is important to note that there is not a patch just yet. Read Also: Dr Disrespect Hosts $100,000 Fortnite Tournament With Strict Rules for Twitch Streamers Microsoft's Recommendation In this situation, actors are misusing a malicious Word document to take advantage of diagnosing Windows problems. With that, Microsoft advises that this protocol be disabled. To disable it, here are the following steps to do so: First, start the Command Prompt as the Administrator. Second, execute the command "reg export HKEY CLASSES ROOTms-msdt filename" in order to create a backup of the registry key. Lastly, carry out the action of "reg remove HKEY CLASSES ROOTms-msdt /f" on the command prompt. Microsoft also provided a way to undo the workaround: Just start by launching the Command Prompt as the Administrator. Then run the "reg import filename" command in order to successfully restore the registry key. According to Microsoft, customers are recommended to turn on their cloud-delivered protection and automatic sample submission. Doing so would protect users from further damage since it would be able to quickly spot and stop any threats with the use of AI and machine learning. The company also stated that the BlockOfficeCreateProcessRule stops Office programs from spawning child processes for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint customers. In addition, Microsoft Defender Antivirus works perfectly fine, it detects and protects against the following vulnerability exploits using detection build 1.367.851.0 or higher: Trojan:Win32/Mesdetty.A (blocks msdt command line) Trojan:Win32/Mesdetty.B (blocks msdt command line) Behavior:Win32/MesdettyLaunch.A!blk (terminates the process that launched msdt command line) Trojan:Win32/MesdettyScript.A (to detect HTML files that contain msdt suspicious command being dropped) Trojan:Win32/MesdettyScript.B (to detect HTML files that contain msdt suspicious command being dropped) Related Article: Hackers Can Now Steal Whatsapp Accounts Using Call Forwarding-How Does It Work? One described as London's 'posh wild child', motherhood certainly hasn't toned down Lady Mary Charteris's risque fashion sense. Lady Mary, who in May last year gave birth to a daughter, Wilde, with her husband Robbie Furze, showed off her svelte figure in a racy sheer catsuit designed by LaQuan Smith. The 35-year-old socialite showcased her phenomenal figure as she went underwear-free while posing for snaps at her home on Wednesday. Wow: One described as London's 'posh wild child', motherhood certainly hasn't toned down Lady Mary Charteris's risque fashion sense Lady Mary wowed in the skintight one-piece which featured a plunging neckline and sheer panels along the seams. She later added a shaggy cobalt blue coat while posing up a storm for a series of snaps. She is known for her wild fashion and credits her outlandish style to her flamboyant aunt Daphne Guinness and the late fashion editor Isabella Blow. Sizzling: The 35-year-old socialite showcased her phenomenal figure as she went underwear-free while posing for snaps at her home on Wednesday 'I always liked clothes but I never really understood them but then I spent so much time with Daphne and Issy,' said Lady Mary. 'Issy used to make me dress up in her clothes she only had about ten dresses, but she'd always wear them so differently with amazing hats and shoes that you didn't realise she'd worn them so often. 'She once took me to Monaco for a Fashion Rocks event and just walked up to Donatella Versace and ordered her to dress me!' Stunning: Lady Mary wowed in the skintight one-piece which featured a plunging neckline and sheer panels along the seams Furry nice: She later added a shaggy cobalt blue coat while posing up a storm for a series of snaps Lady Mary is married to Jessie Furze, star of electronic rock group The Big Pink. She has modelled for the likes of Tatler, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Love, and is now best known as a DJ and member of electronic rock band The Big Pink. Once known as a wild party girl who stepped out with her high society pals for shindigs, Lady Mary celebrated two years sober in 2020. Quirky: She is known for her wild fashion and credits her outlandish style to her flamboyant aunt Daphne Guinness (pictured) and the late fashion editor Isabella Blow She is the youngest child and only daughter of James Charteris and his first wife Catherine, who is the daughter of Guinness heir Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne. James and Catherine also share a son, Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho, 37. The couple divorced in 1988 after a five-year marriage. James Charteris married is second wife Amanda Feilding, a drug policy reformer, lobbyist and research coordinator, in 1995. Catherine remarried wealthy landowner Rob Hesketh in 1990. He was found dead in 2004 at the age of 48. She's the glamorous MasterChef Australia judge known for her impeccable fashion sense and flawless on-camera presentation. But Melissa Leong has announced she will no longer be working with the show's makeup team, and will instead be overseeing her own beauty routine going forward. The food writer, 40, who is famous for eating on camera without smudging her lipstick, has been doing her own makeup as of last Sunday's episode. One-woman glam squad: MasterChef Australia judge Melissa Leong has revealed she will no longer be working with the show's makeup team going forward Melissa told Refinery 29 Australia that doing her own makeup means she has more creative freedom and doesn't have to arrive on set so early. 'I've always had ultimate say over how I look,' she said. 'I'm very clear about what I want to look like and how I wish to project myself.' The TV personality said doing her own makeup allows her to listen to podcasts, and means she has a later call time for filming, which is 'brilliant'. 'I've always had ultimate say over how I look': Melissa, 40, who is famous for eating on camera without smudging her lipstick, has been doing her own makeup as of last Sunday's episode Team: Melissa joined MasterChef in 2020, alongside Jock Zonfrillo (right) and Andy Allen (left) Melissa also revealed she has a background in makeup, which makes her more than qualified to handle her own beauty prep. 'It's just lovely to be able to be in control of that part of my creative process as well, and it's fun,' she added. Melissa has been nominated for a Gold and Silver Logie at the 2022 Logie Awards. She recently said of her nominations: 'Ten-year-old Mel would never have dreamed a weird, late-bloomer outcast migrant kid like me would be nominated for a bloody Gold Logie.' Awards: Melissa has been nominated for a Gold and Silver Logie at the 2022 Logie Awards Melissa joined MasterChef Australia in 2020, alongside fellow judges Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen. The trio replaced original hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan, who had quit the show a year earlier over a pay dispute. Also in 2020, Melissa announced her separation from husband Joe Jones. She is now dating Melbourne-based hair entrepreneur Rob Mason. The Repair Shop Jubilee Special Rating: Hypothetical Rating: There are only two sorts of bloke: the ones who can tell you the provenance of each tool in their workshop, and the ones who can't ever find the right screw or drill bit. My grandfather was the first type. The hammers, pliers and chisels on the wall racks in his garage were old friends. I'm the other type, frankly a disappointment to a family of DIY-ers, cursed to lose the charger for every snazzy cordless power tool I've ever bought. Steve, the metalworking craftsman of The Repair Shop (BBC1), is undoubtedly from the former set. Holding up a small flat-head screwdriver with a yellow handle, he reminisced: 'This is the first tool I ever bought in my life. I was round about eight or nine.' Beefeater Peter McGowran, chief yeoman warder at the Tower of London, uses this candle lamp every night, setting off on his rounds at seven minutes to ten as he locks the gates That boggles me, not so much that he remembers getting it, more that he has gone a lifetime without accidentally leaving it in the loft or interring it under floorboards. He was using it to fix the handle of a brass lantern brought in by beefeater Peter McGowran, chief yeoman warder at the Tower of London. Peter uses the candle lamp every night, setting off on his rounds at seven minutes to ten as he locks the gates. 'It hasn't been out of the Tower for 103 years,' he warned, clearly reluctant to leave it in civilian hands. But the repairers worked their magic, correcting the wobble in the base and replacing cracked panes with hand-blown glass. The most touching story came with a rusty tandem. John from Somerset painted it red, white and blue for the Queen's Silver Jubilee The brasswork gleamed when they handed it back. 'I like things shiny but I've never seen anything as shiny as this,' Peter marvelled. He might want to stick his head around the door into the Crown Jewel house he'll find a few shiny baubles there. This was a Jubilee special edition, nothing spectacular but still absorbing TV, with a royal link to every item. They included a pearly prince's jacket in need of a few hundred buttons. The most touching story came with a rusty tandem. John from Somerset painted it red, white and blue for the Queen's Silver Jubilee and set off in 1977 with his wife Deb, who sadly died last year, to pedal to Paris. Terrible rain meant they never got farther than Bayeux. But the French cheered them along the roads: they thought the bike celebrated the tricolour of their national flag. Now the tandem is restored, John and his sister-in-law Sally want to ride it from London to Brighton to raise money for cancer research, in Deb's memory. Bonne chance, mes amis! There were no Crown Jewels but a couple of national treasures on Hypothetical (Dave) with celebrity guests Jo Brand and Bill Bailey. They bickered amiably throughout, each contradicting everything the other said. There were a couple of national treasures on Hypothetical with celebrity guests Jo Brand and Bill Bailey. They bickered amiably throughout, each contradicting everything the other said Bill declared himself an expert on animals; Jo told him he was an enthusiast at best. Bill guessed how Countdown's Susie Dent might answer a question about words; Jo overruled him. When he was proved right, she marched off the set. It was gentle, unforced and very funny. 'Is there any way you two can do a podcast where you just disagree with each other?' asked comedian Darren Harriott. Hypothetical was an over-engineered format when it launched. It still has too many artificial segments, and the running gag about presenter James Acaster's feud with the props man is simply painful. But Acaster and fellow host Josh Widdicombe have hit their stride now. The best moments are the impromptu ones, such as Jo's retort when asked which of King Arthur's knights she wanted to be: 'Sir Brandelot the Unpleasant.' Bill declared himself an expert on animals; Jo told him he was an enthusiast at best She's known for her chic sense of style. And Kate Beckinsale did not disappoint as she touched down at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday after jetting in from Los Angeles. The actress, 48, dressed up for the outing in an eye-catching pair of silver metallic trousers with a matching blazer. Glammed up: Kate Beckinsale did not disappoint as she landed in the UK after a getaway in Los Angeles on Friday She teamed the look with a plain white plunging top and elevated her figure in a pair of towering black lace up boots. Kate swept her long brunette tresses up in a high ponytail which she added a large black bow to. She opted for a glamorous face of makeup including a smoky eyeshadow while hiding behind a black facemask. The star completed her stunning airport attire with a pair of chunky gold hoop earrings. Looking good: The actress, 48, dressed up for the outing in an eye catching pair of silver metallic trousers with a matching blazer Kate was seen waiting at baggage claim for 30 minutes for her luggage before exiting the arrivals area. On exit, she wrapped up in a long black coat and hid behind a large dark pair of sunglasses. British actress Kate lives in Los Angeles but often returns to England to spend time with friends and family. When she's not in the country, loved ones can keep up to date with her antics through her social media channels. Kate is an avid poster on Instagram and recently admitted her content is largely aimed at her mother Judy Loe. She said: 'I know that when she wakes up in the morning, the first thing shell do is see what Ive been up to. If I find something thats kind of fun, or funny, or cute, its largely aimed at my mum. 'So the fact that other people enjoy it is good, but thats what its mainly for.' Former Love Island Australia star Tayla Damir has claimed she is a survivor of domestic violence after waking up to 'triggering' news of Johnny Depp's legal victory over ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp sued Heard, to whom he was married from 2015 to 2017, for defamation after she wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post in 2018 in which she falsely implied he was a domestic abuser. The Pirates of the Caribbean star, 58, won the case in a Virginia court on Wednesday and Heard, 36, has been ordered to pay her former husband more than $10million. Speaking out: Former Love Island Australia star Tayla Damir (pictured) has claimed she is a survivor of domestic violence after waking up to 'triggering' news of Johnny Depp's legal victory over ex-wife Amber Heard While Depp was vindicated by the jury of a U.S. court, Ms Damir said she was disturbed by the trial and feared its outcome would make abuse victims feel like 'no one will believe them'. The 25-year-old, who is now happily engaged to AFL premiership player Nathan Broad, wrote on Instagram after the verdict was handed down: 'As someone who has been through domestic violence in a relationship at a young age and survived, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard case is extremely triggering. 'The case has been seen as a drama series to the world. An opportunity for memes and TikTok videos. The worst thing about this court case is that neither of them are fighting for domestic abuse changes but instead arguing about their reputations. 'It's a case built on ego.' Ms Damir added that real victims of domestic violence 'fear that no one will believe them' and the 'world's reaction over the past few weeks [to the Depp vs Heard trial] would make many people scared to come forward'. 'It's not a matter of who won or lost the case, it's about respecting people who are survivors of domestic violence who didn't survive and who are trying to survive,' she concluded her post. Tayla's take: While Depp was vindicated by the jury of a U.S. court, Ms Damir said in a lengthy Instagram post (pictured) she was disturbed by the trial and feared its outcome would make abuse victims feel like 'no one will believe them' Heard said she was 'heartbroken' after five men and two women of the jury found her account of being abused by Depp was largely untrue. The Aquaman star was ordered by the court to pay him $15 million in damages, which included $10million in compensatory damages and $5million in punitive damages. The latter amount was reduced to $350,000 due to Virginia's cap on such awards. The jury found her partially vindicated, however, and awarded her $2million, but the verdict was overwhelmingly in Depp's favor. Depp's lawyer Camille Vasquez said on Wednesday the jury's verdict 'confirms what we have said from the beginning' - insisting the allegations he abused Heard were without evidence and defamatory. Case: Heard said she was 'heartbroken' after five men and two women of the jury found her account of being abused by Depp (pictured on April 20) was largely untrue Payout: The Aquaman star was ordered by the court to pay him $15 million in damages, which included $10million in compensatory damages and $5million in punitive damages. The latter amount was reduced to $350,000 due to Virginia's cap on such awards Speaking outside the court in Fairfax, Virginia, a jubilant Ms Vasquez praised the jury for their decision, reached at the end of a six-week trial and after 12 hours of deliberations. They found overwhelmingly in Depp's favor, and decided that Heard had defamed him with her 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Depp was not in court for the verdict, having traveled to England to perform with his band. Heard struggled to keep her composure, but was calm. Immediately after she issued a statement saying she was 'heartbroken' and describing it as a setback for women and free speech. Jade Tuncdoruk is back living the high life after a series of scandals almost derailed her career as an influencer. The socialite, 27, shared photos on Instagram on Wednesday of herself on a private jet from London to Paris. She had fancy carry-on luggage, too, posing with a black Hermes Birkin handbag worth an estimated $35,000. Living the high life! Scandal-prone influencer Jade Tuncdoruk took a private jet from London to Paris on Wednesday as she flaunted her $35,000 Hermes Birkin handbag Jade, who once boasted she makes $3,000 per sponsored post, shared a black-and-white image of herself kicking back in an Embraer Phenom 300 plane. The estimated cost of chartering such a jet is $3,700 per hour, according to LunaJet. The flight time from London to Paris is about 80 minutes. Jade made sure to get the perfect in-flight snap of her pricey Birkin, an accessory usually reserved for Hollywood celebrities. Her display of wealth didn't stop there, as she was later seen carrying a red quilted Chanel flap bag, worth about $6,000. Upon her arrival in Paris, Jade checked into plush pre-war digs with gold-gilded walls in the main bedroom. High flyer: The estimated cost of chartering an Embraer Phenom 300 plane is $3,700 per hour, according to LunaJet. The flight time from London to Paris is about 80 minutes The model, who is engaged to fellow influencer Lachie Brycki, recently apologised for a racially insensitive post from 2017 about Uber Eats drivers. She was also criticised for 'demanding' a small business give her a refund for a deposit after ignoring the terms and conditions. After a blizzard of negative headlines, she was dropped as an ambassador for Cadbury, but a number of brands kept her on. Pride of place: Jade made sure to get the perfect in-flight snap of her pricey Birkin, an accessory usually reserved for Hollywood celebrities The resurfaced Facebook post from 2017 saw Jade complaining about the company's 'annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers'. 'I order off you guys all the time and I'm starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non-English speaking delivery people who can't follow basic delivery instructions,' she wrote. 'I got a notification today saying my food was arriving and it took the person a further 20 mins to get to my door because he didn't read my delivery instructions properly and when I called him to explain he didn't understand a word I was saying.' Oh, my! Her display of wealth didn't stop there, as she was later seen carrying a red quilted Chanel flap bag, worth about $6,000 Stylish: Upon her arrival in Paris, Jade checked into plush pre-war digs Flash: Her luxury accommodation had gold-gilded walls in the main bedroom (pictured) She continued: 'Your GPS is consistently sending drivers to the wrong address which I've explained in my instructions which most people read and have no problem with but when foreigners are delivering it takes twice as long for me to receive my then cold food. Sort it out.' Jade later apologised for her 'hurtful comments' after her post was uploaded by the Celeb Spellcheck Instagram watchdog account. 'I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt with my comments. I hold myself accountable for my actions,' she wrote. Scandal: The model, who is engaged to fellow influencer Lachie Brycki, recently apologised for a racially insensitive post from 2017 about Uber Eats drivers The Uber Eats rant resurfaced after she faced backlash for demanding that a small business refund her $2,000 honeymoon deposit. The company, Weekenda, accused Jade of trying to 'bypass' their policies after ignoring the terms and conditions. 'It doesn't excuse anything but know that I have grown immensely in the past several years. I always do my best to be someone others can look up to and I know I've let people down and for that I'm truly sorry,' she later said by way of an apology. Chanel Ayan said she didn't care about Caroline Stanbury's Hen party after not being invited to attend on Wednesday's series premiere of The Real Housewives Of Dubai. 'I'm not bothered by it, but I just want to talk about something that's more interesting,' said Chanel, 43, during a group dinner. 'If I wasn't there I don't give a s***, I don't want to know.' 'Can we move on and talk about something I'm part of?',' asked Chanel, who was described as Dubai's first Black supermodel. Series premiere: Chanel Ayan said she didn't care about Caroline Stanbury's Hen party after not being invited to attend on Wednesday's series premiere of The Real Housewives Of Dubai 'Chanel, we can talk about whatever we like,' said Caroline, 45, who hosted an intimate Hen party on a yacht. The bitter argument took place during a dinner hosted by Nina Ali, 42, a Lebanese business woman. Chanel got mad when the other housewives - Caroline Brooks, 37; Lesa Milan, 33, and Nina - started talking about how much fun they had at the party. Sara Al Madani, 36, tried to defuse the situation by telling Chanel that she wasn't upset that she also wasn't invited. 'But if I wasn't part of it, I don't want to know about it,' Chanel said. Party talk: 'Chanel, we can talk about whatever we like,' said Caroline, 45, who hosted an intimate Hen party on a yacht 'Let's cleanse this energy,' Nina said. 'Nothing is going to cleanse this energy, I can't bear this woman,' Stanbury said. 'You can't bear me, and you don't even know anything about me,' Chanel said. Dinner drama: The bitter argument took place during a dinner hosted by Nina Ali, 42, a Lebanese business woman, during the series premiere on Bravo 'I don't want to know you,' Stanbury countered. 'Don't be so full of yourself, girl,' Chanel said. 'I was absolutely right not to invite Ayan to my Hen night because somehow a night that isn't about Ayan, it becomes about Ayan,' Caroline said in a confessional. Bad energy: 'Nothing is going to cleanse this energy, I can't bear this woman,' Stanbury said Chanel said she heard that Caroline Brooks said she wasn't invited to the boat Hen party because she wasn't important. Brooks admitted she made the comment but only as a joke. 'I don't like people being fake and liars,' Chanel said. 'I called you to ask you if you received an invite,' Brooks said. Series star: Caroline Brooks admitted she made a comment that offended Chanel, but said she was only joking Chanel said she knew that Brooks was jealous of her. 'Jealous of you?' Brooks said. 'With your stiff wig looking like a scarecrow.' 'Look at your face and look at my face, b****,' Chanel said. Jealousy claim: 'Look at your face and look at my face, b****,' Chanel said to Caroline Brooks Nina told them to stop arguing at her dinner party. The episode titled Sand Dunes And Don'ts opened with Chanel doing a photoshoot in the desert. 'I'm a badass b****,' Chanel said to the cameras 'I'm telling you in four f***ing different languages how fabulous and badass b**** I am.' She's bad: 'I'm a badass b****,' Chanel said to the cameras 'I'm telling you in four f***ing different languages how fabulous and badass b**** I am' Chanel said she moved 18 years ago to Dubai with her ex-husband and started modeling. Stanbury, a mother of three, entrepreneur and aspiring hotelier, during the series premiere was in bed in her house with her new husband Sergio. 'I moved to Dubai nearly seven years ago with my ex-husband and my three kids, set up my home, my business, and my life, and then ended up getting a divorce nearly five and half years later,' Stanbury said in a confessional. In bed: Stanbury, a mother of three, entrepreneur and aspiring hotelier, was in bed in her house with her new husband Sergio 'How did I end up with you, it's ridiculous,' she said to Sergio, 27 'You are the love of my life,' Sergio said. Stanbury said in a confessional that Sergio was closer to her daughter's age than hers. Younger husband: In a confessional, Stanbury said that Sergio was closer to her daughter's age than hers 'I've got handbags older than Sergio,' Stanbury said. Nina came over to visit with Stanbury. 'We found out there weeks ago that we couldn't get married in this country,' Stanbury said in a confessional. 'I'm Jewish. Sergio is Catholic. I'm divorced. And so, all of these things meant that we couldn't be legally married here, so we had to run very quickly to Mauritius and get married.' Stanbury said she was going to plan her Hen party and a larger wedding. She told Nina if it was up to her they would have skipped the wedding. Wedding plans: Stanbury told Nina if it was up to her they would have skipped the wedding 'So many people think he's a toy boy,' Stanbury said. Lesa, 33, a Jamaican-American mother of three and maternity fashion designer of a brand called Mina Roe, shared that she met her husband ten years ago at LIV nightclub in Miami. 'Dubai is safe especially for little Black boys,' Lesa said in a confessional. 'This is actually the main reason why I'm here.' Maternity fashion: Lesa, 33, a Jamaican-American mother of three and maternity fashion designer of a brand called Mina Roe, shared that she met her husband ten years ago at LIV nightclub in Miami At her house, Brooks played with her son Adam, nine, at their pool. She said she was originally from Newton, Massachusetts, but came to Dubai with her ex-husband. 'In my divorce all I really wanted was my child so I made a choice to walk away with nothing,' she said in a confessional. 'For a girl to come from Boston, end up in Dubai, be a divorcee and a single mom, and build the empire that I'm building, this is like historical. I belong in the Guinness Book of World Records,' she added. Boston roots: 'For a girl to come from Boston, end up in Dubai, be a divorcee and a single mom, and build the empire that I'm building, this is like historical. I belong in the Guinness Book of World Records,' she added. Lesa met Chanel for lunch. Chanel asked her if she was still planning on coming with her to Hermes but Lesa said she couldn't because it was the same day as Stanbury's bachelorette party. 'That girl has been married before,' Chanel said. 'That's definitely a contract wedding.' 'I don't think they have any sexual existence,' Chanel said in a confessional. 'I say it's more like a wannabe made up chemistry. All their sexual intimacy is on their Instagram page. It's a collaboration relationship.' No chemistry: 'I don't think they have any sexual existence,' Chanel said in a confessional of Stanbury and Sergio. 'I say it's more like a wannabe made up chemistry. All their sexual intimacy is on their Instagram page. It's a collaboration relationship' Chanel said the last time she saw Stanbury that she was very rude to her. 'She did not try to talk to me or get to know me,' Chanel said in a confessional. 'Which is weird because we have very good friends in common. Plus, I'm f***ing amazing.' Brooks called Lesa while they were having lunch. Lunch talk: Lesa fielded a call from Caroline Brooks during her lunch with Chanel 'I heard Chanel Ayan is not invited to the Hen party,' said Brooks, who didn't realize she was on speaker. 'Did you hear how messy she is,' Lesa said to Chanel after she hung up. Stanbury's Hen night party took place on a glamorous yacht. Listening in: Chanel listened as Brooks laughed about her not being invited to the Hen party 'This Hen night is totally different from the one I had for my last marriage,' Stanbury said in a confessional. 'I was in my early 20's. I think I got thrown out of Hogs and Heifers, which takes some doing.' Stanbury said she could only invite a small number of guests. 'I know Caroline through mutual friends,' Brooks said. 'Her reputation is up and down. Some people think that she is nice, and then other people think she's a raging b****, but this is a city where you have to speak up.' Brooks, Lesa and Nina discussed Chanel not being at the party. Mommy influencer: Nina Ali was described a mommy influencer on the series premiere In a confessional, Brooks that she had an up and down relationship with Chanel. 'When it's good, she's quiet, and when it's bad, it's when she's squealing, ' Brooks said. The women played fun bachelorette games and did shots. Good times: The women played fun bachelorette games and did shots during the Hen party 'When it comes to alcohol and drinking in Dubai, it's restricted,' Nina said in a confessional. 'You can find alcohol in many restaurants, hotels, and resorts. Now you can't find it if you're going to like the convenience store. It is much more controlled.' 'What happens in the ocean stays in the ocean,' Nina added. 'I've always had what I considered a dream life,' Stanbury said in a confessional. 'I've manifested my best life. At my age, I get a whole do-over and with a very hot, very loving husband.' The Real Housewives Of Dubai will return next Wednesday on Bravo. Former Married At First Sight bride Rebecca Zemek has welcomed her first child. The 28-year-old, who is currently starring on Nine's Celebrity Apprentice, announced the birth of her daughter on Instagram on Thursday. Rebecca shares the baby girl with her boyfriend Ben Michell. She's here! Married At First Sight's Rebecca Zemek has welcomed her first child, announcing the birth of her daughter with this cute photo on Instagram The official MAFS Instagram account was quick to congratulate Rebecca, writing: 'Congratulations to @BeckZemek and her partner Ben on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl!' The big news comes after Beck said keeping her pregnancy a secret while filming Celebrity Apprentice was the most horrible experience of her life. 'Life has never ever thrown it easy at me. I found out I was pregnant literally two weeks before we started filming,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Finally: The big news comes after Beck revealed that keeping her pregnancy a secret while filming Celebrity Apprentice was 'the most horrible experience of her life' 'I thought I'd be fine and then all of a sudden pregnancy sickness hit me a few days out and it was the most horrible experience of my life. Mostly because I was going through a hormonal change.' Rebecca said she found it extremely difficult because she didn't have any support in Sydney and decided to keep her pregnancy hidden from her co-stars. 'There were moments where I was literally sitting with my team, just sitting there smiling, and they must be thinking, "Why is she just sitting there doing nothing?!" and all I was thinking was, "Don't throw up, don't throw up!" Sick: 'I thought I'd be fine and then all of a sudden pregnancy sickness hit me a few days out, and it was the most horrible experience of my life,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Pictured on set 'Filming was really hard for me until I hit that 13-week mark. I was extremely sick. 'The entire time I was on every everything you can think of just to try and get through the show.' Rebecca said that when she eventually decided to tell the cast she was pregnant, everyone was so supportive. Beck, who was due to give birth on May 23, previously admitted to wearing baggy clothes during filming to try to hide her growing baby bump. She kept that secret! Beck found it extremely difficult because she didn't have any support in Sydney and decided to keep her pregnancy hidden. Pictured with co-star Samantha Jade 'Never again will I do television while pregnant,' she said of her experience shooting Celebrity Apprentice. 'I don't like having to wear oversized denim jackets and avocados in public,' she laughed, referring to a costume she wore for one of the challenges. The Perth influencer said the avocado costume was the most subtle outfit she could find out of all the ones made available to the contestants. Beck rose to fame on last year's season of Married At First Sight Australia. She was paired unsuccessfully with Jake Edwards, and infamously cheated on him with her ex-boyfriend during filming. 'I don't like having to wear avocados in public': Beck, who was due to give birth on May 23, previously admitted to wearing baggy clothes during filming to try to hide her growing bump Mama June Shannon showed off her engagement ring from her new husband Justin Stroud in an Instagram post on Wednesday. In a social media clip, the McIntyre, Georgia native, 42, stood alongside her spouse, 34, in a living room as they displayed their engagement ring and wedding bands. The WeTV personality said, 'We're here today to clear up some rumors,' adding that they 'are off the market.' The latest: Mama June Shannon, 42, showed off her engagement ring from her new husband Justin Stroud, 34, in an Instagram post on Wednesday The Mama June: From Not to Hot star said she was secure in her discussion to exchange vows with Stroud, saying, 'Guys, you know what, when you know, you just know. 'That's right, no jokes, I really was scared of the M-word, but hey, Justin made me not be scared of it anymore because he wifey-ed me up.' The reality star displayed a round cut white diamond with a double halo setting on a band made of pave in the clip, and appeared to have on a diamond wedding band; Stroud also had a wedding band on in the social media clip. She teased her upcoming show Mama June: Road to Redemption, telling fans, 'You're not gonna want to miss how our love story started.' In a social media clip, the McIntyre, Georgia native stood alongside her spouse in a living room as they displayed their engagement ring and wedding bands The Mama June: From Not to Hot star said she was secure in her discussion to exchange vows with Stroud, saying, 'Guys, you know what, when you know, you just know' Stroud planted a kiss on his new wife's cheek in the clip Mama June and Stroud officially wed this past March 23 at a courthouse in their native Georgia on the date commemorating their six-month anniversary. Although June and her younger beau have only been dating for a few months, they sparked engagement rumors in March this year when they were spotted shopping for rings together at a jewelry store in Alabama. In an interview with The Sun on Monday, June gushed over her man Justin: 'We've known each other going on a year now. We were best friends and we decided to take it to the next step in the last eight months.' Stroud was issued an arrest warrant last October after he violated his probation on drug and burglary charges - and was eventually arrested in Florida this past February, The Sun reported. Mama June and Stroud officially wed this past March 23 at a courthouse in their native Georgia on the date commemorating their six-month anniversary The reality star teased her upcoming show Mama June: Road to Redemption, telling fans, 'You're not gonna want to miss how our love story started' The couple was pictured in a selfie on an aircraft The relationship comes after June ended her troubled romance with former boyfriend, Geno Doak, 49. Mama June was previously engaged to partner Sugar Bear - real name Mike Thompson - for 16 months before they eventually separated in September 2014. The pair were not legally married but did have a commitment ceremony together. Sugar Bear went on to marry Jennifer Lamb Thompson. In related news, the battle for custody of Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson is over, as the 16-year-old reality star was the center of a heated contest between her mother Mama June and the teen's older sister, Lauryn Efird, 22. Lauryn, also known as Pumpkin, was awarded permanent custody of the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star, according to The Sun, which reviewed court papers filed in Georgia. The final ruling was handed down in April. Happy: Mama certainly has reason to smile again after finding love with Justin (Pictured above on a recent TikTok post) Custody battle: The custody battle over Alana 'Honey Boo Boo" Thompson is over. The reality star, 16, will live with her older sister, Lauryn, aka Pumpkin, 22 Testimony from the hearing revealed the former Toddlers And Tiaras cast member had been living with Lauryn and her husband, Josh Efird, 25, since 2019. The Mama June: From Not to Hot star will be allowed visitations, with permission from Lauryn, and must provide $800 a month in child support payments until Alana turns 18. June lost custody of the teen in 2019 after she and former boyfriend Doak were arrested on drug charges. The former stage mom hit rock bottom and sold her home at a loss in order to get some fast cash. When the money was gone, the beauty pageant veteran claimed she lived in her car before she entered rehab. Pumpkin received temporary custody in August of that year, and the teen has been living with her ever since. Court documents show both sides agreed to the arrangement. The custody decision is not the only change to the Efirds' growing household. Lauryn and Josh are parents to Ella, four, Bentley 10 months and twins, a boy and a girl, born May 19. Eiza Gonzalez looked effortlessly cool in a purple tie-dye maxi dress as she picked up a pastry in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday. While sauntering down the street in a pair of brown leather slides, the 32-year-old Ambulance star was seen chatting on the phone as she soaked in some fresh air. She accessorized her bohemian chic look with a string of pearls, black shades over her brown eyes and brunette tresses styled in loose waves. Eiza Gonzalez looked effortlessly cool in a purple tie-dye maxi dress as she picked up a pastry in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday Her latest sighting comes amid dating rumors with Jason Momoa following his split from estranged wife Lisa Bonet after 16 years together last month. Lisa, 54, and Jason, 42, were married for five years and welcomed two children before they revealed in January that they had decided to divorce. Multiple People insiders recently claimed the Aquaman star struck up a romance with Gonzalez, though one source said: 'It's nothing serious yet.' Trendy: While sauntering down the street in a pair of brown leather slides, the 32-year-old Ambulance star was seen chatting on the phone as she soaked in some fresh air 'They are dating. He cares about her. He's in a great place, working on Fast X. He's quite busy and he's in a good place,' a source told the outlet. To hear another insider tell it: 'They're both busy with work but are having fun together. It's nothing serious yet.' Although Lisa and Jason first became a couple in 2005, they waited until 2017 to marry, tying the knot at an intimate secret wedding. Dating: Her latest sighting comes amid dating rumors with Jason Momoa following his split from estranged wife Lisa Bonet after 16 years together last month Over the course of their relationship they welcomed two children into the world - daughter Lola, 14, and son Nakoa-Wolf, 13. Jason and Lisa announced their separation jointly this January in a co-written statement he posted to his Instagram page. 'We have all felt the squeeze and changes of these transformational times A revolution is unfolding and our family is of no exception feeling and growing from the seismic shifts occurring,' they wrote. 'The love between us carries on, evolving in ways it wishes to be known and lived. We free each other to be who we are learning to become,' the statement added, noting: 'Our devotion unwavering to this sacred life & our Children.' The way they were: Jason and Lisa announced their separation jointly this January in a co-written statement he posted to his Instagram; they are pictured at the 2019 Oscars Heads held high: The couple explained in their statement that they weren't announcing their separation ' because we think it's newsworthy, but so that as we go about our lives we may do so with dignity and honesty' Reports circulated that Jason had begun living in a $750k RV he had used in the past for location shoots and customized with such amenities as a kingsize mattress. He was said to have parked the RV at the home a friend whose lived near Jason's marital home with Lisa, where she was staying with the children. Not long after the split was announced, a source informed People that Jason and Lisa's marriage fell apart 'because of different focuses.' The insider spilled that Jason's 'career is booming' with the result that 'he wants to keep working as much as he can,' while Lisa 'enjoys her life in LA' and had 'no interest' in traveling with him to 'every location.' Splitting up: Not long after the split was announced, a source informed People that Jason and Lisa's marriage fell apart 'because of different focuses' Conjecture swirled in March that Jason and Lisa were giving the marriage another try, with the speculation going into overdrive after she was spotted wearing his ring. However by the end of the month Jason assured Access that 'we're not back together,' though he added that he and Lisa are 'family forever.' A few years ago in 2018, Eiza had a whirlwind relationship with movie dreamboat Josh Duhamel, who had recently split from his wife Fergie. She then enjoyed a summer romance in 2020 with Timothee Chalamet not long after his breakup with Johnny Depp's daughter Lily-Rose Depp. Elon Musk has demanded his Tesla employees return to the office. Working from home has become the norm since the COVID-19 pandemic happened. The ongoing pandemic has ushered in the evolution of hybrid working, working from home, and working from anywhere. However, Musk looks like he has had enough of it. In an email sent to the executives of the electric vehicle company, the CEO stated that remote work is no longer acceptable. Tesla's Return to Office Mandate Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, is now demanding workers report back to the office. In a leaked memo that was emailed by the CEO himself, he stated that anyone who wishes to opt for remote work under the company will now be required to come back to the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week. The CEO highlighted that 40 hours will be the minimum. If workers go below the set time, they will be asked to depart Tesla. According to Digital Trends, in the first email that was sent, Musk stated that to his employees that will be exempted in the immediate return to office, he will personally review and approve those exceptions. He then proceeded to reiterate that the offices of his employees should be in Tesla's main office and not a remote branch that has nothing to do with their job duties. Musk stated that Tesla employees can not handle duties in Fremont factory human resources and be located in another state at the same time. This is also the reason he once lived so closely in Fremont, California, when the company used to have difficulties in production in 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, the Tesla CEO sent a second email after the first one, which had a subject titled "To Be Super Clear." In this email, Musk stated that the more senior the position you hold in Tesla, the more your presence must be visible in the office. According to Electrek, Musk added, "That is why I lived in the factory so much - so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt." The email did not end with that note. The CEO also expressed his awareness that certain companies have implemented a whole new system for remote and hybrid working for their employees. Some companies have allowed full-time remote work and some have allowed only showing up to the office for a few days of work. However, he ended the email by stating, "But when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It's been a while." Read Also: Windows Search Zero-Day Vulnerability Found: How Can It be Exploited by Remotely-Hosted Malware? Tesla's Work From Home Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Tesla, just like every other company, has made it feasible for employees in every function to work from home if they so want. As the epidemic has lessened in severity, those organizations have started reviewing their rules about employees working remotely. The majority of them have arrived at the conclusion that workers are just as productive, if not more productive, when working remotely, and as a result, they have decided to continue allowing people to work remotely. However, now, despite the ongoing pandemic, the company is final with its decision to revert employees back to their headquarters. Tesla is not the only company who is resuming back to offices. Apple has also expressed its plans to encourage workers back to the office. Furthermore, Amazon has also lowered its COVID-19 incentives as the company and its employees are adjusting to the new normal. Related Article: Elon Musk Hints at Lithium Mining as Part of Tesla's Future Home and Away has brought in a staggering $1billion worth of export revenue to Australia since it began in 1988, according to a new report by economics firm ACIL Allen. The beloved TV series has also steadily employed between 1,500 to 2,000 people a year, in front of and behind the camera, and 33 per cent of viewers in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand said the show increased their desire to visit Australia. All facts Seven West Media CEO James Warburton is no doubt thrilled about as Home and Away's arch rival Neighbours prepares to say goodbye. Billion-dollar business: Home and Away has brought in more than $1billion in export revenue since it's beginning in 1988, according to a new economic report commissioned by Seven West Media this week. Pictured: stars Georgie Parker and Emily Symons 'Home and Away has been at the heart of Australia for the past 34 years and this report captures, for the first time, the shows significant impact on the Australian economy, our television landscape, our society and Australias international reputation,' Mr Warburton said in a media statement on Wednesday. '[It] is one big ad for Australia. And a good plug for television as an effective marketing platform. Mr Warburton added he was pleased at the impact the show had on viewers. 'Good Australian content has far-reaching impact beyond the number of people who watch it each day,' he added. 'It enriches the social fabric of Australia. It informs voters. It holds the powerful to account. It tells stories. It provides employment. It promotes Australian tourism. Serious business: '[It]is one big ad for Australia. And a good plug for television as an effective marketing platform,' James Warburton (pictured) said in a statement The report comes as the curtain falls on iconic TV rival, Neighbours, after 37 years on Australian television. The show produced some of our most iconic talent including Kylie Minogue and Hollywood star, Margot Robbie. Neighbours announced that production would be ceasing on the long-running soap in a tweet back in March. Impressive: The beloved TV series has also steadily employed between 1,500 to 2,000 people a year, in front of and behind the camera, and 33 per cent of viewers in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand said the show increased their desire to visit Australia. Pictured: Actor James Stewart 'We are so sorry to say that after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease production in June,' the show wrote. 'Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK [Channel 5] and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show. 'To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incredible high. From here on, we are celebrating Neighbours.' Channing Tatum treated fans on Wednesday afternoon by holding a book signing inside Barnes & Noble at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. The Magic Mike star, 42, was celebrating the release of the second installment in his popular children's book series, The One and Only Sparkella. The One and Only Sparkella Makes A Plan hit shelves on Tuesday, May 31, and follows the titular character as she 'learns the importance of patience, and figuring out creative new ways to do things when your original plans fall through.' Book signing: Channing Tatum treated fans on Wednesday afternoon by holding a book signing inside Barnes & Noble at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles Tatum created the series for his own nine-year-old daughter Everly. The One and Only Sparkella is lauded as 'a charming ode to self-esteem,' as well as 'the love between a father and daughter.' And the actor beamed with pride while explaining his intentions behind the uplifting series and his excitement for fans to get their hands on Sparkella's latest adventure. The crowd, which was filled with mothers and their young daughters, listened closely as Tatum spoke into the microphone. Celebrate! The Magic Mike star, 42, was celebrating the release of the second installment in his popular children's book series, The One and Only Sparkella; Tatum pictured with fellow author Mickey Rapkin Sweet: Tatum created the series for his own nine-year-old daughter Everly. The One and Only Sparkella is lauded as 'a charming ode to self-esteem,' as well as 'the love between a father and daughter' Beaming: The actor beamed with pride while explaining his intentions behind the uplifting series and his excitement for fans to get their hands on Sparkella's latest adventure The Step Up actor was seated in a brown leather chair on a raised platform, while audience members were just feet away in fold out chairs. Each of the attendees had their copies of The One and Only Sparkella Makes A Plan out, and even raised them into the air for several snaps. For the midday event, Tatum highlighted his toned pecs and muscular arms in a white tank top layered under a light blue button up shirt. Casual cool: For the midday event, Tatum highlighted his toned pecs and muscular arms in a white tank top layered under a light blue button up shirt Finishing touches: He completed the easy going ensemble with some kaki pants and a pair of brown slip-on shoes Q&A: The Step Up actor was seated in a brown leather chair on a raised platform, while audience members were just feet away in fold out chairs. He completed the easy going ensemble with some kaki pants and a pair of brown slip-on shoes. Standing before a Barnes & Noble backdrop, Tatum posed with a copy of The One and Only Sparkella Makes A Plan and smoldered for the camera. He was joined at the book signing by fellow author Mickey Rapkin, who is the writer behind Pitch Perfect and the It's Not picture book series. Listening: The crowd, which was filled with mothers and their young daughters, listened closely as Tatum spoke into the microphone Big fans: Each of the attendees had their copies of The One and Only Sparkella Makes A Plan out To the big screen: Tatum's presence at the signing comes nearly two weeks after he revealed that The One and Only Sparkella is soon to become a live-action movie Tatum's presence at the signing comes nearly two weeks after he revealed that The One and Only Sparkella is soon to become a live-action movie. He made the announcement on his Instagram page on Thursday, May 19, with Variety reporting that the film is set up at MGM Studios. Tatum also included a photo of him dressed in a tutu, while holding a copy of his second book in the series. The One and Only Sparkella is being adapted by screenwriter Pamela Ribon, who wrote Moana and Ralph Breaks the Internet. Announcement: He made the announcement on his Instagram page on Thursday, May 19, with Variety reporting that the film is set up at MGM Studios. Tatum also included a photo of him dressed in a tutu, while holding a copy of his second book in the series 'PRIME-TIME IS SHINE TIME!!! @sparakella is coming to life with a live-action movie!' Tatum began in his post. 'It will be adapted by @pamelaribon, who has written some of my favorite animated films,' he said of the screenwriter. 'Before my next book, #Sparkella Makes a Plan, hits a shelf near you on May 31st, you can grab a copy at Sparkella.com. Lets GOOOOOOOO!' he concluded. New book: 'Before my next book, #Sparkella Makes a Plan, hits a shelf near you on May 31st, you can grab a copy at Sparkella.com . Lets GOOOOOOOO!' he concluded Tatum published The One And Only Sparkella last May, the first in a three-book deal with Feiwel and Friends, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times best seller list. The book, written by Tatum and illustrated by Kim Barnes, follows a father and his daughter, who, 'fall headlong into the infinitely surprising world of her imagination.' While Tatum will star as the father in the film, the actress playing his on-screen daughter has yet to be announced. Firsts book: Tatum published The One And Only Sparkella last May, the first in a three-book deal with Feiwel and Friends, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times best seller list The project also doesn't have a director attached yet, though Tatum will also serve as a producer through his Free Association production company, through its first-look deal with MGM. Michael Parets will produce and oversee the project at Free Association, with Peter Kiernan, Reid Carolin and Cody Carolin also producing. Tatum revealed in an interview last September that he was inspired to write the book because of her daughter Everly, 'being herself in the real world.' Father and daughter: Tatum revealed in an interview last September that he was inspired to write the book because of her daughter Everly, 'being herself in the real world' 'Everything I write in these books is pretty much a direct inspiration of something that has happened with Evie and me,' he said. 'She doesn't help me write the books, but my experience living and learning from an 8-year-old, is basically the inspiration for these things, these little stories,' he added. Tatum most recently starred in Dog - which also marked his directing debut - and The Lost City with Sandra Bullock. The MTV Movie & TV Awards are set to air on June 5 with Vanessa Hudgens and Tayshia Adams serving as the co-hosts. And on Wednesday, with the broadcast fast approaching, the two ladies took part in Press Day at Barker Hangar in the Santa Monica neighborhood of Los Angeles. Their duties were divided up by producers and show organizers: Hudgens will host the ceremony, or scripted part of the show, while the unscripted portion, for awards going to reality television shows, goes to Adams. Co-hosts: Vanessa Hudgen and Tayshia Adams took part in Press Day and rehearsals for the upcoming broadcast of the MTV Movies & TV Awards in Santa Monica on Wednesday Hudgens, who was the first to be announced as host of the festivities, struck a number of poses in a black minidress that was adorned with an assortment of colorful round dots. The sleeveless number, which fell to around her mid-thigh, hugged her petite curves. The High School Musical alum, 33, rounded out her overall ensemble with a pair of black strappy heels, and had raven tresses styled straight and long past the middle of her back with a center part. Hudgens also posted a few photos of her time in front of the media on her Instagram page. 'Let the hosting duties begin. Press day for @mtv movie and tv awards,' she began in the caption, adding, 'HAPPY PRIDE MY LOVESSSSS.' Working it: Hudgens struck a number of poses in a black minidress, that was adorned with an assortment of colorful round dots, and strappy heels Interviews: Hudgens did some interviews for press day via the internet After strutting her stuff in front of photographers, Hudgens answered an array of questions about the broadcast, which in part, was done via the internet as she sat down in front of a computer. The upcoming show will be the 30th edition of the awards broadcast and the fifth time movies and television are being honored together as one. Adams, who was only just announced as a host just over a week ago, also showed off her fashionista ways in two different ensembles. First up, the television personality could be see rehearsing on the stage with a microphone in hand decked out in a hot pink outfit, consisting of pants and a matching jacket, which she left open to showcase her ample cleavage in a matching bra. Fashionista: Adams, who was only just announced as a host just over a week ago, also showed off her fashionista ways in two different ensembles Promo mode: Adams was joined by Jennifer Lahmers for an interview Bright: The former Bachelor alum was decked out in a hot pink outfit, consisting of pants and a matching jacket, which she left open to showcase her ample cleavage in a matching bra Revealing: The television personality left her jacket open to flaunt her ample cleavage Atone point she traded her microphone one of the iconic popcorn bucket trophies, which she held up for the adorning cameras. She also held some interviews alongside Jennifer Lahmers, who wore a yellow ensemble. Adams would also slip into black fitted pants and a matching crop top that helped showcase her toned midriff and cleavage. She also took to Instagram to promote the upcoming show by posting a series of snaps of herself in both outfits. 'MTV Awards I'm ready for you!! Press & rehearsal day 1: Done! Who's ready for Sunday night?' she wrote in the caption. Wardrobe change: Adams also changed into a black ensemble that included fitted pants with a matching crop top and purple heels Practice makes perfect: The California native rehearsed parts of the scripted part of the show Reality world: Adams received national recognition after appearing as a contestant on season 23 of The Bachelor in January 2019 Adams received national recognition after appearing as a contestant on season 23 of The Bachelor in January 2019, and then again later that summer for the sixth season Bachelor in Paradise. She would eventually replace Clare Crawley as the co-host of The Bachelorette in November 2020. Both the scripted and unscripted sections of the upcoming show will incorporate a slew of celebrity presenters. The MTV Movie & TV Awards from Los Angeles will be held on Sunday, June 5, on MTV beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Social media butterflies: Both Hudgens and Adams struck poses for photos that were posted on their Instagram pages Flattering: The High School Musical alum's outfit had colorful dots from top to bottom Gorgeous: Her raven tresses were styled straight and flowing with a center part Flirty: The actress blew a kiss or two towards the camera Latest gig: Hudgens is currently filming the movie Downtown Owl Hostesses with the most: Adams also shared a series of snaps on her Instagram page, which included a shot of her greeting Hudgens face-to-face outside Barker Hangar Spreading her wings: Adams shared a series of snaps she took outside the venue Glowing: The Bachelor alum flashed an infectious smile throughout much of the shoot Costume change: At one point Adams was seen entering her trailer for her wardrobe change Peace baby: Adams flashed a peace sign just as she made her way into her trailer She shares son Levi Joseph, 15 months, with husband Joshua Kushner. And on Wednesday, Karlie Kloss and Joshua enjoyed a dinner date in New York City without their baby boy. The model, 29, cut a casual figure in a striped top and jeans as she held hands with her husband. Date night: She shares son Levi Joseph, 15 months, with husband Joshua Kushner. And on Wednesday, Karlie Kloss and Joshua enjoyed a dinner date in New York City without their baby boy Her golden blonde tresses were parted down the middle and she sported a face of natural looking makeup. The runway maven accessorized with a single chain necklace and slipped her feet into a pair of Gucci loafers. Joshua, 36, kept casual in a blue sweater layered over a white tee. The Thrive Capital founder completed the look with some fitted black pants and a pair of sneakers. The couple looked very much in love while enjoying a rare evening away from their little one. On the move: The model, 29, cut a casual figure in a striped top and jeans as she held hands with her husband Casual: Joshua kept casual in a blue sweater layered over a white tee. The Thrive Capital founder completed the look with some fitted black pants and a pair of sneakers Karlie and Joshua welcomed their first child, son Levi, on March 11, 2021. She revealed his full name in a snap of her holding his hand with a ring that said 'mama,' in a post she shared on April 16. Joshua announced the birth of their first child on March 14 but did not reveal the gender or name at the time, simply writing: 'Welcome to the world'; he deleted the post soon after. So cute: Karlie welcomed her first child, a son, with husband Joshua Kushner, on March 11, 2021 Karlie and Joshua, 36, were first linked in 2012, getting engaged in 2018. They got married in October 2018, renewing their vows at a second ceremony in Wyoming in June 2019. Joshua's older brother is Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump. Karlie and Joshua announced her pregnancy in October 2020. A view: Shortly after Kloss announced her pregnancy, a source told People that the model was 'overjoyed' about the prospect of becoming a parent Heather Mills has recalled the moment she met with Vladimir Putin in a bid to stop the mass production of landmines. In 2003, the former model and her then husband Sir Paul McCartney met the Russian leader during their world tour. Speaking on The Argus Podcast, Heather, 54, revealed how part of her charity work at the time was attempting to convince governments to stop mass producing and stockpiling weapons. Lifting the lid: Heather Mills has recalled the moment she met with Vladimir Putin in a bid to stop the mass production of landmines (pictured May 2018) She said: 'We were travelling around the world touring. I said, "lets do a concert in Russia and try and get a meeting with Putin", so I could see if he will ratify. 'What we needed was China, America and Russia they were the big manufacturers and distributers of land mines. And setting up a concert meant we got to meet.' The businesswoman claimed that 'everything she asked for happened', and 'everything that was said was done.' Opportunity: In 2003, the former model, 54, and her then husband Sir Paul McCartney, 79, met the Russian leader during their world tour 'A few years later it was done, and I never had contact again,' she said. In other talking points on the podcast, Heather, who was married to Beatles star Paul, 79, for six years before their divorce in 2008, discussed the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The mother-of-one said that 'both sides are as bad as each other' and neither is 'innocent'. Making a change: Speaking on The Argus Podcast , Heather revealed how part of her charity work at the time was attempting to convince governments to stop mass producing and stockpiling weapons She said: 'Having had a lot of Russian and Ukrainian friends, there are two sides to the story. 'Let me make it clear, Im completely against war. Never, ever do they work. But a lot of Ukrainian people have terrible medical care, tiny wages and want to be part of Russia. And they should be allowed to be part of Russia. 'To have a war is absolutely insane because it creates devastation. But the Ukrainians are not innocent, and neither are the Russians.' Meeting: The businesswoman claimed that 'everything she asked for happened', and 'everything that was said was done' (pictured July 2019) Heather continued: 'Were only helping Ukraine as a government because we want the pipe lines, we want access to all the ingredients as there is massive shortage of wheat and gluten at the moment. 'Also, they are selling weapons no matter how much they say they are handing them over. 'As far as the Ukraine and Russia situation is concerned, both sides are as bad as each other. 'All wars are a complete waste of time, money, lives, everything. Nobody gains anything, expect potentially some governments.' Phoebe Burgess suffered a social media storm of embarrassment last month after a cringeworthy sponsored post for fashion brand Lee Mathews went horribly wrong. And now the 33-year-old Bowral socialite has returned to the designer's upmarket store in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Wearing oversized ski glasses, white loafers, a red dress and matching jacket, the attractive blonde posed inside the shop for a selfie on Thursday. Back again: Phoebe Burgess returned to the store where she suffered an embarrassing Instagram gaffe on Thursday. Pictured: Phoebe inside Lee Mathews' boutique in Sydney's eastern suburbs Posting the picture to Instagram, the celebrity influencer added the message, 'All about the vitamin C this winter.' 'Dress ups in store with Lee Mathews,' she added. Phoebe even referenced her recent Instagram gaffe in the post, in which fans accused her of walking out of the shop without buying anything. 'The loafers came home with me,' she messaged. Weathering the storm: Phoebe even referenced her recent gaffe in the post Phoebe's recent drama began in May when the celebrity was called out for a glaring Instagram fail after posting an advert for high-end fashion boutique Lee Mathews. She shared a video of herself strutting out of a Lee Mathews store in Sydney - but the scene was spoiled by a rather bizarre detail. 'You need some beautiful clothes in your bag,' a fan commented, to which Phoebe replied: 'Haha yes, but the idea here is that I am wearing them.' Whoops! Former rugby league WAG Phoebe Burgess was called out for a glaring Instagram fail in May in a sponsored post for high-end fashion boutique Lee Mathews Instagram watchdog account Celeb Spellcheck soon picked up on the gaffe, which made it appear as though Phoebe had visited the store without buying anything but still took a bag as a souvenir. Fans found the video hilarious, calling it 'cringe', 'embarrassing' and 'awkward'. Some even said it threw up philosophical questions about the meaning of life, like the famous plastic bag scene from American Beauty. However, a handful of followers noted that Phoebe was dressed in head-to-toe Lee Mathews, so she did at least rep the brand properly. Her Thames-side eatery has attracted a string of famous faces over the years, including the Beckhams, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lindsay Lohan. And for her latest A-list diners on Tuesday, Ruth Rogers played both host and escort, as Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Pete Davidson swung by her illustrious Italian restaurant, The River Cafe, for a bite to eat. Ruth, 73, who owns and runs the Michelin starred hotspot, was pictured leading the high-profile couple outside after they'd finished their meals and has now teased that Kim, 41, could be an upcoming guest on her podcast. 'Watch this space!': Ruth Rogers has teased that Kim Kardashian could appear on her River Cafe podcast - after the reality star and boyfriend Pete Davidson visited her famous Thames-side restaurant on Tuesday The American-born British chef said: 'Pete is a good friend of mine and has been on my podcast.' The West London restaurateur added: 'I like Kim, she's a lovely woman.' Ruth hosts podcast River Cafe Table 4, where customers, who have become her friends, discuss their food memories. Restaurateur: Ruth, 73, who owns and runs The River Cafe, said: 'Pete is a good friend of mine and has been on my podcast. I like Kim, she's a lovely woman' (pictured October 2021) 'Watch this space,' she teased of a Kim K appearance. Each week, Ruth invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. Tuesday's outing comes as Kim finally opened up about why she pursued comedian Pete... and it was all about sex. Next guest? The American-born British chef hosts podcast River Cafe Table 4, where customers, who have become her friends, discuss their food memories (Kim and Pete pictured this month) Discussion: Each week, Ruth invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort (pictured November 2020) During the eighth episode of The Kardashians, the reality star admitted that she wasn't looking for a relationship when she first hooked up with the 28-year-old Saturday Night Live star, adding she had heard about his 'BDE' (big d**k energy) and she was simply 'DTF' (down to f**k). She even hinted at having the best sex of her life with Pete, while adding that he's simply the 'best human' she's met. During a confession, Kim said: 'Pete has got to be literally the best human being I've ever met. Like the best heart. People will always say, "Oh he's so funny," and it has to do with how funny he is. That's like fourth on my list of why I like him.' Secret spilling: Tuesday's outing comes as Kim finally opened up about why she pursued comedian Pete... and it was all about sex She added that Pete, 'always wants the best for people, can handle anything, always does it with grace. He's really really thoughtful and humble and just so genuine. I would say the perfect word to describe Pete is genuine.' Kim told her sisters, 'I never knew you could be so happy just watching TV series and going to the gym, from someone I never even thought would go to the gym.' The SKIMS founder added in a confession: 'After we got together and it was like a thing, Megan Fox texts me and is like, "Is this s**t for real? Because he asked me for your number months ago. And I was like, dude you have a better shot of like me and MGK getting eaten by crocodiles than you getting her number. It's never gonna happen, do not ask us."' He worked as a sound engineer at 10 Downing Street as Margaret Thatcher stepped down and Tony Blair took the Prime Minister hat back in the 1990s. But over 30 years on, rocker Finlay Morton has made his name in the music industry, building station Soho Radio and bringing out his new EP Bee in a Gas mask. And the journey isn't without a few stories, as the musician has dubbed Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, 'arrogant', after travelling across the world with the Westminster tribe. Politics to performing: Finlay Morton has dubbed Gordon Brown 'arrogant after going from working as a Downing Street sound tech to performing centre stage From being a fly on the wall when the politician shook hands with the murderous Gaddafi in a shabby tent in 2004 to boarding Blackhawk choppers with US Marines, the Aberdeen native had a front row seat to the team leading the UK. The musician has recalled advising an arrogant Gordon about being cautious when wearing a microphone, soon after he became PM. At the time the Brown dismissed the advice, but ultimately forgot he was wired for sound and referred to a woman as that begotten woman after returning to his car with the microphone still switched on. Back in the day: Finlay pictured (far right) when he was Tony Blair's sound technician Change of scenery: And after leaving behind the jet-set political lifestyle, Finlay pursued his true musical passion as he went on to create an internet radio station and his own new music Explaining his whirlwind career that led him front and centre to Downing Street, Finlay said: 'I left Aberdeen at 18 for a shot at a music career. 'But somehow I ended up with a front row seat for Margaret Thatchers tearful departure from Downing Street, the sleaze plagued Major era, and then a decade travelling the world making sure Tony Blair sounded his best.' Detailing the sights he saw, the rocker continued: 'From The Whitehouse to The Kremlin, Saudi Palaces and warzones. PM: Finlay travelled the world with Tony Blair (pictured left) during his run as Prime Minister, and recalled an attempt he had to give an uncaring Gordon Brown advice (pictured right) When people are so desperate theyre passing their babies over a fence to you, complete strangers, your brain does a reboot on what matters. Thats what happened to us in Kosovo and its never left me.' And after leaving behind the jet-set political lifestyle, Finlay pursued his true musical passion as he went on to create an internet radio station and his own new music. The musician explained: 'Expanding Soho Radio from London to New York has been a dream come true which also gave me a desire to get back into a recording studio myself - Im very pleased to say Bee in a Gas Mask is what came out.' Finlay, who music is self-described as 'classic rock with a hint of country', released his first studio album in 2006 - with his newest single dubbed Move Mountains. Watch Move Mountains Music Video here: https://youtu.be/Im7wwObpRCo Bobby Brazier celebrated his 19th birthday on Thursday. And Jade Goody's former partner Jeff Brazier, 43, gushed over their model son on Instagram as he shared a series of sweet throwback snaps. TV presenter Jeff - who also shares Freddie, 16, with Jade - looked every inch the doting father in the loving pictures as he marked the special occasion and revealed it has been 'a privilege' to watch Bobby grow up. Celebrating: Jade Goody's former partner Jeff Brazier, 43, gushed over their model son on Instagram as he shared a series of sweet throwback snaps to mark his 19th birthday Alongside the snaps, Jeff penned: 'Happy 19th @bobbybrazier! Its been my privilege to watch you develop over the last 19 years and your progress has given me & anyone that cares about you such immense pride & satisfaction. 'I hope it feels good to know that your achievements no matter how big or small, bring people a lot of joy and I look forward to supporting you with love through whatever comes next. 'Weve gone through a lot, weve come a long way and you deserve your opportunities. Wishing you all the happiness' Sweet: TV presenter Jeff looked every inch the doting father in the loving snaps as he marked the special occasion and revealed it's been 'a privilege' to watch Bobby grow up Family: Jeff is father to sons Freddie, 17, and Bobby, 18 with his late ex partner Jade Alongside the snaps, Jeff penned: 'Happy 19th @bobbybrazier! Its been my privilege to watch you develop over the last 19 years and your progress has given me & anyone that cares about you such immense pride & satisfaction He continued: 'I hope it feels good to know that your achievements no matter how big or small, bring people a lot of joy and I look forward to supporting you with love through whatever comes next' 'Weve gone through a lot, weve come a long way and you deserve your opportunities. Wishing you all the happiness' Bobby bears a striking resemblance to his late mother Jade, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 27 following a battle with cervical cancer. He recently admitted that he wasn't with his late mother 'long enough to miss her' before her death. He said he 'misses what could've been' with his late Big Brother star mother Jade Goody who passed away weeks after marrying Jack Tweed. Jade died when her sons Bobby and Freddie were just five and four. Mother and son: Bobby bears a striking resemblance to his late mother Jade, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 27 following a battle with cervical cancer Romance: Bobby celebrated his birthday with his new love interest - the daughter of famous DJ Don Letts Liberty Love Speaking to The Face, Bobby said he is frequently told by people who knew his mother what a 'presence' she had. He said: 'I don't feel like I've missed out on a mum. It's normal life to me. I've kind of spent more life without her than I did with her.' When asked if he misses her, Bobby replied: 'I don't. Because I don't feel like I was with her long enough to miss her. 'I miss what could've been. I hear all the time she was such a presence, that she was one of a kind. What hurts most is that it wasn't just losing anyone, it was losing Jade.' Family: It comes after Bobby said he 'misses what could've been' with his mother, who died from cancer aged 27 in 2009 when Bobby and Freddie were five and four (pictured in 2006) Bobby added that he would loved to have seen what other people saw in his mother when she found fame. Bobby lives with his father, his stepmother Kate Dwyer and brother Freddie and is currently carving out a career as a model. Jeff previously praised his sons for their resilience in dealing with Jade's death at such a young age. Speaking to The Sun in 2020, he said: 'My gosh, they are just so resilient. Of course they were so young when she died and it pains me to think they never knew Jade in the same way we all did. 'When Bobby landed his first fashion magazine cover [for Man About Town] he said he hoped his mum was looking down on him and smiling. And I'm sure she was. 'When I look at Bobby and Freddie I see their mother's colourful personality shining through. I mean, Jade was one of the biggest characters out there and the boys have both inherited that from her.' Former Love Island star Laura Crane set pulses racing on Wednesday as she took to Instagram to share gorgeous bikini snaps ahead of the show returning to screens on Monday. The 30-year-old, who appeared in the 2015 series, looked sensational in the figure hugging tiger print two piece. The stylish ensemble in natural tones showed off the reality star's enviable curves and washboard abs. 'New bikini deserved it's own shoot': Ex Love Islander Laura Crane flaunted her incredible figure in a skimpy tiger print two piece on Instagram on Wednesday The high waisted bottoms extenuated the television personality's hourglass figure as she posed up a storm in front of a large make-up mirror. Accessorising with simple gold jewellery and a diamond ring on her littler finger, Laura wore her wet hair slicked back from her beautiful face. The beauty seemingly sported a fresh complexion clear of make-up as she gazed at her phone attempting to capture the best shot. Luscious Laura: The high waisted bottoms extenuated the television personality's hourglass figure as she posed up a storm in front of a large make-up mirror Second go: She captioned the sultry shots: 'New bikini deserved it's own [photo] shoot' She captioned the sultry shots: 'New bikini deserved it's own [photo] shoot'. Later the former television contestant shared a snap as she relaxed by an luxurious indoor pool. Revealing an up close glimpse of her tanned thighs the star laid back on a plush striped sun lounger. Relaxing: Later the former television contestant shared a snap as she relaxed by an luxurious indoor pool This comes after it was reported Love Island bosses are reportedly ready to 'adapt' at a moment's notice, if the recent travel chaos interferes with their planned flights to and from Majorca. Host Laura Whitmore flies back and forth from the Balearic Island multiple times throughout the series in order to present from the main villa as well as spin-off show Aftersun in London. And new Islanders are set to arrive throughout the show's run, as contestants are dumped from the Island. What a stunner: Laura appeared on the ITV dating series back in 2015 (pictured on the show) But shocking scenes from around the country in recent weeks have shown holidaymakers stuck in huge queues with some forced to sleep on the floor of airports amid long delays. Despite this, The Sun has claimed that ITV bosses are ready to deal with the issue. A source told the publication: 'Its less than ideal but the team is ready to adapt if they need to.' Earlier this week, executive producer Mike Spencer called the series 'such a reactive show' that can adapt quickly. MailOnline have contacted reps for Love Island for comment. High alert: Love Island bosses are reportedly ready to 'adapt' at a moment's notice, if the recent travel chaos interferes with their planned flights to and from Majorca Last year was also fraught with difficulties, as Covid-19 restrictions made travelling difficult. Laura branded travelling to Majorca in 2021 a 'logistical nightmare', saying: 'I have to be in London every Sunday as part of my Love Island contract. I need to host Love Island: Aftersun, which I love. It's just so much fun, I love live telly. 'But that's another logistical nightmare, that we need to make sure that I'm always back in time for that. If I could, I'd probably just move into the villa, I mean who wouldn't?' Jetsetter: Host Laura Whitmore flies back and forth from the Balearic Island multiple times throughout the series in order to present from the main villa as well as spin-off show Aftersun in London It comes as Brits are facing a summer of airport chaos amid chronic staffing shortages and IT glitches. Industry chiefs have pointed the finger at mass layoffs during the pandemic which saw staff let go because of the collapse in demand for travel during the various lockdowns. Airlines are now struggling to rehire workers previously let go, leading to a shortage of security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff. Industry sources say staffing levels are around 80 to 90 per cent of where they need to be for the peak summer season at larger airports and about 70 per cent at smaller ones. Some workers have also decided to quit the industry and not return following the pandemic, it has been suggested. On Wednesday, her announcement that she will soon leave her position as the company's number two executive sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley. Meta COO Will Leave the Company According to The Verge, Sandberg says that her decision to leave Meta is because the executive team at the company has been built up to make way for her departure, and that she wants to focus on philanthropy and women's rights. "There's no perfect time. It is a job that's been an honor and a privilege, but it's not a job that leaves a lot of time to do much else. And I really wanted to make more room in my life to do philanthropy, to work with my foundation," said Sandberg. CNET reported that Sandberg will remain on Meta's board of directors but will step down in the fall. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook that the tech giant's chief growth officer, Javier Olivan, will take over as COO. He did, however, emphasize that the company has no plans to change Sandberg's role in its current structure because she established it in her own way. Read More: Meta Won't Be Hiring Anyone Anytime Soon - Here's Why and When It Will Start Challenges Meta Has Been Currently Facing Sandberg's exit comes after Meta was embroiled in a series of privacy and misinformation issues, as per the report of CNET. The Exec, a 14-year corporate veteran, has not been without controversy, and has faced criticism that Facebook executives were slow to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 US election. In recent months, Meta has focused on developing the metaverse, or virtual worlds where individuals may connect, play, and work. As part of this endeavour, it has increased its investment in virtual and augmented reality. However, moderating unpleasant information such as harassment and hate speech in virtual worlds would most certainly be more difficult than on social media. An Analyst Said It Might Be the Best Time for Sandberg To Depart From Meta Insider Intelligence principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson stated that Meta has also been struggling with business difficulties such as a decrease in user growth and ad revenue. In February, Facebook reported a loss in daily users for the first time in the company's history, sending its shares down more than 26%. "The company needs to find a new way forward, and perhaps this was the best time for Sandberg to depart," Williamson said. Sandberg's Career Before She Joined Meta Sandberg was Google's vice president of global online sales and operations before joining Facebook. She also served as the chief of staff to former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008, where she helped the social media behemoth in expanding its multibillion-dollar advertising business. Following the release of her best-selling book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead in 2013, she was hailed as a feminist icon by some. After her husband, Dave Goldberg, the CEO of SurveyMonkey, died unexpectedly from heart difficulties in 2017, she wrote her second book, Option B, about overcoming adversity, CNET reported. Related Article: Meta Rolls Out Calls Tab to Facebook Messenger App, Follows WhatsApp Lead Robert Irwin has offered fans a glimpse of what they can expect from the five-star accomodation that will soon be coming to Australia Zoo. The wildlife warrior, 18, who runs the popular tourist destination with his family, revealed construction was nearing completion. on Thursday evening. 'Stay tuned for a 5 star experience like you've never seen before,' he wrote alongside two images shared to Instagram. Almost a Dream come true: Robert, Bindi and mother Teri Irwin posed in front of The Crocodile Hunter Lodge at Australia Zoo on Thursday, as construction nears completion One photo shows Robert posing with his mother Teri, 57, and sister, Bindi, 23, in front of a large building under construction. In another, Bindi, Robert and Teri can be seen standing on the balcony of what looks like a newly completed wooden hut, which is built on stilts, tropical style. A hotel on the Australia Zoo Sunshine coast site was a long held dream of Robert and Bindi's father, the late Steve Irwin, and the Irwin's will start taking bookings later this month. Tropical style: Terri, Bindi, and Robert posed on the balcony of what looks like a newly completed wooden hut, which is built on stilts, tropical style Gushing with pride: Robert's Instagram message teasing what fans can expect The family have called the project The Crocodile Hunter Lodge, in honour of Steve. Steve, known to millions around the world as 'the Crocodile Hunter', died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray while filming a documentary in Batt Reef, Queensland. Bindi was just eight years old at the time. Milestone: The late Steve Irwin's (pictured) dream of opening luxury accommodation at Australia Zoo has finally come true, as his family prepare to take bookings for the lodge in June Following his death, Steve's family, including his daughter Bindi, widow Terri, son Robert and son-in-law Chandler Powell, have continued his conservation work at Australia Zoo. Bindi announced the June opening in early May this year, saying it had been a long-held dream of her father's to combine wildlife conservation with a five-star holiday experience. 'Enjoy wildlife, fine dining and admission to Australia Zoo all included in your stay. Dad had dreamed about this for years and opening day is almost here,' she told her followers on social media. Dancing On Ice champion Sonny Jay has confirmed he has split from his fiancee of five years, Lauren Faith after they reportedly struggled with long distance. Sonny, 28, wrote on Instagram on Thursday morning: 'After five years of Lauren and I being together, we've decided that sadly we're parting ways. 'We have so much love and respect for each other and we will both continue to support each other in everything we do. End of the road: Dancing On Ice champion Sonny Jay has confirmed he has split from his fiancee of five years, Lauren Faith after they reportedly struggled with long distance 'For now, we both need to focus on ourselves and our careers and we're both ready and excited to start a new chapter separately. 'Lauren in the most talented person I know and deserves every success. Life really works in mysterious ways and what's meant to be will be.' While Sonny is based in the UK, music producer Lauren has been spending time in LA with her work commitments. Distance: While Sonny, 28, is based in the UK, music producer Lauren has been spending time in LA with her work commitments An insider told The Sun: 'Sonny and Lauren have called off the wedding. 'It's been a busy time for both of them since Sonny won Dancing on Ice and Lauren's music producing started taking off. 'They both want a fresh start and have wiped each other off of their social media pages.' MailOnline has reached out to Sonny's representatives for comment. Split: An insider told The Sun: 'Sonny and Lauren have called off the wedding. They both want a fresh start and have wiped each other off of their social media pages' (pictured May 2021) In August 2020, Capital FM presenter Sonny announced his engagement to long-term girlfriend Lauren. The DJ took to Instagram to reveal he popped the question during a romantic boat ride, and gushed he 'couldnt be happier to spend the rest of his life' with her. Sonny - who presents the Capital FM breakfast show with Roman Kemp - shared two loved-up snaps in Mykonos with his then fiancee, who was dressed in a stunning red halterneck gown. Blinger: In August 2020, Capital FM presenter Sonny announced his engagement to long-term girlfriend Lauren Beautiful bride: Sonny shared two loved-up snaps with his then fiancee, who was dressed in a red halterneck gown The pair first got together after he appeared at her door with flowers and asked her 'to be mine'. Reflecting on their romance in April 2019 , Sonny wrote: 'I cant believe it was two years ago I turned up to your house with a bunch of flowers asking you to be mine. 'The last two years have gone so quick and yet weve achieved so so much together. Thank you for being the best support I could ever ask for!Happy Anniversary - I Love You.' Married At First Sight's Beck Zemek and partner Ben Michell welcomed their first child, a baby girl, on Sunday. And on Thursday evening, Beck revealed her precious bundle of joy's name to her adoring Instagram followers, alongside intimate family footage of her birth. 'Welcome to the world, Immy Michell,' Beck wrote alongside the vision, adding the date, '29-05-22'. Congratulations: Married At First Sight's Rebecca Zemek and partner Ben Michell (both pictured) revealed their newborn daughter's name on Thursday evening - as they shared intimate footage of her birth The extensive reel revealed the reality star went into labour at 2:03am on Saturday morning, and by 6:00am she was headed to the hospital seeking pain relief. The hospital staff sent the mother-to-be home after treating her, and then Beck endured a long 12 hours, with constant vomiting, waiting for her baby to arrive. 'The Tank was almost empty,' the reality star captioned the video at one point over a graph of her contractions. Beck was back in hospital 16 hours later only to be told that her dilations had not progressed enough to give birth. The beginning: The extensive reel revealed the reality star went into labour at 2:03am on Saturday morning, and by 6:00am she was headed to the hospital seeking pain relief Breathe: At one point, a clearly distressed Beck can been staking therapy orally Daddy duty: Meanwhile, a nervous Ben can ben seen pacing Beck's hospital room By 3am on Sunday morning, Beck had been in labour for 26 hours and the strain of exhaustion was causing stress. Ten hours later she said she was 'mentally and physically exhausted'. At one point, a clearly distressed Beck can been staking therapy orally. Meanwhile, a nervous Ben can ben seen pacing up and down her hospital room. Here she is: Immy Michell was born at 12:29PM on Sunday, May 29 Bonding: 'We finally got to hold our little girl,' Beck wrote over a tender image. 'And she was just perfect' Divine: 'Ive never seen Ben so emotional yet smitten in his life,' she wrote Bundle of joy: Beck revealed the baby weighed 3.76 kgs and measured 51 cms The story continues: 'Here's to the next chapter in our lives,' wrote Bec Glorious: 'Our Hearts are so full,' the reality star added Finally, Immy Michell was born at 12:29PM on Sunday, May 29. 'We finally got to hold our little girl,' Beck gleefully wrote across a shot her holding the newborn. 'And she was just perfect.' Beck revealed the baby weighed 3.76 kgs and measured 51 cms. 'Ive never seen Ben so emotional yet smitten in his life,' she messaged on the video, over a shot of her beau doting on the new born as she lay her crib. Earlier on Thursday, Ben shared a black and white picture of the newborn's tiny hand gripping Beck's index finger. Adorable: Earlier on Thursday, Ben shared a black and white picture of the newborn's tiny hand gripping Beck's index finger In January, Beck and Ben revealed they were expecting a girl. 'The secret is out!' she wrote on social media at the time. 'Ben and I are over the moon to finally announce we are expecting a bundle of joy in May 2022!' Over-joyed: 'Ben and I are over the moon to finally announce we are expecting a bundle of joy in May 2022!' Beck messaged her followers earlier this year 'Thank you to everyone who has kept this a secret for such a long time! Also for all the wonderful support over the last few months' it truly means the world to us.' 'Who knew the best was yet to come, this is such a miracle for us and we are already over filled with love for you little one.' The couple unveiled the news alongside a photo shoot by photographer Alex Howell - who goes by the Instagram handle @who_is_alex - which saw Beck dressed in a stunning peach gown which showed off her blossoming bump to perfection. Fame: Beck soared to fame after appearing on MAFS Australia, where she failed to find love with on-screen 'husband' Jake Edwards (right) Beck soared to fame after appearing on MAFS, where she failed to find love with on-screen 'husband' Jake Edwards. Fans quickly branded Beck a villain after she constantly whinged about her husband Jake Edwards then cheated on him with her ex-boyfriend. In a predictable move, Beck later accused producers of stitching her up. The Loose Women panel joined the nation in celebrating The Queen's Platinum Jubilee on Thursday as they dedicated their show to the monarch. Kaye Adams, Linda Robson, Jane Moore and Gloria Hunniford marked Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne by channelling her at different points in her life. Kaye, 59, honoured The Coronation of Queen II in 1953 and transformed into 27-year-old Elizabeth, who acceded to the throne at the age of 25 following the death of her father George VI. Celebration: The Loose Women panel joined the nation in celebrating The Queen's Platinum Jubilee on Thursday as they dedicated their show to the monarch (from L-R: Kaye Adams, Linda Robson, Jane Moore and Gloria Hunniford) The gown took eight months of research, design, workmanship and intricate embroidery to complete, and was finalised with a linen robe. Linda, 64, mirrored a look of Her Majesty's from 2017, where she attended The Royal Windsor Horse Show. The Queen wore head-to-toe khaki, including a quilt jacket and silk pattern headscarf. Good spirits: Kaye, Linda, Jane and Gloria marked Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne by channelling her at different points in her life Milestone: Kaye, 59, honoured The Coronation of Queen II in 1953 and transformed into 27-year-old Elizabeth 82-year-old Gloria took a trip back to April 2011, when Prince William wed Kate Middleton. For her beloved grandson's wedding day, The Queen - known for her signature bright colours and matching hats - wore all yellow, and completed the look with a pearl necklace. Jane, 60, donned the monarch's army attire synonymous with the 1940s. Twinning: Linda, 64, mirrored a look of Her Majesty's from 2017, where she attended The Royal Windsor Horse Show Patriarchal: The Loose Women team wrote on their Instagram page: 'The panel transformed into Her Majesty through the years for our Jubilee special! [sic] What's your favourite look?' Colourful: 82-year-old Gloria took a trip back to April 2011, when Prince William wed Kate Middleton As a young woman, the Queen became the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member when she became a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1945. During her service she learned to drive and maintain cars. The Queen carried out her duties as an Honourary Brigadier in the Women's Royal Army Corps from 1949 to 1953. When the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) was founded in 1949 as a successor to the ATS, she became an Honorary Senior Controller and later Honorary Brigadier. She resigned the appointment on becoming Queen in 1953. Ana de Armas took a vacation in Italy this week and happily documented her travels. The 34-year-old beauty, who came to fame with the thriller Knives Out, was seen in a swimsuit as she lay on a boat in the Mediterranean. She is also known for dating Ben Affleck with whom she made the movie Deep Water from director Adrian Lyne of Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal fame. In heaven: Ana de Armas took a vacation in Italy this week and happily documented her travels Tanned: The beauty, who came to fame with the thriller Knives Out, was seen in a swimsuit as she lay on a boat in the Mediterranean The star had on a yellow, brown and green print bikini with a green hat that had an A for Ana. She showed off her toned shape as she sat up straight and then laid on her tummy. And she also flashed the Logan Hollowell Wilderness Hammered Gold Bangle Set. All she wrote in her caption was IT for Italy. Pal Camila Cabello liked the Instagram images. In March she said Affleck 'surprised' ex-girlfriend Ana throughout filming Deep Water with the range of his acting. Leggy lady: She is also known for dating Ben Affleck with whom she made the movie Deep Water from director Adrian Lyne of Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal fame. It is not known who was with her on the left Nice view: And she wore a golden tank top when posing by this cliffside. And she also flashed the Logan Hollowell Wilderness Hammered Gold Bangle Set The pair who enjoyed a real-life romance after meeting on the set of the movie but split early in 2021 - play wealthy couple Vic and Melinda Van Allen in the thriller and the 33-year-old actress was very impressed with how well her co-star easily adjusted to the different tones of various scenes in the film. Ana told TV and Satellite Week magazine: 'Vic is a very complex role his character is the engine of the story. 'Ben managed to surprise me in every scene. Nice scenery: She also shared this snap of the village she is visiting 'Playing Vic required him to move between tragedy and irony or between realism and the most absurd comedy and he did it with ease.' Director Adrian Lyne recalled how his lead stars had obvious chemistry from the minute they met. The 81-year-old filmmaker said: 'I tested Ana and Ben in my house. It's more fun to do it that way it feels a bit more real. Her big 2022 film: The Cuban star starred in the Adrian Lyne movie Deep Water this year 'There was banter between them. It was flirtatious but angry.' The movie had a number of racy sex scenes, which the 'Fatal Attraction' director knows the film is most likely to be remembered for. He said: 'I always find it difficult to detach the sex from the rest of the film. 'The thing is that people tend to remember the sex. In Fatal Attraction, there's a minute of Michael Douglas and Glenn Close getting together over a sink in the kitchen. 'It's actually only a tiny part of the movie, but that's what people tend to take away when they leave the cinema.' NeNe Leakes is being sued by the estranged wife of her current boyfriend, who claims the former Real Housewives of Atlanta star broke up their marriage. Malomine Tehmeh-Sioh has alleged in a new lawsuit that Leakes, 54, began her relationship with boyfriend Nyonisela Sioh while he was still married. In legal documents, Malomine claims NeNe and Nyonisela's relationship has resulted in her suffering emotional distress, mental anguish and loss of affection, TMZ reports. Sued: NeNe Leakes, 54, is being sued by her boyfriend's ex-wife for alienation of affection her her alleged role in breaking up their marriage. Pictured NY November 2019 Under North Carolina criminal law, where the suit has been filed, adultery is a misdemeanor, which is defined as when any man and woman, not being married to each other 'lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together.' The alienation of affection law is based on 18th century English common law in which a husband could sue another man for the loss of his wife's affection. Women could not sue at the time, since they were considered the property of their husband's, but now either sex can sue under the statute. Official: The First Wives Club actress and her new beau were first spotted together in December 2021, three months after NeNe's husband, Gregg, died of colon cancer at age 66 Legal: The Dynasty star is being sued under an 18th century statute which allows injured spouses to sue a new love for the breakup of a marriage. Pictured Atlanta June 1, 2022 Malomine is seeking around $100,000 in damages according to the suit. NeNe and the men's fashion designer were first spotted together in December 2021 in Miami, about three months after NeNe's husband, Gregg Leakes, died of colon cancer at age 66. The Dynasty actress posted some pictures from her birthday on December 15, and her new beau was included in some of the shots. Since then, the couple have been public, attending various events together. Suing: The former RHOA cast member is suing the creators of the Real Housewives franchise, claiming they ignored her complaints about allegedly racist remarks from Kim Zolciak. Pictured Atlanta November 2009 In April, the RHOA alum filed her own lawsuit against the companies that produce the Real Housewives shows, claiming they created a racist work environment. 'NBC, Bravo and True foster a corporate and workplace culture in which racially insensitive and inappropriate behavior is tolerated if not, encouraged,' the suit claimed. NeNe alleges she had to endure years of racist remarks from cast member Kim Zolciak, and that her complaints to producers were ignored. Emma Watson put on a leggy display on Wednesday as she stepped out in Barcelona with her friend Nupur Sharma. The actress, 32, looked incredible as she enjoyed a shopping spree while soaking in the sun on her holiday. She sported a pair of khaki short that showed off her toned legs, and which she paired with a patterned shirt over a white vest. Beautiful: Emma Watson put on a leggy display on Wednesday as she stepped out in Barcelona with her friend Nupur Sharma She added a pair of black boots and toted her essentials in a black handbag slung across her chest. Her caramel coloured locks were styled poker straight and she opted to go makeup free letting her natural beauty shine through. Her outing comes after Emma appeared to slam Harry Potter author JK Rowling as she took to the stage at this year's BAFTA Film Awards earlier this year. Fashion forward: The actress, 32, looked incredible as she enjoyed a shopping spree while enjoying her holiday Stylish: She sported a pair of khaki short that showed off her toned legs, and which she paired with a patterned shirt over a white vest The star, 31 - best known for her role as Hermione Grainger in the film adaptations of Rowling's books - took to the stage to present the award of Best Outstanding British Film, when she was introduced by host Rebel Wilson. Rebel said: 'Here to present the next award is Emma Watson. She calls herself a feminist, but we all know she's a witch.' Emma then emphasised: 'I'm here for ALL the witches!' Throwing shade: Emma appeared to make a subtle dig against author JK Rowling during this year's BAFTA Film Awards Viewers at home saw the comment as a jibe at the Harry Potter creator, and took to Twitter to praise the actress. One wrote: ''I'm here for all the women'. Sly 'lil dig at JK Rowling there, Emma Watson?' Another echoed: 'Live for Emma Watson throwing subtle shade at JK Rowling at the #BAFTAs #LGBWithTheT #JKDoesntSpeakForMe'. Star: The actress took to the stage to present the award of Best Outstanding British Film, when she was introduced by host Rebel Wilson Cheeky: After Rebel said Emma 'calls herself a feminist, but we all know she's a witch,' the actress (pictured with JK in 2011), added: 'I'm here for all the witches' A third chimed in to add: 'was that a jibe by emma watson at jk rowling? what a QUEEEEENNN'. Rebel took aim at JK earlier in the night, as she joked about her recent weight loss. Referring to a picture of her at the 2020 ceremony that appeared on screen, she quipped: 'That was me two years ago and since then I've done quite a transformation I hope JK Rowling still approves.' Dig: Viewers at home saw the comment as a jibe at the Harry Potter creator, and took to Twitter to praise the actress (pictured on the red carpet) Other viewers though criticised Emma and BAFTA host Rebel, for bowing to the 'woke mob' by using the prime time show on BBC1 to lay into Rowling. Watson is best known for her role as Hermione Grainger in the film adaptations of Rowling's books that has made reputedly her 65million ($85m). One viewer tweeted: 'She should count her lucky stars JK Rowling stuck with her. She owes her a heck of a lot, she needs to stop biting the hand that feeds'. Another wrote: 'Emma Watson, a woman, the feminist that can't define what a woman is? The one that is famous because of JK?' The jabs come after JK's statements on transgender issues were branded transphobic by some fans. The controversy surrounding her began after she tweeted about biological sex leading to backlash and a subsequent 'cancellation' from the trans community. Star power: Watson is best known for her role as Hermione Grainger in the film adaptations of Rowling's books that has made reputedly her 65million ($85m) Ouch: One wrote: ''I'm here for all the women'. Sly 'lil dig at JK Rowling there, Emma Watson?' In June 2020, she took to Twitter to criticise an opinion piece that used the term 'people who menstruate' instead of women. She then continued with a thread discussing biological sex. She later clarified that she respects 'every trans person's rights to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them,' and went on to say she would march 'if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. 'At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female,' she said, the Associated Press reported at the time. 'I do not believe it's hateful to say so.' Then, in September 2020, she faced renewed calls of transphobia after it was revealed the the villain in her latest book, Troubled Blood - written under Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith - is a male serial killer who dresses as a woman to slay his victims. Critics: Other viewers though criticised Emma and BAFTA host Rebel, for bowing to the 'woke mob' by using the prime time show on BBC1 to lay into Rowling In the wake of these remarks, Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma and Eddie Redmayne, who stars in her Fantastic Beasts films, criticised the author. In December, Rowling was once again forced to deny that she is transphobic as she argued for sex, not gender identity, to be the 'basis of decisions on safeguarding'. Last week, Rowling also accused Labour of cancelling women on International Women's Day after their Shadow Equalities Minister refused to give the Party's definition for 'female'. Not holding back: Emma was seen laughing during the show which took pops at Rowling Anneliese Dodds said it 'depends on what the context is' when asked for the definition by BBC presenter Emma Barnett on Woman's Hour. Reacting to the comments, Rowling, 56, posted: 'Someone please send the Shadow Minister for Equalities a dictionary and a backbone. #HappyInternationalWomensDay' She continued in a series of tweets: 'Apparently, under a Labour government, today will become We Who Must Not Be Named Day.' Alongside criticising Dodds' comment, Rowling also tweeted a picture of SNP MP Joanna Cherry alongside the caption: 'This is what a woman who owns a dictionary and a backbone looks like.' Jeannie Mai Jenkins gave her fans a first look at her five-month-old daughter Monaco on Thursday. The 43-year-old television host shared photos and videos of Monaco who was born back in January. '[This] might be the most exciting episode I've had here on Hello Hunnay,' Mai Jenkins began the video. The star also touched on how she is battling new mom anxiety which included insomnia, worrying and fidgeting. First shots: Jeannie Mai Jenkins gave her fans a first look at her 5-month-old daughter Monaco on Thursday In the first part of the clip, the San Jose native showed images of her little one meeting different members of her family and her former co-hosts on The Real. Mai Jenkins then brought Monaco onto the screen with her mother, Olivia TuTram Mai. Jeannie calls her Momma Mai. Jeannie dressed her daughter up in a cheetah print dress and a yellow headband. Beautiful baby girl: The 43-year-old television host shared photos and videos of Monaco who was born back in January Meeting family: In the first part of the clip, the San Jose native showed images of her little one meeting different members of her family and her former co-hosts on The Real Hanging with mom: Mai Jenkins then brought Monaco onto the screen with her mother, Olivia TuTram Mai. Jeannie calls her Momma Mai The How Do I Look? star admitted that it was not an easy decision to show her daughter to her millions of fans. 'I got really scared, guarded and protected,' she said. 'Please excuse the nerves.' She told People last month that she was dealing with postpartum anxiety though it took her quite a while to admit it to herself. Anxious: She told People last month that she was dealing with postpartum anxiety though it took her quite a while to admit it to herself New motherhood lesson: 'The new mom anxiety is real and I wasn't prepared for the hit of it,' she told the outlet Different than depression: 'It's a huge difference from depression: I wasn't sad, I wasn't sleeping all day, I didn't feel miserable about my life, I wasn't having suicidal thoughts.' 'The new mom anxiety is real and I wasn't prepared for the hit of it,' she told the outlet. 'Here I am going through postpartum with worries, with heart palpitations, with an inability to sleep, and I was like, "I'm not depressed; I'm actually super stoked and happy, but I'm worried and really anxious and fidgety,"' she added. She later googled 'Can you get anxious after birth?' and found out about the realities of postpartum depression. 'It's a huge difference from depression: I wasn't sad, I wasn't sleeping all day, I didn't feel miserable about my life, I wasn't having suicidal thoughts. I was just very anxious, very uncomfortable and worried all the time.' She went on to say more knowledge has helped her deal with her anxieties in a productive way. Catherine Zeta-Jones looked unrecognisable as she showcased a dramatic platinum blonde bob wig on the set of her new TV series National Treasure in New Orleans, Louisiana on Wednesday. The actress, 52, looked glamorous in a gold blouse with a plunging neckline and matching trousers as she was seen on set for the first time. She was seen carrying a beige bag as she headed to a large black car after a long day of filming for the live action TV series for Disney+. In with the new: Catherine Zeta-Jones, 52, looked unrecognisable as she showcased a dramatic platinum blonde bob wig on the set of her new TV series National Treasure The star looked totally different from her usual look, with Catherine usually sporting long brunette locks. It was announced the Welsh screen legend would co-star with Lisette Alexis the television series which is an expansion of the National Treasure film franchise. The movies are widely known for Nicolas Cage's role of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Gates in the 2004 Disney film and the two sequels. Changing facea: The star looked totally different from her usual look, with Catherine usually sporting long brunette locks The series is told from a young woman's point of view as she searches for answers about her family and save the Pan-American treasure. Oscar-winning actress Catherine will play Billie, a billionaire, black-market antiquities expert, and treasure hunter who makes her own rules. In addition to Lisette, Catherine joins fellow series regulars Lyndon Smith, Zuri Reed, Jake Austin Walker, Antonio Cipriano and Jordan Rodrigues. Screen star: She was seen carrying a beige bag as she headed to a large black car after a long day of filming for the live action TV series for Disney+ in New Orleans, Louisiana on Wednesday Fame game: It was announced the Welsh screen legend would co-star with Lisette Alexis the television series which is an expansion of the National Treasure film franchise Disney's adaption series to the historic film series is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub and writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley. Catherine shot to fame early in her career when she starred in the 1998 movie The Mask Of Zorro, then in 1999 was the lead in the action movie Entrapment in which she starred alongside Sean Connery. The mother-of-two has a long history in acting, with her most recent role being Griselda Blanco in the Lifetime original Cocaine Godmother. The movie was released in 2017. Plot: The series is told from a young woman's point of view as she searches for answers about her family and save the Pan-American treasure In the role: Oscar-winning actress Catherine will play Billie, a billionaire, black-market antiquities expert, and treasure hunter who makes her own rules A new series: The project is an expansion of the National Treasure franchise, which is widely known for Nicolas Cage's role in the 2004 Disney film Her Oscar winning performance was her role as Velma Kelly in the 2002 musical, Chicago. She starred alongside Queen Latifah, Taye Diggs, John C. Reilly and Renee Zellweger. Catherine and her husband, Michael Douglas, 77, have been married for nearly 22 years. They share two children together, Dylan, 21, and Carys, 18. Lucy Mecklenbrugh looked sensational just two days after announcing the birth of her daughter as she shared a stunning snap to Instagram. The former TOWIE star, 30, cut a trendy figure as she donned a black short-sleeved midi dress while posing for a mirror selfie. Lucy, who is also mother to son Roman, two, with her fiance Ryan Thomas, also shared an adorable photo of herself kissing her newborn baby on the forehead. Radiant: Lucy Mecklenbrugh looked sensational just two days after announcing the birth of her daughter as she shared a stunning snap to Instagram The star styled her brunette locks into loose waves for the day while she also sported a pair of animal print sunglasses. Alongside the heartwarming snap of her and the tot, Lucy wrote: 'My dream girl'. The mother-of-two also took to her Instgram Stories and shared a black and white snap of her children asleep, writing: 'Both babies sleeping! Shower and coffee for mama' Lucy took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce the happy news alongside a sweet black and white snap of the baby's hand. Heartwarming: Lucy, who is also mother to son Roman, two, with her fiance Ryan Thomas, also shared an adorable photo of herself kissing her newborn baby on the forehead Lucy also shared a picture on her Stories, writing: 'She's here.' Former Coronation Street star Ryan, 37, is also dad to Scarlett, 13, from his relationship with Tina O'Brien. Lucy previously told HELLO! Magazine that she was convinced she was pregnant with a girl, and was delighted when a scan confirmed her suspicions. 'I had an inkling that I was having a girl, but I was a bit more unsure than with Roman. With him I just knew I don't know why but even before we found out, I said: "I know, one hundred per cent, it's a boy", Lucy said. Congratulations: Lucy and Ryan announced the arrival oftheir baby daughter with a sweet Instagram post - pictured with son Roman, two The couple also revealed in the interview that they were struggling to come up with names for their daughter, explaining how they had a long list of 15 picked out but would wait until she was born to decide. Back in March, Lucy updated fans on her son Roman's health, revealing he has fluid in his lungs. She previously told how their little boy spent a week in intensive care last September after Lucy found the two-year-old 'blue in his cot.' Even though Lucy and Ryan were allowed to take him home a week after he was admitted, Roman has since been having regular check-ups, and results flagged that fluid has been entering the tot's lungs whenever he drinks. Love: Lucy pictured during her second pregnancy with Ryan Admitting it was a conclusion she felt 'really weird about', she continued: 'I'm sad for Roman. Now, from Monday, when we pick up the thickener, he can't have any thin fluids for quite a long time - potentially years. 'So no lollies and ice-creams, no water or juice. Everything has to be a really thick consistency to stop it entering his lungs. She revealed that when she checked the baby monitor an hour later that something 'didn't feel right': 'He was moving very slowly, side to side, and I thought, 'This doesn't feel right and I want to go and see him.'' Families: The couple are already parents to son Roman, two - and Ryan, 37, is dad to Scarlett, 13, from his relationship with Tina O'Brien It was then when she found Roman 'blue in his cot' and he was rushed to Basildon Hospital and St Mary's in London. Speaking about the staff, Lucy got emotional as she said: 'They absolutely were wonderful and I need to thank them and the ambulance service for arriving so promptly, for keeping my son here and it's quite emotional actually, talking about that.' Her son was diagnosed with a 'viral induced wheeze' and now requires an inhaler twice a day. She added: 'I don't know this for a fact, but Roman was born ten days before Covid and because he was kept so isolated literally isolated for six months he didn't have the chance to fight off viruses. 'When he was in hospital, the test came back that he had six viruses, so what looked to me as a snotty nose was six viruses, so that's what his little body was having to fight and that's potentially why he was so poorly and got to the stage of needing a ventilator. 'I said YES!' Lucy and Ryan met on the Channel 4 reality series, The Island with Bear Grylls five years ago before getting engaged during a romantic holiday in Italy two years later, when Lucy was pregnant with Roman 'But it does make you think, if he had been in a normal world at the beginning, would he have been able to fight those viruses.' Lucy and Ryan met on the Channel 4 reality series, The Island with Bear Grylls five years ago before getting engaged during a romantic holiday in Italy two years later, when Lucy was pregnant with Roman. Lucy has joked that despite their long engagement, the couple are a way off getting wed as they have had no time to organise a wedding. Back in March, Lucy shocked her Instagram followers when she shared a snap of a set of keys, captioned: 'New house, new project, new memories to be made. '@ryanthomas84 bought our new Manchester home without me viewing it he is a very brave man hahahah!!!' Although she joked her fiance was a 'brave man', his risk appeared to pay off as she gushed: 'Its just perfect! Edwardian, tons of potential. I cant wait to get started on the renovation!! People read books at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall in Seoul at an outdoor mobile library event organized by the city government, April 23. The Seoul city government will host a month of book talks in June. Yonhap Seoul Metropolitan Government will host a month of book talks in June to connect some of the country's celebrated novelists with readers, officials said Thursday. The month-long program, "Stroll through Literature on the Grass," will bring together several popular novelists, writers and citizens each Friday and Saturday during the month for a book talk on the grass of Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall in central Seoul, according to the city officials. The first week will feature Cheon Seon-ran, author of science fiction "Nine," and bestselling fiction author Jeong Yu-jeong. Park Sang-young, whose novel "Love in the Big City" was long-listed for the 2022 International Booker Prize, will join the show in the second week. Sohn Won-pyung, known for her coming-of-age novel "Almond," and history author Shim Yong-hwan will take part in the third and fourth week, respectively. Reservations for seats in the program can be made at the website of the Seoul Metropolitan Library (lib.seoul.go.kr). (Yonhap) Supermodel Bella Hadid shared a look on Instagram at her latest high-profile campaign. The 25-year-old catwalk queen was seen topless as she hugged a male model and in another shot, the star had on a black top and baggy denim jeans for the latest Balenciaga ads. Longtime model friend Kendall Jenner of Keeping Up With The Kardashians fame liked the new posts. Bella meets Balenciaga: Supermodel Bella Hadid shared a look on Instagram at her latest high-profile campaign. The 25-year-old catwalk queen was seen topless as she hugged a male model Hadid has also modeled for the luxury fashion houses Fendi, Michael Kors and Versace. She is one of the top models in the world. Her older sister is supermodel Gigi Hadid and her best pals are also models: Jenner and Hailey Bieber. This comes four months after 41-year-old Kim Kardashian was the face of the French fashion house. Kim made a big splash for Balenciaga. The curvy reality TV star - who will turn 42-years-old this year - was seen dressed in a skintight black outfit for the Paris-based brand Balenciaga for photographer Stef Mitchell. She is into this post: And Bella's pal Kendall Jenner liked the Instagram post No bra either: Not only did she got shirt free, Bella was also bra free as she had on black leather trousers with pointy shoes Her arm is a bra: The star strategically placed her bare arm over her chest In the ads Kim has on a skintight top and a pair of leggings with the Balenciaga logo in white on her leg. She is sitting on a white sofa inside her $60m Hidden Hills, California mansion as she puts one hand on a neon green purse with silver accents. The siren did not go heavy glam as her raven hair was pulled back and she had on pink colored makeup with silver earrings. Now with a top on: And the star had on a black top and baggy denim jeans for the latest Balenciaga ads She found her bra! And in this image the star had on her small bra with matching undies The daughter of Kris Jenner also was seen in a leopard print coat with pointy black boots and a matching purse that had a heart shaped accent. While Balenciaga - a high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1917 by the Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga in Bilbao, Spain - is a hot name, her own brand is even hotter these days. Kardashian's shapewear brand SKIMS is now worth $3.2 billion after the latest round of investing. Baking royalty Dame Mary Berry shared tips on how to make the winning Platinum Pudding in honour of The One Show's jubilee special on Thursday. Jemma Melvin's lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle beat 5,000 desserts to become the official pudding of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The trifle, inspired by the 31-year-old copywriter's grandparents - and the Queen - will become part of British royal food history, following in the footsteps of coronation chicken and Victoria sponge. Resplendent: Baking royalty Dame Mary Berry, 87, shared tips on how to make the winning Platinum Pudding in honour of The One Show's jubilee special on Thursday To mark the jubilee, Dame Mary and Jemma showed show host Alex Jones how to bake the trifle - which consists of lemon curd Swiss roll, St Clement's jelly, lemon custard, amaretti biscuits, mandarin coulis, fresh whipped cream, candied peel, chocolate shards and crushed amaretti biscuits. The trifle was crowned on BBC One's The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years In The Baking after the judges, including Dame Mary and Monica Galetti, came to a unanimous decision. Jemma saw off competition from four other bakers who created a passionfruit and thyme frangipane tart, a jubilee bundt cake featuring home-made Dubonnet jam, a rose falooda cake and a 'four nations' pudding featuring ingredients from around the UK. Celebration: It comes as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off, marking the beginning of a long weekend which will see street parties taking place up and down the country Jemma, from Southport, Merseyside, previously revealed she had only decided to enter the competition because a friend suggested it to her, and called the experience 'surreal'. It comes as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations kicked off on Thursday, marking the beginning of a long weekend which will see street parties taking place up and down the country as boozy Brits make the most of the bank holiday. The Queen's Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London was the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, with Her Majesty later appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF fly-past at 1:00pm. Tasty treat: Jemma Melvin's lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle beat 5,000 desserts to become the official pudding of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations It will be capped by a star-studded musical extravaganza outside London's Buckingham palace on Saturday evening. The celebration marks Queen Elizabeth's 70th year as monarch - with the Service of Thanksgiving set to take place in London tomorrow as part of the celebrations. The One Show is marking the Platinum Jubilee with two special programmes hosted by Jones and Ronan Keating, beginning on June 2. Advertisement Cuba Gooding Jr. and his girlfriend Claudine De Niro were pictured enjoying a beach vacation in Tulum, Mexico on Thursday. The sighting of the 54-year-old actor and Claudine comes after he plead guilty to one count of forcible touching in April, following an incident that took place at a nightclub in 2018. Claudine, 42 - who was married to Raphael De Niro, the son of actor Robert DeNiro, from 2008-2017 - showed off her figure in a two-piece bikini as they lounged together on the beach. Vacation: Cuba Gooding Jr. and his girlfriend Claudine De Niro enjoyed a beach in Mexico on their vacation in Tulum on Thursday The criminal case accused the Oscar-winning star of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019. While his criminal case may be over, an attorney representing an alleged sexual assault victim of the actor said she will proceed with an ongoing $6 million civil lawsuit because 'justice was not achieved' when Gooding Jr. got a no-jail plea deal in a separate criminal case. Famed women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred, 80, issued a statement decrying a New York State Supreme Court judge's decision not to allow 19 alleged victims, two of whom she represented, to testify against Gooding Jr. during pre-trial hearings for admissibility of evidence. 'Unfortunately, however, the judge refused to allow the testimony of any of the Molineux witnesses, which the prosecutor wanted to be able to call as witnesses if this case went to trial. That was a significant setback for the prosecution,' Allred said, according to Deadline. Getting a tan: The 54-year-old actor and De Niro, 42, walked down the street to the beach where they removed their shirts and soaked up the sun Lazy day: De Niro lounged on a chair while texting and Gooding Jr. walked about in his blue bathing suit Less cheerful news: Their appearance out came just a couple months after he pled guilty to one count of forcible touching Civil justice? While his criminal case may be over, an attorney representing an alleged sexual assault victim of the actor said she will proceed with an ongoing $6 million civil lawsuit The actor, whose net worth is approximately $12 million, pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching of a 29-year-old victim, and entered a no-jail plea deal. He also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019. The self-proclaimed feminist lawyer said that her client, a Jane Doe who accused Gooding Jr. of raping her at a hotel room in SoHo in 2013, will proceed with a pending $6 million civil lawsuit filed in 2020. 'Justice was significantly delayed in this case for many reasons, and I do not feel that justice was achieved today with the entry of this plea, although I do understand why under the circumstances that the prosecution offered a plea,' the statement added. 'My law firm ... will continue to litigate our civil case against Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Federal court in New York on behalf of our brave client.' Allred, who has handled numerous high-profile cases and represented Jeffrey Epstein's and Bill Cosby's victims, said she hopes the civil case yields a just result after criminal proceedings against the Hollywood star proved to be unsatisfactory. No prison: The actor, whose net worth is approximately $12 million, pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching of a 29-year-old victim, and entered a no-jail plea deal Admitted: Gooding Jr. admitted to violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019 (pictured 2018) Gooding Jr. admitted to violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019. The single guilty plea came nearly three years after Gooding Jr.'s arrest in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed. The actor also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019. He must continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment he started in 2019 for six more months and have no new arrests. 'I apologize for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched,' he said in court, according to The New York Times. Allred has represented at least three of the 19 women who were willing to testify against Gooding Jr. during pre-trial hearings for the criminal case. Many allegations: Allred has represented at least three of the 19 women who were willing to testify against Gooding Jr. during pre-trial hearings for the criminal case Asking for a dismissal: In January, Gooding Jr. asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss the civil lawsuit, saying she took too long to sue by waiting nearly seven years One of her clients, known in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Doe, filed the $6million civil lawsuit against Gooding Jr. in August 2020, Reuters reported. Doe said she was raped twice in August 2013 at a hotel room in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, soon after she met the actor in a Greenwich Village restaurant and lounge. In January, Gooding Jr. asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss the civil lawsuit, saying she took too long to sue by waiting nearly seven years. Gooding's lawyers said laws allowing rape accusers to sue their alleged perpetrators after many years applied to victims who had suppressed traumatic rapes or did not initially realize they had been raped, and did not apply to Doe. They said letting Doe invoke the seven-year statute of limitations under a New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence violated Gooding's due process rights under the U.S. and New York state constitutions. 'No exceptional circumstances forced her to wait,' Gooding's lawyers said in January. 'Plaintiff choosing to sue Mr. Gooding, Jr almost seven years later will not rectify any serious injustice; the opposite is true.' Argument: They said letting Doe invoke the seven-year statute of limitations under a New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence violated Gooding's due process rights under the U.S. and New York state constitutions Delays: The criminal case has been scheduled to go to trial at least twice, with an April 2020 trial date scuttled as coronavirus cases surged Doe's lawyers argued the seven-year statute of limitations applies in this case, and have also rejected a defense request that their client reveal her name, saying the case involved 'matters of a highly sensitive and personal nature.' The criminal case has been scheduled to go to trial at least twice, with an April 2020 trial date scuttled as coronavirus cases surged in New York and the state shut down most court matters due to the pandemic. Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he squeezed her breast without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square. A few months later, he was charged in two additional cases as more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. The charges alleged he pinched a server's buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forcibly touched a woman inappropriately at the LAVO New York nightclub, both in 2018. Surveillance footage emerged in 2019 of one of the alleged groping incidents. The video does not show him clearly grabbing her buttocks but it does show him reaching out toward her back and rear. The TAO victim won a default judgment against Gooding last year after he failed to respond to her lawsuit for over a year. The judgment will allow the victim to seek monetary damages. Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to the LAVO nightclub allegation. He had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Charges: The charges alleged he pinched a server's buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forcibly touched a woman inappropriately at the LAVO New York nightclub (pictured with De Niro 2019) Argument: His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn 'commonplace gestures' or misunderstandings into crimes (pictured 2019) His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn 'commonplace gestures' or misunderstandings into crimes. This reared its head during one of the victim impact statements, in which Gooding's defense attorney called one of the victims 'delusional' and frequently interrupted her, according to the New York Daily News. The judge had ruled that if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Those women, whose claims did not result in criminal charges, were among 19 other accusers whom prosecutors were seeking to call as witnesses. EastEnders viewers heaped praise on Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as they appeared on Thursday's episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee. Some fans of the soap even said the royals' appearance brought a tear to their eye as Charles and Camilla met some Watford locals, led by Mick and Linda Carter (Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright). However, some were left unimpressed when they noticed that the soap's concluding theme song had been altered for the Jubilee. Cameo: EastEnders viewers heaped praise on Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as they appeared on Thursday's episode in honour of the Platinum Jubile The royals showed off their improv skills in the episode as they joked with the show's castmembers who all stayed in character. Linda introduced Camilla to Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) who showed her a bottle of rum from Trinidad. Camilla said: 'Patrick, how are you? You've got a nice little bottle there.' He replied: 'That's rum from Trinidad,' before he and Camilla said in unison: 'A drop a day keeps the doctor away.' The couple showed off their improv skills in the episode as they joked with the show's castmembers who all stayed in character (Camilla pictured with Rudolph Walker as Patrick Trueman) Visit: Some fans of the soap even said the royals' appearance rought a tear to their eye as Charles and Camilla met some Watford locals, led by Mick and Linda Carter (Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright) Camilla then added: 'I've tried that in Trinidad, pretty good. I'm still standing.' Patrick said: 'Before you leave can I interest you in a little?' to which Camilla replied: 'You can,' to laughter from the crowd who had gathered. Meanwhile, Charles was introduced to Zack Hudson (James Farrar) who told him about taking part in The Prince's Trust, the charity Charles founded in 1976. He said: 'I'm actually a graduate of the Prince's Trust. 10 years ago I had the opportunity to go to Wales on a residential and I met you.' Charles replied: 'And you survived the experience.' The locals: Charles was introduced to Zack Hudson (James Farrar) who told him about taking part in The Prince's Trust, the charity Charles founded in 1976 The episode received universal praise from viewers on social media with some hailing it as the show's best ever. One fan said: 'That has got be the BEST episode of EastEnders EVER! What an amazing Royal surprise that was. 'Bought a tear to my eye to see Charles & Camilla on set. Well done everyone & wishing all the crew & cast a very happy Platinum Jubilee weekend.' Another wrote: 'Not watched Eastenders for yonks, but that was lovely. Charles and Camilla were brilliant!' Reaction: The episode received universal praise from viewers on social media with some hailing it as the show's best ever One viewer added: 'Cant cope with Charles and Camilla on Eastenders it's cool but also so funny for some reason.' Another said: 'Eastenders was epic tonight with the appearance to Albert Square of His Royal Highness Prince Charles and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall. All in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Really lovely. Another tweeted: 'Well done to HRH Prince Charles and Camilla Dutchess of Cornwall on being in the best episode of EastEnders.' One fan wrote: 'Just watched @bbceastenders for 1st time in years; seriously impressed by Charles & Camilla's debut in Albert Square; they did it so well/so naturally, as a real official visit, as themselves, but done with the cast remaining in character - brilliant!' One fan wrote: 'Well done to HRH Prince Charles and Camilla Dutchess of Cornwall on being in the best episode of EastEnders' (pictured with Rose Ayling-Ellis) While viewers were left delighted by the cameo, several fans were less than impressed as the theme tune was remixed with the National Anthem for the special occasion. One fan even set a poll which saw 60 percent of respondents reveal that they didn't want the special theme tune to become a permanent replacement. Taking to Twitter they penned: 'So, is this one called Lizzie's Theme then?'; 'Not the Eastenders closing theme getting the royal makeover'; not me crying because they changed the Eastenders theme tune'; 'The Eastenders ending theme song is sounding like a Disney soundtrack for this jubilee.'; Hearing God Save The Queen transition into the EastEnders theme was something I never though Id hear! #EastEnders' New tune: While viewers were left delighted by the cameo, several fans were less than impressed as the theme tune was remixed with the National Anthem for the special occasion Camilla ties a purple ribbon around a tree for 'all victims of domestic abuse' as she joins Prince Charles in a special EastEnders episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee The Duchess of Cornwall has tied a ribbon for 'all the victims of domestic abuse' during her appearance in a special EastEnders episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee. Charles and Camilla surprised the residents of Walford after Mick Carter, played by Danny Dyer, decided to throw a street party for the Square in celebration of the Queen's 70-year reign. The partygoers are left in disbelief when the royal couple pull up in a car outside the Queen Vic pub, greeted by Mick and Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright. During the episode, Camilla is introduced to Karen Taylor, played by Lorraine Stanley, whose on-screen daughter Chantelle Atkins, played by Jessica Plummer, was murdered in a domestic abuse storyline. The Duchess takes a purple ribbon and ties it around a tree in memory of Chantelle, who suffered months of abuse at the hands of her husband Gray Atkins in the soap. Camilla dedicates it to 'all the victims of domestic abuse' - an issue she has made a cornerstone of her public work. Charles and Camilla surprised the residents of Walford after Mick Carter, played by Danny Dyer, decided to throw a street party for the Square in celebration of the Queen's 70-year reign in EastEnders The Duchess of Cornwall (pictured centre) tied a ribbon for 'all the victims of domestic abuse' during her appearance in a special EastEnders episode in honour of the Platinum Jubilee Camilla said: 'This is for your daughter, Chantelle. This is for all victims of domestic abuse. It's very important that she is remembered. My heart goes out to you, I know a lot of people who have lost children.' EastEnders icon Sharon Watts, played by Letitia Dean, said it was a 'proper royal seal of approval'. In the episode, Charles unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit to Albert Square dated June 2. Dyer said: 'We'd like to mark this very special occasion with a memento. We've all had a whip around and there is a collection for you behind the bar in your great-great-great-grandmothers boozer to go to a charity that is close to your heart.' While meeting the residents of Walford, Charles is introduced to greengrocer Martin Fowler, played by James Bye, who explains the history of his market stall dating back generations in his family who have lived on the Square. During the episode, Camilla is introduced to Karen Taylor (pictured right), played by Lorraine Stanley, whose on-screen daughter Chantelle Atkins, played by Jessica Plummer, was murdered in a domestic abuse storyline The Duchess takes a purple ribbon and ties it around a tree in memory of Chantelle, who suffered months of abuse at the hands of her husband Gray Atkins in the soap While meeting the residents of Walford, Charles is introduced to greengrocer Martin Fowler (pictured together), played by James Bye, who explains the history of his market stall dating back generations in his family who have lived on the Square Charles said: 'That's the wonderful thing about London, all the different markets and stalls where people inherit them over the generations.' The Prince of Wales said: 'You lip-read very well' when introduced to Frankie Lewis, played by Rose Ayling-Ellis, and commented: 'I don't know how you keep this lot in order,' to police officer Jack Branning, played by Scott Maslen. Camilla shook hands with fan favourite Shrimpy, played by Ben Champniss, and 'speechless' Harvey Monroe played by Ross Boatman. She was also introduced to 'legend of the square' Patrick Trueman, played by Rudolph Walker, and points out the 'nice little bottle' of rum from Trinidad that Patrick is holding. In unison, they say: 'A drop a day keeps the doctor away,' causing the residents to laugh along with them. One scene sees Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright, guiding Charles (pictured centre) through the square The royal couple also met the soap's iconic characters Stacey Slater, played by Lacey Turner, and Sonia Fowler, played by Natalie Cassidy, right In the episode, Charles (pictured) unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit to Albert Square dated June 2 Patrick then asks the duchess if he can interest her in a tot of rum before she leaves, to which Camilla agrees, as the residents cheer in the background. He later asks to pour a dribble into Charles' cup of tea, to which he replies: 'I thought you'd never ask.' The royal couple also met the soap's iconic characters Stacey Slater, played by Lacey Turner, and Sonia Fowler, played by Natalie Cassidy. At the end of the episode, Dyer's character shares a toast to Her Majesty the Queen and 'to all the people up and down the country doing exactly the same thing as us, celebrating'. The EastEnders star discovered in 2016 during filming for Who Do You Think You Are? that he is related to Thomas Cromwell, Edward III, William the Conqueror and Henry III. The royal couple filmed the scenes for the long-running BBC soap opera in March when they visited the new Elstree set and met the cast and crew. In 2001, the Queen visited soap queen Dame Barbara Windsor, who played Peggy Mitchell, on the EastEnders set. The royal visitor stepped behind the bar at the Queen Vic, strolled around Albert Square and through the EastEnders street market, meeting stars of the show. The special Jubilee episode featuring Charles and Camilla aired on Thursday. Sofia Vergara shared her excitement for summer by posting a series of throwback photos of a summer trip to Greece. The actress stunned in various swimsuits, showing off her figure while vacationing in the scenic country. In the caption added to the batch of pictures, she typed, '#tbt to summer! Greece.' She added a few summer-themed emojis, including the sun, a crab, and dolphin. Gorgeous: Sofia Vergara looks stunning in a white, cut out swimsuit as she vacations on the beaches of Greece Beautiful: The Modern Family alum posed in a summer dress the rolling hills behind her In the first photo, the Modern Family star wore a white one-piece swimsuit that is cut out at the sides. The material seems to be a cloth fabric, rather than the usual spandex material. Her hair was parted in the middle, allowing her long locks to freely flow around her. A long necklace was worn to add a fashionable edge to the swimsuit. Radiant: The beauty looked radiant and happy as she smiled at the camera as the wind blew around her In another picture, the America's Got Talent judge wore a colorful cut out swimsuit that showed off her fit physique. The colors on the one-piece were pink, orange, and a neon green. She added a pleated, dark green skirt over the swimsuit. The actress looked confident and glowing in the summer sun as she posed next to a rock pillar. Now in a white knit skirt: She also shared this image where she had on a pink suit Happy: The model looks happy as she soaks up the yellow sun while posing for a photo in a colorful swimsuit In another photo from the throwback series, Vergara wore a white cotton summer dress. The waistline contained a pattern and the upper half of the dress had buttons that could be adjusted. She accessorized the comfortable dress with an array of gold bracelets and gold hoop earrings. Travel: The star held a large, old book on her lap during one of her summer trips to Greece The star wore a figure-hugging black dress with a plunging neckline as she held a large, old book. She seemed very interested and her attention was fully devoted to its contents. In another fun picture, the model could be seen looking at various treats and desserts at a market. Yummy: The star is pictured smiling and taking in the variety of delicious baked goods and treats on her trip to Greece She was smiling with glee as she looked at all the treats sprawled out before her, most likely having a hard time trying to decide what to choose. Sofia's last photo in the throwback post shows the actress laying down, taking in the summer weather. She wore a black one-piece swimsuit, with sheer cut outs on the sides. The model wore a long, patterned white and blue skirt on top. Her arms were laid out in full vacation mode as she took in the warm sun. She's one of Australia's top influencers. And Mikaela Testa took to Instagram on Thursday to show off her sizzling figure in a tiny bikini while on holiday in Bali, Indonesia. The 21-year-old OnlyFans queen could barely contain her assets as she flaunted her eye-popping cleavage for the camera. Sizzle: Mikaela Testa took to Instagram on Thursday to show off her incredible figure in a tiny bikini while on holiday in Bali, Indonesia Flaunting: The 21-year-old OnlyFans queen could barely contain her assets as she flaunted her eye-popping cleavage for the camera Mikaela wore a simple triangle bikini with string ties and a flashy metallic print as she frolicked in a swimming pool. The Gold Coast model accessorised with an elegant pearl necklace, gold hoop earrings and golden-framed sunglasses. She had a full face of makeup and her wet hair was slicked back. Dripping: Mikaela posted a couple of snaps of herself cooling off in the pool, leaving little to the imagination as she emerged from the water Mikaela posted a couple of snaps of herself cooling off in the pool, leaving little to the imagination as she emerged from the water. Another photo showed her poking her tongue out for the camera while drawing attention to her very ample assets. The last image in the sizzling gallery showed off her beach cabana as she tucked into a bowl of fresh fruit. She only recently returned to Instagram after having her account deleted due to her raunchy content with crypto investor boyfriend Atis Paul. Snack time: The last image in the sizzling gallery showed off her beach cabana as she tucked into a bowl of fresh fruit Mikaela, who makes more than $162,000 per month selling X-rated images and videos on OnlyFans, is no stranger to having her social media accounts deactivated. In 2020, she was banned from TikTok for breaching 'multiple community guidelines'. She publicly disputed the ban, telling News Corp she hadn't done anything wrong and had been unfairly penalised by TikTok's 'automatic scanner'. She recently celebrated her two year anniversary with Callum Jones. Yet Molly Smith was without her boyfriend as she enjoyed a girls' night out at the Sweet Life Supper Club launch party at Menagerie in Manchester on Thursday. The Love Island star, 28, was dressed to impress for the outing as she slipped into a daring green dress with sexy cut outs. Looking good: Molly Smith enjoyed a girls' night out at the Sweet Life Supper Club launch party at Menagerie in Manchester on Thursday The garment showcased her cleavage with a cut out across the chest and also offered a glimpse at her toned midriff. A thigh-skimming hemline showcased her tanned and toned pins, which she elevated with a pair of gold platform heels. Molly finished off the look with a white coat draped over her shoulders and a small Dior handbag. Gorgeous in green: The Love Island star, 28, was dressed to impress for the outing as she slipped into a daring green dress with sexy cut outs Stunning: The garment showcased her cleavage with a cut out across the chest and also offered a glimpse at her toned midriff Last month she celebrated two years with boyfriend Callum as Molly posted a sweet throwback snap with her beau. She captioned the snap: Happy 2 years @callum_jones' The pair often share loved up snaps to their respective Instagram pages, after meeting in the Love Island villa. They have gone from strength to strength as they now live together in a home in Manchester. Congrats! Last month she celebrated two years with boyfriend Callum Jones as Molly posted a sweet throwback snap with her beau on holiday in Mexico But it wasn't always smooth sailing for the couple, as their get-together caused a stir on the ITV2 show. Callum entered the show as one of the original contestants on episode one of the series, and connected with Shaugna Phillips at the beginning. The couple grew their relationship and continued to blossom until the infamous Casa Amor came along - which saw Molly's arrival to the show. Molly and Callum hit it off upon meeting, and he decided to return to the villa with her - leaving Shaugna devastated as she was left to fly solo. Kim Kardashian rocked another straight from the runway look as she shared more throwback snaps from Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's wedding in Italy. On Thursday, the 41-year-old SKIMS mogul shared a slideshow of snaps in which she sparkled in a crystal-embellished black catsuit that was from Dolce & Gabbana's Fall/Winter 1991 Ready-To-Wear collection. The reality star included an image of 90s supermodel Yasmeen Ghauri, who originally donned the catsuit for one of the luxury label's runway shows. Dazzling: Kim Kardashian rocked another straight from the runway look as she shared more throwback snaps from Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's wedding in Italy. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians alum simply captioned her post with emojis of diamond and a sparkle. A gemstone-studded bustier with matching high-waisted briefs were sewn into the full body catsuit. The beauty wore her platinum hair styled in an updo with a few loose strands framing her face. On Thursday, the 41-year-old SKIMS mogul shared a slideshow of snaps in which she sparkled in a crystal-embellished black catsuit that was from Dolce & Gabbana's Fall/Winter 1991 Ready-To-Wear collection Kim's glamorous palette of makeup included a smokey eye, contour blush and a nude lipstick. In the first image, the television personality was seen posing in a wicker lounge chair on a patio. The jewels on her bodysuit shimmeed as she walked through a party in another photo. Sultry: The Los Angeles native gave the camera a sultry star as she held a rose in her mouth in one snap Posing: In two photos, she struck a dramatic pose with her hands over her head The Los Angeles native gave the camera a sultry star as she held a rose in her mouth in one snap. In two photos, she struck a dramatic pose with her hands over her head. Kim concluded her slideshow with an image in which she was seen in multiple reflections as she stood in a mirrored room. Glamorous: A gemstone-studded bustier with matching high-waisted briefs were sewn into the full body catsuit Hall of mirrors: Kim concluded her slideshow with an image in which she was seen in multiple reflections as she stood in a mirrored room The original: The reality star included an image of 90s supermodel Yasmeen Ghauri, who originally donned the catsuit for one of the luxury label's runway shows Kourtney and Travis' wedding was styled by Dolce & Gabbana and Kim has been sharing several of her stunning vintage ensembles with her 315 million Instagram fans since the wedding took place last month. Last week, she posted sexy shots from her trip to Italy as she showed off her curves in a black head to toe unitard, boots, a red velvet corset and coat. The style maven was coy about her the location of the fashion shoot in her post, writing only 'La Dolce Vita.' La Dolce Vita: Kim Kardashian, 41, showed off her curves in a series of sexy shots Saturday on social media She didn't tag the designer, but she did share a photo of a model wearing the same outfit at a fashion show. The post garnered more than 200 thousand likes in the first 20 minutes after it was released. The entrepreneur and her sister, Khloe, 37, returned via private jet from Italy earlier this week, after attending the wedding of their sister, Kourtney, 43, to rocker Travis Barker, 46 in an opulent ceremony in Portofino. The lifestyle guru and her beau, former Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson, 28, were spotted last Friday on the set of a Skims shoot. Kiss: The style maven blew a kiss to the camera as she posed in a black head to toe unitard and and boots, a red velvet corset and coat Who wore it better?: The reality star didn't tag the designer, but she did share a photo of a model wearing the same outfit from what looked like a fashion show Kim was recently signed to be the Chief Taste Consultant for plant-based meat brand Beyond Meat. 'I'm so inspired by @beyondmeat's mission,' she explained, 'and excited to share their delicious plant-based products with all of you as their Chief Taste Consultant.' However fans who criticized her after it appeared she didn't eat any of the products in the 30 second ad shared on social media. Actress Eiza Gonzalez stepped out in a breezy brown dress to grab coffee in Los Angeles on Thursday. The 32-year-old Mexican born star stepped out in the gown covered in a yellow design that ran all the way down to the hem. White flowers swirled around on her torso and a thin fabric belt was tied around her waist. This comes after the beauty has been linked to Jason Momoa, who has split from his wife Zoe Kravitz. Looking good: Eiza Gonzalez stepped out in a breezy brown dress to grab coffee in Los Angeles on Thursday Gonzalez's long brown locks were tied back in a messy ponytail, and she protected her eyes from the harsh California sun with dark Prada sunglasses. She walked across the road in brown leather boots. The Baby Driver actress' appearance out came as dating rumors about her and Momoa have spread. Fashionable design: The 32-year-old actress stepped out in the gown covered in a yellow design that ran all the way down to the hem Stylish hair: Gonzalez's long brown locks were tied back in a messy ponytail, and she protected her eyes from the harsh California sun with dark sunglasses Momoa split with his estranged wife Lisa Bonet after 16 years together in January of this year. Lisa, 54, and Jason, 42, were married for five years and welcomed two children before they revealed the split. Multiple People insiders recently claimed the Aquaman star struck up a romance with Gonzalez, though one source said: 'It's nothing serious yet.' Swirling rumors: The Baby Driver actress' appearance out came as dating rumors about her and Jason Momoa have spread 'They are dating. He cares about her. He's in a great place, working on Fast X. He's quite busy and he's in a good place,' a source told the outlet. To hear another insider tell it: 'They're both busy with work but are having fun together. It's nothing serious yet.' Although Lisa and Jason first became a couple in 2005, they waited until 2017 to marry, tying the knot at an intimate secret wedding. Split: Momoa split with his estranged wife Lisa Bonet after 16 years together in January of this year (pictured 2019) Long relationship: Although Lisa and Jason first became a couple in 2005, they waited until 2017 to marry, tying the knot at an intimate secret wedding A family: Over the course of their relationship they welcomed two children into the world - daughter Lola, 14, and son Nakoa-Wolf, 13 (L to R: Coni Momoa, Jason Momoa, Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa, Lisa Bonet and Lola Iolani Momoa, pictured 2018) Over the course of their relationship they welcomed two children into the world - daughter Lola, 14, and son Nakoa-Wolf, 13. Jason and Lisa announced their separation jointly this January in a co-written statement he posted to his Instagram page. 'We have all felt the squeeze and changes of these transformational times A revolution is unfolding and our family is of no exception feeling and growing from the seismic shifts occurring,' they wrote. 'The love between us carries on, evolving in ways it wishes to be known and lived. We free each other to be who we are learning to become,' the statement added, noting: 'Our devotion unwavering to this sacred life & our Children.' A pop-up restaurant and bar is opening this July in Beverly Hills and allowing fans to reenter the home of The Golden Girls. The Golden Girls Kitchen will recreate the look of the house where all four principal characters lived in the beloved sitcom. Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty starred on the series, which enjoyed a massively successful run from 1985 to 1992. Time for some cheesecake: A pop-up restaurant and bar is opening this July in Beverly Hills and allowing fans to reenter the home of The Golden Girls Rue's character Blanche Devereaux, an aging southern belle with a rambunctious sex life, owns the house where other three all move in as tenants. The pop-up eatery, which is officially licensed, hopes to provide fans with an immersive bit of time travel to the show's setting in 1980s Miami. Even Blanche's unforgettable leafy wallpaper and sunlit lanai will be incorporated into the design of the restaurant. Throughout the show, the characters would gather in their eat-in kitchen to chew over their problems - mainly in the middle of the night over cheesecake. Fab: The Golden Girls Kitchen will recreate the look of the house where all four principal characters lived in the beloved sitcom As a result, cheesecake and desserts in general will be heavily incorporated into the menu, which will include several themed dishes. The Dorothy: A Miami Style Sandwich is named after Bea Arthur's character Dorothy Zbornak, a bookish and acerbic divorcee who works as a substitute teacher. Rue's character also gets a name-check with Blanche's Georgia Style Cookies, as does Estelle's with Sophia's Lasagna, which has a vegan version available. Sophia, Dorothy's mother, is a Sicilian immigrant who often entertains the younger women with earthy old country stories and treats them to Italian delicacies. Legends: (from left) Estelle Getty, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White starred on the series, which enjoyed a massively successful run from 1985 to 1992 The pop-up establishment will include a shop - and on the way there, guests will get to see a recreation of Shady Pines, Sophia's former retirement home, which burns down under murky circumstances before she comes to live with Blanche. As far as the drinks menu is concerned, the theme continues, for example with the Rose on Rose and the Tea Arthur. Derek Berry, who produced such fan service pop-ups as Good Burger and Saved By The Max, has collaborated with Bucket Listers on the Golden Girls project. 'Bringing Golden Girls to life has always been a dream of mine,' said Derek, who is now the director of experiences at Bucket Listers. 'I'll get the ice cream': Cheesecake and desserts in general will be heavily incorporated into the menu, which will include several themed dishes 'Our team is confident that both die hard fans of the show and first timers alike will leave with a deeper appreciation for the shows lasting legacy. We couldnt be more excited to launch The Golden Girls Kitchen!' Fans who want to visit The Golden Girls Kitchen will have to buy a $50 ticket, which will secure them an entree and cheesecake at a reserved spot in a set timeslot. Although the tickets have yet to go on sale, Bucket Listers has created a waitlist for prospective visitors to the Golden Girls experience. The last of the Golden Girls died this past New Year's Eve when Betty White, who played the warmhearted ditz Rose Nylund from small-town Minnesota, succumbed to a stroke just weeks before her 100th birthday. Triumph: The Golden Girls enjoyed an acclaimed seven-year run, winning 11 Emmy Awards, including at one point or another for each of the four main actresses Estelle, Bea and Rue had all died between 2008 and 2010, leaving Betty as the lone survivor from the main cast for over a decade. The Golden Girls enjoyed an acclaimed seven-year run, winning 11 Emmy Awards, including at one point or another for each of the four main actresses. In 1992 the series ended because Bea did not want to do it anymore, so Betty joined Rue and Estelle in a follow-up sequel series. Entitled The Golden Palace, the spin-off show lasted only one season in 1993 and saw the three remaining leads start a hotel together. Late cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who served as Korea's first Roman Catholic cardinal / Korea Times file By Park Han-sol A string of masses and cultural events are set to take place this summer in celebration of the birth centennial of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, Korea's first Roman Catholic cardinal who was regarded as a moral beacon during the country's tumultuous era of military dictatorship. A memorial mass for the late cardinal is scheduled to take place at Myeongdong Cathedral in central Seoul at noon on June 5, according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul. The mass will be led by Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick. Following the Communion, a blessing ceremony will be held at the entry of the cathedral to commemorate the new monument erected in time for Kim's birth centennial. Mainly built with stone materials excavated during the cathedral's renovation several years ago, the monument is engraved with Jeong Ho-seung's poem entitled "Myeongdong Cathedral" in both Korean and English. A series of cultural events and performances in honor of Kim are slated to kick off in July. The Seoul Catholic Theater Association announced that it will launch a nationwide tour of its biographical play, "Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan," throughout the month in Seoul, Daegu, as well as Pohang and Andong in North Gyeongsang Province. Another event includes a photo exhibition in Daegu from July 13 to 19, and at the Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan Memorial Park in Gunwi of North Gyeongsang Province from July 20 to 31. The show will feature images taken by photographer Seo Yeon-jun during the 1980s and printed on "hanji" (traditional Korean paper made from the inner bark of mulberry trees). The cover of "The Saint Who Had Been with Us" / Courtesy of Seokyo Books Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell have been relishing in parenthood since welcoming their daughter Grace Warrior, one, into the world last year. And the Irwins were like one big happy family as they went for an evening stroll around Australia Zoo on Thursday. Bindi, 23, shared a sweet picture of the clan cuddling up on her dog Stella's Instagram page. One big happy family! Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell took their adorable daughter Grace Warrior, one, and beloved dog Piggy for a walk around Australia Zoo The Wildlife Warrior was seen holding on to her little girl Grace as the tiny tot confidently stood up, while Chandler snuggled into their pet pooch Piggy. It comes after the young parents took baby Grace on a family hike over the weekend, sharing cute photos from the trip on Instagram. The couple, who have been married for two years, were joined on the outdoor adventure by Bindi's mother, Terri Irwin, and her younger brother, Robert. She's growing up fast! It comes after the young parents took their little girl on a family hike over the weekend, sharing cute photos from the trip on Instagram Chandler, 25, looked every inch the proud dad and Bindi couldn't help but smile as Grace walked on her own in one photo. Another snap showed the whole family posing together for a selfie in front of a lake. The Irwins were accompanied by Luke Reavley, the general manager of Australia Zoo, and his long-term partner, Mitch. 'Thankful for every smile, every laugh, every moment we share,' Bindi captioned the gallery of heart-melting pictures. Gang's all here! The couple, who have been married for two years, were joined on the outdoor adventure by Bindi's mother, Terri Irwin, and her younger brother, Robert Look at her go! Chandler, 25, looked every inch the proud dad and Bindi, 23, couldn't help but smile as Grace walked on her own in one photo Family friends: The Irwins were accompanied by Luke Reavley, the general manager of Australia Zoo, and his long-term partner, Mitch Not long after taking her first steps, Bindi and Chandler's daughter is already starting to speak. Grace said 'dada' in a cute home video that Bindi posted to Instagram last Thursday. 'Where's dada?' asked Chandler as the trio gathered around the camera. 'Dada, dada, dada,' Grace replied, as her parents beamed with pride. Bindi and Chandler married on March 25, 2020, and welcomed their daughter exactly a year later. Look who's talking now! Not long after taking her first steps, Bindi and Chandler's daughter is already starting to speak Sweet: She said 'dada' in a cute home video that Bindi posted to Instagram on Thursday And it seems they are still very much in the honeymoon phase more than two years after tying the knot. Bindi, the daughter of late conservationist Steve 'The Crocodile Hunter' Irwin, paid tribute to her American husband in a gushing Instagram post earlier this month. She posted a photo of the couple posing with a cockatoo and a koala, and wrote in the caption: 'Most extraordinary man in the world just happens to be my best friendand my husband. Forever loving you @chandlerpowell .' Chandler, a former professional wakeboarder from Florida, responded in the comments section: 'I love you and this post made my day .' The young couple first met in 2013 when Chandler was touring Australia as part of a national wakeboarding competition. He paid a visit to Australia Zoo, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, and Bindi happened to be giving tours that day. Romantic: Bindi and Chandler wed in a secret ceremony at Australia Zoo on March 25, 2020 After keeping in touch for two years after their first meeting, they went public with their romance in 2015, at about the time Bindi appeared on Dancing with the Stars. Chandler eventually relocated to Queensland, and the pair wed in a secret ceremony at Australia Zoo on March 25, 2020. They welcomed their daughter, Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, a year later - on their first wedding anniversary - on March 25, 2021. Young family: They welcomed their daughter, Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, a year later - on their first wedding anniversary - on March 25, 2021 Bindi's father Steve Irwin, known to millions around the world as 'the Crocodile Hunter', died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. Bindi was just eight years old at the time. Following his death, Steve's family, including his children Bindi and Robert, widow Terri, and son-in-law Chandler, have continued his wildlife conservation work at Australia Zoo. Hollywood actor Johnny Depp will join Jeff Beck for the remainder of his UK tour, it has been confirmed. Depp, 58, who on Wednesday won his multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard, 36, had previously surprised audiences and fans when he joined Beck on stage in Sheffield and at Londons Royal Albert Hall. The actor, who previously collaborated with Beck on the 2020 track Isolation, will now perform in Gateshead, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and York. Depp sued Aquaman star Heard for 50 million dollars over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post, titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. Leading reputation management lawyer Mark Stephens has said he feels the actor and Heard have both created indelible stains on their careers. Mr Stephens, a partner at Howard Kennedy and expert in reputation management, who was not involved in the case, told the PA news agency: I think they both got indelible stains, thats a major problem for people who make their livings by their reputation. In 2020, Depp took a similar libel action case to the UK court against The Sun newspaper over an article which labelled him a wife beater. However, in this instance, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the Pirates Of The Caribbean stars claim, saying News Group Newspapers (NGN) had proved what was in the article to be substantially true and this was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal. Mr Stephens noted that, initially, he does feel that Depp has come out of the US court case ahead of Heard, given the financial and reputational damages. The US case was live-streamed online, which caused it to become a trending topic on social media platforms. The lawyer stated that his theory for the differing outcomes is based on the UK case being decided upon by a judge while the US case was voted on by a jury. He explained that in both countries the same legal device called DARVO was applied, where lawyers deny the allegations, attack the reputation of the victim, and then reverse the roles by saying the defendant is the perpetrator and vice versa. Mr Stephens said: Judges are alert to it and juries are not, so it works with juries most of the time. I think they were ill-advised to bring the case and I said that right at the beginning because nobody shows themselves off to their best advantage at the break-up of a relationship. Following the verdict, Heard said she was heartbroken but even even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. She added that Depps attorneys had succeeded in getting jury members to overlook freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly, she said. South Korea will keep close tabs on a key ruling party meeting in North Korea expected to kick off within the coming days for any possible messages directed at Seoul or Washington, a unification ministry official said Thursday. The North's official Korean Central News Agency has reported that the country plans to convene the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Party Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in "the first third of June" to make an interim review of state policies for 2022 and to decide on a "series of important issues." The exact date remains unannounced. "It is likely that North Korea will discuss issues on inter-Korean and external relations as well as the COVID-19 situation," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. He pointed out that the North had organized sectional workshops to discuss relations with the South and the United States at the previous plenary session in December last year. "We will pay close attention to the results of the midterm review that the North is expected to announce at the plenary session and its direction on domestic and external policies," the official said. The reclusive Kim Jong-un regime's plan for the session has drawn keen attention from the outside world as it may provide a clue to details of the local virus crisis and foreign policy line amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States. The central committee serves as the party's highest organ of power between party congresses and usually holds a plenary meeting once a year to discuss party reshuffles and other key issues. North Korea has held 11 plenary central committee sessions since Kim took power in late 2011. (Yonhap) Feature: Chinese ambassador says China to continue to support Chinese language education in U.S. Xinhua) 10:34, June 02, 2022 DALLAS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to support Chinese language education in the United States so as to promote the long-term, stable and healthy development of China-U.S. relations, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said Tuesday during his visit to the U.S. state of Texas. He made the remarks when addressing students at the International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas), a public charter school serving more than 21,000 K-12 students at 20 campuses in the state. Qin voiced hope that Chinese and U.S. students could learn together, improve together, become partners and companions in their future careers and make greater contributions to China-U.S. relations. "Language creates communication. Communications lead to understanding and trust. Therefore, American students learning Chinese are critical and fundamental to build the mutual understanding and trust between China and the U.S.," said the ambassador. "The Chinese language has the largest number of speakers in the world. Learning Chinese is an important chance for me," said Nicholas Goldring, a graduate from ILTexas and now a sophomore in China's Beijing Language and Culture University. "I love Chinese language and culture. My future jobs will be related with my interests in Chinese," said Goldring, also a winner of the Chinese Government Scholarship. Hilton Sampson, a rising 10th grade student and the champion of Chinese Bridge Competition 2022 in the group of high schools in Texas, has learned Chinese for more than one year and has known several hundred Chinese characters so far. "Learning Chinese offers me a wider audience to communicate with and work with them to become friends. I will do business in the future and being able to communicate in Chinese will definitely be beneficial," he said. Zachary Bolzan, principal of ILTexas College Station K-8, shared his experience on how ILTexas develops creative approaches to motivate students to learn Chinese. "The kids at our school can get a golden ticket, which allows them to get a special lunch date with the Chinese teachers," Bolzan said. "I expect that our students will have a better understanding of the Chinese people and Chinese culture. And they will be able to see what either the media says or what they read on the Internet. They'll get to understand it for themselves," said Stephanie Mott, principal of ILTexas Windmill Lakes-Orem High School. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong met with the top Chinese envoy here Thursday and asked for Beijing to play a role in trying to coax Pyongyang into discontinuing its provocations and returning to talks, his ministry said. Cho and Ambassador Xing Haiming agreed that their governments have been maintaining "smooth communication" since the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. In particular, Cho expressed deep regret that the North has been undermining regional stability with ballistic missile launches and requested China's proactive role in efforts to make the recalcitrant regime change tack, according to the ministry. He also proposed close Seoul-Beijing cooperation on the basis of the "spirit of mutual respect and cooperation." The envoy shared the same view on the importance of stability in regional security and the need for the further development of relations between Seoul and Beijing, which mark the 30th anniversary this year of establishing bilateral diplomatic ties, the ministry added. Their meeting came amid growing concern about the future of relations between the neighboring countries, with the conservative Yoon administration having made clear that it will place top diplomatic policy priority on deepening and expanding the country's alliance with the United States. (Yonhap) Congress party leaders and activists on Wednesday staged a protest with jowar crop in front of the collectorate, demanding the state government to purchase the jowar crop from farmers. (Photo: Facebook) ADILABAD: Congress party leaders and activists on Wednesday staged a protest with jowar crop in front of the collectorate, demanding the state government to purchase the jowar crop from farmers as they were in need of money badly for agriculture operations for Kharif. On this occasion, the TPCC state general secretary, Gandrath Sujatha, said the state government was trying to escape from its responsibility of purchasing jowar from the farmers. Thus, farmers are incurring losses by selling the crop to private traders at a cheaper price. She said that jowar crops were piled in the villages and farmers were facing difficulty in storing them without a godown facility when the rainy season was fast approaching. Former Adilabad Market Committee Chairman Sanjeev Reddy said that the state government should instruct the market officials to start the purchase of jowar from the farmers immediately, otherwise they would intensify the agitation to press their demand. Senior Congress leader Konda Gangadhar said that KCR was cheating the farmers with false promises and he never came to rescue farmers when they were distressed. Former Adilabad Market Committee chairman Yasam Narsinga Rao and others were present on this occasion. There is a thin line separating politically weakened law enforcement agencies allowing the powerful and mighty to get away with any crime from a probe against top leaders becoming politically vindictive. The Enforcement Directorate must muster all strength from within to remain professional and fair during the entire probe against the top leadership of the Congress party in the National Herald case. The Enforcement Directorate summons to the Gandhis on June 8 did come as a surprise to most people, who must have presumed that case had lost its way. It was the way of doing things long ago, when political courtesy or an unspoken barter ensured no government probed the wrongdoings of its rival and ensured that such cases never reached a logical end. But things have changed in India, with at least two former chief ministers, the once mighty J. Jayalalithaa and Lalu Prasad Yadav, being convicted; it was only a play of fate that ensured that just Lalu, and Jayalalithaas close aide Sasikala, ended up serving severe imprisonment terms. The Congress, understandably, has called it a witch hunt, arguing a famous redux of the 2G scam defence, of zero or notional loss, saying the case was political, dubbing it weird, because there was no money transaction involved in the entire matter. The charges, as per the supporters of the Grand Old Party, were more hollow than a pack of cards. A strange phrase, that. Senior lawyer and party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, We are not a bit scared, or overawed, or intimidated by such cheap tactics. The BJP responded quickly, with its party president J. P. Nadda arguing that documents dont lie and that guilty people never accept their crimes. However, the party knows that the case, especially with the supreme family being directly charged, is highly political, and its repercussions would be more political than legal. In its worst moments, the Congress Party has been known to find political life and revival of electoral fortunes when public sympathy goes the Gandhi family way. The symbolism of Sonia Gandhi, now suffering from Covid, going to the Enforcement Directorate office to submit her response is not without its share of risk for the ruling side. The other side of the political irony in the case is that BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who initiated the case with gusto nearly a decade ago, is now hardly keen to please the top brass of his own party. Mr Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis had indulged in cheating and misappropriation of funds, while acquiring the newspaper historically owned by the party. While there cannot be any argument seeking special treatment for the Gandhis, or anyone, or any immunity from legal consequence of their actions, it cannot become a case of ED pursuing the matter to please their political masters, who then use the ED, or any other agency, to service their political ends. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram tweeted, Money laundering without money is like alleging purse snatching without a purse. The ED must prove itself clean in this crucial case. Justice must not only be done in the end, but the entire process must also be fair and above board. Eyeing a bigger stake in Bharti Airtel, the Mittal family is in talks with several investment banks, via promoter entities, to raise up to Rs 15,500 crore via onshore/offshore credit lines to buy a part of Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) share in Airtel. The family is considering all options for offshore credit such as structured financing, bonds, and even bridge loans. Banks that have been sounded out include Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, Citibank, BNP Paribas, and the Bank of America, sources told The Economic Times. Deccan Herald could not independently verify this report. Currently, The Mittals and Singtel own over 50.56 per cent and 49.44 per cent respectively in Bharti Telecom holding 35.85 per cent in Bharti Airtel. In addition, Singtel also owns 14 per cent directly in Bharti Airtel and Mittals owns 6.04 per cent, taking their total shareholdings to 31.72 and 24.13 per cent respectively. ET had earlier reported that Singtel had started talks with Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal to sell a small piece of its holding in the Indian telco to the Mittal family. The Singapore-based company has been a shareholder in Bharti Airtel since 2000. The deal is yet to be finalised. However, the report noted that the company could sell a stake worth $1-2 billion to the Mittals through a mix of Bharti Telecom and Bharti Airtel share sales. Last week, the company said that this deal "remained a core investment in its international portfolio". Due to the lackadaisical attitude of cellular service providers and phone-makers, Google had to wait longer to introduce RCS (Rich Communication Services) for Android phones to enrich the traditional Text SMS in 2019. This made the latter support exchange of multi-media content on par with the rival Apple Messages app. However, business enterprises misused the multi-media-friendly RCS feature to flood the Messages app with ads on Android phones. This had become a huge mess, particularly in India, and over the past couple of weeks, several annoyed consumers vent their anger against Google on social media platforms. Taking cognizance of the issue, the search engine giant has disabled the RCS feature on the Messages app in India. "We are aware that some businesses are abusing our anti-spam policies to send promotional messages to users in India. We are disabling this feature in India while we work with the industry to improve the experience for users," a Google spokesperson said to DH. Here are some of the user comments on Twitter over ads on the Google Messages app: Google Messages is becoming the worst possible Google app. The amount of ads its sending is crazy, multiple every day. Yes, these are NOT messages, these are ads being pushed by the app to Indian users. It's the default messaging app on most Android phones here. pic.twitter.com/8EYnIh5cd9 Ishan Agarwal (@ishanagarwal24) May 16, 2022 Hey @Google why is my Messages app so crappy now? It shows a blank screen at least once daily, has "trouble sending" messages, and can't search messages by contact or keyword. It's been nearly unusable for 3+ weeks pic.twitter.com/JvhDdf1sKF Vivian #8toAbolition (@VivaLaChang) June 1, 2022 The issue has been resolved for now, but Google is looking to see how soon it can fix the spam filter to block ads and re-introduce the RCS feature on the Messages app. Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech. After Kuwait and Oman banned the release of Samrat Prithviraj, Qatar now has put a hold on the Akshay Kumar-starrer. Samrat Prithviraj is based on the life of King Prithviraj Chauhan. Akshay is essaying the role of the legendary warrior who fought valiantly to protect India from the merciless invader Muhammad of Ghor in this visual spectacle. A source working in overseas territories, on conditions of anonymity, says: "The issue is unnecessarily getting coloured with a religious lens in these countries. People should view a film that's based on history and is authentic from a neutral perspective. "The fact is that India was looted by invaders who happened to be Muslims. The fact is that Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan fought one such invader and tried to protect India till his last breath. One should view history for what it is." The source adds: "After a ban in Kuwait and Oman, now another Islamic country, Qatar, has put the film's release on hold. Indians living in these countries won't be able to see the film and that's really unfortunate. A film like this comes once in a lifetime for everyone to see and enjoy and celebrate one's history." "People are trying to deny Indians of this moment. Better sense should prevail." Samrat Prithviraj has been directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi. Manushi Chhillar plays the role of King Prithviraj's beloved Sanyogita. The film is set to release this Friday in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Judith, a 90-year-old great-grandmother in Venezuela, examines a stuffed animal meticulously in her hands before finding a hole. "This one needs surgery," she says, adding "we're going to sew it up here." Judith is one of 40 volunteers at what amounts to a hospital for stuffed toys. Since being founded in 2017, the hospital has delivered 30,000 recycled toys to schools and associations in poor neighbourhoods. It operates out of the Caracas house of founder Lilian Gluck, 63, who receives hundreds of toys a week to repair. The first task is to categorize: Barbie, animals, Mickey Mouse, baby toys etc. "The stuffed toy hospital operates like a hospital, patients come in from the street," said Gluck. "These patients are sewn, washed, fixed, if they are missing eyes we give them eyes, their hair is combed, they are given a beautiful ribbon and a card with a very nice message to take care of them and give them as gifts to other children when they grow up." In one room, more than 300 stuffed toys are awaiting repairs. In the workshop room, volunteers share out the tasks. Some wash the toys and carefully sew them while others paint damaged dolls. There are also tailors creating little outfits, which is one of Judith's favorite tasks. "I love to see them (the children) when we arrive and they know they are going to get a toy. You can't imagine their eyes. It's a real delight, and it's what is needed," she said. Each stuffed animal gift is carefully packaged. Every detail counts, says Gluck, who believes she is bringing dignity to vulnerable children by giving them toys in good condition. In a country where 76 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty, according to the private Catholic University of Andres Bello, Gluck believes what she is doing is equally as important as helping the poor. "We support and accompany many people who bring food, but we cannot be so simplistic. In this country people need to continue having fun," she said. Pediatrician Maria Jose Rodriguez began volunteering with the association after patients in her clinic received donations. "Obviously, you're not going to get a child out of malnutrition with a stuffed animal, but play is a basic need and children have the right to play," said the 47-year-old. In a primary school in Petare, the largest slum in the country, 10-year-old Elias Barazarte has just received a stuffed toy with a bag, a box of crayons and some sweets. "It doesn't matter that it's recycled as long as you can use and play with it," he said joyfully. An accompanying card reads: "Hello, I'm your new toy. I'm an experienced toy because I've already played with another child. Love me and look after me and I will do the same with you, and when you're big give me to another child who will love me like you do." School director Mariligia Moreno believes that there is a sentimental and emotional element to giving toys to children from deprived backgrounds. "Their parents are not around and a stuffed animal is not going to make up for it, but it is a way to help them express themselves, to take care of them (the toys), to give them the love that perhaps at the moment they have no one to give it to." Top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda, will huddle on the partys poll strategy for upcoming Assembly polls and 2024 general elections at the partys two-day national executive in Hyderabad on July 2 and 3. This will be the second important meeting after the partys three-day meeting of national office-bearers in Jaipur a fortnight ago, which gave a broad indication of the partys electoral roadmap for the future. It unveiled plans to enhance its presence where it did not do well. Telangana is a key catchment area for the saffron party. Telangana, chosen as the venue, is the second south Indian state where the BJP sees an opportunity after Karnataka, where it is already in power. The saffron party has fared well in a few recent elections here. The TRS will seek a third term in the 2023 polls, while BJP, pursuing aggressive Hindutva politics, hopes to replace Congress from the main Opposition space through street agitations and regular political attacks on the KCR government. Rao has been trying to forge a regional front to fight the BJP in 2024 and has been touring states, leading to a bitter rivalry between the saffron party and TRS. The meeting in Telangana is also crucial as BJP increased its focus on south Indian states. This will be the third national executive meeting of the BJP in south India after Bengaluru and Kerala since Modi came to power in 2014. BJP is planning to focus big on 144 Lok Sabha seats, which it lost in 2019, and has chalked plans, including regular visits of Union ministers there to pep the cadre before the next general elections. The last national executive meeting of the BJP took place in Delhi in November 2021, when the partys preparations were in full swing for Assembly polls in UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. BJP has won 4 out of the five states. Not resting after the state polls victory, the BJP, after its national office bearers meeting between May 19 and 21, formed a committee for the booth empowerment campaign that concluded on May 31. The national executive of the BJP will see the party spelling out its political and economic road map for the future through separate resolutions. The partys political resolution will clear the air on several issues being raised by some of its leaders and affiliates, including the Uniform Civil Code, Kashi Vishwanath temple and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura. The three accused persons, who attacked Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Singh Tikait, have taken a U-turn and claimed that they attacked him for not speaking in Kannada, police sources said on Thursday. The police also said that they were probing the statements of the accused. Tikait was attacked and assaulted with black paint while addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan in Bengaluru on Monday. The police had arrested three persons -- Bharath Shetty, the President of Bharatha Rakshana Vedike, Shivakumar, and Pradeep. Also Read | Black ink, deadly attack can't suppress farmers' voices: Rakesh Tikait The accused had taken the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while carrying out the attack and while being taken away by the police. The investigating officers are seeing the development as a premeditated act. "The accused's statement is misleading and they will be investigated further," said police sources. The police have taken the accused persons on a six-day remand. The investigations have also revealed the past criminal history of the accused persons. Shivakumar had barged on the platform and attacked Rakesh Tikait and later tried to attack other farm leaders also. Investigations have shown that Shivakumar was accused of a murder case and is convicted of life imprisonment. He got released for good conduct in 2015. After the release, he was active in an organisation with his sister and took part in many protests. The police are investigating his involvement in other crimes. Another accused Pradeep is a cab driver. He had poured black paint on Rakesh Tikait and others. The police have also launched a hunt for women who were seen with the accused during the event on that day. Police said that all of them have disappeared after the incident. Tikait was attending a press conference on "Raita Chaluvali, Aatmavalokana haagu Spasteekarana Sabhe" (Farmer's Movement, Introspection and Clarification Meeting) organized by Karnataka State Farmers Association and Hasiru Sene. The Congress has described the incident as a black mark on the state. President Yoon Suk-yeol is likely to visit Spain later this month to attend a NATO summit in what would be his first overseas trip as president, officials said Thursday. Yoon is considering attending the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid June 29 and 30. "An advance team consisting of protocol and security service officials is currently on location where the NATO summit will be held," an official at the presidential office told Yonhap News Agency. If Yoon travels to Spain, it would be his first overseas trip since taking office May 10. Though Korea is not a NATO member, Yoon could use his participation in the summit to demonstrate solidarity with the United States and European nations in their opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yoon's attendance will also likely underscore his administration's commitment to strengthening ties with Washington in the wake of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul, May 21. An official at the presidential National Security Office said Yoon's attendance has not been finalized, as there are several factors that need to be considered, such as which other countries are participating. No other countries are currently under consideration as part of Yoon's first trip overseas, the official added. The NATO summit could set the stage for a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings for Yoon, including a possible summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a trilateral summit with Kishida and Biden. (Yonhap) A Derry man has been remanded in custody charged with the attempted murder of his uncle. Martin Mongan (20) of Clon Elagh in Derry appeared at a special sitting of Dungannon Magistrate's Court charged with one count of attempted murder that was said to have occurred on May 31. A police officer connected the accused to the charge. Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said there was no issue with the connection but as regards bail he believed the evidence was "extremely weak". The solicitor said that so far there had been no complaint by the alleged injured party who was the defendant's uncle but added that a bail application would be "inappropriate" at this stage. A police officer told the court that the alleged victim was still in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast but his condition was "no longer critical". She said police would wait for a period before speaking to the man. Mongan was remanded in custody to appear again at Derry Magistrate's Court for a bail application on June 13. The SDLP has nominated Cllr Angela Dobbins to serve as Deputy Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council. Cllr Dobbins is in her third term on council representing Ballyarnett and officially took up the role yesterday evening. She succeeds Sinn Fein's Cllr Christopher Jackson in the position. Cllr Dobbins said she wanted to use her year as Deputy Mayor to represent the entire city and district and work with the other parties on council to deliver on the issues that matter to local people. She said: It is an honour and privilege to be selected by my SDLP colleagues to serve as Deputy Mayor of Derry and Strabane. Id like to pay tribute to outgoing Mayor Graham Warke and Deputy Mayor Christopher Jackson who were handed the difficult task of leading a city emerging from the coronavirus pandemic and handled it very well. I hope to continue on their good work. In my role as Deputy Mayor Im really looking forward to getting out and meeting people. This is an area filled with extraordinary community groups and organisations who have stepped up and provided vital support and services to local people. I also hope to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the causes close to my heart. I acknowledge this is a very difficult time for families in this area. People are coming under serious pressure as a result of rising food, fuel and energy bills and I have heard from countless people who are struggling to heat their homes, put food on the table and petrol in their cars. Its an absolute disgrace that so many people in our city and district are living in poverty in 2022 and the onus is on us as councillors to do whatever we can to support them with the power we have. Throughout my time on council I believe I have built a reputation as a public representative who wants to work with and for everyone. I think we are at our strongest and at our very best when we come together to deliver for Derry and Strabane. Thats the spirit of partnership I want to bring to this role as I embark on my year as Deputy Mayor and I trust my council colleagues will work with me to ensure its a success. Altnagelvin Occupational Health Nurse, Alacoque McCaffrey, has been awarded a British Empire medal for services to Occupational Health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Alacoque, originally from Strabane, has 20 years service as an Occupational Health Nurse. Speaking on her achievement, Alacoque said: I am humbled and extremely honoured to receive this award and I graciously accept this award on behalf of the entire Occupational Health Team, both past and present, who have been committed and driven to provide the best care and support to staff and managers in our Trust. "It has been my privilege to work alongside an extraordinary group of truly dedicated healthcare professionals, especially during these recent extraordinary and unprecedented times. "It is wonderful that the work and contribution of the Occupational Health Service within the Western Trust has been acknowledged and recognised. I am very proud to be part of this small, but massively effective team. "I could not have provided 20 years of service, especially the long hours preparing and implementing for our mass vaccination programme, without the love and support of my husband, Paul and my children David and Attracta and my nine sisters. I feel this is also a tribute to them. Congratulating Alacoque, Western Health and Social Care Trust Director of Human Resources, Karen Hargan, said: I would like to congratulate Alacoque on receiving this honour. This is fitting recognition for her enormous contribution and the exemplary leadership and care she provided during the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing vaccination roll-out. Alacoque is an extremely valued member of our Occupational Health Team. She is passionate about the health, safety and wellbeing of all her colleagues in the Trust and I am delighted that she has been honoured for her work. A County Derry artist who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in her mid 40s has been awarded a grant to develop her work. Strabane native Joanne Mullin has lived in Magherafelt for the last 17 years, and is one of 74 artists to receive a share of 148,000 grant funding from the University of Atypical for Arts and Disability. The fund was established to help deaf, disabled and neurodiverse artists develop their work across a range of forms. While her daughter was undergoing assessment for ADHD, Joanne began to recognise many of the condition's indicators in her own life. My daughter is going through it [diagnosis] at the minute, and it took that for me to go 'hold on, that sounds like me, she told the County Derry Post. I went and got the assessment for it and that's the way things have been for me all my life, it's given me a new understanding. "The process was actually quite difficult, because I didn't get it through the NHS and I had to go private, which to be honest, I couldn't really afford. Some of Joanne's work focused on decommissioned police stations. I couldn't get the diagnosis through the NHS, it was just taking too long, and because I didn't present on the hyperactive side, they considered it wasn't important enough. Even at the minute, I'm still through a private practice, but it's really expensive. I have to stay there until I'm transferred through to an NHS system. I felt relieved, but annoyed and angry at the same time, because it's been missed all my life. Usually you have to have it as a child, but there were so many things I'd experienced as an adult that were never picked up. The 47-year-old, whose work is on display at the Golden Thread gallery in Belfast, intends to focus her project on the idea of identity, home and being a single parent. She hopes to document how ADHD can have an affect far beyond the confines of the initial diagnosis. The project I'm working on at the minute is about housing rights and identity, she said. That has had an impact, because I've discovered that ADHD has impacted my life in so many different ways, like employment. It can affect your mental health. I'm not wired for certain employment, it's just not in my brain, and that had a huge impact. The idea of home is looking at where I belong. With having ADHD, I've always felt on the outside, and never felt I belonged somewhere. Some of the artist's work on refuges. It's about being able to create home, especially for me and my daughter, who has ADHD as well, so it's both of us trying to find our way. I'm also looking at the housing system, the landlords, the government and how that impacts on individuals like myself and other people coming into the country. Having previously completed projects on women's refuges and decommissioned police stations, Joanne says the funding received from the University of Atypical will help develop her ideas. It was so important because I was at at point where I needed to take my work in a certain way and had to be able to finance that a bit, she said. I don't have the ability to work regular 9-5, so just having someone acknowledge that I needed that support and that it as valid. All this time I was thinking I was a bit different and wasn't able to do things the way everybody else could do it, so it was great to have that support. CEO of University of Atypical, Damien Coyle, said the grants would be a great support to the artists. The past two years had a devastating impact on the arts community, he said. It takes time and resources to rebuild and these grants will help 74 artists to create new work and develop their practices. The grants recognise the value of their contribution to society, the need for creativity and expression. On a personal level, Joanne says her diagnosis has altered her mindset when it comes to self-criticism. I don't know how that's going to turn out, but I'm hoping it should be okay, she said. When I was diagnosed, I was relieved because I was thinking 'that's why I was like that' or 'that's why I do those things'. My brain is just different from other people's. It's allowed me to be kinder to who I am as a person, she added. Hudy McGuigan was one of a rare breed born many years ahead of his time. His numerous and varied exploits show a great inventive genius, yet in his day he was considered by some as a 'Quarter-Clift'. In his adopted townland of Strawmore, near Draperstown, to which his family moved when Hudy was a baby, he was a renowned person and tales about him were told and retold time and time again around many a fireside. He was greatly in demand to compete in all forms of sport especially running, long jumping and horse racing. His own favourite sport was attempting to fly like a bird, soar into the sky and then glide slowly over the hills and glens of his beloved countryside. When John ODonovan, one of the most eminent Irish scholars, met Hudy on the mountain road between Draperstown and Dungiven on Monday, September 15, 1834 he described him as 'one of the most extraordinary men that Ireland ever produced'. That fateful meeting ensured that a factual and colourful description of Hudy was preserved for posterity. Until recently exact dates of his birth, or death, had not been known but Ballinascreen Historical Society has been thrilled to discover that Hudy died on 6th June 1847 aged 80 years. And so it is fitting that the 175th anniversary of his death should be commemorated. On the evening of Tuesday, June 7 from 7pm to 8pm there will be an informal get-together in Draperstown Library to mark the occasion. Everyone is welcome to call in and Society members would be delighted if any new information on the legendary Hudy came to light. Some copies of the Societys 1993 publication 'The Life and Adventures of Hudy McGuigan' will be available so that a whole new generation will be introduced to 'this extraordinary human production of Ballinascreen'. WhatsApp is testing plenty of future updates to enhance user experience. After discovering the optional subscription service for WhatsApp business users, WABetaInfo reported that the Meta-owned WhatsApp is testing a cover image for desktop users.This new addition to WhatsApp is still in the testing phase. Right now, it is running on iPhones, but sooner or later it will also be accessible for desktop and Android users. The idea behind this newly developed feature on WhatsApp Beta is that the cover picture attracts buyers and the business community. Business profiles will grow on WhatsApp just like on LinkedIn. A cover image of a business account will display once the profile is open. The cover picture will not only display to the Business, but also to the regular WhatsApp user who visits the business contact. This cover photo will be rectangular and appear behind the round display picture just as on Facebook. In addition to it, the WhatsApp development tracker, WABetaInfo has revealed a screenshot of the upcoming update informing that users can choose their image from the phones media or they can upload any image directly from the source.This is a great update for the Business community to enhance the representation of their portfolios and to guide and assist visitors about the Business. On the cover photo, one can display Sales offers, services, and much more information to further excel in the competitive market.To add on, another exciting feature is also in the development phase, WABetaInfo noticed that WhatsApp is also developing a Status reply indicator for android, desktop, and iOS users to make them able to see the replies to their status instantly. A small icon can be seen in the screenshot shared by WABetainfo, which will make it easier for people to be aware of the replies sent to them based on their status upload. This Status indicator would be a great addition to WhatsApp as it helps to catch sight of a status reply from a routine message reply. The new icon will appear on the Chat screen and a single glance at the chat list will indicate a status reply.Along with these new updates, advanced links previewing options in WhatsApp status and various emoji reactions are also in the testing phase and as of now, we cant predict when these features will be accessible to the general public.As mentioned earlier, the Status-reply indicator is not yet accessible for beta testers. We keep an eye on it and will update you soon once the feature is fully developed.Read next: WhatsApp Reportedly Developing Policy Warnings for Business Users, Upgrading Disappearing Messages Subscriber content preview WASHINGTON (AP) The white-hot demand for U.S. workers cooled a bit in April, though the number of unfilled jobs remains high and companies are still desperate to hire more people. Employers advertised 11.4 million jobs at the end of April, the Labor Department said Wednesday, down from nearly 11.9 million in March, the highest level on records that date back 20 years. . . . Subscriber content preview BURIEN The Queensview, at 13007 12th Ave. S.W. in Burien, sold for over $10.4 million, according to King County records. The seller was 12th Avenue Properties LLC, associated with a Los Angeles investor group, which acquired the property in 2018 for $6.5 million. . . . The U.S. point man on North Korea arrived in Seoul on Thursday for talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts amid growing concerns that Pyongyang's nuclear test may be imminent. It is the first visit here by Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea, in 1 1/2 months. "There have been some important developments on the peninsula since my visit, and I'm looking forward to having an in-depth discussion," Kim said upon his arrival at the Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. Kim plans to hold bilateral and trilateral talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kim Gunn and Takehiro Funakoshi, respectively, on Friday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. Last week, the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a U.S.-proposed resolution that sought to impose additional sanctions on Pyongyang for its recent missile tests due to opposition from China and Russia. North Korea launched three ballistic missiles last week, including an apparent long-range one, in its 17th show of force this year. (Yonhap) DPK still controls Assembly, but president gains crucial leverage By Kang Seung-woo The victory of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in the local elections has given President Yoon Suk-yeol more leverage in his management of state affairs, although the election results haven't changed much about the reality that the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) still controls the National Assembly. Of the 17 mayoral and governor races, the ruling party won 12, including the Seoul mayoral seat. In addition, the PPP took 5 out of seven seats that were up for grabs in parliamentary by-elections. Given that the quadrennial event was held less than a month after Yoon took office on May 10, it was widely regarded as an extended round of the election rather than a referendum on the Yoon administration. Yoon edged out the DPK's Lee Jae-myung by 0.7 percentage point in the presidential election on March 9. "While the Yoon administration is being frustrated by the DPK's majority in the Assembly, what Yoon badly needs is favorable public opinion. In that respect, the wins in the local elections, held three months after the presidential election, means the 'honeymoon phase' with the public has been extended, giving a huge boost to the government," said Hong Hyeong-sik, a political analyst and director of Hangil Research. "For Yoon to earn such support right after his May 10 inauguration, which is a very important moment of his five-year tenure, will greatly help him establish key national policies and push for them." On Tuesday, the eve of the local elections, PPP floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong wooed voters, saying that if the presidential election was the first half of the change in government, the local elections are the second half of the shift. "We should remember that we won the presidential election just by 0.7 percentage point. We cannot be complacent," he added. In the lead-up to the local elections, many said Yoon's May 21 summit with U.S. President Joe Biden would help the ruling party appeal to voters, as the summit has gained recognition for raising the security alliance to a global comprehensive strategic alliance an agenda that conservative voters are enthusiastic about. However, Hong said the PPP win was already sealed even ahead of the Yoon-Biden summit, citing a series of missteps by the DPK, including an internal feud between its co-interim leaders. "Other than the DPK's blunders, the key to the election victory is that President Yoon successfully pushed ahead with his nomination of the justice minister and the prime minister despite the opposition party's strong objection," Hong said. In response to the nominations, the DPK urged Yoon to withdraw his nomination of Han Dong-hoon, one of Yoon's closest confidants, citing his resistance to prosecutorial reform. As for the prime minister nominee, Han Duck-soo, the DPK declared him initially as "unqualified" due to his post-retirement career at a law firm and other suspected irregularities, along with its anger over Yoon's lack of willingness to cooperate with the opposition, as evidenced by the appointment of the justice minister. However, DPK members endorsed the prime minister nominee in the end amid concerns that rejecting the nomination could backfire and hurt their chances in the local elections. "Many voted for Yoon in the presidential election, hoping for the rule of law from him, and they saw Han Dong-hoon as the perfect fit to do so," Hong said. Yoon resigned from the top prosecutor post in March 2021 due to his feud with the former Moon Jae-in administration over prosecutorial reform and a series of politically sensitive investigations targeting corruption among key ruling bloc figures. The justice minister is a strong critic of the recently enacted laws on prosecution reform, which have been railroaded by the DPK. Although the ruling party won the mayoral races for Seoul and Busan, the nation's two biggest cities, a loss in the election for the Gyeonggi Province governorship would be a bitter pill to swallow. "It is reasonable that the PPP won races in the regions that voted for Yoon, but the president was behind by 5.3 percentage points in Gyeonggi Province. In order to shake off the tag that he won by a mere 0.7 percentage points, the party should have claimed the gubernatorial seat," Hong said. A new support service to assist people dealing with harmful gambling is now available at Connect Family Resource Centre, Louth. The National Problem Gambling Support Service was officially launched this week by Gambling Awareness Trust. The service is a collaboration between Gambling Awareness Trust and the Family Resource Centre National Forum (FRCNF), which will see 20 Family Resource Centres (FRCs) across the country provide professional and confidential counselling services to those experiencing harmful gambling and their families. Speaking about the service, Pam Bergin, Executive Director of Gambling Awareness Trust, said: I would strongly encourage anyone in Louth who is experiencing harmful gambling to contact their local FRC. Harmful gambling can have serious consequences for peoples mental health, their employment and relationships. "International research reports that for every single person identified with a gambling disorder, up to six other people are impacted significantly. Given the estimated prevalence of 55,000 problem gamblers in Ireland this presents a significant number of individuals affected in Irish society and highlights the need for increased services and supports in this area. The National Problem Gambling Support Service will provide vital community-based support to help those experiencing harmful gambling and their affected others. Through the FRCs, Gambling Awareness Trust wants to end the stigma attached to problem gambling by sending a strong message to those affected that professional and confidential support is available. Fergal Landy, CEO Family Resource Centre National Forum, added: The Family Resource Centre National Forum is delighted to collaborate with Gambling Awareness Trust to contribute to the development of a National Problem Gambling Support Service for those experiencing harmful gambling and their families. Given the unique position of Family Resource Centres within communities through Ireland, it is welcome that Gambling Awareness Trust have recognised our capacity to deliver a consistent, high quality, national service, to respond to the very immediate need in this important and underserved area of work. The ability of local Family Resource Centres in Louth, and across the country to offer a therapeutic response through counselling integrated with a community development approach to family support is to fore in how this service will be implemented. Counselling staff with experience in dealing with gambling addiction have been appointed in each of the participating FRCs. It is expected that the service will run for an initial three-year period, with a project evaluation to follow at the end of the final year. The service will be offered at affordable rates based on each persons ability to pay. The Gambling Awareness Trust is encouraging people who would like to access the service to visit their website: www.gamblingcare.ie or local Family Resource Centre website for more information. The jury at the inquest into the deaths of four Irish Coast Guard aircrew, including Captain Mark Duffy from Dundalk, in the Rescue 116 helicopter crash has recorded verdicts of accidental death. The jury of eight returned the verdict following some three hours of deliberations. Rescue 116 crashed off Co Mayo at 12.46am on March 14 2017 during a search-and-rescue mission with four crew on board, after it struck Blackrock Island, 12 miles off the Irish coast. At the time of the accident the crew were offering support to an operation to airlift an injured man from a fishing trawler. Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, the commander of the flight, was pulled from the sea in the hours after the crash and never regained consciousness, and the body of Captain Mark Duffy, the co-pilot, was taken from the cockpit 12 days later by Navy divers. The bodies of winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith were never recovered, despite weeks of intensive searches of the seabed, surface and shore. The foreman of the jury confirmed on Thursday that all four deaths were accidental. An investigation published last year into the crash identified systemic safety issues and made 42 safety recommendations. The investigation found that the aircraft was manoeuvring at 200ft and nine nautical miles from the intended landing point at Blacksod, at night and in poor weather conditions, unaware that a 282ft obstacle was on the flight path. There were serious and important weaknesses with the operators safety management systems (SMS) in relation to navigation and the reporting of safety issues, such that certain risks that could have been mitigated were not, the report said. The investigation report found that concerns had been raised over the navigation system, the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), four years before the crash. The report into the crash said that the crew were unaware it was heading for Blackrock Island. The ordnance survey imagery did not show Blackrock and instead showed open water. The foreman told the inquest that errors and omissions in the mapping and navigation aids contributed significantly to the accident. He also said they endorsed the 42 recommendations of the air accident report. There should be definitive medical criteria when forming any decision to dispatch an emergency helicopter, there should be no ambiguity as to who the decision-maker is, the foreman said. There should be a reliable top-cover in place at all times, ideally not using another SARs (search and rescue) aircraft. Based on clear evidence, errors and omissions in mapping and navigation aids contributed significantly to this accident. There needs to be cohesive regulatory oversight in relation to the various bodies and agencies who bear collective responsibility for the provision of these services. We wish to acknowledge the painstaking work of An Garda Siochana, the air accident investigation unit, the judicial and medical agencies. We wish to acknowledge the strength of those witnesses who gave evidence and the friends and families of the victims who have been forced to relive these harrowing experiences for the purpose of seeking the truth of these events. The burden of responsibility towards those who continue to operate on the front line of rescue services, their families and those who have been lost in service cannot be overstated. We want to acknowledge the heroic efforts of those in the rescue services in the protection of the public on a daily basis. Mayo coroner Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald thanked the jury for its help. The coroner also said the accident happened due to a multiplicity of factors, which in normal circumstances and in normal conditions would not have happened. In their line of duty, is there such a thing as normal, she added. In their occupation there was always going to be a risk involved in undertaking such missions. However, in the circumstances of this particular tragedy and loss of life, there were a few things that went against them. The timing in the night-time, the visibility, the weather conditions and the route and lack of knowledge that Blackrock was there. Multiple of factors were involved in the cause of this accident. She supported the implementation of the 42 recommendations to prevent a similar accident from happening again. Dr Fitzgerald said the flying conditions were treacherous, and the decision to do what they did should not be undertaken lightly ever again. She conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families. The coroner also said it was a challenging investigation and paid tribute to all the parties involved. She said there was no stone left unturned in the investigation. The legal representatives of the families thanked the jury, the witnesses and those involved in the search for their loved ones following the crash, including the Coast Guard, volunteers, fishermen and people local to the Belmullet area. Speaking after the inquest, Dara Fitzpatricks father John said the inquest verdict on Thursday will help bring closure to the family. He said the families had received fantastic support from the people of Belmullet and the local area. He said it was a very emotional moment but would bring some closure to him and his wife Mary. You can grieve normally then. Definitely, he added. The inquest, which took place at Belmullet Civic Centre in Co Mayo, heard from a total of 23 witnesses, including Coast Guard crew, members of the RNLI, colleagues of those who were killed in the incident, crash investigators and gardai. On Wednesday, the inquest heard how the visibility in the moments before the crash was very poor and dense. Vincent Sweeney, who worked as a lighthouse attendant at Blacksod, told the inquest how visibility can change in a matter of minutes. He said that visibility was some 400 to 500 feet at the time. He said of the visibility on the night of the crash: It can happen (drop) very fast, its very bad. You could hardly see your arm in front of you. It was more a mist that turned into a deadly fog. It was like soup. That happened within minutes. Lee Jun-seok, center in front row, chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), claps as exit poll results appear on TV, Wednesday, after voting for the local and by-elections ended. Other ranking PPP members, who gathered at the National Assembly, celebrated as the party was predicted to win big in the elections. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul The ruling People Power Party (PPP) clinched a resounding victory in Wednesday's local elections, giving the newly inaugurated government of President Yoon Suk-yeol an added mandate to push forward with its agenda. The PPP won 12 out of 17 key races for big city mayors and provincial governors, including Seoul, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) won only five key races, including three in its stronghold of the Jeolla provinces. The biggest battleground was Gyeonggi Province where the DPK candidate, Kim Dong-yeon, came from behind to beat his PPP rival, Kim Eun-hye, by 0.14 percentage points, with 99.67 percent of the vote counted as of 7:20 a.m., Thursday. In Seoul, current Mayor Oh Se-hoon was reelected, while the PPP's Yoo Jeong-bok won the race for Incheon mayor. The PPP also took the governorships of both Chungcheong provinces, both Gyeongsang provinces, Gangwon Province, and the mayor posts of the central cities of Sejong and Daejeon, as well as the southeastern cities of Daegu, Ulsan and Busan. "I think that we have completed the real change of the government by winning the local elections after the presidential election victory," PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said. "We will work harder to realize the wishes of the people with a humble attitude." PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok also expressed his thanks to the people. From left are Park Ji-hyun, interim co-leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK); Lee Jae-myung of the DPK who ran in the by-election in Incheon's Gyeyang-B electoral district; Yun Ho-jung, interim co-leader of the party; and its floor leader Park Hong-keun. They look devastated as exit poll results appear on TV at the National Assembly Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk "We are deeply grateful for all the support the people have given us," Lee said. "More than anything else, we are grateful that we were given a chance to take over a considerable part of regional administration following the presidential election victory." The DPK won only four races for the mayor of Gwangju and the governorships of both Jeolla provinces and Jeju. "I think we received our second punishment after the presidential election," said DPK interim chief Park Ji-hyun. "The results were worse than we thought." The elections took place less than a month after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office. The results, when finalized, are expected to significantly strengthen the mandate of the new government as it pushes its agenda in its first year. Landslide victory gives boost to President Yoon Yoon says he takes election results as people's call to revive economy Voter turnout hits lowest since 2002 Up for grabs in this year's local elections were positions for 17 metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, 226 lower-level administrative leadership positions, 872 seats in provincial and metropolitan councils, as well as 2,988 in lower-level local councils. Also at stake were seven National Assembly seats in by-elections. The DPK's former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was elected to the National Assembly representing Incheon's Gyeyang-B district. Lee was also the chief of the DPK's campaign for local elections. Despite his own victory, Lee was far from celebratory. "I will humbly accept the stern rebuke the people have given us," Lee said of the party's defeat during a TV interview at his election office. "I will do my best to regain the people's confidence and receive love from them again." In another by-election, Ahn Cheol-soo of the PPP, who withdrew from the presidential race to endorse Yoon, secured the seat representing the Bundang-A district of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, after beating Kim Byoung-gwan of the DPK. The results show that the PPP succeeded in riding the momentum from March's presidential election victory. Yoon's successful summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and firm response to recent North Korean provocations are believed to have helped the PPP make its case with voters, especially those seeking more stabilized operations of the Yoon administration. The PPP's victory will also help the Yoon administration's agenda, though the DPK still holds a majority in the National Assembly. For the DPK, the results dealt a big blow to recover from their presidential election defeat and expand its power across the nation to keep the Yoon government in check. The defeat comes after the DPK reeled from a recent internal feud, which was sparked by the DPK co-interim chief Park Ji-hyun's call for a sweeping reform of the party, and a sexual misconduct case involving one of its lawmakers. In the run-up to Wednesday's elections, the PPP and the DPK had been wrangling over various issues, from an extra budget bill to support pandemic-hit small merchants to a proposal for merging Gimpo International Airport's operations with those of Incheon International Airport. Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 14,465 polling centers nationwide, all eligible voters except for COVID-19 patients and those in self-isolation were able to cast their ballots from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Vote counting began around 8:40 p.m. at 255 ballot counting stations. Tentative turnout for this year's local elections was tallied at 50.9 percent, the second-lowest ever for local elections, as 22.5 million of 44.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, according to the National Election Commission (NEC). From left, People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok, floor leader Kweon Seong-dong and other leaders applaud in the National Assembly after putting "elected" stickers on photos of the party's candidates who won in Wednesday's elections. Joint Press Corps DPK leadership offers to resign en masse following 'crushing defeat' By Nam Hyun-woo Presidential spokesperson Kang In-sun speaks during a press briefing at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap President Yoon Suk-yeol has gained a major boost in his administrative and policy drive after voters sided with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) which achieved a landslide win in Wednesday's local and by-elections. The resounding victory for Yoon's party came less than three months after he won the presidential election by a narrow margin against his opponent and just three weeks after he took office. After vote counting for Wednesday's local and by-elections ended on Thursday, the PPP clinched 12 out of 17 provincial governor and metropolitan mayor posts. The DPK won in governor elections in Gyeonggi Province, Jeju Province, and South and North Jeolla provinces as well as the Gwangju mayoral race. In the race for Gyeonggi Province governor, PPP candidate Kim Eun-hye maintained an early lead, but DPK candidate Kim Dong-yeon staged an upset to win by 49.06 percent to 48.91 percent after all votes were counted on early Thursday morning. Along with the large municipalities, the PPP swept 170 out of 226 mayor, district head and county governor posts, followed by the DPK with 63, the Jinbo (Progressive) Party with one and 17 independent candidates. In the parliamentary by-elections in seven constituencies, five PPP candidates clinched their Assembly seats and two were claimed by the DPK candidates. This resulted in the DPK holding 169 seats in the assembly, followed by the PPP with 114, the Justice Party with six, and two other parties each having one seat. There are eight independent lawmakers and one seat remains unoccupied. Presidential spokeswoman Kang In-seon, Thursday, quoted Yoon as saying that he took the election results as "the people's wish to revive the economy and take better care of the public's livelihood." "To this end, the central government will join hands with local governments to shoulder difficulties together," Yoon was quoted as saying. "The Yoon government will spare no efforts to stabilize the public's livelihood, with its economy-first principle." With members of the PPP claiming most of the major posts in the elections, the ruling party will control the central and local governments, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will have its grip only on legislative power. The DPK still holds a majority in the 300-seat Assembly. This will pave the way for the Yoon administration's initiative to lay the groundwork for the president to introduce his economic initiatives and policies for balanced regional development. As the elections also proved that the public has grown weary of the DPK, the main opposition party is anticipated to be more cooperative with Yoon's policies, rather than holding them back. The PPP celebrated its victories in the elections, but pledged not to be arrogant about the results, saying that doing so could make the party repeat the failures and mistakes the DPK committed. "Voters gave our party sweeping support, a result we should be thankful for and also be afraid of," PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok said during a party meeting, Thursday. "After winning big in the National Assembly elections held two years ago, the DPK has been intoxicated by its victory and has been wayward without listening to what others said. Now they are grappling with this contrasting result just two years later." Democratic Party of Korea co-interim chiefs Yun Ho-jung, fourth from left, and Park Ji-hyun, fifth from left, bow in apology with other interim leaders of the main opposition party during their press conference at the National Assembly, Seoul, Thursday. They resigned from their posts to take responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in the local and by-elections a day earlier. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun JOHNNY Depp has said he feels at peace and is truly humbled after winning his multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard. The actor said his decision to pursue the case was only made after considerable thought and his goal was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Mr Depp sued the Aquaman star for 50 million dollars over the piece, titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. The article does not mention him by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused Ms Heard while they were together. Following six weeks of evidence and roughly 13 hours of deliberation, jurors returned a verdict in favour of Mr Depp on Wednesday. The actor was awarded compensatory damages of 10 million dollars (8 million) and a further five million dollars (4 million) in punitive damages. In his statement, issued through his spokesperson, Mr Depp promised fans that the best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed, he said All in the blink of an eye. False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already travelled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. Mr Depp continued: Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that. He said he had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world, adding: I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. Concluding the statement, he added: The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes. Speaking outside the court, his lawyers Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez said they truly honoured to have represented the actor and were so grateful to the jurors, and other members of court staff. It is time to turn the page and look to the future, Mr Chew said. Mr Depp was not present for the verdict, and was reportedly in the north east of England, after performing onstage for three nights in a row with musician Jeff Beck. He has been pictured onstage with Mr Beck at Sheffield Arena and The Royal Albert Hall in west London. Ms Heard, who was present, was sitting between members of her legal team at the front of the court room, looked downcast as the ruling was read out by the judge. She had her head bowed and appeared to be listening intently to the verdict. But the actress was awarded two million dollars (1.6 million) in damages after her counterclaim against Mr Depp over comments made by his lawyer Adam Waldman, who allegedly referred to her abuse claims as a hoax, was also found to be defamatory. Following the verdict, the actress said she was heartbroken but even even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. The disappointment I feel today is beyond words, she said in a statement, which was shared on social media. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Ms Heard said the verdict sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. She added that Mr Depps attorneys had succeeded in getting jury members to overlook freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly, she said. Mr Depp had consistently denied the outrageous, outlandish claims of abuse and said he had spoken up for what I have been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years during his own evidence. The court previously heard that descriptions of Mr Depps drug use and violence were exaggerated by Ms Heard and her legal team. The case was brought in Virginia rather than in California, where the actors live, because The Washington Posts online editions are published through servers located in Fairfax County. Witnesses have included family members, friends, colleagues, employees and other individuals including British supermodel Kate Moss, as well as both Mr Depp and Ms Heard. During the course of the trial at Fairfax County District Court, legions of fans gathered outside in an attempt to enter the courtroom and observe proceedings. Many lined up outside the courthouse in anticipation of the verdict and gave huge cheers as the verdicts were read out. A SUPPORT service to help victims of harmful gambling has been rolled out in Cork as the issue reaches crisis levels across the country. Help will now be available at Carrigtwohill Family Resource Centre in East Cork for those suffering from gambling addictions. It comes as the launch of the National Problem Gambling Support Service gets underway this week courtesy of Gambling Awareness Trust. The service is a collaboration between Gambling Awareness Trust and the Family Resource Centre National Forum (FRCNF), which will see 20 Family Resource Centres (FRCs) across Ireland provide professional and confidential counselling services to those experiencing harmful gambling and their families. Pam Bergin, Executive Director of Gambling Awareness Trust, reassured those affected by gambling that there is hope. I would strongly encourage anyone in Cork who is experiencing harmful gambling to contact their local FRC," she said. "Harmful gambling can have serious consequences for peoples mental health, their employment and relationships. International research reports that for every single person identified with a gambling disorder, up to six other people are impacted significantly. "Given the estimated prevalence of 55,000 problem gamblers in Ireland this presents a significant number of individuals affected in Irish society and highlights the need for increased services and supports in this area." Counselling staff with experience in dealing with gambling addiction have been appointed in each of the participating FRCs. The service will be offered at affordable rates based on each persons ability to pay. For more information see www.gamblingcare.ie or contact a local Family Resource Centre website for more information. By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA Updated at 18:50 SIPTU has described the operators of Dublin airport, Daa's plans for the June bank holiday as a 'sticking plaster'. Union representative Jerry Brennan says he does not have confidence in them and the use of trainees may not help speed up the process. Speaking to Newstalk, he said: "It could be a hindrance more than a help." He said over the past few days there has been a lot of 'heated moments' at Dublin Airport as a result of the difficulties. It comes as the Daa said there will be 10 per cent more staff working this weekend compared to last weekend. They will be expecting thousands of passengers to pass through the airport seeing as it is the June bank holiday. In a bid to avoid the chaos of last weekend, the Daa said a holding area may be needed for passengers who arrive earlier than the recommended time during extremely busy periods this summer. Triage access Daa chief executive Dalton Philips told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that this protocol is in place in order to triage access to the terminals during busy periods, but that they do not expect to have that in place this coming bank holiday weekend. He said that some of the short-term car parks in both terminals, as well as the space where queues formed outside the terminals, are among the spaces that may be used as holding areas. At times when the terminals get particularly busy, we may triage access to the terminals and control entry into the terminal, based on the departure time of flights if necessary. A protocol for the deployment of this is in place. For departing passengers, access to the appropriate terminals will be controlled and will require the presentation of documentation indicating the time of flight such as a booking confirmation or boarding card. Dublin Airport (Niall Carson/PA) Passengers are recommended to arrive at least 2.5 hours before short-haul flight departures, and 3.5 hours before long-haul flights depart. Daa will put in place bad weather cover, seating and toilets in the holding area as quickly as possible in the coming days following trialling of this system over the June bank holiday weekend. He said that special consideration will be given to those passengers who require special assistance, such as people with autism, Mr Philips told the committee. Mr Philips said that things will be managed differently this weekend and beyond, and that the airport is focused on a better passenger experience. The Daa will try to maximise the availability of staff resources, increase the number of security lanes open at peak times, and improve queue management. Following these incremental measures, we are confident we have a robust plan and we do not envisage a repeat of what occurred last Sunday. And, should unanticipated issues arise, we have appropriate escalation and triage mechanisms focused on ensuring no passengers will miss their flights. Mr Philips said that the quick recovery of the aviation industry following the pandemic, new EU rules requiring enhanced background checks of airport staff, and exceptional levels of absence due to Covid-19, had resulted in passenger delays at the airport. Mr Philips told TDs and Senators that he understood the anger frustration and upset among passengers over the scenes at the airport last weekend, and apologised unreservedly for the long queues and delays. Tom Tuite A retired Dublin school principal accused of systematic sexual abuse of 20 former pupils has been granted 30,000 bail. Last month, Patrick Harte (80) was remanded in custody by Dublin District Court after gardai charged him with 83 indecent assaults, one attempted indecent assault and six sexual assaults from 1967-1995. It followed an investigation by the Divisional Protective Services Unit at Kevin Street Garda station. The alleged offences involved 20 pupils at Sancta Maria Christian Brothers primary school on Synge Street, Dublin. The former teacher, who later became a principal, worked at the school from 1967-2008. He denies the allegations. On Wednesday, Judge Alan Mitchell granted bail over Garda objections at the District Court. However, he imposed strict terms, including the requirement for an independent surety, cash lodgements and the surrender of Mr Harte's passport. Detective Garda Colleen Gallagher had objected to bail due to the seriousness of the case and "flight-risk" concerns. The garda told Judge Mitchell the "allegations are similar in nature"; however, the injured parties were "unknown to each other". The court heard they were in different years or classes, and they did not know how many people had reported incidents of indecent assault or sexual assault to gardai. Former students The detective told the court that gardai spoke to 219 former pupils during the investigation; 72 witnesses made statements that the alleged abuse was regular and "in the presence of the entire class". The roll book confirmed their presence in the classes, the court heard. Det Gda Gallagher said the allegations indicated "prolonged, systematic abuse", but she added Mr Harte denied all the allegations when they were put to him by gardai. She said she Mr Harte would not remain at his address but "relocate" if the court let him out on bail. However, under cross-examination, defence counsel John Griffin put it to her that there was no hard evidence to support that view. The garda replied it was her belief Mr Harte was a flight risk. She accepted he was an 80-year-old man in ill health, but added she was not satisfied he would remain in the jurisdiction. However, if the court granted bail, Det Gda Gallagher said she expected conditions and a cash lodgement larger than 2,500, which the defence had proposed. Pleading for bail, counsel argued the garda's belief was "not backed up" and "simply supposition, conjecture and assumption". Mr Griffin added that his client had the presumption of innocence and was entitled to bail. Flight risk Sligo-born Mr Harte, with an address at Glendown Park, Templeogue, Dublin, did not give evidence during the bail hearing. Judge Mitchell said that flight risk evidence had to be more substantial, "like having sold a property and seeking a place abroad". He granted the pensioner bail in his bond of 15,000 and required an independent surety to lodge a further 15,000. Mr Harte has yet to take up the bail. Once the financial terms have been met, he must reside at his home in Dublin, notify of any address change, and sign on three days a week at the local Garda station. He must also have no contact with complainants or witnesses, not leave the State, surrender his passport, not apply for alternative travel documentation, and remain contactable by mobile phone. In addition, he must give his number to the detective before release. Mr Harte was remanded in custody with consent to bail to appear again on June 24th. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has directed trial in the Circuit Court but must complete a book of evidence before the matter is sent forward for trial. Mr Harte, who told his barrister he receives a 35,000 pension annually, has been granted legal aid. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800 77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112. From left are Ahn Cheol-soo, Kim Dong-yeon and Lee Jae-myung. Korea Times photo Ahn Cheol-soo, Kim Dong-yeon establish themselves as presidential contenders By Kang Seung-woo High-profile politicians survived the local elections or the by-elections, simultaneously held, Wednesday. But they are expected to head in different directions in the post-election political landscape. Former presidential candidates Ahn Cheol-soo of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Kim Dong-yeon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) won a parliamentary seat and the governorship of Gyeonggi Province, respectively, positions that will allow them to gain another shot at the presidency. On the other hand, Lee Jae-myung of the DPK also won a ticket to enter the National Assembly. But the party's devastating defeat in the elections overshadows his victory and future political ambitions, because the former Gyeonggi governor, who led the party's election committee, faced criticism for returning to politics too soon after his loss in the presidential election in March. Ahn, who has returned to the National Assembly for the first time in five years as a three-term lawmaker, is expected to gain a footing in the PPP, with which his former People's Party merged following the presidential election. Ahn dropped out of the presidential race to endorse his rival, Yoon Suk-yeol, who became president. By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA A one-off Government funding package for the post office network worth 30 million euro over three years was announced on Wednesday. The minister of state with responsibility for the sector hailed the hard-fought for package and appealed to the public to use their post office more often. This is the first time an Irish Government has provided direct financial support for postmasters. Postmasters are independent business owners contracted by An Post, to run an estimated 900 post offices across Ireland. Most post offices are operated by independent postmasters. A grant will be given from the State to the postmasters through An Post, and will be distributed by targeting postmasters in most need of financial help. Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, and Minister of State with responsibility for postal matters, Hildegarde Naughton, brought a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday outlining the details of the package, which was then approved. Speaking from Stillorgan post office in Co Dublin on Wednesday, where details of the scheme were announced, Minister Naughton said she was confident that the package will protect our post office network and will ensure that families and businesses nationwide can continue to access services from within their own communities. This is the first time that Government has provided direct financial support to our postmasters! This new scheme of 10 million every year for the next 3 years will protect our 900 strong post office network and help them grow into the future @IrishPostmaster @Postvox https://t.co/K4T8JmieFm Hildegarde Naughton (@1Hildegarde) June 1, 2022 Addressing the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Wednesday evening, Ms Naughton said that rather than hoping the package would prevent post offices from closing, the Government hoped that the package would decelerate the closure of postal offices. Anyone who wants to retire, for personal reasons that will be their decision. But if somebody then wants to take up that role as postmaster, it will be advertised again. Were all very aware when somebody retired, but when its advertised again, the pick-up isnt there because its not viable. What this unprecedented package does is it now gives postmasters certainty, she told the committee. Ms Naughton said the public should try to use their post office more. There is an obligation as well, and people value the post office, but they need to use it as well. This is what this funding is doing, its giving that timeline, that breather for post offices to be able to drive new business. This funding, as well, will be an incentive for postmasters. She added: This is the first time in the history of the state that weve had state intervention in the post office network. The funding package will come into effect from 1 January 2023. An 8.5 million euro pandemic relief fund for post offices was announced by An Post in June 2021,and will run until December 2022. A California judge has ruled that a state pesticide spraying program must end because it did not fully consider the impacts on public health or warn people of those risks. The ruling was issued by the Superior Court of California County of Sacramento May 19 in response to a lawsuit brought by the City of Berkeley and 11 environmental and public health groups, including the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The court was right to rule against the Department of Food and Agricultures outrageous effort to keep the public in the dark about how and when it plans to spray toxic pesticides and to downplay the risks these chemicals pose to pollinators, the environment and the health of those who live near farm fields, EWG California director of government affairs Bill Allayaud said in a press release. A judge has ordered the California Department of Food and Agriculture to stop spraying toxic pesticides including on schools, parks and lawns and near organic farms until the agency complies with state environmental laws! https://t.co/nCKUo8GGkG EWG (@ewg) April 10, 2018 In the ruling, Superior Court Judge James Arguelles gave the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) two months to stop all spraying conducted under the Statewide Plant Pest Prevention and Management Program, AP News reported. His ruling came after an October decision from a lower court determining that the program did not conduct individual reviews before spraying and did not inform the public when pesticides would be applied, therefore breaking the California Environmental Quality Act. It also said that the program did not fully consider the risk its activities posed to water and bees. The lower appeals court then sent the case to the Superior Court for a ruling, EWG said. Specifically, CDFA had tried to justify spraying with a single environmental review instead of assessing and informing the public of the impacts of more than 75 pesticides it planned to use in each of the different locations throughout the state where they would be applied. The report was also vague, stating that its management practices would protect polluted waterways from additional contamination, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. However, Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento Justice Louis Mauro ruled in October that no facts supporting the departments assertions are provided. It also failed to support its claim that its management practices would protect bees and other pollinators. CDFA can still spray pesticides covered by earlier environmental impact reports, according to EWG, but these reports are few and far between. This court ruling stopping indiscriminate pesticide spraying by the state is a huge victory for public health, the environment and species impacted by toxic pesticides, West Coast director at the Center for Food Safety Rebecca Spector said in the EWG release. The state must prioritize providing more resources to help farmers transition to practices that reduce the need for pesticides and instead promote ecologically based farming practices that protect people and the Earth. Some of the pesticides used by CDFA included neonicotinoids, which are harmful to bees; methyl bromide, which is an ozone-depleting chemical; and chloropicrin, which can damage genes. The pesticides were sprayed on private and public property as well as on farmed and wild land. CDFA said that it would follow the courts instructions as we fulfill our mandate to protect Californias agriculture, environment and habitat from invasive pests and diseases, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. By Juliet Grable The quest to save a rare pollinator from extinction has just gained an unlikely ally: a mutt named Filson. A six-year-old Australian cattle dog mix with black and tan fur and oversized ears, Filson will soon join the mission to find the endangered Franklins bumblebee (Bombus franklini). The fuzzy pollinator, which no one has observed in 15 years, became a federally protected species this summer. Franklins bumble bee. James P. Strange / USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit But before anyone can protect the tiny, underground-dwelling bumblebee, they need to make sure it still exists. Thats not an easy task for human eyes, but it could be a piece of cake for a dogs nose, says Jennifer Hartman, Filsons handler and a field scientist from Rogue Detection Teams. The Washington-based company rescues fetch-obsessed dogs and teaches them to help track wildlife and assist in conservation research. I feel like the skys the limit with detection dogs, says Hartman. Were just scratching the surface of what they can do. Filson has already helped to survey populations of the endangered Sierra Nevada red fox in Yosemite National Park. Now Hartman hopes to turn his sensitive sniffer to the missing bee. An Elusive, Endangered Pollinator Entomologist Robbin Thorp first sounded the alarm about the Franklins bumblebees precipitous decline in the 1990s. He was the last person to spot the insect in the wild in 2006 and coordinated annual searches until his death in 2019. The species likely fell victim to a European pathogen borne by bees imported to pollinate hothouse vegetables. Our bees just werent ready for this, says Jeff Everett, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The pathogens arrival coincided with a dramatic increase in the use of certain pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, which Everett calls extremely bad news for our pollinators. Even before its decline, Franklins bumblebee was only found in the Klamath-Siskiyou region in Northern California and southern Oregon the smallest range of any bumblebee in the world. Why they were so narrowly endemic was the big question [biologists] were exploring when [the bees] basically disappeared from landscape, says Everett, who is leading search and recovery efforts for Franklins bumblebee. Since 2006, agencies, NGOs, and landowners have joined the quest. Following Thorpes lead, they focus on high-quality habitat where the bee has been found before. The annual effort culminates with a bee blitz on Mt. Ashland in late July, when worker bees of many species are foraging in the flower-strewn meadows. Even if Franklins bumblebees are still around, the odds of finding one are pretty low, says Everett. Youre looking for something that is small and rather cryptic and constantly on the move, he says. You could be looking in one direction at flowers right in front of you and [the bee] could be right behind you. Thats where the dogs come in. Sniffing Out the Truth Heath Smith, director and lead instructor at Rogue Detection Teams, believes dogs are only limited by our capacity to communicate what we want them to do. Were not dog trainers, says Smith. Its more about working together, learning how to communicate, and being there to lend support. Smith seeks out so-called hopeless cases at animal shelters for his team of Rogues. After learning together at their facility in Rice, Washington, the dogs partner with human field scientists called bounders because theyre bound to the dogs, the detection method and ecosystems on field conservation projects from Africa to the Sierra. These dogs have already proven adept at locating the inconspicuous larva of two endangered butterflies: Oregon silverspot (Speyeria zerene Hippolyta) and Taylors checkerspot (Euphydryas editha taylori). Oregon silverspots, which inhabit coastal meadows from Washington to northern California, were first listed as endangered in 1980. Unlike Franklins bumblebee, their primary threat is habitat loss. In the 1990s the Oregon Zoo and Woodland Park Zoo started a captive-breeding program to supplement wild populations. Researchers also began enhancing habitat by mowing meadows and removing plants that compete with the early blue violet, the caterpillars host plant. Yet populations kept declining. Deanna Williams, a biologist for the U.S. Forest Service, wanted to know why. The first thing she learned: There were gaping holes in what entomologists knew about the species. Because they had only studied adults, they didnt have basic information such as where caterpillars pupated or how they avoided predation. An Oregon silverspot caterpillar. Deanna Williams / U.S. Forest Service How can we address this population decline when we havent been able to study 90% of their life cycle? says Williams. She had witnessed how effective dogs were at finding scat of the elusive Humboldt marten, so in 2015 she approached Smith about using Rogues dogs to find Oregon silverspot larvae. The Secrets in the Poop Until then, the smallest animal the Rogue dogs had worked with was a Pacific pocket mouse. Young caterpillars are no larger than grains of rice. Adding to the challenge, Smith couldnt use live caterpillars for training without a special permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. In the meantime, the zoos provided him with frass, or caterpillar poop. When Smith first offered the pepper-sized frass for detection dog Alli to sniff, she exhaled through her nose and the flecks puffed away. So Smith adhered frass to pieces of tape and stashed them around the training area like little caterpillar latrines. Soon after, he and Alli joined Williams on Mt. Hebo, in northwest Oregon. That day was insanely hot, Williams recalls. In the first meadow, Alli didnt indicate any frass. But at the second site, which was cooler and shadier, Alli signaled several times. Humans investigate a Rogues find. Deanna Williams / U.S. Forest Service Finding frass in the field is impossible for humans, so Williams studied the vegetation and found violet leaves that had been nibbled in a distinctive pattern. Alli signaled at several more sites that day. She would take us to the margins of shrubs and meadow edges, and the seaward side of these little knobs which receive a lovely cooling wind from the ocean, says Williams. The areas where Alli had indicated were the only places researchers saw adult butterflies that year. It really opened my eyes, says Williams. [I realized] were in a changing world, and we have to make sure we provide enough microclimates so they can survive and adapt to changes in the weather. Their work caught the attention of Karen Holtrop, a biologist for the Olympic National Forest who monitors for Taylors checkerspot. Though easier to spot than Oregon silverspot, the larvae are still tiny, their habitat steep and rocky, and the window for finding them short. Holtrop obtained permission to use larvae to train the dogs. Rogue dog Pips found caterpillars in the field almost immediately. Pips even found a small larva curled up in the soil under some duff, says Holtrop. Theres no way we would have found that. Soon after, Williams finally obtained permission to work with live Oregon silverspot caterpillars, and in 2021 Pips detected larvae the first scientific observation of the species larvae in the wild in 40 years. Buzzing for Bees The dogs success with butterflies prompted Everett to test them on bumblebee nests. If they can find something that is half the size of a grain of rice in their natural environment using just their nose, I bet they can find something as big and stinky as a bee, he says. Like many bumblebees, the Franklins bumblebee life cycle begins in the spring, when queens emerge from hibernation and start new colonies in abandoned rodent burrows and other depressions in the ground. We know they nest underground, but why they choose one hole from another is a mystery, says Everett. Part of the reason we dont know much about queen ecology is because nest sites are notoriously hard to find. If we knew more we could do more to protect that habitat. Learning about one species could also inform their understanding of others. For example, rusty patched, western and Franklins bumblebees are closely related, and all have suffered declines. Bounder Jennifer Hartman has partnered with Rogue dog Filson on the bumblebee project. Its a bit of a chicken or the egg problem, she says. In order to teach Filson the odor, we need bumblebee nests in the wild, she explains. But because they dont know where Franklins bumblebee nests are, or if they even exist, theyre starting by introducing Filson to lab-grown Western bumblebee nest material. Next spring, Hartman will see if he can locate bumblebee nests of any species that people have flagged in their back yards or on public land. Once Filson links finding a nest with a reward play time with his cherished red ball Hartman will take him into the field. [instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uKWBugsgW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link expand=1] Shes confident Filson is up for the task. I think we can all agree that dogs can find the scat of myriad species in the wild, says Hartman. But when you start to think about caterpillars, or viruses on plants, or invasive species at different stages in their life cycle, thats when you really start to see the power of the nose at work. If they can add endangered bumblebees to this impressive list, it will be a boon not only for the Franklins bumblebee, but pollinator conservation in general. Juliet Grable is a freelance writer based in southern Oregon. Reposted with permission from The Revelator. If youve ever been to the beach and watched the surfers, you might have occasionally noticed one who had a canine companion riding tandem with them on the board. The pooch looking proud with their owner, staying steadfastly planted like a pro and squinting? Most of us know the feeling of stepping outside on a bright summer day and feeling the piercing glare of the dog days sun, but we might never have considered that our pup could be feeling the uncomfortable effects of the brightness as well. Dogs accompany us during many activities, like hiking, biking and running, and for many active pooches, a pair of doggie sunglasses or a nice visor might alleviate some of the pain or discomfort we didnt even know our pup was having. According to the Eastcott Veterinary Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, for very active dogs or dogs with specific conditions, goggles or visors could help protect their eyes, BBC News reported. Sunglasses for dogs may seem peculiar but it is a viable solution to help pets in situations where their eyes need protection or may need that extra bit of support because of surgery or a previous trauma, said head of ophthalmology at Eastcott, Ida Gilbert, as reported by the Daily Mail. A 14-year-old poodle named Celine who cant filter bright light due to iris atrophy has benefited from her human fitting her with some fetching goggles, BBC News reported. The bright light was hurting her eyes, but her human, Miluse Vojtiskova, had no idea her pooch was in pain. Vojtiskova said Celine suddenly began behaving abnormally while we were out on walks. She was extremely nervous, sometimes she would freeze in her tracks and other times she was very jumpy, alarmed, and distressed, reported the Daily Mail. Vojtiskova said Celines quality of life has been restored because of the new shades, BBC News reported. She can walk outside now and she can do anything she did before, said Vojtiskova, as reported by BBC News. The best part about it? The doggles worked so well that Celine didnt need to have surgery, Gilbert said. Gilbert added that ultraviolet light exposure can make certain conditions worse for dogs, but that wearing a visor or sunglasses could reduce the need for medications, as the Daily Mail reported. Certain dogs may need some adjustment time to adapt to their sunglasses. Some dogs will wear goggles or a visor readily, and others never accept them, said Dr. Jessica Meekins, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Kansas State Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, according to PetMD. Dr. Jessica Stine, a veterinary ophthalmologist with BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Clearwater, Florida, said eye protection should fit correctly as well as be comfortable for your dog. All sunglasses for dogs are going to be goggle-style glasses with straps. No dog is going to keep human-style sunglasses on for long, said Stine, as PetMD reported. Vojtiskova said Celine eventually adjusted to her goggles. Naturally, her first instinct was to try to get them off but after a few more treats and a lot of perseverance she is fine with them and they are working so well. This simple solution meant we didnt have to alter our everyday routine and only take her for walks at night or when the sun was at its lowest, said Vojtiskova, as reported by the Daily Mail. However glamorous your dogs visor or sunglasses may be, protective eyewear shouldnt be treated as a fashion accessory, Gilbert said. It is important they have a thorough examination and a proper diagnosis before trying them out, said Gilbert, as the Daily Mail reported. It may not be an option for everyone, as the dog will need some training, but it is an alternative and appropriate solution for many and a good aid to recovery. Amidst concerns about high energy prices following Russias invasion of Ukraine, the UK government has approved a North Sea gas field that it had previously rejected in October over concerns that it would contribute to the climate crisis. The Jackdaw gas field is located to the east of Aberdeen in Scotland and has the potential to supply 6.5 percent of the UKs gas output, BBC News reported. It will be developed by oil giant Shell, which said that it would eventually power 1.4 million homes. However, green groups have pledged to fight the project. This government has no idea how to solve the energy crisis, an activist from the new group Stop Jackdaw named Lauren MacDonald said, as The Guardian reported. Its still looking to oil and gas for the answer when that is precisely what is driving the cost of living and climate crises. If Shell thought Cambo was bad for them, they have another thing coming. Join us tonight, tomorrow and every day until Jackdaw is stopped in its tracks. Now is the time to fight back. Here's the first step https://t.co/uphSrWDaFt StopCambo #StopJackdaw (@StopCambo) June 1, 2022 The group called for emergency protests on Thursday outside the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London and Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh on their website. They also said more actions would be planned in the future. Greenpeace, meanwhile, said the approval might be illegal and is considering suing to stop it. Approving Jackdaw is a desperate and destructive decision from Johnsons government, and proves theres no long-term plan, Greenpeace UK political campaigner Ami McCarthy said in a statement. They could immediately shave billions off bills, get a grip on UK energy demand, create thousands of jobs, boost our economy, tackle the climate crisis and avoid future crises if they just upgrade homes to be warmer and greener, and invest in clean and cheap renewable power. But instead, once again, theyre handing out lucrative permits to the likes of Shell for a project that wont start producing gas for years, that wont lower our bills, but will create massive emissions causing deadly flooding and wildfires, and mass migration from people fleeing the climate crisis. Approving Jackdaw is a desperate and senseless decision from @BorisJohnson's government. We will fight this every step of the way and #StopJackdaw. Visit https://t.co/mWX4aFGDXi to take action pic.twitter.com/EZ95vrR366 Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) June 1, 2022 Shell, meanwhile, was pleased with the decision, arguing that it came at a time when UK energy security is critically required, as The Herald reported. After its proposal to develop the field was rejected in October, the company had submitted a revised proposal in March to the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning. It said that it would cost about 500 million to develop the field and that production would start in the second half of 2025. Further, the company said that some of the carbon dioxide released from the field would be captured and stored if a project in Peterhead receives the necessary financing. In justifying the approval, UK Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said it was important for the countrys energy security. Were turbocharging renewables and nuclear, but we are also realistic about our energy needs now, he tweeted. Lets source more of the gas we need from British waters to protect energy security. Jackdaw gas field originally licensed in 1970 has today received final regulatory approval. We're turbocharging renewables and nuclear, but we are also realistic about our energy needs now. Let's source more of the gas we need from British waters to protect energy security. Kwasi Kwarteng (@KwasiKwarteng) June 1, 2022 However, the International Energy Agency warned in 2021 that all new oil and gas development needed to stop in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Another study released last month went further, saying that nearly 40 percent of developed fossil fuel reserves would need to be abandoned to meet the goal. The UK Government must reverse this approval, stop issuing any new fossil fuel licences and start planning for a managed phase-out of production, with a just transition for workers and communities, said Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, as The Herald reported. It must also do much more to alleviate the suffering of households as the energy price crisis bites, and urgently ramp up retrofits to keep homes warm while helping end reliance on expensive gas. When Australian researchers went to find out how much genetic diversity was contained in the seagrass meadows of Shark Bay, a World Heritage Area in Western Australia, they were in for a surprise. The team from The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Flinders University took seagrass shoots covering the range of conditions present in the bay in order to determine how many plants were present and which ones should be used for restoration. The answer blew us away there was just one! UWA student researcher and lead author Jane Edgeloe said in a UWA press release. Thats it, just one plant has expanded over 180km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on earth. Our researchers have discovered the world's largest plant in our very own Shark Bay. The seagrass is dated to be 4,500 years old, stretching across 180km #UWA pic.twitter.com/EgQu8ETBSF UWA (@uwanews) June 1, 2022 It turns out that entire meadows in the bay are made up of clones of Poseidons ribbon weed (Posidonia australis), the researchers wrote in the study, Extensive polyploid clonality was a successful strategy for seagrass to expand into a newly submerged environment, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Wednesday. The existing 200km2 of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonising seedling, Edgeloe said in the press release. At more than 112 miles, the plant stretches about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego, CNN reported. Its area, of around 77 square miles or 49,000 acres, is larger than Brooklyns. Its also larger than the previous largest plant in the worldthe cloned Pando quaking Aspen trees in Utah that cover 106 acres. In addition to its size, the plant is also impressively old. The researchers calculated its age by working backwards from the fact that ribbon weed rhizomes grow as much as 35 centimeters (approximately 14 inches) per year, according to The Guardian. Therefore, the plant would need to be at least 4,500 years old given its size. The meadows now supports marine life like fish, dolphins, crabs, dugongs and turtles. The plant is well adapted to the varying conditions in the bay, in part because of a unique feature, according to the press release. It is a polyploid plant, meaning that it received all of the chromosomes from both parent plants instead of just half from each. Polyploid plants often reside in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if left undisturbed, and this giant seagrass has done just that, study senior author and UWA evolutionary biologist Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair said in the press release. Even without successful flowering and seed production, it appears to be really resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which together would typically be highly stressful for most plants. The scientists are now conducting experiments in the bay to learn more about how the plant can do so in an extreme environment despite its lack of new genetic input over time. Plants that dont have sex tend to also have reduced genetic diversity, which they normally need when dealing with environmental change, study author and Finders University ecologist Dr. Martin Breed told The Guardian. Plans to set up US$1.1 billion beef packing facility in South Dakota, US, announced The world's largest beef packing facility could be coming to the Black Hills of South Dakota, the United States. A group led by Kingsbury and Associates and Sirius Realty announced plans to build a US$1.1 billion state-of-the-art beef and bison processing plant that would harvest 8,000-head per day. The proposed facility would cover one-million square feet and employ 2,500 workers. "This will be a next generation plant, the only plant of its type in North America," Megan Kingsbury, president and managing partner, who is leading the project, told Drovers. "This will be a tech-driven plant." If realised, the 8,000-head per day capacity of the Rapid City plant would eclipse the total capacity of all other recently proposed start-up packing facilities combined. The project is currently in a six-month research and development phase, with groundbreaking expected in early 2023. Kingsbury, a fifth-generation rancher raised on the family ranch Grimes Cattle Company said she knows how difficult it is for ranchers to operate profitably in today's environment. "I want to fix that," she said. "Our aim is to restore competition in American meat processing. We want to compete with the big four meat packing giants and be that all-important 'second bidder' in the cash market. We will build a brand that is America-first focusing on procuring American cattle and feeding American citizens affordable, high-quality protein as our first priority." Specifically, Kingsbury said this new beef processor which as yet is unnamed by the investor group will focus on technology, artificial intelligence and robotics that "removes the entire (packing plant) stigma of sweatshop and creates a humane work environment for the employees and utilises humane practices for the animals." The focus on technology is how the 8,000-head per day plant will be able to operate with roughly 20% fewer employees than the average 4,000 employees that currently staff the 6,000-head per day plants operated by Tyson, Cargill and National Beef, Kingsbury said. Utilising new technologies will enable the proposed plant to process cattle easier, safer and more efficient, all while operating more environmentally friendly. "We want this plant to be a carbon neutral plant," Kingsbury added. "We are going to capture the methane to help power the facility, utilise energy resources, recycle a majority of the water used daily and continue work on efficient transportation plans." Construction of the facility will take three years and would open with one beef line and one bison line. It would require an additional three months to open successive lines until the facility reaches capacity. "Our work force will be very different than what is typical in a beef plant," Kingsbury said. "If we were to open today our minimum wage would be US$28 per hour. These are tech driven jobs. Top managers will be industrial engineers, robotic engineers, computer engineers, etc." As spokesperson for the investors behind the proposal, Kingsbury also noted a desire to help ranching families through these difficult financial times. "The American rancher is less than a generation away from being extinct if we don't do something fast," Kingsbury said. "We've already seen the high cost of meat in stores and the low prices producers are receiving for their animals. "There is profit in this industry up and down the supply chain if we restore competition. When that happens everyone who produces and consumes high-quality beef wins." - Drovers Live cattle shipments from Ireland 11% up this year Live cattle shipments from Ireland have increased 11% so far this year, and be will improved further thanks to the country's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) postponing the introduction of a new rule that mandates livestock to depart from Ireland within 14 days of leaving their farm or herd, the Irish Examiner reported. Cattle live exports for the year totalled 155,061 head as of April 29, an increase of 15,871 head, or 11%, over the same period in 2021. The DAFM has postponed the implementation of the new rule due to recent challenges to live exports caused by a lack of ferry and lairage capacity, both of which were beyond the exporters' control. According to Bord Bia, the state agency promoting sales of Irish food and horticulture, strong calf exports to continental Europe, with the Netherlands being the standout market so far this year, are driving the increase in numbers. Calf exports to Spain have fallen 16% this year compared to the same period last year, but are expected to rebound due to strong demand for calves in the market. This year, calves were exported in smaller numbers to Italy, Northern Ireland, Belgium, and Poland. The only livestock-approved vessel operating the Rosslare to Cherbourg route, Stena Horizon, was taken out of service for maintenance in early April, causing a brief halt in trade. The live export of older cattle has been more restrained. Exports to Northern Ireland have fallen significantly since 2021, though exports of animals for direct processing have remained stable. Lower exports to Northern Ireland were partially offset by higher exports to third-country markets, albeit for lower-quality animals than would have been exported to Northern Ireland. The Animal Health Law (EU Regulation 429 of 2016), which went into effect in April 2021, resulted in new live export regulations. Animals must stay in a single establishment (herd) for a minimum of 30 days before being considered eligible to be exported either directly from that herd or through a maximum of three assembly operations prior to departure to another country. From the time an animal leaves its place of origin to the time it departs the ultimate assembly centre in Ireland for another member state, there is a 14-day time limit. Furthermore, each animal used in assembly operations must be transported to its final destination in another Member State within 20 days of leaving the origination establishment. This allows it to travel to another member state in up to six days. In the case of animal transportation by sea, the 20-day period may be extended by the length of the voyage. Noting recent challenges to live exports due to unavailability of ferry and lairage capacity, which were beyond the control of the exporters, the DAFM announced that the 14-day rule would be temporarily delayed. These rules apply to animals being imported into Ireland as well, assisting in the preservation of the national herd's high health status. - Irish Examiner Malaysia may review exports of palm kernel cake to ensure chicken feed supply Malaysia's Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities may review its export policy on palm kernel cake, to ensure chicken feed supply and stabilise stocks of the meat in the country, Reuters reported. Its minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said they will speak to other stakeholders to review their export policy on palm kernel cake to support local broilers. Malaysia has imposed a ban on chicken exports until output and input costs stabilise amid rising prices. She said most of Malaysia's palm kernel cake is shipped to Europe for their cattle sector. She said the ministry will discuss how to ensure that palm kernel waste is available as animal feed for the domestic poultry industry as soon as possible. Zuraida said grain and soybeans, which Malaysia imports, are commonly used in chicken feed. However, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and unpredictable weather patterns have resulted in a global shortage. She said As a result, chickens were fed less, causing livestock to grow more slowly than usual, thereby limiting the supply of chickens. Malaysia is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil and exporter of palm kernel cake, which it claims can be used to replace imported feed. - Reuters Press conference for VICTAM Asia, Health & Nutrition Asia held in Netherlands VICTAM Asia in co-location with Health & Nutrition Asia is officially opening on September 7-9, 2022 and will be hosted at the IMPACT Halls 9 and 10 in Bangkok, Thailand. On June 1, the events' official launch press conference was held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where their organisers are currently hosting their first joint partnership, with the co-location of VIV Europe and VICTAM International already proving the powerful synergy of this cooperation. The press conference saw the attendance of Chatri Archjananun, Ambassador of the Royal Thai Embassy in Hague, the Netherlands. Archjananun reassured on Thailand's relaxed COVID-19 measures for travelers. Fully vaccinated travelers will no longer need to book a quarantine hotel or show a pre-post departure PCR test. For non-vaccinated travelers, PCR test 72 hours before arrival is mandatory, but no quarantine required. The ambassador also focused on a few key industry insights and highlighted that statistically for Thailand, the feed additives market is projected to reach US$2.56 billion by 2025, with the poultry market and compound feed industry as the major growth drivers. "There are many international as well as local companies in the Thai feed additive market, which are adopting various strategies, like expansions and partnerships to increase their market presence" he said. "To sum up, you have made the right choice choosing Thailand to host this event," Archjananun told the organisers. At a subsequent open discussion moderated by Panadda Kongma, director of agribusiness and operations for VNU Asia Pacific, more than 50 press representatives attending the conference gained latest insights about the show and its programme from various panelists including Heiko M. Stutzinger, VIV worldwide director and chief operating officer, Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs; Sebas van den Ende, general manager of VICTAM International; Anuj Arora of AMORVET; Jerome Dubuc of AMANDUS KAHL; Greg Liu of Famsun; and Roger Gilbert of Perendale Publishers Limited. "We are finally ready to present to the Asian markets, a complete animal feed and health event that we have been working on for the last couple of years," said van den Ende. "Booth confirmations are well underway and we will be able to jointly present a total of 300 exhibitors at the modern IMPACT venue in Bangkok. We expect professional visitors from the whole ASEAN region and the rest of Asia with the main profiles being CEOs, feed formulators, mill managers, nutritionists, operation directors, transportation managers, and veterinarians." "VIV and VICTAM are committed in serving Asia's feed and animal protein industries by jointly developing business opportunities within the feed ingredients and additives segments, which is the fastest growing sector of the feed to food supply chain," said Stutzinger. "After more than two years without a dedicated show in the region, the market needs a face-to-face show to get back to action." According to the organisers, VICTAM Asia in co-location with Health & Nutrition Asia, want to serve as the business stage where top supplier solutions, innovations and expert knowledge are presented. An elaborate conference and technical seminar program will be organised alongside the exhibition halls. A wide range of topics will be discussed including feed milling and formulation, feed safety, aquafeed, petfood, grain and rice milling, high-tech animal health technology, genetics, pharmaceutical solutions for Asia, veterinary equipment, feed additives, and bio-energy and biomass pelleting technology. Additionally, as one of the main partners, FAVA, the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations, will hold the Asian Animal Health Award 2022 during the event with two award categories open for qualified veterinarians field practitioner and academician/researcher to recognise their involvement and engagement in animal health. Candidates can apply until August 5. - VICTAM South Korea and China held high-level phone talks Thursday, during which the two sides discussed bilateral ties and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, the presidential office said. South Korea's National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han and Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat, exchanged opinions on the bilateral relations under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which took office last month. They positively reviewed the brisk consultations at the high-level and agreed to expand "substantive cooperation" between the two nations, the presidential office said. Kim said North Korea's nuclear and missile program poses a risk to regional peace and stability, and called on China to play "an active, constructive role" in persuading Pyongyang to refrain from further provocations and return to dialogue, according to the office. In response, Yang expressed concerns about the growing uncertainties on the Korean Peninsula and affirmed China's role in promoting inter-Korean relations to reach a diplomatic solution to that end, it added. The two also agreed to meet in person at a mutually convenient time and place to deepen and widen the bilateral relations. Their phone talks came amid concerns over North Korea's preparation for its seventh nuclear test and uncertainties over the Seoul-Beijing ties, as the conservative Yoon administration has made clear it will place top diplomatic policy priority on bolstering the alliance with the United States. (Yonhap) Dozens of firefighting helicopters battled to bring a wildfire in the southeastern city of Miryang under control Thursday, as the blaze continued for a third day, scorching nearly 650 hectares of woodland, authorities said. The fire, which broke out on a hill in Miryang, around 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, early Tuesday, is continuing to spread rapidly, driven by strong winds and a dry spell. Forestry and firefighting authorities dispatched 53 helicopters to resume their firefighting operation as soon as the sun rose, and plan to send 2,400 personnel to join the battle later in the day. The blaze has burned an estimated 649 ha of forestland as of 6 a.m. while the fire extinguishing rate dwindled to 37 percent from the 62 percent registered Wednesday evening as the blaze spread further. No casualties or property damage have been reported yet. The Korea Forest Service retained its highest Level-3 wildfire response posture as of Thursday. (Yonhap) Local authorities celebrate Queen's Platinum Jubilee By Sarah Hendy - Local Democracy Reporter Celebrations for the Queens Platinum Jubilee are taking place across the Island over the coming weeks. Local authorities could claim up to 5,000 of government assistance for events. With the Jubilee Bank Holiday falling in the middle of TT fortnight, some local authorities have opted to celebrate later in the year Andreas, are having a picnic for all the family in National Week, and Ramsey will be holding a Royal Picnic in the Park in July, and a Royal Ramsey Rocks in August. Marown are also celebrating a little later. In addition, German Commissioners are presenting commemorative mugs to students of the parishs schools, and of course Douglas has been awarded city status as part of Jubilee celebrations. Arbory and Rushen are holding an event tomorrow (Friday) and a certain creative display is already getting attention, as chair of the commissioners, Kirree Jenkins explained: Media Arbory Jubilee IV Queen's Jubilee birthday honours: Three Manx residents recognised Three Island residents have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for 2022. Pamela Crowe is to receive an MBE for services to the Rushen Heritage Trust and fundraising in the community. Frank Horne will also be receiving an MBE for services the RNLI and Safety at Sea. Chair of Manx Charity, Craig's Heartstrong Foundation, Paul Healey, is being recognised with a British Empire Medal for services to the Island through charity fundraising. Manx Telecom launches new fibre tariffs Manx Telecom has intrdouced a new range of fibre broadband tariffs. It said it will see more support given to customers with their Wi-Fi experience and greater clarity around expected speeds. The new fibre packages include a supported router and Wi-Fi extender and have been put together in response to customer feedback and as part of Manx Telecoms ongoing commitment to improving customer experience. To address this, Manx Telecom will install the supported router and extender whilst optimising the Wi-Fi network to provide the best possible Wi-Fi coverage around the home or premises. Manx Telecom will also provide remote support and assistance from its new technology management platform. Meanwhile Manx Telecom is moving away from advertising up to fibre broadband speeds and will be advising customers of the average speed they can expect at peak times to give a clearer picture of the service they will receive. The new tariffs offer average peak time speeds packages from 29 megabits per second to 401 megabits per second. Manx Telecom CEO Gary Lamb said the new tariffs were a big step forward for fibre broadband users. While we have been busy delivering the fibre broadband rollout programme to homes and business premises across the Island, we have also been listening to what our customers have been telling us and monitoring any issues. It is clear from our customer feedback that people want to know exactly what sort of speed they can expect at peak times, rather than the maximum speed possible on the network, and also that many of them struggle to get the optimum Wi-Fi set-up in their homes or small business. Our new tariffs address both these points. Our new platform allows us to monitor the broadband network in much more detail which means we can give greater clarity about expected speeds in peak times - 8pm to 10pm in the evenings - which is much more helpful to customers. Renault Korea Motors and five other carmakers will voluntarily recall nearly 42,000 vehicles to fix parts defects and software errors to better ensure their safety, the transport ministry said Thursday. Renault Korea will recall 28,892 cars of two models, including the XM3, as a damaged fuel pump impeller could cause the cars to stall, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This is the second time for the carmaker to recall the models over the impeller problem. The company first recalled the vehicles in July last year over the issue, but the problem remains unfixed, the ministry said. Stellantis Korea will recall a total of 7,605 vehicles from 13 models, including the Peugeot 3008 1.5 BlueHDi, due to the lack of durability in parts inside their high pressure pump. A total of 4,056 cars of two models, including the Model Y of Tesla Korea, will be recalled over software errors and the subsequent touch-screen display malfunctions, which could raise chances of accident, according to the ministry. Mercedes-Benz will also recall 1,077 EQA 250s, as they failed to meet safety standards due to software errors in the airbag control unit. The ministry said it plans to fine the German carmaker after reviewing its recall and other correction measures. Ninety-three cars of three other models from Mercedes-Benz, 13 cars of Ford Sales & Services Korea and 10 Maserati MC20s will be recalled over problems with auto parts, according to the ministry. The companies will contact vehicle owners via mail or mobile text message and provide repair and replacement services free of charge, it added. (Yonhap) In 2021, a handful of Amazon employees quit the company over its decision to sell books that suggest kids who identify as transgender are mentally ill. Now, a group of employees is protesting its continued sale of those books by disrupting a Pride event at its headquarters in Seattle. According to The Washington Post, around 30 members of the organization No Hate at Amazon laid on the ground wrapped in trans flags to stop the company's annual Pride flag-raising tradition. An organizer said: "Amazon does have standing policies against hate speech in its content and technically they say we don't sell it." But in truth, those contentious books are still listed on its website. Im at Amazons Seattle headquarters, where about 30 Amazon employees are staging a die-in during Amazons Pride Flag raising ceremony in protest of the companys continued sale of what they say are transphobic books. pic.twitter.com/Pz0Pyy0Mzi Katherine Long (@_katya_long) June 1, 2022 In a petition the group previously circulated to get Amazon to stop selling anti-trans books, it specifically named two titles: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier and Johnny the Walrus by American conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. "By continuing to sell and promote anti-trans books and repeating the rhetoric of the anti-trans hate movement, Amazon upper management has allowed the store that we build and operate to be complicit in [the anti-trans] hate movement," the petition reads. At least one employee who participated in the event quit the company this week. Senior software engineer Lina Jodoin explained that it's more than just about the sale of those books, but also about the response they've gotten from management when they tried to escalate their concerns. And based on the company's response to the protest, it will keep on selling those titles. Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told The Post in a statement: Chinese readers are about to lose some choice in e-books. Reuters reports Amazon is pulling Kindle products from China over the course of the next two years. The company will stop offering Kindle e-readers to local retailers as of today, and plans to shutter its digital bookstore in the country on June 30th, 2023. The Kindle app will leave Chinese online stores on June 30th, 2024, and customers will have until then to download any books they've already purchased. Amazon will still provide warranty service and other help for Kindle e-readers, and will accept returns for "non-quality issues" for any device bought after January 1st, 2022. Hardware, apps and books will still be usable after the 2024 cutoff. In its notice, Amazon stressed that this didn't represent a withdrawal from China. The company had a "long-term commitment" that included online shopping and smart home devices. Amazon also told Reuters that this wasn't due to censorship or other government pressure, and that it occasionally "make[s] adjustments" following reviews. Poor sales might play a role. While Amazon is a frontrunner in the e-reader and e-book markets for numerous countries, it has struggled in China as of late. The country was once the Kindle's largest market, with internal data (obtained by Reuters) showing that it represented over 40 percent of e-reader sales in 2017. The rise of Chinese competitors like Xiaomi andTikTok parent ByteDance eroded Amazon's share, however, and iiMedia Research analyst Zhang Yi told Nikkei that the Kindle brand is now "relatively niche" in the region. The Chinese are more likely to read with their phones, and domestic e-book services like Tencent's China Literature dominate where the Kindle app isn't even in the top 10. Amazon isn't the only American company scaling back its Chinese presence. Airbnb, LinkedIn and Yahoo (Engadget's parent company) have either limited services or withdrawn entirely. Amazon's exit from e-reading is one of the more prominent examples, though, and illustrates how difficult it can be for US firms to court Chinese audiences. One of the first things I set out to do when I joined Engadget in the summer of 2018 was to build a beautiful home office. At my previous job, I didnt get many opportunities to work remotely, so it wasnt a priority. That turned out to be a mistake, because when I began working from home I found it quickly wore me down. My kitchen simply wasnt cutting it as an office so I set out to change things. Igor Bonifacic / Engadget Piece by piece, the office I built in my bedroom came together into a space where I enjoyed sitting down to write. But it wasnt until this year that it felt like it was complete. The piece that was missing was the BenQ Screenbar, a lighting fixture you install on your monitor. I put off buying the Screenbar for a few years, mostly because of its $170 CAD ($109 USD) price tag. So why then didnt I buy a regular table lamp you ask? Well, the Screenbar drew my eye for a few reasons. I live in a small condo in Toronto, so a lamp that could sit on my monitor, instead of my table, was appealing because space is at a premium, especially on my small desk. Additionally, the Screenbar shares a feature I love on the Philips Hue lights. Out of the box, you can adjust the color temperature of its LEDs no need to buy separate bulbs. BenQ also claims the Screenbar produces less glare than a traditional table lamp due to how you position it on top of your monitor. Igor Bonifacic / Engadget Setup is also easy. A USB-C to USB-A cable connects the Screenbar to your computer, providing it with all the power it needs. You dont need to install any software on your PC to use the device. Four capacitive buttons on the top allow you to turn the Screenbar on and off, adjust the color temperature and brightness, or turn on automatic brightness. BenQ sells a more expensive version of the Screenbar that comes with a puck you can place on your desk for more convenient access to the controls, but thats unnecessary for most people. The one downside of the Screenbar is that it takes up space you could otherwise use to mount a webcam. With a flat, 27-inch monitor like my Dell, its possible to fit both, but neither could sit dead center. Depending on your needs, that could dissuade you entirely from considering the BenQ Screenbar. For me, it was an easy decision to make. I dont need to do a lot of Zoom calls. The position of my office desk also isnt ideal for video calling. When I sit down to write, my back faces a wall-to-wall window. Thats not an easy scene for a web camera to expose. My solution has been to use my MacBook Air and sit by the side of the window when I need to jump on Zoom. Igor Bonifacic / Engadget Looking back now, I wish I had bought the Screenbar earlier. To say it has transformed the atmosphere of my bedroom and office would be an understatement. Winter in Toronto is a long, dark affair. In January and February, the sun can set as early as 5PM. My mood, like many peoples, can vary greatly depending on the amount and quality of light that filters into my home. The fact you can adjust the color temperature of the Screenbars LEDs between 2700K and 6500K means it can produce warm, bright, sunlight-esque whites, making it ideal for all-day use and even color-sensitive work like photo editing. In my experience, its the perfect solution for a small space. Another food app has been caught sharing location data without asking. As CBC News reports, Canadian privacy authorities have determined that restaurant chain Tim Hortons collected "granular" location data through its mobile app without valid consent between May 2019 and August 2020. The coffee-and-donut giant was supposed to be using positional info from its partner Radar Labs for targeted ads, but the app was gathering locations as frequently as every few minutes, whether or not the app was open even if you'd explicitly limited that collection through settings. Investigators also found that there weren't enough contractual protections for the personal data Radar processed. The clauses were "vague and permissive" enough that Radar could have used sensitive content for its own purposes, according to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. While Radar would have needed to anonymize the data, officials said the contract still wasn't strong enough to adequately protect users' data. The investigation came soon after Financial Post journalist James McLeod wrote a story revealing the extent of Tim Hortons' location-gathering practices. The app checked McLeod's location over 2,700 times in less than five months, including when he traveled to Morocco. The piece prompted multiple class action lawsuits. The privacy offices noted that Tim Hortons' real-world data use was "very limited," and that restaurant operator TDL Group agreed to delete relevant data alongside its partners. The company also agreed to create a privacy management program that kept its apps from violating privacy laws. In a statement, Tim Hortons told the CBC that it had "strengthened" its privacy team. Even so, the findings highlight the concerns about potential app data abuse. While Tim Hortons isn't known to have misused info, other companies have put data on sale and otherwise lost control. Those compromises can lead to unwanted advertising and, in extreme cases, probes into your personal life. British Columbia privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy saw this latest investigation as proof stronger oversight was necessary, and it wouldn't be surprising if Canada and other countries took action. Five years on, share your CIIE stories with us People's Daily Online) 10:36, June 02, 2022 Over the past five years the China International Import Expo (CIIE) has gone from strength to strength, breaking new ground on every year it has been held. The CIIE has made landmark achievements in international procurement, investment promotion, cultural exchange and open cooperation. Now, we sincerely invite you to share with us your CIIE stories! Tell us about some of the unique experiences youve had at the CIIE over the past years, from meeting new clients and partners, to opening up new markets and networking opportunities. No matter who you are, be you exhibitor or buyer, or volunteer, you are welcome to tell your stories of the CIIE. Solicitation objective: To tell the stories of those who have been involved in previous CIIEs Collection method You can submit written stories, story outlines, graphics or video materials online demonstrating your personal feelings or those of your team in relation to the CIIE. If the materials you provide are used by us, we may contact you for an interview. Languages for solicitation: Chinese, English and French Email for submission: For written stories, please send to [email protected] For video materials, please send to [email protected] Solicitation time: For written stories, from now to September 30, 2022 For video materials, from now to November 30, 2022 (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Officials of Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea Western Power, Samsung C&T, Petrolyn Chemie as well as government officials of Korea and the United Arab Emirates pose for a photo after signing a joint development agreement at the headquarters of Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD) in the UAE, Tuesday. Courtesy of KEPCO After many months, Jada Pinkett-Smith has finally broken her silence about the slap that took place at this year's Oscar Awards. At the 2022 Oscar Awards, comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's hair. Shortly after, Will Smith stormed the stage, slapped Chris Rock in the face, and yelled profanities at the comedian, telling him to, "Keep my wife's name out of your f****** mouth." While words from those involved have been shared in part, Pinkett-Smith had really not commented on the events. Until now. On Red Table Talk, the actress finally talked about the evenings events from her perspective. She first addressed the many that have come to her, sharing their own stories about life with alopecia. "Considering what I've been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories...I'm using this moment to give our alopecia family an opportunity to talk about what it's like to have this condition and to inform people about what alopecia actually is." Then she spoke more specifically about the incident between the two men. "My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile the state of the world today. We need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years. And that's keep figuring out this thing called life together." We hope that her words ring profetically and that peace is able to come to all that were invovled. After the horrifying school shooting in Uvalde, Texas last week, Peacock has decided to add a warning to its upcoming series Queer as Folk. A reimagining of the British series of the same name by Russell T. Davies, Peacock's Queer as Folk follows how the LGBTQ+ community in New Orleans builds itself back up following a shooting in the show's Babylon nightclub. According to the Hollywood Reporter, when writing 2022's Queer as Folk, show creator Stephen Dunn pitched the idea of the reimagining directly to Davies in a gay bar, which is how he secured the IP rights. Dunn also "worked with a number of survivors from the Pulse nightclub shooting" in Orlando, Florida. Many of these survivors also became consultants on the show. Due to the sensitive nature of Queer as Folk's story, Peacock added a warning that reads: "Queer as Folk is a fictional series about the vibrant LGBTQ community in New Orleans rebuilding after a devastating tragedy. Some viewers may find elements of the first episode distressing, as it depicts the aftermath of a shooting. Our hearts go out to all of those affected by these senseless tragedies." Despite the dark nature of the show, Queer as Folk's trailer tackles the subject matter straight on and appears to pull no punches. While the show will depict the pain of these survivors, the trailer's focus on the vivacity, resilience, and strength of the community stands out. We're looking forward to seeing how the show will play out, though we completely understand if audience members sit this one out after the string of gun violence in recent weeks. Queer as Folk debuts its full season on Peacock on June 9, 2022. For more entertainment news and commentary, please follow Enstarz! We bring you the latest on your favorite celebrities, TV shows, and films. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Gente Ivonne Reyes, primeras palabras tras su demoledora derrota frente a Pepe Navarro: "No voy a tirar la toalla" Additional parking, classrooms and science labs might be on their way to Alamo Heights ISD. The district is in the early stages of considering a new bond and will seek feedback from community members about the topic at upcoming meetings. AHISD is working with LPA Architects to plan for the future bond that Mike Hagar, assistant superintendent of business and finance at AHISD, said likely will show up on voters ballots in May 2023. On ExpressNews.com: Alamo Heights ISD asks voters to approve tax rate change So far, LPA Architects has talked to officials at the schools campuses to identify top priorities. Howard Early Childhood Center is interested in additional parking, storage and staff restrooms, according to an LPA presentation given at a May school board meeting. The two elementary schools are looking for improvements to the kitchen and cafeteria. Woodridge Elementary also wants science labs, and Cambridge would like to see additional seating in its auditorium balcony. The junior high and high school are interested in more classrooms, and the high school also hopes for more parking spaces, among other improvements. Hagar said that details like the bonds price tag and which construction projects would be covered still are being discussed and probably will become clearer in the fall. On ExpressNews.com: Incumbents keep seats in school board races in Alamo Heights, Southwest ISDs The first community meeting is scheduled for 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at the high schools Oaks Cafeteria, and the second is slated for Sept. 1 at the same hour and place. Attendees will learn about what efforts have been completed so far to plan for the bond, and theyll be able to give feedback about work to come at each campus. The new bond discussion comes on the heels of the school wrapping up all classroom renovations and other projects associated with a $135 million bond; that bond was approved in 2017, and the final projects were completed in September. megan.rodriguez@express-news.net By Kim Hyun-bin Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon was awarded the 52nd Korea Management Award by the Korea Management Association (KMA). "It is very honorable and meaningful to receive this award for the second time after my father, Honorary Chairman Cho Seok-rae received the Korea Management Award in 1994," Cho said. Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The future of a major mixed-use development on the near East Side is unclear now that the property has been put up for sale. Commercial real estate services firm JLL is marketing 7.7 acres at Essex and Cherry streets in Denver Heights where the $150 million project, dubbed Essex Modern City, was to be built beginning in 2017. Construction never started. An online listing notes the propertys location in gentrifying Denver Heights one of the most walkable and diverse neighborhoods in San Antonio and its proximity to downtown and Interstates 37 and 10, making Essex Modern Citys irreplaceable location a highly sought-after future development site ideal for a variety of asset classes. No price is listed for the former pallet manufacturing site, which the Bexar Appraisal District values at $3.4 million. Harris Bay, a private equity firm based in California, has been spearheading the development. Harris Bay founders Jake Harris and Anton Bayer did not immediately respond to interview requests. The Denver Heights Neighborhood Association also did not respond to an inquiry. On ExpressNews.com: $150 million mixed-use development coming to near East Side The idea for Essex Modern City began materializing in 2015, when local developer Efraim Varga approached Harris Bay about building on the site. The City Council approved zoning changes in 2016. Varga and Harris described their plans in 2017: a major development with apartments, condominiums, townhomes, office space, retail and a food hall. It was also to include a rock climbing wall, murals and vertical farms with vegetables for restaurants. They wanted to recruit local and Texas-based businesses for the retail space and technology companies for the offices. It would be a major development in Denver Heights, which is a mix of single-family homes, vacant buildings and industrial businesses where prices are rising and investors are renovating and reselling homes. Its going to be a catalyst for the neighborhood, Varga said in 2017. Its going to do exactly what the Pearl did, and bring in more developers. On ExpressNews.com: Dissecting the boom: East Side San Antonio home price increases top those seen across county Construction was supposed to begin that year but never did, and Varga ended his involvement in Essex Modern City in 2019. Buildings at the site feature colorful murals and events have been held there. 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. Harris has previously said progress was stymied by efforts to have the area designated as a quiet zone, as it is bordered by railroad tracks. In a July press release, New Jersey-based lender Kennedy Funding said it had closed a $3.5 million loan for the development that would be used for the quiet zone work, cashing out a previous loan and proceeding with planning and engineering. The development was to include 80,000 square feet of retail space, 80,000 square feet of office space and about 800 residential units. The entitlement process was in the final stages and a map for the development was being designed, Kennedy Funding CEO Kevin Wolfer said in the press release. All Essex Modern City needed was the funding everything else was in place, Wolfer said. Seeing a clear plan for the site and the city's support, we were able to quickly process and approve their loan application. Harris Bay has planned other local projects, including converting the Travis Building on North St. Marys Street downtown into apartments and building a boutique hotel next to it and refurbishing the Antiques Warehouse on South Flores Street. madison.iszler@express-news.net Embattled San Antonio attorney Chris Pettit and his law firm, accused of defrauding clients of millions of dollars, have filed for bankruptcy protection. Pettit listed assets of almost $27.8 million and debts of $115.2 million in his Chapter 11 petition, making it one of the largest individual bankruptcy cases ever filed in San Antonio. His firm, Chris Pettit & Associates, reported assets valued at no more than $50,000. The filings Wednesday trumped plans by six Pettit creditors to file involuntary Chapter 7 cases against him and his firm Thursday, said Raymond Battaglia, the creditors San Antonio bankruptcy lawyer. The bankruptcy lawyer for Pettit and his firm has indicated he intends to ask the court to appoint a trustee to oversee the debtors estates, Battaglia said. This case is going to require someone who can trace assets and trace transfers and things that (Pettits) done with other peoples monies over the last couple of years, he added. The bankruptcies come after numerous lawsuits against Pettit and his firm, most alleging they stole millions of dollars from clients. He has given general denials in responses to some of the suits but he and his firm also reached agreed judgments with some plaintiffs who were awarded at least on paper millions in economic and punitive damages. Others allege they lost far less but still amounts representing their life savings. Its just sad, Battaglia said. They trusted him, and thats a shame. As a lawyer, Im ashamed that someone would do this. Some of these people were in pretty dire situations at the time he stole their money. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio lawyer faces multiple lawsuits for allegedly stealing millions from clients The FBI also is investigating. Michael Colvard, the San Antonio bankruptcy lawyer representing Pettit and his firm, didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Pettit, 55, specializes in estate-planning and personal-injury law, according to his firms website. He graduated from St. Marys University School of Law in 1988 and is the single father of a 9-year-old son. Pettit has served in various capacities, including as attorney, investment adviser and trustee of various trusts, for dozens of clients. In a May 20 agreed judgment signed by state District Judge Tina Torres, Pettit and his firm were found to have committed fraud, misappropriated property and breached their fiduciary duties as trustee of one trust. Torres awarded the plaintiff almost $1.7 million in economic damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Just how Pettit allegedly misappropriated clients assets hasnt been detailed. But his personal bankruptcy petition listed numerous residences and vehicles. Among the assets he reported are: A five-bedroom, 5-bath mansion in the upscale Golden Oak community of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The 7,300-square-foot home is listed for sale for almost $8.9 million. A three-bed, 4 bath house at 555 Argyle in Alamo Heights. The property overlooks Olmos Dam and is one of the areas most well-known residences. Its valued at $3.6 million. A four-bed, 4-bath house on Champions Run in Stone Oak. Its valued at $1.8 million. A 3,000-square-foot home on Lakebreeze Drive in Canyon Lake. Its valued at $1.1 million. A Port Aransas condominium valued at $640,000. His real estate holdings, which include his law office building on Huebner Road, are valued at $18 million Pettit also reported owning a 2021 Porsche Macan valued at $60,000; a 2019 Porsche Panamera, $50,000; a 2019 Mercedes GLS, $55,000; a 2018 Mercedes GL, $40,000; and a 2022 boat, $150,000. He is claiming the Champions Run property, the Mercedes GLS and numerous household items as exempt from seizure by creditors. Pettit also has claimed as exempt a 401(k) valued at about $635,000, an Individual Retirement Account with about $95,000 in it, and three insurance policies collectively valued at almost $900,000. (His combined checking and savings accounts are in the red.) His secured debts, which include mortgages and car loans, total about $8.9 million. SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox Most of Pettits creditors numbering almost 170 are listed as unsecured. They range from credit card companies to individuals to trusts. While many of the amounts owed are listed as unknown, about 30 unsecured creditors hold claims of more than $1 million each. Pettit disputes those debts. 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. The largest claim, listed at $14.4 million, belongs to a San Antonio family partnership. His petition shows he recently made a $30,000 credit card payment to high-end jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. and a $50,000 payment to a Houston-based commercial real estate lender. Pettit reported income of $80,000 in the first five months of this year. He had income of $340,000 last year and about $145,000 in 2020. His law firm had about $1.3 million in gross income in the first five months of this year. It generated about $695,000 in income last year and $721,000 in 2020. Pettit reported he and his firm are defendants in 12 lawsuits, eight of which are pending and four that have concluded. The petition didnt mention at least two lawsuits filed last week in state district court in San Antonio. In one, a Colorado man and a trust allege he was convinced to allow Pettit to control about $3.8 million. Rather than invest the funds, Pettit transferred the funds directly into his law firms operating account and proceeded to use those funds for his own use and benefit, the lawsuit says. Pettit used his positions as attorney, financial advisor, tax return preparer, investment advisor and trustee and custodian of plaintiffs money to actively conceal his actions, the complaint adds. The plaintiffs allege fraud and felony theft. In the other lawsuit, a San Antonio man alleges he invested about $975,0000 with Pettit but only got back $24,000. The man said he had been assured the money was available for withdrawal at any time. The Securities and Exchange Commission shows Pettit was a registered investment adviser from April 2015 until last September. Its not clear why hes no longer registered. He had been affiliated with Austins Triad Advisors. The Express-News first reported on Pettits mounting legal troubles on May 19. The next day, he resigned his position from EF EnergyFunders Ventures Inc., an oil and natural gas investment company. Its a Canadian stock exchange company based in Calgary that maintains its executive offices in San Antonio. pdanner@express-news.net Larry W. Smith/Getty Images Two 18-year-old Corpus Christi students died in a single-vehicle crash just days before graduation. According to KRIS-TV, police believe street racing was a factor in the teens' deaths. Authorities told the news station that the deadly crash happened at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday near Whataburger Field and killed Matthew Garcia and Marcello Saldua, both students at W.B. Ray High School. Two other students inside the vehicle were also injured, the TV station reported. UVALDE, Texas In the final moments of her life, Eva Mireles, a teacher at Robb Elementary School, was on the phone with her husband, Ruben Ruiz, a school district police officer, the senior county official said Wednesday. They spoke for the last time from opposite sides of the school walls: She was with her fourth-grade students in a pair of adjoining classrooms taken over by a gunman; he was outside the school, amid the fast-growing throng of armed officers who rushed to the scene. Shes in the classroom and hes outside. Its terrifying, the Uvalde County judge, Bill Mitchell, said Wednesday after being briefed by sheriffs deputies who were at the shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. The call was among several new details that have added to and, in some cases, significantly altered the shifting portrait of the shooting in Uvalde that has been offered by top officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott and the head of the state police, Steven McCraw. The gunmans grandmother, whom he shot in the face at home minutes before bursting into the school, had been employed at the elementary school in years past, a top teachers union official said. The two officers who first approached the classrooms and were struck by bullets that were fired through the locked door were senior members of the Uvalde Police Department, a lieutenant and a sergeant, officials said. And a door to the school, through which the gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered, had been closed, but not locked as it should have been a crucial amendment to the official narrative outlined to reporters, grieving Uvalde families and viewers of broadcasts carried live around the nation from the usually quiet ranching city about 80 miles west of San Antonio. The latest detail about the teachers phone call to her husband is potentially an important one suggesting that at least one of the officers arriving at the scene had information from inside the classrooms that could have informed the decision by police to delay entry. A question remained as to whether 911 calls from children inside the classrooms, starting 30 minutes after the gunman arrived, were communicated to the commander at the scene. Wong Maye-E/AP Several times since last week, information presented by officials as fact in news conferences has later been changed or entirely retracted, further rattling an already stricken community and undermining the faith of many Texans in the official narrative of what happened, even among law enforcement officials and those who represent them. The situation prompted Don McLaughlin, the mayor of Uvalde and a staunch conservative, to request a Justice Department investigation over the weekend, and led a statewide law enforcement union to issue a statement supporting that inquiry, in part, because sources that Texans once saw as ironclad and completely reliable have now been proven false. The reference was to the governor and the head of the state police, according to a spokesperson for the union, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. McCraws agency, the Texas Department of Public Safety, oversees both the state police and the Texas Rangers, and it had been leading the investigation into the shooting and the response by the police until the Justice Department stepped in with its own review. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the state police, Travis Considine, referred questions to the local district attorneys office and said that going forward the department would not be providing updates on the investigation. The district attorney, Christina Busbee, did not respond to requests for an interview. State police officials have been forced to amend portions of their timeline of events several times, including last week when it became clear that a school district police officer had not confronted the gunman before he entered the school. They did so again Tuesday, when the department said that the gunman did not enter through a door that was being propped open. Instead, the closed door had not been locked. After examining video evidence we were able to conclude that after propping the door open with a rock, the teacher ran back inside when she saw the shooter, and removed the rock and the door shut, Considine said. Investigators are now looking at why the door did not lock properly when it was shut. The Justice Department announced its investigation Sunday and has said that the inquiry would result in its own report on what took place at Robb Elementary School. The superintendent of Uvalde schools said Wednesday that students and teachers would not be returning to the elementary school in the fall. And Abbott directed the state to begin a review of security at all Texas schools before the coming academic year. Mireles, a teacher of 17 years and an avid hiker who took pride in teaching at a mostly Hispanic school, was shot and killed trying to protect her students, according to her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado. Her husband, Ruiz, who had rushed to the scene, was prevented by other police officers from going inside. He could not go into the classroom where all the shooting victims were at, Martinez Delgado said last week. Ruiz declined a request for an interview. It was not clear when the two spoke or for how long during the 78 minutes that elapsed between the first calls that came in to 911 of a gunman at the school and the moment when a tactical team from the Border Patrol stormed into the room and killed him. Mitchell said deputy sheriffs who had been at the school recounted the call. I dont know what was said, Mitchell said, although the gist of it appeared to be, he said, that the gunman was already on the attack. Hes outside hearing his wife: Im dying, he said, before cautioning that he did not know precisely what words were exchanged. Mitchell said he did not know if the school district officer had told the chief of his six-member department, Pete Arredondo, about the call. He was talking to his wife. Whether that was conveyed to Arredondo or anyone else, I dont know, said the judge, who is the countys executive and top official. State police have said it was Arredondos decision to wait to send officers into the classrooms until specialized equipment and more highly trained officers could arrive, a decision that McCraw called wrong in a news conference Friday. A vast majority of the shooting inside the classrooms, which were joined in the middle, took place just after the gunman entered, at 11:33 a.m., McCraw said then. The gunman was killed at about 12:51 p.m. While the motive of the gunman remained unclear, officials said that he, like so many in Uvalde, had a connection to the elementary school. He lived with his grandmother Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66, in a modest home near the school. She used to be an employee at the school, said Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers; a state law enforcement official confirmed her former employment at the school. Martinez Gonzales was shot but not killed last week. Afterward Ramos fled her home and crashed her pickup truck, which neighbors said he could barely drive, into a ditch near the school. He emerged with a gun, an AR-15-style rifle, one of two that he had bought shortly after his 18th birthday earlier in the month. In an instant the shooting redefined life in Uvalde, a place that used to be known, by those who knew it at all, for its trees, its honey and its surrounding hunting ranches. This is the single most devastating, disastrous event that ever has happened in Uvalde County, Mitchell said. But we will rise. We will survive. Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag This article originally appeared in The New York Times. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate In late April, Elizabeth and James Weller stuck the week 17 ultrasound photo to their fridge, inside the four-bedroom Kingwood home they planned to fill. The young couple had already bought Houston Astros onesies and dark blue paint for the space-themed nursery, eagerly awaiting Theodora Rosario Wellers due date in October. But on May 10, at 18 weeks pregnant, the 26-year-old Elizabeth returned from a jog and saw blood leaking out of her vagina. Then her water broke. Later, in the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital emergency room, she learned she had lost a dangerous amount of amniotic fluid, which is essential for fetal development. She faced an increased risk of infection and other life-threatening complications. Doctors presented her with two devastating options: Wait until Theodora becomes viable around 24 weeks and deliver her, only to watch her die or live with a severe disability, or induce labor now and effectively terminate the pregnancy. In my mind, the only rational thing to do, on top of the only emotionally merciful thing to do, would be to choose (termination), to save her from going through this type of suffering, said Elizabeth, a political science graduate student at the University of Houston. I couldnt justify putting her through that. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Elizabeth agonized over her choice. Then she realized she didnt have one. The hospital did not approve her for immediate induction, a Houston Methodist spokesperson said, because she did not meet the standards set forth in the states highly restrictive abortion laws, which create civil penalties for terminating a pregnancy when there is a detectable fetal heartbeat. The newly amended Texas Health and Safety Code only allows a termination when the pregnant woman is in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function vague terminology that is open to a range of interpretations. A violation opens providers up to lawsuits, fines and, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, a felony charge. Elizabeths story illustrates the collision between medical ethics and legal ramifications that healthcare professionals and institutions face when termination is a medically appropriate option. Now dealing with a high-risk pregnancy, she and James processed their tragedy in a state of limbo, from which their only escape was a flight out of Texas or signs of an infection. Theres never been a hell worse than hoping my wife gets sick, for the sake of our grief and for us to move on, said James Weller, an 8th grade math teacher. Its just terrible. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer A grim outlook At first, Elizabeth questioned whether termination would be the right choice if the baby had a chance to survive. She has Erbs palsy weakness in one arm and would not end her pregnancy based on disability alone. At the hospital, Elizabeth was officially diagnosed with PPROM, or preterm premature rupture of membranes, which affects about 1 percent of women before the fetus reaches viability. Her prognosis was grim, and solutions were complicated. She could try to wait about six weeks to deliver the child, but she risked developing a severe infection or heavy bleeding. Both scenarios would force doctors to induce labor to save her life. Even if she made it to a live birth, only about 26 percent of babies like Theodora survive the hospital, according to the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine. Surviving babies can develop clubbed feet and other severe limb deformities. But more commonly, the baby dies from extreme prematurity or pulmonary hypoplasia, in which underdeveloped lungs impede heart function and overall development. When they considered this reality, James cried over Elizabeths belly as they began to say goodbye to Theodora. Elizabeth stayed at Methodist overnight and told her OBGYN, Dr. Erica Chapman, about her decision the following day. Chapman strongly advocated for her induction, Elizabeth said, but the hospital had their hands tied behind their backs. Elizabeth wasnt yet experiencing severe symptoms or showing any signs of an infection, and her babys heartbeat was strong. Chapman, who is affiliated with Houston Methodist The Woodlands and Kelsey-Seybold, declined an interview for this story. Doctors put Elizabeth on a management plan to monitor her symptoms. Chapman advised her that the best thing for me was to get discharged, otherwise I would be running up a bill, she said. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Waiting Back home in Kingwood, temperature checks became an obsession for Elizabeth and James. They hoped to see a number at or above 100.4 on the thermometer dial, or for yellow and foul-smelling vaginal discharge that signaled a worsening condition. Elizabeth had seen only a faint yellow discharge without a strong smell. While she waited for her body to break down, she became depressed. She woke up on Thursday, May 12, with the song You Are My Sunshine stuck in her head. She felt the urge to look up the full lyrics and sobbed at the first verse. The other night dear, as I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken So I hung my head and I cried All I wanted was for (Theodora) and Im so ashamed to say this but all I wanted was for her to just leave because it was so nightmarish for me, she said. It was Friday, May 13, when the couple visited Kelsey-Seybold to check the babys heart. It was still beating, and Elizabeth asked not to hear it. Chapman told the couple she tried calling other Texas Medical Center hospitals, looking for a doctor who could induce her, but no one took up her plea. Elizabeth and James began discussing flights to Colorado, where abortion is legal in all stages of pregnancy. When they returned home later that day, Elizabeths vaginal discharge had turned to a vibrant yellow color. She retched at the smell and asked herself, is this the sign she needed? Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Ethical challenges As they hoped for a conclusion, James and Elizabeth also felt angry at politicians who created laws that compounded their grief. You expect a greater understanding of what's going on inside of a woman's body, Elizabeth said. The ambiguity of both Senate Bill 8 and Senate Bill 4 the two pieces of legislation that frame the states abortion laws creates an ethical dilemma for providers that could lead to devastating consequences for others in Elizabeths position, said Dr. Bryn Esplin, a bioethicist and assistant professor of medical education at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. There are notable examples of women who died from pregnancy complications after initially being denied an abortion on legal grounds. You would hope the law would be such that it supports a provider making an assessment in the patients best interest, versus putting them at risk for liability, Esplin said. Texas Right to Life Legislative Director John Seago pushed back on the assertion that the law is ambiguous. For him, the language is clear: any elective abortion is an injustice. When we look at fetal abnormalities and these kinds of tragic situations, it is still unethical to go and to cause the death of the child, he said. There are other positive life-affirming responses to give the child the best perinatal outcomes. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Relief There was no positive outlook for James and Elizabeth. On Friday, she wiped her yellow discharge with toilet paper, placed it in a Ziploc bag and again set out for the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital emergency room, hoping the evidence was enough to encourage the hospital to act. When she and James arrived, she reported worsening abdominal pain, in addition to her discharge. The couple also learned that an ethics committee had taken up her case, and on Friday night, Chapman called to tell them the good news: The ethics committee had approved her for induction. It was a moment of just sheer happiness, Elizabeth said. But in retrospect, it's horrible. At no point did I want this to happen for my baby But to have some definitive answer that there was a clear path ahead of me was comfort in its own right. She delivered Theodora in the early-morning hours of Saturday and let the lifeless, bright red baby barely bigger than her hand lie on her chest as long as she could bear. The whole event remains fresh for the couple. Its hard to look at the baby clothes, the nursery, the ultrasound photos. But they talk openly about their trauma, hoping that their experience will spark conversation among lawmakers and create positive changes for other parents in their situation. That's really all a parent can want for their kid, right? That they do something great. They create a change Elizabeth said through tears. And I know some people might think, you know, You're not a mom. But she did everything for me to make me feel like one. julian.gill@chron.com State officials will begin random, unannounced visits to schools around Texas to check whether theyre compliant with state-mandated safety measures, including checks to see how quickly a stranger can penetrate buildings without being stopped, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. Abbott said he intends to crack down on districts around that havent established detailed safety plans as required by state law, or arent following them. School safety initiatives are overseen by the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University, and Abbott ordered the director of the center to contact every Texas school district and ensure its compliance. A spokeswoman for the school safety center wrote in an email that they are moving to comply with the governors orders. Each district is supposed to have a School Safety and Security Committee that drafts policies and trains staff on them, and those committees are all being directed to meet this summer as they normally do between school years to review security plans. Among other reviews, your team should begin conducting in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts, Abbott wrote in a letter to the director of the school safety center. Staff should approach campuses to find weak points and how quickly they can penetrate buildings without being stopped. This will help determine if schools are prepared to implement and follow the (emergency operations plans) they have already submitted to the state. Abbott went on to note that if districts are not in compliance with security mandates, they are required to hold public meetings to let their communities know of their failure. If they do not, state law allows the Texas Education Agency to assume leadership of noncompliant schools. I will work with TEA to hold accountable any ISD that is not in compliance with these standards, Abbott wrote. Abbott and other Republicans have said tightening access to guns is not a real solution to mass shootings. They are choosing instead to focus on school hardening, although some experts in mass shootings have noted that shooters typically choose to terrorize places they are familiar with, making security protocols less effective. After the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018, where the shooter entered the building through an unlocked back door, Texas focused on school security instead of restricting guns. After a statewide review of school districts emergency plans, Uvalde CISDs plan was found to contain a basic emergency operations plan that prioritized hazards affecting the district, including an active shooter policy that contained district actions addressing all five phases of emergency management, a spokeswoman for the school safety center wrote in an emailed statement distributed last week after the shooting. An emergency operations plan can be in place, along with policies and procedures, but those plans and procedures are only as effective as they are implemented. In Uvalde last week, the shooter also entered the building through an unlocked back door. edward.mckinley@chron.com People who grow up in small towns, especially in the South, come away with lasting impressions of small-town police officers like those now under investigation in Uvalde. Negative images of them stereotypes included arent always fair. But neither are those impressions without merit. Its important to acknowledge that police departments in small, rural towns are underpaid and face a tough time recruiting the most qualified officers. At best, such departments get pegged as comical. At worse, as aggressive, autonomous agencies free to reign over a town. In Uvalde, they may have looked tough. Social media has dug up photographs of some of them donning new vests and other gear. But its safe to say they werent as tough when faced last week with an active shooter armed with an assault-style rifle. They failed to stop the man who barricaded himself by locking a classroom door, killing 19 children and two teachers. In the last few years, especially during the Black Lives Matter protests, urban police departments were the focus of intense public and political scrutiny. Small town police were largely ignored. Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press They shouldnt be. Law-enforcement agencies at the scene of the Uvalde school shooting have much to answer for, including their actions, inaction and conflicting reports. Pedro Pete Arredondo, the school districts police chief who made the call to wait so long before confronting the man, has closed ranks. State officials say he is refusing to cooperate with an investigation. He denied that Wednesday, adding to the confusion. The examples of miscommunication and mishandling at several levels are piling up as new or corrected statements emerge that contradict information presented at an initial news conference. Officials at that press conference were self-congratulatory, insensitive to families and, worst, told lies. As of this writing, Arredondo has yet to be placed on administrative leave. Instead, on Tuesday night, the Uvalde City Council canceled a town meeting. Later, they swore-in Arredondo as a new councilman. It all happened out of public sight. This is exactly the way residents and former residents say their small-town officials behave. In some rural places in the United States, it has always been this way. Its also true that in the face of such power, residents are scared to speak out. I spoke with one Uvaldian critical of police and local officials who asked for anonymity. Another resident tweeted truth to power and received a lot of feedback but declined to speak publicly. Not Neil Meyer. The retired lawyer and fifth-generation Texan, now living in Bethesda, wrote as damning a piece about the Uvalde shooting and the kind of town it is as Ive seen. It appeared in the Washington Post Sunday. His headline said, Im from Uvalde. Im not surprised this happened. You would be challenged to find a more heavily armed place in the United States than Uvalde, he wrote. Its a town where the love of guns overwhelms any notion of common-sense regulations, and the minority White ruling class places its right-wing Republican ideology above the safety of its most vulnerable citizens its impoverished and its children, most of whom are Hispanic. Meyer described a courthouse lawn that features a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, installed when the Ku Klux Klan dominated its politics. That he intertwines race, racism, politics and policing is critical. All these realities are intertwined. Such issues also may be critical in the investigation. Like Meyer, the Uvalde resident who asked for anonymity said local police, whether white or Mexican American, align themselves with white leadership and are banded together by the figure of former President Donald Trump. Its a divisiveness that plagues the nation, as does the role of white supremacy in politics, policing and other institutions. It was also clear in the Jan. 6 insurrection, which threatened U.S. democracy. The Uvaldian, who asked not to be identified, is white. The resident described local police officers as maggots, a term drawn from Trumps election slogan Make America Great Again, or MAGA. Uvalde is the kind of place where police routinely stop vehicles driven by Mexican Americans and ask for their papers, assuming at least some of them are in the country illegally, or as a form of harassment to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. Every day gets worse and worse and worse and worse, the resident said. Every day something new comes out that the police lied about. As investigations move forward, Uvalde leaders will face political questioning from within and outside. For many, Mayor Don McLaughlin already has failed. After all the children and teachers are buried, and as Uvalde attempts to heal, residents will face decisions of their own. Whether they demand new leadership and the kind of police protection that will safeguard them and their children, will be up to them. eayala@express-news.net William Luther, Staff / William Luther A juvenile died and several others were hospitalized after a car and an SUV collided Thursday afternoon near the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sgt. Washington Moscoso, with San Antonio police, said the collision occurred about 12:30 p.m. in the 6300 block of West Hausman Road. The San Antonio Zoo is honoring each of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting with a nightly illumination at its parking garage. Since May 26, the five-story zoo parking garage overlooking McAllister Freeway has been illuminated in maroon, the school color of Robb Elementary School, where 19 children, all fourth-graders, and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting on May 24, according to the San Antonio Zoos official Facebook page. The parking garage was to remain illuminated for the next 21 nights from May 26: One night for each of the innocent victims of this tragedy, the post states. The first night, the garage was lit up in memory of Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10. Since then, it has honored five other students: Alithia Ramirez, 10; Amerie Jo Garza, 10; Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10; Eliahna Cruz Torres, 10, and Eliahna Amyah Garcia, 9. It also was lit up for one teacher, Eva Mireles, 44, who was honored last night. Visitations and funerals for the victims started this week in Uvalde. In a Facebook post, San Antonio Zoo President and Chief Executive Officer Tim Morrow said students and teachers from Robb Elementary School had visited the zoo a week prior to the mass shooting. Uvalde is part of our community, they are our neighbors, they are our friends, our relatives and those senselessly killed were our responsibility as a society, Morrow wrote. Our zoo crew and volunteers join fellow San Antonians, Texans and people around the world in grief, devastation, and anger. We can and must do better for our children! The zoo was applauded on its Facebook page by thousands of viewers, including a post from Maggie Mireles-Thomas, the sister of Eva Mireles, who along with her co-teacher, Irma Garcia, 48, died shielding their students from the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. My sister Eva was a true hero, Mireles-Thomas wrote. Thank you much for honoring her. Please continue to pray for my mother, my oldest sister, my niece and brother-in-law. In response to Mireles-Thomas post, Moody wrote: Our prayers are with you and the entire family. We know the love and dedication teachers have for their students. We want to send that love back to your family from ours. ddekunder@express-news.net Global Sae-A Group Chairman Kim Woong-ki / Courtesy of Global Sae-A Group Apparel maker's aggressive acquisitions seen as preparations for family succession By Park Jae-hyuk Global Sae-A Group, the holding company of Sae-A Trading, an OEM clothing manufacturer, has raised concerns about its latest bid to buy Ssangyong E&C from the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), a move that was made public, Thursday, according to industry analysts. Ssangyong E&C is a Korean builder known for constructing the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. After Ssangyong Group disbanded during the Asian financial crisis, Ssangyong E&C was acquired in 2002 by the Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO). After 13 years, KAMCO sold the firm to the Dubaian sovereign wealth fund in 2015. If Global Sae-A succeeds in acquiring Ssangyong E&C, the apparel group will be able to reinforce its construction business, which it has been fostering since 2018 when it acquired Sae-A STX Entech, formerly the plant construction unit of STX Heavy Industries. "Global Sae-A decided to acquire Ssangyong E&C, because ICD began reorganizing its investment portfolio after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic," a Ssangyong E&C official said. "Global Sae-A expects to create a synergy effect, utilizing Ssangyong E&C's global awareness and experiences." Ssangyong E&C headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Ssangyong E&C Kim Kardashian pushed for the father of one of the Uvalde victims to be released temporarily from federal prison to attend his daughters funeral. But despite the appeal, he was not released in time for the funeral, which took place in Uvalde at 11 a.m. today. Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10, is one of 19 students killed at Robb Elementary School last week. Her father, Eli Torres, is incarcerated in Kentucky for a non-violent drug offense. Related: Uvalde victim wanted to study marine biology at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Theres now a scholarship in her honor. This is Eliahana Ellie Cruz Torres, 10 years old, and one of the 19 victims of the shooting in Uvalde, TX, Kardashian wrote on Twitter on Thursday. Her family are desperately hoping that her father, who is incarcerated for a non violent drug offense, be granted temporary release so that he can attend her funeral. Kardashian, best known as a model and reality TV star, is a prison-reform advocate and is studying to become a lawyer. So far their requests have been denied, Kardashian said of the Torres familys requests for a temporary release. In her tweet, Kardashian asked that the Federal Bureau of Prisons grant Torres a temporary release so that he can say his last goodbye to his baby girl. Every parent deserves that right. The Express-News reported last week that prison officials have offered Torres an opportunity to watch the funeral via live stream. However, Torres has said he wanted to be at the funeral in person. You might also like: Uvalde senator slams Abbotts committee as a 'slap in the face' in wake of school shooting Torres spoke to the Express-News, expressing some guilt for not having been in Uvalde to help. I could have prevented this from happening, somehow, some way, as a father . I could have stopped it somehow. Protected her, he told the newspaper. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro has also called on the Federal Bureau of Prisons to grant Torres a temporary release. I (and others) have repeatedly asked @officialFBOP to temporarily release Eli Torres under supervision to attend his daughters funeral, Castro tweeted. I strongly disagree with their decision to deny the request. In the wake of this tragedy, every parent should be able to say goodbye. timothy.fanning@express-news.net Maite Rodriguez knew in kindergarten that she wanted to study marine biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. But the 10-year-old Robb Elementary students dreams of studying life in the worlds oceans were snatched away when a gunman entered Maites classroom in Uvalde and opened fire, killing her, 18 of her classmates, and two of her teachers. Related: Uvalde shooting victim dreamed of going viral on TikTok. Her family is fulfilling that dream. This week, the university announced that Maites dream will live on through a scholarship in her honor. The university, in a written statement, said it created the scholarship in her name to ensure she will forever be a part of the Islander family. Maites family gathered in Uvalde this week for her funeral, one of the first services held for the victims of the mass shooting there. Michael M. Santiago/TNS She loved animals and babies so much," Ana Rodriguez, Maites mother, wrote in a recent Facebook post, which detailed her daughters dream of studying marine biology in Corpus Christi. In another Facebook post, Rodriguez said she was contacted by Maggie Cano, the universitys director of graduate recruiting and admissions, who notified her that the school would create a scholarship in Maites memory. The Maite Yuleana Rodriguez scholarship will be awarded to a student from Uvalde who attends Texas A&M-Corpus Christi pursuing a degree in marine biology. I am grateful that Maites memory will live on through other students who are passionate about marine biology, just like she was, Rodriguez wrote in the post. Maite also loved green and wore her lime green Converse so often that she drew a heart on the right shoe, Rodriguez said in the post. She always slept on the right side of the bed and never let her mother forget to order a side of jalapenos with her Whataburger meal, her mother added. More Uvalde coverage: Uvalde prepares for potential onslaught of lawsuits over the mass shooting Rodriguez said her daughter was an honor roll student and was competitive in her physical education classes. Oh, the stories I would hear when she got home, Rodriguez's post said. "She was sweet, charismatic, loving, caring, loyal, ambitious, funny, silly, goal driven and, best of all, my very best friend." timothy.fanning@express-news.net The incident commander at the scene of last weeks mass shooting in Uvalde was not informed of panicked 911 calls from victims inside Robb Elementary School, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez said Thursday. Gutierrez said pleas for help from teachers and students inside the school did not reach Uvalde school district police Chief Pedro Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the on-site commander. Dispatchers relayed the information instead to the Uvalde Police Department, Gutierrez said. The San Antonio Democrat, whose district includes Uvalde, said Arredondo was not privy to the 911 calls. That could have contributed to the disastrous response that allowed gunman Salvador Ramos to stay inside the building for more than an hour and kill 19 children and two teachers and wound 17 more people. It isnt clear why Arredondo didnt know of the panicked 911 calls from the classroom. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer In its timeline of the massacre last week, the Texas Department of Public Safety said a school policeman, called a school resource officer, who was off-campus, rushed to the school after hearing a 911 call about a man with a gun outside the school. Ramos was hiding behind a vehicle before entering the building. The officer thought Ramos was a teacher and drove past him. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Show More Show Less While it is not unusual for 911 calls for smaller police agencies such as the Uvalde school districts six-officer force to be routed through larger municipal departments, Gutierrez called what happened in Uvalde a systemic failure. He said he learned of the information through questions he asked state commission that administers the 911 program. I was told (this) specifically by the Commission on State Emergency Communications, Gutierrez said. My question specifically was, Was the ISD police officer who was (the incident commander), did he know about the calls? I was specifically told, No. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer I am telling you he was not privy, and Im not covering (for) him, by the way, Gutierrez said, adding he believes Arredondo bears some responsibility. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Agencies involved in the matter and contacted for this story either did not respond Thursday or deferred to 38th Judicial District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee or the Texas Department of Public Safety, the primary agency investigating the mass shooting and the subsequent response. Last week, Col. Steven McCraw, the DPS director, said he could not answer whether Arredondo was getting 911 call information because he did not have detailed reports. This is still an active and ongoing investigation by the Texas Rangers, DPS press secretary Ericka Miller said by email Thursday. She referred questions to Busbee. Since 1987, the state emergency communications commission has worked with regional councils to extend 911 services across the state. Uvalde is part of the Middle Rio Grande Development Council. A message seeking comment was left for the 911 coordinator at that council. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Ray Garner, police chief of the United Independent School District in Laredo, said that in his experience, it is common for 911 calls to go through a municipal police department before being routed to the appropriate police agency, especially in rural areas. Its not unusual, said Garner, whose police agency and school district are several times larger than the Uvalde school district. Here, we have our own radio operations and the 911 calls go through a 911 administrator. The city runs it and it goes through them, and they dispatch (calls) to me immediately. We will disseminate that information to the incident command leader. But in small towns, small jurisdictions, everything either goes to the sheriffs office or goes to the (city) police department, he said. In his comments last week, McCraw without naming Arredondo said the on-scene commander in the mass shooting deemed the gunman a barricaded subject instead of an active shooter. He made the call that there was time to get officers with more specialized tactical equipment to the scene. But repeated 911 calls were received from teachers and students in the school, including at least one locked in a classroom with the gunman. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer During the incident, 19 officers were inside the school building for 45 minutes before the gunman was finally killed by a Border Patrol tactical team. The officers came from several agencies, including the Uvalde school district and Uvalde Police Department. During the massacre, at least two teachers called their husbands, who are law officers. Uvalde County Judge Billy Mitchell, after being briefed by sheriffs deputies, told reporters that teacher Eva Mireles spent some of her final breaths on the phone with her husband, Ruben Ruiz. He is a police officer with the school district and Arredondo is his boss. He wasnt among the 19 officers waiting in the hallway outside the adjoining classrooms where Ramos holed up and killed his victims. And national TV networks reported that Jacob Albarado, an off-duty Border Patrol agent, had been at the school earlier that morning for an awards ceremony for his daughter and rushed back to the school after receiving a text from his wife, a fourth-grade teacher there, that there was an active shooter at the school. On the Today show on Tuesday, he said he did not have his service weapon, so he asked his barber for one and the pair drove to the scene. Albarado said he was allowed to go in and help because he knew officers responding to the shooting. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Its a small community. My wife works at Robb, everyone at Robb knows me. Pretty much, all local law enforcement knows me or I know the majority of them, so I was able to go in and I announced who I was and made my way through, he said. As I was going in, I could just see kids coming out the windows, kids coming my way. So I was helping all the kids out, he said, all while trying to contact his wife. My wife finally texts me or calls me saying she was across the street at a funeral home. After that, my next thing was to go get my daughter, he continued. DPS has said that the Uvalde Police Department has been cooperating, but that Arredondo had not. While Arredondo gave an initial statement to investigators after the shooting, DPS said Tuesday that he had not responded in two days to investigators who asked him for a follow-up interview. Arredondo told CNN on Wednesday he had been in daily contact with department investigators. During his press conference, Gutierrez called for pressure on officials to release more information. I urge you that you not allow these people to hide behind a district attorney investigation on procedural matters, Gutierrez said. Do not allow anybody...to hide behind the local district attorney on these procedural failures, these policy failures, under the guise that were looking at a criminal investigation. guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland A special legislative committee called by Gov. Greg Abbott this week in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde does not include the state senator who represents the district. In a written statement, that state senator, Roland Gutierrez, called the special committee assignments a slap in the face of the people of Uvalde. Its also a slap in the face to the people of Sante Fe and El Paso because they dont have a voice on this committee either, Gutierrez said. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick selected eight Republicans and three Democrats to lead the evaluation on school and firearm safety. The committee is similar to the one called by Abbott to shape the states response to a mass shooting at Sante Fe High School in 2018. You might also like: Law enforcement officials say journalists will be charged for being on Uvalde CISD property Gutierrez called the committee a stall tactic from Abbott, who can evade a growing call from Democrats for a special legislative session, which would immediately bring state lawmakers back to Austin to discuss gun violence prevention measures. We already know what happens, we know why it happens, and we know what needs to be done to stop it from happening next time, Gutierrez said. We dont need another Blue Ribbon committee. We need a special session so that we can start crafting common sense solutions right now that are going to keep our kids safe. Last week, Gutierrez interrupted a press conference about state resources being provided for the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde held by Abbott. Gutierrez stood up and called on Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature to address the shooting. He and other Democrats asked for gun control changes, something Republican leaders in Austin have refused to discuss. Gutierrez is set to give a press conference in Uvalde this afternoon. timothy.fanning@express-news.net Firefighters from several Texas departments took to the Pineywoods recently to get a taste of what it is like to fight a wildland fire. The firefighters spent a week learning wildland firefighting techniques at as the 2022 East Texas Interagency Wildfire and Incident Management Academy hosted by the Texas A&M Forest Service. The purpose of the academy is to provide wildland firefighting courses to firefighters from local, state and federal entities that use National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards. The annual training academy provides a variety of wildland firefighting courses that cover everything from basic firefighting techniques to advanced firefighting tactics and leadership skills. When it comes to wildfires in East Texas, structural firefighters are normally the ones that get called first, which is why this training is so important for them, said Ryan Burns, a Texas A&M Forest Service coordinator. Joel Andrews, JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News / Lufkin Daily News Theyll get called to a brush fire, or even a house fire that might start getting into the woods if the winds pick up, he said. Firefighters attending the academy took the Basic Firefighter/Intro to Wildland Fire Behavior, which involves both classroom lectures and applied training out in the field and exposes students to the physical and technical demands the job requires. Those participating in the program also spend a day on field exercises including fireline construction, water hose laying techniques, tool sharpening and fire shelter deployment practice. Sterling Davis from Spring Fire Department said his experience with the field exercises had been going well. Were basically doing a culmination of everything that weve done this past week in regard to wildland fire, containing and controlling the fire, he said. This morning, we simulated how we would get a briefing from the incident control officer; and from there, we were split up into our groups and given a task to perform on that fire line to simulate controlling the wildfire. Jonathan Hart with the Spring Fire Department said the week had been a whole new experience because fighting wildfires is completely different from fighting structural fires. Joel Andrews, JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News / Lufkin Daily News Were out here in the woods were usually inside of a house. Its a lot harder work I would say for a longer, extended amount of time, he said. Its a lot different. Its a cool experience though. Im working in a different capacity than I normally do. Jeremy Minter with the Texas A&M Forestry Service said the week had been a thrill ride, but that he was enjoying it. This is my dream job I love being outside. Ive been volunteering for almost 10 years now, he said. I came structurally certified I was a firefighter EMT, now Im coming to the wild side of it. Joel Andrews, JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News / Lufkin Daily News Davis also loves being a public service employee he is a former veteran and has been with Spring Fire Department for approximately 3 years, he said. He wants to improve his firefighting skills so he can better help people, he said. For this class, we sent about 10 guys altogether so that we can be readily available when any (Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System) action comes up and that way we can provide our services and continue helping out the best we can, he said. Hart also is looking to build up his skill set so he can better able to help people. Joel Andrews, JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News / Lufkin Daily News Theres a lot of different ways you can fight fire and help people, and I love doing it, he said. Its one of those things where the more ways I can help people, the better off I am, the better I can help my community. Satirical website The Onion has written six articles in the last week about the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Most of them lambaste the police response to the shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers. Its latest story, published Wednesday, was headlined Shifting Police Timeline Now States Uvalde, TX Never Existed, a reference to the official response to the mass shooting that has been marred by shifting narratives, finger-pointing and a general lack of accurate information. The satirical article imagines a news conference with Uvalde school districts police chief, Pete Arredondo, who made the decision to wait for more resources rather than confront the gunman sooner. In an imaginary news conference, Arredondo releases details that confirm that Uvalde, a town of 16,000 west of San Antonio, never existed. The Onion goes on to say that after several days of exhaustive investigations into the tragic events of May 24, the Uvalde School District Police Department has determined that there was no wrongdoing on the part of officers, as Uvalde is not, in fact, a town in Texas or a geographical location of any kind. Sam Owens, Staff Photographer / San Antonio Express-News You might also like: Law enforcement officials say journalists will be charged for being on Uvalde CISD property Local law enforcement in Uvalde also has been criticized for waiting nearly an hour outside the school while the 18-year-old gunman killed people inside. In one video, law enforcement can be seen making a human barricade as family members wail, scream and hurl profanities at law enforcement. Some were tackled to the ground. An article published last week headlined Tearful Uvalde Residents Thank Police for Protecting Parking Lot From Gunman trashed law enforcement for not acting sooner. In an expression of gratitude for keeping the communitys beloved stretch of asphalt safe, tearful Uvalde residents thanked law enforcement Thursday for protecting Robb Elementary Schools parking lot from a gunman, the article said. Other satirical articles took aim at the NRA and politicians for not pushing gun control and other measures Democrats and others believe would have prevented the tragedy. Last week, its article No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens, went viral. Its the same story that has been republished 21 times in about eight years. Related: Slap in the face: Uvalde senator slams Abbotts committee in wake of school shooting The headline has remained the same for every major mass shooting from Isla Vista, Calif., in 2014 to last weeks school shooting in Uvalde. The main image, and basic facts about the shooting, are updated every time. "This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there's nothing anyone can do to stop them," the person said "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn't anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that's what they really wanted." timothy.fanning@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE People packed the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Catholic Church for the funeral Wednesday of Irma Linda Garcia, a beloved teacher killed in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School, and her husband, Jose Antonio Joe Garcia, who died two days later of an apparent heart attack. Many emerged from the church wiping away tears and embracing one another for comfort. An outdoor shrine a few hundred feet away, with photos of all 21 victims, continued to accumulate flowers, toys and stuffed animals. The funeral services will continue for at least two more weeks as Uvalde remains possibly the saddest place on earth, a town shaken by a tragedy that still has many unanswered questions. The oldest of the Garcias four children, Marine Pfc. Christian Garcia, is attached to the 4th Reconnaissance Battalion in San Antonio, and some in attendance Wednesday were Marines in dress uniform. On ExpressNews.com: Uvalde funeral services, GoFundMe pages: how to support the families Also paying their respects were U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. Gonzales said he was there to represent the Bexar County community and that he was deeply moved by Irma and Joe Garcias legacy of love. It was something Irma Garcia extended to her students, and the fact that her husband died of a broken heart speaks to the kind of devotion and the love that he had for his wife, Gonzales said. I thought about my wife and my daughter throughout the entire ceremony, how I would deal with this tragedy. It did hit home. My heart goes out to them, Gonzales said. This is something that will be with this family and this community for many years to come. As mourners left the funeral Mass, some were still in prayer. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, who officiated, embraced several, his head bowed. The suffering increases in Uvalde. Garcia-Siller said in a tweet shortly after. Prayers & affection to the families of our little ones and teachers, the Garcias family, the loss of (their) parents, principal and teachers in a very dark moment. Our first responders in pain. This little City needs healing. Let us pray for peace! It was a scene repeated at Sacred Heart later in the afternoon, with a Mass for Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10, who left behind two sisters and three brothers. As with other victims, online prayers arrived from all over the country on a funeral homes tribute page, including one from a woman in San Francisco who said she was wearing dark blue because she had read that it was his favorite color. Many of the mourners wore white shirts and blue jeans. One paused as he left to say his heart was full of grief, and that he had a lot of sympathy for the family. Others, including parents and their children, departed in silence. There will be a point after the mourning and the 17 funerals yet to come when the public needs to talk about how we can do better, but not just talk but to act, Gonzales said. To work on solutions to reduce the proliferation of assault weapons. Cardona wasnt waiting. He had arrived in Uvalde on Tuesday, as the town began to bury its 21 victims amid a national outpouring of grief and outrage that was still unabated. He spoke of an aching heart in a statement that offered federal support to families and school employees and expressed anger at the lack of will by many to pass legislation that can protect our children. How many more lives must be lost before we realize that we, the people, and those we elect, have the power and the opportunity to ensure this never happens again? he asked. We must unite as a country against this senseless cycle of violence, act immediately to protect our children, and make sure that every child and every educator feels safe in our schools. I spent the formative part of my career in a Connecticut elementary school, he said. I will never forget the ripple effect of fear and heartbreak that spread among students and teachers in the aftermath of the horrific Sandy Hook shooting. Irma Garcia, 48, was a teacher for nearly 23 years and married to her husband for 24 years. Her body was found embracing children in the class, trying to protect them during the midday massacre. A family member said Joe Garcia had left flowers at a memorial two days after the shooting, and fell unconscious a few minutes after coming home. Relatives were unable to revive him. Visitation services also were scheduled Wednesday for Jailah Nicole Silguero, 11, who didnt want to go to school the day he was killed and seemed to sense something bad would happen and for Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, Silgueros 10-year-old cousin who often would bring friends over to play at his home a block from the school. And for Eliahna Elijah Cruz Torres, 10, who was looking forward to the joys of playing softball and excelling in her sport. shuddleston@express-news.net jbeltran@express-news.net One go-to argument some Second Amendment proponents cite against stronger gun safety laws is how our nation trusts 18-year-olds in the military to handle weapons of war. The thinking goes something like this: Since 18-year-olds can vote and serve in the military, they should also have the right to own an assault-style rifle (no mention of drinking, renting cars or how the prefrontal cortex is still developing). Weve heard this argument in the aftermath of Uvalde in which an 18-year-old gunman purchased a pair of AR-15-style rifles and murdered 19 children and two teachers. So, lets talk about how the military handles weapons. Yes, the government does trust young people in the military with weapons. But thats not the whole story. Unlike in the civilian world, the military vets people, oversees training and limits access to weapons. RELATED: Podcast: Searching for answers after the Uvalde massacre Before anyone in the military handles a weapon, they endure aptitude testing, a physical exam, mental screening, a background check, a fitness assessment and a drug test. Theyve also attested that they dont have a misdemeanor or felony domestic violence conviction. The Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968 forbids anyone with one of these convictions to ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms or ammunition. During training, military recruits learn how to safely handle and operate weapons under the guidance of experienced instructors with standardized syllabi. Those who dont meet qualification standards get remedial training, and all must maintain recurrent qualifications. Outside of a war zone, most people on a military base do not regularly carry or fire a weapon. People on most bases are not as free to carry firearms as they are in many states. Only those with certain types of jobs, such as law enforcement, investigations, security or counterintelligence, are authorized to carry weapons on duty. Commanders sign arming letters to give service members permission to carry weapons on duty. They also periodically review qualifications and training requirements, and can easily revoke arming privileges. The military also maintains strict rules for the safeguarding, storage, transport and carrying of weapons. MORE LIKE THIS: Editorial: Governor, call a special session on guns Government firearms are stored in an armory when not in use, and theres an accounting system for weapons and ammunition. Service members must store guns in locked cases when unattended or traveling. Base commanders can permit someone to carry privately owned guns for personal protection unrelated to their work. However, they must submit a written request, be at least 21 years old, not be in trouble, demonstrate competency with the weapon, meet civilian legal requirements and not be intoxicated. Joint Base San Antonio lets those who are eligible bring privately owned weapons in a concealed carry configuration onto base and store them in personal vehicles. The vetting process is lengthy, requiring verifications, background checks, locking containers and signatures from commanders. In other words, while on base, 18-year-olds who are vetted and trained do not have free rein with their privately owned weapons. But off base, 18-year-olds with no training or vetting are free to purchase and carry rifles. We realize no safeguards will prevent all mass shootings think of the shootings on Fort Hood in 2009 and 2014. But thats not the point. Robust safeguards will undoubtedly prevent some forms of gun violence. After all, the militarys rules on weapons are likely written in blood from past tragedies. RELATED: Commentary: This is the cost of unlimited guns We also know that the military spends a lot of time and resources on mitigating risk. And while certainly not perfect, when you consider the militarys demographics and responsibilities, its decent at managing risk. Most Second Amendment advocates say they are patriots and military supporters. Many are veterans, and others like to wear military-style clothing or carry military-style weapons. If so, they should look to the military for gun safety laws. The military requires vetting, age limits, background checks and training for its people. Thats not unconstitutional for the defenders of the Constitution, so why would it be for the rest of us? This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON A key U.S. House committee on Thursday advanced a sweeping package of gun reforms, marking the first legislative responses to the school shooting in Uvalde last week as Democrats gear up to push a slate of new gun laws through the chamber in the coming weeks. The reforms, billed as the Protect Our Kids Act, go further than any gun control measure that has passed the House since the assault weapons ban of the 1990s, raising the age to buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, banning high-capacity magazines, creating requirements for safe gun storage in homes, cracking down on so-called ghost guns and more. The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee along party lines on a 25-19 vote. We are in a crisis. Our house is on fire, said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat who is among the top members on the committee. Shame on us if we cant move legislation now. Republicans on the committee, however, panned the reforms as radical attempts to legislate away Second Amendment rights with little chance of passing the evenly divided Senate. Democrats have rushed to a markup today in what seems more like political theater than a real attempt at improving public safety or finding solutions, said U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. MORNING OF CHAOS: A reconstruction of how the Uvalde massacre unfolded The vote was intended to show urgency on the part of Democrats as they aim to pressure Republicans into acting on guns after an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, in Uvalde, sparking cries for new restrictions on firearms. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the package would get a vote in the full House next week, where it is likely to have enough Democratic support to pass. Pelosi said the House would also vote on bills establishing red flag laws and vowed that a new assault weapons ban would get a committee hearing, as well. We just are trying to trying to hit in every possible way, she said. Democrats say the votes are a direct response to calls for action. Jackson Lee said she spoke to the father of Amerie Jo Garza, a 10-year-old killed in Uvalde, before the hearing. Mr. Garza lost his only child, she said. He pleaded on behalf of broken parents, many of whom could not speak, for us to do something. The lengthy hearing was tense at times, with some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, accusing Republicans of being complicit in recent mass shootings. At one point, Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube, who attended the hearing virtually, held up a handgun he said he carries every day. I hope that gun is not loaded, Jackson Lee interjected. Im at my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns, Steube responded. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin Republican, noted the way that the timeline of the shooting has changed in the days since. Im here to say lets wait on the damn facts, he said. We ought to be making sober judgments about what actually occurred and making policy accordingly. GOP members offered a series of amendments aimed at boosting school security, exempting domestic violence victims from certain aspects of the legislation, and more, which were rejected by Democrats. The package before the committee would build on legislation that passed the Democrat-controlled House last year requiring background checks for virtually all gun buyers and giving the FBI more time to run those checks. Under current federal law, background checks are not required by unlicensed vendors who make sales at gun shows or online. That legislation has been stuck in the evenly divided Senate, and the new reforms are likely to face a similar fate. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators including John Cornyn of Texas is working to negotiate a compromise bill that could get enough GOP votes to pass the chamber. Its unclear what the Senate bill might include, but Cornyn has said he isnt taking anything off the table, including possible red flag laws. I hope we will try to look in a clear-eyed way and what happened and ask this question: What can we do to fix this problem? Cornyn said earlier this week. And if we cant fix it, what can we do to make it better? U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat leading negotiations, tweeted Wednesday that there is growing momentum to get something done, and we agreed on a plan to keep working. Many Republicans, however, remain opposed to any new action on guns, calling instead for beefing up security in schools. Ultimately, as we all know, what stops armed bad guys is armed good guys, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said in an address to the NRA last week. ben.wermund@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Active shooter drills are pervasive in American schools. Although there is growing concern that active shooter drills increase students anxiety, school shootings like the one at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, often prompt calls for more active shooter drills. Many states, including Texas, require schools to run active shooter drills. About 95% of American public schools conduct lockdown drills, according to U.S. Education Department data. Despite this, some social media users claim that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School Districts active shooter trainings somehow prove that the elementary school shooting was a false flag attack. "So let me get this straight," said a man in a TikTok video also posted to Instagram on May 26. "They conducted an active shooter drill at the high school in the same town two months prior, and then magically, they had a shooting at the elementary school." The video featured eerie background music and a New York Post article with the headline, "Chilling images show students at Salvador Ramos HS pretending to be dead during active-shooter drill." Authorities have said that 18-year-old Ramos killed at least 19 students and two teachers at the elementary school on May 24. A law enforcement officer killed Ramos at the scene. Authorities are still investigating the shooting. The post containing the video was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Taken in its totality, the video suggests that an active shooter drill at Uvalde High School in March is evidence that the elementary school shooting was a false flag attack. Thats a baseless claim. The term "false flag" refers to harmful actions that are designed to look like they were perpetrated by one person or group, when in fact that attack was committed by someone else. Unfounded claims often circulate after mass shootings suggesting that the attacks were false flags devised by the government in an effort to enact gun control laws. In March, the school districts police department said the goal of an active shooter training at the high school that month was "to train every Uvalde area law enforcement officer so that we can prepare as best as possible for any situation that may arise." The man in the TikTok video also said a police officer who was part of the training was married to one of the teachers killed. That is true, but not indicative of a false flag operation. Uvalde is home to about 15,000 people. "Everyone knows everybody," Uvalde resident Tim Wiginton told Canadas CBC on May 26. "So whether you were directly impacted (by the school shooting) or you know someone who was there, whose kids were there, first responders who responded everyone knows someone that was connected with it." TRUTH BEHIND TRAGEDY: Fact-checking misinformation about the Uvalde school shooting Our ruling A video shared on Instagram claimed an active shooter drill at Uvalde High School two months before the Robb Elementary School shooting shows the event was a false flag. This is not true. Active shooter trainings are common in schools across America. The fact that an active shooter training was held at Uvalde High School two months before the elementary school shooting does not mean that the death of 19 students and two teachers was a false flag attack. We rate this claim Pants on Fire. Sources POSCO International's grain terminal in Mykolaiv, Ukraine / Courtesy of POSCO International POSCO International resumes transporting grain from Mykolaiv terminal By Park Jae-hyuk Ukrainian employees have enabled Korean companies to continue their operations in the Eastern European country, even after the evacuation of their Korean managers in the wake of Russia's invasion, according to industry officials, Thursday. POSCO International announced that it has partially resumed the operation of its grain terminal in the southern city of Mykolaiv, as its employees there have maintained the facility and remote communication with the Korean office. The operation of the terminal storing 115,000 tons of wheat, corn, barley and other grains had been suspended temporarily, since Russia attacked Ukraine in late February. However, amid growing concerns among its clients about supply chain disruptions and a global food crisis, the trading subsidiary of POSCO Group recently transported 2,000 tons of wheat to the Ukraine's western border by land, instead of sea routes blocked by the Russian navy. Considering the fact that embassies of Korea and other major countries have returned to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the company plans to increase its shipments, while taking care of the safety of its local employees. "The period between July and August is Ukraine's crucial harvesting season," a POSCO International official said. "Given that wheat and corn have still been cultivated in the southern region despite the war, we will offer our services to minimize damage to farmers and clients." Hyundai Rotem's Ukrainian workers also voluntarily repaired a train in March, in spite of the company's order to evacuate, according to the Ukrainian Railways. "We repaired a Hyundai Rotem train during the war and got it back on track," the Ukrainian state-owned railway transportation company said. "Along with specialists from our branch, the Korean firm's experts completed a number of repair works over 15 weeks." As a result, the train supplied by Hyundai Rotem in 2012 to transport emergency goods, has been used on the route between Kyiv and Shostka. In addition, Ukrainian politician Borys Kolesnikov expressed his gratitude to Hyundai Rotem on social media last month, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its entry to the Ukrainian railway market. Samsung Electronics also said it did not halt its business in Ukraine, as local employees have maintained the operation of its subsidiary in Kyiv. When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prohibited all Korean nationals from traveling in all parts of Ukraine in February, Korean companies doing business in Ukraine pulled out their Korean employees there. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency's (KOTRA) Kyiv office head also moved to Warsaw that month and has worked at an interim office in the Polish capital. However, he told The Korea Times at that time that Korean companies would not close their subsidiaries and offices in Ukraine, because local employees would manage their workplaces. There is a saying that Timing is everything. While I do not intend to argue in favor of or against that concept, what has been rattling in my brain is that Occasionally the timing stinks! Before I explain why that thought is so present with me, I thought we could do a bit of time travel. In 1998, I received notification that the MSU Extension Family Consumer Science, 4-H Youth Development and Community Development position was open in Teton County. My husband, Darren Beadle, and I were living in Sheridan, Wyoming, where I was serving in a similar position. I had been to Choteau several times and knew that I eventually wanted to live there. (As a college student, I imagined retiring in Choteau and writing.) When I shared the job posting with Darren, he quickly encouraged my application. I traveled to Choteau that spring for an interview. I was at my familys farm north of Joplin, Montana, when I received the offer. I called Darren to discuss our future. Though he had never been to Teton County, or Choteau, he enthusiastically supported a move to this community, sight unseen. My start date was September 1, 1998. It was a great decision. There have been many milestones in our lives since then, including the birth of two daughters, followed by their educations and high school graduations in a generous and caring community. Darren and I have recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and we know some people lost bets on that one! Each of us has been supported through loss in this community. My father died from brain cancer in 2006. Darrens dad died last year from thyroid cancer that had metastasized to his bones. We were fortunate that his dad was able to live in Choteau for the last several years while his need for care increased as the disease progressed. Tears, smiles, celebrations, and gratitude have been ours in this community. Professionally, much has happened in the nearly 24 years since I arrived to serve the citizens in Teton County. Academically, I moved through the promotion process from assistant to associate professor and in 2016 I was one of the first field faculty with MSU Extension to receive the rank of full professor. None of those promotions would have been possible had it not been for community engagement and support of MSU Extension in Teton County. I have been blessed to work with so many wonderful community members, volunteers, and 4-H families. I have also enjoyed the luxury of working with high-performing and dedicated support staff. In Teton County, we have two positions for MSU Extension faculty. One is traditionally called the ag agent and the other the FCS agent. Dan Clark was my first partner agent in Montana, who served for a decade before moving to a specialist position with MSU Extension. Mark Major, served for five and a half years as an agent before opening his own business locally. He remained an active 4-H volunteer in our program, helping with fair and chaperoning 4-H camp the summer of 2021, none of us realizing it would be his last. He is dearly missed. Travis Standley followed Mark Major and served for two years. Brent Roeder served from October 2015-October 2018 and moved into a specialist position with MSU Extension. Brent Roeder continues to serve as a 4-H volunteer in Teton County. Mat Peterson-Walter was employed from March-October of 2019 and then moved to Lewis and Clark County. Generally, vacancies between agents have been six months. The pandemic caused delay in the hiring of the next ag agent with the position vacant more than a year. Karen Forseth started her position in November 2020 and completed her service in March of 2022. We are happy she continues as a 4-H volunteer. And that brings us to the reason that timing stinks keeps going through my mind. On June 6, I will be starting a new position as the Executive Director of the Montana 4-H Foundation. I applied for the position in early February, not realizing that both an ag agent and a support staff position on our team would be vacated in March. Out of four people normally in our office (for 3.5 full-time equivalent positions), Jamie Smith will be the only one remaining in a three-quarter-time support staff position. We currently have a vacancy in our ag agent position. We also have a 32-hour per week support staff position vacant due to Sharla Hinmans retirement. My departure creates another vacancy. While I am excited to start a new chapter professionally, I would not have picked the timing to coincide with the other vacancies and our intense summer work season. The Teton County 4-H Fair starts with the horse show on June 18. The way the timing works, we will be headed into the fair officially staffed at 22%. Fortunately, my supervisors (current and future) are allowing me to simultaneously complete one position while starting the other. Nonetheless, we are going to need your patience this summer as we work through multiple transitions. I have great hope that all positions in our office will be filled by the fall and that a new team will form to serve the needs in Teton County. I hope that their lives will be enriched, as mine was, by serving you. Because my new position will be a combination of remote work and travel, Darren and I will remain living in the community we love. Our daughters will both be attending college in Helena. For nearly 24 years, I have had the fortune of serving with and for you. I am grateful I have loved my job. One of the best compliments I ever received was, You really put your heart into your work. Serving you has allowed me to live the 4-H pledge head, heart, hands, and health for clarity, loyalty, service, and the betterment of our communities. In my new position, I plan to continue leading with heart. Jane Wolery Warrenton, VA (20186) Today Mostly cloudy this morning with showers developing this afternoon. High 76F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Isolated thunderstorms this evening. Skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. Leo Messi obtained his second official title with the selection of Argentina the Wednesday in Wembley. The directed by Lionel Scaloni golearon to Italy with ease (3-0) in a party that the sudamericanos dominated with clarity and, in front of the review overwhelming of the 'albiceleste' in the second time, the result finished being short. Lautaro Martinez, Angel Gave Maria and Paulo Dybala converted the so many of the title. The champion of the Glass America jumped to Wembley with his eleven of gala, with exception of the lesionado Leandro Walls. Italy, by his part, missed to Marco Verratti and to his stellar forward during the Eurocopa the past year (Immobile, Chiesa, Insigne). In his place, Roberto Mancini bet by Bernardeschi, Belotti and Raspadori, an unable forward to upset to Emiliano Martinez in the arch 'abiceleste'. The sudamericanos did with the control of the party from the start, although Italy enjoyed of the clearest occasions in the first 25 minutes: a centre from the right of Bernardeschi that did not find striker and a finish of Belotti that contained well Martinez. However, the party lasted 28 minutes, until Lautaro opened the marker to pass of Messi. The so much baffled to the 'azzurra' and Gave Maria sentenced the party in the 45+1' with a beautiful definition hammering it to Donnarumma, after pass of Lautaro. The 2-0 destroyed the Italian hope and the international retreat of Giorgio Chiellini could not be more bitter. The central was substituted in the rest, a decision that surprised taking into account that it was his farewell of the Italian selection. In the second time, the Argentinian command was total and, of not being by the interventions of Donnarumma, the result would have been much more been bulky. Dybala Closed the goleada and Messi his 'doublet' On the end, Paulo Dybala closed the goleada with a finish crusader, thanks to a new assistance of Leo Messi. The captain was rewarded as 'MVP' of the party thanks to his two happen goal and certified the 'doublet' with Argentina after the obtaining of the Glass America in Brazil. Of this way, the ones of Scaloni confirm his favouritism for Catar 2022, a World-wide in where it will not be Italy, by second consecutive occasion. However, the 'azzurra' does not have time for lamentaciones and the Saturday will receive to Germany in the debut by the Nations League. Next Story : This Range Of Haircare Products Will Do Wonders For Your Hairfall Issues When Salim-Javed wrote Mere paas Maa hai, in 1975, little did the duo know that the cult dialogue would mark the beginning of an era that would never end. The phrase sums up the respect and love felt for moms the world over. Well, the Bollywood-watching world, for sure. For it was a fitting reply from an honest younger brother to the elder one who had earned his wealth via unfair means and was showing off his bank balance, bangla and gaadi, insinuating that the former had nothing. The character of the mother played a pivotal role in Deewar (1975) and laid down the foundation for the film, much like many others that preceded and succeed it. While the dialogue can add only so much, the all-encompassing emotion and charm have been added to these movies by some of the best-known women actors of the industry who have now come to represent quintessential Bollywood mothers the ones who know how to evoke tears with their mamta and the ones who knew how to set things straight with one no-nonsense look. We pay tribute to the women who have essayed these characters with emotion, ease and witWho can forget her feisty act as the 85-year-old mother to Amitabh Bachchans 64-year-old chef Buddhadev Gupta in Cheeni Kum (2007)? She was 95 at the time but, on set, according to Bachchan, her energy and joie de verve were unmatchable! Zohraji was a rocket on take-off, each day of the shoot, he said in an interview.This very enthusiasm is also seen in Mani Ratnams Dil Se (1998), in which she dances to the tune of Jiya Jale Jaan Jale alongside Preity Zinta. She is the one who catches the love birds romancing around her blind self in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and laughs it off, reciting a rustic couplet.Sehgals irrepressible zest for life always trickled into the mother and grandmother characters she portrayed on screen. Off the screen, this recipient of the Padma Shri, Kalidas Samman and Padma Vibushan was photographed almost ready to stab the cake for her hundredth birthday with the charming albeit naughty smile that she is known for.Ask any Bollywood enthusiast to name the one person who can represent all mothers in the Hindi film industry, and the reply, one hundred per cent, will be Nirupa Roy. It was for her that the famous afore-mentioned dialogue of Deewar was penned. With movies such as Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Suhaag (1979) and Daana Pani (1989), among others, this legendary screen mother was almost typecast in the role that came to define her career. It was a time when the abla naari phase was at its peak in the industry, especially for the heros suffering mother, who loses everything and struggles to bring up her son(s) with unshakeable values and great determination to empower them to avenge the familys misfortunes. The mothers role was pivotal through the film as well as at the climax. This is the image that Roy is remembered for even today, 18 years after her demise.Roys on-screen conviction had the audiences crying with her and wiping away their tears when she stood by her sons as their rock. In a career spanning over five decades, she starred in about 275 films, the majority of which had her playing the mother. She was a specialist of sorts in playing mother to Big B. A writer jokingly notes that Amitabh Bachchans leading ladies could change, but his mother could not! Roys acting won her three Filmfare awards and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.Before she became the mother-in-law that everyone loved to hate (to date, an evil mother-in-law is termed a Lalita Pawar!), she played several maternal roles. Foremost among them is that of the strict but kind Mrs DSa in Raj Kapoors Anari (1959), for which she delivered a understated but impactful performance that had her receive the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. The softer, more human side of the tough matriarch she played in Professor (1962) was seen as she slowly fell in love as the film progressed.It was an on-set accident that caused the vein in Pawars left eye to burst, as a consequence of which she was left with a permanent squint. While this put paid to opportunities for her to return as a leading lady, the slit-eye look made way for a new, more evil character that she would become famous for. Films that followed often cast her as an unbelievable mother (and mother-in-law) who would falter (on the insistence of other villainous elements) and go to any lengths to get her way only to return to her senses in the climax. Notable among them are Hum Dono (1961), Love In Tokyo (1966) and Sau Din Saas Ke (1980). Pawar was honoured by the Indian government as the First Lady of Indian Cinema in 1961.As the 1980s and early 1990s saw family dramas at their peak, many leading female actors such as Nutan showcased their talent in author-backed mother roles. In the 80s, the mother was a strong woman who had to suffer (sometimes silently until the time was right) but was also fearless and noble.Nutans natural performances won the audiences over and she often had them weeping with her in empathy. With films such as Saajan Ki Saheli (1981), Meri Jung (1985), Yudh (1985), Naam (1986) and Karma (1986), the superlative actor created a niche for the kind of mother roles she essayed. Her portrayal in Meri Jung of the vulnerable mother who loses her memory to the shock of her husband being framed in a murder case and subsequently being hanged, won her her sixth Filmfare award, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category.If you grew up on a healthy dose of Bollywood masala and comedy movies, you are sure to remember Dina Pathak trying to squeeze through a small kitchen window to enter the house and save her adopted son (Amol Palekar) from an embarrassing situation with his boss in Gol Maal (1979). Yes, this screen mothers most memorable role is the one in which she starts out pretending to be the mother of the protagonist to help him save his job.Pathaks vast experience in theatre made her an exponent of realistic acting, the kind that did not have space for melodrama. She had played the mother in different films before Gol Maal. In Chitchor (1976), she played the quintessential cheerful mother who is constantly trying to look for a match for her daughter, no matter the kinds of situations it lands the family in. It was dubbed one of her finest performances, one that reminded audiences of Mrs Bennet of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice.A mother who refused to shed tears as the victim, Pathak shaped the kind of poignant and comic roles that came her way. In Hrishikesh Mukherjees Khubsoorat (1980), we see a different side of Pathak as a mother as a stricter one who holds the family together with her rules, leaving no room for frivolity or fun. How her reign transforms into a more sober one is a story with a lot of fun, thanks to her acting.Playing the smiling mother standing by her son and his lady love in Maine Pyaar Kiya (1989) laid the foundation for Reema Lagoo to become the perfect giving mother. She and the role were like a whiff of fresh air; the versatile actors most significant contribution to the industry was breaking the stereotype of the weeping, sacrificing mother and having her transition to a friend and confidante of the children. The 1990s saw Lagoo play the modern mom to many A-listers such as Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt and Kajol. Indeed, from Maine Pyaar Kiya to Saajan (1991) and Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999), she was one of the favourites to play Salman Khans mother. Prior to entering the film industry, she had years of theatre work to her credit.While Lagoo did play these mother roles with ease, she surprised fans and critics alike with her portrayal of Sanjay Dutts mother in Vaastav (1999), in which she takes the life of her gangster son. She followed that tough act up with a variety of roles. A special mention is warranted for her act as Saasu Ma (Devaki Verma) in the TV series Tu Tu Main Main (1994-2000), a light-hearted take on the squabbles that mothers-in-law often have with their daughters-in-law. According to her director Sachin Pilgaonkar, she enjoyed comedy and took to it to get away from being typecast in the mother roles she was so good at.Mere Karan Arjun aayenge earned Rakhee a well-deserved spot in the Bollywood mothers list. Spoken by Durga Devi Singh to Durjan Singh (Amrish Puri) in Karan Arjun (1995), this phrase has truly stood the test of time and still represents the conviction of a mother who awaits the miraculous reappearance of her sons, post their death, to seek revenge.Interestingly, Rakhee has played mother to her contemporaries as well as those who came in later, including Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. Many of these roles earned her the Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. When she was offered the role in Shakti (1982), rather than dwelling on the fact she would be playing mother to Bachchan, she saw it as a chance to work with Dilip Kumar (as his wife). In fact, in the same year, she played Bachchans leading lady in Bemisaal. Of course, she was warned of the risk of being written off and told that her career would be ruined. Reportedly, she was not bothered at all; she did not want to miss out on the opportunity to work with both the greats. Ram Lakhan (1989) cemented her position to play the strong but emotional mother raising her sons with honesty and conviction after losing everything to the villains.One of the most respected character actors of all time, Farida Jalal has to her credit over 200 Bollywood films. She was not seen much as a leading lady, but left her indelible mark on any role she took up. One of the most memorable and recognised of these was as Kajols mother in the iconic Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge (1995). Torn between her loyalty to her old-fashioned husband who believed in a certain set of patriarchal values and her love for her first-born who dared to choose her own life partner, this character won Jalal the Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actress.Jalal followed this with the funny and caring mother in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) who finds a way of reuniting her son (Shah Rukh Khan) with his college best friend and the love of his life (Kajol). A film that saw her in an affectionate and near-motherly character was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) in which she played nanny to Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan and followed the former when he was asked to leave home, to be a maternal figure to him and his wife (Kajol). Jalal has also played several such roles on TV.Daughter of veteran actor Dina Pathak, Supriya Pathak has been acting since she was 20. After a short stint in theatre, she entered the world of films, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for her very first film, Kalyug (1981). She went on to work on several complex characters thereafter, but gracefully stepped into the shoes of the mothers role when the time came. Thats the age bracket I am in, so I am going to get a mothers role, she said in an interview.Her acting prowess is well explored in the different roles she has taken on, from an unwed mother in Masoom (1983), to the ferocious matriarch chieftain in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013). She has played it all a well-off mother with means whose son moves out due to differences with the father (Wake Up Sid, 2009), a village mother almost representative of her rustic background whose daughter is stuck with raising a child she was only being a surrogate for (Mimi, 2021) and one who has no choice but to be strong for her daughter who is subjected to gender testing due to being diagnosed with hyperandrogenism (Rashmi Rocket, 2001). It is her ability to bring in the variations that she does that makes it exciting for Supriya as well. The common thread tying these roles together is the conviction with which she shows her unwavering support to her children, irrespective of the decisions they make.One of the most adored onscreen mothers ever, Ratna Pathak Shah might have to her credit lots of great film roles, but the one with which she created a true following was as Maya Sarabhai in televisions much-loved Sarabhai vs Sarabhai (2004-07). The posh Mayas witty remarks about her daughter-in-laws middle-class upbringing formed the crux of the show, offering the audience lots of laughs.Pathak Shah, just like her mother the iconic Dina Pathak trained in theatre and continues to perform on stage. She has to her credit the roles of all kinds of mothers from the new-generation (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, 2008) and the strict (Khoobsurat, 2014) to the flawed (Kapoor & Sons, 2016) and the abandoned and later adopted (Hum Do Hamare Do, 2021).Unwilling to be culturally stereotyped into the role of the ever-sacrificing, nurturing mother, Pathak Shah chose roles that demanded layers from her characters. She mentioned in an interview that the image of a mother has now changed on the big screen. I try to put real-life experiences into my mother characters in films. I keep looking for new things for myself. One purpose of (a) film is to entertain and the other purpose is to make you think (sic).In her latest, Jayeshbhai Jordaar (2022), she adds yet another histrionic feather to her cap, playing the typical mother of the son who wants a grandson to take the family lineage ahead.Kirron Kher has wowed audiences for about 40 years. And she has done it playing every kind of mother from the strict (Main Hoon Na, 2004) to the sensitive (Hum Tum, 2004) and from the egoistic (Devdas, 2022) to the one with a sense of humour (Khoobsurat, 2014). She had the audience eating out of her hands when she not only understood her gay sons relationship (which turned out to be a pretence), but also offered the khaandaani kangans to his partner in Dostana (2008)!As Zaaras mother (from Pakistan) in Yash Chopras Veer-Zaara (2004), her sensitive portrayal of the internal conflict a mother goes through when caught between a harsh husband and her love-struck daughter is almost symbolic of the one faced by the two neighbouring nations of India and Pakistan shown in the film. Her standout moment is when she goes to meet Zaaras love Veer who is from India, leading to one of the most poignant moments in cinema.In Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), her character expresses the desire to live with her understanding daughter-in-law rather than her cantankerous son after they split up owing to the latters behaviour and infidelity.After a hiatus of 17 long years from Bollywood, Jaya Bachchan returned to the industry with Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998), a title that came to define her work in the new phase. Her role in Karan Johars ensemble drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) is remembered even today; she played a loving mother whose heart just knows when her favourite son is going to arrive.Always looking for a challenging role to take on, Bachchan starred in Johars romantic comedy drama, Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), playing Preity Zintas mother, a role in which she perfectly balances the taunts of her mother-in-law and her daughters disdain. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for both these films.In Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), she plays Rani Mukerjis mother one who was okay living off the much-needed earnings of her daughter, but not okay having the same daughter home for her sisters wedding, since she worked as a high-end escort.Shes worked with the whos who of Bollywood, and then gone on to play mother to the whos who of Bollywood too. A film buff is no stranger to Dimple Kapadias timeless versatility, which the National Award-winning actor has displayed from time to time. She might have once refused to play mother-in-law to Juhi Chawla who is but 10 years her junior, but then went on to work with real-life son-in-law Akshay Kumar as his mother, the most memorable of their films together being Patiala House (2011).Among other notable roles, Pyaar Mein Twist (2005) might not have had her as the quintessential mother, but rather a middle-aged one who finds love a second time in life and yet has to deal with her childnrens deep-rooted social fears before she can be finally united with her new love interest.In complete contrast to this portrayal is her character of Neena Walia in Zoya Akhtars Luck by Chance (2009) shes an erstwhile superstar who is willing to go to any lengths to launch her young and naive daughter in films. She plays this fickle mother with an edginess that is difficult to fathom but mesmerising to watch; she is bright and all sunshine when she wants something, and cold and steely after shes achieved it. POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, right, presides over a meeting attended by 20 key group executives at POSCO Center in southern Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of POSCO Holdings Credit: Instagram Due to busy work schedules or personal commitments, if you arent jetting off to exotic locations this summer, theres no reason why you cant go for a short trip around the city. Whether its sauntering around in pristine white robes drinking cold margaritas or getting away from the city just for a delicious meal, here are some things that you can do in the much-talked-about hill station, Lonavla which conveniently lies between Pune and Mumbai. Dreamy Staycation Credit: Instagram Located against the picturesque hills of Lonavla, Della Resorts offers an unparallel stay with world-class amenities. The property offers 50 unique experiences including masterclasses, workshops, and picnics. You can also enjoy activities at the Della Adventure Park like dirt bike riding, flying fox, and paintball. Thats not it, they even offer activities like nature trails, horseback riding, owning a pet for a day, milking a cow, and going for a helicopter ride among other things. You can start your day by engaging in these fun activities, enjoy a delicious meal at any seven of their restaurants, opt for a heavenly spa at their 24-hour spa, (they offer some fabulous massages like authentic bamboo massage and exotic fish spas!), and end your day with a dip in the huge pool with a view of the hills. Trek To Tamini Ghat Credit: Instagram If youre fond of going for treks, you need to head straight to Tamini Ghat. It sits on the crest of the Western Ghats and connects the hilly area of Pune to the coastal borders of Konkan. With lush greenery and gushing waterfalls, it has a vast area with plenty of places to explore on top. Plan A Picnic At Lions Point Credit: Instagram Located just 12 kms from Lonavala railway station, Lions point is a vantage point between Bhushi Dam and Aamby Valley, and is also one of the most popular tourist places in the hill station. Once there, you can spot dozens of waterfalls, lush green hills, and stunning lakes, and enjoy a plate of hot Maggi and butta. Enjoy An Italian Meal Credit: Instagram Looking for an adorable restaurant complete with floral arrangements, striking planters, and plush furnishings for your next date night? Head straight to Villa Bistro, The Modern Italian Restaurant and Bar. Designed and conceptualised by the visionary Jimmy Mistry, the pioneer in Experiential Hospitality, Villa Bistro is a 180-seater indoor and outdoor dining destination sprawled over 4000 sq. ft. The restaurant offers a day-to-night menu that includes classic Italian dishes, from antipasti, and wood-fired pizzas to hand-rolled pasts, fresh seasonal pastas, authentic tiramisu, and creamy hanged-churned gelatos. Start with the Bruschetta Assortite, packed with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, and cream cheese, and move on to the Frittelle di Mozzarella, crispy mozzarella cheese in gherkins served with a tangy tomato jam. Next, indulge in a cheesy pizza deep-dish Margherita, and end the meal with a boozy Belgian Fudge gelato. You can also shop for artisanal chocolates after your meal! Bushi Dam Credit: Instagram Bushi Dam was designed at the end of the 1860s as a supply for the steam engines for the Great Railway Peninsular Railway, and today is a popular picnic site in Lonavala. Swimming is strictly prohibited, and remember to be careful during your visit as the force of the water gets too much at times and the steps are quite slippery. Go Glamping Credit: Instagram Want to experience the thrill of camping but with the amenities of a luxurious 5-star resort? Pack your bags and head to Data Resort. The 30 luxurious, air-conditioned tents, offer a stunning view of the hilltops and the property is Indias first military-themed resort. You can also opt for activities like horseback riding, participate in military-style obstacle course, and also go for a midnight trek! Shop At The Local Market Credit: Instagram A bustling shopping market, the Lonavala Bazaar offers a wide variety of jewellery, handicrafts, cane products, wooden art pieces, and more. Also, the hill station is known for peanut chikkis so make sure to shop for some while heading back home. Our top picks include rose petal and peanut butter chikkis. Oh also, Coopers is amongst the oldest shops in Lonavala and is famous for its walnut fudges, which are prepared with freshly condensed milk and cocoa powder. Also Read: How To Pack Light For Trips Assams Aimee Baruah became the talk of the town at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. This year, the actress-turned-director made her Cannes debut, becoming one of the few Assamese actors to do so. Aimee was selected to speak about her movie Semkhor which received a myriad of positive reviews from the viewers at the festival. It is India's first film in the Dimasa language and the first film in that language to be screened at Cannes. She gave a 10-minute speech on the film at the Indian Pavilion of the Cannes Film Festivals Country of Honour. The film showcases the Samsa Community of Assam and their ardent desire to stay away from the modern world. Semkhor is made in the Dimasa language and captures the rituals, customs, ancient practices, living, and lifestyle of this unique community. Interestingly, a small piece of the news article was what inspired her to make a movie on the Samsa community. One day while having food, I was reading a newspaper cutting when a small news item on Semkhor caught my eye. The article was about how the community still follows age old traditions and staying rooted to their nature. It touched me so deeply that I started thinking more about that community, says Aimee who learned the Dimasa language all by herself and took several risks to research deeper about the community. She added that Semkhor is a kind of place where people live in peace even though they dont have access to the most basic luxuries in life, which is something quite contrary to todays world. The trailer of Semkhor which was streamed at the event piqued the curiosity of several movie enthusiasts at Cannes. Aimee was asked about the peculiarity of the tribe, the challenges she faced, and the concept behind her movie. She spoke at the event thanking Cannes for extending the invitation. It is an honour for me to talk about the film on such a platform. I am surprised by the curiosity the audience has regarding the film, the language, customs, and place. Honoured and humbled to be a part of it, said Aimee. She made her appearance at Cannes in a traditional Mekhala Chador with a full sleeve blouse. She was adorned in a piece of heavy jewellery with a minimal glam look and a nude lip. The trailers and posters of her new documentary Screaming Butterflies were also unveiled during the event. These too attracted a lot of appreciation from the international media representatives. Also Read: Geetanjali Shree Wins International Booker Prize For Tomb of Sand Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 1, 2022 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX:SKE)(NYSE:SKE) ("Skeena" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the previously announced plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of QuestEx Gold & Copper Ltd. ("QuestEx"). Following the closing of the Arrangement, Skeena also completed the previously announced sale of certain QuestEx properties (the "Asset Sale") to an affiliate of Newmont Corporation (NEM)(NGT) ("Newmont"). Walter Coles, CEO & Director of Skeena commented, "The acquisition of QuestEx positions Skeena with one of the largest land positions held for mining in the prolific Golden Triangle. We expect to realize exploration synergies at the KSP and Kingpin properties which are proximal to our Eskay Creek and Snip projects. We would like to thank the teams at Newmont and QuestEx for working together with us on these transactions and we would also like to thank the Tahltan Nation for their continued support. We look forward to exploring these exciting new tenements while we continue to advance Eskay Creek." Under the terms of the Arrangement, QuestEx shareholders received C$0.65 cash and 0.0367 of a Skeena common share ("Skeena Share") for each QuestEx common share ("QuestEx Share"). In aggregate, under the Arrangement Skeena paid approximately C$18.7 million in cash and issued approximately 1.05 million Skeena Shares to QuestEx shareholders other than Newmont and Skeena. The cash consideration was fully funded by the cash proceeds of the Asset Sale to Newmont. Under the terms of the Asset Sale, Newmont acquired 100% of Skeena's rights, titles, and interests in and to the Heart Peaks, Castle, Moat, Coyote, and North ROK properties, which were previously owned by QuestEx, in exchange for consideration of approximately C$27 million, including the purchase by Skeena of Newmont's QuestEx shares. Advisors and Counsel Agentis Capital Mining Partners acted as financial advisor to Skeena with regard to both the Arrangement and Asset Sale. Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP acted as legal counsel to Skeena. About Skeena Skeena Resources Limited is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan Territory in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company released a Prefeasibility Study for Eskay Creek in July 2021 which highlights an open-pit average grade of 4.57 g/t AuEq, an after-tax NPV5% of C$1.4B, 56% IRR, and a 1.4-year payback at US$1,550/oz Au. Skeena is currently completing both infill and exploration drilling to advance Eskay Creek to a full Feasibility Study in 2022. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited, Walter Coles CEO & Director Contact Information: Investor Inquiries: info@skeenaresources.com Office Phone: +1 604 684 8725 Company Website: www.skeenaresources.com The scientific and technical information in this press release was approved by Paul Geddes, P.Geo., a Qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 and Vice President, Exploration and Resource Development for the Company. Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute "forward looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "targets", "estimates", "plans", "expects", "may", "will", "could" or "would" and, in this press release, include, without limitation: statements regarding the QuestEx Transaction and Newmont Transaction, including the closing thereof and the timing and receipt of approvals and fulfillment of the conditions therefor, and the source of reimbursement for the cash portion of the Arrangement Consideration; the expected synergies arising from the QuestEx Transaction; and the exploration potential and geological hallmarks of the QuestEx properties to be retained by Skeena. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the closing of the QuestEx Transaction and the Newmont Transaction, including the receipt of approvals and fulfillment of the conditions therefor, that the purchase price pursuant to the Newmont Transaction will be sufficient to reimburse Skeena for the cash portion of the Arrangement Consideration, that the Company will recognize the expected synergies from its acquisition of QuestEx, that the Company will be able to realize the exploration potential of the QuestEx properties it intends to retain, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks which may cause actual results to vary significantly from the results implied by forward-looking statements, including, that the Company may not close the QuestEx Transaction or the Newmont Transaction, on the timeline anticipated, or at all; that the purchase price payable pursuant to the Newmont Transaction may not be sufficient to fund the cash portion of the Arrangement Consideration, and the Company may be required to utilize funds from treasury to fund the outstanding cash required; that the Company may not be able to realize upon the expected synergies arising from the completion of the QuestEx Transaction, or the exploration potential of the QuestEx properties it intends to retain, and the other risks and uncertainties set out in the Company's most recent annual information form, which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Note that for acquisition accounting purposes, the shares issued to acquire QuestEx will be valued at the date of close. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States of America. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws. SOURCE: Skeena Resources Limited View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703639/Skeena-Completes-Acquisition-of-QuestEx-and-Concurrent-Sale-of-Assets-to-Newmont TOKYO, June 2, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has developed batteries based on the concept of "safe, long service life, high-quality, good value for price, and high performance" so that customers can use them with peace of mind. This technology utilizing many years of electrified vehicle development as well as on-board parts and units have been used to create the O-Uchi Kyuden System(1), a home storage battery system. Pre-orders for the system start today, and sales in Japan will begin in August through home builders and general construction companies.The O-Uchi Kyuden System uses electrified vehicle battery technology such as Toyota's battery control to provide a rated capacity of 8.7 kWh and a rated output of 5.5 kWh. This ensures safety and provides a supply of electricity to the entire home not just in normal situations, but even during power outages caused by natural disasters.In addition, by linking with a photovoltaic system, it can supply the appropriate amount of electricity based on customer needs throughout the day and night. Toyota believes that using this system will encourage the use of solar power which is a renewable energy.Unique to Toyota, the system supports supplying power(2) from electrified vehicles (HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV) at 100V AC, and can use electricity stored in electrified vehicles as a backup power source during power outages, allowing users to live with peace of mind.In addition, future moves to IoT using a wireless LAN router connected to a hybrid power conditioner allow for storage capacity, operation mode, and other settings to be viewed and set in real-time from a dedicated app on a smartphone or tablet(3) (as of now, only available in Japanese).(1) O-Uchi Kyuden System is a registered trademark of Toyota(2) The maximum output from the vehicle supply adapter is 1.1 kWh(3) Requires iOS 14.2 or later, Android 7.0 or laterSource: Toyota Motor CorporationCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. 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. New investment from PSG Equity alongside further investment from current shareholders A.P. Moller Holding and Cargill to enable ZeroNorth to look to further accelerate decarbonisation in shipping Technology company ZeroNorth has today announced it has raised over $50 million in investment during its recently concluded Series B investment round. The investment from PSG Equity ("PSG"), a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies to help accelerate their growth, joins further capital injections from ZeroNorth's existing investors A.P. Moller Holding and Cargill, who also participated in the round. The news means that ZeroNorth now has a trio of partners that will support the company's ambitious plans for continued growth. The Series B investment, in addition to the support of PSG Equity, will help to accelerate ZeroNorth's growth over the coming years, enabling it to continue investing in product innovation, expanding its customer facing teams and pursuing M&A to add data, products and services to the ZeroNorth platform. The investment will also help to enable ZeroNorth to continue to accelerate the green transition of global trade by driving down CO2 emissions in shipping in the immediate term, by deepening the insights generated by its platform, connecting more players across the supply chain and turning data into actions that can underpin value driving decision-making. As a demonstration of this impact, ZeroNorth is on course to help cut CO2 emissions by over half a million metric tonnes in 2022, up from 218,000 tonnes in 2021. Commenting on the announcement, Sren Meyer, CEO of ZeroNorth, said: "We are delighted to welcome PSG Equity as a new investor in ZeroNorth. We have ambitious goals and PSG Equity shares our vision of enabling widescale change in how our industry operates." Edward Hughes, Managing Director at PSG Equity, said "ZeroNorth has been able to achieve impressive growth in the short time they have been operating. Their clear vision and roadmap for growth as well as the expertise they have been able to attract makes the company an appealing prospect to partner with. Their established track record of success, strong customer feedback and unique blending of maritime and tech together, make us confident they are positioned to be a major player in leading the green transition of global trade." Edward added, "PSG Equity will provide strategic expertise honed from working with similar technology companies across our portfolio. We are confident that, together, we will help enable the next phase of ZeroNorth's exciting growth journey." Notes to Editors About ZeroNorth Recognising the challenges posed by climate change, technology company ZeroNorth was founded to accelerate the transition to greener global trade. By blending cutting-edge data-driven technology with human expertise, the ZeroNorth platform provides a range of software solutions that are helping the global shipping industry cut emissions and reduce its impact on the climate, whilst maintaining commercial performance. ZeroNorth is a multi-service platform and leading technology developer, which interconnects data into insights and actions, optimising global trade for cargo owners, vessel owners, commercial operators, charterers, and bunker suppliers. The company's software offers a full range of services which support the value chain to increase earnings and reduce Co2 emissions; delivered to customers through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. For more information, please visit: https://zeronorth.com About PSG Equity PSG Equity ("PSG") is a growth equity firm that partners with software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth, capitalize on strategic opportunities and build strong teams. Having backed more than 100 companies and facilitated over 400 add-on acquisitions, PSG brings extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Founded in 2014, PSG operates out of offices in Boston, Kansas City, London, Paris, Madrid and Tel-Aviv. To learn more about PSG, visit www.psgequity.com. About A.P. Moller Holding A.P. Moller Holding is the parent company of the A.P. Moller Group. The purpose of A.P. Moller Holding is to develop 'nyttig virksomhed', i.e., to build businesses that have a positive impact on society. Some of the largest holdings include A.P. Moller Maersk, Faerch Group, Unilabs, Maersk Drilling and Maersk Tankers. For further information please visit https://apmoller.com/ About Cargill Cargill's 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 156 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005684/en/ Contacts: For media requests, please contact: Rhys Thomas Senior Consultant BLUE Communications rhys.thomas@blue-comms.com Maria Gonzalez Prosek Partners mjgonzalez@prosek.com By Park Jae-hyuk SK Gas, Lotte Chemical and Air Liquide Korea agreed on Thursday to establish a joint venture for power generation with by-product hydrogen and hydrogen-powered transportation. The agreement came after they signed a memorandum of understanding last May. Both SK Gas and Lotte Chemical will hold a 45 percent stake in the joint venture, respectively, while Air Liquide Korea will hold a 10 percent share. The two Korean conglomerates will jointly manage the new company. They plan to start the operation of the joint venture in the third quarter of this year, once they receive approval from the Fair Trade Commission. The joint venture's first project will be the construction of a hydrogen fuel-cell power plant in Ulsan, where SK Gas and Lotte Chemical can secure by-product hydrogen. The plant will generate 500,000 MWh of electricity annually an amount that can be used by 120,000 four-person households for a year. In addition, the joint venture plans to establish hydrogen fueling stations nationwide. "We hope that this joint venture will serve as a stepping-stone for vitalizing the hydrogen economy in Korea and contribute to Korea's transition to a hydrogen economy in the future," SK Gas CEO Yoon Byung-suk said. "SK Gas will also make efforts to contribute to Korea's transition into a hydrogen economy by mobilizing its capabilities related to the hydrogen business that has been prepared so far." Hwang Jin-goo, president of Lotte Chemical's basic materials business, said that it was very meaningful to converge each company's core capabilities to form the foundation of the early-stage hydrogen ecosystem. Air Liquide Korea President Nicolas Foirien said his company is pleased to cooperate with Lotte Chemical and SK Gas and expects the partnership to contribute greatly to the sustainable development of Korea's hydrogen economy. "It is also in line with the Air Liquide Group's climate strategy to contribute to sustainable development for the future," he added. Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Restructured t iming of ReveraGen m ilestone p ayments, reducing near-term liquidity needs Securedup to CHF 40million of additional financing Pratteln, Switzerland, June 2, 2022- Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces that it has renegotiated the timing of an upcoming milestone payment to partner ReveraGen, thereby reducing near-term financial obligations of the Company by CHF 20 million. Santhera has also upsizedits existing financing arrangement with certain funds managed by Highbridge CapitalManagement, LLC ("Highbridge") which will provide up to CHF 40 million of additional financing. Santhera expects the combination of these events toextend its liquidity runway into 2023 or up to approval of vamorolone in the U.S. which, subject to priority review being granted, is expected in Q1-2023. Restructured milestone payments reduces near-term cash need by as much as USD 20 million (40%) An FDA approval of vamorolone would have triggered total milestone payments of USD 40 million to ReveraGen. An amendment to the agreement has been negotiated with ReveraGen resulting in a reduction of the approval milestone by USD 20 million in exchange for an increase of the sales milestone by USD 20 million (due if and when vamorolone annual revenue reaches USD 100 million). The approval milestone will be further reduced by monthly payments already made and to be made to ReveraGen in a maximum amount of USD 4 million. In addition, Idorsia is to receive a milestone payment of USD 10 million at the time of the approval. In summary, the new agreement would result in a reduction in the milestone due upon U.S. approval of vamorolone from USD 50 million to USD 26 million, assuming payments totaling USD 4 million being made in advance of approval. Upsized financing by Highbridge of up to CHF 40 million adequate to meet liquidity requirements through Q1-2023 Highbridge has committed to increase its existing financing arrangement with Santhera to provide up to CHF 40 million in new senior secured exchangeable notes. Of this amount, around CHF 8.5 million will be used to refinance currently outstanding exchangeable notes. Such a facility allows for periodic drawdowns (based on meeting certain criteria, an assessment of liquidity and other sources of funds, and sufficient shares for exchanges available at the time) and can be exchanged by Highbridge for shares at a discount to VWAP (volume-weighted average price), subject to a variable floor. The maturity of these new exchangeable notes will be May 2024. The new exchangeable notes will pay a fixed interest, which Santhera can pay in cash or in kind at a rate of between 12 - 16% per annum. Andrew Smith, Chief Financial Officer of Santhera, commented: "We are pleased with the successful renegotiation of the agreement with ReveraGen which demonstrates its confidence in the commercial success of vamorolone. The additional financing provided by Highbridge is intended to enable funding through anticipated approval. We value their continued support. Together, these measures significantly reduce our near-term financing requirements, especially in a period of market volatility." Funding outlook In September 2021, Santhera secured mixed equity-debt financing in the aggregate amount of up to CHF 42 million (net), resolving the debt overhang through repayment of the 2017/22 convertible bond and providing sufficient liquidity until mid-2022. In addition to the upsized Highbridge financing announced today, additional capital will be required to support the commercialization of vamorolone, for payment of the U.S approval milestones and to serve Santhera's outstanding debt. The difficult market environment caused by the general downturn of the capital markets and geopolitical volatility have rendered new capital raises challenging. In response, the Company is considering various potential avenues to further bolster liquidity which may include royalty-structured financings and out-licensing transactions in addition to or in lieu of a rights offering and/or PIPE (private investment in public equity)-transaction. In order to reach profitability with vamorolone in DMD, which is currently expected, at the earliest, during H2-2024, Santhera estimates that the Company will need to secure an additional CHF 40-50 million to fund its operations, including U.S. approval milestone payments and its debt service. Following today's announcements, this is around 50% less than the previously communicated funding need of about CHF 100 million. About Santhera Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. The Company plans to complete the rolling submission of its filing for approval for vamorolone with the U.S. FDA in June 2022. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com . Raxone is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact: public-relations@santhera.comor Eva Kalias, Head Investor Relations & Communications Phone: +41 79 875 27 80 eva.kalias@santhera.com Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment KANSAS CITY, Missouri, June 02, 2022announces the release of the Top 150 Proven Bulls. Together, with more than 30 of their network partners, Vytelle is sharing high accuracy bulls that have risen to the top of more than 94,000 animals of 25 different breeds and more than 289,000 RFI EPDs. "Cattle producers need to be able to replicate the right genetics now," said Kerryann Kocher, Chief Executive Officer for Vytelle. "Through Vytelle's integrated technology platform, the reality of making reliable data-driven decisions is now. Vytelle and our network partners, are publishing this list of feed efficient bulls to assist cattle producers globally in driving a more accurate mating selection decision." Bulls appearing within the pages of the Top 150 Proven Bulls list must meet the following criteria: A minimum of a three-generation pedigree Residual Feed Intake (RFI) EPD accuracy of 0.6 or higher Animal or progeny were tested on a Vytelle SENSE system Vytelle curates the world's largest multi-breed database. Each phenotyped animal strengthens the database providing producers insight to make profit-bearing decisions regarding selection for feed efficiency and performance. "The selection possibilities for breeders across the globe are endless," commented Lisa Rumsfeld, Vice President of International Commercial Operation for Vytelle. "As part of a balanced program, selecting cattle for feed efficiency using residual feed intake, can directly impact the bottom line as 70 percent of a beef producer's total cost is feed. Our partners are enjoying a growing interest in their programs, identifying marketing premiums associated with feed efficiency and methane emissions reduction claims." Phenotypic data captured through the Vytelle SENSE system measures both individual animal feed intake and weight in parallel while cattle remain in their pens. The Feed Intake Nodes measure feed disappearance every second an animal is feeding, each time an animal feeds, to a 10-gram resolution. The In-Pen Weighing Positions measure individual animal partial body weight and growth. It weighs every second an animal is standing at the water trough, which can equate up to 450 weights a day. To find the full listing of the 2022 Top 150 Proven Bulls, visit https://vytelle.com/breeding-values/. ### About Vytelle Vytelle is a precision livestock company reshaping how cattle producers worldwide optimize their herds. Through Vytelle's integrated technology platform, generations of genetic gains can be made in just a few years. This allows producers to sustainably deliver more protein with fewer inputs, helping to ensure meat and milk are viable, competitive food choices for future generations. Attachment Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA / Key word(s): Miscellaneous RICHEMONT'S 2022 ANNUAL REPORT NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE 02-Jun-2022 / 07:31 CET/CEST Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Richemont announces the publication of its annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022. The report is available for download from the Richemont website at www.richemont.com/en/home/investors/results-reports-presentations Regarding the year under review, the report reflects the information contained in the Richemont annual results announcement issued on 20 May 2022, as well as the audited consolidated financial statements which were posted on the Group's website the same day. The report also contains the audited Company financial statements and Compensation Report. The report will be mailed to parties who have requested it and may be also obtained from the Company's registered office at the address below or by contacting the Company via the website at www.richemont.com/contact In South Africa, the report may be obtained directly from the Depository Agent at the following address: Computershare Investor Services Proprietary Limited, Rosebank Towers, 15 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa. About Richemont At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity, alongside Online Distributors that cultivate expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service. Richemont's ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term. Richemont operates in four business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors with Watchfinder & Co., NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, YOOX, THE OUTNET and the OFS division; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, AZ Factory, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey and Serapian. Find out more at www.richemont.com Richemont 'A' shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont's primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. Richemont South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemont's secondary listing. Enquiries Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications Director James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive Investor/analyst enquiries: +41 22 721 30 03; investor.relations@cfrinfo.net Media enquiries: +41 22 721 35 07; pressoffice@cfrinfo.net; richemont@teneo.com; Further information available at www.richemont.com Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA / Key word(s): Miscellaneous Richemont reports strong FY22 ESG performance 02.06.2022 / 07:45 Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods group, today releases its annual Sustainability Report 2022, detailing the Group's strong ESG performance for the year ended 31 March 2022. Building upon Richemont's top-ranking ESG achievements, the Group has stepped up its sustainability focus both at the Executive and Board levels with the appointments of Dr. Berangere Ruchat, Richemont's first Chief Sustainability Officer, and Jasmine Whitbread, the new Chair of its Governance and Sustainability Board Committee. "We have continued to accelerate our sustainability efforts throughout FY2022, delivering against our short-, medium- and long-term goals," said Burkhart Grund, Chief Finance Officer, Richemont. "With the arrival of Berangere Ruchat and Jasmine Whitbread, we are stepping up our sustainability focus and laying the foundations that will drive best-in-class environmental and social progress across our operations and supply chains." "With my team, I am further developing the Group's vision to accelerate and amplify the Group's ESG transformation," said Berangere Ruchat, Chief Sustainability Officer, Richemont. "Our mission is to infuse an impact-driven mindset, enabling our colleagues to understand and integrate environmental and social dimensions into every business decision. Following global standards, we are committed to expand our sustainability reporting and operate with the highest level of corporate governance." FY2022 ESG Performance Reducing our Environmental Footprint: Delivering against its science-based targets, Richemont was recognised for its leadership in corporate sustainability, achieving an A ranking with CDP for tackling climate change, one of 200 companies out of 12,000 ranked. Advancing the Group's commitment to 100% renewable electricity across all its sites by 2025, today Richemont is operating with 92% renewable electricity worldwide, an improvement of 28 percentage points since 2019. Furthermore, acting on responsible waste management, Richemont is on track to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from our creations and packaging by December 2022. Amplifying our Social Handprint: Richemont concluded its first Product Social Impact Assessment (PSIA) on artisanal and small-scale mined (ASM) gold and designed an approach for future social projects. Through the PSIA, Richemont can evaluate specific operators and measure their overall social and human rights performance. Advancing the Group's equity commitments, Richemont continued to partner with the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation, with the goal of 100% equal pay by 2024. By December 2022 Richemont will reach a 40%-certified workforce, encompassing the Group's three biggest sites. Working to positively impact the communities where the Group operates, 42 million were donated to community investment-related initiatives, in the fields of healthcare, social and economic development, education, women and children's welfare. These donations represent a 17% year-on-year increase, and 40% increase over a five-year period. Refining our Governance: Each year, Richemont refines its governance processes to ensure they can fuel the level of change needed to become a truly sustainable business. Building on the successful establishment of the Board of Directors' Governance and Sustainability Committee under Clay Brendish in 2021, Jasmine Whitbread was appointed as the Committee's new Chair. Ms Whitbread is an experienced Non-executive Director with extensive expertise in ESG matters. Furthermore, Richemont was delighted to welcome Dr. Berangere Ruchat, its first Chief Sustainability Officer in February 2022. In FY22, Richemont received a Sustainalytics' rating of 10.7, highlighting a low ESG risk profile and ranking the Group in the top 2% of companies rated worldwide. This rating positions the Group as an industry leader in the top 10 amongst our peers globally and one of the best companies in Europe. This Sustainalytics rating follows Chloe's B Corp certification in 2022, which makes it the first luxury Maison to achieve this highly demanding endorsement, demonstrating the highest social and environmental performance levels. About Richemont At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity, alongside Online Distributors that cultivate expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service. Richemont's ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term. Richemont operates in four business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors with Watchfinder & Co., NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, THE OUTNET, YOOX and the ONLINE FLAGSHIP STORE division; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, AZ Factory, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey, and Serapian. Find out more at www.richemont.com Investor contacts Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications and IR Director James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive Telephone: +41 22 721 3003 Email: investor.relations@cfrinfo.net End of Media Release Conditions of availability or consultation of the preparatory documents Regulatory News: NHOA S.A. ("NHOA" or the "Company"), global player in energy storage and e-mobility, active in the construction of the largest fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructure in Southern Europe, whose securities are admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris (NHOA.PA), informs its shareholders of the organizational arrangements of its annual mixed general meeting (the "AGM The AGM will be held, with the shareholders and other persons entitled to attend being physically present, on Thursday 23 June 2022 at 25 rue de Marignan 75008 Paris, France, at 10:30 a.m. Every shareholder has the right to participate to the AGM. Shareholders may exercise their right to vote remotely: voting by correspondence using a voting form available on the Company's website nhoa.energy, under the section Investors Annual General Meeting by giving a proxy to a person of their choice or to the Company. The preliminary notice of meeting (avis de reunion) has been published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires "BALO" on 11 May 2022, bulletin n56. It includes the agenda, the draft resolutions as well as details on attendance and voting modalities for this AGM. The preliminary notice of meeting, together with the Board of Directors' report on the draft resolutions and legal information, are now available on the Company's website nhoa.energy, under the section Investors Annual General Meeting, in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements. According to Article R. 22-10-23 of the Commercial Code, the preparatory documents of this AGM are made available to the shareholders and will be retrievable from 1 June 2022 on the Company's website nhoa.energy under the section Investors Annual General Meeting The 2021 Universal Registration Document has been filed with the French Autorite des marches financiers on 6 April 2022 under registration number n D.22-0251. It is available to the public, in compliance with legal and regulatory provisions, and may be consulted on the Company's website nhoa.energy in the section Investors Regulatory Information The 2021 Universal Registration Document includes in particular the Corporate Governance Report, the Management Report, the statutory accounts of the Company, the consolidated financial statements of NHOA group, the statutory auditors' reports and their fees as well as the Annual Financial Report. NHOA NHOA S.A. (formerly Engie EPS), global player in energy storage and e-mobility, active in the construction of the largest fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructure in Southern Europe, develops technologies enabling the transition towards clean energy and sustainable mobility, shaping the future of a next generation living in harmony with our planet. Listed on Euronext Paris regulated market (NHOA.PA), NHOA forms part of the CAC Mid Small and CAC All-Tradable financial indices. NHOA, with offices in France, Spain, United States and Australia, maintains entirely in Italy research, development and production of its technologies. For further information, go to www.nhoa.energy follow us on LinkedIn follow us on Instagram View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006092/en/ Contacts: Press Office: Claudia Caracausi and Davide Bruzzese, Image Building, +39 02 89011300, nhoa@imagebuilding.it Corporate and Institutional Communication: Cristina Cremonesi, +39 345 570 8686, ir@nhoa.energy Regulatory News: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies (ISIN: FR0013451044, Ticker: ALHGR) carried out the first pouring of 0% clinker decarbonated clay concrete (H-EVA) on a construction site, thus completing two years of joint R&D with Bouygues Construction and Chryso as part of their partnership. For the past two years, the research and development teams of the three companies have been working closely together to carry out specific technical tests to develop low-carbon concrete made from H-EVA cement. Unique and innovative, H-EVA cement has a formulation that does not contain a single gram of clinker and a carbon footprint that is four times smaller than that of traditional cement. This cement is based on an alkaline-based activated clay technology developed by Hoffmann Green and is available as a powder that can be stored in silos and is perfectly compatible with existing manufacturing processes. With a mechanical strength of up to 60 Megapascal at 28 days, its strong technical performance means that it can be used for all types of concrete applications in buildings and on roads. Today, this partnership is gaining momentum and is leading to the launch of a first successful application on a building site, paving the way for future projects using H-EVA 0% clinker concrete. With the launch of this H-EVA clay concrete on a large scale, Hoffmann Green is further diversifying its supply of co-products, which, as a reminder, is divided between clay (H-EVA), blast furnace slag (H-UKR and H-IONA), gypsum/desulfogypsum (H-P2A) and calcium sulfate (H-IONA). Julien BLANCHARD and David Hoffmann, co-founders of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, said: "The launch of the first projects using 0% clinker decarbonated clay concrete H-EVA is the result of close collaboration with the Bouygues Construction and Chryso teams, to whom we would like to extend our warmest thanks. Developed with long-standing and well-known companies in the construction sector and with unique technical and environmental characteristics, this new clay concrete will enable us to diversify our supplies of co-products and address more markets in favour of the decarbonisation of the construction sector." Christian Cremona, Bouygues Construction's Materials and Structures R&D Director, explains: "We are using materials with an ever-lower impact. Our partnership with Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies is part of the group's answer to the major challenges of construction by controlling our impact on the environment." Bruno Pellerin, Chryso's R&D Director, adds: "At the heart of the H-EVA technology, clay is a material that is available almost everywhere in large quantities which advantages can be fully drawn thanks to very specific admixtures. Our range of admixtures CHRYSOEnviroMix, and in this case EnviroMix ULC for 'Ultra Low Carbon', has been developed to meet the requirements of low or very low carbon concrete. Through sustained investment in R&D over many years, we are committed to supporting our customers and partners in reducing the carbon footprint of their business. This partnership illustrates the key role of innovation in providing credible solutions to the new challenges facing the construction sector." ABOUT HOFFMANN GREEN CEMENT TECHNOLOGIES Founded in 2014 and based in Bournezeau (Vendee, Western France), Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies designs, produces and distributes innovative extremely low-carbon cements with a carbon footprint 6 times lower than traditional cement that present, at equivalent dosage and with no alteration to the concrete manufacturing process, superior performances than traditional cement. With one 4.0 industrial sites already operational and two new sites on the way, the Group has industrialized a genuine technological breakthrough based on alterations to cement's composition and the creation of a clean, heating-free and clinker-free manufacturing process making it a leading and unique player on a cement market that has not undergone any significant changes in the last 200 years. Within the context of the climate emergency, Hoffmann Green Cement is thus actively participating in the energy transition by working to create eco-responsible buildings and by encouraging the circular economy and the preservation of natural resources. Thanks to its unrivaled technological know-how that is constantly improving, driven by effective and cutting-edge teams, Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies addresses all construction sector markets, both in France and abroad. For further information, please go to: www.ciments-hoffmann.com ABOUT BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION With 52,800 responsible and committed employees in more than 60 countries, Bouygues Construction designs, builds and operates projects in the building, civil engineering, energy and services sectors. As a leader in sustainable construction, the Group has made shared innovation its top added value and has made health and safety its top priorities. It is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and offers its customers a wide range of low-carbon solutions. In 2021, Bouygues Construction had sales of 12.8 billion euros. ABOUT CHRYSO Chryso is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world leader in sustainable construction with more than 166,000 employees in 75 countries. Chryso's offer includes cement additives, concrete admixtures and solutions for construction systems (screeds, decorative concrete, etc.). Developed to meet the challenges of sustainable construction, its breakthrough technologies make it possible to reduce energy consumption, decrease the carbon footprint of cements and concretes and foster the circular economy. With a very strong innovation portfolio, 35% of its products are less than 5 years old. More information on www.chryso.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006120/en/ Contacts: Hoffmann Green Jerome Caron Chief Financial Officer finances@ciments-hoffmann.fr +33 2 51 460 600 NewCap Investor Relations Pierre Laurent Thomas Grojean Quentin Masse ciments-hoffmann@newcap.eu +33 1 44 71 94 94 NewCap Media Relations Nicolas Merigeau ciments-hoffmann@newcap.eu +33 1 44 71 94 98 IG Design Group plc ('Design Group' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce that the Company has extended the term of its existing banking agreement to 31 March 2024. The agreement was signed after market close on 1 June 2022. As part of this extension, covenants have been revised for the period to 31 March 2023 and the facility size has been amended as follows: RCF A has reduced from $95 million to $90 million RCF B has reduced from a maximum level of 130 million to a maximum of 92 million The Directors believe these amendments continue to give the Group more than sufficient headroom to fund its seasonal working capital requirements over the remaining term of the banking agreement. There are no other changes to the banking facility limits. The revised covenants, which operate for a maximum period to 31 March 2023 are as follows: Minimum EBITDA performance, measured quarterly at the end of June, September, December and March, which requires the Group to be within $10 million of its EBITDA budget at each quarter end, based on the last twelve-month EBITDA performance at each measurement point Minimum liquidity level, which requires the Group to maintain a minimum of $35 million of headroom to the maximum available facility on a monthly basis From April 2023 the Group will revert to the previous covenants, as detailed in the Group's 2021 Annual Accounts, being EBITDA leverage and interest cover. The amendment also stipulates that any dividends to be paid by the Group during the remaining term of the agreement will require majority lender approval. Furthermore, the bank lending margin has increased to 250 bps, rising to 300 bps from 1 June 2023. Banking and legal fees associated with the amendment and extension of the facility totalled c.$1 million. Stewart Gilliland, Chair, commented: "We are very pleased to have agreed this extension to our facilities and to have the ongoing support of our banking partners. Our seasonal orderbook remains strong and this revised facility provides us with sufficient funding for our working capital requirements." The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU No. 596/2014) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. About IG Design Group plc IG Design Group plc, the largest consumer gift packaging business in the world, is a designer, innovator and manufacturer of products that help people celebrate life's special occasions. Design Group works with more than 11,000 customers in over 80 countries throughout the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. Its products are found in over 210,000 retail outlets, including several of the world's biggest retailers, for example Walmart, Target, Amazon, Costco, Lidl and Aldi. Its brand, Tom Smith, also holds the Royal Warrant for the supply of Christmas crackers and Christmas wrapping paper to the Royal family. Design Group is a diverse business operating across multiple regions, categories, seasons and brands. Its five major product categories are: Celebrations, Gifting, Craft creative play, Stationery and 'Not-for-resale' consumables. It offers customers a full end-to-end service from design through to distribution, offering both branded and bespoke products from the value-focused through to the higher-margin ends of the market. The Company was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in 1995 under the name 'International Greetings plc' and rebranded to IG Design Group plc in 2016. For further information please visit www.thedesigngroup.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006283/en/ Contacts: IG Design Group plc Giles Willits, Director +44 (0)1525 887310 Canaccord Genuity Limited (NOMAD and Broker) Bobbie Hilliam NOMAD Alex Aylen Sales +44 (0)20 7523 8000 Alma PR Rebecca Sanders-Hewett Susie Hudson Sam Modlin +44 (0)20 3405 0205 Coca-Cola, Fine Hygienic Holding, BIC, Viatris and Cigna lead as early sponsors DUBAI, UAE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- House of Rose Professional Pte. Ltd (HORP) announced today that its 2022 Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky - the success and leadership summit for women will be held LIVE in Dubai, UAE on Sept 1, 2022. The summit will bring together the Middle East's best leaders and Companies to share and exchange cutting-edge, cross-industry knowledge and best practices on leadership, success and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the summit. Champion organizations Coca-Cola, Fine Hygienic Holding, BIC, Viatris and Cigna have taken the lead as early sponsors of the Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky. Claudia Navarro, Vice President Marketing Eurasia & Middle East at The Coca-Cola Company shared, "Diversity & inclusion is close to our hearts. We strive to create a work environment that empowers, educates and inspires both cultural and gender diversity across all levels of the organization. We believe that diversity is a precursor to a culture of empathy, and innovation. We are happy to partner with Break the ceiling touch the sky which will give participants an opportunity to learn from others, share best practices, network with peers and chart their own individual courses for success." Commented James Michael Lafferty, CEO of Fine Hygienic Holding, "We have partnered with Break the ceiling touch the sky since 2018 and have seen superb progress and positive impact on our business results from gender diversity & inclusion by learning and sharing at the summit. We are proud to be a Platinum sponsor of the 2022 Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky - a forum at which we know we will once again be inspired by many other great companies and will also be able to share our progress and best practices." Peter Van den Broeck, Senior VP, GM Middle East-Africa at BIC commented, "Diversity and Inclusion are part of our DNA at BIC. We believe in fostering an environment that champions a blend of backgrounds, helping team members unleash their full potential and ensuring that we continue to innovate our business. As we operate in more than 160 countries, we consistently embrace diversity across our workforce and constantly improve our learning and development programs to ensure equitable representation in leadership and beyond. We have partnered with Break the Ceiling Touch the Sky across its editions around the world, which has enabled us to share best practices and experiences with peers, as well as learn about diversity and inclusion efforts and initiatives from across the industry. We look forward to participating in the 2022 Middle East Edition and to the value it will bring to our organization and team members." SharedAyman Mokhtar, Regional President Middle East, Turkey and Levant at Viatris, "Diversity and inclusion are essential to Viatris' mission. Empowering people to live healthier at every stage of life includes understanding, embracing and celebrating what makes individuals unique. The diversity we foster in all aspects of our business can be one of our greatest strengths in redefining healthcare not as it is, but as it should be. Break the ceiling touch the sky enables us to learn and share with the best-of-the-best and we look forward to this 2022 Middle East Edition." Jerome Droesch, CEO Domestic Health and Health Services, Cigna International Markets, commented, "Gender equality is always a key priority in anything we do at Cigna. It is part of our diverse and inclusive organization. As a leader, I have been able to fulfil this vision by building a diverse team, one that provides equal opportunities to our colleagues from different backgrounds. Cigna's inclusive culture gives it an edge by allowing it look at problems differently making the company a more innovative and stronger partner for our clients and customers. Our shared vision around gender diversity makes our partnership with the 2022 Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky special, and we look forward to discussing this crucial topic further at the event." The 2022 Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky is an important pillar of the global Break the ceiling touch the sky network with editions in the Middle East, North America, Europe, India, China, Africa, ANZ, and Singapore. The summit supports HORP's MISSION 2029 FOR A BETTER WORLD - the 10-year action plan to quintuple the number of Female CEOs in the worlds 500 largest Companies (from 14 in 2020 to 70 in 2029) and to double the number of Male CEOs in the same group actively investing in gender diversity & inclusion. Concluded Anthony A. Rose, Chairman and CEO, House of Rose Professional and best-selling author of the bookBreak the Ceiling, Touch the Sky: success secrets of the world's most inspirational women which inspired the summit: "We are delighted to hold the 2022 Middle East Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky in the UAE. The UAE is making strong progress on gender equality and moving forward with great purpose and commitment. Gender-diverse Companies across the world are delivering better financial results, growing better leaders, and delivering better business. We are delighted to see that the organizations that partner with us at Break the ceiling touch the sky are performing well on gender diversity & inclusion and on business." To join as a Participating Company for the Break the ceiling touch the sky visit www.houseofroseprofessional.com House of Rose Professional Pte. Ltd (HORP). is a global leader across the Talent, Training and Transformation businesses and has since mid 2014 enabled and inspired over 30000 women leaders to greater success via its Dream Job International, Break the ceiling touch the sky, and CEOSmith brands. For news media/business inquiries contact: Anthony A. Rose, House of Rose Professional Pte. Ltd. Email: anthony@houseofroseprofessional.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1559937/House_of_Rose_Professional_Logo.jpg DGAP-News: Majorel Group Luxembourg S.A. / Key word(s): Acquisition/Acquisition Majorel Group Luxembourg S.A.: Majorel acquires Alembo, a CX/BPO company based in Suriname 02.06.2022 / 08:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. News Release Majorel acquires Alembo, a CX/BPO company based in Suriname Luxembourg, June 2, 2022: Majorel Group Luxembourg S.A. ("Majorel", the ''Company"), a leading global provider of next-generation end-to-end customer experience (CX) solutions for digital-native and vertical leading brands, today announces that it has acquired Alembo B.V. (NL) and Alembo N.V. (SUR) ("Alembo"), a CX and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company based in Suriname, serving the Dutch speaking markets. Alembo currently employs more than 300 team members in Paramaribo, Suriname, and was founded in 2005. Its primary expertise it to provide CX and BPO services for the e-commerce, retail, medical, and cultural verticals. The business is particularly focused on delivering operational excellence and the wellbeing and prosperity of its people, and therefore completely in-tune with Majorel's own corporate culture. Moreover, the acquisition aligns with Majorel's stated growth strategy of further geographic expansion, especially in countries that strengthen the Company's near- and offshore leverage. Majorel has purchased 100% of the share capital in Alembo from its founder and CEO, Frank Veldhuizen, who will continue to support Majorel with the growth of the business. The parties agreed non-disclosure of the specific details of the transaction. Thomas Mackenbrock, CEO of Majorel said: "The acquisition of Alembo is another building block in executing our global expansion strategy. We are delighted to welcome Frank and the entire Alembo team to the Majorel family." Frank Veldhuizen, founder and CEO of Alembo said: "Joining Majorel, one of the leading global CX players, is great news for everyone at Alembo, and our clients. I'm extremely proud of what we've achieved at Alembo, which meant that finding the right partner - who shares our cultural values and recognizes our importance to the local community in Paramaribo - was really important to help us to continue to thrive. That partner is Majorel, and I couldn't be more delighted." Niels Tetteroo, Director at Majorel, added: "Alembo further strengthens Majorel's unique position to serve the needs of our expanding Dutch speaking markets. In addition, Alembo's relentless focus on delivering operational excellence, together with the wellbeing and prosperity of its people, means there is a perfect cultural fit too. We're very much looking forward to working together to drive the business further." ABOUT MAJOREL We design, build and deliver next-generation end-to-end CX solutions for many of the world's most respected digital-native and vertical leading brands. Our comprehensive east-to-west global footprint in 37 countries across five continents, with more than 73,000 team members and 60 languages, allows us to deliver flexible solutions that leverage our expertise in cultural nuance, which we believe to be essential for true excellence in CX. We have deep domain expertise in tech-augmented front to-back-office CX. Additionally, we offer Digital Consumer Engagement, CX Consulting, and an innovative suite of Proprietary Digital Solutions for industry verticals. We are a global leader in Content Services, Trust & Safety. We believe the 'Majorel difference' to be our culture of entrepreneurship. Majorel: Driven to go further. www.majorel.com CONTACT Investor Relations Insa Calsow EVP, Investor Relations ir@majorel.com Media Relations Andrew Slater SVP, Global Marketing & Communications media@majorel.com 02.06.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Akur8 and Sura are pleased to announce their collaboration to enhance Seguros Sura's pricing capabilities on personal auto lines across Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Through this new partnership, Akur8 reinforces its presence in Latin America, where the company has been present since its second year of operations, and further accelerates its global expansion. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005015/en/ Specifically developed for insurers, Akur8's solution empowers pricing teams to make better decisions faster, by automating rate modeling using transparent Artificial Intelligence proprietary technology. Core benefits for insurers include accelerated speed-to-accuracy and market reactivity for immediate business impact, while maintaining full transparency and control on the pricing models. One of the leading P&C insurance companies in Latin America, Seguros Sura has chosen to implement Akur8's state-of-the-art solution to automate the pricing process of their personal auto lines across Argentina, Chile and Colombia, to harmonize practices and approaches as well as to augment pricing team's capabilities. "We are very excited to start this new collaboration with Seguros Sura. We are proud to provide them with a best-in-class solution to take their pricing capabilities to new heights and bolster innovation at the core of the pricing process" stated Samuel Falmagne, CEO at Akur8. "Forging a new alliance with Seguros Sura in Latin America is another step of Akur8's global expansion. We are proud to form this new alliance with a top P&C insurer and to reinforce our presence in Latin America" noted Brune de Linares, Chief Customer Officer at Akur8. About Akur8 Akur8 is revolutionizing insurance pricing with Transparent AI, boosting insurers' pricing capabilities with unprecedented speed and accuracy across the pricing process without compromising on auditability or control. Our modular pricing platform automates technical and commercial premium modeling. It empowers insurers to compute adjusted and accurate rates in line with their commercial strategy while materially impacting their business and maintaining absolute control of the models created, as required by regulators worldwide. With Akur8, time spent modeling is reduced by 10x, the models' predictive power is increased by 10% and loss ratio improvement potential is boosted by 2-4%. Akur8 already serves 45+ customers across 20+ countries, including AXA, Generali and Munich Re; specialty insurers Canopius and Tokio Marine Kiln; insurtechs Wakam and wefox; and mutual insurer Matmut. 700 actuaries use Akur8 daily to build their pricing models across all lines of business. About Seguros Sura Sura Group is a holding company, headquartered in Colombia, with a strategic focus on the diversified financial services sector. Seguros Sura is present in 11 countries in Latin America. Seguros Sura provides its customers with a wide range of insurance products through different lines of business such as P&C, Travel and Life. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005015/en/ Contacts: Anne-Laure Klein, COO anne-laure.klein@akur8.com +33 6 63 79 44 74 The city of Busan allowed a branch of Lotte Department Store to reopen Thursday after the two sides settled a dispute over a delayed landmark construction project. Lotte's Gwangbok branch store in the southern port city closed Wednesday as the metropolitan government did not extend its business license the previous day, citing the company's reluctance to carry out a plan to construct a related commercial and residential building called Lotte Tower. After further negotiations, the two sides signed an agreement Thursday, under which Lotte will complete the construction of the skyscraper by 2025, one year earlier than its latest plan. In exchange, the city extended the license. But it is effective only for four months, while such an extension is usually valid for one or two years. Lotte Shopping CEO Jung Joon-ho apologized for the delay in the project. "We will do our best to complete the development of Lotte Tower as a priority task of the group," he said during the signing ceremony. Busan Mayor Park Hyeong-joon also attended the event. In 2000, Busan approved the company's plan to build Lotte Tower, which would be a 107-story, 428-meter-high skyscraper. In 2009, the city government also gave a provisional permit to the Gwangbok branch store as part of the project. But the project made little progress due to feasibility problems, and Lotte changed Lotte Tower's design in 2019, scaling it down to a 56-story, 300-meter structure. The revised plan was rejected by the city's landscape review panel the following year. Lotte recently submitted a new design with a height of 340 meters with a plan to complete the construction by 2026, and the panel conditionally approved the plan May 26. (Yonhap) Flower One Holdings Inc. ("Flower One" or the "Company") (CSE: FONE) (OTCQX: FLOOF) (FSE: F11), the leading cannabis cultivator and producer in Nevada, today provides its third bi-weekly status report further to the Company's press release dated May 4, 2022. The Company was granted a customary management cease trade order (the "MCTO") under National Policy 12-203 Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203"). As previously announced, the application for the MCTO was made by the Company in order to secure additional time for the Company to file its audited annual financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, the related management's discussion and analysis, and certificates of its CEO and CFO (collectively the "Annual Filings"). The MCTO prohibits all trading in securities of the Company, whether directly or indirectly, by the Company's CEO and CFO. The MCTO does not affect the ability of other shareholders to trade in the securities of the Company. In connection with the issuance of the MCTO, and in accordance with its obligation to provide bi-weekly updates under the alternative information guidelines set out in NP 12-203, the Company confirms that (i) there has been no material change to the information relating to the Company's delay in making the Annual Filings since its news release on May 4, 2022 that has not been generally disclosed; (ii) there has been no failure by the Company in fulfilling its stated intentions with respect to satisfying the provisions of the alternative information guidelines set out in NP 12-203; (iii) there has not been any other specified default by the Company under NP 12-203; and (iv) there is no other material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been generally disclosed. During the MCTO, the Company confirms that it will comply with the provisions of the alternative information guidelines set out in NP 12-203 for as long as it remains in default, including the issuance of bi-weekly default status reports, each of which will be issued in the form of a news release. The MCTO will remain in effect until the Company files the Annual Filings or the MCTO is otherwise revoked or varied. The additional time is required to permit the Company's auditors, MNP LLP, to complete its review and enquiries in connection with the audit of the Company's annual financial statements. The delay is also in part attributable to (i) logistical challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021 calendar year and (ii) recent changes to the Company's finance department including its CFO and overall team. The Company and its auditors are working diligently, and the Company intends to make the Annual Filings as soon as possible and it expects to make these filings by no later than June 30, 2022, if not sooner. Update on 2022 Interim Financials 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"), will be delayed beyond the filing deadline of May 31, 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 Flower One Holdings Inc. Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer, and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. By combining more than 20 years of greenhouse operational excellence with best-in-class cannabis operators, Flower One offers consistent, reliable, and scalable fulfillment to a growing number of industry-leading cannabis brands (Cookies, Kiva, Old Pal, Heavy Hitters, Lift Ticket's, The Clear, HUXTON, and Flower One's leading in-house brand, NLVO, and more). Flower One currently produces a wide range of products from flower, full-spectrum oils, and distillates to finished consumer packaged goods, including a variety of: pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, topicals, and more for top-performing brands in cannabis. Flower One's Nevada footprint includes the Company's flagship facility, a 400,000 square-foot high-tech greenhouse and 55,000 square-foot production facility, as well as a second site with a 25,000 square-foot indoor cultivation facility and commercial kitchen. Flower One has built an industry-leading team focused on making high-quality cannabis accessible to all. The Company's common shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the Company's symbol "FONE", in the United States on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol "FLOOF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "F11". For more information, visit: https://flowerone.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of United States securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from historical results or from any future actual results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "belief," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "potential," "should," "may," "will," "plans," "continue" or other similar expressions to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, the completion of the Company's audit; the completion and anticipated timing of the Company making the Annual Filings; the completion and anticipated timing of the Company making the Interim Filings; the expected absence of an impact on the ability of other securityholders to trade in the Company's securities and the Company's intention to comply with the provisions of the alternative information guidelines; the Company's ability to provide bi-weekly updates by way of press release; the Company's leadership as a cannabis cultivator, producer, manufacturer, distributor, innovator and full-service brand fulfillment partner; and the production of a wide range of products for the nation's top-performing brands. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, the "Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Information" section contained the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 (the "MD&A"). All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the Company's public securities filings with the Canadian securities commissions, including the Company's MD&A. Although Flower One has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. Flower One disclaims and does not undertake any intention or obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006319/en/ Contacts: Flower One Investor Relations ir@flowerone.com Kellen O'Keefe, President CEO 702.660.7775 Flower One Media media@flowerone.com Cloudways supports over 70k customers and 500K+ websites; leadership hires include former execs from AWS, Microsoft, and Bluehost joining Cloudways' executive team Cloudways (cloudways.com), the leading cloud hosting provider focused on simplicity, flexibility, and performance, announces significant customer momentum ahead of their presence at WordCamp Europe. Cloudways' announcements at WordCamp Europe include SafeUpdates (in beta), new automations that manage WordPress updates at scale, and partnership with Astra Pro, a collaboration allowing users to build websites faster and easier than ever before. Cloudways supports over 70k customers and 500K+ websites and was recently rated by G2 as the best cloud hosting company for SMBs with a rating of 4.8 out of 5. Additionally, Cloudways has strengthened its executive team with the hire of ex-Microsoft executive Paul Haverstock as VP of Engineering, Bluehost executive Suhaib Zaheer as COO, and AWS executive Tom Erskine as CMO. Cloudways has significantly grown in size to more than 280 employees, with its global mindset reflected in an employee base coming from 20+ countries. Cloudways focuses on giving agencies, SMBs, e-commerce providers, and individuals a hassle-free, premium experience to help them grow their business with both peace of mind and improved productivity. The Cloudways platform features >99.9% uptime, fast page load times, pro-active app monitoring, dedicated workflows, leading security with add-ons from Cloudflare, and 24/7 premium support. Great value and flexibility are also key platform features with pay-as-you-go plans offered from cloud providers including AWS, Google Cloud, Linode, Vultur, and Digital Ocean and a choice of 65+ Data Center locations. SafeUpdates, which is being launched in beta, is Cloudways' newest feature and will enable agencies and developers to update their WordPress websites both automatically and on demand. The workflow secures a backup, performs advanced visual regression testing and performance checks on both staging and live, and then deploys selected updates to production or automatically rolls back the changes in case of any issues. SafeUpdates allows agencies and developers to automate their work, focus on their business, and upsell maintenance services with confidence. Cloudways' partnership with Astra Pro is part of a series of collaborations the company has made in recent months to enhance WordPress simplicity and ensure maximum performance and security on its platform. Cloudways has worked closely with Cloudflare, OceanWP, Divi, and OCP among others to offer a seamless, no-code digital experience for agencies and developers to build and secure WordPress websites. "Cloudways is both growing as a company and building significant momentum in the cloud hosting industry," said Aaqib Gadit, Co-Founder and CEO of Cloudways. "The recent addition of Suhaib, Tom, and Paul to our leadership team shows the growth plans and ambition we have for Cloudways. At Cloudways, we are deeply focused on being a trusted partner to our customers and are continually innovating to save them both time and money while delivering a great user experience." To learn more, visit Cloudways' booth at WordCamp Europe at https://www.cloudways.com/en/wordcamp-europe.php About Cloudways: Founded in 2012, Cloudways is an intuitive, one-click managed cloud hosting platform that hosts over 50,000 servers globally. G2's Best Managed Hosting Provider for 2021, the platform lets users host WordPress and WooCommerce websites on top of a variety of cloud-hosting providers, including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. The platform features a web app management function that easily launches cloud servers for the deployment of WordPress, Magento, and PHP. Visit the company website at ??https://www.cloudways.com/en/about_us.php View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005120/en/ Contacts: Cloudways Media Contact: Lauren Perry SlicedBrand for Cloudways lauren@slicedbrand.com LENZING, Austria, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VEOCEL brand today announces the launch of "VEOCEL cares for the future" initiative, which will kickstart globally and regionally on June 5th, World Environment Day 2022. As the start of a dedicated consumer education and engagement program, the "cares for the future" campaign will feature a series of tailored activities in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Aimed at inspiring and engaging communities to care for the environment, the initiative will utilize social media channels and content to inspire, educate, and empower consumers to play a bigger role in caring for the planet and building a better future for the next generations. "At VEOCEL, our care transcends boundaries, from our children and families to the wider community, our environment and our planet," said Monique Buch, Vice President of Global Nonwovens Business, Lenzing AG. "Our new global campaign is all about broadening what care means at each stage of one's life - from couples to newlyweds and young parents. We hope that our collaboration with environmental advocates will empower consumers from different parts of the world to join us in caring for the environment and sharing their stories to inspire others. Every action counts towards building a better future." Global brand ambassador to motivate change The VEOCEL brand's first global brand ambassador, @valerialipovetsky, is a public figure, business owner and mother of three. She will take her 1.9 million Instagram followers on an educational journey with VEOCEL to discover how to live more sustainably and learn how the boundless love she has for her children drives her care for the future. Demonstrate your love for the planet Across the U.S. and Europe, environmentally-driven influencers Eva Klaus, Muge Boz, and Heather Goodman, will kick off the sharehowyoucare challenge and encourage their followers to comment real life examples of how they care for the environment. To join the challenge and win a chance to a luxury forest hotel stay, visit the influencers' social media accounts to find out more. The "VEOCEL cares for the future" initiative is conducted in collaboration with VEOCEL's longtime partner, One Tree Planted, where social media users all over the world will be able to contribute to global reforestation efforts and enable positive change for the planet by commenting on the influencers' posts. "Caring for the environment also transcends to caring for future generations. Later this year, the "VEOCEL cares for the future" campaign will be dedicated to the development of educational content and school programs around sustainable lifestyle knowledge targeted at children," added Monique. For more details about upcoming "cares for the future" campaign initiatives, please stay tuned to VEOCEL's social media channels. Note: Please download images and details from here. ABU DHABI, UAE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) concluded its 31st edition, having welcomed thousands of visitors over its seven-day run from May 23 - 29, 2022, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), the annual fair saw a notable increase in sales of books and publications in various fields of knowledge and culture, as publishing houses participating in the event gave positive feedback of their experience and the large volume of sales completed. The event welcomed thousands of students from schools across the country, who brought great energy and enthusiasm to the various sections of the Fair. This year's edition of the fair boasted a busy agenda of events that stood out for their groundbreaking and serious content, including a professional programme for publishers and workshops to hone creative writing skills. A significant increase was noted in the number of publishers participating in the event, with 1,130 publishers from over 80 countries offering a large selection of literature appealing to diverse audiences. More than 650 cultural, artistic and educational events took place across the week, featuring such distinguished international guests as Nobel laureates and winners of the Booker and Pulitzer Prizes, alongside renowned Arab intellectual and creative minds. ADIBF 2022 chose the influential Egyptian writer and intellectual Taha Hussein - known as the 'Dean of Arabic Literature' - as its 'Personality of the Year', highlighting the renowned author and critic's life and work during the seven-day event, and introducing his work to a new generation. The Federal Republic of Germany was hosted as the Guest of Honour, with renowned German publishers taking part and a special calendar of activations rolled out throughout the week. The activities highlighted German literary heritage and celebrated the longstanding tradition of cultural exchange between that country and the UAE. It also highlighted the UAE's efforts in the publishing industry and the conferences sector, further promoting the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on the world stage. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award also celebrated the winners of its 16th edition in a special ceremony at Louvre Abu Dhabi, where renowned thinker Dr. Abdullah Al Ghathami was honoured, in recognition of his illustrious and pioneering career, where he completed landmark studies and research projects that contributed greatly to the cultural movement in the region and the Arab world. Dr. Al Ghathami was awarded the title of 'Cultural Personality of the Year'. The 31st Abu Dhabi International Book Fair presented a wide range of diverse events to participants, including the inaugural International Congress of Arab Publishing and Creative Industries, which hosted 300 speakers, publishers and specialists from around the world. It also included the launch of the first edition of the 'Kanz Al Jeel' Award, which aims to honour Nabati poetry, as well as heritage studies and research. With a name inspired by one of the poems written by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Award is granted to scholars and creators who submit works that explore Nabati poetry and its values; it seeks to enhance poetry's standing in society as a mirror of the community. The 19th edition of the Gulf Book Fair Managers Meeting was also held on the sidelines of the event, resulting in a set of new recommendations to improve book fairs across the region and better support the Arab publishing industry. His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of ALC, said: "Our strategic objectives for the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair were to convey a respectable image that befits the leading position and positive reputation of the UAE and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in particular. We sought to position Abu Dhabi as a destination of choice for the world's most prominent cultural events that aim to empower people and promote creativity, knowledge and culture. The Fair embodies the vision of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre and the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi to support publishers and pave the way for them to make their competitive return to the market. ADIBF 2022 signalled a new beginning where life returns to the world of culture, shedding light on the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and its authenticity, identity, and grand cultural aspirations. "This year witnessed many cultural and literary firsts in the history of the exhibition, and we wanted to present events with meaningful content to offer visitors a positive, well organised book fair experience, steering attention towards the books sector out of our commitment to following in the footsteps of the UAE's Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who believed in the importance of the book and its role in the progress and development of societies," HE bin Tamim added. A series of diverse talks, panel sessions, exhibits and other events took place throughout the fair, including a special poetry evening with poet Adonis, while the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics, Guido Imbens, gave a talk discussing his economic theories. Tokyo-born artist Fuad Honda, widely recognised as one of the world's top Arabic calligraphers, delighted fans with an exhibition and book launch at the fair, which also included panel discussions to introduce winners of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2022 and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, affiliated with the Booker Prize, along with a series of panels, activities, and workshops targeting book-lovers and all segments of the community. For the ADIBF wrap up video, please clickhere. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830607/ADIBF_1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830605/ADIBF.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830606/ALC.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Moovly Media Inc. (TSXV: MVY) (OTCQB: MVVYF) (FSE: 0PV2) ("Moovly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Global Partnership Agreement with Bayer AG. Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds, and biotechnology products. Through this agreement Bayer can deploy and use Moovly's platform to make content available globally with content localized and translated etc. automatically using Moovly's advanced features. Ronan Cusack, Associate Director, Global Content Engagement Lead of Bayer AG, "We did an extensive comparison of the online content creation space and market, and ultimately selected Moovly as our partner. The Moovly Studio editor's unique features to turn static assets into dynamic and engaging videos is in combination with their integrated AI subtitling and translation engine were deciding factors. Their support and guidance throughout the selection and implementation process have been excellent and their ongoing training sessions have been very well received. We look forward to growing with Moovly." Moovly CEO, Brendon Grunewald, said, "Moovly is excited to have been selected by Bayer AG given their extensive selection process. This partnership shows that we have the best-in-class video content creation platform, especially when it comes to scaling video production in a global, multi-lingual fashion. This partnership shows the potential of Moovly as a flexible and scalable content creation platform that can adapt to every organization's specific needs." Looking for more info. Bayer AG Website https://www.bayer.com/] Moovly [www.moovly.com] About Moovly: Moovly is the leading provider of creative cloud-based tools to create compelling marketing, communications and training videos and video presentations. Moovly's advanced Studio Editor with millions of assets seamlessly integrated (via partnerships with Getty Images & Storyblocks) is all you need to create engaging video content to promote, communicate or explain your product, service or message. Moovly's API and Automator technologies allow third parties to automate parts or all of the content creation process, including mass video customization, personalized videos (video version of mail merge), automatic content creation or updating by connecting data sources. With clients including users from over 300 of the Fortune 500, small businesses, freelancers and Ivy league universities, Moovly is an intuitive, cost effective choice for DIY creation of engaging video-based content. "Your story begins with Moovly" Files are available for download in our press room at www.moovly.com/pressroom. For additional information about Moovly, please visit www.moovly.com. Brendon Grunewald President, CEO and Director Email: press@moovly.com Reader Advisory This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information with respect to Moovly's future business plans and the expected benefits of its products. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to, Moovly's inability to continue to commercialize its products or demand for its products decreases or disappears. Other risk factors are set forth in detail in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis dated March 31, 2022 which is available for review under the Company's corporate profile at www.sedar.com. Some other risks and factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information also include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and globally; industry conditions, unanticipated operating events; failure to obtain any necessary third party consents and approvals, if and when required; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; competition for, among other things, capital and skilled personnel; changes in tax laws; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126172 Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) (OTCQX: BNCHF) (WKN: A2JM2X) (the "Company" or "Benchmark") - is pleased to announce new results from infill and expansion drilling at the Dukes Ridge Deposit, highlighted by 54.60 metres (m) core length of 2.51 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 97.05 g/t silver or 3.73 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq)*, including 9.60 m of 13.39 g/t gold and 480.26 g/t silver or 19.39 g/t AuEq in drill hole 21DRDD016. The deepest holes drilled at Dukes Ridge to date have extended mineralization, which remains open, to nearly 300 metres vertical depth and >110 metres below the existing 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) pit shell. These results continue to demonstrate strong similarities to typical mineralization at the Cliff Creek and AGB deposits, with broad bulk-tonnage style intercepts enveloping high-grade zones. The Dukes Ridge Deposit had until recently seen little drilling relative to the Cliff Creek and AGB deposit areas, and these latest results underscore the potential to add significant gold-silver ounces to the global resource at the Lawyers project as part of the imminent MRE update. Benchmark's flagship Lawyers Gold-Silver Project is located within a road accessible region of the prolific Golden Horseshoe area of north-central British Columbia, Canada. John Williamson, CEO, commented, "We are very pleased with these latest results from Dukes Ridge as we continue to expand on areas of known mineralization outside of the 2021 MRE pit shell. We anticipate continued growth for the Dukes Ridge deposit, and for the other deposit areas at Lawyers, as additional drill results contribute to the upcoming mineral resource estimate update." Highlights Plunging high-grade zones within large intervals of bulk-tonnage style mineralization are common at the Dukes Ridge Deposit area, including: 3.27 m of 33.65 g/t Au and 1,215.00 g/t Ag or 48.84 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 2.51 g/t Au and 97.05 g/t Ag or 3.73 g/t AuEq over 54.60 m in hole 21DRDD016. 5.00 m of 8.67 g/t Au and 162.82 g/t Ag or 10.70 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 2.01 g/t Au and 38.85 g/t Ag or 2.49 g/t AuEq over 40.16 m in hole 21DRDD012. 2.48 m of 10.30 g/t Au and 454.16 g/t Ag or 15.98 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 1.41 g/t Au and 43.20 g/t Ag or 1.95 g/t AuEq over 48.16 m in hole 22DRDD029. Drilling at Dukes Ridge continues to intersect strong mineralization below the 2021 MRE pit shell, with confirmed mineralization now in excess of 100 metres outside of the existing pit shell, and multiple high-grade zones remaining open at depth. The Company has intersected plunging high-grade zones at Dukes Ridge that are interpreted to be the result of previously unrecognized cross structures. Future drilling will target these zones and potentially add additional high-grade mineralization to subsequent resource estimates. Mineralization at the Dukes Ridge Deposit accounted for 109,000 AuEq Indicated ounces and 35,000 Inferred ounces in bulk tonnage zones in the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (May 14, 2021), including a significant portion at or near-surface Benchmark anticipates recently completed drilling to positively impact the total ounces contained at Dukes Ridge in the imminent MRE update. Figure 1: Plan map of Dukes Ridge Deposit area with drill collar locations, approximate mineralization shapes projected to surface, and the 2021 $1600 Au pit shell. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6169/126195_18dc380c44bafab6_001full.jpg Figure 2: Long section of the Dukes Ridge Deposit area with pierce points classified based on product of gold equivalent and interval length. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6169/126195_18dc380c44bafab6_002full.jpg Table 1: Drill results summary from the Dukes Ridge Zone Drillhole From (m) To (m) Interval (m)* Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) AuEq (g/t)** 21DRDD012 245.00 285.16 40.16 2.01 38.85 2.49 incl. 276.00 281.00 5.00 8.67 162.82 10.70 incl. 279.50 280.50 1.00 16.80 373.00 21.46 21DRDD016 217.16 217.68 0.52 3.13 52.70 3.79 and 277.00 331.60 54.60 2.51 97.05 3.73 incl. 322.00 331.60 9.60 13.39 480.26 19.39 incl. 324.73 328.00 3.27 33.65 1215.00 48.84 incl. 326.00 326.91 0.91 86.40 3150.00 125.78 and 330.00 331.60 1.60 8.01 294.88 11.69 22DRDD004 253.00 338.90 85.90 0.48 12.90 0.64 incl. 253.00 254.00 1.00 14.05 20.30 14.30 and 299.41 300.00 0.59 14.45 514.00 20.88 22DRDD017 285.00 303.00 18.00 0.16 24.72 0.47 and 344.40 395.00 50.60 0.53 20.68 0.78 incl. 363.00 364.00 1.00 3.65 131.00 5.29 22DRDD027 252.78 253.10 0.32 12.90 1105.00 26.71 and 276.00 286.00 10.00 1.16 102.94 2.44 incl. 281.00 281.70 0.70 6.58 818.00 16.81 and 301.00 306.00 5.00 0.34 9.91 0.47 22DRDD028 312.00 337.00 25.00 0.43 58.57 1.16 incl. 334.40 335.40 1.00 6.65 679.00 15.14 and 381.00 431.61 50.61 0.43 26.02 0.76 incl. 381.00 390.42 9.42 0.85 61.66 1.62 incl. 385.00 386.00 1.00 4.22 238.00 7.20 and 423.00 430.00 7.00 0.79 29.73 1.16 22DRDD029 308.42 338.00 29.58 0.14 28.02 0.49 incl. 308.42 309.00 0.58 2.63 280.00 6.13 and 372.00 420.16 48.16 1.41 43.20 1.95 incl. 397.80 400.28 2.48 10.30 454.16 15.98 incl. 398.60 399.48 0.88 24.40 1080.00 37.90 and 416.65 420.16 3.51 5.29 60.64 6.05 incl. 417.38 418.34 0.96 9.77 131.00 11.41 and 419.80 420.16 0.36 18.40 23.80 18.70 * Intervals are core-length. True width is estimated between 80 to 90% of core length. ** Gold equivalent (AuEq) calculated using 80:1 silver to gold ratio. Quality Assurance and Control Results from samples were analyzed at ALS Global Laboratories (Geochemistry Division) in Vancouver, Canada (an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited facility). The sampling program was undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L'Heureux, P.Geol. A secure chain of custody is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Gold was assayed using a fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish when required (+10 g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS analysis was conducted on all samples with silver and base metal over- limits being re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. Rock chip samples from outcrop/bedrock are selective by nature and may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the project. The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc, P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Benchmark Metals Benchmark Metals Inc. is a Canadian based gold and silver company advancing its 100% owned Lawyer's Gold-Silver Project located in the prolific Golden Horseshoe of northern British Columbia, Canada. The Project consists of three mineralized deposits that remain open for expansion, in addition to +20 new target areas along the 20-kilometre trend. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQX Best Market in the United States, and the Tradegate Exchange in Europe. Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS s/ "John Williamson" John Williamson, Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Jim Greig Email: jimg@BNCHmetals.com Telephone: +1 604 260 6977 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. This news release may contain certain "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126195 Certification denotes arbitrary topology high reliability, ultra-high temperature stable operation and ultra-high energy efficiency DUBAI, UAE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Intertek (or the "Group"), a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, has awarded three Tick-Mark certificates to Midea's V8 VRF Air Conditioner ("V8 VRF"), following the product's global launch ceremony in Dubai. Tick-Mark is Intertek's leading independent and impartial product performance verification and claim program. The program provides independent verification in terms of quality, safety, performance, function, social responsibility and product reliability, giving manufacturers, distributors and retailers a point of differentiation in the marketplace and consumers peace of mind about their product purchases. At the launch ceremony, Intertek awarded three Tick-Mark certificates to V8 VRF, covering arbitrary topology high reliability,ultra-high temperature stable operation and ultra-high energy efficiency, all of which have been professionally verified to comply with certificationrequirements. Sunny Rai, President Intertek Electrical and Connected World said: "Intertek has worked closely with Midea for many years and has been committed to providing industry leading, high-quality testing and certification services, participating in its rapid development in the refrigeration field. In the future, we will continue to leverage our leading ATIC solutions, professional capabilities and extensive global service experience in the HVAC industry to enhance our partnership with Midea, working together closely to drive product upgrades and industry innovation." Tick-Mark certification for arbitrary topology high reliability: Midea V8 VRF has pioneered the realization of a two-core non-polar 0.75mm2 wire with an ultra-long distance of 2000m and a strong anti-interference and high-reliability communication of 150 nodes under the VRF communication network. Tick-Mark certification for ultra-high temperature stable operation: Midea V8 VRF adopts a new and efficient closed electric control box thermal management system and a powerful full DC frequency conversion system for the climate characteristics of high temperature and humidity. Tick-Mark certification for ultra-high energy efficiency: The energy efficiency of Midea V8 VRF measured under the outdoor 46/24? T3 working condition is 40% higher than the minimum allowable energy efficiency in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Intertek also conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the V8 VRF regarding typhoon resistance, earthquake resistance, corrosion resistance, and indoor air quality. The results were also industry-leading, enabling Midea to obtain separate Tick-Mark certification for these parameters. About Midea Building Technologies Midea Building Technologies Division is one of the five major business sectors of Midea Group. It focuses on building products, services and related industries, based on the intelligent digital platform, and using building equipment and facilities + digital technology + industrial ecological layout, to open up the "Traffic flow", "Information flow", "Feeling flow" and "Energy flow" of the building system. About Intertek Intertek is an industry leader with more than 44,000 employees in 1,000 locations in over 100 countries. We deliver Total Quality Assurance expertise 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with our industry-winning processes and customer-centric culture. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1831348/1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1828597/image_2.jpg SYDNEY, June 2, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - Novotech, the leading Asia Pacific biotech specialist CRO which has recently expanded its services to the US, has sponsored expert panels at the Pre-ASCO China Summit 2022 bringing together leaders in oncology drug development in China and the US. The Pre-ASCO series was watched by more than 20,000 people globally.The Novotech sponsored Summit sessions are:- Go/No Go Decisions Based on Early Phase Oncology Trials - Watch Here https://tinyurl.com/novotech-webinars- Development and Regulatory Strategy for China & US - Watch Here https://tinyurl.com/novotech-whitepapersChina offers a compelling solution for expedited clinical trials especially in oncology with its vast patient populations and world-class KOLs.- According to Global Data whitepaper: EVOLUTION OF CLINICAL TRIALS IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION COMPARED TO THE US AND THE EU5 https://tinyurl.com/novotech-whitepapers- Over the past 5 years, growth of oncology trials (CAGR of 25%) in China outpaced other countries.- This growth was associated with a significant increase in cancer incidence, development of innovative products by domestic companies, focus on immuno-oncology, and leadership in cell therapy- China also recorded the largest number of new trials, followed by the US. In China, the number of new trials doubled during 2017-2021. Notably, China's regulatory reforms have accelerated drug approval by reducing the overall review and process.- In addition, over the last five years more 70,000 new clinical trials were registered in the APAC region, the US, and the EU5. The APAC region was the largest contributor, with more than 50% of the trials followed by the US (29%) and the EU5 (17%).- The APAC region has become the preferred destination for conducting clinical trials due to its large patient population, ease of regulatory compliance, low cost of conducting studies, high-quality standards and the presence of top clinical sites.Earlier this month, Novotech announced the acquisition of US CRO, NCGS as part of a US service expansion program for its global base of clients.Novotech, which has a reputation for delivering full-service, high-quality expedited clinical trials in Asia-Pacific, can now offer its biotech clients clinical services in the US to support later phase global studies.NCGS was established in 1984 in South Carolina and has a workforce of about 300 professionals across the US.Novotech CEO Dr. John Moller said:"This is a strategic move to provide US-based expertise and infrastructure for our US clients wanting trials in APAC and the US, and for our APAC clients wanting US clinical programs.""Clients will receive seamless service, with a unified approach to systems and SOPs," Moller said.Novotech has recently been benchmarked as a top 10 CRO among the world's leading CROs, and has signed 45 Leading Site Partnership agreements over the last 3 years.With more than 2,000 highly experienced professionals, clients benefit from strong site and Key Opinion Leader relationships, deep regulatory expertise, and the ability to accelerate clinical trials across the Asia Pacific and in particular China.Novotech recently announced a partnership and investment in tech firm Prospection to support accelerated clinical trials with healthcare data analytics using real-world data.Novotech has also partnered with virtual research organisation ObvioHealth to expedite trials leveraging remote technologies. This patient-centric approach improves subject retention and allows sponsors to reach populations outside major cities for clinical trial participation.About Novotech Health HoldingsNovotech Health Holdings Pte. Ltd. ("Novotech") is a leading Asia-Pacific biotech specialist CRO and consists of two operating brands, Novotech and PPC. Novotech is a CRO with integrated labs and phase I facilities providing drug development consulting and clinical development services. It has been instrumental in the success of approximately 3,700 clinical trials across all trial phases and broad range of therapeutic areas. Novotech is well positioned to serve biopharmaceutical clients conducting clinical trials in Asia and globally. For more information visit https://novotech-cro.com/contactMedia ContactDavid Jamescommunications@novotech-cro.comAU: +61 2 8218 2144USA: +1 415 951 3228Asia: +65 3159 3427Source: Novotech Health Holdings Pte LtdCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. BIELEFELD, Germany, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NTT DATA Business Solutions, SAP's global leading partner for medium sized companies, invites delegates to gain insights into tech innovation and industry trends at Transformation NOW! 2022. Starting in June 2022, the planned SAP partner event series will go on tour throughout the year. Transformation NOW! will make stops in Turkey, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark. Further events are in the planning stage and information will be provided as soon as possible. The events are organized differently in each country. Thus, it will be possible to attend the events in person on site or to follow the presentations online. Some events are also planned as hybrid events. Events that are organized purely digitally are open to everyone across countries. This gives participants access to trends and developments as well as country-specific innovations that they are less likely to hear about in their own home market. "Speed is crucial in a digital world. It is about bringing digital trends into application quickly. Especially in these dynamic times this is more important than ever. We provide insights into technology trends, the latest and field-proven SAP solutions, and our own innovative developments for the digital transformation of companies." says Norbert Rotter, CEO of NTT DATA Business Solutions AG. Pinpoint accuracy - to master the digital transformation Focusing on the essentials is the number 1 success factor of Transformation NOW! events. Companies that are strategically driving forward their digital transformation will see, in a nutshell, how digital solutions can improve value creation. As a globally successful and award-winning SAP consultancy, NTT DATA Business Solutions has a profound overview of how companies master the digital transformation. The Transformation NOW! program is complemented by customer experiences, partner knowledge and the global resources, capabilities, and strengths of the NTT DATA Group. The summits will showcase current technology trends, strategies, and business models, as well as how to put them into practice. In each of the high-level sessions, experts provide insights into the latest technologies, data, and processes as well as corporate culture aspects of digital projects. The country-specific events are complemented by a series of inspiring talks, exciting live demos, guided workshops, and customer Q&A sessions. A key focus will be on presentations that demonstrate how SAP technologies can be integrated to power business applications and provide decision makers with real-time access to information. Stations and dates of the Transformation NOW! 2022 are: Turkey : 02.06.2022 More information: https://tr.nttdata-solutions.com/transformation-now-2022 : More information: https://tr.nttdata-solutions.com/transformation-now-2022 Great Britain : 21.06.2022 More information: https://uk.nttdata-solutions.com/transformationnow2022-uk : More information: https://uk.nttdata-solutions.com/transformationnow2022-uk Germany : 23.06.2022 More information: https://de.nttdata-solutions.com/transformation-now-2022 : More information: https://de.nttdata-solutions.com/transformation-now-2022 Switzerland : 22.09.2022 More information: coming soon : More information: coming soon Denmark : 25.10.2022 More information: coming soon About NTT DATA Business Solutions NTT DATA Business Solutions designs, implements, manages, and continuously enhances SAP solutions to make them work for companies and their people. Aiming to help companies to transform, grow and become more successful, NTT DATA Business Solutions connects with a more than in-depth expertise for SAP solutions its clients' business opportunities with the latest technologies - individually and across all business areas. As part of the NTT DATA group and as a global strategic partner of SAP, with close ties to other partners, NTT DATA Business Solutions gives clients and prospects access to innovative solutions and developments and thus makes an important contribution to innovation and long-term business success. NTT DATA Business Solutions employs around 12,000 people in 30 countries. About NTT DATA NTT DATA - a part of NTT Group - is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, digital & IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables them, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients' long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries around the globe. Visit us at nttdata.com. Media contact: Head of Corporate Communications Silvia Dicke NTT DATA Business Solutions Konigsbreede 1 33605 Bielefeld, Germany T: +49 (0) 521/9 14 48-107 E-mail: silvia.dicke@nttdata.com Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1829358/NTT_Norbert_Rotter_AG_2022.jpg New Delhi, India, June 2, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - India played host to one of the most content-rich conferences that took place at Taj Lands End in Mumbai on 18th May 2022. Hosted by leading global business events and consulting firm Trescon, the show included a glittering awards ceremony with the 'INNOVATOR'S AWARDS' and 'LEADER'S AWARDS' honoring more than 100 CIOs and tech leaders in India. The event featured prominent global technology providers who showcased innovative enterprise technology solutions that help businesses become more efficient and resilient to market conditions.The show featured discussions on some of the most trending opportunities and challenges including: The future of digital leadership; Data-first, data-anywhere business model; Next gen data and AI platforms; Data in motion; Winning WhatsApp commerce strategy; Value proposition of cloud-centric virtual worlds; Automation and composable technology; and Roadmap to a secure and scalable hybrid workforce, to name a few.Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre, MeitY, spoke at length on the topic 'Reimagining a Digital Nation with Innovation & Sustainability at its Core', who made strong points on the ideals of sustainability and expressed how important a role carbon neutrality will play in our country.Vikram Chauhan Head of Enterprise & Government Business for Intel India while delivering his tech talk on 'India Fast Forward: Technology-led Transformation', stated that the technological capabilities that cloud on-boards are totally unmatched, and added that the Cloud is a cornerstone of today's technology.Caesar Peter, Head of Solution Engineering - Asia at Confluent, shared his insights on 'Rethinking Data: Set Your Data in Motion to Win in the Digital Economy'. He was quoted saying, "People today want instant connectivity in real-time."One of the most prominent panel discussions witnessed at the event discussed on 'Leading with Data, Intelligence & Automation'. The speakers on the panel included Dipak Nair, CTO, Tata AIG General Insurance; Siddhesh Naik, Country Leader, Data, AI & Automation, Technology Sales, IBM India, South Asia; RaviKiran Avvaru, IT Head/CIO Office (PM), Apollo Tyres; Rishikesh Singh, CIO, Advanced Materials - Aditya Birla Group; and moderated by Rajgopal Nayak, CTO, Metro Brands.In his Panel RaviKiran Avvaru stated that, "having a monetary benefit cannot be the sole purpose of investing in an application, there are other KPIs which come into play and one prime indicator is customer satisfaction.""Big CIO Show & Awards has served as a platform for recognizing the unsung heroes, who are innovative and have succeeded in their respective disciplines and have helped their organizations achieve great success via their efforts. We are happy to have hosted all these experts on our platform and look forward to hosting them again at our future initiatives. I would also like to congratulate all the top 100 CIO Leaders and Innovators in India who won the Big CIO Awards," stated Mithun Shetty, CEO, Trescon.Big CIO Show & Awards - India is officially SUPPORTED by NITI Aayog and sponsored by:- INNOVATION PARTNER - Intel India- PREMIER PLATINUM PARTNER - IBM- PLATINUM PARTNER - Confluent- GOLD PARTNER - Haptik;- BRONZE PARTNERS - Darktrace, NeoSOFT, Web Werks, Dista, and Fortinet.- EXHIBITOR - Okta/ACPL- OFFICIAL PRINT PARTNER - Business Standard- OFFICIAL ONLINE NEWS DISTRIBUTION PARTNER - Businesswire IndiaAbout Trescon:Trescon is a global business events and consulting firm that provides a wide range of business services to a diversified client base that includes corporations, governments and individuals. Trescon is specialized in producing highly focused B2B events that connect businesses with opportunities through conferences, road shows, expos, demand generation, investor connect and consulting services.About Big CIO Show & Awards:Big CIO Show & Awards is a thought-leadership, business-focused initiative that provides a platform for CIOs who are looking to explore new-age technologies and implement them in their organizations.The show will host CIOs across industry sectors in India who will meet, network, learn and engage with some of the world's renowned technology thought-leaders, subject matter experts and technology innovators in a constructive, open-dialogue environment to find solutions for issues hindering their business and personal growth.For further details about the event, please contact:Nupur AswaniHead - Media, PR, and Corporate Communications+91 9555915156 [nupur@tresconglobal.com]Source: tresconCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Paik Soon-myung, chief technology officer (CTO) at Theragen Bio, answers questions during an interview with The Korea Times at the company's head office in Pangyo Techno Valley, outside Seoul, May 30. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk This is the second in a series of interviews with senior executives of Korea's promising biotechnology companies to search for key elements of a bio-policy framework as the new government looks to promote the bio industry. _ ED. Samsung's entry into CDMO business helps local bio startups save costs, reduce barriers By Kim Yoo-chul Over the last few years, the government has been supporting its strategy to help the country rise as a biotechnology hub in Asia given Korea's long-time competiveness in product manufacturing. The country's advantages in terms of having excellent infrastructure, workforce and IT platform have truly been beneficial amid COVID-19 as a number of biotechnology companies, including Samsung Biologics, SK Bioscience and Celltrion Group of affiliates, successfully established a solid presence for faster commercialization of biosimilars. The former administration specifically focused on exploring ways to help the country become Asia's leader in the biotech and meditech industries and invest more in biotechnology and biopharmaceutical sectors as the top priorities. However, because the majority of Korean pharmaceutical and biotech firms aren't yet developed enough in terms of handling clinical-phase products and managing clinical trials, the new government is strongly asked to put more of its policy priority on ways to help the country's biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies improve their ability to conduct clinical trials, according to a renowned bio scientist. "Simply, I just want the government to apply measures available to evolving the clinical trial ecosystem. Given the fact that the significance in data analytics and data-driven management and even an increased attention on patient-centricity have been driving change in clinical trials, the government should focus on sorting out hurdles to help the country's bio industries see a fundamental improvement in clinical trial analysis capabilities," Paik Soon-myung, chief technology officer (CTO) at Theragen Bio, said in a recent interview at the company's head office in Pangyo Techno Valley just outside Seoul. Korea earlier said it was planning to invest $1.7 billion in its biotechnology and biopharmaceutical sectors by 2023. At the time of the announcement, the government said this investment will help the country win more foreign investment because Korea's pharmaceutical market is set to grow to $23.2 billion by 2022 from $19.5 billion in 2018. The senior executive, who has a distinguished reputation for the development of Oncotype DX the first multi-gene prognostic test for breast cancer patients that spares them from the side effects of chemotherapy stressed the necessity of establishing a state-funded and national-level institute for better quality real-world data such as patient's current health status. "In the United States and Europe, efforts for clinical trials are backed by state-level funding, coordination with academia and a higher-level of job security for data analysts. Allowing biotech and pharma companies to share data will truly result in advanced clinical research. A lot of sharable data will grant easy access to a number of registry programs, patient clinical advisory organizations, health-assigned institutions and tech platform developers, resulting in a thriving ecosystem," he said, recalling his earlier visit to Leiden University in the Netherlands, which houses a number of bio ventures, global research institutes and jointly-managed bio technology companies. The point is if biotechnology companies could be able to develop new products based on results acquired from repeated clinical trials, then these companies will be positioned to demonstrate the desired effects of their pipeline product being developed. Thoughts are these firms can expect to see an increase of their valuations because investors gain confidence in the underlying asset and technology applied, according to the executive. Within this context, Paik said if the government establishes a state-funded institute and lets the body conduct deep data analysis and mining, then Korea will go one step further beyond the already-proven prowess in manufacturing of biosimilar products. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was the factor behind the growing public awareness of clinical trials. Clinical trials can determine the safety, effectiveness, dosage and even possible side effects of drugs before they hit the shelves of a pharmacy. Samsung asked to go beyond CDMOs Paik said Samsung Biologics' entry into the contract-based drug manufacturing business, better known as CDMOs, and its successful management are helping local biotechnology companies in the production of their flagship products at reduced costs. Darshan Bathija (28), Sanju Kurian (29), Co-founders of Singapore-based crypto trading and lending exchange platform, featured in Forbes Asia - 30 under 30 SINGAPORE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 28 May 2022, Vauld founders - Darshan Bathija and Sanju Kurian - were featured in Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list. Founded in 2018 by Darshan Bathija and Sanju Kurian, Vauld, a Singapore-based global Crypto platform, provides a suite of products that focus on long-term wealth generation for its crypto investors, including fixed deposits and asset-backed lending and borrowing. Vauld is easy to use, intuitive, and also provides automatic investment plans that focus on wealth creation for its customer base. In July 2021, Vauld raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by PayPal founder Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures. The company has customers from 190 countries and average deposits per customer of $20,000. Vauld recently announced a multi-year partnership with F1 Team Alfa Romeo. On being featured in Forbes, Darshan Bathija said: "We have great people working together as a team of high performers. We're looking forward to taking our learnings and providing new features and tools to help our investors realize their financial objectives." Sanju Kurian said: "I have always been fascinated by finance and the field of cryptocurrencies excited me. With Vauld, we now aim to make it a neo-bank like any of the nationalized banks in India with the help of our very well-learned and knowledgeable team. About Darshan Bathija, Co-founder & CEO Darshan comes from a family background of 4 generations of financiers. He has worked as the Head of Partnerships at TapChief. Before TapChief, he worked at Piramal Capital, a real estate NBFC and facilitated loans totalling $100 million against assets. About Sanju Kurian, Co-founder & CTO Sanju built the technical team at Kings Leaning from the ground up, which served more than 20 million users across various platforms. He has led multiple teams across multiple domains, including Python/Django, native mobile development (Android IOS, KaiOS), AngularJS, DevOps, design, and analytics. Website - https://www.vauld.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1831372/Vauld_Logo.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1831371/Vauld_CTO_CEO.jpg With the acquisition, the management and technology consultancy also integrates the financial services solution diContract into its product portfolio Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint announces the 100% acquisition of disphere tech, owner of the cloud platform diContract for the financial services industry. disphere tech will operate as a fully integrated part of BearingPoint and be led by insurance and financial services professionals. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005427/en/ BearingPoint acquires disphere tech (Photo: Business Wire) disphere tech is composed of a team of interdisciplinary experts, consultants and developers that provide clients in the financial services industry with comprehensive support for the digital transformation of sales. They design and implement digital sales channels and develop applications for digital process support. The service portfolio of diContract includes digital onboarding functions, approval of brokerage contracts, video and audio consultations, portfolio transfers, GDPR-compliance features as well as client data and external contract management. By acquiring disphere tech, BearingPoint strengthens its position both in consulting and in the products area. With diContract, BearingPoint can transform the digital customer onboarding experience within the financial services industry. Sven Gerhardus, Partner at BearingPoint's Insurance segment: "In our client projects, it is obvious that communication between insurer, customer, insurance agent, broker and broker pool is a major challenge, especially for traditional insurers. Optimizing and digitalizing these processes with disphere tech's GDPR-compliant solution is an absolute quick-win for insurance companies. That's why disphere tech fits excellently in our consulting portfolio. diContract will enhance the digital customer and agent/broker experience in the financial services industry. It's an all-in-one smart remote selling platform that is simple to use and dramatically reduces process efforts." In the first phase, diContract will be made available for clients in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland within the insurance industry. Patrick Huttemann, founder of disphere tech: "Our merger with BearingPoint plays in perfectly with our goal of having more of an impact when it comes to supporting our customers in developing sales excellence and digital marketing solutions. BearingPoint's excellent reputation in the financial services industry and its industry expertise will help us scale our solutions, especially diContract, and allow us to carry out even more ambitious projects." Kiumars Hamidian, Managing Partner at BearingPoint: "Integrating IP and assets along with the creation of ventures and innovation are key elements of our strategy 2025. The integration of disphere tech represents a significant step in achieving BearingPoint's strategic goals. diContract is another highly focused asset that is an excellent addition to our BearingPoint Products portfolio." diContract will also be featured in the BearingPoint Store. Donald Wachs, Head of BearingPoint Products: "Our investment in diContract extends our industry-focused software portfolio and shows that our specific product organization is attractive and enables start-up companies to accelerate their growth story in terms of technology and market reach within BearingPoint. diContract will be added to our BearingPoint Store as the central market place for all our cutting-edge solutions." About BearingPoint BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three business units: Consulting, Products, and Capital. Consulting covers the advisory business with a clear focus on selected business areas. Products provides IP-driven digital assets and managed services for business-critical processes. Capital delivers M&A and transaction services. BearingPoint's clients include many of the world's leading companies and organizations. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 10,000 people and supports clients in over 70 countries, engaging with them to achieve measurable and sustainable success. For more information, please visit: Homepage: www.bearingpoint.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint Twitter: @BearingPoint View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005427/en/ Contacts: Press Alexander Bock Global Manager Communications Telephone: +49 89 540338029 E-Mail: alexander.bock@bearingpoint.com Delta, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Desert Gold Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DAU) (FSE: QXR2) (OTCQB: DAUGF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce results from the first three core holes designed to drill test the depth extent of the Gourbassi West North Zone at its SMSZ Project in Western Mali. All three core holes intersected significant amounts of gold mineralization with a highlight intercept of 1.08 g/t gold over 124 metres* including 1.85 g/t gold over 41.1 metres* and 0.7 g/t gold over 30.6 metres*. The first three holes, which were all core holes, returned wide intervals of gold mineralization and demonstrate that gold mineralization extends to at least 175 metres depth compared to the previous depth extent of 35 metres. A summary of significant intercepts are as follows: FR-22-DD-007 - 1.35 g/t gold over 43.1 metres including 1.66 g/t gold over 13 metres including FR-22-DD-008 - 0.53 g/t gold over 8.2 metres and 0.74 g/t gold over 21.0 metres and FR-22-DD-009 - 0.70 g/t gold over 30.6 metres and 1.08 g/t gold over 124 metres including 1.85 g/t gold over 41.1 metres * True widths are estimated at 60-70 % of drill widths except for the intercept in hole DD-009 which is estimated at 57% of drilled length Jared Scharf, President and CEO, commented, "This is a fantastic start to our 2022 drill program. We are intersecting wide zones of gold mineralization that start at or near surface suggesting real potential for the delineation of a significant gold deposit with good economics. Hole DD009 intersected roughly 160 metres of almost continuous gold mineralization. These initial results are particularly satisfying as the Gourbassi West North Zone is a recent discovery in a previously unexplored part of the property. Gourbassi West North has the potential to significantly upgrade the existing resource at SMSZ as we continue to flesh out this target." Technical Details The Gourbassi West North (GWN) Zone, which was discovered in July 2021, lies near the west side of the SMSZ property package (Figure 4). A total of 94 holes totalling 4,372.5 metres of drilling has been completed over the GWN Zone including 3 core holes totalling 605.5 metres, 14 RC holes totalling 1,854 metres and 78 AC holes totalling 2,066 metres (see Figure 1 for drilling plan view). These holes were designed to test the extent of the GWN Zone for 1,800 metres along strike to a depth of 175 metres. The mineralized zones are dominantly hosted by micro-conglomerate. Lesser amounts of conglomerate, limestone and shale have also been noted. Alteration consists of disseminated veinlet pyrite and local disseminated arsenopyrite is a weakly to moderately sericitized and silicified conglomerate. The widest gold zones occur proximal to the west side of a fault zone at the western contact of a silicified volcanic breccia. Mineralization generally dips steeply to the west, but hole FR-DD-22-009 suggests that locally the mineralization may also dip to the east. Interpreted sections of the first 3 core holes are presented in Figures 2 and 3. A summary of significant intercepts is attached in Table 1 at the end of the release. Assay results for the most of the AC and RC holes are still pending. Currently, the drill is testing a target at Linneguekoto West (Inferred mineral resource of 66,200 ounces at 1.48 g/t gold) with a few holes already completed at Mogoyafara South (Inferred Mineral Resources of 412,800 ounces of gold at 1.08 g/t gold) and Barani East (Measured and Indicated mineral resources of 91,200 ounces of gold grading 1.90 g/t gold and Inferred mineral resources of 133,900 ounces of gold grading 1.54 g/t gold). These mineral resources estimates were presented in a news release on January 17, 2022. Figure 1. Plan view Gourbassi West North Zone and Gourbassi West summarized drill results and completed drilling To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_001full.jpg Figure 2. Section 1487650 North To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_002full.jpg Figure 3. Section 1487775 North To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_003full.jpg Figure 4. Plan Map Mineral Deposits and Zones, significant drill hole intercepts*, soil geochem summary on color-contoured analytical signal magnetic data To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_004full.jpg *All gold grades over width, with the exception of the Soa, Berola and Gourbassi prospects, represent drill holes with the true widths, for most holes, ranging from 60 to 95%. Estimated true widths for the Soa and Berola prospects are unknown. Estimated true widths at the Gourbassi Zones are estimated to range from 60% to 90%. QAQC All auger and drill samples are delivered to SGS in Bamako, Mali where they are prepped. The prepped samples, are both shipped by truck to SGS's facility in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, or remain at SGS's laboratory in Bamako, for Au determination by fire assay. Standards and assay blanks,were inserted into the assay stream every 22 to 30 samples, respectively equaling one control sample for every approximately every 8-15 assay samples. All assay batches are reviewed for quality with re-assays requested 20 samples on either side of standards that assay more than 2 to 3 SD from an excepted value and for blanks that contain more than 10 ppb gold. Ashanti Gold drill results QAQC Procedures for the Gourbassi East and West Zones Certified Reference Materials and Blanks were inserted into the sample stream at the rate of 1:20 samples. Field duplicates are collected at the rate of 1:50 samples. All samples have been analyzed by SGS Laboratories in Bamako with standard preparation methods and 50g fire assay with atomic absorption finish. SGS does their own introduction of QA/QC samples into the sample stream and reports them to Ashanti for double checking. Higher grade samples are reanalyzed from pulp or reject material or both. Hyundai QAQC Procedures Desert Gold does not have any information regarding Hyundai's QAQC procedures at the Linnegukoto West Zone. However, based on follow-up of historic drill results in the Barani Area indicates an acceptable level of accuracy. This press release contains certain scientific and technical information. The Company is solely responsible for the contents and accuracy of any scientific and technical information related to it. Don Dudek, P.Geo. a director of Desert Gold both Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101, have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this press release. On Behalf of the Board "Jared Scharf" ___________________________ Jared Scharf President & CEO About Desert Gold Desert Gold Ventures Inc. is a gold exploration and development company which holds 2 gold exploration permits in Western Mali (SMSZ Project and Djimbala) and its Rutare gold project in central Rwanda. In Mali, Desert Gold's SMSZ property hosts Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 8.47 million tonnes grading 1.14 g/t gold totaling 310,300 ounces and Inferred Mineral Resources of 20.7 million tonnes grading 1.16 g/t gold totaling 769,200 ounces. For further information please visit www.SEDAR.com under the company's profile. Website: www.desertgold.ca This news release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the capital markets, the price of gold; operational, funding, liquidity risks, the degree to which Mineral Resource estimates are reflective of actual Mineral Resources, the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable, and the risks and hazards associated with mining operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States securities act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such act. Contact Jared Scharf, President and CEO, Email: jared.scharf@desertgold.ca Tel. No.: +1 (858) 247-8195 Table 1. Gourbassi West North Zone Significant Drill Intercepts BHID FROM (m) TO (m) LENGTH (m) Au_g/t FR-22-DD-007 42.4 44.1 1.7 0.62 FR-22-DD-007 52.85 56 3.15 0.5 FR-22-DD-007 64.6 66.2 1.6 0.68 FR-22-DD-007 74.2 78.87 4.67 0.36 FR-22-DD-007 124.4 125.4 1 1.05 FR-22-DD-007 148.5 149.25 0.75 0.54 FR-22-DD-007 158.85 164 5.15 0.63 FR-22-DD-007 177 220.1 43.1 1.35 Incl. 185.6 190 4.4 3.22 Incl. 193 206 13 1.66 FR-22-DD-008 22.5 30.5 8 1.07 FR-22-DD-008 34.35 38.85 4.5 0.45 FR-22-DD-008 47 49.65 2.65 0.46 FR-22-DD-008 55.85 57 1.15 1.96 FR-22-DD-008 62.5 70.65 8.15 0.53 FR-22-DD-008 81 102 21 0.74 FR-22-DD-008 75.1 76 0.9 2.42 FR-22-DD-008 106 107.8 1.8 1.61 FR-22-DD-008 109.8 113.2 3.4 0.57 FR-22-DD-008 120 120.7 0.7 1 FR-22-DD-009 41 45.7 4.7 0.4 FR-22-DD-009 54.65 85.25 30.6 0.7 Incl. 70.3 77.7 7.4 1.7 FR-22-DD-009 87.4 211.35 123.95 1.08 Incl. 143 184.1 41.1 1.85 Incl. 186.4 202.1 15.7 1.35 Incl. 206.35 211.35 5 1.72 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126193 Lead, South Dakota--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Dakota Gold Corp. (NYSE American: DC) ("Dakota Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its first drill hole, MA22C-001, at the Maitland Gold Project located approximately three miles north and contiguous with the Homestake Mine. In addition Dakota Gold is mobilizing its third drill rig to test for gold mineralization on the eastern side of the Maitland corridor. To date, the Company has targeted nine holes at Maitland. MA22C-001 is the first hole drilled in the project area since 1994 when Homestake Mining Company ceased its exploration program outside of the Homestake Mine. Drill Hole MA22C-001 Highlights: Intersected 16.4 feet of 0.195 ounces per ton ("oz/ton") gold in a Precambrian hosted, Tertiary breccia. This is the primary type of mineralization at the Company's Richmond Hill Gold Project option and has not been previously explored for at the Maitland Gold Project. Confirmed the presence of Homestake Formation 2.5 miles north of the +40-million-ounce gold past producing Homestake Mine within the Homestake deformation corridor. Intersected Homestake style, Precambrian gold mineralization which will be used to guide future exploration. Key indicators include arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, and quartz-carbonate veins with chlorite selvages. A second drill has been mobilized to the Maitland area. The second drill at Maitland will target the eastern side of the Maitland corridor which includes the Maitland Syncline. A total of three rigs are now turning in the district. On January 27, 2022, the Company mobilized the first drill rig to the Maitland target area and on March 29, 2022, the second drill was mobilized to the Richmond Hill Gold Project. Exploration Update: James M. Berry, Vice President of Exploration of Dakota Gold said, "We are excited to receive the assay results from our first drill hole at Maitland. The primary objective of this hole was to look for Homestake Formation host rock. We were very pleased to locate both Homestake-style gold mineralization and Tertiary-aged gold mineralization where we had targeted these initial holes of the campaign. This is a great start to our exploration program at Maitland. With the three drill rigs testing our Homestake District targets, we anticipate a continual flow of results throughout the rest of this year and are excited at the potential to advance the project areas towards a development path." MA22C-001 MA22C-001 was drilled to test for iron formation up-plunge from the North Drift mineralization that was discovered by Homestake Mining Company in the late 1980s (see Figure 1). The North Drift gold mineralization is located from 6,600 feet to 5,800 feet below the surface. MA22C-001 was designed to test the False Bottom structures, the Maitland Anticline, and the Maitland Syncline closer to the surface as shown in Figure 2 and in Figure 3. The mineralized zones are significantly shallower than the intercept depth down hole due to the shallow angle of the drill hole. Several intervals of Homestake Formation, the host unit of the gold mineralization at the Homestake Mine, were encountered at various depths down the hole. Gold mineralization at the Homestake Mine is associated with quartz-carbonate veins, chlorite selvages, and arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite sulfides. These types of key alteration have been observed within the two holes that have been completed. Thin zones of this type of mineralization were encountered in four intervals of MA22C-001. Three of these intervals contained anomalous gold values (see Table 1) that will be used for vectoring future step-out drilling. A Tertiary, breccia zone was encountered from 2,286.0 feet to 2,307.4 feet in MA22C-001. This breccia consisted of Precambrian clasts with thin calcite-pyrite lined veinlets. An interval of increased brecciation and veining from 2,291.0 feet to 2,307.4 feet contained 0.195 oz/ton gold and 1.290 oz/ton silver. Step-out drill holes are planned to test the extent and width of this zone of Precambrian hosted, Tertiary mineralization which is a previously overlooked target type in the Maitland area. Table 1. MA22C-001 Highlighted Drill Results (Imperial Units) Hole # From (feet) To (feet) Interval* (feet) Formation Gold (oz/ton) Silver (oz/ton) MA22C-001 603.1 606.0 2.9 Homestake Fm. 0.010 0.011 MA22C-001 2291.0 2307.4 16.4 Tertiary Breccia 0.195 1.290 MA22C-001 2885.1 2894.7 9.6 Homestake Fm. 0.039 0.007 MA22C-001 2908.0 2918.4 10.4 Homestake Fm. 0.018 0.020 *True thickness not known. Figure 1. Plan View of MA22C-001 and historical Homestake Mining Company drilling. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8218/126224_79e6b6adf4f29a17_002full.jpg Figure 2. Long-section view (looking northeast) of the Homestake Mine, historical Homestake Mining Company drilling and Dakota Gold drilling. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8218/126224_79e6b6adf4f29a17_003full.jpg Figure 3. Cross-section view (looking northwest) of MA22C-001 with historical Homestake Mining Company drilling. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8218/126224_79e6b6adf4f29a17_004full.jpg Photo 1. Core from hole MA22C-001 2297 to 2307.6 feet NQ drill core of Tertiary breccia with Precambrian phyllite clasts and calcite-quartz-pyrite veins. To view an enhanced version of Photo 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8218/126224_79e6b6adf4f29a17_005full.jpg Photo 2. Core from hole MA22C-001 2303 feet NQ drill core of Tertiary breccia with Precambrian phyllite clasts and quartz-calcite-fine grained pyrite matrix. To view an enhanced version of Photo 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8218/126224_79e6b6adf4f29a17_006full.jpg About Dakota Gold Corp. Dakota Gold is a South Dakota-based responsible gold exploration and development company with a specific focus on revitalizing the Homestake District in Lead, South Dakota. Dakota Gold has high-caliber gold mineral properties covering over 40 thousand acres surrounding the historic Homestake Mine. The Dakota Gold team is focused on new gold discoveries and opportunities that build on the legacy of the Homestake District and its 145 years of gold mining history. Subscribe to Dakota Gold's e-mail list at www.dakotagoldcorp.com to receive the latest news and other Company updates. Inquiries Shareholder and Investor Inquiries: For more information, please contact Jonathan Awde at +1 604-761-5251 or JAwde@dakotagoldcorp.com. Qualified Person and S-K 1300 Disclosure James M. Berry, a Registered Member of SME and Vice President of Exploration of Dakota Gold Corp., is the Company's designated qualified person for this news release as defined in Subpart 1300 - Disclosure by Registrants Engaged in Mining Operations of Regulation S-K and has reviewed and approved its scientific and technical content. The ranges of potential tonnage and grade (or quality) disclosed above in respect of the Maitland Gold Project are conceptual in nature and could change as the proposed exploration activities are completed. There has been insufficient exploration of the Maitland Gold Project to allow for an estimate of a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a mineral resource. The disclosure above in respect of the Maitland Gold Project therefore does not represent, and should not be construed to be, an estimate of a mineral resource or mineral reserve. Quality Assurance/Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference materials, duplicate samples, and blanks into the sample stream. Check samples will be submitted to an umpire laboratory as the drill program progresses. Assay results are reviewed, and discrepancies are investigated prior to incorporation into the Company database. Samples are submitted to the ALS Geochemistry sample preparation facility in Twin Falls, Idaho. Gold analyses are performed at the ALS Geochemistry laboratory in Reno, Nevada or Vancouver, British Columbia, and multi-element geochemical analysis are completed at the ALS Minerals laboratory in Vancouver, British Columbia. ALS Minerals is an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited lab. Forward-Looking Statements This communication 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. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and expectations that may not be realized and are inherently subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the execution and timing of our planned exploration activities, our use and evaluation of historic data, our ability to achieve our strategic goals, the state of the economy and financial markets generally and the effect on our industry, and the market for our common stock. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. For additional information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements, we refer you to the risk factors included in Item 1A of Dakota Territory Resource Corp.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2021, as amended, as updated by annual, quarterly and other reports and documents that we file with the SEC, including the registration statement on Form S-1 that has been filed with the SEC and Dakota Territory Resource Corp.'s proxy statement filed on Form DEF 14A. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this communication. These statements speak only as of the date of this communication, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. We do not give any assurance that we will achieve our expectations. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126224 Nantes (France) / City of Schwabisch Gmund (Germany), 1st June 2022 - Lhyfe, a world pioneer and independant pure player in renewable green hydrogen (Euronext: LHYFE), has received approval from the city of Schwabisch Gmund (Baden-Wurttemberg) to start construction of its plant on an industrial site of about 10,000 m2. A production site for renewable green hydrogen by water electrolysis with a capacity of up to 4 tonnes/day (10 MW) is to be built along with a publicly accessible hydrogen filling station and a pipeline to supply the future "H2-Aspen" technology park with renewable hydrogen. The plant is expected to be operational in early 2024. Electricity required for the production of the renewable hydrogen will be provided by a connection to a wind farm and photovoltaic installations. Future customers for this project are located in the immediate vicinity of the site and in the region. The hydrogen will be used as a process gas by industrial customers and as a fuel for fuel cell vehicles at distribution stations. Richard Arnold, First Mayor of the City of Schwabisch Gmund: "The cooperation with Lhyfe provides the necessary impetus for a fast and reliable development of the H2-Aspen project. With this project, we want to offer companies in the region a local, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy solution. Within the framework of a holistic sustainable production, we enable and demonstrate what a "business and industrial park of the future" can look like. This holistic approach, positioning ourselves along the entire hydrogen value chain of the project, is not only exemplary for our region, but also on a national level. " Luc Grare, Head of International Business at Lhyfe: "The region's goal is to establish an economically autonomous hydrogen industry. To support this goal, we are actively involved in the construction and expansion of the planned technology park. Thanks to our expertise in building local hydrogen ecosystems as well as our model of direct connection between renewable energy sources and our production sites, we can optimally support the development of the region. Following our previous involvement in projects in Germany, this project is part of our strategy to supply Germany with green hydrogen on a national scale by 2025". Lhyfe is working on a rapid ramp-up of the green hydrogen market in many European countries. Various projects have already been announced in Germany, including cooperations such as the participation in the H2goesRail project of Deutsche Bahn and Siemens Mobility. This agreement allows Lhyfe to actively pursue the development of this project in Germany, the next step being to obtain dedicated grants. This 10 MW project is one of the 20 projects in advanced development (corresponding to the "Tender ready", "Awarded" or "Construction" phases) announced at the time of the IPO, with a total capacity of 380.5 MW and a planned entry into operations between 2023 and 2026. About Lhyfe Created in Nantes in 2017, Lhyfe produces and supplies renewable green hydrogen for mobility and industry. Its production plant and its commercial pipeline will allow access to renewable green hydrogen in industrial quantities and form part of a virtuous energy model benefitting the environment. It is a member of France Hydrogene, Hydrogen Europe and Vatgas Sverige, SHDC. Lhyfe inaugurated its first green hydrogen industrial production site in September 2021. It currently has 93 projects in its pipeline across Europe, 20 of which will be in advanced development by 2026, contributing to the decarbonization of mobility and industry. A research programme started in 2019 should also lead to the start of a test phase in real conditions for the world's first floating electrolyzer linked to a floating wind farm planned for autumn 2022. Lhyfe is listed at Euronext in Paris (LHYFE - FR0014009YQ1). For more information go to www.lhyfe.com Press contact: Lhyfe: Clemence Rebours (Nouvelles Graines) - +33 (0)6 60 57 76 43 - c.rebours@nouvelles-graines.com ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: mm+fYcdqlGnKmJycY5xuZ2eZZ5xpmWTIaGjIxJWZZZnGb3GRmmaXZsqVZnBlnWlp - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-74843-cp-lhyfe-x-schwabisch-gmund_en.pdf The LNG carrier PRISM COURAGE, which Hyundai Heavy Industries built in 2021 and delivered to SK Shipping SEOUL, South Korea, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Avikus, a subsidiary of HD Hyundai (former Hyundai Heavy Industries Group), has successfully carried out autonomous navigation of a large ship across the ocean, becoming the first company in the world to accomplish such a feat. Together with SK Shipping, Avikus, which specializes in autonomous navigation, announced that it had successfully completed autonomous navigation of PRISM COURAGE," a 180,000 square-meter ultra-large LNG carrier, equipped with HiNAS 2.0, Avikus' Level 2 autonomous navigation solution. The PRISM COURAGE departed from the Freeport on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico on May 1, passed through the Panama Canal, and finally arrived at the Boryeong LNG Terminal in South Chungcheong Province in Korea after 33 days. The vessel sailed half of roughly 20,000 kilometers in total distance. HiNAS 2.0 creates optimal routes and speeds based on Hyundai Global Service's Integrated Smartship Solution. Its artificial intelligence recognizes the surrounding environment - weather and wave heights - and nearby ships, and then controls the vessel's steering commands in real-time. The Level 2 technology can control and operate the ship in addition to the functions of recognition and judgment. In this test crossing, the PRISM COURAGE equipped with HiNAS 2.0 was operated autonomously on the optimal routes, increasing the fuel efficiency by around 7 percent while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 percent. Also, the system accurately recognized the locations of nearby ships to avoid collision about 100 times. This voyage was conducted under real-time monitoring of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the Korea Register of Shipping to verify the performance and stability of the technology. Avikus plans to commercialize HiNAS 2.0 within this year after receiving a certification from ABS for the results of this self-propelled ocean crossing. Autonomous navigation technology is drawing attention as an innovative technology for future maritime mobility, solving workforce shortages in the maritime transportation industry, reduce pollutants, and improve safety by completely removing the possibility of human errors. Avikus CEO Do-hyeong Lim said, "It is meaningful to we successfully tested the Level 2 system. We will lead innovation by upgrading autonomous navigation solutions not only for large merchant ships but also for small leisure boats." Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1831580/The_LNG_carrier_PRISM_COURAGE_Hyundai_Heavy_Industries_built_2021.jpg STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / Vimian Group (STO:VIMIAN) Vimian held its Annual General Meeting today 2 June 2022. The Annual General Meeting was held by physical presence of shareholders and with the option for shareholders to exercise their voting rights by advance voting (postal voting). The Annual General Meeting in Vimian Group AB (publ) resolved the following: Approval of income statement and balance sheet for the financial year 2021 and discharge from liability The Annual General Meeting approved the income statement and balance sheet as well as the consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet for the financial year 2021, and the Board members and the CEO were discharged from liability for the financial year 2021. Allocation of profit or loss The Annual General Meeting resolved, in accordance with the board of directors' proposal, that the company's results shall be carried forward and that no dividends shall be paid to the shareholders. Election of Board members, auditors, fees to the board of directors and auditors The Annual General Meeting resolved, in accordance with the nomination committee's proposal, that the number of Board members shall be six without deputy members, and that the company shall have one auditor without deputy auditors. In accordance with the nomination committee's proposal, Gabriel Fitzgerald, Frida Westerberg, Martin Erleman, Mikael Dolsten and Theodor Bonnier were re-elected, and Petra Rumpf was newly elected, as Board members for the time until the end of the next Annual General Meeting. Gabriel Fitzgerald was re-elected as chairman of the Board. The accounting firm Grant Thornton Sweden AB was re-elected as auditor, and it was noted that the authorised public accountant Carl-Johan Regell will continue to be auditor in charge. The Annual General Meeting further resolved, in accordance with the nomination committee's proposal, that the fees to the Board shall be EUR 150,000 in total for the period until the end of the next Annual General Meeting, to be allocated with EUR 50,000 to each one of the elected Board members, with the exception of Gabriel Fitzgerald (chairman of the Board), Martin Erleman and Theodor Bonnier who refrained from fees. The Annual General Meeting further resolved that, in accordance with the nomination committee's proposal, auditor fees shall be paid in accordance with approved invoice. Long term incentive program The Annual General Meeting resolved, in accordance with the board of directors' proposal, to adopt a long-term incentive program for current and future key individuals, employees and consultants in Vimian, in total 115 persons. The incentive program comprises the issuance of not more than 5,800,000 warrants with a right to subscribe for 5,800,000 new shares in the company. Authorisation to issue new shares The Annual General Meeting resolved to, in accordance with the Board's proposal, authorise the Board, on one or several occasions, and with or without pre-emptive rights for shareholders, to resolve on the issue of new shares, comprising a total of not more than 20 per cent of the total number of outstanding shares in the company after the utilization of the authorisation. Such share issue resolution may be made with or without provisions for contribution in kind, set-off or other conditions. For further information, please contact: Maria Dahllof Tullberg Head of IR, Communications & Sustainability maria.tullberg@vimian.com +46 736 26 88 86 About Vimian Vimian is a global, fast-growing group of innovation-driven companies with a shared passion for making a positive impact through improving animal health. Together, we put science, technology and our customers' needs at the centre of everything we do to deliver effective solutions to veterinary professionals, labs and pet parents around the world. We bring together pioneering and entrepreneurial businesses in animal health, with an aim to create a uniquely diversified proposition of products and services of the highest standard. Our group covers four essential and rapidly evolving areas within animal health: Specialty Pharma, Diagnostics, Veterinary Services and MedTech. Vimian provides individual businesses with access to our networks, expertise, infrastructure and capital to accelerate innovation and growth. We are as passionate about supporting leadership within our existing businesses, as we are about welcoming new partners to the Vimian family - together helping us make an even greater impact by improving animal health. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Vimian and our family of companies reach over 15,000 customers in +150 markets, employ more than 700 people and have a combined annual turnover of approximately EUR 170 million. FNCA Sweden AB is appointed the Company's Certified Adviser, info@fnca.se, +46 (0) 8-528 00 399. For more information, please visit: www.vimian.com. Attachments Press release from the Annual General Meeting in Vimian Group AB (publ) on 2 June 2022 SOURCE: Vimian Group View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703680/Press-Release-from-the-Annual-General-Meeting-in-Vimian-Group-AB-publ-on-2-June-2022 CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Inverter Market by Type (Solar Inverters, Vehicle Inverter, others), Output Power Rating (Upto 10 kW, 10-50 kW, 51-100 kW, above 100 kW), End User (PV Plants, Residential, Automotive), Connection, Voltage, Sales Channel & Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Inverter Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.7% during the forecast period, from an estimated USD 16.3 billion in 2022 to USD 33.8 billion in 2027. Increasing adoption of inverters worldwide in case of power back-ups, rise in the investments and technological developments in PV systems to generate clean power is fueling demand for inverters. The rise in the roof top installations, and developments in the smart grid infrastructure are creating numerous opportunities for inverter manufacturers. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=263171818 The 100-300 V, by output voltage, is expected to be the largest and fastest Inverter Market during the forecast period The 100-300 V holds the largest share of the global Inverter Market. The increase in the urbanization has increased the electricity demand in the various sectors. One such sector is residential sector where there is increased electricity demand. The AC voltage that is operated in this sector generally lies in between 100-300 V. Due to rise in the number of roof-top solar installations and as well as the power backup systems in households. This is fuelling the demand for inverters which are in connection with the PV systems and power backup systems in the range of 100-300 V in the market. Browse in-depth TOC on "Inverter Market" 174 - Tables 59 - Figures 223 - Pages View Detailed Table of Content Here: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/inverter-market-263171818.html Above 100 kW segment is anticipated to be the fastest-growing Inverter Market by output power rating, during the forecast period Above 100 kW segment is expected to have the largest market share during the forecast period. Government initiatives in increasing the renewable energy mix in their countries contributed to the rise in the developments of PV plants is fuelling the demand for above 100 kW output power rating inverters. The expanding automotive industry towards manufacturing electric vehicles is also contributing to the growth of the segment. Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the global Inverter Market during the forecast period In this report, the Inverter Market has been analyzed for 5 regions, namely Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, South America. Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market during the forecast period. The Inverter Market in Asia Pacific is witnessing significant developments in the renewable energy generation due to climate change actions taken by various countries in the region, which has supported the demand for inverters across countries of the region. China is among the fastest growing economies in the world and the increase automation in the country has tremendously increased power generation and consumption. These factors have made China one of the most lucrative markets for the power industry. Moreover, the government policies and schemes supporting solar energy generation in the country is expected to contribute to the growth of the Inverter Market in Asia Pacific. Policies like feed-in-tariff, and net metering have also been designed to support the growth of roof top solar installations. These factors are likely to create a huge demand for inverters in the region. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=263171818 To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the Inverter Market. These include Huawei Technologies (China), Sungrow Power Supply (China), SMA Solar Technology (Germany), Power Electronics (Spain), FIMER (Italy). The leading players are trying to establish themselves in the markets of developed countries and are adopting various strategies such as product launches, contracts, agreements, partnerships, collaborations, alliances, acquisitions, and expansions to increase their respective market shares. Browse Adjacent Markets: Energy and Power Market Research Reports & Consulting Browse Related Reports: Micro-inverter Market with COVID-19 Impact by Offering, Communication Technology, Type, Power Rating, Connection Type, Sales Channel, Application (Residential, Commercial, and PV Power Plant), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025 String Inverter Market by Phase (Single and Three), System Type (On-Grid and Off-Grid), Power Rating (Up to 10kw, 11kw-40kw, 41kw-80kw, and Above 80kw), End-User (Residential, Commercial & Industrial, and Utilities), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/inverter-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/inverter.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - C3 Metals Inc. (TSXV: CCCM) ("C3 Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to report surface reconnaissance results from mapping and sampling at the Arthurs Seat Project in Jamaica (Figure 1). Arthurs Seat is one of four Jamaican projects owned 100% by the Company and is located adjacent to the Company's Bellas Gate property where the Company has commenced a 5,000 metre drill program. Exploration to date at Arthurs Seat has defined a 6.75 km2 prospective area of copper mineralized veins and breccias interpreted to represent the upper part of an underlying porphyry system. Magnetics, mapping and detailed prospecting are continuing. Exploration Highlights: Assays up to 13.8% copper and 492g/t silver; 11 rock samples >4% Copper 55 copper mineralized samples collected over 4.5km by 1.5km Multiple zones of primary and secondary copper mineralization highlights significant potential for a high-grade, intermediate high-sulphidation epithermal copper deposit Kevin Tomlinson, President and CEO of C3 Metals commented; "Additional to our drill program in progress at Jasperoide in Peru, we have commenced drilling the highly compelling Epidote Ridge copper-gold porphyry target within the Bellas Gate SEPL, Jamaica. Separately, our small exploration team in Jamaica is also prospecting and sampling a number of tenements that have not been explored for over 40 years. The discovery of widespread copper mineralization including some exceptional high-grade samples at Arthurs Seat is a testament to the prospectivity of our Jamaica tenement package. As the drill program at Bellas Gate progresses, we will continue surface exploration at Arthurs Seat and other high potential prospects. We look forward to providing further updates as results are received." Figure 1: Showing location of Arthurs Seat SEPL, located atop the Crawl River Fault. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/126207_ac29ad7aa45eb844_001full.jpg Exploration Background and Update The Arthurs Seat Special Exclusive Prospecting License ("SEPL") is situated directly over the regionally significant Crawl River Fault Zone and associated splays, a major structure controlling copper-gold mineralization in Jamaica. Mining was undertaken by the Spanish in the 16th Century and the British in the 19th Century. No modern-day exploration has been carried out within the Arthurs Seat SEPL since a reconnaissance program was conducted by Noranda Inc. in the mid 1960's. A stream/heavy mineral sampling program funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was completed in the 1980's. Arthurs Seat is contiguous to our highly prospective Bellas Gate SEPL, where at least 12 porphyry prospects have been confirmed along Porphyry Alley and where the Company has commenced a 5,000-metre diamond drilling program to test a number of compelling copper-gold targets (see press release dated May 27, 2022). The Company recently completed geological mapping and prospecting over a 10 km2 area in the eastern part of Arthurs Seat. A total of 103 rock samples were collected from mineralized intermediate sulfidation style epithermal quartz veins and breccias that cross-cut andesitic volcanic-volcaniclastic rocks and Cretaceous aged limestones of the Arthurs Seat Formation. Copper mineralization comprises primary bornite, tennantite-tetrahedrite and associated secondary copper species including native copper (Figure 2). Of the 103 samples collected, 55 assayed greater than 0.15% copper with numerous samples of both outcrop and float reporting high grades up to 13.8% copper and 492g/t silver (Figure 3, Table 1). Table 1: Copper and silver assays for select samples collected at Arthurs Seat Sample Easting Northing Elv Type Ag (g/t) Cu (%) 767134 264766 2006617 328 Float 492 13.80 767136 264719 2006613 337 Float 369 11.80 767137 263773 2005524 268 Float 12 4.38 767138 261847 2005264 247 Float 3 1.61 767239 263967 2004589 340 Outcrop 7 1.79 767241 264288 2005213 313 Outcrop 9 1.87 767242 264287 2005200 313 Outcrop 12 2.69 767243 264318 2005185 324 Outcrop 12 1.91 767244 264406 2005378 271 Outcrop 8 1.95 767255 265004 2006444 309 Outcrop 18 2.63 767257 265479 2006632 345 Outcrop 5 2.05 767299 264290 2005213 313 Outcrop 20 4.06 767383 262713 2004571 213 Float 7 5.75 767424 264403 2005408 263 Float 17 4.76 767426 265565 2006520 384 Float 26 4.06 767428 264224 2005337 259 Float 25 5.41 767430 264266 2005244 296 Float 33 4.08 767435 262529 2004578 220 Float 96 5.08 767442 261956 2005365 244 Float 48 6.60 Figure 2: TOP LEFT - Breccia sample (767134) containing primary copper minerals bornite and tennantite-tetrahedrite. TOP RIGHT - Porphyritic andesite (767137) cut by copper bearing tennantite-tetrahedrite veins. BOTTOM LEFT - Quartz vein with secondary copper minerals including native copper. BOTTOM RIGHT - Porphyritic rock containing secondary copper (azurite - malachite) veins. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/126207_fig2.jpg Figure 3: Eastern area of Arthurs Seat SEPL showing locations of outcrop and float samples. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/126207_ac29ad7aa45eb844_006full.jpg Geological mapping and prospecting will continue at Arthurs Seat and ridge/spur soil sampling has been initiated over the eastern SEPL area. The team is assessing the rock sample results in conjunction with new mapping to formulate plans for ground geophysics and drill testing. Additional updates are planned as information and assays are received. For additional information, contact: Kevin Tomlinson President & CEO +1 416 841 5122 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 handling, sampling, sample transportation and analyses. Chain-of-custody protocols are designed to ensure security of samples until their delivery at the laboratory. Samples are analysed by 4-Acid digest ICP-MS finish for 63 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. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126207 BURLINGTON, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / Murchison Minerals Ltd. ("Murchison" or the "Company") (TSXV:MUR), (OTCQB:MURMF) is pleased to announce that, subject to all regulatory approvals, it intends to raise up to $5,500,000 in a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"), with the proceeds directed towards drilling at the Company's 100%-owned HPM nickel-copper-cobalt property in Eastern Quebec, working capital and administrative expenses. It is anticipated that strategic investor Mr. Michael Gentile and Murchison's largest shareholder Mr. Donald K. Johnson will participate in the Offering maintaining their current ownership positions. Pursuant to the Offering, the Company will issue Hard Dollar units ("HD Units") at a price of $0.09 per HD Unit, Quebec flow-through units ("QFT Units") at a price of $0.105 per QFT Unit and Quebec Charity flow-through units ("QCFT Units") at a price of $0.14 per QCFT Unit, in any combination to raise aggregate gross proceeds of up to $5,500,000. Each HD Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of a common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant") and each QFT Unit and QCFT Unit will be comprised of one flow-through common share of the Company (a "FT Common Share") and one-half of a Warrant. Each whole Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one additional Common Share at a price of $0.18 for a period of 18 months from the date of closing of the Offering. A finder's fee may apply to a portion of the proceeds raised under the Offering in the amount of 6% cash and 6% finders' warrants. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issue. In the event that the volume weighted average price ("VWAP") of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") is greater than CDN$0.225 for 20 consecutive trading days, the Company may give notice to the holders of the Warrants that the expiry time of the Warrants has been accelerated and the Warrants will expire on the 30th business day following the date of such notice. It is anticipated that Donald K. Johnson, a director and control person of the Company will acquire a certain number of Units under the Offering to maintain his current ownership at around 30%. Any such participation will be considered a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101"). It is anticipated that the transaction will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 based on a determination that the securities of the Company are listed on the TSXV and that the fair market value of the Offering, insofar as it involves interested parties, will not exceed $2,500,000 or 25% of the market capitalization of the Company. The Offering was approved by all independent directors of the Company. HPM Summer Drill Program Based on the Preliminary modelling at the BDF Zone, (April 4th news release) the Company is now in a position to move forward with resource expansion and delineation during this summer's drill program at the BDF Zone. Murchison will be leveraging the past work competed at the BDF Zone - which until now, had not previously been modelled - during this summer's drill program to significantly advance the project forward. Consequently, the Company will be releasing an HPM exploration update in the near-term, outlining the use of proceeds from the Offering. With the objective of drilling the high-grade nickel-copper cobalt BDF Zone which has the potential to define a near-surface mineral resource. Strategic Investor Michael Gentile, CFA 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 (GMA-V) 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. Troy Boisjoli, Murchison Minerals President, CEO, and Director comments: "Murchison is very pleased to have the continued support of strategic investor, Mr. Michael Gentile, and Murchison's largest shareholder and Director Mr. Donald K Johnson. This is truly an exciting time for the Company as we are preparing to move forward with our summer drill program at our HPM nickel-copper-cobalt project in Quebec - where our focus will be on developing the Barre de Fer Zone towards a maiden resource." About Murchison Minerals Ltd. (TSX.V:MUR), (OTCQB:MURMF) Murchison is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on nickel-copper-cobalt exploration at the 100% - owned HPM Project in Quebec and the exploration and development of the 100% - owned Brabant Lake zinc-copper-silver project in north-central Saskatchewan. The Company also holds an option to earn 100% interest in the Barraute VMS exploration project also located in Quebec, north of Val d'Or. Murchison currently has 171.3 million shares issued and outstanding. Additional information about Murchison and its exploration projects can be found on the Company's website at www.murchisonminerals.ca . For further information, please contact: Troy Boisjoli, President and CEO or Erik H Martin, CFO Justin Lafosse, IR Manager Tel: (416) 350-3776 info@murchisonminerals.com Forward-Looking Information Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is 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. FLI herein includes, but is not limited to: future drill results; stakeholder engagement and relationships; parameters and methods used with respect to the assay results; the prospects, if any, of the deposits; future prospects at the deposits; and the significance of exploration activities and results. FLI is designed to help you understand management's current views of its near- and longer-term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. FLI by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such FLI. Although the FLI contained in this press release is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders and prospective purchasers of securities of the Company that actual results will be consistent with such FLI, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such FLI. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such FLI contained herein to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by law. Unless otherwise noted, this press release has been prepared based on information available as of the date of this press release. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the FLI or information contained herein. Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in FLI. Assumptions upon which FLI is based, without limitation, include: the ability of exploration activities to accurately predict mineralization; the accuracy of geological modelling; the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; the legitimacy of title and property interests in the deposits; the accuracy of key assumptions, parameters or methods used to obtain the assay results; the ability of the Company to obtain required approvals; the results of exploration activities; the evolution of the global economic climate; metal prices; environmental expectations; community and nongovernmental actions; and any impacts of COVID-19 on the deposits, the Company's financial position, the Company's ability to secure required funding, or operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada, which are available at www.sedar.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Murchison Minerals Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703631/Murchison-Minerals-Announces-5500000-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement-with-Continued-Support-of-Strategic-Investor-Michael-Gentile-and-Largest-Shareholder-Donald-K-Johnson Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo. Sandberg, the No. 2 exec at Facebook owner Meta, is stepping down, according to a post Wednesday, June 1, her Facebook page. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. AP-Yonhap Meta's second most powerful executive Sheryl Sandberg made the shock announcement Wednesday she will leave after a 14-year tenure that included helping steer scandal-prone Facebook to advertising dominance. Sandberg, 52, has been one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley and her departure comes as the social media juggernaut faces an uncertain future and fierce competition. Her exit from Facebook parent Meta will be effective in the fall, she wrote on the platform, adding she planned to remain on the firm's board. A Harvard-educated executive, Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 when it was still just a startup, playing a formative role in its development into a multi-billion dollar advertising empire. "Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," Sandberg said. "I am not entirely sure what the future will bring I have learned no one ever is." Her job made her not just a recognizable face in tech but also a household name, particularly thanks to her 2013 book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead." The best seller encouraged women to "lean in" to their careers in order to reach their full potential and overcome workforce obstacles. It has drawn applause from admirers for articulating a new modern feminist vision and sharp criticism from detractors who say her lofty position has made her out-of-touch with the grueling personal cost of combining career and family. The social network has recently rebranded itself in a pivot toward a belief the internet is headed towards becoming an immersive virtual world, referred to as the metaverse. The Silicon Valley colossus has seen its image tainted by accusations it has put profit over user privacy and even the good of society. "Sandberg leaves Meta, and the social media environment that Facebook helped create, in a far worse place than she found it," said Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone. "Hers is a legacy of enabling trolling, harassment and abuse." The META logo is seen on a laptop screen in Moscow as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announces the parent company's name is being changed to "Meta" to represent a future beyond just its troubled social network, in this file photo taken Oct. 28, 2021. AFP-Yonhap Meanwhile, the likes of TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and even Apple now vie with Meta for people's online attention as the Facebook platform is increasingly seen as a place for older people. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the role Sandberg held at the company will be re-shaped, with Javier Olivan becoming Meta's chief operating officer. The next COO will be more traditional, different from the close second-in-command status Sandberg holds, Zuckerberg said. "She has taught me so much and she has been there for many of the important moments in my life, both personally and professionally," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. "I'm going to miss running this company with Sheryl." Meta shares fell more than 2 percent on word that Sandberg was leaving, another blow to a stock value that has plummeted on worries that the company's regular growth was coming to an end. Facebook was about four years old when Sandberg came on board as a mature, guiding hand at a tech firm with a motto "move fast and break things." "I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company," Zuckerberg said. "Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company." Zuckerberg's farewell to Sandberg gave Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi a sense that he believes he has outgrown her. "It feels like that relationship is no longer needed or working," Milanesi told AFP. Sandberg, long seen as the "adult" at the youthfully managed firm, has found herself the center of controversy over her role in pushing back at criticism of the social media giant. Sandberg drew fire in particular over an embarrassing effort to probe George Soros, the billionaire investor, after he assailed the online network as a "menace to society." Facebook has acknowledged that Sandberg asked her staff to conduct research on the Hungarian-born billionaire following his remarks, out of concern that he held a "short" position that would profit from a decline in shares. Among the tech whiz kids, Sandberg offered a steadier hand as a result of her background working for former U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers and the philanthropic arm of Google. Sandberg in 2015 was devastated by the sudden death of her husband, U.S. tech executive David Goldberg, at an upscale resort in Mexico. Two years ago she announced her engagement to marketing executive Tom Bernthal. (AFP) Partnership includes Avolon, Corporacion America Airports, GOL, Grupo Comporte and Vertical Aerospace Partnership will explore infrastructure requirements to make eVTOL operations a reality in Brazil this decade A partnership of global leaders in aviation and airports announces its intention to explore the infrastructure requirements to bring eVTOL passenger flight to Brazil within this decade. The partnership includes: This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005460/en/ Partnership between Avolon, Corporacion America Airports, GOL, Grupo Comporte and Vertical Aerospace will explore and define vertiport design and locations, as well as further infrastructure requirements for eVTOL operations in Brazil (Photo: Business Wire) Avolon, the world's second largest aircraft leasing company; Corporacion America Airports [NYSE: CAAP], the largest global private sector airport operator by number of airports; GOL, Brazil's largest airline; Grupo Comporte, a leading Brazilian transport operator; and Vertical Aerospace (Vertical) [NYSE: EVTL], the aerospace and technology company developing and manufacturing eVTOL aircraft. The partnership will explore and define vertiport design and locations, as well as further infrastructure requirements for eVTOL operations in Brazil. With its well-developed Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market based on helicopter services, advanced aviation ecosystem and unique demographics, Brazil is set to become one of the pioneering markets for eVTOL services, including for Vertical's VX4. Each partner brings sector-specific and complementary expertise to bring eVTOL operations into operation in Brazil this decade. In particular, the partnership will benefit from Corporacion America Airports' special team dedicated to the research and development of the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) segment and its two-decade long expertise in airports design, construction and operation, as well as passenger traffic management. Corporacion America Airports has already developed its own conceptual vertiport design and progressed AAM traffic analysis across several countries. With some of the most congested cities in the world, the introduction of eVTOLs, such as the VX4, will transform how people move around and above the urban landscape, in Brazil. The VX4 will permit short-haul zero emissions journeys that will revolutionise city air travel for Brazilians' everyday lives by changing how we connect, commute and travel more efficiently, all in a more sustainable way. This partnership builds on GOL's and Grupo Comporte's commitment to purchase or lease up to 250 of Vertical's VX4 eVTOL aircraft from Avolon, announced last year. That commitment saw Avolon launch and lead a Working Group aiming at commercialising eVTOL aircraft in Brazil with Vertical Aerospace, Grupo Comporte and GOL. The Working Group has already conducted project familiarisation workshops with the Brazilian civil aviation authority Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil (ANAC) to permit the swift validation of the piloted, zero operating emissions and four-passenger VX4 aircraft. The VX4 is projected to have speeds of up to 200 mph, a range over 100 miles, be near silent when in flight and offer low cost per passenger mile. Domhnal Slattery, CEO of Avolon commented: The scale of our ambition for eVTOLs is reflected in our partnerships with some of the leading transportation and airport operators in Latin America. We are partnered with companies that share our ambition to materially reshape the commercial aviation market. Our objective is to deliver the infrastructure requirements to bring zero emissions travel to Brazil mid this decade and revolutionise air travel in the region." Martin Eurnekian, CEO of Corporacion America Airports, commented: "A new mobility ecosystem is arising and Corporacion America Airports as a world leader in airport operations wants to be an agent of change in supporting the AAM implementation in those regions where we operate. With our expertise as airport operators in six countries in three continents along more than 20 years, we are committed to contribute with the development of the AAM ecosystem, in order to better connect people, goods and cultures and promoting a leaner, faster and more sustainable air transport." Paulo Kakinoff, CEO of GOL commented: "GOL completely bets on the expertise of CAAP in Advanced Aerial Mobility. Within reach, we have at hand a unique opportunity to unite the efforts of all parties involved to create a sustainable and safe operating ecosystem for eVTOL, with zero carbon emissions, both in Brazil and beyond. Constantly expanding in the regional segment, GOL is committed to including new and providential connectivity alternatives with this new air modal, based on its already extensive air network." Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO of Vertical commented: "I'm delighted that Vertical is partnering with Avolon, GOL, Grupo Comporte and CAAP to deliver critical eVTOL infrastructure in Brazil. It was in Brazil that I had the inspiration to begin Vertical Aerospace so it is incredible to see it becoming a reality there". About Corporacion America Airports' Operational Footprint Corporacion America Airports currently operates 53 airports globally, including 2 airports in Brazil. Through its Brazilian joint venture with Inframerica, Corporacion America Airports operates the Brasilia airport which is the second largest airport in Brazil by passenger numbers and Natal. Additionally, it is the largest private airport concession operator in the world, based on the number of airports under management. Corporacion America Airports brings substantial AAM thought leadership, having studied the AAM space since 2021 and has an internal AAM working group, that has developed a conceptual vertiport design and carried out AAM traffic analysis around the airports it operates in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Italy. About Avolon's VX4 Orderbook In June 2021, Avolon ordered 500 VX4 eVTOL aircraft from Vertical Aerospace (NYSE: EVTL) valued at US$2 billion. Since announcing that order, Avolon placed 250 VX4 aircraft with GOL and Grupo Comporte in Brazil, up to 100 aircraft with Japan Airlines in Japan, a minimum of 100 aircraft with AirAsia, and up to 100 aircraft with Gozen Holding. Avolon has now fully placed the entirety of its initial VX4 orderbook, with the orderbook being oversubscribed by 50 options. About the VX4 eVTOL Aircraft The four passenger, one pilot VX4 is projected to have speeds up to 200mph, a range over 100 miles, near silent when in flight, zero operating emissions and low cost per passenger mile. Upon its introduction, the VX4 will be designed to the safest certification standards, set by EASA and the CAA, at the same level as commercial aircraft. The VX4 is expected to open up advanced air mobility to a whole new range of passengers and transform how we travel. Find out more: vertical-aerospace.com About Avolon Headquartered in Ireland, with offices in the United States, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Avolon provides aircraft leasing and lease management services. Avolon is 70% owned by an indirect subsidiary of Bohai Leasing Co., Ltd., a public company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SLE: 000415) and 30% owned by ORIX Aviation Systems, a subsidiary of ORIX Corporation which is listed on the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges (TSE: 8591; NYSE: IX). Avolon is the world's second largest aircraft leasing business with an owned, managed and committed fleet, as of 31 March 2022, of 832 aircraft. Website: www.avolon.aero Twitter: @avolon_aero About Corporacion America Airports Corporacion America Airports acquires, develops and operates airport concessions. The Company is the largest private airport operator in the world based on the number of airports. Currently, the Company operates 53 airports in 6 countries across Latin America and Europe (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Armenia and Italy). In 2021, Corporacion America Airports served 35.7 million passengers, 57.6% lower than the 84.2 million served prior to the pandemic, in 2019. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange where it trades under the ticker "CAAP". For more information, visit http://investors.corporacionamericaairports.com. About GOL GOL is the largest airline in Brazil a leader in the corporate and leisure segments. Since founded in 2001, the Company has had the lowest unit cost in Latin America, thus democratizing air transportation. The Company has alliances with American Airlines and Air France-KLM and makes available several codeshares and interline agreements available to Customers, bringing more convenience and simple connections to any place served by these partnerships. With the purpose of "Being the First for All", GOL offers the best travel experience to its passengers, including the largest number of seats and more space between seats; the greatest platform with internet access, movies and live TV; and the best frequent-flyer program, SMILES. GOLLOG delivers orders to different regions in Brazil and abroad in cargo transportation. The Company has a team of 15,000 highly qualified aviation professionals focused on Safety, GOL's #1 value, and operates a standardized fleet of 135 Boeing 737 aircraft. The Company's shares are traded on the NYSE (GOL) and the B3 (GOLL4). For further information, go to www.voegol.com.br/ri. About Vertical Aerospace Vertical Aerospace is pioneering electric aviation. The company was founded in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, an established entrepreneur best known as the founder of the OVO Group, a leading energy and technology group and Europe's largest independent energy retailer. Over the past five years, Vertical has focused on building the most experienced and senior team in the eVTOL industry, who have over 1,700 combined years of engineering experience, and have certified and supported over 30 different civil and military aircraft and propulsion systems. Vertical's top-tier partner ecosystem is expected to de-risk operational execution and its pathway to certification allows for a lean cost structure and enables production at scale. Vertical has a market-leading pre-order book (by value) for a total of up to 1,350 aircraft from American Airlines, Avolon, Bristow and Iberojet, which includes conditional pre-order options from Virgin Atlantic and Marubeni, and in doing so, is creating multiple potential near term and actionable routes to market. Vertical's ordinary shares listed on the NYSE in December 2021 under the ticker "EVTL". Find out more: www.vertical-aerospace.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005460/en/ Contacts: Media Avolon Jonathan Neilan Sam Moore FTI Consulting avolon@fticonsulting.com M: +353 86 231 4135 +353 87 737 9089 GOL Linhas Aereas InPress Porter Novelli gol@inpresspni.com.br M: +55 (11) 3323-1570 +55 (11) 3323-1586 Corporacion America Airports Carolina Barros Chief Communications Officer T +541148996215 C +5491140712447 carolina.barros@corporacionamerica.com Vertical Aerospace Gavin Davis Ambika Sharma Nepean nepeanverticalteam@nepean.co.uk M: 44 7910 104 660 +44 7596 474 020 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) ("Getchell" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of the maiden drill program at the Company's Star project that comprises two main mineralized occurrences, the formerly producing Star Point copper mine and the Star South Cu-Au-Ag prospect, located in Pershing County, NV. Key Highlights Historic small-scale mining extracted significantly high-grade Copper, Gold, and Silver material; The Star Point and Star South occurrences are underlain by pronounced low-resistivity high-chargeability geophysical anomalies characteristic of porphyry style mineralization; The surface mineralization is interpreted as potentially deriving from a larger source at depth; The large geophysical targets have never been drill tested; and The first drill hole is targeting the Star South anomaly. "Having successfully closed a non-brokered financing this week to top up our treasury, we can now fully focus on drill testing the copper targets at the Star project and further delineating the extensive gold zones at the advanced exploration stage Fondaway Canyon project." states Mike Sieb, President, Getchell Gold Corp. "The Getchell team is thrilled to have two active drill rigs on the ground at two different Nevada projects. We look forward to sharing exploration results through the end of this very active 2022." Star Project The Star Copper-Gold-Silver property ("Star" or "Project") is situated in Pershing County, Nevada, approximately 65 kilometres to the North of the Company's flagship Fondaway Canyon gold project that has produced numerous discoveries over the last two years and continues to be advanced. The Star Point Copper Mine is the site of a historic, near surface, high-grade copper oxide (tenorite) mine that operated from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. The ore produced was shipped to a smelter in Utah for processing, but there is no record of shipped tonnage or grade. The surface area is covered with various pits, portals, shafts, open cuts, and associated dumps. The underground development consists of several short shafts, winzes and tunnels of varying length leading to a series of stopes and drifts. The high-grade copper mineralization (i.e., malachite as the green and azurite as the blue copper carbonate hydroxide) is associated with quartz veins hosted within shear zones and the dumps contain numerous strongly mineralized specimens of this material. The Star South prospect, located 2 kms south of the Star Point Mine, is comprised of a series of pits, artisanal adits and associated dumps (Figure 1). The adits appear to follow high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralization hosted within quartz veins that are associated with shears trending in several different orientations. As with Star Point, malachite and azurite mineralization is abundant (Figures 2 and 3) and indicative of a high copper content, with Star South being additionally enriched in gold and silver (Table 1). Figure 1: Star South Prospect showing a series of pits, artisanal adits and associated dumps To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_001full.jpg Figure 2: A Star South adit showing green malachite (copper) mineralization dump rocks To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_002full.jpg Figure 3: Select high grade dump grab samples at Star South To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_003full.jpg Table 1: Star South notable sampling results sorted by metal weighting: To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_004full.jpg As part of the 2011 sampling campaign 89 samples* were collected with the vast majority sourced from the dumps in the area. A significant portion of the samples collected reported impressive grades of copper, gold and silver in combination. Of the 89 samples collected, 40 samples grade >1% Cu, 21 samples grade >1 g/t Au with 3 reporting >5 g/t Au, and 20 samples grade >30 g/t Ag with 5 reporting >100 g/t Ag. The high-grade mineralization reporting at surface is interpreted as resulting from the mobilization of mineralized fluids derived from a larger source at depth. To determine the potential of a mineralized body at depth, Induced polarization ("IP") geophysical surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2020. The IP survey results in conjunction with previous geophysical survey responses (e.g. magnetometer and gravimetric surveys), geology and structural interpretations, have identified a number of discrete priority drill targets. The priority drill targets primarily exhibit coincident low-resistivity high-chargeability response signifying a highly conductive target and classic characteristics of porphyry style mineralization and alteration. The first drill hole at the Star project is targeting a large multi geophysical survey line anomaly that links up with the high-grade copper, gold, and silver mineralization at surface at the Star South occurrence (Figures 4 and 5). Figure 4: Drill Hole SG22-01 at Star South (looking SW) To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_005full.jpg Figure 5: Designed trace of drill hole SG22-01 targeting large geophysical anomaly at Star South To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3941/126241_05447e97445f79bb_006full.jpg Scott Frostad, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person (as defined in NI 43-101) who reviewed and approved the content and scientific and technical information in the news release. * The Star Project grab samples were collected during two separate sampling campaigns in 2011 by the current operator. The vast majority of the samples collected were sourced from the various mine-waste dumps populating the property and represent materials extracted from the adjacent workings. Of note, rock grab samples are by definition selective and not intended to provide nor should be construed as a representative indication of grade or mineralization at the Project. Grab samples are solely designed to show the presence or absence of mineralization, and to characterize the mineralization. The grab samples reported from the project reflect a broad range in grade from below detection limit to the grades highlighted herein. Samples were processed in two batches and analyzed at two certified analytical laboratory, ALS Global ("ALS") in Reno and American Assay Laboratories ("AAL") in Sparks, Nevada. Rock samples were processed similarly at both labs by drying followed by crushing so 70% passed through a 2mm screen. A 250g split, was then pulverized so that 85% passed through a 75m screen. All samples were analysed for gold by standard fire assay using a 30g aliquot. Digestion of a 0.5g aliquot was done by Aqua Regia and finished by 39 element ICP-AES/MS at AAL or 51 element ICP-AES/MS at ALS. Samples with over limit silver, copper and lead were re-analysed and digested in assay grade Aqua Regia and finished by ICP-AES at ALS while over limit silver samples were re-analysed using a 30g aliquot by fire assay with a gravimetric finish at AAL. About Getchell Gold Corp. The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company trading on the CSE: GTCH and OTCQB: GGLDF. Getchell Gold is primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate and on the Star project, a past high-grade copper, gold, and silver small-scale producer. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and one earlier stage exploration project, Hot Springs Peak (Au). Getchell has the option to acquire 100% of the Fondaway Canyon and Dixie Comstock properties, Churchill County, Nevada. For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company by e-mail at info@getchellgold.com or by phone at +1 647 249-4798. Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO Getchell Gold Corp. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: use of proceeds from the financing Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126241 Burgeoning Trend of Personalization to Usher Growth, Assisting the Customer Data Platform Sales to Reach US$ 7.2 Bn by 2032 A comprehensive research by Fact.MR on the global customer data platform market provides an unbiased analysis on the leading factor facilitating the sales growth during the assessment period 2022-2032. The study also offers detailed insights into prominent drivers and opportunities that are elevating the sales across different segments including type and application. NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The sales in the global customer data platform market are projected to reach US$ 1.9 Bn by 2022, exhibiting growth at an impressive CAGR of 14% during the forecast period (2022-2032). Driven by the growing expenditure on promotion and marketing activities by organizations, the demand for customer data platforms is estimated to surpass US$ 7.2 Bn by the end of 2032, in comparison to the US$ 1.5 Bn registered in 2021. In recent years, rising trend of personalization is being witnessed across diverse industries such as travel, BFSI, and others. Hence, numerous industry players are emphasizing on adopting customer data platforms for analyzing prevailing trends, real-time customer data collection, and determining changes in customer preference. This is expected to create lucrative growth opportunities in the global customer data platform market. For More Valuable Information on Regional Market Dynamics, Get A Report Sample! https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=7326 Leading players in the market are focusing on introducing novel industry-specific customer data platforms with innovative features such as personalized data analysis to provide vital insights into interaction, intent, touchpoints, and behavior. For instance, in October 2021, ActionIQ, an American Provider of Enterprise Customer Data Platform announced launching a new customer data platform for the healthcare industry by achieving their compliance audit across Type 1 standards of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA). Driven by a slew of such new product launches across the U.S., the sales of customer data platforms in the country are expected to rise at a CAGR of 13.8% between 2022 and 2032. Key Takeaways: The U.S. is estimated to dominate the market in North America , surpassing a valuation of US$ 2.6 Bn by the end of 2032. , surpassing a valuation of by the end of 2032. Demand for customer data platforms is expected to surge at a rapid CAGR across the U.K., assisting the market to reach US$ 299.1 Mn by 2022. by 2022. China is forecast to emerge as a highly lucrative market, exhibiting growth at a remarkable CAGR of 13.4% over the assessment period. is forecast to emerge as a highly lucrative market, exhibiting growth at a remarkable CAGR of 13.4% over the assessment period. Japan is anticipated to account for a significant share in Asia Pacific market, projecting growth at a CAGR of 12.6% from 2022 to 2032. is anticipated to account for a significant share in market, projecting growth at a CAGR of 12.6% from 2022 to 2032. On the basis of type, the campaign segment is projected to account for maximum revenue share, expanding at a CAGR of 13.9% through 2032. Growth Drivers: Growing emphasis on providing a personalized experience and better customer satisfaction is augmenting the adoption of customer data platforms. Increasing penetration of internet across the globe and rising importance of customer relationship management for customer retention are encouraging enterprises to adopt advanced customer data platforms. Restraints: High cost of customer data platforms and frequent need for up-gradation are factors hindering sales in the global market. Implementation of strict regulations regarding the rights of enterprises on customer data across Europe is restraining the demand for customer data platforms in the regional market. Get Customization on this Report for Specific Research Solutions https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=7326 Competitive Landscape: Key companies in the global customer data platform market are aiming at launching novel platforms with innovative features to enhance their product portfolio. Besides this, some of the leading players are adoption strategies such as partnership, collaboration, and acquisition with other companies to gain edge in the market. For instance, In June 2021 , Adobe , a U.S.-based multinational computer software company announced the introduction of a new AI-based live search customer data platform for Adobe Commerce. This with assist adobe Commerce merchants to provide personalized search results to their shoppers as per their demand. , a U.S.-based multinational computer software company announced the introduction of a new AI-based live search customer data platform for Adobe Commerce. This with assist adobe Commerce merchants to provide personalized search results to their shoppers as per their demand. In February 2020 , Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company announced the acquisition of a Massachusetts based customer data platform provider, Evergage to expand its product portfolio. Key Companies Profiled by Fact.MR ActionIQ Adobe AgileOne Ascent360, Inc. BlueConic Lytics Inc. mParticle Inc. NGDATA Inc. Oracle Corporation Salesforce SAP SE Tealium More Valuable Insights on Customer Data Platform Market In its recent survey, Fact.MR highlights crucial factors steering growth in the global customer data platform market for the forecast period of 2022 to 2032. The study also provides key insights into drivers that are expected to create growth prospects in customer data platform market through detailed segmentation as follows: Type: Access Campaign Analytics Application: Retail Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) Telecom, Media, and Technology (TMT) Travel Healthcare Discrete Manufacturing Others Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa & Latin America Interested to Procure The Data? Inquire here https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=EB&rep_id=7326 Key Questions Covered in the Customer Data Platform Market Report What is the estimated revenue of the customer data platform market during the forecast period? Which are the challenges faced in the customer data platform market? Which region is estimated to exhibit fastest growth rate in the global customer data platform market during 2022-2032? What is the projected market valuation of the customer data platform market in 2022? Which are the factors driving the customer data platform during 2022-2032? What is the expected growth rate of the customer data platform market until 2032? Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Technology Domain Sales Engagement Software Market: Surging demand for automation to enhance visibility and rising enterprise mobility to increase agent performance and engagement are factors favoring the growth in the market. On account of this, the sales of sales engagement software are expected to surpass US$ 29.6 Bn by the end of 2032. Sales Performance Management Software Market: A number of enterprises are increasingly employing sales performance management (SPM) software to identify the error in operations and significantly decline the processing time of sales data. This is estimated to accelerate the sales of sales performance management software at a CAGR of 11.6% CAGR during the forecast period. Marketing Automation Market: Sales generation and customer retention are becoming more important with growing penetration of digitization. In addition to this, rising need to retain users or customers for business growth, and increasing requirement for an informed advertising strategy are expected to create strong demand for marketing automation solutions. About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a market research and consulting agency with deep expertise in emerging market intelligence. Spanning a wide range - from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare, chemical, and materials, to even the most niche categories. 80% of Fortune 1000's trusts us in critical decision making. Contact: Mahendra Singh US Sales Office 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583 E: sales@factmr.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/713666/FactMR_Logo.jpg MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / Alphinat Inc. (TSXV:NPA) announces, in partnership with a major Canadian IT Consulting firm, that SmartGuide has been chosen by one of Canada's most populous provinces to develop a Greenhouse Gas Registry that addresses the specific requirements of the province to report, track and monitor greenhouse gas emissions. "We are pleased that this large industrial province has entrusted us to help in the fight against the harmful effects of greenhouse gases" says Denis Michaud, Chief Solutions and Security Officer at Alphinat "and we look forward to delivering the solution within their tight deadlines" he added. "Our SmartGHGR.ca solution greatly diminishes delivery risks for our clients by leveraging common components and integrating with our clients existing IT investments," said Curtis Page, CEO at Alphinat In order to accelerate future growth, Alphinat has considerably broadened its horizons by now counting four main areas of solution delivery: 1) SmartGuide Portal Edition for Dynamics 3651 has optimized the way that clients can now create and easily deploy online services on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions. This offering is available in SaaS mode as well as on-premises. 2) SmartGuide GreenHouse Gas Registry solutions (SmartGHGR.ca) is a green fintech solution allowing governments and industry to work together in reducing the harmful effects of greenhouse gas. Alphinat currently has three provincial clients leveraging SmartGHRG.ca solution. 3) SmartGuide Claims solutions (SmartClaims.ca) were developed in conjunction with a major IT consulting partner, which offers unparalleled productivity to federal, state and municipal clients for financial claims applications, adjudication and settlements for financial compensation and class action settlements with customizable citizen-facing services and internal applications. 4) SmartGuide CIVIC Portal for Municipal Services, Permits & Licensing and SmartGuide Municipal Cloud are Municipal Cloud and on-premises solutions. These are used to make it easy for municipal clients to access, update, submit and make payments as part of back office business processes that require secure, robust portal and easy to use digital services for both municipalities and their citizens. All of the above solutions are available in SaaS mode as well as on-premises. About Alphinat At Alphinat, we are driven by the passion to make application development easy for everyone. We empower people with the knowledge and the vision of how a finished application should look and behave to be involved from start to end of the development of the process. After all, what better way to ensure a favourable outcome than to provide those closest to an application's end-users with a vested interest in its success throughout its development? T: (514) 398-9799 F: (514) 398-9353 www.alphinat.com 2000 Peel Street, Suite 680 Montreal, (Quebec) Canada H3A 2W5 That's why we bring you new ways to empower the right people at the right time throughout the application development process. At the same time, we're constantly working to reduce the need to code in order to make application development and maintenance simpler and less error-prone. So, whether you choose to develop your applications with the help of our low-code platform SmartGuide, kickstart your project using one of our pre-built apps or engage us or one of our partners to do the work for you, we're here to help you deploy better applications in record time. Visit us at https://www.alphinat.com for more information. We look forward to hearing from you. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this document, including those that express management's expectations or estimations with regard to the Company's future performance, constitute "forward-looking statements" as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause significant differences between actual results and those described in forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's capacity to increase acceptance of its products on the market, and to penetrate new markets; the potential existence of defects or undetected problems in the Company's products; the Company's ability to manage its growth; the Company's ability to compete with others; potential commitments; maintaining the Company's intellectual property rights and defending against litigation putting those rights in question; the Company's reliance on the knowledge of its key personnel; and the Company's access to sufficient capital to finance its future needs. This is a partial and non-exhaustive list of factors that could bear on any of our forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to Alphinat or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. The Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Risks and uncertainties that bear on the Company are described in greater detail in the Company's Annual Report. Neither 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. 1) Dynamics 365 is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation T: (514) 398-9799 F: (514) 398-9353 www.alphinat.com For further information please contact: Mr. Curtis Page Chief Executive Officer Alphinat Inc. (514) 398-9799 ext 225 SOURCE: Alphinat, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703684/Alphinat-Announces-SmartGuideR-Solutions-Chosen-by-A-Third-Canadian-Province-to-Deliver-a-Greenhouse-Gas-Registry-Solution Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Origen Resources Inc. (CSE: ORGN) (FSE: 4VXA) (the "Company" or "Origen") is pleased to provide an update on its Newfoundland Lithium exploration program. 2021-2022 Exploration Program Exploration continues on the Company's twenty greenfield lithium prospects in Newfoundland. Exploration crews collected and submitted for analysis, a total of 225 rock, 316 till and 568 biogeochemical samples in recently completed phases of fieldwork. The Company eagerly awaits the results from the spring 2022 program as analytical results from the autumn 2021 phase of exploration proved Origen's exploration concept by confirming existing lithium anomalies and generating new targets. Satellite image processing was used to optimize fieldwork and outlined numerous potential pegmatite outcrops. These locations were investigated by field crews and samples are being analyzed for lithium and associated pathfinder elements. Pegmatites identified at these locations are centimeters to metres in width and in some cases were traced for up to 100 meters along strike before the pegmatites were lost under cover. The recently completed work on numerous pegmatite clusters confirmed many have beryl associated with them, which is an important mineral known to form part of district scale LCT (lithium-caesium-tantalum) pegmatites. In addition, internal zoning within larger pegmatite dykes was observed and when combined with geochemical results and mineralogy will enable targeting for our next phase of exploration to vector in on the heart of lithium rich, spodumene bearing pegmatites. The next phase of work is planned for later this year and will move the project towards drill testing. "In one year the concept of discovering lithium in Newfoundland has gone from an idea to reality. We are very excited and encouraged with our initial results and work done by others exploring for lithium in the province. Being one of the first companies to identify the lithium potential in Newfoundland has allowed us to acquire an enviable land package covering some of the most prospective geology in the province," states Blake Morgan, President. John Harrop, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as that term is defined in NI 43-101 has prepared, supervised the preparation or approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release. About Newfoundland Lithium Belt The Newfoundland Lithium Belt exhibits all the characteristics of a major lithium rich corridor observed from Ireland to the Carolinas. There are key indicative signs that point to specific target areas with high expectations for the discovery of lithium rich pegmatites. Numerous occurrences of pegmatites have been observed in proximity to prospective lithium-cesium-tantalum ("LCT") geochemical signatures. Mapping of the geochemical pathfinders for lithium has revealed distinct vectors that have guided the Company to focus in on priority areas and acquire a commanding land position in this new belt. These geochemical pathfinders, on a regional scale, reveal a distinct corridor that transects Newfoundland and corresponds to the tectonic suture zone hosting the world-class Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt and the lithium pegmatite occurrences in Ireland that have received significant attention in recent years. In addition, the age of the associated parent granites observed in Newfoundland coincides with the 'sweet spot' when lithium rich pegmatites were emplaced along the belt. About Origen Origen is an exploration company engaged in generating, acquiring and advancing base, precious metal, and lithium properties. The Company currently holds a property portfolio of four 100% owned precious and base metal projects in southern British Columbia, a 100% interest in the 26,771 ha LGM project property in the mineral rich Golden Triangle of British Columbia, a 100% interest in the Middle Ridge gold project, a 100% interest in 20 lithium prospects in Newfoundland and a 100% interest in the Los Sapitos Lithium project in Argentina. On behalf of Origen, Blake Morgan President For further information, please contact Caroline Klukowski, Investor Relations at 604.260.5490. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Certain of the statements made and information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information." In particular references to the private placement and future work programs or expectations on the quality or results of such work programs are subject to risks associated with operations on the property, exploration activity generally, equipment limitations and availability, as well as other risks that we may not be currently aware of. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126049 Launch at CYTO 2022 in Philadelphia, June 3-7 METAFORA biosystems, a company that's leveraging its AI-powered flow cytometry platform to generate improved IVDs and more effective cell therapies, today announced the launch of METAflow, which offers the power of a highly advanced unsupervised algorithm suite through a simple, elegant workflow accessible to any user, from beginners to advanced users. A cloud-based software enabling automated multidimensional clustering of flow cytometry data, METAflow marks a dramatic advance over existing, suboptimal solutions regardless of data processing skills. Vincent Petit, CEO of Metafora, said, "Scientists and biologists today analyze flow cytometry data either manually, through a so-called gating strategy, or through a mix of manual data preprocessing and the implementation of a series of algorithms. Multiple trial and error runs are required before finding the right settings, and getting relevant results. In contrast, METAflow offers a new way for users to reach their desired populations with only a few clicks. Our beta version has garnered a lot of praise in testing, and we look forward to rolling out METAflow to the wider research community." METAFORA's team of cytometrists and mathematicians have successfully built a software with unmatched robustness and a seamless, comprehensive, user-friendly interface. In a nutshell, METAflow provides objective, reproducible, traceable results, all in a collaborative digital platform. Metafora believes that METAflow will allow hundreds of thousands of flow cytometrists to move from cumbersome sequential manual gating to automated multidimensional clustering to obtain more objective data in a much, much shorter timeframe. Altogether, users will be empowered to mine and retrieve the best from increasing data sets generated by conventional, mass or spectral cytometry. METAflow as an RUO is initially launched on the research market. The next step is a clinical grade version for use in clinical research and in routine settings. Please visit us at our stand 344 at CYTO, the annual meeting of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry, June 3-7, Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA. About Metafora METAFORA biosystems' proprietary reagents and state-of-the-art algorithms allow the detection of "metabolic reprogramming" induced during many disease processes. Evaluating and detecting anomalies in their energy needs, the company's innovative technology assesses the nutrient requirements of cells simply, rapidly and reproducibly. The company is preparing the European launch in 2022 of its first diagnostic test, METAglut1, for the early diagnosis of De Vivo disease, a rare pediatric neurometabolic disorder for which early diagnosis can be transformative. In addition, Metafora is developing its IVD platform for a number of oncology indications. Beyond IVD, the company has two other pillars: AI software to support the deployment of flow cytometry assays, and a solution to increase the clinical efficacy of cell therapies and reduce manufacturing costs. www.metafora-biosystems.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005521/en/ Contacts: Vincent Petit, CEO Phone: +33 6 76 71 61 14 Email: vincent.petit@metafora-biosystems.com This announcement is not an offer, whether directly or indirectly, in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa or in any other jurisdiction where such offer pursuant to legislation and regulations in such relevant jurisdiction would be prohibited by applicable law. Shareholders not resident in Sweden who wish to accept the Offer (as defined below) must make inquiries concerning applicable legislation and possible tax consequences. Shareholders should refer to the offer restrictions included in the section titled "Important information" at the end of this announcement and in the offer document which will be published shortly before the beginning of the acceptance period for the Offer. Shareholders in the United States should also refer to the section titled "Important notice to shareholders in the United States of America" at the end of this announcement. STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 2 May 2022, MGM Casino Next Lion, LLC, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of MGM Resorts International ("MGM"), announced a recommended public offer to the shareholders of LeoVegas AB (publ) ("LeoVegas") to tender all their shares in LeoVegas to MGM at a price of SEK 61 in cash per share (the "Offer"). The Swedish language offer document relating to the Offer (the "Offer Document") has today on 2 June 2022 been approved and registered by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Sw. Finansinspektionen). The Offer Document is available in Swedish and English on MGM's website (http://investors.mgmresorts.com/investors/leovegas). The Swedish language Offer Document will also be available on the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's website (www.fi.se). Pre-printed acceptance forms and postage-paid return envelopes will be distributed to shareholders of LeoVegas whose shares are directly registered with Euroclear Sweden AB on 3 June 2022. Shareholders of LeoVegas whose holdings are registered in the name of a nominee will not receive a pre-printed acceptance form. Acceptance must be made in accordance with instructions received by the nominee. The acceptance period for the Offer commences on 3 June 2022 and expires at 17:00 CEST on 30 August 2022. Assuming that the Offer is declared unconditional no later than on or around 31 August 2022, settlement is expected to be initiated on or around 7 September 2022. MGM reserves the right to extend the acceptance period for the Offer, one or several times, and to postpone the settlement date. Further, if MGM has obtained all relevant clearances, approvals and decisions in such time that the acceptance period can be closed before 30 August 2022, MGM may announce an earlier end date of the acceptance period. Advisors MGM has retained Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC as financial advisor and Advokatfirman Vinge KB and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as legal advisors in connection with the Offer. Further information For further information on the Offer, please visit: http://investors.mgmresorts.com/investors/leovegas The information was submitted for publication on 2 June 2022, 2:30 p.m. CEST. For enquiries, please contact: Andrew Chapman, Director of Investor Relations +1 (702) 693-8711, achapman@mgmresorts.com Brian Ahern, Executive Director of Communications media@mgmresorts.com Important information This press release has been published in Swedish and English. In the event of any discrepancy in content between the two language versions, the Swedish version shall prevail. This announcement is not an offer, whether directly or indirectly, in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa or in any other jurisdictions where such offer pursuant to legislation and regulations in such relevant jurisdictions would be prohibited by applicable law (the "Restricted Jurisdictions"). The release, publication or distribution of this press release in or into jurisdictions other than Sweden may be restricted by law and therefore any persons who are subject to the laws of any jurisdiction other than Sweden should inform themselves about, and observe any applicable requirements. In particular, the ability of persons who are not resident in Sweden to accept the Offer may be affected by the laws of the relevant jurisdictions in which they are located. Any failure to comply with the applicable restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the companies and persons involved in the Offer disclaim any responsibility or liability for the violation of such restrictions by any person. This announcement has been prepared for the purpose of complying with Swedish law, the Takeover Rules and the Swedish Securities Council's rulings regarding interpretation and application of the Takeover Rules and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this press release had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions other than Sweden. Unless otherwise determined by MGM or required by Swedish law, the Takeover Rules and the Swedish Securities Council's rulings regarding interpretation and application of the Takeover Rules, and permitted by applicable law and regulation, the Offer will not be made available, directly or indirectly, in, into or from a Restricted Jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction and no person may accept the Offer by any use, means or instrumentality (including, but not limited to, facsimile, e-mail or other electronic transmission, telex or telephone) of interstate or foreign commerce of, or of any facility of a national, state or other securities exchange of any Restricted Jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of that jurisdiction and the Offer may not be capable of acceptance by any such use, means, instrumentality or facilities. Accordingly, copies of this press release and any formal documentation relating to the Offer are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or sent in or into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of that jurisdiction and persons receiving such documents (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not mail or otherwise forward, distribute or send them in or into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of that jurisdiction. The availability of the Offer to shareholders of LeoVegas who are not resident in and citizens of Sweden may be affected by the laws of the relevant jurisdictions in which they are located or of which they are citizens. Persons who are not resident in or citizens of Sweden should inform themselves of, and observe, any applicable legal or regulatory requirements of their jurisdictions. The Offer, the information and documents contained in this press release are not being made and have not been approved by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the "FSMA"). Accordingly, the information and documents contained in this press release are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom, unless an exemption applies. The communication of the information and documents contained in this press release is exempt from the restriction on financial promotions under section 21 of the FSMA on the basis that it is a communication by or on behalf of a body corporate which relates to a transaction to acquire day to day control of the affairs of a body corporate; or to acquire 50 percent or more of the voting shares in a body corporate, within article 62 of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005. Statements in this press release relating to future status or circumstances, including statements regarding future performance, growth and other trend projections and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential and other effects of the Offer, are forward-looking statements. These statements may generally, but not always, be identified by the use of words such as "anticipates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "estimates", "plans", "will be" or similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by these forward-looking statements due to many factors, many of which are outside the control of MGM. Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and the information incorporated by reference into this announcement and may include statements regarding the intentions, beliefs or current expectations of MGM or LeoVegas concerning, amongst other things: (i) future capital expenditures, expenses, revenues, earnings, synergies, economic performance, indebtedness, financial condition, dividend policy, losses and future prospects; (ii) business and management strategies, the expansion and growth of MGM's or LeoVegas' business operations and potential synergies resulting from the Offer; and (iii) the effects of government regulation and industry changes on the business of MGM or LeoVegas. Any forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date on which they are announced. Except as required by the Takeover Rules or applicable law or regulations, MGM expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to publicly announce updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in the offer document to reflect any change in expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. The reader should, however, consult any additional disclosures that MGM or LeoVegas have made or may make. Important notice to shareholders in the United States of America The Offer described in this press release is made for the issued and outstanding shares of LeoVegas, a company incorporated under Swedish law, and is subject to Swedish disclosure and procedural requirements, which may be different from those of the United States. The Offer is made in the United States pursuant to Section 14(e) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "U.S. Exchange Act") and Regulation 14E thereunder ("Regulation 14E"), to the extent applicable, and otherwise in compliance with the disclosure and procedural requirements of Swedish law, including with respect to withdrawal rights, the Offer timetable, notices of extensions, announcements of results, settlement procedures (including as regards to the time when payment of the consideration is rendered) and waivers of conditions, which may be different from requirements or customary practices in relation to U.S. domestic tender offers. The offeror's ability to waive the conditions to the Offer (both during and after the end of the acceptance period) and the shareholders' ability to withdraw their acceptances, may not be the same under a tender offer governed by Swedish law as under a tender offer governed by U.S. law. Holders of the shares of LeoVegas domiciled or resident in the United States (the "U.S. Holders") are encouraged to consult with their own advisors regarding the Offer. LeoVegas' financial statements and all financial information included herein, or any other documents relating to the Offer, have been or will be prepared in accordance with IFRS and may not be comparable to the financial statements or financial information of companies in the United States or other companies whose financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The Offer is made to the U.S. Holders on the same terms and conditions as those made to all other shareholders of LeoVegas to whom the offer is being made. Any information documents, including the offer document, are being disseminated to U.S. Holders on a basis comparable to the method pursuant to which such documents are provided to LeoVegas' other shareholders. The U.S. Holders should consider that the price for the Offer is being paid in SEK and that no adjustment will be made based on any changes in the exchange rate. It may be difficult for U.S. Holders to enforce their rights and any claims they may have arising under the U.S. federal or state securities laws in connection with the Offer, since LeoVegas is located in another country other than the United States, and some or all of its officers and directors may be residents of countries other than the United States. U.S. Holders may not be able to sue LeoVegas or MGM or their respective officers or directors in a non-U.S. court for violations of U.S. securities laws. Further, it may be difficult to compel LeoVegas or MGM and/or their respective affiliates to subject themselves to the jurisdiction or judgment of a U.S. court. To the extent permissible under applicable law or regulations, MGM and its affiliates or its brokers and its brokers' affiliates (acting as agents for MGM or its affiliates, as applicable) may from time to time and during the pendency of the Offer, and other than pursuant to the Offer, directly or indirectly purchase or arrange to purchase shares of LeoVegas outside the United States in reliance on applicable exemptions from the requirements of Regulation 14E (or any securities that are convertible into, exchangeable for or exercisable for such shares). These purchases may occur either in the open market at prevailing prices or in private transactions at negotiated prices, but in any event, at a price per share not more than the Offer Price, and information about such purchases will be disclosed by means of a press release or other means reasonably calculated to inform U.S. Holders of such information. In addition, affiliates to the financial advisors to MGM may also engage in ordinary course trading activities in securities of LeoVegas, which may include purchases or arrangements to purchase such securities as long as such purchases or arrangements are in compliance with applicable law and regulation. Any information about such purchases will be announced in Swedish and in a non-binding English translation available to the U.S. Holders through relevant electronic media if, and to the extent, such announcement is required under applicable Swedish or U.S. law, rules or regulations. The receipt of cash pursuant to the Offer by a U.S. Holder may be a taxable transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes and under applicable U.S. state and local, as well as foreign and other, tax laws. Each shareholder is urged to consult an independent professional advisor regarding the tax consequences of accepting the Offer. Neither MGM nor any of its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, employees or agents or any other person acting on their behalf in connection with the Offer shall be responsible for any tax effects or liabilities resulting from acceptance of this Offer. NEITHER THE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY U.S. STATE SECURITIES COMMISSION HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE OFFER, PASSED ANY COMMENTS UPON THE MERITS OR FAIRNESS OF THE OFFER, PASSED ANY COMMENT UPON THE ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE OR PASSED ANY COMMENT ON WHETHER THE CONTENT IN THIS PRESS RELEASE IS CORRECT OR COMPLETE. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is not responsible to anyone other than MGM Resorts International for advice in connection with the Offer. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/537819/MGM_Resorts_International_Logo.jpg The U.S. to Vanguard Sales in North America Phenolic Resins Market, Contributing Over 87.8% of Share NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fact.MR provides unbiased analysis on the global phenolic resins market for the forecast period of 2022 to 2032. The report further delivers elaborate information about latest trends and numerous factors affecting sales through various segments, including type, application, end use, and region. Fact.MR - A Market Research and Competitive Intelligence Provider: The global phenolic resins market size is expected to reach US$ 24.78 Bn in 2032 and exhibit considerable growth at an astonishing CAGR of 5.4% in the forecast period (2022-2032). As per Fact.MR's study, sales of phenolic resins are likely to reach a valuation of US$ 14.69 Bn in 2022. Growing demand for tires worldwide owing to the increasing production and sales of automotive is set to push the market. In addition, the urgent need for lightweight and fuel-efficient vehicles to keep up with the stringent government emission norms is likely to aid growth. As per the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, in 2021, nearly 56,398,471 passenger cars and 26,286,317 commercial vehicles were sold across the globe. These numbers are likely to grow at a rapid pace in the upcoming years, thereby propelling the market. For more insights into the Market, Get a Sample of this Report! https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=7338 Besides, the ability to blend with polymers, high heat resistance, low toxicity of smoke, and good mechanical strength of phenolic resins are likely to boost their demand in various end-use industries. Companies are expected to use these resins in insulation materials backed by their low thermal conductivity. Phenolic resins are also set to be extensively used as an adhesive and a durable binder in structural wood panels, as well as in mineral wool insulation because of their excellent water resistance property. In addition, in the construction sector, phenolic resins are likely to be utilized for composites, brake linings, foundry binders, and insulation foams. Moreover, phenolic resin manufacturers are projected to find new growth opportunities in future with the high demand for fuel-efficient and lightweight vehicles worldwide. Ongoing development in the transportation and automotive sectors is another vital factor that is likely to augur well for the global market. Key Takeaways: The U.S. phenolic resins market is expected to procure a share of 87.8% and create an absolute $ opportunity of US$ 3.04 Bn by 2032. by 2032. Based on type, the resol resin segment is likely to exhibit growth at a CAGR of 6.2% in 2032 and reach US$ 6.64 Bn in the same year. in the same year. Sales in the novolac resins category are anticipated to be valued at US$ 3.37 Bn and grow by 1.6X during the forecast period. and grow by 1.6X during the forecast period. By application, the insulation segment is set to capture nearly 20.4% of the global phenolic resins market share in 2032. The paper impregnation category is poised to grow 1.8X and create an absolute $ opportunity of US$ 2.47 Bn in 2032. Growth Drivers: Increasing demand for phenolic resins in the automotive sector owing to their impact resistance and fire retardancy properties is set to drive growth. Rising construction and renovation of commercial and residential infrastructures in developing economies is likely to boost growth. Restraints: Fluctuating prices of petroleum-based raw materials, such as propylene and benzene, required for the production of phenolic resins may hamper growth. The water generated during a curing reaction in phenolic resins can remain trapped within the composite and may hinder their demand. To Gain In-Depth Insights on Phenolic Resins Market, Request Methodology at https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=7338 Competitive Landscape: The global phenolic resins market is highly fragmented and competitive in nature with the presence of a large number of key players. The majority of the key players worldwide are striving to expand their geographic presence by either opening new manufacturing facilities or introducing new products in untapped areas. Meanwhile, a few other companies are aiming to generate more sales by adopting various organic and inorganic strategies, including new product developments, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, and collaborations. For instance, In July 2020 , allnex, a prominent producer of additives and industrial coating resins headquartered in Germany , introduced its latest, eco-friendly phenolic resin called PHENODUR PR 787/50MP for exterior and interior can coatings. It does not contain Bisphenol F or Bisphenol A and has an ultralow free-formaldehyde value of < 0.01%. Key Companies Profiled by Fact.MR 3M Company Company DIC Corporation Ashland Hexcel Corporation Arizona Chemical Kolon Industries Georgia-Pacific Chemicals Owens Corning Arclin Inc. Olympic Panel Products LLC. Hardwoods Inc. American Micro Industries Inc. Interested to Procure The Data? Inquire here https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=EB&rep_id=7338 More Valuable Insights on Phenolic Resins Market In the latest study, Fact.MR offers a 360-degree view of the global phenolic resins market for the forecast period of 2022 to 2032. This report also provides key factors such as recent developments and growth drivers influencing the sales in phenolic resins market through detailed segmentation as follows: By Type: Resol Resins Novolac Resins Other Product Types By Application: Insulation Paper Impregnation Wood Adhesives Laminates Molding Other Applications By End Use: Electrical & Electronics Building & Construction Furniture Automotive Other End Uses By Region: North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Key Questions Covered in the Phenolic Resins Market Report What will be the demand outlook of phenolic resins market in 2022? What will be the growth rate of the global phenolic resins market during 2022-2032? Which are key drivers bolstering the growth in phenolic resins market? Which are the factors hindering the growth in the phenolic resins market? Which region is expected to exhibit the fastest growth in the global phenolic resins market during 2022-2032? Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Chemicals & Materials Domain Chelating Resins Market: Demand for chelating resins is expected to grow at a rapid pace in future owing to their ability to effectively extract impurities in metals, including alkaline earth metal from brine solutions. In addition to that, increasing number of research and development activities by key players to launch cost-effective resins is set to drive growth. Fire Resins Market: As per Fact.MR, the global fire resins market is anticipated to grow at a steady pace by 2031 stoked by the increasing implementation of fire safety standards by governments. Besides, the rising construction of wooden frame houses in countries situated in Western Europe is expected to bode well for the market. Impregnating Resins Market: High demand for impregnating resins in the automotive and electronics sectors is anticipated to drive the global market. Apart from that, availability of relatively low cost raw materials for the production of impregnating resins in China is likely to propel the Asia Pacific market. About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a market research and consulting agency with deep expertise in emerging market intelligence. Spanning a wide range - from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare, chemical, and materials, to even the most niche categories. 80% of Fortune 1000's trusts us in critical decision making. Contact: Mahendra Singh US Sales Office 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583 E: sales@factmr.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/713666/FactMR_Logo.jpg New data on Helsinn's oncology pipeline presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2022 Lugano, Switzerland,June 02, 2022 - Helsinn Group ("Helsinn"), a fully integrated, global biopharma company with a diversified pipeline of innovative oncology assets, announces its participation in the upcoming 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting which will be held from 3-7 June. In alignment with Helsinn's new Fully Integrated Target Therapy (FITT) strategy in oncology, two abstracts have been accepted for poster presentation. The first abstract shares results of a preclinical study exploring the brain penetrability of vepafestinib (TAS0953/HM06), Helsinn's investigational oral treatment targeting rearranged during transfection (RET) abnormalities in solid tumors. Title: Comparison of TAS0953/HM06 and selpercatinib in RET Fusion-driven Preclinical Disease Models of Intracranial Metastases Author: Igor Odintsov, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Session: Central Nervous System Tumors Abstract ID: 2024 The second abstract provides an overview of the ongoing PROOF 301 trial of infigratinib, a kinase inhibitor targeting cancers driven by fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) fusions or other rearrangements. Details are as follows: Title: PROOF 301: a multicenter, open-label, randomized, phase 3 trial of infigratinib vs gemcitabine + cisplatin in patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma with an FGFR2 gene fusion/rearrangement Author: Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, MBA, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medical College Session: Gastrointestinal Cancer-Gastroesophageal, Pancreatic, and Hepatobiliary Abstract ID: TPS4171 Sergio Cantoreggi, Helsinn Group Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D, commented:"We are excited that the abstracts on two of our investigational products, vepafestiniband infigratinib, have been accepted for presentation at ASCO. In line with our Fully Integrated Targeted Therapystrategy, we are dedicated to progressing our pipeline of products to treat rare oncological diseases. More broadly, we are increasingly convinced of the importance of adequate screening for genetic alterations,through the use ofcomprehensivebiomarker testing,to expanddisease treatment options, thus ensuring that patients can receive the most appropriate and targeted treatment." About Helsinn Helsinn is a fully integrated, global biopharma company headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland. It is focused on improving the lives of cancer patients all over the world with a leading position in cancer supportive care and an innovative pipeline of cancer therapeutics. Helsinn is a third-generation family-owned company, that since 1976 has been focused on improving the lives of patients, guided by core values of respect, integrity and quality. It operates a unique licensing business model with integrated drug development and manufacturing capabilities. Helsinn has a commercial presence in 190 countries either directly, with operating subsidiaries in the U.S. and China, or via its network of long-standing trusted partners. Helsinn also has a fully integrated supply chain and product development through its subsidiary in Ireland, Helsinn Birex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Helsinn plays an active and central role in promoting social transformation in favor of people and the environment. Corporate social responsibility is at the heart of everything we do, which is reinforced in the company's strategic plan by a commitment to sustainable growth. To learn more about Helsinn please visit www.helsinn.com About vepafestinib(TAS0953/HM06) Vepafestinib (also known as TAS0953/HM06 in partnership with Taiho Pharmaceutical) is an investigational, potent, orally administered, highly selective RET inhibitor1,2. Relative to first generation RET inhibitors, vepafestinib is pharmacologically distinct, exhibits a distinct binding mode to RET, and has shown evidence of enhanced brain penetrability characteristics in preclinical models3. Vepafestinib is currently being evaluated in a phase 1 /2 study (the margaRET study, NCT04683250) in individuals with advanced solid cancers with RET abnormalities, including those resistant to first-generation selective RET inhibitors. Taiho and Helsinn signed a co-development and commercialization agreement for TAS0953/HM06 in 2017 and will continue to pursue together all preclinical, clinical and CMC developments. About RET RET is a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase. Abnormalities in the RET gene, such as fusions and point mutations, are oncogenic drivers of multiple human cancers. RET fusions are present in 1-2 % of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and are associated with a high incidence of brain metastasis at diagnosis. Patients are typically young and non-smokers. Although treatment for these patients has significantly improved in recent years, acquired resistance to first generation RET inhibitors has emerged. Overcoming this resistance and addressing the CNS progression in these patients are important areas of unmet need4,5. About infigratinib Infigratinib (BGJ398) is an oral, selective, small molecule kinase inhibitor of FGFR 1, 2, and 3. Infigratinib has received regulatory approval in the USA, Canada, and Australia for the treatment of adults with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) with a FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement. All three approvals were conditional and will require further evidence of efficacy. (See below for full US FDA-approved indication). The therapy is currently under investigation as a potential first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 fusion/rearrangement (PROOF 301 Trial, NCT03773302), in the adjuvant setting for adult patients with invasive urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer) with susceptible FGFR3 genetic alterations (PROOF 302 trial, NCT04197986), and in pediatric patients with advanced solid and central nervous system tumors with selected FGFR1-3 alterations (NEWEL Trial, NCT05222165). U.S. Indication and Important Safety Information for TRUSELTIQ (infigratinib) TRUSELTIQ (infigratinib) is indicated for the treatment of adults with previously treated, unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with a FGFR2 fusion or other rearrangement as detected by an FDA-approved test. Accelerated approval was granted based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification of clinical benefit in confirmatory trial(s). The recommended dosage of TRUSELTIQ is 125 mg (one 100 mg capsule and one 25 mg capsule) orally once daily for 21 consecutive days followed by 7 days off therapy, in 28-day cycles. Warnings and precautions Ocular toxicity : Retinal pigment epithelial detachment (RPED), which may cause blurred vision, occurred in 11% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ, including patients with asymptomatic RPED, with a median onset of 26 days. Perform comprehensive ophthalmological exam including optical coherence tomography prior to initiating, at 1 month, at 3 months, and then every 3 months during treatment with TRUSELTIQ. Urgently evaluate patients for onset of visual symptoms and follow up every 3 weeks until resolved or TRUSELTIQ is discontinued. Withhold TRUSELTIQ as recommended. Dry eye occurred in 29% of 351 patients; treat with ocular demulcents as needed : Retinal pigment epithelial detachment (RPED), which may cause blurred vision, occurred in 11% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ, including patients with asymptomatic RPED, with a median onset of 26 days. Perform comprehensive ophthalmological exam including optical coherence tomography prior to initiating, at 1 month, at 3 months, and then every 3 months during treatment with TRUSELTIQ. Urgently evaluate patients for onset of visual symptoms and follow up every 3 weeks until resolved or TRUSELTIQ is discontinued. Withhold TRUSELTIQ as recommended. Dry eye occurred in 29% of 351 patients; treat with ocular demulcents as needed Hyperphosphatemia and soft tissue mineralization : Hyperphosphatemia, which can lead to soft tissue mineralization, cutaneous calcinosis, non-uremic calciphylaxis, vascular calcification, and myocardial calcification, occurred in 82% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ, with a median time to onset of 8 days (range 1-349); 83% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ received phosphate binders. Monitor for hyperphosphatemia throughout treatment. Initiate phosphate-lowering therapy for serum phosphate >5.5 mg/dL; withhold TRUSELTIQ and initiate phosphate-lowering therapy for serum phosphate >7.5 mg/dL; withhold, reduce the dose, or permanently discontinue TRUSELTIQ based on duration and severity of hyperphosphatemia : Hyperphosphatemia, which can lead to soft tissue mineralization, cutaneous calcinosis, non-uremic calciphylaxis, vascular calcification, and myocardial calcification, occurred in 82% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ, with a median time to onset of 8 days (range 1-349); 83% of 351 patients treated with TRUSELTIQ received phosphate binders. Monitor for hyperphosphatemia throughout treatment. Initiate phosphate-lowering therapy for serum phosphate >5.5 mg/dL; withhold TRUSELTIQ and initiate phosphate-lowering therapy for serum phosphate >7.5 mg/dL; withhold, reduce the dose, or permanently discontinue TRUSELTIQ based on duration and severity of hyperphosphatemia Embryo-fetal toxicity: TRUSELTIQ can cause fetal harm. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to the fetus; advise females of reproductive potential and men who are partnered with women of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with TRUSELTIQ and for 1 month after the final dose. Adverse reactions Most common adverse reactions (incidence =20%, all grades) : nail toxicity, stomatitis, dry eye, fatigue, alopecia, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, arthralgia, dysgeusia, constipation, abdominal pain, dry mouth, eyelash changes, diarrhea, dry skin, decreased appetite, blurred vision, and vomiting. : nail toxicity, stomatitis, dry eye, fatigue, alopecia, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, arthralgia, dysgeusia, constipation, abdominal pain, dry mouth, eyelash changes, diarrhea, dry skin, decreased appetite, blurred vision, and vomiting. Most common laboratory abnormalities (incidence =20%, all grades): increased creatinine, increased phosphate, decreased phosphate, increased alkaline phosphatase, decreased hemoglobin, increased alanine aminotransferase, increased lipase, increased calcium, decreased lymphocytes, decreased sodium, increased triglycerides, increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST), increased urate, decreased platelets, decreased leukocytes, decreased albumin, increased bilirubin, and decreased potassium. Drug interactions CYP3A inhibitors : Avoid use with strong and moderate CYP3A inhibitors : Avoid use with strong and moderate CYP3A inhibitors CYP3A inducers : Avoid use with strong and moderate CYP3A inducers : Avoid use with strong and moderate CYP3A inducers Gastric acid-reducing agents : Avoid coadministration with proton pump inhibitors, histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RA), and locally acting antacids. If coadministration of H2RA or locally acting antacids cannot be avoided, separate TRUSELTIQ administration H2RA: Take TRUSELTIQ 2 hours before or 10 hours after Locally-acting antacid: Take TRUSELTIQ 2 hours before or 2 hours after : Avoid coadministration with proton pump inhibitors, histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RA), and locally acting antacids. If coadministration of H2RA or locally acting antacids cannot be avoided, separate TRUSELTIQ administration Dosage and administration Prior to initiating TRUSELTIQ : Confirm FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement; perform comprehensive ophthalmic exam including OCT; confirm negative pregnancy test in females of reproductive potential. : Confirm FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement; perform comprehensive ophthalmic exam including OCT; confirm negative pregnancy test in females of reproductive potential. Starting dose : Take TRUSELTIQ orally once daily on Days 1-21 of 28-day cycles; continue treatment until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Take TRUSELTIQ on an empty stomach with a glass of water at least 1 hour before or 2 hours after food at approximately the same time each day. No renal or hepatic impairment 125 mg (one 100 mg capsule and one 25 mg capsule) Mild and moderate renal impairment (creatinine clearance 30-89 mL/min) 100 mg (one 100 mg capsule) Mild hepatic impairment (total bilirubin >upper limit of normal [ULN] to 1.5 x ULN or AST > ULN) 100 mg (one 100 mg capsule) Moderate hepatic impairment (total bilirubin >1.5 to 3 x ULN with any AST) 75 mg (three 25 mg capsules) : Take TRUSELTIQ orally once daily on Days 1-21 of 28-day cycles; continue treatment until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Take TRUSELTIQ on an empty stomach with a glass of water at least 1 hour before or 2 hours after food at approximately the same time each day. Dose modification: Consult the TRUSELTIQ full Prescribing Information for dose modifications and monitoring recommendations for RPED, hyperphosphatemia, and other Grades 3-4 adverse reactions. For additional information, please see the: U.S. Full Prescribing Information for TRUSELTIQ Canada Patient Medication Informationfor TRUSELTIQ infigratinib capsules Australia Product Informationfor TRUSELTIQ infigratinib hard capsules About Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) CCA represents an aggressive group of malignancies that form in the bile ducts. Although rare in most countries (with a worldwide estimated incidence of <6 per 100,000 people), the incidence of this malignancy is increasing worldwide. Because the disease is usually asymptomatic at early-stages, diagnosis may be delayed until advanced stages, when CCA typically presents as locally advanced or metastatic disease. Despite continuing advances in treatments, the prognosis for this disease remains poor, with a 5-year survival rate of 7-20%9. Cholangiocarcinoma is currently classified into intrahepatic and extrahepatic, on the basis of the anatomical site of origin. FGFR2 alterations are present in approximately 10-16%6,7 of CCA patients with intrahepatic disease and represent potential targets for treatments.8,9 References: 1 Miyazaki I., Ishida K., Kato M., et al. Discovery of TAS0953/HM06, a novel next generation RET-specific inhibitor capable of inhibiting RET solvent front mutations. Mol Cancer Ther 2 Odintsov I., Kurth R.I., Ishizawa K., et al. TAS0953/HM06 is effective in preclinical models of diverse tumor types driven by RET alterations. Mol Cancer Ther 3 Odintsov I., Lui A. J. W., Ishizawa K., et al, Comparison of TAS0953/HM06 and selpercatinib in RET Fusion-driven Preclinical Disease Models of Intracranial Metastases. Abstract 2024, ASCO 2022. 4 Subbiah V & Cote GJ, Advances in Targeting RET-Dependent Cancers. Cancer Discov. 2020 Apr;10(4):498-505. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-19-1116. 5 Drusbosky L.M., RodriguezE., DawarR., IkpeazuC.V. Therapeutic strategies in RET gene rearranged non-small cell lung cancer. J Hematol Oncol. 2021; Mar 26;14(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s13045-021-01063-9. 6Farshidfar, F. , Zheng, S. , Gingras, M et al. Integrative Genomic Analysis of Cholangiocarcinoma Identifies Distinct IDH-Mutant Molecular Profiles. Cell Rep 2017 Mar 4;18(11):2780-2794. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.02.033 7Kongpetch, S., Jusakul, A., Quan Lim, J. et al. Lack of Targetable FGFR2 Fusions in Endemic Fluke-Associated Cholangiocarcinoma. CO Glob Oncol 2020 Apr;6:628-638.doi: 10.1200/GO.20.00030 8 Banales, J., Cardinale, V., Carpino, G. et al. Cholangiocarcinoma: current knowledge and future perspectives consensus statement from the European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma 9 Banales, J.M., Marin, J.J.G., Lamarca, A. et al. Cholangiocarcinoma 2020: the next horizon in mechanisms and management. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 17, 557-588 For more information: Helsinn Media Contact: Paola Bonvicini Group Head of Communication Lugano, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21 Email: Info-hhc@helsinn.com TORONTO and GATINEAU, Quebec, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Converge Technology Solutions Corp. ("Converge" or "the Company") (TSX:CTS) (FSE:0ZB) (OTCQX:CTSDF) a software-enabled IT & Cloud Solutions provider, is pleased to announce it will now provide IBM Power Systems through Google Cloud. Converge's IBM Power for Google Cloud Marketplace solution will also be generally available later this year in Frankfurt, Germany. This extended availability will help provide continuity of experience and feature parity with the Company's previously announced Google Cloud Marketplace solution, Converge Enterprise Cloud - IBM Power for Google Cloud (IP4G), which currently operates in Google Cloud's US-East and US-Central cloud regions. IP4G allows Google Cloud clients to take advantage of enhanced infrastructure-as-a-service solutions centered around IBM Power Systems. IP4G supports clients on any Power operating system, including AIX, IBM i, or Linux on Power, and brings expanded capabilities and new geographic options for enterprise clients migrating to the cloud. As a Google Cloud partner, focused on infrastructure and application modernization, along with analytics and machine learning, Converge has a proven track record of migrating enterprise workloads running on Power Systems, uniquely combined with Google Cloud services. The result is a modernize-to-value approach for cloud migrations as our clients seek to transform their business through the adoption of Google Cloud's portfolio of services. Converge's portfolio of professional and managed services, backed by a global team of experts, also provides additional options for customers seeking to improve operational efficiency, migrate with confidence, or further reduce operational responsibilities. Converge recently achieved their Google Cloud Infrastructure Specialization demonstrating their advanced technical proficiency in this solution pillar. "Migrating business-critical systems like IBM Power to the cloud with minimal disruption and running them securely and efficiently is a key consideration for many businesses evaluating cloud migrations," said Manvinder Singh, Managing Director, Technology Partnerships, Google Cloud. "Services from Converge provide customers with a pathway to modernize core infrastructure and applications, including IBM Power, by migrating them to Google Cloud and delivering them as a managed service on our global, trusted infrastructure - helping accelerate their cloud migrations and infrastructure modernization plans." "Converge is proud of our strong partnership with Google Cloud and the opportunity to continue advancing our ability to best serve clients in Google Cloud across North America and Europe," stated Greg Berard, President of Converge. "We announced our Google Cloud Marketplace solution (IP4G) in November 2021, and we're excited to begin expanding our portfolio of offerings and going to market as a Google Cloud Partner with this innovative new offering." AboutConverge Converge Technology Solutions Corp. is a software-enabled IT & Cloud Solutions provider focused on delivering industry-leading solutions and services. Converge's global solution approach delivers advanced analytics, application modernization, cloud, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and digital workplace offerings to clients across various industries. The Company supports these solutions with advisory, implementation, and managed services expertise across all major IT vendors in the marketplace. This multi-faceted approach enables Converge to address the unique business and technology requirements for all clients in the public and private sectors. For more information, visit convergetp.com. For further information contact: Converge Technology Solutions Corp. Email: investors@convergetp.com Phone: 416-360-1495 Residents of Sievierodonetsk, Lugansk Oblast, wait hidden in their basement during heavy shelling by Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists in this Feb. 28, file photo. AFP-Yonhap Russian forces pressed closer to the center of an industrial city Wednesday in a drive to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said it would supply advanced rockets to Kyiv to help push Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces, now 98 days into their invasion, pounded infrastructure in eastern and southern regions, including the city of Sievierodonetsk, which they entered May 27 and is the main focus of their ground offensive in the eastern Donbas region. According to provincial Governor Serhiy Gaidai, a Russian air strike hit the Azot chemical factory in Sievierodonetsk on Tuesday, blowing up a tank of toxic nitric acid and releasing a plume of pink smoke. He urged residents to remain inside. Reuters could not independently confirm the cause of the incident. U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington would supply precision rocket systems and munitions as part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be formally announced on Wednesday. "We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table," Biden wrote in the New York Times. A Biden administration official said the new supplies which comes on top of billions of dollars worth of equipment such as drones and anti-aircraft missiles included the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which Kyiv has said is "crucial" to counter Russian missile attacks. Amid concerns that such weapons could draw the United States into direct conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine has promised Washington it will not use the rocket systems to hit targets inside Russia. Russia, however, warned of an increased risk of direct confrontation with the United States. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Saudi Arabia, said the supply of the rocket launchers raised the risks of a "third country" being dragged into the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such supplies would not encourage Ukraine's leadership to resume stalled peace talks. "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire," Peskov said. Shortly after the U.S. decision was announced, the Russian defense ministry said Russia's nuclear forces were holding drills in the Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported. The report did not mention the U.S. decision. Russia has also completed testing its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it by the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet, a senior military officer said on Wednesday. Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces continued to pound northern, southern and eastern districts of Sievierodonetsk. If Russia captures the city and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it will hold all of Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists and a key war aim of President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian forces now control just 20 percent of Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces 60 percent and the rest has become a "no-man's land," Oleksandr Stryuk, the Ukrainian head of the city administration, told Reuters. "The 20 percent is being fiercely defended by our armed forces... Attempts are being made to drive out the Russian troops... We have hope that despite everything we will free the city...," Stryuk said. Governor Gaidai said Lysychansk was easier to defend as it is located on a hill but Russian forces would target it with artillery and mortars once in full control of Sievierodonetsk. The leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, told TASS news agency Russian proxies had advanced slower than expected to safeguard city infrastructure and "exercise caution around its chemical factories." Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency which had long operated out of Sievierodonetsk, said up to 12,000 civilians remain trapped in the crossfire, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity. Before the war, the city was home to around 120,000 people. U.S. President Joe Biden participates in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) change of command ceremony at USCG Headquarters in Washington, D.C., June 1. Admiral Karl Schultz was relieved by Admiral Linda Fagan as the 27th commandant of the USCG and first woman to hold the position. AFP-Yonhap The new U.S. package includes ammunition, counter fire radars, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles and anti-armor weapons, officials said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday Berlin would supply Kyiv with its IRIS-T medium-range surface-to-air defense system. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for more weapons while lambasting the European Union, which agreed on Monday to cut imports of Russian oil, for not sanctioning energy from Russia sooner. The EU will ban imports of Russian oil by sea. Officials said that would halt two-thirds of Russia's oil exports to Europe at first, and 90% by the end of this year. Responding to the EU oil embargo, Russia widened its gas cuts to Europe, driving prices higher and ratcheting up its economic battle with Brussels. Moscow said Wednesday it could re-route oil exports to limit its losses. The war has also disrupted Ukraine's exports of wheat and other commodities, hitting consumers with higher food prices especially in the world's poorest countries. Pope Francis appealed for all blockades on wheat exports from Ukraine to be lifted, saying grain should not be used as a "weapon of war." Putin launched what he calls a special military operation Feb. 24 to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of aggression. (Reuters) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Pantera Silver Corp. (TSXV: PNTR) ("Pantera" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Joe Gray has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors bringing significant capital markets and project financing experience to the Company. Mr. Gray has over 12 years' experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry. Since 2010, Mr. Gray has been manager of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance services at Lion One Metals (TSXV: LIO), an advanced stage gold company in Fiji. Mr. Gray has been involved in all three stages of the company's development from early exploration, development and construction, and has been instrumental in the successful completion of over $130 million dollars raised for Lion One. "Mr. Gray has worked in the capital markets of junior exploration and development for over twelve years with Lion One Metals, an advanced high grade gold project in Fiji. Mr. Gray is well known in the capital finance markets and has built an international network within the precious metals market and will prove to be a valued addition to our team," stated Mr. Jay Roberge, President of Pantera Silver Corp. Mr. Gray stated, "I'm excited to work with the Pantera team and contribute to the exploration and advancement of the Company's highly prospective Nuevo Taxco Silver Project. These are very exciting times for previous metals with an interesting setup for silver playing a growing role in electronic power efficiencies within the new green economy." In addition, the Board of Directors of the Company has authorized the granting of incentive stock options under its Stock Option Plan to purchase 300,000 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $0.20 CAD per share for a five-year term expiring June 1, 2027. The stock options are being granted to certain directors and advisors of the Company. About Pantera Silver Corp. Pantera Silver Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company committed to enhancing shareholder value by advancing a diverse portfolio of mineral projects through collaborative partnerships and highly experienced technical teams. Pantera will continue to seek out and secure high-quality, unencumbered projects through research, staking and strategic acquisitions. Throughout the process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities that build lasting relationships through honest and respectful business and environmental practices. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Jay Roberge" CEO/Chairman Pantera Silver Corp. panterasilvercorp@gmail.com http://www.panterasilver.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual financial results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by those forward looking statements and the forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Pantera Silver Corp disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except as required by law. Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release publication, distribution or dissemination directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126249 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - General Motors has cut the prices of its 2023 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles or EV, despite rising commodity costs, reports said. GM's vehicle is likely the cheapest electric vehicle available in the U.S. at present. The company is slashing prices on the Bolt by $5,900 and of the larger Bolt EUV by $6,300. The lowest-price version will start at $26,595, down from earlier announced $32,495. Further, the Bolt EUV will start at $28,195, compared to previous price of $35,695. GM reportedly said, 'This change reflects our ongoing desire to make sure Bolt EV/EUV are competitive in the marketplace.' The company said it plans to build more Bolt EVs and EUVs this year than in any other year since it launched in 2016. GM last year had recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles built since it began production due to a faulty battery that could catch fire. GM resumed Bolt production in April and began resuming sales earlier this year after a six months halt. The company also launched an advertising campaign recently to win back Bolt consumers. GM's price cut move comes as other EV makers raised prices on their electric vehicles amid rising commodity costs, mainly for EV battery materials. 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. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Sanatana Resources Inc. (TSXV: STA) ("Sanatana" or the "Company"), further to its news releases of April 22, 2022 and May 12, 2022, has closed the second tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement"). The second tranche consisted of 2,070,000 units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit for gross aggregate proceeds of $310,500. Peter Miles, Sanatana's CEO commented, "We are mobilizing to Bell 2 Lodge today in preparation for our upcoming 2022 exploration and drilling program. Exploration including geophysics will begin shortly and drilling is expected to begin around July 1, 2022. With the second tranche closing, we will have approximately $4.2 million in cash and prepaid exploration expenses on hand as we begin our 2022 field season. We look forward to commencing our initial drill program at Oweegee." Each Unit issued in the second tranche consisted of one common share of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.20 for a period of two years following the closing of the second tranche of the Private Placement. Buddy Doyle and Ian Smith, insiders of the Company, subscribed for 150,000 Units ($22,500) and 330,000 units ($49,500) respectively under the Private Placement (the "Insider Subscriptions"). The Insider Subscriptions constitute "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company has relied on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in Sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a), respectively, of MI 61-101 in respect of the Insider Subscriptions. In connection with the Private Placement, the Company paid aggregate cash finder's fees totalling $13,410 and issued 89,400 finder's warrants (the "Finder's Warrants") to a certain qualified arm's length finder. Each Finder's Warrant is exercisable into one Common Share (a "Finder's Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $0.20 per Finder's Warrant Share on or before June 1, 2024. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement are subject to a statutory hold period expiring on October 2, 2022 in accordance with applicable securities legislation. The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to fund the upcoming drilling and exploration of the Oweegee Dome project and for general working capital. The securities offered pursuant to the Private Placement have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. 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 news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About the Company Sanatana Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on high-impact properties in Canada. With an award-winning technical team and experienced management and board of directors, Sanatana is based in Vancouver and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: STA). SANATANA RESOURCES INC. (signed) "Peter Miles " Peter Miles Chief Executive Officer For additional information on the Company, please contact Mr. Peter Miles, Chief Executive Officer at (604) 408-6680 or email investor@sanatanaresources.com . To be added to the email distribution list, please email ir@sanatanaresources.com with "Sanatana" in the subject line. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider 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/126217 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Revised data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed U.S. labor productivity tumbled by slightly less than previously estimated in the first quarter of 2022. The report showed labor productivity plunged by 7.3 percent compared to the previously reported 7.5 percent nosedive. Economists had expected the slump in productivity to be unrevised. The Labor Department said the revised decrease still represented the largest decline in quarterly productivity since the third quarter of 1947. Meanwhile, the report showed the spike in unit labor costs in the first quarter was upwardly revised to 12.6 percent from the previously reported 11.6 percent. The jump in labor costs was expected to be unrevised. 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. NewAE's accessible solutions will support open evaluation of OpenTitan security across entire partner community CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- lowRISC C.I.C., the open source organization dedicated to bringing secure collaborative innovation to silicon development, today announced the acquisition of NewAE Technology, Inc., a privately-held designer and manufacturer of broadly accessible silicon security analysis tools. The acquisition brings added momentum to lowRISC, whose OpenTitan project - a collaboration between lowRISC, Google, Western Digital, Seagate and other commercial and academic partners - has created the first transparent, high-quality reference design and integration guidelines for silicon root of trust (RoT) chips. As an open source project, OpenTitan enables the larger community to proactively audit, evaluate and dramatically improve the security properties of the chip design. With the addition of NewAE Technology's advanced hardware security analysis tools, OpenTitan's community of partners will now be able to conduct side-channel power analysis and fault injection attacks to uncover vulnerabilities in physical security implementations of their own silicon. "NewAE's groundbreaking and accessible tools have the potential to be central to security testing of embedded silicon throughout the ecosystem," said Gavin Ferris, CEO of lowRISC . "With its open-design approach to hardware and its commitment to transparency and security, NewAE strategically complements our own open source silicon design focus, helping create transparent silicon worthy of being trusted. We look forward to continuing to support and expand upon NewAE's current product offerings, bolstering evaluation of OpenTitan's own security, and ensuring that open source hardware can be hardened against the most serious attacks." Founded in 2014, NewAE Technology built the first commercially supported open source toolchain for advanced hardware security evaluation, including side-channel analysis and fault injection. Its signature product, ChipWhisperer, is an open source toolchain that provides a standardized capture tool for testing new analysis algorithms in real time along with countermeasures to expose weaknesses that exist in embedded systems. As such, this acquisition will enable lowRISC to develop and evaluate digital countermeasures in the open source, disrupting the market of traditionally niche security analysis tools with an approachable, accessible hardware security tool. "lowRISC's acquisition of NewAE brings together two philosophically-aligned organizations committed to secure, open source silicon development and adoption, bringing transparency to what has traditionally been a very locked down ecosystem," said Dominic Rizzo, OpenTitan's Project Director. "NewAE's offerings will fundamentally change the nature of OpenTitan silicon development by enabling engineers and designers in our community to be more aware of side-channel and fault-injection attacks, allowing us all to build more secure systems." Side-channel and fault-injection attacks enable attackers to break into and extract information from a secure device. Because these attacks are often non-invasive, they are difficult to detect and some of the most challenging to mitigate. With a side-channel attack, bad actors can obtain cryptographic keys by observing a device's power consumption to extract critical secrets. Fault-injection attacks occur when an attacker injects a fault into a device to disrupt its intended behavior and access information. "NewAE and lowRISC's shared belief in open source hardware made lowRISC a natural home for ChipWhisperer and related projects," said Colin O'Flynn, CEO, NewAE Technology, Inc. "This alignment brings to the OpenTitan project expertise in precise analysis tools that visualize weaknesses in silicon that would be vulnerable to side-channel and fault-injection attacks. This lets us focus not just on security tooling, but also on an entire stack of embedded security solutions." About lowRISC Founded in 2018 at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab, lowRISC is a not-for-profit company/CIC that provides a neutral home for collaborative engineering to develop and maintain open source silicon designs and tools for the long term. The lowRISC not-for-profit structure combined with full stack engineering capabilities in-house enables lowRISC to manage high quality projects like OpenTitan. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830861/IowRISC.jpg NEW YORK, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As more insights and marketing teams are looking to AI for new ways to find consumer insights, Synthesio is excited to announce its participation in The Social Intelligence Lab's Tech Demo Day, IIEX Europe in Amsterdam, and a special webinar featuring Forrester VP, Principal Analyst and artificial intelligence expert Brandon Purcell. These events complement Synthesio's participation in IIEX North America, where the team showcased how AI-enabled consumer intelligence. "There's a growing set of use cases for AI in the research field. There's a particular demand for using AI for multi-source data fusion, not only enabling innovation like spotting trends and emerging consumer needs but also for automation - streamlining existing research tasks and shortening time to insights. This is why we are particularly excited to meet insight pros and social intelligence practitioners - and show them how Synthesio's AI-enabled consumer intelligence can be a game-changer by helping them see what they are missing," said Allen Bonde, Synthesio CMO. Synthesio continues to help brands get the most complete, accurate, and predictive picture of consumers and markets with new features and capabilities; like the release of Topic Modeling , a machine learning-powered trend detection module that automatically scans and visualizes millions of conversations. Along with other new analytics, data sources, and services add-ons now available for clients to use with our platform, Synthesio will showcase how it's bringing AI-powered insights to the enterprise. To hear more about these recent innovations, you can register for Tech Demo Day on June 8th-9th, IIEX Europe on June 21st-22nd, or attend our upcoming feature webinar on June 14th. "When AI meets consumer insights, it unlocks tremendous value for research teams, marketers, and their business partners. We are excited to share what we have been building with global brands and to hear their perspectives. Having events that bring the marketing and research communities together and spark new connections is why live conferences are so missed and will never go away. We're very excited to do our own meetups and events in the second half of 2022 as well," added Heath Podvesker, Synthesio CEO. About Synthesio Synthesio , an Ipsos company, is a global leader in AI-enabled consumer intelligence. Our hybrid offering provides companies, brands, and agencies with the most complete, accurate, and predictive picture of their markets and buyers. Our AICI platform, powered by the most advanced natural language understanding and AI algorithms, supports the broadest set of online and offline data sources and fully leverages Ipsos' award-winning analytical frameworks. Synthesio was founded in 2006 and has offices in New York, Paris, London, Singapore, and Brussels. Not available in June but keen on seeing our AI-enabled consumer intelligence platform in action? Book your demo! Press Contact Aurore Legentil alegentil@synthesio.com Cloud-Native Logging and Security Analytics Leader Boosts Valuation to $2 Billion CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 02, 2022, the cloud-native logging and security analytics company, today announced $100 million in Series F funding at a valuation of $2 billion. Eurazeo -a leading global investment firm with over $30 billion in assets under management-led the round, and all other existing investors-Insight Partners, Georgian, TCV, General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kibo Ventures-also participated. Additionally, ISAI Cap Venture provided a strategic investment in the round. The round brings the total capital raised to more than $500 million. The new funding will fuel growth in new regions and verticals, accelerate Devo's delivery of the "autonomous SOC" and fund potential new M&A expansion. The funding round comes on the heels of Devo's acquisition of Kognos , the AI-powered threat hunting pioneer, which marked a key step in delivering what Devo calls the autonomous SOC- complete visibility, automation, analytics, and open access to community expertise and content. "Security teams are facing more threats than ever-regardless of industry or geography-and that challenge is compounded by the difficulty of hiring and retaining talent, a lack of visibility into the full attack surface, and the speed and scale necessary to keep up with not just growing threats, but the growth of their organizations," said Marc van Zadelhoff, CEO of Devo. "This round of funding allows us to deliver on the autonomous SOC through continued innovation of our technology, expand to more regions to serve more customers, and consider more M&A opportunities. We're thrilled to have instilled such confidence in our investors that they continue to support our innovation and the value we deliver to customers." Devo will continue to drive expansion in new verticals and geographies, particularly the public sector and the Asia-Pacificit was designated as Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program's (FedRAMP) "In-Process" and expects to reach full authorization in the fall of 2022. Devo has also seen substantial growth in the APAC region, including adding energy provider Powerco as a customer and deploying an in-region AWS environment for customers and partners. "Devo has proven to be a disruptive force in the security analytics market and we believe in its vision to fundamentally change the way organizations secure their data," said Guillaume d'Audiffret, Managing Director at Eurazeo, who joins the Devo Board. "It is setting a pace for innovation that will enable its customers to meet the ever-growing challenges facing security teams and we look forward to continuing our work together with Devo and fellow investors to further develop its market leadership." The round comes as Devo closes out an impressive fiscal year of aggressive growth, including: Nearly 100% annual revenue growth Nearly 100% customer growth for the year, including Sonos, AT&T, and Unisys Achieving FedRAMP "In-Process" status (https://www.devo.com/newsarticle/devo-reaches-fedramp-in-process-status/), and adding public sector customers including Ivy Tech Community College and Oklahoma University (https://www.devo.com/newsarticle/devo-reaches-fedramp-in-process-status/), and adding public sector customers including Ivy Tech Community College and Oklahoma University Surpassing 500 employees across North America, Europe, and APAC, including 91 new hires so far in 2022 Acquisition of Kognos (https://www.devo.com/newsarticle/devo-acquires-ai-powered-security-automation-innovator-to-deliver-the-autonomous-soc/), an AI-powered security automation innovator (https://www.devo.com/newsarticle/devo-acquires-ai-powered-security-automation-innovator-to-deliver-the-autonomous-soc/), an AI-powered security automation innovator Launch of Devo Exchange (https://www.devo.com/newsarticle/devo-launches-application-marketplace-to-accelerate-time-to-value-for-customers-and-partners/), a community-based application marketplace for Devo customers and partners The funding announcement coincides with the launch of a newly established team of security researchers and data scientists to form Devo SciSec, led by Chief Technology Officer, Gunter Ollmann. About Devo Devo is the only cloud-native logging and security analytics platform that releases the full potential of your data to empower bold, confident action. With unrivaled scale to collect all of your data without compromise, speed to give you immediate access and answers, and clarity to focus on the signals that matter most, Devo is your ally in protecting your organization today and tomorrow. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Devo is backed by Insight Partners, Georgian, TCV, General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kibo Ventures and Eurazeo. Learn more at www.devo.com . Devo PR Contact: Shannon Todesca shannon.todesca@devo.com +1 (781) 797-0898 The Devo SciSec Team Contributes to the Autonomous SOC by Evolving Threat Research from Reactive to Proactive Defense CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 02, 2022, the cloud-native logging and security analytics company, today announced a newly established team of security researchers and data scientists to form Devo SciSec. With Chief Technical Officer Gunter Ollmann at the helm, SciSec will bring together threat research, advanced data science, and machine learning expertise to enable organizations to preemptively detect and mitigate entire classes of threats. As a result of inadequate repeatable threat management methodologies and the continually changing and expanding threat landscape, security teams struggle to stay ahead of threat actors. Compounding this, security operations centers (SOCs) can't find and retain the talent they need to effectively adapt their security defenses. The SciSec team is set out to assist Devo customers by revolutionizing threat research and providing them with actionable intelligence and security content. Devo SciSec arms customers with expert-built detections, investigation tactics, and security analytics ?to complement analysts' skill sets and greatly improve SOC efficacy. "Security has historically been treated as an art and not a science, which has made approaches to threat protection very reactionary and more like firefighting, rather than a proactive activity. This instantly puts organizations at a disadvantage," said Gunter Ollmann, CTO at Devo. "Devo SciSec hopes to change how we fundamentally approach threat research by providing collective intelligence built by data scientists that forecasts a global view of threats and adversaries, paired with optimal response strategies." The addition of SciSec lends itself to the autonomous SOC, a concept introduced by the company last month when announcing the acquisition of AI-powered threat hunting company Kognos . The autonomous SOC establishes complete visibility, automation, analytics, and open access to community expertise and content to enable the SOC to eliminate the repetitive manual tasks that lead to analyst burnout and SOC inefficiency. SciSec plays a key part in arming Devo with the insights that help security teams work smarter. Since its formation, SciSec has used their innovative approaches to deliver several value-adding capabilities for Devo customers. MITRE ATT&CK Adviser: this new application developed by SciSec enables customers to operationalize the MITRE ATT&CK matrix to identify detection and data sources coverage gaps. Continuous content delivery: Customers have access to an ever expanding set of hundreds of use-case, technology specific, and emerging threat detections. Adversary Simulation: SciSec created AdSim, an open-source project, which crafts attack scenarios to run simulations and test cybersecurity defenses, AdSim is used to validate and ensure efficacy of new detection content. The launch of SciSec coincides with Devo's announcement of $100 million in Series F funding at a valuation of $2 billion, led by Eurazeo. The Devo SciSec team will be in attendance at the 2022 RSA Conference, June 6-9. For more information visit here , or come by booth #3241. About Devo Devo is the only cloud-native logging and security analytics platform that releases the full potential of your data to empower bold, confident action. With unrivaled scale to collect all of your data without compromise, speed to give you immediate access and answers, and clarity to focus on the signals that matter most, Devo is your ally in protecting your organization today and tomorrow. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Devo is backed by Insight Partners, Georgian, TCV, General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kibo Ventures and Eurazeo. Learn more at www.devo.com . Devo PR Contact: Shannon Todesca shannon.todesca@devo.com +1 (781) 797-0898 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / Alliance Mining Corp. (TSXV:ALM) ("Alliance" or the "Company") is pleased to report on progress being made on their Red Rice Lake gold project in the Bissett-Rice Lake belt in southeastern Manitoba. Photo of drill core from hole GB-05-2 showing weathered original sampling top and bottom, and recently cut core with quartz-carbonate veinlets, sericite alteration and disseminated pyrite Alliance has been systematically increasing its position along the prospective Red Rice fault structure through the acquisition of several claim groups in this under-explored section of the belt. Several vein systems are known on Alliance ground adjacent to the Red Rice lineament, including, from west to east, the Packsack, CUPP, Fox and Wolf mineralized zones. The Red Rice structure lies parallel to, and immediately south of, the Rice Lake structure hosting the historic San Antonio (True North) deposit held by 1911 Gold Corporation. The Rice Lake belt lies within the Precambrian Uchi Subprovince, which also includes the prolific Red Lake and Pickle Lake belts in northwestern Ontario. "We're excited to move forward with additional re-sampling of the Fox vein drill core now that improving weather again provides access to the core storage area." stated Alliance President Chris Anderson. "And we will be undertaking a summer program of prospecting, geology and geochemistry to identify additional targets along the Red Rice structure, leading to a large drill program in the 2022-23 winter drilling season." Photo of drill core from hole GB-05-2 showing weathered original sampling at top and recently cut core with quartz-carbonate veinlets, sericite alteration and disseminated pyrite. Of the vein systems along the Red Rice structure, the most substantial underground development has been on the Packsack zone. The Packsack claims host several gold-bearing veins within a conjugate fracture set adjacent to the Red Rice shear zone. Previous exploration on the Packsack property has been focussed on the Big Dome Vein, with a shaft to 525 ft (160 m) and 2867 ft (874 m) of drifting and crosscutting on 4 levels down to 500 ft (152 m), all completed between 1936 and 1940. The structural control on veining at the Packsack zone is similar to that at the True North Mine, 4 km to the northeast. Alliance completed a small drill program on the Packsack zone in 2018, intersecting 21.2 meters grading 0.86 g/t Au, including 1.78 g/t across 8.7m in the Big Dome vein. This mineralization occurs in a wide zone of quartz-ankerite-pyrite veining and sericite alteration associated with gabbro and porphyry dikes intruding dacite volcanic rocks. The 2018 drill program was constrained by the limited ground position at that time. Recent acquisition of the Greenbelt claims will expand drill targeting in that area. Alliance also intends to follow up on 2010 drilling by Centershield Gold Mines Inc on the CUPP group of veins, part of the Packsack acquisition, located 1 km east of the Packsack zone. Drill hole CP-10-14 intersected anomalous gold values over a 15m wide section of shearing, porphyry dikes and quartz veining at the east property boundary adjacent to the Greenbelt claims, now acquired by Alliance. As well, Alliance has identified an additional target on the Packsack group of claims, the Apex South zone, located 4 km northwest of the Packsack shaft. Drilling on the Apex in 2013 by Wynex Resources Inc intersected wide zones of sheeted veining with numerous narrow gold intersections in drill holes EV-13-5 through -8, up to the property boundary with the Packsack claim group. Alliance recently reported results from its Fall, 2021, prospecting program, which returned encouraging sampling results along the Red Rice structure, including 16.8 g/t from the Wolf vein and 9.84 g/t from the Fox vein. The best results overall, were from the Fox vein, where all seven grab samples returned significant gold values, ranging from 0.81 g/t Au to 9.84 g/t. Similar to the Packsack, the Fox zone comprises quartz veining within a sericite-pyrite alteration zone associated with gabbro and porphyry dikes in dacite volcanics. As reported on March 23, 2022, Alliance was able to access drill core from the first two holes of a 2005 drill program on the Fox vein. This core had been held in secure storage at 1911 Gold Corporation's True North mine site since that time. Drilling in 2005 targeted narrow, high grade gold mineralization suitable for underground mining, however the mineralization was found to occur over a wide sericite-pyrite alteration zone with frequent quartz stringers. Alliance's initial work on the Fox zone core was to sample the gaps and adjacent sections in holes GB-05-1 and GB-05-2 in order to determine whether a wider, lower-grade section of mineralization, with open pit potential, could be outlined. Assays from this previously unsampled core returned gold values up to 0.448 g/t. This data allowed for a recalculation of the narrow 2005 veins, to wider and lower-grade intersections that better represented the alteration style of mineralization. Drill hole GB-05-1 (-50) was initially reported as 0.152 oz Au/ton across 4.5 ft at 109.5-114.0 ft, and 0.147 oz/ton across 0.6 ft at 129.0-129.6 ft. This drill hole is now recalculated to have a weighted average grade of 2.04 g/t across 6.89m at 32.61-39.50m. Drill hole GB-05-2 (-75), drilled under GB-05-1 from the same setup, was reported as 0.468 oz/ton across 0.3 ft at 162.0-162.3 ft, and 0.143 oz/ton over 0.4 ft at 188.1-188.5 ft. Examination of the GB-05-2 core revealed unsampled sericite alteration and quartz veinlets in the gap between the two reported intersections, as well as following the second intersection. Incorporating additional assay data from this re-sampling program, this intersection can be recalculated as 0.35 g/t over 21.15m at 49.38-70.53, across the altered, veined and mineralized zone. The 28-hole 2005 drill program on the Fox vein was undertaken by San Gold Corporation, operator at that time of the True North gold mine at Bissett. The program was supervised by a Professional Geologist with standards, blanks, duplicates and QA/QC procedures believed to be consistent with present 43-101 protocols. True widths are estimated to be 71% for drill hole GB-05-1 and 34% for GB-05-2 assuming an 85 west dip on the Fox zone. Core size was BQ, which is no longer considered adequate for gold sampling purposes. Alliance has sampled surface trenches to confirm the presence of significant gold values in the Fox mineralized zone, but has not yet duplicated representative sections of the previously sampled core to confirm previously reported intersections. All core handing and sampling in this work program was conducted by William C. Hood, P.Geo. Samples were shipped to TSL Laboratories Inc (now Saskatchewan Research Council) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an accredited laboratory. Samples were assayed by TSL's 30 g FA/ICP procedure, with gravimetric finish on samples returning greater than 3000 ppb Au. All technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by William C. Hood, P.Geo., who is the Qualified Person on the Red Rice Lake gold project for the Company. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Chris Anderson Director Alliance Mining Corp. (604) 488-3900 Investor Relations: 604-488-3900 E-mail: ir@alliancemining.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to, market conditions, availability of financing, actual results of the Company's exploration and other activities, environmental risks, future metal prices, operating risks, accidents, labor issues, delays in obtaining governmental approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required by applicable law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release SOURCE: Alliance Mining Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703634/Alliance-Drilling-and-Work-Plan-Updates-On-Packsack-CUPP-Fox-and-Wolf-Mineralized-Gold-Zones--Bissett-Rice-Lake-Belt--Manitoba ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / SpendHQ lands as a Customer Leader in Spend Matters' most recent release of its SolutionMap benchmarking for Spring 2022. This release includes technology rankings that include 69 vendors. Known as the most rigorous, data-centric functionality assessment of procurement technologies in the industry, SolutionMap contains 500+ RFI requirements across 10 source-to-pay module and suite technology categories to pinpoint the actual capabilities of each participating vendor. Hundreds of customer references were taken into account and validated by the Spend Matters team. SolutionMap is updated and published every six months to accurately reflect solution updates. Since its launch 5 years ago, SolutionMap rankings have been consulted more than 270,000 times by procurement professionals. SpendHQ has been ranked with above-average customer scores across all three SolutionMap Market Personas. "Spend analytics is expanding to broader "supply" analytics in more advanced procurement organizations. Technology that supports spend analytics efforts includes spend classification, broader data layer support, reporting, report building, scorecarding and benchmarking, out-of-the-box functional reporting -- and more. Spend analytics represents one of the early procurement technology implementations for artificial intelligence as well in select cases," said Jason Busch, Founder and Lead Research Analyst at Spend Matters. SpendHQ welcomes and appreciates the feedback from the customers and analysts who participate in the SolutionMap process. As a consistent participant in the Spend Matters' SolutionMap series, SpendHQ has continued to make the rankings. "Through regular client feedback, interviews, as well as our client advisory board, our SpendHQ team has truly put the client first by utilizing their input to drive updates and innovating new features to the platform," said SpendHQ CEO Scott Macfee. "As a continued customer leader ranked by Spend Matters, we've already launched several new features this year like Insights, Connectors, and Self Service, with more announcements on the way." About Spend Matters Spend Matters is the leading solution-intelligence source for procurement and supply chain professionals. Combining deep technology analysis and tailored advisory services with daily news coverage and subscription research, Spend Matters is trusted by CPOs, consultants, investors and solution providers alike as their procurement technology intelligence partner. About SpendHQ SpendHQ is a procurement analysis solution that provides rapid, accurate, and detailed visibility into enterprise spend data. Built by sourcing professionals for sourcing professionals, this full-service SaaS spend analytics solution delivers actionable insight for every stakeholder. The SpendHQ platform and solutions team serves all industries, and clients include some of the world's largest organizations. SpendHQ has been recognized as an industry leader by Spend Matters' SolutionMap, Ardent Partners' Key Solution Providers, and Procurement Leaders' World Procurement Awards. Media Contact Debbie Raymundo Director of Marketing, SpendHQ 404.891.0377 | draymundo@spendhq.com SOURCE: SpendHQ View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703558/Spend-Matters-Ranks-SpendHQ-as-a-Customer-Leader-in-Spring-2022-SolutionMap Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Ukraine, Poland agree on defense cooperation Xinhua) 10:39, June 02, 2022 BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine: The governments of Ukraine and Poland on Wednesday signed a string of bilateral documents in the fields of defense, energy and regional development, the Ukrainian government press service reported. The agreements were inked during the intergovernmental consultations in Kiev in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki. In particular, the two countries agreed to set up a joint commission that will prepare recommendations on the format of the Ukrainian-Polish joint venture for the manufacture of weapons and military equipment. - - - - Russian forces took control over the eastern part of Severodonetsk city, the administrative center of the Ukraine-controlled part of the Lugansk region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sergey Gaidai, head of the Lugansk regional military administration, said on Facebook that Russia seized some 80 percent of Severodonetsk. Street fighting in the city continued and Ukrainian forces carried out counterattacks in some parts of Severodonetsk, Gaidai said. - - - - The United States will send medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine in a new security assistance package, senior administration officials said Tuesday. A 700-million-U.S.-dollar weapon package will be formally unveiled Wednesday, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which are to enable Ukraine to fire more precisely at targets in its eastern part, the officials said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukrainian officials had offered assurances that the HIMARS would not be used to strike targets inside the Russian territory. - - - - The United States is "purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire" by continuously providing military assistance to Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "The United States, obviously, really adheres to the policy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian," Peskov told a daily briefing, commenting on Washington's plan to supply additional weapons to Kiev. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) A man armed with a rifle and a handgun killed four people inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wednesday before fatally shooting himself, and officers' quick response to the incident helped ensure more people were not harmed, police said. Police arrived at the St. Francis Hospital three minutes after receiving a call about the shooting and followed the sound of gunfire up to the Natalie Building's second floor, Tulsa deputy police chief Eric Dalgleish told reporters. The officers made contact with the victims and the suspect five minutes later, Dalgleish said. Police responses have come under increased scrutiny after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas school classroom last week while officers waited outside for nearly an hour. Asked by reporters whether police had refreshed training or thinking about active shooters after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, Dalgleish, said: "I think that's probably fresh on everyone's minds." "I will say Tulsa revisits that topic regularly. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said. Wednesday's incident in Tulsa is the latest in a series of mass shootings that have shocked Americans and reignited debates about gun control. Two weeks before the Uvalde shooting, a white gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Police said they were trying to determine the suspect's identity and estimated he was aged between 35 and 40. The Natalie Building contains doctors' offices including an orthopedic center, he said, adding he believed the victims included employees and patients. The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and offered support to state and local officials in Tulsa, a city of some 411,000 people that sits around 100 miles (160 km) northeast of the capital Oklahoma City. (Reuters) BEIJING, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Who is Zhang Jiuling? Why does his 1,000-year-old legacy still matter today? Zhang Jiuling was a politician and writer who beat the odds with his integrity and hard work back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Zhang was a native of Shaoguan city in the historically isolated and underrepresented Lingnan area in southern China'sGuangdong province. Although from humble beginnings, Zhang proved himself in the imperial examinations and soon became well known for his honest, incorruptible character in the imperial court. He didn't forget about those back home either, opening up pathways integrating Shaoguan and Lingnan with the rest of the kingdom. Today, Zhang is still revered by many for his unmatched grace and literary talent. With just a simple walk through Shaoguan, one would soon notice just how influential Zhang has been on this city. Zhang Jiuling is a household name here and many streets, libraries and local dishes are named in remembrance of his legacy. To find out more about the story of Zhang Jiuling, American host Jack heads to Shaoguan in Guangdong. Jack visits many places on his journey to learn about this legendary figure, but what do a library, ancient road, bowl of noodles, and cartoon-style notebook all have to do with Zhang Jiuling? How is this man's legacy still very much alive in Shaoguan? And why is this legacy so important to the people here today? Contact: Li Siwei Tel:008610-68996566 mail:lisiwei5125@gmail.com YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/gV1jcIFeEfA Kamloops, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Advance Lithium Corp. (TSXV: AALI) ("Advance Lithium" or "the Company") would like to report on recent developments by the Mexican government concerning lithium mining in the country. Recently announced changes to the mining laws state that all the activities related to the exploration, exploitation and profit of lithium shall be the responsibility of the yet to be formed national lithium company. Advance Lithium has completed significant work on its claims to establish large zones of lithium, potassium and boron mineralization that starts right at the surface. Its claims are in good standing, with work completed and all legal filings in order. It should be noted that the analysis of the company's deposits show that the composition of the mineralization is approximately equal parts lithium and potassium. While lithium is covered by this new legislation in Mexico, potassium is not. As potassium is in high demand as a fertilizer and all potassium needed by Mexican farmers is currently imported at high cost, the company's deposits could be in great demand. The Company's deposits are located in close proximity to the breadbasket of Mexico close to key farming regions. An added benefit to the potassium potential in Advance Lithium's projects is that utilizing the patent pending extraction method for lithium and potassium, the Company can produce sulphate of potash (SOP). The price of SOP is very strong and is used to enhance certain crops for growth and adding to the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. The patent pending lithium and potassium extraction method to be used on Advance Lithium's deposits was invented by Dr. Roberto Perez Garibay and his team at the prestigious Center of Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav-IPN) in Saltillo, Mexico. This unique method of using electrical separation, which can benefit from using solar power, has several benefits over known methods to extract lithium from clay and fine sand deposits. After the electrical separation of the lithium, potassium and water an organic compound is applied and then the water is removed to be recycled and used many times. The existing method of extracting lithium from clay deposits requires the use of toxic chemicals, a lot of power and substantial amounts of water. Dr. Roberto Perez Garibay and his team at Cinvestav-IPN have developed a remarkable new environmentally friendly, low cost method to extract lithium and potassium. The potential of near term production of both lithium and potassium products puts the Company in a unique position with its salars/salt lakes deposits and looks forward to discussing the lithium opportunities with the newly formed Mexican national lithium company. About Advance Lithium Corp. Advance Lithium is a junior exploration company focused on acquiring and exploring mineral properties containing precious metals, battery metals and fertilizer minerals. The company acquired a 100-per-cent interest in the Tabasquena silver mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, in 2017, and the Venaditas project, also in Zacatecas state, in April, 2018. In addition, Advance Lithium holds a 3% Royalty interest in strategic claims in the Liranda Corridor in Kenya, East Africa, where Shanta Gold Limited is upgrading their resource. The project was previously owned by Barrick Gold Corporation, for details see Advance Gold News Release dated 08, 26, 2020. In March 2021, the Company moved into the lithium space with a purchase agreement to acquire 13 lithium-potassium boron prospective salars in central Mexico, which also includes rights to a patent pending proprietary lithium and potassium extraction method. For further information, please contact: Allan Barry Laboucan President and CEO Phone 492-238-5282 (Direct-Mexico Cell) Email: allan@advancegold.ca www.advancelithiumcorp.com This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward- looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change, except as required by law. 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 news release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126186 DEARBORN (dpa-AFX) - United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Company announced plans to add more than 6,200 new U.S. manufacturing jobs in the Midwest. The company will convert nearly 3,000 temporary UAW-Ford workers to permanent full-time status. This comes more than a year ahead of 2023 contract negotiations. Supported by $3.7 billion of investments in manufacturing facilities across Ohio, Michigan and Missouri, the new UAW-Ford manufacturing jobs are expected to result in the creation of an estimated 74,000 additional indirect non-Ford jobs nationally. Also, Ford plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years to improve the workplace experience for manufacturing employees. 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. Specifica, a privately held antibody engineering company focused on innovative in vitro antibody libraries and discovery tools, today announced an agreement with the global healthcare company Sanofi under which Specifica's patented Generation 3 Antibody Discovery Platform will be transferred to Sanofi. The comprehensive technology transfer package will enable the integration of Specifica's Gen 3 platform into Sanofi's antibody discovery programs. "We are absolutely delighted to partner with Sanofi and their cutting-edge antibody discovery teams by providing our complete antibody discovery platform through a combination of Gen 3 libraries, antibody optimization solutions, and integrated discovery tools," said Ken Sharples, CEO and co-founder of Specifica. "We look forward to the realization of our collaboration with Sanofi as they continue to pursue the development of life-changing treatments." Specifica's Gen 3 libraries combine clinically validated antibody frameworks with compatible binding loop sequences (CDRs) from natural human antibodies that have been purged of sequence-based developability liabilities. The Gen 3 discovery platform consistently yields a broad diversity of specific and developable antibodies with very high affinities, thereby avoiding downstream hit-to-lead optimization bottlenecks such as affinity maturation and developability optimization. About Specifica Specifica is a rapidly growing antibody engineering company specializing in the creation of exceptional antibody libraries, using next-generation sequencing for quality control at all steps of construction and validation. Specifica's patented Generation 3 Antibody Library Discovery Platform yields drug-like antibodies directly from selections, minimizing the need for downstream affinity and biophysical engineering. Specifica provides its partners with exclusive libraries, each created from a unique donor diversity set not used for any other library, ensuring that each Gen 3 library is one of a kind. Specifica offers antibody library platforms in Fab, scFv and VHH formats. In addition to in-house antibody library designs, Specifica also collaborates closely with partners to create custom libraries in which essential elements are optimized according to partner needs. The power of the Generation 3 Platform may be accessed by engaging Specifica to execute antibody discovery and optimization campaigns, or by full transfer of the platform technology. Additionally, Specifica recently introduced AbXtractTM, a powerful suite of antibody informatics tools, through its software partner OpenEye. Specifica is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.specifica.bio and follow Specifica on Twitter and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005134/en/ Contacts: Media Relations Andrew Bradbury +1 505 216 2434 abradbury@specifica.com NEW YORK and JERUSALEM, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Libra Group and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) announced the creation of Libra Fellows at Hebrew University, a 10-year program for graduate students. As part of the initiative, the international Group, whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in more than 50 countries, will commit $1.25 million in new funding to provide scholarships to underserved graduate students. Since 2016, Libra Group has partnered with Hebrew University to support students in pursing graduate research and undergraduate exchange programs. "We're proud of our long-standing partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its work to provide world class education and life-changing opportunities for its students," said Libra Group Head of Social Programs Regina Sheridan. "As a global company, our Group has a deep connection to Israel and established this joint program as part of our ongoing work to support innovators around the world who will shape our future. We are proud to support Hebrew University in launching this program to benefit leaders and innovators both within Israel and beyond its borders." The Libra Fellows at Hebrew University program will provide full scholarships to 40-50 graduate students over 10 years across a range of academic disciplines, including: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Computer Sciences, International Relations, Life Sciences, Nano and Quantum Science, and Political Science. HU will select students after a rigorous review process. In addition to the fellowship program, the Libra Group will also invite HU students to apply each year for the company's global internship program. Since its creation in 2011, the Libra Internship Program has provided hundreds of talented undergraduate students from more than 40 countries with career-building opportunities at Libra or one of its subsidiaries around the world. "We are grateful and fortunate for the ongoing partnership and support that will be so beneficial for Hebrew University students," says Ambassador Yossi Gal, Hebrew University Vice President for University Advancement and External Relations. "These scholarship candidates represent some of our best and brightest, so Libra Group is advancing the academic careers of those who could help change our world." About the Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution. Serving 24,000 students from 80 countries, it produces a third of Israel's civilian research and is ranked 12th worldwide in biotechnology patent filings and commercial development. Faculty and alumni of the Hebrew University have won eight Nobel Prizes and a Fields Medal. For more information about the Hebrew University, please visit http://new.huji.ac.il/en. About American Friends of the Hebrew University American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) is a national, not-for-profit organization based in the United States. AFHU is headquartered in New York, and has seven regional offices working in close partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. AFHU provides supporters, Hebrew University alumni, and the public with stimulating programs and events, and organizes missions to Israel. The organization's activities support scholarly and scientific achievement at HU, create scholarships, fund new facilities, and assist the University's efforts to recruit outstanding new faculty. For more information, please visit http://www.afhu.org. Follow us on: Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube About the Libra Group The Libra Group (www.libra.com) is a privately-owned international business group whose subsidiaries manage and operate assets in more than 50 countries. Libra is predominantly active in six sectors, including several vital to the global economy. Sectors include renewable energy, shipping, aviation, hospitality, and real estate, as well as selected diversified investments. The Group has also created 10 social responsibility programs that have a positive impact on the lives of many people around the world. These programs reflect the Group's values, as well as a deep commitment to ESG at the core of everything we do. MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - President Joe Biden has announced a $700 million military aid package to provide timely and critical aid to the Ukrainian military in its fight against the Russian invasion. The New weaponry, which will include powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, will enable the Ukrainian forces to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine. Ukraine will get the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters and ammunition. The HIMARS rockets have a range of about 70 kilometers, according to the Pentagon. 'Thanks to the additional funding for Ukraine, passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, the United States will be able to keep providing Ukraine with more of the weapons that they are using so effectively to repel Russian attacks,' Biden said in a statement Wednesday. He vowed that the United States will stand with its Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself. Meanwhile, as Russia makes more inroads into Ukrainian territory, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces are now in control of 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. Addressing the Luxembourg parliament, he said the Donbas region has been 'almost entirely destroyed.' More than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to Russia since the invasion, according to him. Street fighting is raging in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk, which has almost fallen to Russian forces, says Luhansk's regional chief. Taking Severodonetsk would mean Russia controls almost all of Luhansk, in the eastern Donbas region. 'America's goal is straightforward: We want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression,' Biden wrote. He made it clear that Washington does not seek a war between NATO and Russia. While noting that currently there are no indications that Russia has intent to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Biden warned that any use of nuclear weapons in this conflict would entail severe consequences. Biden vowed that the United States will not try to bring about Russian leader Vladimir Putin's ouster in Moscow. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market by Component (Hardware (Barcode and Barcode Scanners, and RFID Tags and Readers), Software, and Services), Deployment Mode (Cloud and On-premises), Organization Size, Vertical and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market size is projected to grow from USD 28.9 billion in 2022 to USD 45.2 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.4% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the market include the increasing adoption of barcodes and RFID related technologies along with advancement in AI logistical distribution systems. Browse in-depth TOC on "Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market" 508 - Tables 48 - Figures 341 - Pages Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=190997554 Among hardware, Barcodes and barcode scanners to capture a higher market share Barcodes are used in encoding information related to a product, such as serial numbers, product numbers, and batch numbers. Every product is labeled with a unique barcode. These barcodes enable manufacturers to track and identify products, enhance and optimize the receiving, packing, shipping, and delivery processes, as well as track transport providers, retailers, and hospitals. As the product reaches the destination, a quick scan of the barcode allows instant and automatic reconciliation of the order, and hence, plays an important role in SCM. Advantages of barcodes, such as improved accuracy and speed, low operational and administrative expenses, reduced capital expenditure, enhanced inventory management, product management, and monitoring, are witnessing an increase in popularity and encouraging the adoption of barcodes and barcode scanners across several industries, such as manufacturing, FMCG, retail, and eCommerce. Speak to Analyst: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=190997554 Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period The increased shift of Asia Pacific enterprises toward leaner and agile supply chains with end-to-end visibility by the adoption of the latest technologies is also one of the biggest drivers of SCM software and services in the region. Increasing number of SME vendors across Asia Pacific region, along with advancement in technology across India, China, Japan and Australia is contributing to the growth of this region. The report includes the study of the key players offering SCM solutions and services. It profiles Key vendors in the global Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market, including SAP (Germany), Oracle (US), Infor (US), Descartes (Canada), Manhattan Associates (US), IBM (US), Logility (US), Kinaxis (Canada), Blue Yonder (US), Korber (US), Coupa (US), Epicor (US), BluJay (US), OMP (US), E2open (US), JAGGAER (US), Zycus (US), and GEP (US). Browse Adjacent Markets: Information Security Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports Supply Chain Analytics Market by Component, Software (Supplier Performance Analytics, Demand Analysis and Forecasting, and Inventory Analytics), Services, Deployment Model, Organization Size, Industry Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: Sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/supply-chain-management-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/supply-chain-management.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg Presentation Tuesday, June 7th at 4:30 PM PT Westlake Village, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - GTX Corp (OTC Pink: GTXO), a pioneer in smart, mobile, and wearable GPS tracking and recovery location-based solutions, supported through a proprietary IoT enterprise monitoring platform and intellectual property portfolio, announced today that it will be presenting at the 12th annual Invitational on Tuesday, June 7th at 4:30 PM PT at the Four Seasons Westlake Village. Patrick Bertagna, Chief Executive Officer, will be giving the presentation. GTX Corp is a leading innovator in wearable GPS human and asset tracking solutions and through recent advances in technology, patents, and proprietary developments, GTX is well positioned to penetrate certain vertical market sectors such as (elderly care, remote patient monitoring (RPM) logistics, and high value asset management) of the sizable and growing Wearable Tech, and Track & Trace markets. "We are proud to be hosting our 12th annual installment of the Invitational at a new and fantastic venue no less. I want to build on the incredible momentum generated from last October and cannot wait to host the patrons and execs who have supported us through thick and thin. For the past 15 years, LD has proven that you can go to an investor conference and actually have a great time," stated Chris Lahiji, Founder of LD Micro. "We look forward to present at the LD Micro conference next week and have the opportunity to share with the investment community our 2022 roadmap. Over the years, LD Micro has provided us a great venue to showcase our Company and we look forward to this upcoming event," stated Patrick Bertagna, GTX Corp's CEO. Best known for its award-winning patented GPS SmartSole - Think Dr. Scholl's meets LoJack, the world's first invisible wearable technology tracking device created for those at risk of wandering due to Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, and traumatic brain injury (currently estimated 100 million people worldwide and growing to 277 million by 2050) The Company also offers a wide variety of health & safety products, with customers in over 35 countries, has an extensive IP portfolio and is a GSA approved U.S. government supplier. Event: LD Micro Main Event Date: Tuesday, June 7th Time: 4:30 PM PT Register to watch the virtual presentation here. Summary of LD Micro Invitational (XII) The 2022 LD Micro Invitational will be held at the Four Seasons Westlake Village from June 7th to the 9th. The festivities will run from 7:30 AM PT - 5:30 PM PT on the 7th and 8th, with a morning session on that Thursday. This three-day, investor conference is expected to feature around 200+ companies, presenting in half-hour increments, as well as private meetings. For more info, please contact Mr. Dean "The Dream" Summers. Dean@ldmicro.com About GTX Corp. About GTX Corp GTX Corp (OTC Pink: GTXO) is a pioneer in smart, mobile, and wearable GPS tracking and recovery location-based solutions, supported through a proprietary IoT enterprise monitoring platform and intellectual property portfolio. GTX offers a global end-to-end solution of hardware, software and connectivity and develops two-way GPS tracking technologies, which seamlessly integrate with consumer products and enterprise applications. GTX utilizes the latest in miniaturized, low power consumption GPS, Cellular, RF, NFC and BLE technology, enabling subscribers to track in real time the whereabouts of people or high value assets. GTX is known for its game-changing and award-winning patented GPS SmartSole -- think Dr. Scholl's meets LoJack, the world's first invisible wearable technology tracking device created for those at risk of wandering due to Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, and traumatic brain injury. GTX's business model is built around technology innovation and intellectual property protection, with many issued patents in GPS tracking and server communications. The company has international distributors servicing customers in over 35 countries and is a U.S. Military Government contractor. Other customers include public health authorities and municipalities, emergency and law enforcement, private schools, assisted living facilities, NGOs, small business enterprises, senior care homes, and consumers. About LD Micro LD Micro aims to be the most crucial resource in the micro-cap world. Whether it is the index, comprehensive data, or hosting the most significant events on an annual basis, LD's sole mission is to serve as an invaluable asset for all those interested in finding the next generation of great companies. http://www.ldmicro.com Contact: General information, investor relations, wholesale licensing, consumer purchase: 213.489.3019 Info@GTXCorp.com IR@GTXCorp.com Contact Us To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126280 Data describe rapid, safe and robust microbiome engraftment 1 of MaaT033 in the gut of patients with acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome undergoing intensive chemotherapy and support the selection of a recommended dose for further development of MaaT033 in the gut of patients with acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome undergoing intensive chemotherapy and support the selection of a recommended dose for further development MaaT033 is an orally-administered high-richness, high-diversity, standardized, off-the-shelf, healthy-donors-derived Microbiome Ecosystem Therapy Company is on track with preparations for upcoming Phase 2/3 trial to evaluate MaaT033's efficacy in improving overall survival and preventing complications in patients with blood cancers receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Regulatory News: MaaT Pharma (EURONEXT: MAAT the "Company"), a French clinical-stage biotech and a pioneer in the development of Microbiome Ecosystem Therapies (MET) dedicated to improving survival outcomes for patients with cancer, today announced completion of its Phase 1b CIMON trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of MaaT033, the Company's high-richness, high-diversity MET for oral administration, in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HRMS) having received intensive chemotherapy. In this study, performed in an immuno-compromised patient population, MaaT033 presented a good safety and tolerability profile, evaluated as the primary endpoint. The topline results also show rapid and persistent engraftment of MaaT033 in the patients' gut. The study data support the Company's preparation to initiate a Phase 2/3 trial later this year to evaluate MaaT033's ability to improve survival and prevent complications after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) in patients with blood cancers. Every year, approximately 22,000 patients require allo-HSCT in the seven major markets2. MaaT033's oral formulation is designed to support long-term, ambulatory use, opening up new potential development opportunities for the Company. Today's announcement confirms previously-announced promising interim results of the trial, which allowed early completion of the study. "Parallel to the clinical successes of our lead candidate MaaT013, we developed MaaT033 as our first oral formulation, and the strength of the engraftment we have seen in these cohorts exceeds our expectations. Together with a good safety profile, this solid evidence for our first oral candidate is a crucial milestone for MaaT Pharma," commented Herve Affagard, CEO and co-founder of MaaT Pharma. "Allo-HSCT is a curative treatment of liquid tumors, that is unfortunately negatively impacted by two primary complications, graft-versus-host disease and severe infections, which hinder overall survival. We view the prevention of these adverse effects as the key to a better prognosis for these patients." MaaT033 is designed to restore and maintain a healthy gut microbiome in patients with severe dysbiosis3 as a result of intensive chemotherapy and antibiotic treatment. Developed as an oral formulation in lyophilized capsules, its proprietary targeted-delivery design is conceived to optimize the product's engraftment in the patient's gut and its interaction with the immune system. Thanks to its high bacterial richness and Butycore4 content, the product aims to reorient the gut microbial network towards immune homeostasis and restore the microbiome's intestinal barrier function against infections. "We know from previous studies that AML patients are highly dysbiotic as a result of intensive chemotherapy and antibiotic therapy. From the CIMON trial data, we can be confident that MaaT033 results in robust levels of engraftment in the gut of AML patients at the targeted dose," said Prof. Christian Recher, Professor of Hematology at the Toulouse University Hospital/IUCT-Oncopole (France) and Principal Investigator of the study. "This strong foundational data supports the launch of the next phase evaluating MaaT033 in preventing allo-HSCT complications in this patient population." The CIMON Phase 1b trial (NCT04150393) was an open-label, dose-ranging study investigating the maximum tolerated dose of MaaT033 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome who have undergone intensive chemotherapy. The trial enrolled 21 patients in four dose escalation cohorts (up to three capsules a day for 14 days) across six sites in France. The trial allowed to select the recommended dose for MaaT033, which remains confidential at this stage. MaaT033 showed rapid and persistent engraftment with the detection of more than 60% of the MaaT033 microbial communities (OTUs5) in the patient's gut post-exposure at the selected dose. Substantial engraftment was maintained during the treatment period and for at least three weeks after the end of treatment (last measure). Good tolerability of the candidate was also observed in this immunocompromised population, with only four serious adverse events (SAE) considered as unrelated to the treatment and one possibly related SAE (an infectious diarrhea event with no detection of the causal pathogen in the administered MaaT033 and patient recovery within four days). This is in line with the expected AE profile with standard of care treatments in this fragile population. MaaT Pharma has performed a Scientific Advice procedure with the European Medicine Agency and will move forward with preparations for a Phase 2/3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 340 patients, that will assess safety and tolerability of MaaT033 before and after allo-HSCT, as well as the efficacy of the candidate in improving overall survival and prevention of allo-HSCT complications. The trial initiation is planned by end of 2022. This is in line with the program announced during the Company's IPO in November 2021, and part of the funding raised during the IPO is allocated to the clinical development of MaaT033. The Phase 1b CIMON topline data will be presented and discussed by Prof. Mohamad Mohty (Professor at Sorbonne University and Head of the Clinical Hematology and Cellular Therapy Department, Saint-Antoine Hospital, AP-HP, France) during the Company's upcoming Virtual R&D Day, which will be held on Tuesday June 7, 2022 (register here). Complete trial results will be submitted for presentation and/or publication in a peer-reviewed forum. About MaaT033 MaaT033 is an oral, full-ecosystem, off-the-shelf, standardized, pooled-donor, high-richness Microbiome Ecosystem Therapy. MaaT033 is designed to restore the gut ecosystem to full functionality to improve clinical outcomes as well as to control adverse events related to conventional treatments for liquid tumors. The capsule formulation facilitates administration while maintaining the high and consistent richness and diversity of microbial species, including anti-inflammatory Butycore species. About MaaT Pharma MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, has established a complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis in oncology. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has launched, in March 2022, a Phase 3 clinical trial for patients with acute GvHD, following the achievement of its proof of concept in a Phase 2 trial. Its powerful discovery and analysis platform, gutPrint, supports the development and expansion of its pipeline by determining novel disease targets, evaluating drug candidates, and identifying biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. The company's Microbiome Ecosystem Therapies are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome, in liquid and oral formulations. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to support the integration of the use of microbiome therapies in clinical practice. MaaT Pharma is listed on Euronext Paris (ticker: MAAT). Forward-looking Statements All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice and (ii) factors beyond the Company's control. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results or performance to be materially different from the expected results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. _____________________________________ 1 Engraftment: Percentage of OTUs from the product that are detected in the patient's gut after treatment, and were not present before treatment. 2 Seven major markets: USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan. 3 Dysbiosis: disruption of the healthy relationship and balance between a person's immune system and their gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is known to educate, modulate and reinforce our immunity throughout life. 4 Butycore: a group of 15 bacterial genera known to produce immuno-modulatory short-chain fatty acids. 5 OTU or Operational Taxonomic Unit is used to classify bacteria at the genus level, based on sequence similarity of the 16S marker gene. An OTU consists of a group of bacteria whose 16S marker gene shows a sequence identity of 97 percent and above. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005533/en/ Contacts: MaaT Pharma Investor Relations Herve AFFAGARD Co-Founder and CEO Sian Crouzet, COO/ CFO +33 4 28 29 14 00 invest@maat-pharma.com MaaT Pharma Media Relations Pauline RICHAUD Senior PR Corporate Communications Manager +33 6 07 55 25 36 prichaud@maat-pharma.com Trophic Communications Corporate and Medical Communications Jacob VERGHESE or Gretchen SCHWEITZER +49 89 2070 89831 maat@trophic.eu CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / IIOT-OXYS, Inc. (OTC PINK:ITOX) announced its Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) business continues to gain traction and attract global recognition. Cliff Emmons, CEO of IIOT-OXYS, Inc. (Oxys), stated, "The contract extension from a Department of Transportation (DOT) of a major northeast state originally announced in March 2022 has ensured our revenue for the second quarter of 2022 will exceed that for all of 2021. Furthermore, we have submitted a proposal to continue monitoring services and install hardware and software upgrades to the current bridge sites for the 2021 - 2022 fiscal year, at the request of our main contractor to the DOT. This would bring our 2022 revenue back to pre-pandemic levels. In addition to this business traction, the Oxys - Aingura IIoT, S.L. (Aingura) partnership is also garnering worldwide recognition for our SHM capabilities. Javier Diaz, CTO of Aingura, and I have been asked to jointly present at the Digital Twin Consortium Q2 Member Meeting in Orlando, FL on June 21st thru 23rd on the subject of 'Applications of Digital Twins for Structural Integrity Diagnosis'. Back in March we announced Mr. Diaz will be the keynote speaker in July at the International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS) in Barcelona, Spain. These invitations are validation of our partnership's strong SHM capabilities." "Our data driven proprietary AI & Machine Learning algorithms provide adjunct insights to traditional visual inspections performed by the bridge inspectors worldwide. This success is a direct result of the hard innovative work by our hard-working technical teams, and sound advice from our academic and commercial advisors. It positions us to pursue contracts in SHM worldwide," stated Mr. Emmons. On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law. The law allocates $110 billion in funding to repair U.S. roads and bridges and support major, transformational projects. Specifically, the Federal Highway Administration will distribute $26.5 billion to upgrade bridges in states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico over five years under the law. Other reports state that companies such as Oxys that are involved with connected infrastructure, which includes connected roads and bridges and the underlying "smart" sensor and software technology, are poised to benefit from the new law. Independent research shows that the world-wide Structural Health Monitoring market size is $2.0 billion USD will reach $4.0 billion USD by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 14.6%.[1] Mr. Emmons concluded, "This contract extension in the U.S. and this well-deserved recognition from both European and U.S. organizations give us confidence this will lead to additional new business in due time." About IIOT-OXYS, Inc. IIOT-OXYS, Inc. (OTC PINK:ITOX) is a technology company at the intersection of IIoT, AI & Machine Learning, Edge Computing and Manufacturing Operations. We provide actionable mission-critical insights for the Medical/Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Defense, and Structural Health, and other industries. IIOT-OXYS's edge computing open-source hardware and proprietary ML algorithms employ our Minimally Invasive Load Monitoring (MILM) technology to simply gather data and gain insights to monitor, scope, move from preventive to predictive maintenance, and even optimize development and manufacturing processes. For additional information visit www.oxyscorp.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Management's current views about future events and financial performance. Forward-looking statements often contain words such as 'expects,' 'anticipates,' 'intends,' or 'believes.' Our forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and events to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect us include, without limitation, the loss of major customers, our failure to obtain new contracts, our inability to patent products or processes, our infringement of patents held by others, our inability to finance our business and the other risks and uncertainties that are discussed in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made only as of the date of this news release. We undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. [1] https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5571342/global-structural-health-monitoring-market-size Contact Information: IIOT-OXYS Inc. Clifford L. Emmons CEO contact@oxyscorp.com www.oxyscorp.com SOURCE: IIOT-OXYS, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703715/IIOT-OXYS-Inc-Structural-Health-Monitoring-Business-Gains-Traction-and-Recognition U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) chief Gen. Paul LaCamera reaffirmed the importance of security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan during his talks with senior Japanese officials in Tokyo earlier this week, Japan's military has said. On Wednesday, LaCamera paid a courtesy call on Japan's State Minister of Defense Makoto Oniki and met with Gen. Koji Yamazaki, the chief of staff of Japan's Joint Staff, according to tweets by the Japanese military. His trip to Japan came as South Korea and the United States are seeking to beef up security coordination against North Korea's military provocations, with both underscoring the importance of trilateral cooperation with Japan. "In the meeting, they shared the awareness of the security environment on the Korean Peninsula, including a series of missile launches by the DPRK, and reaffirmed the importance of JPN-U.S.-ROK cooperation," Japan's Joint Staff tweeted, referring to talks between LaCamera and Yamazaki. ROK and DPRK stand for South and North Korea's official names, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, respectively. LaCamera leads the USFK, the United Nations Command (UNC) and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Korea. The previous day, he briefed visiting South Korean military officers on the roles of the UNC rear bases in Japan. (Yonhap) VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Avrupa Minerals, good natured Products, Hank Payments, Psyence Group, and Empower Clinics on their latest news. The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives. Avrupa Minerals (TSXV:AVU) receives exploration permit for the Slivova gold project Avrupa Minerals (AVU) has received a 7-year exploration permit covering the Slivova gold prospect in Kosovo. The company discovered the gold prospect in 2012. Avrupa Minerals CEO and Director Paul Kuhn sat down with Coreena Robertson to discuss the news. For the full interview with Paul Kuhn and to learn more about Avrupa Minerals, click here good natured Products (TSXV:GDNP) reports Q1 results good natured Products (GDNP) announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022. The company its second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. CEO Paul Antoniadis sat down with Coreena Robertson to discuss the results. For the full interview with Paul Antoniadis and to learn more about good natured Products, click here Hank Payments (TSXV:HANK) and Fair Fintech announce strategic partnership Hank Payments (HANK) has signed a partnership agreement with Fair Fintech Inc. Under the partnership, Hank and Fair will offer the Fair banking products to Hank consumers. CEO Michael Hilmer sat down with Coreena Robertson to discuss the partnership. For the full interview with Michael Hilmer and to learn more about Hank Payments, click here Psyence Group (CSE:PSYG) provides corporate update Psyence Group (PSYG) has provided an update on its three strategic focus areas namely: Psyence Therapeutics, Psyence Production and Psyence Function. Dr. Clive Ward-Able has been appointed as Medical Director, Head of Research & Development and Early Commercialization for Psyence. Psyence CEO Dr. Neil Maresky, sat down with Coreena Robertson to discuss the update. For the full interview with Neil Maresky and to learn more about Psyence Group, click here Empower Clinics (CSE:CBDT) exceeds 3000 tests in first month of operation Empower Clinics (CBDT) has confirmed more than 3000 Covid 19 tests and 750 pending appointments in and around the Port of Vancouver and Canada Place. All of Empower's COVID-19 testing solutions are fully accredited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia's Diagnostic Accreditation Program (DAP). Steven McAuley, Chairman and CEO of Empower Clinics, sat down with Coreena Robertson to highlight the updates. For the full interview with Steven McAuley and to learn more about Empower Clinics, click here Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald. 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CONTACT: The Market Herald Charity Robertson charity.robertson@themarketherald.ca themarketherald.ca SOURCE: The Market Herald View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703731/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-New-Interviews-with-Avrupa-Minerals-good-natured-Products-Hank-Payments-Psyence-Group-and-Empower-Clinics Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Blue Thunder Mining Inc. (TSXV: BLUE) ("Blue Thunder" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it is actively engaged in pursuing an environmental, social and governance (ESG) core strategy to create value for shareholders that is sustainable, responsible and future oriented. Blue Thunder is strongly committed to good corporate governance practices and recognizes that good governance starts at the board level. Our board of directors represent industry leaders in global capital markets, geological and mining engineering with a strong commitment to effective, equitable and transparent governance. Chad Williams, Director and Non-Executive Chair of Blue Thunder Mining Inc., who had formerly relinquished his role as interim CEO, believes that "ESG must be viewed as relevant at all stages of the mining cycle if we are to be able to safeguard the future of our natural resources and promote biodiversity. To ensure that our people, partnerships and communities thrive as our business grows, we must have a system in place that gauges the board's effectiveness to fulfill its responsibilities to the Company's shareholders, as well as to social and environmental best practices, including the fight against climate change and the global collaborative goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050." ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Chad Williams, Director and Non-Executive Chair Blue Thunder Mining Inc. 401 Bay Street, Suite 2704, P.O. Box 55, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2Y4 (647) 848-1009 "Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, anticipated exploration program results, the ability to complete future financings, the ability to complete the required permitting, the ability to complete the exploration program and drilling, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, the analytical results from surface trenching and sampling program, including diamond drilling programs, the results of IP surveying, the results of soil and till sampling program. the quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, the potential impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on the Company's exploration program and on the Company's general business, operations and financial condition, and other risks and uncertainties. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties. This news release contains information with respect to adjacent or similar mineral properties in the Chibougamau District in respect of which the Company has no interest or rights to explore or mine. Readers are cautioned that the Company has no interest in or right to acquire any interest in any such properties, and that mineral deposits, and the results of any mining thereof, on adjacent or similar properties, are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Company's properties or any potential exploitation thereof. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126338 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Communicorp has recalled about 600,000 Aflac plush promotional ducks due to violations of Federal Phthalates and Lead Content Bans. According to a the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, components of the recalled promotional ducks contain levels of certain phthalates that exceed the federal phthalate content standard. A component of the promotional fishing duck also contains a level of lead that exceeds the federal lead content standard. Phthalates and lead are toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health issues. The company has asked customers to immediately stop using and dispose of the recalled plush promotional ducks. Communicorp is contacting Aflac employees and licensed agents who purchased these plush promotional ducks directly. The recall involves plush ducks that were distributed by Aflac to consumers as a promotional item. The six-inch plush Aflac promotional ducks include Accident Duck, Business Duck, Fishing Duck, Police Duck, PGA Duck, One Day Pay Duck, Heisman Duck and Lifeguard Duck. The products were sold directly to Aflac employees and licensed agents from February 2009 through March 2021 for between $5 and $8 and distributed as a promotional free giveaway item to customers. 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. TORONTO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Australian-based cosmetic company Laser Clinics Group has opened its 200th clinic globally. The company celebrates this exciting milestone with the opening of its newest location in the Greater Toronto Area - second in Canada - as the brand continues to make results-led, advanced beauty treatments affordable and accessible for consumers worldwide. Laser Clinics Group officially entered the Canadian market February 4, 2022, with the opening of its first clinic in Ontario. Canada is the fifth country in which Laser Clinics operates after successful launches in New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Singapore. Laser Clinics delivered 3 million treatments globally in 2021 and will continue to bring its results-driven treatment plans and expertise to consumers around the world. "We are delighted to celebrate this important milestone with our global teams and customers," said John Veitch, Australia-based CEO of Laser Clinics Group. "The future is bright at Laser Clinics as we build towards being the largest advanced beauty group globally, giving us the resources, training and experience to continue to provide affordable industry leading, tailored results for our customers". Laser Clinics specialises in personalised skincare treatments, cosmetic injectables, body contouring and laser hair removal, which are performed with industry leading, medical-grade equipment and advanced technology. Laser Clinics Group's Medical Advisory Committee is comprised of leading dermatologists and medical doctors and approves the protocols and services that are delivered at each clinic. Treatments are performed by doctors, registered nurses, and trained therapists to ensure that safety and efficacy remain top priorities. "We will continue to build our brand in Australia and across global markets by providing consumers with innovation and affordability in high demand beauty treatments. Offering 'beauty tailored to you', Laser Clinics is committed to ensuring customers receive their best results with each visit," says John Veitch. About the Laser Clinics Group Laser Clinics Group is the global leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare. The company democratizes the field of advanced beauty by offering customers worldwide greater accessibility to an extensive range of best-in-class treatments and services using medical-grade, industry-leading technology. Laser Clinics tailors treatments to the individual and ensures all clients achieve their desired results. Together, the company's more than 1,600 professionals focus on long-term, ongoing services which reflects a true longstanding and deep relationship with their customers. Learn more at laserclinics.com.au or follow BeautyTailoredToYou. For Media enquiries (for interviews, pictures or further information) please contact: beauty@tmcpr.com.au or phone + 612 9212 2280 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1831969/Laser_Clinics_Canada_Laser_Clinics_Group_achieves_significant_mi.jpg Trane Technologies plc (NYSE:TT), a global climate innovator, held its 2022 Annual General Meeting of shareholders in Adare, Ireland. During the Annual General Meeting, the company's shareholders considered six proposals: nominations to reelect 11 members of Trane Technologies' Board of Directors; advisory approval of the compensation of the company's named executive officers; appointment of independent auditors and authorization of the Audit Committee to set the auditors' remuneration; renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares; renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares for cash without first offering shares to existing shareholders; and determination of the price range at which the company can re-allot shares that it holds as treasury shares. The results of the Annual General Meeting voting are as follows: All 11 individuals nominated for the Board of Directors Kirk E. Arnold, Ann C. Berzin, April Miller Boise, John Bruton, Jared L. Cohon, Gary D. Forsee, Linda P. Hudson, Myles P. Lee, David S. Regnery, John P. Surma and Tony L. White were elected to a one-year term, which expires at the company's next Annual General Meeting. The proposal to give advisory approval of the compensation of the company's named executive officers received approximately 92 percent of votes cast in favor. The proposal to approve the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent auditors of the company and to authorize the Audit Committee to set the auditors' remuneration received approximately 91 percent of the votes cast in favor. The proposal to approve renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares received approximately 97 percent of the votes cast in favor. The proposal to approve renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares for cash without first offering shares to existing shareholders received approximately 98 percent of the votes cast in favor. The proposal to determine the price range at which the company can re-allot shares that it holds as treasury shares received approximately 99 percent of the votes cast in favor. The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per ordinary share, or $2.68 annualized. The dividend is payable September 30, 2022, to shareholders of record on September 2, 2022. Trane Technologies has paid consecutive quarterly cash dividends on its common shares since 1919 and annual dividends since 1910. About Trane Technologies Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our environmentally responsible portfolio of products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes and transportation. Learn more at TraneTechnologies.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602006002/en/ Contacts: Media: Jennifer Regina, Trane Technologies +1-704-712-5721 jennifer.regina@tranetechnologies.com Investors: Zachary Nagle, Trane Technologies +1-704-990-3913 zachary.nagle@tranetechnologies.com Devo Technology, a Cambridge, MA-based cloud-native logging and security analytics company, raised $100m in Series F funding at a valuation of $2 billion. The round, which brings the total capital raised to more than $500 million, was led by Eurazeo with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, Georgian, TCV, General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kibo Ventures, as well as ISAI Cap Venture. In conjunction with the funding, Guillaume dAudiffret, Managing Director at Eurazeo, joined the Devo Board. The company intends to use the funds to expand in new regions and verticals, accelerate its delivery of the autonomous SOC and fund potential new M&A expansion. The funding round follows Devos acquisition of Kognos, an AI-powered threat hunting developer. Led by Marc van Zadelhoff, CEO, Devo provides a cloud-native logging and security analytics platform that leverages existing data to empower action and protect an organization. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company will continue to drive expansion in new verticals and geographies, particularly the public sector and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It recently launched Devo Exchange, a community-based application marketplace for Devo customers and partners. FinSMEs 02/06/2022 Laminar, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based public cloud data security provider, raised USD30M in extended Series A funding. The round was led by Tiger Global Management and Salesforce Ventures. The company intends to use them funds to accelerate product innovation, and growth sales and marketing efforts, and for the buildout of its global team. Led by CEO Amit Shaked and CTO Oran Avraham, Laminar provides a Cloud Data Security Platform that protects data for everything to be built and ran in the cloud across cloud providers and cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake. The platform autonomously and continuously discovers and classifies new datastores for complete visibility, prioritizes risk based on sensitivity and data risk posture, secures data by remediating weak controls and actively monitors for egress and access anomalies. Just announced capabilities include: Added support for Microsoft Azure A full suite of data-centric security policies: The ability to discover and classify data in self-hosted, embedded databases FinSMEs 02/06/2022 MoEngage, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a customer engagement platform, raised $77M in Series E funding. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and B Capital, with participation from Steadview Capital, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Eight Roads Ventures, and Matrix Partners India. The company intends to use the funds to deepen its geographic footprint in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Middle East markets, and expand in new markets like Latin America and Australia, as well as to explore strategic acquisitions that can help extend its platform capabilities and provide more value to customers. Led by CEO Raviteja Dodda, MoEngage is an insights-led customer engagement platform, used by more than 1,200 global consumer brands such as Ally Financial, McAfee, Flipkart, Dominos, Nestle, Deutsche Telekom, Travelodge, and more. The solution empowers marketers and product owners with insights into customer behavior and the ability to act on those insights to engage customers across the web, mobile, email, social, and messaging channels. In the last 12 months, MoEngage has grown its annualized recurring revenue (ARR) by 105%, added 500 new customers, and doubled its headcount to surpass 650 employees across its offices in the U.S., UK, Germany, UAE, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. Consumer brands across 35 countries use MoEngage to power digital experiences for over 1 billion customers every month. FinSMEs 02/06/2022 Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Russia controls about one-fifth of his country, including ground gained over Moscow's invasion, the annexed Crimean peninsula and territory held by Moscow-backed separatists. "Today, about 20 percent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers," the Ukrainian leader said during an address to lawmakers in Luxembourg. Russian forces are solidifying their hold on the eastern Donbas region and pushing steadily towards Ukraine's de facto administrative centre in that region, Kramatorsk. However, they pulled back from regions around the capital and in the northeast to focus on their offensive for the eastern industrial region. Zelensky said that in 2014, Kremlin-backed separatists and the Russian military controlled 43,000 square kilometres (16,600 square miles), an area he compared to the size of the Netherlands. But that figure more than three months into Russia's invasion had increased to nearly 125,000 square kilometres, territory he said was "much greater" than the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg combined. He also told lawmakers that an area more than twice that size "nearly 300,000 square kilometres" had been "polluted" with mines and unexploded ordnance. "Twelve million Ukrainians are displaced and more than five million have gone abroad," he added. (AFP) Britain's Camilla, left, Duchess of Cornwall, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, wave as they ride in an open carriage on The Mall during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Britain, Thursday. / EPA-Yonhap Four days of celebrations honoring Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne got underway Thursday with a display of British military traditions stretching from the days of horse and cannon to the jet age. Formal celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee began with Trooping the Color, an annual military review that has marked the sovereign's official birthday since 1760. The queen took a salute on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and is expected to join the working members of her family again there at the end of the event, when 70 aircraft are set to roar overhead. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday weekend. The celebration of Elizabeth's reign includes a service of thanksgiving Friday at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday afternoon. Throughout the weekend, neighborhood organizations and individuals are expected to hold thousands of street parties around the country, repeating a tradition that began with the queen's coronation in 1953. The 96-year-old queen is Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. The jubilee is giving many people _ even those often indifferent to the monarchy _ a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during her reign. Former Prime Minister John Major _ one of the 14 prime ministers of the queen's reign _ said the monarch's stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades, ''The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years,'' he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. For many, the occasion is the first opportunity for a big bash since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than two years ago. ''I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions,'' Elizabeth said. ''I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm,'' she said. Congratulations arrived from world leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth ''the golden thread that binds our two countries'' and one of ''very few constants'' on the international stage. Former U.S. President Barack Obama recalled the queen's ''grace and generosity'' during his first visit to the palace. He said he had ''learned so much from seeing the example she set for all of us who had the privilege to serve.'' ''Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world,'' Obama said in a video message, adding: ''May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme.'' The name of the long weekend's first event, Trooping the Color, refers to a regimental flag, or ''color,'' that is trooped through the ranks. Britain's annual tradition for the queen's birthday is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags were once shown to soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. The troops taking part come from the army's Household Division, composed of the seven regiments that perform ceremonial duties for the queen. Their members are fully trained soldiers and often deployed overseas when not on ceremonial duty. Each year a different unit has the honor of trooping its color. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards will have the spotlight during the Platinum Jubilee. Thousands of people, some of whom camped overnight, lined the parade route many of them sporting Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Carly Martin, who caught a late-night bus from south London with her daughter, said she had come ''to make memories.'' ''You're never going to see this again in your lifetime,'' she said. ''At least not in mine, maybe not in my daughter's. ... Seventy years it is all I have ever known.'' Several protesters were arrested after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were ''demanding that royal land is reclaimed.'' Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince William's wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away. The queen is expected to appear twice on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, but Prince Charles played a key role during the event. Mounted on horseback, he also took a salute, from ranks of scarlet-clad Guards, on his mother's behalf, along with his sister, Princess Anne, and his son Prince William. Elizabeth has had trouble getting around of late, and her courtiers have been careful to keep make things as simple for her as possible. Senior royals including Prince Charles' wife, Camilla, traveled in carriages to watch the ceremony from a building overlooking the parade ground. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex join other royals to watch the spectacle. Harry and Meghan have traveled from their home in California to take part in the celebrations. (AP) Emilee is new to the world of franchising. In the past, shes reported on anything from city government to education to business, and shes always up for a challenge. Follow Emilee Wentland Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today The owners of Sybaris Bistro now own the Oregon Electric Railroad Station in downtown Albany. The $900,000 purchase of the historic building was finalized late Tuesday afternoon, said Matt Bennett, who owns Sybaris with his wife Janel Bennett. Its a relief, Bennett added. Now we get to find out exactly what weve got building-wise and that will determine the direction forward. The Bennetts plan to move their acclaimed restaurant from 442 First Ave. W to 133 Fifth Ave. SE. When interviewed for a story on Tuesday, May 31, the sale and not yet gone through. The building was constructed in 1912, and Bennett wasnt sure how long renovations would take. Do we want to bring it back as close as we can to 1912? My timeline is however long to do it right. The building is too important for the city. Its been there 110 years. We have to take care of it, Bennett said. There are a handful of super cool old buildings in town, he added. I want it to be there for someone down the line. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Last week, the Albany Downtown Association received a $200,000 matching grant for the Sybaris project from Oregon Heritage, a division of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The Bennetts and architect Bill Ryals also went before the Albany Revitalization Agency in May to ask for a loan of $800,000 or more for renovations of the Oregon Electric Railroad Station. The agency, which consists of Albany City Council members, wanted more analysis about the impacts of such a decision. Sybaris Bistros loan request could be discussed during the June 15 meetings of the Albany Revitalization Area and the Central Albany Revitalization Board. The Bennetts purchased the Oregon Electric Railroad Station from brothers Hamid and Tim Siddiqui. The brothers gave their name the Italian-style treatment for Ciddicis, the local pizza chain that had a location at the property. Youve got three different parties that had to make the sale work, Bennett said. The brothers were amicable, and we made it all happen. Kyle Odegard can be contacted at 541-812-6077 or Kyle.Odegard@lee.net Follow him on Twitter via @KyleOdegard. Love 1 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. Was there a moment when it dawned on you that the Uvalde massacre of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers is not going to result in any meaningful change in our nations gun laws? I suspect that there wasnt. As a nation, weve already accepted the subtext that plays in the background of all mass shootings: These deaths are merely the collateral damage that we incur for maintaining our right to own a firearm. If the murders of 20 6- and 7-year-olds at Sandy Hook didnt move us to action, why would 19 more deaths of children in Uvalde? In other words, in the aftermath of the heartbreaking slaughter last week, few expected Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to champion bold new plans to prevent further school shootings. Still, it was jarring to hear Abbott minimize the death toll in Uvalde by comparing it to the murder rate in Chicago. When you start a sentence with I hate to say this, its probably a signal that you shouldnt. But this is a lesson that Abbott hasnt learned: I hate to say this, but there are more people who are shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas. This is misleading, at best, and its cold comfort to the families in Uvalde who lost their children. Abbott was relying on an oblivious rationale for doing nothing about gun laws. Nevertheless, he conceded that there are things that can be done to prevent school shootings. Abbott said, Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. The government, he said, needs to find ways to target this mental health challenge and do something about it. He pointed out that in a 40-county region around Uvalde, there are no mental health hospitals. He noted a great need for a physical mental health care facility in this region, as well as more personnel, more strategies to deal with the challenges of mental health. What else can we do? Abbott referred to 2019 legislation regarding school hardening, measures that should make it more difficult for shooters to enter schools. Sen. Ted Cruz said that after the Santa Fe, Texas, school shooting in 2018, parents of some of the eight students killed stressed to him the importance of making schools invincible, even if it requires turning them into armed camps defended by security guards and teachers with guns. In other words, despite their reluctance to pass laws that will keep high-powered, high-capacity weapons out of the hands of school shooters, our state and national leaders regularly tout measures that they say could stem the bloodshed. Which leaves us with one question: Why havent they enacted them? Republicans have been in charge of Texas since 1994, the last year a Democrat won a statewide election. If Abbott knows that a 40-county area surrounding Uvalde has no mental health care facilities, why arent Texas Republicans responsible for that failure? And if school hardening is the answer, why havent schools in Texas been hardened? Robb Elementary School in Uvalde certainly wasnt hardened, and reporting from the Texas Tribune and elsewhere indicates that the district in Uvalde is more typical than exceptional. If better mental health care facilities and hardened schools are the Republican answers to school shootings, why dont we have them in Texas, where Republicans have been in charge for three decades? Some Republicans blame the school districts, suggesting limitations on the powers of the Republican legislature and governor. But the Republicans in charge have not hesitated to impose their will on all Texas schools with regard to the teaching of critical race theory, gender issues and other matters that should be in the hands of educators. Republicans claim to support better mental health care and hardened schools, but I suspect that they themselves understand these are actually disingenuous dodges that deflect attention from the real issue. In any case, Republicans who have little faith in government are just not very good at governing, in Texas or elsewhere. And therefore the carnage continues. John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, lives in Georgetown, Texas, and can be reached at jcrispcolumns@gmail.com. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 EDMONDS, Wash., May 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The USAF has awarded Jetoptera, Inc. a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) contract. Jetoptera will perform a wind tunnel testing campaign of a concept High-Speed Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft that the company has refined after examining the results of recently collected test data. The Upper Surface Blown Wing (USB) equipped powered high-lift model to be built and tested under the newly awarded contract will model the operation of Jetopteras 3-in-1 Adaptive Fluidic Propulsive System (FPS). The patent pending system enables an aircraft to take off vertically and transition smoothly to wingborne flight using FPS +USB powered by a turbocompressor, then accelerate the aircraft to jet speeds in a third mode using the compressor as turbofan. Jetoptera will use the experimental data collected to refine the ongoing design through dimensional analysis, using flow similarity principles and experimental validation of the integration of the Adaptive FPS to the VTOL capable airframe. This award builds upon the success of two previous Phase I STTR contract awards as well as a Direct to Phase II SBIR contract award from the USAF. Lift and thrust augmentation will now be directly measured using a subscale aircraft model that integrates FPS and USB elements. The Phase II STTR program will be conducted by teaming with the University of Washington; in 2021, in a Phase I STTR program with UW, Jetoptera obtained experimental evidence that FPS can be adapted to provide high-efficiency thrust and lift augmentation to a wing, enabling an aircraft to take off vertically and transition smoothly to wingborne flight. Jetopteras continuous development programs deliver positive results that indicate the FPS will surpass the capabilities of legacy propulsion methods while being safer, quieter, and able to achieve far higher speeds than propellers or rotor driven aircraft. AFRL and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants, and decrease bureaucratic overhead. Beginning in SBIR 18.2, and now in SBIR 21.1, the Air Force has begun offering The Open Topic SBIR/STTR program that is faster, leaner and open to a broader range of innovations. The period of performance for this Phase II STTR Contract is twelve months. For more information on AFWERX, please follow these links: Twitter https://twitter.com/AFWERX LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/afwerx-usaf/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AFWERX Instagram https://www.instagram.com/afwerx/ DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release: distribution unlimited. For information about this press release please contact Todd Newton todd@jetoptera.com WASHINGTON, DC and LONDON, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Fund for Children announces the winners of the 2022 Juliette Gimon Courage Awards today, recognizing the perseverance of three organizations working to challenge systems that exclude children and youth from education. This years winners are IRODA in Tajikistan, Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society (WAVES) in Sierra Leone, and Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) in Afghanistan, which are being honored for their work supporting children and youth who have been excluded from formal schooling. The three winners are committed to defending the rights of young people to access quality education and reach their full potential. IRODA was founded by Dr. Lola Nasriddinova and her husband Fazliddin after their five-year-old son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), at a time when medical professionals in Tajikistan had limited knowledge of ASD and children with ASD were not accepted into school. Lola and Fazliddin gathered a group of parents experiencing the same situation and established an organization to support children with ASD. IRODA has since pioneered ASD services and support across Tajikistan, training professionals and parents who work with children with ASD; helping children with ASD enroll in formal school and young adults with ASD find employment; and setting up both the first social enterprise cafe and the first early intervention resource center in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. We have traveled a difficult and thorny path that has led us from being parents who were feeling lost and isolated to becoming activists and professionals working in the field of autism, said Dr. Nasriddinova, the Executive Director of IRODA. Thank you to all of those who have traveled this path with us, and above all, thank you to our children who have changed our lives and given us courage. WAVES was founded by Hannah Yambasu in 2005. After personally experiencing childhood abuse and fighting to remain free of an arranged marriage, Hannah has dedicated herself to advocating for girls rights to freedom from violence and access to education. At great personal risk, she has confronted practices such as child marriage and female genital cutting, as well as advocating for policy changes that benefit girls and women. WAVES empowers girls to speak out against sexual and gender-based violence and to advocate for their sexual and reproductive health and rights, while engaging adults in the community to adopt more supportive attitudes and practices. One of the organizations greatest achievements is successfully advocating to overturn a government ban in Sierra Leone that prohibited pregnant girls from attending mainstream schools and sitting for national exams. We believe the award is recognition of our hard work and commitment to creating a safe and enabling environment for women and girls, said Yambasu, the Executive Director of WAVES. This award inspires confidence and passion in us to continue to address issues relating to women and adolescents, especially girls, and to do more to build the agency of young people to speak out against sexual and gender-based violence, advocate for sexual and reproductive rights, and become agents of change in their communities. Dr. Sakena Yacoobi founded AIL after witnessing as a child the struggles women and children faced accessing health care and education. Since its inception in 1995, AIL has significantly increased access to education for girls and women by providing them with private schools and learning centers and by fostering literacy. AIL delivers leadership and human rights workshops, including a two-year leadership program for high school students and a womens empowerment program for 70 female leaders in Herat, Afghanistan. The organization also set up a legal clinic to enable women to understand their rights and access free legal assistance. With growing concerns about girls access to schools and education again, AIL is exploring safe ways to bring education to girls and women, including a partnership with TV Meraj for a televised education program that would reach children without access to school. It means the world to me to receive this award because children are the hope for a peaceful future we must nurture and put them above all, said Dr. Yacoobi, AILs Executive Director. I am a voice for millions of Afghan children suffering through such crises who are not being heard. I know how much it meant to Juliette to see children happy, given opportunities, and succeed in all parts of the world. Global Fund for Children gives the annual Courage Awards through the Juliette Gimon Fund for Courageous Leadership a more than $1 million endowment made possible by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and other donors in honor of Juliette Gimon, who passed away in 2018. A former GFC Board Chair, Gimon helped shape GFC through her wisdom, insights, and profound concern for children, changing hundreds of thousands of young lives across the globe. Were delighted to recognize IRODA, WAVES, and AIL for their dedication to challenging systems that are excluding young people from education and for helping children to access essential needs and become agents of change in their own communities, said John Hecklinger, President and CEO of Global Fund for Children. Like Juliette, the leaders of the winning organizations are brave women who are passionate about supporting children and youth. This year, the Courage Award Selection Committee has designated a new category of award recognition, honorees, to celebrate more community-based organizations positively impacting children in challenging circumstances. Along with the 2022 award winners, the 2022 honorees have demonstrated incredible courage in service of social change. In Peru, 2022 honoree Yanapanakusun provides housing, access to education, and other support to child and adolescent laborers, migrants, and trafficking survivors, as well as to other young people in vulnerable circumstances. In Honduras, 2022 honoree Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras empowers youth in neighborhoods with a significant gang presence to practice different art forms while exploring social issues that impact their communities. The 2022 Courage Award winners were selected from among 14 finalists that have empowered children and youth to overcome tremendous obstacles, including inequality, exploitation, and a lack of access to quality education. Join Global Fund for Children on June 16 to celebrate 2022 Courage Award winners and to meet their inspirational founders. Register for the online event today. ABOUT GLOBAL FUND FOR CHILDREN Global Fund for Children partners to build a world where all children and youth enjoy equal resources and opportunities in society and live free from violence, discrimination, and exploitation. To that end, GFC invests in innovative local organizations, helping them deepen their impact and develop their capacity for social change. Together, GFC and its partners advance the rights of children and youth facing poverty and injustice and equip them with the tools and skills to reach their full potential. Since 1997, Global Fund for Children has invested $51 million in more than 900 organizations, reaching more than 11 million children and youth worldwide. For more information, visit www.globalfundforchildren.org. ABOUT THE JULIETTE GIMON COURAGE AWARDS Juliette Gimon, a former Board Chair of Global Fund for Children, passed away on February 24, 2018. GFC established the Juliette Gimon Fund for Courageous Leadership, a more than $1 million endowment made possible by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and other generous donors. Annual awards from the fund the Juliette Gimon Courage Awards recognize innovative grassroots organizations around the world that are positively impacting children in especially challenging circumstances. Some recipients have overcome considerable obstacles to pioneer an innovation that transforms circumstances for children and youth. Others demonstrate the courage of resilience, thriving amid unusual contextual challenges; still others have leaders who have navigated personal hardship and channeled adversity into their organizations cause. For more information, visit www.globalfundforchildren.org/courage-awards. ABOUT IRODA Dushanbe, Tajikistan IRODA provides access to quality services appropriate for the unique needs of children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a context where there is a lack of knowledge and acceptance of ASD, IRODA trains professionals and parents on working with children with ASD, facilitates a parent support group, and helps children with ASD enroll in formal school. The organization has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in Tajikistan to create guidelines for the clinical diagnosis of ASD and initiated the first early intervention resource center at a local preschool in Dushanbe. For more information, visit https://autism.tj/. ABOUT WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE AND EXPLOITATION IN SOCIETY (WAVES) Bo, Sierra Leone WAVES develops the capacity of girls in Bo, Sierra Leone, both in and out of school, to speak out against sexual and gender-based violence, advocate for sexual and reproductive rights, and become agents of change in their communities. The organization also conducts extensive community outreach and advocates for policy changes to benefit girls and women. WAVES stands with girls and women who are experiencing challenging social norms, such as child marriage, and advocates for their rights to education, employment, political participation, and social justice. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/WavesWomenRightsSL/. ABOUT AFGHAN INSTITUTE OF LEARNING (AIL) Kabul, Afghanistan The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) increases access to education in Afghanistan by providing women and children with education, health care, and health education. The women-led organization supports youth clubs and offers training on a range of topics including peace, leadership, and human rights to both youth and women. AIL has also set up a legal clinic offering free advice and representation for women. The organizations founder, Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, has established 352 learning centers and four schools, as well as a hospital, a radio station, and a TV station, in Afghanistan. For more information, visit https://www.sakena.org/afghan-institute-of-learning.php. Attachments SAN FRANCISCO, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) investors who suffered significant losses to submit your losses now. A securities fraud class action has been filed and certain investors may have valuable claims. Class Period: Mar. 30, 2021 May 2, 2022 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Aug. 1, 2022 Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/IONQ Contact An Attorney Now: IONQ@hbsslaw.com | 844-916-0895 IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) Securities Fraud Class Action: The lawsuit focuses on IonQs statements about its 32-qubit machine which the company claims is the worlds most powerful quantum computer. IonQs representations allowed the company to go public through a SPAC-merger in late Sept. 2021. Specifically, the complaint alleges Defendants misrepresented and omitted that: (1) IonQ had not yet developed a 32-qubit quantum computer; (2) the companys 11-qubit quantum computer suffered from significant error rates, rendering it useless; (3) IonQs quantum computer is not sufficiently reliable, so it is not accessible despite being available through major cloud providers; and, (4) a significant portion of IonQs revenue was derived from improper round-tripping transactions with related parties. The truth emerged on May 3, 2022, when activist short-seller Scorpion Capital published a 183-page scathing report alleging the companys claims of a 32-qubit machine are a brazen hoax, that IonQs only actual machine is an old 11-qubit toy computer for demonstration purposes that ex-employees, leading quantum experts, and key partners all described as primitive, useless, doomed by fatal error rates inherent to the technology, unreliable with low uptime, and so slow that a useful calculation could take 3 years, and it created the illusion of commercial momentum via sham related-party transactions. Were focused on investors losses and proving IonQ misrepresented the existence of- and commercial prospects for- its 32-qubit computer, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. If you invested in IonQ and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding IonQ should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email IONQ@hbsslaw.com. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw. Paris, France, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 75th Cannes Film Festival ended successfully a few days ago, which is the biggest cultural event in Europe after the return to normal life since the pandemic of covid-19. "Spring, Seeing Hong Kong Again", a documentary about Hong Kong, China, sparked heated discussions in Cannes Film Festival. The film held a screening event on May 27, French time. The audience applauded for 3 minutes after the screening, some audience enthusiastically discussed the film and said that they were stunned and their impressions of Hong Kong were refreshed. On May 17th and May 23rd, when "Spring, Seeing Hong Kong Again" was screened online at the Cannes Film Festival, it attracted many audiences and filmmakers from various countries. Media reporters, such as New York Times columnist, and Osaka Asian Film Festival programmer, the film manager of the German Art Cinema expressed strong interest in the film. The documentary directed by French director Benoit Lelievre, differs from "Revolution of Our Times", which was shown in Cannes last year, and shows us a vibrant and peaceful Hong Kong. He let us see their perseverance and bravery, kindness and tolerance, solidarity and mutual assistance. Before screening at the Cannes Film Festival, "Spring, Seeing Hong Kong Again" has won the Best Documentary Award at the Prague Film Festival in the Czech Republic, and has been widely acclaimed in many screenings. The festival director Zuzana expressed her love for the film. The jury said, This film is undoubtedly the biggest surprise of Prague Film Festival 2022, offering a new perspective and thinking to European audiences. Moira Sullivan, a famous Swedish film critic, said after watching the film: "Its a well-crafted documentary with skillfull editing and excellent cinematography. The return to spring is hallmarked by tenacity and strength shown through a myriad of images and events. Vanessa McMahon, Cannes Film Festival identification professional film reviewer, wrote on the film review website: This is a love letter to the vibrancy and diversity of a Hong Kong that has been drastically hit by the Covid pandemic for the last two years. Showing us that hope and spring are blooming together, this new and inspiring camera work reveals the hopes and lifted spirits of the Hong Kong people. The film has received invitations to participate in major film festivals such as the Sweden Balkan Film Festival and the Crete International Film Festival in Greece etc, and will continue to meet audiences from all over Europe. As professor Claus Mueller (NY Hunter University) said: "Spring, Seeing Hong Kong again" is an excellent read about Hong Kong at present, and it is worth to see the latest look of this oriental city for audiences from all over the world. Company Name: Star international culture and media claudiadocff@gmail.com Source: https://www.filmfestivals.com/blog/cannes_market_dailies/spring_seeing_hong_kong_again_review_by_vanessa_mcmahon Disclaimer: There is no offer to sell, no solicitation of an offer to buy, and no recommendation of any security or any other product or service in this article. Moreover, nothing contained in this PR should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment or security, or to engage in any investment strategy or transaction. It is your responsibility to determine whether any investment, investment strategy, security, or related transaction is appropriate for you based on your investment objectives, financial circumstances, and risk tolerance. Consult your business advisor, attorney, or tax advisor regarding your specific business, legal, or tax situation. For more info, please contact brandnewsproject@gmail.com. Attachment English German Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Restructured t iming of ReveraGen m ilestone p ayments, reducing near-term liquidity needs Secured up to CHF 40 million of additional financing Pratteln, Switzerland, June 2, 2022 Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces that it has renegotiated the timing of an upcoming milestone payment to partner ReveraGen, thereby reducing near-term financial obligations of the Company by CHF 20 million. Santhera has also upsized its existing financing arrangement with certain funds managed by Highbridge Capital Management, LLC (Highbridge) which will provide up to CHF 40 million of additional financing. Santhera expects the combination of these events to extend its liquidity runway into 2023 or up to approval of vamorolone in the U.S. which, subject to priority review being granted, is expected in Q1-2023. Restructured milestone payments reduces near-term cash need by as much as USD 20 million (40%) An FDA approval of vamorolone would have triggered total milestone payments of USD 40 million to ReveraGen. An amendment to the agreement has been negotiated with ReveraGen resulting in a reduction of the approval milestone by USD 20 million in exchange for an increase of the sales milestone by USD 20 million (due if and when vamorolone annual revenue reaches USD 100 million). The approval milestone will be further reduced by monthly payments already made and to be made to ReveraGen in a maximum amount of USD 4 million. In addition, Idorsia is to receive a milestone payment of USD 10 million at the time of the approval. In summary, the new agreement would result in a reduction in the milestone due upon U.S. approval of vamorolone from USD 50 million to USD 26 million, assuming payments totaling USD 4 million being made in advance of approval. Upsized financing by Highbridge of up to CHF 40 million adequate to meet liquidity requirements through Q1-2023 Highbridge has committed to increase its existing financing arrangement with Santhera to provide up to CHF 40 million in new senior secured exchangeable notes. Of this amount, around CHF 8.5 million will be used to refinance currently outstanding exchangeable notes. Such a facility allows for periodic drawdowns (based on meeting certain criteria, an assessment of liquidity and other sources of funds, and sufficient shares for exchanges available at the time) and can be exchanged by Highbridge for shares at a discount to VWAP (volume-weighted average price), subject to a variable floor. The maturity of these new exchangeable notes will be May 2024. The new exchangeable notes will pay a fixed interest, which Santhera can pay in cash or in kind at a rate of between 12 - 16% per annum. Andrew Smith, Chief Financial Officer of Santhera, commented: We are pleased with the successful renegotiation of the agreement with ReveraGen which demonstrates its confidence in the commercial success of vamorolone. The additional financing provided by Highbridge is intended to enable funding through anticipated approval. We value their continued support. Together, these measures significantly reduce our near-term financing requirements, especially in a period of market volatility. Funding outlook In September 2021, Santhera secured mixed equity-debt financing in the aggregate amount of up to CHF 42 million (net), resolving the debt overhang through repayment of the 2017/22 convertible bond and providing sufficient liquidity until mid-2022. In addition to the upsized Highbridge financing announced today, additional capital will be required to support the commercialization of vamorolone, for payment of the U.S approval milestones and to serve Santhera's outstanding debt. The difficult market environment caused by the general downturn of the capital markets and geopolitical volatility have rendered new capital raises challenging. In response, the Company is considering various potential avenues to further bolster liquidity which may include royalty-structured financings and out-licensing transactions in addition to or in lieu of a rights offering and/or PIPE (private investment in public equity)-transaction. In order to reach profitability with vamorolone in DMD, which is currently expected, at the earliest, during H2-2024, Santhera estimates that the Company will need to secure an additional CHF 40-50 million to fund its operations, including U.S. approval milestone payments and its debt service. Following todays announcements, this is around 50% less than the previously communicated funding need of about CHF 100 million. About Santhera Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. The Company plans to complete the rolling submission of its filing for approval for vamorolone with the U.S. FDA in June 2022. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com . Raxone is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact: public-relations@santhera.com or Eva Kalias, Head Investor Relations & Communications Phone: +41 79 875 27 80 eva.kalias@santhera.com Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the Company or TAAT) is pleased to announce that its recent acquisition of ADCO Distributors, Inc. (ADCO) was covered by Crains Cleveland Business in an article dated May 31, 2022, alluding to the transactions significance in the northern Ohio business landscape. The Company has previously received press coverage from mainstream outlets to include the Columbus Dispatch1 after TAAT first launched in Ohio in Q4 2020, as well as Forbes2 on two occasions including the USD $8 million follow-on private placement the Company secured from a group of investors led by Debbie Chang, Co-Founder of Horizons Ventures (in her personal capacity). The May 31, 2022 Crains Cleveland Business article about the acquisition of ADCO by TAAT was covered by Jeremy Nobile, who joined the publication in 2014 as a finance and legal affairs reporter. The Crains Cleveland Business article can be accessed by clicking on the following link: https://www.crainscleveland.com/small-business/hemp-cigarette-maker-taat-buys-canton-company-bid-improve-us-sales Crains Cleveland Business is one of four regional business publications under the umbrella of Crain Communications, a multinational business publishing firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1916, Crain Communications currently delivers business news to more than 78 million readers annually3. Its other publications include AdAge, Automotive News, and the worlds leading institutional investing newspaper Pensions & Investments4. First published in March 19805, Crains Cleveland Business has more than 217,000 weekly readers6. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c907bc3a-5557-49fa-aebf-3e0ef08ba1da Crains Cleveland Business is a major business publication with a focus on developments in and relating to the northern region of Ohio in the United States. In an article dated May 31, 2022, Crains Cleveland Business covered the acquisition of ADCO by TAAT, which the Company officially announced the closing of in a press release dated May 20, 2022. The Crains Cleveland Business article can be accessed by clicking on the thumbnail above or by clicking here . 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, As TAAT becomes a more established brand in the tobacco category and starts to make bigger moves such as acquiring third-party distributors, it is a natural progression for us to start getting heightened attention from various media outlets. The concept of a nicotine-free and tobacco-free alternative to traditional cigarettes is still fairly novel, though over the past two years we have actively and organically grown awareness and understanding of TAAT and Beyond Tobacco from a product perspective, but more importantly as a mission to give current adult smokers a choice to keep the experiences they love while leaving nicotine behind. It is with this awareness and understanding that we have curated an attractive profile for media outlets who want to talk about TAAT and what moves were making as a business. As such, we are very grateful for this media coverage by Crains Cleveland Business, putting us in the spotlight of the vibrant business scene of northern Ohio where we hope to begin doing considerably more business in the near future. Sources 1 - https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/01/06/taat-hemp-based-cigarette-now-ohio-claims-cbd-curb-tobacco-addiction-nicotine/4071203001/ 2 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelinebryant/2021/10/14/canadian-alternative-tobacco-maker-taat-secures-10m-venture-capital-investment/?sh=5d54afab4fac 3 - https://www.crain.com/company/ 4 - https://www.crain.com/brands/pensions-investments/ 5 - https://www.crain.com/company/history/ 6 - https://www.crainscleveland.com/advertise 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: Potential impact from the May 31, 2022 Crains Cleveland Business article about the Companys acquisition of ADCO, potential growth of the Companys business activities in the state of Ohio. 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 With investments across Africas hydrocarbon sector decreasing due to global climate policies, calls for Africa to develop domestic and innovative financial solutions to accelerate projects development continues to expand. Ahead of the African Energy Week, Africas leading investment platform for the oil and gas sector which takes place from 18 21 October, 2022 in Cape Town, the African Energy Chamber spoke with Zakaria Dosso, Managing Director, African Energy Investment Corporation (AEICORP), to understand investments trends across Africas energy market. What sectors do you feel have the best potential for growth in Africa? Currently representing just over 17% of the worlds population, Africa accounts for only 4% of global power supply investment while only 58% of its population have access to electricity. With Africas population growing rapidly to reach 26% and 39% of the global population by 2050 and 2100, respectively demand for food, transportation, energy, housing, health, education and all those sectors pertaining to basic subsistence needs will face substantial growth. Most of the sectors will require more energy to support their growth. Much remains to be done in the energy sector to bring the rest of the sectors to cope with this demographic growth. Thus, Africas production capacity will need to be doubled by 2030 if we are to improve living standards and foster economic growth. African governments are well aware of these challenges and are taking action to anticipate them. On a regulatory front, what needs to be done to ensure African countries are competitive investment destinations, particularly in a post-COVID-19, reduced capital expenditure environment? Africa needs to establish fair and reassuring legal frameworks which attract foreign direct investments and protect all types of investment. The policies need to facilitate incoming and outgoing financial flows and the recruitment of expatriate staff for highly technical sectors if the required skills do not exist internally. Return on investment is generally higher in Africa because of the very high needs, the weak mechanisms for raising funds locally and certain country risks, however, policies also need to prioritize the development of local African markets. What role do Africas domestic financiers play in meeting investment demand seen across Africas oil market? Despite African financiers not sufficiently equipped to respond to the strong demand of investments, they are key to addressing inadequate funding in the hydrocarbons sector. Their role is to mobilize the necessary funds both locally and abroad to direct them towards financing needs. Africa is a net importer of petroleum products while we export more than 70% of our crude oil. With demand for hydrocarbons also expanding, African financiers and National Oil Companies must work together to invest more in crude refining on the continent. Do you believe an African Energy Bank is feasible and what steps need to be taken to establish an institution such as this? An African Energy Bank is quite feasible and we are well on the way to getting it started. The first step, and which remains the most important, is the will of political leaders to put it in place. This will was translated into action through the formation of AEICORP in January, 2019 to mobilize financial resources from APPO member countries and other financial institutions to finance the development of the oil & gas and renewable energy sectors. With Afreximbank and APPO signing an agreement in Luanda on 16 May, 2022, this bank will be ready to operate in the coming months. With Europe looking to Africa as an alternative gas supplier, do you foresee gas-directed investments increasing across the continent? It is clear that African gas is a real alternative to the current situation with Russia. The question was even raised during the recent visit of the German Chancellor to Senegal. I foresee a growth in investments for African gas. It is true that the sale of gas like any other raw material provides Africa with foreign currency which is used to finance other parts of our economies. However, part of the investments must be used for local processing for local needs. Gas must therefore be used to increase access to energy for our populations and our manufacturing industry. What deals do you foresee or hope to see signed at African Energy Week this year? I would like to see Cooperation Agreements signed between AEICORP and African National Oil Companies present at Africa Energy Week. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Dublin, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "South Africa Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2022 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The social commerce industry in South Africa is expected to grow by 62.4% on annual basis to reach US$833.3 million in 2022. The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 51.9% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the country will increase from US$833.3 million in 2022 to reach US$9568.9 million by 2028. In South Africa, the popularity of the social commerce sector has surged significantly over the last few quarters. While the global pandemic has resulted in a growing shift toward online shopping from e-commerce platforms, consumers in large numbers have also started purchasing products through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, in South Africa. According to Q1 2022 Global Social Commerce Market Survey, nearly 60% of the consumers in South Africa purchased products online in 2021. As the number continues to increase year on year, social media platforms are increasing their investment in the sector to gain a bigger market share for themselves in South Africa. Consequently, the publisher expects more media budget to shift into social commerce solutions over the next four to eight quarters in the country. Notably, social media platforms that have the contextual relevance and scale to drive product discovery are expected to lead the social commerce market in South Africa. In the United States, Facebook, along with Instagram and Pinterest, have provided consumers with the best product discovery feature and are therefore leading the social commerce market in the country. The same market expansion strategy can be expected from Facebook and Instagram in South Africa. Facebook recorded the fastest growth in the social commerce space in South Africa There has been a big rise in the number of consumers shopping through social media platforms in South Africa over the last four to eight quarters. Consequently, payments firms are experiencing a big rise in the number of payments coming to their gateway from social media platforms in the country. Among the various social media platforms that are operational in the social commerce market, Facebook recorded the biggest increase in order volumes and transactions. For instance, According to PayFast, the social media platform has experienced an increase of 200% year on year, leading to July 2021, in the payments directed from Facebook to its payment engine in South Africa. With the firm continuously innovating with its social commerce features and investing in new product development, the publisher expects Facebook to dominate the social commerce sector in South Africa in the near term. However, with other firms also gaining traction among consumers, competition is expected to intensify over the next four to eight quarters. This growing competition among social media platforms will keep supporting the market growth from the short to medium-term perspective in the country. TikTok is gaining a rapid foothold in the South African social commerce industry In South Africa, Facebook remains the most popular platform among consumers across all age groups. However, the popularity of other social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok is also growing in the country, especially among younger generation shoppers. An estimated six million people are using TikTok in South Africa as of June 2021. Apart from its popularity as a social media platform, the firm has gained a rapid foothold as one of the leading social commerce platforms globally. The campaign #TikTokmademebuyit had over 2.3 billion views globally as of June 2021. This shows that the platform is gaining widespread popularity for its social commerce functionality globally as well as in South Africa. With the firm expected to drive further innovation in the social commerce sector over the next four to eight quarters, the publisher expects the firm to gain further market share in the social commerce industry in South Africa from the short to medium-term perspective. This will subsequently support the growth of the overall social commerce industry in the country over the next four to eight quarters. Reasons to buy In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028). Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors. Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry. Key Topics Covered: 1 About this Report 2 South Africa Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators 2.1 South Africa Ecommerce - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 2.2 South Africa Ecommerce - Average Value Per Transaction Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 2.3 South Africa Ecommerce - Transaction Volume Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators 3.1 South Africa Social Commerce - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3.2 South Africa Social Commerce - Average Value Per Transaction Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3.3 South Africa Social Commerce - Transaction Volume Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 4 South Africa Social Commerce Key Market Insight and Innovation 4.1 South Africa Social Commerce Key Trends and Drivers 4.2 South Africa Social Commerce Competitive Landscape and Growth Strategies 4.3 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share Analysis by Key Players 5 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories 5.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by Retail Product Categories (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 5.2 South Africa Social Commerce Clothing & Footwear - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.3 South Africa Social Commerce Beauty and Personal Care - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.4 South Africa Social Commerce Food & Grocery - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.5 South Africa Social Commerce Appliances and Electronics - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.6 South Africa Social Commerce Home Improvement - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.7 South Africa Social Commerce Other - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment 6.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by End Use Segment (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 6.2 South Africa Social Commerce B2B Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6.3 South Africa Social Commerce B2C Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6.4 South Africa Social Commerce C2C Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 7 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device 7.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by End Use Device (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 7.2 South Africa Social Commerce by Mobile - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 7.3 South Africa Social Commerce by Desktop - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 8 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location 8.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by Location (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 8.2 South Africa Social Commerce by Cross Border - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 8.3 South Africa Social Commerce by Domestic - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location 9.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by Location (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 9.2 South Africa Social Commerce by Tier-1 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9.3 South Africa Social Commerce by Tier-2 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9.4 South Africa Social Commerce by Tier-3 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method 10.1 South Africa Social Commerce Market Share by Payment Method (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 10.2 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Credit Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.3 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Debit Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.4 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Bank Transfer - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.5 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Prepaid Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.6 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Digital & Mobile Wallet - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.7 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Other Digital Payment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.8 South Africa Social Commerce Payment by Cash - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 11 South Africa Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behavior 11.1 South Africa Social Commerce Spend Share by Age Group, 2021 11.2 South Africa Social Commerce Share by Income Level, 2021 11.3 South Africa Social Commerce Share by Gender, 2021 12 Further Reading For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ocd036 Dublin, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Germany Social Commerce Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics Databook - 50+ KPIs on Social Commerce Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2022 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. According to Q1 2022 Social Commerce Survey, social commerce industry in Germany is expected to grow by 16.6% on annual basis to reach US$10469.6 million in 2022. The social commerce industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 15.1% during 2022-2028. The social commerce GMV in the country will increase from US$10469.6 million in 2022 to reach US$24022.4 million by 2028. The growing interaction of consumers with brands on social media platforms, coupled with shopping functionalities offered by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, have supported the rise of social commerce in Germany. With the trend gaining momentum globally, social networking platforms have also increased their spending in the social commerce space, thereby offering German consumers a more seamless shopping experience, which is also personalized and targeted. Over the last four to eight quarters, smartphone and internet penetration rates increased significantly in Germany, which has resulted in more and more online shoppers in the country. By 2025, Germany is expected to have approximately 69 million online shoppers. Notably, this growth in the number of online shoppers, as well as the number of social media users in the country, will keep supporting the growth of the overall social commerce market from the short to medium-term perspective. A substantial increase in the number of active social media users is driving market growth in Germany In 2019, the number of people active on social media platforms stood at around 31.5 million, representing nearly 45% of the total population. However, because of the global pandemic outbreak, the number of active users surged significantly in the country over the last four to eight quarters. According to Q4 Social Commerce Market Survey, the number of active users increased to more than 65 million in 2021, which represents around 79% of the total population in the country. Moreover, mobile adoption among consumers also became more prominent during the Covid-19 outbreak. As many as 64 million people access social media platforms through their mobile phones in Germany. This rise in mobile adoption among consumers has also supported the growth of social commerce over the last four to eight quarters. The publisher expects the trend to continue from the short to medium-term perspective, which will thereby keep supporting the overall market growth in the country. A growing number of German brands are diving into the social commerce space to increase their market share In the midst of the growing social shopping trend among consumers in Germany, an increasing number of brands are diving into the social commerce space to boost their market share. For instance, Lidl, the German international discount retailer chain, is using Facebook for its social commerce strategy. Through the social media platform, the retailer is receiving a high level of engagement from consumers in the country. Notably, the firm engages in live streaming and partnering with influencers to grow its revenue and sales. The German beauty retailer, Douglas, is another brand that has incorporated social commerce strategy in their overall marketing mix in the country. Moreover, the brand streams a number of live shows, which include workshops and talks with influencers. Through its social commerce strategy, the firm has claimed to increase its conversion rates by up to 40% in Germany. Strategic partnerships are rising to tap the German social commerce market Amid the growing trend of social shopping among consumers, social media platforms and e-commerce enablers are entering into strategic partnerships to provide businesses with the tools to bring their products online. For instance, In April 2021, Pinterest entered into a strategic partnership with Shopify to enable merchants of Shopify to sell their products on the social media platform. Apart from Germany, the two firms have extended their partnership in 26 more countries, including Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Under the strategic partnership, Shopify merchants advertising on Pinterest will now have access to dynamic re-targeting, allowing the merchants to re-engage with Pinners who have previously shown interest in their products on the social media platform. Besides, merchants will also have access to more social commerce tools launched by Pinterest on their platform. The publisher expects more such strategic partnerships over the next four to eight quarters as the social shopping trend grows among consumers. This will subsequently assist the growth of Germany's overall social commerce industry from the short to medium-term perspective. Reasons to buy In-depth Understanding of Social Commerce Market Dynamics: Understand market opportunities and key trends along with forecast (2019-2028). Insights into Opportunity by end-use sectors - Get market dynamics by end-use sectors to assess emerging opportunity across various end-use sectors. Develop Market Specific Strategies: Identify growth segments and target specific opportunities to formulate social commerce strategy; assess market specific key trends, drivers, and risks in the industry. Key Topics Covered: 1 About this Report 1.1 Summary 1.2 Methodology 1.3 Social Commerce Definitions 1.4 Disclaimer 2 Germany Ecommerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators 2.1 Germany Ecommerce - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 2.2 Germany Ecommerce - Average Value Per Transaction Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 2.3 Germany Ecommerce - Transaction Volume Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics by Key Performance Indicators 3.1 Germany Social Commerce - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3.2 Germany Social Commerce - Average Value Per Transaction Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 3.3 Germany Social Commerce - Transaction Volume Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 4 Germany Social Commerce Key Market Insight and Innovation 4.1 Germany Social Commerce Key Trends and Drivers 4.2 Germany Social Commerce Competitive Landscape and Growth Strategies 4.3 Germany Social Commerce Market Share Analysis by Key Players 5 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Retail Product Categories 5.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by Retail Product Categories (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 5.2 Germany Social Commerce Clothing & Footwear - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.3 Germany Social Commerce Beauty and Personal Care - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.4 Germany Social Commerce Food & Grocery - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.5 Germany Social Commerce Appliances and Electronics - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.6 Germany Social Commerce Home Improvement - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 5.7 Germany Social Commerce Other - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Segment 6.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by End Use Segment (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 6.2 Germany Social Commerce B2B Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6.3 Germany Social Commerce B2C Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 6.4 Germany Social Commerce C2C Segment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 7 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by End Use Device 7.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by End Use Device (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 7.2 Germany Social Commerce by Mobile - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 7.3 Germany Social Commerce by Desktop - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 8 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location 8.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by Location (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 8.2 Germany Social Commerce by Cross Border - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 8.3 Germany Social Commerce by Domestic - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Location 9.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by Location (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 9.2 Germany Social Commerce by Tier-1 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9.3 Germany Social Commerce by Tier-2 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 9.4 Germany Social Commerce by Tier-3 Cities - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Payment Method 10.1 Germany Social Commerce Market Share by Payment Method (%), 2021 Vs. 2028 10.2 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Credit Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.3 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Debit Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.4 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Bank Transfer - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.5 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Prepaid Card - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.6 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Digital & Mobile Wallet - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.7 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Other Digital Payment - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 10.8 Germany Social Commerce Payment by Cash - Gross Merchandise Value Trend Analysis, 2019-2028 11 Germany Social Commerce Industry Market Size and Forecast by Consumer Demographics & Behavior 11.1 Germany Social Commerce Spend Share by Age Group, 2021 11.2 Germany Social Commerce Share by Income Level, 2021 11.3 Germany Social Commerce Share by Gender, 2021 12 Further Reading For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/owjfdn PUNE, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Sternal Distractor Market Research Report 2022 Sternal Distractor Market Report provide in-depth study of the current state of the Industry. Initially, the report shows a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications, share, trend, forecast analysis, growth, Manufacturers, Industrial end users, Commercial end users, Government bodies and more. Who Are Sternal Distractor Market Key Manufacturers? Company Information: List of Top Manufacturers/ Key Players In Sternal Distractor Market Insights Report Are: Castaneda Aesculap Microcure Medical Brink Surgical IndoSurgicals Private Limited Medline Rultract Chatterjee Surgical Get a sample copy of the Sternal Distractor market report 2022 Scope of the Sternal Distractor Market 2022: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global Sternal Distractor market size is estimated to be worth US$ million in 2021 and is forecast to a readjusted size of US$ million by 2028 with a CAGR of % during the forecast period 2022-2028. Fully considering the economic change by this health crisis, the Europe Sternal Distractor market is estimated at US$ million in 2022, while the United States and China are forecast to reach US$ million and US$ million by 2028, respectively. The proportion of the United States is % in 2022, while Chinese percentage is %, and it is predicted that China market share will reach % in 2028, trailing a CAGR of % through the analysis period. As for the Europe Sternal Distractor landscape, Germany is projected to reach US$ million by 2028. and in Asia, the notable markets are Japan and South Korea, CAGR is % and % respectively for the next 6-year period. Adult Type accounting for % of the Sternal Distractor global market in 2021, is projected to value US$ million by 2028, growing at a revised % CAGR from 2022 to 2028. While Ambulatory Surgery Center segment is altered to an % CAGR throughout this forecast period and will hold a share about % in 2028. The global major manufacturers of Sternal Distractor include Castaneda, Aesculap, Microcure Medical, Brink Surgical, IndoSurgicals Private Limited, Medline, Rultract and Chatterjee Surgical, etc. In terms of revenue, the global 3 largest players have a % market share of Sternal Distractor in 2021. This report focuses on Sternal Distractor volume and value at the global level, regional level, and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents overall Sternal Distractor market size by analysing historical data and future prospect. Regionally, this report focuses on several key regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. Global Sternal Distractor Market: Segment Analysis The research report includes specific segments by region (country), by company, by Type and by Application. This study provides information about the sales and revenue during the historic and forecasted period of 2017 to 2028. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. It also discussions about the market size of different segments and their growth aspects along with growth trends, various stakeholders like investors, CEOs, traders, suppliers, Research & media, Global Manager, Director, President, SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization and others. Revenue forecast, company share, competitive landscape, growth factors and trends COVID-19 / Great lockdown has compress the global economy and with it the manufacturing sector, production, disruption, financial. TO UNDERSTAND HOW COVID-19 IMPACT IS COVERED IN THIS REPORT - REQUEST SAMPLE On the thought of the product, this report displays the assembly, revenue, price, Classifications market share and rate of growth of each type, primarily split into Adult Type Childhood Type On the thought of the highest users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and rate of growth for each application, including Ambulatory Surgery Center Hospital Get a Sample PDF of report @ https://proficientmarketinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample/20769976?utm_source=NG A comprehensive exploration of the market is framed by thinking about a spread of things, from socioeconomics conditions and business cycles during a specific nation to showcase explicit microeconomic effects. The examination discovered the change in market ideal models regarding local upper hand and along these lines the serious scene of significant players. Downstream interest examination and upstream crude materials and hardware furthermore regulate. This report focuses on the Sternal Distractor in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application. The Sternal Distractor market report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The worldwide market for Sternal Distractor is anticipated to rise at a considerable rate during the forecast period, between 2020 and 2024. according to a new study.This report focuses on the Sternal Distractor in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application., Sternal Distractor Market growth, by Geography: Major regions covered within the report: Consumption by Region 2022:- North America,U.S.,Canada,Europe,Germany,France,U.K.,Italy,Russia,Asia-Pacific,China,Japan,SouthKorea,India,Australia,Taiwan,Indonesia,Thailand,Malaysia,Philippines,Vietnam,Latin America,Mexico,Brazil,Argentina,Middle East & Africa,Turkey,Saudi Arabia,U.A.E The report can help to know the market and strategize for business expansion accordingly. Within the strategy analysis, it gives insights from market positioning and marketing channel to potential growth strategies, providing in-depth analysis for brand fresh entrants or exists competitors within the Sternal Distractor industry. Global Sternal Distractor Market Report 2022 provides exclusive statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details during this niche sector. Fill the Pre-Order Enquiry form for the report @ https://proficientmarketinsights.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/20769976?utm_source=NG Key questions answered in Sternal Distractor market report: What will the market growth rate of Sternal Distractor market in 2022? What are the key factors driving the global Sternal Distractor market? Who are the key manufacturers in Sternal Distractor market space? What are the market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Sternal Distractor market? What are sales, revenue, and price analysis of top manufacturers of Sternal Distractor market? Who are the distributors, traders and dealers of Sternal Distractor market? What are the Sternal Distractor market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Sternal Distractor market? What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of Sternal Distractor market? What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of Sternal Distractor market? With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Sternal Distractor Market Forecast this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and should be a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market. Major Points from Table of Contents: Table of Contents 1 Sternal Distractor Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Sternal Distractor 1.2 Sternal Distractor Segment by Type 1.2.1 Global Sternal Distractor Market Size Growth Rate Analysis by Type 2022 VS 2028 1.3 Sternal Distractor Segment by Application 1.3.1 Global Sternal Distractor Consumption Comparison by Application: 2022 VS 2028 1.4 Global Market Growth Prospects 1.4.1 Global Sternal Distractor Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.4.2 Global Sternal Distractor Production Capacity Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.4.3 Global Sternal Distractor Production Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.5 Global Market Size by Region 1.5.1 Global Sternal Distractor Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2017 VS 2021 VS 2028 1.5.2 North America Sternal Distractor Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.5.3 Europe Sternal Distractor Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.5.4 China Sternal Distractor Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 1.5.5 Japan Sternal Distractor Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028) 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 2.1 Global Sternal Distractor Production Capacity Market Share by Manufacturers (2017-2022) 2.2 Global Sternal Distractor Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2017-2022) 2.3 Sternal Distractor Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) 2.4 Global Sternal Distractor Average Price by Manufacturers (2017-2022) 2.5 Manufacturers Sternal Distractor Production Sites, Area Served, Product Types 2.6 Sternal Distractor Market Competitive Situation and Trends 2.6.1 Sternal Distractor Market Concentration Rate 2.6.2 Global 5 and 10 Largest Sternal Distractor Players Market Share by Revenue 2.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion 3 Production Capacity by Region 3.1 Global Production Capacity of Sternal Distractor Market Share by Region (2017-2022) 3.2 Global Sternal Distractor Revenue Market Share by Region (2017-2022) 3.3 Global Sternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 3.4 North America Sternal Distractor Production 3.4.1 North America Sternal Distractor Production Growth Rate (2017-2022) 3.4.2 North America Sternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 3.5 Europe Sternal Distractor Production 3.5.1 Europe Sternal Distractor Production Growth Rate (2017-2022) 3.5.2 Europe Sternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 3.6 China Sternal Distractor Production 3.6.1 China Sternal Distractor Production Growth Rate (2017-2022) 3.6.2 China Sternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 3.7 Japan Sternal Distractor Production 3.7.1 Japan Sternal Distractor Production Growth Rate (2017-2022) 3.7.2 Japan Sternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 4 Global Sternal Distractor Consumption by Region 4.1 Global Sternal Distractor Consumption by Region 4.1.1 Global Sternal Distractor Consumption by Region 4.1.2 Global Sternal Distractor Consumption Market Share by Region 4.2 North America 4.2.1 North America Sternal Distractor Consumption by Country 4.2.2 United States 4.2.3 Canada 4.3 Europe 4.3.1 Europe Sternal Distractor Consumption by Country 4.3.2 Germany 4.3.3 France 4.3.4 U.K. 4.3.5 Italy 4.3.6 Russia 4.4 Asia Pacific 4.4.1 Asia Pacific Sternal Distractor Consumption by Region 4.4.2 China 4.4.3 Japan 4.4.4 South Korea 4.4.5 China Taiwan 4.4.6 Southeast Asia 4.4.7 India 4.4.8 Australia 4.5 Latin America 4.5.1 Latin America Sternal Distractor Consumption by Country 4.5.2 Mexico 4.5.3 Brazil 5 Segment by Type 5.1 Global Sternal Distractor Production Market Share by Type (2017-2022) 5.2 Global Sternal Distractor Revenue Market Share by Type (2017-2022) 5.3 Global Sternal Distractor Price by Type (2017-2022) 6 Segment by Application 6.1 Global Sternal Distractor Production Market Share by Application (2017-2022) 6.2 Global Sternal Distractor Revenue Market Share by Application (2017-2022) 6.3 Global Sternal Distractor Price by Application (2017-2022) 7 Key Companies Profiled 7.1 Company 7.1.1 Sternal Distractor Corporation Information 7.1.2 Sternal Distractor Product Portfolio 7.1. CSternal Distractor Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2017-2022) 7.1.4 Companys Main Business and Markets Served 7.1.5 Companys Recent Developments/Updates 8 Sternal Distractor Manufacturing Cost Analysis 8.1 Sternal Distractor Key Raw Materials Analysis 8.1.1 Key Raw Materials 8.1.2 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials 8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure 8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Sternal Distractor 8.4 Sternal Distractor Industrial Chain Analysis 9 Marketing Channel, Distributors and Customers 9.1 Marketing Channel 9.2 Sternal Distractor Distributors List 9.3 Sternal Distractor Customers 10 Market Dynamics 10.1 Sternal Distractor Industry Trends 10.2 Sternal Distractor Market Drivers 10.3 Sternal Distractor Market Challenges 10.4 Sternal Distractor Market Restraints 11 Production and Supply Forecast 11.1 Global Forecasted Production of Sternal Distractor by Region (2023-2028) 11.2 North America Sternal Distractor Production, Revenue Forecast (2023-2028) 11.3 Europe Sternal Distractor Production, Revenue Forecast (2023-2028) 11.4 China Sternal Distractor Production, Revenue Forecast (2023-2028) 11.5 Japan Sternal Distractor Production, Revenue Forecast (2023-2028) 12 Consumption and Demand Forecast 12.1 Global Forecasted Demand Analysis of Sternal Distractor 12.2 North America Forecasted Consumption of Sternal Distractor by Country 12.3 Europe Market Forecasted Consumption of Sternal Distractor by Country 12.4 Asia Pacific Market Forecasted Consumption of Sternal Distractor by Region 12.5 Latin America Forecasted Consumption of Sternal Distractor by Country 13 Forecast by Type and by Application (2023-2028) 13.1 Global Production, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2023-2028) 13.1.1 Global Forecasted Production of Sternal Distractor by Type (2023-2028) 13.1.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Sternal Distractor by Type (2023-2028) 13.1.3 Global Forecasted Price of Sternal Distractor by Type (2023-2028) 13.2 Global Forecasted Consumption of Sternal Distractor by Application (2023-2028) 13.2.1 Global Forecasted Production of Sternal Distractor by Application (2023-2028) 13.2.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Sternal Distractor by Application (2023-2028) 13.2.3 Global Forecasted Price of Sternal Distractor by Application (2023-2028) 14 Research Finding and Conclusion 15 Methodology and Data Source 15.1 Methodology/Research Approach 15.1.1 Research Programs/Design 15.1.2 Market Size Estimation 15.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation 15.2 Data Source 15.2.1 Secondary Sources 15.2.2 Primary Sources 15.3 Author List 15.4 Disclaimer Continued. Reasons to buy this report: To get a comprehensive overview of the Sternal Distractor Market To gain wide ranging information about the top players in this industry, their product portfolios, and key strategies adopted by the players. To gain insights of the countries/regions in the Sternal Distractor Market. Columbus, Ohio and Santa Barbara, California, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foxen, a market leader in financial technology solutions for the real estate industry, today announced a $44 million Series A financing led by growth equity investor Summit Partners, with participation from Level Equity. Foxen will use the funding to accelerate development of its expanding product portfolio and fuel hiring across the organization. Foxens technology solutions center on financial wellness the improvement in the management of finances through technology and are designed to mutually benefit property managers, owners, and their residents. The companys products were born of a market need for accountability and compliance in insurance coverage across the multifamily real estate market. Rental housing provides homes to more than a third of U.S. households[1], and while most multi-family property managers require renters insurance, compliance of this requirement is often not managed. Only about 57% of tenants carry an insurance policy[2], exposing renters to risk due to common incidents and leaving building owners susceptible to damage to the unit or property. As a property owner, I learned firsthand that requiring renters insurance is ineffective without the ability to manage compliance," said Jay Harkrider, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Foxen. "At Foxen, weve leveraged years of industry experience to build a technology platform that provides a convenient, affordable rental insurance alternative that simultaneously enables properties to achieve 100% compliance, creating a better experience for both residents and landlords. With the backing and resources of Summit Partners and Level Equity, we are poised to accelerate the expansion of this platform with new products that deliver on our vision of improving financial wellness through real estate. Reimagining Renters Insurance Foxens proprietary software solution is designed to seamlessly integrate with leading property management systems to provide real time access to property and resident compliance data, with automated enrollment in Foxens insurance solution for residents who incur lapsed or cancelled third-party coverage. The enrollment safety net, along with an embedded program solution at lease signing maximizes program participation while offering residents a convenient renters insurance solution. Foxens program maintains market-leading participation rates and is a trusted partner to some of the most respected property and asset management firms across the United States. Foxen has grown rapidly since its founding in 2018; over the last twelve months, Foxen grew units monitored by more than 240%. This capital provides Foxen an opportunity to expand into a total addressable market of more than 24 million multifamily units in the U.S. alone. "With intuitive products that are designed to be easily adopted, seamlessly integrated and quickly revenue generating, Foxen applies a fresh approach to complex processes in the real estate, insurance, and financial categories, said Colin Mistele, Managing Director at Summit Partners, who has joined the Foxen Board of Directors. Foxens approach has resonated with customers, helping the team to bootstrap the business as it has grown to serve property managers on a national scale. We believe this deeply experienced team has a significant opportunity to build on that momentum as they continue to develop and launch innovative products to benefit property owners and residents alike. This funding comes at a point of strategic inflection for Foxen, as the company seeks to scale its team and operations to support new product growth. In 2022, Foxen launched Rentistry, a rent reporting and credit building program that aims to positively impact residents through credit score improvements while creating value for the properties that offer it as a powerful rent collection tool. Foxen plans to double in size over the next twelve months, bringing new jobs to its operations in Columbus, Ohio, and Santa Barbara, California. We believe there is a need for smarter FinTech solutions in the multifamily real estate industry, said Ben Levin, Co-Founder and CEO of Level Equity. We expect our investment in Foxen to accelerate their release of solutions that continue to create new efficiencies in this space. Were excited to partner with the team for this new phase of growth. About Foxen Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and founded in 2018, Foxen is a leader in the development of innovative and proprietary financial technology for real estate, providing mutually beneficial solutions for the advancement of property owners, managers, and their residents. Through its seamless solution with leading property management software systems, Foxens technology enables significant revenue generation for properties and greater financial wellness for residents. For more information about Foxen, visit www.foxen.com or follow Foxen on LinkedIn. About Summit Partners Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $39 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 550 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or follow Summit Partners on LinkedIn. About Level Equity Level Equity is a private investment firm focused on providing capital to rapidly growing software and technology-enabled businesses. Level provides long-term capital across all transaction types in support of continued growth. The firm has raised $3.0 billion in committed capital and has made over 90 investments since its inception. For more information, visit www.levelequity.com/. [1] Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, January 2022 [2] Insurance Information Institute, September 2020 VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trillium Gold Mines Inc. (TSXV:TGM, OTCQX:TGLDF, FRA:0702) (Trillium Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has signed the Wenasaga Property Option Agreement (the Agreement) to acquire a 100% undivided interest in the Wenasaga Gold Property (the Property) held by Bounty Gold Corp. (Bounty Gold). The 1,692 hectare Property is contiguous to Trillium Golds Eastern Vision land package and effectively extends Trillium Golds dominant foothold along the Confederation belt on trend with Kinross Golds LP Fault Zone of the Dixie Deposit (see Figure 1). Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, in order to keep the option thereunder in good standing, Trillium is required to pay Bounty Gold an aggregate amount of Cdn $25,500 over a period of two years, issue an aggregate 64,500 common shares in the capital of Trillium over a period of two years, and grant to Bounty Gold a 2.0% Net Smelter Returns royalty on the claims comprising the Property upon exercise of the option. The Company has the right to repurchase 50% of the royalty (being 1.0%) by paying the holder an aggregate amount equal to $1,000,000. The Common Shares of Trillium Gold issued under the Agreement will be subject to a four-month holding period from the closing date. The Agreement is subject to the approval of the TSXV and other applicable regulatory authorities, as well as the approval of the Ontario Mining Recorder to extend the due dates for assessment work. About the Wenasaga Gold Property The Wenasaga Gold Property is located 30km northeast of Ear Falls and 55km southeast of Red Lake. The Property is situated over a crustal fault structure1 and is on strike with Kinrosss Dixie Project, located 35km to the west. The Dixie Project hosts the LP Fault zone, a 4.6km long, drill tested zone containing 16 highly continuous bulk and 5 high-grade mineralized domains with attractive grades and true thickness.2 The Wenasaga Gold Property contains similar regional geology as that of the Dixie Project, underlain by felsic intrusive and metasedimentary rocks in the south, with felsic to intermediate-mafic metavolcanics rocks in the north. Historical drilling to the west and on strike along the crustal fault structure within the Wenasaga Gold Property intercepted highly deformed, chloritic and carbonate altered green basic metavolcanic rocks.3 Trilliums exploration programs will focus on delineating the fault structure which transects the Wenasaga Gold Property. The technical information presented in this news release has been reviewed and approved by William Paterson QP, P.Geo, Vice President of Exploration of Trillium Gold Mines, as defined by NI 43-101. 1 Lemkow, D.R., Sanborn-Barrie, M., Bailes, A.H., Percival, J.A., Rogers, N., Skulski, T., Anderson, S.D, McNicoll, V., Whalen, J.B., Tomlinson, K.Y., Parker, J.R., Hollings, P. and Young, M.2006: GIS compilation of geology and tectonostratigraphic assemblages, western Uchi Subprovince, western Superior Province, Ontario and Manitoba; Geological Survey of Canada Open File 5269, Manitoba Geological Survey Open File Report OF2006-30, Ontario Geological Survey Miscellaneous Release--Data 203. Scale 1:250 000. 1 CD-ROM. 2 Kinross Gold Corporation, BMO Investor Presentation February and March 2022, accessed 4 May 2022. 3 Assessment File: 52K14SE0024, Diamond Drill Report Figure 1: Map showing Wenasaga Gold Project https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e4aab7ba-ec45-4c9b-aed1-0ac0b2960991 On behalf of the Board of Directors, Trillium Gold Mines Inc. Russell Starr Interim Chairman, President & CEO For further information, please contact Donna Yoshimatsu, VP Corporate Development and Investor Relations at dyoshimatsu@trilliumgold.com, (416) 722-2456, or info@trilliumgold.com. Visit our website at www.trilliumgold.com. About Trillium Gold Mines Inc. Trillium Gold Mines Inc. is a growth focused company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties located in the Red Lake Mining District of Northern Ontario. As part of its regional-scale consolidation strategy, the Company has assembled the largest prospective land package in and around the Red Lake mining district in proximity to major mines and deposits, as well as the Confederation Lake and Birch-Uchi greenstone belts. Recently, the Company signed a definitive agreement for control over a significant portion of the Confederation Lake greenstone belt to more than 100km in length. In addition, the Company has interests in highly prospective properties in Larder Lake, Ontario. 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. Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Forward-looking information is based on managements reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on managements experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Such factors, among others, include: impacts arising from the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold or certain other commodities; change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Oslo\ Cape Town, 2 June 2022: Scatec ASA, a leading renewable energy solutions provider, today signed the power purchase agreements for the three Kenhardt projects in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) alongside the South African government. A first of a kind in Africa, the project will provide 150 MW of dispatchable renewable energy from 5:00 in the morning to 21:30 in the evening based on a hybrid installation of 540 MW of solar PV capacity and 1.1 GWh of battery storage. The Scatec projects were the sole renewables only projects awarded in the technology agnostic RMIPPP programme. This demonstrates the attractiveness, commercial viability and universal application of hybrid renewable energy facilities. Todays signing acknowledges this landmark achievement by the government, as well as the private sector in achieving this milestone in the RMIPPPP process. With these agreements being signed, we are working towards financial close under the timelines and conditions as stipulated by the authorities, says Scatec CEO Terje Pilskog. According to the agreements signed, financial close is to be achieved within 60 days from the signature date. Once financial close has been reached, Scatec will start construction of the projects. This unique solar and storage project signifies change within Africas renewable energy landscape and will be one of the largest renewable energy and storage projects in the world, adds Pilskog. Scatec will own 51% of the equity in the project with H1 Holdings, our local Black Economic Empowerment partner owning 49%. Scatec will be the Engineering, Procurement and Construction provider and provide Operation & Maintenance as well as Asset Management services to the power plants. The Standard Bank Group is acting as lead arranger and debt provider alongside a lender group including British International Investment and they will provide non-recourse project financing to the projects. For further information, please contact: For analysts and investors: Andreas Austrell, VP Investor Relations, Tel: +47 974 38 686, andreas.austrell@scatec.com For media: Meera Bhatia, SVP Communications, meera.bhatia@scatec.com About Scatec Scatec is a leading renewable energy solutions provider, accelerating access to reliable and affordable clean energy in high growth markets. As a long-term player, we develop, build, own and operate renewable energy plants, with 3.5 GW of installed capacity across four continents today. We are targeting 15 GW of renewable capacity to be in operation or under construction by the end of 2025, delivered by our 600 passionate employees who are driven by a common vision of Improving our Future. Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SCATC. To learn more, visit www.scatec.com or connect with us on LinkedIn . This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Dublin, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Bio-MEMS Market (2022-2027) by Type, Materials, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Bio-MEMS Market is estimated to be USD 13.03 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 27.25 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.90%. Market Dynamics Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Bio-MEMS Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals. As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks. Company Profiles The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Abbott Laboratories, Amphenol Corporation, Baxter International, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Bluechiip Ltd., Boston Scientific Corporation, Danaher Corp., etc. Countries Studied America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of the Americas) Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe) Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific) Competitive Quadrant The report includes a Competitive Quadrant a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Ansoff Analysis The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Bio-MEMS Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach. The analyst analyses the Global Bio-MEMS Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position. Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, this Global Research has devised suitable strategies for market growth. Why buy this report? The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Bio-MEMS Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies. The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry. The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report. The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies. The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool. Key Topics Covered: 1 Report Description 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.1.1 The Rising Demand from the Healthcare Industry 4.1.2 Integration of Emerging Technology due to Rising Chronic Diseases 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 High Cost with Research and Development 4.2.2 Long Product Development Cycle 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Wearable Biochem Sensors Creates a Lucrative Opportunity 4.3.2 Safety Concern Regarding Viral Diseases 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Miniaturization Devices and Micro-structures Poses a Challenge for Market 5 Market Analysis 5.1 Regulatory Scenario 5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis 6 Global Bio-MEMS Market, By Type 6.1 Introduction 6.2 In Vivo Devices 6.3 Microcantilever Sensors 7 Global Bio-MEMS Market, By By Materials 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Silicon and Glass 7.3 Plastics and Polymers 7.4 Biological Materials 7.5 Paper 8 Global Bio-MEMS Market, By Application 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Analysis 8.3 Detection 8.4 Cell Culture 8.5 Diagnostic 8.6 Drug Delivery 8.7 Surgical and Implants 8.8 Therapeutic 9 Americas' Bio-MEMS Market 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Argentina 9.3 Brazil 9.4 Canada 9.5 Chile 9.6 Colombia 9.7 Mexico 9.8 Peru 9.9 United States 9.10 Rest of Americas 10 Europe's Bio-MEMS Market 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Austria 10.3 Belgium 10.4 Denmark 10.5 Finland 10.6 France 10.7 Germany 10.8 Italy 10.9 Netherlands 10.10 Norway 10.11 Poland 10.12 Russia 10.13 Spain 10.14 Sweden 10.15 Switzerland 10.16 United Kingdom 10.17 Rest of Europe 11 Middle East and Africa's Bio-MEMS Market 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Egypt 11.3 Israel 11.4 Qatar 11.5 Saudi Arabia 11.6 South Africa 11.7 United Arab Emirates 11.8 Rest of MEA 12 APAC's Bio-MEMS Market 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Australia 12.3 Bangladesh 12.4 China 12.5 India 12.6 Indonesia 12.7 Japan 12.8 Malaysia 12.9 Philippines 12.10 Singapore 12.11 South Korea 12.12 Sri Lanka 12.13 Thailand 12.14 Taiwan 12.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific 13 Competitive Landscape 13.1 Competitive Quadrant 13.2 Market Share Analysis 13.3 Strategic Initiatives 13.3.1 M&A and Investments 13.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations 13.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements 14 Company Profiles 14.1 Abbott Laboratories 14.2 Amphenol Corporation 14.3 Baxter International, Inc. 14.4 Becton, Dickinson and Company 14.5 Bluechiip Ltd. 14.6 Boston Scientific Corporation 14.7 Danaher Corp. 14.8 Debiotech SA 14.9 Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. 14.10 IntelliSense Software Corporation 14.11 Medtronic PLC 14.12 Micronit Micro Technologies BV 14.13 PerkinElmer Inc 14.14 Philips Engineering Solutions 14.15 Redbud Labs, Inc. 14.16 Sensera Limited 14.17 STMicroelectronics Inc. 14.18 Taylor Hobson (Ametek Inc.) 14.19 Teledyne DALSA Inc. 14.20 Texas Instruments Inc 14.21 uFluidix, Inc 15 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vjhmw3 Attachment Dublin, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Biometrics Technology Market (2022-2027) by Component, Auntication Type, Type, End-User, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Biometrics Technology Market is estimated to be USD 49.03 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 102.1 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.8%. Market Dynamics Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Biometrics Technology Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals. As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks. Company Profiles The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Accu-Time Systems, Inc., AFIX Technologies, AllTrust Networks, Assa Abloy AB, Aware, Inc, BIO-key International, Inc., Cognitec Systems GmbH, Crossmatch, Cyber-Sign, Inc., David-Link, etc. Countries Studied America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of the Americas) Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe) Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific) Competitive Quadrant The report includes a Competitive Quadrant a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Ansoff Analysis The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Biometrics Technology Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach. The analyst analyses the Global Biometrics Technology Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position. Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, this Global Research has devised suitable strategies for market growth. Why buy this report? The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Biometrics Technology Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies. The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry. The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report. The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies. The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool. Key Topics Covered: 1 Report Description 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.1.1 Need for Security in Private, Public, and Commercial Sectors 4.1.2 Growing Adoption of Biometric Technology among Government and Law Enforcement Agencies 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 High Price Owing to Heavy R&D Activities 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Increasing Usage of Biometric Technology in BFSI 4.3.2 Rising Contactless Biometrics Technologies in various Application 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Interoperability Issues 5 Market Analysis 5.1 Regulatory Scenario 5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis 6 Global Biometrics Technology Market, By Component 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Hardware 6.2.1 Camera 6.2.2 Readers 6.2.3 Scanners 6.3 Software 7 Global Biometrics Technology Market, By Authentication Type 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Face Recognition 7.3 Fingerprint Recognition 7.3.1 AFIS 7.3.2 Non-AFIS 7.4 IRIS Recognition 7.5 Palm Print Recognition 7.6 Signature Recognition 7.7 Vein Recognition 7.8 Voice Recognition 8 Global Biometrics Technology Market, By Type 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Contact-Based 8.3 Contactless 8.4 Hybrid 9 Global Biometrics Technology Market, By End User 9.1 Introduction 9.2 BFSI 9.3 Commercial Centers and Buildings 9.4 Consumer Electronics 9.5 Defense and Security 9.6 Medical and Research Labs 10 Americas' Biometrics Technology Market 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Argentina 10.3 Brazil 10.4 Canada 10.5 Chile 10.6 Colombia 10.7 Mexico 10.8 Peru 10.9 United States 10.10 Rest of Americas 11 Europe's Biometrics Technology Market 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Austria 11.3 Belgium 11.4 Denmark 11.5 Finland 11.6 France 11.7 Germany 11.8 Italy 11.9 Netherlands 11.10 Norway 11.11 Poland 11.12 Russia 11.13 Spain 11.14 Sweden 11.15 Switzerland 11.16 United Kingdom 11.17 Rest of Europe 12 Middle East and Africa's Biometrics Technology Market 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Egypt 12.3 Israel 12.4 Qatar 12.5 Saudi Arabia 12.6 South Africa 12.7 United Arab Emirates 12.8 Rest of MEA 13 APAC's Biometrics Technology Market 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Australia 13.3 Bangladesh 13.4 China 13.5 India 13.6 Indonesia 13.7 Japan 13.8 Malaysia 13.9 Philippines 13.10 Singapore 13.11 South Korea 13.12 Sri Lanka 13.13 Thailand 13.14 Taiwan 13.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Competitive Quadrant 14.2 Market Share Analysis 14.3 Strategic Initiatives 14.3.1 M&A and Investments 14.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations 14.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements 15 Company Profiles 15.1 Accu-Time Systems, Inc. 15.2 AFIX Technologies 15.3 AllTrust Networks 15.4 Assa Abloy AB 15.5 Aware, Inc 15.6 BIO-key International, Inc. 15.7 Cognitec Systems GmbH 15.8 Crossmatch 15.9 Cyber-Sign, Inc. 15.10 David-Link 15.11 DERMALOG Identification Systems 15.12 East Shore Technologies, Inc. 15.13 EyeVerify, Inc. 15.14 FaceFirst 15.15 Fingerprints Cards AB 15.16 Fujitsu limited 15.17 Gemalto NV 15.18 HID Global Corporation 15.19 Hitachi Ltd. 15.20 Idemia (Safran) 15.21 IDTECK 15.22 Ingenico Group S.A. 15.23 Iris ID, Inc. 15.24 NEC Corporation 15.25 Nuance Communications, Inc. 15.26 Papillon Systems 15.27 Precise Biometrics AB 15.28 RCG Holdings Ltd 15.29 Secunet Security Networks Ag 15.30 Siemens AG 15.31 Sonda Technologies 15.32 Stanley Black & Decker, Inc 15.33 Suprema, Inc. 15.34 Thales Group 16 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/pqails Attachment OTTAWA, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leonovus Inc., ("Leonovus" or the "Company") (TSXV: LTV) As previously announced, after several years of development, Leonovus and two other firms were awarded standing offers from the Government of Canada ("GoC") for our secure file sharing, file transfer, and file storage Software as a Service ("SaaS") called Torozo. Leonovus will now market Torozo to over 100 government departments or agencies. In recent meetings with Shared Services Canada ("SSC"), the Company agreed to provide two additional product enhancements, which Leonovus intends to address over the next two months. One of these items is deals with multi-language features. SSC also indicated other government departments were already inquiring about secure file sharing, and the companies awarded the Standing Offer. One of the SSC requirements is security certifications. for the Company, employees, and technology which starts with implementing Leonovus information security policy and controls, namely, ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and SOC2 Type2, which began in March 2022. The Company plans to complete these certifications by the end of September. The first department to issue a call-up was the Department of Justice ("DoJ"). Phase one of the call-up process invites the approved Standing Offer vendors to participate in a proof-of-concept process. The second phase selects one vendor for final testing and security validation, and the last phase is production. Leonovus was not selected, at this time, for the second phase with DoJ. However, as stated by SSC, other departments are already inquiring about secure file sharing, and Leonovus is one of the few vendors approved to deliver the service. On April 28, 2022, the Company launched Torozo, its software as a service ("SaaS") (www.torozo.com) to the public marketplace. Torozo is a hyper-secure file sharing, file transfer and file storage service." "We are delighted to see our first customers, from the USA and Canada, using the platform. Legal and finance are two of the key target markets for Torozo. Both markets require a simple way to share, transfer and store data where users need something safer than secure email. The Standing Offer award from the GoC is a huge achievement and validation of our technology," said Michael Gaffney, CEO Leonovus Inc. The initial target markets are legal firms and financial users. The global enterprise file synchronization and sharing market was valued at USD 5.29 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 21.27 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 26.3% over the forecast period (2021-2026). Source: Mordor Intelligence. A subsegment of this market, the global secure file transfer market, a key target for Torozo, will be USD 3 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10% during the forecast period. The demand for secure file transfer solutions has increased with the increase in remote working. Organizations in the IT, healthcare, BFSI, and education sectors have expanded online-based business operations with employees working from home. Hence, the increase in remote working has increased the adoption of secure file transfer solutions, preventing data leakages and information breaches. Source: Arizton advisory and intelligence. About Leonovus Leonovus is a secure data management software company. The Leonovus suite of data management tools offers customers a complete end-to-end data-centric solution. Torozo.com is its main product. Torozo is a data-centric security architecture focused on securing and protecting files so only you and those you designate may use or see them. Only authenticated and authorized users and services have access to the files, leaving ransomware, malware, bad actors, and even your administrators with no path to access your valuable digital assets. Torozo encrypts data before leaving your machine, in transit and at rest using our FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography. In addition, Torozo's ESS (encrypt, shred, and spread) technology works transparently behind the scenes to further protect your data like no other system on the planet. To learn more, please visit www.leonovus.com and www.torozo.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For More Information, please contact: George Pretli Chief Financial Officer gpretli@leonovus.com New York, USA, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chromatography Software Market Overview According to a Comprehensive Research Report by Market Research Future (MRFR), Chromatography Software Market Information by Device Type, Deployment Mode, Application, End-Use, and Region - Forecast till 2030, the market size is projected to reach USD 15,330 Million and expected to grow at CAGR 8.1% during the forecast period. Market Scope: The surgical navigation system is a computer-based service business that aids in the provision of high-quality procedures in orthopedics, dentistry, neurology, ENT, cardiac, and other fields with low possibilities of surgery failure and a high success rate. It allows doctors and medical workers to perform a pre-planned scan of the test, giving them a clear roadmap on how to operate on patients and accurate surgical instrument navigation during the procedure. Get Free Sample PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/10828 Report Scope: Report Attribute Details Market Size USD 15,330 Million CAGR 8.1% Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Historical Data 2020 Forecast Units Value (USD Million) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Device Type, Deployment Mode, Application, End-User, Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW) Key Market Drivers Growing applications of chromatography in different fields Technological advancements in chromatography software. Chromatography Software Market Competitive Dynamics: The Chromatography Software Market has had a tremendous and nail-biting competitive landscape, with new competitors entering the market with ease and older players investing heavily in this area. The big names from this market are: Scion Instruments (UK) Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US) GE Healthcare (US) KNAUER Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH (Germany) Gilson Incorporated. (US) Waters Corporation. (US) Shimadzu Corporation (Japan) Bruker Corporation (US) Restek Corporation. (US) DataApex, spol. s r.o. (Czech Republic) Market Dynamics: Market Drivers: The rapid increase in cases of foodborne illnesses owing to the intake of food laden with pathogens, yeasts, and mycotoxin has raised the need for food safety testing worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that close to 435,000 individuals lose lives due to the consumption of contaminated food, leading to the loss of around 38 million lives every year. Thus, numerous food testing facilities are opting for chromatography software at several phases of food safety testing to assess the quality of food, which in turn is promoting market growth. The notable upsurge in the number of R&D activities combined with heavy investments in clinical trials for developing novel medications should benefit the worldwide market too. Major companies are taking up strategic measures including new product innovation, forward integration, FDA approvals, research collaborations, and geographical expansion to gain higher traction in the market. To illustrate, in January 2022, the USFDA expanded the contract with Waters Corporation Empower Chromatography Data Software (CDS) to facilitate its medical products testing laboratories at its five major field science laboratories. This deployment is expected to bolster the firms existing series of products while complementing its chromatography data systems product portfolio, providing new opportunities. Market Restraints: The shortage of proficient and skilled laboratory workforce that can handle chromatography software can leave an adverse effect on the worldwide market. The software is quite complex in nature and requires skilled workers to use them. COVID 19 Analysis The COVID-19 outbreak has, to some extent, been favorable for the chromatography software market, rendering a tremendous impact on its growth rate. This can be in response to the extensive use of the advanced chromatography techniques to assess the drugs and their efficacy and safety as a treatment line for COVID-19. The pandemic put severe pressure on the healthcare sector, hindering the operational capacities of the clinical laboratories as well as biopharmaceutical companies. There was considerable duress on the laboratories to enhance testing volume, focus more on R&D activities and deliver quick clinical results. There were considerable numbers of SARS-CoV-2 testing all through 2021 and 2022. The high pressure to enhance testing volume and R&D created a colossal demand for chromatography software. This is because these devices help in data filtering, data processing, and database management for better performance and efficiency in line with precise clinical results. In a lot of ways, the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the need for chromatography software, which translated into substantial market growth. Browse In-depth Market Research Report (120 Pages) on Chromatography Software: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/chromatography-software-market-10828 Market Segmentation By Device Type Standalone and integrated are the device types considered in the report. The integrated chromatography software segment could head the worldwide market in the near future, garnering an incredible share of 76.5%. The segments noteworthy progress is the result of the mounting requirement for workflow integration for enhanced effectiveness along with the rising awareness of the technology. By Deployment Mode Cloud-based, on-premise, and web-based are the deployment mode-based segments listed in the MRFR study. The on-premise segment will thrive at a 7.6 % CAGR between 2020 and 2030. The web-based chromatography software segment, on the other hand, captured a 38% share in the global market in 2021. The web-based deployment mode segment is performing extremely well owing to the fact these systems offer access through network connection while cutting down handling expenses. By Application The key applications of chromatography software include food and beverage industry, pharmaceutical industry, forensic testing, environmental testing, and others. In 2020, the market was headed by the pharmaceutical industry segment, which occupied a share of 33.4%. This could be owing to the extensive deployment of liquid chromatography for reviewing the components and elements of a drug formulation along with the rising prominence of various disorders. The environmental testing segment can expect to attain the fastest growth in response to the heightened use of chromatographic techniques to understand the environmental state and the irregularities in it. By End-User Academic and research institutes, hospitals and clinics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and testing facilities are the major end-users in the worldwide market. The academic and research institutes segment is all set to record a 7.7% growth rate from 2022 to 2030. The notable growth of the segment is due to the widespread use of the software in a number of academic & research institutions and the surge in research volume. Buy Now: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=10828 Regional Insights North America occupies the biggest share of 49.1% in the worldwide market, thanks to the escalating use of chromatography software in laboratory testing as well as research activities. The market expansion is further fostered by the rising number of policies that encourage the use of chromatography software for accurate results. Besides, the surging digital literacy, the emergence of technologically innovative infrastructure, and the strong base of highly eminent companies in the region including Bruker Corporation and Cytiva will enhance the market size. Asia Pacific can project the fastest growth in the upcoming years, on account of the soaring use of chromatography software in multiple applications, including forensic, drug, food testing, and environmental. The market expansion is also in response to the rising number of government initiatives with a focus on lab automation as well as the heightened awareness level and adoption of the technology in laboratories. Share your Queries @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/10828 The European market for chromatography software benefits from the rising spending by the government on R&D activities. The robust base of several renowned players contributes to the market growth as well. The notable surge in R&D activities by academic institutes could further enhance the product acceptance rate. The German Academic Exchange Service reveals that more than 1400 research institutions are active in Germany. Therefore, the rise in research volume combined with the surging uptake of chromatography software at research and academic institutes will spur industrial growth. Discover more research Reports on Healthcare Industry , by Market Research Future: Clinical Laboratory Services Market By Type (Biochemistry, Endocrinology, Microbiology, Hematology, Histopathology, Cytology, Genetic Testing), Application (Independent, Laboratory, Reference Laboratory and Hospital Laboratory) and Region (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and The Middle East & Africa) - Forecast till 2027 Medical Case Management Market Research Report: by Mode Type (Web-based Case Management, Telephonic Case Management, Field Case Management, Bilingual Field Case Management), Case Type (Chronic Pain Case Management), End User - Forecast Till 2030 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Market Research Report: By Type (Familial ALS), by Treatment (Medication, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy), by Diagnosis (Laboratory Tests, Imaging Tests), End-User (Hospitals, Specialty Centers)- Forecast till 2027 About Market Research Future: Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis with regard to diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions. On the 06 September 2019, four young LGBT Mauritians, who come from all parts of Mauritian society, have approached the Supreme Court of Mauritius for leave to seek constitutional redress on the basis that Section 250 (1) of the Criminal Code Act of 1838 (as amended) violates their fundamental rights and freedom and is unconstitutional. The Plaintiffs, who come from Hindu, Christian and Muslim backgrounds, are all members of the Young Queer Alliance, a youth-led NGO dedicated to advancing human rights of LGBTI people in Mauritius. Three of the four plaintiffs are the first public officers to have openly declared that they are homosexuals. The fourth plaintiff is an artist. The Plaintiffs are represented before the Supreme Court on a pro-bono basis by the team of lawyers of Dentons (Mauritius) LLP, comprising Me. Priscilla Balgobin Bhoyrul together with Me. Emmanuel Luchmun, instructed by Attorney B. Ramlochund and by Me. Sandy Bhaganooa, of the Franco-Mauritian Law Chambers LCMB et Associes, based in Paris and Mauritius. The State of Mauritius represented by the Attorney General of the Republic of Mauritius is the defendant in the case and the co-defendants are the Director of Public Prosecutions (co-defendant no. 1) and the Commissioner of Police (co-defendant no. 2). The Plaintiffs, two of whom have been in a committed relationship for seven years, testified before the Supreme Court on how Section 250 (1) inescapably affects all aspects of their life as homosexual persons such as the constant state of fear they live in, how the law restricts their ability to live their life fully and how the law prevents them from expressing themselves. The Plaintiffs contended in their plaint for constitutional redress that Section 250(1) does not have its place in a modern and democratic Mauritius in that: .LGBT people should benefit from the same protection afforded to other citizens such as protection from discrimination and should enjoy the same freedom of expression and right to privacy as them. .Section 250 is contrary to the values of democracy and treats LGBT people as second-class citizens. .There is no justifiable reason why section 250(1) should be maintained in our criminal code when it concerns two consenting adults. The Plaintiffs have therefore requested from the Supreme Court of Mauritius: .A declaration that sexual orientation forms part of and is implied in the definition of sex as enacted under Sections 3, 3 (a) and 16 of the Constitution of Mauritius. .A declaration that Section 250 of the Criminal Code Act is unconstitutional. .Alternatively, a declaration that Section 250 of the Criminal Code does not apply to consensual acts of sodomy performed by consensual adults. The written submissions in law were on 01 June 2022. The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment. The Plaintiffs are supported by the Young Queer Alliance. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Benzenoid Market Research Report by Types, Products, Applications, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276795/?utm_source=GNW The Global Benzenoid Market size was estimated at USD 726.66 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 785.31 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 8.32% to reach USD 1,174.10 million 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 Benzenoid to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Types, the market was studied across Natural and Synthetic. Based on Products, the market was studied across Benzaldehyde, Benzyl Acetate, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Chloride, Benzyl Salicylate, Cinnamyl and its Derivatives, and Vanillin/Eugenol. Based on Applications, the market was studied across Agricultural Chemicals, Candles, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Dyes, Food & Beverage, Household Products/Fine Fragrances, Mosquito Repellents, Pharmaceuticals, and Soap & Detergents. 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 Benzenoid 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 Benzenoid 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 Benzenoid Market, including Axxence Aromatic GmbH, BASF SE, Emerald Kalama Chemical, B.V., Eternis Fine Chemicals Ltd., Firmenich SA, Givaudan, Indukern F&F Ingredients, International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc., Jayshree Aromatics Pvt. Ltd., Kadillac Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., LANXESS, Quest International, Sensient Technologies Corporation, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Solvay, Symrise AG, Takasago International Corporation, Tennants Fine Chemicals Ltd., The Good Scents Company, and Valtris Specialty Chemicals Ltd.. 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 Benzenoid Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Benzenoid Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Benzenoid Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Benzenoid Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Benzenoid Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Benzenoid Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Benzenoid Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276795/?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. __________________________ New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Barrier Resins Market Research Report by Type, Resin Type, End-Use Industry, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276789/?utm_source=GNW The Global Barrier Resins Market size was estimated at USD 4,298.34 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 4,726.45 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 10.21% to reach USD 7,704.49 million 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 Barrier Resins to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Type, the market was studied across Flexible packaging and Rigid packaging. Based on Resin Type, the market was studied across Ethylene vinyl alcohol, Others (PS, PVC, EVA& bio-based), Polyamide, Polyethylene, Polyethylene naphthalate, Polyethylene terephthalate, Polypropylene, Polyvinyl alcohol, and Polyvinylidene chloride. Based on End-Use Industry, the market was studied across Agriculture, Cosmetics, Food & Beverage, Industrial, Other, and Pharmaceutical & Medical. 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 Barrier Resins 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 Barrier Resins 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 Barrier Resins Market, including Arkema Group, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Borealis AG, Braskem S.A., Dow Chemical Company, E.I Dupont DE Nemours and Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Hanwha Total Petroleum, Kuraray Co. LTD., LG CHEM, Lyondellbasell Industries, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., Sabic, Sinopec Corp, Solvay S.A., Tenjin Limited, and Toray Industries. 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 Barrier Resins Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Barrier Resins Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Barrier Resins Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Barrier Resins Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Barrier Resins Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Barrier Resins Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Barrier Resins Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276789/?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. __________________________ Portland, OR, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation market generated $45.9 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $84.2 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2021 to 2030. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, market size & estimations, competitive scenario, and wavering market trends. Significant surge in demand for rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in residential buildings to save expenses sustained on electrical energy, increase in the standard of living among people across the globe, rise in the disposable income among people, and persistent technological advancements to provide electric power for the various home appliances are expected to drive the growth of the global rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation market. On the other hand, requirement of enormous space for its installation are expected to hinder the growth to some extent. However, growing awareness about various renewable energy sources among people are expected to create ample opportunities for the growth of the industry. Download Report Sample (320 Pages PDF with Insights) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2374 COVID-19 Scenario The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the growth of the global rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation market, owing to the occurrence of lockdowns in various countries across the globe. Lockdowns resulted in the closure of various manufacturing units, including those of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation due to the stringent social distancing restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of the virus. In addition, temporary ban of import and export of raw material further aggravated the impact on the market. However, the market is expected to recoup soon. The report offers a detailed segmentation of the global rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation market based on deployment, technology, end-use and region. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Installation Market Request Here Based on deployment, the ground mounted segment held the largest market share in 2020, garnering nearly three-fourths of the total market. The rooftop mounted segment, on the other hand, is predicted to cite the fastest CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period. Based on end-use, the industrial segment held the majority share in 2020, holding nearly half of the total market. The residential segment, on the other hand, is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period. Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/2374 Based on region, the market across Asia-Pacific held the lions share in 2020, garnering more than two-fifths of the total market. In addition, the same region is projected to cite the fastest CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period. The other regions analyzed in the report include North America, Europe and LAMEA. The key players analyzed in the global rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation market report include Suntech Power Holding Co. Ltd, First Solar Inc., Yingli Solar, Sunpower Corporation, Sharp Corporation, JA Solar Holding Company Ltd., Kyocera, Shenzhen Topray Solar Co. Ltd., Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd.., and Wuxi Suntech Power Co. LTD. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenueTrial Get more information: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: (Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount) Concentrated Photovoltaic System Market: Global Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212029 Alternative Solar Photovoltaic Technologies Market: Global Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212029 Photocell Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212029 Solar Panel Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212029 Thin Film Photovoltaic Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212029 Ultra Efficient Solar Power Market - Global Opportunities and Forecasts, 2022-2029 Solar Cell Films Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2029 Solar Photovoltaic Wafer Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2029 Solar Energy Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 About us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact us: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: 1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow us on | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Almond Ingredients Market Research Report by Type, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276779/?utm_source=GNW The Global Almond Ingredients Market size was estimated at USD 8,492.35 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 9,181.07 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 8.36% to reach USD 13,751.84 million 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 Almond Ingredients to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Type, the market was studied across Almond Flour, Almond Milk, Almond oil, Almond Pieces, Crocants, Flavor extracts, Sablages, and Whole Almonds. Based on Application, the market was studied across Artisan foods, Bakery, Bars, Confectionery, Cosmetic applications, Food services, Milk substitutes & ice creams, Nut & Seed butters, RTE Cereals, Salads, Sauces, and Snacks. 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 Almond Ingredients 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 Almond Ingredients 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 Almond Ingredients Market, including ADM, Barry Callebaut, Blue Diamond Growers, Borges Agricultural & Industrial Nuts S.A., ConnOils LLC, Deep Nuts N Flavors LLP, Dohler GmbH, ETChem, Harris Woolf California Almonds, John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., Kanegrade Ltd., Modern Ingredients, Olam International Limited, Repute Foods Pvt. Ltd., Royal Nut Company, Savencia SA, Shivam Cashew Industry, The Wonderful Company LLC, Treehouse California Almonds, and Valley Harvest Nut Co., Ltd.. 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 Almond Ingredients Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Almond Ingredients Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Almond Ingredients Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Almond Ingredients Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Almond Ingredients Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Almond Ingredients Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Almond Ingredients Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276779/?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. __________________________ Not for distribution to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States TORONTO, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giyani Metals Corp. (TSXV:EMM, GR:A2DUU8) ("Giyani" or the "Company"), developer of the K.Hill manganese oxide project (K.Hill Project) in Botswana, is pleased to announce the completion of reverse circulation (RC) infill drilling program at the recently discovered southerly extension (K.Hill Extension) and provide an update on corporate activities. Highlights Infill drilling at K.Hill Extension completed for a total of 4,561m with objective of upgrading the majority of the current 3.1 million tonnes ( Mt ) of Inferred Resources into Indicated Resources. ) of Inferred Resources into Indicated Resources. Additional mineralization discovered along strike to the south of the K.Hill Extension, where further drilling will be undertaken in the coming weeks. Appointment of Jacques du Toit as VP Technical Services, effective June 1, previously Project Director for Tetra Tech Incs ( Tetra Tech ) mining group in the UK and project manager for the K.Hill Project. ) mining group in the UK and project manager for the K.Hill Project. Meeting with President of Botswana and site visit to K.Hill Project by major European battery manufacturer. K.Hill Extension Infill Drilling The infill RC drilling program at K.Hill Extension, which commenced in February 2022, has been completed. A total of 4,561m have been drilled across 54 holes (including three re-drills) on an approximate 75 x 75m grid spacing to determine the correlation between the southern mineralized horizons and the northern resource horizons to establish continuity in order to convert the majority of Inferred Resources in the K.Hill Extension to Indicated Resources. The drilling program also extended along strike into a previously untested section to the south of the identified zones and confirmed the presence of further mineralization and the potential to add tonnage to the existing resource. An additional 19 holes were planned for this section, eleven of which have already been completed for 730m, two are in progress and the remaining six will be drilled in the coming weeks. A further ten diamond drill holes across the K. Hill Extension area will be drilled at pre-selected locations. The diamond drill holes will be drilled as twin holes to certain RC holes and will be used to confirm the results from the RC campaign as well as for geotechnical, geochemical and metallurgical studies. Assaying will shortly commence for the RC drill collars and once the the full set of drill holes has been assayed the results will be sent to SRK Consulting for updated resource estimation and, thereafter, the Company would anticipate the completion of an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the K.Hill Project. Appointment of VP Technical Services As the Company seeks to develop its specialist technical expertise, it has appointed Mr. Jacques du Toit as VP Technical Services. Mr du Toit was formerly Tetra Tech's project manager for the K.Hill Project and has elected to join the Giyani team as the Company finalises the feasibility study for the K.Hill Project, currently scheduled for release in Q3 2022. Mr du Toit is a professional project manager and engineer and has over 20 years experience in mining project development worldwide. He has previously worked for Bateman Engineering, BHP Billiton Limited, Paterson and Cooke and Tetra Tech and has joined the Company as a member of the senior management team effective June 1, 2022. Site Visit to K.Hill Project Earlier this month, the Company attended the Cape Town Mining Indaba and was invited to a special audience with the President of Botswana, His Excellency Mokgweetsi Masisi. The President drew attention to the K.Hill Project and Giyanis plan to produce a critical battery material in country. Giyani then hosted a visit to the K.Hill Project for a number of financial institutions and a major European battery manufacturer. The visit was also attended by the Honourable Dr. Lemogang Kwape, the MP for Kanye South and Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, who spoke of the strong local support for Giyani and the K.Hill Project. Robin Birchall, CEO of the Company, commented: The K.Hill orebody continues to deliver excellent results and we are very pleased not only to complete the infill portion of our RC drill program within budget but to confirm that the mineralization continues to the south. In a little over a year, our exploration successes have upgraded a 1.7Mt Inferred Resource for the K.Hill Project into 2.1Mt of Indicated and 3.1Mt of Inferred Resources and we are expectant that the results of this infill program will increase the Indicated Resource further. Giyanis core objective is to be a responsible low carbon and sustainable producer of high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) and play a key role in the future of the electric vehicle market and so we were delighted to have recently hosted a major European battery manufacturer on a site visit to our K.Hill Project and tour of local infrastructure. A highlight of the tour was the visit of Minister Kwape, who stressed the importance of the project to the local region and his support for Giyani, which followed a very positive meeting with His Excellency President Masisi in Cape Town. Greater exposure to critical minerals and more local, high-value beneficiation are key themes of the Presidents mining policy and so Giyani is setting an example of how Botswana can achieve both. Meanwhile Jacques appointment as VP Technical Services is the latest in a number of new additions to our team in recent months, but holds a special significance. Having worked on the K.Hill Project for almost three years on behalf of Tetra Tech, his decision to join our in-house team is a major endorsement of Giyanis achievements and his years of mining project delivery experience will be invaluable as we exit the study phase and move towards construction. About Giyani Giyani is a mineral resource company focused on becoming one of Africas first low-carbon producers of high-purity manganese sulphate precursor materials directly from manganese oxide ore, used by battery manufacturers for the expanding EV market, through the advancement of its manganese assets in the Kanye Basin in south-eastern Botswana, (the Kanye Basin Prospects) through its wholly-owned Botswana subsidiary Menzi Battery Metals (Pty) Limited. The Companys Kanye Basin Prospects consist of 10 prospecting licences and include the past producing Kgwakgwe Hill mine and project, referred to as the K.Hill Project, the Otse manganese prospect and the Lobatse manganese prospect, both of which have seen historical mining activities. The Company is currently undertaking a feasibility study on the K.Hill Project, following an updated preliminary assessment report announced on April 12, 2021, with a post-tax NPV of USD332 million and post-tax IRR of 80%, based on a development plan to produce around 891,000 tonnes of HPMSM over a 10 year project life. An updated 43-101 technical report on the K.Hill Project is available on www.sedar.com and on the Companys website at www.giyanimetals.com. Qualified Persons / NI 43-101 Disclosures Mr. Luhann Theron, MSc., Pr.Sci.Nat. 400184/15, of Lambda Tau is registered with the SACNASP. Mr. Theron is currently at site and is a qualified person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Theron is the Chief Geologist for the Company and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content contained in this press release but is not independent for the purposes of NI 43-101. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Giyani Metals Corp. Robin Birchall, CEO Contact: Robin Birchall CEO, Director +44 7711 313019 rbirchall@giyanimetals.com George Donne VP Business Development +44 7866 591 897 gdonne@giyanimetals.com Judith Webster Corporate Secretary +1 416 453 8818 jwebster@giyanimetals.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. persons," as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act ("U.S. Persons"), except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Company's securities to, or for the account of benefit of, persons in the United States or U.S. Persons. Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Giyani expects to occur, are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "does not expect", "plans", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Specific forward-looking statements and forward-looking information herein includes completion of receipt of TSXV approval for the private placement and completion of the private placement. All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the relevant management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to certain assumptions, important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Giyani's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In the case of Giyani, these facts include their anticipated operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, and plans related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future. This information relates to analyses and other information that is based on expectations of future performance and planned work programs. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation: inherent exploration hazards and risks; risks related to exploration and development of natural resource properties; uncertainty in Giyani's ability to obtain funding; commodity price fluctuations; recent market events and conditions; risks related to the uncertainty of mineral resource calculations and the inclusion of Inferred Mineral Resources in economic estimation; risks in how the world-wide economic and social impact of COVID-19 is managed; risks related to governmental regulations; risks related to obtaining necessary licences and permits; risks related to the Companys business being subject to environmental laws and regulations; risks related to the Companys mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers, or claims and other defects in title; risks relating to competition from larger companies with greater financial and technical resources; risks relating to the inability to meet financial obligations under agreements to which the Company is a party; ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; and risks related to the Companys directors and officers becoming associated with other natural resource companies which may give rise to conflicts of interests. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect Giyani's forward-looking information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking information or statements. Giyani's forward-looking information is based on the reasonable beliefs, expectations and opinions of the Companys respective management on the date the statements are made, and Giyani does not assume any obligation to update forward looking information if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions change, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For a complete discussion with respect to Giyani and risks associated with forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, please refer to Giyani's latest Annual Information Form, which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Agricultural Pump Market Research Report by Pump Type, Power Source, End-Use, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276757/?utm_source=GNW The Global Agricultural Pump Market size was estimated at USD 4,602.38 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 5,024.87 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 9.43% to reach USD 7,905.30 million 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 Agricultural Pump to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Pump Type, the market was studied across Centrifugal Pumps, Other, and Positive Displacement Pumps. Based on Power Source, the market was studied across Diesel/Petrol, Electricity grid-connection, and Solar. Based on End-Use, the market was studied across Irrigation and Livestock Watering. 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 Agricultural Pump 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 Agricultural Pump 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 Agricultural Pump Market, including CNP Pumps India Pvt. Ltd., Falcon Pumps Pvt. Ltd., Flowserve Corporation, Franklin Electric Co., Inc., Grundfos Holding A/S, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., KSB SE & Co. KGaA, LEO Group Co., Ltd., Lindsay Corporation, Mahindra EPC Irrigation Limited, National Pump Company, LLC, Pentair, Shakti Pumps India Limited, Shimge Pump Industry Group Co., Ltd., Texmo Precision Castings, Valmont Industries, Inc., Weir Group PLC, Wilo SE, Xylem Inc., and Zhejiang Doyin Technology Co., Ltd.. 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 Agricultural Pump Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Agricultural Pump Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Agricultural Pump Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Agricultural Pump Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Agricultural Pump Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Agricultural Pump Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Agricultural Pump Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276757/?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. __________________________ VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX: NVO, NVO.WT & NVO.WT.A) (OTCQX: NSRPF) reports that its annual general meeting (the Meeting) has been scheduled for June 28, 2022 at 4pm PDT. Due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and in consideration of the health and safety of our shareholders and colleagues and the broader community, the Company asks that shareholders not attend the Meeting in person and instead requests that shareholders vote by proxy using the enclosed instrument of proxy/voting instruction form accompanying the Meeting notice and information circular. No management presentation will be made at the Meeting. However, if you wish to attend the Meeting in person despite this request, you must contact Diane Barley (dbarley@owenbird.com) by June 16, 2022 so that you may be informed of, and confirm your agreement with, the applicable conditions of attendance. Please see the Companys notice of meeting and information circular, as filed under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com, and on the Companys website at www.novoresources.com, for further details of the Meeting. Recognizing the important opportunity that an annual meeting provides shareholders to both hear from, and communicate with, management, a presentation and virtual question and answer period will be organized immediately subsequent to the Meeting, details of which will be announced in the near future. Shareholders with any questions are encouraged to contact Leo Karabelas at leo@novoresources.com or +1-416-543-3120. ABOUT NOVO Novo operates its flagship Beatons Creek gold project while exploring and developing its prospective land package covering approximately 11,000 square kilometres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In addition to the Companys primary focus, Novo seeks to leverage its internal geological expertise to deliver value-accretive opportunities to its shareholders. For more information, please contact Leo Karabelas at (416) 543-3120 or e-mail leo@novoresources.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, Novo Resources Corp. Michael Spreadborough Michael Spreadborough Executive Co-Chairman and Acting CEO New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on Tactical Communication Marke t Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Platform (Airborne, Shipborne, Land, and Underwent), Type [Soldier Radio, Manpack Radio, Vehicular Intercommunication Radio (VIC), High Capacity Data Radio (HCDR), and Others], Technology [Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Next-Generation Network (NGN)], and Application (ISR, Combat, Communications, and Command & Control), the global tactical communication market growth is driven by the rising concerns related to security of military communications & rising modernisation and replacement of aging communication equipment. The Sample Pages Showcases Content Structure and Nature of Information Included in This Research Study Which Presents A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00014489/ Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 18.12 Billion in 2022 Market Size Value by US$ 29.14 Billion by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 8.2% from 2022 to 2028 Forecast Period 2022-2028 Base Year 2022 No. of Pages 215 No. Tables 106 No. of Charts & Figures 89 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Platform, Type, Technology, and Application Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends Tactical Communication Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments: Some of the key tactical communication market players include BAE Systems, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, General Dynamic, Thales Group, and Elbit Systems Ltd. During this study, several major market players were analyzed to get a holistic view of the global tactical communication market players and its ecosystem. In March 2022, the US Air Force has chosen BAE Systems to supply software-defined radios for its Airborne High-Frequency Radio Modernization (AHFRM) program, with assistance from FlexRadio. In May 2022, Thales was one of two vendors given a US$ 6 billion ceiling Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract by the US Army to produce upgraded tactical radios under the Combat Net Radio (CNR) modernization program. Schedule A Pre-Sale Discussion with The Author Team in A Slot That You Prefer to Address Queries on Scope of The Study, Customization, Introduction to Research Methodology, Assistance on Technologies and Market Definitions: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPRE00014489/ Tactical communications are military communications in which information, including commands and military intelligence, is passed from one command, person, or location to another on a battlefield, especially during combat. It can be conveyed in many forms, such as verbally, written, visual, or audio. The military's tactical communication capabilities are being forced to develop due to the rising trend of asymmetric warfare such as mass destruction, terrorism, financial crime, and cyber-attacks. The global armed forces are concentrating on improving the network-based communication capabilities of its military equipment across the land, air, and sea domains to improve combat effectiveness, which is driving the tactical communication market's growth. Due to national safety and security, the global tactical communication industry has consistently developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many countries and companies operating in the tactical communication market signed various contracts and agreements. Moreover, the pandemic had an economic impact on industrial patterns, affecting imports, demands, and industrial trends. Thus, the growing shift toward the edge of safety, security, and communication will further boost the tactical communication market growth. Click Here to Avail Lucrative DISCOUNTS on Our Latest Research Reports. We Offer Student, Enterprise, and Special Periodic Discounts to Our Clientele. Please Fill the Form to Know DISCOUNTED PRICE Tactical Communication Market: Platform Overview Based on the platform, the tactical communication market is segmented into airborne, shipborne, land, and underwater. The airborne segment is the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period, as advanced airborne communications are critical to the safety of all military flight operations in the tactical communication market. It includes high frequency and satellite communication radios and software-defined radio technology solutions. Airborne platforms collect detailed images and facilitate data collection on virtually any portion of the Earth's surface 24x7. Furthermore, these platforms were the sole non-ground-based platforms for early remote sensing work. Airborne tactical platforms include fighters, transport aircraft, helicopters, and remotely piloted vehicles (RPV) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). One of the most common powerful weapons in 21st-century combat is effective airborne communication. A coordinated response to a static or mobile danger in an open warfare situation will comprise ground forces, marine forces, and military aircraft. Better communication and coordination among these military assets will result in safer and more efficient outcomes. Thus, the above factors drive the tactical communication market share across the airborne platform. Have A 15-Minute-Long Discussion with The Lead Research Analyst and Author of The Report in A Time Slot Decided by You. You Will Be Briefed About the Contents of The Report and Queries Regarding the Scope of The Document Will Be Addressed as Well: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/speak-to-analyst/TIPRE00014489 Tactical Communication Market: COVID-19 Pandemic Impact North America witnessed a disruption in the supply chain of many industries due to restrictions in logistics and the closing of manufacturing facilities. In the region, the COVID-19 outbreak has hampered the tactical communication market. Although the pandemic adversely affected the defense industry, the market grew remarkably in 2020. The increasing demand for communication tools to improve situational awareness to combat the pandemic has aided the tactical communication market in limiting its impact. During the pandemic, the rapid expansion of cross-border tensions and terrorism boosted the demand for tactical communication. As a result, the tactical communication market growth is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply chain in the North America tactical communication market was disrupted, and a decline in customer orders was also observed. Furthermore, there were disruptions in supply chains for various orders placed by the customers and contractors, which resulted in revenue loss in the tactical communication market size. The military sector was one of the severely affected sectors due to the pandemic. Immediate Delivery of Our Off-The-Shelf Reports and Latest Research Studies, Through Flexible and Convenient Payment Methods: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00014489/ Browse Adjoining Reports: Critical Communication Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Offering (Hardware, Services); Technology (Land Mobile Radio, Long-Term Evolution); Application (Transportation, Mining, Public Safety, Utility, Others); Geography () and Geography Next-Generation Network Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Offering (Hardware, Software, Services); Application (Internet Video, IPTV and Video on Demand, File Sharing and Web Data, Gaming); End-User (Telecom Service Provider, Internet Service Provider, Government) and Geography Next Generation Communication Technologies Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Communication Technology (Wired Communication Technology, Wireless Communication Technology); End User (Manufacturing, Military and Defense, Automotive, Others) and Geography Mission Critical Communication (MCX) Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component (Hardware, Software, Services); Technology (Land Mobile Radio (LMR), Long-Term Evolution); Vertical (Public Safety and Government agencies, Transportation, Energy and Utilities, Mining, Others) and Geography Combat Management System Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Sub-System (Self-Defense Management System, Identification System, Weapon Management System, Situational Awareness System); Component (Hardware, Software); Platform (Destroyers, Submarines, Frigates, Fast Attack Craft (FAC), Aircraft Carriers) and Geography About Us: The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials. Contact Us: If you have any queries about this report or if you would like further information, please contact us: Contact Person: Sameer Joshi E-mail: sales@theinsightpartners.com Phone: +1-646-491-9876 Press Release: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/pr/tactical-communications-market/ Syracuse, New York, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Syracuse Universitys DAniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) announced today Barbara (Barb) Carson will join the Institute as Managing Director of Programs and Services. In this role, Carson will lead the IVMFs expansive portfolio of career training, educational, and care coordination programs, which taken together serve and impact more than 20,000 servicemembers, veterans, and military family members each year. Carson will also provide leadership and operational oversight of the IVMFs Washington, D.C. headquarters, planned to open later this summer. Prior to joining the IVMF, Carson was a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and spent nearly a decade in leadership roles at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Most recently Carson served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Disaster Assistance, responsible for developing, implementing, and evaluating the SBAs disaster loan program throughout the nation. Previously, Barb served as the SBAs Deputy Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development where she advocated to increase small business contracting opportunities in federal agencies, and led SBA federal procurement programs including 8(a), HUBZone, Woman-Owned Small Business, and All Small Mentor Protege programs. Carson also previously served as the SBAs Associate Administrator for the Office of Veterans Business Development, responsible for programs, policy, and advocacy on behalf of the nations veteran-owned business community. Carsons connection to the military-connected community is personal and longstanding. Barb is a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve (USAFR), most recently assigned to the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office of Public Affairs. Her service spans 25 years as an active-duty and reserve officer, and her experience includes nuclear command and control and public affairs assignments across the United States, Japan, and Europe. In addition, Barb is also a military spouse. Her husband is a retired U.S. Air Force pilot also with over 25 years of service, and together they are the parents of newly enlisted Airman Basic Carson, Utah Air National Guard. Barb is widely respected across the veterans community, and she has been a longtime friend and contributor to the work and mission of the IVMF. Were fortunate for the opportunity to bring her leadership and experience to our team, as we work to expand the scope, scale, and impact of our programs, said Michael Haynie, Ph.D., vice chancellor for Strategic initiatives and Innovation and executive Director of the IVMF. Importantly, Barb joins our team at a time when the IVMF is preparing and planning for a significantly expanded presence in Washington, D.C. that will include later this summer opening a fulltime office and operating location in the Nations Capital. Barb is uniquely positioned to lead this effort, and her experiences as an active-duty service member, veteran, military spouse, reservist, and military parent will enhance all we do to empower those who have served and their families. Carson says It is my honor to join the IVMF team and continue my service to the military-connected community, leading an effort to deliver programs and services worthy of their accomplishments and potential. The men and women who volunteer to serve, as well as their families, have earned every opportunity to continue to lead and thrive in their lives after military service, and deserve our continued support. Since the DAniello Institutes founding eleven years ago, IVMFs high-quality and no-cost career skills training, business ownership programs, and care-coordination services have engaged and impacted more than 170,000 transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses. For more information, please visit ivmf.syracuse.edu. About Syracuse Universitys DAniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) was founded in 2011, as a partnership between Syracuse University and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Headquartered on the campus of Syracuse University and located in the Daniel and Gayle DAniello Building at the Syracuse University National Veteran Resource Center, the IVMF was founded as higher-educations first interdisciplinary academic institute singularly focused on advancing the lives of the nation's military, veterans, and their families. The IVMF team designs and delivers class-leading training programs and services to the military-connected community, in support of the transition from military to civilian life and beyond. Each year, more than 20,000 servicemembers, veterans, and family members engage IVMF programs and services, which are provided at no cost to participants. The IVMFs programmatic efforts are informed by the Institutes sustained and robust data collection, research, and policy analysis team and infrastructure. The Institutes work in on behalf of the military-connected community is made possible by gifts and grants from individuals and corporations committed to those who served in America's armed forces and their families. For more information, please visit ivmf.syracuse.edu Attachment NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (CSE: HAMR/OTCQB: HAMRF) Silver Hammer Mining Corp. (the Company or Silver Hammer) is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced brokered and a concurrent non-brokered private placement (collectively, the Offering) for gross proceeds of $3,007,048.68. The brokered portion of the Offering (the Brokered Offering) was led by Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. (the Agent) and consisted of the sale of 7,325,286 units (the Units) for aggregate gross proceeds of $2,783,608.68 at a price of $0.38 per Unit (the Offering Price). Each Unit consisted of one Common Share (each, a Common Share, and collectively the Common Shares) and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant, (each whole warrant, a Warrant and collectively, the Warrants). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.50 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering. Under the non-brokered portion of the Offering the Company raised gross proceeds of $223,440.00, through the sale of 588,000 Units at the Offering Price. The Offering was announced on May 16, 2022. The Warrants were issued pursuant to a warrant indenture dated June 2, 2022 entered into between the Company and Endeavor Trust Corporation, as warrant agent. As consideration for Agents services in connection with the Brokered Offering, the Agent received a cash commission of $182,145.95, a cash advisory fee of $8,900.00, and 502,831 broker warrants, each exercisable to acquire one Common Share at the Offering Price for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering, including any underlying securities, are subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for the exploration of the Silver Strand Project in Idaho, the Eliza Silver Project in Nevada, the Silverton Silver-Gold Project in Nevada, and for general and working capital purposes. Directors and officers of the Company purchased an aggregate of 77,600 Units in the Offering. The participation by such insiders in the Offering constituted a related party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. The securities offered pursuant to the Offering have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or any state securities laws, and, accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of persons in the United States or U.S. Persons, as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements. About Silver Hammer Mining Corp. Silver Hammer Mining Corp. is a junior resource company advancing the flagship past-producing Silver Strand Mine in the Coeur dAlene Mining District in Idaho, USA, as well both the Eliza Silver Project and the Silverton Silver Mine in one of the worlds most prolific mining jurisdictions in Nevada and the Lacy Gold Project in British Columbia, Canada. Silver Hammers primary focus is defining and developing silver deposits near past-producing mines that have not been adequately tested. The Companys portfolio also provides exposure to copper and gold discoveries. Forward-Looking Information This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the Offering and the use of proceeds therefrom. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the Company's public securities filings with the Canadian securities commissions. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. On Behalf of the Board of Silver Hammer Mining Corp. Morgan Lekstrom, President and CEO Corporate Office: 551 Howe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2C2, Canada For further information contact: Kristina Pillon, President, High Tide Consulting Corp. T: 604.908.1695 E: investors@silverhammermining.com For media inquiries, contact: Adam Bello, Primoris Group Inc. T: 416.489.0092 E: media@primorisgroup.com The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. In the last 12 months, the number of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents has increased by 150%1 due to the combined effect of the pandemic and the increasingly rapid digitalisation of our societies. These types of threats are constantly evolving as digital services become an integral part of our daily lives. As the European leader in cybersecurity and a global leader in data protection, Thales provides world-class security expertise to governments, businesses and critical national infrastructure providers to protect their critical infrastructure and support their digital transformation. After the success of previous Thales Media Days, Thales is organising a third edition on the theme: Thales has 6 operational cybersecurity centers operating 24/7 around the world and over 3,500 engineers specialising in critical information systems and cybersecurity, who work tirelessly every day to guarantee data integrity and confidentiality, system security and network resilience, and to provide comprehensive protection of national sovereign interests. This Thales Media Day will be an opportunity to understand the complexity of the technologies involved and how they are used in practice. The programme includes five round table sessions with Thales experts and outside speakers, and 10 demonstrations and instructional sessions designed specifically for the event. The purpose of the Thales Media Day is to provide a complete overview of the global cyber threat landscape and the countermeasures offered by Thales. On Tuesday, May 31st, Thales will showcase some of the applications of its solutions and technologies in the areas of identification and governance, instruction and training, detection and response, and data protection. As a systems integrator, Thales offers a complete range of solutions and services including security consulting and auditing, data protection, digital trust management, cyber secure system design, integration, certification and lifecycle support, cyber threat detection, intrusion detection and security supervision. Thales brings to the table extensive knowledge and expertise to the current cyber risk landscape based on its experience with a hundred major customers worldwide, including 18 of the worlds 20 largest banks and 9 of the top 10 internet giants. The Group will provide concrete examples of how its cybersecurity technologies are implemented in a range of different environments, including a port facility, a factory, a satellite system and an aircraft. As well as demonstrations of future products and solutions, a series of round table sessions will bring together high-level specialists from the European Space Agency, Google Cloud, ABI Research, , Renault, the NDEC Technology Hub from Wales, French company Diateam, Chimere by Thales, ERCOM and many experts from Thales. The round table sessions will focus on the following topics: How do we ensure cyber sovereignty for Europe? Do we have the right technology today to protect cyberspace? How does cybersecurity enable citizens to act securely in their daily lives? How can companies protect both customer and employee data? How can cybersecurity shape sustainable mobility? Ten demonstrations highlighting innovations in digital identity, critical infrastructure, mobility and remote working: Thales cyber threat handbook Securing my digital identity Reinforcing cyber resilience in operational technology as factories Simulating cyberattacks on vital assets to better understand risks (example of a maritime port) Detecting cyber threats on space systems Providing companies with cyber stealth through darknet technology Implementing automotive cybersecurity in the core of a digital car key Providing aircraft with cybersecured connectivity Collaborating securely with the first restricted level cloud-based solution Securing remote work and protecting data: Google Workspace example Thales activities and job openings in cybersecurity In 2022, Thales is recruiting 11,000 people worldwide, including 1,000 cybersecurity engineers, to help to overcome the technological challenges to the development of our societies in the field of cybersecurity. Career opportunities exist in the following areas: Cybersecurity architecture: space cybersecurity architect Cybersecurity consulting: cybersecurity consultant Cybersecurity engineering and advisory: cybersecurity IV/QA (integrator validation / qualification) engineer Cybersecurity evaluation (red team): technology security evaluator Cybersecurity governance risk and compliance: project ISS manager Cybersecurity monitoring: SOC manager In addition, Thales has announced on Tuesday, May 17, the acquisition of S21sec and Excellium, two major actors in cybersecurity consulting and managed services in Europe. Thales is strengthening its cybersecurity activities and its footprint in Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg and Belgium. As a global leader in cybersecurity, Thales is involved at every level of the cyber value chain, offering solutions ranging from risk assessment to the protection of critical infrastructure, supported by comprehensive threat detection and response capabilities. Its offer is built around three families of products and services, which generated more than 1bn in sales in 2021: The Cybels solutions portfolio, a complete suite of cybersecurity services including risk assessment, training and simulation, and cyberattack detection and response Sovereign products including encryptors and sensors to protect critical information systems The CipherTrust Data Security Platform, the SafeNet Trusted Access Identity & Access Management as a service solution, and the broader cloud protection & licensing offerings In an ultra-connected world, cybersecurity has become the lifeblood of our critical infrastructure as threats move from the virtual space into real-world environments. The new cyber paradigm calls for a strong, coordinated response from countries and industries. This third edition of the Thales Media Day will highlight the sharp increase in cyber threats in all areas of our daily lives and illustrate the solutions offered by Thales to address them. Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO of Thales. To find out more, please visit our dedicated Thales Media Day web page. The web page will be updated regularly, and recordings of the panel discussions, the opening session and the wrap-up address will be available after the event. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Atlanta, Georgia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Distinguished University Professor Balasubramaniam (Bala) Ramesh has been appointed to the George E. Smith Eminent Scholars Chair in Computer Information Systems (CIS) at Georgia State Universitys J. Mack Robinson College of Business. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the appointment on May 18. The George E. Smith Eminent Scholars Chair was established in 1987 to advance Robinsons global reputation in computer information systems. Chair namesake George E. Smith (B.C.S. 39) was chairman and CEO of Tull Metals (now Ryerson) until his retirement in 1981. The chair requires an individual who has an international scholarly reputation, an excellent record of published research, the ability to inspire and interact with the business community, and a leader with the ability to assist the Robinson College in furthering its research, educational, and community service missions, said Richard Phillips, dean of the Robinson College. Bala Rameshs many achievements throughout his career make him ideal to be the next holder of the George E. Smith Eminent Scholars chair. Rameshs research focuses on supporting knowledge-intensive processes in complex organizational contexts, digital innovation enabled by emerging technologies, responsible artificial intelligence (AI), and the transformation of work practices in complex domains. He has developed widely adopted traceability models and tools that have been incorporated in commercial systems and software engineering tools used worldwide. In addition to teaching and scholarship, Ramesh has received grants funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Army Research Laboratory, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), among others. An analysis conducted by Stanford Universitys Meta-Research Innovation Center identified Ramesh as among the worlds top two percent of scientists for career impact based upon citations in information systems. In 2009, he received the Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest recognition for teaching excellence bestowed by the University System of Georgia. Ramesh joined Georgia State in 1997 and was appointed CIS Department chair in 2014. He holds a doctorate from New York University and succeeds Regents Professor Emeritus Ephraim McLean as holder of the George E. Smith Eminent Scholars Chair. Attachment Woburn, MA, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kaspersky researchers have discovered that the malware known as WinDealer, spread by Chinese-speaking Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor LuoYu, has the ability to perform intrusions through a man-on-the-side attack. This groundbreaking development allows the actor to modify network traffic in-transit to insert malicious payloads. Such attacks are especially dangerous because they do not require any interaction with the target to lead to a successful infection. Following findings by TeamT5, Kaspersky researchers discovered a new distribution method applied by operators to spread the WinDealer malware. Specifically, they used a man-on-the-side attack to read traffic and insert new messages. The general concept of a man-on-the-side attack is that when the attacker sees a request for a specific resource on a network (through its interception capabilities or strategic position on an ISPs network), it tries to reply to the victim faster than the legitimate server. If the attacker wins that race, the target machine will then use the attacker-supplied data instead of the normal data. Even if the attackers dont win most of those races, they can try again until they succeed, guaranteeing that they will eventually infect most devices. Following an attack, the target device receives a spyware application that can collect an impressive amount of information. The attackers are able to view and download any files stored on the device and run a keyword search on all documents. Generally, LuoYu targets foreign diplomatic organizations established in China and members of the academic community as well as defense, logistics and telecommunications companies. The actor uses WinDealer to attack Windows devices. Typically, malware contains a hardcoded Command and Control server from which the malicious operator controls the entire system. With information about this server, its possible to block the IP address of the machines that the malware interacts with, neutralizing the threat. However, WinDealer relies on a complex IP-generation algorithm to determine which machine to contact. This includes a range of 48,000 IP addresses, making it almost impossible for the operator to control even a small amount of the addresses. The only way to explain this seemingly impossible network behavior is by postulating that the attackers have significant interception capabilities over this IP range and can even read network packets that reach no destination. The man-on-the-side attack is particularly devastating because it does not require any interaction with the target to lead to a successful infection: simply having a machine connected to the internet is enough. Moreover, there is nothing users can do to protect themselves, apart from routing traffic through another network. This can be done with a VPN, but these may not be an option, depending on the territory, and would typically not be available to Chinese citizens. The vast majority of LuoYu victims are located in China, so Kaspersky experts believe that the LuoYu APT is predominantly focused on Chinese-speaking victims and organizations related to China. However, Kaspersky researchers have also noticed attacks in other countries, including Germany, Austria, the United States, Czech Republic, Russia and India. LuoYu is an extremely sophisticated threat actor able to leverage functionality available only to the most mature attackers, said Suguru Ishimaru, senior security researcher at Kasperskys Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT). We can only speculate as to how they were able to develop such capabilities. Man-on-the-side-attacks are extremely destructive, as the only condition needed to attack a device is for it to be connected to the internet. Even if the attack fails the first time, attackers can repeat the process over and over again until they succeed. This is how they can carry out extremely dangerous and successful spying attacks on their victims, which typically include diplomats, scientists and employees of other key sectors. No matter how the attack has been carried out, the only way for potential victims to defend themselves is to remain extremely vigilant and have robust security procedures, such as regular antivirus scans, analysis of outbound network traffic and extensive logging to detect anomalies. Read the full report about WinDealer on Securelist. To protect yourself from such an advanced threat, Kaspersky recommends: Robust security procedures, involving regular antivirus scans, analysis of outbound network traffic and extensive logging to detect anomalies. Carrying out a cybersecurity audit of your networks and remediating any weaknesses discovered on the perimeter of or inside the network. Installing anti-APT and EDR solutions, enabling threat discovery and detection, investigation and timely remediation of incidents capabilities. Provide your SOC team with access to the latest threat intelligence and regularly upskill them with professional training. All of the above is available within Kaspersky Expert Security framework. Along with proper endpoint protection, dedicated services can help against high-profile attacks. The Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response service can help identify and stop attacks in their early stages, before the attackers achieve their goals. Being aware of new threats to maintain a high level of security for your business. Threat Intelligence Resource Hub provides access to independent, continuously updated and globally-sourced information on ongoing cyberattacks and threats, at no charge. Attachment English Lithuanian On the initiative and by decision of the Board of AB Amber Grid (legal entity code 303090867, registered office address Laisves pr. 10, LT-04215 Vilnius, Lithuania), the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of AB Amber Grid is convened at the Company's registered office (address Laisves pr. 10, Vilnius) on 23 June 2022 at 10:00 am. Draft Agenda of the Meeting: 1) Regarding the determination of the amounts of remuneration for the members of the Board of AB Amber Grid and the determination of the operating budget of the Board for the year 2022 and subsequent years; 2) Regarding the approval of the new wording of the remuneration policy of the CEO and members of the Board of AB Amber Grid; 3) Regarding the election of the audit company of UAB AB Amber Grid and determination of the terms of payment for audit services for 2022. Shareholder registration will commence at 9.15 a.m., 23 June 2022. Shareholder registration will be closed at 9.45 a.m., 23 June 2022. Record day of the General Meeting of Shareholders: 16 June 2022. Attendance and voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders shall be open to those persons who will be shareholders of the Company at the end of the record day of the General Meeting of Shareholders. A person attending the General Meeting of Shareholders and entitled to vote must provide a proof of identity. A person who is not a shareholder shall, in addition to the aforementioned document, provide a document confirming his/her right to vote at the General Meeting. Participation and voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders by electronic means shall not be possible. On 1 June 2022, the Board of the Company approved the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders and the draft decisions of the Meeting: 1) Determination of the amounts of remuneration for the members of the Board of AB Amber Grid and the amended operating budget of the Board for the year 2022 and determination for subsequent years Draft decision: "1.1. From 1 April 2022 onwards to determine this applicable fixed monthly remuneration payable amounts before tax (one higher amount corresponding to the circumstances described applies) to the members of the Board of the Company who comply with the Guidelines for determining the remuneration of UAB EPSO-G and UAB EPSO-G group bodies, approved by the decision of the sole shareholder of UAB EPSO-G (hereinafter referred to as the Remuneration Guidelines): 1.1.1. EUR 1,400 for a member of the Board of the Company; 1.1.2. EUR 1,800 to the Chairman of the Board of the Company; 1.1.3. EUR 2,400 for a member of the Board of the Company, who is also a member of the Innovation and Development Committee of the EPSO-G Group of Companies (hereinafter - IDC); 1.1.4. EUR 2,800 to a member of the Board of the Company, who is also the Chairman of the IDC; 1.1.5. EUR 2,800 to the Chairman of the Board of the Company, who is also a member of the IDC; 1.1.6. EUR 3,200 to the Chairman of the Board of the Company, who is also the Chairman of the IDC. 1.2. Given that the amounts referred to in point 1.1 of this decision have been calculated in accordance with the applicable tax legislation, i.e. including the fees payable, in the event of a change in the tax regime, until new decisions on remuneration are adopted, the remuneration paid to the members of the collegial bodies, net of taxes, shall not change compared to the calculated amount according to the above amounts. 1.3. To determine that in case a member of the Board of the Company is elected as the Chairman of the Board of the Company, a member of the IDC and / or the Chairman of the IDC, resigns and / or is removed from office, the remuneration of such a member of the Board shall be adjusted in accordance with the specified amounts of remuneration of the members of the Board of the Company, which depend on the positions held. 1.4. To amend the Resolution of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company 23 April 2021 (Part of the decision On setting the operating budget of the Board of AB Amber Grid for 2021 and subsequent years) and, taking into account the amounts of remuneration to be paid to the members of the Board of the Company from 1 April 2022, to determine that: 1.4.1. the total annual budget for the year 2022 for the remuneration of the members of the Board of the Company and additional expenses of the Company for ensuring the activities of the Board is EUR 53,295; 1.4.2. as long as the amounts of remuneration of the members of the Board set out in items 1.11.3 of this Decision and the principles of determining the remuneration of the members of the Board are valid, the budget of the Board of the Company for the respective year shall be established and (or) amended automatically (without separate resolutions of the General Meeting of Shareholders), taking into account the current responsibilities of the members of the Board of the Company who meet the criteria set out in the Remuneration Guidelines at the time of drawing up and / or amending such budget and the amounts of remuneration to be paid accordingly, adding 10 percent to the annual amounts of remuneration of the members of the Board for additional expenses of the Company intended to ensure the activities of the Board, unless the Company applies for a change in the size of the operating budget of the Board. 2) The approval of the new wording of the remuneration policy of the CEO and members of the Board of AB Amber Grid Draft decision: 2. To approve the new wording of the remuneration policy of the CEO and members of the Board of AB Amber Grid (attached). 3) The election of the audit company of UAB AB Amber Grid and determination of the terms of payment for audit services for 2022 Draft decision: 3.1. To elect UAB PricewaterhouseCoopers as the audit company that will perform the audit of the set of consolidated and company financial statements of AB Amber Grid prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards adopted in the European Union for the period of 2022; 3.2. To set the maximum remuneration not exceeding EUR 50,490 for the audit services referred to in point 3.1 of this Decision." The Company's shareholders may access the draft decisions of the General Meeting of Shareholders and other additional materials related to the General Meeting of Shareholders and the exercise of shareholders' rights at the Central Regulated Information Database at www.crib.lt and on the Company's website www.ambergrid.lt. The shareholders of Amber Grid AB, whose shares carry at least 1/20 of the total number of votes, shall have the right to supplement the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders. The proposal to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing by registered mail or delivered to the Company's registered office at Laisves pr. 10, LT-04215 Vilnius (hereinafter referred to as the "Headquarters"). The proposal shall be accompanied by draft decisions on the proposed items or, where no decisions are required, explanations on each proposed item on the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders. The agenda shall be supplemented if the proposal is received by 9 June 2022 at the latest. Shareholders holding shares representing at least 1/20 of the total votes shall have the right to propose new draft decisions in writing on the items on the agenda of the meeting at any time before or during the General Meeting of Shareholders. Such proposal shall be in writing and submitted to the Company by registered mail or delivered to the Headquarters. A proposal made at the meeting shall be registered in writing and forwarded to the Secretary of the General Meeting of Shareholders. Shareholders shall have the right to submit to the Company questions relating to the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on 23 June 2022 in advance, no later than by 20 June 2022. Questions shall be in writing and shall be submitted to the Company by registered mail or delivered to the Headquarters. The Company will not provide an answer to a question submitted by a shareholder in person if the relevant information is available on the Company's website. Each shareholder shall have the right to authorise a natural or a legal person to attend and vote on his/her behalf at a General Meeting of Shareholders. The authorized person shall have an identity document and a power of attorney certified in accordance with the procedure established by laws, which shall be delivered to the Headquarters no later than by the close of registration for the General Meeting of Shareholders. The authorized person shall have the same rights at the General Meeting of Shareholders as the shareholder he/she represents. The form of a power of attorney for representation at the General Meeting of Shareholders is available on the Company's website at www.ambergrid.lt . Shareholders may vote on the items on the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders in writing by completing a general ballot paper. If a shareholder so requests, the Company shall send the general ballot paper form by registered mail or deliver it in person against signature free of charge no later than 10 days before the General Meeting of Shareholders. The completed general ballot paper shall be signed by the shareholder or his/her authorised representative. If the completed general ballot paper has been signed by a person who is not a shareholder, the completed ballot paper shall be accompanied by a document confirming the right to vote. The duly completed general ballot paper shall be submitted to the Company by registered mail or delivered against signature at the Headquarters not later than the close of shareholder registration for the General Meeting of Shareholders. The form of the general ballot paper is available on the Company's website at www.ambergrid.lt . The total number of shares at the date of convening of the meeting was 178 382 514. All these shares carry voting rights. The information provided for in Article 26 (2) of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania will be available on the Company's website at www.ambergrid.lt. Information on supplements to the agenda and on the decisions adopted by the meeting will also be available on the Central Regulated Information Database www.crib.lt . Annexes: 1. The new wording of the remuneration policy of the CEO and members of the Board of AB Amber Grid; 2. AB Amber Grid Remuneration report for the year 2021 (part of the annual report, pages 45-49); 3. Form of the power of attorney of AB Amber Grid; 4. AB Amber Grid's voting ballot. More information: Laura Sebekiene, Head of Communications of Amber Grid, +370 699 61 246, l.sebekiene@ambergrid.lt Attachments DALLAS, TX and MANHASSET, NY, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spark Biomedical, a leader in wearable neurostimulation solutions, announced today a collaboration with The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health New Yorks largest health system to commercialize a wearable neurostimulation solution focused on lessening excessive blood loss. The collaboration will leverage the Feinstein Institutes years of research and patented solution concept in vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for blood loss reduction and Spark Biomedicals Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Transcutaneous auricular neurostimulation (tAN) therapy device underpinnings, as well as their experience in clinical trial management, FDA submission, market activation, and commercialization, to advance this patented concept to an on-market therapy. The new, jointly developed product team will stand on the shoulders of Feinstein Institutes experts Kevin J. Tracey, MD, and Jared M. Huston, MD, and their 15 years of intellectual property development that was initially supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Studies conducted by the Feinstein Institutes team over the past decade demonstrate that electrical activation of neural pathways to the spleen can prepare the body for clotting hemostasis in the event of a wound. A pre-clinical study demonstrated that VNS can effectively modulate coagulation, leading to a 50 percent reduction in bleeding time and volume.1 Slowing blood loss through neuromodulation has anticipated clinical applications in a range of possible scenarios, including: Operating rooms: Surgical teams could apply the device to reduce blood loss and save precious time in the operating room during the more than 50 million planned surgeries in the United States each year. Surgical teams could apply the device to reduce blood loss and save precious time in the operating room during the more than 50 million planned surgeries in the United States each year. Trauma scenes: First responders could apply the device to trauma victims at accident scenes or in ambulances to slow blood loss prior to hospitalization. First responders could apply the device to trauma victims at accident scenes or in ambulances to slow blood loss prior to hospitalization. Military missions: Before missions where there is potential for physical trauma, soldiers could apply the device prophylactically to curb blood loss if they are wounded. Spark Biomedical will manage the collaboration under a new subsidiary named Five Liters (5L) so as to not disrupt the companys focus in the opioid addiction space. By leveraging Sparks patented Transcutaneous Auricular Neurostimulation (tAN) platform and our corporate infrastructure, Five Liters is perfectly positioned to begin human trials immediately and move this solution toward commercial application, said Daniel Powell, Spark Biomedical CEO. We look forward to working with all of the great scientists at the Feinstein Institutes to realize a life-saving vision set forth over a decade ago. The basic science mechanisms of this strategy have been studied exhaustively, and this is a unique opportunity to translate the science into clinical trials for the treatment of life-threatening hemorrhage, said Dr. Tracey, president, and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes. If successful, these trials should represent an important milestone in the history of this long-unsolved clinical situation. ### About Spark Biomedical Spark Biomedical, Inc. is a leading U.S.-based wearable neurostimulation solutions developer devoted to the life-saving work of helping 36.3 million people worldwide overcome withdrawal, heal from addiction, and achieve the better quality of life they deserve. With opioid-related misuse and overdose deaths on the rise, the companys mission is to eliminate opioid addiction by working to address the full opioid addiction lifecycle, including withdrawal management, opioid-sparing, relapse prevention, and PTSD/trauma abatement. Spark Biomedical is helping patients take the first step of overcoming acute opioid withdrawal with its FDA-cleared wearable technology, the Sparrow Therapy System Transcutaneous Auricular Neurostimulation (tAN) for Opioid Withdrawal Relief. Sparrow Therapy provides an easy, safe, and effective drug-free treatment option supported by clinical evidence. Next steps are underway with the launch of two NIDA-funded clinical trials to improve adult relapse rates and help infants suffering from Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS). Learn more at sparkbiomedical.com or on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. About the Feinstein Institutes The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research is the home of the research institutes of Northwell Health, the largest health care provider and private employer in New York State. Encompassing 50 research labs, 3,000 clinical research studies, and 5,000 researchers and staff, the Feinstein Institutes raises the standard of medical innovation through its five institutes of behavioral science, bioelectronic medicine, cancer, health system science, and molecular medicine. We make breakthroughs in genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity and are the global scientific leader in bioelectronic medicine a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we produce knowledge to cure disease, visit http://feinstein.northwell.edu and follow us on LinkedIn. About Northwell Health Northwell Health is New York States largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, 850 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 79,000 employees 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners are working to change health care for the better. Were making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. Were training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 1 Cite. Czura, C. J., Schultz, A., Kaipel, M., Khadem, A., Huston, J. M., Pavlov, V. A., ... & Tracey, K. J. (2010). Vagus nerve stimulation regulates hemostasis in swine. Shock (Augusta, Ga.), 33(6), 608. Attachments PORTLAND, Maine, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intersolar North America (ISNA) and Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the industrys flagship solar + storage event, is now accepting applications for the third annual Solar Games competition to be held February 14-16, 2023, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Applications to compete are open through September 2, 2022. The Solar Games, the industrys first installer competition, tasks teams with building residential solar + storage systems live in the #isnaesna23 exhibition hall. Taking place in a custom-built stadium, the bracket-style tournament features multiple competitive rounds where teams go head-to-head installing solar modules, racking, inverters, and battery storage. Teams are scored on a point system for quality, safety, speed, and other criteria. The winning team from each round advances until the final-round winner is named Solar Games Championand awarded a $10,000 cash prize. Application Details Installation teams from across the United States are invited to apply to compete. To qualify, all team members must be OSHA 10 certified, and one team member must be NABCEP certified (or a licensed electrician). New for 2023, each team will be provided with $2,000 to help cover travel/lodging expenses. The 2023 Solar Games Champion will receive $10,000; second- and third-place finishers will receive $3,500 and $2,500 (respectively). A six-member advisory board of clean energy leaders helps develop and oversee the competition. Board members include representatives from K2 Systems, ReVision Energy, Rolls Battery Engineering, Twende Solar, Institute for Building Technology & Safety, and Solar Cowboyz. Sponsor-provided equipment will be donated to Twende Solar upon completion of the competition for use in projects that empower under-resourced communities with renewable energy systems. At this time, equipment sponsors include Electriq Power, K2 Systems, JinkoSolar, and Rolls Battery Engineering. Interested companies are encouraged to contact the Solar Games Sales team for more details. The Solar Games celebrate the talent and camaraderie among solar + storage installation professionals, said Wes Doane, Event Director, Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America. The two-day tournament is a highly anticipated and well-attended part of our annual conference and expo, uniting attendees, exhibitors, press, and speakers within the expo hall for a thrilling competition. We cant wait to see what happens in 2023. Get Involved with the Solar Games Not ready to apply just yet? Interested parties are encouraged to use this online form to connect with event organizers and discuss how they can participate in the 2023 competition. About Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America is the premier US-based conference and trade show focused on solar, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure. Dedicated to accelerating the energy transition, the combined event delivers actionable education, invaluable networking, and an immersive exhibit hall experience. Learn more about attending or exhibiting at our February 14-16, 2023 event in Long Beach, CA online at intersolar.us and esnaexpo.com . About Diversified Communications Diversified Communications is a leading international media company with a portfolio of in-person exhibitions and conferences, online communities, and digital and print publications. As producers of these market-leading products, Diversified Communications connects, educates, and strengthens business communities in over 15 industries including: renewable energy, healthcare, natural and organic, food and beverage, and technology. Established in 1949 and headquartered in Portland, Maine, USA, with divisions and offices around the world, Diversified Communications remains a privately held, third-generation, family-owned business. For more information, visit: https://www.divcom.com . Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7c3a8bb5-e262-4b27-9d1f-07d8d62e92fe https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8f93b298-eedf-4751-a685-8cc47481d661 GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProStar Holdings Inc. (ProStar or the Company) (TSXV: MAPS) (OTCQX: MAPPF) (FSE: 5D00), a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions, will be featured in the award-winning documentary series Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid. The documentary project is hosted by actor and director Dennis Quaid. Its purpose is to develop and distribute social and educational programming. Watch the Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid Documentary. The innovative series highlights the value of ProStar by exploring the latest topics impacting the world through educational and inspiring stories. In a national spotlight, ProStar aims to educate corporations about the challenges of constructing and maintaining our buried infrastructure. New technologies and ideas are changing the way we build better designs, better materials, better building techniques, says Quaid in the video. This story shows us an example of the latest advances in design and construction practices. ProStar is a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions and is creating a digital world by leveraging the most modern GPS, cloud, and mobile technologies. ProStar is a software development company specializing in developing patented cloud and mobile precision mapping solutions focused on the critical infrastructure industry. ProStars flagship product, PointMan, is designed to significantly improve the workflow processes and business practices associated with the lifecycle management of critical infrastructure assets both above and below the Earths surface. It is an honor to be involved in such a prestigious production that highlights the severity of the condition of buried infrastructure and the resulting threats to the public, the environment, and our economy, said Page Tucker, CEO and Founder. As a proven solution provider, we are always looking for respected platforms that can help increase awareness on the serious issues facing the Nation from not knowing where utilities and pipelines are buried. About Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid is an award-winning television program created to educate television audiences. The show is created by a veteran team of tenured producers, writers, editors, and imaging specialists with over 100 years of cumulative experience. About ProStar: ProStar is a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions and is creating a digital world by leveraging the most modern GPS, cloud, and mobile technologies. ProStar is a software development company specializing in developing patented cloud and mobile precision mapping solutions focused on the critical infrastructure industry. ProStars flagship product, PointMan, is designed to significantly improve the workflow processes and business practices associated with the lifecycle management of critical infrastructure assets both above and below the Earths surface. ProStars PointMan is offered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and seamlessly connects the field with the office and provides the ability to precisely capture, record, display, and manage critical infrastructure, including roads, railways, pipelines, and utilities. Some of the largest entities in North America have adopted ProStars solutions, including Fortune 500 construction firms, Subsurface Utilities Engineering (SUE) firms, utility owners, and government agencies. ProStar has strategic business partnerships with the worlds leading geospatial technology providers, data collection equipment manufacturers, and dealer networks. The Company has made a significant investment in creating a vast intellectual property portfolio that includes 21 issued patents in the United States and Canada. The patents protect the methods and systems required to digitally capture, record, organize, manage, distribute, and display the precise location of critical infrastructure, including buried utilities and pipelines. ProStars Executive management team has extensive experience in the management of both early-stage and Fortune 500 technology companies in the private and public sectors. For more information about ProStar, please visit www.prostarcorp.com . On behalf of the Company, Page Tucker on sales / corporate news releases, CEO and Director Vasa Dasan on technical update news releases, COO and Director Contact: Joel Sutherland Investor Relations 970-822-4792 Investorrelations@prostarcorp.com Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such information includes, without limitation, information regarding the terms and conditions of the Companys future plans. Although the Company believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the state of the financial markets for the Companys securities; the state of the technology sector; recent market volatility; the COVID-19 pandemic; the Companys ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; and other risks and factors that the Company is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to the Companys recent Managements Discussion & Analysis filed on SEDAR on April 14, 2022, for a more complete discussion of applicable risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Companys issuer page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/712f1513-0dcb-4b1a-bdcf-0eec2406dad8 TRENTO, Italy, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Festive atmosphere during the Festival of Economics, which started this morning with great participation, especially among young people. Organised by the Autonomous Province of Trento, through Trentino Marketing and the Gruppo 24 ORE in collaboration with the University of Trento and the Municipality of Trento, the Trento Festival of Economics is now in its 17th edition. The rooms were full of people at Palazzo Geremia to attend the dialogue between Ambassador Giampiero Massolo (President of ISPI and Atlantia) and Giuseppe De Bellis, Director of Sky TG24, as well as at Palazzo della Regione to see the acclaimed Tawakkul Karman, Nobel Peace Prize winner, the activist born in 1979 in Yemen, President of the Foundation that bears her name and founder of Journalists without Chains in 2005. And then at the Sala della Cooperazione for the meeting 'Art 45, Constitution and Cooperatives: an indissoluble bond', the Filarmonica where many people listened to Giovanni Tria. In the afternoon, the Opening Ceremony of the event was held, opened by the dialogue between writer Silvia Avallone and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who then gave the speech For a new philosophy of development, between ethics and spirituality. On the occasion of the opening at 7.30 pm, there will be a concert by the Violin Museum Foundation of Cremona where the public will listen to the sound of a Stradivari violin played by violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua accompanied by pianist Yu Nitahara, thanks to the collaboration of the Antonio Stradivari Violin Museum Foundation. The first day will end with two appointments of the Fuori Festival, the original and innovative programme of meetings with 'educational' and 'engagement' activities dedicated to children and students and with infotainment appointments for families and the broader public: at 8 pm the live show of the Radio 24 journalist and presenter expert on international current affairs and conflicts Giampaolo Musumeci in 'Nessun luogo e lontano' (No place is far away) and at 9 pm the musical show of the Ciappter Ileven with 'Antologia del serpente corallo' (Anthology of the coral snake), a collection of the stories of swindlers, swindled people and swindlers told in their programme on Radio 24. For more information: LaPresse SpA Communication and Press Office Director Barbara Sanicola - barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it Festival dell'Economia di Trento +39 0461 497930 web www.festivaleconomia.it mail ufficiostampa@festivaleconomia.it Biopharmaceutical company promotes Jennifer Lee to senior vice president of clinical operations, data management and biostatistics SALT LAKE CITY, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elevar Therapeutics, Inc., a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options, today announced the hiring of Dr. David E. Lilienfeld as vice president of safety and pharmacovigilance and Dr. Honghui Zhou as vice president of pharmacology. Jennifer Lee, who in 2021 joined Elevar as vice president of clinical operations & data management, was promoted to senior vice president of clinical operations, data management and biostatistics. "We are fortunate to bring on someone of Dr. Lilienfeld's stature to lead our drug safety operation, as he's worked for biotech companies at every stage of development and across myriad therapeutic areas, including oncology," said Dr. Saeho Chong, chief executive officer of Elevar. "Dr. Zhou's track record of providing end-to-end clincial pharmacology support for a long list of approved drugs will serve Elevar well as we work toward the commercialization of our products." Lilienfeld comes to Elevar from Recursion Pharmaceuticals, where he was senior director of safety, pharmacovigilance and epidemiology. Recursion is a public biotechnology company using machine learning to candidate drug optimization. For more than a decade, he was also a principal at Write for the Pharm, LLC, a biotechnology/pharmaceuticals/medical device consulting company. Having authored or co-authored more than 100 articles or chapters in books, Lilienfeld is a fellow at the American College of Epidemiology, American Heart Association and International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (for which he was one of the three co-founders in 1985), and has an active medical license in California. He received a Master of Business Administration degree, Master of Science in Engineering (Statistical Computing) degree and Bachelor of Arts (Public Health Opinion) degree from Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Maryland. Zhou, a seasoned clinical pharmacologist and pharmacometrician, joins Elevar after more than 18 years in increasing leadership roles in clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, and pharmacological and translational modeling at Johnson & Johnson (Janssen). As U.S. Head of Pharmacometrics at Janssen since 2018, Zhou oversaw more than 20 pharmacometricians who supported Janssens portfolio in several therapeutic areas including Oncology/Hematology, Immunology, and Cardiovascular/Metabolic Diseases. Zhou is board certified by the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology and has been elected as a Fellow of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (FAAPS) and Fellow of Clinical Pharmacology (FCP) by American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP). Recently, he received the 2022 Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award from the ACCP. He earned a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa and a B.Pharm in pharmacology from China Pharmaceutical University. Lee, who joined Elevar in September from Radius Health, Inc., is responsible for providing operational expertise on the strategy, design, execution and interpretation of data from Elevars solid tumor late-stage clinical programs. She has more than 25 years of life science experience developing clinical strategies into new products, initiating new drug applications, launching new products, and leading clinical operations from Phase I-IV for small molecules, biologics, and cell and gene therapy for multiple therapeutic areas. Lee accelerated numerous therapeutics, resulting in approvals of seven novel treatments and played a critical role in advancement of product candidates to labeling changes, licensing agreements and market applications. "Jennifer has already made an immeasurable contribution to Elevar's clinical development program in the short time she's been with the company," said Chong. "We are excited to expand her role in advancing our therapeutics, moving us closer to delivering on our promise of addressing the unmet needs of cancer patients." Lee earned a Master of Science in clinical research and regulatory administration from Northwestern University and B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago. About Elevar Therapeutics Elevar Therapeutics is a rapidly growing, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company built on the promise of elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options. Elevars lead proprietary drug candidates include rivoceranib (apatinib) and Apealea (paclitaxel micellar). Rivoceranib is the first small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) to be approved in gastric cancer (China, Dec 2014). It has been granted Orphan Drug designation in the U.S., Europe and South Korea and has been clinically tested in over 1,000 patients worldwide in numerous cancer indications. Apealea (paclitaxel micellar) is a non-Cremophor EL based formulation of paclitaxel that received marketing authorization by the European Commission in November 2018, making it Europes first non-Cremophor EL formulation of paclitaxel approved for use in ovarian cancer. Elevar Therapeutics has offices in Utah, California and South Korea, and additional information is available at www.elevartherapeutics.com . Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4507003a-fa15-4739-9280-8948f1d05ef5 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/045cbe00-d17e-4005-9dec-690c01645294 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e7f88b88-293b-4b1f-a301-2ddd4a165262 Investors can contact the law firm at no cost to learn more about recovering their losses LOS ANGELES, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises First High-School Education Group Co., Ltd. ("First High-School Education " or the "Company") (NYSE: FHS) investors that a class action filed on behalf of investors that purchased First High-School Education Group shares and lost money are encouraged to contact the firm to discuss their legal rights. Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy, by phone 844-767-8529 or email: lesley@portnoylaw.com, to discuss their legal rights, or click here to join the case via www.portnoylaw.com. The Portnoy Law Firm can provide a complimentary case evaluation and discuss investors options for pursuing claims to recover their losses. According to the lawsuit, the Companys IPO Registration Statement was materially false and misleading and omitted to state: (1) the new rules, regulations, and policies to be implemented by the Chinese government following the Two Sessions parliamentary meetings were far more severe than represented to investors and posed a material adverse threat to First High-School Education Group and its business; (2) contemplated Chinese regulations and rules regarding private education were leading to a slowdown of government approval to open new educational facilities which would have a negative effect on First High-School Education Group's enrollment and growth; and (3) as a result, the Registration Statement's representations regarding First High-School Education Group's historical financial and operational metrics and purported market opportunities did not accurately reflect the actual business, operations, and financial results and trajectory of First High-School Education Group at the time of the IPO, and were materially false and misleading and lacked a factual basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims against caused by corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq. Admitted CA and NY Bar lesley@portnoylaw.com 310-692-8883 www.portnoylaw.com Attorney Advertising Wilmington, Delaware, United States, June 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Analysts at TMR project the solar PV cells and modules market to expand at a CAGR of 10.5% for the forecast period from 2021 to 2031. Substantial efforts for the production of solar energy as it is an efficient form of unconventional energy fuels demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules for the manufacture of solar panels. Government incentives for the adoption of solar energy to minimize the use of fossil fuels, especially in the commercial sector strengthens demand for essential products, including PV cells and modules. Solar technologies can harness solar energy to generate electricity, provide light or a comfortable interior environment, and heat water for domestic, industrial, or commercial use. This is attracting public and private organizations to invest heavily to strengthen electricity grids to maximize production of solar energy. For example, some key public sector companies in India such as Coal India Limited and National Thermal Power Corporation are diversifying into renewable energy generation. The move is expected to be critical for the clean energy transition journey of the country targeted for the next 15 to 20 years. Get PDF Brochure for More Insights: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=84804 Asia Pacific held the leading 57.8% volume share of the solar PV cells and modules market in 2021. Extensive government support for the production of solar energy in countries such as China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries stokes demand for solar panels. Solar PV Cells and Modules Market Key Findings of the Report Increasing transition from traditional technologies such as back surface field (BSF) to emerging Hetrojunction Technology, TOPCon, and Passivated Emitter Rear Cell technologies gains steam. These technologies offer high efficiency and enable decreased production cost of products for bright future market outlook for solar PV cells and modules. The solar PV cells and modules market demand analysis reveals technological advancements and collaborative efforts of product manufacturers and energy departments to promote solar energy to lead to launch of new products. Ambitious plans of public and private organizations to diversify product portfolio and establish their renewable energy subsidiary to stoke demand for essential value chain products. For example, in April 2021, Coal India Limited (CIL) established two wholly-owned subsidiaries CIL Navikarniya Urja Limited and Solar PV Limited for the manufacture of solar value chain products and to undertake renewable energy projects. Key players in the solar PV cells and modules market are diversifying product portfolio and entering into partnerships for handsome market share. Get Covid 19 Analysis: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=covid19&rep_id=84804 Key role of large corporations such as Walmart and Apple to support the production of clean energy is fueling the demand for PV cells and modules. For instance, in August 2021, Walmart offered a contract to Nexamp to support 129 megawatts of community solar projects. The move is to attain zero emission target of the company across operations globally by 2040. Monocrystalline silicon product sub-segment held the largest revenue share in solar PV cells and modules market in 2021. North America and Europe are key markets for solar PV cells and modules. Large-scale solar power generation plants that are under construction are anticipated to create ample opportunities in solar PV cells and modules market of the regions. Request a Sample: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=84804 Solar PV Cells and Modules Market Growth Drivers Critical role of several governments to roll out incentives, funding to promote solar energy positively influences solar PV cells and modules market Massive investments from public sector electricity companies to diversify into renewable energy cements growth of solar PV cells and modules market Make an Enquiry Before Buying: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=EB&rep_id=84804 Solar PV Cells and Modules Market Key Players Some of the key players operating in the solar PVE cells and modules market are; ReneSola Ltd. Canadian Solar Inc. CSUN Solar Tech Co. Ltd. Waaree Energies Ltd. REC Solar Holdings AS Jinko Solar JA SOLAR Technology Co. Ltd. Hanwha Q CELLS Trina Solar Co. Ltd. First Solar Inc. Solaria Corporation Global Solar PV Cells and Modules Market: Segmentation Global Solar PV Cells and Modules Market, by Type Silicon Photovoltaic Cells Nanocrystalline Monocrystalline Polycrystalline Others Thin-film Photovoltaic (PV) Cells Copper Indium Diselenide Cadmium Telluride Others Others Global Solar PV Cells and Modules Market, by Technology Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC) TOPCon Heterojunction Technology (HJT) Heterojunction Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) Others Global Solar PV Cells and Modules Market, by End-use Residential Commercial Industrial Global Solar PV Cells and Modules Market, by Region North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. France Spain Italy Russia & CIS Rest of Europe Asia Pacific Japan China India ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Latin America Brazil Chile Mexico Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa GCC Countries South Africa Rest of Middle East & Africa Browse More Chemicals & Materials Market Research Reports by TMR: Organic Solar Cell Market - Organic Solar Cell Market is likely to register a CAGR of 21.2% during the forecast period and is anticipated to reach a organic solar cell market share of US$ 807.39 Mn By 2031 Solar Trackers Market - Solar Trackers Market is likely to register a CAGR of 16.4% during the forecast period and is anticipated to reach a solar trackers market share of 37,196.86 MW By 2031 Floating Solar Market - Floating Solar Market is likely to register a CAGR of 30% during the forecast period and is anticipated to reach a floating solar market share of US$ 27.7 Bn By 2031 Solar PV Junction Box Market - Solar PV Junction Box Market is likely to register a CAGR of 8% during the forecast period and is anticipated to reach a solar pv junction box market share of US$ 2 Bn By 2031 Solar Ingot Wafer Market - Solar Ingot Wafer Market is likely to register a CAGR of 12.33% during the forecast period and is anticipated to reach a solar ingot wafer market share of US$ 70 Bn By 2031 About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research is a global market research reports company providing business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insights for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools & techniques to gather and analyze information. Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Us: Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research Inc. CORPORATE HEADQUARTER DOWNTOWN, 1000 N. West Street, Suite 1200, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 USA Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Feature: An Australian publisher and his third "Long March" to China 13:12, June 02, 2022 By Bai Xu, Yue Dongxing ( Xinhua CANBERRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian publisher Harold Weldon believed that he has embarked on the Long March for three times, literally and symbolically. "It teaches us all to never give up whatever your circumstance," he told Xinhua in an interview. Weldon, 56, is a writer and China advisor. His first Long March started in 1985. Growing up listening to stories of ANZAC, or Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, in World War I, which was significant in Australia's national identity, he found himself fascinated by the Long March story of the Red Army in China since he was a teenager. An opportunity came in 1985, when his father Kevin, owner of a big publishing group Weldon International, talked with the Chinese government to do a special commemorative album on the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Long March. "We thought it would be a good idea to show the world sort of the unknown China through the lens of the story of the Long March," he recalled. They invited dozens of photographers from around the world along sections of the routes. But Weldon, a 19-year-old who just left school, of course didn't complete the journey. "When we did that trip, we were tired and hungry, and we only walked about 50 kilometers of the 10,000 kilometers," he said, laughing. It was his most impressive experience in China. "A good beginning is half the battle," Weldon quoted a Chinese proverb in Mandarin. He remembered being warmly welcomed everywhere he went, especially at the village level. The team went to beautiful mountains and visited different minority groups with their unique culture, and believed that the album showed the whole world "the beautiful China that they didn't realize existed apart from the rice paddy." He showed Xinhua several diaries he kept along the way. On the yellowed pages were old photos, beside which he recorded in different colors his experience. On one page, he posted a photo of the Red Well in China's Jiangxi Province, and wrote down the story: it was dug by the Red Army and the late Chairman Mao Zedong for villagers who lacked drinking water. In another photo, Weldon, a thin man then, was swimming in the Dadu River in southwestern China's Sichuan province, which became famous after Mao mentioned it in his famous poem The Long March. Twenty-five years later, he did the project again, which he then called the New Long March. "So much had changed," Weldon said, looking back at the two journeys. He noted that 1985 was about the start of China's rapid growth. "I've seen the rise of China," which has embraced the world and become more globalized, he said. During the years he also saw a growing interest in Chinese culture in Australia. "China has this great civilization for 5,000 years," he said. "The Chinese culture is so strong." The Melbourne Chinatown is believed to be one of the oldest in the West, and the oldest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Currently, Australia is home to more than 1.2 million people of Chinese ancestry. Weldon said that the Beijing Olympics in 2008 promoted Chinese culture around the world. "That was an amazing time...The opening ceremony was Chinese culture at its utmost." Talking about his life involved in the cultural industry, Weldon described it as "passionate" was convinced that culture could help enhance understanding. "Through that you build trust," he said. "Then we were able to introduce our Australian business friends (to China)...and Chinese businesses to come here." "The cultural projects are like the real bridge, and over the bridge we have been able to help with trade and business." In his view, people-to-people ties are at the center of any bilateral relationship. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Australia, in which the publisher said he had been a part for 37 years. He is confident about the future of the China-Australia relations. "It's just like the Long March. It's one step at a time." As Weldon sees it, the Long March spirit was "never giving up". "We needed that sort of spirit to keep us going." Citing an old Chinese saying "10,000 li begins beneath your feet," Weldon said he would like to play his "small part" in the efforts. "I arrived (in China) in April 1985 and began a journey that I'm still on. I'm still on the Long March." (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) CALGARY, Alberta, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BHE Canada is proud to announce that the Rattlesnake Ridge Wind Farm is now commercially operational and supplying low-cost, renewable energy to Albertas grid. The 26-turbine wind farm is located southwest of Medicine Hat. It is the companys first wind farm in Canada and will provide Alberta consumers with 130 megawatts of energy, enough to power the equivalent of 78,000 homes. The wind farm is privately financed by BHE Canada through a combination of equity and debt, requiring no government subsidies or tax incentives to support its operation. This is an exciting milestone for us, and for Albertas energy industry, with new grid-scale wind generation constructed and operating without government subsidies, said Ed Rihn, President and CEO of BHE Canada. Were proud to facilitate a more sustainable energy future for Albertans and look forward to more investment opportunities in Alberta and across Canada. BHE Canada signed power purchase agreements with four Canadian corporate partners, providing them with environmental attributes to meet their environmental targets and offset existing carbon production. Construction began in 2020 with Renewable Energy Systems (RES) providing construction services. RES has extensive experience in building large-scale renewable energy projects around the world. An estimated 150 jobs were provided to local Alberta contractors and suppliers during peak construction. The Rattlesnake Wind project is our 20th major renewable construction project in Canada, and we are pleased to see this project achieve commercial operation, said Liam Duffy, RES General Manager of Construction, Canada. The addition of this facility showcases our commitment to the construction of wind energy and brings RES closer to fulfilling our vision of a future where everyone has access to affordable zero carbon energy. To celebrate the milestone, a ribbon-cutting event was held at the Rattlesnake project site just outside of Medicine Hat. Representatives from BHE Canada and RES were joined by Mr. Grant Hunter, MLA Taber-Warner, and Craig Widmer, Reeve of County of Forty Mile, to help mark the occasion. Southern Alberta is home to some of the best supply of wind energy in the world. It is with pleasure that I congratulate BHE Canada on developing the Rattlesnake Ridge Wind Power Project, said Grant Hunter, MLA Taber-Warner. The County of Forty Mile will greatly benefit from this renewable wind project, and so will 78,000 homes in Alberta. Rattlesnake stands on its own without any government funding, as Albertans would expect." With southern Alberta being the sunniest and relatively breezy at times, our area provides an exceptional opportunity for renewable energy companies to capture these resources and provide the province with clean renewable energy, said Craig Widmer, Reeve of County of Forty Mile. BHE Canada is continuing to pursue additional investments in renewable energy projects. To learn more about their investment portfolio, visit www.BHE-Canada.ca. About BHE Canada Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, BHE Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. BHE Canada is focused on identifying and investing in business opportunities within all aspects of the energy infrastructure market across Canada. BHE Canada has a particular focus on investing in energy projects such as wind and solar. About RES RES is the worlds largest independent renewable energy company active in onshore and offshore wind, solar, energy storage, transmission and distribution. At the forefront of the industry for 40 years, RES has delivered more than 22GW of renewable energy projects across the globe and supports an operational asset portfolio exceeding 9GW worldwide for a large client base. Understanding the unique needs of corporate clients, RES has secured 1.5GW of power purchase agreements (PPAs) enabling access to energy at the lowest cost. RES employs more than 2,000 people and is active in 11 countries. For more, visit www.res-group.com . For more information please contact: Scott Schreiner Phone: 403.880.0275 E-mail: mediarelations@bhe-canada.ca MONTREAL, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Boralex Inc. (Boralex or the Company) (TSX: BLX) announced today five solar farms totaling 540 megawatts (MW) of generation and 77 MW of storage have been selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as part of its 2021 solicitation for utility-scale renewable energy certificates. Once constructed, the solar farms will generate more than 1 TWh of solar electricity annually, enough to power more than 141,200 homes annually. The selected photovoltaic solar electricity generation projects will be located across upstate New York: Fort Covington Solar Farm is a 250 MW solar farm paired with a 77 MW storage project. The solar farm is in the Town of Fort Covington in Franklin County and is estimated to generate 473,040 MWh annually. Boralex is partnering with Savion, LLC (Savion) to develop the battery energy storage system, which has an anticipated 308 MWh energy storage capacity, and will be in the Town of Brookhavens hamlet of Yaphank in Suffolk County. Newport Solar Farm is a 130 MW solar farm in the Town of Deerfield in Oneida County and Town of Newport in Herkimer County, estimated to generate 244,842 MWh annually. Fort Edward Solar Farm is a 100 MW solar farm in the Towns of Argyle and Fort Edward in Washington County, estimated to generate 192,720 MWh annually. Foothills Solar Farm is a 40 MW solar farm in the Town of Mayfield in Fulton County, estimated to generate 75,336 MWh annually. Easton Solar Farm is a 20 MW solar farm located in the Town of Easton in Washington County, estimated to generate 38,369 MWh annually. Each of these projects offer economic, social, and environmental benefits both locally and to the state at large. Development, construction, and operation of these facilities will create jobs, boost the local economy, and provide significant tax revenue to the towns, counties, and local school districts. Further, in line with the companys environmental, social and governance priorities, Boralex created the Beyond Renewables Fund to provide meaningful support to our host communities, and disadvantaged communities. Resources will be given to our local partners focused on STEM education and workforce development programming for the length of our facilities operations. Todays announcement solidifies Boralexs role in New York States energy market during this critical expansion of renewable electricity generation, said Patrick Decostre, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boralex. These projects showcase the strategic, creative approaches to solar farm development and community engagement our reputation is built on. I am proud of the Boralex team and their efforts to create clean, competitive energy. To further New York States goal of 70% renewable electricity by 2030, NYSERDA launched its fifth request for proposals April 2021 for the purchase of New York Tier-1 Eligible Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs represent renewable electricity entering the electricity grid. Each REC equals the environmental attributes of one megawatt hour of electricity generated from a renewable source, such as solar. Todays announcement begins a process for Boralex and NYSERDA to execute 20-year Renewable Energy Standard Agreements for the purchase of RECs associated with the energy production of the selected projects. The energy associated with the RECs must be consumed within New York State. The price of the RECs will be indexed to a reference energy and capacity price, which will hedge the projects merchant energy and capacity revenues, obviating a need for the projects to obtain a separate long term offtake agreement for the sale of energy and capacity. Doreen M. Harris, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, The large-scale solar projects announced today, including five Boralex projects, bring New York State significantly closer to reaching our clean energy goals and transitioning us toward a zero-emission electricity system. NYSERDA looks forward to working with Boralex to ensure these projects are advanced responsibly and with local input to allow host communities to realize the critical jobs and investments that will come from these solar farms. Fort Edward welcomes todays news and is excited to be part of an effort to create clean, renewable energy, said Fort Edward Town Supervisor Timothy Fisher. We look forward to watching the projects progress and the economic benefits attached to solar farm development. At Cornell Cooperative Extension, we help our communities address youth development, economic vitality, ecological sustainability, and social well-being through education, said Brian Gilchrist, Executive Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Washington County, which will receive funding as part of Boralexs community engagement plans. Support from Boralex and their Beyond Renewables Fund will allow us to enhance our outreach and expand our programming, and we are excited to see how this partnership will grow over the next years and decades. Before submitting these projects to NYSERDA, Boralex met with landowners and leaders in host communities to discuss the potential sites and opportunities. Consultations with stakeholders will continue throughout the development, construction, and operation of our sites. These projects are also continually optimized to ensure they meet the companys return criteria. Previously NYSERDA selected Boralexs Greens Corners, Sandy Creek, Bald Mountain, and West River Solar Farms in its 2019 solicitation. In furtherance of Boralexs strategic plan, in two years, 720 MW of Boralex greenfield projects have been selected by NYSERDA as part of its solicitations for utility-scale renewable energy generation. In addition, Boralex acquired 20 MW Sky High Solar, further enhancing the New York portfolio. With more than 1 GW of projects in the development pipeline, Boralex remains strongly committed to rapidly expanding in this market. Information on our developing projects in the United States can be found at WeCreateEnergy.com. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d2e63104-9fb9-4729-bb13-5812763f263f About Boralex At Boralex, we have been providing affordable renewable energy accessible to everyone for over 30 years. As a leader in the Canadian market and Frances largest independent producer of onshore wind power, we also have facilities in the United States and development projects in the United Kingdom. Over the past five years, our installed capacity has more than doubled to 2.5 GW. We are developing a portfolio of more than 3 GW in wind and solar projects and nearly 200 MW in storage projects, guided by our values and our corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach. Through profitable and sustainable growth, Boralex is actively participating in the fight against global warming. Thanks to our fearlessness, our discipline, our expertise and our diversity, we continue to be an industry leader. Boralexs shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BLX. For more information visit www.boralex.com or www.sedar.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements contained in this press release, including the execution of the Renewable Energy Standard Agreements and timing thereof, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations, within the meaning of securities legislation. Boralex would like to point out that, by their very nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties such that its results or the measures it adopts could differ materially from those indicated by or underlying these statements, or could have an impact on the degree of realization of a particular forward-looking statement. Unless otherwise specified by the Corporation, the forward-looking statements do not take into account the possible impact on its activities of transactions, non-recurring items or other exceptional items announced or occurring after the statements are made. There can be no assurance as to the materialization of the results, performance or achievements as expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless required to do so under applicable securities legislation, management of Boralex does not assume any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or other changes. For more information: Media Canada Camille Laventure Advisor, Digital Communications Boralex Inc. 438-883-8580 camille.laventure@boralex.com Investor Relations Stephane Milot Director, Investor Relations Boralex Inc. 514 213-1045 stephane.milot@boralex.com Media US Contact Melissa Mansfield Advisor, Public Affairs and Communications Boralex Inc. 518 339-7769 melissa.mansfield@boralex.com Source: Boralex Inc. TORONTO, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hudbay Minerals Inc. (Hudbay or the company) (TSX, NYSE: HBM) today announced the release of its integrated annual and sustainability report (Annual Sustainability Report). The Annual Sustainability Report provides transparency and progress on key accomplishments and initiatives in 2021 along with goals for the upcoming year and long-term future. Hudbay believes global demand for the metals that it mines continues to rise alongside the need for green technology that will play an essential role in meeting the challenge of climate change. Hudbay is committed to a reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions future. The company is currently working toward specific emissions reduction targets to align with the global 2030 and 2050 climate change goals. In 2021, to better understand the nature of the companys GHG footprint and the best options for approaching and achieving sustainable GHG reductions, Hudbay began work on a 10-year Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap. The roadmap will identify key sources of emissions, including Scope 3 emissions, and the nature of the changes operational or technical that will be required to make full or significant changes in each source area. Hudbays 2021 Annual Sustainability Report disclosures were mapped to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Metals & Mining industry standard and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Hudbay also provides disclosure through the CDP Climate, Water, and Forests questionnaires. To inform Hudbays sustainability programs and improve its performance, the company applies and voluntarily supports several international best practice standards, including ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 9001, Towards Sustainable Mining, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards. As a member of the Mining Association of Canada, Hudbay implements the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) Protocols at all of its operations, with the goal to maintain a score of A or higher for all protocols. In 2021, we achieved a rating of AA across all TSM tailings management protocol indicators in both Manitoba and Peru. Hudbays Board of Directors commits to provide the Company direction and oversight with the highest standards of ethical conduct. MSCI ranked Hudbays corporate governance in the top 10% of all companies it assessed, with an overall ESG rating of AA. Hudbay supports the Catalyst Accord 2022 and the 30% Club, both of which call for the advancement of women in business, and its Board has adopted a stand-alone Diversity Policy. This policy seeks to ensure a diverse representation of women and designated groups (Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and visible minorities) among the members of the Board and senior management. In 2021, the company saw a 7% decrease in energy intensity per tonne of ore processed, and over 50% of Hudbays indirect energy consumption was from renewable sources. The Peru Business Unit establishes annual key performance indicators across three areas environmental management, environmental quality and sustainability. In 2021, the business unit exceeded not only its overall target but also every sub-indicator target. Hudbays Manitoba operations use renewable hydroelectricity sourced from Manitoba Hydro to run the processing plants, which keeps GHG emissions and intensity relatively low. Hudbays Flin Flon team achieved first place at the 59th annual Manitoba Provincial Mine Rescue Competition in May 2022. Hudbay recognizes the opportunity that the mining industry has to positively contribute to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are a part of the UNs 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are several SDGs for which the company considers the industry a natural fit for taking on a leadership role, and others where the company feels it can progress by working alongside government, civil society and other organizations. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have always been fundamental to our business; its not new for us, said Peter Kukielski, Hudbays President and Chief Executive Officer. Throughout 2021, we continued to successfully navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining continuous operations at all sites. We look at 2021 as a year of execution and achievement, after making significant investments in exploration, development and productivity improvements. We are now at an inflection point where our stakeholders can reap the rewards of growing production and cash flow while we continue to advance our triple A organic copper growth pipeline. It is a tremendously exciting time for Hudbay, and I look forward to achieving our many sustainability and growth goals in 2022. Though Hudbay is proud of its achievements in 2021, the company has set targets for 2022 to further the path of continuous improvement. In health and safety, the company aims to match or improve on its three-year total recordable injury frequency average of 1.4. In Peru, Hudbay will strive to avoid operational shutdowns due to community/political activity and complete exploration agreements to enable land access at regional deposits near the Peru operations. The company is adopting Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions targets intended to achieve a 50% GHG reduction by 2030 and its intention to be net zero by 2050. The company is also designing the Copper World project in Arizona in compliance with 2030 and 2050 GHG objectives. To ensure Hudbay is up to date with leading governance policies, the company is completing a comprehensive review/update of global anti-bribery and corruption compliance program. Details of the companys annual and sustainability results can be found on Hudbays website at: https://hudbayminerals.com/disclosure-centre/default.aspx and the full Annual Sustainability Report can be downloaded here. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. All information contained in this news release, other than statements of current and historical fact, is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, budget, guidance, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, strategy, target, intends, objective, goal, understands, anticipates and believes (and variations of these or similar words) and statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, should, might occur or be achieved or will be taken (and variations of these or similar expressions). All of the forward-looking information in this news release is qualified by this cautionary note. Forward-looking information is not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking information is based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates and analyses that, while considered reasonable by the company at the date the forward-looking information is provided, inherently are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. The risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information are described under the heading Risk Factors in the companys most recent annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2021 and its managements discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2022. Should one or more risk, uncertainty, contingency or other factor materialize or should any factor or assumption prove incorrect, actual results could vary materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Hudbay does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this news release or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law. About Hudbay Hudbay (TSX, NYSE: HBM) is a diversified mining company primarily producing copper concentrate (containing copper, gold and silver), zinc metal and silver/gold dore. Directly and through its subsidiaries, Hudbay owns three polymetallic mines, four ore concentrators and a zinc production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Canada) and Cusco (Peru), and copper projects in Arizona and Nevada (United States). The companys growth strategy is focused on the exploration, development, operation and optimization of properties it already controls, as well as other mineral assets it may acquire that fit its strategic criteria. Hudbays mission is to create sustainable value through the acquisition, development and operation of high-quality, long-life deposits with exploration potential in jurisdictions that support responsible mining, and to see the regions and communities in which the company operates benefit from its presence. The company is governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act and its shares are listed under the symbol "HBM" on the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and Bolsa de Valores de Lima. Further information about Hudbay can be found on www.hudbay.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Candace Brule Vice President, Investor Relations (416) 814-4387 candace.brule@hudbay.com NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- P2 Gold Inc. (P2 or the Company) (TSX-V:PGLD) reports that it has closed a non-brokered private placement of 2,658,800 units (the Units) at a price of $0.50 per Unit for gross proceeds of $1,329,400 (the Offering). Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a Share) and one common share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.95 per common share for a period of two years from the date of issue (the Expiry Time), provided that, if after four months from the date of issue, the closing price of the common shares of the Company on the TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange) is equal to or greater than $1.90 for a period of 10 consecutive trading days at any time prior to the Expiry Time, the Company will have the right to accelerate the Expiry Time of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders of the Warrants by news release or other form of notice permitted by the certificate representing the Warrants that the Warrants will expire at 4:30 p.m. (Vancouver time) on a date that is not less than 15 days from the date notice is given. The proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund exploration and engineering expenditures and for general corporate purposes. In connection with the Offering, the Company paid finders fees of an aggregate of $3,000 and issued an aggregate of 6,000 warrants to an arms length finder, representing 6% of the proceeds raised from subscriptions by, and 6% of the Units issued to, certain placees. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a four-month hold period expiring on September 28, 2022 in respect of 1,724,800 Units and October 2, 2022 in respect of 934,000 Units. The securities offered pursuant to the Offering have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of such Act. Insiders of the Company subscribed for 1,600,000 Units. The issuance of Units to insiders is considered a related party transaction subject to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. The Company relied on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 on the basis that the participation in the Offering by the insiders did not exceed 25% of the fair market value of the companys market capitalization. About P2 Gold Inc. P2 is a mineral exploration and development company focused on advancing precious metals and copper discoveries and acquisitions in the western United States and British Columbia. For further information, please contact: Joseph Ovsenek President & CEO (778) 731-1055 P2 Gold Inc. Suite 1100, 355 Burrard Street Vancouver, BC V6C 2G8 info@p2gold.com (SEDAR filings: P2 Gold Inc.) Michelle Romero Executive Vice President (778) 731-1060 Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. Forward-looking information includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, believe, continue, potential or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking information includes, without limitation, information with respect to the Companys expectations, strategies and plans for exploration properties including the Companys planned expenditures and exploration activities, the Offering and the issuances of securities pursuant to the Offering. 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. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including without limitation, risks associated with mineral exploration, including the risk that actual results and timing of exploration and development will be different from those expected by management. See Risk Factors in the Companys annual information form dated March 31, 2022 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks. The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. WASHINGTON, D.C., June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As Friday marks the 100th day since Russian military forces invaded Ukraine, a group of world leaders close to the conflict recently shared their insights into events on the ground in Ukraine at the Vital Voices Global Headquarters for Womens Leadership. They laid out the bold steps they believe nations must take to stop Putin and contain the conflictand why failure to do so could affect people around the globe. Vital Voices President & CEO Alyse Nelson: One hundred days of war in Ukraine is 100 days too long. These attacks must be stopped. We know that women and girls are the greatest victims of this devastating conflict. But at the same time, we have witnessed the tremendous strength of women and are supporting a network of leaders throughout the country by providing emergency shelter, food, medical care and trauma support, said Alyse Nelson, President & CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership. As we opened the doors to our Global Embassy for Women in May, we heard a clear call from former heads of state, diplomats and civil society leaders on the frontlines who are offering bold solutions to this war, and it's about time we listen up and step up before things get worse. Ukraine Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova: Putin has been very clear Its not only about Ukraine. Its about redrawing the map of Europe. Its about rebuildingwhether its the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, whatever they have in their sick plans. So, nobody is safe, said Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova. Anything anyone can do matters. One persons protest in front of the Russian embassy matters and one persons Tweet or Facebook message or Instagram post matters, said Ambassador Markarova. Former President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite: We need to understand that, today, Ukraine is protecting Europe and protecting the world with the bodies of their women and children ... It is very clear that Putin needs to be crushed on the battlefield. No sanctions will stop him He will not stop the war. He can be stopped only by force because he only understands force, said President Grybauskaite. Even before the war, the reaction of the West was very, very weak. We, in December of last year, said that there would be no NATO feet on the groundbefore the war. Instead of putting our feet on the ground before the war to avoid the war ... We invited Putin in to invade, said President Grybauskaite. Its our responsibility that we didnt support Ukraine on time and appropriately. Ukrainian Human Rights Activist Oksana Horbunova: We will never accept the dictatorships. We will never give up our fight. Ukrainian women, theyre in the front lines to defend democracy, said Horbunova. My heart is overloaded with pain and anger, said Horbunova, who escaped the war a few weeks ago and is now seeking asylum in the U.S. I was lucky because Vital Voices proposed for me to be evacuatedand, actually, I was hesitating for a long time, Should I go or not? But my husband told me, You have to go. If you survive, you will help others. The discussion took place during the Women Leading in Crisis panel at the grand opening of the new headquarters of Vital Voices Global Partnership, a non-partisan, non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1997 by former First Lady of the United States and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the late former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and a host of other women leaders. Vital Voices recently opened its new space the world's first global embassy for womenwith female world leaders from across the globe in attendance. The Women Leading In Crisis panel drew a crowd of well over a hundred business and political leaders, and a worldwide audience via a livestream of attendees who are troubled by the global implications of the war in Ukraine and who are moved by the tragedies of ordinary Ukrainians. Watch the full video recording of the panel on YouTube: https://youtu.be/l0gAGpE6fSs?t=719 ### BACKGROUND About Vital Voices Global Partnership Driven by the universal truth that women are the key to progress in their communities and that nations cant move forward without women in leadership positions, the Vital Voices Global Partnership has directly invested in more than 20,000 changemakers across 184 countries and territories over the last 24 years. Its provided early support for leaders who went on to become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, U.S. Youth Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers, award-winning innovators, pioneering human rights defenders, and breakthrough social entrepreneurs, including Amanda Gorman, Malala Yousafzai, and more. Serving as a venture catalyst, the non-profit identifies leaders with a daring vision for change and partners with them to make that vision a reality. It provides connections, increased capacity, a peer network, financial support, skills training, and increased visibility for their work, which ranges from gender-based violence to the climate crisis and economic inequities to political disempowerment, and more. Attachment LOS ANGELES, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imagine participating in a Shark Tank-style pitch-off as a young person, winning funds to further your businessand advancing from a regional competition to a national arena. The winners of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Los Angeles Metro Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge Finals will do just that, taking their business ideas to New York mid-October to vie for the title of National Champion and prizes from a pool of $18,000. Participating students presented their original business ideas to a panel of esteemed judges, who named three winners. The first- and second-place winners, who will receive $1500 and $1000, respectively, will continue to Nationals. The third-place winner will receive $500. 1 st Place: Ivy Chieng SwigSafe, Florence Nightingale Middle School, LA County SwigSafe is a safety-focused company that develops chemically treated napkins that turn a different color if they encounter a drink that has been drugged. Place: 2 nd Place: Jaydon Tsan Book World, Florence Nightingale Middle School, LA County Book World is an education-based app that provides fun and engaging reading lessons for young children. Place: 3 rd Place: Emely Felix and Sarai Novoa GOES, Paramount High School, Los Angeles Place: GOES is a meal-kit for busy millennials that makes eating delicious, nutritious food easy. Young people are changing the worldthere is no question about it. We are so proud of every student and their commitment to entrepreneurship, said Dr. J.D. LaRock, CEO of NFTE. Each young entrepreneurs innovative idea signifies an opportunity to address key challenges facing communities around the globe. We activate the entrepreneurial mindset in young people, and this is critical to growing businesses, economies, and communities. The competition took place on May 19 at The Brickyard at Playa Vista Loyola, Marymount University, with a panel of expert judges, including: Angela Milano , EY , Charles Choice , NFTE alumnus, Do or Dier Foundation , Hannah Bu sick, Truist sick, Rachel Butler-Green , Choreographer, Entrepreneur, and Loyola Marymount Alumna , Joseph H. DeBriyn, Citizens Business Bank The NFTE Los Angeles Metro Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge was presented by EY with signature support from Keystone National Properties (KNPRE), and associate support from the Citi Foundation, KoBre Companies, Mary Kay, Inc. and the Singleton Foundation. Additional support is provided by Sunkist and Pacific Premier Bank. About NFTE Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) is a global nonprofit organization that provides high-quality entrepreneurship education to middle and high school students from under-resourced communities, as well as programs for college students and adults. NFTE reaches 50,000+ students annually in 25 states across the U.S. and offers programs in 18 additional countries. We have educated more than a million students through in-school, out-of-school, college, and summer camp programs, offered in person and online. To learn more about how we are promoting inclusive capitalism and building the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs, visit www.nfte.com. ### BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verde AgriTech Plc (TSX: NPK) (OTCQB: AMHPF) (the Verde or Company) announces that it has filed an Amended Notice of 2022 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the Amended Notice) in respect of its annual meeting of shareholders scheduled to be held on June 30, 2022 (the Meeting) in order to correct a typographical error regarding the time of the Meeting contained in the original Notice. The original Notice stated that the time of the Meeting was 10:00 a.m. (EDT). The correct time of the Meeting is 09:30 a.m. (EDT). The Amended Notice has been filed under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and is also available on the Companys website at https://investor.verde.ag/sedar-fillings/. About Verde AgriTech Verde is an agricultural technology company that produces potash fertilizers. Our purpose is to improve the health of all people and the planet. Rooting our solutions in nature, we make agriculture healthier, more productive, and profitable. Verde is a fully integrated Company: it mines and processes its main feedstock from its 100% owned mineral properties, then sells and distributes the Product. Verdes focus on research and development has resulted in one patent and eight patents pending. Among its proprietary technologies are Cambridge Tech, 3D Alliance, MicroS Technology, N Keeper, and Bio Revolution.1 Currently, the Company is fully licensed to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes per year of its multinutrient potassium fertilizers K Forte and BAKS, sold internationally as Super Greensand.2 By the end of 2022, it plans to become Brazil's largest potash producer by capacity.3 Verde has a combined measured and indicated mineral resource of 1.47 billion tonnes at 9.28% K 2 O and an inferred mineral resource of 1.85 billion tonnes at 8.60% K 2 O (using a 7.5% K 2 O cut-off grade).4 This amounts to 295.70 million tonnes of potash in K 2 O. For context, in 2021 Brazils total consumption of potash in K 2 O was 7.92 million5. Brazil ranks second in global potash demand and is its single largest importer, currently depending on external sources for over 96% of its potash needs. In 2021, potash accounted for approximately 2% of all Brazilian imports by dollar value. ________________________ 1 Learn more about our technologies: https://verde.docsend.com/view/yvthnpuv8jx6g4r9 2 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/2-5-million-tonnes-per-year-potash-mining-concession-granted-to-verde/ 3 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/verde-to-reach-3-million-tonnes-potash-production-capacity-in-2022/ 4 As per the National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects within Canada (NI 43 -101), filed on SEDAR in 2017. See the Pre-Feasibility Study at: https://investor.verde.ag/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NI-43-101-Pre-Feasibility-Technical-Report-Cerrado-Verde-Project.pdf 5 Union of the Agricultural Fertilizers and Correctives Industry, in the State of Sao Paulo (SIACESP, from Sindicato da Industria de Fertilizantes e Corretivos Agropecuarios, no Estado de Sao Paulo). Corporate Presentation For further information on the Company, please view shareholders deck: https://verde.docsend.com/view/3mry2cjznpwm724s Investors Newsletter Subscribe to receive the Companys updates at: http://cloud.marketing.verde.ag/InvestorsSubscription The last edition of the newsletter can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/InvestorsNL-April2022 Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements All Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resources estimates reported by the Company were estimated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards (May 10, 2014). These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. This document contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements" are made as of the date of this document. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the estimated amount and grade of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves; (ii) the PFS representing a viable development option for the Project; (iii) estimates of the capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production, of sustaining capital and the duration of financing payback periods; (iv) the estimated amount of future production, both produced and sold; (v) timing of disclosure for the PFS and recommendations from the Special Committee; (vi) the Companys competitive position in Brazil and demand for potash; and, (vii) estimates of operating costs and total costs, net cash flow, net present value and economic returns from an operating mine. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "envisages", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on Verde's or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to them. The most significant assumptions are set forth above, but generally these assumptions include, but are not limited to: (i) the presence of and continuity of resources and reserves at the Project at estimated grades; (ii) the geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of rock conforming to sampled results; including the quantities of water and the quality of the water that must be diverted or treated during mining operations; (iii) the capacities and durability of various machinery and equipment; (iv) the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices and within the estimated delivery times; (v) currency exchange rates; (vi) Super Greensand and K Forte sales prices, market size and exchange rate assumed; (vii) appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in the economic analysis; (viii) tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operation; (ix) the availability of acceptable financing under assumed structure and costs; (x) anticipated mining losses and dilution; (xi) reasonable contingency requirements; (xii) success in realizing proposed operations; (xiii) receipt of permits and other regulatory approvals on acceptable terms; and (xiv) the fulfilment of environmental assessment commitments and arrangements with local communities. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the correctness of other forward looking statements, such as statements of net present value and internal rates of return, which are based on most of the other forward-looking statements and assumptions herein. The cost information is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs will be in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the relevant period. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur as forecast, but specifically include, without limitation: risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the material identified as Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; the geotechnical characteristics of the rock mined or through which infrastructure is built differing from that predicted, the quantity of water that will need to be diverted or treated during mining operations being different from what is expected to be encountered during mining operations or post closure, or the rate of flow of the water being different; developments in world metals markets; risks relating to fluctuations in the Brazilian Real relative to the Canadian dollar; increases in the estimated capital and operating costs or unanticipated costs; difficulties attracting the necessary work force; increases in financing costs or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any; tax rates or royalties being greater than assumed; changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks relating to receipt of regulatory approvals; delays in stakeholder negotiations; changes in regulations applying to the development, operation, and closure of mining operations from what currently exists; the effects of competition in the markets in which Verde operates; operational and infrastructure risks and the additional risks described in Verde's Annual Information Form filed with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) for the year ended December 31, 2021. Verde cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to Verde, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Verde does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by Verde or on our behalf, except as required by law. For additional information please contact: Cristiano Veloso, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Tel: +55 (31) 3245 0205; Email: investor@verde.ag www.investor.verde.ag | www.supergreensand.com | www.verde.ag The 2022 Formula One cars were supposed to be three to five seconds slower than the 2021 cars, but it turns out that's not quite the case. The designers have already done a good job this year, as the top has stayed pretty close to last year's times. Article continues under ad After seven races in 2022, we can make a nice comparison with 2021. How much slower are the new cars really? The new regulations would make the cars a lot slower, but is that really the case? Of the seven races this year, we can compare four with 2021. In 2021 there was no racing in Australia and Miami and it rained during the final qualifying session in Imola. So those times are not representative. The times from Saudi Arabia are included, but it should be noted that the race in 2021 was on the calendar much later in the year (December) than in 2022 (March). Slower than in 2021 Grand Prix 2021 2022 Difference Difference in percentage Bahrain 1.28.997 (Verstappen) 1.30.558 (Leclerc) +1.561s +1,75% Saudi Arabia 1.27.511 (Hamilton) 1.28.200 (Perez) +0.689s +0,79% Spain 1.16.741 (Hamilton) 1.18.750 (Leclerc) +2.009s +2,62% Monaco 1.10.346 (Leclerc) 1.11.376 (Leclerc) +1.030s +1,46% Average +1.322s +1,66% For the four races included, we looked at the fastest qualifying time in Q3 and then it is immediately noticeable that every fastest time in 2022 is a lot slower than it was in 2021. Still, it's not as much as was expected. In Spain, Charles Leclerc was two seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton 's fastest time in 2021, but at all other circuits the difference remained under two seconds. In Bahrain, Leclerc was one and a half seconds slower than Max Verstappen in 2021, and Leclerc lost just over a second in Monaco on his own time. In Saudi Arabia we see the smallest difference of just over half a second, but this may be influenced by the fact that the race was held at a different time of year. Article continues under ad F1 keeps difference limited Over the four races, the time for pole position was on average 1.322s slower than in 2021. A much smaller difference than previously thought. In the first year of these new regulations, that's a handsome achievement by the engineers and designers, as they will gain more and more ground in the coming years. Read more F1 Social Stint | Verstappen prepares for F1 race in Baku Proportionally, the pole time was on average 1.66 percent slower than in 2021. The short track in Spain also lost the most time proportionally, as the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is also short. Lando Norris achieved an eighth place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix. However, after the race weekend, it came to light that the Briton was actually too ill to compete. In his column on The Telegraph the driver elaborates on the situation at the time. Article continues under ad The drivers did not have an easy race ahead of them in Spain. As it was between 35 and 40 degrees on the circuit, the drivers, therefore, had to drink well to stay fit. For Norris, however, that was not an option, as he candidly explains in his column. Indeed, the McLaren driver was too sick to actually keep food down. "By Sunday my throat was so sore it was like swallowing daggers," Norris states honestly. "I could barely drink because it hurt so much. Anything I did get down I would throw up again five minutes later anyway." Norris was fit again in Monaco Investigations revealed that Norris was suffering from tonsillitis, which forced him to stay in bed for a few days. It was long in question whether the driver would be fit in time to take part in the Monaco GP, but he turned out to make it after all. In Monaco, he finished in sixth position. Read more McLaren commemorates anniversary of death of founder Bruce McLaren Allison Transmission is introducing its new electric axle, Allison eGen Power, for fire and rescue vehicles at Interschutz 2022 (20 25 June) in Hanover. Emergency One, a British manufacturer of fire and rescue vehicles, has integrated the eGen Power 100D into the new E1 EV0 platform on a MAN TGM chassis and is presenting the vehicle for the first time at Interschutz in cooperation with Allison. eGen Power is a bolt-in solution compatible with the current vehicle frame. It features two fully integrated electric motors, a two-speed gearbox, oil cooler and pumps. The twin-engine 100D version has a continuous output of 454 kW and a peak output power of 652 kW. The eGen Power 100D axle is one of the most powerful electric axle systems on the market. It was designed for good starting and climbing capabilities, high speed and high efficiency. This allows fire and rescue vehicles to offer unsurpassed performance and reliability, high acceleration and excellent maneuverability. Allison 100D electric axle Allison also offers the eGen Power 130D, a variant of the 100D, specifically designed for the European and Asia Pacific markets, where many commercial vehicles require a heavier 13 tonne gross axle weight rating. The TerraTran transmission is a variant of the proven Allison 4000 Series on-highway transmission and is purpose built for the extreme demands of airport fire engines. TerraTran offers a maximum power capability of up to 800 horsepower, and torque capability up to 3200 Nm. The transmission also features seven forward and two reverse gears. TerraTran offers the proven reliability and durability of the Allison 4000 Series transmissions, but with increased horsepower, torque and gross vehicle weight (GVW) capability, while also adding fast reverse capability. Orange EV announced the new e-TRIEVER brand for its Model Year 2022 all-electric terminal trucks. The e-TRIEVER builds upon the T-Series foundation while continuing Orange EVs commitment to innovation and delivering trucks that meet the demanding needs of heavy-duty, goods movement operations. Orange EV commercially deployed its first all-electric yard truck in 2015.Since then, it has sold 400 trucks to more than 130 fleets, and accumulated 5 million miles and 1.5 million hours of operation. Orange EV electric trucks are proven to deliver 98-99% average uptime and a lower total cost of ownership, with many customers experiencing a 3- to 4-year payback on a 10-year expected life. The e-TRIEVER builds on this platform, while adding next-generation technology. The e-TRIEVER features DTS (Digital Truck Systems) designed to integrate with autonomous control systems along with advanced digital cab architecture, improved sensing, remote diagnostic capabilities, and an optional IntelliBoom package that captures 5th wheel load weight, boom lift cycles, and kingpin presence and retention data. The basic specifications for the Model Year 2022 4x2 e-TRIEVER remain unchanged from the prior Model Year 2021 4x2 T-Series: GCWR: 81,000 lbs Speed: Up to 25 mph Battery Capacity: 180 kWh or 100 kWh Charge Rate: Up to 70 kW Range: Up to 24 hours on a single charge Motor: Brushless AC induction Transmission: None; direct drive Available now for purchase, lease, or rent; custom builds delivered in 90-120 days Orange EV, headquartered in Kansas City, MO, was the nations first manufacturer offering 100% electric Class 8 vehicles to be commercially deployed and scaled. The Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet mbH (AGR), a waste management company in Herten, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, has put a converted DAF CF 340 hydrogen fuel cell truck into operation as part of the EU-funded HECTOR (Hydrogen Waste Collection Vehicles in North West Europe) project. The aim of the project, which involves seven European trials in total, is to investigate how hydrogen-fueled trucks can be an effective solution in reducing emissions in refuse vehicles. In February 2022 and also under the HECTOR initiative, Aberdeen City Council unveiled the UKs first refuse collection vehicle (RCV)a Mercedes-Benz Econic with a 250 kW Hyzon electric motor coupled to an Allison 3000 Series transmission in conjunction with a 45 kW fuel cell. Before the demo vehiclea DAF CF 340 front loader with a Millennium XXL 40 body from Terberg HScould be used to collect commercial waste, a conversion from standard diesel propulsion to hydrogen was required. This was carried out by E-Trucks Europe, a specialist manufacturer of hydrogen-electric commercial vehicles based in Belgium, in collaboration with Wietholt, a DAF authorized dealer in Dorsten, Germany. Wietholt is also a service partner of Allison Transmission. In order to convert the diesel truck to hydrogen propulsion, the vehicle had to be completely gutted. Almost the entire original powertrainengine, fuel tanks and exhaust systemwas removed from the DAF truck. Only an Allison 3200 fully automatic transmission was retained as an integral part of the drive concept. The Allison 3200 fully automatic 6-speed transmission, already developed for use in refuse collection vehicles in addition to other applications, was optimized by application engineers from Allison and E-Trucks Europe to meet the requirements of the DAF fuel cell truck. Allisons Continuous Power Technology provides smooth, uninterrupted power shifts and faster acceleration. The patented torque converter multiplies the engine torque during start-up and acceleration. Furthermore, it protects the entire powertrain from vibrations and jolts during gear changes. The precise crawling speed and precision tuning facilitate the collection of rubbish bins in narrow alleyways, as well as working at extremely low speeds. A 45 kW fuel cell module was installed in the former engine compartment of the vehicle. The diesel tanks were dismantled and replaced with battery packs that power an electric motor coupled to the Allison transmission with hydrogen energy. The four hydrogen tanks on the roof of the vehicle have a capacity of 20 kg, enough for a range of around 200 km (around 124 miles). Refueling at 350 bar takes just under 15 minutes. Green River Police Department reports for May 22 At 1:22 a.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle at the intersection of East Flaming Gorge Way and Uinta Drive and issued the driver, Cody Phelps, 18, of Pinedale a citation for alleged speeding. At 7:05 a.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance on Evans Street. Officers were advised that there was a person outside screaming and yelling. Officers met with the individual and were able to calm them down. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 9 a.m., officers responded to a report of illegal dumping on Telephone Canyon Road. Officers observed several bags of trash that had been left along the road. Officers took photos of the trash and attempted to locate a possible suspect. Officers completed a report of the incident and were unable to locate a suspect at the time of the report. At 10:28 a.m., officers responded to a report of vandalism at Expedition Island. Officers observed several areas that had been spray painted in and around the building. Officers took photos and completed a report of the incident. No suspects have been identified at this time. At 11:01 a.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle and issued the driver, Brian Raymundo Sandoval Varela, 24, of Green River, citations for alleged expired vehicle registration and no valid drivers license. At 11:53 a.m., officers responded to a report of vandalism on Idaho Street. Officers met with the reporting party who advised their boat had been intentionally scratched. Officers observed the damage and took photos. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 6:05 p.m., officers responded to a report of a domestic dispute. Officers met with the reporting parties who advised they had been arguing and were going to separate for the evening. Officers conducted a civil standby while the parties separated and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 8:51 p.m., officers responded to a report of juveniles throwing rocks at residences on Honor Way. Officers met with the reporting party who advised they witnessed a group of juveniles throwing rocks at their residence as well as others in the neighborhood. Officers located the juveniles who stated they did not intentionally throw towards the houses. Officers released the juveniles to their parents and completed a report of the incident. May 23 At 7:51 a.m., officers met with a suspicious subject outside of a school building. Officers spoke with the individual and discovered that the individual had an active warrant. Officers placed Tony Barnson, 37, of Green River, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Barson to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 11 a.m., officers responded to a report of a two vehicle crash on Moran Drive. The driver of the first vehicle stated that as they were backing out of their driveway, they backed into a parked and unoccupied vehicle. Officers observed the damage to both vehicles and completed a report of the incident. At 2:26 p.m., officers responded to a report of juveniles throwing rocks at a vehicle at the Underpass. Officers made contact with the juveniles and observed damage to the vehicle. Both juveniles, 14, of Green River, were issued citations for alleged malicious mischief. Both juveniles were released to their parents and officers completed a report of the incident. At 3:56 p.m., officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance. The involved parties advised they had been arguing but that everything was okay upon officers arrival. They advised they would be okay staying in the home together for the rest of the night and there would be no further issues. Officers completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 4:33 p.m., officers responded to a report of accidental property damage at Green River High School. Officers observed damage to a vehicle consisting of a broken windshield. It was determined the damage was likely caused by a lawnmower throwing a rock into the windshield. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 9 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle on Hitching Post Drive and issued the driver, Lacy Miller Rudolph, 40, of Green River, a citation for alleged stop sign violation. At 9:44 p.m., officers responded to a report of barking dogs on Hackberry Street. Upon arrival officers heard the dogs barking and attempted to make contact with an owner. Officers were able to contact an owner who responded to the house and brought the dogs in the house with no further issues. Officers completed a report of the incident. May 24 At 1:49 a.m., officers observed two juveniles in violation of curfew. Officers met with both juveniles and issued both, 17, of Green River, citations for curfew violations. Officers released the juveniles to their parents and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 9:29 a.m., officers responded to a report of larceny at Delaware Place. Officers met with the reporting party who advised that someone who previously lived with them had filled out a change of address form and was now receiving all their mail and would not return it. Officers gathered the information and completed a report of the incident. At 11:54 a.m., officers while on patrol observed a vehicle being driven on Adams Street by an individual with a suspended drivers license. Officers made contact with the individual who had parked and exited the vehicle. The individual stated he was not the one driving the vehicle. The individual later admitted he had lied and he was the person driving the vehicle. Officers issued the individual, Kerry Rivera, 51, of Green River, citations for alleged driving while license canceled, suspended, or revoked - 2nd+ offense and interference with a peace officer. Officers placed Rivera under arrest and transported him to the Sweetwater County Detention Center without incident. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 8:01 p.m., officers responded to a report of found drug paraphernalia. Officers collected the items and booked them in for destruction. Officers completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 10:12 p.m., officers responded to a report of trespassing on wilderness trail. Officers obtained information from the reporting party and met with the suspect. Officers advised both parties and completed a report of the incident. At 10:53 p.m., officers responded to a report of larceny at Maverick. The reporting party advised they were missing a bag from their motorcycle. Officers met with the reporting party and gathered information on the missing items. Officers searched the area but were unable to locate the bag. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 11:48 p.m., officers responded to a report of barking dogs on Clark Street. Upon arrival officers could hear the dog barking and were able to locate an owner. The owner stated they would bring the dogs in for the remainder of the night to prevent any further issues. Officers completed a report of the incident. May 25 At 12:18 a.m., officers responded to a report of a dog at large on East Teton Boulevard. Officers located the dog and were able to get it back to its owner. The owner was warned for dog at large and officers completed a report of the incident. At 9:08 p.m., officers responded to West Teton Boulevard in reference to a trespassing call. Officers met with the reporting party who wished to have an individual trespassed from their residence. Officers spoke to the individual and issued the trespass. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 10:26 p.m., officers responded to Evans Street in reference to a noise complaint. Officers spoke with all parties involved and completed a report of the incident. At 11:25 p.m., officers responded to Arctic Circle for a report of a hit and run. Officers completed a crash report of the incident. May 26 At 11:28 a.m., officers responded to Stratton Myers Park in reference to a one vehicle crash. Officers made contact with the reporting person who told them that they drove their vehicle into a ravine causing damage. Officers completed a crash report of the incident. At 3:46 p.m., officers were dispatched to the Green River Police Department for a report of a stolen bicycle that occurred on Indian Hills Drive. Officers spoke with the reporting party and the owner of the bicycle, who stated the bike was last seen unsecured in the front yard of a friends house three days ago. Officers completed a report of the incident. May 27 At 4:15 a.m., officers responded to Windriver Drive for a report of an unknown person trying to break into an apartment. Upon arrival, officers observed the front screen door to the residence was open and was blowing open and closed in the wind. The reporting party reported hearing loud banging noises coming from outside the residence. Officers searched the front and back of the residence and were unable to locate anyone in the area. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 11:56 a.m., officers responded to a report of a vehicle that backed into a fence on Uinta Drive. Officers met with the driver and issued a citation for alleged improper backing to Shannon Nettik, of Green River. Report to follow. At 2:04 p.m., officers responded to a report of a one vehicle roll over at North 1st East Street and Cemetery Road. Officers observed the vehicle to be laying on its passenger side and the sole occupant was extracted from the vehicle by removing the windshield. The individual was found to be intoxicated. EMS responded and the individual was transported and later placed under arrest for alleged DWUI of alcohol .08 or greater and open container. Officers transported Richard Meeks, of Green River, to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. May 28 At 7:45 a.m., officers responded to a report of an unattended death. Officers assisted EMS and the Coroner. No suspicious circumstances are suspected. Offices completed a report of the incident. The case is still under investigation. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 7:58 a.m., officers responded to a report of a citizen assist on West 5th North Street. Officers met with individuals, conducted a civil standby, and issued a trespass warning at the property owners request. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 8:05 a.m., officers responded to a report of fraud on East Flaming Gorge Way. Officers met with an individual who reported a fraudulent financial account had been opened up in their name but they were able to close the account. No monetary losses were reported and officers completed a report of the incident. At 7:16 p.m., officers responded to a report of a suspicious male in the area of Alabama Drive. Officers canvassed the area and did not locate the individual. Officers completed a report of the incident. May 29 At 1:49 p.m., officers responded to a two-vehicle collision on Bridger Drive and East Teton Boulevard. It was reported one vehicle was parked on the shoulder on Bridger Drive. A second vehicle later parked behind the first vehicle. The owner of the first vehicle later began to reverse the vehicle and collided with the front bumper of the second vehicle. Officers met with both owners and completed a report of the incident. May 30 At 10:02 a.m., officers responded to a report of a citizen assist on West Teton Boulevard. Officers met with individuals over civil matters and welfare concerns. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 12:35 p.m., officers responded to a report of a two-vehicle collision at North 3rd West Street and West Flaming Gorge Way. It was reported one vehicle was pulled over and stopped in front of a second vehicle on the shoulder of North 3rd West Street. As the driver of the first vehicle backed up, the rear bumper of the first vehicle struck the front bumper of the second vehicle. Officers met with the driver of the first vehicle, Gene Pierce, of Green River, and issued citations for alleged failure to maintain liability coverage and limitations on backing- safely. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 1:19 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop at Upland Way and Commerce Drive and issued the driver Trevor Duvall, of Green River, citations for alleged expired temporary license/permit/improper registration and seat belt required violation. At 1:43 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on East 4th South Street and issued the driver Bradyn Boutin, of Green River, a citation for alleged failure to provide proof of liability insurance. May 31 At 5:50 a.m., officers responded to a report of a two-vehicle collision on Uinta Drive and East 2nd South Street. It was reported one vehicle was traveling east on East 2nd Sout Street and stopped at the intersection waiting to turn left onto the overpass. Another vehilce was traveling southwest on Uinta Drive approaching the intersection. The first vehicle pulled out into the intersection initiating a left-hand turn when the second vehicle struck the drivers side of the first vehicle. EMS responded but no transports were made. Officers completed a report of the incident. Gerald Ray Springsguth, 77, passed away on Monday, April 25, 2022 in Rawlins. Gerald Ray Springsguth known as Jerry was born on Feb. 26, 1945 in Manitou Springs, Colorado, to parents Raymond and Zelma Springsguth. In Jerry's teenage years into his early twenties, he worked at a tree and plant nursery, harvesting trees, and landscaping yards. From there he worked at ranching. At age 28 he moved to Rock Springs and went to work at the startup of Bridger Coal as the 11th employee to be hired. At 29 he went into their four-year electrical apprentice program for industrial mine maintenance.Jerry also worked in Gillette, at Black Butte, Jacob Ranch, and Buckskin and Caballo mine startups, all coal mines. In the 1980s he went back to Colorado Springs starting his own business. He returned to Rock Springs in 1985 working for Eickhoff, a company out of Germany as a field engineer supporting the startup of the longwall, an underground mining machine at FMC, a trona mine. In 1992 he met and married Diana Christensen and they spent 30 years together. Jerry loved his five new brothers, Rod, Allan, Ronnie, Johnny, Joey Christensen and new sister Jan Richmond. He loved going to the huge family reunions at the Christensens' grandparents' home east of Cheyenne. Jerry had three sons by a previous marriage, Cody Ray, Shawn David, and Troy who is now deceased. He also had three nephews he was very close to, Lee, Toby and Brian Gann. They moved to Spring Creek, Nevada, in 1996 where he would retire from working at Cortez Gold Mine. Jerry and his wife retired in 2004 in Hanna, where they enjoyed many years together. There will be a celebration of Jerry's life on June 18, 2022 at 1 p.m., at the Catholic Church in Hanna. Contact Jan Richmond at 1-307-679-1845 for information to attend. Condolences may be left at http://www.foxfh.com. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SHANGHAI (AP) Traffic, pedestrians and joggers reappeared on the streets of Shanghai on Wednesday as Chinas largest city began returning to normalcy amid the easing of a strict two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has drawn unusual protests over its heavy-handed implementation. Shanghais Communist Party committee, the citys most powerful political body, issued a letter online proclaiming the lockdown's success and thanking citizens for their support and contributions." The move came amid a steady rollback in compulsory measures that have upended daily life for millions while severely disrupting the economy and global supply chains. While defending President and Communist Party chief Xi Jinpings hardline zero-COVID" policy, the countrys leadership appears to be acknowledging the public backlash against measures seen as trampling already severely limited rights to privacy and participation in the workings of government. In one such step, the Cabinets Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism issued a letter Tuesday laying out rules banning non-standard, simple and rude indoor disinfection by mostly untrained teams in Shanghai and elsewhere that have left homes damaged and led to reports of property theft. Full bus and subway service in Shanghai was being restored from Wednesday, with rail connections to the rest of China to follow. Still, more than half a million people in the city of 25 million remain under lockdown or in designated control zones because virus cases are still being detected. The government says all restrictions will be gradually lifted, but local neighborhood committees still wield considerable power to implement sometimes conflicting and arbitrary policies. Negative PCR tests for the coronavirus taken within the previous 48 to 72 hours also remain standard in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere for permission to enter public venues. That measure didnt deter people in Shanghai from gathering outside to eat and drink under the watch of police deployed to discourage large crowds from forming. With the lockdown lifting, I feel very happy. I feel today how I feel during Chinese New Year that kind of mood and joy," said Wang Xiaowei, 34, who moved to Shanghai from the inland province of Guizhou just a week before the lockdown began. Liu Ruilin, 18, said she wasn't sure her building's security guard would let her and others out on Tuesday night. The restriction ended exactly at midnight, she said. Then we said, Lets go to the Bund to have fun,'" she said in the city's historic riverside district. We thought there wouldnt be too many people here, but we were surprised after coming over that a lot of people are here. I feel pretty good quite excited." Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis, and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will gradually reopen at no more than 75% of their total capacity. Cinemas and gyms will remain closed. Health authorities on Wednesday reported just 15 new COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, down from a record high of around 20,000 daily cases in April. A few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time. The lockdown has prompted an exodus of Chinese and foreign residents, with crowds forming outside the citys Hongqiao Railway Station, where only some train services have resumed. Even while the rest of the world has opened up, China has stuck to a zero-COVID strategy that requires lockdowns, mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities for anyone who is infected or has been in contact with someone who has tested positive. The countrys borders also remain largely closed and the government has upped requirements for the issuance of passports and permission to travel abroad. At least half of foreign companies in Shanghai are waiting until next week to reopen while they put in place hygiene measures, said Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, a vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. As a precaution, many companies plan to have only half their workforce on site at a time. There is still quite some uncertainty and a scare that if there is a positive case in the office building or in your compound, you might be locked down again, said Schoen-Behanzin, who works in Shanghai. The strict restrictions in Shanghai, the countrys commercial capital and home of the worlds busiest port, dragged down Chinese economic activity and disrupted global manufacturing and trade. Retail sales fell by a worse-than-forecast 11% in April from a year earlier, government data show. Auto sales fell by almost half from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Private sector forecasters have cut their estimates for this years economic growth to as low as 2%, well below the ruling Communist Partys target of 5.5%. Some expect output to shrink in the three months ending in June. The economy is really in a crisis, said Schoen-Behanzin. The Port of Shanghai, the worlds busiest, appears to be back to 80% to 85% of its normal operating capacity, according to Schoen-Behanzin. She cited data that said the port had a backlog of 260,000 cargo containers in April. The rest of the world will feel these delays probably (through) June or July, she said. The city will likely see a mass exodus of foreign residents this summer, especially families with small kids, Schoen-Behanzin said. She said about half of Shanghais foreign residents had already left over the past two years. People are really fed up with these lockdowns, she said. Its not safe, especially if you have small children. ___ Associated Press Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report from Beijing. ___ This version has corrected the timing on PCR tests to a range rather than only 48 hours before being permitted to enter a public venue. Robert Barfield recalled Wednesday all of the times the medical staff with the state Department of Correction continued to deny his request to receive life-saving drugs that could cure Hepatitis C. I kept telling medical officials its not even an issue whether you are supposed to treat me, the 53-year-old Barfield said in an interview. Of course, they were supposed to treat me. I told them I would take them to court and it would cost them money. Six years ago, Barfield was serving a decades-long sentence in Connecticut for an attempted murder in Nevada due to a prisoner exchange pact. He knew he had contracted Hepatitis C, a viral infection that ravages the liver and could cause liver cancer or death if untreated. He also knew he was running out of time. They wanted to wait until I was almost critical to give me the treatment, that doesnt make sense, Barfield said. They told me this is one of those things you just have to accept. But I told them, maybe what Im supposed to do is change things. In July 2018, Barfield filed a federal lawsuit, claiming he was sick with Hepatitis C, but he wasnt receiving what had become the standard of care for the disease from the DOC, alleging the agency violated of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Since then, Barfield is among the nearly 1,000 state inmates who were cured of the disease after being given proper treatment in part due to the efforts of his attorneys Kenneth Krayeske and DeVaughn Ward. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shea on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement that includes $112,000 in legal fees for Barfields attorney to end the nearly four-year legal battle. Under the agreement, all inmates until Aug. 1 will be tested for Hepatitis C and treated with direct-acting antiviral drugs, according to the standard of care for the disease. Its a victory that was hard fought and hard won, Krayeske said. I could die tomorrow and say that I have accomplished something, Krayeske said Wednesday. We forced the state of Connecticut to spend $40 million. We shouldnt have had to do that. Barfield and hundreds of other inmates had Hepatitis C while incarcerated but the lawsuit contended that they werent being given access to antiviral drugs, which had become the standard treatment, until they were near death. People were dying, said Krayeske, who is representing one family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the agency due to the lack of Hepatitis C treatment. As the litigation progressed, former DOC Commissioner Rollin Cook, who later resigned during the pandemic, agreed to give Barfield the drugs. Krayeskes response was to add plaintiffs to avoid having the case thrown out. When the state moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds Barfield was now receiving treatment, a federal judge denied the request in August 2019 and extended the litigation as a class action suit, representing all future and current inmates. The next day, Cook issued a revised policy allowing all inmates to be tested and treated. That didnt end the lawsuit as the state had hoped, Krayeske said. But it did give 977 inmates a fighting chance at beating Hepatitis C, the attorney said. The cost has not been cheap. From August 2019 to October 2020, the DOC spent $9.9 million to test 14,000 inmates and treat 475 of the 1,398 who tested positive, figures released by the state in 2021 show. The legislature voted in 2021 to accept the settlement, which required the state to test and treat all inmates until at least March 2022. The settlement funded an additional $20 million on top of the $10 million that had already been spent and $10 million in DOC funding that was put aside for Hepatitis C testing and treatment as the lawsuit progressed. As of Friday, 21,248 inmates have been tested since August 2019 with 2,123 testing positive for Hepatitis C, court records show. Of those who tested positive, 977 have been given the antiviral drugs and are considered cured, including Barfield who is now living in Nevada after being released to parole in November 2021. Attorney General William Tongs office, which represented the DOC in the lawsuit, declined comment but instead referred to testimony submitted before the legislature in January 2021 encouraging lawmakers to agree to the settlement. The Office of the Attorney General determined that settlement was the best avenue to resolve this case and believes this settlement to be a fair resolution, the testimony said. When the judge agreed to deny the states motion to dismiss, Barfields right to receive damages was also denied. Although the settlement only extends testing and treatment to August, Krayeske contended in court filings that inmates could file future litigation if they were denied the antiviral drugs. Barfield, who is now looking for work and hoping to go into the legal profession in some fashion, walked away with a sense of pride that he was able to save lives through his fight to save his own. I feel great about that, Barfield said. At first when I went into this it was to get myself treatment. But when Ken painted the broader picture for me, I understood that this could help everyone. Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Gov. Ned Lamonts second and final veto of 2022 will stop financially troubled West Haven from obtaining a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected military vehicle known as an MRAP. Senate Bill 258, the measure vetoed Wednesday evening as the governor finished his review of the 170 bills passed by the General Assembly, would have made two changes to Public Act 20-1, the police accountability law passed in 2020. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SALEM, Ind. (AP) A young boy found dead inside a suitcase in a heavily wooded area of southern Indiana was laid to rest Wednesday following a memorial service in which a police chaplain called the unidentified child an unknown angel." Mourners gathered at the Weathers Funeral Home in Salem, Indiana, for Wednesday morning's service. The child's gray casket was topped by a floral arrangement and stuffed animals. Todd Murphy, the chaplain for the Washington County Sheriff's Office, said donations from local residents and businesses paid for the funeral. The child remains unidentified more than a month and a half after his body was discovered by a mushroom hunter in Washington County. Were not here today to answer these questions, even if we could. Were here to mourn, Murphy told mourners who filled a room for the service. This unknown angel has been adopted and beloved by the Washington County community, so Angel is what we will call him for the service today, he added. The boy was later buried at a cemetery in Salem, a city about 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Louisville, Kentucky, with a gravestone marker bearing the image of an angel and an inscription that reads: In loving memory of a beloved little boy known but to God. His body was found on April 16 inside a hard suitcase emblazoned with a distinctive Las Vegas design on its front and back. Investigators believe the child, who was Black, was about 5 years old and had died within the previous week. Investigators have checked a national database for missing children but have found no match, Indiana State Police said. An autopsy found that the boy died from an electrolyte imbalance most likely due to gastroenteritis, or vomiting and diarrhea that led to dehydration, state police said. Police have created a special tip line for people to share information about the child, 1-888-437-6432. The short-term future belongs to 5G and weve been promised a lot of new use-cases, including wireless VR, AR and plenty of other cutting-edge solutions in the world of AI and IoT. So far weve mostly received faster connectivity on our smartphones to stream content and browse social media, but Samsung came up with new use case. The Korean giant developed the first private 5G commercial network for Naver - a fellow major tech company, best known for its social platform. The new service will allow autonomous robots to roam at Navers HQ in Seoul, assisting with delivering packages, coffee, and lunch boxes to employees. The headquarters, called simply 1784, will start by employing 40 robots, moving across three floors. The plans are to expand to hundreds of robots traveling around the entire 36-floor building by the end of the year. All robots are linked to a cloud server, which acts as a shared brain, offloading much of the needed calculations from the individual robots. Samsungs 5G network will be the neural network that connects the robots to their cloud, enabling support for tens of thousands of robots in real time, as per Samsungs press release. They are also building a common 3D/HD mapping and AI is helping them learn and navigate around the building quicker by creating a virtual space that replicates the real world. The network implements Samsung Compact Core and 5G radios, supporting 4.7GHz and 28GHz spectrums, dedicated for private networks by the Korean authorities. The private 5G radios include an optimized uplink allocation feature, which doubles the capabilities of other commercial 5G radios. Yong Chang, VP of Global Sales and Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics said the company will continue to work with public institutions to implement the service in other use cases for transportation systems, hospitals, schools, etc. Source PDN Lifestyle reporter Madison Scott shares some highlights of a her May 2022 visit to Singapore, including views, gardens, food, and her favorite neighborhoods. If You Go For more information or to make reservations for the Westin Resort Guam's Taste of the Philippines brunch and dinner events, contact 671-647-1020. Clearings and corrections: The escapee who was captured was TK Umulap, also known as Brian Osmie. The search is still on for Joluo Soiken.Two Department of Corrections detainees escaped Thursday morning. At around 6:24 a.m., a DOC officer assigned to the isolation facility reported TK Umulap, also known as Brian Osmie, and Joluo Soiken escaped, according to Maj. Antone Aguon, DOC assistant superintendent administrative services division chief. Umulap was captured at 6:49 a.m. at Dairy Mart in Mangilao. DOC continues to search for Soiken, according to a DOC news release. Charges Soiken was being detained after being charged in connection to having 3/4 pound of meth. He told officers he found the drugs in the jungle, according to court documents. According to prison records, Soiken, also known as GI Soukn, previously was confined in March after the execution of warrants for a 2020 misdemeanor case on allegations of terrorizing, disorderly conduct, obstructing public ways and public drunkenness. Umulap was charged in connection to throwing rocks at a car parked at a Pizza Hut in Dededo in May. He also faced charges in July 2021 connected to allegations of stealing from and throwing rocks at vehicles, court documents state. Umulap also was charged in April 2021 with throwing rocks at individuals in Dededo, according to court documents. Previous escape KD Arason escaped April 20 from a quarantine unit at the Mangilao prison. Arason was captured about an hour later near American Medical Center. The internal investigation into that escape was completed last week and DOC is in the process of taking further steps toward disciplinary actions based on facts gathered, a DOC release stated. In November 2021, detainee Anthony Luis Parteko Camacho escaped the quarantine facility at the prison. He was captured about six hours later with his brother, Augusto Borja Camacho Jr. Two corrections officers, Makino James and Jeremy Flores, were fired in connection to Anthony Camachos escape. They have appealed their firing with the Civil Service Commission. This story is still developing. One COVID-related death was reported today. The 364th COVID-related fatality occurred at Guam Regional Medical City, according to the Joint Information Center. A 76-year-old man fully vaccinated with one booster died. The man had underlying health conditions and tested positive May 12. We are saddened to learn of continued loss and heartache in our community, and to his family and those who loved him, we extend our deepest condolences and sympathies, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in the release. We are reminded that this virus remains a threat and to those at highest risk, please reinforce the mitigation measures that helped us to progress through this pandemic. Get vaccinated and boosted if its your time and wear your mask, especially in large crowds," she said in the release. The governor extended the public health emergency for another month, until July 4. New cases The Department of Public Health and Social Services reported 106 new cases of COVID-19 from 667 specimens analyzed on Wednesday. Twenty-seven of the cases reported are through the Department of Defense. There have been a total of 49,262 officially reported cases on Guam, and there are 379 active cases. Hospitalizations There were seven people hospitalized with COVID-19, the release stated. Guam Memorial Hospital reported one COVID-19 patient, GRMC reported five people admitted while Naval Hospital Guam reported one admission. Of those hospitalized, six were vaccinated, one wasn't. Incentives Incentives are offered for those who complete their last dose in the primary series of COVID-19 vaccinations and those getting a first or second dose of the booster Those qualified can get a $25 IP&E gift certificate for gas at Shell gas stations or a $25 gift certificate at Shell Foodys Guam stores (alcohol and tobacco items excluded). Gift certificates only at the Northern Region Community Health Center, Southern Region Community Health Center, the Agana Shopping Center clinic and senior citizen outreach clinics. GTA Teleguam is reaching out to the local community through art, and the communications company plans to connect to each village on Guam through their Village Mural Project. GTAs Village Mural Project was kicked off on Thursday with a We Start with You mural, painted by local artist Austin Domingo, located at their Northern Business Office in Dededo. We are very ingrained in the local community and focused on giving back, said Nathan Denight, vice president of marketing at GTA Teleguam. The locally owned company aims to have each villages personality incorporated into each perspective mural in order to create vibrant neighborhoods where island residents live and work, with the next mural set for Mangilao, Denight said. The company plans to work with more local artists on Guam to complete the Village Mural Project, with four to five murals to be completed each year, said Denight. Domingo, who was once only a part-time artist, is now able to use his passion full time. He said he hopes to inspire people with his art even those who are not aspiring artists. On Guam we have this stigma that the island is too small for opportunities. But Ive dedicated my life to challenge that belief, that I can be a full time artist on Guam, Domingo said. Domingo, who is very proud of his work said that completing the mural felt very surreal. My ideas and my creations came to life. There were a lot of things that came about for me to get here, believing in myself, having people that believe in me. Ive gotten to the level where I can show my art to the world and to the island. Im very grateful and Im very happy about it, Domingo said. Lawmakers Thursday evening passed a land lease bill for the 198-megawatt Ukudu power plant and a reserve diesel power plant in Piti. The facility will become the main energy generator for Guam and needs to be completed by 2024 in order for the Guam Power Authority to resolve its violations of U.S. environmental laws with the operations of the Cabras and Piti power plants. While the new plant in Ukudu was originally meant to be completed by October, the delay means that GPA has had to continue using its old generators, leaving the power grid vulnerable in the meantime. Sen. Joe San Agustins Bill 301 authorizes the lease of public land for the facilities for up to 30 years. Korea Electric Power Company signed a contract with GPA in November 2019 to finance, build and operate the new plant. KEPCO will then sell the power generated at the plant to GPA for 25 years with an optional five-year extension. Guam law requires the Legislature to approve any public land lease longer than five years. GPA General Manager John Benavente has said that Bill 301 needs to move forward before KEPCO can go after the bulk of the financing it needs to construct the power plant project. None of the members of the Legislature voted against Bill 301. Sens. Amanda Shelton, Clynt Ridgell, Jose Pedo Terlaje and Mary Torres were absent and excused. Sex crime legislation Also passing on Thursday was Sen. Mary Torres Bill 243. The measure aims to close an intoxication loophole in Guam sex crime laws, which does not consider an individual mentally incapacitated if they voluntarily consumed drugs or alcohol prior to being raped or sexually assaulted. The loophole has led to the Office of the Attorney General being unable to charge defendants in sexual assault cases where drugs or alcohol were involved, according to previous testimony by former assistant attorney general Christine Tenorio. Bill 244, establishing a bill of rights for victims of sexual assault, also passed, along with Bill 242, to allow victims to opt out of shared wireless plans with their abusers. Other measures passed were: More candidates are looking to throw their hats into the ring for this years election with the June 28 deadline to file for candidacy less than a month away. Former Republican Sen. Wil Castro, now the chief of staff for CNMI Gov. Ralph Torres, recently picked up a candidate packet for senator, along with military veteran and cannabis advocate Jonathan Savares, a Democrat. Former Guam Chief of Police Fred Bordallo Jr., a Democrat, and Republican Sandra Reyes Seau filed candidacy papers for senator with the Guam Election Commission last week. This will be Bordallos third shot at a seat in the Guam Legislature. He ran unsuccessfully twice before and was the 2018 running mate for former Gov. Carl Gutierrez. Besides working as an officer and chief of GPD, he served as director of the Guam Veterans Affairs Office. Seau made a previous run in 2020 and has worked as district executive of the CHamoru District Boy Scouts of America. Assuming the position of chief of staff was never meant to be a long-term employment opportunity for me, said Castro, who was appointed to Torres cabinet last October. I had the privilege to make a difference and that was it. And should Gov. Torres be re-elected in November, I will submit a courtesy letter of resignation. Castro wants to return to Guam and pursue his platform of economic revitalization, affordable housing and food security in what he said will be the critical post-COVID period. The two-term senator lost a run for Guam delegate to Congress in 2018. He said he still needs to consult with his family before locking in another run for the Guam Legislature. As for whether Castro will resign from the Torres cabinet even if Castros senatorial bid doesnt materialize, well cross that bridge when we get there he said, though Torres is aware of his desire to run. The former senator became chief of staff for Torres as the CNMI House was moving to impeach the Gov. Torres last year. Castro said he was confident that Torres would prevail and he did acquitted on all six articles of impeachment during a contentious impeachment trial by the CNMI Senate last month. Torres still faces criminal charges by the attorney general. I remain confident that the merits of the case will bring a sense of justice to the table, Castro said. Residency wont be an issue in a run for the Legislature, he added. I actually pay my bills on Guam, and his children attend school on island. Savares, formerly a patient advocate on the Guam Cannabis Control Board, said hell be on the ballot come August if he can get enough signatures for a nomination. He wants to improve health care services for local veterans and ensure the growth of a patient-focused medical cannabis industry on island. Theres a problem finding doctors. Lucky for me I was outspoken and doctors came and approached me and said, Hey, we want to help you. But not everybodys outspoken, right, and especially our veteran community. They have to actually get medically certified, he said. Savares also wants to address issues hes become familiar with through his mother, Dededo Mayor Melissa Savares, he said. Ive actually been out in typhoons and picked up dead dogs off the ground the problems that the constituents of the village are struggling with. Filings Campaign organizations for 30 candidates have filed with the Guam Election Commission and can begin fundraising. However, only eight candidates have officially filed for candidacy. Filings for senator include: Incumbent Sen. Jose Pedo Terlaje, Democrat Dwayne San Nicolas, Democrat Harvey Egna, Republican Incumbent Sen. Telo Taitague, Republican Filings for delegate include: Haiti - FLASH : Heavy assessment, 12 months of fear, violence and insecurity in the Great South The Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti (APCH) has drawn up a partial assessment of the acts of violence that took place between June 2021 and May 2022 in the great South. June 2021: 53 vehicles used as barricades; 2 drivers seriously injured by bullets; 6 cargo trucks hijacked. July 2021: Vehicles used to block roads; 1 minibus burned; 18 recorded attacks against vehicles; 25 cases of truck hijacking and kidnapping. August 2021: August 4: A Fontamara driver is killed at the wheel, passengers die and the body spends several days on the ground devoured by dogs... August 5 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. many cars were shot at. Several drivers and passengers were injured. September 2021: September 13,14,15: Several vehicles are used to block the roads from Fontamara 43 to Martissant 7 under the threat of armed men; A Carrefour driver is killed while driving his car. October 2021: October 11: several cars are hijacked in Martissant. The bandits rob all the people and loot their cars; October 13: Bandits from Martissant invade and block the main road and demand that only pedestrians and motorcycles pass. They search everyone and steal what they have; October 18, 19 and 25, 26 and 27: the transport sector goes on strike in an attempt to force the state to assume its responsibilities. October 31: The bandits of Martissant kidnapped 2 truckers and their trucks loaded with gas with which they left. November 2021: 7 trucks hijacked, 6 drivers kidnapped; Several trucks and buses used to barricade streets and people at gunpoint; Several motorcyclists who bought gasoline in Carrefour were killed and many others were injured by unidentified gunmen; A Carrefour driver and his wife were killed while passing through Martissant; several passengers were injured; Several large buses making the trip to Les Cayes, small buses in Jacmel, Petit-Goave- and Miragoane diverted and passengers stripped of all their valuables; From November 22, armed men standing in the middle of the street in Martissant hold drivers to ransom and demand a right of way of 500 to 5,000 gourdes depending on what they are transporting. December 2021: 4 vehicles passing through Martissant are the target of fire. Among them 2 buses, a van and a motorcycle. Balance sheet 7 dead and about thirty wounded; December 5, 6: Several transport vehicles hijacked in the neighborhoods of Martissant. Assessment: a dead passenger, a driver wounded by bullet; From December 7 to 14: bandits issue an ultimatum not to cross Martissant the ultimatum is respected; 24-29 December: buses from Jeremie, Les Cayes, Leogane, Carrefour are hijacked and shot at. Assessment: 4 passengers killed, several others injured, 1 truck driver killed and trade unionist Guy Polynice Coordinator of the United Front of Transporters and Workers of Haiti (FUTRAH) killed by several bullets and his body burned https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35572-haiti-news-zapping.html January 2022: The Martissant bandits searched several public and private vehicles; January 5 to 17: bandits from Fontamara and Martissant hijacked all passing public transport vehicles and trucks; Trade unionist Paul Loulou Chery and his wife were kidnapped https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35670-haiti-news-zapping.html ; January 25: Village bandits hijacked 2 freight trucks. The owner paid 650,000 Gourdes only to recover his trucks and then pay for the diverted goods. February: February 7: Several Southern bus drivers kidnapped; February 9: The driver of Petit-Goave Lazarus is killed at the wheel of his vehicle. Many other bus drivers were abducted and others fled their vehicles; February 25: a shooting in a crowded bus, a policeman killed and a bandit arrested. March 2022: March 16 to 20: transport strikes in the Deep South; March 29: Great mobilization against insecurity April 2022:/ April 11 Armed bandits kill trade unionist Chrismane Dispose; Several buses diverted to Martissant; At least 100,000 Gourdes claimed by the bandits to recover the hijacked cars. May 2022: May 12: bandits and armed men assassinate trade unionist Sainvalis Pascal in Lamentin 54; May 23: Bandits from Martissant and Fontamara stand at the edge of the street to hold passers-by to ransom; May 30: Shooting in a Voix des Anges Bus in Martissant 2 passengers injured one dead. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36794-haiti-flash-a-bus-with-43-passengers-targeted-1-dead-and-2-seriously-injured.html HL/ HaitiLibre / Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti (APCH) Haiti - RD : Creation of 3 chocolate bars with the tastes of the island After several virtual meetings, the master chocolatiers finally met in the "Definite Chocolate" laboratory in the Dominican Republic, to concretize their recipes and share their know-how. Jens Kamin, "Definite Chocolate" (RD) and Ralph Leroy from "Makaya Chocolat (Haiti), met as part of the Binational Cultural Dialogue project and together imagined a collection of binational chocolates whose ingredients all come from the island and which are part of the tradition and the local art of living in each country. Together they worked out the choice of pods, then beans, tempering, roasting and skilful mixing of ganaches From this work was born, "QUISKEYA Collection" 3 chocolate bars with the tastes of the island with names which are inspired by the names of the Caciques of the island of Quiskeya who governed the caciquats which are today producing provinces of cocoa Guacana: Inspired by Guacanagaric, the cacique of Marien (north of Haiti and north-west of the RD) this tablet is made of chocolate that is enriched with a hint of coffee from our hills. Guario: Inspired by Guarionex, cacique of Magua (central region of the island) this bar is made of chocolate filled with peanut ganache. Caya: Which takes its name from the cacique Cayacao, from the caciquat of Hyguey (another part of the cocoa-producing island, in the far east): a chocolate bar deliciously flavored with cashew nuts and enriched with shards of the nut. HL/ S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Former Senator Cantave invited by the justice The former senator of Artibonite, Carl Murat Cantave, is invited on June 6 at the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince to answer questions in the context of the case opposing him to Mrs. Ginette Lundy a lady having worked for him as a servant for several years, who accuses him of having physically assaulted him. More than 400 people killed in 6 months According to the latest report of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church (CE-JILAP) in Haiti, during the first 6 months of the year 2022, more than 400 people were killed (more than 2 every day) in the metropolitan area. Routine pat-down and check The pat-down and verification of a bag or vehicle is part of the rules of security checks in the fight against crime. The National Police of Haiti (PNH) encourages every citizen to collaborate. Holding a valid ID is mandatory to avoid any misunderstandings with law enforcement officials. Winner of the 2022 Philippe Chaffanjon Prize The Philippe Chaffanjon Prize for Reporting 2022 will be awarded this Wednesday, June 2nd to the two French and Haitian winners at the "Maison de la Radio et de la Musique". After deliberation, the jury, chaired by Pierre Haski, President of Reporters Without Borders and geopolitical columnist at France Inter and Dany Laferriere, Honorary President of the Philippe Chaffanjon Prize, awarded the Haitian Reportage Prize to Milo Milfort for his multimedia report "Kidnapping in Haiti : Trapped by Fear". Each of the award-winning reports has a prize of 2,500 euros. Read Milo Milfort's multimedia report : https://kidnapping-violence-haiti.enquetaction.com/fr/ Taiwan : Boosting rice seed production The Haiti-Taiwan Cooperation Project for Strengthening Rice Seed Production (REPONSE) organized 2 training sessions to strengthen knowledge on Post-Harvest rice seed techniques for the benefit of the Associations of irrigators of Grison Garde and of Ounaminthe. Sunrise : Anti-fraud notice "Help us fight against fraud and maintain fair prices. For any online payment by credit card, we kindly ask passengers to systematically present the card used for payment when checking in at our counter. Thank you for your understanding," advises Sunrise Airways. 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 TENDAI Biti, who successfully lobbied for the review of the age of consent from 16 to 18 at the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has clarified last weeks ruling, saying it did not necessarily raise the age of consent to 18. Speaking at a Press conference organised by Veritas yesterday, Biti said government should craft a law to protect children from sexual exploitation, adding that this could only be done by enacting a proper Childrens Bill within the next 12 months. When we argued this matter, we argued that we need a comprehensive Act to protect children from sexual exploitation and protect them from child marriages since the Marriage Bill hasnt been signed into law Biti said. The ConCourt set aside section 70 of the Criminal Law to allow the government to come up with a comprehensive Bill. This does not mean at the present moment men can sleep with 16-year-old girls. If they do, I think they can be charged with actual rape. This judgment has given the government leave to come up with a comprehensive child protection law in the next 12 months, Biti said. In 2016, the ConCourt outlawed marriage before the age of 18 following a challenge to provisions of the marriage law that allowed child marriages. In the latest case, Biti argued that it was unconstitutional that children could not be married until they attain 18 yet the law allowed them to be abused from the age of 16. Statistics from the United Nations Population Fund state that Zimbabwe has a high adolescent fertility rate of 108 per 1 000 among young women aged 15 to 19. Newsday 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. News Release June 2, 2022 Contact information Public meeting set for June 9 on proposed mental health hospital in Saint Paul The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is holding a virtual public meeting June 9 at 6 p.m. to get views and feedback from the public about a proposal for a new, free-standing mental health hospital in Saint Paul. M Health Fairview and Acadia Health Care have formed a partnership to finance and operate a new facility licensed for 144 inpatient beds. In part, the new hospital is intended to replace services provided at M Health Fairview St. Josephs Hospital, according to the proposal. Minnesota State Law (MN Statutes, Section 144.552) requires MDH to conduct a review to assess whether the proposal is in the public interest. MDH will complete its public interest review this summer. The Minnesota Legislature has passed an exception to the current moratorium on new hospital beds in Minnesota that is contingent on a finding that the project is in the public interest. The public meeting on June 9 is open to the public, and all are welcome to express their views on the proposed hospital. Details about how to join the public meeting are available on the MDH website at Public Meeting on Proposed Fairview Health Services and Acadia Healthcare Mental Health Hospital. Guided by state law, MDH is particularly interested in feedback on the following points: Whether the new hospital is needed to provide timely access to care or access to new or improved services. The extent to which the new hospital would have financial and staffing impact on existing hospitals in the region. The extent to which the new hospital would provide services to nonpaying or low-income patients relative to the level of services provided to these groups by existing hospitals in the region. The ability of the new hospital to maintain the current level of community benefit as other M Health Fairview hospitals. The impact the proposal would have on the workforce of M Health Fairview hospitals, including transitioning current workers to the new facility, retraining and employment security for current workers, and addressing the impact of layoffs at the existing facilities on affected workers. Those interested in providing written comments can do so on the MDH website form at Comment on Proposed Fairview Health Services - Acadia Healthcare Mental Health Hospital or via email, health.pir@state.mn.us, by June 27. Materials associated with the public interest review, including the initial proposal, questions MDH posed to Fairview Health System and Acadia and their responses are accessible online at MDH Public Interest Review - Fairview Health Services and Acadia Healthcare. -MDH- Scott Smith MDH Communications 651-201-1440 scott.smith@state.mn.us 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 JERE BRITTAIN: Film documents Brysons' role in restoring elk to Chattaloochee Ramona and Ray Bryson helped restore elk to the Cataloochee Valley. Recently I received a phone call from my friend, neighbor and cousin, Lynn Bryson, inviting me to be an extra in a documentary her son Rick was creating for a competition sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Tourism. Ricks entry would feature the role of the Brysons and others of Mills River in restoring elk in Western North Carolina. Part of the project involved reenactment of building the holding pens in Chattaloochee Valley in the Smokies. This segment was filmed at Lynns beautiful woodlot in South Mills River. The filming session concluded with a delicious chili lunch served by Lynn and Ramona Bryson and provided an opportunity to meet some key members of the Smoky Mountain Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF). Joe Treadway, past chairman of RMEF led efforts to organize the local chapter. He said that the Smoky Mountain Chapter has raised more than two million dollars over the past twenty years, mainly through annual banquets and membership subscriptions. Ray and Ramona Bryson of South Mills River are elk hunters who have played a leadership role in the successful restoration of elk at Chattaloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. They credit Kim Delozier with originating and implementing the bold plan to restore elk in the Smokies twenty years ago. Delozier, renowned for his knowledge of black bears, was head biologist for the Smoky Park during the re-introduction process. He led the complex negotiations with state and federal agencies to obtain permits for transporting the first 25 elk from Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and Tennessee in 2001 and the second group of 27from Canada in 2002. Before their release from the holding pens, each elk was fitted with a tracking collar for monitoring by students from the University of Tennessee. During the first calving season, only three out of eight calves survived due to depredation by bears. The second season, cow number 18 wandered seven miles away, as if to avoid the bears, and showed up a few days later with a healthy calf. At one critical point, biologist Delozier trapped and relocated several bears, enhancing the survival rate of calves. The current population is estimated to have grown to more than 400 head, spreading as far as Cherokee. About fifteen years ago, grandson John and I were invited to join the Bryson and Sorrells families on a camping trip to Chattaloochee Valley. I can still vividly recall the thrilling sound of the bull elk mating bugle, something I never expected to hear in Western North Carolina. Thanks to the Brysons of Mills River and others who made this happen through hard work and stubborn belief that it could be done. Journeying On NHHS percussionist chosen for All-American D-Day Band Tyler Houston, a rising senior at North Henderson High School, was chosen to represent the U.S. in the All-American Band for the 79th anniversary of D-Day next June in Normandy, France. Houston is one of 125 members from the class of 2023 selected to perform as musical ambassadors. The students will perform in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first town liberated by American paratroopers during the D-Day battle. In order to be selected for the band, students were required to be nominated by a band director then complete their own application. NHHS band director Steve Sigmond nominated Houston. Hes always looking for opportunities to go and further his opportunities as a percussionist, Sigmond said. Houston, who plays percussion, has been a member of the high school marching band since eighth grade. However, he remembers as a fourth grader watching YouTube videos of high school drum lines. While other members of the band play one instrument, in the percussion section youre getting to play all these different things to make the cool sounds, he said. Houston reflected on the day he found out he was accepted for the All-American band. I accidentally tapped on the email as it came up on my phone, he said, and I saw that I got the selection email. I almost ran back inside to tell my band director. The All-American Band will perform the ceremonial music for the officially recognized commemoration and wreath laying ceremonies at the Brittany and Normandy American Cemeteries and Memorials, and in the historic village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise it will perform in the International Salute to Liberation and lead the D-Day Memorial Parade. Band members get all-expense paid travel to Washington, D.C., Normandy and Paris. At the scene of the pivotal battle of World War II in Europe, Houston said, he expects something totally surreal and special. South Africa: Mahlobo calls for collaborative efforts to preserve water Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, David Mahlobo, has warned that climate change is no longer a phenomenon anticipated to show its effects in the future, but a reality currently hard felt by most South Africans and citizens across the world. We can no longer say climate change is upon us - it is here and we are all experiencing it. We have all witnessed the unfortunate and heartrending floods in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of North West, as well as the dire effects of drought in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the Eastern Cape province, Mahlobo said. Speaking during a Journey of Water Reunion Dinner organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Kramerville, Sandton, on Wednesday, Mahlobo reiterated a call to South African residents to use water sparingly and stop polluting the resource, amid the persisting effects of climate change, which impacts on water supply in many parts of the country. South Africa is a water scarce country, and we all need to pull our weight to protect this scarce and precious resource -- all of us. Yes, it is the mandate and the responsibility of government to ensure consistent water supply for all, but we cannot do so if we still have business and individuals who continue to pollute the resource senselessly, Mahlobo said. The Deputy Minister also warned polluters that the department will not hesitate to apply polluter-pays principle where it is found that water is being polluted and thus affecting supply to communities. WWF Water Source Areas Manager, Samir Randera-Rees emphasised the need for behavioural change and collaborative efforts to help preserve water. No single entity can sort out water challenges faced in the country alone. We all need to make those changes now. It is up to us to ensure that we do this not only for ourselves but for generations to come, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Denmark votes to join EU defence pact amid concerns over Russia-Ukraine conflict Xinhua) 13:24, June 02, 2022 COPENHAGEN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Denmark has voted to join the European Union's defence pact and scrap its 30-year-old opt-out from the bloc's common security and defence policies. In a referendum held on Wednesday, a vast majority, or 66.9 percent, of Danish citizens, have voted for the move, according to the preliminary results from Statistics Denmark, which gives the Nordic country a seat at the EU table to discuss military cooperation. The vote occurred with a turnout of 65.76 percent of the 4,260,944 electoral roll. "I believe that it is the right thing for Europe and for Denmark and our future," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after casting her ballot earlier in the day, believing that Denmark may be more united than ever on EU policy. Due to the defence opt-out, Denmark could not participate in EU military operations or cooperation on the development and acquisition of military capabilities within the EU framework. Furthermore, the country was not obligated to provide military support or supplies to EU-led efforts in conflict zones, nor to participate in any operational decisions or planning. In March, the Danish Parliament decided to hold on June 1 the referendum, part of a new multi-party agreement on defence, amid mounting concerns over the Russia-Ukraine military conflict. In addition, Denmark aims to meet NATO countries' target defence spending of 2 percent of GDP by 2033, with efforts starting to be made in 2024, according to the agreement. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) "What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word 'sex'?" Claire Perelman asks the men and women in their 20s and 30s seated around her, under a tent open on all sides - what's known as the "Zen Zone" at Camp Nai Nai Nai. "And what's the first thing you think of when you hear 'Jewish'?" she prompts after a round-robin of responses that range from the cringeworthy to the giggle-inducing. That was the opening for "Kosher Kink," a 75-minute session called a playshop that Perelman led as a camp specialist for the latest iteration of Camp Nai Nai Nai, a Jewish summer camp experience for adults that takes place over long weekends, mostly in the spring and summer. At the most recent gathering, May 6-8 at Camp Newman in San Rafael, California, a half-dozen other playshops offered campers opportunities to relive their childhood camp experiences with games such as gaga, unleash their inner artist with arts-and-craft workshops, and explore difficult topics with their peers such as vulnerability. Such was Shabbat morning at "Camp West" - the first West Coast camp event since August 2019. Nearly 80 people attended, coming from the Bay Area, Arizona and as far away as Canada and Brazil. Camp Nai Nai Nai was started in 2017 by Moishe House, an organization that seeks to engage young Jews around the world in peer-led programs in community houses, retreats and more. "There's really nothing else like this for people in this age range," said Greg Kellner, director of Camp Nai Nai Nai. "There was a gap for people between college and when they have kids, so camp and other Moishe House programs really engage people in their 20s and 30s." The camp provides a unique way to connect relatively unaffiliated Jews in that age group to each other and to Jewish life, as well as a fun venue for them to "disconnect from the daily hustle and bustle of life," said Ali Gugerty, Moishe House's director of immersive experiences. At Camp Newman, it doesn't hurt that there's virtually no cell service and the wifi is for staff only, for camp purposes. Nai Nai Nai's next camp weekend will be held on Sept. 2-5 in Pennsylvania, and the organization will be staging its first-ever Midwest camp experience on Oct. 28-30 in the Chicago area. For many participants, Camp Nai is an opportunity to relive their childhood camp memories. Moishe House "has done such a good job making us feel like kids here - it's not cheesy and no one thinks it's weird," said Jenna Feldman as she waited at the base of a multistory climbing tower. Feldman, who is involved with a local Moishe House in San Francisco, grew up attending Camp Newman, which is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism. She now works as a customer advocate in the technology industry. David Matten, who lives in the South Bay area in Northern California, decided just days before the weekend to attend because so many of his friends were going. A longtime camp counselor, it felt good to be a camper again, he noted. "I can connect with new people and spend time with friends," Matten said. Especially after two years of pandemic isolation, people really want to reconnect outside of the daily grind in a fun, easy way, Moishe House staff said. Camp Nai experiences often serve as a gateway to deeper involvement in camp, in Moishe House, and in Jewish life, they noted. The enthusiasm was palpable among the 25-person staff, who welcomed campers upon arrival with screams and cheers. "We're more than just staff - we're family," said Elina Kurakin, program coordinator for Camp Nai Nai Nai. "It's the same way with campers: They all have their camp family." From the start, there was a clear focus on inclusion throughout the weekend. Friday night opened with a traditional Shabbat service as well as a more musical service infused with singing and guitar. In addition, there was also an early morning Saturday service, meditative yoga, a Shabbat hike and a text-based Torah study. Aaron Malki, who works in real estate in San Francisco, went to the song-led service. "I enjoy embracing a Jewish community space like this - nostalgic and warm," he said. Saturday activities ranged from the craft-oriented and reflective, such as mezuzah-making, tie-dye, and "Believe: The Torah of Ted Lasso," to the physically active, including slip'n'slide kickball, archery, Latin Israeli dance and yoga. Even during the Saturday night "All-I-Days Dance Party" that was scheduled to go until 1 A.M., there was a quiet corner to relax in, a silent disco, and stations to make your own bow tie (in honor of National Bow Tie Day), paper plane, or ice cream sundae. "We're trying to create different spaces so people can feel comfortable here," Kurakin said. "It doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, what your job is - you are welcome here." For participants who might have been intimidated by the social component of the camp experience after more than two years of social distancing and isolation, Kellner said camp provides a safe environment. "After the pandemic, people don't realize they are having some social anxiety, so camp is a great way to get back into the swing of things," Kellner said. "We know people are coming with different comfort levels." Josh Schwartz, a camp counselor returning for his third Camp Nai Nai Nai experience, said, "What Moishe House does so well is being inclusive." Describing the Saturday night dance party as an "adult bar mitzvah," he noted, "If you don't want to be on the dance floor, you can be at the pickle-making station." A cybersecurity consultant by day and Jewish community organizer by night, Schwartz is a resident of the NoMa Moishe House in Washington, D.C. and will be the head counselor at the next camp, in Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. When his colleagues asked him how he stays so energized, he said, "I always have energy because my battery is recharged at camp." During the two-hour block of free play on Saturday afternoon, there were options for everyone: People napped in the Zen Zone, practiced archery, participated in a local wine tasting, or took a walk around Camp Newman's 500-acre grounds. Sunday concluded with an intensive color war, offering one last chance for campers to let loose and play like children again. Kellner said he considers it a win if someone leaves camp just with the practice of saying the Hamotzi blessing over bread a few times a week or adopting a Jewish practice that's new to their life. They may even go as far as to marry a fellow camper, as former camper Abby Eisen did this past April, exchanging vows with the partner she first met at camp several years prior. In true Camp Nai fashion, Abby returned to San Rafael as staff. "Getting out of their comfort zones and finding themselves at camp, where there is such a sense of community and unity, is so powerful," Kurakin said. "I call it people's 'happy place.'" This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Moishe House, which creates meaningful & welcoming Jewish communities around the world. This article was produced by JTA's native content team. WASHINGTON (JTA) In an unusual public broadside against dozens of Congress members, Israels ambassador to Washington said a letter calling for a U.S. investigation into the killing of a Palestinian American journalist was not a fair representation of the event. Michael Herzog was responding to a letter sent Thursday by 57 House Democrats to Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, and Christopher Wray, the FBI director. It called for an investigation into the death last week of Shireen Abu Akleh, a venerated Al Jazeera reporter killed during an Israeli army raid on the West Bank town of Jenin. Israel has said it has narrowed the likely sources of fire to two: a jeep carrying Israeli soldiers, or a group of Palestinian militants returning fire. It wants the Palestinian Authority to hand over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh so it can test it against the guns of the soldiers in the jeep. The Palestinian Authority squarely blames Israel for the killing and will not hand over the bullet. The letter appears to discount the Israeli version of the killing. The Israeli military claimed that the victims were caught between gunfire between Palestinian militants and Israeli Defense Forces, the letter said. However, media and eyewitnesses had conflicting reports. The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana, Lou Correa of California and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, The letter referred to eyewitnesses who said the journalists made themselves known to Israeli forces and said that there was no exchange of fire in the area at the time of the shooting. Ms. Abu Akleh was entitled to the full protections afforded to U.S. citizens living abroad, the letter concluded. It urged Blinken and Wray to uphold our nations values, including human rights, equality for all, and freedom of speech. Herzog decried the letter in a release Friday. He said the letter does not offer a fair representation of the case, ignores important context of the events leading to Ms. Abu Aklehs tragic death and reaches the wrong conclusion. The letter ignores the fact that Israel has, from the outset, called for an impartial joint Israeli-Palestinian investigation with the U.S. in an observer role, he continued. Our call was flatly rejected by the P.A. An ambassador targeting a congressional letter signed by a quarter of the members of one of the parties is unusual. Herzogs remarks came as the government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is striving to heal the mistrust between Democrats and his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2021 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando this summer. For more than 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award, said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last years recipient was Hank Katzen. Former recipients have included Sarah Stern (2017), Howard Lefkowitz (2011), and Nina Oppenheim (2013). According to Gaeser, Each recipient chose their own path, but made considerable and long-lasting contributions to the Jewish community. Nominees for the 2020 award are individuals who do not look for recognition, but perform tikkun olam repairing the world out of internal motivation. Nominations should be emailed to news@orlandoheritage.com with the subject Human Service Award, or typed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and sent by mail to Heritage Florida Jewish News, Human Service Award, 207 OBrien Road, Suite 101, Fern Park, FL 32730. Included should be the name and phone number of the nominee, a documented list of his or her accomplishments, and the name and phone number of the nominator(s). The Heritage is accepting nominations until Friday, June 10. (JTA) An unusual scenario played out in Arizona recently: The son of a Jewish woman who fled the Nazis was asked if he wanted to be executed by the same gas the Nazis once used. Frank Atwood, who was convicted of murdering an 8-year-old girl in 1984, has been on death row for decades. For his method of execution he was given the choice between lethal injection, Arizonas default method, or a gas chamber which the state had refurbished last year in preparation for possibly killing Atwood and one other death row inmate. Arizonas intent to restart gas executions, and the states purchase of materials to make hydrogen cyanide a version of which, Zyklon B, was used by the Nazis to murder Jews in Auschwitz is strongly opposed by its Jewish community. In February, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix and two members of the Jewish community partnered with the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to sue the state over its planned use of the gas, calling the punishment cruel and inhumane. But a superior court judge threw out the suit in April, saying that the Jewish community had failed to sufficiently challenge the laws constitutionality, and that the states constitution permits execution by gas in some cases. As of now, the state does not plan to use the gas for future death-row cases; Arizona abolished the use of lethal gas via a 1992 constitutional amendment. But the law still allows gas to be used in executions of people who were originally sentenced prior to that year. Still, the lawsuit filed by the Jewish groups and the ACLU claims that local Holocaust survivors are horrified at being taxed to implement the same machinery of cruelty that was used to murder their loved ones. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joan Sinclair said such a claim did not represent a distinct and palpable injury to those plaintiffs outside of an allegation of generalized harm that is shared alike by a large class of citizens. A handful of other states, including California, still permit execution by gas, but Arizona is the only one with a working gas chamber. The last person to be executed in it was German citizen Walter LaGrand in 1999, a case that provoked international outrage, including in Germany. Atwoods lawyer has told press that his clients Jewish mother fled Nazis in Austria in 1939, but that Atwood himself has since been baptized in the Greek Orthodox church. As for his method, the Associated Press reported that Atwood did not make a choice, meaning the state will opt for the default lethal injection over gas. He is scheduled to be executed June 8. (JNS) Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared the main criminal case against him dead, after state prosecutors were forced to alter the charge sheet, Israeli media reported last week. The states witness in the trial, former Communications Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber, was cross-examined by Netanyahus attorneys throughout the week. Prosecutors have charged that Netanyahu entered into bribery relations with businessman and former owner of the Bezeq telecoms giant Shaul Elovitch. According to the charges, Netanyahu allegedly sent instructions to Filber to promote Elovichs business-financial interests, and Elovich in return allegedly promoted positive media coverage of Netanyahu at Walla News, which was owned by Bezeq at that time. Netanyahu denies all the charges. During the cross-examination, his attorneys were able to prove that a meeting between Filber and Netanyahuthe meeting during which, the prosecution claimed, Filber was instructed by Netanyahu to assist Elovitchhad never taken place. Judges then instructed state prosecutors to amend the charges to reflect the fact that no such meeting occurred, Maariv reported. Case 4000 is dead. The court proved today that no instruction was given to Filber to help Elovitch, or to promote the merger of Bezeq and Yes [a merger that prosecutors claimed was promoted by Netanyahu and Filber to assist Elovich], Netanyahu stated on May 17, according to the report. The former premier has been indicted in three separate cases (cases 1000, 2000 and 4000) on charges including breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud. Case 4000 is considered to be the most serious of the three. The report noted that this was the third time the prosecution had had to amend the charge sheet against Netanyahu. (JTA) - The Palestinian Authority concluded its investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by accusing Israeli soldiers of deliberately shooting her in the back, a claim that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said could not be true. "Any claim that the IDF intentionally targets journalists or those uninvolved [in terror] is a crude and blatant lie," Gantz said in a statement after the release of the PA report on Thursday. Israel has maintained that it is possible Palestinian militants were responsible for Akleh's May 11 death during an IDF raid in the West Bank. According to media reports, Palestinian investigators said that forensic evidence demonstrated that the Palestinian American journalist had been running away from Israeli soldiers when she was struck, although Akram Al Khateeb, the PA's attorney general, said at the press conference that Akleh was shot by a weapon not typically used by Israeli forces. The PA has thus far refused Israeli requests to participate in a joint investigation or to hand over the bullet that killed Akleh. Their analysis came on top of investigations from CNN and the Associated Press earlier this week concluding that Israeli soldiers were likely responsible for her death and that there was little to no Palestinian militant presence in the area at the time. CNN additionally used eyewitness testimony to claim that she was killed in a "targeted attack." Al Jazeera has also accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting Akleh. Gantz's statement called the IDF "a moral army" that "always act[s] with precision." He said that the IDF had been responding to a wave of terrorism in recent weeks that had some ties to the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, where Akleh was killed. There were more reports of clashes between the IDF and Palestinians in Jenin on Friday. IDF Chief of State Aviv Kohavi backed up Gantz's statement, saying, "It can be stated with certainty that no soldier deliberately fired at her." Rather than involve the international community in its investigation, the PA is "proud that we did not include anyone else in the investigation," Nabil Abu Rudeinah, spokesperson for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said at the press conference. Rudeinah also criticized "American aid and global silence" in the aftermath of Akleh's death. Akleh's death set off a firestorm of controversy both in Israel and internationally, which increased when Israeli police rushed people at her funeral, nearly knocking over her coffin. Israeli officials said the officers were reacting to people throwing stones. U.S. House Democrats have called for an investigation into the matter. Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts participation in an upcoming event at the community of Elkana in Samaria is sparking controversy and generating protests against his participation, with residents telling Bennett stay away. Bennett is planning to participate in an event celebrating the towns 45th anniversary. However, residents say that his visit is an attempt to cynically exploit the residents of Elkana and make political capital, while Bennetts government violates the states Jewish and Zionist values on a daily basis. Residents have launched a petition stating we, the residents of Elkana, call on our friend, the head of the council, Assaf Mintzer, to immediately cancel Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts expected visit to Elkana. We see the visit as a foolish attempt to cynically exploit the residents of Elkana and make political capital, all at a time when Mr. Bennetts government is violating the states Jewish and Zionist values on a daily basis. Hours after its launch, over 500 residents signed the petition, over 10 percent of the towns some 4,000 residents. Similarly, a group of the towns youth staged a demonstration outside Mintzers home demanding that he cancel Bennetts visit. They called on Mintzer to prevent the crook from reaching Elkana. Bennett is referred to by many as the crook due to his reneging on almost all the statements and pledges he made while campaigning. The residents have scheduled another protest for Tuesday. Mintzer authored a letter to the residents in which he stated that Bennett requested to participate in the event to pay a state visit, to honor the community of Elkana, its residents and founders. It is important to clarify that this is a state visit by the Prime Minister and not a political one, and as such we will be very honored and celebrate with the Israeli prime minister 45 years of pioneering and Zionism in Elkana, he wrote. Bennett, the former head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization for communities in Judea and Samaria, has refrained from visiting the region since entering office almost a year ago, out of apparent fear of encountering the rage of the residents. He visited the IDFs Judea and Samaria Division, adjacent to Beit El, in April, and was met by protestors outside the base. (JTA) Among the many Jews on Russias latest list of Americans banned entry are three Chabad rabbis, in possible retaliation for Chabads decades-long effort to recover texts and artifacts that the Soviets took from the movement. The list of 963 Americans posted Saturday, first reported by Axios, includes three leaders of Chabads umbrella body, Agudas Chassidei Chabad. They are Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, the chairman of the executive of the umbrella body, a founder of the Washington office of the movement; Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the umbrella groups secretary, who heads the educational and social arms of Chabad-Lubavitch; and Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, a West Coast leader of the movement who is prominent in the branch of the movement seeking the return of the texts. Chabad Online, a news site that covers the movement, said the men were likely included on the list because of Chabads continued advocacy for Russia to release the texts. A lawyer for Chabad told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that Russias war against Ukraine has invigorated the efforts to recoup the collection of sacred texts, known as the Schneerson library and archive. Thats because the United States effort to seize Russian assets is seen as strengthening Chabads own bid to seize Russian wealth to pay more than $165 million in court-ordered fines that the country owes for not returning the texts. Russia released the list explicitly to retaliate against expanded U.S. sanctions against Russia for its unprompted war against Ukraine. Its not always clear what qualifies an American for entry on the list; some entries offer perfunctory explanations the three rabbis have their Chabad titles listed and others that simply say U.S. citizen. Some people banned entry into the United States, such as former Sen. John McCain, are dead, and even listed as such. The list also includes Nathan and Alyza Lewin, a father-daughter Supreme Court lawyer team who have represented Jewish groups on a number of religious liberty issues. Nathan Lewin has also represented Chabad in the Russia case, while Alyza Lewin is president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. Also on the list are Tim Naftali, a noted presidential historian who has analyzed Russia-U.S. tensions; Jewish Congress members, including Democrats Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Jerry Nadler of New York, Alan Lowenthal of California, Andy Levin of Michigan, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Republicans Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee; and Ellen Weintraub, a federal election commissioner. Jewish actor Rob Reiner is listed, not for directing Spinal Tap and other comedic classics but for founding Investigate Russia, a now-dormant website that tracked the investigation into Russias attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Among the journalists listed is Susan Glasser, the foreign affairs expert who recently coauthored with her husband Peter Baker Kremlin Rising: Putins Russia and the Counter-Revolution. Then there are the mysteries, the folks with obvious Jewish names listed only as U.S. citizens, among them Moshe Cohen and Avrohom Yitzhak Weisfish. Many of those listed have mocked their entries, noting that they have no intention of entering Russia and no assets Russia can sanction. Chabad Online led its article on the listing with the Russian word for Goodbye Dasvidaniya! Chabad represents a prominent thread of Jewish life in Russia. The war has put its local leaders in a difficult position, as they seek to continue to serve the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live there while also remaining part of an international movement with emotional ties to Ukraine. Chabad of Russia is associated with a Jewish museum where some of the Schneerson library is currently housed. (JNS) Supporters of the BDS movement against Israel claim they are not antisemitic. I have co/ncluded that they are correct in the sense that the word antisemitism is too weak to capture their depravity. It is not necessary to go into the myriad examples of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to define antisemitism, the word means hatred of Jews. Lots of individuals and groups hate Jews and have for centuries. More recently, a new form of anti-Semitism emerged in which Israel or Zionist is used as a euphemism for Jews. BDSers certainly do this but referring to them as antisemites is inadequate because it makes them indistinguishable from other antisemites who, for example, dont care about Israel. Anyone who has spent any time listening to the BDS proponents or reading their propaganda can see that they have no interest in peace, a two-state solution or changing Israeli policy. They are not to be confused with legitimate critics who question the wisdom of the Israeli governments policies towards the disputed territories and the Palestinians, but not its right to exist. BDSers persecute Jews who dont live in Israel but merely have an affinity for Israel and its institutions. They have one overriding objective the destruction of the homeland of the Jewish people. This is not mere bigotry; it is a campaign for genocide. So how can we uniquely describe this level of malevolence? I considered referring to them as the New Nazis but that would confuse them with neo-Nazis who, like Klansman and other white supremacists, have a whole menu of hatreds. BDSers are single-minded; its all about the Jews. They could be called Holocausters. But whenever you make comparisons to Hitler, Nazis or the Holocaust, you end up in arguments about the uniqueness of the Final Solution, and it becomes a distraction. A few years ago, I suggested a more appropriate description would be Israel Deniers. Cary Nelson has since written a book, Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State, which captures the idea. The BDSers deny that Jews are a people and therefore have no right to self-determination in Israel, which they also reject as the homeland of the Jews because the land belongs to the indigenous Palestinians. I hoped the term would catch on so that Israel Deniers would be treated with the same contempt as Holocaust Deniers. Alas, it did not, and now I see that term is also inadequate because BDSers not only deny that Jews a claim to their homeland; they want to destroy it. BDSers are sometimes referred to as delegitimizers but that also fails to capture their larger goal of the annihilation of the Jews. The word also doesnt roll off the tongue. UCLA Professor Judea Pearl has suggested we refer to their malignancy as Zionophobia. A phobia is an irrational fear. One might argue that their demonization of Jews and the double-standard of treating Jews differently than any other people are irrational, but BDSers dont fear Jews; their hatred is based on an assertive desire to eliminate the Jewish people as punishment for their crimes. There are some Judeophobes, but they are mostly conspiracy theorists. While some BDSers may subscribe to some of these fictions, they are not driven by them. BDS is not an extension of QAnon. An apt term would be ethnic cleansers, but thats a bit awkward. Run-of-the-mill antisemites are again distinguishable from the BDSers since they dont insist on ethnically cleansing the State of Israel. Ironically, it is also two-state proponents who want to ethnically cleanse a future Palestinian state of Jews. As it is, their attitude towards settlements is essentially antisemitic because they insist that there is one place on earth where Jews should not be allowed to live despite the fact it is part of their homeland. Imagine the reaction if anyone agreed there should be two states and that Palestinians should not be permitted to reside in one of them. BDSers and other like-minded folks, like Islamists, belong in the same category as reprobates who have sought to exterminate a particular group of people. We could call them liquidators but that sounds too conventional, like a store going out of business. Exterminators fits but is too associated with pest control. BDSers also generally dont have the Hitlerian view of Jews as vermin, at least not that they would admit. Terminators makes you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but while their goals are frightening the BDSers themselves arent the least bit scary (Schwarzenegger, incidentally, is an avid supporter of Israel). Better terms would be either genocidists or genocidaires. Still, we need to distinguish them from Pol Pot, Stalin, Rwandans or other mass murderers who did not specifically target Jews. Referring to BDSers as antisemites is too good for them. They are Judeocidists. Mitchell Bard is a foreign-policy analyst and an authority on U.S.-Israel relations who has written and edited 22 books, including The Arab Lobby, Death to the Infidels: Radical Islams War Against the Jews and After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine. A new study conclusively shows multiple benefits of a faith-based life to working-class adolescents particularly males. As a child living in communist Russia, Ilana Horwitz knew nothing about religion. But after her family emigrated to the United States when she was seven years old, Horwitz attended a Jewish school and began teaching some Judaism to her parents. Years later, as a graduate student in sociology, education, and Jewish Studies at Stanford University, she chose to focus on religion as an academic interest. Horwitz realized that many young mothers living in her university housing community were raising their children as religious Christians. While Horwitz studied the impact of race, social class, and gender on educational outcomes, talking to these mothers made her wonder: what role does religious upbringing play in a childs educational outcomes? As a mother herself, she was curious. Yet she could not find a single published book on the topic and found very few studies. So Ilana Horwitz, currently assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University, delved into this ignored research area herself. Following the lives of 3,290 teenagers Using survey and interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, she followed the lives of 3,290 teenagers from 2003 to 2012 and how their religious upbringing impacted their educational outcomes. The study is based mostly on Christian students because they are the overwhelming majority of the survey subjects. The result of her analysis is her new book, God, Grades and Graduation: Religions Surprising Impact on Academic Success (Oxford University Press). Given the hostility to traditional religion so widespread in academia, Horwitz expected venomous reactions to her evidence, which conclusively shows that the structure, discipline, sense of belonging, and faith in a religious lifestyle are a boon to adolescents. This is especially true for boys from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Dozens of hateful comments were posted in the New York Times in response to an op-ed Horwitz wrote about her research findings, but overall shes received mostly positive emails thanking her as an academic for taking religion seriously. People are feeling very validated and appreciative of someone like me who doesnt have any stake in conservative Christianity and who isnt painting it in a negative light, she said. Coming from zero religion in Russia to a pluralistic Jewish community in the U.S. has given me more empathy and understanding of religion. Im willing to take religion seriously as a way that people organize their lives. Horwitz found that the impact of religion on education varies by social class. Children of professional-class parents dont enjoy as many educational benefits from religion as children from working class families because they already have many advantages, including greater familial and geographic stability, which means fewer disruptions in their educational and social lives. They also benefit from parents social and professional networks and a strong social structure. Lacking these advantages, kids from poorer backgrounds, particularly males, benefit enormously from the faith-based life. Religion teaches self-restraint and discipline, provides a sense of belonging and communal support, and a moral framework with which to make decisions, and trusted clergy members with whom they can discuss personal issues. Belief and belonging Religious restraint also encourages kids to choose better friends and provides the tools of obedience required to earn good grades. The religious moral compass also helps them avoid trouble, such as drinking, taking drugs, or falling into a life of crime. As a result, White or Black, students who were regularly involved in their church and strongly believed in God were twice as likely to earn bachelors degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys, Horwitz noted. The lack of religion has had catastrophic effects for millions of American men, who in recent years have been dropping out of college, become underemployed or unemployed, and lack stable relationships and male role models. As Horwitz wrote in her New York Times essay, this has led to a drastic rise in the number of working-class men dying deaths of despair from opioids, alcohol poisoning and suicide. But despair doesnt die: It gets transmitted to children. Most of the working-class kids in my study especially boys seemed to look out in the world and feel despair physically, cognitively and emotionally. Today, only 20 percent of working-class men finish college, and marriage rates among this demographic are plummeting. In contrast, boys from working class families who live an active, faith-based life are twice as likely to earn bachelors degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys. Boys whose lives are organized around faith and church-based activities such as youth groups and a relationship with a pastor enjoy a support system that insulates them from the hopelessness so many of their peers described, Horwitz said. Adolescents must believe and belong to be buffered against emotional, cognitive or behavioral despair, she added. Religion promotes good behavior among kids because they believe that God is both encouraging and evaluating them. Religions benefits to girls are not as stark because they are socialized for good behavior, have an easier time developing social ties with family members and peers, and are less prone to get caught up in risky behaviors, Horwitz observed. In fact, for several years now, women have been outperforming men in earning college degrees, including women from middle- and upper-class families. Questioning and critical thinking In a separate study that Horwitz conducted about academic success among Jewish girls, this same trend holds true. In unprecedented fashion, Jewish women now outperform Jewish men in earning college degrees by a significant margin, most strikingly among those between the ages of 30 to 49. Horwitz guesses this trend may be explained by Judaism tending to be more egalitarian than other religions, and that Jewish girls and womens self-concepts have become more rooted in having a prestigious career. The study also revealed that Jewish students were far more likely than Christian students to question religious teachings. The historical Jewish emphasis on debating text and airing various perspectives leads to Jewish students naturally asking questions, a practice that hones critical thinking. Horwitz was surprised by a few of her findings, in particular, the tendency among religious kids as well as young women from all backgrounds to factor in personal values and goals when choosing colleges. This leads to students opting out of the most competitive school they qualify for in favor of a college that is closer to home and/or offers a campus environment they believe will be most supportive of their religious and moral values. As a sociologist, Horwitz hopes that her results will encourage people to have more empathy for religious people in America, especially in this time of strong political and religious polarization. I want people to scale the empathy wall and understand why people think the way that they might One can agree with the liberal critique of conservatisms moral and political goals while still acknowledging that religion orders the lives of millions of Americans and that it might offer social benefits. Judy Gruen is a writer, book editor and writing coach in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, as well as many Jewish media outlets. Her most recent book is The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith. Read more of her work on judygruen.com. Reprinted with permission from aish.com. (Jewish Journal via JNS) Were seeing again how Israel can fight so well with weapons but so badly with words. Take the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which has turned into an international incident. She was fatally shot during an Israeli anti-terrorist incursion into Jenin. An initial autopsy by Palestinian coroners found that it was not possible to tell whether she was killed by Israeli or Palestinian gunfire. Of course, that didnt stop Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from treating Israel as a murderous country and vowing that he would take it to the International Criminal Court. They committed the crime and we do not trust them, Abbas said, contradicting his own forensic expert. We hold the Israeli occupation authorities totally responsible for her killing. This crime cannot go unpunished. In addition to this brazen rush to judgment, Abbas declared that the P.A. would not participate in a joint investigation with Israel, which would enable ballistic tests on the fatal bullet and provide conclusive evidence of responsibility. So, which party cant be trusted the party asking for a forensic investigation or the party running away from it? For Israel, this should be a PR slam dunk: Israel wants to get at the truth, while Abbas wants another chance to malign Israel. But instead of taking the initiative, Israel has followed its usual timid playbook of playing defense and being extra cautious with its language. Maybe Israel is so used to being attacked in international circles for its aggressive posture against terrorism, its trying to overcompensate with its diplomatic posture. The problem is that this just shows weakness. Israel has a strong case that Abbas must agree to a joint investigation. Theres no need to hedge or dilly-dally. If Abbas continues to refuse to seek the truth, Israel should take him to the International Criminal Court. After all, the Oslo accords require the P.A. to disband all terrorist groups, seize their weapons and outlaw them. Abbas has done none of that, which has forced Israel to intervene. Even The New York Times admitted that terrorists roam free in P.A. cities, reporting in 2014 that although Jenin is under the full control of the P.A., the Palestinian [security forces] did not generally operate in refugee camps. By failing to honor his obligations under Oslo, Abbas has put the lives of his own people in jeopardy, including journalists. Maybe thats why hes so aggressive with his accusations against Israel it distracts from his own failures. Its time for Israel to turn the tables and take Abbas to the ICC. If any party deserves a trial, it should be the party that is afraid of the truth. David Suissa is editor-in-chief and publisher of Tribe Media Corp and the Jewish Journal. He can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com. This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal. (JNS) Resolutions proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives mean nothing. They give members an opportunity to pay lip service to various causes favored by their constituents but dont commit the government to action. They are almost always not worth noticing. But every once in a while, a resolution is put forward that demands attention. This week that is exactly what happened when Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) proposed House Resolution 1123, Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian Refugee Rights. The word nakba means catastrophe, and that is how Palestinian Arabs and their supporters refer to the events of 1948 and the birth of the State of Israel. The text is a thumbnail guide to Palestinian propaganda about their suffering and the events that led to approximately 750,000 Arabs to flee their homes during Israels War of Independence. What happened to them is a tragedy deserving of sympathy, but the story told in the resolution provides not even half of the truth about the conflict or why nearly 10 times the number of Arabs who fled the war now claim to be Palestinian refugees. As an attempt at telling this history, the resolution is a despicable farce that deserves little notice. But its important because it represents the way the left-wing of the Democratic Party led by the so-called Squad of which Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, is a charter member has fully embraced intersectional ideology. This attempt to treat the war on Israels existence as analogous to the struggle for civil rights in the United States and an integral part of the progressive political agenda represents a sea change in American politics. So, while the resolution itself is contemptible, it merits a full debate and vote in the House rather than to be tabled and forgotten. The pro-Israel community has generally ignored the Palestinian narrative about 1948. The story of Israel is one that stands on its own and is widely accepted by the overwhelming majority of Americans. Israel has not known a single day of peace in the 74 years since its modern-day establishment on May 14, 1948. Few thought it would survive being invaded by five Arab armies immediately after its birth, or the subsequent wars and terrorist campaigns aimed at destroying it. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and one where all people, including its Arab minority, have equal rights under the law. And it has grown from a poor and tiny country into a regional economic and military superpower. But seen through the funhouse mirror of the nakba rhetoric in Tlaibs resolution, Israel is an apartheid state whose creation was an injustice. Moreover, the resolution also demands recognition of the Palestinian right of return in which the 7 million descendants of the 1948 refugees would have the right to reclaim the homes of those who left and essentially eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. While Tlaib and the other Progressive Caucus members who co-sponsored the resolution want to frame their gesture as a matter of support for human rights and recognition of the suffering of Palestinians, it is actually nothing of the kind. Its purpose is to place on the record, congressional support for the elimination of Israel. The text does recognize that the Arabs then living in the Mandate for Palestine (who would not take up the label Palestinians until years later since at that time, only Jews called themselves Palestinians while the Arabs called themselves Arabs), rejected the compromise offered by the 1947 U.N. Partition Resolution that called for the creation of two states. The Arabs were not prepared to accept any Jewish state, even one far smaller than the one that emerged from the 1948 War of Independence. That rejection led to a war that was certainly a disaster for the Palestinian Arabs who started it. Arab leaders called for the Jews to be thrown into the sea, and for their people to leave and then return after their Jewish neighbors were killed or made to flee. Instead, it was the Jews who, despite suffering one percent of their population being killed in the fighting, triumphed. That created a population of several hundred thousand Arab refugees. But rather than resettling them in the surrounding countries or elsewhere, the Arabs insisted that they remain stateless and kept in refugee camps, where they would serve as props in an ongoing campaign to eliminate Israel. This was just one group among tens of millions of refugees that were created by conflicts and border changes in Europe, India and elsewhere. All other refugees were served by a single U.N. refugee agency that aimed to resettle them in new homes. But supported by the Soviet bloc, non-aligned nations, and the Muslim and Arab world, the Palestinians got their own refugee agency, the U.N. Relief Works Agency that kept them in place as politicized charity cases. In roughly the same period, an even greater number of Jews were thrown out or forced out of their homes in the Middle East and North Africa, where they had lived for centuries. Those refugees were resettled in Israel and in the West. Today, these Mizrachi Jews comprise the majority of the population of the Jewish state. In the years between 1949 and 1967, the clamor for the end of the occupation referred to cleansing Israel (without the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or the Old City of Jerusalem) of its Jews. In the decades since, the Palestinian leadership has rejected peace and even several Israeli/American offers of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority still talks of a right of return that is synonymous with the destruction of Israel and funds terrorism. Its Hamas rivals who rule Gaza demand Israels extinction. All of this means that any discussion of the nakba ought to be on the way the Palestinian leadership and the political culture they created are the reason for the original disaster that befell their people and their current plight. Rather than addressing this problem, the Tlaib resolution and its supporters are simply trying to fuel the conflict. Their goal of a world without Israel could only be achieved by genocide. The resolutions supporters are thus opponents of any idea of peace other than one built on a new Holocaust. Any sympathy for the nakba narrative is not merely built on ignoring the truth about the Palestinians and their wars. Its also inherently antisemitic since it is built on a foundation of denial of Jewish rights and the Jewish victims that were created by the Arabs anti-Zionist hate. So rather than ignore Tlaib and the Progressive Democrats willingness to mainstream antisemitism, mainstream Democrats and Republicans should eagerly take up the chance to debate this resolution. It would be an opportunity for centrist Democrats to demonstrate their rejection of the intersectional myths that a considerable portion of their base has embraced. Sadly, all too many Democrats, especially younger ones, pay lip service to critical race theory, which similarly brands Jews and Israel as beneficiaries of white privilege and part of the oppressor class while the Palestinians enjoy the status of victims and indigenous people. If both parties dont place their rejection of this manifesto on the record, then rather than an isolated incident, the Tlaib resolution will be a signpost on the way towards the Democrats embrace of the lies being spewed by those who support the nakba narrative. That would be a disaster for them, as well as for Palestinians who remain locked in a mindset in which their identity is inextricably linked to a war they started and lost. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin. Upscale hotel expected to open in summer 2023 as part of Marina Agadir. Hilton (NYSE: HLT) announced today the signing of an agreement with Marina Agadir to open DoubleTree by Hilton Marina Agadir Hotel & Residences - marking Hilton's entry to the city of Agadir, as well as the introduction of the DoubleTree by Hilton brand to Morocco. Located as part of Marina Agadir project and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, DoubleTree by Hilton Marina Agadir Hotel & Residences will offer direct access to the beach and will feature 228 guest rooms, suites, and serviced apartments. In the immediate vicinity of the hotel, in the marina area, are shops, restaurants, and cafes. The hotel is also close to the historical site of Oufella Ruins, where cultural explorers can get a glimpse of the city's rich heritage. DoubleTree by Hilton Marina Agadir Hotel & Residences will feature an all-day dining restaurant with outdoor terrace, grab and go outlet, and four lounges / bars - including at the pool and beach area. The hotel will offer meeting space across four meeting rooms - as well as a fitness centre, kids club and full-service spa. Hotel website RIMAP Hospitality, a Montreal-based operator of premium branded hotels in Quebec and Ontario, today announced it has signed an agreement with Marriott International to add to its growing portfolio of Ottawa hotels with the addition of the Renaissance Hotel Downtown Ottawa. Located at the corner of Bay and Slater Street, steps from the Lyon LRT Station and Parliament Hill, the project will occupy one of the remaining developable areas in the downtown core. "We are thrilled to continue our development momentum with our third hotel with Marriott International in downtown Ottawa," said Marc Varadi, President of RIMAP Hospitality. "Renaissance Hotels connects travelers to the spirit of the neighborhood through its unexpected design, entertaining evening bar rituals, and engaging Navigators, providing an experience unlike anything in downtown Ottawa today that will cater to the unconventional business and leisure traveler." Rising 35 floors, the mixed-use tower is expected to offer 230 rooms and 270 rental apartments. The full-service lifestyle hotel will feature distinct experiences including an eclectic lobby bar and restaurant, and 6,000 square feet of meeting space. Led by a first-class team including RIMAP Development, RIMAP Construction, RIMAP Hospitality, GeigerHuot Architecture and Design Agency, the hotel will transport guests through a theatrical and unscripted design aesthetic. Renaissance Hotels, part of Marriott Bonvoy's portfolio of 30 extraordinary brands, currently operates over 170 properties in nearly 40 countries and territories around the world. Hotel website A human resources leader with more than 26 years of experience in Asia Pacific's hospitality industry, Alex Chiang has oversight of all Human Resources aspects to further Wharf Hotels' talent development, employee engagement and inclusive culture. He also plays an integral role in strengthening learning and development, succession planning and talent acquisition to support the President's initiatives. Alex Chiang has broad experience in organisational leadership, performance management, HR analytics and employee relations. He has held senior positions in luxury hotel groups, and in a pre-opening capacity, charged with introducing robust systems to enhance the wellbeing of employees. Alex Chiang earned his Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Catering Management at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom. View Alex Chiang's LinkedIn Profile Alex Chiang is a graduate of Oxford Brookes in Oxford - United Kingdom Grace Bay Resorts, the boutique developer and operator of some of the finest luxury resorts and branded residences in Turks and Caicos, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dana Hubbe as the Director of Sales for Grace Bay Resorts, which includes Grace Bay Club, the brand's flagship property and the island's first luxury all-oceanfront-suite resort, Point Grace, West Bay Club, The Private Villa Collection, Rock House, the collection"s newest property and the first residential resort tucked into the rugged, untouched limestone cliffs of Providenciales" north shore and the soon to open South Bank. Bringing over 28 years of experience in hospitality sales, Hubbe will oversee the Grace Bay Resorts sales team and all sales efforts worldwide. Most recently, Hubbe founded Raise The RevPar, a boutique consultancy where she led sales efforts for hotels and resorts such as The Malibu Beach Inn and The Fairmont Miramar. She also managed east coast sales for The Mark Hotel along with their 2021 Met Gala activations. Prior to founding the consultancy, Hubbe was the director of east coast sales for the iconic Shutters on the Beach and Hotel Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica. Hubbe has held sales manager positions with The New York Palace and The Ritz-Carlton Central Park, and started her career at Doral Park Avenue, Doral Court and Doral Tuscany. Based in New York City, Hubbe received her bachelor's degree in political science and communications from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Hubbe is a self-proclaimed wellness enthusiast and can often be found practicing yoga in her free time. When she's not on the mat, Hubbe enjoys attending Broadway shows and spending quality time with her two children. Hubbe also has an affinity for the ocean: when asked if she prefers a stay by the sea or the hillside, the answer is "always by the sea." Mr. Berry is responsible for assisting Noble's pre-development process for hotel acquisitions, renovations, and new developments, including due diligence, estimating, and design. He joins Noble from Lighthouse Consulting Group, where he was a Senior Associate. He was previously an Associate Architect for LM Consultants, where he conducted acquisition property condition assessments and new-build construction inspections. Mr. Berry earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Miami and is a registered architect. "Owen brings a proven track record with strong industry expertise that immediately benefits Noble's value-enhancing strategies," said Judd Ledet, Noble Senior Vice President. age Studio, the in-house branding and creative company within Sage Hospitality Group, announced today the appointment of Ryan Kibler as creative director. In this new leadership position, Kibler will oversee key growth initiatives for the Sage Studio team, including new developments, adaptive reuse and major repositioning projects within Sage Hospitality Group's extensive portfolio of restaurants, branded hotels, soft brands and independent properties. "Ryan is a true visionary with an acute cultural awareness, and we're extremely excited to see him bring his talents to the Sage team," said Jessica Werner, executive vice president of Sage Studio. "With his remarkable background and innovative hybrid approach, I'm confident he will propel our work forward as we continue to set a new standard in hospitality by creating places people go to, not through." The driving force behind notable projects such as Denver's Catbird Hotel, The Nines in Portland, Oreg. and The Elizabeth Hotel in Fort Collins, Colo., Sage Studio delivers a full suite of creative and development services, fostering experiential hospitality through vision, brand architecture, design and community programming and partnerships. The team is dedicated to creating spaces that fuse creativity and ingenuity and works closely with leadership at each concept to execute experiences that feature the local area and encourage community partnerships while emphasizing the individual brand story. Sage Studio focuses on the creation of transformative concepts that forge human connections and become institutions within their markets. Specific ventures currently include the innovation and growth of strategic brands for programmatic rollouts; multiple full city block, ground-up, mixed-use projects; and the repositioning of an iconic lifestyle hotel. The child of two artists and a lifelong creative, Kibler began his career working in fashion and branding in New York City, and previously served as creative director at culture-driven hospitality groups including Foreign National in Washington, D.C. and most recently, Eaton Workshop in Washington DC. Hay Creek Hotels is pleased to announce Michael Bonasia as director of sales and marketing of Hotel Hartness in Greenville, South Carolina. In this role, Bonasia will be responsible for driving business development and leading the sales and marketing team for the 73-room hotel, that features the only premier spa suites in Greenville. Hotel Hartness' world class amenities include the fine-dining restaurant Patterson, the intimate Captain's Bar, and the full-service Spa H. Uniquely located within the 449-acre award-winning Hartness community, the boutique hotel will offer a luxurious and idyllic retreat in proximity to downtown Greenville. Hotel Hartness is set to open this December and the property's debut will mark Hay Creek Hotel's first property in upstate South Carolina. Prior to joining Hotel Hartness, Bonasia was the vice president of sales and marketing at Tara Investments where he helped facilitate the development of a strategic marketing process to better predict effective sales initiatives for their portfolio of hotels. His hospitality experience in Greenville includes ser ving as the director of sales at Aloft Downtown, where he was instrumental in successfully introducing the Aloft brand to the market, and at Hyatt Place Greenville. Bonasia also acted as general manager at Courtyard by Marriott Downtown and Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown at RiverPlace. Throughout his career, Bonasia has been continually recognized for his superior leadership and for meeting and exceeding sales goals while seamlessly managing operations. Bonasia is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he earned his bachelor's degree in Communicatio ns, with an emphasis in Public Relations. The pandemic was an eye-opening experience for NewcrestImages Mehul Patel. He realized that he wanted to wake up each morning and do what he enjoys: making deals and investing in hotels. Thats the revelation that led Patel, managing partner and CEO of NewcrestImage, to have the company sell a portfolio of 27 hotels to real estate investment trust Summit Hotel Properties and sell its management contracts to Aimbridge Hospitality. Speaking at the Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit, Patel said his company is currently in the process of a deal to acquire 16 more hotels, all of which Aimbridge will manage. We just feel like if youre aligned with the right operator, you can do everything you want, he said. So every morning, Im able to wake up and do more deals, able to invest more and let Aimbridge manage for us. Along with the scale, the resources, the wealth of people and the technology, Aimbridge has the footprint that will allow NewcrestImage to expand its reach further, Patel said. With his companys portfolio in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and California, it was difficult to try to expand into places such as New York. Today, having the Aimbridge platform, Im able to buy a hotel anywhere I want, he said. I dont have any of those boundaries.Investment Opportunities With todays hybrid work environment, the Caribbean islands are a great place for investment, Patel said, adding that resorts allow investors to maximize their dollars. Five years ago, U.S. hotel investors were focused on full-service hotels that could host conferences, he said. Now that interest is in resorts, even those in the U.S., where hoteliers can give travelers a customized travel experience whether theyre headed for leisure, business, conferences or a mix of those. Read the full article at NewcrestImage, LLC Just four words are needed to sum up the main findings of this years African hotel chain development pipeline survey conducted by W Hospitality Group, in association with the Africa Hospitality Investment Forum (AHIF); those words are Egypt, Morocco, Accor and Marriott. This years annual survey, which is widely acknowledged as the industrys most authoritative source, has, as of Q1 2022, a record 42 global and regional (African) contributors, reporting on a pipeline of hotel development activity totalling around 80,300 rooms in 447 hotels, in 42 of Africas 54 countries. Looking first at the number of rooms physically under construction, Morocco and Egypt are ahead of the pack, with 5,577 and 6,142 rooms respectively. They are followed by: Ethiopia, 3,871; Cape Verde, 3,016; Nigeria, 2,544; Kenya, 2,450; Algeria, 2,337; Tunisia, 2,280; South Africa, 1,948 and Senegal, 1,919. In Tunisia, Kenya and Morocco, over of the pipeline is onsite, whereas in Egypt, 71% is just at the planning stage, reflecting its relatively young pipeline (a lot signed in the last 3 years). While Nigeria has 45% onsite; eight of the 15 hotels (with half of the total rooms) that have started construction have stalled, and the sites are closed. Source: The Bench The picture changes somewhat when one looks at rooms being planned as well as those under construction. In this approach, Egypt is the star. It doesnt just lead the country table, with over 21,000 rooms in 85 hotels in development, up 20 per cent on last year; but it is streaking ahead of the pack. It has almost three times the number of new rooms planned as Morocco, and almost four times Nigeria, which was top of the table for many years. Whats more, with continued signing activity (20 hotels with about 5,250 rooms last year), Egypt now accounts for over 25 per cent of the total hotel development pipeline. Morocco has 7,209 rooms in development, spread across 50 new hotels; Nigeria has 5,619 rooms in 33 hotels, Ethiopia has 5,206 rooms spread across 29 hotels and Cape Verde has 4,639 rooms in 17 hotels. The next five places are taken by Algeria, 3,202 rooms, Kenya, 3,155 rooms, South Africa, 3,133 rooms Tunisia, 2,918 rooms and Senegal 2,693 rooms. Source: The Bench Notably, four out of the five North African countries are in the top ten; and the top ten countries represent 67% of the total hotels, and 74% of the rooms, in the survey. While Africas hotel development pipeline is at its strongest ever, 80,291 rooms being planned or constructed, the top-line number masks a reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there has been a greater amount of hotel investment in recent years. Of the six sub-Saharan countries in the top 10, only Cape Verde has seen an increase in planned rooms, 33%, whilst the power houses, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa have between them seen a decline of 29%; Nigeria is down 41%. There are three main reasons for the reduction: fewer new opportunities in the region; opening of some 2,700 rooms in 15 hotels last year, and a pipeline cleansing which the hotel chains do periodically to remove various projects which are unlikely to go ahead. Source: The Bench Looking at the development activity of the hotel chains, both Accor and Marriott are nearly as dominant as Egypt and Morocco, each representing just over 25% of the entire pipeline! Accor has 20,857 rooms in development, spread over 107 properties; Marriott has 20,248 rooms spread over 103 properties. Hilton, in third place, has around half as many rooms, 10,505 in 55 hotels. Radisson, 4th, has 6,248 rooms in 35 hotels. The next six places are taken by IHG, 3,136 rooms, Barcelo, 2,488 rooms, Hyatt, 1,995 rooms, Melia, 1,743 rooms, Louvre, 1,273 rooms, and Minor, 1,203 rooms. Source: The Bench IHG merits comment, due to its growth of over 10%. It signed a deal for four Indigo-branded hotels in Egypt, with 650 rooms in total, as well as a 300-room InterContinental hotel in Cairos New Capital. Analysis of the number of rooms under construction, as opposed to those merely being planned, changes the hotel chain ranking substantially, because Accor has only 26% of its pipeline onsite, whereas Marriott and Hilton have around 57% and Radisson 85%. This puts Marriott in top spot, Hilton second, Accor third and Radisson fourth. The top ten combined have 82% of all the rooms under construction in Africa, and the top four account for fully 66% of the total, up from 58% last year. Source: The Bench Trevor Ward, Managing Director, W Hospitality Group said: The chains anticipate that 200 new hotels are expected to open this year and next, although their expectations can sometimes be over-optimistic! After a positive trend in 2019, the actualisation of hotel deals (ie: the proportion that actually opened, compared to what the chains expected to open) was less than 30 percent in both 2020 and 2021 however, that was quite understandable with pandemic travel restrictions killing the demand for hotel rooms. Trevor continued: I am not surprised by the slow-down in the number of deals signed in sub-Saharan Africa, as the past couple of years have seen not only the pandemic, making it more difficult to travel and meet new partners, but also less appetite from investors for major markets such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa. However, what does surprise me is that the majority of investment is going into upscale, upper upscale and luxury hotels, when there is very strong demand across Africa for decent quality branded budget and midscale hotels. Matthew Weihs, Managing Director of The Bench, which organises AHIF, concluded: While the hospitality industry has just been through the bleakest period in my professional career, it is fascinating to see that the pandemic has done nothing to dent long-term investor confidence in hospitality. If anything, the savviest financiers have seen it as an opportunity. They have been encouraged by enlightened governments, such as Moroccos, which have spent $ billions on new infrastructure to incentivise investment in tourism. Whats more, judging by our other conferences this year that have sold out, we are seeing how keen people are to travel again and how valuable it is to meet face to face, rather than over a video link. I am confident that when AHIF takes place on 2-4 November, in Taghazout, close to Agadir, we will see the atmosphere buzzing, with highly productive networking and with more deals announced than ever before. An update to the pipeline development survey, along with in-depth insights, will be presented by Trevor Ward at AHIF. The event is the leading conference of its kind in Africa, connecting business leaders and fuelling investment in tourism projects, infrastructure and hotel development across the continent. About W Hospitality Group The W Hospitality Group, a member of Hotel Partners Africa, specialises in the provision of advisory services to the hotel, tourism and leisure industries, providing a full range of services to clients who have investments in the sector, or who are looking to enter them through development, acquisition or other means. In sub-Saharan Africa W Hospitality Group is regarded as the market leader due to the market and financial expertise of its staff, its worldwide knowledge, and its commitment to its clients. In Africa, W Hospitality Group has to date worked in 40 countries on the continent, from its Lagos and Addis Ababa offices. About the Africa Hospitality Investment Forum (AHIF) AHIF is the premier hotel investment conference in Africa, attracting many prominent international hotel owners, investors, financiers, management companies and their advisers. It is organised by The Bench (www.thebench.com), which has a long track record of delivering multiple premium hotel investment conferences and forums across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Benchs mission is enabling prosperity by facilitating growth, networking, and thought leadership in the hospitality industry worldwide. www.thebench.com. Sponsors of AHIF are Host Partner: Moroccan Agency for Tourism Development (SMIT) Platinum Sponsors: IHG and Radisson Hotel Group; Gold Sponsors: Aleph Hospitality, CityBlue, Insignia, Louvre Hotels Group, Marriott International, TIME Hotels; Silver Sponsor: HVS. David Tarsh +44 (0) 20 7602 5262 The Bench London, UK - According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) visitors from overseas are pouring into the UK to join the celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth IIs Platinum Jubilee. As the UK gears up to celebrate, new data from WTTCs partner ForwardKeys shows the number of arriving tourists from key overseas markets and leading Commonwealth countries, such as Singapore, Australia and Canada are all up this week compared to last week by 19%, 6% and 2% respectively. Indeed, the UK Travel & Tourism sector has gone from strength to strength during Queen Elizabeth IIs 70-year long reign. The Queen herself is estimated to have travelled to some 120 countries since her first trip to Kenya in 1952, uniting communities around the world. And since the Queens Golden Jubilee in 2002, analysis by WTTC shows that 20 years later, the number of people employed in the UK Travel & Tourism sector has soared by 49%. In 2002, 9.1% of jobs in the UK were in Travel & Tourism. This year the percentage has grown to 11.7%, with a high of 12% in 2019. In terms of economic value to the UK economy, the UK Travel & Tourism sector has also risen by 13%, from 190bn to 215bn this year - and reached an impressive 235bn before the pandemic struck in 2019. Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO said: The Queen is a global ambassador and has brought huge wealth to this country. Over the last 20 years she has presided over a period of incredible expansion in Travel & Tourism - attracting visitors to our shores and inspiring us to visit the world with open hearts and minds." We congratulate Her Majesty as we join the country in celebrating her Platinum Jubilee and pay tribute to her journey of exploration and friendship to communities near and far. While WTTC data shows the success story of the UK Travel & Tourism sector over the last 20 years, the data also details its struggle since the pandemic and the severe impact of the travel restrictions. The Jubilee celebrations open a new chapter as tourists start returning. WTTC data shows international visitor spend had climbed from 23.3bn in 2002 to more than 36bn in 2019 but had slumped back to just 3.9bn in 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic. About WTTC The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) represents the global travel & tourism private sector. Members include 200 CEOs, Chairs and Presidents of the world's leading travel & tourism companies from all geographies covering all industries. For more than 30 years, WTTC has been committed to raising the awareness of governments and the public of the economic and social significance of the travel & tourism sector. According to WTTC's 2021 Economic Impact Report, during 2020, a year in which it was devasted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Travel & Tourism made a 5.5% contribution to global GDP and was responsible for 272 million jobs. WTTC Press Office WTTC View source At HSMA 2022 in Munich, his first conference appearance in person since COVID-19 hit, Chief Architect at Shiji Group Michael Heinze talks about his own experience with technology in the Hospitality Industry and shares his view on what leadership means. Read on for highlights of the interview and watch the full video here. How Michael Heinze Saw The Hotel Tech Stack Evolve Michael Heinze began the talk by sharing some illuminating insight into his background. Michael was born into the hotel world. From the age of six, he helped at the front desk of his parents hotel in Kaprun-Zell Am See, in the Austrian Alps. As he got older, his interest in computers grew, starting with games and then branching into discovering how the machines worked and were programmed. In parallel, he was taking on more responsibilities at the familys hotel, combing through scores of manual guest entries in the books to find out which customers had a birthday coming up so that they would receive a birthday card. With simplification in mind, Michael built his own database of guest information, along with a template for the birthday cards, which showed him the potential of automating tasks at the Front Desk. In the following years, he coded a program that displayed guest information, and automated invoices and was even capable of compiling room availability data to be sent to the local tourism board. His program was so successful that he sold it to two other hotels in the area, and by the age of fourteen, Michael had decided to move from hospitality into the software engineering world. Chief Architect at Shiji Group Michael Heinze Source: Shiji Michaels Contributions to the Hotel Tech Stack However, Michaels move did not entirely remove him from hotels, but it rather served as the inspiration behind his next successful enterprises. Knowing the pain points of the industry, he built the first booking engine in Europe, which in 1996 recorded 1 million Austrian shillings in revenue for hotels in the Zell Am See region. Global expansion came with HBSI (formerly known as hobooBox), a pioneering Channel Management System for hotels, adopted first by properties in Las Vegas and today serving about 60,000 hotels worldwide. Recalling the past, Michael talked about how the lack of connectivity available made single-function, hotel-based software necessary for tackling daily operational challenges. As more of these solutions sprung up, hotels kept piling on different products that, most of the time, did not interface, creating information silos and difficulties in making the most out of the automation generated. Then along comes The Cloud, and technology begins to allow for the creation of decentralized software. Around the mid-00s, Michael developed Hetras, the first Service-as-a-Software combined Hotel Management System. Determined to find better alternatives to the PMS a legacy system he believed is not built to share information and will therefore become obsolete Michael recognized the power of the cloud for building systems that are more reliable and integrated. Where Hotel Tech Could Be Headed Looking forward, Michael sees legacy systems as well as legacy thinking as the biggest obstacles to the transformation of hotel technology and better service delivery. Both an organizational and a human challenge, companies have difficulty in overcoming this siloed mentality, making it harder to transform their tech stack and standing in the way of their teams ability to better serve the guest. Michael also recognizes that companies are wary of becoming overly dependent on a single vendor, and highlights the importance of adopting an open stack strategy, focused on driving simplicity and reducing the number of systems needed as much as possible such as using a central system for most tasks and helper systems to assist in some functions. When theres a need for different systems, he sees separation by function as the way to go, where tools for each function should come from the same stack. For example, using software for all guest room functions, regardless if its room fulfillment, financial reporting, or daily housekeeping tasks, and another software for events-related needs, and so on. After understanding the hotels most important USP, focusing on investments that enable its delivery and make it as frictionless as possible allows each touchpoint of the guest experience to be simplified. As the last topic, Michael shared his view of leadership today. To him, it involves leading employees to do their best, but it also means leading the way to building trust with guests. Leaders should define themselves by what they want to achieve, by living and breathing what they believe in. Staying true to oneself and ones beliefs, being attuned to basic human needs such as how they want to be treated, and displaying empathy, will make people feel like part of a team and give them the incentive to work towards achieving common goals. View source Messe Berlin is planning a number of important changes next year to mark the first in-person edition of ITB Berlin since the pandemic began. Instead of running from a Wednesday to a Sunday, ITB Berlin 2023 will take place on three successive days, from Tuesday 7 to Thursday, 9 March. The demands placed on global trade fairs have changed considerably in recent years, which is why in future and in terms of customers, the Worlds Leading Travel Trade Show is concentrating its efforts to focus on exhibiting companies as well as exclusively on trade visitors, buyers and the media. As in previous years, the internationally renowned ITB Berlin Convention will take place live parallel with the exhibition on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds, with selected sessions live-streamed on itb.com. Virtual services surrounding the live show will round off events. By positioning ITB Berlin exclusively as a B2B product we want to make the format future-proof and further significantly enhance the brand as a global catalyst of the tourism industry, said David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin. At the same time we are making sure to give our image a necessary boost and improve our existing ties and ability to attract new customers. In the past we have repeatedly observed that the majority of our exhibitors place a clear emphasis on addressing B2B audiences. In future, this move will make it possible to further concentrate their efforts. According to Ruetz, the new concept enables ITB Berlin to explore avenues for further developing the trade show and also targeting audiences with additional networking opportunities. Concerning exhibitors, the trade show is announcing the return of a popular event, with ITB Berlin 2023 once again planning to honour outstanding exhibitor representations with the ITB Exhibitor Award. BOAT & FUN BERLIN is the new meeting place for consumer products Messe Berlin also has new things in store for the general public and companies interested in B2C business. The Berlin Travel Festival, until now the consumer partner event of ITB, will in future represent the B2C element of the boating and leisure exhibition BOAT & FUN BERLIN, which will take place from 24 to 27 November 2022 on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. The Berlin Travel Festival was previously held at Arena Berlin, parallel with ITB Berlins open weekend for the public. With its new concept, Messe Berlin has established dates for the general public, who will be able to focus on a single time period and find the whole range of leisure services, as well as boats, caravanning, camping and fishing products practically under one roof. For additional information: boot-berlin.de and berlintravelfestival.com. Big platform for the host country Georgia Georgia, the official host country, will play an important part at ITB Berlin 2023. Last year, it fascinated visitors as ITB Berlins Adventure & Sustainability Partner, and presented its cultural attractions in the role of Convention & Culture Partner in 2022. In May, Georgia was the first destination to host the new TRVLX by ITB event series. On Monday, 6 March, on the eve of ITB Berlin 2023, Georgia will kick off the trade show with a festive opening gala at the CityCube Berlin, which will be live-streamed. The country will also be strongly represented on the exhibition grounds, including at hub27 and in Hall 4.1. Exhibitors can register soon for ITB Berlin As of mid-June exhibitors will be able to register for ITB Berlin 2023. By registering no later than 31 August 2022 they can take advantage of an Early Bird stand rental offer, starting at EUR 205/m (instead of EUR 209 209/m). The offer applies as of stand registrations being officially announced (estimated to be mid-June). The deadline for registrations is 30 September 2022. Information on all other conditions of participation can be obtained when stand registrations have been announced. More details are available at: itb.com. About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention Since 1966, ITB Berlin has been the World's Leading Travel Trade Show. The ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held in the period originally scheduled as an entirely virtual event on the new brand website itb.com. On 17 March the Digital Business Day will give the industry an opportunity to exchange views and do business in a virtual setting from anywhere in the world. As a virtual industry marketplace, it is a further addition to the ITB brand family and rounds off the trade show concept. With its new concept, ITB Berlin is planning a total of two in-person satellite events in various markets in summer 2022. 3,513 exhibitors from 120 countries were represented at the virtual edition of ITB Berlin NOW 2021 for the duration of the event. Some 65,700 users visited the new online platform, around two-thirds of whom were from abroad. In 2019 around 10,000 exhibitors from 181 countries displayed their products and services to 160,000 visitors, including 113,500 trade visitors. Additional information is available at www.itb.com and from the ITB Social Media Newsroom The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) will celebrate four outstanding revenue optimization leaders during HSMAI ROC Americas in Orlando on June 29, part of HSMAI Commercial Strategy Week 2022. HSMAI will honor Eric Orkin with the prestigious Vanguard Award for Achievement in Revenue Optimization. Andres Reyes, Director of Revenue Management at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, and Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA, Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection Hotels, will be presented with the Revenue Professional of the Year Awards for single/multi-unit and corporate, respectively. Dr. Chris K. Anderson, Professor and Director of the Executive Master of Management in Hospitality at Cornell University, will be honored with the Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year Award. The Of the Year awards are co-presented by HSMAI and Expedia Group. Eric Orkin Eric Orkin is a pioneer in the field of revenue management. In 1988, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly published an article he authored Boosting Your Bottom Line with Yield Management which we can point to as the genesis of the revenue management discipline in the hospitality industry. Among many career highlights and industry contributions, Orkin founded Delphi in 1979 as a sales and catering system with the goal of collecting the critical data on group sales and bookings needed to drive good revenue management. Today, Delphi is a mainstay in the hospitality industry and efficiently brings the disciplines of sales, operations, and revenue management together. And in 1985, returning to his revenue management interests, Orkin went on to start OPUS 2. Orkins intelligence and his understanding of how this technology could and should be applied to hotels are unmatched in the industry. He is so passionate about revenue management that his enthusiasm and intensity about its use were instrumental in making revenue management a standard in the hotel industry today. He has served as the catalyst for change throughout his career and was THE trailblazer that all others have followed. Andres Reyes Andres Reyes, Director of Revenue Management at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, is this years single/multi-unit Revenue Optimization Professional of the Year. Reyes has been in the hospitality and gaming space for 10 years involved with rebrands, revivals, grand openings, and everything in between. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the gaming capital of the world, Las Vegas, he majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Upon graduation, Reyes got started at MGM Resorts International and was given complete freedom to learn the complexities of the business. Exposure to data warehousing and business intelligence systems allowed him to learn as much as possible about all aspects of the operation from the ground up. Taking this experience, he found great success and was able to apply this combined business and analytical skillset to countless transformational projects and initiatives upon moving to Station Casinos and now to Foxwoods. Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA, Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection Hotels, is this years corporate Revenue Optimization Professional of the Year. Hospitality has been Boergers passion for more than twenty years. During his versatile career, he held a range of operational and strategic leadership roles with IHG, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Design Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and Pacific Hospitality Group. In his current position as Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection of Hotels, he continues to challenge the status quo while devising commercial strategies geared to increase revenues and optimize profit. As past chairman of HSMAI Europes Revenue Management Advisory Board and current vice-chair of HSMAI Americas Revenue Optimization Advisory Board, Boerger continues to advance the revenue optimization discipline through empowerment, thought leadership, and education. Dr. Chris K. Anderson This year, HSMAI is awarding the Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year Award to Dr. Chris Anderson, Professor and Director of the Executive Master of Management in Hospitality at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Andersons main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works with industry, across numerous industry types, in the application and development of revenue management, having worked with a variety of hotels, airlines, rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Andersons research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. At the School of Hotel Administration, he teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management. About HSMAI HSMAI is a global organization of sales, marketing, and revenue management professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry. HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry while operating as a leading voice for both hospitality and sales, marketing, and revenue management disciplines, as well as connecting its members with customers. Founded in the United States in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprised of nearly 5,000 members from 35 countries and chapters worldwide. HSMAI operates regionally around the globe via Regional boards of directors and staff. There are four regions: the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Each region has signature programs and services for association members. HSMAI has a Global board that is comprised of delegates from each Region. The Metaverse is considered to be the next step of internet evolution. Many have heard of it and think it is not yet relevant to the hotel industry. In this article, we will explore the opportunities it brings for the hospitality industry and the role of artificial intelligence and data in accommodating the Metaverse. What opportunities does the Metaverse bring to the hospitality industry? The Metaverse is a virtual reality that merges social media features, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), online gaming, and crypto-currencies. The Metaverse is the next stage of the internet, providing interconnected and decentralized virtual environments. In the future, many hoteliers are likely to overlook the Metaverse as it appears to be another fantasy. These hoteliers are probably the same people who thought no one would book a room via artificial intelligence... Artificial Intelligence can help hotels increase direct bookings by 11%. In fact, in 2021 alone, Velma, the best hotel chatbot, generated nearly $140 million in booking requests for hotels...Reality is sometimes cruel. The Metaverse offers users the possibility to gain access to the most prestigious hotels in the world, visit rooms, and even book one! This opens up a whole new sales channel for hotels. But why would customers be interested in a virtual room? The answer is that they will be able to enjoy many reservation-related activities: a relaxation session held by a sophrologist, a salsa class or why not learn to bake. As the hotel will provide the link, why not also take advantage of it to discover the best of its partners. For example, guests will be able to admire the hotel's decor and buy the objects they like (lamps, armchairs, paintings, etc.). But above all, the metaverse will expand the customer experience. A customer who has booked in the hotel (the real one) will have the right, after his departure, to access all the hotel's services in the metaverse during a given period. The existence of a hotel in a prime location in the Metaverse will generate business just like a great location in the real world. The virtual hotel will then be used for promotion, brand awareness, business lead generation, and virtual and real direct sales. In addition, some hotels will generate more business in the Metaverse than in the physical world. The reason is simple: the number of guests in the Metaverse is unlimited, unlike the capacity of nonvirtual l hotels. What are the prerequisites for a presence in the Metaverse? The proper use of artificial intelligence In the Metaverse, guests will interact with your hotel through a virtual assistant, aka the hotel avatar. The avatar, the keystone of the customer experience, will manage thousands of personalized interactions every day. Hotel avatars will be based on the cumulative experiences and interactions of chatbots. We are talking about third-generation chatbots for hotels, like Velma from Quicktext, based on an industry-specific NLU (Natural Language Understanding) linked to structured data and supervised by an experienced team to ensure proper learning. The need for structured data A hotel currently needs more than 1000 data points to answer frequently asked questions: parking height, restaurant dress code, airport shuttle, gluten-free breakfast, etc. However, in the majority of cases, hotels have little to no control over this data. Today, this information is more readily available via Booking.com, Expedia, etc. It is therefore in the hotels' best interest to start using structured data now. Google's algorithms already favor these data in their search results. The importance of structured data is a current challenge that will only increase with the presence of hotels in the Metaverse. Move to a new generation of PMS and booking engines. Hotels will need to be able to offer a whole new range of products and services with constant change. The PMS of the future will need to be open in the cloud and extremely flexible, i.e. built on independent racks (microservices) based on open APIs. The booking engines will also have to evolve significantly in the future to keep up with the development of current e-commerce systems. Consequently, some hotels will generate more revenue in the Metaverse compared to the non-virtual world. A CRM for all types of customers. Hoteliers are starting to use CRMs to accompany a customer throughout their journey (before, during, and after their stay). At best, a room rental, a restaurant reservation, a drink at the bar, etc... Imagine the power of a CRM for a customer who will use physical goods and digital goods (courses, shows, art, etc.). This increasing diversification of services multiplied by an exponential number of customers will force hotels to quickly improve their CRM to be ready for this revolution. What types of transactions in the Metaverse As soon as transactions are made, it will be necessary to use a currency, and what better than crypto-currencies? In each universe, an independent hotel or hotel chain could decide either to apply an existing crypto-currency or to create its own. This currency will be associated with a title to prove the purchase of a good or service. This is where NFTs play their part, leading to the emergence of a virtual economy of digital goods trading in the hotels source of business (room, subscription). The owner of a particular room at a given date will be able to change several times. It is very likely that the person who bought the room is not the one who will sleep in it. In this context, CitizenM will open a hotel in Sandbox and consequently issue NFTs with exchangeable rights to any of the group's hotels in the real world. As you have seen, the hotel industry in the metaverse is much more than a simple digital double. It will be a new promotional tool, a new sales channel, but above all, it will be a whole new world of opportunities for those who take the plunge before others... You might as well get started right away. Later on, opportunities will be expensive. This article is a summary of three articles published in the last three months. About Quicktext Quicktext was founded in 2017 by Daniel C. Doppler and Benjamin Devisme. More than 75 employees form its teams in 10 offices around the world. Europe: London, Paris, Barcelona, Prague Americas: New York, Mexico, Punta Cana, Asia and Oceania: Guangzhou, Bangkok, Melbourne. To date, more than 1400 hotels in 76 countries are already using Quicktext and Velma, its AI. For further information, book a demo: Book a Demo The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted efforts to expand energy access around the globe, and Russias war against Ukraine is expected to cause more setbacks to universal energy access, international organizations said in a new report. If momentum doesnt pick up, 670 million people will remain without electricity in 2030 10 million more than projected last year, according to the report from the International Energy Agency and six groups focused on sustainable global development. The report comes as U.S. officials continue to pressure oil and gas companies to ramp up production to help tame rising gasoline prices and utility bills, and to help make up for Russian oil and gas supplies that have dropped from the market amid sanctions. Most producers have said they will stick to planned production schedules. And while the oil and gas industry often points to international reports like this one to justify a need for growing fossil fuel infrastructure to power the developing world, the report argues instead for expanding access to renewable energy in the most underserved areas of the globe to meet the goal of universal energy access by 2030. RELATED: Investment in global oil and gas production expected to grow 20 percent in 2022 International public financing for renewable energy needs to accelerate, especially in the poorest, most vulnerable countries, said Francesco La Camera with the International Renewable Energy Agency. We have failed to support those most in need. With only eight years left to achieve universal access to affordable and sustainable energy, we need radical actions to accelerate the increase of international public financial flows and distribute them in a more equitable manner. Most of the report was bleak, describing a world where 733 million people live without electricity access, and 2.4 billion people cook with fuels harmful to their health and the environment. It also showed, however, encouraging progress for renewable energy, said Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency. Still, Birol warned of further disruptions around the globe as improvements to energy access and efficiency lag. Russias invasion of Ukraine has triggered a global energy crisis, driving huge price spikes that are causing particularly severe impacts in developing economies, Birol said. Moscows war against Ukraine sent fuel prices soaring while producers struggle to keep up as economies recover from the pandemic downturn. Meanwhile, after a devastating 2020, oil and gas companies rebounded in 2021 and saw their profits soar in the first few months of 2022 with oil trading around $120 per barrel at times. And the war in Ukraine ushered in a wave of approvals for new oil and gas infrastructure, mainly for the shipment of liquified natural gas to places like Europe. So far, calls to increase production and infrastructure in the U.S. have focused on reducing consumer costs and maintaining energy supply to countries that already have widespread access to electricity. The report warns that the energy disruptions continue to affect Africa the most, where 568 million people are without access to electricity. More so, the countries most impacted by a lack of electricity infrastructure tend to also be those hit disproportionately by the effects of climate change. Millions of people are killed through heart disease, stroke, cancer, and pneumonia since they still rely on dirty cooking fuels and technologies which are major sources of air pollution, said Dr. Maria Neira with the World Health Organization. Women and children are particularly at risk they spend the most time in and around the home and therefore carry the heaviest burden to their health and well-being. Transitioning to clean and sustainable energy will not only contribute to make people healthier, it will also protect our planet and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The report calls for more than 30 percent of global energy consumption to come from renewable energy by 2030 to meet net-zero emission goals and move toward universal energy access. Three weeks ago, Dr. Peter Hotez announced hed tested positive for COVID-19. Hotez dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Childrens Hospital has been among the more public faces providing information over the past two-plus years. Hotez admitted that having been vaccinated and boosted, he started venturing back to public events, and his number finally came up. MORE: Peter Hotez warns of nations hidden COVID wave thats almost like omicron So the time seemed right to catch up with Hotez again, as Id recently attended the opening of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa last month, which involved multiple days inside museums and three consecutive nights of live music. A sucker for gift shop T-shirts, I returned to Houston with one extra souvenir. Likely exposed on a Saturday night, I was symptomatic Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning, I rang up positive. Hotez took some time by Zoom to discuss our parallel illnesses, while looking ahead to summer and beyond. Q: Thank you for the time. Since we both rang up COVID positive A: Im interested in your album collection there. It looks pretty formidable. Q: Ah, yes. Its a monolith constructed to honor a lack of restraint. A: (Laughs.) Is there an overall theme? If you had to pick one genre, which would be your favorite? Q: It all changes as I get older. But it pretty much covers everything. These days, I find myself listening to a lot of minimalist, ambient things. A: I drift in and out of things, too. But the one I always go back to is old-school blues. Especially down here in Texas: Freddie King, Albert King, of course Lightnin Hopkins. . . . Houston has such a rich blues tradition but you dont hear much about it outside of Houston. You hear about Delta blues, blues from New Orleans and Kansas City. But the history here is extraordinary. I could talk to you about music all day. When I was a kid, I grew up in Connecticut. There was this old historic place called the Shaboo Inn. In high school I got to see Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters, the James Cotton Blues Band. The list goes on. It was all standing room only. So Id just stand up front. This was in the 70s when everyone was still alive. Q: I try to take my daughter to see anybody left whos touring. The Bob Dylan show didnt exactly snare her attention. But she appreciated the act of seeing him. A: Thats interesting. Theres a new museum, right? In Tulsa? Q: There is. In fact, I was just up there, and thats where I got COVID. Which is as good a segue as we may find from music to the pandemic. A: Ah, yes. Were you at an indoor venue? Q: Indeed. Three nights in a row at the historic Cains Ballroom. Im pretty sure I got it the third night at the Elvis Costello show. A: So lets get right into it. Thats how people are getting COVID now. What Im seeing from my own case and other cases is this one-two punch going on with this subvariant, BA 2.12. It is SO transmissible. I joked once that you just need to look at it askance from across the room and youll get it. Its more transmissible than omicron, which was more transmissible than delta which was more transmissible than alpha, which was more transmissible than the original lineage. Its getting up there where its maybe as transmissible as measles, with a reproductive number of 12 or something. And measles is the most transmissible virus agent we know about. An individual in a room can infect 12 other people if unvaccinated. If youre vaccinated and boosted, its unlikely youll get seriously ill (with COVID), but youll get what I had, which is feeling sick, cold and flu symptoms. So the first punch in the one-two punch is this highly transmissible variant that spreads now that people are going to indoor events. So you had people coming from all over the country to go to Tulsa. Any time you have that many people in a room, there will be somebody with BA 2.12. When you have people in a room, you have these super-spreader events. In my case, I started going to in-person events again. I spoke at events. Its fun seeing people in three-dimensions again, shaking hands and hugging and having cocktails and laughing. But I paid the price by getting COVID. Q: My timeline, best I can determine, was exposure on a Saturday night. By the next Tuesday night there was a minor sore throat that I thought was allergies. By Wednesday morning, I knew something was wrong. A: Right. One other thing about this virus, one of the reasons it may be more transmissible, its a bit controversial, but the amount of virus, the replication is high with this variant. Data from Japan says it multiplies efficiently in nasal mucosal cells. That also may explain why the incubation period is pretty quick. Each successive variant, the incubation period is less. We are now seeing two to four days after exposure, people coming up positive. Before it was more like five to seven days. Q: My illness was contained to 72 hours, 48 of which were just like mid-level flu. But there was a 24-hour spell where I felt like my ear canals were on fire, which isnt a symptom Id read much about. A: You can get whats called vestibulitis, which is inflammation in the vestibula, which helps with balance. The room can feel like its spinning. Q: I was walking into walls and doorways a lot. A: Yeah, yeah. That can happen with any upper respiratory virus. In my case, one thing that was interesting, I was preparing for this in the sense that knowing theres so much transmission, I figured if it was going to happen, itd happen now, during this wave. So I had a plan in place with my doctor to have access to Paxlovid. Im older, 64, and maybe have other risk factors. So I wanted to go on Paxlovid right away. The day I started having symptoms, I started the Paxlovid. It was probably a record time from symptomatic to getting on Paxlovid. What happened next was I had a rebound from the Paxlovid, which is really interesting. In other words, during the clinical trials, what happened was 1 to 2 percent of patients on Paxlovid had a rebound after they finished a five-day course. In some cases, they tested themselves, were negative, and a few days later they were sick again and tested positive again. That appears now with the BA 2.12 variant. Its still anecdotal, but it appears to be happening more frequently than 1 to 2 percent. I go to social media, and it seems like everybody has the rebound. Ive talked to my colleague Eric Topol a lot, hes a professor at the Scripps Institute. He thinks it may be related to BA 2.12 maybe a higher level of virus or efficiency of replication. I dont think we know. But the thing about my rebound, the symptoms were worse than when I initially had it. More congestion. More feeling tired. And when I did the antigen test, it popped up right away. Q: I read a New York Times story that suggested multiple infections per season could become a new normal. Thoughts? A: Rather than make a broad summary like that, I try to think in different ways. I try to parse out the pieces. Let me give you an example. Right now this BA 2.12, first of all, last time we spoke, I hoped it would be a bump not a wave. Guess what? Its a wave. But its a hidden sort of wave, because most of these cases are being diagnosed at home and not reported to the state or the CDC. If you look at the New York Times COVID tracking numbers, 100,000 cases per day. In the past we considered that an underestimate by a factor of about four. In this case, this wave, which could go as high as omicron, which was extraordinary, it could be underestimated by a factor of 10 or more. Its not entirely clear, because its not homogenously distributed through the country. But the Memorial Day weekend, the risk of transmission is pretty high. By the Fourth of July, we may be in good shape for a while. But I cant tell you how long. Late July, August, September weve had waves in Texas the past two years. So I think we have to anticipate that is possible again. But rather than make blanket statements, and just say things are fait accompli, I would rather think about how we navigate things when were in the middle of a wave. How do we do that? Max out vaccinations. If youre unvaccinated, youre playing with fire. Even if youre fully vaccinated and I hate that phrase because nobody considers two doses fully vaccinated except the U.S. Centers for Disease Control but you need that booster. The protection wanes after the first booster. So if youre eligible for the second booster, get it. Then the question becomes how often do we need to get boosted after that? Here, were going back and forth with the leadership in the federal government. Every time we ask the American people to get boosted, the percentage that agrees to do it goes down. Only 100 million people, 30 percent of the population or less, got the first booster. The second booster? I got it, and maybe 10 other people. So what comes next? A third booster? A fifth immunization? Ill get it. But not many others will. Ive said to the White House and others, we need to look beyond the mRNA vaccines. Ive said we need to look at other technology, with full disclosure that I have a conflict of interest here, because one thing Id like them to consider is our Corbevax. Weve seen that the Corbevax protein-based vaccine may give more durable protection. So a strategy would be to boost with it or the Novavax. Maybe we get more durable protection that lasts four or five years. I think thats a more sound strategy than just folding all the cards and saying, I guess Im just going to get COVID. We shouldnt be that complacent. We still dont know what all of this means. In general, we think it wont land us in the hospital if we get COVID. But we still dont fully understand long COVID. I dont want to endure exercise intolerance or respiratory insufficiency. I dont want gray matter brain degeneration. I still have other books Im writing, so I dont want to deal with cognitive decline. I just signed the contract for my newest book. This has been my newest passion in the decade since arriving in Houston. I still call myself an aspiring writer, rather than a writer. Q: Is it too early to talk about the book? A: No, Im happy to. Its called . . . well, lets finish this train of thought. Q: Sure. Last time we talked, you mentioned the possible value in mixing up vaccine technologies. A: Right. I just think the American people are not buying into this right now. Theyre telling us already theyre just not buying it. Q: Do you know what flu shot buy-in looks like typically? A: For some reason, I carry a number around thats about 40 percent in my mind. Id have to go back and look. But I get my flu vaccine religiously. Every August or September. And thats another thing we should be looking at: combining a COVID booster with the flu shot. Since the flu shot seems to have some acceptance, maybe thats the way to do it to combine the two. Q: OK, back to the book A: The book has the working title Anti-Science Kills. Its coming out through Johns Hopkins University Press. I do a deep dive into what happened starting this time last year. The president announced anybody who wanted a vaccine could get one. There were no limits to the vaccines. Yet millions of people refused to get vaccinated. And they deliberately refused in certain parts of the country, particularly Texas and the southern U.S. And people paid for it with their lives. The number I proposed is that 200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly lost their lives in the last half of 2021. And my point is that vaccine refusal and defiance didnt happen for arbitrary reasons. It was a deliberately targeted effort that I call anti-science aggression. I identify groups and individuals who promote that agenda and caused people to lose their lives. The people who lost their lives to vaccine defiance are actual victims of this anti-science aggression. And I talk about how its extended to target not just science, but scientists, who are portrayed as enemies of the state. Anti-science aggression is part of a political movement, and its a killer one. It kills more Americans than global terrorism, nuclear proliferation or cyber attacks. Yet we dont think about it in those terms. Its been a tough book to write. Its a strongly worded book. But I did it to save lives and I make that point as a vaccine scientist working to save lives by developing new vaccines. Saving lives now also means combating the rise of this movement. Q: This movement has roots with one British doctor whose original published work was retracted, right? Is this movement the worst thing Britain has dropped on us in a few centuries? A: Well, thats how it started. I go into a deep dive into how it evolved into this movement under a banner of health freedom and medical freedom to become a political movement. It used to be small groups claiming vaccines have toxic ingredients that can change a childs physiology. Now its a full-on monster with PAC money, political backing, political organization and a lot of power, especially in the U.S., but were exporting it now to Canada and western Europe. Q: Your book about your daughter and autism sounds like a prelude to this. A: That was version 1.0. This is now a full-on monster. This is 2.0 when it becomes a political monster. andrew.dansby@chron.com | Twitter: @andrewdansby The Houston restaurant and bar community as well as city bakers have been generous with donations supporting Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts. Now a longtime Houston restaurateur is adding to those local efforts with an ambitious, $200 multi-course dinner on June 7. Jonathan Levine, owner of Jonathans the Rub, is hosting the dinner at his Memorial Green restaurant, 12505 Memorial, that begins at 5:30 p.m. with passed appetizers followed by a seated dinner at 7 p.m. (salad, choice of entree, vegetables, and dessert). The meal, which does not include gratuities or alcohol, is priced at $200 per person with a goal of raising $100,000 to purchase cargo van to deliver medical supplies to Lviv, Ukraine. Inspired by the ubiquitous beaver-splashed billboards lining major highways, Texans now consider a road-trip pit stop at Buc-ees to be a rite of passage. Buying a bag of Beaver Nuggets and a barbecue sandwich is the new consumer equivalent of acquiring a snow globe at the Alamo gift shop. Considering that barbecue is now the featured cuisine at most, if not all, Buc-ees, coupled with the companys rapid expansion within the state and throughout the Southern U.S., its not a stretch to think Buc-ees is one of the largest purveyors of Texas barbecue in the nation. Selling barbecue at gas stations is a long-time tradition in the Lone Star State. The combination of open-flame cooking with highly flammable liquids may seem counterintuitive. But for vacationers on a road trip or workers looking to gas up and grab some lunch, barbecue and gas stations go hand in hand. Before there was Buc-ees, there was Rudys Country Store and Bar-B-Q. Rudys started out as a gas station, auto repair shop and grocery store in Leon Springs north of San Antonio in 1929. Barbecue was added to the lineup in 1989, and the chain now has over 40 locations in five states. One of the earliest references to gas stations and barbecue is from the July 17, 1929 edition of the El Paso Herald newspaper announcing a New Barbecue Plant Opening Today. According to the article, The idea of combining a barbecue plant, restaurant, filling station, and rest rooms for both men and women was originated by Mrs. Neil Shearman, owner of the new Pig N Calf barbecue stand. In this case, barbecue plant refers to what would be a pit room today. The Shearmans were a prominent El Paso family of the time, whose soap-operatic story rivals the Ewings of Dallas TV-show fame. In 1921, they owned a hog farm outside of El Paso, which, according to newspaper reports, was also a center for bootlegging, as Prohibition was in effect at the time. A March 22, 1921 report in the El Paso Herald described a raid on the farm in which two federal Prohibition agents were shot and killed by patriarch C.P. Shearman and his son, Neil. The Shearmans were acquitted in a jury trial in Midland later that year using a plea of self-defense. Starting in 1925, advertisements in the Herald announced the opening of the Pig N Calf barbecue stand by Neil Shearman. In May of 1926, though, a notice in the Herald signed by Shearman announced (On) Account (of) business in Florida requiring personal attention (I) will sell (the barbecue stand) at a big sacrifice. In December of that year, there was another notice in the paper signed by the elder C.P. Shearman: From and after today I will be in personal charge of the Pig N Calf barbecue stand. In December of 1927, an obituary for Neil Shearman appeared in the Herald, noting he died in West Palm Beach, Fla., at the age of 38 following an operation. His widow and three children returned to El Paso, where Mrs. Neil Sherman would open the new and expanded Pig N Calf in 1929. Not much is known of the Pig N Calf after the initial opening announcement. A notice in the May 5, 1933 edition of the El Paso Times references the reopening of the restaurant Under New Management. Though the origination story of Buc-ees isnt as notorious as that of the Pig N Calf, there is no doubt that Buc-ees has continued the tradition of gas station barbecue and become far more successful. When I go in for a pit stop, Ill grab the quite respectable chopped beef sandwich served there, along with a bag of savory Beaver Nuggets and a bottle of Big Red. Thats about as Texan as you can get without buying an Alamo snow globe. jcreid@jcreidtx.com twitter.com/jcreidtx This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Just over a week after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Democrat Beto ORourke blasted Gov. Greg Abbott at a rally in Dallas on Wednesday for not doing enough to address gun violence in Texas since he took office and for attending a political fundraiser in the hours after the school shooting. He chose the fundraiser, ORourke said as dozens of people booed at the Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center in Dallas. He drove 300 miles to count dollars while they were still counting bodies in that community. ORourke, a former El Paso Congressman, is seeking to unseat the Republican governor who is seeking a third term in office in November. Abbott has confirmed he left an Abilene press conference on the day of the shooting and went to the fundraiser in Walker County in East Texas. At the time, Abbott had already announced that 14 children were known dead. Asked about why he went to the fundraiser last week, Abbott told reporters that he stopped and let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go and I wanted them to know what happened and get back to Austin so I could continue to my collaboration with Texas law enforcement. Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer But ORourke said Abbott was closer to Uvalde than he was to Walker County, yet still chose to go to the fundraiser. Former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, an Abbott ally, on Wednesday called ORourke despicable for trying politicize the shooting. He said Abbott has suspended his campaign since the fundraiser while ORourke holds rallies and continues to fundraise as funerals continue in Uvalde. But ORourke on Wednesday showed no hesitation making Abbotts fundraiser central to his attack . He said the decision is emblematic of bad choices Abbott has made about school shootings and gun violence since he took office in 2014. ORourke said Abbott has repeatedly refused to do anything about guns after each of the shootings. And he faulted Abbott for instead signing legislation to allow permitless carry in Texas, which is allowing people who previously were denied a license to carry a handgun, to now have them. On his watch, he has chosen to make it - not harder - but easier for people to purchase firearms, ORourke said. ORourke renewed his call to stop selling weapons like AR-15s and AK-47s but stopped short of repeating his pledge in 2019 to pursue a mandatory buyback program that would require gun owners to give up those weapons. During his rally in Dallas on Wednesday, ORourke also called for universal background checks, safe gun storage regulations and red flag laws that would flag people who might be a danger to take their guns away. Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer Since the shooting in Uvalde, Abbott has said all options were on the table in regards to a potential special session of the Legislature to address gun violence. And just Wednesday he called on the legislature to begin working on ways to address school safety, mental health, social media, police training, firearm safety, and more. Though he stopped short of calling a special session. The next legislative session starts in January 2023. "As Texans mourn the tragedy that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde last week, we as a State must reassess the twin issues of school safety and mass violence," Abbott said on Wednesday. "As leaders, we must come together at this time to provide solutions to protect all Texans. After past shootings, Abbott said he has signed a host of legislation to improve school security and increase mental health access. Before Uvalde, Abbotts campaign had attacked ORourke for his stances on guns, specifically pointing to his comments about taking AR-15s and AK-47s off the streets. Even though ORourke has flipflopped on the mandatory buyback, Abbotts campaign has continued to go after him for the comments. Another reminder that extreme liberal Beto ORourke wants to confiscate Texans guns despite the conflicting positions he gives depending on which zip code he happens to be in, Mark Miner, Communications Director for Abbotts campaign said in April. ORourkes aiming to make Abbotts response to the Uvalde shooting a big part of his campaign. He has lined up a series of rallies in Austin, San Antonio and McAllen over the next week to turn up the heat on Abbott. jeremy.wallace@chron.com Houstons contract janitors will not be going on strike after reaching a two-year agreement Wednesday night with the companies contracted to provide cleaning services to city office buildings. The tentative agreement was announced less than twenty-four hours after their current contract expired at midnight on Tuesday. Members of Service Employees International Union last month authorized their leaders to call a strike if negotiations failed to make progress, adding a measure of urgency to discussions. We actually had an overnight session on Tuesday, and then we resumed Wednesday at noon and wrapped it up about about 9 or 10 p.m., said John Nesse, an attorney who represented the companies during negotiations. The companies at the table were ABM Industries and Pritchard, both of New York; ISS of San Antonio; Compass of Charlotte, N.C.; Velociti of Riverside, Mo.; and Sodexo of Gaithersburg, Md. The tentative agreement has yet to be ratified by union members, who are meeting on Saturday. The SEIU declined to provide details of the agreement before then, but wages were a key concern for union members going into negotiations. Many Houston contract janitors earn $10.75 an hour, which is a lower rate than in many similarly sized or even smaller markets. Union leaders, citing a rising cost of living and the fact that a majority of janitors work part time, would like to see their pay raised to $15 an hour. Both sides expressed satisfaction with both the agreement and the fact that a strike has been averted. We feel that this agreement is fair and will chip away at the racial and gender inequity that exists in this city, said SEIU Texas President Elsa Caballero. Our contractors and their valued employees provide the best janitorial services available in the Houston market and our agreement reflects the mutual best interest of all parties involved, said Nesse. erica.grieder@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The top 12 competitors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee will square off Thursday night for the crown, and one of the finalists is from Katy. While this is Kirsten Santos' first time at the National Spelling Bee, she's not new to winning. Kirsten, now age 11, won the 2019 National Spanish Spelling Bee when she was 8. An incoming seventh grader at International Leadership of Katy, Kirsten advanced to the final round Wednesday by correctly spelling "barraca." "It's always been a dream for her," Margarett Donaldson, one of Kirsten's teachers, told the Katy Times. "We're all very excited for her." Kirsten was one of 234 spellers who advanced to the national spelling bee from regional bees. Competitors hail from all U.S. states and territories, Department of Defense Schools in Europe, the Bahamas, Canada, Germany and Ghana. WHAT YOU MISSED: Initial rounds of National Spelling Bee get tough Despite being a champion-level speller, Kirsten's favorite subject is math. She studies six hours a day to master her language skills, according to a statement from IL Katy, and describes herself as "a homebody who loves to write stories and poems." In her spare time, she also likes to sing and play the piano. Thursday's finals will be hosted by LeVar Burton, best known as the longtime host of the popular PBS Kids educational TV series "Reading Rainbow." The competition was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning in 2021, albeit with fewer contestants and three rounds held virtually. You can watch the finals Thursday at 7 p.m. CST on the ION channel. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office Show More Show Less A woman who was accused of stealing more than $288,000 from a Sugar Land company she worked for has been sentenced to 65 years in prison, according to the Fort Bend County District Attorneys Office. Leslie Garcia, 46, of Rosenberg was found guilty last month of theft and misapplication of fiduciary duty in connection to stealing nearly $289,000 over the course of nearly two years. Garcia deposited unauthorized checks in a bank account she opened, according to the district attorneys office. In addition to the prison sentence, she was also fined. ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan's government on Wednesday sent a 50-member delegation of tribal elders to Kabul to negotiate an extension of a truce with the Pakistani Taliban that expired this week, two security officials said. Talks between the two sides that led to cease-fires in the past have been mediated by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in their country last August, as the U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan. The TTP has been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan over the past 14 years and has long fought for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the countrys former tribal regions. The development comes after the latest cease-fire expired on Tuesday. A similar truce between the TTP and Pakistan, brokered by the Afghan Taliban last November, lasted a month. However, none of the cease-fires have paved the way for a more permanent peace agreement. Both sides have remained silent about earlier talks in Kabul, the sticking points between them and also about the chances of an extension to the latest cease-fire. Analysts say a more permanent deal could be possible if either side is willing to show flexibility on what is or isn't acceptable to them. Two senior TTP members who are close to the negotiations also confirmed the arrival of the 50-member team in Kabul. They told The Associated Press that a truce extension is linked to a positive response" from the Pakistani government. They declined to elaborate and like the two security officials, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media about the negotiations. There was no official comment from the Pakistani government or the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban often use neighboring Afghanistan's rugged border regions for hideouts and for staging cross-border attacks into Pakistan. They have been emboldened by the return to power of the Afghan Taliban, who last ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s when they imposed their harsh edicts and interpretation of Islamic law, severely restricting the rights of women and minorities. In Pakistan, the TTP insurgency has been centered in the remote former tribal region, now province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan. Mahmood Shah, a Pakistani security analyst, said the Islamabad government sent tribal elders to Kabul as intermediaries because under Pakistan's constitution, the government cannot negotiate at least not directly with those waging an insurgency against it. Pakistani authorities want an extension of the cease-fire in order to continue the talks, he said. Shah served as a local official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when the military launched operations there after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, closely liaising between the military and the government side, which allowed for first-hand knowledge of operations against the TTP and other militant groups. The negotiations in Kabul are difficult, he told the AP, because for the military, any government-level talks with TTP are equal to converting the military victory into a defeat. Pakistani officials say the talks with the TTP are being overseen by Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, a former Pakistani spy chief who is now the top commander in the northwest. According to the two TTP members, the group asked Pakistani elders during Wednesday's meeting in Kabul to scrap a 2018 law that did away with the semi-independent status of the former tribal regions that dates back to British colonial rule. Islamabad is unlikely to give in to such a demand as the law paved the way for granting equal rights to millions of residents in the restive areas once they were incorporated into Pakistan's authority as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. TTP also wants Pakistani troops to pull out of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, release all the TTP fighters in government custody and revoke all the legal cases against them. Pakistan has demanded the TTP disband, accept Pakistan's constitution and sever all its ties with the Islamic State group, another Sunni militant group with a regional affiliate that is active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. ___ Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report. LONDON (AP) A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is getting worse, not better, despite the secretive country's recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there. At a briefing on Wednesday, WHO's emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about the COVID-19 outbreak there, saying we have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground. He said WHO has not received any privileged information about the epidemic unlike in typical outbreaks when countries may share more sensitive data with the organization so it can evaluate the public health risks for the global community. It is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we dont have access to the necessary data, he said. WHO has previously voiced concerns about the impact of COVID-19 in North Korea's population, which is believed to be largely unvaccinated and whose fragile health systems could struggle to deal with a surge of cases prompted by the super-infectious omicron and its subvariants. Ryan said WHO had offered technical assistance and supplies to North Korean officials multiple times, including offering COVID-19 vaccines on at least three separate occasions. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the countrys first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing. The discussion at the Norths Politburo meeting on Sunday suggested it would soon relax a set of draconian curbs imposed after it announced the outbreak in early May out of concern about its food and economic situations. North Korea's claims to have controlled COVID-19 without widespread vaccination, lockdowns or drugs have been met with widespread disbelief, particularly its insistence that only dozens have died among many millions infected a far lower death rate than seen anywhere else in the world. The North Korean government has said there are about 3.7 million people with fever or suspected COVID-19. But it disclosed few details about the severity of illness or how many people have recovered, frustrating public health experts' attempt to understand the extent of the outbreak. We really would appeal for for a more open approach so we can come to the assistance of the people of (North Korea), because right now we are not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the ground, Ryan said. He said WHO was working with neighboring countries like China and South Korea to ascertain more about what might be happening in North Korea, saying that the epidemic there could potentially have global implications. WHO's criticism of North Korea's failure to provide more information about its COVID-19 outbreak stands in contrast to the U.N. health agency's failure to publicly fault China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. In early 2020, WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeatedly praised China publicly for its speedy response to the emergence of the coronavirus, even as WHO scientists privately grumbled about China's delayed information-sharing and stalled sharing the genetic sequence of COVID-19. __ Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic We Are China Schools in Beijing prepare for national college entrance examination Ecns.cn) 13:30, June 02, 2022 Photo shows a preparation area for the college entrance examination at Dongzhimen high school, in Beijing, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) The national college entrance examination will be held from June 7 to 10 in Beijing. A teacher posts test room information at Dongzhimen high school in Beijing, June 1, 2021. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) A teacher disinfects desks at a class room at Dongzhimen high school, in Beijing, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) A storage room is set up at Dongzhimen High School in Beijing, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) Photo taken on June 1, 2022 shows a banner hanging at an exam venue at the Dongzhimen High School in Beijing, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) A teacher arranges epidemic prevention supplies at Dongzhimen high school, in Beijing, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Fu Tian) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) The parents and young daughter of Jalen Randle, who was killed by a Houston police officer in April, announced Thursday they are seeking criminal charges against Shane Privette, the officer who killed Randle, and will be filing civil litigation against the Houston Police Department. The family appeared at a news conference Thursday with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing them as he has many other victims of police violence. MORE: Who is Ben Crump? A look at the civil rights attorney handling Houston's most controversial cases Privette fatally shot Randle, 29, in the neck on April 27 while serving arrest warrants in Pleasantville. Crump pointed out that in body-worn camera footage released last week, Privette appears to be saying as he pursues Randle in a patrol car, "he ain't gonna live to leave this neighborhood." A brief chase ensues and about 30 seconds later, Privette appears to jump out of the car, command Randle to show his hands, and pull the trigger before Randle can comply. "We weren't expecting this, we didn't know this was going to happen, but at the end of the day we have to raise this baby without a father because of this man's intent," said Randle's mother, Tiffany Rachal, referring to the slain man's 6-year-old daughter, Jaylaa. Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer "I am furious, I've cried all I can cry and now I need to tell y'all that I am mad, and I need to get justice for my child. And I need everyone that wants to take a stand to help us get justice for Jalen Randle," Rachal said. After shooting Randle, Privette appears to say "oh shit" in an expression of surprise. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said Randle died of a gunshot wound to the neck, and ruled his death a homicide. An independent autopsy commissioned by Crump, however, found that the gunshot entered through the back of his neck. Crump noted that Privette was indicted in June 2019 on charges of aggravated assault he beat a suspect during a 2017 undercover drug operation. A subsequent grand jury dismissed the charges three months later. On HoustonChronicle.com: Proposed contract would give Houston police 10.5 percent raises over 3 years "He went from excessive force to deadly force. How many more people have to die before you terminate him?" Crump said. "We are calling for District Attorney Kim Ogg you've seen the video, you know his history to charge this officer for the unjust killing of Jalen Randle." In a statement, the district attorney's office said: "In every officer-involved shooting, our Civil Rights Division prosecutors conduct a thorough, independent review of all the evidence and present every bit of evidence to a Harris County grand jury to determine if a criminal charge is warranted. We also await the results of the Houston Police Departments investigation." Crump also announced plans to file a civil suit against the HPD for damages. Houston police declined to comment, in keeping with department policy, citing an ongoing internal affairs investigation. "This family, this daughter, is never going to get her father back, so we have to have some sort of accountability for her," Crump said. "There's no amount that can replace this girl's father, so we are going to ask that any and everything that she is entitled to, she gets." A Spring man suspected of shooting his wife, killing his mother-in-law and abducting his three-month-old son killed himself Thursday morning in Ellis County, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Just after midnight, Obinna Dwayne Igbokwe, 41, was identified in the city of Corsicana in Navarro County 55 miles southeast of Dallas when he dropped off his infant son, Mansa Igbokwe, at a local hotel, according to MCSO. Igbokwe told workers he was coming back and never returned, MCSO stated. Authorities alerted local law enforcement in Navarro and Ellis Counties that Igbokwe was in the area while Corsicana police reunited Mansa who was unharmed with his family. More on HoustonChronicle.com: Federal judge blocks UH harassment policy in free speech case Around 1 a.m., Ellis police located Igbokwe's white Honda Accord and attempted to pull him over, according to officials. After a short pursuit, Igbokwe pulled into a parking lot and shot himself. Ellis police applied life saving measures to Igbokwe but he was taken to a local Dallas hospital and pronounced dead around 5:20 a.m., authorities stated. Deputies initially responded to reports of a shooting around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the 30100 block of Aldine Westfield Road and found two women with apparent gunshot wounds to the head, MCSO said. Ibokwe's wife, Tangela Igbokwe, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition while her mother, Linda Larkins, was pronounced dead at the scene. More on Crime: Former Cowboys running back Marion Barber III dies at 38 Investigators identified Igbokwe shortly after as the suspect in the incident and stated he was in a child custody dispute with Tangela when the incident occurred, the press release added. Corsicana and Ellis police departments alongside Ellis and Montgomery County Sheriff's Offices are currently handling the investigation, authorities stated. No other information is available at this time. Joel.Umanzor@chron.com Houston Chronicle A person was fatally shot Thursday morning during an apparent road rage incident in northwest Harris County, according to a tweet from Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. Deputies were flagged down around 11:02 a.m. to the 13900 block of Hollister Road on the main lanes of the Sam Houston Tollway and found the passenger of a car with gunshot wounds, according to HCSO. The person was pronounced dead at the scene. School systems across Texas should be instructed to conduct weekly checks of exterior doors, according to a letter Gov. Greg Abbott sent the states education agency with several requests following the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school. Abbotts letter also requested Texas Education Agency officials instruct districts to identify actions they can take prior to the start of the new school year that will make their campuses more secure and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. On HoustonChronicle.com: Uvalde shooting leaves a father to grieve the loss of his 10-year-old child from inside a prison Sadly, tragedy struck Texas again last week with the senseless shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Abbott wrote in the letter to Education Commissioner Mike Morath. In the wake of this devastating crime, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that our schools provide a safe and secure environment for the children of Texas. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School. The gunman is believed to have entered the school through a door that did not lock when it was closed by a teacher. In the week since the massacre, authorities have released conflicting accounts of how the shooting unfolded and how police responded, releasing some information presented as fact that was later withdrawn and at least once acknowledging some decisions in the response were wrong. While some have focused attention on the police response and others on Texas gun laws, Abbott has suggested schools need to be further hardened against intruders. He announced Wednesday that state officials will begin random, unannounced visits to schools to check whether they are in compliance with state-mandated safety measures. Additionally, Abbott called for leaders of the state Legislature to create committees to evaluate school and firearm safety, but stopped short of calling a special legislative session, drawing criticism from some Democratic lawmakers. On HoustonChronicle.com: Gov. Abbott calls for intruder detection audits to test school safety plans Following a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 students and a teacher dead, the state Legislature in 2019 passed a law to harden schools and require they conduct behavioral threat assessments. Legislators passed school security policies, mental health programs for schools and a pathway for teachers to arm themselves in class. A Chronicle investigation published this year found schools do not have enough mental health providers. In his letter Thursday, Abbott directed Morath and the TEA to prepare rules to ensure existing school facilities are held to heightened safety standards and determine the cost for districts to comply with the rules. The agency had adopted rules to ensure safety in facilities built after last November, Abbott said. Your task is to provide ways to make schools safer, the letter states. The Office of the Governor and the Texas Legislature need this critical information to determine the best ways to secure our schools and how to properly allocate funding. The governor still failed to address the most critical factor in school shootings - too many guns in the hands of people who shouldnt have them, said Clay Robison, spokesman of Texas State Teachers Association. He needs to propose and support laws that make it more difficult for dangerous people to acquire firearms, Robison said. He can start by calling for repeal of the state law that allowed the Uvalde shooter to legally acquire an assault rifle at the age of 18 and use it to kill 19 school children and two teachers. alejandro.serrano@chron.com A U.S. district court judge has blocked the University of Houston from enforcing a former version of its anti-discrimination policy, saying it is likely his final ruling will agree with conservative students who believed the rules were chilling their speech. Judge Lynn N. Hughes in May granted a preliminary injunction to Speech First, a nonprofit organization that challenges what its members call a toxic censorship culture at campuses across the country. The court action means that the University of Houston cannot revert to its prior policy, at least until Hughes disposes the case and likely after. The University cannot choose to abide by the First Amendment in the Constitution, the judge wrote in the injunction. It is not guidance it is the law. On HoustonChronicle.com: Aggies are fighting over Texas A&Ms soul. One conflict? A campus drag show. Hughes said in his ruling that Speech First will probably succeed on the merits of the case because of Supreme Court-adopted standards that protect free speech, no matter how offensive. He added that no irreparable harm should occur in blocking the policy, as fewer students are on campus during the summer. Three university students who describe themselves as politically conservative are at the center of the Speech First lawsuit, filed in February. They are part of a broader movement, mostly led by Republican-affiliated groups, that portrays universities as increasingly liberal and less willing to protect free speech out of political correctness. All three said they felt afraid to share their views with their classmates and felt stifled by the universitys harassment policy. Among their beliefs, one student said they felt that transgender women shouldnt compete in womens sports. Another thought that pay disparities between men and women are a fair consequence of the free market. And another said that policies supported by Black Lives Matter are corrosive to race relations in America. This is another huge victory for students in Texas, Speech First executive director Cherise Trump said. The courts ruling sends a clear message to all universities that restrictions on student speech will not be tolerated simply because listeners find certain ideas to be offensive or controversial. The Universitys policy subjects students to formal discipline for harassment for merely expressing mainstream conservative opinions that other students find objectionable, she continued. This overbroad restriction on speech forces students to habitually self-censor and refrain from beliefs that are inconsistent with the consensus on campus. Higher education should be a sanctuary for debate where students can express their beliefs and engage with opposing viewpoints. The University of Houston System on May 13 altered its anti-discrimination policy, after the lawsuit was filed. System officials affirmed in a statement that they were abiding by the new, adopted policy, and they acknowledged that the judge prohibited them from going back to the previous version. We look forward to future discussions of the new policy with the plaintiffs and the court in this ongoing case, the statement reads. The University remains committed to the welfare of our community, including protecting the rights of its students and employees. In the former policy, harassment was defined as treatment that is severe, pervasive, or persistent and is either humiliating, abusive or threatening conduct showing hostility or aversion toward an individual or group. It was also defined as treatment that is intimidating, hostile or abusive in learning, living or working environments; or treatment that interferes unreasonably with a persons academics or work. Examples included epithets or slurs, negative stereotyping, denigrating jokes and display of written or graphic material, according to the former policy. In a February statement to the Chronicle, the UH System stood behind the prior rules. The updated policy clarifies that harassing conduct must be severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of employment or impede equal access to education. It also must create a hostile and abusive working or learning environment. Offensive language is not enough to constitute harassment, the policy states. The students lawsuit against leaders at UH and the UH System, filed in a Houston-based federal court, names university president and system chancellor Renu Khator, Board of Regents Chairman Tilman Fertitta and 13 other university leaders for alleged violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Speech First has spearheaded and settled lawsuits against other large private universities, including the University of Texas at Austin. The university in December 2020 dismantled its Campus Climate Response Team, which aided students in reporting alleged incidents of bias, in response to Speech First litigation over UT-Austins policies on nondiscrimination. samantha.ketterer@houstonchronicle.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As Uvalde tries to heal from the deadliest school shooting in state history, fellow Texans are finding ways to help however possible and a number of Houston businesses and organizations recently joined the efforts. Avalanche Food Group (AFG) plans to hold a statewide car wash at each of its eight Twin Peaks restaurant locations across Texas, including five in Houston, on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Our entire Twin Peaks family is heartbroken and grieving for the victims and the families left behind in the wake of this horrible, senseless tragedy," AFG COO Ricky Rosa said in a release. All donations collected Saturday will be sent directly to the official fundraiser pages for the families of the Uvalde victims, the release states. "We want to do whatever we can to help, and hope the donations raised by our restaurants this weekend will ease some of the burden for Uvalde families in the days to come with funeral, medical, legal and other expenses," Rosa said. ABOUT THE VICTIMS: Remembering the lives lost in Uvalde Now Playing: Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury High School held a vigil Wednesday to honor the victims of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. Video: WCVB Popular fast food chain Checkers and Rally's is also hosting a fundraiser on Tuesday, June 7, at its 30 Houston locations. The chain vowed to donate 100 percent of profits from its fry sales to the Robb Elementary Memorial Fund, an account opened at the First State Bank of Uvalde to provide financial assistance for the families of the 21 slain victims. Shortly after opening the account, the bank wrote on Facebook that the response "has been so overwhelming" that Zelle was having issues, which were ultimately resolved. The Houston Texans also announced Wednesday that they would donate $400,000 to the Robb School Memorial Fund, an accumulation of $200,000 organized from the players and another $200,00 matched by Texans CEO Cal McNair and his wife Hannah. Those interested in donating to the Robb School Memorial Fund can call the First State Bank of Uvalde at (830) 356-2273, drop off donations at any of its branch locations, mail to PO Box 1908, Uvalde TX 78802, or send money through Zelle to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com. Next to the 69-year-old Spanish Village Restaurant, which has long greeted people driving down Almeda Road, a sign in bold lettering asks What should go here? Beside it, a giant QR code directs interested passerby to a page on a website called Localist, where dozens of people have weighed in. Cool yall are asking, said one. Whatever yall do, make sure it features businesses from diverse faces. A 24-hour food option would be the most amazing thing ever! said another. The signs have popped up throughout the city in recent months, the work of two Houstonians who wanted to give communities a way to weigh in on what properties should be used for. They hope Localist, a project theyve funded themselves, will give people a say in how investment reshapes their neighborhoods something especially important in a city where the planning process does not require public input and during a time when investment is surging in commercial real estate. On HoustonChronicle.com: Why a Third Ward property owner is saying no to townhomes The platform comes at a time when a small but growing number of developers are looking for ways to give people more voice in how gentrifying neighborhoods are developed. In Third Ward, the real estate broker Jason T. Hyman has created the DT3M Fund, short for Do the Things That Matter, which gives sellers a say in what their properties will be used in the future. In Fifth Ward, developer Christopher Senegal is using crowdfunding to take on projects he and investors believe will improve a neighborhood without causing displacement, including the purchase of 18 homes with the promise to keep rents from rising. I just want to be a good neighbor, said Steven Rogers, who recently bought Spanish Village Restaurant and the adjoining property, when asked why he reached out to Localist about gathering community feedback on the future of the space. I dont want to come in and be disruptive... I want to put what we think is a good fit for the community. And I think that can be done through asking questions and dialogue. Hes familiar with Almeda Road, which stretches between Third Ward and the Museum District, having had a presence on the street since 2017, when he was one of the founders of Turkey Leg Hut (he has since sold his stake in the business). And he had an idea for its needs when he bought the project, given the lack of food options available in the area. Nonetheless, he found the comments edifying (one resounding piece of feedback: keep the restaurants iconic sign). He plans to do so, and to include a coffee shop, a new space for Spanish Village Restaurant and other hospitality projects in the developments design, which is still in progress. I think theyll be pleased with whats going up in the space, he said. The website he was using to gather feedback was created by David Martinez and Monte Large, who met as high schoolers working summer jobs at River Oaks Theatre selling tickets and making popcorn. Large said the concept traced back to a common thought that would cross his mind when walking or driving. I was like why cant we have an opinion and voice our thoughts on what should go there? Large, who is one of the owners of Axelrad, said that the idea gained even more urgency during the pandemic, when many beloved shops and restaurants shut down as health precautions dried up business, and uncertainty surrounded the future of many spaces. In the spring of 2020, he and Martinez began working on Localist in earnest. Their testing ground? A former industrial laundry facility in Second Ward that Large and others had recently purchased and were planning to redevelop. On one of the giant garage doors of the warehouse at 3401 Harrisburg Boulevard, they posted a sign and a QR code similar to whats on the side of Spanish Village Restaurant: What should go here? One of the most popular ideas, Large said, was a cafe, followed by a wine bar. People wanted a print-making studio, a second-hand clothing store, a popsicle shop. It was really cool to get that feedback, Large said especially since they were converting a previously industrial space that was in the middle of an existing community. How to do this the best way that the neighborhood, the community, likes it? As someone with longstanding ties to Second Ward his grandfather grew up there, and he spent his childhood visiting the neighborhood he wanted to invest with the neighborhood in a way that met its needs. Its not just us coming in and gentrifying. Jeffrey Kaplan, who oversees leasing as another one of the Plants owners, currently lives in Second Ward and said he worked to recruit his neighbors to set up shop in the project. As a result, he said, 80 percent of its businesses are minority and women-owned. After testing Localist on the Plant, the startup poster bombed properties with What should go here? signs with QR codes pointing to Localists website, Large said. The website also allowed users to start conversations about properties themselves (those pages often only have one comment, such as How about a grocery store here?? for the vacant lot on the corner of Canal and Sampson streets). Large said features are still being added to the site, which wont formally launch until early 2023, although users are already freely adding to it it has pages for 192 properties in New York City and two dozen in Houston. He has visions of it being a cross between the beloved, but now-shuttered real estate blog Swamplot and a place-based social media site a platform where people go can go to learn and have conversations at a property level. When Rogers saw Localists What should go here? sign pasted on the construction fence surrounding former Disco Kroger in Montrose, he immediately thought it was a cool way to get feedback. I dont want to be a developer who comes in and just puts in what I think is needed, he said, because its better when we work together as a community and figure out what are our needs. Rogers was also interested in using the platform to give the community updates on the project as it progresses. He reached out about getting a sign of his own. When Jack Miller, who lives nearby and enjoys imagining what properties should be, saw the sign on Spanish Village Restaurant, he quickly scanned the code. Miller admitted his suggestion mixed-use with ground-floor dining beneath apartments with a rooftop lounge with the Spanish Village sign above may be ambitious, given the size of the plot. But youve got to dream, he said. Almeda should be one of the premier streets for Black culture in the United States... like Mulberry Street in Little Italy in Manhattan is to Italian Americans. rebecca.schuetz@chron.com; twitter.com/raschuetz Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, two of the companies building massive campuses at the Houston Spaceport, will build the next generation of NASA spacesuits. The Johnson Space Center announced Wednesday that Axiom and Collins will compete for missions on the International Space Station, where astronauts are using 40-year-old spacesuit technology, and on the moon. Together, the companies could receive up to $3.5 billion through 2034.The previous suit, for 40 years, has been the workhorse, Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche said during a news conference. The history will be made with these (new) suits when we get to the moon. We will have our first person of color and our first woman that will be wearers and users of these suits. FUTURE TECH Texas A&M tech could be the future of NASA's spacesuits, using full-body scanners to make custom gear NASA officials have long recognized that its spacesuits needed an upgrade. Those worn by astronauts that step outside the International Space Station were initially designed for use with the space shuttle. They dont always fit astronauts comfortably, they can be difficult to get into and a recent malfunction has prompted a NASA review. After completing a March 23 spacewalk, European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer returned to the station to discover a thin layer of water more than normal inside his helmet. The agency will review this issue and possible fixes before resuming normal spacewalk operations. Wed like to try new future technologies, said Dina Contella, operations integration manager for NASAs International Space Station Program. Wed like to do it in an affordable way. And so this contract is actually a great part of our strategy for ISS for maintaining and utilizing the space station for years to come. NASA has spent the past 15 years researching new spacesuit technology. Its plan was to create a reference design or prototype that the private sector could use to build suits, but that plan pivoted when former President Donald Trump challenged NASA to return to the moon by 2024. NASA decided at that time it would send its reference suit to the moon to meet the condensed timeline. The agency pivoted again after NASA made significant progress on its prototype and pushed the moon landing to no sooner than 2025. NASA decided companies could build the suits after all. But in a departure from NASAs previous spacesuits, which were built by contractors and owned by the agency, these suits will be owned by the companies that build them. NASA hopes its astronauts will be one of many customers wearing the suits. Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini praised this public-private partnership. His Houston-based company is sending private astronauts to the International Space Station and is building its own commercial space station. These suits will benefit both NASA and Axiom Space. We have a number of customers that already would like to do a spacewalk, and we had planned to build a suit as part of our program, Suffredini said. Its fantastic to have a partnership where we can benefit from the years of experience that NASA has and then (we) as a commercial company come in and work with them to build it in a way thats (at the) lowest cost. Axiom will begin building the suits at its current Houston facilities and then move this work to the Houston Spaceport when its new headquarters campus opens. Axiom plans to complete the first phase of its construction by April 2023. Charlotte, N.C.-based Collins Aerospace, which has helped build spacesuits for Apollo, space shuttle and International Space Station astronauts, plans to move into its Houston Spaceport location in the third quarter of this year. Much of its spacesuit assembly, maintenance and testing will be done at the new Houston location. Spacesuits operate like human-shaped spacecraft. Yet Dan Burbank, senior technical fellow for Collins Aerospace and a former NASA astronaut, said they should compliment not constrain a crew members capabilities. This has been an issue in the past. Apollo astronauts had custom suits, but they werent always easy to move around in or flexible. Astronauts had to fall over to collect rocks from the moon. Current suits have a one-size-fits-many approach, which can be an issue as astronauts elbows and shoulders dont fall in the same places. Former NASA astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar previously told the Chronicle that the suits elbows didnt bend where her elbows bent. And an ill-fitting suit can cause astronauts to waste energy. Other astronauts have reported shoulder injuries from the ill-fitting suits. In addition, many women (plus some men) became ineligible for spacewalks after NASA changed the available sizes. There were initially five sizes for the suits hard upper torso extra small, small, medium, large and extra large but budget cuts reduced those offered to just medium, large and extra large. These three sizes are still used today on the International Space Station. In 2019, NASA had to reschedule its first all-female spacewalk after discovering that only one medium hard upper torso, which both women required, was on the International Space Station. MORE: NASA canceled its first all-female spacewalk. Why? It didn't have anything that fit Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace plan to address these issues in their designs. Burbank said he participated in a test on Wednesday where one suit was resized in about 30 minutes from his taller height to fit someone with a shorter stature. To get the cost where you need it to be, the challenge is to have a modular approach that does allow that full indexability and full tailorability, he said. Its actually very promising. NASA has done a lot of the legwork for these companies, which are building upon the agencys reference suits, but there is a tight deadline to meet. NASA wants to return to the moon in 2025. Yet NASA Inspector General Paul Martin said in January that the time needed to develop and test these suits as well as the landing system that will lower astronauts to the moon could contribute to astronauts not returning to the moon before 2026. NASA officials hope that sharing the agencys spacesuit data will accelerate the companies development, said Lara Kearney, manager of the Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program at NASAs Johnson Space Center. Getting it in their hands sooner, I think, is better, she said, because they take ownership of it sooner. And so they start to run on that path to hitting a deadline. andrea.leinfelder@chron.com twitter.com/a_leinfelder This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate State officials will begin random, unannounced visits to schools around Texas to check whether theyre compliant with state-mandated safety measures, including checks to see how quickly a stranger can penetrate buildings without being stopped, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. Abbott said he intends to crack down on districts around that havent established detailed safety plans as required by state law, or arent following them. School safety initiatives are overseen by the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University, and Abbott ordered the director of the center to contact every Texas school district and ensure its compliance. Each district is supposed to have a School Safety and Security Committee that drafts policies and trains staff on them, and those committees are all being directed to meet this summer as they normally do between school years to review security plans. Among other reviews, your team should begin conducting in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts, Abbott wrote in a letter to the director of the school safety center. Staff should approach campuses to find weak points and how quickly they can penetrate buildings without being stopped. This will help determine if schools are prepared to implement and follow the (emergency operations plans) they have already submitted to the state. Abbott went on to note that if districts are not in compliance with security mandates, they are required to hold public meetings to let their communities know of their failure. If they do not, state law allows the Texas Education Agency to assume leadership of noncompliant schools. I will work with TEA to hold accountable any ISD that is not in compliance with these standards, Abbott wrote. Abbott and other Republicans have said tightening access to guns is not a real solution to mass shootings. They are choosing instead to focus on school hardening, although some experts in mass shootings have noted that shooters typically choose to terrorize places they are familiar with, making security protocols less effective. After the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018, where the shooter entered the building through an unlocked back door, Texas focused on school security instead of restricting guns. In Uvalde last week, the shooter also entered the building through an unlocked back door. edward.mckinley@chron.com A special legislative committee called by Gov. Greg Abbott this week in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde does not include the state senator who represents the district. In a written statement, that state senator, Roland Gutierrez, called the special committee assignments a slap in the face of the people of Uvalde. Its also a slap in the face to the people of Sante Fe and El Paso because they dont have a voice on this committee either, Gutierrez said. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick selected eight Republicans and three Democrats to lead the evaluation on school and firearm safety. The committee is similar to the one called by Abbott to shape the states response to a mass shooting at Sante Fe High School in 2018. On HoustonChronicle.com: Uvalde shooting leaves a father to grieve the loss of his 10-year-old child from inside a prison Gutierrez called the committee a stall tactic from Abbott, who can evade a growing call from Democrats for a special legislative session, which would immediately bring state lawmakers back to Austin to discuss gun violence prevention measures. We already know what happens, we know why it happens, and we know what needs to be done to stop it from happening next time, Gutierrez said. We dont need another Blue Ribbon committee. We need a special session so that we can start crafting common sense solutions right now that are going to keep our kids safe. Last week, Gutierrez interrupted a press conference about state resources being provided for the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde held by Abbott. Gutierrez stood up and called on Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature to address the shooting. He and other Democrats asked for gun control changes, something Republican leaders in Austin have refused to discuss. Gutierrez is set to give a press conference in Uvalde this afternoon. timothy.fanning@express-news.net UVALDE, Texas (AP) The commander at the scene of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside the building as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 did not make their way to school district police Chief Pete Arredondo. The Democratic senator called it a system failure that calls were going to the city police but were not communicated to Arredondo. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference, adding that no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. However, he said, Gov. Greg Abbott should accept much of the responsibility for the failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. On HoustonChronicle.com: Uvalde shooting leaves a father to grieve the loss of his 10-year-old child from inside a prison The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo. Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo believed the situation had turned into hostage situation and made the wrong decision to not order officers to attempt to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. On HoustonChronicle.com: A reconstruction of how the Uvalde tragedy unfolded Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls was being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him school district police chief did not know. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Funerals for those slain began this week. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ Blebierg reported from Dallas. Uvalde school district police chief Pedro Pete Arredondo, under intense scrutiny for his handling of the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, said Wednesday he is cooperating with state officials investigating the massacre. Weve been on the phone with them everyday, Arredondo told CNN, referring to the Texas Department of Public Safety. He declined to answer further questions, saying he wanted to respect the families of those killed. On HoustonChronicle.com: Gov. Abbott calls for legislative committees to review school safety after Uvalde mass shooting Were not going to release anything, he said. We have people in our community that are being buried. Were going to be respectful to the families. Arredondo was pushing back against news reports suggesting he was not cooperating with the investigation, which is being led by the Texas Rangers. On Tuesday, ABC News reported that members of the Uvalde Police Department and the separate, six-member school police force were refusing to cooperate with state officials. On Tuesday night, DPS said that Uvalde police and school officers in fact were cooperating and that Arredondo had been interviewed but that Arredondo had not responded to requests for a followup interview. Uvalde PD and Uvalde CISD are still cooperating; however, the Chief of Police for CISD has yet to respond to the Rangers request for a follow up interview that was made a couple of days ago, a DPS spokesperson said. Arredondo, 50, was the incident commander at Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting. He has been under fire since DPS director Steven McCraw, at a nationally televised news briefing Friday, said Arredondo had waited more than an hour to send officers into the classroom to confront the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. On HoustonChronicle.com: Why was the head of a six-person force for Uvalde CISD in charge of the mass shooting response? McCraw said Arredondo decided that the crisis had shifted from an active shooter situation to a barricaded subject situation, that children and teachers were no longer at risk, and that there was time to await the arrival of more officers with specialized equipment. Of course, it was not the right decision, McCraw said. It was the wrong decision. Period. Theres no excuse for that. ... From what we know, we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. By the time members of a Border Patrol tactical unit stormed the classroom, Ramos had killed 19 children and two teachers. A Border Patrol officer shot and killed Ramos. Arredondo was born in Uvalde and graduated from Uvalde High School. He spent 16 years with the Uvalde Police Department, serving as a 911 dispatcher, a patrolman and a detective, among other roles. Later, he worked for the Webb County Sheriffs Office and as a police captain at Laredos United Independent School District. He returned to Uvalde in 2020 to lead the school district police there. On HoustonChronicle.com: Heartbreaking photos from the growing Uvalde memorials In early May, he was elected to the Uvalde City Council. A special council meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday, at which he and other council members were to be sworn in. The day before, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin Jr. canceled the meeting, apparently out of concern that Arredondos appearance could create a furor. Last night, McLaughlin disclosed that the swearing-in had been held in private. Staff Writer Jeremy Wallace contributed to this report. This was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Students and staff will not return to Uvaldes Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, the school districts superintendent said in a statement released on Wednesday. We are working through plans on how to serve students on other campuses and will provide that information as soon as it is finalized, Superintendent Hal Harrells statement reads. We are also working with agencies to help us identify improvements on all UCISD campuses. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is now developing plans on how to serve students on other campuses after the deadly May 24 shooting. Investigators are looking into why a self-locking door at Robb Elementary failed to engage after a teacher closed it that day, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Officials previously said a teacher had propped the door open but now say the teacher did shut it after opening it, correcting that information after a lawyer for the teacher insisted it had been closed. That same teacher had contacted 911 when the 18-year-old gunman crashed into a ditch by the school and was seen carrying a gun. She saw the wreck, lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News. She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, He has a gun! She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun, so she ran back inside. The superintendents statement did not outline plans for the Robb Elementary School building. The federal government may tear down the school, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, said in an interview with San Antonio television station KSAT. Gutierrez said President Joe Biden, who visited Uvalde on Sunday, told him, were going to look to raze that school and build a new one. In the statement, Harrell also said the district will continue to provide counseling and support to students and staff for the foreseeable future and will cooperate with law enforcement investigating the incident. Because the investigation is ongoing and information is evolving, we are going to reserve comment until all state and federal agencies have completed their review, he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Texas lawmakers proposed about 200 bills addressing gun policy during the 2021 legislative session, including some that would have established universal background checks or raised the age to purchase an assault weapon items long on gun control advocates wish lists. Two years prior, after a pair of mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa, even some Republicans had expressed willingness to tighten gun laws. Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick bucked the National Rifle Association to support background checks on stranger-to-stranger gun sales. But none of those restrictive bills got a vote, and only a handful had a hearing, during the 87th session. By the time lawmakers convened in Austin, their urgency and willingness to go against the gun lobby had fizzled. Instead, the 2021 session was marked by the expansion of gun laws in Texas, including the passage of the permitless carry law that removed training requirements to carry a handgun in public. A Hearst Newspapers analysis of 180 gun-related bills from the session revealed a deeply divided Legislature, where Republicans repeatedly shut down any efforts to curb firearm access. As Democrats pursued gun restrictions they have long believed would mitigate those massacres, Republicans sought to roll back existing laws that they viewed as an infringement of Second Amendment rights. When lawmakers gaveled out in May, they had approved at least 22 bills related to firearms. The NRA called it a groundbreaking session for gun owners, and Abbott called the permitless carry bill the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history. IN-DEPTH: Gov. Abbott calls for committees, not a special session, after Uvalde massacre just like Santa Fe We saw an unprecedented movement during the 87th regular session to restore our rights and demonstrate that the Lone Star State is a leader in the fight to protect and preserve our firearm freedoms, the NRAs lobbying arm wrote in a blog post. After the El Paso shooting, Abbott and other GOP lawmakers had promised to address gun safety during the next session, but it just didnt happen, said state Rep. Lina Ortega, an El Paso Democrat. The environment, when the session started, was not favorable when it came to ... common-sense gun reform or policies that would be acceptable to our Republican colleagues, Ortega said. And that was pretty obvious. Now, after last weeks shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde left 21 dead, Democrats are renewing calls for the measures that faltered during the 2021 session and expecting a replay of the 2021 hearings and legislation. Abbott has so far declined to call a special session, instead directing the Legislature to form new committees to reassess the twin issues of school safety and mass violence. During a Twitter argument on Wednesday, state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said he would vote for permitless carry and the other gun measures again in a heartbeat. Republicans have repeatedly said that gun control measures are not the solution to mass shootings, instead focusing on mental health resources and school security measures. Gun rights for unauthorized immigrants, too The 180 bills reviewed by Hearst Newspapers include measures that either fall under the weapons category in the Legislature or contain keywords like gun or firearm. Their authors were about evenly split by party, but Republican-led bills were twice as likely to get a hearing. The 22 bills approved included permitless carry, which allowed most Texans age 21 and up to carry a handgun in public without a license; legislation allowing Texans to carry their handguns in cars and hotels; and a bill that intended to exempt Texas-made silencers from federal oversight. Legislators also passed bills prohibiting the state from doing business with companies that discriminate against gun sellers and banning the governor from closing down gun sellers during an emergency, as was the case at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the permitless carry bill made it to the House floor, you've got Republicans who are backed by the NRA and those groups who were worried for their positions, that if they didn't vote for this bill, they would lose the next election, said state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin. So that had a great impact. This session was much more divisive than in 2019. Texas Gun Sense, a nonprofit organization that supports firearm restrictions, called the session a uniquely challenging environment for gun control advocates. The group counted more than 225 gun-related bills filed that year. Despite the dangers of COVID-19, a deeply divisive political climate, and the clear intent of leadership to pass reckless gun laws, we continued our presence throughout the session as the lead on sensible gun policy in the state, the organization wrote in its post-session analysis. The House was, generally, a friendlier environment to Democrats who introduced gun control measures. While their bills never hit the House floor, several were granted hearings including one of Ortegas proposals that would have codified Patricks request to expand background checks. Patrick leads the Senate but never allowed such a hearing in the upper chamber. The private sale loophole is dangerous to Texans, Ortega told the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety in April 2021. This impacts real people in our state every day. In the same hearing, state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said that universal background checks would negatively impact Texas residents who are not citizens. Unauthorized immigrants would fail a national background check, he argued, and they too are entitled to the God-given right to self-defense. What I understand, and what people do not realize, is that youre going to make it so that theres only one door someone can walk through legally in the state of Texas to get a gun, said Schaefer, who also authored the permitless carry bill. And thats through a door that is opened and closed in Washington, D.C., by people weve never met and have never voted for. Ortegas measure, House Bill 118, never saw a vote in the committee. But in an interview this week, Ortega said she doubted it would have made a difference it had taken a long time to get the hearing in the first place, and Republicans were likely to block the measure anyway. The Anti-Red Flag Act Democrats had also hoped that year to work on a red flag law that would allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others. Abbott had endorsed the idea after the Santa Fe shooting in 2018, but Patrick shut down the idea in the 2019 session. Though lawmakers tried to revive the issue in 2021, none of their red flag bills were granted a hearing. Instead, Republicans actively tried to prohibit such measures. State Sen. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, introduced a package of pro-Second Amendment bills in the early days of session, including legislation explicitly called the Anti-Red Flag Act that would have prevented localities from adopting such policies. Standing up for the Second Amendment has always been one of my top priorities, Springer said in a February 2021 release. Time and time again, weve seen the federal government try to overregulate the firearms industry and overstep the Tenth Amendment which we know harms law abiding citizens. The bills Ive filed today will protect Texans constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms and defend themselves and their property. The anti-red flag bill, which had a companion in the House authored by GOP state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, also never saw a hearing. So far, Texas GOP leaders have shut down any proposals to restrict firearm access in the wake of the Uvalde massacre. Abbott and Phelan have instead focused on mental health resources, while Patrick has backed efforts to further secure school buildings. After years of unfulfilled promises to regulate guns in the wake of mass shootings, state Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, said hes not hopeful that things will be different this time around. After Sutherland Springs, no action. After Santa Fe, no action. After El Paso, no action, he said. Well, let me restate that. After all of those tragedies and Odessa the only action that we've seen is to loosen gun safety regulation. cayla.harris@express-news.net To fully understand a problem like terrorism, you need to accept complexity, a sprawl of general factors personal, historical, cultural converging in a specific movement or a single actor. The kind of mass-murdering, effectively-suicidal terrorism that has taken hold in America in the 23 years since Columbine is no different, even if it doesnt wave a flag or make political demands. The cascade of mimetic violence, the despairing anti-politics, the horribly vulnerable targets, the young men willingly becoming monsters so much is implicated here: our media ecosystem and our education system, religion and technology and fatherhood and relations between the sexes, a tangle of roots in poisoned soil. But an important truth about policymaking a conservative truth, in many contexts is that you dont have to fully understand a problems roots in order to do something about it. Theres no simple path to a future America where young men like the killer in Uvalde, Texas may his name be blotted out no longer seek apotheosis through mass murder. But as long as we live in this America, I want the next teenager with an obvious set of warning flags severe familial disorder, self-harm, violent online threats to find it much harder to turn 18 and immediately acquire a high-powered weapon. The specificity of the problem is important. I am not interested in the liberal desire to fold the problem of Uvalde-style mass shootings, of nihilistic terrorism with a misogynist or racist edge, into a larger problem called gun violence. America does indeed have a lot of gun violence, and we have had more of it in the past few years, but that violence is first and foremost a crime problem one worsened by the easy availability of handguns but also by other novel factors, including the school closures and the police retreat that blue-state liberalism has recently encouraged. Better enforcement of gun laws has its place in any response to the current homicide spike. But the liberals pining for sweeping new federal gun restrictions seem to be imagining either toothless laws that dont affect anyone except the scrupulously law-abiding or some version of Michael Bloombergs aggressive-policing regime imposed all over the country, when they themselves decided that Bloombergism was authoritarian and racist. In either case, the liberal anti-gun impulse often tends toward culture-war posturing, not an actual strategy for bringing homicide rates back down or preventing the kind of school shootings that are just general lawlessness spilling over onto school property. At the same time, I also have no interest in the apparent conservative desire or least Ted Cruzs desire to turn Americas schools into a zone of overpolicing, duck-and-cover fearfulness and military-level vigilance. Yes, there are schools in high-crime areas that need a police presence and there are school buildings well suited to have a single, secured entrance. But beyond these basics, the potential ubiquity of armed security and active-shooter drills is its own sacrifice of liberty, and even if the right to a demilitarized childhood isnt enumerated in the Constitution, it should be treasured and preserved. Conservatives and libertarians should be especially aware of this given that they have spent two years arguing, reasonably, that the infliction of COVID security theater on children does more harm than good. If that logic applies to the low risk to children from the virus, it surely applies to the low risk of school terrorism as well. And COVID theater, at least, did not risk spreading the virus further, whereas I strongly suspect that a constant childhood drumbeat about the risks of school massacres contributes to the dark romance of the deed especially among those unhappy kids for whom K-12 education feels like a prison anyway, with or without metal detectors. So dont give me a fanciful general war on guns or a general hardening of elementary schools. Give me policies, the simpler the better, that would stand between some meaningful percentage of mass shooters and their arsenals. We have a decent sense of what those policies might be. The people drawn to this kind of terrorism are overwhelmingly of a type young, troubled, socially awkward men. They are not necessarily gun experts, prepared to retrofit any weapon they acquire for maximal lethality, nor are they necessarily experts at navigating black markets to acquire weapons they cant get legally. And they often expose their instability and intentions in advance. Yes, some will overcome all obstacles or strike without warning. But many others, including the Uvalde shooter, seem potentially deterrable at the point of weapons acquisition. As the University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford told The Dispatch, if you make buying a firearm more difficult for people who find it difficult to do anything socially, that makes a difference. Those difference-making difficulties could be imposed via restrictions that target age and weapon type at once. Or they could be imposed through laws encouraging preemptive action by parties who might see the threat coming in advance. Age requirements for the purchase of AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles fall into the first category; red-flag laws, which enable interventions that temporarily strip dangerous-seeming people of their guns, are the best example of the second approach. Im open to both options, but my current policy preference is slightly different. I worry that red-flag laws demand too much of bystanders and family members, while offering too little in cases where the potential shooter has cut himself off from normal contact. Im not sure an age limit of 21 covers enough of the young male danger zone, and I also understand the objections of gun rights advocates to a system that demands that a 20-year-old enroll himself for potential military service but refuses him adult rights of self-defense. So I would like to see experiments with age-based impediments rather than full restrictions allowing would-be gun purchasers 25 and under the same rights of ownership as 40- or 60-year-olds, but with more substantial screenings before a purchase. Not just a criminal-background check, in other words, but some kind of basic social or psychological screening, combining a mental-health check, a social-media audit and testimonials from two competent adults all subject to the same appeals process as a well-designed red-flag law. This is an alteration and refinement of an earlier suggestion I floated following the Parkland shooting, which would have staggered the age at which various guns become available for legal purchase. Of course it generates its own set of objections, practical and constitutional; every potential gun regulation does. And if you fear our government enough, there will always be a reason to imagine that to yield anything is to yield everything that todays screening for early-20-something gun owners will become tomorrows tacit ban on conservatives buying guns, to pick the most obvious possible response. But thats a counsel of futility for responding to almost any threat, as long as our politics are polarized and trust in government stays low. And Im not interested in futility, any more than Im interested in the forms of right-wing overreaction or left-wing fantasy politics criticized above. Theres a future where Americas gun-ownership rate is as high as ever, where our schools still look like schools rather than airport security lines and where 18-year-olds under a demoniac shadow face meaningful obstacles to arming themselves for terrorism. Lets try living there, and see what happens next. Ross Douthat is a columnist for the New York Times. WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Tioga County in central New York... Northeastern Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania... * Until 715 PM EDT. * At 642 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Milan, or near Athens, moving east at 40 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Sayre, Athens, Sheshequin, Ulster, Litchfield, Orwell, Windham, Nichols, Rome and Le Raysville. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... South central Lea County in southeastern New Mexico... Northwestern Winkler County in western Texas... Northeastern Loving County in western Texas... * Until 615 PM CDT/515 PM MDT/. * At 521 PM CDT/421 PM MDT/, a severe thunderstorm was located 12 miles north of Mentone, moving northeast at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Bennett and Slash Ranch. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. TX . TEXAS COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE ANDREWS BORDEN BREWSTER CRANE CROCKETT CULBERSON DAWSON ECTOR FISHER GAINES GARZA GLASSCOCK HOWARD IRION JEFF DAVIS KENT LOVING LYNN MARTIN MIDLAND MITCHELL NOLAN PECOS PRESIDIO REAGAN REEVES SCURRY STERLING STONEWALL TERRELL TERRY UPTON WARD WINKLER YOAKUM ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Tyler and central Jasper Counties through 600 PM CDT... At 524 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near Spurger, or near Town Bluff, moving northeast at 20 mph. HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and pea size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Fred, Town Bluff and Spurger. 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. Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe shelter inside a building or vehicle. LAT...LON 3076 9428 3084 9409 3058 9407 3052 9418 3053 9429 TIME...MOT...LOC 2224Z 229DEG 17KT 3072 9413 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.25 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING Severe Weather Statement National Weather Service Norman OK 547 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 615 PM CDT FOR SOUTHEASTERN FOARD AND NORTH CENTRAL KNOX COUNTIES... At 547 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles north of Gilliland, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Gilliland. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Lea and west central Andrews Counties through 615 PM CDT/515 PM MDT/... At 549 PM CDT/449 PM MDT/, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 8 miles southwest of Eunice Airport, or 11 miles southwest of Eunice, moving east at 45 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and nickel size hail. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Eunice. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT/900 PM MDT/ for southeastern New Mexico...and western Texas. LAT...LON 3227 10347 3246 10340 3242 10295 3215 10299 TIME...MOT...LOC 2249Z 281DEG 37KT 3235 10332 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN MAX WIND GUST...55 MPH The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Foard County in northern Texas... Northeastern Knox County in northern Texas... * Until 630 PM CDT. * At 549 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Gilliland, moving southeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Gilliland and Vera. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 615 PM CDT/515 PM MDT/ FOR SOUTH CENTRAL LEA...NORTHWESTERN WINKLER AND NORTHEASTERN LOVING COUNTIES... At 550 PM CDT/450 PM MDT/, a severe thunderstorm was located 16 miles southwest of Jal, moving northeast at 20 mph. Bennett. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather 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. The Weeknd partners with Binance for 1st crypto powered concert tour, $2M World Food Program Donation The Weekend has partnered with crypto marketplace Binance for his After Hours Til Dawn world tour that begins on July 8th. The collaboration is touted as the first global concert tour to integrate Web 3.0 technology for an enhanced fan experience. As part of the deal, Binance will collaborate with HXOUSE, a think-center and community incubator for creative entrepreneurs, to release an exclusive NFT collection for The Weeknds tour, along with co-branded tour merchandise. Attendees virtual ticket stubs can also gain access to commemorative NFTs which will provide unique experiences for fans. Excited to partner with @Binance and @BinanceUS for my After Hours Til Dawn tour !!! We'll use innovative Web 3 tech to connect with you in NEW creative ways and collaborate on charitable efforts to provide food to those in need. pic.twitter.com/x7zH9rg0Wq The Weeknd (@theweeknd) June 2, 2022 $2 Million Donation Binance will donate $2 million to The Weekends XO Humanitarian Fund launched earlier this year to support The World Food Programs lifesaving emergency operations in hunger hotspots around the world. 5% of the commemorative NFT sales will also be donated to the XO Humanitarian Fund. Share on: Pittsfield Health Board Rescinds Verizon Cease & Desist Order PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Board of Health has voted to rescind its cease and desist order on the Verizon cell tower at 877 South St. after the telecommunications company filed a case against the city of Pittsfield in federal court. Chair Bobbie Orsi said litigation is not the solution right now. Instead, the panel will pursue collaborative discussions to address the issue. "When we issued the cease and desist order, we did that as a strategy to have a conversation with Verizon, I felt like that in our heart, in my heart, we really wanted them to come talk to us about this," she said at Wednesday's meeting. "And we never wanted, I never wanted a long protracted legal argument. we wanted something that was going to be helpful for the residents in that neighborhood so I guess my feeling now is that litigation is perhaps not the process that's going to get us to that's not going to help resolve the issues right now." The board was in agreement with Orsi's thinking. "I don't think that litigation at this time is the most effective vehicle to provide a remedy for folks in that neighborhood," board member Steve Smith said. "As much as we want to help them that's never been the issue." It was also suggested that the board continue to do advocacy at the state and local level. In early April, the board voted to act on the order nearly two months after first approving it. This vote was conditioned on the order being withdrawn without prejudice if the board was unable to retain legal counsel prior to an administrative or judicial proceeding. The order stated that the cellular company had one week to respond or come to the table with a solution that pleased the panel, which would be to remove or turn off the tower. The board had planned on meeting on April 20 to follow up on the order but never met. Last month, Verizon, operating as Pittsfield Cellular Telephone, asked for a declaratory judgment from the U.S. District Court in Springfield against the city. The company claimed that the board violated Section 332 of the federal Telecommunications Act (TCA) of 1996 that prohibits state and local governments from regulating a personal wireless service facility because of perceived health effects from radiofrequency emissions that comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. The City Council was to take up a request from the board for $84,000 to hire legal counsel against the telecommunications company but this was sidelined when the council was informed of the lawsuit. Since the tower's erection in August 2020, Alma Street resident Courtney Gilardi and her daughter have spoken during open microphone about negative health effects they say are from electromagnetic fields (EMF) generated by the antennae on the 115-foot pole. Gilardi saw the cease-and-desist order as a beacon of hope. "The harm that we have suffered has not changed, your authority to act under the plenary are absolute powers of the Board of Health and Massachusetts state law and nuisance law and environmental law and Mass case law, that has not changed," she said at Wednesday's meeting. "Your due diligence and authority as recognized by our Mayor Linda Tyer, that has not changed, what has changed is that we are here now and that our attorneys are here now and that we're standing with you, that we hope to carry some of this load. The city needs to hire legal counsel so we can let the judge decide." Orsi and the Board of Health were served with a summons on May 17 to answer Verizon's complaint within 21 days or judgment would be filed against it. Gilardi, Charlie Herzig, Judy Herzig, Mark Markham, Angelika Markham, and Elaine Ireland on May 25 applied to the court as intervenors in having "significant interest in the outcome of the instant litigation." Attorneys Paul Revere III of Centerville and W. Scott McCollough of Dripping Springs, Texas, are representing them. According to the Children's Health Defense , it has been advising the residents for months and the attorneys are working on its behalf. The fund is representing four of the families. The nonprofit advocates against vaccines, water flouridation and wireless technology and it's chairman is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and outspoken critic of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Board of Health, meanwhile, will look at other strategies and will possibly discuss the issue at its July meeting. "Thank you for your due diligence and your time and energy," Orsi said to her colleagues. "This is a very complicated legally, medically, public health-wise this is a very difficult topic and hopefully we can create a collaborative approach together to help address the residents' issues." Board member Brad Gordon added that this is an entire community issue. WTBR Programs Win National Awards PITTSFIELD, Mass. Two local programs produced on Pittsfield Community Radio, 89.7 WTBR-FM won Hometown Media Awards in a national contest conducted by the Alliance for Community Media. "On Patrol with the PPD," produced by the Pittsfield Police Department, and "Wheeling the Pathways of Life," produced by Brian Fitzpatrick, were chosen out of nearly one thousand submissions as best in their categories. The Hometown Media Awards is the Foundation of the ACM's yearly awards program. It is established to honor and promote community media, community radio, and local cable programs that are distributed on Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) access cable television channels. Proceeds go to the ACM Foundation which is exclusively used for facilitating, preserving, and promoting education in community media. "On Patrol with the PPD" won in the category of "Government Profile Community Radio." The program, hosted by Chief Michael Wynn and Captain. Gary Traversa features the latest news from Pittsfield's Police Department - whether they're introducing their staff, sharing a new initiative, or telling a story that "you just can't make up." "The Pittsfield Police Department is honored to be recognized by the Alliance for Community Media for our show, On Patrol with the PPD. While the show was created to train our personnel in the use of radio technology during an emergency, it has become much more than that," said Pittsfield Police Chief and host Mike Wynn. "As an additional medium for us to communicate with our residents, the show has become an integral part of our communications strategy. Sharing stories about our department and introducing our listeners to our guests has been incredibly beneficial." "Wheeling the Pathways of Life" was chosen as the best "Underserved Voices Community Radio." The show is a snapshot of the day-to-day experiences of a disabled individual as they navigate the pathways of the world. Host Brian Fitzpatrick hopes to shed light on and open eyes to new perspectives on the lives of those with disabilities. "I am very honored that the show, was recognized for a national award for excellence in the category of Underserved on Radio," said Fitzpatrick. "This was something I was not expecting but I am very appreciative of, I don't do it for me I do it for other people." All award-winning programs will be presented during the annual Hometown Media Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will be held in Chicago on Wednesday, June 29 at 7:30 pm. Author Will Discuss New Book 'Traveling through Time' At Lenox Library LENOX, Mass. The Lenox Library will host Lenox author M. Gerard "Jerry" Fromm to discuss his new book, "Traveling through Time: How Trauma Plays Itself out in Families, Organizations and Society" at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, 2022. The event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of The Bookstore. According to a press release: "Traveling through Time" collects stories and reflections on the way traumatic experiences play out over time: the conditions that lead to trauma, the forms it takes, the ways it affects a person's life and the lives of others. The book is about how the "big history" of societal trauma finds its way into the "little history" of families and work life. In his presentation, Dr. Fromm will tell us about the foundations of this work at the Austen Riggs Center's Erikson Institute and illustrate his theme with vignettes from the book. M. Gerard Fromm, Ph.D., is a faculty member of the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center and a fellow of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. He was the first Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute, and directed the therapeutic community program at Riggs for many years before that. Dr. Fromm has taught at, and consulted to, a number of psychoanalytic institutes across the country and has served on the faculties of the Yale Child Study Center and Harvard Medical School. He is president of the International Dialogue Initiative, an interdisciplinary group that studies the psychodynamics of societal conflict. He is also a past president of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations and of the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems in Boston. Dr. Fromm has directed or served on the staff of group relations conferences in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. In addition to an independent practice of clinical and organizational consulting, he is also a partner in College Health and Counseling Services Consulting. Dr. Fromm has presented and published widely, including the edited volumes "Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma across Generations;" "A Spirit That Impels: Play, Creativity and Psychoanalysis;" and (with Bruce L. Smith) "The Facilitating Environment: Clinical Applications of Winnicott's Theory." He is also the author of a book of clinical papers called "Taking the Transference, Reaching toward Dreams: Clinical Studies in the Intermediate Area." He and his wife live in Lenox. In separate incidents in late-May, Taliban intelligence agencies detained three media workers in Kabul and Herat for their reporting. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the arbitrary detainments and calls for the immediate release of the media workers still in custody. Member of the Taliban in Herat on April 19, 2022. Taliban intelligence agencies detained three media workers in Herat and Kabul in late-May. Credit: Moshen Karimi / AFP On May 29, journalist Roman Karimi and his driver, Samiullah, were detained and beaten by a Taliban intelligence agent while covering a womens protest at the Haji Yaqub roundabout in Kabul District 10 for Salam Watandar radio station. Despite showing his journalist identification card, the agent forced Karimi inside a traffic booth and questioned him. Other officers took the journalists voice recorder and phone, and reviewed the phones content, including his social media accounts. When Karimi tried to protest the removal of his personal devices the agent slapped his face. Karimi and his driver were both detained for seven hours and were eventually released at 5pm on the condition that they would no longer cover protest events. On May 24, Mirza Hassani, the former owner and editor of Radio Aftab, was detained by Taliban agents at a checkpoint in District 12 of Herat city. Radio Aftab is a local station in the Daikundi province that was shutdown following the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. Hassani was transferred to the 12th Directorate of the Talibans GDI in Herat after agents searched his phone and found news reports posted on his social media. The journalist has reportedly been beaten and tortured while in custody and is accused of working as a reporter for the anti-Taliban militant group, National Resistance Front (NRF), but has not been officially charged. Hassanis family and the Herats Scholars Council called for his immediate release. Arbitrary detainments, arrests and attacks on media workers have continued to increase since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021. In the latest South Asia Press Freedom report, the IFJ documented 75 media rights violations, including 12 killings and 30 arrests, in Afghanistan from May 2021 to April 2022.An estimated 1,000 journalists have fled the country since last August, with threats, harsh restrictions and economic collapse leading to mass closures of media outlets. The IFJ said, The Taliban must cease its arbitrary arrest and detainment of Afghan journalists and media workers. The escalating number of media rights violations in Afghanistan continue to restrict freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The IFJ urges the Taliban authorities to investigate the detainment of Roman Karimi and his driver, and calls for the immediate release of Mirza Hassani. Dominique Pradalie from France, member of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ), was elected President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on 2 June 2022 at the 31st IFJ Congress in Muscat, Oman. After six years on the IFJ Executive Committee, Dominique Pradalie succeeds Younes Mjahed from Morocco. Dominique Pradalie has worked throughout her career in French public broadcasting, from ORTF to France Televisions, and she has been editor-in-chief of the nightly news on France 2. At the same time as she was pursuing her career as a journalist, Dominique Pradalie was also involved in trade union activities on a voluntary basis. In particular, she has held various mandates to represent journalists within France Televisions - staff delegate, member of the works council and union representative in the company. Within the union, she was elected at regional (Ile de France section) and national levels as General Secretary and spokesperson of the SNJ until 2021, in charge of legal and international issues. She currently sits on the SNJ National Committee, the union's parliament, and has been a member of the IFJ Executive Committee since the Angers Congress (2016) after being re-elected at the Tunis Congress (2019). She is a member of the Higher Commission of the Professional Journalists' Identity Card ( CCIJP ) until 2021, and is currently deputy treasurer of the Council of Journalistic Ethics and Mediation ( CDJM ) and administrator of the Maison des lanceurs dalerte in Paris, organisations of which the SNJ is a co-founder, and of several journalists' defence associations. She is also an adviser to the Commission d'arbitrage des journalistes, a specific jurisdiction for the profession in France. Since 1926, when the IFJ was founded in Paris, Dominique Pradalie is the second woman president of the IFJ, after the Belgian journalist Mia Doornaert (1986-1990). She succeeds Moroccan journalist Younes Mjahed, who was IFJ President from 2019 to 2022. Her term runs until 2026, when the IFJ will celebrate its Centenary. Ms Pradalie said: "My election to the IFJ Presidency gives me great pride in the honour done to France. Press freedom is under attack all over the world and journalists are the first victims. But it is the citizens who are the most penalised, because democracies are judged by the quality of their media and information, which must be honest, complete, independent and pluralist". Ms Pradalie also pointed out that the IFJ Convention against Impunity for Journalist Killers should be adopted by the UN General Assembly: "Solidarity and collective action must be multiplied everywhere to promote and remember the mission and role of journalists in society". Anthony Bellanger, IFJ General Secretary, said: "I have known Dominique for many years - we were activists together in the SNJ - and her commitment to the cause of journalists in France and around the world is well known. She has never counted her hours in defending the most precarious (but also others) and she is one of those seasoned and experienced volunteer activists, in touch with social reality, that the IFJ needs. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, a leading provider of communications, networking and cloud solutions tailored to customers industries, has unveiled the Partner of the Year winners during the Connex22 Southeast Asia Partner Event. The winners were acknowledged for their delivery of exceptional services, customer satisfaction and outstanding results across Southeast Asia. Photo shows (L-R) Somyos Udomnilobon (Country Manager, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Thailand), Ilya Gutlin (Senior Vice President, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise APAC), Terdsak Kijjatikankun (Managing Director, First One Systems Co., Ltd.), Damien Delard (Vice President, Sales SEA & VP, Channels Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise APAC), Kwek Hean Chew (Managing Director, Radiant Communication Sdn Bhd), Anthony Mejilla (Head of Sales, Nokia Enterprise Philippines) and Kenji Yong (Pre-sales, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Malaysia) during the recently concluded Connex22 Southeast Asia Partner Event held in Thailand. The theme of Connex22 was Go Future, to recognize that the future is built upon experience and learning as well as ambition and goals. Held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 26 May, the event brought together esteemed leadership from ALE and its partners across the region. The Southeast Asia (SEA) Partners of the Year were also commended for their innovative efforts in working with the ALE product portfolio over the past 12 months and their achievements in delivering customized technology experiences that meet customers needs. The winners include: Unified Communications Partner of the Year 2021, SEA: Radiant Communication Sdn Bhd Radiant Communication tripled its revenues year on year, including a significant project win in the public sector covering 20,000 users. Network Partner of the Year 2021, SEA: First One Systems Co., Ltd First One Systems Co., Ltd managed to grow their revenue with ALE by 80% year on year, delivering significant progress for ALE in Thailand. Growth Partner of the Year 2021, SEA: Nokia Enterprise Philippines The partnership between ALE and Nokia Enterprise Philippines has been smooth and seamless, paving the way for prospects with notable project wins in the service provider industry. Belinda Lawrie, Nokia Head of APJ Channel Sales said, We are honored and thrilled to receive this award from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise as their Growth Partner of the Year for our GPON expansion project with Radius, providing fiber-based services and digital transformation opportunities across a wide breadth of industry segments. The partner event also highlighted ALEs Communications and Networking portfolio strategy for the year ahead. ALE will continue to focus on empowering businesses to connect everywhere in the digital age, while enabling customers to leverage digital networking to drive business innovation, continuity and resilience. The event featured presentations from Nokia on the strategic alliance with ALE and its benefits to the partner ecosystem. The Nokia ALE partnership will seek to expand ALEs current verticals to include energy and utilities, while simplifying technical support and the procurement process and providing cost-effective and reliable network end-to-end solutions to customers. Building on its impressive portfolio of partners, ALE has revitalized the global partner program for 2022 with a new HI-TOUCH onboarding plan for new partners. The company aims to use its experience to further build efficiencies into its partner ecosystem and deliver optimized results for customers. ALE has also launched its channel rewards program, previously known as Build2Win, in the APAC region. The new program, named GOPARTNERS2022, focuses on grooming ALEs Indirect Reseller community by encouraging and supporting partner sellers to grow with ALE. These programs align with the core principles of ALEs partner enablement blueprint, which prioritizes loyalty and dedication to ALEs partner ecosystem. ALEs organizational strategy also serves to further drive partner success, including leveraging technology to implement agile working practices so the company is better positioned to support partners with their project needs and adapt quickly to the dynamic industry landscape. This has allowed ALE to strengthen its supply chain resilience, improving delivery accuracy, reducing stock levels and driving more secure shipments for high-volume transactions, even during shortages, to ensure business continuity for partners and steady quality service for customers. Were proud that Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise partners continued to deliver above and beyond to our customers. Connex22 was an opportunity to acknowledge their hard work and successes despite the challenges and volatile circumstances brought on by the global health crisis, said Damien Delard, Vice President of APAC Channels, Head of Sales in South-East Asia, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Japan. Efficient communication, collaboration and networking rose to the forefront of organizational agendas as leaders sought to secure business continuity. Were heartened to see our partners continually striving to deliver innovative solutions that grant customers a competitive edge and provide them with the agility and resilience to thrive in the digital age. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has given his fans and shareholders priceless investing advice over the years. But of all the investment choices you can make over a lifetime, which one does Buffett consider to be the best? It may not be what you think. In fact, it may not even be a blip on your radar screen. It's working on your public speaking skills. Here's what Buffett said to a class of business students at Columbia University in a televised town hall event back in 2009: Right now, I would pay $100,000 for 10 percent of the future earnings of any of you, so if you're interested, see me after class. Now, you can improve your value by 50 percent just by learning communication skills--public speaking. If that's the case, see me after class and I'll pay you $150,000. In simple Buffett-speak, the dividend on your public speaking investment will pay off for the rest of your career. He says it's "an asset that will last you 50 or 60 years. And it's a liability--if you don't like doing it or are uncomfortable doing it--that will also last you 50 or 60 years, and it's a necessary skill." This is one of several instances where Buffett has advised us to hone our communication skills as the key to success. Clearly, it has worked for Buffett, as his worth has increased to the tune of nearly $118 billion at last count. But it didn't come easy for Buffett, in case the idea of public speaking brings with it your own trepidation. The billionaire has publicly admitted that during high school and college, he was "terrified of public speaking" to the point of throwing up. Taking a public speaking course at Dale Carnegie changed his life, Buffett has said. When you walk into Buffett's office in Omaha, the only plaque proudly displayed on the wall isn't his bachelor of science degree in business administration, which he earned from the University of Nebraska at 19. No, it's the communication diploma he received in 1952 from Dale Carnegie--the one that transformed him. Communicate with your story Public speaking comes in many forms, some of which may come more naturally to some speakers. In his book All In: How Impactful Teams Build Trust from the Inside Out, leadership expert Robb Holman explains that one simple technique you can begin practicing to bring real results is to simply tell your story. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has unique life experiences and a one-of-a-kind perspective. Holman is no stranger to this idea. In a previous episode on the Love in Action podcast, Holman shared an incredible story of how he experienced a real-life miracle after learning he had a mysterious illness, which he thought was going to kill him. To his point, you have a history, and so does everyone else. This is the reason we have favorite books and movies--we connect with the characters, relate to the stories, and feel inspired by them. This is especially true for leaders of people in the workplace. Rather than dismissing stories as irrelevant, learning to tell your own story helps the listeners--whether it be an audience of hundreds at a company event or a team of five in a staff meeting--understand how to connect with you while opening the floor for them to share their own stories. I'll end with this. There are tangible benefits tied to improving your public speaking that will go a long way. For example: Faster promotions to senior management roles A boost to your confidence and self-esteem More lucrative speaking invitations Better work opportunities Personal and professional development Attracting more people to your network New opportunities coming your way Increased influence with your peers Better negotiating skills As more people bookmark TikTok, the short video app is expected to surpass YouTube for the first time in terms of time spent by their respective adult users in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to a report released on eMarketer last week. The report indicates that TikTok users will spend an average of 45.8 minutes per day on the video-sharing platform, in contrast to the 45.6 minutes they'll tune into YouTube. Despite emulating TikTok with short-video features like Instagram Reel, Instagram accounts for an average of 30.1 minutes per day. The difference between those stats on YouTube versus TikTok may be negligible, but it harbingers a turning of the tide. And for business owners, the ByteDance-owned app has huge potential to engage new consumers. Here are three ways to capitalize on the app's newly minted engagement stats: 1. Be authentic. You'll hear this a lot in reference to TikTok: In many ways TikTok and Instagram are polar opposites. Whereas picture perfect tends to rule the day on Instagram, TikTok users, rather, crave authenticity. So on TikTok, don't suger coat, and stick to videos that can spark an emotion in the viewer. "If brands are authentic on TikTok, they are not just perceived as advertisers, but seen as members of the community who understand what's happening around them," says Lyle Underkoffler, chief marketing officer at the New York City-based social ad automation platform Smartly.io. CEO of creative agency Movers+Shakers in Santa Monica, California, Evan Horowitz, agrees with this strategy. He says TikTok users prefer content that "feels low-stakes." Horowitz explains that videos that have a strong advertorial value usually won't perform well on the platform. 2. Don't jump on every big trend. While you should attempt to post regularly about your products--and do so in a consistent manner--avoid jumping on every hot topic, which can range wildly from cute dog videos one minute to the "I am not meant to work" trend the next. Consider whether a trend is a fit with your business. A party outfit trend, for instance, may not be suitable for an energy saving company's marketing campaign. Further, "entrepreneurs and small business owners should find the most relevant hashtags for their brands, which may not necessarily be the most popular ones," Jason Galloway, marketing consulting practice lead at multinational accounting and consulting firm KPMG, tells Inc. He adds that brands should also consider collaborating with smaller influencers for partnerships and product placement. "Speed and natural fit is far more important than polish, so focusing on trending content that fits the brand is the main strategy," Galloway advises. 3. Embrace "live" interactions. Last week, TikTok announced it will test out a new function, dubbed TikTok Live, to allow creators to generate recurring revenue via payments through live streaming. In a statement, TikTok says that the function aims to bring brands and viewers closer. You can also now invite your best customers to a "VIP Room" by way of LIVE Subscription. TikTok's monthly subscription for people to show their appreciation for their favorite LIVE creators grants brands the opportunity to grow their community and get exclusive offers for VIP customers. When the subscriber-only chat is turned on, advertisers and their subscribers have exclusive access to one another. Brands can build a personal network globally through live streaming. Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors. KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary. No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. 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. Housing authorities will use the funding to modernize housing for families & seniors NEW YORK The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $795,550,066.00 in funding to 71 public housing authorities (PHAs) in New York to make capital investments in their public housing properties. This funding is part of $3.2 billion in Fiscal Year 2022 Capital Fund Program Awards to 2,813 PHAs in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. View a complete list of all the communities that received funding. It is essential for public housing authorities to preserve existing affordable housing, and this HUD funding will go a long way to assist with major improvements, said Alicka Ampry-Samuel, HUD Regional Administrator for New York and New York Jersey. HUDs Capital Fund Program allocates funding annually for the development, financing, and modernization of public housing properties and management improvements to ensure their residents health, safety, and quality of life. HUDs Public Housing Capital Fund Program offers annual funding to all public housing authorities to build, renovate, and/or modernize the public housing in their communities. PHAs can use the funding to complete large-scale improvements such as replacing roofs or making energy-efficient upgrades to heating systems and installing water conservation measures. In the North Country and surrounding areas, these communities received funding from HUD: Watertown Housing Authority, Massena Housing Authority, Ogdensburg Housing Authority, Malone Housing Authority, Tupper Lake Housing Authority, and Canton Housing Authority. For a complete list of all the communities that received funding, please go to https://mail.zoho.com/zm/#mail/folder/inbox/p/ Operation includes largest illegal marijuana seizure in Nevada State Police history Moapa River Indian Reservation, Nev Between May 6 and 12, 2022, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Drug Enforcement, the Moapa River Indian Reservation Police Department, Nevada State Police, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Henderson Police Department, and other federal agencies conducted a criminal interdiction operation within the Moapa River Indian Reservation that resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars worth of illegal narcotics. Federal, Tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies collaborated to form this criminal interdiction team, said Acting Moapa Tribal Police Chief Jeff Harper. This operation helped us identify drug, human, and sex trafficking activities that occur daily along Interstate 15 through the Moapa River Indian Reservation. Law enforcement officers from the interdisciplinary mobile enforcement team seized over 2,100 pounds of narcotics, worth an estimated street value of $11.7 million, resulting in the largest illegal marijuana seizure in Nevada State Police history. During the seven-day operation, 219 traffic stops occurred with 57 vehicle searches that produced the following significant seizures: Marijuana - 949,732grams (2,093.8 lbs.), street value: $8.1 million Fentanyl 16,406grams (36.16 lbs.), street value: $2.3 million Cocaine - 13,080 grams (28.83 lbs.), street value: $1.2 million Heroin - 25.13grams (.05 lbs.), street value: $3,670.00 Methamphetamine- 21.15 grams (.04 lbs.), street value: $2,136.00 Handguns 3 On May 9, while conducting interdiction duties on I-15 within the reservations boundaries, a Nevada State Police trooper and a BIA drug enforcement K-9 officer conducted a search of a rental truck. During the search, the K-9 detected a positive hit, which allowed law enforcement officers to discover 72 large bags of marijuana. Two suspects, Tahmir Ishon Debman and Hariz Iasir Purvis, were arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana, a felony. Both were booked into the Clark County Detention Center. The Nevada State Police takes great pride in having multi-agency partnerships working together to keep illegal substances off our roadways and out of our communities, said Nevada State Police Colonel Pat Conmay. This partnership resulted in the largest illegal marijuana seizure by the Nevada State Police, along with the arrest of the suspects involved. We are committed to the unified mission to keep Nevada safe. While the Moapa River Indian Reservation does not have a high rate of drug use, it is an ideal location for law enforcement agencies to work together to maximize the amount of product taken from the streets, said BIA Office of Justice Services Acting Deputy Bureau Director Steven Juneau. This operation was a tremendous success and will make this and other Tribal communities across the Nation safer places to live. After weeks, Aquaman Actress Amber Heard returned to social media to share her stance after losing her libel case against ex-husband Johnny Depp. On Wednesday, Fairfax Court in Virginia saw the outcome of a highly-publicized trial after the seven-person jury returned a verdict in favor of Depp. Reuters The defamation trial lasted for six weeks. After hearing over 100 hours of testimony by both the parties, the jury rewarded Depp with compensatory damages of $10m (8m) and a further $5m (4m) in punitive damages. Depp had initially filed the lawsuit seeking $50m. After the verdict, Amber Heard left the court and shared a statement on her social media accounts. She wrote: Agencies "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband.Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously. I believe Johnnys attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly." Read Heard's statement here: Depp, who is currently in the UK for a music tour, wasn't present at the verdict. However, his spokesperson shared his statement. AFP Here is Johnny's statement: "Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye. False, very serious, and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. My decision to pursue this case, knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable, worldwide spectacle into my life, was only made after considerable thought. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that. I am, and have been, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media. I wish to acknowledge the noble work of the Judge, the jurors, the court staff, and the Sheriffs who have sacrificed their own time to get to this point, and to my diligent and unwavering legal team who did an extraordinary job in helping me to share the truth. The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes." A statement from Johnny Depp, via his spokesperson:#JohnnyDeppVsAmberHeard Jury awarded #Depp $15m and #Heard $2m in the defamation case, and countersuit Weds. afternoon Read his statement here>>> pic.twitter.com/KbrUebRe1E Juli Barkas (@JuliB2400) June 1, 2022 The Aquaman actress had counter-sued the Pirates of the Caribbean actor for $100million after he claimed she had defamed him in a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post. Reuters In the article, Heard shared her domestic abuse experience during her short marriage to Depp. (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment A jury in Fairfax, Virginia, has finally reached a unanimous decision in the defamation case filed by Hollywood actor Johnny Depp against his ex-wife Amber Heard. The seven-person panel started deliberating on Friday. Reuters The defamation trial was underway since April and jurors have heard over 100 hours of testimony. Reuters According to the verdict, Johnny Depp has won the trial against Amber Heard. The jury reached a decision that all claims made by Amber Heard were 'defamatory' to actor Johnny Depp. AFP The jury has ruled that Amber Heard needs to pay compensation worth $10 million and $5 million to Johnny Depp in response to his claims that she had defamed him in the op-ed in The Washington Post. Reuters What does Depp's victory suggest now? Reuters After the jury ruled the verdict in favor of Depp for his $50 million lawsuit against Heard over an op-ed published by The Washington Post in 2018. In the article, the Aquaman star stated that she was a domestic abuse survivor as she accused Depp. A jury on Wednesday ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in the libel lawsuit against Heard, vindicating his claim that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage. Heard will be paying Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages. Depp's total damages were reduced to $10.35 million, while Heard was awarded $2 million in damages in her counterclaim. Reuters What was the spoiler alert right before the verdict? Sounds like the jury in the Depp-Heard trial didn't fill out the damages lines in their verdict form. They must find at least $1 in compensatory damages to return a verdict that a defamation occurred. Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 1, 2022 Just a few minutes from the verdict in the courtroom, there was a slight delay as the jury failed to complete the damages form. What does the damage form mean? The judge instructed the jurors that they have to include a damages amount of at least $1, meaning that they have found in favor of one of the parties. Reuters Johnny Depp had sued his ex-wife Heard for writing an op-ed piece for the Washington Post in which she claimed that she was a victim of domestic abuse. AFP Depp has even argued that she has leveled allegations against him to advance her career. Johnny's lawsuit alleges that he lost out on the sixth "Pirates of the Caribbean" film and other movie roles after Heard referred to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse" in a December 2018 op-ed, the Variety reported. (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.) The month of June is dedicated to being the annual Pride Month in the United States. Pride month 2022 begins on June 1st and goes on till June 30th. Pride Month commemorates years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice under the law for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community, as well as the accomplishments of LGBTQAI+ individuals. File Image LGBTQAI+ Pride Month, also known as Gay Pride, is held in June in the United States and other parts of the world and involves colourful uplifting parades with floats and celebrities, as well as joyful festivals, workshops, picnics, and parties. How is Pride Month Celebrated? Pride Month is commemorated in a variety of ways, from parades to special activities and accolades. The purpose of this commemoration is to honour members of the LGBTQ+ community by showering them with love. People in the LGBTQAI+ community continue to encounter a variety of challenges. Apart from the public pressures of acceptance, the personal pressures of coming out or even just realising one's sexuality can be overwhelming. The annual celebration of Pride Month aims to facilitate this process by providing a platform for members of the community to tell their stories. File Image The suggestion to call the movement 'Pride' came from L. Craig Schoonmaker who in 2015 said: A lot of people were very repressed, they were conflicted internally and did not know how to come out and be proud. That is how the movement was most useful, because they thought, maybe I should be proud. Why is Pride Month celebrated in June? In the United States, the systematic pursuit of LGBTQ rights dates back to at least 1924, when Henry Gerber founded the Society of Human Rights in Chicago. But it was the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village in June 1969 that sparked the LGBTQ rights movement. Police invaded this famous LGBTQ spot in the early morning hours of June 28, arresting employees for selling liquor without a licence, roughing up many clients, and cleaning the bar. Outside, the gathering became outraged as they witnessed the bar's patrons being herded into police vans. Unsplash/Representational image Witnesses to police mistreatment of LGBTQ people have previously stood by passively, but this time the audience ridiculed the cops and tossed coins, bottles, and debris at them, causing the cops to barricade themselves in the bar and wait for backup. Soon, some 400 individuals were rioting. The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising) sparked the spark that launched the LGBTQ rights movement in the United States, despite the fact that police forces dispersed the gathering outside the bar during the next five days. AP/Representational image The thought of a march in response to the Stonewall events was floated at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organisations in Philadelphia on November 2, 1969. The procession was titled the Christopher Street Liberation Day march after the street that was the core of New York City's LGBTQ community and where the procession would commence on June 28, 1970, the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Unsplash/Representational image A day before the pride march in New York City, 150 people in Chicago had completed a week-long celebration with the country's first Stonewall march. The "world's first permitted parade advocating for gay rights" was held on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on the day of the New York march, while a "Gay In" was held in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Following that, Gay Pride, now known as LGBTQ Pride, became widely celebrated in the United States on the final Sunday in June, as mournful marches gave way to joyful celebrations. The day eventually grew into a month-long celebration. When President Bill Clinton declared June 1999 "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month," President Barack Obama declared June "LGBT Pride Month," and President Joe Biden expanded the observance to "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month," it became officially recognised by the United States government. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh feel disappointed after receiving no relief in the form of a hike in import duty of apples. Fruit growers in the hill state, who have long demanded a hike in import taxes on apples due to dwindling market share, were hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make an announcement to that effect during his May 31 visit to Shimla to celebrate the eight anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance Government. Unfortunately, their hopes have been dashed again. Unsplash Not just from Himachal Pradesh, orchardists from Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand have been making several petitions to the Centre. The duty-free fruit imports have not been scaled back till now. Heavy Losses Incurred Apple growers have been pleading with the Central and State governments to increase tariffs on imported apples. It is imported to India from 44 different nations, but the ones that eat the most into their revenues are Chile and Iran. For the last two years, home-grown apples have been facing stiff competition from duty-free fruits being imported from Iran under Indias Free Trade Agreement. Unsplash Due to "heavy import" of the fruit from Iran, apple growers in Himachal and Kashmir have been suffering losses. They are losing Rs 400-500 each box of fruit that is kept in cold storage. In Chandigarh, Kundli, Sonepat, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Vijayawada, a total of 2.84 crore apple boxes were manufactured this year, compared to 3.43 crore last year, and around one lakh metric tonnes were held in cold stores and controlled atmospheric warehouses. Unsplash The growers took a big hit because they had no choice but to sell the apples that had been preserved at low rates. The market for conventional cold-stored apples from Himachal and Kashmir, as well as controlled atmosphere storage apples, has been decimated by cheap imports from Iran, rendering the trade unviable and unprofitable. In order to get rid of losses, the Fruit, Vegetables and Flower Growers Association, Himachal Pradesh submitted a memorandum to chief minister Jai Ram Thakur but nothing has been done at the ground level, as per the claims of the association President Harish Chauhan. Delay in the Horticulture Census Another reason for dismay of the apple growers in the state was the unhurried pace at which horticulture census was being carried on last month. The agency in charge of the job failed to meet the deadlines. Unsplash Strangely, the census was taken after more than 30 years. The last time the drill was conducted was in 1989. Last year, the Horticulture Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Common Service Centre (CSC) for the census, which will provide precise and up-to-date information on the state's horticultural acreage and related operations. Starting with Shimla, the CSC was to undertake the survey in all 12 districts of the state. Since the last census in the late 1980s, the horticultural landscape has changed dramatically. The Horticulture Department relies heavily on Revenue Department data to create policies and programmes because the data collected in the census over three decades ago is now outdated. Apple growers, who represent the state's horticultural economy's backbone, are frustrated that successive governments have failed to perform the census for such a long time. Unsplash Grievances of apple farmers The apple growers criticise such a callous step as they feel the department cannot frame the required policies for such an important sector if it doesnt even have updated data. It is a 60,000 crore market which is the source of sustenance for around 1.75 lakh families in Himachal Pradesh. Thus, the grievances of apple growers are far from being resolved, as they complain. The apple business has been put under a lot of stress as a result of the ongoing reductions in subsidies for pesticides, fungicides, and fertilisers. Furthermore, growing pesticide and fertiliser costs are making apple production unsustainable. Additionally, apple growers have been hampered by the lack of any incentives or subsidies for the construction of small-scale storage facilities. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. India and Israel have decided to further develop defence cooperation where Israels technological advance and operational experience will collaborate with Indias extraordinary development and production capabilities. The discussions in this regard were held during a meeting between Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi today. The two states underlined that the cooperation would be in line with Prime Minister Modis Make in India vision. Embassy of Israel in India The ministers presented a joint declaration marking 30 years of Israel-India relations and reiterated their commitment to deepening defence ties. India and Israel share similar and common challenges, including border security and fighting terrorism. By working together, we may increase our capabilities and ensure the security and economic interests of both countries, Gantz said. Gantz began his official visit to India by honoring fallen troops at the National War Memorial in New Delhi. The Ministers spoke about strategic global challenges, military cooperation, defence industrial cooperation and joint R&D. Embassy of Israel in India They also discussed a cooperation agreement signed between the Indian DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Israels Directorate for Defense R&D, which will enable the expansion of technological collaboration and development between the countries. The possibility of a partnerships within the government-to-government framework, military training, and technological cooperation with a focus on UAVs and defensive capabilities was also discussed during the meeting. Among the Israeli delegates, there were Ambassador of Israel to India Naor Gilon, Chief of Staff to Israels Minister of Defense Maayan Israeli, Military Secretary Brig. Gen. Yaki Dolf, Director of the Policy and POL-MIL Bureau Dror Shalom, Head of the International Defense Cooperation Directorate Yair Kulas and Israels Defense Attache to India Col. Asaf Maller. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal through Heritage Auctions, the paper said in a statement on Telegram. Muratov has announced the auction in an effort to support displaced Ukrainian children amid Russias ongoing invasion of the country. Muratov, who was the editor of the now-suspended news publication Novaya Gazeta, said that the $5,00,000 prize money will be used to support various charitable foundations, The New York Times reported. All proceeds will go to UNICEF Muratovs Nobel Peace model will be auctioned off by Heritage Auctions in New York on June 20, in lieu of World Refugee Day. One hundred percent of the auctions proceeds will be donated to the United Nations agency UNICEF. Movtov Muratov whose paper suspended publication in late March, saying Russias increasingly draconian press laws made it impossible to truthfully cover the war in Ukraine, is giving away the 23-karat gold Nobel medal. In an interview last month at the auction houses headquarters in Manhattan, Muratov, speaking in Russian, said the sale was an act of solidarity with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called a tragedy. If we look at the number of refugees, we basically have World War III, not a local conflict, he said. This has been a mistake, and we need to end it. Movtov Inspired by Danish physicist Niels Bohr The auction house, which will be taking no commission, has sold several Nobel medals, including that of Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, which fetched a record $2.3 million in 2013. Josh Benesh, Heritages chief strategy officer, predicted Muratovs would give it a run for that. But Muratov said he was inspired by a different Nobel auction, which saw the Danish physicist Niels Bohr sell his medal to help the Finnish war effort following the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939. Suspended by Russia Novaya Gazeta, founded in 1993 with funding from Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader (and himself a Nobel Peace Prize winner), has long been known for its reporting from conflict zones, its investigations and its campaigns on behalf of children with rare diseases or families in hardship. getty The paper was also known for its ability to remain open and independent, operating, as the Russian American journalist Masha Gessen put it last year in The New Yorker, in a near-constant state of emergency. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. Ever since LICs mega IPO concluded earlier last month and the shares got listed, its IPO investors have largely been disappointed. The shares of the insurance sector giant had a weak debut on the stock exchanges, with the shares listing more than 8% lower from the issue price on listing day last month. But it's not just LIC alone! Many other PSUs that have gone public through IPOs since 2010 have been trading below their share prices. LIC isnt the first PSU to experience this, although it certainly is the most high-profile amongst all, stated a report by The Print. The central government had reportedly raised Rs 77,000 crore in all through the PSU company IPOs of 22 companies that listed since 2010, with the LIC IPO contributing nearly a quarter of this massive amount. As per the report, IRCON International Ltd and General Insurance Corporation of India are reportedly both at the bottom of the list of PSUs whose IPOs are trading substantially lower than their issue price. For the uninitiated, in September 2018, the government had reportedly brought out the IPO of IRCON International with an issue price in the band of Rs 470-475 a share. The shares are hovering just around the Rs 40 mark at the time of writing this report and in the past few days of this week too, i.e. over 90% down from its issue price! Similarly, for General Insurance Corporation, the issue price was reportedly in the price band of Rs 955-912 in October 2017. At present, the stock is trading at nearly Rs 121, i.e. more than 80% lower than its issue price. Other companies that have faced a similar fate since their IPOs include New India Assurance, Cochin Shipyard, Punjab & Sind Bank, MOIL Ltd and Coal India, which was the second-largest IPO for a state-run firm after LIC, as per The Print report. shutterstock Also Read: Explained: Sensex, Nifty & Their Role In India's Stock Market The report also stated that out of the 22 PSU stocks, only seven, i.e. those of MSTC Ltd, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Rail Vikas Nigam, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, RITES Ltd, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, and Bharat Dynamics, have given good returns to investors. For the latest financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here. New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! New York would expand legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions in the state under a legislation package that lawmakers began debating Tuesday. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for New York to increase legal protections for abortion services in case the U.S. Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wades nationwide right to abortion this summer. It was not immediately clear whether Hochul would sign the half dozen abortion-related bills that lawmakers plan to pass this week. Lawmakers in the state Assembly and Senate began voting on the bills Tuesday, with votes expected through Thursday, according to spokespeople for the two chambers leaders. One bill would protect abortion providers from arrest, extradition and legal proceedings in other states by forbidding New York state and local courts and law enforcement agencies from cooperating in most scenarios. Exceptions could include criminal cases where another states governor says someone committed a crime there, and later fled to New York. Under another bill, New York would protect the right of people to seek abortion or gender affirming care in the state. People could sue for unlawful interference with their right to reproductive healthcare when other people or entities bring civil or criminal charges against them for seeking, accessing or providing abortions. A bill would allow abortion providers and patients _ as well as their family members _ to participate in an existing state program that lets people shield their address from abusers. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Cordell Cleare, a Harlem Democrat, follows similar changes to the law in California and New Jersey. A online summary of the bill on the states website cites data suggesting threats against abortion providers, employees and patients have been increasing in recent years. The National Abortion Federation says death threats against providers more than doubled from 92 in 2019, to 200 in 2020. New York lawmakers are also facing calls to by August launch the process of amending the state constitution to guarantee abortion rights and prohibit discrimination based on factors ranging from race to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. That amendment would need to be approved by the state legislature in two legislative session years and then be approved by voters. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation New York New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Chicago-headquartered insurance broker Hub International Limited reports it has acquired the assets of Sandy Spring Insurance Corp. Located in Annapolis, Maryland, Sandy Spring Insurance, a subsidiary of Sandy Spring Bank, offers clients commercial and personal home, auto and marine insurance. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Sandy Spring Insurance team will join Hub Mid-Atlantic. Sandy Spring Insurance was represented by the consulting firm Reagan Consulting for the transaction. Hub has more than 14,000 employees in offices located throughout North America, Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Maryland The European Union is working to coordinate a ban on providing the insurance services needed to ship Russian oil anywhere in the world with some Group of Seven members, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that could further hit Moscows ability to finance its war in Ukraine. The European Commission, the blocs executive arm, is in talks with the UK as part of the effort, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. Representatives of EU national governments [were] expected later on Wednesday to approve a sixth sanctions package targeting Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The measures will include a prohibition on financing, brokering services and technical or financial assistance, which would kick in six months after the package is adopted. Lloyds Is Working With UK, Global Regulators to Implement Russia Sanctions A joint push to target insurers of Russian oil shipments could dramatically impair Moscows ability to finance President Vladimir Putins war. Thats because 95% of the worlds tanker liability coverage is arranged through a London-based insurance organization called the International Group of P&I Clubs that has to heed European law. Without such cover, Russia and its customers would have to find alternatives for risks including oil spills and mishaps at sea that can quickly run into multi-billion-dollar claims. The Financial Times reported earlier that the EU and UK had reached an agreement on coordinating the ban. The insurance measures come on top of the EUs proposal to ban seaborne imports of Russian crude in sixth months from the adoption of the package and refined products in eight months. While deliveries via the giant Druzhba pipeline will be temporarily spared, Germany and Poland, the biggest buyers from that source, have pledged they will wean themselves off Russian supplies regardless of any EU action. If both countries follow through on those commitments, the total effect, along with the seaborne embargo, would be to cut 90% of Russian crude oil sales to the EU by years end. The EU initially considered even stronger measures to ban tankers from moving oil to third countries but dropped the plans after Greece raised concerns that such a move would require international coordination. With assistance from Michael Nienaber and Alex Morales. Photograph: Oil pumping jacks, also known as nodding donkeys, operate in an oilfield near Neftekamsk, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. Photo credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg. Related: Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Russia Europe Energy Oil Gas This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the MGA DUAL, Lockton Re and Chubb. A summary of these new hires follows here. DUAL Europe Announces 2 Key Appointments DUAL, the London-based managing general agent and Howden subsidiary, announced two key appointments in its newly created DUAL Europe region, effective immediately. These promotions follow the announcement in April of Maurizio Ghilosso as executive chair, DUAL Europe. Olaf Jonda, currently managing director, DUAL Deutschland, will take on the role of CEO, DUAL Europe, reporting to Richard Clapham, CEO, DUAL Group Daniela Rubes, currently CFO, DUAL Italia, has been appointed chief financial officer, DUAL Europe. The creation of a DUAL Europe leadership team reflects the importance of the region in DUAL Groups plans to grow to a US$5 billion GWP international MGA by 2027. DUAL has been operating in Europe for almost 25 years, having launched in Spain in 1998 and now operates from 14 European locations in 10 countries employing 200 people. I am thrilled to welcome Olaf and Daniela to the DUAL Europe regional leadership team. They have both been with DUAL for more than 10 years and these well-deserved promotions absolutely demonstrate our philosophy of attracting and developing the best talent in the industry, commented Ghilosso. Olaf and Daniela bring an in-depth knowledge not just of DUAL but also of the wider European market that will be invaluable as we position ourselves for further growth. Our ambition is to grow DUAL Europe to a US$750 million GWP business over the next five years, and Olaf and Daniela will play a significant role in delivering this growth, said Richard Clapham, CEO, DUAL Group. About DUAL DUAL, the specialist underwriting arm of Howden Group Holdings, is one of the worlds largest international underwriting agencies with US$2.3 billion of GWP. Established in 1998, today DUAL has over 1,000 people in 19 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, and is one of Lloyds largest international coverholders. *** Lockton Re Names Aons Breslin to Build Capital Markets Capability Lockton Re, the global reinsurance business of the worlds largest privately held independent insurance broker, announced that Zach Breslin has been named leader of Lockton Re Capital Markets and will support the build-out of the practice. Breslin was most recently managing director, Aon Securities in New York. Previously, he had spent time at Berkley Offshore on the underwriting side, giving him a great 360 degree view of the market, said Lockton Re in a statement. While Breslin will be based in New York, his role will be to work with clients and colleagues across the globe. We are delighted Zach has joined Lockton Re, his enthusiasm for the business is testament to our culture, strategy and the great team. I have now been at Lockton Re for a year and the growth and success we have seen during that time has been phenomenal, said Robert Bisset, chairman Global Retrocession & Property Specialty, Bermuda & Market Capital, Lockton Re. The build out of our Capital Markets capability is the last piece of the puzzle in terms of my remit, and Im so excited to have Zach spearheading this important area as we continue to garner great support from clients and markets across the reinsurance world, he added. *** Chubb Promotes Thompson for Intl Personal Lines, Hernandez for Intl Accident & Health Chubb Ltd. announced that John Thompson has been appointed vice president, Chubb Group and division president of International Personal Lines. The company also named Daniela Hernandez division president of International Accident & Health (A&H). Both divisions are part of Overseas General Insurance, the companys international general insurance business that operates in 51 countries and territories. Thompsons and Hernandezs new roles were effective June 1 and both will report to Juan Luis Ortega, executive vice president, Chubb Group, and president, Overseas General Insurance. Thompson was previously division president, International A&H. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading Chubbs division that provides a broad range of traditional and specialty personal lines insurance products to targeted customer segments. Thompson succeeds Darryl Page, vice president, Chubb Group, who is retiring following a 10-year career with the company. Page will remain with Chubb through July 1 and will work with Thompson to ensure a smooth transition. Hernandez, who is succeeding Thompson, was previously the leader of Chubbs Life and A&H business in Chile, which included the companys strategic partnership with Banco de Chile. In her new role, she will be responsible for the companys international personal accident, supplemental health and travel insurance businesses. Thompson joined the company, then named ACE, in 2012 as senior vice president and chief underwriting officer for International Personal Lines, playing a leading role in advancing the companys global consumer product and geographic diversification strategy with a focus on auto, residential and high net worth portfolios. He started his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Thompson holds bachelors and masters degrees in economics from Utah State University and an MBA degree from the Yale School of Management. Hernandez joined ACE as a financial lines underwriter in 2014. Prior to her current role, she held leadership positions in Latin America as chief of staff for the region and head of A&H distribution in Mexico. Hernandez holds a double bachelors degree in Finance and International Trade and International Business Administration from Universidad del Rosario in Colombia and has completed post graduate work in risk and information economics at La Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. John is taking on the leadership of our international personal lines business after five years leading our international A&H business, contributing to the establishment of several strategic partnerships around the world and evolving our digital strategies. He successfully navigated the complexities brought on by the pandemic, ultimately providing Chubb with a stronger A&H franchise, said Ortega. Im delighted to welcome Daniela to her new international A&H leadership role, continued Ortega. Daniela brings tremendous experience from managing some of the companys largest distribution relationships in Latin America, as well as serving in key roles that contributed to the growth of Chubbs A&H business in the region. Ortega went on to thank Page for his leadership over the past 10 years, when the companys personal lines business grew significantly and became a meaningful component of our international consumer business. Topics Europe Aon Chubb Lockton FRANKFURT The chief executive of top German asset manager DWS will step down next week, he said on Wednesday, a day after raids by prosecutors over allegations that the company misled investors about green investments. The raids and departure of DWS CEO Asoka Woehrmann mark another setback for Deutsche Bank, DWSs majority owner, which has been trying to move on from regulatory breaches, including money laundering and securities misselling, leading to billions in fines. DWS has been dogged by the accusations for months, prompting German prosecutors to raid DWS and the headquarters of Deutsche Bank on Tuesday. As firms market their environmental, social and governance-related (ESG) credentials in an attempt to tap the trillions of dollars looking to have climate- and socially friendly impact, regulators are beginning to dig deeper into their claims. German and U.S. officials have been investigating reports and a whistleblowers allegations that DWS had exaggerated the green credentials of investments it sold a practice known as greenwashing. DWS has repeatedly denied that it misled investors. The DWSs top management change had been in the works for some time but was ultimately made at meetings late on Tuesday in the wake of the raids, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Woehrmann told employees in a memo that it was a joy to see DWS flourish but that allegations , however unfounded or undefendable, have left a mark. To quote Charles Dickens: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, he said in the memo, which was seen by Reuters. Deutsche Bank, which retained majority ownership of DWS after its initial public offering, has marketed itself as bank companies can turn to as they seek a greener future. Desiree Fixler, the whistleblower involved in the investigation, told Reuters that the resignation was positive but it did not go far enough. Its not just a one man change, she said. Theres the greenwashing, and theres the cover up. Its a huge culture issue at Deutsche Bank, she said. DWS and Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Fixlers remarks. Uncertainty On Tuesday, German prosecutors said that sufficient factual evidence has emerged to show that ESG factors were taken into account in a minority of investments but were not taken into account at all in a large number of investments, contrary to statements in DWS fund sales prospectuses. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and German financial watchdog BaFin last year launched separate investigations into the whistleblower allegations. The SEC did not respond to a request for comment, but the U.S. watchdog has been ratcheting up its efforts to police claims companies make about their ESG investments. The agency proposed a pair of rules last week that would detail how ESG funds can be marketed and how to properly disclose the thinking behind labeling such a fund. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said the agencys efforts are aimed at standardizing disclosures around such funds and ensuring investors have reliable information. The whistleblower, Fixler, a former head of sustainability at DWS, had said the company overstated how it used sustainable investing criteria to manage investments. In February, Deutsche Bank agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to extend the stay of a special monitor at the bank after it failed to report allegations involving DWS in a timely manner. Shares in DWS have slumped 24% since the SEC and BaFin investigations were made public in August last year. They were down about 5% late on Wednesday. The accusations show greenwashing is not a trivial offense, said Magdalena Senn of the German consumer advocacy group Finanzwende. The raid and the resignation will have a signal effect for other asset managers, she said. Credit Suisse analysts said Woehrmanns departure was a disappointment because he successfully implemented reform and turnaround at DWS. We see the change of leadership heralding a period of uncertainty for DWS strategy and could even raise questions over its future as an independent asset management company, Credit Suisse said. DWS and Deutsche Bank on Tuesday said that the asset manager had cooperated with regulators and authorities in the past and would continue to do so. Under Pressure Woehrmann has been under pressure on multiple fronts since the greenwashing allegations broke. Deutsche Bank conducted an internal investigation into Woehrmanns possible private email usage for business purposes, and the European Central Bank also looked into corporate governance issues surrounding him. He also received threatening letters, including one in December with red crosshairs, white powder and a racial slur. When asked about the allegations in a DWS earnings call with analysts, Woehrmann said he emphatically rejected all the allegations. Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing publicly backed Woehrmann in January, and on Wednesday thanked him for his impressive work and performance. Stefan Hoops, who has been overseeing Deutsche Banks corporate banking division since 2019, will replace Woehrmann from June 10, the bank said. Woehrmanns resignation takes effect on June 9, the day of its annual general meeting. (Reporting by Paul Carrel, Tom Sims and Frank Siebelt; additional reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Pete Schroeder; editing by Bradley Perrett, David Goodman, Jane Merriman, Sabine Wollrab and Marguerita Choy) New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! A majority of shareholders of gunmaker Sturm Ruger & Co. voted in favor of a shareholder resolution calling for a human rights impact report, executives said on Wednesday. The company also said all director nominees were elected and that investors approved its auditor and executive pay at its annual shareholder meeting, which was webcast. The passage of the shareholder resolution marked a setback for the Southport, Connecticut-based company, which had opposed the measure. It came after mass shootings in May, including one in Uvalde, Texas where a teenage gunman killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers, that reopened a long-running U.S. debate over gun control. The resolution, put forward by a nonprofit Roman Catholic health system, said, The inherent lethality of firearms exposes all gun makers to elevated human rights risks and that the company lacks sufficient policies or practices to account for product misuse. It said a 2019 report Sturm Ruger had published on its measures to address gun safety failed to put forward meaningful solutions to address gun violence. After the vote, Sturm Ruger Chief Executive Christopher Killoy said he expects the board will now consider how best to respond, and that the company would give a final voting tally in coming days. Killoy referred to proponents of the measure as anti-gun activists and said its passage was largely due to the support of institutional shareholders, many of whom declined to even speak with us, and others who blindly followed the guidance of ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) or Glass Lewis. Both top proxy advisers had recommended investors vote for the resolution. Resolution proponent Laura Krausa of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health said via email that the health system hopes Sturm Ruger will conduct the review. We know we can find common ground on common-sense approaches to safety that respect gun ownership rights, she said. (Reporting by Ross Kerber; editing by Jonathan Oatis) New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! NuScale Power Corp.s design for a new kind of nuclear reactor is adequate to protect the project from damage by earthquakes, staff at the U.S. nuclear power regulator said in documents seen by Reuters on Friday. Last month, Reuters reported that Dan Dorman, the NRCs executive director for operations, ordered agency staff to document their evaluation of NuScales design of the reactor and, if necessary, to see whether its 2020 approval should be reconsidered. The move came after an agency engineer, John Ma, had raised concerns about the projects vulnerability to earthquakes. Ma has said that collapse of the reactor building could potentially cause a release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and ground that could be deadly. But the NRCs reactor regulation staff said in a note to Dorman this month that its evaluations were acceptable and updates to design approval were unnecessary. Based on the material reviewed, the staff continues to conclude that there is reasonable assurance of adequate protection, the staff said in a note from Andrea Veil, the director of the NRCs reactor regulation office. NuScale is hoping to build the Carbon Free Power Project with multiple small modular reactors (SMR) at the Idaho National Laboratory, with the first coming online in 2029 and full plant operation in 2030. NuScale says its reactor is the safest design ever approved by the NRC. U.S. Nuclear Agency Seeks Documentation on Quake Safety of New Reactor Design Some see SMRs such as NuScales as a way to cut emissions from fossil fuels and to potentially reduce Europes dependency on Russian oil and gas. NuScale also wants to build the plants in Poland, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists nonprofit said an independent panel of experts external to the NRC should evaluate Mas concerns. These issues are too important to be left up to the NRC to resolve, Lyman said. (Reporting by Timothy GardnerEditing by Marguerita Choy) Topics USA New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Workers compensation insurtech Hourly has raised $27 million in a series A seed round. The platform lets employers with hourly workers run payroll, track time and attendance, and manage workers compensation insurance premiums in one place in real time. As a pay-as-you-go model, it promises insureds that they only pay for the coverage they use every pay period. Currently the managing general agency only offers its workers compensation platform to independent insurance agents in California but it plans to use its new funds to expand. Were planning to expand our insurtech platform outside the state of California and make it available to one-third of the U.S. population by the end of 2023. This is part of our larger vision to completely change the workers comp gamefor good, proclaimed Tom Sagi, founder and CEO, on the agencys blog. In addition to expanding geographically, the firm said it hopes to add new features that will allow business owners to manage their workers compensation, file claims, and run safety programs from its platform. Glilot Capital Partners led the Series A, along with investors who helped Hourly get started in the first place. These include S Capital, MS&AD Ventures, J-Ventures, new backers Vintage Investment Partners and Upshot, and a number of angel investors. Topics Workers' Compensation Talent Insurance Wholesale Funding New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! One80 Intermediaries, a wholesale insurance broker, has agreed to acquire VFIS of North Carolina, part of a firm that provides coverage for fire departments and rescue squads. VFIS began in 1969 as Volunteer Firemens Insurance Services. It is now a subsidiary of Glatfelter Insurance Group, a managing general agency and broker, the companies said in a news release. VFIS services include program administration, education, training and consulting. Jackie Ireland is the president of VFIS of North Carolina and of Anders, Ireland & Marshall Insurance Group. One80 Intermediaries is a privately held firm with offices throughout the United States and Canada, according to the news release. The company offers placement services and binding authority for property/casualty, professional and personal lines, life insurance, and travel/accident and health coverages. One80 specializes in key industry verticals such as medical stop loss, cannabis captives, alternative risk, warranty coverage and lender-based insurance. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions North Carolina Employers in Washington will be required to monitor temperature and air quality, take steps to protect workers from heat and smoke hazards, and provide training and information from June 15 through the end of September, The Washington Department of Labor & Industries on Wednesday filed emergency outdoor heat exposure and wildfire smoke rules to protect farm and construction workers, roofers, road crews, and anyone else whose job keeps them outside. The order is designed to help keep workers safe this summer. L&I continues to develop permanent rules to address the serious hazards posed by extreme heat and exposure to wildfire smoke. When temperatures are at or above 89 degrees, the emergency heat rules combined with existing rules require employers to: Provide enough sufficiently cool water for each employee to drink at least a quart an hour; Provide sufficient shade that is large enough for and close enough to workers; Encourage and allow workers to take paid preventative cool-down breaks as needed; and, Require a 10-minute, paid cool-down break every two hours. Existing rules already require ready access to at least one quart of drinking water per worker per hour, an outdoor heat exposure safety program with training, and an appropriate response to workers who are experiencing heat-related illness symptoms. The temperature at which the requirements kick in may be even lower depending on the type of clothing workers are wearing. Employers can substitute other means of lowering body temperature for shade, like an air-conditioned trailer or a misting station. Employers must monitor temperatures and have a system in place, such as a mandatory buddy rule, regular check-in by phone or radio, or other methods to catch signs of heat-related illness. If there are signs of illness, employers are required to relieve workers from duty, provide shade or other means of cooling down, and determine if additional medical attention is needed. Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Washington Answers Global concrete foaming agent market trend 2023-2027 Influence of Concrete Foaming Agent on Foam Concrete (2) by Newsintegra927 The European Union recently approved sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including bans on imports of coal, timber, chemicals, and other concrete foaming agent. 3. The larger the bubble diameter, the better, should be more than 1mm The pore diameter should be the same as the bubble diameter. Some experts misleading the pursuit of a small foam aperture of 0.1mm, in fact, because of physical foaming if the bubble diameter is large, the stability of the foam cannot be made of foam concrete. The same raw material and formula, the same equipment and technology, just change the bubble diameter, the compressive strength of 1mm bubble diameter of foam concrete, then 0.1mm bubble diameter of foam concrete, at least 20% higher. Therefore, it is wrong to pursue a bubble diameter of more than 0.1mm, which should be corrected in the production of foamed concrete. 4. The lower the foam bleeding rate, the better. Avoid using milk foam. According to the size of water content, foam is divided into milk foam with more water and sponge foam with more water. Among them, lacteal foam is unqualified inferior foam and cannot be used. After the foam is made, it gradually secretes water. Its secreting water includes two parts: Bleeding of foam liquid film. This water is secreted from the liquid membrane, which is secreted by the liquid membrane under the combined action of gravity drainage, surface tension drainage, and liquid membrane damage drainage. The thicker the liquid film of foam is, the larger the bleeding is. The faster the bubble burst, the more bleeding. Water between bubbles. This is the water that didn't form the bubble film. The worse the foaming agent and foaming machines foaming performance, the more water between bubbles cannot form foam liquid film. They're essentially water that doesn't bubble. When the foam is bleeding at a high rate, it becomes as thin as float juice, sloshing around and not piling up, and there's a lot of water in the foam. When this foam is added to the cement slurry, the cement slurry becomes very thin, and the foam is very little, the volume of the slurry is small, and the resulting foam concrete density is very high, not technical requirements. Therefore, latex foam should not be used. The appearance of a technically acceptable foam should be a spongy, compact bubble, piled up like white clouds, like bouncing cotton, and not sloshing. This foam has very little water content. This shows that its foam liquid film is small, the foam is not easy to burst, there is little water between the bubbles, and the amount of bubbles is large, accounting for most of the volume of bubbles. It should be emphasized here that the spongy foam must be a small bubble with a diameter of less than 1mm, rather than a few millimeters, or even dozens of millimeters. Bullae are easy to pile up, also like white clouds, but because of the large diameter of the bullae, also unqualified. The low secretion of foam is mainly to ensure the number of bubbles in the foam and the porosity of foamed concrete, that is, to ensure the density of foamed concrete. 5. The foam has no side effects on cementitious materials The cementitious material is the main source of strength of foamed concrete, the addition of foam cannot affect its cementitious property, that is, there is no negative cementitious effect. Not every bubble can achieve this. In the long-term test, we discover a lot of foam to cement, magnesite, gesso of gelling have hindrance, can reduce the strength of foam concrete, sometimes even from beginning to end the concrete after hardening loses strength basically, resemble a dish scatters sand. The stability of these foams is very good, several hours do not disappear, the appearance of sponge, bleeding is very low, dense, and uniform, all aspects meet the technical requirements, but are not compatible with the gel material, so cannot be used for production. This means that foams that are otherwise qualified, such as affecting strength, are ultimately not technically qualified. Suppliers of Concrete Additives TRUNNANO is a reliable foaming agents supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development. If you are looking for high-quality CLC foaming agents, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com) We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. TRUNNANO will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea. Recently, the first press conference of the Boao Forum For Asia Annual Conference 2022 was held. Two flagship reports were released at the conference: "Asia's Economic Prospects and Integration Process 2022" and "Sustainable Asia and the World 2022-Green Transformation in Action in Asia". The flagship report points out that the global economy will recover in 2021, and the pace of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific has not stopped even in the face of the impact of COVID-19. The Asia-Pacific region has provided new impetus for the world's economic recovery and institutional building. The report gives an outlook on the Asian economy, noting that a number of factors will affect Asian economic growth. For example, mutated strains such as Delta and Omicron have become more transmissible, and many economies are experiencing epidemic peaks again. The Ukraine crisis has triggered geopolitical changes in Asia and Europe, leading to higher commodity prices, which may affect the global energy supply and energy transformation. The report pointed out that the Asian economy will still be in the process of recovery in 2022, but the growth rate may moderate. According to the report, Asia's economic growth in 2022 is likely to be lower than the current IMF forecast, which is projected at 4.8%. Affected by several factors, the supply of the concrete foaming agent is erratic and thus its prices are expected to go higher in the future. Inquery us Amazon.com said it will stop supplying retailers in China with its Kindle e-readers from Thursday and will shut its Kindle e-bookstore there next year, in the latest pullback by a U.S. tech firm from the restrictive Chinese market. Amazon announced the decision on its official WeChat account on Thursday, saying it was adjusting the strategic focus of its operations and that its other business lines in China would continue. The Kindle China e-bookstore will stop selling ebooks from June 30 next year, it said, though customers will be able to continue downloading any purchased books for a year beyond that. It will also remove the Kindle app from Chinese app stores in 2024, it added. The company said the closure of Kindle's China business was not due to government pressure or censorship. "We remain committed to our customers in China. As a global business, we periodically evaluate our offerings and make adjustments, wherever we operate," a spokesperson for Amazon said in an emailed statement. "With our portfolio of businesses in China, we will continue to innovate and invest where we can provide value to our customers." Amazon's remaining businesses in China include cross-border e-commerce, advertising and cloud services. It shut down its China online store in 2019. Reuters reported in December last year on Amazon's deep, decade-long effort to win favour in Beijing to protect and grow its business in China. The report detailed how the Kindle business was one it had sought to expand in China, and cited an internal 2018 Amazon briefing document that said by the end of 2017, China had become Kindle's largest global market, "accounting for 40%+ of our world device sales volume". Other Western internet companies, including Microsoft's LinkedIn, Yahoo and Airbnb have cut services in or retreated completely from China in recent months, amid government efforts to tighten control over online content and new laws targeting data sharing and customer privacy. Reuters Researchers from Cambridge have examined 19 coprolites turds to you and me from a site where workers building Stonehenge lived each winter. Eggs of parasitic worms, inhabiting the liver, were identified in the stools. Builders ate the half-cooked internal organs of cattle. Dog poo from the site contained parasites found in fish assuming that fish was on the menu and they gobbled scraps from the table. So was pork pig bones have been found at Stonehenge. Human coprolite (preserved human faeces) from Durrington Walls, a Neolithic settlement just 2.8km from Stonehenge, and dating from around 2500 BC, when much of the famous site was constructed. Image: Lisa-Marie Shillito/PA Wire It seems slightly blasphemous to dwell on the cesspool aspect of a sacred site visited by millions of people each year seeking spiritual sustenance. However, the mystical aspects of Stonehenge must be set aside in the interests of science. Nor is this the first such desecration: up to 1900, chisels were offered to visitors, so that they could chip souvenir pieces off the great stones. Then mass tourism took over. I remember mingling with the crowds there in the 60s; people scattered litter and climbed on the monument. For each man kills the thing he loves. Security was much improved when I returned in 1980: access to the monument had been curtailed three years earlier. However, hemmed in by the A303 and A344, the noise and exhaust fumes of vehicles spoiled the atmosphere. Happily, the bad old days are gone. The offending traffic has been diverted and a state-of-the-art interpretative centre built, out of sight, 800 metres away. Walking up towards the great stone circle on a recent visit, even this hard-nosed sceptic must admit to a sense of the transcendent: 5 on the Richter Scale, as through a glass darkly. The World of Stonehenge is a temporary exhibition at the British Museum in London. The focus is not on the monument itself but on artefacts, found throughout Britain and Ireland, from its heyday 4,000BC to 1,000BC. The Nebra Sky Disc, the oldest known map of the stars, has pride of place. Nature and civilisation were hand-in-glove during Stone and Bronze Age times. Wood, bone, and animal skins provided tools for everyday life. A giant puppet, controlled by four people, called Gnomus, the Caretaker of the Earth, performs at Stonehenge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire. Picture: Ben Birchall/PA Wire A stalking cap was made from the head of a deer complete with antlers; the crown was fashioned to fit the hunters head. What the Africans call bush-meat must have featured in the Stonehenge diet. The Salisbury Plain area would have supported deer, wild boar, hares, and a host of smaller edible creatures. Our ancestors, living off the land long ago, were an integral part of the ecosystem. Items from Ireland feature in this beautifully mounted show. The magnificent gold collar from Glenisheen, County Clare, and another from Tipper South in Kildare, are among many objects lent by the National Museum. Although unable able to confirm their provenance during my visit, I suspect that some of the gold torcs bracelets and ear-spools on display were once owned by Redmond Anthony of Piltown, County Kilkenny*. Anthony ran an antiquities museum at his Inn in the village, levying a small entry charge on behalf of the Fever Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. Following his death in 1848, the collection was sold at Sothebys in London. Many of the items are now in the collections of the British Museum. * Mary Cahill. Mr Anthonys Bog Oak Case of Gold Antiquities. Proceeding of the Royal Irish Academy. 1994 The Defence Forces has launched a major recruitment campaign to fill the 1,000 vacancies it currently has and to find an additional 2,000 personnel to bolster numbers in the army, naval service and air corps. The Be More campaign aims to recruit 1,000 people in the short term, bringing the Defence Forces up to their minimum required strength of 9,500. Report recommendations The requirement for an additional 2,000 personnel was highlighted in recommendations contained in Commission on the Defence Forces Report, published last February. It is hoped these people will be recruited by 2030 at the latest. The new recruitment drive was launched by Simon Coveney, the defence minister, and Defence Forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Sean Clancy at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin. Defence Forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Sean Clancy at the official recruitment rebrand launch in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines. The Defence Forces recruitment section worked with external companies and a market researcher to try to find out what young adults would seek from a career in the countrys military. Recruitment is the lifeblood of any organisation and no less so for the Defence Forces," Mr Coveney said. An ongoing influx of young, talented women and men is essential to rejuvenate and bring fresh thinking and ideas that are essential in the rapidly changing world we find ourselves in today "To attract and retain that talent means that what is offered in return must resonate with those we are seeking to recruit. This new recruitment marketing strategy, that I am proud to launch, is the culmination of the efforts of the Defence Forces, in partnership with industry experts, to ensure this. New skills Mr Coveney said the marketing strategy aligns the desire to continuously improve and learn new skills with ensuring long-term career advancement, by demonstrating the opportunities and skills a career in the Defence Forces offers. He said it couples the altruistic desire to serve the State with the benefit that by serving your country you are serving your future self. Mr Coveney said the roles offer unique personal development opportunities and will produce communicators, problem solvers, team members, and leaders who can meet lifes challenges In addition to seeking ordinary recruits, the Defence Forces will launch further drives to attract skilled people from the private sector. Specialists It is short of cyber/IT specialists, medics, doctors, engineers, and ordinance personnel. This is a time of great change and opportunity for the Defence Forces, with the publication of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces," Mr Coveney said. "The recruitment campaign is just a part of the process of facilitating the increase in strength required to underpin its recommendations and is an important step, given our current recruitment and retention challenges and my desire for an elevated level of ambition for the Defence Forces. Some Ukrainian children are enrolling in Irish schools, attending for a few weeks, before being suddenly moved with their families to another part of the country. The Oireachtas education committee met last night to get an update on the States response to displaced Ukrainian students, hearing from Norma Foley, the education minister; and Josepha Madigan, the junior minister for special education. Just under 6,000 children and young people from Ukraine are enrolled in schools across the State, Ms Foley told the committee in her opening statement. Labour education spokesman Aodhan O Riordain said that Irish schools have just come out of the "traumatic" period of dealing with the pandemic. Labour education spokesman Aodhan O Riordain: 'A child may be in a school for a number of weeks and, with very short notice, that family may be relocated to another part of the country.' Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins "Now they are embracing an incredibly new challenge of thousands of young people and children coming under their care, who dont have English as a first language and who are suffering from all sorts of trauma. It's come to my notice, for example, in certain circumstances a child may be in a school for a number of weeks and, with very short notice, that family may be relocated to another part of the country. I know there was a number of families going to school in my constituency and with short notice they were moved to Youghal Sinn Fein education spokesman Donnchadh O Laoghaire said he believed that some of the children who have been moved had already bought school uniforms before they were relocated. "It might be worth putting out a message that, until there is a clearer picture of where these children will be, there should be flexibility on things like uniforms." Sinn Fein education spokesman Donnchadh O Laoghaire said some of the children who had been moved had bought school uniforms before they were relocated. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins In response, Ms Foley said: "With the best will in the world there is a significant challenge around accommodation from the Department of Children's point of view. This is an emergency situation." There has been "unprecedented demand" but all of society is stepping up, she added. "It does mean that some accommodations are available on a short-term basis." Her department is alerting the Department of Children to areas where there is school capacity but its priority is to provide accommodation first, she added. We have, up to this point, been able to meet where they have found the accommodation to provide an education but it is a challenge, there is no doubt about that Meanwhile, TDs and senators attending the education committee also challenged Ms Foley on her departments recently published review of out-of-school education. The review was first commissioned in 2017. Following its publication last month, Cork Life Centre said it was deeply disappointed and concerned, adding that the review's recommendations would consign to the scrap heap those children who cannot cope with the traditional institutionalised school system. It added: It seems very unclear how this review will progress proper funding of our service in Cork. Cork Life Centre director Don OLeary: The centre said recommendations from a review of out-of-school education would consign to the scrap heap those children who cannot cope with the traditional institutionalised school system. Picture: Darragh Kane The centre was one of 23 organisations that took part in the review. Paul Kehoe, Fine Gael TD and chair of the education committee, said members were very impressed with the work of the Cork Life Centre. He asked Ms Foley to commit to providing the centre with a "financial lifeline" and to visit when her diary allowed. THE authority responsible for running Dublin Airport pleaded not to be hit with fines because of lengthy queues at the airport, warning it could compromise security. In correspondence with the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR), Daa said their emphasis had to remain on safety rather than waiting times. And they said any over-emphasis on queuing times risked the potential of non-compliance with stringent EU rules on security. In letters to CAR, Daa wrote: Our focus in security is to ensure that something does not get on an aircraft that shouldn't, complying fully with all European and Irish regulations. While we do not want any passengers delayed coming through the screening process, our focus cannot prioritise this over passenger security and safety. Dublin Airports managing director Vincent Harrison added: The re-introduction of fines increases the risk of focus being leaned too heavily on queue times, resulting in potential non-compliance with regulations. Force majeure The Daa appealed for a force majeure saying that the impact of Covid-19 had been so severe that there were no further reasonable steps they could have taken to improve waiting times. The correspondence with CAR runs from January to April during which the airport authority made their case monthly for fines not to be applied. In each month, the Commission for Aviation Regulation agreed to their request saying it was clear Covid-19 continued to impact operations. By April, CAR told Dublin Airport that it was crucial that they take all steps available to them to comply with targets for security queues. A letter from their Director of Markets and Corporate Policy, Adrian Corcoran, said: We expect that there will be improvements in the queue times in the coming weeks as the effects of the many mitigation measures that have been put in place materialise. While wait times at the airport did improve later in April and into May, chaos engulfed the airport last weekend when 1,400 passengers missed their flights. The Daa were also told that queue times were now impacting Irelands international reputation and were summoned to meetings with government ministers. Staffing resources The first of the four letters to CAR was sent in January when Daa said Covid-19 and close contacts had put significant pressure on staff resources. They said absence levels had been up to 30% and that they faced a competitive market in trying to recruit additional staff. In response, CAR said they agreed that a force majeure event had taken place and that the impact was likely to be high due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19. In February, Daa said Covid-19 accounted for 65% of all staff absences, that up to 22% of people rostered to work security were out sick, and that this was up 440% on the expected rates of absence. By March, Daa were still citing Covid-19 but said other factors including recruitment and delays in training new staff member were also causing issues. They said they were working on new roster models that would allow them to better scale resources up and down according to passenger demand. Further challenges Aprils letter again asked for fines to be waived saying challenges now included a marked increase in the discovery of prohibited items during screening, refamiliarisation of the travelling public with security processing, higher than forecast passenger demands, as well as Covid-19. They wrote: We must not lose sight of the fact that our focus in security is to ensure that something does not get on an aircraft that shouldn't, with the primary objective being to comply fully with all European and Irish security regulations. The correspondence had originally been withheld by the Commission for Aviation Regulation who said the letters were confidential and exempt from release. However, it was released following a successful appeal under Freedom of Information legislation. In a statement, CAR said: Due to the high level of staff absences at Dublin Airport due to Covid-19 in January, February, and March of this year, the Commission waived the potential penalty effect on the maximum level of per passenger airport charge. From the start of the summer season, the Commission has indicated to Daa that it is less likely to waive penalties unless extraordinary circumstances exist. We have yet to consider possible extenuating circumstances in relation to events since the start of the summer season. Daa did not respond to requests for comment on the records. A leading Ukrainian MP has said a huge thank you to the Irish people for the incredible welcome shown to her fellow citizens now living here since the start of the war. Kira Rudik, leader of the political party Voice, told the Irish Examiner in Dublin that she is absolutely amazed by the support shown by the public here. Speaking at the Congress of the ALDE party, the European group of which Fianna Fail is a member, Ms Rudik said she has spoken with the representative groups of refugees here who are very grateful. I can tell the things they are saying are amazing, about the most hearty welcome they could ever imagine, about the schools and for the roof over their heads. So on behalf of the Ukrainian people, I want to express my gratitude, she said. Military response At the congress, a motion proposed by Fianna Fail was slammed by some of their colleagues as it sought to maintain Irelands neutral stance on the military response to Russias invasion. During a session on the war in Ukraine, delegates asked how Ireland can be neutral on rape or on murder. With all respects to Irish colleagues, we ask congress to reject their resolution, said the Golus Party delegation from Ukraine. The admittance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his party to the ALDE party is described as 'very significant'. Picture: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP The ALDE Congress formally welcomed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his party into its fold at its congress held in the Convention Centre in Dublin. It is an honour to have President Zelenskyys party, Sluga Narodu and my good friend Olga Stefanishyna in the ALDE Party liberal family. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine! said Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Timmy Dooley, who was elected as co-president of the ALDE party, said the admittance of President Zelenskyys party is very significant. It's fantastic. We've been working on this for over a year now. Obviously, negotiations sped up when Ukraine was invaded, Mr Dooley said. And so, on behalf of the bureau, I've been in Ukraine on a couple of occasions, meeting with some of their senior members of the party. "They gave us the mandate to proceed with those final discussions, which as you can see, was accepted by the ALDE Council today, he said. Mr Dooley said he is honoured to have been elected as its president for the next two years but said there will be a lot of hard work involved. THE Rendezvous Bar, a long-standing fixture of Cork Citys suburban pub trade, is up for sale for 2m. Occupying 0.4 acres on Model Farm Rd, where homes are among the most expensive in the city, selling agent Sam Kingston of Casey & Kingston, said he expects considerable interest. There is potential to put the site to another use, with planning permission, he said, adding that zoning at the property includes residential, local services, and institutional uses. This could allow, subject to planning, a variety of developments, from small-scale retail, to potentially converting the premises for educational or medical use, or using it for housing/apartments. As its directly across the road from the back gates of Cork University Hospital, it may appeal to medics looking for nearby private consulting rooms. The two-storey 6,757 sq ft over basement premises includes bar/restaurant on the ground floor, with a fully-fitted kitchen and toilets overhead and cold rooms and storage in the basement. During the pandemic, the business created more seating outdoors and can now accommodate 200 customers to the front of the building. Inside, the bar area can seat 180. Parking for about 25 cars is out back. The pub last sold four years ago when Joe OSullivan, with experience in the trade, bought it for c1.5m. It had gone to market for 1.25m. Prior to that it was owned by the ODonovan family, with a background in hospitality and the licensed trade in the Darby Arms and Westpark Hotel, Ballincollig. They bought it in 1999 and it was run by a second generation family member. However it closed unexpectedly after Christmas 2017, before reopening under Mr OSullivan. Its located in a well-populated and affluent western suburb, at the city end of Model Farm Rd, near Munster Technological University and University College Cork, and Mr Kingston said he was excited to put the premises up for sale. I believe there is going to be considerable interest, he said. Other moves attracting interest in the hospitality industry include a step further west by Kinsales Blue Haven Collection who have added Schull Harbour Hotel and eight apartments to their portfolio. Blue Haven Hotel Kinsale Picture: John Allen The new owners, who bought it in March for an undisclosed sum, said the bar, rooms, and suites are all open and trading and that the apartments are heavily booked for the summer. The leisure centre is set to reopen in July, followed by the restaurant. Managing the boutique hotel is Eugene McNamara who trained in the JP McManus-owned/future Ryder Cup host venue Adare Manor, for more than seven years. There are rumours too of an eastward expansion by the Blue Haven Collection and the property mentioned but not confirmed is Finins Bar and Restaurant Main St, Midleton, which had been put for sale in 2018 for 550,000. Its long term proprietor, West Cork native Finin OSullivan, retired on the last day of trading, May 28, after 44 years, and customers were advised on Facebook that the popular hostelry would close briefly before re-opening by the new owners, to trade as is. Finin's Bar and Restaurant, Midleton Neither agents handling the Finins sale nor the Blue Haven Collection would comment on the rumoured transaction. DETAILS: Sam Kingston, Casey & Kingston, 021 4271127 The Rendezvous Bar, a long-standing fixture of Cork Citys suburban pub trade, is up for sale for 2m. Burma Displaced Civilians Injured by Myanmar Junta Mortar in Sagaing Fires in Nat Chaung village. / CJ Four displaced people, including a five-year-old, were injured in fighting between Myanmar junta troops and resistance forces in Nat Chaung and Nat Myaung villages in Kale Township, Sagaing Region, on Tuesday. Following a mine attack by Kale Peoples Defense Force (PDF) near Nat Chaung on Tuesday, junta troops attempted to torch the village and adjacent Nat Myaung, resulting in a clash with resistance groups. The clash lasted about half an hour and displaced people taking shelter at Nat Myaungs monastery were injured by a mortar shell, said Ko Ei Soe from the Kale PDF. Four people, including a child, at the monastery were hit by mortar fragments, he told The Irrawaddy. Two were seriously injured and needed medical treatment. Junta troops reportedly torched more houses between Saturday and Monday and killed a mentally ill man in southern Kale, said Kale PDF. Clashes also took place in Nat Chaung on Wednesday, although details are unknown. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Junta Expands its Intelligence Operation Military Junta Administrators Quit After Armed Groups Death Threats Cambodia Forced to Put Off ASEAN Meeting as Foreign Ministers Pull Out Burma Junta Urges Myanmars Most Powerful Ethnic Army not to Supply Arms to Resistance Junta leaders and UWSP delegation meet in Naypyitaw on May 30, 2022. Myanmars military regime has urged the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the political wing of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the countrys most powerful ethnic armed organization (EAO), not to supply arms to the Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) fighting the junta. The regime made the request during a meeting in Naypyitaw on May 30 between coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and a UWSP delegation led by its vice chair Luo Yaku. The Shan State-based UWSP suggested holding dialogue between the junta leader and detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to solve Myanmars crisis, sources told The Irrawaddy. UWSP liaison officer Nyi Rang from Lashio in Shan State, who was part of the UWSP delegation, denied discussing either PDFs or Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the meeting. In a statement released on May 31, the UWSP described the post-coup crisis as an internal issue of the Bamar ethnic people, and said it would not take sides as it does not want to see its involvement causing further conflict. The UWSP called for the crisis to be resolved through dialogue as soon as possible, saying many valuable lives have been lost in the armed conflict that has broken out since last years coup. Despite claiming neutrality in the battle between the regime and the resistance, the UWSA has been expanding its territory and consolidating its administration in eastern and southern Shan State. It has deployed troops in mountains near Panglong, Mong Kung, Lawksawk, and Mongshu which oversee the Salween River. A political observer who asked for anonymity said it is probable that the regime has urged the UWSA not to supply arms to the PDFs. It is likely that the regime has urged the UWSA not to provide arms to the PDFs because 50 weapons were seized in Ba Htoo [in southern Shan State]. They were UWSA-made Type-81 assault rifles. The regime assumes that those arms came from Wa State. They have also found 107mm rockets in Karenni [Kayah] State, which they also believe come from Wa State. So it is possible that the regime has asked the Wa not to supply arms to the PDFs. Wa State is the name given to the area in eastern Shan State that the UWSP runs as an autonomous zone. Some EAOs in eastern and northern Myanmar, including the UWSA, are likely supplying arms to the PDFs secretly, said another political observer. Not only the UWSA, but the Arakan Army and the Taang National Liberation Army are supporting the PDFs so that the regime is kept busy and cant attack them. So they will back the PDFs secretly, but will not support them publicly, he said. The UWSP is the fourth EAO to meet the junta leader, following the Restoration Council of Shan State, the New Mon State Party and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council. Burma NUG Declares Myanmar Junta Peace Talks With Ethnic Armies Illegal Restoration Council of Shan State leader General Yawd Serk meets with junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in May 2022. Myanmars parallel National Unity Government (NUG) declared on Wednesday that any agreements made with the terrorist regime are illegal and warned that they wont be recognized, as the junta continued to hold talks with a number of ethnic armed organizations (EAO). This week on Tuesday, the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the political wing of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the countrys most powerful EAO, met with junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. After the meeting, the regime said that the UWSP agreed on the principle of establishing a federal democracy and that it agreed in principle to the UWSPs demand for an autonomous state for ethnic Wa people. The eastern Shan State-based UWSP is the fourth EAO to hold talks with the regime, following the Restoration Council of Shan State, the New Mon State Party and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council. In earlier meetings, the parties were reported to have discussed establishing a federal multi-party democracy and to have reached some general agreements. But on Wednesday, the NUG, which has wide public support and backing overseas, said in a statement that the military regime is a terrorist organization which will be tried at the International Court of Justice for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It has no de jure power mandated by the people or de facto power to govern the country, said the NUG statement. Since last years coup, the junta has killed at least 1,878 people and detained around 14,000 more. The NUG declared the regime a terrorist organization in June 2021. The regime has no right to negotiate with contracting parties like a union government, the NUG stated on Wednesday. Therefore, we hereby announce that any negotiations with the terrorist regime are illegal and wont be recognized by the NUG and any of its successors. Engulfed by mounting armed resistance across the country, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing invited leaders of EAOs who are both signatories and non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) for talks in late May to end armed conflict. Seven of the ten signatories to the NCA accepted the invitation, as did non-signatories the Shan State Progress Party, the UWSP and the National Democratic Alliance Army. Other major EAOs are currently fighting the regime and rejected the juntas offer of peace talks as neither genuine nor all-inclusive. News Myanmar Junta's War Crime Displaces Thousands of Civilians in Kachin State Displaced villagers in Putao in the last week of February. / Kachin News Nearly 6,000 people have fled their homes and approximately 25 have been killed in Kachin and northern Shan states by Myanmars regime forces from November 2021 to April, according to the rights group Kachin Womens Association of Thailand (KWAT). KWATs New Threats from the Air report on Wednesday said airstrikes and artillery were targeting civilian villages and rape was being used as a weapon, constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The notorious Light Infantry Divisions 33, 88 and 99 fired artillery on civilian areas alongside junta airstrikes in Kachin State, killing approximately 21 people and injuring around 40, the report said. There is strong evidence that people are being killed and injured in their houses by airstrikes and artillery where there is no fighting, said KWAT spokeswoman Moon Nay Li. Regime forces fired artillery at civilian areas of Muse, Namkham and Lashio townships in Shan State and Hpakant, Momauk and Shwegu townships in Kachin State, killing approximately eight villagers and injuring around 20, including six children, the report said. Eleven civilians were killed, including a seven-year-old boy shot dead in his bed in the Kachin capital Myitkyina, and seven injured in indiscriminate shooting by regime forces, the group said. In early 2022 two villagers were killed and 13 injured, including six children, in airstrikes on Putato and Hpakant townships along the Irrawaddy river. Before the 2021 coup, it was still safe in cities like Myitkyina. Now urban and rural communities do not go outside at night, said Moon Nay Li. The report detailed how sexual violence was used without fear of prosecution and that two members of the same battalion committed rape in November 2021 and April 2022. Civilians are used as human shields and arbitrarily arrested and tortured into confessing to being Kachin Independence Army (KIA) or peoples defense force members, the report said. The KIA is a powerful armed group that resumed fighting with Myanmars military in Kachin State in 2011. So far this year approximately 5,700 villagers have fled their homes, adding to the existing displaced population of 100,000 in Kachin State, according to the KWAT. They are sheltering in camps, forests and with relatives, the report said. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that Myanmar has exceeded a million displaced civilians for the first time. You may also like these stories: Regime Airstrike Destroys Hospital in Lower Myanmar Junta Chief to Preside Over Myanmars First Grand Military Review in Seven Years Resistance Fighters and KIA Clash With Junta Forces in Northern Myanmar We Are China Rescue operation continues after 6.1-magnitude earthquake hits Sichuan Ecns.cn) 13:31, June 02, 2022 Armed police forces handle relief materials at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) A 6.1-magnitude earthquake rattled Lushan County of Ya'an in Sichuan on Wednesday. At least four people have been confirmed dead and 14 others are injured. Rescuers put up tents at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) Rescuers put up tents at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) Rescuers put up tents at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) Residents rest in a tent at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) A rescuer carries out disinfection at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) Residents rest in a tent at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) A resident takes nucleic acid test at a temporary shelter in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) Photo shows a at a temporary shelter at Taiping middle school in Lushan County of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/An Yuan) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) A new centre dedicated to helping NSW small businesses respond to cybersecurity incidents and strengthen their cybercrime capabilities has opened at Western Sydney University. The Western Centre for Cybersecurity Aid & Community Engagement (CACE) is providing free services to help businesses respond to cybersecurity incidents like data breaches, ransomware, email compromise, phishing and payment fraud, and implement appropriate security controls. The free service will also help upskill businesses and prepare them to combat future threats by harnessing skills, technology, and cybercrime psychology through the centres resources and training programs. Located at Western Sydney Universitys Parramata City campus, the centre is helmed by the university in partnership with cybersecurity businesses Emergence, Gridware, DCEncompass, and Secolve, as well as Innovation Node. It also received $745,000 worth of funding from the Australian Governments Cyber Security Business Connect and Protect Grants Program. Western Sydney University cybersecurity researcher and CACE director professor Alana Maurushat claims the centre is the first-of-its-kind in the world to be housed in a university, providing free and accessible services to small-to-medium businesses. Cybersecurity attacks can be very stressful to an organisation resulting in significant economic, emotional and even physical harm. We know cybercrime is becoming increasingly sophisticated we have seen incidences increase dramatically over the last two years of the pandemic due to the rapid rise in online interactions and remote working and learning, says Maurushat. Tackling cybercrime needs to be a high priority for every business, whether large or small. Our Centre is particularly aimed at helping small businesses in western Sydney and across NSW bolster their cybersecurity defences and give them the tools to recognise cyber threats, as well as the advice and support to help them build capacity and resilience in their organisation against future cybercrime. More than 80 students from the universitys Bachelor of Cybersecurity and Behaviour degree, who are trained in cybersecurity incident response, are manning the centre. Law students are also assisting them too. 46 percent of our students are women, and many students also from culturally and linguistically-diverse backgrounds with capabilities to speak across more than 30 different languages, enabling Western CACE to provide a highly-supportive, highly-accessible resource to all members of our diverse local communities, says Maurushat. Professor Maurushat says the most important step businesses can take to prevent cybercrime is to implement a cybersecurity incident response plan. The team at Western CACE have curated a checklist outlining the most important things you need to know to prevent and respond to threats, with cyber toolkits especially targeted to small family-run enterprises and small-to-medium organisations. Digital service provider in Kuwait Zain launches voiceover 5G services, claiming to be the first telco to commercially launch Vo5G with coverage in all of Kuwaits areas on the new Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup. With the Vo5G, subscribers can expect fast internet while making voice calls on compatible smartphones. The launch comes after Zain has completed tests to assess the readiness of its network and its technical capabilities to operate the service nationwide. The service relies on its standalone 5G network installed earlier this year. According to Zain, it is offering the use of the enhanced voice service at no additional cost and plans to extend it to compatible future devices. Zain claims customers will make crystal-clear voice calls over the 5G network without any interruption. In addition, Vo5G allows users to enjoy using the internet, streaming services, and data-hungry apps while making voice calls with the consistent and ultra-fast speeds of 5G. The service offers a great solution for users who heavily depend on data services, as they will not have to end phone calls to get back to the best internet experience anymore, Zain said. This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 1 June 2022. New Zealand and Australian consumers on fibre to the premises connections receive similar download speeds, according to a report by the ACCC and New Zealand Commerce Commission comparing trans-Tasman broadband performance. However, the report noted that New Zealand has more consistent performance during evening, but Australian consumers on fixed wireless networks receive faster download speeds and more stable connection than New Zealanders on fixed wireless. The report reveals that fixed-line (fibre to the premises and hybrid fibre cable) and fixed wireless networks in New Zealand have faster uploads than in Australia due to differences in how they are configured. Both download and upload performance in New Zealand is supported by the overprovisioning of plan speeds, whereas in Australia, NBN overprovisions only the download component. By benchmarking Australias high-speed broadband performance against other countries, we can assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the NBN, ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey comments. The NBN generally compares well to equivalent connection types in New Zealand, particularly download speeds during the day. However, NBNs access charging model and approach to provisioning upload traffic on fixed-line connections appear to be causing some busy hour and upload metrics to fall below New Zealands. There are no technical impediments to the NBN matching New Zealands busy hour and upload performance on 100Mbps download plans. Trans-Tasman comparisons are a useful way of checking how well our broadband networks are performing for consumers, and its great to see that our Ultra-Fast Broadband fibre network, in particular, stacks up well against the NBN. Were pleased that weve been able to work with SamKnows and the ACCC to produce this report, New Zealand telecommunications commissioner Tristan Gilbertson Tristan Gilbertson says. The ACCC and the New Zealand Commerce Commission have jointly released the report. It uses September 2021 data of comparative broadband services from the two countries respective broadband monitoring programs. Fixed-line broadband results The ACCC and New Zealand Commerce Commission released the following: NBN fixed-line 100 Mbps download and 20Mbps upload (100/20) plans recorded a higher average download speed (102.1Mbps) than New Zealands equivalent Fibre 100 plans (101.2Mbps) outside of the busy evening hours of 7-11pm. However, speeds in Australia declined more as network traffic increased. In the busiest test hour, the average download speed on NBN fixed line 100/20 plans declined from the non-busy hours average by 4.5Mbps (97.6Mbps) in Australia, compared to a 2.3Mbps reduction (98.9Mbps) on New Zealands Fibre 100 plans. This shows that, on average, Australian consumers experience congestion more than their New Zealand counterparts. As a result, Australian consumers have a slightly higher risk of a disrupted online experience during the busiest periods on the network. Average download speeds on Australias NBN Ultrafast broadband plans were lower than average download speeds on New Zealands equivalent Fibre Max broadband plans. Australias average download speeds also declined more (126.7Mbps) than New Zealands (88.9Mbps) in the busiest test hour. Difference is attributed to two countries having fundamentally different upload speed specifications for Fibre Max plans. These broadband services are typically purchased by households that use a large number of online applications concurrently. We encourage consumers who are looking to upgrade to a very high speed tier to consider the value of these services relative to their normal daily usage, Brakey recommends. Most consumers, even with multiple family members online at the same time, do not require the fastest plans currently available in Australia, and have a good broadband experience on plans with lower download speeds. Upload speeds on both the 100/20 and Ultrafast speed tiers were also higher in New Zealand. Tests for NBN 100/20 broadband plans were conducted on services connected to fibre-to-the-premises and hybrid fibre cable networks, to provide a more like-for-like comparison to New Zealands Fibre 100 broadband plans. Fibre to the premises connections in both countries were tested for NBN Ultrafast and Fibre Max comparisons. Fixed wireless broadband results Average download speeds on Australias NBN fixed wireless plus broadband plans (36.4Mbps) were higher than those on New Zealands regional fixed wireless network (29.2Mbps). However, New Zealands regional fixed wireless network recorded much higher average upload speeds (17Mbps) than NBN fixed wireless (4Mbps). Australias slower fixed wireless upload speeds are due to NBN Cos decision to configure the network to give more capacity to downloads than uploads. GUEST OPINION: Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR), conducted new research into the talent shortage afflicting the cybersecurity industry. Among the key findings, 85% of those surveyed believe the workforce shortage is impacting their organisations abilities to secure increasingly complex information systems and networks. Of the current workforce, 30% plan to change professions in the future. Our industry is already 2.72 million people short1. Cultivating and nurturing a cybersecurity workforce for our future requires expanding who we view as talent and changing our practices across the public and private sectors, said Bryan Palma, CEO of Trellix. Closing the cybersecurity talent gap is not only a business imperative, but important to national security and our daily lives. We need to remove barriers to entry, actively work to inspire people to do soulful work and ensure those in the field are retained. The findings are based on a Vanson Bourne survey, commissioned by Trellix, of 1,000 cybersecurity professionals in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K and the U.S. across a variety of sectors. The survey found that as threats from nation-state actors and cybercriminals grow in volume and sophistication, 97% of Australian cybersecurity respondents report and are aware of current skills gap across the profession amid a growing demand to fill security-related roles. Key Australian findings include: Educational programs need to be introduced early to help fill gaps: Encouraging students to pursue STEM-related careers throughout the education process (41%), and further funding support (28%) are believed to be one of the key areas in which would foster participation of employees into a cybersecurity career. 96% of cybersecurity professionals believe that greater mentorship, internships and apprentices would encourage and support participation of workers into cybersecurity roles-based roles. However, 58% agree that people dont actually need university or college degrees to have a successful career in cybersecurity. A career path in cybersecurity is purposeful and motivating: 95% of respondents believe that the role of those working in cybersecurity is greater now than ever before, while 96% have said that cybersecurity is purposeful work that motivates them. Half of the Australian respondents (50%) enjoy challenging new trends whilst 44% feel a sense of motivation due to its everchanging importance. On average, respondents report working within cybersecurity for 9 years. Employees feel frustrations and a need for support within cybersecurity: Majority (96%) of Australian respondents note at least one frustration, the most common for respondents focusing on limited support for the development of skills (39%), lack of recognition for the good done for society (34%), and limited support with the qualifications and certifications required (38%). Organisations need to recognise they could be making more progressive steps towards encouraging more individuals into cybersecurity: Australian respondents agree greater recruitment drives of employees into cybersecurity-related roles (95%), there should be community mentoring programs with a presence in K-12 schools (98%), and there needs to be an openness to considering employees from non-traditional cybersecurity backgrounds (99%). More Education is Needed. As threats from nation-state actors and cybercriminals grow in volume and sophistication, the worldwide shortage of cybersecurity professionals grows as well. While some countries like Russia and China invest deeply in nurturing cybersecurity talent through state-funded education, many nations are without dedicated programs. Trellix sought to understand education levels and found over half (56%) believe that degrees arent needed for a successful career in cybersecurity. The survey also found: Support for development of skills (85%) and the pursuit of certifications (80%) were selected as highly or extremely important factors for the industry to expand the workforce. Employers could be doing more to encourage community mentoring programs with a presence in K-12 schools (94%). Areas most likely to attract people to cybersecurity included efforts to promote the soulfulness of cybersecurity careers (43%), encouragement of STEM students considering cybersecurity careers (41%), and more financial support for students in cybersecurity career paths (39%). Diversity Drives Better Outcomes. Of the cybersecurity professionals surveyed, 78% are male, 64% white and 89% straight, and a large majority of respondents (91%) believe there needs to be wider efforts to grow the cybersecurity talent pool from diverse groups. When it comes to encouraging more people to consider a career in cybersecurity, respondents reported inclusivity and equality for women (79%), diversity of the cybersecurity workforce (77%) and pay gaps between different demographic groups (72%) as highly or extremely important factors for the industry to address. Additional findings include: Most respondents (92%) believe greater mentorship, internships, and apprenticeships would support participation of workers from diverse backgrounds into cybersecurity roles. 85% believe individuals are discouraged from entering the profession simply because they lack perspective into the fields various potential roles and opportunities for upward mobility. 94% of those surveyed believe their employers could be doing more to consider employees from non-traditional cybersecurity backgrounds and 45% report having previously worked in other careers. Cybersecurity is Soulful Work. The survey found the vast majority (94%) believe the role of those working in cybersecurity is greater now than ever before and a similar amount (92%) report cybersecurity as purposeful, soulful work that motivates them. However, cybersecurity professionals are hungry for recognition, with 36% noting they feel a lack of acknowledgement for the good done for society. Of those looking to leave the field, 12% say it is due to lack of feeling appreciated. The survey discovered: More than half (52%) report working within cybersecurity because its progressive, evolving and they enjoy exploring challenging new trends. 41% report cybersecurity is continuously growing in relevancy and roles will always be accessible as a reason for staying in the profession. Around one in five (19%) note they value doing something to help society for the greater good. On Tuesday, June 7, Trellix CEO Bryan Palma will deliver a keynote, Soulless to Soulful: Securitys Chance to Save Tech, at the RSA Conference in San Francsico, Calif. Palma will address the growing cybersecurity talent gap while providing recommendations to build a larger, stronger cybersecurity workforce. RSA Conference attendees can attend the address at 10:50 a.m. PDT at the Moscone Convention Center West Hall, others can view virtually or on-demand. The talent gap survey follows the release of Trellixs In the Crosshairs: Organisations and Nation-State Cyber Threats report which found organisations report limited cybersecurity talent as the greatest barrier to protecting themselves against nation-state cyber threats. Trellix also recently published Path to Cyber Readiness Preparation, Perception and Partnership, which cited 49% of U.S. government agencies felt their internal cyber security skills were inadequate. Additional Resources Blog: Trellix Survey Findings: A Closer Look at the Cyber Talent Gap (ISC) Cybersecurity Workforce Study, 2021 About Trellix Trellix is a global company redefining the future of cybersecurity. The companys open and native extended detection and response (XDR) platform helps organisations confronted by todays most advanced threats gain confidence in the protection and resilience of their operations. Trellixs security experts, along with an extensive partner ecosystem, accelerate technology innovation through machine learning and automation to empower over 40,000 business and government customers. More at https://trellix.com About Vanson Bourne Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and their ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information visit www.vansonbourne.com The Telstra/TPG network sharing agreement is before the ACCC but has already drawn criticism from Optus. TPG Telecom general manager external affairs James Rickards says Optus is terrified because it knows the deal brings choice and competition to regional Australia. The Telstra/TPG submission to the ACCC is available online and outlines the benefits the deal is anticipated to bring. However, it's not without critics from none other than the likes of Optus who state the deal will erode resilience for regional communities by reducing infrastructure variety in those regions. TPG Telecom general manager external affairs James Richards states TPG Telecoms proposed network sharing deal will benefit more than five million customers across Australia overnight. It will strengthen TPG Telecom as a competitor in areas where we have not been able to previously compete, and bring real choice to millions of customers in regional Australia. Rickard also notes the deal is "nothing like the old days" and that Telstra is actually giving up a key network advantage. "This infrastructure sharing arrangement is not without commercial risk to Telstra. TPG will have the ability to compete for and win a substantially increased share of customers in regional Australia from both Telstra and Optus." There is no truth to Optus claims that its access to spectrum will be restricted in some way. The numbers do not mislead - Optus will have more low-band and mid-band spectrum per subscriber in regional Australia than Telstra and TPG after they pool their spectrum. Importantly, the TPG spectrum must be used by Telstra in the shared regional network for the benefit of both TPG and Telstra customers," Rickard said. Optus is terrified because it knows this deal brings real customer choice and competition to regional Australia. It is deliberately twisting the facts to suit its own commercial agenda at the expense of TPG customers who should be allowed access to the superior regional mobile coverage enjoyed by Optus and Telstra customers. Fortinet says Nicole Quinn will be responsible for positioning the company with key government stakeholders to contribute to the public policy debates "critical to protecting the networks and data that are the foundation of our digital society" and."she will engage on the cybersecurity requirements of organisations within the APAC region - and will also work closely with the local public sector team to provide insights into government programs and requirements". Quinn has more than 20 years of experience in advocacy and stakeholder engagement including working for federal ministers and parliamentarians and member-based organisations and joins Fortinet from Quinntessential GR, a Canberra-based government relations advisory firm that she founded. Prior to establishing Quinntessential GR, Quinn was director of government relations for Parker and Partners (part of Ogilvy PR), heading up the organisations Canberra office. Her previous roles also include general manager and board member of The Institute for Regional Security, national convenor for Defence Families of Australia, director of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Commerce Centre for the State Chamber of Commerce (NSW) and various communication, marketing, and membership roles in both the private and public sectors. Quinn is currently a board member of The Sir Richard Williams Foundation and ACT Gift For Life as well as a member of the Australian Professional Government Relations Association. Hugh Carroll, head of government affairs, Fortinet, said, Nicole has worked extensively in and around the national security community. Her knowledge of policy and process will help better position Fortinet as a trusted partner to governments across APAC. With the significant uptick in cyberattacks and increased attention on cybersecurity laws and regulations, the time was ideal for Fortinet to make this important investment in the region. We look forward to Nicole being a key part of our growth story. Jon McGettigan, regional director Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, Fortinet, said, The cybersecurity landscape is changing rapidly with threats escalating every day. It is critical that government and business work together to ensure the security posture of the nation is protected. Fortinet is committed to playing its part in that, with Nicole playing an integral role of elevating Fortinets partnership with government to expand its contribution to the legislative and policy environment across APAC. Cybersecurity is at the forefront right now, touching everyones lives from consumers, enterprises and right up to the highest level of government. It is critical to ensure that the technology being used and the related policy settings and legislation are keeping up with the evolving cybersecurity demands, said Nicole Quinn. Coming to Fortinet at a time of rapid growth affords me with a great opportunity to elevate Fortinets position on the national security agenda. I look forward to sharing the insights and lessons that a company with global stature like Fortinet can offer the public sector. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Johnson City, TN (37604) Today Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with light rain possible. Low around 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Johnson City, TN (37604) Today Cloudy skies this evening followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. The defendant and the witness have many things in common. Both are former military officers, both were part of Gambias ex-dictators notorious death squad known as the Junglers, both have claimed that they were present and sitting in the same car during the deadly attacks on a journalist and a lawyer almost twenty years ago. The two men left the Junglers and their country behind at some point, and made their way to Germany. And both of them talked about their past to an oppositional Gambian radio station, revealing the details of the deadly attacks and their role in it. But on this day, in a German courtroom, there is one big difference between Bai Lowe and Sheriff Gisseh: Lowe is accused of crimes against humanity, while his former colleague is a free man, who has been summoned as a witness. The Gambia trial in Celle, Germany, has illustrated once again how fine the line between witness and suspect can be in universal jurisdiction cases. The first trial against a member of ex-dictator Yahya Jammehs death squad started in the north-western German city of Celle on the 25th of April. Bai Lowe is accused of crimes against humanity in conjunction with two murders and one attempted murder. Germany is conducting the trial under the principle of universal jurisdiction, that allows states to prosecute the gravest crimes against international law, even when there is no direct link to the prosecuting country. Lowe is alleged to have been a member of the Junglers and to have carried out several of Jammehs illegal orders to kill. According to the indictment, the aim of these operations was to intimidate the Gambian people and suppress the opposition. One of the victims was journalist Deyda Hydara, whose son Baba Hydara has joined the proceedings as a joint plaintiff. Bai Lowe is not accused of having killed anyone by his own hand, but of being the groups driver. He allegedly drove the killers to their missions and in one case used the car to block a victims vehicle. Among the main evidence against Lowe is is an interview he gave in 2013 to the oppositional US-based Freedom Radio, where he describes being present during the assassinations. Ex-Jungler remains silent On Monday, Sheriff Gisseh was summoned by the court to testify. He, too, gave a lengthy radio interview to journalist Pa Nderry Mbai in 2014. There, he mentioned sitting in the car with Lowe, while his colleagues were shooting lawyer Ousman Sillah in December 2003 and journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004. However, when Gisseh appeared in court, he was not willing to repeat that statement. The 50-year-old was accompanied by a lawyer, who apparently had advised him to remain silent in order not to incriminate himself. With Gisseh being an ex-Jungler, the judges in Celle had been ready to inform the witness of his right to remain silent regarding certain information: He is entitled to an extensive instruction in accordance with paragraph 55 [the paragraph in German law that defines the right to remain silent in order not to self-incriminate], said Judge Gunther before inviting the witness into the courtroom. But it seemed they had not expected him to refuse to testify altogether a quite short-notice decision, perhaps taken by Gisseh after consulting with his attorney that morning. As Gisseh left the courtroom after just a few minutes, he passed by Lowe. The two former colleagues, both in casual sportswear, murmured some unintelligible words to each other. Then, an officer from the German federal police (BKA) was called in to summarize what Gisseh had told him in an interrogation in May 2021: that he and Lowe received military training from Libyan trainers at the end of the 90s; that they were subsequently recruited into the Patrol Team, which is known colloquially as the Junglers; that Lowe was the only driver of the team; that he, Gisseh, never killed anyone and always questioned the legality of these missions, which is why he lost his superiors trust and left the army in 2005; that Lowe asked him why he left, claiming that its all right and the money is good; and that Lowe was a decent, respectful person, a good Muslim, who did not do drugs, drink or smoke. Different statements on the radio, to the police and in court According to the German police officer, however, the witness retracted what he had said on the radio about witnessing the killings of journalist Hydara and lawyer Sillah. With Lowe having been arrested two months prior to his police interrogation, Gisseh might have gotten worried. He claimed that he had lied in the radio interview to make his statements more credible to the audience, said the BKA officer in court. Gissehs statement on the radio does sound like a first-hand account. He lists the people who were in the car with him among them Bai Lowe -, what type of car it was, who shot at Hydara and Sillah, and how he heard the victims screaming. But according to the BKA witness, he said he only heard about the incidents from colleagues and in the media, and that he repeated what Bai Lowe had said in his radio interview. He told the German police that he could not have participated in Hydaras assassination, because he was not asked to join such operations anymore at the time. He said that having lost the trust of his superiors he was only employed in office jobs. And during the attempt on Sillahs life, he claimed, he had been at his best friends wedding. To the defences question, whether the federal police had verified this information, the BKA officer responded that they had not conducted any further research into the matter. He just sat in the car After all, Gisseh was not questioned as a suspect but as a witness. Federal prosecutor Schmidt confirmed in court that to their understanding of his radio interview, Gisseh had just sat in the car and therefore they had had no initial suspicion against him when they summoned him for questioning. However, she added, they had been prepared to change his status from witness to suspect during the interrogation, if relevant information had been provided. She referred to the case of Eyad Al-Ghareib, the Syrian officer who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by a German court for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in Syria. He had started out as a witness to the BKA and became a suspect during his testimony. The prosecution, however, had not noticed until after his interrogation, and so had failed to inform him of his rights as a suspect. This mistake had proven a controversial issue throughout the whole trial and had been one of the crucial lines of Al-Ghareibs defence. The tightrope walk between witness and suspect might come up more often during universal jurisdiction cases in the future, especially when they rely so heavily on insider witnesses due to the distance in location and often time to the crime scene. EU ambassadors on Thursday dropped the leader of Russias Orthodox church from a proposed blacklist, allowing them to agree a new round of sanctions after opposition from Hungary, diplomats said. Another strong package of sanctions was agreed today against Putin and the Kremlin, tweeted EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. This will reduce Russias capacity to finance its war. Budapest had stalled final approval of the fresh wave of sanctions over the war in Ukraine, including a ban on most Russian oil imports, by demanding that Patriarch Kirill be taken off the list. EU leaders on Monday thought they had clinched agreement on the new measures after giving in to Hungarian premier Viktor Orbans demand to exempt Russian oil arriving via pipeline. But the other 26 nations had to buckle again to wrap up the package in the face of Orbans obstinacy after he insisted the Russian church leaders name also be removed. An EU diplomat said there was some frustration and disappointment with Hungary, but an acceptance that securing the broader measures after weeks of haggling was more important. Freedom of religion Kirill, 75, is a fervent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has backed his military campaign in Ukraine. Orban, the closest EU leader to the Kremlin, had said he opposed adding Kirill to the list as it would contravene freedom of religion. EU officials say the new sanctions will see some 90 percent of Russian oil exports to the EU halted by the end of the year as the bloc tries to halt funds flowing to Moscows war machine. A diplomat said other EU nations had refused to give in to a further demand from Orban to keep being able to sell on the Russian oil he will still receive. The move is seen as the most powerful sanctions taken to date against Moscow after five previous waves of punishment that have rocked the Russian economy. The package also includes disconnecting Russias largest bank Sberbank from the global SWIFT payment system and a ban on three more Russian state media outlets. Other prominent additions to the asset freeze and visa ban blacklist include Putins alleged girlfriend Alina Kabaeva and military personnel suspected of war crimes in Ukraine. The sanctions should be formally adopted later this week when they are published in the EUs official journal. del/dc/bp SBERBANK Three non-governmental groups said Thursday they had filed a criminal complaint against French arms manufacturers Dassault, Thales and MBDA France for complicity in war crimes in Yemen. The firms export arms to the (Saudi-led) coalition while knowing it has been committing war crimes since 2015, said Cannelle Lavite of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), one of the plaintiffs. Alongside Yemeni rights group Mwatana and Frances Sherpa, the ECCHR says French-made fighter jets, missiles and guidance systems are being used in coalition airstrikes that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, adding there is evidence of attacks on civilians and homes, markets, hospitals and schools. Lavite gave the example of Dassaults sale to coalition member the UAE and continuing maintenance of 59 Mirage fighters, which the ECCHR says makes such airstrikes possible. A further sale of 80 Rafale jets, agreed in December, could be seen as encouragement to violate international humanitarian law, she said. Besides Dassault, missile maker MBDA has sold Storm Shadow and Scalp weapons to the combatants, the ECCHR says, while Thales has provided missile guidance systems known as Damocles and Thalios. If you provide arms to the suspected perpetrator of repeated crimes, youre enabling them to commit those crimes, Lavite said. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi did not immediately comment on the criminal complaint lodged by the NGOs, when asked by AFP. Investigative journalism website Disclose uncovered in 2019 an intelligence memo from the previous year which confirmed French-made weapons were being used in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition supports Yemeni government forces against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in a war that began in 2015. Seen by the UN as one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, the fighting has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions, leaving many on the brink of famine. Countless victims The countless Yemeni victims deserve credible investigations into all perpetrators of crimes, including those potentially complicit, said Mwatana chief Abdulrasheed al-Faqih. Were hoping that French courts can play a role in starting to fill the current cavernous accountability gap. Mwatana and Sherpa estimate at least 3,000 dead and 4,000 wounded in around 1,000 attacks on civilians with modern weapons. Al-Faqih said the response to alleged war crimes in Yemen was far behind the international reaction following Russias invasion of Ukraine, where Western nations have called for investigations into acts by Moscows forces unlike in the poor Gulf nation. Neither Dassault, Thales nor MBDA France responded immediately when contacted by AFP for comment on the criminal complaint. jf/tgb/dwo/bp THALES Just after "My Liberation Notes" concluded, its stars and the series itself remained strong on most buzzworthy actors and drama lists. Son Seok Ku and Kim Ji Won Remain Superior as Most Buzzworthy K-Drama Actors Good Data Corporation finally released the list of most buzzworthy K-drama actors for the fourth week of May. Occupying the top spots are Son Seok Ku and Kim Ji Won, these stars captivated the viewers with their acting and synergy on-screen, thanks to their first drama team up, they are now gaining more popularity in and outside Korea. Meanwhile, third on the list is A-list actor Lee Joon Gi for his outstanding performance in the SBS legal series "Again My Life." Dropping from the top 3 is "Our Blues" lead stars Han Ji Min and Jung Eun Hye who landed at the fourth and fifth spots. Lee Min Ki and Kim Woo Bin who are from two different dramas made it to the 6th and 7th positions. Furthermore, after their kiss scene in "Bloody Heart" episode 8 which was recorded as their highest rating so far, Kang Han Na and Lee Joon entered the top 10 same as actor Lee Kyung Young. See the full list below: 1. Son Seok Ku - "My Liberation Notes" 2. Kim Ji Won - "My Liberation Notes" 3. Lee Joon Gi - "Again My Life" 4. Han Ji Min - "Our Blues" 5. Jung Eun Hye - "Our Blues" 6. Lee Min Ki - "My Liberation Notes" 7. Kim Woo Bin - "Our Blues" 8. Kang Han Na - "Bloody Heart" 9. Lee Joon - "Bloody Heart" 10. Lee Kyung Young - "Again My Life" 'My Liberation Notes' as Most Buzzworthy K-Drama Before new episodes and new dramas are to be released in the first week of June Good Data Corporation also named the series entered the top 10 most buzzworthy dramas for the fourth week of May. Topping the list is JTBC's "My Liberation Notes," while tvN's "Our Blues" came in 2nd. SBS' fantasy-legal series "Again My Life" and "Green Mothers Club" occupy the 3rd and 4th spots. "Shooting Stars" starring Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Dae which airs every Friday and Saturday landed at #6. "Woori the Virgin" and "From Now On Showtime" also made it on the list. 1. "My Liberation Notes" 2. "Our Blues" 3. "Again My Life" 4. "Green Mothers Club" 5. "Bloody Heart" 6. "Shooting Stars" 7. "Gold Mask" 8. "It's Beautiful Now" 9. "Woori the Virgin" 10. "From Now On Showtime" What are your thoughts about the latest most buzzworthy drama and actor lists released by Good Data Corporation? Tell us in the comments! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars. Kdramastars owns this article. Shai Collins wrote this. If you are tired of consuming other forms of content, go to Netflix and add these movies "Space Sweepers," "The Pirates 2," and more on your watchlist. These are some of the Korean movies that you can binge-watch for a whole day while in the comfort of your home. 'Love and Leashes' Still want romance with a little spice of comedy? "Love and Leashes" is for you. It follows the story of Ji Woo (played by Seohyun), who becomes inducted into the world of BDSM by one of her colleagues, Ji Hoo (played by Lee Jun Young). This was just released in February of this year and garnered thousands of viewers abroad. This Korean movie has been praised for its refreshing and accurate representation. It is directed by Park Hyeon Jin. 'The Pirates 2' After hyping the viewers in theaters last January, the cast members of this movie sequel "The Pirates 2" can finally meet a wider audience as it is now available on Netflix. It is the action-adventure journey of the pirates who are in search of the lost treasure of the Goryeo royal family. This movie is packed with action and thrilling scenes starring some of the brilliant stars Han Hyo Joo, Kang Ha Neul, Lee Kwang Soo, Oh Sehun, Chae Soo Bin, Kwon Sang Woo, and more. 'Night in Paradise' Film industry in South Korea is best known for producing classic crime thrillers. Viewers are lucky to have "Night in Paradise" can be more accessible as it can be found on Netflix. Helmed by ever-talented director Park Hoon Jung, the film depicts the story of Park Tae Goo (played by Uhm Tae Goo) a mobster who rejects an offer to join the rival gang, resulting in the murder of his family. While on his way to plan revenge, he meets Kim Jae Yeon (Jeon Yeo Bin), who is dying from a terminal illness, the two establish a connection and it becomes the emotional centerpiece of the action-crime movie. 'Time to Hunt' This thriller movie is set in the backdrop of a dystopian near-future in which poverty is more complicated and destructive. The journey of a group of friends, who are desperate to leave the city and start a better life. They decide to commit a heist together to get the money they need. Their chaotic and challenging journey will keep you occupied and appreciate the comedic side of the movie throughout the films' characters. 'The Drug King' Looking for another Song Kang Ho movie? Then this film is next on your watchlist. Starring 75th Cannes International Film Festival Best Actor recepient, Song Kang Ho and Bae Doona share the screen for this epic film. It follows the story of Lee Doo Sam (Played by Song Kang Ho), a drug dealer who levels up to become an infamous drug kingpin. It is an intense and stylic film that embraces the 1970s setting in Korea. 'Space Sweepers' Set in the year 2092, this film will occur after the earth has become unlivable, when everyone who is able to survive has gone out to space to live. Kim Tae Ho (Song Joong Ki), The Handmaiden (Kim Tae Ri), and Tiger Park (Jin Sun Kyu) are members of the close-knit crew who will face off against UTS to save Dorothy (Park Ye Rin), a child desired by the corporation. "Space Sweepers" immediately became a hit during its first week premiere on Netflix in February 2021. The movie is also reported to have a sequel, but the cast has not been confirm yet. Which among these are you excited to watch? Tell us in the comments! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars. Kdramastars owns this article. Shai Collins wrote this. Gong Hyo Jin shared random things about herself as she graced Harper's Bazaar Korea's June issue. Flaunting her beauty and stunning visuals, the award-winning actress dishes out personal stuff from her MBTI, nickname, upcoming project, and her current favorite K-drama. Titled "Totally shocking! Gong Hyo-jin's Encyclopedia of Random Things," the six-minute video featured the actress revealing a bunch of unfamiliar details about herself. Gong Hyo Jin Reveals Current Favorite Series The "When the Camellia Blooms" star was asked about her favorite track at the moment. She said that she likes listening to "songs without lyrics." She explained that she prefers the "quiet and barely audible voices," adding that she is currently "hooked" on the OST of a particular K-drama. "I am watching it interestingly, but the song of the drama is stuck in my head. You know how there is always an opening song and ending song in every episode," she said, adding, "That incredible song lingers in my ears. Maybe it's because I saw it yesterday," she said. Interestingly, she was referring to the trilogy of "Love ft. Marriage & Divorce," saying that she is "enjoying the drama." Wrapping up on May 1, the romance drama series reached its highest rating for the entire season during the finale. "Love ft. Marriage & Divorce" cast includes a roster of talented stars, including Park Joo Mi, Kang Shin Hyo, Lee Ga Ryeong, Jeon Soo Kyung, Ji Young San, and more. The TV Chosun series is currently available on Netflix, with a total of 16 episodes for its third season. Besides the "Love ft. Marriage & Divorce," Gong Hyo Jin also mentioned Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya's epic sci-fi movie "Dune," noting that the story was captivating. Adding to the list of Gong Hyo Jin's favorite series is HBO's "Euphoria," which also stars Zendaya alongside Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, and more. Gong Hyo Jin on Her Upcoming K-drama After the award-winning 2019 series "When the Camellia Blooms," Gong Hyo Jin is back on the small screen with back-to-back K-drama. As the sit-down interview continued, the actress spoke about her upcoming series "Ask the Stars" and how it differs from her previous roles. It is a reunion project with "Pasta" and "Jealousy Incarnate" screenwriter Seo Sook Hyang. Gong Hyo Jin tells Harper's Bazaar Korea that she often plays the newbie or someone who was just starting out; however, in "Ask the Stars," she becomes the "captain of the ship." Moreover, she also joked that screenwriter Seo Sook Hyang "lured" her into doing the drama. In the forthcoming series, Gong Hyo Jin took on the role of Korean American astronaut Eve Kim. She falls in love with an unexpected person at an unexpected place. Joining her is Lee Min Ho as the OB-GYN Gong Ryong, who arrived at the space station as a tourist. Adding to the list of her upcoming dramas is Netflix's "Queen of the Scene" with Park Ha Sun. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Gong Hyo Jin Boyfriend 2022: Who Is the 'Rom-Com Queen's' New Flame Kevin Oh KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills The local Google office is seen on November 1, 2018 in Montreal. Google is taking the extraordinary step of writing to every MP and Senator expressing fears that the online news bill is being rushed through Parliament without proper debate.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz On May 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention marked a grim milestone for the pandemic, as more than one million Americans were reported to have lost their lives due to COVID-19. In Kenosha, over 600 have died from COVID. Local health officials and workers reflected on the past two years of the pandemic, and many struggled to find the proper way to describe what would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Overwhelming and exhausting Kenosha Countys Director of Health Jen Freiheit, the head of the countys COVID response for the last two years, said her first takeaway from the pandemic was the strength and resilience of the public health department and its staff. We have the most amazing persistent team that works tirelessly to help the community, Freiheit said. Kenosha is really amazing. But Freiheit admitted it had also been extraordinarily difficult as staff struggled with growing stress, workloads and severe burnout. Its just been overwhelming and exhausting and trauma filled, Freiheit said. A nationwide anti-vaccination movement found footing in Kenosha, with one protest against vaccine mandates for local hospital employees drawing in over 100 people, some of them Kenosha health care professionals themselves. Across Wisconsin, nursing homes and hospitals warned of staffing shortages, and stories of freezer trucks full of bodies circulated in the news. The past two years have been exhausting and I feel as if its taken 10 years off my life, Freiheit said. Part of that exhaustion came from the incredible amount of public attention and scrutiny the health department found itself under during the pandemic. Freiheit said it was a difficult change, and she received her fair share of nasty comments, emails and phone calls. Public health is usually behind the scenes. And then to be thrust forward into the spotlight and on the front page of the paper every day, its been an out of body experience, Freiheit said. Dr. Renee Kirby, student health director at UW-Parkside, worked with Freiheit and the County Health Department throughout the pandemic. She said the lack of trust the public had in health officials was unprecedented in her experience. Ive never seen that before in my life, Kirby said. And it wasnt helped by the fact that the US national response to the pandemic was woefully unprepared initially, Kirby said, such as the 2018 disbanding of the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit, the US pandemic response team, which Kirby said added more problems for local health officials and workers. We could have had a better government response, Kirby said. For a year we saw this lack of support for public health. Beth Garoutte, Chief Operating Officer at Cancer Treatment Centers of America Zion, spoke about the strength she saw as health workers and ordinary people took care of each other, during the pandemic. But while the CTCA was somewhat isolated from the negative backlash, Garoutte said she was aware of the issues. COVID has brought out the best and worst of health workers and humanity in general, Garoutte said. Its been very polarizing. Perspective Part of the issue with so many deaths, Kirby said, was getting any meaningful perspective. With one million, I dont think we can wrap our minds around what that means, Kirby said. All adults know someone who has died or been very ill. But in Kenosha, Freiheit said health workers had a very real understanding of what each local COVID death meant. Its devastating, Freiheit said. Its been very difficult because as we have to investigate. When youre delving in that data, its hard. Kenosha is such a tight community, we often know some of those who have passed. Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing Julie Maher, who also works as a practicing nurse in Racine, said the pandemic has been a painful learning experience for everyone, even Washington D.C. Its shocking and devastating, Maher said. I remember when this first started. Its mind boggling. Looking Ahead Today, Kenoshas community COVID-19 levels are once again listed as high by the CDC. Infection rates are climbing nationwide and in Kenosha, and with a stark drop in testing as well as the use of at-home tests, Freiheit said CDC projections were likely far below the reality. However, so far symptoms have been far milder, and deaths nationwide havent climbed at the same rate as before. The good part about this wave is that the severity of hospitalizations doesnt seem to be as bad, Freiheit. So thats a good sign. This can be explained by several factors according to Freiheit. Warmer weather means more people outdoors, where transmission is less likely. And with so many people already vaccinated or having been infected previously, many people have some degree of immunity. The new variants are also reportedly less deadly than early ones. However, Freiheit said things can always change, and advised residents to keep safety in mind. Its a milestone I hope people look at and reflect on their own personal risk level and safety, Freiheit said. While COVID is hopefully on the way down, Freiheit said the departments work was far from done. For just one example, opioid deaths spiked during the pandemic, and efforts to curb overdoses and drug abuse within Kenosha have continued despite pandemic difficulties. Theres all the other issues we neglected for two years, Freiheit said. So now theres fires everywhere. So its not over for us. Kirby stressed the importance of keeping health departments strong to better combat future health crises. I dont think we could envision that the toll would be so high and it is also believed that the numbers could be higher, Kirby said. Investing in public health needs to be a priority so we can remain vigilant in our efforts to keep citizens safe. Love 0 Funny 3 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. Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed a bill that would have made Wisconsin join dozens of other states in regulating how history is taught in K-12 public schools. Our legislators are concerned that U.S. history, if taught in a particular way, might harm some children. Presumably, these concerns stem from all the talk about critical race theory. On one hand, we should acknowledge that it would be wrong to deliberately make any child feel guilty for the actions of others in the past. If a teacher is found to be singling out any child or group of children on the basis of their race, sex, religion, or any other marker of difference, their principal should address the actions immediately. On the other hand, it is not possible to teach history well without making students feel uncomfortable some of the time. If they are paying attention, they will realize that the world they inhabit is not fair and that the reason is always history. One of my students literally tattooed on her arm, History is everything. It is. There are many good reasons to promote patriotism. We do, after all, want our future citizens to keep paying their taxes, volunteering for the military, and serving on jury duty when called. Every year, however, I ask my students bluntly whether they would prefer to be taught a sanitized version of U.S. history, omitting or glossing over the uglier pieces while highlighting our noblest moments. Every single year, they say no. Real history is messy. Our finest heroes were always flawed. Our greatest triumphs were always achieved alongside ignominious failures. Real history also isnt always appropriate for all ages. We should no more teach first-graders about what really happened between the settler state and the First Peoples than we should teach them about the Holocaust. Teaching real history well is hard. I have spent decades working on it, and most days Im still not sure Ive hit the mark. There are some things, however, about which I am certain: First, it should not be up to the Legislature to decide which truths can and cant be taught in the classroom. Second, our teachers and our schools need our support. We should stop blaming them for everything thats wrong and start celebrating the work they do to build up our communities. Finally, learning about injustices in the past is entirely compatible with patriotism. If students learn that people who look like them did terrible things in the past, they may feel uncomfortable. If they learn that they have personally benefited from ancestors who exploited others, they may feel ashamed. We should not be afraid, whatever their response. I have seen discomfort transform into a righteous fury and determination to do better. It is one of the great privileges of being a history teacher to watch this process unfold. I intend to follow my students lead as we struggle together to make this a more perfect union. Instead of trying to protect young people from the past, we should trust them with our future. Stephanie Mitchell is the Valor Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Carthage College. Love 4 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Glanbia Ireland employees in Kilkenny and elsewhere around the country are teaming up with family, friends and their wider network in an all-out effort to cycle, walk, run and swim 30,000km in one week and raise much-needed funds for three very worthy charities. The Glanbia 300 fundraising drive runs from June 6 to 12. The event encourages employees to take up exercise and promotes physical well being, while raising over 290,000 for local and national charities since it first began eight years ago. This years chosen charities are Focus Ireland, Carlow Kilkenny Homecare Team and The Ford Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre in Wexford. Employees will up their step count throughout Glanbia 300 and the key fundraising event again this year is a group cycle from Ballyragget in Kilkenny to Wexford on Friday, June 10. The group will stay overnight in Wexford and return to Ballyragget the next day. Jim ONeill, Glanbia 300 spokesman, says the event helps promote health and wellbeing within the company and also delivers on Glanbia Irelands Living Proof sustainability strategy commitment to supporting its employees, suppliers, customers and consumers and the communities in which they live and work. Weve set some ambitious targets yet again this year. Were asking each and every one of Glanbias 2,000 plus employees to cycle, walk, run, jog or swim 15 kilometres between June 6 and 12. That way, our 30,000 km target will be met. Were also hoping to raise 50,000 for our chosen charities, each of which does incredible work in our communities on a local and national level. Donations can be made on iDonate and were asking everyone who can to dig deep. Niall Gaffney, Corporate Partnerships Manager, Focus Ireland said: This is the first year weve partnered with Glanbia Ireland, and we are delighted to have been chosen as one of their charity partners. Focus Ireland is driven by the fundamental belief that homelessness is wrong and is entirely preventable. We work to support people who are at risk of or who are currently experiencing homelessness through 90 services across Ireland. Our support of these families, young people and children is made possible through the support we receive from companies like Glanbia Ireland - for which we are extremely grateful. Catherine Quinlan, Nurse Manager with Carlow-Kilkenny Homecare Team, said: Demand for our voluntary services continues to grow and were very thankful to Glanbia Ireland, a company which has deep roots in this region, for choosing us. Their support raises awareness of our palliative care services for patients with cancer at all stages of their disease, as well as helping fund our service. Viv Rooney, Manager of The Ford Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, said: Our professional service is based on need and we provide Affordable Services to all. Glanbias assistance will help our compassionate team of professional therapists support individuals and families presenting with psychological and emotional issues in a safe and comfortable environment from our locations in Wexford town, Gorey, Enniscorthy and New Ross. This fundraiser will also help raise our profile among people of Co. Wexford who need our support. Donations are accepted now on: https://www.idonate.ie/ fundraiser/11435166_glanbia- 300---2022.html 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. China endeavors to join hands with other countries to build global community of development with shared future 13:49, June 02, 2022 By Song Yiran, Zhang Penghui ( People's Daily Online The Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by China is closely related to improving peoples livelihood and well-being, facilitates the realization of the United Nations (U.N.) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and provides other countries with ideas and inspiration for the formulation of policies for sustainable development, Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, told Peoples Daily recently. Photo shows a new type of rural residential community with a pleasant living environment in Suqian city, east Chinas Jiangsu province, May 30, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Chen Hong) Since it was proposed last September, the GDI has received swift response and support from more than 100 countries and international organizations, including the U.N. 53 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI launched by Chinas Permanent Mission to the U.N. in January. As the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a heavy toll on global development, China calls on the international community to focus efforts on development, jointly promote development and build a global community of development with a shared future, demonstrating the wisdom and strong sense of responsibility of a major country. The GDI has gained wide response and support because it responds to the general concerns of the international community. Photo taken on April 25, 2022 shows an aerial view of a country road in Rongjiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, southwest Chinas Guizhou province. (Peoples Daily Online/Li Changhua) The weak and faltering global economic recovery is being exacerbated by a widening development gap and mounting global challenges. The Human Development Index has for the first time in 30 years declined The worlds impoverished population has increased by more than 100 million. Nearly 800 million people live in hunger. The international community requires a meaningful solution to unbalanced development immediately. China is a champion of global development, and more importantly, a doer in development cooperation. As the largest developing country in the world, China always places development at the forefront of its governance and rejuvenation, adheres to a people-centered development philosophy, and attaches great importance to and actively participates in U.N. programs for economic and social development. It was among the first countries to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, took the lead in implementing the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and accounted for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction, making important contributions to global development. China has helped its people enjoy better lives, and hopes to improve the well-being of people in other countries through common development. The country has been taking practical actions to fulfill its solemn commitment to make sure that no country or individual is left behind and no aspiration is overlooked in development. The 1600-meter-long Foundiougne Bridge, the longest bridge in Senegal, is opened on March 26. The bridge was financed by Senegal and China through the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank) and built by a Chinese company. (Photo/Courtesy of Wuhan Engineering Co., Ltd. of China Railway Seventh Group) China has helped the Philippines cultivate 226,500 hectares of commercial Chinese hybrid rice varieties, directly and indirectly benefiting more than 134,000 local farmers and raising the countrys grain output by 308 million kilograms, or roughly a three-kilogram increase in grain supply per Filipino. In the Pacific island country of Vanuatu, a Chinese company spent two years helping extend Malapoa College, an English-language secondary school in Port Vila, Vanuatu. With new teaching buildings, laboratory buildings, dormitories, canteen, and playground, the school took on a brand new look. COVID-19 vaccines provided by China were the first of its kind to arrive in Afghanistan and Syria, as well as other war-torn countries, bringing hope to people in difficult situations. China will take a slew of pragmatic measures to speed up the implementation of the GDI, including enhancing consultation with other emerging markets and developing countries and holding a high-level meeting on global development at a proper time to discuss ways to promote development; increasing input in development and further ramping up support for the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and the China-U.N. Peace and Development Fund; building on the consensus to establish a pool of GDI projects for the participation of all parties; and releasing a Global Development Report in due time to promote international exchanges in and sharing of development knowledge. Bridging the development divide and revitalizing global development are the shared aspirations of all countries; the trend of peace, development, and advancement for humanity is irresistible. Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy carry relief supplies to Tonga, January 2022. (Photo/Courtesy of China International Development Cooperation Agency) China is always willing to work together with all countries to deepen and intensify the implementation of the GDI by re-energizing global cooperation on the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, fostering a favorable environment for accelerating global development, building equal and balanced global development partnership, and enabling the U.N. system to play the central and guiding role. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Correction This story incorrectly stated the policy was already voted on and implemented. The Moberly Board of Education has not yet voted on the proposed policy. The policy is being considered as part of handbook changes for the 2022-2023 school year. The story has been corrected with a statement posted on the district's website. MOBERLY When students return for the 2022-2023 school year in Moberly, they might have to leave their cell phones and smart watches behind. The Moberly School Board discussed adding a new policy that bans the use of a cell phone during the school day in a special board meeting on May 24, the same day as the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. According to a June 2 post on the Moberly School District website, teachers shared their thoughts on the distractions that cell phones can bring to the classroom during the board meeting. The post said the board policy pertaining to personal cell phone use is not changing, but the expectations for student cell phone use during the school day are being considered as part of handbook changes for next year. Moberly's middle school already has the policy implemented, according to the Moberly Monitor. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. If a student has any electronic device in their possession, even if they aren't using it, they could have it confiscated and face even harsher punishments. They must keep the devices in their lockers or cars, according to the policy. Moberly's proposed policy will give parents the option to call the front office if they need to send a message to their student. Some parents and students have shown their discontent with the proposed policy on social media and called for different solutions to lower cell phone distractions. Some have commented that students with cell phones are crucial in emergencies. One high school student said there were cell phone restrictions before the total ban, but that this is an unexpected proposal. "I don't think they think about it too much because it's a very odd timing that they started banishing phones because of that accident that happened," Ty Rogers said. US President Joe Biden will deliver a rare evening speech on guns June 2 to press US lawmakers to take action as the US confronts another mass shooting, the White House said. Four people were killed in Tulsa on June 1 after a gunman -- who was later found dead -- opened fire on the second floor of a medical building, authorities in Oklahoma said. Special U.S. envoy for North Korea Sung Kim will visit South Korea this week for talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on ways to deal with Pyongyang's recent missile launches and also help the impoverished country deal with COVID-19, the state department said Wednesday (local time). Kim will make a three-day visit to Seoul from Thursday for talks with South Korea's Kim Gunn and Takehiro Funakoshi of Japan, according to the department. "Together they will discuss a broad range of issues including the international community's response to the DPRK's recent intercontinental ballistic missile launches and the COVID-19 outbreak in the DPRK," it said in a press release, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Special Representative Sung Kim will also reiterate the U.S. commitment to seeking dialogue with the DPRK, while also continuing work with the international community to address the DPRK's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," it added. Kim's trip comes a week after the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a U.S.-proposed resolution that sought to impose fresh U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang for its recent missile tests. North Korea has staged 17 rounds of missile launches this year. China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, blocked the resolution, insisting the U.S. should seek to engage with North Korea instead. The U.S. has consistently offered to meet North Korea without preconditions. Pyongyang remains unresponsive to U.S. overtures. "Special Representative Sung Kim's travel to Seoul underscores the importance of ongoing close U.S. collaboration with the ROK and Japan on DPRK issues as we seek to advance complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said the state department. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name. (Yonhap) Korea and the Philippines will sign an arrangement later this week to strengthen support for each other's Korean War veterans and exchanges among their descendants, Seoul's veterans affairs ministry said Thursday. Veterans Affairs Minister Park Min-shik and senior Philippine officials, including Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana and Veterans Affairs Office Administrator Ernesto G. Carolina, are set to join the signing ceremony on Friday. During the 1950-53 war, the Philippines sent some 7,420 troops in support of Korea, the third-largest force contribution after the United States and Britain, according to the ministry. Of the troops, 112 were killed in action while 299 were wounded. "The Philippines is the country that willingly fought together alongside us when the Republic of Korea was in a desperate crisis," Park said. "Through the arrangement, the veterans ministry will expand international projects honoring the sacrifices and dedications of the veterans." Prior to the signing, descendants of the two countries' war veterans will hold an event highlighting their pledge to work together for the countries' friendship and future cooperation, according to the ministry. (Yonhap) By Arthur I. Cyr President Joe Biden's May visit to Asia has been timely especially in the wider context of international developments, in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere. China's sustained military buildup requires a diplomatic and strategic response, and clearly, this is a principal though not the only incentive for the trip. The journey included Japan and South Korea, the two largest Asia economies outside of China. Both are close United States allies. The 1950-53 Korean War forged a powerful bond. South Korea's evolution afterward into a political democracy and economic powerhouse has been extraordinary. Biden spent three of the five days of the trip in Korea, including laying a wreath on May 21 at the Seoul National Cemetery to honor Korean War dead. Talks with new President Yoon Suk-yeol followed. On May 24, high-level talks took place in Tokyo among leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), reestablished in 2017 following unsuccessful earlier efforts. The Quad leaders who met in Japan were Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Biden. China accuses the Quad nations of trying to replicate NATO. That analogy neglects the great distances and associated challenges of the Asia theater. NATO ties together largely contiguous nations of Europe, along with North America. Along with geographic realities, important differences in histories characterize the Quad. Nonetheless, the enormous growth of China's military, in particular the maritime dimension, provides a powerful incentive for this allied cooperation. The Obama administration declared Asia a priority concern for defense policy. This reflects the threat from China, and more generally the expanding strategic importance of Asia. Since the mid-1980s, the total volume of U.S. trade with Asia has been larger than with Europe. In the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, and the end of the Cold War, international relations have become more flexible and unpredictable. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization is an ambitious initiative to provide policy coordination among the Pacific nations. APEC was conceived by Australia's Prime Minister Bob Hawke and embraced enthusiastically by President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker. Australia over the past several decades has moved in the direction of free markets and a much more explicit national commitment to tolerance, directly reflected in official policy toward Indigenous populations. The Obama administration's decision to station a U.S. Marine contingent in Australia underscores the strong bilateral ties between the two nations, dating back to World War II. The 2006 APEC summit was held in Vietnam. The gathering highlighted that nation's economic growth and commitment to multilateralism. As with China, economic realities forced ideological changes. Hanoi honored U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and our government with a parade, complete with American flags an ironic as well as poignant gesture. There are military security aspects to APEC summits, just as with the Quad. In the 2008 summit held in Peru, Americans and Russians discussed differences over Moscow's invasion of Georgia, important background given Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Pacific region generally lacks the complex established network of economic and military organizations defining Atlantic-area relationships. For this reason, especially, APEC and the Quad are significant. For decades, Cold War divisions defined relationships among nations. Today, economic incentives and related self-interest undermine ideological hostilities. This unfolding reality may or may not change China's strategy. Therefore, Biden's blunt declaration of commitment to Taiwan is justified. Beijing is on notice. Asia-Pacific democracies are strong and united. Arthur I. Cyr ( acyr@carthage.edu ) is the author of "After the Cold War" (Macmillan/Palgrave and NYU Press), and other books. By Tom Plate They must lead the unofficial geopolitical loyalty league worldwide. For if there is one country and people in the Asia-Pacific that has logged more miles through mud, jungle and desert to follow the U.S. military almost anywhere, Australia is the one. Don't the Aussies always answer the call? Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. It started back in 1951 with a three-way security treaty (including New Zealand) that continues today, and where or when it will stop, nobody knows. Certainly, follow-the-leader Australia has been a great catch for Washington. With such gold-standard allies, you might well feel better about your chances of shaping large parts of the world to your liking. That is precisely America's desire, and as President Joe Biden has said over and again, you won't get very far without allies. Australia's recent national election might have raised the Washington-Canberra relationship to a higher level of electorate scrutiny, especially with China now banging at economic doors and raising geopolitical challenges of the largest kind. But it did not: even the election debate, it seemed, met the loyalty test. The winning Labor Party maintained a policy towards China not all that different from that of the beaten Liberal Party. Coming down on Huawei, rehashing Beijing's human rights practices and policies, exposing Chinese foreign investments and dual-exposure research collaborations, passing "foreign interference" laws they did not want for bipartisan support. But, at some point, the China part of the deal may become too heavy a lift for even the most loyal Australians, if the package has to include Biden's loud pledge to defend Taiwan against military action by Beijing. With insouciant if alarming simplicity, the U.S. president has been saying America will rather than might or could or even should defend the island. American analysts have, in many instances, tried to explain away the apparent new Biden hardness as little more than an emotional politician trying to say and do the right thing for democracy. But this does not alleviate the anxiety of policy critics in Australia that see the matter as a dangerous escalation and a bad deal for their country. They argue that the tighter Taiwan commitment would, in effect, oblige Australia to join America in a nuclear war against China if tensions came to that. They are right to worry. Australia has much to lose by following Washington's lead on raising the issue of Taiwan further. If America and China went to war, Australia would be expected to join the US. Suddenly, the costs of remaining a loyal ally would skyrocket unpredictably. What is more, Australian critics take the view that even the U.S., with so many military-political commitments globally, cannot afford to risk all-out war with China and even if it did, would not win one right in the middle of Beijing's home theatre. The U.S. military remains the world's best, but it cannot be locked and loaded and ready to bounce into action everywhere it is currently camped; and therefore it should be honest with itself, with Taiwan and with its allies, that a non-nuclear military response alone probably cannot save Taiwan. But a nuclear response might destroy everyone involved, including Taiwan and parts of Australia. Analysts worry especially about the massive Pine Gap joint defense and intelligence complex in the country's Northern Territory facilities an obvious target if ever there was one. One would like to offer America's friends in the Asia-Pacific a future scenario that's far more sensible. The Australians may be loyal but they are not dumb. Their think tanks and universities are as good as America's and they get the conceptual hitch (see especially "The Taiwan Choice: Showdown in Asia," in Australian Foreign Affairs in February). They know the U.S. will try to calm them down. So you have to wonder whether the Australians will be played again by the Americans: fight on with us or lose everything; certainly not better red than dead? Maybe, in time, new thinking will flower out of the recent election. It should be recalled that Australia's previous prime minister clearly exacerbated matters with China, triggering the worst in Beijing. Repeatedly raising the Taiwan issue is to play with nuclear fire. Taiwan is an extremely successful island which has almost everything a true country needs, except the international-law recognition of the United Nations. This is key. The U.N. recognizes 193 countries as member states around the globe and Taiwan is not one. But the AUKUS security partnership with the U.S. implies Australia would be part of a military defense effort. Is that how Australians want their security future handled? In a 2021 Lowy Institute Poll, 57 per cent of respondents indicated a preference for neutrality in the event of U.S.-China military conflict. Asian countries want to work with Washington but the sky cannot be the limit. Insisting on a hawkish line with China will not rally allies in Asia but dispirit them perhaps divide them. The outgoing Liberal Party was completely stuck in the American mud on Taiwan. It is now the job of the country's Labor Party to get the country out of this dangerous rut. Tom Plate (platecolumn@gmail.com), a distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific affairs at Loyola Marymount University, is vice president of the nonprofit Pacific Century Institute. His article was distributed by the South China Morning Post. The views expressed in the above article are those of the author's and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times. By Donald Kirk The South Pacific is again a battleground. China is not nearly at the stage of taking over any of the 15 islands stretching across the region of Oceania, but it's definitely disturbing the foes of Chinese expansionism. This week, China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, is touching down on eight islands in the region, making deals at such a rapid pace as to alarm the members of those two oddly-named arrangements that the U.S. has engineered to stand up against the Chinese. One is AUKUS, the Australia, United Kingdom, U.S. grouping, and the other is the Quad, made up of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan. Some of the deals that Wang is looking for come with military overtones. There's no other way to interpret his offers for training police forces. An agreement that he sought with all 10 of the nations at a session in Fiji had provisions to "expand law enforcement cooperation, jointly combat transnational crime and establish a dialogue mechanism on law enforcement capacity and police cooperation." Luckily some of the 10 nations were not at all willing to go along with what would have been the opening of a long-range Chinese plan to gain control over a vast stretch of ocean over which the Americans and Japanese fought some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The Chinese are presenting the agreement as an innocent attempt at guaranteeing economic gains, along with security for the benefit of people who are quite accustomed to outside forces interfering in their lives. It's not hard to imagine increasing numbers of Chinese advisers, backed up by Chinese air and naval forces, asserting their presence among these island nations, tiny in population but often vast in the areas of the seas which they cover. Memories of the era of Japanese rule permeate the atmosphere. The need to maintain law and order can cover more than local policing, as leaders of some countries have claimed. These countries, in terms of defenses against outside intrusion and oppression, are essentially defenseless. China could take over one country after another if it so desired. Of course, the Chinese aren't threatening anyone right away. Foreign Minister Wang told the leaders of the 10 nations not to worry while negotiating bilateral deals for trade and investment with all of them. For now, the Chinese will settle for whatever they can get, maintaining that China's proposals are for everyone's benefit. The nature of China's ambitions for Oceania is all too familiar to much larger countries on the western fringes of the Pacific. China is the great protector of North Korea, economically and militarily, and would like to extend its power over South Korea too. President Yoon Suk-yeol may vow not to appease North Korea, but he has to be careful not to offend China, the South's leading trading partner. The problem becomes still more acute while China tries to claim Taiwan ever more aggressively and stakes out the entire South China Sea, leaving Vietnam and the Philippines powerless to stop it. It makes sense, then, for China, having flexed its muscles all around its periphery finally to get around to the South Pacific, to the consternation of not only the U.S. but also Australia, which is responding with almost as much alarm as Washington. The Japanese are also no doubt not happy about China's interest in a region over which Japan dominated before going down in defeat, leaving the islands to the Americans in August 1945. One reason the Chinese are able to assume a new role in Oceania is the U.S. has badly neglected the islands. Only recently has Washington awakened to what the Chinese are doing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Fiji in February. Then, several days before Wang's current swing around the islands, Washington welcomed Fiji to the Indo-Pacific Economic framework that President Joe Biden introduced at his stopover in Tokyo after visiting Korea. The impression was that Washington was suddenly playing catch-up, attempting to remind the island states of Oceania that America had not forgotten them. Names like Guadalcanal, on the Solomon Islands; Tarawa, on Kiribati; and Peleliu, one of Palau's 300 islets, echo through U.S. history, but few Americans have a clue where they are, despite all the books and documentaries on the war in the Pacific. Now those battles have become legend while the Americans strive to wrest these obscure island nations from China's sphere of influence without firing a shot. Donald Kirk, , writes from Seoul as well as Washington. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will give way to cloudy skies and rain in the afternoon. High 71F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain showers early with clearing later at night. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Angola, IN (46703) Today Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will give way to cloudy skies and rain in the afternoon. High 71F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain showers early with clearing later at night. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 73F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A mostly clear sky. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. ITZY announced they are making a comeback in July and will be holding their first world tour "CHECKMATE." Keep on reading to know more. ITZY to Make Comeback With New Mini Album in July and Hold World Tour At midnight on June 2 KST, ITZY officially announced that they are planning to make a comeback in July with a new mini album. According to their announcement, ITZY will be dropping their fifth mini album "CHECKMATE" on July 15 at 1pm KST, followed by starring in their own comeback special on Mnet that very same day at 7pm KST. Prior to the release of their "CHECKMATE" album on July 15, the group will gradually be releasing their teasers and the details for the new album. From June 6 to June 27, ITZY will release their album's two sets of film and photo teasers. On July 1, they will finally unveil the tracklist for "CHECKMATE," and on the following days the title poster and title sneak peek. From July 4 to July 8, ITZY will drop each of the members' concept photos, and an online cover image on July 9. On July 10, a title lyric poster will be shared, followed by an album spoiler the next day. The two music video teasers for their upcoming title track will be unveiled on July 12 and July 13, and the final poster for "CHECKMATE" on July 14. On July 15, before the release of their new album, ITZY will hold a Twitter Blueroom at 12pm KST to celebrate "CHECKMATE," as well as interact with fans, MIDZYs, through a live broadcast. In addition to their album release, ITZY will also be holding their first-ever world tour "CHECKMATE" beginning in the next month. According to ITZY's schedule, the five-piece girl group will be kicking off their first world tour in Seoul with a two-night concert on August 6 and August 7. Following their Seoul concerts, ITZY will head to the United States for the next leg of their tour, which will take place in eight different cities from October to November. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: ITZY Chaeryeong Prevents Celebrity Disease Rumors - Here's How ITZY will be performing in Los Angeles on October 26, Phoenix on October 29, Dallas on November 1, Houston on November 3, Atlanta on November 5, Chicago on November 7, Boston on November 10, and in New York on November 13. If your city is not on the list, worry not as ITZY will be adding more cities to their world tour, with the tour dates to be revealed at a later time. Are you excited for ITZY's comeback and world tour? ITZY's Latest Release Meanwhile, ITZY's latest release include their fourth mini album "Guess Who?," featuring the lead single "Mafia In The Morning" back in April 2021. Following that, ITZY made their Japanese debut with the mini album "What'z Itzy" in September 2021. In the same month, they also dropped their first studio album "Crazy In Love" with the title track "Loco." In December 2021, ITZY released the Japanese compilation album "It'z Itzy." More recently in April 2022, ITZY dropped their Japanese single "Voltage." For more K-Pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Robyn Joan In her latest broadcast appearance, Lee Hyori reveals she often got hit by her father during her childhood. Keep on reading to know more. Lee Hyori Candidly Speaks About Growing Up Poor Recently, former leader of first generation girl group Fin.K.L, Lee Hyori, made a guest appearance on the May 31 episode of MBC's variety program "That Oppa from the Tteokbokki Place." During her appearance, the former idol opened up about the difficulties she faced during her childhood, before attaining success as a member of Fin.K.L. As Lee Hyori and the rest of the cast were talking, she was asked what was next for her in the future. To this, Lee Hyori reveals she actually never makes plans, and talks about the struggles she faced when she was young. "I never really make any plans. I had become a superstar after making my debut, but my life wasn't all fancy before that. In fact, it was really difficult," Lee Hyori said. Despite having a rocky start in life, Lee Hyori keeps the optimism and believes that she is now living comfortably after enduring such a difficult childhood. "That is how I got to think that life is fair. As I had such a difficult childhood, I believe that I am living this comfortable life in return," she said. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Lee Hyori, BoA, Hwasa Reveal Struggles of Female Idols, Share Rebellious Moments Lee Hyori continued, "I live a very grateful life that I would feel bad to dream about something more." She then talked about growing up poor in the countryside, and eventually moving to Seoul. "My parents had my three siblings and I in the countryside. Then, we moved to Seoul with only 500 won (around $0.40 USD) in their hands. It was little money for the six of us," Lee Hyori recalled. Hearing the 500 won, "Running Man" star Ji Suk Jin commented, "500 won in those years would be around 500,000 won (around $400 USD) now. That is very little, indeed." Lee Hyori agreed, and shared that her parents had to often borrow money in order to support the family. They even opened up a barber shop. She said, "Yeah, exactly. My parents had borrowed money from their families and opened a small barber shop. We lived off of the money they made from the barber shop. My parents went through a lot during that time." Lee Hyori Reveals She Often Got Hit by Her Father During Childhood Lee Hyori then talked about her father, who she reveals was someone she was afraid of as he often hit her when he got angry. "I used to be scared of my father. He was strict to us when we were young. When he got angry, he would hit me often as well," Lee Hyori revealed. However, despite experiencing such a treatment from her father, Lee Hyori adds that she somehow understands her father in a way, as she knows living in Seoul isn't easy. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Lee Hyori and Rain Reveal They Could Have Dated in the Past "As life in Seoul was not easy, I think it was because he had a lot of anger and frustration in his mind. So I do understand him in a way," Lee Hyori explains. Concluding her talk about her childhood, she tells the cast that she doesn't hate her father, however, there is still that scar in her heart that was left from what she experienced. "It is not like I hate him for that though. I love him. But I do have this scar on one part of my heart that he gave me," Lee Hyori said. What are your thoughts on Lee Hyori's past? For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Robyn Joan A jury sided with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. The verdict issued Wednesday awarded the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million Wednesday and vindicated his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depps lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages. Gandhinagar, Jun 2 (PTI) Referring to the importance given to local languages in the new National Education Policy (NEP) by the Centre, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday stressed that all languages of the country are national languages and none is inferior to Hindi or English. Also Read | KK's Death: BJP MP Saumitra Khan Writes to Amit Shah Demanding Central Agency Probe in Sudden Demise of Late Singer. Pradhan was addressing the two-day National Education Ministers' Conference at Mahatma Mandir here. Also Read | Sidhu Moose Wala Murder: Punjab Govt to Restore Curtailed Security Cover of 434 VVIPs. "All languages are national languages, be it Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali or Marathi. No language is inferior to Hindi or English because each language has its own importance. That is why we have given importance to local languages in our new NEP," Pradhan said in his inaugural speech. While noting that nearly 20 per cent of the population of India does not fall into the definition of "literacy", Pradhan urged participants to discuss the issue at the conference. Education ministers of all the states and Union Territories are participating in the conference, with the focus being on the implementation of the new NEP, he said. "We know that some states disagree with the new NEP. But, the Centre does not have any issue with that, because we know whatever you have thought (other than what is prescribed in NEP) will be in the interest of the people and we will accept that too," said Pradhan. The minister also sought "active participation" of all states in developing 'Curriculum Frameworks'. "We need to free our education from colonial influence. This is the time of decolonisation of our education. We all need to change our mindset. In the 21st century, we need to create a knowledge-based India and school education will serve as the base for it," said Pradhan. On the occasion, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said the state has taken a lead in implementing the new NEP, adding that nearly 15,000 government-run schools will be developed under the 'Mission School of Excellence'. Among others, Goa CM Pramod Samant, who handles education portfolio, Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia and Union MoS for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar attended the conference. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Arms and ammunition recovered across Indo-Myanmar Border along with apprehended individuals. (ANI/photo) Guwahati (Assam) [India], May 2 (ANI): The Lunglei Battalion of 23 Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (East), recovered arms and ammunition at Zawngling village of Saiha district along Indo-Myanmar Border and arrested two people on Tuesday, stated the Assam Rifles today. The operation was carried out by three Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police based on specific information. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. The Assam Rifles team along with Police representatives established a check post on Zawngling crossing and intercepted two individuals carrying a total of 20 rounds of 12 gauge 70 mm cartridges along with two NX 100 Airguns. In the operation, two Myanmar Nationals were apprehended.The recovery items and two individuals were handed over to Tuipang Police Station on 31 May 2022 for further legal proceedings.The ongoing smuggling of weapons and war-like stores is a major cause of concern for the state of Mizoram, especially along the Indo-Myanmar border. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. Assam Rifles, rightly Christened as the 'Sentinels of Northeast' have continued their efforts against the smuggling activities in Mizoram, stated the Army. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kulgam (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], June 2 (ANI): A bank manager was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Thursday. "Terrorists fired upon a bank manager at Ellaqie Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora in Kulgam district. He received grievous gunshot injuries in this terror incident. He is a resident of Hanumangarh, Rajasthan. Area cordoned off," police said. Also Read | West Bengal Madhyamik Result 2022: Class 10th Results To Be Announced on June 3; Know Steps To Check Scores. He succumbed to his injuries, police added. Meanwhile, people belonging to the Hindu community employed in Kashmir staged a protest in Jammu and demanded security for members of their community. Also Read | Hardik Patel to Launch Campaign to Wean Away Congress Leaders in Gujarat. Earlier on Tuesday, a 36-year-old migrant Kashmiri Pandit and high school teacher Rajni Bala was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last two months, two civilians - including Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat -- and three off-duty policemen were killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha are likely to hold a high-level meeting here in the national capital on June 3 over the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory in the last few days, official sources said. It is learnt that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh will also participate in the meeting that is expected to start on the scheduled date in the first half of the day. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, as well as Director-General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldeep Singh and Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, are also expected to attend the meeting. (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], June 2 (ANI): Condemning the killing of the bank manager in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Thursday, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that the "coward terrorists will not be spared". Vijay Kumar was a resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan and was working in Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Also Read | ICMR Releases Guidance Document for Drone Use in Healthcare. Union Minister Shekhawat said, "Vijay Kumar, the resident of Hanumangarh (Rajasthan), a bank employee serving in Kashmir, passed away after becoming a victim of the hatred of fundamentalists." According to Shekhawat, the people in Kashmir, who are against reforms are responsible for such incidents. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. "People in Kashmir who are against reforms and growth are responsible for such incidents so that we get deviated from the main issue and get busy with accusations and counter-accusations on the incident", he added. The incident occurred at the Ellaqie Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora in Kulgam. The Rajasthan resident later succumbed to his injuries. Expressing his grief on Twitter, CM Gehlot said, "The killing of Mr. Vijay Kumar, a resident of Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, working in Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir, by terrorists is highly condemnable. I pray to God to give peace to his soul and courage to his family." Meanwhile, people, belonging to the Hindu community employed in Kashmir, staged a protest in Jammu and demanded security for members of their community. Earlier on Tuesday, a 36-year-old migrant Kashmiri Pandit and high school teacher Rajni Bala was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last two months, two civilians - including Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat, an employee of the Tehsil office in Budgam district's Chadoora, were shot dead by terrorists on May 12, and three off-duty policemen were killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha are likely to hold a high-level meeting here in the national capital on June 3 over the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory in the last few days, official sources said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI): The final report of the Integrated Landscape Management Plan for Greater Panna Landscape was released on Thursday by Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti in the presence of officers from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and other concerned organizations. The integrated landscape management plan has been prepared in respect of the Ken-Betwa Link Project by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The project team led by K. Ramesh, Scientist, WII carried out extensive fieldwork by using advanced scientific tools and techniques, analysed the data and came up with detailed site-specific inputs for the implementation of the proposed activities. Also Read | Jammu And Kashmir Shocker: One Non-Local Killed, One Injured in Militant Attack in Budgam. An official release said the Integrated Landscape Management Plan provides for better habitat protection, and management of flagship species such as tigers, vultures, and gharial. It will help to holistically consolidate the landscape for biodiversity conservation and human well-being, especially in forest-dependent communities. It is expected to enhance tiger carrying capacity in the landscape by strengthening connectivity with Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary and Durgavati wildlife sanctuary in MP and Ranipurwildlife sanctuary in UP. Also Read | ICMR Releases Guidance Document for Drone Use in Healthcare. This integrated landscape management plan has been prepared in respect of the Ken-Betwa Link Project which was approved by the Centre in December 2021 for implementation, following the signing of a historic agreement between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Agar Malwa (Madhya Pradesh) [India], June 2: Congress MLA and former cabinet minister of Madhya Pradesh, Sajjan Singh Verma, has claimed that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah divided the country "as an act of wisdom". The Congress leader termed Jinnah a "freedom fighter" and said that he did the "right thing" by dividing the country. Also Read | Hardik Patel To Join BJP: I Will Work As Small Soldier Under Leadership of PM Narendra Modi, Says Gujarat Patidar Leader. The remarks of the former cabinet minister came while addressing the media on Wednesday. "The division of the country into two by Nehru and Jinnah was an act of wisdom. Jinnah was a freedom fighter, and this should be remembered. He did not break the country but did the right thing. Was he not a freedom fighter?" he said. Also Read | Google TV App Now Available on iOS Platform: Report. Verma hit out at the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh and at the Centre, asking if the "definition of freedom fighter changes because of one being a Muslim". "Does the definition of freedom fighter change because of one being a Muslim? The BJP is propagating this culture. PM Modi in his January 26 speech said that Jawaharlal Nehru and Jinnah are responsible for dividing the country in 1947. The country should thank the two leaders as they did the work of wisdom by dividing the country into two parts," he said. Taking a jibe at RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader said that they would not have been in the positions they enjoy currently, had Jinnah not divided the country. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kolkata, Jun 2 (PTI) The BJP on Thursday threatened to go on agitation if the West Bengal government does not cut taxes on fuel in the next 15 days. Speaking to reporters, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the state government should give some relief to the people when the Centre has cleared all the GST dues. Also Read | Sakinaka rape-murder case: Convict gets Sentenced to Death for Heinous Crime. "West Bengal has received its GST dues from the Centre. It should now bring down the prices of fuel. They should reduce the price of petrol by at least Rs 5, and price of diesel by Rs 10," he said. "The Centre has twice reduced fuel prices, but the state government has not lowered taxes even once," he claimed. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Undertrial Dies in Meerut Hospital After Being Taken from Jail in Semi-Conscious State. The BJP would wait for 15 days, and if the state does not take any steps, it would hit the streets, Majumdar said. "If they don't reduce the fuel prices, we will hit the streets. We will also march to state secretariat Nabanna to fight for people's rights," he said. The Centre has cleared the entire GST compensation payable up to May 31 by releasing Rs 86,912 crore to the states, as per the Finance Ministry. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in the country on July 1, 2017 and states were assured of compensation for the loss of any revenue arising on account of the implementation of GST for a period of five years. TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the state government would reduce the taxes on fuel, once the Centre clears all the dues. "The state government has already said that once the Centre clears its dues amounting to Rs 97,000 crores, it would reduce the taxes on fuel prices. Once they clear the dues, the state won't levy taxes on oil for the next five years," Ghosh said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI): The Delhi Commission for Women has issued summons to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's Commissioner after it found out that girl students in the MCD schools were forced to defecate in the open, said a press release. The Commission had instituted an enquiry on the condition of safety and security of girls in primary schools in Delhi and had visited four primary schools of MCD in May 2022 in this regard, as per the statement. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. Toilets were found to be locked in one school and girls were forced to defecate in the open, as per the statement. It was observed that one of the school buildings housing 800 children was declared unfit for usage by MCD itself as the ceiling of the school was damaged. Used drugs and alcohol bottles were recovered from the grounds of one of the schools. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. As per the commission's finding, CCTV and security guards were not available in the schools. Most of the issues raised by the Commission posed a direct threat to the life and liberty of the students and needed urgent action. The team inspected the school buildings as well as interacted with students, teachers, and other staff of the school, as per the statement. MCD has requested the Commission for two months time to submit its reply and has cited the recent unification of the three MCDs as a reason for the delay. DCW Chairperson has summoned the MCD Commissioner to be present before the Commission on June 9, 2022, with an action taken report on the matter along with the relevant files and documents in the matter. DCW Chairperson Ms Swati Maliwal stated, "It is shocking that instead of prompt action on our critical findings, MCD has chosen to turn a blind eye to the safety and security of primary students. The sheer apathy of MCD officials has led to lakhs of lives being at stake and it has now sought another two months' time to reply to the Commission." "There can be no excuse for further mismanagement and negligence and we will not allow MCD to go scot-free. I have issued summons to MCD Commissioner to appear before the Commission and provide an action taken report within a week," she 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, Jun 2 (PTI) Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union Territory which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12. Doval along with RAW chief Samnat Goel closeted with Shah for over an hour at the home minister's office at North Block this afternoon, official sources said. Also Read | Sakinaka Rape-Murder Case: Mumbai Sessions Court Sentences 45-Year-Old Man to Death for Raping, Killing 32-Year-Old Woman. Details of their meeting were not known immediately but they were believed to have discussed the situation in restive Kashmir where a bank employee hailing from Rajasthan was killed this morning -- the third non-Muslim government employee. Shah will chair the high-level meeting on Friday to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight which comes at a time when terrorists have been carrying out targeted killings in the valley. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Undertrial Dies in Meerut Hospital After Being Taken from Jail in Semi-Conscious State. Doval is also expected to attend Friday's meeting which will be chaired by the home minister. Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and senior functionaries of the central government and union territory would participate in the meeting which is also expected to take stock of the arrangements for the annual Amarnath yatra, being held after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting will be held amid protests by Kashmiri Pandit community seeking protection and some of them leaving the valley following the targeted killings. In the last meeting on June 17, the home minister had advocated pro-active and coordinated counter-terror operations and had asked security forces to ensure zero cross-border infiltration and wipe out terrorism from the union territory. The meeting comes in the wake of terrorists carrying out targeted killings, including of a woman teacher hailing from Samba district of Jammu region at Kulgam on Tuesday. On May 18, terrorists had entered into a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person hailing from Jammu region and injuring three others. On May 24, policeman Saifullah Qadri was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar while a television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later. Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed under a prime minister's package in 2012, have been staging continuous protests threatening mass exodus since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by terrorists on May 12 in Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir. After the previous meeting, an official statement had said that the home minister directed security forces and the police to conduct coordinated counter-terrorism operations pro-actively. The home minister had said that in order to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a prosperous and peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, security forces should ensure zero cross-border infiltration. Taking stock of the Amarnath Yatra preparedness, Shah had said a "hassle-free" journey for the pilgrims is a priority of the Modi government and directed all arrangements, including additional electricity, water, and telecom facilities be made. He had also stressed for enhancement of mobile connectivity along the yatra route as he directed that earth moving equipment should be placed at vantage points to clear the route in case of landslides. The home minister had asked for an adequate number of oxygen cylinders, medical beds at an altitude of more than 6,000 feet and deployment of ambulances and helicopters to deal with any emergency medical situation. During the previous meeting, it was also decided to enable WiFi hotspots to ensure connectivity throughout the 39 km of the yatra route from Pahalgam in south Kashmir. The other route is through Baltal in central Kashmir where a pilgrim treks for nearly 15 km. The yatra could not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and was cut short in 2019 just before the abrogation of Article 370. About three lakh pilgrims are likely to take part in the pilgrimage that is expected to end on August 11. About 12,000 paramilitary personnel (120 companies) in addition to Jammu and Kashmir Police are expected to be deployed along the two pilgrimage routes, one from Pahalgam and the other via Baltal, officials said. Drone cameras will help the security forces to ensure the protection of the pilgrims. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Jaipur, Jun 2 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP-led Union government on Thursday of misusing central agencies, referring to reports in a section of the media that two MLAs in the state have been issued notices by such agencies. "Amid the Rajya Sabha election, there is news in the media about notices to two MLAs," Gehlot told a press conference here after a workshop of the Congress party when asked about the reports of notices to Congress MLA Wajib Ali and Independent legislator Omprakash Hudla. Also Read | Committed to Preserving Cultural and Spiritual Heritage, the Central Government Handed Latest Tweet by DD News. The chief minister said raids by the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in poll-bound states have become a common thing. Targeting the Centre, he said, "When it got to know that these MLAs (Ali and Hudla) will not support (the BJP), it re-opened old cases. It has made law a joke. How will people be safe if there is no rule of law?" Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. Earlier, addressing the Congress workshop, Gehlot said "these (BJP) people have created so much terror". Meanwhile, state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra also reacted to the reports of notices to the two MLAs. "It is its (BJP's) fixed agenda.... It runs the agenda of communal frenzy, misuse of the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax department," Dotasra said. The contents of the reports, however, could not be confirmed. Ali, who was in Alwar with a few other MLAs, said he had not received any such notice. Hudla could not be contacted for comments. Sources said he went to the SMS hospital for a health check-up after he felt uneasy. (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, Jun 2 (PTI) Domestic power producers have time till Friday to place orders for import of coal, failing which they will be allocated only 70 per cent of their requirement by the government, according to an official notification. On May 18, the Ministry of Power had warned that if orders for coal imports are not placed by May 31, 2022 and the imported fuel does not start arriving at power plants by June 15, the defaulter gencos will have to increase their imports to the extent of 15 per cent. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. Further, if blending with domestic coal is not started by June 15, then the domestic allocation of the concerned defaulter's thermal power plants will be further reduced by 5 per cent, the ministry had said in a letter to state governments and power generation companies (gencos), including independent power producers (IPPs). According to the latest notification dated June 1, "Those GENCOS/IPPs who either do not place their indents with CIL by 3.6.2022 or have not initiated their tender processes for purchase of imported coal for blending purposes, they will be allocated only 70 percent of the quantity of domestic coal...(which) will be further reduced to 60 per cent from 15.6.2022." Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: Woman Ends Her Life After Sexually Harassed by Cops. The amount of coal which will be saved as part of this action against defaulters will be allocated to those gencos/IPPs which have already commenced blending. Meanwhile, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) termed the government's move as "putting undue pressure on the states." The coal crisis is not the fault of the state power generating houses and the Centre must bear the additional cost of coal imports as it has put undue pressure on states to import the dry fuel for blending purpose, the body said in a statement. AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said, "This is clearly an inappropriate response being extended to import coal which is not justified. We appeal to Chief Ministers of all states to strongly oppose this order of the Ministry of Power to import coal." He further said many states including Uttar Pradesh decided not to go for import of coal. Other states not going for imported coal are Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana and Kerala. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Ahmedabad, June 2: Former Congress leader Hardik Patel, ahead of his induction into the BJP on Thursday, said that he would launch a campaign to wean away Congress leaders in Gujarat. Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the pride of the world, Patel said that after joining the BJP he would do an event every 10 days to ask Congress leaders, including MLAs, to join the BJP. "I believe the Congress party does not want to do any sort of work. I urge the leaders of the other parties to come and join the BJP. PM Modi is the pride of the entire world," he said while speaking to the media here. Patel, who last month resigned from Congress, is set to join the BJP today. Notably, posters welcoming Patel to the BJP were put outside the party office in Gandhinagar. "Today I'm starting a new chapter. I will work as a small soldier. I have never put forth any demands before anyone for any post. I am joining the BJP to work," he said. "When people are connecting with the ongoing development works in the country under the leadership of PM Modi, then I should also do the same," Patel added. Hardik Patel To Join BJP: 'I Will Work As Small Soldier Under Leadership of PM Narendra Modi', Says Gujarat Patidar Leader. Hardik catapulted to the political centre stage in 2015 when he spearheaded the Patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat, building the campaign in the run-up to the 2017 state Assembly elections. Initially, Patel demanded the OBC status for the Patidar community. Subsequently, it was transformed into a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). His emergence on the political scene in the state put the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in a spot. In 2016, Anandiben Patel announced her resignation from the post. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patel joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He, was then, appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee in Gujarat in 2020. However, he accused Congress leadership of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party in 2022. On May 19 this year, Patel resigned from the party and stated that Gujarat Congress leaders were least bothered to address real issues of the state but were more focussed on ensuring that the leaders who come from Delhi to Gujarat get "chicken sandwich" on time. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Jun 2 (PTI) Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, a member of a group of dissidents in the party, has said that he has not been able to meet senior leader Rahul Gandhi in the last four years. Also Read | IDBI Bank Recruitment 2022: Apply for 1544 Executive, Assistant Manager Posts At idbibank.in; Check Details Here. There was no `chintan' or introspection at the recent Congress conclave in Udaipur, he told the Times of India podcast which released on Thursday. Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir Civilian Killings: Frightened Kashmiri Pandits, Government Employees Demand Relocation to Home Districts. I occasionally meet Dr Manmohan Singh whenever I am in Delhi. But his health is not what it used to be earlier. He is always hospitable and ready to talk. I have also met Sonia Gandhi whenever I sought time, but I haven't been able to meet Rahul Gandhi for long time...I think in four years. There is a complaint that the party leadership is not as accessible as it should be, said Chavan during the interview. The former Union minister is part of the `G-23, a group of dissident leaders who are pressing for organizational reforms in the Grand Old Party which has suffered one electoral setback after another in the recent years. Speaking about the Udaipur meeting, Chavan said the Congress president had agreed to hold a "chintan shibir" to discuss the issues before the party, but someone "more loyal than the king" decided that a chintan or introspection wasn't needed. "So, the Udaipur meeting was a `nav-sankalp (new resolution) shibir.' The party felt that a post-mortem was not needed and it only needed to look at the future," he said. "There should have been an honest introspection, not to fix accountability or hang people, but to ensure that we don't repeat those mistakes. After the Assam and Kerala Assembly polls, a committee was formed to go into the party's performance. But the committee's report was buried in a cupboard, which is not in the correct spirit of things,'' he said. Chavan also said that Kapil Sibal, who recently quit the party, felt strongly that the Congress leadership wasn't getting honest advice, and `nominated' persons only give the advice which the leadership likes. ''If we want to defeat (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi in 2024, we have to do well in the ensuing 12 state Assembly elections. We have to have a large, broad coalition of like-minded parties,'' he said. The Congress was seeing a tussle between "people of experience" and people of "energy", but a mix of the two is desirable, he said. Asked about decisions taken during the Nav-sankalp shibir, Chavan said these decisions have to be ratified by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) before they become binding. ''We expected a chintan (introspection), which is a difficult exercise. Reports of the committees set up after the previous election debacles should have been discussed,'' he said. Division of votes helped the BJP win, and a large coalition has to be led by Congress as a national alternative, Chavan said. There was a leadership vacuum in Congress in several states, so regional parties are trying to fill that space, he said, adding that building a large coalition of like-minded parties was difficult, but not impossible. ''If we lose in 2024, the spirit of liberal democracy will be lost. We have to undertake elections in the party at the earliest,'' Chavan said. He also opined that pursuing "soft Hindutva" was not a good strategy as people would rather go in for the BJP's "hard Hindutva" in that case. ''No Muslim voted for Congress in Uttar Pradesh. We have to define secularism very correctly. A state has no religion. It cannot pick one religion over another,'' the Congress leader said. (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], June 2 (ANI): The hot air balloon rides, started by the Tourism Department of Jammu and Kashmir at the Zabarwan Park in Srinagar, have increased the tourists' experience and happiness in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The rides were launched by the state Tourism Department in collaboration with a private firm on April 2. Also Read | IDBI Bank Recruitment 2022: Apply for 1544 Executive, Assistant Manager Posts At idbibank.in; Check Details Here. The hot air balloon is said to have the capacity to hold four people besides the captain, ensuring a breath-taking view of the Zabarwan Mountains and Dal Lake in Srinagar. Zeeshan, the Operational and Marketing Head of a private firm that has introduced the 'hot air balloon' services in the Union Territory for the first time, said, "We have introduced the hot air balloon for the first time, that too we are commercialising it. We have two slots for the tourists to enjoy the ride, i.e., the morning slot where the service will be provided from 6 am to 9 am, while the second slot would function from 4 pm to 8.30 pm. Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir Civilian Killings: Frightened Kashmiri Pandits, Government Employees Demand Relocation to Home Districts. While talking to the ANI on Thursday, Zeeshan mentioned "the balloon can currently elevate up to the height of approximately 200-feet. It is a tethered balloon which is tied with the ropes from all the sides for high-land exertion in the Zabarwan park." [{fe38af13-25eb-4301-8a5a-ee5ce2cd98c6:intradmin/dgrf.png}] He also explained the firm's plans to enhance tourism and create recreational activities that were earlier unavailable in the valley. "We were the ones who introduced the concept of Aero-balloon in Kashmir in 2014 but now we have replaced it with hot air balloon as we want people to enjoy the activities here in Kashmir that were earlier unavailable here," he added while mentioning their upcoming adventurous concept of Glamping. As per the marketing head, the firm also provides opportunities to tourists to paraglide and raft boats on the river and this new concept of Glamping would be more like luxurious camping. "Glamping, the luxurious camping, will also be the first-ever such activity to be introduced in Kashmir," he said. The tourists at the Zabarwan Park were delighted with their experience and recommended everyone to come to the place, at least once. "It is a very beautiful experience to view the Dal lake and have a 360-degree view of Srinagar. It definitely makes one very happy," said a tourist Sumita Dass. [{7a76038d-2559-49df-826d-fec300b50976:intradmin/Screenshot_2022-06-02_154350.png}] Another visitor, Pooja talked about her dilemma to visit UT in the first place, and eventually talked about her "wonderful experience" during her first visit to Kashmir. "This is my first visit to Kashmir. Earlier, we were sceptical to come here because of one controversy," said Pooja while stating that UT's tourism has developed now. She further said, "Upon reaching here, we realized that it is peaceful here and the people are also very kind and polite." (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, Jun 2 (PTI) Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Israel Lt Gen (Res) Benjamin Gantz, who is on an official visit to India, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. The PMO said the two leaders reviewed the rapid growth in defence cooperation between India and Israel over the past few years. Also Read | Narendra Modi Govt Has Never Meted out Stepmotherly Treatment to Any State; BJP Has Always Latest Tweet by PTI News. In the talks, Modi encouraged Israeli defence companies to benefit from opportunities of co-development and co-production in India, the PMO said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Jun 2 (PTI) Maharashtra Minister Anil Parab on Thursday warned that strict action will be taken against e-bike dealers and manufacturers who sell two-wheelers after making illegal alterations. Also Read | Sakinaka Rape-Murder Case: Mumbai Sessions Court Sentences 45-Year-Old Man to Death for Raping, Killing 32-Year-Old Woman. Speaking to reporters here, Parab said RTO officials in Maharashtra had already checked over 2,000 vehicles and action has been taken against many of them. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Undertrial Dies in Meerut Hospital After Being Taken from Jail in Semi-Conscious State. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had called a meeting about the e-bikes issue earlier in the day, in which it was decided that strict action will be taken against dealers and manufacturers of modified e-bikes, he said. "No violation of the rule will be tolerated if you want to run these (low-speed e-bikes)," Parab said. E-bikes with less than 25 kmph speed that don't require registration are being run at higher speed after making some modifications. E-bikes do not require a permit, licence and helmet. Low speed e-bikes are generally considered a substitute for bicycles, but there were several complaints that they were run at a high speed, Parab said. A fine of Rs 1 lakh was imposed on dealers for selling e-vehicles that are illegally modified, while manufacturers are fined Rs 100 crore for making such two-wheelers, he said. If e-bikes are parked haphazardly on roads, the police will tow these vehicles and action will be taken against owners for obstructing traffic, Parab added. Meanwhile, a transport department official said Maharashtra has around 93,000 registered electric bikes among over one lakh e-vehicles. RTO offices across the state have launched a drive against e-bikes that are violating rules. According RTO sources, they have checked over 2,200 e-bikes during the drive so far, of which more than 600 bikes have been found violating the rule. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Jun 2 (PTI) Five National Disaster Response Force units as well as teams from Navy, Army and Coast Guard will be deployed in Mumbai to make the metropolis rain-ready, the civic body said on Thursday. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. There would be 22 days during the monsoon when the high tide would be over 4.5 metres, while the city has 487 flooding spots, the BMC said in a statement. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. It had called a coordination meeting of its own officials as well as those from other agencies during the day, against the backdrop of the monsoon progressing till Karwar in neighbouring Karnataka as per the India Meteorological Department. Addressing a press conference after the meeting, BMC additional commissioner P. Velrasu said desilting work of all the major and minor nullahs (drains) had been completed, while desilting of Mithi river was almost 98 per cent complete and the remaining work would be over in two to three days. "We have completed all pre-monsoon works at our end, with desilting of 100 per cent drains complete. Out of the total 100 plus flooding sites too, we have tackled around 30 so far. So we are expecting that if it floods it would be the remaining areas that would be impacted, he said. He said for speedy drainage of water, six major pumping stations and 10 mini pumping stations were ready, besides installation of 487 pumps at various flooding spots across the city. "Also, five teams of NDRF will be deployed in the city, and teams of Army, Navy and Coast Guard have been requested to be ready and alert during the monsoon. Of the five NDRF teams, three would be in Andheri and the remaining two would be stationed at the ward level. Also, for the first time, five Indian Army columns, each with 100 personnel, will be present," he said. The civic body had held meetings with officials handling major infrastructural projects like metro rail and coastal road construction works to ensure channels carrying rain water are clear and do not have blockages, he said. Besides, the civic body has stopped giving permission to utility agencies for digging trenches and it won't be given unless there is an emergency, he added. Velrasu said the civic body will fix potholes within 24 hours of receiving complaints on their android mobile app or website, but if the potholes are big, it may take 48 hours, adding that cold mix was being given to all 24 wards for this work. In a statement, the civic body said citizens can also complain about potholes through its 8999228999 WhatsApp chat bot facility. Speaking on the rise in COVID-19 cases amid the approaching monsoon, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, BMC additional municipal commissioner, said the civic body will ramp up testing facilities from 8,000 to around 25,000 per day if required. "In the past, we have handled very well two COVID waves in the worst of situations. So we are confident we will be able to tackle any surge," Kumar asserted. While the city has been seeing over 500 cases daily for the past three days, testing of samples per day has hovered below the 10000-mark. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Noida, Jun 2 (PTI) Performing stunts on motorcycles on city roads has landed a 26-year-old YouTuber with 1.5 million subscribers in jail, police officials here said on Thursday. Nizamul Khan was previously arrested by the Noida police in 2020 in connection with the murder of his girlfriend's brother who had objected to their relationship, they said. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. However, he had got bail from the Allahabad High Court last year and began making content for social media especially YouTube videos, they said. Khan hails from Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh, but had been staying in Nithari village in sector 30 of Noida, police said. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. "On Wednesday, some videos and pictures of a person performing stunts on a motorcycle had surfaced. The police took cognizance and the accused Nizamul Khan was held, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said. "During investigation, it also came to light that he was arrested by police in connection with a murder case in 2020 but had got bail last year. He had been posting videos and pictures (on social media) of him performing stunts on two-wheelers," Singh said. The motorcycle used for the stunts has also been impounded, the officer said, adding others involved in the filming of the dangerous stunt videos are also on the police's radar. "From what can be seen, it is clear that some other people were making these videos. We will soon track them and take action against them, Singh said. A fresh case has been lodged against Khan at the Noida sector 24 police station, with local officials saying that he was booked in a preventive action under CrPC Section 151. "He was produced before a local magistrate who has remanded him to judicial custody," the official said. In a similar action, three young men were arrested on May 28 after their video styled on Indian superhero Shaktimaan had gone viral on social media. Prior to that, on May 25, the police in Noida had arrested an 18-year-old man for allegedly causing nuisance on a city road by performing a stunt in his SUV to promote himself on social media. The car used in the stunt was impounded under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, the officials said. The same day, two men were arrested in Greater Noida and their car impounded in a similar incident. Earlier, police in Noida had arrested a 21-year-old man after a video of him performing a dangerous stunt on two cars went viral on social media. Imitating film star Ajay Devgn's famous stunt, the man was seen balancing himself atop two moving cars, both of which were impounded by police. Taking a serious note of such incidents, Police Commissioner Alok Singh had directed officials and urged families of such youth to intervene in order to prevent mishaps on roads. "As part of a concerted effort, police officials have started reaching out to the families of such offenders and offer counselling in order to prevent such episodes in future," the police spokesperson said. "The families are being told that such stunts could lead to dangerous results and injuries to their children," the spokesperson added. PTI KIS (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, Jun 2 (PTI) India once again asserted on Thursday that its procurement of crude oil from Russia is guided by its energy security requirements. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said many countries have taken policy decisions with a similar perspective and procurement of oil from Russia is not an India-related issue. Also Read | Johnny Depp, Amber Heard Relationship to Defamation: Detailed Timeline Read More @ANI Latest Tweet by ANI Digital. "We have consistently maintained that our approach is guided by our energy security requirements. You would note that many regions and countries have taken policy decisions recently with a similar perspective," he said. Bagchi was responding to a question on the continuation of India's procurement of crude oil from Russia. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. "We would like to reiterate that this is not an India-related issue at all," he said. There has been some disquiet in western capitals over India's position on the Ukraine crisis as well as its decision to procure discounted Russian oil. India is yet to condemn the Russian attack on Ukraine and has been pressing for an immediate cessation of violence and a resolution of the crisis through diplomacy and dialogue. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mangaluru, June 2 (PTI) The hijab row has resurfaced in yet another college in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, forcing the authorities to suspend six students for wearing the headscarf, despite repeated warnings. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. The Government First Grade College at Uppinangady on Wednesday suspended six students for a week, after the Principal held a meeting with faculty members in this connection. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. The six students who have been suspended allegedly wore the hijab in the class room, despite repeated attempts by the college authorities to inform them that their conduct was in violation of state government and High Court's orders. Following the suspension, as more students came to college wearing hijab on Thursday (today), another section of students wore saffron shawl in protest, and demanded they should not be allowed to enter classes, forcing the police to intervene. Authorities did not allow both hijab and saffron shawl wearing students to attend classes, sources said. Couple of Journalists who were there to cover the hijab controversy were allegedly illegally confined, their cameras were snatched and footage was deleted by some "miscreants" on Thursday, authorities said. Following the incident, the local Journalists' association has sought action against the miscreants and have submitted a memorandum in this regard to the district Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police. Meanwhile, the hijab issue at the University College in Mangaluru that came to fore last week, has continued to persist, as about 15 girl students came to college wearing the headscarf, and they were not allowed to enter classes. Efforts made by the Principal and authorities to convince them to attend classes without head scarf failed. A group of students had staged a protest at the Mangaluru's University College campus last week alleging that a few Muslim girl students are attending classes wearing the headscarf. The Karnataka High Court on March 15 had dismissed petitions filed by a group of Muslim students, seeking permission to wear hijab inside classrooms. The three-judge bench of the court consisting of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi further noted that the prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible, which the students cannot object to. Following the High Court order, the Department of Pre-University Education has made uniforms prescribed by the College Development Committee, compulsory for Pre-University (PU) students from the 2022-23 academic year. It also states that in case no uniform is prescribed by the College Development Committee or management, students must wear a garment which will "maintain equality and unity, and which does not disturb public order". (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], June 2 (ANI): Addressing the newly-elected members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) on Thursday, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik advised them to consider the village issues as their own and make sincere efforts to resolve them. "This time, women had won the majority in panchayats. It has made the former CM Biju Patnaik's dream of women empowerment a reality," he said while congratulating the members of PRI. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. "You are well aware of the importance of the panchayats in our governance and development plans," he said while calling the panchayat "the centre of service". In his address, he asked the elected representatives to make sure that the public is not deprived of any government services. and further advised them to protect the rights of the poor, the women and the marginalised. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. Patnaik also advised the members to implement the 5T initiative in the development of their village, and said "through this (5T initiative) the change in the village and panchayat can become a role model for others." The 5T initiative of development by the Odisha government emphasizes Teamwork, Transparency, Technology, Transformation, and Time. For the first time ever, the Odisha government has decided to provide training on disaster management, women empowerment, and fruitful utilization of funds amongst others to all 1,06,352 PRI members. (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, Jun 2 (PTI) Jama Masjid authorities along with engineering and heritage experts are currently chalking out a plan to remove the dangling part of the finial of the main dome of the 17th century grand mosque in Delhi which was damaged in a fierce thunderstorm recently. Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Thursday also said as part of the plan, aerial photographs of the mosque, with closer shots of the main dome have also been taken to aid the experts. Also Read | Body Blows Endured During Gabba Test Against Aus Motivated Pujara to Do Better Read More Latest Tweet by ANI Digital. "The dangling part is posing a threat to the wall and minarets near it, and to people on ground too as there is a risk that if it rolls off the dome, it may hit the wall and pieces of stone may fall on ground. So, we are chalking out a plan to first safely bring down the dangling part of the damaged finial," Bukhari told PTI. On Tuesday, a day after the storm had hit Delhi, he had written to ASI requesting removal of the dangling part of the crown and repair of the ornamental structure that has topped the grand mosque since its construction. Also Read | Sidhu Moose Wala Murder: Punjab Govt to Restore Curtailed Security Cover of 434 VVIPs. "We have not received any response from ASI on our request, so we are planning on our own. Jama Masjid office, the Delhi Waqf Board, a structural engineering expert and experts from INTACH are working together to come up with a feasible plan to rescue the dangling portion of the finial," the Shahi Imam added. On Tuesday, Delhi Waqf Board Chairman Amanatullah Khan and a team of experts from INTACH had visited Jama Masjid located in the heart of the Walled City and inspected the damage caused to the finial. Khan had also gone up on the terrace to see the damaged parts lying there, accompanied by other officials. Bukhari said, "We are together brainstorming the possible ways to bring down that heavy part. A Delhi-based scientist is helping us, and one solution that we have thought of is to bring a tall crane and move it from a street on the Chawri Bazaar side, and pull it up and bring the hanging part down with a harness attached". However, it is still under planning, and it is not exactly known how effective this step might be. A senior official of INTACH said, "This is an emergency scenario, and we as a heritage institution have decided to help in this process, for the safety of the people and the monument. "Our team had recently visited the Jama Masjid premises after the storm. Even couple of months ago, a team from INTACH had visited as Jama Masjid authorities have been contemplating a conservation project," the official told PTI. Asked if the finial, which is as old as the mosque, can be repaired, the INTACH official said, yes, it is repair-worthy. "It is also a piece of heritage, and it has just broken which needs to be fixed and the ensemble reinstalled. Preliminary study suggests the material of the finial is copper, with gold plating on the surface. Some portions have faded but it can be refurbished to return it's shine," the official said, adding only metallurgical examination can tell the exact composition. At Shahi Imam's Office, a smaller piece of the huge finial kept in store while two large pieces are lying on the terrace below the dome. "The part which is still hanging from the main dome, would weigh around 350 kg, and the entire ensemble weight would have been about 500 kg. So, it is essential to remove that portion from the dome," Bukhari had earlier said. An architectural jewel and a very popular tourist attraction, Jama Masjid is a 17th century monument, originally named Masjid e Jehan Numah, was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan. He himself had laid the foundation of stone on the strong basements of a hillock on October 6, 1650 which was a Friday. The grand mosque was completed in 1656, according to information shared by the Shahi Imam's Office, on its history. Bukhari had described the rampaging storm as something he had "never seen" in his entire life. "Scared people ran to shelter themselves from the stormy weather, women and children lay huddled in the cloisters, crying. It was a horrible sight in the mosque premises. "The wind was swirling and howling. Two or three people also got injured at Jama Masjid as stone parts fell off from minarets and other parts of the mosque. But, it was a nature's miracle ('kudrst ka karishma) that most people came out of it safely here," he had earlier 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, Jun 2 (PTI) Seeking to consolidate its position in Rajya Sabha, the BJP is banking on independents for four additional seats and is seeking to capitalise on the infighting within the Congress in as many states in the June 10 biennial election. The entry of two independents - media barons Subhash Chandra in Rajasthan and Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana - has pepped up the Rajya Sabha polls and made the contest interesting and somewhat difficult for the Congress. Also Read | KK's Death: BJP MP Saumitra Khan Writes to Amit Shah Demanding Central Agency Probe in Sudden Demise of Late Singer. To put its flock together, the Congress is shifting its MLAs in Rajasthan to a resort in Udaipur and those in Haryana to Chhattisgarh before the June 10 election, sources said. In a first, the BJP has also appointed Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as its in-charge for the polls in Rajasthan and Haryana respectively. Also Read | Sidhu Moose Wala Murder: Punjab Govt to Restore Curtailed Security Cover of 434 VVIPs. The party also appointed Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and G Kishan Reddy as in-charge for the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra and Karnataka, two other states headed for a contest with more candidates in the race than the number of seats. The elections are being held to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states that will be falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. In Rajasthan and Karnataka, Rajya Sabha elections will be held for four seats, in Maharashtra for six seats and in Haryana for two. The BJP's support to independents partly comes from the discontent that has crept in the Congress ranks due to selection of candidates from outside the state. Sources in the BJP said its game plan is set around twin objectives of capitalising on defections within Congress and wooing independents and other non-UPA parties. In Haryana, the BJP is lending its support to Kartikeya Sharma, who is the son of former union minister Venod Sharma and son-in-law of former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. While Kartikeya is said to be close to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his mother is also the current mayor of Ambala. Incidently, both Venod Sharma and Kuldeep Sharma are considered close to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, whose position will turn vulnerable in case the official Congress candidate Ajay Maken loses. The Congress has 31 votes required to win the election for the second seat, but its MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi has not turned up at the CLP meeting convened by the party recently to support the candidature of Maken. The Congress may also get support from independents. The BJP has 40 MLAs and the JJP has 10, leaving the alliance with 19 additional votes. They have to get 12 additional votes and are wooing the INLD which has one seat, seven independents and one HLP seat. Sharma is hoping that in case he manages to get two Congress votes in cross-voting, he can make it home with the help of second preference votes of the BJP. In Rajasthan, the Congress has 108 of its own votes and the BJP has 71, which can get two seats and one seat easily. The Congress is seeking the support of 13 independents, besides three of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, two each of CPI-M and one of RLD to bag the third seat of Pramod Tiwari. The Bharatiya Tribal Party with two votes has decided to bastain in the Rajya Sabha poll. The BJP has fielded its own candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari, a former minister in the state. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday claimed that the Congress will win three out of four seats. He said despite not having a majority, the BJP has backed an independent candidate, who "will face defeat". He said the BJP was "playing tricks of horse-trading" but the party will not be successful. The BJP has fielded additional candidates - Dhananjay Mahadik in Maharashtra and Lahar Singh in Karnataka, and is working on discontent within the Congress and other parties to win. The battle in Karnataka has turned interesting as both the parties are seeking to corner the JDS votes for the fourth seat. While the BJP has 119 MLA votes to ensure the victory of its candidates Nirmala Sitharaman and actor-turned-politician Jaggesh. The Congress also has enough votes to ensure victory of its candidate Jairam Ramesh, but has fielded Mansoor Ali Khan, son of senior party leader Rahman Khan, and is wooing the JDS votes to bag the second seat. The BJP, which is left with 29 additional votes and needs 16 more votes for another seat, has fielded its third candidate Lahar Singh Siroya in Karnataka. The BJP has fielded three candidates from Maharashtra while the ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP has four, with the two rivals seeking to outmanoeuvre each other in cornering additional votes required to make the third BJP nominee. With the nomination of former MLA and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) candidate Haridas Bharadwaj for RS poll rejected, paving the way for the unopposed election of Congress's Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan. (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, Jun 2 (PTI) SBI and AIBEA on Thursday condemned the killing of branch manager Vijay Kumar of Ellaquai Dehati Bank, a regional rural bank (RRB) sponsored by the country's largest lender. Kumar was shot dead by suspected militants in South Kashmir's Kulgam earlier in the day. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. SBI, as the sponsor of Ellaquai Dehati Bank, remains committed to ensure the safety and well-being of all its employees, including those posted in the valley, the bank said in a statement. EDB shall ensure that the bereaved family is provided with necessary support financial and otherwise on priority, SBI said. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: Woman Ends Her Life After Sexually Harassed by Cops. Condemning the act, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam said it is a matter of serious concern to all in the banking sector. "Every now and then we get such disturbing news from one state or the other. A lot of very qualified youngsters are joining the banks for their careers and better prospects. It is a pity that such incidents do happen periodically with no solution about the security of bank staff," he said. If the banks and the government cannot safeguard the staff, bank employees cannot work in peace and without fear, Venkatachalam added. "We strongly condemn this killing of an innocent bank manager and demand to bring the culprits to book," AIBEA said. Canara Bank Officers' Association general secretary Ravi Kumar K said it is a brutal act and as an association "we condemn this cowardly act". The association demanded strict action against those behind this killing, Kumar said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kochi (Kerala) [India], June 2 (ANI): Kerala High Court on Thursday posted the anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu on June 7 in the sexual assault case registered against him. The interim pre-arrest bail has been extended till Tuesday by the Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas. The court directed Vijay Babu to cooperate with the investigation and to refrain from tampering with the probe. Court also directed him to not interact through or with any social or other media. Also Read | Asus ROG Phone 6 Launch Set for July 5, 2022; Expected Features & Specifications. The Court posted the matter to next Tuesday after the prosecution sought time. In the meantime, police are interrogating Vijay Babu on the second consecutive day in the case at Ernakulam South police station. It started at 9'o clock in the morning. Earlier on Wednesday, they interrogated him for 9 hours. Also Read | IDBI Bank Recruitment 2022: Apply for 1544 Executive, Assistant Manager Posts At idbibank.in; Check Details Here. Babu appeared before the police to face interrogation for the second consecutive day in the sexual assault case registered against him. He appeared at Ernakulam south police station. On Wednesday, the police questioned him for nine hours. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kochi (Kerala) [India], June 2 (ANI): The police interrogation of Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu in the sexual assault case registered against him has been completed. Babu who appeared before the police to face interrogation for the second day was quizzed for 11 hours. Also Read | ICMR Releases Guidance Document for Drone Use in Healthcare. Police on Thursday interrogated Vijay Babu for eleven hours. It started at 9:00 am in the morning and ended at 8:00 pm. He appeared at Ernakulam south police station. On Wednesday, the police questioned him for nine hours. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. Meanwhile, the interim pre-arrest bail has been extended till Tuesday by the Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas. The court directed Vijay Babu to cooperate with the investigation and to refrain from tampering with the probe. Court also directed him to not interact through or with any social or other media. The Court posted the matter to next Tuesday after the prosecution sought time. Vijay Babu, who has been granted interim pre-arrest bail in a sexual assault case, arrived in Kerala's Kochi from Dubai on Wednesday. While hearing the matter on Tuesday, the single-judge bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas noted, "If I refuse to grant him interim bail now, he will remain abroad and elusive. How many people have been elusive in our country? Several agencies have been trying, but have they been successful? This is what I'm trying to avoid here." The bench said the accused has been granted two days of interim bail with protection so that he could return to India. There are two cases registered against him. One is the sexual assault case and the other one is for disclosing the identity of the complainant through social media. The complainant alleged that she has been sexually assaulted by Vijay Babu in a flat in Kochi. The offence was repeated by the accused more than once, she said in the complaint. The complaint said Babu committed the offence on the pretext of offering roles in movies to the woman. Following the accusations, Vijay stepped down from the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) in May. The actor said that he will stay away from the Executive Committee of the organization till he is proven innocent in the sexual assault case to save the association from 'disgrace'. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Shopian (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], June 2 (ANI): Three soldiers were injured in a blast that took place in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian on Thursday. One of the soldiers is critical while the other two are stable, said the police. An operation based on specific intelligence was launched from Sedhau COB at approximately 3:00 am, to lay a cordon and search in the general area Patitohalan. Also Read | Kia EV6 Launched in India at Rs 59.95 Lakh. While moving to the target area, at approximately one km from Sedhau, an explosion took place in the civil hired vehicle, being used by the team, resulting in injuries to the three soldiers. The blast is very likely to be from either an IED or a grenade or a battery malfunctioning in the vehicle. Details are being ascertained. Also Read | Haj 2022: SpiceJet to Operate 37 Special Flights Between India and Saudi Arabia for Hajj Pilgrims. The injured personnel were immediately shifted and given first aid at the District Hospital in Shopian, and thereafter evacuated to 92 Base Hospital, Srinagar. Meanwhile, the affected area has been cordoned and all the likely escape routes sealed, a search to nab the terrorists is in progress. "A #blast took place inside a private hired vehicle at Sedow, #Shopian. 03 soldiers injured & shifted to Hospital. Nature & source (blast due to grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or malfunctioning of battery) of blast being investigated & will be shared: IGP Kashmir," Kashmir Zone police had tweeted early this morning. Prior to this, there have been a number of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir recently. On Tuesday, a Hindu school teacher Rajni Bala was fired at by terrorists in the Kulgam district of the Kashmir region. The incident took place at the High School Gopalpora area of Kulgam. She was taken to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The incident took place days after Kashmiri TV actor Amreen Bhat was killed by unidentified terrorists in Budgam's Chadoora area in Jammu and Kashmir on May 25, while her 10-year-old nephew was injured. Earlier, Rahul Bhatt, an employee of the Tehsil office in the Budgam district's Chadoora, was shot dead by terrorists in the Budgam on May 12. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kanpur, Jun 2 (PTI) President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Pathri Mata temple at Paraunkh village in Kanpur on Friday. Paraunkh is the ancestral village of the President. Also Read | Delhi CM and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal to Participate in the Partys Tiranga Latest Tweet by ANI. They will also visit Dr. B R Ambedkar Bhawan at around 2 pm, which will be followed by a visit to Milan Kendra (community centre) at 2:15 pm, according to a press statement issued by the central government on Wednesday. The Kendra is the President's ancestral house that has been donated for public use, the statement said. The duo will also attend a public function at Paraunkh village at 2:30 pm. Also Read | Sakinaka Rape-Murder Case: Mumbai Sessions Court Sentences 45-Year-Old Man to Death for Raping, Killing 32-Year-Old Woman. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, along with senior police and administration officials of the district, visited Paraunkh village on Thursday and inspected the arrangements. (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, Jun 2 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has taken up the issue of four Indian nationals detained in Senegal during delegation-level talks with Senegalese President Macky Sall at Dakar. Naidu reached Senegal on Wednesday as part of his three-nation tour. Also Read | DU Admission Row: St Stephens College Challenges Withdrawal of Its Prospectus in Delhi High Court. According to a statement issued by the Vice President Secretariat, during the talks, Naidu took up the issue of the four Indian nationals -- crew members of the ship M V Asso-6 -- who are detained in Senegal since June 2021 on drug- trafficking charges. The vice president requested the Senegalese government to expedite their trial so that, if released, they could return to their anxious families, the statement said. Also Read | Karnataka Jamia Masjid Row: Section 144 Imposed in Mandya From June 3-5 Over VHP's Call for Protest. Three MoUs were signed during the talks to further deepen the bilateral partnership in various areas, including a visa-free regime for diplomatic and official passport holders and the renewal of a cultural exchange programme for the period 2022-26. Naidu assured Senegal of India's continued commitment to support its socio-economic development. (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, June 2 (PTI) Union minister Smriti Irani on Thursday trained guns at AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asking him not to "disrespect" the investigating agencies and the high court and answer whether he considered Satyendar Jain "who used black money and grabbed 200 bighas of land" an honest man. Jain, the health minister in Kejriwal government, was arrested earlier this week by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Jain was taken on remand by the ED till June 9 on an order issued by a Delhi court. Also Read | Sakinaka Rape-Murder Case: Mumbai Sessions Court Sentences 45-Year-Old Man to Death for Raping, Killing 32-Year-Old Woman. Irani, who on Wednesday had fired off a series of questions to Kejriwal about his stance on allegations against Jain, said the country was still waiting for a reply on the matter from him. She also claimed that the Delhi high court in an earlier order had found Jain to have laundered Rs 16.39 crore through hawala operators and found him to be a partner in four shell companies. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Undertrial Dies in Meerut Hospital After Being Taken from Jail in Semi-Conscious State. The Delhi High Court in a ruling in May 2017 had said there was nothing wrong with the Income Tax department's order under the new benami law to provisionally attach some assets allegedly linked to Satyender Jain. "I urge you to tell the people of the country - why have you maintained silence over this High Court order? You had told the country that you saw all papers then why have you not commented on Delhi High Court order?" she said. Kejriwal in a media briefing earlier in the day said that he failed to understand the politics behind arrest of Jain, adding that some people claimed it was due to upcoming Himachal Pradesh polls and a revenge for AAP's massive victory in Punjab Assembly elections. Irani asked Kejriwal on what grounds he gave Jain a clean chit. "Now he says he fails to understand anything but when he gave a clean chit to Satyendar Jain, what did he understand' about him that he found him clean? she said. "Kejriwal ji you repeatedly charge investigating agencies. Do you want investigating agencies to overlook this Delhi High Court order? she said. The BJP leader also said that Jain bought 200 bigha land around unauthorised colonies and then regularised those colonies as urban development minister. "The country eagerly awaits your answers. Do not disrespect country's investigative agencies and Delhi High Court, she said, and asked Kejriwal if he still considered Jain an honest man. Kejriwal had earlier said that he knew the law and had studied cases against Jain terming them "bogus". (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, Jun 2 (PTI) Airtel Payments Bank on Thursday said it has partnered with Muthoot Finance to offer gold loans through Airtel Thanks app. There will be no-processing charge on the loan and Muthoot Finance will provide up to 75 per cent of the pledged gold value as a loan, the payments bank said. Also Read | Asus ROG Phone 6 Launch Set for July 5, 2022; Expected Features & Specifications. "Gold Loans are secured loans that can be availed to cater to a variety of needs, from personal to professional. We are delighted to partner with Muthoot Finance to offer easy access to Gold Loans through Airtel Thanks App," Airtel Payments Bank chief operating officer Ganesh Ananthanarayanan said in a statement. The loan facility will also be available at the 5 lakh banking points for Airtel Payments Bank, it added. Also Read | Instagram Rolls Out AMBER Alerts To Help Find Missing Children. "The partnership will give access to secured and affordable credit to customers looking for quick liquidity against their gold assets. We are happy to serve an extensive range of customers across various geographies and ticket sizes," Muthoot Finance joint managing director Alexander George Muthoot said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Shimla, Jun 2 (PTI) Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat on Thursday said here that Himachal Pradesh farmers, who adopted natural farming, would shortly be sent as 'master trainers' to educate agriculturists in other states. Addressing 'Prakritik Kheti Utkrisht Kisan Sammelan' held by Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana ((PK3Y), Acharya Devvrat said Himachal Pradesh has taken the lead in the entire country in natural farming and lauded its model of natural farming. Also Read | Asus ROG Phone 6 Launch Set for July 5, 2022; Expected Features & Specifications. Acharya Devvrat, former Himachal Pradesh governor, further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that natural farming will be promoted in the entire country. For this, the farmers of Himachal Pradesh will be prepared as resource persons for training farmers in other states. The governor asked the PK3Y officials to devise a course for such farmers who would go out of state as 'master trainers' so that they know each and every detail of the technique. Also Read | Instagram Rolls Out AMBER Alerts To Help Find Missing Children. Acharya Devvrat appreciated Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Agriculture minister Virendra Kanwar and other officers associated with natural farming in the state. "I had started the campaign for natural farming and had motivated farmers when I was governor here. When I left the state to take over as Governor of Gujarat, 50,000 farmers were in natural farming. After that, more than 1.20 lakh more farmers have taken up this technique in the state, which is very good progress," he said. Acharya Devvrat said chemical farming is responsible for global warming to the extent of 24 per cent. "If we adopt the chemical-free technique of natural farming, it will help preserve the environment and agriculture for future generations. It will also check various diseases, whose incidence if increasing due to the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides," he said. The Gujarat governor said the demand for natural produce has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic and people are now aware of the value of nutrition-rich chemical-free food. Acharya Devvrat also said the time has come when the farmers of Himachal Pradesh should try to build up faith as 'family farmers' rather than the need of having a 'family doctor'. Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Virendra Kanwar said the state government had started the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y) with the guidance of Acharya Devvrat, who was then the Governor of Himachal Pradesh. The minister said: "We have seen good results of this Yojana in four years period and we are heading towards becoming the Chemical Free state". Secretary Agriculture Rakesh Kanwar said things were being worked out to provide a market to the farmers doing natural farming. Managing Director of State Marketing Board Naresh Thakur and Director Agriculture NK Dhiman, 400 farmers from the state and officers of PK3Y attended the function. Some of the farmers shared their experience in natural farming. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) England, [UK] June 2 (ANI): A new study shows that aerial acrobatics are not limited to albatrosses when it comes to dynamic soaring on the open ocean. The study discovered that elegant seabirds known as Manx shearwaters execute the same feat of flight in UK oceans. The study has been published in the journal, "Science Advances" Also Read | Platinum Jubilee Live Streaming: Watch the Queens Birthday Parade From Buckingham Palace As British Monarch Celebrates Platinum Jubilee. Albatross glide in a corkscrew motion to harvest energy from the wind gradient over the ocean surface, where the wind gets faster with height. This method of harvesting wind energy to conserve effort is called dynamic soaring and explains how albatrosses can travel thousands of miles across the oceans whilst barely flapping their wings. Using bird-borne video cameras and GPS loggers, researchers from the Department of Biology, University of Oxford have shown that Manx shearwater also uses dynamic soaring. The key difference is that by flapping their wings for part of the cycle, shearwaters can perform the same feat of flight in weaker winds. Also Read | JEE Main 2022: Register for JEE Main Session 2 at jeemain.nta.nic.in; Know Steps To Apply. The weaving and undulating flight characteristic of dynamic soaring were first described scientifically in 1883 and was noticed nearly 400 years earlier by Leonardo da Vinci. It has, however, remained a remarkably difficult phenomenon to prove. 'Demonstrating experimentally that a bird harvests energy from the wind shear gradient is very difficult, particularly in flap-gliding birds like the shearwater,' said James Kempton, co-lead author of the study, 'so we developed a new way of calculating energy harvesting by modelling the shape of their flight trajectories in relation to the wind.' The researchers analysed video footage recorded from the backs of shearwaters skimming at speed over the Irish sea. By using this to compute the birds' weaving and undulating motion relative to the wind, the research team were able to establish when the shearwaters were using dynamic soaring to harvest energy from the wind rather than expending their own energy. GPS loggers provided behavioural data from over 200 birds on their preferred direction of travel in different wind conditions. Analysis of these GPS data revealed that not only could shearwaters employ dynamic soaring to harvest energy from the wind like the albatross; but they also actively chose conditions that provided an opportunity to work smarter not harder. 'When the winds are stronger, shearwaters actively travel in a direction that uses those winds to the greatest energetic advantage,' said Dr Joe Wynn, co-first author of the paper. 'However, we only see this on the outbound flight to feed and not when the birds need to return to the colony regardless of the prevailing winds.' Unlike earlier approaches to analysing dynamic soaring, the approach developed by the authors could be applied to a variety of species, even birds not traditionally associated with dynamic soaring such as gulls and falcons that may be using the same flight technique less conspicuously. 'Our results show there are energetic savings to be made by weaving through even quite weak winds, as long as you're willing to put in a bit of effort to get a big payback,' said senior author Professor Graham Taylor. 'The fact Manx shearwater do this suggests that small drones could pull the same trick to extend their flight range and duration when patrolling UK coastal waters.' (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Phnom Penh [Cambodia], June 2 (ANI/Xinhua): Cambodia attracted a total of 241,485 international visitors in the first four months of this year, up 191 per cent from the same period last year, said the latest report released by the Ministry of Tourism on Thursday. Some 131,864 or 54.6 per cent of the tourists arrived in the Southeast Asian country by air during the January-April period, up 244 per cent year-on-year, the report said, adding that neighbouring Vietnam topped the chart of the international tourist arrivals to the kingdom, followed by Thailand and China. Also Read | Juneteenth 2022: Know Date, History, Significance - Everything To Know About the Day That Celebrates the End of Slavery in the United States. Kong Sopheareak, director of the tourism ministry's statistics department, attributed the significant rise to the country's full reopening buoyed by high vaccination rates. "With our quarantine free policy, we're confident that tourists will consider Cambodia as a key destination for their vacations and we hope to attract between 800,000 and 1 million international tourists in 2022, an expected increase from only 200,000 in 2021," he told Xinhua. Also Read | Earthquake in China: 4 Dead, 41 Injured After Quake of Magnitude 6.1 Hits Sichuan Province. Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting the kingdom's economy. In the pre-pandemic era, the country attracted up to 6.6 million international tourists in 2019, generating gross revenue of 4.92 billion U.S. dollars, according to the tourism ministry. Cambodia has fully resumed its social and economic activities and reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers without quarantine since November last year after most of its 16 million population had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Most of the COVID-19 vaccines used in Cambodia's immunization programs have been China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines. According to the Ministry of Health, Cambodia has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 for the past 26 days, and currently, only three active cases remain in the country. (ANI/Xinhua) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kyiv, Jun 2 (AP) A regional governor on Thursday said an estimated 800 people are holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in Sievierodonetsk, the latest epicenter of Russia's war on Ukraine. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told CNN children are among those taking shelter at the Azot factory, the largest chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. Also Read | Startup Layoffs: Over 20K Employees Lose Jobs Globally, India And US Top List. Russian forces attacked the factory again Thursday, damaging an administrative building and warehouse storing methanol. Only a small quantity of chemicals remains at the factory, according to Haidai. While Russian forces have taken control of much of the city, the industrial zone remains in Ukrainian hands, he added. Also Read | United Nations Approves Turkeys Request To Change Name to Turkiye. He dismissed potential comparison between the Azov situation and a steel mill at the port city of Mariupol, where civilians and Ukrainian fighters were holed up for weeks, under Russian attack. Russian forces entered Sievierodonetsk, the largest city Ukraine holds in the eastern Luhansk region, after weeks of shelling as they try to take full control of the industrial Donbas region.(AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Islamabad [Pakistan], June 2 (ANI): Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan in another controversial statement said that if the country's establishment does not make right decisions, the country could split into three parts and also lose its nuclear deterrent capabilities. The ousted PM made these remarks in an interview with a private television channel. Also Read | Oklahoma Shooting: Four Killed at St Francis Hospital Campus Shootout in Tulsa City; Shooter Dead. The TV interviewer asked Imran Khan, "If the establishment is not with you irrespective of your popularity as was the case with Benazir Bhutto, you will not be able to come back in power. Keeping this in mind, what is your future strategy?" "The actual problem here is of Pakistan and establishment. If the establishment does not take the right decision, then I will give it to you in writing that they will be destroyed, and the armed forces will be the first ones to be devastated," he told the interviewer adding, "Pakistan will be broken in three parts". Also Read | Sri Lanka Relaxes Import Restrictions Amid Economic Crisis. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan warned that once the country's economy is destroyed, it would go in default, and the world would ask Pakistan to move towards denuclearisation -- as was done to Ukraine in the 1990s, reported The News International. He also said that Pakistan is on the brink of "self-destruction" and will go "bankrupt." Reacting to the former premier's comments, former president Asif Ali Zardari slammed Khan and said that no Pakistani could talk of tearing this country apart. "This language is not of a Pakistani but of Modi. Imran Khan's power is not everything in the world, be brave and learn to stand on your feet and do politics now," he said. Zardari directed the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) workers to protest the remarks of Imran Khan throughout the country. The PPP coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry said that having lost power, Imran Khan has started talking about the country breaking up and losing nuclear assets. "We want the Supreme Court to answer whether or not we have the fundamental right to hold a peaceful protest. We will announce the date for our next long march as soon as the apex court rules on the petition," he told a social media conference in the provincial capital, as per the media portal. This comes in the context of the federal as well as Punjab governments resorting to the use of force against the participants of the Imran Khan's so-called Azadi March on May 25 to protest the "corrupt and imported" Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Dakar (Senegal), Jun 2 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday held wide-ranging talks with Senegalese President Macky Sall during which the two countries agreed to further strengthen cooperation in sectors like defence, agriculture, railways, health and energy. Naidu, who arrived here on Wednesday on the second leg of his three-nation tour of Gabon, Senegal and Qatar, assured Senegal of India's continued commitment to support its socio-economic development through "all possible means", the Vice-President's Secretariat tweeted. Also Read | Startup Layoffs: Over 20K Employees Lose Jobs Globally, India And US Top List. "Vice President @MVenkaiahNaidu and President @Macky_Sall of Senegal held tete-a-tete followed by delegation level talks in Dakar today. Reviewed the progress in our ties & agreed to further strengthen cooperation in agriculture, health, defence, railways, energy, culture, etc," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted. As part of the Vice President's ongoing visit to Africa, India and Senegal signed three MoUs pertaining to visa-free travel for officials, cooperation in youth matters and cultural exchange. Also Read | United Nations Approves Turkeys Request To Change Name to Turkiye. The MoUs were signed and exchanged by Minister of State for Health, Dr Bharati Pawar and Senegalese Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall in the Senegalese capital city of Dakar. Earlier, the Vice President did a morning walk on the Atlantic coast in the capital city. "Had a refreshing morning walk on the Atlantic coast in the beautiful city of Dakar in Senegal today. People of Senegal are warm and affectionate. There is great potential to take forward India-Senegal ties," the Vice-President's Secretariat tweeted. Later in the day, the Vice President and his wife Usha Naidu paid floral tributes to the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the African Renaissance Monument here. Naidu also visited the Monument of African Renaissance, a monumental structure of 52 metres in bronze and copper which symbolises the dignity of the African continent' and its vision of a better future. He visited the Museum of Black Civilizations, a repository of African art, culture and history and aims to highlight Africa's cultural and scientific contributions to the world. The Vice President visited an international art exhibition, 'Dakar Biennale 2022' that showcased contemporary African art and creativity. While Naidu's visit is the first by any Indian vice president to all three countries, it marks the first-ever high-level visit from India to Gabon and Senegal. India and Senegal are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. His visit is expected to add momentum to India's engagement with Africa and emphasise New Delhi's commitment to the African continent, the Vice-President's Secretariat said in a statement ahead of his departure. The last leg of the tour will be the visit to Qatar from June 4 to June 7. (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], June 2 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met visiting Defence Minister of Israel Benjamin Gantz and discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries and contribute to global stability. This visit comes as 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the official diplomatic ties between India and Israel. Also Read | Startup Layoffs: Over 20K Employees Lose Jobs Globally, India And US Top List. Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Prime Minister Modi: "We have a great opportunity to deepen defense cooperation between our countries and to build on our shared values in order to contribute to global stability." During his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Minister Gantz emphasized the opportunity to invest further in defense cooperation between the two countries, while building on shared values in order to contribute to global stability. Also Read | United Nations Approves Turkeys Request To Change Name to Turkiye. "India is an industrial superpower and Israel is a technological superpower - cooperation between our countries will expand the capabilities of both countries to contend with developing challenges," said Gantz. Earlier today, Minister Gantz met with Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. A wide range of issues concerning bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation were discussed during the meeting. Rajnath Singh and Gantz reviewed the existing military-to-military activities which have increased despite the challenges due to COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed ways to increase cooperation in all domains with a focus on Research & Development in future technologies and defence co-production. Both the Ministers acknowledged mutual security challenges and their convergences on a number of strategic and defence issues. They expressed commitment to work together to enhance cooperation in all forums. With the intention to further strengthen the existing framework of the Indo-Israeli defence cooperation architecture, both sides adopted the India-Israel Vision on Defence Cooperation. A Letter of Intent on enhancing cooperation in the field of Futuristic Defence Technologies was also exchanged between the two Ministers. Earlier in the day, the Defence Minister of Israel visited the National War Memorial and paid homage to the fallen heroes by laying a wreath at the monument. He was accorded a Ceremonial Guard of Honour before his bilateral meeting with Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh. The visiting dignitary reached New Delhi on the morning of Thursday on an official visit to India. It was his first visit to India with an aim to strengthen the defence ties between the two countries. Defence cooperation has been one of the significant pillars of bilateral cooperation. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kathmandu, Jun 2 (PTI) The last rites of the four members of an Indian family, who were killed along with 18 others in the Tara Air plane crash in Nepal's mountainous Mustang district, were performed on Thursday on the banks of Bagmati river near Pashupatinath temple here. The bodies were brought to Aryaghat Cremation Centre at Pashupatinath Temple premises on the banks of Bagmati River on Thursday morning. It took two days to complete the post-mortem of the 22 bodies of those killed in the plane crash on Sunday. Also Read | United Nations Approves Turkeys Request To Change Name to Turkiye. The Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew when it crashed minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. Businessman Ashok Kumar Tripathi (54) and his Thane-based estranged wife Vaibhavi Bandekar Tripathi (51) were on a reunion trip to the Himalayan country along with their son Dhanush (22) and daughter Ritika (15) when the tragedy struck. Also Read | Juneteenth 2022: Know Date, History, Significance - Everything To Know About the Day That Celebrates the End of Slavery in the United States. Tripathi's elder brother and wife were among the relatives who were present when the last rites of the four members of the family were performed at the electric crematorium near the revered Hindu temple. The bodies of 13 other passengers and three crew members were cremated through traditional means by burning. There was a big crowd at the Pashupatinath Temple to see the cremation. The Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, situated along the banks of the Bagmati River, is one of the most important Hindu temples in Nepal. The postmortem of all the bodies were completed on Thursday morning only. Ten of the bodies were intact and 12 others were deformed. according to sources at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj. Rescuers on Monday recovered 21 bodies from the wreckage site of the plane belonging to Tara Air. On Tuesday, the last body was also retrieved from the wreckage site. The Nepal government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to find out the cause of the Tara Air plane crash. According to a preliminary investigation carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), bad weather was the reason behind the crash of the plane. The black box of the plane was also retrieved by a team of experienced international and national mountain guides from the crash site on Tuesday. The black box, also known as the cockpit voice recorder, records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots, and engine noises. It could offer vital clues about the crash in which all 22 people on board were killed. (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], June 2 (ANI): US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting incident at a hospital campus in Oklahoma's Tulsa city, the White House said, adding that it is "closely monitoring the situation" In a statement on Wednesday (local time), the White House said that it is also reaching out to state and local officials to offer support. Also Read | Sri Lanka Relaxes Import Restrictions Amid Economic Crisis. Four people including the shooter were killed in a shooting incident at a hospital campus today. "We can confirm 4 people are deceased, including the shooter, in the active shooting situation at St. Francis hospital campus," Tulsa Police said in a statement on Wednesday. Also Read | Russia Warns of Risk of Direct Conflict With United States. Authorities responded to a call about a man who was armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, according to an earlier Facebook post from the Tulsa Police Department, CNN reported. The shootout incidents in the US have been increasing. On Tuesday (local time), an elderly woman was killed and two other persons were injured after gunfire erupted at a high school graduation ceremony in New Orleans. Prior to that, a mass shooting incident took place last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas in which several people including 19 children were killed. Notably, US President Joe Biden yesterday sought advice from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over tackling violence in the United States as shooting incidents in America have been increasing in recent days. Biden referred to the 2019 Christchurch slaying of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims. The incident prompted New Zealand to ban military-style rifles. A gun buy-back was also instituted. "We need your guidance," Biden said during the meeting with Arden in the Oval Office. "Your leadership has taken on a critical role in this global stage -- and it really has -- galvanizing action on climate change, the global effort to curb violence, extremism, and online, like happened in Christchurch," 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) The French film Notre-Dame On Fire, which is based on the Notre-Dame cathedral fire, is heading to India for a theatrical release. The film, which has been directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud, will debut in Indian theatres on June 24. The film is a PVR Pictures release. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris Goes up in Flames, Know the History And Facts of Famous French Tourist Attraction. On bringing the film to Indian screens, Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures Ltd. said in a statement, "PVR Pictures has always put faith in powerful stories, and Notre-Dame On Fire is one such soul stirring tale. Audiences will be gripped by the movie's thrilling re-enactment of the event, while also being moved by its core message of humanity and courage." Commenting on the Indian film industry's stellar show at the 75th Cannes Film Festival where India was the Country of Honour, he added, "It was a matter of time before India took over not just Cannes but international platforms as a whole. In the digital era we live in, audiences are aware of all kinds of cinema, so it is natural for our films to find global footing and global films to find love in India." Notre Dame Cathedral Fire: Millions of Euros Pledged to Rebuild the 850-Year-Old UNESCO World Heritage. Laced with Jean-Jacques Annaud's rich storytelling, the film, which stars Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes and Mickael Chirinian, is being lauded around the world for presenting a tense visual spectacle. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2022 04:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Vikram, written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, is just a day away from its theatrical release. It is one of the most-anticipated movie releases of the year as it features the finest actors together Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil. It is the first time that the trio would be sharing screen space and fans are extremely thrilled about to watch them together on the big screen. Ace composer Anirudh Ravichander has composed the films music. Vikram: Lokesh Kanagaraj Shares Suriyas Intense First Look Poster From Kamal Haasans Actioner. Vikram is produced under the banner of Raaj Kamal Films International. Ahead of this action thrillers release, lets take a look at some of the key details of this Tamil movie. Cast The film stars Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil in the lead. Narain, Antony Varghese, Gayathrie Shankar, Arjun Das, Chemban Vinod Jose among other would be seen in key roles. Suriya too would be making a cameo appearance. Plot Haasan, who is playing the titular role, is seen essaying the role of a retired police official. Vikram is assigned to save the life of a high ranking government official who has been kidnapped by two siblings, in which one is a gangster and the other a politician. How Vikram manages to accomplish this mission forms the rest of the story. Watch The Trailer Of Vikram Below: Release Date The action thriller Vikram is hitting the big screens tomorrow, June 3. Reviews Vikram reviews are out. Click here to read what Sreeju Sudhakaran of LatestLY has to say on Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil's film. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2022 09:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). PLA holds three combat drills around Taiwan in one month amid US-Taiwan military collusion By Liu Xuanzun and Liu Caiyu (Global Times) 15:53, June 02, 2022 Fighter jets attached to an air force aviation brigade under the PLA Southern Theater Command taxi on the runway before taking off in the real-combat flight training on May 11, 2022. Photo:China Military The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday announced the third large-scale military exercise around the island of Taiwan in the past 30 days targeting US-Taiwan collusion, seeing US Senator Tammy Duckworth off as she was leaving Taiwan following her three-day visit, in which the island's regional leader Tsai Ing-wen said that a cooperation plan between the US National Guard and Taiwan's armed forces was in the works. It is important for the PLA to enhance concrete combat preparedness in addition to sending just warnings, as the US National Guard's cooperation with Taiwan's armed forces could enhance the latter's urban warfare capability, which marks a further secessionist attempt of resisting reunification by force, according to Chinese mainland experts. In a necessary action taken in response to US-Taiwan collusion, the PLA Eastern Theater Command recently organized a multi-service joint combat readiness patrol in and above waters around the island of Taiwan, announced Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, in a statement on Wednesday. This is also the third large-scale military exercise officially announced by the PLA Eastern Theater Command over the past 30 days. A joint exercise surrounding the island of Taiwan from its east and southwest was announced on May 9, and a joint alert patrol plus realistic combat drill in and above the waters around the island was announced on May 25. The US has been recently making frequent moves on the Taiwan question, saying one thing while doing another, openly or secretly encouraging and supporting the "Taiwan independence" force. Such moves will put Taiwan in a dangerous position, and bring serious consequences on itself, Shi said in the latest statement. Taiwan is a part of China, Shi said, noting that troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command will continue to strengthen training and combat preparedness, improve their ability to fulfill their missions, in order to resolutely thwart any external interference and separatist attempts for "Taiwan independence." Shi's remarks came after Tsai said that the US Department of Defense is proactively planning cooperation between the US National Guard and Taiwan's armed forces when she met with Duckworth on Tuesday, but no details were given about the cooperation, Reuters reported. Duckworth was on a surprise three-day visit to Taiwan from Monday to Wednesday. When Duckworth arrived on the island of Taiwan on Monday, the PLA "greeted her" by sending at least 30 warplanes of nine different typesto the vicinity of the island, marking the second largest PLA aircraft activity in 2022, according to information released by the defense authority on the island. Observers said that another round of drills announced by the PLA on Wednesday "saw Duckworth off." Now that official exchanges between the US and the island of Taiwan have become frequent, what the PLA is doing is not about just warning, but also about preparing for a military conflict, which now seems a real possibility when the US-Taiwan collusion is becoming deeper and deeper and could one day break the bottom line, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday. The US National Guard is a US domestic armed force that deals with emergency public incident like anti-terrorism, so the focus of the cooperation between the US National Guard and Taiwan's armed forces could be urban warfare, as the US wants to enable the island of Taiwan to drag the PLA into a war of attrition using urban warfare when the PLA lands on the island, Song said. This type of cooperation not only is a new "salami-slicing" tactic, but also shows the US armed forces, both the main forces and the reserves, are now cooperating with Taiwan's armed forces to help them resist reunification by force, which sends a wrong signal that the US supports "Taiwan independence," deviating from the one-China principle, Song said. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi on Tuesday again hyped the recent drills by the aircraft carrier the Liaoning of the PLA Navy east to the island of Taiwan and south to Japan, saying that Japan pays close attention with concern. Both Japan and the US are eyeing plans to interfere with the Taiwan question by military means, so the PLA will conduct more trainings with worst-case scenarios as pretext, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Wednesday. The PLA has recently held three large-scale drills, with official announcements specifically highlighting the island of Taiwan, which is rare in recent years, the expert said. The secessionists and external interference forces should not underestimate the determination and the capability of the PLA in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, experts said. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) 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 Mumbai, June 2: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) will announce the West Bengal Madhyamik Result 2022 or Class 10 final examination result 2022 tomorrow, June 3. According to reports, the results will be announced on the official website of the board at 9 am. Once declared, the West Bengal Madhyamik result will be available on the official website of the West Bengal board at wbbse.wb.gov.in. It must be noted that the link to download mark sheets will be available soon after the results are declared on the board website. WBBSE to Maharashtra SSC: List Of States Expected To Release Class 10th, 12th Exam Result In June. Steps to check WB Madhyamik Result 2022: Visit the official website at wbbse.wb.gov.in Once announced, the result link will be available on the homepage Click on the result link Enter roll number and date of birth Submit and check your result Take a printout for future reference This year, the West Bengal Madhyamik examinations were held from March 7 to 16. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the WBBSE had not conducted the Madhyamik exams in 2021. Having said that, the board had evaluated students using an alternative assessment scheme. In 2021, a total of 10,79,749 candidates had registered themselves for the Class WBBSE 10th or Madhyamik exam in which 79 students had scored 697 marks and the pass percentage was 100 percent. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2022 12:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). A constable posted in #Kanpur's Bilhaur police station was found brutally murdered. His throat had been slit and the body was found lying on the bed by another constable who went to his room. pic.twitter.com/ImzQRIGyZP IANS (@ians_india) June 2, 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.) Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday launched a mobile app to register corruption-related complaints App developed by Anti-Corruption Bureau, dedicated for people to register corruption-related complaints against the officials in the state pic.twitter.com/qNxoOgHfjy ANI (@ANI) June 2, 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.) J&K | A blast took place inside a private hired vehicle at Sedow, Shopian. 3 soldiers injured & shifted to hospital. Nature & source (blast due to grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or malfunctioning of battery) of blast being investigated & will be shared: IGP Kashmir pic.twitter.com/byzJRClzzI ANI (@ANI) June 2, 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.) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (#UNHCR) has said that it evacuated 132 vulnerable asylum-seekers from #Libya to #Rwanda. pic.twitter.com/Qj8M5bULQ5 IANS (@ians_india) June 1, 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.) Sweden to send more military aid to Ukraine, including anti-ship missiles. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on June 2 that Sweden would send the fourth package of military aid to Ukraine. The package includes anti-ship missiles, anti-tank weapons, and 12.7 mm rifles. The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 2, 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.) Asus will launch the ROG Phone 6 in the global market on July 5, 2022. The company has teased the device on the official Asus ROG Global Twitter account, revealing its launch date. Asus has revealed that the smartphone will debut in Taipei at 8 pm, Berlin at 2 pm and New York at 8 am. The device will be introduced as the successor to the ROG Phone 5 smartphone. Asus ROG Phone 6 & ROG Phone 6 Pro 2D Renders Leaked Online, Launch Expected Soon. Asus ROG Phone 6 is likely to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. Following Asus, Nubia and Black Shark will also launch their smartphones. Asus ROG Phone 6 is expected to come with a faster-charging technology, an improved camera setup and a better cooling system. Tune in to the ROG Phone 6: For Those Who Dare virtual launch event to discover everything about this new gaming marvel! What else to watch out for in this event New accessories New gaming headphones Save the datehttps://t.co/VXqYzkLZX3#ROGPHONE6 #ForThoseWhoDare pic.twitter.com/i4Br2K5Edp ROG Global (@ASUS_ROG) June 1, 2022 Earlier this year, a tipster had shared the 2D renders of the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro. The renders reveal the back side of both smartphones, a horizontally placed triple rear camera setup. The renders also showcase a secondary display at the back. Apart from this, nothing more is known. We expect the company to release a few teasers before its launch. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2022 05:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Johnny Depp scores a big legal win against his ex-wife Amber heard after the jury on Wednesday awarded more damages to the actor. According to CBS News, the jury found Amber Heard liable for defaming Johnny Depp in the 2018 op-ed she wrote for Washington Post. However, Depp was also found liable for defaming the actress, through a statement made by his legal counsel, calling her claims a "hoax." The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and another $5 million in punitive damages, per a CNN news report. However, Judge Penney Azcarate pointed out on Wednesday that the state of Virginia caps the punitive damages at $350,000, making Depp's total award amounting to $10.35 million. Meanwhile, Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages and no money for punitive damages. According to reports, the jury notified Judge Azcarate that they reached the verdict on Wednesday afternoon, but the reading of the decision was delayed so they could fill in the number of monetary awards on the jury form. READ NEXT: Amber Heard Dating History With Elon Musk: How Long Were They Together? Johnny Depp and Amber Heard React on the Verdict of their Defamation trial Both camps on Wednesday expressed what they feel about the verdict vested by the jury. Johnny Depp thanked the court and its staff for their effort. The actor also expressed his gratitude to his legal team for doing their job in helping him share the "truth," per EW. "I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that," Depp underscored. Depp went on to say that the goal of his defamation case from the beginning was to expose the truth which he owes to his children and to those who remained supporting him. Depp's attorneys also expressed their gratitude to the jury. "We are grateful, so grateful, to the jury for their careful deliberation, to the judge and the court staff who have devoted an enormous amount of time and resources towards this case," Attorney Camille Vasquez said. Meanwhile, Amber Heard tweeted her statement following the verdict, claiming that she was beyond "disappointed and heartbroken that the evidence they have presented was "still not enough" to sway the power and influence of her ex-husband. "I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback," Heard underscored. She went on to say that the verdict from the jury was a setback to the idea that violence against women "is to be taken seriously." The "Aquaman" star then noted that she is sad to lose the case, but emphasized that she is sadder that she lost the rights she thought she had as an American. David Shane, Heard's spokesman, said that the actress plans to appeal the verdict of the jury. Amber Heard Net Worth: Options Available for the Actress in Paying Johnny Depp Amber Heard's net worth is unclear, but reports claimed that she earned millions for her works in television and film such as "Aquaman." The actress also received a $7 million settlement from Depp after their divorce in 2016, which she promised to donate to American Civil Liberties Union, but has not been fulfilled as of date. Reports claimed that Heard's career was affected amid her legal battle with Depp. Attorney Sandra Spurgeon told CBS MoneyWatch that there are several methods for Heard to settle her payment with Depp. One is appealing to the judge about the verdict in hopes to reduce the payment. Legal experts also claimed that her current and future wages can be garnished. She can also file for bankruptcy so that the $10 million would be eliminated. However, Spurgeon noted that she still has to pay the $350,000. The legal expert also noted that Johnny Depp could decide not to execute the judgement and waive the monetary damages awarded to him. READ NEXT: Johnny Depp Invites Kate Moss to His Rock Concert With Jeff Beck Days After She Testified in His Defamation Trial Against Amber Heard This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: What Does the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Verdict Mean? - From Inside Edition Tesla CEO Elon Musk has released an order to staff to return to the office full-time, announcing that working remotely is no longer acceptable. BBC News reported that the new policy was shared in emails that were leaked to social media. Tesla did not address the issue, while Musk tweeted on social media platform Twitter that people who are unwilling to follow the new rules can "pretend to work somewhere else." Musk reportedly wrote in one of the meals that everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. He added that employees who failed to show up will be assumed that they have resigned. Musk noted that he would personally review any requests for exemptions from the policy. The billionaire said that working in the office full-time was what the company asks of its factory employees, adding that in-person collaboration was much needed for the firm's success. Musk said in an email that there are companies that do not require employees to return to the office. However, he added that it has been a while since they shipped a "great new product." READ NEXT: Starlink in Brazil: Elon Musk Announces Major Move to Help 19,000 Schools, Protect Amazon Elon Musk to Tesla Workers One Tesla worker who spoke to Washington Post noted that some groups of employees are still seen to continue to be exempted from returning to the office. Two Tesla workers said at the time that they received termination notices claiming that they had failed to return to work after they chose to take unpaid leave in May 2020. Musk's companies are known for rigid, process-based workplaces, with the entrepreneur pushing back against shelter-in-place orders in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, his company told employees they could stay at home if they felt uneasy. Musk called on the managers to get back to the office 40 hours a week in his email to Tesla executives. He noted that it is "less than we ask of factory workers." Return-To-Office Companies About 50 percent of industry leaders say their company already requires or is planning to require employees to return to in-person work full-time next year, according to a CNBC News report. New research from Microsoft noted that 52 percent of workers said they are thinking of switching to a full-time remote or hybrid job in 2022. Elise Freedman, a workforce transformation practice leader at Korn Ferry, said that a lot of business leaders have told her that they do not believe in hybrid work, adding that it has no place in their culture. Freedman added that companies who want a full return of their employees to the office could face serious consequences once employees do not get the kind of flexibility they are asking for. She noted that workers will just leave. The workforce practice leader said that companies need to think through what exactly they want to accomplish by bringing people back and being transparent with their employees. READ MORE: Twitter Net Worth 2022: How Much Is Twitter Valued After Elon Musk Made $43 Billion Offer? This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Elon Musk tells Tesla staff to return to the office or leave company, Bloomberg reports - from CNBC Television President Joe Biden on Wednesday admitted that there is no immediate fix on the record high prices of food and gas across the United States. Biden made his statement during a White House event with the manufacturers of baby formulas on Wednesday, according to New York Post. "There's a lot going on right now. But the idea we're going to be able to click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline, is not likely in the near term, nor is it with regard to food," the president said in the event, per the Daily Mail. Biden furthered that his administration cannot take immediate action using the methods that he knew to bring back the gas prices to $3 per gallon. The president also noted that the same issue is also concerning the food prices. Biden then blamed the current record-high prices of gas and food for the war in Ukraine. He cited that the United States is also having a hard time exporting wheat overseas due to the war. The president then noted that the delay in exporting wheat to the global market cost so much money to food shortages globally. Biden then suggested how Americans can adapt to the high food and gas prices through compensation. "You can compensate, for example, by having drug prices drop significantly, or an impact on childcare... The bottom line is the bottom line, how much it costs you to maintain your household and your standard of living," President Joe Biden emphasized. The programs the president cited were reportedly a part of his $2 trillion Build Back Better plan, which was shot down by centrists in his party late last year. READ NEXT: Florida: Gas Prices Cause More Headache With Record-High Surge President Joe Biden on U.S. Gas Prices President Joe Biden last week gushed over the gas prices in the U.S., calling it an "incredible transition" from being dependent on fossil fuels. The chief executive claimed during that time that when the record high gas prices were over, Americans and the world will become stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels. Despite that, the president acknowledged that the high gas prices in the U.S. will affect many families. Biden then pointed out that his administration is doing everything to keep the gas prices away from getting worse. U.S. Gas Prices Biden made his latest comment on U.S. gas prices the same day the Automobile Association of America (AAA) reported that the current national average of regular gas is $4.67, per CNN. The current general average is reportedly 48 cents higher than the past month. The state of Illinois is the latest state to join the seven areas that have an average of $5 per gallon of regular gas. Georgia has the lowest average, amounting to $4.16 Meanwhile, California stays within the $6 average threshold, with a gallon averaging $6.19 per gallon as of Wednesday. READ NEXT: 'Remove Amber Heard From Aquaman 2' Petition Nears 4.5 Million Signatures After Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Case This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Gas Prices Hit New Record High | Morning in America - From NewsNation Sheryl Sandberg is about to step down as Meta Chief Operating Officer after 14 years in the position. Meta is Facebook's parent company. USA Today News noted that Sandberg said in a statement that she will continue to serve on Meta's board of directors and focus on her foundation and philanthropic work. The Meta COO will officially leave the company this fall. She said that she is immensely proud of everything the team has achieved. Meta's chief growth officer, Javier Olivan, will become the chief operating officer when Sandberg departs her position. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a separate Facebook post. Zuckerberg said that Sandberg has created opportunities for millions of people around the world, adding that she deserved the credit for "so much of what Meta is today." READ NEXT: Facebook Takes Down New Mexico Civil Guard Account, but Prosecutors Want Social Media Giant to Hand Over Militia Group's Info Sheryl Sandberg's Meta COO Stint Mark Zuckerberg said that he has hired Sandberg as she has just "about the most relevant industry experience for Facebook." Sandberg said at the time that the opportunity to help another young company to prosper into a global leader "is the opportunity of a lifetime." Sandberg said in an interview that she had expected to be at the company only for roughly five years rather than the 14 she has served. New York Times reported that she would marry Tom Bernthal, a television producer, this summer and focus on her personal philanthropy and foundation, Lean In. Sandberg's decision to leave Meta was her own, informing the Meta CEO in a phone call over the weekend, according to two of her employees. Zuckerberg said that it was "unusual" for a business partner such as Sandberg to last so long. Sandberg developed its advertising business and was regarded as the "adult in the room" after joining Facebook. She also helped create some of Facebook's advertising formats for desktop computers, before she successfully built its mobile advertising strategy. Facebook generated revenue worth $153 million in 2007 before Sandberg joined. In 2016, it garnered $27.6 billion in revenue. Sandberg also faced intense criticism after the 2016 presidential election being responsible for the police and security team at the company. Sheryl Sandberg Sheryl Sandberg started her career as chief of staff to former U.S. Secretary Larry Summers, according to a Forbes report. She earned her bachelor's degree at Harvard University and her Master of Business Administration in Harvard Business School. Sandberg helped increased Facebook's ad revenue by 21 percent during 2020 when she positioned the platform for business advertising. Forbes noted that she has a real-time net worth of $1.6 billion. Sandberg also started an organization for women to form their own Lean-In groups where they worked. She has been a vocal advocate for women in tech and is considered to be one of the highest-ranking and most powerful women in Silicon Valley. She also wrote a book entitled "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead," in 2013. Washington Postr eported it became a bestseller. Zuckerberg noted that Sandberg has taught him how to run a company. READ MORE: Facebook Allegedly Still Harvesting Teen Users Data for Ads Targeting Despite Company's Claims It Stopped the Practice This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg leaving company in the fall - from CNBC Television Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a leader of now-defunct Colombia's Cali cartel, has died in a U.S. prison, according to his lawyer. According to Associated Press, the Cali cartel was known to have smuggled massive amounts of cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. Rodriguez Orejuela's lawyer David O. Markus earlier said that the former drug kingpin was suffering from various health problems. In 2020, a judge denied the Cali cartel leader, who was in his 80s, early release on compassionate grounds from a prison in Butner, North Carolina. Markus said on Wednesday that they were "very sad to learn" about Rodriguez Orejuela's passing "last night," and has offered thoughts and prayers for the elderly cartel leader's family. Markus noted that "God has a new chess partner," referring to the drug cartel leader's nickname "the chess player," which he earned for outsmarting his enemies and rivals. Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother Miguel were captured in 1995 and imprisoned in Colombia. At the time, Colombian law prohibited the extradition of its nationals. However, Colombia lifted the ban in 1997 after mounting pressure from the U.S. The two, who were found to have been continuing to traffic from prison, were criminally charged in Miami and New York. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was extradited in 2004, while Miguel was extradited the following year. READ NEXT: Colombia Seizes 10 Tons of Cocaine Worth Over $300 Million, the Largest Drug Bust This Year The Capture of Cali Cartel Leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela The Cali cartel leader and four bodyguards were captured in a raid on a luxurious house in the southern city of Cali. According to New York Times, the drug kingpin was flown directly to Colombia's capital, Bogota, at the time. A helicopter had transferred them to national police headquarters. Colombia's president at the time, Ernesto Samper, announced the arrest on Colombian national radio television and proclaimed that it marked the "beginning of the end for the Cali cartel." The Drug Enforcement Agency noted that the Cali cartel provided 80 percent of the world's cocaine and increasing amounts of heroin. Lee P. Brown, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy at the time, lauded the Colombian government and people for the effort. U.S. officials were reportedly shaken by tape recordings in which the leaders of the Cali cartel were heard talking about the contributions of millions of dollars to Samper's presidential campaign. U.S. senators then sought to cut off U.S. economic aid to Colombia unless more was done to subdue the drug trafficking. Thus, Colombian authorities have begun seriously trying to catch the Cali leaders. Colombia's police then announced rewards of $1.25 million for help in capturing Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother, Miguel. Cali Cartel in Colombia The Cali cartel had been operating since the 1970s. However, their organization did not reach its peak until after Pablo Escobar's death. Business Insider reported that the Cali cartel leadership seemed to have learned from Escobar's missteps. Javier Pena, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, said they noticed that the Cali cartel learned from the Medellin cartel not to make the same type of mistakes. Pena described the Cali cartel as more business-like, while the Medellin cartel was what he would call "wild, wild west." The former DEA agent said the Cali cartel had more sophisticated accountants. The Colombian drug cartel has reportedly invested in several companies in Colombia and the U.S. while earning a level of public respect for their behavior. READ MORE: Colombia's Most-Wanted Drug Lord Dairo Antonio Usuga Arrested; Pres. Ivan Duque Likened It to Capture of Pablo Escobar This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel : Its Wealth and Power - From Luxury Drop A shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday afternoon left five people dead, including the gunman, police said. According to KETK, police received a call that there was an "active shooter" at the Natalie building of Saint Francis Hospital at around 4:52 p.m. Officers reportedly arrived at the scene after four minutes, and they heard gunshots upon arrival. Crime Online reported that police made contact with the victims and the suspect at around 5:01 p.m. Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish said the police officers were drawn to the second floor by the sound of gunshots. "We have four civilians dead, and one shooter dead. Right now, we believe that is self-inflicted," Dalgleish noted. According to police, investigators have not yet identified the gunman, but he was a Black male who is likely 35 to 40 years old. Police believed that he had used a rifle and a handgun. Tulsa Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said that "multiple people" were wounded but did not specify the number of those injured. Authorities reportedly checked every room in the Natalie building for any additional threats. Dalgleish said witnesses were interviewed before being taken to a reunification center in a nearby Tulsa high school. The motive for the deadly shooting was still unclear as of Wednesday evening. However, Meulenberg said the shooting was not random. He noted that the gunman "deliberately made a choice to come here and his actions were deliberate," the New York Times reported. READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Admits No Quick Fixes on Food and Gas' High Prices Possible Bomb Threat After Tulsa Shooting in Oklahoma Tulsa police have linked a possible bomb threat in Muskogee, about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa, to the shooting in Saint Francis Hospital. They asked police in Muskogee to investigate a home for a possible bomb. Muskogee police department spokesperson Lynn Hamlin said they went to 3325 Park Place North "in reference to a possible bomb inside," the Independent reported. "At this time, we have evacuated the house and have notified everyone in the area to stay inside their homes," Hamlin noted. Authorities reportedly cleared the bomb threat in the Muskogee neighborhood after the Oklahoma High Patrol bomb squad confirmed not finding any explosive device inside the house believed to belong to the Tulsa shooter. The White House said President Joe Biden had already been briefed about the shooting in Tulsa. "The White House is closely monitoring the situation and has reached out to state and local officials to offer support," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. Oklahoma Officials on the Tulsa Shooting Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt called the tragedy a "senseless act of violence and hatred. He said he and his wife "are praying for the families of those who lost their lives and those who were injured." Stitt noted that he had offered Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum any state resources that may be needed. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said he was heartbroken after hearing the devastating news. "We are praying for the families of the lives taken far too soon and for a full recovery for those injured today. It is hard to process the anger that motivates someone to commit such violence, especially at a place that provides care and healing," Lankford noted. The senator said he was grateful for the quick reaction of law enforcement and first responders to prevent "any further loss of life." Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum also expressed "profound gratitude" for the "broad range of first responders" who did not hesitate to respond to this act of violence. The Tulsa shooting comes just days after a shooting at a Uvalde elementary school in Texas that left 21 dead. According to Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has already reported 233 incidents of mass shootings this year, which means that about 46 shooting incidents happen each month. READ MORE: 'Remove Amber Heard From Aquaman 2' Petition Nears 4.5 Million Signatures After Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Case This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: 'It Has Happened Yet Again': Shooting At Tulsa Oklahoma Hospital Kills Four - From MSNBC An 80-year-old grandmother in Louisiana was shot dead just moments after watching her grandson walk across the stage for his high school graduation. According to Daily Mail, Augustine Greenwood was walking back to her family's car from Xavier University Convocation Center in New Orleans at around 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday when a stray bullet struck her. The university hosted the graduation ceremony for nearby Morris Jeff High School. Greenwood's family was heading out to a meal to celebrate her grandson, Corey Lashley Jr., graduation from high school when she was shot that morning. Paramedics brought the mother of six daughters and grandmother to 15 to a local hospital, but she was pronounced dead later in the afternoon. Greenwood's daughter, Geraldine Greenwood-Lashley, said her mother got hit by a stray bullet, adding that it was a senseless act that could have been avoided "if they would have just walked away." WDSU-TV reported that the family was exiting the graduation to celebrate Lashley's son when they heard about a fight between two women in the parking lot. "Some ladies... got into it. Started to fight. We started to leave, and someone started shooting," Lashley noted. Greenwood's grandson, Lashley Jr., told the outlet that it was sad that her grandmother came out to see him receive his high school diploma, and this happened. He noted that it was hard to believe that he would never see his grandmother again. But he said he would try his best to continue to make her proud. READ NEXT: 10-Year-Old Girl Shot, Killed Florida Woman With Whom Her Mom Got Into a Fight Grandmother Shot in High School Graduation in Louisiana According to Associated Press, Officer Reese Harper, a police spokesperson, said Wednesday that no one is in custody yet, and the investigation is still ongoing. On Tuesday, police said guns were found on the scene, and they were questioning multiple people. In total, three people were shot. The two unidentified men, who were shot in the shoulder and the leg, are expected to be okay. Police have confirmed that the shooting started with a fight between two women in the parking lot. New Orleans Police Department Chief Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly said two or three people had been brought in for questioning. According to reports, Greenwood got shot in the head and was in critical condition when she was brought to a hospital, where she died. In a statement, New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr. said, "this has got to stop," adding that everyone must work together to address the damage caused by access to guns and to get to the root of the anger that compels a person to harm others. Gun Violence in the U.S. According to Healthline, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the firearm homicide rate in the U.S. grew by 35 percent from 2019 to 2020. The CDC reported that there were approximately 45,222 gun-related deaths in the U.S. in 2020, or about 124 people dying from a gun-related injury each day, and counties with greater poverty levels saw the biggest increases in firearm homicides. The CDC said firearms were reportedly involved in 79 percent of all homicides and 53 percent of suicides in 2020. The CDC further noted that Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Alabama have the highest firearm mortality rates. According to Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has already reported 233 incidents of mass shootings this year, which means that about 46 shooting incidents happen each month. READ MORE: Disney Stocks Falls by 33% After Governor Ron DeSantis Revokes Special Status This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Grandmother Killed as Shots Fired After Grandson Graduates - From WWLTV Sofia Husted is so excited to be competing with the best of the best at Nationals. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PRURGENT Congratulations to Sofia Husted on being accepted to SPiN (Society Performers in Nationals) in July 2022 in Hollywood, CA. Sofia Husted, 13, hails from Corona, CA, and started with Society Performers in July 2021. She has since trained, showcased, attended workshops, and continues to work hard... and it shows! Well done, Sofia!. Keep it up. GOOD LUCK IN HOLLYWOOD! The wait for Carlow Penneys fans is almost over with news that Penneys will open its much-anticipated brand-new store in Carlow this month. At 28,000 sq. ft of fantastic shopping space, the store plans to bring an even bigger and better Penneys experience to customers. The newly relocated store, which will be situated on Kennedy Avenue in Carlow Town, will open its doors on Tuesday, June 14 at 9am. Employing over 100 people from the local area, the stores 12 million investment is the first major milestone as part of the 250 million the retailer has committed to invest in Ireland over the next ten years. Customers to the new Carlow store will find Penneys latest summer fashion trends, in addition to its great value everyday must-haves across womens, mens, kids and homewares, as well as beauty and accessories. The store will feature Penneys popular licensed ranges including NBA, Disney and a brand-new collection with the Netflix smash hit Stranger Things, and a dedicated denim trend area in-store. It will also feature a wide range of clothes and products under its growing Primark Cares label, as part of its pledge to make more sustainable fashion affordable for everyone. The new store will also operate on 100% renewable energy and be the first Penneys store in Ireland to have solar panels placed on the roof, and all of the stores solar output will be used to fulfil its electricity needs. Damien ONeill, Head of Penneys ROI and NI, said: We cant wait to welcome our colleagues and customers into our fantastic new store. We now have a bigger and better offering for our customers in Carlow, so whether its families or fashion followers, theres summer trends and affordable choices for everyone. This store is the first major milestone of our ongoing 250 million investment into Ireland, our first and home market. We are proud to continue to play our part in supporting Irish towns and communities and we are always grateful for our amazing customers in Ireland. Penneys, which operates as Primark outside of Ireland, has 36 stores in Ireland and 403 stores in total across Europe and North America. The new store in Carlow is part of its commitment to invest over 250 million in Ireland over the next 10 years, including a new store in Tallaght, Dublin later this year, and includes the redevelopment, relocation and/or refurbishment of its Cork, Dublin, and Galway stores, as well as other locations across the country. The investment also includes the construction of a 75 million state-of-the-art warehousing and distribution facility in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, which recently started construction. A former employee of Kildare County Council has been accused of putting sewage in a co-workers drinks. Athy District Court was told on Thursday, May 26, that it would be alleged that Joseph Byrne, with an address listed as Castleroe Maganey in Kildare, put sewage wastewater in a co-workers drinks on a number of dates. The 64-year-old, who was previously employed at the Ardrew Wastewater Treatment Plant in Athy, is accused of committing the offences on a date unknown between March and May 2021; and on May 7, May 14, May 17, and May 18 of last year. Mr Byrne has been charged under Section 12 (1) of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, which reads: "A person shall be guilty of an offence if, knowing that the other does not consent to what is being done, he or she intentionally or recklessly administers to or causes to be taken by another a substance which he or she knows to be capable of interfering substantially with the others bodily functions." In addition, Garda Sergeant Brian Jacob told Judge Desmond Zaidan that, in one of the alleged instances, the defendant put ferric acid into one of his colleagues drinks, which would constitute a criminal damage offence. When asked by the judge what the motive was, Sgt Jacob replied that it was allegedly over a work dispute involving overtime pay. After hearing the allegations levelled against Mr Byrne, Judge Zaidan remarked that it was an 'unusual case.' He added: "In all my years, Ive never come across something like this before." The case will return to Athy District Court on June 14, where a book of evidence is due to be presented. The latest available figures reveal Laois neither levied any sites or received any funds under the Derelict Sites Act in 2020. The council was one of 14 of Irelands 31 local authorities not to levy any sites during 2020. In the midlands, only Westmeath issued levies on sites that year and of the 370,500 levied, just 6,502 was received. The information was revealed in response to a parliamentary question by Deputy Thomas Gould. He asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the potential revenue in 2021, by local authority, of sites on the derelict sites register. In response, Minister of State at the Department of Housing Peter Burke said: Local Authorities are required to submit an annual return to my Department providing information on the operation of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 in their functional areas. The derelict sites returns are collected in Q2 of the following year. He provided the most recent available returns from local authorities, which related to the year 2020. The information revealed Laois, Offaly and Longford had not levied any sites. Nationally, levies totaling 5,448,642 were issued but less than a tenth of that sum was collected, amounting to 378,765 in total. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Johnny Depp said he feels at peace as he was seen relaxing in a pub in Newcastle after winning his multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard. The actor said he was truly humbled after jurors returned verdicts in his favour on Wednesday after six weeks of evidence and roughly 13 hours of deliberation. Mr Depp sued the Aquaman star for 50 million dollars over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post, titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. The article does not mention him by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused Ms Heard while they were together. Mr Depp was awarded compensatory damages of $10 million (8 million) and a further $5 million (4 million) in punitive damages. Shortly after the verdicts were read out at Fairfax County District Court, in Virginia, the actor was pictured shaking hands with fans and drinking with musicians Sam Fender and Jeff Beck at The Bridge Tavern in Gateshead. In his statement, issued through his spokesperson, the actor said his decision to pursue the case was only made after considerable thought and his goal had been to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed, he said. All in the blink of an eye. False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already travelled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. Mr Depp continued: Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that. He said he had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world, adding: I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. Concluding the statement, he added: The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes. Mr Depp has joined Jeff Beck on his UK tour, appearing on stage to sing with him at various venues across the UK, including at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday and Tuesday. The two are rumoured to be performing together again in Gateshead on Thursday night. Speaking outside the court in Virginia, the actors lawyers Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez said they were truly honoured to have represented him and were so grateful to the jurors, and other members of court staff. It is time to turn the page and look to the future, Mr Chew said. Though Mr Depp was not present for the verdicts, Ms Heard attended the court in person. Sitting between members of her legal team at the front of the courtroom, the actress looked downcast as the ruling was read out by the judge. She had her head bowed and appeared to be listening intently to the verdict. In a separate verdict, Ms Heard was awarded two million dollars (1.6 million) in damages after her counterclaim against Mr Depp over comments made by his lawyer Adam Waldman, who allegedly referred to her abuse claims as a hoax, was found to be defamatory. Following the verdict, the actress said she was heartbroken but even even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. The disappointment I feel today is beyond words, she said in her own statement, which was shared on social media. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amber Heard (@amberheard) Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Ms Heard said the verdict sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. She added that Mr Depps attorneys had succeeded in getting jury members to overlook freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly, she said. The case was brought in Virginia rather than in California, where the actors live, because The Washington Posts online editions are published through servers located in Fairfax County. Witnesses have included family members, friends, colleagues, employees and other individuals including British supermodel Kate Moss, as well as both Mr Depp and Ms Heard. During the course of the trial at Fairfax County District Court, legions of fans gathered outside in an attempt to enter the courtroom and observe proceedings. Many lined up outside the courthouse in anticipation of the verdict and gave huge cheers as the verdicts were read out. Thousands of Blues Rock music fans are set to descend on Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal this week, for what will be one of the biggest International music Festivals in Ireland this Bank Holiday weekend. After the Covid break, the South Donegal Town will welcome visitors from all over the world, all to celebrate one genius musician, the Late, Great Rory Gallagher. Its 74 years since the Blues Legend was born at the appropriately named Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon, with this the 18th staging of the 4 day event. The Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival attracts visitors from around the globe with organisers confirming this week that tickets for the Festival Big Top Concerts have sold in some 24 countries. The Festival boasts 30 acts on 15 stages over 4 days, commencing this Thursday 2nd June and continuing to the late hours of Sunday night 5th June. The stellar line-up of 30 Blues Rock Acts includes Rory Gallaghers band members with Band of Friends featuring Gerry McAvoy and Brendan ONeill, Top American Blues performer Eric Gales & His Band, the legendary Bernie Marsden from Whitesnake, the great American Blues Rock Guitarist Walter Trout & His Band, the Belfast female Rocking duo Dea Matrona, the Mamas Boys legend - Pat McManus & His Band, Festival favourites Johnny Gallagher & the Boxtie Band, Cork Blues outfit Crow Black Chickenand Sligo virtuoso Seamie ODowd & His Band. In all there are 30 Acts on 15 Stages over 4 days, with the Wild Atlantic sessions at the fabulous Rory Gallagher Statue, pub sessions, outdoor street gigs, busking, Festival Camping and the nightly Big Top Concerts. Donal Gallagher, brother of the Late Rory Gallagher said: its a fantastic tribute to Rory, he would be so proud with this wonderful gathering of not alone his followers that witnessed him perform many times, but there is a generation of new fans, young artists, young performers that are keeping Rorys legacy alive. Its over 70 years since Rory entered the world at the Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon, he would be very shocked but honoured to witness this Festival in his honour. Organisers are expecting over 7,000 Blues Rock fans to converge on Ballyshannon for the event with an impressive packed programme, there is even a gig in the grounds of the Rock Hospital where Rory was born back in 1948. Ciara Sugrue, Head of Festivals at Failte Ireland said: Failte Ireland is pleased to support this years The Rory Gallagher Festival as it returns to Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. Music Festivals such as this are a brilliant opportunity for visitors to experience what Irelands arts, heritage and culture have to offer as well as the best of Donegal and The Wild Atlantic Way. Festivals and Events are a key component of Irelands tourism offering and they provide unique and compelling reasons for a visitor to choose a destination. They also have the ability to drive footfall for local businesses, supporting jobs and revenue generation. Festivals such as The Rory Gallagher Festival plays an important role in the recovery of the tourism sector for Ballyshannon and its surrounding areas. This is an event that needs to be experienced - the continuous gigs from morning til late, the winding streets and the relaxed atmosphere coupled with a fantastic line-up of Blues Rock, Rock and Classic Rock, Blues and Acoustic Guitar performers, gives the Festival follower everything they would expect and more. Blues Legend Walter Trout speaking ahead of the Festival said: I am thrilled and honoured to be performing at Rorys Festival in Ballyshannon. We are really excited. Rory was one of the all-time greats and he inspired many to follow, we are so excited to be returning to Ireland. THE WHEELS are in motion for a vintage charity tractor run which is set to pass through Kilmallock. Over the June Bank Holiday weekend, five intrepid vintage enthusiasts will travel from Malin Head in Donegal towards their final destination, Mizen Head in West Cork. Starting this Thursday, in Donegal, the Tractor Run will travel through Donegal, Sligo, Roscommon, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Cork. An overnight stop is planned for Deebert House, Kilmallock on Saturday. The five tractors being driven on the run are a Nuffield Universal, two Fordson Majors, a David Brown and a Ford 3600, all ranging in age from 46 to 70 years old. The drive is in honour of Joe Butler, a proud Kilkenny man, hailing from Mullinavat. Joe worked in England, where he met and married Geraldine from Cork and they came to live in Mayfield over twenty years ago. Described as a mighty vintage man Joe was a well known and loved figure and was a regular participant at vintage rallies and road runs in Munster. He passed away last October in the wonderful care of the team at Marymount Hospice. His friends and relations are dedicating the Malin to Mizen trip in his memory. All funds raised and all sponsorship revenue will go to Marymount Hospice in Cork and the Irish Cancer Society. AN IFA delegation from Cork and Limerick has met with the senior project managers of the proposed new 80km long N/M20 Cork-Limerick road project. The N/M20 project will involve 80kms of new and improved dual carriageway road between Cork city and Patrickswell that will provide bypasses of Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville. Reports estimate that the cost of the project to be in the region of 1bn to 1.5bn, equivalent to 12m to 18m per km. After the meeting, IFA environment chairman Paul O'Brien said the IFA made it very clear that the 200 farmers along the potential route of the new road are extremely concerned about the upheaval facing their farms and farming businesses as a result of the project. "These farmers are living under an unacceptable cloud of uncertainty over the last 20 years, when plans for the road were first announced, said Mr O'Brien. According to the IFA, the project team said they would examine any individual cases currently in the 500m potential road corridor and make a decision quickly so developments can be progressed. The IFA pointed out the postponement and delays on dwellings, farmyard and enterprise developments has had a very costly impact on some farmers in the area. The IFA team, including Limerick IFA's chair Sean Lavery and environment chair Barry Murphy, told them that engagement and information is "essential". "Now that the preferred route option has been selected, there needs to be intensive engagement and consultation with individual farmers along the route. "The project team is currently actively engaging with farmers and committed to providing a design update every four to six months over the next two years, when the proposals should be ready to submit for planning," said Mr O'Brien. As the design develops, the 500m corridor will be pulled back to a 100m corridor. The project team estimated that 30% to 40% of the new roadway will be along the existing route. The IFA also raised important issues around the design process in respect of access and local roads for landowners. Issues regarding wildlife disturbance and badgers, and the implications for disease and TB was also discussed. The IFA say the project team informed them they are currently writing out to everybody along the route and will be commencing land surveys very soon. Mr OBrien said it is very important that access agreement is sought from the farmer beforehand and flexibility is provided to avoid any interference with silage grounds, crops or grazing arrangements. He also pointed out that there are agreed payments in place for land surveys. On the proposed Greenway development, the IFA say the project team said a feasibility study is currently being undertaken and a decision will be made at a later stage on whether or not the Greenway will be part of the road project or a separate project in its own right. Mr O'Brien said this has major implications for farmers and landowners in the area. IFA is currently renegotiating the IFA/TII roads agreement with TII and this will be "very important for any landowners on the new road development". An online public display platform has been developed on the project website www.corklimerick.ie A LIMERICK store assistant has been praised for an outstanding act of kindness in a very difficult situation. Former Limerick Chamber chief executive Dr James Ring was doing his weekly shop in Lidl's branch at Childers Road when he happened upon a father who was put in the heartbreaking position of not having enough money to afford essential groceries. As a result, he had to ask the cashier to take back a few items, including bread rolls. "A sad indictment of the position so many people find themselves in society having to choose between food or other bills," the businessman wrote on his LinkedIn page. However, he was struck with what happened next: "The woman working at the checkout paid for the items he returned himself and gave them to him," Dr Ring said, "A small price but a huge act of kindness that should be called out and recognised because staff like that are worth their weight in gold." Speaking further to Limerick Live, he said: "It's the first time I've seen this happen in front of me, so it took me a little bit by surprise to see what was going on. It was just sad. Obviously, the chap was on a budget, didn't have enough cash, and had to put a few things back. He was I'm sure just a very normal chap, just getting his few bits and pieces. There was nothing stand-out about him. There he was with his son, and there was a big long queue of people and it cannot have been easy. It must have been embarrassing being in that situation." 1/2 Ive just seen a genuinely moving piece of kindness in Limerick.@lidl_ireland on Childers rd, an embarrassed father with his young son buying groceries asked the checkout lady to put back some items as he didnt have enough money. James Ring (@drjamesring) May 26, 2022 The items he was putting back Dr Ring described as "fundamantal stuff you'd assume all of us get in our shopping." "From a cursory glance, I wasn't looking at what he was buying, it looked like basic groceries that you or I or anyone else would buy. Nothing fancy, or spectacular or anything," he said. "I'm sure it's not the first time it happened with that lady, or in that store. I'm sure it happens in every store around the country, and retail people are faced with these harsh realities as they see it. I wondered how many times a week that lady did that and it goes unnoticed," he added. "I just thought it was a genuinely kind thing to do. To do that for someone else is just a decent thing to do. I told her it was exceptional. She shrugged it off. But it does warm the heart there is still plenty of human decency out there despite such horrific social inequalities too," he told Limerick Live. Dr Ring concluded: "It's not good enough that a family is having to pick, do I eat or do something else." Limerick Live has contacted Lidl for further comment. Johnny Depp has won his multimillion-dollar US lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard after a jury ruled her 2018 article in the Washington Post was defamatory. Mr Depp sued the Aquaman star for 50 million dollars over the piece, titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. The article does not mention Mr Depp by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused Ms Heard while they were together. Following six weeks of evidence and roughly 13 hours of deliberation, jurors returned a verdict in favour of Mr Depp on Wednesday. The actor was awarded compensatory damages of 10 million dollars (8 million) and a further five million dollars (4 million) in punitive damages. Following the verdict, Mr Depp said in a statement that he was humbled that the jury had given me my life back. He said: From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that. He continued: I am, and have been, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media. Mr Depp was not present for the verdict, and was reportedly in the north east of England, after performing onstage for three nights in a row with musician Jeff Beck. Ms Heard, who was present, was sitting between members of her legal team at the front of the court room, looked downcast as the ruling was read out by the judge. She had her head bowed and appeared to be listening intently to the verdict. But Ms Heard was awarded 2 million dollars (1.6 million) in damages after her counterclaim against Mr Depp over comments made by his lawyer Adam Waldman, who allegedly referred to her abuse claims as a hoax, was also found to be defamatory. Following the verdict, the actress said she was heartbroken, but even even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. The disappointment I feel today is beyond words, she said in a statement. Im heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Ms Heard said the verdict sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. She added that Mr Depps attorneys had succeeded in getting jury members to overlook freedom of speech. Im sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American to speak freely and openly, she said. Mr Depp had consistently denied the outrageous, outlandish claims of abuse and said he had spoken up for what I have been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years during his own evidence. The court previously heard that descriptions of Mr Depps drug use and violence were exaggerated by Ms Heard and her legal team. The case was brought in Virginia rather than in California, where the actors live, because The Washington Posts online editions are published through servers located in Fairfax County. Witnesses have included family members, friends, colleagues, employees and other individuals including British supermodel Kate Moss, as well as both Mr Depp and Ms Heard. During the course of the trial at Fairfax County District Court, legions of fans gathered outside in an attempt to enter the courtroom and observe proceedings. Many lined up outside the courthouse in anticipation of the verdict and gave huge cheers as the verdicts were read out. Millions of euro in funding has been ringfenced to support autistic students and those with intellectual disabilities accessing third level education. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, announced details of the new supports today (Thursday June 1). Three million euro will be allocated to the initiatives every year to 2025 so that higher education institutions can implement inclusive practices on their campuses and enhance student experience. Speaking today, Minister Harris said, "We have never focused on how many students with an intellectual disability or autism have entered or completed third level. These new proposals will allow us to assess how we are doing but crucially, we will be introducing new policy changes to ensure we do better. "Education is the greatest leveller in society. A key ambition for me is to ensure that supports and opportunities are provided for learning to all. This means recognising the needs of vulnerable learners, people who are most marginalised and people with special and additional needs and assisting them in accessing and progressing through third level education." Funding for 2022 will be directed towards universal design and inclusive practices, while future improvements include supporting autism-friendly campuses by developing wayfinding apps, signage, sensory rooms or quiet zones. This year's funding may also be used for staff training and development. Minister Harris added, "Before we agreed these proposals, we examined what was already happening. There are examples of very good practice in the system and encouraging signs of commitment to the extensive process of change required to make such programmes a success. "However, there are also examples where, despite strong commitment, it was not possible to deliver programmes which were sustainable over time. The government is also seeking expertise to support the department and HEA to ensure this roll out meets the needs of students." Minister Harris called today "an important day" and said, "I really want to thank everyone for working with us to make this a reality. This has the potential to change the lives of autistic students and students with intellectual disabilities. Welcoming the initiatives, Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Anne Rabbitte, said, "These new proposals from Minister Harris and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science are hugely welcome as we seek to support greater opportunities and enhanced engagement in higher education by students with an intellectual disability. "The government is committed to supporting access routes and inclusive education initiatives to learners with intellectual disabilities, and the new National Action Plan will be a key milestone in our journey towards a truly inclusive Further and Higher Education Sector. According to Minister Rabbitte, Ireland has a duty to remove barriers. "Under Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, we have a duty to ensure we have an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning directed to the development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential." She concluded: "People with disabilities in Ireland have equal rights of access to education, but there is much more work to be done to enable people with disabilities to vindicate their right to education, particularly in Further and Higher Education. The work Minister Harris is doing, as evidenced in todays launch, represents excellent progress in this regard. The New Action Plan is a key piece of work in Irelands overall efforts to achieve the objectives of the convention." NEW DELHI : The durum wheat consignment that Turkey rejected has been diverted to Egypt, which is facing bread shortages after supplies from Russia and Ukraine dried up in the wake of the war, people aware of the development said. Egypt, one of the largest wheat importers, is scrambling to secure new supplies from other countries, including India, to cool rising prices. The 56,000-tonne consignment to Turkey was cleared before India announced the wheat export ban on 13 May. Food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey on Thursday said the consignment had met quarantine requirements when it left India. He said Turkish officials are yet to reach out to Delhi on why the wheat shipment was rejected. The shipment belonged to ITC Ltd, and I am told that the financial transaction has also been completed. The company had sold it to a foreign-based company, which further sold it to a Turkey-based firm," Pandey said. S&P Global Commodity Insights cited traders based in Istanbul as saying that Turkey rejected the wheat consignment after they detected the rubella virus. The company (ITC) had exported to a Netherlands customer on FOB terms (free on board), and the cargo was loaded after being checked and cleared by both the buyer nominated surveyors as well as by the plant quarantine authorities," a spokesperson for ITC said. The embassies of Turkey and Egypt did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. On Thursday, government officials said as many as five countries have formally requested Indian wheat after the ban. The government said it would allow wheat exports on a government-to-government basis. Exporters aware of the development said the transit time to Turkey is about two weeks, and variation in temperatures and humidity might have led to phytosanitary issues. However, an expert said its unlikely the cause for the infection. Rubella develops because of seed or soil contamination. Such issues should have been detected before shipments. It looks like a case of negligence," an expert from a non-profit research institute said. Experts expressed concerns over repeated complaints of phytosanitary issues for Indian shipments. Earlier this year, Indonesia suspended Indian agricultural exports after finding quality issues. In addition, India failed to register laboratories that test food safety and issue a certificate of analysis. The expert cited above said such incidents reflect badly on the country and is because of poor quality control measures taken by Indian authorities. The ministry should address such issues. Such issues are not spotted as testing labs in India are not up to the mark. Now checks by other countries would rise," he added. Queries sent to the ministry of commerce and industry on Thursday morning remained unanswered till press time. A kidney racket has been discovered in South Delhi, with ten people nabbed from various parts of the city. The incident was reported to the police station in Hauz Khas. One of the people arrested is a doctor while the others are technicians and aides, according to the police. Secret information about an illegal kidney transplantation scam operating in the Hauz Khas area was earlier obtained at Hauz Khas Police Station. They preyed on the destitute and needy, convincing them to donate (sell) their kidney. They then sold it for a very high price to people in need of kidneys. On the basis of this information, a team was formed to further refine the information, and a trap was set in the Hauz Khas area. One individual was traced once the informer was identified, and it was also disclosed that such a person would be escorted to a lab in Hauz Khas for a pre-anaesthesia check-up (medical testing) by the racket members. On pointing out the informer, a trap was set near a private lab in the Hauz Khas area, and one person, Pintu Kumar Yadav, was found who informed that he was taken to the lab by Sarvjeet and Vipin on the pretext of treatment for his abdomen pain, but when he realised they were taking him there for kidney donation, he had arguments with them and they left. A case under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act was registered by the police and an investigation of the same was taken up. A team of Delhi Police officials was formed to bust the racket. The team started working on the information and worked relentlessly and further, on the instance of Pintu Kumar Yadav, the police staff reached Sarvjeet Jailwal and Raghu Sharma. On enquiry, it was revealed that Raghu Sharma's kidney had already been taken by Sarvjeet and other gang members. After that, on pointing out of the Raghu Sharma, the team raided A Block, DDA Flats, Paschim Vihar where four persons including one Shailesh Patel with three other persons namely Diwarkar Sarkar, Ashwini Pandey and Rizwan were found present and on an investigation, it was found that these three persons were taken there for illegal kidney transplantation and some medical documents were also recovered from there. There, all pre-medical tests were already conducted by the gang members. When they were about to take them for illegally transplanting their kidneys, Delhi Police nabbed the accused. On enquiry, it was revealed that Shailesh Patel used to identify soft targets who are needy persons for the sake of their kidneys. All the above mentioned three persons were also taken for the same purpose by him and his other associates namely Bikash, Vikash and Vipin. Both Sarvjeet and Shailesh were interrogated at length and on the basis of sufficient evidences on record, they were arrested in the case by the police. On interrogation, both the accused persons revealed that they used to target needy and poor persons for kidneys. After that, one more accused Md. Latif who worked as a field boy in the Lab in Hauz Khas, also got arrested. He used to take the kidney donors/sellers to Diagnostic Centres for their required tests that too without any prescription and to one other Centre for DTPA test which is a most important test to know about the working of the kidney. DCP South, Benita Mary told ANI, "One Dr. Sourabh Mittal, an anesthesiologist was also arrested in the case. He worked in a reputed hospital in Delhi and gave his services in illegal transplantation with other accused persons." In addition, three other suspects were detained in the case: Kuldeep Ray Vishvakarama, Om Prakash Sharma, and Manoj Tiwari, all of whom work as OT Technicians in one of Delhi's major hospitals with Dr. Sourabh Mittal. During interrogation, it was discovered that Kuldeep Ray Vishwakarma is the ringleader of this gang, who persuaded others to participate in the illegal transplants and chose the Sonu Rohilla Clinic to carry out the procedures. (With ANI inputs) If the Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra continue to spike, the state government will be forced to make face masks mandatory again, news agency PTI quoted minister Ajit Pawar as saying. "The use of face masks will have to be made mandatory if the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow," said Pawar. He said the state government and its administrative machinery were keeping a vigil to ensure things don't go out of hand. This comes as Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has called a meeting of the Covid-19 task force on Thursday to review the situation. This comes as Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 1,081 cases of the infection, the highest daily rise after 24 February, which took the overall tally to 78,88,167, while the death toll is 1,47,860. On Tuesday, the state had reported 711 cases. Maharashtra's active tally of cases now stands at 4,032. Nandurbar, Dhule, Latur, Parbhani, Akola, Buldhana and Gondia have zero active cases. BMC warning The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday said that testing for coronavirus will be ramped up in Mumbai as the test positivity rate in Maharashtra capital has jumped to 6%. The Mumbai civic body warned saying that daily new Covid-19 cases have tremendously increased in the city. "With monsoon around the corner, we will now see a rapid rise in symptomatic cases," said the BMC. BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, in a message, directed the BMC officials to conduct the Covid-19 testing in Mumbai on a war-footing, ensure adequate staff at jumbo field hospitals and to keep them on alert. Since the beginning of May, the Covid-19 cases in the metropolis have been steadily going up. Task force official explains surge A Maharashtra task force official has pointed out that trends show that the recent coronavirus wave in Mumbai is driven by mild Omicron variants. However, he stressed that in a bid to avoid further spread of the virus it is essential to practice caution like masking up and avoid crowding. The official also urged all to remain vigilant. Trend graph of Mumbai shows a silent wave ,mild omicron variants. Protect Vulnerables ,Keep close watch on hospitalization, Covid-19 appropriate recommended esp in indoor closed environments Avoid crowding.Make Masking a health habit .Stay Vigilant without panic . pic.twitter.com/mi7gOfstxT Dr. Shashank Joshi (@AskDrShashank) June 1, 2022 DAVOS (SWITZERLAND) : As the US seeks allies in a new cold war with Russia and China, it does so without a lever that helped win the last one: new economic pacts like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement. They are nonstarters in a Congress in which both parties have turned more protectionist. Click here to read the full article. CBS News venerable 60 Minutes is creating a time machine, of sorts. The long-running newsmagazine will form the bulk of a new channel at Pluto TV, the ad-supported streaming outlet that is, like CBS News, part of Paramount Global. The streaming channel is expected to launch sometime this year, Bill Owens, executive producer of the show, told staffers Thursday. The channel will allow us to share our broadcast and historic archive with the wider world, Owens told employees in a memo. Nicole Young, a longtime producer who works with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, will oversee the new venture, which will potentially let consumers sample decades of 60 Minutes reports, whether they encompass a Mike Wallace investigation, an Ed Bradley interview with Bob Dylan, or Lesley Stahls various exchanges with former President Donald Trump. The move shows 60 Minutes continuing to explore opportunities to reach a new set of viewers through digital means. The show launched a program for Quibi, a hub for short-form streaming video, before it failed, and then tried to make that program work on Paramount+. Producers hired a new staff of younger correspondents, including former Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery, and CBS News Seth Doane. The program, 60 Minutes+ was applauded for its quality but did not find the audience traction that Paramount+ executives desired. The show ended its run last year. Young will work as a senior producer over the new Pluto channel. Over the course of her career, she has covered everything from attacks on Ukrainian hospitals to an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Her assignment s have taken her to Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan, among other places. She will continue to work with Pelley as one of his producers. Simply put, Nicole Young is one of the most productive and awarded producers at 60 Minutes, Owens said. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. All it took was a Kate Bush track and the reading of a letter to clue the world into the greatness of Sadie Sink, who plays tomboy Max Mayfield in the fourth season of Netflixs Stranger Things. Her outstanding work in this season of the hit fantasy show has captured the cultural zeitgeist. With phase one voting merely two weeks away, she may have put herself in firm contention to nab her first Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series. The 20-year-old sensation had the most significant arc of any character in the seven-episode season. The story finds Maxine in a very dark place following the death of her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery), where the trauma of the events has taken its toll on Max. Sinks anguish and technical skill are displayed beautifully throughout each episode. Still, its the stellar monologue delivered at Billys grave in the episode titled Chapter Four: Dear Billy, where Sink furnishes the best acting of the entire series thus far. Read more: Varietys Awards Circuit Emmys Predictions Hub Shawn Levy, who directed the crucial episode from writer Paul Dichter, utilizes the red hues against the backdrop of Kate Bushs 1985 song Running Up That Hill to create a tension-filled sequence that quickly goes down as one of the best episodes yet. The song has now acted as the We Dont Talk About Bruno of the fantasy series, reaching the top of the Apple Music charts in the United States. More than just a slam-dunk for music supervisor Nora Felder to land in her respective field, it offers an opportunity for Sink to land a spot in a very competitive Emmys race. Also submitted alongside Sink are her talented co-stars Millie Bobby Brown, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer and Priah Ferguson. While theres always a risk of vote splitting between actors, theres no denying the word-of-mouth this season that Sink has generated on social media and within the industry. The young actors of Stranger Things have remained a stapled highlight in the shows phenomenon. The first three seasons have been favorites of the TV Academy, picking up noms for outstanding drama series for each of its outings. Moreover, the recognition of its actors has been steadily consistent. David Harbour (who played Jim Hopper) and Millie Bobby Brown (as Eleven) picked up two noms each for the first two seasons. However, no actors were recognized for the third. The Hollywood chessboard is set for Sink to have a significant breakout moment in 2022. Aside from Stranger Things, she will co-star alongside Brendan Fraser, Samantha Morton and Hong Chau in A24s The Whale from Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky, rumored to showcase another considerable outing from her. Its worth noting that weve expected the Academy members to single out the stellar work of the young actors before, with unfavorable results. For example, Noah Schnapp, who plays the tormented Will on Stranger Things, delivered some of the sophomore seasons best moments but was ultimately snubbed. Savvy awards campaigner Netflix is being smart on the framework and submissions for Emmy consideration. While actors dont need to worry about episode submissions until nominations are officially announced, the writing and directing races require submissions to garner noms. For directing, in addition to the Levy-directed episode Dear Billy, the streamer also submitted the Duffers Brothers finale episode, Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab. The episode was also offered in the writing (drama) category. While awards enthusiasts and pundits are looking ahead and hoping the TV Academy will recognize the series in later seasons (i.e., Game of Thrones), Volume 2 of this season is set to drop on July 1 with two super-sized episodes. Those will not be eligible for this years nominations and will seek love in 2023. However, with the recent elimination of the hangover rule by the Academy, those July drops from Netflix wont be eligible to receive acting or drama series recognition, only for technical achievements. Depending on what potential travesties await our beloved characters in those two anticipated episodes, this could be one of the last opportunities to recognize the growth and skill of some of the cast. The announced fifth and final season is not expected in the 2022-2023 calendar year. Stranger Things 4 is now streaming on Netflix. Emmy predictions are updated every Thursday on Varietys Awards Circuit pages. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, a former Laredo officer, has been the center of attention since reports of an inadequate response dealing with the active shooter at Robb Elementary that killed 21 individual last week. After reports leaked that Arredondo and Uvalde police were no longer cooperating with the state in its investigation, Arredondo spoke publicly to CNN on Wednesday. Arredondo stated that he was still cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety to assist in their case. I am in contact with DPS everyday, Arredondo said to the network. In a separate short interview with CNN, the police chief also stated that at the moment he did not feel it was time to discuss what happened, as the families continue to mourn. We're going to be respectful to the families," Arredondo said. "We're going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we'll do that, obviously." Arredondo is a former Laredoan who worked for UISD and the Webb County Sheriff's Office. He also was a recently-elected Uvalde city councilmember. He allegedly ordered law enforcement to wait for reinforcements and to not engage the shooter for close to an hour. Arredondos name came to the forefront after last week DPS Director Steve McCraw identified him as the incident commander of the situation. The DPS director stated that it was a mistake to listen to his orders. According to McCraw, the decision to not engage was due to Arredondo believing the situation had changed from an active shooter situation someone is shooting people to kill them into a barricaded shooter situation the shooter is alone in a room without any survivors left in it. Unfortunately, the idea that there were no more survivors was wrong as several students did survive the direct attack, and some also even called 911 while inside the classroom. The shooter actually shot one of the students who tried to call the police for help. Arredondo is originally from the Uvalde area but has also held several positions in Laredo and Webb County. Prior to his job in Uvalde, he worked in Laredo as a police captain for United Independent School District. Arredondo also worked in the Webb County Sheriff Departments office as well an administrator, commander, assistant chief and administrative assistant. Before working in Laredo, Arredondo served in Uvalde as part of the local law enforcement presence beginning in 1993 when he held multiple roles, from dispatcher all the way up to assistant chief of the police. Sworn into Office In the middle of the controversy, Arredondo was sworn in to his new District III councilmember position during a low-key ceremony on Tuesday. The ceremony was performed without any media present, as council stated it wanted to focus all of its attention on the ongoing needs of the impacted families. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin confirmed the swearing in occurred. "Out of respect for the families who buried their children today and who are planning to bury their children in the next few days, no ceremony was held," McLaughlin said in a written statement. CNN reported the mayor said in his written statement that he was "duly elected" and that there is "nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office." "To our knowledge, we are currently not aware of any investigation of Mr. Arredondo," McLaughlin added. In describing the event, Arredondo said the ceremony was "a private thing" out of respect for the families. BEIJING (AP) Two earthquakes killed at least four people and damaged houses in southwestern China on Wednesday, authorities and state media said. Fourteen other people were injured, at least one seriously, state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report. All of the dead and injured were in Baoxing county in Sichuan province. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) A North Carolina woman has been arrested outside of New York in connection with the death of her 3-year-old son in March, police said Wednesday. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police detectives said in a news release that an off-duty officer was approached at a park on March 12 by a female who said her her child was unresponsive in the pond. MIAMI (AP) A loggerhead turtle whose left fin was destroyed in a shark attack is rehabbing at Zoo Miami's new Sea Turtle Hospital, where veterinarians were able to save more than 100 of her eggs after she was rescued. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent the turtle to the hospital on May 22 after she was found at the Port St. Lucie power plant, Ron Magill, the zoo's communications director said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which "really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine UVALDE, Texas In the final moments of her life, Eva Mireles, a teacher at Robb Elementary School, was on the phone with her husband, Ruben Ruiz, a school district police officer, the senior county official said Wednesday. They spoke for the last time from opposite sides of the school walls: She was with her fourth-grade students in a pair of adjoining classrooms taken over by a gunman; he was outside the school, amid the fast-growing throng of armed officers who rushed to the scene. Shes in the classroom and hes outside. Its terrifying, the Uvalde County judge, Bill Mitchell, said Wednesday after being briefed by sheriffs deputies who were at the shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. The call was among several new details that have added to and, in some cases, significantly altered the shifting portrait of the shooting in Uvalde that has been offered by top officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott and the head of the state police, Steven McCraw. The gunmans grandmother, whom he shot in the face at home minutes before bursting into the school, had been employed at the elementary school in years past, a top teachers union official said. The two officers who first approached the classrooms and were struck by bullets that were fired through the locked door were senior members of the Uvalde Police Department, a lieutenant and a sergeant, officials said. And a door to the school, through which the gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered, had been closed, but not locked as it should have been a crucial amendment to the official narrative outlined to reporters, grieving Uvalde families and viewers of broadcasts carried live around the nation from the usually quiet ranching city about 80 miles west of San Antonio. The latest detail about the teachers phone call to her husband is potentially an important one suggesting that at least one of the officers arriving at the scene had information from inside the classrooms that could have informed the decision by police to delay entry. A question remained as to whether 911 calls from children inside the classrooms, starting 30 minutes after the gunman arrived, were communicated to the commander at the scene. Wong Maye-E/AP Several times since last week, information presented by officials as fact in news conferences has later been changed or entirely retracted, further rattling an already stricken community and undermining the faith of many Texans in the official narrative of what happened, even among law enforcement officials and those who represent them. The situation prompted Don McLaughlin, the mayor of Uvalde and a staunch conservative, to request a Justice Department investigation over the weekend, and led a statewide law enforcement union to issue a statement supporting that inquiry, in part, because sources that Texans once saw as ironclad and completely reliable have now been proven false. The reference was to the governor and the head of the state police, according to a spokesperson for the union, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. McCraws agency, the Texas Department of Public Safety, oversees both the state police and the Texas Rangers, and it had been leading the investigation into the shooting and the response by the police until the Justice Department stepped in with its own review. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the state police, Travis Considine, referred questions to the local district attorneys office and said that going forward the department would not be providing updates on the investigation. The district attorney, Christina Busbee, did not respond to requests for an interview. State police officials have been forced to amend portions of their timeline of events several times, including last week when it became clear that a school district police officer had not confronted the gunman before he entered the school. They did so again Tuesday, when the department said that the gunman did not enter through a door that was being propped open. Instead, the closed door had not been locked. After examining video evidence we were able to conclude that after propping the door open with a rock, the teacher ran back inside when she saw the shooter, and removed the rock and the door shut, Considine said. Investigators are now looking at why the door did not lock properly when it was shut. The Justice Department announced its investigation Sunday and has said that the inquiry would result in its own report on what took place at Robb Elementary School. The superintendent of Uvalde schools said Wednesday that students and teachers would not be returning to the elementary school in the fall. And Abbott directed the state to begin a review of security at all Texas schools before the coming academic year. Mireles, a teacher of 17 years and an avid hiker who took pride in teaching at a mostly Hispanic school, was shot and killed trying to protect her students, according to her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado. Her husband, Ruiz, who had rushed to the scene, was prevented by other police officers from going inside. He could not go into the classroom where all the shooting victims were at, Martinez Delgado said last week. Ruiz declined a request for an interview. It was not clear when the two spoke or for how long during the 78 minutes that elapsed between the first calls that came in to 911 of a gunman at the school and the moment when a tactical team from the Border Patrol stormed into the room and killed him. Mitchell said deputy sheriffs who had been at the school recounted the call. I dont know what was said, Mitchell said, although the gist of it appeared to be, he said, that the gunman was already on the attack. Hes outside hearing his wife: Im dying, he said, before cautioning that he did not know precisely what words were exchanged. Mitchell said he did not know if the school district officer had told the chief of his six-member department, Pete Arredondo, about the call. He was talking to his wife. Whether that was conveyed to Arredondo or anyone else, I dont know, said the judge, who is the countys executive and top official. State police have said it was Arredondos decision to wait to send officers into the classrooms until specialized equipment and more highly trained officers could arrive, a decision that McCraw called wrong in a news conference Friday. A vast majority of the shooting inside the classrooms, which were joined in the middle, took place just after the gunman entered, at 11:33 a.m., McCraw said then. The gunman was killed at about 12:51 p.m. While the motive of the gunman remained unclear, officials said that he, like so many in Uvalde, had a connection to the elementary school. He lived with his grandmother Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66, in a modest home near the school. She used to be an employee at the school, said Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers; a state law enforcement official confirmed her former employment at the school. Martinez Gonzales was shot but not killed last week. Afterward Ramos fled her home and crashed her pickup truck, which neighbors said he could barely drive, into a ditch near the school. He emerged with a gun, an AR-15-style rifle, one of two that he had bought shortly after his 18th birthday earlier in the month. In an instant the shooting redefined life in Uvalde, a place that used to be known, by those who knew it at all, for its trees, its honey and its surrounding hunting ranches. This is the single most devastating, disastrous event that ever has happened in Uvalde County, Mitchell said. But we will rise. We will survive. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, WALB-TV. Energy experts say that some power grid operators are not considering in their plans how the climate crisis is causing more extreme weather. David J. Phillip/AP Former Attorney General William Barr on June 2 met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol as CNN spotted him inside a room used by the panel to conduct interviews. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images It's with much sadness and regret that we record the death of the late Catherine L Donohoe late of Lislea, Ballinalee and of Longford Town which occurred in St Joseph's Care Centre on Friday, May 27 last. Catherine was predeceased by her parents Cornelius and Helena (MacEoin) and by her sister Brigid Lynch, Moatefarrell and brother John. Catherine worked in the OPW in Dublin and on her retirement she returned to her native Longford. Catherine had a keen interest in local history and being a niece of the late General Sean MacEoin she served as secretary of the Clonfin Commemoration Committee for a number of years, a role she held with great distinction and proved to be a great organiser, especially with the annual Commemoration ceremony. One of her proudest moments was when through her personal contacts, the late Fr Alex Reid was the guest speaker at Clonfin and like him Catherine was a person of great faith and of everlasting peace. Catherine is survived by her sister Elizabeth McCarthy (Kildare), brothers Andy, Con and Fr Seamus (OFM), sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and many friends, to whom we offer sincere sympathy at this sad time. Catherine was laid to rest in St Emer's cemetery in Ballinalee following Mass in St Mel's Cathedral, Longford on Monday last, May 30. May she rest in peace. A gentle little pony, who strayed onto a busy road at the start of May, and was discovered by an ISPCA Inspector trembling and in pain with many wounds to her face and neck is recovering in Longford following treatment. May, as shes been called, was brought to the ISPCAs National Animal Centre in Longford for urgent treatment. An ISPCA spokesperson explained, "May had what looked like a massive bite injury across her lower neck. Hard, leather like scar tissue had formed and was swollen and inflamed." Longford pair jailed for eight years for violent hit and run attack Three people have been sentenced in connection with what Judge Keenan Johnson has called the worst case of dangerous driving I have ever dealt with. Granddaughter of Longford solicitor to star in tonight's Britain's Got Talent semi-final There will be a local feel to tonight's (Wednesday) live semi-final of Britain's Got Talent as Daisy Reynolds, granddaughter of Longford solicitor John Quinn goes in search of a place in the competition's grand final. The vet removed all this dead skin to prevent life threatening infection; exposing flesh and blood almost the size of an A4 piece of paper. The spokesperson continued, "Although unbearably painful this gentle young filly never showed any fear or any aggression. "At first, the Vet had to re-access her neck wound twice a week to clean it. May has bravely endured this. Its as if she knows she is now safe, that the life ahead of her will be nothing like the past. She will need to remain under Vet supervision for many more months such is the extent of her injuries." After all that May has been through in her short life, her sweet and gentle nature is all the more amazing. The Vet advised, that untreated, the large wound on her neck would not have healed. May will always carry the scars of what happened to her but thanks to compassionate ISPCA supporters she will be lovingly cared for her until the scars on the inside have healed too. The spokesperson said, "A kind donation to support the ISPCAs work, could help rescue more hurt and injured animals like May so that they too can get the treatment, care, and love they desperately need. And when ready, a happy, loving home. If you can, please donate here. The ISPCA encourages members of the public to report any animal welfare concerns to the ISPCAs National Animal Cruelty Helpline in confidence on 0818 515 515, email helpline@ispca.ie or report online here. The 38th Annual Oliver Goldsmith International Literary Festival takes place this weekend in various locations around South Longford and Westmeath. The third-longest running festival of its type in the country, it was founded in 1984 to celebrate the literary genius of Oliver Goldsmith and to promote beautiful Goldsmith Country as a tourist attraction. Over the years it has explored many aspects of Goldsmiths life and work and a huge variety of renowned critics, politicians, poets, journalists and academics have stimulated informed and amused audiences in that time. This years theme is Goldsmith, the Philosophical Vagabond - Uncovering the Hidden Heartlands. The festival will be officially opened on Friday night in the Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule, by Center Parcs Longford Forest, Village Director, Daragh Feighery and the keynote address will be given by Eoghan Corry, Travel commentator and broadcaster. Saturday's Programme on day two begins at 11am in the lovely Goldsmith Room of Ballymahon Library with three lectures on Goldsmiths Literature by Dr David Clare, Prof Moyra Haslet and Dr David Fleming. Saturdays second session features Fiona Dunne of Failte Ireland and Damien McWeeney of Waterways Ireland discussing aspects of the Festival theme. A new innovation for 2022 is Goldsmith Live & Local, featuring an outdoor specially commissioned musical dramatization of Goldsmiths Life and Travels. This takes place in Skellys Courtyard, Ballymahon and will also feature the Simply Strings string trio, local craft breweries, Charlie Byrnes Bookshop and a Barbecue. The day concludes in the iconic pub, The Three Jolly Pigeons with a traditional/folk music session. Sunday begins with the twelfth annual Goldsmith Miscellany. Chaired by Seamus McCormack featuring a number of short talks interspersed with music, this will also take place in the Goldsmith Room of Ballymahon Library. Speakers and contributors will include Matt Farrell, Adrian Elliott, Fiona Egan, Seamus OBrien and Irena Cvetkovic. The closing section of the festival, Poetry at Pallas, takes place as usual at the freshly renovated Goldsmith's birthplace, Pallas Abbeyshrule. This area has recently been developed and upgraded, in conjunction with Longford County Council and provides a beautiful setting for Poetry at Pallas, featuring readings by the winners of the childrens and adults poetry competitions, judged by Mary Melvin Geoghegan and Vona Groarke respectively. Chaired by Anne Tully, these readings will be followed by a reading by acclaimed poet Vona Groarke. The annual cheese and wine reception is hosted as always by Joe and Chris Farrell and family. Musical accompaniment will also be provided. This years festival has created a lot of excitement with many interesting speakers and a real effort to bring Goldsmiths writings to life. The 38th Annual Goldsmith Festival will take place from Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 5. The full programme of events is available on the festival's website at: olivergoldsmithfestival.com School & Education, Local News, Business & Finance By Chris Boyle Published: June 02 2022 SUNY and CUNY students whose families make up to $125,000 annually can apply for tuition-free college. Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that the application for the Excelsior Scholarship for new applicants for the 2022-23 academic year is now open. The Excelsior Scholarship, in combination with other aid programs, allows eligible full-time students to attend a SUNY or CUNY two-year or four-year college tuition-free. "It is critical that we provide New York's students every possible opportunity to climb the ladder of success," Governor Hochul said. "The Excelsior Scholarship helps ensure a college education is attainable to all, especially for low-income students who face financial inequities that put them at a disadvantage. I am proud to support programs that tear down barriers to higher education and provide every New Yorker a chance to pursue a quality education." To be eligible for an Excelsior Scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year, household federal adjusted gross income can total up to $125,000. Student must also meet the following eligibility requirements: Plan to attend a SUNY or CUNY two or four-year college Complete 30 credits per year towards their program of study (including Summer and Winter terms) Be on track to graduate on time with an Associate's Degree in two years or a Bachelor's Degree in four years Dr. Guillermo Linares, President of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation said, "I applaud Governor Hochul for her commitment to ensure that higher education in our State is more affordable and accessible, especially among disadvantaged and low-income populations who face financial barriers to college attainment. The Excelsior Scholarship can help New York's students realize their dream of a higher education by providing financial support to alleviate the uncertainties around paying for college." SUNY Interim Chancellor Deborah F. Stanley said, "SUNY's mission of affordable, accessible, and high-quality education means lifting up students from low- and middle-income households so that they have the same opportunity to achieve their academic goals as those from affluent families. The Excelsior Scholarship is another way New York State breaks down financial barriers deterring students from continuing their educational careers after high school. We thank Governor Hochul for her continued commitment to our SUNY students and for tirelessly working to ensure that every New Yorker who dreams of learning in a college classroom can do so." CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez said: "The Excelsior Scholarship has become another reliable fixture of New York State's unrivaled portfolio of tuition assistance programs, which enable a growing swath of residents to obtain a quality education and start fulfilling careers without the kind of crushing debt that burdens so many graduates across the country. It is comforting to know that New York has families' backs despite the many challenges of the pandemic and ongoing fluctuations of our economy. We thank Governor Hochul for her unwavering commitment to our state's public higher education institutions, and her recognition of the profound differences that college can make for individuals, families and society." The 2022-23 Excelsior Scholarship application is open to first-time students entering college in the Fall 2022 term and current college students who have never received the Excelsior Scholarship. Current Excelsior Scholarship recipients should not complete this application. More than 190,000 New York residents now attend CUNY or SUNY tuition-free thanks to the addition of students receiving the Excelsior Scholarship. Applications will be accepted through August 31, 2022. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: June 02 2022 New class of 2022 doctors will help alleviate primary care physician shortage nationwide. NYU Long Island School of Medicine celebrated its first graduating class of physicians, marking three years since the new medical school opened its doors, launching the nations first accelerated program devoted exclusively to training primary care physicians. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the US is expected to be short of primary care physicians by upwards of 21,000 within a decade, and the schools graduating students will contribute to alleviating that deficit. More than half of the physician graduates will remain in the greater New York and Long Island regions. NYU Long Island School is one of the first medical schools in the nation to be tuition-freeand the first on Long Islandfollowing the tuition-free model of NYU Grossman School of Medical in Manhattan, both under the auspices of NYU Langone Health. NYU Long Island School of Medicines inaugural Class of 2022 is the realization of a bold vision to make medical school financially attainable and attract exceptional students into the field of primary care, said Robert I. Grossman, MD, Dean and CEO of NYU Langone Health. We hope that many of the graduating physicians will choose to practice on Long Island, keeping our communities healthy and helping NYU Langone Health expand upon our network of quality physicians across Long Island. The physician graduates, totaling 20 in the Class of 2022, will practice in four primary care areas: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and OB/GYN, along with general surgery. They will first fulfill their medical residencies, including those attending NYU Langone HospitalLong Island, Johns Hopkins, Mass General, and other prestigious institutions to which they were accepted. By graduating from an accelerated three-year program, they begin these residencies a year earlier than those who graduated from a traditional four-year medical school where students typically focus their final year on other specialties. Founding Dean Steven Shelov, MD, MS, gave the keynote at the ceremonies, commending the graduates: All of you are empathic, patient, powerful listeners, and caring, kind, and humble, eager to bring out the best in yourselves. We in the leadership of NYU Long Island School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health are committed to you, our charter class, as you become exemplary physicians. Also addressing the graduates at this years inaugural commencement were Gladys Ayala, MD, associate dean of NYU Long Island School of Medicine; Steven Carsons, MD, senior associate dean of Research at NYU Long Island School of Medicine; and Joseph Greco, MD, senior vice president and chief of Hospital Operations at NYU Langone HospitalLong Island. NYU Long Island School of Medicine, which is located in Mineola on the campus of NYU Langone HospitalLong Island, celebrated its Class of 2022 graduation at nearby Molloy College in Rockville Center. The graduates continued from there to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, to join a collective graduation ceremony honoring all NYU 2022 graduates. To sustain its full-tuition scholarship initiative, NYU Long Island School of Medicine is supported by philanthropy as well as receiving support from NYU Langone Health. (Alliance News) - Millions of people across the nation will be celebrating the Platinum Jubilee at patriotic street parties while live music, light projections and life-size cut outs of the Queen herald the historic occasion over the next four days. Events range from family picnics to a record-breaking 5,000-strong street party in the North West, in what the Met Office has said will be a quintessentially British summer bank holiday of drizzle and patchy sunshine. The largest party celebrating the Queen's record-breaking 70-year reign is set to be Morecambe Bay's Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday, which is hosting around 5,000 people at over 500 tables overlooking the sea. Official celebrations will begin at 1pm with a Samba dance down the promenade, before Lord Shuttleworth the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire cuts a replica cake of the kind the Queen cut at the G7 Big Lunch at Eden last year. Organiser Luke Trevaskis said the Lancashire seaside town is "incredibly proud" to be hosting Jubilee celebrations. Trevaskis, who is the chief executive at Morecambe Town Council, told the PA News Agency: "This is going to be the first major event Morecambe has had coming out of lockdown, which was a very, very difficult period of time for so many people. "It's going to be an amazing opportunity for communities to come together and celebrate the Queen being on the throne for 70 years, but also to really celebrate what makes Morecambe special. "Morecambe is so multi-cultural, we have a sense of pride in our diversity and people who weren't born in Morecambe have a sense of pride in the monarchy just as much as the people who were." Red, white and blue smoke cannons will be released across the bay at 3.30pm to mark the end of the jubilations. At the opposite end of the country, an LED beacon will be illuminating the south coast from Hove Esplanade in Brighton, East Sussex. The city's mayor, Lizzie Deane, said: "The Platinum Jubilee is a historic national occasion and I know many people are looking forward to having a long weekend to spend with friends and family." The Met Office has said northern areas of the country can expect a cool and showery start to the bank holiday on Thursday, before temperatures pick up on Friday, which is set to be the warmest day of the weekend. Temperatures are set to soar to 26C in the south on Friday, while north-west Scotland is expected to be the warmest on Sunday. An estimated 10 million people plan to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. The department also said that more than 70,000 'Big Jubilee Lunches' and 200,000 more local events have been planned across the four nations. Many official events will also be collecting money for charities throughout the bank holiday. Across the Commonwealth and the rest of the world, more than 600 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in around 80 countries from Greenland to New Zealand. By Laura Parnaby, PA source: PA Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Shell PLC's Jackdaw gas field in the UK North Sea received final regulatory approval on Wednesday. UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng welcomed the decision on the field, which lies 250 kilometres east of Aberdeen. "We're turbocharging renewables and nuclear, but we are also realistic about our energy needs now," he wrote on Twitter. "Let's source more of the gas we need from British waters to protect energy security." Environmental campaigners Greenpeace replied on Twitter: "This is desperate and destructive, @KwasiKwarteng. You're not turbocharging renewables, you're turbocharging the climate crisis. The answer is not new oil and gas fields, it's reducing energy waste at home." At its peak, Jackdaw is expected to deliver 6.5% of all gas production from the UK continental shelf, Shell said, enough energy to heat 1.4 million homes. At the same time, it will account for less than 1% of emissions from the production area, it said. "We have been, and remain, determined to minimise the environmental effects of the Jackdaw development project, including by reducing atmospheric emissions," the oil major said in its environmental statement, submitted back in February. The gas condensate field was discovered in 2005 and appraised between 2007 and 2012. It will be developed by Shell affiliate BG International Ltd. By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (L to R) Mel Zimmerman, Ph.D., Clean Water Institute director, Lycoming College; Amy Reyes 04, assistant vice president for alumni engagement, Lycoming College; Laura Coup 23, Clean Water Institute intern, Lycoming College; Tara Reighard 97, community officer manager, C&N; Chip Edmonds, Ed.D. 98, executive vice president, Lycoming College; Rachael Clark 08, vice president, regional retail market leader, C&N; Sofia Odoemena 23, Clean Water Institute intern, Lycoming College; and Tom Rudy, regional president, C&N Download Image: Web Lycoming College is the recipient of a $4,500 donation from C&N to support the Waterdale Environmental Education Center (WEEC), a joint effort between Lycoming Colleges Clean Water Institute (CWI) and the Williamsport Municipal Water Authority (WMWA). The gift has been made through the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC), of which the WEEC is a qualifying educational program. The EITC program offers businesses a credit to lower their tax liability through donations to educational enrichments initiatives such as the WEEC. C&N is committed to investing in local educational programs to champion a strong and prosperous community by creating more opportunities for children to thrive. C&N employs almost a dozen proud Lycoming alumni locally. Myself, along with many of my colleagues, were excited to have the opportunity to support our alma mater and their efforts to bring such an interesting program to our youth, said Rachael Clark 08, vice president, regional retail market leader at C&N. Our hope is that they not only get the opportunity to learn about science and our natural resources, but also about Lycoming College and the hands-on educational experience it provides to students. We are fortunate to have the College and all it has to offer in our community. The WEEC, located in the pristine and beautiful mountain valley of the Mosquito Creek Watershed near the WMWA Filtration Plant, provides a cooperative collaboration of public water supply utilities, academic resources, and local and state conservation agencies and organizations. This partnership provides opportunities for community education and outreach programs that emphasize the science and importance of good stewardship and protection of our natural resources and public water supply sources. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WEEC offered educational outreach programming to approximately 600 K-12 students annually from nearby school districts, including Loyalsock, Montoursville, Montgomery, and East Lycoming, as well as Bishop Newman and the West Branch School. With pandemic restrictions eased, the WEEC is once again offering programming, most recently with a two-day program held May 12-13 for sixth-grade students from Loyalsock Middle School. The students rotated between four stations supervised by Lycoming Colleges Clean Water Institute, the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Williamsport Municipal Water Authority, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Susquehanna Valley Audubon Society, said Mel Zimmerman, Ph.D., CWI director and professor emeritus. The students had the opportunity to plant seedling/saplings along the creek for a riparian buffer, learning how buffers help reinforce the banks of a stream and reduce runoff and erosion. Students also toured the WMWA Filtration Plant and learned about the state amphibian, the hellbender. The ability to offer these programs to local students is important because the center at Waterdale provides an outdoor hands-on opportunity for a variety of aged youth to participate in learning about ecological/conservation topics, said Zimmerman. We are incredibly appreciative for C&Ns contribution to the Waterdale Environmental Education Center, which will greatly enhance our program outreach opportunities. We are very appreciative of the team at Lycoming College for providing hands-on learning programs that successfully engage kids and make them enthusiastic about learning, said Tom Rudy, regional president of C&N. At C&N, we are proud to support programs and businesses such as these that keep our local communities strong for years to come. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. 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. Are there sufficient terms in Manchesters land-use ordinance to regulate short-term rentals without passing additional rules addressing where they are located and what standards they must meet? Thats the question being looked at by the Manchester Select Board. WYOMING, Mich. (AP) Police on Wednesday identified a Wyoming woman and her two children who were allegedly shot and killed by her boyfriend who then killed himself. Police said Liliana Landa-Sanchez, 33, and daughters, Joelin Hernandez-Landa, 13, and Ayzy Hernandez-Landa, 11, were found slain early Tuesday in their home in Wyoming, just southwest of Grand Rapids, The Grand Rapids Press reported. The directors at Real Madrid are standing firm in the Aurelien Tchouameni transfer saga, with the offer they made days ago remaining intact. That proposal was for Monaco to receive 60 million euros, which could rise to 70m euros depending on whether certain variables are met. Real Madrid's hierarchy is remaining patient, waiting for their counterparts at Monaco to consider this bid. Tchouameni wants to move to Real Madrid, but this, of course, doesn't always guarantee that a transfer actually comes to fruition. This is how Tchouameni plays PSG's offer for Tchouameni As was the case with Kylian Mbappe, PSG can offer more money to Monaco and to the player. The principality club may have to accept 20m euros less if they sell to Real Madrid than if they sell to their domestic rivals. There is a sense at Real Madrid that the state-owned clubs are able to offer fees and payments that are outwith the market. Another young target for Real Madrid Real Madrid's transfer strategy has changed in recent years and they have started to target younger players, who might be more attainable and whose cost might not be so high, even if the best prospects will still cost a lot. Real Madrid have been following Tchouameni for some time, but PSG's involvement has made acquiring him more difficult. They won't give up, but there are other alternatives that Los Blancos have in mind. What is clear is that Real Madrid won't overpay for the midfielder, with their current offer staying at 60m euros. The trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp has come to an end after six weeks of statements, countless witnesses and accusations from both sides that have set off a flurry of opinions. Now, it's up to the judge to hand out their verdict while Depp and Heard await, with the latter doing so in her luxurious California desert home. Depp attends concert in the United Kingdom On Sunday night, Depp was seen at Jeff Beck's concert in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Rather than just sit in the audience, the actor decided to go on stage and play the guitar, performing songs like 'Little Wing' by Jimi Hendrix, 'What's Going on' by Marvin Gaye and 'Isolation' by John Lennon. As for the star of 'Aquaman', Heard has decided to get away from the spotlight by resting in her luxury home, which is found in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California. The actress has moved into the property, which was purchased for 536,000 euros in 2019, with her one-year-old daughter Oonagh Paige. This is what Amber Heard's home looks like Thanks to the Redfin real estate agency, we've been able to take a look inside Heard's home. Measuring 230 square meters, and located in the Yucca Valley, the property features a bathroom in the master bedroom, a spa-style bathtub, a large backyard, a garage that can fit up to five cars, as well as a backyard bridge. A veteran artist expresses his gratitude to the province where his creative journey began with a new exhibition. Han Meilin, the well-known artist, now aged 86, views Anhui province as his "second home".In 1963, Han, then a young teacher at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, was transferred to Anhui to help build a fine arts academy in Hefei, the provincial capital. For the next 22 years, he continued to live and work there, before being transferred back to Beijing in the 1980s. Han, possibly most widely known for creating the Fuwa mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, has built a huge body of work through painting, calligraphy, sculpture, design and research of folk arts and crafts. It was in Anhui where Han started his journey, from a young artist to an established figure in the Chinese art world. "Anhui is the place that fuelled my creativity and took my work to a higher level. I felt like I was an airplane taking off at full power," Han says. In a thankful gesture toward the province, Han is presenting an eponymous solo exhibition at Anhui Art Museum in Hefei, which is among several inaugural shows at the new museum that opened to the public on May 25. The long-term exhibition unfolds the full spectrum of Han's work, with paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, stamp designs, zisha (or purple clay) teapots, metalwork and other folk arts. It reflects the diversity and vitality of his creations, as well as his optimism and belief in unremitting work, whether he was experiencing a good or bad time. The exhibition also reviews how Han sourced inspiration from Anhui's cultural heritage, through which he gradually accumulated an art vocabulary of his own. His years in Anhui allowed him an extensive exposure to the rich folk art and crafts of the province. During a yearlong stay in Jieshou, he was immersed in the area's three-color pottery art, a tradition that can be traced to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which features simple and primitive patterns. He also researched other handicrafts, including paper-cutting in Fuyang and tiaohua cross-stitch work in Hefei. In the following decades, Han was able to blend these elements, endorsing ordinary people's takes on life and beauty, in his creation of various forms. It was also at his humble home in Anhui during those years that Han began to explore one of his signature works, Tianshu (Heavenly Script). He created a calligraphy style by infusing the forms of the characters and patterns on archaic bronze and folk items. Zhao Li, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and curator of several of Han's previous exhibitions, says Han's works show that "he is always at the forefront of life, deeply rooted in tradition, bridging the past and the present", and, as such, he is able to reinvent the forms of his creation. "While he is working, he is as vigorous and creative as a young person," Zhao says. Han says that in Anhui he met many people with whom he cemented friendships during difficult times, which is why he still feels gratitude for his years there. He says the current exhibition is not only an opportunity for a "reunion with these friends", but also a promise to them that he will keep working. "I am, and will be, marching on," Han says. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday tested positive for Covid-19 infection. "Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi has been meeting leaders & activists over last week, some of whom have been found Covid positive. Congress President had developed mild fever & Covid symptoms last evening. On testing, she has been found to be Covid positive", said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a tweet. He said in the subsequent tweet that Sonia Gandhi has isolated herself as per medical advice. "As a large number of Congressmen & women & well wishers have expressed concern, we want to say that she is fine and recovering. We thank everyone for their good wishes", he said. The report of Gandhi testing positive for Covid infection has come a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned her and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. The Congress president is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on June 8. Surjewala, however, said in another tweet that the Congress president will appear before the ED on June 8, as informed earlier. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has cut short her visit and returned to Delhi, a party leader said on Thursday. Priyanka had arrived in Lucknow on Wednesday to participate in the two-day 'Nav Sankalp Shivir' to discuss the strategy for the party's revival in Uttar Pradesh. No reasons were cited for her decision to leave early, but sources said that she had returned after she learnt of her mother Sonia Gandhi testing positive for Covid. Vice Chairman, state Congress Media, Pankaj Srivastava, said, "Yes, she has left for New Delhi." On being asked whether the meetings would continue on Thursday, Srivastava said, "Our national secretaries are here and it is going on. Except for Priyankaji's programme nothing has been cancelled." The United States of America is stuck in an icepack of its own creation. It neither has a skilled helmsman or leader of people," and there are none on the horizon. It may soon have to fight for its survival like the crew of the Belgica. by John Stanton The masses are so blinded by greed that they do not even notice that their own leaders live in ill-gained luxury, in cozy isolation and at their expense. Indeed, they do not see that in their political party there is an even more degrading regimes and greater repression of personal fulfillment than that suffered by the most repressed subjects of the state which it opposes. In the past people fought their lords, fooled b the promise of liberation of the nation, national freedom; nowadays it is the promise of freedom for the working class. But the people themselves will never be liberated, they will continue to be oppressed and exploited out of greed and for the sake of the mad phantasies and ideals of some individuals. Oppression and exploitation are only shifted elsewhere by the apostles of the new truth; injustice will live on, generously fed by fear, greed and folly, and in its prevailing form supported by some new aspect of justiceLook at this world, full of wretched people who imagine they have possessions worried that they might loose them and ever toiling in the hope of acquiring more. Look at these people, striving after luxury and wealth, those whose riches are secured, whose stocks and shares are safely deposited and who now nurture an insatiable appetite for knowledge, power, health, glory and pleasure. L.E.J. Brouwer The quote above is excerpted from Life, Art and Mysticism*, written by the brilliant mathematician L.E.J. Brouwer in 1905, some years before he would gain fame as a pioneer in the field of topology. But he is, perhaps, most well known for his development of Intuitionism. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Brouwers brainchild is intuitionism, a revisionist foundation of mathematics. Intuitionism views mathematics as a free activity of the mind, independent of any language or Platonic realm of objects, and therefore bases mathematics on a philosophy of mind. The implications are twofold. First, it leads to a form of constructive mathematics, in which large parts of classical mathematics are rejected. Second, the reliance on a philosophy of mind introduces features that are absent from classical mathematics as well as from other forms of constructive mathematics: unlike those, intuitionistic mathematics is not a proper part of classical mathematics. The implications of Intuitionism are many, one being that mathematics just might be understood as a branch of computer science, not the other way around according to Damien Kristian, a machine language and distributed systems software scientist. This is not the place for a discussion of Brouwers fixed point theorem and other discoveries but rather to point out that his observations of his world in 1905 easily apply to todays Sad World (a chapter so titled in his book). Sad World The sad world of Brouwer, applies most directly to the tactics and strategies of the United States of Americas plutocracy, the source of many of the countrys internal problems and the woes besetting much of the global economy walloped by food shortages, unstable oil prices a flood of US weapons flowing into Ukraine and Europe. The USA is careening into a political civil war in 2024 as the Republican Party and former president Donald Trump plan to incite their followers to disrupt the election process in whatever way they can andif they do not gain the White House by electoral or popular vote, they will do their utmost at the state and federal levels to undue the election outcome. Every pundit left, right, and center knows these issuesincluding meand we have analyzed from our particular positions just about everything wrong with the other side, plus the callousness of US government leaders whether they be political, economic or military. Weve also commented on the pliability of the American mind and public over and over again to no avail: American citizens have been battered with so many lies from their leaders that most just dont care about civic responsibility any longer. We pundits watch in disgust, though most in hawkish pleasure, at President Joe Bidens administration as it sets to wage war against the East (Russia, China) ushering in the beginning of a new chapter in the history of decline of empire, this time an American Empire that has been rampaged by disease and economic hardship at homeand a January 6 coup attempt on the US Senate and House of Representatives by rioters intent on disrupting the certification of the election of Joe Bidenand like many empires past (Rome, for example) seeks to take perpetual war to new heights to patch over its ills at home. Nothing New Here With so much focus on the military and war in US society, is it any wonder that random mass shootings take place all over the country. When there is nothing to work or hope for, or the mind gets bent by whatever ism there is, there is always the path to go out in a blaze of infamy by taking others down with you. Do American soldiers fight for the freedom to gun down people at home? Nope, we pundits, talking heads, and the plutocratic leaders of the land have nothing left to offer each other or the readers/voters who happen upon our insights whether in the mainstream media or the blogs of the world. We are all stuck in ever thickening liberal, conservative, republican, or democrat stovepipes. The Apostles of New Truth are everywhere reminding us all how our false consciousness or unconscious prejudices control who we are. Brouwer reminds that we are nothing special here in 2022. Oh sure, we have the World Wide Web, Social Media, handheld devices, nuclear weapons and can catapult machinery into space, but is all that really an accomplishment? The speed of information is faster but in all our 21st Century glory we are still simple two legged primates led by tribal chieftains. Belgica Perhaps the United States can be compared to the crew of the Belgica, a ship named by Belgian sea captain Adrian De Gerlache. Gerlache, ship and crew set out to reach Antarctica and the South Pole. Gerlache intentionally steered the Belgica into ice flows in a maniacal quest to reach the pole, which would assure him of glory back home. Gerlaches decision caused ship and crew to become sandwiched in the frozen and drifting icepack for a full year from 1898 to 1899. The crew lived in cramped, rat infested quarters during that time. Each night they could hear the noises of the ships timbers reacting to the strains caused by the icepack. Insomnia became a real problem. The canned food they stored turned into a gelatinous, tasteless goo, causing the disgruntlement among the crew. To tame the scurvy that plagued the crew they were ultimately forced to eat nauseating raw seal and penguin meat to get the nutrients they needed. Much of the crew despised killing the penguins and seals they encountered. The grisly deaths of the creatures by their own hands pained the crew, but they had to eat to survive. They lived in three months of darkness and suffered the blizzards and wicked temperatures typical of the Antarctic. After a time, the leap into madness was only one thin thread line away and crew members had to watch each other closely. Gerlache was a skilled sailor but a lousy leader and mutiny was only a few bad decisions away (the book Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sanction has all the details). Still, through luck and herculean efforts they managed to escape the icepack and make it home to Belgium where Gerlache and crew became celebrities. The achieved many firsts in science exploration, cartography, and were the first to winter in Antarctica. The United States of America is stuck in an icepack of its own creation. It neither has a skilled helmsman or leader of people," and there are none on the horizon. It may soon have to fight for its survival like the crew of the Belgica. But, as Norbert Weiner opined, "In a very real sense, we are shipwrecked passengers on a doomed planet. Yet, even in a shipwreck, human decencies and human values do not necessarily vanish, and we must make the most of them. We shall go down, but let it be in a manner to which we may look forward as worthy of our dignity. *Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer. "Life, Art, and Mysticism." Notre Dame J. Formal Logic 37 (3) 389 - 429, Summer 1996. https://doi.org/10.1305/ndjfl/1039886518 John Stanton can be reached at jstantonarchangel@gmail.com The trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard just came to an end. Despite the fact that the jury found both Heard and Depp responsible for defamation in their cases against one other, they awarded Depp substantially greater damages. Having said that, through this case, it was also established that men too can be victims of domestic violence and abuse. But exactly what kind of numbers are we talking about? What domestic violence against men looks like in other countries: In the United States of America, one out of every nine males is subjected to domestic abuse by their intimate partner or their spouses. One in every seven males has been the victim of physical abuse by their spouses or intimate partners. In the United Kingdom, men account for two out of every five victims of domestic abuse. In Australia, since the age of 15, one out of every sixteen males has been subjected to domestic abuse in the form of physical or sexual torture by their spouses, intimate partners, or cohabiting partners. So, how common are these domestic violence cases against Indian men? Here are some eye-opening stats and facts: 1. Gender-based violence affects 52.4 percent of married men, according to a survey of 1000 married men ranging in age from 21 to 49 years old in rural communities of Haryana. 2. In their lives, 51.5 percent of men have been subjected to some form of torture or abuse by their spouses or intimate partners. 3. Emotional abuse is the most prevalent form of marital or domestic violence against males (51.6%), with physical abuse coming in second (6%). 4. Risk variables included low family income, middle-class education, nuclear family arrangement, and a perpetrator under the influence of alcohol. 5. The 4 most common reasons why domestic violence cases against Indian men go unreported: general stereotypes against males, fear of fake cases, societal and family pressure, and denial. 6. Only a man can be held accountable for cruelty to his wife, according to Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code 1860. There is no paragraph or clause in the legislation that makes a woman responsible for domestic abuse. 7. While women are more likely to consider suicide than males, more men die of suicide. 8. Indian wives rank 3rd in the world in beating their husbands. Egypt and the United Kingdom rank first and second, respectively. 9. The existing legislation does not provide males with even the most basic relief of having a male or female aggressor keep away from them (a restraining or protection order). Ham Radio Prep releases full course for the new US Amateur Radio Technician License exam For those looking to get their entry-level US Amateur Radio Technician License, aka ham radio license, the exam questions are updating starting on July 1st, 2022. The new questions will be valid through 2026. The new course includes not only text study guides, but completely revamped video learning, games, quizzes and real-life practice tests much like one experiences when taking the official Federal Communications Commission amateur radio license exam. Ham Radio Prep has made a massive investment in the future of ham radio with its new Technician license course and will only improve upon the popular study program already used by more than 60,000 successful students. The course is the first and only complete video course that covers the new question pool that goes into effect July 1. Our new course was a collaboration with hams with decades of experience, James Cribbs, founder and CEO of Ham Radio Prep said. In retooling the course, we focused on effectiveness while teaching the concepts, remaining short and to the point to ensure high completion rates. Since its start, Ham Radio Prep has upgraded its Technician license course three times to meet the demands of its tens of thousands of students studying in the online platform. The new course is based on the new FCC question pool that is in effect from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026. The Technician class license is the entry-level permit issued to persons who want to get on the air as amateur radio operators. Hams with the Technician license can help provide emergency communications in their community, experiment on the air and talk with other operators both in their general region as well as around the world, depending on radio frequencies used and atmospheric conditions. Question pools for amateur radio licenses are rewritten every four years by the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators, a non-profit organization that ensures the integrity of the licensing process for ham radio in the United States. New questions reflect changes in technology, rules changes and more. Ham Radio Prep submitted 25 questions to the NCVEC for use in the new question pool, and a number of those submitted are reflected in the new questions and answers. Ham Radio Prep drew upon the expertise of our own staff as well as our many students to draw together questions we felt were important to be included on this new round of Technician class exams, Chuck Gysi, general manager of Ham Radio Prep, said. Our students often have comments about the questions they encounter on their exams and we used that input to bring their experience to the NCVEC question pool committee. Questions submitted by Ham Radio Prep to the NCVEC included correct answers and distractors on a variety of subjects ranging from amateur radio operations, technology, emissions, FCC rules and regulations, frequency use and more. There are more than 775,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States and its territories. Ham Radio Prep offers courses designed to teach people online the information they need to take the three classes of exams that grant them FCC licenses for amateur radio. The courses also teach students how to be legal and safe on the airwaves, in accordance with FCC rules and regulations. Ham Radio Prep was established in 2017 to assist people interested in obtaining an FCC-issued amateur radio license by offering courses for the Technician, General and Amateur Extra class licenses. For more information about Ham Radio Prep, go to For those looking to get their entry-level US Amateur Radio Technician License, aka ham radio license, the exam questions are updating starting on July 1st, 2022. The new questions will be valid through 2026. Ham Radio Prep , the nations fastest-growing amateur radio education program, has launched a completely revamped multimedia course covering all of the questions in the updated exam, making it possible for aspiring amateur radio operators to study the new questions without missing a beat.The new course includes not only text study guides, but completely revamped video learning, games, quizzes and real-life practice tests much like one experiences when taking the official Federal Communications Commission amateur radio license exam.Ham Radio Prep has made a massive investment in the future of ham radio with its new Technician license course and will only improve upon the popular study program already used by more than 60,000 successful students. The course is the first and only complete video course that covers the new question pool that goes into effect July 1.Our new course was a collaboration with hams with decades of experience, James Cribbs, founder and CEO of Ham Radio Prep said. In retooling the course, we focused on effectiveness while teaching the concepts, remaining short and to the point to ensure high completion rates.Since its start, Ham Radio Prep has upgraded its Technician license course three times to meet the demands of its tens of thousands of students studying in the online platform. The new course is based on the new FCC question pool that is in effect from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026.The Technician class license is the entry-level permit issued to persons who want to get on the air as amateur radio operators. Hams with the Technician license can help provide emergency communications in their community, experiment on the air and talk with other operators both in their general region as well as around the world, depending on radio frequencies used and atmospheric conditions.Question pools for amateur radio licenses are rewritten every four years by the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators, a non-profit organization that ensures the integrity of the licensing process for ham radio in the United States. New questions reflect changes in technology, rules changes and more. Ham Radio Prep submitted 25 questions to the NCVEC for use in the new question pool, and a number of those submitted are reflected in the new questions and answers.Ham Radio Prep drew upon the expertise of our own staff as well as our many students to draw together questions we felt were important to be included on this new round of Technician class exams, Chuck Gysi, general manager of Ham Radio Prep, said. Our students often have comments about the questions they encounter on their exams and we used that input to bring their experience to the NCVEC question pool committee.Questions submitted by Ham Radio Prep to the NCVEC included correct answers and distractors on a variety of subjects ranging from amateur radio operations, technology, emissions, FCC rules and regulations, frequency use and more.There are more than 775,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States and its territories. Ham Radio Prep offers courses designed to teach people online the information they need to take the three classes of exams that grant them FCC licenses for amateur radio. The courses also teach students how to be legal and safe on the airwaves, in accordance with FCC rules and regulations.Ham Radio Prep was established in 2017 to assist people interested in obtaining an FCC-issued amateur radio license by offering courses for the Technician, General and Amateur Extra class licenses. For more information about Ham Radio Prep, go to http://www.HamRadioPrep.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Five people have died after a shooting at a Tulsa, Oklahoma medical facility June 1, 2022. According to the Associated Press, Tulsa police Capt. Richard Meulenberg confirmed the number of people dead in the shooting. Meulenberg said the shooter was dead and multiple people were injured. According to a Wednesday evening Facebook post by the Tulsa Police Department, there was an active shooter at the Natalie Building at St. Francis Hospital. "At this point, we can confirm the shooter is down at this time," the post read. "Officers are currently going through every room in the building checking for additional threats. We know there are multiple injuries, and potentially multiple casualties." According to the post, officers responded to a report of a man armed with a rifle at the facility. The call "turned into an active shooter situation." According to the AP, St. Francis locked down its campus because of the situation. The Natalie Building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. The shooting in Tulsa comes on the heels of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Ulvade, Texas, when an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers before being shot. The AP reported multiple mass shooting events occurred around the country over Memorial Day weekend. "Gunfire erupted in the predawn hours of Sunday at a festival in the town of Taft, Oklahoma, sending hundreds of revelers scattering and customers inside the nearby Boots Cafe diving for cover," an AP article reads. "Eight people ages 9 to 56 were shot, and one of them died." There was also a shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee in which six children ages 13 to 15 were wounded. In another shooting, 10 people were wounded and three police officers were injured in an incident in Charleston, South Carolina. A 19-year-old man died, and six people were wounded at a club and liquor store in Benton Harbor, Michigan when someone opened fire among a crowd at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning. It is unclear how the Tulsa shooter died or what the motivation was for the shooting. Ham Radio Summer School Ham Radio Summer School hosted by the Strangford High Frequency Enthusiasts Group will prepare you for the UK Full licence exam. We guarantee one to one attention via Google meet sessions and we have over 140 usefull videos. All services are completely free so why not apply today by contacting gi0vkp@gmail.com or visit the Strangford High Frequency Enthusiasts groups facebook page. Photo provided/Michigan State Police Photo provided/Michigan State Police The road was partially closed for roughly three hours after the fatal crash, according to police. A 38-year-old Lake City man died in a traffic crash yesterday after the driver of the vehicle he was a passenger in reportedly ran a stop sign in Wexford County. Troopers from the Michigan State Police Cadillac Post responded to the two-vehicle crash involving a Hyundai Tucson and a Buick Regal on S 37 Road and E 32 Road in Haring Township around 1:48 p.m. Tuesday, according to a press release issued by MSP. Tribune player Q and A: Abbie Guza Ubly track runner Abbie Guza is featured in this Q and A. Indiana man breaks Michigan's catfish record A man from Hobart, Indiana landed a whopper of a catfish while fishing in Michigan that broke the... Everyday Cheapskate: Help! I have issues with your tub and... If I were keeping track of the number of responses from my readers that are filled with praise... Those planning to spend time in the great outdoors this summer would be wise to take measures to keep safe from a disease-carrying arachnids gaining territory in Michigan. Both the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Benzie-Leelnau District Health Department are warning visitors and residents to beware of ticks and the diseases they carry, which can be transmitted to humans though a bite. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging Michigan residents to take steps to avoid tick bites while enjoying the outdoors this summer, reads a press release from the MDHHS. Tick-borne diseases, particularly Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, are increasing across the state. Jennifer Morse, medical director for Health Department District 10, said the black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick, can carry Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. Colin Merry/Record Patriot Statewide, we saw about 450 cases of Lyme disease in the state of Michigan in 2020 and about 100 cases of anaplasmosis, Morse said. Thats only single digits for both diseases in Manistee County, but weve gone from very few cases to a few more this year. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services disease mapper shows Manistee had five reported cases of Lyme in 2020, and Benzie County had seven cases of Lyme disease reported in 2020. While the 2021 Lyme disease numbers werent yet available on the MDHHS website, Dr. Josh Meyerson, Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department medical director, said there were over 870 cases reported double that of 2020. Anaplasmosis is also becoming more common now, Meyerson said. There were four reported in Benzie County in 2021. There were no reported anaplasmosis cases in Benzie County in 2020, according to the MDHHS Michigan Trends in Tick Borne Illness report from 2016 to 2020. Morse said anaplasmosis is transmitted to humans when a tick bites a human and transfers the bacteria that causes the disease while feeding on blood. It causes damage to the white blood cells, she said. For most people, it causes mild illness like fatigue, fever and headache. However, it can get more serious and cause neurological symptoms. Morse said in 1% of cases, it can cause death. Lyme disease can also cause fever, chills, headache and fatigue, as well as muscle and joint aches, according to the MDHHS. If not treated, it can cause severe headaches; facial palsy; arthritis; tendon, bone, muscle and joint pain; irregular heartbeat; shortness of breath; nerve pain and numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. In 79-80% of cases, an infection is identified by a bullseye rash pattern radiating from the bite, according to the MDHHS. However, a person can be infected and never experience a rash. While there are several species of ticks in Michigan, both Meyerson and Morse said the black-legged tick is the biggest carrier. They started entering the sate from the far western part of the Upper Peninsula and the southwestern corner of the Lower Peninsula, he said. Theyre found in counties along the Lake Michigan coast, but they can be found inland as well. Courtesy photo/Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Meyerson said the ticks favor the grassland and woodland habitat on the coast. Morse said more and more people have been spending more time outdoors along the Lake Michigan coast, which brings them into contact with the ticks, and causes an increase in infections. Climate change seems to be a factor in these tick species migrating into Michigan, she said. The lone star tick, which can cause Rocky Mountain fever, has also been creeping into Michigan, according to Morse. Other ticks, such as the American dog tick, aren't know for carrying diseases as well as other ticks, Meyerson said. Courtesy photo/Centers for Disease Control Preventing a bite Preventing a tick bite is the best method of avoiding diseases such as Lyme and anaplasmosis, according to Morse and Meyerson. They dont jump or fly; they wait for people to brush against them, Meyerson said. Try sticking to trails where you arent brushing up against plants as often. He also suggested wearing long pants and tucking socks and shirts in. After each hike, check each other for ticks, or take a shower and check yourself, Meyerson said. They like to hide in areas like the back of the knees, the groin and belt line. Morse suggested using insect repellant that contains DEET. Its safe and effective, she said. There are also sprays you can use to keep ticks out of your yard. Both Morse and Meyerson also said another option was impregnating clothing with insect repellant. Im an advocate of permethrin, Morse said. You can buy clothing pre-treated, and it lasts about six washes. You can also treat clothing yourself. You can find it in the camping sections of retailers What to do if bitten What to know about Lyme disease and ticks Prevent tick bites According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, there are ways to prevent tick bites, such as: Use repellent that contains 20% or more DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 on exposed skin for protection that lasts several hours; Wear clothing that has been treated with permethrin; Take a shower as soon as you can after coming indoors; Look for ticks on your body; and Put your clothes in the dryer on high heat for 60 minutes to kill any remaining ticks. How to remove ticks The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services suggests: Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as possible; Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you cannot remove the mouth easily with tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal; After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water; and Never crush a tick with your fingers. Dispose of a live tick by putting it in alcohol, placing it in a sealed bag, wrap tightly in tape or flush the tick down the toilet. Signs of Lyme disease According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services: Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches and swollen lymph nodes may occur in the absence of rash; Erythema migrans, a rash radiating from the bight after bout three to 30 days that expands over several days; Later symptoms may include severe headache and neck stiffness, additional rashes, facial palsy, arthritis with pain and swelling, pain in tendons, muscles, joints and bones, heart palpitations, dizziness, inflammation of brain an spinal cord, nerve pain and shooting paints, numbness and tingling in the hands or feet; and If you experience these symptoms after a tick bite, visit your physician. See More Collapse In the event of a tick bite, Meyerson said to ignore much of the advice on twisting, burning or attempting to suffocate a tick to remove it. Using fine tweezers, grab the tick by the head as close to the skin as you can and pull steadily out, he said. Meyerson said a tick must be attached for at least 24 hours to transmit a disease, but because of their small size, they often arent detected unless a person specifically looks for them after spending time outdoors. The MDHHS website on Lyme disease recommends a person who has bitten to monitor for signs of the disease, such as the bullseye rash and to visit a doctor if they have any symptoms. It can be cleared up with some antibiotics, Meyerson said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate With every unit at Village West Condominiums now occupied, owner Doug Loose looks back at a very busy two-year period with a sense of gratitude. After all, the 46-unit, 10-building complex was nearly abandoned by its homeowners association after suffering heavy flooding following the dam failures in May 2020. "We got our last permits on May 5, (2022). We were full on May 13," Loose said. "The mayor (Maureen Donker) helped out a lot. The city inspectors made sure all our stuff was up to date." Loose said 33 of the units have long-term tenants, while the rest are fully furnished and intended as short-term housing. Sixteen Dow interns will be living at Village West for the summer, he said. Village West, which was built in 1987, lies just east of Northwood University and is close to the Tittabawassee River and Sturgeon Creek. It right in the crosshairs when the Tittabawassee flooded just over two years ago. The Daily News reported in June 2020 that the Village West board of directors had initially voted unanimously to not repair the condos in light of the amount of flood damage they had sustained and the potential requirements for them to meet strict building codes for flooded residences that are repaired in a floodplain. However, Loose stepped in with his own proposal. In late June, he offered to purchase all 46 units, repair all flood damage, and rent to those who wished to stay on a lifetime lease at a discounted rate. Most of the residents at the time were seniors. After holding two collective meetings with the residents and some individual meetings to follow up, Loose came to an agreement with all 46 homeowners to purchase all the condos. The $4.2 million purchase, brokered by Modern Realty and financed in part by Frankenmuth Credit Union, was finalized in August 2020. Loose and numerous contractors then went to work on repairing the condos. "We've had over 100 contractors on site," he noted. Supply chain delays were a hurdle that had to be overcome in the process of fixing all the units. "We couldn't get caulking for months. We had to improvise," Loose said. He said some businesses really stepped up to help Village West, including a local business, Builders Plumbing & Heating Supply, along with Home Depot, Menards and others. "We struggled, but we made it through," Loose said. An international community Over the course of the past two years, Village West's occupants have turned over almost 100%. Loose's mother and stepfather, Sharon and Bob Weaver, are the only tenants from May 2020 still remaining. Loose and his wife, Virginia, who got married in March of this year, have moved into one of the condos themselves. Virginia grew up in Costa Rica and is one of many international residents now living at Village West. Others, she said, are from Korea, China, Japan, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ethiopia and South Africa. In fact, so many non-native English speakers moved into Village West about 22 currently that Doug Loose realized there was a need for English instruction there. "So I went to ETC (Education and Training Connection) and we came up with a plan," he explained. An English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom was set up in a basement of one of the units, and an ESL instructor goes to Village West once a week for three to four hours to teach residents who are at varying levels of English proficiency. The instruction is free of charge, Loose said. "ESL will help us (non-native English speakers) get a better job," Virginia said. The international influence at Village West has also fostered cross-cultural understanding. Residents have shared meals with each other from their respective countries. Meeting tenants' needs Another resident, Louis DeWeaver, said his family moved into Village West in February 2021 and was the second tenant -- following Sharon and Bob Weaver to move there after the rebuilding. Having previously worked at Northwood, DeWeaver was very familiar with Village West. So when he heard that the condos were being repaired, he was immediately interested in moving in. The quality of the units, and the Looses' flexibility in allowing tenants to make interior changes, sold DeWeaver and his family on Village West. "Why buy a home when I can just stay here? I end up cheaper renting than owning," said DeWeaver, who works remotely in cybersecurity for a company in New York. The DeWeaver family's two dogs enjoy the adjacent woods, and the family attends the bonfires that the Looses sometimes hold for all the Village West residents. "It feels like family," DeWeaver enthused. "Doug's the best landlord I've had." Loose said he and Virginia do their best to work with prospective tenants who need financial help, knowing that the housing market in Midland, among many other places, is very tight. Loose is glad that the Village West condos are available as one option for people in Midland. "If you take 46 units off the market right now, (that would make housing options even slimmer)," Loose said. HAMDEN Police have arrested a former Booker T. Washington Academy teacher they allege sexually assaulted a 13-year-old student on multiple occasions at the school. The investigation into Dominique Maynard, 27, began on Nov. 11, 2021, when authorities received a report that she had exchanged inappropriate text messages with a group of students 12 to 13 years old, Hamden police Detective Sean Dolan said Thursday. Though Maynard was not named at the time, the investigation made the news the following day when the charter school announced it had fired a teacher due to allegations of misconduct. Elementary school students attend a location in New Haven while older students attend the academys facility on Circular Avenue in Hamden. John Taylor, executive director of Booker T. Washington Academy, issued a new statement Thursday. We know itll be a long road to recovery but for us, this arrest means the investigation found credence in our initial complaint, Taylor said in a release. When we first discovered the misconduct, we acted quickly to alert authorities and took the proper steps to secure our scholars well-being by being transparent and working to assist in the investigation. All along, our primary focus remained on the safety of every scholar enrolled in our academy. With this most recent development, we will continue to work together with our scholars, their families, and the Booker T. Washington staff to ensure our parents continue to have confidence in our commitment to the safety of our community. Maynard, of New Haven, faces four counts of second-degree sexual assault and four counts of illegal sexual contact, the state judicial database shows. She was held in lieu of $100,000 bail and scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Meriden Friday. meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com MIDDLETOWN The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center will present a reception for its Middletown Arts Fest exhibit Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at 605 Main St., featuring paintings by city-based Kevin Cox. Artwork will be hanging in the gallery for month of June, and is for sale, according to a press release. Born and raised in Memphis, Tenn., Cox studied art at the University of Memphis and moved to Connecticut in 2013. After living in a bubble for most of his life, he decided to branch out and see a new perspective of the country with a couple of friends, The Buttonwood Tree said. Cox, who lives with his partner Brian, says he prefers to paint people as a coping mechanism for his social anxiety disorder, the news release said. I am an aggressive introvert, he said in a prepared statement. However, I am at the same time fascinated by people. I like capturing people, both as they really are, and who they are trying to project, a moment in time captured of modern life. I want to capture their authentic self, even if it is while they are pretending. Cox said his art is voyeuristic looking in on a private moment. Because of social media, we are a society of voyeur enthusiasts in a way. Using social media as well as using my own creeper photos, photos taken of people while going about my daily life, I hope to capture a realistic time capsule of the times in which we live, he explained. The event is free. For information, call 860-347-4957 or navigate to buttonwood.org. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MIDDLETOWN Sometimes words are not enough. Sometimes people need a little bit more, such as a blank canvas and some paint, to express ones self. For many, art serves not only as a great outlet for creativity, but for self-expression, which is why Futures Inc., at 158 Broad St., decided to launch an art center at its Middletown campus, the results of which are now spreading throughout the community. The agency advocates for equality for those with disabilities by advancing personalized opportunities so each person can live a life within our community, according to its website. More than just a creative outlet, the art created by participants there has become a micro-enterprise, with products now being sold in local gift shops. What theyre doing stretches everyones creativity, said Futures, Inc. President and CEO Pamela DonAroma, adding the organization rents space in town to serve as its dedicated art center. The purpose is to have a place for the individuals we support to express their creativity. The agency provides education and day programs to people with disabilities across Connecticut. These individualized initiatives tend to serve people 14 and older, according to Vice President of Programs and Technology Jo-Ann Flynn. They also teach clients life skills, as well as recreation opportunities. The art program began about three years ago under the leadership of Denise Smith, an independent services provider with the organization. Smith, who ran her own photography studio for 25 years, wanted to incorporate her arts background when she began working with Futures, Inc. three years ago, but the organization didnt have one at the time. So she made one. Rather than draw on her photographic roots, Smiths courses focuses on paintings. Much as she instructs students, Smith taught herself new painting techniques, gathering ideas from YouTube and Pinterest. Some classes are more traditional, with students simply taking to a canvas with some paint and a brush, but theyve expanded to nontraditional techniques as well under Smiths tutelage. Some days, clients pour paint onto the canvas and manipulate it with air from a hair dryer; other times they try their hand at printmaking with paint-covered sponges or leaves. Ive tried to come up with nontraditional ways just to expand what we do, Smith said. It really has developed into quite a fun and interesting place for people we work with to come together and create one-of-a-kind art. You can find examples of this artwork on the walls at Futures, Inc., where a boldly colored canvas with gray streaks hangs proudly in one office. But some participants, such as Katie Moffett, take joy in sharing their art with family. Moffett has been part of the program since it began. Shes given many of her pieces to her mother, who hangs them in her home. It makes me happy they love it, Moffett said, noting her artwork has become more precise while learning under Smith. Futures, Inc. recently started expanding the footprint of their work even further. After COVID limited their ability to show their art over the last few years, the art center began displaying work in local shows in November, with a month-long exhibition at the Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center. This was followed by a show at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain and another at the First Church Middletown UCC. Not only that, but some of the pieces at these shows were sold, with funding going returned to the art program. Thats one way we are working on creating awareness in the community of capabilities that people we work with (and) what theyre capable of doing, Smith said. Each individual artist makes a commission on what they sell. Smith has also helped the artists create microenterprises, something Futures, Inc. also offers. This allows the painters to sell the work theyre doing. Many cards and coffee mugs were created from their prints that Futures, Inc. sells in its gift shop/nonprofit social enterprise, Good Cause Gifts. The plan is to have other local gift businesses start selling these products as well. There will also be those made specifically to sell at Middletown Pride Saturday, made with inspirational sayings. Futures, Inc. also has plans to expand its program to the Norwich campus, Flynn said, with a project to convert a barn there to an art center. (The program) expanded their abilities and brings happiness to them, Flynn said. Theyre able to paint a happy picture Each one has grown through being able to be part of the art program They really blossomed. Theyre able to express themselves, and then, when they sell a piece, the happiness theyve gotten from that is phenomenal, she added. For information, go to futures-ct.org. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MIDDLETOWN Middletown LGBTQIA+ Commission member and Pride march organizer Laura Timmons is looking forward to Saturday when the city will hold Connecticuts largest celebration of diversity, inclusion and acceptance. My mission is to save lives, make sure that everyone has the same human rights as everyone else, and can live to their most fulfilling life experiences, Timmons said. Trans rights are human rights, LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights, Timmons added about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex and asexual community. Middletown LGBTQIA+ Commission members, representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Russell Library, citizens and state and local officials gathered Wednesday in front of the Church of the Holy Trinity during a ceremony at the Quasar Progress Pride Flag sidewalk on Main Street. Founder of Middletown Pride, deputy general counsel Chris Forte, who is also a member of commission, said pride means being seen, being acknowledged. Pride is every day, he said. In its first year, the 2019 Pride observance drew 15,000 people downtown, Mayor Ben Florsheim said. The pandemic canceled the next years celebration, and mostly virtual activities were held in 2021. The most important groups to show up for are the more marginalized groups of the LGBTQIA+ community, specifically our queer, trans and trans youth of color, who have so many layers that are on top of them even in Connecticut, which we dont want to talk about, but are really stopping them from thriving, and, in a lot of cases, from surviving, grand marshal Mel Cordner said. After the Middletowns advisory committee, the precursor to the LGBTQIA+ Commission, lifted more members of our LGBTQIA+ community into local government many for the first time, Forte explained. He is anticipating the first Pride exhibit. For me, its so meaningful to have this installation at City Hall, in our house in the seat of the citys power, he explained. I grew up in a community, and I came from a place where being gay and being out was not accepted and I never could see something like this happen. We are inventing this amazing community as we live through it, the mayor said. Middletown Pride is for everyone, Florsheim added. Its for the young person who grew up feeling less than, because they were different; people who grew up gay, grew up trans, people who were made to feel different, who were treated poorly, who were bullied or isolated because of who they were. Pride is for them. In late June 1969, the Stonewall riots launched a national gay rights movement, a push back between folks trying to step into one of the few safe spaces that we had, Cordner said. It was a push back against violence, saying we dont belong here. The month-long observance stemmed from a police raid at a gay club in New Yorks Greenwich Village, which sparked a riot, followed by nearly a week of public protests. Pride was brought to you from people pushing back, by queer people of color, by nonbinary people, trans people, fighting for their ability to exist in a safe space, they said. Common Councilman Anthony Mangiafico said the colorful crosswalk is a symbol. Its not just here for a few days in June, it is here year-round. When members of our community walk by here, they can see that Middletown is a safe space. Middlesex Health on Wednesday raised the Progress Pride Flag in honor of Pride Month, and Juneteenth flag in recognition of the end of enslavement in the United States. Police Chief Erik Costa issued a statement sharing his and the departments commitment to the local LGBTQIA2S+ community, referring also to the two-spirit residents. This is deeply important to me on a personal level, he wrote. My brother is a proud gay man, and a person who has been a role model to me for my entire life. I want my community to be a place where he, and the entire LGBTQIA2S+ community, can feel safe, welcomed, and respected. The history between the LGBTQIA2S+ community and police, Costa acknowledged, is not without struggles, especially for people of color and the transgender community, and community members at the intersection of more than one of those identities. All city officers have undergone training by the Triangle Community Center of Norwalk, and will repeat it every three years as part of the recertification process, the chief added. The chief said he plans to implement policies and strategies to address implicit bias in our officers to improve our cultural responsiveness to the community and increase fair and equitable employment opportunities specifically for LGBTQIA2S+ applicants. Council Minority Leader Phil Pessina gave an impassioned speech to those gathered, saying he woke up Wednesday thinking about rainbows. The pot of gold is not a metal coin, its not a fortune. Its love, he said. Love will change the world. Highland County club wins 'Academy Award' of amateur radio The Highland Amateur Radio Association, a local organization of amateur radio operators called hams, was named the Club of the Year during the three-day annual Dayton Hamvention event at the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center Saturday, May 21. The Dayton Hamvention has grown to be one of the two largest gatherings of amateur radio operators in the world and the largest of its type in North America. The awards are considered by amateur radio enthusiasts to be the Academy Awards of amateur radio. While accepting the award, Highland Amateur Radio Association President Pat Hagan said this is the first time the award has been awarded to a club serving a lesser-populated, rural, Appalachian area of the nation that is in the middle of nowhere. The local clubs information officer, John Levo, attributed attaining this years award to the increase in the organizations membership over the years. Primarily it was because of the growth of the club; growing from the original 22 charter members back in 1977 to our present 137, said Levo. We ended last year with 143 members, and clubs in the major metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada do not even have these kinds of numbers, so the national leaders have taken note of what is going on here in southern Ohio and Highland County with our club in promoting amateur radio. Additionally, Levo said the club provides public safety and promotional services to the local community as well as general participation in community events. We promote travel and tourism and the history of Highland County throughout the world through what we call special event stations, he said. Each year we pick a location that we go out to and set up and use our portable equipment to transmit for a day or two from one of the historic spots here in the county. Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of radio frequencies for non-commercial message exchanges. Although the technology may seem antiquated, it is still considered important. The benefits of ham radio are important today and maybe even more so than in past years, said Levo. For instance, last year and the previous year during the west coast forest fires in Oregon, Washington and California, many cell towers were strictly destroyed, and electric power was lost because of the fires so it was ham radio that was the only dependable method of communication for government authorities, fire departments, and life squads. Not reliant on an electrical grid, ham radios can operate from batteries, generators and solar power. Levo said ham radio operators were particularly useful during a local blizzard in the 1970s when the village of Leesburg lost power and telephone service. We placed one of our members in a county snowplow, and he was delivered to the police department in Leesburg, and he operated and provided communication from Leesburg to the sheriffs department for two days until the electric company got power back to the village and the telephone company was able to fix the phone lines, Levo said. As a hobby, Levo said he enjoys ham radio for the magic of it. Through ham radio, he said he can give a call out over the airwaves using less electricity than a light bulb and talk to people in Australia or England or even the astronauts circling the earth. Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571. Source: https://www.timesgazette.com/news/65770/hara-named-hamvention-club-of-year MIDDLETOWN Following the recent demolition of the former Woodrow Wilson Middle School, the new Middletown Recreation Center is being developed by Clarke Energy, which will provide the power solution for the building, according to a news release. With significant investment from the Middletown Common Council, the site will include a new recreation office, along with renovations to the gyms and pools, creating the first dedicated building for the department, the press release said. The building will also be used as a heating and cooling center during extreme weather events, it said. If the utility company experiences an outage, the microgrid system will supply energy to the building, keeping local residents supplied with resilient power, the firm said. We see sustainable, resilient energy as key to the longevity of these community facilities, and we are pleased to be supported by Symbiont Energy and Clarke Energy in this endeavor, Middletown Acting Director of Public Works Chris Holden said in the release. Sustainable and resilient energy for the recreation center is essential, according to Clarke Energy, which will also develop a turnkey microgrid for the site, the news release said. This facility incorporates several different power generation and storage technologies that will be integrated and optimized to provide both parallel and back-up power for the community center, the statement said. Clarke Energys CHP units will supply 35kW of electricity and 204.1kBTU/hr of hot water at high efficiency. The CHP can provide black-start capability for the microgrid. In addition, there will be a solar photovoltaic array, providing renewable electricity from the sun. Surplus energy can be stored in a battery energy storage system for peak shaving, Clarke said. The resiliency of the site will be further supported with a Kohler KG100 back-up gas-fueled generator. The sites energy resources will be coordinated by a centralized microgrid controller, the statement said. It is estimated the microgrid will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 192 tons per year FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) The remains of a teenager who went missing nearly 50 years ago have been identified through advanced DNA technology, and detectives believe she may have been slain by a police officer who was also a serial killer. Susan Poole, 15, was a high school dropout whose family reported her missing just before Christmas in 1972. She had been living between the family's home in a trailer park near Fort Lauderdale and with a friend in a nearby apartment, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Detective William Springer said during a news conference Thursday. Nobody knew where she went, he said, noting that her clothes and pocketbook were left at the friend's apartment. A year and a half later, in June 1974, sheriff's deputies were called to a remote location in Palm Beach County where human remains were found. She was tied up in the mangroves with wire to a tree," Springer said. She was skeletal remains, totally nothing left of her except bones." Back then, detectives didn't have the DNA technology that is now readily available, so the case quickly turned cold, he said. In 2015, investigators submitted DNA to a national missing persons database, which turned up nothing. Then, in December, Othram, a Texas-based forensics lab that builds DNA profiles using genealogy, contacted the sheriff's office and said they may be able to help solve cold cases. In March, the company provided the names of the victim's mother and siblings. Springer said they provided a DNA sample from Poole's mother, who was verified as a match. Now Springer is looking for evidence that connects Poole to Gerard Schaefer, a serial killer who was fatally stabbed by a fellow inmate at the Florida State Prison in 1995. Schaffer had been a police officer in Wilton Manors, a Fort Lauderdale suburb, and was a deputy with the Martin County Sheriff's Office at the time Poole disappeared, Springer said. Schaefer was found guilty of murdering two other girls, ages 16 and 17, who lived near Fort Lauderdale. Their mutilated and decapitated remains were found in April 1973 in Martin County. Because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Florida did not have a death penalty in the early 1970s and Schaefer was sentenced to life in prison. Because of the similar way in which those teens were killed, Springer said he believes Schaefer could have been involved in Pooles death. Authorities say Schaefer was implicated in up to 30 deaths. Robert Stone, who prosecuted Schaefer, once called him, the most sexually deviant person I had ever seen. He made Ted Bundy look like a Boy Scout. Investigators are hoping to speak to several friends who lived near Poole when she disappeared and could possibly fill in some blanks about her activities during that time. Springer wants to know if she frequently hitchhiked or whether she had ever confided in them about any kind of relationship with Schaeffer. For Poole's mother, who is in her 90s, and siblings, the news has brought some closure, Springer said. The family was happy to know what happened," he said. Its been a long time waiting to see what happened to their sister." ___ Associated Press writer Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration on Thursday proposed undoing a Trump-era rule that limited the power of states and Native American tribes to block energy projects like natural gas pipelines based on their potential to pollute rivers and streams. The Clean Water Act allows states and tribes to review what effect pipelines, dams and some other federally regulated projects might have on water quality within their borders. The Trump administration sought to streamline fossil fuel development and made it harder for local officials to block projects. The Biden administrations proposed rule would shift power back to states, tribes and territories. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the agencys draft regulation would empower local entities to protect water bodies while supporting much-needed infrastructure projects that create jobs. Thursdays action is the latest move by the Biden administration to tighten water regulations loosened under the Trump administration. The Trump rule required local regulators to focus their reviews on the pollution that projects might discharge into rivers, streams and wetlands. It also rigidly enforced a one-year deadline for regulators to make permitting decisions. Some states lost their authority to block certain projects based on allegations they blew the deadline. Now, the EPA says states should have the authority to look beyond pollution discharged into waterways and holistically evaluate the impact of a project on local water quality. The proposal would also give local regulators more power to ensure they have the information they need before facing deadline pressure to issue or deny a permit. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in on the EPA proposal before it is finalized. The final rule isnt expected to go into effect until the spring of 2023. For now, the Trump-era rule remains in effect. Robin Rorick, a vice president at the industry group American Petroleum Institute, said the energy industry doesnt need more red tape. The proposal may lead to unnecessary delays. We support the Clean Water Act and are concerned these actions would counteract the well-defined timeline and review process enacted by Congress, Rorick said in a statement. But environmental groups praised the Biden administration's action. Before the Trump administration got involved, the interpretation had been the more holistic approach, said Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney at Earthjustice. The environmental group represented three tribes in a lawsuit that challenged the Trump administrations rollback. Former President Donald Trump had argued that states were improperly wielding the Clean Water Act to block needed fossil fuel projects. New York, for example, has used its review authority to deny certain natural gas pipeline projects. Washington refused to issue a permit for a coal export terminal in 2017. In 2020, EPA officials said the Clean Water Act shouldnt be used to hold infrastructure projects hostage and finalized its rule that curtailed state and tribal power. Washington states Attorney General Bob Ferguson applauded EPAs move, calling it a major improvement over the Trump administrations rule. The Trump rule was challenged in federal court by a coalition of environmental groups and several states including New York and Washington. Oil and gas industry trade associations and several predominantly Republican-led states defended it. The rule was tossed by a federal judge, but in April a divided Supreme Court reinstated it. The Supreme Courts three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, saying supporters of the rule hadnt shown that they would be sufficiently harmed by the lower courts ruling. Certain energy projects like natural gas pipelines that cross state lines must be reviewed by federal agencies. The Clean Water Act says if a project discharges material into federally regulated waters, states, territories and tribes have the right to review whether those discharges are lawful. ___ Phillis reported from St. Louis. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A former Mike Pence aide seeking to oust Indianas Republican secretary of state is embracing Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen while also fending off criticism about twice leaving jobs in that office after being written up for poor job performance. Diego Morales work history has emerged as an issue in his campaign against Secretary of State Holli Sullivan. Its largely happening outside public view as they seek support among roughly 1,800 delegates who will pick the nominee for Indiana's chief elections officer at the June 18 state Republican convention. Sullivans campaign sent text messages to delegates in recent weeks with links to documents critical of Morales job performance in 2009 and 2011. The messages close: Our elections are too important to hand over to someone who is not ready for the job and has a troubled employment history in the exact office he is seeking to hold. The secretary of state oversees statewide policies for elections, which are run by county officials. Morales, 43, dismisses the disciplinary actions as office politics and has worked to connect with delegates through frequent appearances at local Republican events. Sullivan, 49, previously worked in auto plant management and was a state representative from Evansville for seven years before being appointed secretary of state by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in March 2021 when her predecessor retired. Sullivan touts her work toward improving cybersecurity for county election offices and adding small printers to thousands of electronic touch-screen voting machines across the state to create a paper trail of each ballot cast. Morales, meanwhile, has called the 2020 election a scam while pointing to unfounded claims Trump and his allies have made about other states. The former president hasnt endorsed anyone in the race, but Morales is trying to attract Trump supporters. He's pushing voter restrictions that include cutting the states 28-day early voting period in half, requiring new voters to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering, and creating an election task force that would investigate shenanigans." As for the disciplinary actions he faced as a junior staff member in the secretary of state's office, he says he's facing a smear campaign. That was disagreement in leadership, disagreements in opinions, probably office politics, office rivalry, Morales, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teenager with his parents and sisters, said in an interview. Obviously, the government bureaucracy at its best. The disciplinary actions were first reported by The Associated Press during Morales' unsuccessful 2018 run for Congress. Records obtained under Indiana's public records act showed he was fired in 2009 after eight months in Republican Todd Rokita's office due to incomplete work, inefficient execution and a lack of focus. He refused to agree to a work improvement plan and submitted his resignation when he was fired, according to a termination letter. Two years later, Morales left a different position in the office after refusing to sign a work improvement plan under then-Secretary of State Charlie White, a Republican who was himself removed from office in 2012 following a voter fraud conviction. Morales worked just over a month when he was disciplined for poor execution" and failing to complete his work, records show. Morales returned to state government as an aide on the governors staff when Pence took office in 2013 and remained until Pence left to become Trumps vice president in 2017. Some top Pence governors office staffers have defended Morales work and support his candidacy. Rokita, now state attorney general, wrote a message distributed by the Morales campaign saying, As far as Im concerned, Diego left my office on good terms, and I consider him a longtime friend. Sullivan, a former vice chair of the state Republican Party, said qualifications and background are important for the office and that the public documents do not show someone leaving on good terms. I think delegates deserve transparency and because it was a public office and he was a state employee, they have those public documents to review, Sullivan said. Other candidates seeking the Republican nomination are Knox County Clerk David Shelton and Paul Hager, a former Libertarian Party candidate from Bloomington. Sullivan and Morales each raised about $500,000 for their campaigns through the end of March, far ahead of the others. Destiny Scott Wells, an attorney and Army Reserve intelligence officer, is the only Democrat seeking the nomination at the partys June 18 convention. Libertarian candidate Jeff Maurer will also be on the November ballot. Complicating Sullivans candidacy are her links to Holcomb, who despite his landslide reelection win in 2020 has faced conservative criticism over actions ranging from COVID-19 restrictions he imposed to his veto of a bill banning transgender females from girls school sports. Many conservative activists won convention delegate seats in the May primary, even though hard-right challengers to current Republican legislators largely failed. The attention on Morales job history could sway delegates who arent already strong supporters of any candidate, said Steve Shine, whos been the Republican chairman in Allen County, which includes Fort Wayne, for 29 years. That also has the possibility of backfiring and working against those who thought it would help because there are some people who are totally turned off by negativism in any race, said Shine, who hasnt endorsed any candidate. DEEP RIVER The Connecticut State Police Hate Crimes Unit is investigating after the agency said a vulgar, racist message was affixed to a sign board Wednesday morning. The state police barracks in Westbrook was notified around 6:50 a.m. that the message had been posted on a board at Devitt Field. State police said the board has removable letters that can be fixed to the sign. The complainant contacted the police when they realized the original message had been altered, state police said. A photo of the board sent to Hearst Connecticut Media showed the text on the board had been altered to read in part Trump 2024 above a line with racial epithets. Stacey Sobel, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut, said the organization was notified of the incident late Wednesday. We commend the town of Deep River and the Office of the First Selectman on their prompt response, Sobel said in a statement Thursday. They immediately took action to remove this abhorrent language from the town sign, and are now beginning the process of healing. Sobel added that youth groups, the interfaith clergy and others in the Deep River, Essex and Chester area will start conversations regarding education and programming to affect change. There is no place for racism and hate in Connecticut, Sobel said. Everyone must take a stand and speak up against hate wherever it appears. State Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, condemned the altered sign in a statement Thursday. This is hate-speech, and I support town officials and the police in taking this very seriously, Palm, a Democrat whose district includes Deep River. Weve seen a rise in incidents like this across the country in recent years. That trend has only deepened the resolve of those of us who know diversity strengthens every community. Like any cancer, racism must be stopped early, Palms statement continued. Whether this was a youthful prank or the cowardly act of an adult, it has no place in our town. I know my fellow residents of the 36th District will not stand for this and join me in condemning this despicable act of hate. State Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, also denounced the messages on the sign. This is reprehensible behavior that has no place in the Deep River community, or for that matter, any community, Needleman said. I denounce the messages left and the horrid beliefs they represent. Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of hate speech our region has seen. We must work toward a future where it doesnt happen again. He went on to say: Hatred has a real cost and exacts a heavy toll on our communities, especially when used to intimidate and hurt others. We must work together to find common solutions and togetherness, leaving those intending to divide and harm to languish in condemnation. State police said the investigation into the incident is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the State Police Hate Crimes Unit at Hate.Crimes@ct.gov or Troop F Westbrook at 860-399-2100. Staff writer Liz Hardaway contributed to this report. An animal advocacy organization filed a formal complaint last week asking federal officials to investigate Mystic Aquarium after a second beluga whale died earlier this year. In the complaint, Stop Animal Exploitation Now, a nonprofit based in Ohio that monitors U.S. research facilities for illegal behavior and animal abuse, alleged potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act regulations relevant to veterinary care. According to a letter to the National Institutes of Healths Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare attached in the complaint, an official with Mystic Aquarium said Havana, a 6-year-old beluga whale, experienced an emergency and died on Feb. 11. An examination later showed numerous significant lesions indicating storage disease in the whales brain and spinal cord and acute cardiac failure, the aquarium wrote in the letter. The aquarium imported five beluga whales from a facility in Canada in May 2021 despite outcries from animal rights groups and a lawsuit. A few months later, in August 2021, 5-year-old Havok died while being treated for gastrointestinal issues. A federal oversight report revealed that staff recorded Havoks abnormal behavior but failed to notify his veterinarian until hours after he died. A second beluga whale, Havana, died in February. Beluga whales typically live 30 to 35 years, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says these whales can live up to 90 years. A spokesperson with the USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the agency is looking into the complaint. The aquarium will respond appropriately to all government inquiries and well of course respond to any requests that APHIS may make regarding SAENs complaint or any other matters, said Meagan Seacor, a spokesperson for Mystic Aquarium. SAEN filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on May 25. In the complaint, the organization states negligence at this facility killed Havana. You must take meaningful action to protect all other animals still in possession of [Mystic Aquarium] from such carelessness and negligence, SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie wrote in the complaint. The complaint also calls for $10,000 penalties per infraction and/or animal, including violations recorded in a January inspection that stated Havana and another beluga whales pools had poor water quality. The USDA inspected the aquariums six remaining beluga whales, along with 24 other animals, in early April and said the aquarium was in compliance at the time, according to a USDA inspection report. In a letter to the National Institutes of Healths Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, which was attached in the complaint, Mystic Aquariums Senior Vice President of Mission Programs Katie Cubina said Havana started having a variable appetite in November 2021. She began demonstrating episodic abnormal behavior including abnormal swimming, contacting walls, and appearing as though she could not see, the letter states. The aquarium had various exams conducted to see what was causing this behavior. These tests came back mostly normal except her ocular exam showed healing keratopathy, or damage in the cornea, and minor abnormalities in other analyses. The aquarium stated in the letter that the whale was being monitored by animal care professionals 24 hours a day, received veterinary examinations daily and had extensive infectious disease testing. Havana continued to have occasional episodes over the next few months, but always returned to normal, the aquarium said in the letter. Two days before her death, Havana exhibited abnormal respirations and lethargic behavior. The aquarium changed its treatments, and the next day the whale was acting brighter and had more normal sounding respirations and behavior, the aquarium said in the letter. Later that night, Havana experienced an emergency and died on Feb. 11, the letter said. A necropsy and other tests showed numerous significant lesions indicating storage disease in the whales brain and spinal cord, which explain the neurological behavior, and acute cardiac failure leading to the pulmonary changes described, which may have been secondary to the lesions in the central nervous system, the aquarium wrote. This was an unpredictable health issue that could not have been prevented, the aquarium stated in the letter. Diagnosis required microscopic examination of brain tissue and was not possible antemortem. Just before Havanas death, the USDA noted in a January inspection that the pools housing Jetta and Havana, who were under veterinary care at the time, had water quality issues. Samples of the water in these pools showed that the coliform bacteria count, which is bacteria that is found in animal waste, far exceeded the standard The inspection also stated that in December 2021 Havanas medical record documented instances of inflammation of her cornea, eye twitching, a lack of appetite, GI discomfort and her rubbing the skin of her fluke and rostrum on the sides of the pool. The first beluga whale, 5-year-old Havok, died in August 2021 while being treated for gastrointestinal issues. Though staff members recorded their observations of Havoks behaviors gasping breaths, water coming out of his blowhole and bleeding from his upper snout the veterinarian was not contacted during this eight-hour time frame until Havoks death, according to a USDA report. The aquarium transported five whales total from a facility in Canada in May 2021 under a research permit. Friends of Animals, a Darien-based animal rights group, filed a lawsuit in late 2020 that claimed the whales would be harmed by the move. The U.S. military is stepping up its aid to Ukraine with high-tech medium-range rocket systems as part of a new $700 million shipment that also includes Javelins and Soviet-era helicopters, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The decision to send the rockets, which are used by the Army, comes as the head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone, told a U.K. news outlet Wednesday that U.S. military hackers have also been conducting offensive operations to help the Ukrainians fight a Russian invasion that began in February. Support for Kyiv against Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces has evolved from shoulder-fired tank and aircraft killers such as the Javelin and Stinger earlier in the conflict to more advanced heavy weapons systems and equipment such as M777 howitzers, combat drones and armored vehicles. The Florida National Guard has also been training Ukrainian forces on the weapons in Germany. Read Next: Florida VA Denied Dying Veteran Emergency Care Because Staff Couldn't Confirm His Service Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, said the new aid package will include four units of the Army's High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as guided rockets that can hit targets at a range of 40 miles. Kahl told reporters at a press conference at the Pentagon that the rocket artillery system is aimed at supplementing and enhancing the Ukrainians' ability to fight off Russian forces in the eastern part of the country where the war is now focused. "Right now, it's a concentrated artillery duel in the east," Kahl said, adding that "it's why we put so much emphasis on providing 108 M777 howitzers," which were supplied to the country in May. "The first thing was to get these howitzers into the fight, and now we're shifting to HIMARS," Kahl said. The conventional artillery can hit targets at a range of about 18 miles, compared to the HIMARS' 40-mile range, and with far less accuracy. Although Kahl noted that the Defense Department "pre-positioned the HIMARS systems in Europe to ensure that they can be rapidly delivered to the Ukrainians," it will take a few weeks before they will see action on the front lines. Ukrainian operators will have to be trained on how to use and maintain the high-tech weapons platform. "We think that'll take around three weeks," Kahl said. In addition to the HIMARS, the latest aid package also includes another 1,000 Javelins, 15,000 artillery rounds for the M777 howitzers, 15 tactical vehicles, and 6,000 general anti-armor weapons. A Pentagon statement placed the total value of all the aid at $700 million. Kahl noted that the Defense Department "will be in a position to rapidly surge additional munitions [for HIMARS] as appropriate in the battlefield." Meanwhile, Sky News reported exclusively that U.S. hackers have been striking at targets in cyberspace to support Ukraine, according to Nakasone, who is also the director of the National Security Agency. When reached for a comment, Russell Goemaere, a spokesman for Cyber Command, told Military.com in an email that he had nothing further to add to Nakasone's comments. Goemaere also noted that both Nakasone and other Cyber Command officials have previously spoken publicly about the defensive cybersecurity aid that they have been providing to Ukraine. In an address to Vanderbilt University in early May, Nakasone said that he had "deployed a hunt team who sat side-by-side with our partners to gain critical insights that have increased homeland defense for both the United States and Ukraine." "These operations have bolstered the resilience of Ukraine and our NATO Allies and partners," Nakasone added. Officials in both situations were quick to note the actions they were describing were not meant to be escalatory. Maj. Gen. Joe Hartman, the head of Cyber Commands Cyber National Mission Force, also speaking at Vanderbilt, noted that "our adversaries were taking advantage of us in cyberspace regardless, and would have continued to do so, with impunity if we hadn't shifted to a proactive approach." Kahl noted that the "Russians engaged in this further invasion of Ukraine completely unprovoked ... so the onus is on Russia to de-escalate; they can de-escalate anytime they want." Kahl also said that Ukrainian leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, assured the U.S. government that the HIMARS system would not be used to strike targets inside Russian territory. "It is a grinding fight, and we believe that these additional capabilities will arrive in a time frame that's relevant and allow the Ukrainians to very precisely target the types of things they need," Kahl said. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: This Retired Cavalry Scout Says He's Been Vetting -- and Helping -- Recruits for Ukraine's Foreign Legion When Kyle Bibby reported in to the Naval Academy, he had never fired a gun. But he learned to shoot a pistol. Then a rifle. He learned safety measures and effective training. Eventually, he taught pistol to other midshipmen. When he graduated and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps, he says, Pistols, rifles, machine guns, rocketsthat was my life. Then he became a civilian. I am a gun owner, myself, Bibby says. And I just remember constantly feeling like, Oh, thats it? I just show up, and you just hand it to me. Theres no safety manual. Theres no, Hey, I recommend you do this. Hey, do you got a safe place to lock it? Nope. Just, Heres this thing that can kill you or anyone else. Second Lt. Kyle W. Bibby, 3rd platoon commander for Company B, Battalion Landing Team 1/1, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Franklin, New Jersey, native, gives instruction on the fundamentals of infantry patrolling to members of the Qatari Amiri Land Forces, March 29, 2009, in Qatar. (Matthew Holly/U.S. Marine Corps) After yet another school shootingone that, even as people grieved, caused the usual forays against politicizing tragedy or offering thoughts and prayers rather than solutionsveterans continue to speak up, on social media, in organizations they have formed, and in the media: Some veterans are tired of being seen as homogenous, decked in T-shirts that feature big guns, voting based purely on the idea that you will take their weaponry only from cold, inflexible fingers. Veterans have issues of their own with guns, violence, and suicide. They also know veterans are just peopleoften just people who havent trained on a weapon in decadesrather than heroes simply waiting for the Bat-Signal so they can instantly appear in schoolyards across the United States. They want to help swing the argument back to a conversation about practical solutions, to a place where people can listen to each other and pay attention to the wants and needs of the majority rather than those who use service members and veterans to push a single-note story. They want to help a grieving nation understand that they, too, are diverse in their ideas, backgrounds, and opinions, but they take pride in their ability to work together. Theyre ready to be the good guys with guns, but maybe those guns are kept in a locked box in the garage. Or maybe the good guys with guns are required to train at the range every year to keep their weapons. Or maybe they have to go through a background check to buy them. The veteran space is a really interesting space to talk about gun control, because amongst veterans, just like most issues, theres a lot of different opinions, Bibby says. But, we know what its like to hand an 18-year-old who has very little life experiences a very deadly weapon. There have been 27 school shootings so far this year, a number that seems to need daily updating. And there have been 119 since 2018, according to Education Weekly. Gun violence has risen in general: For the first time, children died more often from guns than in car accidents in 2020, The Washington Post reports. Kids have higher access to guns, too, and that increase has led to higher rates of suicide, according to the Society for Research in Child Development. In May, a gunman shot into a crowd at a music festival in Oklahoma, killing one and injuring seven. There were no doors to defend, to lock. Six people were shot in downtown Chattanooga, with the mayor calling them kids: teenagers with access to guns. In Buffalo, a man killed 10 people at a grocery store because they were Black. The veterans say the conversations cant keep ending in a stalemate, and the solutionsor the beginnings of themmight be right there for everybody to see. Recruits with Echo Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, fire their rifles on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., Sept. 17, 2019. (Ryan Hageali/U.S. Marine Corps) As an individual soldier, Ive gone through robust training, and as a company commander, when I oversaw soldiers, we have a training program for them to ensure range safety and firearm safety, as well, says Anthony Joyce-Rivera, who serves as a major in the U.S. Army but spoke on his own behalf and not for the U.S. government. And on military installations, there is noI do not carry a firearm, Im not allowed to carry a firearm. If I owned a weaponfull disclosure, I do not own a personal firearmbut if I did, the post requires you to have it registered with the provost marshal, and it has to be under two-lock security at all times in the home. He has never heard anyone complain about the policy, he says. But as a father of three young boys, and as the spouse of a woman who earned a degree because she plans to be a school teacher, hes troubled by the lack of action around the issue. He thought a lot about the shooting in Texas. All the things that were in place, he says. The police were, theoretically, at the scene at the time of the shooter showing up, so this 'good guys with guns'they were there. Did they do anything in time? The gap to respond was frustrating; seeing the parents in the videos pleading for people to go in and do something, and being restrained, is very troubling and hard to see. Because I can empathize if that were my child in that school and I was a parent outside. ... We Have Very Strict Regulations Gun control isnt a foreign concept for service members. In the military, we have very strict regulations over safe weapons handling and storage of weapons, says former Marine Joe Plenzler, an avid shooter since childhood who competes and likes to shoot at ranges. For instance, on base, all weapons are stored in the base armory. They are prohibited from being stored in on-base residential areas. Plenzler also serves on the Veterans Advisory Council for Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for gun safety reforms. The military requires extensive weapons training before anyones even allowed on the range: They talk about how to handle weapons. They use weapons simulators. They talk about range procedures. After a patrol, Pfc. Estaban Fernando performs weapon-clearing procedures for his M4 carbine at Joint Security Station Justice, Nov. 25, 2009. (Luisito Brooks/U.S. Army) When I go in the military, they dont just hand me a gun, right? says Fred Wellman, a retired Army officer and political strategist. You dont just sign in and go, All right there, Wellman, heres your M4. And heres the ammo. Heres six magazines of ammo. Look, just keep it under your bed. No. Sherman Gillums Jr., a Marine Corps veteran and long-time veterans advocate, pushes further, saying its a misperception that military training is all about guns: Its about safety and training. "We dont hand them a weapon, the day theya weapon with bullets, I should saythe day they arrive at boot camp, he told The War Horse. It takes some time. Theyre there for about a month before they ever see ammunition. (Disclosure: Gillums serves on the board of directors for The War Horse.) Before service members get to that point, they face a background checkmental, physical, and criminalbefore they join the military, Wellman says. And the rules that follow the checks and the training are strict. The weapon is kept in a locked and secured facility where you dont have access to it, he says. Ammo is kept separately from that facility. For me to get my weapon, I have to sign it out. Theres rules that apply. Im trained on the weapon in every way. If I break those rules, theres punishment. ... We dont just have guys walk around posts with gunsbecause its stupid. Even with those rules in place, the military mandated further precautions to keep service members safe after officials in Iraq reported 126 negligent discharges among American troops in Afghanistan over an eight-month period and at least 90 troops died in Iraq. After years of rising suicide rates as national access to guns increased, Veterans Affairs began a campaign to encourage veterans to lock up their weapons. (Veterans suicide rates decreased in 2019.) And the services insist on continual training because leaders know inexperienced shooters get hurt or hurt others. But that care is not what civilians see in the fight for gun-access rights: People in military-type gear armed to the hilt with magazines at the ready appear at state capitols, coffee shops, and grocery stores in their push for more access. In fact, its hard to know how many of those protestors are truly veterans. Veterans are, after all, known for losing their minds if a service member points a weapon at a pal in a movie, so the idea of a magazine in a rifle at a coffee shop seems out of character. On most military bases, service members arent allowed to carry weapons. We require extensive training for service members to handle weapons, Plenzler says. We only issue live ammunition under strict supervision and on designated training ranges. This is with the exception of people standing security duty or in combat. I would say the military takes weapons safety and storage very seriously, while the civilian community in America does not. A Particular Type of Patriotism Gun culture in the United States has long been intertwined with the military. Union veterans, concerned about a lack of marksmanship among their troops during the Civil War, founded the National Rifle Association, which met in Houston this Memorial Day weekend. For decades after its formation, the NRAs rhetoric focused on military readinessmaking sure civilians who might be called on to fight for their country knew how to shoot, says Matthew Lacombe, an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College and the author of Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force. But starting in the 1960s, the focus has shifted away from explicit military preparedness and more toward an ideology of a particular type of patriotism. I think what has remained is this notion that gun owners are sort of similar to soldiers, Lacombe says. Theyre the patriotic defenders of our way of life. But many veterans say valorizing the military through gun ownership mischaracterizes the military experience. Im a combat veteran four times over, and most of the time I was in Iraq, I spent sitting in rooms, drinking tea, eating sheep, and trying to keep people from killing each other, Wellman says. Youre really seeing the use of our veteran experience and the military experience as part of this conversation in ways that are troubling. But whats troubling is that the majority of veterans who commit suicide do so by weapon. To continue the politicization of the military community, in the immediate aftermath of the Texas school shooting, the memes appeared: Just place an armed veteran in front of every school building. Sgt. Ruby Maxime (left) catches the round from the weapon of 1st Lt. Brandon Pasko as he goes through clearing procedures at Joint Security Station Justice, Nov. 25, 2009. (Luisito Brooks/U.S. Army) Its frustrating because its not realistic, Joyce-Rivera says. The average veteran served from the ages of 18 to 21, got an honorable discharge, and then went on with their life, he says. Now, at age 48 or so, they havent had weapons training in decades. Depending on what their jobs were in the military, they may not have had much to begin with. Theres this idea that veterans are somehow mythical humans that make less faulty decisions than other people, he says. He reiterated Wellmans concerns about suicide: The VA is looking at how to address gun violence for suicides for veterans, he says. So is the solution the demographic that already is struggling with suicide through firearms ... having [them] equipped with firearms at schools? As a national conversation about veterans and mental health grows, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly introduced legislation attempting to protect gun access for veterans, often framing the issue in patriotic terms. There are struggles that the veteran community is dealing with of their own through gun violence, Joyce-Rivera says. And the mental health crisis? How do we look at that and thoughtfully address it without just saying, Veterans are the solution here? Spc. Juan Graces, of Corona, California, an Individual Ready Reserve soldier and infantryman serving with Bravo Troop 1/82 Cavalry, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, instructs Ugandan guards on properly loading and clearing the PKM machine gun. (Brandon Ditto/U.S. Army) For Gillums Jr., the veterans advocate, the question of veterans and gun access is a complicated one. Any discussion of restricting guns should be part of a broader conversation about mental health care, he says. But, he says, what he finds intolerable is lawmakers who havent served posing with guns as a way of declaring their support for the military. You see the fingers on a trigger, all the things that show you clearly know nothing about the military culture, he says, referring to constant training to touch the trigger only when its time to shoot. The point of joining the military is not to have a weapon. Both Wellman and Gillums Jr. say they see hope in veterans in elected officeon both sides of the aisle. I do place a lot of the onus right now going forward on the folks in Congress who know what it means, who know what these weapons can do, who have had to fire them, have had to use them to defend the country, and are now in positions of responsibilitynot authority, responsibilityto do the right thing, Gillums Jr. says. An Unacceptable Calculus Given the long string of shootings from Columbine High School to a country music festival in Las Vegas to this months shootings in Texas and New York, Kyleanne Hunter, a former Marine, likened America to a war zonemaybe even worse. We knew we might not come home and we knew we might have to live with guilt of others not coming home, says Hunter, of Colorado, who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Super Cobra helicopter pilot and just finished the school year at the Air Force Academy as a professor of political science. Thats part of the calculus that you take when you volunteer in an all-volunteer force. But Americans shouldnt expect to face it at home, she says, and the news this month saddened her on a different level: That is an unacceptable calculus to exist, going to school or going to a concert or going to church or going to a grocery shop. Hunter and Plenzler push back against the idea that gun control laws cant make a difference. They are part of the #VetsForGunReform, a movement made up of veterans across the political spectrum. Theres no easy solutions, but there are actionable steps that we could take, Plenzler says. Joyce-Rivera has a suggestion: The military employs weapons systems for a specific purpose, Joyce-Rivera says: To kill enemy combatants. But in the United States, people argue for the right to defend their homes. For that purpose, there should be a different weapons system, he saysone that doesnt necessarily need to be accurate at 300 meters. If the argument is to defend your home, I think we can design weapons systems that fulfill that need, but also help detract against the use of those weapons systems to commit mass shootings and killings, he says. As a military guy, thats kind of where my heads at is we got to talk about these things as weapons systems. The mass shootings arent the only violent firearm deaths to think about, Plenzler says. Crimes and suicides, happening in every corner of the country, should also be considered. Nobody he knows has all the answers for how to reverse the trend, Plenzler says, but adds that failing to seek solutions wouldnt be fair to the victims. And the false binary choices, often advanced for political purposes, that people are either pro- or anti-gun complicates the conversation. Its not like we need to be all for no restrictions on guns whatsoever or were for complete abolition, Plenzler says. I mean neither of those extremes are tenable positions. What Im really interested in is finding the work in the middle. Petty Officer 2nd Class Zach Bernat, an aviation ordnanceman, demonstrates proper handling and safety procedures of the M240B machine gun before sailors qualify to operate the weapon during a gun shoot in 2010. (Rebekah Adler/U.S. Navy) He starts by asking people what would make them feel safer. He often hears support for universal background checks for all gun sales. Many polls, including a survey by Morning Consult and Politico conducted one day after the Texas elementary school shooting, back up his assertion. The poll found 73% of respondents strongly support universal background checks and another 15% somewhat support the idea. The House passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 for all gun sales more than a year ago, but the measure has lingered in the Senate. I think people are getting tired of having a Congress that is flying in the face of public sentiment, Plenzler says. The Morning Consult poll also found that 4% somewhat oppose universal background checks and another 4% strongly oppose them. Veterans themselves are more supportive than nonveterans of expanding civilians gun-carrying rights, according to research published this month in Social Science Quarterly, but are more likely to favor banning AR15 and military-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. Theyre also more likely to be in favor of a 14-day waiting period for all gun purchases. Taken together, these findings appear to reflect a veteran population that is positively disposed toward guns in general, but also understands the destructive power of military-style weapons, the authors wrote. A new domestic terrorism bill, which would have opened debate about hate crimes and gun safety, that flew through the House after the shooting in Texas was blocked when every Republican voted against it when it hit the Senate, saying it didnt provide enough emphasis on domestic terrorism committed by those on the far left. Right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks and 91 fatalities since 2015, The Washington Post reports. Left-wing extremists have been involved in 66 incidents leading to 19 deaths. A bipartisan group of Senators is working on a bill that would address background checks for online or gun-show gun purchases, laws that would keep guns away from people a doctor has said could hurt themselves or others, and programs to increase security at schools. Hunter would like to sit down with those who oppose any limits on gun ownership, she saysespecially those who are against any regulations on assault riflesto ask them if it is worth it: Is their AR-15 worth the fact that the generation of school kids that are there right now have worse educational outcomes than their parents because theyre afraid of being at school? The silence on bipartisan solutions has been the most frustrating point, Joyce-Rivera says. We need to address the problem, he says. And the problem is children are being killed with firearms. This War Horse investigation was reported by Michael de Yoanna, Sonner Kehrt, and Kelly Kennedy; edited by Kelly Kennedy; fact-checked by Ben Kalin; and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Headlines are by Abbie Bennett. Editors Note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) represented at Dayton Hamvention 2022 On the 19th-22nd of May, new WIA Director Chris Dimitrejivic VK3FY and WIA Vice President Lee Moyle VK3GK attended Dayton Hamvention in Ohio USA representing the WIA. Dayton Hamvention is renowned to be one of the big three hamfests in the world. The other two are Friedrichshafen in Germany being held in late June and Tokyo Hamfair which is to be held in August later this year. For those local VK hamfest attendees, here is a size comparison. Wyong Field Day, or Mayham which is VKs biggest hamfest we understand gets about 500-600 attendees. Local VK3 hamfests attract about 250-350 attendees with often having 40-70 vendor tables booked is not uncommon. Dayton Hamvention usually attracts about 35,000 attendees from all over the world, although most are from the USA. This is over 100 times bigger than our local hamfests. Its hard to comprehend unless you have experienced the event first hand. Rough statistics this year suggest about 29,000 to 30,000 attendees. (Official attendee numbers just released were: 31,367) Down a little this year but Covid is still quite prevalent in most parts of the USA. Also many countries borders are still restricted or closed to tourist travel. There are 6 main buildings that cater for over 460 vendor booths. The outside flea market or car boot sales area, which is the whole inside arena at the Green County Fairgrounds has just over 2700 spaces available. This year most spots were taken up by sellers. The weather in Dayton is quite predictably unpredictable but you can guarantee hot and humid days of around 28 to 30C with a humidity in the 70-80% range. Along with the usual thunderstorm and Tornado warnings, which we had in both cases. The Hamfest Program is comprehensive and starts early on Thursday morning with Contest University or CTU. Registrations from 7am, with CTU starting at 9am till 5pm finish. This year CTU was live streamed on Youtube and will be available for viewing after the event. Evenings are taken up by specialist dinners. The DX Dinner and Contest dinners are the favorites of many and this is where DXers and Contesters are recognized for their contributions to Amateur Radio and inducted into the respective halls of fame. Afterwards the Hospitality Suites take over, which are social get togethers with tall stories and tales of that ATNO that got away. Hamvention runs 9am till 5pm Friday, Saturday and the first half of Sunday 9am until 1pm close. First prize giveaway this year was an ICOM IC7851, with many consolation prizes. WIA Directors, Chris VK3FY and Lee VK3GK took the opportunity to meet with other International peak body representatives such as ARRL, RSGB, DARC and IARU. They discussed the potential changes to our VK licencing structure, high power proposals, examination processes amongst many other things. Lee VK3GK commented that, It was great to meet ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR and ARRL FCC Council David Siddall, K3ZJ. Early discussions were had about reciprocal licencing processes along with CEPT and HAREC compliance. The WIA will be following up with ongoing zoom meetings to solidify the relationships. Although this trip was partly official WIA business, it was totally self funded by both Chris and Lee and as such, no WIA members funds were used. Further reading: https://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2022/20220530-1/index.php 2022 Southgate Amateur Radio News - Please note that Southgate Amateur Radio News is not responsible for the content of external websites Sometimes truth is more interesting than fiction. Christine Fox was a defense analyst working at the Navy's legendary fighter school in Miramar, California when a Hollywood producer decided she'd be the perfect inspiration for Tom Cruise's love interest in the 1986 blockbuster "Top Gun." But that was just the start of Fox's incredible career -- she'd go on to become the most senior woman at the Pentagon, serving under multiple defense secretaries. In this episode she talks about her role in the "Top Gun" legacy, and what it means to her to have been a trailblazing woman in national security. Subscribe to the Left of Boom podcast: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | Stitcher Mentioned in this episode: Top Gun Fighter Aviation Hollywood and the Military Filming Top Gun: Maverick Aircraft Carriers Women in Defense The following is an edited transcript of this episode of Left of Boom: Hope Hodge Seck 0:01 Welcome back to Left of Boom. I'm Hope Hodge Seck. In Top Gun, the 1986 blockbuster that cemented America's love affair with naval fighter aviation, the hot shot pilot Maverick, played by Tom Cruise loudly serenades a beautiful blonde woman in a bar, only to find out the next morning that she has his brilliant new instructor. Because this is Hollywood, things heat up fast and a romance ensues. But as it turns out, in this case, truth is more interesting than fiction. The instructor, Charlie, played by Kelly McGillis in the film, was inspired by a legend in her own right, Christine Fox, a maritime air superiority specialist who did instruct at Top Gun and who would go on to become the most senior woman in leadership in the Pentagon. Ms. Fox is very clear about the fact that she is not Charlie in real life, and no, she did not date students. But the lore of this movie continues to follow her. In fact, if you search for Charlie from Top Gun on Google, it's her picture that pops up first, next Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in flight suits. So let's disambiguate, and take some time to hear from the real Christine Fox, in her own words, on her own terms, about her incredible career. Christine flex. Welcome to the show. Christine Fox 1:17 Thank you. It's great to be here. Hope Hodge Seck 1:19 So you're a trailblazing former senior leader at the Pentagon and a policy director at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. And every so often, people want to ask you a question about a cheesy Tom Cruise movie that came out in the 1980s. It kind of feels like an episode of "Not My Job." And with apologies, I'm going to ask you some of those exact same questions. How did you come to inspire the character of Charlie from Top Gun and what was your involvement with the film? Christine Fox 1:46 Yes, so I was I started my career as an analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses. CNA had a program where they assign people who are technically trained, so I have a math background, to on-scene positions with military commands, primarily Navy and Marine Corps but some other commands as well. But this was a Navy command to do on-scene analysis. So my job was to go to Miramar and support the the wing that was there which was fighter jets and early warning aircraft, the E-2C, and do analysis of their tactics and help them. This was back in the Cold War, be sure that they could prevail in case the Soviet Union came out and attacked an aircraft carrier. And so that was my job, was to do analysis. So I was there busily doing analysis, and my fighter buddies started telling me Hollywood is coming to Miramar. And they're getting all excited and I was paying no attention whatsoever, because I'm doing my job, right. So one day I got a call to report to the admiral's office. So I work directly for the admiral who is responsible for this wing of aircraft and people. And so you know, it wasn't the first time that they'd asked me to come up and talk to the admiral. But usually I knew why, I knew I had reason or had done something wrong or he wanted me to take on a new project. So I asked the staff, what do you want to see me about? "Just get up here, get up here now." So I did, and they're laughing and giggling when I walk in the front office, I have no idea what's going on. And I go into the admiral's office, and there is the admiral sitting there with some of the famous people, like Bruckheimer and so forth, and they're talking about the movie and the admiral says, "See, I don't understand what your problem is, just model her after my CNA rep." And I'm like, "What just happened?" They look at each other and they say, "Yeah, that'll work." And he says, 'OK, Christine, thanks very much." And I was dismissed. And that was that. I walked back to my, my little [inaudible] where I was working at the command and I'm thinking, something big just happened here, but I don't really know what it was. So I called my boss back in Washington and told him what was going on. And he said, "Well, OK, thanks for telling me." and that was it. So from that point on, I had really no say in whether or not they would model the character of Charlie loosely, I have to emphasize this, loosely, after me. But, but it did happen. And I did spend time with Kelly McGillis. I spent a full day with her talking about my work there showing her around the base, introducing her to people. And I did get an opportunity, she called me over to the set once to to do a little consulting, which is was kind of funny. It was, if you've ever seen the movie for those of you who are listening who have seen the movie, there's a scene where she walks into the hangar, it's her opening scene, and she's wearing black seamed stockings. And, and so she called me over to the hangar where they were filming and I walked in, and she comes right up to me and she sticks her leg out and says, "Would you wear these stockings here, to go to work at Miramar?" And I said, "You know, I don't wear black-seamed stockings to work on a regular basis here in Fightertown." And she said, "See, I told you!" And they said, "And we don't care." And so she did her scene with her black-seamed stockings, and I got to hang out at the hangar that day. That was about it. Hope Hodge Seck 5:22 At least you had a little bit of solidarity there. Christine Fox 5:24 A little bit. Yes. Hope Hodge Seck 5:25 So did you go and see the film in theaters when it came out? And what did you think of it? Christine Fox 5:30 Yeah, I did. It was funny experience. So I was part of my job for CNA was to sometimes go out on carriers and support real-world analysis, right. So I'm doing analysis, they're flying and so forth. So I was on an aircraft carrier for a major exercise. It's called RIMPAC, Rim of the Pacific. So all the Pacific nations get together, right? RIMPAC. So I'm on the carrier supporting RIMPAC when the movie comes out, so I did not want to go to the movie with all the fighter guys, right? So we pulled into port in Hawaii just before the exercise actually started, and I so I went off and saw it kind of in the dark by myself. But yes, I saw the movie and then I had to go back on the ship, where my name was Charlie for the rest of the exercise and there was really no getting around it. Hope Hodge Seck 6:25 That is amazing. And I always love talking to what I would call non-celebrities, which is most of us, who have had some brush with fame and Hollywood, because it always does seem to change people's life a little bit. First, you know, how has your connection with this affected your life? I mean, do you always just have to answer these annoying questions? Do you regret this part of your story at all? Have you made your peace with that? Christine Fox 6:49 Yeah, thanks for asking that question. You know, I don't regret it in any way, shape or form. But it has been astounding to me that it has hung with me for so long, it is a question I am always asked. I do think that in an interesting way, because the movie was so popular with the aviation community, and that they all know, you know, before I even meet people, they kind of know that I had this weird relationship with Top Gun and it gives me an instant "in" to talk to people in the aviation community. And, and it's just kind of hovered in a powerful way that I had no expectation of. My fear was it would be a terrible movie, and they would all hate it. And they would all associate me as a female analyst supporting the fighter community with a failed movie for the rest of my career. And I'd be done, right? The opposite happened. They love the movie. And so because I was associated with it, it's it's given me sort of a little weird kind of in with a community that I did nothing to deserve. I think the in should have come from my analysis, not the movie, but it happened. Hope Hodge Seck 8:09 So you're decidedly not Kelly McGillis' depiction of Charlie, you've made that clear. There was one line I really liked, though, from your 1985 People Magazine profile, which is that people can hear you coming because you're the only one whose heels click. And it was so evocative for me because I spent some time in the Pentagon myself. And I usually try to remind myself to wear flats when I go over there because I feel so conspicuous walking around in clacking heels and a skirt. So I immediately knew what you're talking about. You're, I've read, six feet tall, you're given the call sign legs, probably as a result of that. And you've spent a lot of your career in this male-dominated environment. So what was your approach to being in that space? Did you kind of lean into the things that made you different? Or just how did you think about it? Christine Fox 8:57 When I started my career, I didn't really focus on it. And I know that sounds bizarre and unexpected, I think today but I was so incredibly fortunate growing up that I was an only child of older parents and my father was a nuclear engineer, Navy. And, and he just always told me that I could do whatever I wanted. It was not a question. It was more "What do you want to do," than "No, you can't do that." "No, you can't do that" was never a part of our conversation, which was an incredible gift to me that I didn't appreciate until I got in these situations. Right. So I show up at Miramar. I'm the first female CNA rep they ever have. They weren't thrilled about it. I remember one day, I wasn't there very long, and I was walking down the hall in the space where I worked and one big fighter guy comes out of nowhere and steps right in front of me and says, "You don't belong here and we don't want you." Hope Hodge Seck 9:58 Oh my word. Christine Fox 9:59 My thought was, wow, he's got a problem, which is bizarre when I think back on it, I think, wow, I should have been terrified and run away. Right, that's really the normal reaction. But I think my father's voice was in my head saying. "You can do whatever you want." What's his problem? And it was incredibly, like I said, it was a gift. Because I think if I hadn't had that upbringing, if I hadn't had his support, I don't know what I would have done, right. But it went away pretty fast. Because the the aviation community, they're incredibly smart, and incredibly dedicated. And this was the Cold War. And they really thought every time they deployed that they could die. And if I could help them, they wanted the help. And so most of it went away pretty quickly, and after a few months, I don't think they would care if I was green with three eyes. Oh, they would have made a lot of comments about being green with three eyes. They make a lot of comments about everything, but it wouldn't have affected my working relationship. So as long as I had the opportunity to contribute, and they gave me that opportunity in spades, it was some of the most rewarding work I have ever had the opportunity to do. I guess I just let it go. Hope Hodge Seck 11:16 It's such a product of the era, right? I mean, I can't even envision you know, a senior officer or leader coming up to a woman today and saying, "We don't want you here." It's just sort of the the unapologetic attitude of the era really. And I remember there was a quote, I think from a Navy captain in that People story, talking about how smart you are, and that's something that he typically doesn't really look for in a woman, which is just really astounding. So I wanted to ask you to reflect on the changes that you've seen in your career, you know, is it as you came up in the ranks and time passed. Did things change in a meaningful way? Is it just the attitude is there, but the the expression is different? Or have things gotten easier and more friendly and more accepting? Christine Fox 12:04 You know, I have thought a lot about this really excellent question, Hope. And, on the one hand, I think it's amazingly different. As you said, just now, it's inconceivable to you to have somebody come up and say, "We don't want you, you don't belong here." I had one captain in those days say to me, "If you got sick and were to die, would CNA send us a man to replace you." I mean, he actually said that, right. I just looked at him and I said, "I don't know, I think that send the most qualified person. But don't worry, I feel great." And I walked away, right, which is one of my triumph moments. And I've just laughed about it. But again, that would never happen today, nor should it. It wasn't OK then, it's not OK now, and it wouldn't happen now. So does that change? Yes, that has changed and it's changed for the better. On the other hand, I don't think women feel that they have as many opportunities to achieve whatever position they want today as I would have thought they would have from where I started. So there's been positive change. But I don't feel comfortable saying that it's been as much as I would like to be able to say has occurred. I think it's been a little slower than I would have expected. Hope Hodge Seck 13:27 Going back to your career for a second. So you continued on at the Center for Naval Analyses and eventually became the president. And then in 2009, you move to become the director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, or CAPE, at the Pentagon. Can you talk about that particular career transition and how your new role at CAPE contrasted with your previous naval-focused work? Christine Fox 13:50 Sure. So first, I mean, it was, I loved my time at CNA, I loved doing ops analysis. I loved being involved with the military operators. And I had a pretty deep understanding at that point of military operations. So the opportunity to go to the Pentagon and take the CAPE job was going to push me in all new ways. And that was both exciting and terrifying. I had to interview with Secretary of Defense, Secretary Gates for the job. I never thought I'd meet a secretary of defense in my whole career, the thought that I'd meet one never occurred to me. I interviewed with one and then I worked directly for not one but three. I was a part of their small group the whole time I was in the Pentagon of people that they would meet with to talk about, the senior-most issues of the Pentagon and, and the thought that I would ever, ever have that opportunity, it was just mind boggling. And I remember when I interviewed with Secretary Gates, he asked me why I thought I would be right for that job. This gets a little bit back to that that woman's issue, I'm sure I violated every single solitary piece of advice one could ever get in a situation like that. But I thought about it and I said, "Honestly, Mr. Secretary, I'm not sure I am right for this job. I'm an ops analyst. I'm not a program analyst. This job is about program and budget. I be honored to do the job. I'll do my best, but I don't want to let you down." It was a very honest, from the heart answer, but I could tell the moment I said it, he was taken aback. He just sort of sat back. Secretary Gates is just wonderful. He's one of my heroes. And he thought about it. He thought about it for a while. Then he looked at me and he said, "You know, Christine, we're at war. And knowing something about operations seems like a good thing. So you're in." And it was, it was sort of a stunning moment, but it does kind of reflect that I really, I wanted to do the best job that I could, but it was a big change for me. But it was also a great opportunity because it was a job that was based on analysis, I'm an analyst. That's what I do. It's, I'm wired to do it, I'm trained to do it. I've done it my whole career. And I had the privilege to work for three secretaries, all of whom wanted to know the best answer we could give them, the right answer to the degree that we could give them a right answer. There's often, on some of these complex issues, multiple answers, but at least they wanted to do the best possible thing that they could and they relied on analysis and me and CAPE to give it to them. And that was an incredible privilege that just I again, I never thought I'd get, but it was a wonderful opportunity. Hope Hodge Seck 16:41 We'll be right back. Amy Bushatz 16:45 Hey, Left of Boom fans, this is Amy Bushatz, executive editor of Military.com. If you're looking to keep up with all the news and information you need to make your military or veteran life successful, we've got the perfect resource. Military.com is packed with need-to-know intel on everything U.S. military, from pay and benefit calculators to the latest from your military service to deep dives into Pentagon policy, Military.com's reporters and editors are on top of it. Find more at Military.com. Now, back to Left of Boom. Hope Hodge Seck 17:26 Moving forward a few years you actually served as Acting Deputy Defense Secretary from 2013 to 2014. Ahead of Bob Work, I believe, coming into that position. And so in that role, you were the senior woman in the entire Pentagon, which is and was a heavily male institution. So obviously, you know, I get that you're there to do the job end of sentence. And you're the right person for the job. But being you know, the senior woman and really a trailblazer in that position, does that come with any sort of responsibility or burden that you felt? What did that mean for you? Christine Fox 18:02 So, a couple thoughts. One, by the time I took that position, I had been working in defense and national security for so many years. I had lots of great relationships. So the way things work, right, the Vice Chairman and the Deputy Secretary of Defense are partners in so many things. The Vice Chairman when I was deputy secretary, was lieutenant, was sorry, he was Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, who I knew first as Lieutenant Jaws Winnefeld at Miramar when I started my career. So Jaws and I grew up together from the very beginnings of our different careers. He's an F-14 pilot, I'm an analyst but here we are in the Pentagon deputy secretary and vice chairman. So that was great, right? I mean, I had great relationships, we have a lot of mutual respect for each other and so my environment at the seniormost levels was incredibly positive. Secretary Hagel treated me like a partner. Sandy Winnefeld was my partner. We, the service chiefs and I all knew each other and so that was great. So I didn't think a lot about it again, until I started visiting commands as Deputy Secretary. So when you visit a command as a deputy secretary, it's routine that people at the command have the opportunity to get their picture taken with the deputy. Right so it's very, it's a thing. It's all staffed. I have like six people working for me that plan this. There's the flags, I stand in front, they line everybody up. It's a, you know, hundreds sometimes of people. I've got coins, I shake their hand, they take the picture, people usher them in and out, right, it's very fast. So here I am doing this and the first one that I did was it in an Army base and it was a lot of enlisted people and I look down the line there's not many women. First thing that got my attention, not many women at all. And then I saw one, down pretty far back, kind of here face look kind of like she was thinking hard about something. And as she got closer because, you know, we're, whipping through, I could see she's she's kind of getting ready for something. And she gets up to me and that, you know, you shake the hand and then my staff is trying to push her away and she won't go. She stands there and holds my hand, kind of plants her feet on the ground and looks at me and says, "Thank you." I was like, thank me? And that's what I said. I said, "No, thank you, thank you for your service." But I mean, she just, she couldn't go and then they finally she went on it was like, "Wow, that was so powerful." So then I go on a ship, I go on an LCS, this is an officer group. The same thing happens. Still not many women. And again, one woman. You can see her kind of getting her courage up, does the same thing. Shakes my hand, holds on, like for dear life and says, "Thank you." So this was very impactful to me. I mean, how can how can you ignore something that powerful? The fact to those women that there was a woman in such a senior position told them that they can do it too. So what it did for me is it made me willing to talk to you on a podcast about this very issue. I didn't like talking about women's issues, right? I know women that are sort of alone and do these things. I'm sure you know this. I mean, it's not comfortable for me to talk about some of these things. And always just wanted to ignore it. I just I'm, I'm an analyst, not a woman analyst. I'm an analyst. Leave me alone, don't talk about the gender stuff. I have to talk about the gender stuff, because if it was that important to those women, to have somebody like me in the deputy job, then we have to talk about it. Because it's not gone, like you asked at the very beginning, it's still with us. Hope Hodge Seck 22:04 That is so powerful. I wanted to linger on this question for just a little bit longer, because to bring things up to the present day, much has been said recently about the fact there that there is a particular dearth of female Pentagon leadership right now. In fact, my friend Aaron Mehta over at Defense News reported that just three of 60 Senate-confirmed roles at the Pentagon are now filled by women. And he noted that there have only been a little over I think, 70 female leaders in the building's entire history. So you know, this has never been an area of particular strength, but people are kind of raising the alarm right now that women are leaving and not being replaced. So how concerned are you about kind of the state of things right now? And do you have any thoughts about how to address or fix it, if we should? Christine Fox 22:52 Well, I do think we should. I think that again, I was very fortunate when I was in the Pentagon. From my personal background I had lots of colleagues and friends that I had known for a long time, but also, there were other women. I served with Michele Flournoy, for example. And there were very, very supportive leaders. I served with Secretary Carter Ash Carter, I, you know, Leon Panetta, my goodness, what a wonderful leader, Secretary Hagel gave me the opportunity to be Deputy Secretary. And I've already talked about Secretary Gates. So I was surrounded by this very gender-neutral kind of thing. If you could do it, they wanted you on the team. And a supportive environment, but you go a little further down, and that's not the environment. And that's what I've learned, that you have, you can have very senior supportive leadership. And that's critically important. You've got to have that. But you've got to also take the steps to make sure that that supportive attitude goes all the way down, because that's where we're losing them. They start and they get frustrated, or they don't feel that they have opportunities or the policies are supportive of their needs, and they don't stay. And I think that's not just a Defense Department challenge. I think that's true in lots of fields. It's certainly true in tech fields. It's true in STEM education. It's true in a lot of areas where women have so much capability. And the way I think about it is the nation is losing. We have all these talented people, men, women, name it, right, any category of person with talent, that we're just not tapping because we don't know how to reach them, to talk to them, to to create an environment where they feel that they can thrive. And I think that that is a problem and I don't think it's hard. I think you just need to be a little bit better at listening and and a little bit better at talking about what does it take to make an environment where you feel that you can thrive. And I don't think we're there yet. I think we've learned to watch our words. Nobody's going to say today, "I don't want you here." Or, "If you died, would they send me a man?" No one's going to say that, but doesn't mean they don't think it. So you have to just keep working on it. Hope Hodge Seck 25:15 So you're currently the assistant director for policy and analysis at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. What a cool position. How and why did you make the transition from DoD to your current role? And can you talk a little bit about what you're now working on? Christine Fox 25:33 Sure. It is a cool position. I have really great position. So I decided to go to the Applied Physics Lab, first of all, because I met our director, Ralph Semmel, who was my boss, and we had a fabulous conversation and he gave me the opportunity. So first, I had the opportunity to go, but I decided that it was a good opportunity for me because I left the Pentagon pretty convinced that technology was the key to our national security in the future, not just the U.S., but globally. And leadership doesn't really understand it at a deep level. Now, that's a vast oversimplification. If you look at someone like Ash Carter, Secretary Carter completely got, you know, everything there was to do about technology. But I think he's, he's more an exception, an awful lot of our leaders are not deep, technically, at least not in the new fields like artificial intelligence, and quantum and biotech and all of these things. And it's it's hard stuff. And these are people who have to make decisions about such a broad range of issues, geopolitics, they have to make budget decisions, they have to make personnel policy decisions. How could we possibly expect them to understand everything there is about quantum and how to get it on the right path, right. But I think we have to figure this out because I think technology is key to our futures. So by going to a place like the Applied Physics Lab, I have the opportunity to work with all these incredibly smart technologists, scientists, engineers, researchers and learn about the technology but more importantly, help them connect their knowledge with some of these larger issues that I think we're facing. And so my projects are about technology policy trying to help understand what should we do to better invest any even limited S&T dollars? What's the right way to invest in them? What technologies are going to propel us forward the fastest? How could we more rapidly adopt those technologies in the Defense Department, and I am also very interested in some of the unintended consequences of ignoring technology. I think that technologies like bio and artificial intelligence and others frankly, without real attention at a policy level, they have some risks to us. I use the example as many do, of the internet. When the internet came out, it was just wonderful, right? Oh, we're connected to everybody and I can get any information. And now we have cyber warfare. You never thought about cyber warfare when the internet was first coming out. Now we have to think about it each and every time we do anything. So what are those consequences, potentially for the new technologies? Then what are the ethical and human dimensions of them, like human enhancement technology? How are we going to, appropriately with the U.S. value system, introduce that into our culture? And then how are we going to exist in a world where there are different value systems and others are introducing it differently? So these are the kinds of problems I worry about, and I get to work on at the Applied Physics Lab, which is great. It's, it's just a wonderful opportunity. Hope Hodge Seck 28:51 Well, that's exactly what we've been talking about in recent episodes of the show. So it's kind of nice how these topics dovetail and I think your work is fascinating. And the more I learn about it, the more frightened and excited I am for the future. Christine Fox 29:06 It's a good attitude. That's good, frightened and excited. Those are great, great things. Hope Hodge Seck 29:12 So we'll wrap things up here with a little bit of a lightning round, some some shorter questions for you. First of all, what advice would you give to early-career women or even students seeking to enter the field of national security? Christine Fox 29:26 So my advice, national security or not, for anybody, is to figure out what you love to do. Make sure you're good at it. And be honest about that, right? Because you're always going to do best in your career if you're good at it. And then once you figure those two things out, just do it. And I would like the words of my father to be in everybody's head. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do something. That just should not be on the table. Go into every situation, and just do your best and don't wait let anybody tell you, you shouldn't be there. If you're doing it, do it. And don't let anybody deter you. And I think if you can possibly take the attitude that if they are in your face, it's their problem. It will help you get through them. Hope Hodge Seck 30:13 That's awesome. Of all them the many jobs and roles you've held, what has come the closest to being your dream job, if you can pick one? Christine Fox 30:20 I can't pick one. That's an unfair question. OK, so I've had so many. So when I was younger, and perhaps more adventure, so my dream job was being able to fly in airplanes and ride on ships. And so that was my dream job, then. I think that certainly the Pentagon was a fantastic experience. I could never trade it, but I'm kind of living my dream job right now. So it's great. Hope Hodge Seck 30:47 What's your favorite Navy fighter aircraft? Unknown Speaker 30:49 Oh, you can ask me that. And all my friends are gonna hear it. They're gonna hate my answer. But I have to say it's the F-14 because it's the one I studied. It's the one I worked with. It's the one I did so much of my career was around the F-14. So I have and it's the one I flew in. So I have to say the F-14, even though I know I spent a lot of time on Joint Strike Fighter and it's going to be great. Hope Hodge Seck 31:13 You're not alone there. Finally, I have to ask, Are you going to watch Top Gun 2 when it finally comes out? Christine Fox 31:20 Of course I am. And this time there will be no stress involved. It'll be much more fun. Hope Hodge Seck 31:28 Well, it has been an absolute pleasure to speak with you and such a cool conversation. Thank you so much for your time. Christine Fox 31:35 Thank you for talking with me. It was great and best of luck with this series. Hope Hodge Seck 31:39 Thanks so much. Thanks for joining us once again at Left of Boom. If there's one thing I know for sure about Military.com readers and listeners, it's that they love Top Gun. And we are all about giving the people what they want. In our next episode, we are going to talk to the man who works with Hollywood studios to make sure film and TV projects featuring military elements are as true to life as possible, and sometimes helps them cast U.S. troops in background roles. We just might get some insider information about the yet-to-be-released Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, in the process. If that sounds interesting, you should definitely keep listening. Hit that subscribe button and please do take the time to leave us a rating and review so other people can find us too. And for more Top Gun news and for in-depth coverage about trailblazing women in the military and many more topics, be sure to head over to Military.com. JUNE 1: Milwaukee has officially selected Alexanders contract, optioning Luke Barker to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move. To create 40-man roster space, theyve transferred reliever Jake Cousins from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. Cousins went on the IL on May 1 with an elbow effusion, and hell now be out of action through at least the end of July. It seems unlikely hell be back when first eligible anyhow, as he recently told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter link) he received a platelet-rich plasma injection and would be shut down from throwing entirely for at least a month. MAY 31: The Brewers are planning to start right-hander Jason Alexander tomorrow night against the Cubs, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He is not yet on the clubs 40-man roster, so the Brew Crew will have to make a corresponding move. Alexander, 29, is set to make his MLB debut. The younger brother of former Dodgers reliever Scott Alexander, Jason Alexander went undrafted in 2017. He signed with the Angels as a free agent, working his way as high as Triple-A but never getting onto the 40-man roster. Los Angeles released him in 2020, and he hooked on with the Marlins the following April. The California native made just six appearances in the upper levels of the Miami farm system as he missed some time due to injury. He signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee in December and has spent the first couple months with their top affiliate in Nashville. Over nine outings (seven starts), Alexander has worked to an excellent 2.64 ERA through 47 2/3 innings. His 17.5% strikeout rate is below-average, but hes posted a hefty 63.3% ground-ball rate and only walked 6.3% of opposing hitters. Milwaukee has been hit by a couple key rotation injuries of late, forcing them to dip into their starting pitching depth. Both Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff have landed on the injured list, forcing Aaron Ashby into regular action alongside Corbin Burnes, Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser. The fifth spot is uncertain, with well-regarded prospect Ethan Small making a spot start yesterday during a doubleheader. Alexander will now get a chance to audition for a role himself. The Cubs have placed starter Drew Smyly on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 31, due to a right oblique strain. Chicago reinstated righty Michael Rucker and outfielder Jason Heyward from the IL, optioning outfielder Nelson Velazquez to Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move. Smyly was pulled from his start against the Brewers on Monday after three innings because of oblique soreness. Hell now head to the IL with a strain, the severity of which is yet unclear. Oblique strains often require upwards of a month of recovery time, but the grade of the strain will obviously impact how quickly the southpaw will be able to return. The Cubs havent yet specified a timetable. Signed to a one-year, $5.25MM contract shortly after the lockout was lifted, Smyly has made nine starts with the North Siders. He has a solid 3.80 ERA across 42 2/3 innings, although hes striking out a personal-worst 18.9% of opposing hitters. Smyly has compensated for the fewer punchouts with a career-low 5.6% walk rate, and hes still generating swinging strikes on a quality 12.2% of his offerings. As he has throughout his career, Smyly has been prone to home runs, but hes inducing ground-balls at his highest clip (47.8%). If healthy, Smyly could be a fairly straightforward trade candidate before the August 2 deadline. Hes not going to bring back a franchise-altering return, but as a capable back-of-the-rotation rental on a noncompetitive Cubs team, Smyly would figure to draw interest. Thats contingent, of course, on his returning to health over the coming weeks and reestablishing himself on the mound. Rucker has been out of action since May 17 with turf toe on his left foot. Heyward, meanwhile, has been down for the same amount of time while battling COVID-19 symptoms. He returns to both the active and 40-man rosters, and the Cubs needed to clear a 40-man spot for his reinstatement. Theyll do so by recalling righty Manuel Rodriguez from the minors and placing him on the big league 60-day IL. Rodriguez, 25, made his first 20 MLB relief appearances last season. He struggled to a 6.11 ERA but averaged north of 97 MPH on his fastball. Unfortunately, he made just two April appearances with Triple-A Iowa before landing on the minor league injured list. According to Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link), hes dealing with a strain in his throwing elbow. At the very least, Rodriguez wont be eligible to return to the majors until August. It remains to be seen whether hell be healthy enough to make a late-season return. While he recuperates on the big league IL, Rodriguez will pick up major league service time and be paid at prorated portion of the $700K MLB minimum salary. Clayton Kershaw threw a 30-35 pitch bullpen session this afternoon, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). It marked the star southpaws second bullpen work of the week, as he also tossed 35 pitches on Memorial Day. The team will monitor how Kershaw feels over the coming days, but its possible he heads out on a minor league rehab assignment as soon as this weekend. Kershaw has been on the injured list since May 13 after experiencing some inflammation in the SI joint of his right hip area. The team initially expressed hope hed be back after a minimal 15-day stint, although that proved untenable once the three-time Cy Young award winner experienced continued soreness. Now that hes back on a mound and potentially nearing a rehab assignment, however, it seems as if he could be back at Dodger Stadium by the middle of the month. Before the injury, Kershaw had been characteristically excellent, posting a 1.80 ERA through five starts. Some more health situations of note: The Padres are likely to request that second baseman Robinson Cano accept an optional assignment to Triple-A El Paso, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Heyman suggests the eight-time All-Star would refuse to go to the minor leagues, as is his right as a player with five-plus years of MLB service time. If San Diego follows through with removing Cano from the active roster, hed have the right to elect free agency. That seems to be the likeliest outcome, which would end his time in San Diego after just 11 games. Robert Murray of FanSided first tweeted there was growing chatter that Canos time in the organization could be coming to a close. The Friars just signed Cano to a big league deal last month, finalizing agreement on May 13. That came on the heels of the Mets designating the five-time Silver Slugger winner for assignment and releasing him, one year removed from a 162-game PED suspension. In so doing, New York ate the approximate $37.6MM remaining in guaranteed commitments on his contract through 2023. The Padres, pressed right against the base competitive balance tax threshold and looking for affordable offensive help, rolled the dice on Cano for just the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum salary. Cano had started awfully with the Mets, hitting .195/.233/.268 through 12 games. That came with a massive spike in strikeouts and ground-balls relative to his earlier work, and he saw a significant drop in his free passes. San Diego chalked that up to the minuscule sample and hoped Cano would rediscover better form at the plate, but that hasnt happened in the past couple weeks. Through 33 plate appearances, the lefty-swinger is hitting just .094/.121/.094. Hes drawn one walk against ten strikeouts and has yet to tally an extra-base hit. The alarming strikeout, grounder and walk numbers have all gotten worse relative to his early-season numbers with the Mets. It seems the continuation of those struggles will lead the Padres to make a quick trigger in letting Cano go not long after bringing him aboard. At 30-20, the Friars are 3 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. Theyre firmly in Wild Card position at the moment and surely have their sights set on taking the division, so they can ill afford to continue devoting Cano at-bats while hes struggling to this extent. With no way to send him to the minors without his consent, theyre reportedly willing to watch him depart the organization entirely. Cano has seen occasional starts at second base, freeing up Jake Cronenworth to bounce around the diamond a bit more. If the Friars indeed grant Cano his release, Cronenworth would likely head back to the keystone on a more or less everyday basis. Eric Hosmer, Ha-Seong Kim, and Manny Machado make up the remainder of the typical starting infield. The team is hoping star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. can make his return either later this month or in early July. Meanwhile, the 39-year-old Cano would head back to the open market and explore other options. The Mets will continue to pay all of his salary (minus the league minimum for any time he spends on another MLB roster), so thered be no financial risk for a team in adding him. The bigger question is whether hes still capable of performing well enough to warrant an active roster spot. Spendilove Acheampong 02.06.2022 LISTEN Spendilove Acheampong, a young actress says she is a virgin and not available until marriage. Interview with Kwaku Manu on 'Aggressive Show', the 19-year-old actress asserted "I have matured into a gorgeous young lady and receiving countless love messages and sexual chatting but not really interested and I wont be." She continued: I have never had sexual intercourse or never engaged in any sexual activity at all. Am not ready and so am focused to have a fruitful future. I will never allow any actor to have sex with me or even get into fornication until marriage but not saying I will do fornication when marriage." Spendilove is a famed Ghanaian child actress who has starred in many Ghanaian local movies. She got a chance in the movie industry through her mother. This was because her mother was also an actress. Watch video below: Source: Opoku Asare Obed The Court of Appeal in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region has slapped a Kumasi-based Pastor Micaiah Addai a sum of Ghc5,000.00 being cost against him over protracted church litigation brought against him by some members of the church. In a unanimous judgement read by Justice A.M.Domakyaareh (Mrs) together and her two other Coram Justices, Alex B Poku-Acheampong and S K A Asiedu JJA further ordered pastor Micaiah Addai to convene a general meeting with the entire constituents of the 7th Day Pentecostal Assemblies in Ghana within six months from the date of judgement (28th April, 2022) to elect a new president to run the affairs of the church in accordance with the constitution of the church. Passing the judgement, the court noted that the alleged controversy between the Appellants (Elder Enoch Ofori and three others) and Defendant started in 2007 when the founder and leader of the church (7th Day Pentecostal Assemblies) Elder Enoch Ofori Snr, passed on. It was said that after the demise of the founder, pastor Addai, a relative of the founder who was then heading one of the church's branches at Kumasi Tafo allegedly schemed to impose himself as the President of the church after which he packed to the headquarters of the church at Kumasi Adiebeba to assume office. The alleged conduct of Pastor Addai was seen as a violation of the church constitution which stipulated that elections should be held to elect a new president after the death of the sitting president. On the basis of pastor Addai's alleged conflictual attitudes, Elder Ofori Jnr together with some of the church members dragged him (Addai) to High Court, Kumasi in 2009 for proper settlement. The matter went all the way to the Appeals Court which noted in its ruling that the High Court passed out judgement in favour of Pastor Micaia Addai under the conditions that Addai should allow himself for elections to be held with the entire national church branches to ensure the effective running of the church. Stressing that after the judgement, pastor Addai refused to comply with the High Court ruling, instead allegedly caused a handful of members of the church to induct him into office as the National President of the 7th Day Pentecostal Assemblies, which to the Appellants blatantly violate the church constitution and the court ruling. The matter was dragged to the Court of Appeal in Kumasi by Elder Enoch Ofori Jnr and the three appellants against the Respondent Pastor Addai. The court dismissed the claim made by the Respondent that the Appellants were not church members. The Court noted that the Appellants worshipping at a different location was not sufficient proof that a church with a distinct identity has been established by the Appellants. The Coram indicated that the establishment of a church is a process that is governed by law. It is ought to be registered by law with the Registrar of Companies after fulfilling all the requisite requirements for a certificate of registration to be issued to it as a company limited under guarantee. But in Pastor Addai (Defendant/Respondent) claim, he was not able to produce any documents or certificates to back his assertion. The Appeal Court in reference to the defendant's action quoted a case of Khoury and Amor verse Richer on 8th December 1958 which states; Proof in law is the establishment of facts by paper legal means, where a party makes an averment capable of proof in a positive way, eg, by producing documents, description of things, references to other facts. 02.06.2022 LISTEN A Human Rights Advocacy group calling itself Citizens For Truth And Accountability, Ghana (CITAG) is demanding justice and accountability from the Ghana Police Service for the family of Albert Donkor who allegedly died in police custody at Nkoranza in the Bono East Region. The group have asked the Inspector of Police (IGP) to investigate the alleged murder of the 28-year-old man by police officers whiles in custody. Ghana Police Service in their various press statements claimed that Albert Donkor was an armed robber who died in an exchange of gunshots during their anti-robbery intelligence operations. The family of Albert Donkor refuted the claim, saying that the deceased was picked up from home by the police officers. In a press release signed by the Convener of the group, Mr Clement Clinton Blay, he said the statement by the police is sketchy. Without sounding prejudicial about the incident, the group believes that the account of the mother of the deceased which claims that the Police arrested Albert on April 25, 2022, at 1:00am from their residence at Kasadjan but later murdered him could be the facts surrounding the incident. The group further praised the Nkoranza youth for demanding justice for their colleague, even though they condemned the attacks on the Police station. Mr. Blay said the most worrying trend is that murder cases involving police officers' indiscriminate shooting of unarmed protestors are often swept under the carpet. "And it is time such acts must be discouraged from the Service," the statement concluded. The Project Coordinator of the Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies (GAMA/GKMA) Sanitation and Water Project, Ing George Asiedu has observed that as the rainy season sets in there is a need for Ghanaians to keep proper environmental practices to avoid flooding which could lead to the outbreak of diseases. He said the indiscriminate disposal of refuse and liquid waste into drains has blocked the free flow of rainwater causing flooding in parts of Accra and Kumasi. According to him, the dumping of faecal matter into gutters and drains could also cause Facol Coliform which could lead to an outbreak of diseases. Sciences say the presence of fecal coliform bacteria in aquatic environments indicates that the water has been contaminated with the faecal material of humans or other animals. Sources of water may be contaminated by pathogens or disease-producing bacteria or viruses which can also exist in fecal material. Some waterborne pathogenic diseases include typhoid fever, viral and bacterial gastroenteritis, and hepatitis A. Speaking to the Modernghana News Correspondent King Amoah in an exclusive interview, Ing Asiedu indicated that issues that bother on environment is a collective responsibility for all to join hands against. Facol Coliform, he indicated causes bacteria among others in an environment where management of solid waste (toilets/faeces) is poor as witnessed in many parts of the cities. According to Ing Asiedu, it is against this background that environmental and sanitation matters needed to be managed together for a clean and healthy society. To realize the agenda, the Project Coordinator urged stakeholders in the sector to provide waste bins in the communities in addition to the management of solid waste. When this is done he said, would discourage people from littering which consequentially ends up choking the drains and gutters and eventually resulting in flooding. GAMA/GKMA project of which Ing. George Asiedu is the Project Coordinator is an initiative of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources funded by the World Bank. The objective of the project is to increase access to improve sanitation and water supply in some selected districts within the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies respectively. With the emphasis on low-income communities and strengthening the management of environmental sanitation in the two cities. Since 2021 when the project took off, management has successfully provided 1000s of ultra-modern household toilet facilities to beneficiaries. But in his quest to ensure that every household enjoys the facilities, Ing Asiedu is appealing to the general public within the two cities (Accra and Kumasi) to contact their representatives for more information to enable them get access to a toilet. 01.06.2022 LISTEN A business investment sensitisation forum has been held in Damongo for businesses in the Savannah Region by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). The exercise which brought business owners from across all the seven administrative Districts and Municipalities in the Savannah Region together, was held at the conference hall of the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council. The purpose of the business forum was to enlighten and sensitize business owners in the region on the importance of processing and profiling their businesses to attract investment partners and support from financial institutions. The Savannah Regional Minister, Saeed Muhazu Jibril in his welcome address read on his behalf, said the region is endowed with immense potential ranging from arable land, minerals and a host of others. "Therefore, harnessing the natural resources of the region, particularly in agriculture, will not only reduce poverty but also create employment to arrest the urban drift of young men and women to other areas of the country". He added, "The region also has the potential of becoming a hub for Agro based industries not only in the Northern part of the country but Ghana as a whole. The region has the highest concentration of shea/butter nut trees not only in Northern Ghana but also probably the country as a whole. The potential area of investment is the establishment of a Value Chain System in the production, processing and marketing of these crops. This would bring about good returns to the investors as well as facilitate the engagement of the surplus labour-force". He commended the GIPC for extending the nationwide forum to the Savannah Region and pleaded with business owners in the region to take advantage of the program to further expand their businesses. Addressing media men on the sidelines of the program, the Director of Investor Services Division for GIPC, Mr. Ashong-Lartey Edward said the visit to the region was to get first hand information on the local content requirements of potential business investments in the region in collaboration with the various assemblies. According to him, the forum will provide an ideal platform for the identification and compilation of domestic data on various projects and identified investment opportunities in the region for onward presentation to potential business investors. He stated that the mandate of the urgency is to promote, coordinate, encourage and facilitate investment in the Ghanaian economy and this he said, applies to both Ghanaian and foreign based enterprises. He explained further that, the identified investment opportunities will be profiled and marketed to potential investors and also put on the agency's website to showcase to the world what the region is endowed with. He said the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) is committed and interested in working with local businesses to attract assistance from viable financial institutions. The nationwide exercise is the GIPC's initiative aimed at augmenting other undertakings to encourage investors to "Grow in Ghana" and "Grow with Ghana". Chad's Tibesti Mountains, where around 100 people have been killed in fighting between goldminers, is a lawless frontier region in the heart of the Sahara, where even water is part of a lucrative trade. The rugged area, lying in Chad's far north near the Libyan border, is a source of ethnic friction and a bolthole for armed groups. It has often fostered the revolts that have marked the country's history since independence from France in 1960. "The Tibesti region is a bit like the Far West, a lawless zone -- there's a gold rush there and it's like in the films, and that leads to the use of military weapons," said Communications Minister Abderaman Koulamallah, reached by AFP in Libreville. Violence broke out among miners on May 23 at Kouri Bougoudi near the Libyan border. It was triggered by a "mundane dispute between two people which degenerated", Defence Minister General Daoud Yaya Brahim said on Monday. "Around 100" people died and at least 40 were wounded, he said, adding that the clashes pitched Mauritanians against Libyans. The authorities have decided to "suspend" all mining in the area, he said. The discovery of gold in the Tibesti 10 years ago sparked a rush of miners from across Chad and neighbouring countries. Many young Chadians from the country's deeply impoverished centre have headed there, often labouring in dangerous illegal mines. Kouri Bougoudi, located more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the Chadian capital N'Djamena, is an exceptionally bleak place. It lies in hilly, windswept desert and the diggers live in makeshift tents. They depend on water trucked in by Libyan traders, as the nearest water hole is 200 kilometres (120 miles) away, said Koulamallah. Brahim Edji, a researcher who comes from the region, said the miners were having to dig ever deeper to reach the gold, and were increasingly using "semi-industrialised machines, which degrade the environment". "The business is not being regulated by the appropriate services," he said. State void "This is a remote mountainous area -- it's impossible for us to have 100-percent control over it," Koulamallah said, while Yaya Brahim acknowledged "the great majority (of mines in the area) are illegal." Jerome Tubiana, a French specialist on Chad, said lawlessness in the area had been amplified by the porous Libyan border and the vast distance to N'Djamena. "Libya has no state, and this absence is huge in the south of (Libya), whereas the Chadian state is largely absent in the north of (Chad)," he said. The gold-rich Tibesti Mountains lie in the forbidding central Sahara. By Patricio ARANA (AFP) Chad's main armed rebel movement, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), and a smaller group, the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), are both present in the region. "You also find rebels and former rebels from Darfur" in Sudan, Tubiana said. The impoverished Sahel state last year lost its 30-year ruler, Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed during an operation against FACT rebels. His place was taken by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, at the head of a 15-member military junta. In January 2019, several dozen people died in Kouri when fighting erupted between Libyan Arabs and people from the eastern Chadian region of Ouaddai. Hundreds of Sudanese protesters on Wednesday demanded the dismissal of the United Nations mission chief, who is working to resolve a political crisis sparked by last year's military coup. Wednesday's protests, outside the mission's headquarters in the capital Khartoum, criticised efforts by UN special representative Volker Perthes, who heads the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (UNITAMS). Many of the protesters were supporters of Islamist groups, and come a day after Islamist leader Mohamed Ali Al-Gizouli accused Perthes of "interfering" in Sudan's internal affairs during a seminar titled "the negative impact of the UN mission on the launch of Sudanese dialogue". "Volker, you German, the crisis will be solved by the Sudanese," protesters chanted. Others called on Perthes to "leave". The rallies come as the UN Security Council mulled over extending the mission's mandate beyond June 3. Sudan has been rocked by deepening unrest since an October 25 coup staged by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which sparked regular anti-coup protests across much of the country. The power grab derailed a fragile power-sharing agreement between the army and civilians negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir. Many of the anti-UN protesters were supporters of Islamist groups. By Ebrahim Hamid (AFP) A violent crackdown on the anti-coup protests has left nearly 100 people killed, according to pro-democracy medics. Some protesters on Wednesday said they were angry that the UN were involving the civilian alliance known as the Forces of Freedom and Change in talks. "Volker came to involve parties (of the FFC)... Sudanese society is against these parties," protester Ahmed Ali said. 'Heavy socio-economic toll' In March, Perthes told the UN Security Council that Sudan was heading towards "an economic and security collapse" unless its civilian-led transition was restored. In April, Burhan threatened to expel Perthes over alleged "interference" in the country's affairs. The anti-UN rallies come as the UN Security Council mull over extending the mission's mandate beyond June 3. By Ebrahim Hamid (AFP) Last month, Perthes said the political stalemate was "impacting the security situation" and "continues to exact a heavy socio-economic toll" in Sudan. Meanwhile, military officials from Sudan's ruling sovereign council met with UN representatives, as well as officials from the African Union and the regional bloc IGAD. The meeting discussed "the launch of direct talks" among Sudanese factions next week, a statement by the sovereign council said. The UN mission, along with the AU and IGAD, have been pushing to facilitate Sudanese-led talks to resolve the crisis. Western governments have backed the mediation efforts and urged Sudanese factions to participate in the process. On Sunday, Burhan lifted the state of emergency imposed since the coup to set the stage for "meaningful dialogue that achieves stability for the transitional period". The decision came after a meeting with senior military officials, that also recommended that people detained under an emergency law be freed. The UN mission welcomed Burhan's decision, urging Sudanese authorities to "complete the release of detainees". Sudanese authorities have since April released a number of anti-coup civilian leaders and pro-democracy activists arrested in the crackdown. France's linguistic watchdog, the Academie Francaise, has banned the official use of tech jargon borrowed from English to describe the world of video gaming. The Culture Ministry, which was involved in spearheading the changes, told AFP that anglicisms in the gaming sector could potentially act as an understanding barrier for non-gamers. Words such as "e-sports" and streamer are to be respectively replaced with "jeu video de competition" and "joueur-animateur en direct. Elsewhere pro-gamer is to become joueur professionnel and "cloud gaming" will be jeu video en nuage. The changes were announced in the government's official legal almanac, the Journal Officiel, which makes them gospel for government employees. Custodians For centuries the academy has been tasked with maintaining the purity of the French language, with English words seen as a particular threat. In February, the academy warned that hybrid Franglais terms and imports such as drive-in and big data were degrading the language and creating communication issues. Many anglicisms are used in place of existing French words or expressions, inevitably leading to the gradual erasure of the French equivalents, it warned in a report. Aside from fashion and sport, the internet and digital field is unsurprisingly the most strongly and visibly anglicised. Created in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the academy is made up of 40 members eminent writers, thinkers, historians, doctors who are known as immortels. They meet every Thursday to discuss words, find French alternatives to foreign terms, and to decide which ones may enter the academy's online dictionary. A woman selling produce at the Manzini Wholesale Produce and Craft Market in Swaziland. - Source: Edwin Remsberg/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 01.06.2022 LISTEN Small and medium-scale farmers and agri-businesses in east and southern Africa are getting a raw deal. To succeed they need fair and integrated regional markets. Research by the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development has highlighted the need for better integration of regional economies as a step towards food security in the region. Powerful commercial interests, high transport costs and poor access to facilities such as for storage mean that small and medium-scale farmers are often not getting fair prices for the food they grow. Fair prices are those that meet demand and cover reasonable costs of supply including transport across borders. During the course of our research we came across examples of how the odds are stacked against most small and medium-scale farmers. Take the experience of Endrina Maxwell, a small producer in Malawi. In April 2021, she sold her soybean crop in central Malawi and realised the returns from investing in commercial agriculture as a female agribusiness owner and farmer. She got prices around Malawi kwacha 350/kg, about $450/t (see Figure 1). At the same time, the prices in the main markets in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi were over a $1000/t. A number of hurdles stood in Endrina's way to take advantage of the high prices in neighbouring countries. First, specific price information was not readily available for someone in Endrina's position to be aware of the gains from exporting. Second, transport costs are very high for smaller producers. Third, to hold-off from selling at the harvest and to bargain for better offers, producers like Endrina need to have storage options. This situation does benefit some. These include the main traders and processors in Malawi and across the region. These companies bought up much of the crop at the time of harvest at low prices, for local use and for export, taking advantage of their storage facilities and private information. Prices in Malawi then increased to peak at $1350/t in January 2022, as if there was a severe scarcity. The trebling of soybean prices affected another cohort of small-scale farmers. Soybeans are a key component of poultry feed. Small-scale poultry farmers saw their animal feed prices increase by similar amounts, squeezing them severely. Our research identifies a lack of effective regional competition and indicates the need to inquire into transport, storage and logistics issues. The differences in prices between locations on transport corridors translate into rents to transporters and arbitrage margins being made by large traders. It also points to supplies being bought-up by intermediaries at low prices at the harvest and held back to drive prices up. The fragile food systems in the region, combined with increasing concentration at multiple levels of key value chains, calls for a regional competition policy for resilient and sustainable regional value chains. A stronger regional market referee to monitor and enforce competition rules would level the playing field for fairer food markets. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Competition Commission working together with national competition authorities, has the central role to play. What's missing The African Market Observatory was created to fill the gap of reliable market information for key food products at the wholesale and producer levels. The observatory tracks and compiles prices monthly. The first 12 months of data gathering by the observatory underlined the benefits to smaller market participants of market data . This year, with the African Market Observatory, it has been possible to track markets through crowd-sourcing prices from smaller market participants. Access to this data has allowed Endrina to anticipate what she should get for her soybean harvest. It has also enabled her to plan her other business oil production more efficiently. The pricing patterns have highlighted the crucial role that access to competitive transport services as well as storage facilities play in accessing markets and fairer prices. This has informed Endrina's decision to invest in storage facilities on her farm as a result of discovering that there is value in spreading her grain sales throughout the year as opposed to selling only at the harvest. To strengthen the region's fragile food security made worse by climate change it's essential that produce can be sourced from across the region, which is the most cost effective way to meet the needs of customers and to reward producers for expanding supply. This is most evident in Kenya where food prices have risen exponentially . The country is experiencing the most severe drought in 40 years. In addition, the war in Ukraine is compounding international pricing pressures . This means that Kenya needs to source imports from the region where weather has been good at fair competitive prices. Yet, despite growing production in countries such as Malawi and Zambia, cross-border trade is not happening effectively. Unfair trade By considering the market clearing sources of supply for the main centres of demand in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi we can see that soybean prices have been way above the fair import prices. This implies that producers received too little and end users paid way too much, with intermediaries capturing the difference. Dar es Salaam could have sourced soybeans from Malawi, Zambia or Uganda all neighbouring countries to add to domestic supplies. Prices at over US$1200/t in some months, such as October to December 2021, were US$200-400/t above what it should have cost to land goods from Uganda and US$400-750/t above what it should have cost to land from Zambia. This includes an efficient transport rate, calculated at US$0.04/t/km from various sources. Regional trade and competitive markets are also impeded by governments. Zambia had an export restriction on soybeans from August to November 2021. Removing the restriction brought lower prices to buyers in Dar and higher prices to sellers in Zambia, benefiting both sides through trade. Where the region is unable to take advantage of good supply in some locations to meet demand in others at competitive prices, this places great pressure on downstream industries. For example, animal feed producers in Kenya who are buyers have been hit hard. A package of interventions to ensure regional markets work better is urgently required. Making regional markets work We propose the strengthening of three priority areas: policy and advocacy, enforcement, including against cartels; and regional merger evaluation. Competition advocacy and policy is essential, as many of the factors undermining effective regional competitive markets include policy aspects. Regulatory barriers, for example, undermine trade and reinforce the market power of companies within countries. The Comesa Competition Commission and national authorities in the region need to urgently act together in these areas to tackle poorly working regional food markets. The African Market Observatory is a starting point for data collection where analyses can be deepened, collaboration can be strengthened, and access to pricing information improved for market participants. The Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at the University of Johannesburg in which Simon Roberts is lead researcher has received funding for the African Market Observatory from the COMESA Competition Commission. Grace Nsomba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Grace Nsomba, Researcher at Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg And Simon Roberts, Professor of Economics and Lead Researcher, Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, UJ, University of Johannesburg In Kenya, the right to housing is embedded in the constitution , which provides that Every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation. At the start of his second term in 2018, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta launched an affordable housing programme as one of the big four agenda pillars to promote long term economic development. The other pillars are food and nutrition security, a robust manufacturing sector and universal healthcare. Kenya needs to build 250,000 units annually for at least four years to plug its cumulative housing deficit of two million units. The lowest cost of a new house is estimated at $11,000 (KSh1.1 million), and only about 11% of Kenyans earn enough to support a mortgage. Public and private housing developers have previously concentrated on the middle and high-income groups. Little attention has been given to producing affordable housing to the poor segments of the population, who form the bulk of Kenyan society 53% by the end of 2020. As a result, over 60% of urban households in Kenya live in slums where they struggle to raise $10 a month for rent. The government pledged to build 500,000 housing units for the lower and middle-income population segments by 2022. The units were to be sold at a price range of US$6,000 to US$30,000. But by the end of 2021, the five-year plan had yielded only 431 units or 0.8% of the target. Our study examined the current status of the affordable housing strategy, aiming to identify the opportunities it presents and what's hindering progress. We looked at the first project in the programme, in Nairobi's Ngara Estate, which has so far delivered 228 affordable units. It has created extensive opportunities for investment in construction, and the manufacture and supply of building materials and components. But it faces various challenges which will have to be overcome if the programme as a whole is to succeed. Demand and supply Provision of affordable housing remains a problem, not only for developing countries like Kenya, but also many developed countries. The rapid increase in urban population, high cost of construction, finance costs, and escalating prices of urban land are hurdles in Kenya. In the early and mid-2000s Kenya's government proposed a raft of tax incentives to stimulate supply and demand for housing. But demand continued to exceed supply. Only 50,000 housing units were constructed annually in Kenya's urban centres against the annual need of 250,000. Out of these, only 2% target lower-income families. Affordability problems remain . Kenya's affordable housing programme includes: the state-controlled Kenya Mortgage Re-Finance Company . Its role is to mobilise cheaper finance from local and international institutions for onward lending by local mortgage providers at 7%, which is half the prevailing commercial rate. the National Housing Development Fund to mobilise funds from potential house buyers tax incentives for housing development and home acquisition. Slow uptake The project we studied, Ngara Estate, is being built on nine acres of land at a cost of US$50 million (KSh5 billion). It is being built and financed by the Chinese government. The project includes a nursery school and shopping centre, among other communal facilities. Its 1,370 housing units are to be sold at US$10,000 for a one-bedroom, US$20,000 for two-bedroom and US$30,000 for a three-bedroom house. Houses are to be allocated by lottery. Kenyans interested in the houses are supposed to register online giving personal details such as employment status, household particulars and preferred area of residence. The government of Kenya provided land and mortgage facilities to the middle-class buyers of the project. Based on data obtained from texts, interviews, observation, discussion, media review, and government's published manuals, we found that uptake of the completed units was slow. This is because most applicants are unable to raise the 12.5% of home value required to participate in the lottery for house allocation. Opportunities and challenges The Ngara project has generated 650 direct job opportunities for artisans in the informal sector. Use of locally available resources, labour and artisans in the housing programme could lower costs and employ thousands of Kenyans. Another finding is that building designs and components can be standardised and prepared offsite, then transported and assembled. This would cut costs and time. Our study found that innovative and alternative building materials and technologies could also achieve savings. A number of public and private companies producing alternative building materials are in operation in Kenya. On the other hand, challenges of the programme include: Funding: Housing and real estate development is a highly capital-intensive venture and funds are in short supply. Shortage of land for development: The project requires land which is serviced with infrastructure and in good locations. But such land is in short supply in Kenya, and therefore expensive. Cost of construction: Design, materials and labour make up 5070% of housing development cost. Poor physical and social infrastructure: Infrastructure is lacking in many urban centres in Kenya and developers often transfer the costs of infrastructure to end buyers. Bureaucracy: Many agencies are involved in the approval and licensing of housing development proposals and this makes the process lengthy, costly and complicated. None of the laws and standards in connection with building construction directly addresses development of mass affordable housing. Resettlement: People are being moved to make way for affordable housing projects. What should be done Developers, contractors and other players in the housing industry should harness the opportunities available for mass housing development. The government and professionals in the built environment sector should educate the public about the benefits of alternative materials and technologies. The state should open up more land for affordable housing. The National Housing Development Fund should consider more sources of finance, such as the capital market. A policy framework is needed to guide design, size of units, location and long-term maintenance. More public participation and consultations should be conducted to avoid resistance to relocation. The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Raphael M. Kieti, Real Estate Lecturer, University of Nairobi And Robert W. Rukwaro, Professor in the Department of Architecture & Building Science, University of Nairobi And Washington H.A. Olima, Professor of Land Taxation, Urban Economics and Property Valuation, University of Nairobi The world is accustomed to the stereotypical face of the refugee. The well-worn tropes of the Black or Brown face from post-genocide Rwanda, war-torn Somalia, or gang-ridden Honduras. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in the first half of 2021, there were more than 26.6 million refugees worldwide. The humanitarian aid organisation Save the Children reports that only about 1% of refugees receive the support they need to resettle in new countries. Most refugees end up languishing in a sort of limbo, not fully transitioning to a new life. Refugee crises are far from novel, the world seems to shake its collective head, mutter sympathetic utterances, and invariably move on. It has been personally stirring to witness the response to a relatively atypical refugee face. A fair skinned and straight-haired version of displacement. In late February , millions of Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes as Russian military strikes commenced across Ukraine, most notably in the city of Kyiv. Vivid images of the heartbroken throngs who were suffering unspeakable losses captured the hearts of the watching world as they should. Empathetic responses, including the tangible kind, were swift. The US Senate has passed a US$40 billion bill to provide military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The European Union has also pledged close to 1 billion Euros to support Ukraine and countries who have accepted Ukrainian refugees. While this is an unprecedented response from governments, there are also countless stories of individual and community level acts of support and outpourings of kindness. One viral photograph by photographer Francesco Malavolta showed a neat row of donated strollers at a Polish train station left as a thoughtful gesture for Ukrainian refugees with young children. In the hours following the mass evacuations from Ukraine, however, a story of disparity emerged. African immigrants fleeing Ukraine reported being blocked by border guards at departure points. They were refused entry to surrounding nations who were accepting refugees. The vast majority of the 76,000 international students registered in Ukraine are Nigerian. As President Biden announced his plan to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to the US via temporary protective status, asylum seekers on endless wait lists looked on. Some cried foul. In ensuing weeks, the UK government was careful to note that Ukrainians would not fall under its newly minted plan to relocate, to Rwanda, asylum seekers arriving through irregular migration routes. As a trained counseling psychologist who focuses on mental health disparities, cross-cultural issues in mental health, and body image among African women I have given much thought to how we may begin to understand these seemingly disparate responses to pain and suffering. I believe there are harmful impacts if these obvious disparities are ignored. Most notably, the depictions of unfair responses are in full view of Black Africans (those directly affected and those not) who time and again see evidence that their value and humanity is worth less than other groups. I contend that there are a few frameworks in our field to shape our thinking and nudge our attentions. Intergroup empathy One possible explanation can be found in studies of intergroup empathy. There is some evidence that individuals experience a more visceral (emotional) response to the pain of another when the sufferer is perceived to be of the same in-group. The study argues, at a neural level, individuals feel the pain of others who they perceive to be like them. Important here is the human perception of who constitutes the in-group. What we can conclude is refugees from Ukraine evoke waves of empathy, the kind that galvanises valuable support, because others perceive a shared humanity. Another study found that White participants showed less physiological (bodily) arousal to the pain of Africans than to other Whites. In the same study, White individuals who had higher levels of implicit racial bias were more likely to have reduced reactions to the pain of Africans. What these findings suggest is that implicit racism plays a potent role in muting empathetic responses to racially marginalised groups. There is wealth of research on the role of stereotypes underpinning racial prejudices. A recent study seems to suggest more of a bidirectional relationship. In other words stereotypes breed prejudices, and prejudices breed stereotypes. Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie argued in her now famous TEDTalk that stereotypes serve to diminish a sense of shared humanity across groups by providing us only single narratives of particular regions, nations or peoples. Adichie states the following in evaluating exchanges with her White college roommate who, she believed, held a single stereotypical story of Africa: In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her, in any way. No possibility of feelings more complex than pity. No possibility of a connection as human equals. Invalidation and trauma Being discriminating in which refugee groups are supported can have traumatic effects. As an immigrant of Nigerian descent to the US, I am sitting with the hurt as I have watched the news lately. On the one hand, I appreciate the evidence of the goodness of humanity in the face of a senseless war. On the other hand, I am contending with the reality that faces like mine do not move the empathy needle for most of the world. What does it mean to witness your own dereliction ignored while others are aided? Trauma researchers have stressed the importance of validation in the face of trauma and injustice. Because humans are social beings, healing invariably begins with another seeing our pain and responding to it in a way that communicates that we matter. That the world seems indifferent is a metaphorical stab to the collective hearts of Black Africans and it is not benign in its impact. It is its own trauma. Other researchers found that trauma-specific invalidation was correlated with poorer mental health outcomes, including increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The refugees fleeing Ukraine are deserving of all the support and aid we can muster on their behalf. All refugees. One group coordinating evacuation and resettlement support is the Global Black Coalition , they support refugees of colour from Ukraine or other displaced persons from marginalised groups. Oyenike Balogun-Mwangi ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possede pas de parts, ne recoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a declare aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche. By Oyenike Balogun-Mwangi, Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Salve Regina University 01.06.2022 LISTEN Bangladeshs much anticipated Padma Bridge, also a dream project of theBangladesh, is going to be inaugurated on June 25 this year and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed will inaugurate the long-awaited bridge at 10:00am. The commuters of 21 districts of the south-west part of the country cross the Padma River via ferries through the countrys Banglabazar-Shimulia route. Passengers and drivers have to suffer from long traffic jams. When functioned, it will be the largest bridge in Bangladesh and the first fixed river crossing for road traffic. The two-level steel truss bridge will carry a four-lane highway on the upper level and a single-track railway on a lower level. As the Padma Bridge, the dream of millions in the south, is going to be inaugurated next month, the miseries of people are going to be ended. The multipurpose bridge, a dream project of Bangladesh connecting the Mawa point of Munshiganj and the Jajira point of Shariatpur in Bangladesh, will make the journey easier for commuters and freight vehicles, and gradually boost the country's GDP by 1.3-2%. The Padma Bridge which is designed in two-tiers with steel-truss composite keeping road on the top and rail below is the deepest foundation bridge in the world. After inaugurating the Padma Bridge on the east side on June 25, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address a mammoth rally on the other side of the river, her first public appearance in the south-western part of the country since late 2018. Bangladeshs Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the epitome of her countrys development, showed the confidence and foresight by creating a world example like Padma Bridge. She had to walk on the path of huge obstacles but she has reached her destination. She established the truth by firmly confronting the conspiracy that was spread at the birth of the bridge. The Padma Bridge bears the signature of Ms. Hasina Wajed's visionary leadership. The world got a chance to know once again the capacity of Bangladesh in Hasina era. Bangladesh is a country that has repeatedly shown its capabilities. Work on the Padma Bridge was about to close. The World Bank withdrew its pledge on false charges of corruption, and other donors followed suit. The future of the Padma Bridge was under a threat and the construction work of the Padma Bridge became uncertain. World Bank and donors turn their backs. Critics then burst out laughing, creating a flurry of negative comments that it will not be possible for Hasina to build Padma Bridge. The World Bank stopped financing to construct the bridge without holding board meeting with the connivance of a person bringing a false corruption allegation which was later proved baseless. Canada court didnt find no proof of Padma bridge bribery conspiracy. The then communications minister Abul Hossain had to resign from the cabinet. This was the beginning picture of the construction of the Padma Bridge. But after the construction work started, a great challenge came up. Bold and groundbreaking engineering skills were required in river governance and piling. At the same time construction costs continue to rise. The construction of the bridge was in full swing when Corona's attack started. But the work of the bridge did not stop even for a single day due to the indomitable will of Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Work on the Padma Bridge has moved forward by tackling Corona. When everyone saw that the work of the bridge was progressing under the leadership of Hasina Wajed, some dishonest and conspirators started spreading rumors. Rumors were spread that man's head would be needed to build bridges. The government has also dealt with it efficiently. It is not only the Padma Bridge that is being built due to the indomitable will of Sheikh Hasina, but also the work of Metro Rail and countrys biggest Tunnel is nearing completion. They will be open to the public this year. Many mega projects are going on at the same time. Many projects including Rooppur nuclear power plant, Matarbari project, construction of Bangabandhu Railway Bridge over river Jamuna, construction of Pyra sea port, construction of Bangabandhu industrial city are remarkable. But the construction of the Padma Bridge was the most challenging of all. The Padma Bridge is not just a bridge; it is a great asset of the country. Padma Bridge is a multi-purpose road and railway bridge built over the Padma River in Bangladesh. The south-western part of the country will be connected to the north-eastern part. Construction of the 6.15 km long and 18.10 m wide bridge started on 7 December, 2014. Today the Padma Bridge is visible. The bridge of pride stands today. As a result of the construction of the Padma Bridge with its own money, the economic potential and image of Bangladesh have been established all over the world. A bold decision by the Prime Minister has earned him international recognition as a self-confident, determined statesman. Bangladeshs economic progress, continuous GDP growth, and improvement of Bangladeshs position in various social indicators are recognaized internationally today. The sacrifices made by the Prime Minister for this bridge, the success of the implementation of the Padma Bridge project have made that sacrifice justified. Initially, the construction cost was low, but later it increased a few points and stood at USD 3.868 Billion. Both construction time and construction costs increased. Although there are differing views on construction costs, the most promising thing is that the bridge has been completed and will be open to the public in June. The bridge is deeply connected with politics, economics, culture and social phenomenon. Building the bridge was a major political challenge for Bangladesh. After opening the bridge, the country's economy will rise up. The structure of the country's economy will change. There will be massive development of agriculture. The bridge will create a groundbreaking chapter in the transportation of agricultural commodities from the southwestern region to capital. Farmers will get good prices for their produce. Extensive industrialization will take place in the southwestern region of the country centered on the Padma Bridge. The Padma Bridge could become a part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. There will be a revolution in the field of communication and transportation. The development of the tourism industry will be achieved through the bridge. A 6-lane expressway has been constructed at the countrys Munshiganj and Shariatpur sections of the bridge which is very eye-catching and captivating. This bridge will play a unique role in the field of culture. Resorts, hotels and restaurants will be built around this bridge where Bengali food will be served which will make Bengali culture more familiar to foreigners. The Padma Bridge will increase the country's GDP and increase per capita income. This bridge will further strengthen the rail link with the southwestern part of the country. People will be able to travel comfortably in a short time from Dhaka. Various business establishments will be built around the bridge and the standard of living of the people of the South West will be multiplied. If the name of Padma Bridge is pronounced, the name of Sheikh Hasina Wajed should be pronounced. Sheikh Hasina's name and the Padma Bridge are complemented to each other. There is no chance to separate them. Although the Padma Bridge is not named after Sheikh Hasina Wajed, people will know from generation to generation that this bridge was made possible because of Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Sheikh Hasina Wajed has taken the great challenge of Padma Bridge and won. Bangladesh has already become a developing country. Padma Bridge will take the country faster. This bridge will play a unique role in taking Bangladesh to line of developed countries. The decision of building the much-awaited Padma Multipurpose Bridge, which is set to open for traffic on June 25 next, brightened the country's image in the world and also accelerated the nation's confidence. The decision to construct the Padma Bridge by own finance has brightened the country's image in the globe and also accelerated the nation's confidence Dr. Malika-e-Abida Khattak from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, is an educator, and researcher. Her areas of interest are foreign relations and the economy of Afghanistan-Pakistan-India-Bangladesh-Nepal-Bhutan and Sri Lanka. She can be contacted at [email protected]com The ruling junta in Guinea-Conakry has rejected a call from the United Nations to lift a ban on political demonstrations, insisting protests should only be allowed during the election period in three years' time. The military, who overthrew President Alpha Conde in September, declared a ban on public demonstrations last month before any return to civilian rule - which it says will happen in three years time. On Monday, the UN's Human Rights High Commission called for the ban to be revoked, but the junta rejected the appeal late Tuesday. In a communique read on state television, the junta stated: "No march will be authorised so long as public order cannot be guaranteed." The military rulers - led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya - underlined that hundreds of people died during violent protests that erupted during Conde's years in power. The junta added it had already set up bodies where "contradictions and misunderstandings can be debated quite serenely." As a result, they claim, "nothing can justify marches during this sensitive period of national life in which Guineans have [begun once more] to speak to each other like brothers." Political parties are becoming increasingly vocal in their protests against the junta's rule and what they say is the crackdown on individual freedom. ECOWAS calls for swift transition In a statement posted on social media, the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) - a coalition that led months of anti-Conde protests in 2019 and 2020 - accused the junta of showing a "dictatorial attitude," calling on the public to "mobilise for the imminent resumption of peaceful and civil demonstrations." The FNDC says action is necessary "to prevent the confiscation of power and demand a swift return to public order." The three-year transition period proposed by the military is in defiance of ECOWAS demands for a return to civilian rule within a much shorter time frame. The West African bloc suspended Guinea's membership after the 2021 coup and in March warned of economic and financial sanctions if the junta snubbed an appeal for a shorter transition period. The issue is set to return to the agenda at an ECOWAS summit this Saturday in the Ghanaian capital Accra. The Law Commission of the French Senate has announced that a fact-finding mission will travel to New Caledonia, a French colony in the South Pacific, to investigate the future institutional role of the island and its relationship with France and other French overseas territories. The trip will take place between 22 June and 29 June and a report on the visit is due to be published at the end of July. The mission will be headed by Francois-Noel Buffet (Les Republicains LR,) President of the Law Commission, who will meet with all the people concerned, according to a commission press release. Next week, the Senate will hold a series of hearings with legal experts. Buffet will be joined by Philippe Bas (LR,) Jean-Pierre Sueur (Socialists) and the president of the centrist group Herve Marseille. The team will examine to what extend leaders in Paris and New Caledonia's capital Noemea have lived up to agreements on extended autonomy. In particular, it will look at the Matignon Agreements (signed in 1988 between loyalists who wanted to keep New Caledonia as a part of the French Republic, and separatists, who did not,) and the Noemea Accord (signed in 1998 and aimed at granting increased political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, over a twenty-year transition period.) On 12 December, New Caledonia voted to stay part of France in the third and final referendum of the Noumea Accord. Turnout was at a record low, as Kanak separatists of the FLNKS had called on New Caledonians to boycott the vote. They refused to recognize the outcome. The new Minister for Overseas Territories, Yael Braun-Pivet, has the arduous task to reopen negotiations between separatists and non-separatists and try and build the institutional future of the archipelago. The territory's new role must be defined ahead of a referendum scheduled for June 2023 which will focus on the new political organization of New Caledonia. New Caledonia is of strategic importance for France in the face of growing Chinese attempts to gain influence in the region. It could in the coming years become a flashpoint in Franco-Chinese rivalry in the Pacific. Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has taken on the security apparatus in the country, indicating that the brutality of citizens will not be tolerated anymore in any part of the country. Mr. Alban Bagbin said, we will no longer tolerate police brutalities in the country. Parliament is the center of this democracy in Ghana. The concept is very clear. We will be forced to take stringent measures to curb this when it persists, he added. The Speaker made the comments as part of the house's consideration of the Defence and Interior Committee's report on the incident of military-civilian brutality in Wa in the Upper West Region. The committee recommended compensation for victims and the trial of the culprits. Just last month, two persons were allegedly killed by police officers. The first, Albert Donkor is said to have been killed by some police officers who picked him up last week in a private vehicle after he allegedly mentioned among friends that he had seen a police officer involved in a robbery incident. A student, Victor Kwadwo Owusu, was also allegedly killed by police while the youth of Nkoranza were protesting over the alleged killing of Albert Donkor. Two months ago, a clash between the youth of Akatsi in the Volta Region and the police led to the death of two people. The youth massed up at the police station to demand the release of an impounded motorbike after police allegedly ran over three persons on a motorbike with their riot van. The incident occurred near the Akatsi Training College, resulting in the death of one of the riders. ---citinewsroom The Ministry of Works and Housing is collaborating with the Ministry of Communications and Digitisation to digitize the operations of the Rent Control Department, as part of efforts to enhance service delivery of the Department. Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, the Minister of Works and Housing, said as result, a Technical Team, comprising the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) and the Ghana India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, had presented a technical report which had recommended the design and architecture of systems to achieve full digitization of the Rent Control Department. This exercise will commence at the national level and later will be linked to the regional and district offices, Mr Asenso-Boakye, stated on Wednesday on the floor of Parliament in his response to a question from Mr Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta. The MP wanted to know from the Minister the measures the Ministry was taking to strengthen the Rent Control Department to perform its lawful duties. Mr Asenso-Boakye mentioned some of the measures the Ministry had initiated to strengthen the Rent Control Department to perform its lawful duties such as the review of the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) and the Rent Control Law, 1986 (PNDC Law 138). He said the review of the Rent Act was necessary in the light of the shortcomings of the existing Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) and the Rent Control Law (PNDC L 138), which do not significantly address current challenges in the rental housing industry. He noted that the Ministry submitted a memorandum and received policy approval from Cabinet in February 2022 for the review of the existing Rent Acts. The Ministry is working with the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice on a draft Rent Bill. It will eventually be brought before this august House for consideration and approval, after an extensive stakeholder engagement, the Minister said. Mr Speaker, the Bill if approved, will provide the framework for comprehensive restructuring of the Rent Control Depart to make it more effective and efficient. He said additionally, offices would be created in all regions and districts of the country. Mr Gakpey again asked the Minister what efforts the Ministry was making to enforce the law on leasing Assets in accordance with the Rent Control Act. To this, the Minister replied that under the Rent Act, 1963, (ACT 220) and the Rent Control Law, 1986 (PNDC L 138), the Rent Control Department had the mandate to perform assessment of Recoverable Rent on an application by a landlord, tenant or person interested in premises, preparation of Rent Registers and maintaining Register of Vacant Premises. He said the Ministry was working through the Rent Control Department to enforce laws on leasing assets in accordance with the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) and the Rent Control Law, 1986 (PNDC L 138). Mr Speaker, Section 25 of Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) prohibits landlords from taking more than six months' rent advance, and therefore any landlord who contravenes the law commits an offence and is punishable by the law. Mr Yusif Sulemana, MP, Bole Bamboi, also asked the Minister of Works and Housing, who the occupants of the UNDP Flats in Cantonments were and whether they paid rent to the Government. Mr Asenso-Boakye, in a reply, noted that the current occupants of the UNDP Flats were squatters and therefore, they do not pay any rent whatsoever. He said that there had been previous actions by the Ministry to give a facelift to the UNDP Flats by undertaking technical and financial appraisals of the flats; stating that measures were being taken to give a facelift to the UNDP Flats to serve the original purpose. He said the Ministry in consultation with the relevant institutions was considering an eviction to get all the squatters out of the buildings. GNA US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday for a diplomatic solution over the Democratic Republic of Congo's rising tensions with Rwanda as he met with Kinshasa's top diplomat. Receiving Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula at the State Department, Blinken said the United States wanted to support "peace and security and stability in the eastern DRC, which is under some challenge." "We want to be very supportive of important African efforts that are ongoing," he said. Blinken praised talks earlier this year in Kenya's capital Nairobi between the DR Congo's government and several rebel groups. Angolan President Joao Lourenco has also mediated and said Tuesday that Kinshasa has agreed to release two Rwandan soldiers whose detention had inflamed tensions. Relations have been strained since the mass arrival in the eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. Friction spiked last week with both sides trading accusations of aiding armed militias. Lutundula, who thanked the Biden administration for its efforts, a day earlier attended a UN Security Council briefing where the United States urged attention to protect civilians. "We urge the governments of the DRC and Rwanda to engage in dialogue to reduce tension and pursue a diplomatic resolution," said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in two DRC cities, including in front of the Rwandan embassy in Kinshasa, to denounce Kigali's alleged meddling. On May 6, 2022, a monkeypox outbreak in England was confirmed, beginning with a British resident who, after traveling to Nigeria, showed symptoms consistent with monkeypox on April 29, 2022. The resident returned to the United Kingdom on May 4 becoming the outbreak's index case in the country. According to CNN, there have been 550 confirmed cases in 30 countries worldwide. Monkeypox, according to the WHO, is a viral zoonotic disease (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients in the past, though it is clinically less severe. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 47 confirmed and probable cases of monkeypox in the United States in 2003, spread across six states. Those who got monkeypox got it after coming into contact with prairie dogs that were being sold as pets. The 2003 outbreak in the United States was the first time human monkeypox was reported outside of the African continent. There were no deaths or reported human-to-human transmissions. Fortunately, the mortality rate is low, ranging from 1 to 10%, and is especially low with the most recent strain to appear on the scene. TRANSMISSION Direct contact with infected animals' blood, bodily fluids or cutaneous or mucosal lesions can result in animal-to-human (zoonotic) transmission. Evidence of monkeypox virus infection has been found in many animals in Africa, including rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, various species of monkeys, and others. People who live in or near forest areas may have indirect or low-level exposure to infected animals. Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person, or recently contaminated objects. Transmission via droplet respiratory particles usually requires prolonged face-to-face contact, which puts health workers, household members, and other close contacts of active cases at greater risk. However, the longest documented chain of transmission in a community has risen in recent years from 6 to 9 successive person-to-person infections. Symptoms The incubation period for monkeypox is typically 6 to 13 days, but it can range from 5 to 21 days. There are two stages to the infection: The skin eruption usually appears 13 days after the fever appears. The rash is more common on the face and extremities than on the trunk. Virus interaction prevention (including health care workers without appropriate PPE) Contact with contaminated materials such as clothing or bedding, including sexual contact, should be monitored. Is there any monkeypox in Ghana? On May 25, 2022, the Ghana Health Service issued a press release signed by the Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Yaw Ofori Yeboah, debunking alleged reports of a monkeypox outbreak in the Western Region. "There have been no cases of monkeypox reported in the Western region." A person with blisters reported to a facility in the Ahanta West Municipality of the Western Region. The initial evaluation of the case does not point to monkeypox. "More research is being conducted," parts of the press release stated. Paintings by pupils of the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village, Shiqian County of Guizhou Province (Photo by Zhou Huaiping) Days before the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the PLA Navy, the PLA Naval Research Academy in Beijing received navy-themed paintings and short videos from the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village, Shiqian County of Guizhou Province, which were gifts made by the pupils of this rural primary school for the celebration of the 73rd birthday of the PLA Navy. Shiqian County, located in the deep mountains in southwest China, had poor transportation systems which greatly hindered the economic development of the county, and the Yinfeng Village was no exception. Tang Guozheng, a native of Yinfeng Village, has been working as a teacher of the primary school in the village for 36 years. He remembers clearly that before the year of 2001, the school with nearly 200 students only had three classrooms, which were leaking cold air in winter and rainwater in summer. Students had to bring their own desks and chairs to class. It occurred often that three students had to share one table. In 2001, good news spread to the village. In February of that year, several officers dispatched from a naval unit stationed in Beijing came to the Yinfeng Village Primary School and signed on behalf of the naval unit an assistance agreement with the school. According to the agreement, the naval unit funded the construction of the new classroom building, the playground, and procurement of teaching facilities, and it was in that year that the school was renamed "Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village". It is one of more than 300 schools aided by the military. Naval units have kept sowing the seeds of hope in the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village for 21 years: the aid was initiated in 2001 by a naval unit; the Naval Research Academy has taken over the responsibility since 2015; in 2016, with the financial assistance from the Naval Research Academy, the school's renovation and expansion project was started, new dining halls, dormitories and bathrooms rose from the ground one after another The seeds of hope have borne fruitful results. According to statistics, over the past 21 years, more than 300 graduates of the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village have later been admitted from senior high schools in Shiqian County to universities and colleges such as the National University of Defense Technology, Naval University of Engineering, and Guizhou University, gradually becoming pillars of the society. Ma Guangjie ever studied in the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village from 2006 to 2012. Last year, after graduating from Guizhou Industry Polytechnic College, the 21-year-old Ma joined the military and was assigned to a naval unit, becoming the first young man serving in the naval troops from Yinfeng Village. A cornerstone laying ceremony is held in May, 2016 prior to the construction of the dining hall of the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village, Shiqian County of Guizhou Province. The classroom building of the Navy Hope Primary School in Yinfeng Village, Shiqian County of Guizhou Province. Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA) strongly condemn the violent attack by the Southwest state police on Radio Barawe, a local minority community rights radio in Barawe on Wednesday night. The attack comes amid president Hassan Sheikh Mohamuds first visit to Southwest state following his election victory on 15 May. Around 6:15pm local time on Wednesday, five armed police officers raided Radio Barawe and violently detained journalist Osman Aweys Bahar, who also covers for Universal TV, and radio founder Fuad Shoble. Both were initially forced to walk to the beach on gun point, however, after resistance they were transferred to the police station where they were held. Uniformed officers were seen inside the radio premise with at least one officer pointing his gun at journalist Osman Bahar and threatening to shoot, according a video recording obtained by SJS and SOMA. According to colleagues, journalist Bahar sustained hand injury resulting from police beating. The raid and the detention follows an order of arrest issued by Lower Shabelle court on Wednesday over journalist Bahars coverage about the growing rift within Barawe district council and the district commissioner. Earlier, journalist Bahar told SJS and SOMA that the district commissioner, Liban Abukar Bafo and police commissioner, Abduqadir Adan Mohamed had threatened to detain him. Osman Bahar Radio Barawe journalist, Osman Aweys Bahar. | PHOTO/SJS/FILE. SJS and SOMA condemn the violent attack on Radio Barawe and the detention of its staff. We call for immediate action against the police officers who conducted this raid. We also demand the freedom of journalist Osman Aweys Bahar and radio founder Fuad Shoble. Police should also return equipment taken from the radio. We condemn this violent attack by Southwest state police officers against Radio Barawe and the detention Osman Aweys Bahar and radio founder Fuad Shoble, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the Secretary-General of Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said We demand for the immediate and unconditional freedom of the two colleagues detained. Police officers should not act above the law. They should be held accountable for their violent actions. We are very sad that the attack on Radio Barawe and the detention of its two staff members took place when Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is paying his first visit to this federal member state. We condemn the police violent raid and we demand justice. They should be freed immediately, Mohamed Osman Makaran, the Secretary-General of the Somali Media Association (SOMA) said. In the past two years, Southwest police raided and shut Radio Barawe twice and even banned the radios unique local Baravanese (Chimwiini) dialect programming under what seemed to be a politically motivated order from the South West State officials. Despite Radio Barawe resumed its broadcasting days later, journalists and editors reported that authorities continued to monitor them in an attempt to pressure the radio staff. Queen Elizabeth II has a busy few days ahead of her. The 96 year-old monarch will attend a number of events to mark her Platinum Jubilee - 70 years on the throne and a milestone in British royal history. More than 50 member states of the Commonwealth from New Zealand to South Africa, will also partake in the festivities. The British government has invested 28 million pounds (33 million) to mark the occasion and announced a four-day bank holiday from Thursday 2 June so Britons can join in the festivities. Although Elizabeth II became Queen on 6 February 1952, her coronation wasn't until 2 June 1953. Celebrations are held each year in June to coincide with clement spring weather. This Thursday, 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians will gather in central London for the traditional Trooping the Colour military parade. The cortege will start at Buckingham Palace and end up at the Horse Guards Parade on the other side of The Mall where members of the royal family will join in on horseback or in a carriage. According to British media, for the first time in 70 years, the Queen will not attend the royal salute and the review of the troops in person. Neither has it been confirmed whether she will stand on her balcony at Buckingham Palace to observe the Royal Air Force flyover at the end of the parade. At 96, the Queen has only just begun showing signs of slowing down. Earlier this year, she contracted Covid, and has spent the occasional night in hospital for checkups. She missed the opening of parliament at the beginning of May, and Buckingham Palace has released statements referring to the Queen's "mobility issues." International media will be present to broadcast the festivities, and several channels in France have organised live shows, special programming and documentaries. France pulls out the stops France 2 is planning a running commentary with royal history expert and host Stephane Bern, who also commented on the diamond jubilee in 2012 and even had an audience with the Queen. He will be joined by experts and live crosses to correspondents in London. Only 18 members of the royal family who have been closely associated with public engagements will be in attendance. The Queen's eldest son Charles and his wife Camilla, his son Prince William, his wife Kate and their three children are among them. Prince Harry, his wife Megan and their two children, will not be at Buckingham Palace for the ceremony having separated from the royal family in February 2021. They will however present their daughter Lilibet Diana, born 4 June 2021 to the Queen separately. The Queen's son Andrew, facing accusations of sexually abusing a minor in connection with the Epstein affair has also not been invited having retired from public life in 2020. Gossip and scandal The Queen has certainly had her fair share of family scandal and gossip throughout her time on the throne, but interestingly, she has always remained at a safe distance from the melee. Public opinion tends to be harsh towards her family and politicians, but not her personally. This is probably because she is obliged by law to remain neutral, leaving political wrangling up to her Prime Minister and her parliament. Most people - even those close to the royal family - admit they do not know exactly what she thinks of any given topic. She suffered a significant dip in her popularity after the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when her delay in making a public announcement was interpreted as cold-hearted. But come 2020, the Queen found her place again as grandmother to the masses, notably delivering a comforting speech to the nation during the height of the Covid pandemic. In February, she extended an olive branch to Charles' wife Camilla, by offering her a formal title of queen consort when Charles will become King, in recognition of services rendered to the throne. The Crown Perhaps some of the recent fervour around the royal family can be attributed to the award-winning Netflix series The Crown inspired by Queen Elizabeth's ascension to the throne and the inner workings of her personal life. The series got tongues wagging thanks to the imagined conversations between the Queen and her prime ministers (she has had 15 during her reign). Creator Peter Morgan has had to publicly remind people however that his dialogues are inspired by real life and not verbatim. Throughout the series, the public get an insight into the Queen's schedule, her love of dogs and horses, her time at Balmoral in Scotland, and notably her visits to far-flung corners of the Commonwealth. There are 54 countries among the Commonwealth of Nations, 52 of which were former colonies. The Queen reigns as direct monarch in 15 member states known as Commonwealth realms. These include Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The others are independent sovereign states, or monarchies. 19 member countries can be found in Africa. As part of the celebrations beginning on 2 June the 'Platinum Jubilee Beacons' - reserved for special royal occasions and anniversaries - will be switched on in 1,500 locations around the empire - from the Isle of Man to the Caribbean. At Buckingham Palace, the beacon set in a 21-metre tree of trees will be lit at 9pm. After the traditional church service at Saint Paul's on Friday, the rest of the Jubilee is dedicated to leisure and fun, with the horse races at Epsom Downs, the Platinum Party with celebrity artists and a concert on Saturday. On Sunday, it's the big jubilee lunch and the colourful pageant recounting the highlights of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Dr. Kojo Asante, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is not taking sides in the diplomatic row between the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akufo-Dampare, and the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson. The British diplomat had incurred the wrath of Dr. Akuffo-Dampare, over comments she made following the arrest of #FixTheCountry convenor, Oliver Barker-Vormawor last month for careless and inconsiderate driving and non-observance of road markings at the East Legon tunnel in Accra. Dr. Akuffo-Dampare in a strongly-worded statement, asked the diplomat to mind her own business when it came to matters of Ghana's security and policing. But Harriet Thompson maintains that her comment was not an act of interference that should warrant such a response from the police administration. Reacting to the diplomatic row on The Point of View on Citi TV, Dr. Kojo Asante said both parties crossed the line. He attempted viewing things from both sides, but said they could have used more appropriate channels to air their views. The tweet put out by the High Commissioner looked like it had some kind of innuendo that points to certain harassment in the Vormawor case. This is not so surprising as some of us had raised this issue, for instance, the arrangement before the court. There was some sort of abuse of power. So you can understand where she is coming from. But then you can understand where the IGP is also coming from in the sense that there is an assumption that when somebody is put before Court for very serious criminal offences like treason, and a representative of another country is trivialising it, which is unacceptable. However, I do not think it was appropriate for him to respond to the UK High Commissioner. He could have raised the matter with the Foreign Minister, so it is handled diplomatically. I dont think the UK High Commissioner was out of place to think that this is some form of harassment, but if you are a representative of a country, it is quite inappropriate to call out the police this way. He further urged the Police to create appropriate channels for the public to air their grievances. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has begun diplomatic talks between the IGP and the British High Commissioner to Ghana. Mr. Kojo Asante hopes the Ministrys move will put the matter to rest. citinewsroom Amnesty International Ghana has called for severe sanctions against persons involved in the flogging of two persons in the Upper West Region over a leaked sex tape. We strongly call on the IGP to use the images in the video to trace, arrest and prosecute all those who approved, condoned and participated in the cruel act in clear violation of the fundamental rights of the two people to serve as a deterrent to others who may consider such acts in future, it said in a statement. The two were reportedly arrested by some young men in the town and were given twenty lashes each. Amnesty International believes the physical assault on the two was not justified. We in Amnesty condemn the flogging of the two adults since this is a clear sign of mob injustice, jungle-justice and demeaning of the dignity of the two people contrary to the laws of Ghana. Anyone who engages in such an act must be punished. These acts, if not checked, go to tarnish the human rights records of the country Ghana, it added. Reports indicate that the two were dragged to Ya Naas Palace, but he was not available, compelling the young men to take matters into their own hands and deliver punishment. The incident has been widely condemned by Ghanaians. citinewsroom 02.06.2022 LISTEN The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) says it has taken over the incident involving the flogging of two persons alleged to have had a sexual encounter, recorded and leaked the video on social media. The Association's Women and Minors Rights Committee has been tasked to closely monitor and offer the necessary and required legal assistance to the unfortunate victims of the lawless and barbaric act. The two were reportedly arrested by some young men in the town and were given 20 lashes each. Reports indicate that the two were sent to the Palace, but the Wa Naa was absent, compelling the young men to take matters into their own hands and deliver punishment. The GBA condemned the action describing it as humiliating, dehumanizing, demeaning and degrading and amounts to the violation of their fundament human rights, and on attack on their persons. The GBA is therefore calling on the relevant security agencies to arrest all persons involved in the physical abuse of the two young persons, investigate the incident and ensure that the perpetrates are prosecuted in accordance with law, the group said. The incident has drawn the ire of Ghanaians, who have called for sanctions against those involved. The Upper West Regional Police Command has so far arrested three persons in connection with the crime. The three suspects include the person who brought the victims to the palace and two sub-chiefs. citinewsroom Actor Johnny Depp has won more than $10 million in damages after achieving a near-total victory in a defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard, bringing an end to a six-week trial featuring graphic testimony about the stars' soured relationship. In Wednesday's ruling, jurors awarded Depp $15 million in damages from Heard, which the judge reduced to $10.35 million to comply with state limits on punitive damages. The seven-person jury in the U.S. state of Virginia also ruled for Heard on one counterclaim against Depp. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" film star depicted the decision as a vindication, and his former wife said it was "a disappointment." The panel ordered Depp to pay Heard $2 million in damages. Domestic abuse allegations 58-year-old Depp had sued Heard for $50 million, arguing that she defamed him when she called herself "a public figure representing domestic abuse" in a newspaper opinion piece. Heard countersued for $100 million, saying Depp smeared her when his lawyer called her accusations a "hoax." Depp denied hitting Heard - or any woman - and said she was the one who turned violent in their relationship. He told jurors the allegations from Heard, best known for her role in "Aquaman," had cost him "everything." A new "Pirates" movie was put on hold and Depp was replaced in the "Fantastic Beasts" film franchise, a "Harry Potter" spinoff. In a statement, Depp said: "The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled "The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun," he added, ending with the Latin phrase "Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes." Heard 'heartbroken' by verdict Heard, seated in the courtroom between two of her lawyers, looked down as the verdicts were read. "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words," she said in a statement. "I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband." "I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women," she added. "It is a setback." The two met in 2011 while filming "The Rum Diary" and wed in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized about two years later. The funeral rites for the late former Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Hajia Ramatu Mahama, has been scheduled to take place in Accra on Saturday, June 4. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to grace the funeral as its Guest of Honour. Son of the former Second Lady and Member of Parliament (MP) for Yendi Farouk Aliu Mahama told 3news.com that the funeral is to bid his mother a final farewell. She served this country as a Second Lady with humility and we as a family are happy with the support Ghanaians have given the family throughout the passing of our dear mother. I want to use this medium to call on all friends and sympathisers to attend the final funeral rites here in Accra, he added. Hajia Ramatu Mahama died on April 7, 2022 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital after a short illness. She has been buried in accordance with Muslim customs. The former Second Lady during her tenure championed the cause of women in leadership roles and empowered women through various social intervention programmes. Hajia Ramatu Mahama was the daughter of the late Imoro Egala, a Minister for Trade and Industry, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Health, first Ghanaian chairman of Ghana Cocoa Board, in the First Republic and a long-standing political stalwart in Ghana through to the Third Republic; doubling as a founder of the PNP, now PNC. 3news.com Lagos, one of the most populous cities in Africa, is enforcing its ban on motorcycle taxis. Nigerias economic powerhouse announced the ban two weeks ago that covers major districts in the city. The clampdown follows the gruesome murder of a 38-year-old man, suspected to have been killed by some taxi riders during a disagreement over a fare. The incident sparked public outrage. The authorities said they will arrest riders who flout the ban and seize their motorbikes. Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu described the taxi riders as a threat to road users, citing surging crime and road accidents. The taxis are a preferred means of transport because they are faster in weaving through the citys traffic jams. A large number of young people in the state make a living as motobike taxi riders and the ban is bound to face a backlash. The authorities on Tuesday deployed security personnel and armoured personnel carriers in the city amid fears of possible violent protests. citinewsroom Arla Foods Ghana, producers of Dano Milk in the country on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, visited the Kotobabi Cluster of Schools in the Greater Accra Region to mark the day with the school kids. World Milk Day is a day set aside to be celebrated every June 1, 2022, across the world as established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (UN) to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. On Wednesday, there was education and excitement for pupils enrolled at the Kotobabi Cluster of Schools as they received various products from Arla Foods after a visit by the globally renowned milk-producing company. Speaking at the event, General Manager for Arla Foods Ghana Ltd, Vytautas Petronis disclosed that similar events are being marked in order regions with the aim to reach out to 15,000 kids to give them free products of his outfit. He explained that Arla Foods is celebrating World Milk Day with the aspiration to provide people with high-quality products to empower them with physical and mental strength. In Ghana, we have been doing this for a couple of years now. This year we are really stepping up so right now we are in the cluster of schools in Accra but we are doing it across the regions. We have targeted 15,000 kids this year, and next year we expect to go bigger, Vytautas Petronis shared. Vytautas Petronis Besides the Greater Accra Region, pupils in the Eastern, Western, and Ashanti Regions are receiving products from Arla Foods as part of the companys activities to mark World Milk Day. General Manager Vytautas Petronis stressed that while commemorating the important day, Arla Foods Ghana Ltd is mindful of the sustainability of the environment and will continue with its operations in a way that protects the planet as well. We believe that protecting the environment is essential. Hence, we care about the sustainability of dairy farming, Vytautas Petronis added. In his speech, the Marketing Manager for Arla Foods Ghana Ltd, Wilson Agbeko urged the school children to always remind parents to use Dano Milk and other products of his company in their foods. He said when one selects Arla Foods products, they will be assured of natural vitamins to promote good health. If you need good milk, milk that makes you strong, milk that makes you healthy, milk that builds your strength and gives you good eyesight, milk that helps your brain to function properly, tell your parents that they should get you Dano milk so that you can stay strong, Wilson Agbeko told the school children. The Arla Foods Marketing Manager continued, What this means is that when you select any of our products, you are assured of the fact that our products are natural and have the naturally occurring vitamins. We dont add any artificial products. On his part, Deputy headteacher at the Kotobabi 3. Basic School, Mrs. Irene Anim expressed appreciation to Dano Milk for choosing to celebrate World Milk Day with pupils of the Kotobabi Cluster of Schools. She implored parents to make it a habit to always include dairy products in the foods of their children. What I will say to parents is that milk is very important and as such, they should always add milk to what their children eat especially in the morning before they go to school. I also want to say we are very grateful to Dano for celebrating the day with our pupils and giving them these products. We will say from time to time they should do more of this. It is very good, Mrs. Irene Anim remarked. World Milk Day has been observed on June 1 each year since 2001. About Arla Foods: The cooperative is owned by over 13,500 farmers across 7 countries in Europe and is headquartered in Viby, in Denmark. Being the 4th largest dairy company across the globe, we at Arla operate our business in a responsible and sustainable manner to safeguard our companys reputation while caring for our consumers all over the world. Today our footprints extend beyond Europe, to the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa including Ghana. Because we are farmer-owned, we own the whole value chain from the grass to your glass. In Ghana, our product categories cut across Milk (powdered, liquid, plain and flavored), Butter, and Cheese. DEDICATION: This article is dedicated to the ideals of the June 4 and 31st December Revolutions, and the 1992 Constitution that sought to preserve the natural resources of Ghana for the public benefit of its Chiefs and People. THE ACHIMOTA FOREST RESERVE AND THE ACCRA REGION GREEN PROJECT The only rational reason for which Three Hundred and Sixty-One point Five Zero acres (361.50 acres) or One Hundred and Forty-Six point Three Zero hectares (146.30 ha) of the Achimota Forest Reserve lands were purportedly released to a phantom Owoo Family under the Forest (Cessation of Forest Reserve) Instrument, 2022 (E.I 144) and the Forest (Achimota Firewood Plantation Forest Reserve) (Amendment) Instrument, 2022 (E.I. 154) by the Akufo-Addo Government is the consummation of the state capture by a bi-partisan Ghanaian political elite of the natural resources of Ghana for private profit of the political elite and their collaborators. This is a transaction disgustingly tainted with suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences by the political elite in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Governments from 2006 to date. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Government, and the first and second NDC Governments under the late President Jerry John Rawlings were so concerned about preserving a green zone within the Greater Accra Region that it planned and commissioned a green zone area for the region which included the preservation of the green zone with the entire Achimota Forest Reserve area lands forming part of that Accra Green Zone Project. The Ministry of Lands, the Lands Commission, and the Forestry Commission under the Rawlings Governments partook in the drawing up of the Greater Accra Green Zone Project that was on display at the Castle, Osu. These are matters of public record and successive governments are deemed to have known about them. An Owoo Family suddenly emerged almost six years after the change of Government from the Rawlings NDC to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kufour Government to petition the second NPP Government for a lease and not the return of a portion of Achimota Forest Reserve to the family. This had all the hallmark of a pre-arranged state capture of the portions of the forest reserve for the private profits of the then political elite in Government and their collaborators in the so-called Owoo Family. By November 2008, the second Kufour Government agreed to grant the Owoo Family a Head Lease over the portion of the Achimota Forest Reserve measuring ninety (90) acres. The initial success of the political elite state capture of portions of the Achimota Forest Reserve resulting in the agreement to release 90 acres to the family emboldened the political elite and their so-called Owoo Family collaborators to continue with their petition to the third and fourth NDC Governments which changed the acreage from 90 acres to 118.023 acres pursuant to a presidential executive approval. The sequel to this potentially corrupt decision was the execution of three separate leases in favour of the so-called Owoo Family of One Hundred and Forty-Eight point Four One One acres (148.411 acres) by the Forestry Commission without any executive approval for such increased release. This execution of the lease releasing 148.411 acres of the forest to the so-called Owoo Family was again corruptly varied in 2014 to One Hundred and Ninety-Eight point Five Zero One acres (198.501 acres) without any evidence of presidential executive approval before the NDC exited Government on 7 January 2017. Enter the NPP Government of Nana Akufo-Addo, and another deed of variation is executed for the total release to the so-called Owoo Family of Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine point Zero One Two acres (329.012 acres) in 2020 with presidential approval during the tenure of the late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie. Come the tenure of the current fourth Government of the NPP after January 2021, and the total acreage was again corruptly increased to Three Hundred and Fifty-Five point Four Six Six acres (355.466 acres) without presidential executive approval. On 28 March 2022 this is further corruptly varied to Three Hundred and Sixty-One point Five Zero acres (361.50 acres) with no prior presidential executive approval. The emergence of the last will and testament of the late former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, appointed by the Nana Akufo-Addo NPP Government was simply an act of God to expose to the Ghanaian public the opacity of the way the bi-partisan political elite corruptly loot the nations natural resources for their private profit. I have read the ten (10) page press statement signed by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and listened to his argument on radio on 28 May 2022. They reinforce my belief that the Minister did not appreciate what he was doing when he purported to seek executive presidential approval for the transactions and purported to sign Executive Instruments which could only legitimately be signed by the President himself under the law. The late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission was a lawyer and knew that he could not just go into the Achimota Forest Reserve and help himself to pieces and parcels of the Achimota Forest Reserve lands as the then head of the Forestry Commission. He knew that the only way he could claim title to the lands bequeathed in his will was to acquire them or to have received them as gifts from the Owoo Family to whom portions of the Achimota Forest lands had appeared to have been released by the Government of which he was a part and in which he participated as the head of the Forestry Commission. It is obvious and commonsensical from the foregoing that the sub-leases granted by the Owoo Family to the late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, of those portions of the Achimota Forest land released to the Owoo Family cannot be declared void by the Minister as claimed in his press statement and his contribution to a Joy FM radio discussion on 28 May 2022. What the emergence of the last will and testament of the late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission warns the public about is the existence of several other sub-leases granted by the so-called Owoo Family to their co-conspirators of public officers, political and non-political elite over the years in expropriation of the Achimota Forest Reserve under the so-called corrupt Head Leases as corruptly varied like the medieval English Lord Chancellors foot at the court of equity. The corrupt consideration for the determination of the first acreage of 90 acres through to the final 361.50 from one government to another government is the suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences by a bi-partisan political elite of the two major political parties in Ghana, the NPP and the NDC, for private profit. THE SAKUMONO RAMSAR SITE In 2019, when I was the Special Prosecutor of Ghana, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was petitioned to investigate encroachments by public institutions and public officers on the Sakumono Ramsar Site. The allegations alluded to the complicity of the Tema Development Corporation and the Forestry Commission in the suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences in the disposition of and expropriation of the protected Sakumono Ramsar Site. The late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, was then alive and heading the Forestry Commission. The Tema Development Corporation and the Forestry Commission obstructed the investigations by delaying responses to the request for information and particulars on the allegations contained in the petition. When a response was eventually received from the CEO of the Forestry Commission in 2020 it contained evasions of the substance of the petition with the late CEO of the Commission pretending to have defended the statutory protected status of the Ramsar site. The investigations were on-going at the time I resigned my office in November 2020 with the Acting Special Prosecutor who succeeded me as the supervising case officer. The Ramsar Site complaint for investigation lodged with the Office of the Special Prosecutor must hopefully still be alive and pending in that office! What the will and last testament of the late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, now discloses is the fact that he and other public office holders colluded and abused their offices for private profit in the expropriation of the Sakumonoo Ramsar site in the teeth of statutory prohibitions preserving the site as a Ramsar site. The late NPP General Secretary and former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie must have derived his title to the Sakumonoo Ramsar Site from a family or stool to whom the site was unlawfully released to and in consideration of which he was granted the portion of the site bequeathed in his will. Just as the Achimota Forest lands released to the Owoo Family, Sir John would not have been the only beneficiary of sub- leases of the prohibited Ramsar site. The corruption and corruption-related offences informing the release of the Ramsar site, and the Achimota Forest Reserve lands must have involved various public office holders including Ministers of State and other public office holders of past and present Governments. It is all part of the bi-partisan political elite state capture of Ghanas natural resources since January 2001 to date. CONCLUSIONS The 1992 Constitution enjoins public office holders and ordinary citizens, including the Owoo Family, to act in accordance with the Constitution and the public interest in the discharge of their duties and fulfilling their obligations to the Republic of Ghana. Unfortunately, the practical application of the Constitution has brought this nation to the stage where the two political parties, the NDC and the NPP who alternate in the sharing of political power and the looting of the collective national patrimony of natural resources for the private profit of the political elite have become two sides of the same coin in terms of political elite state capture and elite corruption. The fight against corruption is only meaningful to either the NDC or the NPP as far as it assists them while in opposition, for the time being, to mobilize the votes of disgruntled citizens against the incumbent government to be voted into power to continue the loot from where its predecessor left office. The continuation of this situation can only lead to undermining the 1992 Constitution and serve as an invitation for the destabilization of the Constitutional process which every patriotic Ghanaian must prevent from happening to the 1992 Constitution. The NDC will be paying a great tribute in remembrance of, and to the memory of the founder of the NDC, former President Jerry John Rawlings, should it commit to the original Rawlings Greater Accra Region Green Zone Project and join the patriotic campaign to defend the Constitution in revoking the latest Executive Instruments 2022 (E.Is.) affecting the status of the Achimota Forest Reserve. It is for the foregoing reasons that all Ghanaian patriots have a constitutional duty to ensure that the Forest (Cessation of Forest Reserve) Instrument, 2022 (E.I 144) and the Forest (Achimota Firewood Plantation Forest Reserve) (Amendment) Instrument, 2022 (E.I. 154) by the Akufo-Addo Government are immediately revoked and the Achimota Forest Reserve preserved in the state in which it was before 2006. Lets put Ghana First in this struggle to preserve the Achimota Forest Reserve and the Sakumono Ramsar Site. The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described as unacceptable plans by the group of persons seeking to lead a demonstration with arms. On Wednesday, the Ghana Police Service issued a press release confirming that it has received a letter from Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah, Captain Smart, Benjamin Darko and Oliver Barker-Vormawor requesting to embark on a three-day demonstration. Stressing that the planned three-day demonstration with arms was against the Public Order Act, the Police noted that it had rejected the request from the aforementioned people. Giving his thoughts on the matter today, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has indicated that violence and the use of guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society. Leaders of the June 4 demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped, the North Tongu MP posted on his Facebook page. He added, We cannot allow a few reckless elements here to arm untrained demonstrators no matter which ruling party they are demonstrating against. Read the full post from the attachment below: In Rwandan playwright Dorcy Rugamba's latest work, a young African steps into an austere European museum and tells an ancient mask he is looking for the soul of Africa. The artefact comes to life as a woman. "You will find neither the truth about your ancestors, nor your past -- here Africa is extinguished," it responds, with shrill laughter. The unconventional performance, "Supreme Remains", premiered at this year's Biennale of Contemporary African Art being held in the Senegalese capital Dakar until June 21. "If you follow me, I will take you on a tour of the rivers that led us from your ancestors to these places," says the mask, played by the French actress Nathalie Vairac. But, she warns, "we will have to walk through mud." As she leads the museum visitor through one large room after another, she invites audience members to examine the blind spots in the official narrative of colonial history. In one, they meet a scientist from the late 19th century who measured skulls hoping to prove alleged European superiority. In another, they encounter a Belgian army general -- based on a real historical figure -- who kept the skulls of three African dignitaries at home. Rugamba, the play's director, said the performance was rooted in history. "Scientists ordered human remains from the conquerors by the thousands, which were then used to develop racial theories and stereotypes," he said. 'Age of disquiet' Towards the end of the tour, spectators find themselves among the rolling hills of Rwanda for an initiation ceremony. The character of the museum visitor learns to "unlearn the past". Rwandan playwright Dorcy Rugamba examines the blind spots in the official narrative of colonial history. By SEYLLOU (AFP) French academic Benedicte Savoy said she was "overwhelmed" by the performance. "It seemed to convey in just one hour things that we normally have to read in hundreds of pages," she said at a debate after a performance last week. She and the Senegalese writer Felwine Sarr published a landmark report on the restitution of African cultural heritage in late 2018. Sarr said much progress had been made since, as what was once a niche topic had made its way into public debate. "Now museums have to be transparent and reflect on so-called ethnographic collections -- it's unprecedented," he said. "These museums have entered an age of disquiet." In November 2021, France returned 26 artefacts to Benin. The works -- part of the royal treasures of Abomey that colonial troops looted in 1892 -- had been held in the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris. An exhibition of the returned treasures recently attracted nearly 200,000 visitors to Benin's city of Cotonou in just 40 days, according to the authorities. France also returned a sabre to Senegal in 2019 and a crown to Madagascar in 2020. The play's director Rugamba, who is also an actor, asked how an entire continent could be emptied of its cultural heritage. "An African researcher who wants to work on the history of his country must travel to a thousand places without even being sure that he'll be given a visa," he said. "It's an untenable situation." 'Move forward' Hundreds of thousands of African works of art continue to be held in Western museums and private collections, but there have been mounting calls for them to hand back the colonial spoils. Sarr said he welcomed African nations demanding restitution. Rwandan actor and composer Michael Makembe also appreas in 'Supreme Remains'. By SEYLLOU (AFP) In 2019, "seven West African countries requested the equivalent of 10,000 objects, including countries that were at war and that you would expect to have other concerns," he said. The Biennale's symposium last week featured a debate on how to re-invest meaning into returned artefacts and reconnect them to contemporary Africa. "If we believe an object to have historical, artistic value and that it must be there to tell a story, then we should put it in a museum," said Sarr. But objects that have ritual functions can be returned to communities, while those that researchers would like to study can go to universities or art centres, he added. Dialika Haile Sane, a screenwriter in her thirties, said she felt the "full force" of emotion while watching the theatrical performance. She said there was no reason artworks should not be returned to "where they were born". "If we don't reclaim what belongs to us, we can't really move forward," she said. MP for North Tongu, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa 02.06.2022 LISTEN A member of the Minority Caucus of Parliament, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has expressed his opposition to the request by a group of individuals seeking to lead an armed demonstration in the country. As confirmed by the Ghana Police Service on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, a group of four made up of Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah, Captain Smart, Benjamin Darko, and Oliver Barker-Vormawor have written to inform the security agency of plans to stage a three-day demonstration. In addition to requesting to be allowed to use private security, the aforementioned people according to the Police also requested to be allowed to wield arms. Reacting to the plans by the four, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has in a Facebook post said they must all be condemned. According to him, violence and the use of guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society. Leaders of the June 4 demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped, the North Tongu MP stressed. He further emphasised that the country "cannot allow a few reckless elements here to arm untrained demonstrators no matter which ruling party they are demonstrating against. Read the full post from Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on Thursday below: Violence and the use of Guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society. Leaders of the June 4 demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped! Other countries after suffering the consequences are now campaigning for gun control indeed, only this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced the most comprehensive gun-control legislation in that countrys history. We cannot allow a few reckless elements here to arm untrained demonstrators no matter which ruling party they are demonstrating against. Many Ghanaians are appalled and outraged by police brutalities but the solution cannot be further aggravation by creating explosive conditions for all-out war. Some 18 persons made up of 16 males and two female were arrested yesterday Wednesday June 1 by the Upper West Regional Police Command when about thousand aggrieved youth in the Wa Municipality besieged the Regional Police Command to demand the release of three persons who were in custody for their involvement in the flogging of two lovers in a viral sex leaked video. The Crime Officer of the Upper West Regional Police Command , ACP Reynolds Manteaw disclosed to Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show, Thursday 2 June, 2022 that the arrested persons will be arraigned before the court today. According to ACP Manteaw, the irate youth besieged the station around 9:45 PM on Wednesday 1 June, 2022 pelting stones at the Police Officers and anything on sight. The youth also blocked streets and burnt car tires in protest of the arrest of the three suspects. The police on Wednesday, June 1 announced the arrest of three persons seen in the video flogging the lady and gentleman. The suspects, Sidiki Osman, Bushiran Khigir and Issahaku Mahama, were arrested with the support of the Wa Naa and some community members, the police said. Calm has been restored and there were no casualties because the Police were professional in handling the situation ACP Reynolds Manteaw stated. The police have also assured that without fear or favor, they will arrest or invite whoever they think can furnish them with information to aid their investigation. The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has said the flogging of the two young persons, as captured in a video, is humiliating, dehumanizing, demeaning and degrading. The association described the situation as a barbaric act that contravenes Articles I (2) and 15 (1) (2) (a) and (b) of the Constitution, 1992. The GBA wishes to state that the flogging of the two young persons is humiliating, dehumanizing, demeaning and degrading, and amounts to the violation of their fundamental human rights, and an attack on their persons. The barbaric act contravenes Articles I (2) and 15 (1) (2) (a) and (b) of the Constitution, 1992, which provide: '12. (2) Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.' 3news.com Alliance For Footsoldiers Advocacy (AFFA) has sighted a correspondence between FixTheCountry convenors and the Ghana Police Service about a planned 3-day Armed Demonstration in Accra starting from June 4, 2022. The notification to the police which lists "Culture of silence, Arrogance of power, The E-Levy" amongst others as reasons for the intended demonstration is jointly signed by Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a suspected coup monger standing trial, Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah and Captain Smart (both media practitioners), as well as one Benjamin Darko. Whilst AFFA believes and upholds the tenets of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, specifically, Article 21 which guarantees citizens the right to demonstrate, we are alarmed by the convenors decision to engage a private security company with weapons to provide security and protection to demonstrators. As if that is not enough, we are equally dumbfounded by the convenors intention to march to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and "demand a slot on GTV to address the nation" and then proceed to the Police Headquarters to "demand" a meeting with the IGP, and finally picket at the Jubilee House, the seat of government till June 6, 2022. It is needless to state that the nature of this intended demonstration by FixTheCountry movement is nothing far from a COUP D'ETAT - something the convenors, particularly, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has been championing publicly for some time now. (Reference his Facebook post on 10th February, 2022 which reads, "If this E-Levy passes after this Cake bullshit, l will do the COUP myself. Useless Army!") It is on the basis of the above that AFFA calls on the media, Civil Society Organizations, the Clergy, traditional authorities and the general public to condemn in no uncertain terms the convenors of FixTheCountry movement for their intended coup-styled demonstration. Ghana is and has always been an oasis of peace in Africa. We cannot and must not allow a few selfish individuals with bloated ego, masquerading as freedom fighters to subject our dear motherland to a state of anarchy. Long live Ghana! Signed D. T. Adomako (Sir Obama Pokuase) Executive Secretary, AFFA. The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, is scheduled to speak with President Vladimir Putin in the south-western Russian city of Sochi in a bid to offset Africa's impending food crisis due to the war in Ukraine. According to Sall's office, Friday's visit is aimed at "freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries" along with easing the Ukraine conflict. The visit was organised after an invitation by Putin, and Sall will travel with the president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. The AU will also receive a video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, though no date has been set. The meeting comes as the war in Ukraine has sent the cost of fuel, grain and fertilisers skyrocketing around the globe. The price increases are being acutely felt in African nations. Both Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat and other cereals to Africa, while Russia is a key producer of fertiliser. Last month the UN said that Africa faces an "unprecedented" crisis caused by the war, compounding difficulties facing the continent, from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic. AU appeal to European Union Earlier this week, Sall appealed to European Union leaders to help ease the crisis on key commodities. Sall highlighted that the decision to expel Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system could hurt food supplies to the continent. Speaking via video link, Sall said: "When the SWIFT system is disrupted, it means that even if the products exist, payment becomes complicated, if not impossible. "I would like to insist that this issue be examined as soon as possible by our competent ministers in order to find appropriate solutions." Sall has acknowledged that Russia's blockade of Odessa has harmed Ukrainian food exports, and he reportedly backs UN-led efforts to free the port. A #FixTheCountry convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor has derided a letter written to the UK High Commissioner by police Chief George Akuffo Dampare as immature, disrespectful and undiplomatic. One of the things I am actually surprised about is that the IGP has taken upon himself the role of the spokesperson for Ghanas diplomacy, Mr Barker-Vormawor said in relation to the protest letter Dr Dampare wrote to Harriet Thompson following her tweet on the last arrest of the activist for a traffic offence. Dr Dampare wrote to the British High Commissioner describing her recent Ill be interested to see where this goes comment on the arrest of Mr Barker-Vormawor, as uninformed, biased, misguided and unwarranted. After Mr Barker-Vormawor was arrested in mid-May this year for the alleged traffic offence, the UK envoy tweeted on 17 May: Oliver Barker Vormawor, the convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, arrested again, I understand, for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position, the IGP noted in his letter. However, it continued, We have learnt from a previous painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted, and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country. The police also accused the UK envoy of interfering in Ghanas internal affairs with her tweet. What is more, we consider your tweet as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. Responding to the IGPs response, however, Ms Thompson said: It is clear from the response that it has not been received the way it was intended. She told Accra-based GHOne TV that her tweet wasnt after a response from the IGP at all. When I comment on social media, I comment on all sorts of things in which Im interested, I suppose to show people a bit about me, to try to open up about what it means to be a High Commissioner in a country like Ghana; what it is, not just to be me as a High Commissioner but also, me, as a person, so, Ill tweet about the places in Ghana Ive been and found beautiful or interesting, the people Ive met and so on, so, I dont necessarily look for any response, she explained. Speaking on the spat between the police chief and the UK envoy, Mr Barker-Vormawor said: All British High Commissioners have spoken about insecurity in this countryits not new, adding: The only factor is that Oliver Barker-Vormawor has been mentioned in this connection. He said: I am exhausted and frustrated that I have not been given a chance to prove my innocence in the court. I am being denied a fair trial. Instead, the IGP is in the public and media conducting a public lynch. Because of a road traffic offence, you write a whole thesis on how I want to overthrow the government? he told Accra-based Citi FM. Source: Classfmonline.com 02.06.2022 LISTEN The Upper West Regional Police Command have in their custody at least 18 youth who besieged the Regional Police command, demanding for the release of the three persons arrested for their involvement in the flogging of the two young lovers whose sex video went viral on social media. The youth pelted the police with stones and burnt tyres to express their displeasure over the arrest and to demand the immediate release of the three suspects. It took the intervention of police reinforcement to bring the situation under control. The Upper West Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Peter Ndekugiri said they warded off the angry youth after arresting more than 20 of them for attacking the police station. According to him, the suspects would be arraigned before court to face the full rigors of the law. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the flogging of two youngsters over a leaked sex tape. The three suspects include the person who brought the victims to the place and two sub-chiefs. Reports indicate that the two youngsters in the sex video were nabbed by some young men in the town, who sent them to the Wa Naa Palace. The Wa Naa was absent upon their arrival, compelling the young men to take matters into their own hands and deliver punishment. They were given 20 lashes each. The incident has drawn the ire of Ghanaians, who have called for sanctions against those involved. DGN online Oliver Barker-Vormawor, convenor of #FixThe Country Movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offense on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes. Harriet Thompson, the British High Commissioner to Ghana, sent a simple tweet that prompted the Inspector General of Police, George Dampare, to respond to the lady harshly. Why hasn't IGP Dampare ever questioned the resource Britain supplies to Ghana, particularly in addressing the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the economy, knowing that for over 20 years, the UK has donated over 2 billion in resources to Ghana as a member of the Common Wealth? The greatest way to protect is to attack, Dampare was humiliated by the British High Commissioner's comment because the NPP's terrible political situation was flying under the radar internationally. I can without difficulty hint at this however I have written in lots of my articles that the Ghanaian authorities ought to be cautious in some things they do regarding politics within Ghana. I clarified this by saying that there are even white nationals and diplomats who realize what's occurring in Ghana more than many Ghanaians. If any foreign mission is prohibited from interfering in Ghana's politics or affairs by law or policy, that does not mean they are unaware of what is going on in our country. Corruption, financial mismanagement, scandals, and other issues in Ghana go unnoticed by international governments. Theft of COVID funding, Serwaa Broni's sex scandal with Akufo Addo, and the inclusion of the names of IGP Dampare, the president, Akufo Addo, and Ken Agyapong in murder cases in Ghana, are all clearly documented in foreign embassies without the knowledge of the Ghanaian government. Ghanaian officials are plundering and robbing the country's assets at the expense of the suffering people, with no one knowing. However, everything that is going on in the country is beneath the radar, but foreign governments will never tell you. However, if you are a wise Ghanaian, why have you not inquired as to why many foreign diplomats are more aware of what is going on in our nation than Ghanaians? Since Dampares one-way services to fulfill the will and honor the one who appointed him, Nana Akufo Addo, have taken their toll on him and Ghanaians, the Inspector General of Police has found things incredibly difficult under the NPP regime. Dampare, like Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, has lost his reputation and integrity; therefore it came as a surprise to him when he recognized Harriet Thompson's remark about Oliver Barker-second Vormawor's arrest, and to him, the best way to defend is to attack, which would alter nothing. Dampare, my straightforward advice to you is to accept the deserved hit once and for all because you won't be able to prevent it. If you find yourself suspicious or sensitive to criticism, remember that you are serving a country and its people, Ghanaians, not just President Nana Akufo Addo. Parliament has recommended compensation for victims of military brutality in Wa in the Upper West Region following the submission of a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Interior. On July 1, 2021, 86 young soldiers of the 10 Mechanized Battalion in Wa stormed Tindama, a suburb of Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, in search of a colleague's smartphone which was allegedly stolen. The young soldiers, in the process, assaulted some members of the community and this went viral on various social media platforms, with the incident triggering total condemnation on popular radio stations across the country. The Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Interior launched an investigation into the alleged acts of brutality and presented its report yesterday, recommending compensations for the victims. The move followed a request by Members of Parliament (MPs) from both sides of the House, who demanded to know the true facts of the alleged maltreatments of civilians by the uniform men in order to establish a proper action against them. Some soldiers, on Thursday, were said to have subjected some residents of Wa to inhuman treatment after claiming to have had a mobile phone supposedly belonging to one of the military officers stolen. The victims, who are mostly commercial tricycle operators, were whipped and made to roll on the ground, while others were forced into a nearby gutter. We want to know what has happened to Lt. Gyasie. The report says he is being tried. What has happened to the outcome of the trial? We want the Committee to continue to get in touch with the professionals and let us get compensation for the victims, Speaker Alban Bagbin directed. They have all been identified, and you see, from the report, I could estimate the kind of injuries, the pain and suffering they went through, including the car washing bay owner (Abdulai Ahmed). This is a democratic country; we are not under military regime. And we as civilian leaders have to bring the security agencies under our control. And this we must do. We approve everything for them and give them a special place in the business of this House. But if they have decided that what we use to fund and pay them will be used to turn against us, I can tell you, they have nowhere to hide in the world. And so please Committee, continue with the investigation and get compensation due to the other people. I am directing that you do so, the Speaker stated. Action taken Already, three soldiers of the 10 Mechanized Battalion in Wa have had their ranks reduced by the Military High Command of the Ghana Armed Forces for subjecting some residents of Tindama, a suburb of Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region to brutalities. The officers were identified as Duty Sergeant, Ssgt. Sarpong Kwame Adu; Guard Commander, Cpl Obed Torkuebu; and Sentry, Lance Corporal Harrison Aniwe. Minister of Defence, Dominc Nitiwul, who disclosed this in Parliament yesterday, said seven other soldiers who were deeply involved/visibly identified in various videos brutalizing some residents had been charged, tried and awarded 30 days each in detention by a Disciplinary Board chaired by the Commanding Officer. They are Privates Joseph Augustine Aboagye Nyamaah, Prince Appiah Aboagye, Godsway Addisu, Bernard Appiah Bonsu, Meshack Osei, Paul Mensah, and Graham Owusu Ampofo. The remaining soldiers who were involved in the incident were transferred out of the region, charged, tried and slapped with 14 days in detention, include Privates Nyamah Joseph-Austine, Osei Baffour Okyere, Appiah Aboagye Prince, Agyemang Akwasi Jason, Gregory Oxias Tanoe, Ahene Joshua and Akoto Xavier Francis, Frimpong Emmanuel Fobi Daniel and Amoah Owusu Ernest. The rest are Privates Seidu Abubakari, Agyei Angelo, Nsowaah Anthony, Bawa Kwabena Samuel, Out Mensah Richard, Nyarko Tetteh Emmanuel, Ayisi Ohene Daniel, Oteng Bernard, Baharia Calistus Naah, Adzraku Maxwell, Yeboah Atta Emmanuel Snr., Agyemang Sampene Bernard, Nkunkar Joshua, and Wiredu Kirsky. The others are Hoenyefia Lawrence Mawuko, Acquaye Obeng Alex, Gyamfi Frimpong Harrison Arhin Philip, Mohammed Wasiuw, Bosompem Abraham, Boadu Emmanuel, Antwi Manu Solomon Opare Eric, Atuahene Bright, Koranteng Seth and many others. --DGN online The Office of the Special Prosecutor, led by Lawyer Kissi Adjabeng, has, with immediate effect, frozen the assets of former New Patriotic Party General Secretary and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie alias Sir John (now deceased). The move, according to the OSP, forms part of measures to investigate and unravel the alleged acquisition of state lands and other properties contained in former Forestry Commission CEO's Will bequeathing some parcels of the said lands to named family members. It would be recalled that in May 2022, it came to light that Sir Johns Will contained some parcels of land at the Sakumono Ramsar Site and the Achimota Forest Reserve. In the Will, Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie left some unspecified parcels of land in the Achimota Forest to named family members. Following the public pandemonium that greeted the news, the OSP, on May 26, 2022, issued a press statement that indicated it has commenced investigations into suspected corruption and corrupt-related offenses in respect of the alleged improper and unlawful acquisition of state lands at the Achimota Forest enclave and Ramsar catchment at Sakumono in Accra by the former CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie. This, according to this writers sources, has led to the immediate freezing of his assets not excluding his bank accounts. The Eastern Regional Police Command and the Ghana National Fire Service have commenced investigations into the cause of an accident involving students of the Koforidua Pentecost Preparatory School at Oyoko roundabout in the New Juaben North Municipality. The students, numbering 30, who were on board the school bus with registration number GN- 7377- Y were being conveyed to school when the driver allegedly lost control of the steering wheel after a brake failure causing the steer to lock automatically. The driver, a teacher and the students who were rescued by a team from NADMO and the Police after the vehicle somersaulted are all responding to treatment at the Eastern Regional Hospital. In an interview with Citi News, the Deputy Eastern Regional Fire PRO AD0-II Daniel Tetteh explained that there were no casualties as the victims are being treated at the hospital. All the students were rescued before the arrival of the Ghana National Fire Service [at the scene] so immediately the appliance [of the Fire Service] returned to base. He added that the cause of the accident was attributed to steering lock and brake failure. That is all we had, further investigations are ongoing. Koforidua Pentecost Preparatory School is a second cycle institution in the Eastern region of Ghana. ---citinewsroom 02.06.2022 LISTEN The Upper West Regional Security Council has convened an emergency meeting to investigate the violent clash between police and some youth in Wa which occurred last night. The meeting, which lasted for about one hour, according to Citi News sources, was at the instance of the regional minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih to discuss the circumstances surrounding the violence and to map out strategies to restore lasting peace in the Wa municipality. The council has also convened a crunch meeting with the overlord of the Waala traditional area, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo VI. 22 more persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in last night's rioting, bringing the total number of arrested persons to 25. Citi News sources at the Upper West Regional Police Command revealed the suspects will be processed for the Wa circuit court today. ---citinewsroom Member of Parliament for Nkoranza South, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, has filed a motion urging the Speaker of Parliament to constitute a bi-partisan committee to probe the death of Albert Donkor. The deceased, according to the family, was picked up from his home into police custody where he was allegedly killed. The police have, on the other hand, explained that Albert Donkor was killed during a shoot-out during an operation. In an interview with Citi News, the Nkoranza South MP said he's confident that the Speaker will respond positively to his request. What I have sent to the Speaker is a motion asking for a bipartisan committee to probe what actually happened. This will bring light to what has happened so far, and I think this will help everybody in the country. The youth of the area had alleged that Albert Donkor was killed by some police officers who picked him from his home into a private vehicle after the deceased raised alarm that he had seen an officer involved in a robbery operation. However, the Police Service insists that the deceased was rather an armed robbery suspect who was killed in an anti-robbery operation. Residents of Nkoranza believe Albert may have been targeted after chancing on a robbery scene involving some police officers. ---citinewsroom Broadcaster Captain Smart has described as insane a letter written to the police by one of the organisers of an intended demonstration, in which the police were forewarned that the demonstrators would be carrying their own weapons and also hire private security guards to provide security for the marchers. It is insane that anybody will write that to the police, Captain Smart, who is one of the organisers, said. Whoever did that is insane and I think the police should arrest that person, he told 3FM in an interview, adding: I do not support violence and even though things are not right in this country, I cannot even hold a blade for a demonstration. We did the first one successfully without violence, so, why do we have to be violent. I do not support violence in any shape or form, the broadcaster said. The letter Captain Smart is complaining about, said: We will bring our own security company to provide protection to demonstrators. It added: All weapons held by demonstrators or by the contracted security personnel will be for personal protection only; and all weapons will be duly permitted in accordance with the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1972 (NRCD 9) e) Proposed route and destination: We expect that the Demonstrators will gather at Circle. The procession will move from Circle to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, where the Protestors will make a demand a slot on GTV to speak directly to the Nation and lay out our grievances, in accordance with Article 55(11), which guarantees fair opportunity to Ghanaians to present their programmes to the public through equal access to the state-owned media. Source: Classfmonline.com Hon. Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has reiterated the need to safeguard Ghana's burgeoning democracy. He, therefore, urged all those in positions of influence and active service to the Ghanaian people to make a conscious effort in that regard. Speaker Bagbin made the remarks at the maiden Speaker's Seminal Lecture Series on the theme "Parliament, its Business and the Supreme Court in Perspective." The lecture was aimed at furthering the conversation around strengthening Ghana's democratic institutions. The goal of the lecture was to look at the concept of separation of powers, particularly the independence of Parliament in the light of the Supreme Court's decision in the Justice Abdulai versus Attorney-General and the applicability of the political question doctrine in Ghana's jurisprudence. Mr Bagbin said since the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution, the three equal, separate and co-ordinate arms of government had discharged their duties and responsibilities, albeit with some challenges, by the textual requirements of the constitution; adding that at the core of the constitution was an underlying theme of separation of powers. The 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana is perhaps like no other Parliament we have seen in our history as a country, the Speaker said. The razor-thin Majority, made a majority by just one person enjoyed by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a result of the decision of the independent MP (Member of Parliament) for Fomena and Second Deputy Speaker to caucus with them, has thrown up a lot of issues not previously seen under the tenure of other Parliaments. He said admittedly, Parliament had on some occasions not discharged itself creditably and its conduct had not been flattering on Ghanaian as a functional democracy; declaring that however, important steps have been and are being taken to ensure constructive ways of dialogue and consensus are pursued the benefit of us all. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader in Parliament, urged the House to ensure that the Speaker's Seminal Lecture Series was institutionalized as part of efforts in deepening Ghana's democracy. Professor Kofi Abotsi, Dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, who delivered the keynote address said the judiciary was the least dangerous arm of Government because it had a shield and not a sword. Nana Kobina Nketsia V, the Paramount Chief of the Essikado Traditional Area, who chaired the function, hailed Speaker Bagbin for his sincerity and integrity. The event was attended by the First Deputy Speaker Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, MPs, members of the diplomatic community and some leading members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) such as Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, National Chairman and Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary. GNA 02.06.2022 LISTEN A failed New Patriotic Party Ashanti Regional Chairman candidate, Kofi Adum Bawuah has called on the National Executive Council of the party to investigate some anomalies that occurred during the just-ended elections in Kumasi. The NPP went to the polls last weekend to elect executives for the various regions to lead the party for the next 4 years. According to Mr. Adum Bawuah, the regional elections committee failed to ensure due diligence in the lead-up to the elections, as some of his opponents favoured his candidature. Speaking to Citi News, the failed regional aspirant says he has given the NEC of the party a week to constitute a committee to look into the elections. We have rules for the elections. The first is that we need to get the album four days before the elections. We were also directed that no vehicle enters the compound. I waited till Wontumi entered before I came. Wontumi went in there with two cars. I, on the other hand, was denied access to the premises with my car. I had to walk. When I entered, there was a rule that all aspirants stay at the VVIP until the end of the elections. Wontumi was however allowed to walk around. The incumbent followed none of the laid down rules. We want the elections to be probed by an independent body. ---citinewsroom Mr Cletus Avoka, the Member of Parliament (MP) of Zebilla, Tuesday led a delegation to officially inform the Speaker of Parliament about the passing of Lawyer John Akparibo Ndebugri. The late Ndebugri was the MP for Zebilla in the Upper East Region in the Fourth Parliament, on the ticket of the People's National Convention. He was born on March 12, 1950, and died on May 6, 2022. The Speaker, Mr Alban Bagbin, thanked the delegation for officially informing the House and described the late Ndebugre as a patriot, a senior brother, and a friend. He was an astute politician and lawyer of good standing who contributed a lot to the development of the country. Mr Bagbin noted that the late Ndebugre deserved a befitting state burial. He, therefore, tasked Mr Avoka to make a statement in the House to that effect. He pledged Parliament's support to the family in these difficult times. GNA The leadership of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and the Christian Council of Ghana have expressed dissatisfaction with their exclusion from the management of Senior High Schools. In a communique issued after their annual joint meeting on Wednesday May 25, the leadership of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and the Christian Council of Ghana said the Ministry of Education's unwillingness to sign a joint memorandum of understanding with the missions and the ministry for the administration of schools was worrying. They also expressed their unhappiness over the non-representation of a member of the council or conference on the new Ghana Education Service Council. Below is an extract of the statement The leadership of CCG and GCBC have taken delivery of a draft document called Universal Guidelines for Secondary Schools that spells out giddiness for all Senior High Schools in the nation. We wish to state emphatically that the Faith Based Organizations which play pivotal role in education in Ghana have not been officially notified about any document containing guidelines for Secondary School Education in Ghana. Secondly, we respectfully wish to remind the Minister of Education that the joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the ministry and the Missions have not been signed. We kindly appeal to the Minister to expedite action to sign the MoU for the smooth running of our schools. Moreover, we wish to state that no Guideline for Secondary School education should replace the MoU, which both the Missions and the Ministry have put together. Thirdly, we wish to bring to the attention of the Ministry of Education that the leadership of CCG and GCBC are not happy about the decision to inaugurate a new Ghana Education Service (GES) Council without representation from the Council and the Conference. Both CCG and GCBC have played and continue to play in the development of education in the country. We therefore wish to state that all critical decisions that are taken on education in the country should be done through consensus building with stakeholders like the Faith Based Organizations. ---citinewsroom One of the Conveners of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah admitted the group went overboard when they authored a letter to the police informing the security service about their intended armed demonstration. According to him, the group has commenced investigations to establish who is behind the letter for appropriate sanctions to be given to the person. He described the situation as a misstep and no amount of justification can right it. We cannot be asking the current political set up to call out their own when they go wrong and turn around to defend a wrong doing when it happens in our camp. Steps are being taken to sanction whoever was responsible for that letter. At no point will I condone any act that seeks to jeopardize the peace and security of this nation. I am equally angry as you guys are but we ask the public to keep calm. We do not stand for violence and will never stand for violence. A different date, appropriate route and measures will be communicated in due time. Let us not allow the mishap to bury the problems facing our dear nation which necessitated our call on the people to the street to express their grievances. God bless our homeland Ghana and make us truthful, he shared this on his social media handle Thursday June 2, 2020 after the group were called out by most Ghanaians over their planned weapons demo tantamount to a coup. This comes after the group has been condemned for planning to stage a violent demonstration. The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for instance, said violence and the use of guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society like Ghana. He called for the condemnation of the leaders of the planned June 4 armed demonstration for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped! Violence and the use of Guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society. Leaders of the June 4 demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped! Mr Ablakwa tweeted. The Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service rejected a request from some persons including broadcaster Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart, and #FixTheCountry convener Oliver Barker-Vormawor to demonstrate. The Police said the nature and character of the demonstration as intended, is inconsistent with with the Public Order Act hence the decision to stop it. The demonstration would have taken three days and allowed the leaders to address the nation on GTV like coup makers. The Accra Police Regional Command on Sunday May 29, 2022 received a notice of intention to embark on a demonstration by a group of persons: Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah, Captain Godsbrain Smart, Benjamin Darko, Oliver Barker-Vormawor. The service is of the view that the nature and character of the demonstration as intended, is inconsistent with with the Public Order Act, the Police said in a statement. Meanwhile, Captain Smart has cleared the air that although he is a convener for #FixTheCountry, he never signed the infamous letter which was responded to by the police. A letter believed to be from the conveners and addressed to the Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service has been spotted on social media with its content stirring mixed reaction. Excerpts from the letter spoke about a demonstration planned to take place on Saturday, June 4 to register their displeasure to the authorities in the country. The letter asked for permission and security from the Ghana police and stated intentions to demonstrate with weapons if the security force refuses to grant them permission. Speaking on the 3FM Drive with Giovani on Wednesday, June 1, Captain Smart said he knows nothing about the letter and his lawyers are currently writing to address the trending issue. He cleared that he does not support violence and will never approve a rebellious demonstration. Why will I support the use of weapons to demonstrate when I want the country to be fixed? If they use violence and destroy the country, what will be left to be fixed? Captain Smart questioned. ---DGN online A Warehouse Manager has been remanded into police custody by an Accra Circuit Court for a charge of stealing. Mr Michael Bentil, aged 50, was charged with stealing, an offence he pleaded not guilty to. The Court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh discovered that the accused person did not have a fixed place of abode, hence, the remand. The case had been adjourned to June 8, 2022. Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Maxwell Oppong told the Court that the complainant was Madam Felicity Commey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Popsy Company Limited, a private company which deals in human hair and cosmetics, located at Nungua, Accra. The Prosecution said Mr Bentil was the warehouse manager of the same company. During the month of March 2022, Madam Commey employed Mr Bentil as her Warehouse Manager to take charge of the company. Mr Oppong said on May 6 and 7, 2022, Madam Commey together with her internal audits took stock with Mr Bentil totalling GHS394,445.00 and subsequently handed over the goods to him. The Prosecution said Mr Bentil supplied goods on a wholesale basis to the company's customers and deposited the proceeds into the company's Prudential Bank account daily. Mr Oppong said on May 19, 2022, Mr Bentil vacated his post without the consent of Madam Commey and went into hiding. The Prosecution said several calls were made to Mr Bentil, but he failed to answer. On May 21, 2022, Madam Commey became suspicious of the conduct of Mr Bentil, which compelled her to take stock in the presence of Mr Bentil's guarantor by her internal auditor which revealed a shortage of GHS59,925.00 which he could not account for. Mr Oppong said on May 27, 2022, at about 0100 hours, Mr Bentil was arrested by his guarantor from his hideout and sent to Madam Commey, who in turn handed him over to the Police to assist in the investigation. GNA Three persons have been put before an Adenta Circuit Court for allegedly robbing and kidnapping a Nigerian lady at Amrahia in the Greater Accra Region. The lady is said to have gone to meet Richmond Klutsey, one of the accused persons and her date, whom she had met on a dating site. The three accused persons namely Richmond Klutsey, 26, Samuel Olessey aka Junior, 27, and Gordon Amable aka Sackey, 27, are all labourers at a block factory at Danfa, Accra. The accused persons have been charged with Conspiracy to commit crimes, kidnapping, and robbery. They have pleaded not guilty, and the Court presided over by Mrs Sedinam Awo Balokah has admitted them to bail in the sum of GHS 600,000 with three sureties, one to be justified. The Prosecution has been ordered by the Court to file disclosures two days before the next adjourned date. The matter has been adjourned to July 5. The prosecution led by Police Chief Inspector Maxwell Lanyo narrated that the complainant Victoria Amarachi Micah is a trader residing at Spintex, Accra. Chief Inspector Lanyo said on April 7, this year, the complainant who met Klutsey on a dating site agreed to meet her at Amrahia. The prosecution said at about 11:00 pm, the complainant came to Amrahia and Klutsey asked Amable, his security man, to meet her and bring her home because taxis and other transport services were not allowed to enter their estate. It said on reaching back of Christian University College, Amable held the mouth of the complainant and forced her into a forest behind the university. The Prosecution said Klutsey and Olessey, who were already waiting in the said bush, held the complainant, stripped her naked, threatened her with a cutlass and collected her iPhone 13 Pro Max. It said the accused persons demanded money before releasing her. According to Prosecution the accused persons forced the complainant to transfer money from her Nigerian bank account into another bank account provided by Olessey, but the complainant gave a wrong password, and the transaction could not go through. The Prosecution said while the accused persons were waiting for the transfer to go through, the complainant managed to escape amidst screaming for help. It said the accused persons chased her and she was rescued by some people and a report was made to the Police at Oyibi. The prosecution said Klustey was traced by the Police, and he mentioned Amable as his accomplice. It said Klutsey led the Police to Danfa and Amrahia for a search. The prosecution said during the Police search, 18 phones were found on Klutsey, including the complainant's iPhone. Three other Phones were found on Olessey while one iPhone was found on Amable, the prosecutor said. According to the prosecution, Police investigations revealed that the accused persons were involved in a series of similar cases under investigation. GNA The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has charged the leadership and members of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) to work with all relevant state and non-state actors to ensure accelerated development at the local level of governance. Applying a mix of innovation, dialogue and collaboration with their peers would speed up the development process, Dr Bawumia maintained, noting that it is important that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, who have been mandated by law to lead the development charge at the local level, do so with a sense of urgency. Addressing participants at the 21st Biennial National Delegates Conference of NALAG in Kumasi on Thursday, June 2, 2022 the Vice President emphasized that all stakeholders need to approach their mandates with renewed vigour, especially in the wake of the ravages wrought by Covid 19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. It cannot be over-emphasized that for us to bounce back together, a great responsibility lies with our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies maximizing the development agenda at the local level. Decentralization and local government administration is the fulcrum around which democracy and citizens participation is given expression at the grassroots. It is therefore imperative to indicate that our MMDAs are not only for political participation but agents for national economic development, Dr Bawumia indicated. "In recognition of the crucial role played by local authorities Government has, through the decentralization policy framework, included Local Economic Development (LED) as one of the five key pillars of the policy underpinnings of our National Decentralization Policy and Strategy (2020-2024)," the Vice President explained. He stressed, This is to move the MMDAs from provision of essential services to promotion of enabling environment for the private sector to partner with local authorities to develop and sustain businesses, create jobs and reduce poverty through mobilization of local natural and human resources, as well as, value addition. The global Covid-19 pandemic has presented us with an opportunity to rethink local development approaches and re-orient local economies away from unsustainable development pathways. We need conscious bottom-up approaches to local development in this time. MMDAs should move away from just providing essential services to becoming agents for development by harnessing all the natural, material and human resources within their jurisdiction to bring the needed development, create jobs, reduce poverty, increase income levels and raise the needed Internally Generated Fund (IGF) to compliment other sources of funding from central government. As MMDAs you must re-evaluate your local strengths and weaknesses in light of changing roles you have to play to meet the needs of your respective citizens. We are aware that some MMDAs are already engaged in the process of revitalizing their own local economy and I believe others will follow the trail. You need to reconsider the growth you desire for your District taking into consideration resilience and inclusivity. Manpower development Dr Bawumia assured NALAG members and the participants, which included the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hon Dan Botwe, of governments commitment to meeting the manpower needs of local authorities, with the expansion of the infrastructure of the Institute of Local Government Studies and the construction of a Local Government University at Akomadan in the Offinso North Municipality in Ashanti Region to augment the training capacity deficit we currently have. We are not leaving any stone unturned in bringing this to speedy fruition. To mitigate inefficiency and wasted time and resources at the local level, this government has broadened the digitalization agenda to include local government service delivery. We believe that the digital transformation agenda must be tied to the services of the local authorities since they are the engine of development in the country, he added. The NALAG Conference brings together all stakeholders in the local governance system to brainstorm on ways to better discharge their duties as mandated by the Local Government Act 1993 (Act 462), and also elect new leaders. 02.06.2022 LISTEN The Coalition of Stakeholders on Electricity Contracts and Arrangements (COSECA) is blaming the inefficiency on the part of the Public Utility Regulation Commission (PURC) as the cause of the demands by utility companies for an outrageous upward adjustment in utility tariffs. According to the Coalition, the suspension of the Automatic Adjustment Formula and the failure by the PURC to dole out funds accrued from the Distribution Service Charges to utility companies like the ECG are incapacitating the companies. The demand by the ECG and GWCL for a 144% and 334% upward adjustment in utility tariffs, respectively, has received widespread condemnation. In a statement, the group called on the PURC to be efficient in the delivery of its work because our utility companies can do better with improved corporate governance practices, resources, accountability without government interference and political electrification schemes. The PURC in our honest opinion has been very inefficient, mismanaged and at best seems not to appreciate their role, or are grossly incompetent at it. There is enough blame sharing to go round from government to management of utility companies, however the PURC is the number one reason why we have the tariffs currently piled up, and resulting in ECG's demand for 148% and GWCL's 334% upward adjustment in tariffs. The Electricity Company of Ghana had proposed that its tariffs be increased by 148% for 2022 and with 7.6% average adjustments between the periods of 2023 to 2026. The proposed sharp increment, according to ECG, is due to the gap between the actual cost recovery tariff and PURC-approved tariffs as well as the cost of completed projects. The GWCL also argued that while the average tariff per cubic metre in 2019 was 1.27 USD, the same was reduced to USD 1.13 as a result of cedi depreciation. The GWCL said this has affected its ability to carry out repairs and replacements of aged and obsolete equipment and pipelines. ---citinewsroom Conveners of the FixTheCountry Movement have apologized to Ghanaians for the planned armed demonstration which has been rejected by the Police. Following widespread criticisms against their move, the conveners said in a statement on Thursday June 2 that we intend to repair and rebuild trust by first holding ourselves accountable to the highest democratic principles. Importantly, this include listening and taking seriously criticisms. The statement added, We unreservedly apologize to the public especially our supporters. The group received flak from scores of Ghanaians over their move. For instance, Ningo Prampram lawmaker, Samuel Nartey George said an armed demonstration is a recipe for disaster. He said no government worth its salt in Ghana, irrespective of political party, would allow an armed demonstration. Armed demonstration? Certainly a recipe for disaster. No government worth its salt in Ghana, irrespective of political party, would allow an armed demonstration. Sometimes, we ought to think with our heads, he tweeted. For example, North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said violence and the use of guns by demonstrators could not be acceptable in any democratic society like Ghana. To that end, he said, the leaders of the planned June 4 armed demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped! Violence and the use of Guns by demonstrators cannot be acceptable in any democratic society. Leaders of the June 4 demonstration must be condemned for contemplating this disastrous path they must stop it or be stopped! Mr Ablakwa tweeted. One of the Conveners of the Movement, Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah earlier assured that whoever authored the letter to the Police informing the authorities about the planned armed demonstration would be sanctioned. He described this situation as a misstep and no amount of justification can right it. We cannot be asking the current political set up to call out their own when they go wrong and turn around to defend a wrong doing when it happens in our camp. Steps are being taken to sanction whoever was responsible for that letter. At no point will I condone any act that seeks to jeopardize the peace and security of this nation. I am equally angry as you guys are but we ask the public to keep calm. We do not stand for violence and will never stand for violence. A different date, appropriate route and measures will be communicated in due time. Let us not allow the mishap to bury the problems facing our dear nation which necessitated our call of the people to the street to express their grievances. God bless our homeland Ghana and make us truthful. The Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service declined a request from some persons including broadcaster Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart, and #FixTheCountry convener Oliver Barker-Vormawor to demonstrate. The Police said the nature and character of the demonstration as intended, is inconsistent with with the Public Order Act hence the decision to stop it. The demonstration would have taken three days and allowed the leaders to address the nation on GTV. The Accra Police Regional Command on Sunday May 29 2022 received a notice of intention to embark on a demonstration by a group of persons : Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah, Captain Godsbrain, Benjamin Darko, Oliver Barker-Vormawor. The service is of the view that the nature and character of the demonstration as intended, is inconsistent with with the Public Order Act, the Police said in a statement. Meanwhile, Captain Smart has cleared the air that although he is a convener for #FixTheCountry, he never signed the infamous letter which was responded to by the police. A letter believed to be from the conveners and addressed to the Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service has been spotted on social media with its content stirring mixed reaction. Excerpts from the letter spoke about a demonstration planned to take place on Saturday, June 4 to register their displeasure to the authorities in the country. The letter asked for permission and security from the Ghana police and stated intentions to demonstrate with weapons if the security force refuses to grant them permission. Speaking on the 3FM Drive with Giovani on Wednesday, June 1, Captain Smart said he knows nothing about the letter and his lawyers are currently writing to address the trending issue. He cleared that he does not support violence and will never approve a rebellious demonstration. Why will I support the use of weapons to demonstrate when I want the country to be fixed? If they use violence and destroy the country, what will be left to be fixed? Captain Smart questioned. ---3news.com Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi South in the Ahafo Region, says his passion for politics is not only to win votes but to leave a befitting legacy for the generation yet unborn. Hev said the development of the constituency remained his priority, and promised to tackle the development deficit to better the livelihoods of the people. He, therefore, asked the people to vote for him and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Election 2024 to enable him to achieve his vision for the constituency. I am always fulfilled when I see smiles on the faces of my constituents, Alhaji Dauda stated, when he commissioned an electricity project at Twikrom and Krapoo, hard-to-reach cocoa-growing communities in the constituency. With the connection of the two communities to the national electricity grid, he said about 95 per cent of electricity coverage in the constituency had been achieved and promised to ensure the few remaining deprived villages would be hooked onto the national grid by 2024. Alhaji Dauda explained that electricity connectivity and extension in those areas were essential because it would open them up for investment and raise the standard of living of the people while creating employable opportunities for the youth. He cautioned the 42 households of about 300 residents at Twikrom and the 45 households of more than 400 residents at Krapoo against illegal power connections. Alhaji Dauda advised them to pay their electricity bills promptly to avoid accumulating bills that could lead to power disconnection. Nana Yentumi Boateng, the Chief of Krapoo, expressed appreciation to the MP for the power supply and appealed for rehabilitation of the Nkasiem-Krapoo road to facilitate economic activities. He said the local basic school needed another classroom block to accommodate the Junior High School students as the deplorable nature of the classrooms forced many parents to enrol their children in schools at Nkasiem. Nana Boateng appealed for potable water for the people as the only mechanised borehole constructed by the MP could not meet the water demands of the growing population. At Twikrom, Mr Johnson Opoku Tawiah, the Assemblyman for Beposo Electoral Area, said the residents would forever be grateful to the MP for his zeal and commitment to pushing the development of the area to the next level. He appealed to the Government to construct a metal bridge over the Subin and Tano rivers to facilitate the movement of the people, who were cut off from other communities during the rainy season. The wooden bridges constructed were in deplorable condition and posed as death traps and it was always difficult for women and children to cross over, he said. Mr Tawiah said the local school at Twikrom also needed classroom and Kindergarten blocks, desks and learning materials to increase enrolment and facilitate effective teaching and learning. GNA The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference (GCBC) have urged all their members to be vigilant following the threat of terrorism in Ghana. In a communique, the two bodies urged their member churches to ensure adequate security measures at the worship places. The CCG and GCBC are deeply concerned about the threat of terrorist attacks on religious gatherings in our country. We wish to thank and appreciate the National Security for their swift promptings of caution to the citizens of the country. We urge them to continue to be vigilant, especially on the borders of the country. We wish to appeal to our Member Churches to ensure adequate security measures at our worship places. We entreat all churches to set up security committees with experts who can educate church members on security awareness. Churches are also to set up security cameras to monitor all those who come in and around their premises. Moreover, we appeal to members who own houses and shops to be careful of those who rent them. Let us all continue to be watchful and report unusual activities in our communities to the security services. We wish to appeal to Ghanaians to remain calm in the face of the security warnings. The National Security has assured us that they are on top of matters. We however urge everyone to continue to be security conscious as we pray for the peace of God in our nation. Recently, the Deputy National Security Coordinator , Mr Edward Kweku Aspmani recently said Ghana is definitely not insulated from terror attacks. Clearly, he said, Ghana is a target. He explained that the terrorists have been targeting mostly resource-rich countries therefore, since Ghana is endowed with natural resources, it exposes the country to the miscreants. Addressing a press conference on the measures that have been put in place to prevent the attacks from happening in the country, on Sunday May 22, he said We are not insulated from those attacks therefore, we think Ghanaians should be aware. Why are we involving Ghanaians? The nature of the threats is such that it is not conventional warfare, they don't come in with the APCs and fighter jets. They come in all forms, it could be your pastor in the church, cleric in the mosque, individuals coming in as CSOs purporting to do community work. That means that we all have to be vigilant. Also we know that the terrorists want access to the sea, the nature of the various attacks we have all seen in the subregion indicates that wherever they go there is some form of mineral or natural resource there particularly gold. So the question therefore is, if they attack cities and towns in Burkina Faso that has gold deposits, clearly, Ghana will be an interest. We are clearly therefore a target that is why we are here today to seek the support of Ghanaians. Some security analysts believe the terrorists have already arrived in the country. For instance, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr Ishmael Norman said Ghanaians must act in ways as if the terrorists are already here in the country. In his view, some may have been married to Ghanaians. Speaking in interview with TV3 on Saturday May 21 in relation to the caution given by the National Security against the potential attack on Ghana, he said they are not just near Ghana, they are in Ghana. He added Some of them will even marry Ghanaian men or women. We have to assume that they are already here. The National Security warning is a good one, I believe the terrorists are already in Ghana. Following the activities of terrorist groups in neighbouring West African countries, Ghana's National Security has cautioned churches against possible similar attacks. The National Security said measures have been instituted in order to forestall these attacks however, the churches must also be on alert. The measures instituted include installation of Closed-Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in churches, as well as engaging the services of accredited private security agencies. In view of the growing threats of terrorism from the subregion and the expansionist drive of terrorist groups towards Coastal West African states, with a renewed modus operandi of targeting public gatherings including places of worship, it is imperative that precautional measures are taken by all stakeholders, a statement issued on Friday May 13 said. It is recalled that a report released by the West Africa Centre for Counter Extremism (WACCE) released recently said Ghana has managed so far to stay safe from terrorist attacks on home soil, yet the country has been so close to terrorism. Already, the report said, more than 13 Ghanaians are believed to have travelled to fight with terrorist groups since 2015. Up to twenty three (23) others have been dissuaded from leaving to join extremist groups. Ghana's first recorded case was Nazir Alema Nortey3, a young university graduate, who shockingly left the country in august 2015 to join ISIS before sending a message back to his parents to announce his new found cause. He was killed in Syria by April 2016. Professor Kofi Awoonor, a renowned Ghanaian poet and academic, was killed in the West Gate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya when Al Shabab fighters besieged the mall in 2013, the report said. The threat has been menacingly and quickly spread, occurring through a spill over phenomenon, has ravaged the Northern borders of not only Burkina Faso but also of Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo recently. With all its direct neighbors under attacks, Ghana has descending from the Sahel towards Coastal States in the last five years. Even though the fatality numbers are presently down from the peak of over 7,200 in the region in 2014, the threat has increased in complexity and geographical spread. Today 53% of all ECOWAS now been encircled by the threat. These developments are dangerous for Ghana. Ghana's proximity to these countries (Burkina Faso to the North, Benin and Togo to the East and Ivory Coast to the West) exposes the country to extremist recruitment or attacks or both, it added. It further stated that the unending Bawku chieftaincy conflict, the ethnic tensions in Northern Ghana and the unresolved challenge of Western Togoland separatists in the Eastern border regions amplify the risks. ---3news.com The FixThe Country Movement, led by Oliver Baker-Vormawor, Captain Smart, Okatakyie Afrifa and Mensah Thompson's intentions to demonstrate for three days with arms has been rejected by the Ghana Police service. In reaction, the convenor for Fixing The Country Movement, Ernest Owusu Bempah calls on the IGP and the security agencies to arrest the group for threatening the security and the peace of the state with their bad intentions. He has given IGP a seven-day ultimatum to arrest the demo planners. "Ladies and gentlemen, all over the world, throughout history, the treatment against traitors to a nation has always been the same: arrest swiftly, prosecute vigorously, and sentenced harshly. These gangs should be treated the exact same way," he stated. Below is the full press release: Statement By Fixing The Country Movement At A Press Conference Held On Thursday 02/06/2022 In Accra On June 4 demonstration. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we are compelled to assemble you here once again to do justice to some pertinent issues. We have become aware of a letter from the police administration detailing the request made on the state by a group of NDC-aligned elements including Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Mensah Thompson, Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah and Captain Smart. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what these nation wreckers are seeking to do is to stage demonstrations for four consecutive days with their armed security detail. They essentially want to demonstrate with their registered weapons and they're prepared to come with their private security, and they are also forcefully demanding to be allowed to address the Nation with their grievances on GTV. As a matter of fact, these nation wreckers are asking the state to look on while they engage in total madness with guns on the street. In other words, they're calling for total anarchy. Thankfully, the Police in a clear language have told the group that the PUBLIC ORDER ACT, 1994 ACT 491 does not make room for such prepositions. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, although we recognize the importance of the constitutionally protected rights to assemble and protest, Fixing The Country Movement abhors and rejects the acts that perpetuate systemic violence and undermine institutions of the state. It is horrific and ultimately tragic to note that there are people in this country who want the disruption of the relative peace that we're enjoying. The Fixing The Country Movement cherishes the free speech right of the people peaceably to assemble to share their grievances. But that this whole demonstration has nothing to do with "peaceably assemble." Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of this gang, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, an appendage of the John Mahama led NDC is already facing treasonable charges for threatening a coup detat. He's seeking to use this opportunity to follow through with his coup rhetoric. This anarchist of an activist pretending to believe in Democracy described our military as "USELESS," and because the "useless" military has abstained from partisan politics and conducted themselves professionally, he will do the coup himself. He also posted a random video of a burning V8 vehicle with the caption "Has the REVOLUTION started?" And this same guy is asking the police administration to allow him to demonstrate with weapons. Ladies and gentlemen, how would you describe this recklessness by Oliver Barker-Vormawor and his gangster friends? For us, we're honestly at a loss at how idiotic these political self-seekers who are mere politicians of fortune and their enablers have been. We're also appalled by the reckless behaviour of these guys and by the lack of respect shown for our institutions, constitution and our law enforcement. These so-called Fix the country gangsters are calling for accountable governance but their hearts and minds are stained with impunity. Oliver Barker-Vormawor is a shameful example of what is wrong in Ghana as a country, he spewed rhetoric that so many believe willingly, that has no basis in fact. He, along with those that support him needs to be held accountable. Ladies and gentlemen, all over the world, throughout history, the treatment against traitors to a nation has always been the same: arrest swiftly, prosecute vigorously, and sentenced harshly. These gangs should be treated the exact same way. We must stand togetherregardless of political party or point of viewto condemn this irresponsible behaviour, and to uphold, protect and defend our homeland Ghana. My father's people have this saying that "no matter how beautiful a coffin looks, no one at the funeral wishes for death." Oliver Barker-Vormawor and company need to be told in plain words that their conduct warrants psychiatric evaluation. No sane person engages in such recklessness in the name of public advocacy. Let it be on record that the only legitimate means of changing our government is through the ballot box. The only acceptable form of governance in this 21st century is through democratic elections. It is the only way to install and the only way to change an administration. The days of coups and government without votes are over. Ghana is held in the highest esteem as the first post-colonial country to gain independence and the first African country to hold multi-party elections by universal suffrage. Ghana is the first, true African democracy. As such, the INVISIBLE GHANAIAN YOUTH are on red alert to protect and defend the constitution and deal with any recalcitrant elements seeking to undermine our democratic gains. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, Martin Luther King Jr., American Baptist Minister, led the struggle against racial discrimination in the 1960s, inspiring supporters with the power of his rhetoric. He advocated the principle of non-violent protest, affirming that opposition should be tackled with compassion rather than aggression. That's the essence of public advocacy. We engage in advocacy for a positive transformation and not endless whingeing and calls for coup detat. Citizens are entitled to call for accountable governance and leadership but in doing so, we must watch out for people who have hidden agendas and pretending to be more Patriotic than the rest of us. In the words of the great French Military and Political Strategist, the man widely considered one of the greatest military generals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte, in politics, stupidity is not a handicap. He also averred that there are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the mind. Let Oliver Barker-Vormawor take heed of advice and listen to these words of wisdom, lest he follows the corpse to the grave like the stubborn fly. Enough is Enough. Signed; Ernst Kofi Owusu Bempah - Political Strategist and Convener of fixing the country movement. New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris's Louvre Museum. The artifacts -- which include a group of painted linen fragments, dated between 250 and 450 BC, depicting a scene from the Book of Exodus -- are worth more than $3 million, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office. A New York state judge ordered their confiscation on May 19, a court document shows. "The pieces were seized pursuant to the warrant," a spokesperson for the district attorney told AFP on Thursday. He added that they are "related" to the investigation in Paris in which Jean-Luc Martinez, who ran the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, was charged last week with complicity in fraud and "concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement." The fraud is thought to involve several other art experts, according to French investigative weekly Canard Enchaine. The five pieces seized from the Met were purchased by the famous museum between 2013 and 2015, according to The Art Newspaper, which first reported the news. When contacted by AFP, a Met spokesperson referred to a previous statement in which the museum said it was "a victim of an international criminal organization." Linen fragments representing a scene from the Book of Exodus, dated AD 250-450, and seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are pictured in an image released in a search warrant issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New York. By Handout (Supreme Court of the State of New York/AFP) In 2019, the museum returned the gilded sarcophagus of the priest Nedjemankh to Egypt after New York prosecutors determined it had been stolen during the revolts against ex-president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The Met had purchased the coffin in 2017 and later said it had been a victim of false statements and fake documentation. French investigators are also seeking to establish whether pieces looted during the Arab Spring protests were acquired by the Louvre's branch in Abu Dhabi. Several of the individuals charged in the case -- including Roben Dib, owner of a gallery in Hamburg and who is currently in custody -- were involved in the sarcophagus's sale to the Met, according to a 2019 report by the Manhattan district attorney. The Book of Exodus painting is valued at $1.6 million. Also among the five works is a painted portrait of a woman dated from between the years AD 54 to 68 worth $1.2 million. Pressure group, Arise Ghana has expressed displeasure at a letter from the Accra Regional Police Command indicating that it will not provide security for its two-day demonstration in the capital later this month. The group on June 1, 2022, sent a letter to the Accra Regional Police Command to inform the security agency of plans to stage a 48-hour demonstration starting from June 21. In a reply to the Arise Ghana letter today, the Police said it cannot provide protection for the two-day picketing. While raising concerns about the route chosen by the Arise Ghana group, the Police note that if they are addressed, it is ready to provide the needed security for the demonstration. The Accra Regional Police Command acknowledges receipt of your letter dated 01/06/2022 on the above subject matter (Notice of an intended demonstration). The Command wishes to inform you that it cannot provide you with 48-hour security on the street during your intended demonstration. Also the command does not agree with your choice of route for the demonstration as the Ako Adjei interchange to Christ the King Traffic Light is a designated security zone. In view of the above, the command wishes to assure that we shall provide you with maximum security during your demonstration, parts of a latter from the Greater Accra Regional Command reads. Unhappy with the content of the letter, the Arise Ghana group has sent another letter to the Command, insisting that it has no power to restrict the duration of its planned demonstration. In paragraph two of your letter, you indicated that your outfit cannot provide us with 48-hour security during our intended demonstration. We note that you did not provide any lawful or reasonable basis for this decision. We wish to draw your attention to the fact that, you have no power or authority whatsoever under Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 491) and other laws of this country to limit or restrict the duration of demonstrations, parts of the Arise Ghana letter sent today has said. Reacting to the Commands rejection of the route, the Arise Ghana group says it finds the posture whimsical and capricious. The group while sticking to its arrangements warns that it is ready to take the matter to court to face the Accra Regional Police Command for its unlawful and unreasonable decision on this matter. Below is a copy of the Arise Ghana letter to the Accra Regional Police Command today: Chad on Thursday declared a "food emergency" in the impoverished landlocked country, urging the international community to help. The plea for aid comes before a meeting Friday between the head of the African Union and Russia's president to discuss grain supplies in the aftermath of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "Following the constant deterioration of the food and nutritional situation this year and taking into account the growing risk to populations if no humanitarian aid... is provided, this decree declares a food emergency," read the document signed by the head of the military junta ruling the country. "The government calls on all national actors and international partners to help the populations," the decree said. The United Nations has warned that 5.5 million people in Chad -- more than a third of the population -- would need humanitarian assistance this year. The World Food Programme in March estimated that 2.1 million Chadians would be "severely food insecure" during the lean season starting in June. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow have disrupted deliveries of wheat and other commodities from the two countries, fuelling concerns about the risk of hunger around the world. Around 30 percent of the world's wheat supply comes from Ukraine and Russia. Food prices in Africa have already exceeded those in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab springs and the 2008 food riots. On Friday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin will receive Senegalese President Macky Sall, who chairs the African Union, to discuss "freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries", Sall's office has said. Chad is the planet's third poorest nation, the United Nations says. In 2021, it ranked 113 out of 116 nations on the "Global Hunger Index" -- a peer-reviewed tool compiled by European NGOs. A junta led by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has ruled Chad since last year, after his father, long-serving strongman Idriss Deby Itno, died in battle. Rev Obinna Akukwe is hereby authoritatively informing Igbo elders that the activities of Igbo Politician in Abuja ahead of Buhari's consensus choice is capable of truncating Igbo Presidency. We have made moves to convey an all inclusive Igbo Stakeholders Meeting to finetune, finalize and present a common front to Buhari ahead of his planned announcement, the elders dodged the meetings. In the same manner, those in PDP dodged strategic meetings, failed to institute a situation room, and failed to do everything necessary, until Igbos were disgraced at PDP Primaries. I congratulate Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate for defeating stupid, confused, unprepared people. The scenario is about to repeat again. Buhari has hinted that Igbo should be considered for consensus presidency but internal disagreement will truncate the exercise. Rotimi Amechi, have done a considerable job, reaching stakeholders across states, but many APC chieftains have vowed to truncate his ambitions, on the grounds that he is not South East Igbo. Ogbonnaya Onu , long time ally of Buhari with impressive administrative credentials, has his candidacy being criticized by Igbo stakeholders for being uninspiring in approach. Rochas Okorocha, with considerable goodwill in the North, has little support among Igbo APC stakeholders due to the obvious de-marketing being given him by Hope Uzodimma, including through EFCC. Dave Umahi, with impressive infrastructural credentials in Ebonyi State, is being criticized by Igbo stakeholders for being an outsider and usurper. Another group of Igbo Stakeholders are pressurizing Buhari to give it to Ahmed Lawan , arguing that with a broken Igbo support base, nobody from the South can challenge Atiku. The cycle is ongoing again. Rev Obinna Akukwe is warning for the last that when Buhari abandons Ndigbo, the silly politicians will cry marginalization, the manner they cried when Atiku outsmarted them in PDP. (Rev Obinna Akukwe, Cleric, Activist, is the Director General Igbo Mandate Congress IMC ) Its always special to partner with another loved New Zealand brand like Tip Top. Were super excited to see what Kiwis think of this iconic collaboration, he continued. We are always up to try something new, and when that new thing is chocolate and boysenberry, you know well be excited for it. We better be quick though, as the new flavour is limited edition - here for a good time not a long time. Commenters on Facebook seem to feel the same way: They look yummy I must try, I like them in the fridge but hubby likes them at room temp, one said. YES!!!!!!!! Bring an extra suitcase said another eager commenter. Yum why havent they done this before now!?, said another. Great question Facebooker, great question. Editor Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com Duncan_Andison/Getty Images/iStockphoto South Jacksonville trustees are scheduled to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. today in Village Hall, 301 Dewey Drive. Among the items on the agenda are: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) The white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate-motivated domestic terrorism and other charges. A prosecutor called the evidence against him overwhelming. A lawyer entered the plea for Payton Gendron, 18, in the first case to make use of New York's domestic terrorism hate crime law. Gendron didn't speak during the brief hearing with a heavy security presence. Witnesses, police and Gendron's own writings and livestreamed video have incriminated him as the gunman who used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle May 14 to target shoppers and employees of a Tops Friendly Market, and he surrendered at the crime scene after putting his rifle to his neck. Authorities said he chose the store because of its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood. There is overwhelming proof of the defendants guilt, Assistant District Attorney John Fereleto said. The defendant was caught at the scene of the crime with the weapon in his hands. Gendron has been held without bail since the shooting and is due back in court July 7. He was charged with murder shortly after the attack. On Wednesday, a new indictment expanded the case to include the domestic terrorism charge, along with 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon and three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime. When you hear the phase throw the book at someone, well, in this case right here, the defendant just got War and Peace, District Attorney John Flynn said at a news conference after the arraignment. The domestic terrorism hate crime charge officially, domestic acts of terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree was added to state law just two years ago, after a mass shooting targeting Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The offense carries an automatic life sentence upon conviction. Until now, no arrests or arraignments or arraignments under the law have been reported to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, spokesperson Janine Kava said. In Gendron's case, the charge accuses him of killing at least five people because of the perceived race and/or color of his victims. Outside court, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called Gendron a racist, hate-filled outsider who came to our community with the stated intent to kill as many Black people as possible. Prosecutors said Gendron drove about three hours to Buffalo from his home in Conklin, New York, to target African Americans. Shortly before opening fire, he posted documents that outlined his white supremacist views and revealed he had been planning the attack for months. Federal authorities also are investigating the possibility of hate crime charges against Gendron. The slain victims ranged in age from 32 to 86. Three other people were wounded. The bloodshed, followed 10 days later by a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has renewed a national debate about gun control. Meanwhile, a 911 dispatcher was fired Thursday after being accused by a Tops employee of hanging up on her during the rampage. The dispatcher, who was put on administrative leave two days after the shooting, was terminated after a disciplinary hearing Thursday, Erie County spokesperson Daniel Meyer said. County Executive Marc Poloncarz last month called the handling of the 911 call completely unacceptable and said the county would seek to fire the employee. The dispatcher's union, the Civil Service Employees Association, said Thursday it had ensured that disciplinary due process provisions were followed fairly and appropriately here. The dispatcher told The Buffalo News late last month she was sorry about what the caller went through during the shooting, adding that more facts would come out at the hearing. A message was left Thursday at a possible phone number for her. ___ Peltz reported from New York. The process of defining goals and objectives for future development in Jacksonville is starting to take shape. Several community leaders were at the Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau on Wednesday to assess community needs and plan for the citys future. The discussion was led by Meghan Cuneo, community revitalization planner for the Illinois Housing Development Authority, who presented a completed Housing Stock Survey, Community Needs Assessment and Market Data Chapters that were done for the Jacksonville Community Revitalization Plan. Leaders helped start the process of completing a community needs assessment survey, but Cuneo said the publics help is needed to complete the task. The survey's results will be used in "identifying housing needs and goals, and creating the long-term vision for Jacksonville, Cuneo said. "The role of IHDA in this partnership with the city of Jacksonville is to provide technical assistance," Cuneo said. "The role of the residents, city and stakeholders is to tell us what kind of future they want to see in Jacksonville." Those interested in having input on the survey have until 6 p.m. June 15 to complete it by going to bit.ly/3x8Bvrj. Jacksonville has so many assets that can be leveraged, said Cliff Bridgeman, assistant director of planning services for the housing authority. Jacksonville is a vibrant urban core and has a population that is engaged. Jacksonville has many selling points, said Kristin Jamison, president of the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corp. People who come here talk about safety and the low cost of living. With the positive came the realization things could be better. Brian Nyberg, Jacksonville's community development director, said the goal is to promote and protect the public health, safety and general welfare of the people of Jacksonville. The city hopes to achieve that in part by reducing the number of abandoned and neglected houses and neighborhoods in the city. His office is working to establish a "land bank" to convert vacant and abandoned properties and those with tax delinquencies to use. Developing areas at the former site of Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds, which contain buildings with boarded-up windows and grass that is knee- to waist-high, as well as the former nursing home near Jacksonville Memorial Hospital were discussed. Nyberg said when older buildings are involved, there is a need to evaluate whether it is cost-effective to save them or tear them down. Many old buildings have issues with asbestos that have not been abated, he said. Cuneo pointed out the initial survey of the community showed residents felt there was a need for better and more affordable housing. There was a belief there are situations where multi-family housing units should host single families only. In doing so, you need to be careful, Cuneo said. The process has to be balanced so that as you take away multi-family properties, you come up with high-quality alternatives. Judy Tighe, executive director of Jacksonville Main Street, cited a lack of development in townhomes, which she said could provide an interesting solution. They could be sold as condos or be rentals. Either way, it provides a different dynamic than multi-family structures, she said. Attracting young people to Jacksonville was another topic. Cuneo said the survey showed 42% of Jacksonville students would like to stay in the city. They are concerned about affordable housing, more public spaces and recreation. Cuneo said many of the students were unaware of the job opportunities in Jacksonville. Im stunned sometimes that students dont know about the opportunities available with industries that call Jacksonville home, Jamison said. We need to be able to give them good information. Tighe suggested schools could be more proactive in getting information to students. We need to make inroads with the administration, Jamison said, noting part of the problem is there is no way to deliver messages to a centralized audience. State police to enforce roadside checks in Jersey, Macoupin Illinois State Police will be conducting roadside safety checks in Jersey and Macoupin counties. Molina, Waino honored in Budweiser ad And this isn't the first time a commercial featuring two Cardinals legends. Children's yoga camp poised to start next week A Jacksonville yoga studio will be hosting a set of classes next week for children from 3 to 10... CAIRO (AP) The United Nations said Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The development offered a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war though significant obstacles remain to lasting peace. The cease-fire between Yemens internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels initially came into effect on April 2. And though each side at times accused the other of violating the cease-fire, it was the first nationwide truce in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab Worlds most impoverished nation. The announcement, which is the outcome of U.N. efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties, U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. He said he will mediate between the warring parties to solidify the new truce and to try to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. President Joe Biden welcomed the development and stressed that ending the war in Yemen has been a priority of his administration. I urge all parties to move expeditiously towards a comprehensive and inclusive peace process. Our diplomacy will not rest until a permanent settlement is in place, he said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that regional and international support will remain critical for the continuation and successful implementation of the truce. The fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict, which eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine. In his statement, Biden also lauded the Saudi government for what he said reflected courageous leadership in endorsing and implementing the U.N.-led truce. His remarks came as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have recently pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Biden's initial position was provoked by the gruesome 2018 killing at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi agents, including individuals who worked for the crown princes office. His remains have not been found. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around the besieged city of Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the Houthi rebels. Later Thursday, the Yemeni government's presidential council expressed its support for the U.N. envoy's efforts and reiterated that that Houthis must be prompted to re-open roads around Taiz, according to the state-run SABA news agency. In a statement, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis supreme political council which runs rebel-held areas, said the Houthis decided to respond positively to the U.N. envoy's push to renew the truce in order to alleviate the suffering" of the Yemeni people, and to allow more time for the implementation of all provisions included in the original cease-fire agreement. In recent weeks, commercial flights have resumed from Sanaa, and fuel shipments have arrived. However, the opening of the roads around Taiz remains a contested issue and both sides have yet to agree on a framework for lifting the blockade on the key city. Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided since the truce first started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. The Norwegian Refugee Council's Yemen director, Erin Hutchinson, expressed hopes that the cease-fire would lead to the reopening of roads so that humanitarian aid can reach those in need and so that more displaced Yemenis could return to their homes. Many Yemenis and observers point to the fact that fighting has been reduced, but not completely stopped. According to the Norwegian humanitarian group, the original truce resulted in a more than 50% drop in the number of civilian casualties in the first month. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, also welcomed the truce extension, expressing hopes it would be conducive to a comprehensive peace. The Saudi-based GCC representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE makes economic policies for the bloc, serving as a Sunni-led Arab counterweight to Shiite power Iran. The European Union's delegation to Yemen welcomed the move in a tweet and underscored the importance of lifting the Taiz blockade. Earlier, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Yemen's humanitarian needs remain high despite improvements since the truce, with some 19 million expected to face hunger this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year, but only 26% of that amount has been funded, he said, urging donors to pledge money and turn pledges into cash. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. Farmers Market: 7 a.m.-noon, Pathway Plaza, 1905 W. Morton Ave. Prices vary. | Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through Oct. 31. Link cards accepted. Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents. Blood Drive: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Jacksonville Police Department, 200 W. Douglas Ave. | To donate, contact Courtney Glass 217-479-4630 or go to bloodcenter.org and use code 60161. Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers can be picked up at side door. Walking for Wellness: 12:30-3 p.m., First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. Free | Indoor walking program offered year-round Monday-Thursday. For more information, call 217-243-6445. Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen: 3:30-4 p.m., Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, 105 E. Dunlap St. Free | Serving meals to go for anyone in need. Central Park Market: 4-8 p.m., south side of square, downtown Jacksonville. Prices vary. | Extended business hours for local businesses. First Thursday of the month through September. If interested in being a vendor, email centralparkjaxil@gmail.com. "An Officer and a Gentleman": 7:30 p.m., UIS Performing Arts Center, 1 University Plaza, Springfield. $24-$89 | Based on the Oscar-winning film. For tickets and information, go to uispac.com or call 217-206-6160. Friday Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents. Getting a Tour in Edgewise: An Interactive Art and History Experience: 11 a.m.-noon, Illinois State Museum, 502 S. Spring St., Springfield. Free | Take a guided tour of Illinois State Museum's art and history exhibitions. For more information, contact events@illinoisstatemuseum.org or 217-782-6044. Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers can be picked up at side door. Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 12:30-1 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. Free. Dave Caputo Band: 5 p.m., The Loading Dock, 401 Front St., Grafton. | Live music. Music at the Cathedral: 7 p.m., Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 524 E. Lawrence Ave., Springfield. Free | First Friday Concert Series featuring Young Musicians. Jacksonville Main Street Downtown Concert Series: 7-9 p.m., Central Park, downtown. | CJ Ryder & the Pastmasters perform. After-party at Don's Place. Refreshments on sale 6 p.m. Bring lawn chairs or blankets. Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him $10M View Photo FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depps lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couples apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million. The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious marriage. Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Its a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously, she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up, he said in a statement posted to Instagram. Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name. The jury found in Depps favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece. Throughout the proceedings, fans who were overwhelmingly on Depps side lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldnt get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside. A crowd of about 200 people cheered when Depps lawyers came out after the verdict. Johnny for president! one man yelled repeatedly. Greg McCandless, 51, a retired private detective from Reston, Virginia, stood outside the courthouse wearing a pirate hat and red head scarf, a nod to Depps famous role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I do believe that there was defamation, and I do believe that it did hurt his career, McCandless said. I think the jury heard the evidence, and the verdict was just. In evaluating Heards counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight, and called police. Sydni Porter, 30, drove an hour from her home in Maryland to show support for Heard. She said the verdict was disappointing, but not surprising, and sends a message to women that as much evidence as you have (of abuse), its never going to be enough. The jury found Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million. While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia where Depp was shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle. Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heards attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body. In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a wife beater. The judge in that case ruled in the newspapers favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse. In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heards article which focused primarily on public policy related to domestic violence defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with actual malice. And to claim damages, he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heards piece that detailed the allegations against him. The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors mannerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers. Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a classic murder-suicide. From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners, he said. Theyve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because youre potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now. Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Sparrow helped turn the Pirates of the Caribbean into a global franchise, but hes lost that role. He was also replaced in the third Fantastic Beasts spin-off film, The Secrets of Dumbledore. Despite testimony at the trial that he could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. Heards acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming Aquaman sequel due out next year. Depps lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Posts printing presses and online servers are in the county. By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer Pandora's Box By Shan Jie and Fan Wei Photo: VCG The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to a global food crisis, at a time of climate change, pollution, and other threats to the food supply. In the predictable future, food problems will be a permanent fixture in the world, while conflicts arising from "wars on crops" will also become an international issue of great concern. Since 2016, the advanced military research institute in the US proposed a defense program, known as the "Insect Allies," which it said was to confront potential food supply risks. However, the Pentagon uses insects to deliver a "genetically engineered virus" that could affect crop growth by altering which genes the plants express, media reported. After being announced, the plan has received wide criticism from scientists and experts around the world, warning that the Insect Allies might open an easily weaponized technological "Pandora's box." The intentions of the Pentagon are also in question - is it really to save humanity from starvation, or will it, on the contrary, deliberately cause a humanitarian crisis in order to serve some "military aims." Experts reached by the Global Times said the Insect Allies is turning this concern into a real potential danger. "Why do they use insects as carriers? Why does the US build bio-labs near other countries like Russia? When the Pandora's Box is opened, a series of disasters will follow," said an expert. However, this is just a tip of the iceberg as a project with a potential biological weapons threat. In addition to the Insect Allies program, the US has conducted biological experiments around the world in said notorious "bio-labs" disregarding human safety and natural ethics while blatantly violating the "Biological Weapons Convention." Harvey Weinsteins rape conviction upheld by appeals court View Photo NEW YORK (AP) A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld Harvey Weinsteins rape conviction and 23-year prison sentence, rejecting the former movie moguls claim that the judge at his landmark #MeToo trial unfairly allowed women to testify about allegations that werent part of the case. The ruling by a five-judge panel in the states intermediate appeals court affirmed one of the highest-profile verdicts to date in Americas reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures an era that began with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. Weinsteins publicist, Juda Engelmayer, said he is reviewing his options and will seek to appeal the decision to the states highest court, the Court of Appeals. We are disappointed, but not surprised, Engelmayer said. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who took office in January while Weinsteins appeal was pending, said in a statement that prosecutors were gratified by todays decision, which upholds a monumental conviction that changed the way prosecutors and courts approach complex prosecutions of sexual predators. Weinstein, 70, was convicted in New York in February 2020 of forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant, Mimi Haley, in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in 2013. He was acquitted of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actor Annabella Sciorras allegations of a mid-1990s rape. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations, and Haley has agreed to be named. Weinstein is jailed in California, where he was extradited last year and is awaiting trial on charges he assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013. Lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents Haley, Sciorra and another witness, said that she was thrilled Weinsteins conviction was upheld and that her clients many sacrifices for the cause of justice were not in vain. Justice was done, Allred said. But now I am also looking forward to the criminal prosecution of Mr. Weinstein in Los Angeles, where I also represent alleged victims for whom charges have been filed. Former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who oversaw Weinsteins prosecution, told The Associated Press he has always had confidence in the strength of the case. He said he was confident that trial judge James Burkes rulings were fair and would be sustained on appeal. I am also grateful this decision by the appellate court fully credits the powerful testimony of the brave and strong survivors of Mr. Weinsteins abuse, Vance said. Today, they are one step closer to full closure of the legal process, which they deserve. The ruling follows several setbacks for women seeking to hold celebrity men accountable for alleged wrongdoing. On Wednesday, a Virginia jury found that Amber Heards abuse allegations against Johnny Depp were defamatory. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal after a Pennsylvania court threw out Bill Cosbys sexual assault conviction. In Weinsteins case, the appeals court took an unusually long time to rule nearly six months after contentious oral arguments last December that stoked doubts about whether his conviction would stand. The court had been expected to rule in January. At the hearing, some judges were critical of Burke and prosecutors, suggesting they were open to reversing Weinsteins conviction and ordering a new trial. Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels said Burke let prosecutors pile on with incredibly prejudicial testimony from additional witnesses. But, in the 45-page ruling Thursday, the five judges were unanimous in finding that Burke had properly exercised his discretion in allowing testimony from three women who accused Weinstein of violating them but whose claims did not lead to charges in the New York case. The judges also concurred with Burkes decision to let prosecutors confront Weinstein with evidence about other, unrelated misbehavior if hed testified, including whether hed stranded a colleague in a foreign country, told people to lie to his wife, or screamed at restaurant staff while demanding a late-night meal. The judges, in their ruling, said that although the volume of material pertaining to 28 alleged acts of boorish behavior over 30 years was unquestionably large, and, at first blush, perhaps appears to be troublingly so, Burke properly weighed its relevance to the case. Weinstein didnt take the witness stand. The panel also rejected Weinsteins arguments that Burke was wrong in other ways: by keeping a juror who wrote a novel involving predatory older men, and by letting a prosecution expert testify about victim behavior and rape myths. Burke did not allow testimony on similar subjects from defense experts. Rules on calling additional witnesses to testify about prior bad acts vary by state and were an issue in Cosbys successful appeal of his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania. New Yorks rules, shaped by a decision in a 1901 poisoning case, are among the more restrictive. At the December hearing, Weinsteins lawyers argued the extra testimony went beyond whats normally allowed detailing motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan and essentially put the ex-studio boss on trial for crimes he wasnt charged with and hadnt had an opportunity to defend himself against. The jury was overwhelmed by such prejudicial, bad evidence, Weinstein lawyer Barry Kamins told the appellate panel. This was a trial of Harvey Weinsteins character. The people were making him out to be a bad person. ___ Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) A U.N. peacekeeping convoy was attacked by suspected terrorists in northern Mali on Wednesday and a Jordanian peacekeeper was killed and three other Jordanians were wounded, the United Nations said. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the supply convoy was under sustained fire for about an hour from attackers who used small arms and rocket launchers. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and sent deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers and the government and people of Jordan, Dujarric said. According to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, the attack was the fifth incident in the northern Kidal region in just one week, Dujarric said. It is a tragic reminder of the complexity of the mandate of the U.N. mission and of its peacekeepers, and the threats peacekeepers face on a daily basis, he said. The Security Council later released a statement condemning the attack and and calling on authorities in Mali to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. The staatment added that council underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels were forced from power in Malis northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began launching attacks on the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on civilians and U.N. peacekeepers. Malis military returned to Kidal, a longtime rebel stronghold in the north, in February 2020, six years after its forces retreated amid violence. U.N. peacekeepers have also been deployed in the north. The U.N. force has said over 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide. The U.N. special representative for Mali, El Ghassim Wane, issued a statement Wednesday saying the U.N. mission remains determined to support Malis people and government in their quest for peace and security, Dujarric said. In August 2020, Malian President Boubacar Ibrahim Keita, who died in January, was overthrown in a coup that included Assimi Goita, then an army colonel. Last June, Goita was sworn in as president of a transitional government after carrying out his second coup in nine months. In mid-May, Goitas government said security forces had thwarted a countercoup attempt that it said was supported by an unnamed Western government. The accusations of foreign interference come as Goitas regime becomes increasingly isolated. A day earlier, the government announced that Mali was dropping out of a five-nation regional security force known as the G5. It was also sharply critical of former colonial power France, which announced in February it was pulling its troops out of Mali. While Malis junta initially agreed to an 18-month transition back to civilian rule, it failed to organize elections by the deadline in February. Last month, the government said it would need two more years in power before it could organize a vote. Carbon emissions dip, at least briefly, in China, study says Carbon emissions dip, at least briefly, in China, study says View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) China, the worlds top emitter of carbon dioxide that causes global warming, has seen a notable dip in its emissions over the past three quarters but its not clear how long the drop will continue. A new analysis of Chinas economic data shows that carbon emissions dropped 1.4% in the first three months of the year, compared to the prior year, making it the third consecutive quarter to show a drop and the longest sustained dip in a decade. The downward trend began last year and accelerated over the winter. The decline continued but was milder this spring. Its not clear whether Chinas emissions will continue to fall this year. Over the past decade, five shorter dips were followed by rebounding emissions. Chinas recent emissions decline was driven by decreased output in cement, steel and power industries, as well as COVID lockdown measures, according to an analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta, a Finland-based climate and energy analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Steel and cement are Chinas second and third largest emitting sectors, and the demand for both sectors is largely driven by construction activity, but policy changes on real estate lending and debt have at least temporarily depressed the construction sector, Myllyvirta wrote in an analysis for Carbon Brief. Whether China meets its long-term goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 depends in large part on what happens in its power sector. And that depends upon how quickly the worlds second largest economy can move away from coal. Chinas leaders have recently doubled-down on plans to promote coal-fired power, calling for coal production capacity to increase by 300 million tons this year, or 7% over last year. Li Shuo, a senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace, told the Associated Press in April that economic concerns, including those related to Chinas zero-COVID policy, meant that Chinas leaders were prioritizing energy security over moving away from fossil fuels, at least in the short-term. This mentality of ensuring energy security has become dominant, trumping carbon neutrality, he said. China is currently the worlds largest carbon emitter, although other countries, such as the United States, have contributed a greater share of historic emissions. Chinas carbon emissions increased by 750 megatonnes over the two-year period between 2019 and 2021, driving the global rebound in carbon emissions after the first phase of pandemic, according to the nonprofit Paris-based International Energy Agency. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer Myanmar violence has displaced more than 1 million, UN says View Photo BANGKOK (AP) The United Nations humanitarian relief agency says the number of people displaced within strife-torn Myanmar has for the first time exceeded 1 million, with well over half the total losing their homes after a military takeover last year. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says in a report that an already critical situation is being exacerbated by ongoing fighting between the military government and its opponents, the increasing prices of essential commodities, and the coming of monsoon season, while funding for its relief efforts is severely inadequate. Its report covers the situation up to May 26. The military has hindered or denied independent access to areas not under its control, hampering aid efforts. Myanmars army in February last year seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread peaceful protests. When those were put down with lethal force by the army and police, nonviolent opposition turned into armed resistance, and the country slipped into what some U.N. experts characterize as a civil war. OCHA says that fighting has recently escalated. The impact on civilians is worsening daily with frequent indiscriminate attacks and incidents involving explosive hazards, including landmines and explosive remnants of war, the report says. It says that more than 694,300 people have become displaced from their homes since the army takeover, with thousands being uprooted a second or third time, and an estimated 346,000 people were displaced by fighting before last years takeover mostly in frontier regions populated by ethnic minority groups who have been struggling for greater autonomy for decades. The report also says about 40,200 people have fled to neighboring countries since the takeover and more than 12,700 civilian properties, including houses, churches, monasteries and schools are estimated to have been destroyed. As of the end of the first quarter of this year, humanitarian assistance reached 2.6 million people in Myanmar, or 41% of the 6.2 million people targeted, OCHA says. The countrys total population is over 55 million. But it warns this years Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan is only 10% funded so far, falling short by $740 million. An official of the military governments Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said Wednesday at a news conference in Myanmars capital Naypyitaw that the government distributed humanitarian aid to more than 130,000 displaced people from May 2021 through May 27 this year. The official, whose testimony was broadcast but who was not identified by name, said 1,255 houses and five religious buildings were burned or destroyed in fighting between the army and local resistance militias, and consequently received government aid for rebuilding. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said last month that the number of people worldwide forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution has crossed the milestone of 100 million for the first time on record. Thats more than 1% of the global population and comprises refugees and asylum-seekers as well as people displaced inside their own countries by conflict. Violence and conflicts in countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo had driven the total to almost 90 million by the end of last year. The war in Ukraine pushed the number past the 100 million mark. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an independent Geneva-based non-governmental organization, said 53.2 million people were displaced within their countries as a result of conflict and violence as of Dec. 31. By GRANT PECK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Anger over Russias invasion of Ukraine turned bloody in a Brooklyn karaoke bar, with one Ukrainian patron stabbing another Ukrainian man in the face and neck after wrongly insisting the man was Russian, authorities said. Prosecutors are pursuing hate crime charges because of his mistaken belief about the victims nationality. Oleg Sulyma, 31, is accused of slashing a fellow Ukrainian immigrant with two broken beer bottles after hearing him speaking Russian and demanding proof of his ethnicity, including asking him to say a hard-to-pronounce Ukrainian word. I will show you what a real Ukrainian is! Sulyma said just before attacking, according to prosecutors. Sulyma pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges including attempted murder and assault as a hate crime in connection with the April 25 attack, which took place at the Signature Restaurant and Falada Lounge in Sheepshead Bay. The neighborhood is home to many people with ties to Russia and Ukraine. Sulyma was released under supervision following his arraignment Wednesday and ordered to return to court Aug. 8. The man hes accused of stabbing, Andrii Meleshkov, required 17 stitches to repair his wounds, prosecutors said. A message seeking comment was left with Sulymas lawyer. At a previous court appearance, lawyer Arthur Gershfeld described the clash as a disputed argument between people and said Sulyma is the one who bore the brunt of it. Gershfeld alleged Meleshkov, 36, and his friends fought Sulyma, resulting in a collapsed lung and requiring multiple stitches to his lip and eye. Meleshkov told The New York Post he took Sulyma to the ground and sat on him after Sulyma stabbed him. Under New York state law, prosecutors can charge a person with a hate crime if theres evidence they were motivated to act because of what they believed or perceived to be true about a persons heritage or background, even if theyre really members of the same group and those beliefs or perceptions are incorrect. According to prosecutors, Sulyma confronted Meleshkov and two of his friends around 3:45 a.m., just before closing time, because they were speaking Russian. You look Russian, he said according to prosecutors, and demanded they prove they were actually Ukrainian. He continued insisting they were Russian, even when they said otherwise. We switched to Ukrainian in order to calm him down, but it was getting him more and more agitated and he started asking us to translate words to prove that were Ukrainian, Meleshkov told the Post. Meleshkov told the Post that Sulyma asked him and his friends to pronounce the name of a type of Ukrainian bread, Palianytsia, because Russians typically have trouble saying it correctly. According to Meleshkov, the assailant told him: If you get it wrong, Ill have my way with you. Sulyma then smashed two beer bottles against a table, said Im going to cut you, and used the jagged edges to stab Meleshkov on the left side of his neck and the right side of his face, prosecutors said. Sulyma continued to hurl insults at Meleshkov and call him Russian after police arrived, prosecutors said. Meleshkov, a truck driver, said he was born and raised in Eastern Ukraine, where many people speak Russian, and that his mother is Russian. He moved to Brooklyn in 2015. Sulyma, a construction worker, has lived in Brooklyn for more than a decade. This defendant allegedly attempted to murder an innocent Ukrainian man who he believed to be Russian in a hateful and violent rage, Brooklyn District Attorney Gonzalez said in a written statement. Brooklyns diversity makes our borough so vibrant, and hate-motivated violence will never be tolerated here, Gonzalez added. ___ Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak. Send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/. By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press Ukraine facing grinding campaign as it waits for weapons Ukraine facing grinding campaign as it waits for weapons View Photo KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the countrys east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britains Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory, he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washingtons first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine By JOHN LEICESTER and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) British regulators gave final approval Wednesday to develop a new North Sea gas field, while the Dutch government announced that it has issued permits for a joint gas exploration project with Germany. European nations are scrambling to tap new sources of natural gas that will help them wean themselves off supplies from Russia, but environmentalists have criticized the decision to invest in fossil fuels rather than renewable energy that would do less harm to the planet. Britains business and energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said UK regulators approved the Jackdaw gas field being developed by Shell. Were turbocharging renewables and nuclear, but we are also realistic about our energy needs now, Kwarteng wrote on Twitter. Lets source more of the gas we need from British waters to protect energy security. The environmental group Greenpeace responded by accusing the government of desperate and destructive action. Youre not turbocharging renewables, youre turbocharging the climate crisis, it said. Separately, the Netherlands issued permits for a new gas field off its North Sea coast on the border with Germany. The Dutch government said permission from German authorities to drill for gas in the region was still pending. A year ago, the German state of Lower Saxony decided not to issue permits, the Dutch government said. They are now making a different decision because of the war in Ukraine. German authorities couldnt immediately be reached for comment. If the joint project is approved, the first gas could be produced by the end of 2024, the Dutch government said. Russian state energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday that it was halting the flow of gas to Dutch trader GasTerra, along with several other European customers. Moscow is seeking ways to retaliate against sanctions imposed by European nations over its attack on Ukraine. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the Ukraine war risked diverting attention away from the need to combat climate change. Guterres has repeatedly called for countries to stop drilling for new gas, oil and coal projects, warning that they are environmentally harmful and economically unviable. ___ Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate California State Capitol Building View Photo Sacramento, CA Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly have agreed on the details of a proposed $300-billion new state operating budget. However, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the veto pen, has yet to endorse it. It calls for returning $10-billion to taxpayers in the former of grants, rebates and tax credits. One area where Newsom and other party leaders disagree is the response to rising gas prices. Newsom is proposing giving checks of $400 per vehicle, with a max of two vehicles. The legislative plan is to give $200 checks to taxpayers and their dependents. For example, a family of five could receive $1,000. Incomes would have to be less than $125,000 for a single person and $250,000 for couples. Republicans, meanwhile, are calling for a temporary suspension of the excise gas tax. The Associated Press reports that for business owners, lawmakers want to spend $870 million to offset their increasing unemployment insurance taxes. They also want to give small-business owners and nonprofit organizations $250 million in grants to cover the costs of a new law requiring employers to give workers up to two weeks of paid sick leave. The agreement comes as lawmakers face a mid-June deadline to pass a spending plan or risk not getting paid. Louisiana governor agrees to testify in Ronald Greene probe View Photo Gov. John Bel Edwards agreed on Wednesday to a request from Louisiana lawmakers that he and his top attorneys testify before a bipartisan committee investigating allegations of a cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene. The request came just days after The Associated Press reported that Edwards and his lawyers privately watched a long-withheld video showing Greene taking his final breaths during his fatal arrest yet did not act urgently to get the crucial footage into the hands of those with the power to charge the white Louisiana State Police troopers seen stunning, punching and dragging the man. The video, which showed critical moments and audio absent from other footage that was turned over, didnt reach prosecutors until nearly two years after Greenes May 10, 2019, death on a rural roadside near Monroe. Prosecutors and detectives have said they were not even aware the 30-minute clip existed until six months after the governor viewed it in October 2020. State Rep. Clay Schexnayder, the Republican House speaker, cited serious questions that can only be answered by the Democratic governor and his staff. This committee will do its job and see this through no matter where the evidence leads, Schexnayder said in a statement asking the governor to appear before the committee June 16. Edwards top lawyer, Matthew Block, wrote in a public letter to the committee that he, another lawyer and the governor will all appear to testify. We are confident that this testimony will demonstrate that neither the governor nor anyone on his staff had any role in any attempt to cover up the facts related to Mr. Greenes death, Block wrote to Rep. Tanner Magee, the Republican who chairs the panel. Block previously had told the AP that there was no way for the governor to have known at the time that the video he watched had not already been turned over to prosecutors, and there was no effort by the governor or his staff to withhold evidence. The legislative committee for weeks has sought to reconstruct the states response to Greenes death, interviewing a long list of law enforcement officials and even subpoenaing the handwritten journals of a former state police superintendent. Lawmakers are now pivoting to what the governor knew, when he knew it and what he did about an in-custody death that troopers initially blamed on a car crash. The legislative inquiry comes amid ongoing federal and state investigations that have not resulted in any charges. At issue is the 30-minute body-camera footage from Lt. John Clary, the highest-ranking trooper to respond to Greenes arrest. It is one of two videos of the incident, and captured events not seen on the 46-minute clip from Trooper Dakota DeMoss that shows troopers swarming Greenes car after a high-speed chase, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns, beating him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles. Clarys video is perhaps even more significant to the investigations because it is the only footage that shows the moment a handcuffed, bloody Greene moans under the weight of two troopers, twitches and then goes still. It also shows troopers ordering the heavyset, 49-year-old to remain face down on the ground with his hands and feet restrained for more than nine minutes a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing. The governors attorneys didnt mention seeing the Clary video in a meeting days later with state prosecutors, who wouldnt receive the footage until a detective discovered it almost by accident six months later. But state police say they showed the Clary video to Greenes family days after the governor viewed it. Several members of Greenes family denied they had seen the video, but one of their attorneys wrote lawmakers an email this week confirming they had, in fact, seen Clarys video, citing contemporaneous notes. __ Mustian reported from Los Angeles, Bleiberg from Dallas. By JIM MUSTIAN and JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press Sheryl Sandberg, long Facebooks No. 2 exec, steps down View Photo SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life, Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. Sandberg has led Facebook now Metas advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. As the companys second most-recognized face after CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sandberg has also become a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. As one of the most prominent female executives in the tech industry, she was also often criticized for not doing enough both for women and for others harmed by Facebooks products. Her public-speaking expertise, her seemingly effortless ability to bridge the worlds of tech, business and politics served as a sharp contrast to Zuckerberg, especially in Facebooks early years. But Zuckerberg has since been catching up, trained in part for the several congressional hearings hes been called to testify in to defend Facebooks practices. Neither Sandberg nor Zuckerberg gave any indication that Sandbergs resignation wasnt her decision. But shes also appeared somewhat sidelined in recent years, with other executives close to Zuckerberg, such as Chris Cox who returned in 2020 as chief product officer after a yearlong break from the company becoming more prominent. Sheryl Sandberg had an enormous impact on Facebook, Meta, and the broader business world. She helped Facebook build a world-class ad-buying platform and develop groundbreaking ad formats, said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at Insider Intelligence. But she added that Facebook faced huge scandals under Sandbergs watch including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle in 2018, and the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And now, Meta is facing a slowdown in user growth and ad revenue that is now testing the business foundation that the company was built on, she said. The company needs to find a new way forward, and perhaps this was the best time for Sandberg to depart. Sandberg is leaving Meta in the fall and will continue to serve on the companys board. Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post that Javier Olivan, who currently oversees key functions at Metas four main apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger will serve as Metas new COO. But it will be a different job than the one Sandberg held for the past 14 years. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous, Zuckerberg wrote. While Sandberg has long been Zuckerbergs No. 2, even sitting next to him pre-pandemic, at least in the companys Menlo Park, California, headquarters, she also had a very public-facing job, meeting with lawmakers, holding focus groups and speaking out on issues such as women in the workplace and, most recently, abortion. I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products, Zuckerberg wrote. Sandberg, who lost her husband Dave Goldberg suddenly in 2015, said she is not entirely sure what the future will bring. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women, she wrote, adding that she is also getting married this summer and that parenting their expanded family of five children will also be a part of this future. THE ADULT IN THE ROOM Sandberg, now 52, first helped Google build what quickly became the internets biggest and most lucrative advertising network. But she left that post to take on the challenge of transforming Facebooks freewheeling social network into a money-making business while also helping to mentor Zuckerberg, who was then 23 to her 38. She proved to be exactly what the then-immature Zuckerberg and the company needed at the right time, helping to pave the way to Facebooks highly anticipated initial public offering of stock a decade ago. While Zuckerberg remained Facebooks visionary and controlling shareholder, Sandberg became engine of a business fueled by a rapidly growing digital ad business that has become nearly as successful as the one that she helped cobbled together around Googles dominant search engine. Just like Googles ad empire, Facebooks business thrived on its ability to keep its users coming back for more of its free services while leveraging its social networking technology to learn more about peoples interests, habits, and whereabouts a nosy model that has repeatedly entangled the company in debates about whether a right to personal privacy still exists in an increasingly digital age. As one of the top female executives in technology, Sandberg has at times has been held up as an inspiration for working women a role she seemed to embrace with a best-selling 2013 book titled Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead. But Lean In received immediate criticism. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called Sandberg a PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots, and critics suggested she is the wrong person to lead a womens movement. She addressed some of that criticism in a subsequent book that addressed the death of her husband, Dave Goldberg. In 2015 she became a symbol of heartbreaking grief when Goldberg died in an accident while working out on vacation, widowing her with two children as she continued to help run one of the worlds best-known companies. CRACKS IN THE FACADE In more recent years, Sandberg grew into a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. Critics and a company whistleblower contend that the consequences have undermined democracy and caused severe emotional problems for teens, particularly girls. The author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, said Sandberg is as responsible as anyone for what Zuboff considers one of Big Techs most insidious invention: the collection and organization of data on social media users behavior and preferences. For years Facebook shared user data not just with advertisers but also with business partners. Sandberg did this, wrote Zuboff, through the artful manipulation of Facebooks culture of intimacy and sharing. Zuboff calls Sandberg the Typhoid Mary of surveillance capitalism, the term for profiting off the collection of data from social media users online behavior, preferences, shared data and relationships. Sheryl Sandberg may fancy herself a feminist, but her decisions at Meta made social media platforms less safe for women, people of color, and even threatened the American electoral system. Sandberg had the power to take action for fourteen years, yet consistently chose not to, said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a gender justice advocacy organization, which has been calling for Sandbergs resignation, in an emailed comment Wednesday. Sandberg has had some public missteps at the company, including her attempt to deflect blame from Facebook for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In an interview later that month that was streamed by Reuters, she said she thought the events of the day were largely organized on platforms that dont have our abilities to stop hate, dont have our standards and dont have our transparency. Internal documents revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen later that year, however, showed that Facebooks own employees were concerned about the companys halting and often reversed response to rising extremism in the U.S. that culminated in the events of Jan. 6. Havent we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence? one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. Weve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldnt be surprised its now out of control. __ AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this story. By BARBARA ORTUTAY and MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writers WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) A suburban Chicago woman who pleaded guilty in her 5-year-old sons beating death cannot challenge her conviction and 35-year sentence, a judge ruled Wednesday JoAnn Cunningham, 39, of Crystal Lake, claimed in her March petition for post-conviction relief that she suffered from postpartum depression and psychosis when she killed her son. Cunningham claimed she was seeing demons and hearing voices at the time of her son AJs death. Authorities say Cunningham killed AJ on April 15, 2019, after she became angry about soiled underwear that he had tried to hide. She forced the boy to stand in a cold shower for at least 20 minutes, hit him in the head with the shower head, then put him to bed cold, wet and naked, according to authorities. AJs body was found wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave near the familys home in Crystal Lake. McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt presided over her negotiated plea on Dec. 5, 2019, and sentencing on July 16, 2020. Andrew Freund, AJs father, also pleaded guilty in his death and is serving a 30-year prison sentence. Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling that Cunninghams arguments in her petition do not provide the gist of a meritorious claim of substantial deprivation of a federal or state constitutional right and that they are patently without merit. Cunningham argued that no witnesses were called to testify on her behalf; she was not allowed to testify herself, nor did she provide a confession; she was not read her Miranda rights; and she was illiterate as to her constitutional rights, The Northwest Herald reported. Wilbrandt wrote in his ruling, that witnesses were called on her behalf and defense attorneys presented wide-ranging evidence of her history of drug abuse and substance abuse treatment. She also provided a lengthy statement addressing her long-standing history of both prescribed and illegal drug use, the judge wrote. Wilbrandt also dismissed as without merit Cunninghams claim that her 35-year prison sentence is cruel and unusual punishment. Cunningham filed the handwritten petition from prison without the help of an attorney. Coal pile slide buries, kills 2 at Colorado power plant View Photo PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) A slide on an 80-foot-high (24-meter-high) coal pile killed two workers Thursday at a southern Colorado coal-fired electricity generating plant, authorities said after a day-long search for the victims. Rescuers found the bodies of the two men buried beneath about 60 feet (18 meters) of coal in the towering pile at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, said Erik Duran, spokesman for the Pueblo Fire Department. Witnesses said the workers were standing about 30 feet (9 meters) up a slope of the pile when the slide occurred about 8:20 a.m., Duran said. Rescuers located the bodies at about 3 p.m. and later were able to recover them, he said. Duran described the victims as a man in his 20s and another in his 30s. The names of the victims were withheld until relatives could be notified. Witnesses reported that the accident happened on a feeder pile for the stations coal-fired power plant, which is Colorados largest and is operated by Xcel Energy. Xcel spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said the workers are employed by Savage, a Salt Lake City-based firm contracted by Xcel to operate and maintain the coal yard at Comanche and at other Xcel coal plants. Xcel is working with Savage and the Pueblo County Sheriffs Office to determine the cause of the accident, said Nygard, who directed questions about the coal slide to Savage. Savage released a statement Thursday evening saying the company was devastated by the deaths and is working with local and federal officials, as well as Xcel, to investigate the cause of the accident. Duran told reporters that Savage would provide additional information and that a company representative was en route to the scene. Trump election probe grand jury hears from Raffensperger View Photo ATLANTA (AP) Georgias top elections official appeared Thursday before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election in the state. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was summoned to the Fulton County courthouse where the special grand jury has been meeting, according to a subpoena obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. Other subpoenas seek documents and testimony from five other people in his office. Raffensperger arrived at the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Thursday morning. When a reporter asked how the day would go, Raffensperger replied hopefully short as he walked up the steps. That wasnt the case, though. Raffensperger left after more than five hours by another exit, avoiding reporters. Its unclear if Raffenspergers testimony concluded Thursday or if he will be called back. Trump directed his ire at his fellow Republican after Raffensperger refused to bend to pressure to overturn the votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden a narrow presidential election victory in Georgia. Raffensperger defeated a Trump-endorsed challenger in last months Republican primary. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said her investigation includes looking into a January 2021 phone call in which Trump pushed Raffensperger to find the votes needed for him to win Georgia. Trump has said his call with Raffensperger was perfect and that he did nothing wrong. Tricia Raffensperger, the secretarys wife, also testified Thursday, leaving the courthouse after less than an hour. She was present with Raffensperger when he received the Trump phone call. Tricia Raffensperger received death threats during the period after the 2020 election. Raffensperger wrote in his 2021 book Integrity Counts that he perceived Trump as threatening him multiple times during the phone call, a question that could ultimately be critical to whether some criminal charges could be brought. Raffensperger reiterated in an interview aired Wednesday by WAGA-TV that he felt pressured. I heard what the president said. And I understand that he has tremendous positional power, Raffensperger told the television station. But I also know that we followed the law and we followed the Constitution. A Trump spokesman dismissed the Fulton investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt when it became public last February. A number of others have been subpoenaed, including five other people associated with Raffenspergers office. State Attorney General Chris Carr has received a subpoena to appear June 21. The special grand jury will not issue indictments, but is meant to further the investigation and make recommendations to the district attorney, who then decides whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury. Willis said the special grand jury would be able to issue subpoenas to people who have refused to cooperate otherwise. The jury, including 23 grand jurors and three alternates, can serve for up to a year. Willis has also said investigators are looking at a November 2020 phone call between Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina 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. 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. While the district attorneys office will be steering the investigation, grand jurors can question witnesses who appear before them. If they believe there are other witnesses they would like to hear from or documents they would like to see, they have the power to issue subpoenas. By JEFF AMY and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press EPA moves to give states, tribes more power to protect water View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration on Thursday proposed undoing a Trump-era rule that limited the power of states and Native American tribes to block energy projects like natural gas pipelines based on their potential to pollute rivers and streams. The Clean Water Act allows states and tribes to review what effect pipelines, dams and some other federally regulated projects might have on water quality within their borders. The Trump administration sought to streamline fossil fuel development and made it harder for local officials to block projects. The Biden administrations proposed rule would shift power back to states, tribes and territories. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the agencys draft regulation would empower local entities to protect water bodies while supporting much-needed infrastructure projects that create jobs. Thursdays action is the latest move by the Biden administration to tighten water regulations loosened under the Trump administration. The Trump rule required local regulators to focus their reviews on the pollution that projects might discharge into rivers, streams and wetlands. It also rigidly enforced a one-year deadline for regulators to make permitting decisions. Some states lost their authority to block certain projects based on allegations they blew the deadline. Now, the EPA says states should have the authority to look beyond pollution discharged into waterways and holistically evaluate the impact of a project on local water quality. The proposal would also give local regulators more power to ensure they have the information they need before facing deadline pressure to issue or deny a permit. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in on the EPA proposal before it is finalized. The final rule isnt expected to go into effect until the spring of 2023. For now, the Trump-era rule remains in effect. Robin Rorick, a vice president at the industry group American Petroleum Institute, said the energy industry doesnt need more red tape. The proposal may lead to unnecessary delays. We support the Clean Water Act and are concerned these actions would counteract the well-defined timeline and review process enacted by Congress, Rorick said in a statement. But environmental groups praised the Biden administrations action. Before the Trump administration got involved, the interpretation had been the more holistic approach, said Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney at Earthjustice. The environmental group represented three tribes in a lawsuit that challenged the Trump administrations rollback. Former President Donald Trump had argued that states were improperly wielding the Clean Water Act to block needed fossil fuel projects. New York, for example, has used its review authority to deny certain natural gas pipeline projects. Washington refused to issue a permit for a coal export terminal in 2017. In 2020, EPA officials said the Clean Water Act shouldnt be used to hold infrastructure projects hostage and finalized its rule that curtailed state and tribal power. Washington states Attorney General Bob Ferguson applauded EPAs move, calling it a major improvement over the Trump administrations rule. The Trump rule was challenged in federal court by a coalition of environmental groups and several states including New York and Washington. Oil and gas industry trade associations and several predominantly Republican-led states defended it. The rule was tossed by a federal judge, but in April a divided Supreme Court reinstated it. The Supreme Courts three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, saying supporters of the rule hadnt shown that they would be sufficiently harmed by the lower courts ruling. Certain energy projects like natural gas pipelines that cross state lines must be reviewed by federal agencies. The Clean Water Act says if a project discharges material into federally regulated waters, states, territories and tribes have the right to review whether those discharges are lawful. ___ Phillis reported from St. Louis. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment By MICHAEL PHILLIS and SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) A groundbreaking ceremony was held Wednesday for a museum that will permanently exhibit the retired NASA space shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles. Endeavour will be displayed vertically as if ready for launch, complete with a massive external tank and solid rocket boosters on each side. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other local leaders attended the ceremony at the California Science Center in Exposition Park. The event coincided with the 11th anniversary of Endeavours final return from space. The shuttle will be housed in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a 200,000-square-foot (18,580-square-meter) addition that will rise 20 stories high and contain 150 educational exhibits in multi-level galleries. About halfway through construction, Endeavour will be positioned in the new museum and the building will be completed around the full shuttle stack. Endeavour was built as a replacement for the destroyed shuttle Challenger and flew 25 missions between 1992 and 2011. When NASAs shuttles were retired, Endeavour was flown to California atop NASAs special Boeing 747 shuttle carrier in 2012, drawing crowds as it flew over the state. After landing at Los Angeles International Airport, the shuttle was placed on a special trailer that was carefully towed through tight streets to the California Science Center over several days. 2 plead not guilty to filing 433 tax returns in fraud scheme SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) Two Southern California tax preparers each pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges they filed 433 phony tax returns using stolen identities as part of a $1 million fraud scheme, prosecutors said. Anton Nguyen, 53, of Fountain Valley, and Rosemary Pham, 64, of Midway City, were arraigned on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in a statement. Trial was scheduled for July 26. The two are accused of using stolen identities provided by John Tran, a Fountain Valley social worker, to generate fraudulent tax returns, the statement said. In addition, Nguyen and Pham allegedly used stolen identities to receive fraudulent welfare benefits, prosecutors said. Tran, who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2019, will be sentenced July 25. RIALTO, Calif. (AP) One person was shot and another wounded when a gun battle broke out in a Southern California park where elementary school children were playing during a field trip on Wednesday, authorities said. Neither victims were students. The shooting on the basketball courts of Rialtos Alec Fergusson Park was during the field trip for about 100 Fitzgerald Elementary School first- and second-graders, officials said. The violence did not involve any students and was not connected to any of the districts schools, the Rialto Unified School District said on Twitter. Two groups of people were playing basketball around 1 p.m. when an altercation broke out, according to Lady Regla, a Rialto police spokesperson. Rialto police Capt. Anthony Vega told reporters the dispute turned into a gun battle between them where multiple shots were fired at the park. There was an exchange of gunfire, he said. At least one shooter remains at large in connection to what police believe was an isolated incident. The victims who were described as two males were found on the basketball courts, Regla said. The city of Rialto is about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles. More than two hours later, a boy was shot outside a high school during dismissal in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said. Authorities believe the shooting is gang-related. It was not immediately clear whether the victim only described as a juvenile male who was in stable condition was a student at Grant High School in the San Fernando Valley. The school went into lockdown, according to the Los Angeles School Police Department. Police were called to the area around 3:30 p.m. following a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, according to Officer Matthew Cruz, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department. No one has been taken into custody. PARIS (AP) Members of the French diplomatic corps dropped their traditional reserve on Thursday to go on a rare strike, angered by a planned reform they worry will hurt their careers and Frances standing in the world. It was the second such strike in nearly 20 years. About 100 diplomats dropped the veil of invisibility that often defines their work to demonstrate in full view of the imposing Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the home base for the foreign service. In overseas posts, ranging from Tokyo to the Middle East and Washington, numerous diplomats, including some ambassadors, honored the day-long strike. They want President Emmanuel Macron to scrap a plan to merge career diplomats with a larger body of civil servants, starting in January, or at least hold a dialogue. The plan, announced by Macron in an April decree, will reportedly affect about 800 diplomats. Opponents claim thats just the beginning. We risk the disappearance of our professional diplomacy, a group of 500 diplomats, wrote in a commentary published last week in Le Monde newspaper. Today, (diplomatic) agents ... are convinced it is the very existence of the ministry that is now being put into question. The planned change comes amid the war in Ukraine and complex negotiations over Irans nuclear program, and while France holds the European Unions rotating presidency. Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, herself a career diplomat, has not commented. However, she will meet Tuesday with unions and representatives of the protest movement for an initial listening session, the ministry said. Demonstrators held a large banner reading Professional Diplomats on Strike during the protest across from the ministry, known as the Quai d'Orsay for its location by the River Seine. To say that diplomacy is in danger, that word may be too strong, said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a former ambassador to China, Japan and Britain, who was taking part in the public protest near the ministry. But, he added, diplomacy will be weakened, at a time when those skills are especially needed. "To become an ambassador, before getting to the top of the ladder, it is necessary to actually tick some boxes," said another demonstrating diplomat, identifying himself only as Benjamin. "And this reform supports the idea that there is no need for such skills." Like others not yet at the top rung, he declined to give his full name. The government reform is meant to modernize and diversify France's diplomatic corps, created in the 16th century, and to bring down the walls of what some in the government see as an elite institution turned in on itself. It will put diplomats into a large pool from all branches of public service, encouraging switches to other ministries and forcing personnel to compete with outsiders for prized diplomatic posts. Diplomats contend their job requires specialization and expertise acquired over years in posts around the world and has no room for amateurs. Today, I am on strike, Deputy Ambassador to the United States Aurelie Bonal tweeted. "Diplomats negotiate, talk, compromise. They generally do not go on strike." Bonal raised yet another worry that protesting diplomats contend the change could generate: cronyism. Without a diplomatic corps, it will be much easier for the (government) to appoint friends at all levels of diplomatic jobs, she tweeted. Dominique de Villepin, a former prime minister and foreign minister known for an eloquent 2003 speech at the United Nations in which he declared French opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, labeled the pending reform in a tweet last month A historic fault. For France, the loss of diplomats separate status in the civil service means a loss of independence, a loss of competence, a loss of memory that will weigh heavily on the years ahead, Villepin tweeted. Even before Macrons decree, frustration had festered in the Foreign Ministrys halls over cuts in funding, personnel and outsourcing. The group commentary in Le Monde deplored decades of marginalization of the ministrys role within the (French) state as well as a vertiginous reduction in personnel down by 30% in 10 years, the diplomats claim. Funding, they said, is but 0.7% of the state budget. The Twitter hashtag, #diplo2metier, shows a number of ambassadors around the world joining in or supporting Thursday's strike. I will be on strike ... to protest the reform of the diplomatic corps and the continued reduction of means for our diplomacy, French Ambassador to Kuwait Claire Le Flecher tweeted on her personal account. Bonal, the deputy ambassador to the United States, said the job of diplomat is more than gorging on Ferreros in touristic countries. The truth is we also visit morgues & jails; we work very late hours, not always in safe countries," she tweeted. Its a vocation, not a 3-year experience. Bonal said she was among those who went on the first such strike in 2003, a protest over budget cuts. ___ Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed. ALBANY, Ga. (AP) A southwest Georgia jury has convicted two men in a 2018 shooting that left a woman paralyzed. WALB-TV reports Dougherty County jurors on Wednesday convicted Darrell Eiland of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, conspiracy to commit murder and possessing a gun while committing a crime. Jurors convicted Ernest Hudson of conspiracy to convict murder. Testimony at trial showed that Eiland shot Andrea Willis at a convenience store after Eiland and others concluded that Willis had robbed Hudson or arranged to have him robbed at a nightclub. Prosecutors said Hudson knew about and approved of the plan to kill Willis, a cousin. Hudson said he was robbed after he and Willis got into a fight at the nightclub. Hudson's son, Dontavious Hudson, testified against his father and Eiland, as did Jarrod Brown. Dontavious Hudson and Brown both pleaded guilty earlier, with prosecutors recommending reduced sentences. Ernest Hudson's lawyer denied that his client participated in a conspiracy before the shooting, suggesting that he may have been guilty of not reporting the shooting to police to protect his son. Eiland's lawyer suggested that the two men who had taken plea bargains were unfairly trying to pin the shooting on Eiland. Brown and Willis identified Eiland during the trial as the man who shot Willis. LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) Federal officials and a company that runs a central Virginia research dog-breeding facility are working toward a potential settlement in a civil case accusing the company of animal welfare violations, according to court documents filed Wednesday. The government and Envigo RMS filed a joint motion asking a judge to extend by two weeks the terms of a temporary restraining order issued against the company in late May. The restraining order had been set to expire June 4, but both parties are asking for more time to work out the details of their settlement, the motion said. The physical edition of TaipeiPLAS, a biennal international exhibition for plastics and rubber technology, is scheduled to return from September 27 to October 1 this year, while a month-long online exhibition will continue till October 27, according to Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the organizer of the event. The event will be held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 (TaiNEX 1) in Taipei in conjunction with ShoeTech Taipei. This years TaipeiPLAS focuses on three major themes: Smart Machinery, Next-gen Materials and Circular Economy - Net Zero Carbon Emissions. Starting from June, TAITRA, launches monthly theme-based campaigns to unveil the highlights of the coming TaipeiPLAS with social media news, exhibitor and production introductions, e-newsletters and videos. The pre-show monthly campaigns for the show kick off with the first theme: Smart Manufacturing in June. The plastics and rubber manufacturing has become greatly different from what it was, said TAITRA. In the past, the manufacturing processes of plastics and rubber such as the parameters setting, the material selection, and the processing of complex components relied on the operation and judgment of experienced labour. The smart manufacturing technologies today have turned the production line to be fully automated, more efficient, meanwhile, led the industry to create new business models, TAITRA said. Key industry players from home and abroad such as Ann Tong, Arburg, BASF, Diing Kuen, Engel, FKI, FSC, Multiplas, Wittmann Battenfeld, Yei are all gearing up to make a splash at TaipeiPLAS 2022 by presenting their smart machines and smart manufacturing solutions, it said. FCS and FKI for example, the two leading plastic injection moulding machine manufacturers in Taiwan have integrated Manufacturing Execution System (MES) into every section of their machine production and assembly lines. Multiple benefits are achieved, including more accurate production control, improved quality management and production cost reduction.Taiwan plastic and rubber machinery manufacturers are transforming to become smarter, and at the same time, providing a full line of services in building smart production lines overseas, TAITRA added. Besides onsite and online exhibition, TaipeiPLAS 2022 will come with a lineup of seminars, forums and featured events, on-site guide for online visitors, PLASpotlight Live, themed guided tours, and procurement meetings, all together to explore the innovative trends in plastic and rubber industry and also to create a refreshing exhibition experience. The online visitor registration for TaipeiPLAS and ShoeTech Taipei 2022 is available on the official websites: www.taipeiplas.com.tw / www.shoetech.com.tw.--TradeArabia News Service UVALDE, Texas (AP) The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and it's unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a system failure that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary Schoo l on May 24. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this, Gutierrez said. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Seventeen more were injured. Funerals for those slain began this week. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses. Many districts, including Uvaldes, have dedicated police forces and Texas created the state School Marshall Program in 2013 to train teachers and school staff how to react in the case of a shooter, even carrying guns and firing back. In 2019, Texas lifted a cap on the number of school marshals per campus. The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline. Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. Much of the focus turned to Arredondo in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the chief believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom as 911 calls were being made to the outside. Gutierrez said it's unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls, Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press since the attack. A telephone message left at the school police headquarters on Thursday was not returned. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez and a department spokesman have not replied to AP phone messages and emails seeking comment Thursday. Since Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety has referred all questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She did not immediately respond to voicemail and text messages on Thursday. There have been communication breakdowns during other mass shootings in Texas, and experts say smaller, regional dispatch centers are often inundated with calls during a major emergency. Police communications were a problem in 2019 when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen during a rampage in Odessa, Texas. Authorities said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator called 911 before and after the shootings but a failure in communication between agencies they were not all operating on the same radio channel slowed the response. Ator was able to cover some 10 miles before officers shot and killed him. Fritz Reber, a 27-year veteran and former captain with the Chula Vista Police Department who has studied 911 dispatch systems, said a 911 center typically relays information from callers in writing to a dispatcher, who passes it along to officers in the field over the radio. The process can be slow. If you listen to all the 911 calls contemporaneous to all the radio traffic, it will be shocking when someone calls 911 how long it takes for that same information to come out over the radio and how different it is than listening to the call, Reber said. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. Theres a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends, said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. And this can go on for quite some time, he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been some progress in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which "really can save the lives of our people and defend our land. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much, she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said most of them targeted civil infrastructure. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive, he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... East central Lea County in southeastern New Mexico... Northwestern Andrews County in western Texas... Southwestern Gaines County in western Texas... * Until 600 PM CDT/500 PM MDT/. * At 502 PM CDT/402 PM MDT/, a severe thunderstorm was located 16 miles west of Monument, or 24 miles west of Hobbs, moving east at 35 mph. HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Eunice, Monument, Nadine, Eunice Airport, Oil Center and Lea County Regional Airport. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM CDT FOR CENTRAL ANDREWS COUNTY... At 504 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 15 miles west of Andrews, moving east at 20 mph. HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Andrews, Andrews County Airport and Frankel City. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Buc-ee's owner and former Texas A&M Aggie Arch "Beaver" Aplin III is donating $50 million to the school for a new academic center that will serve as an immersive learning laboratory for students, according to a news release. "When Beaver Aplin does something, its never halfway!" said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp in the release. "The love he has and shows for Texas A&M and Aggies is inspirational and appreciated. This is an awesome gift and will position Texas A&M to become the top hospitality program in the nation." The Aplin Center will offer students a transformational experience through new university programs in hospitality, retail studies, and food product development involving innovative degree programs that include viticulture, fermentation processes, coffee, and food science. The building will also house product development labs and food tasting centers, which can be utilized in partnerships with related industries, the release says. The center will include an outdoor and indoor student recreational space, as well as retail and food service areas managed by students and faculty through programs. The Aplin Center will host corporate training and recruiting programs and professional development opportunities. "We want to create a learning, gathering space on the A&M campus that exemplifies hospitality," Aplin said in the release. "A place where people come together. A place where the Aggie culture can thrive. A happy place." The $50 million contribution for the center is one of the largest gifts Texas A&M has ever received from a donor. The center will be built across from the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center at the intersection of Wellborn Road and the pedestrian tunnel that functions as the main foot and vehicle traffic corridor on campus, just in the shadow of Kyle Field. "Arch Beaver Aplin is a true visionary and one of the most creative entrepreneurs I have known," said Texas A&M President Dr. M. Katherine Banks. "He remains connected to his university, speaking to many students who share his passion for business and product development. Through this generous gift, he is creating a living, learning laboratory that will provide transformational opportunities for our students. The Aplin Center will positively impact Aggies for generations to come." Aplin graduated from Texas A&M in 1980 with a construction science degree and opened the first Buc-ee's in Lake Jackson in 1982. WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) _ NCino, Inc. (NCNO) on Wednesday reported a loss of $30.7 million in its fiscal first quarter. On a per-share basis, the Wilmington, North Carolina-based company said it had a loss of 28 cents. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and amortization costs, came to 6 cents per share. Amid a stressful and heavy time, the immersive Van Gogh exhibition brought me solace as I explored the enchanting paintings blown up and animated on massive walls at the Lighthouse ArtSpace in San Antonio. It took a while, but the popular and highly-anticipated exhibition has finally opened in the Alamo City. Organizers delayed the dates twice before locking in its May 26 opening, which was two days after the devastating Uvalde mass shooting I have been covering around the clock. I took some time out of my week on Tuesday, May 31, to have a much-needed escape into the world of the incomparable Vincent Van Gogh. Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com Van Gogh was a post-impressionist painter whose work was notable for its beauty, emotion, and color. He worked with a sense of urgency, which often caused him a great deal of stress. In the 70 days leading up to his death, he averaged one painting per day. As I walked into the exhibit, an oversized self-portrait of Van Gogh welcomed me. It's a recreation of the last self-portrait Van Gogh painted, according to Nick Harkin, the spokesperson for the exhibit. If you look closely, Harkin says you'll see heavy texture to it, which is a style of Van Gogh's where he applied the paint very thickly on the canvas using a knife instead of a brush. Pro tip: Don't touch the portrait. "We wanted to give people as they enter an opportunity to really look into his eyes, and sort of come face to face with him," Harkin says. "It's quite beautiful." Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com Before seeing the projections, I recommend learning about Van Gogh's troubled life in the lobby to understand how his emotions are portrayed in his paintings. You'll read about the famous story of how he cut off his left ear with a razor, his unsuccessful relationships, and how he ultimately killed himself. Once you're done, you'll push through the black curtains and enter a large space with two rooms dedicated to the immersive experience. You can either sit on the available white benches and chairs, or sit on the cold cement floor. If needed, you can ask for a chair or ear plug (as it gets quite loud). The 35-minute projection film plays on a continuous loop, but you can stay as long as you like. I walked around, leaned on the wall, and sat on the floor as I experienced some of Van Gogh's most famous art up close. The installation includes the "The Potato Eaters" (1885), "Starry Night" (1889), "Sunflowers" (1888), and "The Bedroom" (1889), and so much more. My favorites were the Sunflowers and Starry Nights because they reminded me of family and tranquility. You can use your phone to take pictures, but without flash. Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com While seeing the hundred of images of Van Gogh's work, a dramatic and dark, but beautiful and peaceful, soundtrack plays along. The musical score features both contemporary and classical music. Italian composer Luca Longobardi created the musical concept for the exhibition. Longobardi said the soundtrack accompanying Van Gogh's work develops by following two main narrative concepts: The human and emotional condition of the artist, and his way of expressing his sensitivity through creative action. As Longobardi imagined when creating the soundtrack, the music doesn't overpower the images but allows a diverse approach to them that is more personal and intimate. It left me feeling emotional for Van Gogh, but at peace and away from my own life troubles. "The music was fabulous," said Mario and Minne Trejo after seeing the film. "It was really good. We really did enjoy it a lot. This was stunning." Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com I echo the words of the Trejos. I absolutely loved the exhibition. It's one of those things you see everywhere on social media and the internet, but it's a trend to hop on because it's worth it. In 2020, the exhibition first opened in Toronto, Canada in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. It began as a drive-in experience where 12 vehicles would pull up at a time into a gigantic space, Harkin says. The creator of the Immersive Van Gogh exhibition is Italian installation artist Massimiliano Siccardi, whose work was featured on Netflix's Emily in Paris and seen in person by over 2 million visitors in Paris. The creative director for the exhibition is designer David Korins, who was the set designer for the Broadway musical Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. Priscilla Aguirre, MySA.com During the pandemic, people sat in circles on the floor six feet apart from each other. Now, people can wander, sit, and sleep (yes, I saw someone asleep) during their experience. Lighthouse Immersive has opened 16 Lighthouse ArtSpaces across North America. The Lone Star State already has two Lighthouse ArtSpace venues in Dallas and Houston, where more than 200,000 visitors have experienced Immersive Van Gogh. It will be in San Antonio until Sept. 5, 2022. Tickets range from $39.99 to $54.99, which you can purchase here. Currently Reading Alert: State senator: 911 calls from inside Texas school during shooting were not communicated to on-scene commander (CORRECTS: A previous APNewsAlert erroneously moved with a typographical error, shooter instead of shooting.) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) President Joe Biden grieved with the shattered community of Uvalde on Sunday, mourning privately for three hours with anguished families of the 19 schoolchildren and two teachers killed by a gunman. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, Biden pledged: We will. At Robb Elementary School, Biden visited a memorial of 21 white crosses one for each of those killed and first lady Jill Biden added a bouquet of white flowers to those already placed in front of the school sign. The couple then viewed individual altars erected in memory of each student, the first lady touching the children's photos as they moved along the row. After visiting the memorial, Biden attended Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where several victims families are members, and one of the families was in attendance. Speaking directly to the children in the congregation, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller tried to assuage the fears of the youngsters, some appearing about the same age as the victims. You have seen the news, you have witnessed the tears of your parents, friends, he said, encouraging them not to be afraid of life. You are the best reminders to us that the lives of the little ones are important." As Biden departed church to meet privately with family members, a crowd of about 100 people began chanting do something. Biden answered, We will, as he got into his car. It was his only public comment during roughly seven hours in Uvalde. Biden later tweeted that he grieves, prays and stands with the people of Uvalde. And we are committed to turning this pain into action, he said. The visit to Uvalde was Bidens second trip in as many weeks to console a community in loss after a mass shooting. He traveled to Buffalo, New York, on May 17 to meet with victims families and condemn white supremacy after a shooter espousing the racist replacement theory killed 10 Black people at a supermarket. Both shootings and their aftermath put a fresh spotlight on the nations entrenched divisions and its inability to forge consensus on actions to reduce gun violence. Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died, Biden said Saturday in a commencement address at the University of Delaware. We have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer. Biden also met with first responders before the trip back to his home in Delaware. It was not clear if the group included officers who were involved in the immediate response to the shooting. Biden visited amid mounting scrutiny of the police response. Officials revealed Friday that students and teachers repeatedly begged 911 operators for help as a police commander told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. Officials said the commander believed the suspect was barricaded inside an adjoining classroom and that there was no longer an active attack. The revelation caused more grief and raised new questions about whether lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, who was ultimately killed by Border Patrol tactical officers. The Justice Department announced Sunday that it will review the law enforcement response and make its findings public. Its easy to point fingers right now, said Ronnie Garza, a Uvalde County commissioner, on CBS Face the Nation, before adding, Our community needs to focus on healing right now. Mckinzie Hinojosa, whose cousin Eliahna Torres was killed Tuesday, said she respected Bidens decision to mourn with the people of Uvalde. Its more than mourning, she said. We want change. We want action. It continues to be something that happens over and over and over. A mass shooting happens. Its on the news. People cry. Then its gone. Nobody cares. And then it happens again. And again. If theres anything if I could tell Joe Biden, as it is, just to respect our community while hes here, and Im sure he will, she added. But we need change. We need to do something about it. Authorities have said the shooter legally purchased two guns not long before the school attack: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. He had just turned 18, permitting him to buy the weapons under federal law. Hours after the shooting, Biden delivered an impassioned plea for additional gun control legislation, asking: When in Gods name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Over the years, Biden has been intimately involved in the gun control movements most notable successes, such as the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and its most troubling disappointments, including the failure to pass new legislation after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. As president, Biden has tried to address gun violence through executive orders. He faces few new options now, but executive action might be the best the president can do, given Washington's sharp divisions on gun control legislation. In Congress, a bipartisan group of senators talked over the weekend to see if they could reach even a modest compromise on gun safety legislation after a decade of mostly failed efforts. Encouraging state red flag laws to keep guns away from those with mental health issues, and addressing school security and mental health resources were on the table, said Sen. Chris Murphy, who is leading the effort. While there is nowhere near enough support from Republicans in Congress for broader gun safety proposals popular with the public, including a new assault weapons ban or universal background checks on gun purchases, Murphy, D-Conn., told ABC's This Week that these other ideas are not insignificant. The group will meet again this coming week under a 10-day deadline to strike a deal. There are more Republicans interested in talking about finding a path forward this time than I have ever seen since Sandy Hook, said Murphy who represented the Newtown area as a congressman at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. And while, in the end, I may end up being heartbroken, I am at the table in a more significant way right now with Republicans and Democrats than ever before. ___ AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington and AP video journalist Robert Bumsted in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting ___ This story was first published on May 30, 2022. It was updated on June 2, 2022 to correct the spelling of one of the first name of one of the shooting victims. She is Eliahna Torres, not Eliahana Torres. A UAE delegation to the Netherlands will study how the Dutch eco-system and advanced high-tech solutions contribute to food safety and food security. Led by Sheikha Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAEs Minister of Climate Change and the Environment the UAE delegation consisting of dignitaries, investors and horticultural entrepreneurs will be visiting the Dutch food and flower industry from June 12 to 17. The UAE has a clear ambition to become more self-sufficient and to produce fresh food locally in an efficient and sustainable way. In recent years, the UAE - the government as well as the business community - has shown great interest in Dutch advanced and high-tech solutions to enable the safe and secure production of food. Relationships The Dutch horticulture cluster has visited the UAE with outgoing missions and an extensive network of relationships has been established with governments, investors, and horticulture entrepreneurs. The mission in June will be organised by the UAE embassy and horticulture council in close cooperation with a variety of Dutch sector parties. The central themes of the mission are food production, horticultural education, start-ups and scale-ups, investments and finance, and the role of governments. Besides visiting GreenTech in the RAI Amsterdam, known as the worldwide meeting place for all professionals involved in horticultural technology, they will also visit the world horticultural exhibition Floriade Expo 2022 in Almere. The remaining days will be filled with meetings with horticultural (technology) companies, government agencies, and agricultural training institutes. There will also be plenty of networking and matchmaking opportunities. In-house knowledge The Dutch horticultural cluster already organised the successful Horticultural Days at Expo 2020 Dubai (UAE) in February this year, where the Netherlands showed that it has all the necessary in-house knowledge and solutions to shape food production in an efficient, sustainable and safe manner thanks to the 'Uniting Water Energy Food' theme. Many leading entrepreneurs from the UAE participated in the Horticultural Days. Sky Kurtz, CEO of the innovative company Pure Harvest Smart Farms said there: What I find remarkable about the Netherlands, and what is unique in the world apart from perhaps Silicon Valley, is that horticulture in the Netherlands has every element of the eco-system; investors, governments, technology companies, service providers and retailers; from development to sales. They work closely together and have an enormous knowledge and understanding of the value that each represents. Innovative Dutch technology The Netherlands has a leading global position in the field of horticulture (technology) and the development of horticultural projects abroad. Dutch horticulture has the knowledge, expertise, and technology to support countries and cities around the world to become more self-sufficient in food production and allow them to produce food efficiently all year round. Even in the most challenging climate conditions, such as in the UAE, where high temperatures and limited arable land and natural water resources make producing food particularly challenging. A good example of how Dutch innovative solutions are applied in the UAE is Armela Farms; the largest producer of water-grown lettuce in the UAE. A specific concept has been developed for them, in which both the air and the supplied CO2 are almost one hundred per cent recirculated. This enables them to grow leafy vegetables in a high-quality and sustainable manner. Another notable example is the new state-of-the-art indoor farm Madar Farms in the Abu Dhabi port area, where 5,000 sq m of tomatoes and micro cresses are being cultivated. This indoor farm uses Dutch technology and is completely pesticide-free. All the water is recirculated, the CO2 is dosed very efficiently and the whole production runs on electricity. Special programme in the Vision Theatre GreenTech organises an interactive and international programme at the Vision Theatre on the Opening day, specifically focused on the climate challenges and developments in the UAE. Minister Almheiri will kick off the event and companies will be discussing challenges and solutions. The focus will be on how the application of sustainable and innovative technologies offers solutions for the water-food nexus: The water supply for agriculture is a growing problem in the Gulf region. The UAE is working hard to solve this challenge, as the availability of water has a major impact on the availability of sufficient, safe, and affordable food for the growing population. The close cooperation between the governments, businesses, and knowledge institutes of the UAE and the Netherlands has led to an approach that focuses on building food-tech valleys, says Mariska Dreshler, CEO of GreenTech. Organising parties The incoming mission is being organised by AVAG, Dutch Greenhouse Delta, GreenTech, HortiHeroes, Innovation Quarter, the Council of Agriculture in the UAE, the Dutch Embassy in the UAE, Rotterdam Partners, Topsector Tuinbouw en Uitgangsmaterialen, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and World Horti Centre.-- TradeArabia News Service WASHINGTON (AP) Kathleen Buhle, the ex-wife of President Joe Biden's son Hunter, says she has total control over my life now," five years after her divorce, as she opens up about her marriage in a new memoir. Buhle describes her ex-husband's drug addiction, her response to his infidelity including an affair with her widowed sister-in-law and her challenges integrating into the Biden family. Excerpts of If We Break were published Wednesday by People magazine. In the book, Buhle describes the pain she felt watching Hunter spiral into addiction, even as he denied it, and how it became my own addiction" to document it. She writes that the couple separated not long after Beau Biden's 2015 death from brain cancer, when Buhle found a crack pipe in their ashtray. Buhle said she found out about Hunter Biden's affair with Hallie Biden, Beau's widow, in Nov. 2016, after her daughters asked the family's therapist to tell her. I was shocked, but not heartbroken. Heartbreak has already flatted my self-esteem that past year, she writes. She says her daughters discovered the relationship when searching through texts on Hunter's phone. Buhle told People that she and Hunter come together in our shared love for our daughters, as they prepare for their eldest daughter Naomi's wedding at the White House this November. While Hunter's finances are under investigation by the Justice Department, Buhle told People that I couldn't be of any help," adding, I kept my head so deeply buried in the sand on our finances." After Biden became President Barack Obama's vice president in 2008, Buhle writes experiencing one frequent reminder I wasn't a true Biden, when a Secret Service agent informed the family that her then-husband and daughters would receive round-the-clock protection, but not her. Buhle, in 2019, legally reclaimed her maiden name, which she said once felt like a crown and shield to me. I was no longer a Biden, she writes. "I'd handed in my crown and shield because I no longer needed them. Maybe I never had. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has decided to travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks and is expected to meet with the kingdoms crown prince, whom he once shunned for his brutality. It's a visit that is coming together as OPEC+ announced Thursday it will pump more oil amid skyrocketing energy costs around the globe. Biden's first trip to the Saudi kingdom as president is likely to occur later this month but details have not been finalized, a person familiar with the planning told The Associated Press. The White House on Thursday praised Saudi Arabia for its role securing an OPEC+ pledge to pump more oil and the president himself lauded the Saudis for agreeing to a cease-fire extension in its eight-year old war with Yemen that was also announced Thursday. "Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the U.N.-led truce, Biden said in a statement after the 60-day extension of the cease fire was announced. Those warm words mark a sharp contrast with some of Biden's earlier rhetoric about the oil-rich kingdom. As a candidate, he pledged to treat the Saudis as a pariah for the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's brutal ways. U.S. intelligence officials determined that the Saudi crown prince likely approved the killing of the journalist. Biden administration officials have been working behind the scenes to repair relations, discussing shared strategic interests in security and oil with their Saudi counterparts. The effort has played out as the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the world's No. 2 crude exporter after Saudi Arabia, and a Saudi-Russian brokered cap on oil production have raised crude prices and sent prices Americans pay at the pump to record highs. Biden and Democrats face rising voter anger over the high prices, making the tight oil supply a top political liability. Appeals from the U.S. and its allies for the OPEC+ group OPEC nations plus Russia to boost production more appeared to bear results Thursday. OPEC nations announced they would raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for a struggling global economy. The increase did not appear to ease concerns about tight supply. Oil prices rose after OPEC+ announced the increase. In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged what she said was Saudi Arabia's role in achieving consensus" within the oil producers' bloc. She thanked the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq as well. Jean-Pierre also directly cited the leadership of King Salman and the Crown Prince in Thursday's announcement of an extended U.N. cease-fire in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces have led an unsuccessful war to rout that country's Houthi rebels. The White House is weighing a Biden visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to the person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized trip. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed during the visit, according to the person. Such a meeting could ease a tense and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the killing of Khashoggi. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden would also likely visit Israel. Israeli officials in their engagement with the Biden administration have pressed their point of view that U.S. relations with Arab capitals, including Riyadh, are critical to Israels security and overall stability in the region. The visit could also provide an opportunity to kick off talks for what the administration sees as a longer-term project of normalizing Israel-Saudi relations. And while the Biden administration continues to be concerned about Saudi Arabia's human rights record, the president's advisers credit Saudis for showing greater restraint in its conflict with Yemen since Biden took office. White House officials expect criticism from Democratic allies and human rights advocates charging Biden is backtracking on human rights, but suggest that in the long term a credible Middle East strategy without key leaders in the kingdom is not tenable. Biden, through the early going of his presidency, has repeatedly said the world is at a key moment in history where democracies must demonstrate they can out-deliver autocracies. The administration doesn't want to see countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia with troubling human rights records fall into the camp of Moscow and Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a Washington audience Wednesday that Biden's intent coming into office was to recalibrate the relationship with Saudi Arabia and to make sure that that relationship was serving our own interests as well as our values as we move forward but also preserving it. And thats largely what weve done, Blinken said. U.S. officials were recently in the region for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, and the war in Yemen. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight oil supply helps Russia fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as the United States tries to focus on China. Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israels U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, now a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life, Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. Sandberg has led Facebook now Metas advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. As the company's second most-recognized face after CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sandberg has also become a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. As one of the most prominent female executives in the tech industry, she was also often criticized for not doing enough both for women and for others harmed by Facebook's products. Her public-speaking expertise, her seemingly effortless ability to bridge the worlds of tech, business and politics served as a sharp contrast to Zuckerberg, especially in Facebook's early years. But Zuckerberg has since been catching up, trained in part for the several congressional hearings he's been called to testify in to defend Facebook's practices. Neither Sandberg nor Zuckerberg gave any indication that Sandberg's resignation wasn't her decision. But she's also appeared somewhat sidelined in recent years, with other executives close to Zuckerberg, such as Chris Cox who returned in 2020 as chief product officer after a yearlong break from the company becoming more prominent. Sheryl Sandberg had an enormous impact on Facebook, Meta, and the broader business world. She helped Facebook build a world-class ad-buying platform and develop groundbreaking ad formats," said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at Insider Intelligence. But she added that Facebook faced huge scandals under Sandberg's watch including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle in 2018, and the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And now, Meta is facing a slowdown in user growth and ad revenue that is now testing the business foundation that the company was built on, she said. "The company needs to find a new way forward, and perhaps this was the best time for Sandberg to depart. Sandberg is leaving Meta in the fall and will continue to serve on the companys board. Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post that Javier Olivan, who currently oversees key functions at Meta's four main apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger will serve as Metas new COO. But it will be a different job than the one Sandberg held for the past 14 years. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous, Zuckerberg wrote. While Sandberg has long been Zuckerbergs No. 2, even sitting next to him pre-pandemic, at least in the companys Menlo Park, California, headquarters, she also had a very public-facing job, meeting with lawmakers, holding focus groups and speaking out on issues such as women in the workplace and, most recently, abortion. I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products, Zuckerberg wrote. Sandberg, who lost her husband Dave Goldberg suddenly in 2015, said she is not entirely sure what the future will bring. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women, she wrote, adding that she is also getting married this summer and that parenting their expanded family of five children will also be a part of this future. THE ADULT IN THE ROOM Sandberg, now 52, first helped Google build what quickly became the internets biggest -- and most lucrative -- advertising network. But she left that post to take on the challenge of transforming Facebooks freewheeling social network into a money-making business while also helping to mentor Zuckerberg, who was then 23 to her 38. She proved to be exactly what the then-immature Zuckerberg and the company needed at the right time, helping to pave the way to Facebooks highly anticipated initial public offering of stock a decade ago. While Zuckerberg remained Facebooks visionary and controlling shareholder, Sandberg became engine of a business fueled by a rapidly growing digital ad business that has become nearly as successful as the one that she helped cobbled together around Googles dominant search engine. Just like Googles ad empire, Facebooks business thrived on its ability to keep its users coming back for more of its free services while leveraging its social networking technology to learn more about peoples interests, habits, and whereabouts -- a nosy model that has repeatedly entangled the company in debates about whether a right to personal privacy still exists in an increasingly digital age. As one of the top female executives in technology, Sandberg has at times has been held up as an inspiration for working women -- a role she seemed to embrace with a best-selling 2013 book titled Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead. But Lean In received immediate criticism. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called Sandberg a PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots, and critics suggested she is the wrong person to lead a womens movement. She addressed some of that criticism in a subsequent book that addressed the death of her husband, Dave Goldberg. In 2015 she became a symbol of heartbreaking grief when Goldberg died in an accident while working out on vacation, widowing her with two children as she continued to help run one of the worlds best-known companies. CRACKS IN THE FACADE In more recent years, Sandberg grew into a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. Critics and a company whistleblower contend that the consequences have undermined democracy and caused severe emotional problems for teens, particularly girls. The author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, said Sandberg is as responsible as anyone for what Zuboff considers one of Big Techs most insidious invention: the collection and organization of data on social media users behavior and preferences. For years Facebook shared user data not just with advertisers but also with business partners. Sandberg did this, wrote Zuboff, through the artful manipulation of Facebooks culture of intimacy and sharing. Zuboff calls Sandberg the Typhoid Mary of surveillance capitalism, the term for profiting off the collection of data from social media users online behavior, preferences, shared data and relationships. "Sheryl Sandberg may fancy herself a feminist, but her decisions at Meta made social media platforms less safe for women, people of color, and even threatened the American electoral system. Sandberg had the power to take action for fourteen years, yet consistently chose not to," said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a gender justice advocacy organization, which has been calling for Sandberg's resignation, in an emailed comment Wednesday. Sandberg has had some public missteps at the company, including her attempt to deflect blame from Facebook for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In an interview later that month that was streamed by Reuters, she said she thought the events of the day were largely organized on platforms that dont have our abilities to stop hate, dont have our standards and dont have our transparency. Internal documents revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen later that year, however, showed that Facebooks own employees were concerned about the companys halting and often reversed response to rising extremism in the U.S. that culminated in the events of Jan. 6. Havent we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence? one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. Weve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldnt be surprised its now out of control. __ AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this story. Timothy Abero / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm Two students from Corpus Christi Independent School District were killed in a rollover crash after attending their graduation rehearsal on Tuesday, May 31. The district identified them to MySA as Matthew Garcia and Marcello Saldua on Thursday, June 2. They were both 18. According to the district, four students from Ray High School were involved in the car wreck. The students were traveling to school after attending graduation rehearsal at the American Bank Center, about four miles from the campus. Courtesy of Sharon Ko Another familiar face is departing the San Antonio airwaves. KENS 5 anchor Sharon Ko announced she is departing the TV station after eight years. Ko first joined the team in January 2014 as a news anchor and multimedia journalist before taking over the 6 p.m. newscast in January 2020. She posted the announcement to her Facebook page on Wednesday night, June 1, letting viewers know her last day would be Friday, June 3. Facebook/Family Kim Kardashian is calling on the Department of Justice to grant a temporary release from prison to the father of Eliahna "Ellie" Cruz Torres, a 10-year-old victim of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde. Since May 24, the public and celebrities have backed the small town with help, donations, and now some are doing what they can to help the grieving parent reunite with his family to mourn the loss. Kardashian, who has used her platform to become a force in criminal justice reform, highlighted the situation on her Instagram and Twitter accounts on Thursday, June 2. In her posts, she asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the DOJ, to temporarily release Eli Torres so that he can be with this family for Eliahna's services. Between teaching his classes on Wednesday, Professor Taylor Cole Miller spoke with MySA to refute some recent talking points that have emerged after a shooter killed 21 people at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Senator Ted Cruz created a "one-door" proposal. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called for arming teachers. But Miller has been in a school shooting, and putting the onus on educators to prevent future massacres misses the point, he says. "Preparedness isn't really about training," Miller says. "It's about giving people some kind of out making people feel like they're doing the work of making gun violence less, when really, it's merely performance." Recently, Miller posted a video to TikTok about his experiences in school-shooting preparedness. It quickly went viral, owing in particular to its creator's bluntness. "I really want to talk about why preparedness," he shrugs, "is a myth." Miller, who is now an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, was in his first year of graduate school at Austin's University of Texas in 2010 when a student brought an AK-47 to the Perry-Castaneda Library on campus. The former UT students says all preparation went out the window when Tooley emerged from a bus wearing a dark suit and ski mask and began firing his rifle into the air and at a nearby church. "You memorize the actions you're supposed to take and you don't really critically assess those actions until the moment you're hearing gunshots," he says. Once Miller and those around him heard the first gunshots, he says, everyone froze. They didn't know if it was fireworks, or a bus backfiring. Since they couldn't see the gunman but could hear his shots, he says they were immobilized in not even knowing which direction to run or where to hide. "When you're in that situation, you either don't think about [preparedness steps], or suddenly all of the absurdity of the advice they give is clarified," Miller says. "Because a lot of times, it doesn't come from people who've been in that situation." Tooley ended his assault by fatally shooting himself inside the library without harming anyone else. But since that day, Miller has thought about that nightmarish scenario every time he steps foot inside a classroom whether he wants to or not. One proposed solution that Miller takes offense with as have some members of the Texas American Federation of Teachers is arming and training classroom personnel with firearms. The notion relies heavily on huge lifts from teachers to not only physically operate a gun, but to also have the razor-sharp mental acuity to vacillate between educator and armed guard in a split second. "Think of a teacher who spends hours of their own time decorating their room to make it a safe space for students," he says. "Suddenly that teacher needs to kill one of their students or a student they might know. That is absurd." Miller also says that some of the preparedness exercises don't take into consideration people who are non-white or disabled, noting that running toward law enforcement could pose a risk for students of color. Recently he learned about a $400,000 system that fills hallways with smoke during an active shooting for protection. "Even then, most school systems especially those that serve the marginalized wouldn't be able to afford those kinds of things anyway," Miller says. "So it's not really a sustainable solution." This is not to say that people shouldn't try to prepare for the next mass shooting, Miller says, even if it's a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. While teaching at the University of Georgia, Miller began wearing a belt to class just in case he needed to tie it around the door hinge to keep out a gunman. That tiny bit of preparedness may not have done a thing in the moment to prevent a shooting in his classroom, but the ritual made him feel better. "It's that thing that we all feel like we should do, [and] we probably should do, but maybe it won't actually make any difference," Miller says. "But we still do it." Steven Santana | MySA The San Antonio Business Journal is leaving its office at the historic Pearl after eight years and moving into an office on the Northside. The business publication will move into One International Center at corner of I-410 and Hwy. 281, the San Antonio Business Journal reported Wednesday. The Business Journal is temporarily working out of the 14th floor of the office building until it moves into its long-term spot between late summer and early fall. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said "the truth will come out" as the investigation into the Robb Elementary School shooting and local law enforcement's response continues. McLaughlin told CNN in an interview on Wednesday, June 1 that if Uvalde law enforcement made mistakes, then they will own up to those mistakes. CNN reports that McLaughlin said he still has trust in local law enforcement despite contradicting preliminary reports. "They've had three press conferences and at all three press conferences something has changed," McLaughlin told CNN. Criticism is mounting against Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo over the department's response to the Robb Elementary massacre where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers after locking himself in a classroom for close to an hour. Arredondo reportedly told police at the scene that it was no longer an active shooter situation and believed no more children were at risk despite multiple 911 calls from children in the classroom with the gunman. McLaughlin says that he didn't hear any 911 calls coming while he was at Robb Elementary School, but added that does not mean the calls weren't blaring over police radios. Before he went to the school, he said he was at the nearby Hillcrest Funeral Home where a negotiator was trying to get the gunman on the phone. Reports surfaced on Tuesday, May 31, that the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde CISD Police Department are reportedly no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation. DPS officials also said Arredondo hadn't returned calls from the Texas Rangers. Arredondo disputed those claims on Wednesday when he was confronted by CNN, saying he has been in touch with DPS every day. DPS sent a statement to CNN saying they are no longer answering questions about the investigation and instead referring inquiries to Uvalde County's District Attorney Christina Busbee. The DA also sent a statement to CNN saying Busbee will review the investigation and bring any criminal charges if needed. Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has announced its investment in US-based Crusoe Energy, a provider of low-cost solutions to natural gas flaring, in a move to diversify its investments across different countries and sectors. OIA aims to achieve optimal benefit for Oman in terms of return on investment, attracting direct foreign investments, and attracting modern and advanced technologies worldwide to be utilized locally, reported Oman News Agency (ONA). This investment highlights OIAs pioneering efforts in attracting such advanced technologies to the region. Crusoes Digital Flare Mitigation technology will serve various sectors in the region including oil and gas, power generation, and ICT. This investment embodies OIAs efforts to localize modern technologies in promising economic sectors. Through its partnership with OIA, Crusoe targets the expansion of its operations in the Middle East, which is home to some of the biggest oil and gas producers globally. This expansion is set to enhance the companys profitability in a new promising market. In addition, it aims to realize environmental objectives, which is a vital aspect of this initiative, especially when Oman is one of the top 10 countries in gas flaring in the world, according to a World Bank report published in 2020. Crusoe's Digital Flare Mitigation technology specifically targets oil and gas companies and fields. The company utilizes gas flaring emissions that negatively contribute to global warming by mitigating the flare of CO2e by around 63%. This includes a 98% reduction of methane because Crusoes generators have a combustion efficiency of 99.9% vs an average of 93% for flares. This technology processes gas flaring emissions in an environment-friendly and cost-effective manner; it generates enough power to operate energy-intensive computing applications in oil and gas fields far from main power grids. This includes powering data centres for high-performance cloud computing to operate applications such as graphical rendering, artificial intelligence research, machine learning, computational biology, therapeutic drug discovery and simulation. Ismail Ibrahim Al Harthy, Senior Manager of Technology Investment at OIA said that the OIA is playing a pioneering role in bringing this technology to the region, which is home to some of the biggest oil and gas producer globally. The aim is to benefit the energy sector in the region from this environment-friendly technology. Chase Lochmiller, CEO and co-founder of Crusoe Energy Systems said that flaring is a global problem with a global impact. He added that the company is excited to expand its Digital Flare Mitigation technology to the Middle East to help solve the regions long standing flaring challenges and empower a new generation of digital technology in the region. OIA, he added, stands out as a great partner that takes a long-term view in tackling big problems. Meanwhile, OIA signed an MoU with Crusoe Energy during a workshop exploring the potential of localizing this technology in Oman. The event was attended by representatives from OIA and Crusoe, as well as government officials and representatives from companies working in fields that can benefit from technology. Hey you, sitting at home reading this article between afternoon Zoom calls. First: Thank you. Second: Elon Musk doesnt think youre working very hard. At least he seemed to have said as much in a leaked email bearing the subject line, Remote work is no longer acceptble [sic]. In Musks message to Teslas executive staff Tuesday, the CEO allegedly wrote that, Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers. A reminder here that 40 hours typically fulfills a full-time work schedule. Musk also added in his note that the office locations at which employees on certain teams work are inflexible, per this new policythey cannot just use a remote branch unrelated to job duties at an office in another stateand that he would personally review and grant any exception requests. Teslas new policy is by far the strictest among the major tech brands. Earlier this year, Apple and Google started implementing rules mandating employees work from the office at least three days per week. Neither company's policy is permanent for now, and plans have been delayed due to Covid outbreaks, but Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, left the company over its return to work policy. Meanwhile, Meta/Facebook announced that employees returning to the office would need to be there at least half the time, in perpetuity, but added that many Meta employees could and should work from anywhere their jobs allowed. However, the company is cutting its free laundry, dry cleaning and valet service for employees staying in Silicon Valley, and will readjust salaries based on the cost of living for those moving to work remotely in a new city. One of the most liberal of the WFH policies actually belongs to Twitter, which Musk is currently attempting to buy and/or get out of buying, and which in March announced that its employees could WFH forever. In its notice, Twitter leadership highlighted that they want employees to be able to work from wherever they feel most productive and creative. Musks leaked message seems to suggest the exact opposite, but he didn't comment on whether this policy would extend to Twitter, should the deal go through. The pandemic effectively offered companies the greatest work-from-home pilot program in history, and it seems to have been successful. According to a two-year analysis of more than 800,000 employees that was published in February 2021 by Great Place to Work, most people reported stable or even increased productivity levels after employees started working from home. The analysis also found that employees were willing to give extra to get the job done and that it was often poor leadership that led to lowered productivity at home. But Musk seems to not be easily swayed. When asked by a Twitter user how hed respond to employees who think coming into the office each day is an antiquated concept, the billionaire fired back a curt response: They should pretend to work somewhere else. Yves here. It seems safe to say that most Americans cant relate to the role that the royal family plays in the UK and much of the Commonwealth. The fact that Elizabeth II has held on so long may have done more harm than good. Charles would have had to try to make the monarchy more relevant (not as Crown Prince but for real) and he could have had enough time to make headway. Charles being king in turn would have had an impact on Prince William carried himself, by elevating his role. Its easy to dismiss the royal family as an anachronism, but the monarch can theoretically take action. This piece does include the disgraceful Gough Whitlam ouster but omits that Malcolm Turnbull, before he held public office, was a moving force behind the failed 1999 referendum to have Australia ditch the royals. I recall at some critical Brexit junctures there were arguments that the Queen could Do Something, although I must confess I dont recall exactly what. Perhaps readers in countries that still have monarchies can chime in. By Adam Ramsay, openDemocracys special correspondent. You can follow him at @adamramsay. Adam is a member of the Scottish Green Party, sits on the board of Voices for Scotlandand advisory committees for the Economic Change Unit and the journal Soundings. Originally published at openDemocracy The jubilee comes at a great time for Boris Johnson. What better way to get past partygate than with a massive party? No one makes a tougher human shield for a bunkered prime minister than that much-loved nonagenarian, great-granny to the nation. Elizabeth Windsor is only the fourth monarch in recorded human history to reach a platinum jubilee. In two years, she will overtake Thailands Rama IX and Frances Louis XIV to become the longest reigning sovereign ever. Shes done this not just by staying alive, but also by managing one of the worlds most successful media-celebrity machines through the most radical transformation of communications technology since the printing press was invented. Despite this, it all feels a little desperate; like the Windsors are clinging on. Her immense personal popularity means little will change while shes alive. But theres a sense in the air: while she wont be the last of her line, she will be the last of her kind. SIGN UP NOW Blood, Spunk and Divine Appointment There is another reason the Queen has lasted so long. Unlike some of her European contemporaries, she hasnt abdicated. As she sees it, she cant: she didnt choose the job, but was appointed by a deity to whom she made promises at her coronation. While the divine rights of British monarchs went out with Cromwell, they are still crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and claim legitimacy through an ancient line they believe was chosen by God. Specifically, Elizabeth was crowned by Geoffrey Fisher, who had been Archbishop of London during the Blitz, in an overwhelmingly faithful, Christian country. When Justin Welby or his successor anoints Charles, its hard to see them commanding the same symbology. Today, only a quarter of British peoplebelieve in God, never mind the Anglican version, never mind that said deity personally selects heads of state. Wisely, the palaces spin doctors tone down the God stuff. Instead, they promote a modern idea that the Queen is head of nation. In this reinvented formulation, monarchy is the notion that the DNA of a nation is transmitted through ovulation and ejaculation. William is second in line, the theory goes, because Charless semen is some kind of sloopy magic juice which confers authority on its progeny. I know. Gross. Also, racist. The idea that qualification to reign grows from a genetic trace, that Britishness comes not from living here, but out of your parents genitals and into your blood, doesnt exactly encourage multiculturalism. And nor does the fact that the monarch leads the Church of England. Racisms against religious minorities, like Islamophobia, tear through Europe. In Britain, we have a constitutional problem with confronting them: when bigots spit this is a Christian country, they arent entirely wrong. Elizabeth II is Defender of the Faith. One theorist frequently cited to justify these ideas is the Victorian Walter Bagehot, who loved the mysticism of it all, arguing that Britains political system is better understood not through the balance of powers familiar from America, but from a split between the dignified and the efficient. The purpose of the dignified or theatrical parts of the constitution primarily the monarchy is to excite and preserve the reverence of the population so that the efficient parts can more easily govern us. Bagehot believed this was important, because the lower and middle orders were narrow minded, intellectually incurious, coarse, dull, poor and stupid the vacant many and the clownish mass. Important in bringing scientific racism to the heart of British thinking, he also raged against the mixing of races, arguing that certain lineages are morally superior. The great justifier of modern British monarchy was a noxious snob and racist whose ideas should be handled only with latex gloves. More recently, Oxford professor Vernon Bogdanor has argued that the Queens political neutrality allows her to interpret the country to itself. But the idea that the mirror in which we see ourselves is inherited is profoundly political. Placing it at the centre of a national story is a way of warping a whole country to the right. British politics is built around the class system. For centuries, the Tories have been the political wing of the hereditary ruling class, while the monarchy is its propaganda wing, endlessly telling us that some people are born to rule, others are not, and thats the natural order of things. The connections arent just theoretical. Ben Elliot, the Conservative Partychair, is Prince Charless nephew. Charles charity relies on Tory donors. William went to the same school as Boris Johnson. England votes Tory more than any other country votes for one party because the Toriesrepresent the ruling class and Anglo-British nationalism is a story whose moral is that posh people should rule. Diminishing Britishness Another feature of Anglo-British nationalism is denial of its own existence. As the writer Tom Nairn has long argued, much of the English ruling class cant stand the idea that its merely English, preferring to attach itself to a mysterious imperialist notion of international Britishness. And this feeling, too, is tied to the Windsors. By my count, the Queen reigns over 43 states or territories, including 15 independent countries, 14 British overseas territories, three Crown dependencies, two New Zealand associated states, two New Zealand dependent territories and seven Australian external territories. She still has more subjects outside the UK than in it, arguably reigns over parts of every continent on Earth if St Helena, Ascension and Tristan De Cunha are African and lays claim to 99% of Oceania, 58% of Antarctica and 42% of North America. But if the purpose of the monarchy is to excite feelings of Britishness, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Elizabeth IIs reign is how they have dwindled. Until 1946, all of the monarchs subjects everywhere in the empire were simply British nationals, whether they came from Canberra, Kingstown, Kampala or Kensington. Britishness was global, rooted in racial hierarchy, with its core firmly in the imperial capital and home counties, and a periphery across the planet. In 1946, first Canada and then other colonies started granting their own citizenships and, in 1948, Westminster in turn made British citizenship an umbrella for all of these. But within a decade of Elizabeths coronation, this version of Britishness was folding up. The government responded to a racist backlash against people of colour coming to the UK by passing laws in 1962, 1968 and 1971 that narrowed down which British citizens could live here. The palace itself banned coloured or foreign people from clerical roles. In 1981, the 48 act was abolished, and British citizenship became (mostly) about a direct relationship with this archipelago. Because of these shifting laws, Commonwealth citizens who are 75 or older were, legally, British before they were Australian or Canadian or Singaporian or Nigerian. For baby boomers and Gen-Xers, its more complicated different colonies followed their own paths to independence, often with their own heads of state. And millennials and younger people have always simply been citizens of their home country, with connection to Britain increasingly remote. The End of the British Caribbean? The Royal African Company shipped more enslaved African people to America than any other institution. A personal venture of Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, later James II and VII, the firm often used hot metal to burn the initials DoY, for Duke of York, into their victims skin. By 1683, England primarily the royals family firm was responsible for 74% of transatlantic people trafficking. One of the most common destinations was Britains Caribbean colonies, their indigenous peoples having been murdered in waves of genocide. Today, of the 15 countries where the Queen is Queen, nine are in or around the Caribbean. Until November 2021, there was a tenth. Barbados is sometimes called Little England due to its similarity and supposed loyalty to its coloniser. But in 1996, it held a constitutional convention. We did all of these public hearings over two years there was overwhelming support for becoming a republic, says Melanie Newton, who was the youth representative on the commission and is now a University of Toronto history professor specialising in the Caribbean. The convention recommended Barbados ditch the monarchy, but it was only last year that it became the first of the Queens realms to go independent since Fiji in 1987. Why now? I asked Newton. The Black Lives Matter movement was vital, she says, as was a decade of [the anti-colonial movement] Rhodes Must Fall and the longer-running movement for slavery reparations. Partly, geopolitics has shifted, she says. Caribbean countries are less reliant on British investment. And partly, its about Britain. She cites David Camerons visit to Jamaica in 2015. He was asked for reparations and instead offered to pay for a prison, an obvious racist trope that was a big deal. She highlights the Windrush scandal. Most Caribbean people my age and older have relations who live in the UK, she says. These were the people who suffered. And then theres Brexit, and how racist and unsavoury and xenophobic that movement was. What is this tie? This place clearly does not want any relationship with us. Now that Barbados has made the move, and it has been successful and popular, other Caribbean realms are following as William and Kate discovered on a Jubilee tour in March. In the Bahamas, senior political figures said the country was ready to become a republic. In Jamaica, protesters demanded an apology and reparations for slavery, and the prime minister told the couple that his country was moving on from monarchy. In Belize, protesters highlighted the colonial legacy of theft, and tensions between a conservation charity William supports and indigenous people. After the royals left, the government launched a Peoples Constitutional Commission, part of the continuing decolonisation process, which is expected to recommend republicanism. William and Kate were followed by the Queens youngest son Edward and his wife Sophie. The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda told them that his country intended to become a republic once the Queen died. The deputy prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis used their tour to say: The time has come to review its monarchical system. And In St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, Edward and Sophie were met by reparations protesters and the most popular radio host in the former slammed their visit. The Death of Global Britain I predict that in ten years there will be one realm left, and it will be whats left of the UK, says Tom Freda, the national director of Citizens for a Canadian Republic, speaking to me from Toronto. In Canada, only 26% of people want to keep the monarchy past the Queens reign. The countrys only major pro-monarchy political party, the Conservatives, have been out of power since 2015. Freda points to Black Lives Matter and increasing colonial introspection, and the fact that many Canadian migrant communities find the whole thing baffling they have to pledge allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II and all her heirs and successors to gain citizenship. With Barbados going first, he says the avalanche has started we have everything aligning to replace the monarchy once the Queen dies. Melanie Newton is less confident. There is an attachment that is deeply tied up with the privileges of whiteness, she says. It would open up a whole host of conversations here about race, rights and citizenship. Most Canadians believe the myth that there was no slavery here, that there is a way to reconcile the history with indigenous people without opening up this question. There is an unwillingness to reopen those issues. As a result, says Newton, while there isnt much support for the monarchy, most prefer to avoid the subject. The Last Queen of Australia? There were more than a million indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders when James Cook landed on the continent in April 1770 on a voyage commissioned by George III, the Queens grandmothers great-grandfather. When Australia federated in 1901, there were around 100,000. While many died of diseases the British brought, tens of thousands were murdered. The genocide continued, with the state kidnapping indigenous children until the 1970s. Government policy changed with the election of Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1972, who ended racist White Australia policies, founded a set of Indigenous institutions, and gave some groups deeds to their land. The Queens representative, governor general John Kerr, used a budget crisis to sack Whitlam as prime minister in 1975, replacing him with the unelected right-wing opposition leader, and then shut parliament to stop it reappointing him. Letters between Kerr and the Palace from the time were secret until 2020, when the historian Jenny Hocking finally got them released. They showed the involvement of the palace in every step Kerr took, and every decision he made, regarding the dismissal of Gough Whitlam, Hocking said. After they were published, support for abolition surged above 60%. The explicitly republican Labor party won this months elections. New prime minister Anthony Albanese has campaigned for abolition and appointed an assistant minister for the republic. And the Greens, who now hold the balance of power in the upper house, are vocal republicans. If Australia goes, so will its seven external territories, including the Christmas Islands, Norfolk Islands and more than half of Antarctica. New Zealands prime minister, Jacinda Adern, is openly republican. Although polling doesnt show much desire for change, enthusiastic support for the monarchy there is sparse, says Lewis Holden mostly gathered in the Second World War generation. You do get young fogy types, he says, but support for the monarchy has been ground down to a very, very narrow form of conservatism. They are people who are very, very interested in British and specifically English history; they talk about Brexit in positive terms. In New Zealand now, thats very strange. When New Zealand becomes a republic, its dependencies and associated states Tokelau, the Antarctic Ross Dependency, Niue and the Cook Islands will too, says Holden. Not United and Not a Kingdom Support for the monarchy appears strong in the UK. In Great Britain, only the Greens and Plaid Cymru oppose it; Labour hasnt even debated opposing it since its 1923 conference. And headline polling figures show 61% support for the monarchy. But much of that is shallow, with enthusiasm very concentrated, both demographically and geographically. After what the Queen called her annus horribilis in 1992, openDemocracys founder Anthony Barnett organised a major conference on the monarchy, with a range of cultural figures. Before then, he said, it would have been impossible. It was like a religious taboo. Any attempt to talk about the role of the monarchy was regarded as a personal attack on the Queen, and she was a fetish object. You couldnt talk about her, she was above everything you couldnt touch the royal mantle. It was regarded as scandalous. When the Sex Pistols released God Save the Queen ahead of her silver jubilee in 1977, the BBC banned all its DJs from playing it. But with Andrew and Charles divorces in the 1990s, the Windsor fire, and, more than anything, Diana, the sanctity of the monarchy was broken. Young adults (18 to 24) in the UK are now, for the first time, more likely to oppose monarchy than support it. Royalism is heavily concentrated in people born before 1970. And while some corners of the country will smear themselves in clashing red, white and blue this weekend, most dont plan to celebrate. A poll in Scotland this month showed only 45% still back the monarchy. Northern Ireland has its first ever republican first minister-designate. Loyalism means specifically loyalty to the Crown, and its ongoing crisis is a crisis for the Windsors as much as for Westminster: vocal monarchism is associated with one increasingly unpopular, past-it fringe. A poll in 2019 found that West Wales, the Valleys and parts of Cardiff were some of the least royalist parts of the UK. Liverpool fans booing William earlier this month were a reminder that some of that spirit extends north into Merseyside. Spend time in Cornwall or Scilly and youll quickly discover the Duchy isnt a popular landlord. The last few years have seen the royal family put cash on the line to protect Prince Andrew from potentially horrific allegations emerging into the light, while shunning Harry after he married a mixed-race woman with a mind of her own. At the same time, notions of Britishness have taken a battering as a zombie English nationalism emerges from the imperial deathbed. The tabloid machine on which the monarchy has depended for a generation has been weakened by emerging social media, which it has yet to master, and the state which it exists to protect from the ire of its people has slashed and degraded itself again and again and again, from the invasion of Iraq to a decade of austerity to Boris Johnson. If the Jubilee comes at a good time for the prime minister, then partygate came at a terrible moment for the Queen. Its one thing for the monarchy to excite the reverence of the British people so the government can plunder the biggest empire in human history. Its another to be used to cover up vomit stains on the Downing Street carpet. Yves here. As a layperson looking at the oil crunch, its frustrating to see that pretty much all commentary treats oil as fungible, when part of the reason that the Russian oil embargoes and self-sanctions are causing so much havoc is that different types of oil produce different mixes of refined products. As weve had to point out, Russias Urals crude is moderately heavy and so well suited to producing diesel and home heating oil; Europes former ready access to it is why many European passenger cars use diesel. And the other countries that produce heavier crudes that could be mixed with US/Saudi light sweet crudes to make diesel are also on our enemies list: Iran and Venezuela. So while this article points out that absolute refinery capacity is tight due to reductions in the last two years plus the loss of Russian refiners, I wonder if the need for refineries to have downtime to adjust to a changed mix of oil inputs has made that problem worse. By Irina Slav, a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. Originally published at OilPrice There appears to be no end in sight for the current fuel supply crisis, with summer demand set to spike while refineries run at an unsustainable rate. While refineries have the ability to bring more capacity online, investors are unwilling to get involved in long-term oil and gas projects. U.S. fuel exports have hit record highs and the banning of Russian oil imports by the European Union will only add to demand. Last week, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources, that the Biden administration was looking into the possibility of restarting idled refineries in order to boost fuel production and tame prices. Meanwhile, operating refineries are running at utilization rates of over 90 percent, which, according to industry insiders, is an unsustainable rate. And come hurricane season, if there is refinery damage, things could get really ugly with the fuel supply situation. Welcome to the downstream nightmare of the energy world. The United States has lost around 1 million bpd in refining capacity since 2020, according to a Reuters report that also cited one analyst, Paul Sankey, as saying this meant the country is in what is effectively a structural shortage of such capacity. Globally, refining capacity has shrunk by over 2 million bpd since 2020. According to the International Energy Agency, this is not a problem at all. The IEA estimated that global refining capacity shed 730,000 bpd last year and that, this year, refinery runs would be about 1.3 million bpd lower globally than what they were in 2019. The reason that would be no problem for the IEA is that demand for oil is seen as 1.1 million bpd lower than what it was in 2019. Not everyone is so calm, however, especially in the United States, where retail fuel prices are breaking records while refiners convert their refineries to biofuels production plants. Its hard to see that refinery utilization can increase much, Gary Simmons, chief commercial officer of Valero, told Reuters. Weve been at this 93% utilization; generally, you cant sustain it for long periods of time. Interestingly enough, despite the imbalance in supply and demand, which has pushed the crack spreads to the highest in years, refiners do not seem to be planning new capacity additions. The reasons: time and investor sentiment. Investors do not want to see companies pouring money into organic oil and gas growth, Jason Gabelman, director at Cowen, told Marketplace last month. In addition to this, building a new refinery is a lengthy and expensive endeavor that few refiners appear to believe is justified despite the record crack spreads. Also, investors have become more impatient and dont want to wait for returns from projects such as new refineries. At the same time, demand for refined products remains strong: U.S. fuel exports are running at record rates, a lot of them going to Europe, which, like the U.S., reduced its refining capacity over the last two years but now needs new sources of oil products after it embarked on an emergency course to cut its dependence on Russian oil and fuels. Speaking of Russia, sanctions have resulted in a substantial reduction of refining capacity, with Reuters estimating as much as 30 percent idled, with some 1.2 million bpd in capacity likely to remain offline until the end of the year, according to JP Morgan. Meanwhile, in Asia and the Middle East, refining capacity has been on the rise. In Asia, the new additions have topped 1 million bpd, according to a Bloomberg chart, while in the Middle East, new refining capacity since 2019 has reached about half a million barrels daily. The balance of refining capacity, then, has not just changed but also shifted geographically. The U.S. two weeks ago exported 6 million bpd in refined petroleum products. After the EU approved an embargo on Russian crude and products, albeit in principle for now, chances are that demand for imports from the U.S. will rise further, straining U.S. refiners even more. Then it will be time for hurricane season, and even if the Gulf Coast gets lucky this year, refinery closures in anticipation of storms making landfall are pretty much guaranteed, based on what we have seen in the past. This does not bode well for fuel prices, which have become a major issue for governments on both sides of the Atlantic. There is a certain sense of irony in that one, although by no means the only, reason for the capacity imbalance is investors focus shift from oil and gas to alternative energy sources. The way things look, refiners could build more refining capacity, but investors are unwilling to participate in the long-term growth of the oil industry, as Marketplaces Andy Uhler put it. What this translates into is higher fuel prices for longer until demand begins to subside, which would probably happen at some higher price level. In the immediate term, however, with driving season soon to be in full swing, the refining capacity situation will likely make a lot of lives harder. And while gasoline is in the headlines because of the millions of drivers who have to pay a lot more at the pump, the bigger problem remains diesel the fuel that the freight industry depends on to bring goods from producers to consumers all over the world. America is going through one of its regular paroxysms of grief and outrage over yet another mass school shooting, this one in Uvalde, Texas. Were in the midst of the predictable calls for a response that would make sense, namely gun control, which is certain to go nowhere. Biden punted before an effort even got started: America really wants a president whose default is What can I do? Biden says gun control up to Congress: I cant dictate this stuff | The Hill https://t.co/TwIkt4D9Pv Mr BumpyFace (@MrBumpyFace) May 31, 2022 Another line of thought is to harden schools as if they werent already on the way to being prisons. Will all the doors have bulletproof locks? Armed guards? Presumably all lower-floor windows will have to have metal grills, since an assailant could shoot out glass. And fortifying buildings is not foolproof, since kids are vulnerable when the walk from the street to the school entrance. Since we found out that police with active shooter training hung outside the Uvalde school till they (mistakenly) thought the threat was over, it seems that the idea of arming teachers is likely to be ineffective at best and potentially worse than the disease. Recall that police officers, who have more regular weapons training than teachers would, hit their target only 15% or so of the time when they shoot. Some of that is being jacked up on adrenaline, some of that is moving figures are hard to hit. In a crowded classroom situation, its not hard to imagine students being victims of friendly fire. On the other end of the spectrum, we have variants on the thoughts and prayers level of effectiveness. For instance, from Vogues Following the Uvalde Shooting, Here Are 5 Steps You Can Take to Help: Donate to organizations working to pass anti-gun legislation and support victims of gun violence Attend a march or protest in your area. Call your representatives to demand stricter gun-control regulations Divest from gun manufacturers Donate blood We already know from the Biden statement that political measures will go nowhere. Divesting from gun manufacturers is virtue-signaling, since cold-blooded value investors and gun enthusiasts will bid up their stock prices. So we are left with admissions of failure: supporting victims of gun violence, and a subset of that idea, giving blood. But have no fear, there is a real and effective remedy! Our modest proposal: All public school students will wear bulletproof vests and bulletproof helmets when they are on school grounds. They may take their helmets off their heads once inside as long as they can be put on immediately, as in they are hanging on the back of their neck, are in one hand, or are placed on their desk or are suspended by their chinstrap from their chair. The vests dont have to look like SWAT gear. This discreet model is $279: But for traditionalists, there are multi-threat jackets (this one $449) that are also strike and slash resistant. And the macho look is a deterrent in and of itself: I would imagine schools could buy the material in bulk and it could be a local/regional grifting entrepreneurial opportunity to stitch them up from approved patterns. They could even have school logos or be in school colors. A bulletproof hoodie is even an option (this one retails at $479) but schools would presumably want a uniform and hoodies have bad connotations with gens darmes: Or the sporty outdoor jacket look (for you at $475): Some of these items are not unduly expensive. For instance, this is a used unisex military surplus helmet, from Italy, only $49 when in stock: But what about the lower body? For very nervous school systems, additional options include groin protectors. Forgive the camo gear colors but this one is a screaming bargain at $27if its ever in stock. This image allows you to see that they typically attach to the vest. And the point isnt just to protect the crown jewels but also the femoral artery: Another choice would perfectly ordinary looking yet bulletproof pants, yours for a mere $525: Needless to say, the prices may seem a bit daunting, but remember, these are retail offerings sold individually, while schools should be able to order in bulk at police or even US military prices (oops, that might not be a bargain). And remember these items are super durable, so they would presumably be used over several school years, by different students, greatly reducing the effective cost. There are some problems to be solved, like phys ed classes and school sports, but perhaps schools could limit the use of armed guards to those occasions. Before you reject this scheme, pray tell how do you plan to go about protecting students and teachers in America, when we are allergic to gun control? And a further benefit: the sort of people who hated masks are likely to embrace this proposal. (Natural News) Shortly after the media hyped the fact that the Azov Battalion had dropped neo-nazi insignia from their uniforms, it was revealed that gay soldiers in Ukraine are now heading to war wearing a unicorn LGBTQ patch. (Article by Paul Joseph Watson republished from Infowars.com) Yes, really. As Zero Hedge highlighted, after months of downplaying or outright denying Azovs direct links to neo-nazism, the media heralded the fact that the unit had dropped a neo-Nazi symbol exploited by Russian propagandists. Ah yes when these fighters proudly display Nazi symbols, the real problem is Russian officials and media pointing it out: all very inconvenient of course, commented the news outlet. Perhaps in an effort to distract from the embarrassment, the legacy media is now celebrating a new unicorn patch worn by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ukrainian troops. As volunteer fighters Oleksandr Zhuhan and Antonina Romanova pack for a return to active duty, they contemplate the unicorn insignia that gives their uniform a rare distinction a symbol of their status as an LGBTQ couple who are Ukrainian soldiers, reported Reuters. Members of Ukraines LGBTQ community who sign up for the war have taken to sewing the image of the mythical beast into their standard-issue epaulettes just below the national flag, states the article. Was the DC regimes $40 billion aid package contingent on rebranding the Azov Battalion-led Ukrainian military into LGBTQ warriors? asks Chris Menahan. The DC regime loves raising the LGBT flag over all the nations they occupy, so it wouldnt surprise me if that was the case, he added. As we previously highlighted, shortly after the war began, British MI6 spy chief Richard Moore asserted that the conflict was partly about protecting the sanctity of LGBTQ+ rights. With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So lets resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022, he wrote. Critics accused Moore of engaging in vacuous virtue signalling. Yes, the values of Western civilization didnt exist until the creation of LGBTQIA2S+ rights in the 1960s. You virtue signalling idiot. The only hard won freedom I want is from woke ideologues like you, wrote one. As we highlighted at the time, MI6 also marked the day Putin invaded Ukraine by tweeting about the success of their gay coffee morning. Read more at: Infowars.com New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) The Delhi Commission for Women on Thursday issued a summon to Municipal Corporation of Delhi Commissioner over safety and security of MCD schools and asked him to be present before the Commission on June 9 with an action taken report in the matter along with the relevant files and documents in the matter. The Commission had instituted an enquiry on the condition of safety and security of girls in primary schools in Delhi and visited four MCD-run schools in May to check actual conditions there. In its summon, the Commission has stated that the MCD has unjustifiably failed to provide critical information despite the acute danger being faced by lakh of young students including girls studying in dangerous conditions in the corporation schools. (Natural News) A doctor in Canadas Ontario province has been allowed to go scot-free by the provinces regulatory body for physicians despite ignoring warnings against injecting children with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. Toronto-based family physician Dr. Christopher Sun told the Toronto Star that he put his neck on the line by injecting as many as 500 children with the COVID-19 vaccine, some as young as six months old. The doctor flouted the limit on COVID-19 vaccination put in place by Health Canada which was five years old. He argued that his decision to inject young children with the COVID-19 shot was to protect them, adding that he was one of only few people in Ontario willing to inject them with the experimental COVID-19 vaccines. There are worried parents in time of a health crisis, and I think its wrong to turn away people who know what they are getting into, said Sun. [The childrens parents] understood the benefits and risks [of the vaccine, thus I] ethically had no reason to say no. Dr. Samantha Green, a family physician at the Unity Health Toronto hospital network, was among those parents who let Sun vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Both Greens children three-and-a-half-year-old Jack and 18-month-old Florence got the COVID-19 vaccines in late January. With [the B11529] omicron [variant] rising, I grew more and more nervous. I started to really worry for [my childrens] health and well-being, she told the Star. We felt it was the best choice for us, [and] I absolutely dont have any regrets at all. Toronto Public Health admonished Sun in March, warning him to stop injecting children below the age limit with the COVID-19 vaccine. The health authority for the city of Toronto even reported him to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). The doctor, however, bragged that he continued to vaccinate children until the end of that month. Moreover, he added that CPSO simply dismissed his case without penalty after interviewing him about his actions. (Related: Canadian doctor illegally administered covid shots to hundreds of infants as young as six months old.) Doctors prescribing safer treatments instead of vaccines being demonized Contrary to Suns experience, other doctors eschewing the COVID-19 shots in favor of safer treatment protocols are being vilified and smeared. New York-based family physician Dr. Vladimir Zev Zelenko is one such doctor who found himself on the receiving end of attacks from the mainstream media (MSM) for following a safer protocol to address COVID-19. The Ukrainian-born physician is the pioneer of the Zelenko protocol that uses hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), azithromycin and zinc. He revealed to Brighteon.TV host Ann Vandersteel how the MSM smeared him for espousing the Zelenko protocol over the COVID-19 vaccines. Zelenko cited a May 2020 hit piece by Vanity Fair as one example of the MSMs attempts to malign him. Vanity Fair [put] me on the front cover, me on top with [former] President [Donald] Trump and [former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen] Hahn underneath. Im like the Jew [in] the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, [which is] anti-Semitic literature, showing that I control the world. That type of imaging and narrative was designed to marginalize me, vilify me [and] take away my credibility. Zelenko continued: If you notice, all the effective treatments that were developed whether it was HCQ, ivermectin, steroids or early intervention [were] immediately marginalized and vilified. The doctor advocating for them [was also] de-platformed. In Australias New South Wales, if any doctor prescribed HCQ or ivermectin for COVID-19, [they] went to jail for six months. [When] the government [tells] you why, [its] because youre encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Think about that. Zelenko explained to Vandersteel that effective COVID-19 treatments such as the Zelenko protocol being denounced means they work and people get better. People who get well after these treatments would no longer want to take the vaccine and would encourage their families and friends to decline it. I like to say hes waging war against the very people that started the pandemic. Dr. Zelenko stood up [against] medical tyranny and the demons behind the global pandemic, when he understood just what needed to be brought to the forefront, remarked Vandersteel. Watch Dr. Vladimir Zev Zelenkos interview with Ann Vandersteel below. This video is from the BrighteonTV channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: 3 Doctors suppressed by the medical establishment for questioning COVID clot shots. Dr. Zelenko shares how the MSM smeared him for revealing the cure to COVID Brighteon.TV. Dr. Lee Merritt: No justification for experimenting on children by injecting them with COVID-19 vaccines Brighteon.TV. Biden White House says childrens covid jab program will be fully operational by November 8, mass child sacrifices to commence. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com TheStar.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) According to a study, a man in Northwest China was buried with a unique armor made of over 5,000 leather scales about 2,500 years ago. The military garment was so elaborate its design looks like the overlapping scales of a fish. The study was published in the journal Quaternary International. The armor resembles an apron-like waistcoat and it could be worn quickly, even without help from another person. Study lead researcher Patrick Wertmann, who is also a researcher at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich, explained that the armor is a light, highly efficient one-size-fits-all defensive garment for soldiers of a vast army. The researchers called it an early example of bionics, or taking inspiration from nature for human technology. The armor had fish-like overlapping leather scales that helped protect its wearer against blows, stabs and shots, said Mayke Wagner, study co-researcher and the scientific director of the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute. Wagner is also head of the institutes Beijing office. Leather scale armor is rare, say experts The experts discovered the leather garment at Yanghai cemetery, an archaeological site near the city of Turfan. Local villagers found the ancient cemetery in the early 1970s. Turfan sits on the rim of the Taklamakan Desert. The city has long been the center of a fertile oasis and an important trade center on the main northern branch of the Silk Road from Hami to Kashgar (Kashi). Since 2003, archaeologists have excavated more than 500 burial sites in Turfan, along with the grave containing the leather armor. According to their findings, ancient people used the cemetery continuously for almost 1,400 years, from the 12th century B.C. until the second century A.D. These people didnt leave written records, but ancient Chinese historians called the people of the Tarim Basin the Cheshi people. Wertmann added that they lived in tents, practiced agriculture and kept animals like cattle and sheep. They were also proficient horse riders and archers. The armor is a rare find, especially since the only other well-preserved ancient leather scale armor with a known provenance was unearthed in the ancient Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamun, from the 14th century B.C. Another well-preserved leather scale armor dates from the eighth to the third century B.C. It is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, but its origin remains unknown. It was a big surprise to find the leather scale armor, said Wagner. The research team discovered the garment in the grave of a man who died when he was about 30 and was buried with several artifacts like two horse cheekpieces made from horn and wood, a sheep skull and pottery. At first, the dusty bundle of leather pieces [in the burial] didnt seem interesting to the archaeologists because the finds of ancient leather objects are quite common in the extremely dry climate of the Tarim Basin, explained Wagner. According to a reconstruction of the body armor, it had an impressive 5,444 small leather scales and 140 larger scales that are likely made of cow rawhide. The scales were arranged in horizontal rows and connected by leather laces passing through the incisions, shared Wagner. The different scaled rows overlap, a style that inspired Greek historian Herodotus to call similarly fashioned armor that was worn by fifth century B.C. Persian soldiers as the scales of a fish. A plant thorn stuck into the armor gave a radiocarbon date of 786 B.C to 543 B.C. This suggests that the armor was much older than the fish-like armor worn by the Persians. Based on the researchers reconstruction, the armor would have weighed up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms). (Related: Researchers find worlds oldest stone tools in Kenya.) An utterly unique discovery The discovery is unique because it remains the only scale armor from this or an earlier period in China, explained Wagner. While armor fragments have also been discovered in Eastern China, they were of a different style. According to the history of scaled armor, West Asian engineers developed scale armor to protect chariot drivers in about 1500 B.C., when chariotry became part of the military. Soon after, this style of armor spread northward and eastward to the Persians and Scythians and eventually to the Greeks. However, the Greeks thought the design was always exotic and they preferred other types of armor, said Wertmann. Because of its local uniqueness, its possible that the newly described armor wasnt made in China. It resembles like Neo-Assyrian military equipment from the seventh century B.C., which can be seen in rock carvings. According to Wertmann, the piece of leather scale armor could have been made in the Neo-Assyrian Empire or the neighboring regions. If this is true, then the Yanghai armor is one of the rare actual proofs of West-East technology transfer across the Eurasian continent during the first half of the first millennium B.C.E., wrote the researchers. The armor mainly protects the wearers front torso, hips, left side and the lower back. The design fits people of different statures since width and height can be adjusted by the thongs. Thanks to the left-side protection, the wearer could easily move his right arm. The armor seems to be designed for both mounted fighters and foot soldiers, who have to move rapidly and rely on their own strength, added Wertmann. The horse cheekpieces also found in the burial suggest that the tomb owner could have been a horseman. Visit Artifacts.news to read more articles about fascinating archaeological finds. Watch the video below to learn about Indian artifacts from Saginaw. This video is from the channel Dennis Morrison Channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Ancient potsherd inscription may be the missing link in the alphabets history, researchers suggest. Study: Ancient Romans used a highly advanced trade network to source imported wood for construction. Researchers discover what may be the largest land drawings ever made. Sources include: LiveScience.com Britannica.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) Scotiabank, one of the top 5 banks in Canada, is apologizing to leaders of the trucker convoy movement for freezing their bank accounts in order to stifle their ability to protest COVID-19 mandates. (Article by Shane Trejo republished from BigLeaguePolitics.com) Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and inconvenience this situation may have caused and thank you for your patience while we prepared our response, Scotiabank CEO Brian J. Porter wrote to trucker convoy protest spokesman Benjamin Dichter. Dichter said that the banks were not the primary culprits for the policy. They were leaned on and pressured by government entities in order to target freedom protesters in an attempt to destroy them and suppress their movement. I dont believe the banks went out of their way to target clients. I believe It came from somewhere else. They didnt do it on their own accord, Dichter said, adding that he believes the banks are worried about consumer backlash against their craven actions. It is likely that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) ordered the bank freeze. Shamefully, Scotiabank and other major Canadian banks did not have the courage to stand strong against the pressure. They still have not unfrozen all of the accounts and continue to comply with the authoritarian and illegitimate Canadian government. While most customer accounts have been unfrozen, it is important to remember that some accounts may be frozen for a variety of other reasons, including to comply with court orders or proceedings related to illegal activities or other unrelated legal matters, Scotiabank said. Big League Politics reported on Canadian tyrants boasting that they will be targeting the bank accounts of their political opposition: Canadian Minister of Justice David Lametti said that Trump supporters who have donated substantial funds to the trucker freedom convoy should be worried about having their bank accounts frozen. He made the shocking comment while appearing on the CTV News Channels Power Play program. I just want to be clear here, sir. This is really important. A lot of folks say, Look, I just dont like your vaccine mandates and I donated to this, now its illegal, should I be worried that the bank can freeze my account? Whats your answer to that? the CTV journalist asked. Well, I think if you are a member of a pro-Trump movement who is donating hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to this thing, then you ought to be worried, Lametti responded It remains to be seen if Lamettis threat applies only to Canadians or also to other individuals in America and elsewhere. The globalists are ripping the mask off and showing themselves to be some of the most heinous and diabolical tyrants the world has ever seen. The Canadian trucker convoy was successful in showing just how evil the globalists truly are. When these monsters talk about democracy, it is laughable and Orwellian. Read more at: BigLeaguePolitics.com (Natural News) Medical malpractice is so common these days that individual cases arent usually considered newsworthy, but one case has been making headlines recently because it took doctors an incredible 30 years to discover the mistake. It involves 39-year-old Rene Remache of Queens, New York, who recently discovered a 10-inch breathing tube had been left in his body from an operation that took place some three decades ago. It all started when Remache fell out of a second story window in 1989 at the age of 6 when he was living with his grandparents. The young boy was admitted to Elmhurst hospital with a skull fracture, where they placed him on a ventilator and a breathing tube. According to his medical records, he was agitated by the tubes and pulled at them; the records also say that he self-extubated. According to Remache, that occasion was the only time in his life when he was given this type of tube. His lawyers believe that he swallowed some or all of the tube while he was at the hospital there without his doctors realizing it. Remache says that he has experienced ongoing stomach problems throughout the years, for which he occasionally received treatment at Elmhurst and other hospitals. On his many trips to the emergency room due to stomach pain and vomiting, Remache, who uses Medicaid, was never given any type of test that would have discovered the tube. Frustrated, he decided to stop going to the doctors altogether when his stomach acted up since no one could tell him what the problem was. However, on a family trip to Mexico in 2019, he started feeling even worse, with a bizarre sensation in his chest and throat that he had never felt before. He said that he had the feeling like something was stuck in there and impacting his breathing, but a Mexican clinic he visited diagnosed him with bronchitis and prescribed him antibiotics. Upon returning to New York, he visited Mount Sinai Medical Center, where a CAT scan finally revealed the problem: a tube was sitting inside the curvature of his stomach. Surgeons removed the tube, and Remache had to sue the hospital to give him the tube to use as evidence in a malpractice lawsuit he is filing against Elmhurst Hospital. For its part, New York City Health and Hospitals, who owns Elmhurst, insist that the tube is different from the type that would have been used to intubate him as a child. They have repeatedly refused to settle his case, and a trial is set for October. Retained surgical items are not uncommon According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, roughly a dozen sponges and other types of surgical instruments are left inside of patients bodies each day in the United States, amounting to between 4,500 and 6,000 cases per year. It is difficult to know exactly how often this happens because there is no federal reporting requirement for retained surgical items. However, a 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that around 70 percent of items left in patients bodies after operations are sponges. The remaining 30 percent are surgical instruments such like retractors and clamps. Many times, these objects cause localized pain, bloating and discomfort; they may even lead to sepsis and death in some cases. Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Womens Hospital, told CNN that a major operation can use 50 or 100 sponges. He likened counting them to counting a deck of cards to see if there are 52; miscounting is not uncommon. Leaving items in peoples bodies is such a big problem that some hospitals are using special surgical sponges and tools with bar codes on them. Others are resorting to performing an X-ray while the patient is still on the table if there is any doubt about the item count before stitching them back up. Sources for this article include: Edition.CNN.com NYPost.com (Natural News) COLUMBUS, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) Abortion giant Planned Parenthood tweeted Its okay to have multiple abortions while remaining silent on what abortion actually is. (Article by Clare Marie Merkowsky republished from LifeSiteNews.com) Hey ? its okay to have multiple abortions! the tweet read. As the battle over abortion heats up in America, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio sought to destigmatize having several abortions, that is, serial killing of children conceived in the same womb. The multi-million-dollar business neglected to explain that this is how abortion works, making the my body, my choice argument invalid since women do not fully understand the choice they are being offered. While Planned Parenthood seeks to validate, and encourages women to undergo, multiple procedures to murder their children, the company fail to publicize the reality behind each abortion, thereby denying women the informed choice they pretend to offer. That information we include below. The most common method of surgical abortion during the first 12 weeks is suction aspiration. This consists of vacuum suction, 29 times more intense than that of a household vacuum cleaner, which tears the embryo and placenta into small pieces that are sucked through a tube into a bottle and discarded. For abortions from 13-22 weeks, when a baby can feel pain and even cry silently, a pair of forceps is inserted into the womb to grasp a body part. The forceps are then used to break and twist off the bones of the unborn child. This process is repeated until the fetus is totally dismembered and removed. Usually, the spine must be snapped and the skull crushed in order to remove them. When a baby is at 30-40 weeks and could survive outside the womb, the procedure is even more gruesome. A partial birth abortion is composed of several steps. Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist takes hold of the babys legs with forceps. The babys leg is pulled out into the birth canal. The abortionist delivers the babys entire body, except for the head. (Natural News) When schools began to discuss the topic of mask mandates, many of them cited the results of a study that was published last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, which involved data from 520 counties throughout the nation, concluded that counties that did not require students to wear masks to school noted bigger increases in COVID-19 case rates than counties that did have mask mandates in place. The findings of this study were used to double down on masking rules in schools, forcing healthy children with little to no risk of the disease to cover their faces throughout their long school days. Recently, however, a pair of Toronto scientists tried to replicate this study and expand upon it using data from 1,832 counties. Not surprisingly, the larger data set indicated that mask mandates actually do not have any effect. In fact, when looking at a smaller data pool from the Canadian researchers study to make a more effective comparison to the CDC study, it even appears that masked counties fared worse. According to the Toronto authors, the original CDC study only looked at infection rates recorded through the second week after the schools reopened. This was a period of time that ended up being the peak of school case numbers as students went back to school after the summer and began mingling once again. Selecting this week effectively concealed the fact that cases quickly dropped in later weeks and they did so faster in counties that did not have mask mandates in place. Another issue with the CDCs original study was the fact that the analysis ended in early September 2021. This effectively excluded the counties whose school year begins in the second half of August, resulting in an oversampling of the southern states, where school tends to start earlier. Counties in the South were less likely to have school mask mandates, and many of them experienced infection spikes late in the summer due to the high temperatures and peoples extensive dependence on air conditioning during that time. Other studies show that masks in schools have no effect This conclusion aligns with a different study out of Finland comparing the incidence of COVID-19 among children in cities with different recommendations regarding the use of face masks in schools. This study found that there was no benefit of wearing masks for children aged 10 to 12. Meanwhile, in Spain, a country known for having some of the strictest mask requirements both indoors and outdoors for much of the pandemic, researchers discovered that there was no significant difference in the transmission of COVID-19 between children over the age of 6, who were required to wear masks in school, and those under 6, who were exempt from the rule. The study reached its conclusion after analyzing virus transmission during the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year in the countrys Catalan region. During this time, routine COVID-19 testing was carried out on all of the students in a class each time there was a positive case, making it easier to see the transmission in each age group. The researchers noted that if mask mandates did have a significant effect on transmission, there would have been lower transmission in the 6-year-olds, who wore masks, compared to the unmasked 5-year-olds, but there was no difference between the two. Neither the incidence rate nor the transmission rate of the virus were significantly lower among the groups wearing masks. However, the researchers cautioned that their results could not be extrapolated to other types of environments, such as shopping malls or cinemas. They emphasize that their results were only applicable to the very specific environment of schools. Even though masks have been discredited by study after study, they continue to be required in many areas, and those who profited off of the pandemic are now trying to use monkeypox outbreaks to justify the ongoing need for masks. Sources for this article include: Eugyppius.com Medrxiv.org English.ElPais.com (Natural News) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released a new study that debunks the existence of so-called long COVID. The reality is that people who claim to be suffering from long COVID are more than likely imagining it, the government body revealed. The most likely thing they have is simple anxiety induced by fear and paranoia about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). The study you can view it for yourself at this link explains that there is just no solid evidence proving the existence of long COVID. Further, the demographic most prone to alleged long COVID is women with a history of anxiety disorders. Putting two and two together, long COVID is a mental health condition that is completely detached from any actual physical problem. Those who seem most prone to contracting it are those most prone to falling for government and media plandemic programming and this admission comes from an official government agency, shockingly. (Related: Long COVID symptoms could also just be COVID vaccine damage under another name.) They only identified significantly higher odds of developing PASC in females and those w / anxiety disorders, tweeted Dr. Tracy Heg, MD, PhD. They failed to identify objective abnormalities on diagnostic testing to explain the ongoing symptoms. Long COVID is a psychological disorder, not a real physical ailment According to the Daily Caller, 189 people with lab-documented cases of the Fauci Flu participated in the NIH trial. All of them were at least six weeks out from their sickness when symptoms appeared. This pool of participants was contrasted with 120 control participants who reportedly tested negative for Chinese Virus antibodies. Participants were given a physical examination, lab tests, questionnaires, cognitive tests and a cardiopulmonary evaluation. Based on this, no identifiable cause of PASC symptoms was observed in most of the cases. The study explains that 55 percent of those who were infected reported symptoms of long COVID while only 13 percent of the control group reported symptoms. Those with PASC symptoms reported lower quality of life on standardized tests. Exploratory studies found no evidence of persistent viral infection, autoimmunity, or abnormal immune activation in participants with PASC, the study authors concluded. Abnormal findings on physical examination and diagnostic testing were uncommon. All evidence seems to point to the fact that long COVID is merely a psychological disorder brought on by plandemic fear. If this is the case, then those who engineered the whole thing have committed serious crimes against humanity that warrant serious punishment. Are you folks pretending to be surprised? wrote someone at Newspunch. The mainstream propaganda doesnt broadcast anything that isnt beneficial to misanthropic parasites. In fact, they always try to suppress and censor any information that is beneficial for humanity. Another joked that next on the agenda is long monkeypox, seeing as how the global architects seem to have chosen monkeypox as their next plandemic scam to fleece and cull the goats. They are going to milk this thing to the utmost, responded another. Midterm elections are coming so be prepared. More mail-in ballots are on the menu. Another pointed out, just as we did, that long COVID and probably many cases of actual COVID are little more than mass formation psychosis manifesting as a physical ailment. This is learned helplessness, this same person added. Psychosomatic hypochondria. Delusional victims of loss of locus of control, mentally and emotionally abused by bullying into ill health depression suicide by the goodies, the well-respected evil members of community healthcare. Do you have anything else to add to the conversation? Let us know in the comments below. The latest news about COVID can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources include: Newspunch.com ACPjournals.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) About six million households in the United Kingdom could experience blackouts this winter if Kremlin cuts off gas supplies to Europe. The Times news website cited a Whitehall document that said imports of natural gas from Norway could be cut in half next winter amid surging European Union (EU) demand. The U.K. takes around half of its total supply from the Scandinavian country. Shipments of liquefied natural gas from major producers such as the United States and Qatar could also be cut in half this winter, the report further stated. The document also stated that Britain will receive no imports of gas from interconnectors in the Netherlands and Belgium as they face their own emergencies. Earlier this month, the U.K.s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) warned of a likely energy price cap increase in the region of 2,800 ($3,496). The Whitehall officials have drawn up a plan for the winter to prepare for a worst-case scenario. This could lead to the rationing of electricity for up to six million homes at the start of 2023, should Russia start to stop gas supply to the continent. The U.K. vowed to end the importation of Russian oil by the end of the year, but is now seeking to bolster its electricity supply by extending the life of its coal and aging nuclear power stations. In connection to this, the Somerset nuclear power plant Hinkley Point B could be extended by 18 months, despite plans to decommission the 50-year-old facility this summer. The paper further explains that heavy industrial facilities could be told to stop using gas, while U.K. gas-fired power plants could be closed in order to preserve limited supplies. (Related: Renewables put Europes electrical energy at the mercy of Russia.) This will reportedly result in electricity shortages and British households being subjected to blackouts during peak times on weekday mornings and evenings. If Russia cuts supplies of natural gas to the EU entirely, blackouts could last for three months starting in December, and occur on both weekdays and weekends, the report said. UK announces another sanction against Russia Despite the looming energy crisis and the imminent cold winter due to blackouts, the U.K. has announced in May another sanction against the Russian airline sector. The state-owned Aeroflot, Russias largest airline, Ural Airlines and Rossiya Airlines are now unable to sell their unused, lucrative landing slots at the U.K. airports. As long as Putin continues his assault on Ukraine, we will continue to target the Russian economy. Weve already closed our airspace to Russian airlines, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said The UK was one of the first nations to implement sanctions on Putin and his allies; we forbade entrance to their ships and planes, strangling them of the privilege to benefit from global trade and commerce, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps added. International sanctions against Russia led to several weapons manufacturers having to suspend their activity due to a lack of parts. Defense company capabilities have been restricted, limiting Russias ability to replace advanced technology, including drones. Russias domestic vehicle sales have also dropped by 80 percent partly due to a lack of components. In May, medical aid donations from the U.K. to Ukraine reached more than 11 million items. New ambulances, fire engines, funding for health experts and life-saving medical supplies are being donated to Ukraine as part of the U.K.s continued steadfast solidarity with the country, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in April. Visit EnergySupply.news for more news related to the energy crisis. Watch the below video that talks about how Europe faces a self-imposed energy crisis. This video is from the Topical Digest channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Hungary says no to EUs Russian oil embargo sanction. EU committing economic suicide by imposing sanctions on Russia. Study: A US-Russia war could cause a 10-year nuclear winter with disastrous global consequences. Sources include: RT.com EandT.theIET.org TheNationalNews.com Gov.uk Brighteon.com (Natural News) The World Economic Forum (WEF) is slated to have a key leadership role in the metaverse espoused by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Nick Clegg, global affairs president of Facebooks parent company Meta, confirmed the WEFs new role in a tweet. He mentioned the organizations multi-stakeholder initiative as having a leadership role in the establishment of the metaverse. Building the metaverse requires work across (the) industry to inform best practices and governance principles, and ensure these technologies are built responsibly. [The] WEFs new multi-stakeholder initiative will play a leadership role in that work, the former British deputy prime minister tweeted on May 25. The WEF elaborated on the initiative, dubbed Defining and Building the Metaverse, on its website. It seeks to build an economically viable, interoperable, safe and inclusive metaverse through the collaboration of more than 60 stakeholder companies, including Microsoft and HTC. WEF Managing Director Jeremy Jurgens said the initiative provides the industry with an essential toolkit for ethically and responsibly building the metaverse. According to the WEFs website, Defining and Building the Metaverse will focus on two key areas. The first area of focus is the governance of the metaverse, how the technologies and environments of the metaverse can be developed in safe, secure, interoperable and inclusive ways. The second will focus on value creation and identify the incentives and risks that businesses, individuals and society will encounter as the metaverse comes to life. The endeavor will also outline how value chains may be disrupted, industries may be transformed, new assets could be created and rights protected, added the WEF. [The metaverse must not] be shaped by tech companies on their own. It needs to be developed openly with a spirit of cooperation between the private sector, lawmakers, civil society, academia and the people who will use these technologies, said Clegg. However, it remains to be seen whether the people who will use these technologies will have a degree of involvement given the WEFs penchant for Orwellian-style control and surveillance. (Related: BardsFM host Scott Kesterson: Meta is the biggest trap ever laid for humanity Brighteon.TV.) WEF aims to brainwash kids in the metaverse Unsurprisingly, the organization established by globalist Klaus Schwab is also gunning to have an important role in educating children in the metaverse. The metaverse WEF seeks to play a huge part in creating would also serve as a platform for brainwashing children away from human interaction. In a May 23 post on the WEFs website, Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri argued that the future of education lies in disconnecting children from physical learning and plugging them into virtual learning through the metaverse. Al Dhaheri serves as the president of Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He pointed to environmental pressures and so-called climate change goals worldwide as the main reason students will be less reliant on textbooks, notebooks and pencils. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality environments would then enter the scene to address this gap. Advancements have already been visible during the COVID-19 pandemic when governments were forced to close the doors of schools and universities worldwide for weeks at a time. Although these solutions were crucial, they mostly focused on transferring knowledge not the practical and in-person experience students needed to grasp concepts, wrote Al Dhaheri. When combined with innovative pedagogies AR, VR and mixed reality [environments] are positioned to address this need and create a competitive advantage for all stakeholders involved. Al Dhaheri also mentioned plans to tap the metaverse in education in both his home country and neighboring Saudi Arabia. He cited the Museum of the Future in Dubai as a current example, with two of its displays making use of the technologies. Interestingly, he also wrote that VR does somewhat limit human interaction and can cause isolation in younger generations. Still, Al Dhaheri doubled down on his push for digital education, claiming that the benefits outweigh the risks. Watch the video below explaining why the metaverse is a serious concern. This video is from the Kingdom Quickies channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: World Economic Forum believes people are useless eaters, and views their brains and bodies as product that can be hacked, controlled and discarded. Globalists want to track your individual carbon footprint for total control over your travel, food and consumption of goods. Documents prove Canada wants to use COVID-19 pandemic to bring country in line with World Economic Forum agenda. World Economic Forum pushing for Great Reset through a cyber-attack with COVID-like characteristics. WEF globalist Klaus Schwab declares unvaccinated people to be a threat to humanity. Sources include: ReclaimTheNet.org WEForum.org 1 InfoWars.com WEForum.org 2 Brighteon.com (Natural News) Average gas prices in the United States could soon breach the $5 per gallon mark just as the country enters its summer travel season. National average gas prices are at $4.67 a gallon as of June 1, according to the AAA. This is 12 percent higher than the past month, $1.63 higher than a year earlier and about 14 percent more than the pre-2022 peak prices of $4.11 set during the Great Recession of 2008. All 50 states have also recently breached the $4 a gallon mark. Patrick De Haan, an analyst for fuel tracking platform GasBuddy, believes national gas prices could reach $5 a gallon on average as early as June 17. (Related: Insanity: Washington state gas stations running out of fuel, adding another digit to signs in anticipation of $10 gas.) In some places around the country, Americans are already paying an eye-watering amount for gas. Some stations in California, for example, are already charging customers more than the federal minimum price of $7.25 an hour for a gallon of gas. A range of factors have combined to keep fuel prices high. The economic sanctions imposed upon Russia by Western nations in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine is one of the biggest drivers of gas prices both in the U.S. and other nations that have restricted purchases of Russian energy products. The administration of President Joe Biden has also done very little to solve the issue. De Haan noted that the White House has tried to lower gas prices by tapping into the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but this is unlikely to have a significant effect. U.S. consumers should not expect much in the way of relief in prices at the pump until the end of the year, predicted JP Morgan analyst Natasha Kaneva. She also noted that gas inventories in the U.S. are declining and currently sit at their lowest seasonal levels since 2019. Americans reeling as rising gas prices eat into their budgets The surging gas prices are unfortunately coinciding with Americans taking their vehicles and going on vacations. Analysts have noted that gasoline prices have not deterred most motorists from their summer plans, in part due to pent-up demand for travel following two years of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. Folks have decided, Look, Ive been good. Ive been hunkering down for two years. Im gonna go and Im gonna go big, said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross. The organization said in May that nearly 35 million Americans were expected to use their cars to travel during the Memorial Day weekend, a 4.5 percent increase from 2021. But other American car users are feeling the effects of the surging gas prices more. In a survey by AAA in March, three-quarters of drivers noted that if gas reached $5 a situation that has already happened for most of the West Coast they would need to make significant adjustments. Amalia Velazquez, a single mother of three from San Diego, is one of those people who have made drastic changes. She isnt sure if she can take her children to visit their grandmother in Mexicali, Mexico, to celebrate her birthday in June. Gas prices have cut into the family budget. Velazquez noted that she currently spends around $80 to fill her 2019 Toyota RAV4, up from about $45 before the COVID-19 pandemic. I dont think Ill be making that drive anytime soon, she said. For now, Velazquez has told her kids that they cant eat out as much and drive as far to save money. Other motorists are switching to vehicles that dont consume as much fuel. Tom VanStavern, a motorbike-shop owner in Columbus is foregoing using a 2015 Ford Transit van that gets 15 miles a gallon for a 2001 Kawasaki motorcycle with a sidecar, which gets about 45 miles a gallon. Normally for work, I have to drive a van, said VanStavern. Average gas prices in Ohio are $4.61 a gallon, up by $1.65 from last year. Its gone from being like $60 to fill up [my van] to being $100, so now I drop the van off at home. Without significant changes in Bidens economic and fuel policies, including ending the sanctions on Russia, the main drivers of gas prices in the U.S. will remain and could push fuel prices to an average per gallon price of $6.20 by August. Read more stories about fuel prices in America at FuelSupply.news. Watch this video from InfoWars as host Owen Shroyer explains how Bidens gas crisis is worse than what the public knows. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Americans outraged as Biden tries to paint skyrocketing gas prices as an incredible transition away from fossil fuels. The collapse of DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) supply will devastate the trucking industry, which supplies everything else: food, consumer goods, auto parts and more. The media is mentally preparing the American public for mass fuel shortages and rolling blackouts. Now we are being warned that shortages of diesel fuel and electricity are coming in the months ahead. Contrary to what people believe, electric vehicles are not cheaper than gas-fueled vehicles. Sources include: TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com WSJ.com CBSNews.com Brighteon.com New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) Marking 30 years of security and diplomatic relations between India and Israel, the Defence Ministers of the two countries- Rajnath Singh and Benjamin Gantz began talks here on Thursday. The two countries are set to sign a special security declaration during the talks, sources said. The Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz laid a wreath at National War Memorial in the morning. He inspected Tri-Service Guard of Honour in presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Vigyan Bhawan lawns. "At 10.00 AM today, Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will hold talks with the Defence Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Gantz, who is on a official visit to India," the office of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted. "I am currently taking off to India for a visit that marks 30 years of diplomatic defense ties between Israel and India. During the visit I will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the expansion of our cooperation," Gantz said in a tweet last night. The head of the Israeli Defense Ministry',s weapons exports department Yair Kulas, Defence Ministry's Political-Military Bureau head Dror Shalom and Gantzs military secretary Yaki Dolef are also joining the Israeli Defence Minister, Israeli media reported. The Israeli Defence Minister is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 5 PM on Thursday. The special security declaration being signed between the two countries is expected to be largely ceremonial, reports in Israeli media claimed. Gantzs India visit was initially planned to take place in late March, but it was postponed amid a series of deadly terror attacks in Israel. Israel has sought to strengthen defense relations with India in recent years particularly in air and missile defense areas. India has purchased billions of dollars worth of weapon systems in recent years. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also scheduled a trip to India in March, but postponed it after contracting Covid-19. The new date is yet to be decided. Full diplomatic relations between India and Israel were established in 1992. Defense, economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries continued to grow in recent years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel in 2017. UNI ASU GNK (Natural News) Monkeypox is a rare disease that has recently turned up with early symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. These are also the same symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), symptoms of the vaccine failure or even symptoms of a vaccine injury thats kicking in. (Related: Monkeypox transmission could accelerate this summer, warns WHO but is it just more fearmongering?.) To know more about monkeypox, The HighWire host Del Bigtree brought in Dr. Peter McCullough to talk about the disease. McCullough, who just returned from a conference in England, said people should be prepared and vigilant. You know, I think everyone should have some healthy skepticism, McCullough said, adding that hes seen at least four sets of fraudulent internet reports that are using old photos of the disease from several years ago. People are also given the idea that governments are already ordering vaccines. But before they get into it, they must understand the monkeypox virus is not deadly. And its certainly not as contagious as COVID-19 was presented to be. Monkeypox is very hard to transmit, yet there had been reports of multiple countries with this disease just appearing, and there is something suspicious about that. The monkeypox virus is a double-stranded DNA virus that shows pustular rashes. According to the World Health Organization, it can be transmitted from one person to another through close contact with lesions; body fluids through kissing or sexual contact; respiratory droplets; and contaminated materials, including bedding. It was discovered in 1958 with the first human case showing up by the 1970s, although the first outbreak in the U.S. did not happen until 2003. WHO official: Monkeypox not a disease people should worry about Lots of people say that monkeypox is similar to herpes zoster, which causes shingles and chickenpox. However, they are very different viruses they are not even in the same family. Monkeypox presents itself in a different type of skin lesion larger and more postulate that often involves the palms, which is rare. There is quite a collection of literature on monkeypox because of its relation to smallpox. There have been some deaths attributed to monkeypox over the decades, but most of the cases came from Africa, and deaths have occurred in regions where there is little to no health care process that could check advanced cases in younger men who are already ill. (Related: Dr. Peter McCullough: No need to panic over monkeypox.) Promiscuous individuals are at high risk for these types of illness, and origins of early cases were traced to rave parties in Europe. However, monkeypox is not a type of HIV or AIDS although headlines have linked the disease outbreaks to men who have sex with men. The WHOs epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, Sylvie Briand, told member state representatives at the World Health Assembly in Geneva that there is no need to panic. This is not a disease the general public should be worried about. It is not COVID or other diseases that spread fast, she said. The overall public health risk of monkeypox at a global level is currently assessed by the WHO as moderate, considering it is the first time that cases and clusters are reported in widely disparate geographical areas. The sudden appearance and wide geographic scope of many sporadic cases indicate that widespread human-to-human transmission is already underway, and the virus may have been circulating unrecognized for several weeks or longer. Follow Pandemic.news for more updates about viral illnesses. Watch the video below for more information about monkeypox. This video is from the Pain Coming channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: US developing lethal, new genetically engineered viruses, including MOUSEPOX and MONKEYPOX will these be used to demand MORE JABS in the name of public safety? Dr. Peter McCullough: Early treatment key to preventing COVID-19 deaths. Here we go again: MONKEYPOX is the next scariant being unleashed on the world to demand vaccine compliance. First case of rare monkeypox virus reported in Singapore heres what you need to know. As usual, Big Pharma is cashing in on all the monkeypox hysteria. Sources include: Brighteon.com WHO.int AlJazeera.com TheGuardian.com (Natural News) Roughly one year ago, leaders of the British Columbia First Nation Band Tkemlups te Secwepemc claimed to have found a mass grave of more than 200 Indigenous children that were detected at a residential school in the province. We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths, Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tkemlups te Secwepemc, noted in a statement issued on May 27, 2021. The New York Post reports, however, that the discovery turns out to likely have been a hoax all along: The band called the discovery, Le Estcwicwey? or the missing. Whats still missing, however, according to a number of Canadian academics, is proof of the remains in the ground. Since last years announcement, there have been no excavations at Kamloops nor any dates set for any such work to commence. Nothing has been taken out of the ground so far, according to a Tkemlups te Secwepemc spokesman. The alleged burial site, which supposedly contains 215 bodies some as young as three years old was supposedly found with the assistance of ground-penetrating radar at the location of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which was open between 1890 and 1978 and was operated by the Catholic Church. The number of bodies was ascertained based on readings of irregularities in the ground picked up by radar waves, an anthropologist hired by the Indigenous tribe to scan the site noted. Kamloops was one of a network of residential schools across Canada run by the government and operated by churches from the 1880s through the end of the 20th century. Experts say an estimated 150,000 children attended the schools, The Post continued. According to the website of the First Nations and Indigenous Studies of the University of British Columbia: The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. As readers can imagine in this day and age of hyper-exploitative behavior by the left, the news and the way it was portrayed (mass murder of tribal children) shocked the country and the world. Within a few days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, always quick to score political points, decreed, in part at the request of tribal leaders, that all flags on federal buildings fly at half-mast. Meanwhile, the Canadian and provincial governments pledged some $320 million to fund additional research and in December pledged $40 billion more for First Nations child-welfare claim settlements that partially compensated some attendees of the residential school. Pope Francis formally apologized on behalf of the Church, which operated many of the residential schools for nearly a century and asked for Gods forgiveness. He also announced plans to travel to Canada later this year to assist further in healing and reconciliation. However, a group of about a dozen or so academics in Canada isnt buying the whole story. Not one body has been found, Jacques Rouillard, who is a professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Universite de Montreal, told The Post. After months of recrimination and denunciation, where are the remains of the children buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School? Tkemlups te Secwepemc spokesman Larry Read confirmed to the outlet earlier this week that no bodies have yet been exhumed from the Kamloops school and no dates have been set to start the process. He also said that the ground-penetrating radar report that allegedly located the bodies has yet to be released by the tribe but that it may be at some future point. The Post added: Rouillard, who first made his case for what he said was a total lack of evidence for the mass graves in a January essay, doesnt deny that serious abuses may have occurred at residential schools. But he and others question the highly-charged narrative about Kamloops school that includes children being murdered and buried in what some past school attendees say was an apple orchard. They use a lot of words like cultural genocide, Rouillard told The Post. If thats true, there should be excavations. Everything is kept vague. You cant criticize them. Canadians feel guilty so they keep quiet. Tom Flanagan, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary, isnt buying the story, either. This is the biggest fake news story in Canadian history, Flanagan told The Post. All this about unmarked graves and missing children triggered a moral panic. They have come to believe things for which there is no evidence and its taken on a life of its own. Sources include: NYPost.com DorchesterReview.ca (Natural News) Since at least December of 2020, drug giant Pfizer has known that its Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine is a death sentence for many, which means that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also known this entire time. For more than two years, both Pfizer and the FDA knew that the formers covid jabs waned in efficacy over time, a phenomenon known as vaccine failure. They also knew that one of the side effects of Pfizers covid injection, incredibly, is covid itself. By May of 2021, Pfizer and the FDA were aware of 35 incidents of minor heart damage occurring within one week after injection. Even so, the FDA chose to emergency use authorize (EUA) the jab for young teenagers about a month later. It took the United States government another two months to finally fess up about the heart harms caused by Pfizer injections, this after thousands of teens had already taken the jab based on the agencys EUA. Pfizer (and thus the FDA; many of the documents say FDA: CONFIDENTIAL at the lower boundary) knew that, contrary to what the highly paid spokesmodels and bought-off physicians were assuring people, the MRNA, spike protein and lipid nanoparticles did not stay in the injection site in the deltoid, but rather went, within 48 hours, into the bloodstream, from there to lodge in the liver, spleen, adrenals, lymph nodes, and, if you are a woman, in the ovaries, reports Naomi Wolf on her Substack. Pfizer (and thus the FDA) knew that the Moderna vaccine had 100 mcg of MRNA, lipid nanoparticles and spike protein, which was more than three times the 30 mcg of the adult Pfizer dose; the companys internal documents show a higher rate of adverse events with the 100 mcg dose, so they stopped experimenting with that amount internally due to its reactogenicity Pfizers words but no one told all of the millions of Americans who all got the first and second 100 mcg Moderna dose, and the boosters. At every turn, Pfizer deceived the government and the public about the safety and effectiveness of its covid injections Pfizer blatantly lied about the number of participants who died in its final clinical trial, we also know. The company observed many more fatalities than it reported to the FDA, and has still not been punished for this crime. The company further recruited more female trial participants as opposed to male trial participants because men, it turns out, are far more prone to suffering cardiac damage from Pfizers Fauci Flu injections. At least 75 percent of test subjects, in fact, were female, and records of many of them mysteriously disappeared because even they were harmed by the shots. In the internal trials, Wolf writes, there were over 42,000 adverse events and more than 1200 people died. Four of the people who died, died on the day they were injected. Internal records at Pfizer told the truth, but almost none of this truth was publicly reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, for instance, contains completely different data that makes the shots appear safer and more effective than they actually are. There is also plenty of critical information missing about adverse events, which include joint pain, muscle pain (myalgia), neurological damage in the form of Guillain-Barre syndrome and Bells Palsy, blood clotting, stroke, and so much more. Pfizer even likened exposure to the jab as sexual contact, which is disturbing all on its own. Of course, people who have tried to raise any of these issues have been deplatformed, scolded by the President, called insane, and roundly punished, Wolf notes. If the subject matter of this story intrigued you, more like it can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: NaomiWolf.substack.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Lets begin with a basic truth that most of the corporate media continually ignore or obscure: President Trumps endorsement is the single most powerful force in the universe of American politics. Theres never been anything quite like it. Trump-endorsed candidates overwhelmingly prevailed in the latest GOP primaries by a margin of 24-4. In fact, President Trump is running the table on the GOP establishment in the 2022 races. His record stands at 92-7 at the moment. (Article by Emerald Robinson republished from EmeraldDB3.Substack.com) Trumps endorsement basically won the race for JD Vance in Ohio, and for Ted Budd in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, his endorsement did the same thing for Doug Mastriano in the governors race. This has happened again and again in 2022. Remember, Trumps record is 92-7. Thats what makes the primary results in Georgia last night so curious and so suspect. Georgia is the only state where President Trumps endorsements did not count. (Photo: VP Pence rallies for Brian Kemp and only 100 people show up but Kemp wins the race with 72% of the vote?) President Trump had endorsed quite a few candidates in Georgia, including David Perdue in the gubernatorial race with Brian Kemp, and Jody Hice in the race for Secretary of State against Brad Raffensperger. His endorsements were decisive in almost every political race in America this year. So why was Georgia such an outlier? Sure, Georgia is an open primary state Democrats are allowed to vote in the GOP primaries there but thats not the real story. Look at the RCP polling average: Brian Kemp was getting 52% of the votes and his main challenger, David Perdue, was getting 38% of the votes just before the race. On Primary Day in Georgia, Kemp gets 74% and Perdue gets 22%. Nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes. Ever. It doesnt happen. Obvious fraud. Brian Kemps funny numbers are not the only funny numbers in the Georgia primaries either. In the race for insurance commissioner, Trump-endorsed candidate Patrick Witt lost to a nobody named John King and John King got 70% of the votes! Now take a look at Patrick Witts numbers county by county: he got the same percentage of votes in 122 out of 159 counties in Georgia. Let me repeat: the same percentage. Patrick Witt gets the same percentage in deep blue counties as he gets in deep red counties. Uniform numbers. A month ago, the University of Georgia conducted a poll of Georgias Republican voters found very different results that directly contradict these funny numbers. In fact, the University of Georgia was predicting that Trump-endorsed candidates were going to win almost everything which is happening in every other state in the country right now. Allow me to quote at length: It was in the down-ballot races where Trumps endorsement made the most difference. State Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, who is running for lieutenant governor with Trumps endorsement against Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, saw his support in the poll soar from 29.7% to 58.9% among voters told Trump was backing his candidacy. Millers support dropped slightly from 10.6% to 8.2% when voters were told he was not Trumps pick. The large contingent of undecided voters in the lieutenant governors race 54.2% fell significantly to 29.8% among voters who were told Trump was backing Jones. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who refused to go along with Trumps attempts to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia in 2020, decided not to seek re-election. U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, who Trump is backing for secretary of state against incumbent Brad Raffensperger, doubled his support in the poll from 30.3% to 60.3% when voters were told of the former presidents endorsement. Conversely, support for Raffensperger dropped from 22.7% among voters who werent told of the endorsement, to 16.3%. Trumps endorsement even carried weight in a race that doesnt directly involve anyone who has riled the former president. Little-known Patrick Witt, who is challenging incumbent Insurance Commissioner John King, saw his support skyrocket from just 8.3% when voters werent told Trump had endorsed Witt, to 51.8% among voters who were made aware of the endorsement. Kings support slipped by a much smaller margin, from 10.6% to 7.2%. A third candidate in the race, Ben Cowart, also dropped from 9.6% to 4.5% when voters were told Trump had endorsed Witt. So, to summarize, Trumps endorsement is so powerful that Patrick Witt gets 52% of the vote, Jody Hice gets 60% of the vote, and Burt Jones gets 59% in a poll one month before the races. On Primary Day in Georgia, none of this happened. In fact, the candidates that were not endorsed by Trump went from single digits in the poll to commanding wins rarely seen in American politics. John King (who won with 70% remember!) was getting only 7% of the poll vote. Brad Raffensperger (who won!) got only 16% of the poll vote. Butch Miller (who might still win in a recount!) got only 8% of the poll vote. Ask yourself: is that possible? No, its not. Meanwhile, the election integrity organization VOTER GA held a press conference on Monday to announce that 102 Georgia counties could not produce their drop box surveillance videos for the stolen 2020 election. Let me repeat that number: 102 Georgia counties. Apparently, 72 counties were forced to admit that all those videos had been destroyed. Read the full press release for yourself. Something stinks in Georgia. The numbers are funny because many of these races were rigged. Read more at: EmeraldDB3.Substack.com (Natural News) For the past several months, the Western media has been manufacturing wild propaganda about Russian troops committing extreme atrocities against civilians in Ukraine. One now-debunked false claim alleged that there is a systemic, coordinated campaign of sexual violence by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women. It turns out that the whole thing is fake. And the guy who spread this lie, a top Ukrainian human rights representative, has now been fired for it. Lyudmyla Denisova made up a tale about 25 teenage girls who were supposedly gang-raped by Russian troops, resulting in nine of them becoming pregnant. The fake incident was said to have occurred in a basement in Bucha. Elderly women also claimed that they, too, were raped, along with young boys. TIME and other left-wing propaganda outlets ran with these and other stories, which became increasingly more sensational and over-the-top until they were finally nipped in the bud. As usual, the Western media had no proof other than hearsay, which seems to be the new standard of journalism in this country. It turns out that Denisova was a central figure feeding the Western media outlandish rape stories that she apparently just made up on the fly. And now the chickens have come home to roost for Denisova as she gets exposed for spreading lies about alleged war crimes that never happened. What other lies is the Western media telling us about Russia? Denisovas goal was to paint Russians as animals who violently rape and harm anything they see. There were even false claims that Russian soldiers were eating stray dogs, which was another attempt at dehumanizing them and galvanizing Western support for Ukraine in this conflict. According to the geopolitical analysis blog Moon of Alabama, various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Ukraine were all on the hunt for new Western money to funnel into their rape consultation and recovery projects. When they searched for real-life rape cases to make their case, however, they could not find any. These NGOs apparently then resorted to making up rape claims, which Denisova then spread to the Western media. Eventually, some caught on and wrote to Denisova requesting improved communication with only those cases bearing sufficient evidence. Sexual crimes during the war are family tragedies, a difficult traumatic topic, not a topic for publications in the spirit of the scandalous chronicle,' reads a May 25 appeal to Denisova calling on her to avoid sensationalism, excessive details, and other questionable content. We need to keep in mind the goal: to draw attention to the facts of crimes. The rape as a tool of war by the Russians narrative continued for some time, despite this petition. Only now is it beginning to visibly crumble, once again exposing the Western media and their sources in Ukraine as a pack of liars pushing a fraudulent agenda. Ukrainian lawmakers dismissed the countrys ombudsman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, in a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, concluding that she had failed to fulfill obligations including the facilitation of humanitarian corridors and countering the deportation of Ukrainians from occupied territory, reads a report from The Wall Street Journal. Lawmaker Pavlo Frolov said Ms. Denisova was also accused of making insensitive and unverifiable statements about alleged Russian sex crimes and spending too much time in Western Europe during the invasion. Frolov added in a Facebook post that Denisovas focus was unclear as it pertained to reporting the details of alleged sexual crimes committed in an unnatural way and the alleged rape of children by Russian soldiers. None of this, it turns out, could be confirmed by evidence. More related news about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine can be found at UkraineWitness.com. Sources for this article include: ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Joe Bidens new supply chain czar is a globalist through and through. Betty Cremmins, the White Houses new advisor to supply chain issues, is a bedfellow alum of the World Economic Forum (WEF). She headed up numerous climate change initiatives while at the WEF and is also a former fellow at a think tank chaired by Hunter Biden. Cremmins official title is Director for Sustainable Supply Chains at the White House, a title she has officially held since February. For the past several months, she has supposedly been overseeing Americas supply chain woes, which are, in part, a consequence of the Biden regimes Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine mandates for truckers and many other American workers. Right before she was appointed to this position, Cremmins was a National Security Fellow and Climate Affiliate Group Co-Lead at the Truman National Security Project. This left-leaning, Washington, D.C.-based foreign policy network has had Hunter Biden on its board since 2011. Now-archived versions of the groups website reveals that Hunter Biden progressively rose to the top of the pyramid, eventually gaining the role as vice-chairman of the board. He served there until at least March of 2019, which means his tenure there overlapped with Cremmins fellowship. The Biden regime is crawling with WEF-tied globalists As for Cremmins work at the WEF, keep in mind that the Klaus Schwab-run globalist organization has as part of its mission the abolishment of private property ownership. The WEF also used both the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic and climate change to push its Great Reset agenda. One WEF initiative that Cremmins led was called 1t.org. It involved support for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and she led it from June of 2020 to July of 2021. It sought to: conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees by 2030. Cremmins was later promoted to the Lead on Engagement for 1t.org, as well as the WEF Natural Climate Solutions Alliance, which has among its goals the combatting of climate change through voluntary or compliance action with businesses, governments and investors. Several articles on the WEF website pushing climate change agendas on the private sector bear Cremmins name as the author. One post from July 29, 2021, contains the following statement: Beyond the disruptive and tragic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world finds itself facing a crisis like no other in every corner of the planet; the accelerated destruction of nature and the impacts of climate change. Although these issues have often been regarded in silos, we cannot ignore that they are inextricably linked. Cremmins also worked at the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which is described as a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. CDP runs its own supply chain program where Cremmins worked as its Senior Account Manager. Her role involved prioritizing sustainability while combatting climate change at the worlds leading multinational corporations. In a slideshow presentation delivered by Cremmins, another stated goal of the CDP is [t]o transform the global economic system to prevent dangerous climate change. The National Pulse is credited with unearthing this information, which just goes to show that the Biden regime is infiltrated with WEF-linked activists who are advocating for Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-style re-education camps. Keep in mind that in the past, the WEF has hinted at the possible use of a global cyber pandemic to aid in the implementation of its Great Reset agenda. Is the Biden regime planning for this type of scenario in the near future? More related news about the Biden regime can be found at Corruption.news. Sources for this article include: TheNationalPulse.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The World Health Organization (WHO) does not believe that the current monkeypox outbreak spreading through many parts of the world will turn into the next global pandemic. There are nearly 600 confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox all over the world, with most of these cases being found in Europe, where the first outbreaks began. On Monday, May 30, the WHO said the monkeypox outbreak only posed a moderate threat to global health. (Related: Despite media claims, Americans shouldnt be concerned about monkeypox Brighteon.TV.) The WHO is considering designating the monkeypox outbreak as a potential public health emergency of international concern. While this sounds ominous, a spokesperson for the WHO noted that such a declaration is only meant to help accelerate research and funding to learn more about the disease and how to contain it. At the moment, we are not concerned about a global pandemic, noted Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the WHOs technical lead on monkeypox. Collectively, the world has an opportunity to stop this outbreak. Theres a window of opportunity where this can be contained. The WHO has determined that the primary mode of transmission is close contact. Most cases are still being reported in younger men, many of whom are men who have sex with men. But the WHO claims there is still some uncertainty regarding how monkeypox spreads and if asymptomatic individuals can infect other people. We really dont actually yet know whether theres an asymptomatic transmission of monkeypox, said Lewis. The indications in the past have been that this is not a major feature, but this remains to be determined. People with monkeypox being told to stay at home As of May 31, there is a total of 584 confirmed cases in 26 countries, with several hundred more suspected cases being monitored by national public health agencies. Western Europe remains the epicenter of the outbreak, having 70 percent of all cases. The United Kingdom leads the pack with 190 confirmed cases, followed by Spain and Portugal with 132 cases each. The United States has 16 recorded cases in nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York City alone has four cases. California and Florida have three confirmed cases each. Two cases have been spotted in Utah and Colorado and one each in Washington, Virginia, Massachusetts and Georgia. Most of the cases in the U.S. have been found in gay and bisexual men and can be traced back to international travel to areas currently experiencing their own outbreaks of monkeypox. Some countries have begun to stockpile vaccines against monkeypox by the millions. Others are even offering them to close contacts of confirmed monkeypox cases. Others are going even further by attempting to restrict the activities of confirmed and suspected cases. In the U.K., the government is urging cases to go into home isolation for up to 21 days. They should only leave their homes to go to the hospital, and when they do theyre told to wear face coverings and cover up rashes and lesions. People with monkeypox are also being told to not have sex while they still have symptoms of the disease. Cases should also abstain from sex while symptomatic, including the period of early symptom onset, and while lesions are present, reads the countrys guidelines for the ongoing outbreak. Whilst there is currently no available evidence of monkeypox in genital excretions, as a precaution, cases are advised to use condoms for eight weeks after infection and this guidance will be updated as evidence emerges. Experts are currently linking the current monkeypox outbreak to the Gay Pride Maspalomas festival on the island of Gran Canaria in the Spanish Canary Islands, which was held from May 5 to 15, and the Darklands fetish festival in Antwerp, Belgium, which ran from May 5 to 8. Health officials in the U.S. are now concerned that the country will find more new monkeypox cases as the country gears up for LGBT Pride parades this month. Learn more about monkeypox at Outbreak.news. Watch this video from InfoWars as host Owen Shroyer speculates whether the monkeypox outbreak is tied to the mRNA vaccines. This video can be found in the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related articles: Why did the government buy 13 million monkeypox vaccines from a biotech company backed by Fauci? 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. Monkeypox release is PSYCHOLOGICAL TERRORISM to keep humanity paralyzed with FEAR. Monkeypox just the latest engineered distraction as controlled demolition of human civilization accelerates. Sources include: News.Yahoo.com CIDRAP.UMN.edu QZ.com DailyMail.co.uk Brighteon.com This picture taken in Hong Kong on June 14, 2019, as part of a photo series to show how students prepared for protests and the threat of police tear gas and pepper spray, shows a packet of wet wipes. - Young Hong Kongers who marshalled the fight against police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets this week have revealed how years of peaceful protests failing to halt sliding freedoms pushed them to embrace more confrontational tactics. (Photo : Photo credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images) According to latest report, microscopic organisms on sewage-associated discarded polymer swept up on the seashore could somehow stick around well too much just to endanger public health and safety. Wet Wipes Might be a Habitat for Harmful Bacteria The researchers from the University of Stirling discovered highly focused water sources of pathogenic material on rubbish including certain disinfectant wipes as well as cotton cotyledonary tends to stick on Scottish beach resorts. Spearheaded by Professor Richard Quilliam, the study discovered that microorganisms such as E. coli as well as intestinal enterococci (IE) were so much more likely to adhere to some of these polymeric substances than it does to containing natural elements like seaweed and coarse aggregates, extending their durability in the ocean and on the sea shore. In the interview made by The Times with Professor Quilliam, he told the media that researchers generally understand exactly that industrial waste trash on public sandy beach is ugly, although it might also pose a serious health issue. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about untreated wastewater about to be immediately dumped in and out of nearby waterways, and even more so within a matter of time of severe rains whenever some municipal wastewater treatment facilities' potential for treatment option is exceeded. Furthermore, according to the recent report published under the news media site Daily Mail, Professor Quilliam told reporters that several of the polyethylene garbage researchers had already gathered might be from heritage wastewater breaches that have continued unabated in the ecosystem. However, the tonnage of debris researchers is witnessing is frightening. The crew gathered polymer debris from eleven beach resorts in Scotland's Firth of Forth delta, featuring swimming beach resorts like Aberdour Silver Sands and Portobello. Researchers anticipated to find a handful disinfectant wipes every now and then, however the crew returned with bundles of them. While the main proponent of a gained knowledge describing the experiment, Rebecca Metcalf, a Ph.D. expert at the University of Stirling, claimed in her statement that discovering fecal microorganisms might potentially suggest the presence of some of the various infections in humans like those of norovirus, rotavirus, as well as salmonella. Also read: Why Are Male Mice Afraid of Bananas? Harmful Bacteria from Disposed Wipes Wash Up on Beachfronts The amount within which individuals may be given access to these diseases is outside the knowledge base of the investigation, however adolescents gathering up and attempting to play with the wet wipes and perhaps other polycarbonate garbage on the seaside is quite often a concern. The researchers have further discovered scientific proof suggesting form of life of pathogens - a naturally occurring bacterium, a few other bacterial species of particular may induce quite a few serious gastrointestinal problems - were able to inhabit in the thrown disinfected tissues. Researchers subsequently discovered significant levels of resistant strains (antibiotic resistant bacteria) in the microorganisms on the disposables as well as cotton bud pieces. The study is an assessment of the Plastic Vectors research work, which is looking at how plastic materials in the economic climate might assist move germs as well as infectious agents, as well as the implications for public medical care. According to the article published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, sewage-associated polymer garbage thrown up on coastlines could indeed operate as a sanctuary for pathogenic material, possible human infections, and antibiotic susceptibility genetic mutations. Related article: Earth Heads to Catastrophe as Humans Make the Climate Warm and 'Chaotic' Although bumblebees and honeybees get all the attention, other bees are just as important to a thriving ecosystem. According to recent research, pollinator diversity is far more important than the bees that are frequently in the spotlight. Researchers have discovered that less common bees are more important to ecosystem health than previously thought, Treehugger reported. All Bees Matter Michael Roswell, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, collaborated with co-authors Lucia Weinman and Dylan Simpson to learn more about the importance of biodiversity in a healthy ecosystem. Weinman and Simpson observed that in different communities, different bee species play different roles, which did not fit into some emerging findings that the most common or dominant species are doing almost all the work. The two drafted a way to explore the roles of rare and common species in more naturalistic contexts. For the study, the team used data they collected from nearly a dozen locations in New Jersey over one year. The plots observed for the research included seeded wild meadows and fields. Roswell explained that their study suggests that as ecosystems get more complex, biodiversity may get more important because ecosystem services and processes arise from lots of species, and these species contribute in a variety of ways. More than 180 species of bees were discovered, with nearly 22,000 visits to more than 130 plant species. The pollination role of each type of bee with each plant was estimated using these visits. This was done because the bees that visit plants the most are usually the most important pollinators. The team discovered that the more plant species there are in a location, the more the ecosystem depends on a diverse group of bees to pollinate them. Roswell explained that different species provide pollination services to different plants in different ways, at different times, and in different ways. He stated that this is not surprising as this fact had been established long before that study. The consequences of changes and losses in biodiversity, Roswell later added, are a huge, looming question for ecologists. Because most species are rare, ecologists believed that rare species are more vulnerable to extinction. However, because many ecosystem processes are driven by common species, it is tempting to believe that declining biodiversity will have only minor consequences for ecosystems. Furthermore, Roswell stated that their study has revealed how species that seem rare and not important are often playing critical roles. Earlier studies on the roles of bees as pollinators often focused on specific plants or all plants in an ecosystem, treating them as if they were one species, according to the researchers. In these cases, the findings frequently exaggerated the importance of common bees, even though only 2% of bee species are responsible for 80% of crop pollination. The Other Bees in the Block Roswell pointed out that in New Jersey, there are likely over 400 species of wild bees. Fewer than 5% are bumblebee species. Their study revealed that bumblebees make up a quarter to half of the pollinators. He pointed out that honeybee and bumblebee populations decline frequently, landing the two species in the news more often. Less common bees are more vulnerable to extinction due to factors such as habitat loss, pollution, and climate change, whereas common bees are frequently studied due to their high visibility. Roswell further explained that both bumblebees and honeybees are larger-bodied, social organisms that can have large colonies, so they often gather in large numbers on flowering resources, and they're easy to see and hear. They are very effective pollinators in many systems. Read also: Leaf Fossils in Borneo Reveals Rainforest Biodiversity in the Island 4 Million Years Ago Roswell stated that sweat bees and small carpenter bees, spring-flying miner bees and mason bees, and other bees are also important pollinators in both crops and wild systems. The entomologist warned that the said species may also be in trouble and that learning more about their ecology and their role in pollination is a first step to conserving the bee species and the ecosystems they support. Roswell also emphasized that in the past several decades, ecology has coalesced around findings from experiments that show that ecosystem functions increase with biodiversity up to a certain level. The team wanted to understand how those results scale up to real-world ecosystems, which are much more complex. Related article: According To Study, Which Are Better for Bees, Organic Farming or Flower Strips? Two earthquakes struck Sichuan, a southwestern province in China, on Wednesday afternoon, June 1, killing at least four people, causing infrastructural damage, and resulting in travel delays. The tremors ranged between 6.1 and 4.5 magnitudes on the Richter scale, according to recent updates by local authorities and state media agency. Initial assessment of the natural calamity suggests that only one earthquake occurred in the province. However, it was followed by another earthquake on the same day. In addition, details of the number of casualties have also changed as 14 people have been confirmed injured. Earthquakes do occur in China but not as often in places situated along fault lines above the tectonic plates. If they do occur, the intensity can be destructive and level from moderate to high which posing life-threatening risks, especially in urban and mountainous areas. The recent earthquakes occur after a similar event killed hundreds of people in the region in 2013 and transpire more than a decade after China's deadliest earthquake in modern history was recorded in Sichuan, killing dozens of thousands of people. Sichuan Earthquake Update Both earthquakes struck the city of Ya'an in the province with the first tremor occurred in Lushan County at around 5:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday and had a depth of 10 miles (17 kilometers), situated 65 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, according to the China Earthquake Network Center, as cited by Reuters. The second quake happened three in minutes later Baoxing County, and Xinhua News Agency, as cited by CNBC. More than 1,400 rescuers arrived in the area and the quake impact damage some houses, according to the Sichuan fire department. The Southwest Railway Authority also announced the closure of some sections of train tracks, leading to railway disruptions affecting passenger trains. Also Read: 6.4-Magnitude Earthquake in China's Yunnan Province Kills Three, Leaves 28 Injured Casualties and Infrastructural Damage All the casualties of the earthquakes were confirmed, as of 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, to be from the Baoxing county of the province. The four people who died were hit by falling rocks or landslides. The wounded were sent to the hospital for medical treatment, according to Xinhua News Agency. The Chinese state media also added that the quake damaged telecommunication Lushan County and Baoxing County. Emergency repairs led to the restoration of some optic cables. Furthermore, the agency cited a statement from the provincial earthquake administration that the 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Lushan County was an aftershock of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck the county in 2013, which killed 196 people and injuring thousands. 2008 Sichuan Earthquake Also called the Great Sichuan earthquake or the Wenchuan earthquake, Sichuan was struck by a 7.9 magnitude quake back in 2008, which killed almost 90,000 people and injured almost 400,000 with approximately 18,000 missing people. Multiple studies posted on Science Direct collectively asserted that 2008 Sichuan earthquake resulted in at least 828 landslide dams, while some only limited them to 257. In addition, the said quake occurred in the afternoon of that year which reportedly meant that children were attending their classes in schools and workers were present in factories. Related Article: 3 Dead, Dozens Injured as Powerful 6.0 Earthquake Struck Southwest China Kabul/New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) In Indias first major outreach to the Taliban, a team of senior MEA officials today visited Kabul and held talks with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in discussions that focused on diplomatic ties with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, bilateral trade and humanitarian assistance. While the MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi was hard put in saying that the visit of the team, led by JP Singh, Joint Secretary in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk, should not be seen as anything other than a visit to oversee delivery of humanitarian assistance, the Taliban clearly stated otherwise. Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson of the Taliban foreign ministry, in a series of tweets, said that The Indian delegation said they sought positive relations with Afghanistan as in the past. A bison attacked and injured an Ohio woman at the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming during the Memorial Day on Monday, May 30. While the wild animal attack itself is not surprising, the specific trigger remains uncertain. However, park officials reportedly claimed that the woman walked too close to the bison, near enough to catch the attention of the animal, which has been known to be potentially dangerous with or without warning when approached by anyone. Bison Attack During the attack, the two-horned mammal pierced and threw the 25-year-old woman from Grove City, Ohio, into the air at about 10 feet (3 meters), according to reports on Wednesday, June 1. The incident occurred when the woman approached the bison while it was heading toward a platform in the Black Sand Basin area of the park. The site is known for its cluster of geothermal hot springs situated in Northwest Wyoming. Park officials exclaimed, during an official statement, that wildlife at the Yellow National Park can be dangerous or life-threatening when approached, as cited by Reuters. The Ohio woman sustained puncture wounds and other injuries to her body. Local authorities transferred her to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The hospital is located around 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of the Black Sand Basin. There are approximately more than 5,000 bison across the Yellowstone National Park, which has a total land area of almost 9,000 square kilometers mostly covering Wyoming and extends into Idaho and Montana. The bison attack during the Memorial Day weekend is reportedly the first in 2022. Over recent years, related wild bison attacks have been reported at the Yellowstone National Park, which paved the way for the reinforcement of warnings for visitors viewing wildlife in the park. This came after a bison attacked a young girl at the same park in 2019, according to local news KHQ. Also Read: Bison: National Mammal, Says Senate American Bison In North America, the said animal's population found in the sub-continent are called "bison" or "buffalo" with the former used formally and the latter informally. However, both refer to the American bison under the scientific name Bison bison, according to the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS estimates around 30 to 60 million bison roamed North America before 1850s with majority lived on the Great Plains. The American bison population decreased due to hunting which almost led to the species' extinction. In current times, the US agency states about 30,000 bison still live in both private and public herds across North America. Meanwhile, the NPS added that approximately 400,000 bison are being raised as livestock, highlighting that a Yellowstone bison is the most best example of wild plain bison and efforts to preserve them. Despite of the decreased population, bison are not considered as a threatened or endangered species. Bison are herbivore animals with a lifespan of 12 to 20 years and they can weigh up to 930 to 2,000 pounds, making them the heaviest animal in North America and a symbolic animal of the Great Plains, according to the National Geographic. Related Article: Genetically Pure Bison Still Exist; Provide Stronghold For Conservation Food allergies can be detrimental to one's health and may lead to health complications or even death. However, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study discovered that allergic reactions come with benefits when it comes to help evading or lowering the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study highlighted the complex mechanisms behind our immune system. In addition, it also explored the mitigating and aggravating risks of certain medical conditions that can affect the severity of the novel coronavirus disease, regardless of age and sex. Still, the research underscored the importance of COVID-19 vaccines. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, SARS-CoV-2 transmission has increased worldwide, with first reported cases from Wuhan, China, and eventually spreading throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in the succeeding months. The global outbreak resulted both strict local and international travel restrictions, hampering economic activities, and affecting various businesses across all sectors. Nevertheless, a breakthrough came in the development of the first vaccines by the end of 2020. Food Allergies and SARS-CoV-2 According to a media release by the NIH on Wednesday, June 1, a person with food allergy are less likely to get infected with SARS-CoV-2 than those people without such allergies. The institute also added that high body mass index (BMI) and obesity increases infection risk. On the other hand, the NIH stated that having asthma does the opposite effect as it does not raise the infection risk as previously thought. However, the prevailing research that unvaccinated individual with medical conditions is still at high risk from experiencing health complications in the form of severe or lethal COVID-19 symptoms, such as shortness of breath, fatigue, and fever. The findings of the NIH-funded study was conducted by the Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 (HEROS). It has been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, wherein researchers also found that children aged 12 years old or younger also susceptible to the virus. However, 75% of infections among children are asymptomatic. Also Read: China's Infected COVID-19 Cases Shoot Up to 13,000 with a New Omicron Subtype HEROS Study Between May 2020 and February 2021, scientists from the HEROS study monitored SARS-CoV-2 infection to over 4,000 people in almost 1,400 households in 12 cities across the United States. The age of the participants are 21 years old and below. The said subjects were recruited from other existing NIH-funded research focusing on allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, food allergy, asthma, and eczema. Given the said period, the study took place at a time before widespread COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out to the general public. The pre-vaccine surveillance on the participants allowed the research team to independently analyze their results. COVID-19 Cases According to the global map of Johns Hopkins University, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide has reached 530 million and confirmed deaths of almost 6.3 million as of Thursday, June 2. In the US, latest COVID-19 report noted that there are a total of 84 million confirmed cases and 1 million deaths. California has the highest number of reported cases and fatalities followed by Texas and Florida, according to The New York Times. Related Article: Fatigue, Other Side Effects Gone with New COVID-19 Vaccination Method A document was published on Twitter by Louis Cheung about what the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force could be like in 2025. The Navy would include four aircraft carriers, eight Type 075 landing helicopter docks (LHD), three Type 076 landing helicopter docks, and 291 other ships. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Overview of the future Surface Chinese Force (Picture source: Weibo) Two Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers The Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier, Soviet designation Project 1143.5, is a class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers operated by the Russian and Chinese navies. Originally designed for the Soviet Navy, the Kuznetsov-class ships use a ski-jump to launch high-performance conventional aircraft in a STOBAR configuration. They measure about 315 metres (1,033 ft) long, with a displacement of about 55,000 tonnes (66,000 - 70,000 loaded). Two Chinese-made aircraft carriers The Type 003 aircraft carrier is a second-generation Chinese aircraft carrier under construction for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China. It will be the first Chinese aircraft carrier to use a CATOBAR system and electromagnetic (EM) launch catapults. Eight Type 075 landing helicopter docks The Type 075 landing helicopter dock (NATO reporting name: Yushen-class landing helicopter assault) is a class of Chinese amphibious assault ships under construction by the HudongZhonghua Shipbuilding company for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has a full-length flight deck for helicopter operations and features a floodable well deck from which to disembark hovercraft and armored amphibious assault vehicles. The LHD has a displacement of 36,000 tons, a capacity of 30 helicopters, diesel engine with the 9,000 kW 16PC2-6B, and four CIWS including two HHQ-10 and two H/PJ-11. Three Type 076 landing helicopter docks The Type 076 landing helicopter dock is a class of planned Chinese amphibious assault ship. Compared to the Type 075, the Type 076 is expected to have an electromagnetic aircraft catapult and arresting gear for operating fixed-wing aircraft, likely unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV). Twelve Type 071 amphibious transport dock The Type 071 (NATO reporting name: Yuzhao) is a class of Chinese amphibious transport dock ships in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The amphibious warfare ship features a vehicle deck, well-deck, landing deck, and a hangar. It can carry a combination of marines, vehicles, landing craft, and helicopters. The ship may embark 600 to 800 troops. The stern helicopter deck offers two landing spots for supporting the operations of two Z-8 (SA 321 Super Frelon) transport helicopters. The twin-door cantilever hangar can house up to four Z-8 helicopters. Sixteen Type 055 destroyers The Type 055 destroyer (NATO/OSD Renhai-class cruiser) is a class of stealth guided missile destroyers (guided-missile cruisers per NATO/OSD standard) being constructed for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. It is a multi-mission design; the combination of sensors and weapons suggests a main role of area air defense, with anti-submarine warfare capabilities surpassing previous Chinese surface combatants. Having a displacement of more than 12,000 tons, Type 055 is equipped with 112 vertical launch missile cells capable of launching a combination of surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, land-attack missiles, and anti-submarine missiles. Forty Type 052D destroyers The Type 052D destroyer (Luyang III-class destroyer) is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The destroyer uses a canister-type, instead of a revolver-type, vertical launching system (VLS) and has flat-paneled active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. Overview of the future Surface Chinese Force (Picture source: Weibo) According to a tweet published by the Israeli Defense Forces on June 2, 2022, Israeli Navy missile ships (Saar 5 and 4.5 Class Corvettes) and submarine (Dolphin-class INS Tekuma) flotillas returned from a complex and lengthy training drill in the Red Sea amid tensions with Iran. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Dolphin-class submarine INS Tekumah (Picture source: Israeli Defense Forces) Sa'ar 5 is a class of Israeli Navy corvettes. They were Israeli designed using lessons learned from the Sa'ar 4.5-class missile boats. Three Sa'ar 5 ships were built by Huntington Ingalls Industries (formerly Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi) for the Israeli Navy, based on Israeli designs. They are equipped with sonar, 2 triple torpedoes, 2 quadruple missile launchers, electronic warfare capabilities and decoys, a Close-in weapon system, 2 autocannon, and a helipad and helicopter hangar. About Dolphin-class submarine INS Tekumah The Dolphin class is a diesel-electric submarine developed in Israel and constructed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) in Kiel, Germany, for the Israeli Navy. The submarines have a length of 57.3 m (188 ft), a beam of 6.8 m (22 ft), and a draught of 6.2 m (20 ft). She can reach a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). Each submarine is fitted with 6 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes, and 4 650 mm (26 in) torpedo tubes. The very large 650 mm tubes can be used for laying mines, larger submarine-launched cruise missiles, or swimmer delivery vehicles, and with liners, the tubes could be used for standard torpedoes and submarine-launched missiles. According to a PR published by Boeing on June 2, 2022, the firm and several Canadian industry partners announced their intent to collaborate to provide the capability and sustainability of the proven P-8A Poseidon for the Canadian Multi-Mission Aircraft (CMMA) requirement. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Royal Air Force's Poseidon P8-A maritime patrol aircraft (Picture source: UK MoD) Team Poseidon, consisting of CAE, GE Aviation Canada, IMP Aerospace & Defence, KF Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace Canada and Raytheon Canada, forms the cornerstone of a Canadian P-8 industrial footprint. The team builds on 81 Canadian suppliers to the platform and to more than 550 Canadian suppliers across all provinces contributing to Boeing's annual CAD $5.3 billion in economic benefit to Canada, supporting more than 20,000 Canadian jobs. The Boeing P-8A is a proven military off-the-shelf solution with nearly 150 aircraft delivered to five nations to date. The P-8 will improve Canadas capability to defend its northern and maritime borders while ensuring interoperability with NORAD and NATO allies. As a leading platform for reducing the environmental impact of military aircraft, the P-8 can operate on a 50% blend of sustainable aviation fuel today with aspirations to move toward 100% with investment in new technology. The P-8A Poseidon offers advanced anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and search and rescue capability, and is the only in-service, in-production multi-mission aircraft that meets all CMMA requirements. The P-8 also has the added distinction of strengthening the connection between national security and environmental stewardship. The P-8A can be armed with torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and other weapons. The Harpoon also called AGM-84 called is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile, developed and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). It gives the Poseidon the ability to challenge enemy naval movements, either in support of offensive operations or in order to defend friendly forces. Having executed more than 450,000 collective mishap-free flight hours, the P-8A Poseidon has proven its capability to operate around the globe in the harshest flight regimes including extended operations in extreme cold weather and icing environments. Current Boeing P-8 customers include the US Navy, Indian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Air Force, Royal Norwegian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Republic of Korea Navy, and Germany Navy. Geneva, June 2 (UNI/Sputnik) The World Health Organization (WHO) has been informed about over 550 confirmed monkeypox cases in 30 non-endemic countries around the globe, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "More than 550 confirmed cases have now been reported to WHO, from 30 countries that are not endemic for monkeypox virus," the WHO head told a briefing. The director general noted that the virus may have been spreading unnoticed for some time given that the virus simultaneously appeared in many non-endemic countries. The WHO expects more monkeypox cases in the future and is urging "affected countries to widen their surveillance, to look for cases in the broader community," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the fight against monkeypox spread "could also prevent infected individuals from seeking care, making it harder to stop transmission." He also added that "monkeypox symptoms resolve on their own, but can be severe in some cases." The WHO's priority now is to inform those groups most at risk of monkeypox, to prevent further spread among at-risk groups, to protect frontline health workers, and to advance the understanding of the disease, he said. Hundreds of monkeypox cases have been registered in European countries, Australia, and the United States. Medical officers are still unsure about the ways the infection has spread since monkeypox is endemic in African countries and the majority of those infected have neither had any contact with African people nor traveled there. According to the WHO, the majority of cases have spread among gay and bisexual men through mass events. Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that is usually transmitted to people from wild animals. The disease can be transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets, and other contaminated materials. The disease usually results in fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes. UNI/SPUTNIK GNK New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday slammed the government for making Kashmiri Pandits a "ladder to power" and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take urgent steps to restore peace in the Valley. "Bank managers, teachers and many innocent people are getting killed everyday, Kashmiri Pandits are fleeing. Those who have to protect them, are busy in promoting film. BJP has only made Kashmir its ladder of power," Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet. "Take immediate steps to restore peace in Kashmir, Prime Minister," he said. A bank manager from Rajasthan was shot dead in a yet another targeted attack in broad daylight in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday morning, triggering widespread condemnation. The attack took place two days after a 36-year-old teacher from Samba, Rajni Bala, was killed in the same district. The spree of targeted killing has sparked fresh fears among Kashmiri Pandit employees, recruited under the Prime Ministers special rehabilitation package, and Hindu employees from Jammu and other states posted in the Kashmir Valley. UNI AO SHK1755 Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Izumo-class helicopter destroyer JS Kaga participates in the US-Japan joint military exercise. (File photo) By Liu Shigang As a losing party in WWII, Japan formulated its Peace Constitution after the war and set many restrictions on itself in terms of defense, including not exporting weapons to other countries, defense expenditure not exceeding 1% of GDP, and announcing the Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan. However, for many years, the Japanese government has constantly broken relevant policy restrictions in an attempt to hollow out the Peace Constitution, with its defense policy becoming increasingly offensive. Not long ago, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced at the joint press briefing after his meeting with US president Joe Biden that Japan will fundamentally reinforce its defense capabilities and increase its defense budget by a large margin. That was the latest development of Japans endeavor to break free from the Peace Constitution and change the current defense policy. Japan may double defense budget Itsunori Onodera, former defense minister and chairman of the LDPs Research Commission on Security, suggested the Japanese government follow NATOs standard and raise the cap on the proportion of defense budget in GDP from 1% to 2% in the next five years. This suggestion, if adopted, will double Japans current defense budget at least. The countrys defense budget already hit 6.17 trillion Yen in 2022. According to numbers published on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the JSDF has about 268,000 members at the moment, which means its per capita defense budget in 2021 was 30% of US$572,000, the per capita defense budget of US members. If Japan were to increase its defense budget to over 2% of GDP, then JSDFs per capita defense spending would exceed 60% of the American number, and Tokyo would definitely break the balance of power in the region. Japan to move from exclusive defense orientation to preemptive action Japan has been complying with the exclusively defense-oriented policy since the end of WWII, but not so strictly and willingly in recent years. At the beginning of this century, it bought a lot of US-made missile defense systems to obtain the capacity to issue an early warning and attack an enemy countrys missile launch bases. Itsunori Onodera said JSDFs counterstrike capability should include the ability to attack the enemy when realizing its intention to attack Japan. Japan is currently developing a cruise missile with an alleged range of 1,000km and new types of ground-to-air, air-to-ship and ship-to-ship missiles, with the possibility of developing medium and long-range ground-to-ground missiles further down the road to enable itself to make so-called preventive attacks against other countries. By that time, the exclusively defense-oriented policy will be nothing but an empty shell. Exception of weapon provision is a bad beginning After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, Japan passed the revision to the Implementation Guidelines for the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, allowing its defense minister to provide JSDFs defense equipment to Ukraine. This was the first time that JSDF provided defense equipment to a party engaged in an ongoing war. What Japan did was not only a serious breach of the spirit of settling international disputes by peaceful means enshrined in the UN charter, but also went against the rule in its Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology that it is prohibited from transferring defense equipment to a country currently engaged in a conflict. With this bad precedent, its possible that Japan will repeat this trick making an ad-hoc revision to the three principles and giving itself the legal basis to provide JSDFs weapons and equipment to a conflicting party whenever something happens in its surroundings, paving the way for external military intervention. In 2014, Japan, by revising the constitutional interpretations, lifted the ban on collective self-defense in a limited way, and expanded the conditions for it to use force when an armed attack against a foreign country that is in a close relationship with Japan occurs and as a result threatens Japans survival and poses a clear danger. These successive, cumulative deviations of Japans defense policy are sending a dangerous signal, and all parties should raise a high alert. (The author is from the Institute of War Studies of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences) Colombo, June 2 (UNI) A Russian-operated airplane was seized by Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday shortly before it was due to return to Moscow with nearly 200 people on board, airport officials said, according to Khaleej Times. The Aeroflot Airbus A330, which had arrived in Colombo from Moscow earlier in the day, was prevented from returning following an order from Colombo Commercial Court, said an official for the Bandaranaike International Airport. Aeroflot, Russia's flagship carrier, suspended all international flights in March following tough Western sanctions over Moscow's attack on Ukraine, but resumed operations to Colombo in April. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 79F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Ethan Simmons is a reporter at The News-Gazette covering the University of Illinois. His email is esimmons@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@ethancsimmons). Champaign, IL (61820) Today Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 59F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 59F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. A remarkable discovery and collaborative effort have revealed a new type of triterpenes, a group of organic compounds which are an important source of many medicines. Until now, all triterpenes were believed to be derived from squalene, itself a type of triterpene. However, for the very first time, researchers witnessed biosynthesis, the formation of complex compounds from simple ones in living organisms, of triterpenes in fungi without the use of squalene. This important discovery opens up a whole new world of possibilities for pharmaceutical science. Triterpenes are organic compounds which are abundantly found in animals, plants, microorganisms and even us. About 20,000 different triterpenes have been found and they are widely used in cosmetics, food supplements and, most importantly, medicine, thanks to their anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and other valuable properties. Until now, all known triterpenes were thought to be generated from a common precursor or source, squalene. However, as revealed in Nature, a collaborative effort among the University of Tokyo and KEK in Japan, Wuhan University in China and Bonn University in Germany, has found a new type of triterpenes that doesn't require squalene. Nobody could have imagined this happening in nature. This is the discovery of a new biosynthetic machine." Ikuro Abe, Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo Often, multiple enzyme reactions are needed to create complex molecular compounds, such as when our bodies use squalene to create hormones and bile acid. However, in just a single enzyme reaction, a simple molecule called a C5 isoprene unit, or building block, was the starter to construct a very complex triterpene molecular structure. The discovery happened almost by accident by the team at Wuhan University, who were working on genome mining to find new natural products. They were not necessarily searching for triterpenes, but they found new genes widely distributed in fungi. "They didn't know the genes' function," said Abe. "So they did a characterization of these news genes, and one of them happened to be triterpene synthesis." That is when they asked the other teams to get involved. According to Abe, the team at Bonn University are good at chemistry, so they worked on elucidating the detailed enzyme reaction mechanism, and researchers at the University of Tokyo and KEK applied their expertise in structural analysis. He said that once you understand the structure, you can modify it. "Change something here or there and see what happens. We can understand the structure-function relationship. It's like a puzzle," he explained. "Chemistry in nature is more efficient than the chemical synthesis we use in industry. That is why we are interested in the biosynthetic processes done in nature," Abe said. "Nature's method is a better, cheaper and cleaner process. We are trying to better understand how processes take place in nature so that we can recreate or redesign it in the lab, to get more and more important and useful compounds." This new discovery is only the beginning. "Now that we have solved the protein structure, we are already manipulating the biosynthetic machinery to try to produce more useful molecules, for example, for drug development," Abe said. Blocking an immune response-related enzyme holds promise in preventing or treating severe COVID-19 symptoms by reducing inflammation, tissue injury and blood clots in the lungs, new research in mice suggests. Scientists who have long studied this molecule's functions in bacterial infections traced development of extensive lung damage in infected mice to heightened levels of the enzyme triggered by the invading SARS-CoV-2 virus. Versions of this enzyme exist and have similar functions in both mice and humans they're called caspase 11 and caspase 4, respectively. After finding that the molecule is an attractive therapeutic target, researchers are exploring compounds that could safely and effectively block its activation. The whole idea is if this molecule is not there, the mouse will do better, which means if you target this molecule, then humans should do better." Amal Amer, co-senior study author, professor of microbial infection and immunity, The Ohio State University College of Medicine The research was published online recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Amer teamed with Ohio State flu and COVID virologist Jacob Yount to look into caspase 11's role in coronavirus infection. Their labs ran a number of experiments comparing COVID infection outcomes in normal mice and mice genetically engineered so they don't produce the enzyme. "From the first experiment, we saw caspase 11 knockout mice had less severe infections and started to recover after only a couple of days," said Yount, associate professor of microbial infection and immunity and co-senior author of the study. Previous research has shown that caspase 11 in mice has many of the same immune-response functions as caspase 4 in humans. In both species, the enzyme is produced upon the onset of an infection. This study supports the notion that what was seen in the mice has relevance to humans: The researchers analyzed nationally available COVID-19 patient data and found that caspase 4 was highly expressed in people hospitalized in the ICU linking its presence to severe disease. Lung tissue samples from COVID patients also showed high activation of the molecule. The sickest COVID-19 patients develop acute respiratory distress syndrome resulting from the combination of high levels of pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines, fluid accumulation in air sacs that seeps into lung tissue and blood clots, or thrombosis, caused by damage to cells lining vessel walls. In a series of experiments, the research team found that inhibiting caspase 11 reduced the intensity of multiple effects. They used a version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that other scientists have engineered specifically to cause disease in mice. (The human coronavirus does not make mice sick.) Among the most striking findings: lower recruitment and inflammatory priming of first-responder cells called neutrophils, white blood cells whose job is to heal wounds and clear away infection they are important, but have a tendency to perpetuate inflammation that damages tissue and contributes to blood clot formation. A technique used to image the tiniest capillaries in mouse lungs also showed that while the blood vessels in the lungs of normal mice infected with the virus were spotted with clots, the capillaries of mice lacking caspase 11 remained free of thrombosis. "What happens in the lung with COVID can be worse than with other infections. It's amazing that caspase 11 is controlling many of those unique aspects of COVID-19 pathology," Yount said. Amer said this research has opened up new ways of thinking about the enzyme's possible role in a host of diseases. Its role in exacerbating lung damage in COVID-19 was an unexpected finding the activation of caspase 11 and caspase 4 in bacterial infections has a protective function, setting up immune cells to kill bacterial pathogens. Caspase 11 is known to need the help of a specific protein called gasdermin-D to ward off bacterial infections, but this work showed the enzyme intensified lung damage in COVID-19 infection without making use of gasdermin-D. The link to blood clotting also suggests caspase 11's effects in the presence of infection probably don't stop with the lungs, and may affect disease conditions in the heart, brain and elsewhere in the body. "We discovered caspase 11 has other pathways, and we are looking at the function of caspase 11 in all of the types of cells that cause thrombosis," she said. In the meantime, Amer's lab is already testing a caspase 11 blocker that she believes has potential to become a human drug candidate. "This molecule has been found to inhibit thrombosis, inflammation and secretion of cytokines, and it also inhibits caspase 11," she said. "No one had put together that inhibition of caspase 11 has an effect on these downstream problems. This caspase inhibitor may save the day." This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Lung Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Ohio State's Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity, and an Ohio State Distinguished University Fellowship. Inviting people who don't have symptoms to be screened for prostate cancer is not currently recommended and should be approached with caution because, for most men, the benefit is small and uncertain and there are clear harms, warn experts in The BMJ today. NHS England teamed up with Prostate Cancer UK earlier this year to find the 14,000 men estimated to have not yet started treatment for prostate cancer because of the pandemic. However, experts warn that screening for prostate cancer is not currently recommended by the UK National Screening Committee. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises GPs that "testing should not be offered to asymptomatic people", although a test can be requested by a patient who has been made aware of the possible harms and benefits. The campaign encourages men to use a 'risk checker' and if concerned, speak to their GP about possible next steps, including a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. But in the UK and the US, routine PSA screening is not recommended because research has shown that the test can, at best, prevent one prostate cancer death for every 1000 patients tested over 10 years. PSA testing also carries a risk of overdiagnosis healthy men being diagnosed and treated unnecessarily for slow-growing and harmless tumors. While the authors acknowledge that the campaign's message aligns with the established principle of allowing patients to decide for themselves on PSA testing, and the risk checker does provide some valuable information, they say encouraging all asymptomatic men older than 50 to book a GP appointment to discuss their risk "seems to depart from this cautious approach" and also has resource implications. That the campaign encourages detection of asymptomatic disease could lead people to believe that the NHS is promoting screening, the experts add. In the UK and the US, asymptomatic men can opt for a PSA test after exploring their options with their doctor. However, the experts suggest that reaching a shared decision on the value of a PSA test is complex and time-consuming. "GPs and patients need practical up-to-date guidance on PSA testing, including recommended evidence based tools and resources to support shared decision making," write the authors. "If a risk checker tool is to be promoted as part of an early detection strategy, the tool must be evidence based and evaluated appropriately." Better ways to detect prostate cancer earlier are being evaluated but in the meantime, "efforts must continue to focus on prompt diagnosis of symptomatic patients, and generating the evidence of the clinical and cost-effectiveness, and safety of any national screening program," they conclude. UW Oral History Team to Collect Information From Kemmerer, Diamondville Residents A University of Wyoming team of students, faculty and professionals will be in Kemmerer and Diamondville June 15-24 for a 10-day field school to collect oral histories and videography to chronicle local residents experiences. Both Lincoln County communities have historically been shaped by the coal industry. The focus of the Kemmerer-Diamondville Oral History Project -- two years in the making -- is to document how residents perceive their communities, especially in light of TerraPowers recent announcement that the companys Natrium reactor demonstration project will be located near the two communities. The project is sponsored by UWs American Studies Program and the American Heritage Center (AHC), with funding from Wyoming Humanities and the Wyoming Community Foundation, and support from the Lincoln County Library System. The field school features training for UW students in the use of audio and video equipment to conduct interviews in an immersive experience. Andrea Graham, a senior research scientist and folklife specialist in UWs American Studies Program, and Leslie Waggener, AHC archivist, are the UW faculty guiding the project. Oral history is about people telling their own stories, describing both their personal histories and their sense of place and community, from the past to the future, Graham says. Waggener says she looks forward to being with UW students as they learn more about oral history. The project will provide the students with an in-depth look at two Wyoming communities full of interesting people and history, Waggener adds. At the end of the field school, UW students and faculty will give a presentation about their work and preliminary findings at the Lincoln County Library, located at 519 Emerald St. in Kemmerer. The free public event -- to allow residents to learn initial outcomes of the project -- is at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 23. All materials gathered during the project will be archived at the AHC as well as the Lincoln County Library, which is collaborating with UW on the project. The materials also will be used in future public programming, such as a traveling exhibition and media broadcasts. For more information, email Waggener at lwaggen2@uwyo.edu. Survival has improved greatly in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). But a certain form of ALL that occurs mostly in babies is still very lethal, with a survival rate below 50 percent: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with rearrangements of the mixed lineage leukemia gene, or MLL B-ALL. Something about the biology of this type of leukemia is very peculiar. It can switch its cellular lineage from lymphoid to myeloid and it aggressively infiltrates the nervous system." Grant Rowe, MD, PhD, attending physician, Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center New work by Rowe, together with members of the Stem Cell Program and the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, may open a window to treating this aggressive, chemotherapy-resistant form of B-ALL. Probing leukemia-initiating cells Knowing that self-renewing leukemia-initiating cells spark relapse of high-risk B-ALL, Rowe and his colleagues wanted to better understand their properties. They used single-cell RNA sequencing to see what genes these cells were turning on at different points, coupled with transplant experiments to study the cells' proliferation. This brought several key insights, published recently in Cell Reports (April 26). First, leukemia-initiating cells were more abundant in MLL B-ALL than expected. Second, they could emerge not only from immature, undifferentiated B-ALL cells, but also from more mature cell populations. And third, they were of two types. "We found an enriched population of apparent leukemia-initiating cells," says Rowe. "But these cells would change state. It turns out that they can adjust their metabolic profile to go from a stem-cell state to a non-stem-cell state, and vice versa." RNA profiling revealed two distinct metabolic states: an active, proliferation and growth state, marked by energy production through oxidative phosphorylation a quieter, stem cell state, marked by low-oxygen conditions and energy production through glycolysis, likely reflecting an ability to remain latent, similar to normal blood stem cells. The cells' ability to morph between these two states could explain why they are so hard to target, and why MLL-rearranged B-ALL is so dangerous, Rowe says. Taming high-risk B-ALL aggression The most surprising discovery was a paradox: When the researchers tried inhibiting leukemia cells in the active proliferation state, more of these cells emerged, contrary to results reported in other forms of leukemia. "Many therapies in adult leukemia try to target the oxidative phosphorylation state to curb growth," says Rowe. "We thought this infant leukemia would follow that same paradigm, but we were surprised that the intervention had the opposite effect. It slowed overall proliferation, but by forcing the leukemia cells to assume a more resting state, more stem-like cells emerged and made the leukemia more aggressive." Conversely, Rowe and colleagues found that targeting leukemia-initiating cells in their quiet state, by inhibiting glycolysis and hypoxic signaling, curbed the leukemia. It forced the cells back to the oxidative phosphorylation state, but they lost their leukemia-initiating properties in the process. "They don't seem to act like stem cells any more, and don't have the leukemia-initiating properties that seem to be related to relapse," says Rowe. "We need to go after stem cells in this infant leukemia differently than we do in adults." An agenda for the future Eventually, these insights could lead to a new approach to taking down this tough cancer. The hypoxic, glycolytic state is a way for the cancer to lie low, but it's also a vulnerability that presents an opportunity. A chemotherapy drug previously used for solid tumors, echinomycin, inhibits hypoxic signaling. Rowe and colleagues tried it in mice transplanted with human MLL-rearranged B-ALL. Two weeks of echinomycin treatment slowed the growth the leukemia and depleted leukemia-initiating cells. "We know how to dose this drug in children and its safety profiles," says Rowe. "But our next step is to try to better understand the properties of leukemia-initiating cells, see if they're shared in other aggressive leukemias, and better understand how to target them." His lab is also interested in doing similar profiling of other forms of ALL across the age spectrum. "Hopefully we can better understand the initiating cell properties using this type of approach, and identify new vulnerabilities that could be predicted by genetics or other factors read out from the tumor." "Studies like these from Dr. Rowe's lab provide deep insight into the biology of this aggressive type of childhood leukemia and may help us develop desperately needed novel therapeutic approaches," says Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, associate chief of hematology/oncology at Boston Children's and president of Dana-Farber/Boston Children's. A new string-like implant can monitor fluctuations in brain chemicals, like a fitness tracker for the brain. Imbalances in brain chemistry are at the heart of many neurologic diseases. These same brain chemicals also play roles in gut health. So, scientists at Stanford invented "NeuroString"-;a soft implantable probe that can interface seamlessly with both brain and gut tissue. They describe the probe in a paper published June 2, 2022 in Nature. It has potential applications in depression, Parkinson's disease, and intestinal diseases. The mainstream way people are trying to understand the brain is to read and record electric signals. But chemical signals play just as significant a role in brain communication, and they are also directly related to diseases." Jinxing Li, the paper's first author Li started and performed the work as a postdoc in Zhenan Bao's lab in Stanford's Department of Chemical Engineering; he is now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan State University. NeuroString measures dopamine and serotonin, two chemical messengers that modulate electrical signals in neurons. Dopamine is best known for its role in the brain's reward system; serotonin is the target of antidepressants like Prozac. Both are also involved in movement, sleep, appetite, and digestion. Implants that measure dopamine and serotonin already exist, but they are made of rigid carbon rods encased in glass tubes. "Those are very rigid probes. They are very brittle," Li says. Not only can the implant shatter, it also chafes against the squishy tissue in the brain, which can inflame brain cells and degrade the implant. Bao's lab engineered a soft probe. "My group has been making soft electronics for quite some time," says Bao, the K. K. Lee Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering. The probe is made of graphene, a form of carbon that is atomically thin. Bao's team used a laser to engrave what Li describes as a "hairy entangled network of graphene" into a plastic. The plastic contains molecules that turn into nanoparticle dots on the surface of graphene that can improve the sensitivity and selectivity for simultaneous measurement of dopamine and serotonin. They then embedded the network in a rubber matrix. "Graphene itself is not very stretchable but if it is entangled as a mesh and embedded in a rubber, then it becomes stretchable," Li explains. Bao adds: "It's like a kirigami. If you cut patterns into and then you can stretch it, you see some kind of hollow connected paper network. It's the same thing here but the network is made of graphene sheets." NeuroString has the same softness as biological tissue. "The sensor is soft and elastic, like a rubber band, which does not cause damage when implanted into the brain or the gut, which is not only soft but also constantly moving," Bao says. To test the probe, Bao's team collaborated with Stanford scientists from biology, psychiatry, gastroenterology, and surgery. "I think that's the most privileged part of Stanford: It is quite open and collaborative," Li says. The work was supported by a Bio-X seed grant and a Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Big Ideas in Neuroscience grant, both of which encourage interdisciplinary collaborations. In one experiment, the team implanted NeuroString into the brain and gut of the same mice. When they fed the mice chocolate syrup, NeuroString detected spikes of dopamine in the brain and spikes of serotonin in the gut-;both expected responses to chocolate. Dopamine is made in the brain, whereas serotonin is mostly made in the gut. In another experiment, NeuroString detected distinctive patterns of gut serotonin in mice with gut inflammation compared with healthy mice. "The first time we saw the signal from the probe was a eureka moment," says co-author Xiaoke Chen, associate professor of biology. "Chronic recording of dopamine and serotonin signals in freely moving animals is a dream experiment that we always wanted to do. And with this beautiful collaboration, we were able to make it happen." The implanted mice behaved and ate normally and had normal bowel movements. "The exciting thing about the tool was that it did not seem to disrupt the normal function of the tissue," says co-author Aida Habtezion, professor of medicine. This means that the implant could someday be used for real-time monitoring in humans, akin to a smartwatch, but able to track biochemical levels rather than heart rate or steps, she says. Habtezion is currently on a leave of absence and serving as the Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer, but contributed to the work while she was still at Stanford. Tracking serotonin levels in the gut could be useful in diagnosing and monitoring intestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome. Tracking dopamine levels in the brain could be useful in Parkinson's disease, which is caused by a lack of dopamine. One of the treatments for Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation, works in part by stimulating neurons to produce more dopamine. If deep brain stimulators could be paired with NeuroString, this would allow doctors to precisely control the amount of dopamine released. The implant is not yet ready for clinical use. For one thing, the probe is still attached to wires that read out the signals; a wireless version would be needed for use in people. In the meantime, the probe has many uses in research. For example, antidepressants like Prozac work by modulating serotonin levels, which may explain why they sometimes cause gastrointestinal side effects, Chen says. "We now have the tool to allow real-time monitoring of the impact of those drugs on serotonin fluctuation in both the brain and gut in mouse models." He adds: "Now that we've shown that the probe works, there's a very long list of biological questions we want to tackle." In studies in mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have identified a chemical compound that stops the final events in the pathway linked to the death of brain cells in Parkinson's disease. Results of the experiments, they say, could advance the development of a drug that can safely short-circuit the same pathway in people, and prevent the damaging effects characteristic of Parkinson's, stroke and other neurodegenerative disorders. The findings are published online May 10, in the journal Cell. "Studies like this show that there is hope in intervening with neurodegenerative disease, and that its worst effects may not be inevitable," says Valina Dawson, Ph.D., professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering. Parkinson's disease is marked by the buildup of a misfolded protein, called alpha synuclein, in brain cells responsible for producing a neurotransmitter called dopamine. As more misshapen proteins clump together, they kill brain cells through a so-called "programmed" cell death process identified by Dawson and other Johns Hopkins researchers. The process, dubbed parthanatos (from the Greek word for "death"), leads to impairments in movement, emotional regulation and thinking. Drugs are available that can slow or mute some symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but none are known to halt the progression of brain cell death once it starts. Previous studies led by Dawson showed that the protein known as parthanatos associated apoptosis-inducing factor nuclease (PAAN) deals the final blow to brain cells affected by alpha synuclein clumps, destroying the cells' DNA. In addition to Parkinson's disease, the PAAN protein has also been linked to cell death in stroke. However, PAAN has multiple functions in the brain, including activities in the immune system that need to be maintained to keep the brain healthy. We needed to find chemical compounds that block PAAN's ability to destroy cellular DNA while leaving its other critical activities untouched." Valina Dawson, Ph.D., professor of neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Working with knowledge of the molecular structure of PAAN, the researchers screened thousands of known chemicals in the Johns Hopkins Drug Library for those that specifically blocked PAAN from breaking down DNA molecules. They did this by exposing an array of DNA chains to PAAN in the presence of the various chemicals. If the DNA remained intact when the chemical was added, the investigators concluded it could potentially halt PAAN DNA destruction. The researchers found one chemical that blocked PAAN in these tests without affecting other important PAAN activities, and named it PAANIB-1, or PAAN inhibitor 1. Specifically, the researchers measured how long each mouse could hold onto a lever with its forepaws. Typically, the mice with Parkinson's disease symptoms have reduced strength compared with unaffected mice. However, the mice treated with PAANIB-1 showed grip strength that was comparable to mice not affected by Parkinson's disease symptoms, suggesting that PAANIB-1 blocked the cell degeneration linked to a decline in motor control. When the researchers later studied the brains of the mice treated with PAANIB-1, they found significantly less brain cell death. The researchers say that PAANIB-1's ability to specifically block brain cell death without impacting the protein's other functions is a promising lead in the search for new drugs to treat Parkinson's disease. They plan to continue screening chemicals that can safely be used in humans to block PAAN's function in cell death, and will pursue PAAN's impact on other neurodegenerative diseases. Other researchers involved in this study include Hyejin Park, Amir Mehrabani-Tabari, Jae-Jin Song, Xiling Yin, Senthilkumar Karuppagounder, YuRee Choi, Akanksha Aggarwal, Sohyun Chang, Hyunhee Kim, Jiyoung Byun, Hanjing Peng, Shih-Ching Chou, George Umanah, A.V. Subba Rao and Jun Liu of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Tae-In Kam of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Adrienne Helis Malvin and Diana Helis Henry Medical Research Foundation; and Ted Dawson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Adrienne Helis Malvin and Diana Helis Henry Medical Research Foundation. This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R37 NS067525), the JPB Foundation, the Farmer Family Foundation and a sponsored research agreement with Neuraly, Inc. A research collaboration including scientists from Oregon State University has developed a new technology to help surgeons know where a patient's nerves are, lessening the chance of nerve damage. The technology is based on hydrogels, three-dimensional networks of polymers that absorb and retain large amounts of water, and takes aim at a surgical complication that's widespread and persistent. Depending on the procedure, OSU's Adam Alani says, a patient can face a double-digit percentage chance of sustaining a nerve injury. For example, he notes, people needing their thyroid gland removed are looking at a 15% likelihood of voice changes resulting from damage to their recurrent laryngeal nerves. Apply those odds to the 12% of the United States' population that is likely to develop a thyroid condition, for which thyroidectomy is a common treatment, and the numbers for that type of operation alone are staggering. Nerve sparing techniques have been around for decades, but nerve identification and sparing remain a big challenge, with success rates strongly correlated with an individual surgeon's skill and experience. Intraoperative nerve damage affects all surgical specialties and represents a significant problem even for surgeries that are performed all of the time like prostatectomies, hysterectomies, hernia repair and thyroidectomies." Adam Alani, Researcher, OSU College of Pharmacy Alani, an adjunct faculty member at Oregon Health & Science University, worked with OHSU colleague Summer Gibbs on the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Findings were published in Biomaterials. The research is an important step toward improving a nerve sparing technique called fluorescence guided surgery, or FGS. Specific tissues, in this case nerves, can be better detected if they fluoresce i.e., emit light after absorbing light or some other kind of electromagnetic radiation. For the tissues to do that, they need to be treated with a fluorophore, microscopic molecules that absorb and send out light of specific wavelengths. Collaborating with scientists at OHSU and Intuitive Surgical, Alani's lab developed an effective hydrogel fluorophore based on compounds called pluronics. Also known as poloxamers, pluronics are polymers synthesized by the condensation of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. "Hydrogels have been successfully used to deliver contrast agents in imaging technologies like MRI and CT scans," Alani said. "And pluronics are already used as a drug delivery agent in products approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The physical characteristics of our pluronics-based formulation allow for nerve-specific stain solution to be applied with relative ease as a liquid, and then it stays in place after it almost instantly forms a gel." Successful testing in two animal models mouse and pig suggests the new technology is "a clinically viable method for fluorescence guided nerve sparing during thyroidectomy as well as other procedures," Alani said. And because pluronics already have FDA approval, the technology is eligible for fast-tracked regulation under the agency's guidelines for "exploratory investigational new drugs." The guidelines allow for early phase 1 clinical trial exploratory approaches involving safe microdoses of potential drug candidates, enabling researchers to move ahead more quickly than usual. "Directly administering a contrast agent in the treatment area is an attractive alternative to systemic administration of fluorescent probes," Alani said. "Selectively labeling tissues only within the surgical field requires a significantly lower dose than systemic administration." Vidhi Shaw, Adel Al-Fatease and Syed Zaki Husain Rizvi of the OSU College of Pharmacy also contributed to the study. Alexander Antaris and Jonathan Sorger represented Intuitive Surgical, developer of the widely used robotic da Vinci Surgical System with which the new technology is compatible, Alani said. When faced with terminal illness in their pets, some owners would do anything to prolong their lives. More than 99% of veterinarians surveyed said they'd encountered useless or non-beneficial veterinary care in their careers, according to a new Cornell-led study that documents the prevalence of futile care for the first time. The authors use a working definition of futile care as continuing treatment when relevant goals can no longer be reached. Before Cornell, I was in private practice in Los Angeles for 11 years. When faced with a dilemma like this, I had an obligation to advocate for what I thought was in the best interest of the pet." Dr. Nathan Peterson, associate clinical professor with the section of emergency and critical care and lead author of the study "But I also had an obligation to the owner," Peterson said. "I couldn't just do what I thought was right. It's really quite distressing for the veterinarian and for the technicians and nurses who have to carry out the care." The study, co-authored by researchers at Harvard Medical School's Center for Bioethics, also found that 89% of veterinarians said they had administered futile care, and 42% said it occurs frequently, more than six times per year. The owner-centered approach, the authors write, can exacerbate moral distress for veterinarians and care teams. Previous research by co-authors showed that futile veterinary care was responsible for frequent and severe moral distress in the veterinary community, which they said occurs when a clinician believes they know the right thing to do but are prevented from doing it. "We're in the midst of a mental health crisis in our profession, and we're very interested in whether futile care contributes to that, which I suspect it does," Peterson said. "We felt that a first step is documenting that it happens. My hope for the research is that it opens conversations around futile care, and hopefully professional organizations can take a leadership role and try to provide some guidance for how to resolve these conflicts." The authors suggest establishing a definition for futile care in the profession respondents were not in total consensus about what futile care means as well as guidance around how decisions for care are made. "I think as a profession we have focused for so long on alleviating suffering by continuing treatment and making animals healthier," Peterson said. "And we're not as prepared to strongly advocate for euthanasia, to have those conversations, even when we think that's the best way to alleviate suffering." In future research, Peterson hopes to investigate the impact of futile care on support staff. "That feeling of powerlessness for the veterinarian is certainly magnified for the technicians who are often not involved in the decisions and who are directly responsible for providing care," he said. In a recent study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, researchers evaluated the increase in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections among university students immediately after returning to their university in September 2020. The students relocated to their universities for the new academic term during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in England. Background In the United Kingdom (UK), university students relocate to their universities in September at the commencement of the new academic term, which coincided with the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country during that period. While some United Kingdom (UK) universities preferred online teaching, some universities required students to be present in person. Unfortunately, immediately after the new academic term started, SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks occurred associated with the universities. About the study In the present study, researchers evaluated the increase in COVID-19 cases and outbreaks on the return of students to their universities for the new academic term beginning September 2020 during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2-positive students (student case patients) were identified based on contact tracing records and their university attendance. Student case patients residing in university student accommodations were identified by matching their residential addresses with national property databases. SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals were asked about their activities and events within a week before the onset of COVID-19 symptoms/ date of the test, which included data on their attendance in educational settings. For identifying university attendees among case patients, those with SARS-CoV-2-positive reports were linked to the National Health Service (NHS) test and trace exposure data. Contact tracing and case patient data were linked by the SARS-CoV-2-positive specimen number, date of birth, and the NHS number. The types of accommodation were identified by matching the case patient address with the Ordnance Survey Address Base Premium database, wherein each address is assigned a unique property reference number (UPRN) which enables mapping case patients to a particular area of residence. Age-specific case rates were compared between towns with universities to those without using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2019 midyear estimates. COVID-19 case rates among student case patients and the rest of the population were compared, and the geographic regions with the highest number of cases were determined. Results Between 1 September 2020 and 31 December 2020, 1,999,180 COVID-19 cases were reported in England, of which 53,430 (2.7%) were student case patients. After the new academic term began (in September), a rapid increase in student case patients from 0.7% to 7.8% from September to October. The increase in COVID-19 cases was initially driven by cases and SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in university student accommodations, most pronounced in individuals aged 18 to 23 years (student population), and was two-fold higher in towns with universities. In the student population, cases increased from 11 COVID-19 cases/100,000 individuals to 99 COVID-19 cases/100,000 individuals between 1 September 2020 and 1 October 2020. During the same period, the COVID-19 case rate among the remaining population of England increased from three to 13 COVID-19 cases/100,000 individuals. At the commencement of the academic term, 60% to 70% of student case patients lived in student accommodations, which dropped to 20% to 30% after mid-November. The mean ages of student case patients and all case patients were 20 years and 37 years, respectively, and a higher proportion of females among student case patients (57% females vs. 53% males). Most student case patients were reported in Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds. Most student case patients residing in student accommodations were reported in Nottingham, Sheffield, York, Newcastle, and Coventry. SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in student accommodations continued for six days compared to two days for other accommodation settings. Outbreaks that involved students showed an upward trend, increasing from 0.7% to 7.3% in September 2020 but declining to 1% by December 2020. A significant reduction in COVID-19 cases was observed in November after the second period of national restrictions in university towns; however, the rates increased in December after the restrictions were lifted. Conclusion To summarize, the unprecedented increase in COVID-19 cases among university students after their term began, likely due to the physical and social interactions of students in enclosed spaces during the university fresher week, was reduced by enforcing national COVID-19 restrictions. The study highlights the need for stringent preventive measures to curtail SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Robin Bolduc isn't the type of person who takes "no" for an answer particularly when it comes to fixing her husband's wheelchair. Her husband, Bruce Goguen, 69, is paralyzed from multiple sclerosis. And without his chair, he would be stuck in bed, at risk of developing pneumonia or pressure sores that could lead to sepsis and death. When components of the chair wear out or break down, the road to repair is littered with obstacles. Recently, the Broomfield, Colorado, residents had to replace a button that Goguen presses with his head to control his wheelchair. They considered going through his wheelchair supplier for the repairs. "If we did that, he would literally be in bed for months," said Bolduc, who, along with her husband, is a member of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, an advocacy group. "There's a quality-of-life issue he could be lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He has no movement without his wheelchair." But, instead, Bolduc tracked down the manufacturer, ordered several buttons online for $20 each, and discovered that replacing the part herself was simple. "It's a plug," she explained. "It's like charging your cellphone." The multibillion-dollar power-wheelchair market is dominated by two national suppliers, Numotion and National Seating and Mobility. Both are owned by private equity firms that seek to increase profits and cut spending. One way they do that is by limiting what they spend on technicians and repairs, which, when combined with insurance and regulatory obstacles, frustrates wheelchair users seeking timely fixes. The $70 billion durable medical equipment market has been an attractive target for private equity investment because of the aging U.S. population, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, and a growing preference for older adults to be treated at home, according to the investment banking firm Provident Healthcare Partners. Medicare's use of competitive bidding favors large companies that can achieve economies of scale in manufacturing and administrative costs, often at the price of quality and customer service. Regulations set by Medicare and adopted by most Medicaid and commercial health plans have led to lower-quality products, no coverage for preventive maintenance, and enough red tape to bring wheelchairs to a halt. Power wheelchair users have long been fighting for the right to repair their wheelchairs themselves or through independent repair shops. Medicare and most insurance companies will replace complex wheelchairs only every five years. The wheelchair suppliers that have contracts with public and private health insurance plans restrict access to parts, tools, and service manuals. They usually keep a limited inventory of parts on hand and wait until health plans approve repair claims before ordering parts. Some chairs require a software passcode or a physical key for any repairs. Wheelchair users who make fixes themselves may void their warranty or lose out on insurance payments for repairs. "What bothers me is that the wheelchair company, knowing that the buttons wear out, won't keep any in stock," Bolduc said. "They'll risk my husband's life, but they won't risk $20 to buy a button and not get reimbursed for it." That could soon change. The Colorado legislature has passed a first-in-the-nation right-to-repair bill for power wheelchairs that will allow owners and independent repair shops to access parts, embedded software, tools, and documentation needed to perform diagnostic, maintenance, or repair services. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is expected to sign the bill into law this month. The right-to-repair bill may help, said Mark Schmeler, an associate professor of rehabilitation science and technology at the University of Pittsburgh, but it's not a perfect solution. "There is a serious problem with wheelchair repairs, and the consumers are basically crying out for help," he said. Part of the problem, Schmeler said, is a Medicare decision not to cover preventive maintenance for power wheelchairs. Many wheelchair users are unfamiliar with or unable to do routine maintenance such as tightening the bolts or cleaning the casters. As a result, problems aren't addressed until something breaks down, often leaving the user stranded. Additionally, Medicare officials have interpreted the statute establishing payment for durable medical equipment to cover wheelchairs only for in-home use. Consequently, many power wheelchairs aren't designed for outdoor use and are prone to failures when users take them outside. "It's like you're outside walking around all day with your slippers on," Schmeler said. When Medicare adopted competitive bidding for durable medical equipment in 2011, it allowed large companies to undercut the pricing of smaller, local wheelchair shops. Numotion andNational Seating and Mobility bought out many smaller companies and now dominate the market. Competitive bidding encourages suppliers to press manufacturers for lower-cost wheelchairs, which spurs manufacturers to use lower-quality parts. More than 1 in 4 repairs result in users being stranded, missing a medical appointment, or missing work, according to a study published in 2016 in the journal Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Wheelchair suppliers make most of their money by selling the wheelchair and tend to lose money on repairs. So there is little incentive to hire more technicians or pay for training. Suppliers testified against the Colorado bill. "The problem with this legislation is that it does not provide a good solution to address the problems responsible for the delays," said Seth Johnson, senior vice president of government affairs for Pride Mobility Products, a Duryea, Pennsylvania-based supplier of power wheelchairs. If repairs are done incorrectly, he said, patient safety could be jeopardized. Medicare regulations add to the problems, with low reimbursements, and Medicare pays only for parts and labor, not for technicians' travel time. Another cause for delays: Medicare sometimes requires physicians to document that an individual still needs a wheelchair and that it needs to be repaired. Kenny Maestas of Lamar, Colorado, has been in a wheelchair since his spine was severed during a rollover vehicle accident in 1987. His wheelchair supplier, located more than 150 miles away, won't schedule a repair visit unless it has another client nearby that needs a repair. When his battery begins to die and won't hold a charge, he becomes tethered to an outlet, unable to leave his home for more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time until the supplier replaces the battery. "It's such a broken system," Maestas said. Julie Jennings, 56, of Denver, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995 and now can't walk. She described a lengthy ordeal to get even a simple wheelchair fix the supplier waited for insurance to approve the repair before ordering the parts. The last time she needed a repair visit to replace the battery, armrests, and a joystick controller the entire process took three months. "I try to be proactive, and I try to keep an eye on the wear and tear," she said. The right to repair could help reduce the kind of delays that Maestas and Jennings have experienced by allowing users to purchase the parts and repair the wheelchairs themselves or to call in independent repair shops. Consumer advocates with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group said the power-wheelchair industry is the first sector required to provide repair access since Massachusetts voters approved a right-to-repair measure for cars through a 2012 ballot initiative. Car manufacturers decided they didn't want to fight that battle in all 50 states and opted to apply the same standard across the country. Don Clayback, executive director of the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology, an industry group representing wheelchair suppliers, said whether the industry would change its policies nationwide was unclear. "We would expect changes will be limited to Colorado," he said. Last year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that directed the Federal Trade Commission to draft regulations that limit manufacturers' ability to restrict independent repairs of their products. At least three right-to-repair bills have been introduced in Congress this year. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are also considering bills that address wheelchair repairs. For now, Bolduc is prepared to go to any length to get her husband's chair repaired. Once, she took away an uncooperative technician's keys until he fixed the wheelchair. She then returned his keys and gave him a big candy bar to smooth things over. "They'll turn me into this crazy woman because my husband's life is on the line," she said. "If I have to kidnap somebody to get his chair fixed, I'll do it." A new online modeling hub - launched this week - will present projections on how the COVID-19 pandemic may evolve in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, thus helping countries in their pandemic planning. The European COVID-19 Scenario Hub models different scenarios for thirty EU/EEA Member States, the UK and Switzerland. Each scenario includes one or more factors that might inform policy decisions, such as how quickly people are losing immunity to the virus, or potential changes in how people might interact with each other in the future. Scenarios cover a period of nine to twelve months, including the coming winter period. The Scenario Hub, developed and run by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in collaboration with the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), combines and compares different modeling projections from teams across Europe to provide an accurate picture of the potential outcomes of different scenarios. Exploring plausible scenarios for the future of the COVID-19 pandemic can provide valuable insights for planning purposes. This Scenario Hub will bring together the expertise of different modeling teams to help policymakers come to informed decisions." Sebastian Funk, Professor of Infectious Disease Dynamics, LSHTM Scenario modeling combines the best-available epidemiological evidence with realistic assumptions on key variables, such as immunity and interactions. From this, governments can adopt rational policies at an early stage and make decisions aimed at minimizing the expected burden caused by COVID-19. Comparing results contributed by different modeling teams can highlight important common factors, as well as unknowns that would otherwise be difficult to capture. The Scenario Hub builds on the success of the European COVID-19 Forecasting Hub that was launched in early 2021 and continues to combine short-term forecasts on the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The Scenario Hub will complement the Forecasting Hub with more long-term projections submitted by modeling teams in academic and public health institutes across Europe and the USA. Andrea Ammon, ECDC Director, said: "The Scenario Hub will help inform public health preparedness and anticipatory action as Europe transitions into new phases of the pandemic. In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers assessed the impact of modern causal inference methods in estimating the effect of corticosteroids against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related mortality. Observational research has provided great opportunities to understand the causal effects in the absence of randomized trials. However, the accuracy of observational research is dependent on various analytical and design choices. About the study In the present study, researchers described the advantages of using modern causal inference methods compared to standard research approaches in estimating the effect of corticosteroids on mortality rates caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. The approach proposed by the team that used modern causal inference was a question-first approach. This method used a target trial framework and a roadmap that outlined causal inference. The roadmap used helped design a study free from time-alignment and similar design biases and mitigated model misspecification bias with estimators of optimal machine learning. The team also described one randomized trial that could hypothetically analyze the impact of corticosteroids on patients suffering from severe COVID-19. The hypothetical trial population comprised adults admitted due to COVID-19 to either New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH)/Weill Cornell, Lower Manhattan Hospital, or NYPH Queens. The infections were confirmed by performing reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays on nasopharyngeal swabs collected from the patients. The team randomized the patients on the first day of hospital admission to receive either standard care with corticosteroid administration or standard care without any corticosteroid treatment. The dosage of the corticosteroid administered was 0.5 mg per kg of bodyweight of methylprednisolone corticosteroid, which was equivalent for 24-hour periods for six days. The corticosteroids included in the study were hydrocortisone, prednisolone, prednisone, methylprednisolone, and dexamethasone. The team defined severe hypoxia criteria as the initiation of high flow venti-mask, nasal cannula, invasive or non-invasive mechanical ventilation, or an oxygen saturation level of less than 93%. The primary outcome of the study included mortality reported within 28 days of randomization. The estimand of interest was variation in the mortality rates within 28 days between the two randomized groups. The target trial emulation used data from patients who met the inclusion criteria of the study between 3 March and 15 May 2020. The team obtained information related to demographics, intubation, comorbidity, death, and hospital discharge from electronic health records. The participants were monitored for 28 days after hospitalization till they were discharged or transferred to a different hospital. The team evaluated the impact of a hypothetical dynamic treatment schedule wherein each patient was treated for six days with corticosteroids if and when the patient displayed severe hypoxia. Results The study cohort comprised a total of 3298 patients having a median age of 65 years with almost 60% men and a median body mass index (BMI) of 27. Approximately 31% of the patients had diabetes mellitus, 14% had coronary artery disease, 54% had hypertension, and 4.8% had kidney disease. A total of 1690 patients satisfied the criteria for randomization for severe hypoxia, while 423 patients reported a history of corticosteroid receipt during the follow-up period. Moreover, 699 patients succumbed within 28 days of randomization. The team also noted that 20% of the patients who completed the study duration did not receive any corticosteroid treatment, while 30% of the patients died after corticosteroid treatment. The estimated rate of mortality was 32% among individuals who received no corticosteroids while 23% of the patients who received corticosteroids for six days displayed severe hypoxia. This indicated a reduction of 9.6% mortality rates between the corticosteroid treatment and the hypothetical non-corticosteroid treatment groups. In the target trial emulation study, among the 1690 patients who met the criteria of hypoxia, 72 patients were treated with corticosteroids within a day of hypoxia diagnosis, while 191 hypoxic patients received corticosteroids within five days. Among these, 18 and 451 patients succumbed within one and five days of hypoxia without any corticosteroid treatment, respectively. Conclusion Overall, the study findings showed that the current standard used for clinical research could not sufficiently recover an appropriate treatment approach as opposed to a modern causal inference method. The researchers believe that the present study showed the significance of incorporating such innovative methods into future research designs. *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. The "golden hour"-; the first 60 minutes after a major trauma-; is often crucial to survival. But how golden that hour will be often depends on how swiftly emergency medical personnel can respond to the crisis, initiate life-sustaining care, and get critically ill patients to the emergency room. In the United States and other industrialized countries, this type of rapid response is virtually guaranteed. Unfortunately, that's not true in much of the developing world, including Rwanda, a country in central Africa about the size of Maryland. There are just 277 ambulances nationwide to service a population of nearly 13 million people. Kigali, the nation's capital, has just eight of those ambulances and 60 EMS providers to care for roughly 1.5 million residents. In 2011, Sudha Jayaraman, MD, MSc, now director of the Center for Global Surgery at University of Utah Health, was asked to participate in the effort to address this disparity. At the time, she was a trauma, critical care, and acute care surgery fellow at the Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Since then, she has pulled together a group of surgeons from University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Virginia Commonwealth University. This group determined that Rwanda, like many low- and middle-income countries, needed to significantly upgrade its emergency services. During the past decade, the project has provided advanced training for emergency responders and hospital staff and established standardized checklists for patient care while en route to the hospital. It also created a patient registry to assess trauma care across several of the country's main hospitals through funding from the Rotary Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and philanthropists. Overall, the effort has improved the quality and consistency of care prior to arrival at the hospital, according to Menelas Nkeshimana, MMED, head of the Department of Accident and Emergency at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, principal on-site investigator of the NIH grant, and vice president of the Rwanda Medical Association. The ongoing partnership with the University of Utah is a living testimony to the fact that there is always power in collaboration." Menelas Nkeshimana, MMED, Head of the Department of Accident and Emergency, University Teaching Hospital of Kigali In time, the researchers say these improvements could be implemented in other low- or middle-income countries where more than 90 percent of the world's trauma-related injuries and 95 percent of childhood deaths from trauma occur. However, gaps still exist, particularly in communications between dispatchers, ambulances, and emergency room staff. "Over the last decade, we've trained a lot of staff and standardized the way they deliver care," says Jayaraman, who was recruited to U of U Health in 2020 to lead its global surgery efforts. "But having trained staff who can deliver high-quality care won't help if you can't find the patient or figure out which hospital has the right resources or the best way to get them there." Although Rwanda has a national emergency phone number-;912-;many homes across the country don't have addresses, and GPS data is rarely available for location information. As a result, pinpointing where an emergency phone call is coming from or where the nearest ambulance is located is challenging. To help remedy this problem, the next phase of the project, supported by a 5-year, $850,000 grant from the NIH and led by Jayaraman, will focus on creating a more efficient communications system designed to locate patients faster, stabilize them quickly, direct the ambulance to the right hospital, and reduce the percentage of prehospital transport times lasting over 60 minutes. Jayaraman, the principal investigator for this grant, says that the system will be devised and tested in partnership with RwandaBuild, a group of software developers in Kigali, before replacing the existing system. Among its innovations is the development of GPS-based technology to improve geolocation of patients. The team plans to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing such a large-scale intervention to show its impact. "In this partnership with the Government of Rwanda, our team has an opportunity to really set the standard for how emergency dispatch systems are set up in Rwanda and other low- and middle-income countries so that trauma care is expedited, and many lives can be saved," Jayaraman says. In addition to U of U Health, physicians, scientists, software developers, and policymakers from the RwandaBuild program, Rwanda Biomedical Center, University of Washington, University of Rwanda, and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom are participating in this project. The team is in the process of receiving a multimillion-dollar award from a UK agency to expand this work across the country. (Newser) Update: Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, who helped lead Colombia's Cali cocaine cartel, has died in an American prison, two years after losing his bid for compassionate release because of his poor health. The cause was lymphoma, the Guardian reports. Rodriguez Orejuela, who was extradited to the US in 2004, built his organization with his brother, Miguel, and they battled Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel for dominance in the illicit drug trade. Our story from March 2020 follows: Coronavirus has become a "get out of jail" card for hundreds of low-level inmates across the country, and even hard-timers are seeking their freedom with the argument that it's not a matter of if but when the deadly illness sweeps through tightly packed populations behind bars. Among those pleading for compassionate release or home detention are the former head of the Cali drug cartel, President Trump's former personal attorney, and America's most infamous Ponzi schemer. A sampling of their arguments, per the AP: "He is in poor health. He is 81 years old," David Oscar Markus, the attorney for cocaine kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, wrote in emergency court papers this week seeking his release after serving about half of a 30-year drug-trafficking sentence. "When (not if) COVID-19 hits his prison, he will not have much of a chance." The 81-year-old Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence for bilking thousands of investors in a $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme, had just asked last month to be released early in light of his terminal kidney disease. Now his attorney is calling on all at-risk federal prisoners to be released for their own safety because of the coronavirus. "The federal prison system has consistently shown an inability to respond to major crises," said Brandon Sample. The Twitter account of Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney who is serving a three-year sentence for crimes including tax evasion, shared over the weekend an online petition seeking the transfer of non-violent federal prisoners to home confinement. Addressed specifically to Trump, it argues the move would "give the prison facilities additional (and much needed) medical triage and logistic space for those who will become infected. Without your intervention, scores of non-violent offenders are at risk of death, and these people were not given a death sentence." It's not just attorneys for the wealthy and powerful seeking release. In New York, public defenders asked judges to release older and at-risk inmates from the citys beleaguered federal jails, saying pretrial confinement "creates the ideal environment for the transmission of contagious disease." The motions cite a provision of the Bail Reform Act allowing for the temporary release of pretrial inmates under compelling circumstances. (Read more coronavirus stories.) (Newser) After more than two months, Jada Pinkett Smith has shared her thoughts on her husband slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. In the Wednesday episode of her Red Table Talk Facebook series, Pinkett Smith didn't apologize for Will Smith's behavior, but said both men need to talk, TMZ reports. "My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile," she said. "The state of the world today, we need them both. And we all actually need one another more than ever." "Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and thats keep figuring out this thing called life together," she added. Smith slapped the comedian after he joked about Pinkett Smith's head, which she had shaved due to alopecia, and she spent most of the episode talking about the condition, Variety reports. "Considering what Ive been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories," she said. The show's guests included Niki Ball, whose 12-year-old daughter, an alopecia sufferer, died by suicide weeks before the Oscars, the Los Angeles Times reports. Ball said her daughter, Rio, had been excited about getting a wig but she was mocked and bullied by middle school classmates who ripped it from her head. Less than two weeks after her death, "the Oscars was on, and I was like, 'What is the universe doing right now? This is crazy,'" Ball sald. "People are gonna be Googling, What is alopecia?" she said, adding, "It's not a joke." (Read more Jada Pinkett Smith stories.) (Newser) Tulsa police were going through a medical building room by room Wednesday evening after a gunman walked in, went to the second floor, and opened firekilling at least four people. The shooting began about 5pm on the campus of St. Francis Hospital, NBC News reports. A police official said victims were being evacuated, per CNN, saying there are "hundreds of rooms and hundreds of people within the building." Tulsa police said at a press conference that the gunman was dead after shooting himself, per the Washington Post. He had a long gun and a handgun, police said, and fired them both. "It's a catastrophic scene in there right now," police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said outside the hospital, per the New York Times. Multiple people were wounded, he said. A police spokesman said the victims could include employees and patients. Kalen Davis was sitting in traffic when she saw police cars arriving at the hospital campus. "I just knew that it was a shooting situation because I saw police running with rifles," she said. "That's when I got emotional." (Read more mass shootings stories.) (Newser) The proprietor of a small-town paper in Minnesota wants to help Ukraine in its hour of needand he's looking for somebody to take over the Lafayette Nicollet Ledger. Lee Zion bought the weekly paper for $35,000 four years ago. He says it's profitable and debt-free, with advertisers and around 500 subscribers. He says he will give the paper away for free, but the right candidate will have to work as hard as he does to keep it running almost single-handedly, Minnesota Public Radio reports. "The next owner must show that he or she has the knowledge, experience and the drive to take on the challenge," Zion said in an ad offering to give the paper away. "That means putting out a newspaper every week, with only a handful of stringers to assist, while also handling the billing and other paperwork." The paper has served Lafayette and two other small communities in southern Minnesota since 1904. "Theres very few things in life as rewarding as putting out a small town newspaper," says Zion, who has spoken to a few interested candidates. Zion, 54, tells the Star Tribune that his interest in Ukraine stems from his interest in the bandura, the country's traditional instrument. "Russians murdered people just for the crime of playing it," he says. "Sounds silly, but at the same time, it's so silly that it's evil." He says he has planned his route to Ukraine but he's not sure what role he will play when he gets there. "Where I go, that is up to other people," Zion said. "They'll decide whether I'm going to be in a combat zone. They'll decide whether I dig ditches. They'll decide whether I'm a teacher. I can be an escort taking people out of Ukraine." Or, he adds, "Maybe they'll put me into news, because that's what I've been doing my whole adult life." (Read more Minnesota stories.) (Newser) Eva Mireles' husband, Ruben Ruiz, is a school district police officerand in the final minutes of his wife's life, Ruiz was on the phone with her as he stood outside her classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, barred from entering. "Shes in the classroom and hes outside. Its terrifying," Uvalde County judge Bill Mitchell said Wednesday after sheriff's deputies who were on the scene of the mass shooting briefed him. "Hes outside hearing his wife: Im dying,'" Mitchell continued, though he clarified that he didn't know exactly what Mireles told her husband, the New York Times reports. He said the call did appear to take place after the shooter was already attacking. Mitchell also said he didn't know whether Ruiz told his department chief, Pete Arredondowho has come under much scrutiny for his handling of the shootingabout the call, or whether anyone else was aware of it. But, as the Times puts it, it's the latest in a growing list of questions about what exactly police at the scene knew about the horror going on inside the classroom as they waited in the hallway outside. Also unclear is whether Arredondo was informed about the 911 calls children were making from inside classrooms. Mireles' aunt has also said Ruiz was prevented by other police officers from going in. See more at the Times. (Read more Uvalde mass shooting stories.) (Newser) The House is beginning to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children. The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to advance legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21, the AP reports. The bill would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture, or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the executive branchs ban on bump-stock devices and so-called ghost guns that are privately made without serial numbers. The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A vote by the full House could come as early as next week. With Republicans nearly in lockstep in their opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, serving to put lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year's elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working behind the scenes this week in hopes of finding a consensus. Ideas under discussion include expanded background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials, and others to go into court and secure an order requiring the police to seize guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others. The broader bipartisan group of almost 10 senators met again Wednesdaya very productive call, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in an interview. (Read more gun control stories.) (Newser) China has scoffed at comparisons of itself and Taiwan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But that hasn't eased the fears of Taiwanese residents, who are now taking a step many never expected: getting firearms training. Although gun ownership is strongly regulated in Taiwan, people who've never picked up a weapon in their lives are flocking instead to sites that train in how to shoot less-dangerous airsoft guns, devices that fire off nonmetallic projectiles. "More and more people are coming to take part," Max Chiang, the CEO of Polar Light, a combat skills training firm in Taipei, tells Reuters. He adds that signups for lessons in how to shoot airsofts have almost quadrupled since the war in Ukraine started in February. The news agency notes that "many of the movements and tactics involved" in shooting airsoft guns "resemble combat skills, from shooting posture to aiming." Polls have increasingly showed that the people of Taiwan are willing to defend themselves against a Chinese invasion if need be, reports the Los Angeles Times. Some, including retired Adm. Lee Hsi-ming, the former chief of the general staff of Taiwan's armed forces, are even suggesting that civilians receive combat training and set up a DIY defense force, much like one that Ukraine employs (others say, however, that such a volunteer force isn't currently feasible). Taiwan does currently have mandatory military servicefour months for young men, plus occasional reservist trainingbut those who've been through it say they receive minimal firearms training. "I need to come to these kinds of lessons to actually learn something," a 26-year-old personal trainer who's gone through his conscription says of the airsoft gun training he's now undergoing. In short, many in Taiwan simply want to be prepared in case China one day tries to use force to sweep Taiwan more fully back into its fold. "I wanted to learn some combat skills," including skills "to be able to react to any kind of situation," one Taiwanese man, a tattoo artist, tells Reuters. "I ... don't want to go to war, but in the unfortunate event of this really happening, I will be mentally prepared." The Taiwanese public is prepping for the worst in other ways as well, stocking up on food, batteries, and other emergency supplies, purchasing pepper spray, and rigging their homes with alarm systems. "Think about how you can help yourself and others survive," one councilman candidate says. (President Biden has said the US is on the ready to defend Taiwan.) (Newser) The city of Baltimore has joined Los Angeles and Washington, DC, in suing one of the nation's largest manufacturers of untraceable ghost guns, labeling the weapons without serial numbers a "devastating menace" to residents and Americans at large. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced the lawsuit against Polymer80, Inc. for alleged negligence, public nuisance, and violations of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act on Wednesday, saying "a safer Baltimore" requires a crackdown on "these tools of death, destruction, and violence," which come in kits assembled at home, per WJZ-TV. "We must stop Polymer80 and companies like it that profit from destroying our communities." The lawsuitcoinciding with a new state ban on the sale, receipt, and transfer of ghost gunsalleges Polymer80 "intentionally undermines federal and state firearms laws by designing, manufacturing, selling and providing ghost gun kits and parts to buyers who do not undergo a background check," per CNN. "The availability of these weaponsparticularly to criminals, juveniles and other people who are prohibited from owning a firearmpresents a growing public health crisis," Scott said, per WJZ. The lawsuit also names Hanover Armory, an Anne Arundel County gun retailer, alleging it sells Polymer80's gun kits without evaluating whether customers are allowed to own a firearm. "It should not be easier for me to purchase a ghost gun than it is for me to buy my allergy medicine at CVS or go to buy a used car," Scott said, per the Washington Post. City officials say 91% of the 187 ghost guns confiscated by Baltimore Police so far this year were manufactured by Polymer80. Police confiscated 352 ghost guns last yearincluding 32 linked to a homicide or shooting, per the lawsuitup from 128 in 2020 and 30 in 2019, per the Post and WJZ. "The actual number of guns on the street far exceeds those recovered in crime investigations," the city adds. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for policing costs, punitive damages, and "injunctive relief requiring the defendants to cease the public nuisance they have created." (Read more Baltimore stories.) (Newser) Update: Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a church service to mark her Platinum Jubilee after experiencing discomfort at events on Thursday, per the AP. The palace says that with great reluctance the 96-year-old monarch has decided to skip Fridays service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed todays Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort. Britain is marking the monarchs 70 years on the throne with four days of events. Our original story from Thursday morning follows: Four days of celebrations honoring Queen Elizabeth IIs 70 years on the throne will get underway Thursday with a display of British military traditions stretching from the days of horse and cannon to the jet age, per the AP. Formal celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee begin with Trooping the Color, an annual military review that has marked the sovereign's official birthday since 1760. The queen is expected to join the working members of her family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at the end of the event, when 70 aircraft are set to roar overhead. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will join other royals to watch the spectacle, having traveled from their home in California. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday weekend. The celebration of Elizabeth's reign includes a service of thanksgiving Friday at St. Pauls Cathedral in London, a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday, and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday afternoon. Throughout the weekend, neighborhood organizations and individuals are expected to hold thousands of street parties around the country, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. An official Platinum Jubilee portrait of the 96-year-old queen has also been released. In a written jubilee message, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. For many, the occasion is the first opportunity for a big bash since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than two years ago. "I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions," Elizabeth said. "I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm," she said. (Read more Queen Elizabeth II stories.) (Newser) Across France, 302 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who's doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugsor indeed any substance at all. Club owners and police are trying to raise awareness, and a rapper even interrupted his recent show to warn concert-goers about the risk of surprise needle attacks. It's not just France: Britains government is studying a spate of "needle spiking" there, and police in Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating scattered cases, too, reports the AP. The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injection, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy. Several police investigations are ongoing in different regions, but no suspect has been arrested yet, no needle has been found, and the motive remains unclear. No victims have reported sexual assault. An official with the national police agency said: "At this stage, we cant talk about a specific modus operandi. There arent any similarities between the cases. The only thing similar is that people are being injected with a needle in a festive context in different places in France." The AP shares some victims' stories: On May 4, 18-year-old Tomas Laux attended a rap concert in Lille in northern France, where he smoked a bit of marijuana and drank some alcohol during the show. When he came home, he was feeling dizzy and had a headacheand he spotted a strange little skin puncture on his arm and a bruise. The next morning, the symptoms didnt disappear and Laux went to his doctor, who advised him to go to the emergency room. Medics confirmed evidence of a needle prick, and Laux was tested for HIV and hepatitis. His results came out negative, like other victims' so far. "I've given up going to concerts since it happened," Laux says. Hundreds of miles away, Leanne Desnos recounted a similar experience after going to a club in the southwest city of Bordeaux in April. Desnos, also 18, passed out the next day, and felt dizzy and had hot flashes while at a fast food restaurant. When she got home, she realized she had an injection mark on her arm. After having seen testimony on social media about the mystery pricks, she went to a clinic to get tested for infections. She is still awaiting results. (Read the full story.) (Newser) A family vacation in South Carolina turned tragic after an 8-year-old boy was fatally shot by a man who was randomly firing at cars, according to local police. NBC News reports on the incident near Florence, where third-grader Quarius Naqua Dunham of New Hampshire was driving with his family around 2pm Saturday when bullets flew into their vehicle, per the Florence County Sheriff's Office. Quarius, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was hit in the neck, the county coroner's office tells NBC Boston. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but after a series of brain scans, he was pronounced dead on Monday. Quarius' dad, who was driving the car, was shot in the thigh, but he's expected to survive. Another driver whose vehicle was hit says he narrowly escaped being shot himself. "I noticed the gentleman was taking aim and I said, 'He's going to shoot again,' so I ducked and stepped on the accelerator to get past him and he shot again," Calvin Cade tells the AP. Authorities say Charles Montgomery Allen, 40, was arrested in the woods outside his residence and was detained after a short standoff. Police say Allen started shooting up the walls of his own home after thinking people were "out to get him," then moved on to shooting at cars. As for more on a motive, Sheriff TJ Joye doesn't have further answers. "No motive. Just probably methed up," Joye tells WBTW. "He's got a history. ... Just a senseless, senseless act." Police say Allen, who allegedly shot at a total of three vehicles, was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and discharging a firearm into a vehicle, among other charges. The town of Portsmouth, NH, where Quarius and his family were from, is now grieving. "You go on vacation to make memories that last a lifetime with your kids, and for this tragedy to befall this family, I was just sick to my stomach," Mayor Deaglan McEachern says, per NBC Boston. Allen is being held without bail at the Florence County Detention Center. An investigation is ongoing, with the possibility of additional charges, per authorities. (Read more South Carolina stories.) (Newser) About two out of every three children in Ukraine have been displaced since war erupted nearly 100 days ago, according to the United Nations' children's agency. More than 5 million children3 million in Ukraine and over 2.2 million in refugee-hosting countriesare in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said Tuesday ahead of International Children's Day, per CBS News. It's "one of the largest and fastest [displacement crises] in recent memory," Christopher Tidey, emergency communication specialist for UNICEF, tells the outlet. At least 262 children have been killed and 415 have been injured, mostly "in attacks using explosive weapons in populated areas," according to UNICEF, which notes hundreds of schools have been hit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave slightly different numbers Wednesday, stating at least 243 children have died, 446 have been injured, and 139 are missing. Officials in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv have placed stuffed toys in empty school buses in a city square as a memorial to the fallen, per the Guardian. Zelensky said another 200,000 children have been forcibly taken to remote regions of Russia, some with their parents, some without. "This is one of Russia's most heinous war crimes," meant "to make deportees forget about Ukraine and not be able to return," he said, per CNN. Some children are "placed in foster care or adopted in violation of international humanitarian law," Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya tells CBS. Displaced children "urgently need safety, stability, child protection services, and psychosocial supportespecially those who are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families. More than anything, they need peace," UNICEF said, renewing calls for a ceasefire. Friday marks the 100th day of the Russian invasion. Russia now occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territory, with Donbas "almost entirely destroyed," Zelensky said, per CNN. "Without an urgent ceasefire and negotiated peace, children will continue to sufferand fallout from the war will impact vulnerable children around the world," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. (More US weapons are coming.) (Newser) For the first time, one of the US military services is being led by a woman. Admiral Linda Fagan took control of the Coast Guard on Wednesday, reports ABC News. Fagan, who became the service's first female admiral last year, previously served as second in command, per Military.com. "It's about time," President Biden said in remarks at the ceremony. Fagan, for her part, said she was "immensely grateful to the many players that paved the way" for the milestone. The New York Times described it as the shattering of "one of the last glass ceilings in the military." Its profile notes that Fagan graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1985, part of what was only the sixth class to include women. Despite the honor, Fagan won't technically be part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Military.com notes, the Coast Guard leader is considered a "de facto" member of that group and is without full voting rights. Among those watching the honors on Wednesday: Fagan's daughter, Aileen, who is a Coast Guard lieutenant. (Read more women in the military stories.) (Newser) The Amber Heard/Johnny Depp legal fight is apparently not over. Heard "absolutely" intends to appeal after a jury ordered her to pay more than $10 million in the high-profile defamation case, attorney Elaine Bredehoft tells the Today show. The same jury awarded Heard $2 million in a separate aspect of the case, leaving Heard to make up a gap of about $8 million. Asked if her client could pay the sum, Bredehoft replied, "Oh, no, absolutely not." Related: Consequences: The verdict is a setback for women because it "said we're not going to believe women even when they have photos," Bredehoft tells CNN. "Basically, unless she had pulled out her phone, her iPhone, and videotaped him as he was beating her, she's not going to be believed, it didn't happen." Atmosphere: The attorney described social media coverage of the case, bolstered by cameras in the courtroom, as "like the Roman Colosseum" and a "zoo." Sentiment appeared in favor of Depp, and Bredefort thinks it influenced the jury. "How can you not? They went home every night. They have families. The families are on social media. We had a 10-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. Theres no way they couldnt have been influenced by it." The attorney described social media coverage of the case, bolstered by cameras in the courtroom, as "like the Roman Colosseum" and a "zoo." Sentiment appeared in favor of Depp, and Bredefort thinks it influenced the jury. "How can you not? They went home every night. They have families. The families are on social media. We had a 10-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. Theres no way they couldnt have been influenced by it." Appeal: Bredefort said her client has "excellent grounds" for an appeal because "a number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused." She said the suppression of Heard's medical records was a mistake because they showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist. (Read more Amber Heard stories.) (Newser) After nearly 100 days of fighting, Russia holds one-fifth of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. In a video address to the Parliament of Luxembourg, he said the battle is being waged from Kharkiv in the nation's northeast to Mykolaiv in the south, a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers, or 620 miles, the New York Times reports. "Just imagine!" he said. "Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometers." Russian forces are concentrating their efforts now on taking the last major city in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region they don't hold: Sievierodonetsk. The fighting in the east is intense, with both sides sustaining heavy losses. In other developments: White House talks: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Biden at the White House on Thursday. Stoltenberg told reporters afterward that the battle in Ukraine has become a war of attrition, so NATO must "be prepared for the long haul." NATO will continue its support of Ukraine, he said, partly to ensure it's in the best possible position to negotiate an end to the fighting at some point, per the Washington Post. He made clear that NATO isn't actually in the fight. "We provide support to Ukraine, but we're not part of the conflict," Stoltenberg said. More sanctions: The US moved against a Russian yacht management company and its owners, as well as luxury asset management and service companies, accusing them of helping to make President Vladimir Putin and the oligarchs wealthy and avoid the force of sanctions. The Treasury Department named the Shellest, the Nega, the Graceful, and the Olympia as yachts Putin uses. An official said the US will continue to "expose the corrupt systems by which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves." Cyber battle: The US has run offensive cyber operations on behalf of Ukraine, the military's hacking unit confirmed, per CNN. "We've conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, information operations," said Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of Cyber Command. The military rarely confirms such operations. Energy concerns: The increase in energy prices could be just the beginning, per CNN. With the war in Ukraine coming on top of years of inadequate investment in the energy sector, the world could be headed into a period worse than the oil crisis of the late 1970s, energy experts and officials said. "Now we have an oil crisis, a gas crisis, and an electricity crisis at the same time," said Fatih Birol of the watchdog group International Energy Agency. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside, and it's unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre of 19 students and two teachers unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a "system failure" that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School on May 24, the AP reports. "I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls," Gutierrez said during a news conference. His voice often cracking with emotion, the Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response. "There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this," Gutierrez said. Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health, and other issues. The next Texas legislative session is scheduled for January 2023. Gutierrez is among lawmakers who have urged Abbott, who is running for reelection, to call a special session in response to the shooting. Gutierrez said it's unclear whether information from the 911 calls was being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene. "Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes," Gutierrez said. He said the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know about the calls. "Hes the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls," Gutierrez said. Arredondo has not responded to interview requests from the AP since the attack. (Read more Uvalde mass shooting stories.) Rep. Dodie Horton said she has pulled what's been labelled Louisiana's "Don't Say Gay" bill from consideration this session. I would have prevented teachers in K-12 schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender preferences in the classroom (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator) For now, Louisiana teachers will still be allowed to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 classrooms. Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, author of whats been labeled Louisianas Dont Say Gay legislation, told the Illuminator she has voluntarily shelved her bill for this legislative session. Her bill would have made it illegal for schools to incorporate classroom instruction or discussion relative to sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through eight-grade classes. Teachers and school employees would have been prohibited from discussing personal sexual orientation or gender identity with students in grades K-12th grade. Next year, Horton said Wednesday. Hortons bill failed to pass from the House Education Committee last month, when three Republicans joined Democrats in opposition in a 4-7 vote. Conservatives in the Louisiana House of Representatives turned to a seldom used procedure the following week and moved the bill to the Committee of the Whole, where all representatives have a vote. Bills brought before the Committee of the Whole are handled much like any other legislative hearing. Representatives can bring supporters and opponents to testify, a process that has never happened on the House floor to the recollection of longtime legislative watchers. I didnt want to put the body through that, Horton said. Hortons proposal is modeled after Dont Say Gay legislation that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law. A resolution that ask BESE to adopt a policy to ban discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation from Louisiana classrooms also failed to be heard on the House floor when the author, Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, attempted to discharge the bill from committee. The bill needed 53 votes to be discharged, but fell short by a 49-30 vote. The post Author kills Louisianas Dont Say Gay bill appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has reiterated Bahrains firm commitment to all international conventions and laws related to human rights, which are an essential part of Bahrains culture, Arab identity and Islamic faith. HM the King stressed Bahrains approach in protecting and respecting human rights to ensure citizens wellbeing as he received members of the National Institution of Human Rights (NIHR) led by chairman Ali Ahmed Al Derazi who submitted the NIHR 2021 Report. His Majesty praised achievements and activities that aim to promote and develop human rights in Bahrain and to cooperate and communicate with international organisations and bodies in a framework of transparency and clarity to work on the protection and consolidation of human rights. He lauded human rights achievements in Bahrain which has become a leading model in this field, in accordance with the human rights principles stipulated in the National Action Charter, the Constitution, and relevant laws and legislations, in addition to international and regional instruments and treaties ratified by the Kingdom of Bahrain. HM the King commended the NIHR Board of Commissioners and the General Secretariat for their role in promoting human rights, work to consolidate its values, raise community awareness, and contribute to ensuring their free and independent practice. Al Derazi expressed sincere thanks and gratitude to HM the King for his constant care and directives to promote human rights in Bahrain, supported by the government, chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The Kingdom of Bahrain yesterday hosted a conference to launch the Document on Education Development in the Arab World. The Document , which provides an integrated vision on overhauling the educational system in Arab countries in accordance with the requirements of the current phase and the challenges facing education in the Arab world, is in line with the belief that education is the mainstay of progress, and the cornerstone for raising highly-aware and enlightened Arab generations. Held under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Supreme Council for the Development of Education and Training, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the conference, themed Bahrain the gateway to the development of education in the Arab world, was organised by the Arab Parliament, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, with the participation of the speakers of Arab legislative councils and parliaments, as well as representatives of the relevant organisations. The launch of the important Arab document from Bahrain reflects the Arab and global appreciation for the kingdoms pioneering experience in the field of education development, as proved by its unprecedented educational achievements confirmed by the relevant international reports and indices. The document is the outcome of the great effort, meetings and extensive discussions of officials, experts and those interested in the field of education, as well as of the in-depth studies with the relevant regional and international organisations, which reflects the extent of Arab countries interest in education and the need to enhance joint Arab action in this vital field to ensure a better future for the Arab Nation. The document emphasised that education is one of the most important foundations of the Arab national security, and the main means to achieve sustainable development and an economy based on science, knowledge and the localisation of technology. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Twenty-seven violations related to the value-added tax have been recorded since the amended VAT law took effect early this year. It is the result of intensified inspection clampdown on shops and commercial establishments conducted by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, in cooperation with the National Bureau of Revenue (NBR). Inspections were carried out on 40 shops and commercial establishments in various governorates in the Kingdom of Bahrain to ensure adequate implementation of the readjusted VAT. Competent authorities are taking legal measures against the violating establishments as well as outlets which face tax evasion charges. Lawbreakers can be jailed for five years and fined up to BD10,000, or even three times the amount evaded. The Ministry and NBR stressed the importance of complying with readjusted regulations, urging the public to lodge complaints and and report VAT violations via hotline 80008001 round the clock or email vat@nbr.gov.bh. Standard rate Under the amended VAT law, the standard rate of 5% is raised to 10% starting January this year. The doubling of VAT is a fiscal reform that is part of plans to boost revenues and sustain the Kingdoms economic progress and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The VAT increase could contribute receipts of about 3% of gross domestic product in the next few years, up from about 1.7% this year. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Filipino Club Bahrain, in solidarity with the Filipino community, celebrates Philippine Independence Day on June 10, 2022 at the Cultural Hall Bahrain, featuring Filipino regional cultural performances, talents, values and culture. Supported by the Filipino community in Bahrain and The Filipino Channel (TFC), the event will be apportioned into two equally thrilling segments which will kick off at 4pm and 7pm, respectively. The first segment will showcase local talents performing regional folk dances, FCB Got Talent contest, and a raffle draw with exciting prizes, whilst the latter part to feature well-known Philippine celebrity personalities; Joshua Garcia and Jane de Leon at 7pm onwards. Filipino Club President Ric Advincula is inviting all Filipinos in Bahrain and friends from Northern province of Saudi to join us in this patriotic celebration. Limited VIP tickets sold at BD10 with a reserved seating number and BD5 for general admission tickets. Proceeds of this event will be allocated to the clubs projects and beneficiaries. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) Amber Heard was demonized by ex-husband Johnny Depp's legal team and excoriated on social media during a sensational defamation trial that ended with a jury ordering her to pay Depp $15 million, Heard's lawyer said Thursday. Elaine Bredehoft, one of Heard's lead attorneys during the trial, said she believes the jury was influenced by a relentless barrage of social media posts condemning her and supporting Depp. She said Heard plans to appeal. These people were giving her death threats. They threatened to microwave her baby. This is the kind of social media she was getting, Bredehoft said on CBS Mornings. It was like a Roman coliseum is the best way to describe the atmosphere here. And I have to believe that the jury, even though theyre told not to go and look at anything, you know, they have weekends, they have families, they have social media, she said. Bredehoft also said some evidence that was allowed in a similar defamation lawsuit that Depp lost in the U.K. was suppressed in the lawsuit he filed in Virginia. In the U.K. case, the judge found that Depp assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions. We weren't allowed to tell the jury this, Bredehoft said on NBC's Today show. So what did Depp's team learn from this? Demonize Amber. And suppress the evidence." The verdict handed down Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court found that Depp had been defamed by three statements in a 2018 op-ed written by Heard in which she said she was an abuse victim. The jury awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge reduced the punitive damages award to $350,000 under a state cap. Depp attorney Camille Vasquez said Wednesday that the verdict confirms what we have said from the beginning, that the claims against Johnny Depp are defamatory and unsupported by any evidence. When asked on Today whether Heard has the money to pay the $10.35 million, Bredehoft said, Oh, no, absolutely not. The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in her countersuit, concluding that she was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax surrounding the abuse allegations. The case captivated viewers who watched gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected the actors mannerisms, their wardrobe choices and their use of alcohol and drugs. While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia where Depp was shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle. Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heards attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body. Both performers emerge with unclear prospects. Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, was a bankable star until recent years, with credits including playing Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. However, he lost that role and was replaced in a Fantastic Beasts spinoff. Heards acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming Aquaman sequel due out next year. Brett Ward, a family law attorney in New York, said Depp made himself a more believable witness by admitting to drug and alcohol use and that he could be a difficult person. But he said Depp also ran the risk of making those moments more memorable to the public than his film work. He says he did this for his children. Having watched the whole trial, I dont think that he did any service to his children by airing all of this dirty laundry, Ward said. BROOKFIELD With the towns health director preparing for retirement, Brookfield is considering whether to join forces with nearby towns as part of a regional health district. The question faces Brookfield officials as they prepare for the retirement of the towns public health director, Dr. Raymond Sullivan, who has served in the position for 13 years. Dr. Sullivan is a force and we are going to be hard pressed to find somebody of his caliber, said First Selectwoman Tara Carr last week. But she said the decision to maintain Brookfields health department or join a regional health district should be subject to a town vote. To keep it local...there are some challenges, there are a lot of things going on there, she added. To keep it local would retain Brookfields health department, but it also means abiding by state laws, enacted after Sullivan was hired, which stipulate a local health director must be employed full-time and hold a public health masters degree. As Carr explained, a shortage of individuals who hold the educational requirements for the job, and how much they would be paid to fulfill the role, is an obstacle. It becomes about finding the right person with the right skills at the right time, she said. Considering the option to link with a regional health district, Carr said she has been speaking to other municipalities who are a part of regional health districts. Its more than just cost and there are multiple variables that should be considered, just beyond any cost-savings, and even going out to a (regional) district doesnt mean there will be savings associated, she said at a Board of Selectman meeting last week. It just depends on how we do it and what we do and where we go. Cost savings shouldnt be the only factor, she added. It should be what is best for our residents and what they want Carr said. According to the states Department of Public Health, there are 20 designated regional health districts, the oldest of which, the Aspetuck Health District, was established in 1966 and includes the towns of Weston, Westport and Easton. Under the states public health policy, local health districts serving populations under 50,000 people or in districts where part-time public health directors are employed, receive no state funding. This means smaller towns that join together, thus exceeding the population limit, save money. Easton joined the district in May 2021, and First Selectman David Bindelglass explained how the decision became an important one with the COVID-19 pandemic requiring added service delivery for local residents. We never could have done the surveillance, we never could of have set up the vaccination clinics there is so much that never would have happened here, if we were on our own, Bindelglass said. Prior to joining the health district, Easton employed a part-time physician to fill the role of the towns health director. From that point of view, we ever would have manged, he added. I wouldnt say its gone perfectly but its certainly been significantly to the towns benefit. Earlier this year, the New Milford Health Department and Pomperaug District Department of Health combined to become the Housatonic Valley Health District, which covers New Milford, Southbury, Oxford, Washington and Woodbury. Brookfield has not discussed what towns it might join with. Brookfield health director will be missed a lot The discussion on how to go forward in Brookfield stems from the decision by Sullivan, a resident of Middlebury and a native of Waterbury, to retire at the end of September. I was scheduled to be here eight hours a day, three days a week, but it was more like six to eight hours a day, eight days a week, Sullivan said, adding that he would stick to his plans, unless [the town] are in a bind, I would stay on so long as they needed me. Sullivans resume includes 30 years of experience as a surgeon and a trustee at Waterbury Hospital. He is also a professor of early American history at the University of Connecticut in Waterbury, where he plans to devote more time following this retirement this fall. Reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, the towns top health official discussed the extent of his job, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not offer his opinion on how the town should proceed when it comes to joining a regional health district, or not. Still, he took issue with the recently passed standards set by the state for cities and towns, and health districts, seeking to hire public health directors. Under state laws and regulations, a public health director must hold a public health masters degree, or an MPH. Sullivan graduated from Georgetown Medical School in 1963, and since has acquired multiple certifications to ensure his qualifications as a public health director, but he said the stipulation is important. I felt it was very wrong to not include physicians without MPHs in the possibility of becoming a director of public health, Sullivan said. And as a result, not too many people are coming into the public health work force and we are really desperate for people, good people, to come into the public health work force when there are numerous physicians who have great experience in community health, but they are no longer eligible to become directors. Every department and district has some kind of a medical adviser today, well what if their medical adviser was the director of health? Two birds can be killed with one stone, Sullivan added. However Brookfield proceeds in its public health course, it is clear Sullivan will be missed. He has during COVID showed an incredible dedication to the Town of Brookfield, even those he is a part-timer, who is working 60 to 70 hours a week, every single week for the last two and a half years, including Saturdays and Sundays, he is always available, Selectman Steve Dunn. We are going to miss him a lot, added Dunn. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY The Henry Abbott Technical High School math teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student was fired about a week before his arrest last month, according to school personnel documents recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Salvatore Maimone, 41, of Watertown, was arrested and charged on May 13 with second-degree sexual assault, second-degree stalking and interfering with an officer/resisting arrest following an investigation into what state police described as a possible inappropriate sexual relationship between him and a student. He has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for June 10. Hes complying with all the court orders, attorney Gregory Klein said Wednesday. Hes in regular meetings with his probation officer. He is in regular counseling and therapy twice a week. The attorney said his client has gotten a job managing a restaurant in the Hartford area and plans to pick up another job as a UPS driver. Hes continuing to support his wife and two kids, Klein said. Hes doing everything he can on his side to present his case to the judge when we get to that point in the case. A school official had told Hearst Connecticut Media that Maimone was no longer employed with the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System the Monday after his arrest, but at that time did not say if he resigned or was fired. Police said Henry Abbott Tech Principal Kevin Durkin contacted them May 3 to report that a female student had made a disclosure of being involved in a sexual relationship with Salvatore Maimone. That same day, Maimone who joined the Abbott Tech faculty three years ago as a mathematics instructor, according to a 2019 school newsletter was placed on administrative leave. He was told that he must be available by telephone during his regular working hours in case the school needed to contact him about the investigation, but that he was not permitted at Abbott Tech or any other Connecticut Technical High Schools, according to a letter from the interim superintendent to Maimone. The letter stated he should not be in contact with any staff, parents or students about the matter. Among the documents Hearst obtained from the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System was a May 4 letter to Maimone from the systems interim superintendent, Ellen Solek, notifying him of the decision to terminate (his) contract as Mathematics Instructor at Henry Abbott Technical High School effective May 5, 2022. My decision is based on the recommendation of your Principal, Kevin Durkin and my belief that your professional skills do not meet the expectations of this school system, Solek wrote. Solek stated that the payroll department would contact Maimone about his pay and benefits. He was told he could contact payroll and human resources to obtain a form necessary to claim a refund of contributions to the Retirement Health Fund. Prior to the arrest and investigation, school administrators had sent Maimone two letters of concern in March regarding separate incidents, according to the documents from the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System. The March 24 letter from the assistant principal describes how Maimone had allowed students to use their cell phones during an SAT exam the day before, which was against the rules and caused four scores of students to be invalidated by the College Board, according to the letter. The school principal also sent him a letter on March 2 to clarify expectations and address behavior moving forward. In the letter, the principal states Maimone disregard(ed) directions from his supervisor after he had come across as aggressive and counterproductive in discussions and inquiry related to the math curriculum. Allegations According to the warrant for his arrest, the student told police he started flirting with her at school during the fall 2021 semester and said they had sex on several occasions. The teen also said Maimone bought her gifts and had her contact information saved in his phone under a false name both of which police said they later confirmed to be true. State police said Maimone initially denied all allegations and questions pertaining to an inappropriate relationship with the victim, but disclosed that he and the victim were close at school and gave police consent to search his phone. According to the warrant for his arrest, police found the victims number saved in Maimones phone under a fake name, as well as a picture of the victim in a recently deleted photo folder. When confronted with the evidence, police said Maimone denied having a physical relationship with the teen, but confessed to having been in communication with her. Maimone was arrested on a warrant the morning of May 13, held on a $200,000 bond and transported to state Superior Court in Danbury for presentment. His family bailed him out, his attorney said after a May 16 court appearance. (The Center Square) Legislation to move authority over Louisianas Major Events Incentive Program from the Department of Economic Development to the lieutenant governor gained approval from the Senate Finance Committee this week. Committee members approved House Bill 1015 on Monday, sponsored by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, without questions or objections after adding amendments that make money transfers from the program subject to legislative approval. Schexnayder elaborated on the legislation on the House floor when the bill passed the lower chamber on May 12. "Years ago we had a major events bill that basically the state would put money into and allow cities or municipalities to use it. They had a small major events (fund) and a large major events (fund)," he said. "Those accounts would only have money in them the state would put into it and when it was gone the state would have to go back and redo it. "My bill is going to streamline that where we have a much simpler process to be able to access the funds that we have in there, were going to put in some seed money to start it, but then were going to have a mechanism in it thats going to allow the locals to pay back into this fund to be able to have more and more and more and it will build as we go." Schexnayder noted that the fund is currently restricted to large cities and HB 1015 opens the program to the entire state. "The Strawberry Festival, the French Quarter Festival, the Boucherie Festival, those types of festivals would be able to opt in to get some funding to help them market and sell their event to make it grow and bring people into the state," he said. HB 1015 would require the lieutenant governor to submit an economic analysis to the state treasurer that outlines the area impacted by the qualified major event, total incremental increase in sales and use receipts in the designated area, total incremental increase in excise tax receipts, and the amount equal to 50% of the total incremental increases in sales and use and excise tax receipts. Once the economic analysis is received, the treasurer would be required to immediately transfer 50% of the incremental tax receipts from the general fund to the program, which would shift from a subfund of the Louisiana Mega-Project Development Fund to a separate Major Events Incentives Fund. The bill would also create the Events Incentive Program to provide grant funding to local governments or tourism organizations hosting an event. HB 1015 would require the lieutenant governor to submit an annual report on the program to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget by Sept. 1. The bill would allow eligible entities to receive up to 25% of the total cost incurred for an event, up to $350,000. Authority over the Major Events Incentive Program would shift from the Department of Economic Development to the lieutenant governors Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. Schexnayder previously told The Advocate hes mulling a run for lieutenant governor. HB 1015 now heads to the full Senate for debate. If approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor, the changes would become effective on July 1, 2022. Canadian researchers pursue research excellence across range of disciplines OTTAWA, ON, June 2, 2022 /CNW/ - Every day, Canadian researchers stand at the forefront of discoveries and research breakthroughs reflecting the excellence that makes up Canada's thriving research ecosystem. That's why the Government of Canada continues to invest in Canadian researchers, the drivers of innovation who will help to shape a healthier and more prosperous economy, environment and community. Today, the Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced an investment of more than $102 million, in support of 119 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 35 Canadian research institutions. Continued investment over the years in the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) has enabled world-class researchers based in Canada to reach new heights in their research, and to contribute to important global discussions on the COVID-19 pandemic, health care, the environment, gender-based rights, education, Indigenous perspectives, and more. This cycle of new and renewed chairs will add support in various research disciplines, including economics of sustainability and globalization, processing of viral vectors and vaccines, Indigenization of higher education, stem cell models of childhood disease, and many others. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), a CRCP partner, also commits to supporting nine of the chairs, at eight institutions, with an investment of close to $1.8 million through its John R. Evans Leaders Fund. This investment will help institutions attract and retain Canada Research Chairs, and support the infrastructure and tools needed for chairs to excel in their respective research fields. The CRCP actively strives to ensure Canada's research system is open to all outstanding researchers, so they can achieve research excellence within their chosen disciplines, which will benefit Canadians for years to come. Quotes "Our government recognizes that investing in researchers and scientists results in breakthroughs to advance our society, and benefits all Canadians. The Canada Research Chairs Program provides a unique opportunity for researchers to push boundaries and make cutting-edge discoveries with lasting impacts across the health, environment, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities disciplines." The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry "The Canada Research Chairs Program is a cornerstone of research excellence in Canada. With each cycle, we see emerging and experienced researchers who represent the breadth and depth of diversity in Canada, and who are committed to advancing their ideas, finding solutions to some of the world's toughest problems, and having a seat at the global table to help shape a better future for generations to come. We congratulate you on your research achievements, and eagerly anticipate your next successes." Ted Hewitt, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council "The Canada Foundation for Innovation is proud to support the Canada Research Chairs Program, a joint effort that contributes to retaining and attracting the most promising and accomplished researchers. State-of-the-art facilities and equipment acquired thanks to CFI contributions are key to bringing extraordinary talent to our institutions, and to enabling them to innovate across all fields." Roseann O'Reilly Runte, President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation Quick facts The CRCP invests up to $311 million per year to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising minds. Chairholders aim to achieve research excellence in engineering and natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. per year to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising minds. Chairholders aim to achieve research excellence in engineering and natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. There are currently 1,985 active chairs in the program. The Government of Canada and the CRCP are committed to excellence in research and research training for the benefit of Canadians. Their work is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to seize opportunities and respond to global challenges. and the CRCP are committed to excellence in research and research training for the benefit of Canadians. Their work is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to seize opportunities and respond to global challenges. The CRCP is a tri-agency initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada , the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada . , the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of . All new Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs receive a $20,000 research stipend to help support their research program. research stipend to help support their research program. As of 2022, institutions eligible for the CRCP are also invited to nominate an eligible faculty member or team of eligible faculty members leading a bold, potentially game-changing project that will address systemic barriers in the research ecosystem and academia for the Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity. Associated links Government of Canada supports research excellence through new and renewed Canada Research Chairs Canada Research Chairs recipients list: Cycle 2021-1 Canada Research Chairs recipients list: Cycle 2020-2 Canada Research Chairs program statistics Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity Canada Foundation for Innovation news release Follow the Canada Research Chairs on Twitter: @CRC_CRC Follow Canada's federal research funding agencies on Twitter: @CIHR_IRSC, @NSERC_CRSNG, @SSHRC_CRSH, @InnovationCA Follow Canadian Science on social media: Twitter, Facebook, SOURCE Government of Canada For further information: Laurie Bouchard, Senior Manager, Communications, Office of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, [email protected]; Media Relations, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, [email protected]; Media relations, Canada Research Chairs Program, [email protected] GATINEAU, QC, June 2, 2022 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to the social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities. Working-age persons with disabilities in Canada are twice as likely to live in poverty as those without. That is why the Government is taking action to reduce poverty and support the financial security of persons with disabilities. Today, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, reintroduced ground-breaking legislation that would establish a new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). The CDB would become an important part of Canada's social safety net, alongside Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and the Canada Child Benefit. It could significantly reduce poverty and benefit hundreds of thousands of Canadians. Through Budget 2021, the Government invested $11.9 million over three years to reform eligibility processes for federal disability programs and benefits. This work began in the summer of 2021 in the form of ministerial roundtables with the disability community and an on-line public survey. This work is ongoing and will directly inform the CDB. In the spirit of "Nothing Without Us," the legislation reintroduced today recognizes the importance of engaging with the disability community. The Accessible Canada Act, which came into force in 2019, specifies that persons with disabilities must be involved in the development and design of laws, policies, programs, services and structures. The Government will continue to work with persons with disabilities and other stakeholders to inform the design of the benefit and future regulations. The legislation reintroduced today also recognizes the leading role that provinces and territories play in providing supports and services to Canadians with disabilities, and the importance of engaging with them in developing federal benefits and supports. Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services met in July 2021 for an initial discussion on the proposed new benefit. This work continues. The Government of Canada remains committed to ensuring that the CDB supplements existing provincial and territorial supports and benefits. The legislation reintroduced today has the potential to significantly advance the work of disability inclusion in Canada. It is being reintroduced as Canada marks its sixth annual National AccessAbility Week. This week is an opportunity for the country to celebrate the contributions of Canadians with disabilities, recognize the progress the disability community has made on disability rights, and commit to the work ahead to make Canada disability inclusive. Financial security is a critical part of that mission. Quotes "With the Canada Disability Benefit, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to correct the long-standing social and economic exclusion that is the lived experience of far too many people with disabilities in our country. We can seriously reduce poverty and improve the financial security of working-age Canadians with disabilities. We have the opportunity to create a Canada that includes everyone." Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough Quick Facts According to the most recent Canadian Survey on Disabilities (2017), the poverty rate of persons with disability is almost double that of Canadians without disabilities. Canadians with disabilitiesincluding women, men, LGBTQ2 people, racialized people and Indigenous peopleare more likely to be financially insecure than other Canadians: 59% of Canadians with disabilities aged 25 to 64 are employed, compared to 80% of Canadians without disabilities; and Canadians with disabilities aged 25 to 64 earn less than Canadians without disabilities (12% less for Canadians with milder disabilities and 51% less for Canadians with more severe disabilities). Related Products Associated Links Follow us on Twitter SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Tara Beauport, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough , [email protected]; Media Relations Office , Employment and Social Development Canada , 819-994-5559 , [email protected] Project will benefit Yukoners with clean power and reduced GHG emissions Tweet this Low carbon, clean power will reduce GHG emissions from current diesel generation by approximately 29,500 tonnes annually. The CIB's investment supports closing an infrastructure gap for First Nation communities and municipalities across Yukon Territory which currently rely on grid-level diesel generators to ensure electricity reliability during the winter. The project will directly reduce the need for procurement and use of diesel fuel across the Yukon. The financing is the CIB's third commitment under the Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative (ICII) and its second partnership opportunity in British Columbia. The Yukon Government, British Columbia Government, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada are also contributing funding to the project. The project will provide direct employment opportunities for local community members during construction and operations, including trades, labour, plant operations and maintenance, as well as environmental and safety monitors. Endorsements The Atlin project is an example of our Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative in action and we are proud of this partnership. The CIB's financing solutions aim to accelerate Indigenous infrastructure investments focused on decarbonizing remote communities in Canada. We are committed to collaborating with First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities to help develop inclusive and sustainable infrastructure. Ehren Cory, CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank This project is an example of how the Canada Infrastructure Bank can work with partners across the country to help communities transition to cleaner forms of energy. Funding the Atlin Hydroelectric Expansion will deliver clean power to the Yukon microgrid, which will reduce the use of diesel fuel across the Yukon Territory. Investments like this will contribute to Canada reaching its target of net-zero emissions and creating jobs in our communities. The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities Supporting indigenous owned and led clean energy projects is an important step towards reducing emissions, lowering reliance on diesel, increasing energy security and reliability, and creating good, high quality jobs across Canada. The Atlin Hydro Expansion is an example of the kind of project we need to reach net-zero by 2050 in a way that drives economic growth and development while also prioritizing the principles of inclusion, partnership, and collaboration. I am pleased to see the CIB dedicate $80 million dollars to this project, helping to supply Canada's North with reliable clean energy and narrow the infrastructure gap for Indigenous, rural, and remote communities. The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources Tlingit Homeland Energy was created to develop the local economy for the benefit of Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the broader community of Atlin. The Atlin Hydroelectric Expansion Project will bring reliable and clean electricity to Yukon, while also providing economic development opportunities for local communities. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with CIB to help to make this important project a reality. Peter Kirby, President, Tlingit Homeland Energy LP Quick Facts Taku River Tlingit First Nation began operating its first hydro project in 2009. The project has reduced diesel generation and provided environmentally-friendly clean energy. Tlingit Homeland Energy LP continues to discuss the project with stakeholders and First Nations communities. The CIB has a commitment to invest $35 billion over the long-term across its priority sectors, and within that overall commitment, a target to invest at least $1 billion in partnership with and for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples. over the long-term across its priority sectors, and within that overall commitment, a target to invest at least in partnership with and for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples. Through the ICII, CIB's investment team is investing in community-based projects which provide a service and a direct benefit to an Indigenous community or communities to help close the infrastructure gap. The CIB's investments are subject to approval by its Board of Directors. Learn More: www.thelp.ca www.trtfn.com www.cib-bic.ca www.yukonenergy.ca SOURCE Canada Infrastructure Bank For further information: Media Contact: Felix Corriveau, Canada Infrastructure Bank, [email protected] Hardik Patel, a Gujarat Patidar politician who just left the Congress, is slated to join the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday Hardik Patel, a Gujarat Patidar politician who just left the Congress, is slated to join the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, saying he will work as a little soldier to serve the nation under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership. Im going to start a new chapter today with feelings of national interest, state interest, public interest, and social interest. Under the leadership of Indias victorious Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, I shall work as a tiny soldier in the noble mission of nation service Patel tweeted. Hardik rose to prominence in politics in 2015, when he led the Patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat, developing a campaign in the run-up to the state Assembly elections in 2017. Patel initially sought OBC recognition for the Patidar group. Following that, it became a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). During the Patidar quota agitation, the Anandiben Patel-led Gujarat government continued to slap cases on Hardik, accusing him of fomenting trouble. Anandiben Patel, the states then-chief minister, was caught off guard by his arrival on the political scene. Anandiben Patel announced her retirement from the position in 2016. Patel joined the Congress Party in the presence of Rahul Gandhi ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the year 2020, he was appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. However, he left the party in 2022 after accusing Congress leadership of ignoring him when making critical choices. The entrance of Hardik into the BJP is crucial because the Assembly elections are scheduled for this year. Three soldiers were injured in a private vehicle bomb blast in Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday. Three soldiers were injured in a private vehicle bomb blast in Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday. The injured soldiers were taken to the hospital. However, the nature and cause of the explosion are still unknown and are being investigated. Early this morning, the Kashmir Zone police sent out a tweet stating At Sedow, Shopian, a blast occurred inside a privately hired vehicle. Three troops were hurt and were taken to the hospital. The nature and source of the blast (grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or battery problem) are being examined and will be shared. Terrorists fired shots at a civilian in Shopian on Wednesday, injuring him. The civilian was also injured, according to police, and his condition is claimed to be stable. In Shopians Chidren, Keegam region, a terrorist opened fire on one civilian, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh. He sustained a leg injury and was sent to the hospital. His health is said to be stable Kashmir Zone Police sent out a message. Terrorists opened fire on a Hindu school teacher, Rajni Bala, on Tuesday in Kashmirs Kulgam area. Terrorists opened fire on Bala, a Hindu schoolteacher, in the Kulgam district of Kashmir. Bala, a native of Samba in the Jammu region, was shot by terrorists in the Gopalpora area of Kulgam, where she was working as a teacher, police said. According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, the event occurred in Kulgams High School Gopalpora area. However, she was rushed to the hospital, but she died as a result of her injuries. The attack occurred just days after Kashmiri TV actress Amreen Bhat was slain by unidentified terrorists in Budgams Chadoora neighbourhood in Jammu and Kashmir on May 25, injuring her 10-year-old nephew. Previously, on May 12, terrorists shot and killed Rahul Bhatt, an employee of the Tehsil office in Chadoora, Budgam district. In a shocking shooting incident, at least four individuals were killed in a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday. In a shocking shooting incident, at least four individuals were killed in a hospital campus in USs Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday. The shooter, according to the authorities, is also dead. We can confirm four persons have died in the active shooting situation at St. Francis hospital campus, including the shooter, Tulsa Police stated in a statement on Wednesday. According to a previous Facebook post from the Tulsa Police Department, authorities reacted to a complaint of a guy armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus. In the United States, there has been an increase in the number of shootouts. Earlier on Tuesday, an elderly woman was killed and two others were injured when gunshots erupted at a high school graduation ceremony in New Orleans. Prior to that, several individuals, including 19 children, were slain in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last week. Notably, US President Joe Biden sought advise from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday on how to combat violence in the US, as gun events have been on the rise in recent days. Biden alluded to the 51 people killed in mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019. Following the tragedy, New Zealand banned military-style firearms. A gun buyback programme was also implemented. During his discussion with Arden in the Oval Office, Biden said, We need your guidance. Your leadership has taken on a key role in this world stage and it truly has rallying action on climate change; the global fight to prevent violence, extremism, and terrorism, like what happened in Christchurch, he continued. SHARON The Sharon Historical Society & Museum is pleased to announce the exhibit, Sharon Collects: Samplers from the Collection of Alexandra Peters. The public is invited to attend the opening reception, 5-7 p.m. June 18. A collection of 55 samplers from the collection of Alexandra Peters, the first in the series Sharon Collects, will be on display at Sharon Historical Society and Museum until October. The accomplishments of girls have often been left out of history, but samplers, stitched by schoolgirls during the years 1715 and 1840, were highly valued and displayed with pride by the girls families, often for generations, accordin gto the society. Peters, fascinated by the fact that these works of art were created by girls, had already started collecting samplers when she moved to Sharon, Connecticut. But these antique needleworks fit so well in her 1794 home that her collection began to fill every wall. She researched each sampler before buying it to find the girl who stitched it, where she lived, the school she attended, and the histories of those around her. One highlight of the exhibit is Peters discovery of an unusual genealogical sampler made by a free Black girl, whose parents, Mehitable and Francis Heuston, are acknowledged to have been conductors in the Underground Railroad. In the 1830s, when literacy was withheld from enslaved people, and African-American families were still being torn apart by slavery, at least one of the daughters of the highly respected Heuston family must have attended a girls academy, where she was taught advanced embroidery. Her large sampler is both touching and impressive, according to the society. The exhibit contains a rare, three-dimensional globe sewn by a Quaker girl, seven sets by sisters, a set from the family of Nathaniel Hawthorne, as well as marking samplers, band samplers, darning samplers and complex pictorial needleworks made by older girls at three famous academies for girls here in Litchfield County. Sharon Historical Society & Museum is located at 18 Main Street in Sharon. Admission is free. For more information and directions, call 860-364-5688 or visit www.sharonhist.org. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate La Cremaillere in Bedford, N.Y., which reopened earlier this year under new ownership, is launching a new brunch June 5 in partnership with Greenwich Polo Club. The $65 prix-fixe menu features three courses, with starters like pate de campagne, oysters, smoked salmon rillette or steak tartare; and entrees including Jonah crab Benedict, brioche French toast, grilled Faroe Island salmon, steak au poivre and a Niman Ranch beef burger with triple cream cheese, crispy shallots and truffle aioli. Dessert options include strawberries and cream mille-feuille, creme brulee and a passion fruit crepe. Reservations are available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. In partnership with the Polo Club, the restaurant will offer a complimentary general admission car pass to each table of two or four. Businessman Peter Orthwein, a polo player in residence at the Greenwich club, reopened La Cremaillere earlier this year with the Boies family. In 2015, club co-founder Peter Brant named a field in honor of Orthwein. "La Crem" has been a destination restaurant since 1948, and Orthwein and the Boies family are taking "a new approach" to its French-inspired cuisine, according to a press release. Orthwein appointed chef Thomas Burke to oversee the kitchen, who brings experience from Michelin-starred restaurants such as Le Bernardin and Aureole in New York City, Boulevard in San Francisco and The French Laundry in Napa Valley. Most recently, Burke was the executive chef for the Charlie Palmer Collective, which has restaurants in New York, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Napa and Healdsburg, Calif. "Our goal is to be welcoming and maintain the restaurant for new generations," Orthwein said in a statement. "I've been dining at La Crem since the early '80s, and when the opportunity came to save the restaurant from permanently closing my partner and I jumped at the chance! We are really pleased with Chef Burke's interpretation of the menu and think that it will appeal to both our longtime regulars and new customers alike." The restaurant closed two years ago amid its previous owner's legal issues. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) Dutch authorities on Tuesday arrested a 34-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker accused of war crimes, marking the first arrest of a person in the Netherlands suspected of committing crimes in support of Syria's government. The man, whose name has not been released by the police, has been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for allegedly violently detaining a civilian in 2013 and turning the person over to Syrian officials, who then tortured that person. According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the man was a member of the Liwa al-Quds, or Jerusalem Brigade, a faction made up mostly of Palestinian fighters. The suspect moved to the Netherlands in 2020, applied for asylum, and settled in the small southern city of Kerkrade. The Dutch police received a series of tips about his involvement with Liwa al-Quds, which they consider to be a criminal organization. The suspect will have his first court appearance Friday. Liwa al-Quds played a big role in the Syrian government's offensive in the northern city of Aleppo, which ended in 2016 with the capture of rebel-held neighborhoods. The four years of fighting in Aleppo left many members of the group dead or wounded, and ended in a major victory for Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. This is the fifth war crimes case in the Netherlands to stem from the conflict in Syria. Under universal jurisdiction, the Netherlands can prosecute certain crimes even if they were committed abroad. A court in The Hague convicted another Syrian asylum-seeker, Ahmad al-K., last year for war crimes for executing a Syrian Army soldier, an event that was captured on video. Germany was the first country to convict an official from Assad's regime. In 2021, a court in Koblenz sentenced Eyad al-Gharib, a former member of Assads secret police, to four and a half years in prison for being an accessory to crimes against humanity. ___ Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed. Viktoria Sundqvist / Hearst Connecticut Media / HARTFORD A New Haven man faces up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to distributing fentanyl, according to federal prosecutors. The charge stemmed from an investigation that started in the fall of 2021. The FBIs New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force and the New Haven Police Department were looking into a drug trafficking organization that operated around the West Hills neighborhood, including the McConaughy Terrace housing complex, according to U.S. Attorney Vanessa Avery. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY At 85, Bob Kingsley has been battling a debilitating bone ailment called osteomyelitis that has kept him out of the cockpit for the last three years. But Wednesdays gathering of octogenarian pilots at Danbury airport was an annual event he didnt want to miss. So Kingsley and three friends climbed into a single-engine Cesna 172 and made the 40-minute trip here from New Jersey. It was fantastic this is the first time I flew in three years, and it was a really nice flight, said Kingsley, who added that his autopilot did half the work for him above the clouds. It was a good to get back into the saddle. It was even better to see a couple dozen pilot friends all at least 80 years old gathered at picnic tables outside the Business Aircraft Center hangar on runway 8. Most of the group assembled Wednesday drove in from the region because the forecast had threatened rain. Typically, more members of the club known as UFO for United Flying Octogenarians fly into the event, said Ken Johnson, 85, a retired commercial pilot from Kent, who helped organized Wednesdays UFO gathering. If someone wants to organize a fly-in we do and guys come in from all over, Johnson said of the groups 1,600 members. (Danbury airport) is a good location within 100 miles of here, there are quite a few UFOs. Of the handful of octogenarians who flew in for Wednesdays event, David Roeberg took the award for speed. His silver G2 Vision Jet, which he purchased used last year for $2.6 million, has a cruise speed of 300 mph. Roeberg, 84, made the flight from Wilmington, Del., in 40 minutes. There are clouds below you and above you, so you are operating the equipment with the instruments, and you have to always be cognizant what you are doing next and be ahead of the airplane mentally, Roeberg said as the crowd of octogenarians admired his jet. I have been flying for over 50 years, so its second nature. Roebergs jet wasnt the only aircraft with wow factor on Wednesday. Jack and Sandi Rosen, who celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary over the weekend, taxied to the hangar reception in a custom-made single-engine plane that Jack Rosen made by hand. Leaning into the nose with his hands on either side of the propeller, 85-year-old Jack Rosen pushed his plane off the blacktop and onto the grass by himself, raising his arms up in a body builders stance. Sandi and I got married, said Rosen, a retired engineer. Some people buy a house. We bought an airplane, his wife Sandi said, beating him to the punchline. In the plane we had before this we crossed the Atlantic (Ocean) 12 times and Sandi did eight of the flights with me, Rosen said. So we have been all over Europe in a single-engine. We thought nothing of flying to Iceland for the weekend. On Wednesday, Jack Rosen was happy to be in Danbury. He opened a small square engine hatch on the nose of his aircraft, and he dipped his face toward it with his eyes closed Best smell in the world right there, he said. An aircraft engine cooling off. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) A House panel advanced legislation Thursday that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 as Democrats moved quickly to put their stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by assailants who used such weapons to kill 31 people, including 19 children. The vote came as President Joe Biden gave a prime-time speech about the shootings and told Americans, Let's hear the call and the cry, let's meet the moment, let us finally do something." Partisan positions were clear at the Judiciary Committee hearing, which lasted more than nine hours. In addition to raising the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles, the bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the administration's executive action banning fast-action bump-stock devices and ghost guns that are assembled without serial numbers. The final vote to advance the bill was 25-19, with Democrats accounting for all the yes votes and Republicans accounting for all the no votes. The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised in a letter to Democratic colleagues Thursday that the House will vote on the measure next week, and she promised other votes in the weeks ahead, including on a bill to to create an Amber Alert-style notification during a mass shooting. Pelosi also pledged a hearing on a bill banning military-style semiautomatic rifles. But with Republicans nearly all in opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely putting lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year's elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making rapid progress, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defended his chamber's proposals as popular with most Americans. He dismissed Republican criticism. You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are politicizing' these tragedies to enact new policies?" Nadler said. It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh." Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for? Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted the House bill would do nothing to stop mass shootings. We need to get serious about understanding why this keeps happening. Democrats are always fixated on curtailing the rights of law-abiding citizens rather than trying to understand why this evil happens," Jordan said. Until we figure out the why, we will always mourn losses without facing the problem. Our job is to figure out the why." A chief feature of the House bill requires those buying semi-automatic weapons to be at least 21. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, both were 18 and used an AR-15-style weapon. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy an assault weapon." Thats what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? Theyve got a problem, which means weve got a problem, which means those 19 kids and their parents and those two teachers have a problem, forever," Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., pointed to a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found Californias ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 unconstitutional. I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way to stripping Americans of fundamental rights, Bishop said. The hearing featured emotional pleas from Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to the mass shootings after years of gridlock on gun issues, one of the most riveting coming from Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia. She recalled how her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. She said she dreams of who he would have become. She said racial bias led to his death and those of 10 Black Americans in Buffalo last month and is being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency" in the United States. We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue, McBath said. And we have solutions that a majority of American people believe in. They are common-sense compromises that will keep American children alive. Several lawmakers participated in the hearing remotely, including Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who brandished various pistols in arguing that the bill's provision banning large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds amounted to stopping law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns of their choice. When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, remarked that she hoped one of the guns Steube was holding was not loaded, Steube replied, Im in my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns. It was one of several pointed exchanges during the hearing. Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus. Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure orders requiring the police to seize guns from people considered threats to themselves or others. ___ This version corrects to say Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was the lawmaker who remarked that that she hoped a gun being shown remotely at the hearing wasn't loaded, not Rep. Jerrold Nadler. ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. SEARSBURG, Vt. (AP) Vermont State Police have arrested a man on a murder charge in the 2019 death of a woman following the identification of her jawbone and other remains found in a gravel pit. Deven Moffitt, 32, of Bennington was taken into custody on a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday in the death of Jessica Hildenbrandt, 43, of Ballston Spa, New York, police said in a news release. Detectives determined that Hildenbrandt and Moffitt had been in a relationship while Moffitt was incarcerated in Vermont on a previous conviction, police said. Moffitt has been jailed without bail and was scheduled for an arraignment Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. Police said their investigation goes back to Sept. 17, 2019, when a man reported finding what appeared to be a human jawbone at a gravel pit in Searsburg. Police eventually found more remains at the site. In July 2020, the Vermont Forensic Laboratory identified the remains as those of Hildenbrandt through DNA analysis. The Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a homicide that September. In March 2019, Hildenbrandt reported to the Windsor County States Attorneys Office and later to state police that she feared for her life if Moffitt were to be released from prison, police said. A detective interviewed Hildenbrandt, but she ultimately stopped cooperating with the investigation, and law enforcement was unable to pursue the matter further, police said in the news release. In the course of the complex, lengthy investigation, detectives spoke with numerous witnesses and associates of Hildenbrandt and Moffitt; analyzed cellphone calling, text-message and location data; executed digital search warrants; and reviewed call records from the Department of Corrections," the news release said. After the discovery and identification of Hildenbrandts remains, the Vermont State Police learned that Hildenbrandt had posted bail for Moffitt on July 8, 2019, in a newly filed criminal case. Evidence in the Hildenbrandt case indicates she was killed in mid-July 2019, police said. Child welfare officials in Oregon will stop using an algorithm to help decide which families are investigated by social workers, opting instead for a new process that officials say will make better, more racially equitable decisions. The move comes weeks after an Associated Press review of a separate algorithmic tool in Pennsylvania that had originally inspired Oregon officials to develop their model, and was found to have flagged a disproportionate number of Black children for mandatory neglect investigations when it first was in place. Oregon's Department of Human Services announced to staff via email last month that after extensive analysis the agencys hotline workers would stop using the algorithm at the end of June to reduce disparities concerning which families are investigated for child abuse and neglect by child protective services. We are committed to continuous quality improvement and equity, Lacey Andresen, the agency's deputy director, said in the May 19 email. Jake Sunderland, a department spokesman, said the existing algorithm would no longer be necessary, since it cant be used with the states new screening process. He declined to provide further details about why Oregon decided to replace the algorithm and would not elaborate on any related disparities that influenced the policy change. - This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series, Tracked, that investigates the power and consequences of decisions driven by algorithms on peoples everyday lives. - Hotline workers decisions about reports of child abuse and neglect mark a critical moment in the investigations process, when social workers first decide if families should face state intervention. The stakes are high not attending to an allegation could end with a childs death, but scrutinizing a familys life could set them up for separation. From California to Colorado and Pennsylvania, as child welfare agencies use or consider implementing algorithms, an AP review identified concerns about transparency, reliability and racial disparities in the use of the technology, including their potential to harden bias in the child welfare system. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said he had long been concerned about the algorithms used by his states child welfare system and reached out to the department again following the AP story to ask questions about racial bias a prevailing concern with the growing use of artificial intelligence tools in child protective services. Making decisions about what should happen to children and families is far too important a task to give untested algorithms, Wyden said in a statement. Im glad the Oregon Department of Human Services is taking the concerns I raised about racial bias seriously and is pausing the use of its screening tool. Sunderland said Oregon child welfare officials had long been considering changing their investigations process before making the announcement last month. He added that the state decided recently that the algorithm would be completely replaced by its new program, called the Structured Decision Making model, which aligns with many other child welfare jurisdictions across the country. Oregons Safety at Screening Tool was inspired by the influential Allegheny Family Screening Tool, which is named for the county surrounding Pittsburgh, and is aimed at predicting the risk that children face of winding up in foster care or being investigated in the future. It was first implemented in 2018. Social workers view the numerical risk scores the algorithm generates the higher the number, the greater the risk as they decide if a different social worker should go out to investigate the family. But Oregon officials tweaked their original algorithm to only draw from internal child welfare data in calculating a familys risk, and tried to deliberately address racial bias in its design with a fairness correction. In response to Carnegie Mellon University researchers findings that Allegheny Countys algorithm initially flagged a disproportionate number of Black families for mandatory child neglect investigations, county officials called the research hypothetical, and noted that social workers can always override the tool, which was never intended to be used on its own. Wyden is a chief sponsor of a bill that seeks to establish transparency and national oversight of software, algorithms and other automated systems. With the livelihoods and safety of children and families at stake, technology used by the state must be equitable -- and I will continue to watchdog, Wyden said. The second tool that Oregon developed an algorithm to help decide when foster care children can be reunified with their families remains on hiatus as researchers rework the model. Sunderland said the pilot was paused months ago due to inadequate data but that there is no expectation that it will be unpaused soon. In recent years while under scrutiny by a crisis oversight board ordered by the governor, the state agency currently preparing to hire its eighth new child welfare director in six years considered three additional algorithms, including predictive models that sought to assess a childs risk for death and severe injury, whether children should be placed in foster care, and if so, where. Sunderland said the child welfare department never built those tools, however. ___ Follow Sally Ho and Garance Burke on Twitter at @_sallyho and @garanceburke. ___ Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CHICAGO (AP) A man with an arrest record for a gun charge that was later dropped is suspected of shooting and seriously wounding a Chicago police officer, according to a police alert sent Thursday. The 28-year-old, who remains at large, was identified in the alert as the gunman who opened fire on a marked police car on Chicago's South Side, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Police Supterintendent David Brown said during a news conference that two uniformed officers were in a marked squad car attempting a traffic stop in the West Englewood neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon. The car the officers tried to pull over first sped up, then slowed down to pull even with the squad car, Brown said. At that point, someone in the car started shooting at the officers. The officer who was driving was wounded in her upper body, Brown said. The officer in the passenger seat drove the wounded officer to a hospital, where she was in serious condition. Her name has not been released. The suspects vehicle crashed nearby and suspects fled from it, police said. The suspected gunman lives less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, the police alert said. Court records show he was arrested in October 2020 after he was spotted speeding and running red lights on the South Side. Arresting officers found a handgun under the drivers side floor mat. The man was charged with unlawful use of a weapon because he did not have a state Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry license. Those charges were dropped this year, apparently after the gun owner provided both a FOID card and concealed carry license, the Sun-Times reported. ANSONIA Police said they have arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the killing of Johnny Class, a 20-year-old Stratford man gunned down in a shooting earlier this spring. Monteral Crews, of Ansonia, was charged with murder, felony murder and criminal attempt at first-degree robbery, Ansonia police said Thursday. Crews was also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit, police said. He was held on $1.5 million bond. Ansonia police said that Crews was arraigned in juvenile court Wednesday and the matter was transferred to Superior Court, where he will be tried as an adult. Police said the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force took Crews into custody on May 13 in North Carolina, where he fled following the shooting. The marshals said Crews was with family in North Carolina and came out without incident after task force members spoke with the family. He was not armed at the time of his arrest. He was transported back to Connecticut last Friday and arraigned in juvenile court on Tuesday. The case was then transferred to adult court in Superior Court in Milford. Class was shot and killed April 5 in a suspected drug deal on Hubbell Avenue near Sixth Street, according to police. Around 12:50 p.m., a man reported that his friend had been shot on Main Street near Kingston Drive. At the scene, police found Class with a gunshot wound in a passenger seat of a silver Honda. He was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead, according to police. Police said Thursday the investigation into the fatal shooting is ongoing, and that additional arrests are anticipated. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW HAVEN The case of Qinxuan Pan, accused of the slaying of Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang, was continued again during a short hearing Thursday, with plans to either hold a probable cause hearing or move forward with the matter. Judge Gerald Harmon set Sept. 6 as a date for the hearing during brief court proceedings on Thursday. Attorney Kevin Smith, representing Pan, agreed to the date, saying the legal team would inform the court if they planned to waive their clients right to the hearing. Pan, arrested in May 2021, has not yet entered a plea to the murder charge levied against him in connection with Jiangs death. A potential probable cause hearing has been put off multiple times over with Harmon granting Pan and his attorneys further time to review the evidence. Jiang was shot to death on Lawrence Street in the citys East Rock neighborhood Feb. 6, 2021. Born in Seattle and raised in Chicago, Jiang served as an environmental scientist/engineering officer and tank operator in the U.S. Army and National Guard. He graduated from the University of Washington before coming to Yale. He was a certified fitness trainer and ran his own studio after serving in the military. Those who knew Jiang have described him as a person of faith and energy, including his parents, speaking during his funeral at Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven. Jiang lived full-heartedly, enthusiastically, like a ray of sunlight, his mother, Linda Liu said. Jiang became engaged to Zion Perry, also a graduate student at Yale, about a week before his slaying. Photos later emerged online appearing to show Perry and Pan together at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dance in 2020. Perry and Pan were friends on Facebook, where she posted about the engagement. New Haven police obtained a warrant charging Pan with Jiangs slaying in February 2021. The department had named him as a person of interest in the case Feb. 10, 2021. Affidavit: The guns, cars and DNA that led police to arrest Qinxuan Pan in slaying of Yale grad student Pan allegedly stole a GMC Terrain on Feb. 6, 2021 and changed his cellphone number before coming to Connecticut, according to a police report from Mansfield, Mass. North Haven police stopped Pan that evening as he drove onto railroad tracks near Sims Metal Management. According to an affidavit from that community, North Haven officers had received a different description for the New Haven homicide suspect, so they let Pan go. On the day after the interaction with Pan, North Haven police were called to the Arbys at 267 Washington Ave., where employees reported finding a bag containing a firearm and ammunition, along with other items, according to the North Haven affidavit. In a request for a search warrant to obtain OnStar data from the Terrain, Detective David Zaweski wrote in the New Haven affidavit that Pan had rented, and kept overnight, a different vehicle on the day of each shooting associated with the cartridge casings found at the scene of Jiangs death. The Ruger was not connected with the shell casings found at the scene of Jiangs death. Police still were searching for the firearm used in the slaying when the affidavit was written. Fingerprints determined to match Pans were found on the Ruger, according to the New Haven affidavit. Residue consistent with gunfire was found on a yellow coat found at Arbys, the affidavit stated. Pan, formerly a graduate student at MIT, was not arrested until May 13, 2021 in Montgomery, Ala., following a search by U.S. marshals and others. His bail was set at $20 million on May 20, 2021 as he was arraigned on a charge of murder. Pan subsequently filed a petition for the Connecticut Supreme Court to review his bond, arguing it was disproportionately high. A review of the bond remains ongoing, Pans attorneys said. Under the state constitution, defendants have the right to be released on bail upon sufficient security. The justices considered the meaning of that phrase during a Sept. 8 hearing. During that hearing, defense attorney Norm Pattis raised the example of Peter Manfredonia, accused of two killings, kidnapping, home invasion and other crimes, in which bail initially was set at $5 million. The Pan family wonders whether this is Yale, the shadow of Yale, cast on the criminal courts, Pattis said. Every case involving Yale seems to acquire a special gravitas. Senior Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Sugrue argued that the court should uphold the bond, which he said took into account the totality of factors, including nature of the alleged crime, the likelihood of flight and the possibility of harm coming to the community, as well as Pans alleged resources. The state is obligated to offer some bond to the defendant, Sugrue said, but in this case believes there is no amount that reasonably could assure he would reappear in court if released from custody. If hes out, hes gone, Sugrue said. Hes a serious and acute flight risk. william.lamber t@hearstmediact.com Rick Egan/AP U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild symptoms, the agency said Wednesday. Haaland, 61, is isolating in Nevada where she took part in a roundtable discussion Tuesday in Las Vegas about clean energy production on public lands, the Interior Department said in a statement. Connecticut State Police /Contributed TOLLAND A West Haven man was killed early Thursday after state police said the car he was driving lost control on Interstate 84 and went off the highway. Troopers identified the driver as 24-year-old Conor Patrick Pickering. He was taken to Rockville General Hospital with serious injuries, where he was later pronounced dead, state police said in a press release. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WEST HAVEN There will be a vacant spot for a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected military-sized vehicle in the citys municipal lot after Gov. Ned Lamont this week vetoed a bill that would have authorized the transfer of the vehicle from Farmington police to West Haven police. Farmington obtained two of the MRAP vehicles through the 1033 program, a federal program wherein municipalities can apply for surplus military equipment. West Haven Police Chief Joseph Perno said the city intended to acquire one of the vehicles to aid first responders in the region in major flooding events. However, a statewide police accountability bill that passed after Farmington acquired the MRAP prohibits Connecticut municipalities from obtaining most equipment through the 1033 program. Lamont said in a letter accompanying his veto that he believes the transfer of an MRAP between police departments would side-step those police accountability measures. Public Act 20-1 appropriately prevented acquisition of MRAPs, and I believe it is inconsistent with the intent of Public Act 20-1 and the type of community-focused policing my administration supports to make an exception to this prohibition, Lamont wrote. Perno expressed disappointment, saying the veto would disadvantage the shoreline city in storms. During (2013 winter storm) Nemo some of our vehicles were stuck on hills for three to four days. A firetruck was stuck on a hill, he said. Perno said his department already had taken the vehicle on a drive around the city for testing and evaluation to see if it was something we could use, but paperwork authorizing the transfer had not been completed prior to what the city had hoped would be Lamonts signature in passing the bill. Senate Bill 258, the bill Lamont vetoed, passed unanimously in the state Senate and by a 129-15 vote in the House, with all members of West Havens delegation voting in favor. West Havens state delegation and the citys top public safety officials released a statement Thursday afternoon condemning Lamonts decision. The MRAP was going to be a welcomed asset for our WHEMT to protect our community during all natural and manmade disasters, including noreasters, hurricanes, severe flooding. The versatility of the MRAP is the type of equipment that is essential for successful Emergency Management planning and deployment, the statement said. With all the challenges our state is currently facing it hardly seems plausible that denying West Haven a vehicle that can possibly save lives could necessitate the Governors veto. With two years of work to get this right, including bringing on board some of the strongest voices on police accountability, we as a delegation are shocked and disappointed that the result is a veto. West Haven was well served by the delegation and that work should matter here. The statement was signed by Rep. Charles Ferraro, R-117; Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-115; Rep. Trenee McGee, D-116; Sen. Gary Winfield, D-10; Sen. James Maroney, D-14; Perno; West Haven Fire Department Chief James OBrien; and Joseph Soto, director of the West Haven Emergency Management Team. Ferraro said in March when the bill was introduced that the vehicle had been stripped of armaments and had been outfitted with first aid equipment and other supplies that would aid first responders in making evacuations. He said the intent of local officials and legislators was never to further militarize the citys Police Department. Flooding has been a significant concern in West Haven, as officials reckon with issues of drainage and water erosion as major storm events have become more common in recent years. Plans to use state bonding money raise Beach Street, a critical road that runs through the citys beachside commercial sector, are ongoing as the city seeks the necessary permits from the state. The City Council also voted earlier this week to enact a proposal by Mayor Nancy Rossi to use federal pandemic recovery funds to purchase a city-owned vaccuum truck a maneuver that officials expect to free up money and labor over time. A request for comment from Farmington police was not immediately returned Thursday. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com By Guo Fengkuan and Nie Hongjie CHENGDU, June 2 -- An earthquake of 6.1-magnitude at the depth of 17km hit Lushan, a county under the administration of Yaan City in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, at 17:00 on June 1. Three minutes later, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake at the depth of 18km was observed in Baoxing, another county under the administration of Yaan, at 17:03. Immediately after the earthquake, the joint operations commanding center under the PLA Western Theater Command activated the Level-3 emergency response plan promptly. The Yaan Military Sub-command under the Sichuan Provincial Military Command organized about 190 troops and militiamen to carry out the first-round relief work in the epicenter area. Over two-hundred service members assigned to the detachments of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (PAP) Sichuan Corps arrived at the site with special emergency relief instruments and equipment. They inspected the situation and carried out danger removal and rescue operations. As of 9:00 pm of June 1st, the earthquakes had cut off roads in Lushan County, and killed four, injured 14, and destroyed some houses in Baoxing County. The Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Wednesday said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Demo... The Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Wednesday said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not win the 2023 election because the parties have expired and lost their political relevance in the country. He said this while speaking with journalists shortly after a meeting with leaders and members of the Labour Party in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital. Obi who recently resigned his membership of the main opposition party, said the PDP stepped out of fortune and victory following its refusal to zone the Presidential ticket to the South. Speaking through his campaign Director General, Dr. Doyin Okupe, Obi berated the PDP for being unrighteous and unjust by jettisoning the zoning arrangement of the party. According to him, those who opposed zoning in the PDP undermined the the existence of the PDP and the violated the gentleman agreement of the founding fathers of the party. Obi said, he is banking on Nigerias workforce, youths, market women to beat both the APC and the PDP at the 2023 general elections. He said, The PDP was a veritable party that was put together by our elders and leaders. Those who came yesterday and said rotation does not matter undermine the very essence of the existence of the PDP, the moment they took that step, the PDP stepped out of line of fortune, of future, of victory because it has become suddenly unrighteous and unjust. There is no unrighteous and unjust pillar that will stand. The PDP was a good platform, but it has expired. The APC was never a good platform, it is of no consequence. The two parties are out, these two parties have expired, they are not relevance to the new things that Nigerians and the youths are looking for. Labour party in the scheme of things is still a very small party, but we are not unaware of that before we moved here. But the Labour Party is a sleeping giant. The potential electorate reservoir of Labour Party is more than three times the membership of APC and PDP put together. NLC, TUC, NURTW, market women, professional bodies, students are all part of Labour Party. The NLC has a membership of about 5 million, the TUC has a membership of about 8 to 10 million, the number of students registered in the Federal universities is about 2.5 million, those who are not in the Federal universities are about 6.7 million, when you add all that together, you are looking at about 20 reserved voters that have direct affiliation with Labour Party. Our strategy will be to reawake the Nigerian workers. Nigeria is going to see something it has not seen before, we will beat APC and PDP pants down. Mbazuluike Amaechi, a First Republic Aviation Minister, on Thursday warned political parties against ignoring the Southeast ahead of the 2... Mbazuluike Amaechi, a First Republic Aviation Minister, on Thursday warned political parties against ignoring the Southeast ahead of the 2023 presidential election. Amaechi warned that ignoring the Southeast ahead of the 2023 elections would not be a good sign for Nigeria. While reacting to the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The elder statesman also noted that whoever emerges as the presidential candidate of PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, is my man. According to Amaechi: All political parties are the products of our efforts to find a nation called Nigeria, and therefore, Im the father of them all. Sometimes on May 29th, 2021, I summoned a meeting of APC and PDP in the Southeast and told them that its true that the Igbos have been disenfranchised in Nigeria and so deprived of their rights. Still, if they are going to fight for it, they have to unite and reduce the number of candidates they are having. As far as Im concerned, whosoever wins, be it APC or PDP, is my man. If APC also fails to announce a candidate from the Southeast, this could lead to misunderstanding and ignoring the Southeast would not be a good sign for Nigeria. Atiku clinched the PDP presidential ticket during the partys convention in Abuja on Saturday. The Waziri of Adamawa defeated Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Saraki and other presidential aspirants to emerge as the partys candidate. Atiku polled 371 votes ahead of Wike who had 237 votes, and Saraki with 70. Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, scored 38; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, polled 20 votes; Anyim Pius Anyim scored 14, Sam Ohabunwa polled 1 and Olivia Tariela also scored one vote. The suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has been released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after h... The suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has been released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in a N174 billion fraud. Idris was released on bail from the custody of the anti-graft agency on Wednesday night in Abuja and has since been reunited with his family. The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed to newsmen on Thursday morning. The suspended Accountant-General is out on bail. He was released last night, Uwujaren said. It can be recalled that Idris was nabbed by operatives of the EFCC on May 16, 2022, in connection with a series of frauds that was initially thought to be N84 billion. Three days after his arrest, Idris was suspended by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to enable him to face his probe. Sources revealed that during questioning, Idris mentioned names, companies, and a huge amount of money which is currently under probe. He also made confessional statements and provided traces of funds, withdrawals, and deposits in local and foreign currencies. This led to the arrest of the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, and the Chairman and Managing Director of Finex Professional, Anthony Yaro, by the EFCC last week. Sources within the EFCC also mentioned that the acting-AGF, Anamekwe Nwabuoku, who was appointed after Ahmed Idris suspension is also under surveillance concerning accusations of financial impropriety. The allegations against him include overpayment to himself while serving in previous ministries and agencies. He was also alleged to have perpetrated fraud through the Government Integrated Financial Management System used to pay salaries of Federal Government staff. Some of the alleged infractions occurred when Nwabuoku was the Director of Finance and Accounts, Ministry of Defence, the source said. Buba Galadima, a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, goofed during an interview with Channels Television. Speaking when he fe... Buba Galadima, a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, goofed during an interview with Channels Television. Speaking when he featured on Political Paradigm, a Channels TV Programme, Galadima said Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano, is the man to beat in the 2023 presidential election. He said if Kwankwaso is elected as president in 2023, Nigerians will enjoy development, peace, and security. He said Kwankwaso made a lot of developmental strides while he was governor, adding that the former governor made Kano look like Dubai with the infrastructural development he put in place during his tenure. He said Kwankwaso never took a loan from a bank to finance the projects while he was governor of Kano. Galadima said he was ready to issue a cheque to back his claim and challenged any bank that feels otherwise to come out with proof. He, thereafter, dipped his hand into his pocket to bring out the cheque, but ended up bringing out some cash. What Kwankwaso has put in place in Kano that makes it look like Dubai, except that Ganduje destroyed it, Galadima said. During Kwankwasos time, you approach Kano from the air, youd think maybe you lost your way to London or Paris. If youre coming from the far east, from Europe, you may think that you are in Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro. Ive not spoken about physical development, Ive just spoken about one aspect of Kwankwasos development human resource development, education. So, if Kwankwaso becomes president, in all these things he did, he never borrowed one Kobo from any bank in Nigeria and go and find out that in Kwankwasos last four years as governor of Kano if he ever borrowed one penny from any bank, let the bank come out. I will give you a cheque now (brings out cash as cheque book). On his credibility on how he switches from one political party to another and how he is viewed as a chameleon, Galadima said he is not bothered about what people say and that he will always support who can do the job. He said he stopped supporting Buhari because the president said he would not seek reelection. I shifted grounds because Buhari told the world, as an honourable man, that he will not seek reelection. So I looked for an alternative to support. So I supported Kwankwaso, he said. And it is our general observation that both the APC and PDP hate him just because they are jealous of his political prowess, popularity, his acumen in mobilising, articulating, networking people and he is a man of the people. They are also jealous of his performance while in public office because no Nigeria in the past had performed one percent of what Kwankwaso had done. None of them has got his credentials. No Nigerian politician is worth more than 40 percent of Kwankwasos political CV. Kwankwaso is the talk of the town, the man to beat. And that places NNPP as first force not third force because it is about population. Politics is about numbers and we have got the numbers because every common man follows Kwankwaso in Nigera. Every patriotic Nigeria, in my opinion, would follow Kwankwaso. Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and presidential hopeful, says without him, President Muhammadu Buhari would... Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and presidential hopeful, says without him, President Muhammadu Buhari wouldnt have won the presidential election in 2015. Tinubu spoke on Thursday at a meeting with APC delegates in Ogun state. Describing the election as a battle, Tinubu also spoke on how he surrendered the vice-presidential ticket to Yemi Osinbajo, when concerns were raised over a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the APC. Buhari asked me to be his running mate, but Saraki campaigned against a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He felt it would affect his ambition to be senate president. The senate president could not be a Muslim as well. They rose against it. I said I have someone thats a Christian and I will nominate him. This party must not scatter. And I nominated him (Osinbajo). Thats the truth, Tinubu said in Yoruba. They asked me to bring three names. Yemi Cardoso was number one. Wale Edun was number two, Yemi Osinbajo was number three. I decided to drop just one name since I was surrendering my right. Buhari agreed to this and I dropped Yemi Osinbajos name. You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this. Its my time now. If not for me that led the battlefront, Buhari wouldnt have won. He contested first, second and third time, but lost. He even said on television that he wont contest again. But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him you would contest and win, but you wont joke with the matter of the Yoruba. Since he has been elected, I have not been appointed minister. I didnt get a contract. This time, its Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, its my turn. Tinubu appealed to the 60 delegates in Ogun to support him during the APC primary election. Recall that President Buhari has appealed to governors of the APC to assist him in picking his successor. A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday granted permission to the detained Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, Abba Kyari to file more e... A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday granted permission to the detained Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, Abba Kyari to file more evidence against a suit by the Federal Government seeking to extradite him to the United States of America for trial on criminal charges. Justice Inyang Ekwo granted Kyaris request made through his lead counsel Nureni Jimoh, SAN in a motion on notice. Jimoh, while arguing the motion on notice, prayed the court to allow Kyari to bring additional documentary exhibits to establish his innocence in the charges against him. The Federal Government counsel, Mr Pius Akuta, however, vehemently opposed the granting of the request. Akuta predicated his opposition on the ground that it was an attempt to cure deficiencies in the earlier documentary evidence adduced by the detained DCP. In a brief ruling, Justice Ekwo rejected the objection of the Federal Government and granted permission to Kyari to adduce further documentary exhibits to his own defence. The judge said that the court would have ample opportunity to determine the probate value to be attached to the additional evidence. Meanwhile, Justice Ekwo has fixed June 3 for a definite hearing in the extradition suit instituted by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) on behalf of the Federal Government against Kyari. The suit is seeking to extradite Kyari at the request of the American government to face trial in his indictment for alleged internet fraud by a Nigerian, Abdulraman Abbas also known as Hushpuppi. The Federal Government had sought Kyaris extradition to the United States to answer a case over his alleged link with Hushpuppi. The Federal Government, through the Office of the AGF, had filed the application marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/249/2022. The suit, titled: Application for the Extradition of Abba Kyari to the U.S., was dated and filed on March 2. While the AGF is the applicant, Kyari is the respondent in the application. Kyari was formerly the head of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT). The application was filed under the Extradition Act, as part of the Nigerian governments approval of the request by the US for Kyaris extradition. Bola Tinubu on Thursday publicly claimed credit for the emergence of Dapo Abiodun as Ogun governor in 2019, saying more politicians across N... Bola Tinubu on Thursday publicly claimed credit for the emergence of Dapo Abiodun as Ogun governor in 2019, saying more politicians across Nigeria owe him gratitude. Mr Tinubus comments came when he rallied party delegates in Ibadan on Thursday afternoon, during which he touched on different politicians he had helped navigate hard times. This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he could have become a governor but for me? Mr Tinubu said while pointing at Mr Abiodun. The governor did not comment, but he was visibly humiliated. His spokesman did not immediately return a request seeking comments. Mr Tinubu has ramped up his campaign for the ruling All Progressives Congress presidential nomination on June 6. He is widely seen as a front runner, but there are widespread speculations he has no support from President Muhammadu Buhari. After two failed attempts, Mr Abiodun was elected governor in 2019 after facing a tough contest with then-incumbent Ibikunle Amosun. Mr Abiodun was widely rumoured to have defeated Mr Amosuns candidate because he had the backing of Mr Tinubu at the time. The United States based lawyer of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Bruce Fein, has urged the United Kingdom, UK... The United States based lawyer of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Bruce Fein, has urged the United Kingdom, UK, to enable a referendum in Nigeria. Fein said the UK should call for a referendum to allow the Igbos in the South East decide if they want to leave Nigeria and actualize Biafra. He disclosed this in a letter addressed to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing. Fein berated Britain for supporting a lawless united Nigeria for UKs ulterior motives. Laing, in a tweet, had expressed delight over the possibility of a united Nigeria after a meeting with the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, George Obiozor. However, the US-based lawyer said the international law permits the people of the South-East to seek self-determination. Feins call was contained in a letter made public by Kanus Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, on Thursday. According to Fein: Even more reprehensible was your tacit enthusiasm for a united Nigeria, indistinguishable from a suicide pact for Biafrans. As you know, Nigeria was artificially created by the United Kingdom at the point of machine guns in 1914. Prior to compelled unification in 1914, the British negotiated treaties with Biafra. A jus cogens norm of international law endows the Biafran people with a right to self-determination against a Fulani-controlled Nigerian government that has notoriously excluded all Biafrans but a handful of bribable defectors from the corridors of power. Self-determination stands at the apex of all internationally recognized human rights because it is preservative of all others. Self-determination is a shield against oppression by the tyranny of the majority or the ruthless. Fein recounted that the UK insisted on self-determination for Protestant Northern Ireland to prevent their persecution by the Roman Catholic Republic of Ireland. He also pointed out that the UK supported the self-determination referendum in South Sudan in 2011. Fein said the referendum was to stop the Arab-Muslim governing majority from persecuting the black Christian-Animist in Sudan. The US-based lawyer lamented that Britain backed a lawless Nigeria, and called on the UK to rather be advocating a United Kingdom suit against Nigeria in the International Court of Justice for denying the people of Biafra a self-determination referendum as required by Article I of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and an infinite number of corresponding human rights treaties and resolutions. It is the least that the UK can do to atone for its egregious crimes and sins against the Biafran people that have persisted for more than a century. Self-determination is too important to be left to temporizing or tergiversation. Little did Lori Borgman know when she welcomed a baby girl into this world years ago that she would grow up to have a fan. (Dreamstime/TNS) The raccoon, at top of screen, can be seen showing up at the eagles nest. Xcel Energy Eagle Cam via Colorado Parks and Wildlife The trouble with this story is you cant really be sure of anything. A famous 19th-century artist was long thought to be a free Black man, conducting a successful career in slavery-era New Orleans. But according to one scholar, maybe he wasnt of African descent at all. And, the artists masterpiece, a painting of two well-dressed Crescent City men one White and one Black was long thought to illustrate the mixing of races within families in the antebellum period. But the artworks backstory isnt 100% clear. In November 2021, The Historic New Orleans Collection bought the artwork at auction for $704,000. It goes on public display at the French Quarter museum, 533 Royal St., on Tuesday, June 7. It was a stunning amount for any Louisiana-made artwork. Marney Robinson, the director of fine art for Neal Auction, the company that sold the double portrait to The Historic New Orleans Collection, said that at the time, it was the most ever paid for a Bayou State portrait. Of course, she said, it was also the most intriguing painting in Louisiana history. Who was Jules Lion? The stylish scarlet signature tells us the drawing was done by New Orleans artist Jules Lion, who made a living as a portraitist and lithographer in the Queen City of the South before the Civil War. He was also New Orleans very first photographer. In 1839, French inventor Louis Daguerre unveiled a miraculous process for using something called a camera to capture images from life on palm-sized, polished metal plates. Forward-thinking artists scrambled to learn Daguerres technique and begin producing new-fangled photographs for public consumption. Thirty-three-year-old Lion was an early adopter. By 1843, or maybe even earlier, he was exhibiting photos in New Orleans. Though, like practically everything else in this story, his photos are a mystery. Since early photographers didnt always sign their daguerreotypes, its difficult to say with certainty if any of Lions photos still exist. Ironically, though he was known for producing exacting images of his fellow 19th-century New Orleanians, Lions own appearance remains a mystery. It does seem strange that an artist of Lions stature and interests didnt leave a self-portrait, but if one exists, we dont know about it, said Jason Wiese, chief curator of The Historic New Orleans Collection. Free people of color What made Lions contributions to Crescent City culture especially remarkable was that, according to city directory entries in the 1850s (the bygone precursor to the bygone telephone book), he was a free man of color. Though most people of African descent in New Orleans were enslaved at the time, some were not. Free people of color were still subject to institutional racism, but they could own property, conduct business and enjoy some other legal liberties. Lions presumed racial identity made the backstory of the double portrait he created in the mid-1800s especially resonant. Though we call it a painting, it was actually a full-color drawing produced with chalky crayons called pastels, the same medium Degas often used. Lions drawing depicts what appears to be a young Black man gently embracing an older White gent. Their contact appears affectionate but staid and dignified. The younger man flashes a ruby ring, demonstrating wealth. His necktie is fashionably askew, suggesting a jaunty lifestyle. The older man cracks a vague smile, possibly signifying pride. Fatherly pride? Maybe so. 131 years later Lion died in 1866, at age 56 or 60, of pneumonia. Who knows, maybe the mercury vapor used in the making of daguerreotypes hastened his demise. Over the decades, the unusual double portrait passed from private collection to private collection. In the 1940s, it was owned by author Lyle Saxon, the famous chronicler of New Orleans customs and lore. Fast forward to the Gerald Ford era, and we find the long-dead Mr. Lion making a splash on the national art scene, when his pastel painting appeared in an exhibit titled Selections of 19th-Century Afro-American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Lions interracial double portrait was featured on the cover of the Met catalog, in which curator Regenia Perry identified the two men in the artwork. The older gentleman was Ashur Moses Nathan, a Jewish immigrant to New Orleans from Amsterdam. The young man was Nathans adopted son Achile, who was probably actually his biological son by a Black woman. Which made Lions artwork a rare example of a Southern White man formally presenting his mixed-race son. Thats what makes the HNOCs newly acquired pastel painting so remarkable, said curator Wiese. This is the thing that is usually not talked about, and here we have this open, proud acknowledgment, he said. But back in the 1970s, a couple of Times-Picayune newspaper art reporters were a bit incredulous about the identities of the two gentlemen in the artwork. In a story titled Mystery Surrounds Louisiana Painting in Met Exhibit, George Jordan and Alberta Collier didnt exactly debunk the assertions of the Metropolitan Museum exhibit curator, but they called for some proof. Speculation of romance Wiese said that he doesnt doubt that Perry had somehow learned the identity of the two sitters. But, so far anyway, he hasnt seen any historical documentation to confirm it. According to Perry's long-ago research, Achile, the dashing young Black man in the painting, had the same last name as the artist, Lion. This led Perry to speculate that somewhere along the line, Achile's mother had become Jules Lion's wife. The romantic connection between the young man's mother and the artist doubtlessly lent the artwork some added sizzle back in the 1970s, but Wiese said theres no evidence to support it. We couldnt find any relationship between Achile and the artist, he said. To add a touch more confusion to the matter, Jules Lions brothers name was Achille (spelled slightly differently). But Achille Lion would have been considerably older than the sitter. The HNOC owns a lithograph by Jules Lion that may be a portrait of his brother Achille, but the identity of the sitter is not certain. A new perspective For 40 years after the groundbreaking Met exhibit, interest in Lion and his artwork steadily simmered. Then in 2017, an associate professor of art history at Rhode Island College named Sara Picard published a paper that caused the pot to boil over. When Picard traced Lions family tree back to Paris, her research showed that Jules had been born in 1806 to Jewish parents from France and Bavaria. His name was originally Jacob Isaac, which was later changed. As Picard put it in her paper titled Racing Jules Lion, the artist had no known African ancestry. Instead, he was a French immigrant with Jewish ancestry trying to make it in a burgeoning cosmopolitan port city and the French-speaking cultural capital of the South. In a telephone conversation, Picard said that the fact he was listed as a free man of color in directories from 1851 to 1856 was probably a mistake. Maybe, she said, since his domestic partner at the time was a Black woman, someone presumed he was also Black. Picard said that other historic documents do not identify him as Black. Picard, who is a Tulane University alum, said she certainly understood that its difficult to digest the sudden switch in Lions identity, but it doesnt change the impact of the pastel. Lion and the portrait still say so much about the history of race and racism, she said. One last paradox Wendy Castenell, an assistant professor of art history at Washington and Lee University who specializes in African American arts and culture, said Picard did an excellent job at pinpointing Lions identity with as much certainty as well probably ever have. But, she said, theres still a nagging paradox. In the stratified society of New Orleans in the mid-1800s, she said, people were very sensitive of their racial designation. So why would Lion, if he was White, allow city directories to list him otherwise? I dont understand why Lion would have just left a public reference unchallenged, Castenell said. Setting Lions racial identity aside, Castenell, like Picard, still finds the painting a compelling illustration of the racial complexities in New Orleans. What else is this but an assertion of paternity and equality? she said. Lions double portrait will go on public display at The Historic New Orleans Collection, at 533 Royal St. on June 7. The THNOC has partnered with both the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience and Le Musee de f.p.c. (free people of color) to foster discussion of the artwork. Visit the THNOC website for more information. Correction: The date the painting goes on public display was incorrect. It can be seen starting on Tuesday, June 7. +8 Mysterious enslaved teen appeared in a 1837 painting, was blotted out, then rediscovered Whats wrong with this picture? In an 1837 painting, a Black teenager stands beside a trio of White children. A recent historical discovery te A man died early Thursday after a shooting in the 7th Ward, New Orleans police said. Officers responded to a shooting at the 2300 block of Saint Anthony Street (map) at 12:04 a.m. A man who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds was found at the shooting location. Emergency Medical Services transported him to the hospital, where he died. New Orleans police did not provide any more information on this shooting. The Police Department asked that anyone with information on this shooting contact Homicide Detective Christopher Puccio at 504-658-5300 or call anonymously to Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-STOP. It's been three years since 27-year-old Malcolm Johnson Sr. was fatally shot during a melee on a LaPlace street corner. And for three excruciating years, his mother, Michelle Francis, and relatives have been waiting for justice, hoping that someone would be held accountable for the death of the father of two. A 16-year-old suspect arrested shortly after Johnson's killing was never formally charged, authorities said. And now Johnson's family fears that the investigation has gone cold. "Our hearts are bleeding," Francis, 49, said Wednesday. "Our family is hurting." Johnson was shot on Memorial Day in 2019 when someone opened fire during a large fight near the corner of Williamsburg Drive and Plymouth Street, the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office said. An acquaintance tried to drive Johnson to the Ochsner Medical Complex on West Airline Highway, but the car crashed into a telephone pole near the hospital, authorities said. Johnson later died from the gunshot wounds. Sheriff's Office detectives identified a then-16-year-old boy as a suspect. He was not named because he was a juvenile. The teen surrendered the same day and was booked with second-degree murder. The case was presented to a grand jury, but teen was not indicted, St. John Sheriff Mike Tregre said. Detectives continued to investigate the case, but could not get any cooperating witnesses to come forward to provide information, according to Tregre. "We know more people witnessed the shooting. There were a number of people out there who could easily tell us what happened," he said. NOLA Business Insider The biggest stories in business, delivered to you every day. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The silence surrounding her son's death has left Francis distraught, but she said she has no feelings of bitterness or hatred. With time, the memories of Johnson that once made her so grief-stricken in the days after his death finally bring her joy, instead. "These days, I find myself finding more things that make me laugh and smile in line of Malcolm's memory as opposed to the things that made be sad," she said. Johnson was one of four siblings, born in New Orleans and raised in Kenner and rural Greensburg. At the time of his death, he was attending Delgado Community College and taking welding classes, Francis said. Johnson left behind two children, a daughter, 4, and a 7-year-old son, his namesake. Both are doing well, Francis said, though they are sadly aware of what happened to their father. Tregre said the investigation into Johnsons death is not closed. Were never going to stop. Were never going to give up, he said. Francis asked that anyone who knows anything about her son's death reach out to authorities. "If it was their family, they would want someone to come forward," she said. Anyone with information about the shooting death of Malcom Johnson Sr. can call the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office TIPS Hotline at 1-985-359-TIPS (8477). The public can also call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an indictment. Kenner police say an ongoing fight between roommates ended in gunfire Wednesday night, leaving one man dead and the other accused of manslaughter. Cade Fuxan, 24, was arrested after he dialed 911 about 9:15 p.m. to report that he'd just shot his roommate, James Parker, 22, according to Capt. Michael Cunningham, a Kenner Police Department spokesperson. Officers responded to a residence at the Sugar Mill Apartments in the 4500 block of Williams Boulevard and found Parker on the floor. He'd been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene, Cunningham said. Investigators learned that Fuxan and Parker had fought with each other on Monday at the apartment. It's not clear what set off the fight, but Fuxan was left with injuries to his body and face, Cunningham said. Though Parker tried to make peace, Fuxan refused to accept his apology, according to authorities. The bad blood bubbled up again on Wednesday and the roommates got into another fight. Fuxan told investigators he tried to back away but shot Parker when Parker charged at him, according to Cunningham. Police took Fuxan into custody and booked him with manslaughter. No bond information was available. New Orleans police have obtained warrants for two women whose fist fight started a brawl at the George Washington Carver High School graduation ceremony on May 20. Sjanitta Egana, 38 and Jaci Egana, 18, are wanted for "disturbing the peace by engaging in a fistic encounter," police said. A cell phone video circulating on social media shows attendees at the Xavier University Convocation Center shoving, punching, kicking and striking each other with chairs while police officers circulate through the melee. Can't see the video below? Click here. Police arrested Malik Washington, 23, on the scene and booked him on charges of illegal carrying weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and possessing a firearm at a school or school function. They identified Sjanitta and Jaci Egana as suspects after reviewing video evidence and talking to witnesses and school officials. NOLA Business Insider The biggest stories in business, delivered to you every day. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The fracas was harbinger of future violence at Xavier's auditorium, which hosts multiple high school graduation ceremonies each year. On May 31, a shooting outside the center after the Morris Jeff Community School graduation wounded a man and a juvenile male and killed Augustine Greenwood, 80, a grandmother of a Morris Jeff senior. Police have made no arrests. The violence has traumatized Carver staff and graduates, said Davis Zaunbrecher, Chief Strategy Officer at Collegiate Academies, noting all were on the floor of the arena receiving their diplomas during the altercation. "They are still healing from a very difficult few weeks," he said. Anyone with information about the fight may contact detectives at (504) 658-6020 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" is again expected to be larger than the state of Connecticut this summer, NOAA said Thursday in its prediction of the low-oxygen area where bottom-living organisms will die and fish and shrimp will attempt to avoid. The dead zone, the result of nutrient pollution carried down the Mississippi River, is expected to cover a near-average 5,364 square miles of bottom waters off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas at the end of July, and some researchers warn it could grow to 6,500 square miles by August. While this year's low-oxygen area is expected to be slightly smaller than 2021's and less than a five-year average, it's still three times greater than what officials hope to achieve by 2035. A federal-state hypoxia reduction task force wants to see the dead zone reduced to just 1,900 square miles by that time. In 2001, the task force called for that goal to be met by 2015. But when it became clear that efforts to get Midwest farmers to reduce their use of key fertilizers was not working, the task force in 2016 pushed the goal date back to 2035. It also added a new goal to reduce the dead zone's size by 20% by 2025, which is just three years away. The formation of hypoxia, the scientific term for water containing less than 2 parts per million of oxygen, is linked to the flow of two key nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, that are carried from farms, septic tanks and sewage treatment plants in the the Mississippi River watershed by melting snow and springtime rainfall to the Gulf. The river's fresh water creates a layer over saltier Gulf water where blooms of algae grow and then die, sinking to the bottom and decomposing, using up oxygen. The low-oxygen conditions generally last until tropical storms or other weather events disrupt the layer of fresh water, mixing air from the surface into the saltwater on the bottom. The U.S. Geological Survey measures nutrients throughout the Mississippi and Atchafalaya river basins throughout the spring. Teams of scientists at Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the University of Michigan, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, North Carolina State University and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, plug that information into computer models and use other strategies to estimate how large the dead zone will be at the end of July. At that time, a team of LUMCON scientists will conduct an underwater survey to determine how low oxygen levels are across the coast. Levels of nitrate, largely from nitrogen-based agricultural fertilizers, have remained steady in the river since 1985, according to USGS monitoring data, and it's the nitrate that's been found to be the bigger source for the algae blooms in the Gulf, compared to phosphorus, scientists say. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up During that same time, literally hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on a variety of efforts to reduce nutrient runoff from agriculture in the river's watershed. They have included returning marginal farmland to use as wetlands and the planting of grassy strips around the edges of farmland to capture nutrients, as well as training farmers to use "precision agriculture" techniques using satellite global positioning systems to limit the amount of fertilizer used on crops. But those efforts have done little to reduce the size of the annual summer dead zone, with most low measurement years linked to the passage of storm systems, including hurricanes, over the coast that mixed oxygen back into bottom waters. "No reductions in the nitrate loading from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico have occurred in the last few decades, the interval since the formulation of the Hypoxia Action Plan environmental goal," said LSU researchers Eugene Turner and Nancy Rabalais, in their estimate report. "No matter what people say they are doing in the watershed, it is either not enough or not the right stuff," agreed Don Scavia, a researcher leading the University of Michigan's hypoxia research team. "It has now been more than 20 years since the action plan, so it is hard to blame slow environmental response times." In one effort to change that, EPA is investing $60 million from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law over the next five years to enable the hypoxia task force to scale up state nutrient reduction strategies under what is known as the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan. EPA expects to award the first round of grants to states, said an EPA statement. Doug Daigle, coordinator of the Louisiana Hypoxia Working Group, said Louisiana has also spent $9.5 million from the natural resource damage assessment of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on wetland conservation projects aimed at nutrient reduction. The Louisiana BP Trustee Implementation Group has another $10.5 million available for other projects. Mississippi's trustee group also has about $27 million available for nutrient reduction strategies from the BP natural resource settlement, he said. But Scavia doubts those efforts will have much of an impact, especially since EPA has repeatedly decided against more aggressive regulatory efforts aimed at requiring agricultural operations to reduce emissions by specific levels along numerous segments of streambeds in the Mississippi watershed. The agency has successfully turned back legal challenges in federal courts by environmental groups, including the New Orleans-based Healthy Gulf, to set such limits. "The mention of $60 million of new actions is pretty laughable when compared to the billions being spent each year on the farm bill," he said, referring to federal legislation on agriculture. "It is clear that USDA programs are not enough and with EPA's inability (or reluctance) to regulate the agricultural industry like other industries, there is little hope this problem will ever be solved. As I mentioned in our own press release, it is clear that the federal and state agencies and the Congress continue to prioritize industrial agriculture over water quality." One of the victims that former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain was convicted of sexually abusing has been denied restitution for damages he sought against Strain. Mark Finn, 51, who offered hours of riveting testimony during Strain's criminal trial last year, sued Strain for damages, seeking compensation for mental health care expenses. "He will need counseling for the remainder of his life," said Finn's attorney, Tony LeMon. But Ad Hoc Judge Cornelius Regan, who was hearing the case because the judges of the 22nd Judicial District recused themselves, dismissed Finn's claims on May 24. His requests for court costs and attorneys fees were also denied. 'Disappointed' Im disappointed in the ruling because the judge did not explain why, said LeMon, adidng that he has filed a request for a written explanation and plans to appeal the judges decision. Finn was one of five victims who took the stand during Strain's trial on charges of aggravated rape, sexual battery, aggravated incest, sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Finn, who said he was sexually abused by Strain from the time he was 6 until he was 12, detailed that abuse in emotional testimony, as one point tearfully telling his mother he was sorry she had to hear it. St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Finn told the jury how the abuse followed him into his adult years, much of which has been spent behind bars, and sometimes led him to consider suicide. Finn's therapist also took the stand, telling the jury that Finn suffered from one of the worst cases of post-traumatic stress that he had ever seen. Finn is currently incarcerated at St. Tammany Parish jail for possession of methamphetamine and has openly discussed how his trauma at the hands of Strain has contributed to years of substance abuse. Crucial testimony Finn's testimony proved crucial in the jury's guilty verdicts against the longtime sheriff. The Times-Picayune does not typically name victims of sexual abuse. But even before his testimony, Finn had publicly identified himself as a Strain victim. Strain, meanwhile, is currently serving a life sentence for the sex crime convictions. Strain, who was sheriff in St. Tammany for two decades, was also sentenced by a federal judge to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bribery schemes stemming from a privatized work release program he operated as sheriff. During part of his time in jail, Finn was in that work-release program, where he had his own private room and received lenient treatment compared to the stringent rules others had to follow. OSLO, Norway, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS, a subsidiary of Nel ASA (Nel, OSE: NEL), has been awarded a contract for an alkaline electrolyser system to Glencore Nikkelverk in Kristansand, Norway. The green hydrogen from the electrolyser system will be used for production of hydrochloric acid. Glencore Nikkelverk is already familiar with alkaline electrolyser technology as they currently operate a similar electrolyser system at the site in Kristiansand, also this delivered by Nel. "We are honored to be re-elected as electrolyser supplier to Glencore Nikkelverk through their competitive tender-process when they now shall expand their production of hydrochloric acid. Given their high competence on electrolyser technology, with primary focus on safety and reliability, we look forward to strengthening our relationship with Glencore through the project execution and beyond", says Henning Langas, Senior Tender Manager. "Hydrogen is an important input factor in our processes and very high reliability is required. Nikkelverk has produced Hydrogen for internal use for more than 60 years. We are pleased to continue a long relationship with Nel and their well proven and reliable alkaline electrolysers," says Nils G. Gjelsten. Managing director, Glencore Nikkelverk AS. The purchase order has a value exceeding EUR 3 million, and delivery off the equipment is expected to be mid-2023 For additional information, please contact: Kjell Christian Bjrnsen, CFO, +47 917 02 097 Wilhelm Flinder, Head of Investor Relations, +47 936 11 350 About Nel ASA | www.nelhydrogen.com Nel is a global, dedicated hydrogen company, delivering optimal solutions to produce, store and distribute hydrogen from renewable energy. We serve industries, energy and gas companies with leading hydrogen technology. Since its origins in 1927, Nel has a proud history of development and continual improvement of hydrogen plants. Our hydrogen solutions cover the entire value chain from hydrogen production technologies to manufacturing of hydrogen fueling stations, providing all fuel cell electric vehicles with the same fast fueling and long range as conventional vehicles today. This information is subject to a duty of disclosure pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This information was issued as inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation, and was published by Wilhelm Finder, Head of Investor Relations, at NEL ASA on the date and time provided. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/nel-asa/r/nel-asa--receives-purchase-order-for-an-alkaline-electrolyser-system-from-glencore-nikkelverk,c3576789 The following files are available for download: STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The consulting industry continues to report great market growth. despite the current situation in Europe, the listed consulting companies in Sweden and Finland grew by an average of 19 percent. This quarter, companies also reported the record operating margins. - The industry has had a great start to the new year. The companies report high growth figures, many thanks to a large number of acquisitions, and margins are at an all-time high. There's been a high demand amongst clients, especially in the IT sector. For example, assignment inquiries at Ework have increased by 30 percent says Mattias Loxi, co-founder and marketing manager of the Skills Management platform Cinode. This quarter, Exsitec, Knowit, and DevPort reported the highest growth figures in terms of company growth. Exsitec and Knowit managed to combine high organic growth with several acquisitions. Eurocon, Prevas, and B3 Consulting Group had the highest operating margins. In terms of employees, Four out of five companies have grown during Q1. The companies that have had the highest number of new employees are Addnode, CombinedX, and B3 Consulting Group have grown the most. For Addnode and CombinedX, the growth is a result of several acquirements during Q1. - In Q1, four out of five consulting companies have grown in terms of employees, but we still see that companies are struggling to recruit and retain staff. Despite the rise in recruitments, the skills gap is still very evident in the industry. With the number of assignment requests going up, companies need to look at an external network of resources and skills to be able to deliver, says Mattias Loxi. Take a look at the infographic of the listed consulting companies' Q1 reports. CONTACT: Mattias LoxiCo-Founder/CMO+46735142170mattias.loxi@cinode.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/cinode-ab/r/record-margins-and-growth-in-the-swedish-and-finnish-consulting-industry,c3578719 The following files are available for download: DOE Announces Winners of the 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition The University of Oklahoma team won first place in the 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition for their design repurposing six abandoned oil and gas wells to instead harness geothermal energy. Students from the University of Oklahoma took home first place and $10,000 in prize funding as part of the U.S. Department of Energy 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition, an annual event that prepares students to lead the next generation of geothermal energy development. "Geothermal energy is a 24/7 source of renewable energy that has the potential to reliably power, heat, and cool millions of American homes," said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Kelly Speakes-Backman. "The Geothermal Collegiate Competition prepares students to scale up geothermal technologies in a way that prioritizes individual communities and their unique needs." The Geothermal Collegiate Competition is designed to inspire students to consider new career opportunities, learn geothermal industry-relevant skills, and connect students to their communities. As part of the competition, students assumed the role of project developers, working with communities across the U.S. to identify local energy challenges and explore geothermal energy solutions. In addition to technical research, teams conducted an economic feasibility analysis, crafted a strategy for local stakeholder engagement, and created geothermal education modules in partnership with local schools. I can't wait to see how all of these students will continue to work with communities and contribute to our nations geothermal story. Elisabet Metcalfe, Stakeholder Engagement Lead with the Geothermal Technologies Office The Sooners Geothermal Team from the University of Oklahoma took first place for designing a system repurposing six abandoned oil and gas wells in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to provide clean, renewable geothermal energy for more than 730,449 square feet of educational and municipal buildings, including sites within the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and Potawatomi Nation jurisdiction. By using previously drilled wells that were no longer producing, the team was able to reduce drilling costs to feasibly power local schools, religious centers, and government buildings. for designing a system repurposing six abandoned oil and gas wells in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to provide clean, renewable geothermal energy for more than 730,449 square feet of educational and municipal buildings, including sites within the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and Potawatomi Nation jurisdiction. By using previously drilled wells that were no longer producing, the team was able to reduce drilling costs to feasibly power local schools, religious centers, and government buildings. The University of North Dakota and Reykjavik University earned second place and $5,000 for their design of a combined heat and power geothermal system for the city of New Town, North Dakota, located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation. The team used extensive, preexisting geological information from oil and gas exploration in the area to design a system that could heat and power an entire district, including potential for greenhouses and aquaculture efforts. and $5,000 for their design of a combined heat and power geothermal system for the city of New Town, North Dakota, located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation. The team used extensive, preexisting geological information from oil and gas exploration in the area to design a system that could heat and power an entire district, including potential for greenhouses and aquaculture efforts. The University of ColoradoBoulder took third place and $2,500 in prize funding for their design of a geothermal ground-source heat pump for a local nonprofit that provides a range of support to young people from under-resourced communities. As part of their stakeholder engagement, the team led a series of geothermal educational lessons. The team's design offsets natural gas emissions from the organization's existing furnace while also minimizing costs of the transition. The system produces four times the energy it takes to run and is designed with heating during cold Colorado winters in mind, while also being reversible to cool in the summer. "These teams presented incredibly complex systems and technical processes in innovative ways to a diverse set of stakeholders," said Elisabet Metcalfe, stakeholder engagement lead with the Geothermal Technologies Office. "The results are impressive and inspiring; I can't wait to see how all of these students will continue to work with communities and contribute to our nation's geothermal story." The collegiate institutions of the first, second, and third-place teams will also receive a $10,000 University Support Cash Prize for their support of the team, specifically for planning and implementing local stakeholder engagement events scheduled to take place later this summer. The 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition will take place during the spring semester, with team applications opening in fall 2022. Learn more at the Geothermal Collegiate Competition website. Wintrust Bank won seven Greenwich Excellence Awards, both national and Midwestern, from a financial intelligence firm. The Rosemont-based bank, which has branches in Dyer, Lansing and across the south suburbs, won a national award for overall satisfaction in the U.S. Middle Market Banking category from Coalition Greenwich. It also won Midwest Awards for overall satisfaction, cash management and likelihood to recommend. These awards validate our promise that our customers can have it all the sophisticated technology and resources of a large bank alongside the personalized services to each and every customer of a community bank, said Paul Carlisle, chief operating officer and market head of Wintrust Commercial Banking. Over our 30-year history, and especially during the past two pandemic years through our participation in the Paycheck Protection Program, we have shown our customers that they can count on Wintrust. Coalition Greenwich provides global market intelligence to the financial services industry. It interviewed nearly 23,000 bank clients last year, rating institutions on a five-point scale that was based on that feedback. It evaluated more than 500 banks nationwide, conferring an Excellence Award in U.S. small business banking to only 24 banks across the country. In the Small Business Banking category, Wintrust also won awards for overall satisfaction, cash management and likelihood to recommend. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 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. VALPARAISO Nearly 500 students at Valparaiso High School were told to appreciate every moment and not focus only on the past or future at their commencement ceremony Wednesday night. "Take more time to live in the now," teacher Peter Sattler told graduates. He said that being more present allows a greater understanding of the world and how to respond to it. There were more than 475 graduates overall. Of the graduating class, 87% plan to go to college or trade school, 8% are entering the workforce, 4% will serve in the military and 1% were not yet determined. The ceremony began with an introduction from Principal Veronica Tobon, who said that the students in the Class of 2022 has been successful despite the numerous challenges thrown at them. "One important thing this class has learned is that life is filled with trials and tribulations. Every one of you has a different story to tell," Tobon said. Class President Anthony Grisolano introduced the faculty and student speakers, who included Sattler and graduates Isabelle Uthuppan and Patrick Brogan. Sattler said he would not discuss attributes that would make the graduates successful later in life, as he did not want to define what success is for them. Instead, he offered suggestions about how they could look in themselves and determine what it meant to be successful individually. He suggested they accept being wrong as a gift, find beauty in every moment and remove their masks to be the true real person they are inside. "We forge ahead not trying to be anything but what resonates in our hearts. While at this point, many of us do not know what that is or what it may look like, we must look inward and continue to search for what brings us inner peace," Sattler said. After Sattler spoke, Uthuppan, senior class vice president, reflected on their four years of high school. She told a story about how when she was 5 years old, she found a pistachio she loved so much she wanted to hold on forever. She said she felt similarly during the ceremony, not wanting to let go just yet. However, she said its important to be open to the newness of their post-high school life. "I know some of us may be scared or anxious for what's to come, but because we have been living the same comfortable routine for the next 13 years. I want to stress that these 13 years are not going to the best 13 years of your life, and its time to let go of our pistachio called high school," she said. Brogan, homecoming king and "Mr. VHS," emphasized the strength of the Class of 2022 and how the graduates were able to turn obstacles into events and fun. He recalled students over the summer preparing to get a parking pass at VHS. Students were told it would be first-come, first-served on a specific date, so many seniors decided to line up their cars the night before. Soon, many members of the class showed up and it turned into a full tailgate to prepare for their parking passes. Brogan was a very involved student during his time at VHS, mentioning his experience with track, cross country, drama and several other events. He said this gave him the opportunity to get to know every type of student, even those who were different than him. "I learned the one thing we all have in common is our uniqueness," Brogan said. He said life is too short to get caught up on little things like disagreements with someone's beliefs. Students were honored with several distinctions, including International Baccalaureate diplomas, several honor societies and concurrent program honors. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CROWN POINT The daughter of a woman gunned down two years ago outside her home in Hammond's Robertsdale neighborhood told jurors she heard six shots and looked out her bedroom window to see a dark-colored sedan speeding away. Desha Perez, 21, testified she went outside early Oct. 27, 2019, and found her 40-year-old mother, Delilah Martinez, unresponsive on the front lawn in the 1100 block of 115th Street. Lydia T. Conley, 39, of Chicago, who was Martinez's ex-girlfriend, pleaded not guilty to one count of murder linked to Martinez's homicide. Judge Pro Tempore Jamise Perkins is presiding over the trial this week in Lake Criminal Court. Conley's attorney, John Cantrell, told jurors in opening statements Tuesday that Lake County prosecutors would not present enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Conley killed Martinez. In response to questions Wednesday from Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce, Perez said her mother's relationship with Conley was "toxic" and "on and off." The two began dating in 2018, and Conley and her then-17-year-old daughter moved in with Perez and her family in summer 2019, Perez said. Perez testified she overheard her mother and Conley arguing about Conley's romantic relationship with another woman and heard about it from her mother. In early October 2019, Conley moved out, but her daughter continued to live with Martinez's family until Oct. 26, Perez said. Perez said she knew her mother began dating a man, identified in court records as Lucas Xavier Mercado, because Martinez posted videos on social media of herself with Mercado while they were at a bar. Perez met Mercado twice, she said. The first time, he accompanied her, her mother and her cousin on a trip to Chicago and punched her then-boyfriend and another man, she said. "Xavier punched my boyfriend in the face for no reason," Perez said. "He was just drunk." Martinez drove Perez to Chicago to talk to her boyfriend that night because Perez suspected he was cheating on her, and she believed he went to a party he previously said he wouldn't attend. She could tell where he was because they previously agreed to share their locations through their iPhones, she said. They initially went to the house where the party was being held, she said. Mercado knocked on the door and asked about her boyfriend, she said. When Mercado was told her boyfriend wasn't at the party, he threw a brick through the window and they all left, she said. Perez said she was able to reach her boyfriend by phone, and he allowed her to come by his house to talk, she said. She was talking to the boyfriend alone when Mercado approached and asked what was going on, she said. Perez told Mercado "nothing," and he punched her boyfriend in the face, she said. When a man the boyfriend lived with came out, Mercado punched him, too, she said. Afterward, Perez's boyfriend told her his brother wanted to know her address, she said. They also wanted to know about Mercado, but she told them she had only met him one time, she said. Perez said her boyfriend and his brother may have wanted to confront Mercado, but they didn't have any reason to harm her mother. Martinez once offered to take in the boyfriend and allowed him to sleep at her home, she said. The last time Perez saw Conley, Conley arrived in a dark-colored Buick that Martinez financed for her to pick up her daughter, who was moving out, Perez said. Conley and her daughter left about 7 p.m., and she went to bed about 9 or 10 p.m., she said. Just before 3 a.m., a friend from school called her via Facetime. They talked for a couple of minutes before she heard six gunshots outside, she said. In an emotional 911 call, Perez begged for help for her mother and named three people when a dispatcher asked who shot Martinez: Perez's boyfriend and his brother and Conley. She said her boyfriend wanted to beat up "some dude," whom she identified in court as Mercado. She also said her mother and Conley had been fighting the day of the homicide. In response to questions from Cantrell, Perez repeatedly denied saying she saw two people or "some dude" after the shooting. She talked to multiple police officers in the hours and days after the homicide and explained her boyfriend and his brother had a problem with Mercado and her mother had been fighting with Conley, she said. If she had seen anyone at the crime scene, she would have reported it, she said. Koonce and Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Arnold were expected to continue presenting their case Thursday. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 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. GARY Lake County authorities have joined the pursuit for a suspect who shot a Chicago officer on the southwest side of Chicago. Around 6 p.m. a Lake County Sheriff's Aviation Unit was dispatched to aid police who are pursuing the shooting suspect, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. A Chicago officer was shot Wednesday afternoon at 64th Street and Paulina Street in West Englewood, according to a report from NBC Chicago. A fellow officer rushed the injured officer to the University of Chicago. The current condition of the officer is not yet known. The pursuit is reportedly ongoing. Check back at nwi.com for updates. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 4 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. HAMMOND A Lake County judge is expected to decide by July 1 whether Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. is entitled to ink contracts for county jail services with no oversight by the Lake County Board of Commissioners. Lake Superior Judge Stephen Scheele heard arguments on the question for more than an hour Wednesday, centered on a disputed agreement for Correctional Health Indiana Inc. (CHI) to continue providing medical care to inmates at the Lake County Jail. Attorney Andrew Miroff, representing Martinez, argued a state law directing the sheriff to "take care" of jail inmates in his custody gives Martinez express authority to do whatever is required to fulfill that duty. "In order to carry out this function, the sheriff has the authority to enter into contracts," Miroff said. Miroff also claimed the money needed to pay the CHI contact was authorized last year by both the Lake County Council and the county commissioners in the annual county budget, giving the sheriff the means to reach an appropriate agreement without having to obtain additional approval from the commissioners. "Somebody must act, and the duty to act is on the sheriff," Miroff said. Meanwhile, commissioners attorney Mike Limrick argued that if the General Assembly wanted the sheriff to have independent contracting authority it would have used more explicit language than the "take care" clause. For example, Limrick noted Indiana law says the commissioners are exclusively entitled to "negotiate contacts for the county" and exercise all other executive and administrative powers and duties "except to the extent that these powers and duties are expressly assigned to other elected officers." "Here there is no express right for the sheriff to contract and the Legislature has told us you can't imply one," Limrick said. "The contracting power has been expressly assigned to the commissioners, and only to the commissioners." Limrick also pointed out a budget line item is not a requirement for that money to be spent. He said the contracting process is intended to get county taxpayers the best possible goods or services for their money, and allowing a sheriff to sign contracts with no public review or oversight is an open invitation for corruption. In addition, Limrick claimed the sheriff so far only has attempted to exercise his supposed contracting authority in connection with the CHI contract, while all other sheriff's contracts relating to the jail have followed the standard approval process through the county commissioners. "I find it difficult to believe if the sheriff didn't think he had to do something that he would do it anyway," Limrick said. "The sheriff did not want to be told no (in connection with CHI). That's what broke the system." Records show the commissioners in December declined to approve the sheriff's proposed contract with CHI for 2022 inmate medical services at a cost of $6.1 million, a 5% increase compared to 2021, and 20% more than 2020. According to court records, Martinez signed the 2022 contract with CHI anyway. But Lake County Auditor John Petalas declined to pay CHI under the sheriffs contract because it wasnt approved by the commissioners. CHI subsequently agreed to continue providing inmate health care services at the jail through at least Aug. 1 at the 2021 rate later approved on a month-by-month basis by the commissioners. The commissioners have told the sheriff an ongoing jail medical contract will not be approved until Martinez permits representatives from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), a nonprofit organization that evaluates health services available to jail and prison inmates, to visit the Lake County Jail and determine whether the level of medical services is appropriate for the facility. The commissioners also said CHI's costs have increased exponentially over the past 10 years and an outside entity is needed to assess the services the county is receiving for the amount of money it is spending roughly a quarter-million dollars every two weeks. Martinez, however, repeatedly has declined to allow NCCHC to inspect the jail, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The sheriff's lawsuit echoes a similar case set for oral argument June 24 at the Indiana Court of Appeals where the Lake County Council is attempting to wrest control of the county's purchasing and data processing departments from the commissioners. That lawsuit originated in part due to the commissioners declining to approve the purchase of various "law enforcement equipment" requested by the sheriff, including a $770,060 Lake Michigan patrol boat. Separately, Martinez was indicted in January by a Lake County grand jury on felony resisting law enforcement and misdemeanor reckless driving charges. Martinez is accused of failing to stop while driving an unmarked, county-owned Jeep TrackHawk at up to 50 mph over the posted speed limit on Taft and Main streets in Crown Point and Merrillville in September as two Crown Point police officers chased him with their lights and sirens activated, records show. Under a new Indiana law, Martinez's indictment bars him from carrying a handgun in public, either on- or off-duty, beginning July 1. 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. HAMMOND North Township Trustee Adrian Santos has won a civil suit that could otherwise have cost the City of East Chicago money. A U.S. District Court jury returned a verdict Wednesday in favor of Santos and against former East Chicago city councilman Randall Artis following a seven-day trial and less than two hours deliberation. The jury was asked to pick sides on whether Santos fired Artis from the East Chicago city clerks office in 2016 because of Artiss felony conviction for public corruption or over a political vendetta. Artis filed suit six years ago, seeking a cash award from the City of East Chicago. The jury awarded no money to anyone, according to court documents. Roy Dominguez, one of Artiss lawyers, said Wednesday afternoon, We are disappointed in the outcome but respect the jurys verdict and will now consider whether to appeal this decision. Santos said afterward, This has been an extremely stressful time for me and my family. I just thank God for closure, the favorable verdict, the excellent work of my legal team Tolbert & Tolbert and the jurys careful consideration of the evidence, Santos said. Attorney Michael Tolbert defended Santos and the City of East Chicago. The trial featured not only a rivalry between two prominent men but also East Chicagos reputation as a battlefield where politicians take desperate and sometimes unprincipled measures to win campaigns. Artis was East Chicago's 3rd District city councilman from 1992 to 2005 when he was caught up in East Chicagos infamous "sidewalks public corruption scandal. Artis was one of several city politicians who broke the law 23 years ago to win reelection. They arranged to repave voters' sidewalks, private driveways and, in one case, a homeowner's entire backyard to win the publics support during the 1999 municipal election. Artis pleaded guilty in 2005 to a federal theft count that he misspent $1.3 million in "sidewalks" money, authorizing his brother's construction company to pour concrete on private property at city expense. After serving 21 months in prison, Artis returned to city employment in August 2015 when then-East Chicago City Clerk Mary Morris Leonard said Artis deserved a second chance. But Santos replaced Leonard as city clerk Jan. 1, 2016, and fired Artis a month later. Santos claimed he was afraid the city's insurer wouldn't cover any losses caused by a city employee convicted of theft or another crime of dishonesty. Artis' claimed Santos fired him for his refusal to campaign in 2016 for two of Santos' political allies, Lake County Commissioner Mike Repay, who was running for reelection, and Marissa McDermott, who was running for Lake Circuit Court judge. Artis lawyers argued that even a convicted felon still has a constitutional right to support the political candidates of his choice without having to face job termination by a rival politician. Santos denied any political motive for his decision. 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. CROWN POINT Police secured child abuse charges against a Gary mother after arresting her Friday on suspicion of shooting at a man at a Hobart gas station and learning her 8-year-old daughter had scars all over her body, court records show. Zakira S. Porter, 35, became evasive when asked for her address and said Child Protective Services didn't need to know where her daughter lives, Lake Criminal Court records state. A magistrate entered not guilty pleas on Porter's behalf Wednesday in two separate cases and granted her request to appoint a public defender. Hobart police were dispatched about 5:30 p.m. Friday to the Luke Oil gas station at 3211 W. 37th Ave. for a report of shots fired. Officers arrived and spoke with a man, who told police Porter became angry with him after he made a comment about her not holding a door open for him, pepper-sprayed him and fired shots at him while his two children ages 22 and 16 were nearby. During the exchange, Porter yelled she wasn't "a Gary (expletive)" and that she was "from the city," the man alleged. The man said his eyes and face were burning and itchy, but he refused medical treatment. His children were shaken up but not hurt, according to court records. Several witnesses gave police a description of the female shooter and said she fled in a red GMC van. They also told police the man did not react aggressively while the woman yelled at him. A Hobart officer spotted the red van traveling south on Parker Street and pulled Porter over, court records state. Porter argued with the officer and said she was being harassed, documents allege. When she got out of the car, she allegedly refused to give the officer her name. The officer observed a small-caliber revolver on the passenger-side floorboard of the van next to a pink holster. During a search, police found two spent shell casings inside the gun and six live rounds, records state. Officers also recovered a black bottle of pepper spray from the passenger seat of the van. While speaking with Porter's daughter, an officer noticed injuries to the girl's hands, according to court documents. Further investigation revealed the girl walked with a limp and had multiple wounds in various stages of healing, including extensive scarring and likely permanent disfigurement all over her body. The girl told police Porter regularly hit her, often with an extension cord, "because she is mad," records state. The most recent beating occurred a day before the shooting, the girl alleged. An Indiana Department of Child Services employee took the girl to a hospital, where a skeletal survey showed she suffered an older clavicle fracture and injuries to her lower extremities consistent with being hit repetitively with the prongs of an extension cord. Police subsequently learned of a previous DCS investigation in October 2019 involving Porter and her daughter in Marion County. The girl had been attending a school for about two weeks when she arrived with a swollen and bruised eye, records state. Porter refused to cooperate with the DCS investigation, and a Marion County judge declined to grant a motion to compel Porter to meet with DCS, documents state. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 4 Angry 8 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. LOWELL An Indiana State trooper dove over a median wall to avoid being struck in a multi-vehicle crash, police said. "I saw it coming and dove over the wall," said Sgt. Glen Fifield. "I didn't want to get hit or pinned between the cars, so I dove. I hurt my knee and shoulder." Around 3 p.m. Wednesday first responders were called to a crash involving four vehicles at the 10-mile marker on eastbound Interstate 80 in Gary, said Indiana State Cpl. Bobbie Crowder. A driver crashed into a median wall, crashed into another vehicle and then crashed into Fifield's vehicle, he said. Fifield was able to jump over the median to avoid the collision but hurt his knee and shoulder. He was taken to be checked out at a hospital and was released in good condition Wednesday afternoon. Crowder said there were lane blockages at the Broadway southbound to eastbound ramp, with traffic moving slowly through the area. The investigation is ongoing. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 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. A coalition of physicians, nurses and other health care providers is urging Gov. Eric Holcomb to refrain from calling a special legislative session if the U.S. Supreme Court authorizes states to further restrict or ban abortion. On Thursday, petitions signed by some 400 Hoosier health care workers and medical students were delivered to Holcomb, imploring the Republican chief executive to take no immediate action should the nation's high court partially or fully repeal its Roe v. Wade precedent later this month. Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, a pediatrics specialist at Indiana University Health, warned that giving the Republican-controlled General Assembly the opportunity to impose new state restrictions on reproductive autonomy will lead to higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. "Indiana is already one of the most dangerous states to be pregnant," Wilkinson said. "If Indiana lawmakers are serious about wanting to reduce infant and maternal mortality, they should start by increasing, not restricting, access to health care and support Hoosiers' right to bodily autonomy." Rayanne Pancoast, a fourth-year medical student in Indianapolis, said additional restrictions on abortion access will drive future providers from the state, worsening an already dire physician shortage. "When we graduate from medical school it will be hard to stay in Indiana where politicians continue to interfere with and criminalize the doctor/patient relationship. Such policies are not evidence-based. We want to help patients make the decisions that are right for them," Pancoast said. Holcomb so far has refused to say whether he'll call the General Assembly into special session this summer to address abortion access following the Supreme Court decision as requested in March by 100 Republican state legislators. "We have a responsibility to Hoosiers to ensure that our state laws are aligned with the Supreme Court's decision if Roe v. Wade is wholly, or partially overturned," the lawmakers said. "As a state that recognizes that life is a precious gift that should never be neglected, it is our desire that you, as the governor of Indiana, ensure that those values are upheld without delay." A draft ruling in a Mississippi abortion case that was leaked in May suggests the Supreme Court is preparing to rescind the right to abortion, setting the stage for each of the 50 states to set its own policy concerning abortion access. Holcomb has said he's waiting for the final Supreme Court ruling before deciding whether to convene a special legislative session on abortion. Love 2 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. CALUMET CITY A state of emergency has been declared in the wake of a Memorial Day fire that left one person dead and seven more injured, including three firefighters. Mayor Thaddeus Jones called an emergency City Council meeting Thursday, the city said in a news release. Council members unanimously approved Jones' plan for the state of emergency and OK'd funding to provide emergency housing for the nearly 200 residents displaced by the blaze at the Park of River Oaks condominium complex. On Wednesday, the Cook County medical examiner's office identified the resident who died in the fire as 85-year-old Wilhelmina K. Williamson, who lived on the seventh floor of the building at 200 Park Ave. Calumet City officials said Williamson was taken to UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, where she was pronounced dead. The death was ruled accidental, due to thermal and inhalational injuries, according to the medical examiner. The local state of emergency will allow the city to access resources from other governmental agencies for short- and long-term assistance for the displaced residents, according to the statement. Jones and the City Council expressed gratitude to Calumet City police and firefighters, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, county agencies, the American Red Cross and local businesses who helped with the response to the fire. The blaze broke out about 7 p.m. Monday in the 312-unit building, Fire Chief Glenn Bachert said. "First-in companies reported heavy fire of a second-floor unit at the rear of the building extending to the seventh floor and roof-line area," Bachert said in a statement issued Tuesday morning. The building sustained heavy fire and smoke damage, he said. Calumet City was assisted by 24 agencies, both fire and EMS. Bachert said the fire is currently under investigation with MABAS 24 the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System division representing 21 south Cook County departments and state fire marshal investigators. 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. HAMMOND A Gary man is going to prison for his role in a 2019 kidnapping carried out to silence a crime witness. U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon imposed a 210-month sentence Thursday on Jaron D. Johnson, 23. Jaron pleaded guilty last year to taking part in a kidnapping that nearly killed a Gary woman. A federal grand jury indicted Jaron Johnson, 24-year-old Jarod Johnson and their 48-year-old mother, Patricia Carrington, two years ago. The government alleges the three defendants were trying to locate and silence a woman set to testify against Jarod about his involvement in a 2017 shooting. The trio hunted down and took captive a female relative of the witness April 14, 2019. The kidnapping victim told police she was blindfolded, threatened and beaten, but refused to cooperate with her abductors. The victim said she was driven to an abandoned house in Gary's Glen Park section and one of the defendants shot her several times, wounding her in the face and arm. She told police she survived the attack by playing dead for about 20 minutes before she found a nearby resident and asked for help. Police said they found blood, duct tape and four discharged bullet casings outside an abandoned house near 44th Avenue and Mississippi Street. Defense attorney James G. Vanzant argued in an earlier memo to the court that Jaron played only a minor role in the kidnapping. Carrington received a 210-month sentence late last year. A federal jury acquitted Jarod Johnson of the kidnapping charge last year. The Lake County prosecutors office sought to have him tried under state law for attempted murder, battery and intimidation in connection with the 2019 kidnapping. A Lake Criminal Court judge threw out the state charges and released Jarod Johnson on grounds a second trial would be double jeopardy. However, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year the new stated charges against Jarod Johnson are different enough to avoid double jeopardy. The Indiana Supreme Court declined last week take up the case itself, giving the prosecutors office the authority to bring Jarod Johnson to trial. No new date has been set in his case. Love 1 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. MICHIGAN CITY Mayor Duane Parry is urging the Sanitary District board to put on hold the extension of sewer service to Lakeshore Drive in Long Beach. The board meets at 4 p.m. Thursday night at City Hall to discuss it. The City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The council also should consider tabling the issue, Parry said, to give Long Beach residents to work with their Town Council on ways to bring down the cost for affected residents. At issue is the $248 monthly fee Lakeshore Drive residents would be assessed to pay off $13 million in bonds to build the sewer extension project. Sanitary District attorney James Meyer told the City Council on Tuesday night that unlike a tax, a fee can only be assessed for people with a direct benefit from the project in this case, the ability to connect to a sanitary sewer instead of using a septic system. Long Beach Town Council President Robert Lemay said town officials hoped to get sewers throughout the town, but House Bill 1245 wouldnt allow it. Its interesting that the very people who made sewering the whole town an impossibility with HB1245 are now asking, why arent we sewering the whole town? Lemay said. HB1245 takes away the ability of our health department to protect our lake from septics placed too close to the lake on 7/1/23. Eleven of the homes on Lakeshore Drive have to have septic tanks pumped out frequently because their septic systems failed. I happen to be one of the 14 homeowners on Lakeshore Drive whose septic tank fell into the lake, Scott Upp said. He paid more than $740,000 to repair his seawall after a violent storm. Now he has a huge bill for pumping his septic tank. I can tell you on average I pay $235 a week, he said. Thats well over $12,000 a year for pump-and-haul. Lemay hopes the project will receive city approval by the end of the month. If we dont proceed now, this project wont happen, he said, because this project is grandfathered in and unaffected by HB1245s restrictions. One of the problems with septic systems along Lakeshore Drive is the size of the lots. If a failing septic system has to be replaced, theres nowhere suitable on the rest of the lot for the septic system to be installed. If the city reneges on the deal to extend sewer service, it would likely be responsible for about $300,000 in engineering fees already paid to a consultant for the project, Meyer said. 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. Professional sand sculptors from across the world will fashion massive, intricate and eye-popping sand sculptures on the beach in Michigan City this weekend. Michigan City is hosting the Singing Sands Festival from Friday through Sunday at Washington Park at 115 Lakeshore Drive. "The Singing Sands Sculpting Festival is a three-day celebration of Michigan City's beautiful lakefront and beach," the city said in a news release. "The centerpiece of the event is a professional sand sculpting competition and exhibition, drawing some of the world's most talented and well-known sand sculptors who will create incredible works of art in the City's famous Singing Sands." The event will feature sand sculpting demonstrations, speed sculpting shows and amateur, master and semi-pro contests. It's being staged by The Sand Lovers, a firm run by professional sand sculptors Bill and Marianne Knight that has staged such competitions before, including in Florida. The festival will include musical performances by the Together Band, Indika Reggae, Dan Moser, Audios Pantalones, Derek Caruso and Blues Fuse Band, Sankofa, Sofa King Revolution, Invisible Cartoons, Cadillac Starship, and Hurricane Reggae. There also will be food trucks, craft vendors, a kids zone and a beach bar. The outdoor festival will take place rain or shine all weekend long. The festivities will take place at the Washington Park beach from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. One-day tickets cost $8 while a three-day pass is $18 for out-of-towners. It's $5 for a one-day pass and $12 for the whole weekend for Michigan City residents. 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. MICHIGAN CITY Three men were arrested in connection with a Monday shooting on the Lake Michigan beach in the city. Shots were reported near Stop 2 along the lakeshore at 4:10 p.m., with 911 callers indicating one person had been shot. Michigan City police officers working Memorial Day beach patrol and officers from Uniform Patrol Shift 2 responded to the scene. LaPorte County EMS arrived and transported the victim to Franciscan Health Michigan City Hospital with life threatening injuries. Officers were informed by the Regional Dispatch Center that a tan vehicle could have been involved in the incident. Officers located the vehicle driving east on Lakeshore Drive and attempted to stop the vehicle, but it continued to flee until it eventually came to a stop. Julius Bowen, an 18-year-old Michigan City resident, then fled the vehicle on foot carrying two handguns, police said. Following the pursuit, Bowen was arrested and charged with resisting law enforcement and possession of a handgun without a license. The driver of the vehicle, Donald Deal, a 20-year-old Michigan City resident, was arrested and charged with resisting law enforcement and operating a vehicle without ever receiving a license. Late Monday, a person of interest, DeMarco Nichols, a 20-year-old Michigan City resident, turned himself in to police regarding the shooting. Lead detective Lt. Anna Painter forwarded her investigation to the LaPorte County Prosecutor's Office for probable cause. LaPorte County Superior Court #1 Judge Jamie Oss found probable cause to charge Nichols with aggravated battery. He was issued a $25,000 cash bond and had an initial appearance Thursday in Superior Court #1. Investigators believe the shooting was an isolated incident and not a random act. 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. Lawyers for David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz wrangled for more than three hours on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania courtroom over whether to count undated mail-in ballots in the Republican primary race for the Senate, with fewer than 1,000 votes separating the rivals and a statewide recount underway. In a pivotal contest that could ultimately determine control of the closely divided Senate, Mr. McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, was trailing the Trump-backed celebrity physician by less than 0.1 percent of the vote well within the 0.5 percent threshold for an automatic recount. Mr. McCormick filed a lawsuit on May 23 that asked the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to allow county election officials to accept mail-in ballots from voters who turned them in by the May 17 deadline but did not write the date on the outer return envelopes. That step is required by a state law, which Republicans have fought to preserve. Renee Cohn Jubelirer, the courts president judge, did not issue a ruling at the conclusion of the hearing in Harrisburg, Pa., but said that she would render one as quickly as possible. It is one thing to know that Louise Bourgeois made paintings. There are often a few of them in surveys of her long career as a sculptor, which reached its apogee in the 1980s and 90s. It is something else to learn that in the 1940s her first decade in New York she made more than 100 paintings. Nearly half of them are now heating up a large gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with raw emotion, awkward paint handling and adamantine colors most often brilliant to dark shades of blue and especially red. In fact, this show is an insightful meditation on the roiling significance of red, whose many associations include blood, passion, love, courage, joy, anger, violence. Nearly half the works in Louise Bourgeois: Paintings are lent by the artists foundation; almost a third have not been exhibited in decades, if ever. Together they illuminate some of the recurring themes explored in the sculptures, but also some of the very structures of these works, which began appearing as motifs of her paintings in the mid-1940s. And yet the show, organized by Clare Davies, an associate curator at the Met, also presents us with what is in many ways a whole new artist and a new kind of artist to contend with, one whose balance of formal sophistication with emotional intensity was rare, especially as it concerned early memories, motherhood, art making and their conflict. These themes are evident in the four Femme Maison (Woman House) paintings of 1946-47, which each combine a house with a womans body; they would be endemic to 1970s feminist art. But in the 1940s, Bourgeoiss subjects had few precedents in Western modern art. (An obvious exception is Paula Modersohn-Becker.) Mr. Bouaziz was charged after an investigation that included search warrants at his two galleries, a review of financial records and undercover purchases of what was determined to be fraudulent art, as well as evidence collected from six victims who had purchased art later deemed fraudulent. In the case of the customer who purchased what they considered to be their holy grail, the artworks were presented to a gallery in New York, whose director said that something looked off, according to the federal complaint. The sizes of some of the pieces didnt match the originals, and a few edition numbers were incorrect. Worse, the customer found a Lichtenstein print on eBay that exactly matched the Lichtenstein they had bought, except that the one on eBay cost only $535.50. Lets face it, the business of art is a subjective matter, said Howard Schumacher, the lawyer representing Mr. Bouaziz. Everything is done to try to make sure that whats being sold is what its represented to be, but he said theres always the possibility of fakes, because nobody spends days trying to do work on the age of the paint and the age of the paper. The customer from April wasnt alone in paying for works represented as originals, according to the complaint. Mr. Bouaziz sold a print, identical to one he bought for $100, as an original Warhol to an unsuspecting buyer for $85,000, the complaint said. It also said a Banksy that Mr. Bouaziz bought for $518.40 and which prosecutors said appeared to be fraudulent was resold for $140,000. Mr. Bouaziz appraised the works himself, the complaint said. There are lithographs, and there are reproductions, and many times the lithographs and reproductions are authorized by whoevers managing the portfolio for that particular artist, Mr. Schumacher said. Theres a number of different things that have value in different genres within the same work. In its largest student loan forgiveness action ever, the Education Department said on Wednesday that it would wipe out $5.8 billion owed by 560,000 borrowers who attended Corinthian Colleges, one of the nations biggest for-profit college chains before it collapsed in 2015. The debt cancellation will be automatic, meaning former Corinthian students will not have to apply to have their debts canceled. The Education Department will eliminate any remaining balance on the federal student loans of those who attended any Corinthian campus or online program during the chains 20-year existence. For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. President Biden faces intense pressure from student borrowers and progressive lawmakers to take executive action to broadly cancel federal student loan debts. Mr. Biden, who promised during his campaign to knock $10,000 off the loans of everybody in this generation, said in April that he was considering dealing with some debt reduction, but White House officials said no final decision had yet been made. WASHINGTON The Biden administration said on Wednesday it would cut in half the amount it charges companies to build wind and solar projects on federal lands, a move designed to encourage development of renewable energy. Clean energy projects on public lands have an important role to play in reducing our nations greenhouse gas emissions and lowering costs for families, Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, said in a statement. Wind and solar developers have long said that lease rates and fees for projects on federal lands were too high to attract investors. The new policy would cut those costs by about 50 percent, administration officials said. Representative Mike Levin, Democrat of California, who has sponsored legislation to expedite renewable energy development, applauded the move. As Americans continue to face worsening effects of the climate crisis and rising energy bills, its paramount that we strengthen our clean energy independence to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs, he said in a statement. Academics associated with the University of Chicago, including Mr. Posner and Mr. Bork, built a case for sharply limiting antitrust enforcement during the 1970s. Their ideas began to take hold even before they were put on the bench. The Supreme Court issued one of its first rulings limiting the scope of antitrust enforcement in a 1977 case, Continental T.V. v. GTE Sylvania. Justice Lewis Powell Jr., who wrote the decision, left a scribbled record of his intellectual debts in the margin of a case memo. It read, Posner, Baxter, Bork. Baxter was William Baxter, a Stanford law professor whom Mr. Reagan installed as the head of the antitrust division at the Justice Department. Mr. Posner and Mr. Bork ended up on appeals courts, where they became influential interpreters of antitrust law. Other important Reagan picks included Frank Easterbrook, a law professor at the University of Chicago; Douglas Ginsburg, a Harvard Law professor with a distaste for regulation; and, a few years later, Justice Scalia, whose opposition to antitrust enforcement is perhaps best illustrated by a case he did not decide. Shortly after his unexpected death in 2016, Dow Chemical said it would pay $835 million to settle an antitrust case that had been about to come before the court. With Mr. Scalia gone, Dow could no longer rely on a favorable outcome. On the bench, these men and their allies replaced a broad effort to check corporate power with a narrow focus on consumer welfare. Pretty much anything that didnt raise prices was OK. The courts also made it increasingly difficult for the government to win. Perhaps the last merger raised prices, but who could be sure about this one? In 2017, Mr. Posner, addressing an antitrust conference at the University of Chicago, puckishly asked the audience, Antitrust is dead, isnt it? The conservative jurists received important support from centrist and liberal justices who took a jaded view of the broad goals of the nations antitrust laws and saw enforcement efforts as inconsistent and even counterproductive. What they left standing has proved woefully inadequate. The rise of corporate concentration is harming consumers, suppliers, employees and democracy itself. Restocking the courts is only a part of the solution, and it is a long-term project. Antitrust cases brought by the Biden administration will be adjudicated mostly by judges appointed by Mr. Bidens predecessors. Eighteen federal judges named by Mr. Reagan are still serving. Jeremy Herrin, the director, has increased the number of actors to five, casting two men in the role of Tom, Williamss portrait of himself as a restless young artist. Paul Hilton, a Tony nominee last year for The Inheritance on Broadway, plays the older Tom, who looks back remorsefully on the family he could never fully escape. Hiltons soliloquies bookend the production, and the actor prowls the stage throughout, often peering at his family through a large display case of fragile ornaments that dominates Vicki Mortimers bleak set. (Above the action for this memory play is a screen on which the video designer Ash J. Woodward projects hazy images that come in and out of focus, as recollections tend to do.) And Tom Glynn-Carney plays the young Tom, forever facing off against the domineering mother who derides her son as a selfish dreamer. Worse than that, he commits the cardinal sin of introducing Jim, an outsider who awakens a romantic spark in the lovesick Laura that is quickly dashed: Jim, we learn, has a serious girlfriend in the (unseen) Betty. The sharing of the role, while intriguing in principle, doesnt add up to much. The two Toms acknowledge one another in passing at the start but seem otherwise to inhabit separate universes: The compact, feisty Glynn-Carney couldnt be more different, physically and emotively, from the lanky, slightly affected Hilton, who takes a while to settle into his American accent. (Glynn-Carneys, by contrast, is pitch perfect.) WASHINGTON A federal judge said on Wednesday that John W. Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, would be unconditionally released on June 15, according to a lawyer for Mr. Hinckley. Mr. Hinckley has been living in Virginia under various restrictions since 2016. The judge, Paul L. Friedman of Federal District Court in Washington, had set the June 15 release date in September with several conditions, including that Mr. Hinckley, 67, remain mentally stable. At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Friedman said Mr. Hinckley had met those conditions and reflected on the long road that Mr. Hinckley had faced, The Associated Press reported. Hes been scrutinized, the judge said, according to The A.P. Hes passed every test. Hes no longer a danger to himself or others. DALLAS To loud cheers in a community gym on Wednesday evening, Beto ORourke, a former congressman from El Paso and the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, renewed his criticism of Gov. Greg Abbott over the states gun laws, which he said allowed an 18-year-old in Uvalde to slaughter 19 students and two teachers with a legally and easily acquired military-style weapon. Before an audience of more than 300 people, Mr. ORourke lashed out at the governors decision to sign a law allowing anyone over 21 to carry a handgun without a permit or training. Not only did he not take action to save the lives of our kids, Mr. ORourke said, he took action to make it more certain that we would lose the lives of our kids. In a forum in which he laid out his proposals to protect Texas children, Mr. ORourke sought to draw stark distinctions between himself and Mr. Abbott, painting the race as a choice between old leadership beholden to the gun lobby and his vision for a state with stronger gun laws and more funding for mental health services. He also criticized Mr. Abbott for spending more time on laws concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students than restricting handguns that could be used to kill children. He pledged to work with Republicans on common areas of agreement first. But, he added to applause, I dont think we should have AK-47s and AR-15s in our lives and in our communities. The decision itself was informed by intelligence assessments, according to American officials who were briefed on the process but asked that their names not be published in order to describe internal deliberations. Throughout the conflict, intelligence agencies have offered the White House analysis of how Mr. Putin was likely to react to arms transfers. And across the government, officials weighed the wisdom of sending Ukraine the U.S. militarys newest precision-guided rocket artillery weapons, which are capable of hitting targets more than 40 miles away. (Officials ruled out sending another weapon, the Army Tactical Missile System guided missile, that can fly almost 190 miles for fear it could be used to strike targets deep inside Russia.) American officials have said little about their internal debates over what to send, and what to withhold. But Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said last month, We are in a position where we are supporting Ukraine but we also do not want to ultimately end up in World War III, and we do not want to have a situation in which actors are using nuclear weapons. Beginning even before the invasion, Ms. Haines, the nations most senior intelligence official, has presided over a process intended to figure out what the red lines are for Mr. Putin, or what could cause him to lash out overtly or covertly at the U.S. or its allies. It was clear that any direct threat against Mr. Putin or his hold on power was the most critical red line along with his fear that NATO would directly intervene in the conflict to attack Russian forces. And while turning to nuclear weapons would be the ultimate escalation, Ms. Haines noted in her testimony that there are many steps Mr. Putin could take first. Those could include, intelligence officials have said, various nuclear exercises to signal resolve or even covert or cyberoperations against NATO. For Mr. Biden, avoiding a direct provocation of Mr. Putin has been a key priority from the start of the war. When the Polish government in March proposed sending MiG fighter jets to Ukraine, using the United States as an intermediary, John F. Kirby, then the Pentagon spokesman, said an intelligence assessment warned about the possible consequences. The intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory if they came directly from NATO bases, said Mr. Kirby, who is moving in coming days from the Pentagon to the White House to sharpen the administrations messaging about the war and other national security issues. Since the invasion, the Pentagon has provided Ukraine with 108 M777 howitzers, the most lethal weapons the West has delivered so far. But the range of the GMLRS is more than twice that of the 155-mm shells fired by howitzers. The Pentagon has spent approximately $5.4 billion to buy more than 42,000 of the GMLRS since 1998, according to a report published by the Congressional Research Service last year, and commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan used them frequently. Whats the difference between a rocket and a missile in this context? The nomenclature can be confusing sometimes, but generally the word rocket is used in a military context to refer to relatively inexpensive unguided weapons powered by solid-fuel motors, while missile is generally shorthand for guided missiles, more expensive and complicated weapons that use movable fins to steer themselves to their targets and can fly much farther. The Pentagon has already sent short-range, inexpensive and unguided antitank weapons that are classified as rockets to Ukraine, like the AT-4, and the longer-range Javelin, which is a guided missile. That delineation worked well in the past with the MLRS and ATACMS weapons, but in more recent years the military has built weapons it calls guided rockets like GMLRS which are often older rocket designs upgraded to have guidance systems and movable fins on their nose to steer them. The money part still holds true, though. GMLRS rockets remain far less expensive than the old ATACMS and the Precision Strike Missiles being developed to replace them. How powerful are these rockets? Using the HIMARS and GMLRS together can offer an amount of firepower that is similar to an airstrike all from a mobile platform. Because hes a man. Celebrity and masculinity confer mutually reinforcing advantages. Famous men athletes, actors, musicians, politicians get to be that way partly because they represent what other men aspire to be. Defending their prerogatives is a way of protecting, and asserting, our own. We want them to be bad boys, to break the rules and get away with it. Their seigneurial right to sexual gratification is something the rest of us might resent, envy or disapprove of, but we rarely challenge it. These guys are cool. They do what they want, including to women. Anyone who objects is guilty of wokeness, or gender treason, or actual malice. Of course there are exceptions. In the #MeToo era there are men who have gone to jail, lost their jobs or suffered disgrace because of the way theyve treated women. The fall of certain prominent men Harvey Weinstein, Leslie Moonves, Matt Lauer was often welcomed as a sign that a status quo that sheltered, enabled and celebrated predators, rapists and harassers was at last changing. A few years later, it seems more likely that they were sacrificed not to end that system of entitlement but rather to preserve it. Almost as soon as the supposed reckoning began there were complaints that it had gone too far, that nuances were being neglected and too-harsh punishments meted out. This backlash has been folded into a larger discourse about cancel culture, which is often less about actions than words. Cancellation is now synonymous with any criticism that invokes racial insensitivity, sexual misbehavior or controversial opinions. Creeps are treated as martyrs, and every loudmouth is a free-speech warrior. Famous men with lucrative sinecures on cable news, streaming platforms and legacy print publications can proclaim themselves victims. Which is just what Depp did. And while he accused Heard of doing terrible things to him in the course of their relationship and breakup, the lawsuit wasnt about those things. It was about words published under her name, none of which were Johnny Depp. In a sentence the jury found false and malicious, after describing herself as representing domestic abuse Heard wrote that she felt the full force of our cultures wrath for women who speak out. This time she surely has. For a few years, they rented a cottage in nearby Monteagle. Then, two years after the birth of their second child, in 2006, they bought this house, a sober brick building dating from the late 1920s or early 1930s that had been owned by the headmaster of the Sewanee Military Academy. In 2012, they decided to relocate full time to Tennessee. Newsweek had been sold by its owner at the time, the Washington Post Company, and was on the brink of moving exclusively online. Mr. Meacham wanted to spend more time writing his presidential biographies. (His next, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, is due out from Penguin Random House in October.) Because the couple needed access to an airport and craved some semblance of urbanism, they settled in Nashville, using the Sewanee house for getaways. Their first major gesture when they acquired the property was to double its size by adding a two-story screened porch. The addition sinks the family into cool, verdant depths downstairs and turns into a pleasantly percussive instrument upstairs when rain hits the roof. All destinations lead to the porch in the summer, Ms. Meacham said. We live out there, entertain there, read out there, eat every meal. Ms. Meacham handles most of the decor decisions, though she looks for advice to Bill Brockschmidt and Courtney Coleman, interior designers with offices in New York and New Orleans. She has a bundle of ideas and she likes to bounce ideas off us, Mr. Brockschmidt said. He noted that Ms. Meacham was not intimidated by objects and fabrics that others might find too formal. She is not concerned about wear or the damage children and dogs do, which lends a feeling of comfort rather than stiffness to her surroundings. This article is part of our latest Design special section, about spaces inspired by nature. When Ben and Rebekah Shaffer began looking for a second home that would feel like a world away from their daily reality in Silicon Valley, they werent sure about which direction to take. At first, we were thinking we could find something in the forest somewhere, said Mr. Shaffer, 44, an industrial designer at Apple. Then they began musing about a place near Lake Tahoe, which is roughly four hours northeast of their primary residence, a house in San Jose, Calif., that was designed by Joseph Eichler. But with three children Brooklyn, now 15; Liam, 12; and Naomi, 11 who would have to sit through the lengthy car trip, that did not seem feasible. The couple recalibrated their search and looked for a house on the coast that was within an hour of their primary home. At first, the goal seemed like a pipe dream. But then, Mr. Shaffer said, we found this amazing community called Pajaro Dunes, a resort in Watsonville, Calif., about an hour south, where dozens of independently owned, quirky midcentury modern homes are pressed up against the ocean. For 70 years, William Klein, a wildly innovative and influential photographer, has been making pictures, up close and personal, that flout conventions of technique and taste to pack maximum wallop. In William Klein: YES, a retrospective that opened June 3 at the International Center of Photography, the first in his native city since a smaller 1994 I.C.P. exhibition, Klein, who is 94, ruled out glass frames for his prints. He wants nothing to come between the image and the spectator. A man of fabled charm, Klein seeks out vibrant subjects who respond to his own vitality. In one of his best known images, from 1959, a gleeful young Moscow woman clad in an unstylish Soviet bikini, virtually bursts out of the frame. Behind her, sleeping in a beach chair, is an old man, nicely dressed in a summer suit and beret, who might represent the staid, proper style of photography that Klein was thumbing his nose at. Kleins photographs thrust the viewer into the action of the city with a rude tug. Gun 1, New York, his most famous picture, taken in 1954, shows a fiercely grimacing little boy pointing the barrel of a gun directly at the camera. The hand and weapon (presumably a toy, but that is not discernible) loom large. A younger child watches with adoring admiration. Part of a series of little boys aping cops and robbers, this picture can be said to prophesy our current nightmare of juvenile gun violence. More to the point, it is an image that, seen by itself, carries a queasy-making, nightmarish force. Klein came to photography and filmmaking by a circuitous route. He moved to Paris on the G.I. Bill to study painting in 1948, finding a place with Fernand Leger. On his second day in the city, he met Jeanne Florin, and decided to stay. They quickly married, a union that lasted until her death in 2005. Like Man Ray, another illustrious New Yorker who began as a painter but made his most important contributions as a photographer, Klein transplanted easily to Paris, befriending the citys artistic vanguard. A position of ongoing dislocation suits him. Early in her career, Jana Schmieding didnt feel like she could mine Native culture in her comedy. If for no other reason, the material would have had a hard time landing. To get the joke, you have to know whats going on. For comedy to exist you need to have a sort of a prior understanding, she said. You need to have a contextual understanding of the different power dynamics and the relationality. Because of Native erasure, its really hard to give audiences those kinds of deep cuts without first laying the groundwork. Schmieding is part of two shows that are providing that context. In FXs Reservation Dogs, she plays an Indian Health Service receptionist, a role that she says is being expanded in the second season. Shes also a writer and co-star on Peacocks Rutherford Falls, a show about a town, a neighboring tribe and a reckoning of their shared history thats inspired by a statue of Big Larry, the towns founder. On Rutherford Falls, Schmieding plays Reagan Wells, a woman who runs the cultural center at a Native casino. Her close friend, Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms), runs a heritage museum out of his home and acts as a kind of self-appointed town mascot. By the start of the new season which premieres June 16 some of the land in Rutherford Falls has been signed over to the Minishonka Nation in a settlement, including Nathans museum. The museum has been converted into the Minishonka Cultural Center, run by Reagan. Despite his prominence, when This Is Going to Hurt appeared on the BBC in February, Kay didnt get a universally positive reaction. Milli Hill, founder of the Positive Birth Movement, which tries to combat negative ideas around giving birth; and some users of Mumsnet, an influential parenting website, labeled both Kay and Whishaws acerbic character misogynist for mocking women in his care. There was also criticism over the absence of pregnant peoples voices in the show, while Hill said that the birthing scenes would be unpleasant to watch for anyone expecting a baby or who had gone through a traumatic birth. Sitting in a London hotel bar recently, Kay, 41, seemed confused by those responses. I heard criticism that the show should be about mums, he said. But thats someone elses program. Im a bloke who used to be a doctor. Whishaws character was also meant to be reprehensible, Kay added a doctor so under pressure that his life falls apart, affecting others around him. Once a few episodes had aired, Kay said, the public debate changed and he started getting emails from doctors thanking him for raising awareness of the mental health struggles that medics can face. The show wasnt really about the ward at all, Kay said, but about the pressures doctors are under at work, including unsustainable hours, bullying bosses and patients, low pay and often disintegrating home lives with little way out. Whishaws character can be seen as passing his troubling behaviors onto a colleague, Shruti (Ambika Mod), a younger doctor meant to be under his wing. Those mental strains are still a taboo topic in many hospitals, Kay said. Doctors are not meant to get ill, and theyre specifically not meant to get mentally ill, he noted, adding that a doctor dies by suicide every three weeks in Britain. Western Cameroon is English-speaking, and as he met with people there, he encountered growing opposition to the Francophone regime of Paul Biya, which has been entrenched in power since 1982. The tension was over autonomy as well as language, and had its roots in the countrys partition after independence. The government was declaring war and cracking down on Anglophone protests, he says. They hadnt started killing yet. Now, he adds, there are 20,000 people dead. Nganang wrote about what he witnessed and heard and was detained at the airport in Yaounde, the capital city, as he tried to leave the country. Held in a secret location for three weeks, Nganang feared for his life. He was also worried about his work in progress. They kept my computer, with all my research. I thought, Oh, no, now Ive lost the novel! he says. But luckily I didnt. Finally released and expelled from the country, Nganang emerged with a deeper commitment to his overarching project: an examination of Cameroons national identity, and how it has held within it the seeds of both great promise and disappointment. In the first novel of the trilogy, Mount Pleasant, published in the United States in 2016, Nganang brought to life Sultan Njoyas Palace of Dreams, a magical court of artists and visionaries that fell prey to the colonial turf wars that carved up the country in the years leading to World War I. (Cameroon was claimed by Germany in the late 19th century, but in 1919 was divided into French and English territories by the League of Nations.) The second novel, When the Plums Are Ripe, followed in 2019 and celebrated the unsung Cameroonian soldiers who fought alongside the Allies in World War II. You taught at Oberlin until 2018. What was your favorite book to assign to and discuss with your students? My favorite thing as a teacher was intuiting which individual book might make a difference to a particular student. I vividly remember giving my beloved copy of Elizabeth Bowens The Death of the Heart to my student Rumaan Alam back in the late 1990s. This was not a book Id generally recommend to the average 21-year-old, but it seemed to click with Rumaan, and we spent some very happy times discussing it. I felt as proud as if Id set them up for a date! Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? Anything other than themselves. I love writers like Emily St. John Mandel, Usman T. Malik, Mat Johnson, Sequoia Nagamatsu, Sanjena Sathian who use some aspects of their own experience to tell a far-out tale. I find myself less interested in books that outline the banalities and humiliations of your middle-class Norwegian life or whatever. What moves you most in a work of literature? I like difficult characters characters with deep flaws who are struggling, maybe they are bad people, but they are moved toward kindness or altruistic acts. So much of our daily life is full of cruelty and indifference, and sometimes we think that is the human condition. But I do like characters who affirm that there is also a human instinct toward empathy and connection. Im such a sucker, that always makes my heart swell. Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid? Genre is not as important to me as my sense that the writer is deeply emotionally engaged and taking risks. For example, Kathryn Davis. I cant say what genre shes working in, but I will read whatever she writes. On the other hand, Im generally less enthused about work that is simply replicating a pattern of familiar plot points and emotional beats. Like most of your novels, Sleepwalk has noir elements. Which books got you hooked on crime fiction? The big ones for me were Ira Levins A Kiss Before Dying and Patricia Highsmiths The Talented Mr. Ripley. Also, of course, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. Whats the most terrifying book you ever read? Elizabeth Kolberts Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change. My son, an ecologist, says there are far scarier books out there, but Kolbert is about as much as I can handle. How do you organize your books? One of my guest bedrooms is basically a library, with built-in shelves on every wall, and that is all fiction and poetry, shelved alphabetically. The guest bedroom on the third floor has two walls of shelves with anthologies, comics and nonfiction, more randomly organized by size, and I spend most of my reading time there because it has a nicer bed. You might not notice the 12 pairs of cherry-red lips pressed into the cover of I Kissed Shara Wheeler unless youre in the habit of disrobing your hardcovers or if youre a serious book nerd, like the author of this novel for young adults. Casey McQuiston, who uses they/them pronouns, was able to provide the technical name for this unsung design element: The foil lips are whats known as a case stamp, which functions as a little Easter egg surprise when you take off the dust jacket. In a phone interview, McQuiston explained, Sometimes it will just be the title, but it can also be something thats a symbol of the book. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is McQuistons inaugural hardcover original; their previous novels, Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop, arrived in the world as trade paperbacks. This is the most involved Ive ever gotten to be in the cover and packaging, said the Louisiana native, who now lives in New York City. I geeked out so hard. I put together a full 15-page PDF of mood boards and cover comps. India has contributed little to climate change: Home to 18 percent of the worlds population, it has emitted just 3 percent of planet-warming greenhouse gases. But India is suffering from climate change. It is happening right now: Over the past three months, a heat wave has devastated North India and neighboring Pakistan. Temperatures surpassed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. It is so hot that overheated birds fell out of the sky in Gurgaon, India, and a historic bridge in northern Pakistan collapsed after melting snow and ice at a glacial lake released a torrent of water. Scientists say global warming almost certainly played a role in the heat wave. And rising temperatures stand to make unusually hotter weather more common not just in India and Pakistan but around the world, including in the U.S. Indians have responded by staying indoors as much as possible, particularly during the afternoon hours. The government has encouraged this, pushing schools to close early and businesses to shift work schedules. The measures have kept down deaths with fewer than 100 recorded so far, an improvement from heat waves years ago that killed thousands. Russia controls one-fifth of Ukraine, Zelensky says Nearly 100 days into Russias war in Ukraine, during which Ukraines army has surpassed expectations and repelled its much larger foe out of major cities, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia now occupied one-fifth of the country roughly the size of the Netherlands. Zelensky also accused Russia of forcibly deporting more than 200,000 Ukrainian children. Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold on to territory along the wars eastern front. Western officials are hoping that sophisticated and powerful weapons from the U.S. and Germany could soon offer the Ukrainians a boost. For now, Russias main military effort is to capture Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine that is not in Russian hands. A Ukraininan regional official said troops had pushed Russian soldiers back several blocks in street battles but the majority of the city remained under Russian control. American predicament: The U.S. has long supplied technology and munitions to the rest of the world, leading to an unfortunate contradiction: The tools that Russian forces are using to wage war are often powered by American innovation. But under sanctions, Russia is struggling to replace its weapons. Ukrainian losses mount in the east Russian troops edged closer to seizing control of the center of Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in the eastern province of Luhansk still in Ukrainian hands. A local official said Russian forces held about 70 percent of the city, but the fighting continues to rage. Only about 12,000 residents remain in Sievierodonetsk, where about 100,000 people once lived. Here are live updates and photos from the front. This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers were dying each day, with 500 more wounded in combat. As soldiers and civilians alike lose limbs to Russian strikes, Ukraine is expanding its prosthetics industry. Step by step, its army has fallen back from some long-held areas in Donbas, the eastern region that is now the wars epicenter. Weapons: The U.S. will send Ukraine powerful rocket systems that greatly extend its range, provided Ukraine doesnt fire into Russian territory. Overcoming reluctance, Germany promised Ukraine an advanced air-defense system and a tracking radar to locate Russias heavy artillery. Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday accused a former employee of OpenSea, an auction site for the digital goods known as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, of insider trading. It is believed to be the first such case filed related to a cryptocurrency company. Nathaniel Chastain, a 31-year-old former product manager at OpenSea, is accused of using his knowledge of which NFTs would be featured on the sites home page to secretly purchase from those collections in advance and then profit when auctions increased their value, according to a report in the DealBook newsletter. Todays charges demonstrate the commitment of this office to stamping out insider trading whether it occurs on the stock market or the blockchain, said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Justice Department, in the past year, has expanded its crypto enforcement team and brought more fraud cases related to digital assets in an effort to send the message that it is keeping an eye on the market. The criminal case may be the first of its kind, but NFT frauds and hacks are common, and the case lends credence to the concerns of some critics that the culture of anonymity on blockchain platforms attracts untrustworthy actors. Ford Motor said on Thursday that it was planning to invest $3.7 billion in facilities across the Midwest, much of it for the production of electric vehicles, which the company said would create more than 6,000 union jobs in the region. Were investing in American jobs and our employees to build a new generation of incredible Ford vehicles, Jim Farley, the companys president and chief executive, said in a statement. Transforming our company for the next era of American manufacturing requires new ways of working. The announcement, made jointly with the United Automobile Workers union, detailed investments in three states. Ford said it would invest $2 billion and create about 3,200 union jobs in Michigan, including many tied to production of the new F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the companys highest-profile and most important bet on electric vehicles. In Ohio, Ford will spend over $1.5 billion and create nearly 2,000 union jobs, primarily to build commercial electric vehicles in the middle of this decade. The company also said it would add over 1,000 union jobs at an assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo., that will produce commercial vans, some gas-powered and some electric. Hong Kong: SJ shares views on BL, security law Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Department of Justice (DoJ) organised a series of key legal conferences to bring together distinguished speakers from different sectors to share their objective insights. It is an opportune time for us to review the valuable opinions expressed at the legal conferences of the Basic Law Legal Conference - "Stability to Prosperity" and National Security Law Legal Conference - "Thrive with security". At the Basic Law legal conference, I was pleased to announce the official publication of the DoJ's sourcebook, Basic Law: Selected Drafting Materials & Significant Cases, with a view to fostering a proper understanding of the Basic Law by clearing up all the confusion. Stability to Prosperity Riding on the success of the legal forum "Back to Basics" in 2020, we held the second Basic Law legal conference - "Stability to Prosperity" on May 27. Chairperson of the Basic Law Committee of the Hong Kong SAR of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Shen Chunyao in his keynote speech elucidated the essence of "one country, two systems", which is a well-considered and long-term policy of our country, whilst the Basic Law is a national law institutionalising "one country, two systems". He said that the Basic Law has been fully implemented in Hong Kong for 25 years. As to what will happen after another 25 years, Mr Shen quoted Deng Xiaoping as stating that 50 years was "just a figure of speech", and "for the first 50 years it cannot be changed, and after that, it would not be necessary to change". At the conference, Vice-chairperson of the Basic Law Committee of the Hong Kong SAR of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Maria Tam and I had a meaningful dialogue on the fundamental concept of the "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law. I explained that the power of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) in interpreting the Basic Law in accordance with Article 158 is consistent with the constitutional order of the Hong Kong SAR. It is also in line with the power exercised by the NPCSC under the Constitution in interpreting laws and overseeing the enforcement of the Constitution, signifying that the NPC is the highest power organ in our country. Maria offered an explanation on the difference between judicial interpretation and legislative interpretation, adding that the power of the NPCSC in interpreting the Basic Law does not affect judicial independence in Hong Kong whilst the power of final adjudication is still vested in the Court of Final Appeal of the Hong Kong SAR. The power of interpreting law is to ensure the consistency of laws across the country. Former Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal Henry Litton expressed his views on the interpretation of the Basic Law in his thematic speech. He stressed that the Basic Law is a legal instrument adapted to the circumstances of Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems". When a real issue arises as to the meaning of a provision in the Basic Law, the inquiry should focus on the purpose of that provision. Citing the "ding" rights ([2021] HKCFA 38) case as an example, Mr Litton said that the Court of Final Appeal approached this issue by going into the historical background which gave rise to that provision. There was no citation of overseas cases and no invocation of European human rights jurisprudence. Various speakers at the panel discussions explained how the joint force of the enactment of the National Security Law and the improvement of the electoral system, through the NPC's decision and amendment to Annexes I and II to the Basic Law, safeguards our political security and has consolidated our basics by strengthening the premise of "one country". They also shared their views on the way which the Hong Kong SAR thrives as an international financial centre under the safeguards provided for by the Basic Law. One of the themes of the panel discussion is to explore why the common law is so important to Hong Kong's position as an international commercial and financial centre. The speakers pointed out that the common law, while following case precedents, is flexible and can adapt to evolving circumstances through judge-made law. In addition, judicial independence is constitutionally guaranteed under the Basic Law. They all agreed that the common law is the bedrock of Hong Kong's success. Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal Patrick Chan reaffirmed that judicial independence remains solid and robust by sharing his first-hand experience that he has never been interfered in his more than 30-year tenure serving as a judge, signifying that the independence of the judiciary is constitutionally protected by the Basic Law. Speakers from the business and financial sectors at the panel discussions also explored why Hong Kong has continued to attract investors from all over the world to do business in Hong Kong and make Hong Kong their home with which various provisions of the Basic Law act as constitutional safeguards to Hong Kong's free economy. Renowned businessman Allan Zeman in his conclusion took the view that the steadfast implementation of the Basic Law and the National Security Law has brought stability to our society, reinforcing confidence of the business sector in Hong Kong's continued success and prosper. Thrive with security The National Security Law is the major turning point in the Hong Kong SAR's transition from chaos to order, embarking on a new chapter towards governance and prosperity. On the second anniversary of the "5.28 Decision" (note), government officials from the Mainland and the Hong Kong SAR, legal experts and academics gathered together to review the progress achieved by the National Security Law and explored frontier issues, as well as looked ahead the further refinement of the legal framework for safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong SAR. Speakers shared the views that the Hong Kong SAR has a constitutional responsibility to complete the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law as soon as practicable in order to improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard the national security. The importance of maintaining a holistic view of national security was emphasised with political security on top of the priority. In addition to traditional security issues, the holistic view of national security also covers frontier key areas such as economic security, cultural security, cyber security, etc. They had an in-depth discussion on both domestic and overseas laws and practices to address the emerging security areas such as financial services sector and Internet industry. At the panel sessions, the speakers compared cases relating to the National Security Law and foreign cases on national security, and explored various topics such as the jury system and investigative powers in national security cases as well as ways to refine the legal framework on safeguarding national security. The Financial Secretary in his closing remarks reiterated that Hong Kong remains an international financial centre as the figures speak for themselves. Since the implementation of the National Security Law, the amount of funds raised through initial public offerings in Hong Kong exceeded $650 billion, an increase of over 30% compared with the same period before the implementation; assets under management by our asset and wealth management industry amounted to around $34.9 trillion as at end-2020, registering a growth of 20% over the amount before the law was implemented; the total deposits in the Hong Kong banking system reached $15.3 trillion recently, an increase of about 11% compared with that prior to the implementation of the law. He concluded that the National Security Law provides safeguards to the implementation of "one country, two systems", which is the cornerstone of the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. To ensure the steadfast implementation of the "one country, two systems", it must be borne in mind that "one country" is like the roots of a tree. For a tree to grow tall and luxuriant, its roots must run deep and strong. The Hong Kong SAR can only capitalise on its unique position under "two systems", utilise strengths, and contribute to our country if an accurate understanding of the relationship between the Constitution and the Basic Law as well as a proper concept of national security is nurtured. You are most welcome to review the conferences to comprehend the proper concepts by visiting the Hong Kong Legal Hub website. Note: The Decision of the NPC on Establishing & Improving the Legal System & Enforcement Mechanisms for the Hong Kong SAR to Safeguard National Security. Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng wrote this article and posted it on her blog on June 2. This story has been published on: 2022-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By Zhu Songling The DPP authorities have always followed the international anti-China forces, acted as a pawn in "using Taiwan to control China", and deliberately undermined cross-strait relations. Recently, the DPP authorities used the excuses of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco and the distortion of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 by anti-China forces in the US and the West to hype the so-called "Undetermined Status of Taiwan". The behaviors of the DPP have confused right and wrong with ulterior motives. Cairo Declaration affirms China's sovereignty over Taiwan The Cairo Declaration jointly issued by China, the US and the UK in 1943 legally and clearly confirmed China's sovereignty over Taiwan. The US government has also included the Cairo Declaration in its compilation of international law documents and recognized its legal effect. The Potsdam Proclamation of 1945 affirmed that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out. In both the Japanese Instrument of Surrender (1945) and the China-Japan Joint Declaration (1972), Japan promised to abide by the provisions of the Potsdam Proclamation. UN recognizes Taiwan as part of China Resolution 2758 passed by the UN General Assembly in 1971 used words such as "restoring" all the rights of the People's Republic of China (PRC), recognized that the representatives of the government of the PRC are the only lawful representatives of China to the UN, and removed "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" from the UN. This shows that the UN returns the right of representation and seats of the whole of China, including Taiwan, to the government of the PRC on the premise of recognizing Taiwan as a part of China. The above documents systematically and comprehensively form the chain of international law that "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory." Treaty of San Francisco is an illegal, invalid document The Treaty of San Francisco is an illegal and invalid document issued by the US to make peace with Japan alone after World War II. The US gathered some countries and excluded China, the Soviet Union and other victorious countries and issued the document at that time. It violates the provisions of the Declaration by United Nations signed by 26 countries including China, the US, the UK and the Soviet Union in 1942. It also violates the UN Charter and the basic principles of international law and has no legal effect. "Taiwan independence" moves of DPP authorities are shameful and despicable The DPP authorities definitely understand the legal validity of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, as well as the illegality and invalidity of the Treaty of San Francisco. However, out of selfishness and political nature, they have tampered with and distorted historical facts and packaged up a separatist plot for so-called Taiwan independence. Recently, the US and other Western anti-China forces have been plotting over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine while trying to form a clique similar with NATO in the Asia-Pacific region to contain China. The Western anti-China forces intend to use Taiwan to contain China, and work with the DPP authorities and the island's "Taiwan independence" forces to constantly brainwash the people on the island. They aim to create cross-strait confrontation and undermine the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. Their behaviors are shameful and despicable. The international system with the UN at its core, the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the relevant regulations and documents all indicate that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. Anyone who attempts to collude with external forces to betray the interests of the Chinese nation, and any attempt to split Taiwan from China, will surely set themselves on fire, and will be punished by history! (Zhu Songling is a Professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies in Beijing Union University) Editor's Note: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Technology restrictions have harmed other Russian industries as well, U.S. officials say. Equipment for the oil and gas industry has been degraded, maintenance for tractors and heavy equipment made by Caterpillar and John Deere has halted, and up to 70 percent of the commercial airplanes operated by Russian airlines, which no longer receive spare parts and maintenance from Airbus and Boeing, are grounded, officials say. But some experts have sounded notes of caution. Michael Kofman, the director of Russia studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Va., voiced skepticism about some claims that the export controls were forcing some tank factories and other defense companies in Russia to shutter. Theres not been much evidence to substantiate reports of problems in Russias defense sector, he said. It was still too early in the war to expect meaningful supply chain problems in Russias defense industry, he said, and the sourcing for those early claims was unclear. Maria Snegovaya, a visiting scholar at George Washington University who has studied sanctions on Russia, said the lack of critical technologies and maintenance was likely to start being felt widely across Russian industry in the fall, as companies run out of parts and supplies or need upkeep on equipment. She and other analysts said even the production of daily goods such as printer paper would be affected; Russian companies had bought the dye to turn the paper white from Western companies. We expect random disruptions in Russias production chains to manifest themselves more frequently, Ms. Snegovaya said. The question is: Are Russian companies able to find substitutes? U.S. officials say the Russian government and companies there have been looking for ways to get around the controls but have so far been largely unsuccessful. The Biden administration has threatened to penalize any company that helps Russia evade sanctions by cutting it off from access to U.S. technology. In an interview last month, Ms. Raimondo said the United States was not seeing any systematic circumvention of the export controls by any country, including China, which aligned itself with Russia before and during the invasion of Ukraine. Companies were making independent decisions not to engage with Russia, even though the country was trying very hard to get around the global coalition of allies that had imposed export controls, Ms. Raimondo said. The group of oil-producing nations known as OPEC Plus agreed on Thursday to a larger increase in supply than planned for July and August. The White House hailed the higher output as a diplomatic breakthrough after months of lobbying Middle East oil giants to raise production to ease price pressures. Administration officials said on Thursday that President Biden would visit Saudi Arabia, which effectively leads OPEC Plus, this month. His trip could signal a thawing of relations between Mr. Biden and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, after the president vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah state during the 2020 election campaign because of the assassination of a critic of the Saudi government. News of the trip suggests that the president is now seeking to work with the Saudis on a number of fronts, including to tame rising fuel prices as inflation becomes a major problem for Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party in the midterm elections. But it is not clear how far Saudi Arabia is willing or able to go to help Mr. Biden on oil prices. The amount of added crude oil that OPEC Plus committed to produce on Thursday is unlikely to cause gasoline prices to fall. In fact, the price of oil rose after the announcement. WASHINGTON The Biden administration on Thursday will move to restore authority to states and tribes to veto gas pipelines, coal terminals and other energy projects if they would pollute local rivers and streams, reversing a Trump-era rule that had curtailed that power. For 50 years, the Clean Water Act has given states and tribes the ability to review federal permits for industrial facilities and block projects that could discharge pollution into local waterways. Without their certification, the federal government cannot approve a project. Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency was proposing a rule that builds on this foundation by empowering states, territories, and tribes to use congressionally granted authority to protect precious water resources while supporting much-needed infrastructure projects that create jobs and bolster our economy. Water resources are essential to thriving communities, vibrant ecosystems and sustainable economic growth, Mr. Regan said in a statement. BROAD FORD, Pa. The Broad Ford distillery, or what remains of it, sits along the Youghiogheny River, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It was once among the nations largest producers of rye whiskey, with its own company housing, reached by a private footbridge across the river. But Broad Ford shut down in 1951, and now it lies derelict, its blond brick veneer collapsing, its interiors waterlogged and bedecked with graffiti. This is whats left of the greatest rye whiskey distillery ever operating in the United States, as far as Im concerned, said Sam Komlenic, an expert in Pennsylvanias distilling history who takes the occasional visitor on unofficial tours around the ruins. Broad Ford made a style of whiskey unique to Pennsylvania called Old Monongahela, which employed a mash bill, or recipe, of rye, barley and, unlike almost all other whiskey made in America, not a single kernel of corn. Like Broad Ford, the style had its glory days Herman Melville name-checks it in Moby-Dick only to all but vanish after Prohibition. A 20-year-old woman who was born with a small and misshapen right ear has received a 3-D printed ear implant made from her own cells, the manufacturer announced on Thursday. Independent experts said that the transplant, part of the first clinical trial of a successful medical application of this technology, was a stunning advance in the field of tissue engineering. The new ear was printed in a shape that precisely matched the womans left ear, according to 3DBio Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company based in Queens. The new ear, transplanted in March, will continue to regenerate cartilage tissue, giving it the look and feel of a natural ear, the company said. Its definitely a big deal, said Adam Feinberg, a professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Feinberg, who is not affiliated with 3DBio, is a co-founder of FluidForm, a regenerative medicine company that also uses 3-D printing. It shows this technology is not an if anymore, but a when, he said. The results of the womans reconstructive surgery were announced by 3DBio in a news release. Citing proprietary concerns, the company has not publicly disclosed the technical details of the process, making it more difficult for outside experts to evaluate. The company said that federal regulators had reviewed the trial design and set strict manufacturing standards, and that the data would be published in a medical journal when the study was complete. Eiffel is as much of a history lesson as Titanic is in other words, its basically not one. Its more like historical fiction, with the real-life 19th century figure Gustave Eiffel, the man responsible for masterminding Frances most iconic landmark, portrayed as a passionate lover first, and an engineer second. Played by Romain Duris, Gustave contends with naysayers, striking workers and financial setbacks as he commandeers the grand effort to construct the Eiffel Tower. The director Martin Bourboulon intermittently takes us to the construction site, where men toil away, the metal structure gets progressively taller and Gustave pores over architectural blueprints with a furrowed brow. The new movie Miracle, set in Romania, is technically a sequel, part of a planned trilogy from the writer-director Bogdan George Apetri. The first feature, Unidentified, also a police story, was shot simultaneously and still hasnt opened in the United States. In a device that owes something to serialized literature and TV, and to filmmakers like Krzysztof Kieslowski, the principal characters of Unidentified turn up in walk-ons in Miracle and vice versa, and certain motifs (a ticking clock) recur. The first 45 minutes or so of Miracle follow Cristina Tofan (Ioana Bugarin), a novice from a rural convent, who in one of many smoothly executed long takes furtively exits the convent and hops into a cab. The driver, Albu (Valeriu Andriuta), is the brother of a nun who has arranged Cristinas transportation to a hospital. But the return trip goes violently wrong, in another sequence that the filmmaker captures in an uninterrupted take, with particularly horrifying attention to sound. Toward the end of the 20th century, the British novelist and critic John Berger insisted on the importance of what he called pockets of resistance small-scale efforts to oppose global systems of domination and exploitation, or at least to imagine alternatives. The possibility of change, Berger suggested, could be found not in grand revolutionary movements but in local practices, including the making and contemplation of art. I thought of Berger after seeing Neptune Frost, a strange and captivating new feature by Saul Williams, an American musician, writer and artist, and Anisia Uzeyman a Rwandan filmmaker. The movie, an Afrofuturist fantasia that is also a musical, a science-fiction parable and a hacker manifesto, depicts a pocket of resistance in the form of a community of African rebels. Surrounded by political violence, economic injustice and cultural alienation, they try to secure a space where imagination and solidarity can flourish. The challenges are formidable, but their commitment is part of what makes Neptune Frost moving as well as mind-bending. The man accused of carrying out a racist massacre that killed 10 Black residents at a Buffalo supermarket was arraigned in an Erie County courtroom on Thursday on more than two dozen charges, including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate believed to be the first time that such a law has been leveled against a defendant in New York. The suspect, Payton Gendron, 18, briefly appeared in court on Thursday, amid a heavy police presence and with some family members of victims sitting in the gallery. All told, 13 people were shot on May 14 at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalos East Side; three survived. Mr. Gendron, an avowed white supremacist, had been indicted on Wednesday by a grand jury on 25 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder charges as hate crimes. He was also indicted on one count of a charge known as a domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree because of allegations in the indictment that Mr. Gendron acted because of the perceived race and/or color of such person or persons injured and killed in the attack. That charge was passed into state law in 2020, prompted by a series of anti-Jewish incidents, including a knife attack at the home of a Hasidic rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., in late 2019. According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, to which law enforcement agencies report arrests requiring fingerprints, the law had not previously been used in any arrest or arraignment since taking effect in Nov. 2020. It carries a penalty of life in prison without parole. In the years since, explosive allegations have continued to upend industries and institutions. Just last week, a Southern Baptist Convention report documented decades of abuse within the denomination, which has about 15 million members in the United States. And individual reckonings continue. Mr. Weinstein was convicted even though two of the women at the heart of the case against him had at times had consensual sex and friendly contact with him, showing that prosecutors and juries may be more open to cases that dont hinge on so-called perfect victims. And the panels affirmation of his conviction lends credence to witnesses who establish patterns of predatory behavior even if the acts dont result in charges, a principle that is also likely to be central to the former producers Los Angeles trial. Karen Dunn, a trial lawyer who is a partner at Paul Weiss, a New York law firm, said that the decision would be seen as an affirmation of the movement, and the role of courts and juries in addressing allegations like those against Mr. Weinstein. Our judicial system is often the last refuge for victims of sexual abuse, because it is a place where testimony can be heard and credited, she said. In this case, the facts exploded into the public eye, and it would have been very hard to imagine an appellate court overturning a verdict on that set of facts. Mr. Weinstein was indicted by Manhattan prosecutors in the spring of 2018 and charged with sex crimes for his conduct with women trying to make it in the television and film industry where he was a major power. His trial, which began in January 2020, represented, in some ways, a gamble for the sitting Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. The charges rested mainly on the allegations of two women, both of whom maintained contact with Mr. Weinstein after their assaults: Miriam Haley, who said that Mr. Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, and Jessica Mann, who said he raped her in 2013. In 2018, Michael Avenatti was little known outside Los Angeles, where he made a living as a plaintiffs lawyer with a reputation for obtaining multimillion dollar settlements. He took on a new client that year, the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she had been paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter that she said took place with Donald J. Trump about a decade earlier. After suing the then-president on her behalf, Mr. Avenatti relished the limelight, becoming a regular television guest, taunting Mr. Trump on Twitter and even flirting with the idea of his own presidential run. But the relationship that was his ticket to renown also was his undoing. In February, Mr. Avenatti was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a scheme to steal almost $300,000 from Ms. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. A familiar lunchtime sport has returned to Bryant Park: chair stalking. Once again, afternoon crowds are swarming the six-acre Midtown oasis, and its 2,000 forest-green chairs have become hot commodities. Were waiting for a shipment from France, said Dan Biederman, the president of the Bryant Park Corporation, which has ordered 2,500 additional chairs this year to keep up with demand. A few blocks away, Times Square is buzzing with more than 330,000 pedestrians on the busiest days, or nearly 80 percent of the foot traffic there prepandemic. And over in Rockefeller Center, there are lines even with no Christmas tree at its new trendy bars, shops and cafes, not to mention its roller rink with weekly D.J.s. For decades, public officials have failed to maintain the more than 170,000 homes that make up NYCHAs vast network of aging buildings, most of which were built in the 1950s, leaving residents with low incomes living in apartments plagued with lead, mold and crumbling infrastructure. In more than 40 percent of NYCHA apartments, or about 73,400 homes, residents reported three or more maintenance problems, compared with 8 percent of residents in private apartments, according to a recent city housing survey. The agency estimates it needs a staggering $40 billion for repairs and renovations. As New York grows more expensive, and decent, affordable housing becomes harder to come by, NYCHA residents are often trapped in these conditions, said Susan Popkin, a fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, who has studied public housing. There really is nowhere else for low-income people to rent in this city at this point, she said. The median monthly rent for NYCHA apartments is about $500, and the median household income is around $18,500 per year, compared with $1,500 and $50,000 citywide. More than 43 percent of NYCHA households have at least one person employed, according to city estimates. There are more than 250,000 families on a wait-list for a NYCHA apartment, according to the agency. The issues mirror those in public housing systems across the nation. But with an official population of some 360,000 people living in more than 330 developments more than the entire populations of Pittsburgh, Orlando or St. Louis the scale of NYCHAs problems dwarf those in other cities. The newly formed corporation would be run by a nine-member board, whose members would include NYCHAs chief executive, its chief financial officer, a deputy mayor, four NYCHA residents, a member appointed by the housing authoritys chief executive and a member appointed by the mayor to represent NYCHA employees. The bill calls for up to 25,000 units to be leased to the corporation, and for that number to be reviewed annually, with the possibility of the Legislature authorizing an increase. In late May, The New York Times revealed surprising news: President Bidens foreign policy advisers disagree about something. The dispute, over tariffs on China, was tame by Washington standards: No bureaucratic knife fights, no disparaging quotes given to newspapers on background. Still, it stood out because it was so uncommon. Public rifts among Biden officials, The Times noted, have been rare. For Mr. Biden and the top members of his foreign policy staff, familiarity has bred cohesion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began working with Mr. Biden some 20 years ago. Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, served as Mr. Bidens national security adviser when he was vice president. Mr. Biden says that during the Obama administration he spent countless hours with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. These people arent just former colleagues, Ben Rhodes, who was President Barack Obamas deputy national security adviser, told me. In many cases theyre friends. By contrast, both of the last two Democratic administrations werent just a team of rivals, as Mr. Obama once described his vision of his cabinet. They were often teams of strangers. Les Aspin claimed he met Bill Clinton only twice while serving as his defense secretary. James Jones, Mr. Obamas first national security adviser, had a closer relationship with the man Mr. Obama defeated, John McCain. The trust Mr. Bidens advisers have in one another has enabled them to work together in unconventional ways. In the early stages of the Ukraine crisis, the administration repeatedly stymied Russian deception by releasing details about the Kremlins war plans. In the past, intelligence chiefs have generally held such secrets close. But both Mr. Bidens director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, and his C.I.A. director, William Burns, worked intimately with Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan during the Obama years. That familiarity most likely helped overcome the turf wars that might have otherwise stymied the Biden administrations information strategy. In fact, we paved paradise on purpose. After World War II, cities around the country adopted planning rules that required developers to build new automobile parking spots every time they built new places to live and work. These parking minimums have increased over time. In the 1930s, Los Angeles County required developers to build one parking space per single-family home; today, among other rules, the county requires two parking spaces per home, two per 2-bedroom apartment, one spot for every 250 square feet of retail space and one for every 400 square feet of office space. Transportation experts have been calling attention to the disastrous effects of these rules for more than a decade, and in the last few years dozens of cities have eliminated or reformed their minimum-parking regulations. Now California, the state that in many ways set the standard for Americas car-dependent lifestyle, could be on the verge of reforming parking statewide. One bill moving through the state Legislature would prohibit cities from enforcing most minimum parking requirements near public transit, while a competing bill would give developers greater leeway in avoiding the rules. I hope legislators in my state adopt the former, stricter version of these measures, but even the more lenient one would be a significant improvement on the status quo, and would enshrine in our urban code a truth that has too long been ignored: Cities should be built for people, not cars. There are many obvious arguments against minimum parking rules. Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose book The High Cost of Free Parking sparked much academic interest in the excesses of parking when it was first published in 2005, points out that the rules raise real estate costs. Parking is expensive one study found that building-structured on-site parking added nearly $36,000 to the cost of building one unit of low-income housing in California. In some places these costs become truly staggering. The Walt Disney Concert Hall, home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has a seating capacity of 2,265 in its main hall, and when it was completed in 2003 it had cost roughly $274 million to build. Its six-story underground parking garage has space for nearly as many cars 2,188 and cost an additional $110 million to build. That is, parking represented more than a quarter of the projects nearly $400 million total cost. You might argue that all this parking space is necessary how else are people in a car-dependent metropolis like Los Angeles going to get to Disney Hall without driving and parking there? But by requiring parking spaces at every house, office and shopping mall while not also requiring new bike lanes or bus routes or train stations near every major development urban-planning rules give drivers an advantage in cost and convenience over every other way of getting around town. We need all that parking at Disney Hall because, thanks to all that parking, weve made driving the citys default way of going anywhere. There are other ways parking wrecks the urban fabric. It creates its own sprawl the more endless, often empty parking lots between businesses, the less walkable and more car-dependent the city becomes. Because pavement sucks up ambient heat, parking also creates enormous urban heat islands that intensify the effects of global warming. And requiring parking worsens inequality. Because people whose income is less tend to drive less and use transit more, theyre essentially being forced to pay for infrastructure they dont need while wealthier car drivers get a break on the true costs of their car habit. People who are too poor to own a car pay more for their groceries to ensure that richer people can park free when they drive to the store, Shoup has written. But he also has planks in his platform that would make even the most housing-first progressive rejoice. He has called for an expansion of permanent supportive housing and rental protections and says he would petition the federal government to triple the number of Section 8 vouchers that help struggling families afford rent. He is, in short, promising the world to both sides. His plans for public safety are just as ambitious. The story of crime in Los Angeles isnt all that much different from most major American cities. Last year, homicides in the city hit a 15-year high, but those who say violent crime has never been worse are most likely forgetting the 1990s. His plan to reduce crime is what youd imagine from a politician who played up an endorsement from Bratton. He wants 1,500 more cops on the streets and enforced penalties for property crimes like breaking into cars. He also says he wants to apply pressure on the city attorney to prosecute misdemeanors more regularly. In a lengthy interview with the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times, Caruso said, We have laws now that arent being enforced, referring to low-level crimes that would be taken more seriously under a broken-windows regime. And were paying a deep price for it. Now, consequences should be fair. We should have a whole bunch of things in place that allows people to rehabilitate themselves. You know, I dont believe in criminalizing everything. But we certainly have to get a handle on the behavior in this city. People are scared and they dont feel listened to. In theory, there is a lot to admire about Carusos big solutions for big problems approach. It might make sense, for example, to shoot for 30,000 shelter beds and an increase of affordable housing, because even if you end somewhere significantly short of those goals, youre still doing better than the status quo. But the problem with the clean-up-our-cities Democrat isnt that the message is wrong it has proved to be popular throughout the country but, rather, that it lives in a fantasy world where ambitions ignore both the legislative and infrastructural realities on the ground. Caruso is hardly the first politician to make big promises, but his seem especially unrealistic. If he wants 1,500 more police officers on the streets, for example, he must first contend with the fact that the L.A.P.D. is currently short 325 officers with no real clear solutions on how to fill those existing spots. Police academies in the city are significantly under-enrolled. Similarly, his plans for the homeless require a fleet of civic and nonprofit workers that dont exist yet. The current mobilization against homelessness across the state has seen dire staffing shortages, something I wrote about back in March. The shortfall reflects a very sobering reality: Its hard to find a lot of people who want to deal with the emotional and physical labor of working with unhoused people. Caruso cannot just snap his fingers and find these workers, some of whom would need to be highly trained professionals to work in his Department of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment. But appearances can be deceptive. After all, many of the armys initial failures stemmed from Mr. Putins misplaced assumption that the war would be short and sharp: Russian troops were simply not prepared or organized for a serious campaign. Yet in recent weeks, as Russia revised its war aims to focus on the Donbas in Ukraines east, Russian forces have adapted and begun correcting some of their earlier incompetence. Russia has been making incremental gains, revealing Ukraines military position to be precarious in some areas. Whats more, the war in Ukraine has done little to affect Russias more destructive military capabilities. It isnt modernized Soviet tanks or Russias dated air force that most concern the United States and NATO; its Russias submarines, integrated air and missile systems, electronic warfare, antisatellite systems and diverse nuclear arsenal. These capabilities, which have gone almost completely untouched during the war, remain available to the Kremlin. Russia is certainly suffering economically, but it will take many months for the brunt of sanctions, export controls and an attempted European move away from Russian energy to be felt by its citizens. For now, the Russian governments coffers remain full: Its monthly exports, according to estimates, rose more than 60 percent in April compared to a year ago. Though dependent on the sale of oil and gas often discounted and susceptible to European sanctions that amounts to a vital source of income. Over time, Moscow may adapt. In any case, the Russian military will be spared the full effect of economic contraction. Even in straitened times, the Kremlin has a habit of spending on arms rather than people: We can be sure that it wont be the military budget that Mr. Putin cuts first. And though export controls will make it difficult for the country to produce weapons that rely on imported components, Russias defense industry has spent years adapting and finding ways to work around sanctions. Internationally, too, Russia is not as isolated as we like to think. The United States and Europe have staged a united response to Russias invasion, and NATO, re-energized, will surely soon welcome Finland and Sweden to its ranks. Yet many regionally significant countries, such as India and South Africa, have longstanding ties to Russia that they are not currently prepared to abandon. Other countries, worried that economic sanctions will raise the cost of living and create instability within their borders, are refusing to pick sides. African countries, for example, have not imposed any sanctions on Russia, and the Middle East is hedging. And, of course, Russia can count on the continued support of China. This article is part of our latest Design special section, about spaces inspired by nature. Sometimes, when life changes, your home needs to change too. Or at least thats what Jun Aizaki, the founder of the architecture and design firm Creme, determined after he started a family. In 2010, before he was a parent, Mr. Aizaki bought a two-family townhouse in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn that was so poorly maintained it had begun to fall apart. Things were literally patched together with duct tape, Mr. Aizaki, 49, said. The canopy was supported by two-by-fours and the roof had holes everywhere. It wasnt in real livable condition, even though a person lived there. Mr. Aizaki, who designs restaurants like RedFarm and LAmico in Manhattan and hotels like Hyatt Centric in Philadelphia, paid a little more than $500,000 and undertook a down-to-studs renovation. He put on a new roof. He bought a generous supply of redwood reclaimed from old New York water tanks and had it milled to create exterior siding as well as interior features like a custom bathtub and bookshelves. He dug into the backyard to add an extension that expanded it from about 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, and to create space for a sunken patio beneath a new deck. Mr. Zuckerberg alluded to the power shift on Wednesday in his Facebook post. He said he didnt plan to replace Sheryls role in our existing structure, adding that Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products. Image Nick Clegg Credit... Meta R.A. Farrokhnia, a professor at Columbias Business and Engineering Schools, said the shift in management structure made sense as Meta invested in the metaverse and moved away from the social networking model that Ms. Sandberg built an advertising business for and championed for years. Moving in this direction requires a more decentralized and more traditional governance structure, Mr. Farrokhnia said. You have multiple people coming together where the sum of the parts becomes much larger. A spokesman for Meta declined to provide interviews with executives. For years, Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg had clear-cut responsibilities, which employees often referred to as the Sandberg side and Mark side. Ms. Sandberg ran the business, policy and legal teams with a lot of autonomy, while Mr. Zuckerberg was responsible for the engineering and product teams. Image Javier Olivan Credit... Meta That began changing in 2020 after Facebook dealt with scandals involving privacy, misinformation and other toxic content on the platform. Mr. Zuckerberg told his teams that he was done apologizing and wanted to focus more time and attention on innovative products that the company was designing. All the anxiety today about apps snooping on people to glean every morsel of activity to better pitch us dishwashers thats partly Sandbergs doing. So are Facebook and Googles combined $325 billion in annual advertising sales and those of all other online companies that make money from ads. The pattern of deny, deflect, defend. Sandberg initially said publicly that Facebook played little role in the organizing of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. That wasnt quite true. As my colleagues Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang reported, people used Facebook to spread misinformation about election fraud, which fueled anger among the protesters. Some rioters used Facebook to openly discuss the logistics of the attack ahead of time. In their 2021 book, An Ugly Truth, Sheera and Cecilia wrote that to Sandbergs detractors, her response was part of a pattern of trying to preserve the companys reputation or her own rather than do the right thing. Sandberg was also among those responsible for Facebooks delayed or insufficient initial response in 2018 about news reports that a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, was able to harvest personal information on many millions of Facebook users. Tech journalists and others who pay close attention to Facebook regularly asked in recent years why Sandberg chose to stay at the company. My colleague Mike Issac said in todays DealBook newsletter that Sandberg lost influence as Zuckerberg assumed more command over the company. Other executives took over duties that once were Sandbergs, including overseeing government policy. Sandberg may have once believed that she could do far more good in the world working at Facebook than she could outside the company, but it was difficult to tell if that was true anymore. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. A lower court blocked the Republican map from taking effect last month, substituting a map drawn by a Harvard University redistricting expert. The states First District Court of Appeal later lifted that stay, saying the judge had exceeded his authority. The Supreme Court ruling on Thursday rebuffed a request to overturn the appeals courts decision. While the Florida lawsuit will grind on, as will a handful of other court challenges to political maps nationwide, the odds that they will produce further changes in maps before November are vanishingly small. At this point, it seems hard to see congressional maps being upset for this November, especially given the Supreme Courts repeated admonitions to federal courts to hold back on changes to election laws in the period close to the election, said Richard L. Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. The Democrats comparative success in this years map drawing is a marked departure from the last redistricting in 2011, when Republicans dominance in state legislatures enabled the party to gerrymander its way to comfortable control of the House until the Democratic wave election of 2018. Even as President Barack Obama won re-election in 2012, Republicans maintained a 17-seat majority in the House. That edge slowly eroded as courts undid some gerrymanders and the political landscape shifted. Redistricting this year netted the Democratic Party further small gains: Mr. Biden carried 226 of the 435 new districts in 2020, two more than before the new maps were drawn, while Mr. Trump carried 209 districts, two fewer than before. Still, those numbers do not tell the whole story. According to an analysis by The New York Times, Mr. Biden performed better than his 2020 average in 215 of the new House districts a big improvement from the current map, where he only outperformed in 207 districts. But Mr. Trump beat his average in 220 of the new districts, an indication that the House as a whole still tilts slightly Republican. Redistricting also has created a much less competitive House map than before, in no small part because of gerrymandering, which tends to create lopsided districts. The margin of victory in the 2020 presidential contest was smaller than five percentage points in 33 of the 435 districts, a third fewer than before, the Times analysis found. WASHINGTON President Biden, who as a candidate vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah in response to the assassination of a prominent dissident, has decided to travel to Riyadh this month to rebuild relations with the oil-rich kingdom at a time when he is seeking to lower gas prices at home and isolate Russia abroad. While the timing was still being discussed, Mr. Biden planned to add the visit to a previously scheduled trip to Europe and Israel, administration officials said, asking for anonymity because the trip had not been formally announced. During his stop in Riyadh, the president will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was deemed responsible for the dismemberment of the dissident, the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr. Biden will also meet with the leaders of other Arab nations, including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. The visit represents the triumph of realpolitik over moral outrage, according to foreign policy experts. In the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Biden has found it necessary to court other energy producers to replace oil from Moscow and stabilize world markets. The group of oil-producing nations called OPEC Plus, led by Saudi Arabia, announced on Thursday that it would increase production modestly in July and August. American officials expect the group to do more in the fall, but it may not be enough to bring down prices at the pump before Novembers congressional elections. The Biden administration had already been stepping up cooperation with Saudi Arabia on a variety of issues even before Russias invasion of Ukraine roiled world energy markets, particularly in seeking an end to the eight-year-old Saudi-led war in neighboring Yemen. A two-month-old truce was extended on Thursday, and Mr. Biden praised Saudi leaders for their role. Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the U.N.-led truce, he said in a statement. Yet the crossover voters who cast early ballots in last months Republican primary are not demographically representative of Georgias multiracial Democratic base, which also includes a growing number of young voters. Fifty-five percent of these early crossover voters were above the age of 65, and 85 percent were white, according to voter registration data. Less than 3 percent were between the ages of 18 and 29. It is unclear whether a majority of these voters will return to support Democrats this November, as some in the party expect, or whether they will vote again for Republicans in large numbers. I think theres a real danger on the part of Democrats in Georgia to just assume that they arent going to lose some of those voters from 2020, said Erik Iverson, a Republican pollster who works with Georgia campaigns. Crossing the runoff threshold No race has attracted more debate about crossover voting than the Republican primary for secretary of state, in which Mr. Raffensperger, the incumbent, who had rejected attempts to subvert the 2020 election, defeated Mr. Hice, a Trump-endorsed challenger. Though Mr. Raffensperger won by almost 20 points, he escaped being forced into a runoff election by finishing with 52.3 percent of the vote, or 2.3 percent above the majority threshold that would have prompted a runoff. Operatives on both sides of the aisle have speculated that crossover voting was a chief reason that Mr. Raffensperger avoided a runoff. But drawing such a conclusion ignores the many reasons for crossover voting in Georgia, and probably overestimates the number of true Democrats voting for Mr. Raffensperger. That would be an awful lot of crossover voting, said Scott H. Ainsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, adding that Mr. Raffenspergers nearly 30,000-vote margin to avoid a runoff had most likely been spurred by more than just meandering former Democratic primary voters. A House committee said on Thursday that it was investigating whether Jared Kushner, former President Donald J. Trumps son-in-law and former adviser, traded on his government position to land a $2 billion investment in his new private equity firm from a prominent Saudi Arabian wealth fund. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, gave Mr. Kushner a two-week deadline in a letter sent on Thursday to furnish documents related to the Saudi funds investment last year in his firm, Affinity Partners. She also asked for any personal correspondence between Mr. Kushner and the Saudi kingdoms de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during or after the Trump administration. The committee, Ms. Maloney wrote in the eight-page letter, is investigating whether your personal financial interests improperly influenced U.S. foreign policy during the administration of your father-in-law, former President Trump. In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Kushner said, While achieving six peace deals in the Middle East, Mr. Kushner fully abided by all legal and ethical guidelines both during and after his government service. We see two clusters when it comes to mass shooters, people in their 40s who commit workplace type shootings, and a very big cluster of young people 18, 19, 20, 21 who seem to get caught up in the social contagion of killing, said Jillian Peterson, a criminal justice professor who helped found the Violence Project, which maintains a comprehensive national database of mass shootings. There is no single, easy explanation for why young men are more likely to engage in mass shootings. (Girls and women make up a small percentage of all perpetrators.) But many of the causes cited most often by law enforcement officials and academics seem intuitive online bullying, the increasingly aggressive marketing of guns to boys, lax state gun laws and federal statutes that make it legal to buy a semiautomatic long gun at 18. The shootings come against a backdrop of a worsening adolescent mental health crisis, one that predated the pandemic but has been intensified by it. Much of the despair among teenagers and young adults has been inwardly directed, with soaring rates of self-harm and suicide. In that sense, the perpetrators of mass shootings represent an extreme minority of young people, but one that nonetheless exemplifies broader trends of loneliness, hopelessness and the darker side of a culture saturated by social media and violent content. In addition to Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, there was a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colo., in March 2021 that the police said was carried out by a 21-year-old man; a massacre by what authorities said was a 21-year-old gunman targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso in August 2019 that resulted in 23 deaths; a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, in which a 17-year-old student is accused of killing eight students and two teachers in May 2018; and the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018 by a 19-year-old former student. Only two of the 30 deadliest mass shootings recorded from 1949 to 2017 involved gunmen younger than 21: The first was the massacre of 13 people by two teenagers at Columbine High School in 1999, and the second came when a 20-year-old killed 27 people, most of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. Want to know where Democratic politics are headed? Watch Massachusetts. The state has always had a crusading streak it was, after all, founded by religious dissidents. Massachusetts prides itself on leading the nation on progressive causes, be it overthrowing the British, outlawing slavery and Jim Crow, establishing universal health care or legalizing same-sex marriage. In an 1858 article in The Atlantic, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. only half-jokingly called the statehouse atop Bostons Beacon Hill the hub of the solar system. The departing attorney general of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, gained a national following for suing Donald Trumps administration in dozens of cases. At the Boston Womens March the day after Trumps inauguration in 2017, she famously stood in front of an enormous crowd and shouted what would become a signature line: Well see you in court! So the race to succeed Healey, who is running for governor, is very much worth following. At a time when many Democrats find themselves demoralized by the paralysis in Washington and by President Bidens low approval ratings, its contours will tell us something about what voters on the left are most passionate about. It is also exposing a fault line within the Democratic Party over corporate money between those who see it as inherently corrupting and reject it, and those who view it as a necessary evil. Mr. Kochman and Imperial Yachts were the focus of a New York Times investigation showing that the company was at the heart of what is essentially an oligarch-industrial complex, a network of companies including German shipbuilders, French designers, high-end Italian carpenters and Spanish marinas that serve Russian oligarchs and employ thousands of skilled workers. According to a U.S. intelligence assessment, a group of investors led by one of Russias richest men, Gennady Timchenko, who has been under sanctions since 2014, provided the money to buy three ships: the Scheherazade, the Crescent and the Amadea, whose construction at a German shipyard was overseen by Imperial Yachts. Their combined cost of as much as $1.6 billion could have bought six new frigates for the Russian navy. In addition to Imperial Yachts, the Treasury Department issued sanctions against four other companies owned or controlled by Mr. Kochman. Those include OOO Bilding Management, which is known as BLD Management, a company that builds and renovates villas in Russia as well as in Western Europe for oligarchs. A lawyer for Imperial Yachts, Simon Clark, previously denied that the company had any connection to Mr. Timchenko. In a statement released Thursday after the Treasury Department announcement, Imperial Yachts said the accusations made against us by the U.S. government and in the press are false. Imperial Yachts conducts all its business in full compliance with laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which we operate, the company added. We are not involved in our clients financial affairs. But Treasury officials disputed that contention in their announcement. U.S. and international authorities have moved to seize the three yachts connected to Mr. Kochman and his company. U.S. officials are fighting a court battle in Fiji to take control of the Amadea, which they contend was sold last year to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch who is on a U.S. sanctions list. Feizal Haniff, a lawyer for the British Virgin Islands company that controls the Amadea, said the owner is Eduard Khudainatov, who is not under any sanctions. Officials described the Tulsa shooting as targeted. Chief Franklin said the gunman, identified by officials as Michael Louis, had a letter with him explaining that he wanted to kill Dr. Preston Phillips, who performed back surgery on him last month, as well as anyone who got in his way. Chief Franklin said the gunman had complained of continuing pain since being discharged from the hospital, and had returned for a follow-up visit the day before the attack. Hospital officials described Dr. Phillips as a caring physician who sometimes ran late for his appointments because he spent extra time with his patients. The authorities say the gunman also killed Dr. Stephanie Husen, who practiced sports medicine; Amanda Glenn, an office worker with a supervisory role; and William Love, an Army veteran whose family said he sacrificed himself to save his wife. The Tulsa shooting was not even the first mass shooting in Oklahoma since the Uvalde massacre on May 24. On Sunday, at a Memorial Day Weekend festival, eight people ranging in age from 9 to 56 were shot at the Old City Square of Taft, Okla., a small town about 40 miles from Tulsa. A 39-year-old woman died in that shooting. In Chattanooga, Tenn., where six teenagers were shot as a group fought last weekend, Mayor Tim Kelly called for expanding background checks and so-called red flag laws, as well as raising the minimum age to buy certain weapons. Kids have always gotten into scuffles with each other, Mr. Kelly wrote on Twitter. Thats a tale thats as old as time. What is new is now they have access to handguns and firearms that leave behind bodies instead of bruised egos. President Biden, a longtime supporter of stricter gun laws, addressed the country on Thursday night about the recent spate of shootings. But even as Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have been meeting in recent days to see if they can reach an agreement on legislation about guns, mental health and school safety, there is widespread skepticism that any sweeping deal will emerge. Our leaders ignore, gloss over or refuse to address the complex challenges and difficulties facing our country and communities, Kendra Horn, a former Democratic congresswoman from Oklahoma who is running for the Senate, said after the Tulsa shooting. As Congress once more struggles through acrimonious and so far fruitless negotiations over gun reforms in the wake of a mass shooting, Americans may find themselves looking north in befuddlement. Canadas government has begun moving to ban handgun sales and buy back military-style rifles dramatic changes in a country with one of the worlds highest gun ownership rates outside of the United States, expected to pass easily and with little fuss. Ask Americans why Canadas government seems to cut through issues that mire their own in bitterness and frustration, and you might hear them cite cultural differences, gentler politics, even easygoing Canadian temperaments. But ask a political scientist, and youll get a more straightforward answer. Differences in national culture and issues, while meaningful, do not on their own explain things. After all, Canada also has two parties that mostly dominate national politics, an urban-rural divide, deepening culture wars and a rising far-right. And guns have been a contentious issue there for decades, one long contested by activist groups. I certainly dont view her with any kind of admiration, he said, drinking a coffee in the town of Reading, west of London, where he now lives. There is no achievement in what shes done. Some people would be horrified that someone might say that, he said. But its not a criticism, its an observation: She was given the job for life when she was 25, and shes still alive 70 years later so shes still got the job. That might seem a minority view in a country embarking on days of pomp and ceremony, where opinion polls show that about six out of 10 people support keeping the royal family; where Queen Elizabeth is widely respected; and where there is relentless, if not universally uncritical, coverage of the monarchy by broadcasters and newspapers. But support for the royal family has declined in the past few decades and is weakest among young people. So Mr. Smith thinks time is on his side. Republic, founded in 1983, has about 5,000 subscribing members, plus 100,000 registered supporters. Since a brief 17th-century experiment with regicide and republicanism ended with the restoration of the royal family, the British monarchy has survived periods of unpopularity. Its role has evolved over the centuries; the queen is head of state and does her best to stay out of politics. Dolphins burned from bomb or mine explosions. Several thousand suddenly found dead, some washed up on the coasts of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The sudden and mysterious death of so many of the elegant marine mammals is raising alarm among some scientists that the war in Ukraine may be taking a growing toll on life in the Black Sea. The battles waged along Ukraines coastline have done untold environmental damage and have interfered with dolphins habitat, scientists say. But the war has made it impossible to gather detailed information, leaving the dolphin deaths a mystery for now. Recent studies from Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine found that marine biodiversity was under growing threat because of the war, including from bombs dropping in coastal feeding areas, oil from sunken ships and river runoff polluted by chemicals used in ammunition. Ms. Watts, who flew on Tuesday with her mother, Robbin Farley, 65, had visited in 2018 for an official parade to mark the queens birthday. She said she fell in love with London during that trip, but has also followed Britains royal family closely for the last decade and is particularly interested in their philanthropy. Image Patricia Watts prepping for the Trooping the Color on Thursday. She blogs about both the royal familys fashion and the charities they patronize, and has begun supporting some of those charities herself. I think a lot of us are just trying to go and enjoy this moment and be a part of history, Ms. Watts said. Carol LaRue and Andi Libuser, who live in California, came to the jubilee with several friends and family members from the United States, France and Britain. I came for Kate and Wills wedding, and it was such a nice event, and the energy was so fun, so I brought my daughter and her friend so they could experience this, Ms. LaRue said. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. From Thursday to Sunday, Britain is celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, commemorating her 70 years as monarch a first for a British queen or king. Thousands of events are taking place around the country and the Commonwealth, and London will host a series of official ceremonies. The celebrations are timed to coincide with her official Queens Birthday, an annual public holiday, although Elizabeths actual birthday is April 21. Where to watch it The New York Times is covering the events for an international audience. In the United States, ABC News has been covering the jubilee celebrations on Good Morning America and GMA3: What You Need to Know, broadcast from London and Windsor, England. A Sky News YouTube stream broadcasting some of the events is available in the United States. In Britain, the events are being livestreamed on the BBC. Whats on Friday: A service of thanksgiving for the queens reign will be held at St. Pauls Cathedral in central London. Great Paul, the largest church bell in Britain, will be rung before the service. A Swedish child sits at a dinner table while his friend and the friends parents dine on meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. The delicious aroma wafts below the childs nose, but there is no plate for him. This setting, while quite normal in Sweden and other Nordic countries, has horrified people around the world, shocked to learn that some Swedish families do not invite their childrens visiting friends to eat with them at mealtime. Instead, when its time to eat, a child might go home, stay in the friends room and play or sit at the table with the family and not eat. The custom was the subject of much conversation (and a little concern) online after a recent Reddit post circulated widely. The post asked what is the weirdest thing you had to do at someone elses house because of their culture/religion? and in one of the more popular replies, someone described going to their Swedish friends house and being told to wait in a room while the family ate. I wish my abuela were still around, Lynda Carter, the actress who played Wonder Woman, said on Twitter. Shed be trying to airlift tamales to Sweden. Turkey has changed its name at the United Nations, in the biggest push yet by President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government to get the rest of the world to call the country by its Turkish language name, Turkiye (tur-KEE-yeh). The name isnt new to the Turkish people, who have used it since their country was established in 1923 after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. But equally common in the country has been the Anglicized version of the name, which, for some, brings the negative connotations associated with the English language word. The change at the United Nations was set in motion last winter by Mr. Erdogan, whose popularity has sagged since he was re-elected in 2018 and comes as his constituents grapple with soaring food prices and the plummeting value of the Turkish lira. DAKAR, Senegal With many of the worlds poorest countries facing alarming levels of hunger and starvation, the leader of the African Union is set to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday and urge him to lift Russias blockade on urgently needed cereals and fertilizer from Ukraine. President Macky Sall of Senegal, the African Unions chairman, will deliver his plea to the Russian leader when the two men meet at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, an aide said. Warnings by the United Nations that Russias naval blockade in Ukraine could lead to famines around the world, and accusations by Ukrainian and Western leaders that Mr. Putin is weaponizing a major source of the worlds food supply, have so far produced limited results. Millions of tons of grain remain stuck in Ukraine; Mr. Putin has suggested that this would change if the West lifted sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion. Some hope the message will resonate differently when it comes from Mr. Sall, who will speak on behalf of many of the countries that will suffer most as the grain sits idle. As the war in Ukraine approaches its 100th day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russian forces now control one-fifth of the country, a blunt acknowledgment of the slow but substantial gains that Moscow has made in recent weeks. Though battered, depleted and repulsed from their initial drive to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Russian troops have used their superior artillery power to grind closer to their goal of taking over the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas, where Kremlin-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014. Mr. Zelensky said Russia had expanded its control of Ukrainian territory from an area roughly the size of the Netherlands before the invasion began to an area now greater than the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg combined. Seizing that swath of land could give President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia huge leverage in any future talks to end the war, as well as a base of operations to launch further attacks inside Ukraine. As Queen Elizabeth II kicks off the Platinum Jubilee on Thursday, she is doing so with a slimmed-down royal family behind her: Neither Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, nor Prince Andrew is getting a place on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to wave at the crowds. Even the queens presence on Thursday had not been a certainty: The 96-year-old monarch rarely ventures into the public these days, after surviving a bout with the coronavirus and lamenting her trouble walking. For those reasons, the question of who would appear alongside the monarch has been laden with, well, palace intrigue. Officially, the queens decision to leave out Harry, her grandson, and Andrew, her disgraced second son, was purely a function of their revised job descriptions: Neither is a full-time working royal anymore. Prince Harry gave up that status when he and Meghan moved to Southern California in 2020. Andrew lost the status after the queen exiled him from public life because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex predator. In February, Andrew settled a sex abuse lawsuit brought against him in New York. The whale sighting happened right away, minutes into Day 1. Jon, Dave and I had just been dropped off on a remote Alaskan shoreline, an hour and a half by boat from the closest speck of a town. Jon was working as a sea-kayaking guide that summer in Glacier Bay National Park, and he had invited us up for a seven-day excursion during his week off. As the boat that delivered us vanished, the drone of its engine dampening into a murmur and then finally trailing off, it became unthinkably quiet on the beach, and the largeness and strangeness of our surroundings were suddenly apparent. It was a familiar phenomenon for Jon from the start of all his trips: a moment that people instinctually paused to soak in. To me, it felt like those scenes of astronauts who, having finally rattled free of the earths atmosphere, slip into the stillness of space. Except we werent in space. We were on earth finally, really on earth. We were only starting to move around again, packing our gear into the kayaks, when we heard the first huff of a blowhole, not far offshore. Jon was ecstatic. It seemed to him as if the animal were putting on a show, swimming playfully in the kelp, diving, resurfacing, then plowing its open mouth across the surface to feed. He took it as a good omen. Though I had no idea at the time, he was anxious that Dave and I might feel intimidated about making the trip; such a big payoff, so quickly, would get us excited and defuse any apprehensions. For Dave, the whale-sighting had exactly the opposite effect. Once, when he was a kid, his dad took him scuba diving with dolphins. They were friendly, awe-inspiring creatures, purportedly, but they terrified Dave instead. He could still conjure the feeling of hanging defenselessly in that water while the animals deftly swirled around him, less like solid objects than flashes of reflected light, while he could move only in comparative slow-motion. Ever since, he had harbored a fear of large sea creatures a niche phobia, particularly for a young man who lived in the Bronx, but a genuine one still. And so, even as Dave understood that a chance to see whales up close like this was a major draw of a kayaking trip in Alaska, and though he feigned being thrilled, some second thoughts were kicking in: We were going out there, he realized. The whale left me exhilarated and gleeful, like Jon; but deeper down, I also remember feeling shaken, like Dave. Nothing about the animal registered to me as playful or welcoming. It just appeared in the distance, then transited quickly past us, from left to right. My uneasiness had something to do with the whales great size and indifference its obliviousness as it passed. Watching it made me feel profoundly out of place and register how large that wilderness was, relative to me. At the time, I was working at a literary magazine in New York City called The Hudson Review, picking poems out of the slush pile and mailing them to an outside panel of editorial advisers. I was trying hard in my letters to impress one of them: Hayden Carruth, a gruff and irreverent 81-year-old poet who lived far upstate. I loved Carruths work but was more enamored with his persona: his yeoman life in the woods, his intolerance for phoniness and, most of all, the precision with which he articulated common suffering, including one strain of his own suffering that I related to, particularly in those years, but wouldnt have had the courage, or clarity, to examine. I had always been aware, Carruth once wrote of his youth, that the Universe is sad; everything in it, animate or inanimate, the wild creatures, the stones, the stars, was enveloped in the great sadness, pervaded by it. ... Never then or now have I been able to look at a cloudless sky at night and see beauty there. A kind of grandeur, yes but not beauty. The profusion and variety of celestial lights have always frightened me. Why are they there? Why these instead of others? Why these instead of nothing? That was how I felt, watching the whale from the beach: afraid that everything was accidents. Then again, maybe its just hard to picture the start of the trip in retrospect without amplifying some feeling of foreboding. Something else Carruth wrote that has always stuck with me: The wilderness begins at the edge of my body, at the edge of my consciousness, and extends to the edge of the universe, and it is filled with menace. [Read about Aleksander Doba, the 71-year-old who kayaked across the Atlantic 3 times.] It was mid-August 2002, and we were 23, 24 and 25. We had graduated from college together two years earlier. Dave, whom I also grew up with, shot out of undergrad knowing he wanted to be a doctor and had just finished his first year of medical school. Any similar momentum I had after graduation was instantly sapped. Three nights after I returned to my parents house from school, I found myself driving my father to the emergency room. Three weeks after that, he died. My grief was disorienting and total; at a moment in life when everything is supposed to feel possible, making any single decision became impossible. I gave into that sadness for the better part of a year, resettling at home in New Jersey with my widowed mother and sliding back to the summer job I worked during school, glumly breaking down beef at a butcher shop two towns over. I coped with my fatherlessness and confusion in ways Im not proud of and still dont understand. I read a lot of books about Ronald Reagan, for example, even the collection of his love letters to Nancy. I also lashed out at Dave, who was living at home that summer, too, studying for the MCAT. He withdrew awkwardly after the funeral, and I suppose I was happy to hold that against him. It triggered some longstanding jealousy. A part of me always resented how he seemed unfairly exempt from the self-doubt and heaviness that I was prone to. Jon, meanwhile, was teaching at a rustic little boarding school in Switzerland, where his mother was from. The summer after graduation, before starting the job, he set out for Alaska with a friend, sleeping in the bed of their old pickup. In the minuscule town of Gustavus, the gateway to Glacier Bay, he picked up seasonal work in the warehouse of a kayak-tour company. Jon had little actual experience of sea kayaking but had always felt drawn to the ocean in the abstract. In college, he and another friend plotted out a paddling expedition near Glacier Bay, across the border in Canada and applied for a grant from our school to fund it. The grant was set up in memory of an alumnus who died in an avalanche while mountaineering. It was meant to encourage the responsible and conscientious pursuit of wilderness expeditions. Safety was key. But the committee rejected Jon and his partners application. They seemed insufficiently prepared. That wasnt surprising. Jon grew up doing a lot of backcountry camping and was a competent outdoorsman, but putting together a grant application required a kind of administrative fastidiousness he didnt always possess. He was bright but scatterbrained, forever picking up things and putting them down, both figuratively (music projects, conversations) but also literally. I can still picture him hustling around the house we shared in college, hunting for his keys or his soldering iron, having gotten in over his head rewiring some device. He was an artist; one piece I remember consisted of a half-peeled banana, implanted with circuitry and suspended in a jar of formaldehyde. Once, he grew grass in our upstairs bathroom a living bathmat, he said until the turf became muddy and flooded the downstairs. This was Jons third summer in Alaska, and hed worked his way up to leading expeditions, taking out vacationers for days at a time. Our trip, however, would venture beyond the typical circuit, into a remote corner of the park that hed never been to. Jon had no serious concerns about our safety, but he felt he bore responsibility for our emotional well-being. To enjoy ourselves, we would need to feel comfortable, not just in the wilderness but also with him as a leader. He suspected we wouldnt trust him entirely. We didnt. We knew him before he became a professional guide, and our perception of his expertise lagged behind the reality. With Jon, Dave told me, it was always unclear to what extent hed thought everything through. Dave remembered landing in Gustavus the night before we got underway and casually asking Jon a lot of questions: Where are we going, exactly? Do we have everything we need? Jon seemed to have solid answers for all of them. As we headed back to his place for a good nights sleep, he told us to wait in the yard. He was living alone for the summer in a house that an acquaintance was building in the woods. The structure was framed-up but largely wall-less, and Jon, to be safe, needed to check that no moose had wandered in. After a spectacular first day of paddling, we came ashore on a rocky tidal flat about two miles from where we were dropped. Jon gave us his detailed tutorial about bear safety while we set up our campsite. He taught us, for example, to holler Hey, bear! if we heard any rustling but also preventively, ahead of us, when we walked through the woods. The last thing you wanted was to come across a brown bear unannounced. Hey, bear! Jon kept hollering, by way of demonstration. He said it goofily, like a childrens TV host greeting some down-on-his-luck ursine neighbor at the doorway to their clubhouse. This was intentional. Jon had noticed that the people on his trips often resisted bellowing Hey, bear! into the wilderness. It was essential for their safety, but it felt silly or vulnerable somehow, like singing in public. So he learned to turn it into a shtick, spinning it into a stream-of-consciousness narration: Hey, bear, Im coming into the trees now. Hope youre having a fantastic evening, Mr. Bear! It loosened everyone up. They were performing for their friends now; the whole group was in on the joke. I had never seen a wild bear, though I have backpacked in bear country a handful of times. I felt comfortable with the animals in the abstract. But here, the bears werent abstract; they breached the material plane. There were bear trails everywhere, leading from the tree line to the water, and disquietingly close, I felt, to where we were pitching our tent. We found heaps of their scat. We saw trees where the animals had slashed off the bark to eat the inner layer, tufts of fur from their paws still plastered in the sap. I pretended I was having fun. But that evening I grew increasingly petrified, almost delirious. My eyes tightened, scanning for bears. The sound of the wind became bears, and so did the mossy sticks cracking under our feet. I gave myself a migraine, then phased in and out of sleep. At sunrise, I woke feeling foolish. While Jon cooked pancakes, I reasoned with myself, privately, in a notebook I brought on the trip. I tried to conceive of the situation as a geometry problem. Yes, some number of bears roved this landscape, I wrote: relatively tiny, independent blips, going about their business randomly, just like us. In all that empty space and confusion, a lethal collision of their moving blips and our moving blips would be an improbable coincidence. Id been distorting those odds, mistaking myself for the absolute focus of all bears attention, I wrote. It was embarrassing, really. To be afraid of bears, I concluded, is to be narcissistic. I was reminding myself that freakishly horrible things are, by definition, unlikely to happen. Even now, my reasoning feels sound. [Read about the search for a missing hiker in Joshua Trees wild interior.] Day 2 was a slog. We paddled through a spitting drizzle in an endless straight line, along the high granite walls of the coast. We talked less and less, just pushed through the emerald chop. Then eventually we gave up, hauling in our boats and making camp in a wide, crescent-shaped cove, short of the site that Jon originally picked out on his map. We had entered Dundas Bay, a rarely visited pocket of the national park that, Ive since learned, has a storied history as a hide-out for solitary misanthropes. In the 1930s, one prospector built a cabin not far from our campsite and brandished a gun at the Alaska Natives who passed through. We intuited that the scenery was beautiful, but we could see very little of it through the fog. Our guidebook explained that the east side of the bay where we were can get extremely rough during foul weather, since large waves roll in ... and batter this shoreline. That was happening now: The weather that plinked at us all afternoon was roiling into a storm. Soon, the big rain started. We rushed through dinner, then loafed in our tent until, eventually, the loafing turned to sleep. A local newspaper would later describe the storm as short but intense. In Gustavus, a creek swelled to about a foot higher than its previous record. Gale winds, with gusts up to 59 miles per hour, turned back two cruise ships in Skagway, about 85 miles north. Around 2 a.m., we woke to discover the wind had shorn the rain fly off our tent. Jons sleeping bag and mine were soaked, while Dave was snug and dry between us. We heard torrents of water lashing down and the waves crashing in the cove. We got up three or four hours later. The rain and wind no longer felt ferocious but were still too gnarly to paddle through; there was no question, Jon said, that we were staying put. We cooked breakfast and took turns playing chess in the tent. By late morning, the storm seemed to have passed. We were antsy. We figured we would take a look around. The terrain was crammed with thickets of alder and spruce, underlain by ferns and a furor of prickly things. Jon pointed out devils club: three or four feet tall and leafy, armored up and down with spines. The plant pierced fleece and hurt like fire. Jon, a friend of the author, at the start of the trip in Glacier Bay National Park. He was the most experienced of the three friends and was working as a guide in Alaska. From Jon Mooallem There were no trails. Wed been trudging for some time when we reached a fast-moving stream, maybe 10 feet wide. Jon was surprised; it wasnt on his map, most likely just a drainage bloated by the storm. We followed it downstream, looking for a way across, and eventually found it bridged by a hefty tree trunk. It seemed like an easy crossing. Jon stepped up and led the way, and Dave and I waited in a single-file line on the stream bank behind him. The creek was loud, like a factory with all its gears and rollers churning. Looking down, Jon realized there was more water than hed thought. Thats when I heard the snap in the woods behind me. After all my paranoia, I instantly understood that the many bears Id thought I heard before were absolutely not bears were nothing because this sound was so unmistakable and crisp, so explicitly something. I turned and hollered, Hey, bear! then waited a beat. Maybe I said Hey, bear! again; Im not sure. But I must have scanned those trees long enough to feel satisfied and safe, because I know I was turning my head, to go back to my friends, when I saw the dark shape rushing forward in my peripheral vision. What I heard must have been roots popping. If a tree is large enough, you can apparently hear them cracking underground like gunfire. The thud was seismic. The trunk crashed down right next to me. Mapping out bits of evidence later, we concluded that the tree must have been about 80 feet tall and perhaps two feet in diameter. It was some kind of conifer a spruce or cedar. I screamed, involuntarily, Look out! then watched Dave, a few steps directly in front of me, dive sideways and hit the ground. When I got to him, he was crouching, stunned but O.K. He looked up and said, Go get Jon. It hadnt clicked back in for me: There were three of us. The sight of Dave going down had canceled out everything else. I scrambled out over the creek, running across the tree that had just fallen, shouting Jons name, then spotted him in the water, tangled in a snarl of sheared-off branches near the bank behind me a cage, which kept him from hurtling downstream. He did not know hed been hit by a falling tree. It had narrowly missed his head, struck his left shoulder, shearing it from his collarbone and breaking many of his ribs. Later, a doctor would explain that the downward force had been so powerful that it had probably squashed Jons entire upper body, and all the organs inside, down toward his waist, momentarily compressing him like a bellows; for a split second, his shoulders headed in the direction of his bellybutton, before his torso sprang up again. Jon had heard nothing, seen nothing. He was turning around to help Dave onto the log again, feeling responsible for our safety and the next thing he knew, he was in the water. He tried to reach out his left arm but could not make it move. He could not move his legs. He felt a bolt of pain down his spine. Jon later described flashing through an idiosyncratic sequence of thoughts, all in a few milliseconds, as if watching a deck of cards fanning across a table. One was an image of himself in a wheelchair, sitting behind a mixing console in a fancy recording studio. I guess I can become a recording engineer in a wheelchair, he remembered thinking. He had never worked in a recording studio and, though he played music, he had no particular plans to. Still, this vision apparently felt like an acceptable future and freed him to resurface in the present. That was when he registered me, screaming his name. Jon told himself he shouldnt move. He knew from his many wilderness first-responder trainings that moving a person with spinal injuries risks paralysis. Then again, he also knew that most of his body was submerged in cold water, and he recognized that he risked dying of hypothermia if he didnt move. If Im already paralyzed, he concluded, I may as well move. He somehow hoisted himself out of the stream before Dave or I got to him, using his right arm and his chin and biting into something loamy with his teeth, for additional leverage. He reassessed the situation: better. Also: worse. He now realized that we were at least a mile inland from our camp. Suddenly, his body was walking; his legs just started working. Dave and I put him between us, supporting his frame. He was moving faster than we expected, but uncoordinatedly. Then he crumpled between us. We tried again; Jon was dead weight. Dave noticed that his breathing was shallow and his voice was low signs, Dave knew from med school, of a collapsed lung. He began battering Jon with a pep talk, telling him, firmly, that he had to get up, that we had to get out of here. Jon didnt need that explained to him; he was cogent and still trying to plot our next steps in his mind. He looked down to see why this log he was resting on was so lumpy and realized that he was, in fact, sitting on his left arm. The arm was slack, obviously broken; his sleeve, pierced up and down with devils club. Jon had zero feeling in it. He found it amusing, this sensation of complete estrangement from one of his limbs. Jon had been stressing that it was important to stay together. But this was another theory of wilderness survival that appeared to be breaking down in practice. Someone would have to get on the radio back at our camp. By chance, while marooned in our tent during the rainstorm the night before, Jon showed us how to use the device, though he did it almost as a formality; the hand-held VHF unit was merely a line-of-sight radio, he told us, meaning its range was small, its signal too weak to pass through most obstacles. You were unlikely to reach anyone you couldnt see, and we hadnt seen anyone since a faraway fishing boat, early on Day 1. There was a moment of discussion, or maybe just an exchange of looks between me and Dave. I told Dave he should go. I didnt trust myself to find my way back. I also knew that I lacked the courage to try; whether I was being sensible or cowardly, I still dont know. Besides, I took for granted that Dave would make it. He was more capable in my mind, less likely to cinch himself in indecisive knots. Recently, though, Dave told me: You probably had no idea how much in my own head I was. I know that you, growing up, definitely felt insecure about things, and I think you looked at me and thought, Dave has everything figured out. But I had so much anxiety. He brought up the tremor he used to have in his hands. I knew about it; in high school, we waited tables together, and I occasionally had to carry out Daves soup orders, so he wouldnt spill. But I guess I thought of the tremor as strictly physiological. I couldnt see the vulnerability causing it. Now, as Dave sprinted away from me and Jon, swatting devils club from his path with the rubberized sleeve of his rain jacket, his nerves rose up and rattled him. He worried he wouldnt be able to find the radio once he got back or know how to turn it on. What if he broke the radio, foreclosing whatever marginal chance we had of getting help? There were lots of ways to screw this up, Dave realized. More occurred to him as he ran. He found the radio. He turned it on. Then, having solved these problems, he encountered another he hadnt anticipated: What is the appropriate thing youre supposed to say? he remembered thinking. On TV, you see a lot of people saying Mayday. And so, Dave faced the open water and started broadcasting into the fog: Mayday, Mayday. Even in that moment, though, alone on a beach in the middle of nowhere, he felt slightly self-conscious about it. This is so goddamn cliche, he thought. Back in the woods, kneeling over Jon, I was having the same problem: I didnt know what to say. He was lying near a log on his injured side, his beard and glasses flecked with dirt and tendrils of moss. He seemed to be on the brink of losing consciousness. At no time would the possibility of Jons dying surface concretely in any of our minds. Still, I knew I was supposed to keep talking to him, to tether him to the world with my voice somehow. I started vamping platitudes: We were going to get out of here soon, and so forth. But I could feel myself treading water, even blundering, at one point, into a long-winded apology, worried I overstayed my welcome that one Christmas with his family. I was afraid that the helplessness in my voice might be counterproductive, unsettling Jon instead of steadying him. It was a tremendous silence to fill. What can a person say? I had two literature professors in college who made us memorize poems. You never knew when some lines of verse would come in handy, they claimed. One liked to brag that, while traveling through Ireland, he found that if he spat out some Yeats at a pub, he could drink free. This is how I wound up reciting a love poem to Jon. It was The Shampoo, by Elizabeth Bishop, a lyric poem about the enormity of time, which turns startlingly intimate at the end, when Bishop offers to shampoo her lovers silvering hair: Come, let me wash it in this big tin basin,/battered and shiny like the moon. After that, I imagine I also did some W.H. Auden; I knew a fair amount of Auden back then. The stuff in rhyme and meter was always easiest to memorize Looking up at the stars, I know quite well/That, for all they care, I can go to hell which is why I had a lot of Robert Frost at my disposal as well: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Road Not Taken. For the most part, I trafficked in hits. Jon and I would spend about an hour and a half together alone on the forest floor. I ran through everything in my quiver Kay Ryan, A.R. Ammons, Michael Donaghy padding each poem with little prefatory remarks, while Jon said nothing, just signaled with his eyes or produced a sound whenever I checked in. I felt like a radio D.J. playing records in the middle of the night, unsure if anyone was listening. And heres one about owls by Richard Wilbur, I would tell Jon, and off we would go. I must have also done at least one by Hayden Carruth, my curmudgeonly pen pal at the literary magazine. Carruths poems didnt lend themselves to memorization, but Id worked hard to nail one of my favorites, in which he describes stopping to notice a deer standing in an apple thicket, then realizing the northern lights are flaring overhead. Hayden and the animal pass a moment in stillness together. We are proud to be afraid, he writes, proud to share/the silent magnetic storm that destroys the stars. Relative to that boundless violence above them, he and the deer are momentarily allied, though still not entirely connected: a glimpse, an acknowledgment/it is enough and never enough. Thats what I said to my friend, powerlessly, tenting my jacket over his face when it started to rain. The title of the poem is: I Know, I Remember, But How Can I Help You. The Coast Guard cutter Mustang wasnt where it was supposed to be. The 110-foot patrol boat normally spent its time coursing through the Gulf of Alaska, inspecting halibut-fishing vessels, or circulating, as a terrorist deterrent, near the oil terminals at Valdez. It was home-ported in Seward, hundreds of miles from Glacier Bay. But the crew was transiting to Juneau for a training when, a few days earlier, they were smacked by the same storm that later poured inland, over us. We had gotten absolutely pummeled, John Roberts, a petty officer on the Mustang, told me recently. For two days, the boat swished around in 15-foot-plus seas. Many on the crew had been hunkered in the mess deck, vomiting, while Roberts and a couple of his shipmates did their best to cover everyones watches. Finally, the Mustang slipped into Glacier Bay to find some protection. The weather started to ease. That afternoon, as Roberts piloted the Mustang east, toward Dundas Bay, his pallid crewmates were finally staggering back up to the bridge, asking where the hell they were. That was when Daves Mayday call came through. The signal on the Mustangs radio was thin and faint, barely edging into range. Another of the ships petty officers, Eamon McCormack, explained to me that in retrospect the connection feels mind-boggling. Glacier Bay National Park extends over more than 5,000 square miles. Our signal would have covered two or three miles at most. And yet, a boat a Coast Guard boat, no less happened to be passing through that exceedingly small window at precisely the right time. I dont know if, nine times out of 10, you play that over again and the outcome would be the same, McCormack said. A moment earlier or later seconds, potentially and we might have slipped out of alignment. The moving boat would have cruised out of range, uncoupling from us forever. It was 1:25 p.m. when the Mustang received Daves call, according to one of the subsequent Coast Guard reports. Roberts couldnt believe it. Come on, man, Im tired, he said aloud, wearily, to the receiver in front of him. Roberts waited for a moment, per protocol, on the off chance that the Coast Guards central communications center in Juneau would pick up the call instead. Then he turned and asked his watch commander to pull out all the standardized search-and-rescue paperwork. He was steeling himself, resummoning his professionalism. I guess were doing this, he said. Roberts was the crew member on the Mustang with the most current medical training; he would complete his E.M.T. certification the following month. As he started firing questions at Dave on the radio, he didnt like the answers that he heard coming back: the shallowness of Jons breathing, the likelihood of a punctured lung. More fundamental, Roberts remembered: Any time a tree falls on somebody, its not good. He was also unsettled to learn that Dave and I both lived in New York City a red flag, he had found, when someone winds up in trouble in the wilderness. We were 100 nautical miles from the nearest hospital; a half-day trip, even in ideal conditions. The Mustang requested that the Coast Guard Air Station in Sitka send a helicopter, but the immediate plan was for Roberts and three crewmates to peel toward shore in the ships Zodiac and track us down. Dave had found the flare in Jons emergency kit and now, at 2:20, with the Zodiac underway, the Coast Guard asked him to fire it. He was still in front of our campsite, facing the water. Hed never shot off a flare before. He aimed straight up, then watched as the bright tracer rose and arced somewhere far behind him, deep in the woods. He was uncertain whether this counted as a success. He started scanning the fog in front of him, but the Zodiac never appeared. Someone on the Mustang caught sight of the flare near the end of its arc and immediately directed the crew on the Zodiac toward it, steering them far away from Dave to the opposite side of the little peninsula wed camped on. And yet, this was lucky: they wound up coming ashore much closer to where I was waiting in the woods with Jon. Soon, whatever poem I was reciting was interrupted by whistles blowing and voices calling, and eventually three shapes, wearing hard hats and heavy orange rain gear, rushed toward us out of the trees. Roberts was especially impressive, a reassuringly large Boston-area native with a booming voice. He knelt and took Jons vitals. The information was troubling: his pulse was 60 beats per minute; his breathing, fast and shallow. They put his neck in a brace and eased him onto a kind of truncated backboard, called a Miller board, to move him out to the beach. Dave had returned by then. He and I crouched at one end of the board, near Jons feet, as someone presumably Roberts bellowed a count of three to lift. Later that night, lying down to sleep in a bed-and-breakfast in Gustavus stunned and depleted, but dry and warm Dave and I would talk and talk, reviewing the entire ordeal. We had drooped into a long silence, coasting toward sleep, when Dave spoke up with one last observation. When we were getting ready to lift Jon on the backboard, he said, it occurred to him that this was one of those crisis moments you hear about, like when mothers are suddenly able to lift a car off their baby. Dave expected we were going to have superhuman strength. We did not have superhuman strength. On Robertss command, the men raised Jon to waist height, swiftly and seemingly perfectly level, as though their arms and deltoids were hydraulic. Then, in one motion, they took off downhill, with negligible help from us. This cant be accurate, but I remember the sensation of being almost dragged, like children in a sled. A National Geographic television crew was embedded at the Coast Guards air station in Sitka, filming an installment of a thrill-ride reality series. The network had sent crews to other Coast Guard stations around the country too, though this assignment appeared to hold the most dramatic potential. Air Station Sitka was unique: Its pilots were responsible for 12,000 miles of coastline, a sprawling, treacherous wilderness riven with fjords, inlets and glaciers, often buffeted by implacably horrible weather. People who went into the backcountry in Alaska had a way of getting themselves into a different magnitude of trouble, too; as Roberts put it, When stuff happens in Alaska, its big. Still, this was the television crews eighth day in Sitka, and as the shows producer, Annabelle Hester, explained: I was having calls with my bosses at headquarters saying, Nothing is happening! We were scrambling to come up with Plan B. Then, the Mustangs call came in at 1:42. What type of injuries are we looking at? asked the dispatcher. She was taking the call from behind a semicircular counter, like the reception desk at a midlevel corporate branch office. She had a framed snapshot of a parakeet to brighten her work space, and a photograph of a dog with a heart that said, I Woof You. A cameraman stood conspicuously beside her, holding a tense, tight shot. Probable broken ribs, a definite broken arm, said the man on the other end. Then his voice faltered, seemed to give up: And whatever else would happen to you if a tree fell on you, he added. The dispatcher retrieved the appropriate paperwork and scribbled Tree fell on person on one line. She read the current weather aloud: 30 knots wind, 300 ceiling, heavy rain and one-mile vis. That would soon be revised: the ceiling had dropped to 100 feet. Entering the weather conditions on one of the Coast Guard incident reports, someone would write, in a kind of nihilistic catchall: Extremely terrible. The Coast Guards policy was to deploy a helicopter within 30 minutes of the initial request, but the Air Stations operations officer, Cmdr. Karl Baldessari, informed everyone that this mission would take longer to plan. Baldessari was a 25-year veteran of the Coast Guard, a fast-moving, sinewy man in a blousy flight suit, with a tidy mustache and spiky hair. His role at the air station was that of a firehouse chief. He was responsible for the safety of everyone working there, which meant making judicious decisions about what warranted sending them hurtling through the sky. That calculus got knotty in conditions like these, though there was a baseline volatility to flying in Alaska at all. The Coast Guard didnt let its helicopter pilots fly lead out of Sitka, no matter how much experience they had at other air stations, until they practiced difficult landings at specific locations in the region and got their egos battered a little by logging a full winter in the state. Visibility in Alaska was frequently poor; conditions changed quickly. One pilot told me about blindly tunneling through fog in the dark when his co-pilot got caged: The man lifted his eyes momentarily from his instruments and, without any visual references or a horizon to latch onto, found it impossible to reorient himself, lost all sense of direction and was felled by vertigo. During much of the year it was also cold enough, with sufficient moisture in the air, that ascending to clear the regions many minor mountains or even just flying through a cloud risked the aircrafts icing up. To mitigate this, the Coast Guard had laid out virtual track lines across the entirety of their range: a grid of GPS points and a network of paths connecting them, along which pilots could chart a course and fly at a relatively low altitude, confident they werent going to smash into a mountain. The system wasnt comprehensive; the track lines got the pilots close to their destination, but ultimately they had to diverge from this GPS superhighway and fly the remaining distance the old-fashioned way, with their radar and eyes. It was like taking an exit off the interstate, except there might be a granite wall in front of you wherever you chose to get off. It was possible the pilots would travel very far a half-mile away from whoever needed their help only to discover that the last leg was too risky and be forced to turn back. Baldessari gathered the two pilots on duty that afternoon and the Air Stations flight surgeon, then unrolled a large paper map. He pointed to our location, explaining: Thats probably one of the lousiest places we fly in and out of. This Inian Pass, right here, is the worst place we could possibly go. Inian Pass is a slim channel near the center of the Icy Strait, the long, interconnected system of waterways stretching through Glacier Bay. Conditions in the Icy Strait can be bad 300 days of the year, Baldessari recently told me; wind, rain and storm surges all push through it fast from the open ocean. But Inian Pass is a narrow keyhole at the center of the strait a mile-wide opening between a few uninhabited islands and a rocky point where all that weather speeds up. The only way for the pilots to reach us would be to fly straight through it. Nothing in the National Geographic footage, at this point, feels reassuring. The flight surgeon holds his hand over his mouth and bites his lip. The co-pilot, Chris Ferguson, only a few months into his posting in Alaska, mills around and fidgets with his ear. Its obvious Baldessari needs convincing. He wasnt eager to send his men up if he didnt have to and wasnt certain they would make it all the way there if he did. Its kind of funny, he told the pilots, pointing at the map. Youve got a boat right here. Lying on his backboard like a burl of driftwood, Jon was conscious and cognizant of his pain, but he had started to feel somehow buffered from his body, uninterested in connecting with the world beyond it. He would later describe himself as a thinking blob. It was a very passive experience. He didnt know what was happening but could tell our momentum had stalled. He was confused and felt impatient. In his mind, the three of us had solved the impossible problem: Wed managed to get help. This was supposed to be the simple part, when everyone rushed him to the hospital. Instead, his condition deteriorated. Within 10 minutes of reaching the beach, Jon threw up. Id never seen anything like it, a kind of dark purple gristle. I took out my wool cap to wipe his face, and he retched a second time, straight into my hat. I got that all over me, John Roberts told me recently. Hed seen vomit like that before; it meant Jon had ingested a fair amount of blood and signaled internal injuries. It made Roberts anxious. He had been on the Mustang for two and a half years at that point but had spent the previous four years in Palm Beach, a busy but less extreme posting that often involved rescuing weekend boaters from relatively close to shore and where, Roberts pointed out, the water is warm and wont necessarily kill you if you go in. Moreover, the bulk of the Coast Guards training is for maritime rescues, not rescues on land. Counterintuitive as it sounds, Robertss comfort level and confidence had dropped significantly once he hopped off the Zodiac and set foot on the beach. He reported back to the Mustang that Jon had thrown up, then soon radioed again, explaining that Jon was going into shock. He kept giving and requesting updates, trying to gauge how long this might take, and eventually started erecting a makeshift shelter out of plastic sheeting and medical tape, hoping to keep Jon out of the rain. Out of earshot of us, Roberts explained to his crew mate Eamon McCormack what the vomit meant: The possibility of Jon dying, here under their care, was real. At one point in the National Geographic footage, as Robertss calls are relayed to the air station in Sitka, you can see where the dispatcher clearly writes on her form: E.M.T. does not feel comfortable. By this time, the air stations flight surgeon had received enough information to be alarmed. It sounds like hes got a pretty significant chest injury, he told Baldessari. Baldessari understood they would need to launch a helicopter but warned the Mustang that the aircraft might not make it through the weather; ultimately it would be the pilots call, once they veered off their last track line and tried to shoot through Inian Pass. They would go and give it a look, Baldessari explained over the radio, but the outlook was iffy. The guys on the beach, he said, must be prepared to get Jon back on their cutter and haul him to a hospital themselves, as fast as they could. One evening this winter, my phone rang, and it was Karl Baldessari. Long retired from the Coast Guard, he was teaching aviation at a community college in Oregon, where I left a voice mail message earlier that day. I meanwhile had metamorphosed into a 40-year-old father of two and fumbled to explain to Baldessari that, as thrilled as I was to have tracked him down, I was, at the moment, racing to finish a risotto for my daughters before gymnastics practice and would have to call him back. Without missing a beat, Baldessari blared orders at me, joking, but still sounding as instinctually in charge as he did in the National Geographic footage: O.K., he said, you want to stir it constantly, but slowly! I didnt expect any of the Coast Guardsmen I was cold-calling to remember that day. However dramatic it remained for me, I assumed it would have been obscured in a yearslong wash of more sensational incidents. But everyone I spoke to did remember it, immediately and in detail. Baldessari had been involved in hundreds of rescue operations during his 30-year career, and yet, as I stood at the stove on the phone that evening, he told me: The moment I listened to your voice mail, I knew exactly the case! It was almost like it was yesterday. There was something about the supreme freakishness of the accident that left a lasting impression. For those who came ashore, the experience was also marked by a feeling of subtly escalating chaos and the pressure to surmount it. McCormack told me that ours was a story he retold endlessly, often to the younger Coast Guardsmen he was eventually tasked with training. In it was a lesson about not taking situations that look impossible at face value, he said. When things start to go wrong, dont panic or lose sight of what resources youve got. Keep working the problem until its absolute end even, McCormack added, if it means deviating from official policy. McCormack was not supposed to be landing an inflatable boat on an unforgivably rocky Alaskan shoreline, for example. But there he was, anyway, beaching the Zodiac as gingerly as he could, so that Roberts and the other men could load Jon aboard. They slid him in on his side like a folder into a filing cabinet, as Jon put it, and started motoring through the chop, very cautiously, back to the Mustang, about a mile away. As relieved as Jon had been when the Coast Guard first arrived, he also felt instantaneously more vulnerable. Strapped to the back board, his neck in the collar, he surrendered control of his body, however imperfect that control had been. He was being hauled around as an object now, with no ability to wriggle or shift positions, to manage his pain or even to turn his head and see what was happening. He was helpless, entirely dependent on the upright people operating around him, those voices he could hear discussing him on the far side of some gauzy divide. About 10 minutes into the trip on the Zodiac, Jon heard one of those voices say, Oh, shit, were losing air. A section of the Zodiacs sponson the inflatable fender that wraps around the boat had punctured. One side was completely deflated. Its a big deal, McCormack recently explained to me, sounding surprised that I had to ask. The sponson increases the boats buoyancy and stability, as well as keeping water from cresting over the side; under normal conditions, a Zodiac with a broken sponson would have been taken out of service automatically. Instead, McCormack found the puncture and wedged the nozzle of a small pump inside. Then steering the boat with one hand, operating the throttle with the other he started working the pump with his foot, essentially doing leg presses, to keep the fender partly inflated. The ride was already bumpy in four-foot seas. Now McCormack began tracing a slow, zigzagging course, doing what he could to tamp down the turbulence and the violence to Jons spine, as well as to guard against the possibility of the injured mans suddenly bounding over the side on his backboard. Roberts and the other Coast Guardsmen on the Zodiac leaned over Jon to shield him from the splash. The pain was heinous; Jon seemed to be passing out. Roberts talked to him, held his hand. Roberts felt crushed, he told me; he was torturing this guy in order to save him. When they finally reached the Mustang, rather than hoist Jon off the Zodiac, they swung the ships crane around and simply lifted the entire boat out of the water, level with the deck, and then carried him aboard, to keep from joggling him any more. McCormack eventually returned for me and Dave, and a half-hour later we were reunited with Jon in the Mustangs athwartship passageway, a cramped, steel hallway, like the space between two cars of a train. Jon was still battened to the backboard, wedged up to keep the weight of his body on his less-painful side. They had cut off his clothes, though hed murmured a plea not to he was wearing a brand-new Patagonia jacket that he had borrowed from a friend then swaddled him in a hypothermia blanket. Dave and I knelt and rubbed his feet. The coast guard rescue operation was documented by a National Geographic crew who happened to be in Alaska. Video stills from National Geographic Image Collection The helicopter was going to make it. I dont remember there being a grand announcement. Im not sure we were ever made aware of the possibility that it wouldnt. Now the crew got busy below: tying down anything that could be blown off by the rotor wash or stashing it in the mess. I also dont remember hearing the helicopter when it finally arrived. Instead, I remember only a heavy door to our left swinging open to reveal, like a scene from an action movie, the silhouette of a man in a blue flight suit, feet planted shoulder-width apart to steady himself as the ship rocked sideways. The cable hed been lowered on drew back into the ocean spray and fog behind him. Im flight surgeon Russ Bowman, he said and stepped inside. Bowman took Jons vitals and gave him several, successive shots of morphine. Soon, everyone was working to squeeze him back through the narrow doorway and onto the deck where the helicopter, an MH-60 Jayhawk, was idling overhead. Until recently, the story I told about the accident unfolded in two basic acts: the tree fell, instantaneously unleashing a kind of unfathomable chaos; then the Coast Guard appeared and, just as swiftly, regathered that chaos into order. It was like watching footage of an exploding object, then watching it run in reverse. The maneuver the Coast Guard was readying to execute now, on the deck of the Mustang, would be the climax of that progression. The helicopter hovered 30 or 40 feet over the boat, mirroring its speed and trajectory, while both vehicles moved slowly forward. Looks like youre heading for a rain squall, the co-pilot, Chris Ferguson, radioed the Mustang at one point, and asked the ship to adjust its course, to keep them in as forgiving weather as possible. Soon the flight mechanic was calling out instructions to tuck the aircraft into alignment: Forward and right 30. Forward and right 20. Forward and right 10. Then, finally speaking, in the flight recordings, with an almost galling air of imperturbability the lead helicopter pilot, Rich McIntyre, radioed the flight mechanic to begin the hoist. The whole procedure, from our vantage point, seemed seamless and routine. In a way, it was: After the agonized deliberation at the air station, the pilots exited off their GPS route into fairly manageable conditions around Inian Pass. The winds were workable; the water wasnt excessively choppy. Ultimately, scooping Jon off the deck of the Mustang would resemble a standard exercise that the pilots drilled in their trainings. Not to dumb it down, the co-pilot, Chris Ferguson, told me plucking someone with a spinal injury off a moving boat and hoisting them into a moving helicopter is a pretty insane thing to do. But we normalize what isnt normal. A few moments earlier, as the men scurried around Jon on his backboard, packaging and fastening him for the hoist, Jon worried that the second he got airborne he would start twirling uncontrollably, like the feathery end of a cat toy, and potentially thwack his head on the equipment on deck. But now, he was levitating smoothly a solitary, swaddled bale of a man, perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Dave and I watched it happen: our friend rising steadily away from us, improbably, to safety. As Jon floated higher, he could hear the Coast Guardsmen on the Mustang beneath him begin to cheer. He felt it was safe to open his eyes. When he did, he saw someone, hunched in the open cargo door of the helicopter, pointing a television camera at him. Video Clip From National Geographic Image Collection Jon was rushed into surgery at the hospital in Sitka that evening. Hed punctured both lungs, one to the point of collapse, sustained multiple fractures on eight of his ribs, broken several vertebrae, shattered his left shoulder blade and snapped his brachial plexus nerves. His spleen had been macerated into countless flecks. After awakening from surgery, Jon was disappointed that the doctors had swept those shards into a bag and thrown his spleen in the trash; he wanted to get a look at it, maybe even keep it preserved in a jar, alongside his cyborg-banana. Once back in Gustavus, Dave and I realized that we would need to call Jons parents in Switzerland. I didnt have to push the job on Dave this time; he was adamant. He felt he would need to face conversations like these if he was going to be a doctor. It was Jons father who picked up, and after absorbing the news, he paused and caught Dave off guard. Thank you, he said solemnly. You guys saved my sons life. Daves stomach dropped. I remember thinking about it, he told me recently, and realizing, Yeah. I guess, logistically, we did. I had the same reaction when Dave hung up the phone and, clearly shaken, relayed his conversation to me. Until that moment, the idea that we saved Jons life had never occurred to us, possibly because the idea that Jon might have died still hadnt occurred to us. We had zero sense of accomplishment, or even agency. In our minds, all we did was avoid screwing up until the real help could arrive and save him. But Jon hadnt absorbed the story that way. From the instant he willed himself out of the water, he felt all of us locking into that same seamless flow of order steadily displacing chaos that Dave and I only experienced once the Coast Guard arrived. It was amazing to him how the three of us managed to generate solutions for each successive problem. Even my reciting those poems, which to me had always felt like a moment of utter helplessness, became, in Jons telling, a perfect emblem of that streak of serendipitous problem-solving. You conveyed a calmness, he told me recently. I remember it being this nice moment. He added that if he ever has to spend two hours dying on a remote forest floor again, having me there to recite poetry would be one of his top ways to do it. The feeling of inevitability that day became only more pronounced for Jon as time passed and the entire story of our rescue receded into a prologue to the rest of his life. The surgery in Sitka was only the first of half a dozen, and it would take several years for him to regain 60 percent of the use of his arm, wrist and hand, as the nerves gradually regrew along his injured side. He was in good enough shape to go back to Alaska the summer after the accident repairing boats in the companys warehouse and occasionally helping out at the bed-and-breakfast but he struggled. He could repair kayaks but needed help lifting them. He was unable to wrestle the mattress corners into the fitted sheets when he made the beds. After that, he started working at a recording studio in Portland, just as he envisioned while stuck in the water, and he now runs his own audio-mastering company: Spleenless Mastering. Eventually Jon seemed to have recovered from the accident without any conspicuous disabilities. But his life has been quietly corroded by chronic pain and, almost equally, by the stresses of navigating the doctors, medications (and their side effects) to manage it. About two years after the accident, he learned he had PTSD. The trauma wasnt the falling tree, but his experience of powerlessness as a perpetual patient in the American medical system. It manifested as a kind of unbearable empathy for anyone who was suffering. Jon found himself shouting at doctors, on his own behalf but also on behalf of strangers in waiting rooms who werent being seen. He would hear interviews with natural-disaster victims or the homeless on NPR and have to pull his car over. There continued to be other tribulations, too more mundane ones. A few times a year, he still rebreaks a rib out of nowhere; once or twice, Jon told me, all it has taken is an especially affectionate hug from his wife. Jon found early on that he could cordon off this suffering, both in his own mind and in conversation, by making jokes about the accident itself and sticking to the happy ending of our rescue, a trick that got much easier after the National Geographic show aired later that year. Mission Rescue: Final Frontier, the program was called. The soundtrack was all heart-thwacking synth drums and shredding guitar. A foreboding, Ken Burns-effected snapshot of Dave and Jon looking joyful before the trip gave way to a whirring re-enactment of someone elses legs cast in the role of Daves legs sprinting through the blurry woods for our radio. A melodramatic narrator pondered the fate of Kayaker Jon Cohrs. Initially, the schlockiness of the production felt like a blessing. The show depersonalized the accident, giving us all a shorthand to convey how dramatic that day had been, without confronting how destabilizing and senseless it might have felt. At a party, you could lay out the basics a tree fell on Jon then say, National Geographic even made a TV special about it, and everyone would go wide-eyed but then move on, figuring you would unspool the real story some other time. Jon, in Sitka Community Hospital, celebrates his rescue with the author, center, and their friend Dave. From Jon Mooallem But we never realized the degree to which that kitschy shorthand started to obscure the real story then, gradually, to replace it. Im embarrassed to admit that, though Jon and I have remained close, I did not know the extent to which he has continued to suffer for the last 17 years until talking to him for several hours in order to write this account. The morning after the accident, Dave and I traveled back to Dundas Bay to pack up our campsite and collect the kayaks we abandoned the previous evening. We were shuttled there from Gustavus by the same boat captain who dropped us off three days earlier, a forbiddingly taciturn commercial fisherman named Doug Ogilvy. The tide in the cove was way out when we arrived; it was, as Ogilvy put it, a suck-ass beach. The approach was so shallow that he had to drop anchor a hundred yards or more from shore. He asked if we had waders. We did not. So Ogilvy put on his, climbed down the ladder and told Dave to get on his back. Then stoically, like an ox or an old-timey strongman hauling a safe, he trudged through the thigh-high water, dropped Dave on the gravel beach, then lurched back and hauled me the same way, as if I were a man-size infant in a papoose. Dave told me hed had a strange feeling on the ride out, as if we would discover that an even more massive tree had fallen on our tent since we last slept there and that all three of us would have been crushed and killed if wed spent another night in Dundas Bay, as planned. That is, he half-expected to find evidence that the accident had been fortuitous somehow, that there was a reason, or redemptive value, behind it. My mother had the same instinct when I called her the night before. On the phone I strained to emphasize for her she was only two years into her cruelly premature widowhood, and I was new at being the overprotective son of a widow that Jon was going to be all right, and that Dave and I were safe. She told me that my dad must have been up there looking out for us somehow. I resented all the supernatural thinking. If it comforted other people, fine, but Id somehow known right away that I didnt need a reason for the accident. It was senseless, but straightforward, as unequivocal a fact as my fathers death had been. A tree fell in the woods. It might not have, but it did. Jon could have died, but he didnt. Other possibilities spiraled infinitely outward from there, though apparently I wasnt too interested in contemplating them. As strange as it sounds, it was years before I realized that the tree could have hit me and only after a friend pointed this out, as I told the story around a fire one night. And it was only a few weeks ago, while on the phone with Jon, that it occurred to me that the tree could have hit all three of us we were standing in a single-file line, after all, waiting to cross the creek and that we all might have wound up clobbered and scattered in that river, dying slowly and watching each other die. Its also probably true that I helped preclude these possibilities by being so feverishly paranoid about bears, wheeling around at the sound of the snapping roots. Thats what allowed me to see the tree coming, just barely, and scream that infinitesimal heads-up for Dave. And so, the real meaning of the accident, if I felt compelled to find one, might be that it validated my most exaggerated fears. But instead, it somehow helped cleanse me of them. There was comfort for me in accepting the arbitrariness of what happened, in regarding it as a spasm of random damage in time and space that, just as randomly, a small number of human beings got the opportunity to repair. We were more capable than I had understood. We were also far more helpless. On the ride back to Gustavus with our gear, I pictured myself, again, as a small blip in empty space. The ride was rough and jumpy as Ogilvy impatiently pounded his boat through the last vestigial wave energy of the storm; Dave and I had to hold on, to plant ourselves on the bench behind him. But there was a moment when I felt so safe that I loosened my grip, leaned slightly into the motion of the boat, and, closing my eyes, felt myself lift off the seat. Jon Mooallem is a writer at large for the magazine who is working on a book about the great Alaska earthquake of 1964. His last feature for the magazine was about our climatological future. A young German has recently been found guilty of creating a fake COVID screening center and illegally pocketing 5.7 million euros ($6 million) in state payouts for tests that were never performed. At the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in Germany, the demand for tests was so great that the state reimbursed centers for conducting COVID tests based solely on an invoice. Most private healthcare providers benefited greatly, but some managed to rake in small fortunes without actually providing any kind of service. Such was the case of a young German student who figured out that all he had to do was create a COVID test center on paper, and then invoice thousands of tests every day to collect sizeable payouts from the Government. The young man, who was only 17-year-old when he came up with the idea in 2020, managed to pocket a whopping $6 million without actually doing any work. Photo: Mufid Majnun/Unsplash According to the public prosecutors office, Germanys Kassenartzlichen Vereinigung (KV) had trusted the information provided by a 17-year-old boy from Freiburg, who claimed to operate a COVID test center. Between March and June of 2021, the young man, whose name has not been revealed, billed up to 5,000 tests per day, although his testing center didnt even exist. In 2020 and 2021, to speed up testing, the German Government entrusted the Kassenartzlichen Vereinigung, an association of doctors approved by the German health insurance services, with overseeing COVID testing and handling payments to private test centers. Unfortunately, the lack of oversight made the system an easy target for quick-thinking fraudsters. Photo: Mick Haupt/Unsplash In the span of fewer than four months, the young scammer billed around 500,000 COVID tests, and despite the improbable daily rate of testing, never got so much as a question from the KV. Instead, he received timely payment amounting to a whopping 5.7 million euros in his bank account. If not for a meddling bank employee, our young fraudster would have probably raked in even more money from the Government, However, in June of 2021, someone noticed that the account of a simple student had ballooned to over $6 million and suspected some form of money laundering. They contacted the police and a quick investigation revealed that his fortune had been acquired through illegal means, so it was promptly confiscated. Now 19-years-old, the perpetrator was recently convicted for his crime. Luckily, because he had not yet turned 18 when he set his scheme in motion, he was trialed as a minor, so he only had his fortune confiscated and ordered to pay a fine of 1,500 euros ($1,600) to a public utility organization). He will also be on probation for one year, after which will study his case again and may impose new sanctions. YAI Seeks Partner for Central Park Challenge Wed., Jun. 1, 2022 YAI, the New York nonprofit group that provides services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, is looking for a partner to help it maximize the return from its annual Central Park Challenge, its biggest event of the year. BEALTAINE, the name given in Irish to the month of May, sets off a series of events bringing Arts to Older People, promoted by Age and Opportunity. Offaly may not be the first name to spring to mind in this context, but on closer inspection, we can hold our own with the best. And Birr is first on that list, hosting as it does, five independent Festivals throughout the year. After our period of cocooning, the butterflies are emerging, and they did so with force recently in Birr Library, where readings from the recently published book, The Way We Were were held, mostly read by the authors themselves. The book had been co-funded by LOETB, OLDC, and the Offaly Age Friendly Alliance, and mentored by Denise Curtin Dunne from Laois, with people reminiscing on their youthful endeavours, schooldays, games played, and whatever mischief was available in pre technology times. Among the readers were Tess OShea, Jim Madden, Vera Hayden, Alice Carroll, Kitty Galvin, George Smith and Frances Kawala. Rita Kelly, Birrs resident poet, opened proceedings with readings from her collection. Rita, who has long time connections with Birr, started with a poem entitled What If, instilling hope - things will be all right in the end. But the one in particular which should be available in every local school and library, the one with evocative memories of Birr woven through every line, was written in response to meeting up in the grounds of Birr Castle, with local musician, Ann Hogan. Many thanks to Birr Library for offering their wonderful venue for this event, and indeed for the refreshments which followed. We look forward to a continuation of writing from our local authors; indeed, the wonderful new facility at Birr Further Education Training Centre has been providing aspiring writers with Creative Writing Classes, so watch this space! OFFALY'S biggest wind farm project moved a step closer last week when it won a provisional contract under the Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS-2). The proposed Yellow River wind farm near Rhode was granted planning permission in 2014 and with 29 turbines, is larger than the nearby Mountlucas wind farm which was developed by Bord na Mona. The Yellow River facility has a capacity of 104MW whereas the capacity of Mountlucas is 84MW. Yellow River will also be by far the most significant wind energy project in Offaly to be installed on private land. It was originally developed by a Wexford company, Green Wind but was subsequently purchased by SSE Renewables. Commenting on the success in the RESS-2 auction, Finlay McCutcheon, director of Onshore Renewables Europe at SSE Renewables said: Were delighted the Yellow River wind farm project has been provisionally successful in this auction round and has secured a route to market which will enable the onshore project to contribute to Ireland's 2030 renewable energy targets. We will continue to progress the project, with a target of completing the wind farm in 2024. Once operational, we look forward to working with the community to share the benefits of Yellow River wind farm through its substantial Community Fund. The company said that due to its 100MW-plus scale and the lower cost of delivery associated with onshore wind technology, Yellow River Wind Farm is one of the more competitive projects to have been successful in the RESS-2 process. The provisional auction results are subject to Irish Government approval with confirmation due on June 15 next. SSE Renewables says it will continue to progress the 29-turbine wind farm through development and towards a final investment decision. The project is expected to support up to 80 full-time construction jobs at peak. The company said that subject to a timely positive final investment decision, it will operate the asset throughout its lifetime. The wind farm will be capable of generating enough low-carbon renewable energy to power the equivalent of 66,000 homes annually and offset 71 million kg of carbon per annum, contributing significantly to Ireland's 2030 renewable energy targets. The Community Benefit Fund will be worth around 9 million over the lifetime of the RESS-2 contract, added the company, saying the fund will be designed in consultation with the local community and will help promote a range of energy sustainability, climate action and other community initiatives in the area around the wind farm. The wind farm project encountered significant opposition from some local people when it was first proposed and there was particular concern about its proximity to Croghan Hill. However, it is strongly supported by 22 local landowners who have leased sites for turbines to the wind company and they launched a public campaign in 2019 against Bord na Mona when the peat and energy company was engaged in a local planning dispute with Green Wind. The maximum tip height of the turbine blades will be 166 metres. Twelve of the turbines are west of the R400 road, north west of Rhode village, and two more are about 900 metres north east of the village. Other turbines are in the north east corner of Offaly close to Westmeath and Meath boundary. Turbines will be in the townlands of Derryarkin, Derryiron, Coolcor, Coolville, Ballyburly, Greenhills, Bunsallagh, Derrygreenagh, Knockdrin, Wood, Killowen, Corbetstown, Carrick, Garr and Dunville. Elsewhere in north Offaly, Bord na Mona is nearing completion of its 21-turbine wind farm at Cloncreen, near Clonbullogue. Separately, Statkraft have planning consent for Moanvane Wind Farm, a 12-turbine project between Geashill and Walsh Island. AN abusive man who was intoxicated had an unlit cigarette in his mouth at the emergency department in Tullamore Hospital, the local District Court heard. Michael Garvey, Dan Scally B&B, Old Dublin Road, Kilbeggan appeared before Judge Patricia Cronin on charges alleging public drunkenness and a breach of the peace on December 10 last. A plea of guilty was entered by Donal Farrelly, solicitor. Sergeant James O'Sullivan said the man was shouting in the accident and emergency department and was so intoxicated that could not walk and he had to be helped out to a car. He had refused to leave the area and there were other people watching and listening to the incident. Sergeant O'Sullivan said Mr Garvey had 17 previous convictions for public order offences and most recently had been fined 105 at Athlone District Court in April last year. Mr Farrelly said his 55-year-old client, a father of two, had taken to drink having suffered domestic violence and he regretted what happened in the hospital. He had attended hospital on a number of occasions because of injuries that had been inflicted on him and on the occasion before the court, he was not a danger to anyone but himself. He now lived in a B&B and was getting to grips with things having separated from his partner. Judge Cronin said there was a poor history of offending under the Public Order Act but the court was most concerned about where the offence occurred. The hospital is a place for people who are ill and need assistance, she said. They don't need somebody behaving in that fashion in a hospital. That is not acceptable behaviour from the court's point of view, said Judge Cronin. Mr Garvey's mobile phone rang twice when the sentencing was being outlined and Judge Cronin asked the accused to switch it off. She ranked his offending at the upper end of the charge for engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour. She said the hospital is a refuge for unwell people who are in difficult times and they, along with family members with them, were subjected to Mr Garvey's behaviour. She sentenced him to six weeks in prison but suspended it for six months on a 100 bond, warning the man that similar offending could not happen again, particularly in a hospital. The six-year-old boy who died after a swimming pool accident at the Tullamore Court Hotel in Offaly has been remembered as a "happy beautiful boy running around the yard." Oliver Forde has been named locally as the victim of the tragic accident which occurred last Sunday, May 29. The boy was brought to Childrens Health Ireland at Crumlin where he passed away on Tuesday, May 31. He will be laid to rest on Friday at St Agnes' Church, Crumlin where he was from. He was the beloved son of Denis and Nina and brother to Jack and Lucas. In tributes posted to RIP.ie, friends, family and neighbours remembered a vibrant little boy. One tribute read: "I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful baby boy Oliver. He was always such a happy beautiful boy running around the yard. My thoughts and prayers are with you all at this horrible time." Another said: "There are no words that will make this any easier for you all. An absolute tragedy, may Oliver send you the strength to guide each other through the days and weeks ahead. Heaven has gained an absolute perfect angel. Condolences to each and every one of you affected by Oliver's untimely death. And may he rest in the arms of the Lord. Rip beautiful boy." Hundreds more tributes were paid: "Nina, Denis, Jack and Lucas. My heart goes out to you, such a shock, your gorgeous beloved son Oliver, always the superhero, he packed so much into his 6yrs, so full of life, well-loved and that smile. Our thoughts and prayers are with you," one person wrote. "I will miss his smiles as he skipped past in the yard. Heaven has certainly gained an angel who will watch over you all. Our thoughts and prayers are with you," another shared. In a statement, a garda spokesperson said: Gardai are investigating the death of a male child, aged 6 years, following an incident at a premises in Co Offaly that occurred on Sunday, May 29, 2022. The child was taken to Childrens Health Ireland at Crumlin where they later passed. A file will be prepared for the Coroner's Court. No further information is available. A spokesperson for the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) said: I can confirm the HSA are aware of this incident and the relevant enquiries are being made. Former Northern Ireland first minister Dame Arlene Foster has welcomed a Sinn Fein move to write to the British Queen on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee. Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill wrote to the Queen to praise her significant contribution to the peace process and to acknowledge her dedicated public service to the British people during her 70 years on the throne. Ms ONeill thanked the Queen for her warmth and unfailing courtesy on the occasions when the pair have met and wrote of the value and respect she had for the monarchs contribution to reconciliation. Former DUP leader Dame Arlene praised Ms ONeills gesture. Obviously, I very much welcome it, she told BBC Radio Ulster. Dame Arlene, who served alongside Ms ONeill at the head of the Stormont Executive, said the Platinum Jubilee celebrated three things the Queens public service and dedication; the institution of the monarchy; and the concept of Britishness. She added: I think for republicans, like Michelle ONeill, like Nicola Sturgeon, they have recognised in Her Majesty the Queen the first of those, the fact that she has given so much service to the country. Theyre recognising that and I think that that is something that is to be welcomed. Ms ONeills letter to the Queen, which was sent last month and reported by the Belfast Telegraph yesterday (Thursday June 1), read: I thought it best to write to you personally as you mark 70 years of dedicated public service to the British people as Monarch. Your Platinum Jubilee is an historic moment, especially for all those from the unionist and British tradition on the island of Ireland, and across these islands whom with great pride and devotion hold you very dear. Personally, I wish to thank you for your warmth and unfailing courtesy on the occasions in which both I and my late colleague, Martin McGuinness, met with you in Belfast in 2012 during your Diamond Jubilee, and thereafter at Windsor Castle during the State Visit of President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins to the UK in 2014. I wish to record the value and respect I place on the significant contribution you have made to the advancement of peace and reconciliation between the different traditions on our island, and between our two islands during those years of the peace process. As incoming First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive I, like you, will take every opportunity to strengthen the bonds of friendship and renew the spirit of co-operation between those of us in the world of politics and public life from different traditions, and also the people and communities we proudly represent. Dublin Airport officials have said they are confident that passengers will not miss flights this weekend if they arrive at the airport at the recommended time. It comes after Dublin Airport made international headlines last weekend after long queues stretched outside the airport terminals and over 1,000 people missed their flights. Dalton Philips, CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the Oireachtas Transport Authority on Wednesday that these delays happened due to a rostering error. Mr Philips also conceded that the aviation sector had recovered quicker than had been anticipated, and that 248 security staff should not have been offered voluntary redundancy last year, during travel restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Transport Minister Eamon Ryan on Thursday urged passengers to follow the advice from the airport and not to arrive too early for a flight. Mr Ryan said he was confident people should be able to get through the airport with minimal difficulties in the days and weeks ahead. He told the Dail: It will be managed. People will get through, Im confident this weekend and through this summer period. And if it doesnt, then well have to take further measures. Therell be nothing avoided in terms of making sure that Irish passengers dont have that uncertainty, dont have that stress. Speaking on RTE Radio earlier, media relations manager with the DAA Graeme McQueen said that if people adhere to the recommended arrival times were confident that we can get you through in plenty of time this weekend. Passengers are advised to arrive at least 2.5 hours before short-haul flight departures, and 3.5 hours before long-haul flights depart. An extra hour is needed if they are checking in a bag. What were trying to do here is get the flow of passengers back to the way we want it so that we can get people through in a nice orderly manner, Mr McQueen said. On Thursday morning, there was a steady stream of travellers through Dublin Airport ahead of the busy bank holiday weekend. There was no sign of the lengthy queues of last weekend, with dozens of staff in purple jackets guiding passengers and fielding questions across both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Mr McQueen said that it is currently taking under an hour for passengers to get through the terminal, with around 46,000 passengers expected to fly out on Thursday. He said that holding zones for passengers that arrive before the recommended times would only kick in if they absolutely have to in order to ensure people did not miss flights. If we need, at really busy times, to segment people into holding zones, we will do that. We will either check your boarding card or your booking confirmation. Were very very confident in the operation that weve got in place for this weekend that were going to get everyone through and that there will be no missed flights. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said there will have to be consequences for DAA if the scenes from last weekend are replicated in the days to come. I think a lot of people in this country are getting fed up of senior management hiding behind politicians when it comes to actually doing their job. People are paid to do services. You have a very simple job in DAA get people on planes in time for their flight to take off. Thats the job. Im not suggesting it hasnt been challenging, of course it has. Not just in Ireland but across Europe, weve seen the increase in the number of people through airports significantly go up. He said he hoped the plan outlined by the DAA would work. I think the plan they have published looks to me to be robust, it looks to me to be sensible. But the implementation of that plan will be key. He continued: If the plan isnt delivered there will have to be consequences, but Im not in that space. My constituents hoping to fly out this weekend just want to know they can get on their flight. The jury at the inquest into the deaths of four Irish Coast Guard aircrew in the Rescue 116 helicopter crash is expected to reach a verdict on Thursday. The jury of eight started deliberations on Wednesday afternoon and resumed on Thursday morning. In her address to the jurors, Mayo coroner Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald said the incident appeared to her to be an accident, but that it was their decision to agree on. Rescue 116 crashed off Co Mayo at 12.46am on March 14 2017 during a search-and-rescue mission with four crew on board, after it struck Blackrock Island, 12 miles off the Irish coast. At the time of the accident the crew were offering support to an operation to airlift an injured man from a fishing trawler. Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, the commander of the flight, was pulled from the sea in the hours after the crash and never regained consciousness, and the body of Captain Mark Duffy, the co-pilot, was taken from the cockpit 12 days later by Navy divers. The bodies of winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith were never recovered, despite weeks of intensive searches of the seabed, surface and shore. The inquest, which took place at Belmullet Civic Centre in Co Mayo, heard from a total of 23 witnesses, including Coast Guard crew, members of the RNLI, colleagues of those who were killed in the incident, crash investigators and gardai. On Wednesday, the inquest heard how the visibility in the moments before the crash was very poor and dense. Vincent Sweeney, who worked as a lighthouse attendant at Blacksod, told the inquest how visibility can change in a matter of minutes. He said that visibility was some 400 to 500 feet at the time. He said of the visibility on the night of the crash: It can happen (drop) very fast, its very bad. You could hardly see your arm in front of you. It was more a mist that turned into a deadly fog. It was like soup. That happened within minutes. He told the coroner that he waited outside the lighthouse for R116 to land but could not hear or see them. He said he became concerned when they failed to appear and tried to contact them with his handheld radio, but could not reach them. Mr Sweeney, who has worked at the site since 1981, said he contacted Malin Head to establish if they had heard from the R116 crew. Staff at Malin Head said they were surprised that the crew had not yet landed at Blacksod and within minutes they issued a mayday call. Michael Scott, a commander of Rescue 118, told the inquest that while rescuing the injured fisherman he was told that R116 was missing. While making their way back to land, they passed close to Blackrock Island where almost immediately they saw strobes and debris in the water. Another member of the crew spotted a body floating in the water but they were unable to recover the body as sea conditions were too difficult. An investigation published last year into the crash identified systemic safety issues and made 42 safety recommendations. The investigation found that the aircraft was manoeuvring at 200ft and nine nautical miles from the intended landing point, at night and in poor weather conditions, unaware that a 282ft obstacle was on the flight path. There were serious and important weaknesses with the operators safety management systems (SMS) in relation to navigation and the reporting of safety issues, such that certain risks that could have been mitigated were not, the report said. The investigation report found that concerns had been raised over the navigation system, the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), four years before the crash. The report into the crash said that the crew were unaware it was heading for the Blackrock island. The ordnance survey imagery did not show Blackrock and instead showed open water. The jury at the inquest into the deaths of four Irish Coast Guard aircrew in the Rescue 116 helicopter crash has recorded verdicts of accidental death. The jury of eight returned the verdict following some three hours of deliberations. Rescue 116 crashed off Co Mayo at 12.46am on March 14 2017 during a search-and-rescue mission with four crew on board, after it struck Blackrock Island, 12 miles off the Irish coast. At the time of the accident the crew were offering support to an operation to airlift an injured man from a fishing trawler. Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, the commander of the flight, was pulled from the sea in the hours after the crash and never regained consciousness, and the body of Captain Mark Duffy, the co-pilot, was taken from the cockpit 12 days later by Navy divers. The bodies of winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith were never recovered, despite weeks of intensive searches of the seabed, surface and shore. The foreman of the jury confirmed on Thursday that all four deaths were accidental. An investigation published last year into the crash identified systemic safety issues and made 42 safety recommendations. The investigation found that the aircraft was manoeuvring at 200ft and nine nautical miles from the intended landing point at Blacksod, at night and in poor weather conditions, unaware that a 282ft obstacle was on the flight path. There were serious and important weaknesses with the operators safety management systems (SMS) in relation to navigation and the reporting of safety issues, such that certain risks that could have been mitigated were not, the report said. The investigation report found that concerns had been raised over the navigation system, the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), four years before the crash. The report into the crash said that the crew were unaware it was heading for Blackrock Island. The ordnance survey imagery did not show Blackrock and instead showed open water. The foreman told the inquest that errors and omissions in the mapping and navigation aids contributed significantly to the accident. He also said they endorsed the 42 recommendations of the air accident report. There should be definitive medical criteria when forming any decision to dispatch an emergency helicopter, there should be no ambiguity as to who the decision-maker is, the foreman said. There should be a reliable top-cover in place at all times, ideally not using another SARs (search and rescue) aircraft. Based on clear evidence, errors and omissions in mapping and navigation aids contributed significantly to this accident. There needs to be cohesive regulatory oversight in relation to the various bodies and agencies who bear collective responsibility for the provision of these services. We wish to acknowledge the painstaking work of An Garda Siochana, the air accident investigation unit, the judicial and medical agencies. We wish to acknowledge the strength of those witnesses who gave evidence and the friends and families of the victims who have been forced to relive these harrowing experiences for the purpose of seeking the truth of these events. The burden of responsibility towards those who continue to operate on the front line of rescue services, their families and those who have been lost in service cannot be overstated. We want to acknowledge the heroic efforts of those in the rescue services in the protection of the public on a daily basis. Mayo coroner Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald thanked the jury for its help. The coroner also said the accident happened due to a multiplicity of factors, which in normal circumstances and in normal conditions would not have happened. In their line of duty, is there such a thing as normal, she added. In their occupation there was always going to be a risk involved in undertaking such missions. However, in the circumstances of this particular tragedy and loss of life, there were a few things that went against them. The timing in the night-time, the visibility, the weather conditions and the route and lack of knowledge that Blackrock was there. Multiple of factors were involved in the cause of this accident. She supported the implementation of the 42 recommendations to prevent a similar accident from happening again. Dr Fitzgerald said the flying conditions were treacherous, and the decision to do what they did should not be undertaken lightly ever again. She conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families. The coroner also said it was a challenging investigation and paid tribute to all the parties involved. She said there was no stone left unturned in the investigation. The legal representatives of the families thanked the jury, the witnesses and those involved in the search for their loved ones following the crash, including the Coast Guard, volunteers, fishermen and people local to the Belmullet area. Speaking after the inquest, Dara Fitzpatricks father John said the inquest verdict on Thursday will help bring closure to the family. He said the families had received fantastic support from the people of Belmullet and the local area. He said it was a very emotional moment but would bring some closure to him and his wife Mary. You can grieve normally then. Definitely, he added. The inquest, which took place at Belmullet Civic Centre in Co Mayo, heard from a total of 23 witnesses, including Coast Guard crew, members of the RNLI, colleagues of those who were killed in the incident, crash investigators and gardai. On Wednesday, the inquest heard how the visibility in the moments before the crash was very poor and dense. Vincent Sweeney, who worked as a lighthouse attendant at Blacksod, told the inquest how visibility can change in a matter of minutes. He said that visibility was some 400 to 500 feet at the time. He said of the visibility on the night of the crash: It can happen (drop) very fast, its very bad. You could hardly see your arm in front of you. It was more a mist that turned into a deadly fog. It was like soup. That happened within minutes. The EU official in charge of energy policy has said dependency on Russian oil has left Europe open to blackmail. Kadri Simson, European commissioner for energy, appeared before an Oireachtas committee to take questions amid the backdrop of an energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine. This week, the EU forged a compromise that will see the body move to block most Russian oil imports. Ms Simson told the Oireachtas Energy and Climate Committee that the war in Ukraine is causing us to reconsider Europes energy security. She added: The war in Ukraine has changed things when it comes to energy. We are forced to confront the fact we are too dependent on imports from Russia and it is being a tool for blackmail. This is something that we cannot tolerate. Discussing the drastic shift in EU energy policy, Ms Simson said: Doubling down even further will take commitment and effort across the whole society. She also praised Irelands potential as a source of off-shore renewable energy. Ms Simson said: There are few places in the world that are better suited for off-shore renewables than Ireland, sitting here on the edge of the windy Atlantic gives you a great potential to build more renewable energy. Some politicians raised the concerns of climate campaigners about EU policy on climate change, in particular the recent shift to liquefied natural gas (LNG) sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The EU is aiming to be climate-neutral by 2050. Sinn Fein climate spokesperson Darren ORourke said: Everybody, hopefully, is moving in the same direction. But of course that puts challenges on capacity to deliver at scale, at a European level. How do you prioritise within that and at a time where youre pulling from those resources to deliver LNG? Ms Simson replied: In the long run, well see that if our member states will achieve everything that is proposed under the Fit for 55, then by 2030, Europe will consume 30% less natural gas than we consumed 2020. The 3 issues dominating #energy at the moment are sustainability, affordability & security. It might be #EU wide, but every Member State is unique. Good discussion w/ Oireachtas Committee on Environment & Climate Action. Happy to hear your views on current state in energy. pic.twitter.com/i22HFYRlH5 Kadri Simson (@KadriSimson) June 2, 2022 So yes, this extraordinary time and huge pressure before this heating season, but in the longer run we will decarbonise and we will replace also significant shares of our gas consumption with this clean gas. Similar concerns were flagged by Senator Alice Mary Higgins. She said: To simply say that in 2050 were suddenly talking about net zero, but not having a genuinely strong emission path up to that is the real danger and in fact, really, Europe and the EU in particular does not have 28 years given our disproportionate responsibility for driving climate change. That we in fact should be, you know, leading ahead of the curve in terms of decarbonisation, as our fair share will be exhausted before that. Ms Simson said that while member states were committed to climate neutrality by 2050, some this year would need emergency investments to get rid of Russian imports. She added: This is not easily doable to replace them with renewables in such a short term. This is behind the flexibility that offers some landlocked countries a window where they can use their own recovery funds to co-finance pipelines, but mainly they will be financed against the market. Speaking on Thursday morning, Ms Simson said that she and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan discussed the challenges that Europe faces and proposals on how to scale up renewable energy sources. She said: We discussed how to scale up and to accelerate renewable deployment in Europe, we will negotiate that with our member states in the Energy Council that takes place at the end of June, and I do hope that we will find a common understanding that investments in renewables are the best practices how we can get rid of Russian imports, because this is a dangerous dependency that we face right now. So lots of work ahead of us, a challenging heating season ahead of us, but we do have a plan how to secure supply for our consumers and how to tackle high energy prices. This was Ms Simsons first visit to Ireland in her capacity as the EUs Energy Commissioner. Ireland is one of the member states not dependent on Russian energy, she said. Ms Simson said that the EU could only partially replace the gas supply levels that it received from Russia last year, but would aim to double its biogas production, which she said may be of interest to Irish farmers. It will be a very big challenge to replace Russian gas fully, she added. Two women pleaded guilty to stealing items on two separate occasions from a Tullamore store during last week's sitting of the District Court. Before the court were Nikita Mulpeter, 226 The Glen, Kilnacourt Woods, Portarlington, Laois; and Leah Wells, 33 Cluain Darragh, Tullamore. The court was told that the two women stole the items from the shelves on two separate occasions but on the same date, Friday April 22, 2022. Sergeant James O'Sullivan told the court that Mulpeter entered Tesco's, Cloncollig, Tullamore on the date in question, removed items from the shelves amounting to 240 and left the store without paying. The goods were subsequently recovered. The Sergeant said the defendant had six previous convictions, including two for theft. The defending solicitor Patrick Martin told the court that Mulpeter is 28 years of age, has two children and is unemployed. Both of her children have some difficulties, remarked Mr Martin. She apologises for the incident. It occurred during what was a difficult time for her. Judge Patricia Cronin convicted and fined 250. Sgt O'Sullivan said Leah Wells stole 60 worth of items from the shelves of Tesco's, Cloncollig. The defending solicitor Patrick Martin told the Judge that his client was pleading guilty to the offence. The goods were subsequently recovered, commented Mr Martin. She made a full admission. She has no previous convictions. He said Wells is 28 years of age and has four children, one of whom is autistic. She is unemployed and is in receipt of a carer's allowance. The solicitor added that his client apologises and he asked the Judge to please be as lenient as possible. Judge Cronin applied the Probation Act. Hooves4Hospice are delighted to be associated with the exciting Kilbeggan Summer Festival of Racing taking place this bank holiday Sunday. The Race Card will feature the New Midland Hospice Beginners Steeplechase among what promises to be a thrilling evening of racing. This event, along with the generosity of the midlands farming, business and school community is just another project highlighting the fundraising efforts of Hooves4Hospice towards the building of a 16 bedded level 3 Hospice for the Midlands. The hospice project is supported by Midland Lions Clubs and the Irish Hospice Foundation. The Midlands is currently the only region of Ireland that does not have a Level 3 hospice. Earlier this year the Minister for Health, Mr. Stephen Donnelly, T.D., allocated 1million to progress the development of the proposed Hospice. Chairman of the Project, Mr Pat Lalor, speaking this week, thanked Mr Paddy Dunican, Manager of Kilbeggan Race Course, his committee and Horse Racing Ireland for their commitment and support for the project. Their generosity in allowing us to promote our project at one of their premier race meetings is very much appreciated by everybody involved, he added. The project involves farmers being asked to donate a young animal that they or a host farmer will rear for 12 to 18 months. When that donated animal is sold the proceeds will go directly into the Midland Hospice Building Fund. Some farmers will donate and rear their own animal Others will donate an animal which will be placed with and reared by a host farmer. The Lions Club will purchase young animals, where necessary, to be placed on host farms. Members of the public can contribute to the cost of purchasing these animals by making a donation through our web site, www.h4h.midlandhospice.ie Another mass shooting ... as a gunman opened fire at a Tulsa hospital, killing at least 3 other people before turning the gun on.. TMZ.com 01 Jun 2022 Rumble 25 May 2022 Welcome to Honey Badger Radio with Brian and Alison as we talk about an article from NBC News which shows that male victims of.. Queen Elizabeth's 70th year on the throne is being marked in the UK and in Australia with four days of events organised in honour of the milestone. At the age of 96, she is the UK's longest-reigning monarch. American teen Coco Gauff will take to centre court for the womens final at Roland Garros knowing there are things far more important than a maiden grand slam crown. A lawyer for a woman who accused Bill Cosby of assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion in the mid-1970s told a California jury on.. CBC.ca 02 Jun 2022 A lawyer for a woman who accused Bill Cosby of assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion in the mid-1970s told a California jury on Wednesday the comedian had a sense of "entitlement," while Cosby's lawyer called the alleged assault a "fabrication." Hungry for chips, the EU hopes to tap into Taiwan's semiconductor and microchip industry. Fresh talks with Taipei come amid tense relations with China though which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province. Western unity is being strained by the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, the prime minister of Estonia has warned. Sky News 06 Jun 2022 As Belarusian forces assemble near the border, a Belgian volunteer told Euronews what they saw over three weeks in besieged Chernihiv. Watch VideoThe Union Jacks are lining the streets of London, and fans of the British monarchy are already camped.. Newsy 02 Jun 2022 From Australia joining in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations to Russia occupying almost 20 per cent of Ukraine's territory, here's what's making news around the world right now. Russian blockades of Ukrainian exports will have a big impact on New Zealand and many other parts of the world, National's foreign affairs spokesman says."It's having a massive effect," Gerry Brownlee said when asked about the blockade's... President Joe Biden has announced a $700 million military aid package to provide timely and critical aid to the Ukrainian military in its fight against the Russian invasion. The New weaponry, which will include powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, will enable the Ukrainian forces to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine. Ukraine will get the M142 High Mobili Michael Avenatti was sentenced for stealing about $300,000 from Daniels, the porn actor who catapulted him to fame as he represented her during her legal battles with then-President Donald Trump. Recife, Brazil (AFP) June 2, 2022 While firefighters search for missing people under thick mud, residents in the Brazilian city of Recife can barely sleep: they fear landslides like the ones that claimed 120 lives in recent days. "We have children, we have all our things inside the house. We stay up until dawn, afraid that the hill will fall on us," Claudia do Rosario told AFP on Wednesday, standing at the door of her modes Wales Online 02 Jun 2022 The Trooping of the Colour ceremony is the first in many events taking place this weekend Officials are in talks on how many tickets will be given to Ukrainian refugees for the crucial game. An explanation of the alphabet soup of weapons the White House will soon send to the Ukrainian military. Here's the latest for Thursday June 2nd: Tulsa police try to identify gunman; House to look at minimum age for buying certain firearms; US and Germany pledge more weapons for Ukraine; Elizabeth II celebrates 70 years as Queen. Here's the latest for Wednesday, June 1st: Jury sides with Depp on lawsuit, Heard on counterclaim; Buffalo supermarket gunman indicted on terror, hate; Hinckley to get full freedom 41 years after; Queen Elizabeth II's hats, handbags and gloves. China has hit out at New Zealand after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a joint statement with Washington on "shared concerns" about Beijing's influence in the Pacific.It comes after China last month signed a security pact... After a US jury largely sided with Johnny Depp in his libel battle against Amber Heard, could the verdict help the Pirates of the Caribbean star to resurrect his flagging career? Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has completed a pre-trial investigation into pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is accused of treason, and it has filed the case to court, the law enforcement agency said on Thursday. Police say the man blamed the doctor for his back pain and had purchased a rifle only hours earlier. NYTimes.com 07 Jun 2022 The Altamarea Group branches out, the owner of Coco Pazzo unveils an Italian seafood spot, and more restaurant news. Sports Illustrated 02 Jun 2022 Former Cowboys and Bears running back Marion Barber was found dead in his apartment by police in Frisco, Texas, the Cowboys.. Are you looking for a paragliding course that tackles the basics and gives you the confidence to fly on your own? Then Fly Cape Town is the Paragliding Company that is perfect for you. While you wait for your next course, take a read of our basic paragliding course need to know. One of our most popular training selections at Fly Cape Town is the Basic Paragliding Course. In just Artificial intelligence, the emerging technology that can encompass nearly anything, from search engine algorithms to robotics. It tenders to accomplish the need of achieving transportation and economic growth at its best. When it comes to large cities across the globe, issues related to transport, traffic, and logistics are always considered a matter of concern. This is all because of the rapid growth of the human population and the increase in This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Photo provided/Ron Spitnale Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Photo provided/Ron Spitnale Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Ron and Wilma Spitnale are celebrating their 60th anniversary. Ron married the former Wilma Pomranky on June 2, 1962 at Homer United Methodist Church in Midland. The Spitnales have three sons, Chris (Brenda), Chad (Molly) and always in memory, Craig. They also have four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TORONTO (AP) Indigenous leaders met with Canadian bishops on Wednesday and were told Pope Francis won't add more stops, as they requested, to his trip to Canada, where he will apologize in person for the abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church. Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair because of a bad knee, will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the far north. The pope leaves on July 29. Three locations were picked. The survivors had no say in that. We werent asked, said Ken Young, a former regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Manitoba. We asked the bishops if that could change to include other venues, perhaps Kamloops, and that answer was no. Richard Smith, the archbishop of Edmonton, said the Vatican made it clear the trip had to be short, considering the popes health. The Vatican has announced those three sites, and when the Vatican announces it, thats it, Smith said. Smith said hes astonished Francis is going ahead with the visit considering his limited mobility. Smith noted that a planned trip to Lebanon was cancelled and said Francis still plans visits to South Sudan and Congo in early July. I dont know this, but I wouldnt be surprised if people were advising him not to travel at all, Smith said. With the Canada trip, Francis, 85, will be testing his stamina. After weeks of limping badly due to what the Vatican has said is a badly strained knee ligament, Francis began arriving at some public appearances in a wheelchair. Pressure for a papal apology increased when the apparent remains of over 200 children were detected buried in unmarked graves in Kamloops, British Columbia, last year at what had been Canadas largest indigenous residential school. There are also unidentified remains in unmarked graves at other residential schools across Canada. Indigenous leaders wanted Francis to visit Kamloops. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Canadas government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. Earlier this year, Francis made a historic apology in the Vatican for abuses in Canadas church-run residential schools and expressed sorrow and shame for the lack of respect for Indigenous identities, culture and spiritual values. He said then that he wanted to go to Canada to deliver the apology personally to survivors. Young said the apology at the Vatican didnt go far enough but said he's confident the pope will say the right thing. The church has to accept ownership and responsibility for what happened to First Nations people and families, Young said. The impacts were life changing and life lasting. We expect, at least I expect, the pope to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church in the right way. How that works out in terms of words is something we have agreed to work on with the bishops." Ted Quewezance, former chief of the Keeseekose First Nation in Saskatchewan and the interim chair of a residential survivors school group, said they would like to see the wording of the apology Francis will make in Canada. He said they also need to work out how to get survivors to the locations the pope will visit. Smith, the the archbishop of Edmonton, said the pope will say the right thing because he really wants this to be a step forward and a step in the whole healing process. BUFFALO, Minn. (AP) A jury found a man guilty of murder and other counts Thursday in a shooting at a Minnesota medical clinic last year that killed one staff member and wounded four others. Jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon, following testimony by the defendant, Gregory Ulrich, and short closing arguments by each side, KARE-TV reported. Ulrich was the only witness for the defense. Sentencing is scheduled for June 17. He is charged with murder, attempted murder and other counts in the Feb. 9, 2021, shooting at Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo, a city of about 16,400 people that's 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis. He testified that he didnt want to kill anyone, just cause damage to draw attention to his pleas for medication to alleviate back pain. Investigators have said he was addicted to opioids and angry his supply had been cut off. Prosecutors began closing arguments by naming each person who was shot, calling them innocent, defenseless victims who were front-line workers in the medical field. They asked jurors to consider video Ulrich recorded where he said to kill as many nurses as you can." Defense attorneys said they weren't asking for sympathy for Ulrich and instead tried to dispel the notion that the attack was premeditated. They asked jurors to consider Ulrichs state of mind and played back his confession during a 911 call. Several of the victims testified this week, at which time Ulrich put his head on the table and didn't look up for two hours. Ulrich told Wright County District Judge Catherine McPherson beforehand that he was in great pain and would prefer to lie down outside the courtroom. One witness said she heard the gunman call 911 and tell the dispatcher to "send a lot of ambulances. There are a lot of spinal injuries and I have bombs that are about to go off. Law enforcement said after the attack that Ulrich was no stranger to them and was known to have been angry over his medical treatment. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Tereasa Nims. Wednesday, June 1 10:32 p.m. Police were called to the 300 block of Dutch Drive for a domestic verbal dispute. 9:49 p.m. Deputies conducted a traffic stop at a Homer Township location and spoke with the 20-year-old male driver. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the man didn't have any insurance for the vehicle. The man was issued a citation. A report is being sent to the prosecutor. 9:14 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township residence to assist Mount Pleasant Tribal Police with contacting a woman. The woman was not able to be located and no additional assistance was needed from the Sheriff's Office. 8:53 p.m. Deputies responded to a Mount Haley Township neighborhood for a report of a 30-year-old man creating a traffic hazard with a lawn mower. Deputies did not locate a traffic hazard, but they spoke with the 30-year-old and informed him of traffic laws. 7:45 p.m. Deputies assisted the Midland Police Department by attempting contact with a 50-year-old man at an Edenville Township. residence. The man no longer lived at that residence. This information was turned over to the Midland Police Department. 7:39 p.m. Police were called to westbound US-10 at the Eastman Avenue overpass for a traffic hazard. 8:02 p.m. A deputy spoke with a 41-year-old Porter Township woman about problems she was having with her 44-year-old roommate. No further assistance was needed. 5:48 p.m. Police responded to Eastman Avenue at Denver Street for an injury crash. 5:21 p.m. Police were called to Robinhood Terrace at E. Sugnet Road for a property damage crash. 4:32 p.m. Police responded to the 2000 block of S. Saginaw Road for a private property crash. 3:42 p.m. Police were called to the 7300 block of Eastman Avenue for a hit-and-run accident. 3:23 p.m. - Deputies were dispatched to the Law Enforcement Center for a report of three lost or stolen firearms. A 59-year-old Hope Township woman said she was missing three guns. She contacted deputies the next day and said she had found her guns. 2:21 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a domestic verbal dispute between a 29-year-old Jerome Township man and a 29-year-old Jerome Township woman. The two parties were separated. 11:54 a.m. The Coleman Community Schools school resource officer assisted the Coleman Junior/Senior High School administration by transporting a 13-year-old student to the MyMichigan Medical Center Emergency Room for a mental health evaluation. A school staff member accompanied the deputy until the student's parent arrived at the ER. 11:14 a.m. A 69-year-old man advised that his 45-year-old neighbor was yelling at him because he had yelled at her 3-year-old daughter for climbing on a downspout. Both parties were advised to take their issues to the landlord instead of handling it themselves. 9:56 a.m. The Coleman Community Schools school resource officer issued a minor in possession of nicotine vapor device to a 13-year-old male student at the Coleman Junior/Senior High School. 8:19 a.m. A 68-year-old Greendale Township woman notified the Sheriff's Office that a blue girl's bicycle was stolen from her residence. 9:15 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Warren Township residence to speak with a 31-year-old woman about her vehicle that was struck in her driveway. There are no leads currently. 3:38 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to assist Bay County law enforcement with a suspect who had fled into Midland County. Deputies located the 27-year-old male suspect in Homer Township. The 27-year-old was turned over to Bay County without further incident. No further assistance was requested from the Sheriff's Office. 12:06 a.m. Police responded to Swede Avenue at E. Ashman Street for a public damage accident. BIG RAPIDS Officers with the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety responded to the following calls. All calls may not be reported. All suspects are assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. A traffic stop near Maple and South Stewart led to the driver being cited for no insurance. A report of fraud was made in the 200 block of Hutchinson. Complainant reported being scammed out of several thousand dollars by her online boyfriend, who allegedly began threatening her after she told him she was making a police report. Case is under investigation. An assault was reported in the 300 block of Warren. Originally reported as an adult having assaulted a child, police said an investigation revealed that a 9-year-old child allegedly attacked a 4-year-old. The 4-year-olds caretaker allegedly smacked the 9-year-old to stop him from attacking. The 9-year-old was taken home and turned over to his older brothers custody. Suspicious activity was reported in the 100 block of Fuller. Female reported an unknown neighbor had been messing with her belongings in her apartment. Police found no evidence to support claim, and the missing items were located inside. A warrant arrest was executed in the 1100 block of Catherine. During a warrant attempt, a female gave a false name. Police said she was the wanted subject and she was lodged on original charge of false ID and the warrant from Mecosta County. Wednesday, May 25 A report of disorderly tenants in the 400 block of Spring Street led to a violation of controlled substance act. Officers were dispatched to disorderly tenants. Residents were looking for their grinder and roller. They checked two other roommates room where they discovered a meth pipe. It was field tested positive for meth. A two-vehicle hit and run was reported near State and Perry. Suspected driver is a white female; the vehicle is a black or dark blue small SUV. A domestic situation was reported in the 300 block of South Michigan. A male allegedly assaulted female, then walked to the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office and made contact with probation officer. Male was taken to Our Brother's Keeper for the night, then will be with probation agent and Community Mental Health to figure out mental state. Report submitted for review. Thursday, May 26 A natural death was reported in the 600 block of Adams. Suspicious activity was reported in the 500 block of West Bridge. Juveniles were reported on the roof of building. Police found the juveniles in the area and advised them to stay away from the building. A civil situation was reported in the 200 block of Division. Dad was upset that son lied to him about staying after school. Police assisted with a disorderly person in the 600 block of Oak Street. A person in mental crisis was being disorderly and wanted to leave. Several hours later, the disorderly person fled the emergency department. She was located and walked back to the ER. Friday, May 27 Suspicious activity was reported in the 400 block of South State Street. Male reported another male was at the apartment refusing to leave and allegedly broke into the house threatening him. The other male was not there on arrival, and police reported not finding signs of forced entry. Officers were called back a short time later because the caller reported seeing people pull into parking lot who are not supposed to be there. Police observed no one pulled in. A walk in complainant reported a 16-year-old ran away from his moms in Reed City because he could not go to the roller rink. Mom was going to wait at roller rink for him. A civil issue was reported in the 800 block of Country Way. Female reported her cousin came over and confronted her in reference to her saying he was trying to talk to a 15-year-old. The cousin allegedly was up in her face and yelling at her. She didnt want her cousin around anymore. Suspicious activity was reported in the 400 block of South Third. Several people accused a female of abuse on her 2-year-old child. Alleged abuse was reviewed on camera and did not appear to be abuse. Case is under investigation. Assisted the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office with a homicide call. A civil issue was reported in the 200 block of Monroe. Originally called as domestic at city pool, officers heard yelling coming from a nearby residence. They observed several subjects arguing, but nothing physical. Saturday, May 28 A natural death was reported in the 1300 block of Darwin. Male was found unresponsive, and CPR efforts were unsuccessful. Male reportedly had a long history of medical issues, nothing suspicious. A personal injury accident was reported near Oak and State. Male riding a Bird scooter allegedly ran into a vehicle stopped at a stop sign. Minor scrapes on knee and scratches on car door. Two juveniles were reported shooting BB guns at the bandshell cameras in the 300 block of Hemlock. Police report they each allegedly had a CO2 bb gun and multiple knives, and one had a marijuana pipe. They were turned over to parents and will be submitting juvenile petitions on both. A domestic situation was reported in the 200 block of Monroe. Police reported finding the situation to be a verbal argument between two males. Both were calm upon arrival and advised there would be no further issues. A domestic situation was reported in the 1000 block of Perry Avenue. Police were called to argument between male and female. Both advised matter was verbal, and the female had family members pick her up. A noise complaint was made in the 500 block of South State. Resident was given noise warning. A traffic stop near Warren and Locust led to driver being arrested for operating while intoxicate. Vehicle was turned over to sober friend. Sunday, May 29 Officers assisted the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office with mental patient transport. A traffic stop near Pine and State led to driver being cited for no insurance. Monday, May 30 Police responded to a report of an accident near Perry and Division. The deer ran into side of a car. An assault was reported in the 600 block of Oak. EMS brought a male to the ER, where he allegedly punched one of the EMS workers and ran off. Police located him running through the backyard of a nearby residence, and they used a stun gun. Male was cleared by the ER and lodged at Mecosta County Sheriff's Office. A bike was found in the river behind the middle school. It was checked in LEIN, then disposed of due to poor condition. A larceny of a bicycle from the trail was reported in the 600 block of Adams. Suspect was reportedly a white female, about 15-20 years old. Video was located and is under investigation An attempted breaking and entering was reported in the 300 block of North Warren. Resident found cellar door partially open. Incident occurred sometime in last two days. Police found no sign that anyone entered the house, and nothing reported missing. Tuesday, May 31 Female was arrested for possession of meth in the 400 block of South Third. Case will also be forwarded for violation of MDOC probation. A civil issue was reported in the 1300 block of Colburn. A male allegedly went into females residence without her permission. She didn't want the case reviewed for charges, just wanted him to leave. A traffic stop near Warren and Spruce for no plate led to driver being cited for driving with license suspended and no insurance. Police responded to the 800 block of Water Tower. Neighbors reported having issues with several juveniles who live/hang out in neighboring apartment. Contact made with juveniles who advised they would stop behavior. A civil issue was reported in the 1300 block of Catherine. Two males had a verbal argument in a parking lot. Both said they would stay away from each other. Blood drives scheduled to aid community, benefit leukemia... Blood donations are needed in Midland for 13-year-old Kenzie Gulick, who suffers from acute... What to know about Jan. 6 insurrection hearings WASHINGTON Nearly a year since its inception, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6... Midland High students demo award-winning virtual reality app The team developed a virtual reality program, called Virtual Motion Therapy, that presents a... MEXICO CITY (AP) The U.S. government announced sanctions Thursday against six people in Mexico, including a police official, for aiding the Jalisco drug cartel. The U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, says the police official gave information to Mexicos most violent and powerful gang. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A years-long effort to protect land around a New Mexico mountain peak held sacred by many Native American tribes got a major boost Thursday with the announcement that dozens of additional square miles will be set aside for wildlife, cultural preservation and recreation. The $34 million effort by the national conservation group Trust for Public Land comes as New Mexico and the federal government look to preserve more natural landscapes as part of a nationwide commitment. The goal is to increase green spaces, improve access to outdoor recreation and reduce the risk of wildfires as the pressures of climate change mount. Trust for Public Land partnered with other organizations and foundations to purchase adjoining properties that make up the sprawling L Bar Ranch, which sits in the shadow of Mount Taylor just west of Albuquerque. The more than 84 square miles (218 square kilometers) includes grassland, rugged mesas and part of the Mount Taylor Traditional Cultural Property, which is on the state register of historic places due to its significance to Native Americans in New Mexico and Arizona. Generations before the ranch became privately owned, people from surrounding Native American communities would make pilgrimages to the area and its timber, wildlife and plants provided sustenance beyond the ceremonial ties. The dormant volcano, now covered with ponderosa pine and other trees, also served as a lookout with notable lines of sight to distant mountain ranges to the east. Tribal leaders say some of the pilgrimage trails are still evident. The pueblo is hopeful that once the purchase is completed an ethnographic study can be conducted to identify areas, locations and sites of cultural significance, said Randall Vicente, governor of Acoma Pueblo. Part of the property has been conveyed to the New Mexico Game and Fish Department and the rest will be turned over to land managers in the coming years to create what will be the largest state-owned recreation property in New Mexico. A legislative appropriation and money allocated through a federal excise tax on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment helped with the effort. A management plan will be developed to ensure recreational access with special considerations for areas important to the pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni and the Hopi and Navajo people. Jim Petterson, a regional vice president with Trust for Public Land, called the acquisition significant, saying it will serve as an important island for wildlife, allowing them to move and adapt across a wide range of elevations as temperatures get warmer and precipitation more scarce due to climate change. In the lower elevations, the remnants of volcanic cones jut up from the valley floor. In the distance are dramatic cliffs that form the edge of mesa tops that are home to grasslands grazed by herds of elk and deer. The area also is home to bear, mountain lions and turkey. "Its a relatively intact, healthy, just spectacular habitat," Petterson said. Everything that should be there is there right now, and we have an opportunity to create a tremendous state wildlife area that will endure for generations to come. Its really beautiful. Nearly 625 square miles (1,620 square kilometers) in and around Mount Taylor, including lands within the L Bar project, were designated a traditional cultural property through decisions made by the states Cultural Properties Review Committee in 2008 and 2009. The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the designation in a 2014 ruling. The movement to protect the area was prompted by proposals to restart uranium mining. In response, tribes took an unprecedented step to detail their spiritual connections to the area in hopes of winning protection. Similar fights are ongoing with energy development in northwestern New Mexico, where federal officials have agreed to put a hold on new leasing in the area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park pending a review. The relationship with the land, as Native Americans, we are the stewards of the land. We maintain this harmony with Mother Earth through culture and prayer," Laguna Pueblo Gov. Martin Kowemy said in a statement Thursday. "It is our responsibility to protect and preserve our land for future generations. Director of Content and Operations Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half. Ouagadougou, (Mali) - Two humanitarian workers of the Malian Red Cross were killed on Wednesday in an attack on their vehicle in the locality of Kayes, the NGO announced Thursday in a statement Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) Mauritius and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday signed the Country Programme Framework in Port-Louis which sets out government's priority areas to guide the UN food agency's partnership and support for 2022 to 2025 Postal operator Swiss Post has invested CHF11m (US$11.4m) to convert a former industrial warehouse into a regional parcel center in Rumlang in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. ') } // --> ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> Now in operation, the center has created approximately 60 new jobs in Rumlang. With the belt conveyors running at full speed, Swiss Post expects to sort around 5,000 parcels an hour. The regional parcel center is intended to enable Swiss Post to get closer to its customers, ensure shorter transport routes and process parcels in a faster, more eco-friendly manner. According to the company, the location near the motorway is ideal in terms of transport connections. Furthermore, the access roads are far from residential areas so the local population is not affected. ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> Previously, Swiss Post processed parcels from and for the Zurich Unterland region in Frauenfeld and Urdorf, but this will no longer be necessary. With the new center, the mailed parcels from and for the region will be sorted in the region itself. The new center means the company can reduce parcel processing times, avoid long transport distances and, in turn, protect the environment. To continue to handle the increasing parcel volumes and the expansion of online retail, Swiss Posts goal is to grow its sorting and delivery infrastructure and enlarge its logistics network by modernizing existing facilities and opening new regional parcel centers, including in Buchs and Pratteln by the beginning of 2023. Plans are underway to open more centers near the conurbations of Basel, Bern and Zurich over the next few years. Swiss Post will also invest around CHF1.5bn (US$1.559bn) in parcel processing by 2030 to double its parcel processing capacity, enabling the operation of at least 15 parcel sorting sites. This investment will create 1,500 full-time jobs. Carmen Walker Spah, head of the department for economic affairs of the canton of Zurich, said, The canton of Zurich welcomes this step and sees the investment as a commitment by Swiss Post to the Zurich Unterland area. Were pleased that Swiss Post is creating new jobs in the region. Stefan Nolte, head of logistics services operations at Swiss Post, explained, Swiss Post is focusing on proximity to its customers and short distances. The parcel center in the Riedmatt industrial district is a stroke of luck for us. The new centers will help us secure Swiss Posts core business, our position as Switzerlands leading logistics provider and create new jobs. Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) Laura Brody and her partner, Lawrence White, placed their baby boy in a plastic bag and brought him to the hospital, where she had the placenta removed. They also wanted to know the reason for the miscarriage and asked for help handling the baby's remains. However, the couple said that the National Health Services staff turned them away, saying they could not do anything with the baby's remains. The Independent reports that the couple had to bring their baby back home, clear their fridge, and put their little boy's remains there overnight. Lack of beds Brody had been bleeding for months but was assured that the baby was okay. However, as per their last scan, the baby had no heartbeat. Brody and White were sent home by the University Hospital Lewisham and were told to wait for a delivery bed. Brody repeatedly told the hospital staff that she could not deliver her baby at home without medical supervision. Without a hospital bed, however, they had to go home. Hours later, Brody, four months pregnant, experienced intense pain. When she rushed to the toilet, the baby came out lifeless. The couple wanted an investigative test as this was their second miscarriage. White called 999 but was refused as the matter was not an emergency. So they wrapped the baby's remains in a wet cloth and placed them in a plastic container. BBC reported they went to the hospital and were instructed to wait in the hot and stuffy general waiting room with about 20 to 30 other people. When they asked if their baby's remains could be taken to the mortuary, the hospital staff told them they had no correct paperwork. They wanted to preserve the baby's remains as best as possible for postmortem. The couple decided that White take the remains home and store them in their fridge while Brody was admitted for surgery to remove the placenta. Read Also: Ashley Graham Shares About Harrowing Near-Death Experience While Giving Birth to Twins Grotesque Brody said that the experience was grotesque. She recalled that no one would want their baby in a plastic box. It was just shoved onto the side and completely ignored by the staff as if it was trash. Nobody would even open the box and look at it, as though no one wanted to acknowledge it, she said. The hospital said that they do not have the paperwork for the remains to be taken to the mortuary. The couple finds the staff's reason "extraordinary." It was ridiculous to come up with the paperwork late at night after giving birth at home. White, who took their son's remains home in a taxi and cleared space for their son in their fridge, said it was a "lonely, surreal moment clearing space in my fridge." Flaws in the health system Brody said that she wants people to know that harrowing experience of miscarriages like hers is happening in London in 2022, and "not just people in very distant parts of the world," The Guardian reports. She added that her experience underlined the flaws in the health system in dealing with late miscarriages. Maria Caulfield, the minister for women's health, offered her condolences to the couple and vowed to improve support for women experiencing a miscarriage. As per Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, a full investigation is ongoing. Related Article: Senegal Hospital Fire Kills 11 Newborn Babies Photo: (Photo : THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images) Strawberries are being recalled in North America, with investigators looking into whether the fruit is the cause of more than two dozen confirmed Hepatitis A cases in Canada and the United States. According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) news release, the batches identified by authorities are past their shelf life. They were distributed between March 5 and April 25, with authorities expressing concern for anyone who may have frozen the expired berries. According to the release, the traceback investigations show that cases in Minnesota, California, and Canada report purchasing fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo or HEB before becoming ill. 27 Hepatitis A cases recorded in latest outbreak in the U.S. and Canada The United States has seen 17 cases of Hepatitis A, a dozen of which required hospitalization, and Canadian authorities confirmed at least 10 cases by Friday, May 27. Fifteen of the cases in the U.S. were recorded in California. A public health notice released in Canada said that the country's cases were found in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Possible infected batches were sold at popular grocery chains - Walmart, Weis Markets, WinCo Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe's, Aldi, H-E-B, Kroger, and Safeway, according to a report by NBC News. If someone is unsure where they bought their strawberries and the brand, the FDA recommends throwing these products away immediately. According to the Mayo Clinic, an academic medical center, Hepatitis A is a virus-born liver infection that causes inflammation and may impair liver function. It is most commonly spread by ingesting water or food that has been contaminated with fecal matter. An investigation is being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FDA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Read Also: Dr. Chiddy to the Rescue: Plastic Surgeon Husband Gives Wife a $35K Full-body Mommy Makeover Mysterious hepatitis cases in children still rising This is not the first time hepatitis cases have grabbed the headlines. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 650 children have been diagnosed with a mysterious and severe hepatitis infection since early April. The hepatitis cases, which have so far puzzled health officials across the globe, have been reported in 33 different countries. According to a Friday statement from the WHO, at least 38 children have required a transplant, and nine kids have died. There are also 99 hepatitis cases pending classification. European countries have reported a majority of the hepatitis cases, with 222 probable cases reported in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Cases were also reported in Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean region, Argentina, and the Western Pacific. Data on the hepatitis cases in Europe showed that 75 percent of the children were under the age of 5. Of the 181 cases that were tested for adenovirus, 60 percent were positive. Of the 188 cases tested for COVID-19, 12 percent were positive. And out of the 63 cases that had data on COVID vaccination, 84 percent were unvaccinated. Related Article: Enraged Georgia Dad Tracks Teen Daughter's Phone Location, Shoots at Boy He Found With Her Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) A 44-year-old mom who was put in a medically-induced coma gave birth to triplets - Liliana, Isabella, and Charlotte Fitzgerald, seven weeks before her due date. The night before she was due for delivery through c-section, she had a seizure, triggering a "Code Blue." ABC News reports that she was rushed to the operating room. The difficult journey to motherhood Leonie Fitzgerald, 47, has been battling infertility for six years. She admitted that she had a long, frustrating, and a little heartbreaking period with infertility. She had three rounds of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and already had four miscarriages. The couple spent about $100,000 on IVF, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, a detox program, and specialists to get pregnant. So when they learned that they were expecting triplets, they were shocked. Expecting a difficult pregnancy, Fitzgerald came prepared. After all, she was at a high-risk age for the pregnancy, had four miscarriages, and carried multiple babies. The mom reduced the stressors in her life. As per Epoch Times, she quit her job to start her own company, slept more, walked up to 30 minutes daily, and put everything to faith. Despite the preparation, her pregnancy was challenging. She shared that she had morning sickness from week seven. She was on bed rest for her entire pregnancy. Four weeks before her scheduled caesarian operation, the expectant mom was admitted to the hospital for ten days due to pains around her ribs. She went home a day before her planned caesarian operation, but she had this gut feeling to check herself back in. That evening, Leonie had a seizure while in the hospital. She was raced to the operating room to deliver the triplets. Doctors quickly transferred her to the Intensive Care Unit while she was sleeping. Read also: Fetus in fetu: Doctors Find Fetus in 40-day-old Baby in India A miracle As per 7News, 21 minutes after her seizure, Leonie gave birth to the triplets. They were so tiny, with Liliana weighing 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs), Isabella at 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs), and Charlotte at 1.9 kg (4.2 lbs). Per her obstetrician, Dr. Paul Conaghan, the mom and the triplets were "in a lot of trouble." The blood tests indicate that the seizure had starved the kids of oxygen. The doctor said she and her triplets might not have made it if she had not admitted herself that day. Fitzgerald was medically induced for 16 hours after she gave birth. Her seizure was due to eclampsia, a "rare but serious" condition linked to high blood pressure during pregnancy. After almost two days, she was wheeled to the neonatal intensive care unit so she could see her babies for the first time. The triplets were also in intensive care for 34 days and discharged without complications. As the twins are approaching their second year, Leonie started a page, @thebusinessoftriplets, to help others with fertility problems and support parents of multiple children. Related Article: Kourtney Kardashian Doctor Advised Her to Drink Hubby's Semen to Improve Thyroid Levels Photo: (Photo : Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Most parents know that placing newborn babies on their backs to sleep can slash the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but a new study reveals that many may forget that rule when the baby wakes up crying in the middle of the night, according to U.S. News. The researchers of the study explained that it is very common for babies to wake up in the wee hours, and parents of newborns are often sleep-deprived. Study author Dr. Mersine Bryan, a pediatrician at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital, said their findings show that caregivers may make different decisions in the middle of the night when they are exhausted than when they do when they are first putting their baby to sleep. Bryan added that it is important to put the baby in their safe places like a crib or bassinet and always on their back to keep them safe when you as the caregiver go to sleep or fall asleep. Healthy babies younger than 1 must be placed on their backs to sleep The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all healthy babies younger than one year of age be placed on their backs to sleep, in addition to other safe sleeping measures, including using a separate location and space. If a newborn baby cannot breathe while sleeping on their stomach, they cannot do anything to fix it and may suffocate. That is the reason why placing infants on their backs is considered safer. The online survey of 1,500 parents of American babies found that 39 percent of parents said they changed their infant's sleep practice after nighttime waking. Fewer than half of those parents adhered to these safe sleep practices after middle-of-the-night awakenings. The researchers for the study compared sleep practices for infants aged one or younger when they first go to sleep and after nighttime waking. Specifically, 42 percent of parents placed their infants on their backs at both time points, while 13 percent who initially put their infants on their backs did not do the same during middle-of-the-night awakenings, according to the study. The report was published online in the journal Pediatrics on May 30. Read Also: Florida Authorities Release Mugshot of 10-year-old Florida Boy Who Threatened a Mass School Shooting Safe-to-Sleep campaign reduced risk of SIDS by more than 50 percent Top SIDS experts agreed that the findings in the study call attention to an important gap between action and knowledge. Dr. Kyran Quinlan, director of the division of general pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said that babies are frequently put back to sleep in a less safe sleep situation after an awakening overnight. Quinlan noted that this is important information that could help guide new education campaigns. Quinlan added that they need all the insights they can get to help parents protect their infants since this is the leading cause of death for babies between one month and one year of age. Dr. Thomas Hegyi, medical director of the SIDS Center of New Jersey Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, echoed that sentiment, saying that one of the ten most important discoveries in pediatrics has been the Safe-to-Sleep campaign, which reduced the risk of SIDS by more than 50 percent. However, they still have to go further to get their message out. Related Article: Indiana Mom Draws a Heart on Her Children's Hands Every Morning in Case of School Shooting Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) In a highly unusual move, a judge ordered to name a sperm donor and banned him from contacting the 15 children he fathered. James MacDougall, 37, did not disclose to the mothers of the children that he has a rare genetic condition. The sperm donor applied for access to the children, but the judge rejected his request for the children's safety. The judge took unusual steps after discovering that the sperm donor took advantage of the young women's vulnerability and desire to have children. She hoped that naming MacDougall would prevent other women from using his services, per the DailyMail. Sperm donor advertises his services through social media As per the family court, MacDougall placed an ad as a potential sperm donor on social media for lesbians who wanted to have babies. Women then hired him, and he was able to father 15 children, ranging from a few months old to four. The sperm donor also signed agreements stipulating that he did not want to contact his 15 children. Yet, he applied to the Family Court for orders that would allow him to spend time with four of them. The mothers vehemently opposed sharing parental responsibility with him or for him to have contact with the children. Judge Justice Lieven ruled that the sperm donor showed "fundamental irresponsibility" by not being upfront about his condition. She also noted that it was irresponsible for the women to use MacDougall as a sperm donor without checking his health record. However, she pointed out that the women were desperate to have children, The Guardian reports. Read Also: Fetus in fetu: Doctors Find Fetus in 40-day-old Baby in India Fragile X syndrome MacDougall did not disclose that he suffers from Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), a genetic condition. The judge described him as "a complex person" who has been diagnosed with learning difficulties and is on the autistic spectrum. Fragile X Syndrome, also known as Martin-Bell Syndrome, is an inherited genetic disease passed on from parents to children. It also causes intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to Healthline. It is a common condition that affects one in 4,000 boys and 8,000 girls. The symptoms are also more notable in boys than in girls. People with FXS are usually associated with various developmental and learning problems. It is a chronic condition, and only a few people with FXS can live independently. Its other symptoms include stuttering, social anxiety, autism, hyperactivity, seizures, depression, and sleeping difficulties. In some cases, people with FXS may have physical abnormalities like a large forehead or ears, prominent jaw, elongated face, protruding ears, flexible joints, and flat feet. Related Article: Kourtney Kardashian Doctor Advised Her to Drink Hubby's Semen to Improve Thyroid Levels Photo: (Photo : Jon Cherry/Getty Images) A two-year-old Afghan boy has been reunited with his parents in the United States after having been stuck in Afghanistan for the past nine months, the child's father told NBC News. The parents of Hanzala Hadi had to leave their young son behind during the chaos at Kabul airport in August as American troops withdrew and the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. The boy was barred from flying out to join his father and mother because he did not have an Afghan passport, a requirement set by the country of Qatar, which oversees flights for all Afghan refugees bound for the United States. Hadi now lives in Philadelphia with his family The family appealed for help from the Biden administration and the Qatari government to get Hanzala out of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the Taliban halted all flights out late last year for Afghan refugees bound for the U.S., according to the Business Standard. The said flights only resumed about a month ago. The boy's father, N. Hadi, delivered some good news, saying in an interview that his son is finally home. The boy landed on Wednesday, June 1, in New York, where both his parents greeted him. Hanzala's parents and younger brother have resettled in the city of Philadelphia. His father has a U.S. special immigrant visa because of his work with a private security company that helped train Afghan national police. As a result, N. Hadi's immediate family automatically qualified for U.S. visas. Exclusive from @dandeluce A two-year-old boy has been reunited with his parents in the U.S. after being stuck in Afghanistan for nine months. The parents of little Hanzala Hadi had to leave their son behind amid the chaos as the Taliban seized control.https://t.co/YGiHIvMV25 NBC Investigations (@NBCInvestigates) June 1, 2022 N. Hadi and his family headed toward Kabul's airport on August 16 but soon became trapped in the crush of people trying to flee Afghanistan as U.S. troops pulled out amidst the Taliban onslaught. N. Hadi and his two-year-old son, Hanzala, got separated from the rest of the family in the chaos. His wife and their 1-year-old son eventually managed to reach the airport gate, and the Marines let them both in. That was not the case for N. Hadi and his son when they tried to gain entry, as they were both turned away by American personnel. N. Hadi struggled to hold his young son and protect him as desperate Afghans shoved their way to the front, and Taliban fighters beat people back. They were getting weak as they spent hours in the heat with no water left in their belongings. Read Also: Lesbian Mom Removed From Birth Certificate in Oklahoma; Blasts Judge's Ruling Hanzala Hadi reunited with family after a very long wait Worried for his son's safety, N. Hadi pulled back and called one of his brothers for help. He asked his brother to take his son Hanzala, give him water and keep him safe until they could be reunited inside the Kabul airport. After N. Hadi handed over the little boy, he made it inside the airport, where he found his wife and youngest son. N. Hadi's brother tried to take Hanzala to the entrance of the airport several times, but the Marines said the gate was closed. Hadi's family had to make a difficult choice as they reluctantly flew out of the country four days later without their son. Refugee organizations took up Hadi's case, and after months of waiting, the family is finally whole again. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees worldwide. Related Article: Son Surprises Michigan Mom With Restored 1972 Honda Motorcycle She Gave Up 25 Years Ago 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 Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions Patently Apples other IP Site, Patently Mobile, has covered both foldable and scrollable smartphone form factors from Samsung going back a decade. At one point in time, it was a tossup as to which of the two form factors would make it to market first. Then in 2019 Samsung introduced the Galaxy Fold. Future smartphone form factors with expandable displays have been dubbed scrollable, rollable and plain flexible. Patently Mobile covered 11 patents regarding this future form factor from Samsung from 2015 to 2019 (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 and 11). Patently Apple covered one design about a smartphone with an internal roller housing design from Samsung back in September 2020. It now appears that Samsung has given the expandable display form factor the green light to ramp up their IP as a final push before bringing this form factor to market. Between May 27 and June 2 2022, there were 10 International patent filings on this form factor alone. Thats an amazing number of patents published in such a short timeframe. In 2020 Samsung competitors OPPO (01 & 02), TCL and LG presented prototypes of this form factor at various trade events, but none of them to date have come to market. LG exited the smartphone market altogether. A strong push now could give Samsung the bragging rights to being First to Market for the expandable display device form factor. Samsung is bent on wanting to beat Apple to market in smartphone designs. First there was the Phablet then the folding phone and likely the expandable display smartphone form factor is next. For those who like to follow tech trends about possible next generation devices, youll find a list of Samsungs patents below on expandable displays filed over the last two weeks that you could further explore: 01: Electronic Device including Flexible Display, and Control Method 02: Electronic Device Comprising Flexible Display 03: Electronic Device Comprising Flexible Display 04: Electronic Device Comprising Rollable Display 05: Method and Apparatus for Controlling User Interface of Flexible Display 06: Electronic Device Comprising Expandable Screen and Operating Method 07: Electronic Device Comprising Rollable Display 08: Electronic Device including Flexible Display, and Touch Control Method 09: Electronic Apparatus Comprising Flexible Display 10: Sliding Type Electronic Device including Speaker While Patently Apple has covered a few scrollable display patents from Apple (01 02, 03 and 04), it doesnt appear to be a priority with them at this point in time. Until Samsung or another competitor can prove its a winning form factor, Apple is likely to remain on the sidelines and continue to file patents in an evolutionary manner until needed. On May 22, Patently Apple posted a report titled The Showtime series 'Super Pumped' illustrated the depths that a developer would go to get around Apple's Privacy Policies. What made the series great was seeing how Uber plotted to work around Apple's Privacy Policies so as to be able to spy on their customers even after the ride ended. The depths that they went to get around Apples security measures was disturbing. In light of antitrust bodies in the U.S. and Europe setting out to force Apple to accept sideloading, this was an interesting show that all should see. Today, prior to WWDC 2022, Apple published a major report on how the app store stopped $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021. The report states that Apple is dedicated to keeping the App Store a safe and trusted place for people to discover and download apps. A key pillar in that effort is Apples ongoing work detecting and taking action against bad actors who seek to defraud developers and users. Bad actors continue to evolve their methods of online fraud, often making their schemes harder to recognize. That is why Apple has continued to refine its processes, create new ones, and engineer solutions to take on these threats. Last year, Apple released an inaugural fraud prevention analysis, which showed that in 2020 alone, Apples combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise protected customers from more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, preventing the attempted theft of their money, information, and time and kept nearly a million problematic new apps out of their hands. Today, Apple is releasing an annual update to that analysis: In 2021, Apple protected customers from nearly $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, and stopped over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users. Apples efforts to prevent and reduce fraud on the App Store require continuous monitoring and vigilance across multiple teams. From App Review to Discovery Fraud, Apples ongoing commitment to protect users from fraudulent app activity demonstrates once again why independent, respected security experts have said the App Store is the safest place to find and download apps. (Click on image to Enlarge) App Review The App Review process is multilayered, and combines computer automation with manual human review. App Review uses proprietary tools that leverage machine learning, heuristics, and data accumulated since the App Store first launched, which helps to quickly extract large volumes of information about an apps potential issues and violations. Human review is the distinguishing component of the App Review process. The App Review team reviews every app and every update to ensure they follow the App Stores guidelines related to privacy, security, and spam. This process serves as a critical line of defense to help protect users from bad actors. App Reviews goal is always to help get quality, new apps on the App Store. In 2021, App Review helped over 107,000 new developers get their apps onto the store. This process can be iterative, since sometimes apps may be unfinished or contain bugs that impede functionality when they are first submitted for approval, or they might need to make improvements in its moderation mechanisms for user-generated content. In 2021, over 835,000 problematic new apps, and an additional 805,000 app updates, were rejected or removed for a range of reasons like those. As part of the App Review process, any developer who feels they have been incorrectly flagged for fraud may file an appeal to the App Review Board. A smaller group of these rejections were for flagrant violations that could harm users or deeply diminish their experience. In 2021 alone, the App Review team rejected more than 34,500 apps for containing hidden or undocumented features, and upward of 157,000 apps were rejected because they were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading to users, such as manipulating them into making a purchase. Sometimes, nefarious developers try to circumvent App Review by creating an app that appears one way, only to alter its concept or functionality once its been approved. When Apple finds instances of this sort of fraud, App Review rejects or removes such apps from the store immediately, and the impacted developers receive a 14-day appeals process notice prior to termination. In 2021, over 155,000 apps were removed from the App Store for these kinds of violations. App Review plays a big role in Apples efforts to protect user privacy, which Apple believes is a fundamental human right. App submissions are reviewed to ensure user data is being handled appropriately. In 2021, the App Review team rejected over 343,000 apps for requesting more user data than necessary or mishandling data they already collected. Apples Developer Code of Conduct makes clear that developers who engage in repeated manipulative or misleading behavior or any other fraudulent conduct will be removed from the Apple Developer Program. This same code also requires developers to represent themselves and their offerings on the App Store accurately and honestly, refrain from engaging in behavior that can manipulate any element of the App Store customer experience, and maintain high-quality content, services, and experiences for customers. If users have concerns about an app, they can report it by clicking on the Report a Problem feature on the App Store or calling Apple Support, and developers can use either of those methods or additional channels like Feedback Assistant and Apple Developer Support. Fraudulent Ratings and Reviews App Store ratings and reviews serve as a resource for users and developers alike. Many iOS users have come to depend on this feature as a way to help decide whether to download an app, or which app option best suits their needs. In turn, these ratings and reviews help improve discoverability on the App Store, and provide meaningful intelligence to developers who take this feedback and improve their apps features and offerings accordingly. Illegitimate ratings and reviews pose a serious risk to the App Store, as this sort of deception can lead users to download and in many cases, buy an untrustworthy app that attempts to game the system through misrepresentation, rather than provide the quality experience users expect from the App Store. Trust in this system is of the utmost importance, and Apples antifraud initiatives help maintain its integrity. A refined system that combines technology and human review by expert teams allows Apple to moderate ratings and reviews. With more than 1 billion ratings and reviews processed throughout 2021, Apple systematically detected and blocked over 94 million reviews and over 170 million ratings from publication for failing to meet moderation standards. An additional 610,000 reviews were also removed after publication based on customer concern submissions and additional human evaluation. (Click on image to Greatly Enlarge) Account Fraud When developer accounts are used for fraudulent purposes in a deceitful or especially egregious fashion, the offending developers Apple Developer Program account is terminated. While these people or entities deploy elaborate techniques to obscure their actions, Apple monitors to ensure related accounts are terminated quickly. As a result of these efforts, Apple terminated over 802,000 developer accounts in 2021. An additional 153,000 developer enrollments were rejected over fraud concerns, preventing these bad actors from submitting an app to the store. In an effort to protect users who download apps beyond the safe and trusted App Store, over the last 12 months, Apple found and blocked over 63,500 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts. These storefronts distribute malicious software often designed to resemble popular apps or that modify popular apps without their developers authorization while circumventing the App Stores security protections. Over the past month alone, Apple has blocked more than 3.3 million instances of apps distributed illicitly through its Enterprise Developer Program, which is designed to enable large organizations to develop and privately distribute their own apps for internal use. Offenders have sought to exploit this program in an attempt to flout App Review or involve a legitimate enterprise by compromising an insider to leak credentials needed to ship illicit content. Apple takes action on fraudulent customers accounts, too. In 2021, Apple deactivated over 170 million customer accounts associated with fraudulent and abusive activity. If an account exhibits similar behaviors to those that have engaged in previous abuse, theyre deactivated before they can be used at all. In addition, more than 118 million attempted account creations were rejected in 2021 because they displayed patterns consistent with fraudulent and abusive activity. Rooting out fraud on an account level helps curb this sort of dishonest behavior, and present users with more accurate information on the relative quality and popularity of an app on the App Store. Payment and Credit Card Fraud For many people, no data is more sensitive than their financial information. Thats why Apple has invested enormously in creating more secure payment technologies like Apple Pay and StoreKit. These technologies are used by more than 905,000 apps to sell goods and services on the App Store. For example, with Apple Pay, credit card numbers are never shared with merchants eliminating a risk factor in the payment transaction process. As with all forms of fraud, Apple takes credit card fraud extremely seriously and is committed to protecting the App Store and its users from this sort of distress. In 2021 alone, as a result of a combination of technology and human review, more than 3.3 million stolen cards were prevented from being used to make potentially fraudulent purchases, and banned nearly 600,000 accounts from transacting again. In total, Apple protected users from nearly $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2021. Apples efforts keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for users to find and download apps, and for developers to do what they do best: create. To help ensure that trusted ecosystem is sustained for years to come, Apple will continue working to detect fraudulent activity and accounts, and prevent financial crimes. If youre programming the next big app or video game, listen up. Youre going to need a proper laptop to get it done right. A powerful processor is absolutely necessary for doing things like running test environments, compiling complicated code, and so on. But to keep things running smooth, youll need at least 16GB of RAM. Oh and did I mention the importance of a fast SSD? Youve got to make sure those apps and files can fire up quickly. If youre not sure where to begin your search, dont sweat it. To make the whole process a heck of a lot easier, the team at PCWorld rounded up a bunch of top picks. Not only do these laptops pack a punch in the processor department, but theyve also got great screens, which help reduce eye strain. Whether youre a seasoned software developer or an amateur programmer, were here to guide you every step of the way. The best laptops for programming Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED Best overall Pros Good productivity performance Superb display Rugged design Great battery life Cons Boring aesthetics Unimpressive 720p webcam Unreliable fingerprint scanner Poor port selection Best Prices Today: If you spend hours upon hours in front of a display, you should consider picking up the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED. The tester described the 4K OLED display as more exceptional than stunning. Colors are vibrant and darks have quite the depth. This display produces clear images and is a good choice for those who suffer from eye strain. The VivoBook doesnt skimp on processing power, either. The CPU is the Ryzen 9 5900HX, which should be plenty fast for most coding needs and general use tasks. Its also packing 32GB of RAM and a whopping 1TB of PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage. Thats sufficient enough for multitasking or running a few applications simultaneously, and a near-ideal configuration for intense programming. There are a few knocks against this machine like the boring design, lackluster webcam, and finicky fingerprint reader. Those drawbacks are relatively minuscule, though. Overall, this is a well-rounded machine that any programmer would love. Read our full Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED review Acer Swift 3 SF316-51 Best under $1,000 Pros Solid chassis and build quality Large, attractive 16-inch 1080p screen Enjoyable keyboard and touchpad USB-C with charging and DisplayPort Cons Webcam, microphone, and speakers dont impress Intel processor falls behind AMD alternatives Disappointing battery life Lots of bloatware Best Prices Today: If youre on a tight budget, the Acer Swift 3 is an excellent value. It features an Intel Core i7-11370H with four cores, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Thats powerful enough for most programming tasks. As for the build quality, our tester described it as tightly constructed. The keyboard is also comfortable to use for extended periods and the display offers rich, lifelike color. Battery life is disappointing, however, as it managed to die in about five hours after light use. If you dont mind keeping this thing tethered to an outlet, then this is a fantastic budget option for most programmers, especially if you want a big screen on a modest budget. Read our full Acer Swift 3 SF316-51 review ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) Most portable Pros Powerful CPU and GPU performance in a very compact design AniMe Matrix screams unique It has a webcam Cons Half permanent RAM Keyboard backlighting is subpar Best Prices Today: The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is something of a rare gem in the sand dune, as its both lightweight and powerful. It weighs a little over three pounds, which comfortably slots it under the ultraportable umbrella. You can also expect fast, reliable performance thanks to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and the 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storagea great combination for heavy-duty programming sessions. The only trade-off is the keyboard, as it feels mushy and the backlighting is less than impressive. But if youre looking for a portable laptop that promises snappy performance, the Zephyrus G14 is the way to go. Read our full ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) review Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 Best keyboard Pros Roomy 16:10 display Thin and light yet rugged Stellar keyboard Quiet operation Booming audio Two Thunderbolt 4 ports Cons Webcam limited to 720p Display color is a bit cool Best Prices Today: Programmers spend ages writing and updating code, so its important to get a laptop with a comfortable keyboard. Well, it doesnt get much better than Lenovos pillow-like ThinkPad keyboards. If its comfort youre after, the Lenovo ThnkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 will serve you well. According to our tester, the keys feel snappy and are quiet when mashed and offer just the right amount of travel. You should be able to type for long periods without any disruptions, as there are no annoyingly shortened keys. As for performance, the X1 Carbon packs a decent punch. This machine has an Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage. While the CPU isnt as powerful as the newer 12th-gen processors, it should still deliver reliable performance. In other words, you should be able to easily run apps and quickly compile code. We had only a few minor nitpicks with this machine. For one, the webcam is limited to 720p. Thats not terribly surprising nor much of a deal-breaker. The display color is a bit cool as well. Aside from those points, we feel the X1 Carbon is a good performer with a fantastic keyboard, though some other options offer more hardware firepower for a similar price. Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 review Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (2022) Best 2-in-1 design Pros Sturdy and sleek all-metal chassis Long battery life Impressive audio output Comfortable keyboard Cons 16:9 screen feels cramped Included stylus is too skinny Undersized touchpad Limited ports all on left side Best Prices Today: If you like 2-in-1 designs, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 will hit the spot. You can swing the screen around and use it like a tablet or prop it up like a tent, making it a rather versatile device. It has 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, a crystal clear OLED display, and strong battery life. The 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor seriously boosts performance, too, with four performance cores and eight efficiency cores. Thats more than enough for most programming needs. The 74 watt-hour battery is pretty big for a compact convertible as well. When we ran our battery rundown test, the machine died in about 12 hours. Thats more than a full work day. Although this laptop has a lot to offer, there are a few tiny caveats. For one, the displays 16:9 aspect ratio makes things feel a bit cramped. Its not a huge deal, but we generally prefer taller displays, as it makes scrolling through documents and web pages a lot easier. Its also difficult to get accustomed to the trackpad because of its small size. That said, if you can deal with those nitpicks, the Yoga 9i is a great machine worth considering. Read our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (2022) review Razer Blade 17 (2022) Best for video game developers Pros Excellent gaming performance Great selection of ports including 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Sturdy robust design Cons Poor battery life unplugged Keyboard lacks a numpad Best Prices Today: If youre looking for some serious processing power to help program video games, the Razer Blade 17 (2022 version) is where the partys at, as it ticks off all the right boxes. Its packing an Intel Core i7-12800H, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD storage, along with a beastly GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU that renders 3D scenes lightning-fast. It should be able to easily compile and run the most complex lines of code. That said, this pick might be overkill for most programmers. If youre programming a web app, for example, you dont really need this much computing power. This configuration of the Blade is also very expensive, costing thousands of dollars. If youre working specifically on games and dont mind shelling out the big bucks, then this is an awesome buy. If you want to check out even more killer options for both work and play, be sure to check out our roundup of the best gaming laptops. Read our full Razer Blade 17 (2022) review How we tested The PCWorld team puts each and every Windows laptop through a series of benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and so on. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it against others weve tested. Below, youll find a breakdown of each test and the reasons why we run them. Windows laptops PCMark 10 : PCMark 10 is how we determine how well the laptop handles lighter tasks like web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, and so on. : PCMark 10 is how we determine how well the laptop handles lighter tasks like web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, and so on. HandBrake : HandBrake is more intensive than PCMark 10. It basically measures how long a laptops CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file. : HandBrake is more intensive than PCMark 10. It basically measures how long a laptops CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file. Cinebench : Cinebench is a brief stress test of the CPU cores. It does this by rendering a 2D scene over a short period of time. : Cinebench is a brief stress test of the CPU cores. It does this by rendering a 2D scene over a short period of time. 3DMark : 3DMark checks if 3D performance remains consistent over time by running graphic-intensive clips. : 3DMark checks if 3D performance remains consistent over time by running graphic-intensive clips. Video rundown test: To gauge battery life, we loop a 4K video using Windows 10s Movies & TV app until the laptop dies. What kind of laptop should you get for programming? Whether youre writing code for a cool mobile app or programming a brand new website, a laptop thats both fast and responsive is an absolute must. However, the top three things to pay special attention to are the processor, memory, and storage space. Although we consider those to be the holy trinity of what makes a laptop suitable for programming tasks, weve also taken into consideration display resolution and portability. This is especially important for reducing eye strain and working on-the-go. As a programmer, you may need to regularly commute into an office and spend long hours in front of the screen. Check out the list below for more specifics. The Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS) is organizing the first-ever National Digital and Distance Learning Conference (NDDLC) from the 6th to 8th June, 2020. Organized in close partnership with its anchor partners UNICEF and UNESCO, the conference brings together key players in the educational ecosystem in Ghana and beyond. The event is under the theme: REIMAGINING GHANAS EDUCATION BY HARNESSING THE POWER OF DIGITAL & DISTANCE LEARNING. This theme aptly dovetails into the larger vision of the Education Ministry and Government of Ghana to Reimagine Education Delivery. Packed and enriched with a variety of relevant programmes and activities, the overarching objective of the 3-day event is to take stock, solicit stakeholder inputs and build consensus, which will serve as vital input in the development of a national policy framework for digital and distance Learning in Ghana. The upcoming conference is considered decisive, timely and crucial, owing to the irreversibly fast-changing trends taking place in education delivery across the world, propelled by rapid advancements in digital technology. Coupled with that, the far-reaching and wide-ranging effects of Covid 19 have also underscored the unavoidability, permanency and utility of digital and distance learning in Ghana and globally. It stands unequivocally clear that technology-enabled and technology-mediated education is the new normal and it is one that is set to continue in the post-Covid era into decades and centuries far beyond the now. Coupled with the key reasons highlighted above, it also remains a highly prioritized vision of the Minister of Education and by extension, Government of Ghana, to actively pursue the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) while also bridging the learning loss and ensuring the provision of quality, equitable and accessible education to all learners across the country. The Education Ministers conviction remains absolutely resolute that will ensure the realisation of this bold and highly essential vision is digital technology. Once effectively harnessed and utilized, Ghana is set to witness a quantum leap in quality education and overall development. The conference will therefore mark a crucial turning point in Ghanas education delivery. The event, which will be held at the 5-star Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, is expected to draw a combined in-person and virtual participants of over 2500. Ghana has dutifully earned her stripes as a trailblazer and vanguard in quality education across the sub-region. In order to ensure that this leadership position is maintained and consolidated, CENDLOS, its anchor partners UNICEF and UNESCO as well as the Ministry of Education and all other stakeholders will leverage the NDDLC as a powerful springboard to launch Ghana onto The higher digital path of an accelerated, technologically-attuned, developmentally- responsive and globally-competitive educational development. Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Police Service says it would be unable to provide a group security for a three-day 'armed' demonstration. The group made up of broadcasters Captain Smart and Okatakyie Afrifa, convener of the #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vormawor and Benjamin Darko intends to demonstrate on June 4 and picket at the Ghana Police Headquarters and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). However, according to the police, the demonstration has the potential to disrupt public order and public safety; hence they should reconsider and organize a lawful and peaceful protest". The Police in a press release issued June 1, 2022 said: "We are therefore unable to provide security for a demonstration which is in flagrant violation of the Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 49) and has the potential to result in a breach of public order and public safety," the Police release said. "The Service has reached out to the organisers to reconsider their proposal and work with the Police towards the organisation of a lawful, peaceful and successful demonstration. We wish to assure the public that in the interest of public safety and security, the Police are putting in place all necessary measures to ensure that unauthorised persons do not march the streets with weapons," the statement added. Police Statement on Intended Armed Demonstration in Accra pic.twitter.com/vqnCCWKfiU Ghana Police Service (@GhPoliceService) June 1, 2022 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 Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) has asked Ghanaians not to trivialize its weather forecasts in order to avoid disasters. According to a statement from the Agency, unlike previously where the agency lacked state-of-the-art equipment to give perfectly accurate forecast, "in recent times the Agency through the help of the sector minister, Hon Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Government and other institutions, has seen some level of improvement that has enhanced their service delivery". "The enhanced role of the Agency makes it important that the general public pay keen attention to weather forecasts and every other activity of the Agency via our social media handles and the traditional media to be reliably informed. This will help address some of the disasters we have encountered in recent times such as the Chinese fishing vessel that sunk on the coast of Ghana between Elmina and Sekondi in the Western Region because of heavy downpour and the lack of preparedness to deal with the perennial floods on the country" the statement added. Read full statement below Your browser does not support iframes. 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 Bagbin has issued a warning to members of the security agencies that attacks on civilians will no longer be tolerated by the House. The Speaker subsequently ordered that the Committee on Defense and Interior should take inventory of all previous commissions of enquiry into cases of brutality and submit a report to the House. The Committee on June 1, 2022 submitted its report into a case of military brutality in the Upper East Regional capital, Wa, months ago. Military officers were filmed abusing residents on a road stretch, which video clip went viral on social media attracting condemnation and calls for justice. Speaking to the report, the Speaker said: The military High Command took swift action, and for me, I believe that the measures that they took is adequate for these young recruits, that is my opinion and I think that the House my take that to heart and give strong notice to not only the military but all security agencies that we will no longer entertain any brutality to any civilian or any other person in this country. The law is there to be enforced, Bagbin stressed, adding thus: We will no longer tolerate this and Parliament is the center of this democracy in Ghana, the concept is very clear. The security agencies are agencies of the Executive. When self-regulation fails, external regulation will take over, he added. The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, continues to lament what it says is the rising spate of brutality by security forces. The party is still pushing for an enquiry into deaths in the aftermath of the 2020 General Elections. 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 Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, has told the Supreme Court that, the quorum requirement as provided in Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was satisfied when the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) was passed. The AG also argued that all minority members of Parliament were present in the Chamber of Parliament when the bill was passed into law. Three National Democratic Congress Members of Parliament led by Haruna Iddrisu, the minority leader, filed a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the passage of the E-Levy. However, the AG in its statement of case filed at the Supreme on May 30, responding to the suit, asserted that there has been no breach of Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. It said, All the members of the minority recorded as having attended proceedings of Parliament on that day, were present in the Chamber of Parliament when the approval of the policy of a new tax the E-Levy was conducted. There is nothing before the Court indicating the contrary, the AG stated. Below is AGs position on the facts: Defendant by recounting the facts as contained in the Plaintiffs Statement of Case does not in any way amount to admission or confirmation of the accuracy of same. In essence, Defendant asserts that there has been no breach of Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Furthermore, Defendant denies that processes leading to the passage of the E-levy Bill on 29th March 2022 and the subsequent actions of the President of the Republic of Ghana in giving assent to same were tainted by illegality or unconstitutionality. The Defendant says that at the time the votes were taken at relevant stages of the passage of the E-levy Bill, the quorum requirement as provided in Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was satisfied. The official record of the Thirty-Seventh sitting of the First meeting of the Eighth Parliament held on Tuesday, 29th March 2022 (the Votes and Proceedings), shows that the E-levy Bill was taken through the various constitutionally stipulated procedure in article 106 of the Constitution and that, at least one-half of all validly elected members of Parliament were present in Parliament when the question whether to approve the policy of the E-levy Bill was put after the second reading of the Bill before same was subsequently passed into law. Attached to the affidavit in verification and marked as Exhibit AG1 is a copy of the Votes and Proceedings for Tuesday, 29th March 2022. Respectfully, the defendant says that the question of whether to approve the policy of the E-levy Bill (taken at the second reading of the Bill) is most important, as that question is what decides whether the E-levy as a statutory policy in the Republic of Ghana will come into being or not. Approval of the same implies that E-Levy as a new tax regime or policy for the State, has come into existence and Parliament may then proceed to examine the specific clauses in the new law. All the members of the minority recorded as having attended proceedings of Parliament on that day, were present in the Chamber of Parliament when the approval of the policy of a new tax the E-Levy was conducted. There is nothing before the Court indicating the contrary. Electronic Transfer Levy Bill was put and the motion consequently agreed. 22.ExhibitAG 1 further shows that the question of whether to approve the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill was put and the motion was consequently agreed to by the entire House. There is no indication of a headcount or a call for division to determine who was for or against the motion. As recorded on Exhibit AG 1, the motion was agreed to, and it was by a voice vote. 3. Significantly, there is no indication from the Votes and Proceedings of Parliament for 29th March 2022 that, a walkout was recorded, and if a walkout was recorded, how many members of the minority walked out at what stage did they walk out. On the contrary, the defendants contention that the question of whether to approve the E-Levy or not was put by the Rt. Hon Speaker of Parliament at a time that the members of the minority were present in the Chamber, is confirmed by the Hansard of 29th March 2022, which confirms the specific contributions by each member of Parliament who spoke on that day. Attached to the affidavit in verification and marked as Exhibit AG 2 is a copy of the Hansard for 29th March 2022. 4. The defendant further says that the E-Levy Bill was duly passed by Parliament in accordance with article 104(1) after the third reading. At least 137 members of Parliament, who constituted the constitutionally prescribed one-half of members of Parliament were present when the same was passed. There is nothing before the Court to show a violation of the Constitution or any of the known rules of procedure of Parliament prescribed for the passage of legislation. 5. Defendant relies on the facts as properly recounted above to resolve any legal issue(s) arising from this suit. Reliefs being sought The Plaintiffs per their Writ invoke the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for the following reliefs: a. A declaration that on the authority of the Supreme Court case of Justice Abdulai v Attorney-General, Writ Np. J1/07/2022 (hereinafter referred to simply as Abdulai v Attorney General) dated 9th March, 22022, the Transfer Bill, 2021 is in contravention of Article 104(1), and therefore null, void and of no effect whatsoever; b. A declaration that in accordance with Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and on the authority of Abdulai v Attorney General, on the 29th day of March 2022, when the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament put the question to the house for the Third Reading of the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, 2021, Parliament lacked the required quorum to pass the said Electronic Transfer Bill, 2021; c. A further declaration that on account of relief (f) above the purported Third reading and subsequent passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, 2021 is in contravention of Article 104(10 of the Constitution, and is therefore null void and of no effect. d. An order of the Honourable Court setting aside the purported passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, 2021, by the 136 Members of Parliament of the Majority Caucus present in the Chamber of Parliament on the 29th March 2022 as being unconstitutional, null, and void; e. Any other relief and/or order(s) the Honourable Court may deem fit. Source: starrfm 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 Deputy Energy Minister, Hon. Andrew Egyapa Mercer, speaking on behalf of Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has expressed the governments appreciation to the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States for funding the establishment of the Kasoa Bulk Supply (BSP) under the Ghana Power Compact II programme. Hon. Mercer made this statement in an address when he represented Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh at the inauguration of the BSP yesterday. The inauguration was performed by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamadou Bawumia on behalf of President Akufo-Addo. The Deputy Minister, who is also the MP for Sekondi, stated further that he was particularly pleased to learn that a considerable number of Ghanaian engineers were employed to work on this project. This is a clear indication of the Governments confidence in Ghanaian capacity anchored on the need for further capacity building and technology transfer in our energy sector. The government remains committed to this cause of building Ghanaian capacity in all spheres of our economy in general and the energy sector in particular, he declared. The Kasoa Bulk Supply Point (BSP) is a 435 MWA Capacity Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) substation, the second-largest bulk supply point in Ghana. The project is to address low voltage and frequent power outage challenges caused by increasing domestic and industrial demand in Kasoa and its environs, including Senya Bereku, Bawjiase and Nyanyanu. According to the Millenium Development Authority (MiDA), executing partners of the project, the US$50m project will benefit 241, 508 ECG customers and contribute to a substantial reduction in transmission losses in GRIDCos transmission system. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Renowned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has stated that he is disgusted by the tweet shared by British High Commissioner Harriet Thompson regarding the arrest of Convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor. According to him, the tweet by Thompson was totally wrong and formed part of predated efforts by foreign powers to interfere in Ghana's domestic issues. Speaking in a Good Morning Ghana interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Pratt said that the explanation given by the British envoy that her tweet was not meant to be an interference in Ghana's domestic matters is not good enough. "Maybe we should go back to history... and see how western diplomats have meddled in our internal affairs to our detriment, and maybe that will wake our people up. I am disgusted. I'm completely disgusted, and then she comes back and says that is not what I meant. "It may very well be that was not her intention. It may very well be that it is not what she meant, but she is not the only person reading the tweet. There are millions of people reading her tweet ... and all of us reading her tweet have also a right to interpret it the way our background allows, and that is why diplomats ought to be cautious when they write [and] when they speak. "That is why diplomats ought to put on their thinking caps when they want to make public statements. I am disgusted with the tweet of the British High Commissioner, completely disgusted," he said. Meanwhile, Harriet Thompson has clarified that her tweet regarding the arrest of Convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, was not to interfere in the operations of the Ghana Police Service. Commissioner Thompson suggested that the police had misconstrued her tweet to mean that she was criticising them. Speaking in an interview with GHOne TV, the diplomat added that it was never her intention to interfere in the work of the police. "To me, it feels like a stretch. It feels like me saying I am interested in something is a long way from people saying we must take to the streets Commenting on something that is of great interest to a lot of people in a country is not interfering in the affairs of that country. "If I had thought there was the remotest chance of that, I wouldn't be tweeting things like that. That is clearly not my intention," she said. 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 News emerged late Wednesday evening that hundreds of young people had thronged a local Police station demanding the release of three persons arrested in connection with the flogging of two persons captured on a leaked sex tape. A Citi News reporter reported that the police contingent comprised about 200 men who were firing teargas and firing shots while the youth also threw stones at them. Citi News reporter spoke to one Seidu who explained that they were demanding the release specifically on one Bushiran who is among the three persons arrested by Police on June 1, 2022. "This afternoon, our brother Bushiran was invited by the regional police command in connection with some action that was done yesterday at the Wa Naas palace. "And this one, it was an agreement between the youth and the Wa Naa that anytime such an act is out, we should bring them to the Wa Naas palace for punishment. Yesterday, the people were punished and today our brother was invited to the police station. "We are here for his release, we dont know why he must be in cells he did not snap the video, he was not the one having the sex, he didnt release the video, he didnt beat anybody, we are asking the regional police command to release Bushran otherwise we are not going to sleep today," he stressed. The Police announced on June 1 that they had arrested three men in the viral video in which two persons tied to a pole were being flogged at the Wa Naa's palace. According to the police, the suspects were arrested with the support of the Wa Naa and some community members and will face the full rigour of the law. The Police have arrested three (3) persons in connection with a viral video in which some people were seen publicly flogging two people on the forecourt of the Wa Naa's Palace. The suspects, Sidiki Osman, Bushiran Knigir and Issahaku Mahama, were arrested with the support of the Wa Naa and some community members. The three will be taken through the due process of the law, the statement read. It added that the Police are pursuing the remaining suspects to arrest them to face justice. A viral video of the flogging incident showed the victim tied to a pole as two men flogged her in front of the palace of the Wa Naa in the Upper East Region. The footage received condemnation from some people citing a clear abuse of power, while others called on the police to take action and bring the perpetrators to book. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso Boakye is urging Landlords to desist from taking over six months rent advance from their tenants to avert possible prosecution under the Rent Act (Act 220). He reiterated the fact that Section 25 of Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) prohibits Landlords from collecting more than six months rent advance, and therefore any Landlord who contravenes the law commits an offence and is punishable by the law. He stressed the point that, though the Rent Control Department, has been addressing petitions brought to its offices for settlement and again, the Department has been undertaking sensitization programmes to educate Landlords and Tenants on the provisions of the law, especially with regard to the rights and responsibilities of the landlords. Responding to a Parliamentary question asked by MP for Keta Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey in that, regard, the Sector Minister recognized that, rapid urbanization and exclusive reliance on market mechanisms, as well as the inability of the housing delivery system over the years to meet the population growth, has resulted in a huge housing deficit. And, as a result, demand for housing has outstripped supply, which ultimately favours Landlords. To a large extent, this situation affects a significant section of the population, especially those in the lower to middle-income range. He, however, submitted that in the medium to the long term, the Ministry is pursuing policy measures to create an enabling environment together with the private sector, for the provision of more housing stock in the Rental Market for all classes to afford and not necessarily paying huge rent. Source: gbc Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video After denying knowledge of flogging two persons, barely 24 hours ago, Na Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, the Overlord of the Waala Traditional Council has stated that their flogging was under his orders. The two were allegedly involved in a sex video scandal that went viral. He said it formed part of measures the Council including opinion leaders in the municipality instituted to fight the immoral and deviant behaviour among the youth in the area in recent times. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa, to personally react to the said video in circulation on social media and for him to give reasons for denying that the youth took arbitrary action in flogging the boy and the girl without his concern. He explained that flogging was part of the regulations put in place to instill discipline in the youth, who in recent times put up some behaviour detrimental to the well-being of society. Beside the flogging, parents of the boy and the girl will also agree to let the two get married and stay as a couple to serve as deterrent to the youth and to live upright lives, he said The Wa Naa said the regulations were aimed at allowing decency, morality, and peace to prevail in the Municipality to attract investors for the teeming youth to get employed. The measure will also let people who come to Wa to enjoy their stay and outsiders who have their relatives will not be worried about their safety, he said. He said he and his elders as well as other opinion leaders would not shun their responsibilities but would ensure that Wa remained a peaceful town for all to stay. On Tuesday, May 31, Naa Kadri Ibrahim, the spokesperson for Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, the Overlord of the Wala Traditional Council condemned the flogging on behalf of the chief. He said the act could only drag the reputation of the palace into disrepute and gave the assurance that the perpetrators of the barbaric act would be fished out to face the full rigours of the law. The admission of Wa Naa that he gave his blessing to the flogging contradicts his spokesperson. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video International Relations expert, Farouk Al Wahab, says the Inspector General of Police (IGP) did not err with his response to the British High Commissioner to Ghana. The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, raised concerns on social media over the arrest of the #FixTheCountry Movement lead convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, for traffic offense. Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes the diplomat said in a tweet. Reacting to the week-old tweet in a 4-page statement, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, mentioned that Harriet Thompsons tweet violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the international affairs of their host country. Is there any particular reasons why of all the people arrested daily for various offences in Ghana, you are especially interested in this persons case?. Is it the case that you dont have confidence in our justice delivery, criminal justice system and our court processes as a whole?. Do you know the number of Members of Parliament, chief executives and other high-profile Ghanaians who have been arrested and prosecuted for road traffic offences and have submitted themselves to due process? If you care to know, we will be delighted to share the list with you. For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements. The saying goes: di wo fie asem it means learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you, excerpts of Dampares statement read. Critics have described the statement of the IGP as harsh and rude. Reacting to the issue in an interview with host of Atinka FMS AM Drive, Farouk Al Wahab said the statement from the IGP will not affect Ghanas relationship with the British Consulate. The bottom-line is, she was responded to by an institutional head, which is the IGP. The IGP was right in his response. If she had any grievances, she could have written to the IGP silently. "So, if you go and vent on an international platform like twitter then you are trying to brand the country as a hostile nation that does not treat his citizens well, It is unacceptable, he added. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu has said both the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party connived to capture the Achimota forest land. Amidu said, the consummation of the state capture by a bi-partisan political elite of the natural resources for private profit is the only rational reason acreages of land were released to the said owners the Owoo Family. In an article by Martin Amidu, he explained that political elite in both the NDC and NPP are involved in these corruption-related offenses from 2006 to date. According to him, the Owoo family suddenly emerged some almost 6 years after the Rawlings government handed over to the New Patriotic Kufuor government, to petition them for a lease of portions of the Achimota Forest Reserve to the famiy. Mr. Amidu also said that the success of this initial state capture resulted in an agreement to release 90 acres to the family and subsequently emboldened the political elite and their Owoo Family collaborators to continue with their petition to the 3rd and 4th NDC governments. The only rational reason for which Three Hundred and Sixty-One point Five Zero acres(361.50 acres) or One Hundred and Forty-Six point Three Zero hectares (146.30 ha) of the Achimota Forest Reserve lands were purportedly released to a phantom Owoo Family under the Forest (Cessation of Forest Reserve) Instrument, 2022 (E.I 144) and the Forest (Achimota Firewood Plantation Forest Reserve) (Amendment) Instrument, 2022 (E.I. 154) by the Akufo-Addo Government is the consummation of the state capture by a bi-partisan Ghanaian political elite of the natural resources of Ghana for private profit of the political elite and their collaborators. This is a transaction disgustingly tainted with suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences by the political elite in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Governments from 2006 to date, the statement read in part. The former Special Prosecutor also said that the leakage of the Will of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (Sir John), was an act of God to expose the political elites looting of natural resources for their private profit. The emergence of the last Will and testament of the late former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, appointed by the Nana Akufo-Addo NPP Government was simply an act of God to expose to the Ghanaian public the opacity of the way the bi-partisan political elite corruptly loot the nations natural resources for their private profit. I have read the ten (10) page press statement signed by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and listened to his argument on radio on 28 May 2022. They reinforce my belief that the Minister did not appreciate what he was doing when he purported to seek executive presidential approval for the transactions and purported to sign Executive Instruments which could only legitimately be signed by the President himself under the law, he added. Source: ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has indicted social media activist and convenor of the #FixTheCountry pressure group Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, to stand trial at the High Court on two counts of Treason felony. The two counts stated on the bill of indictment are treason felony contrary to section 182(b) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and treason felony contrary to section 182(b) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). Bill of Indictment The Bill of Indictment dated 30 May 2022 and signed by the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, notes that Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, in February 2022, in Ghana, through a post on your Twitter social media account published to people in Ghana and the rest of the world, endeavored to usurp the executive powers of the Republic by advocating for the violent overthrow of the constitution. Witnesses / Exhibits According to the summary of evidence, the state indicates that it intends to call three witnesses at trial. They are Andrew Okyere, No 55341 D/CONST Dunstan Guba and D/CPL Mark Owusu. The state will also be tendering some eight exhibits to support their case at the trial. They are the investigation cautioned statement of the accused (Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor) dated 11 February, 2022, Charged statement of the accused dated 11 February, 2022 and Investigation cautioned statement of the accused dated 16 February, 2022. The remaining exhibits are charge statement of the accused dated 1 April 2022, Facebook and Twitter posts of the accused person from February 2021 to February 2022, Facebook post of the accused person on 30 April 2022, Intelligence report from Cybercrime unit and Intelligence report from National Security. Background In a series of Facebook posts that led to the arrest of Barker-Vormawor on 11 February 2022 and his ongoing prosecution, he described the Ghana Armed Forces as useless for not acting despite the public uproar against the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), which is expected to come into effect on 1 May 2022. If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army! Barker-Vormawor wrote in one of his posts. In another post he said: Okay, lets try again. If this E-Levy still passes after this cake bullshit, then may God . Help us to resist oppressors rule, With all our will and might for evermore. (2x). Useless Army. Anaa, the value is the same? Police arrest Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, was picked up by the Tema Regional Police on Saturday 12 February 2022, for allegedly saying that he would stage a coup in Ghana if Parliament passed the E-Levy Bill. A police statement published on 12 February 2022 said that Barker-Vormawor is being kept at the Tema Regional Police Command to assist with further investigations into his social media post. First court sitting After his charges were read to him in open court on 14 February, Detective Superintendent of Police Sylvester Asare read the brief facts. Barker-Vormawors lawyer, Akoto Ampaw, applied for bail for his client but the state opposed the application. In her ruling at the Ashaiman district court, Magistrate Eleanor Barnes Botchway said she did not have the mandate to grant bail in a case involving a charge of treason felony. She subsequently remanded the accused into police custody and, working with the two-week timeline required by law to have accused on remand make an appearance in court, she adjourned sitting to 28 February 2022. Brief facts The brief facts as presented in court by DSP Sylvester Asare state that the accused person is a lawyer and convenor of a social movement, namely FixTheCountry. Sometime in February 2022, the Ashaiman Police received a report that the accused person was inciting some groups of persons believed to be members of the FixTheCountry movement. That on receipt of the report, the police mounted surveillance on the accused person until his arrest at Kotoka International Airport on Friday 11 February 2022, when he arrived from the United Kingdom (UK). Preliminary investigation has revealed that accused is a lawyer and a PhD student at Cambridge University, UK. The facts further say that it has also been established during investigation that the accused for some time now has been inciting some group[s] of persons through the social media [sic] to undertake an unlawful enterprise to usurp the executive powers of the Government of Ghana. Pursuant to his preparation to usurp the executive powers of the Government of Ghana, accused further published on his Facebook wall that the Ghana army is useless and went ahead to declare his intention in a Facebook post to stage a coup if the Electronic Transaction Levy [E-Levy] is passed by Parliament. Source: asaaseradio.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 Head of Linguistics at the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly called Opanyin Agyekum, has issued a stern caution to political parties, particularly the New Patriotic Party, against the culture of vote buying; technically described as "monecracy". Monecracy in the Ghanaian political context refers to the political aspirants inducing delegates with items and money in order to woo them. The New Patriotic Party (NPP), over the weekend, elected their Regional executives in the party's Regional delegates elections and information is rife that some of the aspirants splashed huge monies on the delegates to vote for them. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, Opanyin Agyekum highlighted the dangers of this monecracy and warned the political aspirants to refrain from such behavior saying, "if care is not taken, any person at all with too much money will become President and someone else having lots of money will just become an MP without having the required capabilities and qualifications . . . Sometimes, when you look at a candidate who won elections, you ask yourself how would such a person have won if not for his or her money". "Let's be very careful . . . for how long will this continue?", he queried. He was also worried this monetization in partisan politics has taken over youth politics in the Universities as he feared the kind of leaders that the youth desiring to lead the nation in the political sphere may turn out to be when they assume political offices. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The incumbent Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has expressed gratitude to elders Nana Nkansah Ayeaboafo and Amb. Edward Boateng, his Campaign Team, his entire staff led by Andy Owusu and Nana Afia and the entire leadership and supporters of the NPP in the Ashanti Region for his decisive re-election. Chairman Wontumi, over the weekend, retained his seat as the NPP Regional Chairman in the Ashanti Region. Chairman Wontumi first won the position in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018. Before this, he was the Constituency Chairman for Bosomtwe. At the end of the elections, Chairman Wontumi polled 464 votes against that of his closest contender, Chairman Odeneho Kwaku Appiah (COKA), who got 306 votes, having served as Constituency Chairman for Afigya Kwabre South for close to 20 years. Robert Asare Bediako, a former Asokwa Constituency Chairman who entered the contest for the second time, came third with 20 votes. Kwabena Owusu Aduomi, a former Member of Parliament for Ejisu, came fourth with nine votes. Oheneba Kofi Adum Bawuah managed three votes at the fifth position. Speaking to the media after his victory, Chairman Wontumi, expressed appreciation to the leadership and supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for another opportunity to lead the Ashanti Region ahead of the Breaking the 8 agenda. I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the leadership and supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for their unflinching support and votes in the recent elections. I believe if we are united, we will break the 8. He further noted that his re-election was an indication that the NPP has a stronger chance of "Breaking the 8" in the 2024 elections. Breaking the 8 has started from the Baba Yara Stadium; NDC you cannot stop us, he said. He said the NPP has a strong message for Ghanaians and before this could be translated into governance, the party must be united and ready to break the 8. We should demonstrate this by standing together and be united so that we are able to break the 8 in 2024, he admonished. Chairman Wontumi stressed that we may have our differences but we need to work together since a lot is expected from us as a formidable political party. The NPP believes in healthy competition. He praised all the aspirants for the efforts they put in and asked that they all join hands as a team to break the 8. He reiterated the Partys commitment to making Ghana the jewel of Africa. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Bernard Allotey Jacobs has jabbed the organizers of the June 4th protest over their request to the Police to allow them carry weapons to the streets. Broadcasters Captain Smart, Okatakyie Afrifa and Convener of the FixtheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor are the organizers of the yet-to-be held demonstration. They are reported to have sent a letter to the Police saying, "we will bring our own security company to provide protection to demonstrators. All weapons held by demonstrators or by the contracted security personal will be for personal protection only; and all weapons will be duly permitted in accordance with the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1972 (NRCD 9) e) Proposed route and destination: We expect that the Demonstrators will gather at Circle". They also demand that they address the nation on the State-owned media. The procession will move from Circle to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, where the Protestors will make a demand a slot on GTV to speak directly to the Nation and lay out our grievances, in accordance with Article 55(11), which guarantees fair opportunity to Ghanaians to present their programmes to the public through equal access to the state-owned media," the letter stated. But Allotey Jacobs is taken aback by the ridiculous demands of the group stating, "for them to go to Broadcasting and be given a chance to talk to the nation is like a coup d'etat". He wondered why the group will make such demands if they have no ulterior motives. "We all have been on the streets always championing our course. What is the course for? Look, you can't camouflage something with a name when you don't see the political undertone. This the new thing I am seeing but I have been a political leader before. "I have organized demonstrations but knowing very well that this country is on red alert that terrorists can come into this country at any given time. We are being warned; 'See Something, Say Something . . . and never has it occurred that people will embark on demonstration with the demonstrators wielding weapons. It's never also occurred in this country that demonstrators will ask for GBC to talk to the nation and to present their grievances," he said. Allotey Jacobs warned them not to cause mayhem in the country. "We're not illiterates. They should note that should any chaotic event happens in Ghana, they will never go scot-free, even their families, because you won't kill my family for your family to go scot-free." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday asked state governors from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party to support him in choosing a successor who would stand for election in a presidential contest in February 2023. Nigerians will go to the polls to choose a new president as Buhari will step down after leading Africa's most populous nation for eight years. The APC party has set June 6-8 for its special convention to choose a presidential candidate. If the president has his way and the governors, who wield influence with voting delegates, rally behind his candidate, it would force the other contestants to withdraw from the race and avoid a vote Twenty-three candidates, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Bola Tinubu, a powerful former governor of Lagos state, and some governors have registered to contest. In a speech to state governors, Buhari said the APC had established policies that ensure smooth succession at all levels of government, including according governors the privilege to have a say on who succeeded them. "In keeping with the established internal policies of the party ... , I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the president," Buhari said. Getting governors to rally behind a single candidate may not be easy, as some want to contest the primary. Buhari may also face pus hack from Osinbajo and Tinubu who have campaigned to woo delegates. The main opposition has chosen former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate. Source: REUTERS Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a Governance Lecturer at the Central University, has called on the Ghana Police Service to treat the demands by the organizers of the FixtheCountry demonstration, scheduled on June 4th, with seriousness. Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Dr. Otchere-Ankrah rebuked the organizers for requesting to wield weapons and to address the nation on the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) when they embark on the demonstration. The organizers consisting of broadcasters Captain Smart, Okatakyie Afrifa and Convener of the FixtheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor wrote a letter to the Police stating "we will bring our own security company to provide protection to demonstrators. All weapons held by demonstrators or by the contracted security personal will be for personal protection only; and all weapons will be duly permitted in accordance with the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1972 (NRCD 9) e) Proposed route and destination: We expect that the Demonstrators will gather at Circle". They added; The procession will move from Circle to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, where the Protestors will make a demand a slot on GTV to speak directly to the Nation and lay out our grievances, in accordance with Article 55(11), which guarantees fair opportunity to Ghanaians to present their programmes to the public through equal access to the state-owned media." Dr. Otchere-Ankrah vehemently condemned the organizers saying "they want to bring about chaos. So, the national security must take this serious". He has asked the Police to investigate the organizers emphasizing "they should not entertain such a thing". Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo will lead government functionaries in bidding farewell to the late second lady of the Republic, Hajia Ramatu Aliu Mahama at a State funeral on 4th June, 2022. The late Educationist, fondly called Mma Rama or Nee Egala was laid to rest on Saturday, April 9, 2022 next to the tomb of her late husband, Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the Kalpohin Estate in Tamale, the Northern regional capital. Addressing the press in parliament ahead of the state funeral, the first son of the former second lady and Member of Parliament for Yendi, Farouk Aliu Mahama expressed gratitude to government for the show of love and support to the Alius over the last two decades. It is important for us to be extremely grateful to the government under President Akufo-Addo for the unflinching support to us [Aliu Mahama family] from the time our mum was unwell and after her demise. The government has supported us well enough and we [Aliu Mahama Family] are grateful for giving our mother a befitting state burial and funeral rights, Farouk Mahama stated. Touching on how he and his siblings have fared since the demise of their mother, the legislator said losing the late second lady is painful as she was a pillar in their lives. The state funeral right of Hajia Ramatu Aliu Mahama will be held this Saturday, June 4 at the forecourt of the State House in Accra. Traditional rulers, friends and family in Ghana, Nigeria and across the globe are expected to be in attendance. The late second lady while alive championed the cause of women especially in the decision making process of the country and also initiated social intervention projects to support the less privileged in society. 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 Brenda Maunders shows her painting, Dorthea, which was featured on the cover of the Sept/Oct 2021 issue of the Federation of Canadian Artists Art Avenue Magazine. Maunders work has been recognized by the FCA in both regional and international shows. The Progress of a Portraitist, runs June 9 to July 22 in Summerland. Local racing product Sarah Cornett-Ching, who now resides in North Carolina, has signed up for five events at the Penticton Speedway this summer and fall. A vote sign is displayed outside a polling station during advanced voting in the Ontario provincial election in Carleton Place, Ont., on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. It's election day in Ontario, with voters heading to the polls to pick their next provincial government. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Turnover could dampen momentum on a long-awaited fiscal plan, some lawmakers say Months before Alaskas state elections, the Legislature is set for major turnover. At least 17 of the Legislatures 60 members will be in a new position or out of office entirely by next January and that doesnt count anyone who loses their seat this fall. The deadline to file for this years legislative elections is June 1, but many candidates have already made up their minds. Because a steep learning curve awaits new legislators, several departing incumbents said the turnover will slow the progress of complicated legislation, such as a long-awaited state fiscal plan. Were continuing to lose experience, and I think thats extremely harmful for our state and the Legislature, said Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage. I find one of the big challenges is just getting everyone on the same page, as far as basic facts about the budget, how the legislative process works, and were gonna have to start at ground zero for a lot of new folks. Others said the turnover may result in changes in leadership of the state House and Senate, including the possibility of a Republican-controlled House or a coalition-controlled Senate. By the end of the day Friday, 10 incumbents had declared that they will not seek re-election. Another five members of the House are running for Senate or governor, and at least one more is considering a similar jump. Redistricting will claim another two House incumbents. Change in the Senate In the 20-person Senate, four legislators arent running for re-election, including Senate President Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna. The others are Sens. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River; Josh Revak, R-Anchorage; and Natasha von Imhof, R-Anchorage. Its incredibly unusual. In my lifetime in the Senate, I dont remember that many incumbents retiring, said former Senate President Cathy Giessel. She spent 10 years in the Senate before losing in the 2020 Republican primary. She is now running again. Thats some big turnover in the Senate, said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who is seeking re-election. Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, decided against running for re-election in order to address an unspecified family issue. There is a lot of turnover this year. I think that legislative years are like dog years in some respects, Spohnholz said, referring to the demands they place on individual lawmakers. Over the past two years, lawmakers were in session at the Capitol for 338 days, more than any other two-year term in state history. Some of the departing legislators described days away from their families, deeply polarized political arguments and the financial strain that comes from having to maintain two households. I think some of the people that have been there have either felt that they cant get things done, or their personal life is calling them back for whatever reason, whether thats personal, financial or the other challenges of dedicating your life to public service, said Rep. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, who is now running for state Senate. Difficult work environment Schrage attributed the turnover to a difficult work environment, which includes the stress of COVID, legislators separated from their families by long sessions, and I think its also a result of the fact that, frankly, you have to make a huge financial sacrifice to serve in the Legislature. Its really difficult for a lot of people, and Im just not surprised to see the level of turnover that were seeing, he said. Rep. Sara Rasmussen, R-Anchorage, isnt seeking re-election. She described being away from her young children, including her son, who began kindergarten this year. She said redistricting also played a factor. The composition of the district Im in is significantly more challenging for a Republican to win, Rasmussen said. Long House list In the state House, the departing incumbents include Reps. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka; Kaufman; Rasmussen; Spohnholz; Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage; Ken McCarty, R-Eagle River; Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River; Christopher Kurka, R-Wasilla; Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks; Adam Wool, D-Fairbanks; and Tiffany Zulkosky, D-Bethel. Kaufman, Tarr, McCarty and Merrick are seeking seats in the Senate. Kurka is running for governor. Wool is running for U.S. House. Redistricting has placed Anchorage Democratic Reps. Chris Tuck and Andy Josephson in the same district. Josephson has filed for re-election; Tuck had not by Friday evening. Elsewhere in Anchorage, Democratic Reps. Zack Fields and Harriet Drummond are now in the same district. Fields has filed for re-election and Drummond had not through Friday. Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, said he is considering a run for state Senate against Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, but hasnt yet decided. Though most lawmakers said the expected turnover will make work more difficult next year, Micciche both downplayed the size of the change and its effects. I dont think its anything new, he said. There are transitions to every political body, periodically. The dynamics will change, and that change may be positive. I dont see that as a negative thing. I dont have a fear of who replaces us. That change in dynamics may be what it takes to get some of these longstanding issues, statutory improvements, that are much needed. I think groups kind of dig into their positions, and new faces may be the catalyst that shakes things loose on some very positive forward motion for the state, he said. Heidi Drygas, her husband Kevin Sund, and daughter Olive sit behind at their booth during the Little Norway Festival. Heidi Drygas, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, visited Petersburg as part of her campaign for lieutenant governor during the Little Norway Festival in late May. Drygas is running with independent Bill Walker who served as Alaska's governor from 2014 to 2018 against incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy in this year's election. The trip marked her first visit to Petersburg and during her time in town she set up a booth to talk to members of the community about their needs, met with PIA Tribal Administrator Chad Wright, marched in the parade, and att... 888 Ambassador Ian Simpson Hit the Post Again in the XL Spring Series June 02, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor Ian Simpson recently joined the ambassador ranks at 888poker and is already repaying the faith they have shown in him. The popular grinder finished second in the $55 buy-in $40,000 guaranteed Triple Threat PKO side event for $3,750 and Simpson hit the post against in the $50,000 PKO event. Surely that maiden victory while sporting the 888 colours is just around the corner? A field of 172 players exchanged $320 for the chance to become the $50,000 PKO champion. The mathematicians among you will have already worked out that 172 players meant the guarantee was beaten and a $52,500 prize pool created. "pajaro.com" and "Sly_81" were the first two players who were relieved of their stacks, and the only two finalists not to turn their $320 investment into at least four figures. Win the ULTIMATE Las Vegas Package for Just One Cent on 888poker "AdrianoK222" and "Reggie_Degen" joined the list of busted players before 888poker regular "algsxr" of Canada bowed out in fifth; they banked $2,279 with bounties included. Brazil's "AllanSheik" fell in fourth for $2,625 before "RonaldSleazy" crashed and burned in third for $4,734, leaving Simpson heads-up against Lithuania's "MoKr93." Try as he may, Simpson could not beat MoKr93, so had to make do with his second runner-up finish of the XL Spring Series, this one coming with $8,323 in prize money. Congratulations to MoKr93 who becomes an XL Spring Series champion, and receives an impressive $12,383 for their efforts. XL Spring #21 - $50,000 PKO Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total prize 1 MoKr93 Lithuania $5,236 $7,146 $12,383 2 Ian "Simpioni" Simpson United Kingdom $5,236 $3,086 $8,323 3 RonaldSleazy United Kingdom $3,150 $1,584 $4,734 4 AllanSheik Brazil $2,254 $370 $2,625 5 algsxr Canada $1,585 $693 $2,279 6 Reggie_Degen Canada $1,141 $665 $1,807 7 AdrianoK222 United Kingdom $829 $600 $1,429 8 Sly_81 Germany $606 $328 $934 9 pajaro.com Mexico $443 $393 $837 Swede Dominate $20,000 Mini PKO Final Table Players from Sweden made up three of the nine spots at the $20,000 Mini PKO final table so it was unsurprising to find a Swedish national sat at the top of the payout tree. "kalix30" came out on top of a 598-strong field and reeled in $4,557 of the $25,400 prize pool. Kalix30's fellow Swede, "MorayEEEEEL," fell in fifth and collected $736, the last prize not to be over $1,000. "WHATaDREAM" of Brazil danced away with $1,150 after busting in fourth before Sweden's "Ove_Pipcorn" ran out of steam in third place for a $1,766 prize. Heads-up saw kalix30 and "RonaldSleazy" lock horns, the latter having finished third in the $50,000 PKO event on the same evening. RonaldSleazy was eventually eliminated in second place for $2,275, which left kalix30 to pad their bankroll with $4,557. XL Spring #22 - $20,000 Mini PKO Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total prize 1 kalix30 Sweden $2,004 $2,553 $4,557 2 RonaldSleazy United Kingdom $2,004 $273 $2,275 3 Ove_Pipcorn Sweden $1,220 $545 $1,766 4 WHATaDREAM Brazil $891 $258 $1,150 5 MorayEEEEEL Sweden $656 $79 $736 6 Snowronmoney Germany $482 $187 $670 7 Barman3 Cyprus $356 $426 $783 8 Tanetane1 Finland $265 $181 $446 9 lbrarrossa Brazil $198 $248 $446 Other XL Spring Series Results Event Buy-in Entrants Prize pool Champion Prize #23 - $20,000 Late PKO $109 207 $20,700 simoneblondi $4,040 #24 - $30,000 PKO 8-Max $109 331 $33,100 Franky4Four $7,071 #25 - $12,000 Mini PKO 8-Max $16.50 922 $13,830 MisterJackBR $2,001 #26 - $10,000 Late PKO 8-Max $33 389 $11,670 gerbereneu66 $2,388 XL Spring Series Events Scheduled For June 2 Four XL Spring Series events are scheduled for June 2, up from the usual three. There are a trio of 6-Max PKO tournaments with buy-ins of $22, $55, and $215, in addition to an XL Spring Series Main Event Day 1 sandwiched between. The Main Event costs $250 to enter and has a $500,000 guarantee on its prize pool. Brazil's Boianovsky Takes Down MILLIONS Online KO Main Event June 02, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor The partypoker MILLIONS Online KO Edition came to a thrilling conclusion this week with the crowning of the series' Main Event champion. partypoker decided to run a progressive knockout festival under its popular MILLIONS Online banner and it proved to be a hit with the sites players. Felipe Boianovsky is one player who is certainly a fan of the format, as would you be had you won the Main Event for $150,163. MILLIONS Online KO Main Event Final Table Results Place Player Country Bounties Prize Total prize 1 Felipe Boianovsky Brazil $70,255 $79,908 $150,163 2 Ignas Vaitulionis Ireland $9,417 $79,782 $89,199 3 Christopher Frank Austria $17,689 $52,727 $70,416 4 Akesli Paalanen Finland $14,539 $34,098 $48,637 5 Patrick Leonard United Kingdom $17,953 $23,187 $41,140 6 Matthias Lipp Malta $6,437 $17,806 $24,243 7 Patrick Hyllegaard Denmark $7,656 $13,064 $20,690 8 Boris Angelov Bulgaria $2,375 $10,306 $12,681 A bumper crowd of 1,249 entrants created a $1,249,000 prize pool, smashing the $1 million guarantee. Half that princely sum went onto the heads of each player, with the remaining 50% shared among the top 185 finishers who had made it to Day 2. Yuri Dzivielevski Dozens of household names reached Day 2 but failed in their quest to find a seat at the eight-handed final table. They included Andrew Hulme, Joakim Andersson, Thomas Muehloecker, Dimitar Danchev, Samuel Vousden, Anton Wigg, Yuri Dzivielevski, Gianluca Speranza, Jaime Staples, and David Yan. The eight-handed final table initially progressed at a lightning pace, with short-stack Boris Angelov running his pocket kings into the aces of Christopher Frank. Denmark's Patrick Hyllegaard followed suit when he committed his last 14 big blinds with a pair of nines in the hole only to run into the pocket jacks of Boianovsky. Surprisingly, that was Boianovsky's first bounty of the tournament! Team partypoker's Patrick Leonard added the bounty of Matthias Lipp to his collection in a relative cooler of a hand. Leonard raise-called with ace-king after Lipp three-bet all-in with the dominated ace-queen. Patrick Leonard The final five became four when Leonard bowed out at the hands of Boianovsky. Leonard three-bet Boianovsky's 17,500,000 opening raise to 45,000,000 before calling off the 181,326,294 chips he had behind. Boianovsky looked in big trouble, his pocket deuces trailing Leonard's superior jacks. However, the hot-running Brazilian spiked a set on the flop and Leonard could not find a miracle two outer on the turn or river. That hand put the ball firmly in Boianovsky's court and he went into the heads-up battle with Ignas Vitulionis with a three-to-one chip lead after Akseli Paalanen busted in fourth and Boianovsky eliminated Frank in third. Frank made a bizarre the words of the partypoker Twitch commentary team, not ours call for his stack with ace-king on a ten-eight-jack-seven-eight rainbow board only to be shown a straight by Boianovsky. The tournament was Boianovsky's to lose but he did not do that because the final hand saw him jam with queen-six of diamonds, and Vitulionis call off his last 13 big blinds with pocket tens. A queen on the flop and a six on the river were more than enough to bust Vitulionis in second place, a finish worth $89,199, and crown Boianovsky the MILLIONS Online KO Edition Main Event champion. partypoker Heads to Barcelona partypoker's attention now turns to the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Europe festival in sunny Barcelona. It is the first time since COVID-19 restrictions were quashed that the MILLIONS tour has taken place. The highlight of the bustling schedule is the 3,300 Main Event that runs from June 8 through June 12. Start Your Quest for MILLIONS Europe Glory With a $600 Bonus Begin your quest for MILLIONS Online glory by downloading partypoker via PokerNews, which entitles you to one of two special welcome bonuses. Create your account and made a deposit of $10 to receive $10 worth of SPINS and tournament tickets over the course of a week. 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The bonus releases into your playable account balance in 10% increments when you accumulate 10% of the total loyalty points required. COLUMBIA The Democratic frontrunners seeking to oust Gov. Henry McMaster in November both say they're fighting to flip two decades of Republican control in order to expand Medicaid, legalize marijuana, pay workers more and restrict gun sales to combat crime. The policy positions of former congressman Joe Cunningham of Charleston and state Sen. Mia McLeod of Columbia, the top Democrats in the five-way gubernatorial contest, don't differ much. Even some of their word choices are similar. Both, for example, pledge to expand Medicaid eligibility on "day one," accomplishing with a pen stroke something GOP governors and the legislators in charge of state government have refused to do since Congress passed the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare. Joe Cunningham A look at Joe Cunningham, a Democrat running for governor: Age: 40 Hometown: Kuttawa, Kentucky Residence: West Ashley Education: Attended College of Charleston from 2000 to 2002. Graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a bachelors in ocean engineering in 2005. Graduated with a law degree from Northern Kentucky University in 2014, when he moved back to South Carolina. Career: Attorney. Previously worked for an environmental consulting firm in Florida before being laid off during the Great Recession and going to law school. Political experience: Flipped the 1st District blue in 2018 for the first time in 40 years with a 1.4 percentage point margin of victory. Lost reelection by 1.3 percentage points in 2020. Family: Divorced father of a 4-year-old son. A new direction, Cunningham and McLeod agree, starts with a different CEO. A Democrat has not occupied the Governor's Mansion since Jim Hodges lost his reelection bid in 2002. But Cunningham and McLeod each contend they're uniquely qualified to use South Carolina's bully pulpit office to produce change on ideas that have seen little to no traction in the Republican-dominated Legislature. Cunningham points to his historic victory in 2018 when he became the first Democrat in four decades to win the coastal 1st District and his work in Congress as evidence he can convince enough independents and moderate Republicans to overcome long odds. McLeod, a legislator since 2010, counters she's the only candidate with state government experience. Without saying Cunningham's name, she tells voters her chief opponent won just a single term in the U.S. House to her five wins to represent suburban northeast Columbia, the first three in the state House. What she doesn't say is that her wins were in districts that lean heavily Democratic. The field Two of the other three lesser-known candidates in the primary also live in Columbia: Carlton Boyd, a former page in the Legislature who has worked with various state health care agencies, and Calvin "CJ Mack" McMillan, a musician and former barber. Both are seeking their first political office. William "Cowboy" Williams of Florence, a retired postmaster, says his unsuccessful 2020 bid to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rice in the 7th District anchored in GOP-heavy Myrtle Beach helped prepare him for the governor's race. But unlike in 2020, his "Cowboy" nickname won't appear on the ballot, despite his request. Of the five, Cunningham has the hands-down fundraising advantage. His $1.75 million in total collections as of March 31, the last quarterly reporting period, is four times what McLeod raised. Williams' nearly $6,000 in total contributions is mostly money he loaned himself. McMillan's campaign account had $40. A campaign disclosure for Boyd could not be found on the state Ethics Commission website. Cunningham is the only candidate with TV ads. His latest, on abortion, shows him as already looking toward a fall fight with McMaster. A single veto, Cunningham tells the camera, could be all that stands in the way of a complete ban in South Carolina if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 ruling legalizing abortions nationwide, which could happen this month. McMaster has publicly said he supports a ban without exceptions. What Cunningham doesn't say is that even many Republican legislators consider that position too extreme and whatever they do pass could be signed into law before a new governor could be inaugurated in January. Legislators have allowed for a special session any time after June to respond to however justices rule. McLeod, a sexual assault survivor, has been fighting GOP efforts to restrict abortions for years. Campaigning At Cunningham's 40th birthday celebration May 26 in Charleston, many supporters cited abortion rights among their top reasons for supporting him. "Abortion should be between a woman, her doctor, her husband if she has one, and her God. It's nobody else's business," said Pam Meredith, a 65-year-old retiree who traveled from Murrells Inlet for his public birthday party. Doing something about gun violence and paying teachers more, other things he pledged to do in a TV ad, were also at the top of their list. Others said more generally they like that he wasn't a partisan hard-liner in Congress. "For me, he's right down the center where I want to be," said Zach Giglio, 36, of Summerville, who described himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. "I trust his judgment." It wasn't that people at the Charleston event didn't like McLeod. They just didn't know anything about her, a dozen told The Post and Courier. But McLeod contends she doesn't need to be on TV to win. After all, she said, her sons reminded her they don't watch TV. She's relying on grassroots, telling people to take friends and family with them when they vote. Of the five candidates, Cunningham has also been the most visible on the campaign trail. As of May 31, he'd visited with voters in 29 of the state's 46 counties since officially launching his run last year. He expects to hold events in at least six more before June 14. McLeod, who touts making history as the first Black female to run for South Carolina governor, said she's intentionally refrained from advertising her campaign appearances and held many events virtually. "I have to protect my own safety. Joe doesn't have to worry about being targeted because of the color of his skin," she said. "I have to move differently as a Black woman in this state. He doesn't have to think about that." She has a concealed weapons permit to carry a gun, she told The Post and Courier, but that doesn't always make her feel safe. The law pushed by Republicans last year that allowed CWP holders to openly carry a handgun means "all of us are targets," she said May 31 during a virtual town hall sponsored by a chapter of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. "Open carry in this state just means open season on people who look like us." Diagnosed with sickle cell anemia while a freshman at the University of South Carolina, McLeod also cites the blood disorder for why she must be more cautious campaigning. She takes her mask off only to speak into a microphone. Even outside, she quickly puts it back on before greeting voters. "Don't be fooled," she told potential voters May 27 at an end-of-school-year community celebration in Camden. "This pandemic is not over. People are still getting sick. People are still dying, and we have to be vigilant to protect ourselves, because we don't have anyone in office now protecting us." She continues to criticize McMaster who frequently says South Carolina's economy never completely shut down in the pandemic for not closing down more and not letting workers stay home for far longer. She finds it offensive, she said, when McMaster talks about a thriving economy and record-high state surpluses. The plight of the working poor in South Carolina is evident, she said, by food distribution lines like the one she visited May 27 in rural Bamberg. Arriving late following a virtual event, she greeted each driver and handed out campaign postcards in the rain to families who began lining up several hours earlier just to be sure they got groceries in the once-a-month food drive. "People aren't going to sit in a car line like that for hours to get food if they don't need it," she said afterward. "There can't be a surplus until the basic needs of every South Carolinian have been met, and clearly they haven't." The differences Policy differences between Cunningham and McLeod include how far they advocate raising the minimum wage. McLeod stresses being the only candidate who's filed legislation to require all South Carolina workers make at least $15 an hour, calling that "ground zero" for a living wage. Her proposals have gone nowhere in a state that doesn't actually set an hourly floor. South Carolina's rate is tied to the federal minimum, which, at $7.25 an hour, hasn't changed since 2009. Cunningham broke with congressional Democrats in 2019 in voting against the "Raise the Wage Act," saying it would harm small businesses and their employees, especially in the tourism-dependent Lowcountry. He instead supports a hike of up to $12 an hour. Both support a complete legalization of marijuana, including for recreational use. For that too, McLeod says, she's the only candidate to introduce legislation to do so, though that also went nowhere. Last month, far more limited legislation allowing medical relief from chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder but not by smoking it died in the House on a technicality after taking seven years to pass the Senate. Cunningham blames McMaster. "If Gov. McMaster had said, 'Get that bill to my desk,' if he'd said, 'I support this,' it would've passed," he said. "This failure is on him." Perhaps their biggest differences are in their biographies, which McLeod usually highlights in her opening remarks. She starts her stump speech telling voters she hails from Bennettsville, a town in poor, rural Marlboro County, where her family has run a funeral business for 108 years. Cunningham, a native of rural Kentucky, first moved to South Carolina in 2000 to attend the College of Charleston. Both are divorced parents who cite the next generation as the reason for their run. Cunningham's 4-year-old son, along with nieces and nephews, are featured in an ad titled "Family" released May 23. But McLeod makes it more personal, telling voters she's trying to keep her adult sons, ages 23 and 27, from leaving South Carolina for better opportunities. Whether they stay depends on the campaign's outcome, she said. Mia McLeod A look at Mia McLeod, a Democrat running for governor: Age: 53 Hometown: Bennettsville Residence: Northeast Columbia Education: Bachelor's degree in English from the University of South Carolina, 1990. Law degree from USC in 1995. Career: Owner of public relations firm McLeod Butler Communications, which she started in 2003. Previously: Project director at the state Attorney General's Office, 1997-99. Communications instructor at USC's business school, 1998-99. Director of governmental affairs, state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, 2001-02. Political experience: First elected to the state House in 2010 with 55 percent of the vote. Reelected in 2012 and 2014 without GOP opposition. Elected to the state Senate in 2016 by 55 percent. Reelected in 2020 by 62 percent. Family: Divorced mother of two sons, ages 23 and 27. "They don't believe their voices matter here. Y'all know something about that, don't you?" she said in Camden. "They don't believe their lives matter. Y'all know about that, too, and they're right. Young adults like my sons have been leaving our state for decades." It's a topic that resonates with parents and grandparents across the state, she told The Post and Courier afterward. "Everywhere I go, I talk about the fact I'm running because my sons don't want to live here," she said. "The reasons they don't are the same reasons I didn't when I graduated." Who among the Democrats gets to challenge McMaster will be decided either in the June 14 primary or, if no candidate gets over 50 percent, in a runoff June 28. Early voting is underway statewide. MIAMI On this first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, federal officials are launching a new initiative to modernize building codes so that communities can be more resilient to hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other extreme weather events that are intensifying due to climate change. Deanne Criswell, the administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Ali Zaidi, the deputy national climate adviser to President Joe Biden, discussed the initiative Wednesday during a briefing at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, where recovering from a hit similar to Hurricane Andrew could cost hundreds of billions today. Updated building codes provide a range of smart design and construction methods "that save lives, reduce property damage, and lower utility bills," according to a news release announcing the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes. It applies to new construction and to homes and buildings that are rebuilt due to damage. "The adoption of hazard-resistant building codes saves communities $11 per every $1 invested," Criswell said, citing a finding by the National Institute of Building Sciences. The initiative, approved by the National Climate Task Force earlier this year, comes amid signs that coastal communities should brace themselves for more intense storms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 14 to 21 named storms in the Atlantic this season, with six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to six turbo-charging into major hurricanes with winds greater than 110 mph. It's already begun with Agatha, a storm that battered Mexico over the past few days and may re-form in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly threaten parts of Florida by this weekend, the hurricane center said. "This initiative is proof that acting on climate change delivers countless benefits to all Americans, especially in our most vulnerable communities," said Gina McCarthy, the president's national climate adviser. The program is designed to help buildings withstand damage caused by all natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes and floods. The codes ensure, for example, that roofs can withstand hurricane-force winds, that construction materials are resistant to flood damage and that insulation helps reduce heating and cooling costs, officials said. It's a "no-brainer" to make new houses and buildings more energy efficient as a means of reducing climate change impacts, said Wendell Porter, professor emeritus of building professions at the University of Florida. But location is what really matters, he said. "You don't want to rain on anybody's parade," Porter said. "A big announcement that they're going to build better houses, that's always good news. But until you decide to not build in certain locations, it's a waste of time." Take coastal communities, for example. "It's really hard to build a structure to actually withstand flooding," Porter said, "There's only two real good methods and that's either build it up, or retreat. Stilts or away." After Miami-Dade County was hit by Hurricane Andrew, stringent building code enforcement followed. But so did population growth, coastal development and climate change. Andrew was the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history at the time, causing more than $26 billion of damage in Florida's most populous areas. Likewise, officials said, education will be a key element of the modernized building codes. A FEMA analysis found that only 35 percent of cities, counties and towns across the country have updated hazard-resistant building codes. Cost is a factor: Construction and renovation designed for disaster resiliency can be more expensive. But the estimated savings for typical households in utility bills alone could be about $162 per year, officials projected. And on a larger scale, communities that have adopted modern building codes are already saving an estimated $1.6 billion a year in avoided damage from major disasters, officials said. That equates to a cumulative $132 billion through 2040 that won't have to be spent on disaster recovery. Federal agencies will use $225 million in infrastructure funding already approved for the U.S. Department of Energy to support energy code adoption, enforcement, training and technical assistance at the state and local level. They also predict that newer codes could deliver $138 billion in energy cost savings and prevent carbon emissions equivalent to what 195 million gasoline-powered cars emit in a year. The agencies said they plan to lead by example, implementing the new codes in federal buildings. KYIV, UKRAINE Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. "There's a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends," said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov. "And this can go on for quite some time," he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons it had been begging for for shooting down aircraft and destroying artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraine's success in stymieing Russia's much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of "absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios" if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. "This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities overnight and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after the Russians' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. "May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much," she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. "As of today, the occupiers control almost 20 percent of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading Ukraine. He said "most of them targeted civil infrastructure." British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 50 miles. Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Military analyst Zhdanov said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. "Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive," he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority "is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression." "There is no place on the planet I would rather be," she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. "President Biden has said that we're going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And that's what we'll do." Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Poet Laureate of Charleston Marcus Amaker has a few parting words for local poets. The city of Charlestons first poet laureate, Amaker has announced his service in the role is coming to a close after six years. In a video message, Amaker shared that the city is now accepting nominations for his successor, encouraging aspiring poets and writers at all levels of experience to consider applying. When we decided to establish the citys poet laureate position, Marcus Amaker was the clear choice," said Mayor John Tecklenburg. "Over the past six years it has been an honor and a privilege to work with Marcus and to see what he has been able to create as an ambassador of poetry at civic events, as well as in our area schools and through the establishment of the Free Verse Festival." The position of poet laureate was established in 2016, and Tecklenburg appointed Amaker. The citys posting describes the role of the poet laureate as to spread the art of poetry from classrooms across the city, to inspire an emerging generation of literary artists while advancing their own writing career. Over the course of the two-year term, the poet laureate will work with the city's Office of Cultural Affairs to achieve these goals, which can involve mixing with students and community partners. Concurrent with his role as poet laureate, Amaker has been artist-in-residence at the Gaillard Center. Amaker notably used his term as poet laureate to create and launch the annual Free Verse poetry festival. In 2021, he was named an Academy of American Poets fellow. The mayor acknowledged Amaker's considerable strides during his tenure. "He leaves behind big shoes to fill, and we hope that whoever is selected to fill the role can continue his work to inspire our citizens with the enduring gift of poetry, Tecklenburg said. A review panel of educators, arts professionals and poets will evaluate applications and recommend individuals to the mayor. The deadline for nominations is June 30, 2022. To apply, visit charlestonarts.org/connect/apply. COLUMBIA Starbucks baristas working at a store near downtown Columbia voted to unionize June 3, becoming the third South Carolina branch of the coffee giant to unionize. Baristas at the Millwood Avenue store smiled and cheered over Zoom as they joined the over 100 Starbucks stores across the country that have unionized, including a pair in the Upstate. The vote was unanimous, 12-0. One vote was voided and three were challenged meaning that the coffee giant more than likely questioned whether three baristas were eligible to vote. The vote came after baristas of the store went on strike in mid-May following the firing of the stores manager, whom they said was fired because she refused to stifle unionization plans. Our store has been facing a laundry list of retaliation for our unionization process, Sophie Ryan, a barista at the store and one of the strikes main organizers, told the Post and Courier last month. It just started with simple discrimination about dress code policies ... but slowly started to be people being threatened with being written up. Typically, in the unionization process, workers go on strike if the company refuses to voluntarily recognize the union. That wasnt the case at Millwood Avenue, where on May 18 workers began a late-afternoon strike that lasted into the next two days, with workers protesting with signs outside the cafe after they said their manager was fired unfairly. The Columbia store joins two other South Carolina locations in Greenville and Anderson, which held a vote May 31. A store in Sumter filed in May for a union vote. South Carolina historically is not a state where organized labor movements have been fruitful. The state has the lowest percentage of union workers in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The stores unionization is a part of a national wave that started with the first Starbucks in Buffalo, N.Y., in December of last year. Workers at nearly 300 stores have filed with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize. As of Feb. 3, 102 stores have won union elections and 13 have lost their elections. We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country. From the beginning, weve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed, a Starbucks official said in an email to Free Times following the employees initial strike. If neither party objects to the results, the NLRB will certify the election on June 9, and then baristas at Millwood Avenue will begin the process of bargaining with the coffee giant for things like better wages and benefits. Our recent trip to Italy was great, although there were a couple of minor inconveniences, as there always are while traveling. One was that we had no general access to overseas internet on our phones (despite trying to make arrangements beforehand), which wasnt really a problem until we figured out too late one afternoon that we needed it to find our way back to the hotel. At the same time we were having problems with the cars GPS. Thankfully an accommodating lady at a cafe in Grottaglie helped us out by letting us use her Wi-Fi, so all that worked out fine. Our journey concluded with three beautiful days in the Tuscan countryside before flying from Florence to Zurich for a connecting flight back to the United States. En route, we enjoyed spectacular views of the Italian Dolomites and the Swiss/Austrian Alps and were soon comfortably seated aboard a Swiss International Airbus A330-300 in Zurich for a flight to Chicago that would connect to Charleston. The plane pushed back on time, its engines were fired and poised to taxi away, when all of a sudden things ground to a halt due to a medical incident involving one of the passengers. So we returned to the gate, the ailing passenger disembarked, and there was considerable delay before his baggage could be retrieved. About two hours later we pushed back again and got airborne, but not in time to make the evening connecting flight in Chicago to Charleston. The earliest we could get out the next day was 5:30 p.m., so it became one of those situations where wed try to make the most of it. After being surrounded by so much history and culture the previous 10 days, we thought wed amuse ourselves the following morning with a down and dirty look at Chicagos rather fascinating crime history on a tour that would further incorporate some of the citys usual architectural masterpieces. Chicagos history of organized crime dates back virtually to the citys inception. Of course, Chicago is in the news now with all the problems its having with disorganized crime (i.e., gang violence), but that crime in Chicago should make the news at all is hardly surprising. It has always been that way. And interestingly enough, the city almost pays tribute to it, albeit subtly. One of Chicagos most famous and expensive districts, Streeterville, originally bounded by the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue, the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The district, is named after George Wellington Cap Streeter (1837-1921), a former Mississippi River boat captain and circus owner who oversaw the filling in of the North Shore to create new high ground acres and acres of it in an eccentric and crime-ridden scheme to make him and his wife unbelievably rich. Industrialist N. K. Fairbank, who claimed legal rights to the area, tried to run Streeter off, but was himself chased away by Streeter and his shotgun, as were numerous constables, who were met with gunfire, axe blades and pots of scalding water. Streeter evidently paid the right people off, because he and his men were invariably found not guilty due to acting in self-defense. The law finally got the better of Streeter, though. He was convicted of manslaughter in 1902, sent to prison, and never made any money that would amount to anything. Yet todays dollar value of Streeterville is incomprehensible and Chicago, in its own way, has acknowledged the man who literally created it. Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Next stop, the Biograph Theatre in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago. It was there that on July 22, 1934, a Woman in Red (actually orange, but the gloam of evening made her dress appear otherwise) named Anna Sage, accompanied John Dillinger to a show, thus assisting the FBI in tracking down the infamous, though celebrated, gangster, who had changed his physical appearance through plastic surgery. Dillinger sensed there was trouble and ran into an adjacent alley, where a team of agents led by South Carolina native Melvin Purvis pumped him full of lead, killing him instantly. Though both Sage and Purvis had helped rid the country of Public Enemy Number One, both were done wrong by the FBI and/or Director J. Edgar Hoover. Sage was paid only half of what she was promised and, rather than gaining U.S. citizenship another part of the deal she was deported to her native Romania. The take-home messages there could only have been: Get it in writing and dont trust the government. Purvis became a media sensation after Dillinger was killed. A jealous Hoover had him demoted and Purvis resigned from the FBI in 1935. Perhaps despondent over the way he was treated, he apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1960 from the same pistol given him by fellow agents when he resigned from the FBI. How depressing! At any rate, we learned a lot about other Chicago gangsters, including of course Al Scarface Capone, Frank The Enforcer Nitti, Diamond Jim Colosimo and others, including the notorious serial killer Dr. H.H Holmes, depicted in the novel Devil in the White City, along with Leopold and Loeb, whose 1924 abduction and murder of a 14 year-old-boy was described as Chicagos crime of the century. We also took note of the Walgreens where, in 1982, bottles of Tylenol tainted with potassium cyanide killed seven people, leading to numerous copycat crimes and ultimately reforms in the packaging of over-the -counter products. (The Chicago Tylenol murders have not been solved and no suspect(s) ever arrested and, no, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, didnt do it.) Oh well, thats over and done. Next time well go to the theatre, or do a proper architecture tour, or visit the Field Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute of Chicago, go to a ballgame whatever. Theres clearly more to do in Chicago than engage in voyeurism. GEORGETOWN Liberty Steel can keep open its downtown mill after the Georgetown's Board of Zoning Appeals voted on June 1 that the plant was in compliance with city's zoning rules. The near unanimous 6-1 vote ends, for now, hopes by some city leaders, including Mayor Carol Jayroe, to turn the 50-acre site near Georgetown's picturesque riverfront into a development of hotels, shops and restaurants that would help attract more visitors to the state's third-oldest city. Citing the city's redevelopment district ordinance, Georgetown deemed the mill was not allowed to reopen after being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city could appeal the board's decision in state court. The BZA ruled, and I really do not know what is next, if anything, Jayroe told Georgetown Times after the hearing. Georgetown City Administrator Sandra Yudice said she could not answer whether the city intended to appeal, saying the question involved a "policy matter." The vote on Liberty's zoning appeal came after a sometimes tense 2-hour meeting with community members accusing city leaders off dismissing the mill's high-paying jobs and trying to gentrify the nearby West End neighborhood. "This has got to be one of the biggest civil rights questions for the 21st century, especially in South Carolina, and especially in Georgetown," mill worker James Judy said during the meeting. Cynthia Moore told the board her father worked at the mill when it originally opened and her husband has been employed there for 36 years. "People say this place has been abandoned?" Moore said. "Let me tell you, my husband hasn't missed a paycheck yet. It has not been abandoned. It may not have been forming steel, producing steel, but it has never been abandoned." The fight between Georgetown and the mill centers around whether Libertys prolonged closing during the COVID outbreak triggered a zoning change that would shut down the plant for good. If the plant was closed for a year, that would trigger a zoning change from industrial to commercial that would stop the plant from producing steel wire used in tires and bridge cables as it has for decades. The city and Liberty's London-based parent, GFG Alliance, dispute how long the mill was closed during the outbreak. Liberty, once one of the city's largest employers, reopened in mid-January with 65 workers just before what the company's believed was the end of the one-year deadline. Georgetown interim Zoning Administrator Chris Inglese ruled soon after the plant reopened that the clock started months sooner, triggering the zoning change. That decision led to Liberty asking for a hearing before the city's seven-member Zoning Board of Appeals. The city's Zoning Board of Appeals originally took up the case on April 6, but voted 4-3 to delay a decision on the mill's fate to gather more information after a contentious three-hour meeting in a packed meeting room. On June 1, Ross Appel, the attorney representing the city of Georgetown, argued that the mill violated its primary use through periods of inactivity and is no longer in compliance. Regarding the mills accepted date of closure, Liberty Steel attorney Stephen Brown pointed to a January 2021 letter in which Yudice wrote that the city would be proceeding accordingly with the February 1, 2021 date. The sides also argued over the status of Liberty Steel's business license with Georgetown officials saying the company let it lapse at the end of April, and the mill countering its application has not been processed by the city. Following a brief deliberation after public comment, board vice chairman Blake Badger chastised board members and supporters on both sides of the issue for selfish behavior before making the successful motion to grant Libertys appeal. I dont believe the city or the mill have acted in good faith, Badger said. Both have used deceiving tactics and rhetoric to further their position. Badger went on to say that the mill needs to go big or go home through investments. Liberty has not announced any plans to expand hiring at the mill. Following the ruling, Brown said he and fellow attorney for Liberty Steel Alex Shissias were very, very happy for the mill, its workers and the city of Georgetown. I absolutely think it will stand up in circuit court, Brown said. They need to question carefully whether they go to circuit court. United Steelworkers Local 7898 president James Sanderson said he was very excited by the boards ruling. It just makes you feel good inside that people want to do the right thing, Sanderson said. Accusations of conflicts of interest on the board, including in the case of board chairwoman Ede Graves, swirled following the board's first hearing on Liberty Steel's appeal. Graves cast the lone vote against keeping the Liberty mill open. Eight days after the boards April hearing, Sanderson filed an ethics complaint with the S.C. Ethics Commission alleging that Graves is biased in the matter, pointing to a 2020 Facebook comment made from her account that argued "The steel mill is NOT now and will NEVER again be a major employer in this town." Sanderson withdrew the complaint days later, but on May 23, he called for Graves to recuse herself. At the beginning of the June 1 meeting, Brown introduced a motion for Graves to recuse herself. She declined. Graves, who is married to Georgetown City Councilman Jim Clements, and fellow appeals board member William Michael Bryant, who is Jayroes nephew, received clearance from the S.C. Ethics Commission to participate in the April 6 meeting. The commission's attorney determined that while the city may have an economic interest in seeing the mill stay or go, Jayroe and Clements did not and had no conflict of interest. GREENVILLE A more than 70-year-old former fire station on Augusta Street south of downtown Greenville will soon house the district offices and a retail location of a paint manufacturing company. Sherwin-Williams has had a store next door to the station since 1953. The small square building connects to a modern brick shopping strip with a Pilates studio, a pizza shop and a spa. By the end of September, the company will move into the 7,500-square-foot fire station on the corner of Augusta Street and East Faris Road, making the ground floor a store and the top floor offices. Alterations made to the structure are valued at more than $1 million, according to public city permits. All six employees at the current location will transfer to the new one, vice president of global corporate communications for Sherwin-Williams Julie Young said in an email. The paint manufacturer has more than 4,000 locations across the world with about $9.5 billion in annual sales. The current Sherwin Williams store will eventually be demolished and a new 2,790-square-foot structure will be built to match the architecture of the shopping center. The parking lot and access to the center will also be updated, NAI Earle Furman representative Ted Lyerly wrote in an email. About two years ago, the city of Greenville opened a new fire station nearby on East Faris Road. SPARTANBURG SCANA Corp. shareholders were awarded $63 million in a settlement related to the coverup of the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project and the company's subsequent merger with Dominion Energy. The settlement concluded two lawsuits SCANA investors filed in the wake of the $9 billion debacle. The first, filed in 2017, asserted that the SCANA board and executive team owed the shareholders, as owners of the company, damages for tanking the value of the utility, previously South Carolina's largest Fortune 500 Company, through fraud. The second suit was filed in 2019 in response to Dominion absorbing SCANA. That complaint alleged that the larger company paid far less for SCANA than it would have if not for the misconduct of its leadership, shortchanging the shareholders. Both are part of a series of lawsuits that followed the collapse of the V.C. Summer nuclear project. Defendants named in the suits include former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh, CFO Jimmy Addison and president Steve Byrn, as well as members of the company's board of directors. After several years of legal maneuvering, the suits both ended June 2 when Circuit Court Judge Mark Hayes approved the settlement at the Spartanburg County Courthouse. Prior to the collapse of the nuclear project, SCANA was working with partner utility Santee Cooper in an effort to add two nuclear reactors to the one-reactor V.C. Summer plant in Fairfield County, a plan intended to create thousands of new jobs and expand South Carolina's ability to produce energy. But as leadership presented a rosy picture of the plan's progress and upped power bills to cover the cost, the project was dogged for years by supply chain problems, flaws in the design and budget issues. Those problems were hidden until the project was abandoned in 2017. Electric customers will continue to pay for the failure through their power bills for decades. In the class-action suits settled June 2, shareholders said SCANA leadership misled them about the health of the company through fraudulent means and undercut the value of their investments. Sign up for our Greenville daily update newsletter. Sign up for daily roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Upstate. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Greenville news staff. Email Sign Up! Ellen Gusikoff Stewart, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said her firm had identified roughly 21,000 people eligible to receive a portion of the settlement. The process of distributing the funds will likely take months. Of the $63 million, $33 million stems from the 2017 suit and the remaining $30 million comes from the 2019 complaint related to the merger with Dominion. One third of that will go toward attorney fees and the remaining $42 million will be divided among the shareholders, divvied up depending on how much stock each individual owned. Attorney Mark Chappell, representing the plaintiffs, said in court the settlement is among the top 15 highest ever in a merger case. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs determined it would be best to seek a settlement when it became clear that bringing the case to court would be a complex, drawn out and costly process. All parties involved agreed to a settlement about a year ago but the mediation process only concluded recently. The hearing brought a crowd of attorneys to the Spartanburg County courtroom. The six attorneys representing the plaintiffs sat at one table while more than a dozen lawyers representing the defendants filled the other side of the room. Before approving the terms of the settlement June 2, Judge Hayes said the lawsuits and subsequent proceedings were important in fleshing out the details in one of South Carolina's largest financial disasters. "The factual questions as to what happened with the nuclear power plant, and SCANA being merged with Dominion, and what all happened in that series of events, needed to be asked," he said. "This lawsuit, and similar cases, needed to be brought for, if nothing else, to shed sunlight on these issues." Miracle Abbott became pregnant during her junior year at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She worked a low-wage job and had mounting student debt, so the then-19-year-old turned to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, to get infant formula and food. But after she gave birth, her baby had colic and painful reflux and her pediatrician recommended a special formula not available through the program. It took four months, three pediatrician appointments, and two meetings at her local WIC office before the program provided her with formula that worked for her daughter. She spent hundreds of her own dollars on formula in the process. That was in 2020, years before an Abbott manufacturing plant in Michigan was shut down over concerns about bacterial contamination. The February shutdown and coinciding recall catalyzed massive infant formula shortages in the U.S. The ongoing dearth of formula has caused tremendous stress for families nationwide, especially those who rely upon WIC. The federally funded grant program, administered by nearly 90 state, territorial, and tribal governments, accounts for as much as two-thirds of all formula purchases in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the WIC. For nearly 50 years, WIC has provided food assistance to low-income mothers and children. About half the babies in the U.S. 1.5 million received benefits from WIC in 2021. That purchasing power drove significant cost savings on infant formula for the federal and state governments that run the program. But the programs massive purchasing also limits choices for families and can make it hard for mothers like Abbott to get formula that is a good fit for their infants. Those limitations began in 1989 after WIC administrators opted for a policy in which formula companies bid to become the sole provider for each state. States then offer a limited assortment of formulas from the winning manufacturer. Under the arrangement, the companies give state WIC programs significant rebates for the formula they buy. For every $1 WIC pays to the formula companies, it gets back as much as 93 cents in rebates, explained David Betson, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Notre Dame who has studied the WIC program. Rebate savings reduced annual program costs by $1.6 billion last year, according to USDA. In a statement to KHN, it said the rebate system allows states to use their food grants more efficiently and offsets the cost of formula so that more participants can be served without increasing federal funding. And because of WICs bidding policies, nearly half of all WIC-supported infants get formula from just one brand: Similac, which is made by Abbott. As a result, over half a million babies possibly had to switch formula after the February recall and plant shutdown. Many babies do fine on just about any formula, but some parents find that their baby seems to do best on a specific brand and type. Parents often have to experiment a little bit and often end up trying three or more formulas to find the formula that keeps their baby comfortable, said Bridget Young, an assistant professor who studies infant nutrition at the University of Rochester Medical Center. When Jenny Murray, a mom of three in Florida, started getting WIC benefits, the formula her baby had been using was not one of her states WIC-approved options. The formula WIC selected for her baby made him gassy. Officials at her WIC office told her she needed a note from her doctor to get a different formula, but her doctor said it wasnt medically necessary to switch. So she has stayed with that formula. Now, amid the shortage, shes struggling because WIC allows participants to buy only small cans of formula, and she said those are the hardest to find. (Some states WIC programs are temporarily changing policies amid the shortage.) I didnt even make dinner tonight because I knew we're going to be spending the rest of the evening just going from store to store to store to store in hopes that we'll find some (formula), Murray said. A few times, she has had to resort to paying about $40 out-of-pocket for a large can of formula because thats all that was available. The decision for each state to have formula manufacturers compete to serve the WIC program has led to higher prices, Betson said. He found that wholesale formula prices across the board nearly doubled from when WIC implemented its bidding process in 1989 to 2002. Another study found that formula prices increased an additional 30 percent from 2006 to 2015. Betson said formula companies take a hit on the formula they sell via WIC and make up for it by charging non-WIC customers higher prices. Other economists, however, say formula companies instead benefit from an increase in sales after winning a WIC contract, and prices for non-WIC customers havent been affected. (Store-brand formulas, which are made by Perrigo Nutrition, a company that doesn't participate in WIC contracts, are about 40 percent less expensive than the formula brands that do participate in WIC and have nearly identical ingredients.) And WIC spends more on formula than on any other food, as the majority of WIC-supported infants, about 88 percent, get at least some formula through the program. Lower-income families are more likely to use formula because these mothers often face more barriers to breastfeeding. For example, about 25 percent of low-income individuals have to go back to work about two weeks after giving birth, said Ifeyinwa Asiodu, an assistant professor at the University of California-San Francisco, whose research focuses on infant feeding disparities. Those same parents may also work in jobs that dont have lactation accommodations, and they may be afraid to jeopardize their jobs to ask for them, she said. Because of the federal programs high rates of infants on formula, WIC administrators have tried incentivizing breastfeeding by giving more food to breastfeeding moms, and some states have tried to limit access to formula for mothers who start breastfeeding. Emeline Pratt, a mother of two who lives in Vermont, said her WIC office required her to meet with a lactation consultant to get formula, even though she explained she had already given up breastfeeding. The uncomfortable appointment left Pratt in tears. Asiodu, who said she would like more policies that support breastfeeding and enable greater access to human milk from milk banks, also sees a need for more flexibility in WIC. I think it's really important that we allow families to make the decisions that really best fit their needs, and also provide resources along the way, regardless of what feeding option they choose, she said. Miracle Abbott said she, too, wishes WIC had more options for formula-feeding moms. Despite having a colicky baby, going to school, and dealing with the problems of the pandemic, she said, WIC is probably the most frustrating thing we've had to deal with. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Partly cloudy in the morning. Thunderstorms developing later in the day. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 89F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. MYRTLE BEACH A $75 million multi-year construction project is underway in Carolina Forest to alleviate traffic issues in one of the fastest-growing areas of Horry County. A future S.C. 31 interchange connecting Revolutionary War Way near Ten Oaks Middle School in Carolina Forest with Augusta Plantation Drive near River Oaks Elementary in Myrtle Beach was announced by Horry County officials on June 1. They said the four-year project scheduled to begin construction next year is designed to divert traffic onto Carolina Bay Parkway from the nearby heavily traveled roads of Carolina Forest Boulevard and River Oaks Drive. Government leaders continue to face the challenges of rapid commercial and residential development and in turn increased vehicle traffic on local roads in the states fastest-growing county. Although Carolina Forest Boulevard was recently widened to four lanes, leaders said more is needed to handle all of the additional growth. Thousands more homes are expected to be built in the Carolina Forest-area over the next decade, adding more residents to a current population of 23,342, according to 2020 census data. Carolina Forest would be one of South Carolinas top 25 largest cities if it were incorporated. Were trying to think about the future, County Councilman Bill Howard said. When I got on Council eight years ago, I said the same thing. Why didnt they think about the future? And were moving at a rapid pace that we need to start doing that. Stop thinking outside the small box, and start thinking in a big box while trying to think about 20 years from now. Plans for the project call for a four-lane highway with a 245-foot bridge over S.C. 31 that will connect Carolina Forest with the River Oaks area of Myrtle Beach. It includes multi-use paths, sidewalks, 4,000 feet of roadway improvements and 6,000 feet of roadway ramp construction, according to numbers from the county. Last December, Horry County officials finalized a $1.15 million property acquisition for 23 acres for the construction project that is estimated to be completed by 2027. Funding for the estimated $75 million interchange is coming from the countys 1.5 percent hospitality fee which is collected on things such as hotel accommodations. Its going to make things a lot better for those who live in this community and the best part about it is its almost entirely funded through tourists and hospitality fee revenue, County Councilman Dennis DiSabato said. A $75 million project thats paid for by people visiting Horry County. Home-based food production ballooned amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but in South Carolina, individuals who wanted to sell goods made in their house faced several restrictions. A new law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster on May 23 changes how this so-called cottage food industry is regulated, potentially paving the way for an influx of new home-based businesses. The law, S.506, allows for the sale of non-potentially hazardous homemade foods to retail stores and direct-to-consumer online. It also expands the types of foods home-based producers can sell to include more non-perishable items. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, in January 2021, drew support from both sides of the aisle. In an environment wherein we had a nearly two year shutdown, I think that it illustrated the need to allow for better economic freedom for home-based businesses, including non-hazardous food production, Kimbrell said. Previously, items like cakes, candy and cookies were the only homemade products that could be sold direct-to-consumer in person without having to go through the Department of Health and Environmental Controls permitting process. They would have to meet the criteria set forth in the 2012 Home-Based Food Production Law. While the new law will expand the types of shelf-stable homemade foods that can be sold, the exact products that are permissible is still under consideration, according to a DHEC spokesperson. DHEC is currently reviewing the new provisions and we will be able to provide further guidance on what foods are allowed under the revised law after our review is complete, the spokesperson said via email. As part of this review, we'll be working with Clemson Cooperative Extension, the South Carolina Department of Agriculture and other stakeholders to prepare a comprehensive guide for home-based food producers. DHEC did not provide a timeline for when the review would be complete. Since the 2012 Home-Based Food Production Law passed, homemade food businesses have been exempt from inspections, including those conducted by the Department of Agriculture, which regulates many of South Carolinas wholesale producers. This wont change under the new law, but labels reading Processed and Prepared by a Home-Based Food Production Operation That is Not Subject to South Carolinas Food Safety Regulations will be required for all home-based food businesses. Retail stores selling homemade foods will have to post a sign notifying consumers, and some still could require these items to go through an inspection. Producers will receive a DHEC-provided identification number, allowing the agency to track who is making what. Cake designer Laney Cowan says the new law would have helped her years ago when she first launched Delicious Desserts, a Charleston-based at-home bakery specializing in wedding cakes. Back then, it could have paved the way for her to fulfill a lifelong dream of opening a cheesecake company, but she was unable to test the market due to the regulations that were in place. Now, after years in the cottage food industry, Cowan is skeptical about S.506. I love the idea of entrepreneurs having less hurdles, but Im also cautious of what this means for public safety. I was trained in my early (food and beverage) days, as well as the Navy, on all the intricacies of food handling. Not everyone is, she said. Broadening this does add a bit more risk to the industry as a whole. The pandemic led to deregulation in the homemade food industry nationwide, with several states relaxing restrictions. Kimbrell said the new law is one of multiple instances in which pandemic-prompted changes can work on a permanent basis. Were saying were going to open up the market to a greater number of potential customers, Kimbrell said. Im not anti any regulation, but as a senator, one of the biggest things Ive tried to do is roll back regulations. Cowan, on the other hand, isnt thinking about an influx of customers shes focused on all the new cake-makers that could drive down consumer price expectations. Some people think its so easy to bake a cake. And while that part may be easy, running a business is not, she said. I often get the, But someone else will make this for half. Thats part of life, but it is a frustrating part of the industry. While uncertainty swirls around the future of the cottage food industry, one thing is certain: Regulators, business owners and consumers will all be forced to adapt. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms. High near 85F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. FLORENCE Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said he's willing to do "whatever it takes" to reelect Tom Rice to Congress as the embattled Republican incumbent faces a crowded primary over his vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump. Ryan, who had a tenuous relationship with the former president during his stint in leadership, attended a small lunch with Rice at the historic Florence Hotel before participating in a roundtable with local business leaders down the street. While there, Ryan stressed the accomplishments he and his former colleague amassed throughout their shared time on Congress' powerful Ways and Means Committee, citing reforms they worked to pass under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to regulatory moves surrounding trade and infrastructure. Both credited their shared goals in helping reduce unemployment in Rice's 7th Congressional District. Those accomplishments alone, Ryan said, made it worth sending an experienced hand back to Washington, particularly with Republicans poised to retake control of the House in 2022. "You have with you a congressman who is at this key juncture on this key committee, with this wealth of knowledge representing your interests," Ryan told local business leaders. "So I'm just here to say 'thank you' for sending this man to Congress." It was also an opportunity for the pair to distance themselves from the politics of the man whose presence has come to dominate the race: Trump, who Rice broke party ranks with to impeach and who has endorsed his chief opponent, Russell Fry. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Ryan, an outspoken Trump critic after leaving Washington, has been relatively quiet in recent months, rarely leaving his home state of Wisconsin to campaign for other Republicans. His decision to campaign for Rice, he told reporters, was a testament not only to their relationship but of their shared values. He cited their oath to the Constitution and to a policy-forward approach to legislating that has since fallen way to a glossier, more superficial brand of politics in the national GOP. "There are workhorses in Congress and there are show horses in Congress," Ryan said. "Law gets written by workhorses. Differences are made by workhorses. Tom Rice is a workhorse. That to me is what matters, and so you want to support the people in Congress who actually do the work of solving people's problems." With less than two weeks until the June 14 primary, the question is whether that message is getting through. While Rice, of Myrtle Beach, has attracted the endorsement of figures like Ryan and former Republican candidate for president Chris Christie, Fry has attracted that of Trump and figures like former S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas. Though Fry lags significantly in terms of fundraising, the S.C. House majority whip led the incumbent by double-digits in a June 1 poll by the conservative Trafalgar Group, which placed Rice at just 25 percent in the primary's seven-way field with just 7 percent undecided. Rice brushed off the poll when asked about it by reporters. "There's only one poll that matters, and that's on Election Day," he said. "I feel pretty comfortable." A new ad from Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace paints her GOP primary rival as someone who cannot be trusted, amplifying accusations that Katie Arrington lost her security clearance after Pentagon officials claimed she improperly disclosed classified information. The 30-second spot, which was first posted to YouTube, will be part of an ad blitz across TV, cable and digital, the Mace campaign confirmed. But it will not be the only attack ad hitting the airwaves this week in South Carolina's most closely watched GOP primary race. The Arrington campaign said it will take aim at Mace in a new TV ad that will begin airing June 2. The 30-second spot, "Replace Mace," calls the current Lowcountry congresswoman "a liberal" and features former President Donald Trump saying Mace is "a terrible person, and she has no idea what she's doing." With less than two weeks before the June 14 Republican primary, both Arrington and Mace are locked in a fierce fight to win undecided voters and, as a result, the tone of their most recent campaign messages has turned combative. "People do negative campaigning because it tends to work," said College of Charleston political scientist Gibbs Knotts. "The average voter might say they really don't like it, but the reality is it's been proven over and over again to be an effective way to get people to remember your message, and to draw distinctions between you and your opponent." Arrington came out with her first attack ad last week, where she pitched herself as an "upgrade" and proceeded to push a cutout of Mace. The new 30-second spot from Mace, called "Trust," opens with a deep-voiced male narrator warning of America's biggest foreign adversaries. "Vladimir Putin is on the march, communist China is on the rise and Iran wants nuclear weapons," the ominous voiceover says, as footage of Putin, Russian tanks, Chinese military parades and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei zip in and out of the screen. Then, the narrator asks, "Can we trust Katie Arrington to keep America safe?" Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! The ad goes on to say Arrington was investigated by the Pentagon for "releasing top-secret classified information that could have inflicted grave damage to the national security of the United States." "That's why Arrington's top secret security clearance was suspended," the ad continues. "If our military doesn't trust Katie Arrington neither can we." Mace's campaign manager declined to comment when asked how much the campaign was spending to get this message in front of voters. But it will be airing in a congressional district that is home to more military veterans than any other in South Carolina, as well the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. Since Arrington entered the race, questions surrounding surrounding her final months at the Pentagon have come up repeatedly on the campaign trail. Not only has it became the subject of a Mace-funded website that calls Arrington "crooked," but it surfaced at the end of a May 23 debate. "Nancy Mace hasn't been honest about a single thing since she started running for office. Since she doesn't have a conservative record to stand on, she is flailing with swamp-style attacks to cover up for voting with AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.) 50 percent of the time," said Arrington's campaign spokesman Chris D'Anna. Mace has pointed to language in Arrington's own lawsuits when asked about her characterization of Arrington losing her security clearance. Arrington, meanwhile, has called the loss of her security clearance "a political hit job." She filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense, demanding the federal agency hand over all public records that discuss the suspension of her security clearance so that she can clear her name. Recently, Arrington showed a sworn affidavit to The Associated Press from an unnamed intelligence officer who worked with her and said he never worried about her handling of classified information. COLUMBIA The Democratic frontrunners seeking to oust Gov. Henry McMaster in November both say they're fighting to flip two decades of Republican control in order to expand Medicaid, legalize marijuana, pay workers more and restrict gun sales to combat crime. The policy positions of former congressman Joe Cunningham of Charleston and state Sen. Mia McLeod of Columbia, the top Democrats in the five-way gubernatorial contest, don't differ much. Even some of their word choices are similar. Both, for example, pledge to expand Medicaid eligibility on "day one," accomplishing with a pen stroke something GOP governors and the legislators in charge of state government have refused to do since Congress passed the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare. Joe Cunningham A look at Joe Cunningham, a Democrat running for governor: Age: 40 Hometown: Kuttawa, Kentucky Residence: West Ashley Education: Attended College of Charleston from 2000 to 2002. Graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a bachelors in ocean engineering in 2005. Graduated with a law degree from Northern Kentucky University in 2014, when he moved back to South Carolina. Career: Attorney. Previously worked for an environmental consulting firm in Florida before being laid off during the Great Recession and going to law school. Political experience: Flipped the 1st District blue in 2018 for the first time in 40 years with a 1.4 percentage point margin of victory. Lost reelection by 1.3 percentage points in 2020. Family: Divorced father of a 4-year-old son. A new direction, Cunningham and McLeod agree, starts with a different CEO. A Democrat has not occupied the Governor's Mansion since Jim Hodges lost his reelection bid in 2002. But Cunningham and McLeod each contend they're uniquely qualified to use South Carolina's bully pulpit office to produce change on ideas that have seen little to no traction in the Republican-dominated Legislature. Cunningham points to his historic victory in 2018 when he became the first Democrat in four decades to win the coastal 1st District and his work in Congress as evidence he can convince enough independents and moderate Republicans to overcome long odds. McLeod, a legislator since 2010, counters she's the only candidate with state government experience. Without saying Cunningham's name, she tells voters her chief opponent won just a single term in the U.S. House to her five wins to represent suburban northeast Columbia, the first three in the state House. What she doesn't say is that her wins were in districts that lean heavily Democratic. The field Two of the other three lesser-known candidates in the primary also live in Columbia: Carlton Boyd, a former page in the Legislature who has worked with various state health care agencies, and Calvin "CJ Mack" McMillan, a musician and former barber. Both are seeking their first political office. William "Cowboy" Williams of Florence, a retired postmaster, says his unsuccessful 2020 bid to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rice in the 7th District anchored in GOP-heavy Myrtle Beach helped prepare him for the governor's race. But unlike in 2020, his "Cowboy" nickname won't appear on the ballot, despite his request. Of the five, Cunningham has the hands-down fundraising advantage. His $1.75 million in total collections as of March 31, the last quarterly reporting period, is four times what McLeod raised. Williams' nearly $6,000 in total contributions is mostly money he loaned himself. McMillan's campaign account had $40. A campaign disclosure for Boyd could not be found on the state Ethics Commission website. Cunningham is the only candidate with TV ads. His latest, on abortion, shows him as already looking toward a fall fight with McMaster. A single veto, Cunningham tells the camera, could be all that stands in the way of a complete ban in South Carolina if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 ruling legalizing abortions nationwide, which could happen this month. McMaster has publicly said he supports a ban without exceptions. What Cunningham doesn't say is that even many Republican legislators consider that position too extreme and whatever they do pass could be signed into law before a new governor could be inaugurated in January. Legislators have allowed for a special session any time after June to respond to however justices rule. McLeod, a sexual assault survivor, has been fighting GOP efforts to restrict abortions for years. Campaigning At Cunningham's 40th birthday celebration May 26 in Charleston, many supporters cited abortion rights among their top reasons for supporting him. "Abortion should be between a woman, her doctor, her husband if she has one, and her God. It's nobody else's business," said Pam Meredith, a 65-year-old retiree who traveled from Murrells Inlet for his public birthday party. Doing something about gun violence and paying teachers more, other things he pledged to do in a TV ad, were also at the top of their list. Others said more generally they like that he wasn't a partisan hard-liner in Congress. "For me, he's right down the center where I want to be," said Zach Giglio, 36, of Summerville, who described himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. "I trust his judgment." It wasn't that people at the Charleston event didn't like McLeod. They just didn't know anything about her, a dozen told The Post and Courier. But McLeod contends she doesn't need to be on TV to win. After all, she said, her sons reminded her they don't watch TV. She's relying on grassroots, telling people to take friends and family with them when they vote. Of the five candidates, Cunningham has also been the most visible on the campaign trail. As of May 31, he'd visited with voters in 29 of the state's 46 counties since officially launching his run last year. He expects to hold events in at least six more before June 14. McLeod, who touts making history as the first Black female to run for South Carolina governor, said she's intentionally refrained from advertising her campaign appearances and held many events virtually. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! "I have to protect my own safety. Joe doesn't have to worry about being targeted because of the color of his skin," she said. "I have to move differently as a Black woman in this state. He doesn't have to think about that." She has a concealed weapons permit to carry a gun, she told The Post and Courier, but that doesn't always make her feel safe. The law pushed by Republicans last year that allowed CWP holders to openly carry a handgun means "all of us are targets," she said May 31 during a virtual town hall sponsored by a chapter of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. "Open carry in this state just means open season on people who look like us." Diagnosed with sickle cell anemia while a freshman at the University of South Carolina, McLeod also cites the blood disorder for why she must be more cautious campaigning. She takes her mask off only to speak into a microphone. Even outside, she quickly puts it back on before greeting voters. "Don't be fooled," she told potential voters May 27 at an end-of-school-year community celebration in Camden. "This pandemic is not over. People are still getting sick. People are still dying, and we have to be vigilant to protect ourselves, because we don't have anyone in office now protecting us." She continues to criticize McMaster who frequently says South Carolina's economy never completely shut down in the pandemic for not closing down more and not letting workers stay home for far longer. She finds it offensive, she said, when McMaster talks about a thriving economy and record-high state surpluses. The plight of the working poor in South Carolina is evident, she said, by food distribution lines like the one she visited May 27 in rural Bamberg. Arriving late following a virtual event, she greeted each driver and handed out campaign postcards in the rain to families who began lining up several hours earlier just to be sure they got groceries in the once-a-month food drive. "People aren't going to sit in a car line like that for hours to get food if they don't need it," she said afterward. "There can't be a surplus until the basic needs of every South Carolinian have been met, and clearly they haven't." The differences Policy differences between Cunningham and McLeod include how far they advocate raising the minimum wage. McLeod stresses being the only candidate who's filed legislation to require all South Carolina workers make at least $15 an hour, calling that "ground zero" for a living wage. Her proposals have gone nowhere in a state that doesn't actually set an hourly floor. South Carolina's rate is tied to the federal minimum, which, at $7.25 an hour, hasn't changed since 2009. Cunningham broke with congressional Democrats in 2019 in voting against the "Raise the Wage Act," saying it would harm small businesses and their employees, especially in the tourism-dependent Lowcountry. He instead supports a hike of up to $12 an hour. Both support a complete legalization of marijuana, including for recreational use. For that too, McLeod says, she's the only candidate to introduce legislation to do so, though that also went nowhere. Last month, far more limited legislation allowing medical relief from chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder but not by smoking it died in the House on a technicality after taking seven years to pass the Senate. Cunningham blames McMaster. "If Gov. McMaster had said, 'Get that bill to my desk,' if he'd said, 'I support this,' it would've passed," he said. "This failure is on him." Perhaps their biggest differences are in their biographies, which McLeod usually highlights in her opening remarks. She starts her stump speech telling voters she hails from Bennettsville, a town in poor, rural Marlboro County, where her family has run a funeral business for 108 years. Cunningham, a native of rural Kentucky, first moved to South Carolina in 2000 to attend the College of Charleston. Both are divorced parents who cite the next generation as the reason for their run. Cunningham's 4-year-old son, along with nieces and nephews, are featured in an ad titled "Family" released May 23. But McLeod makes it more personal, telling voters she's trying to keep her adult sons, ages 23 and 27, from leaving South Carolina for better opportunities. Whether they stay depends on the campaign's outcome, she said. Mia McLeod A look at Mia McLeod, a Democrat running for governor: Age: 53 Hometown: Bennettsville Residence: Northeast Columbia Education: Bachelor's degree in English from the University of South Carolina, 1990. Law degree from USC in 1995. Career: Owner of public relations firm McLeod Butler Communications, which she started in 2003. Previously: Project director at the state Attorney General's Office, 1997-99. Communications instructor at USC's business school, 1998-99. Director of governmental affairs, state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, 2001-02. Political experience: First elected to the state House in 2010 with 55 percent of the vote. Reelected in 2012 and 2014 without GOP opposition. Elected to the state Senate in 2016 by 55 percent. Reelected in 2020 by 62 percent. Family: Divorced mother of two sons, ages 23 and 27. "They don't believe their voices matter here. Y'all know something about that, don't you?" she said in Camden. "They don't believe their lives matter. Y'all know about that, too, and they're right. Young adults like my sons have been leaving our state for decades." It's a topic that resonates with parents and grandparents across the state, she told The Post and Courier afterward. "Everywhere I go, I talk about the fact I'm running because my sons don't want to live here," she said. "The reasons they don't are the same reasons I didn't when I graduated." Who among the Democrats gets to challenge McMaster will be decided either in the June 14 primary or, if no candidate gets over 50 percent, in a runoff June 28. Early voting is underway statewide. The S.C. Attorney General's Office declined to prosecute Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis following a state investigation into allegations that Dennis raped a former lieutenant in 1997 and groped her in 2004. In a letter obtained by The Post and Courier, Heather Weiss, senior assistant deputy attorney general, wrote to the State Law Enforcement Division agent assigned to the case that prosecutors had carefully reviewed SLED's findings. They concluded "there is insufficient evidence to merit criminal prosecution," she wrote. "We've always known these allegations are patently false," Dennis' attorney, Shaun Kent, said during a hastily arranged press conference June 1 in Sumter. "All of the agencies I must stress came to the same conclusion: The case is without merit. The cases will not be prosecuted," Kent said. Dennis said nothing during the press conference. Kent took only one brief question before he and Dennis filed out of the room as reporters continued asking questions. Melissa Addison, the former lieutenant who made the allegations, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the attorney general's decision. She said she experienced firsthand the uphill climb many sexual abuse victims face, but that she had few regrets coming forward. "The sheriff didn't win anything here," she said. "And I didn't lose anything but the weight of carrying the secret." Of Dennis, she added: "He knows the truth." During the June 1 press conference, Kent said Addison filed lawsuits against Sumter but lost. Addison "came out with these allegations only after she lost her final lawsuit. Simply stated, these actions are of a disgruntled ex-employee." But the case went beyond Addison's explosive claims, highlighting concerns about how the state polices its sheriffs. A Post and Courier Uncovered report in January found that Addison told state authorities two years ago that Dennis raped her in his home in 1997 and groped her again in 2004 in a department office. (The Post and Courier has partnered with The Sumer Item and 16 other community newspapers to investigate questionable conduct by public officials throughout South Carolina.) Addison gave the State Law Enforcement Division names and other leads to corroborate her claims. But SLED did little to verify or debunk her allegations, or even properly record the existence of the case in the first place. As a result, the case "fell through the cracks," SLED Chief Mark Keel acknowledged in January. He ordered a new investigation, and in early May, SLED confirmed that it sent the case to the attorney general for review. Addison, a former criminal investigator, was skeptical about the speed of the investigation. She said criminal sexual conduct cases can take months. "Because of my personal struggles with navigating through this process," she said, "it has truly given me new insight regarding the phrase 'Justice delayed is justice denied.' " She also questioned why the attorney general's prosecutors didn't contact her directly about their decision. The office's own guidelines on sexual assault allegations urge prosecutors to "meet with the victim" and "if case is not able to be charged, make appropriate referrals for victim (counseling, etc.)." None of that happened, Addison said. She thanked the S.C. Victim Assistance Network, which worked with her during the recent SLED investigation. Addison joined the department in 1997 as an evidence technician, working her way through the ranks over the next 19 years to lieutenant. She alleged that Dennis raped her in his home in 1998 and groped her in the office in the mid-2000s. She filed complaints with the S.C. Human Affairs Commission and federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When the agencies failed to take on her case, she filed lawsuits against the department. A jury in 2019 sided with the sheriff. The case comes amid a parade of scandals that affected other South Carolina counties. Since 2010, 15 sheriffs have been charged with crimes and a 16th died before charges could be brought. This includes recent corruption cases against former Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood, former Colleton County Sheriff Andy Strickland and ex-Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone. Its a roster of misconduct that has touched one out of three South Carolina counties so embarrassing that Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this year called for legislation requiring sheriffs undergo annual ethics training. We had a well-attended Zoom session for our VIP members last night. John led the discussion in which we looked back on our hits, misses, and mission over the past 20 years. Our long-time publisher, Joe Malchow, participated and made valuable contributions to the festivities. We went for an hour. After we concluded the discussion, however, I had a few thoughts that would have completed points I was trying to make in response to Johns prodding. I want to append three footnotes. 1. I discussed our coverage of the Norm Coleman versus Paul Wellstone/Walter Mondale Senate race in the fall of 2002. I doubted the Star Tribunes infamous Minnesota Poll showing Wellstone with a big lead over Coleman. Coleman campaign manager Ben Whitney shared the results of their internal polls that I posted along the way on Power Line. Looking back after Colemans victory, I documented this aspect of the race in The Trouble With the Star-Trib Poll. The Star Tribune subsequently killed its infamous poll. 2. We conceived of the site as supporting the Bush administrations efforts opposing Islamic terrorism after 9/11. John asked how it is that Islamic terrorism has not manifested itself in the United States to the extent that we feared in those years. I credited intelligence. John credited American Muslims. Johns comments prompted me to think back to the trial of the three Minnesota men in Minneapolis before Judge Michael Davis in the spring of 2016. Charged with material support of terrorism, the three young Somali Minnesotans on trial had sought to join ISIS in Syria and to wage jihad as good Muslims. Six others were charged and pleaded guilty before trial. I covered the trial every day on Power Line and in four Weekly Standard articles that are accessible in the archives maintained by the Washington Examiner. The three on trial were bright, charismatic, and taking advantage of educational and employment opportunities in Minnesota. To outward appearances, they appeared to be a tribute to the power of assimilation. Via an informant, however, the government introduced recordings of the defendants talking among themselves. They seethed with hatred of the United States. They burned to return to the United and carry on the jihad here after they did their thing in Syria. I wrote about the evidence at trial in the Star Tribune column Somali-Minnesota terror recruitment: What I saw at the trial. The point, and I do have one, is that the FBI had been monitoring the nine young men for a long time before they were arrested and charged. It wasnt clear where the FBI picked up on them. I infer that the FBI had a window onto the doings at two of the mosques they frequented, one in Minneapolis and one in Bloomington. 3. A few of the VIPs in attendance floated notes about my Sunday Morning Coming Down series. John asked me to talk about it and I fumbled a few comments. I wasnt prepared for the question. I would like to add that I conceive of the series as a fans notes. I love American pop music in just about all its various branches. I only write about music, musicians, and songwriters that ring my chimes. If I dont have something good (i.e., positive) to say, I dont write about it. Thinking back, I recalled that in our early days I posted an excerpt of Jimmy Webbs Wall Street Journal review of Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimballs Reading Lyrics (Singing the praises of song, February 2, 2001) and made a few comments of my own. Webbs review concluded: This is not a book to be read quickly. The wise reader will want to savor lines like Yip Harburgs when I cant fondle the hand Im fond of I fondle the hand at hand (When Im Not Near the Girl I Love, 1946). In a more poignant vein, Lost in the Stars (Maxwell Anderson, 1944), The Ballad of the Sad Young Men (Fran Landesman, 1959) and Lush Life (Billy Strayhorn, 1938) deserve special attention for their depiction of the stoic cynicism that accompanies disillusionment Scholars and trivia hounds will no doubt find this volume to be an invaluable reference. For younger readers, it will serve as an introduction to a world of fascinating imagery and emotion, much of which existed long before they were born but still throbs with rhythm and passion. For others of us, Reading Lyrics will be a companion, like an old friend often consulted for inspiration and solace. There are good lyrics here from the 60s and 70s, including The Way We Were (Alan and Marilyn Bergman, 1973), What Kind of Fool Am I? (Lesley Bricusse, 1961), People (Bob Merrill, 1963) and Misty (Johnny Burke, 1962). But as this years Grammy nominations demonstrate, we have regressed at light speed through the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze Ages of lyric writing and are well on our way back to the Primeval. Yet we can still find a reminder of the grace, charm and warmth of which talented men and women of good will are capable in Reading Lyrics. This wondrous and magical concoction is hatred-free and highly recommended. We happened to go to dinner that weekend with John and Loree Hinderaker. John told me he enjoyed the post and encouraged me to do more off our beaten path. Since then, YouTube has become an ever richer resource on which I could draw to share my enthusiasms. I wanted to add this footnote to credit Johns encouragement way back when. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday agreed to increase its planned monthly oil output, as the European Union agreed in principle to cut 90 per cent of oil imports from Russia by the end of the year. OPEC disclosed this at its 29th OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, according to a statement released by the organisation on Thursday. It noted that global refinery intake is expected to increase after seasonal maintenance. The meeting highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets for both crude oil and refined products. The development came after the EU agreed to ban 90 per cent of oil imports from Russia by the end of the year. On Monday, the EU announced it has agreed to ban 90 per cent of Russian oil imports by the end of the year as part of sanctions for Russias invasion of Ukraine. In a statement on Thursday, OPEC said it decided to reaffirm the decision of the 10th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial meeting on 12 April 2020 and further endorsed in subsequent meetings, including the 19th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on 18 July 2021. Reconfirm the production adjustment plan and the monthly production adjustment mechanism approved at the 19th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting and the decision to adjust upward the monthly overall production by 0.432 mb/d for the month of July 2022, the oil cartel said. READ ALSO: OPEC maintains monthly output as EU proposes ban on Russian oil Advance the planned overall production adjustment for the month of September and redistribute equally the 0.432 mb/d production increase over the months of July and August 2022. Therefore, July production will be adjusted upward by 0.648 mb/d as per the attached schedule. Extend the compensation period until the end of December 2022 as requested by some underperforming countries and request that underperforming countries submit their plans by 17 June 2022. Compensation plans should be submitted in accordance with the statement of the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting. Reiterate the critical importance of adhering to full conformity and to the compensation mechanism, it said. The body further announced that its next meeting will be held on June 30. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Funlola Abdulsamads first-hand knowledge of how women entrepreneurs could access financial support and other services came in the form of a humiliating episode at Odo Ori market in Iwo, Osun State, in 2017. A trader who allegedly defaulted in the payment of her microsavings loan was forced to dance around the market with plastic and other filthy materials hung around her neck. The woman, Ms Abdulsamad told PREMIUM TIMES, was thereafter taken to Feesu bus terminus and other strategic parts of Iwo town by officials of the microfinance bank that lent her money. It was a most embarrassing and terrifying moment for even me, Ms Abdulsamad said of the memorable occasion in an interview with this newspaper, her voice a melange of fear and irritation. Although it didnt happen to me, I thought about it and concluded that I was never going to be a part of any such [financial services] support system. I cant imagine going through such humiliation. It was very embarrassing. Ms Abdulsamad sells fruits and other agricultural produce at Oluwo Market on the outskirts of Iwo town. Everyday, she displays her produce on the edges of the Ibadan-Osogbo Expressway. With an entire stock valued at less than N10,000. She admitted that she could expand her business and rent a shop if she received the right financial support. But despite her financial challenges, she vowed never to seek support from the numerous organisations offering microsavings and other financial products and services to women entrepreneurs and traders in and around Iwo town. They have no respect for privacy, she said. They can humiliate you anywhere at any time. They dont care if you really dont want other people to know about your businesses or financial status and challenges. Adijatu Kareem, a trader at Odo Ori market in Iwo, told PREMIUM TIMES how public the application process could be for prospective loan applicants, thus exposing them to the prying eyes of the entire market. Mrs Kareem, who resides in Papa, a village on the outskirts of Iwo, explained that in their efforts to conduct due diligence, officials of financial service providers often expose applicants data and pay less attention to privacy. Before you have access to a loan or open an account, they will have to conduct an inspection on your shop or kiosk, she began. That way, they take pictures and do a valuation of your goods. They do this publicly and it attracts the attention of everyone in the market to your shop. Many of us dont like this at all. The trader added that many women in the market have chosen not to be part of any formal credit service because of this privacy concern. Financial Inclusion In October 2012, Nigeria launched its National Financial Inclusion Strategy with the overall target of reducing the adult financial exclusion rate from 46.3% in 2010 to 20% by 2020. Central to these goals are a strong network of financial access points such as commercial bank branches, microfinance bank branches, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point-of-ofSales (POS) terminals, agent banking outlets and mobile money agents. In January 2019, the strategy was modified and it identified five of the most excluded demographics: women; youth; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); rural dwellers; and individuals living in the countrys northern regions. At the heart of conversations around financial inclusion are issues of women entrepreneurship and access to and use of financial products and services in relation to how they affect job creation, economic growth and women empowerment. According to a 2018 survey by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), financial inclusion nationwide stood at 59.1 percent for women compared with 67.5 percent for men, a gender gap of 8.4 percent. Although this represented a slight improvement from a gap of 9.8 percent recorded in 2016, it was still considered poor. Working in collaboration with its Financial Inclusion Secretariat (FIS), the Central Bank of Nigeria has designed policies and partnership programmes targeted at women. Examples of such initiatives is the establishment of the MSME Development Fund (MSMEDF), a NGN220 billion (approximately USD 717 million) intervention fund set up by CBN that takes into consideration the unique challenges faced by women in accessing credit with 60 percent of funds (NGN132 billion, or roughly USD 430 million) earmarked for women. There is also the National Financial Inclusion Special Interventions Working Group (NFISIWG). Women Still Vulnerable Despite the various interventions by government and other stakeholders in the private sector, women are still largely excluded from the financial service ecosystem. Over 1 billion women still do not use or have access to the financial system, according to the World Bank Groups Global Findex report. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has estimated that globally, a $300 billion gap in financing exists for formal, women-owned small businesses, and more than 70 percent of women-owned small and medium enterprises have inadequate or no access to financial services. Iya Sodiki, a trader at Ile-Ogbo community in Ayedire Local Government Area of Osun State, told this newspaper that she does not own any bank account nor does she know of anyone around her who owns an account. According to her, access to financial services can be cumbersome and tedious, hence their nonchalant attitude to financial inclusion. Multiple interviews with women across markets in Iwo and adjoining villages like Papa showed that many of the traders save their money with thrift collectors and others who run infromal contribution schemes. Others who handle fewer cash, including those with relatively low rate of daily turnover, often resort to keeping their money at home. According to a report by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Gender Centre of Excellence, about 98 per cent of Nigerian women are left out of formal credit markets, unable to obtain loans from formal financial institutions like banks. The centre, established to be a knowledge hub on advancing womens financial inclusion in Nigeria, added that only about 45 per cent of adult Nigerians borrow at all from the formal sector. Data Privacy The challenges notwithstanding, the digital financial services market is being transformed at an exponentially fast rate, and it has helped in meeting financial inclusion goals and their poverty alleviation and economic growth benefits. But there has equally been concern with regard to data privacy issues especially in relation to vulnerable groups such as women, youth, the elderly, persons with disabilities and displaced persons. Folasade Badmus, a trader at Oja Ale market, Iwo, told PREMIUM TIMES that she once attempted to open an account with a microfinance bank but shelved the idea after officials of the company showed up in her shop unannounced. They said they came for inspection and mobilisation, and then they wanted to take pictures of my kiosk, she said, half-amused. Just like that? They didnt even inform me ahead of time. When they came, everybodys attention shifted to my shop; I didnt like that at all. So, I opted out. According to a guideline prepared by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), cultural norms in some societies may mean women are especially concerned about the privacy of their data, including as far as other household members (such as their partners) and their communities are concerned. Mama Glory, a fruit seller at Oluwo market, said she chose to shut herself away from financial service companies because of her peace of mind and integrity in the market. According to her, she doesnt worry about being humiliated however poor her daily sales records are. Women in our community value their self-esteem but many of them are just helpless; thats why they go for these loans and services despite the disgrace, she said. A study conducted by the Digital Financial Service (DFS) Working Group noted that low-income customers value data privacy, were prepared to spend time in obtaining a loan that offers privacy, and were unwilling to share personal data with third parties. But a loan service officer at LAPO Microfinance Bank, who declined to have her name in print because she was not authorized to speak to the press, told PREMIUM TIMES those financial institutions also value issues of data privacy. However, she said, officials are sometimes compelled to adopt certain open strategies due to the recalcitrant attitude of some of the female beneficiaries. We conduct inspections and go unannounced because most of the women can be crafty, she said. They can arrange goods that are not theirs in their shops once they know you are coming for inspection. We also take pictures so that we can keep records of their valuables. These things are inevitable. Due to poor access to financial services, women face difficulties in collecting and saving income, growing their businesses, and pulling their families out of poverty. The Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Gender Centre of Excellence report said that low education, limited decision-making power, and being in a rural area exacerbate these issues. It also exposes women to financial limitations and, by implication, deepens poverty. Tunde Bamishe, a finance analyst, told this newspaper that there could be moderation in the conduct of loan service providers with regard to data privacy. According to him, due diligence could be conducted discreetly in ways that it wont discourage other women from being part of the financial ecosystem. The goal is to support their businesses and deepen financial inclusion, he said. Stakeholders especially in rural areas must be sensitive to the cultural dynamics and ensure that data privacy guidelines are adhered to, in order to encourage them to adopt financial services. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The National Vice Chairman (North-west) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against imposing a presidential aspirant on the party. Mr Lukman gave the caution in an open letter to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday. Mr Buhari had on Tuesday, during a meeting with the partys governors, said he should be supported to produce a successor. But Mr Lukman, in an open letter published by PREMIUM TIMES, criticised the presidents request. According to him, the logic that since the governors have been allowed to pick their successor, the president should be allowed, is a poor succession plan. The former Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum likened the proposal by Mr Buhari to the third term agenda and the imposition of late Umar YarAdua by Olusegun Obasanjo. He argued that Mr Buhari risks tainting his achievement if he embarks on such imposition. He described the existing succession plans of governors as impulsive and imposing. Both party members and leaders will always trust Your Excellencys judgement. However, the big worry is whether loyal party leaders and members should just reduce themselves to being ordinary observers when very sensitive issues with very high potential to diminish and damage Your Excellencys revered status in the country is being considered, he said. He stated that he opposed the emergence of Mr Buhari in 2015 out of fear that the partys democratic norms would be eroded under him. I have been a proponent of ensuring that our party take every step to preserve our leaders who could exercise moral authority. This means that leaders who are highly respected on account of their standing in society should not hold elective or appointive positions. It was for that reason that I openly campaigned against your aspiration to emerge as the presidential candidate of our party for 2015 election. Mr Lukman also highlighted what he described as the eroding of the democratic process in the APC leadership by the national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu. Even logistical issues of organising the National Convention are being handled informally. And as far as our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is concerned, relating with you and probably directly communicating positions of members of NWC, is his exclusive jurisdiction. Mr Lukman noted that the APC is in a better position to organise a better convention than the PDP. The stance of Mr Buhari on succession has led to uneasiness in the APC. On Tuesday, the governors met to discuss the selection of a consensus presidential candidate. PREMIUM TIMES learnt the meeting ended in a stalemate. The former PGF DG was very critical of the then leadership of Adams Oshiomhole. He used open letter and press statements to attack the then partys leadership. His stance then was suspected to be that of some APC governors, who were hellbent on removing Mr Oshiomhole from office ahead of the 2023 general elections. However, in a similar trend, Mr Lukman was very critical of Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni-led interim leadership of the APC and his elongated tenure in office. In January, Mr Lukman stepped down following speculations that the APC governors were planning to sack him. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Nigerias ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), has released the list of chairpersons of all the subcommittees to organise the national convention to elect a presidential candidate. Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, on Wednesday, released a list of 18 subcommittees. The party had fixed the presidential primary for June 6-8 after series of postponements. The list is dominated by governors, excluding those running for the presidential ticket. The governor of Gombe State, Muhammed Yahaya, will chair the committee on budget, while the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, will co-chair the committee. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu will chair the committee on finance while Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State is to chair accreditation and decoration committee. Also, the duo of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Abdulrahman Dambazau, former minister of interior, are to chair the committee on security and compliance. Election planning committee is to be chaired by Governor Atiku Bagugu of Kebbi State and Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state. The Transportation Committee will be headed by Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State with the support of Ramatu Aliyu, the minister of state for FCT. Governor Babangana Zulum of Borno State and his Osun counterpart, Gboyega Oyetola, are in charge of accommodation. The media and publicity committee has been entrusted to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State. Furthermore, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and Isaac Adewole, a former minister of health, will co-chair the committee on medical. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is incharge of legal matters. Meanwhile, venue and site servicing are within the responsibilities of Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State and FCT Minister Mohammed Bello. Election appeal will be chaired by Mai Mala Buni, the governor of Yobe State. Hospitality and welfare committee is to be chaired by Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau State, and co-chaired by Sadiya Farouq, minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The committees on protocols and digital communications are chaired by Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State and Govenor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State respectively. The committee on pre-convention/management/ rapporteur is to be chaired by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and the Minister for Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen. Also, Presidential Screening Appeal committee is headed by Governor Sani Bello of Niger State and co-chaired by Idris Wase, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. Also, there is a committee on accreditation of diplomats to be chaired by Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy president of the Senate and co-chair by Geoffrey Onyeama, minister for Foreign Affairs. The convention will take place at the Eagle Square in Abuja. There are 23 aspirants in the race for the predidential ticket of the APC. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) met twice on Tuesday to deliberate on a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, but the two meetings ended in a deadlock. Shortly before departing for Spain on Tuesday, Mr Buhari held a meeting with the governors with a request that he should be allowed to pick a successor. In keeping with the established internal policies of the Party and as we approach the Convention in a few days, therefore, I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the Governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023, Mr Buhari said. After the meeting with Mr Buhari, the governors met at the lodge of Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, who is the Chairman of the PGF, the association of all APC governors. At the first meeting, the governors could not agree on how to implement the directive of the president as they were divided along regional lines. A governor at the meeting told PREMIUM TIMES that some argued that in light of the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the candidate of the PDP, a southern candidate cannot win at the 2023 general elections, hence, a northern candidate should be given priority. This position was challenged by the southern governors, who insisted that power must rotate to the south after eight years of Mr Buhari. Earlier, the governors had agreed to nominate candidates for the president to pick, since his directive was not clear. However, the question of region scuffled the meeting. They postponed the meeting till 8 p.m. on Tuesday to continue the deliberation. Another deadlock At the 8 p.m. meeting, one of the governors informed PREMIUM TIMES, some northern governors insisted on picking a candidate from the north. However, four northern governors; Umar Ganduje of Kano, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa, Sani Bello of Niger and Simon Lalong of Plateau supported their southern counterparts. Southern governors were unanimous that even though Mr Buhari had spoken, the president should be prevailed upon to pick a southern candidate. The governors are expected to meet again on Thursday evening. There are, however, indications that it will be difficult to reach an agreement and the governors may have to wait to get clarification from the president. Before the presidents stance, many of the governors already had preferred presidential aspirants. For instance, Mr Ganduje was in the entourage of former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu to Cross River State to campaign for him. Tanko Almakura, the predecessor of Governor Sule of Nasarawa, was also in the entourage. Also, Mr Lalong pledged the votes of Plateau State to the immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. We had already taken a decision, all former members of the Houses of Assembly took a decision that wherever you go, we would follow you, Mr Lalong had said when Mr Amaechi visited the state. Geopolitical division in PGF There are 22 APC governors, 14 of them are from the North, while 8 are from the South. In all, five of these governors are contesting for president; two in the North (Governor Abubakar Badaru and Governor Yahaya Bello) and three in the South (Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River). Aside from those in the race, some like the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu, Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola and Mr Ganduje are openly involved in the campaign of Mr Tinubu. Push back from the NWC of APC Salihu Lukman, the National Vice-Chairman (North-west) of the APC has criticized the president for his planned succession arrangement. In an op-ed published by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Lukman argued that any plan to impose any of the aspirants on the party will tarnish the reputation of Mr Buhari. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A group of hunters, popular in Borno for fighting armed robbers and kidnappers, earlier in the week shot and killed a Boko Haram commander and his deputy during a gun duet in Shafa Taku village, in the southern part of the state. The two commanders were known for leading a gang of the proscribed group to perpetrate terror on rural communities in the area. From Shaffa Taku, the Islamist militants set out every day to terrorise folks in Mandaragirau in Biu local government, Sabon Gari in Damboa and other fringe villages in Askira-Uba council areas. Residents said they forcefully collect taxes, loot foodstuff and rustle livestock in these communities. They have killed many villagers as well, PREMIUM TIMES was told. To put an end to the unbridled act of terror, the community contacted the hunters group under the leadership of a man, Yohanna, to come to their aid. The hunters reportedly stormed the Shafa Taku axis of Sambisa Forest, where they confronted the insurgents. Yes, we acted on intelligence about the movement of insurgents given residents, Mr Yohanna said. Mr Yohanna, said he and his men moved into action upon receiving the information about the terrorists. I mobilised my team and stormed the spot at Shaffa Taku, a deserted community in Damboa and luckily we sighted the terrorists numbering more than 20, riding on motorcycles, he said. We engaged them in a gun battle, and we were able to kill the Commander and his Deputy, while several others fled with gunshot wounds. We also recovered one motorcycle and one AK47 rifle from the terrorists. Presently, I have informed the authorities of the 231 Battalion in Biu, and we are going to meet today (Tuesday) for onward handing over of the recovered AK47 rifle and the motorcycle, he said. Boko Haram or the West African branch of the terror group, Islamic State (ISWAP), has led an insurgency against the Nigerian state since 2009. The group, whose stated aim is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic caliphate, has caused the death of over 35,000 people mainly in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states, where it is most active, according to Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, a non-governmental group that mobilises international help for communities at risk of mass criminal acts. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A federal court in Abuja, on Thursday, granted a request by Abba Kyari, the detained deputy commissioner of police, to file more evidence to challenge a suit by the Nigerian government seeking to extradite him to United States of America to face fraud charges. Nigerias Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, filed the extradition proceedings against Mr Kyari, seeking the courts approval to surrender him to the United States government. Mr Kyari is wanted by the American government over pending fraud charges filed against him and others at the Central District Court of Central District of California. U.S. prosecutors accuse him of complicity in the $1.1million international fraud spearheaded by Abbas Ramon, popularly known as Hushpuppi, a former Nigerian Instagram celebrity, who now awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to the scam and other criminal financial activities. Thursdays proceedings At Thursdays court session, the judge, Inyang Ekwo, granted the request of Mr Kyari made through his lead counsel, Nureni Jimoh, in a motion on notice. Mr Jimoh, while arguing the application, asked the court to allow Mr Kyari to bring additional documentary exhibits to establish his innocence in the charges against him. But, the federal governments lawyer, Pius Akuta, opposed the request. Mr Akuta based his opposition on the grounds that it was an attempt to cure deficiencies in the earlier documentary evidence presented by Mr Kyari. However, in a short ruling, Mr Ekwo rejected the objection, and granted Mr Kyari permission to furnish the court further documentary exhibits to strengthen his defence. The judge said that the court would have ample opportunity to determine the probate value to be attached to the additional evidence. Subsequently, the suit was adjourned until June 3 for a definite hearing in the extradition suit. Background The suit is seeking to extradite Mr Kyari at the request of the American government to face trial in his indictment in Internet fraud masterminded by Hushpoppi. The federal government seeks to extradite Mr Kyari to the U.S. to face trial over his alleged link to Hushpuppi. The suit, titled: Application for the Extradition of Abba Kyari to the U.S., was dated and filed on March 2. Mr Kyari was the head of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT). The application was filed under the Extradition Act, as part of the Nigerian governments approval of the request by the U. S. for Mr Kyaris extradition. Meanwhile, Mr Kyari, while on suspension over his alleged roles in the Hushpuppi case, was indicted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in a 25kg cocaine deal earlier this year. The formerly celebrated police officer and four members of his police unit, who are being held at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, pleaded not guilty to the drug-related charges. But two other men Chibuna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne accused of importing the illegal drug into Nigeria through the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, in January, have pleaded guilty. On March 14, 2022, the judge, Emeka Nwite, also of the Federal High Court in Abuja, turned down the bail application filed by Mr Kyari and others. Concerns over extradition Concerns have swelled in legal circles that the cocaine charges may scuttle the extradition proceedings initiated against Mr Kyari. The concerns are anchored on Section 3 (6) of the Extradition Act, which prohibits the extradition of a fugitive standing trial on different criminal charges in Nigeria. The part of the Extradition Act reads, (A) A fugitive criminal who has been charged with an offence under the law of Nigeria or any part thereof, not being the offence for which his surrender is sought; or (B) Who is serving a sentence imposed in respect of any such offence by a court in Nigeria, shall not be surrendered until such a time as he has been discharged whether by acquittal or on the expiration of his sentence or otherwise. Recently asked by journalists to address the seeming contradiction of pressing criminal charges against Mr Kyari in Nigeria and seeking to extradite him to the U.S. at the same time, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, merely said there was no confusion over the two cases. Mr Malami did not address the more important issue of the likelihood of the court dismissing the extradition proceedings once Mr Kyaris legal defence team is able to show the court that the police officer is still facing charges in Nigeria. In his application for extradition application filed in court, Mr Malami only said there were no criminal proceedings pending against Mr Kyari in Nigeria on the same offences he was being sought for in the U.S. Mr Malamis lack of clarity on the likely impact the Extradition Act may have on the move to surrender the suspect to the U.S. continues to fuel speculations that the extradition proceedings were programmed to fail to enable the police officer to remain in Nigeria where his trial on cocaine charges can drag on for many years. U.S. extradition request Earlier, the Diplomatic Representative of the U.S. Embassy in Abuja had in its request to Mr Malami, noted that a warrant for Mr Kyaris arrest issued by a U.S. District Court remains valid and executable to apprehend Kyari. According to the request, On April 29, 2021, based on the indictment filed by the grand jury and with the approval of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, a deputy clerk of the court issued a warrant of arrest for Kyari. The arrest warrant remains valid and executable to apprehend Kyari for the crimes with which he is charged in the indictment. Kyari is wanted to stand trial in the United States for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and identity theft. Kyari is the subject of an indictment in case Number 2:21-cr-00203 (also referred to as 2:21-MJ-00760 and 2:21-CR-00203-RGK), filed April 29, 2021, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Mr Kyari, along with five other defendants, face three charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft. U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleged that Mr Kyari and co-conspirators were part of a scheme spearheaded by Hushpuppi to defraud a businessperson in Qatar between November 2019 and April 2020. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 TitanTrust Bank Limited has brought to closure the deal enabling it to purchase a controlling stake in Nigerias second-oldest lender, Union Bank of Nigeria, the latter said Thursday in a regulatory filing, almost half a year after an agreement was reached by both parties. The lender, backed by a former Central Bank of Nigeria deputy governor, Tunde Lemo, set out to acquire 89.4 per cent interest in Union Bank from a pool of stakes from exiting major investors, including British Virgin Islands-based Atlas Mara and Union Global Partners Limited, but later upped the stake to 93.4 per cent. Although no mention of it is made in the statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES, a name change could follow. With the completion of the transaction, TGI Group, parent of TTB, now becomes the majority shareholder and core investor in Union Bank, the document said. The ownership transfer excludes Union Bank UK, a subsidiary of Union Bank of Nigeria, which also has been sold off, with the proceeds of divestment to all the shareholders of the latter as of March 4, 2022. In the spirit of the change of ownership, ten of the thirteen members of Union Banks board have exited the bank including CEO Emeka Okonkwo, who has spent barely a year at the helms and the chair, Beatrice Hamza Bassey. The three persons that survived the shake-up are Omolola Cardoso and Joseph Mbulu (both of them executive directors) as well as Aisha Abubakar, an independent non-executive director. Earlier today we reached a significant milestone with the Completion, after regulatory approvals, of the epoch-making transaction announced in December 2021 between the Banks core shareholders and Titan Trust Bank, Ms Bassey said. As is normal for transactions such as this, the current board and CEO Mr. Emeka Okonkwo retired and handed over reins of the Bank to a new Board and to Mr. Mudassir Amray as CEO, she added. Union Bank set foot in Nigeria in 1917 as the local unit of British-owned Barclays Bank, with the first branches in Lagos, Jos and Port Harcourt. It went by the moniker Barclays Bank of Nigeria for long until local investors purchased a 40 per cent stake, changing the name to Union Bank. Titan Trust Bank, which has positioned itself for long as a challenger bank, agreed in principle in December to acquire roughly nine-tenths of Union Banks shares, a shock reverse takeover that would become probably the biggest acquisition deal in the Nigerian M&A market for the year. The lender has disclosed a grand ambition to mature to a Tier 1 bank in the next five years and is banking on its vast strength digital banking, to disrupt a space where the big five banks commonly known by their initials FUGAZ hold sway. The acquisition eases the path for Titan Trust Bank to become Nigerias sixth biggest lender, with Union Banks asset climbing in valuation to N2.6 trillion at the end of 2021 and Titans standing at N136 billion as of December 2020. Titan Trust Banks CEO Mudassir Amray told Bloomberg in an interview last month his bank is setting sights first on big and promising industries like agriculture, while firming up plan to veer to into new markets within Africa. It is looking to branch out into general financial services also in order to stimulate growth. But the new bank will be facing some daunting inherited challenges right from the very start in transforming Union Bank, which nearly went bust owing to humongous volume of bad loans in its books during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and a regulators audit indicted its then CEO Barth Ebong for fraud including granting loans worth N40 billion without collateral. The bank could be facing an avalanche of legacy debts arising from legal actions against Union Bank, which, the financial report said has resulted in contingent liabilities amounting to 1.98 trillion as of 31 December 2021. Auditor Ernst & Young noted the figure was as high as N7.13 trillion a year earlier. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 At least nine northern state governors are urging their colleagues to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pick its presidential candidate for the 2023 election from the southern part of Nigeria. The party will nominate its presidential candidate at its National Convention in Abuja next week. Twenty-three (23) aspirants have been screened to participate in the primary, 19 of whom are from across the three geopolitical zones in the South. But a push has intensified for the party to look north in its choice since the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday picked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its own candidate for the poll. On Tuesday, President Buhari met with the 22 APC state governors and urged them to support him in picking his preferred successor. Following the presidents statement, the state government met twice on Tuesday but could not agree on who to recommend to the president for consideration and whether the party should consider nominating a candidate from the North. The APC has 14 governors in the North and eight in the South. While there is a consensus among the southern state governors that their region should produce President Buharis successor, five of their colleagues in the North think only a northern candidate can defeat the PDP candidate, Mr Abubakar. However, in previous discussions among the governors and in other fora, nine northern governors had argued that it is not in the interests of national cohesion and social justice for the presidency to remain in the north in 2023, after eight years of the Buhari presidency. These governors also dismissed the view held by some of their northern colleagues that only a northern candidate can win the presidential poll for the APC. The nine governors rooting for a power shift to the South are Babagana Zulum of Borno, Simeon Lalong of Plateau, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano. Others are Aminu Masari of Katsina, Abubakar Bello of Niger, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara. Kwara, Kano and Katsina are less vocal but they all support the view that as Northerners, we should honour the unwritten agreement (power rotation between North and South). Governors El-Rufai, Zulum and Lalong are more vocal, a governor said. However, the nine governors do not agree on who the choice from the South should be because there are many contending aspirations. What unites us is that they all believe in southern presidency at this time, said the source. We have our various preferences we are keeping to ourselves, the source said. But Ganduje clearly prefers Tinubu while Lalong prefers Amaechi. The Niger governor too is following Tinubu but the Nasarawa governor prefers the VP (Yemi Osinbajo) or Tinubu. On Wednesday, Mr Ganduje was in the entourage of Mr Tinubu as the former Lagos Governor continued his campaign tour of the country. A former governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, was also in the delegation. Mr Al-Makura was the choice of APC leaders in Nasarawa for the position of national chairman of the party until another former governor of the state, Abdullahi Adamu, made a late entrance into the race and was named as the consensus candidate with the approval of Mr Buhari. Southern governors united On their part, the eight southern governors are united in their demand for a southern candidate. However, the governors could not agree on an aspirant for recommendation to the president for consideration as his preferred candidate. Three of the governors are among the 19 presidential aspirants of the party. These are Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Ben Ayade of Cross River and David Umahi of Ebonyi. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A presidential aspirant and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has said he was instrumental in Muhammadu Buhari becoming Nigerias president. Mr Tinubu spoke while meeting the governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, leaders and delegates of the party at the presidential lodge, Ibara, Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State. Mr Tinubu was in the state to meet APC delegates ahead of the partys presidential primaries next week. If not for me that stood behind Buhari he wouldnt have become the president, said Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State. He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third, he failed, he even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed. Since he became the president, I have never got ministerial slots, I didnt collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him, it is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn. Mr Tinubu said he was also instrumental in Mr Abiodun becoming the Ogun governor, as well as Yemi Osinbajo becoming vice president. Mr Abiodun had publicly thrown his weight behind Vice President Osinbajo, an Ogun State indigene, who is also a presidential aspirant. If the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, will be fair enough, he will confirm that, if not for God and me, he will never become governor in this state, Mr Tinubu said. We were together at the MKO Abiola Stadium, he was intimidated, they didnt want to give him the partys flag, I was the one that handed the flag to him. He knows that he cannot be the governor without the help of God and my support. It has been over 25 years now that I have been serving them. Osinbajo as vice president On the role he played in Mr Osinbajos vice presidency, Mr Tinubu retold the story of how Mr Buhari initially approached him to become his running mate ahead of the 2015 election. Since the time we started with the Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now the All Progressives Congress (APC), I wanted to contest for president that time, he began. This is me telling you between my life and God Almighty, Buhari called me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked Okadigbo, a flamboyant Catholic, but Nigerians didnt vote for him. The second time, he picked another Igbo, Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didnt vote for him. He knows that even if he goes to bring the Pope to run as his vice, Nigerians wont vote for him. So he said, you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my vice. He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that was why he wanted me as his vice, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, after we brought in people from the PDP, Saraki knew that those from the PDP will not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim, becomes the president and me, also a Muslim, becomes his vice. He knew he wont get the Senate President because the Senate President cannot also be a Muslim; that was how they started the campaign of calumny against me. I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christian that I can nominate so that the party will not break, that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo). Message to delegates Mr Tinubu told the delegates that he is the best bet to represent the APC at the presidential polls saying, he has a wealth of experience. It is my time, Im educated, Im experienced. I have been serving you for a long time, bring me the presidency, bring it, it is my turn, he said. When Atiku was being flogged out of PDP by Obasanjo, he ran to me for help, I left the ticket for him. Nuhu Ribadu came to me and I backed him. In Mr Tinubus entourage were the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje; his Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; former governor of Borno State, Kassim Shettima, and the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A non-governmental organisation, WeVote, on Wednesday, launched PVC Bus Drive project, to encourage meaningful participation of Nigerian youth and other age groups in Nigerias coming general elections. The project, launched in Abuja in partnership with YIAGA Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and NESSACTION is aimed at boosting the level of voters registration and turnout in the country. Nigeria has recorded a sharp decline in voter turnout in the last two general elections as well as the off-cycle conducted in some states over the years, a development many believe have contributed to the countrys unimpressive level of development. . The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, bemoaned the high number of uncollected Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) despite its efforts to encourage more citizens participation in the 2023 elections. About 20 million PVCs out of the over 84 million copies printed ahead of the 2019 general elections remain uncollected by the electorates. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, there were 84 million PVCs. I think close to 20 million (PVCs have not been collected), the commissions National Commissioner of FCT, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Plateau States, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed at the launch of a similar campaign in Nasarawa State. To reduce a similar record ahead of the 2023 polls, the WeVotes PVC Bus Drive project is to provide buses for people at different rural locations in Abuja, Ondo and Ogun to various INEC offices and back at no cost. Getting more youth involved The convener of the initiative, Obinna Osisiogu, at the launch attended by INEC officials, CSOs and media organisations, said the project will help those without financial means but want to register or obtain their PVCs as the exercise gradually comes to a close. The essence of this project is to fix, forestall or ameliorate the low voter turnout we have seen in some states. We have identified 15 states across the country with less than 100,000 voters registration. We have also observed the high level of uncollected PVCs in various states across the country and since we have one month till the end of the exercise, this project was designed to ensure that we get more people to obtain their PVCs by providing transportation and logistics in remote areas in the country, Mr Osisiogu said. With the project tagged #SixtyPercentOfUs, the convener said the goal is ensure that at least 60 per cent of the Nigeria youth population vote in the coming election. INEC does not conduct election on social media In her remarks, INEC Deputy Director, Voter Education, Mary Nkem, lamented the low turnout of registrants since commencement of the exercise. If the youth in this country would come out en masse to vote, turnout the way they should, we will no longer be recording the 20, 30 percent or 15 percent we have witnessed because we know that the votes of the youth demographic alone, even if other demographics dont show up, the turnout would still be high, she said. Ms Nkem also seized the moment to comment on the youth acceptance of social media in discussing national issues without exhausting similar gestures in casting their votes. INEC does not conduct elections on social media neither do we count ballots on Twitter or Instagram. It is only the ballot paper that enters the ballot box that INEC counts, she warned. Her position was further reiterated by the commissions Deputy Director, CSO Division, Ndidi Okafor, who expressed her disappointing experience with electorates in Ekiti State. She narrated her encounter with the states electorates promoting vote buying. Ms Okafor said she was disturbed by the notion of Edi Bo Ese Obe which can be loosely translated as Vote and Cook Soup and widely encouraged among the electorates she trained in the state. The Ekiti State governorship election is one of the off-cycle elections in the country. The state will elect its new governor on June 18. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Yoruba World Centre will celebrate the Olubadan of Ibadan, Olalekan Balogun, on June 19, as part of the activities to mark the monarchs 100 days on the throne. The Centre said it fixed the date after consultations with leaders in Yorubaland including governors and foremost traditional rulers. The event will hold at the Centres arena, inside the University of Ibadan. It will be hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and witnessed by the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi; the Alake of Egbaland, Adedotun Gbadebo; and other prominent traditional rulers and Yoruba leaders, according to a statement by the Centre. The Yoruba World Centre, whose programmes were formally presented to the public by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, aspires to preserve, repackage and represent Yoruba history, language, arts and culture. It aims to use these as tools for Yoruba culture rejuvenation, regional unity, nation building, national cohesiveness and mutual understanding and development. The Centre occasionally celebrates a world icon of Yoruba extraction by representing one of the history, arts: music, poems, drums, of the Yoruba people to a selected public, especially the young ones and the elite. This provides opportunity for the young ones, the Centre said, to learn about and understand Yoruba past, to be gingered towards achieving greatest possible heights in life. It further said it provides opportunity for the elite to develop interest in promoting and supporting such arts as a tool of job creation, industry and empowerment for the younger ones; and researchers as a source of primary data, further research and education on Yoruba history, arts and culture. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Sunday Oladapo and Ifemide Omo on Thursday emerged as consensus House of Assembly candidates of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Ikorodu state constituencies I and II for the 2023 general elections. Aisha Disu, chairman, ADC House of Assembly Primary Election Electoral Committee, said that Messrs Oladapo and Omo emerged unopposed as candidates of the party. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the primaries were held at the MM International Hotel, Ikorodu. Mrs Disu declared Mr Oladapo the winner for Ikorodu constituency I and Mr Omo for Ikorodu constituency II after conducting a voice vote to affirm their nominations. Having emerged unopposed in the race with the affirmation by the party members here, I Mrs Aisha Disu, the chairman, electoral committee, declare Oladapo and Omo winners of the primaries to be flag bearers of our party in Ikorodu Constituency I and II in the 2023 general elections, she said. In his acceptance speech, Mr Oladapo commended the party faithful for reposing confidence in him, promising not to let the party down, and promised practical representation. I thank this great party for giving me the opportunity to serve as the flag-bearer for the Lagos state house of assembly election for Ikorodu Constituency 1 in 2023 and I will not let this party down, Mr Oladapo said. Also, in his acceptance speech, Mr Omo promised to work directly with the grassroots to facilitate a new developmental project that would benefit them and enhance the security in various communities in the constituency. NAN reports that Mr Omo is an entrepreneur while Mr Oladapo is an Information Technology (IT) expert and a farmer. The primaries were monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and under the watch of local security agents. (NAN) WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N8.3 billion for the purchase of operational vehicles and equipment for the Nigeria Police Force. The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Mr Dingyadi said the approvals also covered supply of drugs and medical equipment for police hospitals. Today, the Federal Executive Council approved for the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) to award contracts for the supply of 82 operational vehicles, Toyota brand, for the efficient operation of Nigeria Police at the total cost of N2.2 billion. We also had approval for supply of customised police raincoat for distribution to police across the country at the cost of N1.9 billion. Also customised police boots at the cost of N576 million; we also got approval for the supply of micro first aid kits for the police at the cost of N1 billion as well as customised instructional materials for the police colleges and schools at the cost of N664 million. There is also the supply of drugs and medical equipment for police hospitals across the country at the cost of N2 billion; when you add all these projects, they will come up to N8.3 billion, he said. The minister explained that the NPTF was set up as a special intervention fund to facilitate the improvement of the operations of Nigeria Police Force in the areas of equipment, training and welfare. On his part, the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, said he presented three items to the council. He said the first was a note to council on the ongoing projects. The second one is a request for approval of a contract to supply and install emergency restoration system or 330KV and 132KV transmission line for ongoing rehabilitation works in Lagos at the sum of 968,000 dollars as the offshore component; the onshore component is N7.4 million. The third item is variation on a subsisting contract of a sub-station in Katsina and Kano and the variation sum is only on the onshore component of the contract which has offshore and onshore components as usual with electricity contracts. So, it is only affecting the onshore component due to escalation of construction materials within; and the sum is N445.3 million, and the subsisting contract amount as I told you the offshore is not affected. The onshore, which was N939.4 million, has now moved to N1.9 billion and the council graciously approved, he said. (NAN) WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Borno State, Mohammed Jajari, has said that his emergence as the opposition partys flag bearer was because the people of Borno believe he has all it takes to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023. When I picked my form to vie for the PDP ticket, some of my associates in Lagos, Abuja etc called, asking are you picking the form to contest against Governor Zulum? And I was like yes I will pick the form and I will defeat him, Mr Jajari, an investment banker and expert in the extractive industry, said. Mr Jajari said he would defeat Governor Zulum, a professor turned politician, who many believe has performed well in office. Mr Jajari, however, insists that the governors achievements are not enough to keep Mr Zulum in power beyond 2023. Those from the outside see it as an impossible task, but we, the majority of people of Borno, know that it is one of the easiest tasks to accomplish because we know that there is nothing fantastic going on in this government. There is no single positivity attached to this government. Mr Jajari, 42 years old, emerged the winner of PDP primaries having defeated Mohammed Imam, the acclaimed backer of the opposition party in Borno State. The relatively known Jajari polled a total of 487 votes to defeat a much older and more experienced politician, Mr Imam, who got 362 votes in the PDP primary m Many in Borno still believe that the reputation of Mr Zulum dwarfs Mr Jajari, who is considered an underdog, politically. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES on his victory and his mission in politics, Mr Jajari said he was delighted to emerge a winner even though he was not surprised because the people of Borno had through the PDP delegates committed to bringing a change in the states polity. The PDP flag bearer said he joined the race for the 2023 governorship to address three key issues that he believes worry the people of Borno State. First of all, I intend to end the insecurity which still threatens a lot of our people; second of all, is to make sure all the sacked employees are returned to their service, and thirdly to ensure that contract awards in the state are done by reputable contractors and not family and friends, he said. We are tired of hearing the terms direct labour in public projects even though everybody knows that it is not direct labour but contracts given to cronies, family members and friends and thats why most of the contracts done dont last the test of a short time. Borno PDP has never won any of the general elections since 1999, due largely to its chaotic disposition and lack of unity. The party was to a greater extent accused of being a shadow of the ruling governments party in the state. The PDP flag bearer who hails from Mobbar, the local government area of the present Deputy National Chairman (North) of the APC, Abubakar Kyari, said the infighting that denied the PDP power in Borno state since 1999 was all caused by the ruling party in the state. The PDP in Borno today has learnt its lessons, and it is very easy to correct all the errors of the past. And to start with, we have agreed to stay away from any APC arrangements. We will bring forth real opposition in Borno State; we will constructively criticize the policies and programmes of the Borno State government. We will be free to talk to our people and mobilize, creating awareness for all. We will criticize all the policies that are not good, we will bring them up to be debated. The policies of the APC despite all the hype are not fantastic. They found that easy to do because they have turned the state into almost a one-party system whereby they do everything to ensure that no influential or known household name of the party leads the party unless the ones that agree to work for them. They have made everyone believe that Borno is heaven looking from the outside, but when you come to the state you would realize that it is not what they say it is. Life is much more difficult here. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Three people Atiku Abubakar, Nyesom Wike, and Aminu Tambuwal have been in the spotlight over the just concluded presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for obvious reasons. Mr Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria, won the delegates votes to emerge as the presidential candidate of the PDP, the leading opposition party in the country. He polled 371 votes from the 767 accredited candidates to edge his closest opponent, the Rivers State Governor, Mr Wike, who polled 237 votes. A last-minute withdrawal by Sokoto State Governor, Mr Tambuwal, swung the contest in favour of Mr Abubakar as delegates from Mr Tambuwals North-west stronghold and from other states where delegates had pledged their support to him all turned their votes to Mr Abubakar. The party gave the aspirants five minutes each to address the delegates, but Mr Tambuwal, who was later nicknamed the hero of the convention by the national chairman of PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, had the rare privilege of speaking twice. His second address, which lasted for about 170 seconds, was the deciding moment at the PDP convention. Mr Tambuwals withdrawal speech infuriated Mr Wike, who said a day after that he would have scuttled the convention but let peace reign. The Rivers governor has declared support for Mr Abubakar and the PDP in the 2023 elections. Text of Governor Tambuwals second address at the convention I, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, having consulted widely throughout the length and breadth of this country. From the South-east to the South-south to the South-west to the North-central, North-east and indeed North-west consulted so many leaders and my supporters. I have come to the firm belief and conviction that, as leaders, time may come in our sojourn to make a sacrifice for the good of the people and in view of the situation of our country and the need for us in our party to minimise rancour and jostling for power. In any case, it is not always about an individual, it must always be about our country. I have come to the conclusion that to the glory of God Almighty seen and from the result of what we are seeing throughout our country, millions of Nigerians (are) suffering, and the need for us to close ranks in the party. And as one of the leaders of this party, I have come to the patriotic conclusion to step down my aspiration and appeal to my supporters to take this in the interest of national unity, patriotism and not only that those who are delegates here should vote for Mr Abubakar. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 In April, seven East African Community countries agreed to establish a regional military force to restore stability in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where violence by militia groups is ongoing. This is not the first ad hoc coalition of troops deployed in crisis-affected African countries. In 2021, Rwanda and Southern African Development Community (SADC) states sent two separate missions to northern Mozambique to fight the insurgency there. The African Union (AU) endorsed the SADC Mission in Mozambique, but only after it was deployed. Other similar arrangements include the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel, the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin, and the AU Regional Task Force Against the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda. None of these deployments was in line with the AUs African Standby Force (ASF) as it was initially conceived. They dont follow the mandating processes, deployment timelines and the six conflict and mission scenarios. This raises questions about the relevance and viability of the ASF. The ASF originated in 2003 as a multidisciplinary standby mechanism comprising soldiers, civilians and police in their countries of origin. It is coordinated by the five regional economic communities with the aim of being ready for rapid deployment at short notice. The intention is to help the AU Peace and Security Council discharge its responsibilities relating to peace support missions. After more than a decade of investment and development, the AU declared the ASF ready for rapid deployment in 2016. But the force has never seen any action. Instead, ad hoc troop coalitions have become the norm in Africa. Several obstacles stand in the ASFs way. For much of its existence, the force has faced a seemingly competing initiative by volunteer countries the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis (ACIRC). ACIRC was set up in 2013 as a temporary rapid intervention force until the ASF was ready. In the end, ACIRC too, was never deployed. After lengthy discussions about African peace support operations, the AU decided in 2019 to integrate ACIRC into the ASF framework. Political problems also prevent the ASF from getting off the ground. Countries have not committed the necessary resources, and there is little coordination between the AU and its regional economic communities. The latter was acknowledged in a 2017 independent expert report commissioned by the AU. It found that an absence of an agreed and harmonised mandating process and legal instruments may impact the rapid and timely deployment of ASF pledged capabilities across regions when the need arises. Analysts attribute this problem to the power that regional blocs have over peace and security decisions due to a lack of clarity on the subsidiarity principle between regions and the AU. This ambiguity of roles and responsibilities enables countries to opt for ad hoc security arrangements over the ASF. Some analysts believe these ad hoc security coalitions complement the ASF and are best suited to tackling Africas deadliest transnational armed groups. The coalitions are seen as filling a gap in the AUs peace and security arsenal by providing immediate responses to violent extremism and other complex threats which the ASFs framework doesnt address. This highlights broader problems in the AUs ability to deal with violent conflict. At its February summit, AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said the narrow reading of subsidiarity and the question of state sovereignty were behind the malaise in the AUs response to crises. Some states reject AU interventions by invoking the principle of sovereignty in domestic affairs. Mahamat stressed the need for a realistic approach, which should scrutinise our peace and security architecture and its correlation with the new destabilising factors in Africa, namely terrorism and unconstitutional government changes. ISS analysts Paul-Simon Handy and Felicite Djilo agree that there is a problem with the AUs existing instruments. They attribute this to governments resisting interference in their internal affairs and the lack of priority given to political solutions. This has led to the underuse of mechanisms such as the ASF. Some efforts are underway to resolve the issues that constrain the ASF. The forces Maputo Strategic Workplan (2016-2020) requires the AU and regional blocs to clarify, harmonise and structure decision-making mechanisms for peace support operations. However the plan has yet to be implemented. And on May 12, the AUs Specialised Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security decided on critical steps to solve these problems, namely: a memorandum of understanding between the AU and regional economic communities on ASF deployment; reviews of the ASF concept and Maputo work plan; and finalising the draft 2021-14 strategic plan on enhancing the ASF. The AU Commission will also be asked to expedite the establishment of a counter-terrorism unit in the ASF. These moves are encouraging, but bolder action is needed for the ASF to help curb Africas current security threats. African governments, regional blocs and the AU Commission should expedite the ASF concept review and interrogate the forces relevance and viability. Member states lack of commitment to AU conflict prevention mechanisms also needs scrutiny. Meressa K Dessu, Senior Researcher and Training Coordinator and Dawit Yohannes, Project Manager and Senior Researcher, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Addis Ababa This article is published as part of the Training for Peace Program (TfP), funded by the government of Norway. (This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish). WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Nigerias minister of education, Adamu Adamu, has received the drafted white papers from the 21 white paper drafting panels constituted by the government in March. The ministry of education had constituted 10 committees to draft white papers from the visitation panel of 36 federal universities, six panels for 25 polytechnics and five for 21 colleges of education. The panels were tasked to prepare the white papers from the reports of the visitation panels that had earlier been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2021. Findings by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that the draft white papers were submitted to the minister on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Submission Receiving the white papers, the minister was said to have assured the panels that the government will make efforts to implement the recommendations contained therein. He said the ministry will submit the reports to the president, whose prerogative it was to subsequently issue a federal government official white paper after the report undergoes the required internal processes. The minister was said to have commended the panel members for completing the task on time. According to a publication on the website National Universities Commission (NUC) said the minister received the white papers at the Idris Abdulkadir Auditorium located inside the headquarters of the Commission in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The ministry shall act on those aspects required of them in the final white paper, the publication quoted the minister. Mr Adamu also expressed optimism that the recommendations if accepted by the government and properly implemented, the nations tertiary institutions would improve in the areas of governance, quality assurance, management of finances, cordial relationship between management and other stakeholders, condition of physical infrastructures, quality of instruction as well as competencies of graduates. Constituting the panel President Muhammadu Buhari approved the constitution of the white paper drafting committees, on 13th January 2022. The panels were constituted on February 17th, a few days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an initial four-week rollover strike, listing the release of the white paper from the visitation panels as part of its demands. The strike has been extended and is currently in its fourth month with no end in sight. When President Buhari inaugurated the 21 panels on 21st March 2022, he tasked them with reviewing the reports of the panels with particular emphasis on the observations, findings and recommendations; and to articulate the governments position and decisions with respect to all matters raised/considered in the report. Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Nigerian Army has said an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, ESN, has exploded, causing severe injuries to two of its members. Army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday. He said the incident occurred along Eke Ututu Orsu Road in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State on the same Wednesday. The dissidents inadvertently stepped on the IED which they had earlier planted along several routes in Orlu, Orsu Local Government Area, while they were attempting to evade troops onslaught against terrorists in the area, he said. The outlawed group has severally planted IEDs along troops patrol routes in a failed effort to bring harm to the troops, Mr Nwachukwu added. The army spokesperson urged residents of South-east to assist the Nigerian Army with information about possible areas where these explosives have been buried by the outlawed group for proper evacuation and disposal. Increased attacks Security in Nigerias South-east has deteriorated in recent times with attacks by armed persons reported almost on a daily basis across the region. Two states in the region Anambra and Imo have witnessed some of the worst attacks lately. The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities. The Nigerian government has accused IPOB of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region. But the group has repeatedly denied their involvement in the attacks. The separatist group is leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria. The leader of the secessionist group, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently being detained in Abuja where he is facing trial for treason. Mr Kanu appeared in court on May 18 in continuation of his trial. He is billed to appear in court again on June 28. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A 70-year-old native doctor, Chukwujekwu Onuorah, has been reportedly arrested in Anambra State in connection with the abduction and beheading of a member of the State House of Assembly, Okechukwu Okoye. Mr Okoye, the lawmaker representing Aguata Constituency 2 in the Anambra State House of Assembly and his campaign director, Cyril Chiegboka, were abducted in Aguata in May. Six days after the kidnap, the lawmakers head was dumped at Chisco park in Amichi, a community in Nnewi South Local Government Area of the state and his body was also found in Nnobi, Idemili South Local Government Area of the state. The Leadership newspaper reported that an Onitsha-based human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberty and Rule of Law revealed on Wednesday that the native doctor was arrested in Unubi community, Nnewi-South Local Government Area of Anambra State by the operatives of the State Security Service (SSS). Mr Onuorah was technologically trailed after he was found to have used the beheaded lawmakers (Okoyes) sim-card to make criminal calls. His (Onuorah) arrest was in connection with the abduction, disappearance, beheading and decapitation of Okechukwu Okoye, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the rights group, Emeka Umeagbalasi, was quoted as saying. Giving further details of the arrest, Mr Umeagbalasi said, He (Onuorah) made a magical escape after several gunshots were fired at him and he escaped by jumping into a ditch. After recovering several incriminating items including guns and bullets and his portrait, the operatives trapped him by leaving behind one of his cell phones. Between late night of 30th May and early hours of 31st May 2022, the cell phone was tracked to a private hospital in Awka forcing the operatives of the DSS to storm the clinic where he was arrested alive in a bandage while trying to board a tricycle. When contacted, the police spokesperson in Anambra State, Tochukwu Ikenga, told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday morning that the details of the operation were not ready yet. Although the police spokesperson confirmed that there had been ongoing operations to track down the killers of the lawmaker, he declined to comment on the arrest. Mr Ikenga, however, promised to make the full details of the arrest public as soon as possible. There is an ongoing operation now. I will get back to you with full details as soon as I can, he said, in response to enquiries on the arrest. Increased attacks Security in Nigerias South-east has deteriorated in recent times with attacks by armed persons reported almost daily across the region. Anambra State has witnessed some of the worst attacks in the region. The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities. Mr Soludo, recently, visited Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in detention. Mr Soludo said the visit to the IPOB leader was part of his wider consultations with critical stakeholders to ensure lasting peace and security in the South-east During his inauguration as the state governor, Mr Soludo had called for dialogue with the IPOB group and other gunmen behind insecurity in the state and region. The governor, thereafter, announced an amnesty programme for the gunmen and declared an end to the sit-at-home order in the state. But residents have continued to obey the Monday sit-at-home order in the state and across the region, mostly out of fear. The attacks by the gunmen increased in the state shortly after Mr Soludos inauguration and announcement of an end to the sit-at-home order in the state. The Nigerian government accused IPOB of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region. But the group has repeatedly denied their involvement in the attacks. The separatist group is leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of South-south Nigeria. The leader of the secessionist group, Mr Kanu, is currently being detained in Abuja where he is facing trial for treason. Mr Kanu, leader of the group, appeared in court on May 18, in the continuation of his trial. He is billed to appear in court again on June 28. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Some stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) from the South-east region, have asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the party leaders to choose Nigerias Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the partys presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections. The APC members under the auspices of APC South-east Front, in a communique issued after its meeting on Wednesday, explained that their position was based on the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Lawan hails from Yobe State in the North-east geo-political zone. The group accused the PDP of laying ambush for the APC by electing Mr Atiku, from North-east as its flag bearer. With this power convolution in mind, we the people of the South-east do hereby call on our amiable President Muhammadu Buhari, our great party, the APC, all delegates to the presidential primary election to consider and choose Ahmad Lawan as the candidate of our party for the 2023 presidential election, being that the PDP has chosen its presidential candidate from the North-east zone. It has become apparent that PDP has once again laid ambush for our party, the APC by choosing its candidate from the North-east instead of the South-east, part of the communique read. The communique was signed by 25 APC members from five states of the region Ebonyi, Abia, Anambra, Imo and Enugu- five from each of the states. The signatories are, Sam Nkire, Martins Azubuike, K.C. Ugboaja, Nduka Onyekwere, Chijioke Ikpo, Timothy Chukwuma, Ignatius Makolu, Emeka Umeakuka, Ike Ibe, Osita Eze, A.C. Ude, Bath Ugwuoke, Queen Nwankwo and Tony Alum. Others are: Victor Nwankwo, Chris Chukwuka, Beatrice Ogbuji, Henry Obi, Chukwuemeka Nnanna, Aloysius Iheanacho, J.A. Ucha, Ben Nwaobasi, Kellechi Okorie, Haroun Ajah and Margaret Ngozi Igwe. The APC chieftains said although they had hoped that political parties would zone their presidential tickets to the South-east in line with the regions clamour to produce president in 2023, their new position was predicated on their conviction that only a North-east candidate can challenge Mr Atiku and ensure victory for the party in 2023. It is our belief that our great party, the APC, will consider the sacrifices which the South-east has continued to make towards the development of our party and the nation in the future, the group added. The group urged the people of the South-east to demonstrate confidence in their position noting that the decision was the quickest route to the primary office of the nation. This is coming barely 24 hours after Mr Buhari asked state governors to allow him to pick his successor ahead of the presidential election in 2023. There have been calls from some South-east leaders that the region should be allowed to produce a president for the first time in 2023. READ ALSO: Nine northern governors pushing for Southern APC presidential candidate Some leaders of the region have argued that the emergence of a Nigerian president from the South-east would end the Biafran agitation and the insecurity in the region. Both the ruling APC and the opposition PDP, the two dominant political parties in Nigeria, had been under pressure, before now, to pick their presidential candidates from the South-east. The APC has yet to take a formal decision on zoning its presidential ticket to the region, while the PDP threw its ticket open and consequently elected Mr Atiku as its candidate. Mr Atiku, a former vice president, hails from Adamawa State, North-east Nigeria. In the APC, about seven of the 25 aspirants jostling for the partys presidential ticket, come from the South-east. The APC has slated its presidential primary to hold from June 6 to June 8. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Defence Headquarters has said the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji, on May 21, arrested one, Jabe Buba, a foreigner and notorious terrorists informant, at Garuwa village, in Tambuwal Local Government Area of Sokoto State. The Director, Defence Media Operations, Bernard Onyeuko, a major general, said this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing journalists on military operations across Nigeria, between May 19 and June 2. Mr Onyeuko said pictures and video of the foreigner, posing with rifles in the forest, were found in his cellphone and the sum of N130,000 was recovered from him during the operation. He said the troops also recovered 292 cattle and one camel during an encounter with terrorists at Dampo village, in Bakura Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Mr Onyeuko said the troops also rescued 152 kidnapped civilians, neutralised 18 bandits and apprehended 25, within the same period under review. He said that troops recovered nine AK 47 rifles, 100 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 458 rustled cattle and 20 motorcycles. In Operation Whirl Stroke, he said the troops eliminated a kidnapping gang leader and two others who were all dressed in military uniform along Zakibiam-Ugba road in Benue and rescued one victim. The Defence spokesman said items recovered included; one AK 47 rifle, three fully loaded magazines (90 rounds of 7.62mm special), one Toyota Corolla vehicle and an ATM card bearing Felix Terzenqwe. He said a notorious gun runner, Morris Ayitu, was arrested alongside his wife and an accomplice, after a raid at his residence in Abirisi, in the Guma Local Government Area of Benue State. In Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), Mr Onyeuko said the theatre command had on May 21 graduated 122 local vigilantes trained to assist security agencies to ensure the security of hinterland communities in the Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State. In Plateau, he said the Headquarters of OPSH held a peace meeting with Bemood Fulani Stakeholders to sustain peace in Kuru area, in Jos South Local Government Area. (NAN) WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said troops of Operation Hadin Kai had in the past two weeks eliminated 14 terrorists and arrested 15 others. Briefing journalists in Abuja, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Bernard Onyeuko, a major general, said the achievement followed military operations across Nigerias North-east region between May 19 and June 2. Mr Onyeuko said 100 family members of terrorists in the North-east comprised 33 women and 67 children were also rescued by the troops. He said the troops in conjunction with the Civilian Joint Task Force, on May 22, dealt a deadly blow to the terrorists at Amdaga, Balazola, Ndakaine, Jango, Sabah and Gobara in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State. Mr Onyeuko said the Boko Haram and Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists hideouts in the area were also leveled and cleared during the encounter. He added that the terrorists fled in disarray due to the superior fire power of the troops, and abandoned their properties and family members. The defence spokesperson further said troops also recovered a dump truck belonging to the Borno State Road Maintenance Agency. The vehicle, he said, was reported to have been stolen by the terrorists in February 2021, but was recovered on May 23, on old Marte road. Mr Onyeuko said further that troops on patrol in Ashigashiya, Kodele, and Apagaluwa in Gwoza Local Government Area, encountered terrorist-herders, who engaged the former in a fierce gun battle. The terrorists fled due to the troops superior fire power, while troops recovered 40 sheep. Furthermore, on May 31, troops repelled an attack by terrorists, at Firm Base Arege, in Abadam Local Government Area of Borno and inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists, while other fled in disarray. Cumulatively, troops recovered 10 AK-47 rifles, five AK-56 rifles, two FN rifles, 227 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, seven AK 47 magazines and one PKM gun. Also recovered are: One AA gun, 164 rounds of AA ammunition, 111 Shilka ammunition, one gun truck, one Shilka barrel, two dane guns, two Improvised Explosive Devices, one car engine, four trollies and one water pump machine. Troops also rescued 100 family members of terrorists, who included 33 women. Troops also neutralised 14 terrorists and arrested 15. Accordingly, all arrested, rescued family members of terrorists and recovered items have been handed over to the appropriate authorities for further action, he said. Mr Onyeuko said there had been sustained efforts to build on the successes so far achieved in the various theatres. (NAN) WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 A presidential aspirant and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, is currently meeting the governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, leaders and delegates of the party in Abeokuta. Mr Tinubu is in the state to meet APC delegates ahead of the partys presidential primaries next week. Receiving @officialABAT who in Ogun State to meet with @OfficialAPCNg National Delegates and other stakeholders from our dear State pic.twitter.com/iwAk3Wi6yb Prince Dr. Dapo Abiodun MFR (@dabiodunMFR) June 2, 2022 Last month, Governor Abiodun publicly declared support for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, another presidential aspirant and a native of the state. In Mr Tinubus entourage are the Governors Abdullahi Ganduje and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Kano and Lagos States, respectively. Details later WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Madrid met with two Spanish companies doing business in Nigeria and assured them of a safe, secure and prosperous country. At a meeting with executives of GB Foods, which grows tomatoes in Kebbi State, and employs about 5,000 people, the president pledged that the entire country would be secured. According to him, the provision of security is one of the cardinal objectives of his administration, and assured protection for local farmers against smuggling and dumping of foreign products. Detractors are working very hard against our efforts. That was why we closed our borders for so long, and the result is evident. We want to grow what we eat, and eat what we grow. Thank you for your huge investment in our country, the jobs you create, and the skills imparted to our people, he said. Chairman of GB Foods, Artur Carulla, described the company as a family business now in its third generation in Africa, and which had invested over $250 billion in countries like Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana and Senegal. While promising to double-down in Nigeria, Mr Carulla added: Food is all we do. We have been in Africa since the 1970s. Im married to an African and connected emotionally with the continent. We bet on local talents and ingredients. It is good for us, and Nigeria. We have built three factories in the last five years, and our products are 100% locally manufactured. GB Foods pledged that in about two years, it would be en route to supplying 30 per cent of the nations tomato needs. We will replicate what has happened with rice. We knew what it was before you came, he said. At another meeting with Naturgy, a leading Spanish gas company, the president expressed pleasure that the outfit had established a steady partnership with Nigeria in the oil and gas industry. He said: I had the opportunity to head the industry for over three years. And a feasibility study showed that we are more of a gas-producing country than oil. Im pleased that you have been our partners for so long, and we are doing our best to stabilize the security situation in the country. Francisco Reynes, Chief Executive Officer of Naturgy, said its first contact with Nigeria was in 1992, and since then, they had become one of the largest buyers of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). He said Naturgy was interested in extending its relationship with Nigeria on gas, citing its 178 years of experience in the business. Countries like Algeria, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, and the USA are our suppliers. We want to invest more in Nigeria, Mr Reynes said. (NAN) WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 An anchor and owner of the popular Human Rights Radio in Abuja, Nigerias Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ahmed Isah, has announced that he is crowdfunding for the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to return to class. ASUU and other university workers unions have been on strike for almost four months. The unions demands, among other things, include better funding for the nations public tertiary institutions and improved welfare for their members. While the government released 34 billion naira for the payment of minimum wage consequential adjustments from 2019, ASUU has maintained that until its core demands are met, it will not suspend the strike. Mr Isahs intervention In a live broadcast on Thursday, Mr Isah, who is the anchor of the Brekete Family programme on the radio station, said he is willing to volunteer to mediate between ASUU and the government. He also promised to donate N10 million naira to the cause and called on Nigerians to donate into a designated bank account posted on the Brekete Family social media pages and his personal twitter handle. Mr Isah also announced the donation of N1 million naira by Segun Ogunyanwo, a deputy registrar at the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC). Let us challenge ourselves as Nigerians. This is an opportunity for us to test ourselves to know how united we are. Come 2023, this ASUU intervention will give me a sign that, as masses, we are ready to turn things around, he said on Thursday. Your one naira, N1,000 naira, N5000, N10,000 is not too small. No matter how poor you think you are, make sure you contribute something, even if it is one naira. ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, and Ben Goong, the director of press at the federal ministry of education, couldnt be reached for comments. Also, text messages sent to them had not been responded to as of the time of filing this report. ASUUs conditions to suspend strike It is, however, unclear if the payment will be enough for the union to call off the ongoing strike as ASUU leadership has previously told PREMIUM TIMES that the strike will only be suspended when two of its demands are met. One of the two major demands by ASUU is the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as a payment platform. The other demand is the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 Agreement concluded in May 2021 by the defunct Munzali Jibril-led committee. But the government has constituted another committee led by Nimi Briggs, an emeritus professor, to renegotiate the agreement in three months ending in June. On the deployment of UTAS, ASUU and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have been at loggerheads over the failure to approve UTAS for use. NITDA is the government agency tasked with carrying out tests on UTAS and making recommendations. Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Family, friends, and colleagues of David Imoh, the sound engineer killed in a mob attack in Lekki, Lagos, gathered on Thursday to pay their last respects to him. Mr Imoh, 38, was lynched by some commercial motorcyclists, called Okada riders, in the upscale Admiralty Way in Lekki Phase 1. Following the murder, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, imposed a ban across six local government areas Eti-Osa, Ikeja, Surulere, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, and Apapa. Song of service The song of service is part of the two-day funeral ceremony organised for the deceased. The programme was held at the Church of God Mission International in Victoria Island, Lagos. The deceased is survived by his wife, children, mother, and other relatives. According to the church, Mr Imoh was born into a family of 12. He studied sound production and also functioned as an event manager. He had worked with Real-time festival, the Experience, Legacy 360 band, and many others. The choir honoured the deceased with a special rendition. Tributes The deceaseds wife, Bolu, said he lived a short but impactful life. She added that if her husband wasnt done with his assignment on earth he wouldnt have left. Akinwale, a brother-in-law to the deceased, described him as a man of integrity. He is a blessed man. He feared God and loved his family so much. He is someone that I can always vouch for any time, said Mr Akinwale. He urged the church to cheer up and not lose their faith. A colleague of the deceased said he strived toward perfection and was selfless. He never said no to me. What pains me the most about Davids death is that he was like 50 people in one. He was an asset, he said. A church member in his farewell speech said the deceased will cancel his daily schedule to take me to the airport at no cost. David travelled at his own cost to Benin to fix the sound for my wedding 11 years ago. He spent a week there for a one-day event. Whenever David was around, your problems were solved but we undereDavid stimated him. Another church member, Patrick, said he was a diligent and committed man. I know him very closely, if you look for a handyman and you need one, look for David. If you need someone to deliver, Dave is there, he said. We had a relationship that went beyond the church. People thought he was my son. If your car becomes faulty on a Sunday, the person that will get you out is David. David was available for everybody. I doubt if there is anyone that I will meet that will be like David. The state failed him. Ken, a church member, said the deceased was a thoughtful and friendly person. There is this smile on his face whenever he gives the chorister mic. Sadly, he died in a gruesome murder, he said. However, the pastor said he never envisaged that he would officiate the deceased service of the song. He died due to the failure of the system. It calls to question how safe we really are here, he said. Do we have hope that the system will change? WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Thursday, upheld Omoyele Sowore as the National Chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC). Mr Sowore, a pro-democracy activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, has been locked in a leadership dispute with some former members of the party. But in its judgement on Thursday, the appellate court faulted the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which approved the suspension and eventual sack of Mr Sowore as the AACs national chairman. The appeal court held that the judge, Inyang Ekwo, lacked the jurisdiction to have done so, as the matter was an internal affair of a political party. In 2019, Mr Ekwo in his judgement held that Mr Sowore, who was the presidential flag-bearer of the AAC, was properly suspended by the National Executive Committee of the party. The appeal court nullified the judgement and affirmed Mr Sowore as the national chairman as against a factional leader of the party, Leonard Nzenwa. Background Last month, the AAC said Mr Sowore remains its national leader and presidential standard-bearer for the 2023 presidential election. In a statement, the partys spokesperson, Femi Adeyeye, debunked a report by one Sylvester Cletus, who claimed that Mr Sowore was removed for violating the partys constitution, and misappropriation of funds, amongst other offences. The party claimed the report accusing Mr Sowore of misconduct was false, criminal, and sponsored by an expelled member of the party, Leonard Nzenwa. It noted that Mr Sowore never misused any party funds but provided details of the expenditure of campaign funds. As a matter of education, let it also be known that Mr Sowore occupying the chairmanship position of the party and being its presidential candidate, is not unconstitutional or immoral. Referencing similar instances, the AAC noted that there were times when founding fathers such as Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and later Gani Fawehinmi, headed their parties while vying as presidential candidates. The African Action Congress is a party entrenched in democratic tenets and it has processes and steeped in lessons from our history. At the appropriate time, there shall be a change in the leadership structure by the democratic will of party members. To lay the matter to rest is to ask our friends in the media to disregard this news and to send it to the trash can of history where it belongs. Sowore remains a staunch member of the party, a leader of leaders and a presidential aspirant in the 2023 elections, the opposition party said. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Ghanas police chief, George Dampare, has asked the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, to stay within the limits of what concerns her. Mr Dampare said this in a letter to the British diplomat after she publicly commented on the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the FixTheCountry convener. Ms Thompson on May 17 in a tweet said, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, convener a #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. Ill be interested to see where this goes. According to the polices letter to the envoy, the tweet was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. He added that the police would not have responded to Ms Thompsons tweet which was obviously made from a biased and uninformed position. However, we have learnt from previous, painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted, and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our Country, Mr Dampare said. Mr Barker-Vormawors, who is currently working on doctoral research with the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge in the UK, was first arrested on February 11, at Kotoka International Airport and charged with offensive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace. The charges against Mr Barker-Vormawors were further extended to include treason against the state, which led to detention for a month. He was expected in court on April 26 to face treason charges, but the case has now been pushed back a month as the prosecution says they need more time to gather evidence. What led to Ms Thompsons tweet was that Mr Barker-Vormawors while on his way to court committed a traffic offence and was arrested again. Your Excellency, the fact that you used the phrase arrested again, we believe, must mean you were making reference to the previous occasions Mr Barker-Vormawor was arrested for threatening the security of the State, and recently for motor traffic offences. We intend therefore, to address both issues in this letter, Mr Dampare said in the letter. Since you may be unaware of the charges against the person of interest in your tweet, we are happy to give you some background. Among other things, in February this year, Mr Barker-Vormawor threatened the security of the State by categorically stating his intention to stage a coup detat and cause instability in the country if the Army, which he referred to as useless, was unable to do so. These same threats have subsequently been repeated by Mr Barker-Vormawor on his social media handles. Mr Dampare also posed a number of questions to the envoy over what he said was meddling in the internal affairs of Ghana. He ended his letter recommending a Ghanian adage which means, learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you. In response to the letter, Ms Thompson in an interview with GHOne TV on Tuesday said her tweet was misunderstood. It is clear from the reaction that it has not been received in the way that it was intended. I was not after a response from the IGP at all, when I comment on social media, I comment on all sorts of things which I am interested in, Ghanaweb quoted her as saying. She noted that Ghana is a peace-loving nation where people do have the right to express themselves, where they do have the right to come and protest things that matter to them. She said that a tweet like hers, is not going to be the thing that will get people onto the streets, in my view. If I had thought that there was the remotest chance of that, I wouldnt be tweeting things like that. That is clearly not my intention. The countrys Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, in a press release responding to the public debate that has followed the IGPs letter, said it wishes to remain circumspect on its pronouncements on the matter. According to the press release, the ministry has initiated contact with both the British High Commissioner and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to resolve the issue at stake. Ghanaians react Ghanaians have reacted in several ways to what may seem like an altercation between the British diplomatic mission and the Ghana police. Speaking to JoySMS on Wednesday, Kwesi Aning, the director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), said the letter is a good historical document that others must take a cue from. The IGPs letter to the British High Commissioner was well done and straight to the point, raising his concerns about the way the police is handling a particular issue that tangentially also affects other issues, he said. In contrast, Sammy Gyamfi, the national communications officer of the National Democratic Congress, in a Twitter post said the police chiefs letter to Ms Thompson, was in very bad taste and has the potential of undermining Ghanas long-standing diplomatic relations with the UK. The arrogance and intolerance displayed by the IGP in his response to a harmless tweet by the British High Commissioner to Ghana is disgusting to say the least, he said. Similarly, Mr Barker-Vormawors whose arrest led to the current events in a Facebook post wrote, Who the Gods want to kill, they first make mad. Dampare paaa. Eh, so what went wrong with this man? Ghana paa is a concert country, ooo. Herh! WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 It is therefore right to roll out the drums and celebrate with a rare woman of courage and virtue, Mrs Victoria Bamidele Shin-Aba as she mark her retirement from service, the launching of her book today and also to mark her 60th birthday in advance. Behind the glorious career fulfillment of some people lie tattered beginnings harsh enough to devour even the strongest. While many have shared their grass to grace stories, however, some deliberately left the stories to waste away in memory because of the emotional trauma of recalling the forgotten ugly past experiences, before success came smiling on them. Truly as they say in this part of the world, Life no balance. However, it is amazing to know that some people would rather re-arrange the unfavourable condition that life throws at them to their favour instead of wallowing in self-pity or blaming others for their misfortune. The foregoing encapsulates the multidimensional and inspiring story of the immediate past Regional Terminal Manager (South West) of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Victoria Bamidele Shin-Aba, the first female to be so honoured with such position. Her entry and subsequent growth through the ranks in FAAN to the peak, is almost one of a divine arrangement and uncommon courage, as she explains in her soon to be launched book, My Resilience. The book launch and her retirement party holds today June 2 in Lagos. Humble beginnings Born on August 31, 1962, Shin-Aba who is due for retirement this week and would be clocking 60 in a few months time, was barely six months old when she lost her father while they sojourned in far away Ghana. Apparently, she neither knew nor felt what her father was like before he passed. Thanks to the magnanimous love and efforts of a never say never mother who, despite all the odds, kept to her husbands words of even if it remains a trouser in my wardrobe, my children must get quality education to keep her six children (including Shin-Aba) on track and ensure their access to quality education with no support system. However, life did not stop dealing her a big blow despite the loss of her father. From the earlier blunt rejection of her husband, Nasiru Kolawole Shin-Aba by her mum and other family members due to religious differences, to his subsequent sickness, loss of sight, depression and death after just an eight-year marital journey that lasted from 1985 to 1993, Shin-Aba has experienced it all. To add to the already piled up horrible situation, she lost her last child, Segun, whom she had with her husband during his lowest ebb in life, at the age of 10, only days after being diagnosed of cerebral malaria. However, in all of these vicissitudes of life, Victoria remained steadfast and focused, despite heated entreaties from friends and families to abandon her sick husband. When she was getting overwhelmed by the myriad of challenges thrown at her at just 37 years of age, her loving mother who later welcomed her husband with open arms, encouraged her not to heed evil advice, but rather stick with her husband whom she met a complete man. In the words of his HRM, Oba Akintola John Akintola, the Alapa of Okinapa, who doubles as professor of Entomology, Department of Biology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), and who wrote the foreword to her book: The demise of her father at her tender age, which denied her fatherly care, did not deter her from achieving greatness. She was single-handedly trained by her uneducated mother who had passion for education; and with the help of God, she did not derail on track as many of her peers, who found themselves in such circumstances would have done. There was a repeat of ugly occurrence in her life; she lost her beloved husband along the journey of life. She had to singlehandedly train her children too, due to some challenges in her family. She didnt allow religion to create a gorge in her immediate family; she managed the challenges with elasticity. When opportunities presented itself in her favour, she was there for everyone, to raise them up within her limited capacity. What a show of love! Mrs. Victoria Shin-Aba is a woman of uncommon love and humility. She extended love to all, immediate and distant relations. Her humble beginning came to play in many histories and stories too numerous to mention. This is what many failed to do and had turned up as regret for them after retirement, Kabiyesi wrote elatedly about the woman of substance. Journey To FAAN While many would have accepted fate and ended it all careerwise, Shin-Aba was rather focused all through the challenges. She did not hang her boots or drift to the classroom as many would have expected of her upon completion of a College of Education programme and receipt of certificate in 1984. She proceeded to obtaining her first degree, local and international trainings/certifications, while also combining a number of side hustles, especially during the early days of her career in the agency. Her journey into FAAN (formerly, Nigeria Airports Authority, NAA) dates back to 1987, when she was an Assistant House Manageress. She joined her husband who was then the Head of Civil Engineering at the Ibadan Airport.; Steady Growth Through the Ranks at FAAN As typical of any hardworking person, Shin-Aba soon became the cynosure of all eyes in FAAN. She held several positions in the operations department of the Authority, including; Airfield Operations Officer, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA); Apron Control Officer, MMA; Airport Duty Officer, ITZ MMA; and Terminal Operations Officer, General Aviation Terminal (GAT); Hajj and Cargo Terminal (HCT) and International Terminal MMA. She was promoted Manager of the Akure Airport in 2011, a post she held till 2014 when she was redeployed to MMA as Head of Operations. In September, Shin-Aba scored another first. The FAAN management appointed her as the first female Regional General Manager (South West)/Airport Manager, Murtala Muhammed International Airport and she subsequently attained the rank of a General Manager, Airfield Operations. As HoD operations, she led the team that prepared MMA for pioneer certification in Nigeria and organised the review and unbundling of MMA technical manuals and related Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), in collaboration with Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The much coveted Aerodrome Certification to MMA, issued by NCAA on September 15, 2017 is to the credit of her team. Her experience also came to play during the coronavirus pandemic that grounded flight activities worldwide for months. Multiple Awards and Recognitions In recognition of her hard work and selflessness to fatherland, despite the initial setbacks, the Nigerian Aviation Award (NIGAV) in 2018 honoured her with The Airport Personality of the Year 2018; in the same year, she also went on to win the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) Award. Most recently she won the Airport Operations of the Year 2021 and Operational Resilience Airport of the Year 2021 Award. Solving Generational Problems Having giving a better part of her life to standing up to challenges against herself and others around her, one would have expected her to roll down the sleeves and possibly go on vacation to enjoy her retirement. But Shin-Aba has other plans. As retirement beckons, Shin-Aba hopes to use her time and resources for solving generational problems/challenges. This is the more reason why I have a growing interest in attempting to solve the generational problem through a yet-to-be-unveiled scheme which aims to address human capital empowerment and entrepreneurship development in the community upon my retirement, she said in her book. It is therefore right to roll out the drums and celebrate with a rare woman of courage and virtue, Mrs Victoria Bamidele Shin-Aba as she mark her retirement from service, the launching of her book today and also to mark her 60th birthday in advance. Oluwadamilare Emmanuel is a Lagos-based journalist. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 By the sheer ubiquity of their footprint in the slippery terrains of 2023 politics, the names of Pastor Tunde Bakare and Pastor Yemi Osinbajo are easily top of mind wherever this matter of high office aspirants stridently proclaiming their divine commission is discussed. But in case you are lulled by his curious quietness this presidential election cycle, the third person of the trinity is none other than his holiness, The Most Reverend Chris Okotie. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fools voice is known by multitude of words. Ecclesiastics 5: 2 & 3. Before President Buharis bombshell about wanting to choose his own successor, long before highwire horse-trading finally succeeded in containing the fearsome torrents of the Nyesom Wike tsunami, culminating in Atiku Abubakars tortuous climb to becoming PDPs presidential candidate for 2023, a bewildering orgy of twists and turns had characterised the electoral process across the two mainstream parties. Marked by brazen chicanery and high state comedy, this unending festival of absurdities has provided a somewhat ameliorative backdrop, taking away shock and incredulity as very senior principals of the Nigerian church have made high stake claims on the fray. Bringing their ecclesiastical flair to a confounding national political spectacle, at least three statesmen of the pentecostal Corpus Christi have added their considerable pastoral heft to exacerbating the perplexities of the nations dysfunctional polity in recent years. By the sheer ubiquity of their footprint in the slippery terrains of 2023 politics, the names of Pastor Tunde Bakare and Pastor Yemi Osinbajo are easily top of mind wherever this matter of high office aspirants stridently proclaiming their divine commission is discussed. But in case you are lulled by his curious quietness this presidential election cycle, the third person of the trinity is none other than his holiness, The Most Reverend Chris Okotie. Now, for those who are blessed with privileged access to the esoteric dynamics of the heavenlies, it is easy to see that when it comes to who is who among high profile clerical patrons of Nigerias presidential sweepstakes, who regularly hear from the lord concerning what number combinations to deal, Daddy Okotie readily makes this elite cut of the lords kitchen cabinet for 2023. Thats not just simply because Jesus (non other, alas!) firmly promised Okotie the keys to Aso Rock in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019, although the pagan principals of the political class infamously and obstinately thwarted the lords holy intentions for Brother Okotie and his beloved Nigeria during those elections. What eminently numbers Reverend Okotie among the celestially illuminated triumvirate for 2023 is that he had said, for the umpteenth time, that God (you heard that right), who promised him Nigerias executive presidency during those five previous election seasons in which His Eminence so woefully failed to deliver even his own local government, has not told him No Mas, No Mas! So, while this eminent theological scholar and preacher extraordinaire has been uncharacteristically silent about his nocturnal spiritual engagements with his heavenly father this season, do not think that it is because, having had his anointed fingers serially burnt every election cycle since 2003, he has now grown weary, his faith fatally wounded. If agnostic naysayers must know, there is no way, with Nigeria now being in even more dire straits than the five previous presidential election cycles, that the heavenly father and his earthly son would not have returned to that discomfiting subject, with Jesus (no less an eminent celestial personality, for sure) reiterating to this especially beloved vessel, and with strident urgency too, that this is especially that prophetic moment. It remains to be seen whether The Reverend Okotie will find his spiritual mojo again and step forward to claim his destined political glory this time or whether he would yet fall the hands of the heavenly host, in this particularly needy election cycle. Refusing to work the vision beyond serially arranging elegant photo ops in which sartorial panache is more on display than evidenced strategic literacy, would not take the most anointed latter-day Gideon to Aso Rock. Timidly hiding behind his finely combed mustache and not exerting himself in the trenches of political agitation will not bring the sanctified presidential mandate, which was handed to him from the holy of holies, to roaring fulfilment in 2023. In the dark, foul, demon besieged netherworld that constitutes Nigerias realpolitik, torrid oracular proclamations dont a president make. Selah. Now if you think that Pastor Okoties historic relevance is in merely providing comic relief of a pentecostal hue to a much-tortured polity, not so the fiery Tunde Bakare. With his fiercely disruptive new take on liturgy, Pastor Bakare daringly rides the high places between doctrinal radicalism and political irreverence. With Bakare, do not expect to find any semblance of ecumenical amity on what constitutes acceptable content of worship time in a Sunday church service. For even the most ardent supporter of liberation theology among Nigerias pastors would choke when it comes to how brazenly this fearless social critic evangelical has turned the sacred pulpit at his Global Citadel Church from the classical fixation with matters of the heaven-ward journey into a veritable soap box where deafening political vitriol is ceaselessly fired into a carefully orchestrated ecosystem of digital dissemination. Balancing a precarious act as friend of the president, elder statesman, respected All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and deviant champion of revolutionary mass mobilisation, all at once, Pastor Bakare has had his work cut out for him. In a blatantly corrupt and achingly cynical political market place, Bakares gallant struggles to maintain above-the-rut optics are certain to be dogged by the derisive consternation of the more pragmatic political traders who populate that universe. Add to that dynamic, Pastor Bakares own ill-concealed salivation over seductions of the political establishment. Curiously, for this highly cerebral lawyer/pastor, he seems somewhat persuaded that wily shenanigans by shadowy king makers who are said to hold court in the dark recesses of the nations power centres somehow hold out for him an historically conscious Pentecostal pastor dubious promise of a sudden political trajectory. Perhaps if this stormy petrel priest will indulge less in the lure of his own expensively installed klieg lights and think all of this through, a bit more soberly, it might become clear to him that his feisty crusade for a new, disruptive leadership paradigm is least likely to find the much-coveted momentum, deep within the reactionary bowels of the political mainstream. Eternal dabbling with the nations sordid political orthodoxy, interspersed with whimsical outbursts that lurch indecipherably between ideological counter-culture and a self-seeking cancel culture can only create for Tunde Bakare a totally avoidable tactical albatross, perpetually consigning his seething energy to nothing more than the futile promise of historical impact. Awkward and patently ludicrous affectations of statemanly relevance, while surrounded by agbada or babanriga-clad coyotes who can hardly conceal their disdain for Bakares suffocating rectitude, may seem to yield incremental political capital for this lonely crusader, but the equities so derived are perishable in the extreme and do not shift the dial one nano inch. Now, before ungodly enemies begin to guffaw their delight at Bakares clumsiness and palpable frustration, the tragedy of all of this is that in Pastor Bakare, it is not so difficult to discern an authentic reservoir of deep revolutionary fervour. His stout resolve through the uncertainties of the Save Nigeria Group days would seem to betray real fight and feist, somewhere beneath the melodramatic makings of his pentecostal flavoured populist messaging. Further, there is a hopeful whiff of strategic literacy to be gleaned from Bakares extempore media moments, off the pulpit. By this, one refers to Bakares increasingly evidenced immersion in, and substantive comprehension of the intricate interplay of our complex national dynamics and some demonstrable sense of the even more complex policy imperatives that will confront a post-2023 presidency. The caveat is that the nagging and endemic socio-economic vexations bedeviling Nigeria, and to which Bakares avowed anger speaks, would require his deep-rooted convictions and deeper going strategic clarity, for him to find actionable navigation. To that, he will have to add the kind of stoic fortitude that is demanded when purpose driven political pathfinders plumb the trenches for desperately needed mass conscientisation. That disciplined and utterly unglamorous work would seem to be in sharp contrast to ill-advised and infantile Sunday service exultations over a claimed surfeit of lurid prophetic revelations in which he giddily regales his captive audience about how God repeatedly tells him he is Nigerias 16th president. Were soulish passions to have been subdued by this liberally equipped man of God who, with decades of apostolic leadership behind him, can be presumed to have been exhaustively honed for sobriety of conduct in place of altogether sterile emotional effusiveness; were the Holy Spirit Himself to have been allowed to be the true guide to a newly teachable old cleric; were the illuminating power of scripture to have been diligently employed to discern intoxicating visions, precious Pastor Bakare might have understood that the true passion of Jesus Christ does not lie in making someone, anyone, president by some celestial fiat. None of these sore points preclude the sovereignty of an almighty, all powerful God, who once used the foolish bravado of a few leprous outcasts to change the fortune of a nation overnight, but wisdom, says that holy text, is profitable to direct. Selah. This brings us to the matter of curious manoeuvres by the third clerical subject of this treatise a certain Pastor Oluyemi Osinbajo. Widely reported personal credentials and seven years of close synergy with his principal, which availed a generous and very public test run of Osinbajos leadership potential, would seem to have created actionable political equity for this obviously highly cerebral man. The strategic tension, defiantly underplayed by the erudite professors tenacious spin machine, lies at the convoluted intersection of a number of tensely complicated variables: (1) How do you mine the kind of frenzied electoral energy such as swept Muhammadu Buhari into power in 2015 around a man who has been a principal accountable officer in the ensuing regime that Nigerians now disavow in shrill, anguished voices across all critical publics as the most dismal in all its 60 year plus history? For while the Buhari presidency may indeed have accomplished some foundational gains, at the macro economic architectural level, especially regarding its spirited attempt at redressing the nations infrastructure deficit, the verdict at the retail level is that on the streets, across faiths, across tribes, in country and in the city, across zones and across demographies, Nigerians are unsparingly unanimous that the Buhari years have brought inordinate levels of pain across salient indices. Signaling the clumsiness and tension that lay ahead of an Osinbajo campaign against a gloating Atiku, even the eloquently gaffe-proof vice president hardly knew how to broach a difficult subject on the very day he announced his candidacy. Literally stepping on the dead bodies of a reported hundred new victims of the horrendous killings that have now become Nigerias cruel fate, Osinbajo, strangely dispossessed of critically needed empathetic comportment on this monumentally pivotal outing, spoke glibly about how he intends to build on the security architecture successes of his bosss ill-fated government. Hear ye! (2) If indeed, Aso Rock is the big sponsor of the Osinbajo candidacy, how exactly did they divine the winning electoral map around a leading pentecostal pastor in a polity which has Northern Nigerias numerical invincibility as a core strategic determinant? And when that whole sprawling and monolithic geography is preponderantly Muslim in a polity in which primordial factors like tribe, tongue and religion outweighs other critical parameters; and APCs formidable opponent is a core Northerner and Muslim, precisely what is that magical pitch that will unleash millions of North-East, North-West and North-Central voters on the polling booths in frenzied adulation of a certain Pastor Osinbajo? If chop-I-chop convention delegates can be induced with gubernatorial dominion to vote in a certain way, how in the world does that translate to the critical mass APC would need to contain a barrelling Atiku Abubakar monster army? (3) Importantly, where does Pastor Osinbajo find the Biblical foundation to stab a lifelong benefactor a certain Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the back for a mere mess of rancid Aso Rock potage? Finely robed political mercenaries are by default insanely self-absorbed brute beasts, no matter how cherubic faced they may be. Possessed of murderous lust, these ride roughshod over sublime sensibilities of character, ethics, integrity, fairness, loyalty. Stout hearted political careerists come to the table with poisoned daggers concealed in stiffly starched assortments of haute couture, hiding lust inflamed malevolence behind plastic smiles. Cursed with successive generations of such duplicitous leaders, our nation is today a gruesomely disemboweled caricature of its true promise. By the time President Buhari came to the saddle in 2015, little did he realise, little did millions of newly converted Buharists like me realise that a 60-year long savaging of this nation by hell crazed blood hounds had reached such a deadly inflection point and that a thousand Muhammadu Buharis can not now arrest the spiralling decomposition, except a deep paradigm shift is at the core of a new governance architecture. By the time a dazed new president who apparently pursued power with only his obsessive dream of being an incorruptible and compassionate leader was rudely shocked out of his benevolent reverie, and he began to grasp that deep strategic comprehension of our hydra-headed complexities was called for, a laborious climb into strategic literacy could no longer arrest the wholesale damage that the heinous killing of Nigeria had done in the bloodied hands of lust driven false deliverers for very many decades. Lust brought us here. Still, its a whole different ball game, when a revered pastor and deeply tutored scion of the Enoch Adeboye school of holiness and righteousness turns out to be this electoral seasons poster child of political double-cross and classical treachery. The reverse role modelling implication of such duplicity on our rapidly unravelling national psyche is infinitely deeper and graver than the protagonists unyielding deadpan and smug rationalisations would tend to make us realise. This nation is reeling under the burden of a deeply wounded cultural context in which millions of misguided youths are now sold out to moral and ethical bankruptcy, and the Machiavellian daily pursuit of fraud is euphemistically called hustle. The putrefaction is all over the media as ragtag bands of demon infested seventeen-year olds now queue up at the ramshackle shrine of the neighbourhoods ritualist witch doctor, daggers in hand, waiting with bated breath for an opportunity to rip out the heart of some hapless neighbour or trusting family member, all in a sickened quest to blow. Before consecrated intercessors capitulate and begin to bask in the moral debauchery of our political Sodom, we should rather tremble and ask ourselves which aspect of his Christian ethic or his sacred Yoruba values rationalise for Vice President Osinbajo, this basking in insidious political glory at the expense of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It matters little that drug crazed street urchins and motley bands of stomach infrastructure political lumpens cheer him on. Omotayo Suleiman, a public affairs analyst, wrote from suleiman.tayo@gmail.com WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 While the Buhari presidency may have symbolised a resetting of the clock and an ostensible return to the paradigm of the elite pact, there is also no question that, in hindsight, Jonathans realpolitik may have bequeathed the feeling that, notwithstanding this unwritten agreement, power may reasonably shift to whichever region has the most desire and brazenness. Insofar as the axle of political contestation in Nigeria is the struggle for power between the Northern and Southern elite blocs, systemic stability hinges on the moral understanding that power will rotate between the two regions. The order of succession since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic in 1999 has largely followed the logic of this entente, starting with the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency (1999-2007), conceded to the South-West as compensation for the tragedy of the loss of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the generally acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Whether each side has been faithful to the terms of this understanding depends on who is doing the analysis. Although Katsina-born Umaru Musa YarAdua duly took the Northern turn as Obasanjos successor in 2007, his unexpected passing in May 2010 and the accession to power of Goodluck Jonathan, his vice president, meant that, in reality, what should have been a Northern term of potentially eight years was truncated to three. Northern desperation to keep YarAdua in office despite his failing health, and, following his transition, to extract every ounce of assurance that the incoming Goodluck Jonathan would only complete a singular term, was driven solely by the legitimate need, from a Northern standpoint, to recoup its loss. After running out his former boss first term, Jonathan would go on to clinch the presidency in 2011, instructively without significant Northern support. As soon as it became clear that Jonathan would prevail in that years presidential election, riots broke out across several Northern Nigerian cities, while property belonging to Jonathans supporters was attacked in the North-Western states of Kano and Kaduna. Jonathans efforts at a second term in office against Northern protestations were repelled by Muhammadu Buhari, who, in 2015, became the first electoral challenger in Nigerian history to upstage an incumbent. While the Buhari presidency may have symbolised a resetting of the clock and an ostensible return to the paradigm of the elite pact, there is also no question that, in hindsight, Jonathans realpolitik may have bequeathed the feeling that, notwithstanding this unwritten agreement, power may reasonably shift to whichever region has the most desire and brazenness. This, at any rate, appears to be the fundamental impulse behind Atiku Abubakars emergence as the standard-bearer of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a candidacy that appears to have the full backing of the Northern political establishment, and one that has been pursued in open defiance of the understanding that the presidency should revert to the South after Buharis two terms in office in May 2023. Significantly, not only are Buhari and Abubakar Northerners though they hail from two different political zones they are also both Fulani, Nigerias dominant ethnic group that forms the majority ethno-regional group with the Hausa (hence the descriptive Hausa-Fulani). The Igbo would seem to have even less of a chance within the All Progressives Congress (APC), where former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the clear frontrunner. Following a recent meeting at the Abuja residence of former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, APC candidates of Igbo extraction resolved to throw their weight behind whoever among them clinched the partys ticket. Tinubus influence and financial heft make that possibility highly unlikely. Abubakar swept a field that included Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki, former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, and Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel. Lingering doubts as to whom the Northern establishment favored were put to rest after Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal pulled out of the race at the last minute and urged his supporters to vote for Abubakar. Adamawa-born Abubakar is a political veteran. Deputy to Olusegun Obasanjo, he has been a serial runner for the countrys highest office and on both sides of the party divide to boot having run unsuccessfully in 1993 (for the SDP ticket), 2007 (as CAN candidate), 2011 (for the PDP ticket), 2015 (for the APC ticket), and 2019 (as PDP candidate), respectively. While his sheer staying power and determination to become president must have ranked him high in the calculation of the Northern elite, there is the not inconsequential factor that, being in all probability his last throw of the dice (he turns seventy-six in November), Abubakar can be counted upon to mobilise and deploy his famed nationwide political machinery, which he has nurtured since his first swing at the presidency in 1993. While the North may rightly feel that of all the candidates at least among those who ran for the PDP ticket only Abubakar has the national spread and the attendant political apparatus to deliver the presidency to it, this can only be secondary to the issue of whom it feels can be trusted, first and foremost, to hold and keep power in the North, and second, deliver on the offices and resources that are dear to the hearts of the Northern elite. Seen from this vantage point, a candidate like Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State who exited the race (and the PDP) days before the party presidential primaries to pitch his tent with the Labour Party, stood no chance at all. Not only does Obi lack a nationwide political constituency, but he also failed to earn the trust of a political establishment that prefers a candidate of Northern extraction, or, alternatively, a candidate who can deliver on the aforementioned Northern agenda. Support for Obi would have made perfect sense if, under any circumstance, power had to rotate to the South, but Jonathans realpolitik, as previously mentioned, appears to have changed that. Tellingly, Obi left the PDP without endorsing any candidate, and it remains to be seen whether he can tangibly affect the race from the standpoint of a Labour Party that, all told, remains marginal. Nor do things bode particularly well for an Igbo presidency, the case for which has been made, vigorously if intermittently, and one that appears to have stimulated several candidates of Igbo extraction within the PDP to throw their hats in the ring. But none of the candidates have had much electoral traction. While Nyesom Wike, a sitting State governor from the South-South region, had a chance of using his alleged financial muscle to secure the PDP ticket, he had to be content with the consolation prize behind Abubakar, in large part due to the political manoeuvres of the Northern political elite. The Igbo would seem to have even less of a chance within the All Progressives Congress (APC), where former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the clear frontrunner. Following a recent meeting at the Abuja residence of former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, APC candidates of Igbo extraction resolved to throw their weight behind whoever among them clinched the partys ticket. Tinubus influence and financial heft make that possibility highly unlikely. In addition, it would appear that the ultimate deciding factor in the party is whomever the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari favours. As things stand, Buhari neither favours a candidate of Igbo extraction nor Tinubu, though he is still believed to be open to a candidate from Tinubus South-West political zone. His vice, Yemi Osinbajo, has been discussed, but there are worries about his lack of a political base. To be sure, these are only guesses based on the body language of a president who, less than a week to his partys primary election, remains studiously mute about his preference. Regardless, if the APC manages to neutralise Tinubu, either by nominating a Northerner (Senate President Ahmad Lawan, from the same North-East zone as the PDP candidate Abubakar, appears to fit the bill), or a candidate from the South-West zone who has the backing of Buhari, it will, especially in the case of the former eventuality, confirm the hypothesis that, beyond party divide, the North will go to any length in its desperation for power. That said, it is widely believed that Northern political intrigues are ultimately designed at stopping Tinubu, arguably the single most important and enduring actor in Nigerian political life since 1999. Like Abubakar, Tinubu presides over a well-oiled political machine and has been eyeing the presidency since the end of his term as governor in 2007. He is widely credited with bankrolling the APC in the 2015 elections. Seventy this year, Tinubu, again not unlike Abubakar, may also see next years election as his last real opportunity to trade his kingmaker status for the real thing. Interestingly, he was among the first set of people to congratulate Abubakar, his erstwhile political ally, after the latters emergence as PDP candidate, announcing in a statement that he looked forward to squaring up with him as a worthy opponent in the coming election. Because of this, all eyes will be on next weeks APC presidential primaries, postponed from the original May 29, according to a theory making the rounds, because of Northern scheming to produce a favoured consensus candidate other than Tinubu, coupled with a waiting game to see which candidate would emerge from the PDP primaries. According to the theory, the scheme to neutralise Tinubu also explains the large number of candidates (twenty-eight) who purchased APC nomination forms (twenty-five would eventually submit), even though the price had been set at an exorbitant N100 million (equivalent of $166,000). Northern scheming to weaken Tinubu or not, that so many individuals could afford to wager such a large sum of money on the negligible probability of emerging the standard-bearer of a major political party speaks to the kind of money in circulation at the uppermost echelons of Nigerian politics. Regardless, if the APC manages to neutralise Tinubu, either by nominating a Northerner (Senate President Ahmad Lawan, from the same North-East zone as the PDP candidate Abubakar, appears to fit the bill), or a candidate from the South-West zone who has the backing of Buhari, it will, especially in the case of the former eventuality, confirm the hypothesis that, beyond party divide, the North will go to any length in its desperation for power. In the latter case, the reasonable inference would be that Buhari was gallant enough to put the pact before sectional interest, Northern desire to hold on to power notwithstanding. Whatever happens, Atiku Abubakars emergence is proof that the Northern establishment no longer feels morally obligated to stick to a political script that it would argue was originally discarded by the South. Next weeks APC presidential primaries cannot come soon enough. Ebenezer Obadare is Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, Nigerias leading non-aligned primary mortgage bank in Nigeria (PMBN) has released its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2021 showing profit before tax (PBT) growth of 116percent. The company recorded PBT of N661.063million from a loss before tax (LBT) of N4.297billion in financial year (FY) 2020. Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc is committed to providing modern, affordable, and accessible housing finance solutions to its customers. The annual report also shows that as at December 31, 2021 the banks total assets stood at N34.460billion as against N18.520billon in 2020, which represents an increase by 86.07percent. Profit after tax (PAT) of N622.198million in 2021 as against a loss position of N4.301billion in 2020 represents an increase by 114.46percent. Cash flow from operating activities increased by 54.15percent to N7.291billion in FY 2021 from N4.730billion in 2020. While commenting on the impressive scorecard, Bolaji Adewumi, Managing Director, Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, said the report is evidence of the hard work that every staff of the company has put in over the past year. According to him, theres still a lot of work to be done but we remain steadfast to our commitment to a new and reenergised Abbey The company is one of the largest and most profitable Primary Mortgage Bank in Nigeria and it is focused on providing well-structured mortgage options as well as other financial and advisory services. The companys housing and mortgage products are available to all spectrum of the population in the country. Its full suite of banking products and services is geared towards retail banking, wholesale banking, mortgage banking, and electronic banking. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 The Lagos State Government, Wednesday, announced its plan to crush commercial motorcycles called Okada, seized during enforcement. A statement issued by the states Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotosho, said the motorcycles will be crushed on Friday. Law enforcement agencies seized many motorcycles today (Wednesday), he said. They will all be crushed on Friday in the presence of the media. A fresh ban, which took effect on Wednesday, was imposed by the government following the mob attack that led to the death of David Imoh, a sound engineer in the Lekki area of the state. The ban was imposed across six local government areas Eti-Osa, Ikeja, Surulere, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, and Apapa and nine local government councils areas. Its not the first time the government would impose the measure. In January 2020, the government banned the operation of motorcyclists in 15 local councils across the state. PREMIUM TIMES observed that many motorcyclists popularly called Okada in many parts of Lagos complied with the ban. Alternatives The ban, which is the first phase, was imposed following security and safety concerns, the commissioner said. He said the state government has rolled out alternatives to cushion the effects of the ban in many areas. Many small buses, under the First Mile and Last Mile Scheme, were rolled out extensively in Surulere, Gbagada, Lekki, Lagos Island, and other parts of Lagos, the statement reads. A number of taxicabs under the LAGRIDE scheme were deployed in Lagos Island, Ikeja, Surulere, Lekki and other places. The waterways were also busy as Lagos Ferry Services (LAGFERRY) put more ferries on their routes. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 Scores of protesters Thursday besieged the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos to voice their displeasure over the partys House of Representatives candidate in the 2023 election. The protesters, from Kosofe Constituency, accused the party of imposing Kafilat Ogbara, the candidate, on them. They also said that irregularities marred the House of Reps primaries for the constituency. They blocked Acme road, where the party secretariat is located, displaying placards and chanting solidarity songs. No to imposition Sunday Oyekunle, the chairman of Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area, told reporters at the scene that they were at the APC secretariat to demand justice. We are here to tell the whole world that no primary election was conducted in Kosofe for the House of Reps and House of Assembly, but to our surprise, some names are flying around suggesting that elections were held in Kosofe. Mr Oyekunle said they were at the venue of the primaries till 4 p.m. and no electoral officer turned up. But towards evening, we started seeing videos flying online that there was an election or selection or meeting held at the Ikosi-Isheri LCDA secretariat and someone I cannot even remember the name (because the personality is not popular) has emerged to remember our interest. I see no reason why this must be allowed to go unchecked. Mr Jegede said it was unheard of that the candidates for an election will have no access to the delegates list. He demanded a rerun where there will be a level playing ground for all aspirants. The Ikosi-Isheri CDA chairman also canvassed the return of the incumbent House of Representatives member, Rotimi Agunsoye, who he applauded for his notable contributions to the constituency. A former secretary to Agboyi Ketu Local Council Development Area, Gbenga Osobu, said what played out at the primaries must not be unchallenged. We are party loyalists and believe in party supremacy but we know our leaders especially our father Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will not support injustice, Mr Osobu said. We are sure he would correct this anomaly and not allow strangers to take what belongs to the bona fide sons and daughters of the house. The protesters were prevented from entering the party secretariat and no official addressed them as of the time of filing this report. At the primaries last Friday, Fuad Oki, the returning officer, said Mrs Ogbara clinched the constituencys ticket. According to him, there were 50 delegates out of which 45 were accredited and five disqualified. After the sorting and counting of the votes, Mrs Kafilat Ogbara polled 44 votes, while Oluremi Odunsi got one vote. By virtue of that, we have Mrs Kafilat Ogbara as the winner of Kosofe federal constituency primary election conducted today, May 27 at Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA), said Mr Oki. WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023 This initiative is in line with Himalaya's commitment to plant 1 million trees across India by the year 2023 Over 800,000 trees have been planted across the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, Meghalaya, and Karnataka BENGALURU, India, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its continued efforts to preserve biodiversity, Himalaya Wellness Company, one of India's leading wellness brands, has partnered with the Society for Environment and Biodiversity Conservation (SEBC), to plant an additional 100,000 saplings of indigenous trees in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Through this initiative, Himalaya aims to preserve and maintain the biodiversity-rich forests of these regions. These 100,000 saplings are in addition to the 800,000 planted since 2012, with over 89 tree species, including rare-endangered-threatened species. Along with bringing back the lost flora and fauna and setting up ecological balance, this afforestation program will help improve soil moisture locally over a period. Himalaya's continued collaboration with SEBC reinforces its commitment to preserve the ecosystem and lead the mission towards a greener planet. This program also creates awareness among the local community about the landscape and provides them with employment. Some of the native saplings include Ashoka, Neem, Bamboo, Fig, Guggulu, Meshwak, Peepal, and Moringa. Speaking on the initiative, Mr. KG Umesh, Director of Human Resources, Himalaya Wellness Company, says, "At the core of Himalaya is the belief to Care for Earth - the passion to preserve and protect the environment. We believe that investing in sustainable practices is important. Our aim is to plant a total of 1 million trees across India by the year 2023. We have been working towards this goal for over a decade through multiple biodiversity-related initiatives. There is significant scope for the intervention in tree planting and biodiversity conservation, and partnerships in this regard play a critical role." "Our continued partnership with Himalaya over the years is proof that Himalaya and SEBC share the same vision of building a sustainable and greener tomorrow. Apart from maintaining the green cover, this social forestry project also ensures that local communities gain the required benefits," says Dr. Shrinath Kavade, President, SEBC. The Western Ghats, known as one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots, house more than 1,500 endemic species of flowering plants and at least 500 unique species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. However, in the past few years, the Ghats have shrunk by 25% which is a significant concern. Hence, investing in sustainable practices is vital, and Himalaya has been addressing the need to safeguard biodiversity through its tree-planting initiative with the help of NGOs and universities. About Himalaya Wellness Company: In 1930, a young visionary by the name of Mr. M. Manal foresaw the benefits of herbal remedies while riding through the forests of Burma. After diligently researching the science of the traditional field of Ayurveda, he decided to dedicate his life creating products that would improve millions of lives across the world. Today, with a history spanning more than nine decades in herbal research, Himalaya has positioned itself as a brand that cares about not only enriching people's lives but also safeguarding the environment. With their 'head-to-heel' range of products, Himalaya aims to provide a holistic solution to everyday ailments. Seeped in a legacy of researching Nature, Himalaya has successfully been able to harness the science of Ayurveda through cutting-edge research to become a brand that is safe, gentle, and trustworthy. For more information, please visit: himalayawellness.in SOURCE Himalaya Wellness Company "For five years, our attempts at generational wealth and community empowerment have been thwarted by state-sanctioned exclusion, violence, and a Drug War 2.0 weaponized with oppressive taxes." SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the May 13 release of Governor Newsom's 2022 California state budget, Supernova Women - an Oakland nonprofit that works to create opportunities for Black and Brown people in the cannabis space - will be hosting a Capitol steps "Down with the Taxes, Uplift the People" Rally and Press Conference on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 2pm. A powerful line-up of BIPOC cannabis stakeholders, policy makers, operators, and patients include: Amber Senter, chairman and Executive Director of Supernova Women, Nina Parks, activist and CEO of Gift of Doja, Chaney Turner, Executive Director of Beyond Equity, Malaki Amen, Executive Director of California Urban Partnership, Whitney Beatty, CEO of Josephine & Billies (South Los Angeles dispensary), and Maisha Bahati, CEO of Crystal Nugs Inc., Xochitl Martinez, Chapter Leader of Veterans Walk and Talk Bay Area, Leonard Watkins of Anonymous Caregivers, Reese Benton, Founder and CEO of Posh Green Collective, Morris Kelly, CEO of SF Roots, and more. Sen. Steven Bradford (District 35), author of SB1281 and SB1293, has voiced his support for the event via video, "Without meaningful changes to California's cannabis tax policy, the industry is destined for failure, especially equity cannabis operators who are operating on a very thin margin." Organized by Senter, who spearheaded the November 29, 2021 Oakland City Hall Rally and Press Conference following the vandalization and robberies of 15 licensed social equity cannabis businesses as well as the January 13, 2022 #NODRUGWARV2 Rally and Press Conference with Origins Council, Thursday's 2pm "Down with the Taxes, Uplift the People" Rally and Press Conference highlights three urgent asks of the Governor and the Budget and Finance Committee ahead of their July 1, 2022 budget deadline: repeal the excise tax for social equity retailers across the state, reduce the excise tax to 5% for all others, and codify a statewide definition of social equity for the purpose of establishing eligibility for the state excise tax exemption. "Governor Newsom promoted Prop. 64 less as an opportunity for tax revenue and more as a historical opportunity for racial and social justice and economic empowerment to remedy the damage of a drug war that had disproportionately criminalized Blacks and Latinos," explained rally organizer and Executive Director of Supernova Women, Amber Senter. "And yet five years later, California's Black and Brown cannabis operators, many of whom voted for Newsom not once but twice - are literally sitting on the brink of extinction, due to onerous state taxes, while the Governor sits on a $100B surplus. Where is the racial and social justice in that? Without meaningful tax reform NOW, California's few remaining BIPOC cannabis operators and social equity businesses will not survive, and the communities and patients they serve will not be able to access affordable and safe cannabis. This is a major health crisis today and a missed economic opportunity for tomorrow," added Senter. Under California State law, sociality equity programs, which are presently governed by local jurisdictions, cannot consider race or ethnicity as eligibility criteria (Proposition 209, 1996). The "Down with the Taxes, Uplift the People" Rally organizers recommend a new statewide definition based on 51% ownership of a cannabis company and either 5 years of residency in a low-income community disportionately impacted by the War on Drugs or having an immediate family member with a prior cannabis arrest or conviction. "In 2020, 75% of cannabis-related arrests in Los Angeles were Blacks and Latinos, according to LAPD records. With Los Angeles' majority-minority population, L.A. alone could help rewrite our state's recent history of white operators dominating an industry that has physically, emotionally, psychologically, and economically imprisoned so many BIPOC people but not without true tax reform at the State level that protects our vulnerable social equity operators and BIPOC patients," said Whitney Beatty, CEO of Josephine & Billies. The "Down with the Taxes, Uplift the People" Rally and Press Conference comes on the heels of Governor Newsom's recent cannabis Tax Proposal, which maintains the 15% excise tax but changes the point of collection from distribution to point of sale beginning January 1, 2023, with the intention to increase it to 19% in three years. "My great-grandfather was a sharecropper who bought his own freedom," said Morris Kelly, CEO of SF Roots dispensary. "That's the dream BIPOC California operators bought into with Prop 64, but the 26% increase in the excise tax will kill this dream, crushing my ability to turn a profit and compromising our community's access to safe medicine. The excise tax gets externalized onto the end-consumer, which will only further drive patients to the illicit market where cannabis costs 40-60% less." "For five years, our attempts at generational wealth and community empowerment have been thwarted by state-sanctioned exclusion, violence, and a Drug War 2.0 weaponized with oppressive taxes. Eliminating the excise tax for social equity operators and reducing it to 5% for all others would foster prosperity and social mobility for BIPOC operators while protecting BIPOC patient access to regulated and safe plant medicine. We are nearly out of time, but the Governor and Budget and Finance Committee can still change this. Let's hope they do the right thing," noted Senter. Join Supernova Women on the steps of the Capitol building, West side, on June 2, 2022 at 2pm for a Rally and Press Conference. Remote attendees may watch the Rally live via Facebook or Instagram . About Supernova Women Founded by Black and Brown women in 2015, Supernova Women is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that works to empower Black and Brown people to become self-sufficient shareholders in the cannabis and natural plant medicine space through education, advocacy, and network building. PRESS CONTACTS: JAZMYN STRODE: 931.319.8411 / [email protected] HOLLY AUBRY: 646.943.0541 / [email protected] SOURCE Supernova Women Ensemble Practice of Eight Wealth Advisors That Oversee $800 Million In Total Client Assets to Join SagePoint Financial PHOENIX, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisor Group Inc., the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, today announced the addition of IronBridge Wealth Counsel ("IronBridge") and its eight wealth advisors that oversee $800 million to the Advisor Group network. IronBridge joins Advisor Group through its network partner SagePoint Financial. The Advisor Group network of firms also includes FSC Securities, Royal Alliance Associates, Securities America, Triad Advisors and Woodbury Financial Services. The core team at IronBridge, which includes five partners located throughout the country, has worked together, in different facets, since 2004, building a practice that served as an advocate for clients and a champion of their financial well-being. IronBridge provides comprehensive wealth management services in an enterprise ensemble structure, with a focus on integrated financial planning design, coordination and execution. Shane Morrow, Managing Partner, said, "Our mission at IronBridge is simple, but not easy. We look to create a positive, lasting impact on our clients, employees and communities because we view it our fundamental duty to change lives for the better. In SagePoint, we've found a partner who shares our commitment and will provide us with the innovative tools, services and support to ensure our continued success." "I believe we've created something special at IronBridge, but being good isn't enough," said Jim Martin, Partner. "We hold ourselves to a higher standard and strive to be the best wealth management firm out there. Our new relationship with SagePoint will allow us to continue to evolve and improve. It may sound audacious, but we believe we can change the industry, and SagePoint will help us do it." Desiree' Sii, President and CEO of SagePoint said, "IronBridge is such a well-respected firm in the industry, and their growth and commitment to their clients and communities is impressive. I am excited they chose to partner with SagePoint and join the Advisor Group family, we are looking forward to and committed to providing this growing Ensemble practice the tools and resources they need to help them continue to change lives for the better." Greg Cornick, President of Advice and Wealth Management at Advisor Group, added: "On behalf of Advisor Group, I welcome IronBridge to our growing network and congratulate the team at SagePoint for bringing this impressive group onboard. IronBridge's deeply engrained culture of service aligns perfectly with our focus on providing our advisors with the tools, solutions and support to more effectively drive results for their clients while growing their businesses." About IronBridge Wealth Counsel, LLC IronBridge is a premier fee-based wealth management firm devoted to financially guiding those that serve others. We have built an ensemble team that delivers comprehensive strategies spanning financial planning, investment advisory, and risk management. IronBridge has investment offices in Austin, TX, West Palm Beach, FL, Scottsdale, AZ, Farmington, NM, Windsor, CT, Chicago, IL and Salt Lake City, UT. About SagePoint Financial SagePoint Financial, Inc. is part of one of the nation's largest independent broker-dealer organizations and a Registered Investment Advisor, member FINRA and SIPC. SagePoint is supported by Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the industry. The firm has approximately 1,300 advisors across the United States. For more information, please visit www.sagepointfinancial.com. About Advisor Group Advisor Group, Inc., a portfolio company of Reverence Capital Partners, is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 9,700 financial advisors and overseeing approximately $515 billion in client assets*. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that advisors can play in the lives of their clients. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial advisors and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit. Securities and investment advisory services are offered through the firms: FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities are offered through Securities America, Inc., a broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisors, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisory programs offered by FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., are sponsored by VISION2020 Wealth Management Corp., an affiliated registered investment adviser. Advisor Group, Inc. is an affiliate of these firms. 20 E. Thomas Rd., Ste. 2000, Phoenix, AZ, 85012. 866.481.0379. *Based on end of year 2021 data Media Inquiries Joseph Kuo / Donald Cutler Haven Tower Group [email protected] or [email protected] 424 317 4851 or 424 317 4864 SOURCE Advisor Group NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of Jewish and Muslim young professionals from Morocco, Israel, and the United States concluded ten days of consultations with senior government, civil society, and diplomatic officials in seven cities throughout Morocco and Israel. It was the capstone program of the Michael Sachs Fellowship for Emerging Leaders organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Mimouna Association. The Michael Sachs Fellowship, named in memory of a visionary leader who dedicated his life to promoting Arab-Israeli engagement, was a six-month program focused on expanding understanding of Jewish culture in North Africa, Moroccan culture in Israel, and channeling resumed diplomatic ties between the two countries to promote more robust Middle East engagement. The delegation, led by Elmehdi Boudra, founder and President of the Mimouna Association; Dana Steiner, Director of AJC ACCESS Global; Mohamed Reda Ayadi, Program Director for Muslim-Jewish Dialogue of the Mimouna Association; and Dr. Ari Gordon, AJC Director of Muslim-Jewish Relations, praised the rapidly growing opportunities to advance deeper engagement and exchange among the next generation of Americans, Moroccans, and Israelis. "The power of traveling as a joint delegation of young Moroccan Muslims and Jews from America and Israel was unmistakable," said Ayadi. "Our unique partnership amplified our call for greater cooperation and exchange of ideas across the region." The Sachs Fellows discussed a range of topics regarding youth empowerment, regional cooperation, and Holocaust education in the Arab world with, among others, the Moroccan Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, Mehdi Bensaid, the Moroccan Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, and Members of Knesset Michael Bitton and Ya'akov Margi, co-chairs of the Israel-Morocco parliamentary friendship group. In Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech, the group met with top U.S. and Israeli diplomats, business leaders, interfaith advocates, policy analysts, Jewish community members, and young scholars from the Policy Center for the New South and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. In Jerusalem, Yeruham, Rahat, and Tel Aviv, the Fellows met with senior Israeli officials, Palestinian civic leaders, Moroccan diplomats, members of the Moroccan-Jewish community, high-tech entrepreneurs, and local Israeli Jewish and Arab leaders dedicated to broader engagement between Israel and the Arab world. The Sachs Fellowship mission followed monthly virtual meetings since December 2021 to jointly study topics of mutual concern, including the history of Jewish life in Morocco, Arab perspectives on the Holocaust, the role of religion in conflict and its resolution, and storytelling as a tool for diplomacy. The Moroccan, American and Israeli Fellows built upon their virtual experience throughout the ten-day mission, with regular dialogue regarding their unique identities, policy priorities and personal interests. "We want the trust we have built across national, ethnic and religious lines to lead to tangible outcomes. But this first-of-its-kind mission should also demonstrate that people-to-people initiatives are essential to growing U.S.-Moroccan-Israeli ties," said Dana Steiner, Director of AJC ACCESS Global. Founded in 2007, Mimouna seeks to educate the Moroccan people about the Jewish culture of the country and strengthen ties between Jews and Muslims. Since 2015, the Mimouna Association has participated in all AJC Global Forums, including in Jerusalem in 2018. AJC, founded in 1906, has made the transformation of Muslim-Jewish and Arab-Israeli relations a pillar of its mission in the twenty-first century. AJC has been visiting Morocco and engaging its Jewish community for over 30 years. Collaboration between AJC ACCESS and the Mimouna Association began in 2014 and centered on the importance of Jewish heritage to Moroccan identity and culture. In 2017, the two organizations held a conference in Essaouira, Morocco, to discuss interfaith approaches to advancing common understanding in the Middle East. A follow-up conference in 2018 examined the importance of education and social media in promoting interfaith cooperation. In January 2021, following the reestablishment of relations between Israel and Morocco, AJC and the Mimouna Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand joint activities. For more than 20 years, AJC has enjoyed an "international association" with the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco one of 37 Jewish communal organizations around the world with which AJC maintains programmatic links. SOURCE American Jewish Committee NAPLES, Fla., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bramshill Investments, an award-winning alternative asset management firm, welcomes Mona Daruwala as Senior Director and Compliance Officer. Ms. Daruwala will be located in Bramshill's headquarters (Naples, Florida), where she will manage the firm's compliance, regulatory, and reputational risks. "We are thrilled to have Mona join the Bramshill Team, her extensive experience will be invaluable as we continue to grow as a firm," said Steve Selver, Chief Executive Officer of Bramshill Investments. "Mona's efforts will set strategic direction for the firm's overall compliance efforts." Mona joined the Bramshill team in 2022, bringing with her 20 years of relationship management, legal and compliance experience from both the buy and sell sides. Prior to joining Bramshill in May 2022, Ms. Daruwala spent 7 years at Societe Generale with roles under the Global Markets COO Relationship Management team and then subsequently as an AML Compliance Officer focused on risk assessment, governance management and varying regulatory matters. Prior to her time at SG, she held similar roles at Deutsche Bank. During her 9-year tenure at DB she was responsible for managing strategic institutional client relationships focusing on onboarding, legal and compliance matters spanning from onboarding master agreements to any AML regulatory issues that would arise. She began her career working on the buy side specializing in entity formation, governance and legal agreements. Ms. Daruwala is ACAMS certified and has earned her BA in English and Criminal Justice from Rutgers University and her Juris Doctorate from New York Law School. About Bramshill Investments Bramshill Investments, LLC, is a fixed income investment manager with over $4.5 billion in assets under management (as of 3/31/2022). The firm was co-founded in 2012 by former GLG portfolio manager, Arthur DeGaetano. The team's core investment strategy has an established combined track record of over thirteen years with an absolute return objective that can be accessed through various vehicles. Bramshill also offers other alternative investment strategies. Bramshill is an investment adviser registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration as an investment advisor with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training of Bramshill or its employees. References to awards should not be construed as testimonials for our advisory services. For more information, please visit: https://bramshillinvestments.com Contact: Danielle Van Calcar, 201 527 5334, [email protected] SOURCE Bramshill Investments, LLC TORONTO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Braxia Scientific Corp. ("Braxia Scientific", or the "Company"), (CSE: BRAX) (OTC: BRAXF) (FWB: 4960), a medical research company with clinics providing and advancing innovative ketamine and psilocybin treatments for depression and related mental health disorders, is pleased to announce positive preliminary results from the first Health Canada Approved, Phase II, randomized clinical trial to evaluate the feasibility, safety, tolerability, and efficacy of multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy for Treatment-Resistant-Depression. The preliminary results were presented at the "From Research to Reality Conference" in Toronto, May 27-28, 2022. Positive Preliminary Results Highlights Braxia Scientific's ongoing multi-dose psilocybin trial effectively demonstrated the feasibility of Braxia's proprietary psilocybin-assisted therapy protocol with high rates of recruitment and retention with adequate tolerability and safety. Clinically meaningful improvements in depression severity observed (as measured by the MADRS 1 ) with complete analysis of antidepressant efficacy and secondary outcomes pending. This trial will be completed by December 2022 at which point the full analysis will be completed and submitted for publication. ) with complete analysis of antidepressant efficacy and secondary outcomes pending. This trial will be completed by at which point the full analysis will be completed and submitted for publication. Preliminary results indicate strong feasibility with adequate recruitment including 159 individuals who were referred to the study. Retention 93% of participants retained to primary endpoint. Safety No serious adverse events and zero suicide attempts to date. Tolerability majority of adverse effects resolving within 24 hours of each dose and 87% of participants requesting to receive a second dose. Feasibility of Braxia Institute psychedelic therapy training program demonstrated through recruiting, retaining, and training group of multi-disciplinary independently licensed therapists that continue to serve as therapists as part of Braxia's psilocybin trial. Group of therapists consists of psychiatrists, primary care therapists, psychotherapists and spiritual care. (1) Symptoms of depression were assessed using the Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale (MADRS), a widely used and accepted scale for assessing depression. "These results clearly show that we have the infrastructure, expertise and personnel to effectively and safely provide psilocybin-assisted therapy. Dr. Joshua Rosenblat, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Braxia Scientific, and Principal Investigator. "While these preliminary results are highly encouraging, they also provide us with additional guidance as we evaluate and optimize our clinical protocols in delivering innovative, psychedelic treatments to patients with treatment resistant depression. These results also reinforce the potential value of the clinical infrastructure we have established to target new innovative treatments." Dr. Roger McIntyre, President and CEO, Braxia Scientific, "In addition to our ongoing trial that enables us to provide access to this treatment today, we are excited by the prospect these results with psilocybin may offer patients with treatment resistant depression, an area in need of therapeutic innovation. In addition to guiding professionals internationally on the safe and effective implementation of ketamine, Braxia Scientific is also conducting highly rigorous clinical research with psilocybin, ketamine, and related agents with the aim to provide eligible persons with innovative treatments that work rapidly and are safe to administer." Accessing Psilocybin and Ketamine in Canada Braxia Scientific is a leader in providing access to innovative rapid acting treatments such as ketamine and psilocybin for people living with treatment resistant depression. Braxia Scientific was the first to receive Health Canada approval for a multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy clinical trial in July 2021, and dosed its first participant in November 2021. This ongoing clinical trial provides Canadians with immediate access to psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. Recently, Braxia Scientific also recently announced its among the first to receive approval for psilocybin-assisted therapy treatment approval in Ontario using Health Canada's Special Access Program (SAP). The SAP was amended January 5th, 2022 to include access to psychedelic compounds on a case-by-case basis outside of clinical trials. Canadians interested in applying to the SAP, to participate in clinical trials or to qualify for other treatments, such as IV and oral Ketamine for the treatment of depression, may contact the medical team at Braxia Health (the Canadian Rapid Treatment Centre of Excellence https://crtce.com). About Braxia Scientific Corp. Braxia Scientific is a medical research company with clinics that provide innovative ketamine treatments for persons with depression and related disorders. Through its medical solutions, Braxia aims to reduce the illness burden of brain-based disorders, such as major depressive disorder among others. Braxia is primarily focused on (i) owning and operating multidisciplinary clinics, providing treatment for mental health disorders, and (ii) research activities related to discovering and commercializing novel drugs and delivery methods. Braxia seeks to develop ketamine and derivatives and other psychedelic products from its IP development platform. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Canadian Rapid Treatment Center of Excellence Inc., Braxia currently operates multidisciplinary community-based clinics offering rapid-acting treatments for depression located in Mississauga, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Dr. Roger S. McIntyre" Dr. Roger S. McIntyre Chairman & CEO The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations, or beliefs of future performance are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include statements about the intended promise of ketamine-based treatments for depression and the potential for ketamine to treat other emerging psychiatric disorders, such as Bipolar Depression. Such forward- looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events, or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the failure of ketamine, psilocybin and other psychedelics to provide the expected health benefits and unanticipated side effects, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including acquiring and renewing federal, provincial, municipal, local or other licenses and engaging in activities that could be later determined to be illegal under domestic or international laws. Ketamine and psilocybin are currently Schedule I and Schedule III controlled substances, respectively, under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 (the "CDSA") and it is a criminal offence to possess such substances under the CDSA without a prescription or a legal exemption. Health Canada has not approved psilocybin as a drug for any indication, however ketamine is a legally permissible medication for the treatment of certain psychological conditions. It is illegal to possess such substances in Canada without a prescription. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the Amended and Restated Listing Statement dated April 15, 2021, which are available at www.sedar.com. 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 forward-looking statements. SOURCE Braxia Scientific Corp. Dr. Brenna Wynn Greer , associate professor of history at Wellesley College , examines the history and significance of Juneteenth, the oldest-known celebration honoring the official end of slavery in the United States , in the event's first presentation, "Why Juneteenth Matters." , associate professor of history at , examines the history and significance of Juneteenth, the oldest-known celebration honoring the official end of slavery in , in the event's first presentation, "Why Juneteenth Matters." Adrian Miller , soul food scholar, James Beard Award-winner, attorney and certified barbecue judge discusses the history of African American barbecue culture detailed in his book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue . , soul food scholar, Award-winner, attorney and certified barbecue judge discusses the history of African American barbecue culture detailed in his book . Alice Faye Duncan , National Board Educator and children's book author ( Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free ; Memphis , Martin , and the Mountaintop ) will speak about the life and contributions of Opal Lee . , National Board Educator and children's book author ( ; ) will speak about the life and contributions of Opal Lee , the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," retired educator, counselor and activist, was instrumental in Juneteenth becoming an official holiday and was present at the Presidential signing. In recognition of her actions, 33 members of Congress nominated Lee for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. Hear Lee's story in her own words and be inspired by her courage, wisdom and perseverance in the face of challenges. In addition to the four speakers listed above, there will be a poetry reading by special guest Bobby R. Henry, Sr., publisher of The Westside Gazette. "We are excited for this opportunity to invite everyone to join us in this special Juneteenth celebration," says Broward County Library Director Allison Grubbs. "It is an honor to host our esteemed guest speakers, including Ms. Lee, for this extraordinary online event." Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom is free and open to the public. Please visit Broward County Library's Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom webpage for details. SOURCE Broward County Libraries This first-ever CAFE will take place on June 7 & 8, 2022, at the Montreal Science Centre MONTREAL, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Those attending the first-ever CAFE will have a chance to meet world-renowned visual effects and animation talents who will get together to share their knowledge and experience gained working on many of the largest film and television productions of recent years. Denis Villeneuve's Dune, which won the Oscar for best visual effects this year, will be featured, with a conference about the creation of its visual universe. Disney will also give an exclusive conference on the cultural collaboration that led to the creation of Encanto, the Oscar winner for best animated film of 2022. Created by the Quebec Film and Television Council (QFTC) and produced by Kaliko Productions, CAFE will take place on June 7 and 8 at the Montreal Science Centre. This event is made possible by the financial support of the Government of Quebec and the Ville de Montreal. Quebec : a visual effects and animation hub Along with London and Los Angeles, Quebec is one of the world's three major visual effects hubs and has earned global recognition for its outstanding expertise and talent. With more than 200 projects every year, some forty studios based here work on the biggest films and series in the world. In 2021, according to data compiled by the QFTC, the industry accounted for over 6,000 jobs and 950 million dollars in local economic benefits. Over the past 10 years, the industry has grown exponentially, with annual growth on the order of 33%. From Star Wars to Spider Man: visual effects in the spotlight Quebec studios will be in the spotlight during these two days. One of them, Hybride, known for working on the visual effects of the latest films and series of the Star Wars saga, will present a conference about the creation of the different droids, robots and creatures of the universe. Rodeo FX will show you how practical effects artists create invisible effects (blood, smoke, fire, etc.) that get incorporated into scenes of your favourite productions. And the UK studio Framestore will reveal the secrets of the Mirror Dimension scene in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home, a box-office smash that was nominated in the Best Visual Effects category at the Oscars. Animation, at the crossroads of art and technology Among the content dedicated to animation, Squeeze Animation Studios, a leading company in the sector based in Quebec, will give a conference about its project Cracke Family Scramble, distributed worldwide, and will focus more specifically on the creation of an animation brand that stands out through its style, quality and effectiveness, while dealing with the production constraints of a TV series. Cinesite and Reel FX, two of the world's largest animation studios, will give conferences dealing respectively with the making of Riverdance (recipient of a Grammy, top 10 on Netflix), and the process of incorporating the new technology VCAM and Unreal Engine into an animation production pipeline. Other conferences of note will be added to this exciting lineup that can be discovered on site at the event. Many discussion spaces for professionals as well as the next generation A full afternoon will be devoted to content related to research and development. In collaboration with the CDRIN and SYNTHESE Pole Image Quebec, a pitch stage will be set up to allow university researchers, companies and service providers to present their innovative projects. Simultaneously, students in the field will be able to get advice from professionals on their demo during an activity presented by the School of Digital Arts, Animation and Design of the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (NAD-UQAC). Lastly, a networking event presented by SYNTHESE between the education sector and the industry will also be part of the program and will allow all participants to continue the discussions generated during these numerous activities. The event will conclude on June 8 with an end-of-day professional cocktail presented by Autodesk. To purchase your tickets online and to see the detailed program, visit: cafe-vfx.com CAFE benefits from the support of its Gold partners, Services Quebec and the Ville de Montreal, its Silver partners, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), DNEG, Hybride, Mikros, MELS, MPC, Rodeo FX and Synthese Pole Image Quebec, its Bronze partners, CDRIN, Framestore, Investissement Quebec International, Raynault Visual Effects, Reel FX Creative Studios, Side VFX and Tonic DNA, its Exhibitor partners, Caribara, Cinesite, Folks VFX, Rayon FX and Scanline VFX, and its Media partner, 80 Level. About the QFTC Founded in 2006, the QFTC is a non-profit organization that contributes to the development and competitiveness of Quebec as a world class, multi-screen production hub. As an economic development agency, its mission is to generate investments in Quebec by leveraging competitive tax incentive programs, the expertise of industry members, the province's architectural diversity, the quality of its infrastructures and the industry's ability to export its products to foreign markets. The QFTC receives financial support from its partners: Air Canada, the Antonopoulos Group, BFL Canada, the Bank of Montreal, the National Bank, Demers Beaulne, Difuze, EP Canada, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Gault/Monville, Hotel Le Germain, Grande Studios, Hybride, MELS, Miller Thomson, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, Rodeo FX, Technicolor Inc., as well as the different levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal. For additional information, visit www.bctq.ca. About Kaliko Productions Kaliko Productions uses its expertise to accompany you in all stages of your project, from conception to final production, while adapting to your needs. Whether it's for production and logistics, communications and customer experience or a turnkey offer, our creativity and ingenuity are at your service to help you bring your ideas to life! SOURCE CAFE-VFX LENEXA, Kan., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CommunityAmerica CUSO One, LLC and Copper Financial announced today that Amy Rush has joined the organization as General Counsel. "Copper Financial has experienced immense growth in working with credit unions and helping members on the path to financial peace of mind," said Mike Haggerty, President and Chief Operating Officer of CommunityAmerica CUSO One, LLC, and President of Copper Financial. "In the face of ever-changing regulatory requirements, Rush's expertise and experience will help us ensure we're always on the cutting edge." As General Counsel, Rush will provide legal advice to CUSO One's executive team on a variety of topics related to its financial services offerings. She will also collaborate with the executive team on business strategy and risk management, providing legal support to all entities under CUSO One. In addition, Rush will work with all of CommunityAmerica's CUSO entities. She is admitted to practice law in both Missouri and Kansas. "Copper Financial is a dynamic leader providing credit union members access to essential financial services," said Rush, General Counsel of CommunityAmerica CUSO One, LLC and Copper Financial. "I am honored to join an organization that has such a deep appreciation for its clients' financial success." Previously, Rush was employed by Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. where she was a Senior Vice President and served as Associate General Counsel of Regulatory Affairs. Her primary responsibility was to act as chief counsel for the retail wealth manager and the wholesale distributor. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Flourish Furnishings, and regularly speaks at industry conferences on topics such as vulnerable adult financial abuse, financial industry regulatory updates, and broker dealer/investment advisor regulatory matters. About Copper Financial Copper Financial ("CuFi") is an SEC-registered investment advisor, FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer, and state-registered insurance agency offering a breadth of investment and financial planning services to credit union members across the country. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of CommunityAmerica Credit Union, we understand the importance of meeting your members' unique needs wherever they are in their financial journey. Our fully digital experience and best-in-class technology platform allows members access to their accounts from anywhere at any time, and ensures the advisor and member have more time to focus on what mattersthe path to financial peace of mind. Additionally, we are the only credit union-owned Broker-Dealer that offers special needs planning for families, further assisting credit unions in their mission to serve all their members' needs. To learn more about CuFi, visit cu.financial. Media Contact: Sabrina Scarpa JConnelly for Copper Financial [email protected] SOURCE Copper Financial COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: CMT) ("Core Molding", "Core" or the "Company"), a leading engineered materials company specializing in molded structural products, principally in building products, industrial and utilities, medium and heavy-duty truck and powersports industries across the United States, Canada and Mexico today announced David Duvall, President and CEO, and John Zimmer, EVP and CFO, will participate in the virtual East Coast IDEAS Investor Conference on June 23, 2022. Core Molding Technologies' presentation is scheduled to be available at 6:00 am ET on June 22nd and will be accessible through the conference site. The presentation will also be webcast and can be accessed through the conference website, the host's main website: www.IDEASconferences.com and in the investor relations section of the company's website: https://coremt.com/investor-relations/events-presentations/. About IDEAS Investor Conferences The mission of the IDEAS Conferences is to provide independent regional venues for quality companies to present their investment merits to an influential audience of investment professionals. Unlike traditional bank-sponsored events, IDEAS Investor Conferences are "SPONSORED BY INVESTORS. FOR INVESTORS." and for the benefit of regional investment communities. Conference sponsors collectively have more than $200 billion in assets under management and include: 1102 Partners, Adirondack Research and Management, Allianz Global Investors: NFJ Investment Group, Ariel Investments, Aristotle Capital Boston, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss, BMO Global Asset Management, Constitution Research & Management, Inc., Fidelity Investments, First Wilshire Securities Management, Inc., Gamco Investors, Granahan Investment Management, Great Lakes Advisors, Greenbrier Partners Capital Management, LLC, GRT Capital Partners, LLC, Hodges Capital Management, Ironwood Investment Management, Keeley Teton Advisors, Luther King Capital Management, Marble Harbor Investment Counsel, North Star Investment Management, Perritt Capital Management, Punch & Associates, Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., and William Harris Investors. The IDEAS Investor Conferences are held annually in Boston, Chicago and Dallas and are produced by Three Part Advisors, LLC. Additional information about the events can be located at www.IDEASconferences.com. If interested in participating or learning more about the IDEAS conferences, please contact Lacey Wesley at (817) 769 -2373 or [email protected]. About Core Molding Technologies, Inc. Core Molding Technologies is a leading engineered materials company specializing in molded structural products, principally in building products, utilities, transportation and powersports industries across North America and Mexico. The Company operates in one operating segment as a molder of thermoplastic and thermoset structural products. The Company's operating segment consists of one reporting unit, Core Molding Technologies. The Company offers customers a wide range of manufacturing processes to fit various program volume and investment requirements. These processes include compression molding of sheet molding compound ("SMC"), resin transfer molding ("RTM"), liquid molding of dicyclopentadiene ("DCPD"), spray-up and hand-lay-up, direct long-fiber thermoplastics ("D-LFT") and structural foam and structural web injection molding ("SIM"). Core Molding Technologies serves a wide variety of markets, including the medium and heavy-duty truck, marine, automotive, agriculture, construction, and other commercial products. The demand for Core Molding Technologies' products is affected by economic conditions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Core Molding Technologies' operations may change proportionately more than revenues from operations. Company Contact: Core Molding Technologies, Inc. John Zimmer Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer 614-870-5604 Investor Relations Contact: Three Part Advisors, LLC Sandy Martin or Steven Hooser 214-616-2207 SOURCE Core Molding Technologies Dr. Eldemeri brings extensive optical engineering and business expertise to DarkPulse as the Company continues its expansion across the Middle East and Africa HOUSTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DarkPulse, Inc. (OTC Markets: DPLS) ("DarkPulse" and the "Company"), a technology company focused on the manufacture, sale, installation and monitoring of laser sensing systems which provide a data stream of critical metrics for assessing the health and security of infrastructure, today announced the appointment of Dr.Eng. Ehab M. Eldemeri as Director, Africa & GCC Countries. Dr. Eldemeri is a successful entrepreneur, Artificial Intelligence Projects Manager (AIPM), Optical Systems & Business Development expert with over 23 years' experience in project management and infrastructure. Coupled with hands-on service provisioning for large enterprises in heavy industry, telecom, oil and gas, ports, commercial, residential, hospitality, and aviation sectors across multiple continents, his outstanding record of success brings new capabilities to DarkPulse. His flexibility in adapting to change, ability to work effectively with a wide range of people in highly demanding situations, and ability to thrive in fluid environments while remaining pragmatic and focused makes him an excellent candidate for his position. Dr. Eldemeri is known as a highly ethical, trustworthy, and persuasive communicator with exceptional relationship management skills with the ability to relate to people at any level of business management, optical sciences, and engineering. His demonstrated ability to build new territories and expand opportunities towards the achievement of stated targets will assist the Company during its continued expansion into new markets and territories throughout the Middle East and Africa. "I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Eldemeri has joined DarkPulse as our Director, Africa and GCC Countries," said Dennis M. O'Leary, Chairman and CEO of DarkPulse. Mr. O'Leary continued, "as we enter the GCC and Africa markets, having a local expert assist the Company's efforts toward operations in these key markets and industries and accelerate the adoption of our technology offerings is a key metric. Dr. Ehab brings to DarkPulse incredible depth of knowledge in large scale technology projects and management experience. I look forward to working more closely together." The Company continues to explore additional potential opportunities in strategic locations worldwide with the goal of accelerating the adoption of its DarkPulse Technology Products and expand its global market position. About DarkPulse , Inc. DarkPulse, Inc. uses advanced laser-based monitoring systems to provide rapid and accurate monitoring of temperatures, strains and stresses. The Company's technology excels when applied to live, dynamic critical infrastructure and structural monitoring, including pipeline monitoring, perimeter and structural surveillance, aircraft structural components and mining safety. The Company's fiber-based monitoring systems can assist markets that are not currently served, and its unique technology covers extended areas and any event that is translated into the detection of a change in strain or temperature. In addition to the Company's ongoing efforts with respect to the marketing and sales of its technology products and services to its customers, the Company also continues to explore potential strategic alliances through joint venture and licensing opportunities to further expand its global market position. For more information, visit www.DarkPulse.com Safe Harbor Statement This news 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. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "should," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "anticipate" or other comparable terms. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this news release regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: our ability to successfully market our products and services; the acceptance of our products and services by customers; our continued ability to pay operating costs and ability to meet demand for our products and services; the amount and nature of competition from other security and telecom products and services; the effects of changes in the cybersecurity and telecom markets; our ability to successfully develop new products and services; our success establishing and maintaining collaborative, strategic alliance agreements, licensing and supplier arrangements; our ability to comply with applicable regulations; and the other risks and uncertainties described in our prior filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Media contact: DarkPulse, Inc. [email protected] 1.800.436.1436 SOURCE DarkPulse, Inc. Funding will support 34 nonprofits, government agencies across state. Grants up to $20,000 will pay for training, life-saving equipment, new technology to aid in disaster planning, recovery operations. GREENVILLE, S.C., June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As hurricane season begins, first responders and emergency managers turn their eyes to the tropics as they continue to prepare their communities for the possibility of impacts from severe weather. Duke Energy is preparing as well and stands in support of these communities across South Carolina by announcing more than $500,000 in microgrants to help increase their resiliency and their ability to help residents prepare for and recover from the devastation brought by significant weather events. "The key to successful emergency preparedness and recovery after a major storm begins and ends at the local level," said Mike Callahan, Duke Energy's South Carolina state president. "Households and businesses across the state in recent years have endured a number of significant and costly storms. Helping our communities prepare for and recover from these events takes significant resources and these grants will help give our fellow first responders the tools and training they need to tackle whatever Mother Nature throws our way." Duke Energy's Emergency Preparedness and Storm Resiliency Grant Program was designed to help organizations with roles in emergency preparedness increase their resiliency to these events through advanced preparation, planning, equipment and training. The program was first announced in March at the annual gathering of the state's emergency managers in Myrtle Beach, and grantees were notified of their successful requests for funding mid-May. Applicants could request funds up to $20,000. Nonprofits and governmental entities across all regions of the state were eligible to apply. A complete list of recipients can be found here. Quotes "The American Red Cross is honored to partner with Duke Energy to build resilience in the Pee Dee region through community preparedness programs. This grant will power outreach initiatives, equipping local families with essential skills so that they may respond whenever disaster strikes," said Michael Hesbach , Executive Director for the Eastern Chapter of the American Red Cross of South Carolina . "Prepared communities are resilient communities. Knowing how to act in an emergency, big or small, empowers individuals to better protect their homes and loved ones." , Executive Director for the Eastern Chapter of the American Red Cross of . "Prepared communities are resilient communities. Knowing how to act in an emergency, big or small, empowers individuals to better protect their homes and loved ones." " Sumter County has a long history of working side-by-side with Duke Energy before, during and after major storm events," said Donna Dew , Emergency Management Director for Sumter County . "This grant will supply our team the equipment necessary to clear hazards and open roadways faster following severe weather situations, making it easier for all first responders to quickly and safely restore our communities back to normal. As a critical first responder, Duke Energy has always worked alongside Sumter County to prepare for and respond to storms, and we value our partnership." has a long history of working side-by-side with Duke Energy before, during and after major storm events," said , Emergency Management Director for . "This grant will supply our team the equipment necessary to clear hazards and open roadways faster following severe weather situations, making it easier for all first responders to quickly and safely restore our communities back to normal. As a critical first responder, Duke Energy has always worked alongside to prepare for and respond to storms, and we value our partnership." "With the implementation of a mass notification system, we will now be able to quickly broadcast reliable emergency information to the public and our employees through virtually any communication device available," said Travis Glatki , Emergency Management Division Manager for the City of Myrtle Beach . "This grant from the Duke Energy Foundation opens up a world of opportunities for the City of Myrtle Beach to evolve and adapt our level of emergency preparedness to meet the needs of our community, our visitors and our employees." , Emergency Management Division Manager for the . "This grant from the Duke Energy Foundation opens up a world of opportunities for the to evolve and adapt our level of emergency preparedness to meet the needs of our community, our visitors and our employees." " Oconee County Emergency Services is incredibly grateful for the grant from the Duke Energy Foundation which will allow us to better serve the citizens of Oconee County and the surrounding areas," said Scott Krein , Director, Oconee County Emergency Services. "The UTV purchased with these funds will be used to bring critical supplies to remote areas during severe weather events." Emergency Services is incredibly grateful for the grant from the Duke Energy Foundation which will allow us to better serve the citizens of and the surrounding areas," said , Director, Emergency Services. "The UTV purchased with these funds will be used to bring critical supplies to remote areas during severe weather events." "This grant will allow the purchase of solar- and battery-powered weather radios that provide real-time hazardous weather and emergency news information to our community even in the event of a power outage," said Josh Hawkins , Director, Anderson County Sheriff's Office Emergency Management. "We are always grateful for our strong partnerships with Duke Energy and look forward to this grant positively impacting our community." Duke Energy Foundation The Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders. Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people. Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business and at least a 50% carbon reduction from electric generation by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The 2050 net-zero goals also include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear. Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2022 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "America's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Media contact: Ryan Mosier 800.559.3853 SOURCE Duke Energy JACKSON, Miss., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP) (the "Company", "we", "us", or "EastGroup") announced today its recent acquisition and disposition activity. On June 1, 2022, EastGroup closed the acquisition of Tulloch Corporation, the owner of an industrial real estate portfolio located within the San Francisco and Sacramento markets, with properties in those locations representing 85% and 15% of total portfolio net operating income, respectively. The portfolio consists of 14 properties totaling approximately 1.7 million square feet and two land parcels totaling 10.5 acres. The properties are currently 100% leased to 37 tenants with an average remaining lease term of less than 3 years. At the time of acquisition, the annualized net operating income generated by the fully-occupied properties is approximately $17.1 million. The two land parcels will allow for the future development of approximately 215,000 square feet. EastGroup acquired Tulloch Corporation for consideration consisting of approximately 1.87 million newly issued shares of EastGroup common stock, at a negotiated price of $190 per share, and the assumption of a $60 million loan, which EastGroup intends to promptly repay with no penalty. The Company's California portfolio, including operating properties and value-add acquisitions in lease-up, prior to this acquisition included approximately 5.9 million square feet, which had average rent growth of 54.5% on a straight-line basis for the three months ended March 31, 2022. Following this acquisition, the Company now owns approximately 7.6 million square feet in California, which represents 21% of the Company's total annualized base rent. The Company's California properties are 98.9% leased as of June 1, 2022. Commenting on the Company's activity, Marshall Loeb, CEO, stated, "We are thrilled to add the Tulloch Corporation's San Francisco area portfolio to EastGroup. The Tulloch family, over three generations, built a very strong portfolio in terms of location, building quality and tenant quality. Within our own portfolio, San Francisco has historically been one of our strongest markets and also one where we've been under allocated capital-wise. We're very bullish about the future for our San Francisco portfolio. Given recent headlines and resulting levels of concern, we are pleased to continue seeing strong levels of tenant demand across our portfolio as evidenced by our month end results." Brian Tulloch, President of the Tulloch Corporation stated, "I'm very pleased with the sale to EastGroup. I've been a shareholder for a number of years so I knew the Company prior to launching the sales process. Early on I was hoping there would be a way to reach this joint outcome." Eastdil Secured served as financial advisor to Tulloch Corporation. Also, during the current quarter, EastGroup sold a 42,000 square foot service center building in Houston for approximately $13 million. A gain will be recorded in the three months ended June 30, 2022, which will be excluded from funds from operations. This activity supports the Company's ongoing efforts to diversify its portfolio allocation across all EastGroup markets. As of June 1, 2022, EastGroup's operating portfolio was 98.7% leased and 98.2% occupied. Company Information EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP), a S&P Mid-Cap 400 company, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's goal is to maximize shareholder value by being a leading provider in its markets of functional, flexible and quality business distribution space for location sensitive customers (primarily in the 15,000 to 70,000 square foot range). The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply-constrained submarkets. The Company's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 54.1 million square feet. EastGroup Properties, Inc. press releases are available at www.eastgroup.net. Forward-Looking Statements The statements and certain other information contained herein, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "seek," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "targets," "intends," "should," "estimates," "could," "continue," "assume," "projects," "goals" or "plans" and variations of such words or similar expressions or the negative of such words, constitute "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, and are subject to the safe harbors created thereby. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views of the Company about its plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to the Company and on assumptions it has made. Although the Company believes that its plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that such plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, these forward-looking statements should be considered as subject to the many risks and uncertainties that exist in the Company's operations and business environment. Such risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to: international, national, regional and local economic conditions; the duration and extent of the impact of the coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic, including any COVID-19 variants or the efficacy or availability of COVID-19 vaccines, on our business operations or the business operations of our tenants (including their ability to timely make rent payments) and the economy generally; disruption in supply and delivery chains; construction costs could increase as a result of inflation impacting the cost to develop properties; increase in interest rates and ability to raise equity capital on attractive terms; financing risks, including the risks that our cash flows from operations may be insufficient to meet required payments of principal and interest, and we may be unable to refinance our existing debt upon maturity or obtain new financing on attractive terms or at all; our ability to retain our credit agency ratings; our ability to comply with applicable financial covenants; the competitive environment in which the Company operates; fluctuations of occupancy or rental rates; potential defaults (including bankruptcies or insolvency) on or non-renewal of leases by tenants, or our ability to lease space at current or anticipated rents, particularly in light of the significant uncertainty as to the conditions under which current or potential tenants will be able to operate physical locations in the future; potential changes in the law or governmental regulations and interpretations of those laws and regulations, including changes in real estate laws or REIT or corporate income tax laws, and potential increases in real property tax rates; our ability to maintain our qualification as a REIT; acquisition and development risks, including failure of such acquisitions and development projects to perform in accordance with projections; natural disasters such as fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes; pandemics, epidemics or other public health emergencies, such as the outbreak of COVID-19; the terms of governmental regulations that affect us and interpretations of those regulations, including the costs of compliance with those regulations, changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates; credit risk in the event of non-performance by the counterparties to our interest rate swaps; the discontinuation of London Interbank Offered Rate; lack of or insufficient amounts of insurance; litigation, including costs associated with prosecuting or defending claims and any adverse outcomes; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks related to the failure, inadequacy or interruption of our data security systems and processes; the consequences of future terrorist attacks or civil unrest; and environmental liabilities, including costs, fines or penalties that may be incurred due to necessary remediation of contamination of properties presently owned or previously owned by us. All forward-looking statements should be read in light of the risks identified in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors within the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and in its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE EastGroup Properties New funding will enable FinTron to expand its organization and advance its technology and product offerings STAMFORD, Conn., June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FinTron, an investment and personal finance application whose mission is to democratize personal finance for the mobile-first generation, today announced the close of its $6.5 million Series A funding round, bringing the company's total funds raised to nearly $10 million. The funds will allow FinTron to expand its organization, employ world-class talent, and upgrade its technology and product offerings to include a new rewards engine, crypto trading capabilities, enhanced education, and a Neo-Bank offering. In line with its mission to educate Gen-Z and millennial audiences on personal finance, FinTron provides financial literacy programs to thousands of high school and college students across the country. The company acquired nearly 12,000 new users in 2021 alone and expanded the organization's head count by more than 300%. Led by 26-year-old CEO and Connecticut Resident, Wilder Rumpf, and one of the youngest founding teams to ever register a broker dealer, FinTron has created a national digital footprint serving clients in 52 states and territories. With new funding and support from key investors including AUA Capital Management, Connecticut Innovations, Sage Venture Partners and Webster Bank, FinTron is poised to grow and scale at a rapid pace. "We are grateful to our key investors for their support of our vision to bring financial inclusivity to the 99%", said Rumpf. "Our founding mission remains the same. We strive to make personal finance accessible, understandable, and doable for the mobile generation. With the support of our investors and new key hires, we can now accelerate our efforts to upgrade our product and meet our ambitious growth objectives." For generations, personal finance has been done the old, complicated way. For this generation, there's FinTron. With the support of major Connecticut based institutions, including Connecticut Innovations, Sacred Heart University and the University of Connecticut, FinTron has sourced over 75% of its employees from Connecticut and 100% from the Tri-State area. To learn more about FinTron, visit FinTroninvest.com. About FinTron We promote the financial freedom of the mobile-first generation through better education, affordable financial products, and philanthropic give-back programs. For generations, personal finance has been done the old, complicated way. For this generation, there's FinTron. About Sage Venture Partners Sage Venture Partners (SVP) is an evergreen venture capital firm which invests in early-stage startups across diverse industries. The firm backs entrepreneurs with proven track records and strong strategic vision. Sage Venture Partners is founded and led by Frederick J. Warren. Before Sage Venture Partners, Mr. Warren co-founded Brentwood Associates, which became a leading private equity and venture capital firm on the West Coast and was an early backer of Apple Computer. About Connecticut Innovations Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut's strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticut's innovative, growing companies. CI provides venture capital and strategic support for early-stage technology companies, financial support for innovation and collaboration, and connections to its well-established network of partners and professionals. For more information, please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com. About AUA Capital Management A family office and alternatives-oriented investment firm tracing its origins to the Unanue Family Office founded by Andy Unanue, the former COO and acting board member of Goya Foods, Inc., and the late Joseph Unanue, Goya's long-time Chairman and CEO. Led by president Michael Salerno, the AUA family office focuses on both public markets and private market venture capital, growth equity, commercial real estate, and alternatives-oriented investments. About Webster Bank With over $60bn in assets and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Webster Bank serves consumer and business customers throughout the northeast from New York to Massachusetts. Webster Bank is one of only two banks in Connecticut to be listed among the 100 largest publicly traded banks. Media Contact: Jacob Tomanelli [email protected] SOURCE FinTron, Inc. HOUSTON , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Frontline Road Safety ("Frontline"), a portfolio company of The Sterling Group ("Sterling"), today announced the acquisition of the pavement marking contracting operations of Ozark Striping Company, LLC. ("Ozark"). Frontline's operating companies provide pavement marking and ancillary services to a variety of end markets and customers. The Ozark transaction marks Frontline's eighth acquisition since the platform was established in July 2020. Headquartered in Ozark, Alabama, Ozark Striping Company is a pavement marking contractor known across the industry as one of the leading firms in the nation. "We are excited to expand our footprint in the Southeast region by partnering with this best-in-class pavement marking firm and look forward to working with the outstanding team at Ozark," said Mitch Williams, CEO of Frontline Road Safety. "Ozark has a strong presence in Alabama and is a great addition to the Frontline family." "We have built a premier pavement marking contractor of considerable scale and believe Frontline is the ideal partner for Ozark going forward," said Lee Gross, President of Ozark Striping Company. Over the last several years, Sterling has executed on its investment thesis to build a leader in the road safety and infrastructure maintenance industry. Through organic growth and further acquisitions, Sterling intends to continue building Frontline into the leading platform for road safety solutions with best-in-class local execution capabilities. Sterling has a long history of partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams to support the growth of their businesses. About The Sterling Group Founded in 1982, The Sterling Group is a private equity investment firm that targets controlling interests in basic manufacturing, distribution, and industrial services companies. Typical enterprise values of these companies at initial formation range from $100 million to $750 million. Sterling has sponsored the buyout of 62 platform companies and numerous add-on acquisitions for a total transaction value of over $14.0 billion. Sterling recently closed its fifth investment fund with $2.0 billion in commitments and currently has over $5.7 billion of assets under management. For further information, please visit sterling-group.com. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and all investments are subject to loss. SOURCE Frontline Road Safety In accordance with the agreement, the two companies are executing on their cooperation to develop an integration of GenCell's alkaline fuel cells together with E.V. Motors Pure Energy's electric vehicle charging technologies to enable autonomous off-grid hybrid electric vehicle charging stations that eliminate the need for fossil fuel generators. Following completion of the deployment of the first four stations, including implementation at the site of an EV Motors' existing commercial customer, which will demonstrate the benefits of the technology and attract interest from e-mobility companies around the world, the partners will evaluate and apply insights from the first round of deployments to facilitate the optimized implementation of additional stations that will be distributed widely across the country. "We at E.V. Motors are committed to eliminating carbon emissions from the automotive industry in Israel by accelerating the transition from fossil fueled to electrically powered vehicles. To realize our mission, we have partnered with GenCell to leverage failsafe, resilient, zero-emission hydrogen and ammonia-to-power fuel cell technologies to ensure a reliable and steady flow of clean power for our charging stations," explains Ohad Seligmann, Chairman, E.V. Motors. "We are very satisfied to see the rapid and efficient progress that the companies have achieved synchronizing E.V. Motors Pure Energy charging equipment with GenCell's off-grid charging systems based on fuel cell power generation and storage technologies and with GenCell's energy management software. The combination offers a unique and comprehensive state-of-the-art solution for autonomous, off-grid, hybrid EV charging that both eliminates emissions and ensures availability of electricity, independent of the power grid. The solution is expected to disrupt the EV charging landscape, first in Israel and subsequently around the world. By investing in reliable, efficient, and emission-free EV charging infrastructure, we both guarantee the highest quality of service for our electric vehicle customers and drive the growth of the EV market." Remarks Rami Reshef, "GenCell has once again demonstrated our ability to not only design innovative technology, but also to fulfill our promise by delivering the initial off-grid green EV charging stations to E.V. Motors Pure Energy on time and to spec. We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the passionate, dedicated, and professional team at E.V. Motors Pure Energy to demonstrate the value that GenCell's technology contributes to ensuring zero-emission continuous power at autonomous hybrid off-grid charging stations. Considering the exponential increase in demand for EV charging, which has been estimated to exceed US$207 billion by 2030*, we foresee a strong future for these solutions. The rapidly increasing volume of electric vehicles is putting pressure on the electricity grid to supply power in the quantity required and in every location where the vehicles travel. By supplementing the grid with autonomous off-grid EV charging stations powered by hydrogen and ammonia, we can reduce this pressure and alleviate the concerns of EV drivers who are afraid that their travel will be limited by insufficient availability of charging stations." *Source: Guidehouse Insights, 13/10/2021 - https://guidehouseinsights.com/news-and-views/electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-market-is-expected-to-exceed-$207-billion-by-2030 About E.V. Motors EV Motors is a direct importer specializing solely on public transportation and private electric vehicles. The company is owned by Mr. Eliyahu Gridish, Mr. Ohad Seligmann, Chairman of the Group, and partner and owner Mr. Edward Doron. EV Motors imports electric vehicles of the highest quality from leading global manufacturers, marketing brands such as JAC, ANKAI and LEVC. The company imports charging systems from SSE and provides a full package to the customer including charging stations and full charging solutions, inertia solutions and off-grid energy storage. EV Motors aims to operate the next-generation charging model in Israel. About GenCell Energy GenCell Energy (TASE: GNCL) develops total green power solutions based on reliable, zero-emission alkaline fuel cells and green ammonia-to-energy technology which deliver uninterrupted power to help the world #SayNoToDiesel and transition to clean energy. The ability to produce not only clean power from GenCell's fuel cells, but also the green fuel on which the fuel cells run, sets GenCell in a far superior position as a well-to-wheel total green energy solution provider. GenCell delivers resilient, robust and weather-resistant backup power for utilities, telecom and other mission-critical applications which have been deployed in 22 countries. Our ammonia-based hydrogen-on-demand solution provides primary power for off-grid and poor-grid sites, as well as for rural electrification. GenCell Energy numbers more than 140 employees, including veterans of space and submarine projects. The Company is headquartered in Israel with a worldwide distribution and support network and retains unique intellectual property that includes patents, trade secrets and know-how. Contacts for GenCell: Babel PR Tel: +44 (0)74 3600 2058 [email protected] Shelli Zargary GenCell Energy Tel: +972 54 5617161 [email protected] Contacts for E.V. Motors Zvi Vilder Vilder PR Tel: +972 3 6869005 Cel: +972 50 555 9966 [email protected] Oren Bialer E.V. Motors Tel: +972 9 965 9000 Cel: +972 52-289-4053 [email protected] SOURCE GenCell Energy The partnership provides both organizations with the tools to expand market reach and serve more businesses NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gooten, a leading technology and fulfillment company, announced today that they are partnering with Fujifilm, a trusted global provider of prints, photo products, and imaging solutions, to bring print-on-demand production excellence at scale to businesses of all sizes. This strategic collaboration will bridge Fujifilm's impressive impact in the print and imaging industry having produced tens of millions of items on-demand since they began manufacturing personalized photo products more than 20 years ago with Gooten's advanced approach to on-demand fulfillment technology. Gooten and Fujifilm will bring industry-leading print-on-demand solutions to retailers, small businesses, and online merchants across the globe via Gooten's out-of-the-box technology solutions that seamlessly fulfill hundreds of customizable products without the need to hold inventory or secure extensive startup capital. The collaboration will initially launch with North American small businesses in Summer 2022 with plans to expand globally. "Fujifilm has always been a pioneer in the print-on-demand market, fulfilling and drop-shipping personalized photo products for customers shopping with major retailers for more than 20 years," said Bing Liem, President, Imaging Division, Fujifilm North America Corporation. "We are excited to partner with the Gooten team to deliver the same world-class Fujifilm production capabilities to online businesses of any size." "Our mission at Gooten is to empower retailers, brands, and merchants to scale their business using the power of on-demand fulfillment. Partnering with a renowned manufacturer like Fujifilm not only supports this goal but allows us to expand our impact to a wider audience," said Maddy Alcala, President of Gooten. "With the eCommerce industry growing at unparalleled rates, businesses need to be able to meet higher consumer expectations and demand quickly and efficiently. We believe our tailored on-demand fulfillment network combined with Fujifilm's quality products and global footprint will offer businesses a more cost-effective, seamless, and modern approach to improve customer satisfaction and accelerate revenue growth." About Fujifilm FUJIFILM North America Corporation, a marketing subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation, consists of five operating divisions and one subsidiary company. The Imaging Division provides consumer and commercial photographic products and services, including: photographic paper; digital printing equipment, along with service and support; personalized photo products; film; one-time-use cameras; and the popular INSTAX line of instant cameras and accessories. The Electronic Imaging Division markets consumer digital cameras, lenses, and content creation solutions, and the Graphic Systems Division supplies products and services to the graphic printing industry. The Optical Devices Division provides optical lenses for the broadcast, cinematography, closed circuit television, videography and industrial markets, and also markets binoculars and other optical imaging solutions. The Industrial and Corporate New Business Development Division delivers new products derived from Fujifilm technologies. FUJIFILM Canada Inc. sells and markets a range of FUJIFILM products and services in Canada. For more information, please visit https://www.fujifilm.com/us/en/about/region, go to www.twitter.com/fujifilmus to follow Fujifilm on Twitter, or go to www.facebook.com/FujifilmNorthAmerica to Like Fujifilm on Facebook. FUJIFILM Corporation, Tokyo, is an operating company of FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation along with FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp. FUJIFILM Holdings leverages its depth of knowledge and proprietary core technologies to deliver Value from Innovation in our products and services in the business segments of healthcare, materials, business innovation, and imaging. Our relentless pursuit of innovation is focused on providing social value and enhancing the lives of people worldwide. Fujifilm is committed to responsible environmental stewardship and good corporate citizenship. For more information about Fujifilm's Sustainable Value Plan 2030, click here. For the year ended March 31, 2022, the company had global revenues of approximately 2.5 trillion yen (21 billion $USD at an exchange rate of 122 yen/dollar). For more information, please visit: www.fujifilmholdings.com. About Gooten Inc. Gooten Inc. is a technology and fulfillment company servicing established brands that are looking to optimize and/or supplement their eCommerce business with a print-on-demand manufacturing model. It combines proprietary technology and operational expertise with a global network of 30+ best-in-class manufacturing partners. This digital infrastructure allows Gooten to automatically fulfill orders more efficiently, sustainably, and at a competitive price; unlocking the potential for eCommerce businesses, retailers and global merchandising companies to scale production while reducing or eliminating the need to hold physical inventory. Gooten is committed to empowering thousands of businesses to sell high-quality products, on-demand and with minimal risk. Founded in 2015, Gooten is a globally distributed company with teams across North America, Europe and South America. Connect with Gooten on http://www.gooten.com or on LinkedIn , Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter . Media contact: [email protected] SOURCE Gooten New Jobs and Investment Also to Go to Ford's Lima and Sharonville Plants AVON LAKE, Ohio, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and JobsOhio joined representatives from the Ford Motor Company today to announce that Ford is investing $1.5 billion into Lorain County at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake to assemble an all-new commercial electric vehicle (EV). This investment will create 1,800 new hourly jobs. "The ingenuity and talent of Ohio's automotive workforce are second to none, and Ford's investment in Avon Lake will play an essential role in growing the EV space," said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. "Ford has been a partner in Ohio for generations, and its confidence in the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant operations secures EV operations in Lorain County that will be critical for decades to come." In addition to the 1,800 new jobs to make the new commercial EV at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant, the expanded facility will continue producing Ford's E-series van, medium-duty trucks and Super Duty chassis cabs. Ford also announced an additional 90 jobs and a $100 million investment between its Lima Engine Plant and Sharonville Transmission plants. "There are many wonderful aspects to a day like today, but the special news for Northeast Ohio is that there will be 1,800 new, good-paying jobs with health care benefits and the higher quality of life and job security that comes along with it," said Lt. Governor Husted. "Governor DeWine and I are glad Ford chose Ohio to help manufacture this EV vehicle, continuing the region's extensive legacy in automotive innovation." Construction on Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake is expected to begin later this year; assembly on the commercial electric vehicle is expected to begin in mid-decade. "Ohio is one of the world's great automotive hubs and a key manufacturing state that has been central to Ford since we first opened Ohio Assembly Plant in 1958," said Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Blue. "Ford is proud to assemble more vehicles and employ more union autoworkers in the U.S. than any other auto manufacturer, and our commitment to the state of Ohio deepens today with the creation of 1,800 union jobs and $1.5 billion investment to build an all-new commercial EV at Ohio Assembly Plant." The Ford Motor Company, DeWine-Husted Administration, the Ohio Department of Development, the City of Avon Lake, Lorain County, state and local elected officials, and Ohio's Congressional delegation all collaborated with JobsOhio to bring the project to Avon Lake. JobsOhio, the state's private nonprofit economic development corporation, has placed significant focus on supporting the automotive supply chain as original equipment manufacturers have begun to place a major focus on electric vehicle production. "The Avon Lake facility represents the automotive heritage of Ohio and our world-class labor workforce and also our shared commitment with Ford to advancing innovation as we transition together to the EV space for future production," said J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO. "As manufacturing continues to evolve in Lorain County, JobsOhio and our partners are committed to protecting and growing Ohio's automotive industry by positioning the state as a global EV leader." Ford operates facilities in Avon Lake, Brook Park, Lima, and Sharonville and has more than 7,000 employees in Ohio. "Today's investment by Ford in Avon Lake is a testament to the world-class workforce in Lorain County and Northeast Ohio," said State Senator Nathan Manning. "I'm proud to have supported the Megaproject legislation that will help Ohio win life-changing investments like this one. This is a perfect example of the success that is possible when JobsOhio, the State of Ohio, and our regional and local partners work together as one team." To support the expansion of the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority will consider a tax credit at a future meeting, and JobsOhio also plans to provide grant assistance. Ohio's commitment to innovation makes it a natural fit for the thriving electric vehicle supply chain and electric vehicle manufacturing opportunities. Ohio's vast history in the automotive industry and automotive supply chain, as well as its overall proximity to resources, manufacturers, and end markets, put the state in a prime position for future electric vehicle production. SOURCE JobsOhio Together with industry partners Abbott, Microsoft and Raytheon Technologies, the HBCU Cybersecurity Industry Collaboration Initiative Pilot aims to build curriculum capacity within HBCU engineering schools, positioning them as premier national academic institutions for cybersecurity, while creating a strong workforce of students well-prepared for the world's essential cybersecurity careers. The initiative expects to support HBCUs through curriculum development, research collaboration, faculty support and other resources. Right now, there are nearly 600,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. and experts anticipate there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs open globally by 2025. "Our hope is that the initiative will enhance cybersecurity programming at HBCUs, helping connect students, especially African-American students, with opportunities to pursue cybersecurity certifications and degrees," said Veronica L. Nelson, AMIE's executive director. "This effort couldn't come at a more critical time. The U.S. greatly needs skilled cybersecurity workers. HBCU Engineering Schools represent a rich pipeline of untapped, diverse talent." The 15 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited HBCU Schools of Engineering produce more than 30% of the African-American engineers in the U.S. while representing less than 3% of the engineering universities in the U.S. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor show Blacks and African-Americans make up only 11.8% of information security analysts in the U.S. The initiative's pilot incorporates expertise and support from Abbott, Microsoft and Raytheon Technologies with the goal of aligning business needs to the pilot schools' cybersecurity curricula and research capabilities. The four HBCU pilot engineering schools of the 15 member schools of the Council of HBCU Engineering Deans are Hampton University, North Carolina A&T State University, Prairie View A&M University, and Virginia State University. Professionals from Abbott, Microsoft and Raytheon Technologies will be guest lecturers, participate in mentoring programs and meet with faculty to better understand existing strengths and collaborate toward educating more cybersecurity professionals to help address the nation's talent gap. Microsoft is providing funding and support as part of its Cybersecurity Skills Initiative. Abbott is providing funding and hosting two Prairieview A&M University cybersecurity students for customized intern experiences during summer 2022. Raytheon Technologies is providing funding and works with local students to showcase their cyber capabilities and provide opportunities for students to explore cyber careers. "With the complete integration of Industry 4.0 or 'smart' technologies into so many aspects of our lives, VSU now sees almost every company we work with needing cybersecurity-trained professionals to secure their products, services, and their business operations," said Dr. Dawit Haile, Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at Virginia State University. "This includes industries that we never would have previously considered in this context, like manufacturing, construction, and energy. VSU understands that cybersecurity skills are now part of a critical core knowledge base and we are committed to deliver a strong pipeline of students who are well-prepared in this area." The pilot will run through the end of 2022 with the goal of extending the initiative to the remaining 11 ABET-accredited HBCU Schools of Engineering in the future: Alabama A&M University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, Southern University, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the University of the District of Columbia. "In today's digital-first world, skilled cybersecurity workers are critical to ensuring the safety of our enterprise as well as the products and technologies we provide people to live better, healthier lives," said Sabina Ewing, Chief Information Officer, Abbott. "That's why, as a founding member of Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering, Abbott supports efforts like the HBCU Cybersecurity Industry Collaboration Initiative Pilot, which develops HBCU talent to build a diverse, innovative workforce that will meet the demands of today and tomorrow." "We are excited to embark on this collaboration with AMIE to broaden education in cybersecurity at HBCUs," said Valecia Maclin, Microsoft Partner, Strategic Cloud Solutions, and AMIE board member. "The pre-eminent role that HBCUs play in graduating the best and brightest engineering talent in the U.S. coupled with our passion to extend global cybersecurity skilling is a unique collaboration and critical for the time that we are in. As part of our commitment to address America's cybersecurity workforce shortage, we look forward to working together to create a workforce that represents the diversity of our society." "Closing the enormous cybersecurity skills gap and driving diversity in our talent pipeline are critical business imperatives for our company and industry," said Shanda Hinton, Chief Diversity Officer, Raytheon Technologies. "This alliance offers real world education, experience and mentorship opportunities to HBCU engineering students to help cultivate the next generation of cyber defenders." About Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering: Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering (AMIE) is a nonprofit coalition of corporations, government agencies and the 15 ABET-accredited Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Schools of Engineering. AMIE's purpose is to expand corporate and government alliances with the HBCU engineering programs to increase diversity in the engineering workforce. AMIE's commitment to fostering partnerships that attract, develop, recruit and graduate minorities in engineering has been its ongoing focus since its founding in 1992. Find out more about our efforts at www.amiepartnerships.org. About Abbott: Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 113,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries. Connect at www.abbott.com. About Microsoft: Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. About Raytheon Technologies: Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. With four industry-leading businesses Collins Aerospace Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense the company delivers solutions that push the boundaries in avionics, cybersecurity, directed energy, electric propulsion, hypersonics and quantum physics. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. SOURCE Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- San Marzano DOP tomatoes are the best canned tomatoes in the world, and it's time to "start spreading the news!" The King of Tomatoes, Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese Nocerino DOP is heading to the Big Apple, and it couldn't be any more apropos! Did you know that the Italian word for tomato, "pomodoro", means "golden apple"? Simple pasta with tomatoes and basil. (PRNewsfoto/I San Marzano DOP) Not only should you look for the full name, Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP, but more importantly, the seals on the label which ensure the quality of the tomatoes inside. The bright red color and flavor of these incredibly sweet, non-acidic tomatoes never fail to impress. If you are attending the Summer Fancy Food Show in NYC, visit the I San Marzano DOP booth to try some delicious nibbles prepared so you can sample these glorious canned tomatoes for yourself! Details for the I San Marzano DOP booth at the Specialty Food Association NYC Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center, Manhattan. Location: 655 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10014 Dates: June 12-14, 2022 Level 3, Booth #2516 Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP canned tomatoes will make every dish the best it can be. For lots of simple and delicious recipes, and inspiration, check out the I San Marzano DOP website. RECIPES: https://ilovesanmarzanodop.com/recipes/?lang=en Want to know where to find Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP canned tomatoes? You'll discover them at quality grocery stores, specialty shops, Italian grocery markets, and online. (Be sure to look for the "DOP" and the two seals that guarantee their quality.) I San Marzano DOP is a campaign co-funded by the European Commission - promoting San Marzano dell'agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP tomatoes in the USA. www.ilovesanmarzanodop.com #iLoveSanMarzanoDOP Enjoy. It's from Europe! SOURCE I Love San Marzano DOP CANTON, Ohio, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAGE Studios, a leader in the salon and spa studio space, has opened its newest location and first in North Canton, OH by IMAGE Owners, Jon & Stephanie Miller. IMAGE is part of a burgeoning trend in the beauty, health, and wellness business, which leases turnkey salon suites to entreprenuers looking to open their own business, empowering business owners, and growth in the growing $63 billion beauty industry. Founder and CEO, Jason Olsen, commented, "It is incredible to have high caliber franchisees like Jon & Stephanie to introduce the IMAGE Studios brand in Ohio. They will be joined by locations in Cleveland and Columbus this year, along with new stores in Pittsburgh and Lexington - IMAGE is booming across the region." "We are elated to open up at near capacity in our first location," said IMAGE Owner, Stephanie Miller. "IMAGE Studios is the best in coworking salon suites. We set the highest standard for design and support for our professionals, and I am so excited to be part of this journey! Our location will be a benchmark for cutting edge design." There are currently 30 open, and 145 IMAGE Studios Salon Suites in development throughout the US and this number increases month over month. IMAGE Studios is an exclusive salon suite that creates modern, high-end salon spaces at affordable rates for salon professionals - this makes it possible for professionals to become successful entrepreneurs. IMAGE Studios provides a unique opportunity by bringing together like-minded professionals and the guidance of mentors invested in the success of their business owners. SOURCE IMAGE Studios The drop in telehealth utilization was likely due to continuing reduction in the reported number and severity of COVID-19 infections, which may have led more patients to return to in-person healthcare services. Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the number of reported cases of COVID-19 continued to fall in March. Diagnoses The rankings of the top five telehealth diagnoses did not change nationally in March 2022, but there were some changes at the regional level. In the Northeast, acute respiratory diseases and infections rose from fifth place to second place in the rankings. In the South, encounter for examination fell off the list and urinary tract infections rejoined the list (in fifth place) for the first time since December 2021. In all regions and nationally, mental health conditions remained the top-ranking telehealth diagnosis. Specialties The rankings of the top five telehealth specialties did not change nationally or in most regions in March 2022. But in the Midwest, psychiatrist and primary care nonphysician switched places, with the former rising to fourth place in March and the latter dropping to fifth place. In all regions and nationally, for the second month in a row, social worker remained the top-ranking telehealth specialty. Procedure Codes In March 2022, the rankings of the top five telehealth procedure codes did not change nationally or in any region. The number one telehealth procedure code nationally and in every region remained CPT2 90837, one-hour psychotherapy. Costs For March 2022, the Telehealth Cost Corner spotlighted the cost of CPT 97803, therapy procedure reassessment for nutrition management, each 15 minutes. Nationally, the median charge amount for this service when rendered via telehealth was $49.97, and the median allowed amount was $31.58.3 About the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker Launched in May 2020 as a free service, the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses FAIR Health data to track how telehealth is evolving from month to month. An interactive map of the four US census regions allows the user to view an infographic on telehealth in a specific month in the nation as a whole or in individual regions. Each infographic shows month-to-month changes in telehealth's percentage of medical claim lines, as well as that month's top five telehealth procedure codes, diagnoses and specialties. Additionally, in the Telehealth Cost Corner, a specific telehealth procedure code is featured, with its median charge amount and median allowed amount. FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "As the COVID-19 pandemic and telehealth utilization continue to evolve, FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker serves as a window into that evolution. This is one of the many ways we pursue our healthcare transparency mission." On Wednesday, June 22, from 2 to 3 pm ET, Ms. Gelburd will host a webinar entitled "Telehealth Utilization Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Two-Year Retrospective," which will provide insights on telehealth's evolution since winter 2020 using FAIR Health's comprehensive collection of telehealth data. Click here to register for the free, one-hour webinar. For the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, click here. Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth About FAIR Health FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 36 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org. Contact: Rachel Kent Senior Director of Marketing FAIR Health 646-396-0795 [email protected] 1 A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim. 2 CPT 2021 American Medical Association (AMA). All rights reserved. 3 A charge amount is the provider's undiscounted fee, which a patient may have to pay when the patient is uninsured, or when the patient chooses to go to a provider who does not belong to the patient's plan's network. An allowed amount is the total fee paid to the provider under an insurance plan. It includes the amount that the health plan pays and the part the patient pays under the plan's in-network cost-sharing provisions (e.g., copay or coinsurance if the patient has met the deductible). SOURCE FAIR Health DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Car E-hailing Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2021-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This recent report on the car e-hailing market, with the help of a comprehensive outlook, provides readers with an assessment of the global market landscape. This study on the car e-hailing market analyzes the scenario for the period of 2021 to 2031, wherein, 2020 is the base year and 2019 and before is historical data. This report enables readers to make important decisions with regard to their business, with the help of a wealth of Information enclosed in the study. This study on the car e-hailing market also provides data on the developments made by important players and stakeholders in the market, along with a competitive analysis. The report also provides an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, along with the trends and restraints in the landscape. Presented in a clear sanctioned manner, this report on the car e-hailing market gives readers an individual understanding of the market. This report answers these questions and more about the car e-hailing market, aiding major stakeholders and key players in making the right decisions and strategizing for the advancement of their business. Key Questions Answered in This Report on Car E-hailing Market How much value will the car e-hailing market generate by the end of the forecast period? Which segment of the market is likely to have the maximum market share by 2031? What are the impact factors and their effects on the market for car e-hailing market? What regions currently contribute the maximum share to the overall car e-hailing market? What are the indicators expected to drive the car e-hailing market? What region is likely to be a lucrative market during the forecast period? What are the essential strategies by key stakeholders in the car e-hailing market to expand their geographic presence? What are the major advancements witnessed in the car e-hailing market? How regulatory norms affected the market for car e-hailing market? Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Market Overview 2.1. Market Coverage/ Taxonomy 2.2. Market Dynamics 2.2.1. Drivers 2.2.2. Restraints 2.2.3. Opportunity 2.3. Market Factor Analysis 2.3.1. Porter's Five Force Analysis 2.3.2. SWOT Analysis 2.4. Regulatory Scenario 2.5. Key Trend Analysis 2.6. Cost Structure Analysis 2.7. Profit Margin Analysis 2.8. Gig Economy - The Case of E-Hailing Companies 2.8.1. Positive and Negative Trend Analysis 2.9. Breakdown of Key Stakeholders (Motivating Factors and Opportunities) 2.9.1. E-Hailing companies/Moderators 2.9.2. Drivers 2.9.3. Passengers 2.10. Value Chain Analysis 2.10.1. Relationship dependency between key players 2.10.2. Challenges faced by drivers due to unfair policies of e-hailing companies 2.11. Initiatives by e-hailing companies to protect labor rights 2.12. Countries with regulations for e-hailing 2.12.1. Overview of processes followed to establish regulations 2.13. Concerns of industry participants with new regulations 2.14. Case Studies 2.14.1. Change in business model of e-hailing company - Uber grants worker status to drivers in the U.K. 2.14.2. Formation of trade union by drivers and its value creation - Formation of union by drivers in India 2.15. Data Privacy in Car E-Hailing Market - Impact Analysis of Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) act 3. COVID-19 Impact Analysis - Car E-Hailing Market 4. Global Car E-Hailing Market, By Car Type 4.1. Market Snapshot 4.1.1. Introduction, Definition, and Key Findings 4.1.2. Market Growth & Y-o-Y Projections 4.1.3. Base Point Share Analysis 4.2. Global Car E-Hailing Market Revenue (US$ Bn) Analysis & Forecast, by Car Type, 2017?2031 4.2.1. Micro Car 4.2.2. Mini Car 4.2.3. Sedan 4.2.4. Premium Car 4.2.5. SUV 5. Global Car E-Hailing Market, By Distance Travel 5.1. Market Snapshot 5.1.1. Introduction, Definition, and Key Findings 5.1.2. Market Growth & Y-o-Y Projections 5.1.3. Base Point Share Analysis 5.2. Global Car E-Hailing Market Revenue (US$ Bn) Analysis & Forecast, by Distance Travel, 2017?2031 5.2.1. Short Distance Ride 5.2.2. Long Distance Ride 6. Global Car E-Hailing Market, By Device 6.1. Market Snapshot 6.1.1. Introduction, Definition, and Key Findings 6.1.2. Market Growth & Y-o-Y Projections 6.1.3. Base Point Share Analysis 6.2. Global Car E-Hailing Market Revenue (US$ Bn) Analysis & Forecast, by Device, 2017?2031 6.2.1. GPS Navigation Devices 6.2.2. Smartphones 6.2.3. Computers or Laptops 7. Global Car E-Hailing Market, By Connectivity 7.1. Market Snapshot 7.1.1. Introduction, Definition, and Key Findings 7.1.2. Market Growth & Y-o-Y Projections 7.1.3. Base Point Share Analysis 7.2. Global Car E-Hailing Market Revenue (US$ Bn) Analysis & Forecast, by Connectivity, 2017?2031 7.2.1. Wi-Fi 7.2.2. 4G/5G 7.2.3. Broadband 7.2.4. Others 8. Global Car E-Hailing Market, by Region 8.1. Market Snapshot 8.1.1. Introduction, Definition, and Key Findings 8.1.2. Market Growth & Y-o-Y Projections 8.1.3. Base Point Share Analysis 8.2. Global Car E-Hailing Market Revenue (US$ Bn) Analysis & Forecast, by Region, 2017?2031 8.2.1. North America 8.2.2. Europe 8.2.3. Asia Pacific 8.2.4. Middle East & Africa 8.2.5. South America 9. North America Car E-Hailing Market 10. Europe Car E-Hailing Market 11. Asia Pacific Car E-Hailing Market 12. Middle East & Africa Car E-Hailing Market 13. South America Car E-Hailing Market 14. Competitive Landscape 14.1. Company Share Analysis/ Brand Share Analysis, 2020 14.2. Company Analysis for each player 14.2.1.1. Company Overview, Company Footprints, Service Locations, Service Portfolio, Competitors & Customers, Subsidiaries & Parent Organization, Recent Developments, Financial Analysis, Profitability, Revenue Share 15. Company Profile/ Key Players 15.1. Uber Technologies, Inc. 15.1.1. Company Overview 15.1.1.1. Company Footprints 15.1.1.2. Service Locations 15.1.2. Service Portfolio 15.1.3. Competitors & Customers 15.1.4. Subsidiaries & Parent Organization 15.1.5. Recent Developments 15.1.6. Financial Analysis 15.1.7. Profitability 15.1.8. Revenue Share 15.2. Gett 15.3. Lyft, Inc. 15.4. Grab 15.5. Ola 15.6. GoJek 15.7. Careem 15.8. Via 15.9. BlaBla Car 15.10. Bridj 15.11. GoKid 15.12. Hitch 15.13. Shenzhou Zhuanche 15.14. Yidao Yongche 15.15. Sidecar 15.16. Didi Chuxing 15.17. Curb 15.18. Ztrip 15.19. NextNow 15.20. Bolt 15.21. Other Key Players For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9bv4cl Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets While some celebrity meals are good, the Jack Harlow Meal is the only one that's finger lickin' good. Jack Harlow recently spent time at KFC's Louisville, Kentucky HQ tasting the entire menu to hand pick his meal, which is a mix of KFC classics and new fan favorite menu items: the KFC Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Mac & Cheese, Secret Recipe Fries, a side of ranch, and a nice cold lemonade, all served in custom Jack Harlow x KFC packaging. The iconic pairing of KFC classics such as Mac & Cheese mixed with the newer KFC Chicken Sandwich (released in 2021) and Secret Recipe Fries (introduced in 2020) is the perfect amount of nostalgia old school (KFC) meets new school (Jack Harlow). "From releasing 'Come Home the Kids Miss You' and now launching my own meal at KFC, I'm having a super blessed summer" said 3x GRAMMY-nominated rapper, Jack Harlow. "When KFC asked me to create my own meal, I knew it couldn't be just any meal. My meal brings together my childhood favorites from growing up in Louisville, the KFC Mac & Cheese, with my new go-to Spicy Chicken Sandwich (with plenty of ranch), Secret Recipe Fries, and lemonade it doesn't get much better." To celebrate the launch of the Jack Harlow Meal, KFC will transform an Atlanta KFC into Jack's Meal HQ (2637 Cobb Pkwy SE, Smyrna, Ga.) on Saturday, June 4 to give fans a first-class taste of Jack's custom meal. Atlantans will be the first to try the Jack Harlow Meal while they listen to Jack's new album from an insta-worthy KFC x Jack Harlow bucket speaker playing Harlow's latest hits as well as experience surprises throughout the day. In honor of the new Jack Harlow Meal at KFC, Jack and KFC have also teamed up to drop a line of co-branded merch that will be available for a limited time only (while supplies last). Fans can download the KFC app and opt into push notifications to be the first to know when the merch line is available and for other exclusive Jack Harlow content. "Jack has long been vocal about his passion for his home state of Kentucky, which is why this partnership is so finger lickin' good," said Nick Chavez, CMO of KFC U.S. "Jack Harlow fans, don't miss out on this meal handpicked by Jack himself." Jack introduces his Jack Harlow Meal himself to KFC customers in new commercials that feature his chart topping hit song "Nail Tech." Guests can skip the drive-thru line and get their hands on the Jack Harlow Meal faster by ordering through KFC's Quick Pick-Up option on the KFC app or KFC.com at select locations. After placing a digital order for Quick Pick-Up, guests can head to the restaurant, park in dedicated VIP parking spots, and run inside to grab their hot and fresh order waiting for them on KFC's new Quick Pick-Up shelf. In December, KFC announced an ongoing partnership with #1 hit maker and multiple GRAMMY-nominated rapper and Louisville, Kentucky native Jack Harlow to usher in a new era for the iconic fried chicken brand. About KFC KFC Corporation, based in Louisville, Ky., has been serving up Finger Lickin' Good Original Recipe fried chicken since 1952. Beyond the top secret 11 herbs & spices, KFC specialties include the KFC Chicken Sandwich, Extra Crispy chicken and Extra Crispy Tenders, KFC Famous Bowls, Pot Pies, Secret Recipe Fries, biscuits and homestyle sides. There are more than 26,000 KFC restaurants in over 145 countries and territories around the world. KFC Corporation is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., Louisville, Ky. (NYSE: YUM). For more information, visit www.kfc.com . Follow KFC on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and TikTok . About Jack Harlow Hailed as the "hitmaker of tomorrow" by Variety, Jack Harlow is one of music's greatest new stars. The Louisville, KY native boasts three GRAMMY Award nominations, two #1 singles, 12 RIAA platinum certifications, and over 5 billion career streams to date. Harlow released his critically acclaimed, RIAA platinum certified debut album, THATS WHAT THEY ALL SAY in December 2020, which featured the 7x Platinum worldwide hit, "WHATS POPPIN," which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned the 24-year-old his first GRAMMY nomination for "Best Rap Performance," along with a wide array of other award nominations. The Generation Now/Atlantic Records star has graced the covers of Rolling Stone, Forbes, Variety, Complex, SPIN, Footwear News and XXL's coveted Freshman Class Issue, and brought his captivating live show to TV with performances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, and the 2022 Kids Choice Awards, to name a few. Harlow is now poised to reach even greater heights with his hugely anticipated second album, COME HOME THE KIDS MISS YOU, highlighted by the bombastic lead single "Nail Tech" and the infectious follow-up, "First Class," which made a spectacular debut at atop the Billboard "Hot 100," marking his first solo #1 single, while earning the biggest streaming week of 2022, thus far. SOURCE Kentucky Fried Chicken Under the partnership agreement, TEXUB will deploy L7 Defense's Ammune to protect the platform's APIs and Apps from cyberattacks DUBAI, UAE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- L7 Defense Ltd., a pioneering developer of AI-based cybersecurity solutions, announced today that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with TEXUB to protect its e-commerce B2B platform TEXUB from cyberattacks targeting its APIs and Apps. E-commerce platforms offer advanced services (APIs) to their customers that need to be continuously adapted and improved to meet the platform users' needs while keeping these APIs and Apps safe from cyberthreats in real-time. L7 Defense's Ammune API security solution protects automatically, at the highest possible quality, the ever-growing number of organization APIs and Apps operating in the emerging hybrid digital environment. "TEXUB is a digital marketplace for IT & mobility products that helps businesses to address global opportunities in a safe, stable, and seamless manner. L7 Defense's Ammune was selected after a stringent evaluation to secure the TEXUB platform from advanced threats and vulnerabilities", explained Suchit Kumar, CEO of TEXUB. "As the main communication means between the TEXUB platform's systems, users, and applications, APIs and Apps are major drivers to accelerate the agility, flexibility, and interconnection required to make TEXUB perform optimally, explained Yisrael Gross, Co-Founder & VP of Business Development at L7 Defense. "This also makes its APIs attractive and vulnerable targets for cyberattacks. With Ammune's, cyberattacks aimed at APIs are identified and eliminated in real-time, keeping the platform and its users safe." "OurAmmune keeps the APIs of TEXUB well-protected, and we are proud that TEXUB has chosen L7 Defense to be its strategic partner for API cybersecurity," he added. About TEXUB Launched in 2022, TEXUB is a global B2B marketplace that offers a safe, stable, and seamless e-commerce ecosystem for global IT trade in the B2B space. TEXUB allows IT businesses to trade by connecting with verified buyers and verified sellers anonymously. It provides a scalable cloud platform for brands, distributors, resellers, and all key partners, while at the same time improving the buying and selling experience, maintaining trade privacy, and a high level of transacting security, making it a robust and seamless e-commerce platform for global IT and mobility trade in the B2B space. More information at www.texub.com. About L7 Defense L7 Defense is a leading cybersecurity company protecting enterprises' infrastructure and applications against API-borne attacks in real-time. Its Ammune technology protects from major API-borne, AI-driven, Bot, DDoS, WAF, and Business Logic attacks actively by using advanced machine learning for protecting APIs from the most advanced attack types without impacting the traffic. The Company's award-winning Ammune is deployed in data centers, public clouds, and local on-premise, operating as a standalone or hybrid solution in these environments. L7 Defense's customer base includes API (internet) companies, financial institutions, fintech companies, telcos, and industrial enterprises. More information at www.l7defense.com Contact: Yisrael Gross [email protected] SOURCE L7 Defence Unites Award-Winning Medical Communications Agency and Scientific Communications Animation Studio to Create Engaging Solutions for Pharmaceutical Industry STAMFORD, Conn. & LONDON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lockwood Group ("Lockwood"), an industry leader in scientific-based medical communications for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, announced today that it has acquired Random42 ("Random42"), a best-in-class medical animation studio based in London, England from Graphite Capital. The partnership between Lockwood and Random42 expands the capabilities and geographic footprint for both organizations. "Lockwood's commitment to innovative scientific communications is further bolstered by this addition of Random42 and the cutting-edge creative work that they do," said Lockwood Founder & CEO, Matt Schecter. "As new therapies become more and more complex the need to visualize the uniqueness of their product helps our clients differentiate their brand in a sometimes-crowded marketplace. Our customers will be astounded by the visually compelling animations, virtual reality, augmented reality, holographic, and interactive experiences created in-house by Random42's expert scientific, creative, animation, and production teams. As our clients have shared their need for imaginative solutions to breakthrough crowded markets, most recently through digital channels, we are excited to bring these inventive solutions forward immediately." Random42's executive management team, led by Medical Director & CEO Ben Ramsbottom, PhD and CFO Andy Kay in partnership with Lockwood's executive team led by Schecter and President & COO Alan Banner, will continue to guide the agencies with an emphasis on growth, capability expansion, and providing leading scientific thinking to our life science clients. "We were impressed by Lockwood's deep scientific bench as well as the agency's track record of successfully growing its innovative medical communications business. They share our vision for expanding the company and their expertise will be invaluable as we extend Random42's footprint to the US, enter new markets, and work with new and existing customers," said Ramsbottom. In addition, he commented "I would like to thank the team at Graphite Capital for their partnership in helping to grow Random42." Graphite Capital's senior partner Humphrey Baker commented "Random42 is a high-quality business with compelling creativity and expertise, and a strong management team that has cemented the company's position as a clear global leader in its field. It has been a pleasure to work with Ben and the team to help develop the business, which is well positioned to continue to take advantage of the growth opportunities in what is a fast growing global market." The newly formed alliance connects leaders in the medical communications and scientific animation industries to bring forward innovative and interactive solutions for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical companies across the globe. About Lockwood Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Lockwood communicates clinical and therapeutic advances to every type of medical expert, healthcare practitioner, and decision maker. For the ultimate benefit of patients, Lockwood helps clients advance their objectives in a world of new regulations, business models, payment approaches, technologies, roles, and work practices. Lockwood teams are organized around the specific needs of each client. With extensive experience in oncology, rare diseases, and all major therapeutic areas, along with highly specialized knowledge in biologics, devices, and diagnostics, Lockwood can quickly deploy the right scientific, business, and communications experts to address the challenges at hand. www.thelockwoodgrp.com About Random42 Random42 is a leading scientific communication studio specializing in medical animation and education, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, interactive and visually engaging solutions for global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Founded in 1992, Random42 are the largest and most experienced company within the industry and have won over 260 awards for high-quality medical animation and scientific storytelling a clear industry leader. Their clients range fromk the pharmaceutical giants, including all of the Top 25 pharma companies, down to small innovative biotechs (and everyone in between). www.random42.com SOURCE Lockwood More than 80% of people globally say their employer and their child's school or university should do more to address mental health and wellbeing HOBOKEN, N.J., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Great Resignation continues to disrupt the global economy, Pearson, the world's leading learning company, today released new public opinion research showing that people around the world are prioritizing mental health and wellbeing in career and education choices. Notably, the Pearson Global Learner Survey, a poll of 5,000 people in five countries, found: 85% expect their employers to address the mental health and wellbeing of employees, with 32% saying their employers have not taken any action to address employees' mental health and wellbeing. Nearly all respondents believe accessible mental health services in school are critical, but there's a disconnect. Globally, 92% of parents think schools should provide free mental health services to students and staff, but only 26% of schools report these resources are available at their child's school. When it comes to education on how to improve mental health, expectations of schools and universities are high, too. 61% of people globally believe children should be introduced to wellness and mental health awareness in primary or middle school. And 91% of parents agree schools should play a bigger role in training people to solve today's mental health issues. "Work and school are the places where we spend the most time, outside our family life. Employees and families are demanding that employers and schools work harder to address the mental health crisis that has been exacerbated over the last two and a half years," said Morgan Champion, school counseling lead, Pearson Virtual Schools. "As Covid becomes endemic and we become accustomed to new ways of working and learning, organizations will need to incorporate wellness and wellbeing into their offerings in strategic and innovative ways to stay competitive and better serve their communities and constituents." Among other findings of the survey: With the tightest talent market in recent history, job seekers are prioritizing mental health resources as they reevaluate their current or potential new jobs. Around the world, 90% of people think more highly of employers that actively address employee mental health and wellbeing, and 86% say mental health and wellness benefits are an important part of their decision on whether to pursue a new job. And mental health support is not just a forefront topic in the workplace; it's also important in schools. When making choices about their children's education, mental health services matter to parents. More than 90% of parents regard mental health and wellbeing services as important elements when considering higher education institutions for themselves or their children. And the same number are more inclined to consider colleges or universities who care about the mental health of their students. The report also found that nearly 80% of respondents have specific and tangible requests of both corporations and educational institutions to help improve mental health: a set amount of mental health days off from work and school, free mental health services, and access to physical fitness activities and wellness resources, including helpline numbers, research, clinic locations, and online therapy options. About the Global Learner Survey This poll was conducted by Morning Consult from April 13 to April 18, 2022, among a total sample of 5,008 respondents between the ages of 16 to 70 years old in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, India, and China. The interviews were conducted online. Results are representative of the online population with a margin of error of plus and minus three percentage points. Now in its fourth year, Pearson's Global Learner Survey is the leading poll of learners on education issues in the world, offering a deeper understanding of trends in education and providing key data to help further discussions on many important issues. About Pearson At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to add life to a lifetime of learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That's why our c.20,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world's leading learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. Visit us pearsonplc.com. Contact Joe Wiggins, [email protected] SOURCE Pearson HOUSTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McDermott International has been awarded a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) contract by North Oil Company (NOC) for the Ruya Development, previously referred to as Al-Shaheen Phase 3-Batch 1, located offshore Qatar. This award is one the largest FEED projects undertaken in McDermott's history and follows the successful completion of the pre-FEED contract. "This is a strategic contract for our offshore business in Qatar and a game-changer for McDermott as it represents the largest offshore FEED we have ever received in the Middle East," said Tareq Kawash, McDermott's Senior Vice President, Offshore Middle East. "As was the case for the Pre-FEED with NOC, work will be led from our highly skilled Doha operating center and will be supported by our Chennai engineering office." "The award strengthens our successful collaboration with NOC and demonstrates the continuity of our business relationship with them," said Neil Gunnion, McDermott Qatar Country Manager and Vice President Operations. "Utilizing our comprehensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the offshore sector in Qatar, we look forward to continuing to work closely with NOC to contribute to the development of Shaheen, which is Qatar's largest offshore oil field." The scope of the contract comprises developing FEED studies and deliverables suitable for an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) project. This includes creating technical output data (FEED data), providing EPCIC schedule and cost estimates, and developing an early work plan for the brownfield scope with necessary site surveys. The scope also ensures that new greenfield facilities design and brownfield modifications comply with applicable rules and regulations. McDermott has decades of experience delivering projects in Qatar, a historically strategic market, and is significantly increasing localization efforts with the Tawteen In-Country Value (ICV) program. The Ruya Project will be managed from the McDermott Doha office with support from Chennai. About McDermott McDermott is a premier, fully-integrated provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. Our customers trust our technology-driven approach engineered to responsibly harness and transform global energy resources into the products the world needs. From concept to commissioning, McDermott's innovative expertise and capabilities advance the next generation of global energy infrastructureempowering a brighter, more sustainable future for us all. Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally-focused and globally-integrated resources include more than 30,000 employees, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world. To learn more, visit www.mcdermott.com. Forward-Looking Statements McDermott cautions that statements in this communication which are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about backlog, to the extent backlog may be viewed as an indicator of future revenues or profitability, and about the expected scope and execution of the project discussed in this press release. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: adverse changes in the markets in which we operate or credit or capital markets; our inability to successfully execute on contracts in backlog; changes in project design or schedules; the availability of qualified personnel; changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, change orders and other modifications and actions by our customers and other business counterparties; changes in industry norms; actions by lenders, other creditors, customers and other business counterparties of McDermott and adverse outcomes in legal or other dispute resolution proceedings. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. This communication reflects the views of McDermott's management as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, McDermott undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. Contacts: Global Media Relations Reba Reid Senior Director, Global Communications and Marketing +1 281 588 5636 [email protected] EMEA Media Relations Barbara Knight Senior Director, Communications and Marketing +971 (0)4 804 3990 [email protected] SOURCE McDermott International, Ltd Second Consecutive Year Mediavine Wins in Best Workplaces Medium Category BOCA RATON, Fla., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mediavine, the largest exclusive full-service ad management firm in the U.S. has been named to Inc. magazine's seventh annual list of Great Workplaces. The 2022 list comprises 475 American companies and is the result of a comprehensive measurement of organizations that have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether operating in a physical or virtual facility. "The pandemic has dramatically and very likely permanently changed the concept of company culture", said Yolanda Evans, Mediavine VP of People Experience and Diversity. "At Mediavine, we've made it our mission to ensure that these fundamental changes are for the betterment of our employees. Our second consecutive year of inclusion on Inc. magazine's list is a terrific indication that we're moving in the right direction." Mediavine earned this recognition for the second year in a row for the company's continued commitment to diversity and inclusion, internally and externally, and for its focus on ethnic and gender diversity among leadership. As a fully remote company with 135+ employees across 31 states, Mediavine understands the importance of creating a cohesive, positive workplace where everyone is encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work. Employee communication and engagement is especially important at Mediavine. Through Slack, Mediavine fosters interdepartmental communities for COVID-19, mental health and family support, pets and projects, as well as work-specific channels for team collaboration. "Not long ago, the term 'best workplace' would have conjured up images of open-office designs with stocked snack fridges," says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Yet given the widespread adoption of remote work, the concept of the workplace has shifted. This year, Inc. has recognized the organizations dedicated to redefining and enriching the workplace in the face of the pandemic." Mediavine is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace for all, taking impactful and measurable strides to do so. Ensuring equitable pay across the organization, improving transparency around career growth opportunities, intentionally diversifying recruitment outreach and launching its first formal employee resource group (ERG), PRISM, the company is affirming its commitment to ensuring actions are louder than words. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. About Mediavine Mediavine is the largest exclusive full-service ad management company in the United States, representing and monetizing nearly 9,000 publisher partner websites in addition to its owned and operated properties. Mediavine proudly ranks as a Comscore top two lifestyle property with 150+ million unique monthly visitors and 17 billion monthly ad impressions. Mediavine is a Google Certified Publishing Partner, Great Place to Work, Inc. 2021 Best Workplace, 2021 Diversity Team, Fortune 2021 Best Small Workplace, 2021 Inc. 5000 and Ad Age 2022 Best Place to Work. To learn more about Mediavine, visit www.mediavine.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Contact: Jenny Guy VP of Marketing and Communications 888-705-1246 ext. 010 [email protected] SOURCE Mediavine "I've had the privilege of working with Kathy before, and as a strategic leader, she is a force to be reckoned with," says Amanda Richman, North America CEO, Mindshare. "Not only does she have unparalleled media and strategy expertise, but she brings an unwavering commitment to creativity, actionable insights, and human understanding. Over the years, she's built numerous high performing teams and driven business results for clients in every category and around the world. I am so excited to work with her on driving Good Growth across our clients and the industry." An industry veteran, Kline brings more than 30 years of experience to this role. Most recently, she served as the Global Chief Strategy Officer for Starcom Worldwide. "Mindshare is committed to driving enduring, sustainable growth for brands," says Kathy Kline, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, North America, Mindshare. "The seismic changes our industry has seen over the last few years present a very real opportunity to reimagine the way marketers engage with people to meet modern consumers on their terms. I am thrilled to be joining Mindshare to do exactly that, and further the agency's Good Growth mission." Kline's announcement follows a surge of other recent leadership appointments at Mindshare, including: Lesley Conway as CEO for Mindshare Canada. A seasoned agency, sales and consulting leader, Conway brings more than 25 years of experience driving integration across markets and channels, at companies like Bell and Astral. as CEO for Mindshare Canada. A seasoned agency, sales and consulting leader, Conway brings more than 25 years of experience driving integration across markets and channels, at companies like Bell and Astral. Jeff Malmad as Global Head of Commerce. Malmad has built and grown Mindshare's dedicated commerce practice in the US (launched in 2015), and now expands his role to more deeply integrate commerce with Mindshare's media expertise and technology solutions across all clients and markets. as Global Head of Commerce. Malmad has built and grown Mindshare's dedicated commerce practice in the US (launched in 2015), and now expands his role to more deeply integrate commerce with Mindshare's media expertise and technology solutions across all clients and markets. Kelly Garland as Managing Director, Invention+ Lead for the U.S. will work with Kline to drive innovation that delivers results. Garland had started her career at Mindshare, and then rejoined after working in product innovation roles at Molson Coors Beverage Company and Digitas. as Managing Director, Invention+ Lead for the U.S. will work with Kline to drive innovation that delivers results. Garland had started her career at Mindshare, and then rejoined after working in product innovation roles at Molson Coors Beverage Company and Digitas. Brian DeCicco as Chief Data Strategy & Analytics Officer for North America . DeCicco previously served as Executive Director, Customer Strategy and was elevated to lead Mindshare's data and analytics practice overall, helping clients navigate the future of data and identity with transparent, interoperable solutions. Recent Accolades and Industry Leadership Kline's appointment comes on the heels of numerous wins and innovations for the agency. This week, Mindshare launched Precisely Human Intelligence (PHI)a new suite of machine learning products that help brands better understand the motivations, mindsets, and emotions that drive consumer decision-making and then buy those audiences at scale. And recently Mindshare and Neo, global performance solutions agency, announced the competition of their integration, providing clients with a broader range of transformative media services. In just the past few months, the agency was ranked WARC 100's #1 Media Agency Network for the third consecutive year, and was recognized in R3's New-Business Review for agencies as #2 in global new-business billings for Q1 of 2022. About Mindshare: Mindshare is a media services company that accelerates Good Growth for its clients in the age of transformation. Good Growth is business growth that is enduring and sustainable while also helping to shape society and the world for the better. We accelerate it for our clients by using media as a multiplier to drive sales and maximize marketing investments. We use Precisely Human Intelligence that combines data science and behavioral science to understand consumers and their motivations better and we act on that intelligence by planning media with intention to connect brands with consumers around their shared values. We were the first purpose-built company created by WPP and today our 10,000 people operate in 116 offices in 86 countries, helping to drive Good Growth for our clients, our people, the industry and the world. http://www.mindshareworld.com Instagram and Twitter: @mindshare_usa Facebook : facebook.com/mindshareusa LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/mindshare SOURCE Mindshare According to SonicWall's 2022 Cyber Threat Report , cyberattacks increased in nearly every category in 2021, from encrypted threats to ransomware attacks and everything in between. This data makes it clearer than ever that cyberattacks and responding to them quickly are an expected part of operations for organizations of all sizes and types today. While organizations can block many types of attacks and detect others, the harsh truth is that some attacks go unnoticed, and breaches inevitably happen. Knowing this, organizations all over the world are adopting a forward-looking breach readiness approach, which is critical to quickly recover from breaches and significantly reduce financial risks. The Mitiga IR platform continuously collects, transforms, and stores critical forensic data from over 30 cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. It then leverages Mitiga's unique Forensics as Code technology to query this data. During peacetime, Mitiga's IR solution uses Forensics as Code to check each customer's forensic data and proactively hunt for and investigate potential breaches. When a breach occurs, it is used to automate large parts of the investigation. "We are excited to announce Forensics as Code, which is utilized to codify and then reuse generic elements of breach investigation and forensic analysis. This combination of technology and practice allows us to achieve automation at cloud scale, while preserving modularity and a customer-centric tailored approach," said Or Mattatia , Mitiga Head of Product. The latest release of IR also includes: Breach Readiness dashboard to give subscribers at-a-glance insights into the state of readiness at their organization Continuous Forensic Data Acquisition of the unique forensic data necessary to investigate and respond to cloud incidents, securely stored for extended periods of time Proactive breach investigation leveraging Forensics as Code IR helps enterprises prepare and respond better when attacks occur in cloud environments, informing faster recovery, reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR), and aiding a rapid return to business as usual. IR provides customers with the peace of mind that when cybercriminals attack their essential cloud applications or services, incident response is effective and fast. "Cyberattackers have become increasingly sophisticated, adopting new technologies to attack and extort organizations," said Ofer Maor , Mitiga Co-Founder and CTO. "And as more companies migrate to the cloud, it becomes increasingly critical for them to embrace the technology and automation that will help them navigate today's dangerous threat landscape." IR subscribers now have vital incident readiness support and guidance, the historic forensic data collected to analyze a cyberattack quickly, and the innovative capabilities of Forensics as Code to deliver proactive, continuous breach investigation to further improve readiness, resilience, and recovery from a critical incident. To learn more about IR and how you can increase cloud incident readiness in your organization, visit Moscone North booth #4208 at RSA Conference June 6-9 in San Francisco and join Ofer Maor on Thursday, June 9 from 9:40 - 10:30 AM PT, where he will be presenting "It's Getting Real and Hitting the Fan! Real World Cloud Attacks." About Mitiga Mitiga's technology and services lower the impact of cyber breaches and optimize readiness for cloud and hybrid incidents and accelerate both response and recovery times when incidents occur. Importantly, Mitiga's readiness prioritization also increases resiliency for future incidents. Mitiga's shared-responsibility model is unique. Unlike others, who charge additional fees for incident response and recovery, Mitiga subscribers face no add-on fees. For more information, visit www.mitiga.io. SOURCE Mitiga Security WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host an in-person media opportunity at 8:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday, June 7, at NASA Headquarters in Washington with the agency's SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts to discuss their recent mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and further exploration. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet returned to Earth in November 2021 after spending 198 days aboard the microgravity laboratory, conducting science and maintenance activities, scientific investigations, and technology demonstrations. Crew-2 completed the agency's second crew rotation mission to the space station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. The mission set a record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S. crewed spacecraft. The international crew spent 199 days in orbit. The Crew-2 astronauts also served as part of space station Expedition 65/66. The media opportunity will take place in the Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in the Mary W. Jackson building, 300 E. Street SW in Washington. Media interested in participating must RSVP by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 6 to: [email protected]. Learn more about Crew-2's mission: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/19027/crew2 SOURCE NASA SAO PAULO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVOMI today announced 2 years of successful partnership with LivePerson to provide implementation and consulting services for the company's flagship platform for customer care, sales, and marketing: the Conversational Cloud. LivePerson was recently named the #1 Most Innovative AI Company in the World by Fast Company. Their Conversational Cloud helps brands create Curiously Human digital experiences experiences where AI understands consumers' intents, connects them to brands across channels, and delivers meaningful outcomes for consumers, agents, and brands. NAVOMI's implementation expertise and industry knowledge, coupled with LivePerson's advanced technology, gives clients the support and tools they need. In order to unlock and unify data from the rapidly growing number of apps and systems. Powered by nearly one billion conversational interactions per month on the company's Conversational Cloud, LivePerson's AI helps customer care, sales, and marketing teams deliver and automate more meaningful, natural-feeling conversations. "Consumers want to interact with companies through the channels they prefer, especially the messaging channels they love using to connect with family and friends. The demand in Latin America for these kinds of experiences is growing exponentially, and brands need to undertake a digital transformation process to keep up with consumer expectations ." said Antonio Santos, General Manager LATAM at LivePerson, "It is with great satisfaction that we count on the strategic partnership with NAVOMI in Brazil to support us in meeting this demand and adding value by incorporating and integrating LivePerson's Conversational Cloud, which combines the power of AI with a suite of advanced tools that help companies increase revenue, cut costs, and make conversations more helpful and meaningful for brands and consumers." As a LivePerson Partner, NAVOMI helps clients address conversational experiences to tune into and interact with their customers just as they would a friend. Through this strategic alliance, brands can now leverage LivePerson's technology combined with NAVOMI's proprietary implementation and operating approach to deliver truly personalized conversational experiences at scale through popular messaging channels. Some of these include: SMS, Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages for Business, WhatsApp, and more. About NAVOMI Founded in 2009, NAVOMI helps organizations accelerate digital transformation through enterprise data integrations, specializing in CRM implementations and AI Chatbot optimizations. With years of CX experience, the world's most admired companies leverage our technology, strategy and services to deliver millions of simple, seamless, and satisfying customer experiences every day, and on every platform. NAVOMI is a trusted partner of a growing number of organizations that provide or consume cloud technologies. Learn more at www.navomi.com . Contacts Vinod Koosam Founder/CEO Phone: +1 (678)517-4824 Email: [email protected] SOURCE NAVOMI 52% of Americans More Likely to Engage with Businesses that Support UkraineInfluencing Purchasing Decisions POTOMAC, Md., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sparo, a Microsoft for Startups Company committed to revolutionizing corporate social responsibility for retailers and online merchants, released today the results of a new study and omnibus survey on the sentiments of U.S. consumers relating to corporate giving and philanthropy in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. According to the " Purchase with a Purpose" poll , 43% of Americans believe that the government and U.S. businesses share an equally weighted responsibility to support Ukraine during this ongoing global crisis. This finding arrives in time with ongoing news and debates around both governments and businesses doing more for Ukraine. For instance, the Biden Administration recently called for $33 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian assistance to support Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself recently estimated that it would cost roughly $600 billion to rebuild Ukraine fully. Additionally, the survey found that the war in Ukraine is putting retail businesses on notice by their customers. The data shows that 52% of Americans say they'd be more likely to engage with a company/consider buying their products if they were aware of their steps to support Ukraine. For those who believe corporations could be doing more or haven't been doing enough to demonstrate support for Ukraine, 43% of their main criticism is that the actions of corporations and U.S. businesses feel more "have to" versus "want to," meaning they are too performative and episode-driven versus being authentic. The generation that thinks this the most are those ages 18-29 at 51%. Other finding from the survey include: Around one-third of respondents (34%) believe corporations and U.S. businesses have adequately shown their support for Ukraine , whether it be through financial commitments, removing stores, restaurants, and other conveniences, or speaking out on social channels. , whether it be through financial commitments, removing stores, restaurants, and other conveniences, or speaking out on social channels. 31% of respondents believe corporations and U.S. businesses have been taking positive steps but could be doing more in this environment to Support the crisis in Ukraine , whereas 9% think corporations and U.S. businesses have not been doing enough to demonstrate support for Ukraine . , whereas 9% think corporations and U.S. businesses have not been doing enough to demonstrate support for . Almost half of Americans (47%) are looking for ways to give back to nonprofits worldwide. Moving forward, one solution for meeting this new consumer demand for corporations to improve the authenticity and volume of philanthropic efforts is to increase opportunities for corporations to give back year-round, not just for current events, and in a less episode-driven way. That's why platforms like Sparo make it easy for businesses especially retailers to add an element of altruism to their business model. Using Sparo, companies can identify any number of charities worldwide and allow their customers to pick which one their sales will benefit. While the financial responsibility is on the company, the consumer is invited to participate. "With this new appetite for corporate accountability, we will likely see more and more consumers begin prioritizing or practicing more socially conscious purchasing," Sparo CEO Rob Sobhani told Fortune . "Today's consumers are smartand will be able to tell when philanthropy is genuinely woven into a company's DNA or as a core part of their brand ethos versus performative or self-serving in nature. Sparo is a Microsoft-partnered startup that helps companies solicit donations for causes when customers buy goods or services." To learn more about Sparo's offerings, visit https://www.sparo.com/. To learn more about the "Purchase with a Purpose" poll, visit Sparo's blog at https://www.sparo.com/2022/05/10/helping-ukraine-is-good-business. About Sparo Corporation Sparo is a Microsoft for Startups Company founded by scholar entrepreneur Rob Sobhani to democratize global charitable giving. Sparo's services are powered by a plugin that seamlessly integrates into all e-commerce platforms, allowing online shoppers the option to designate a percentage of their sale to a charity of their choice at checkout, on any given day. Through its six issued patents, Sparo aims to become a company of global consequence by monetizing the intersection of e-commerce and philanthropy, games and donations, sweepstakes and charities, and AI and giving. Sparo operates globally and is a member of Holland based WorldStartups.To learn more about Sparo's offerings, visit https://www.sparo.com/ . About the Survey & Methodology This pulse survey was fielded among 1,000 U.S. Adults 18+ between April 22 and April 26, 2022. The audience is weighted to be nationally representative of the U.S. population and the margin of error is +/- 3.6%. The survey was conducted using an online interview administered to members of the YouGov Plc panel of individuals who have agreed to take part in surveys. Contact: [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Sparo DALLAS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carbone's Fine Food and Wine, a mainstay of the Dallas restaurant scene for more than a decade and fondly known as Carbone's, has filed litigation against New York-based Carbone Restaurant, which does business as Carbone and recently opened in Dallas on the same street about two miles away from Carbone's. Chef Julian Barsotti launched Carbone's in 2011. He operates the beloved and venerable Italian-American restaurant along with four other local favorites: Nona, Fachini and his most recent eatery, Odelay. The Major Food Group LLC, and its principals Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick, are the force behind Carbone, which is identical in name to Carbone'sminus the apostrophe sand also serves up Italian-American cuisine. These glaring similarities form the basis of Carbone's state and federal trademark infringement and unfair competition case against The Major Food Group, Carbone Restaurant LLC and Carbone Cafe LLC. According to Barsotti, "Carbone's is named, and its logo is modeled after a restaurant and grocery that my great-grandfather, Angelo Carbone, opened in New Jersey back in 1941." Just like the Carbone's of old, Barsotti's restaurant features a retail element, offering customers a variety of shelf-stable items and refrigerated homemade specialties like Barsotti's Sunday Gravy, sausages, meatballs and filled pastas. Despite the history Barsotti has forged with Carbone's, and the rave reviews and loyal following that have come along with it, Major Food Group's launch of East Coast transplant Carbone has caused widespread confusion, as reflected in the local press, Yelp reviews, customers, vendors, and even the City of Dallas. It is this confusionwhich also extends to the supermarket, where Carbone is selling pasta sauces advertised with Carbone's exact name and logo (including the apostrophe s)that is central to Carbone's litigation. Matthew Yarbrough, a partner at the Dallas office of Michelman & Robinson, LLP, represents Carbone's Dallas in the lawsuit filed today (June 1) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He explains, "Major Food Group's 'NY Carbone," which is brand new to Dallas, is purposefully attempting to trade on Carbone's name, goodwill and hard-earned reputation to confuse local customers on both the restaurant and retail fronts. It's doing so even though Major Food Group knows that my client, Carbone's Dallas, owns a superior common law right to its trademark in Texas, which Chef Barsotti began using first as early as 2011." This was made clear to the management of Major Food Group back in December 2021, when it received a cease-and-desist letter sent by Yarbrough, Carbone's Dallas legal counsel. Nonetheless, New York Carbone started hosting diners at its Dallas location in April and recently began selling its pasta sauces in Central Market. By way of its district court complaint, Carbone's Dallas seeks to prohibit Major Food Group's continued use of the name Carbone in Texas. Carbone's Dallas is also suing for monetary damages and the cancellation of the trademark for Carbone Restaurant that is owned by The Major Food Group and was registered by the U.S. Trademark Office in 2013, well after Carbone's Dallas first began using its mark. About Michelman & Robinson, LLP M&R is a national law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, with additional offices in Orange County (California), San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and New York City. The firm represents clients in a host of practice areas, such as complex and class action litigation, as well as employment, corporate & securities, insurance regulatory, cybersecurity, privacy, intellectual property, real estate and bankruptcy law. It does so for individuals and entities across industries, including advertising & digital media, banking & financial services, cannabis, energy, hospitality, insurance, music & entertainment, retail & apparel, sports and technology. For more information, please visit www.mrllp.com. SOURCE Michelman & Robinson, LLP Horsman's appointment reinforces NFP's growing P&C business in Canada TORONTO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NFP, a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager and retirement advisor, today announced that Emily Horsman has joined the company as head of Canadian National Broking. Horsman will lead efforts in building NFP's national broking platform in Canada alongside Canadian broking and business line leaders and underwriting partners. She will also collaborate closely with NFP's US broking colleagues and lead carrier relations in Canada. Horsman will report to Mark Wiens, head of Commercial Insurance for NFP in Canada. "I'm extremely excited to welcome Emily to NFP as we continue to grow our P&C business in Canada," said Wiens. "This hire reflects our firm commitment in continuing to execute on our North American P&C strategies," said Wiens. "Emily is a thoughtful and influential leader. She will concentrate on our growing mid-market P&C business, while providing support across our Small and Midsize Enterprise and Complex Risk Solution teams. Emily is well respected for her knowledge, personal touch and overall professionalism, and we're excited for her to help shape our future success." Horsman has more than 20 years of broking, underwriting and leadership experience. She joins from Markel Canada, where she served as vice president, Alternative Distribution. Prior to this, she served as vice president, broker for Willis Towers Watson. She worked in a variety of broker and underwriting roles for Aon Reed Stenhouse and ACE INA Insurance. Horsman earned a Fellow, Charter Insurance Professional designation from the Insurance Institute of Canada and a Canadian Risk Management designation from the Global Risk Management Institute. "It is an honor to join the NFP team in Canada," said Horsman. "NFP's people-first culture meshes perfectly with my leadership and customer service style, and I look forward to helping shape our future success in Canada." About NFP NFP is a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager, and retirement advisor that provides solutions enabling client success through the expertise of over 6,900 global employees, investments in innovative technologies, and enduring relationships with highly rated insurers, vendors, and financial institutions. NFP is the 9th best place to work for large employers in insurance, 7th largest privately-owned broker, 5th largest benefits broker by global revenue and 13th largest broker of US business (all rankings according to Business Insurance). Visit NFP.ca to discover how NFP empowers clients to meet their goals. SOURCE NFP Corp. ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenlight Networks ("Greenlight"), a leading fiber-to-the home provider in upstate New York, announced today that New York-based middle-market private equity firm Oak Hill Capital ("Oak Hill") has become its majority investor. The transaction announced in March of this year provides the financial backing to accelerate Greenlight's growth in building and connecting fiber-to-the-home broadband services across New York state and beyond. Oak Hill announced plans to invest up to $300 million to expand Greenlight's network from nearly 90,000 homes today to more than 800,000 homes in the next few years. "We are excited to formally launch our new partnership with Mark Murphy and the rest of the talented Greenlight management team. Oak Hill believes strongly in the significant benefits that reliable, high-speed fiber Internet access creates for all communities. We look forward to working with the Greenlight team to bring these services to many underserved cities, towns and villages across New York state and the Northeast," said Scott Baker, a Partner at Oak Hill. "We are proud to be part of the Oak Hill family of companies as we share a common belief that wide-spread fiber deployment is necessary to provide customers with high-speed broadband connections at prices they can afford," said Greenlight Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy. "People's livelihoods and lifestyles, as well as the continued economic development of the communities we serve, rely on the expansion of fiber networks. We are excited to partner with Oak Hill Capital to bring future-proof fiber networks to hundreds of thousands of more homes." About Greenlight Networks Greenlight Networks is an ultra-high-speed, broadband service provider, offering residential and small business customers Internet speeds up to 2 Gigabits per second. Greenlight Networks was founded in 2011 and builds, owns, and operates a fiber-optic network that provides extremely high-speed Internet connections. The company currently provides high-speed fiber Internet to nearly 90,000 homes in 20 municipalities in the Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, and Albany areas. For more information, visit GreenlightNetworks.com or find it on Facebook.com/GreenlightNetworks, and @GreenlightFiber on Twitter. About Oak Hill Capital Oak Hill is a longstanding private equity firm focused on the North America middle-market. Oak Hill applies a specialized, theme-based approach to investing in the following dedicated industry sectors: Media & Communications, Industrials, Business Services, and Consumer. The Firm implements a highly systematic approach to theme development, proactive origination, and value creation in partnership with management to build franchises of lasting value. Since 1986, Oak Hill and its predecessors have raised approximately $20 billion of initial capital commitments and co-investments, invested in approximately 100 companies, and completed more than 300 add-on acquisitions representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $60 billion. For more information, please visit www.oakhill.com. Media Contacts: Greenlight Networks Michele Sadwick Phone: 585-563-8003 [email protected] Oak Hill Capital Emma Cloyd [email protected] SOURCE Oak Hill Capital Partners Italian innovation: 5 billion in 5 years. 3 of which in 2021 MILAN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Startups and scaleups with an Italian DNA (Italian founders based in Italy or abroad) have raised over 5 billion euros in the last 5 years: of these, 2.9 billion were raised by Italian companies based in Italy and 2.2 billion by Italian companies based abroad. Just in 2021, the total amount raised by Italian startups and scaleups was 2.9 billion that were distributed over 534 transactions. In 2020, instead, the total collection had been 780 million in 306 operations. The year before, 605 million in 244 operations. This acceleration doesn't stop: the first months of 2022 have begun with a record collection: Scalapay, a scaleup based in Italy, closed a $ 497 million round. In 2021, the internationalization of VC intensified: both Italian-based and Italian-founded companies grew and attracted international investors. At the same time, Italian venture capital funds are growing and investing in companies outside Italy. Not just VC funds are investing abroad, but corporates too: they pursue open innovation with no geographical limits, they look for innovation where it is born. In Italy, in 2021 a growing number and variety of investors entered the Venture Capital market: alongside specialized funds, also investment holdings, corporates, business angels, equity crowdfunding platforms, incubators and accelerators. Here's a complete list of operations and operators. A large part of last year's collection went to 20 companies that collected an overall amount of 2.05 billion euros. Many of these scaleups were founded by Italians outside of Italy, particularly in the US or UK, to more easily develop a global business model (details here). The top-ranking scaleup, Sysdig, ishttps://bebeez.it/private-equity-breakfast/notizie-da-norwest-venture-schroders-blackstone-gp-stakes-nautic-partners-anchorage-digital-kkr-guggenheim-investments-accel-bain-capital-ventures-dfj-growth-glynn-capital-goldman-sach/ a good example of this: https://bebeez.it/private-equity-breakfast/notizie-da-norwest-venture-schroders-blackstone-gp-stakes-nautic-partners-anchorage-digital-kkr-guggenheim-investments-accel-bain-capital-ventures-dfj-growth-glynn-capital-goldman-sach/ a San Francisco-based company, founded by Italian Loris Degioanni, it closed a $ 188 million round in April, followed by a $ 350 million one. ScalaPay, founded by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, also closed two deals in 2021, https://bebeez.it/venture-capital/la-fintech-milanese-scalapay-incassa-altri-155-mln-dai-venture/collecting $ 48 million in January and then a $ 155 million in September. The third place of this podium goes to TrueLayer, a UK-based scaleup, founded by the Italians Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti, which also closed two rounds last year: $ 70 million and $ 130 million respectively. "Within Italy but also at a larger "Italian matrix" level, the innovation market is starting to have a scale and a track record that were unimaginable ten years ago, when we, as P101, were among the first VC funds in Italy. What I think is striking is the increasingly cross-border dimension that the Italian innovation system is approaching. I believe that the previously limited size of available funds has been among the key elements of this situation, as Italian entrepreneurs have been able to create and develop companies that thanks to accurate economics and healthy business models are now being appreciated by international investors. Besides, this system also results in attentive investors who can accompany and guide the growth of companies, as well as supporting them economically" stated Andrea Di Camillo, founder and Managing Partner of P101 sgr. Finally, if we consider the years 2016-2021, 40 scaleups made highest collection: 3.7 of the total amount of 5.1 billion euros that were raised by all the mapped startups and scaleups. Of these 40, 16 were founded by Italians abroad, and have collected 2.4 million euros. In 2021 there were 35 investments by Italian VCs in foreign startups and scaleups and 15 secondary investments in foreign companies (details here). About P101 SGR P101 SGR is one of the leading venture capital firms in Italy, investing in digital and technology-driven companies in Europe. Founded in 2013 by Andrea Di Camillo, it is supported by Azimut, Fondo Italiano di Investimento, European Investment Fund, Fondo Pensione BCC, Cassa Forense, as well as some of the main Italian entrepreneurial families. P101 SGR currently manages two funds, as well as the first VC retail investment fund, developed in collaboration with Azimut Group. Managing assets for over 200 million, P101 has invested in over 40 tech companies, including Opyn, Cortilia, Milkman, MusixMatch and Tannico. Contacts: [email protected] Tel +39.3927816778 SOURCE P101 sgr - https://www.p101.it/ A total of $16,000 has been awarded to four preservation projects through the Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Program: PODER Learning Center, Chicago : $5,000 to help with restoration efforts at a former power station that the organization plans to use as its headquarters to offer English education and job training programs to Spanish-speaking adult immigrants. : to help with restoration efforts at a former power station that the organization plans to use as its headquarters to offer English education and job training programs to Spanish-speaking adult immigrants. City of Granite Cit y: $4,000 to repair the roof of the Granite City Fire Museum, built in 1904 and used as the city's first city hall, police station and firehouse. New Holland Area Historical Society, New Holland : $4,000 for masonry repairs to Ryan Hall, a c . 1880 building located in the center of New Holland's downtown business district that will be used to house historic artifacts and provide a meeting space for the historic society. c Winnebago Community Historical Society, Winnebago : $3,000 to conduct a building condition assessment for the historic 1894 former Town Hall, one of the oldest buildings in the village. Landmarks Illinois' Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Program provides funding to organizations in Illinois leading historic preservation projects at significant structures that are under threat of demolition, require stabilization and/or reuse or structural evaluation or those that need to be evaluated for landmark eligibility. Visit our website to learn more about each Preservation Heritage Fund grant recipient. Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinoi s Grant Recipients Two projects received a total of $3,500 in grant funding through the Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois: Naperville Preservation, Inc., Naperville : $2,000 to conduct a survey of the community's first ever constructed full subdivision, East Highlands, which is made up of unique Midcentury Modern homes constructed in the mid-1950s. : to conduct a survey of the community's first ever constructed full subdivision, East Highlands, which is made up of unique Midcentury Modern homes constructed in the mid-1950s. Friends of Historic Second Church, Chicago : $1,500 to perform an envelope analysis of the church's historic stained glass Oriel Window to determine the source of water infiltration currently causing damage. Landmarks Illinois' Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois provides monetary assistance to planning activities and education efforts focused on preservation. Visit our website to learn more about the latest grant recipients. Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago's South Side Recipients Two grants totaling $5,000 were awarded to preservation projects through the Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago's South Side: Inequity for Sale, Englewood: $2,000 to aid social justice artist Tonika Lewis Johnson with her Inequity for Sale project that reveals injustices in real estate and land use practices in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. to aid social justice artist with her Inequity for Sale project that reveals injustices in real estate and land use practices in Englewood neighborhood. Hyde Park Union Church , Hyde Park : $3,000 to conduct a building condition assessment on the historic church's parish hall and sanctuary, built in 1926 and in need of critical repairs. The Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago's South Side provides small planning and capital grants to support organizations and people working to preserve the history, culture and architecture of Chicago's South Side, where the late Mr. Black, acclaimed civil rights leader, spent the majority of his life living and promoting African American history. Visit our website to learn more the latest grant recipients. More about Landmarks Illinois grants Landmarks Illinois grants are given on a matching basis, requiring the recipient to raise funds equal or greater to the Landmarks Illinois grant amount. Landmarks Illinois grant funding is used toward preserving historic and significant places in communities throughout the state. Often, these small grants help spark community engagement around the preservation of a place and help boost local fundraising efforts for the preservation project. Visit our website to learn more about our grant programs. About Landmarks Illinois We are People Saving Places for People. Landmarks Illinois is a membership-based historic preservation nonprofit organization serving the people of Illinois. We inspire and empower stakeholders to save places that matter to them by providing free guidance, practical and financial resources and access to strategic partnerships. For more information, visit www.Landmarks.org. Media Contact: Kaitlyn McAvoy Communications Manager Landmarks Illinois [email protected] SOURCE Landmarks Illinois Redevelopment to Create 239 Affordable Workforce Housing Units Privately Funded Project Latest for Repvblik's Nationwide Adaptive Reuse Expertise Using No Federal Funding, No Tax Credits RENO, Nev., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Repvblik LLC -- the nationwide leader in privately funded marketplace solutions to create workforce, student, and senior housing through adaptive reuse of distressed real estate -- today announced the purchase of two existing Motel 6 properties in Reno and unveiled plans to convert them to much-needed workforce housing. Repvblik plans to fully renovate and repurpose both motel properties into a total of 239 affordable studio housing units ready for occupancy at both locations in 2023. The two existing Motel 6 properties one located at 1901 South Virginia Street in midtown Reno and the second at 1400 Stardust Street in northwest Reno are currently winding down operations. Purchase price for the properties was not disclosed. The project permitting process with the City of Reno will begin in the coming weeks. "We are incredibly grateful to Repvblik for bringing much-needed workforce housing to The Biggest Little City," Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said. "Many of our service workers are in a tough spot because their salary is not enough to qualify for a mortgage, but yet they make too much to qualify for financial assistance. More workforce housing will allow us to fill that gap. We want these folks to be able to live in the same city they work, and not have affordability be a barrier to that." "Reno city officials at every level have been great to work with on this project," said Richard Rubin, Founder & CEO of Repvblik. "Reno clearly recognizes the need and are prioritizing affordable housing for their growing economy." Renovation and construction will commence once all permits and approvals are in-hand and is expected to include facade renovation, pool area updates, onsite laundry addition, parking lot refinishing, upgrades to interior fixtures and finishes, kitchenettes, and landscaping and greenspace. WelcomeLend arranged financing for this project. The transaction closed in early May and construction is expected to take six to eight months. Repvblik Leading in Adaptive Reuse Repvblik is leading in the nationwide trend of adaptive reuse real estate development without the use of any federal funds. "Repvblik is working in cities and towns nationwide on adaptive reuse projects to transform underutilized, distressed properties into quality, productive, and appropriate developments that meet the demands of local market economies and communities," said Rubin. Recent Repvblik projects include: Adaptive reuse of an existing hotel, banquet center, and waterpark in Sterling Heights, MI into 213 apartments. into 213 apartments. Privately funded project to create 150 quality workforce housing units from a shuttered Ramada Inn property in Sheffield, AL . . Conversion of a former Days Inn Property in Branson, MO , to the largest affordable, workforce-targeted housing project in the U.S. About Repvblik Repvblik is an independent property developer and a pioneer in non-federally funded, non-LIHTC (Low Income Housing Tax Credit) commercial marketplace solutions to achieve quality workforce housing, affording student housing, and 55-plus senior housing through adaptive reuse in communities nationwide. Repvblik was formed in 2018 and is principally owned by PK Companies, LLC, and Richard Rubin. PK Companies is a strategic investor in Repvblik and shares a common principal in Chris Potterpin. Based in Okemos, MI, PK is committed to creating partnerships that provide housing solutions to better fulfill the needs of their communities, and it strives to add value to the areas that it serves to enrich the lives of their residents. PK's portfolio now consists of completed projects and managed properties in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, and California. MEDIA CONTACT: Matt Yemma Peaks Strategies [email protected]com (909) 633 9396 SOURCE Repvblik ATLANTA, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Revenue Grid, the go-to Revenue Operations and Intelligence solution for sales teams around the world, is collaborating with Neu.ro, the leading machine learning (MLOps) technology company, to launch AI Revenue Intelligence Lab. The lab will focus on ML-driven research and development efforts to build innovative Revenue Intelligence solutions. As data stands at the core of Revenue Intelligence, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are becoming more prevalent in this field. According to the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Revenue Intelligence Platforms report, "By 2025, 70% of all B2B seller-buyer interactions will be recorded to extract competitive, deal and market insights using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP)." The AI Revenue Intelligence Lab will facilitate collaborative research and provide the infrastructure and tools for building, testing, and optimizing AI-based solutions at scale. Training ML engine with real-time sales activity data will enable to find correlations between customer behavior and sales results and identify customer intent through advanced sentiment analysis. With advanced research in the lab, Revenue Grid will strengthen its Revenue Signals, an AI-based technology that guides sellers with recommended actions to be more instructive and personalized. Using these AI Signals, sales teams will be able to take a proactive approach to identify opportunities and prevent revenue leaks ahead of time. "Machine learning has always played a crucial role in Revenue Intelligence," said Vlad Voskresensky, co-founder and CEO of Revenue Grid. "With AI Revenue Intelligence Lab, we will lay the groundwork for future developments that will redefine the next generation of AI-based Revenue Intelligence. Our joint research and development efforts with Neu.ro will enrich each element of Revenue Intelligence, including forecasts, reporting, and AI recommendations, to enable sales teams to identify and eliminate revenue leaks and accelerate sales cycles." "An appropriate data set is the starting point for machine learning," said Arthur McCallum, CEO of Neu.ro. "We will train accurate AI models faster and at scale by integrating Revenue Grid's deep sales activity dataset with our advanced machine learning engine. During our long-term collaboration, we managed to reduce AI development time by 50%. We are confident that further research will accelerate our joint product development remarkably, and with our ML-based products, what takes sales teams days to act on, will take seconds." About Revenue Grid Revenue Grid is the first-to-market Revenue Intelligence platform covering the full revenue cycle with the most comprehensive set of algorithmic Guided Selling capabilities. With over 15 years of serving as the best activity capture solution on the market, Revenue Grid has unparalleled expertise in sales automation, advanced analytics, and AI-based guidance. Organizations as diverse as Hilton, Western Union, Moody's, Trip Advisor, Red Cross, and Robert Half have chosen Revenue Grid thanks to its customizability and enterprise-readiness. Revenue Grid is a private company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. To learn more, visit revenuegrid.com. About Neu.ro Neu.ro Inc. is an AI infrastructure company using Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) to solve real-world problems for business and science. Named a Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Core Technologies 2019, Neu.ro provides OEM AI Cloud solutions for non-hyperscale cloud service providers, increasing cloud market share and profitability while decreasing the carbon footprint of their AI workloads. Neu.ro's AI Cloud solutions are built on the Neu.ro MLOps Interoperability Platform, Kubernetes-based middleware that orchestrates all resources, permissions, processes and artifacts across the ML lifecycle, and integrates the universe of K8's ML/DL tools into a unified development environment that runs in virtually any compute environment. To learn more, visit neu.ro Company Contact Maria Gordienko Head of Global Communications [email protected] SOURCE Revenue Grid The appointment comes as SK companies increase their presence around the world and in the U.S., driven by a mission to build businesses that have a positive impact on the environment and society. SK companies have more than $13 billion in U.S. assets with plans to invest an additional $30 billion by the end of 2025. Over that same period, SK companies are expected to grow from a combined 4,000 U.S. employees today to 20,000 employees. The U.S. expansion and investments will largely be focused on clean energy and technology, including batteries for electric vehicles, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, hydrogen energy and energy storage solutions. Semiconductors and life sciences also will be areas of emphasis. "The challenges facing society today will require even stronger collaborations across businesses and governments around the world," Yu said. "SK's increased U.S. investments and partnerships are intended to create new jobs and economic opportunities in local communities as well as new solutions that help address global issues from climate change to health crises." Supports SK's Growing U.S. Presence SK, which has operated in the U.S. for more than three decades, has a strong base in the U.S. with sites in more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia. SK On, one of the world's top five makers of batteries for electric vehicles, started production of EV batteries earlier this year at its Georgia site with plans for new manufacturing sites in Kentucky and Tennessee as part of a joint venture with Ford Motor Co. SK hynix, the world's top-tier supplier of memory chips, has a U.S. headquarters in San Jose and created late last year a new stand-alone U.S. subsidiary, Solidigm, following the completion of the first stage of an acquisition of Intel's NAND and SSD business. SK Pharmteco, a contract developer and manufacturer of pharmaceutical ingredients, has its global headquarters in the Sacramento, Calif., area and production facilities in California, Texas and Virginia through one of its companies, AMPAC Fine Chemicals. Continues Global Leadership in Energy Transition For over 25 years, Yu has demonstrated global industry leadership and expertise in both traditional and new energy. His experience ranges from exploration and production of traditional energy sources, such as oil and gas, to development of new energy sources, including solar, wind, hydrogen and energy storage. As the world transitions to a net-zero future, he also has focused on emerging technologies, such as applying artificial intelligence to help power grids better support the shift to electric vehicles and distributed energy resources that enable greater use of renewables. In his role at SK E&S, Yu has led significant investments in U.S. energy companies, shifting its focus from fossil fuels to renewable energy as SK E&S seeks to transition its business to a new era of sustainable energy. Among its U.S investments, SK E&S and SK Inc. participated last year in a $1.6 billion investment in Plug Power, a Latham, N.Y.-based leader in hydrogen energy. Last year, SK E&S took a majority stake in Key Capture Energy, an Albany, N.Y., energy storage solutions firm, and earlier this year, it acquired EverCharge, a California-based EV charging company. SK E&S also has investments and partnerships in gas exploration and production in Oklahoma and Texas. Builds on Strong U.S.-Korea Connections Yu will be based in New York where several SK companies have U.S. business development and investments teams, including SK E&S through its PassKey subsidiary and SK Inc. through its SK USA and Plutus Capital subsidiaries. The role as Head of U.S. Corporate and Government Affairs brings Yu full circle in his career. He began his career as a senior accountant at the New York office of Deloitte & Touche in 1987, and later joined McKinsey & Co. to establish its Seoul office in 1991. Yu joined SK in 1998 and has held several leadership positions at SK companies. "I'm honored and excited to be taking on this new position as SK starts a new chapter in the U.S.," Yu said. "I look forward to supporting SK companies as they seek to expand their presence and strengthen partnerships that benefit both the U.S. and Korea markets." About SK Group SK Group is a collection of global industry-leading companies driving innovations in semiconductors, sustainable energy, telecommunications and life sciences. Based in Seoul, South Korea, SK invests in building sustainable businesses around the world with a shared commitment to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. SK companies combined have more than $106 billion in global annual revenue and employ more than 100,000 people worldwide. SK companies are investing billions of dollars in expanding their U.S. presence with business operations or partnerships in hydrogen energy and fuel cells, EV battery manufacturing and technology, energy storage solutions, pharmaceutical manufacturing and development, semiconductors, and advanced materials. For more information, visit sk.com. SOURCE SK Group MIAMI, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Starwood Capital Group ("Starwood Capital"), a global private investment firm with a primary focus on real estate, today announced that Jeff Wechsler has joined the firm as Managing Director. In his new role, Mr. Wechsler will be joining Starwood Capital's Acquisitions team with a focus on New York and the surrounding Tri-State area. He will work closely with Chris Graham, Starwood Capital's Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Acquisitions for the Americas on sourcing and executing acquisitions throughout the region. "We are excited to welcome Jeff, a seasoned executive who brings extensive experience in New York area real estate, to Starwood Capital's Acquisitions team," said Mr. Graham. "His deep industry relationships throughout the region and proven track record of strong performance and managing real estate portfolios make him an ideal candidate to enhance our expertise in New York and the Tri-State area." "I am thrilled to join Starwood Capital, a firm that I have long admired for its innovative real estate vision and commitment to excellence," said Mr. Wechsler. "I look forward to working with the entire acquisitions team." Mr. Wechsler brings more than 15 years of experience in real estate, including acquisitions and asset management and development. Prior to joining Starwood Capital, he served as Managing Director and Co-Head of New York Metro Acquisitions at Tishman Speyer, where he oversaw and implemented the firm's investment strategy for the region. He previously served as Head of New York Metro Asset Management and as Head of Greater Boston Acquisitions and Development. Over his time at Tishman Speyer, Mr. Wechsler oversaw the acquisition and development of 200 and 300 Pier 4 Boulevard in Boston, the redevelopment of 200 Park Avenue and the repositioning of 300 Park Avenue in New York City. Mr. Wechsler holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University. About Starwood Capital Group Starwood Capital Group is a private investment firm with a core focus on global real estate, renewable energy infrastructure. The Firm and its affiliates maintain 16 offices in seven countries around the world, and currently have approximately 4,000 employees. Since its inception in 1991, Starwood Capital Group has raised over $65 billion of capital, and currently has approximately $115 billion of assets under management. Through a series of comingled opportunity funds and Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, Inc. (SREIT), a non-listed REIT, the Firm has invested in virtually every category of real estate on a global basis, opportunistically shifting asset classes, geographies and positions in the capital stack as it perceives risk/reward dynamics to be evolving. Starwood Capital also manages Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD), the largest commercial mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States, which has successfully deployed over $80 billion of capital since inception and manages a portfolio of nearly $25 billion across debt and equity investments. Over the past 30 years, Starwood Capital Group and its affiliates have successfully executed an investment strategy that involves building enterprises in both the private and public markets. Additional information can be found at starwoodcapital.com. Media Contacts: Tom Johnson / Dan Scorpio Abernathy MacGregor (212) 371-5999 [email protected] / [email protected] SOURCE Starwood Capital Group WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Asia Group ("TAG") is excited to announce changes to its corporate leadership that will further advance the firm's mission of developing an industry-leading strategic and business advisory consultancy for companies in the Indo-Pacific region. Mr. Rexon Y. Ryu will become President of The Asia Group and work closely with CEO Nirav Patel to guide the firm's strategic direction and continued growth. A leading expert on U.S. national security and Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships, Rexon will continue to lead TAG's practices on aerospace & defense and South Korea, chair The Asia Group Foundation, and co-host the Tea Leaves podcast with Bloomberg's Shery Ahn. "Rexon's exceptional leadership across the firm and commitment to helping clients unlock opportunities will serve us well as we write a new and exciting chapter for The Asia Group," said TAG CEO and Co-Founder Nirav Patel. "In nearly seven years at TAG, Rexon has helped drive strategic defense sales across Asia. In addition to his seasoned strategic counsel for our corporate clients, Rexon's network spans business and governments across the world and brings an unrivaled depth of connectivity to The Asia Group." Rexon Y. Ryu draws on over two decades of experience working in business, global diplomacy, national policymaking, and executive leadership to provide companies with in-depth strategic guidance to effectively navigate the Indo-Pacific. Rexon previously served under three presidents, as Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and as a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. Ambassador Kurt Tong, a prominent authority on diplomacy and economic affairs in East Asia, will become Managing Partner of The Asia Group. Alongside this role, Kurt will continue to lead the firm's Japan and Hong Kong practices, assist with its China and region-wide work, spearhead TAG's innovative thought leadership programs, and serve as a Director on The Asia Group Foundation Board. "Kurt constantly redefines the standard for excellence in delivering insight and analysis to discerning observers of Asia," said Nirav. "His decades of high-level experience bring unmatched capabilities as we expand our presence across the Indo-Pacific and drive forward an integrated client servicing approach that pairs global strategy with local solutions." Ambassador Kurt Tong brings thirty years of experience in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer, most recently serving as Consul General and Chief of Mission in Hong Kong and Deputy Chief of Mission in Tokyo. Kurt played vital leadership roles as one of the original architects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and a key negotiator of the Six-Party Talks with North Korea. The Asia Group is the premier strategic and business advisory firm to the world's leading companies seeking to excel across the Indo-Pacific. With a team of dynamic and experienced professionals from consultants and former senior government officials to lawyers and investment bankers The Asia Group supports companies with end-to-end integrated strategies for market entry and expansion. To learn more about The Asia Group, please visit www.theasiagroup.com or reach out to [email protected]. SOURCE The Asia Group Through a provocative creative campaign and a call-to-action for US customers to support the Equality Act, The Body Shop is opposing hateful anti-2SLGBTQ+ legislation targeting young people. The Body Shop Canada is asking customers to pledge to speak out against hatred and intolerance aimed at the 2SLGBTQ+ community. $1 from each sale of the brand's new "Out for Love" Pride highlighter makeup range will benefit 2SLGBTQ+ charitable partners across North America . NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Body Shop North America announces continued efforts in supporting 2SLGBTQ+ youth amidst a devastating legislative cycle and uptick in discrimination. In the United States, the Parental Rights in Education Bill, coined as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill by the media, recently passed in Florida, and now, copycat bills that threaten the protection and privacy of 2SLGBTQ+ students and educators are on the rise in other conservative states like Texas and Tennessee. The Body Shop North America Continues Bold Stance Against Anti-2SLGBTQ+ Legislation through 2022 Pride Campaign The Body Shop launches an Out for Love highlighter makeup range, $1 from each sale will benefit 2SLGBTQ+ charitable partners across North America. In response, the activist beauty retailer is launching a pro-2SLGBTQ+ creative campaign that directly opposes this legislation. The campaign will be brought to life through retail signage, digital initiatives, an educational hub, non-profit partnerships, and dedicated product sales. Starting June 1, visitors to the brand's North American stores will see bold, colorful signage, videos, and specially designed apparel worn by retail staff including bandanas and pins that will read "We don't just say gay. We also say" followed by the list of 2SLGBTQ+ identifiers, including "pansexual," "bisexual," and "trans," among others, meant to capture the sentiment "we say it all" for, and in solidarity with, the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The Body Shop will also be putting up outdoor advertising in key locations on building walls, outside cafes, and in other high-traffic areas in city centers, calling for the passing of the Equality Act. "Our priority this Pride, and always, is to keep working toward a world where 2SLGBTQ+ youth feel safe, supported, and able to show up as they are," said Hilary Lloyd, VP of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility for The Body Shop North America. "We hope this unapologetic campaign speaks truth to power and helps our 2SLGBTQ+ customers and allies to feel at home with The Body Shop." Stores across North America will also be equipped with informational tables and QR codes that lead customers to The Body Shop's digital Pride Hub, which will include educational resources and a petition hosted by the brand's charitable partners, which are Advocates for Youth in the US and It Gets Better Canada. In the US, the Pride Hub petition is encouraging customers to support 2SLGBTQ+ youth by telling Congress to pass the Equality Act. The petition will allow customers to automatically generate a letter to their senator urging support of the bill, which is widely considered to be the single-most important piece of federal legislation for safeguarding 2SLGBTQ+ rights. In Canada, the petition is asking customers to sign It Gets Better Canada's pledge to commit to speaking out against intolerance and hate. "Young 2SLGBTQ+ people are facing attacks on our bodily autonomy and rights," said Sydney Greene, Manager of Digital Content and Strategy, Advocates for Youth. "It is vitally important for companies, organizations, and people showing up to Pride this year to do everything they can to pass the Equality Act, which will provide protections for the queer and trans youth who are under attack in many parts of the United States right now." The Body Shop also recently launched an "Out for Love" highlighter makeup range in three different shades. From May 31st through August 31st, $1 of every sale will benefit It Gets Better Canada and Advocates for Youth in the US, up to $10,000 for each organization. "We are proud to collaborate with The Body Shop this year to inspire a better future for all, by working towards creating opportunities that elevate hope, resilience, and determination for 2SLGBTQ+ youth," said Omid Razavi, Executive Director at It Gets Better Canada. This Pride campaign is a continuation of The Body Shop's advocacy for 2SLGBTQ+ rights. Last year in the US, the retailer galvanized thousands of customers to send letters to Senators supporting the Equality Act and garnered $35,000 in donations for the Equality Federation, a grassroots organization that builds state-based power for 2SLGBTQ+ people and policies. Last year in Canada, The Body Shop joined the All Blood Is Equal coalition to campaign for ending Canada's discriminatory blood ban, which eliminated potential donors based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In April of this year, Canadian Blood Services announced that it would move to end the policy. To learn more, and join The Body Shop in its action, visit thebodyshop.com. ABOUT THE BODY SHOP INTERNATIONAL Founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is a global beauty brand and a certified B Corp. The Body Shop seeks to make positive change in the world by offering high-quality, naturally inspired skincare, body care, hair care and make-up produced ethically and sustainably. Having pioneered the philosophy that business can be a force for good, this ethos is still the brand's driving force. The Body Shop operates about 3,000 retail locations in more than 70 countries. Along with Aesop, Avon and Natura, The Body Shop is part of Natura & Co, a global, multi-channel and multi-brand cosmetics group that is committed to generating positive economic, social and environmental impact. The four companies that form the group are committed to generating positive economic, social, and environmental impact. For more information visit, www.thebodyshop.com. To connect with The Body Shop on social media, follow @thebodyshopnorthamerica on Instagram and TikTok. ABOUT ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH Advocates for Youth is a 501(c)3 organization that champions efforts that help young people make informed decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. Advocates boldly advocates for a more positive and realistic approach to adolescent sexual health, focusing its work on young people ages 14-25 in the U.S. and around the globe. ABOUT IT GETS BETTER CANADA It Gets Better Canada is a registered charity in Canada that envisions a world where all 2SLGBTQ+ youth are free to live equally and know their worthiness and power as individuals. Its mission is to uplift, empower, and connect 2SLGBTQ+ youth across Canada. Media Contact Brooke Buonauro [email protected] 973-219-0108 SOURCE The Body Shop Health plan coordinates equitable, high-quality integrated care and services for Tri-County area Oregon Health Plan members EUGENE, Ore., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trillium Community Health Plan (Trillium) is pleased to announce it has successfully closed the Tri-County Expansion Corrective Action Plan (CAP) with Oregon Health Authority (OHA) effective June 1, 2022. As a result of this process, Trillium has implemented many practices that have further strengthened the plan's ability to coordinate high-quality healthcare and services, with a special focus on increasing access to care and addressing social determinants of health for Oregon Health Plan members in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. In September 2020, OHA issued a CAP for Trillium's Medicaid plan as a condition of expansion into the Tri-County service area. OHA asked Trillium to focus on specific improvements to its network, health equity and language access, community engagement, and intensive care coordination. Leveraging the extensive expertise of its many work groups, committees, and community partnerships, including the Network Adequacy Collaborative and Health Equity Strategy Committee, and with contributions from tribal liaisons, traditional health worker liaisons, and the development of the Community Advisory Council, Trillium has addressed and resolved all CAP requirements. Today, Trillium serves more than 28,000 members in the Tri-County area. Through the Capital Action Plan, the health plan made several improvements to enhance access to care and services for all members, including: The creation of a fully compliant and engaged Community Advisory Council, made up largely of Trillium members representing diverse demographics and lived experience; New partnerships with the regional health equity coalition, tribal organizations, and community-based groups, which further support Trillium members with access to culturally sensitive healthcare, food insecurity, and other investments; A robust behavioral health provider network to meet the needs of members; The Network Adequacy Collaborative to ensure all network related issues, including health equity, are identified and addressed promptly; and, A renewed internal committee structure to align plan efforts and center equity on strategic planning. "Trillium is committed to providing equitable, culturally sensitive, integrated care for all of our members in Oregon," said Justin Lyman, Interim President and CEO of Trillium. "We want to thank OHA for their continued partnership throughout this process, which has allowed us to enhance our systems, processes, and partnerships, improving our ability to identify local needs, remove barriers to care, develop service innovations, and collaborate across organizations to enact lasting change within our communities." Trillium extends its appreciation to OHA for its partnership throughout this process. About Trillium Community Health Plan Trillium Community Health Plan serves Oregon Health Plan members through the CCO model, which began in 2012. Trillium is a recognized leader for outstanding coordination of care. It was first awarded a contract with the state of Oregon to help manage care for the Oregon Health Plan in 1999. Trillium partners with an extensive group of providers to improve care and access to services for OHP members. For more information, please visit our website . SOURCE Trillium Community Health Plan Tyson 2.0's premium product line is now available at 16 retail locations across Washington in partnership with Mammoth Labs ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tyson 2.0 ("The Company"), legendary boxer, entrepreneur and cannabis advocate Mike Tyson's cannabis brand, today announced in collaboration with its exclusive partner, Mammoth Labs that Tyson 2.0's premium suite of cannabis products are now available at sixteen dispensaries across the state of Washington. "Tyson 2.0 x Mammoth Labs products will pack twice the punch for Washington cannabis consumers with our high THC strains and superior terpene profiles,'' said Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer and Co-Founder of Tyson 2.0. "Cannabis of this craft can truly elevate the mind and spirit. I look forward to sharing my cannabis healing journey with fans across Washington." Tyson 2.0 will debut in Washington across sixteen dispensaries including Cannabis & Glass, Herbery, Zips, The FireHouse and The Station locations starting today. Through its production partnership with Washington-based Mammoth Labs, Tyson 2.0 premium products offered will include eighths (3.5g) jars of flower in Desert Toad, Southern Toad, Tiger Mintz and Dynamite Cookie; and exclusive concentrates: diamonds and sauce in Viper Cookies, Orange Punch, Cake Crasher; and badder in Southern Toad. "Thrilled to partner with the legend, Mike Tyson and the Tyson 2.0 team to bring long-awaited Tyson 2.0 products into the Washington market," said Connor Jackson, Director of Operations for Mammoth Labs. "We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with the Tyson 2.0 team as we roll-out products across sixteen dispensaries across Washington and anticipate exciting things to come." "We are proud to partner with Mammoth Labs and their team of extraction experts, a company that shares our commitment in delivering high-quality, premium cannabis products known for their efficacy and wellness benefits," said Adam Wilks, CEO of Tyson 2.0. "Washington is a key market for Tyson 2.0 and we look forward to meeting consumer demand in the state as we continue to ramp up our nationwide expansion plans and launch exciting new products." For more information on Tyson 2.0, visit Tyson20.com . Tyson 2.0-branded merchandise is available for purchase at shoptyson20.com . Product photos are available upon request. About Tyson 2.0 Tyson 2.0 is a premier cannabis company formed with legendary boxer, entrepreneur and icon Mike Tyson. The company's mission is to produce innovative, high-quality cannabis products known for purity, precision, and wide accessibility. Providing consumers an outstanding selection of products, Tyson 2.0 is an extraordinary balance of premium and affordable, full-spectrum cannabis flower, concentrates and consumables available at retailers nationwide. Learn more at Tyson20.com . About Mammoth Labs Mammoth Labs, a top-shelf multi-state cannabis brand established 2016 in Ellensburg, Washington, specializes in high terpene concentrates, vapes, infused pre-rolls and edibles. The brand is dedicated to creating the highest quality cannabis products. With a team of master chemists specializing in hydrocarbon extractions, Mammoth Labs produces a consortium of strain specific cannabis extracts that have great terpene profiles in conjunction with high THC content. Operating out of a forty acre farm in Washington, Mammoth Labs primarily focuses on quality indoor and outdoor flowers with a wide variety of sought after genetics. Please visit: www.MammothLabs.com to learn more. SOURCE Tyson 2.0 COLLEGE PARK, Md., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Maryland has named Susan Rivera dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS), effective August 1, 2022. As dean, Rivera will promote a culture of impactful research and scholarship, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships, and advocate persuasively for BSOS's programs both within and beyond the campus community. Rivera will work with faculty, staff and students to articulate a vision for the contributions BSOS will make to the fulfillment of the university's mission and new strategic plan. "Dr. Rivera's commitment to academic excellence and creating a diverse and inclusive culture, and her focus on collaborative cross-disciplinary work, will be a tremendous asset to the University of Maryland and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences," said Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice. "I have the utmost confidence in her leadership and exemplary scholarship." Dr. Rivera joins Maryland from the University of California, Davis, where she serves as chair and professor in the Department of Psychology. As chair, she has maintained a focus on building and sustaining an inclusive and supportive departmental climate and successfully both retained and hired new faculty under a framework of inclusive excellence. Under her leadership, the department's U.S. News and World Report's rankings rose from No. 26 to No. 12 overall, and to No. 6 among public institutions. "I am confident that my 20+ years of experience at a leading public research institution have equipped me with an enhanced understanding of the mission and purpose of a public research university. As a first generation Latinx scholar, I am especially mindful of the important role played by higher education in supporting the success of the next generation of leaders," said Rivera. "As dean of a large and thriving college, I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to positively impact a broad range of students, staff and faculty." In addition to her academic appointment in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Rivera is an affiliate faculty with the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, which seeks to understand the function of the human brain in health and in illness. She also is a faculty member in the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and a member of the MIND Institute. Dr. Rivera's research is focused on investigating neurocognitive development in both typically and atypically developing individuals, specifically those with fragile X syndrome, autism and Down syndrome. Dr. Rivera serves as a member of a number of professional organizations, including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, the Cognitive Development Society, the Society for Research in Child Development, the Jean Piaget Society and the Society for Neuroscience. She is the recipient of UC Davis' Dean's Award for Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and, in 2021, was appointed to a 3-year term on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. She also serves as editor-in-chief for the journal Human Development. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in psychology from Indiana University. About the University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 40,000 students, 10,000 faculty and staff, and 300 academic programs. As one of the nation's top producers of Fulbright scholars, its faculty includes two Nobel laureates, six Pulitzer Prize winners and 58 members of the national academies. The institution has a $2.3 billion operating budget and secures more than $1.3 billion annually in research funding together with the University of Maryland, Baltimore. For more information about the University of Maryland, College Park, visit www.umd.edu. SOURCE University of Maryland CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Unmanned Ground Vehicles Market by Mobility, Application (Military, Commercial, Law Enforcement, Federal Law Enforcement), Mode of Operation, Size, System, and Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Rest of the World) - Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Unmanned ground vehicles market is estimated to be USD 2.7 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 3.6 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2022 to 2027. Growth of this market can be attributed to the rise in trade of Unmanned ground vehicles, developments in the military sector, and unmanned commercial sector. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=72041795 Major players in the Unmanned ground vehicles market include BAE Systems (UK), QinetiQ (UK), Teledyne - FLIR (US), Rheinmetall AG (Germany), Northrop Grumman Corp. (US), ECA Group (France), and Lockheed Martin (US). Other key players in the market are Hexagon AB (Sweden), General Dynamics (US), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), Hyundai Rotem Company (South Korea) and Elbit Systems (Israel). The report covers various industry trends and new technological innovations in the Unmanned ground vehicles market for the period, 2018-2027. Rising adoption of UGVs for counter-insurgency operations Terrorism is a serious global issue and has resulted in a significant number of civilian deaths during the last decade. Terrorism imposes a harmful impact on the social as well as economic conditions of countries. For instance, the 1993 bomb blasts in London resulted in a loss of USD 1.00 billion to the insurance industry of the UK. Hence, countries affected by terrorism are procuring and developing advanced military equipment to prevent and fight terrorism. This has led major players in the military robotics industry to develop UGVs to counter-terror attacks. For instance, Northrop Grumman exhibited its medium-sized unmanned ground Vehicles, CUTLASS, at the Counter Terror Expo held in London in 2013. A wide range of live daily scenario-based capabilities to remotely handle hazardous situations and carry out surveillance activities by UGVs were demonstrated during this expo. According to The Telegraph, CUTLASS has replaced Wheelbarrow, the bomb disposal robot used by the British Army since 2009. In 2011, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India launched a program for the R&D of state-of-the-art UGVs with an investment of USD 75.0 million. This research program has been planned for 10 years, starting in 2011. The motive of this program is to develop UGVs, specifically for the Indian Army. The use of UGVs has acquired a great significance in counter-insurgency operations and urban as well as jungle warfare situations. These vehicles are used in reconnaissance and surveillance applications and for disposing and managing Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). For instance, the Indian Army uses a Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), Daksh, for counter-insurgency operations. The vehicle is operated remotely and can reach inaccessible or dangerous places. It has a camouflage design and uses electric motors to keep the noise level to a minimum. By UGV Payloads, Sensor Payloads Projected to Grow At Highest CAGR During Forecast Period Sensors in UGVs are used for several applications including security, combat operations, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Firefighting, and many more. The sensors are eyes and ears of the UGVs which helps them move and carry-out the assigned tasks with accuracy and efficiency. Hence, the sensors are accounted for the highest share of the total UGV payloads market. The constant research & development in the sensor payloads is required for further improving the performance of the UGV and open-up new application areas. Which is responsible for the highest growth of the sensors market in UGV payloads. SMSS (Squad Mission Support System) by Lockheed Martin (US) is an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle that is primarily designed for logistics support for land forces. SMSS modular design allows the vehicle to be modified as a transport, scout, mobile power, and communication platform. Its sensor suite integrates Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), infrared, and color camera. It can lock on and follow anyone by identifying the 3D profile captured by inboard sensors. Browse in-depth TOC on "Unmanned Ground Vehicles Market 286 Tables 78 Figures 278 Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=72041795 By UGV military applications, Explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) segment Projected to Grow At Highest CAGR During Forecast Period Explosive Ordinance Disposal is one of the crutial UGV operation in military domain. EOD robots are used for identifying and difusing the traps, explosives, dangerous objects, etc. These UGVs are integrated with bomb detection systems. The UGVs used for Explosive Ordinance Disposal carries several different payloads depending on the type of EOD mission. North America region accounts for largest market share in Unmanned ground vehicles market North America led the Unmanned ground vehicles market in 2021, with the US accounting for the largest share of the regional market. The growing demand for Unmanned ground vehicles in the US and Canada, and the use of unmanned ground vehicles in different commercial as well as military applications are key factors driving the market in North America. Major unmanned ground vehicles market players present in North America include L3harris Technologies (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Teledyne-FLIR. (US), Northrop Grumman Corp. (US), and General Dynamics (US). Other key players present in North America are Textron Inc. (US), and Oshkosh Inc (US). Related Reports: Unmanned Surface Vehicle Market by Type (Remotely Operated, Autonomous), System (Propulsion, Payload, Component, Software, Chassis Material, Communication), Application, Hull Type, Endurance, Size, Cruising Speed, and Region (2021-2026) Drone Taxi Market by Range (Intercity, Intracity), Propulsion (Fully Electric, Hybrid, Electric Hydrogen), Autonomy (Fully Autonomous, Remotely Piloted), Passenger Capacity (Up to 2, 3 to 5, More than 5), System, End Use & Region (2025-2030) About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/unmanned-ground-vehicles-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/unmanned-ground-vehicles.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets The campaign runs Sunday, June 5, through Saturday, June 11. This year's theme is "The USPS Delivers for America Deliver for Us by Restraining Your Dog." Spread the news of the campaign by using the hashtag #dogbiteawareness "Every year, thousands of postal employees are attacked by dogs as they deliver America's mail. And while it's a dog's natural instinct to protect their family and home, we ask all customers to act responsibly by taking safety precautions with their dogs while the mail is being delivered," said USPS Employee Safety and Health Awareness Manager Leeann Theriault. "When a carrier comes to the residence, keep the dog inside the house and away from the door or behind a fence on a leash to avoid an attack." Being a Responsible Pet Owner Dog owners with friendly dogs often expect a friendly reaction from other dogs. However, even friendly dogs will bite, depending on the circumstance. Dogs are primarily territorial in nature and protective of their owners and their owners' property. Defending its territory sometimes means attacking and possibly biting the letter carrier. Dog owners are responsible for controlling their dogs. The best way to keep everyone safe from dog bites is to recognize and promote responsible pet ownership. Most people know the approximate time their letter carrier arrives every day. Securing your dog before the carrier approaches your property will minimize any dog-carrier interactions. When a letter carrier comes to your home, keep dogs: Inside the house or behind a fence; Away from the door or in another room; or On a leash. Pet owners also should remind their children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat. Informed Delivery is a useful tool for dog-owning customers. It's a free service that gives customers a digital preview of the mail and packages that are scheduled to be delivered so that they can take precautions and secure their dog when parcels are delivered to the door. Sign up at informeddelivery.usps.com. "The Postal Service takes the safety of our employees as seriously as we take our commitment to delivering America's mail. Each year, nearly 6,000 employees are attacked by dogs while on their routes," said USPS Occupational Safety and Health Senior Director Linda DeCarlo. "Please deliver for us by being responsible pet owners and make sure your dogs are secured when our carrier comes to your mailbox." The Victims Last year, many attacks reported by letter carriers came from dogs whose owners regularly stated, "My dog won't bite." Dog bites are entirely preventable. One bite is one too many. Being Attentive While Delivering Letter carriers are trained to observe an area where they know dogs may be present. They are taught to be alert for potentially dangerous conditions and to respect a dog's territory. Letter carriers are trained to: Not startle a dog. Keep their eyes on the dog. Never assume a dog won't bite. Make some noise or rattle a fence to alert the dog if entering a yard. Never attempt to pet or feed a dog. Place their foot against an outward swinging door. If a dog attacks, carriers are also trained to stand their ground and protect their body by placing something between them and the dog such as their mail satchel and use dog repellent, if necessary. Even though postal officials ask customers to control their dogs, unfortunately dog bites still happen, which may result in injuries to our carriers and costly medical expenses for dog owners. Please heed the above best practices to help stop dog bites and protect your letter carrier. "I was bit by a dog on my leg recently and my mail satchel helped shield me," said Francisco Juarez, a letter carrier who delivers in Houston. "The sound of a dog barking while on my route puts me on high alert and I try to be ready to protect myself." Juarez recognizes the importance of the safety training he's received as a letter carrier to help protect himself from dog attacks while delivering the mail. Even though he diligently follows dog-bite safety protocols while on his route, he was still attacked by a dog. Carriers do have tools to remind them about dogs on their routes. There is a dog alert feature tool on their handheld scanners to remind them of a possible dog hazard and they use dog warning cards as reminders when they sort their mail for their routes that a dog that may interfere with delivery. Lastly, when a carrier feels unsafe, mail service could be halted not only for the dog owner, but for the entire neighborhood. When mail service is stopped, mail must be picked up at the Post Office. Service will not be restored until the dog is properly restrained. 2022 Dog Attack Rankings by City The top 25 ranking are comprised of 32 cities, as some cities reported the same number of attacks. For the 2022 dog attack rankings in your specific city or town, contact your local USPS public relations representative. Calendar Year 2021 Office City State 2021 Rank CLEVELAND OH 58 1 HOUSTON TX 54 2 KANSAS CITY MO 48 3 LOS ANGELES CA 44 4 LOUISVILLE KY 42 5 DALLAS TX 38 6 ST. LOUIS MO 36 7 CHICAGO IL 35 8 DETROIT MI 34 9 PHILADELPHIA PA 32 10 COLUMBUS OH 31 11 SAN DIEGO CA 31 SAN ANTONIO TX 30 12 DENVER CO 29 13 PHOENIX AZ 28 14 TOLEDO OH 27 15 FORT WORTH TX 26 16 CINCINNATI OH 25 17 SEATTLE WA 24 18 MINNEAPOLIS MN 22 19 PITTSBURGH PA 21 20 AKRON OH 20 21 ALBUQUERQUE NM 20 DAYTON OH 18 22 MIAMI FL 18 BALTIMORE MD 17 23 MEMPHIS TN 17 YOUNGSTOWN OH 16 24 BATON ROUGE LA 15 25 FLINT MI 15 FLUSHING NY 15 INDIANAPOLIS IN 15 Top 10 Dog Bite States: State 2020 2021 CA 787 656 TX 410 368 OH 369 359 PA 296 281 MI 253 244 NY 294 239 IL 289 226 FL 199 201 WA 122 139 KY 121 123 The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast-quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube channel, like us on Facebook and enjoy our Postal Posts blog. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com. Contact: David P. Coleman (c) 202-425-1476 [email protected] usps.com/news SOURCE U.S. Postal Service "We've created a custom, flexible approach and we can quickly place quality talent wherever support is most needed." Tweet this "We are humbled by the response to Vibra Travels and eager to partner with and serve more healthcare providers like us," shared Wayne Mackey, CEO of Vibra Travels. Mackey, who also serves as Vibra Healthcare's chief human resources officer, worked alongside Brad Hollinger, president and CEO of Vibra Healthcare, and a number of the organization's executive leaders to bring Vibra Travels to life. "We understand the hospital business," added Mackey. "Having developed Vibra Travels out of Vibra Healthcare's own talent needs, we truly know the burdens created by staffing shortages. We also know the unique challenges of working through agency support. That's why the Vibra Travels team is so passionate about making a difference in this industry, delivering a better staffing solution for healthcare providers, and providing a world-class experience for our traveling clinicians." Though the company continues to expand its services, Vibra Travels primarily focuses on hiring and placing clinicians that are currently in the highest demand, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and respiratory therapists. Hospitals commonly use travelers in these positions when they cannot fill their job openings readily with local talent, a growing problem in many areas of the country. Travelers are also used for interim support while hospitals train newly hired employees, during times when hospitalizations peak, and when there is a need to cover staff vacations or illnesses. "We're so much more than an agency," said Amy Slivinski, vice president of Vibra Travels. "We treat our clients' talent needs just like our own. We've created a custom, flexible approach and we can quickly place quality talent wherever support is most needed." The Vibra Travels team has a mission of delivering exceptional customer service with a personalized approach, shared Slivinski. "Our travelers and hospital partners will work with their own dedicated recruiters who get to know them and their needs, allowing us to make the best possible placement matches. We aim to deliver expert, concierge-level onboarding and support services for both our travelers and clients alike so that they can do what they do best, provide great patient care together." Individuals interested in employment with Vibra Travels can visit the company's website to view and apply for current opportunities. Organizations interested in learning more about how Vibra Travels can help meet their staffing needs can contact Amy Slivinski at [email protected] or Wayne Mackey at [email protected]. About Vibra Travels: Vibra Travels is a travel nursing and healthcare staffing company that was established in 2021. Affiliated with Vibra Healthcare and its nationwide network of specialty hospitals, Vibra Travels provides critical clinical staffing support to both Vibra Healthcare and a growing number of external hospital partners. The organization is focused on the hiring and placement of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and respiratory therapists. To learn more about what makes Vibra Travels unique, visit www.vibratravels.com. About Vibra Healthcare: Vibra Healthcare is a critical care and medical rehabilitation hospital company focused on the development, acquisition, and operation of freestanding specialty acute care hospitals and outpatient rehabilitation centers. Teams of highly trained specialists lead Vibra's clinical programs for rehabilitating patients who have suffered from strokes, multiple traumas, serious infectious diseases including COVID-19, musculoskeletal, neurologic, cardiac, and respiratory conditions, including ventilator dependency. Vibra and its affiliates currently employ over 6,000 employees and own, operate and manage over 45 specialty hospitals, transitional care units/facilities, and hospital-based outpatient physical therapy locations in 14 states. For additional information about Vibra Healthcare's network of specialty hospitals and post-acute care continuum, please visit www.vibrahealthcare.com. Vibra Travels Media Contact: Wayne Mackey Chief Executive Officer 717.525.3188 SOURCE Vibra Travels MEXICO CITY, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Volaris (the "Company") (NYSE: VLRS and BMV: VOLAR), the ultra-low-cost airline serving Mexico, the United States, Central, and South America, reports its May 2022 preliminary traffic results. In May 2022, Volaris' capacity (measured in ASMs) increased 12.4% compared to May 2021, while demand (measured in RPMs) increased 12.3% compared to the same period; the result was a load factor of 87.8% (flat YoY). Volaris transported 2.5 million passengers during the month, a 17.5% increase compared to May 2021, as the Company increased its fleet from 87 aircraft in May 2021 to 110 aircraft in May 2022. Passenger demand (RPMs) in the domestic Mexican and international markets increased 15.6% and 4.1%, respectively, compared to May 2021. Year-to-date, Volaris' demand (measured in RPMs) increased 41.2% YoY, with a load factor expansion of 3.2 pp, to 84.6%. Commenting on May 2022 traffic figures, Volaris' President and CEO Enrique Beltranena said: "Demand remained strong in May, and Volaris demonstrated its ability to gradually pass through rising fuel prices. We continue growing with sustained traffic volume and improving TRASM." Last month Volaris announced a point-to-point network plan to offer approximately one million seats per month out of the three airports in Mexico City's metropolitan area, namely Mexico City International Airport (AICM), Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), and Toluca International Airport (TLC). Volaris will open ten additional routes out of AIFA (Acapulco, Guadalajara, Huatulco, La Paz, Merida, Mexicali, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Escondido and Los Cabos) and will resume operations in TLC with six new routes (Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Guadalajara, Los Cabos and Huatulco). In regard to the Company's network plans for Mexico City, Mr. Beltranena said, "Mexico City's Metropolitan area has a potential market of 30 million passengers spread across a large geographic area. By diversifying our operations to all three Mexico City area airports, our passengers will be able to travel to the nearest airport, reducing time, distance, and costs." Mr. Beltranena added that, "A key benefit of our plan to offer one million seats to Mexico City area passengers is that Volaris will retain its strong market position, while expanding in TLC and AIFA. Further, we will reinforce operations in Puebla and Queretaro, all airports in the metropolitan area. We are excited about our growth opportunities in central Mexico." May 2022 May 2021 Variance YTD May 2022 YTD May 2021 Variance RPMs (million, scheduled & charter) Domestic 1,759 1,522 15.6% 8,458 6,200 36.4% International 638 613 4.1% 3,078 1,968 56.4% Total 2,397 2,134 12.3% 11,536 8,168 41.2% ASMs (million, scheduled & charter) Domestic 1,933 1,677 15.3% 9,653 7,416 30.2% International 798 754 5.8% 3,988 2,619 52.3% Total 2,731 2,431 12.4% 13,641 10,034 35.9% Load Factor (%, scheduled, RPMs/ASMs) Domestic 91.0% 90.8% 0.2 pp 87.6% 83.6% 4.0 pp International 80.0% 81.2% (1.3) pp 77.2% 75.2% 2.0 pp Total 87.8% 87.8% 0.0 pp 84.6% 81.4% 3.2 pp Passengers (thousand, scheduled & charter) Domestic 2,080 1,712 21.5% 9,893 6,914 43.1% International 453 445 1.9% 2,204 1,426 54.6% Total 2,533 2,157 17.5% 12,097 8,340 45.0% Economic Jet Fuel Price (USD per gallon, preliminary) Average 4.40 2.12 107.5% 3.63 1.99 82.4% The information included in this report has not been audited, and it does not provide information on the company's future performance. Volaris' future performance depends on many factors. It cannot be inferred that any period's performance or its comparison year over year will indicate a similar performance in the future. About Volaris: Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. ("Volaris" or the "Company") (NYSE: VLRS and BMV: VOLAR), is an ultra-low-cost carrier, with point-to-point operations, serving Mexico, the United States, Central, and South America. Volaris offers low base fares to build its market, providing quality service and extensive customer choice. Since the beginning of operations in March 2006, Volaris has increased its routes from 5 to more than 208, and its fleet from 4 to 110 aircraft. Volaris offers more than 510 daily flight segments on routes that connect 44 cities in Mexico and 28 cities in the United States, Central, and South America, with one of the youngest fleets in Mexico. Volaris targets passengers who are visiting friends and relatives, cost-conscious business and leisure travelers in Mexico, the United States, and Central and South America. Volaris has received the ESR Award for Social Corporate Responsibility for eleven consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.volaris.com. Investor Relations Contact Felix Martinez / Naara Cortes Gallardo / [email protected] Media Contact Gabriela Fernandez / [email protected] SOURCE Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. - Volaris Mr. Zaralegui's affiliation with the company began in 2001 as Vice President and Director of Operations with the parent company overseeing its extensive operations and affiliations globally. Zaralegui's close association with CEO Borynack began to streamline the extensive holdings of the international company to a more focused contemporary art gallery and has shown outstanding profitable growth in all gallery operations. His extensive background in Human Resources has created a cohesive camaraderie throughout the company's targeted growth of contemporary artists, artist estates, secondary markets and in-house development of experienced and informed Art Consultants, management staff and highly creative in-house Marketing and Design department. Mr. Zaralegui moves into the principal position of President and COO while continuing to work closely with our Chairman, CEO and sole owner, James R. Borynack. Mr. Zaralegui will oversee daily operations while collaborating with the company's strategic Vice President Directors, Frederick S. Clark in New York, NY and Juan M. Pretel in Palm Beach, FL. Mr. Borynack will continue to work creatively with our Marketing and Design department and fortify all our contemporary artists, artist estates, and gallery affiliations internationally. He will also continue developing and encouraging the company's philanthropic endeavors globally. About Findlay Galleries Celebrating 152 years in business, Findlay Galleries is an iconic family art business founded in 1870. Specializing in Impressionism, European Modernism, l'Ecole de Rouen, l'Ecole de Paris, and 20th Century American Art, the gallery represents over 100 artists and artist estates globally. Named Wally Findlay Galleries since 1965, the international company was acquired in 1998 by James R. Borynack. Associated with Findlay since 1972, Borynack was committed to the relentless pursuit of veritable European period works and international contemporary artists. In 2016, Borynack acquired the David Findlay Jr. Gallery and merged the two. Since then, the gallery has operated under its original name from 1870, Findlay Galleries Inc., and has continued to offer a significant collection of period works and Contemporary art worldwide. Contact: James Muldoon, 561-655-2090, [email protected] SOURCE Wally Findlay Galleries International, Inc. CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Winston & Strawn LLP kicked off the firm's recognition of Pride Month with three high-profile legal victories advancing rights and protections for the LGBTQ+ community. Winston & Strawn has a longstanding, active commitment to achieving justice for LGBTQ+ persons, allocating thousands of pro bono hours per year on relevant matters. Recent decisions include protections against profiling of LGBTQ+ persons by law enforcement, ensuring rights for HIV-positive military service members, and a landmark case allowing gender-affirming surgery for transgender inmates. "Winston & Strawn is honored to do our part to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals," said firm Chairman Tom Fitzgerald. "Our firm remains dedicated to providing legal advocacy on behalf of this community, and we will remain so until discrimination and bias are eliminated." Preventing Illegal Profiling at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Working alongside The Legal Aid Society of New York, Winston attorneys secured an agreement in principle against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a landmark LGBTQ+ profiling case. The federal lawsuit, filed in 2017 in the United States District Court, asserts that Port Authority officers routinely engaged in policing that illegally targeted men perceived to be members of the LGBTQ+ community. The agreement provides compensatory damages as well as significant changes to the way that Port Authority Police Department officers interact with the LGBTQ+ community. Under the terms of the agreement, the Port Authority agreed to provide monetary relief to plaintiffs and institute sweeping reforms, including creating an LGBTQ liaison; adopting LGBTQ non-discrimination policies, language, and training; increased oversight for plainclothes patrols; gender neutral signage; and updating the Civilian Complaint form to include broader categories of sexual orientation and gender identity categories. Landmark Victory for Service Members Living With HIV Winston attorneys won a significant ruling in federal district court against the U.S. Department of Defense that will permit asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads to deploy and commission as officers in the U.S. military. This groundbreaking ruling represents a critical win in the fight to protect the rights of people living with HIV and addresses HIV as a chronic but treatable condition. Victories for Transgender Individuals in Federal Custody Winston attorneys secured a landmark victory following a three-year battle with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The decision allows for a transgender woman to soon become the first person in federal custody to receive gender-affirming surgery. In May 2021, she became one of the first federal prisoners to be transferred to a facility matching their gender identity. BOP has now revised its Transgender Offender Manual to recommend that housing decisions be made based on a person's gender identity rather than their anatomy. "While society and corporate America have made great strides in recognizing the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, far too many members of the community still experience prejudice and face discriminationespecially those who identify as transgender or nonbinary," said Winston Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Sylvia James. Winston & Strawn has a proven track record in securing rights and protections for the LGBTQ+ community through pro bono work. Past matters include: "Winston is dedicated to celebrating diversity and advancing inclusivity and equity," said Winston Senior Pro Bono Counsel Gregory A. McConnell. "We're proud to recognize Pride Month by celebrating significant legal victories that address injustice and support the rights of the LGBTQ+ community." Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm with 16 offices in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. More information about the firm is available at www.winston.com. Contact: Michael Goodwin [email protected] 646-502-3595 SOURCE Winston & Strawn LLP Learn How Barriers and Stigmas of PTSD are Preventing Returning War Veterans from Seeking Help or Treatment JACKSONVILLE, Fla., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by a traumatic or terrifying event either experiencing it or witnessing it. It is estimated more than 600,000 veterans live with flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, or other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The challenges associated with repeatedly reliving traumatic experiences can be crippling to anyone. For veterans, this can make the transition to civilian life even more daunting. Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) offers interactive programs, peer support, rehabilitative mental health workshops, access to clinical care, as well as intensive outpatient treatment through its Warrior Care Network to help veterans manage PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and combat stress. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8896751-wounded-warrior-project-helps-veterans-manage-ptsd/ Ryan Kules, Project Odyssey Director at WWP talked more about how the organization aids veterans to overcome stigma, access care, and connect warriors with others like them so they can start their journey to recovery. He was joined by veteran, Yolanda Poullard who shared her story about her experiences that led her to recovery. DID YOU KNOW? Nearly 1 in 5 warriors report difficulty or put off getting care for mental health Of these warriors, about 2 in 3 warriors feel embarrassed or ashamed to seek out treatment Of these same warriors, nearly 2 in 3 warriors were concerned they might be seen as weak if they sought help Data from the 2021 WWP Annual Warrior Survey. For more information please visit: www.woundedwarriorproject.org MORE ABOUT RYAN KULES: Ryan Kules joined Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) in 2007 and serves as the Project Odyssey director. Prior to joining WWP, Ryan served in the U.S. Army as an armor officer. After completion of armor officer basic and airborne schools, Ryan was assigned to 1st Battalion, 13th Armor Regiment. He deployed to Taji, Iraq, in February 2005, and led patrols, raids, and searches in the area surrounding the base. On November 29, 2005, while returning from an early morning search, Ryan's vehicle was hit with an improvised explosive device (IED) buried in the road. After being evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Ryan remained in a coma for two weeks before slowly beginning rehabilitation. During his recovery, he participated in WWP programs as an Alumni before joining the team as an employee. Ryan was awarded a Purple Heart medal because of his injuries. He retired from the Army as a captain in May 2007 and holds a bachelor's degree in justice studies from Arizona State University. MORE ABOUT YOLANDA POULLARD: Yolanda Poullard looked back on her time in the Army and realized she missed using her leadership skills. While serving, she led more than 150 soldiers on a communications team. They helped connect units around Iraq. But after leaving the military, Yolanda struggled to find that new chance to guide others. A heavy load for anyone to cope with. For Yolanda, it impacted her life at home. She tried numerous ways to address her PTSD and thought nothing would help. She eventually listened to the suggestion to try Wounded Warrior Project's Warrior Care Network. She said she started to notice a change as soon as the evaluation process started. The clinical treatment provided by Warrior Care Network Partner UCLA's Operation Mend helped Yolanda carefully relive her traumas to find effective ways to cope with each issue. Cognitive treatment retrained the brain, while mindfulness efforts helped Yolanda address stress in her life. Now, she helps lead veterans to the mental health care that many need. Interview Provided by: Wounded Warrior Project SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project GUANGZHOU, China, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yatsen Holding Limited ("Yatsen" or the "Company") (NYSE: YSG), a leading Chinese beauty company, today announced that it has published its first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report. The report underscores the Company's strategic ESG initiatives for its development as a long-term, sustainable and environmentally-friendly business, as well as reviews its ESG achievements for the 2021 fiscal year. To view the report in full, please visit the ESG section on the Yatsen Investor Relations website. Alternatively, please click here for the English version and here for the Chinese version of the 2021 report. About Yatsen Holding Limited Yatsen Holding Limited (NYSE: YSG) is a leading player in China's beauty market with a mission to create an exciting new journey of beauty discovery for consumers in China and around the world. Founded in 2016, the Company has launched and acquired multiple color cosmetics and skincare brands including Perfect Diary, Little Ondine, Abby's Choice, Galenic, DR.WU (its mainland China business), Eve Lom and Pink Bear. The Company's flagship brand, Perfect Diary, is one of the top color cosmetics brands in China in terms of online retail sales value. Leveraging its digitally native direct-to-customer business model, the Company has built core capabilities which enable it to launch and scale multiple brands quickly while offering a wide selection of products to a growing variety of customers. The Company reaches and engages with customers directly both online and offline, with expansive presence across all major e-commerce, social and content platforms in China. For more information, please visit http://ir.yatsenglobal.com/ . For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Yatsen Holding Limited Investor Relations E-mail: [email protected] The Piacente Group, Inc. Emilie Wu Tel: +86-21-6039-8363 E-mail: [email protected] In the United States: The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Yatsen Holding Limited The World-Renowned International Project Funding Business Has Over 30 Years of Proven Results and Proudly Accepts the Esteemed Honor From CFI PANAMA CITY, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- When difficult economic times inevitably come around, it can be difficult to fund international projects and developments that fuel economies around the world. Even the world's most prestigious banking institutions can find themselves in a position of struggle and strife, unable to fund projects in both the public and private sectors. However, for over 30 years one International Project Funding Firm has stood the test of time to breathe new life into projects that have gone on to create both wealth for their owners and secure jobs for workers in many countries. AAY Investments Group Named the 2022 Best International Project Finance Team by Capital Finance International (CFI) AAY Investments Group has been named the 2022 Best International Finance Team by Capital Finance International (CFI). The Panama-based funding team is unlike any other investment group in the industry, acting as a direct lender for each client without the help of a third party. AAY Investments Group prides itself on community and collaboration, treating each and every employee and client like family to ensure success The elite team at AAY Investments Group consists of highly-skilled individuals who hold over 95 years of combined experience in various sectors. AAY Investments Group is a proud partner of governments, public listed companies, professional service providers, and private project owners alike to change the face of modern development. "AAY aims to create a corporate culture where employees feel like valued members of a family. Department heads are focused on understanding their people's needs staff and clients. The group considers how its actions could impact stakeholders throughout the decision-making process. This attention to detail has resulted in high rates of customer loyalty and staff retention. AAY Investments Group adheres to strict standards of confidentiality and non-disclosure, never sharing information with third parties. It has become a trusted partner of wholesale insurance brokers as well as governments, public-listed companies, professional service providers, and private-project owners." CFI Judges Report Through proof of concept, dedication to innovation, and unwavering commitment to the success of its clients; AAY Investments Group's purpose-driven vision has come to fruition with the esteemed award of 2022's Best International Project Finance Team. To learn more about AAY Investments Group, please visit: https://www.aayinvestmentsgroup.com/ or https://cfi.co/awards/latin-america/2022/aay-investments-group-best-international-project-finance-team-panama-2022/ About AAY Investments Group AAY Investments Group has been in the International Project Funding business providing venture capital funding all over the world, in numerous currencies. Since its founding in 1986, AAY Investments Group has held an unparalleled ability to evolve amid changing economic times, contributing to its world-renowned success. AAY Investments Group is comprised of Templeton Equity, Swiss Credit & Guaranty, Swiss Credit Underwriters, Swiss Credit Equities, and an additional six AAY affiliated partner companies. The senior management team holds over 95 years of combined professional experience in Commercial Project Finance and Venture Capital Funding and consists of lawyers and investment bankers, all with vast knowledge within financial institutions. PRESS CONTACT Alessandra Cruz 507-202-6914 https://www.aayinvestmentsgroup.com/ SOURCE AAY Investments Group For more insights related to key vendors and the vendor landscape, Request a Sample Report Airbag Systems Market in South Africa : Vendor Offerings Airbag Systems - The company offers airbag system products such as Vehicle Airbag Systems. The company offers airbag system products such as Vehicle Airbag Systems. Autoliv Inc. - The company offers airbag system products such as frontal airbags and knee airbags. The company offers airbag system products such as frontal airbags and knee airbags. Continental AG - The company offers airbag system products such as airbag control unit. The company offers airbag system products such as airbag control unit. DENSO Corp. - The company offers airbag system products such as airbag electronic satellite sensor. The company offers airbag system products such as airbag electronic satellite sensor. HASCO Co. Ltd. - The company offers airbag system products such as side airbags and top airbags. Airbag Systems Market in South Africa : Driver and Challenge Enhanced vehicle safety with more airbags is one of the key drivers in the market. The use of airbags can reduce the number of injuries and fatalities caused by accidents. Currently, different types of airbags are available in vehicles. Airbags in the steering wheel and front panel protect passengers from frontal or head-on collisions. Knee airbags protect the legs and knees of passengers from injuries during a collision. External airbags protect pedestrians from getting hit by a vehicle. The rise in the number of airbags per vehicle is expected to fuel the growth of the market in focus. The high-cost pressure on OEMs will challenge the airbag systems market in South Africa during the forecast period. OEMs need to comply with regulations without transmitting additional costs to consumers. In addition, consumers are demanding advanced features at competitive prices, which adds to the cost pressure. This may negatively impact the demand for several types of airbags. Thus, high-cost pressures on OEMs are likely to hamper the market growth. Do you want more information on the upcoming trends and challenges and their impact on the market? Download Our Sample Report Airbag Systems Market in South Africa : Segmentation This report segments the market by type (side airbag, front airbag, and other airbags) and vehicle type (passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles). By type, the side airbag segment will account for most of the market growth. These airbags are used to protect passengers from a side impact in vehicles. The growth of this segment is related to the growth of the premium vehicles segment of the automotive industry in South Africa. The rise in demand for premium cars among high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) will drive the growth of this segment during the forecast period. Technavio provides the contribution of each segment of the market. View our Sample Report Related Reports: Polyester Tire Cord Fabrics Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Automotive Window Power Sunshade Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Airbag Systems Market Scope in South Africa Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 9.49% Market growth 2022-2026 516.67 th units Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 11.84 Regional analysis South Africa Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Airbag Systems, Autoliv Inc., Continental AG, DENSO Corp., HASCO Co. Ltd., Joyson Safety Systems Aschaffenburg GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Sumitomo Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., and ZF Friedrichshafen AG Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for the forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Market Overview Exhibit 01: Key Finding 1 Exhibit 02: Key Finding 2 Exhibit 03: Key Finding 5 Exhibit 04: Key Finding 6 Exhibit 05: Key Finding 7 2. Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 06: Parent market Exhibit 07: Market characteristics 2.2 Value Chain Analysis Exhibit 08: Value chain analysis: Automotive components and accessories 2.2.1 Inputs 2.2.2 Inbound logistics 2.2.3 Operations 2.2.4 Distribution and logistics 2.2.5 Marketing and sales 2.2.6 Service 2.2.7 Industry innovations 3. Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 09: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 10: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026 3.4.1 Estimating growth rates for emerging and high-growth markets 3.4.2 Estimating growth rates for mature markets Exhibit 11: South Africa - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 12: South Africa market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%) 4. Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five Forces Summary Exhibit 13: Five forces analysis 2021 & 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 14: Bargaining power of the buyer 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 15: Bargaining power of the supplier 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 16: Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 17: Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 18: Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 19: Market condition - Five forces 2021 5. Market Segmentation by Type 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 20: Type- Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 21: Comparison by Type 5.3 Side airbag - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 22: Side airbag - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 23: Side airbag - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Front airbag - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 24: Front airbag - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 25: Front airbag - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Other airbags - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 26: Other airbags - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 27: Other airbags - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 28: Market opportunity by Type 6. Market Segmentation by Vehicle type 6.1 Market segments Exhibit 29: Vehicle type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 6.2 Comparison by Vehicle type Exhibit 30: Comparison by Vehicle type 6.3 Passenger vehicles - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 31: Passenger vehicles - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 32: Passenger vehicles - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 6.4 Commercial vehicles - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 33: Commercial vehicles - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 (thousand units) Exhibit 34: Commercial vehicles - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 6.5 Market opportunity by Vehicle type Exhibit 35: Market opportunity by Vehicle type 7. Customer landscape Technavio's customer landscape matrix comparing Drivers or price sensitivity, Adoption lifecycle, importance in customer price basket, Adoption rate and Key purchase criteria 7.1 Overview Exhibit 36: Customer landscape 8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market Driver 8.1.1 Enhanced vehicle safety with more airbags 8.1.2 Growing importance of crash tests and NCAP ratings 8.1.3 Increasing automotive production 8.2 Market challenges 8.2.1 High-cost pressure on OEMs 8.2.2 Lack of regulation for airbags in medium and heavy-duty vehicles 8.2.3 Functional issues Effects of false positives and negatives Exhibit 37: Impact of drivers and challenges 8.3 Market trends 8.3.1 MEMS sensors for airbags 8.3.2 March toward autonomous vehicles 8.3.3 Future regulations on curtain airbags to boost market growth 9. Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview Exhibit 38: Vendor landscape 9.2 Landscape disruption Exhibit 39: Landscape disruption Exhibit 40: Industry risks 10. Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covere Exhibit 41: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 42: Market positioning of vendors 10.3 Airbag Systems Exhibit 43: Airbag Systems - Overview Exhibit 44: Airbag Systems - Product and service Exhibit 45: Airbag Systems - Key offerings 10.4 Autoliv Inc. Exhibit 46: Autoliv Inc. - Overview Exhibit 47: Autoliv Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 48: Autoliv Inc. - Key News Exhibit 49: Autoliv Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 50: Autoliv Inc. - Segment focus 10.5 Continental AG Exhibit 51: Continental AG - Overview Exhibit 52: Continental AG - Business segments Exhibit 53: Continental AG - Key News Exhibit 54: Continental AG - Key offerings Exhibit 55: Continental AG - Segment focus 10.6 DENSO Corp. Exhibit 56: DENSO Corp. - Overview Exhibit 57: DENSO Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 58: DENSO Corp. - Key News Exhibit 59: DENSO Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 60: DENSO Corp. - Segment focus 10.7 HASCO Co. Ltd. Exhibit 61: HASCO Co. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 62: HASCO Co. Ltd. - Product and service Exhibit 63: HASCO Co. Ltd. - Key offerings 10.8 Joyson Safety Systems Aschaffenburg GmbH Exhibit 64: Joyson Safety Systems Aschaffenburg GmbH - Overview Exhibit 65: Joyson Safety Systems Aschaffenburg GmbH - Product and service Exhibit 66: Joyson Safety Systems Aschaffenburg GmbH - Key offerings 10.9 Robert Bosch GmbH Exhibit 67: Robert Bosch GmbH - Overview Exhibit 68: Robert Bosch GmbH - Business segments Exhibit 69: Robert Bosch GmbH - Key News Exhibit 70: Robert Bosch GmbH - Key offerings Exhibit 71: Robert Bosch GmbH - Segment focus 10.10 Sumitomo Corp. Exhibit 72: Sumitomo Corp. - Overview Exhibit 73: Sumitomo Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 74: Sumitomo Corp. - Key News Exhibit 75: Sumitomo Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 76: Sumitomo Corp. - Segment focus 10.11 Toyota Motor Corp. Exhibit 77: Toyota Motor Corp. - Overview Exhibit 78: Toyota Motor Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 79: Toyota Motor Corp. - Key News Exhibit 80: Toyota Motor Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 81: Toyota Motor Corp. - Segment focus 10.12 ZF Friedrichshafen AG Exhibit 82: ZF Friedrichshafen AG - Overview Exhibit 83: ZF Friedrichshafen AG - Business segments Exhibit 84: ZF Friedrichshafen AG - Key News Exhibit 85: ZF Friedrichshafen AG - Key offerings Exhibit 86: ZF Friedrichshafen AG - Segment focus 11. Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.1.1 Market definition 11.1.2 Objectives 11.1.3 Notes and caveats 11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 87: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.3 Research Methodology Exhibit 88: Research Methodology Exhibit 89: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 90: Information sources 11.4 List of abbreviations Exhibit 91: List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com SOURCE Technavio LUNGevity recognizes Amgen for its exceptional commitment to lung cancer communities and improving outcomes for people diagnosed with the disease WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, today announced Amgen Inc. as the recipient of its 2022 Hope Award for Corporate Leadership. The Hope Award for Corporate Leadership is presented to a company that has demonstrated exceptional commitment to lung cancer communities in the United States and globally. As a longstanding partner to LUNGevity, Amgen was the founding sponsor of the Lung Cancer Patient Gateways, which provide specialized online resources for patients based on their specific type of lung cancer, and has provided pivotal sponsorship support for the No One Missed campaign to build public awareness of the urgent need for comprehensive biomarker testing in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) along with participating in several other Foundation programs and initiatives. "We are honored to present this year's Hope Award for Corporate Leadership to Amgen, a company whose mission is to serve patients," said Andrea Ferris, president and CEO of LUNGevity. "Amgen is a true partner to the patient community and has been instrumental in supporting impactful LUNGevity programs that are working to improve how people live with lung cancer. We are grateful for their foresight and understanding of the importance of LUNGevity's efforts to build lung cancer communities with the creation of the Patient Gateways." In 2021, Amgen received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the first targeted therapy to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer with the KRAS G12C mutation. Amgen also helps support eligible patients and their families with affordable access to treatment and biomarker testing. "While science continues to explore potential cures, every cancer journey is full of challenges from many angles. We believe we can do more, and one of the ways we can do more is by partnering with the advocacy community to better understand and support patient needs," said Judy Brown, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs at Amgen. "Thank you LUNGevity for this honorable recognition and your continued collaboration as we continue our unwavering efforts in bringing breakthrough treatments to patients." The award will be presented to Amgen during LUNGevity's annual NY Celebration of Hope Gala this November. About LUNGevity Foundation LUNGevity Foundation is the nation's leading lung cancer organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer through research, education, policy initiatives, and support and engagement for patients, survivors, and caregivers. LUNGevity seeks to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship for everyone touched by the diseasewhile promoting health equity by addressing disparities throughout the care continuum. LUNGevity works tirelessly to advance research into early detection and more effective treatments, provide information and educational tools to empower patients and their caregivers, promote impactful public policy initiatives, and amplify the patient voice through research and engagement. The organization provides an active community for patients and survivorsand those who help them live better and longer lives. Comprehensive resources include a medically vetted and patient-centric website, a toll-free HELPLine for support, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, and an easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder, among other tools. All of these programs are to achieve our visiona world where no one dies of lung cancer. LUNGevity Foundation is proud to be a four-star Charity Navigator organization. About Lung Cancer in the US About 1 in 17 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime. More than 236,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers. Lung cancer takes more lives in the United States than the next two deadliest cancers (colorectal and pancreatic) combined. than the next two deadliest cancers (colorectal and pancreatic) combined. Only about 23% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it is caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically. Please visit LUNGevity.org to learn more. SOURCE LUNGevity Foundation New Asset Vulnerability Management solution will be presented at RSA Conference 2022 PALO ALTO, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Armis , the leading unified asset intelligence platform, today announced Armis Asset Vulnerability Management (AVM), the only solution for risk-based vulnerability management that enables organizations to prioritize mitigation efforts across the entire asset attack surface, including IT, OT, ICS, IoMT, IIoT, Cloud and cellular-IoT, managed or unmanaged. This solution strengthens the Armis Platform which provides unified asset visibility and superior security across the extended attack surface. Geopolitical instability associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with ongoing U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) aid to Ukraine's defense efforts, has dramatically increased the possibility of cyberattacks against organizations operating in the U.S. and NATO-aligned countries. Therefore organizations must scale their ability to handle the growing number of vulnerabilities and threats that are putting their assets at risk. However, today's organizations are overwhelmed by the number of different assets connected to their networks, and the severe vulnerabilities discovered almost on a daily basis. They are struggling to manage vulnerable assets at scale. With the time it takes to exploit a new vulnerability dropping rapidly, combined with the lack of visibility into the asset attack surface, security and IT operations teams simply cannot address vulnerabilities as quickly as needed. "Effective vulnerability lifecycle management requires full visibility into the extended attack surface, and understanding the criticality of each asset to the business," said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO & Co-Founder, Armis . "With Armis AVM, customers can prioritize mitigation efforts across all assets, according to their criticality to the business, and optimize the use of limited resources to minimize exposure." Only with Armis's Asset Vulnerability Management (AVM) solution and our award-winning Asset Intelligence Platform can they see all their associated levels of risk exposure across their entire enterprise. No other firm offers the rich asset intelligence and context that Armis provides. Armis will be demonstrating this and other new capabilities at RSA Conference at booth #951 South Hall in San Francisco (June 6-9, 2022) Armis Asset Vulnerability Management (AVM) is an add-on module that addresses the full vulnerability management lifecycle, beyond vulnerability scanning, calculating the risk for each asset, to help customers prioritize and manage their mitigation efforts. Armis AVM provides: A complete, accurate view of all assets and vulnerabilities in your environment, including managed and unmanaged assets Risk-based Prioritization based on the asset criticality and the severity of the vulnerabilities, to focus on what matters most. Security automation and orchestration to reduce mean time to remediation (MTTR) A full vulnerability management lifecycle to track mitigation efforts over time with out-of-the-box reports and dashboards The Armis Asset Intelligence Platform enables enterprises the ability to see and control their full cyber asset attack surface. By providing complete asset discovery, real time cyber vulnerability and threat intelligence, and highlighting critical assets that should be prioritized, Armis enables enterprises to quickly hone in on the assets that put their operations at risk, prioritize mitigation efforts to better manage their attack surface, and improve their overall risk posture. Armis customers are from across all verticals and segments including governments, state, local, education (SLED), healthcare, critical infrastructure providers (CIP), and organizations such as Colgate Palmolive, the NHS, Allegro Microsystems, Nestle, Reckitt, Mondalez, PepsiCo, IBM, DocuSign, the Booking Group, John Muir Health, Brookfield Properties, McKesson, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, AT&T, Florida State University, MTR Elizabeth Line, and many more. Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies trust Armis to secure and protect every asset in their environment. For all your asset security and visibility needs, there is only Armis. Learn more about our award-winning platform at www.armis.com. Join Armis at RSA Conference 2022 Armis will demonstrate AVM and other capabilities at Booth S-951 (South Hall), RSA Conference 2022, June 6-9, 2022, at Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. Armis executives and experts will be on-hand at RSAC to discuss the platform enhancements, our recent asset security vulnerability research into TLStorm 2.0 , and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program . To schedule a 1:1 executive meeting with Armis, please visit armis.com/rsac-2022/ . Additional Resources Join the conversation with Armis on LinkedIn , Twitter , and YouTube , , and Visit Armis.com to learn more about our platform to learn more about our platform If you're ready to get started, request a demo About Armis Armis is the leading unified asset intelligence platform designed to address the new threat landscape that connected devices create. Fortune 1000 companies trust our real-time and continuous protection to see with full context all managed, unmanaged assets across IT, Cloud, IoT devices, medical devices (IoMT), operational technology (OT), industrial control systems (ICS) and 5G. Armis provides passive and unparalleled cybersecurity asset management, risk management, and automated enforcement. Armis is a privately held company and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Media Contacts: Dillon Townsel Sr. Director, Public & Media Relations [email protected] 512-571-3455 SOURCE Armis In its Best Places to Work awards, Denver Business Journal recognizes workplaces in the Denver area whose innovation and operations are positively enhancing the business landscape for a better future, as well as creating an optimistic and supportive environment for their employees. Atlas, based in Denver since its inception in 2013 ranked fourth across all companies in the large business category. The Denver Post's Top Workplaces program recognizes companies that are able to out-produce, out-innovate and out-deliver their competitors. Its rankings are based entirely on quantitative employee feedback, collected via a survey distributed to all eligible employees. Atlas employees were asked to complete an employee engagement survey for both programs, measuring key engagement categories and overall employee satisfaction. "Earning these workplace honors is an important measure of success because they are based on survey feedback from our team," said Tony Julianelle, CEO of Atlas Real Estate. "We relentlessly work to ensure that our distinct culture gets stronger every day, and these awards confirm that we're on trackthat we're making a difference to our team and those they serve." In 2021 Atlas doubled down on the importance of company culture with the addition of a new Talent and Culture department. The brand-new department, led by Vice President Christopher Frierson, focuses entirely on the development, mastery, autonomy, and purpose of Atlas' employees. In addition, the company recently enhanced its benefits with the addition of a free-vacation perk for all team members at their 5-year anniversary and with more frequent team outings and events. "In the past year, Atlas has brought on board an additional 100+ team members," said Ryan Boykin, co-founder and partner. "Even throughout this period of accelerated growth, we have continued to put our team first, an inviolable core value of how we operate. It feels great to be honored for our 'people-first' approach to doing business." This is the third year that Atlas Real Estate has been honored by the Denver Business Journal in their Best Places to Work awards. It is the second year for the company on The Denver Post's Top Workplaces list. See the full list of Honorees on the Denver Business Journal's Best Places to Work Here See the full list of Honorees on The Denver Post's Top Workplaces List Here About Atlas Real Estate Atlas Real Estate is a full-service real estate company specializing in investment services, property management, institutional acquisitions, and buy/sell brokerage. Atlas is also a Zillow Flex Partner Agency. Since its inception in 2013, the company has made a commitment to Uplift Humanity Through Real Estate. With offices in nine markets nationwide, Atlas transacts over $1 billion in real estate annually and manages more than 7,000 residential units. To learn more about Atlas, visit www.realatlas.com. Contact: Nicole Marshall 5046447335 [email protected] SOURCE Atlas Real Estate "Today, the only viable response to a mass shooter is another person with a gun," says Axon CEO and founder Rick Smith. "In the aftermath of these events, we get stuck in fruitless debates. We need new and better solutions. For this reason, we have elected to publicly engage communities and stakeholders, and develop a remotely operated, non-lethal drone system that we believe will be a more effective, immediate, humane, and ethical option to protect innocent people." "In my 2019 book, The End of Killing , I described in detail how such a system could work, as illustrated in this graphic novel . Now is the time to make this technology a realityand to begin a robust public discussion around how to ethically introduce non-lethal drones into schools. I proposed the Three Laws of First Responder Robotics to lay the groundwork of an ethical and legal framework to safeguard these systems so that we can improve public safety and avoid misuse. Today is the next step as Axon will begin formal product development on technology centered around these ideas," continues Smith. The non-lethal drone is part of a three-part strategy to stop mass shooter events: 1 - Integrate camera networks and other sensors into real-time communications with first responders. Axon recently announced a partnership with Fusus, which allows schools, businesses or other enterprises to easily connect and share security camera feeds with local public safety and other security partners. With this integration, Axon body cameras, Axon Fleet dashboard cameras, and Axon Air-powered drones with the Fusus network will provide real-time access to a wide network of sensors during critical events. Fusus gives full and secure control of data sharing to the owner of each camera and sensor, so they can choose exactly when access is shared and with whom. This is available today through the partnership with Fusus . "Trying to find and stop an active shooter based on the telephone game connecting victim 911 callers is antiquated," says Chris Lindenau, CEO of Fusus. "Fusus brings the ability to share any security camera to first responders, providing known locations and visual live feeds regardless of which security cameras they use. This network of cameras, with human and AI monitoring, together with panic buttons and other local communication tools, can detect and ID a threat before a shot is fired and dramatically improve response times and situational awareness." 2 - Enhance first responder effectiveness through immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Active Shooter Response Training. Axon recently launched Virtual Reality Simulator Training to provide highly immersive and engaging training experiences for public safety. Through partnerships with key expert and stakeholder groups, Axon will develop and deliver more effective training for responding to mass shooting events in the next 12 months. 3 - Enable immediate threat incapacitation through remotely operated, non-lethal drone capability. Axon is actively developing a miniaturized, lightweight TASER payload capable of being deployed on a small drone or robot. Axon has begun collaborating with our partner DroneSense on a remote piloting capability and our imaging team will develop the targeting algorithms to assist operators in properly and safely aiming the device. Note that all use-of-force decisions will be made by an authenticated and authorized human operator who has agreed to take legal and moral responsibility for any force actions initiated. Axon is collaborating with a variety of drone hardware providers and will make a selection later this year on final development partner(s). Functional proof of concept will be available in 2023 with a full solution ready in 2024. "In 2020, 3,500 people died in fires in the United States. That same year, 45,222 people died of firearm related injuries. There are over 10 million fire hydrants pre-emplaced in the United States, and every modern building has fire suppression systems to contain fires until fire-fighters can arrive," notes Smith. "I believe we can create systems that can detect, deter, and ultimately stop a shooter within a building for a comparable cost as, or less than, fire suppression systems." Ethical and Regulatory Framework To ensure the safe, responsible, and transparent deployment of this technology, Axon is integrating the Authentication, Authorization, and Accountability (AAA) Control System. This comprehensive framework ensures only approved and highly trained users can operate and activate the system, and that an end-to-end audit trail is retained, providing 100% transparency on the deployment and engagement of every remotely operated TASER system. The AAA Control System is key to implementing Axon's 3 Laws of First Responder Robotics. These three laws developed in discussions with various experts, stakeholders and the general public will continue to evolve to ensure Axon understands and mitigates risks associated with this new technology to the greatest degree possible. Axon's Three Laws of First Responder Drones Humans must own decisions and remain accountable. Robots must be controlled by authenticated human operators who accept legal and moral responsibility for any decision that impacts a human subject. Drones should be used to save lives, not take them. Operators of drones who are not in immediate danger are duty bound to de-escalate whenever possible and deploy the minimal force necessary. Only non-deadly force should be used. Agencies must provide rigorous oversight and transparency to ensure acceptable use. Institutions operating robots capable of deploying force must develop publicly available policies describing in advance the types of circumstances in which robots should be deployed. Every incident of force deployed from a robotic system shall be recorded with audio-video and operational data to be reviewed by an oversight committee. Axon views the design and implementation of the regulatory, legal and ethical framework of equal importance to the technology development. We have begun and will continue collaboration with various regulatory agencies and legislative bodies to ensure these powerful new capabilities are appropriately regulated and controlled to maximize the life saving potential while minimizing the opportunity for misuse or abuse. Public and Partner Engagement "To make the future different than the past, we must try new approaches. I believe that a remotely operated, non-lethal drone is far safer than sending an armed human being into a volatile setting. I also realize this is a transformative change, and I am committed to listening to concerns and feedback over the next several years as we move through development," concludes Rick Smith. The Axon AI Ethics Board has reviewed police use of remotely operated, non-lethal drones, prior to the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. The majority of the board voted to advise Axon not to proceed and plans to issue a report in the Fall of 2022. However, given these tragic mass shootings, Axon has asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability. To evaluate this technology's impact on communities, Axon will work with its Community Advisory Coalition (CAC). Formed in 2021, the CAC brings together community leaders to share diverse perspectives and inform Axon's products and services. The effort to detect and stop mass shooting events will require a wide range of partnerships to bring the best possible technology to bear. Companies interested in being considered as technology partners should email [email protected] . People or enterprises interested in receiving more information and updates as development progresses can email [email protected] . Rick Smith will also be hosting a Reddit AMA on Friday, June 3rd, 2022 at 1pm EST, to further discuss these ideas. About Axon Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience with the goal of helping everyone get home safe. We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, more than 267,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon Network of devices, apps and people. Learn more at www.axon.com or by calling (800) 978-2737 . Axon is a global company with headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz. and global software engineering hub in Seattle, Wash., as well as additional offices in Australia, Canada, Finland, Vietnam, the UK and the Netherlands. About Fusus Fusus is the most widely used and trusted Real-Time Crime Center platform in U.S. Law Enforcement. The Fusus Platform is an open ecosystem that integrates and enhances all public safety and investigations assets. It can integrate with any data source, pull in public and private video feeds, enable video sources with artificial intelligence, integrate ALPR, body camera, drone and aircraft feeds, and do it all by utilizing and unifying existing equipment. The Fusus platform is affordable and scalable for agencies of every size and budget. It enables law enforcement and public safety personnel to function more efficiently and with improved operational intelligence, creating a common operating picture that emphasizes officer, citizen and community safety. About DroneSense Based in Austin, Texas, DroneSense offers a comprehensive solution that empowers organizations to build, manage, and scale unmanned aircraft programs. The company's mission-critical software platform enables users to leverage the full capabilities of drones in all operations. Drones powered by the DroneSense platform provide decision-quality data that expands situational awareness and acts as a force multiplier, ultimately leading to more lives saved and safer outcomes in public safety. To learn more about DroneSense, please visit www.dronesense.com . Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc. DroneSense is a trademark of DroneSense, Inc. and Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc. Axon, Axon Air, Axon Body, Axon Fleet, Axon Network, TASER and the Delta Logo are trademarks of Axon Enterprise, Inc., some of which are registered in the US and other countries. For more information, visit www.axon.com/legal . All rights reserved. Follow Axon here: Axon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/axon_us Axon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/ Note to Investors Please visit http://investor.axon.com , https://www.axon.com/press , www.twitter.com/axon_us and https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/ where Axon discloses information about the company, its financial information and its business. CONTACT: Corinne Clark Axon PR Manager [email protected] SOURCE Axon The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley inquired with Michael David staff about releasing the barn owls in Lodi as they were thought to have originally come from the area. Earlier in the year, a truck driver delivered the baby owls to a feed store in San Jose after finding them in a load of hay and suspected they were from his pickup between Lodi and Stockton. The Wildlife Center rehabilitated the owls to a point of release and wanted to place them in their natural habitat. "After a rough start, we are thrilled to see these seven barn owls return to their natural environment," says Ashley Kinney, Hospital Manager for the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. "We are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to release these owls in a beautiful vineyard property where there is access to plentiful food, water and shelter. We wish these owls nothing but the best of luck!" As a partner in the Lodi Rules program for sustainable wine growing and stewards of the land, Michael David Winery knows wildlife is an integral part of the ecosystem and was thrilled to be able to offer a home for the juvenile barn owls. As an added bonus, barn owls are a great form of natural pest control for vineyard loving rodents and would make great inhabitants of owl boxes already set in the vineyards. To see the release of these owls in action, check out Michael David Winery's Instagram page @michaeldavidwinery. For more information on the Lodi Rules for sustainable wine growing please visit www.michaeldavidwinery.com/lodi. For more information on the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, please visit their website at https://wcsv.org/. ABOUT MICHAEL DAVID WINERY Michael David Winery, producers of brands such as Freakshow, Petite Petit and Earthquake, is owned by brothers Michael and David Phillips who together have built their Lodi business into one of the fastest growing wineries in the United States. The Phillips brothers produced their first commercial wine in 1984 under the Phillips Vineyards label after years of growing grapes for other wineries. Now celebrating more than 37 years as a bonded winery, Michael David Winery has over 900 acres of vineyards in the Lodi Appellation. Located one mile east of Interstate 5 on HWY 12 in Lodi, CA, Michael David wines regularly take top awards and gain recognition nationwide. For more information, visit the Michael David Winery website at www.michaeldavidwinery.com, Facebook page at facebook.com/michaeldavidwinery, or Instagram page @michaeldavidwinery. Contact: Jenyn Sousa [email protected] SOURCE Michael David Winery TROY, Mich., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BetterInvesting, a nonprofit educational association founded in Detroit in 1951, will celebrate its 70th anniversary at its national convention in Dallas, June 23-26. And yes, we can do the math. Due to the pandemic, the 70th anniversary celebration was delayed by one year. But this year we're pulling out the stops with more than 60 classes for everyone from beginning to advanced investors, all at the Westin Dallas Park Central Hotel, 12720 Merit Drive, Dallas. Attendees can pick and choose among a powerhouse sampler of classes on small-cap stocks, building a retirement portfolio, high-net-worth investing, investing in today's environment, dividend stocks, the technology sector, real estate investment trusts, estate planning, exchange-traded funds and much more. Notable keynote speakers are: Ralph Acampora, CMT, the "Godfather of Technical Analysis;" Spencer McGowan, president of McGowanGroup Asset Management; and Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. BetterInvesting is based on tried and true investing principles that have withstood both bull markets and bear markets. As BetterInvesting's premier event, the convention is organized by the dedicated members of the BetterInvesting Volunteer Advisory Board. Knowledgeable volunteers join with well-known professionals to provide education for dozens of sessions discussing stock analysis, paying for college and other personal finance topics, mutual funds, portfolio management and numerous critical issues for today's investor. Courses are available for both the novice investor to the sophisticated trader. And in a special series of hands-on sessions, beginners can learn how to apply the time-tested BetterInvesting principles and use the association's analysis tools in evaluating stocks. To learn more about the BetterInvesting National Convention (BINC) and link to the registration site, visit the convention homepage at: https://www.betterinvesting.org/binc-home The convention is organized by the BetterInvesting Volunteer Advisory Board (BIVAB) and as such, all proceeds benefit BIVAB. Attendance at BINC helps support the mission of BIVAB and BetterInvesting by providing resources to local chapters and volunteers. Saturday, June 25, is the free Public Day where attendees have a choice of seven courses, but one highlight will be Sam Stovall's keynote presentation: "Outlook 2022: Is It Time to Buy or Bail?," a discussion of "how stock market history can serve as virtual valium, soothing nervous investor's nerves." He will also offer profitable sector rotation recommendations. Another leading event during Public Day is "Hot Topics in Investing," by Lori Schock, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. Saturday's Public Day includes presentations by major companies in the Corporate Expo, along with door prizes. Public Day kicks off bright and early at 8 a.m. and continues all day long, with the last course choices starting at 4:15 p.m. Register here for Public Day. https://bincpublicday2022.eventbrite.com Available for interviews: Deane Jaeger: Longtime BetterInvesting volunteer. Chair, 70th Annual BetterInvesting National Convention Director, BetterInvesting Volunteer Advisory Board Ken Zendel: CEO, NAIC/BetterInvesting Bobbie Kincaid: Longtime BetterInvesting volunteer Chair, BetterInvesting Volunteer Advisory Board Media contact: Jan Jeffres at [email protected] ABOUT BETTERINVESTING: BetterInvesting, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit, investment education organization, has been empowering everyday Americans since 1951. BetterInvesting, also known as the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC), has helped more than 5 million people from all walks of life learn how to improve their financial future. The association was borne of the conviction that anyone can become a successful lifelong stock investor by following sound, practical investing principles. BetterInvesting provides unbiased, in-depth investing education and powerful online stock analysis tools to create successful lifelong investors. BetterInvesting staff, along with a dedicated community of volunteers across America, teach the organization's principles and time-tested methodology to individuals and investment clubs. SOURCE BetterInvesting NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirstie , the leading e-commerce provider for beverage alcohol brands, today announced that former Republic Beverage and National Distributing Company (RNDC) President and CEO, Tom Cole, has joined the company as an advisory board member and investor. Within Cole's role, he will provide ongoing counsel to Thirstie's leadership team, assist in shaping key partnerships and provide strategic support to the company's roadmap. Cole brings with him decades of experience in the beverage alcohol industry and played an essential role in the creation and success of RNDC, the second-largest wine & spirits wholesaler in the U.S. During his tenure at RNDC, Cole served as the company's President and CEO and led the company from $600 million in sales across three states to $13 billion across 38 states. In addition to his new role at Thirstie, today, Cole is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America and serves as a Senior Advisor to the Board for RNDC. "Throughout my career, I have been at the forefront of establishing institutional change for the beverage alcohol industry," stated Cole. "Thirstie's core mission of transforming this sector is in alignment with what I set out to do when entering this space nearly four decades ago. I am excited to play an integral role in Thirstie's mission and help the company continue to bring true innovation to this industry." Thirstie has been an e-commerce pioneer within beverage alcohol since its launch in 2014. The company was first-to-market with an enterprise e-commerce solution for alcohol suppliers. Thirstie's proprietary technology enables integration of the company's robust network of retailers to meet the industry's compliance standards and scalable needs for brands. Most recently, Thirstie launched the first alcohol branded gift-card solution , focused on driving consumer adoption of Thirstie-powered digital storefronts. "We are thrilled to onboard seasoned veteran, Tom Cole, to our Advisory Board and as a key investor," stated Devaraj Southworth, CEO & C0-Founder of Thirstie. "His knowledge, expertise, and experience within the beverage alcohol industry are going to accelerate Thirstie's full vision." About Thirstie Thirstie is the leading e-commerce solution for beverage alcohol brands. Established in 2014 by Co-Founders, Devaraj Southworth and Maxim Razmakhin, Thirstie's patented technology increases online consumer interactions for the world's most iconic alcohol companies. Thirstie delivers a compliant end-to-end full customer experience with its e-commerce, retailer, data, and gift card solutions. Thirstie's national network of licensed retailers seamlessly fulfills online orders funneled through a branded webstore that are routed to them through the company's proprietary algorithm. Thirstie's suite of best-in-class data capabilities helps brands better understand and target their customers. In 2021, the company launched the industry-first alcohol branded gift card solution, enabling brands to further drive online retail revenue. For more information about Thirstie, please visit www.thirstie.com . SOURCE THIRSTIE FOND DU LAC, Wis., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Culture Tees is excited to announce the Grand Opening of the very first brick and mortar Blue Culture Tees! This summer, residents of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, will be able to visit this new location to browse and purchase high-quality, pop-culture-themed clothing, accessories, and more. Since first launching, Blue Culture Tees has been a trusted source for pop culture tees and accessories. Now, as they open up the first physical store in Wisconsin, customers will be able to shop all of the same great merchandise that the website offers, plus some exclusive items that can only be found in-store. If you're a fan of Blue Culture Tees, or just looking for some great pop culture items, be sure to check out their new store when it opens its doors! Blue Culture Tees is a company that specializes in the coolest collection of pop culture graphic apparel and accessories, run by and for superhero fans, gamers, and children of the 80s. All products sold by Blue Culture Tees are 100% verified as licensed, and everything comes directly from manufacturers, meaning customers can enjoy shopping high-quality, reliable merchandise every time they visit. With this guarantee, it's no surprise that Blue Culture Tees is a well-loved source for pop culture products and apparel. Because Blue Culture Tees is a company made up of a team that's passionate about giving back and caring for the environment, there is even more incentive for customers to visit and shop. For each purchase made with Blue Culture Tees, a portion of the proceeds is donated to The Ocean Cleanup , a non-profit organization dedicated to removing plastics and garbage from the oceans. In addition to donations to this amazing cause, Blue Culture Tees doubles down on giving back with their " Buy a Tee, Plant A Tree " program. When customers buy apparel items or qualifying products, they have an option to "add a tree" to their purchase. From there, Blue Culture Tees will donate $1.00 to One Tree Planted, and a tree will be planted for that donation! Blue Culture Tees is also proud to note that these environmental initiatives have made a positive impact for the organizations they partner with. As of October, 2021, the company surpassed 20,000 orders that have provided donations to both The Ocean Cleanup and to One Tree Planted. This large number is a testament to not only how well-loved pop culture apparel and products are in the modern age, but also how much the customer base of Blue Culture Tees cares about giving back to the planet that we all share, as well. At the new brick and mortar location for Blue Culture Tees, customers can expect to find a wide variety of high-quality products and apparel, including well-known and loved brands such as Loungefly, Funko, Disney, Star Wars, Fifth Sun, FiGPiN, and so much more. Customers can choose from products featuring all of their favorite pop culture icons, from princesses and wizards, villains and heroes, even cartoon characters and bands. The wide selection is one of many reasons why Blue Culture Tees has become a trusted online source for quality pop culture products at great prices. The Grand Opening of the brick and mortar Blue Culture Tees location takes place on June 4th, 2022, and special events, sales, and deals are sure to accompany the event. Customers interested in visiting or receiving exclusive offers and deals may sign up for the company's newsletter online , and may also sign up for the rewards program to take advantage of points, coupons, and more. Contact: Name: Matt Covey Email: [email protected] Phone Number: 1-800-921-2139 SOURCE Blue Culture Tees Upscale, Fast Casual Dining Powerhouse with House-Crafted Menu set to Open in Moreno Valley MORENO VALLEY, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, known for its award-winning, hand-crafted cheesesteaks, turkey subs and more, will debut a new location in Moreno Valley at 12831 Moreno Beach Dr. on June 4. Capriotti's brings the Moreno Valley community its 45-year tradition of slow-roasting whole, all-natural turkeys in-house and hand-pulling them every morning and other favorites like the made-from-scratch meatballs using premium, fresh ingredients. This marks the first of three locations that the owners plan to bring to the area. Capriotti's is known for its wide array of sandwiches including The Bobbie, made with fresh oven-roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo, the Capastrami, made with hot pastrami, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and homemade coleslaw and the cheesesteak is made with premium steak, chicken or Impossible plant-based meat and melted cheese plus hot or sweet peppers. The Moreno Valley Capriotti's will offer a convenient order-ahead option, in addition to third-party delivery services. The new shop will bring 20 new jobs to the Moreno Valley community. The new location is locally owned and operated by entrepreneurs and business partners, Ron Strayhorne and Paul Garcia. The pair met while working as loadmasters aboard the US Air Force's C-17. While conducting combat operations, which included delivering military and humanitarian aid to areas in need via airland or airdrop, they were impressed with each other's work ethic and decided to go into business together. It was when Garcia tried Capriotti's that he knew that's what they had to bring to the community. "Garcia asked me to try Capriotti's and as soon as I did, I knew there was something special here," said Strayhorne. "Now that I have retired from the Air Force, I want to contribute to the community in a new way. With Capriotti's, not only can we provide a high-quality product, but a place where people can come together." Moreno Valley Capriotti's fans can download the CAPAddicts Rewards app on iOS and Android to earn and redeem rewards and score free food. The restaurant also features online ordering. Capriotti's in Moreno Valley offers catering for any event from corporate events to birthday parties with items such as party trays with cold subs, box lunches or a hot homemade meatball bar. For additional information, visit www.capriottis.com or call the location at (951) 485-0444. About Capriotti's Sandwich Shop Founded in 1976, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop is an award-winning national franchised restaurant chain that remains true to its 45-year tradition of slow-roasting whole, all-natural turkeys in-house every day. Capriotti's fresh ingredients, homemade subs and unique menu items have won numerous accolades including being named one of the "10 Great Places for a Surprising Sandwich" by USA Today and many "Best of" awards across the country. Capriotti's cold, grilled and vegetarian subs, cheesesteaks and salads are available at more than 170 locations across the U.S. Capriotti's signature sub, The Bobbie, was voted "The Greatest Sandwich in America" by thousands of readers across the country and reported by AOL.com. Capriotti's fans can also download the CAPAddicts Rewards app for iOS and Android, where they can earn and redeem rewards. For more information, visit capriottis.com. Like Capriotti's on Facebook, follow on Twitter or Instagram. Media Contact: Allie Bertrand, Fishman PR | [email protected] | 847-945-1300 SOURCE Capriotti's Sandwich Shop CCO's Showcase Shelters are strategically located in densely populated urban centers and areas with heavy foot traffic across the San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Washington, D.C., and soon-to-be Los Angeles, metropolitan areas. In addition to selecting them based on location, brands can plan their Showcase Shelters campaign by leveraging more than 1,500 behavioral audience segments in CCO's RADARView , a dynamic campaign visualization tool that combines digital audience insights with demographics and location targeting to efficiently reach a brand's desired customer. Showcase Shelters allow brands to optimize the entire field of view of the display, inviting bold designs that captivate consumers by implementing innovative add-on elements to increase brand awareness and impact. Showcase Shelter packages include two ad displays on the front and back of the transit shelter, fully wrapped back glass panels, and 100% share of voice guaranteed with each unit. Some optional features can include 3D extensions, lighting effects and custom enhancements to transit benches, panels and roofs. "We sell a product to developers and businessestools that make it easy to adopt passwordless authenticationbut the problem we're solving as a company is much more human. Everyone has some visceral experience dealing with the frustration or insecurity of passwords, and we wanted this campaign to strike that chord in San Francisco where many of these people also happen to be potential customers of our product. For example, one part of our campaign that struck a chord with people was covering transit shelters with post-it notes of handwritten passwords we found it to be a highly relatable and attention grabbing display," said Reed McGinley-Stempel, co-founder and CEO of Stytch. CCO also recently utilized their Showcase Shelters for good by partnering with No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger, on a holiday campaign. They transformed two Showcase Shelters in Washington, D.C. into immersive scenes depicting the importance of a child's ability to dream, while encouraging people to help fuel those dreams by connecting kids to food that feeds their bodies as well as their imaginations. Passersby were encouraged to scan a QR code on the shelters to donate directly to No Kid Hungry. "1 in 6 kids in the United States could face hunger," said Diana Hovey, Senior Vice President, Corporate Partnerships at Share Our Strength, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign. "But thanks to our partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor, we are raising awareness and critical funds to help feed kids and fuel their dreams." "As offices reopen and consumers are back on the streets in city centers, our Showcase Shelters represent a complete reinvention of the typical out of home transit shelter. Clear Channel's award-winning creative team can help marketers convert ad campaigns into stunning brand experiences, while amplifying their campaigns through engagement opportunities such as QR codes, which have become a must-have for brands to successfully connect with their customers today," said Dan Levi, EVP & CMO, CCO. "Showcase Shelters are an ideal way for marketers to bring brands to life for their customers, impacting their targeted audiences both in the physical and digital worlds." To learn more about RADARView and view this and other case studies, visit https://clearchanneloutdoor.com/radar. About Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. ("CCOH") (NYSE: CCO) is at the forefront of driving innovation in the out-of-home advertising industry. Our dynamic advertising platform is broadening the pool of advertisers using our medium through the expansion of digital billboards and displays and the integration of data analytics and programmatic capabilities that deliver measurable campaigns that are simpler to buy. By leveraging the scale, reach and flexibility of our diverse portfolio of assets, we connect advertisers with millions of consumers every month across more than 500,000 print and digital displays in 26 countries. Follow & Like: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Blog SOURCE Clear Channel Outdoor PHILADELPHIA, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clincierge today announced CEO Scott Gray will moderate Participant Sensitivity: Amplifying the Voice of the Patient in Clinical Trials at the upcoming 2022 BIO International Convention on June 13-16, 2022, in San Diego, California. A diverse panel of industry experts will join Gray on stage to explore how the patient experience impacts clinical trial outcomes and provide practical strategies for overcoming barriers to trial participation. The session is scheduled for Monday, June 13, at 1 p.m. PDT in Session Room 11A. "Recruitment and retention in clinical trials are two of the most pressing challenges facing our industry," Gray said. "When trial sponsors and clinical researchers take a step back to consider the patient experience, and how they can support patients and their caregivers, their trials become more efficient with life-saving and life-enhancing therapies entering the market faster." The panel's discussion will be informed by an independent study commissioned by Clincierge and conducted by panelist David Harris, president, Insight and Measurement. Additional panelists include Pam Cusick, senior vice president, Rare Patient Voice and Elisabeth Selph, associate director of clinical procurement and outsourcing, Ultragenyx. The annual BIO International Convention, hosted by Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), is the world's largest industry gathering and brings together thousands of global biotechnology and biopharmaceutical leaders. The four-day in-person event includes networking, programming, and partnering opportunities. The convention features more than 100 educational sessions and 500 experts who cover diverse, relevant topics, including business development and finance opportunities, healthcare innovations, the future of biotechnology, and the regulatory and policy landscape. About Clincierge Clincierge is the leading provider of patient support services for clinical trials. Clincierge's global team of patient care coordinators manages the logistics of trial participation for patients and their caregivers, including travel and reimbursement. Since 2015, Clincierge has coordinated patient logistics in more than 300 clinical trials around the world. For more information, visit www.clincierge.com. About BIO BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers, and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial, and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. SOURCE Clincierge Data-focused cloud consultancy , Vivanti, sponsors the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's 2022 Man & Woman of the Year competition and attends Grand Finale Gala in Washington DC WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivanti the enterprise technology consultancy delivering impactful cloud experiences and data-driven innovations with a client-first ethical framework has announced its sponsorship of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) 2022 Man & Woman of the Year (MWOY) competition. As a Bronze Sponsor, Vivanti will attend the culmination of this year's MYOW regional campaign; the Washington DC Metro Grand Finale Gala a Black-Tie event held on Saturday June 4th at The Anthem in Washington, DC. "As a known tech hub, it's fantastic to have Vivanti sponsoring the Washington DC Metro leg of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's 2022 Man & Woman of the Year competition," said the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Campaign Development Direct for the Mid-Atlantic Region, Megan Swahn. "Vivanti works with organizations across its hubs in Washington DC, New York and throughout the USA, delivering cloud consulting services in the areas of DevOps , Digital Customer Engagement , Artificial Intelligence , Data and Analytics . We're thrilled to have them as partners to help further our mission to find a cure for blood cancers." Founding Partner and CEO, Mike Walker, said that establishing a meaningful presence in the Washington DC area meant practicing strong corporate social responsibility as well as directly contributing to the growing technology community. "We practice a strong brand of people-first consulting, where we build mutually beneficial person-to-person relationships that keep our clients' needs top-of-mind," said Walker. "As part of that business approach, it's important to holistically contribute to the communities in which you operate. That's why we're proud to work with LLS, its campaign teams, donors, supporters and MYOW candidates. Together, we've collectively raised a record-breaking $3.4 million to support the initiatives LLS undertakes." Details and registration for the 2022 MWOY Washington DC Metro campaign and the Grand Finale Gala can be found here: https://www.mwoy.org/mwoy-washington-dc-metro-0 About Vivanti Vivanti is a modern data-focused cloud consulting company with a consultant-led, customer-first approach. Vivanti consultants are organizationally empowered, and professionally obligated, to advocate for clients' best interests at each step of every engagement just as doctors or lawyers are entrusted to do. Vivanti's mission is to deliver impactful cloud experiences and data-driven innovations that promote a new level of customer-centric operating standards across the US technology consulting industry. Based in New York City, with offices in Manhattan and Washington DC, Vivanti offers advisory, consulting and managed services across all major cloud platforms. Specializing in the latest cloud data technologies, designed to facilitate digital business transformation and future ways of working, Vivanti's practice areas include data, artificial intelligence, DevOps and digital customer engagement. For more information, visit www.vivanti.com For regular updates, follow Vivanti on Twitter (@Vivanti_Consult), LinkedIn (Vivanti Consulting), YouTube (Vivanti Consulting), Facebook (@VivantiConsulting) or Medium (VivantiConsulting). For regular industry news and analysis, subscribe to Vivanti's mailing list here: https://vivanti.com/contact-us/ SOURCE Vivanti CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) today announced the appointment of Carey Bartell to executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective June 6, 2022. "For more than six years, Carey has been a valuable Conagra leader who has served as vice president and chief counsel leading the company's litigation efforts and compliance programs," said Sean Connolly, president and chief executive officer, Conagra Brands. "Her more than 20 years of experience combined with her passion and business expertise make her the right leader for this critical role." Prior to Conagra, Bartell began her career at Sachnoff & Weaver, Ltd., where she was promoted from associate to partner, and continued with the firm through its merger with Reed Smith LLP. She then went on to work for Hospira, an American global pharmaceutical and medical device company, where she was promoted from senior counsel to vice president, legal. In this role Bartell oversaw the company's litigation, labor, employment, and immigration law, and advised senior management and the board of directors regarding diverse legal and business risks. Bartell attended the University of Chicago Law School and graduated with honors. She received her Bachelor of Arts with high honors from Wesleyan University. About Conagra Brands Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), headquartered in Chicago, is one of North America's leading branded food companies. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit, Conagra Brands combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus on innovation. The company's portfolio is evolving to satisfy people's changing food preferences. Conagra's iconic brands, such as Birds Eye, Marie Callender's, Banquet, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, and Vlasic, as well as emerging brands, including Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera, offer choices for every occasion. For more information, visit www.conagrabrands.com. For more information, please contact: MEDIA: Dan Hare 312-549-5355 [email protected] SOURCE Conagra Brands, Inc. Corrugated boxes market survey identifies key growth drivers, restraints, and other forces impacting prevailing trends and evaluation of current market size and forecast and technological advancements within the industry. NEWARK, Del., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The corrugated box market is expected to escalate at a CAGR of 5.0% from USD 134.7 billion in 2022 to USD 219.4 billion through 2032. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the aluminum industry worldwide, and it is difficult to estimate the severity and extent of the impact over time. According to U.S. government statistics, as of August 2020, approximately 198,000 dental clinics and hospitals have been closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. As a result of the recession that followed the pandemic, the packaging industry was negatively impacted. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unexpected drop and uncertainty in raw material prices, packaging solution manufacturers around the world have been facing significant challenges. The increased use of online shopping in Central and Eastern Europe, along with sustainability, is driving the corrugated box market. The packaging of corrugated boxes used in Central and Eastern Europe incorporates a sustainable approach and eco-friendly material, which is appreciated by nearly 80% of the population. Consumers use sustainable corrugated packaging solutions for online shopping in 77% of cases. Request a Sample at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-302 The growth of the corrugated box market is slowed by fierce competition from flexible plastic packaging Flexible packaging provides the best value for manufacturers and retailers. This is due to its ability to reduce packaging weight which results in reduced shipping and warehousing costs. Consequently, less space is needed for the packaging. Digitalization is being implemented by Smurfit Kappa in the market for corrugated boxes through the development of a range of new products. The corrugated industry has been enriched by the introduction of digitalization by Smurfit Kappa, a renowned manufacturer of corrugated packaging solutions. Graphic design customized for each client has produced various benefits, such as increased sales and greater flexibility. As well as developing new technologies and improving current ones, the company also looks forward to increasing its sustainability efforts. Innovations in these areas are driving the digitalization of paper-based packaging and creating substantial opportunities for the expansion of the corrugated box market. Leading Companies Profiled in Corrugated Box Market are Mondi Group Plc Bee Packaing DS Smith Packaging Limited Oji Holdings Corporation Smurfit Kappa Group Plc International Paper Company WestRock Company Georgia Pacific Packaging LLC Pratt Industries, Inc. Others For critical insights, request for PDF Brochure at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/brochure/rep-gb-302 Key segments By Material Type: Virgin Recycled By Board type: Single Face Board Single Wall Board Double Wall Board Triple Wall Board By Grade type: Liner Fluting Medium By Product Type: Slotted Box Folder Box Telescope Box Die-Cut Box By End Use: Food Beverages Electricals & Electronics Healthcare Textiles & Apparels E-commerce Building & Construction Personal Care & Cosmetics Chemical & Fertilizers Others By Region: North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Get Customization on this Report for Specific Country at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-302 KEY TAKEAWAYS: The CAGR for the virgin segment of the material type category in corrugated box market is anticipated to be 3.8% through 2032. is anticipated to be 3.8% through 2032. In the United States , the corrugated box market is estimated to reach US$ billion by 2032, rising at a CAGR of % throughout the forecast period. , the corrugated box market is estimated to reach US$ billion by 2032, rising at a CAGR of % throughout the forecast period. By 2032, the corrugated box market in the United Kingdom is expected to be valued US$ million, with a CAGR of % through 2032. is expected to be valued US$ million, with a CAGR of % through 2032. With a CAGR of % throughout the forecast period, China is expected to reach a market size of US$ million in corrugated box market by 2032. is expected to reach a market size of US$ million in corrugated box market by 2032. By 2032, the corrugated box market in Japan is estimated to be worth US$ million, growing at an annual rate of % through 2032. is estimated to be worth US$ million, growing at an annual rate of % through 2032. With a CAGR of % throughout the forecast period, South Korea is predicted to reach a market size of US$ million in corrugated box market by 2032. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: Businesses within the corrugated box market are working to launch new products, expand their operations, and build strategic partnerships with other manufacturers. Furthermore, key players are expanding their manufacturing capabilities, product lines, and global presence. Leading corrugated box manufacturers dedicate time and resources to researching and developing innovative products. The Smurfit Kappa Group LLC, e.g., has announced the opening of a new e-commerce corrugated packaging facility in the United Kingdom, which will test and launch new solutions in the e-commerce arena certified with reliable ISTA certification at least by June 29th 2021. More Info: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/corrugated-boxes-market-to-surpass-us-128-3-bn-as-recycled-boxes-demand-increases-by--4-7-fmi-301440126.html Explore wide-ranging Coverage of FMI's Packaging Market Insights Landscape Moving Supplies Market The moving supplies market is anticipated to have an effective CAGR of 4.4% during the period of 2022-2032. Custom Boxes Market The global custom boxes market was valued at around US$ 46.3 Billion in 2022 and is predicted to create revenue of about US$ 71.0 Billion by the end of 2032, rising at a CAGR of nearly 4.4% between 2022 and 2032. Packing Tape Market The packing tape market is anticipated to have a significant CAGR of 4.8% during the period of 2022-2032. According to FMI, the packaging tape market will expand from US$ 21.8 billion in 2022 to US$ 34.9 billion in 2032. About Future Market Insights (FMI) Future Market Insights (ESOMAR certified market research organization and a member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce) provides in-depth insights into governing factors elevating the demand in the market. It discloses opportunities that will favour the market growth in various segments based on Source, Application, Sales Channel and End-Use over the next 10-years. Contact: Future Market Insights Inc. Christiana Corporate, 200 Continental Drive, Suite 401, Newark, Delaware - 19713, USA T: +1-845-579-5705 For Sales Enquiries: [email protected] Website: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/corrugated-boxes-market LinkedIn | Twitter| Blogs SOURCE Future Market Insights SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Callan, a leading institutional investment consulting firm, announced today that Craig Chaikin, CFA, joined the firm's Denver consulting team as a senior vice president and consultant on June 1. Mr. Chaikin brings two decades of industry and investment consulting expertise, and reports to Denver group leader Janet Becker-Wold, CFA, senior vice president. "Callan has a great reputation as a thought leader and an innovator in our industry," said Mr. Chaikin. "Its collegial, inclusive culture truly stands out, and I'm looking forward to being a part of the team." Most recently, Mr. Chaikin was a vice president with Segal Marco Advisors where he advised unions and corporations on their defined contribution, defined benefit, and other types of plans and funds. He assisted clients on asset allocation strategy, plan design, investment policy statement development, traditional and alternative investment manager selection, and investment performance and financial market evaluation. Prior to his 14 years with Segal, he was a relationship manager with Fifth Third Asset Management and a financial adviser with American Express. He earned his MBA from Xavier University and a BS in business from Miami University, Ohio. Mr. Chaikin is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. "We are excited to have Craig join the Denver team," said Ms. Becker-Wold. "He brings years of experience working with a variety of client types. He will be a great asset to Callan and our clients." About Callan Callan was founded as an employee-owned investment consulting firm in 1973. Ever since, we have empowered institutional clients with creative, customized investment solutions backed by proprietary research, exclusive data, and ongoing education. Today, Callan advises on more than $3 trillion in total fund sponsor assets, which makes it among the largest independently owned investment consulting firms in the U.S. Callan uses a client-focused consulting model to serve pension and defined contribution plan sponsors, endowments, foundations, independent investment advisers, investment managers, and other asset owners. Callan has six offices throughout the U.S. Learn more at callan.com. Media Contact: Elizabeth Anathan [email protected] 415-274-3020 SOURCE Callan LLC WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), today released the following statement in response to the announcement of the first of the Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force's six part policy agenda: "Since its inception, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force, under the leadership of Rep. Garret Graves, has brought a needed conservative perspective and voice to America's clean energy and environmental policy. The release of the Task Force's six-part policy strategy underscores what is fundamental to conservative principles invest in America, unlock American resources, lower costs for American families, enhance our national security, and reduce global emissions. "While the Biden administration continues to stand in the way of domestic production, Americans are left with high prices at the gas pump and supermarket. And because these commodities are being produced in less carbon efficient nations, global emissions go up. Decreasing our nation's dependence on Russia and China and investing in U.S. innovation are the building blocks to a better America. It's time we cut away the Washington red tape that stifles American growth, hurts American families, and increases global emissions. The policies put forth by the Republican Climate Task Force aim to do just that." CRES Forum's white paper series "Understanding the Facts"which examines solutions to America's most critical energy and environment issuesaligns with many policy proposals included in the Task Force's climate agenda. Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) engages Republican policymakers and the public about responsible, conservative solutions to address our nation's energy, economic, and environmental security while increasing America's competitive edge. For more information, visit https://cresenergy.com. SOURCE Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ATSG, a leading tech-enabled managed services and solutions company, today announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named ATSG to its 2022 Solution Provider 500 list. CRN's annual Solution Provider 500 ranks North America's largest solution providers by revenue and serves as the gold standard for recognizing some of the channel's most successful companies. With a combined revenue of more than $434 billion, this year's list represents an impressive amount of influence and impact wielded by these companies on the IT industry today. This year marks the fifth time that ATSG has been recognized on this prestigious list. ATSG's continued growth and evolution illustrates its ongoing commitment to driving extraordinary value in the marketplace, with its Intelligent IT as a Service solutions that include managed services, public and private cloud, collaboration, unified communications, contact center, digital workplace, mobility, hybrid and digital infrastructure, and security. Through their targeted acquisition model, ATSG rapidly integrates top-notch technologists into their unified platform, driving positive business outcomes and ensuring optimal client experiences from both an IT organizational and end-user perspective. "ATSG is honored to be featured on this prestigious list for the fifth consecutive year," said Warren Greenberg, Chief Client Officer, ATSG. "Our continued global success and strategic acquisitions have further strengthened our large enterprise capabilities, automation platforms, and intellectual property, as well as expanded our presence in the channel partner ecosystem. I am very proud of our team's ability to focus on client intimacy by consistently executing effective communication and delivering exceptional experiences and business outcomes." "The Solution Provider 500 list from CRN serves as the benchmark for the top technology integrators, strategic service providers, and IT consulting firms, making it an invaluable resource for technology vendors seeking to partner with today's top-performing IT solution providers," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "My congratulations go out to each of these companies for their extraordinary contributions to the continued growth and success of the IT channel." CRN's 2022 Solution Provider 500 list is available online at www.CRN.com/SP500 and a sample from the list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine. About ATSG ATSG is a global leader in transformational technology solutions as a service for today's digital enterprise. Through ATSG's service portfolio of secure Digital Infrastructure, Digital Workplace, Collaboration, and Customer Experience offerings, ATSG provides Intelligent IT leveraging its comprehensive Ai2 automation platform. Headquartered in Manhattan, New York, ATSG is a portfolio company of RunTide Capital, a private equity firm focused on building tech-enabled growth companies. More information on ATSG is available at www.atsg.net . Like us on LinkedIn , follow us on Twitter , or become a fan on our Facebook page. #AboutATSG About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end-users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. 2022. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Press Contact: Elizabeth Kubycheck [email protected] SOURCE ATSG, Inc. KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Custom Truck One Source, Inc. ("Custom Truck One Source" or the "Company") (NYSE: CTOS) today announced that President and Chief Operating Officer, Ryan McMonagle, and Interim Chief Financial Officer, Todd Barrett, will participate in a fireside chat and host private investor meetings at the Stifel 2022 Cross Sector Insight Conference on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. The fireside chat is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. EDT. A live webcast of the fireside chat will be available through the Company's Investor Relations website at investors.customtruck.com. A replay will be archived and available for 30 days following the conference on the same website. ABOUT CUSTOM ONE TRUCK ONE SOURCE Custom Truck One Source is a leading provider of specialized truck and heavy equipment solutions to the utility, telecommunications, rail and infrastructure markets in North America. The Company's solutions include rentals, sales, aftermarket parts, tools, accessories and service, equipment production, manufacturing, financing solutions, and asset disposal. With vast equipment breadth, the Company's team of experts service its customers across an integrated network of locations across North America. For more information, please visit customtruck.com. INVESTOR CONTACT Brian Perman, Vice President, Investor Relations 844-403-6138 [email protected] SOURCE Custom Truck One Source, Inc. Trend Micro study reveals the impact of cyber threats on ICS/OT organizations. Tweet this "Across the globe, industrial locations are going digital to drive sustainable growth. But this has invited a deluge of threats which they are ill-equipped to mitigate, causing major financial and reputational damage," said William Malik, vice president of infrastructure of strategies at Trend Micro. "Managing these heavily networked IT and OT environments effectively requires an experienced partner with the foresight and breadth of capabilities needed to deliver best-in-class protection across both environments." The findings come a year after the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which forced OT systems at the provider offline for several days, leading to major fuel shortages up and down the US East Coast. It is still the largest critical infrastructure (CNI) attack of its kind. Around half of the industrial sector organizations affected by CNI attacks made efforts to improve cybersecurity infrastructures but do not always have sufficient resources or knowledge in place to defend against future threats. Of the responding organizations that suffered cyber disruption to their industrial control systems and operational technology (ICS/OT), the average financial damages amount to approximately $2.8 million, with the oil & gas industry suffering the most. Almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents admitted they experienced cyber disruption to their ICS/OT environments at least six times during the year. The research also found that: 40% of respondents could not block the initial attack 48% of those who say there have been some disruptions do not always make improvements to minimize future cyber risks. Future investments in cloud systems (28%) and private 5G deployments (26%) were the top two drivers of cybersecurity among respondents. The OT security function tends to be less mature than IT on average in terms of risk-based security. The addition of cloud, edge, and 5G in the mixed IT and OT environments has rapidly transformed industrial operations and systems. Organizations must stay ahead of the curve and take security measures to protect business assets. Improving risk and threat visibility is a curtail first step to a secure industrial cloud and private network. "Trend Micro exceeded our expectations right from the start, and we haven't looked back since," said David Levine, vice president of Information Security and CISO, Ricoh USA. "With Trend Micro, you get an immediate reaction, escalation, and communication. It's about effective, innovative tools, coupled with a great partnership." Trend Micro's unified cybersecurity platform provides streamlined detection and response, adaptive to ICS and 5G, to equip organizations in the complex industrial environment where different technologies and applications are integrated to support business operations. To learn more about Trend Micro ICS/OT security, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/business/solutions/iot/ics-ot.html#tabs-c89bc2-6 *Trend Micro polled 900 ICS cybersecurity leads in Germany, the US, and Japan's manufacturing, oil & gas, and electricity sectors to compile its new study. About Trend Micro Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro's cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.TrendMicro.com. SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated Nina West is a native to Columbus, Ohio, the home of Dearfoams, making this a treasure to the brand's community. Nina has performed in thousands of shows giving generous time and talent and is passionate to giving back. As a part of the brand's collaboration Dearfoams donated to the Nina West Foundation, a platform to lift and support LGBTQ+ organizations which has raised over two million dollars for local and national charities. Nina details the collaboration with Dearfoams stating, "I am thrilled to be partnering with a truly iconic Columbus, Ohio based brand known for comfort. This line is fabulous! It celebrates living your life loudly in lush comfort while supporting a wonderful organization. Thank you Dearfoams for making this dream a reality." The collection is available on dearfoams.com ranging from $36-$85. Collection and campaign imagery HERE. Media Contact: Melissa Nicholls, [email protected] SOURCE Dearfoams Key media, analysts, and investors heard from DENSO leaders about the mobility supplier's short- and mid-term plans in semiconductor fields KARIYA, Japan, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DENSO, a leading mobility supplier, yesterday hosted a business briefing to share its semiconductor strategy and how the company is achieving its Long-term Policy 2030. During the briefing, DENSO leaders discussed how semiconductors help lay the foundation in pursuing the company's Two Great Causes: "Green," achieving carbon neutrality by 2035, and "Peace of Mind," creating a safe and seamless world for all. "Semiconductors are crucial to the automotive industry as new vehicles and mobility technologies become increasingly reliant on them to unlock new capabilities, especially in electrification and autonomous driving areas," said Yoshifumi Kato, Senior Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of DENSO Corporation. "It's important we make the most of existing semiconductor supplies, while also creating our own rugged chips to meet growing demand. At DENSO, we have divided semiconductor activities into three areas, each with its own strategy for stable procurement and development." Promote development, standardization, and deepening cooperation with specialized manufacturers and activities to maintain supply chain" to secure stable procurement of advanced logic semiconductors Securing a stable procurement network is most important for microcomputers and SoCs, where the division of labor in specification, design, and manufacturing is progressing and miniaturization is necessary. DENSO will work to strategically present specifications from an in-vehicle perspective, promote standardization, secure multiple production bases, and reform its procurement structure. By 2025, DENSO intends to standardize microcomputers, close the gap between the automotive and semiconductor industries, and make the supply chain more robust. Develop and manufacture devices & wafers and manufacturing processes" in-house to maximize system competitiveness. DENSO has been producing high voltage power and analog semiconductors for about half a century, endeavoring to develop rugged semiconductors. In high voltage power semiconductors, DENSO is working to produce large-diameter silicon wafers with strategic partners and to fully launch silicon carbide wafers, which will contribute to improving the electric cost for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). In analog semiconductors, the company will accelerate the development of rugged semiconductors that can withstand the performance of in-vehicle environments and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) that thoroughly meet our customers' needs. By 2025, DENSO aims to achieve sales equivalent to 500 billion yen as in-house manufactured semiconductors. Strengthen judgment capabilities for current situation and realization capabilities for the future to create strategic partnerships with semiconductor vendors Through collaboration with strategic partners, DENSO will apply technologies in the non-vehicle domain to the automotive domain. The company will accelerate collaboration with strategic partners by anticipating rapidly changing technology trends and communicating in-vehicle trends to strategic partners. The company will also work to further strengthen its semiconductor planning capabilities, which will be necessary for future mobility, and our technological capabilities to maximize sensor performance. DENSO is aiming to develop compact, high-performance environmental recognition sensors with advanced driver assistance functions of Level 3 or higher by 2025. Please see the presentation slides here. About DENSO DENSO is a $45.1 billion global mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in its 198 facilities to produce electrification system, powertrain system, thermal system, mobility electronics, & advanced devices, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves. The company's 167,000+ employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO spent 9.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. For more information about global DENSO, visit https://www.denso.com/global/en/. SOURCE DENSO DALLAS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DimeTyd, the advanced logic-based online engine that offers Amazon vendors seamless recuperation of profit leakage, announces the appointment of Tom Duncan as a business advisor. Tom is an e-commerce veteran with more than 25 years of expertise in brand building, digital technology, and product integration in e-commerce markets. Tom has extensive international e-commerce experience in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. He currently serves on the Executive Management Board of Positec Group Ltd., a global leader in consumer products with almost 4,000 employees and locations in over 20 countries. Additionally, he is an independent Board Member and Committee Chair of Fox Factory Holding, a publicly-traded manufacturing company that supplies products for mountain bikes and off-road vehicles. Fox Factory was recognized as one of the 2021 Fortune 100 fastest growing US public companies with revenues over $1.2B. "We are thrilled Tom has joined our team," said Rohan Thambrahalli, president and founder of DimeTyd. "His years of experience in strategic business guidance and transformational growth in global e-commerce markets will help DimeTyd continue its commitment to help online vendors find success in the Amazon Marketplace." Founded by e-commerce veterans, DimeTyd's technology is the first automated solution designed for Amazon Vendors to accurately process the volumes of complex data produced within ongoing transactions and resolve costly overbilling and deductions. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, DimeTyd's vision is to empower fair, accountable, and transparent accounting for the world of e-commerce. To learn more about DimeTyd and how their automated platform recoups lost funds for Amazon vendors, please visit www.DimeTyd.com or follow @DimeTyd. About DimeTyd DimeTyd's platform is an advanced 100% automated, logic-based engine that offers vendors seamless recuperation of profit leakage based on Amazon accounting errors. The platform conducts an audit of lost revenues dating back up to five years and seamlessly processes millions of data points to recoup funds to vendors. Once audited and reconciled, DimeTyd makes course corrections on recurring issues, enabling vendors to maximize all future profitability in the marketplace. Public Relations Contact: Luke Sheffield Account Supervisor anthonyBarnum Public Relations [email protected] 512.592.2697 SOURCE DimeTyd GALVESTON, Texas, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC -- Today, a group of doctors filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra in his official capacity as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and Robert M. Califf in his official capacity as Commissioner of Food and Drugs, over the FDA's unlawful attempts to prohibit the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The plaintiffs, Drs. Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden, and Paul E. Marik argue the FDA acted outside of its authority and illegally interfered with their ability to practice medicine by directing the public, including health professionals and patients, to not use ivermectin, a drug that has received full FDA approval for human use. Dr. Mary Bowden responded to today's filing, stating: "Since the pandemic began, I have had one mission - help my patients. I provided access to testing when testing was hard to find. I provided treatment when other doctors told my patients to stay home. I have kept over 3,900 patients out of the hospital, but it hasn't been easy. Sadly, fighting the system has been a much bigger challenge than fighting the disease. Despite my excellent track record treating COVID patients, the FDA's smear campaign against ivermectin continues to be a daily hurdle to overcome. I am fighting back - the public needs to understand what the FDA has done is illegal, and I hope this suit will prevent them from continuing to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship." "If doctors are freed to treat patients according to their best judgment and unprejudiced evaluation of the medical literature, many thousands more deaths and serious disabilities will be averted," said Dr. Robert Apter. "Pronouncements from the FDA against the use of ivermectin have been the basis for disciplinary actions against doctors, interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, and have had a severe chilling effect on the use of life-saving medication for a deadly disease." "The FDA's public statements on ivermectin have been misleading and raised unwarranted concern over a critical drug in preventing and treating COVID-19. The agency felt compelled to use language to discourage any discourse and interest in using ivermectin as a front-line treatment of COVID-19. To do this is to ignore both statutory limits on the FDA's authority and the significant body of scientific evidence from peer-reviewed research, over 80 medical trials, and results from ivermectin's use in medical settings worldwide, showing the safe and effective use of the drug in fighting COVID-19," said Dr. Paul Marik. The full complaint can be viewed here. SOURCE Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC Veteran International Luxury Real Estate Executive Will Lead Efforts to Expand and Identify New Markets, Agents, Agent Teams and Business Opportunities for the Brokerage. NEW YORK , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Douglas Elliman Realty, one of the largest independent residential real estate brokerages in the United States, announced today that Rick Moeser has joined the company as CEO of Business Development. A leading executive with more than 30 years of experience in luxury residential real estate, Moeser will lead the brokerage's efforts to expand into new markets, recruit top agent talent and identify new business opportunities. "Rick has earned a sterling reputation as a builder of global affiliate networks that generate tens of billions in annual sales," said Howard M. Lorber, Executive Chairman, Douglas Elliman. "Douglas Elliman is now further poised to achieve great things through his leadership and expertise." Moeser joins the company from Christie's International Real Estate, where he served for 17 years as Executive Director. He was previously a Senior Vice President for Sotheby's International Realty. "Bringing in an executive of Rick's caliber is clear testament to our commitment to thoughtful growth and strategic expansion," said Scott Durkin, Chief Executive Officer, Douglas Elliman Realty. "There is no better personat no better timeto help this company make good on that commitment." Over his career, Moeser established and managed a network of more than 100 real estate affiliations worldwide, while personally managing 40 firms at Christie's International Real Estate. "Few companies with the history and stature of Douglas Elliman have shown as much boldness and ambition in facing the future," said Rick Moeser, CEO, Business Development, Douglas Elliman Realty. "I am thrilled and proud to be joining Elliman and its century-long commitment to reimagining the real estate industry." Moeser will be a member of the corporate executive team. About Douglas Elliman Inc. Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG, "Douglas Elliman") owns Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC, which is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the New York metropolitan area, which includes New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey and the Hamptons, and the sixth largest in the U.S., with operations in California, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Florida and Massachusetts. In addition, Douglas Elliman sources, uses and invests in early-stage, disruptive property technology ("PropTech") solutions and companies and provides other real estate services, including development marketing, property management and settlement and escrow services in select markets. Additional information concerning Douglas Elliman is available on its website, www.elliman.com. Investors and others should note that we may post information about Douglas Elliman on our website at www.elliman.com or, if applicable, on our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube or other social media platforms. It is possible that the postings or releases could include information deemed to be material information. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media and others interested in Douglas Elliman to review the information we post on our website at www.elliman.com and on our social media accounts. SOURCE Douglas Elliman Realty COLUMBIA, S.C., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Beverly Jones Gurley has been named President of Ecumenical University. The announcement was made by Bishop Redfern II, Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Ecumenical University. Dr. Gurley succeeds the Bishop who served as interim President and Board Chair. Dr. Beverley Gurley Named President of Ecumenical University Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund, said, "Dr. Gurley was a visionary whose hard work and keen attention to detail inspire individuals and communities to succeed." Dr. Beverly Jones Gurley retired as an internationally acclaimed superintendent of school districts in South Carolina's "Corridor of Shame." She is credited with rising through the ranks from bus driver to the district superintendent. Dr. Gurley obtained her bachelor's, Master's, and Ed.D while working full-time and raising three children. As a teacher, principal, and superintendent, she impacted students and their families. She raised student performance, test scores, and school ratings. Dr. Gurley has been recognized for developing school budget integrity and deploying financial models of accountability for the school board, faculty, and staff. She partnered with Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund to bring an innovative community-centered focus to education. Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund, said, "Dr. Gurley was a visionary whose hard work and keen attention to detail inspire individuals and communities to succeed." Dr. Gurley will lead Ecumenical University into its second decade of service. Ecumenical University was founded and endowed to be a Christian academic community in the tradition of other Ivy League colleges and universities. Religious denominations founded Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, and even Liberty University to educate pastors and religious leaders. Bishop Redfern II founded Ecumenical University for the Ecumenical Church in Columbia, SC, to provide a sound biblical education to pastors and church leaders. Dr. Gurley has chosen Nazarene pastor Stephen Manley as Dean of the school of Cross Style Theology. Manley pioneered international Cross Style Evangelism with mission trips with ministry interns. Bishop Redfern II adopted Cross Style as the foundational doctrine of the Church and University. Dr. Manley is jurisdictional Bishop over all campuses in 13 countries in East Africa, the 10 countries in Central Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, with special emphasis on Jamaica. Dr.Gurley has offered Ecumenical University a vision of institutional development and advancement. Her plan includes infrastructure and technology improvements on all campuses. She plans to construct 100 new facilities on campuses in east and central Africa. Ecumenical University will make healthcare available to women and girls on all campuses. In India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the university will build campuses with prayer retreats for visiting pilgrims. Dr. Gurley said, "This will be a decade of growth and change whose foundation will be the Two Great Commandments and the Great Commission". Ecumenical University is accredited by ECCW Ecumenical University PO Box 2842 Columbia, SC 29201 Phone: +1-803-500-0477 Email: [email protected] Contact: Jasmine Jones SOURCE Ecumenical University NEW YORK , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the market research study published by P&S Intelligence, in 2021, the global ECG cables and lead wires market accounted for $1,800 million revenue, which is set to reach $3,071.7 million, advancing at a 6.1% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. The growing elderly population and increasing cases of cardiovascular ailments are the key factors driving the market. Additionally, people suffering from anxiety or insomnia are suggested to get an ECG test, thus leading to the market expansion. Geographical Analysis of ECG Cables and Lead Wires Market In the past, North America accounted for 45% revenue share in the market, and the U.S. held around 95% share in the continent. The substantial government investments in healthcare, as well as the presence of almost all major medical device enterprises, are contributing to the market growth in the country. accounted for 45% revenue share in the market, and the U.S. held around 95% share in the continent. The substantial government investments in healthcare, as well as the presence of almost all major medical device enterprises, are contributing to the market growth in the country. The APAC market will grow at a CAGR of 6.8% in the coming years, owing to the escalating use of these products in developing nations, majorly because of the increasing healthcare spending. National governments are heavily investing in the healthcare sector to offer citizens the necessary screenings and treatments. Get the sample copy of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/ecg-cables-lead-wires-market/report-sample Larger Market Share Belongs to Lead Wires In 2021, lead wires accounted for 55% share in the ECG cables and lead wires market, with cables accounting for the remaining 45%. This is because lead wires are utilized to identify heart-related issues, and multiple wires are attached to the body at once. Among the various lead wire arrangements, the three- and five-lead arrangements, combined, accounted for over 70% revenue share. Similarly, the demand for ECGs with 12 leads is expected to grow at a 7% CAGR between 2021 and 2030. This is because of 12-lead ECG's ability to detect life-threatening arrhythmias early, thus protecting patients from a major clinical event. The need for single-lead ECGs is increasing too owing to the rising electrocardiography R&D expenditures. Usability Insights of ECG Cables and Lead Wires Market The reusable category held over 85% share of the market in 2021, owing to the cost-effectiveness of reusable equipment and supplies for the healthcare sector, particularly in developing nations. The disposable category is expected to advance at a 7% ECG cables and lead wires market CAGR in the coming years. This will be due to healthcare practitioners' efforts to limit cross-contamination, which has led to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as MRSA and VRSA. Browse detailed report on ECG Cables and Lead Wires Market Size, SWOT Analysis and Key Business Strategies, Demand & Forecast, 2030 Largest End Users Are Hospitals and Clinics Hospitals and clinics are the largest users of ECG cables and lead wires, owing to the shift of these healthcare facilities to disposable supplies. Furthermore, physicians are increasingly employing ECG machines in clinics to examine patients, to speed up the diagnostic process for CVDs and a variety of other ailments that ultimately affect the heart. ECG Cables and Lead Wires Market Segmentation Analysis By Product Type ECG Lead Wire ECG Cables By Material Type Thermoplastic Elastomer Thermoplastic polyurethane By Usability Type Reusable Cables and Lead wires Disposable Cables and Lead wires By End User Type Hospitals and Clinics Ambulatory Facilities Regional Outlook North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. Asia-Pacific China Japan Latin America Brazil Mexico Middle East and Africa and South Africa Browse More Related Reports Global Medical Electrodes Market Trends and Demand Forecast to 2030 Network Connected Global Medical Devices Market Trends and Demand Forecast to 2030 About P&S Intelligence P&S Intelligence provides market research and consulting services to a vast array of industries across the world. As an enterprising research and consulting company, P&S believes in providing thorough insights on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. P&S keeps the interest of its clients at heart, which is why the insights we provide are both honest and accurate. Our long list of satisfied clients includes entry-level firms as well as multi-million-dollar businesses and government agencies. Contact: Prajneesh Kumar P&S Intelligence Phone: +1-347-960-6455 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter SOURCE P&S Intelligence STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EnginZyme, a leading developer of cell-free biomanufacturing processes, has joined forces with the global processing and packaging company Tetra Pak to bring sustainable and economically sound solutions to the food and beverage industry. In this close and enduring collaboration, the companies are leveraging their respective strengths to find new ways to improve food and beverage production by, for example, turning food waste into valuable ingredients. EnginZyme and Tetra Pak are developing cutting-edge processes using enzymes. These are naturally occurring, non-toxic biological molecules that have the potential to replace or improve upon energy-intensive chemical catalysts in food production. Enzymes can be unstable and unpredictable and thus difficult to control. But with EnginZyme's patented, cell-free biomanufacturing platform, enzymes can be transformed into a solid heterogeneous material, making it easier to handle. As a first project, Tetra Pak and EnginZyme are exploring transforming acid whey, a by-product from the manufacture of dairy foods like greek yoghurt or cream cheese, into valuable ingredients that can go into healthy food products. Currently, acid whey must be disposed of carefully because it can damage ecosystems if too much of it goes into waterways. Tetra Pak and EnginZyme aim to demonstrate with acid whey the potential of enzyme technology to reduce waste streams and generate revenue from by-products. "This collaboration really puts our two companies' strengths into play," said Karim Engelmark Cassimjee, CEO and co-founder of EnginZyme. "By combining Tetra Pak's broad food processing expertise and deep market knowledge with EnginZyme's biomanufacturing innovation, we are working to solve huge challenges while creating the food products of the future. We're creating a modern process environment that is low-energy, low-waste and truly sustainable." Tetra Pak is working to integrate EnginZyme's biotechnology directly into product or waste-stream lines, meaning the solution could be easily scaled. "EnginZyme's ability to control and adapt enzymes to suit our manufacturing processes has great potential for many of our food applications," said Lidia Garcia Pou, Head of Project Management and External innovation at Tetra Pak. "Together we can crack the code to maximise our use of raw ingredients, reduce industrial waste, and improve efficiencies, which we believe will be revolutionary for the food processing industry." Instead of adding enzymes directly to food, which is expensive and results in loss of control, EnginZyme's technology fixes enzymes inside a reactor's solid support material. The food passes through the reactor, allowing just enough enzymatic reactions to happen. As the enzymes are fixed and the food goes in and out of the reactor, the enzymes can be reused and don't end up in the finished product. This gives manufacturers better control of the production process. What is more, the technology can be used with many enzyme types, making it a versatile, transferable solution for the food industry. "In the future we see the EnginZyme-Tetra Pak partnership being synonymous with high-tech novel food processing solutions solving key challenges across the food industry such as improving health and reducing waste," Karim Engelmark Cassimjee said. "This close collaboration has shown that efficient use of enzymes opens previously impossible avenues for the production of the foods and beverages of the future." About EnginZyme EnginZyme's vision is to play a key role in solving one of the fundamental challenges of our time: how to produce better, greener, and more affordable products for everyone. The company, founded in 2014, has created a patented, cell-free biomanufacturing platform that combines the breadth and power of biology with the efficiencies of the chemical industry. EnginZyme is recognised as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and is backed by Sofinnova Partners, Industrifonden and SEB Greentech VC. To learn more, go to www.enginzyme.com . About Tetra Pak Tetra Pak is a world-leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Working closely with our customers and suppliers, we provide safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people in more than 160 countries. With more than 25,000 employees around the world, we believe in responsible industry leadership and a sustainable approach to business. Our promise, "PROTECTS WHAT'S GOOD," reflects our vision to commit to making food safe and available, everywhere. More information about Tetra Pak is available at www.tetrapak.com For more information, please contact: Hanna Laurentz, Director of Communications E: [email protected]; T: +46 728 902657 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/enginzyme-ab/r/enginzyme-and-tetra-pak-join-forces-to-advance-sustainable-food---beverage-production,c3578835 The following files are available for download: SOURCE EnginZyme AB The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors are deploying different organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. Alphabet Inc. Amazon.com Inc. Cloudera Inc. HCL Technologies Ltd. International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft Corp. Oracle Corp. SAP SE Snowflake Inc. Teradata Corp. View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings. Key Market Segmentation The enterprise data warehouse market share growth by the cloud-based segment will be significant during the forecast period. Deployment Cloud-based On-premise Geography North America Europe APAC MEA Request Sample Report of this report for more highlights into the market segments. Regional Market Outlook North America will account for 36% of the market's growth. In North America, the US is the most important market for enterprise data warehouses. This region's market will grow at a quicker rate than Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Over the projection period, the enterprise data warehouse market in North America would benefit from the technical maturity of numerous industries and the existence of many significant players. Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, US, China, UK, India, and Germany will contribute to the highest market growth. Download our sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Latest Trends, Driving the Global Enterprise Data Warehouse Market Market Driver: One of the primary enterprise data warehouse market development drivers is the proliferation of data across industries. The amount of data produced by industries is growing all across the world. Most businesses record and save both financial and non-financial transactions. The complexity and diversity of data sets grow as businesses become more digital. The majority of applications benefit from the adoption of business data warehouse solutions to increase data processing and analysis. As a result, the worldwide enterprise data warehouse market will develop in the future years due to the explosion of data across industries. Market Challenge: One of the major difficulties facing the market in question is data security. After taking the required safeguards to preserve user data, data storage solutions have become more secure over time. The key data security-related concerns encountered by the worldwide enterprise data warehouse market include distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, data breaches, insecure application programming interfaces (APIs), data loss, and account hijacking. This can result in data loss and breaches. As a result, data security concerns are likely to have a negative impact on the growth of the worldwide corporate data warehouse market during the forecast period. Find additional information about various other market drivers & trends mentioned in our latest sample report . Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report? Want to understand more about the various research methodology? Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players Analyze market regulations Do reach out to our analysts for more customized reports as per your requirements. Speak to our Analyst now! Related Reports: Internet Security Market by Solution and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Research and Development Outsourcing Services Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Enterprise Data Warehouse Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 20.42% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 14.56 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 18.38 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 36% Key consumer countries US, China, UK, India, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Cloudera Inc., HCL Technologies Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP SE, Snowflake Inc., and Teradata Corp. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for the forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Table of Contents Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2021 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026 Five Forces Analysis Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Deployment Market segments Comparison by Deployment Cloud-based - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 On-premise - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Market opportunity by Deployment Customer landscape Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 MEA - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market drivers Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Alphabet Inc. Amazon.com Inc. Cloudera Inc. HCL Technologies Ltd. International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft Corp. Oracle Corp. SAP SE Snowflake Inc. Teradata Corp. Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio Cornelius brings over 30 years of experience in software platform marketing, most recently as Chief Marketing Officer of Clari, where he led the creation of the Revenue Operations Category and established Clari's leadership position. Prior to Clari, Cornelius led product marketing for Google Cloud Platform, and has led technical marketing teams at VMware, BEA Systems, and Microsoft. While at Microsoft, Cornelius established the company's first platform marketing team to support the growth of Microsoft's ecosystem of software and solution providers. As Chief Marketing Officer for Envision Digital, Cornelius will be responsible for brand awareness and market education programs that accelerate the achievement of global net-zero. Michael Ding, Global Executive Director of Envision said, "We welcome Cornelius to our leadership team as we scale up our global footprint to lead the transition to net zero. Cornelius' experience creating new software categories will help us create an ecosystem of partners and customers working together to build the zero-carbon economy." Cornelius Willis, Chief Marketing Officer of Envision Digital said, "The achievement of net-zero is not only the most critical challenge facing humanity, but also one of the boldest and most exciting economic opportunities of our lifetime. With experience gathered from hundreds of customer deployments across multiple industries, Envision Digital is well positioned to lead the global transition to net-zero." About Envision Digital A global AIoT software leader in Net Zero, Envision Digital is committed to becoming the world's leading net zero technology partner for enterprises, governments, and cities to accelerate progress and improve their citizens' quality of life. EnOS, Envision Digital's proprietary AIoT operating system, helps organizations manage the production of renewable energy and orchestrate efficient consumption across their operations to reduce overall carbon footprint and achieve net zero. EnOS connects and manages more than 200 million smart devices and 400 gigawatts of energy assets globally. The company's growing ecosystem of more than 500 customers and partners spans retail, industrial, government, energy, and transportation industries, and includes Accenture, Bureau Veritas, Keppel Corporation, Microsoft, PTT, and PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) international, amongst others. The company has close to 900 employees and 13 offices across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Thailand, China, and the United States, with headquarters in Singapore. For more information, please visit www.envision-digital.com/ . SOURCE Envision Digital New Epson GX4 and GX8 SCARA Robots Feature Advanced Technology to Provide a Breakthrough in Productivity to Meet High-End Automation Needs LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The demand for robotics is on the rise as businesses look to automation for productive manufacturing solutions. Engineered to meet unique automation needs across various industries, Epson Robots, the #1 SCARA robot manufacturer in the world, today announced the new GX Series robot lineup with the GX4 and GX8. Built upon 40 years of expertise, the GX Series is a new class of high-power-density SCARA robots that delivers next level performance and flexibility ideal for medical device, electronics and consumer electronics industries. The GX robots will be showcased for the first time in North America at Automate in Detroit, Mich., from June 6-9 in booth #2018. The GX4 and GX8 SCARA robots offer high throughput, smooth motion control and heavy payloads with advanced Epson GYROPLUS technology. Offering multiple arm configurations, a 250-350 mm reach with the GX4 and a 450-650 mm reach with the GX8, the robots can achieve ultra-high precision with tasks including assembly, pick and place and intricate small-parts handling processes. Both robots have battery-less encoders, built-in Ethernet cables and other advanced features to support a remarkably low cost of ownership. "As the demand for automation continues across all industries, Epson pushes the envelope by providing high-performance solutions with leading-edge precision to meet the most demanding tasks," said Scott Marsic, group product manager, Epson Robots. "With the new GX Series, the GX4 and GX8 SCARA robots allow users to manage robotic solutions powerfully and with a compact footprint. Integration with Epson RC+ software helps manufacturers get the most out of their robots in terms of simplicity and performance." The high-power density SCARA robots are equipped with larger motors to handle heavy workloads at fast speeds. The GX4 can handle payloads up to 4 kg and the GX8 can handle up to 8 kg, both from a small form factor. Equipped with Epson RC+ industrial automation development software, the GX4 and GX8 offer ultimate ease of use. An intuitive and feature-packed software, Epson RC+ streamlines automation to effortlessly design complex and robust robotic solutions with a simple interface, advanced integrated solutions and advanced 3D simulator. Additional features include: - Low residual vibration fast settling times with proprietary Epson GYROPLUS vibration reduction system and rigid arm design, plus no ringing or overshoot - Optimized footprint multiple mount and cable bottom exit options - GX4 options include 250, 300 and 350 mm reach and a unique curved arm (350 mm) to maximize work envelope - GX8 options include 450, 550 and 650 mm reach and a longer Z axis - Built for demanding environments Standard, Cleanroom (ISO3) and ESD, and new standalone ESD models available; GX8 also supports Protected IP65 - Advanced integrated options Vision Guidance, Parts Feeding, Force Guidance, Conveyor Tracking, Fieldbus, API.NET, and Arm Length Calibration To learn more about the Epson GX4 and GX8 SCARA robots, please visit https://epson.com/gx-scara-robot-series. About Epson Robots Epson Robots is a global leader in PC-controlled precision factory automation, with well over 100,000 units sold worldwide1 and a product line of hundreds of models of easy-to-use SCARA and 6-Axis robots based on a common PC-based platform. Building on a 40-year heritage, Epson Robots today delivers robots for precision assembly and material handling applications in the aerospace, appliance, automotive, biotechnology, consumer product, electronics, food processing, medical device, pharmaceutical, plastics, semiconductor, and telecommunication industries. For more information, visit www.epsonrobots.com About Epson Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to co-creating sustainability and enriching communities by leveraging its efficient, compact, and precision technologies and digital technologies to connect people, things, and information. The company is focused on solving societal issues through innovations in home and office printing, commercial and industrial printing, manufacturing, visual and lifestyle. Epson's goal is to become carbon negative and eliminate use of exhaustible underground resources such as oil and metal by 2050. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the worldwide Epson Group generates annual sales of around JPY 1 trillion. global.epson.com/ Epson America, Inc., based in Los Alamitos, Calif., is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: epson.com. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), YouTube (youtube.com/epsonamerica), and Instagram (instagram.com/EpsonAmerica). 1 Epson internal sales data through 2020. EPSON and Epson RC+ are registered trademarks, EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark and Better Products for a Better Future is a trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Epson disclaims any and all rights in these marks. Copyright 2022 Epson America, Inc. SOURCE Epson America, Inc. Designer Dram, the World's Only Bespoke Whiskey Company, Suggests a New One SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly every country celebrates Father's Day, with 52 of them sharing the same day as the U.S. the third Sunday in June while many others have repurposed traditional religious feast days into honoring Dad. Just as the days of the year vary, the traditions in how fathers are celebrated differ widely, while also maintaining a common thread of masculinity. To be fair, many of them are clones of the U.S. concept recently adopted (U.S. Father's Day itself a relatively recent creation, signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1972) but there are also a number of uniquely authentic celebrations as well. Here are just a few, compiled by bespoke whiskey company Designer Dram. Designer Dram Bespoke Whiskey Designer Dram Custom Father's Day Whiskey Germany Germany takes Father's Day very seriously, as one of the few countries to make it an official public holiday from work and a four-day weekend, (perhaps for the hangover). It has been celebrated since the Middle Ages on the 40th day after Easter Sunday (originally called Ascension Day, believed to be when the resurrected Jesus joined his father in Heaven) - meaning it always lands on a Thursday. But renamed in the 1700's to Mannertag or Herrentag, which translates as "men's day," it's now about all things "manly" such as pub crawls, piles of grilled meat, and groups of men raucously pulling party wagons laden with beer and schnapps through the streets. Thailand Another country that makes Father's Day a public holiday is Thailand. While the main father being celebrated on the day is the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927 2016) the holiday has expanded to serve as a day of respect to all fathers and grandfathers. Celebrated on December 5, the day is rich with symbolism. While the King was alive nationwide celebrations were held, with many Thais camping out the night before, often wearing yellow which represents Monday, the day the King was born in 1927. Respect is paid to one's own father and grandfather with the gift of a canna flower or dok phuttha raksa which is similar to a lily and is considered the most masculine of flowers. On that day, the Bangkok Mass Transit System allows fathers to travel for free when accompanied by their children to encourage family bonding. Nepal In Nepal, Father's Day is called Gokarna Aunsi, meaning "cow ear" and "no moon night". Cow ear refers to the ear that Lord Shiva emerged from, with the day being celebrated at the new moon in late August / early September. Deceased fathers are honored at the Gokarna Temple with various offerings of food, and those still living receive gifts and a ceremony in which sons will touch their father's feet with their foreheads, while daughters will touch their father's hands. United States While the traditions here in America are well-known, Designer Dram, the world's only bespoke whiskey company suggests adding another. Why not create a custom-blended Father's Day whiskey, that can be saved and enjoyed on that one special day every year? The revolutionary concept behind Designer Dram makes it possible for anyone to be a "master distiller" and create a top-shelf whiskey that is distinctly their own. Every element of the liquor process can be controlled. ustomers choose a custom mash bill to suit their palate incorporating premium bourbon, rye, wheated, etc., all aged 5-10 years, as well as the preferred ABV and even a beautiful custom-designed label. The final product is delivered richly packaged in a luxurious decanter, encased in a velvet-lined box. It's no surprise the company has received rave reviews by Maxim, Cool Hunting and Whiskey Consensus. For more information, visit https://designerdram.com. Media Contact: Matt Kalinowski 310-578-0177 [email protected] SOURCE Designer Dram SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In September 2021, a woman filed suit against Zendesk, alleging that Matt Ingebrigtsen, Director of Enterprise Sales-West, announced on a videoconference, that she would lose over a million dollars because of her choice to have a baby. On May 27, 2022, three more women filed a lawsuit under pseudonyms against Zendesk, alleging they were harassed and discriminated against on the basis of gender, pregnancy, and disability. One of them, Jane Doe I, was lying in a hospital bed after emergency surgery for a stress-induced stomach abscess when the same supervisor, Matt Ingebrigtsen, threatened to fire her if she didn't immediately return to work. Jane Doe II was a consistently top performer. When she got pregnant, Zendesk allegedly refused to promote her. Her male supervisor harshly criticized and undermined her workcriticism not levied at male employees. Zendesk also allegedly withheld a deserved promotion from Jane Doe III after she took maternity leave, instead elevating less-qualified men. According to the complaint, all three women tried to work with Zendesk to find a solution. They complained to HR about the harassing and discriminatory conduct they experienced, yet were met with indifference. When Zendesk refused to take any remedial action, they were forced to quit. "Zendesk has shown a consistent pattern of hostility toward female employees," said Matt Matern of Matern Law Group, who represents the plaintiffs in both actions. "It's time for the company to take these complaints seriously and make some big changes." The complaints can be found at: https://www.maternlawgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-05-27-Doe-Indiv-Compl-Final.pdf and https://www.maternlawgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-05-27-Roe-Class-Complaint-Final.pdf The Matern Law Group practice was founded in 2010 on the belief that vulnerable members of the public deserve to have top legal talent fighting for their rights. Their reputation for excellence is rooted in a desire to promote social justice a passion that is consistently demonstrated by strengthening communities, contributing to worthy causes, and faithfully serving the needs of underrepresented people throughout California. Matern Law Group Josh Boxer 1230 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 200 Manhattan Beach, California 90266 www.maternlawgroup.com Tel: (310) 531-1900 | fax: (310) 531-1901 SOURCE Matern Law Group The acquisition will bring more than 400 new homes to the Nashville metropolitan area. The new community will be located just outside of the Spring Hill area on Hwy 31 and is only a few minutes from I-65 interstate access. It's 23 miles from downtown Franklin and 39 miles from downtown Nashville. With Gehan Homes' commitment to provide workforce housing options in the Nashville area, McClure Farms will be close to large employment centers, including General Motors, Amazon, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Randstad, Community Health Systems, Ultium Cells Battery Plant and Nissan North America. "This acquisition represents our continued investment in the Nashville market, increasing operational scale across our portfolio," said John Winniford, President and CEO of Gehan Homes. "The project will provide much needed housing inventory in a market that has seen accelerated job growth and housing demand." Additionally, Maury County has 24 operating public schools that serve nearly 13,000 students. Those in McClure Farms will attend Battle Creek Elementary School, Battle Creek Middle School and Spring Hill High School. About Gehan Homes Since 1994, Gehan Homes has built thousands of beautiful homes at an exceptional value in over 120 communities across Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Tennessee while operating under Gehan Homes, Gray Point Homes and Wonderland Homes brands. Gehan Homes is the 13th largest private homebuilder in the US and is continuously recognized with accolades and awards for outstanding floor plans, superb design and industry-leading customer service. Media Contact: Christina Lombardo, [email protected] SOURCE Gehan Homes DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Global Market Report 2022: By Type, By Application, By Compound" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market is expected to grow from $4.51 billion in 2021 to $5.47 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.3%. The market is expected to reach $10.64 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 18.1%. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Global Market Report 2022 provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market. Major players in the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market are Pfizer, Novartis, Allergan, Coherus BioSciences, Biocon, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celltrion, BioXpress Therapeutics and Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited. The biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market consists of sales of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies and related services by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that produce biosimilar monoclonal antibodies, which are used to treat patients with chronic diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune disease. Biosimilar monoclonal antibodies are highly similar to actual monoclonal antibodies in terms of pharmaceutical quality, safety, and efficacy, and are used to boost immunity by identifying and neutralizing foreign bodies. The market consists of revenue generated by the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies companies by the sales of these products. The main types of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies are synthetic chemicals, biopharmaceuticals and others. Any pharmaceutical drug product made in, derived from, or semi-synthesized from biological sources is known as a biopharmaceutical, sometimes known as a biologic medical product, or biologic. The different compounds include infliximab, rituximab, abciximab, trastuzumab, adalimumab, bevacizumab and is used in various applications such as chronic and autoimmune diseases, oncology, others. The prevalence of chronic diseases is expected to drive the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market. Biosimilar monoclonal antibodies are used to treat chronic diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. In cancer treatment, biosimilars of monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab, bevacizumab, and rituximab are used. Moreover, the incidence of cancer is increasing year by year. According to the American cancer society (ACS), in 2020, about 1.8 million new cancer cases are expected in the United States. Therefore, the prevalence of chronic diseases including cancer is expected to drive the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market. Stringent regulations imposed on approvals of biosimilars is anticipated to hinder the growth of the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market. The governments of different regions impose different rules regarding the production and use of biosimilars. Further, issues such as patent infringement or agreement issues restrict the manufacturers of biosimilars from commercializing the government-approved biosimilars. The US Food and Drug Administration requires a double regulatory approval for biosimilars, restricting the use of biosimilars as an interchangeable drug to biologics, whereas, in Europe, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves biosimilars as interchangeable products for biologics. The strict government policies for approval of these drugs negatively impact manufacturers in the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market. The focus areas for many companies in the biosimilar monoclonal antibodies market has shifted to mergers and acquisitions to acquire more production capabilities. Large prime manufactures are forming joint ventures or buying small or midsized companies to acquire new capabilities, or to gain access to new markets. For instance, Aurobindo Pharma Limited acquired four cell culture-derived biosimilar products from TL Biopharmaceutical AG of Switzerland. As part of the agreement, TL will supply all the developmental data for four molecules and Aurobindo and/or its affiliates will develop, commercialize and market these products globally. Out of the four biosimilars acquired, three of them are monoclonal antibodies in oncology. In another instance, in May 2020, AbbVie, a US-based biopharmaceutical company, announced its decision to acquire Allergan for an amount of $63 million. This transaction expands and diversifies AbbVie's revenue base and supports in maintaining its leadership positions in biosimilar monoclonal antibodies Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market Characteristics 3. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market Trends And Strategies 4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies 5. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market Size And Growth 5.1. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Historic Market, 2016-2021, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.1.2. Restraints On The Market 5.2. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Forecast Market, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.2.2. Restraints On the Market 6. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market Segmentation 6.1. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market, Segmentation By Type, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Synthetic Chemicals Biopharmaceuticals Others 6.2. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Chronic & Autoimmune Diseases Oncology Others 6.3. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market, Segmentation By Compound, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Infliximab Rituximab Abciximab Trastuzumab Adalimumab Bevacizumab 7. Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market Regional And Country Analysis 7.1. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion 7.2. Global Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned Pfizer Novartis Allergan Coherus BioSciences Biocon Amgen Boehringer Ingelheim Celltrion BioXpress Therapeutics Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited Genor BioPharma Co. Ltd. BIOCAD Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd. 3SBio Reliance Life Sciences Hisun Pharma Celgen Biopharma Torrent Pharmaceuticals Cadila Healthcare For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/alh1r1 Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cloud Enterprise Content Management - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Global Cloud Enterprise Content Management Market to Reach $97 Billion by 2026 Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Cloud Enterprise Content Management estimated at US$18.7 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$97 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 30.7% over the analysis period. Cloud-based enterprise content management (ECM) is poised to gather considerable momentum over the coming years as a result of the growing need to govern and manage burgeoning content volumes. While content generated globally is doubling every three months, around 80% of the content that needs to be leveraged by knowledge workers for revenue-generation and for meeting business goals remains unstructured. The staggering growth of the unstructured data is providing a major impetus to the cloud-based ECM market. Document Management, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 28.4% CAGR and reach US$23.3 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Workflow Management segment is readjusted to a revised 36.2% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $10.6 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $9.4 Billion by 2026 The Cloud Enterprise Content Management market in the U.S. is estimated at US$10.6 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$9.4 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 37.5% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 27.9% and 28.8% respectively over the 2020-2027 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 28.2% CAGR. Companies in developing and developed markets alike are stepping up adoption of cloud based ECM to reduce the time spent for document management and boost efficiency and productivity. The transition to the cloud enables organizations to leverage an always-accessible platform and sophisticated resources to drive innovation and help employees in processing documents in an efficient manner. As cloud-based ECM allows employees to stay connected and collaborate from anywhere, they can complete workloads quickly for faster time-to-market. Content Management Segment to Reach $17.1 Billion by the Year 2026 AI is increasingly being utilized in content management systems for processing as well as analysis of content in various forms. AI is employed in enterprise content management systems in several different ways, including content security, enterprise search, robotic process automation, and chatbots. Enriching content management systems with AI helps users in quickly identifying required information using data mining capabilities. AI can also contribute significantly in terms of securing content. In the global Content Management segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 34.2% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional account for a combined market size of US$2.3 Billion in the year 2020. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$1.1 Billion by the year 2026. Key Topics Covered: I. METHODOLOGY II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. MARKET OVERVIEW Influencer Market Insights World Market Trajectories Cloud Enterprise Content Management - Global Key Competitors Percentage Market Share in 2022 (E) Competitive Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial for Players Worldwide in 2022 (E) Cloud Computing Emerges as the Lone Bright Spot Amidst the Crisis Impact Score of Trends Driving Public Cloud Engagement 2019 VS 2020 With Enterprises Moving to the Cloud Amid the Pandemic, Opportunity for Cloud Based Solutions Explodes What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)? & What Are the Unique Benefits of Cloud ECM Recent Market Activity 2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS (Total 418 Featured) Alfresco Software, Inc. ASG Technologies Box, Inc Docuware GmbH Epicor Software Corporation Everteam Software Fabsoft Software, Inc Hyland Software, Inc IBM Corporation Laserfiche Lexmark International, Inc M-Files Corporation Micro Strategies Inc Microsoft Corporation Newgen Software Technologies Limited Nuxeo Objective Corporation OpenText Corporation Oracle Corporation SERgroup Holding International GmbH Xerox Holdings Corporation 3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS Unexpected Windfall Gains for Cloud ECM as COVID-19 Accelerates Digital Transformation COVID-19 Has Created an Environment Where Digital Transformation Equals Survival Here's How Content Chaos Can Be Biggest Barrier to Successful Digital Transformation Connected Enterprises Remain the Cornerstone for Growth in the Market The Journey Towards Connected Enterprises Offers Robust Opportunities for ECM Accelerated by Pandemic Induced WFM Models, ECM Converges With Enterprise Mobility Goals Accelerated Mobility Amid the Pandemic Spurs Convergence of ECM With Mobility Solutions Big Data Overload Accelerates The Content Chaos Challenge Why Now is the Time to Outthink Content Chaos? Information Governance is the First Step in Leveraging the Value of Big Data: Volume of Data Generated, Stored & Consumed Worldwide (In Zettabytes) Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Content Management Systems Grows Bigger Use of ECM in the Logistics & Transportation Industry: A Review IoT, Augmented Reality Convergence With ECM: A Major Trend Expanding Use in Key End-Use Markets Drives Market Growth 4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE III. REGIONAL MARKET ANALYSIS IV. COMPETITION For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5fn8qf Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the creative agency procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions. Some of the leading creative agency suppliers profiled extensively in this report include: The Interpublic Group of Companies Inc., WPP Plc, and Dentsu Group Inc Get a detailed competitor analysis on our sample report: Download Now Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement Market Analysis Analysis of the cost and volume drivers and supply market forecasts in various regions are offered in this Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement research report. This market intelligence report also analyzes the top supply markets and the critical cost drivers that can aid buyers and suppliers devise a cost-effective category management strategy. Get a FREE sample report to know more Insights Delivered into the Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement Market This market intelligence report on Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement answers to all the critical problems faced by investors who seek cost-saving opportunities in a competitive market. It also offers actionable anecdotes on the industry structure and supply market forecasts including highlights of the top vendors in this market. Our procurement experts have determined effective category pricing strategies that are attuned to the dynamics of this market which can be leveraged to maximize revenue generation against minimum investments on the products. Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement Market's Most Adopted Procurement Strategies by Buyers Across Industries: o The report provides a detailed insight of the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries and analysis of these strategies with respect to innovation, regulatory compliance, quality, supply, and cost. Adoption of these procurement strategies will enable the buyers to reduce category TCO and achieve cost savings, while sourcing for creative agency requirements. Download the Creative Agency sourcing and procurement sample market report now to get comprehensive details on pricing strategies and models. This Creative Agency Sourcing and Procurement Market procurement research report offers coverage of: Regional spend dynamism and factors impacting costs The total cost of ownership and cost-saving opportunities Supply chain margins and pricing models For more information on the exact spend growth rate and yearly category spend: www.spendedge.com/report/creative-agencies-category-market-procurement-research-report This market intelligence report identifies the major costs incurred by suppliers and provides additional information on: Competitiveness index for suppliers Market favorability index for suppliers Supplier and buyer KPIs Related Reports on Information Technology Include: Digital Signage - Forecast and Analysis: The rapeseed oil will grow at a CAGR of 9.08% during 2022-2026. Prices will increase by 4%-6% during the forecast period and suppliers will have a moderate bargaining power in this market. SEM Services Sourcing and Procurement Report: This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the SEM services procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions. Sales Force Automation - Sourcing and Procurement Intelligence Report: The sales force automation procurement market report provides a detailed analysis of various supplier selection criteria, RFX questions, supplier evaluation metrics, and the service level agreements that the buyers should consider adopting to achieve significant cost savings, streamline the procurement process, and reduce category TCO while sourcing for sales force automation requirements. Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contacts SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Pharmaceutical Excipients Global Market Report 2022: By Functionality, By Type, By Product" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Major players in the pharmaceutical excipients market are, Archer Daniels Midland Co., Associated British Foods, Dow Chemical Company, Evonik, Croda International Plc, Ashland, BASF SE, The Lubrizol Corporation and Roquette Freres. The global pharmaceutical excipients market is expected to grow from $8.13 billion in 2021 to $8.60 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9%. The market is expected to reach $10.88 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 6.0%. The pharmaceutical excipients market consists of sales of pharmaceutical excipients and related services. The excipient is a substance, not an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that has been evaluated for safety, and intentionally added in a drug delivery system. Excipient's major roles are to protect, support, enhance stability, bioavailability, patient acceptability, and assist in the effectiveness. The market consists of revenue generated by the company's manufacturing the pharmaceutical excipients by the sales of these excipients The main types of products in pharmaceutical excipients are inorganic chemicals and organic chemicals. Pharmaceutical inorganic chemical is concerned with the manufacture, physical or chemical characteristics of substances, assay techniques, and applications of inorganic substances used as pharmaceutical aids, treatments, and diagnostics. The different functionalities include fillers and diluents, suspending and viscosity agents, coating agents, binders, flavouring agents and sweetners, disintegrants, colorants, lubricants and glidants, others and involves various formulations such as oral fromulation, topical formulation, parental formulation. North America is the largest region in the pharmaceutical excipients market in 2021. Middle East is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The global surge in the sale of generic drugs contributed to the growth of the pharmaceutical excipients market. Generic drugs are alternatives to the marketed brand name drug in the same dosage form, safety, strength, and route of administration and quality. According to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), India is the largest provider of generic medicines, the country's generic drugs account for 20% of the global generic drug exports. Indian pharmaceutical companies received 300 generic drug approvals in the USA. The surge in the demand for generic drugs drives the pharmaceutical excipients market. Concerns related to safety and quality are expected to limit the growth of the pharmaceutical excipients market. According to the Pharmaceutical Journal, there are certain complications in children with the use of pharmaceutical drugs with excipients. For instance, the colorants used in medicine as a coloring agent may lead to sensitivity reactions and hyperactive behaviour in children. Ethanol is another solvent that is widely used in an oral liquid formulation, the use of ethanol mixed medicine for children may have a risk of acute intoxication when overdose, and it may lead chronic toxicity with long term use. Concerns related to safety and quality are expected to limit the growth of the pharmaceutical excipients market. The increase in research and development in the pharmaceutical formulation to enhance the production process and product quality by using multi-functional excipients is a trend shaping the market. Excipients play a significant role in helping pharmaceutical manufacturers better support patients by increasing compliance and treatment effectiveness. For instance, Evonik's newly launched EUDRAGIT FS 100 is a solid version of the existing EUDRAGIT FS 30 D. This new multi-functional version allows pharmaceutical companies to use the polymer in many new applications, such as hot-melt extrusion, solvent spray-drying, and solvent coating, which was impossible to achieve in past decades where only the aqueous version was available. In July 2021, Philip Morris International, a US based cigarette and tobacco manufacturing company acquired Fertin Pharma for $820m. Through this acquisition PMI will gain significant ability in developing, formulating, and marketing existing as well as new smoke-free platforms. Fertin Pharma is a Denmark based company that manufactures pharmaceutical excipients. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Pharmaceutical Excipients Market Characteristics 3. Pharmaceutical Excipients Market Trends And Strategies 4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Pharmaceutical Excipients 5. Pharmaceutical Excipients Market Size And Growth 5.1. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Historic Market, 2016-2021, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.1.2. Restraints On The Market 5.2. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Forecast Market, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.2.2. Restraints On the Market 6. Pharmaceutical Excipients Market Segmentation 6.1. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Market, Segmentation By Functionality, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Fillers and Diluents Suspending and Viscosity Agents Coating Agents Binders Flavouring Agents and Sweetners Disintegrants Colorants Lubricants and Glidants Others 6.2. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Market, Segmentation By Type of Formulation, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Oral Fromulation Topical Formulation Parental Formulation 6.3. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Market, Segmentation By Product, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Inorganic Chemicals Organic Chemicals 7. Pharmaceutical Excipients Market Regional And Country Analysis 7.1. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion 7.2. Global Pharmaceutical Excipients Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned Archer Daniels Midland Co. Associated British Foods Dow Chemical Company Evonik Croda International plc. Ashland BASF SE The Lubrizol Corporation Roquette Freres FMC Corporation Kerry Group plc. Wacker Chemie Avantor Performance Materials Colorcon Merck & Co. DFE Pharma Innophous Holdings Signet Eastman Chemical Corporation P&G Chemicals Huntsman Corporation Valeant JRS Pharma Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Finar Limited Pfanstiehl BENEO Chemische Fabrik Budenheim Air Liquide Peter Greven GmbH & Co. KG For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/i00jxj Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets LANSING, Mich., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Jay Rosen, founder, president, and co-chairman of Health Management Associates (HMA), announced the firm's acquisition of Medical Audit Resource Services, Inc. (MARSI). Founded in 1991, MARSI specializes in medical coding support, physician education and healthcare revenue cycle management. MARSI's experts provide coding and auditing services for hospitals and physicians using inpatient, outpatient and risk adjusted reimbursement methodologies. Other clients include commercial fee-for-service plans as well as risk-adjusted plans. "MARSI is recognized nationally for the expertise of its team and the results they deliver for clients. They will add enormous value to our healthcare delivery system, actuarial and revenue cycle work," Rosen said. "I am excited to welcome such talented professionals to HMA as we continue to expand the ways in which we can meet our clients' current and emerging needs." MARSI has been a pioneer in several areas that are now standard operating procedure among healthcare providers and their contracted service providers, including over-code identification, physician queries, pre-bill auditing, coder and physician training, and clinical documentation improvement. "We are excited to join an organization that shares our commitment to integrity and excellence," said Dr. Todd M. Husty, MARSI owner, founder, and chief medical officer. "HMA is home to an unmatched breadth and depth of experience and expertise. We look forward to the new opportunities we will have to serve our clients and extend our reach." MARSI will continue to operate as Medical Audit Resource Services, an HMA Company, under the leadership of Dr. Husty. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With offices in more than 20 locations across the country and over 500 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA's expertise, services, and team are always within client reach. HMA: https://www.healthmanagement.com/ MARSI: https://himexperts.com/ SOURCE Health Management Associates A new service aims to bridge the gap between emerging actors and established writers, producers, and filmmakers. Tweet this The Slate brings cutting-edge stories to the table with the help of writer/producer and Co-Founder/Creative Director Leilani Downer (THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR, JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS), who carefully selects writers with credits and strong scripts. Along with fellow screenwriter/producer and Co-Founder/Head Writer Dylan Johnson, they field pitches from the chosen writers, provide feedback to help develop the story, and then give the greenlight to write the script. The collaboration continues through several drafts of the script to ensure the best depiction of the story, particularly because these cutting-edge, character-driven stories often tell personal stories ignored by the mainstream studios. "The Slate gives many of these writers freedom to work on a passion project, something that they haven't found a home for quite yet," said Downer. "That makes the engagement a lot more exciting for them, and in turn, the actors get multiple opportunities to help a special project come alive. That empowers both writers and actors at the same time." As The Slate launches, it's teaming up with writers like Kristina Thomas (HBO/Bad Robot's DEMIMONDE), Daniel King (HBOMax's PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: ORIGINAL SIN, Netflix's SWEET TOOTH), Patrick Metcalf (Amazon's UNDONE), Andy Greskoviak (BLACK FRIDAY), Kristen Ruhlin (ME YOU MADNESS, WELCOME TO MERCY) and Brittany Van Horne (Paramount's TOONING OUT THE NEWS, THE GOLDBERGS). Each of these WGA writers are using their diverse perspectives to tell strong stories that will go far beyond The Slate. "They all bring such exciting ideas to the table, and it's really amazing that the ideas don't just stop here," said Johnson. "Some of these are personal stories and others are proofs of concept, so they all have the opportunity to be taken out and pitched outside of our studio. It's equally exciting that our actors get to play a unique role in helping that happen and also build lifelong relationships with successful industry professionals." The collaboration doesn't stop with the audition as The Slate will host regular roundtables/career days that will allow these writers to elaborate on their professional experience and offer insight to actors and other artists, giving them the ammunition they need to succeed not only in Slate projects but in the evolving industry of Hollywood. "We want an active engagement between the writers and the actors to maximize the benefits that actors can reap from the service, regardless of whether they end up in that writer's production," said Slate Co-Founder Vinay Bhagat, who created HC&F with Vachher. "The relationship between a writer and an actor is largely ignored, so this creates a direct forum for actors to ask questions and receive answers that come from hands-on experience. All of us are tired of these walls in Hollywood. We are all just want to collaborate, and finally, we can do that." This is only the tip of the iceberg for The Slate, as they aim to grow in scope and tell an even wider range of stories so that every Slate actor consistently gets access to new material. The Slate sets a new standard for actors and offers a clear road for industry access, giving them a central role in the filmmaking process. Contact: [email protected] SOURCE The Slate Top Suppliers in the Immigration Services Market This immigration services procurement market report provides a detailed analysis of procurement strategies deployed by major category end-users across several industries while sourcing for immigration services requirements. In addition, most adopted and high potential pricing models considered by buyers have been analyzed in this report, which will help understand business scopes for revenue expansion. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PricewaterhouseCoopers International, and KPMG International are a few of the key suppliers in the immigration services market. Read More Major Price Models in the Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement Market The report discusses in detail each pricing model and the pros and cons attached to every pricing model prevalent in the market. Also, the report provides insights with respect to the category supply chain and the margins of various suppliers within the supply chain. The most widely adopted pricing models in the Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement Market Fixed-fee model Hourly-rate model Service-based model Learn about various other pricing models: Request for a FREE sample report Spend Growth and Demand by Region The Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement market will register an incremental spend of about USD 15.55 Billion during the forecast period. However, only a few regions will drive the majority of this growth. Moreover, on the supply side, North America, Europe, and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. The growth is expected to be primarily driven by increasing demand and adoption of the category across those few regions. To get a detailed analysis of the regional factors driving the Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement Report: Download the sample report now! Subscribe to our "Free Limited Period Starter Procurement Plan" to get the following: View 6 full reports View 800+ report samples Pre-order upcoming reports Dedicated account manager Subscribe Now for FREE! Most Adopted Procurement Strategies by Buyers Across the Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement Market The report provides a detailed insight of the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries and analysis of these strategies with respect to innovation, regulatory compliance, quality, supply, and cost. Adoption of these procurement strategies will enable the buyers to reduce category TCO and achieve cost savings, while sourcing for thermal equipment requirements. To get the exact information on various procurement strategies: Get the FREE Sample Report Now! This Immigration Services Sourcing and Procurement Market report answers help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers, for instance: Am I engaging with the right suppliers? Which KPIs should I use to evaluate my incumbent suppliers? Which supplier selection criteria are relevant for? What are the workplace computing devices category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx? Our Top Selling Procurement Reports: 1. Asset Recovery Services - Forecast and Analysis: The asset recovery services will grow at a CAGR of 9.49% during 2021-2025. Asia Asset Recovery Pte Ltd., TES-Amm Singapore Pte Ltd., and Iron Mountain Inc. are among the prominent suppliers in asset recovery services market. Click the above link to download the free sample of this report. 2. Vulnerability Management Sourcing and Procurement Report: Vulnerability Management Procurement Market, prices will increase by 4%-6% during the forecast period and suppliers will have a Moderate bargaining power in this market. Click the above link to download the free sample of this report. 3. Celebrity Talent Management Services - Sourcing and Procurement Intelligence Report: This report offers key advisory and intelligence to help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their celebrity talent management services requirements. Click the above link to download the free sample of this report. About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contact SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has reissued a letter from August of 2019, calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to take swift action and pass two bills to finally address the toll that gun violence has taken on Americans across the country. The letter was sent by a bipartisan group of 255 mayors from 43 states and Washington, DC to the U.S. Senate, and new mayors have now joined the effort. The House passed the two bills highlighted in the letter more than one year ago, and they are pending in the Senate. The full letter with signatures can be found here. The text of the reissued letter referencing the recent mass shootings is below: In response to the recent tragedies in Uvalde and Buffalo and the continuing increase in gun violence that is plaguing our cities and our people across this nation, the U.S. Conference of Mayors is reissuing the letter sent by more than 200 mayors to the United States Senate in August of 2019. The same two bills passed the House more than one year ago and are again pending in the Senate: H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Check Act and H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act. We have updated the list of original signatories and removed those mayors who no longer are in office and are adding new mayors who have asked to be listed. August 8, 2019 The Honorable Mitch McConnell Majority Leader United States Senate (KY) The Honorable Charles E. Schumer Democratic Leader United States Senate (NY) Dear Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer: RE: Senate Action Needed NOW on Gun Safety Legislation On behalf of The United States Conference of Mayors, we urge you to immediately call the Senate back to Washington to take action on bipartisan gun safety legislation. Already in 2019, there have been over 250 mass shootings. The tragic events in El Paso and Dayton this weekend are just the latest reminders that our nation can no longer wait for our federal government to take the actions necessary to prevent people who should not have access to firearms from being able to purchase them. In late February, the House of Representatives passed two bills that would greatly strengthen the background check system: H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019 H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 H.R. 8 passed the House on February 27 on a bipartisan vote of 240-190. It would close serious loopholes in the background check system by: requiring all firearm purchases to undergo a NICS background check; helping to prevent dangerous individuals from obtaining deadly weapons by circumventing the laws on the books; prohibiting unlicensed transfers of guns through unregulated secondary sales; and increasing law enforcement's ability to trace crime guns. H.R. 1112 passed the House on February 28 on a bipartisan vote of 228-198. If this bill had been law in 2015, the terrible tragedy that occurred at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston might have been avoided. The bill would extend the background check review period deadline from three to 10 business days, to help ensure that background checks are completed before weapons are sold and that dangerous individuals who should not have them are unable to purchase them. H.R. 8 and H.R. 1112 are bipartisan, sensible gun safety bills that would make our cities and our people safer, and would in no way compromise gun owners' rights. We urge you to call the Senate back to session now to take up and pass these bills to help reduce gun violence and the terrible toll it takes in our cities and our nation. Quick passage of these bills is a critical step to reducing gun violence in our country. The United States Conference of Mayors stands ready to work with Congress, the Administration and others to develop holistic remedies to the scourge of gun violence. America has proven time and again that we can rise to our most difficult challenges. We look forward to working with you to find a way forward to protect our citizens from this senseless carnage. Sincerely, CC: United States Senate SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Synthetic Biology Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Products, Technology, and Application" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global synthetic biology market is expected to grow from US$ 10,544.16 million in 2021 to US$ 37,850.85 million by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20.0% from 2021 to 2028. The report highlights trends prevailing in the synthetic biology market and factors driving its growth. The increasing investments in synthetic biology and the rising number of start-ups are driving the market growth. However, the renewed regulations for biotechnology hamper the market growth. Synthetic biology is the science of designing, altering, and building simple organisms to perform specific therapeutic or industrial utilities. The organisms created are genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which do not require a definition that distinguishes them from genetic modifications. The rising number of start-ups is expected to support market growth during the forecast period. Biotechnology entrepreneurs easily raise funds and procure equipment and space from governments of the respective countries. Indie Bio (California, US) and EU (Ireland) are among the first synthetic biology accelerators. The start-ups are emerging in Asia Pacific, as governments in this region are providing funds for the domestic development of synthetic biology. For instance, the Government of India funded IITM Bioincubator, a department of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, to start a state-of-the-art research facility for cancer biology and a Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility. The funds were provided by agencies such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The Indian Institute of Technology Madras raised US$ 7.86 million (550 million rupees) in the fiscal year 2016-2017. In China, Chinaccelerator is a financer that provides mentorship programs for helping start-ups. It is also associated with SOSV, a venture capital and investment management firm,, which helps establish start-ups by providing funds under programs such as RebelBio and Indie Bio. The easy availability of funds for ideas is motivating entrepreneurs in the world to establish synthetic biology businesses. Based on product, the synthetic biology market is segmented into oligonucleotides, chassis organisms, enzymes, and xeno-nucleic acid. The oligonucleotides segment is likely to hold the largest share of the market in 2021. Moreover, the same segment is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period of 2021 to 2028. Based on technology, the synthetic biology market is segmented into, gene synthesis, genome engineering, measurement & modeling, cloning & sequencing, nanotechnology, and others. In 2021, the gene synthesis segment is likely to hold the largest share of the market. However, the genome engineering segment is expected to register highest CAGR during 2021 to 2028. The growth of genome engineering segment is owing to the rising applications of genetic engineering and gene therapy. Further, based on application, the synthetic biology market is segmented into medical applications, industrial applications, environmental applications, food and agriculture, and others. The medical applications segment is further segmented as, drug discovery & therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. In 2021, the medical applications segment held the largest market share, and it is expected to register the highest CAGR during 2021-2028. Various organic and inorganic strategies are adopted by companies operating in the synthetic biology market. The organic strategies mainly include product launches and product approvals. Inorganic growth strategies witnessed in the market are acquisitions, collaboration, and partnerships. These growth strategies have allowed the synthetic biology market players in expanding their business and enhancing their geographic presence, along with contributing to the overall market growth. Additionally, growth strategies such as acquisitions and partnerships helped them strengthen their customer base and extend their product portfolios. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 4. Synthetic Biology Market - Market Landscape 4.1 Overview 4.2 PEST Analysis 4.2.1 North America PEST Analysis 4.2.2 Europe PEST Analysis 4.2.3 Asia Pacific PEST Analysis 4.2.4 Middle East & Africa PEST Analysis 4.2.5 South & Central America PEST Analysis 4.3 Experts Opinion 5. Synthetic Biology Market - Key Market Dynamics 5.1 Market Drivers 5.1.1 Increasing Investments in Synthetic Biology 5.1.2 Rising Number of Start-Ups 5.2 Key Market Restraints 5.2.1 Renewed Regulations for Biotechnology 5.3 Key Market Opportunities 5.3.1 Collaboration Between Companies 5.4 Future Trends 5.4.1 Advanced Synthetic Biology 5.5 Impact Analysis 6. Synthetic Biology Market - Global Analysis 6.1 Global Synthetic Biology Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis 6.1.1 Global Synthetic Biology Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis 6.1.2 Global Synthetic Biology Market - Market Potential Analysis, By Region 6.2 Company Analysis 6.2.1 Market Positioning of Key Players 6.2.2 Comparative Company Analysis 6.2.3 Growth Strategy Analysis 6.2.4 Performance of Key Players 6.2.4.1 Thermo Fisher Scientific 6.2.4.2 Twist Bioscience 6.2.4.3 Agilent Technologies, Inc. 7. Synthetic Biology Market Analysis - By Product 7.1 Overview 7.2 Synthetic Biology Market, By Product, 2021 & 2028 (%) 7.3 Enzymes 7.3.1 Overview 7.3.2 Enzyme: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 (US$ Million) 7.4 Oligonucleotides 7.4.1 Overview 7.4.2 Oligonucleotide: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 (US$ Million) 7.5 Chassis Organisms 7.5.1 Overview 7.5.2 Chassis Organisms: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 (US$ Million) 7.6 Xeno-Nucleic Acids 7.6.1 Overview 7.6.2 Xeno-Nucleic Acids: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 (US$ Million) 8. Synthetic Biology Market Analysis - By Technology 8.1 Overview 8.2 Synthetic Biology Market Share by Technology - 2021 & 2028 (%) 8.3 Gene Synthesis 8.3.1 Overview 8.3.2 Gene Synthesis: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 8.4 Genome Engineering 8.4.1 Overview 8.4.2 Genome Engineering: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 8.5 Measurement and Modeling 8.5.1 Overview 8.5.2 Measurement and Modeling: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 8.6 Cloning and Sequencing 8.6.1 Overview 8.6.2 Cloning and Sequencing: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 8.7 Nanotechnology 8.7.1 Overview 8.7.2 Nanotechnology: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 8.8 Others 8.8.1 Overview 8.8.2 Others: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9. Synthetic Biology Market Analysis - By Application 9.1 Overview 9.2 Synthetic Biology Market Share by Application - 2021 & 2028 (%) 9.3 Medical Applications 9.3.1 Overview 9.3.2 Medical Applications: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.3.2.1 Drug Discovery and Therapeutics 9.3.2.1.1 Overview 9.3.2.1.2 Drug Discovery and Therapeutics: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.3.2.2 Pharmaceuticals 9.3.2.2.1 Overview 9.3.2.2.2 Pharmaceuticals: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.4 Industrial Applications 9.4.1 Overview 9.4.2 Industrial Applications: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.5 Food & Agriculture 9.5.1 Overview 9.5.2 Food & Agriculture: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.6 Environmental Applications 9.6.1 Overview 9.6.2 Environmental Applications: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 9.7 Others 9.7.1 Overview 9.7.2 Others: Synthetic Biology Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 10. Global Synthetic Biology Market - Geographic Analysis 11. Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic on Synthetic Biology Market 11.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.2 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.3 Asia-Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.4 Middle East and Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.5 South and Central America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 12. Synthetic Biology Market - Industry Landscape 12.1 Overview 12.2 Growth Strategies in the Synthetic Biology Market (%) 12.3 Organic Developments 12.3.1 Overview 12.4 Inorganic Developments 12.4.1 Overview 13. Company Profiles 13.1 THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC. 13.1.1 Key Facts 13.1.2 Business Description 13.1.3 Products 13.1.4 Financial Overview 13.1.5 SWOT Analysis 13.1.6 Key Developments 13.2 Agilent Technologies, Inc. 13.2.1 Key Facts 13.2.2 Business Description 13.2.3 Products and Services 13.2.4 Financial Overview 13.2.5 SWOT Analysis 13.2.6 Key Developments 13.3 MERCK KGaA 13.3.1 Key Facts 13.3.2 Business Description 13.3.3 Products and Services 13.3.4 Financial Overview 13.3.5 SWOT Analysis 13.3.6 Key Developments 13.4 New England Biolabs 13.4.1 Key Facts 13.4.2 Business Description 13.4.3 Products and Services 13.4.4 Financial Overview 13.4.5 SWOT Analysis 13.4.6 Key Developments 13.5 Integrated DNA Technologies 13.5.1 Key Facts 13.5.2 Business Description 13.5.3 Products and Services 13.5.4 Financial Overview 13.5.5 SWOT Analysis 13.5.6 Key Developments 13.6 Twist Bioscience 13.6.1 Key Facts 13.6.2 Business Description 13.6.3 Products and Services 13.6.4 Financial Overview 13.6.5 SWOT Analysis 13.6.6 Key Developments 13.7 GenScript Biotech Corporation 13.7.1 Key Facts 13.7.2 Business Description 13.7.3 Products and Services 13.7.4 Financial Overview 13.7.5 SWOT Analysis 13.7.6 Key Developments 13.8 Novozymes A/S 13.8.1 Key Facts 13.8.2 Business Description 13.8.3 Products and Services 13.8.4 Financial Overview 13.8.5 SWOT Analysis 13.8.6 Key Developments 13.9 Codexis 13.9.1 Key Facts 13.9.2 Business Description 13.9.3 Products and Services 13.9.4 Financial Overview 13.9.5 SWOT Analysis 13.9.6 Key Developments 13.10 Amyris Inc. 13.10.1 Key Facts 13.10.2 Business Description 13.10.3 Products and Services 13.10.4 Financial Overview 13.10.5 SWOT Analysis 13.10.6 Key Developments 14. Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/otcjef Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Data Show INT230-6 is Well Tolerated and Elicits Both Direct Tumor Killing and Immune Activating Effects in a Variety of Sarcomas In a Heavily Pre-Treated, Mixed, Advanced Sarcoma Population, the Median Overall Survival (mOS) of INT230-6 Alone was 649 Days (n=15) When Combined with Ipilimumab, the mOS has not Been Reached with 297 Days of Median Follow-Up (n=12) Full Set of Results to be Presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Both Poster and Oral Discussion Sessions WESTPORT, Conn., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Intensity Therapeutics, Inc. ("Intensity"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of proprietary, novel immune-based intratumoral cancer therapies designed to kill tumors and increase immune system recognition of cancers, announced that data from its ongoing phase 1/2 clinical trial in refractory patients demonstrating the efficacy and tolerability of INT230-6, either as monotherapy or in combination with ipilimumab in patients with relapsed, refractory and metastatic sarcomas, will be presented on June 5, at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting being held in Chicago and virtually from June 3-7, 2022. Abstract Title: INT230-6 monotherapy and in combination with ipilimumab (IPI) across a broad spectrum of refractory soft tissue sarcomas (STS) [Intensity IT-01; BMS#CA184-592]. Presenter/First Author: Matthew Ingham, MD Session Type/Title: Poster Discussion Session/Sarcoma Poster Discussion Session Date and Time: Sunday, June 5, 2022, 12:30 PM 2:00 PM EDT Location: In-Person & On Demand | S404 Abstract Number: 11515 Poster: 420 (9:00 am to 12:00 am EDT) Copies of the presentation materials will also be available on the Intensity Therapeutics website on the publications and posters page, following completion of the live presentation. "Sarcoma has been a very challenging cancer to treat and has proven resistant to checkpoint blockade. Novel immunotherapy-based approaches are needed, and sarcoma is an attractive cancer for intratumoral injection," stated Matthew Ingham, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a principal investigator for the trial. "The results from this ongoing study are maturing and showing compelling early signs of efficacy with this intratumoral approach as monotherapy. Preliminary data from this study also show immune cell infiltration with INT230-6 alone, in sarcoma, which is normally a non-immunogenic cancer type, that may be enhanced by combination with ipilimumab." We are excited to have had our abstract, 11515, selected for both a poster and a podium discussion at ASCO this year," stated Lewis H. Bender, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intensity Therapeutics. "The biomarker and clinical data generated in sarcoma patients provide strong proof-of-concept evidence for our approach and underscore the potential of this new, potential treatment. As recent data readout events in the field of oncology have shown, there remains a high unmet need for novel therapeutic approaches in this deadly disease. With the strength of this data and following a meeting with FDA, we are in the process of designing a phase 3 clinical study." The presentations report the mOS and disease control rate (DCR: CR + PD + SD per the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST)). However, RECIST metrics (sum of longest diameters) to gauge efficacy are only validated for use with systemically delivered therapies. Data generated in the study suggests that RECIST is inadequate with intratumorally (IT) administered INT230-6. In this study, RECIST response is complicated by the amount of INT230-6 repeatedly injected and retained in the tumors prior to the first radiographic scan. Biomarker findings suggest immune infiltration into the tumor microenvironment is occurring that could also increase tumor size. Additionally, results in a neoadjuvant setting (see ASCO 2022 Abstract Number: 605, Poster: 376) show a single injection of INT230-6 can cause near complete necrosis of the tumor without change in diameter. Finally, data reported shows that tumor volume, when calculated using all three dimensions, can be decreasing while the longest diameter of the corresponding tumor is increasing or stable. The lack of correlation between longest diameter and actual volume illustrates that RECIST may be unreliable for use as an efficacy endpoint for IT INT230-6. As of the April 21, 2022 cutoff, the phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluated 27 patients with a heterogenous mix of several sarcoma subtypes including leiomyosarcoma, liposarcoma, pleomorphic sarcoma, chondrosarcoma, sacral chordoma, undifferentiated, connective tissue, osteosarcoma (chondroid syringoma), myofibroblastic, Kaposi, myxoid spindle cell, Langerhans and fibrosarcoma. The preliminary efficacy and safety of either INT230-6 alone (n=15) or in combination with the anti-CTLA-4 antibody, ipilimumab (n=12) were evaluated. Patients were treated with and progressed following a median of three prior therapies in the monotherapy group and five prior treatments receiving the combination. INT230-6 was administered intratumorally every two weeks for five doses either alone or with 3 mg/kg of ipilimumab dosed every three weeks for four doses. Preliminary efficacy measured DCR and mOS. Additional outcome measures included safety/tolerability, response in the injected tumor and the pharmacokinetic profile. The DCR rate >50 days for monotherapy in sarcoma (excluding chordoma) was 56% and the DCR for INT230-6+IPI was 57%. Study IT-01 is a single arm study; however, published clinical phase 1/2 basket trials in sarcoma report mOS, ranging from 7.6 to 9.6 months (Jones et. al., Cancer Chemother Pharmacol (2011) 68:423429; Cassier et. al., Annals of Oncology 25: 12221228, 201; vi. Subbiah et. al., Scientific Reports | 6:35448 2016,). Using the Subbiah study data set and the RMHI scores from the IT-01 study sarcoma patients, a synthetic control group Kaplan Meier (KM) survival curve was generated. The overall survival of the control, all INT230-6 patients in sarcoma and those receiving a cumulative dose of greater than 40% of their total tumor burden (TTB), are shown in the below table. Subjects receiving combination with ipilimumab have not yet reached median survival with 297 days median follow-up. There has been only 1 death reported in the combination group as of data cut-off. The Hazard Ratio (HR) for monotherapy patients to the control was 0.290 CI (0.173, 0.494), whereas the HR for monotherapy patients receiving INT230-6 at a dose great than or equal to 40% of the TTB was 0.236 CI (0.130, 0.423). Data is encouraging though the sample size is small. Sarcoma subtypes may differ between groups and data is still early. Phase 1/2 studies Control (Subbiah) INT230-6 all INT230-6 >40% TTB INT230-6 + IPI Median OS 205 days 649 days 715 days Not yet reached* Confidence Interval - (146, 1219) (649, 1219) Sample size 56 15 11 12 The pharmacokinetic profile for the individual drug components of INT230-6 (cisplatin and vinblastine sulfate) was measured and ~95% of the active agents remaining in the tumor. Additional outcome measures included overall safety. INT230-6, either as monotherapy or in combination with ipilimumab, was well tolerated. The most common treatment related adverse events (TRAEs) were localized tumor-related pain, nausea, fatigue, decreased appetite and vomiting in the monotherapy group. TRAEs were mild to moderate, with 20% grade 3 in the monotherapy group and 11% in combination with ipilimumab. There were no Grade 4 or 5 AEs. About INT230-6 INT230-6, Intensity's lead proprietary investigational product candidate, is designed for direct intratumoral injection. INT230-6 was discovered using Intensity's proprietary DfuseRx technology platform. The drug is composed of two proven, potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, and a penetration enhancer molecule that helps disperse potent cytotoxic drugs throughout tumors for diffusion into cancer cells. These agents remain in the tumor resulting in a favorable safety profile. In addition to local disease control, direct killing of the tumor by INT230-6 releases a bolus of neoantigens specific to the patient's malignancy, leading to engagement of the immune system and systemic anti-tumor effects. Importantly, these effects are mediated without the immunosuppression of concomitant systemic chemotherapy. About Intensity Therapeutics' Clinical Studies INT230-6 is currently being evaluated in several phase 2 cohorts (NCT03058289) in patients with various advanced solid tumors as part of Study IT-01. In 2019, the Company signed a clinical collaboration agreement with Merck Sharpe & Dohme (Merck) to evaluate the combination of INT230-6, Intensity's lead product candidate, and KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck's anti-PD-1 (programmed death receptor-1) therapy, in patients with advanced pancreatic, colon, squamous cell and bile duct malignancies. In 2020, the Company executed a clinical collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate the combination INT230-6 with Bristol-Myers Squibb's anti-CTLA-4 antibody, Yervoy (ipilimumab), in patients with advanced liver, breast and sarcoma cancers. Intensity is managing the individual combination arms separately with each respective partner via a joint development committee. In 2021, the Company executed agreements with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR) to study INT230-6 in a randomized controlled neoadjuvant phase 2 study in women with early stage breast cancer (the INVINCIBLE study) (NCT04781725). About Intensity Therapeutics Intensity Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new immune-based approach to treat solid tumor cancers. Intensity leverages its DfuseRx technology platform to create new, proprietary drug formulations that, following direct injection, rapidly disperse throughout a tumor and diffuse therapeutic agents into cancer cells. Intensity's product candidates have the potential to induce an adaptive immune response that not only attacks the injected tumor, but also non-injected tumors. In addition to the clinical collaborations, the Company executed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Vaccine Branch in 2014. For more information, please visit www.intensitytherapeutics.com and follow the Company on Twitter @IntensityInc. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Intensity Therapeutics' plans, future operations and objectives. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual performance or achievements to be materially different from those currently anticipated. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the initiation and timing of future clinical trials. YERVOY is a trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Contact Information Investor Relations Contact: Rx Communications Group Michael Miller 917-633-6086 [email protected] US Media Contact: KOGS Communication Edna Kaplan 781-639-1910 [email protected] SOURCE Intensity Therapeutics, Inc. Offering mapping, situational awareness, 3D collection, fusion, and exploitation of GEOINT to all government agencies and service commands Key milestone for geospatial intelligence users to acquire global scale commercial 3D solutions on terms that are pre-vetted, negotiated, and immediately available DENVER, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Intermap Technologies (TSX: IMP) (OTCQX: ITMSF) ("Intermap" or the "Company"), a global leader in geospatial content development and intelligence solutions, today announced it has been awarded a Multiple Award Schedule Contract (#47QTCA22D0092) by the General Services Administration (GSA), which is the centralized procurement arm of the federal government. This award gives all Federal Civilian Agencies, the Department of Defense, Federal Agencies, and state and local governments the ability to purchase Intermap's services and solutions through the GSA Schedule. The GSA Multiple Award Schedule, also referred to as the Federal Supply Schedule, is a long-term, U.S. government-wide contract. In 2021, the U.S. government spent $39 billion through the GSA Multiple Award Schedule program (source). This contract vehicle is critical for agencies to access commercial products and services for unexpected, time sensitive, and crisis events. Intermap's GSA Schedule will provide easy and efficient access to timely 3D elevation products, source agnostic processing services, IFSAR data collection technology, as well as airborne sensors and other geospatial intelligence solutions. "We are pleased to offer our GEOINT solutions through a Prime Contractor position on the GSA Schedule," said Patrick A. Blott, Intermap's Chairman and CEO. "Timely 3D Geospatial data is a critical tool for government agencies to better understand their terrain environment and inform strategic and tactical decision-making. The GSA schedule significantly extends the reach and availability of Intermap's products and services." Intermap is a worldwide leader in geospatial solutions with a long history of government contract work. The Company has operated in over 61 countries around the world, helping build critical geospatial infrastructure and enabling partners to make planning decisions affecting national defense, topographic mapping, disaster mitigation, resource allocation, transportation, power management, environmental monitoring, smart city integration and public safety. The GSA Schedule will enable government agencies that did not have a contracting vehicle to acquire Intermap data, solutions, collection, and GEOINT services. Intermap's products and services are also available through contracts with the U.S. Geological Survey GPSC4, NOAA Shoreline Mapping Support Services and NGA Janus Geography. Additional contracting vehicles include NASA SEWP-V, U.S. Army CHESS ITES-3H and ITES-3S, U.S. Navy SPAWAR C-2 and SeaPort NxG, NIH CIO-CS, DHS FirstSource II and ITES-SW2. To learn more about Intermap's government solutions and contracts, visit www.intermap.com/government-regulated-industries. To learn more about GSA, visit GSA.gov. Intermap Reader Advisory Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "will be", "will consider", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Intermap's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, cash available to fund operations, availability of capital, revenue fluctuations, nature of government contracts, economic conditions, loss of key customers, retention and availability of executive talent, competing technologies, common share price volatility, loss of proprietary information, software functionality, internet and system infrastructure functionality, information technology security, breakdown of strategic alliances, and international and political considerations, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed Intermap's Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law. About GSA GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA's mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov. About Intermap Technologies Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap (TSX: IMP;OTCQX: ITMSF) is a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions. The Company's proprietary 3D NEXTMap elevation datasets and value-added geospatial collection, processing, analytics, fusion and orthorectification software and solutions are utilized across a range of industries that rely on accurate, high-resolution elevation data. Intermap helps governments build authoritative geospatial datasets and provides solutions for base mapping, transportation, environmental monitoring, topographic mapping, disaster mitigation, smart city integration, public safety and defense. The Company's commercial applications include aviation and UAV flight planning, flood and wildfire insurance, environmental and renewable energy planning, telecommunications, engineering, critical infrastructure monitoring, hydrology, land management, oil and gas and transportation. For more information, please visit www.intermap.com. SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation Goal to Turn Thousands into PulsePoint Civilian Responders SEATTLE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- King County Fire Chiefs Association and Medic One Foundation today announced the county-wide launch of PulsePoint, a free life-saving mobile app that notifies users when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest and needs immediate help. The announcement highlights National CPR & AED Awareness Week, June 1-7, 2022. "When a person goes into sudden cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR reduces their chance of survival, so immediate help from a bystander who can do CPR is critical," said Dr. Tom Rea, Emergency Medical Services Program Director for King County. PulsePoint is like an AMBER alert for sudden cardiac arrest victims. It uses location-based technology to alert community members to a sudden cardiac arrest in their immediate vicinity so they can get to the victim first and start hands-only CPR in those critical, life-saving minutes before first responders are able to arrive. The app only alerts individuals to a cardiac arrest in public locations, not a private residence, and will now be available for the first time county-wide. In addition, the companion app, PulsePoint AED, allows users to report and update public AED locations so that community members can find a nearby AED when a cardiac emergency occurs. King County 911 dispatchers will also be able to access and share these AED locations with 911 callers. "The PulsePoint app means community members can help save lives by administering hands-only CPR," said Kirkland Fire Chief Joe Sanford. "Whether neighbor or stranger, they can provide immediate help to someone in sudden cardiac arrest when they need it most in those crucial minutes before medics get there." This joint effort by King County fire departments, NORCOM 911, Valley Communications, King County Fire Chiefs Association and Medic One Foundation aims to recruit and empower more than 20,000 community members throughout King County to download the free app and become PulsePoint responders. No training is needed and whether or not someone responds is completely optional. Enumclaw Fire Chief Randy Fehr said, "Our citizens are an integral part of the chain of survival and being notified by the PulsePoint app that someone nearby is in cardiac arrest can mean the difference between life and death." With a grant from the Aldarra Foundation, Medic One Foundation is working with local fire agencies to bring PulsePoint to more communities in King and Snohomish counties. King County fire departments joins Seattle, Snohomish County and other fire agencies in western Washington that participate in PulsePoint. The free PulsePoint app is available for iPhone and Android and can be Downloaded here. Both PulsePoint and PulsePoint AED are also available for free download at the Apple App Store and on Google Play. For more information, visit Medic One Foundation . SOURCE Medic One Foundation Students Empowered to Make Real-Life Impact in Ukraine through Donation Drive TUCSON, Ariz., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Learning A-Z , a Cambium Learning Group company, in collaboration with UNICEF Kid Power, a program of UNICEF USA, announced the success of its donation drive to support Ukrainian children. For one week, students were able to donate the stars earned by reading books and completing learning activities on the Learning A-Z platforms to support UNICEF's efforts for the children and families of Ukraine. For every 50,000 stars donated, UNICEF can provide 50 children in Ukraine with access to an Early Childhood Development Education Kit. "Empathy begins with understanding," said Lisa O'Masta, president of Learning A-Z. "This donation drive starts the conversation of understanding and gives the chance to make a difference that doesn't stop with students in Ukraine, feeding families in the US, or providing clean water to other countries. It helps students ask more questions, understand why things are happening, and question what role they can play in making life better for others. Teaching students they can positively impact our world is a wonderful gift." In total, students around the world enthusiastically donated over 313,000 Learning A-Z stars, resulting in support for over 6,278 Ukrainian children with access to Early Childhood Development Education Kits. Learning A-Z students surpassed their goal of providing access to the kits to 2,500 Ukrainian children in just two days of donating. On average, students who participated in the star donation drive read three times more books, advanced in reading levels more quickly, and showed much higher engagement than students in classrooms that did not participate in the donation challenge. "Social media and technology can be a tool for positive engagement, and no one knows that better than students," said O'Masta. "Students are seeing kids just like them suffering in Ukraine and want to help but might not know how to get started. This donation drive isn't simply about expressing empathy, but also empowering students to help children and families in Ukraine. Students want to make an impact, and what better way to do so than through their own joy of learning?" Distributed through UNICEF and UNHCR's jointly established Blue Dot safe spaces and other distribution channels, Early Childhood Development Education Kits contain items such as stuffed animals, toys, games, puzzles, and school supplies, as well as hygiene and caregiver materials. Located at key points along border crossings in neighboring countries, Blue Dot hubs provide children a safe, welcoming place to rest, play, and simply be a kid at a time when their world has been abruptly turned upside down. "We've seen a tremendous number of youth who are eager to help the children and families of Ukraine and have felt compelled to take action; and now, they can," said Wendy Zachrisen, Senior Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at UNICEF Kid Power. "Learning A-Z students have been so generous throughout all of our donation campaigns, and I can't think of a better way for all of us to end the school year together than by spreading even more compassion and kindness through helping the children of Ukraine." UNICEF Kid Power and Learning A-Z have collaborated on previous donation drives to help families in need worldwide access healthy meals and clean water. The most recent donation drive took place in March 2022 and resulted in students donating 111,899 healthy meals distributed in the United States and 1,175,440 days of clean water donated to communities worldwide. About Learning A-Z Learning A-Z delivers pre-K6 solutions that inspire curiosity, ensure comprehension, and instill the joy of learning in elementary students. Its award-winning digital products, which include Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids, are used by more than 12 million students in more than 170 countries. Learning A-Z is a Cambium Learning Group company. For information, please visit www.learninga-z.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter . About UNICEF The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to pursue a more equitable world for every child. UNICEF has helped save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization by providing health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief, and more. UNICEF USA advances the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world's most vulnerable children. Together, we are working toward a world that upholds the rights of all children and helps every child thrive. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org . About UNICEF Kid Power UNICEF Kid Power, a program of UNICEF USA, is a free interactive video platform that helps children discover how their everyday activities such as moving and learning can make a difference in the world. As children interact with Kid Power Up videos, they unlock critical support that UNICEF and its partners distribute to children who need extra support in our global and local communities. To learn more, visit www.UnicefKidPower.org . About Cambium Learning Group Cambium Learning Group is the education essentials company, providing award-winning education technology and services across the K-12 space. With an intentionally curated portfolio of respected global brands, Cambium serves as an education leader, helping millions of educators and students feel more universally seen, valued and supported. In everything it does, the company focuses on the elements that are most essential to the success of education, delivering simpler, more certain solutions that make a meaningful difference right now. To learn more, visit www.cambiumlearning.com or follow Cambium on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium. The Cambium family of brands includes: Cambium Assessment, Lexia Learning, Learning A-Z, Voyager Sopris Learning, ExploreLearning, Time4Learning and Kurzweil Education. Media Contact: Erin McCreadie [email protected] SOURCE Learning A-Z The multi-year initiative will establish the LG Guggenheim Award, which will recognize one artist annually for their groundbreaking achievements in technology-based art. Administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the award will be juried by an international panel of distinguished museum directors, curators, scholars, and other arts professionals, with the selected artist receiving an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000. The first recipient of the LG Guggenheim Award will be announced at the YCC Party in spring 2023. As part of the initiative, LG Display will sponsor the Guggenheim's YCC Party through 2027. The YCC is a dynamic group of young professionals dedicated to supporting the museum's landmark building, exhibitions, collection, and educational programs. The YCC Party is one of the largest, most glamorous events of the year and raises important funds for acquisitions of artwork. Through its sponsorship of the party, the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative will provide essential support of the museum's mission to collect, preserve, and interpret the art of our time, expanding the YCC's long-standing history of supporting emerging artists. This year, the YCC Party featured atmospheric club designs by artists Jacolby Satterwhite and Tourmaline and transparent OLED displays, with performances by Perfume Genius and Maya Margarita, as well as DJ sets by TT Britt. Future parties will feature additional engagements by rising artists who will incorporate LG OLED technology into their activations of the Guggenheim's landmark building. The initiative will also be supported by the appointment of an LG Electronics Assistant Curator, who will take an active role in developing and supporting the Guggenheim's engagement with digital and technology-based art, under the supervision of the museum's senior curatorial staff. This newly-created, research-based position will promote a deeper understanding of the ways contemporary artists are engaging with computer-based hardware, the internet, augmented and virtual reality software, artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and other burgeoning technologies. Not only managing the LG Guggenheim Award process, the LG Electronics Assistant Curator will work with the museum's education, conservation, and communications departments to develop scholarship and other public-facing content that will support and enhance the initiative. The LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative reflects the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's distinguished history of global collaborations, as manifested today in its international network of museums and programs. Through the sustained support of a long-term partnership with the Guggenheim, LG aims to help usher in a new wave of digital creativity, combining cutting-edge solutions from LG Electronics and LG Display with the unmatched artistic sensibilities of the Guggenheim. Seol Park, Head of Brand Management of LG Corp. comments, "We are thrilled to collaborate with the Guggenheim Museum to support creativity in the digital age. LG's commitment to realizing technologies that touch people's lives is very much in line with the Guggenheim's dedication to highlight era-defining artistic expressions. We look forward to making available our exclusive innovations to the creative community and helping define the role of technology in this century as the enabling medium for human expressions and experiences." Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, comments, "We are especially proud to be partnering with LG on this initiative, which builds on the Guggenheim's rich history of innovative, artist-driven programs. By promoting scholarship and public engagement, the LG Guggenheim initiative will provide essential support to the visionary artists who inspire new understanding of how technology shapes and is shaped by society." About LG LG is a technology innovator and global leader in consumer electronics, chemicals, and automotive components. Founded in 1947, LG was a driving force behind South Korea's modernization. The company produced South Korea's first radio and television sets, and today is a global leader in organic light-emitting displays (OLED), electric car batteries, and advanced industrial plastics. The LG group of companies employ over 250,000 people in more than 60 countries that together generate USD 154 billion in annual revenue. LG Corporation (LG Corp.) is the holding company for industry-leading LG subsidiaries, such as LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Energy Solution, LG Chem, to name a few. For more information about the LG group of companies, visit www.lgcorp.com. About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums comprises the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. An architectural icon and "temple of spirit" where radical art and architecture meet, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is now among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To learn more about the museum and the Guggenheim's activities around the world, visit guggenheim.org. For additional information: Seul A Lee LG Corp. +82 2 3773 2163 [email protected] Sara Fox Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation +1 212 423 3840 [email protected] SOURCE LG Corp. "I remind myself everyday about where this company came from..." Tweet this Humble Beginnings In 2006, founder Shawn Noratel left his job at Borcz + Dixon (now AdsIntelligence), and launched Liquified Creative, an agency of one that initially offered creative and web design services supporting the efforts of various regional agencies, public relations firms, and non-profit organizations. Bootstrapped since day one, Noratel started with a computer, a desk, and the humble ambiance of his basement. "I remind myself everyday about where this company came from, leading me to instill the concept in my team that greatness comes not only from humility, but accepting challenges that are greater than yourself. I believe that helps drive the collaborative nature of the work that we produce each and every day," says Noratel. "This is what led me to grow. I've always believed in the power of collaboration. It's why we approach every client project as a true partnership." In the early years, Liquified Creative produced creative for clients such as Bozzuto Homes, Maple Lawn, Broadstripe, and National Geographic. Liquified's current portfolio still includes a wide variety of clients such as Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation, Providence Center, AeroVanti Airlines, Wye River Group, Annapolis Plastic Surgery, DeCaro Auctions, American Breast Cancer Foundation, and Realtime Medical Systems, among others. Continued Growth Agency leadership continues to be acutely aware of changing consumer habits and evolving technologies which are shaping individuals' engagement with media. As a result, Liquified Creative has evolved to a strategically led, full-service creative agency. Most recently, the agency has added a public relations division, offering clients a full suite of communication services. "Our agency success and growth are directly attributable to the strength and talent of our team," says Caitlin Wiggins, Liquified's current Director of Marketing. "We've positioned ourselves as a thought leader through our non-traditional conformities providing clients with everything they need under one roof, no matter the ask. That's why I could not be more thrilled to announce the new public relations division of the agency as we continue to support our clients with a truly holistic approach to their brand development initiatives." To support the launch of the company's public relations division, Liquified Creative brought on Jaclyn Fenton as Associate PR Manager. Fenton joins Liquified Creative from 10 Tampa Bay, where she was an associate producer with the CBS television affiliate serving Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida. Working closely with producers and executive producers, she developed special newscast segments, wrote for 10 Tampa Bay's social media and digital platforms and managed long-term news projects. While the agency is cultivating the next generation of leadership for the future, Noratel continues to actively lead Liquified as Founding Partner and Creative Director. The Future is Only the Beginning The agency isn't looking to slow down anytime soon. Noratel points to the continued expansion of staff, capabilities, partnerships, and even office locations. "It's been an amazing journey and I speak for our entire team when I say that we offer our heartfelt thanks to all of our clients and partners who have joined us on this adventure," stated Noratel. "I am so proud of what has been achieved in turning the agency into what it is today. As we look to the future, we're excited about building on that success together in the years ahead." About Liquified Creative Liquified Creative is an award-winning advertising agency based in Annapolis, Maryland. The agency's in-house creative and marketing team provides strategic integrated marketing services, including branding, graphic design, creative web design & development, strategic digital and traditional advertising services, experience marketing, and public relations, among others. The agency works with Fortune 500, top mid-size, and enterprise-level companies throughout Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. SOURCE Liquified Creative First Sites Initiated for Trial Enrollment to Inform Neoadjuvant Targeted Therapy Options for Lung Cancer Patients NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC), facilitated by the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF), announces the initiation of trial sites at USC Norris Cancer Center, University of California-Davis, University of Michigan, and University of Washington for its fourth study, LCMC4 Evaluation of Actionable Drivers in EaRly Stage Lung Cancer (LEADER), examining targeted drugs given as single agents and combinations as neoadjuvant therapies matched to specific genetic mutations. Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium The LEADER trial, together with matched industry-sponsored therapeutic trials, aims to develop data that will support oncologists in their targeted treatment planning for cancer patients prior to surgery by screening for eleven actionable driver mutations in patients. The trial is now open for enrollment and is expected to include more than twenty trial sites, with investigators from across the country. "This effort is an important next step to expand the benefits of targeted treatment to patients with early-stage lung cancers. Comprehensive genomic profiling offers critical insights that allow oncologists to select the best treatments for each individual person. We are eager to see how the results of this study can impact patient care," says Mark G. Kris, MD, Attending Physician, Thoracic Oncology Service, Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and one of the investigators of the LEADER trial. Additionally, a new "Trial in Progress" abstract will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 Annual Meeting on Monday, June 6 by Dr. Kris and Boris Sepesi, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Principal Investigator of the LEADER Trial. They will detail LEADER's primary objective of determining the proportion of resectable NSCLC patients within the trial who possess actionable oncogenic drivers. Results from comprehensive genetic profile testing will inform the LEADER trial sites on their selection of neoadjuvant therapy and enrollment onto independent therapeutic trials with genomically matched neoadjuvant treatment, standard therapies, or other trials if no driver is detected. To access the abstract (Abstract TPS8596), go to meetinglibrary.asco.org. Patients with early-stage lung cancers who are interested in participating in the LCMC LEADER trial should discuss the study with their oncologist to determine eligibility and the process for enrollment. To learn more about LCRF and its grants program, visit www.lcrf.org To learn more about LCMC and the LEADER trial, visit LCRF.org/LCMC4 About the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. LCRF's mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. To date, LCRF has funded 394 research grants, totaling nearly $39 million, the highest amount provided by a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research. For more information, visit lcrf.org. About the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) Focused on deepening our understanding of the genetic changes that underlie lung cancers and on improving outcomes in patients whose tumors harbor these oncogenic drivers, the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) is an association of more than twenty U.S. cancer centers. Through the testing of tumor tissues to uncover genetic changes, LCMC investigators match patients with targeted drugs and clinical trials designed to change the practice of thoracic oncology. The Lung Cancer Research Foundation coordinates and supports the activities of the LCMC. LCMC is a unique model that brings together advocacy, academic, and industry partners in a collaborative setting. This strategy streamlines research efforts, cuts cost and delays, facilitates connections with the lung cancer and advocacy communities, and brings us closer to the goal of precision medicine where therapies are matched to the specific needs of each person with lung cancer. Contact: Sheila Sullivan Sr. Director, Marketing & Communications, LCRF [email protected] SOURCE Lung Cancer Research Foundation HOUSTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Lanier, founder of The Lanier Law Firm, has been named as this year's recipient of the Keith Givens Visionary Award from The National Law Journal and American Lawyer Media. The award honors a member of the bar who has shown extraordinary creativity in bringing the legal industry together, developing new opportunities for business growth, and supporting the professional development of attorneys across the nation. Mr. Lanier will formally receive the honor at the organization's Elite Trial Lawyers event on July 14 in New York City. The firm is also a finalist for the Governmental Representation Award, given in recognition of performance in significant cases on behalf of states, counties, municipalities, and similar agencies. Cumulatively, Mr. Lanier has garnered almost $20 billion in verdicts during his highly acclaimed career. In November 2021, Mr. Lanier was lead counsel in a federal jury trial that found national retail pharmacies Walmart, CVS and Walgreens responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic in Trumbull and Lake counties in northeast Ohio. A bench trial to determine the associated financial damages in the case was held in May 2022, with a ruling by the court expected this summer. Earlier this year the firm played a key role in reaching a $1.85 billion settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors on behalf of the state of Texas, and in 2019 gained a pre-trial $260 million settlement with the nation's three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker on behalf of two other Ohio counties in the opioid multidistrict litigation. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a $2.1 billion judgment gained by Mr. Lanier and the firm against Johnson & Johnson for its role in causing the ovarian cancer of 21 women who used the company's talc-based body powder for decades, unaware of the known risks of asbestos in the products. That accomplishment followed the firm's success in three federal jury trials in which a total of nearly $2 billion was awarded against J&J and its Pinnacle division based on claims from multiple people who suffered serious medical complications caused by the company's defective hip implant devices. In addition to this latest honor, Mr. Lanier has been named as one of the Most Influential Attorneys of the Decade by the National Law Journal; as one of the 25 Greatest Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century by Texas Lawyer; and is a recipient of the American Association of Justice's Lifetime Achievement Award. About the Lanier Law Firm For more than 30 years, the men and women at the Lanier Law Firm have worked tirelessly, throughout the United States, to find unique and effective solutions for their clients. More than 60 skilled attorneys practice law in a broad array of areas, including business litigation, pharmaceutical litigation, asbestos exposure, oil and gas litigation, personal injury as well as defective and dangerous products, among others. Named an Elite Trial Law Firm by The National Law Journal, the Lanier Law Firm has offices in Houston, New York and Los Angeles. To learn more about Mark Lanier and the Lanier Law Firm, visit http://www.lanierlawfirm.com . Media Contact: J.D. Cargill 713-659-5200 [email protected] SOURCE The Lanier Law Firm New Version Makes it Significantly Easier and Faster for Activists of All Levels and Nonprofits to Launch Campaigns, and Supporters to Take Action SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Media Cause , the mission-driven marketing agency focused on helping nonprofit organizations grow and accelerate their missions, today announced the fully redesigned Rally Starter , a fast, simple-to-use platform that makes online advocacy and impact accessible to even the most novice activists, as well as their supporters. "The ability to really enact change requires activists and nonprofits to move beyond just creating petitions that never really go anywhere," says Eric Facas, CEO, Media Cause. "Rally Starter goes several steps further, bringing much-needed speed and simplicity to both novice and seasoned activists as well as nonprofits, as they create meaningful campaigns for causes demanding real-time response." Rally Starter was originally developed in 2015, when Facas set it up to generate support for the release of his close friend, Jason Rezaian, from an Iranian prison. This campaign resulted in a surge of contacts to the Iranian government, ultimately leading to a meeting with the U.S. government and Jason's eventual release. Currently, Media Cause is using Rally Starter to support two of its own campaigns: one is designed to make it easy for people to ask Congress to codify Roe vs. Wade into law, and another focused on combating ageism in the advertising industry. While platforms like Change.org make it easy to create petitions, Rally Starter goes much further, allowing supporters to make calls, emails and tweets directly to key issue decision-makers (via a verified contacts database) in one click. This type of direct contact from supporters has proven far more effective in driving change than simply creating petitions. Rally Starter also features a new, simplified user interface for supporters, as well as a new redirect capability which ensures messages are sent directly from the supporter's email to the intended recipient - thus helping avoid relegation to spam. "With our new version of Rally Starter, our aim is to dethrone the almighty petition as an advocacy and impact tool, because a petition itself should never be considered an end-game," continues Facas. "We believe Rally Starter stands apart from competitive offerings in truly democratizing advocacy and impact for the masses." "In evaluating all of the action platforms and applications on the market, we needed something that was affordable, streamlined, and efficacious. Our primary goal was to channel and direct the interest of our supporters to strategic campaign targets, while building our supporter base. In the world of online action, it benefits our supporters to have the simplest and clearest line to decision-makers. And because our campaigns are ever-changing, we chose Rally Starter for its flexibility and the responsiveness of the platform's support team," says Courtney Vail, Campaign Director, Oceanic Preservation Society . The newly updated Rally Starter is available in a free version (for individual activists who want to take advocacy beyond simple social sharing) as well as a subscription-based version (Pro Rally, at $49/month) for small- and medium-sized nonprofits and grassroots organizers. Downloadable supporter email lists are made available to Pro Rally users. More information on Rally Starter can be found here . About Media Cause Media Cause is a mission-driven marketing agency that helps nonprofit organizations grow and accelerate their impact. Our data-driven approach connects nonprofits with individuals across their entire supporter journey: from awareness and recruitment, to fundraising and advocacy, and every touchpoint in between. Our noteworthy clients include: HeadCount, American Kennel Club, Parkinson's Foundation and many more. SOURCE Media Cause City of Miami teams up with Atlas and CTH to launch inaugural conference MIAMI, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Miami, together with Atlas, a leading Web3 infrastructure service provider and its holding CTH Group, today jointly announced the inaugural MiamiWeb3 conference, which will be staged in Miami at the InterContinental Miami, between November 28th 30th, 2022. Web3 is transforming our lives at an extraordinary pace and is considered the next generation of the internet, underpinned by blockchain and distributed computing technologies. It is expected to create new economic paradigm, with digital asset markets, NFTs and Metaverses among the many applications that are already being built on Web3. From the hardware to DApps, Web3 is changing the way we work, live, socialize, play and transact in both physical and emerging virtual worlds. The flagship conference will be the first-of-its-kind in the region, creating an important platform to discuss trends and topics emerging from the Web3 revolution, ranging from building the Layer 0 infrastructure and protocols, to unlocking new business models in Layer 4. Another core topic on the agenda will be Web3's environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) impact in the coming years, with a particular focus on how the Web3 revolution can spur green energy adoption, foster improved financial, healthcare and educational outcomes for global populations, and offer better tools for governing communities and societies. The event will convene a range of global industry leaders including government officials, renowned start-up founders, pioneering investors, and trend-setting institutions with the aim of helping shape the future of the sector. It is expected to attract over 3,000 delegates and participants from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, with the full agenda and speaker list to be released in the coming months. Raymond Yuan, founder and Chairman of Atlas, said, "We are witnessing a once-in-a-generation leap from Web2 to Web3. Investment is rapidly growing, as is the number of developers, projects, and institutions in the ecosystem. As a company focused on underpinning the future of Web3, we believe it is important to bring the ecosystem together to discuss and shape its development in a sustainable and equitable way. There is no better place to do so than in Miami, which has fast become the hub for Web3." Miami is host to range of conferences including Bitcoin 2022, CryptoWorldCon, Metaverse Miami and the North American Bitcoin Conference. Francis Suarez, Mayor of Miami, said, "I am thrilled to welcome the inaugural MiamiWeb3 and Miami is honored to host this flagship conference. Web3 is already transforming our everyday lives and the future of the global economy. Miami is now at the cutting edge of this revolution, and this annual Web3 conferencestrategically synchronized with the Art Basel Miami festival--will keep Miami at the strategic forefront of Web3 technology in the years ahead." The MiamiWeb3 conference will follow Atlas' "Building Web 3.0" preview conference in Austin on the June 7th ahead of Consensus. More details of the conference can be found at miamiweb3.com. About Atlas Headquartered in Singapore, Atlas is a global Web3 infrastructure-as-a-service group that drives the evolution of Web3 the next phase of the internet. The company offers a broad range of value-added services including application-specific computing, node infrastructure, networking, hardware, API support and storage for the Web3 ecosystem. Atlas is committed to be a global leading next-generation Web3 infrastructure provider that advocates sustainable growth, green energy adoption, power usage efficiency and stability to drive the Web3 evolution. Atlas operates in North America, Asia and Europe with plans to expand in other regions. It is one of the largest application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) companies in the world. As a firm believer of sustainable growth, Atlas aims to adopt 100% clean energy to power our computing operations by 2024. SOURCE Atlas Technology Management District looks forward to system's ease of use and "great customer experience" MIDLAND, Mich., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Edupoint Educational Systems announced today that Midland Public Schools (MPS) has selected the company's industry-leading Synergy Student Education Platform for its K-12 student information and learning management needs. The district's Synergy solution will include Synergy Student Information System (SIS), Synergy Online Registration, Synergy MTSS, and Synergy Special Education (SE). MPS serves nearly 7,500 students at 12 schools in Central Michigan and will be supported by Edupoint business partner Computer Management Technologies (CMT). Midland leadership began looking for a new student information system (SIS) when the SIS the district had used for nearly 20 years could no longer meet critical needs. The district assembled an inclusive evaluation team ranging from district administrators to classroom teachers and special services staff, with cohorts led by subject matter experts from all major functional areas. Following a rigorous, months-long review of four student information systems, MPS selected Synergy Education Platform. Synergy Education Platform is a comprehensive student data management ecosystem that provides the real-time performance data educators need to improve learning outcomes for students while also helping districts streamline processes, improve communication, and increase collaboration. Synergy provides student information management, online registration, learning management, assessment, MTSS, special education, and analytics in one seamless platform that includes a powerful suite of native, role-based mobile apps. "We were looking for ease of use and a great customer experience for our staff," said David Dziedzic, Director of Technology at MPS. "We conducted quite a few reference checks, and I can't tell you how many of the Edupoint customers absolutely glow about Edupoint and the Synergy product. There are a lot of features and efficiencies in Synergy that are going to help our district. We're looking forward to giving data owners control over building their own workflows for their departments, simplifying the way we manage data in co-teaching situations, and offering online registration to our families for the first time when we roll out this summer." "By selecting Synergy Education Platform and Edupoint, Midland Public Schools is not only getting a powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use student data management solution, but also a true partner for the long term," said Rob Wilson, President and Chief Innovation Officer at Edupoint. "We have a saying here at Edupoint 'Customer First, Always' but when our client districts echo that sentiment among one another you know it really means something. We are pleased to welcome MPS as part of the Synergy family and look forward to supporting the district's commitment to providing equitable learning opportunities to meet the needs of all students." About Edupoint For over 35 years, the leadership of Edupoint Educational Systems has provided well-designed, technologically advanced student data management systems that empower K-12 stakeholders to improve student achievement. Synergy Education Platform by Edupoint is an industry-leading student data management ecosystem built to fit the way educators already work. Synergy is unique among K-12 student data management solutions in providing an array of role-based mobile apps designed to give all stakeholders access to the tools they need when and where they need them. More than 5 million students use Synergy in 22 states. https://www.edupoint.com/ IMAGE: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/22-0602-s2p-edupoint-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE Edupoint Educational Systems Explore the agile leadership strategies and flexible technologies organizations need to unlock resilience. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Next week, MIT Technology Review, in partnership with Charter, welcomes live audiences to the MIT campus for its signature event on the future of work, EmTech Next. Hosted as a hybrid experience June 7-8, the two-day program features an all-star lineup of speakers from organizations such as Walmart, Meta, Levi Strauss, and Google sharing the must-have strategies to create an adaptable organization and the essential technologies that make it possible. "The workplace has changed radically," said Mat Honan, editor in chief of MIT Technology Review. "Hybrid work is here to stay. The great resignation has made it easier than ever for employees to change jobs. It can be daunting. But smart employers can embrace these changes and get out ahead of them. At EmTech Next, we're going to dive into the technologies and tactics leaders need to know about to navigate the future of work." This year's conference focuses on resilience and resurgence. Through live presentations, interactive Q&A sessions, and thought-provoking interviews, EmTech Next will provide attendees with trusted guidance on agile leadership strategies and the flexible technologies that will power the workplace and workforce of tomorrow. "The smartest leaders are looking to researchers and their peers for takeaways for navigating the changing workplace," said Kevin Delaney, editor in chief and chief executive of Charter. "This unique convening at the MIT Media Lab will provide actionable insights for a better, more dynamic future of work." The in-person experience includes live sessions at the renowned MIT Media Lab, exclusive tours, interactive demos, and onsite networking. All participants will have access to an online event platform for live-streamed content, videos on demand, and interactive discussions. For full conference details, visit emtechnext.com. EmTech Next Presenting Partners are Deloitte Consulting LLP, one of the world's largest business consultancies and a leader in human capital consulting; and Intel, an industry leader creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. For additional partnership opportunities, please contact Andrew Hendler at [email protected]. Media who would like to cover the event should email [email protected] to learn more about obtaining press credentials. About MIT Technology Review Founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, MIT Technology Review is a world-renowned, independent media company whose insight, analysis, and interviews explain the newest technologies and their commercial, social, and political impacts. MIT Technology Review derives its authority from its relationship to the world's foremost technology institution and from its editors' deep technical knowledge, capacity to see technologies in their broadest context, and unequaled access to leading innovators and researchers. MIT Technology Review's mission is to bring about better-informed and more conscious decisions about technology through authoritative, influential, and trustworthy journalism. Subscribe. Listen. Attend. Follow: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. Media Contact: MIT Technology Review [email protected] SOURCE MIT Technology Review Founded in 2018 and based in Vancouver, Canada, Monos targeted an underserved section of the travel market in terms of high quality, well-designed luggage that stands the test of time, all at an affordable price point. The DTC brand's philosophy is mindful travel. Hubert Chan, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder says, "We started by creating the suitcase we always wanted, but couldn't find. Since those early days, we've expanded our product lineup beyond luggage, branching out into other product categories including bags and apparel. We consider ourselves to be not just a luggage brand, but a travel lifestyle brand. For us, travel is an all-encompassing experience and we want to offer a diverse range of products that reflects that." The timing of the company's inception unfortunately intersected with the COVID-19 outbreak. Chan acknowledges, "Not long after we launched Monos, and we were starting to see some traction and momentum, the global pandemic essentially shut down worldwide travel. It was a scary time for us as a company." But in an innovative move, Monos changed gears and came up with a tool that matched the global situation. Chan says, "We knew we had a great team, so rather than dwelling on the situation, we pivoted and shifted our resources into creating the CleanPod UVC Sterilizer, a portable travel wand that uses ultraviolet-C light to disinfect surfaces. With all of our efforts focused on that, we were able to bring it to market in about six weeks. It found an immediate market fit at the height of the pandemic, and generated a lot of PR coverage. That really helped us stay afloat during this time when no one was thinking about travel. From there, we were able to parlay that success into marketing at a time when other travel brands had essentially stoppedthrough that, we were able to capture market share, and we saw luggage sales pick up again. We also accelerated our product roadmap, launching the Metro collection of bagsthe Metro Backpack, Duffel, Folio Kit and Slingas well as the Kiyo, a travel water bottle that uses UVC technology to purify drinking water. So we were able to not only survive the pandemic, but thrive. And now we're coming out stronger than ever with a lot of exciting new products in the works." Kathleen Westerhout, Director of Product says, "I recently joined Monos and saw right away that we could use a tool like PLM to help centralize everything in one place. I have 10 years of product design and development experience and have worked at large companies with PLM systems. So I understand how foundational PLM is for a company to be able to grow and scale. One area that Monos wants to improve is vendor communication. Westerhout says, "Our vendors need to be able to see what we're seeingthe exact same format, exact same information because at the moment, we're using a lot of different tools that don't connect with each other and don't synchronize, so there's a lot of information in different places. It's challenging to stay organized and be on the same page with our vendors." She describes the PLM selection. "It really came down to a couple of things. First was Centric's option for emerging brands. It fits the stage we're at as a smaller company. Second, is customer experience. From the very beginning, the communication with Centric has been super clear and very professional. They answered all our questions; we feel like a valued customer. What also made the difference, besides choosing the right platform for us, was that we felt like we'd have the support to actually see this project through and be able to build the tool the way that we want. I already have trust in the [Centric] team that they're going to support us for the whole journey." Chan outlines the expectations for Centric PLM. "To have one source of truth for everything. We'll have all of our materials, trims, everything centralized. We'll get our vendors on board. Even product information on our online siteif something gets updated, we won't have to think of everywhere that it lives on the website to make the changes since we'll have that single source of truth," says Chan. President and CEO of Centric Software, Chris Groves, says, "We are delighted that Monos, our 20th customer in Canada, has chosen to partner with Centric. They've already proven how innovative and agile they are and we can't wait to see their continued success in the future." Learn more about Centric PLM Request a Demo Monos is a Canadian travel and lifestyle brand offering high quality, beautifully designed suitcases, bags, and accessories, and inspiring people to travel in a mindful and present way to embrace the journey as much as the destination. Thoughtfully designed in Canada with meticulous attention to detail, each Monos suitcase uses only the finest quality parts and materials sourced from around the world. Monos believes that in today's throwaway society of mass consumption, more people are yearning for fewer but better things. With a 'less is more' design approach, Monos is on a mission to unite thoughtful simplicity with exceptional quality in its collection of premium travel goods. For more information, please visit [monos.com](https://www.monos.com/) Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com) From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a Product Concept to Consumer Digital Transformation Platform for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics and consumer goods including cosmetics and personal care and food and beverage. Centric's flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLM, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Retail Planning is an innovative, cloud-native solution powered by Armonica Retail S.R.L., that delivers an end-to-end retail planning process designed to maximize retail business performance. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planning and more as well as creative tools such as Adobe Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric's innovations are 100% market-driven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs. Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systemes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021. Centric Software is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. SOURCE Centric Software ATHENS, Ga., June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FormFree today announced that its AccountChek digital asset verification service supports a new enhancement to Freddie Mac's Loan Product Advisor (LPASM) asset and income modeler (AIM) solution that makes assessment of borrower employment easier, faster, less expensive and more fraud-resistant. Under Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide requirements, with limited exceptions, mortgage lenders must verify each borrower's employment during the initial loan application, then again within 10 days of the loan's closing date. The verification, done prior to closing, is officially known as the 10-day Pre-Closing Verification or "10-day PCV." To fulfill the Freddie Mac 10-day PCV requirement, lenders have historically had to furnish a verbal, email or written verification of employment (VOE) or pay a third-party service provider for an electronic VOE report. Now, with the latest enhancement to AIM, lenders can automatically satisfy the 10-day PCV requirement using account or payroll data using FormFree's AccountChek. Automation of the 10-day PCV using account data is available to all Freddie Mac clients effective June 1. Freddie Mac describes the service as "an improved way to assess borrower employment" that offers superior speed, cost and fraud resistance compared to alternatives. "Verifying a loan applicant's employment in the runup to the loan closing protects lenders, investors and borrowers alike. But the process can be time-consuming and expensive, and it's only gotten worse with so many Americans working remotely," said FormFree Chief Customer Officer Christy Moss. "The Work Number is expensive. Manual employment verification is time-consuming. Using direct-source asset data to fulfill the 10-day PCV is an economical and efficient solution, and it couldn't come at a better time for an industry that is losing sleep over razor-thin margins." AccountChek streamlines the mortgage process by empowering borrowers to share their asset and payroll data electronically in an underwriter-friendly format lenders can use to assess asset, income, and employment in seconds. By leveraging a business-applicable refresh period, lenders that use AccountChek for a loan applicant's initial employment verification will be able to generate the VOE report within 10 days of closing. For more information, visit https://formfree.com/pre-closing-verification. About FormFree As the industry's go-to provider for direct-source VOA and VOI/E data, FormFree helps lenders understand credit risk like never before. Our patented AccountChek and Passport products open doors to more inclusive credit decisioning by revealing each customer's true ability to pay (ATP). We have completed over $3 trillion in loan verifications that help lenders lower operating costs while improving the borrower experience. For more information, visit https://www.formfree.com/ or follow FormFree on LinkedIn . Twitter: @RealFormFree @FreddieMac #mortgage #mortgageindustry #fintech #digitalmortgage This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE FormFree WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has selected a variety of projects that take innovative approaches to broadening student participation in science, technology, engineering, and math to receive awards totaling approximately $12.5 million. The awards will help the sponsoring colleges, universities, and informal education institutions like museums, bring spaceflight inspiration and high-priority research opportunities to students from communities underrepresented in STEM fields. "Reaching students with authentic STEM experiences and opportunities is an investment in the workforce we'll need to meet our nation's goals in space today, and in the future," said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It's vital we continue to collaborate with educational institutions and support their efforts to bring the excitement of NASA's missions to the students in their communities." The awards are funded through three of NASA's Office of STEM Engagement programs: NASA's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which provides meaningful aerospace research opportunities to students in eligible U.S. jurisdictions; Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) for American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement (MAIANSE), which serves Native American and Indigenous communities; and Next Generation STEM (Next Gen STEM), which focuses on sparking a love of STEM among students in grades K-12. Boosting Research that Contributes to NASA NASA EPSCoR's Research cooperative agreements enable college and university students to contribute to studies that align with the agency's priorities and provide a boost to areas that historically offered few opportunities to participate in aerospace research. Through the 2022 NASA EPSCoR Research solicitation, the agency has awarded more than $10.4 million to 14 universities to conduct research and technology development in areas important to the agency's mission. The selected institutions and their proposed projects are: University of Alaska, Fairbanks Translating Hibernation for Space Torpor and Remote Emergency Medicine University of Arkansas, Little Rock Arkansas - ARKSAT-3: Toward the Development of Technologies and Science Missions for Interplanetary CubeSats Flying in Formation as Active Spectroscopy Instruments University of Delaware , Newark High Performance W-band GaN Power Amplifiers for Cloud Doppler Radar Arrays University of Idaho , Moscow On-Demand Manufacturing of Smart Systems for Structural Health Monitoring University of Kentucky, Lexington Multi-Scale Data-Driven Modeling of Radiative Transport Through Thermal Protection Systems Maine Space Grant Consortium, Augusta Metastable Oxygen Nanobubbles to Advanced Life Support Systems in Space Exploration University of Mississippi , Oxford Development of an Improved Visualization Tool for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Mississippi Sound Coastal Waters using Integrated NASA Satellite and Novel Autonomous Surface Vessel Collected Field Datasets Montana State University, Bozeman A Transdisciplinary Approach to Assess Measurements of Albedo Across Snowy Landscapes Using Multiple Sensors at Multiple Scales University of Nebraska, Omaha Femtosecond Laser Functionalized Surfaces for Cryogenic Fluid Management University of New Hampshire, Durham High-Temperature Effective Piezoelectric Composites for Future Space Self-Powering Sensors University of Puerto Rico , San Juan Paving the Way for Astrophysics Research in Puerto Rico Brown University , Providence, Rhode Island Planetary Methane in Ultramafic Contexts: Searching for Cyclicity in Methane Emissions at a Planetary Analog Site in Northern California University of The Virgin Islands , Charlotte Amalie Application of UAV and Satellite Based Optical Sensors to Help Preserve the Coral Reefs of the US Virgin Islands West Virginia University, Morgantown Surface States and Doping in Aluminum Prototypes for NASA Detector Development Weaving Indigenous Culture with NASA Missions Through MAIANSE CONNECT, NASA requested proposals centered on the weaving of indigenous knowledge with NASA missions. The solicitation addressed the needs of indigenous communities to be served in culturally relevant and respectful ways. The agency selected three minority-serving institutions to receive nearly $1.3 million in cooperative agreements for four projects aimed at fostering connections between indigenous culture and NASA. While MAIANSE has historically provided support to Tribal Colleges and Universities, MAIANSE CONNECT expanded eligibility to include other institutions, specifically Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions. The selected institutions and their proposed projects are: Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, New Mexico NASA and the Navajo Nation: Weaving Western STEM and Navajo Traditional Knowledge into an Educational Ecosystem Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, New Mexico NASA MAIANSE CONNECTing Scheme for Promoting Indigenous Culture and Ethics among Students (SPICES) with STEM Northern Oklahoma College , Tonkawa Exploring the Sun and the Night Sky Through the Lens of the Skywatchers University of Hawaii, Honolulu Ka malamalama o ka mahina: Building Pathways for Indigenous Lunar Science in Hawaii Supporting STEM in Underserved Communities NASA's Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program has selected an additional informal education organization to help inspire the next generation of explorers and to expand student participation in STEM fields. The agency has selected Adler Planetarium in Chicago and its proposed project, Climate Change and Me: Engaging Young People with NASA Data, Missions and Careers through Immersive Visualizations, Planetarium Programs, and Virtual Experiences. Through on-site and virtual field trips, students in grades 5 through 8 will learn about global climate change concepts, analyze data and various factors that may determine how certain human activities affect the Earth's climate. Adler Planetarium joins three awardees announced in January 2022. The agency will award approximately $800,000 to each of the selected organizations, which will implement their proposals over the next two to four years. Informal education institutions, such as science museums, planetariums, libraries, zoos, and more, are uniquely positioned to reach students, including those who are historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields. TEAM II awards are funded through NASA's Next Generation (Next Gen) STEM project, which focuses primarily on reaching K-12 and informal education to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and astronauts. The STEM experiences funded by TEAM II directly align with NASA missions. NASA's Office of STEM Engagement develops unique resources and experiences to spark student interest in STEM and build a skilled and diverse next generation workforce. For the latest NASA STEM events, activities, and news, visit: https://stem.nasa.gov SOURCE NASA HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA launched the second phase of its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge to advance technology that is quite literally groundbreaking. The challenge invites the public to advance system technology for excavating and delivering lunar resources. High on NASA's list of innovation priorities are technologies that use the Moon's resources to support sustainable surface operations while decreasing supply needs from Earth. This includes systems that could convert lunar ice into rocket fuel, drinkable water, or other vital resources. "As NASA works to extend human exploration of the solar system, our first stop is a sustained presence on the Moon," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "New technologies and systems like these are essential for us to set a new paradigm for exploration." Phase 1 of the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge launched in 2020, seeking to incentivize innovative approaches for excavating icy regolith or Moon dirt and delivering acquired resources in extreme lunar environmental conditions. NASA has identified several technology gaps related to harvesting and moving large quantities of resources on the Moon, including hardware capable of operating in the extreme cold and permanent to near-permanent darkness. Robotic systems for excavation will need to withstand the harsh environments inside permanently shadowed regions at the lunar South Pole, the targeted landing site for crewed Artemis missions where ice has been observed. In Phase 2 of the challenge, teams will be asked to design, build, and test an icy regolith excavation system prototype and an icy regolith transportation system prototype to maximize resource delivery while minimizing energy use and the mass of equipment delivered to the lunar surface. Phase 2 contains three levels, will last for 23 months, and offers a total prize purse of $3 million. In Phase 2 competition level one, teams will develop detailed engineering designs and long-duration demonstration test plans for their prototype systems. Eligible U.S. teams that meet submission requirements for Phase 2 competition level one will be awarded an equal share of the $500,000 prize purse. All teams that meet the submission requirements for Phase 2 competition level one will advance to Phase 2 competition level two. In Phase 2 competition level two, teams will build terrestrial analog full-scale prototypes and conduct durability demonstrations. The top-scoring U.S. team will receive $300,000; the second-highest scoring U.S. team will receive $200,000; the third-highest scoring U.S. team will receive $125,000; and up to five U.S. runners-up will receive $75,000 each. Up to 15 teams including winners and runners-up that exceed the minimum score will advance to Phase 2 competition level three. In Phase 2 competition level three, teams will test the prototype systems built in Phase 2 competition level two. The top-scoring U.S. team will receive $1 million, and the second-highest scoring U.S. team will receive $500,000. In addition to cash prizes, NASA will also award opportunities to test concepts in a thermal vacuum that will simulate the temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions at the dusty lunar South Pole. Up to three top-scoring international teams will be recognized as winners in competition level two and competition level three. International teams are not eligible to be awarded prize money or thermal vacuum testing opportunities. In 2021, NASA awarded 13 teams a share of a $500,000 prize purse for their Phase 1 designs of system architecture for collecting and moving large amounts of icy regolith and water from a permanently shadowed region near the Moon's South Pole. Teams had seven months to register and submit a detailed system architecture, an excavation plan, and an animation of the system in operation. Thirty-one teams including academia, industry, and independent inventors from 17 U.S. states, Canada, Australia, and Sri Lanka submitted eligible proposals. Phase 1 teams, as well as new competitors, are encouraged to register for Phase 2 on the challenge site by 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2022. The Break the Ice Lunar Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Centennial Challenges are part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA has contracted Ensemble Consultancy to support the management of competitors for this challenge. For more information about the challenge, go to: https://breaktheicechallenge.com/ SOURCE NASA WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement from Jen Judson, President of the National Press Club and Gil Klein, President of the National Press Club Journalism Institute on the shooting death of Palestinian Journalist Ghufran Hamed Warasneh while she was on her way to work in the city of Hebron on the West Bank. "We are calling attention to another shooting of a Palestinian journalist by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The killing of Ghufran Hamed Warasneh, a radio presenter who was commuting to work, requires a full and fair investigation. This tragic event follows the fatal shooting last month of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Shireen was also an American citizen and the Club has called for an impartial investigation into her case as well. "According to reports Ghufran studied journalism and graduated from Hebron University. She worked at various news outlets for three years before landing her current job at Dream, a local news agency. She was on her third day at that job when she was killed. Ghufran's mother reported that she was apprehended by Israeli authorities in January after her coverage of a pro-Palestinian march and held for three months in custody. Her camera equipment was confiscated and destroyed. She was 31. According to reports she was shot in the chest while being questioned by soldiers at a checkpoint near the al-Arroub refugee camp." Contact: Bill McCarren, 202-662-7534 for the National Press Club SOURCE National Press Club PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Nova Bus, a member of the Volvo Group and a leading North American transit bus manufacturer, is pleased to announce its first contract with the City of Huntsville, Alabama, for the purchase of up to 12 clean diesel buses. The buses will be assembled at the Nova Bus facility in Plattsburgh, New York State. This is the first purchase of 40-foot buses for Huntsville Transit that will be integrated into their 10 bus routes. It is the high performance of the clean diesel buses that convinced Huntsville to partner with Nova Bus. The buses will be delivered with EPA-compliant engines, which improve fuel efficiency and reduce harmful emissions. "The City of Huntsville looks forward to working with Nova Bus as we aim to provide better service to our riders. We believe these additional buses will allow us to serve more residents as we look to increase our capacity and reduce wait times," said Quisha Bryant, Director of Parking and Public Transit. "We are very happy about this partnership with the City of Huntsville, and we are delighted to help them in their transition to high-performing vehicles, as the use of public transportation saves billions of gallons of gas every year and a typical trip on public transit will emit over 50% fewer gas emissions than driving," said Martin Larose, President of Nova Bus. "We are also looking forward to this summer's demonstration of our hybrid model to the City of Huntsville, as it is essential for us to support transit agencies in their evolution towards electromobility so that we can meet our collective greenhouse gas reduction goals." About Nova Bus Nova Bus, member of the Volvo Group, is a leading provider of sustainable transportation solutions in North America. Its portfolio includes electric, hybrid, CNG and clean diesel buses, high-capacity vehicles, as well as integrated intelligent transport systems. Nova Bus accompanies transit authorities and bus fleet operators in their transition to electromobility with its flagship LFSe+ long-range electric bus, combining the proven Nova Bus structure with the latest innovations in electric drive. Nova Bus is committed to helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and positively contributing to a greener economy. For more information regarding Nova Bus products and services, please visit www.novabus.com . SOURCE Nova Bus Chambers 2022 USA Guide Names Olshan a Leading Law Firm: Shareholder Activism, Advertising, Litigation, Real Estate Tweet this Corporate/M&A Shareholder Activism (New York) Band 1 Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory (USA Nationwide) - Band 4 Andrew Lustigman (Band 2), Partner, Chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice and Co-Chair of the Brand Management & Protection Group Litigation: General Commercial: (New York) Highly Regarded Band 5 Lori Marks-Esterman (Band 5), Partner, Chair of the Litigation Practice Real Estate: Mainly Dirt (New York) - Band 5 Thomas Kearns (Band 4) Partner, Co-Head of Real Estate Practice Olshan's Corporate/M&A Shareholder Activism practice and attorneys Steve Wolosky and Andrew Freedman have been top ranked from the inception of Chambers M&A: Shareholder Activism (New York) category in 2017. Chambers noted that Olshan is the foremost firm for the representation of activist shareholders in their campaign activity, offers a team of dedicated specialist counsel advising leading industry figures in major proxy contests, M&A and associated governance matters, and is adept at handling situations involving both domestic and foreign entities. An interviewee commented that "Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP is very strong in areas of strategy and precise execution." "We have been consistently impressed with the depth and breadth of talent." Steve Wolosky provides foremost counsel to clients in the market's most significant domestic and cross-border shareholder activism matters: "Steve's depth of experience is incredible. He is able to navigate through the most complex board level negotiations with outstanding outcomes." "Steve is one of the most knowledgeable and accessible lawyers out there." Andrew Freedman, held in high regard by clients and peers alike, consider him to be very strong in the counsel he offers to sophisticated activist investors: "Andrew is very sophisticated technically but also strategically and he will go to great lengths to help his clients. I consider him not just a lawyer, but a trusted adviser." "He has an outstanding understanding of the politics and people aspect of activism." "He is a master strategist and extremely savvy." Elizabeth Gonzalez-Sussman represents a clientele of hedge funds and other investors in shareholder activism matters as they occur across a spectrum of industries: "Elizabeth is a very talented lawyer. She is an excellent negotiator who is great at narrowing down to key issues and giving extremely pragmatic advice." Meagan Reda garners praise for the quality of her ascending practice, which is routinely engaged in proxy contests, shareholder activism and M&A, among other matters. She represents prominent hedge funds and other investors: "Meagan is very skilled. She keeps calm, has a rational head and is a pleasure to work with." "Meagan is a zealous representative who is able to produce a high-quality work product." Ryan Nebel is an up-and-coming talent in the world of shareholder activism. Hedge funds and other investors look to him for counsel in high-stakes proxy contests, hostile takeovers and M&A, among other matters: "Ryan is incredibly helpful and attentive. He has a strong sense of urgency and is a great thought partner." "Ryan is excellent and a pleasure to work with." Chambers noted that the Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory (USA Nationwide) practice provides comprehensive advertising counseling for a broad client base consisting of corporate brands and marketing agencies and offers particular strength in regulatory matters, including NAD proceedings. Areas of expertise include sweepstakes and promotions. An interviewee commented that "Olshan is extremely easy to work with. The attorneys are accessible, responsive and serve as expert-level counselors. They are very astute and knowledgeable in all aspects pertaining to my company's needs." "Their responsiveness exceeds my expectations. They also articulate complex legal matters in a down-to-earth way that is easy for us to understand and implement." "We have been extremely satisfied and impressed by their knowledge, acumen and experience in all areas of the law with which we have needed assistance." Andrew Lustigman, acknowledged by Chambers for fifteen consecutive years, provides clients with legal advice on a wide range of advertising concerns, from structuring sweepstakes to regulatory proceedings: "Andy has always been an outstanding guy to work with." "Andrew is very responsive when contacted and oftentimes the question is answered, or the issue is handled directly after one conversation." "He is a very strong team leader who handles our corporate legal affairs with the utmost professionalism and accuracy." The Litigation: General Commercial: Highly Regarded (New York) practice is noted by Chambers as a broad-based litigation practice which combines recognized strengths in shareholder activism with capabilities in diverse commercial disputes, including contractual matters, real estate litigation and securities fraud. Clients include public companies and several prominent hedge fund management firms. Lori Marks-Esterman is noted as a strong choice for hedge funds, public companies and shareholders in contentious matters arising from merger transactions. Chambers noted that the Real Estate: Mainly Dirt (New York) group has a broad practice that is regularly called upon by a diverse client base of investors, developers and owners to advise on complex real estate mandates. Expertise includes acquisitions, financings and large-scale leasings. An interviewee commented that "The firm's lawyers very much know what they are doing, while also being commercial and reasonable." Thomas Kearns has significant experience in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate including leasing and acquisitions: "He has deep expertise in ground leasing and joint ventures. He pays attention to the big picture, but also masters the details including the development of real estate law through decided cases." Olshan has been consistently recognized as one of the premier mid-sized law firms in the country, including named by Legal 500 US 2021 as a Top Tier 1 Firm in Shareholder Activism with five partners acknowledged in the practice, along with recognition of the Advertising Practice and two attorneys; selection of nine of the firm's lawyers as The Best Lawyers in America 2022 along with the selection of two lawyers to the "Ones to Watch" list; named as a "Best Law Firm" 2022 by U.S. News-Best Lawyers for Securities/Capital Markets, Real Estate, Advertising, Trusts & Estates, Commercial Litigation and Employee Benefits; and the selection of 36 attorneys to the Super Lawyers 2021 New York Metro list. The National Law Journal has honored Olshan twice as a top 20 midsize law firm in its "Midsize Hot List" and has included the firm in its "NLJ 500" list. Olshan's Shareholder Activism Practice has consistently received top rankings across the board in every influential league table and publication that covers shareholder activism. Olshan's no. 1 ranking is highlighted in league tables and publications that cover shareholder activism, including FactSet, Bloomberg Activism Advisory League Tables, Refinitiv Global Shareholder Activism Scorecard and Activist Insight Monthly. Chambers USA is a prestigious annual ranking of law firms and attorneys recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise. Receiving a tier designation reflects the high level of respect a firm has earned among other leading lawyers and clients in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, their professionalism and their integrity. About Olshan Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, a law firm based in New York, represents major businesses and entrepreneurs in their most significant transactions, problems and opportunities. Olshan's clients range from public companies, hedge, venture capital, private equity and other investment funds to entrepreneurs and private companies worldwide. Clients choose Olshan for innovative strategies and sophisticated, game-changing advice in corporate, securities law, equity investment and shareholder activism, complex commercial, corporate and securities litigation, real estate, intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, and advertising. Since its founding, Olshan has offered an alternative to the AmLaw 50 law firm business model with responsive, independent and client-focused legal counsel provided by the firm's senior lawyers. Contact: Madelaine Miller Strauss [email protected] 646.331.2691 SOURCE Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP "Despite all the challenges facing our communities, we were proud to open 20 new locations and provide essential financial services," said Rob Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer, OnPoint Community Credit Union. "Access to in-person financial services and education is more important than ever as our communities continue to navigate an increasingly complex economy. Working with a community pillar like Fred Meyer allows us to meet members where they are and connect with them on a deeper level, so we can fully understand their challenges and create a roadmap to help them accomplish their goals." Special promotions and branch details In celebration of its vast growth and the new member and community connections it has forged over the last year, OnPoint is offering special promotions from today through July 30 in all 20 in-store Fred Meyer branches. Specific promotions include: $100 when you open a membership with a checking account 1 when you open a membership with a checking account $50 for opening a new credit card 2 for opening a new credit card $800 off closing costs on a first mortgage 3 off closing costs on a first mortgage Up to $175 off a home equity line of credit 4 off a home equity line of credit 0.25% off standard consumer loan rates 5 0.25% APY increase on any published CD rate 6 In addition to the special promotions, each in-store branch will host weekly giveaways for $100 OnPoint Visa gift cards. Branch staff will also hold raffles for gift baskets and OnPoint branded merchandise. Access to financial services builds strong communities OnPoint's historic growth in the last year has helped ensure communities that were previously under- or un-banked now have convenient access to financial services. Over the last three decades, the number of banking institutions has declined by 66%, with the nearly 18,000 branches operating in 1984 dwindling to fewer than 5,000 in 2021. As financial institutions continue to close, "branch deserts" have emerged in lower-income and minority communities, requiring residents to travel long distances to access in-person financial services, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). "Working so closely with our communities, we hear time and again how important access to in-person financial services is for individuals, families and businesses," said Cory Freeman, Vice President and Regional Manager, OnPoint Community Credit Union. "When a community loses access to financial services, residents may turn to alternatives that are more expensive and sometimes unscrupulous, such as check-cashing stores or payday lenders. Branch closures also create barriers for small businesses, many of which are located in communities of color. When local entrepreneurs lose access to in-person banking, securing the loans they need to expand their business can be more challenging. We are pleased to fill this gap and look forward to supporting more residents and small business owners in our second year of operation within Fred Meyer stores." Charitable Giving Grows Alongside Network of Branches As OnPoint has expanded its geographic footprint, it has also increased its support of the communities it serves, donating $2.2 million in 2021 to 304 non-profits across Oregon and Southwest Washington. A new record for the credit union's annual giving program, OnPoint's donations focused on education, climate change, services for vulnerable groups of people, and diversity, equity and inclusion. As part of their giving efforts this year, OnPoint will donate $1,000 to 20 different non-profits that serve the communities of OnPoint's in-store branches. Click here to learn more about the many ways OnPoint invests in its communities. Below is the full list of OnPoint's 20 new in-store branches. Visit onpointcu.com/locations-atms/ to view the full list of OnPoint's 55 branches, as well as 60,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide. Sandy , 16625 SE 362nd Dr., Sandy, OR 97055 East Gresham , 2497 SE Burnside Rd., Gresham, OR 97080 Cornelius , 2200 Baseline St., Cornelius, OR 97113 South Hillsboro , 6495 SE Tualatin Valley Hwy., Hillsboro, OR 97123 158th Walker Rd, 15995 SW Walker Rd., Beaverton, OR 97006 Beaverton Town Sq, 11425 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy., Beaverton, OR 97005 Hollywood , 3030 NE Weidler St., Portland, OR 97232 67th & Glisan, 6615 NE Glisan St., Portland, OR 97213 Scappoose , 51501 Columbia River Hwy., Scappoose, OR 97056 Burlingame , 7555 SW Barbur Blvd., Portland, OR 97219 Tigard , 11565 SW Pacific Hwy., Tigard, OR 97223 Tualatin , 19200 SW Martinazzi Ave., Tualatin, OR 97062 Johnson Creek , 8955 SE 82nd Ave., Portland, OR 97266 South Salem, 3450 Commercial St. SE, Salem, OR 97302 Albany , 2500 Santiam Hwy. SE, Albany, OR 97322 Santa Clara , 60 Division Ave., Eugene, OR 97404 Springfield , 650 Q St., Springfield, OR 97477 Salmon Creek, 800 NE Tenney Rd., Salmon Creek, WA 98685 Orchards, 7411 NE 117th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98662 Hazel Dell , 7700 NE Highway 99, Vancouver, WA 98665 ABOUT ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 480,000 members and with assets of $9.4 billion. OnPoint membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 28 Oregon counties (Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark) and their immediate family members. More information is available at www.onpointcu.com or 800-527-3932. 1: Consumer bonus: To qualify, individuals must open a new membership with a personal checking account and receive direct deposit of at least $500 to that account within 60 days of the open date. A bonus of $100 will be credited to their checking account approximately 60 days after new account is opened. Accounts must be open and in good standing at time of payout to receive bonus. As of 5/1/22, APY (annual percentage yield) for Interest Checking is 0.05%. APY is subject to change. $500 minimum balance for Interest Checking; no minimum balance for OnPoint Checking. When Interest Checking average monthly balance falls below $500, a $7 monthly service fee applies. Fees may reduce earnings. Bonus will be included on a 1099-INT for tax purposes. Cannot be combined with other offers for opening a new membership, such as OnPoint Savers or Refer a Friend. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations. Offer valid through 7/30/22 and subject to change. The Fred Meyer consumer bonus is not available to existing members. Business bonus: To qualify, a new membership must be opened with a business checking account and receive $500 in deposits to that account within 60 days of the open date. A bonus of $100 will be credited to their business checking account approximately 60 days after new account is opened. Accounts must be open and in good standing at time of payout to receive bonus. Bonus will be included on a 1099-INT for tax purposes. Cannot be combined with other offers for opening a new membership, such as OnPoint Savers or Refer a Friend. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations. Offer valid through 07/30/22 and subject to change. The Fred Meyer business bonus is not available to existing members. 2. To qualify, individuals must apply for a credit card by 07/30/22. To earn the $50 bonus this must be a new Visa relationship. Bonus does not apply to existing Visa loans that are transferred or converted to a new card. Applicants who are approved by 8/15 will be credited a bonus of $50 to their savings account on or around 8/30/22. To be eligible for this bonus offer, credit card account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. Bonus will be included on a 1099-INT for tax purposes. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations and subject to change. 3: OnPoint will waive up to $800 off the closing costs on any new first mortgage purchase or refinance. This offer applies to all OnPoint Mortgage standard products and cannot be used in combination with any other OnPoint Mortgage promotional offers. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations. Offer valid through 07/30/22 and subject to change. 4: OnPoint Community Credit Union will waive up to $175 off closing costs on any new EquityFlex Line of Credit product. This offer applies to standard rate EquityFlex Line of Credit products and cannot be used in combination with any other EquityFlex Line of Credit promotional offers. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations. Offer valid through 07/30/22 and subject to change. 5: OnPoint will take 0.25% off standard consumer fixed APR (Annual Percentage Rate) loans. This offer excludes line of credit products, mortgage products, and the refinance of existing OnPoint loans. Auto payment from an OnPoint Checking or Savings account is required. This offer applies to standard consumer loan rates and cannot be used in combination with any other consumer loan promotional offers. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer locations. Offer valid through 07/30/22 and subject to change. 6: APY = Annual Percentage Yield. OnPoint Community Credit Union will add 0.25% to Certificate of Deposit (CD) rates. This offer applies to all OnPoint CD products and cannot be used in combination with any other CD promotional offers. Offer only available at OnPoint Community Credit Union's Fred Meyer Locations. Offer valid through 07/30/22 and subject to change. Promotion period ends July 30, 2022. Click here for the 2022 OnPoint Fred Meyer Branch Anniversary Prize Raffle Official Terms and Conditions. SOURCE OnPoint Community Credit Union "The Oyster Recovery Partnership has led the way in efforts to protect and preserve the regional oyster population, and we're proud to continue our partnership with ORP that highlights our company commitment to environmental stewardship and strengthening the vitality of the Bay watershed through this volunteer effort," said Drew Getty, vice president of environmental sustainability and government relations for Perdue Farms. The Maryland Grows Oysters program, an initiative of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, provides an opportunity for waterfront property owners to grow oysters from their piers to be planted on local oyster sanctuary preserves around the Bay watershed to help rebuild the oyster population. The cages are used to support the growth of young oysters during their most vulnerable first year of life. Once the oysters are about one inch in size, they are planted on local sanctuaries where their filtration powers will be put to work enriching tributaries' ecosystems and providing habitat for marine life, such as fish and crabs. "Perdue Farms is a long-time supporter of efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay," said Paul Schurick, director of ORP partnerships. "The work of Perdue associates will have a direct and meaningful impact on oyster restoration and improve water quality." This marks Perdue's 13th year partnering with ORP for community-based conservation efforts. Learn more about how Perdue is helping protect the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. "At Perdue, our stewardship value guides us in our commitment to protect the environment and we take great pride in efforts that enable our associates to give back for the betterment of our community and the environment," said Mark Patterson, project coordinator for Perdue's oyster volunteer efforts. About Perdue Farms We're a fourth-generation, family-owned, U.S. food and agriculture company. Through our belief in responsible food and agriculture, we are empowering consumers, customers, and farmers through trusted choices in products and services. The premium protein portfolio within our Perdue Foods business, including our flagship PERDUE brand, Niman Ranch, Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Meats, Coleman Natural, and Yummy, as well as our pet brands, Spot Farms and Full Moon, is available through various channels including retail, foodservice, club stores, and our direct-to-consumer website, PerdueFarms.com. Perdue AgriBusiness is an international agricultural products and services company. Now in our company's second century, our path forward is about getting better, not just bigger. We never use drugs for growth promotion in raising poultry and livestock, and we are actively advancing our animal welfare programs. Our brands are leaders in no-antibiotics-ever chicken, turkey, pork, beef and lamb, and in USDA-certified organic chicken and beef. Learn more at Corporate.PerdueFarms.com. About The Oyster Recovery Partnership The Oyster Recovery Partnership has a 20-year-history of bringing together state and federal government agencies, scientists, watermen, and conservation organizations with the common goal of oyster restoration. ORP has planted more than 9 billion oysters on 3,000 acres of reef and recycled more than 250,000 bushels of oyster shell. For more information about the Oyster Recovery Partnership, visit oysterrecovery.org or call 410-990-4970. About Marylanders Grow Oysters The Marylanders Grow Oyster program is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the Oyster Recovery Partnership, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and local organizations. For more information about Marylanders Grow Oysters, visit this link. SOURCE Perdue Farms Mr. Javier Miyares and Dr. Savitri Dixon-Saxon join Rasmussen University with over 75 years of combined experience in institutional and academic leadership. MINNEAPOLIS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rasmussen University today announced that Javier Miyares has been appointed Acting President, effective June 1, 2022, by the Rasmussen Board of Directors. Tom Slagle, Rasmussen's current Chief Executive Officer, will be retiring August 1, 2022, and will work with Mr. Miyares through that date on transition matters. A nationwide search for a permanent replacement is being launched. In addition to the appointment of Mr. Miyares, the University is pleased to announce that Dr. Savitri V. Dixon-Saxon, Ph.D., LCMHC, has joined Rasmussen University as Provost. In this role, Dr. Dixon-Saxon will support the University mission by leading University functions including academics, student affairs, accreditation, and diversity and inclusion and will focus on delivering a learning experience that promotes high-quality education for all students. Mr. Miyares is a highly respected academic leader with over 45 years of experience driving innovation and change in campus-based and online higher education, including eight years most recently as President of University of Maryland Global Campus. Mr. Miyares has also served on several notable boards and commissions, including the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education; as a commissioner with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; on the Board of Directors of Achieving the Dream; and on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Advisory Committee on Education. Mr. Miyares earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology at University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). He completed all requirements but the dissertation for a doctorate in Educational Measurement and Statistics. Dr. Dixon-Saxon joins Rasmussen with over 30 years of service at public and private institutions in both academic and student affairs. Most recently, Dr. Dixon-Saxon served as Vice-Provost for Walden University, where she provided oversight for the Division of Healthcare Quality and Access which included the Colleges of Nursing, Social and Behavioral Health, and Allied Health, serving over 25,000 students in the nursing, psychology, and counseling verticals. She established three colleges, four schools and 11 academic programs as well as the accreditation for five counseling programs by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and accreditation of the Master of Social Work program and the Bachelor of Social Work program through the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE). Dr. Dixon-Saxon earned both her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications and Master of Education in Student Personnel Services from the University of South Carolina; a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Walden University; and a Ph.D. in Counselor Education from North Carolina State University. Dr. Henry Bienen, Chair of the Board of Rasmussen University, said, "We wish to congratulate Tom on his retirement and thank him for his stewardship of the University through a variety of expansions, transitions, and successes over his 12 years as CEO. While Tom's leadership will be missed, we are gratified that Javier and Savitri are joining us at this important time in the University's history, and we know they have the experience and foresight to help guide us forward." Mr. Miyares said, "Rasmussen has for over 120 years focused on preparing students for success. I am extremely honored to step into the acting president's role for the national leader in nursing education, with a footprint of 23 campuses in six states and extensive online offerings ranging from certificates to doctoral programs. We will continue our commitment to our mission, which includes empowering our students, faculty, and staff to exceed the expectations of society through academic excellence, community enrichment, and service to the public good." Mr. Miyares continued, "We are excited to welcome Dr. Savitri Dixon-Saxon to the University team. She possesses a student-first mentality combined with tenacious curiosity and a growth mindset, consistent with Rasmussen's mission and culture." Mr. Slagle added, "I have been blessed and privileged with the opportunity to work with an amazing board of directors and a team of individuals who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our students during a transformative period for the University. I have the utmost confidence in what the University will achieve going forward under Javier and Savitri's leadership." ABOUT RASMUSSEN UNIVERSITY: Rasmussen University, a university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, is dedicated to changing lives and the communities it serves through innovative and flexible educational programs. As a pioneer in career-focused education since 1900, the University is defining a new generation of higher education that focuses on competency-based education, technology and transferrable skills. Rasmussen offers undergraduate and graduate programs online and in person at 23 campuses around the country. The University is designed to lift and support its students every step of the way, from each student's first credential to their last. Rasmussen is dedicated to global enrichment, serving the underserved and meeting the evolving needs of diverse students, communities and economies. Rasmussen encourages its students, faculty and staff to strive for academic excellence, community enrichment and service to the public good. For more information about Rasmussen University, please visit www.rasmussen.edu. CONTACT Frank Tutalo Director of Public Relations, APEI [email protected] 571-358-3042 SOURCE Rasmussen University The Summit is a platform to equip the new generation leaders and stimulate attendees, mostly young people to align with plausible steps to attain their life goals on issues of relationship, entrepreneurship, career, leadership and politics, as well as empower emerging entrepreneurs. According to the host, Femi Aminu, this year's edition is a greater convergence of youths who will be nurtured and guided to greater achievements. Speakers expected include: Pastor Ituah Ighodalo; senior pastor and founder of the Trinity House, Lagos and also a senior partner in SIAO - a professional services firm, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe; the Founder of African Institution of Technology and Lead Faculty for Tekedia Institute, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi is currently the Chairman of the Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspapers where he writes a weekly column, 'The Verdict, Evang. Gloria Bamiloye is the Co-founder and Co-president of The Mount Zion Faith Ministries International, Nigeria. The keynote speaker for this edition is Pastor Charles Kpandei, the Head of the Blessed family and Pastor in charge of Region 11. Commenting on the programme, the Pastor in charge of Lagos province 19, Pastor Bisi Olowoyo said over the years, RECALP Summit has recorded tremendous progress and growth in geometric proportions. And we believe God that the 8th Edition will be another time full with insights and testimonies Olowoyo said that as part of the strategy to deepen the reach of the event, RECALP 2022 would be telecast live online and on DoveTV. The programme will also be streamed live on the onlinetv Kairos WebTV. RECALP Summit commenced in 2015 as an annual youth programme. RECALP 2022 Summit offers great opportunity through empowerment, networking and exhibition for emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs, an improvement and deeper inclusion as this is the 8th edition. Attendance at the five-hour summit remains free and registration can be made on http://www.recalp.org/register SOURCE RCCG Award ceremonies for the scholarship program took place on June 1 at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York and on June 2 at the Cracovia Manor in Wallington, New Jersey, with the third one scheduled for June 4 at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Illinois. Majority of scholarship recipients attending the ceremonies were accompanied by their extremely proud parents. PSFCU President/CEO Bogdan Chmielewski welcomed the recipients at the New York ceremony stressing the importance of ties between the Credit Union and the Polish American community. "Investing in the young generation is the best investment our Credit Union could make," Mr. Chmielewski said. "I congratulate you on the success you have already achieved and I wish you much success in your further professional life, so that you could also translate your academic and professional success to some extent into the success of our entire ethnic group in the United States." First Vice-Chairwoman of the PSFCU Board of Directors, Ms. Malgorzata Gradzki could not hide how proud she was with the young PSFCU members. "We are very proud of you and we hope that in your future career you will not forget about the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union," she said. "I hope that you will all live the issues of the Polish American community - because one of the goals of our program is to encourage you to participate in the initiatives of our ethnic group, in its cultural events, and in our community organizations." As in previous years, this year's edition of the PSFCU scholarship program consisted of two separate parts: for college-bound high-school graduates and for current university students. The program for high-school graduates was coordinated by the New York Credit Union Association. In addition to evaluating the submissions of applicants from several dozen New York credit unions, NYCUA also granted forty five scholarships to the best applicants. Fifteen of the forty five scholarships were issued to young PSFCU members. The program for current university students is an autonomous PSFCU program. Applicants were evaluated by college professors based on their study results, as well as active participation in the life of the Polish American community. Since the inception of its scholarship program in 2001, Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union has issued over six and a half million dollars in scholarships to a total of over 5,500 students. About the PSFCU Founded in 1976 by a group of Polish immigrants to help other ethnic Poles obtain mortgages, the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union now has 21 branches in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, Pennsylvania, a Mortgage Center in New Britain, CT and an operations center in Fairfield, NJ. In addition, PSFCU offers mortgage loans on properties located in the state of Florida. Credit union members can access our services through our Online Banking, accessible on our www.psfcu.com website, or through our mobile app or utilize a Mobile Branch, a specially equipped vehicle used during special events, providing all services available at a traditional brick-and-mortar location. The 45-year-old credit union has over $2.6 billion in assets and serves over 108,000 members. SOURCE Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union Creating the largest suite of military brands and content in the digital media landscape NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recurrent Ventures announced its acquisition of We Are The Mighty , a veteran-led digital publisher and media agency servicing brands with video production, marketing, advertising, and consulting services to engage with the military community. Following We Are The Mighty's acquisition, Recurrent has the largest military footprints in digital media. Founded in 2014, WATM is led by servicemen and women who are focused on capturing, empowering, and celebrating the voice of today's military community through digital, film, and events platforms. We Are The Mighty CEO and Air Force veteran, Mark Harper will continue to oversee day-to-day operations for the WATM team, within Recurrent's Auto and Military vertical, led by General Manager, Jason Lepore. WATM's marquee event offering, Military Influencer Conference , founded by Army veteran Curtez Riggs, will remain under Riggs's leadership at Recurrent. MIC is the leading military-focused event for entrepreneurs, influencers, executives, and brands who shape and support the military community. Annually, MIC brings together more than 100 global partners and 2000 attendees over a three-day conference with eight tracks of focus. "It's inspiring to see a team of veterans, military spouses, and first responders produce positive and engaging content for the military community," said Recurrent CEO, Lance Johnson. "We're thrilled to be a part of helping them grow. The company's digital focus complements our other brands and will afford more opportunities for veterans and military reporters to work alongside each other. WATM's unique approach to partnerships will uplevel various aspects of our business, specifically custom content production for our partners and audiences." Harper said, "Since the day We Are The Mighty was founded, our singular goal has been to celebrate service by inspiring, educating, informing, and entertaining our audience. Seven years later, we've grown immensely and continue to create positive digital content and events for the military community. We're honored to join such brands as Task & Purpose , MilSpouseFest , and The War Zone to collectively better serve our audiences." ABOUT RECURRENT Recurrent is a digital media company whose content from trusted brands aims to foster generations of passionate audiences across niche verticals. With social responsibility and sustainability at the center of its storytelling, Recurrent takes an innovative growth approach and creates content that is valuable to its readers, business partners, and the planet. Its titles such as Popular Science, Domino, JancisRobinson.com, Field & Stream, Donut Media, and Task & Purpose inspire and inform more than 60 million unique visitors each month. ABOUT WE ARE THE MIGHTY We Are The Mighty is the premier media brand for the 133 million "mega-niche" community of America's military, veterans and their families. WATM's veteran creators capture this community's voice with original, multi-platform media, branded campaigns and high-profile events. WATM is committed to making a positive impact in the community we serve. Our unique insights, guidance and experience provide distinct value to brands, businesses, and anyone looking to authentically connect with our nation's military-veteran community. For more information, please visit about.wearethemighty.com . SOURCE Recurrent Ventures DALLAS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Risk Point announces another industry leading initiative with the addition of a Meteorologist employee to its insurance services. With weather severity increasing, Risk Point recognizes the need to help dealers improve their reaction to damaging weather. Our Meteorologist will provide daily detailed weather communications to dealers that are forecast to be in the path of severe weather. These communications will be targeted to specific dealer locations, which will be more precise than the forecasts provided by the broadcast media. Dealers will be able to prepare their locations and act in a timely manner to protect their inventory. These daily communications will assist our dealers in controlling their insurance costs by reducing losses, preserving the quality of the dealer's inventory, and minimizing deductibles. Risk Point CEO Gary Marshall says, "Dealers recognize that it is much more costly to have a hail loss than to protect the inventory. We want to give the best information to dealers so they can easily decide whether their inventory should be moved to protection." About Risk Point Risk Point is a full-service Program Manager and leading provider of insurance underwriting and claims expertise to the dealership sector, targeting the Dealer Open Lot and Garage markets. Risk Point is the largest market available to independent retail agents countrywide. Each member of the executive team has over 30 years of experience insuring franchised auto dealers. This experience enables Risk Point to develop unique solutions to niche problems. SOURCE Risk Point, LLC NEW YORK, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Enservco Corporation (NYSE American: ENSV) between May 13, 2021 and April 18, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important July 19, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline. SO WHAT: If you purchased Enservco securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Enservco class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6371 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than July 19, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Enservco had defective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting; (2) as a result, there were errors in Enservco's financial statements relating to, inter alia, its transactions with Cross River Partners and accounting for Employee Retention Credits ("ERCs"); (3) accordingly, Enservco would need to restate certain of its financial statements and delay the filing of its 2021 annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"); (4) Enservco downplayed the true scope and severity of its financial reporting issues; (5) accordingly, Enservco could not file its delayed 2021 annual report with the SEC within its initially represented timeline; and (6) as a result, defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Enservco class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6371 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. The Only History and Directory of the Cybersecurity Industry BIRMINGHAM, Mich., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Author, industry analyst, and founder of IT-Harvest, Richard Stiennon, announced that "Security Yearbook 2022: A History and Directory of the IT Security Industry" has arrived and will start shipping on June 2. The book is available exclusively at www.it-harvest.com/shop . This third edition in the series is the first edition to be printed in color. Security Yearbook 2022 "Security Yearbook 2022" is the third edition to the annual "Security Yearbook," a desktop reference for the entire cybersecurity industry. There are completely updated sections on funding rounds, publicly traded company performance, cyber-attacks, and M&A. The Directory contains 2,850 vendors arranged alphabetically and by country and category compared to the 2,615 that were tracked in the 2021 edition. The most dramatic result of 2021 was in new funding. Cybersecurity investments broke all records: $26 billion compared to the $10.7 billion recorded in Security Yearbook 2021. There were 474 companies that took in new funding. Over 100 vendors took in more than $50 million apiece. Of the 16 sectors, Security Operations grew the fastest at 25% year-over-year, an indication that more enterprises are investing in building SOC capabilities. "Security Yearbook" is the only published history of the IT security industry. The percent change in headcount is provided for each vendor. "This is one of the most valuable metrics for determining a vendor's health," Stiennon said. "Successful companies grow." The result of over a decade of research, "Security Yearbook 2022" starts at the early days of RACF, ACF2, Check Point Software, Symantec, and McAfee, coming right up to the present day, including the dramatic transformation occurring at McAfee as it is reborn under new branding. Security Yearbook 2022 is a book filled with rich histories of the vendors and the people behind the companies the misfits and pioneers that have together built today's $300+ billion cybersecurity industry. Their individual stories are recounted in their own voice alongside the author's market research and analysis, making this a one-of-a-kind read and an indispensable guide to the entire IT security industry. "Security Yearbook has become my life's work," said Richard Stiennon. "It is a full-time job just keeping up with the space. In this book I incorporate everything I have learned in 26 years of being part of an industry that grows over 24% every year." Previous editions of "Security Yearbook" are already an indispensable reference for industry veterans and CISOs. Industry analysts, investors, Wall Street analysts, and marketing teams use it for product selection, and short-listing. The industry is subdivided into 16 different sectors, including Network, Endpoint, Data Security, GRC, and MSSPs. New sectors such as Security Analytics, Threat Intelligence, and Deception will be of particular interest to practitioners who are looking to understand advanced cyber defense tools and practices. The data in "Security Yearbook 2022" is extracted from the Analyst Dashboard, an IT-harvest SaaS platform for researching and mining data on all the vendors. About Stiennon: Richard Stiennon is Chief Research Analyst for IT-Harvest, the firm he founded in 2005 to cover the 2,850 vendors that make up the IT security industry. He has presented on the topic of cybersecurity in 31 countries on six continents. He published Curmudgeon: How to Succeed as an Industry Analyst in 2020. In 2019 he published Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIO's Journey. He also wrote Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and Washington Post Best Seller, There Will Be Cyberwar. He is a member of the advisory board at several technology startups and sits on the boards of Anitian, and QuickHeal. Stiennon was Chief Strategy Officer for Blancco Technology Group, the Chief Marketing Officer for Fortinet, Inc. and VP Threat Research at Webroot Software. Prior to that he was a Research VP at Gartner. He has a BS. in Aerospace Engineering and his MA in War in the Modern World from King's College, London. Follow @cyberwar on Twitter. Press contact: Leslie Kesselring +1-503-358-1012 [email protected] SOURCE IT-Harvest Seqirus is officially recognized by the U.S. government as having successfully established domestic manufacturing capability for innovative cell-based seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines. Holly Springs, N.C. , facility is ready to deliver 150 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine to the U.S. government in the event of an influenza pandemic. SUMMIT, N.J., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Seqirus, a global leader in influenza prevention and a business of CSL Limited (ASX: CSL), today announced that the company's manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, has successfully achieved all criteria required to establish domestic manufacturing capability for cell-based seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines as outlined by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).1 With this recognition, the U.S. government confirms that Seqirus has established and will maintain the required pandemic readiness to deliver 150 million doses of cell-based pandemic influenza vaccine within six months of an influenza pandemic declaration in the U.S. Seqirus has taken numerous steps toward achieving this status, further proving itself capable of delivering innovative pandemic solutions at industrial scale and speed. Seqirus developed the first and only adjuvanted, cell-based influenza A(H5N1) monovalent pandemic vaccine, which was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 in a single dose, prefilled syringe and subsequently approved in 2021 in a multi-dose vial formulation.2 "Serving as a primary partner to the U.S. government in support of its pandemic preparedness plans is both an honor and a tremendous responsibility," said Marc Lacey, Executive Director, Pandemic Response Solutions, Seqirus. "This achievement is due to the success of our longstanding public-private partnership with BARDA to establish domestic cell-based manufacturing capacity. We are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in service of addressing the ever-present threat of an influenza pandemic. We have specifically designed our platform technologies to be scalable, supporting both our seasonal and pandemic vaccine manufacturing needs, and we look forward to a continued productive partnership for many years to come." The Holly Springs manufacturing facility, the largest cell-based influenza vaccine producer in the world and the first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was purpose-built through this public-private partnership with BARDA. The site maintains ongoing seasonal vaccine production and delivery of pre-pandemic annual lots to the U.S. government and is equipped to quickly transition from seasonal to pandemic vaccine production to respond to an influenza pandemic. Seqirus has made many investments in the facility in recent years, including the expansion of a new fill-finish line, which is currently underway. These investments serve to strengthen the company's continuous efforts to increase manufacturing capacity and decrease production time. To support rapid response in the event of an influenza pandemic or other public health emergency, Seqirus is prepared to supply the U.S. government with influenza vaccines and adjuvants, including: AUDENZ (Influenza A(H5N1) Monovalent Vaccine, Adjuvanted), the first-ever adjuvanted, cell-based influenza vaccine designed to help protect individuals six months of age and older against influenza A(H5N1) in the event of a pandemic 2 Data was recently published in the peer-review medical journal Vaccines supporting the immunogenicity, safety and lot-to-lot consistency of AUDENZ in adults (18 years and above) and children (six months to 18 years) 3,4 The company's proprietary MF59 adjuvant, which when added to an influenza vaccine, is designed to enhance and broaden the body's immune response by creating broad, cross-reactive antibodies5 Beyond pandemic preparedness, the joint investment enables Seqirus to sustain the production of differentiated seasonal influenza vaccines, including: FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine), the first and only cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine for individuals six months of age and older without contraindication 6 QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine), the first and only cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine for individuals six months of age and older without contraindication FLUAD QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine, Adjuvanted), the first and only adjuvanted quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine for adults 65 years of age and older7 Seqirus and BARDA Build on Longstanding, Successful Partnership Seqirus has a longstanding partnership with BARDA. The company's manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, the largest cell-based influenza vaccine producer in the world and the first such domestic facility, was built through a public-private partnership established in 2006 with BARDA. The partnership utilizes a highly scalable method of production and is currently positioned to deliver up to 150 million influenza vaccine doses to support an influenza pandemic response, in addition to its seasonal influenza vaccine production. About Seasonal Influenza Influenza is a common, contagious seasonal respiratory disease that may cause severe illness and life- threatening complications in some people.8 Influenza can lead to clinical symptoms varying from mild to moderate respiratory illness to severe complications, hospitalization and in some cases, death.8 Because transmission of influenza viruses to others may occur one day before symptoms develop and up to 5 to 7 days after becoming sick, the disease can be easily transmitted to others.8 Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that during the 2019/20 influenza season, there were an estimated 405,000 influenza-related hospitalizations in the U.S.9 The CDC recommends annual vaccination for individuals aged 6 months and older, who do not have any contraindications.10 Since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body that help protect against influenza virus infection, it is recommended that people get vaccinated before influenza begins spreading in their community.11 The CDC recommends that people get vaccinated by the end of October.11 About Pandemic Influenza Pandemic influenza, is a contagious airborne respiratory disease which is unpredictable in timing and severity.12 The risk of influenza-associated morbidity and mortality is greater with pandemic influenza than with seasonal influenza because there is likely to be little or no pre-existing immunity to the virus in the human population.13 Four influenza pandemics have occurred over the past century, with the 1918 pandemic being the most severe in recent history, estimated to have killed up to 50 million people worldwide.14 According to the CDC, a novel influenza A virus such as the highly pathogenic avian A(H5N1) strain can cause severe disease and have a high mortality rate.15 If the influenza A(H5N1) virus were to change and become easily transmissible from person to person while retaining its capacity to cause severe disease, the consequences for public health could be severe.15 About Seqirus Seqirus is part of CSL Limited (ASX: CSL). As one of the largest influenza vaccine providers in the world, Seqirus is a major contributor to the prevention of influenza globally and a transcontinental partner in pandemic preparedness. With state-of-the-art production facilities in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, and leading R&D capabilities, Seqirus utilizes egg, cell and adjuvant technologies to offer a broad portfolio of differentiated influenza vaccines in more than 20 countries around the world. About CSL CSL (ASX:CSL; USOTC:CSLLY) is a leading global biotechnology company with a dynamic portfolio of lifesaving medicines, including those that treat haemophilia and immune deficiencies, as well as vaccines to prevent influenza. Since our start in 1916, we have been driven by our promise to save lives using the latest technologies. Today, CSL including our two businesses, CSL Behring and Seqirus provides lifesaving products to patients in more than 100 countries and employs more than 25,000 people. Our unique combination of commercial strength, R&D focus and operational excellence enables us to identify, develop and deliver innovations so our patients can live life to the fullest. For inspiring stories about the promise of biotechnology, visit CSLBehring.com/Vita and follow us on Twitter.com/CSL . For more information visit www.seqirus.com and www.csl.com . Intended Audience This press release is issued from Seqirus USA Inc. in Summit, New Jersey, USA and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved Seqirus products may vary from country to country. Please consult your local regulatory authority on the approval status of Seqirus products. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future results, performance or achievements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. USA-PAN-22-0001 MEDIA CONTACT Maria Tortoreto +1 (201) 248-5208 [email protected] AUDENZ (Influenza A(H5N1) Monovalent Vaccine, Adjuvanted) Important Safety Information INDICATION AND USAGE AUDENZ is an inactivated vaccine indicated for active immunization for the prevention of disease caused by the influenza A virus H5N1 subtype contained in the vaccine. AUDENZ is approved for use in persons 6 months of age and older at increased risk of exposure to the influenza A virus H5N1 subtype contained in the vaccine. CONTRAINDICATIONS Do not administer AUDENZ to anyone with a history of a severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any component of the vaccine, or after a previous dose of an influenza vaccine. WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS Hypersensitivity reactions can occur. Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible severe allergic reactions (e.g., anaphylaxis) following administration of the vaccine. If Gullain-Barre syndrome has occurred within 6 weeks of receipt of a prior influenza vaccine, the decision to give AUDENZ should be based on careful consideration of potential benefits and risks. Vaccination with AUDENZ may not protect all recipients. Immunocompromised persons, including those receiving immunosuppressive therapy, may have a diminished immune response to AUDENZ. ADVERSE REACTIONS In adults 18 through 64 years of age, the most common 10% solicited local and systemic reactions reported in clinical trials were injection site pain (64%), fatigue (25%), headache (25%), malaise (22%), myalgia (14%), arthralgia (10%), and nausea (10%). In adults 65 years of age and older, the most common ( 10%) solicited local and systemic reactions reported in clinical trials were injection site pain (36%), fatigue (20%), malaise (16%), headache (16%), and arthralgia (10%). In infants and children, 6 months through 5 years of age, the most common ( 10%) solicited local and systemic reactions reported in clinical trials were tenderness (56%), irritability (30%), sleepiness (25%), change in eating habits (18%), and fever (16%). In children 6 through 17 years of age, the most common ( 10%) solicited local and systemic reactions reported in clinical trials were injection site pain (68%), myalgia (30%), fatigue (27%), malaise (25%), headache (22%), loss of appetite (14%), nausea (13%), and arthralgia (13%). To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Seqirus at 1 855 358 8966 or VAERS at 1 800 822 7967 or www.vaers.hhs.gov. Before administration, please see the full Prescribing Information for AUDENZ. FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine) Important Safety Information INDICATION AND USAGE FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT is an inactivated vaccine indicated for active immunization for the prevention of influenza disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and types B contained in the vaccine. FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT is approved for use in persons 6 months of age and older. CONTRAINDICATIONS Do not administer FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT to anyone with a history of severe allergic reactions (e.g. anaphylaxis) to any component of the vaccine. WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS If Guillain-Barre syndrome has occurred within 6 weeks of receipt of a prior influenza vaccine, the decision to give FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT should be based on careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks. Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible anaphylactic reactions following administration of the vaccine. Syncope (fainting) can occur in association with administration of injectable vaccines, including FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT. Syncope can be accompanied by transient neurological signs such as visual disturbance, paresthesia, and tonic-clonic limb movements. Procedures should be in place to avoid falling injury and to restore cerebral perfusion following syncope by maintaining a supine or Trendelenburg position. After vaccination with FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, immunocompromised individuals, including those receiving immunosuppressive therapy, may have a reduced immune response. Vaccination with FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT may not protect all vaccine recipients against influenza disease. ADVERSE REACTIONS In children 6 months through 3 years of age who received FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, the most commonly reported injection-site adverse reactions were tenderness (27.9%), erythema (25.8%), induration (17.3%) and ecchymosis (10.7%). The most common systemic adverse reactions were irritability (27.9%), sleepiness (26.9%), diarrhea (17.9%) and change of eating habits (17.4%). In children 2 through 8 years of age who received FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, the most commonly reported injection-site adverse reactions were tenderness (28.7%), pain (27.9%) and erythema (21.3%), induration (14.9%) and ecchymosis (10.0%). The most common systemic adverse reactions were sleepiness (14.9%), headache (13.8%), fatigue (13.8%), irritability (13.8%) and loss of appetite (10.6%). In children and adolescents 9 through 17 years of age who received FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, the most commonly reported injection-site adverse reactions were injection site pain (21.7%), erythema (17.2%) and induration (10.5%). The most common systemic adverse reactions were headache (18.1%) and fatigue (17.0%). In adults 18 through 64 years of age who received FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, the most commonly reported injection-site adverse reactions were pain (45.4%), erythema (13.4%) and induration (11.6%). The most common systemic adverse reactions were headache (18.7%), fatigue (17.8%) and myalgia (15.4%). In adults 65 years of age who received FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT, the most commonly reported injection-site adverse reactions were pain (21.6%) and erythema (11.9%). To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Seqirus at 1-855-358-8966 or VAERS at 1-800-822-7967 or www.vaers.hhs.gov. Before administration, please see the full US Prescribing Information for FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT. FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT is a registered trademark of Seqirus UK Limited or its affiliates. FLUAD QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine, Adjuvanted) Important Safety Information INDICATIONS AND USAGE FLUAD QUADRIVALENT is an inactivated influenza vaccine indicated for active immunization against influenza disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and type B contained in the vaccine. FLUAD QUADRIVALENT is approved for use in persons 65 years of age and older. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on the immune response elicited by FLUAD QUADRIVALENT. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. CONTRAINDICATIONS Severe allergic reaction to any component of the vaccine, including egg protein, or after a previous dose of any influenza vaccine. WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS If Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) has occurred within six weeks of previous influenza vaccination, the decision to give FLUAD QUADRIVALENT should be based on careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks. Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible anaphylactic reactions following administration of the vaccine. The immune response to FLUAD QUADRIVALENT in immunocompromised persons, including individuals receiving immunosuppressive therapy, may be lower than in immunocompetent individuals. Syncope (fainting) may occur in association with administration of injectable vaccines including FLUAD QUADRIVALENT. Ensure procedures are in place to avoid injury from falling associated with syncope. ADVERSE REACTIONS The most common ( 10%) local and systemic reactions in elderly subjects 65 years of age and older were injection site pain (16.3%), headache (10.8%) and fatigue (10.5%). Other adverse events may occur. For a comprehensive list of local and systemic adverse reactions, please see full prescribing information. To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Seqirus at 1- 855-358-8966 or VAERS at 1-800-822-7967 and www.vaers.hhs.gov. Before administration, please see the full Prescribing Information for FLUAD QUADRIVALENT. FLUAD QUADRIVALENT is a registered trademark of Seqirus UK Limited or its affiliates. 1This project has been supported in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under Contract No. HHSO100200600012C, HHSO100200700030C, HHSO100200900101C, HHSO100201000061C and HHSO10020100003I. 2AUDENZ (Influenza A (H5N1) Monovalent Vaccine, Adjuvanted) [package insert]. Holly Springs, NC: Seqirus Inc; 2021. 3Peterson J, Van Twuijver E, Versage E, Hohenboken M. Phase 3 Randomized, Multicenter, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate Safety, Immunogenicity, and Lot-to-Lot Consistency of an Adjuvanted Cell Culture-Derived, H5N1 Subunit Influenza Virus Vaccine in Healthy Adult Subjects. Vaccines. 2022; 10(4):497. 4Versage E, van Twuijver E, Jansen W, Theeuwes A, Sawlwin D, Hohenboken M. Analyses of Safety Profile and Homologous Antibody Responses to a Mammalian Cell-Based, MF59-Adjuvanted, A/H5N1, Pandemic Influenza Vaccine across Four Phase II/III Clinical Trials in Healthy Children, Adults, and Older Adults. Vaccines. 2021; 9(12):1468. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9121468 5Banzhoff A, Pellegrini M, Del Giudice G, Fragapane E, Groth N, Podda A. (2008). MF59-adjuvanted vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza prophylaxis. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2008;2(6):243-249 6FLUCELVAX QUADRIVALENT [package insert]. (2021). Holly Springs, NC: Seqirus Inc. 7FLUAD QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine, Adjuvanted) [package insert]. (2020). Holly Springs, NC: Seqirus Inc. 8CDC. (2021). Key Facts about Influenza (Flu). Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/keyfacts.htm. Accessed May 2022. 9CDC. (2021). Estimated Influenza Illnesses, Medical visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths in the United States 20192020 Influenza Season. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2019-2020.html. Accessed May 2022. 10CDC. (2021). WG Considerations and Proposed Influenza Vaccine Recommendations, 2021-22. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-06/03-influenza-grohskopf-508.pdf. Accessed May 2022. 11CDC. (2021). Who Needs a Flu Vaccine and When. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccinations.htm. Accessed May 2022. 12CDC. (2016). Pandemic Basics. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/index.html. Accessed May 2022. 13WHO. (2021). How pandemic influenza emerges. Retrieved from: https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/communicable-diseases/influenza/pandemic-influenza/how-pandemic-influenza-emerges . Accessed May 2022. 14WHO. (2017). Pandemic Influenza Risk Management: A WHO guide to inform and harmonize national and international pandemic preparedness and response. Retrieved from: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259893/WHO-WHE-IHM-GIP-2017.1-eng.pdf;jsessionid=4421F16879D2F8B96481F8D0C745C7F3?sequence=1 . Accessed May 2022. 15CDC. (2015). Highly Pathogenic Asian Avian Influenza A(H5N1) in People. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h5n1-people.htm. Accessed May 2022. SOURCE Seqirus NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ShardSecure , inventor of Microshard technology that mitigates data security and privacy risks in the cloud, today announced the appointment of Pascal Cronauer as Head of European Sales further expanding the company's presence in Europe. Mr. Cronauer, based in Germany, brings over 16 years of cybersecurity experience with a background in both technology and sales. He has led teams in Enterprise and Channel Sales, Product Development, Marketing, Consulting Services, and Customer Success covering industries such as banking, insurance, government, healthcare, and more. His international business experience spanning Europe, the US, UAE, Australia, and Taiwan brings a unique understanding of identifying and addressing the needs of different markets. "It's an exciting time to join the ShardSecure team and I look forward to growing our business throughout EMEA. Europe faces unique cybersecurity challenges, particularly relative to cloud adoption. ShardSecure's Microshard technology offers a unique solution to enable secure cloud adoption while protecting data privacy by leaving data owners in control of their data. This will finally provide a solution to companies that have security concerns about migrating to the cloud," said Cronauer. ShardSecure's Microshard technology protects data by digitally shredding it into microshards that are too small to contain sensitive data. Those microshards are then mixed with poison data and distributed to multiple storage locations of the customer's choosing. Its self-healing data also reverses unauthorized data deletion and tampering including ransomware for data at rest. Microsharding excels at making sensitive data unintelligible in the wrong hands, enabling that data for multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments so that companies can maintain business continuity. The three-step Microshard process renders that data unintelligible and of no value to attackers, drastically mitigating the impact of compromise. "It is a pleasure to welcome Pascal to our team. He will play a strategic role in helping us to sustain our rapid growth and in growing our presence in EMEA. His unique mix of experience makes him the perfect choice to head up our EMEA sales organization," said Bob Lam, CEO and Co-founder of ShardSecure. ShardSecure recently announced its partnership with UK-based Channel partner Praesidium-Cyber as part of the company's European expansion. Contact: [email protected] About ShardSecure ShardSecure is changing the nature of data security. It believes that all organizations can easily and securely enjoy the benefits of cloud adoption without surrendering control of their data. Inventors of patent-pending Microshard technology, ShardSecure cloud-enables sensitive data by desensitizing it in multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments. SOURCE ShardSecure For the ultimate guest enjoyment, the brand is teaming up with chefs Gregory Williams and Jamie Barnes, owners of Charlotte hot spot What The Fries, to create flavor-packed, locally inspired eats featuring Smithfield St. Louis Style Spareribs, Bone-In Pork Butt, Hometown Original Thick Cut Bacon, and Anytime Favoritesa Cubed Ham. Chefs Williams and Barnes will have their food truck on-site to personally craft their culinary creations including Smithfield Gold Finger Spareribs, Smithfield Spicy Strawberry Vinegar Pulled Pork BBQ Fries, and Smithfield Cubed Ham with Mac & Cheese and serve them up to hungry guests. The best part? Event-goers won't have to interrupt their fun-in-the-sun to indulge. Meals can be ordered using QR codes displayed on Smithfield-branded buoys in the lake or signage on the beach. Food will be delivered directly to boats on the lake by servers on jet skis or on foot, right to attendees' towels on the beach. Once day turns to night, guests are invited to enjoy an interactive movie experience at nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Park Amphitheater in Statesville from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Pop-culture classic "The Goonies" will be shown and an array of favorite summertime games, from cornhole to Kan Jam, will be available for family fun. To make the savory night even sweeter, a range of complimentary snacking options will be offered during the movie, including Smithfield Maple Thick Cut Bacon-sprinkled popcorn and candied bacon. "We're excited to share this one-of-a-kind experience with the North Carolina community, so they can spend a fun-filled day at the lake with their friends and family and enjoy some good food, as well," said Michael Merritt, senior director of brand marketing at Smithfield Foods. "We're delighted to team up with What The Fries on these unique and tasty recipes to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy a taste of the local food scene, along with the Smithfield products that they know and love." "At What The Fries, we're all about creativity and community, so we're excited to be on-site and cooking up delicious meals at Smithfield's Hot Grill Summer event. It's not every day your food gets delivered by jet ski!" said Gregory Williams, chef and owner of What The Fries. "We loved using Smithfield products to craft these truly unique and flavor-packed dishes. We can't wait for guests at Lake Norman to try them," said Jamie Barnes, chef and owner of What The Fries. For further details, visit the official event page on Facebook. Make sure to share your grilling masterpieces this season using the hashtag #HotGrillSummer. For more recipes to elevate your summertime festivities and to find Smithfield products, follow Smithfield on Facebook @SmithfieldBrand, Instagram @SmithfieldBrand, or Twitter @SmithfieldBrand, or visit www.smithfield.com. About Smithfield Smithfield isn't only a leading provider of high-quality pork products. We're a leading provider of the most important part of any meal: premium, high-quality meat. And we take our meat duties seriously. After all, the rest of the meal is just a side dish. Smithfield products were first introduced in 1936 in Smithfield, Virginia, by people who lived for the love of meat. Today, the Smithfield brand stands for craftsmanship, authenticity, and pure passion as we continue to give meat-lovers across the country the deliciousness they crave: our classic bacon, slow-smoked holiday hams, hand-trimmed ribs, marinated fresh pork, smoked meats, and even more meaty magic. All Smithfield products not only meet our customers' high flavor standards but also meet the highest quality and safety standards in the industry. All while being produced right here in the USA. To learn more about the Smithfield portfolio of products, please visit www.Smithfield.com and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Smithfield is a brand of Smithfield Foods, Inc. About Smithfield Foods, Inc. Headquartered in Smithfield, Va. since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing "Good food. Responsibly." and serve as one of the world's leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. About What The Fries Since 2015, What The Fries has been serving up elevated and unexpected dishes atop hand-cut fries, as well as handmade tots and sandwiches. The Charlotte-based, family-run restaurant and food truck is led by chef/owners Jamie Barnes and Greg Williams, both founding members of the popular dinner series Soul Food Sessions. The food truck was originally launched after the duo made it to the final rounds of auditions for Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race." What The Fries was featured on Cooking Channel's "Southern and Hungry" in 2018 and "Food Paradise" in 2022. The first What The Fries restaurant opened in March 2021. For more information, visit www.whatthefriesclt.com. SOURCE Smithfield Foods, Inc. -More than a third of all US consumers (39%) have made a purchase on social media and would do so again. -81% of parents with children under age 18 are interested in social commerce. -One in 10 consumers avoids brands' social media pages. CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumer adoption of online shopping, including shopping on social media as more than a third (39%) of all US consumers say they have made a purchase on social media and would do so again. With 90% of consumers aware of brand pages/accounts on social mediaand only 10% who say they avoid brands' social media pagesthe opportunity for engagement is huge. Katie Hansen, Retail and eCommerce Analyst at Mintel, said: "Social commerce is the next evolution of eCommerce and will benefit from Americans' heavy use of online shopping in recent years. As with the adoption of online shopping, it will take time for consumers to become comfortable purchasing items via social media, and even more time for them to do so on any kind of regular basis, but the category will see a boost as a result of increasing engagement from younger consumers as they grow into adulthood and earn more money. That said, social commerce will in no way replace traditional eCommerce or in-store shopping, but it will become a key part of their shopping repertoire," stated Hansen. Security and trust remain big barriers to social commerce While consumers are increasingly curious about social commerce, barriers such as data security and shipping hold some back from participating. Two in five (38%) consumers say they haven't made a purchase directly on a social media platform due to the lack of trust in the security of their payment information, while 23% say it's because they are worried they will never receive their purchase. This signals that education on social commerce is still needed. "As with any new concept, consumers still need a fair amount of education and reassurance on the process, as they are concerned that their data might not be secure and/or that they'll never receive the item they purchase. Brands will need to demonstrate to consumers how shopping on social media is quite similar to shopping via a website or mobile app and how, in fact, social commerce can even further streamline the process," continued Hansen. Consumers want to see themselves reflected in a brand Mintel research shows that social media can be a seamless avenue for brands and consumers to connect. Consumers of varying backgrounds are interested in social commerce, most notable are parents with children under the age of 18 (81%), Millennials (81%), Gen Z (68%), and Black consumers (62%). What's more, nearly three in 10 Black (29%) and Asian (27%) consumers browse for products on social media but purchase on a website. This is true for around a quarter of White (24%) and Hispanic (21%) consumers. This showcases a notable percentage of consumers who are leaving social channels to make purchases and indicates how important it is for brands to represent consumers of all backgrounds to encourage a purchase. "Diversity, equity, and inclusion actions are not a 'nice-to-have' but a 'must-have' these days if brands want to connect with consumers. Brands need to be sure they are making their social feed diverse to show consumers that it takes diversity seriously, cares about its consumers; and offers products and solutions that meet a list of diverse needs. This could entail social media posts featuring diverse models, talking about charitable efforts that support communities of color, or highlighting internal operations aimed to hire and promote employees of color. "Consumers want to see themselves portrayed in brands' efforts as they are more likely to feel that the brand is for them, but a seamless, trustworthy experience is the first critical piece in encouraging them to shop. Brands should take note of this desire and make a conscious effort to highlight different individuals in their social posts in order to better connect with their consumers," concluded Hansen. Additional research on social commerce trends and interviews with the analyst are available upon request from the Mintel Press Office . SOURCE Mintel Group, Ltd. New name, bigger mission, same commitment to transparency while defying industry norms SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Verus Insurance Services, a full-service employee benefits consulting firm, has changed its name to SolV Independent Insurance Associates. The company's business model aims to save its clients an average of 30 to 40 percent in health care costs compared to traditional brokerage firms. CEO of SolV Independent Insurance Associates, Scott H. Kelley President of SolV Independent Insurance Associates, Brittney Belo According to a 2021 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation survey, the cost of healthcare has risen 47 percent over the last decade, with employers shouldering most of that burden. It remains the largest indirect expense for American companies, with virtually all large firms employing more than 1,000 people offering coverage. However, companies that continue to increase the cost to workers are less attractive in a highly competitive labor market. SolV's transparent pricing and cost containment practices can help companies rein in health care costs and thus lure talent. CEO Scott Kelley and President Brittney Bello originally founded SolV as Verus in 2016 to transform an industry where employers are often misinformed by brokerage firms focused on their own profitability. As a privately held firm, SolV isn't beholden to put profits over clients. In 2019, Verus was ranked by the Sacramento Business Journal as the fastest-growing business in the region. Kelley and Bello have advised recognizable companies such as Campbell's Soup, Otis Spunkmeyer, the American Film Institute, and Duraflame, among others. "As our organization has grown, we continue our commitment to providing transparency to an industry that is plagued with secrecy, backroom deals and excessive profits," said Kelley. "We feel the new name better embodies our mission." He continued: "Every client we help is as unique as the solution we bring them. Our innovative cost-containment solutions are only practiced by 2 to 3 percent of industry professionals. Bottom line, our clients save money, and those clients pass that savings on to their employees with lower contributions and improved coverage." As part of SolV's bold business model, the company maintains a low profit margin of only 10 percent. According to the most recent Reagan Consulting Growth and Profitability Survey, the median industry brokerage profit is nearly 23 percent, with some generating up to 35 percent in profit. "Unfortunately, all of the major players (large healthcare systems, pharmaceutical companies, insurance carriers, and large insurance brokerages) are benefiting from the current broken system, so don't look to them to bring solutions," Kelley explained. "Many of these industries also top the list of lobbying dollars given to political candidates, so don't expect a government solution, either. We need a grassroots effort from employers who are fed up with the current system and willing to fight back. Our company is showing clients how to do that and cut their healthcare costs in the process." Bello added, "The way American employers purchase health care on behalf of their employees is a problem that needs to be solved. As a company, we're willing to forgo the additional revenue that can be generated from deceitful practices that are all too common in the typical insurance sales industry." Client Duraflame, a national leader in fire log products, encourages other large companies to review their current approach to providing affordable healthcare to their employees. Joe Martucci, Duraflame's CFO, stated, "Prior to our work with SolV, we didn't see significant differentiators between broker-partners. However, I can now tell you without reservation that the team at SolV is significant steps above the pack and we are thrilled to have them as a very important strategic partner." About SolV: SolV Independent Insurance Associates, formerly Verus Insurance Services, was founded by CEO Scott H. Kelley and President Brittney Bello in 2016 as a full-service employee benefits brokerage firm. With offices and representatives in California, Washington, Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, and New York, SolV consults with companies with employees in the U.S. and abroad. In 2019, the company was ranked by the Sacramento Business Journal as the fastest-growing company in the region. Kelley is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist, or CEBS, a distinction held by less than 2 percent of employee benefits consultants in the country. Bello is a Health Rosetta Advisor, an elite group of consultants committed to an industry-leading standard of transparency and fiduciary responsibility to clients and their employees. For more information, visit www.solvins.com. To find out if SolV is a good fit for your company click here. Contact: Tess Dumlao 602-653-6585 [email protected] SOURCE SoIV Independent Insurance Associates The first IgA Nephropathy (Japan) study, due to release later this summer, pairs with other studies in the EU5 and United States EXTON, Pa. , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Glomerulonephritis is a major contributor of end-stage renal disease across the globe, with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), also known as Berger's disease, as the most common primary glomerular disease worldwide1. IgAN prevalence can vary substantially by country and by population, with a typically higher prevalence in Asian populations. Spherix has been a leader in tracking the IgAN (US) market for several years, covering physician perspectives, treatment patterns, and pipeline assessments. This coverage includes in-depth interviews with key opinion leaders (KOLs) and "in-the-trenches" physicians, along with large-scale attitudinal surveys and chart audits of more than 900 patients. Spherix introduced market and pipeline assessment studies in the EU5 (Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom) in 2021, and is now expanding geographic coverage to Japan. Topics included in this research across geographies include an assessment of unmet needs, typical challenges in managing patients, and preferred treatment regimens. The deep clinical understanding that Spherix gains via relationships with KOLs in the industry, as well as insights garnered through the large scale chart audits, allows for a deeper assessment of the data and how the market will continue to evolve in coming years. One of the key insights from this year's in-depth RealWorld Dynamix: IgA Nephropathy (US) chart audit and one which will be tracked closely in the upcoming research was around the use of SGLT2 inhibitors in this specific patient population. Year-over-year, use of SGLT2 inhibitors more than tripled in the US after the release of a pre-specified analysis of the DAPA-CKD trial. The vast majority of SGLT2 inhibitor prescriptions for these patients are written by nephrologists for their benefits in CKD progression, with AstraZeneca's Farxiga landing as the most prescribed SGLT2 inhibitor in IgAN patients. Beyond understanding evolving treatment patterns and challenges, a large section of the upcoming Market Dynamix research evaluates expectations for products in development. Nephrologists in the US and EU5 have expressed they most seek a new IgAN treatment that can slow chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression overall and significantly reduce proteinuria. Products evaluated across this research suite (US, EU5 and Japan) for familiarity and potential patient candidacy include: atacicept (Vera Therapeutics), atrasentan (Chinook), cemdisiran (Alnylam), IONIS-FB-L (IONIS), iptacopan (Novartis), narsoplimab (Omeros), sparsentan (Travere), and VIS649 (Otsuka and Visterra). Spherix is closely tracking the launch of Tarpeyo (Nefecon/budesonide, Calliditas) in the US through its Launch Dynamix series, and will include expectations for the product across the EU5 and Japan in this upcoming research. As of mid-2021, nephrologists in the EU5, similar to those in the US, have the greatest familiarity with Nefecon, sparsentan, and atrasentan with familiarity peaking for certain products in different countries. When asked which IgAN pipeline product they would most like to see approved, nephrologists in the UK, Italy and France were most excited about sparsentan, while those in Germany leaned towards Nefecon and those in Spain were divided between atrasentan and sparsentan. As the leading independent provider of IgA nephropathy data and insights, Spherix is uniquely positioned to work with companies as they approach this quickly evolving market. Similar research is available for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), membranous nephropathy, C3G, lupus nephritis and other indications to provide a comprehensive perspective on the glomerulonephritis market. About Market Dynamix Market Dynamix is an independent service providing analysis of markets anticipated to experience a paradigm shift within the next three to five years, highlighting market size, current treatment approaches, unmet needs, and expert opinions on the likely disruption introduced by pipeline agents. About RealWorld Dynamix RealWorld Dynamix is an independent, data-driven service unveiling real patient management patterns through rigorous analysis of large-scale patient chart audits. Insights reveal the "why" behind treatment decisions, include year over year trending to quantify key aspects of market evolution, and integrate specialists' attitudinal & demographic data to highlight differences between stated and actual treatment patterns. About Launch Dynamix Launch Dynamix is an independent service providing a monthly benchmarking of newly launched products for the first eighteen months of commercial availability, augmented by a quarterly deep dive into patient types initiated, brand perceptions, promotional activity, and drivers and barriers to uptake. Learn more about our services here. About Spherix Global Insights Spherix Global Insights is a hyper-focused market intelligence firm that leverages our own independent data and expertise to provide strategic guidance, so biopharma stakeholders make decisions with confidence. We specialize in select immunology, nephrology, and neurology markets. All company, brand or product names in this document are trademarks of their respective holders. For more information contact: Denise Foy, Nephrology Franchise Head Email: [email protected] www.spherixglobalinsights.com SOURCE Spherix Global Insights KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A retired Missouri worker has filed a six-figure FINRA arbitration claim against Titan Securities and its broker Rodger Sprouse in Lee's Summit over losses sustained in GWG L Bonds. The claimant, who is on disability and was forced to stop working after an injury on the job, is an inexperienced investor who contends that Titan Securities and Sprouse allegedly unsuitably recommended these illiquid, speculative junk bonds without fully informing him about the risks. Sprouse is also the owner of Sprouse Financial in Lee's Summit. In April 2022, GWG Holdings, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. GWG had issued $1.6B of life settlement-backed bonds to investors. The move for bankruptcy protection comes in the wake of defaulting on the many millions of dollars it owes L Bond investors, a slew of regulatory issues, and other problems. Retiree, Who Is On Disability, Was an Inexperienced Investor Who Needed Safe Investments This claimant heard about Titan Securities and Sprouse while listening to a radio program. During an in-person meeting with the Titan Securities broker, the retiree was very clear about being an inexperienced investor who was not rich, needed safe investments, and would be entrusting most of his liquid assets to the broker-dealer. Instead of investing this retired worker in safe investments, Titan Securities and Sprouse allegedly unsuitably recommended the high commission GWG L Bonds and other non-liquid products. Further, Sprouse allegedly made these investment recommendations in concentrations that were far from appropriate or suitable for this claimant. Now, in his FINRA arbitration claim, this Kansas City investor is alleging unsuitability, concentration, misrepresentations and omissions, failure to supervise, negligence, and grossly negligent behavior. Seasoned GWG L Bond Attorneys Our knowledgeable GWG L Bond investment lawyers are representing a number of investors whose brokers and financial firms, including Titan Securities, Center Street Securities, NI Advisors, and Centaurus Financial, unsuitably recommended these high-yield bonds to customers. Some 145 regional brokerage firms partnered with Emerson Equity to sell L Bonds to investors, and we are going after all of them. SSEK Law Firm works with investors throughout the US and would be happy to help you explore your options during a free, no obligation case assessment. To speak with one of our skilled L Bond attorneys, call (800) 259-9010 today. Media Contact: Mathew Brown-Watson [email protected] SOURCE Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP Ovadje Returns as Company Experiences Enormous Growth WILMINGTON, Del., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Marlette Holdings, Inc., a leading financial technology company that operates the Best Egg financial platform, today announced that Stephen Ovadje has rejoined the company as its new General Manager of Unsecured Personal Loans. One of the earliest Best Egg employees in 2014, Ovadje served in roles leading strategic planning, financial analytics, and customer acquisition marketing. Ovadje returns to Best Egg to help chart the future of the company's high-growth unsecured personal loans product. "Everything we started working toward when Stephen was part of the team in 2014 is now coming to fruition, and we are so glad he is back to help us make the vision a reality," said Bobby Ritterbeck, President of Personal Loans for Best Egg. "Making sure that people have access to the money they need to feel more confident about their everyday finances, even when disruptions happen, is critical to our mission." Since its launch in 2014, Best Egg has focused on helping people feel more confident about their finances by offering fast, simple, and convenient ways for them to pay for things beyond their everyday needs, especially when they have limited savings to absorb unplanned expenses. Best Egg's personal loan products have seen tremendous growth in the past two years, accelerating from $12B to $18B of loans with solid credit performance. The company has also diversified its offering, introducing the Best Egg Visa Credit Card and the free Best Egg Financial Health tool in 2021 and announcing $225 million in equity funding in March 2022. "The people, growth trajectory, and opportunity drew me back to the Best Egg team," said Ovadje. "The culture that Jeffrey Meiler, Bobby Ritterbeck, and the rest of the leadership team have created is unmatched. I truly believe in the company's vision and strategic direction. The opportunity to lead the next growth phase of the flagship unsecured personal lending product was one I could not ignore." Ovadje returns to Best Egg following more than two years as an executive director at JPMorgan Chase, where he led Chase Sapphire acquisitions and loyalty marketing strategy. Ovadje's career in financial services spans close to two decades. He began his career at Bank of America and held leadership roles at Barclays and Deloitte. Ovadje earned his MBA from The Wharton School and holds a master's degree in Information Systems from Drexel University and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Lincoln University. He serves on the Boards of the Christina Cultural Arts Center Wilmington and the Danne Institute for Research. He also is the co-founder of an ed-tech company called AcadaPlus, which focuses on delivering solutions to schools in Africa to drive better student outcomes. Best Egg continues to grow and add hundreds of new members to its team. Learn more about open positions on the Best Egg careers page. About Marlette Holdings, Inc. Marlette Holdings, Inc. is a leading financial technology provider whose subsidiaries develop and operate Best Egg, a financial health platform that provides lending products and resources focused on helping people feel more confident as they manage their everyday finances. Since March 2014, Best Egg has delivered over $18 billion in consumer personal loans with strong credit performance, welcomed 213,000 members to the recently launched Best Egg Financial Health platform, and empowered over 59,000 cardmembers who carry the new Best Egg Credit Card in their wallet. For more information, visit bestegg.com. SOURCE Best Egg "Reversing the damaging practices which have for too long become the norm in the fashion industry is not easy but is something our brand is fully committed to and deeply rooted in our cruelty-free production process," said Max Justus, CEO of Grounded People. "We are always looking for ways to improve our sustainability efforts, and welcome all to join us in taking steps forward in helping to save the planet." Grounded People's mission is to reduce the catastrophic impact caused by the global fashion industry, which is responsible for producing over 92 million tons of waste each year. The brand recognized an opportunity to become a part of the solution, one which environmentally conscious consumers worldwide have been calling for. Grounded People prides itself on its production process that utilizes recycled raw materials without the use of chemical processes or artificial dyes. Grounded People's partnership with Retraced allows the brand to determine where and how materials are sourced and the environmental impact of every point in the supply chain. PETA approved, Grounded People certifies each pair of shoes is made with no animal byproducts and is manufactured in the world's only 100% vegan factory that ensures fair wages and conditions for all workers. Grounded People's factory, located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, compensates workers with 50% more than the national average and 20-30% more than the Brazilian shoe industry. Grounded People is committed to giving back through its LACES program (Learn to Achieve and Create Everlasting Sustainability). The brand gives consumers the ability to effortlessly support a range of charitable organizations across the globe, including Fashion Takes Action, Climate Resolve, Make-a-Wish Foundation Canada, the BC Children's Hospital, and more. With each purchase, customers will be prompted to select a second pair of laces at checkout at no additional cost to them. 100% of the proceeds of the selected laces will then be donated to its corresponding charity. The full line of Grounded People shoes, including its newly introduced colorways, are now available for purchase online at groundedpeople.com and Amazon. Each shoe will retail between $139.99 and $149.99. For more additional information, please visit www.groundedpeople.com. About Grounded People Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Grounded People is a sustainable, ethically sourced and environmentally focused footwear brand committed to helping curb the harmful and detrimental impacts of waste created by the global fashion industry. Manufactured in the world's only 100% vegan factory, Grounded People prides itself on its cruelty-free production process, ensuring that no harm is done to people, animals, or the earth. A portion of all Grounded People sales is donated to one of the brand's charitable partnered organizations, because truly, every step matters. CONTACT: Kyle Kappmeier JConnelly (973) 975-7827 [email protected] SOURCE Grounded People CHICAGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market by Component (Hardware (Barcode and Barcode Scanners, and RFID Tags and Readers), Software, and Services), Deployment Mode (Cloud and On-premises), Organization Size, Vertical and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market size is projected to grow from USD 28.9 billion in 2022 to USD 45.2 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.4% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the market include the increasing adoption of barcodes and RFID related technologies along with advancement in AI logistical distribution systems. Browse in-depth TOC on "Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market" 508 Tables 48 Figures 341 Pages Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=190997554 Among hardware, Barcodes and barcode scanners to capture a higher market share Barcodes are used in encoding information related to a product, such as serial numbers, product numbers, and batch numbers. Every product is labeled with a unique barcode. These barcodes enable manufacturers to track and identify products, enhance and optimize the receiving, packing, shipping, and delivery processes, as well as track transport providers, retailers, and hospitals. As the product reaches the destination, a quick scan of the barcode allows instant and automatic reconciliation of the order, and hence, plays an important role in SCM. Advantages of barcodes, such as improved accuracy and speed, low operational and administrative expenses, reduced capital expenditure, enhanced inventory management, product management, and monitoring, are witnessing an increase in popularity and encouraging the adoption of barcodes and barcode scanners across several industries, such as manufacturing, FMCG, retail, and eCommerce. Speak to Analyst: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=190997554 Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period The increased shift of Asia Pacific enterprises toward leaner and agile supply chains with end-to-end visibility by the adoption of the latest technologies is also one of the biggest drivers of SCM software and services in the region. Increasing number of SME vendors across Asia Pacific region, along with advancement in technology across India, China, Japan and Australia is contributing to the growth of this region. The report includes the study of the key players offering SCM solutions and services. It profiles Key vendors in the global Supply Chain Management (SCM) Market, including SAP (Germany), Oracle (US), Infor (US), Descartes (Canada), Manhattan Associates (US), IBM (US), Logility (US), Kinaxis (Canada), Blue Yonder (US), Korber (US), Coupa (US), Epicor (US), BluJay (US), OMP (US), E2open (US), JAGGAER (US), Zycus (US), and GEP (US). Browse Adjacent Markets: Information Security Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports Supply Chain Analytics Market by Component, Software (Supplier Performance Analytics, Demand Analysis and Forecasting, and Inventory Analytics), Services, Deployment Model, Organization Size, Industry Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/supply-chain-management-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/supply-chain-management.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) Ted Alejandre was awarded State Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA). "I am extremely honored and humbled by this accolade," said County Superintendent Ted Alejandre. "I could not have achieved this recognition without the support and dedication of the staff at County Schools, our students, families, community partners and the remarkable educators I've had the honor of working alongside throughout my professional journey." With more than 30 years of experience in public education, Alejandre now holds the prestigious title of Superintendent of the Year in the 2022 Statewide Awards Program. The state award recipients represent the excellence and commitment of California's educators. On May 2, Alejandre was honored as Superintendent of the Year for the San Bernardino County region at the ACSA Region 12 Spring Celebration Awards. Alejandre will be recognized for the State Superintendent of the Year Award at the ACSA Leadership Summit in San Diego on Nov. 4, 2022. As county superintendent, Alejandre works collaboratively with educators, families, and other agencies and stakeholders to provide advocacy, leadership and services for and on behalf of more than 400,000 K-12 students attending public schools in San Bernardino County. Among his many achievements, Alejandre was commended by ACSA for his contributions and collaboration with key partners to build, sustain and implement the San Bernardino County Cradle to Career roadmap. The roadmap includes key indicators of success for all students in both academics and social/emotional readiness. Districts and cities have adopted this roadmap, and as a result, graduation rates and other key indicators continue to improve. To increase literacy rates across San Bernardino County, Alejandre worked with county partners to expand the Vision2Read initiative by launching the Footsteps2Brilliance learning platform that provides free access to tools for students to read, write and engage in key literacy skills. He strengthened the countywide Family Engagement Network to gain input and recommendations from stakeholders. Due to the success of this network, SBCSS was selected by the state as the only county office to lead the Statewide Community Engagement Initiative, which established cohorts of school districts throughout the state that serve as models for all districts. Alejandre emphasizes the importance of listening to student voice and creating opportunities for students to speak up. He established the first ever countywide Student Advisory Council, inviting students from high schools throughout the county to collaborate with students from other districts. At the culminating session, they presented recommendations to leaders at the local, county and state level that have influenced policies in the past. In addition to his illustrious career in education, Alejandre is a highly decorated, retired U.S. Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant Colonel. He received the USAF Meritorious Service Award three times, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Good Conduct Medal and many other distinctions. He began his service in 1984. For more news and information, visit the SBCSS Newsroom and follow us @SBCountySchools on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube . #transforminglives. The mission of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools is to transform lives through education. Working in collaboration with school districts, other agencies, families and our community partners, we provide leadership, advocacy and services to ensure innovative, inspiring educational practices for the 33 K-12 school districts within the county. This endeavor is essential to the quality of life and economic vitality of our communities. SOURCE San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Staffing Association announced today that National Staffing Employee Week will take place from Sept. 12 through Sept. 18, 2022. National Staffing Employee Week will take place from Sept. 12-18, 2022 National Staffing Employee Week celebrates the contributions of millions of individuals employed by U.S. staffing agencies each year. The week kicks off with the announcement of the 2023 National Staffing Employee of the Year, honoring a current or former temporary or contract employee with an extraordinary story of staffing success. Throughout the week, staffing agencies from across the nation host special events honoring their greatest asset: their temporary and contract employees. "Temporary and contract workers play an essential role in today's society, providing vitally important skills and services wherever and whenever they are needed most," said Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. "From engineering to office work, health care to manufacturing and transportation, staffing employees are moving our economy forward." U.S. staffing and recruiting companies hired a total of 13.6 million temporary and contract employees in nearly every industry in the labor market. According to the latest ASA Staffing Index, staffing employment for the four weeks ending May 22 was up 11.7% from the same period in 2021. More information on National Staffing Employee Week, and the National Staffing Employee of the Year, can be found at americanstaffing.net. About the American Staffing Association The American Staffing Association is the voice of the U.S. staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry. ASA and its state affiliates advance the interests of the industry across all sectors through advocacy, research, education, and the promotion of high standards of legal, ethical, and professional practices. For more information about ASA, visit americanstaffing.net . Contact Megan Sweeney American Staffing Association 703-253-1151 [email protected] SOURCE American Staffing Association Horn is joining Thayer Scale from Ariston USA Inc., where he was most recently the Director of Manufacturing. He had responsibility for overall production, safety, manufacturing engineering, quality, maintenance, facilities, training and Lean Management at the manufacturing company. Prior to Ariston, Bruce was the Manufacturing Manager for Cybex International, the commercial treadmill manufacturer. At Cybex, Bruce was responsible for implementing Lean Manufacturing principles on the production floor and enabling a three-fold increase in production during his tenure. Bruce will lead the Manufacturing Team to support growth experienced by the company over the last several years "We've recognized Bruce as an industry leader in Lean Manufacturing through his leadership and outreach activities working with the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership over the last several years. We are very excited to have Bruce join our team and help take Thayer Scale to the next level in terms of productivity, quality, and time-to-market," said David Hyer, President Thayer Scale. Thayer Scale's equipment provides a rare combination of precision measurement and extreme reliability in a wide variety of industries and markets. The company has a strong culture of collaboration that enables it to create enduring value for its clients worldwide. Thayer Scale's customers leverage their extensive knowledge of automated weigh feeders, belt conveyors, scales and bin flow-aid devices to solve their most complex material handling challenges. Thayer Scale's products are essential to the specific industries and companies it serves in Power Generation, Cement, Mining, Food, Building Products, Chemical and Industrial. "I am excited to join the Thayer Scale team. I look forward to working with the team to develop a continuous improvement culture to drive high quality, shorter lead times, and support exponential growth." About Thayer Scale Thayer Scale, headquartered in Pembroke, Mass., is a leading global manufacturer of equipment for the continuous weighing industry. For over seventy years, the company has provided engineered solutions for the Food, Energy and Building Products, and Chemical and Industrial sectors. The business is dedicated to product line specialization to design and develop market-leading conveyor belt scales and gravimetric feeders. Thayer Scale equipment is reliable, highly accurate and "Built to Survive." The company's customers produce end-products for the world's leading brands. For more information, visit the website at www.thayerscale.com. Media Contact: Amelia Burkhart [email protected] www.bbrand.agency 978-968-0464 SOURCE Thayer Scale Surgeons treating victims of firearm violence highlight 13 recommendations from ACS Firearms Strategy Team that can reduce deaths and serious injuries WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, leaders from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) called for bipartisan solutions to reduce the rising numbers of deaths and serious injuries that are arriving in trauma centers on a daily basis due to firearm violence. During an ACS news conference at its Washington, DC office, surgeons outlined important attainable steps that can be taken to accelerate an effective response to reduce firearm violence. "Firearm violence is a growing public health crisis that must be immediately addressed. This is a public health crisis, not a political debate. The American College of Surgeons is committed to crafting solutions that save lives and minimize preventable death," said ACS Executive Director, Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS. "We are unwilling to wait for another tragedy to befall another community when we believe we have a series of actions that will have an impact." She explained that trauma surgeons are practical problem solvers who see and live through this crisis every day treating patients who are victims of attempted suicides, homicides, and who suffer other grievous injuries from firearms. "We must be an integral part of the solution to reduce the rising number of deaths we see every year." Dr. Turner said the ACS wants to work with and educate legislators about firearm injury prevention "so that we can incorporate what we know, in a data driven way." FAST recommendations provide common ground The ACS Committee on Trauma convened the Firearms Strategy Team (FAST) in 2017 consisting of highly regarded trauma surgeons, many of whom are avid firearm owners. Their singular mission was to develop an effective strategy to reduce firearm injury, death, and disability. The recommendations first introduced in 2018, and renewed today, are the product of broad consensus. The FAST recommendations cover 13 areas and include background checks; registration; licensure; firearm education and training; safe storage practices; red flag laws; addressing mental health issues; and more research to better inform an approach going forward and to help address the root causes of violence. The full-text article appears in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. "These comprehensive recommendations provide a road map to a solution and can have an immediate impact on saving lives," said Eileen M, Bulger, MD, FACS, Medical Director of ACS Trauma Programs and one of the leaders who helped develop the FAST recommendations and spelled them out at the news conference. From the frontlines Trauma surgeon, Ronald M, Stewart, MD, FACS, provided a compelling front line perspective of the crisis. Dr. Stewart, chair of the department of surgery at University Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, explained he has been in the unfortunate position of caring for victims from two of the largest mass shootings in modern U.S. HistorySutherland Springs First Baptist Church and the Uvalde School shooting, and described the injuries inflicted by high-velocity weapons as "horrific." The fact that their current patients are improving "brings us joy," he reported. But they all have a long road ahead to deal with both the physical and emotional impact of this shooting. "This moment of crisis will have a lifetime of impact on these innocent souls. Our teams are working to facilitate healing in a way that minimizes long term effects." Dr. Stewart, a former Chair of the ACS COT, credited decades of work from the COT in setting organized, regional trauma systems of care that make real life saving difference in communities. "In many ways, South Texas has a model trauma and emergency health care system built on the ACS model." He also pointed out that newer recommendations to administer whole blood quickly to seriously injured shooting patients is now a factor in saving lives. He commended ACS trauma leaders for advocacy work in educating and training people who are bystanders to control serious bleeding through its STOP THE BLEED program as another life-saving measure that's made an impact in improving survival too. But he pointed out that these are treatments, "and treatment is not enough, these tragedies are preventable. We can prevent these atrocities." As for the severity of the problem, he noted that in 2020 firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Not the leading cause of traumatic death, but the leading cause of death. Dr. Stewart believes that the "ACS COT has proven that people who significantly differ in their views on firearms can and will enthusiastically work together to reduce unnecessary death and suffering from firearm related injury and intentional violence." Broad support for consensus recommendations to reduce firearm violence Patrick V. Bailey, MD, MLS, FACS, a pediatric surgeon by training, who currently serves as a Medical Director in the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, observed that the FAST recommendations were developed through "a very deliberative process that included the participation and perspective of other surgeons who like me were also gun owners, but who seek to reduce the impact of gun violence on our country." Dr. Bailey does not believe these recommendations "pose an undue burden on the rights of individual gun owners" and said that he hopes these recommendations will be viewed by a Congress that comes together in a bipartisan way to "enact substantive legislation directed at mitigating gun violence." Other initiatives provide pathways Other advocacy work initiated by the ACS COT that was highlighted today included a brief overview by Dr. Bulger of its Improving Social Determinants to Attenuate Violence (ISAVE) workgroup. ISAVE presents strategies for trauma centers to address the root causes of violence. The work that came out of the COT's 2019 Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention was also highlighted. The Summit included active participation by 44 professional organizations that gathered to identify collaborative ways to address the firearm violence problem. The organizations developed recommendations based on a consensus of all participating groups. At the close of the summit, a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address the issue emerged that included focusing on recognizing firearm injury as a U.S. public health crisis and taking a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address it; researching it using a disease model; engaging firearm owners and at-risk communities to develop firearm injury prevention programs and empowering the medical community to function in the best interest of its patients in variety of palpable ways. Full proceedings from the Summit were published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The important work started at the inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention will continue, announced Jeffrey Kerby, MD, PhD, FACS, current Chair of the ACS COT. "This fall, we will reconvene and cohost the Summit to bring together subject matter experts from across the house of medicine. We must continue to build our collective will and work creatively to address the root causes that have led to this epidemic." He believes the ACS COT recommendations provide an immediate path for moving forward. Dr. Kerby, who is Brigham Family Endowed Professor and director of the division of trauma and acute care surgery for the department of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), explained that he regularly speaks with trauma surgeons across the nation. "We are all deeply disturbed by the inordinate amount of firearm injuries and death we must constantly address. My own trauma center has seen a 40% increase in the number of firearm related injuries just in the last two years, and these numbers continue to increase. We are in the midst of an epidemic of firearm violence, and we need to act. I have to believe that as a country, we can do better." About the American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 84,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. SOURCE American College of Surgeons HHC Presentation and Live REITweek Webcast to be Held June 7, 2022, at 9:30 am ET HOUSTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC) announced today that Chief Executive Officer David O'Reilly will lead a presentation on the company's business to the investment community at NAREIT's REITweek 2022 Investor Conference in New York City on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, at 9:30 am ET. Complimentary registration for NAREIT'S REITweek 2022 conference is available online using this link or by visiting the NAREIT website at www.reit.com. HHC's live presentation will be accessible via audio webcast using the link below. The Howard Hughes Corporation Presentation Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2022 Time: 9:30 am ET Audio Webcast Link: https://video.ibm.com/embed/24616543 About The Howard Hughes Corporation The Howard Hughes Corporation owns, manages and develops commercial, residential and mixed-use real estate throughout the U.S. Its award-winning assets include the country's preeminent portfolio of master planned cities and communities, as well as operating properties and development opportunities including: the Seaport in New York City; Downtown Columbia, Maryland; The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hills, and Bridgeland in the Greater Houston, Texas area; Summerlin, Las Vegas; Ward Village in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Douglas Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona. The Howard Hughes Corporation's portfolio is strategically positioned to meet and accelerate development based on market demand, resulting in one of the strongest real estate platforms in the country. Dedicated to innovative placemaking, the company is recognized for its ongoing commitment to design excellence and to the cultural life of its communities. The Howard Hughes Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as HHC. For additional information visit www.howardhughes.com. Contacts: The Howard Hughes Corporation Cristina Carlson, 646-822-6910 Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Communications [email protected] For HHC Investor Relations John Saxon, 281-929-7808 Chief of Staff [email protected] Carlos Olea, 281-475-2143 Chief Financial Officer [email protected] SOURCE The Howard Hughes Corporation Beast Philanthropy, Harry's Inc., Saffron Road, Kate Farms, and KIND Donate Products and Shipping NEW YORK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To address the critical need for food and personal care items in and at the borders of Ukraine, Frontline Impact Project, a social impact platform fueled by the KIND Foundation, is launching #FrontlineImpactforUkraine, its first initiative abroad. The organization's participating companies, such as Harry's Inc., Kate Farms, Saffron Road, and KIND Snacks, are teaming up with Beast Philanthropy to deliver high-demand nonperishable food and hygiene products to those in need. Frontline Impact Project is seeking donations of goods to help sustain ongoing humanitarian relief to Ukrainian citizens and refugees impacted by the war. In partnership with Beast Philanthropy, an organization founded by the popular YouTube influencer Mr. Beast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), Frontline Impact Project has already committed to delivering over 775,000 products to help the people of Ukraine. Beast Philanthropy has secured transportation to deliver the large-scale shipments, while the #FrontlineImpactforUkraine initiative has spearheaded donations from its community of companies including 3,600 ready-to-eat meals from Saffron Road, more than 450,000 KIND bars, 275,000 shaving and personal care kits from Harry's Inc., and more than 50,000 plant-based nutrition shakes from Kate Farms. Frontline Impact Project and KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky said, "What we are witnessing in Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis and threat to the free world that requires all of us to help. Since we launched Frontline Impact Project, our community of businesses has continually adapted to be there for the bravest in critical times of need. We hope that our donations will bring some relief and hope to the people of Ukraine." "Beast Philanthropy is dedicated to helping the people of Ukraine for the long term to help bring relief to the humanitarian crisis they are enduring," said Darren Margolias, Executive Director of Beast Philanthropy. "The #FrontlineImpactforUkraine initiative is helping us provide a significant amount of critical food and hygiene goods that will make a big difference to those who need it the most." Since Frontline Impact Project's launch in April 2020, more than 80 companies have donated 7.5 million products to support pandemic first responders, emergency personnel responding to natural disasters, poll workers, and Ukrainians impacted by the war. The initiative is gearing up to sustain aid to Ukraine over the coming months. To contribute to these efforts, learn about this initiative, and donate food and/or hygiene products, visit www.frontlineimpact.org. Rocket Social Impact Jenn DeBarge Goonan [email protected] 617.947.0971 SOURCE Frontline Impact Project A panel of theatre experts from The American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League and Carnegie Mellon University selected Jones-Koumba from a nationwide call for entries. Impassioned endorsements from students past and present, along with peers from the arts community in Houston such as The C. Lee Turner Black Theatre Educators' Caucus helped make Jones-Koumba a standout. As one student put it: "I have been in awe of her vision; her tireless work ethic; the countless hours; blood, sweat, tears, money, food that she's given to her students in the community around her. And she taught us, usually Black and Brown kids from inner-city communities, that we could do anything." In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Jones-Koumba is a director at the G.W. Carver Theatre, where the Panther Players Troupe #6753 has earned multiple regional and national awards for their thespian competition pieces and one-act plays. The Panther Players under her direction also have earned multiple Tommy Tune Awards for musical theatre. Among other performing arts laurels, Jones-Koumba is a past recipient of the Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award; the International Thespian Society Inspirational Theatre Educator Award; and she was recently inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame. "Our students are doing amazing things. Many are working actors on stage and on television; some are continuing their education; some are pursuing careers outside of performing. In theatre we accept all, so you're not afraid to be yourself. And that gives you confidence to do anything you want, enables you to work with different people, and to be a better all-around person," Jones-Koumba said. "Theatre is life. I'm very grateful to the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University for this honor." The Excellence in Theatre Education Award recognizes a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated exemplary impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession. Jones-Koumba will receive $10,000 for G.W. Carver Magnet High School's theatre program and tickets to the Tony Awards and Tony Awards Gala. Jones-Koumba's students will also receive a visiting Master Class taught by CMU drama professors. "Theatre education opens students' minds to reveal their potential, whether onstage or off, through artistic expression and inclusivity. That doesn't happen by chance. It happens through hard work, countless hours and a tireless commitment that drama teachers know better than most. Roshunda takes that dedication to a whole new level, and we're honored to present the Excellence in Theatre Education Award to her this year," said Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, and Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League. "In our increasingly complex society, teachers serve as incredible champions and mentors for young people, helping them to discover their passions and achieve their dreams," said Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian. "Roshunda Jones-Koumba is an enthusiastic champion for her students, and her unique theatre education program empowers them to become leaders in any field. That's the power of the arts, and that is why CMU is so proud to present this award in recognition of her impact." Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose will host The 75th Annual Tony Awards, airing live coast-to-coast, on Sunday, June 12th (8:00-11:00 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:00 PM, LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+. Julianne Hough and Darren Criss will host "The Tony Awards: Act One," one hour of exclusive content streaming live, only on Paramount+ (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/4:00-5:00 PM, PT.) SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University DUBLIN, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Battery Energy Storage System Market (2022-2027) by Component, Connection Type, Ownership, Energy Capacity, Application, End User, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Battery Energy Storage System Market is estimated to be USD 3.9 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 14.59 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 30.2%. Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Battery Energy Storage System Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals. As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks. Company Profiles The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are ABB Ltd, Black & Veatch Holding Company, Corvus Energy, Delta Electronics Inc., East Penn Manufacturing Company, EnerDel, Inc., EVE Energy, Fluence Energy (Siemens and AES Company), General Electric, Hitachi, Ltd., Honeywell International, Inc., Johnson Controls International, etc. Countries Studied America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of the Americas) , , , , , , , , Rest of the Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe ) ( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA) and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific ) Competitive Quadrant The report includes a Competitive Quadrant a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Ansoff Analysis The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Battery Energy Storage System Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach. The analyst analyses the Global Battery Energy Storage System Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position. Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, this Global Research has devised suitable strategies for market growth. Why buy this report? The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Battery Energy Storage System Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies. The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry. The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report. The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies. The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool. Key Topics Covered: 1 Report Description 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.1.1 Rising Demand for Grid Energy Storage Systems 4.1.2 Growing Adoption of Lithium Battery in Renewable Energy 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 High Capital Expenditure for Energy Installation 4.2.2 Continuous Disruptions in Supply Chain 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Increasing Rural Electrification Projects Worldwide 4.3.2 Stringent Carbon Reduction Norms 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Installation Complexities at Islands or in Remote Areas 5 Market Analysis 5.1 Regulatory Scenario 5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis 6 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By Component 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Battery 6.2.1 Lithium-ion 6.2.2 Lead-acid 6.2.3 Flow 6.2.4 Others 6.3 Other Hardware 7 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By Connection Type 7.1 Introduction 7.2 On-Grid Connection 7.3 Off-Grid Connection 8 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By Ownership 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Customer-Owned 8.3 Third-Party-Owned 8.4 Utility-Owned 9 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By Energy Capacity 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Below 100 Mwh 9.3 Between 100 And 500 Mwh 9.4 Above 500 Mwh 10 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By Application 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Load Management (Energy Demand Management) 10.3 Energy Time-Shift (Arbitrage) 10.4 Backup Power 10.5 Black-Start Capability 10.6 Frequency Control 10.7 Renewable Energy Integration 10.8 Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Deferral 10.9 Microgrids 11 Global Battery Energy Storage System Market, By End User 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Residential 11.3 Commercial 11.4 Utility 12 Americas' Battery Energy Storage System Market 13 Europe's Battery Energy Storage System Market 14 Middle East and Africa's Battery Energy Storage System Market 15 APAC's Battery Energy Storage System Market 16 Competitive Landscape 16.1 Competitive Quadrant 16.2 Market Share Analysis 16.3 Strategic Initiatives 16.3.1 M&A and Investments 16.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations 16.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements 17 Company Profiles 17.1 ABB Ltd 17.2 AES Corporation 17.3 Black & Veatch Holding Company 17.4 BYD Company Limited 17.5 Corvus Energy 17.6 Delta Electronics Inc. 17.7 East Penn Manufacturing Company 17.8 EnerDel, Inc. 17.9 EVE Energy 17.10 Fluence Energy (Siemens and AES Company) 17.11 General Electric 17.12 Hitachi, Ltd. 17.13 Honeywell International, Inc. 17.14 Johnson Controls International 17.15 Kokam (SolarEdge) 17.16 LG Energy Solutions CO., LTD. 17.17 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. 17.18 Narada Power 17.19 NEC Corporation 17.20 Nextera Energy, Inc. 17.21 NGK Insulators, Ltd. 17.22 Panasonic Corporation 17.23 Parker Hannifin Corp 17.24 Primus Power Solutions 17.25 Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. 17.26 Siemens Energy 17.27 Toshiba Corporation 18 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/y5zze0 Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets The podcast studio gives local creators the opportunity to produce podcasts, for no cost TEL AVIV, Israel, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ThoughtLeaders , the influencer marketing platform, announced today that they are opening a free recording studio in the heart of Tel Aviv for podcasters and other creators. Following a soft launch, the space will now be officially open to any creators and aspiring podcasters who want to book a session in the podcast studio. The studio includes acoustic soundproofing, professional-grade microphones and recording equipment and a computer fully equipped with editing software. The space was designed to provide local content creators with freely available tools, with no financial obligation or requirements for existing production expertise. Like many companies, ThoughtLeaders has operated a hybrid working model in the wake of Covid-19. David Tintner, CEO and co-founder at ThoughtLeaders, says that shifting to this flexible work model has changed the way the company conceptualized the use of its office space. "We have found that it's as important as ever to have an office, but there is no need to come every day just for the sake of it. What we prefer is that our office is optimized for physical, in-person experiences. These experiences are with our own team, as well as with the community of our users and customers that we support." Last month, the company also announced that they were launching an incubator program to invite budding entrepreneurs to use their office space and technology to develop new tools and services for the creator economy. Tintner describes the podcast studio as a continuation of the same initiative. "As a Tel Aviv-based company, we wanted to give something back to local creators. We work with some of the top podcast and YouTube networks around the world, but all of these creators had to start somewhere, and I'm excited by the idea that this studio space can allow new talented individuals to take up the mic. At the heart of ThoughtLeaders lies our mission to support the creation and consumption of quality content. Opening this podcast studio will make our offices a hub for aspiring creators who can use the space to make the content they have always dreamed about." ThoughtLeaders currently works with over 2000 different creators, principally YouTubers and podcasters, enabling them to monetize their content through ad revenue. Additionally, Tintner speaks not only as a CEO, but also as a seasoned postcaster. In 2017 he co-founded the popular Hacking UI podcast, and last year he hosted the second season of the ThoughtLeaders podcast, with guest interviews that included Andrew Warner, John Lee Dumas and Phil Ranta. The company reports that they've already seen considerable interest in the recording studio during last month's soft launch. Vanina Pikholc, one of the podcasters who has already used the space, reported "I am producing two different podcasts and it's been great to have this resource for free at very flexible times. ThoughtLeaders staff are very helpful if you need them." Office manager Dvori Angel says "We've seen how excited people are to come and use the recording space, and often they don't believe me initially when I tell them it is free. I feel that it is so important that the local creative community have resources like this. Ultimately, I can't wait to listen to all the podcasts that were created right here in the ThoughtLeaders offices." The ThoughtLeaders podcast studio is located inside the company's offices on Carlebach Street in central Tel Aviv. Anyone interested in booking a session in the studio is invited to visit https://www.thoughtleaders.io/podcast-studio-bookings . About ThoughtLeaders ThoughtLeaders is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands and creators to establish successful partnerships, and grow their businesses through quality content. The company has developed a proprietary data platform, which analyzes YouTube videos, podcast episodes, newsletters and blogs, to uncover insights on content that billions of people consume every day. The company has averaged 110% YoY growth for the past three years and tripled its headcount in just two years, making them Israel's fastest growing bootstrapped company focused on the creator economy. Contact: Noam Yadin [email protected] +17733133260 SOURCE ThoughtLeaders COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rob Lee, Northeast Director of the Tim Lamb Group, has brokered the sale of six NYE Group dealerships in upstate New York to the Atlantic Coast Automotive Group, a large dealer group. Founded by Harold Nye in 1968, the NYE Group has been led by Harold's son, William, in Oneida, New York since 1998. The group represents a variety of franchises including Chevrolet, Buick GMC, Ford, Chrysler Dodge Jeep, Toyota, and Volkswagen. "The sale of my six dealerships was a large and complicated transaction," said Bill Nye, owner NYE Group. "Rob Lee of the Tim Lamb Group was always readily available, experienced with answers, and prompt with decisions. The OEM approval stage is also not simple. Tim Lamb was there with support, 'go to' people and steady advice. They are a great team." The deal was closed on May 24, 2022. About Tim Lamb Group Since 2006, Tim Lamb Group has been the number one choice for dealers looking to sell, or purchase, a new vehicle dealership. Twelve regional directors handle billions of dollars per year in transactions for multiple dealer operators in every part of the United States and Canada. The Group has leveraged their factory management experience and retail dealership background to become the largest auto dealership sales and acquisitions firm in North America. For more information and dealership offerings, visit www.timlambgroup.com. MEDIA CONTACT: Colleen Robar, 313-207-5960, [email protected] SOURCE Tim Lamb Group MADISON, Fla., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Top Tier K9 released its groundbreaking Virtual Reality Dog Training Program, an experience enabling shelters, dog trainers, and owners to practice training pets and working dogs in a virtual environment. Screenshot from the Top Tier K9 VR Training Experience Jeff Minder, CEO & Founder of Top Tier K9, with his team Top Tier K9 is recognized as one of the top dog trainer schools in the world. They train both people and dogs. Their programs teach people to become professional dog trainers and successful business owners. Their Academy for Dog Trainers provides professional dog training lessons and support courses in business, project management, sales, and marketing. Through their trademarked Foundation Dog Program, Top Tier K9 trains working dogs for careers in the military, security, police, sports, service, and more. They provide comprehensive obedience, tracking, nosework, and protection training. Through their programs, Top Tier K9 realized the biggest challenge with dog training isn't training dogs it's training owners. When owners or handlers use the wrong training methods, they can enforce destructive behaviors or incorrect responses from the dog. Currently, competitor programs execute training and handling methods in direct contact with actual dogs. As a result, a dog's behavioral patterns may become permanently affected. Using instructional videos for these programs are ineffective at engaging dog trainers/owners without the hands-on experience. Top Tier K9 turned to Saritasa , a leading custom software development, and technology company, to provide their training solutions to the pet industry and build a better communication system between humans and dogs. Saritasa utilized VR to achieve this objective, building the platform in Unity for Meta Quest 2. Top Tier K9 is the world's first platform granting worldwide access to dog trainers, handlers, and owners seeking high-quality training programs for dogs using cutting-edge technology. Top Tier K9's VR dog training platform starts in a 3D-rendered Top Tier K9 training center. The program guides users through putting a collar and leash on a dog. The experience then trains users on the top 5 commands: Sit, Climb, Down, Come, and Heel. It uses markers Yes and No prior to rewarding or correcting the dog. The user must give commands in 1.3-second intervals to exploit the attention span/memory of a dog. The training platform is available to license through Top Tier K9 franchisees, Top Tier K9 certified dog trainers, and participating animal shelters. 4.2 million dogs are killed in shelters every year, while over 2.6 million new puppies are sold (Source: Top Tier K9). The number one reason dogs end up in shelters is terrible behavior caused by a lack of training. If you train and manage a dog properly, you almost eliminate its chances of ending up in a shelter and limit the number of euthanized dogs in these facilities. The Top Tier K9 Virtual Reality Dog training Center solves this problem. "My vision is for dog owners to adopt this tool to practice training a virtual dog before they work with their own dog," said Jeff Minder, CEO & Founder of Top Tier K9. Jeff is a Master Dog Trainer specializing in advanced puppy imprinting, including obedience, tracking, scent detection, and protection (Foundation Dog Program). Aaron Franko, VP of Immersive Technology in Saritasa, said that this new application of VR could potentially open doors for the technology's use in other avenues. Top Tier K9 tirelessly works to bridge the gap between humans and dogs using cutting-edge technology beyond anything that other training schools provide. The company aspires to train dogs and teach humans the techniques to maintain training and communication systems in this unregulated industry. Through the VR training experience, owners/handlers/trainers can first interact with a virtual dog to understand training basics without negatively impacting an actual canine. For more information visit: www.saritasa.com About Top Tier K9 Top Tier K9 is recognized as one of the top dog trainer schools in the world. Its program trains dog owners to train dogs. Their programs cover basic pet training, advanced pet training, working dog, and service dog training. They also train pets, service dogs, protection dogs, and Police K9s. Top Tier K9 was the first company to train a dog to hunt for and indicate the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Since then, Top Tier K9 has developed a training, distribution, and support network accessible from anywhere in the world for Virus Detection Dogs. To know more about Top Tier K9 training programs, visit www.toptierk9.com. About Saritasa Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, Saritasa aims to empower global brands with innovative, customized solutions that fit their needs and support an ever-evolving technology ecosystem. Saritasa specializes in custom software development, mobile development, augmented reality and virtual reality development, IoT solutions, web, database development, and DevOps. Founded in 2005, the Saritasa team employs over 140 employees and has delivered thousands of successful software, hardware, and mobile app projects to a range of clients across multiple industries. To learn more about the company, visit www.saritasa.com. Media Contact: Chelsea Freeman Firecracker PR (909) 573-7237 [email protected] SOURCE Top Tier K9; Saritasa 44% of respondents called for greater harmonization of health protocols and the use of technology to enable seamless travel. 34% wanted to see greater sustainability at the heart of tourism. 29% wanted to see health and sustainability prioritized over profits for the travel sector. 33% called for greater financial protections for travelers likely in response to the experience of the pandemic. People from China, India, and South Korea were most in favor of greater harmonization of safety protocols and use of technology to make travel simpler. Conducted by YouGov and commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, almost 14,000 people were polled, across China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and Sweden. His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia said: "The pandemic has a profound impact on the global tourism sector. It has shown us all travelers, tourists, businesses and governments, that we can do things differently. "The Future of Tourism Survey shows that the public want us to learn the lessons of the pandemic and to make changes that put health, sustainability, and the better use of technology, at the heart of future tourism." The Survey found that the travelers' attitudes have changed following two years of pandemic and lock downs which have constrained travel. 55% of respondents are now more likely to travel domestically. And 32% of people are more willing to make an international trip than they were before COVID. Economic uncertainty and rising prices have damped enthusiasm for travel over the next 6 months. Globally, 42% of people are either likely or very likely to travel internationally for a holiday, compared with 39% who are either unlikely or very unlikely to do so. The biggest impact, however, has been on business travel. Just 18% of respondents consider themselves likely or very likely to travel for internationally for business. Chinese, Japanese and Americans were least optimistic about the prospect of international travel. By contrast British, Indians and Saudis considered themselves most likely to travel internationally in the next 6 months The Future of Tourism Survey was released ahead of the 116th meeting of the Executive Council of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia next week, hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism. Strengthening the tourism sector and adapting to future demands for greater sustainability and resilience are high on the agenda. Prior to the pandemic, Travel and Tourism (including its direct, indirect and induced impacts) accounted for 1 in 4 of all new jobs created across the world, 10.3% of all jobs (333 million), and 10.3% of global GDP (US$9.6 trillion). His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia said: "Saudi Arabia is a brand-new tourism destination. We opened our doors to international tourism just before the pandemic, and because of that we are willing and able to think and act in new and different ways. "By aligning vision, leadership and resources we have been able to create a new model for tourism which is more resilient and more sustainable by design. We look forward to sharing our insights and to working with our international partners to build a brighter future for tourism." Last week the World Economic Forum released its Travel and Tourism Development Index. Saudi Arabia moved up 10 places to 33rd in the world overall. The independent index benchmarks 117 countries on 17 pillars crucial to the development and resiliency of their travel and tourism industries. Saudi moved from 43rd in 2019 to 33rd in 2021, the second largest rise in rankings, as a result of improvements across almost all indicators. This was the first report to be produced since Saudi opened for international tourism in September 2019. The UNWTO Executive Council will meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 7-8 June. NOTE TO EDITORS About the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Tourism leads the Saudi Tourism ecosystem, with support from the Saudi Tourism Authority and the Tourism Development Fund. The Ministry sets the Kingdom's tourism sector strategy and is responsible for the development of policies and regulations, developing human capital, gathering statistics, and attracting investment. It works in partnership with the Saudi Tourism Authority, which promotes Saudi Arabia as a global tourism destination, and the Tourism Development Fund, which executes the Ministry's investment strategy by providing funding for the sector's development. Headed by His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Ministry was founded in February 2020, following the opening of Saudi Arabia to international leisure tourists for the first time in its history in 2019. Saudi Arabia aims to welcome 100 million tourism visits by 2030, increasing the sector's contribution to GDP from 3% to 10%. Digital initiatives, providing technical solutions for tourism promotion, research and development to improve the tourism sector, innovation for emerging technologies. About the United Nations World Tourism Organization The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide. YouGov Polling: Methodology: Online interviews via YouGov's proprietary panel + partner panels Target Profile: Residents of markets listed below Males & females aged 18+ (general population sample) Sample Size: Country Sample Representation US 1000 Nat rep UK 2000 Nat rep Spain 1000 Nat rep India 1000 Urban rep China 1000 Online rep KSA 1000 Urban rep Mexico 1000 Urban rep Germany 2000 Nat rep Japan 1000 Nat rep South Korea 1000 Nat rep Sweden 1000 Nat rep TOTAL 13,000 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830563/YouGov_tourism_survey.jpg PDF - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1830562/Future_tourism_survey.pdf SOURCE YouGov Award Validates the Company's Best-in-Class IT Support BLUE BELL, Pa., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HDI, the leading organization dedicated to elevating technical support and service management across the enterprise, has announced that Unisys Corporation's (NYSE: UIS) Digital Workplace Global Service Desk has successfully met all the requirements for certification through HDI's IT Support Center Certification Program. "Our Support Center Certification is a stamp of approval for organizations to show that their support division operates efficiently," said Tara Gibb, senior director, HDI. "The Unisys audit demonstrated how the company provides world-class service desk services to its clients, and that the Unisys customer-experience measures are significantly more advanced compared to most organizations." "The HDI results validate the maturity of our advanced Service Desk capability," said Leon Gilbert, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Workplace Solutions (DWS), Unisys. "Our team is dedicated to providing the highest level of support to help our clients reach their business goals. We are very pleased to see our efforts recognized by HDI and valued by our clients." The Unisys DWS team of experts empowers the hybrid workplace and workforce by designing smarter, innovative workspaces that create seamless, digital experiences. HDI has recognized the Unisys DWS team several times for its dedication and expertise. HDI recently recognized two Unisys associates at the HDI Service and Support Awards: Judit Gaal as the Best Service and Support Manager, and Daniel Neu as the Best Service and Support Analyst. In January, Unisys Vice President of End User Experience Patrycja Sobera and Director of Global Strategy Weston Morris host of the Unisys Digital Workplace Deep Dive podcast were named to HDI's list of Top 25 Thought Leaders of 2022. About HDI For more than 30 years, HDI has partnered with thousands of professionals and their organizations to improve their performance by helping them to: drive change, harness knowledge, transform teams, make connections and turn challenges into opportunities. HDI empowers the technical support and service management community to advance their strategy, operations and teams through optimized service delivery. From the employee to the enterprise, HDI transforms service and support through its comprehensive lineup of training and certification courses, industry-leading annual conferences, results-driven consulting services, community-based networking opportunities and insightful research and informational resources. What does HDI stand for? HDI stands for smarter service resulting in better business outcomes. Learn more at https://www.thinkhdi.com . HDI is brought to you by Informa Tech. About Informa Tech Informa Tech is a market-leading provider of integrated research, media, training and events to the global technology community. We're an international business of more than 600 colleagues, operating in more than 20 markets. Our aim is to inspire the technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through research, media, training and event brands that inform, educate and connect. More than 7,000 professionals subscribe to our research with 225,000 delegates attending our events, more than 18,000 students participating in our training programs each year and nearly 4 million people visiting our digital communities each month. Learn more about Informa Tech . About Unisys Unisys is a technology solutions company that delivers successful outcomes for the most demanding organizations around the world. Unisys offerings include digital workplace solutions, cloud and infrastructure solutions, enterprise computing solutions and business process solutions. For more information on how Unisys delivers for its clients across the commercial, financial services and government sectors, visit www.unisys.com. Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn. SOURCE Unisys Corporation LENZING, Austria, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VEOCEL brand today announces the launch of "VEOCEL cares for the future" initiative, which will kickstart globally and regionally on June 5th, World Environment Day 2022. As the start of a dedicated consumer education and engagement program, the "cares for the future" campaign will feature a series of tailored activities in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Aimed at inspiring and engaging communities to care for the environment, the initiative will utilize social media channels and content to inspire, educate, and empower consumers to play a bigger role in caring for the planet and building a better future for the next generations. "At VEOCEL, our care transcends boundaries, from our children and families to the wider community, our environment and our planet," said Monique Buch, Vice President of Global Nonwovens Business, Lenzing AG. "Our new global campaign is all about broadening what care means at each stage of one's life from couples to newlyweds and young parents. We hope that our collaboration with environmental advocates will empower consumers from different parts of the world to join us in caring for the environment and sharing their stories to inspire others. Every action counts towards building a better future." Global brand ambassador to motivate change The VEOCEL brand's first global brand ambassador, @valerialipovetsky, is a public figure, business owner and mother of three. She will take her 1.9 million Instagram followers on an educational journey with VEOCEL to discover how to live more sustainably and learn how the boundless love she has for her children drives her care for the future. Demonstrate your love for the planet Across the U.S. and Europe, environmentally-driven influencers Eva Klaus, Muge Boz, and Heather Goodman, will kick off the #sharehowyoucare challenge and encourage their followers to comment real life examples of how they care for the environment. To join the challenge and win a chance to a luxury forest hotel stay, visit the influencers' social media accounts to find out more. The "VEOCEL cares for the future" initiative is conducted in collaboration with VEOCEL's longtime partner, One Tree Planted, where social media users all over the world will be able to contribute to global reforestation efforts and enable positive change for the planet by commenting on the influencers' posts. "Caring for the environment also transcends to caring for future generations. Later this year, the "VEOCEL cares for the future" campaign will be dedicated to the development of educational content and school programs around sustainable lifestyle knowledge targeted at children," added Monique. For more details about upcoming "cares for the future" campaign initiatives, please stay tuned to VEOCEL's social media channels. Note: Please download images and details from here. SOURCE VEOCEL LIMA, Peru, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Volcan Compania Minera S.A.A., a publicly held corporation (sociedad anonima abierta) organized under the laws of the Republic of Peru with its principal executive office at Av. Manuel Olguin 373, Santiago de Surco, Lima, Republic of Peru ("Volcan"), hereby announces the commencement of its offer to purchase for cash up to U.S.$100,000,000 aggregate principal amount (subject to increase by Volcan in its sole discretion under the circumstances described in the Statement (as defined below), the "Maximum Tender Amount") of the outstanding notes set forth in the table below (the "Notes"), upon the terms and subject to the conditions described in the offer to purchase and consent solicitation statement dated June 2, 2022 (as it may be amended or supplemented from time to time, the "Statement"). Volcan refers to the offer to purchase the Notes as the "Tender Offer". The purpose of the Tender Offer is to acquire the Notes for liability management purposes. Notes purchased in the Tender Offer will be retired and cancelled. Concurrently with the Tender Offer, Volcan is soliciting (the "Solicitation") from Holders (as defined below) a consent (the "Consent" or in the plural "Consents") to certain proposed amendments described herein (the "Proposed Amendments") to the indenture governing the Notes (the "Indenture"), in order to conform certain covenants in the Indenture to Volcan's other indebtedness instruments, thereby permitting the spin-off or any distribution of the interest held by Volcan or any of its subsidiaries in Cosco Shipping Ports Chancay Peru S.A. and/or Roquel Global S.A.C. without regard to any limitations to the making of restricted payments set forth therein. See "Proposed Amendments to the Indenture" in the Statement. Holders may either tender their Notes in the Tender Offer and thereby consent to the Proposed Amendments in the Solicitation or to not tender their Notes in the Tender Offer but deliver their Consent to the Proposed Amendments in the Solicitation. The Maximum Tender Amount for the Tender Offer shall not apply to the Solicitation. The Proposed Amendments will not become effective until after Holders of a majority in aggregate principal amount of the outstanding Notes (excluding for such purposes any Notes owned by Volcan, any Subsidiary (as defined in the Indenture), any other obligor under the Notes or any Affiliate (as defined in the Indenture) of Volcan) have delivered Consents to the Proposed Amendments, such Consents have been accepted and, if applicable, Volcan has paid the corresponding consideration to such consenting Holders (the "Participation Condition"). The following table summarizes the payments Holders are eligible to receive for each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered and Consents delivered: Title of Notes CUSIP / ISIN Numbers Aggregate Principal Amount Outstanding Maximum Tender Amount Tender Offer Consideration(1) Early Tender Premium(1)(2) Total Consideration(1)(3) Consent Payment(1)(4)(5) 4.375% Senior Notes due 2026 CUSIP: 92863U AB2 / P98047 AC0 ISIN: US92863UAB26 / USP98047AC08 U.S.$475,000,000 U.S.$100,000,000 U.S.$910.00 U.S.$30.00 U.S.$940.00 U.S.$2.50 __________________ (1) Per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase, or with respect to which the applicable Holder has validly provided its Consent, as applicable. (2) Includes the Consent Payment. (3) Includes the Early Tender Premium, which in turn includes the Consent Payment. (4) Holders that (i) validly tender their Notes and thereby deliver their Consents at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time (and do not validly withdraw such Notes and therefore do not validly revoke the related Consents) will be eligible to receive the Consent Payment in respect of such Notes, even if a smaller principal amount is accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer due to proration, and (ii) validly deliver their Consents at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time (and do not validly revoke them) will only be eligible to receive the Consent Payment in respect thereof. (5) No Consent Payment shall be made in respect of any Consent delivered after the Early Tender and Consent Time. The Tender Offer and Solicitation will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on June 30, 2022, or any other date and time to which Volcan extends the Tender Offer and Solicitation (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Expiration Date"), unless earlier terminated. Holders must validly tender their Notes and deliver Consents at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 15, 2022 (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Early Tender and Consent Time") to be eligible to receive the Total Consideration, which includes the Tender Offer Consideration and the Early Tender Premium (which in turn includes the Consent Payment), plus Accrued Interest (as defined below). If you validly tender your Notes and deliver Consents after the Early Tender and Consent Time but at or prior to the Expiration Date, you will be eligible to receive the Tender Offer Consideration for such Notes plus Accrued Interest. You may not tender Notes pursuant to the Tender Offer without delivering Consents pursuant to the Solicitation, but you may deliver Consents pursuant to the Solicitation without tendering your Notes pursuant to the Tender Offer. If you deliver Consents at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time, but elect not to tender your Notes in the Tender Offer, you will be eligible to receive the Consent Payment only. Consents will be validly delivered if submitted after the Early Tender and Consent Time but at or prior to the Expiration Date, but no Consent Payment shall be made in respect thereof. The Total Consideration, the Tender Offer Consideration, the Consent Payment and the Accrued Interest will be payable in cash. Tendered Notes may be validly withdrawn from the Tender Offer and Consents may be revoked at or prior to, but not after, 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 15, 2022 (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Withdrawal Deadline"). A valid withdrawal of tendered Notes by any Holder will constitute the concurrent valid revocation of such Holder's related Consent, and a valid revocation of a Consent will constitute the concurrent valid withdrawal of such Holder's related tendered Notes. Notes validly tendered pursuant to the Tender Offer and accepted for purchase will be so accepted subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and may be subject to proration, all as more fully described in the Statement. The Maximum Tender Amount for the Tender Offer shall not apply to the Solicitation. Subject to the Maximum Tender Amount, Volcan intends to accept for purchase all Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time, and will only prorate such Notes if the aggregate principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time exceeds the Maximum Tender Amount. If Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time are prorated and returned to Holders, those Notes will be deemed to have delivered their Consent, and in turn Holders of such returned Notes will receive only the Consent Payment. If the Tender Offer is not fully subscribed as of the Early Tender and Consent Time, Holders who validly tender Notes after the Early Tender and Consent Time but at or prior to the Expiration Date may be subject to proration among themselves (including the provisions relating to priority in proration described below) if the aggregate principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) at or prior to the Expiration Date exceeds the Maximum Tender Amount. For the avoidance of doubt, if Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender and Consent Time but at or prior to the Expiration Date are prorated and returned to Holders, those returned Notes will not receive the Consent Payment (unless the Early Tender and Consent Time is extended at Volcan's discretion). Subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and proration and subject to the priority in proration described below, all Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time will be accepted for purchase before any Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender and Consent Time are accepted for purchase. Furthermore, if the Tender Offer is fully subscribed as of the Early Tender and Consent Time, Holders who validly tender Notes after the Early Tender and Consent Time will not have any of their Notes accepted for purchase, provided that such Notes may be accepted for purchase if Volcan increases the Maximum Tender Amount, which it is entitled to do in its sole discretion. There can be no assurance that Volcan will increase the Maximum Tender Amount. See "The Tender Offer and SolicitationMaximum Tender Amount; Proration" in the Statement for more information on the proration provisions applicable to the Tender Offer. The Tender Offer is not conditioned upon the tender of any minimum principal amount of Notes. The Tender Offer and Solicitation are open to all registered holders (individually, a "Holder," and collectively, the "Holders") of the Notes. The Tender Offer and Solicitation are subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the General Conditions (as defined below) and the Participation Condition, as described in the section of the Statement entitled "The Tender Offer and SolicitationConditions to the Tender Offer and Solicitation." Subject to the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, the consideration for each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will be the Tender Offer Consideration. Holders of Notes that are validly tendered together with Consents (and not validly withdrawn or revoked, as applicable) at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time will be deemed to have delivered Consents in respect of such tendered Notes and, if accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer, will receive the Total Consideration, which includes the Tender Offer Consideration plus the Early Tender Premium (which in turn includes the Consent Payment). Holders of Notes tendered after the Early Tender and Consent Time, but before the Expiration Date, and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will receive the Tender Offer Consideration, but neither the Early Tender Premium nor the Consent Payment. No tenders will be valid if submitted after the Expiration Date. Holders may not tender their Notes pursuant to the Tender Offer without delivering their Consents pursuant to the Solicitation, but Holders may deliver Consents pursuant to the Solicitation without tendering their Notes pursuant to the Tender Offer. Holders who validly deliver (and do not validly revoke) Consents at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time, without the concurrent tender of the respective Notes, will be entitled to receive only the Consent Payment. No Consent Payment shall be made in respect of any Consent delivered after the Early Tender and Consent Time. In addition to the Tender Offer Consideration or the Total Consideration, as applicable, all Holders of Notes accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will, on the Early Settlement Date or the Settlement Date (as defined below), also receive accrued and unpaid interest on those Notes from the last interest payment date with respect to those Notes to, but not including, the Early Settlement Date or the Settlement Date, as applicable ("Accrued Interest"). The Tender Offer and Solicitation commence on the date of the Statement and will expire on the Expiration Date, unless extended or earlier terminated by Volcan. No tenders will be valid if submitted after the Expiration Date. Consents will be validly delivered if submitted after the Early Tender and Consent Time but at or prior to the Expiration Date, but no Consent Payment shall be made in respect thereof. If a Nominee (as defined in the Statement) holds Notes on behalf of a beneficial owner, such Nominee may have an earlier deadline for accepting the offer. Any beneficial owner should promptly contact such Nominee that holds its Notes to determine its deadline. The Tender Offer and Solicitation is open to all registered Holders of the Notes. There is no letter of transmittal for this Tender Offer. Volcan expects to purchase any Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn (i) at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time and that Volcan chooses to accept for purchase, subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and all conditions to the Tender Offer having been either satisfied or waived by Volcan, as permitted by applicable law, promptly following the Early Tender and Consent Time (the "Early Settlement Date"), (ii) after the Early Tender and Consent Time and at or prior to the Expiration Date and that Volcan chooses to accept for purchase, subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and all conditions to the Tender Offer having been either satisfied or waived by Volcan, as permitted by applicable law, promptly following the Expiration Date (the "Settlement Date"). Subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and proration (including the provisions relating to priority in proration described in the Statement), all Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time will be accepted for purchase before any Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender and Consent Time are accepted for purchase. The Early Settlement Date is expected to occur promptly following the Early Tender and Consent Time and the Settlement Date is expected to occur promptly following the Expiration Date. Notes accepted on either the Early Settlement Date or the Settlement Date, if any, will be accepted subject to the Maximum Tender Amount and proration (including the provisions relating to priority in proration), each as described herein. Even if your tendered Notes are prorated, you will be deemed to have delivered a Consent with respect to all Notes tendered. You will be eligible to receive the Consent Payment in respect of all such Notes that were tendered prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time and that are returned to you due to proration. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Tender Offer and Solicitation, Volcan's obligation to accept for purchase, and to pay for, any Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the Tender Offer, and its obligation to accept the delivery of, and to pay for, the Consents validly delivered and not validly revoked pursuant to the Solicitation, are subject to, and conditioned upon, the satisfaction of, or Volcan's waiver of, the conditions described in the section of the Statement entitled "The Tender Offer and SolicitationConditions to the Tender Offer and Solicitation." The conditions to the Tender Offer and Solicitation are for the sole benefit of Volcan and may be asserted by Volcan, regardless of the circumstances giving rise to any such condition (including any action or inaction by Volcan). Volcan reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to waive any and all conditions of the Tender Offer and Solicitation, at or prior to the Early Tender and Consent Time or Expiration Date, as applicable. The Tender Offer is not subject to a minimum principal amount of Notes being tendered. See "The Tender Offer and SolicitationConditions to the Tender Offer and Solicitation" in the Statement. Withdrawal rights with respect to the Notes and revocation rights with respect to any Consents will terminate on the Withdrawal Deadline, unless extended pursuant to applicable law. Accordingly, following the Withdrawal Deadline, any Notes validly tendered (whether before, on or after the Withdrawal Deadline) may no longer be validly withdrawn and any Consents validly delivered (whether before, on or after the Withdrawal Deadline) may no longer be revoked. For the withdrawal of a tendered Note to be valid, such withdrawal must comply with the procedures set forth in the Statement. Subject to applicable law and the terms set forth in the Statement, Volcan reserves the right: (i) to extend or otherwise amend the Early Tender and Consent Time, the Withdrawal Deadline or the Expiration Date, (ii) to increase the Maximum Tender Amount without extending the Withdrawal Deadline or otherwise reinstating withdrawal rights of Holders except as required by law; (iii) to waive or modify in whole or in part any and all conditions to the Tender Offer and Solicitation; (iv) to modify or terminate the Tender Offer and Solicitation; and (v) to otherwise amend the Tender Offer and Solicitation in any respect. In the event of the termination of the Tender Offer, the Notes tendered pursuant to the Tender Offer and not previously accepted and purchased will be promptly returned to the tendering Holders. If a Holder does not tender its Notes or if a Holder tenders Notes that are not accepted for purchase, they will remain outstanding. If Volcan consummates the Tender Offer, the trading market for a Holder's outstanding Notes may be significantly more limited. For a discussion of this and other risks, see "Certain Significant ConsiderationsPosition of Volcan and Other Parties Concerning the Tender Offer" in the Statement. THE OFFER DOCUMENTS CONTAIN CERTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE READ BEFORE ANY DECISION IS MADE WITH RESPECT TO THE TENDER OFFER, IN PARTICULAR, SEE "CERTAIN SIGNIFICANT CONSIDERATIONS" IN THE STATEMENT FOR A DISCUSSION OF CERTAIN FACTORS HOLDERS SHOULD CONSIDER IN CONNECTION WITH THE TENDER OFFER. VOLCAN HAS NOT FILED THIS STATEMENT WITH, AND IT HAS NOT BEEN REVIEWED BY, ANY FEDERAL OR STATE SECURITIES COMMISSION OR REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF ANY COUNTRY. NO AUTHORITY HAS PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS STATEMENT AND IT IS UNLAWFUL AND MAY BE A CRIMINAL OFFENSE TO MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY. THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION HAS NOT BEEN REGISTERED, AND WILL NOT BE REGISTERED, WITH THE PERUVIAN SECURITIES MARKET SUPERINTENDENCY (SUPERINTENDENCIA DEL MERCADO DE VALORES - SMV) OR THE LIMA STOCK EXCHANGE (BOLSA DE VALORES DE LIMA). THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION MAY NOT BE MADE IN PERU, EXCEPT IN CIRCUMSTANCES THAT DO NOT CONSTITUTE A PUBLIC OFFERING OR UNAUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION UNDER PERUVIAN LAWS AND REGULATIONS. PERUVIAN SECURITIES LAWS AND REGULATIONS ON PUBLIC OFFERINGS WILL NOT BE APPLICABLE TO THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION, THE DISCLOSURE OBLIGATIONS SET FORTH THEREIN WILL NOT BE APPLICABLE TO VOLCAN BEFORE OR AFTER THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION. THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION IS NOT BEING MADE IN PERU PURSUANT TO A PUBLIC OFFERING AND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION, AS WELL AS INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN, MAY NOT BE SUPPLIED TO THE PUBLIC IN PERU, NOR BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OFFER TO THE PUBLIC IN PERU. NONE OF VOLCAN, ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, THE DEALER MANAGERS (AS DEFINED BELOW), THE TENDER AND INFORMATION AGENT OR THE TRUSTEE (AS DEFINED IN THE STATEMENT) OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE AFFILIATES IS MAKING ANY RECOMMENDATION AS TO WHETHER HOLDERS SHOULD TENDER ANY NOTES NOR ANY RECOMMENDATION THAT HOLDERS DELIVER OR REFRAIN FROM DELIVERING ANY CONSENTS IN RESPONSE TO THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION. HOLDERS MUST MAKE THEIR OWN DECISION AS TO WHETHER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TENDER OFFER AND SOLICITATION, AND, IF SO, THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF NOTES TO TENDER AND THE CONSENTS TO DELIVER. The Statement and related documents do not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell notes in any jurisdiction or in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. In those jurisdictions where the securities, blue sky or other laws require the Tender Offer and Solicitation to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Tender Offer and Solicitation will be deemed to be made on behalf of Volcan by the Dealer Managers or one or more registered brokers or dealers licensed under the laws of such jurisdiction. Volcan is not aware of any jurisdiction where the making of the Tender Offer and Solicitation is not in compliance with the laws of such jurisdiction. If Volcan becomes aware of any jurisdiction in which the making of the Tender Offer and Solicitation would not be in compliance with such laws, Volcan will make a good faith effort to comply with any such laws or may seek to have such laws declared inapplicable to the Tender Offer and Solicitation. If, after such good faith effort, Volcan cannot comply with any such applicable laws, the Tender Offer and Solicitation will not be made to the Holders of Notes residing in each such jurisdiction. Neither the delivery of this announcement, the Statement and any related documents nor any purchase of Notes by Volcan will, under any circumstances, create any implication that the information contained in this announcement, the Statement or in any related document is current as of any time subsequent to the date hereof or thereof. The Statement does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities (other than the Notes). Any offering of securities will only be made by an offering document and any such offering may not be registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainty and changes in circumstances, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan" and similar expressions are generally intend to identify forward-looking statements. Volcan is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More detailed information about these and other factors is set forth in the Statement. Global Bondholder Services Corporation is acting as the tender agent and as the information agent (the "Tender and Information Agent") for the Tender Offer and Solicitation. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Santander Investment Securities Inc. are acting as dealer managers and solicitation agents (the "Dealer Managers") for the Tender Offer and Solicitation. The Tender and Information Agent for the Tender Offer and Solicitation is: Global Bondholder Services Corporation 65 Broadway Suite 404 New York, New York 10006 Attn: Corporate Actions Banks and Brokers call: (212) 430-3774 Toll free (855) 654-2014 The Depositary Agent for the Tender Offer and Solicitation is: Global Bondholder Services Corporation By facsimile: (For Eligible Institutions only): (212) 430-3775/3779 Confirmation: (212) 430-3774 Email: [email protected] By Mail: By Overnight Courier: By Hand: 65 Broadway Suite 404 65 Broadway Suite 404 65 Broadway Suite 404 New York, NY 10006 New York, NY 10006 New York, NY 10006 Any questions or requests for assistance or for additional copies of the Statement may be directed to the Tender and Information Agent at one of its telephone numbers above. A Holder (or a beneficial owner that is not a Holder) may also contact any of the Dealer Managers at their telephone numbers set forth below or its broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other nominee for assistance concerning the Statement. The Dealer Managers for the Tender Offer and Solicitation are: Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Santander Investment Securities Inc. Liability Management Group 388 Greenwich Street, 4th Floor New York, New York 10013 United States US Toll Free: + 1 (800) 558-3745 Collect: +1 (212) 723-6106 Liability Management Team 45 East 53rd Street, 5th Floor New York, New York 10022 United States U.S. Toll-Free: +1 (855) 404-3636 Collect: +1 (212) 940-1442 SOURCE: Volcan Compania Minera S.A.A. SOURCE Volcan Compania Minera S.A.A. Addition of Firm Focusing on High-Net-Worth Clients Brings Wealth Enhancement Group's Total Client Assets to More Than $55 Billion MINNEAPOLIS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wealth Enhancement Group, an independent wealth management firm, today announced the acquisition of Kings Point Capital Management, LLC, ("Kings Point"), an independent RIA with offices in Great Neck, New York and Brentwood, Tennessee. Kings Point's team of five advisors and 11 support staff oversee $1.7 billion in client assets. The partnership builds on Wealth Enhancement Group's continued growth, bringing its total client assets to $55 billion. Jeff Dekko, Chief Executive Officer of Wealth Enhancement Group, said, "Kings Point has built a tremendously successful business by delivering customized solutions to their high-net-worth clients. This is a business model Wealth Enhancement Group understands well and embraces. Our financial planning-driven platform and service approach is a perfect fit for Kings Point's advisors, staff and clients, so I'm excited to work with this team and help them build on an already impressive operation." Jack L. Salzman, Senior Managing Partner and Jeffrey P. Bates, Managing Partner, leveraged their years of experience serving as Goldman Sachs executives to found Kings Point as an independent RIA in 2005. With support from Jake A. Marshall, IV, Partner, and the team, Kings Point has grown by serving the investment management needs of wealthy individuals, multi-generational families, small business owners, endowments, foundations and trusts. Kings Point, in part, has built its reputation by actively managing concentrated portfolios that focus on tax efficiency. This is Wealth Enhancement Group's fifth closed acquisition in 2022. Mr. Salzman said, "As a firm that values high-touch service, personal attention and data analytics, we took our time to search for the right partner. We found the ideal match in Wealth Enhancement Group, whose team immediately understood our philosophy of service and embraced our unique investment management approach." Mr. Bates added, "We look forward to the added tools, systems and flexibility they will make available as we continue to strive to provide our clients the absolute best service possible." Commenting on the partnership, Jim Cahn, Wealth Enhancement Group's Chief Investments & Business Development Officer, said, "We are thrilled that Kings Point chose to join forces with Wealth Enhancement Group. With more than 80 years of combined industry experience, Jack and Jeffrey are true leaders in the RIA space. We are honored to provide them with the additional scale and resources they need to continue competing in the evolving wealth management industry." Mr. Salzman will serve as Director of Fundamental Research, directing individual stock research of Wealth Enhancement Group's investment team. DeVoe & Company, a leading strategy and M&A consulting company serving the RIA industry, supported Kings Point Capital Management in its decision to join forces with Wealth Enhancement Group. About Wealth Enhancement Group Wealth Enhancement Group is a Greater Minneapolis-based independent wealth management firm offering comprehensive and customized financial planning and investment management services. Founded in 1997, Wealth Enhancement Group serves clients nationwide. Wealth Enhancement Group specializes in providing retail clients with the team-based knowledge and resources they need to simplify their financial life. For more information, please visit www.wealthenhancement.com. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services, LLC (WEAS), a registered investment advisor. Certain, but not all, investment advisor representatives (IARs) of WEAS are also registered representatives of and offer securities through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealth Enhancement Group and Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services are separate entities from LPL Financial. Wealth Enhancement Group is a registered trademark of Wealth Enhancement Group, LLC. Wealth Enhancement Group and its Registered Investment Advisor, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services, had $53.3 billion in client brokerage and advisory assets as of 3/31/2022. Kings Point Capital Management had over $1.7 billion in client brokerage and advisory assets as of 3/31/2022. With the addition of previously announced acquisitions and the acquisition of Kings Point Capital Management, Wealth Enhancement Group expects to have over $55 billion in client brokerage, advisory and trust assets as of May 31, 2022. Media Contacts Joseph Kuo / Donald Cutler Haven Tower Group 424 317 4851 or 424 317 4864 [email protected] or [email protected] Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services, LLC (WEAS), a registered investment advisor. Certain, but not all, investment advisor representatives (IARs) of WEAS are also registered representatives of and offer securities through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealth Enhancement Group and WEAS are separate entities from LPL. Wealth Enhancement Group is a registered trademark of Wealth Enhancement Group, LLC. SOURCE Wealth Enhancement Group WITHERITE LAW GROUP PARTNERS WITH KISS 104.1 TO KICK OFF SUMMER FUN WITH KIDS' WEEK FOR 2,500 ATLANTA KIDS AND FAMILIES Tweet this "With the rising costs of gas, groceries, rent, and pretty much everything around us, it can be challenging for families to pay for extra-curricular summer activities," said Amy Witherite, founder of Witherite Law Group and 1-800-TruckWreck. "The average cost of admission to theme parks and other family-friendly activities can range from $30-$50 per child, which can be astronomical for families with multiple children. We are thrilled to be able to sponsor Kids' Week to provide a full week of summer opportunities for Atlanta youth, especially those who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise." Please find the full schedule of events below. Monday, June 6: Illuminarium ( https://www.illuminarium.com/atlanta/ ) Address: 550 Somerset Terrace NE, Atlanta, GA 30306 Line begins: 7:00am Open: 10:00am First 500 to arrive will receive free entry (adults with children) Tuesday, June 7: Stone Mountain Park ( https://www.stonemountainpark.com/) Address: 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd. Stone Mountain, GA 30083 Line begins: 7:00am Open: 9:00am First 500 to arrive will receive free entry (adults with children) Wednesday, June 8: Georgia Aquarium ( www.georgiaaquarium.org ) Address: 225 Baker Street Northwest, Atlanta, GA Line begins: 7:00am Open: 9:00am First 450 to arrive will receive free entry (adults with children) Thursday, June 9: Fun Spot America ( https://funspotamericaatlanta.com/) Address: 1675 Hwy 85 North, Fayetteville, GA 30214 Line begins: 7:00am Open: Gates at 8:00am (attractions will open at 9:00am) First 450 to arrive will receive free entry (adults with children) Friday, June 10: McDonalds ( https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html) Address: 2964 Turner Hill Rd., Lithonia, GA 30038 Line begins: 7:00am Meals will be available in the drive-thru and inside the restaurant Breakfast: Choice of Sausage biscuit, Sausage McGriddle, Sausage McMuffin or Chicken Biscuits (Crispy or McChicken) and either a small orange juice or a soft drink. The first 600 to arrive (adults and their children) will receive free breakfast starting at 7:00am . "We are happy to once again partner with Witherite Law Group to impact the Atlanta community," said Frank Ski, media personality, philanthropist, and host of The Frank Ski Show with Nina Brown. "It is imperative to provide safe, age-appropriate activities for kids when school is out. With all the stress and trauma going on in the world right now, we are elated to be able to provide some stress-relief and focus on fun." Kids' Week is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Event admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis, up to the daily allotment for each event. For more information, visit https://www.kiss104fm.com. PHOTO/INTERVIEW/B-ROLL OPPORTUNITIES: The following spokespeople are available for pre-event and/or onsite interviews on Monday, June 6 and Tuesday, June 7, preferably between 7 a.m. 10 a.m. Amy Witherite - founder, Witherite Law Group - founder, Witherite Law Group Frank Ski public figure and philanthropist Nina Brown - radio veteran and community advocate - radio veteran and community advocate Select parent/youth attendees Please contact Kayla Tucker Adams, KTA Media Group, for interviews and onsite media coverage at [email protected] or 214-403-9852. ABOUT WITHERITE LAW GROUP Witherite Law Group is a personal injury law firm founded in 2001 with offices in Atlanta (also serving Columbus and Macon), Dallas, and Fort Worth. The firm's attorneys specialize in helping those injured in a car or truck accident and can be reached by calling 1-800-TruckWreck or 1-800-CarWreck, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Witherite Law Group Social Media Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WitheriteLaw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/witheritelaw/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WitheriteLaw 1-800-TruckWreck Media Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1800TruckWreck/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1800truckwreck/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/1800truckwreck SOURCE Witherite Law Group Why: The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022, commonly referred to as SECURE 2.0, is a wide-ranging piece of legislation that would make multiple changes affecting employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs. Among the Act's provisions are those that would: expand automatic enrollment in 401(k) and 403(b) plans; increase the age at which participants are required to begin receiving mandatory distributions, from age 72 to age 75; increase the catch-up contribution limits for retirement plans and SIMPLE plans for individuals who have attained ages 62, 63, and 64; reduce the period of service a long-time, part-time worker must perform in order to be eligible to participate in an employer's 401(k) plan; promote and enhance the Saver's Credit; require all catch-up contributions to qualified retirement plans to be subject to Roth tax treatment; and allow 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) plans to provide participants with the option of receiving employer matching contributions on a Roth basis. In addition, the Act would: allow student loan payments to be treated as elective deferrals eligible for matching contributions; authorize penalty-free withdrawals from eligible retirement plans to victims of domestic abuse; provide a nonrefundable tax credit of up to $500 for small employers that allow for immediate plan eligibility for military spouses; increase the tax credit available to small employers for starting a pension plan, from 50% to 100% of qualified start-up costs; and allow employers to provide de minimis financial incentives (e.g., gift cards) to employees to participate in a retirement plan. Who: Glenn Sulzer, J.D., Senior Legal Analyst, Pensions & Retirement Glenn Sulzer is a Senior Analyst at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. He has been analyzing pension and employee benefits law for over 30 years. While primarily focusing on the Pension Plan Guide, Sulzer has been a major contributor to the Master Pension Guide, Fringe Benefits Tax Guide, Employee Benefits Management, COBRA Guide, Individual Retirement Plan Guide, Compliance Guide for Plan Administrators, Spencer Retirement Reports, and Law and Explanation Analyses of tax legislation going back to the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Author of Working with 401(k) plans and the Practical Guide to 401(k) Plans, Sulzer has also co-authored: Social Security Benefits Including Medicare, Social Security Explained, Saving for the Future (Roth and Traditional IRAs), Retirement Plans for Individual and Small Businesses, and On Your Retirement. A Wolters Kluwer spokesperson in the area of employee benefits, Sulzer has written numerous Portfolios and White Papers covering a wide variety of benefits topics, as well as Strategic Perspectives on health law issues. Sulzer is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and earned an undergraduate degree in political science from DePaul. "SECURE 2.0 and other concurrent legislative proposals are a continuation of the Congressional intention, expressed in the 2019 SECURE Act 2019, to increase the accessibility of employees to employer-provided retirement benefits and ease plan administration. The proposals have wide bipartisan support and could very well be passed into law during the current legislative session. Given the scope of the proposed amendments, and the attendant administrative costs, plan sponsors and administrators should consider planning for the changes now." Glenn Sulzer, J.D., Wolters Kluwer Senior Legal Analyst Contact: To arrange an interview with Glenn Sulzer or other legal experts from Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. on this or any other legal related topics, please contact Linda Gharib: [email protected] About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk, and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of 4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com , follow us on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube . MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Gharib Director, Brand & Communications Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Tel: +1 (646) 887-7962 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. International awards for smart innovations and high delivery reliability and quality WIESELBURG, Austria, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ZKW has received no less than three top-class awards in recent months. At the German Innovation Awards, the lighting systems specialist's "Black Box" won in the "Excellence in Business to Business - Machines & Engineering" category. The fully automated robot station accelerates and simplifies the processing and quality inspection of headlight lenses. In addition, the ZKW sites in Krusovce (Slovakia) and Dalian (China) received awards for their excellent delivery reliability and quality. ZKW Slovakia received the "GM Customer Care and Aftersales On-Time Shipping Award 2021" from General Motors, while ZKW China received the "Outstanding Contribution Award" from vehicle manufacturer Geely. The awards reward the lighting systems specialist exceptional performance in Europe and China. Despite pandemic-related restrictions, ZKW was able to fulfill its supply contracts with GM and Geely on time, reliably and in high quality. "We are particularly pleased with the awards because they reward the efforts of our employees for customers worldwide," explains Dr. Wilhelm Steger, CEO of the ZKW Group. German Innovation Award for Black Box The ZKW Black Box has won the German Innovation Award 2022 in the category "Excellence in Business to Business - Machines & Engineering". "The fully automated handling, inspection and packaging system for optical parts enables the simultaneous processing and quality inspection of different headlight lenses without changeover times," explains Stefan Hauptmann, General Plant Manager ZKW Lichtsysteme. The smart system, developed together with two cooperation partners, helps to increase quality, efficiency, safety and competitiveness. Top supplier for GM In Slovakia, ZKW has received two certificates from General Motors. The "GM Customer Care and Aftersales On-Time Shipping Award 2021" in platinum honors the ZKW plant for its outstanding performance as a supplier for GM Korea and GM Customer Care & Aftersales North America. In particular, the award recognizes the on-time delivery of spare parts for the two companies. At its Krusovce site, ZKW manufactures spare parts for the Opel Astra and Insignia models and GM Buick, among others. Top ten supplier in China The ZKW site in Dalian has received the "Outstanding Contribution Award" from the Chinese automotive group Geely. The main criterion for the award is the outstanding performance as a supplier for the market launch of the new SUV model Geely Xingyue L. The particular challenge of the project was the advanced start of production of the vehicle. Despite the high time pressure, ZKW Dalian was able to develop, manufacture and deliver the HDL LED front headlamp for the new Geely Xingyue L on time. The lighting systems specialist also produces lighting for other models of the Chinese automotive brand - including front, fog and auxiliary headlights for the Geely Lynk&Co. "All employees at ZKW Dalian deserve great thanks and respect for this extraordinary achievement," emphasizes Dr. Steger. Images can be downloaded here. About ZKW The ZKW Group is the specialist for innovative premium lighting systems and electronics. As a system supplier, ZKW is a global partner to the automotive industry. The group develops and produces products based on our motto of "Bright Minds, Bright Lights," combining bright minds with modern production technologies to produce complex premium lighting and electronic modules for international automotive manufacturers. Our top products include powerful and cost-efficient complete LED systems. The ZKW Group has a total of twelve locations worldwide, with intelligently networked development and production. In 2021, the Group employed around 10,000 workers and generated total revenues of 1.07 billion euros. In accordance with the corporate vision "Ground-breaking premium lighting and electronic systems from ZKW for all mobility concepts of the global automotive industry", the company's primary goal is to produce top-quality high-tech products and to promote the development of innovative holistic lighting systems. With our discoveries and inventions, the ZKW corporate group makes vehicles more desirable, more unique, safer, and more energy efficient. Our 360 degree product portfolio includes headlamps and fog lamps, rear lamps, flashers, interior and license plate lamps as well as electronic modules. Major automotive manufacturers trust their brands to innovative products from ZKW. We are proud of our customers like BMW (BMW, Rolls Royce), DAIMLER (MERCEDES-BENZ Cars and Trucks), FORD (Lincoln, Ford), GEELY (Volvo, Polestar, Lynk & Co, Geely), GENERAL MOTORS (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac), Hyundai (Kia), JLR (Jaguar, Land Rover), Stellantis (Opel, Citroen), RENAULT/NISSAN (Infiniti, Alpine), VGTT (Volvo Trucks, MACK) and VW (Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Lamborghini, MAN, VW, Seat). With intelligent lighting systems and innovative styling, ZKW is shaping the look and character of vehicles worldwide. Contact ZKW Group GmbH Sandra Simeonidis-Huber Group Communication und Marketing Rottenhauser Strae 8 3250 Wieselburg T +43 7416 505 2051 [email protected] SOURCE ZKW Group The chief executive of Deutsche Banks asset management arm, DWS Group, announced his resignation in a memo to employees yesterday after the banks headquarters were raided over 'greenwashing' allegations. Asoka Woehrmann stepped down from the role after police acted on allegations first raised by an internal whistleblower last August when Deutsche's Frankfurt offices were raided. In the memo, he said that "allegations..., however unfounded or undefendable, have left a mark", and added: "To quote Charles Dickens: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Shares at DWS had fallen 7% by 11:00 am on Wednesday morning trades. Woehrmann was appointed to the executive board at DWS in 2018 and was due to continue his appointment on the board until at least 2024. He held the dual roles of CEO and chairman of the managing directors of DWS in Frankfurt, having previously headed Deutsche Bank's private client business in Germany. He had a 17-year career at DWS before joining the client-facing part of Deutsche Banks business, serving as a one-time global chief investment officer at the asset manager. Woehrmann was chairman of the supervisory boards of DWS Investment and DWS Grundbesitz. Desiree Fixler, who previously headed up the asset management arms ESG products, blew the whistle last year on claims that the bank was offering ESG products that claimed to be greener than they actually were. She filed a lawsuit against the company after she was removed from her position in March 2021, which she alleges was because she had raised concerns over the ESG claims made by the company. The allegations represent the latest greenwashing scandal to hit a Germany-based company after automaker Volkswagen Group (XETRA:VOW) paid out hundreds of millions in fines and compensation after an emissions-fixing scandal over software used in its EA189 diesel engine. Credit Suisse has slashed its price target for value retailer B&M European Value Retail SA (LSE:BME)s on doubts over its ability to sustain the growth it saw during the pandemic. The investment bank maintained a 'neutral' guidance on the shares, citing questions over COVID years sales and margin retention. but cut the target to 460p from 600p previously. Shares in the retailer were up 0.59% this morning but have fallen 17% since a profit warning yesterday and stood over 620p six months ago, which was before its long-time boss announced he was standing down. "B&M is very cheap vs history; however, we are less confident around how much of the COVID years boost to sales densities and margins will be maintained," said Credit Suisse. The broker is predicting current year B&M sales densities are 7% above pre-pandemic levels, gross margins 80bp (0.8%) higher and underlying profit (EBITDA) margins 21bp higher, but those predictions come with a swathe of caveats. "In what is likely to be a very tough environment for retailers and consumers, this would still represent a strong result, in our view, but we do see more downside than upside risk "Assuming a 15% cut to ordinary and special dividends the shares yield 8.9%; however, without a clear catalyst and what could be a long consumer downturn. we remain neutral." Kin Mining NL (ASX:KIN) has recovered up to 96.9% gold during test-work on ore from its 1.275-million-ounce Cardinia Hill camp near Leonora in Western Australia. The company used flotation, re-grinding and leaching techniques to recover the gold from some of the projects sulphide ores. Today, Kin said the method saw better gold recoveries compared to conventional test-work methods, boosting the recoveries by 6.3% at Cardinia Hill and by 10.9% and up to 12.6% at the Helens and Lewis prospects. As a result, metallurgical recovery is likely to be around 97% for Cardinia Hill sulphide ores (based on optimal conditions test-work), 91% for Helens and 87% for Lewis sulphide ore (going off the sighter test-work to date). Down the line, further test-work programs are likely as drilling penetrates deeper sulphide-dominant ores at Cardinias Rangoon, Fiona and Helens East deposits. Important outcomes Commenting on the test-work results today, Kin Mining managing director Andrew Munckton said: The metallurgical test-work program undertaken on sulphide ore from key Cardinia deposits has delivered some very positive and important outcomes for the Cardinia Gold Project. Importantly, the test-work has confirmed that strong gold recoveries can be achieved with flotation, re-grinding and leaching of the sulphide ores. These results indicate that sulphide ores from Cardinia, if treated using the flotation and re-grind process, are likely to result in significantly improved gold production and financial returns. As our exploration programs advance, particularly across the Eastern Corridor, we are continuing to discover significant extensions of this large mineralised system particularly deeper, higher grade sulphide ores. Munckton also said the process selected to treat these sulphide ores and the resulting metallurgical performance will be increasingly important. Oxide ores that lie near-surface and above the sulphide ores show uniform high rates of metallurgical recovery, ranging from 90.5% to 95.5%, using the conventional grind, gravity and leach process, he explained. Test-work program Kin embarked on metallurgical recovery and sighter test-work across the Cardinia Hill, Helens and Lewis targets. The metallurgical test-work program was designed to confirm the most cost-effective processing route for each ore type confirmed within the large, rapidly developing Western and Eastern Corridor mineralised complex, which make up the Cardinia area. Mineralisation discovered at Cardinia extends over roughly 1 kilometre by 5 kilometres on the western and eastern side of the gold camp. Cardinia also contains a number of development prospects, including Cardinia Hill, Helens, Bruno, Lewis, Fiona, Rangoon and East Lynne, which collectively contain more than 650,000 ounces of gold in mineral resources. All eyes on the Eastern Corridor The latest test-work results have focused Kins attention on one area of promise at Cardinia: the Eastern Corridor. Munckton said the company was already honing in on the target thanks to a spate of strong drill results out of the Rangoon, Cardinia Hill and Helens East prospects, where sulphide intersections at depth were significantly higher in grade. Coupled with the strong recovery results from Cardinia Hill and Helens, he said the Eastern Corridor was shaping up as a significant centre for development at the Cardinia Gold Project. The Eastern Corridor is proving to be highly mineralised, with numerous deposits and mineralised positions already identified, Munckton explained. We see significant potential to discover new high-grade lodes, delineate new resources and grow our overall inventory across this corridor. Strong metallurgical performance from these deposits gives confidence that the Eastern Corridor and the Cardinia area more generally will continue to be a big focus for us moving forward. Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd (ASX:QPM) has entered into a binding ore supply agreement with Societe des Mines de la Tontouta (SMT), a New Caledonian mining company to procure up to 600,000 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of nickel ore per annum for a term of 10 years. In combination with the Societe Le Nickel ore supply agreement, the company has now also secured up to 1,600,000 wmt nickel ore per annum under binding contracts. Looking ahead, SMT and QPM have agreed to explore further opportunities that are mutually beneficial, including investment and other commercial arrangements. Impressive mining operations QPM managing director Dr Stephen Grocott said: I am delighted to enter into this agreement with SMT who have impressive mining operations in New Caledonia that meet the requirements of western automobile manufacturers who are concerned with sustainability and responsible mining. SMT has been a strong supporter of the TECH Project for a long time, and we look forward to having a long-term partnership that delivers value to both companies. Key terms of the agreement Historical partnership Societe des Mines de la Tontouta is a subsidiary of the Ballande Group, a "small miner" and historical mining company, which has been present in New Caledonia since the end of the 19th century. SMT general manager Arnaud Bondoux said: Signing a nickel ore supply contract with QPM means renewing relations with Australia, which has always been a historical partner of SMT and New Caledonia. Indeed, exports between SMT and Australia have taken place over a period of more than 25 years, from 1989 until recently in 2015. SMT was involved in QPM's innovative project from the outset by actively participating in the pilot tests. In fact, QPM and SMT have been in contact for four years now and have formed a partnership that led to the signing of a first MoU in 2017. SMT would like to make a long-term commitment to QPM, beyond its role as a supplier, in order to propose a new model for the valorisation of New Caledonian ore. Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) has initiated testing of the high-priority Mississippian units with drilling at the Long Canyon Unit 2 well as part of a resource expansion program for the Paradox Lithium Project in Utah, US. Drilling at Long Canyon intersected the targeted dolomite and limestone units at a depth of 2,379 metres having penetrated 45 metres into the Mississippian units a large, supersaturated brine aquifer which hosts a wide lithium-rich zone of about 100-250 metres of thickness. The supersaturated brine from this horizon flowed to surface naturally through the drilled well without the need for pumping, and will be used to determine brine flow rates, provide the initial bulk samples for metallurgic test work, and supply a small-scale test pilot plant in Salt Lake City. Assay and geophysical activities The brine samples collected from the Long Canyon Unit 2 well will now be assayed for lithium, bromine, and other minerals, to be incorporated into an upcoming JORC resource update which will in turn support a detailed feasibility study for the project. The company has determined an exploration target for the Paradox project of between 104,000 tonnes and 252,000 tonnes of lithium and 2.6 million to 5.4 million tonnes of bromide. In the interest of securing a similarly large resource upgrade, Anson will use downhole geophysical surveying once drilling is complete to determine rock unit parameters such as porosity and gain a better understanding of the units geology. FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI)'s Roland Hill speaks to Proactive's Andrew Scott as the company cuts the ribbon on a key milestone for its proposed high-purity alumina (HPA) project in WA. The resources stock is working with Alcoa (NYSE:AA) of Australia to develop a HPA demonstration plant, and stage one of the plan has just crossed the finish line. Now the first stage is officially signed off, FYI and its development partner can move to stage two: engineering development. Thanks to this milestone, Hill said both parties were one step closer to executing their joint production objective. Kin Mining NL (ASX:KIN)'s Andrew Munckton brings investors up to speed on the latest metallurgical test-work results from the Cardina gold camp in Western Australia. The company used flotation, re-grinding and leaching techniques to recover up to 96.9% gold from the projects sulphide ores. Looking ahead, Munckton says Cardinia's Eastern Corridor is shaping up as a target of interest thanks to a spate of recent drilling results and test-work on the Cardinia Hill and Helens prospect ore. Ultimately, the explorer is out to discover new high-grade lodes, delineate new resources and grow Cardinia's 1.275-million-ounce gold inventory across the corridor. While the average price of crypto has tanked in recent days, blockchain-based apps and games are still growing at a staggering rate, begging the question: How are crypto gaming rewards regulated by the Australian Tax Office (ATO)? As of writing, the ATO has provided little-to-no guidance or official direction on how rewards from crypto gaming should or will be regulated. In this third part of our crypto and tax series with Shane Brunette, co-founder of CryptoTaxCalculator, well explore some of the opportunities and pitfalls in crypto gaming. In this article: Crypto gaming, or blockchain-based games, are a kind of decentralised gaming that requires (and usually offers) crypto coins to play. Microtransactions (or voluntarily paying real money for in-game items or boosts) have existed almost as long as games have, and form the bedrock of most free-to-play games as their main source of income. Generally, any rewards purchased in a game are locked to that particular game and cannot be transferred or shared, even to games owned by the same publisher. Blockchain-based games take money in gaming a step further, implementing a play-to-earn model that allows players to earn rewards with real-world value which if given in the form of crypto tokens or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can often be traded and transferred between multiple platforms. As crypto games continue to develop in quality, and mainstream gaming studios dip their toes in the water so to speak, the experience will become both more common and more entertaining, Shane said. I think just as crypto is becoming increasingly part of todays normal, so too will crypto gaming. I expect one day people wont even realise that theyre playing a crypto game, because the experience will be so seamless. Leah Callon-Butler, CoinDesk columnist and director of investing firm Emfarsis, investigated the rise of play-to-earn crypto games in the Philippines, where crypto gaming has become a legitimate source of income: As stated, there is currently no real understanding of how the ATO will approach the new and expanding frontier of crypto gaming. Instead, crypto gamers will have to hedge their bets and maintain the best records they can to avoid a tax bill when the ATO catches up. A play-to-earn gamer currently has two viable options to maintain records of their earnings and apply capital gains tax (CGT) to any profits and/or losses made, OR to maintain records of their earnings and ascribe the value as ordinary income (similar to how airdrops and staking rewards are currently treated by the ATO), Shane explains. Theres also an argument to be made for play-to-earn rewards being considered personal use, but in all instances Id recommend that you work with your accountant or H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) representative to determine whats best for your personal circumstances. Crypto gambling exists in a similarly grey area of lagging regulation, but gambling winnings are generally exempt from CGT, although with crypto there are no guarantees. The ATO views crypto assets as property, rather than a traditional currency, Shane clarifies. If this is the case, then any disposal events (for example depositing your crypto into an online betting platform) may be seen as taxable. Similarly, if this is the ATOs position, then any sales of crypto gambling winnings may be seen as CGT events. Cryptocurrency regulation is trailing behind its implementation everywhere in the world, as lawmakers attempt to tackle a technology few of us truly understand. The European Union has proposed a regulatory framework (Markets in Crypto-assets or MiCA) for cryptocurrencies that could set the stage for the digital asset industry if adopted. The proposal has been through multiple revisions and delays, with many in the crypto industry seeing the framework as a net win for the sector. Many countries around the world will now take a close look at MiCA," The European Parliament member spearheading the legislation, Stefan Berger, said in a press release. He called it pioneering in its establishment of reliable supervisory structures something crypto companies, especially in the US, have been calling for. The UK, on the other hand, has been pursuing formal licensing and registration for the crypto industry, while bringing the legal hammer down on 50 unauthorised crypto firms with active investigations. The UK Treasury has also signalled its intention to regulate stablecoins the generally less volatile version of crypto that are supposed to be tied to external values in particular, as theyve been deemed a direct risk to traditional payment methods. Overall, the UK is expected to fall broadly in line with the EUs regulation, although likely with its own caveats. Crypto regulation in the US is even more of a mess, with multiple agencies fighting for jurisdiction over the digital assets even as each of the 50 states insist on having their own input. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to be driving in a similar direction to the ATO, arguing that crypto should be classified as securities and regulated as such. Its unlikely well get much clarity anytime soon, so it may be best to hedge your bets and keep immaculate records until regulation is better understood and implemented. When asked what areas of crypto gaming regulation need to be addressed in Australia, Shane Brunette answered simply: To be frank, all of it! Right now, without any official direction from the ATO on crypto gaming, Australian crypto gamers are lost when it comes to staying tax compliant, Shane explained. They can work with professionals to make an educated guess on what would likely be the most tax-compliant way to move forward, but its simply that a guess. While many gamers appear reluctant to wave the crypto banner, more and more mainstream gaming companies are plugging into the blockchain, sometimes selling major and beloved franchises looking at you Square Enix in order to fund the transition. Triple A gaming companies like Ubisoft, Square Enix and Electronic Arts have jumped on the bandwagon following some shockingly successful blockchain games like Axie Infinity and Alien Worlds player bases peaking at 2.78 million and 4.75 million respectively meaning crypto gaming will likely continue to become more mainstream and accessible. Asked what he thinks regulation around crypto gaming rewards should look like, Shane points to crypto staking and the way rewards from proof-of-stake are treated. Both activities are ones that have the potential to occur on a recurring basis and both rewards are based on participation rather than pure speculation, he said. Itll be interesting to see how the ATO approaches this segment of the crypto industry, as play-to-earn games continue to grow in reach and volume. As always, we recommend using a crypto tax calculation software or tax professional to help navigate blockchain waters, especially in such a grey area lacking any real regulation. About Shane Brunette CEO of CryptoTaxCalculator A software engineer by trade, Shane created CryptoTaxCalculator after experiencing the pain of doing his taxes during the 2017 crypto boom. He holds a Master in Artificial Intelligence, as well as a double degree in Psychology and Economics. About CryptoTaxCalculator CryptoTaxCalculator makes understanding tax obligations simple and straightforward. Its signature tools help to identify, track, and organise personal crypto activity across hundreds of exchanges and blockchains, with both ease and accuracy. CryptoTaxCalculator generates reports with added transparency, saving time and stress. The company is helping investors, traders, and accountants by providing clear and secure records of their crypto activity, so they can relax at tax time. CryptoTaxCalculator was co-founded by brothers Shane and Tim Brunette in 2018, and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. For more information visit cryptotaxcalculator.io Blackstone Minerals Ltd (ASX:BSX, OTCQX:BLSTF) has recorded up to 20% nickel from portable XRF readings at its new massive sulphide discovery at the flagship Ta Khoa Nickel Project (TKNP) in Northern Vietnam. Notably, the companys drilling targeting new opportunities within the Ta Khoa district has identified massive sulphide vein (MSV), semi-massive sulphide vein (SMSV) and net-textured sulphide (NTS) mineralisation within the region. Furthermore, Blackstone has continued resource drilling at its most advanced MSV deposits Ban Chang and King Snake, primarily focusing on upgrading the current resources into a higher confidence category. Massive sulphide opportunities Blackstone managing director Scott Williamson said: It is an exciting phase of exploration for the company as we start to look at massive sulphide opportunities in addition to Blackstones established resources at Ban Chang and King Snake. "Suoi Chanh is yet another example of our in-house geophysics teams proven track record, with success being achieved from the second drill hole. We look forward to continuing to systematically assess the massive sulphide potential at Ta Khoa. New targets Blackstones exploration program at Suoi Phang is following up on targets generated from surface EM surveying, with the most recent drill hole (SP22-01) intersecting massive sulphides close to the surface, and with Portable XRF readings indicating the presence of up to 20% nickel. At the Suoi Chanh prospect, the second drill hole SC22-02 has intersected SMSV consistent with the Blackstone electromagnetic (EM) targeting. Core from Suoi Phang. Resource drilling program Resource drilling at Ban Chang and King Snake continues to deliver encouraging results. The Ban Chang prospect geology consists of a tremolitic dyke swarm within phyllites, sericite schists and sandstones of the Sap Viet Horizon. The MSV contains high-grade PGEs when compared to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV deposit, which may indicate sulphide segregation in a PGE-bearing dyke before formation. Similar to Ban Chang, King Snake contains high-grade PGEs compared to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV deposit, which indicates that mineralisation was likely formed by sulphide segregation from PGE-bearing magma in an active feed dyke. Highlights from infill drilling at Ban Chang and King Snake include: Auric Mining Ltd (ASX:AWJ)'s managing director Mark English is proud to live and work in Perth. A chartered accountant by profession, he likes to calculate risk and return before he takes the leap. Luckily, with a gold geologist literally across the road from him, he didnt have to look far for his current ASX venture. Marks father travelled for his work with a multinational and as a child Mark moved around a bit he had been to six primary schools in three states of Australia by the time he was 11. Once they settled in Perth and Mark went to secondary school and university, he felt he had come home. I did a commerce degree in the late 1970s and qualified as a chartered accountant in the early 80s, Mark told Proactive. Ive worked in London and Sydney but realistically Ive worked in Perth for most of my professional life. WA is the natural home of mining enterprises in Australia, in particular the small market cap explorers and developers. Thats our bread and butter. Ive been involved in that space throughout the last 40 years of my life and acted as a director of a couple of public companies in that time. When your neighbours a geologist Marks conversations with one of Aurics other future directors, Stephen Strubel, a finance guy from Melbourne, and John Utley, a neighbour who fortuitously happened to be a gold geologist, lit the spark that became Auric. John and I, as you do on a Friday afternoon over a couple of beers, talked about gold opportunities and we raised some money in 2019 to give John the brief to go looking for opportunities in a tier one jurisdiction, either Australia or Canada, Mark said. The fledgling company set about relieving a number of companies of their gold holdings while they turned their attention to the battery metal market. John ploughed through data and documents in Victoria, Queensland and WA, and we came across a project called Munda, owned by Estrella Resources Ltd (ASX:ESR), a company that wanted to focus on nickel. We raised some money and bought it off them in September 2020. Mark and John then found another company, Mincor Resources NL, which was looking to offload its gold holdings to concentrate again on nickel: We bought a project off them too, said Mark. We consummated both deals in September 2020, registered a prospectus with ASIC in late November 2020, raised circa $7.3 million and listed on the ASX on the February 12 of the following year. In June 2021, the company acquired further tenements from Neometals Ltd (ASX:NMT, OTC:RDRUY, AIM:NMT), which had gone further up the food chain and was no longer interested in gold exploration, instead moving towards the battery technology space in Germany and Scandinavia. The company also has a joint venture with Widgie Nickel Ltd: They own the lithium and nickel rights and we own the gold rights. Still calling Australia home Aurics prospects are concentrated in WA, and centre on Widgiemooltha, about 100 kilometres in either direction between Kalgoorlie and Norseman. This is strategic. Its a really good province, principally known for nickel rather than gold, but there are companies with good large gold mining operations in the area, particularly Karora, a Canadian listed company, said Mark. Its the blue belt of mining in WA - all our tenements are located there. Everything is nice and easy. The location is fantastic youve got everything you need to run a good mining exploration development company in Kalgoorlie. Youre not in the Kimberley, the Pilbara, Mongolia or Mozambique. Its solid, tier one infrastructure." Our Munda Project is only five kilometres off the bitumen, and building a short gravel road in WA is nothing unusual. Were just in the right area. Its hard enough in Australia, let alone places where you dont know anyone and you dont speak the native language and understand the legal systems. Homes home and Covid has taught us that theres nothing wrong with being in little old downtown Aussie. Safe and self-sustaining Geopolitical risk has come home to roost, particularly over the last year, God help the people of Ukraine. Covid has made people focus a little bit more on where they are and what theyre doing, concentrate on the things that are close and that you can control. If you were trying to run a small exploration company out of Perth in the last two years and all your projects were in Africa, you wouldnt have done anything. You wouldve just burnt cash and achieved virtually nothing. A big overhead is the cost of diesel, which is why its good to be close to home. Fuel is the first domino in trying times, and theres no escaping that WA is vast. Mark points out that the companys activities are self-sustaining. One of the companys projects is Jeffreys Find, about 45 kilometres due east of Norseman on a granted mining lease, which contains about 47,000 ounces. The plan is to cart it 230 kilometres to Kalgoorlie, up at Lakewood, or something closer like Higginsville with Karora, where it gets processed and we generate free cash out of that event, Mark said. This will give us capital to continue our exploration and development activities at other places without continually going to shareholders and the market and raising cash and diluting ourselves. Gold a nice, safe, place to be So why gold, rather than nickel, lithium and battery metals, which are currently all the rage? The good fortune of Johns expertise tells part of the story, and Mark adds: Golds pretty easy, nothing wrong with gold. The gold space is now different to where it was two years ago. Lithium, rare earth elements (REE) and nickel have virtually exploded over last little while, whereas gold is a bit passe, its not the sentiment right now. Its daggy but theres nothing wrong with daggy. Your uggboots are daggy too, but they keep you warm." Gold is used in so many processes and end products. And with the price up near A$2,550 per ounce, youre going to make good money. I think lithium and battery metals and all those things are fantastic, and we need them, Mark said. But gold is simple really easy to mine, process and turn into cash, and the take-up of the commodity is still going to be really strong. Theres a bit of grief around in the world, and gold is a nice, safe place to be. So what does it take to be a successful small-cap? For Marks money, a successful small-cap needs physical assets and an experienced team of directors with diverse skills. It also pays to focus on one area, geographically and geologically. Dont spread yourself too thin the cost to manage projects all over the place is colossal, Mark said. Watch your burn rate and where you spend your money weve spent 75% of our cash on mining and mining-related activities. We have a small office. You dont need flashy offices, that doesnt create wealth. The only thing that is going to create value for our shareholders is increasing our gold reserves, and youre only going to do that through the drill bit, or through acquisition. Weve bought exceptionally well and weve been able to expand through our exploration activities. We now control around 250,000 ounces of gold in the ground. We are grossly misunderstood in the market. We have a market cap of around $8.5 million with around $1.5 million in the bank thats an enterprise value of $7 million. Youd be hard-pressed to find a company on the ASX with 250,000 ounces of gold, most of it in the indicated category, with an enterprise value of $7 million. Meeka Gold Ltd (ASX:MEK) has reported a 33% increase to its landholding in an emerging rare earths province in WA. The company has been granted a new exploration licence for its wholly-owned Circle Valley project, which hosts shallow, high-grade rare earth mineralisation up to 36 metres thick within saprolitic clays. In addition to rare earth prospectivity, Meekas new tenure covers two major, regional shear zones on the margin of the Yilgarn Craton both highly prospective for Tropicana-style gold mineralisation. Picking up the pace Speaking to the grant, Meeka managing director Tim Davidson said: We have significantly expanded Circle Valley by securing the interpreted extension of the saprolite clay horizon to the north. This clay horizon is prospective for high-grade rare earths. Importantly, the new tenure also covers two regional shear zones on the margin of the Yilgarn, both highly prospective for Tropicana-style gold mineralisation. In addition to expanding Circle Valley, work continues to advance at an uncompromising pace and we anticipate reporting 16,000 metres of rare earth assays over the coming two months. We also expect to receive gold assays by mid-June 2022 from Anomaly A, where drilling tested strike extensions to the broad zones of high-grade gold mineralisation. Finally, ANSTO has informed us that the rare earth metallurgical test work is progressing to schedule with results expected in late July 2022. Rare earth and gold bounty Meekas new ground encapsulates the northern extension of Circle Valleys clay-hosted rare earth horizon. In the past, explorers have encountered shallow, thick, high-grade rare earths on the property, including: 12 metres at 715 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) (40% magnet rare earth oxides (REO)) from 8 metres, including 4 metres at 1,269ppm TREO; 36 metres at 672ppm TREO (32% magnet REO) from 12 metres, including 16 metres at 1,098ppm TREO; 5 metres at 1,040ppm TREO (30% magnet REO) from 36 metres, including 4 metres at 1,177ppm TREO; and 36 metres at 672ppm TREO (34% magnet REO) from 28 metres including 12 metres at 1,003ppm TREO. The tenure also covers the highly prospective Cascade and Bishops Hat Shear Zones targets for Tropicana-style gold mineralisation. Material gold intersections at Circle Valley include: 23 metres at 5.09 g/t gold from 13 metres, including 10 metres at 9.35g/t; 16 metres at 3.06 g/t from 32 metres, including 4 metres at 10.8 g/t; and 10 metres at 4.72 g/t from 120 metres, including 4 metres at 10.20g/t and ending in mineralisation. Next on the agenda Meeka has a busy few months ahead as it advances activity across its polymetallic portfolio. Over June, it plans to release: gold assays from its Circle Valley RC drilling program; a presentation to The Australian Gold Conference; assays from the remaining 16,000 metres of drilling for high-grade rare earth mineralisation at Circle Valley; and a forward activity plan targeting the highest value zones of mineralisation at Cascade. Next month, Meeka plans to release its gold findings from the Murchison Gold Project, as well as its quarterly activity report. RC chips from ~300 metres depth in BNRC025 at Quorn highlighting a mineralised zone associated with sulphide veining and k feldspar, hematite and sericite alteration. Duke Exploration Ltd (ASX:DEX) has intersected highly anomalous copper mineralisation from its RC drill program at its Quorn prospect within the flagship Bundarra Project in Western Australia. The companys scout drilling program has tested both breccia and peripheral structurally controlled copper mineralisation at the prospect. A significant development was the associated hematite dusting which extends the downhole extent of the Quorn mineral system to over 300 metres. Notably, the hematite dusting alteration style is a common element of Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) mineral systems, and the Quorn intersections require more drilling and petrochemical evaluation. Moving forward, a follow-up resource delineation drilling is planned on Quorn to further evaluate the hematite alteration flush at depth plus the dimensions and copper tenor of both the breccia and shear-hosted targets. Stong intersections at Quorn Exciting development Duke managing director Philip Condon said: We are very pleased to report the first pXRF results from the Quorn RC drilling program. Quorn is part of the first round of RC scout drilling and follows the successful diamond drilling campaign during Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 outside of our Mt Flora resource area. These drilling results are very encouraging in two primary ways. The first is the confirmation that the Quorn Breccia mineral system appears to be intermittently mineralised to over 300 metres depth and is open ended at present. Secondly, the deeper intersections starting at around 300 metres vertical depth of zones of intense hematite silica alteration are indicating affinities to an IOCG mineral system. This is an extremely exciting development and will be followed up with further diamond drilling. The RC priority target scout drilling program elsewhere on the Bundarra property is continuing with drilling on the priority targets on the northern side of the BIC currently underway. Scout drilling program To date, Duke has drilled nine RC holes totalling 1627 metres at the Quorn Prospect. The Quorn investigation is part of scout drilling focusing on primary targets that are located in the southwestern portion of the Bundarra Intrusive Complex (BIC). The RC drilling program is scout testing high-ranking prospects that are the most likely areas to host significant mineralisation with high grade and/or a large extent. New targeting techniques have been tested and confirmed through recent diamond drilling, which provided important geological and structural information. Duke conducted soil sampling, geological ground-truthing and assessment, gradient-array induced polarisation (GAIP) surveys, VTEM and airborne magnetics analysis over the entire BIC plus a 5-hole diamond drilling campaign completed in January 2022. Cross Section showing the features of the Quorn mineral system. Forward plan Future work at Quorn will involve a combination of the following: West Wits Mining Ltd (ASX:WWI) (West Wits Mining Ltd (ASX:WWI)) is set to increase its ownership in the Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) in South Africa to 74% from 66.6% for $50,000 in cash and 96 million fully paid ordinary shares. The Company notes that 75% of the WWI shares will be held in escrow released via two equal tranches (36M WWI shares each), being 240 days and 360 days from the completion date respectively. WWI has agreed with its BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) partner, Lilitha Resources to acquire Lilithas interest in its subsidiary West Wits Mining SA, a move that will increase WWIs direct ownership and simplify the corporate structure. The Acquisition increases WWIs share of the WBP at a substantial notional discount to the value implied by the US$227 million NPV of the WBP Scoping Study released in March this year, West Wits Managing Director Mr Jac van Heerden said. The transaction also substantially simplifies the Companys corporate structure, making WWM SA 100% owned by WWI, and further aligns our BEE partners interest to the Company by becoming a WWI shareholder, extending our long-term and valued relationship. Lilitha has played an integral role in WWIs activities and was instrumental in obtaining the WBPs mining right. Obtaining direct interest in the WBP as a WWI shareholder underscores the strategic partnership and commitment to the growth of WWI. The acquisition extends the two companies long-term relationship. Rooster Talk Episode 58 is with Don Smith, Managing Director, Tempest Minerals Ltd (ASX:TEM) It's been a while since the exciting discovery of a large sulphide system at Meleya. I have been very keen to get to see the rocks and have a discussion with Don. In my opinion, the rocks will be the key to the continuation of the story. Prior to the drilling, the general discussion was primarily on the the potential of the geology being similar to Golden Grove VMS deposit. When Tempest announced the drilling results on 28th March 2022, there was general excitement in the market. The realisation from the concept is now closer to fact. However, there is still a wait on the actual numbers of the assays. Irrespective of the numbers, I think there is no denying that there is some sort of a discovery at Meleya. In this episode of Rooster Talk, I asked Don about the geology. The geology from the drilling is the key factor. I wanted to hear Dons thoughts on whether this was a Discovery or a Proof of Concept. We also talked about the numerous alterations within the length of the hole which points to a large cooking system that could be endowed with metals. The main takeaway for this episode is the importance of having a good understanding of the geology of the area. The assay numbers will be interesting. Nevertheless, I suspect that will not be the conclusive answer for or against the project. There will be more drilling and more discussions to come. In my opinion, this is proof that the geology is similar and it is mineralised. This has been a great conversation and I like their method of understanding the geology first before rushing out to drill holes. Chapters 00:00 Start 00:20 Introduction 02:10 Discovery or Proof of Concept? 03:16 Lets talk geology of both drill holes. 06:03 Where is the geological thinking now? 07:15 How can Investors understand your geology? 08:50 What is Tempest thinking now? 10:27 Are there any issues with the progress of Tempest? 11:23 Other Projects. 14:25 News Flow. 15:21 Why Tempest? 16:20 Conclusion PODCAST About Don Smith Managing Director Don is a geologist and entrepreneur with over 20 years in the mining industry. He has worked in operational, development, exploration and consultant roles for junior through to multinational firms spanning over 10 countries and numerous commodities including base and precious metals and energy minerals. Dons corporate experience includes project acquisition, financing and development and company management. Don has been the founding director of a number of private and public resource companies including the successful listings on the ASX of Platypus Resources and Alderan Resources. He is currently involved with several start-ups and consults to the industry. Don has a Bachelor of Science from Newcastle University and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Institute of Business. Don is also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. The Company listed via initial public offering (IPO) in 2017 under the name Lithium Consolidated Mineral Exploration Limited (Li3) with the goal of feeding the rapidly growing battery mineral industry. Li3 went on to acquire multiple lithium projects on 3 continents and had a string of successful exploration and divestment transactions. In 2019, faced with a challenging lithium market, the board decided to expand the strategic focus of the company into a more diversified direction and began looking at other commodities such as copper. At the end of 2019, Li3 acquired private exploration company Warrigal Mining and have subsequently continued developing an exciting portfolio of precious and base metals projects in Western Australia to complement the existing energy metal projects. In August 2020, shareholders elected to rebrand the company to Tempest Minerals Ltd (ASX:TEM) to better reflect the evolved business and its more diverse commodity focus. Please let Samso know your thoughts and send any comments to info@Samso.com.au. Remember to Subscribe to the YouTube Channel, Samso Media and the mail list to stay informed and make comments where appropriate. Other than that, also feel free to provide a Review on Google. For further information about Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talks visit: www.samso.com.au About Samso is a renowned resource among the investment community for keen market analysis and insights into the companies and business trends that matter. Investors seek out Samso for knowledgeable evaluations of current industry developments across a variety of business sectors and considered forecasts of future performances. With a compelling format of relaxed online video interviews, Samso provides clear answers to questions they may not have the opportunity to ask and lays out the big picture to help them complete their investment research. And in doing so, Samso also enables companies featured in interviews to build valuable engagement with their investment communities and customers. Headed by industry veteran Noel Ong and based in Perth, Western Australia, Samsos Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talk interviews both feature friendly conversations with business figures that give insights into Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) companies, related concepts and industry trends. Noel Ong is a geologist with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a strong background in capital markets, corporate finance and the mineral resource sector. He was founder and managing director of ASX-listed company Siburan Resources Limited from 2009-2017 and has also been involved in several other ASX listings, providing advice, procuring projects and helping to raise capital. He brings all this experience and expertise to the Samso interviews, where his engaging conversation style creates a relaxed dialogue, revealing insights that can pique investor interest. Noel Ong travels across Australia to record the interviews, only requiring a coffee shop environment where they can be set up. The interviews are posted on Samsos website and podcasts, YouTube and other relevant online environments where they can be shared among investment communities. Samso also has a track record of developing successful business concepts in the Australasia region and provides bespoke research and counsel to businesses seeking to raise capital and procuring projects for ASX listings. Disclaimer The information contained in this article is the writers personal opinion and is provided for information only and is not intended to or nor will it create/induce the creation of any binding legal relations. Read full disclaimer. Nevada is a hot spot for lithium exploration: Clayton Valley in particular is a mature, well-known, lithium-rich area that includes the only production in the United States, at Albemarles Silver Peak lithium mine. Throughout the state, major players are scouting for the sought-after metal as demand soars due to the shift toward green energy solutions powered by lithium-based batteries. The US government has also announced measures to increase domestic production of the metals and minerals that are used in advanced technologies, in order to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. Ameriwest Lithium (CSE:AWLI) is a new, up-and-coming player in the lithium space in Nevada. It has put together three highly promising early-stage lithium properties in that state and a fourth one in Arizona. And they are in handy locations as well. Railroad Valley is the most advanced property and is located about 260 kilometres east-northeast of Clayton Valley. Edwards Creek Valley is located 225 kilometres east of Reno. Deer Musk East is in Clayton Valley. Thompson Valley is 190 kilometres north of Phoenix. We made the decision to move into the lithium space in March of 2021, so it's been just more than a year since we made the transition, says David Watkinson, Ameriwest Chief Executive Officer. Certainly, we see lithium as being one of the hottest metals to look for from an exploration point of view and to generate investor interest. Demand is increasing as we move to electric vehicles, and then there is the need for battery storage as we move to solar and wind energy. So, lithium is going to be something that increases in value over time. It's a great opportunity for us as a company and for investors to get involved in the lithium area. With a number of other explorers also looking for the next big lithium find in Nevada, Watkinson says the technical team that Ameriwest has put together is an important factor, allowing it to grow and acquire what it believes are very good quality assets. The combined technical team has over 170 years of experience in the mining industry. There is certainly risk in an exploration company because, especially with a brine target, you can do surface sampling, but that doesn't really help you to identify a brine target that might be 2,000 feet below surface, he adds. Our exploration strategy, using geophysics the way we have, helps set us apart. I don't see other junior mining companies necessarily taking the same technical approach to define targets. The geologists we have put together and the management team have the ability to go out and find high-quality projects and also to understand and develop the resources on those projects. Once the company has a clearly defined resource, Watkinson says it will augment the technical team with other specialists like metallurgists. However, he adds that it is probably up to two years before it gets to that point. Ameriwest chose Nevada as its starting point of the focus on lithium, acquiring a series of properties, all of which contain lithium brine targets. Railroad Valley, Ameriwests most advanced project, has brine targets identified by geophysics in preparation for drilling. In neighbouring Arizona, Thompson Valley, Ameriwests latest acquisition, is a prospective lithium sedimentary deposit with surface or near-surface exposure of lithium-bearing clays that were sampled in the early 1960s. Geologic mapping is complete, which will be followed by permitting to allow surface sampling and drilling. We are trying to get a mix of brine, sedimentary, and, if we can find a hard rock deposit, we would look at that too, Watkinson says. While there are technical and environmental challenges when it comes to processing and recovering lithium from various deposit types, the lithium industry is really developing. The technology for processing is being developed almost on a month-by-month basis to handle different types of deposits. While the Ameriwest portfolio is shaping up nicely, Watkinson hastens to point out that the projects are all early in nature. While Albemarle and its predecessor companies have been operating Silver Peak in Clayton Valley since the 1960s, exploration for new lithium properties in the US is essentially a recent phenomenon. With the movement to electric vehicles and alternative energy sources, there is a race to develop new operating mines. Exploration success at any one of these properties could change the fate of the company if were successful in discovering significant lithium targets, says Watkinson. Ameriwests approach to exploration for lithium brine has been to use geophysics. It typically undertakes a gravity geophysics survey that identifies targets in arid valleys where brine may have accumulated and become concentrated over millions of years. Magnetotelluric geophysics looks at the resistivity (or conversely the conductivity) of the subsurface, which helps indicate the potential for a concentrated brine. Further seismic analysis helps identify structures such as faults, horsts and grabens that might be subsurface. This data is then modelled and used to locate drill holes to target conductive brine targets that might host a lithium-bearing reservoir. The modelling is also used to help target drilling to avoid structures like faults below the surface that might be encountered. Geophysics also helps in perfecting the claim package staked or acquired by the company. Following acquisition, a gravity survey at Railroad Valley was completed and the claim boundaries have been expanded based on the results. Additional claims were also acquired from American Battery Technology Company to the north, resulting in 780 contiguous claims over 15,300 acres. A similar targeting approach was used at Edwards Creek Valley where the company has 829 claims totalling about 22,200 acres. Potential brine targets have already been identified at Railroad Valley and after analyzing the geophysical data it has collected, the company plans to drill its first hole later this year, targeting a reservoir that potentially hosts lithium brine. The timing for drilling will be subject to permitting and availability of drilling equipment. The geophysics shows us the target, but the drill hole will be proof of concept that its there, Watkinson says. Theres permitting that will be done for the initial drilling; thats relatively simple. But when we get to developing resources, the permitting becomes more complicated. In the United States, there's certainly a movement by the government to push the development of critical metals like lithium, but the challenge is moving through the permitting process, and it takes time. So, it'll take several years to develop our deposit. It also takes capital, and Watkinson says Ameriwest has sufficient funds for the initial steps it is taking to identify potential brine targets. Once it reaches the development stages, it will have to raise additional funds or find joint venture partners with deeper pockets, such as one or more of the mining majors. Well evaluate all those different opportunities, he says. Certainly, we have the ability to push the project through and develop it into production if we decide to go that route. But we also would like to take advantage of relationships with senior partners on advanced projects and have them come in and develop. They typically have a lot more expertise in processing and can fund larger capital projects. A common method of extracting lithium is to pump brine and use evaporation ponds to concentrate the lithium before processing. However, Watkinson says that method is falling out of favour from an environmental perspective due to the amount of water it uses. New technologies being developed are aimed at pumping fluid back into the aquifer after the lithium has been removed. Ameriwest is not getting ahead of itself, says Watkinson. For now, the goal is to develop resources. Once those are established, the company will make a decision on the direction it takes as either a lithium producer, a project generator, or to seek out major companies to form joint ventures with. As we develop resources there will be a transition the company goes through, he says. Our goal right now is to delineate resources on our properties and try to add value by doing that in the short term. We have put together a high-quality technical team, acquired what we believe are high-quality properties, and are minimizing exploration risk by developing multiple assets. We have laid the foundation for long-term success with the goal of becoming a major lithium exploration and development company. Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com Benchmark Metals is advancing its 100% owned Lawyer's Gold-Silver Project which is located within the prolific Golden Horseshoe area of north-central British Columbia Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSX-V:BNCH, OTCQX:BNCHF) has announced new results from infill and expansion drilling at the Dukes Ridge Deposit at the Lawyer's Gold-Silver Project in British Columbia. The company highlighted drill hole 21DRDD016 which saw 54.60 metres (m) core length of 2.51 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 97.05 g/t silver or 3.73 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq), including 9.60m of 13.39 g/t gold and 480.26 g/t silver or 19.39 g/t AuEq. It noted that the deepest holes drilled at Dukes Ridge to date have extended mineralization, which remains open, to nearly 300m vertical depth and more than 110m below the existing 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) pit shell. These results continue to demonstrate strong similarities to typical mineralization at the Cliff Creek and AGB deposits, with broad bulk-tonnage style intercepts enveloping high-grade zones, the company said. In a statement, John Williamson, Benchmark CEO, commented: "We are very pleased with these latest results from Dukes Ridge as we continue to expand on areas of known mineralization outside of the 2021 MRE pit shell. We anticipate continued growth for the Dukes Ridge deposit, and for the other deposit areas at Lawyers, as additional drill results contribute to the upcoming mineral resource estimate update." The Dukes Ridge Deposit had until recently seen little drilling relative to the Cliff Creek and AGB deposit areas, and these latest results underscore the potential to add significant gold-silver ounces to the global resource at the Lawyers project as part of the imminent MRE update. Highlights of the drilling showed plunging high-grade zones within large intervals of bulk-tonnage style mineralization are common at the Dukes Ridge Deposit area, including: 3.27m of 33.65 g/t Au and 1,215.00 g/t Ag or 48.84 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 2.51 g/t Au and 97.05 g/t Ag or 3.73 g/t AuEq over 54.60m in hole 21DRDD016 5.00m of 8.67 g/t Au and 162.82 g/t Ag or 10.70 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 2.01 g/t Au and 38.85 g/t Ag or 2.49 g/t AuEq over 40.16m in hole 21DRDD012 2.48m of 10.30 g/t Au and 454.16 g/t Ag or 15.98 g/t AuEq within a broader interval grading 1.41 g/t Au and 43.20 g/t Ag or 1.95 g/t AuEq over 48.16m in hole 22DRDD029 Benchmark said drilling at Dukes Ridge continues to intersect strong mineralization below the 2021 MRE pit shell, with confirmed mineralization now in excess of 100 metres outside of the existing pit shell, and multiple high-grade zones remaining open at depth. The company has intersected plunging high-grade zones at Dukes Ridge that are interpreted to be the result of previously unrecognized cross structures. Future drilling will target these zones and potentially add additional high-grade mineralization to subsequent resource estimates. Mineralization at the Dukes Ridge Deposit accounted for 109,000 AuEq Indicated ounces and 35,000 Inferred ounces in bulk tonnage zones in the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate, including a significant portion at or near-surface The company said it anticipates recently completed drilling to positively impact the total ounces contained at Dukes Ridge in the imminent MRE update. Benchmark Metals is advancing its 100% owned Lawyer's Gold-Silver Project which is located within a road-accessible region of the prolific Golden Horseshoe area of north-central British Columbia, Canada. The project consists of three mineralized deposits that remain open for expansion, in addition to 20-plus new target areas along the 20-kilometre trend. Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com CULT Food Science Corp said it has made an investment in Change Foods (CF), an Australian-Californian food-tech start-up in the growing field of animal-free dairy. CULT appreciates the opportunity to invest in Change Foods, which is an exciting venture that is aiming to positively change the course of the food industry, said Lejjy Gafour, CEO of CULT, in a statement. We are highly interested in Change Foods potential to make permanent and major improvements in the animal-free dairy industry, he added. CF recently secured US$12 million in a seed extension fundraising round, bringing its total seed funding to more than US$15.3 million, the company said. CF strives to create real dairy food that is tasty, nourishing, and sustainable by using microbes instead of animals, CULT said. Its process includes harnessing the power of microbes to create real dairy proteins, fats, and flavours through precision fermentation. CF uses traditional cheesemaking techniques to create a cheese that tastes, stretches, and melts like cheese made of dairy. No animals are required, which is the main goal for CF in regard to developing a sustainable food system that is kind to people, animals and the planet, the company added. Beef and dairy cattle account for about two-thirds of greenhouse-gas emissions from livestock around the world, and as the human population is expected to grow more than 20% to nearly 10 billion by 2050, the demand for protein will surge, CULT noted. In the cellular agriculture industry, we are searching for affordable and sustainable solutions to feed the next billion people on the planet. CULT is optimistic that CF will help get the industry and the world one step closer to that goal, added Gafour. The first of its kind in North America, CULT Food Science is an innovative investment platform with an exclusive focus on cellular agriculture. It is advancing the development of novel technologies to provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution to the global factory farming crisis. Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com "The response to our plant-based entrees' taste and consumer experience has been extremely positive, said Naturally Splendid VP of operations Bryan Carson Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd has announced that another shipping container of Plantein plant-based foods has been ordered and is being shipped to its Canadian facility, highlighting the positive response the company received during recent trade show appearances. The shipment left ports in Australia on May 31, 2022, and is scheduled to arrive at Naturally Splendid's facility in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, in approximately four weeks. The company said this recent order addresses the positive reception the company received during the Canadian Health Food Association trade show on April 23 and 24 and the Grocery & Specialty West trade show on April 25 and 26, 2022. Naturally Splendid VP of operations Bryan Carson said the trade shows where the company presented were the first opportunity for consumers to sample its plant-based entrees in a trade show environment since the beginning of the pandemic. And as we expected, the response to our plant-based entrees' taste and consumer experience has been extremely positive, Carson said. We are now in the process of converting that interest into clients, and this latest shipment from Australia will provide the inventory levels required to serve anticipated demand. Based in Vancouver, Naturally Splendid is a plant-based food manufacturing and technology company that produces and distributes nutritious and delicious plant-based commodity products. Contact Emily at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter @emilyjjarvie Braxia Scientific said the trial will be completed by December, at which point the full analysis will be completed and submitted for publication Braxia Scientific Corp announced that preliminary results from a Phase 2 clinical trial of multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression showed clinically meaningful movements in depression severity. Braxia Scientific's ongoing multi-dose psilocybin trial effectively demonstrated the feasibility of its proprietary psilocybin-assisted therapy protocol with high rates of recruitment and retention with adequate tolerability and safety, the company said. Specifically, 93% of patients were retained to the primary endpoint, where there have been no serious adverse events and suicide attempts to date, and the majority of adverse effects were resolved within 24 hours of each dose. Some 87% of the participants requested to receive a second dose. The trial is the first approved by Health Canada to evaluate the feasibility, safety, tolerability, and efficacy of multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy for this purpose, the company said. The preliminary results were presented at the From Research to Reality Conference in Toronto last week. Depression severity is being measured using MADRS (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale), with complete analysis of antidepressant efficacy and secondary outcomes pending. This trial will be completed by December, at which point the full analysis will be completed and submitted for publication, the company said. "These results clearly show that we have the infrastructure, expertise and personnel to effectively and safely provide psilocybin-assisted therapy, Braxia Scientific's Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Joshua Rosenblat said in a statement. "While these preliminary results are highly encouraging, they also provide us with additional guidance as we evaluate and optimize our clinical protocols in delivering innovative, psychedelic treatments to patients with treatment resistant depression. These results also reinforce the potential value of the clinical infrastructure we have established to target new innovative treatments." Braxia Scientific was the first to receive Health Canada approval for a multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy clinical trial in July 2021, and dosed its first participant in November 2021, the company said. This ongoing clinical trial provides Canadians with immediate access to psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. "In addition to our ongoing trial that enables us to provide access to this treatment today, we are excited by the prospect these results with psilocybin may offer patients with treatment-resistant depression, an area in need of therapeutic innovation, CEO Roger McIntyre said. In addition to guiding professionals internationally on the safe and effective implementation of ketamine, Braxia Scientific is also conducting highly rigorous clinical research with psilocybin, ketamine, and related agents with the aim to provide eligible persons with innovative treatments that work rapidly and are safe to administer," he added. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel Fathom Nickel (CSE:FNI) Inc is, first and foremost, a high-grade story. There is a reason that the company managed to raise $11.5 million last year before going public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in May 2021. That reason is the historic Rottenstone nickel deposit. Nestled in northern Saskatchewan, Fathoms Albert Lake project is home to the formerly producing Rottenstone mine, which yielded eye-popping nickel grades of over 3% during the 1960s. Fathom acquired the property in 2015 during the bottom of the nickel cycle and has since expanded its holdings in the area. Today, Albert Lake consists of over 90,100 hectares, of which more than 80,000 remain virtually unexplored. The company plans to apply modern exploration methods on the property in a bid to prove that those historic grades were no fluke. CEO Brad Van Den Bussche and vice president exploration Ian Fraser founded the company in 2015 with the goal of acquiring highly prospective battery metals projects in favourable jurisdictions. They spent time in the US early on, going from conference to conference in the battery technology space to get a feel for which metals were going to be needed as technology advanced. It was nickel that won the day. Ian and I both had some experience with Albert Lake and Rottenstone from years ago, so we knew the asset had had very high-grade nickel, copper, PGEs (platinum group elements) and cobalt, Van Den Bussche explains. And we were able to get it at the bottom of the nickel market for a very good price. Basically, we picked up the core property for some shares and a royalty that we recently bought back. According to Van Den Bussche, it was indeed the grades that first attracted them to the project. It was a combination of the grades and the mineralogy the type of minerals that were in the mix. Theres a built-in hedge having nickel, copper, platinum/palladium and cobalt in there, the CEO says. It's one of the highest grade nickel deposits mined in Canada. Globally, there is a handful of very high-grade nickel deposits, such as Norilsk in Russia. Closer to home, the Raglan mine in Quebec and Voiseys Bay in Newfoundland both stand out. The Rottenstone grade was essentially as good or even higher than some of the biggest economic deposits currently in operation. Fathoms team believes that Albert Lakes geological setting supports the thesis that the Rottenstone is one of several variable size, high-grade nickel deposits similar to the multiple deposits that make up the Raglan nickel camp. Nickel sulphide highly sought after Not all nickel deposits are created equally, of course. There are essentially three types of nickel sources: limonite ore, saprolite ore and nickel sulphide ore. Currently, nickel sulphide is the preferred source to develop high purity Class 1 nickel which goes into creating nickel sulphate required for battery production. The pathway to creating Class 1 nickel from limonite and saprolite ores is more costly and typically creates a much larger environmental footprint. It should come as no surprise that Albert Lake is a sulphide deposit. From the outset, sulphide opportunities were the focus for Fathoms team. From day one, we were focused on sulphide deposits, Van Den Bussche says. Our mandate is to look for electric vehicle battery minerals that are high in grade, particularly nickel. Nickel sulphide deposits are basically the main pathway to Class 1 nickel, which is necessary in the production of stainless steel and the EV/battery components. The mineralization of the historic Rottenstone deposit is unique and contains several notable associated metals. Initial sample metallurgy indicates metal recoveries of greater than 90% nickel, copper and cobalt are possible all essential ingredients for the green economy. Furthermore, initial studies indicate recovery in excess of 80% can be expected from palladium and platinum. Things look encouraging at the historic Rottenstone deposit, but with 80,000 hectares left to explore, the challenge for Fathom is to find out whether those grades extend throughout the property. The original deposit itself was small, which doesnt faze Van Den Bussche, but he knows that the team must prove there is more there than just Rottenstone. We need to focus on understanding the system, Van Den Bussche says. Those kinds of high grades have to come from a very large system. There's just no way in the geological model concept that you can have those kinds of grades without a large melting pot. The Rottenstone mine has to be one deposit within a much larger system. To that end, Fathom is planning an airborne electromagnetic survey and follow-up ground geophysics to zero in on prospective drill targets this year. A key part of its exploration activity is utilizing a portable Vanta XRF Analyzer (pXRF) to provide real-time litho-geochemical, multi-element data on core from current drill holes, and on historical drill core left by previous operators. The pXRF results confirm the presence of nickel and copper in current and historic drill cores, and assay results will also test for the presence of platinum group elements, a significant component of the historic Rottenstone deposit that is not detectable via the pXRF. An emerging nickel province Saskatchewan may not seem like the first place a company would visit to explore for nickel, but the province is quickly emerging as a leading global mineral jurisdiction. The Fraser Institutes annual investment attractiveness survey ranked Saskatchewan in third place in 2020, with a particular spotlight on the provinces mineral potential. The prolific Trans-Hudson Corridor runs directly through the province then veers east to cover northern Manitoba, northern Quebec, northern Labrador and across to Greenland. What has held Saskatchewan back from developing its own world-class base metal deposits has historically been, in part, the political situation. But that has changed completely in the last 20-plus years, according to Van Den Bussche. During much of the 1970s and 1980s, a Saskatchewan Crown Corporation (SMDC) had the rights to become up to a 50% partner in exploration projects in the province. While a lot of exploration and development was occurring next door in Manitoba, many exploration companies chose not to take on a government partner and explore in Saskatchewan during this period, Van Den Bussche explains. But that has completely changed and now Saskatchewan is a great jurisdiction to work in. There is a lot of opportunity, and it's getting a lot of interest from many companies, including the majors. Rio Tinto is a major explorer in the province, and BHP is starting to look as well they already know Saskatchewan because they're a big player in the potash industry. Saskatchewan is in the right place in the system, and it's got the potential to have continuations of some of the Manitoba base metal opportunities, including nickel. Fathom is operating during a wild time in the nickel industry. The silvery-gray metal is an essential component in electric vehicle batteries, and manufacturers are scrambling to secure safe supplies. As the green energy economy ramps up, so too does nickel demand so much so that in early 2022, trading was suspended on the London Metals Exchange after nickel prices breached the $100,000 per tonne mark. For Van Den Bussche, the dynamics of the current nickel market point to the necessity of developing a safe, stable supply of the metal within North America. There is definite urgency to try to lock up some supply of nickel from mines that are currently producing, but also to feed the supply chain two, three, four or five years out. Good projects in good jurisdictions that have a pathway to growing a resource and getting into production are essential. I think there's going to be a huge move to gain control of the raw materials needed for these strategic businesses. Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas In July 2021, Quebec Nickel listed its shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, and in November of the same year raised approximately $7.5 million Experienced executive David Patterson wanted to be ahead of the nickel curve when he formed a new Quebec-focused company in September 2020, foreseeing growing demand for metal in the clean energy sector. Patterson moved quickly, approaching Glenn Mullan, Chief Executive Officer of Val-dOr Mining, ultimately leading to then-private Quebec Nickel buying what is now the company's 15,000-plus hectare Ducros nickel, copper and PGE (platinum group element) project from Val-dOr Mining for 3,589,341 special warrants. In July 2021, Quebec Nickel (Quebec Nickel Corp (CSE:QNI, OTCQB:QNICF)) listed its shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, and in November of the same year raised approximately $7.5 million. At Ducros, the company is embarking on an extensive exploration program pursuing high-grade mineralization. Currently underway are airborne and ground surveys as well as an aggressive 20,000 metre, multi-phase drill program encompassing the 2022 exploration season. Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine caught up with Patterson, Quebec Nickels Chief Executive Officer, recently to learn more about the company's plans. Quebec Nickel is exploring for high-grade nickel in the Abitibi, yet the area is better known for its many gold and VMS deposits, with only low-grade nickel occurrences. Talk to us more about your vision. We believe that our Ducros property has all the necessary features to produce a high-grade nickel deposit. On our property we see geologic structures in an area with high volumes of mafic and ultramafic rocks. This unique combination of geological setting and geology give the Ducros the potential to host an economic nickel ore body. In a broader sense, what's the difference between higher and lower grades in nickel? All things being equal, a high-grade deposit will have a smaller ecological footprint and can better withstand volatile metal prices. A low-grade deposit may be economic at the current metal price but could not sustain an operation if prices drop significantly. How is your current drilling and exploration program going? What have you discovered so far, and what do you hope to achieve? The COVID variant Omicron slowed our exploration activity at the start of 2022. However, in early February we were able to begin both our airborne VTEM survey as well as Phase I drilling on the Ducros. Our most recent press release has a detailed description of the rock types we have encountered. We will need to wait for assays for the current holes, and we anticipate having them in the next month or so. Can you tell me more about the Ducros project and why you are excited by it? We believe we have a large project area that has seen very limited exploration activity. Previous work by other independent operators on small portions of the property has provided our technical team with evidence that the area has a significant volume of mafic and ultramafic rocks. This is a similar geological setting for most of the magmatic sulphide nickel discoveries in the last 100 years. In addition, limited drill programs conducted in 1987 and 2008 show that there are nickel occurrences in these rock types. Our 2020-2021 exploration program of geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys has given us confidence that we are in the right geological setting. Our 43-101 Technical Report from 2021 discloses channel and grab samples from the Fortin showing outcrops that contain over 2% copper and 0.5% nickel with elevated platinum and palladium values. Can you say more about your executive team, their background, and what you bring to the company as CEO? On our board of directors, we have people with tremendous nickel exploration experience as well as expertise in finance and accounting. Our technical team has considerable experience in nickel exploration, with both brownfield and greenfield discoveries that have gone into production. As for me, I have helped finance large nickel exploration projects in Canada over the last 25 years. I believe the team that we have brought to Quebec Nickel can find an economic ore body and has the experience to be able to develop the project through to production. How would you sum up the companys opportunity to a potential investor? I believe that we are in the early stages of a metal super cycle, that we have chosen the right metal given this super cycle and we have the right people to guide the successful development of the company. For American Pacific Mining (CSE:USGD) Corp Chief Executive Officer Warwick Smith, forming a close partnership with the worlds second-largest mining company speaks volumes about the junior explorers growth and investment potential. Smiths team completed a transaction in 2020 that can in every way be described as a company-maker, when it acquired the past-producing Madison Copper Gold project in Montana. Madison is being explored under a joint venture with Kennecott Exploration, which is part of the Rio Tinto Group. Its huge validation for the project, Smith says. The majors these days are using the juniors as their exploration arms. They're not funding their own exploration. They're looking to the American Pacifics of the world going, Hey, these guys are onto something. Let's fund them. Through an earn-in agreement already in place at the time of acquisition, Rio Tinto can spend up to US$30 million for 70% of Madison. Thats something that Smith and President Eric Saderholm, a boots-on-the-ground geologist and veteran mining executive, never imagined would happen on their first attempt to purchase the project. We went to look at Madison in 2016. We really liked it and wanted to buy it, Smith says, noting that between 2008 and 2012 the project produced 2.7 million pounds of copper and 7,570 ounces of gold at high grades. But before we got a chance to negotiate on it, another group bought the asset. They did a great job. They came in and drilled into the porphyry, which was a big deal, and that got Rio Tinto excited, he explains. In 2021, Kennecott completed US$2.7 million in exploration, which included 10 diamond drill holes totaling 3,598 metres, targeting extensions to the projects skarns and jasperoids. The drilling identified new zones of skarn-hosted massive sulphides, underscoring the potential for bonanza-style gold mineralization. Highlights from the drill program include one hole which returned 14.44 grams per ton gold and 0.11% copper over 6.53 metres, including 39.57 grams per ton gold and 0.28% copper over 2.35 metres. The next step for Kennecott is to create a comprehensive 3D model of Madisons skarn environment to direct the next drilling phase. But what makes the deal, which cost American Pacific C$2.4 million, even sweeter is that it has been highlighted by S&P Global Commodity Insights, the leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets. In 2021, American Pacific was selected as one of four finalists at the S&P Global Commodity Insights Global Metals Awards in the Deal of the Year category. Even though his company lost out to winner Cleveland-Cliffs, Smith said American Pacific could not have asked for better recognition than being put in the spotlight with some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world. It was a significant nod of approval on what we think can be a world-class asset with world-class service in a smaller company, he says. Smith notes that the value of the company has grown significantly, making it one of the top percentage gainers among gold mining stocks on the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2021. The CSE has helped us get to that point, and it is the right exchange for us to list on and it's been the right exchange to grow on, Smith explains. It's been great for the company and has been great for shareholders as well. American Pacifics profile is further bolstered by the presence of former hedge fund manager Michael Gentile. He is the companys largest shareholder, with a 19.9% stake. Also in the companys project portfolio are two highly prospective high-grade assets: the Tuscarora gold project and the Gooseberry gold and silver project. Both are located in Nevada, a famously mining-friendly state. American Pacific has two other assets in Nevada as well: South Lida and Red Hill. Smith says the company plans to partner up via joint ventures to further the projects. At Tuscarora, near the town of Elko, Smith says the company is spending C$5 million on a 70-hole drill program. The 4,272 acre project consists of numerous high-grade gold vein targets, including the Grand Prize Target, from which the company reported samples of 21,032 grams per ton gold and 38,820 grams per ton silver in 2021. We're the first company to ever own it all, which is a big deal. We're focused there, Smith says. We think it's got the opportunity to be big. As for Gooseberry, the company is planning sampling programs and eventual drilling of parallel vein targets within a low sulphidation, epithermal vein system. The mine sits close to the historic Comstock Mining District outside Reno, where discovered lodes and veins led to the production of 8.6 million ounces of gold and 192 million ounces of silver. The mine hasn't been touched since 1991 when it was last in production. We staked it. It was available and cost us C$20,000 to pick it up, Smith says. We spent about a million and a half dollars there. We're up there working again doing the sampling. However, Smith explains that it may be time for American Pacific to move beyond acquiring exploration targets as he, Saderholm and the rest of the management team mull growing the company by taking advantage of merger and acquisition opportunities. It gives us a chance to think big. I'm not interested in purchasing another exploration project, he says. If I were to do something on the M&A side, I'd want to double the size of the company overnight. That's the type of M&A that we're looking to do. Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, Smith says the company is focusing its energy, and decidedly healthy treasury, on developing Madison, Tuscarora and Gooseberry. All three of those have the opportunity to be large multimillion-ounce deposits that we feel we can grow to meet the desire of majors, says Smith. Jammu, June 2 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah is chairing a high level security review meeting on June 3 to discuss the recent surge in targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) so that arrangements are put in place to stop recurrence of such incidents in future. This is the second high level security review meeting called by Shah on J&K within a fortnight. On May 17, he had reviewed the security situation in J&K. Official sources said the meeting will be attended by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Army chief General Manoj Pande, top officials of para-military forces, intelligence agencies, police and civil administration from the Union Territory. "The meeting will discuss all arrangements to be put in place to ensure that such incidents don't recur and the security situation in the Valley is brought well under control ahead of the annual Amarnath yatra that begins on June 30. "The Lieutenant Governor will give a detailed briefing to the Home Minister on security situation in J&K and steps being taken to prevent targeted killings," sources added. Meanwhile, in view of the increased threat perception, the J&K administration has decided to immediately post non-local employees, including those employed under Prime Minister's Package and others belonging to Jammu division, in secured locations in the Valley by June 6. The Union Territory administration has asked all drawing and disbursing officers not to stop salaries of migrant employees posted in the Valley and those belonging to the Jammu division under the Prime Minister's special rehabilitation package. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed United Nations, June 2 : The United Nations has welcomed the first commercial flight from Yemen's Sanaa airport to Cairo, a UN spokesman said. The first commercial flight took off on Wednesday. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told the regular press briefing on Wednesday that "this was the seventh flight operating under the terms of the UN brokered two-month nationwide truce and represents an important element of the truce." A total of 2,495 Yemenis have travelled so far between Sanaa, Amman and Cairo, Xinhua news agency reported. Dujarric said the UN thanks the Egyptian government for the invaluable support in bringing about this important achievement, and the Yemen government for their constructive role in making this possible. "Despite the good news today on the Cairo flights -- and the improved humanitarian situation the truce has delivered over the last two months, we must be clear that humanitarian needs in Yemen remain high," the spokesman added. Nearly 19 million people will go hungry this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. More than four million people have been displaced since the war started. Severe needs persist across all sectors, according to the spokesman. Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year. So far, only 26 per cent has been funded. "This means that core programmes like food assistance, healthcare and other activities are scaling back when they should be expanding," Dujarric said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text United Nations, June 2 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack on a UN mission logistics convoy in Mali that killed one Jordan peacekeeper and injured three others. The attack in Mali took place on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. "The Secretary-General strongly condemns this attack and sends his deepest condolences to the family of the peacekeeper who died and to the people and government of Jordan," said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for Guterres. "He wishes a prompt recovery to those injured." For about an hour, the convoy was under direct fire from suspected members of a terrorist group using small arms and rocket launchers, Dujarric added. The mission, known as MINUSMA, reported that the attack near the town of Kidal in the northern part of the country was the fifth incident in the Kidal region this week, the spokesman said. "It is a tragic reminder of the complexity of the mandate of the UN Mission and of the threats peacekeepers face on a daily basis." The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Mali, El Ghassim Wane, said in a statement that, despite the difficulties, MINUSMA remains determined to support the people and the Mali government in their quest for peace and security, Dujarric said. Landlocked Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, is on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert in West Africa and, like other countries in the Sahel, has fallen victim to terrorist attacks, including by jihadists, and inter-community violence killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands of others since 2012. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Aden : , June 2 (IANS) Efforts exerted by the UN and other international powers succeeded in convincing Yemen's warring sides to initially accept a proposal of extending the recent two-month nationwide truce, a government official said. "Both warring sides expressed their initial agreement during their meetings with the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who suggested the extension of the truce for additional two months," the local government source said on condition of anonymity to Xinhua news agency on Wednesday. Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has officially informed the UN of its agreement to renew the truce but laid down a number of conditions, according to the source. "The PLC agreed to extend the truce until August 2 if certain conditions were met, including opening the blocked roads and ending the Houthi siege on the strategic city of Taiz," he added. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had a phone call with Rashad Al-Alimi, PLC President, to discuss the implementation of the UN-brokered truce and political and security developments in Yemen, Xinhua news agency reported. "The UN chief made a pledge to persuade the Houthis to implement the previous terms of the truce, including opening the blocked roads for Taiz, and preparing for an inclusive political settlement in the country," said the Yemeni official. The government official expected an official announcement to be issued by Grundberg in the upcoming hours to extend the UN-brokered truce in Yemen. Another Yemeni official confirmed to Xinhua that the negotiating team of the Houthi rebel militia also expressed their leaders' initial agreement to extend the truce, which expires on June 2. Starting April 2, the internationally-recognised Yemeni government and the Houthi group have been largely observing the UN-brokered two-month ceasefire despite sporadic armed confrontations. The truce marks the first breakthrough in years to end the war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. Farrukhabad : , June 2 (IANS) Suspended for his 'blasphemous' act, he is determined to repeat it now. The Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of the Uttar Pradesh Electricity department, Ravindra Kumar Gautam, who had put up a framed photograph of Osama bin Laden in his office at Nawabganj in Farrukhabad district, and wrote "Revered Osama bin Laden -- World's best junior engineer" is facing suspension and disciplinary action. Gautam said, "I consider Osama bin Laden to be my 'Guru'. If the photo is removed, I will arrange another and hang it again. Everyone is free to choose his ideal." The SDO had put up Osama bin Laden's framed picture in the waiting room of his subdivision office. He was suspended after the photograph of the terrorist went viral on social media. Farrukhabad District Magistrate, Sanjay Kumar Singh had sent a report to the state government following which Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited's Managing Director Amit Kishore suspended Gautam and recommended strict disciplinary action against him, saying his act has tarnished the image of the state Electricity department. "Strict disciplinary action has been recommended against SDO Ravindra Kumar Gautam," said Kishore. During suspension period, the SDO will be transferred to the Electricity Distribution Board, Kannauj. His act is contrary to the provisions of Government Servants Conduct Rules, 1958, the Managing Director added. Sources in the state Electricity department said the SDO had put Osama's photo in office about a week ago, and though clerks, operators, two junior engineers and a dozen linemen visit it daily, no one raised an objection. Chief Engineer Rakesh Verma said, "A committee has been constituted to probe the matter. A report has been sought and action will be taken against other employees also." Los Angeles, June 2 : A Virginia jury has found that actress Amber Heard defamed Hollywood star Johnny Depp when she wrote a 2018 'Washington Post' op-ed alluding to her past claims of domestic violence, reports 'Variety'. The jury also found that Depp defamed Heard, through his attorney, in the course of fighting back against her charges. It awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages, plus $5 million in punitive damages, which Judge Penney Azcarate reduced to $350,000 in accordance with the state's statutory cap. Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim. The jury, five men and two women, who have been deliberating on their verdict since this past Friday, also found that Heard had acted with "actual malice", meaning that they were convinced she had made the statements knowing they were false, according to 'Variety'. Responding to the verdict from the United Kingdom, where he has been attending concerts, Depp said Heard's false claims had "a seismic impact on my life and my career". He said: "And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled." Depp added that he was "overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world," and that the verdict left him "at peace". Though the jury awarded damages to both sides, the outcome is a clear win for Depp, who lost a similar trial in the United Kingdom in 2020, notes 'Variety'. Depp brought that lawsuit after 'The Sun' newspaper called him a "wife beater". The judge had ruled that Heard's allegations were "substantially true". The lingering question now, according to 'Variety', is whether Depp can rehabilitate his film career, which has been moribund for the last four years. In a statement, Heard said she was "disappointed" and "heartbroken" by the outcome. "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words," Heard said. "I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband." She also pointed out that the verdict was "a setback" for women. "It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously." Raising the issue of freedom of speech, Heard said Depp's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook this "key issue" and "ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK". She concluded by saying: "I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American -- to speak freely and openly." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Houston, June 2 : At least three people were shot dead after a hospital campus shooting in Tulsa, the second largest city of US state Oklahoma, authorities said. The shooting incident took place on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The gunman, who was reportedly armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, also shot himself, Tulsa Police Department said on social media. Srinagar, June 2 : Three soldiers were injured in an explosion in South Kashmir's Shopian district on Thursday, police said. "A blast took place inside a private hired vehicle at Sedow, Shopian. Three soldiers injured and shifted to Hospital. Nature and source (due to grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or malfunctioning of battery) being investigated and will be shared," J&K Police quoting Inspector General Police Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar said in a tweet. San Francisco, June 2 : Google TV app, which aggregates content recommendations from streaming services and lets users create a universal watchlist of their favourites, is now available on iOS. The tech giant said that it will replace the previous Google Play Movies and TV app in the App Store, so if users have already got that installed, they should be able to update it to the Google TV experience, reports The Verge. The software, already available on Android, also allows users to rate what they have previously viewed to improve future recommendations. More important for Android TV or Chromecast with Google TV owners is that users can use the Google TV app as a remote control for those devices by tapping the remote icon. Not every major streaming service allows its content to be included in Google TV's rows of aggregated recs, Netflix is the big holdout, the report said. The company bowed out of Google TV integration very shortly after the release of the 2020 Chromecast, and Google has been unable to bring Netflix back into the fold ever since. The Google TV app will also contain a library of rentals and purchases from Google. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Bengaluru, June 2 : The three accused persons, who attacked Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Singh Tikait, have taken a u-turn and claimed that they attacked him for not speaking in Kannada, police sources said on Thursday. The police also said that they were probing the statements of the accused. Tikait was attacked and assaulted with black paint while addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan in Bengaluru on Monday. The police had arrested three persons -- Bharath Shetty, the President of Bharatha Rakshana Vedike, Shivakumar and Pradeep. The accused had taken the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while carrying out the attack and while being taken away by the police. The investigating officers are seeing the development as a premeditated act. "The accused's statement is misleading and they will be investigated further," said police sources. The police have taken the accused persons on a 6-day remand. The investigations have also revealed the past crime history of the accused persons. Shivakumar had barged on the platform and attacked Rakesh Tikait and later tried to attack other farm leaders also. Investigations have shown that Shivakumar was an accused in a murder case and is convicted for life imprisonment. He got released for good conduct in 2015. After the release, he was active in an organisation with his sister and took part in many protests. The police are investigating his involvement in other crimes. Another accused Pradeep is a cab driver. He had poured black paint on Rakesh Tikait and others. The police have also launched a hunt for women who were seen with the accused during the event on that day. Police said that all of them have disappeared after the incident. Tikait was attending a press conference on "Raita Chaluvali, Aatmavalokana haagu Spasteekarana Sabhe" (Farmer's Movement, Introspection and Clarification Meeting) organized by Karnataka State Farmers Association and Hasiru Sene. The Congress has described the incident as a black mark on the state. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Seoul, June 2 : South Korean tech giant Samsung is reportedly once again working with tech giant Google to create the next 2nd Generation Tensor SoC that will be underpinned in the upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. Samsung is collaborating with Google to create the Tensor 2 SoC and the South Korean tech giant will begin mass-producing Google's second-generation Tensor chipset on the 4nm process from June, citing Naver News, GizmoChina reported. The Tensor 2 chip will power the Pixel 7 series which is expected to be released in October. It is to be noted that Samsung Electronics also manufactured the first-generation tensor chip used in the Pixel 6 series. It will also power the Pixel 6a, which will launch in July. The previous Tensor chip was made using a 5nm process, however, the second-generation tensor is said to be made using Samsung's 4nm approach. The report also mentions that the chip will be manufactured using panel-level packaging (PLP) technology. "PLP is a packaging technique in which chips cut from a wafer are placed on a rectangular panel. It is possible to minimise the discarded edges, thereby reducing cost and improving productivity," as per the report. Samsung has already supplied Google with DRAM and NAND flash components, as well as the chipsets used in Waymo's autonomous vehicles. The company is also said to be in talks with Google to create chips for additional purposes, such as Google's server processors. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Bengaluru, June 2 : The rising Covid cases in neighbouring states of Kerala and Maharashtra have raised concerns in the Karnataka health department. Maharashtra recorded 1,081 Covid cases on Wednesday and the state health department has called it the highest spike after February 24. Kerala has recorded 1,370 new Covid cases. Though 630 people have recovered, the death of six people succumbed to the infection. This was a cause of concern, said the health department officials in Karnataka. Sources in Karnataka health department said since there was heavy movement of people from both the states to Karnataka, especially capital Bengaluru, hence measures need to be initiated. Karnataka has reported 178 new Covid cases in a span of 24 hours as per the statistics of the health department. The positivity rate for the day was recorded at 0.89 per cent. There are a total of 2,001 active cases in the state. 19,846 Covid tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours. There were 5,422 Omicron cases in the state and Delta and its sub lineages reported till date were 4,623. Bengaluru Urban reported 158 new Covid cases. There are 1,895 active Covid cases in Bengaluru. The Karnataka health department is concerned over the spike in cases in Kerala and Maharashtra as the state suffered much during the first and second wave due to unhindered movement of the people. During the third wave strict rules were enforced by Karnataka and the movement of people and vehicles from both these states was restricted. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed United Nations, June 2 : The UN has granted Turkey's request to change its name to Turkiye, a spokesman for the world body said. Addressing reporters, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the change came into force immediately at the time when the world body received a letter from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the UN chief with a request to change the country's name, Xinhua news agency reported. Cavusoglu reportedly said that the change in the spelling was adopted as part of the steps aimed at increasing the country's prestige in the international arena. The Foreign Minister had announced the letter's official submission to the UN and other international organisations on Tuesday. "Together with our Directorate of Communications, we have been successful in preparing a good ground for this. We have made it possible for the UN and other international organisations, countries to see this change to using 'TArkiye'," Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency. The initiative to use the country's foreign name as "Turkiye" at national and international platforms started in December 2021 with a decree signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Puducherry, June 2 : Engineers and employees of Puducherry electricity department will intensify their fight against privatisation of the power department with a hunger strike from June 8 onwards. The protesting employees said that the strike will not affect the functioning of the department as it would be carried out on a rotation basis. In a statement, P. Velmurugan of the employees association said that uninterrupted power supply will be ensured in the Union Territory and that people will in no way be affected by the strike. Notably, the employees had conducted a pen-down strike a week before demanding that the central and state governments refrain from privatisation. Velmurugan said that even after Chief Minister N. Rangasamy's assurance that privatisation will not take place without the employees and general public's consent, the process is in on. He said that they have met the Superintendent Engineer, who also heads the department, regarding it and informed him of the impending hunger strike. The employees have informed the territorial government that their status as the government employees be retained and that their service conditions are not affected. The opposition Secular Progressive Democratic Alliance (SDPA) has conducted protests against the privatisation of the power department. The alliance led by Congress even held a human chain protest against the move in which former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V. Narayanaswamy, leader of opposition and DMK leader R. Siva, CPI- M state secretary R. Rajangam, and CPI state secretary A.M. Saleem participated. The leaders said that a chain of protests will be conducted in the union territory against the government's move. They said that the privatisation would lead to a five-fold increase in electricity bills, an increase in charges for new connections, and scrapping of 100 units of free power to those below poverty line and farmers. Kochi, June 2 : With a day left for the outcome of the Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll on Friday, the heartbeats of both the Congress and the CPI-M leaderships in Kerala have increased. While many expected the turnout to be the highest ever since the constituency came into being in 2011, however, when the polling ended it turned out to be the lowest ever with 68.77 per cent. On Wednesday, last minute final analysis of the voting statistics were being done by the rival political fronts and at the end of the day, the CPI-M leadership appeared to have more smiles on their faces. Analysis showed that while the turnout in the Left strongholds was above 75 per cent, but in areas where the Congress has an upper hand the turnout was less than 60 per cent. The election became a necessity after the sudden demise of two time Thrikkakara's Congress legislator P.T. Thomas in December last year. And even though the Congress perhaps for the first time without any internal squabbles named the widow of Thomas -- Uma Thomas as their candidate and was the first to hit the campaign trail, the CPI-M after a while decided to go for a non-political Catholic Christian candidate, an interventional cardiologist -- Joe Joseph, while the BJP decided to field their veteran -- A.N. Radhakrishnan. The edge in the campaign trail that the Congress candidate had was almost wiped out with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leading the campaign from the front, Not to be left out around 75 of their legislators and the entire Vijayan cabinet was stay put at Thrikkakara, till the last day of campaign. Vijayan began his campaign on the plank of development and picturised the Congress as one against development. However, this failed to bring in much enthusiasm among the voters. The people towards the end of the campaign took up the issue of a fake video against their candidate and on the day of voting, the police arrested a person who they claimed was the activist of the Indian Union Muslim League- the second biggest ally of the Congress-led UDF. Incidentally, one feature of the by-election was a massive influx of electoral campaigns in social media and on Thursday it was a smear campaign against Uma. "All what I do in the name of P.T. Thomas is my personal thing and I dismiss all the things said against me with the contempt it deserves. We are confident that we are going to win and this increased hate campaign now against me is because they have realised what's going to be the result," said Uma. But Joseph, who on Thursday got back to his job of seeing cardiac patients at the private hospital here where he works, said he is resuming his duties. "I did not want a day to be lost, so I decided to get back to work. In our camp we are all confident and buzzing with activity. It seems a pall of gloom has befallen the Congress camp. We are supremely confident that we will hit a century with a six," said Joseph. The BJP candidate Radhakrishnan, who till the end of polling, said he will be the winner, but on Thursday he said he will get more votes (over 15,000) than his party candidate got in the 2021 April Assembly polls. And now with just hours left to know who is the winner, certainly for the traditional rivals, it's going to be a nail-biting finish when the counting of votes begins at 8 a.m. on Friday. Los Angeles, June 2 : Hollywood star Johnny Depp issued a lengthy statement celebrating the verdict in his lawsuit against Amber Heard. The 'Aquaman' star has to now pay $15 million in damages to Depp ($10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages) after the jury ruled that she defamed Depp when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alluding to her past claims of domestic violence, reports 'Variety'. While the jury in the verdict sided more with Depp, it still ruled that Depp defamed Heard in the course of fighting back against her charges. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim. "From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome," Depp wrote in a statement following the verdict. "Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that." While Depp celebrated the verdict, Heard slammed the decision in her own statement. "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words," she said. "I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband." Depp was not in attendance at the Virginia courthouse when the verdict was read. The actor is currently in the UK. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Addis Ababa, June 2 : Ethiopia is set to receive $200 million in financial assistance from the World Bank, an official said here. "The funds will be used to build skilled manpower and boost the capacity of state-owned technical and vocational training institutes," Xinhua news agency quoted Minister of Labour and Skills Development Muferiat Kamil as saying in a social media post. Kamil said she held discussions with World Bank officials on ways to create high-quality job opportunities for Ethiopians. Both sides also held discussions relating to broad strategic ideas. The Ethiopian government and the World Bank in May signed a financing agreement amounting to $300 million in support of the reconstruction and recovery of conflict-affected areas of Ethiopia. The $300 million financing accord, which was made in the form of a grant, will be used to fund activities designed to support communities in conflict-affected areas to re-access basic services of education, health and water supply. The projects will be implemented in selected districts of Ethiopia's conflict-hit Amhara, Afar, Tigray, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz regional states. New Delhi, June 2 : Delhi High Courts Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi on Thursday administered the oath of office to Adv Anish Dayal as judge and Adv Amit Sharma as an additional judge. Apart from the two appointees, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav also took charge as the Delhi HC judge following his transfer from Madhya Pradesh High Court. His transfer was notified by the Centre on Wednesday. The names of Advocates Anish Dayal and Amit Sharma were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as judges of the Delhi High Court in November 2021. With the three new judges taking charge of their office, the working strength of the high court rose to 47, against the sanctioned strength of 60. According to notifications issued by the Law Ministry on Wednesday, the Centre notified the appointment of eight new High Court judges and transfers of six judges. The Centre has appointed advocate Wasim Sadiq Nargal as an additional judge of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, four years after his name was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium. Seven judicial officers were elevated as judges of the Patna High Court. Also, four additional judges of the Kerala High Court were also elevated as judges of the same high court. Besides these appointments, the Ministry also notified transfers of six judges. Geneva, June 2 : The monkeypox virus may be spreading 'undetected', said the World Health Organisation even as the global confirmed cases rise to more than 550 from 30 countries that are not endemic to the virus. While, so far, most cases have been reported among men who have sex with men presenting with symptoms at sexual health clinics, "the sudden appearance of monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests there may have been undetected transmission for some time," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a statement. The virus may have been transmitted for months or years undetected though investigations are ongoing and there are clear no answers yet, added Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the WHO's monkeypox technical lead, during a news conference in Geneva. "We don't really know whether it's too late to contain. What WHO and all member states are trying to do is prevent onward spread," Lewis said. Contact tracing and isolating patients who have monkeypox are crucial to stopping the spread, she said. Earlier the WHO had refuted the need to avoid LGBTQ+ parades, as the virus itself is not a sexually transmitted infection, which are generally spread through semen and vaginal fluids. "These communities are working hard to inform their members about the risks of monkeypox, and prevent transmission," Ghebreyesus said, adding the need to "work hard to fight stigma". He noted that stigma against the LGBTQ+ community could "prevent infected individuals from seeking care, making it harder to stop transmission". The global health body has also urged affected countries to widen their surveillance, to look for cases in the broader community. Monkeypox has not previously been described as a sexually transmitted infection, but it can be passed on by direct contact during sex. Anyone can be infected with monkeypox if they have close physical contact with someone else who is infected. "The situation is evolving, and we expect that more cases will continue to be found," the WHO chief said. While monkeypox symptoms resolve on their own, it "can also be severe in some cases". Ghebreyesus said that the WHO is working to provide accurate information to those groups most at risk of monkeypox; to prevent further spread among at-risk groups; to protect frontline health workers; as well as to advance understanding of this disease. Meanwhile, even as some countries are racing to stockpile smallpox vaccines against monkeypox, the WHO has not recommended mass vaccination. But, the WHO is working with companies to increase access to those new vaccines and treatments, Lewis said. Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Srinagar, June 2 : The non-local manager of a regional rural bank (Ellaquai Dehati Bank) was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Thursday. Police sources said the terrorists shot and critically injured the manager, identified as Vijay Kumar of Rajasthan. Kumar was working as the manager of a regional rural bank (Ellaquai Dehati Bank) in Areah village branch of Kulgam district. He was attacked in the morning as he was entering the bank branch, said police sources. "He was shifted to a hospital where doctors said he was dead on arrival. "The area has been cordoned off for searches", sources said. On May 31, militants killed Rajni Bala, a non-local teacher in the same district. She belonged to Samba district of Jammu division. Thiruvananthapuram, June 2 : A history-sheeter was killed by two men, including a temple priest, in the state capital city, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred at a lodge in city outskirts on Wednesday night. According to police, a group of four people which included Manichen, who is an accused in a few criminal cases and three others, booked a room in a lodge and started drinking. Soon, an argument broke out between the four over a song which snowballed into a fight and Manichen was hit on the head by two of them. Manichen's friend Harikumar also was injured in the incident. While Dipak and Arun managed to slip out of the hospital, they were taken custody later. Manichen breathed his last in the wee hours of Thursday, while Harikumar is undergoing treatment at a hospital, here. The hotel room, with blood all over the floor and walls, has been taken over by local police. Meanwhile, the police are probing the antecedents of the arrested two, one of whom is a local temple priest, As per reports, the four were part of a gang which later split. Following the split, Wednesday's drinking session was believed to be a patch-up meeting, but it ended in Manichen's murder. Madrid, June 2 : Spain welcomed almost 10 times more tourists this April than in the same month in 2021, according to a monthly survey published by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE). According to the survey, 6.1 million foreign tourists arrived in Spain in April against 629,000 in the same month 2021, when several Covid-19 restrictions were still in place, reports Xinhua news agency. In April 2019, Spain welcomed 7.14 million international visitors. Tourism expenditure is recovering even more strongly as the 6.1 million tourists spent 6,900 million euros ($7,345 million) during their stay, which is close to the 7,056 million euros spent in April 2019. The recovery is due in part to a significant increase in the number of visitors from the UK. Around 1.2 million British tourists (20.4 per cent of the total) spent time in Spain in April, a staggering 5,122.8 per cent more than in April 2021. The number of visitors from Ireland increased by 3,358 per cent year-on-year (YoY), and the respective figures for German and French tourists were 589 per cent and 614 per cent, respectively. In total, 15,777,565 people vacationed in Spain in the first four months of 2021, with the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands their main destinations. A record 83.9 million tourists visited Spain in 2019. With the main holiday months still ahead, 2022 could see almost a full recovery for a sector that usually contributes around 11 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. New Delhi, June 2: Away from the media glare, a fierce battle is ongoing between the Taliban and Ahmad Massoud led National Resistance Force (NRF) on many fronts in Panjshir Valley and other parts of northern Afghanistan. Over the past few weeks, the armed anti-Taliban resistance has picked up momentum in this area. The new round of fighting has essentially begun as a response to a call from Ahmad Masood for a renewed combat against the Taliban. The National Resistance Front has claimed that it has "liberated" three large districts from Taliban control. "We are present in many areas of Dara, and Abshar as well as many areas of Andarab," reported TOLO News, the Afghan news channel, quoting the NRF spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi. All these areas, supposedly reclaimed by the NRF, are situated in Panjshir Valley where the resistance had launched the first armed offensive against the Taliban when it seized power last August after toppling the previous regime. "Intense fighting is underway between the NRF and Taliban in Andarab district of Baghlan province. They killed at least 8 Taliban fighters and wounded 6. One NRF fighter also has been killed," Sibghatullah Ahmadi told TOLO news. The Taliban have denied that it has suffered casualties. "These claims are untrue. There was some gunfire from the mountains. We have taken steps to suppress them," was the version of a spokesman in the Panjshir government office. Six Islamic Emirate troops have died in the clashes so far. "The claims of much higher casualties made by opponents are untrue". But various posts on social media have shown the pictures of the top Taliban leaders visiting those areas where the battles are raging. In the last two weeks, the defence minister of the Taliban regime, Mullah Yaqoob was seen on a front in Panjshir valley. A French journalist Frenkie Mark, who is close to NRF leaders, wrote on social media that Yaqoob's son has been captured by the NRF fighters but the Taliban have denied it. The state-run Bakhtar news agency, reported on Wednesday about the visit of Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Baradar to Panjshir. The news agency wrote in a video that Mullah Baradar met with military and civilian officials and "shared the necessary guidance and advice with them." According to the agency, Mullah Baradar met with a number of Panjshir elders and asked them to support the Taliban government and prevent locals from joining the resistance forces. The Resistance Front claims the Taliban have perpetrated "genocide" in Panjshir, Andarab, and Takhar. "Massacring civilians will not demoralise us but will strengthen our resolve to liberate our country from these criminals." the Resistance Front's Foreign Relations Head, Ali Maisam Nazari, tweeted. According to Afghan journalists, the Resistance groups are unlikely to defeat the Taliban's superior firepower but they could dig in for the long haul, embedding among local populations and using knowledge of the terrain for a guerrilla-style hit-and-run insurgency. This seems to be the Taliban's greatest fear, and explains the vicious response to the uprisings, including reported arbitrary executions of civilians in some hotspots. The NRF leaders exhorted the Taliban rulers to form a more inclusive government or risk civil war. "We demand the Taliban end their destruction and set the table for talks to find solutions to the current problems of Afghanistan. The Islamists should learn from the experiences of history that no group can have a stable government through acts of force and pressure," said Ahmad Massoud, the NRF leader and son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir. Last month, 40 political figures met in Ankara at the invitation of former Afghan vice-president and warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who found refuge in Turkey after Kabul fell in August. "The Taliban should accept that they can't run the government or rule alone." "Otherwise "Afghanistan will experience civil war once again," the Council said in a statement. Afghan diplomatic missions which have refused to obey the new Taliban rulers, have condemned the Taliban executions, hostage-taking and torture of civilians, including women and children, in Panjshir saying "graphic evidence" shows that these "crimes" are considered war crimes and crimes against humanity. (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative New Delhi, June 2 : To mark its presence robustly at the just-concluded World Economic Forums (WEF) annual meeting this year, India had sent a record delegation this year led by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. The meeting took place in Davos from May 23-25. This year coincides with the World Economic Forum's 50th anniversary and 35 years of the Forum's collaboration with India. Speaking at the WEF, Goyal said, even as challenges continue to remain on economic front, the government is conscious to move forward and is aware of what to focus on. He said there is a lot of optimism globally regarding India. Goyal also expressed concern over "excessive dependence" on international supply chains and asked businesses to procure locally "whenever there is an opportunity". He also mentioned that India has no plans to immediately lift ban on wheat export. India is now the second largest wheat producer in the whole world. But it had put a ban on private overseas sales as output was hit due to heat wave and domestic price hit a record high. Nearly 100 participants and dozens of political leaders from India attended the World Economic Forum, and presented the country's position on the energy situation, food security and health equity at Davos. In line with the Centre's priorities, sessions were organised at the India Lounge keeping in mind India's strategic advantage, existing and upcoming incentive architecture, industry investment potential and market opportunity. The key topics which were discussed during the sessions include policy and ease of doing business reforms, energy transition, digital economy, opportunities in National Monetization Pipeline, India as an entrepreneurial destination shaping the unicorn story, growing talents in the digital space, emphasis on innovation and research in the healthcare ecosystem. Attendance from China, Japan and South Korea was sparse this year, mentioned Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group. It was an opportune forum for India as European business leaders were eagerly scouting options for diversifying trade and investments. Thanks to its political stability and reformist policies, India seemed to have appeared to be the best option for most of them. Many global investors endorsed India's rising economic relevance. For example, Saint Gobain Global CEO Benoit Bazin said that the company plans to invest over Rs 5,500 crore in the next four years in India. Bazin was bullish about the 45-billion-euro company's growth story in India. David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private equity Carlyle Group, told reporters in Davos that "India has been more attractive (to buy assets) of late than China". Clearly, India benefitted from the absence of China and concerns over its heavy-handed 'zero Covid' strategy. Goyal said that every Indian diplomatic mission had been given the responsibility of supporting Indian industry. "Every mission, every office, every official is now ready to stand for Indian businesses and that is what will spearhead Trade 4.0," he said. Ministers from several state governments, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, were also in Davos to attract global investors. Andhra Pradesh reportedly signed renewables investment pacts cumulatively worth about Rs 1,600 crore with three companies. The investment commitments were made with India's Adani Green Energy, GIC-backed Greenko and India's Aurobindo Realty & Infrastructure. The Maharashtra delegation reportedly signed at least 23 MoUs worth Rs 30,000 crore. Of these investments, more than 55 per cent are by way of FDI from the US, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan. Indian delegation also included unicorn founders such as Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, EaseMyTrip's Prashant Pitti, Ashish Singhal of Coinswitch, and Vidit Atrey of Meesho. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Kolkata, June 2 : Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday approached the Calcutta High Court alleging that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has denied him permission to go abroad for treatment. The court will take up the matter later in the day. The ED has already questioned Banerjee in connection with the coal smuggling scam in West Bengal. In his appeal, the Lok Sabha from Diamond Harbour has stated that he had requested the central agency to spare him from questioning for some time as he would have to go abroad for his ophthalmological treatment. However, the ED officials have raised objections to his proposal. It is learnt that in his letter to the ED, Abhishek Banerjee wanted to be spared from June 3 to 10. Incidentally, the Trinamool leader recently made headlines after he described a couple of judges as biased and operating at the behest of some forces. "I feel bad to say that a couple of members of the judiciary are acting at the behest of others and as agents. They are ordering for CBI verdicts in petty cases. They are putting a stay in murder cases. This is unthinkable," Banerjee said at a public rally in Haldia on May 28. On May 30, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar informed that he has instructed the state chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi to initiate action Banerjee over his anti-judiciary comments. The governor also observed that Banerjee's accusing and targetting the judiciary interferes with the due course of justice process and reflects scant respect for the rule of law. Havana, June 2 : Cuba's Institute of Meteorology (Insmet) has issued a heavy rain warning for the rest of this week as the Atlantic hurricane season got underway. "There will be heavy rainfall in western and central Cuba, pushing the 24-hour precipitation totals up to 200 millimeters for some towns and communities," Xinhua news agency quoted Insmet said on its website. Local authorities are on alert due to the possibility that the remnants of May's Pacific Hurricane Agatha will turn into the Atlantic's first named storm of 2022. Agatha made landfall in southern Mexico on Monday as a category 2 hurricane, leaving at least 11 people dead and 33 missing. Forecasters predict that between 14 and 21 named storms could form in the Atlantic Ocean during this year's season, with six to 10 becoming hurricanes. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through November 30. Seoul, June 2 : South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is likely to visit Spain later this month to attend a NATO summit in what would be his first overseas trip after assuming office last month, officials said on Thursday. Yoon is considering attending the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid on June 29 and 30. "An advance team consisting of protocol and security service officials is currently on location where the NATO summit will be held," an official at the presidential office told Yonhap News Agency. Though South Korea is not a NATO member, the President could use his participation in the summit to demonstrate solidarity with the US and European nations in their opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yoon's attendance will also likely underscore his administration's commitment to strengthening ties with Washington in the wake of his summit with US President Joe Biden in Seoul on May 21. An official at the presidential National Security Office said Yoon's attendance has not been finalised, as there are several factors that need to be considered, such as which other countries are participating. No other countries are currently under consideration as part of Yoon's first trip overseas, the official added. The NATO summit could set the stage for a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings for Yoon, including a possible summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a trilateral summit with Kishida and Biden. New Delhi, June 2 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday tested positive for Covid-19 infection. "Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi has been meeting leaders & activists over last week, some of whom have been found Covid positive. Congress President had developed mild fever & Covid symptoms last evening. On testing, she has been found to be Covid positive", said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a tweet. He said in the subsequent tweet that Sonia Gandhi has isolated herself as per medical advice. "As a large number of Congressmen & women & well wishers have expressed concern, we want to say that she is fine and recovering. We thank everyone for their good wishes", he said. The report of Gandhi testing positive for Covid infection has come a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned her and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. The Congress president is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on June 8. Surjewala, however, said in another tweet that the Congress president will appear before the ED on June 8, as informed earlier. Patna, June 2 : Two unidentified bike-borne assailants gunned down a prominent trader in Bihar's Arrah town on Thursday. The deceased, Samir Jain, who had an electric and home appliances shop in the Jail Road area of Arrah city, was on the way to his shop when the assailants intercepted him in the middle of the market and fired at him indiscriminately. The police said that Jain sustained four bullet injuries and was immediately taken to nearby Sadar hospital. As his condition was very critical, the doctors referred him to PMCH Patna but he succumbed on the way. "We immediately reached the spot and started the investigation. We are also scanning CCTV cameras of the area to find some clues about the attackers. We are waiting for the statement of deceased family members," a police officer said. "Preliminary investigation reveals that the incident could be related to extortion of money. The deceased's father Praful Jain was also a prominent trader of Arrah. Due to his elderly age, his son Samir Jain was looking after the business," he said. Lucknow, June 2 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has cut short her visit and returned to Delhi, a party leader said on Thursday. Priyanka had arrived in Lucknow on Wednesday to participate in the two-day 'Nav Sankalp Shivir' to discuss the strategy for the party's revival in Uttar Pradesh. No reasons were cited for her decision to leave early, but sources said that she had returned after she learnt of her mother Sonia Gandhi testing positive for Covid. Vice Chairman, state Congress Media, Pankaj Srivastava, said, "Yes, she has left for New Delhi." On being asked whether the meetings would continue on Thursday, Srivastava said, "Our national secretaries are here and it is going on. Except for Priyankaji's programme nothing has been cancelled." Mandya : , June 2 (IANS) Authorities in Karnataka are on high alert as some activists of Hindu organisations said that they will 'enter' Jamia masjid in the historical town of Srirangapatna in Mandya district, on June 4 and perform puja there. The Hindu organisations have also decided to approach the court to demand a survey of the masjid on the lines of Gyanvapi mosque. They have given calls on social media and in various events to participate in the 'Srirangapatna Chalo' programme. Sources said that the authorities are waiting for instructions from the government as to how to handle the devotees who may try to enter the masjid and perform 'puja' there. The district authorities have already beefed up the security in and around the Jamia masjid. They are also contemplating to clamp prohibitory orders from June 3 and extend it to June 4. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal leaders, who are at the forefront of the 'Srirangapatna Chalo' movement, have said that since the district authorities have not responded to their request, they are going ahead with their plan. The mosque authorities have already expressed apprehension and made appeals to the government to protect it. Built by Tipu Sultan in 1786-87, Jamia mosque is also called as Masjid-i-Ala and is located inside the Srirangapatna fort. The mosque has three inscriptions that mention nine names of Prophet Mohammad. The Narendra Modi Vichar Manch organisation, which had made submissions to the authorities for survey of the mosque, said that they strongly believe that Jamia masjid was built after razing down a Hanuman temple. They quote B. Lewis Rice, a British historian, archaeologist and educationist, who in his report to the Archaeological Survey of India in 1935, had mentioned about a Hanuman temple on Page number 61. Adelaide, June 2 : Influenza cases in South Australia (SA) have spiked, prompting concerns about pressure on the hospital system. According to data released by SA Health, the number of confirmed flu cases in the state surged by 673 to 1,868 in the past seven days, reports Xinhua news agency. It comes as health authorities warn that a spike in flu and Covid-19 cases could put severe pressure on the health system. Chris Picton, SA's Health Minister, urged everyone to take up free flu vaccines and "do their bit" to save lives. "This is a concern as our hospitals and hardworking staff manage both Covid and flu cases, and normal winter demand," he told News Corp Australia. "You can protect yourself and your loved ones, and stay out of hospital this winter." The Guardian Australia on Thursday published data revealing the number of workers who took sick leave in the first half of May was 50 percent higher than the long-term average. Karen Price, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), said levels of illness in the community were unusually high. "We've got a larger proportion of the population who have not been exposed to viruses much in the last two years, other than Covid, of which there is still high community transmission," she said. "It's not that the flu is any more severe in nature than normal, the problem is that we just don't have any cross-immunity built up because we haven't really had a flu season in the last two years. There is just no baseline immunity." In the year to date in 2022, there have been 38,743 notifications reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) in Australia, of which 26,193 notifications had a diagnosis date this fortnight, more than three times the notifications in the previous fortnight, according to Australian Influenza Surveillance Report and Activity Updates, which was last updated on May 27. "From mid-April 2022, the weekly number of notifications of laboratory-confirmed influenza reported in Australia has exceeded the five-year average," said the report. Australia on Thursday reported more than 30,000 new Covid-19 cases and more than 40 deaths, according to the health department figures from states and territories. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bengaluru, June 2 : US-based IT firm Pure Storage on Thursday inaugurated its new Research and Development Centre in Bengaluru that will focus on innovations that transform storage and data management. State Minister of IT and Skill Development, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, said that Pure Storage is providing an opportunity for Indian talent to contribute to technologies that are in demand around the world. "With data continuing to grow in volume and complexity, the skills to manage, protect and move it around in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, will become even more in demand and it's important for Karnataka to be involved in this movement," he said during the inauguration of the R&D centre. The acceleration of digital transformation around the world is fueling the growth of data, specifically unstructured data such as video, picture and audio files. This is creating demand for professionals who are experts in solutions that store, manage, protect and analyse such data. A recent study by Pure Storage with management consulting firm Zinnov indicated that there are over 700,000 professionals in India with the relevant data management skills. This is around 14 per cent of the total technology workforce in the country and is poised to grow further. "The India R&D centre will further foster data management capabilities in India while ensuring Pure's global customers benefit from this abundance of talent," said Ajay Singh, Chief Product Officer, Pure Storage. Pure Storage has a portfolio of data management solutions which include FlashArray, FlashBlade, FlashStack, AIRI, Pure as-a-Service, Portworx, Pure1, Evergreen, Pure Cloud Block Store and Purity. The India R&D centre, said the company, will contribute to the continued innovation in most of these product lines. Mumbai, June 2 : After Kuwait and Oman banned the release of 'Samrat Prithviraj', Qatar now has put a hold on the Akshay Kumar-starrer. 'Samrat Prithviraj' is based on the life and valour of the fearless and mighty King Prithviraj Chauhan. Akshay is essaying the role of the legendary warrior who fought valiantly to protect India from the merciless invader Muhammad of Ghor in this visual spectacle. A source working in overseas territories, on conditions of anonymity, says: "The issue is unnecessarily getting coloured with a religious lens in these countries. People should view a film that's based on history and is authentic from a neutral perspective. "The fact is that India was looted by invaders who happened to be Muslims. The fact is that Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan fought one such invader and tried to protect India till his last breath. One should view history for what it is." The source adds: "After a ban in Kuwait and Oman, now another Islamic country, Qatar, has put the film's release on hold. Indians living in these countries won't be able to see the film and that's really unfortunate. A film like this comes once in a lifetime for everyone to see and enjoy and celebrate one's history." "People are trying to deny Indians of this moment. Better sense should prevail." 'Samrat Prithviraj' has been directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi. Manushi Chhillar plays the role of King Prithviraj's beloved Sanyogita. The film is set to release this Friday in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Bhopal, June 2 : The Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Department has ordered a probe against Vice-Chancellor of Mhow-based Dr BR Ambedkar University of Social Sciences over allegations of mismanagement and gross irregularities during her tenure. In a recommendation to the General Administration Department (GAD), the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has demanded an investigation by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) Bhopal into the alleged gross financial irregularities and non-compliance of procedure charges against Asha Shukla. "A probe against former vice-chancellor of Dr. BR Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow- Asha Shukla for mismanagement, gross irregularities and non-compliance of procedure is requested from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Bhopal," read an order issued by Veeran Singh Bhalavi, principal secretary Higher Education Department on May 17. The development in these alleged gross financial irregularities has come four months after Shukla was removed from vice-chancellor's post in February. Shukla was ousted after she was found involved in alleged financial irregularities and non-compliance of procedure. However, Shukla had then tendered her resignation citing some family reasons before a termination letter was issued. Following which, State Higher Education Minister Mohan Yadav had ordered that plaints be probed by Indore divisional commissioner Dr Pawan Kumar Sharma. In his report, divisional commissioner Sharma found allegations to be true and submitted his report to the Department of Higher Education (DHE). Based on the inquiry report, the DHE sent the file to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recommending Section 44 at the Mhow University. Subsequently, a five-member committee was formed to probe the validity and review the works undertaken under various new Study Chairs founded at BR Ambedkar University of Social Sciences (BRAUSS) during Dr Asha Shukla. Chennai, June 2 : Tamil Nadu police has busted a drug syndicate that has its wings spread globally, after it seized 1 crore worth of drugs from Chennai. The drug gang members who were arrested on Wednesday revealed during interrogation that the gang has its tentacles spread over other countries, and that a well organised network of drug pushers is behind the racket. Police said that they acted on a tip off and nabbed S. Zahir Hussain from a shop at Mannadi, Triplicane and seized 1kg of methamphetamine from his possession. Upon interrogation led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Veerakumar, Hussain revealed that he received the contraband from Mohammed Sultan of Washermenpet and V. Nasser of Triplicane. The police also arrested A. Junnath Ali, N. Azharuddin, and Nurul Amin from Washermenpet and Triplicane in connection with the drug seizure after Zahir Hussain spilled the beans. They too told the police that they were just pushers and that an organised network with roots across the country was behind this. Nurul Amin has further revealed that they have been sending drugs to Far Eastern countries and Australia for past two years. The startling revelations of the drug predating gang has had the police to start a detailed probe into the international network of drug peddlers. A senior officer told IANS that the investigation could be handled better if it is handed over to a central agency. He said that with inter-state gangs present in the international drug syndicate, the state police will not be able to handle the investigation that requires external support including that of agencies like Interpol. Seoul, June 2 : A wildfire continued to rage for a third day in South Korea on Thursday despite firefighting efforts involving dozens of helicopters. The fire that broke out on a hill in Miryang, around 280 km southeast of Seoul, on Tuesday, is continuing to spread rapidly, driven by strong winds and a dry spell, reports Yonhap News Agency. Forestry and firefighting authorities dispatched 53 helicopters to resume their firefighting operation as soon as operations resumed on Thursday morning and dispatched some 2,450 personnel to join the battle later in the day. The choppers included 16 from the Army and three from the Air Force, according to the Defence Ministry. The military also plans to send some 590 service members to aid the firefighting efforts on Thursday. The blaze has burned nearly 700 hectares of forestland as of Thursday, while the fire extinguishing rate climbed to 73 per cent. No casualties or property damage have been reported yet. The Korea Forest Service retained its highest Level-3 wildfire response posture as of Thursday. Phnom Penh, June 2 : Cambodia attracted a total of 241,485 international visitors in the first four months of this year, up 191 per cent from the same period last year, according to a report released on Thursday by Ministry of Tourism. Some 131,864 or 54.6 per cent of the tourists arrived in the Southeast Asian country by air during the January-April period, up 244 per cent year-on-year, the report said, adding that neighbouring Vietnam topped the chart of the international tourist arrivals to the kingdom, followed by Thailand and China, reports Xinhua news agency. Kong Sopheareak, director of the Ministry's statistics department, attributed the significant rise to the country's full reopening buoyed by high vaccination rates. "With our quarantine free policy, we're confident that tourists will consider Cambodia as a key destination for their vacations and we hope to attract between 800,000 and 1 million international tourists in 2022, an expected increase from only 200,000 in 2021," he told Xinhua. Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting the kingdom's economy. In the pre-pandemic era, the country attracted up to 6.6 million international tourists in 2019, generating a gross revenue of $4.92 billion, according to the Tourism Ministry. Cambodia has fully resumed its social and economic activities and reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers without quarantine since November last year after most of its 16 million population had been vaccinated against Covid-19. According to the Ministry of Health, Cambodia has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 for the past 26 days, and currently only three active cases remain in the country. Kochi, June 2 : The Kerala High Court on Thursday extended the relief to actor-producer Vijay Babu, who is accused of rape by an actress, from arrest till Tuesday (June 7). Babu had slipped out of the country in the fourth week of April after the actress had levelled the rape allegations and despite the best efforts of the police probe team to get him back, Babu arrived here on Wednesday, only after the court asked the police not to arrest him. Babu who arrived at Kochi, first drove to a temple and then without going home presented himself before the police who questioned him for around nine hours and only then he came to his house, here. On Thursday, again Babu presented himself before the police and soon came the court directive which asked the police not to arrest him till Tuesday. The court also asked Babu that he under no circumstances should try to influence the 'victim'. The Kerala police failed despite trying their best to bring back Babu, who slipped out of the country last month to Dubai and from there - after the police took steps to issue a red corner notice - headed for Georgia. The actor-producer was on the run after the actress from Kozhikode filed a complaint in Ernakulam on April 22 that she was raped and beaten up by him several times in a flat in Kochi. She has also accused him of giving her intoxicants before sexually abusing her. As the news surfaced, Babu appeared live on his social media handle claiming that he was the "real victim" in this case, adding that he would take appropriate legal steps against the complainant whom he also named. The police, apart from the initial complaint, have registered a second case against him for disclosing the name of the complainant. The court will hear this case again on Tuesday. Bhubaneswar, June 2 : As many as 50 Maoist supporters of Malkangiri district surrendered before Odisha police in presence of DGP Sunil Bansal on Thursday. The Maoist sympathisers including two women surrendered before the DGP during his visit to Jantri police camp in Swabhiman Anchal (earlier known as cut-off area) in the Maoist-hit Malkangiri district. "Maoist supporters and some people who have been involved in a few police attack cases have surrendered today. Welcoming all to the mainstream of society, I told them nothing can be achieved from violence. They also took a pledge not to support or perpetrate violence," the DGP said. He appealed to the people who have accepted the Maoist ideology to surrender and join the mainstream. All should come and partake in the development, he added. The Maoist sympathisers have submitted a joint written letter to the DGP before surrendering. In the letter, they requested the DGP to close all cases pending against them in different police stations of Malkangiri district. Later, Bansal reviewed the anti-Maoist operations taken up in the districts with BSF and inaugurated a new building of Mathili police station. Panaji, June 2 : Armed policemen will now assist Fisheries department officials to keep tabs on the illegal trend of LED fishing once the fishing activity resumes in Goa after the customary breeding season ban, Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar said here on Thursday. The Minister also said that three police inspectors sourced from the Goa Police would be assisting Fisheries Department officials to crack down on the LED fishing off Goa's coastline. "There will be a strong vigil on LED fishing. We are fitting CCTV on fishing jetties to keep track of such activities. We will also get Goa Police staff integrated into our department. By August we will also procure three boats for the purpose of cracking down on LED fishing," Halarnkar said. Ban on fishing during the breeding season began on June 1 and commercial fishing is scheduled to restart from August 1. Fisherfolk in Goa have been demanding a ban on fishing with the help of LED lights, which attracts entire swarms of fish with the help of its powerful glow underwater. Marine scientists have also suggested that the practice abets indiscriminate fishing, which would eventually lead to a fish famine in the waters off Goa. Halarnkar also said that if fishermen illegally try to carry out illegal fishing outside the state's waters, the Indian Coast Guard would be brought in to nab them. "If they go beyond 12 nautical miles, we will seek assistance from the (Indian) Coast Guard," he said. Himmatnagar : , June 2 (IANS) After some tribal leaders left the Congress, the party has now put all its focus to maintain its hold in the Khedbrahma Assembly seat in Sabarkantha district and Aravalli district's Bhiloda constituency. The tribals in Gujarat have been the traditional voters of the Congress for decades together. Khedbrahma sitting Congress MLA Ashwin Kotwal recently resigned as MLA and joined the BJP. Bhiloda's sitting MLA Dr. Anil Joshiyara died because of corona and his son Keval recently joined the BJP. Both these Assembly seats fall under Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat. To protect its forte, the Congress is working hard in both constituencies, and the party is confident of winning both seats, said Madhusudan Mistry, former MP from Sabarkantha constituency. "The BJP has done little for the tribals in the area. Development has not reached these pockets, why would people vote for the party that discriminates against voters," said Mistry to the local media. "The local tribals will give befitting answers to Ashwin Kotwal on Khedbrahma constituency, for betraying their trust," said Tushar Chaudhary, former Union Minister of State for Tribal Development. His father, former Chief Minister Amarsinh Chaudhary had twice won from the Khedbrahma seat -- in 1995 and 1998 -- after he lost the elections from his traditional Vyara seat of Surat district in 1990. Disputing the Congress leaders' claim, BJP's Aravalli District Committee's president Rajendrakumar Patel said, "Congress can't beat BJP's organisation, party has formed 45,000 electoral page committees in Bhiloda constituency, party has already given training to polling agents and booth committees." Citing the analysis of the Assemblywise performance during the 2019 Sabarkantha Lok Sabha elections results, Patel said, "The BJP candidate had a 12,000 vote margin on Khedbrahma Assembly seat, that will give advantage to the party candidate. Taluka panchayats are with the BJP, seven delegates for the district panchayat are of the BJP on this seat, enough reasons to show that the party is in a strong position." "It all depends, who is selected as the BJP candidate for the Bhiloda seat. Before that happens, it will be premature to say anything," said Jayanti Patel, President of the Sabarkantha BJP district committee. He said the party organisation is unmatched in the constituency and has an advantage over the political opponents. In the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the party candidate had a margin of 20,000 in Bhiloda Assembly segment. While the BJP is making claims of a strong performance in the tribal areas, the Congress is working hard to retain its traditional strongholds. New Delhi, June 2 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Gantz in New Delhi on Thursday. "A wide range of issues concerning bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation were discussed during the meeting. The two Ministers reviewed the existing military-to-military activities which have increased despite the challenges due to COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed ways to increase cooperation in all domains with a focus on Research & Development in future technologies and defence co-production," said a statement from Defence Ministry. The MoD said both the Ministers acknowledged mutual security challenges and their convergences on a number of strategic and defence issues. They expressed commitment to work together to enhance cooperation in all forums. With the intention to further strengthen the existing framework of the Indo-Israeli defence cooperation architecture, both sides adopted the India-Israel Vision on Defence Cooperation, the statement said. A Letter of Intent on enhancing cooperation in the field of Futuristic Defence Technologies was also exchanged between the two Ministers. Earlier in the day, the Defence Minister of Israel visited the National War Memorial and paid homage to the fallen heroes by laying a wreath at the monument. He was accorded a Ceremonial Guard of Honour before his bilateral meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The visiting dignitary reached New Delhi in the morning on an official visit to India. It was his first visit to India with an aim to strengthen the defence ties between the two countries. Defence cooperation has been one of the significant pillars of bilateral cooperation. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the official diplomatic ties between India and Israel. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, June 2 : China government-backed hackers, previously observed targeting the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, are actively exploiting a bug in Microsoft Office to steal and delete users' data. According to cyber-security firm Proofpoint, the newly-discovered vulnerability titled 'Follina' in Microsoft Office is being exploited by advanced persistent threat (APT) group 'TA413' linked to the Chinese government. "TA413 CN APT spotted ITW exploiting the #Follina #0Day using URLs to deliver Zip Archives which contain Word Documents that use the technique. Campaigns impersonate the "Women Empowerments Desk" of the Central Tibetan Administration," Proofpoint said in a tweet. Chinese hackers have a long history of using software security flaws to target Tibetans. Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability, officially titled CVE-2022-30190 regarding the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) in Windows vulnerability, but was yet to issue a security patch. "An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can run arbitrary code with the privileges of the calling application. The attacker can then install programmes, view, change, or delete data, or create new accounts in the context allowed by the user's rights," Microsoft said in an update. In a blog post, cyber-security researcher Kevin Beaumont also detailed the new vulnerability. According to the Verge, current analysis suggests that 'Follina' affects Microsoft Office 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, Office ProPlus, and Office 365. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has also asked system administrators to implement Microsoft's guidance for mitigating exploitation. "Customers with Microsoft Defender Antivirus should turn-on cloud-delivered protection and automatic sample submission. These capabilities use artificial intelligence and machine learning to quickly identify and stop new and unknown threats," said Microsoft. Mumbai, June 2 : The French film 'Notre-Dame On Fire', which is based on the Notre-Dame cathedral fire, is heading to India for a theatrical release. The film, which has been directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud, will debut in Indian theatres on June 22. The film is a PVR Pictures release. On bringing the film to Indian screens, Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures Ltd. said in a statement, "PVR Pictures has always put faith in powerful stories, and 'Notre-Dame On Fire' is one such soul stirring tale. Audiences will be gripped by the movie's thrilling re-enactment of the event, while also being moved by its core message of humanity and courage." Commenting on the Indian film industry's stellar show at the 75th Cannes Film Festival where India was the 'Country of Honour', he added, "It was a matter of time before India took over not just Cannes but international platforms as a whole. In the digital era we live in, audiences are aware of all kinds of cinema, so it is natural for our films to find global footing and global films to find love in India." Laced with Jean-Jacques Annaud's rich storytelling, the film, which stars Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes and Mickael Chirinian, is being lauded around the world for presenting a tense visual spectacle. Panaji, June 2 : Goa's Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar said on Thursday that people will take law in their own hands if religious conversions in Goa do not stop. "It is very much proved with recent incidents that religious conversions are taking place in the state. Media has proved it more than us (government) that conversions are taking place. It should be stopped. If it is not stopped then people will take law in their own hands and unwanted things will happen," Dhavalikar said, responding to the question here. He added that he supports the move of the Chief Minister to bring in a law to prevent religious conversions. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, referring to the arrest of Christian Pastor Dominic D'Souza on the charges of religious conversions, last week had expressed the possibility of introducing a bill to prevent forceful religious conversions in the state. Dominic D'Souza and his wife Joan were booked under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act for allegedly using magic to convert people. Since the arrest of Dominic D'Souza, the Hindu outfits are up in arms to prevent religious conversions. New Delhi, June 2 : A 40-year-old employee of multilingual news service United News of India (UNI) was found dead at his residence in the Uttam Nagar area of the national capital, an official said on Thursday. According to the official, an information was received at the Bindapur police station on Wednesday afternoon regarding the man, identified as Umesh Dhar Dwivedi, committing suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house. The official told IANS that prima facie it looks like a case of suicide as a 'suicide note' has also been recovered from the spot. However, the official did not reveal the content of the final note. "The body has been sent for autopsy," he said. Dwivedi is survived by his wife and two children, a boy and a girl. Incidentally, this is the second case of suicide by a UNI employee in the last four months. On February 13, senior photojournalist and chief of UNI's Chennai bureau, T. Kumar (56), died by suicide. His body was found inside UNI's Chennai office. It was learnt that Kumar was in the process of arranging his daughter's marriage, but was facing financial problems owing to long-pending salaries. New Delhi, June 2 : The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday told the government that levy of service charge by a restaurant is a matter of individual policy and there is no illegality in levying it. In its meeting with the Department of Consumer Affairs, NRAI officials reiterated, as stated earlier in 2017, that levy of service charge is neither illegal, nor an unfair trade practice as alleged. This matter had also come up in 2016-17, and the NRAI had provided its response to the government. On Thursday, the body reiterated the points as were put up earlier in 2017. This issue had also been satisfactorily explained to the Competition Commission of India on a query raised by them in January 2015. The NRAI stated that the information regarding the amount of service charge is clearly mentioned/displayed by restaurants on their menu cards and otherwise also displayed on the premises, so that customers are well aware of this charge before availing the services. After a customer is made aware of such a charge in advance and then decides to place the order, it becomes an agreement between the parties, and is not an unfair trade practice, it said. Levy of service charge is beneficial for the workmen as a class who are employed in the establishments. Any move to the contrary would be detrimental to the interests of workers - and against the labour-friendly stance of the Government, the NRAI officials said. "We thank the Department of Consumer Affairs for calling this meeting today. On behalf of the entire restaurant industry, we have firmly reiterated all facts with proof to the Department that Levy of Service Charge is neither illegal, nor an unfair trade practice as alleged, and this debate in public domain is creating unnecessary confusion and disruption in smooth operations of restaurants," said NRAI President, in a statement. "The service charge is transparent, worker friendly and is also recognised by many judicial orders which have been shared with the Department. In addition, the government also earns revenue from the service charge as tax is paid by restaurants on the same," the statement added. Dakshina Kannada : , June 2 (IANS) Authorities in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka on Thursday suspended 6 students for wearing hijab in spite of a series of warnings. In another instance, 12 students were sent back for wearing hijab while attending classes. Six students of the Uppinangadi Government Pre University College have been suspended for repeatedly violating hijab guidelines. The principal of the college took the decision to suspend the students after holding a meeting with college lecturers. The 6 girl students were informed about the government order and the decision of the High Court prohibiting wearing of hijab in classrooms. Though the authorities of Mangaluru University College near Hampanakatte have been sending back students wearing hijab, 16 girl students who came wearing hijab on Thursday demanded that they should be allowed to attend classes. The college principal denied their entry into classrooms and sent them back. The decision was taken in the Syndicate meeting. The students had also gone to the District Commissioner's office and had complained for not being allowed to attend classes while wearing hijab. The DC had counselled them to follow the rules of the government and the court order. However, the students did not budge and came to the college on Thursday wearing hijab. Hijab row, started by 6 students of Udupi Pre-University Government Girl's College, became a raging controversy in the state making international headlines. The Special Bench of the High Court, which was constituted to hear the matter, ruled against wearing any religious symbols including hijab in classrooms. The court had also dismissed the petition filed by students seeking permission to wear hijab in schools. June 02 : The verdict in the most controversial and hyped celebrity case of actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. And Captain Jack Sparrow has won a high-profile defamation case, the jury in Fairfax, Virginia, began deliberating on this matter on last Friday. The jury has awarded Johnny Depp 15 million in damages. Amber Heard has also won part of her libel case against Johnny Depp over articles in a privately owned newspaper, in which Johnny Depp's former lawyer described her claims of domestic abuse as a hoax. The jury has awarded Amber Heard 2 million in damages. Amber Heard took to her social media profile after the verdict and expressed her displeasure over the final outcome, it read, "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously" "I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK. I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American -- to speak freely and openly," she said. After several years of dating, Depp and Heard married in a very private ceremony in their home in Los Angeles in 2015. On May 23, 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and obtained a temporary restraining order against the Oscar-nominated actor. She alleged that Depp had physically abused her during their relationship, and said it was usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. June 02 : The official handle of Bullet Train movie unveils a brand new poster and theatrical release date of action drama revolving around a bunch of assassins. The official handle of Bullet Train Movie captioned its post, Theres only one way off this train: through all of THEM. #BulletTrainMovie is exclusively in movie theaters August 5 Bullet Train is an upcoming neo-noir action comedy thriller film directed by David Leitch, from a screenplay by Zak Olkewicz. It is based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle (published in English as Bullet Train) by Kotaro Isaka. The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Karen Fukuhara, Masi Oka, and Sandra Bullock. The story revolves around trained killer Ladybug wants to give up the life but is pulled back in by his handler Maria Beetle in order to collect a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto. Once onboard, he and the other competing assassins onboard discover that their objectives are all connected. Sony Pictures will release the film on 5th August 2022. Pitt will next star alongside his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood co-star Margot Robbie in Babylon directed by Damien Chazelle and he will reteam with George Clooney in a thriller film written and directed by Jon Watts. Pitt has also signed a deal with Apple to create a racing film on the Formula One. Amaravati, June 2 : Andhra Pradesh's ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) will hold its plenary on July 8-9, the first since the party came to power in 2019. Being held after completion of three years, the plenary is likely to prepare the roadmap to bring the party back to power in the 2024 elections. Chief Minister and YSR Party President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to hold the conclave at a suitable place between Guntur and Vijayawada. The ruling party decided to hold the plenary on the occasion of birth anniversary of his father and former Chief Minister (of undivided Andhra Pradesh) Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (July 8). The decision came a week after main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) held its annual conclave 'Mahanadu' at Ongole on May 27-28. Every year, the TDP holds the conclave to mark the birth anniversary of its founder and former Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao (May 28). As the success of 'Mahanadu' has infused new enthusiasm among TDP cadres, YSRCP leaders reportedly felt the need to work out a strategy to stop Chandrababu Naidu-led party from bouncing back. At 'Mahanadu', Chandrababu Naidu launched an all-out attack against Jagan Mohan Reddy for his alleged misrule and urged party cadres to go to people with the slogan 'Quit Jagan, save Andhra Pradesh'. At the plenary, the top leadership of the YSRCP is likely to discuss and decide a strategy to counter "misinformation" being spread by the TDP and educate people on the development and welfare schemes undertaken by the government. There are also speculations that the YSRCP may go for early polls to deny opposition parties a chance to come together or revive their activities. The plenary is expected to give a roadmap to the party leaders on bringing the party back to power. Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to set direction for the party leaders to achieve the target. Party sources said he will ask the party leaders to go to people to counter the "false propaganda of the opposition" and explain to them how the YSRCP fulfilled 95 per cent of its poll promises. Leaders, who were dropped from Cabinet in April, may be given specific tasks to gear up the party for the polls. While revamping the state cabinet, Jagan Mohan Reddy had made it clear that those being dropped will be entrusted with the responsibilities in the party. He had also told them that if the party returns to power, they will again find a place in the Cabinet. The party units from village to district levels are likely to be reorganised. Since the number of districts has been doubled to 26, the ruling party will focus on newly carved out districts by constituting party committees at various levels. Party leaders said 50 per cent reservation will be given to women in these committees. Adequate representation will be given to SCs, STs, BCs and minorities. YSRCP General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member V. Vijayasai Reddy told the party leaders that the party plans to organise the plenary in a grand manner. He asked party MLAs, constituency incharges, district presidents and coordinators to ensure successful conduct of the plenary. The party will constitute different committees to conduct the event. Since the elections are scheduled to be held in two years, Jagan Reddy wants party leaders to be ready to face the polls and work unitedly. As differences in the party units became public in few districts, the plenary will exhort on the need for unity. The leaders will be asked to resolve the differences amicably and avoid groupism. Kiev, June 2 : The situation in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region "remains difficult because the Russian army is trying to break through our defence line from all directions", regional head Serhiy Haidai has said, media reports said. Haidai told a Ukraine TV channel on Thursday morning that the main goal of the Russians was the city of Severodonetsk, BBC reported. "But they had no success there overnight. They are controlling most of the city - but not the whole of the city," as they claimed earlier, added Haidai. "Fighting continues, and yesterday our boys carried out counter-attacks, pushing back the enemy on some streets and taking several prisoners," he said. Haidai also said that Russian troops - who are also trying to push on to Severodonetsk's twin city of Lysychansk - are suffering heavy losses to personnel and armoury, but are bringing reinforcements from other battlefields, BBC reported. He described the territory still under Ukrainian control - believed to be about 5 per cent of the Luhansk region - as a "fortress". Severodonetsk and Lysychansk - the twin cities on either side of the Siverskyi Donets river - are the easternmost cities still in Ukrainian hands. Lysychansk is on the right bank of the river, which served as a natural barrier so far, halting the Russian advance. Russia already controls most of Severodanetsk, where fierce street fighting has been raging for days. Ukrainian officials have not ruled out withdrawing from the city to the more-strategically positioned Lysychansk, BBC reported. If Russian forces seize the two cities, they would then control all of the eastern Luhansk region. After a series of military defeats in the first few weeks of the war around the Ukrainian capital Kiev and in the north-east, Russia declared it would focus on capturing Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk region - collectively known as Donbas. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text June 02 : Finally we have a verdict in the most controversial and hyped celebrity case of actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Captain Jack Sparrow has won a high-profile defamation case, the jury in Fairfax, Virginia, began deliberating on this matter on last Friday. Johnny Depp sued Heard for 50 million after she wrote an op-ed for 'The Washington Post' in 2018 in which she called herself a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Heard countersued Depp for USD 100 million in which said she claimed that she has endured domestic violence during their 15-month marriage. The jury has awarded Johnny Depp 15 million in damages. Amber Heard has also won part of her libel case against Johnny Depp over articles in a privately owned newspaper, in which Johnny Depp's former lawyer described her claims of domestic abuse as a hoax. The jury has awarded Amber Heard 2 million in damages. Actor Johnny Depp took to his social media profile and released a statement, it read, "Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye." "False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already travelled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled," Depp wrote. "My decision to pursue this case, knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable worldwide spectacle into my life was only made after considerable thought. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that," Depp said. Depp mentioned, "I am, and have been, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media. I wish to acknowledge the noble work of the Judge, the jurors, the court staff and the Sheriffs who have sacrificed their own time to get to this point, and to my diligent and unwavering legal team who did an extraordinary job in helping me to share the truth." Depp said that the best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. "Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes," he said. Bengaluru, June 2 : Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel, condemning the "violent" protests by the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) said his party workers are capable of giving a befitting response such incidents. The students wing of the Congress on Wednesday staged a protest in connection with the ongoing row the textbook revision issue outside Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh's residence in Tiptur town in the state's Tumkur district. The demonstration, however, turned violent after the protestors burnt Khaki shorts and also tried to barge into the Minister's home. Reacting to this, BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi said that to date, nothing has been taught to the children which they could feel proud of. "Our children are taught Akbar 'the great', are they taught about king Mayura Varma who protected the country, is he referred as 'the great'? Have they addressed King Immadi Pulakeshi as the the great...No," Ravi asserted. The ruling BJP is accusing the Congress of displaying "goondaism". On the other hand, Karnataka unit Congress president D.K. Shivakumar has written a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai urging him to immediately dissolve the Textbook Revision Committee and retain the previous syllabus. Lingayat and Vokkaliga seers have already warned the government on alleged revision of syllabus content related to social reformer Basavanna and renowned Kannada poet Kuvempu. Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar had asked the BJP government to consider the issue with seriousness. "If religious seers are writing to the government, the issue has to be considered. The alleged mistakes in textbooks must be rectified," he underlined. Chennai, June 2 : Ahead of its theatrical release on June 3, thespian Kamal Haasan's latest film offering 'Vikram' is literally touching new heights. On Wednesday, the iconic Burj Khalifa in Dubai provided the setting for the movie's trailer. The actor-producer was recently in Dubai for the final leg in promoting the film. The team was overjoyed to see glimpses of the film projected onto the world's tallest building. Fans of the veteran actor gathered in large numbers and cheered as the movie trailer was projected on to the Burj. When visuals from the movie flashed on the towering structure, the actor responded with a brief smile. Later, from the hotel balcony, he waved out to the fans on the street below as they chanted 'Vikram, Vikram!' Image Source: IANS News Helmed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, produced by Kamal Haasan and R. Mahendran, Raaj Kamal Films International, the power packed action thriller stars Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil. Image Source: IANS News Pen studios' Distribution division Pen Marudhar has acquired the hindi distribution rights of the film. -- Syndicated from IANS Mumbai, June 2 : Seven months after Mumbai was shaken by the brutal rape-cum-murder of a 32-year old woman at Sakinaka, a Mumbai Court on Thursday sentenced the sole accused to 'death', here on Thursday. Dindoshi Sessions Court Additional Sessions Judge H.C. Shende delivered the death verdict to Mohan Chauhan, 45, for the heinous offence that was compared with the Nirbhaya case of Delhi for its sheer brutality. Earlier on Monday, ASJ Shende had pronounced the 'guilty' verdict on Chauhan, hailing from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, and after hearing the arguments between the prosecution and defence on the quantum of sentence, sealed the death penalty. The rape-cum-murder took place late on September 10, 2021 at in the Khairani Road area of Sakinaka, deserted at that hour, rattling the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Chauhan had pounced on the victim, raped and brutalised inside an open tempo parked near the Rashid Compound off the Chandivali Studios. After the rape, he shoved an iron rod inside the woman's private parts, rupturing her intestine and other vitals before decamping from there. Bleeding profusely from her grievous injuries, the woman lay helpless even as a local watchman alerted the Mumbai Police Control Room alerting them of the crime. A police team was rushed to the spot within 10 minutes and rushed her to the BMC's Rajawadi Hospital where she succumbed after a 33-hour battle for life. Following the uproar, the Mumbai Police swung into action and managed to nab the accused Chauhan from his hideout the next day and booked him under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case was probed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Jyotsna Rasam as the head of a SIT, with Police Inspector Dattatray Dhume and Assistant Police Inspector Mahesh Sangle helping her. During the investigation, the police recorded statements of 77 witnesses, including some relatives and acquaintances of Chauhan, and filed a 345-page chargesheet on September 28, within 18 days of the incident. The trial saw Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare and Advocate Mahesh Mule directing the police charge and Chauhan was defended by lawyer Kalpana Waskar. As many as 37 witnesses were examined during the main trial and the prosecution also relied on CCTV footage which captured the crime. ASJ Shende found Chauhan guilty on all charges and terming the act as 'gruesome', pronounced the capital punishment today. Chauhan, who was present in the courtroom, interrupted the proceedings several times accusing the police of fabricating the case and framing him, for which the judge reprimanded him. His lawyer Waskar appealed for leniency arguing that the case could not be compared with the Nirbhaya case of Delhi which was a gang-rape, and pointed out that it did not fall in the category of the 'rarest of rare' to warrant the death sentence, pleading that he (Chauhan) should be given a change to reform. It maybe recalled that the incident had triggered a letter-war between Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the alleged failing 'law-and-order' situation in Maharashtra. Similarly, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the MVA government of Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress for failing to protect women in the state. Chennai, June 2 : Tamil Nadu's opposition AIADMK will conduct its General and Executive Council meetings on June 23, a party statement said. The meeting will be held at a private wedding hall at Vengaram near Chennai from 10 a.m. onwards on June 23, the statement from the party headquarters said. AIADMK's interim Chairman A. Tamilmagan Hussain will preside at the meetings which will discuss several political issues in the state, including the relationship with ally BJP. Sources in the AIADMK told IANS that the meets will chalk out strategies regarding fight against the DMK government and how to stage aggressive public protests against the "misdeeds" of the state government. Senior AIADMK leader and former minister, C. Ponnayian, in a recent meeting of party office-bearers, had said that the growth of the BJP in Tamil Nadu does not augur well for Dravidian policies and for the state of Tamil Nadu. Then, the BJP legislative party leader, Nainar Nagendran, in a statement, had invited AIADMK's former interim General Secretary, V.K. Sasikala into the BJP fold. The K. Palaniswami faction of the AIADMK is antagonistic to the reentry of Sasikala into the party fold and the party leadership is sore that the BJP had extended an invitation to Sasikala while continuing its alliance with the AIADMK. The June 23 meeting of the AIADMK will be the first of its kind after the DMK assumed power in the state in May 2021 and assumes significance on the next move of the major opposition party in Tamil Nadu. Chennai, June 2 : The Tamil Nadu health department is on high alert over the increase in number of Covid-19 cases in the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Kelambakkam campus in the state. The campus has around 15,000 students of which 5,600 are first-year students. The health department has conducted 4,092 RT-PCR tests, of which 163 students tested positive. There is a possibility of increase in number of cases as 1500 students will be tested on Thursday and Friday. State Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS, "The students, who tested positive in the first two days, have tested negative for the infection, and this a welcome indicator. I have met the students most of whom are from North Indian states and have asked them not to worry and to reassure their parents. The students are expected to recover within 10 days and we have advised the institute not to declare a holiday." He said that 99 per cent of the cases were infected with Omicron sub-variants, mostly BA.2. A student infected with BA.4 variant and another diagnosed with BA.3 variant have recovered. The minister also said that people must be careful even while leading their normal life and adhere to Covid -19 protocols including wearing masks, maintaining safe distance and sanitising hands. Tamil Nadu health secretary J. Radhakrishnan has already sent a circular to all the district collectors of the state to be on alert against the increasing cases in various districts. The district collectors are directed to strictly ensure that people are adhering to Covid-19 protocols. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, June 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday wished Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi a speedy recovery from Covid-19. "Wishing Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji a speedy recovery from COVID-19," he said in a tweet. Earlier, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that Gandhi has tested positive. "Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi has been meeting leaders & activists over last week, some of whom have been found Covid positive. Congress President had developed mild fever & Covid symptoms last evening. On testing, she has been found to be Covid positive," he said in a tweet. Surjewala, in a subsequent tweet, said that she has isolated herself as per medical advice. "As a large number of Congressmen & women & well wishers have expressed concern, we want to say that she is fine and recovering. We thank everyone for their good wishes," he said. The report of Gandhi testing positive for Covid infection has come a day after the Enforcement Directorate summoned her and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. She is scheduled to appear before the agency on June 8. Mumbai, June 2 : Nushrratt Bharuccha and Anud Dhaka - the lead actors of the upcoming feature film 'Janhit Mein Jaari' explains how the film is changing the perspective of the whole conversation that addresses the issue of illegal abortion, the taboo attached to condom and increasing population. The story of the film revolves around the character Neeti played by Nushrratt who is a sales girl and works in a condom manufacturing company. How being a girl, selling condoms in a society where even the word 'condom' is a taboo, makes her struggle worse and despite everything she wins the heart of many, which sets the journey of the story. In conversation with IANS, Nushrratt and Anud opened up. Nushrratt told IANS: "It is interesting that whenever we watch a condom ad film, it shows how pleasurable the act could be if a condom is used. So, we are always trying to highlight the male's perspective there. Our film is changing that thought because using condoms during sex is more important for a woman, than a man." She went on explaining, "If a man does not use a condom for once, it does not make any difference to them, but if the girl gets pregnant because of that, their body goes through a huge hormonal change. Of course, abortion is an option but is it always healthy? And what about the mental health issue that a woman goes through because of abortion? So, if a guy does not want to buy a condom, like the way we girls carry sanitary pads, we should carry condoms too, because it is about our safety!" Interestingly, Anud, who is playing the love interest of Neeti, takes the conversation further and explained how the story will also redefine the image of a macho man. He said, "The problem with our society is hypocrisy and how the toxic masculinity is playing a part in that. Our population is proof that we are having unprotected sex. Since buying a condom, in a small town is still an uncomfortable affair in daily life, unplanned pregnancy happens. Also, male ego comes in between... due to all these, ultimately, the woman suffers the most." "Since men are not sensitised from their adulthood about women's emotions and physical complications, they do not even care for everything. A real man is well-versed with the emotional and physical complexity of a woman. Being emotionally sensible makes a man strong," added the actor. Image Source: IANS News However, both the actors also mentioned that the best part of the film is how a complex, sensitive issue is told in the film with a dash of humour. Anud mentioned, "You see, not using condoms and illegal abortion are co-related. But the way the script has been written, the heavy social message wouldn't feel preachy, it's rather engaging!" The story of the film is written by Raaj Shaandilyaa, directed by Jai Basantu Singh, the film also features - Tinnu Anand, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala among others. 'Janhit Mein Jaari' is releasing theatrically on June 10. -- Syndicated from IANS Los Angeles, June 2 : Actor Elliot Page has opened up about how being "closeted" in Hollywood almost killed him and how he was forced to wear a dress at the premiere of 'Juno'. Page told Esquire: "I was closeted, dressed in heels and the whole look - I wasn't okay, and I didn't know how to talk about that with anyone. When 'Juno' was blowing up - this sounds strange to people, and I get that people don't understand. Oh, f*** you, you're famous, and you have money, and you had to wear a dress, boo-hoo. I don't not understand that reaction. "But that's mixed with: I wish people would understand that that s*** literally did almost kill me."Next year, Page is set to release the memoir, 'Pageboy', which will "delve into" his feelings about "body, experiences as one of the most famous trans people in the world," along with other themes, such as mental health, dating and the toxic culture of the film industry, reports femalefirst.co.uk. Publisher Flatiron said: "The memoir will delve into Page's relationship with his body, his experiences as one of the most famous trans people in the world, and will cover mental health, assault, love, relationships, sex, and the cesspool that Hollywood can be." The news was also shared on both the publisher's and Elliot's Instagram Stories. New Delhi, June 2 : A man was held at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 34,500 US dollars, by hiding it in the false bottom of his sweet boxes which he was carrying. A senior CISF official said that on the basis of behavioural detection, CISF surveillance and intelligence staff noticed suspicious activities of a passenger at Check-In area near J row, Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 1. The passenger was later identified as Ravi Kumar, an Indian national, who was supposed to travel to Dubai by Air India Express flight. "On suspicion, he was diverted to random checking point for thorough checking of his luggage. On checking of his hand bag through X-BIS machine, some foreign currency concealed in the false bottom of some gift packed boxes of sweet, spice was noticed," the CISF official said. Kumar was allowed to complete the check-in formalities and was kept under close watch through physical and electronic measures. The matter was also informed to senior officers of CISF and customs officials. "When Kumar cleared the check-in and immigration formalities, he was intercepted by CISF surveillance and intelligence staff. Kumar along with his hand bag was brought to the Departure Customs office, where on physical checking, 15 gift packed boxes of sweets, spices were noticed inside his baggage. On close scrutiny of the boxes it was noticed that false bottom was created in the boxes and US Dollars were concealed to avoid detection. In total, 30,000 US Dollars were detected from the false bottom of the sweet boxes," the official said. Later when his wallet was checked, 4,500 more US Dollars were found. On enquiry, Kumar could not produce valid documents to carry such amount of foreign currency. "Kumar along with the detected 34,500 US Dollars worth Rs 27 lakh was handed over to customs officials for further action in the matter," said the official. Guwahati, June 2 : Aggrieved with the status of his job not getting regularised, a state government employee in Assam's Nagaon district has prayed before the President, Governor of Assam, and Chief Justices of Supreme Court and Gauhati High Court to allow him to go for euthanasia. Euthanasia is the termination of life by a physician at the patient's request. The aim is to end unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. Dulal Bora, 59, who works as a casual employee in the PWD in the Nagaon district, claimed that his job has not been regularised even after several assurances from the higher authorities. Bora will turn 60 next year after which he cannot be offered a regular position in the government office. Upset with the status of his job, Bora has sought permission for euthanasia. Under strict guidelines, passive euthanasia is legal in the country since 2018. The patients must give consent through a living will, and must be either terminally ill or in a vegetative state for seeking permission for passive euthanasia. Kolkata, June 2 : The Calcutta High Court on Thursday gave relief to Trinamool Congress' national General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee and also a jolt to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), pertaining to the latter's probe on coal smuggling case in West Bengal. A single-judge bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri overruled the objections raised by the ED to Banerjee's trip to Dubai for undergoing ophthalmological treatment. It approved Banerjee's trip to Dubai for treatment from June 2 to June 10 and also allowed his wife Rujira Narula to accompany him. However, the court has directed Banerjee to provide his air travel details, address and contact numbers of the hotel that he will be staying at Dubai, details of the hospital where he will undergo the treatment, and the other treatment related documents to the ED. Appearing for the agency, Additional Solicitor General, M.V. Raju said that Banerjee, while appealing to the central agency for permission to travel abroad, did not furnish his treatment details, and the entire story of medical treatment in Dubai appears to be fake. He also said out that the prime accused in the coal smuggling case and Trinamool Congress leader, Binay Mishra is currently absconding and allegedly hiding in Dubai. Raju also argued that Banerjee went to Dubai on February 25, and got his next appointment for ophthalmological check-up on May 26. "But he skipped that appointment. Now again he has got an appointment on June 3. From this, it seems that the story on treatment is not any serious affair. There is a probability that his Dubai visit is meant to meet Binay Mishra," he claimed. Justice Chaudhuri then counter-questioned that if the ED is aware that Mishra is in Dubai, then why the agency officials not taken any step to bring Mishra back from there? Banerjee's counsel, Saptarshi Basu gave counter-arguments that his client had not concealed anything from the ED and submitted all supporting documents. Finally, the court approved his overseas trip for treatment. Justice Chowdhury observed that Abhishek Banerjee is not the prime accused in coal and cattle smuggling cases. "He has appeared at the ED office more than once already. So, his foreign trip will not affect the progress of the probe," the judge observed and also pointed out that anyone has the right to choose where he would undergo his or her own treatment. Amaravati, June 2 : Telugu Desam Party (TDP) politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Thursday termed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy describing bribe taking as a crime as a joke of the century. The TDP leader was reacting to Jagan Mohan Reddy's remarks made after launching a mobile app for people to lodge complaint against officials demanding bribe. The TDP leader expressed surprise that having looted all systems and sectors in the state, CM Jagan was now talking about rooting out corruption. Jagan Reddy plundered public property during his father YSR's rule and started looting several times more after becoming CM himself. The former minister asserted that Jagan has no moral right or standing to speak about corruption as he himself is accused number one in over 14 quid pro quo chargesheets. When official corruption should be considered a crime, then what about Jagan looting through quid pro quo deals? he asked. Ramakrishnudu said that the so-called social justice that Jagan Reddy was boasting about was just lip service which had zero implementation in practice. The TDP leader said Jagan Reddy has not done justice to any social group or community in the past three years. Jagan had crushed poorer sections so much that AP stood in 20th place in the whole country in the multidimensional poverty index (MDPI) taken by the Oxford University. AP has climbed from 34 to 43rd place in economic imbalances, he said. Ramakrishnudu dared the chief minister to explain why AP fell to 19th place in the country in direct benefit transfer (DBT). Amma Vodi was not being given to eligible families. As a result, their students were not getting admissions in colleges. He allege that Jagan has failed totally to provide educational opportunities to the weaker sections. The TDP leader deplored that the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 report by the Union education department has exposed how badly the AP education system has been harmed. The NAS report revealed AP's failure to reach digital classes to 50 per cent children during the Coronavirus pandemic. Ninety per cent of children in Government schools belonged to the weaker sections and backward classes. Ramakrishnudu said the future of children belonging to Dalits, Tribals and BCs was getting destroyed because of the anarchic policies. The earning and spending capacity of all sections of people in AP had fallen drastically in just three years. The TDP leader asserted that while the per capita income stood in two digits in the TDP regime, it has come down to an alarming single digit of 1.03 per cent in the past three years. The GSDP growth rate, which was two digits in the Chandrababu rule, has slipped to negative growth of -2.58 per cent. Chandigarh, June 2 : The two-day state-level workshop of the Congress unit in Chandigarh culminated here on Thursday with the concluding address by Harish Chaudhary, AICC General Secretary, with an assurance to implement the recommendations of the party activists, comprising at least 50 per cent office-bearers below 50 years of age. Over 250 delegates of the party attended the workshop where they have detailed discussions to find out the solutions to the problems that are plaguing the party. Among others, Partap Singh Bajwa, Head Congress Legislative Party, Punjba, Pawan Bansal, AICC treasurer, and Raja Warring, President of Punjab Congress, took part and shared their inputs on strengthening the party. During the workshop, the overwhelming opinion of the workers was to elect Congress committees at all levels with at least 50 per cent office-bearers below 50 years of age. The election management strategy of the party is all set to change. Emphasis shall be laid on people-to-people contact and door-to-door campaigns, which will be a regular feature through booth-level, mandal-level and block-level committees. A disciplinary committee to enquire into the episodes of anti-party activities and recommend suitable action shall also be formed soon. Bajwa said the party needed to decide about the candidates a few weeks in advance before the elections. He castigated the BJP for unleashing its religious agenda, which is detrimental to the interest of the country. Warring felt that adequate respect must be given to the workers, who are the backbone of the party. "If the workers are happy and work whole-heartedly, no one, including the BJP, can defeat the Congress party." He urged the party activists to work among the people day and night, so that they begin to feel again that it is only the Congress party, which can address the problems of the people. Bansal said it was a matter of satisfaction that unlike other political parties, the Congress workers can discuss difficult questions facing it openly. He stressed the need to have training programs for the workers and the leaders of the party to apprise them of the rich legacy of the party. New Delhi, June 2 : Santoor player, Pt. Bhajan Sopori (73) passed on Thursday in Gurugram after a prolonged illness. He was diagnosed with Colon Cancer last June. Recipient of the Padma Shri, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Jammu and Kashmir State Lifetime Achievement Award, Sopori who hailed from Sopore in Kashmir belonged to the Sufiana gharana. His family had played the santoor for over six generations and the late master gave his first public performance at the age of 10. Learning Western classical music at Washington State University, where he also taught music for several years, the late musician had a double master's degree in Indian classical music specialising both in sitar and santoor. Contributing immensely to improvising the santoor by adding more bridges and strings to the instrument, he also modified the tonal quality of the instrument. An outspoken critic of favouritism and biases in the classical music scene, the artist, who formed the music academy 'SaMaPa- Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts' in 2004 takes the guru-shishya tradition forward. The academy, besides teaching students also brought music to jail inmates as therapy. In times of networking and social media outreach by many artists, the musician always never joined the bandwagon and always stressed on creative excellence and opportunities for the truly deserving, a major reason why he set up the music academy. With thousands of compositions from major Persian and Urdu ghazal writers including Ghalib, Jammi, Momin, Iqbal, Faiz and Hali, Sopori, he was instrumental in establishing a cultural link between Kashmir and the rest of the country. When transferred to Delhi by All India Radio, no music was being produced in the valley. When he went back to Kashmir, he noted that even accompanists were unwilling to play due to threats from Islamic militants. However, he managed to convince them to come back to their art forms and ascertained that musicians in the valley could practice their art and earn a living. His son, Abhay Rustum Sopori, himself an accomplished santoor player and recipient of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi's Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar and J&K State Award has performed across the world. Having also learned Western Classical, he is the youngest visiting faculty at the University of Massachusetts and has been the only contemporary Indian composer, whose Haftrang, as a tribute to Kashmir, has been conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta. On his father's demise, Abhay said, "He was 73, and would have celebrated his 74th birthday on June 22. We lost a really great musician, a great human being and a great father. It's really hard for me to believe this and imagine my life without him." Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir tweeted, "Very sorry to hear about the tragic demise of Padma Shri Pandit Bhajan Sopori sahib. A great son of the soil, he was a colossus in the world of classical Indian music who made the santoor his own. May his soul rest in peace. My condolences to Abhay Sopori and the rest of his family." Jaipur, June 2 : Rajasthan police have arrested three persons for an attack on two shopkeepers in Baran district on Wednesday night, while five other accused are still absconding. Armed youth attacked two shopkeepers and injured them late on Wednesday night. The attackers were reportedly from another community, who had entered Harish Sharma's shop carrying weapons. The miscreants attacked Harish and his brother Vinod with swords and sticks. The injured were rushed to the district hospital. In protest against the attack, Hindu organisations and the BJP called a bandh in Baran on Thursday. However, some miscreants who opposed the bandh went to the market, leading to a tension after which heavy police force was deployed in Baran. The police tried to disperse the people, but they did not stop and started removing the barricades, forcing the police to resort to lathi charge. The Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) and additional police forces have been called from Kota and Jhalawar to maintain peace and order in the city. Many SHOs are patrolling the key intersections of Baran. On Wednesday night, a large number of people had gathered and expressed their displeasure over the increasing criminal incidents across the district, including in the city. Traders had called for 'Baran bandh' on Thursday to protest against these incidents. After this, shops were closed in many towns of the district, including Baran city, since Thursday morning. Emergency services such as petrol pumps, medical shops were also kept closed during the bandh. On Wednesday, massive protests had broken out in Chittorgarh after a youth named Ratan Soni was brutally murdered by some miscreants on Tuesday night. The deceased was the son of former BJP councilor Jagdish Soni and was associated with the Bajrang Dal and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Panaji, June 2 : Congress leaders in Goa on Thursday condemned BJP government at the Centre for serving notice by the Enforcement Directorate (in the National Herald case) to Sonia Gandhi. "Goa Pradesh Congress Committee has resolved to condemn the politically motivated action of the Modi government to send Enforcement Directorate's notice to Sonia Gandhi. It has used government machinery for political vendetta. This has been done to divert the issues grappling with the nation," Shrinivas Khalap, GPCC secretary said addressing a press conference after concluding of 'Nava Sankalp Shivir'. Khalap said that they have set a target of winning 27 seats in the 2027 assembly election and winning both seats of Losabha in 2024. The Congress, in the February 2022 assembly election, had won mere 11 seats, while its ally partner Goa Forward Party had won a single seat. New Delhi, June 2 : The CBI has shown former Mumbai cop Sachin Waze as an approver in its over 49-page charge-sheet filed in connection with the Rs 100 crore extortion case involving former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, his two personal secretaries Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde, and others. Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh has also been accused in the matter. The CBI sources said that Waze's statement will play a crucial role to prove the case of the prosecution as he has turned approver. "Deshmukh and Waze used to talk over phone frequently. Between December 2020 and February 2021, Waze allegedly colleted around Rs 4.70 crore from the owners of Orchestra bar situated across Mumbai. "Deshmukh's PA Shinde allegedly collected the said amount from Waze, while Palande allegedly passed instructions on behalf of Deshmukh," a CBI source said quoting the charge-sheet. The CBI had in March got the permission from a special Mumbai court to record the statement of Deshmukh. The CBI sleuths subsequently visited the Arthur Road Jail and recorded Deshmukh's statement on March 3, 4 and 5. The CBI also recorded the statements of seven other persons in connection with the case, who were reportedly deployed in the security of Deshmukh. Singh had accused Deshmukh of forcing him to collect Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. He levelled these allegations after he was removed from the police commissioner's post. Deshmukh had denied all allegations levelled against him. On April 21, 2021, the CBI had filed an FIR against Deshmukh and had initiated a probe. Sources said that Deshmukh's financial transactions of the last three years are under scanner. On November 1, 2021, Deshmukh was placed under arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a Rs 100 crore money laundering case pertaining to alleged posting and transfer of officials. (Atul Krishan can be approached at atul.k@ians.in) New Delhi, June 2 : The final report of Integrated Landscape Management Plan for Greater Panna Landscape in connection with the Ken-Betwa River Link Project was released on Thursday. "The Integrated Landscape Management Plan provides for better habitat protection, and management of flagship species such as tigers, vultures, and gharial. It will help to holistically consolidate the landscape for biodiversity conservation and human well-being, especially forest dependent communities. "It is expected to enhance tiger carrying capacity in the landscape by strengthening connectivity with the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and the Durgavati Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh," said an official from the Jal Shakti Ministry. The Ken-Betwa Link Project was approved by the Centre in December 2021 for implementation following the signing of an agreement on March 22, 2021 between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is the first major centrally driven river interlinking project in the country to implement what the government terms as "the vision of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to carry water from areas that have surpluses to drought prone and water deficit areas, through the interlinking of rivers". Prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Integrated Landscape Management Plan was released by Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change too were present on the occasion. The project team led by K. Ramesh, scientist at the WII, carried out extensive field work by using advanced scientific tools and techniques, analysed the data and came up with detailed site-specific inputs for the implementation of the proposed activities. Earlier the Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Project (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had required the landscape management plan and said that the environmental clearance (EC) cannot be given till it is ready and scrutinised by the EAC. That team had refused five times to entertain it without the plan, said Himanshu Thakkar from the South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP). "However, the EAC was reconstituted in December 2016 and the new team cleared the proposal in the very first meeting without resolving the issues raised by the earlier EAC team. The new plan should now undergo scrutiny by independent experts," Thakkar said. The report of the CEC - Central Empowered Committee - is before the Supreme Court. The fundamental issues raised against the project by the CEC still stand irrespective of Thursday's WII report. Also, the project does not have the final forest clearance, which has a whole lot of outstanding issues. New Delhi, June 2 : , After claiming that the monkeypox infections, now spread to about 30 countries with more than 550 confirmed cases, can be contained, the World Health Organisation has admitted that it is not sure whether the virus can be kept in check. WHO officials, had earlier, stated that the monkeypox outbreak "is a containable situation", and "collectively, the world has an opportunity to stop this outbreak. There is a window". However, now, Dr Hans Kluge, head of the WHO's Europe office, said "we do not yet know if we will be able to contain its spread completely". He said that although the monkeypox response should not mimic the scale of Covid-style restrictions, health authorities do need to take "significant and urgent" action to mitigate the threat. According to Kluge, Europe remains at the epicentre of the largest and most geographically widespread monkeypox outbreak ever reported outside of endemic areas in western and central Africa. The learning curve has been steep over the past two weeks. "We now have a critical opportunity to act quickly, together, to rapidly investigate and control this fast-evolving situation," he said. Based on the case reports to date, the current outbreak is being transmitted through social networks connected largely through sexual activity, primarily involving men who have sex with men. Many -- but not all cases -- also report fleeting and/or multiple sexual partners, sometimes associated with large events or parties. However, it isn't clear yet as to "whether the monkeypox virus can also spread from one person to another through semen or vaginal fluids". There is also no clarity on "whether the virus could persist in these bodily fluids for longer periods of time", Kluge said. While the first case was reported from the UK on May 7, he noted it may have been circulating since mid-April. "Even as new patients present every day, investigations into past cases show that the outbreak in our region was certainly underway as early as mid-April," Kluge said. This was also reiterated by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who said the monkeypox virus may be spreading "undetected". "The sudden appearance of monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests there may have been undetected transmission for some time," Ghebreyesus said. The virus may have been transmitted for months or years undetected though investigations are ongoing and there are clear no answers yet, he added. In Europe, the transmission has been linked to recent raves, parties, and adult saunas. "The potential for further transmission in Europe and elsewhere over the summer is high," Kluge warned. "Over the coming months, many of the dozens of festivals and large parties planned provide further contexts where amplification may occur." He emphasised the need to actively engage community groups and leaders and civil society organisations to increase awareness on how people can reduce their risk of exposure, and also urged people to reduce the number of sexual partners they have. However, Kluge warned against stigmatising the LGBTQ+ community. Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak Agartala, June 2 : The CPI-M on Thursday claimed that political violence sponsored by the ruling BJP in Tripura has crossed all limits and even the ailing and injured people are not being spared. The opposition party said that ruling party members and goons also attacked patients in the hospital and doctors' chambers. The CPI-M leaders alleged that after the announcement of the June 23 bypolls to the four assembly seats in Tripura, political violence has increased in different parts of the state. CPI-M Tripura state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury said that fearing defeat in the by-elections, the BJP workers led by their leaders have been attacking the CPI-M leaders and workers in more than 12 places in Dhalai, West Tripura and South Tripura districts during the past one week. "At Rajnagar (in south Tripura) and Mohanpur (in west Tripura), the BJP workers led by their leaders attacked the ailing and injured people in the hospital and doctors' chambers. In most cases police remained as wooden dolls," Chowdhury, former Forest and Tribal Welfare Minister, told the media. The CPI-M state Secretary, party leaders Sudhan Das and Ratan Das, said that in the series of attacks during the past week more than 20 people were injured, some of them seriously and many properties including rubber sheets were looted by the BJP activists. "In Mohanpur, the BJP workers armed with sophisticated weapons attacked the houses belonging to CPI-M workers and members and carried out violence for more than five hours on May 31. The security personnel remained inactive even after being informed," the Left leader said. Chowdhury, who also submitted detailed written complaint elaborating all the violent incidents to the Chief Electoral Officer and the Director General of Police, said that a total anarchy is prevailing in the state. "In some cases, women and girls came forward to prevent the BJP goons from attacking their male family members," the CPI-M leader said. Ghaziabad, June 2 : Ghaziabad Police has arrested 8 people during a night raid at an illegally run Hookah Bar, here, an official said on Thursday. The accused were identified as Ashu, Deepak, Sourav, Arham Khan, Rajkumar, Zuber Khan, Sami Khan and Sakeeb Khan while the owners of the said Hookah bar Rajat Chauhan and Sahil Rajput are absconding. According to the official, the raid was conducted during the intervening night of June 1-2. "The said Hookah Bar was found being operated at Siddharth Complex in Indirapuram," the official said. He said that the police have also found Hookahs and other material in large numbers. "Around 23 Hookahs, three packets of coconut coal, three chilams and several packets of different kinds of flavours used in the Hookah were seized," the official added. Gurugram, June 2 : A crime unit of the Gurugram police has arrested two untertrial prisoners who escaped from the police custody on May 31. The two are accused of rape and robbery cases. Meanwhile, six persons, including three cops and a guest house operator, were also nabbed for allegedly helping the undertrial jail inmates in fleeing. During police questioning the accused Abhijeet alias Ajay, and Rakesh revealed that while returning from the LNJP Hospital in Delhi, they lured the policemen, deployed as escort guards, of arranging food and drink for them in a hotel in Sector-38. They then took a halt in a hotel in Sector-38 instead of going straight to jail. "According to the plan, they called their associates Arvind aka Anoop and Ajay Jakhar with a scooty. Both of them then fled from the hotel on a scooty. They were arrested by a team of crime unit Palam Vihar led by Inspector Joginder Singh from a village in district Mathura, Uttar Pradesh on June 2," Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP (crime) said. The vehicle used in the crime has also been recovered. Both were produced before the local Court and sent to jail under judicial custody. Washington, June 2 : The United States needs help. It is the only country in the world that witnesses school shootings and mass shootings with such regular frequency. And it has failed to stop them. External intervention can come from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the close Five Eyes allies that have successfully confronted gun violence at home. Australia put a lid on it with a ban on firearms after a 1996 massacre; Canada dealt with it in two separate instances in 1989 and 2020; the UK made it impossible for civilians to own handguns after a 1996 massacre; and New Zealand banned assault weapons after a 2019 carnage. Other allies and partner countries can help as well, as can the United Nations. The US needs some tough love. The US has not only failed to stop these shootings, it has become numb to them. The aftermath of each such tragedy is a string of predictable steps - an outpouring of outrage, grieving relatives and survivors, press conferences by law enforcement officials, heart-wrenching stories about victims, studied silence about the shooters, presidential visits in some cases and the usual airing of urgently needed steps and measures. It was not moved enough even by the massacre of 21 first-graders at Newtown, Connecticut, in 2013 or the killing of 14 high-schoolers in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. And now 19 children have lost their lives in Uvalde. President Joe Biden said he is "sick and tired" of these shootings. His anguish and frustration has been echoed since by scores of US lawmakers, law enforcement experts, news personalities. There have been 27 school shootings this year alone, and 214 mass shootings. Mass shootings have become so tragically commonplace that there is even a checklist of guidelines for city officials for what to do in the first 24 hours. The US failure to stop these shootings is rooted in its politics more than anything else. Any gun law reform move, however small or big, is seen and portrayed by conservatives - backed and funded by the powerful gun lobby - as an attempt to curb Americans' constitutionally mandated right to bear arms. A bipartisan group of US senators is exploring gun law reforms legislation post-Uvalde that might expand background checks and a law that can temporarily prevent some people from possessing guns because they may be a threat to themselves and others. This is a low bar. What is needed is a ban on military style semi automatic assault weapons that are used in most mass shootings. Will they go there? Unlikely. These weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004 and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives has blamed the lapsing of the ban for a spike in shootings in a recent report. The culpability of assault weapons in these mass shootings has been acknowledged by both parties and the Republican governor of Florida raised the age for possessing one of these deadly weapon from 18 to 21 after the Parkland shooting. But a ban? External intervention may perhaps help. The Five Eyes allies have been there and can include it in their bilateral and multilateral interactions, as can other allies and partner countries. This is not interference in internal matters of the US. Failure to guarantee the right to life for its people is a violation of the UN Charter, which has been used by Washington to criticise, condemn and even sanction bad actors and practices in other countries. "Now, Beijing insists that these are somehow internal matters that others have no right to raise," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week while laying out the Biden administration's China policy. He was referring to Beijing's repressive measures and policies in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang. He added, "That is wrong. Its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, along with many other actions, go against the core tenets of the UN Charter that Beijing constantly cites and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all countries are meant to adhere to." The US inability to protect its people from gun violence is just as egregious a failing as China's repression of its people in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. It may be the time for the international community to take note and move to address it collectively. Call it tough love, but that's what the United States probably needs. And sanctioning manufacturers of these assault weapons - Smith & Wesson is one of them - may be used as a stick to move things along just a bit. Paris, June 2 : French diplomats went on strike on Thursday to protest against the planned reforms of the country's foreign service, a local media outlet reported. Announced by President Emmanuel Macron in an April decree, the reforms would affect at least 700 senior career diplomats, who would be merged into a "state administrative corps", in which they would no longer be attached to a specific administration. Instead, they would be asked to change administrations regularly throughout their career, Xinhua news agency reported, citing BFMTV news channel. The reforms would also affect two historic bodies of France's diplomacy, ambassadors and foreign affairs advisors, whose portfolios would be either merged or gradually phased out. Protests were planned to be held in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs buildings in Paris and Nantes, where the diplomatic archives are located. Many of those affected consider reforms "an end to professional diplomacy" in France, the media outlet reported. New Delhi, June 2 : Union Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday once again hit back at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the arrest of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, and asked him not to disrespect investigating agencies and the High Court. On Wednesday, Irani slammed Kejriwal and raised several questions related to the money laundering case in which Jain was arrested. She asked Kejriwal not to disrespect investigating agencies and the High Court and answer whether he considered his minister Jain is honest who used black money and grabbed 200 bighas of land. "The people of the country await your clear reply. I urge you to tell the country -- why have you maintained silence over the High Court order in this case. You had told the country that you saw all papers, then why have you not commented on Delhi High Court order," Irani asked. She claimed that the Delhi High Court in its order said that black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through help from Hawala operators were transferred by Satyendar Jain showing his partnership in four shell companies. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said that the sources had informed him of Health Minister Satyendar Jain's arrest a few months ago, have told him that the Central government will also arrest Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the coming days. "I had already announced a few months ago that the Central government is going to arrest Satyendar Jain in a fake case. Reliable sources have suggested to me that Manish Sisodia is going to be arrested soon," Kejriwal said at a press conference. "Conspiracy theorist strikes back! By not answering a single pointed question, Kejriwal has in a way admitted to the Hawala nexus of his Minister. It would be easier to come out 'clean' for once instead of peddling fake sob stories which do not have any takers anymore," Irani has tweeted. The Union Minister said that Delhi Chief Minister did not reply to her questions about 200 bigha land bought in the vicinity of unauthorised colonies out of this laundered and unaccounted income in the name of shell companies. "The country eagerly awaits your answers. Do not disrespect the country's investigative agencies and Delhi High Court," she said. Bhopal, June 2 : BJP workers indulged in scuffle during party's national president J.P. Nadda's visit to Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma had to intervene to bring the situation under control and to clear the way for Nadda amid a large gathering of the party workers. Nadda, who was on a visit to Jabalpur on Wednesday, was given a grand welcome and a roadshow was organised by the state unit of the party. After the roadshow, Nadda along with Chouhan and other senior party leaders headed towards the party office in Jabalpur. In the meantime, BJP workers in an attempt to come closer to Nadda started pushing each other, which resulted in a scuffle. This prompted Chief Minister Chouhan to act and ask the party workers to behave. Party workers heeded the Chief Minister's instruction and cleared the way for Nadda towards the party office. A video of the incident went viral on social media on Thursday. On Thursday morning, Nadda reached a Dalit's house for breakfast in Jabalpur. He was accompanied by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP president V.D. Sharma and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and some other party leaders. He also held meetings with booth level workers and encouraged them to speed up their efforts for local body polls and also for the assembly elections due next year. "I wanted to meet you earlier but it could not happen due to the Covid pandemic. The way you have welcomed me, I am impressed. Election time has come and I would urge all of you to reach out to the people to seek their support," Nadda said addressing the party workers in Jabalpur. Nadda is on a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh from June 1 to 3. His tour started on Wednesday morning after he reached Bhopal, where he participated in several programmes and chaired meetings with state party leaders at the BJP headquarters. Multan, June 2 : The alleged gang-rape of a woman on a moving train has sparked anger in Pakistan. Three men -- one of them a ticket checker -- have been accused of raping the woman, a 25-year-old mother of two, as she traveled from the city of Karachi to Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province last week, according to Pakistan's Railway Ministry. It added the attack took place after the men asked her to move to a carriage with air conditioning, CNN reported. The three men have been arrested on suspicion of rape, according to a police report. Salman Sufi, the head of the Prime Minister's Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit, told CNN on Thursday that the government had ordered railway operators to improve the safety of women on trains, with measures including CCTV cameras in common areas, emergency buttons in cabins, and patrols by women police officers. The incident has sparked anger in the democracy of 220 million, which has a poor track record in protecting women's rights and where brutal acts of gender-based violence and sexual assault frequently make the headlines. Fouzia Saeed, a women's rights activist in Pakistan, called on the police to "make the environment safer" for women, while Pakistan's Dawn newspaper on Wednesday expressed outrage at what it called "a ghastly crime." "Another horrific incident of sexual violence has come to light, underscoring how a cavalier approach to security arrangements can embolden criminally inclined men to indulge their worst instincts," Dawn said in an editorial. According to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, more than 5,200 women reported being raped in the country in 2021, but experts believe the actual number to be much higher as many victims are too afraid to come forward due to social stigma and victim blaming in the patriarchal society, CNN reported. New Delhi, June 2 : India is the focus market for the Korean economy and we will work together to achieve higher trade relations between both countries, said Chang Jae-bok, Korean Ambassador to India. In a conversation with IANS, he said that both nations have set a target of $50 billion bilateral trade by 2030 and are working towards the same. India is the focus market for the Korean economy and we will work together to achieve higher trade relations between both the countries. On being asked about how Korea sees the Make in India initiative, the Ambassador said that 'Make in India' is an outstanding initiative by the government of India. "Leading players like Samsung are making a lot of investments in India, 66 new Korean companies entered into India in the pandemic year 2020. We are seeing a lot of new prospective Korean companies interested to enter India", he told IANS. "According to data from Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), bilateral trade between India and Korea has reached $23.7 billion in 2021, surpassing $21.5 billion in 2018. This was the highest-ever trade volume between the two countries, representing a 40 per cent increase over the previous year's total of $16.9 billion (2020). Also, 66 new Korean companies entered into India in the pandemic year 2020, and Korean investment totaled around $396 million during this economic downturn period", said Chang Jae-bok on the question of Covid impact on trade relations between two nations. "India has a very strong IT and software base and we plan to leverage it in the best possible way. Apart from this, promising sectors such as Medical Devices and Diagnostics, EV infra and battery, Logistics and warehousing are other segments in which Korean companies are planning to foray," he said on the question of major shifts of both nations in the trade. On the sideline of the 4th edition of the Korea Fair in India (KFI) which was inaugurated on Wednesday, Ambassador Chang Jae-bok had said that Korea and India have a strong economic partnership that is rapidly expanding. New Delhi, June 2 : The cycle of targeted killings in Kashmir claimed another innocent victim on Thursday as the killers resorted to blatant lying to justify this mad, murderous act. Vijay Kumar, manager of Ellaquai Dehati Bank (Regional Rural Bank) Areh Mohanpora village in Kulgam district had joined the branch just 4 days back. Aged 21, Kumar was married barely 40 days ago. He had come all the way from Rajasthan to serve the rural bank for dispensing credit to the poorest of the poor among the local people. Obviously, he walked into the bank branch around 10 a.m. on Thursday without any fear. He hardly concerned himself with local politics. He was a young professional who believed in goodness of the common men whom he served in the Kashmir Valley since 2019 after joining the rural bank. The killer walked in and shot Kumar inside the Bank premises. The killer was obviously as deranged and indoctrinated as his handlers. A front outfit of the LeT called Kashmir Freedom Fighters claimed Kumar's murder. "He was holding a domicile certificate which is part of India's design to change the demography of Kashmir," said the letter shot by the killers to the media. Kumar had never applied for nor was he holding any domicile certificate, said the controlling office. On May 12, Rajni Bala, a Hindu teacher belonging to Samba district of Jammu division was killed at her school in Kulgam district. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why Kumar, Rajni Bala or the other Kashmiri Pandit employees serving in the Valley were killed. There has been remarkable economic activity through unparalleled tourism this year so far. Kashmiri hoteliers, taxi drivers, handicraft sellers, pavement vendors and all others connected with tourism directly or indirectly have been making some living this year after two years of hiatus because of the Covid pandemic. The poor Shikarawallahs and the houseboat owners on the Dal and the Nigeen lake have been earning their livelihood after many years this season. The so-called 'freedom fighters of Kashmir' cannot tolerate Kashmiris making an honest living. If the poor earn their bread and butter honourably then the terrorists cannot have the youth to throw grenades at crowded markets for Rs 500 per throw. No religion, no nationhood, no ethnicity permits killing of innocent people for any cause or reason. Now that the Kashmiri Pandit employees working in Kashmir, predominant of them school teachers, have withdrawn into secured accommodations, the obvious result is that Kashmiri children, each one of them belonging to the majority Muslim families, will go to classes without any teachers. The terrorists want Kashmiri children to become uneducated, uninformed youth who can be lured with weapons as their only means of sustenance. Kashmiri Pandit government employees and other non-locals serving in the Valley will be protected and the killers will be brought to justice. The cycle of targeted killings will, however, not end unless the deafening silence adopted by the overwhelming majority of Kashmiris over these acts of madness is broken. Patna, June 2 : A day after an all-party meeting held in Patna for conducting caste-based Census, former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, on Thursday slammed Tejashwi Yadav and his party RJD for not taking credit for it. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Wednesday announced implementing the long-pending demand for caste-based Census in the state. The decision was taken after an all-party meeting in which the leaders of all the nine political parties represented in the Assembly were present. Tejashwi Yadav claimed on Wednesday that it is a victory of Lalu (Prasad) ji and RJD, who were advocating caste-based Census for the last several years. Now it is a reality after the Bihar government decided to conduct caste-based Census, he said. "RJD had the history of conducting panchayat and urban local body elections by giving reservation to backward class people. It was part of the UPA government at the Centre between 2004 and 2014... So why didn't it advocate conducting caste-based Census in the country? Even during the socio-economic Census of 2011, why didn't it advocate adding one more column to it, Sushil Modi asked. "The BJP was not against caste-based Census. Had it been the case, it would have been impossible for the UPA to conduct the Census in 2011," he said. "In Bihar, proposal for caste-based Census was passed twice in the legislative Assembly and the Council... So why wasn't it started when the RJD was in power? In Maharashtra and Odhisha, caste-based census was passed successfully when the BJP was an important political party in the respective Assemblies," Sushil Modi said. "I believe Tejashwi Yadav and the RJD are unnecessarily taking credit for it," he added. Los Angeles, June 2 : Elaine Bredehoft, Amber Heard's attorney in her defamation trial against Johnny Depp, opened up about the verdict in a no-hold-barred conversation with Savannah Guthrie on the NBC network's 'Today' show. She said Heard will "absolutely" want to appeal the jury's decision that was in favour of Depp. "She has some excellent grounds for it," Bredehoft added, according to 'Variety'. "She was demonised here," Bredehoft added about Heard. "A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused. We weren't allowed to tell them about the U.K. judgment." The attorney was referring to the libel case Depp lost in the United Kingdom. The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor sued the popular British red-top tabloid, 'The Sun', for calling him a "wife beater" but lost the case. Bredehoft also shared her belief that the vitriol Heard received on social media during the course of the high-profile trial most likely impacted the jury, reports 'Variety'. Social media was largely on Depp's side, according to the attorney, as was evident from the viral TikTok trend in which users widely mocked Heard's testimonies. When asked if social media impacted the jury, Bredehoft replied: "Absolutely. Jurors [weren't supposed to be looking at social media], but how can you not [be aware]? They went home every night. They have families. Their families are on social media. We had a 10-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. There is no way they couldn't have been influenced." New Delhi, June 2 : The CBI in its charge sheet filed in connection with the Rs 100 crore extortion case filed against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and his two personal secretaries, Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde, has mentioned that Deshmukh and others allegedly attempted to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duties. "Deshmukh and others exercised undue influence over the transfers and postings of Police Officers," the charge sheet says. The charge sheet was filed on Thursday before a special Mumbai court. The CBI has shown former Mumbai cop Sachin Waze as an approver in its charge sheet. Former top Mumbai Cop Param Bir Singh has also been accused in the matter. The charge sheet is running over 49 pages. The CBI sources said that Waze's statement will play a crucial role in proving the case of the prosecution as he has turned approver. "Deshmukh and Vaze used to talk on phone frequently. Between December 2020 and February 2021, Vaze allegedly collected around Rs 4.70 crore from the owners of Orchestra bar situated across Mumbai. Deshmukh's PA Shinde allegedly collected the said amount from Vaze. Deshmukh's PS Suryankant Palande allegedly passed instructions on behalf of Deshmukh," a CBI source said quoting the charge sheet A preliminary enquiry was registered by the CBI on April 6, 2021 as per direction by the Bombay High Court. After the inquiry the CBI had on April 21, 2021 registered a case against Deshmukh and others. Deshmukh was arrested on November 2, 2021 by the CBI on money laundering charges. Further investigation in the matter is still on. New Delhi, June 2 : The Central government on Thursday announced the constitution of the 'National Designated Authority' for the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement 2015 is a collective global effort by the comity of nations that have agreed to reduce carbon emissions to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. The National Designated Authority is a mandatory requirement as India is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The objective of the Convention is to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The Paris Agreement has established mechanisms for the parties to the convention through actions as committed in their respective Nationally Determined Contributions. India also has a National Clean Development Mechanism Authority to fulfil emerging requirement of Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. "The NDA would be expected to furnish reports about its activities to the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA) and or the Central Government as the case may be," said a senior official from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). Secretary, MoEF&CC would be the chairperson of the NDA while Director, Climate Change Division in the MoEF&CC would be the member-secretary. Earlier, India has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol under the UNFCCC and constituted the National Clean Development Mechanism Authority (NCDMA) in 2004. India has also ratified the Paris Agreement for implementation of the Convention in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances. The members comprise representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs, the Department of Economic Affairs, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the Ministry of Science and Technology, NITI Aayog and the Economic Adviser / Joint Secretary (Climate Change), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Member. Among other things, the NDA will authorized the use of emission reduction unit from projects and actions for use towards achievement of the NDCs and for other international mitigation purpose and define the corresponding adjustment and furnish information regarding these units to the Supervisory Body or Subsidiary Body under the UNFCCC. New Delhi, June 2 : Stating that the global well-being is in jeopardy, in large part, because humans have not kept our promises on the environment, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on the G20 governments to dismantle coal infrastructure and also gave full phase out year deadlines. "I call on the G20 governments to dismantle coal infrastructure with a full phase-out by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for all others. And I call on all financial actors to abandon fossil fuel finance and invest in renewable energy," Guterres said in his remarks at the opening of the landmark international meeting Stockholm+50 being held to commemorate the first human environment conference in 1972 held in Stockholm itself. Guterres also said that renewable energy technologies should be seen as a global public good and that the necessary raw materials should be available to all. "We must scale up and diversify supply chains; reform bureaucracies to provide clarity to investors; fast track permits for renewable energy projects and accelerate grid modernization and shift subsidies from fossil fuels to support vulnerable people and to advance renewables," he said. Suggesting tripling of investments in renewables to at least $4 trillion a year, the Secretary General said: "On top of this, we must rapidly and vastly improve energy efficiency. We must reduce deforestation and promote more forest cover by 2030. We must vastly intensify efforts to restore coastal ecosystems and at least 1 billion hectares of degraded land in the next decade." The UN head honcho also said, the world must also triple investments in nature-based solutions. "If we do these things we can avert climate catastrophe, end a growing humanitarian and inequality crisis and promote inclusive and sustainable development," he said. Earlier, he started with warning how "earth's natural systems cannot keep up with our demands" as "we are consuming at the rate of 1.7 planets a year. If global consumption were at the level of the world's richest countries, we would need more than three planet Earths." The Secretary General also warned that the humanity faces a triple planetary crisis: A climate emergency that is killing and displacing ever more people each year; ecosystems degradation that are escalating the loss of biodiversity and compromising the well-being of more than three billion people, and a growing tide of pollution and waste that is costing some 9 million lives a year. "We need to change course -- now -- and end our senseless and suicidal war against nature. We know what to do. And, increasingly, we have the tools to do it. But we still lack leadership and cooperation," he rued. Paris, June 2 : World No.1 Iga Swiatek defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 in just 64 minutes to reach her second French Open final here on Thursday. Swiatek's winning streak hit 34 after she dispatched No.20 seed Kasatkina. The 2020 French Open champion Swiatek is now tied for the second-longest winning streak of this century with Serena Williams, who won 34 consecutive matches between Miami Open and Wimbledon in 2013. The 21-year-old Swiatek has also won 54 of her past 56 sets; since the fourth round of Indian Wells, only Liudmila Samsonova and Zheng Qinwen have managed to win a set from the Pole, both in tiebreaks. She also extended her winning streak against Top 20 opposition to 13. She also extended her head-to-head lead over Kasatkina to 4-1, with all four victories coming this year at the Australian Open, Dubai, Doha and now Paris. Across those matches, Swiatek has conceded only 14 games. Swiatek now awaits the winner of the second semifinal between No.18 seed Coco Gauff and Martina Trevisan. Through the first four games, the semifinal was evenly poised. Swiatek had drawn first blood, taking her fourth break point to move up 2-0, but Kasatkina had responded with smart wrong-footing winners and aggressive intent to level at 2-2. Serving at 2-3, 15-30, Kasatkina was shaping up to hammer away a forehand sitter when a gust of wind caught the ball. The 25-year-old sent the ball way over the baseline. Minutes later, Swiatek flashed a forehand winner to go up a break again, and she never looked back. Swiatek tallied 22 winners to 13 unforced errors, taking her total of winners at Roland Garros this year to 140. She landed 70 per cent of her first serves, and won 79 per cent of those points. Kasatkina found 10 winners, but was undone by 24 unforced errors as she tried to keep pace with Swiatek. The World No.20 had only dropped serve six times in the tournament prior to her Grand Slam semifinal debut, and four of those occasions were in her quarterfinal against Veronika Kudermetova. However, Swiatek punished Kasatkina's second serve relentlessly, winning 11 of the 14 points returning it, and broke five times in total. New Delhi, June 2 : An Indian delegation led by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Joint Secretary J.P. Singh met Taliban officials in Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday. The Indian delegation is in Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. "Today, IEA Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi received Indian MEA Joint Secretary J.P. Singh and accompanying delegation. The meeting focused on India-Afghan diplomatic relations, bilateral trade and humanitarian aid," Abdul Qahar Balki, Taliban spokesperson, said. "India would consider assisting and working with Afghanistan in various fields, and whilst India has recently opened up its borders and ports for Afghanistan exports leading to increased Afghan exports compared to past years,they would provide further facilitates in this area to help Afghanistan further increase its exports & strengthen its economy. To end, they agreed to expand interactions between the two countries," he added. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in Delhi: "The team will meet senior members of Taliban. They'll also meet representatives of international organisations who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. We are focused on the security of our officials." The officials visited the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, and power stations. In a statement, the Ministry had said: "During the visit, the team will meet representatives of the international organisations involved in distribution of the humanitarian assistance. In addition, the team is expected to visit various places where Indian programmes/projects are being implemented." Under India's humanitarian assistance, "we have already dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance consisting of 20,000 MTs of wheat, 13 tonnes of medicines, 500,000 doses of Covid vaccine and winter clothing", the statement said. "These consignments were handed over to the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, Kabul and UN specialised agencies including WHO and WFP. Furthermore, India is in the process of shipping more medical assistance and foodgrains to Afghanistan." "We have also assisted Unicef by supplying almost 60 million doses of polio vaccine and two tonnes of essential medicines. India's development and humanitarian assistance has received a wide spread appreciation across the entire spectrum of Afghan society," the statement added. According to the Ministry, the Indian team will also meet senior members of the Taliban, and hold discussions on New Delhi's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. New Delhi/Amaravati, June 2 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital and urged him to relax the debt ceiling for the state. He told the Prime Minister that the previous government had gone on a borrowing spree beyond the limits from 2016-17 to 2018-19 and as a result, a cut is being imposed on the current borrowings. The debt ceiling has been slashed by Rs 17,923 crore in the last three years, he said. Stating that loans were taken during the Covid crisis, the Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to take a positive decision in this regard. According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), during the 45-minute discussion, Jagan Mohan Reddy discussed issues ranging from compensating revenue deficit, Polavaram, NREGS to sanction of new medical colleges. This was Jagan Reddy's second meeting with Modi in less than two months. He requested the Prime Minister to release funds of Rs 32,625 crore for various pending bills under 10th Pay Commission, including financial package for rebuilding discoms, senior citizen pensions and loan waiver for farmers. He said Rs 6,627.86 crore is receivable by Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation Limited (APGENCO) from the Telangana government and requested the Prime Minister to direct the authorities concerned to settle the dues at the earliest so that the state's power sector will be financially strengthened. On the Polavaram project, he urged the Prime Minister to approve the revised cost estimates of Rs 55,548.87 crore as the Technical Advisory Committee had already approved. He asked to consider the drinking water component of the Polavaram project as an integral part of the project structure and follow the same approach as other national projects in the past. He also requested the Prime Minister to clear the bills in total fortnightly and not component-wise and reminded that the state government was not paid Rs 905.51 crore that was spent on the project. The Chief Minister suggested providing funds in advance at the beginning of the financial year so that the construction of the Polavaram project can proceed smoothly. He appealed to provide R&R package to the displaced families in direct benefit transfer manner, which ensures transparency. Jagan Mohan Reddy said there is inadequate coverage of beneficiaries under NFSA (National Food Security) Act, as a large number of needy and deserving persons are being uncovered and thus sought to eliminate inequalities in the selection of card holders. He said that the country has a stockpile of three lakh metric tonnes of rice each month, and reminded that NITI Aayog has recommended that 0.77 lakh metric tonnes of rice can be allocated to the state. The Chief Minister also said that there were fewer allocations under the Prime Minister's Garib Kalyan Yojna as nearly 56 lakh families were left out and the state government is providing the rice subsidy to them. Further, he urged the Prime Minister to give approvals for setting up another 12 medical colleges in the state to cater to 26 districts. Also, he asked the Prime Minister to renew the approvals of the site clearances for the greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram. On setting up an Integrated Steel Plant in YSR district, he requested to allocate iron mines to the APMDC for an uninterrupted supply of iron ore to operate the plant. The steel plant is essential for the livelihood of the people of Rayalaseema and for economic progress in the region, said the Chief Minister. Later, he asked the Prime Minister to give approvals to allot beach sand minerals to Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation which could attract investments of Rs 20,000 crore. He said that 14 of 16 approvals are in a pending state. Later, the Chief Minister also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Nagpur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Dr. Mohan Bhagwat during the concluding function of Officers Training Camp at Reshimbag ground in Nagpur on June 2, 2022. (Photo: Chandrakant Paddhane/IANS) Image Source: IANS News Nagpur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Dr. Mohan Bhagwat addresses during the concluding programme of Shiksha Varg at Reshimbag ground in Nagpur on June 2, 2022. (Photo: Chandrakant Paddhane/IANS) Image Source: IANS News Nagpur, June 2 : Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday appealed to the people to settle the ongoing Gyanvapi Mosque dispute amicably, adding that if the matter is not resolved through dialogues, both the parties should accept the court verdict on the issue. Speaking at the concluding function of RSS workers' training programme here, Bhagwat said it is not appropriate to create controversy every time, as he advised Hindus to sit together with their Muslim brethren and resolve all disputes. "If some people do not agree and knock the doors of the court of law, we should honour the court verdict," he asserted. "Hindus had accepted the bifurcation of united India that paved the way for a Muslim country, Pakistan. This means a good number of Muslims who stayed back in India and did not opt for Pakistan are our brethren," the RSS chief said. He also tried to distance the RSS from different agitations, saying that the Sangh was involved in the Ram Mandir issue only, and not any other such movement. Bhagwat also said that it is a historical fact Muslims rulers had destroyed Hindu religious places and constructed mosques. On the international front, Bhagwat admitted that India could not do much when Russia attacked Ukraine, adding that even the mighty China remained non-committal on the issue. Around 735 Swayamsevaks, including farmers, teachers, engineers, doctors and people from various other fields, from across the country were selected to participate in the RSS training programme -- 'Sangh Shiksha Varg - Tritiya Varsha' -- which commenced on May 9 at the Hedgewar Smruti Mandir in Reshimbagh. Patna, June 2 : Eight robbers decamped after looting gold jewelleries worth Rs 1 crore from a jewellery shop in Bihar's Vaishali district on Thursday. Confirming the incident, Vaishali SP Manish Kumar said, "We have sealed the borders of Vaishali and launched a search operation to nab the culprits." Eight armed men, who initially posed as customers, entered the Sri Krishna Jewellers located in the Patepur locality under Mahua police station and took the owner and employees at gunpoint. Some of the employees tried to put up a resistance, but were beaten up by the the robbers. "The shop owner claimed that the robbers took away jewelleries worth Rs 1 crore," Kumar said. Kohima, June 2 : Assam Chief Minister and convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday held a meeting with the members of core committee on the Naga political issues. The vital meeting of the core committee on Naga political issues, which includes Chief Minister Neiphu Rio and ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Chairman T.R. Zeliang, held at Chumukeidma in Dimapur, Nagaland's main commercial city amidst a stalemate between the central government and the NSCN-IM over the contentious issue of separate flag and constitution. After more than an hour-long meeting, neither Sharma nor other leaders spoke to the media and disclosed anything about the outcome of the meeting. A senior Naga leader on condition of anonymity said that the core committee members have sought Sarma's support in solving the Naga political issue at the earliest. "His (Sarma) active role is vital to take forward the talks in the right direction," the Naga leader said. The core committee or parliamentary committee on Naga political issues comprises all the 60 Members of the Nagaland Assembly and two Members of Parliament. Sarma, who is very close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, earlier in September last year held meetings with the core committee members including Nagaland Chief Minister and government representative on the Naga political issue A.K. Mishra, former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Rio along with other members of the core committee on Naga political issue met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in April in New Delhi and urged the Union Government to expedite the peace talks. Mishra then visited headquarters of NSCN-IM camp Hebron (near Dimapur) and held discussion with Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of NSCN-IM in April and many other Naga leaders and Chief Minister. The Assam Chief Minister on Wednesday said in Guwahati that the Naga political issue is a complex issue and must be left to the Government of India and the NSCN-IM and all others must refrain from commenting on this issue. "The Naga political issue has been there since the independence of India. The Government of India and Naga leaders are talking to the extent that durable and sustainable peace should be established in Nagaland," Sharma said. The NSCN-IM on Wednesday accused the Central government's representative for peace talks for "giving wrong interpretation in order to confuse the common people". "But the representatives of the government of India have started giving wrong interpretations in order to confuse the common people. We too feel apprehensive about the clandestine plot of imposing another accord on the Nagas or hijacking the issue through their surrogates," a NSCN-IM statement said without naming Mishra. After sharp open differences between then central interlocutor and Nagaland Governor, R.N. Ravi, who had on a number of occasions rejected the NSCN-IM's demands of a Naga national flag and Naga Constitution, the Centre had appointed Mishra in his place. The NSCN-IM's repeated insistence on a separate Naga flag and Constitution have become a big hurdle in the way of resolving the Naga issue. The election to the 60-member Nagaland assembly is expected to be held in February-March next year and all the political parties and the state government are keen to resolve the much expected issue before the polls. Chennai, June 2 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Thursday met Governor R.N. Ravi and requested him to grant early assent to bills passed by the Assembly. He requested the Governor to give his assent to 21 bills passed by the Assembly at the earliest "to uphold the spirit of the constitution and the will of the people of Tamil Nadu". The Chief Minister specifically requested the Governor to give assent to a bill to establish a Sidha medical university, and also thanked him for forwarding the NEET exemption bill to the President for his assent. A state government release said that the Chief Minister, was accompanied by senior including S. Duraimurugan, Thangam Thenarasu, and K. Ponmudi, in the meeting. The state government has already constituted a committee to formulate a state education policy in keeping with the "historical legacy, present situation, and future aspiration of the state". The committee is headed by retired Justice D. Murugesan of the Madras High Court and has chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand, musician T.M. Krishna, and Jayaram Damodaran of the Agaram foundation as members. New Delhi, June 2 : Visiting Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Benjamin Gantz on Thursday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation and contribute to global stability. The visit comes as 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the official diplomatic ties between India and Israel. Modi and Gantz, who is also the Defence Minister, reviewed the rapid growth in defence cooperation between their countried over the past few years, and the former encouraged Israeli defence companies to benefit from opportunities of co-development and co-production in India. During the meeting, Gantz emphasised the opportunity to invest further in defense cooperation between the two countries, while building on shared values in order to contribute to global stability. Earlier, he met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. New Delhi, June 2 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a meeting to review the preparedness to deal with floods in the monsoon season. He also took stock of the preparations made by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in the flood-affected areas, and reviewed the long-term measures to formulate a wide and comprehensive policy to mitigate flood-related problems in the country. Shah directed the officials to continuously strengthen the coordination between the Central and state-level agencies by establishing a permanent system to provide detailed predictions up to the local level of floods and rise in water levels in the major catchment areas of the country. The Home Minister said that during the current flood season, the present and forecasted river levels should be monitored every hour and during floods, all concerned stakeholders should take appropriate measures. He directed the NDRF to prepare SOPs in consultation with the states for issuing early rain warnings at the local, municipal and district levels in areas witnessing heavy rainfall. Shah advised the specialised institutions like the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to continue to upgrade their technologies for more accurate weather and flood forecasting, and directed for timely dissemination of warnings about lightning to the public through SMS, TV, FM radio and other mediums. He also directed to make the 'Damini' app available in all local languages. The app gives lightning warnings three hours in advance and can help minimise the loss of life and property. The Director General of IMD and the Chairman of CWC informed the meeting about the actions taken on the directions issued by the Home Minister in the flood review meeting held last year. New Delhi, June 2 : Admitting that Ken Betwa Link Project will have negative impacts on three key species -- tiger, vulture and gharial -- the Integrated Landscape Management Plan for Greater Panna Landscape released on Thursday has proposed multiple prescriptive steps for conservation of these species along with community management. The Ken-Betwa Link Project was approved by the Centre in December 2021 for implementation following the signing of an agreement on March 22, 2021 between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is the first major centrally driven river inter-linking project in the country. The Integrated Landscape Management Plan for Greater Panna Landscape has been prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The plan period has been identified for 10 years from 2022-23 to 2032-33. "Despite its noble intentions and much-needed expected outcomes, Ken Betwa Link Project will have negative impacts on three key species i.e. tiger, vulture and gharial. These concerns include disrupting connectivity, submerging nesting habitat and reducing flow requirements respectively for these species," the Plan document admitted upfront. For the tigers, the Plan identified 28 habitat cores and 67 potential corridor links and said, there are around 60 tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) with overall population growth rate of about 27 per cent with an annual growth rate of 31 per cent. A total of 37 adults /sub-adults have dispersed in the landscape between 2013 and 2021, it said, adding, "Over 60 per cent of PTR is suitable for tigers and there are still unoccupied areas. Carrying capacity of tigers in PTR can be around 130 individuals." The Plan document has suggested 21 prescription steps including continuous camera-trap monitoring systems (CCMS); Crime Detection and Alert Systems (CDAS); Genetic Management; Diversion of Road Traffic volume, Strategic Fencing and Alert Systems, and Recognition and Protection of Important Tiger Habitats (satellite cores, stepping stones and corridors), among others. For the vultures, the Plan said, there are seven vulture species present in the PTR and the landscape. PTR accounts for 34 per cent of the total population of vultures in Greater Panna Landscape (GPL) and accounts for 14 per cent of highly suitable cliff-nesting habitats in the GPL. Vultures use the entire landscape for feeding, the Plan said and suggested 19 prescription steps for conservation including Fencing of Carcass dump sites, establishment of electronic surveillance system, demographic and genetic structure profiling, disease surveillance and monitoring, among others. Highlighting the low population size of gharials in Ken River, the Plan said muggers are relatively abundant in PTR and Ken Gharial Sanctuary - 38-62 individuals. It mentioned the restocking efforts ongoing since 1983 wherein 167 individuals have been released in the 13 sq kms suitable habitat of gharials. The Plan document suggested 14 prescription steps including protection of crocodile priority and restricted zones; protection and co-management of river habitats; population estimation and monitoring, and management of artificial sandbanks. With a proposed total budget of Rs 1,012.44 crore, the Plan also suggested steps for biodiversity conservation, community engagements and integrated management. The implementation strategies include Special Purpose Vehicle called as Greater Panna Landscape Council (GPLC) that will comprise Union Ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change & Jal Shakti and state governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. New Delhi, June 2 : A special NIA court in the national capital on Thursday pronounced the sentence of the five accused in an ISIS module case in Roorkee, which is linked to the conspiracy to establish an ISIS base in India, and carry out terror activities in Delhi-NCR and Haridwar during the Ardh Kumbh festival. The NIA special court of Patiala House sentenced the five accused -- Akhlakur Rehman, Mohammad Azeemushan, Mohammed Osama, Mohammad Meraj, all four who are residents of Haridwar, and Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed of Mumbai -- under sections of the IPC, the UA(P)A and the Explosive Substances Act. All the accused have been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fine under section of UA(P) Act, five years rigorous imprisonment and fine under various IPC sections, five years of rigorous imprisonment and fine under the section of Explosives Substances Act, among other charges. The case was initially registered by Delhi Police Special Cell on January 18, 2016, and re-registered by the NIA on March 18, 2016. After the investigation of the case, a charge sheet was filed against six accused persons, including the five accused sentenced on Thursday. Earlier on May 20, all the five accused had been convicted. New Delhi, June 2 : BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court, seeking directions to the Centre and Delhi government to prohibit religious conversion through intimidation, threats, deception, or "by using black magic and superstition". In the PIL, he contended that Article 14 ensures equality before law and secures equal protection of law. Presently, religious conversion by intimidating, threatening and deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits is an offence in UP's Ghaziabad but not in adjoining east Delhi. Similarly, religious conversion by using black magic and superstition is an offence in Gurugram but not in adjoining west Delhi. It not only violates Articles 14 but is also contrary to principles of secularism and rule of law, which are basic structure of the Constitution, he claimed. The plea alleged that women and children are the main target of "foreign funded conversion mafias" but the Centre and the Delhi governments have not taken appropriate steps to control the religious conversion by "the carrot and the stick" in spirit of Article 15(3), and called on the court to intervene. Religious conversion by 'the hook and crook' directly offends the right to life liberty dignity, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, he argued, adding that tight to religion guaranteed under Article 25 is not an absolute right but subject to public order, health and morality and religious conversion by using miracles, superstition and black magic is not protected under it. "Many foreign funded individuals and NGOs are converting EWS-BPL citizens to foreign religions by intimidating, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits," he alleged. Upadhyay prayed for directions to the Centre and the Delhi governments to take appropriate stringent steps to prohibit religious conversion by "the carrot and the stick" and "by hook or crook" in order to maintain and promote fraternity, assure dignity of individual, and unity and integrity of the nation. Sanaa, June 3 : UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg has announced that Yemen's warring parties have agreed to extend the ongoing truce for another two months. "The extension of the truce comes into effect when the current truce period expires, today on June 2, 2022, at 7 p.m," Grundberg said on Thursday in a written statement released on the UN's website. "The truce is extended under the same terms as the original agreement, which first came into effect on April 2, 2022," the envoy added. Grundberg's declaration came after he held a series of meetings with representatives of Yemen's warring sides and high-ranking politicians during the past months to ensure a continuation of the nationwide truce that started on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan and expires on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. "For the past two months, Yemenis have experienced the tangible benefits of the truce. Civilian casualties have dropped significantly, fuel deliveries through Hodeidah port have increased considerably, and commercial flights resumed to and from Sanaa International airport after almost six years of closure," the UN envoy said in the statement, adding the negotiation of lifting the siege on Taiz is underway. "By agreeing to implement and now renew the truce, the parties have provided a rare glimmer of hope to Yemenis that an end to this devastating conflict is possible," he added. Under the UN auspices, Yemen's warring parties entered a two-month ceasefire on April 2, which includes allowing commercial flights to and from Houthi-held Sanaa and the entry of fuel ships into the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah, and lifting the siege of the government-held Taiz city. The warring parties have largely held the truce, but they have yet to reach a final agreement on lifting the siege of Taiz city. Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of the capital Sanaa. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million, and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. New Delhi, June 3 : A 41-year-old man commited suicide by hanging himself at his residence in the Uttam Nagar area of the national capital, an official said on Thursday. According to the official, an information was received at the Bindapur police station on Wednesday afternoon regarding the man, identified as Umesh Dhar Dwivedi, an employee with multilingual news service United News of India (UNI), committing suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house. Deputy Commissioner of Police Shankar Choudhary said when the police reached the spot, the door had already been opened by the firemen and one person was found hanging from the ceiling fan with a blue dupatta. The body was decomposed. "The inspection of the scene of crime was conducted by the crime team and after cutting the dupatta, the body of the deceased was brought down," the DCP said. A four-page suicide note was recovered from the deceased person's possession. From the suicide note, it was learnt that the deceased had committed suicide on May 30. "As per the suicide note, the wife of the deceased had gone to Switzerland with their children and was having a strained relation with her husband. She even blocked him on phone. Suffering from depression, Dwivedi committed suicide," the officer said. On further enquiry, statements of the family members of the deceased were also recorded and they didn't suspect any foul play. Mumbai, June 3 : The SBI on Thursday expressed grief over the killing of Vijay Kumar, branch manager with Ellaquai Dehati Bank (EBD), a Srinagar-headquartered Regional Rural Bank sponsored by it, in J&K's Kulgam and promised all support to his family as well as to all other employees. Noting that Vijay Kumar, who belonged to Rajasthan, was just 29 years old and had joined the EDB in March 2019, the SBI, in a statement, said that he was "one of many such bankers hailing from different parts of the country, who are working in the Kashmir Valley and other difficult places to ensure delivery of uninterrupted banking services to the public". "SBI, as the sponsor of Ellaquai Dehati Bank, remains committed to ensure the safety and well-being of all its employees, including those posted in the Valley. The EDB shall ensure that the bereaved family is provided with necessary support - financial and otherwise - on priority," it said. Vijay Kumar was killed by militants at Areah Mohanpora village in Kulgam on Thursday morning. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead. Bhopal, June 3 : A Right to Information (RTI) activist was shot dead in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district on Thursday, police said. The incident in Vidisha, around 60 km from Bhopal, created panic among residents in the locality as Ranjeet Soni was shot dead close as he came out of a government office in broad daylight. The local police reached the spot soon after the incident was reported. Additional Superintendent of Police, Vidisha, Sameer Yadav told the press that the victim had gone to the Janpad Panchayat office to collect some documents. As he was stepping out from the office and reached the gate, he was shot dead by an unidentified gunman, police said. Police have started examining CCTV footage to identify the accused. "A case has been registered and police teams have been deployed to find out the accused," the ASP said. In February this year, a Dalit RTI activist was beaten up and was forced to drink urine in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district. An RTI activist was abducted and beaten to death by some unidentified people in Morena district, neighbouring Gwalior, in 2017. A Bhopal-based RTI activist, who did not want to be named, said: "RTI activists are being threatened on a daily basis and it is becoming dangerous to work in Madhya Pradesh. We have been demanding the implementation of the whistleblower act in the state to protect RTI activists." Yangon, June 3 : Myanmar reopened primary, middle and high schools across the country for in-person classes for 2022-2023 academic year, the Education Ministry's Director-General U Kyaw Swar Thwin said. The schools across the Southeast Asian country resumed on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. "Although the national school enrollment week for 2022-2023 academic year was from May 26 to June 1, the Education Ministry will continue accepting students," the official added. "Schools in Yangon reopened in line with Covid-19 guidelines," an Education official in Yangon told Xinhua. In the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, 842 schools, including government-run primary, middle and high schools, monastic schools and private schools reopened on Thursday, state-run television channel MRTV announced. According to the Education Ministry, more than 56.09 million students enrolled in the basic education schools across the country between May 26 and June 1. Tehran, June 3 : Iran has slammed the anti-Iran statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as "repetitive" and "destructive," and said such a statement shows the "entirely wrong" approach and "strategic bewilderment" toward Iran by some member states. Such "threadbare" GCC statements fail to have any other function but create regional tensions, and are apparently aimed at "neutralising" the outcomes of the Islamic republic's diplomatic move and interactions with neighbours, friendly states and partners, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Thursday. On Wednesday, the GCC's Ministerial Council held its 152nd session in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh. In a statement issued at the end of the meeting, the GCC criticised Iran's regional strategies and missile programme, Xinhua news agency reported. Commenting on the request by some GCC member states to be part of the talks on the revival of 2015 nuclear deal, Khatibzadeh added that the 2015 agreement and the UN Resolution 2231 have made it clear which countries are the signatories to the international treaty and can take part in the negotiations. Therefore, making such requests, the spokesman said, only demonstrates the depth of the Council's failure to see the realities. The GCC has turned into the biggest arsenal of US and Western arms and ammunition and is in no position to pass comments on Iran's defensive missile programme and military and defence policies, he added. Vienna, June 3 : The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, has agreed to significant oil output increases in July amid calls for the alliance to help contain the surging oil prices. The group on Thursday agreed to increase oil production by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, higher than its previous monthly increases of 432,000 bpd, Xinhua news agency reported. The 29th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting decided to advance the planned production adjustment for September and "redistribute equally" the 432,000 bpd output increases for July and August, according to an OPEC statement released after the meeting. The statement, however, did not confirm the 648,000 bpd production hike in August. The OPEC+ production plan for August, according to the group's practice, will be announced at its next ministerial meeting, which is to convene on June 30. According to the statement, Thursday's meeting noted "the most recent reopening from lockdowns in major global economic centres" and the expected capacity increase of global refinery after seasonal maintenance. The participants also "highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets for both crude oil and refined products". OPEC+ slashed oil production massively in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic impacted demand. In July 2021, the group agreed to raise oil output by around 400,000 bpd each month to gradually unwind the output cuts. Before Thursday, the oil producer group had been sticking to its plan of gradual output increases, while ignoring repeated calls from major consumers, including the US, to open taps wider to rein in soaring oil prices. Thursday's decision came as crude prices remained high amid continued tight supplies, demand recovery and geopolitical tensions. Prices for both the West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude have hovered around $110 a barrel in recent weeks. Earlier this week, the European Union decided to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports, further heightening supply concerns. United Nations, June 3 : As a victim of cross-border attacks, India has said it regrets that state sponsors of terrorism are "allowed to go scot-free" for serious violations of international law and urged the international community to make them accountable. "It is indeed a sad state of affairs that state sponsors of terrorism have been allowed to go scot-free," R.R. Singh, India's Minister of State for External Affairs, told the Security Council on Thursday. "Any debate on accountability would be incomplete without taking into account the carnage wrought by terrorist forces, particularly those which are backed by State actors for pursuing political objectives," he said. Calling terrorism "the greatest threat faced by humankind," he said, "the international community should stand firm on its opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reject any attempt to provide any justifications for terrorist acts". India has suffered the scourge of cross border terrorism for decades losing thousands of lives, Singh added. Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama, whose country is the President of the Council for this month, presided over the debate on "Strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law". Rama said even though countries have enacted laws to uphold norms of behaviour, millions have suffered because of violations. He added that in invading Ukraine, Russia has committed crimes against humanity and should be made accountable. "All serious violations of international law must be treated with the same level of fairness and determination," he said. Singh said, "The tools to address the serious violations of international law need to be used judiciously, without any selectivity, in line with principles of the UN Charter." He stressed that countries should primarily be responsible for prosecuting serious violations of international law. "The member states have the responsibility and obligation to ensure justice and accountability for gravest violations of human rights and mass atrocities, in line with their national legislations," he added. The international community should support the member states in ensuring justice for victims through processes based on nationally accepted norms of jurisprudence, Singh said. "The process should also promote national reconciliation and inclusive future, he added. "The imposition of universal jurisdictions on alleged acts of atrocities committed in the territory of a sovereign state need to be avoided as well," he said. Noting that India like many countries is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that set up the International Criminal Court (ICC), Singh added that "hastily" referring cases to it "primarily for political reasons" may not serve the ends of justice. He asserted that "the acquittals in recent years have also cast a shadow on the credibility of the ICC". In high-profile cases in 2021, ICC's Appeals Chamber upheld the acquittal of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and his supporter Charles Ble Goude on charges of crime against humanity committed regarding incidents in their country in 2010. Michele Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, supported national prosecutors and judges pursuing crimes committed in other countries. She cited the conviction in Germany of Syrian Colonel Anwar Raslan charged with overseeing torture at a Syrian detention centre as an example of several jurisdictions working together and with other partners to ensure accountability for international crimes. (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in) GoDaddy reseller Branchleaf Digital is pleased to now offer customers subscription plans for GoDaddy Website Builder geared towards businesses and entrepreneurs directly through its platform. Here is what to know for businesses. With GoDaddy Website Builder, customers can sign up for a low-cost website building solution that is easy to use, full of features, and requires virtually no technical knowledge at all to create a website. What is GoDaddy Website Builder? GoDaddy Website Builder is online editing and publishing subscription service that is powered by GoDaddy for basic website creation. 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The exhibition will present all 323 of the legendary covers created for The Saturday Evening Post by the renowned American painter and illustrator, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978). In doing so, the exhibition brings together two giants of American cultural history: The Saturday Evening Post, which chronicled American history in the making for nearly 200 years, and Norman Rockwell, who captivated the American public by the sheer visual appeal, historic detail, and narrative brilliance of his art for more than four decades. Taken together, Rockwells Saturday Evening Post covers detail Americans lives and the history they shared for 47 years. Under the theme of Tell Me a Story, MMoA will invite audiences, through tours, talks, and gallery activities to relate their own stories, to ask whose narratives are missing, and why. The editorial constraints and prejudices he labored under honed Rockwells , commitment to social commentary. In later works for other publishers, he expanded on themes of racial inequity and discrimination. MMoA already had an important collection of American art, commented MMoA Executive Director, Susan Fisher. Now, the opportunity to work with an institution of international stature like the Norman Rockwell Museum puts exceptional traveling exhibitions within our reach, and the reach of those we serve. Born in New York City on February 3, 1894, Norman Percival Rockwell is considered by many be one of Americas greatest artists. From the beginning, he wanted to be an illustrator. He left public school at the age of 14 to attend the Chase Art School. He went on to study at the prestigious National Academy of Design and then at the more progressive Art Students League. At the League, he worked with such famous artists as George Bridgman and Thomas Fogarty. It was a propitious time for an aspiring illustrator. The Golden Age of Illustration was a period of unprecedented excellence in book and magazine illustration, spanning the decades before and after the turn of the 20th Century, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Technical advances in papermaking and the reproduction of art made it possible to produce affordable art images for Americas growing middle class while artists found employment and inspiration in narrative graphic artamong them Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, J.C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, and Frederick Remington. Amidst this burgeoning art market, Rockwell won his first important commission when he was just 18: an illustration for Carl H. Claudys Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature. It was the beginning of a profession that he honed devotedly for the next 65 years. The young Rockwell realized another dream when his art was published by the Boy Scouts of Americas Boys Life, and again when he became the publications art editor in 1913. In 1916, with the assistance of cartoonist Clyde Forsythe (with whom he shared a studio) Rockwell successfully submitted his first cover painting, Mothers Day Off, for The Saturday Evening Post. He was only 22. It was a defining achievement. From the early years of the century to the 1960s, The Saturday Evening Post was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines in America. Its rich mixture of fiction, non-fiction, cartoons, and features reached millions of homes every weekeasily the most prominent and versatile setting possible for his brilliantly narrative art. He took the opportunity seriously. Throughout his long career, Rockwell rarely took vacations from his studio. He worked meticulously from props and models, taking up to six months to create a single cover painting. Rockwells earnest and unpretending attitude to his work also characterized his subject matter. I showed the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed he reflected. He loved looking at the people around him: middle-class children, families, and adults, as they played, worked, visited a doctor, or fixed a flat tire. He had an eye for everyday settings. By turns humorous and deeply moving, Rockwells subjects found an enthusiastic public. According to The Saturday Evening Post, his work helped raise its subscription base to 6,900,000 nationwide by 1960. While the Golden Age of Illustration waned through the 30s and 40s, Rockwells popularity increased. His work appeared both on the covers and in the stories of The Saturday Evening Post into the 60s. His last cover for the Post, Portrait of John F. Kennedy was published on December 14, 1963, a week after Kennedys assassination. To bring such a vast range of imagery and subject matter into focus, MMoA will present a series of talks, art classes, and events focusing on specific aspects of his art. For example: Tell me a Story - Childrens Picture Book Illustration Workshop Artist Educator: Lisa Adams, award-winning illustrator From layout, character design, and art techniques, learn how to conceptualize and create illustrations for a childrens book. Bring your imagination along with your idea( rough visuals and verbal narrative) and walk away with the knowledge and skills needed to create your own childrens picture book. July 9 Saturday, 10am 4pm (12:30 1pm Lunch Break) All events will be posted on the Museums website and publicized in eblasts. For information about tours or activities for groups, please call MMoA at 860.536.7601. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Kitchings Family Foundation and CT Humanities (CTH), with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature (list incomplete at this time). About Mystic Museum of Art The Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA) has served as a focal point for the arts in southeastern Connecticut for more than 100 years. Founded in 1913 as the Mystic Art Association, the museum today engages visitors in richly curated exhibitions, interpretive activities, studio classes, and outreach programs. MMoAs mission is to inspire creativity and critical dialogue by engaging the regional community in the understanding, appreciation, and practice of visual art. About Norman Rockwell Museum The Norman Rockwell Museum illuminates the power of American illustration art to reflect and shape society, and advances the enduring values of kindness, respect, and social equity portrayed by Norman Rockwell. Founded in 1969 with the help of Norman and Molly Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum is dedicated to the enjoyment and study of Rockwells work and his contributions to society, popular culture, and social commentary. The Museum, which is accredited by the American Alliance of Museum, is the most popular year-round cultural attraction in the Berkshires. What: Special exhibition, Norman Rockwells Saturday Evening Post Covers: Tell Me a Story, organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA Where: Mystic Museum of Art, 9 Water Street, Mystic, CT 06378 When: June 18 through September 18, 2022 Hours: Monday through Sunday 11 AM to 5 PM Cost: Special exhibition admission $10 per person, members free For more information V. Susan Fisher Executive Director (860) 536-7601 x 201 ### Tony Ogden We know the cybersecurity space is continuously evolving, particularly in matters related to security regulations and protocols. Tonys capabilities allow us to proactively meet clients needs now and in the future to address those heightened issues. Silent Quadrant a digital protection agency delivering incomparable digital security, digital transformation, risk management, and CISO advisory services within the worlds most influential government affairs firms, associations and small- to medium-sized businesses welcomes Tony Ogden as the new President, Governance, Compliance, Risk Management. Tonys integrity and commitment to excellence perfectly align with the ethos of our firm. His unwavering drive to continue expanding his already impressive experience and expertise brings us an opportunity for an incredible talent to immediately step in and add tremendous value to the important work we do for our clients, said Adam Brewer, Silent Quadrants Chief Operating Officer. We remain committed to being the most trusted digital protection agency in the world, and Tonys character and passion add significant strength to that pursuit. Ogden comes to Silent Quadrant from Bates Group LLC, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer with executive oversight for Bates Groups legal, governance, compliance, enterprise risk management and cybersecurity initiatives. A high-energy senior executive and strategic thought leader, Ogden has over 25 years of experience as a legal, compliance and risk-management expert. Additionally, Ogden served as Deputy Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System & Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for overall executive leadership and program responsibility for compliance and cybersecurity audits among others. He also regularly engaged with top agency and Federal Reserve Bank senior leadership and various Administration and Congressional committee members and staff. From 2011-2012, Ogden served as the General Counsel to the Inspector General at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and from 2006-2011, Mr. Ogden served as Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), an agency of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. Were excited to continue the meaningful and purpose-driven growth of our firm with Tony and the recent hire of Marc Packler, President, Chief Information Security Officer, who both perfectly solidify our executive team, said Silent Quadrant Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Holley. We know the cybersecurity space is continuously evolving, particularly in matters related to security regulations and protocols. Tonys capabilities allow us to proactively meet clients needs now and in the future to address those heightened issues. Ogden recently received an Advanced Certificate in Cybersecurity and Data Privacy from Albany Law school where he is completing a Masters of Law (LL.M.) in Cybersecurity and Data Privacy. With Ogdens breadth of expertise, Silent Quadrant will be able to serve its clients present and future in a larger and more involved capacity. I am privileged to join a world-class team dedicated to trusted, innovative and uncompromising cybersecurity solutions as well as fostering thought leadership in this ever-changing cyber landscape, said Silent Quadrant President Tony Ogden. Im looking forward to helping provide strategic counsel and implement tactical solutions to better secure the most influential and purpose-driven organizations. To learn more about the benefits and approach a digital protection agency brings to your organization, visit silentquadrant.com. ### About Silent Quadrant For nearly three decades, Silent Quadrant has partnered with and protected the most influential firms in America. The clients we serve trust us to remain ever-vigilant in a rapidly evolving digital world. Leveraging the fabric of resilience and the agency of trust to provide precisely tailored digital protection. The work our clients do is critical, and protecting their reputation and influence is paramount. Learn more at silentquadrant.com. Media Contact media@silentquadrant.com Microsofts Amit Khandelwal, Senior Program Manager, SQL Server and DH2is Matt Shreve, Client Services Manager, will demonstrate how users can easily crack the code of SQL Server AG on AKS. DH2i the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability software for Windows and Linux, today announced it is joining with Microsoft to present a live webinar titled, Crack the Code: Deploy SQL Server AG in Kubernetes Like a Boss. When: June 8, 2022, at 11:00 am 12:00 pm Mountain Time (1:00 pm 2:00 pm Eastern Time) Why Attend: Its no secret. Deployment of Microsoft SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (AG) is far from straightforward. Add Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and SQL Server Docker containers to the equation and you have yourself a triple-stacker complexity sandwich. During this live webinar, Microsofts Amit Khandelwal, Senior Program Manager, SQL Server and DH2is Matt Shreve, Client Services Manager, will demonstrate how users can easily crack the code of SQL Server AG on AKS. The demo will show how to enable highly available SQL Server AG in AKS with scalable secondary replica containersAN INDUSTRY FIRSTusing DH2is smart clustering technology. Attendees will also learn how to: Easily and quickly provision an Always On Availability Group in SQL Server in AKS Scale SQL Server AG readable secondary replica containers to support new workload requests Enable fully automatic failover of the SQL Server AG primary to secondary replicas Learn more and register here: https://dh2i.com/webinars/crack-the-code-deploy-sql-server-ag-in-kubernetes-like-a-boss/ Tweet this: @DH2i and @Microsoft to Present, Crack the Code: Deploy SQL Server AG in Kubernetes Like a Boss https://dh2i.com/webinars/crack-the-code-deploy-sql-server-ag-in-kubernetes-like-a-boss/ About DH2i DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey and DxEnterprise enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is always-secure and always-on. To learn more, please visit: http://www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: info@dh2i.com. DH2i Company 2022. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Wright City-based Gateway Fiber has been awarded $10 million as part of a $42 million grant to the State of Missouri from the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to expand broadband internet coverage in underserved communities. Gateway received the largest share of this funding state-wide. The US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced in late February that Missouri will receive the grant money to expand broadband coverage in several communities where residents do not currently have access to high-speed internet. Locally, the grant funds will allow Gateway Fiber to reach nearly 5,000 homes and businesses in underserved communities in Lincoln and St. Charles County, including areas surrounding St. Paul, Josephville, Winfield, Moscow Mills, and Old Monroe. Through Gateways future-proof fiber optic network, these areas will be able to access the internet with hyper-fast symmetrical speeds up to 1 Gig, the same fast speeds available in major metropolitan areas. The NTIA funding will allow us to offer dramatic broadband upgrades to these areas, said Heath Sellenriek, President of Gateway Fiber. Gateways fiber-optic network brings state-of-the-art infrastructure to communities that dont have a solid internet option right now. As a result, most homes will see a ten-fold improvement, from slower speeds to Gateways fiber-optic network. These communities have struggled to gain access to reliable internet connections, Sellenriek continued. Residents often must settle for satellite, cable, or DSL internet connections, which are older, slower technologies. Gateways fiber-optic connection provides much faster and more reliable internet to unserved and underserved communities that need this technology to fuel the future. Mayor Vernon Bauer of St. Paul, one of the areas slated to benefit from the new fiber internet service, praised the grant award as a necessary move forward for local internet infrastructure development. This award brings us one step closer to closing the digital divide and enabling our community and our neighbors to have fast, reliable internet access, Bauer said. Gateway is in the planning stages for this expansion and anticipates that funds from the NTIA grant will enable them to start building this infrastructure in late 2022 or early 2023. Residents interested in learning more about Gateway Fiber, the benefits of fiber internet, and the construction process can visit GatewayFiber.com. ### About Gateway Fiber Founded in 2019, Gateway Fiber is a locally owned and operated internet service provider on a mission to positively impact the communities we serve through a better internet. As data requirements for residences and businesses continue to expand, Gateway is creating a leading, national fiber-to-the-home platform to serve this critical unmet need in our communities. Gateway provides a faster, more reliable internet with a simple pricing model and exceptional customer service. For more information, visit gatewayfiber.com. For more information, press only: David Workman Marketing & Communications Manager 314-265-8974 David.Workman@gatewayfiber.com Salvador Technologies air-gapped solution for cyber-attack recovery The air gap solution is specially designed for organizations with more complex data and doesnt want to take on high downtime. We back up your important data and create an offline copy to protect it from possible theft. For years, cybercriminals have utilized state-of-the-art techniques to target critical infrastructure such as ICS. Cybercriminals are fascinated by ICS for the following principal reasons: Money: Cybercriminals are looking to profit from extortion, data theft, and cyber-attacks. The goal is to earn money through ransomware. Cyber thieves understand operational continuity is critical to factories and manufacturing settings. Therefore, they are highly likely to target a vulnerable system and get compensated. Furthermore, the crypto payment platforms have made it easy for cybercriminals to execute cyber-attacks. Economic Warfare: The Geopolitical conflicts have also irked a sense of instability for cyber experts trying to defend ICS. Most importantly, experts have implemented the new standard in cyber-attack recovery and operational continuity. For instance, the recent US-Russia economic warfare has resulted in a tragic increase in cyber attacks. Poor Security: OT is designed to have a much longer lifespan than IT systems. OT systems are much more likely to include 20-30 years old or even older components. Very often, security patches are not applied in OT systems. It is because these systems are expected to be operated with minimal interruptions. Updates, such as patches, may be considered something that interferes with business continuity. With an increasing rate of cyber-attacks, organizations are looking for protective measures against possible downtime. Currently, OT systems use backward backup solutions such as external disks and tapes. This procedure involves a massive loss of time- hours in case of malfunction and even weeks in case of a cyber-attack. A newly developed recovery solution, presented by Salvador Technologies, has been authorized by The federal agency of USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademarks Office). It is based on air-gap and can minimize system downtime, enabling complete and swift data and OS recovery. Its software is expected to play a vital role in improving the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) in the ICS industry. The Advantages of an Air Gap Solution The air gap solution is specially designed for organizations with more complex data and doesnt want to take on high downtime. It backs up all essential data and creates an offline copy to prevent possible theft. Alex Yevtushenko, CEO: Our mission is to enable operational continuity by providing organizations with unique tools and features to cope with cyber-attacks, whose rate is increasing exponentially. Currently, OT systems use backward backup solutions such as manual external disks. We offer a revolutionized air-gapped technology that dramatically reduces data loss and operational downtime risks. Though just granted the official patent, Salvador has already acquired a strong customer base whose service includes a full recovery from cyber-attacks and IT failures, 30-second recovery agnostic to disk size, 2-minute installation, an automated recovery process, offline protection for backup data (air gap), centralized monitoring and recovery of software data and complete OS configurations. Its proven use includes companies and services providers like Building Management systems, Critical infrastructure and workstations, Logistics Centers, and several other Standalone systems. About Salvador Technologies Salvador Technologies offers breakthrough technological solutions for operational continuity and cyber-attack recovery. Its expertise is based on more than ten years of experience in the National Cyber Unit and elite intelligence corps of the IDF and on the passion for contributing to the global cyber security agenda. For more details about the technology- Get in touch http://www.salvador-tech.com Maya, a young gorilla, will join a new group soon. Photo by Sean Bellon Critically endangered gorillas are still on the verge of extinction. So were incredibly excited about this partnership, which opens up a whole new avenue to support their preservation. Kelly O'Meara, Executive Director, PASA Seeking new ways to protect Africas imperiled great apes and monkeys, today the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), the largest network of wildlife centers and sanctuaries in Africa, announced a partnership with Endangered Ark, an NFT project. Proceeds from the upcoming minting will benefit the Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project, a gorilla sanctuary in Gabon. Critically endangered gorillas are still on the verge of extinction, said Kelly OMeara, PASA Executive Director. So were incredibly excited about this partnership, which opens up a whole new avenue to support their preservation. The Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project rehabilitates orphaned gorillas with the aim of returning them to the wild when possible. Now, two young victims of the bushmeat trade are waiting to join a group of nine other gorillas that live in safety on a protected island. However, the island is missing key infrastructure an integration enclosure necessary for a safe introduction of the animals. Thanks to this partnership, the new enclosure will be funded through the sale of gorilla-themed NFTs. Endangered Ark is helping us fulfill a critical need, said Nicholas Bachand, acting executive director of Fernan-Vaz. Since gorillas are social beings and orphaned gorillas often come to us in a severely traumatized state as victims of the bushmeat trade, being able to rejoin a group of other gorillas is a key milestone in their recovery process. We are so grateful for this opportunity. Niout and Maya were brought to the Fernan-Vaz over one year ago, a rescue deemed so important that they were flown to the sanctuary in the presidential helicopter. Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered in the wild, so every individual is important for the conservation of their species. When they first arrived at the sanctuary, Niout and Maya were quarantined to avoid the spread of undetected diseases into the other gorillas. Social bonds are extremely important for apes and integration into a group will help Niout and Maya partially compensate for the social relationships they lost as orphans. Now that they have finished their quarantine period, they are ready to join their new family. The new infrastructure will allow Niout and Maya to safely and gradually get to know the other gorillas. Once they are all comfortable with each other, they will finally merge freely on the island as a single group. For now, this is not possible until the enclosure is built. This is an ideal collaboration for us, said Jazer Mauricio, director of Endangered Ark. Being able to have a tangible impact is what gets us excited. PASA and Fernan-Vaz are well respected NGOs with a track record of making a difference. Were proud to support their work. Endangered Ark focuses on wildlife conservation. Through its episodic, narrative approach, the organization supports key species through NFTs, merchandise, and planned game development. The collaboration with PASA and Fernan-Vaz will be the second minting for the company, which has helped the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat based in Ontario, Canada. ### PASA Created in 2000, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) is the largest association of wildlife centers and sanctuaries in Africa, consisting of 23 organizations in 13 countries. Each Alliance member is securing the future for Africas primates by rescuing and caring for orphaned and abused apes and monkeys, protecting endangered primates from extinction, working to stop the hunting of endangered species and the cruel primate pet trade, educating the public, and empowering communities. PASA International unifies the Alliance and advocates for them on an international scale, provides vital support, and works closely with them to raise awareness globally about threats to wildlife. FERNAN-VAZ The Projet Gorille Fernan-Vaz was initiated in 2001. Since 2011, it is a member of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA). Our mission is to offer a safe refuge for gorillas who are victims of poaching in Gabon (Central Africa), as well as to raise global awareness on the importance of protecting them and their habitat. To achieve this, the PGFV works actively with local communities, engages with the government, as well as collaborates with international partners. ENDANGERED ARK Endangered Ark is an NFT project focused on bringing awareness to different animals at risk of extinction, expanding the Metaverse and gaming capabilities while working with reputable NGOs. Building the future while protecting our world. Westbury Group LLC (Westbury) announced today that its client, Body Sculpt Intl, LLC (Body Sculpt Intl or BSI) has been acquired by Body Contour Centers, LLC (Body Contour Centers or BCC), doing business as Sono Bello. The transaction closed in March 2022. Jonathan Rubin and Robert Croddy led the investment banking team for Westbury. The transaction brings the entire Sono Bello enterprise under Body Contour Centers and positions the business for further growth across the country. Jon, Rob, and the entire Westbury team worked tirelessly to bring the transaction to a successful conclusion, said Mike Garrison, BSIs CEO. I and the other shareholders are very pleased with the outcome. Were excited to be part of the Body Contour Center family and look forward to building Sono Bello over the coming years. Mr. Rubin said, Mike and his entire executive team were top-notch and a pleasure to work with. They were diligent and professional throughout the entire process. They contributed significantly to the great result. The BCC leadership also proved to be great partners in getting the deal done. Robert Croddy noted, The acquisition of BSI by BCC brings the Sono Bello brand under a single entity, reinforcing its position as the leading national brand for safe and effective liposuction surgery. It was a pleasure working with both the BSI and BCC teams and witnessing their passion for improving patients lives. We look forward to seeing Sono Bellos continued growth and success during the coming years. About the Westbury Group The Westbury Group LLC (http://www.westburygroup.com) is an investment bank dedicated to providing exceptional financial and strategic advisory services for premier middle-market companies. Headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, Westburys bankers serve clients across the country. Westburys finance professionals bring transactional and real-world operations experience to engagements ranging from $25 million to $300+ million. assisting clients with mergers, and acquisitions, raising equity capital and supporting management and boards with advisory services. Westbury Group is a FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer and a member of the International Corporate Finance Group (http://www.icfg.net). About Body Sculpt Intl Based in Scottsdale, AZ, Body Sculpt Intl, was founded in 2009. Prior to its acquisition by Body Contour Centers, BSI was the third-largest provider of body contouring surgery and had performed more than 75,000 procedures, operating as a licensee of BCC under the Sono Bello brand. BSI has been a leader in minimally invasive, awake liposuction procedures. Its surgical centers are fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). About Body Contour Centers Founded in 2008, Body Contour Centers, doing business as Sono Bello, is a national leader in private plastic surgery practice in the United States with over 70 locations across the country. With its head office in Kirkland, WA, BCC operates in 30 states and employs over 500 people. BCC combines a consistent patient experience with the art of treating each patient as an individual with unique plastic surgery needs. BCC has a focused service offering that primarily focuses on less invasive procedures such as laser-assisted body contouring (liposuction), mini tummy tucks, and minor face procedures. These procedures are conducted by over 130 board-certified plastic surgeons and every surgical center is certified by AAAHC, the highest-level certification for plastic surgery. BCC has performed over 250,000 procedures for its patients. We provide our vendor partners with sales coverage teams that are focused solely on their industry. Our hiring of 30 new front-end employees reflects the growth we are seeing in application and funding volume across all of our industries. - President & CEO Jay Haverty TimePayment, an award-winning FinTech company specializing in commercial equipment lease financing, has concluded a wave of expansion to position itself to excel post-pandemic, including making 30 front-end hires. TimePayment also announced the appointment of Michael Adams as Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, leading all revenue-related activities at the firm, and Mark Sheehan as Vice President & General Manager of Capital Markets & Strategic Partnerships, with a special focus on bolstering TimePayments syndication relationships. President & CEO Jay Haverty says of expansion, We strive to provide the best sales support for our vendors. As a result, we provide our vendor partners with sales coverage teams that are focused solely on their industry. Our hiring of 30 new front-end employees reflects the growth we are seeing in application and funding volume across all of our industries. In the executive suite, Michael Adams brings 30 years of leading sales and revenue functions in banking, payments and FinTech lending to TimePayment. Adams legacy includes growing sales revenue at both Snap Advances and CAN Capital, as well as helping take FinTech payment processor Marqeta through its $15Bn IPO, while boosting customer satisfaction and retention across the board. Haverty says of Adams, Its a tall order asking someone to coordinate and centralize business development and marketing sales automation for some 30+ industry verticals. Mike has both the sales and project management experience to help us gain efficiencies of scale as we continue to enter even more vertical markets and grow our industry specialist sales teams. Mark Sheehan has more than 40 years experience across the leasing and information technology fields, including leadership roles at Lease Corporation of America, Crestmark Bank, Wintrust Capital, EverBank (now TIAA), PNC and Comdisco. Sheehan has been awarded Top Sales Producer 15 times, and at National City Bank (now PNC), he won the Excel Award, the banks highest honor, at the national and regional levels. Sheehan will apply his deep knowledge to bolster Time Payments syndication capabilities and explore strategic partnerships with institutional partners, banks and other financial institutions. People think of us as a micro-ticket lender, but we do so much more than that, affirms Sheehan. Our capital market relationships allow us to handle deals of nearly any size on behalf of our vendors. We are always interested in helping our vendors serve as many customers as we can, says Haverty. Mark is going to be key in establishing stronger, deeper relationships with financial institutions to expand our credit window and enable us to ultimately say Yes to more applicants on behalf of each of our vendors. Michael Adams and TimePayments Sales team, including its Diversified Industries, POS and Terminal Leasing, and Restaurant and Franchise groups, will be exhibiting at multiple trade shows this summer, including the Automate Conference, June 69 in Detroit, MI; the Southeast Acquirers Associations SEAA 2022, June 1316 in Atlanta, GA; and the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), Sept. 1217 in Chicago, IL. To contact Mark Sheehan about capital markets or strategic partnerships, visit the Contact page at TimePayment.com. Visit TimePayment.com to learn more about TimePayments broad array of financing products and services that help vendors sell more and businesses of all sizes grow. About TimePayment TimePayment is a Boston-based FinTech company owned by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, a leading, highly diversified global investment manager. TimePayment leads the industry with technology tools and capital that enables equipment sellers and financial intermediaries to offer fast, paperless equipment lease financing to their customers. The companys proprietary credit scoring and risk-based transaction model delivers competitive lease financing solutions across the credit spectrum; from Fortune 500 companies to small business start-ups. TimePayment proudly serves more than 100,000 active accounts with transaction sizes ranging from $500 to over $500,000. Wyoming Winter Calving Overview The Wyoming winter calving ranch is a first-class cattle facility with the irrigation to back it. In todays market, an alfalfa base is the cornerstone to any cattle operation. The Wyoming Winter Calving Operation is a livestock wintering production cattle ranch which provides the feed base and facilities to winter and care for 3,500 cows and or calves from December through April. The Central Wyoming ranch in Fremont county is located eight miles West of Riverton, Wyoming just off Highway 26. The location is well known as a feed production area in Wyoming due to plentiful water supplies, productive lands and mild, open winters. Situated on just over 1,000 acres, the ranching operation involves growing 10,000 tons of corn silage and 2,000 tons of alfalfa hay complete with feeding and calving facilities consisting of living quarters, shops, barns, corrals, lots and feeding paddocks. The operation is a value-added business providing feed and service to livestock producers and employment in the area. The irrigated lands are primarily pivot irrigated with five pivot systems. The deeded lands are located in two units, the headquarters, named the Herman Place, consist of 1,413 acres with three newer Zimmatic pivots. The second unit named, the Valley Farm, consists of 23 acres with two Valley pivots. Two additional pivots on 190 acres are leased to round out annual feed production needs for feeding 3,500 cattle. The alfalfa stands are newer top-quality plantings. The acreage breakdown: Irrigated - 600 acres Dry range - 416 acres Total Deeded - 1,646 acres Irrigation is serviced by Midvale Irrigation District, formed in 1921, Midvale manages a 400 mile-long system of canals and laterals known as the Riverton Unit of the Bureau of Reclamation, delivering irrigation water to over 73,000 acres of irrigable classed lands in Central Fremont County, Wyoming. The District's water supply is derived from the Wind River and its tributaries, a portion of which is stored annually in Bull Lake and Pilot Butte Reservoirs; facilities also managed by Midvale. Local farmers comprise a five member Board of Commissioners whom provides direction and establishes the policies under which the District is operated in order to fulfill Midvales stated objective Provide the maximum amount of available water to the District's constituents at the lowest reasonable cost each year. Midvale delivers water to the farm at a head gate from its canal system. The watering ditch riders ensure proper delivery of water. The annual cost of the water for 2021 was approximately $20 per acre. Annual real estate taxes low comparatively. The Wyoming winter calving ranch is a first-class cattle facility with the irrigation to back it. In todays market, an alfalfa base is the cornerstone to any cattle operation, added Jacque Zurcher, Associate Broker, Mason & Morse Ranch Company. The property was listed by Jacque Zurcher and John Stratman, Mason & Morse Ranch Company, for $5,500,000 on July 31, 2020 and closed on May 24, 2022. First American Title in Lander, WY was the escrow agent and Farm Credit Services of America was the lender of record. About Mason Morse Ranch Company A leading provider of farm, ranch and recreational land brokerage services across the American west. Professional services include real estate brokerage, auction and market analysis. With roots dating back to 1961 in the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, Colorado, the Ranch Company specializes in helping clients buy and sell high-value and large acreage farm, ranch and recreational land properties. Combined, Mason & Morse Ranch Company agents offer clients more than 133 years of experience in real estate land sales and acquisitions. http://www.ranchland.com 877-207-9700 About Agents Jacque Zurcher | John Stratman Jacque Zurcher is an owner/operator of an irrigated ranch in Powell, Wyoming. Together, with her husband Ryan, they run Charolais and red angus cross cattle on sainfoin and grass pivots. Her primary focus is on farm, ranch and horse properties. Jacque was raised in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming on her familys turf grass farm, she graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in Ag Business, and continued to work for Cabelas Inc. as a marketing manager for 16 of their eastern United States locations prior to joining Mason Morse Ranch Company. John Stratman is a principle/partner of Mason & Morse Ranch Company he has lived and worked on ranches in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming since 1959 and has owned and operated a ranch in eastern Colorado raising registered Red Angus seedstock and Quarter Horses. Professionally, John spent 18 years with MetLifes Agricultural Investment Department, where he held various positions from Field Representative to Regional Manager making agriculture real estate loans, investment activities included purchasing, managing and marketing large agriculture properties in several western states. Working as a professional land real estate broker since 2001, John has bought and sold farms and ranches in many western states and maintains an extensive contact list with real estate related professionals and landowners across the wests vast and varied landscape. For more property information contact: Listing agents Jacque Zurcher or John Stratman, Mason Morse Ranch Company jacque (at) ranchland (dot) com | john (at) ranchland (dot) com Phone: 307-316-1891 http://www.ranchbrokers.com I am honored to succeed Ted as the President of AAS and look forward to leading AAS in its mission to provide world class services to our partners and customers. American Auto Shield announced today that Steve Tosh has been appointed as President of the AAS Group and its operating entities effective May 30, 2022. As an experienced business leader, Mr. Tosh will succeed Ted Terry, who has decided to step down as President of the organization after 15 years. Mr. Terry will stay involved in daily operations for a short period and continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors indefinitely. Mr. Tosh, an energetic business leader, brings a wealth of senior management experience. He has an extensive background in the insurance and highly regulated lending industries. Most recently, he served as Senior Director, Small Business Group, for Enova International (NYSE: ENVA), a leading fintech business lender. He previously worked with Mr. Terry at Great American Insurance Company where he succeeded him as Division President of Premier Lease & Loan Services in 2007. Mr. Tosh holds an MBA from Indiana University and a BS in Marketing from Miami University (OH). Mr. Terry said of Mr. Toshs joining the AAS team, I am extremely pleased to be working with Steve again. He has the skills, experience, and commitment to guide AAS into the future. Steve will fit in very well with the organization and our customers. Steve Tosh, AAS Group incoming President said, I am honored to succeed Ted as the President of AAS and look forward to leading AAS in its mission to provide world class services to our partners and customers. Steve and I worked together at Great American Insurance for 11 years. I am looking forward to working with him again and seeing AAS, our partners, and our customers gain from his experience, said Rene Henderson, EVP of Operations. About American Auto Shield Founded in 2002, American Auto Shield is one of the nations leading providers of administrative services for vehicle service contracts and home warranties. The companys mission is to be recognized as the driver for innovation in its industry by delivering products and an experience that customers value. Media Contact: American Auto Shield Jason Currier EVP, Sales and Marketing Email: jason.currier@americanautoshield.com http://www.americanautoshield.com Executive Director Maria Cardiellos stated "Though there were many candidates and significant accomplishments amongst the candidates, the honorees stood out from their peers. We are fortunate to have them as members of our community. Our thanks to every one of them for their contributions! The IJIS Institute is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 annual IJIS Institute Awards. Catherine A. Miller is the recipient of the Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award. Recipients of this years Thomas J. OReilly Innovation Award included Prince Georges County, Maryland, in collaboration with Motorola Solutions and Mission Critical Partners. The Georgia Department of Community Supervision and Axon received the Corrections IT Recognition. Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award - Catherine A. Miller is the National Capital Regions (NCR) Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) Program Manager for Montgomery County (MD) Police Department and has immensely contributed to the improvement of public safety technology over her 35 years in the field. Ms. Miller joined the LInX Program in 2007, where she has led the technical and operational design of reporting, training, and auditing capabilities for the administration of the system while continuing to ensure the integrity of the program. She is a driving force in leading the technology effort to connect the first two LInX Regions (Hampton Roads (VA) and National Capital Region) while also adding the entire Baltimore Region to the NCR-LiInX Program. Since then, she has taken the NCR Region from 23 charter members to over 200 while continuing to guide other LInX Regions Governance Boards. Ms. Miller currently serves on the Board of the International Association of Chiefs of Polices Law Enforcement Information and Technology Section (IACP LEIT) and IACP Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Committee. The Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award, named after the first president of the IJIS Institute, is presented annually to the person from industry or the public sector who made the most valuable contribution to justice and public safety information sharing over his or her career. When asked about being this years recipient, Ms. Miller stated, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have been selected to receive the IJIS National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award. My work over the last 35 years has been so fulfilling and it means so much to me that the work I am so passionate about also resonates with others. This accomplishment is not something I did alone, and there are many others who deserve to share in this award, far too many to name, but please know I appreciate each and every one of you who I have worked with over my career of justice information sharing and technology. Thank you IJIS! Thomas J. OReilly Innovation Award - Prince Georges County, Maryland, and their service provider collaborators, Motorola Solutions and Mission Critical Partners, were presented with the Thomas J. OReilly Innovation Award for their Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) i3 Location-Based Call Routing Project. In NG9-1-1, one of the most critical outcomes is routing the 9-1-1 call to the correct Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) via Next Generation Core Services (NGCS). The NG9-1-1 are the functional elements that enable National Emergency Number Association (NENA) i3 location-based routing. Prince Georges County, Maryland is leading the way in NGCS by being the first public safety agency in the U.S. to deploy i3 location-based call routing for all 9-1-1 calls in April 2021. The County averages 75,000 9-1-1 calls a month. The Thomas J. OReilly Innovation Award recognizes technical innovation that has significantly contributed to the advancement of information sharing within the IJIS Institute public sector mission domains. In recognition of his immense contributions to the safety and justice community nationally, the IJIS Institute commemorated Mr. OReillys profound dedication and accomplishments by naming the award after him in 2020. Corrections Information Technology (IT) Recognition - The Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS) was awarded the Corrections IT Recognition in collaboration with Axon for their efforts with Body Worn Cameras in community corrections. The Corrections IT Recognition honors a team achievement for technical innovation between industry partner(s) and one or more practitioner agency(ies) that significantly contributed to the advancement of corrections information technology in the public sector. This initiative demonstrated how a corrections agency could effectively approach selecting a technology solution that aligns with a departments needs and capabilities while ensuring data can be accurately collected, stored, and routinely shared with stakeholders. The Georgia DC and Axon have developed a system-wide model that other agencies around the country can adopt. The Georgia DCS has pioneered the use of Body Worn Cameras for community supervision agencies. Under the leadership of Director Michael Nail and Chief Information Officer Phil Sellers, their agency has demonstrated how a best practices approach can be successfully accomplished by examining complex business problems and providing common-sense business solutions that utilize technology to replace antiquated paper-based business. For more on IJIS Institute awards, please visit: https://ijis.site-ym.com/page/awards Universal Pure acquires Hydrofresh HPP We are thrilled to add Hydrofresh HPP to the Universal Pure network, which builds a truly national platform of HPP-centered cold chain solutions. We have great respect and admiration for the company Don and his team have built. Universal Pure Holdings, LLC (Universal Pure), the largest independent provider of high pressure processing (HPP) and cold chain solutions for food & beverage customers in North America and portfolio company of Tilia Holdings, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Hydrofresh Ltd. (Hydrofresh HPP), an outsourced HPP and cold storage provider with a leading market presence in the Midwest, from Keller Logistics Group, Inc (Keller Logistics) on May 31, 2022. HPP is a high growth food safety and quality technology used to inactivate foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms in food and beverage products. HPP extends product shelf-life without the use of additives or preservatives to enable a clean-label without compromising taste, texture or nutritional value. The transaction expands Universal Pures geographic reach in the Midwest, facilitating the delivery of higher levels of service and quality to its growing base of over 150 food and beverage customers. The combined company operates 20 HPP machines across its national, strategic facility footprint of seven locations, which makes it one of the largest users of HPP globally. With Universals and Hydrofresh HPPs partnership, the companys footprint is located within a truck-day of all major food production hubs in the U.S., yielding an unmatched ability to move food & beverage products across the HPP supply chain. Located in northwestern Ohio, Hydrofresh HPP was founded in 2018 by Keller Logistics Group and Don Klausing to provide HPP, cold storage, and distribution services to food & beverage customers. Guided by a sincere focus on customer service, the company has steadily increased its HPP capacity in its state-of-the-art facility and has made significant investments in the local community. We started with seven full-time employees and now have over 100 employees. Since 2018 weve installed a second machine to keep servicing our customers growing need for HPP. Both Hydrofresh HPP and Universal Pure are focused on helping food manufacturers provide high-quality products with clean labels that consumers are demanding today. The HPP technology also provides a longer shelf life and with that, less food waste. By joining the Universal Pure network, well be able to expand our customers access to HPP services across the U.S., said Mr. Klausing, President of Hydrofresh HPP. We are thrilled to add Hydrofresh HPP to the Universal Pure network, which builds a truly national platform of HPP-centered cold chain solutions. We have great respect and admiration for the company Don and his team have built over the past four years and look forward to working with the Hydrofresh HPP team to drive further growth across our businesses, said Jeff Williams, CEO of Universal Pure. Adding Hydrofresh HPPs capabilities to Universal Pure will enable us to better serve our customers and their supply chain needs to deliver safe, healthy and clean label foods, added Mr. Williams. Through the dedication of our combined team of nearly 800 employees, we are thrilled about the opportunity to further cement our leadership position in the HPP industry. This transaction showcases Universal Pures commitment to invest in our capabilities and services to further advance adoption of HPP. Bryan Keller, CEO of Keller Logistics Group added, The process of HPP was brought to my attention by the Mayor of Defiance because he thought that Keller Logistics Groups experience in warehousing and distribution provided the capabilities to bring HPP to northwestern Ohio. Since HPP is outside of Keller Logistics Groups core focus of logistics, we feel that partnering with Universal, the market leading provider of HPP services, is better for the business and the Hydrofresh HPP team. Don and his teams expertise have made Hydrofresh HPP a success. Now they will become part of a larger network allowing them to continue to serve their customers, expand their services, and provide quality jobs for the residents of Delphos, Ohio. Mr. Klausing will retain his leadership role of Hydrofresh HPP, focusing on the growth of the combined entitys business. Mayer Brown LLP served as legal advisors to Universal Pure and Twin Brook Capital Partners provided debt financing in support of the transaction. About Hydrofresh HPP Hydrofresh HPP provides custom high pressure processing services to the food and beverage industry, utilizing proven technology that substantially improves the safety and extends the shelf life of packaged products without chemical additives or preservatives. The companys SQF certified facility in Delphos, OH also offers cold storage capabilities. For more information, please visit about:blank [http://www.hydrofreshhpp.com/ __title__ null]. About Universal Pure Universal Pure is the market leading provider of food safety solutions across the cold chain and is dedicated to helping ensure the safety and quality of food & beverage products. The company is largest independent provider of high-pressure processing in North America. Universal Pure operates 18 HPP machines across a strategic facility network of locations in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Through its facility footprint, totaling 1.1 million square feet, Universal delivers an integrated solution and is a trusted partner in HPP, refrigerated and frozen storage, beverage bottling, kitting and assembly, tempering, and other value-added cold chain services. Learn more at http://www.universalpure.com. About Keller Logistics Group Keller Logistics Group is an asset based 3PL dedicated to serving the transportation, warehousing, distribution and contract packaging needs of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers across the U.S. The companys suite of services provides efficient closed loop logistics solutions through one provider minimizing the additional costs associated with multiple logistics resource outsourcing. For more information, please visit about:blank [http://www.kellerlogistics.com/ __title__ null]. About Tilia Holdings Tilia is a Chicago-based private investment firm focused exclusively on making control investments in the evolving farm-to-fork segment of the global food system. Tilia partners with growing, middle market companies who provide business services across the food supply chain and support leading, emerging and private-label CPG brands. The firms sector focused strategy is a successful approach to investments that spans three decades. Tilias deep understanding of operations enables a collaborative partnership approach with management and uniquely positions the firm to scale business service companies in the lower middle market. Through a value creation & governance model emphasizing stewardship, Tilia builds distinctive growth companies that enhance safety, nutrition & sustainability in the food supply chain. For more information, please visit http://www.tiliallc.com. Were proud to partner with states like Virginia who are pioneering the way small businesses and their employees will achieve a secure financial future, said Aaron Schumm, Founder and CEO of Vestwell. Vestwell, the modern fintech engine powering savings and investment programs for small businesses and individual savers across the country, today announced the Commonwealth of Virginia has selected it as the program administrator for RetirePath VirginiaSM. The partnership will provide Virginians with access to a workplace retirement plan through their employer and marks Vestwells fifth selection to administer state-facilitated retirement programs. Once all state programs are live, Vestwell is expected to power over three million savers. Theres a monumental shift happening in the retirement industry, said Aaron Schumm, Founder and CEO of Vestwell. Were seeing more and more states playing a central role in closing the retirement savings gap across the country. Were proud to partner with states like Virginia who are pioneering the way small businesses and their employees will achieve a secure financial future. Today, one in four adults in the United States do not have any retirement savings. States and their private-sector partners have proven to effectively serve small business employers with an affordable and user-friendly savings solution for their employees. In April, Vestwell won a bid to power Colorado Secure Savings Program and New Mexico Work and $ave. Vestwell also powers Oregon, Maryland, and Connecticuts state retirement savings programs. Virginia is the latest state to select Vestwell as its state retirement program administrator. State legislation directs Virginia529SM to establish and oversee the RetirePath Virginia program. As part of that process, Virginia529 selected Vestwell as the program administrator and BlackRock as the primary investment manager for RetirePath Virginia. Vestwell, in partnership with BNY Mellon, will provide recordkeeping, custodial services, and customer support to participating RetirePath Virginia employers and employees. There is a growing retirement savings gap in Virginia, said Virginia529 CEO, Mary Morris. Our partnership with Vestwell and BNY Mellon combines the strengths of three organizations the nimble approach of an innovative fintech, the stability of one of the oldest banks in the country, and the experience of the countrys largest 529 program to provide a user-friendly, cost-effective, secure and reliable platform to address that gap. RetirePath Virginia is a logical expansion of the Virginia529 mission, boosting access and promoting financial wellness to even more Virginians. Vestwell is the only fintech company that partners with state governments to offer a personalized savings experience, spanning across all savings vehicle verticals, while leveraging smart learning and modern APIs to reduce the administrative burden for states and small businesses alike, said Douglas Magnolia, President of Vestwell. Our experienced team, along with our modern, state-of-the-art platform sets us apart from competitors, which is why we have been selected to be the engine behind seventy-five percent of the state-run retirement programs that will be launched soon, making savings more affordable and accessible for millions of Americans across the country. RetirePath Virginias pilot program is scheduled to begin in early 2023 and phased enrollment will start by July 1, 2023. RetirePath Virginia will be simple to administer and fee-free for employers. Employee participation will be voluntary. To learn more about RetirePath Virginia, visit Virginia529.com/retire. Vestwells modern technology sits at the intersection of financial services, payroll providers, and state partnerships, and is expected to achieve three times the client growth for the second year in a row in 2022. The firm now administers six state-facilitated retirement programs, has strategic partnerships with BNY Mellon, Franklin Templeton, and Morgan Stanley, and recently signed an exclusive agreement with Patriot Payroll. About Vestwell Vestwell is the modern fintech engine powering savings and investment programs for small businesses and individual savers across the country. Were helping to close the savings gap by offering a flexible, cost-effective, modern solution to save for the critical aspects of life - retirement, education, and healthcare. Vestwell currently powers nearly 25,000 small businesses, over a million savers, and $27 billion in assets in all 50 states. To learn more visit vestwell.com. About Virginia529 College Savings Plan Virginia529 makes education more accessible and affordable for families and individuals. With more than $97 billion in assets under management and 3 million accounts as of March 31, 2022, Virginia529 is the largest 529 plan available. Two flexible, affordable, tax-advantaged programsInvest529SM and CollegeAmericaand early commitment scholarship program SOAR Virginia --assist students of any age in reaching their higher education goals. For more information on Virginia529s college savings options, visit Virginia529.com or call 1-888-567-0540 to obtain program materials. These include information on Virginia529 programs, investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other important information; read and consider them carefully before investing. All investments are subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Virginia529 encourages prospective participants to seek the advice of a professional concerning any financial, tax or legal implications related to opening an account. For residents of states other than Virginia: before investing, you should consider whether your or the beneficiarys home state offers any state tax or other state benefits such as financial aid, scholarship funds, and protections from creditors that are only available for investments in that states qualified tuition program. 2022 Virginia College Savings Plan. All Rights Reserved. For a more intimate portrait of Chinas president, we invite you to watch A friendship with roots in agriculture. President Xi Jinping visited the farm owned by Iowan Rick Kimberley in 2012 an encounter that began an enduring friendship. Then Vice President Xi charmed his hosts. And we were just in discussion here, talking, Rick Kimberley recalls, just like if youre with your best friend. A year later, Xi Jinping would be president of the Peoples Republic of China one of the two largest economies on earth. Their warm exchange on a chilly February day serves as a reminder of the friendly ties between China and the U.S. that have withstood their sometimes-turbulent geopolitics. The story shows Xi Jinping as Iowans came to know him on his first trip to their state 27 years ago down-to-earth, gracious kind. In 1985, as a young Party Secretary from Zhengding County, Hebei Province, Xi led a five-person delegation there to study farming techniques. He created bonds in the town of Muscatine that would last a lifetime friendships rooted in the soil, and soul, of Iowa. Xi returned to Iowa in 2012, visiting Rick Kimberly on his mega-farm in Maxwell, a two-and-a-half-hour drive west of Muscatine. Concerned about enhancing Chinas food security, Xi went to Maxwell to observe Kimberleys agribusiness industrial-scale, high-tech farming. The average plot of farmland in China is less than 0.5 hectares. Kimberly grows 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of soybeans and corn, while employing just three people. The farm produces enough grain to fill nine 16-meter-high bins that hold around 65,000 bushels or 1,650 metric tonnes of corn each. Kimberley said Xi asked how long he stored the grain and how he maintained optimal temperatures. What was surprising to me was how knowledgeable President Xi was about agriculture, Kimberley said. Today, you can visit the 13,330-hectare China-U.S. Friendship Demonstration Farm a.k.a., the Friendship Farm in Luanping County in Hebei province, northeast of Beijing. Something that Rick Kimberley keeps in a satin-lined box back home in Iowa symbolizes these ties as much as the Friendship Farm in Hebei. It is a cherished gift from Xi Jinping a vase engraved with Chinese characters that say: If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper. Kimberley believes this gift says a lot about its giver his friend, Xi Jinping. Click here to watch A friendship with roots in agriculture https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-06-01/A-Friendship-with-Its-Roots-in-Agriculture-1avcmwqn02s/index.html This material is distributed by MediaLinks TV, LLC on behalf of CCTV. Additional information is available at the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. "The City of Jacksonville is proud to be a part of the coalition launching the Blue Zones Project in some of our most vulnerable areas. We remain committed to improving the health and quality of life of citizens in our underserved communities," said Mayor Lenny Curry. The City of Jacksonville and a coalition of community partners announce the launch of Blue Zones Project in Jacksonville to help residents live better, longer lives. Blue Zones Project is a comprehensive initiative that transforms the environments where people live, work, learn, and play to measurably improve community well-being, resilience, and economic vitality. Blue Zones Project in Jacksonville is supported by a strong coalition of public and private partners: Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation, the City of Jacksonville, Florida Blue, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Mayo Clinic in Florida, UF Health Jacksonville, and United Way of Northeast Florida. "The introduction of the Blue Zones Project in Jacksonville is going to be nothing short of life-changing and life-saving. The Blue Zones Project has proven that access to quality resources and aid can have lasting, crucial health benefits," said Mayor Lenny Curry. "The City of Jacksonville is proud to be a part of the coalition launching the Blue Zones Project in some of our most vulnerable areas. We remain committed to improving the health and quality of life of citizens in our underserved communities." Baptist Health funded the initial Blue Zones Activate assessment, during which the Blue Zones team did a deep dive into the city to determine if it was feasible to launch a community-wide initiative. Building a healthier, happier Jacksonville means expanding efforts outside hospital walls, and Blue Zones Project provides a solutions-oriented method for improving community well-being that is sustainable and collaborative, said Michael A. Mayo, DHA, FACHE, President and CEO of Baptist Health. By coming together, we can achieve true policy and systems change for the good of the entire region. Blue Zones Project is a first-of-its-kind population health initiative based on research and principles developed by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author who identified the cultures of the worldor blue zoneswith the healthiest, longest-living populations. Research shows that where people live has a bigger influence on their health than their genetics, so Blue Zones focuses on the Life Radiusthe area close to home where people spend 90% of their lives. Blue Zones Project works with communities to optimize public policies, social connections, and the places and spaces where people spend the most time (streets, parks, schools, workplaces, grocery stores, faith communities, homes) to help make healthy choices easy and more accessible to all. Participating communities have seen double-digit drops in obesity and smoking rates, economic investment in downtown corridors, grant funding awards to support policies and programs to improve health equity, and measurable savings in healthcare costs. The pilot city, Albert Lea, Minnesota, raised life expectancy by 3 years and lowered healthcare costs for city workers by 40 percent. Darnell Smith, Market President for Florida Blue said: We are keenly aware that a persons zip code helps define their health outcomes. GuideWell/Florida Blue is excited about the possibilities of working with Blue Zones, Baptist Health, and other community partners to help improve the health outcomes of many of our neighbors, especially in the underserved neighborhoods. This partnership will allow a critical mass of health-focused partners to operate with a shared vision toward improving health outcomes. At Brooks Rehabilitation, we are proud to partner with other leading First Coast organizations on the Blue Zones Project, said Doug Baer, Brooks Rehabilitation President and CEO. Together we can create a healthier, more vibrant community and bring positive change in addressing disparities in our region. The research-based, evidence-backed approach of Blue Zones has been proven in city after city, and we look forward to seeing our own results as Jaxsons become healthier and live longer. We also know that many of the Blue Zones interventions will make Jacksonville a better place to live, work, and play, said Mari Kuraishi, President of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. We are proud to join this powerful coalition of community leaders as we work toward a shared goal of making Jacksonville a place where everyone feels they belong. Over the next six years, local leadership and the Blue Zones team will launch and implement policy work and school initiatives across all of Duval County. Further, the Westside, Northside, and East Jax neighborhoods will undergo focused Blue Zones Life Radius transformation. At UF Health Jacksonville, not only are we committed to improving the lives of our patients, but we are also committed to improving the health of residents living in the community surrounding our downtown campus, which is the most populated area of Jacksonville's urban core, said Russ Armistead, CEO of UF Health Jacksonville. The Blue Zones Project was a perfect opportunity to further this commitment, and were proud to be a part of it. We look forward to the outcomes of this initiative that will hopefully benefit the health of the city for decades to come. Many of the factors contributing to good health and a better, longer life are those that will help us break the cycle of poverty and create a community of opportunity in Northeast Florida, said Robin Abbott, United Ways chief financial officer and interim CEO. Were working toward a future where everyone has hope and can reach their full potential, regardless of the color of their skin or the zip code in which they were born. Our partnership with Blue Zones underscores that effort and will contribute to stronger, more inclusive outcomes for all members of our community. Whitney Meyer, Chief Community Impact Officer for the Jacksonville Jaguars, said: The Blue Zones Project represents an important next step for the Jaguars in our long-term commitment to the Outeast community, right next door to TIAA Bank Field. This unique approach to community-specific wellness programming will provide health care solutions to Outeast residents in the place they call home. The Jaguars are proud to join this coalition of community partners in promoting a healthier Jacksonville. "A different approach is needed to address the same pressing health issues that continue to afflict the area year after year. To achieve change, we must work together to support and create community-based programming and address wellness. It is also important that we recognize differences among populations as well as differences in priorities from stakeholders in this collaboration, including the community members. This comprehensive investment in Blue Zones, from health care systems and community organizations will allow us to enhance efforts and maximize resources to achieve our goal of improving the lives of the people in our community that have the greatest barriers to health. Mayo Clinic is pleased to be a part of this collaborative effort in our community, said Kent Thielen, M.D., CEO, Mayo Clinic in Florida. Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and co-founder of Blue Zones Project, said: Jacksonville is blessed with a powerfully aligned civic leadership with the desire and drive to build a healthier, happier, and more productive community. The time is now to do something transformational to produce lasting results. With this influential and impressive coalition of partners, Blue Zones Project will be able to complement the community-building work already underway with actionable priorities and measures. The launch of Blue Zones Project in Jacksonville represents the beginning of a multi-year collaborative effort that involves the entire community working together towards one common goal to support and build a culture of health and well-being. The local implementation team will begin the leadership planning phase this month with a kickoff event to follow later in the year. Find more information about the Blue Zones Project Jacksonville at bluezones.com/bzpjacksonville. About Blue Zones Project Blue Zones Project is a community-led well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to a citys environment, policy, and social networks. Blue Zones Project is based on research by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author who identified five cultures of the worldor blue zones with the highest concentration of people living to 100 years or older. Blue Zones Project incorporates Buettners findings and works with cities to implement policies and programs that will move a community toward optimal health and well-being. Blue Zones launched the first pilot community in 2009 in Albert Lea, MN with groundbreaking results. Directly and also in partnership with Sharecare, the model has since been applied to more than 75 communities in the United States. Participating communities have experienced double-digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs. For more information, visit bluezones.com. Aqua-Tots Swim Schools now offering dedicated, year-round, indoor swim lessons to families in Falls Church and Fairfax County, Virginia. Serving the community of Falls Church enables us to reach busy families including those who work and live near Washington, D.C. - Mike Steele, Franchise Owner Aqua-Tots Swim Schools has expanded with the opening of its 125th worldwide franchise location in Falls Church, Virginia. Located at 1104b W. Broad Street, Aqua-Tots Falls Church neighbors Staples in the newly remodeled Broad and Birch shopping center. They officially opened their doors on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. The 7,000 square foot, state-of-the-art swim facility is the first location for Franchise Owner Mike Steele and twelfth location for his business partners, Andrew George, Jesse Rhodenbaugh and Tommy Fisher, who also own schools in North Carolina and Georgia. Aqua-Tots Falls Church is ready to serve families throughout Fairfax County, Virginia. Serving the community of Falls Church enables us to reach busy families including those who work and live near Washington, D.C., said Steele. This is a thriving community full of young children, and participation in formal swim lessons can reduce their risk of drowning by 88%. Its an honor to bring the proven Aqua-Tots curriculum to Falls Church and serve families with life-saving swim lessons. The Aqua-Tots Swim Journey is comprised of eight levels of comprehensive curriculum that is tried, true and trusted all over the world to teach over five million swim lessons every year. Each level is designed to build upon the next, taking children as early as four months old on a journey toward becoming safe and confident swimmers for life. Aqua-Tots Falls Church is now open seven days a week and is offering a free additional swim lesson each week for the first month (value of $129) for those who enroll by June 15, 2022. Families can reserve a spot in small group (4:1 ratio), semi-private (2:1 ratio) or private (1:1 ratio) lessons before classes fill up. Aqua-Tots Falls Church also features the Special Needs Aquatic Program (S.N.A.P.), Fast Track and adult swim lessons. Aqua-Tots Falls Church is now hiring front desk staff and swim instructors. Those interested can fill out an application online at aqua-tots.com/employment. To learn more or to register for swim lessons, please visit aqua-tots.com/falls-church or call (404) 202-7267. About Aqua-Tots Swim Schools Aqua-Tots Swim Schools serves over 120 communities worldwide, offering dedicated, year-round, indoor swim instruction, community outreach and drowning prevention education to children of all abilities from four months to 12 years old. As the worlds largest swim school franchise that is continuing to grow with 90 locations in development, Aqua-Tots hand-selected instructors are passionate about teaching children how to remain safer in and around the water. The company uses tried and true curriculum, more than 30 years in the making and trusted worldwide to teach five million swim lessons annually. To learn more, visit aqua-tots.com or follow Aqua-Tots on Facebook and Instagram. RIT Baja navigates the course at Hogback Hill during the 2019 Baja SAE Competition. Credit: Matteo Bracco National and international collegiate Baja racecars will start arriving in the next few weeks at Rochester Institute of Technology for the Baja SAE Rochester event, June 2-5. RIT will host the international off-road event again, for the eighth time. It remains a competition that is not for the faint of heart, but one that gives student-engineers a career edge. RITs Baja race team manager Anthony Blasie and project manager Mike Borodzik are fourth-year mechanical engineering technology students. Blasie is from Belle Mead, N.J.; Borodzik is from Depew, N.Y. They started with the team in their first year and have been involved ever since. They talked about the racecar, the team, and how RIT RIOT Racing has maintained its reputation as gracious event hosts and intense competitors. What are your responsibilities with the team? Anthony Blasie: My role is to run the team day-to-day and be the spokesperson for the team, our and managers, and sponsors. Personality-wise, Id say our team has a lot of dedicated members that want to come in and do a lot of work for us. I think thats what sets us apartthe dedication factor. Mike Borodzik: My role is overseeing the project timeline, testing schedules, documentation, engineering design cycle. We have the car mostly built so we are focusing on getting testing done, ensuring all the equipment is ready before the event. Our team really has a passion for learning the engineering cycle. People who want to learn and do more often succeed better on this team. The ones that stay around, asking questions, wanting to learn more, asking Can you show me how to do this so I can do it for myself? thats what I think helps us succeed and do so well year to year. What does it take to build the RIT Baja Racecar? Borodzik: The first year, you are learning about the team, how its run. Second year, you understudy someone in a system you are interested in, you shadow those people, to learn more about it. The third year you are creating parts. The fourth year, you are design lead, sometimes re-doing a whole design process because you have a better understanding of how it goes, and by fifth year, you are a guru, teaching others. What is it like to be a part of the RIT Baja Race Team? Blasie: The only way you can really grasp what it takes is to actually do this. Since I have been a part of the team, we have had a good amount of freshman come in, thinking it is just a fun cluband it is funbut some were not prepared for all the work that actually goes into it. Borodzik: We meet on Tuesday nights and Saturdays. But building the car is not something that is slapped together in a couple of days, and you just run with it. Some sacrifice sleep to get this car made. What does it take to maintain RITs success and reputation? Blasie: We build off success; we see what works, what failed, and try replicate the successes. We keep up with our designs and we try to innovate as much as possible, trying to find new ways to push the car. To maintain the reputation, its not just about winning, its about being a good representative of RIT. Borodzik: When we go to races, we try to help others whether it is our biggest competitors like Michigan, or a school showing up for the first time we dont want to win because we didnt help them, just the opposite. We want to compete with the best teams. How can this experience with Baja benefit careers? Blasie: Being able to talk about Baja during an interview with an employer is one of the most useful things. Questions employers ask are about what skills have you learned from this? How have you applied things? Being involved is a really big step upfor skills and the RIT reputation. We dont take this lightly. About Baja SAE Rochester Final exams may be over, but RIT Bajas biggest challenge is just ahead. They will be among the 100 collegiate race teams coming to town for the 2022 Baja SAE Rochester competition, taking place June 2-5 at RITs Gordon Field House and at Hogback Hill Motocross site in Palmyra N.Y. The challenge is as much about daring and nerve as it is about exceptional engineering design. Event officials confirm that conditions for the off-road challenge will be exceptionalwith the roughest terrain to navigate, some mud thrown in for good measure, hills to climb, and obstacles to overcome. Teams from universities in the United States, Canada, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela will compete. Past event champions include the University of Michigan, Cornell University, RIT, and Ecole de Technologie Superieure (Quebec). University teams from Oregon, Nebraska, and Arizona have been moving up in standings and continually give favored teams a challenge. Baja SAE events are held across the country at different universities and field venues. They consist of competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects in which engineering students design and build off-road vehicles that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrainhill and rock climbsacceleration and maneuverability challenges and a four-hour endurance race. Except for the tires, rims, shocks, and engine, everything on the RIT Baja vehicle is made in-house by team members. Each team has a same-size engine, and according to SAE rules, it cannot be modified, giving all teams a level playing fielduntil they take the field at motocross sites during competitions. RIT has acquired a reputation as the go-to team for help and guidancefrom needing different tools to support in preparing for design and safety events before even getting on to the course. For several years running, the team has been recognized by peers for this and maintaining that reputation is a part of the teams culture as much as consistently being a top team. Clinical Trial Media has been named to Inc. magazines annual Best Workplaces list. Featured in the May/June 2022 issue, hitting newsstands on May 17, 2022, and prominently featured on Inc.com, the list is the result of a comprehensive measurement of American companies that have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether operating in a physical or virtual facility. Clinical Trial Media is a data-driven, global patient recruitment and retention company with a comprehensive suite of services and solutions, expertly tested and proven across 1,800 studies. For over 27 years, CTM has been a preferred vendor to clinical trial sponsors, CROs and research sites. Our team consists of smart and highly experienced individuals who are passionate about the patient and site experience throughout the trial journey. After collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. selected 475 honorees this year. Each company that was nominated took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, which included topics such as management effectiveness, perks, fostering employee growth, and overall company culture. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine overall score and ranking. At CTM, we are passionate about clinical research, client experience, and doing great work, said Cara Brant, CEO of Clinical Trial Media. Our team includes smart and dedicated individuals who take pride in the work we do to help patients in need. We value each other, our work, and giving back in order to make a difference in our communities. Not long ago, the term best workplace would have conjured up images of open-office designs with stocked snack fridges, says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Yet given the widespread adoption of remote work, the concept of the workplace has shifted. This year, Inc. has recognized the organizations dedicated to redefining and enriching the workplace in the face of the pandemic. About Clinical Trial Media Based on Long Island and originally founded in 1995, Clinical Trial Media is a privately owned and operated global patient recruitment and retention agency with a comprehensive toolkit to successfully enroll clinical study patients in various ongoing therapeutic areas. Backed by a full suite of innovative technology solutions and patient-centric services that assist clinical study teams, Clinical Trial Media's holistic view carefully identifies the catalysts for success by using customized products and vast industry experience to help clients complete enrollment on time or ahead of schedule. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Pet Disease Alerts (petdiseasealerts.org) is a nonprofit focused on alerting pet owners to the threat of pet diseases in their local areas. Year-round preventives are the best way to protect our pets from fleas and other harmful parasites and to keep homes flea-free. The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) the nations leading source on parasitic diseases that threaten the health of pets and people is forecasting heightened flea activity in Chicago, Illinois, and surrounding areas for June 2022. Fleas, one of the most common external parasites in dogs and cats, are more serious than most people realize with the potential to cause serious harm to the health of pets and their owners. Flea infestations not only disrupt the human-animal bond, but also carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. In its mission to monitor and report emerging threats to companion animals, CAPC developed the Flea Forecasts to alert pet owners of flea activity in their local communities based on environmental conditions. These forecast maps are updated daily and can be found at PetDiseaseAlerts.org. Even though fleas prefer to feed on pets, people are not immune from receiving their irritating and sometimes disease-spreading bites, said Dr. Rick Marrinson, DVM, and CAPC board member. The new Flea Forecasts at PetDiseaseAlerts.org are designed to alert pet owners and veterinarians where fleas are currently most active across the United States." Please click here for pre-packaged video news segment for download/use highlighting details outlined below: Flea Forecast in Illinois June 2022 One of the most common external parasites of dogs and cats, fleas not only cause a variety of pesky problems, including allergic reactions and discomfort, they can also be a source of disease in both pets and humans. Analysis of the Flea Forecasts shows that flea activity has moved into the Greater Chicago metro, surrounding areas and throughout the Midwest regions this month. Movement of oranges and yellows from the South into the Midwest region, show increasing flea activity moving northward as the weather warms up. Flea activity will continue to increase as summer temperatures rise. However, fleas are not limited to warm months. Infestations in the home and outbreaks can occur year-round due to fleas ability to continue their life cycle indoors Why Should Pet Owners Be Concerned? More than ever before, pets have become integral members of the family, providing emotional support and comfort to their human companions. Fleas, the most common external pet parasite, can negatively impact the bond between pets and their owners if not controlled. Fleas are often a primary motivator for veterinary visits. Itchy, scratchy dogs keeping their owners up at night is a common complaint at veterinary practices. Fleas cause skin issues in pets, creating a lot of distress for them and their owners. The red, flaky skin caused by allergic reactions to fleas makes pets less cuddly and everyone is miserable. Cats sleeping on your pillow or dogs snuggling in your bed can leaving behind flea eggs, flea maggots, and flea feces. That creates a high ick-factor for pet owners and results in pets being banished from areas where their family members spend the most time. Pet owners associate fleas with itching and scratching, but there other serious reasons for concern. Fleas, while irritating, may carry and transmit other dangerous diseases or parasites that affect pets. Some of these diseases are zoonotic, which means they can be transmitted from animals to humans. For instance, Dipylidium caninum, a type of tapeworm, is a parasite transmitted through ingestion of an infected flea. The tapeworms mature to adults in the intestinal tract and their egg packets are the worm-like segments that are shed in feces. While the disease caused by this tapeworm is generally mild and easily treated, it can be unpleasant for pet owners to see the egg packets in their pets stool. Humans may also become infected if they ingest an infected flea, making children especially more likely to become infected with Dipylidium. Another disease transmitted by fleas is Cat Scratch Fever. This disease can infect both dogs and cats, as well as transmitted to humans when a cat carrying infected fleas scratches or bites a person. Although the symptoms are generally mild in humans, some people develop serious complications and require more rigorous treatment. If not prevented, all of these scenarios present the potential to ruin the relationship between pets and their people. What Should Pet Owners Do? The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council stresses that year-round control is the best way to protect our pets from fleas and other harmful parasites and to keep homes flea-free. Although fleas are more likely to be a problem during warmer months, they can cause problems during cooler months due to their ability to live indoors. Its important to keep all pets in a household on year-round flea preventive medication to prevent infestations. If an infestation already exists, treating bedding and all areas where your pets regularly inhabit is also critical to success. Flea infestations can take months to bring under control once established. And, fleas dont discriminate: Every pet in the home must be treated year-round with a flea control product to achieve success. Its far easier to prevent fleas than to treat them. Also, it is important to note that fleas are not just seasonal parasites due to their ability to survive in challenging conditions. In short, fleas are everywhere, and year-round prevention is the best option for keeping pets parasite-free and families healthy. Pet owners should talk to their local veterinarian about the best method of prevention for their situations. CAPC encourages pet owners and veterinarians to regularly consult the Flea Forecasts, which are updated daily and display flea activity across the country based on environmental conditions. The Flea Forecasts can be viewed at http://www.PetDiseaseAlerts.org. CAPCs forecasts supported by ongoing research by parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States highlight areas where more should be done to lower the risk of companion animals exposure to disease caused by fleas. The foundation of these prevention strategies are recommendations that veterinarians and pet owners protect pets with year-round prevention products that kill or repel fleas. Because of the zoonotic potential of parasitic diseases meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans we created our Flea Forecasts to alert communities of the risk to people and pets locally, said Dr. Christopher Carpenter, DVM, and CEO of CAPC. CAPCs daily Flea Forecasts are critical to alerting pet owners to the risks of fleas and reinforcing CAPCs recommendation that all pets need to be protected year-round. To view the daily Flea Forecast, as well as the 30-Day Pet Parasite Forecast Maps that covers four parasitic diseases (Heartworm, Lyme, Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis), visit http://www.petdiseasealerts.org. How the Forecasts Are Created The CAPC Pet Parasite Forecast Maps are a collaborative effort from parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States who engage in ongoing research and data interpretation to better understand and monitor vector-borne disease agent transmission and changing life cycles of parasites. The forecasts are based on many factors including temperature, precipitation and population density. About Pet Disease Alerts Pet Disease Alerts (http://www.petdiseasealerts.org) is a nonprofit focused on alerting pet owners to the threat of pet diseases in their local areas. Established by the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) in 2018, Pet Disease Alerts was created to directly communicate crucial, time-sensitive information about disease threats, encouraging pet owners to be proactive by visiting their veterinarian to get their pets tested and protected. About the Companion Animal Parasite Council The Companion Animal Parasite Council (http://www.capcvet.org) is an independent not-for-profit foundation comprised of parasitologists, veterinarians, medical, public health and other professionals that provides information for the optimal control of internal and external parasites that threaten the health of pets and people. Formed in 2002, CAPC works to help veterinary professionals and pet owners develop the best practices in parasite management that protect pets from parasitic infections and reduce the risk of zoonotic parasite transmission. ### Pet Disease Alerts (petdiseasealerts.org) is a nonprofit focused on alerting pet owners to the threat of pet diseases in their local areas. Year-round preventives are the best way to protect our pets from fleas and other harmful parasites and to keep homes flea-free. The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) the nations leading source on parasitic diseases that threaten the health of pets and people is forecasting heightened flea activity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Mid-Atlantic region for June 2022. Fleas, one of the most common external parasites in dogs and cats, are more serious than most people realize with the potential to cause serious harm to the health of pets and their owners. Flea infestations not only disrupt the human-animal bond, but also carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. In its mission to monitor and report emerging threats to companion animals, CAPC developed the Flea Forecasts to alert pet owners of flea activity in their local communities based on environmental conditions. These forecast maps are updated daily and can be found at PetDiseaseAlerts.org. Even though fleas prefer to feed on pets, people are not immune from receiving their irritating and sometimes disease-spreading bites, said Dr. Rick Marrinson, DVM, and CAPC board member. The new Flea Forecasts at PetDiseaseAlerts.org are designed to alert pet owners and veterinarians where fleas are currently most active across the United States." Please click here for pre-packaged video news segment for download/use highlighting details outlined below: Flea Forecast in Pennsylvania June 2022 One of the most common external parasites of dogs and cats, fleas not only cause a variety of pesky problems, including allergic reactions and discomfort, they can also be a source of disease in both pets and humans. Analysis of the Flea Forecasts shows that flea activity has moved into Philadelphia, and the Mid-Atlantic region this month. Movement of oranges and yellows from the south into the Mid-Atlantic region, show increasing flea activity moving northward as the weather warms up. Flea activity will continue to increase as summer temperatures rise. However, fleas are not limited to warm months. Infestations in the home and outbreaks can occur year-round due to fleas ability to continue their life cycle indoors Why Should Pet Owners Be Concerned? More than ever before, pets have become integral members of the family, providing emotional support and comfort to their human companions. Fleas, the most common external pet parasite, can negatively impact the bond between pets and their owners if not controlled. Fleas are often a primary motivator for veterinary visits. Itchy, scratchy dogs keeping their owners up at night is a common complaint at veterinary practices. Fleas cause skin issues in pets, creating a lot of distress for them and their owners. The red, flaky skin caused by allergic reactions to fleas makes pets less cuddly and everyone is miserable. Cats sleeping on your pillow or dogs snuggling in your bed can leaving behind flea eggs, flea maggots, and flea feces. That creates a high ick-factor for pet owners and results in pets being banished from areas where their family members spend the most time. Pet owners associate fleas with itching and scratching, but there other serious reasons for concern. Fleas, while irritating, may carry and transmit other dangerous diseases or parasites that affect pets. Some of these diseases are zoonotic, which means they can be transmitted from animals to humans. For instance, Dipylidium caninum, a type of tapeworm, is a parasite transmitted through ingestion of an infected flea. The tapeworms mature to adults in the intestinal tract and their egg packets are the worm-like segments that are shed in feces. While the disease caused by this tapeworm is generally mild and easily treated, it can be unpleasant for pet owners to see the egg packets in their pets stool. Humans may also become infected if they ingest an infected flea, making children especially more likely to become infected with Dipylidium. Another disease transmitted by fleas is Cat Scratch Fever. This disease can infect both dogs and cats, as well as transmitted to humans when a cat carrying infected fleas scratches or bites a person. Although the symptoms are generally mild in humans, some people develop serious complications and require more rigorous treatment. If not prevented, all of these scenarios present the potential to ruin the relationship between pets and their people. What Should Pet Owners Do? The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council stresses that year-round control is the best way to protect our pets from fleas and other harmful parasites and to keep homes flea-free. Although fleas are more likely to be a problem during warmer months, they can cause problems during cooler months due to their ability to live indoors. Its important to keep all pets in a household on year-round flea preventive medication to prevent infestations. If an infestation already exists, treating bedding and all areas where your pets regularly inhabit is also critical to success. Flea infestations can take months to bring under control once established. And, fleas dont discriminate: Every pet in the home must be treated year-round with a flea control product to achieve success. Its far easier to prevent fleas than to treat them. Also, it is important to note that fleas are not just seasonal parasites due to their ability to survive in challenging conditions. In short, fleas are everywhere, and year-round prevention is the best option for keeping pets parasite-free and families healthy. Pet owners should talk to their local veterinarian about the best method of prevention for their situations. CAPC encourages pet owners and veterinarians to regularly consult the Flea Forecasts, which are updated daily and display flea activity across the country based on environmental conditions. The Flea Forecasts can be viewed at http://www.PetDiseaseAlerts.org. CAPCs forecasts supported by ongoing research by parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States highlight areas where more should be done to lower the risk of companion animals exposure to disease caused by fleas. The foundation of these prevention strategies are recommendations that veterinarians and pet owners protect pets with year-round prevention products that kill or repel fleas. Because of the zoonotic potential of parasitic diseases meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans we created our Flea Forecasts to alert communities of the risk to people and pets locally, said Dr. Christopher Carpenter, DVM, and CEO of CAPC. CAPCs daily Flea Forecasts are critical to alerting pet owners to the risks of fleas and reinforcing CAPCs recommendation that all pets need to be protected year-round. To view the daily Flea Forecast, as well as the 30-Day Pet Parasite Forecast Maps that covers four parasitic diseases (Heartworm, Lyme, Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis), visit http://www.petdiseasealerts.org. How the Forecasts Are Created The CAPC Pet Parasite Forecast Maps are a collaborative effort from parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States who engage in ongoing research and data interpretation to better understand and monitor vector-borne disease agent transmission and changing life cycles of parasites. The forecasts are based on many factors including temperature, precipitation and population density. About Pet Disease Alerts Pet Disease Alerts (http://www.petdiseasealerts.org) is a nonprofit focused on alerting pet owners to the threat of pet diseases in their local areas. Established by the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) in 2018, Pet Disease Alerts was created to directly communicate crucial, time-sensitive information about disease threats, encouraging pet owners to be proactive by visiting their veterinarian to get their pets tested and protected. About the Companion Animal Parasite Council The Companion Animal Parasite Council (http://www.capcvet.org) is an independent not-for-profit foundation comprised of parasitologists, veterinarians, medical, public health and other professionals that provides information for the optimal control of internal and external parasites that threaten the health of pets and people. Formed in 2002, CAPC works to help veterinary professionals and pet owners develop the best practices in parasite management that protect pets from parasitic infections and reduce the risk of zoonotic parasite transmission. ### I am honored to be stepping in as Evidence In Motions next CEO. It is a privilege to be joining an organization that is an innovator in the delivery of healthcare and leader in preparing the next generation of clinicians into tomorrows multidisciplinary leaders." - Pradeep Khandelwal, CEO of EIM Confluent Health is proud to announce the appointment of Pradeep Khandelwal to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Evidence In Motion (EIM), the companys health care education provider. With over 20 years of executive management experience, Khandelwal is an accomplished business transformation leader, selected to continue the education companys growth and expand its strategic partnerships. I am honored to be stepping in as Evidence In Motions next CEO. It is a privilege to be joining an organization that is an innovator in the delivery of healthcare and leader in preparing the next generation of clinicians into tomorrows multidisciplinary leaders, said Khandelwal. EIM was founded with a clear purpose and vision, which is to disrupt and innovate health care education in the name of accessibility, quality, and humanizing patient care. I am committed to the ongoing evolution of the industry, and to realizing the EIM vision and doing so with passion. The appointment will see EIM founder and physical therapy pioneer, Dr. John Childs, PT, Ph.D., MBA, FAPTA assume a leadership role focused on shaping the companys strategy, driving its growth, and overseeing key strategic relationships. Having been involved in the search process for a new CEO, Childs reaffirmed Khandelwals business-forward acumen and experience as the perfect skillset for continuing the companys mission and innovating for the future. Pradeeps experience transforming businesses, along with the existing education and health care expertise on the EIM leadership team, will be a powerful combination to lead EIM through its next phase of growth, said Childs. Khandelwal was most recently at Ministry Brands as an EVP responsible for their Total Solutions business. Prior to that, he spent time at Elsevier overseeing one of their largest and fastest-growing digital education businesses and 15 years at Deloitte Consulting delivering complex transformation and growth initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. Khandelwal is eager to accelerate the growth at EIM. I look forward to the opportunity to work alongside the Evidence In Motion team and build on the strong foundation that the company has already established. Khandelwals arrival comes at an exciting time for the company. Evidence In Motion has over 10 strategic partnerships with universities powering hybrid and innovative graduate programs, alongside over a hundred continuing education courses and post-professional certifications, residencies, and fellowships for lifelong learning clinicians. With Confluent Healths continued expansion, identifying top industry talent is a key priority for the delivery of continued transformation and extraordinary results, said Larry Benz PT, DPT, OCS, MBA, FAPTA, Confluent Healths Chief Executive Officer. Benz further stated, Education and professional development are areas across the broader Confluent Health portfolio which have received heightened interest and investment because we believe they are truly essential to elevating patient care in every community. Confluent Health leadership is incredibly supportive of Evidence In Motion and its mission to be trailblazers in the health care education space and we believe Pradeeps appointment will help support and further amplify that mission. Khandelwal assumes his role officially on June 6, 2022, at EIMs office headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. About Confluent Health: Confluent Health is a family of physical and occupational therapy companies. We are transforming health care by strengthening private practices, developing highly effective clinicians, innovating new services and technology to improve the quality of care for patients, and lowering costs via more effective treatment, workplace wellness, and injury prevention. For more information, visit goconfluent.com or find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter at @confluentfamily. About Evidence In Motion: Evidence In Motion (EIM) provides accessible, lifelong education to health care professionals transforming their communities. We offer specialty certifications, post-professional programs, and continuing education courses. EIM also partners with leading universities to provide innovative graduate programs in health care professions including physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, and others. EIM is reimagining health care education through unique hybrid learning models, which integrate evidence-based practice, top faculty from across the country, and a leading curriculum combining online learning blended with intensive hands-on lab experiences. Our health care education increases access, reduces student debt and improves outcomes. Learn more about Evidence In Motion at evidenceinmotion.com. Eloisa Sanchez, Duthie Power's Service Operations Manager Duthie Power Services has always said, Service is our business, and they focus on the customer experience every day. Demand for emergency power systems, fueled by unpredictable weather and more frequent planned power outages from local utilities, continues to grow in Southern California and beyond. Duthie Power is growing alongside this demand, and as the leading generator service company in Southern California, the company is expanding the leadership in its service delivery team in order to maintain the service excellence that their growing list of customers expect. Duthie Power Services has always said, Service is our business, and they focus on the customer experience every day. For the past eight years, Randy Gross has been a leader in Duthie Powers Service Department, overseeing immense growth in both technician and administrative personnel. In the newly created position of Head of Quality Assurance, Randy will be responsible for ensuring customers are receiving the highest quality generator service from Duthie Power. Randy will be personally visiting Duthie customers and making sure the service team has delivered and exceeded expectations. Beyond its headquarters, Randy Gross is working with Long Beach City College to expand their Generator Technician School Program. Duthie Power is committed to supporting young students in the local community who wish to pursue technical careers. Dewey Brunson is now Duthies Head of Service, bringing his 14 years experience at Duthie Power as the Assistant Service Manager to lead the growing department. Deweys attention to detail and dedication to continuously improving service will be utilized as Duthie continues to grow its customer base. Dewey has already expanded the service leadership team to better achieve its 2022 strategic goals. Eloisa Sanchez stepped into the role of Service Department Operations Manager to support the creation of scalable operational processes and workflows. Johnny Bradford, an experienced generator technician at Duthie, is also stepping into a leadership role as the Service Department Technician Manager. Both roles will allow for targeted leadership of the operations and technician teams so the entire Service Department can thrive. Duthie Powers aim is to support employees with managers who understand the nuance of each employees role, as well through offering continuing education programs for staff. For over 50 years, Duthie Power Services has served as the largest independent generator and fire pump service provider in Southern California. The Duthie team specializes in generator sales, installations, rentals, routine maintenance, diagnostics, repairs, and 24/7/365 emergency power restoration. The companys commitment to using high-quality parts, coupled with fast, guaranteed customer service and preventative maintenance packages, have made them an industry leader. Duthie Power is a family-owned business and active member of BOMA San Diego (Building Owners and Managers Association) and BOMA Orange County, as well as EGSA (Electrical Generating Systems Association), with offices in Long Beach and San Diego, California. For more information, contact http://www.Duthiepower.com at 800-394-7697 and/or Shana Duthie at shana.duthie (at) duthiepower (dot) com. "Each and every day, we are pushing ourselves to challenge the status quo, and we hope to continue being a catalyst for change within the strawberry nursery business, said David Adams, President & CEO. Scheduled to broadcast Q4/2022, Advancements with Ted Danson will focus on breakthroughs in nursery and fruit production. From innovations in subsurface drip-irrigation to fully vented micro tunnel systems, this segment of Advancements will explore how Cedar Point Nursery (CPN) is innovating and moving the industry forward. Spectators will see how CPNs ground-breaking practices and techniques have reduced huge amounts of risk that used to be carried by both nurseries and fruit producers. Our founder, Mike Fahner, was well known in the industry as an entrepreneur and an innovator. Under his leadership, many commonly used farming techniques were invented in our fields. Even though he isnt with us anymore, his attitude and spirit remain alive and well. Each and every day, we are pushing ourselves to challenge the status quo, and we hope to continue being a catalyst for change within the strawberry nursery business, said David Adams, President & CEO. The show will also focus on how CPN grows various strawberry varieties to the tune of about 75 million plants annually, which are then sold to fruit growers throughout California, Florida, Mexico, and Canada. Audiences will learn about the entire production process, where strawberry meristems are harvested in a lab and cultivated for 2-3 years before they are ready for sale. We look forward to exploring CPNs dedication to creating innovative practices that will continue to deliver the highest quality plants possible, said John Galvin, senior producer for the Advancements series. About Cedar Farms Nursery: Located in the shadow of Mount Shasta, Cedar Point Nursery (CPN) is 1 of 9 high elevation strawberry nurseries in California. Farming on an average of 300 acres per year, the company supplies high-quality strawberry plants to growers throughout California, Florida, Canada, and Mexico. As it honors the legacy of its late founder, Mike Fahner, CPN continues to push the industry forward by constantly innovating and evolving. For more information, visit: http://www.cedarpointnursery.com. About Advancements and DMG Productions: Advancements is an information-based educational television series that explores recent developments taking place across several industries and economies. Shining a light on important issues and topics impacting society today, the series features the cutting-edge improvements, state-of-the-art technologies, and innovative solutions responsible for shaping, molding, and transforming our world. Backed by experts in various fields, DMG Productions is dedicated to education and advancement, and to consistently producing commercial-free, educational programming for viewers and networks. For more information, please visit http://www.AdvancementsTV.com or call 866-496-4065. Representatives from US2, Redgate Real Estate Advisors, Spagnolo Gisness & Associates, and Gilbane Building Company gathered to celebrate the official topping out of the 194,000-SF, Class A, mixed-use life sciences building at Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. With seven stories of lab- and office-ready space, and a two-story mechanical penthouse to support life sciences tenants, the new building will feature a state-of-the-art design, lab-ready infrastructure, flexible and efficient floor plans, as well as a range of on-site amenities. Upon completion, the facility will provide an innovative research and development environment for synergistic collaboration and discoveries. Along with the return of public transit via the new train station, the Union Square Development (USQ) signals the inauguration of Somerville as a new sub-cluster of technology and life sciences. The exterior design celebrates the extensive history of Union Square by featuring materials used in local industries of the 1900s such as grist mills, brick manufacturing, and ink, glass, and copper tubing factories. In reaching this important milestone we have used the latest advances in construction, sustainability, and safety technologies to create a safe, efficient, and state-of-the-art job site, said Mike OBrien, senior vice president and business unit leader for Gilbane. Were on track to complete this facility by May of 2023 when well gather again to cut the ribbon and turn over the building to US2 as well as some very lucky new tenants. On behalf of all the partners associated with US2, I want to thank Gilbane Building Company and all the construction workers, Redgate Real Estate Advisors, Spagnolo Gisness & Associates, and other members of the design team for bringing us to this milestone today and delivering on the very important vision that the City of Somerville has for Union Square, said Greg Karczewski, president of Union Square Station Associates (US2). About Gilbane Building Company Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, general contracting, design-build, and facility management services for clients across various markets. Founded in 1870 and still a privately held, family-owned company, Gilbane has more than 45 office locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.gilbaneco.com. Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, P.A. continues the strategic growth of its Government Law & Policy Practice with the addition of Roger Beau Beaubien as of counsel in the firms Tallahassee office. Beaubien, who has worked in state government and politics for the past 10 years, most recently served as deputy chief of staff in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis administration. At Greenberg Traurig, Beaubien will focus his practice on legislative and executive branch lobbying, campaign finance law, insurance, public policy advocacy, the state bidding and licensing processes, and elections law matters. He will represent clients before the Florida Elections Commission and the Commission on Ethics. His arrival follows former Florida Lottery Interim Secretary and Chief of Staff Samantha Ferrin, who joined the firm as director of the Government Law & Policy Practice in Tallahassee in early 2021. Working at the intersection of business, government, and the law, Greenberg Traurigs Tallahassee office is home to a multidisciplinary legal team with deep Florida roots. The Government Law & Policy Practice has been steadily expanding its presence in recent years and consistently ranks in the top five in lobbying revenues statewide. Beaus deep experience at the state level continues to enhance our ability to help clients navigate the evolving regulatory and political landscape in Florida, said David C. Ashburn, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurigs Tallahassee office. During his time in the governors office, Beau worked on some of the most challenging issues facing the administration, including property insurance, COVID-19, and election initiatives. He brings a breadth of knowledge to our Florida Government Law & Policy Practice and will also be an asset to clients dealing with the complexities of Florida campaign finance and election laws, as well as administrative law matters. Throughout his career, Beaubien has held different roles within Florida politics, government, and private practice. In addition to his role as the governors deputy chief of staff, he worked as director of cabinet affairs and served as DeSantis political director during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign. His government experience also includes serving as assistant attorney general and special counsel to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, advising her on legislative and cabinet issues and on her duties as a member of the states Constitutional Revision Commission. Beau understands how to successfully interact with state officials because he has worked alongside them, said Hayden R. Dempsey, chair of Greenberg Traurigs Florida Government Law & Policy Practice. He is a great addition to the Tallahassee office and will help us grow our government affairs team for the future. As a top aide in the DeSantis administration, Beaubien oversaw policy and operations for various state agencies, including the Departments of State, Corrections, and Juvenile Justice. He also served as chief liaison between the Governors office and the offices of the Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and Commissioner of Agriculture. While overseeing the Office of Cabinet Affairs, Beaubien worked with department leadership on multiple issues including insurance, financial regulation, and highway safety. I chose Greenberg Traurig because its a well-established leader in Floridas government affairs sector and offers me the opportunity for professional growth as part of a firm with a global platform, Beaubien said. I look forward to utilizing my experience and knowledge to help clients navigate Floridas government regulations and policies to achieve their business goals. Before entering public service, Beaubien was an associate at Coates Law Firm in Tallahassee where he advised clients on matters related to ethics, elections, and campaign finance laws. He has a J.D. from Florida State University and a B.A. from the University of Florida. About Greenberg Traurigs Government Law & Policy Practice: Greenberg Traurigs Government Law & Policy Practice combines the capabilities of its Federal Practice in Washington D.C. with its state and local practices across the country. The firms national team of governmental affairs professionals and attorneys spans major political and commercial capitals throughout the United States, including Albany, Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, New York City, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Tallahassee, and Washington, D.C. Most recently, Greenberg Traurigs Government Law & Policy team was Top Listed for Government Relations in Best Lawyers in Americas 2018 edition. The team was also named Law Firm of the Year for Government Relations by the U.S. News-Best Lawyers 2014 edition of "Best Law Firms." The practice also received the most first-tier Government Relations rankings in the U.S. About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2400 attorneys in 43 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm, often recognized for its focus on philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono, reported gross revenue of over $2 Billion for FY 2021. The firm is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law 100, Am Law Global 100, NLJ 250, and Law360 (US) 400. On the debut 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard, it is a Top 15 firm. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab and net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com. Top Blockchain Development Company in San Francisco HashCash Consultants encourage businesses to adopt blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. It is always encouraging to be recognized by global research firms while our team of experts looks forward to boosting the businesses with pioneering technology and smart solutions. The US-based global blockchain development company, Hashcash Consultants is proud to hold the top position, two years in a row for its exclusive range of services and products for clients worldwide. Global research firm awards HashCash Consultants the title of the best Blockchain development company in San Francisco. The ranking was based on cutting-edge technology, blockchain-based solutions, presence on the global market, strong management skills, and client experience. The firm conducted thorough market research about the industry, the recent reviews of global firms, and local blockchain service providers in San Francisco. The rank projects that HashCash has taken a step towards innovation, and is the first choice for various businesses looking for blockchain-based solutions. The blockchain pioneer and CEO of HashCash Consultants, Mr. Raj Chowdhury stated HashCash Consultants encourage businesses to adopt blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. It is always encouraging to be recognized by global research firms while our team of experts looks forward to boosting the businesses with pioneering technology and smart solutions. Although Hashcash Consultants is a US-based company, it has its office in several countries like Singapore, India, UAE, and Australia. The new upgrades, seamless integration, and new technology have contributed to over sixty financial institutions and global banks. So far, Hashcash Consultants have worked in various countries like the Middle East, Russia, Africa, Europe, Singapore, the USA, etc. Hashcash has a built reputation for providing white label crypto exchange software, and crypto payment processors for enterprises. Other than these supply chain management, corporate payments, remittance, digital identities, and private blockchain network solutions for industries. Various crypto services like NFTs, IEO, ICO, STO, etc. are offered by the company. Hashcash helps companies to integrate their present infrastructure with blockchain solutions and improve their performance by conducting all activities on a single platform. Hashcash has its network, HC NET, which the clients and partners use to ease their smart contract implementation, peer-to-peer payments, DApps deployment, etc. In 2021, a global research firm rated HashCash Consultants', as the best blockchain development company 2021. Lately, Hashcash announced its plans to construct a Hashcash park in Kolkata, after buying a two-acre land within HIDCOs Bengal Silicon Valley Tech Hub. Hashcash reports the expansion of its Dubai development center and its plan of hiring more employees in both India and Dubai. Hashcash is also offering a flat 50% discount on its white label crypto exchange software for a limited period providing opportunities for startups. Entrepreneurs looking for a new crypto exchange startup with quick growth can avail of the services to evolve and transform through the technology. About Hashcash Consultants: HashCash is a global software company. HashCash Blockchain products enable enterprises to move assets and settle payments across borders in real-time for Remittances, Trade Finance, Payment Processing, and more. HashCash runs US-based digital asset exchange, PayBito & digital asset payment processor, BillBitcoins. HashCash offers crypto exchange and payment processor software solutions, ICO services, and customized use cases. HashCash propels advancement in technology through Blockchain1o1 programs and its investment arm, Satoshi Angels. HashCash offers solutions in AI, Big Data, and IoT through its platforms, products & services. HashCash solves the toughest challenges by executing innovative digital transformation strategies for clients around the world. The WBENC National Conference offers a unique and powerful networking opportunity for women to grow their businesses. Thats why we are bringing six members of our Executive and Sales teams, and have created a focused strategy to get the best out of the experience. InSync Training, a business specializing in Virtual Training Excellence and a certified Womens Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) Womens Business Enterprise, is thrilled to attend the WBENC 2022 National Conference June 7-9, 2022, in Atlanta, Ga. The WBENC National Conference, the largest conference of its kind for women business owners, brings together Americas leading corporations, government agencies, women business owners and their staff, and strategic partner organizations. This years exciting program engages participants with dynamic educational programming, inspiring keynotes, a pitch competition, instant match meetings, networking opportunities, and an unrivaled Expo of certified women-owned businesses and those who do business with them. The WBENC National Conference will be a catalyst for opportunities and growth with thousands of women entrepreneurs and corporate executives ready to make connections, do business and collaborate to spur innovation. WBENC is all about empowerment, which is what exactly what Ive observed attending the WBENC National Conference twice in the past few years, said Jennifer Hofmann, president, and founder of InSync Training. The WBENC National Conference offers a unique and powerful networking opportunity for women to grow their businesses. Thats why we are bringing six members of our Executive and Sales teams, and have created a focused strategy to get the best out of the experience. InSync Training representatives are most looking forward to: Exploring the bold WBENC network of powerful women and the ability to network and connect with some of the nations most successful women- owned businesses and the corporations who are doing the most to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs. Sharing InSync Trainings capabilities with corporations and government entities seeking women-owned suppliers, while connecting with procurement and supplier diversity professionals from many of Americas most prestigious brands and the Fortune 1000. Learning from inspiring keynotes and innovative experiential learning opportunities that provide business owners and other professionals with the tools and resources to grow as leaders and innovators. Visit InSync Training for more on InSync Trainings industry-recognized public certifications, group certifications or corporate service solutions. About InSync Training Founded in 2000, InSync has 20+ years experience supporting a variety of enterprise-wide virtual training programs for Fortune 50, 100 and 500 clients and have certified over 25,000 L&D professionals with its best-of-class approach. With a global team of 140 expert Instructional designers, researchers, and professional facilitators support clients' corporate training needs, including programmatic management and logistical support, traditional "train-the-trainer" services, blended learning, instructional design/development services, and facilitation/production services. InSync Training is an IACET Accredited Provider and regularly supports 6000+ hours of live, online, virtual, blended, and remote instruction per month in Zoom, MS Teams, Webex, Adobe Connect, Kaltura and other virtual classroom platforms. Content is supported in 20 languages and dialects. Didnt Even Say Goodbye: an emotionally charged tale of love, connection, and letting go. Didnt Even Say Goodbye is the creation of published author Joe Freeman, a dedicated family man, Navy veteran, and business owner who owns several health care companies and carries a PhD degree in public health administration. Freeman shares, When raising a child or a grandchild, spontaneity occasionally births a tradition. When growth and development of that child take that tradition from us, we often dont even notice that it is gone. We move on to the next spontaneous tradition the child can conjure up. This book is about the things a child seems to easily forget as they move on with life but a parent or grandparent holds in endearment. Things that are gone from our lives forever. Things that left our lives, but we didnt notice because they didnt even say goodbye. As I think back on those things, I dont want to become one of them. Life is but a vapor, and there will come a day when the child thinks back fondly about you. In my pain of missing the many little things we cherished, I wrote this book to help everyone navigate the tough task of saying goodbye in person, with life advice specific to that child. A sweet way to celebrate and memorialize saying your goodbyes before you are gone. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Joe Freemans new book expresses an abiding appreciation for the small moments that become key memories. Freeman offers readers a touching narrative that is certain to draw a tear and warm the heart. Consumers can purchase Didnt Even Say Goodbye at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Didnt Even Say Goodbye, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. PRMA Plastic Surgery Flap 10,500 To me, this number represents how many strong women Ive had the pleasure of knowing and hopefully helping in their breast cancer treatment and reconstruction journey, shares PRMA Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Ramon Garza III. PRMA Plastic Surgery sets a new milestone this month with the completion of their 10,500th natural "flap" based breast reconstruction procedure. Reaching this new milestone further establishes PRMA as one of the leading breast reconstruction institutions in the world. To me, this number represents how many strong women Ive had the pleasure of knowing and hopefully helping in their breast cancer treatment and reconstruction journey, shares PRMA Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Ramon Garza III. With a heart to rebuild lives after breast cancer, PRMA provides patients with the full spectrum of reconstruction options available today, including autologous reconstruction, implants and aesthetic flat closure options. PRMA specializes in very complex perforator flap procedures. These individual procedures use skin and fat from various regions of the body to produce a warm, soft, natural breast. The gold standard breast reconstruction procedure performed at PRMA is the DIEP flap. Performed at the same time or any time after a mastectomy, this procedure uses the patients own abdominal skin and fat to reconstruct a natural breast. Unlike the TRAM flap, the DIEP flap preserves all of the abdominal muscles. Patients who have their abdominal muscles saved experience less discomfort, a faster recovery, long-term core strength, and a decreased risk of abdominal problems. Breast surgery has progressed tremendously over the years. In the past, surgeons traditionally focused only on how the breast looks, rather than how it feels to the patient, especially since it is extremely common for patients to experience (often total) numbness after a mastectomy. PRMA has made it a mission to change this by offering patients a way to restore breast sensation following breast cancer surgery. While very few centers worldwide offer this extra procedure currently, PRMA has been performing sensory nerve reconstruction in conjunction with breast restoration after mastectomy for over 20 years and TruSense is the result of this extensive experience. TruSense reconstructs the breast, reconnects the sensory nerves that provide breast feeling, and ultimately restores the patients sense of wholeness after breast cancer surgery. There is no best breast reconstruction procedure for everyone. Before undergoing any type of surgery, it is important to discuss all your opinions with a board-certified plastic surgeon to ensure you make a fully educated and informed decision. "It is with the utmost honor that I form part of the PRMA family which is celebrating achieving 10,500 flaps, shares Dr. Ochoa, PRMA Plastic Surgeon. While this number is immense in scale and a testament to the exceptional leadership, vision, fortitude, and day-to-day sacrifices of our whole team, this number ultimately represents countless lives restored, directly and indirectly, from the shattering effects of breast cancer." About PRMA PRMA Plastic Surgery in San Antonio, Texas, specializes in state-of-the-art breast reconstruction. Procedures offered include the DIEP flap, SIEA flap, GAP flap, TUG flap, fat grafting, vascularized lymph node transfer and nipple-sparing mastectomy, lymphedema surgery, and TruSense. PRMA is In-Network for most US insurance plans and routinely welcomes patients from across and outside the US. Our Mission We are dedicated to promoting an environment of compassion, concern and support for every patient regardless of social or economic status and regardless of type of insurance. We will strive to not only support the patient and their family but also to support each other as the ever-changing field of medicine becomes more complex. Honesty and integrity, compassion and caring, make up the foundation of PRMA and at no point shall these principles be compromised. Loffler Companies has been recognized as a leading technology partner for the seventh consecutive year. A focus on listening to clients and creating world-class technology solutions positions Loffler as an award-winning service provider. A focus on listening to clients and creating world-class technology solutions positions Loffler as an award-winning service provider. Loffler Companies, the largest privately-owned technology solutions provider in the Upper Midwest, ranked #185 on the CRN 2022 Solution Provider 500 list. CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, releases a list of top 500 solution providers each year, ranking the leading IT channel partner organizations across North America by revenue. This is the seventh consecutive year Loffler has been named to this list. We are proud of the world-class team weve built and the strong value we provide to the marketplace, said James Loffler, President of Loffler Companies. At the end of the day, our job is to do right by other people. We value building trusting relationships with our clients as part of our commitment to helping them succeed. Loffler Companies provides the most comprehensive business technology solutions in the country, with experts who bring solutions together to build secure and optimized technology environments. Lofflers offerings include IT managed and security services, business security systems, disaster recovery/business continuity, multifunctional copiers and printers, print management services, software and workflow technology consulting, professional IT services/consulting, unified communications and on-site management of print and mail centers. As one of the top Canon and Konica Minolta dealers in the United States, Loffler Companies also works with leading partners such as Nutanix, Arctic Wolf, Microsoft, Mitel, 8x8, Xerox, HP, Lexmark and FP Mailing Solutions. These wide-ranging products and services exist for one purpose: to help organizations succeed. Lofflers specialized trainers, flexible billing and financing options at all price levels and award-winning service and support benefit all clients. Founded by Jim Loffler in 1986, and now led by James Loffler, Loffler Companies is nationally recognized as a leader in business technology and managed services. Loffler is among the top office solutions dealers nationally for service and support, with more than 500 employees working every day to exceed the expectations of their clients, partners and the community. For more information about Loffler Companies, call 952-925-6800, email information@loffler.com or visit us online at Loffler.com. Without METCO, diversity would be virtually nonexistent in some districts. - Dr. Ken Ardon, the co-author of METCO Funding: Understanding Massachusetts Voluntary School Desegregation Program with Roger Hatch. Program should be expanded, funding simplified BOSTON The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, or METCO program, has successfully educated thousands of students for 56 years, but several minor changes could make it even better, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. Under the program, about 3,200 mostly African-American and Hispanic students from Boston and Springfield attend public schools in about three dozen surrounding communities. METCO offers educational opportunity to families in Boston and Springfield and provides much-needed diversity to suburban school districts. Without METCO, diversity would be virtually nonexistent in some districts, said Dr. Ken Ardon, the co-author of METCO Funding: Understanding Massachusetts Voluntary School Desegregation Program with Roger Hatch. Despite accounting for just 2.5 percent of enrollment on average, METCO students account for about 40 percent of African-American students in receiving school districts. In some districts, more than two thirds of African-American students are in the METCO program. METCO students are more likely to be African-American and to have special needs than their peers in the sending district, and less likely to be Hispanic, English language learners or economically disadvantaged. Each year, districts decide how many students they will accept. The program is directly funded by a state grant appropriated by the legislature and indirectly funded through the states education funding system, known as Chapter 70. The real value of METCO grant appropriations hasnt fully recovered from cuts made during the Great Recession, but funding has increased in recent years. In fiscal 2021, the METCO grant was $25.6 million and averaged $7,200 per student. METCO students are counted in receiving districts enrollment numbers, which means they generate more state funding for the suburban school districts. Most receive two or three thousand dollars per student above the METCO grant, but the amount varies by district due to intricacies of the Commonwealths education funding system. The program has little financial impact on Boston because, as a community with greater revenue raising capacity, it gets less of its funding from the state. Since Springfield, which is less affluent, gets the bulk of its funding from the state, the city loses more state aid as a result of METCO. Since METCO students take up unused seats in receiving districts, the marginal cost of educating them is relatively low. Nearly 60 percent of the Commonwealths 318 school districts participate in the states voluntary public school choice program. Average per-pupil funding in that program was $6,586, far less than the amount most receiving districts receive for each METCO student. Ardon and Hatch urge simplifying the METCO grant formula by making it a straight per-pupil calculation. Currently, there are hold harmless provisions for districts that accept fewer METCO students. Enrollment numbers are based on a rolling three-year average and the last year taken into consideration is the previous one. These policies benefit districts with declining METCO enrollment and leave less for those that enroll more METCO students. The authors suggest that districts could receive about 80 percent of their METCO funding before the school year, while 20 percent of it could be held back until actual enrollment numbers are determined in December. Ardon and Hatch also call for additional state funding to support late afternoon buses that would allow METCO students to participate in extracurricular activities and cover special education costs of METCO students. Finally, they recommend that the Commonwealth provide the additional funds needed to cover immediate costs of expanding METCO and adequate ongoing grant money to support a larger program. METCO has a long record of success, Hatch said. A relatively small investment would allow it to serve additional students and families. About the Authors Ken Ardon received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1999, where he co-authored a book on school spending and student achievement. He taught economics at Pomona College before moving to Massachusetts, and from 2000 to 2004, Dr. Ardon worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. He is a professor of economics at Salem State University, where he has taught since 2004. Dr. Ardon is a member of Pioneer Institutes Center for School Reform Advisory Board. Roger Hatch spent a long career working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the areas of school and municipal finance. For 20 years he was the Administrator of School Finance at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In addition to supervising the school choice program, the office works with the Governors staff, the legislature, advocacy groups, local officials and the general public, to develop, calculate, and explain the Chapter 70 state aid formula. About Pioneer Pioneers mission is to develop and communicate dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond. Pioneers vision of success is a state and nation where our people can prosper and our society thrive because we enjoy world-class options in education, healthcare, transportation and economic opportunity, and where our government is limited, accountable and transparent. Pioneer values an America where our citizenry is well-educated and willing to test our beliefs based on facts and the free exchange of ideas, and committed to liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise. Gods Master Plan: a useful resource for personal and group Bible study. Gods Master Plan is the creation of published author Mike Lutz, a loving husband, father, and grandfather who carries a BS in Commerce from Rider University and a Masters in Ministry from Grace Theological Seminary. He retired in 2015 after a forty-five-year career as a CPA and CFP in financial services and wealth management. Lutz shares, Gods Master Plan is an overview of the Holy Biblethe greatest love story ever told! It is a summary of the unveiling of Gods revelation of Himself and His sovereign plan for the redemption and restoration of mankind, for the nation of Israel, for the Gentile nations of the world, and for his entire creation. As the story unfolds, we discover Gods answers to three questions with which many individuals wrestle: 1.) Where did I come from? 2.) Why am I here? 3.) Where am I going? More importantly, however, God tells us how we can experience eternal and abundant life! Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Mike Lutzs new book will encourage readers as they work to deepen their understanding of scripture. Lutz presents an encouraging approach to Bible study in hopes of aiding others on their walk of faith. Consumers can purchase Gods Master Plan at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Gods Master Plan, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. The Power to B jewelry company is donating 100% of the proceeds of its new, limited-edition maroon & gold Robb School Memorial Fund bracelet to help children & families affected by the recent tragedy. "In support of the victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary School tragedy, were donating 100% of the proceeds from our new, custom-designed, maroon and gold The Power to B bracelets to The Robb School Memorial Fund. Join us by wearing their school colors with pride," Christina Baribault Ortiz. The devastating loss of innocent lives in the recent Texas school shooting has left many of us wanting to help but feeling helpless. In an emotional and heartfelt video, sisters Christina Baribault Ortiz and Raeann Baribault Schwartz of Connecticut shared their feelings of grief, as well as a way to financially support those affected. The founders of The Power to B jewelry collection announced that they have created a custom-designed bracelet to benefit the children and families at Robb Elementary School. The memorial fund will receive 100% of the proceeds from every purchase of the limited-edition bracelet featuring the schools colors. The statement on the companys website reads On May 24, 19 students and 2 adults were killed in a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In support of the victims and survivors of this tragedy, were donating 100% of the proceeds from our maroon and gold power word cord bracelets to The Robb School Memorial Fund. Join us in showing support for Robb Elementary School by wearing their school colors with these limited-edition power word bracelets. The money raised will be used for their back-to-school program which includes counseling that the children will need to try to get back to normal, although life will never be normal again, said Baribault Ortiz, who co-founded The Power to B jewelry line with her sister after both struggled with infertility. The pair is committed to philanthropy and has designed several unique and original bracelets to benefit various charities. Previous bracelet campaigns have supported The Hope of Fertility Foundation, the Glastonbury Education Foundation and the UCONN Foundation. Baribault Ortiz explains The Power to B bracelets encourage everyone to B Strong, B Fierce, B Badass, B Limitless, B Fearless, or B You by linking the cursive phrases with a colorful cord or chain. The commemorative Robb School Elementary bracelet features a power word in yellow gold on a maroon cord in order to give hope and strength to the wearer. The bracelet will be available for purchase for $68 on the website while supplies last. Baribault Ortiz is the mother of two (Scarlet & Kash, 9 and 7 years old) and Baribault Schwartz is mom to three (Eva, Zane & Raven, 5, 3, and 1 years old). As a mom with young children in school, I just keep thinking of the fear every day, adds Baribault Schwartz. I wear my fearless bracelet to try to fear a little less. The third-generation jewelers created the bracelets featuring powerful phrases to remind women of all ages that they are not alone. The jewelry line has forged a strong community of thousands of female customers who wear the bracelets, rings, necklaces to bolster their inner strength and resilience. There is power in doing things together, said Baribault Ortiz. We cant take the pain away, but we hope to make just a small difference. To view the sisters poignant video message, click here; https://youtu.be/gb2xE1QCpZE About The Power to B Created by sisters and designers Christina Baribault Ortiz and Raeann Baribault Schwartz in 2019, The Power to B fine jewelry collection aims to bring women together in joyful empowerment. The stunning 14k gold- or gold-plated phrase bracelets, necklaces and rings remind women to B Strong, B Fierce, B Badass, B Limitless, B Fearless, or B You. The Power to B is about being fearless enough to speak your dreams into the world and being strong enough to turn them into reality. Learn more at thepowertob.com. Tracy O, Program service Coordinator, Excellent. Great Software to use. User Friendly, Easy to navigate and saves time. SutiSoft Inc., a leading provider of easy-to-use web-based online business management solutions, announces updates to the Personnel and My HR modules within SutiHR. The latest added features help employers develop a structured onboarding process including training and set up these new team members up for success. This solution help organizations track all employee vaccination statuses in order to ensure all safety regulations including COVID-19. Some of the latest features include: When creating an onboarding task, HR Administrators can now add new training courses. The employees selected to complete a task will automatically be added to the training courses. When creating new training for an employee, HR Administrators can now select employees from other business units who should be notified about the training renewal. HR Administrators can now assign offboarding tasks to employees from any business unit. When creating an offboarding task, HR Administrators can define within how many days a task should be completed after the employees last working day. The solution automatically creates a record when HR Administrators add the booster shot details to employees vaccination status within Records. HR Administrators can add employees COVID compliance status and upload their vaccination card and details. HR Administrators set access privileges or assign permissions to multiple employees all at once through the Bulk Actions setup. The solution automatically creates a record when employees add the booster shot details to update vaccination status. Employees can add COVID compliance status and upload the vaccination card details. For more information, please visit: https://www.sutihr.com or call us on 650-969-SUTI. About SutiSoft SutiSoft provides a comprehensive suite of cloud-based business platforms and solutions for companies of all sizes. These platforms include scalable and easy-to-use solutions for HR, Employee Travel & Expense, Wireless Spend Management, CRM, Document Management, Business Data Analytics, and Electronic signature. Our platforms and solutions enable small, mid-size, and large enterprise customers to control costs, save time and assist in making smart business decisions. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, SutiSoft also has regional offices in Germany, India, and Japan. For additional information visit our website at http://www.sutisoft.com. John and Jonny Mecham of Performance Brokerage Services have always been a trusted resource of mine. They understand the complexities of the business and have a tremendous amount of experience. This was not our first transaction with the Mechams and it wont be the last. Performance Brokerage Services, North Americas highest volume dealership brokerage firm, is pleased to announce the sale of Jensen-Wood Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Montpelier, Idaho from Kirk & Lorrie Jensen to Casey Wheeler. Jensen Wood Motor Company was established in 1955 by Donniel Jensen and Thomas Wood. Kirk and Lorrie Jensen became third generation owners of the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership in 2000. After more than 20 years of ownership and serving the community, Kirk and Lorrie Jensen are looking forward to their retirement. Following the sale, Kirk Jensen commented, We worked with Jonny and his father, John Mecham, of Performance Brokerage Services to sell our dealership. Being in a small town, we were worried about the ability to sell our store as well as maintaining confidentiality. Jonny and John were truly assets to the transaction. The process was foreign to us, but Jonny was available to guide us through each step with his expertise and found a buyer that fit our small-town needs. We were very pleased with the outcome and recommend Jonny and John Mecham to anyone. Over the last 5 years, Performance Brokerage Services has advised on the sale of over 250 dealerships, making it the highest volume dealership brokerage firm in North America. In 2021, the company consummated 72 transactions, marking a record-breaking year. Jonny Mecham, the exclusive agent for this transaction and the Rocky Mountain Partner for Performance Brokerage Services commented, We have had the pleasure of working with Casey Wheeler in the past and knew right away he was a logical and fantastic buyer for this store. Casey is as sharp as he is kind and helped keep things moving forward without making our seller feel pressured along the way. Kirk and Lorrie were wonderful to work with and we wish them all the best in their retirement! This transaction was a great example of how bringing a buyer and a seller together early in the process can make for a smooth transaction in the end. Casey Wheeler bought into his first dealership as part of the John Adams Auto Group. He recently created his own dealership group and is in the process of expanding. This acquisition marks his third dealership in Idaho. Wheeler commented, John and Jonny Mecham of Performance Brokerage Services have always been a trusted resource of mine. They understand the complexities of the business and have a tremendous amount of experience. This was not our first transaction with the Mechams and it wont be the last. They did a terrific job bringing both parties together, and the transaction was smooth from start to finish. I think both parties would agree it was a win-win. I would confidently recommend John, Jonny, and Performance Brokerage Services. The dealership will remain at its current location at 205 North Fourth Street in Montpelier, Idaho and has been renamed Liberty Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. About Performance Brokerage Services Performance Brokerage Services, Inc. is North Americas highest volume dealership brokerage firm, specializing in buy-sell activity for automotive, RV, commercial truck, powersports, and equipment dealerships. With over 25 years of experience, 700 dealerships sold, and a 90% closing rate, the companys reputation is unmatched and governed by the utmost ethical conduct and integrity. The company offers a unique approach by providing complimentary estimates of value with no upfront fees or retainer, no reimbursement of costs, and paid a success fee only after the transaction closes. Headquartered in Irvine, California, and supported by 7 regional offices in Utah, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, and Canada, clients benefit from national exposure with local representation. As trusted and respected experts in the field, the company utilizes an extensive network of industry related attorneys, accountants, hundreds of registered buyers, and longstanding relationships with various vehicle manufacturers. For more information about the services offered by Performance Brokerage Services, visit https://performancebrokerageservices.com. SightMD Partnering with SightMD was a natural fit, due to our shared dedication to the patient-centric quality of care and level of excellence that SightMD stands for and has demonstrated in the community. My colleagues and I could not have found a more aligned partner. - Aaron H. Cohen, M.D. SightMD, a leading multi-specialty ophthalmology platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Eye Specialists of Westchester, a New Rochelle based ophthalmology practice. Through this strategic partnership the practice in New Rochelle at 140 Lockwood Ave, New Rochelle, NY 10801 will expand SightMDs presence by adding one location and two providers, growing SightMDs current footprint to 40 locations and 80 providers across the New York. Founded in 1973, Eye Specialists of Westchester has stuck to their goal of keeping their patients' eyes healthy in order to provide a lifetime of the best vision possible. They recognize the importance of each individuals needs and accommodate patients of all ages. The doctors at Eye Specialist of Westchester are Bradley H. Scharf, M.D., and Aaron H. Cohen, M.D. Dr. Cohen added, Partnering with SightMD was a natural fit, due to our shared dedication to the patient-centric quality of care and level of excellence that SightMD stands for and has demonstrated in the community. My colleagues and I could not have found a more aligned partner. Dr. Scharf added, Always putting patients first and striving to meet their needs and improve their quality of life. This belief system is in line with mine and is how I have practiced ophthalmology my entire career, which is why I knew it would be a great fit. Dr. Scharf graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College and received his medical degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Scharf did his internship at Winthrop University Hospital, and he completed his ophthalmology training at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he served as chief resident. Dr. Scharf then performed a year of subspecialty training in cornea and refractive surgery at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Scharf has appeared on several television and radio medical talk shows, and he has lectured to community groups as well as scientific audiences. He has performed cornea and glaucoma research, and he is a contributing author to a major ophthalmology textbook on the cornea. Dr. Cohen graduated with honors from Binghamton University where he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematical Sciences and Chemistry. He then received his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn and obtained membership in Alpha Omega Alpha, the honor medical society. After medical school, Dr. Cohen completed his internship in internal medicine at Winthrop University Hospital followed by residency training in ophthalmology at the State University Kings County Hospital Center. Following his ophthalmology training, Dr. Cohen entered the United States Air Force as a staff ophthalmologist then became the chief of ophthalmology at the 1st Medical Group Hospital at Langley AFB. After three years in the Air Force, he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for the excellent service he provided during his tenure at Langley AFB. Jeffrey Martin, M.D., Co-founder and President of SightMD, said, My partners and I are thrilled to welcome Dr. Cohen & Dr. Scharf and their colleagues to the SightMD family. They have built a strong reputation by providing clinically excellent patient care. We look forward to supporting our new partners as they expand SightMDs presence in Westchester. SightMDs commitment and dedication to their patients has never been interrupted which is why SightMD has continued to serve our community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges faced by our community and the nation, they continue to partner with talented physicians like Dr. Scharf and Dr. Cohen. Dr. Scharf and Dr. Cohen will continue to care for their patients at the same New Rochelle office. With this partnership, Dr. Scharf and Dr. Cohens patients and the community in Westchester will have access to seamless care at all of SightMDs office locations throughout Long Island, Westchester and New York City. Dr. Scharf and Dr. Cohens new affiliation with SightMD brings their patients and the community new services including, laser cataract surgery, LASIK laser vision correction, pediatric ophthalmology, facial cosmetic and reconstructive eye surgery, audiology, refractive surgery, glaucoma management, retinal and diabetic eye disease treatment and advanced cataract care. About SightMD SightMD is a rapidly-growing integrated ophthalmic provider group, offering patients access to over 80 eye care providers through the convenience of 40 locations across New York. SightMD's track record of providing clinically-excellent care spans over 50 years, and its services include general eye exams, laser cataract surgery and lens implantation, glaucoma management, retinal disorder treatment, corneal services, neuro-ophthalmology, LASIK laser vision correction, oculoplastic surgery, pediatric ophthalmology, and audiology. For more information about SightMD, please visit https://www.sightmd.com/sightmd-ny/ Dr. Jean DellAmore, President, Stertil-Koni Stertil-Koni is laser-focused on the heavy duty vehicle lifting segment. That is our specialty. It enables us to excel in the design, manufacture, delivery and service of lifting systems that meet all demanding requirements. Heavy duty vehicle lift leader Stertil-Koni, recognized for delivering award-winning bus lifts and truck lifts across North America, today announced that the company is currently on-track to achieve record order intake for full year 2022. That milestone will be particularly special, noted company President, Dr. Jean DellAmore, as this is also the year in which we are celebrating our 25th anniversary in North America. Driving this growth explained DellAmore, are multiple competitive factors that differentiate us from would-be competitors. First, Stertil-Koni is laser-focused on the heavy duty vehicle lifting segment. That is our specialty. It enables us to excel in the design, manufacture, delivery and service of lifting systems that meet the demanding requirements of virtually every heavy duty vehicle classification in the U.S. and Canada. Second, Stertil-Koni invests in, and is dedicated to providing exceptional product engineering. That in turn results in unmatched lift performance, durability, and safety. And third, our customers are supported by a world-class, highly trained network of dedicated distributors, each of which is exclusive in their territory, has an average tenure of 16 years, and embraces a shared vision to deliver what we believe to be the highest level of customer care in the industry. Today, the companys lifting systems are used in bus and truck maintenance facilities across North America, including major transit agencies, trucking companies, state agencies, the U.S. Military, police, fire, emergency rescue, the aviation sector, pupil transportation and a host of additional vertical industries. The story of Stertil-Koni and our growth, continued DellAmore, is also one firmly grounded in a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Features of Stertil-Koni lifts include: Construction utilizing maximum strength, high tensile steel Full-color touch screen control console on all models Rapid lifting and lowering every time Dependable hydraulic technology Synchronization for maximum safety and convenience Mechanical locking system to prevent unintended lowering World-class service team with 24/7 customer hotline Among the most popular systems in the Stertil-Koni portfolio of heavy duty vehicle lifts are its flagship Mobile Column Lifts, as well as the in-ground telescopic piston DIAMONDLIFT, the in-ground scissor-style ECOLIFT, the full vertical rise platform SKYLIFT, as well as the 2-post FREEDOMLIFT and 4-post lifts. Concluded DellAmore, When you consider our entire portfolio of products, Stertil-Koni has the broadest range of ALI (Automotive Lift Institute) certified heavy duty vehicle lifts in the industry. With that approach, we can offer our customers powerful, third-party watchdog-vetted lifting systems that meet all our customers requirements from a single, established and focused provider. Thats special and thats Stertil-Koni. About Stertil-Koni Stertil-Koni - proud to be a Buy America company - is the market leader in heavy duty vehicle lifts, notably bus lifts and truck lifts, and proudly serves municipalities, state agencies, school bus fleets, major corporations, the U.S. Military and more. Stertil-Koni's breadth of products meets all ranges of lifting needs and includes portable lifts such as Mobile Column Lifts, 2-post, 4-post, inground piston lifts, platform lifts, and its axle-engaging, inground, scissor lift configuration, ECOLIFT. The companys innovative, inground telescopic piston DIAMONDLIFT is now available with an optional Continuous Recess system, ideal for low clearance vehicles. Stertil-Koni USA is headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland with production facilities in Europe, The Netherlands, and Streator, IL. The National Institute of Flamenco, in Partnership with the University of New Mexico and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Present Festival Flamenco Alburquerque 35 The National Institute of Flamenco proudly announces the 35th Annual Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, June 11-18, 2022. Festival Flamenco Alburquerque is the largest flamenco event outside of Spain and touches the lives of thousands of participants through workshops, theatre shows, tablao performances, lecture series, and free public programming. In addition to over 30 workshops and a full array of evening and late-night programming, this years Festival Flamenco boasts seven U.S. premieres, showcasing the dynamic range and expressive power of flamenco, from its most traditional to its most avant-garde interpretations. The seven companies and their concerts are: Estevez/Panos y Compania in "LA CONFLUENCIA," Jose Maya and Pastora Galvan in "Rizoma," Paloma Fantova in "CUNA," Alfonso Losa with invited artists Concha Jareno and Sandra Carrasco in "Flamenco: Espacio Creativo," Mercedes de Cordoba in "Ser Ni Conmigo Ni Sin Mi," and flamencos grande dame Eva Yerbabuena in "DMadruga." The performances continue with Festival Flamencos Late Night Series, with thrilling, intimate shows at Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque, featuring unique nightly casts of Festival artists, and three performances in the X Theatre at the University of New Mexico, showcasing works from Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, Bronx-based Latina artist Nelida Tirado, and Sara Cano. Performances are held throughout the week at the University of New Mexicos Rodey Theatre and X Theatre, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque. The Festival closes with an incredible flourish in the form of Friday and Saturday night gala performances, "Fiesta Flamenca," featuring two distinct lineups of the Festivals powerhouse headlining artists and New Mexicos own Yjastros. Children and youth can join the 23rd Annual Flamenco Kids Camp and the 3rd Annual Festival Juvenil. Flamenco Kids Camp is a fun, immersive day camp introducing children ages 6-12 to the full range of flamenco arts and culture. Festival Juvenil is the youth component of Festival Flamenco Alburquerque and the premier national flamenco camp for experienced young flamenco dancers ages 10-15. The Flamenco New Mexico Lecture Series gathers experts in the history and culture of flamenco in New Mexico, and features roundtables, panel presentations, and talks. These free public presentations take place Friday, June 17, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Saturday, June 18, at the Albuquerque Museum. The Flamenco New Mexico Lecture Series is produced with support from the New Mexico Humanities Council, New Mexicos independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Instituto Cervantes, and the University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Institute. Festival Flamenco Alburquerque truly has something for everyone! Free-to-the-public programming includes special presentations of Sara Canos "A Palo Seco Redux" and "De Levante." Exposicion Flamenca Juvenil is an afternoon of performances by and local and regional student performance groups. The Bernalillo County Flamenco in your Neighborhood Series presents free outdoor concerts and classes at community centers for youth and seniors continuing through the summer. About the National Institute of Flamenco The mission of the National Institute of Flamenco is to preserve and promote flamencos artistry, history, and culture by presenting the finest flamenco in the world and by educating the American family in this art form while emphasizing the positive influence of art on family and community. Learn more at http://www.NIFNM.org. Thompson Habib Denison (THD), a Moore company, announced today that they have been selected by USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, as their agency of record for mid-level engagement concierge services. THD will be responsible for providing strategy, pipeline development and personal outreach to cultivate, steward and engage mid-level donors. THD will leverage their best-in-class data-driven analytic solutions as well as their in-house Donor Ambassadors to accelerate growth and increase the lifetime value of USA for UNHCRs mid-level donors. We are thrilled to be working with USA for UNHCR and are passionate about their mission and the work they do in support of refugees and displaced people, said Chad Lucier, vice president, donor advancement. At this moment in time, when so much is at stake, we look forward to building long-term, loyal donor relationships that take USA for UNHCRs fundraising efforts to the next level. Every day we turn on the news and see the impact UNHCR is making in the lives of so many, said Linda Williams, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at THD. Our teams master storytelling along with our best-in-class data and analytics will help USA for UNHCR raise more money to support their important mission. To learn more about THD and the services they provide to help nonprofits grow, visit THDinc.com. About USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, protects refugees and empowers them with hope and opportunity. Supporting UNHCR the UN Refugee Agency and its partners, we provide lifesaving essentials including shelter, water, food, safety and protection. Around the world, we help refugees survive, recover and build a better future. Established by concerned American citizens, USA for UNHCR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. About THD THD is a social impact agency committed to helping nonprofits grow through long-term, brand-loyal donor relationships. Bringing together its core competencies in strategy, data, analytics, marketing and creative, THD develops and executes insight-driven multichannel strategies to advance the mission of meaningful causes that serve our communities, our nation and our world. The company is headquartered in Lincoln, Mass., with clients across the U.S. and Canada. About Moore Moore is a leading constituent experience management (CXM) company focused on the integration of the donor experience across all platforms, channels and devices. With over 3,700 employees in 40 locations across the country, the company provides strategy, creative, production, media, data and analytic services powered by an ongoing investment in next-generation artificial intelligence and machine learning to nonprofit, political and association clients. Moore is a recognized key contributor in strengthening these sectors. The new website was designed to offer a best-in-class digital journey to both existing and new customers. We hope that the new website will be an excellent tool for our customers to learn more about the company, obtain regional product information, or contact their local sales and support team. WISI America, a market leader in edge video delivery solutions, is excited to announce that it has joined wisigroup.com, WISIs new international website. This feature-rich, multilingual website brings together all global WISI offices and integrates the customer experience on one digital platform. WISI Communications is now united as a single global brand. WISI America first joined the brand in 2015 as Inca Networks, before rebranding under the WISI name in 2019. The Inca brand remains as the companys flagship product family, the Inca IP Video Platform, with development and expert technical support located in WISI Americas headquarters in Vancouver, Canada. Communications technology varies dramatically across the globe; from automotive antennas to broadband networks, to industry-leading video solutions. Visitors to wisigroup.com can now experience the rich culture of WISI in one platform. Founded in 1926, with nearly 100 years of development in broadcast and communications technology, WISI is one of the true pioneers. The new website was designed to offer a best-in-class digital journey to both existing and new customers. We hope that the new website will be an excellent tool for our customers to learn more about the company, obtain regional product information, or contact their local sales and support team, said Sharen Sandhu, VP of Product of WISI America. When video operators search for the latest in technology, it can be difficult to know where to start. The new global site aims to make this research as simple as possible with its online resource hub, which includes whitepapers, webinars, and case studies. A company news grid features highlights from all offices, allowing visitors to have a better understanding of WISI updates on a global level. Welcome to the world of WISI. To learn more, visit http://www.wisigroup.com WISI Communications: WISI employs 600 people worldwide at locations in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and China. In addition, WISI works with more than 100 partners in all major international markets. Nine decades ago, the high-tech company's successful path began as one of the world's pioneers in radio frequency and broadband technology. Today, new media are driving the rapidly increasing demand for broadband services. Modern broadband networks must be intelligent, powerful and scalable transport solutions. This is our business. As an innovator and technology integrator for key communications sectors, we are committed to innovation, now and in the future. For more information about WISI Communications, visit wisigroup.com Our Zero Trust Edge platform helps enterprises of the future reduce cyber risk by isolating resources and data so that information is only accessible to trusted users. iboss the leading Zero Trust Edge cloud security provider, announces it has been honored in two categories in the prestigious 2022 Annual Disruptor Company Awards. iboss was notably recognized as a Disruptor Company in the Cyber Security Cloud/SaaS category. Meanwhile, the companys industry leading Zero Trust Edge security platform was also honored in the Cyber Security Cloud/SaaS Disruptor Products, Solutions, and Innovations category. The iboss Zero Trust platform is a purpose-built, patented, cloud delivered security platform and has more than 100 points of presence globally. A Zero Trust Architecture built on iboss consolidates network security technologies (SWG, CASB, DLP, IPS, malware defense, browser isolation, firewall) into a single unified cloud platform and eliminates the need for a VPN while securing any device, regardless of location. By making all applications private, iboss eliminates the top three initial ransomware infection vectors as identified by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). With applications, data and services made accessible only through the iboss Zero Trust Edge, cyber risk is greatly reduced, breaches and data loss are prevented, and visibility and security are delivered consistently throughout an organization. Todays threat landscape is ever changing and remote and distributed workforces have given rise to more threat vectors and vulnerabilities than ever before, said Paul Martini, co-founder and CEO of iboss. Our Zero Trust Edge platform helps enterprises of the future reduce cyber risk by isolating resources and data so that information is only accessible to trusted users. With data and resources now located everywhere and modern employees located anywhere, iboss ensures productivity by enabling direct connections to the resources employees need to do their job while preventing data loss and cyberattacks. The prestigious Globee Disruptor Awards recognizes companies that are innovating with the potential to displace existing solutions, companies, and even entire industries. More than 50 judges from around the world representing a wide spectrum of industry experts participated in the judging process. View the complete list of 2022 winners here: https://globeeawards.com/disruptor/winners/ About iboss, Inc. iboss is a cloud security company that enables organizations to reduce cyber risk by delivering a Zero Trust service designed to protect resources and users in the modern distributed world. Applications, data and services have moved to the cloud and are located everywhere while users needing access to those resources are working from anywhere. Built on a containerized cloud architecture, iboss delivers security capabilities such as SWG, malware defense, browser isolation, CASB and data loss prevention to protect all resources, via the cloud, instantaneously and at scale. This shifts the focus from protecting buildings to protecting people and resources wherever they are located. Leveraging a purpose-built cloud architecture backed by 230+ issued and pending patents and more than 100 points of presence globally, iboss processes over 150 billion transactions daily, blocking 4 billion threats per day. More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies. iboss was named one of the Top 25 Cybersecurity Companies by The Software Report, one of the 25 highest-rated Private Cloud Computing Companies to work for by Battery Ventures, and CRNs Top 20 Coolest Cloud Security Companies of 2022. To learn more, visit https://www.iboss.com/ About the Globee Awards Globee Awards are conferred in nine programs and competitions: the American Best in Business Awards, Business Excellence Awards, CEO World Awards, Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards, Disruptor Company Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, Information Technology World Awards, Sales, Marketing, Service, & Operations Excellence Awards, and Women World Awards. Learn more about the Globee Awards at https://globeeawards.com As major comics conventions return to in-person events in 2022, smaller independent showsaka Comic Arts Festivalsare also getting back on the schedule. CAFs such as the Small Press Expo, better known as SPX, in Bethesda, Md., and the MoCCA Arts Fest in New York City have been on hold for the last two years, and most are returning to in-person events in 2022, some with changed formats. But a few much-loved shows may not return at all. The cancellation and postponement of live events has been a huge change for the world of small comics publisherssales at these shows can be significant, but more importantly, festivals are buzz-driven launching pads for new creators and their books. And for the tight-knit community of alternative/indie creators and publishers, the gatherings are an important social event. Thus far in 2022, MoCCA in New York, TCAF in Toronto, SPX in Bethesda, Md., CXC, aka Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, in Ohio, have either taken place or announced plans to return. And Seattle's Short Run, dormant since 2019, just announced a return on November 5, with a long-delayed 10th anniversary show. But some other small, often volunteer-run events, continue to be missing in action despite a significant pre-pandemic presence on the CAF circuit. Chicagos CAKE festival has still not returned to an in-person event and it has suspended most activity aside from a series of video profiles of participating cartoonists. The show organizers hope to return in 2023. Last held in 2019, Comic Arts Brooklyn, a major showcase for New Yorks thriving alternative/independent comics scene, is on indefinite hiatuseven its website is no longer online. Show organizer Gabe Fowler said hed like to bring the show back, but the stars need to align. During the Covid-19 pandemic I lost my team (a few key people who moved away), and temporarily lost my venue, the Pratt Institute, which is not currently allowing events hosted by outside organizations. So that leaves me with a big bowl of nothing. All I can say is stay tuned and well see what transpires. It may be a chance for a new exciting collaboration. Comic Arts LA (CALA) showcased the vibrant crossover scene of comics and animation and was last held in Los Angeles in 2019, and Its social media accounts have been dormant since then. A spokesperson told PW that We want to and intend to return, we're just waiting a little longer to see how this year's returning comic festivals do. There were times in 2021 when we discussed coming back only to see events cancelled because of Delta or Omicron variants. And we didn't want to be in a situation where we had to enforce masking or vaccination status on attendees. We don't have contracts with hotels or venues so there's a lot of flexibility for when and how we return. But also all of our organizers' lives have changed in the past two years as well and we wanted to give ourselves space to recalibrate before we dive back in. With online retailer and direct-to-consumer book sales surging during the pandemic, some publishers realized that they could make more money sitting home than paying for expensive travel and shipping to shows. Still, the festivals that have returned have been greeted with the open arms and pocketbooks of fans. The MoCCA Arts Fest was the first major indie show to return, held April 2-3 in New York, and sales were better than in the before times. Jake Shapiro, US/Canada sales and marketing manager at the U.K.-based independent comics publisher NoBrow, said I had no idea what to expect at MoCCA this year, but the show ended up being bigger for us than MoCCA 2019. Part of it was a change of venue to a more logical, centrally-located part of the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, but another part was that people were eager to be back at comics shows. Jacq Cohen, director of publicity and promotions at Fantagraphics, agreed that MoCCA was a hit for the Seattle-based publisher. Sales were on par with that of 2019, the last time we attended MoCCA in-person, and attendees were super excited to buy books from our table. Comic Arts Festivals are traditionally the place to launch new cartoonists and books, and publishers told PW this was the biggest loss of not having in-person shows. Some great authors and great graphic novels didn't get the chance to get in front of readers the way they should have, said Leigh Walton, marketing director at Top Shelf, an indie-style imprint of IDW Publishing. But at the same time, pandemic book sales in general have really surgedif book launches have been more challenging, established names and the backlist seem to have benefited as people took the opportunity to dive into their I've been meaning to get that lists. One of the most eagerly awaited returns is that of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), to be held June 17-19 in Toronto, which attracts creators and publishers from around the world, and traditionally has seen robust sales and exposure for indie, manga and web cartoonists. The 2022 show will have quite a few changes, including a move to June from its traditional May date. During the pandemic, longtime show director Christopher Butcher stepped down, and current executive director Miles Baker has overseen many organizational changes. We have moved to paying a lot more staff and moved away from [using as many] volunteers, so there will be many new people and new roles, he told PW. With more money going to staff, the budget to bring visiting guests has been reduced. There are trade-offs that we have to make as an organization, but also, with the pandemic, the number of artists willing to travel is lower this year. The 2022 festival will be a hybrid event with several virtual programming tracks. The event will continue to showcase international talent: this years major Japanese guest will appear digitally, but Baker still expects cartoonists from Norway, the U.K., Germany, and several other countries to attend. TCAFs return has already run into a few bumps: the shows announcement that Pink Cat, a controversial digital artist who works in NFTs, would be a guest was met with widespread outrage, and forced the festival to rescind its invitation. TCAF will be held at the Toronto Reference Library, as usual, but unlike past years, there will be no satellite venues near the library. The Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel just around the corner that hosted panels is being renovated into a luxury hotel and will no longer be used, and the nearby Masonic Hall also will not be used as a venue going forward because of accessibility issues. However a new academic comics symposium has been added to the schedule, and will be held at the Courtyard Marriott Toronto Downtown, TCAFs new headquarters hotel. Instead of spreading out to other venues, well have more digital content, Baker said. Ultimately, it's the most accessible TCAF has ever been to the world, but it will definitely look and feel a little different. While publishers are looking forward to the sales and marketing benefits of attending comics festivals again, its the intangibles surrounding comics gatherings that they look forward to the most. While hes optimistic about festival sales being strong, Top Shelfs Walton pointed out, there are major benefits to festivals beyond book salesindustry awareness, talent relations, and psychological health to name a few. The spokesperson for CALA agreed, I think the value of being in community feels stronger than ever. I don't think the function of the indie festivals will have changed that much, but the in-person connection just feels more important to people now than the commerce aspect. Shows are still important for Nobrow, but not for revenue, Shapiro said. As a U.K. publisher trying to grow in the U.S., comics shows are an integral grassroots part of building a community and fanbase over here. Making connections with the comics scene is important for us in the long term. Mostly though, everyone is happy to be seeing friends again. To me, the years of isolation have really hammered home how precious our personal connections are, and I hope the community can reestablish those, as safely as possible, Walton said. Premium online access is only available tosubscribers. If you have an active subscription and need to set up or change your password, please click here New to PW? To set up immediate access, click here. NOTE: If you had a previous PW subscription, click here to reactivate your immediate access. PW site license members have access to PWs subscriber-only website content. If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser. For off-site access, click here. To find out more about PWs site license subscription options, please email Mike Popalardo at: mike@nextstepsmarketing.com. Several hundred international book publishing professionals and authors gathered in mid-May for the newest edition of the biennial Jerusalem International Book Forum. Originally started as the Jerusalem International Book Fair, the event was reconstituted in 2019 into its current form, but still featured panel discussions, literary talks, workshops, and a fellowship program that had been the hallmarks of the fair. It was the first in-person JIBF since the pandemic. The JIBF featured three tracks. On May 15, the Mayor of Jerusalem opened the JIBFs four-day program for book publishing professionals; two days earlier at a local hotel, Yoel Makov, JIBF director, and production coordinator Sharon Katz, convened its weeklong program for the 29 book editors, agents, and scouts from 17 countries who were the recipients of the coveted Zev Birger Editorial Fellowships. May 15th was also the start of the public program involving celebrated authors from Israel and abroad at the annual Jerusalem International Writers Festival, produced by Mishkenot Shaananim, an arts and culture center overlooking the Old City. Registered JIBF attendees included the new group of Editorial Fellows, dozens of Alumni Editorial Fellows, and many other experts in the book and media worlds, including those who were participating in the nine discussion panels created by the Forum planners. Among the publishers who made the trip were Mitzi Angel (FS&G, U.S.); Barbara Marcus (RH Childrens Books, U.S.); Belinda Ioni Rasmussen (Macmillan Childrens Books, U.K.) ); Videl Bar-Kar ( Global Head of Audio, Bookwire, Germany/U.K.); Andrew Franklin (Profile Books, U.K.); and Andreas Roetzer (Matthes and Seitz, Germany). Among the literary agents in attendance were Amy Spangler (AnatoliaLit, Turkey) and Natalie Jerome (Curtis Brown, U.K.) . Highlights of the four-day publishing program were the opening keynote by founding editor of Wired Magazine UK, David Rowan, on how publishing can benefit from the coming world of metaverses, blockchains and AI; and a panel discussion about the future of book fairs by the Frankfurt, Bologna, Greek, and Swedish book fair directors Other panels featured experts discussing audiobook and podcast opportunities, the rise and rise of childrens books, independent publishing, debut book marketing, and the reframing of cultural assumptions: Women, Identity, Diversity, and the Road Ahead for Publishing. The JIBF opening night began with greetings from various officials, including remarks from the Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a supporter of the JIBF for decades, and the sponsor of the Editorial Fellowship program since its inception in 1985. He greeted the audience with warmth and humor, praised the JIBF program and all its organizers, but ended on a cautionary note about world events and the importance of solidarity. He said, I feel safer in Israel than in the center of Europe. And its also to be noted that many people in Europe now understand much better what it means if youre surrounded by enemies that deny your existenceWe know in Germany that a rocket with a deadly warhead can reach Berlin from Kalingrad in two-and-a-half minutes. The main event was the celebration of the awarding of the prestigious Jerusalem Prize to British author Julian Barnes who could not attend for medical reasons. Barnes recorded a greeting for attendees and wrote a warm and poignant acceptance speech which was performed by actor Udi Razzin. In his remarks, Barnes shared memories of many of the books he read during his childhood and how they expanded his reality, and his belief that fiction, more than any other written form, best explains and expands life. He called out the regrettable tendency in Britain and other countries, especially in the United States, to wish to protect younger readers and students from being shocked, hurt, or even merely embarrassed by imaginative literature. There must be trigger warnings given to the reader in advanceIf I were a book editor and instructed that trigger warnings are now corporate policy, I should put exactly the same message on every book, from Shakespeare and Cervantes and Dostoievsky to Svetlana Alexievich and Ismael Kadare: Trigger warning: this book contains truth. A memorable coda to the evening was a candid, funny, riveting hour-long conversation with Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk about her unexpected obsession and at times mystical nine- year journey researching and writing her award-winning The Book of Jacobs. She too spoke of this unbelievable moment in history and her naive belief that war could no longer happen the way it had in the past. But now we can see that people are still killed in a very cruel way." We have a responsibility, she said, that lies with those of us who are watching. The writers, she said, we are all soldiers now. Esther Margolis is the chair of the JIBF American Advisory Committee and president of Newmarket Publishing Management. There currently exists in America a worrying coordination of federal executive branch agencies and private companies to bypass democracy in order to push progressive, woke ideologies. Unelected bureaucrats are abusing their delegated authority from Congress. These people frequently pass through a revolving door between government and business making them adept at bending the administrative state to their ends. This has created a leftist business class that is obsessed with virtue signaling for the purpose of their own personal self-promotion. They live in their own echo chamber. In the private sector, the rise of proxy voting by large asset managers has removed accountability from corporations in the same way that administrative agencies have removed accountability from the legislative process. This problem has grown so troublesome, that large asset managers have gone as far as to foist activists on to corporate boards to force behaviors. I am not in favor of government picking winners and losers. I believe free markets allow the best ideas and inventions to thrive while lesser ideas perish. But the market becomes drastically less free as federal agencies join at the hip with select corporations to promote policies that kill other American industries and would not be supported by the populace as a whole. Suddenly, our markets capability to promote innovation and American needs decreases in favor of the political agenda of those in charge. In Kentucky, this is especially concerning as these efforts seek to kill one of Kentuckys signature industriesfossil fuels. Once this economic tampering begins, state leaders are left with no choice but to speak and act in defense of the economic well-being of our states. This is why I recently championed the passage of SB 205 in Kentucky, which was signed into law earlier this year. The law directs the Commonwealth, through the guidance of the State Treasurer, to divest from companies that engage in energy company boycotts. It also prohibits governmental entities from entering into contracts with companies that engage in energy company boycotts. My message has been clear: the Commonwealth of Kentucky will not do business with those companies that seek to squelch the lifeblood of our economy. The tax dollars of Kentucky citizens should not be used to cripple our own livelihood. Other states have passed measures similar to SB 205, and state financial officers are leading the way. My colleague West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore released a letter signed by fifteen state treasurers addressing the Biden Administrations efforts to privately pressure U.S. financial institutions to cease lending to or investing in coal, natural gas, and oil companies. The letter makes it clear that we strongly oppose command-and-control economic policies that attempt to bend the free market to the political will of government officials. Earlier this month, I took another approach, asking Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to render an opinion on whether stakeholder capitalism, a term favored by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and ESG investment practices connected to public pension funds are consistent with Kentucky law governing fiduciary duties. That opinion, rendered on Wednesday, makes it clear that considerations external to a fiduciarys single-minded purpose in their beneficiaries investments, prioritize activist goals over the interests of their public and state employee clients and, therefore, are inconsistent with Kentucky law. Other states have likewise taken umbrage with large asset managers imposing their progressive designs on corporate America and pushed back against firms that often manage large portions of state employee pension funds. In Florida, CFO Jimmy Patronis supported the governors decision to retake proxy voting from fund managers, putting power back in the hands of elected officials answerable to the people. More recently, Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks, every statewide officer, and their entire federal delegation also blasted S&P Global for including Environmental, Social, and Governance credit indicators as part of its credit ratings for states. And just last week, Treasurer Julie Ellsworth and the state of Idaho followed suit. Ultimately, as Bidens bureaucrats advance these harmful policies to the detriment of hardworking Americans, we can see yet another example of how the administrative state in America has grown far too large and, simultaneously, diminished the voice of the American people. It is time we return this power to the people and their elected leaders. Over the last decade, Bangladeshs robust economic growth has transformed the South Asian country. It is set soon to graduate from the United Nations Least Developed Country status and is outpacing its larger neighbor India in many key economic indicators, including growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), per capita income and female employment rates. The International Labour Organizations most recent study shows that it has a mere 2.2 percent gender wage gap. Still, investment in Bangladeshparticularly in startup companieslags regional peers including India and Pakistan. Bangladesh-based startups received $165 million in venture investments in 2021 compared to the $38 billion invested in Indian startups and $300 million in Pakistani startups. One reason: Many global investors incorrectly perceive Bangladesh as a place for cheap labor and textiles rather than one with a budding startup ecosystem and abundant technology talent. In fact, Bangladesh is ripe for an investment boom. Since 2009, Bangladeshs GDP per capita rose from $710 to more than $2,500. HSBC Bank recently predicted that Bangladesh would be the worlds 26th-largest economy by 2030 due in large part to its sustained GDP growth of 6 percent during the last twenty years. Bangladesh has a larger aggregate GDP than Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. A key driver of the countrys economic strength is education. Government policies that provide free primary education have led to a 95 percent literacy rate for people over 15 years old. That has created a ready-to-go workforce looking for bigger opportunities. The nations fast growing middle class has fueled the creation of consumer-directed companies. Take bKash, a mobile financial services startup. bKash recently received an infusion of $250 million from SoftBank, which raised the companys valuation to approximately $2 billion. It and other new companies are helping to improve the lives of everyday Bangladeshis. Examples abound. Bangladeshs City Bank is providing Digital Nano Loans to bKash users, which gives a large, underserved portion of the population access to credit. Pathao, the countrys leading ridesharing startup, has started offering a pay-later option to its customers, thus providing financial flexibility to many in the middle class who dont have access to traditional credit. ShopUp, the country's largest business-to-business e-commerce platform, recently raised $75 million, including from the well-regarded investment fund Tiger Global. These investments are helping to solve some of Bangladeshs thorniest problems. Women are perhaps the biggest beneficiaries. Bangladeshs garment industry employs more than 2.5 million women. A steady paycheck has made women more independent and has allowed them to seek and land even better jobs. This, in turn, makes the economy grow. At the same time, the countrys fertility rate has dropped, which has opened the way for women to be more career oriented. Women are pursuing high-end educational degrees and increasingly get more remunerative urban professions. Startups such as Chaldal, an online grocery shopping and delivery platform, frees women from domestic duties and enables them to participate more fully in the work force. Bangladesh ranks first among South Asian nations in womens enrollment in primary and secondary schools, according to the World Economic Forum. The percentage of girls enrolled in primary school rose from 57 percent in 2008 to 93.7 percent in 2020. Indeed, education is becoming more widespread. Bangladeshs educational system produces more than 500,000 university graduates every year and over 65,000 receive training in Information technology. Startups such as Shikho, which recently raised capital from 8 international investors, are further strengthening the education system by focusing on practical learning rather than rote memorization. Thanks to the Digital Bangladesh project launched by Prime Minister Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed, Bangladeshs chief information and communication technology adviser, many young Bangladeshis are as digitally savvy as their western counterparts. When the project was first envisioned in 2009, only 20 million Bangladeshis had mobile phones. Now more than 120 million Bangladeshis do and millions more have access to high-speed internet services. The internet covers 98 per cent of the country. The Bangladeshi investment opportunity is predicated on one of the fastest growing economies in the world with an impressive online capability. And its just beginning to get noticed. The time is ripe for global investors to start participating in Bangladeshs future success. Rahat Ahmed is Founding Partner and CEO of Anchorless Bangladesh, a New York-based venture capital firm that invests in Bangladesh. Back in the mid-80s when I was a young professor, I had a relatively straightforward understanding of my role. There were universal human questions What is justice? What is the good life? and my task was to investigate the plausible answers to these questions with my students. There were challenges described well by Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind but, having experienced them myself as a young student, I was confident perhaps overconfident about my ability to address them. I could appeal to a universal sentiment like righteous indignation to show my students the incoherence of the value relativism most of them thought they espoused. Fast forward to 2022. Most of whats left of my hair has gone gray. And Im listening to administrators, colleagues, and students insist upon particularity and intersectionality. Everyones story is different, depending upon their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. (I had been accustomed to hearing talk about class, but that seems to have diminished in salience for those with whom I interact.) For the courses to be relatable and relevant, Ive been told that students have to see themselves in the authors and texts I assign. Taken seriously, this argument leads us into a cul-de-sac. Students can learn only from people like themselves, which means that none of us can learn about, let alone teach about, difference. We could, I suppose, call this a kind of civic education, an introduction into the story of my people defined in terms of the particular characteristics noted above. Recalling the familiar image from Platos Republic, each of us inhabits a cave defined by those characteristics and their intersections. But in contrast with the cave image, none of us can liberate ourselves or be liberated from our bondage. In the first instance, theres a grave practical problem with this view. Regardless of what we imagine about the intersections we inhabit, we in fact share space with others who have different identities. Our circumstances demand that we be able to communicate and hence share understandings with one another. We cant just rely on a multiplicity of my stories; there also has to be our story. Were it not for the efforts of the 1619 Project, something like Abraham Lincolns mystic chords [sic] of memory, stretching from every patriot grave to every heart and hearthstone might serve us well. But taking a cue from W.E.B. DuBois, theres another route we might take. I have long appreciated the powerful defense of traditional liberal education he offers in The Souls of Black Folk. There he shows how an encounter with the great minds of the past could take us beyond the color line. Some three decades later, in The Field and Function of the Negro College, he takes a slightly different path. Sounding a lot like many of my colleagues, he affirms that the university education of black men in the United States must be grounded in the condition and work of those black men! This isnt, however, his final word on the subject. Every education begins with the circumstances of those for whom it is intended. A Russian university will have a different point of departure from its English counterpart, which will deal with different cultural beginnings than those located in Germany. Where the Russians might regard Tolstoy as indispensable, the English might look to Shakespeare and the Germans to Goethe. But that, says DuBois, is only the beginning: It is the matter of beginnings and integrations of one group which sweep instinctive knowledge and inheritance and current reactions into a universal world of science, sociology, and art. Taking a cue from DuBois, we start where students are to bring them into full universal humanity. We honor and treasure the stories of our ancestors because they are ours. Theyre both particular to us and part of the variegated human panoply. But that panoply is human, with its particular embodiments pointing to a nature that we share. Were not left with a multiplicity of stories necessarily at odds with one another, with no possibility of community or common understanding. Rather, our task as educators is to find the way from those beginnings to the larger whole that they help constitute and comprise. The great conversation should have many voices. But to be a conversation, it cant be a series of monologues, intelligible only to the speakers and those like them. This is, and indeed always has been, our task as teachers. Joseph M. Knippenberg is Professor of Politics at Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, GA and a Jack Miller Center faculty partner. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/02/2022 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. alum Deavan Clegg has announced that her three-year-old son Taeyang is battling leukemia.Deavan, who starred on the first two seasons of : The Other Way with her ex-husband Jihoon Lee from 2019 to 2020, took to Instagram on Monday to disclose that her beloved son, whom she welcomed with Jihoon, was recently diagnosed with cancer."I have vowed to always be 100% transparent with you guys and I am choosing to share the most vulnerable and saddest point of my life right now in hopes it can help give anyone else dealing with a similar situation some strength," Deavan, 25, began.Alongside photos of Taeyang eating and sleeping in a hospital bed, Deavan wrote, "I'm overcome with so much emotion and devastation to announce that my beloved son Taeyang who just celebrated his third birthday last month was just diagnosed with childhood cancer, b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia just a few days ago."Deavan revealed he had "already undergone multiple procedures and started chemotherapy treatment" just two days prior."This is every parents absolute worst nightmare and I'm trying hard to stay strong for Taeyang, [my daughter Drascilla] and my baby in my tummy," noted Deavan, who is currently pregnant with her boyfriend Christopher "Topher" Park's baby, who is due in Fall 2022.Deavan welcomed Drascilla, 6, from a relationship she had with a man prior to meeting Jihoon.Deavan filed for divorce from Jihoon in September 2020 and their divorce was just finalized recently. She has been dating Topher for nearly two years and are expecting a child together after suffering through a miscarriage in April 2021 "Taeyang will need around the clock hospital care and this will be a long two-year process that has a high success rate of full recovery in five years," Deavan continued in her Instagram post."I'm still processing all of this and asking for prayers, please. If anyone would like to donate to assist with his medical care, I would be forever grateful as this nightmare has been completely unexpected."Deavan provided the link to a GoFundMe account in her Instagram bio, which has since accumulated over $15,200 in donations of its total $50,000 goal."I will also create some kind of support fundraiser T-shirt this week too just still trying to wrap my head around all of this. Also if anyone knows of any childhood cancer support groups and resources please tag them below," Deavan wrote."I'm so beside myself right now and my heart is broken. Thank you friends and supporters for your prayers, healing vibes and strength. #leukemia #childhoodcancer #prayersfortaeyang #westandwithtaeyang #teamtaeyang."On Wednesday, Deavan posted a video montage of sweet moments she's had with Taeyang, thanking everyone for their support thus far. In the first 12 hours the GoFundMe went live, over $10,000 was raised for Deavan's family."This week has flip our lives upside down," Deavan shared on the eighth day of Taeyang's hospitalization and the fourth day of the little boy's chemotherapy treatment."Childhood cancer is one of the worst things to happen to anyone or any family. We will keep everyone updated on Taeyangs Journey to recovery. We are creating shirts today for our little man."Deavan also clarified how all of the GoFundMe donations will go towards Taeyang's medical bills and care.Deavan proceeded to share a third Instagram post of a video of Taeyang being a trooper in the hospital."It's a difficult time... but Taeyang is still smiling and everyone has been absolutely amazing. Our hospital room is full of toys and we've been making slime every day," Deavan said."I'm so thankful to see all these little warriors still smiling and having fun. The other day in our hall a little boy was zooming through the hallway on his little bike all smiles and laughing. It really changed my perspective and instead of tears we will be smiling and dancing. Taeyang you got this!"Deavan said in addition to the GoFundMe account, fans can show their support through "encouraging words" and continuing to follow Taeyang on his journey to recovery.Deavan has also been updating her followers on Instagram Stories."High hopes we can go home soon," Deavan wrote Wednesday. "And come back twice a week for treatment, fingers crossed... Seeing great improvement in his appetite."Deavan added, "During this difficult time, Drascilla graduated Kindergarten. We are so proud of her. She's been the best big sister during all of this. She's really amazing and I am so, so, so happy to have such a beautiful, wonderful, strong girl in my life."Despite her refusal to ever appear on a spinoff again, Deavan made a point to thank cast members and alums for sharing her posts and donating in light of her son's health crisis."It truly means the world to us. And the support of everyone has been so overwhelming. I've been in tears all morning. Thank you, thank you, thank you," Deavan gushed on Instagram Stories."You guys give us so much hope. We know when Taeyang is older, he will know so many people cheered him on."According to the GoFundMe page created by Deavan's mother, Taeyang had taken countless trips to the emergency room before a specialist diagnosed him with cancer.Deavan's representative Lindsay Feldman told Us Weekly that Jihoon "has not had any contact with [Deavan]'s son since late 2020" and has been "unsuccessful" at contacting him about their son's diagnosis."He has her and her family's numbers, emails and social media blocked," the representative claimed, adding how Deavan has "even tried to reach out to Jihoon's father but was unsuccessful."Deavan previously claimed Jihoon was "abusive" during their relationship and that he had done "disgusting" and "vile" things Deavan even alleged Jihoon had abused Drascilla, which Jihoon firmly denied In a Q&A session on Instagram late last month, Deavan insisted Jihoon's alleged lack of responsiveness and care for Taeyang is why a judge awarded her full custody of Taeyang during the divorce proceedings.Deavan revealed in August 2020 she had moved back to the United States after trying to move to South Korea for the second time, and Jihoon then confirmed their split on social media shortly afterwards.But Deavan revealed in her Q&A that she and Jihoon actually ended their relationship in November 2019, shortly after she had announced having a miscarriage with their second child on social media, but they chose to continue filming : The Other Way for the money.Deavan suggested in her Q&A that she's thinking about having Topher adopt both Taeyang and Drascilla."He would very much love that... Blood doesn't make a father a father," Deavan shared on Instagram Stories.She elaborated, "Topher has been in Taeyang's life for two years. Taeyang calls Topher dad and cries for him more than me. I think Taeyang only knows him. Unfortunately, that is what my ex decided. He had his rights and didn't take them."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Hallmark Channel actress Alicia Witt has announced on Instagram that she has been battling breast cancer. ADVERTISEMENT "just a little over 2 months ago, i had my last round of chemical therapy prior to my mastectomy. my beloved, brilliant, collaborative, communicative doctor,@habibdoss at @tnoncology, was there to celebrate with us as i rang the bell!" WItt, 46, wrote Wednesday, alongside videos and photos of her in the hospital showing her celebrating the completion of her treatment. "Although we didn't yet know for absolute certain until after the mastectomy that the disease was completely healed from my left breast, this marked the end of my carboplatin/taxotere, + herceptin/perjeta (the latter two are immunotherapies which will continue, per protocol for HER2+, through the end of this year)." Witt added that she wanted to keep her ordeal private "particularly given the horribly public tragedy that had happened in our family just as i was beginning my treatments." Witt's parents Robert, 87, and Diane, 75, were found dead in their Massachusetts home last December, just days before Christmas. In February, authorities announced their cause of deaths as "probable cardiac dysrhythmia" due to the extreme cold weather. The actress said at the time that she was close to her parents, but described them as "fiercely stubborn," explaining they were "not penniless" but often refused the help of others, even when they had no heat in their house. Witt's credits include Lore, Orange Is the New Black, Nashville, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: The Return, The Walking Dead, Two Weeks Notice, 88 Minutes, Cybill, Mr. Holland's Opus and Dune. She also is well known for starring in numerous Hallmark Channel holiday movies. Network HBO is renewing the comedy Our Flag Means Death for a second season, the company said in a release issued by Warner Media Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The show's first season debuted in March and was loosely based on the true adventures of 18th century would-be pirate Stede Bonnet, played by New Zealand actor and comedian Rhys Darby. "After trading in the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede became captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Stede's fortunes changed after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard, played by (Taika) Waititi. To their surprise, the wildly different Stede and Blackbeard found more than friendship on the high seas...they found love. Now they have to survive it," Warner said of the show's plot. Darby is well known for comedic roles on both the big and small screen. He appears in the television show Flight of the Conchords and on the silver screen in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. In a March interview, the 48-year-old said it was challenging to play the role of Bonnet in the show. "He's so complicated. How did he get away with what he did, and why would anyone follow or believe him? He's a dreamer and a risk taker, and I could relate to that," Darby told UPI at the time. The show has generally gotten positive reviews, with an audience score of 95% on review site Rotten Tomatoes. "Our Flag Means Death's gentle sensibility doesn't quite strike comedic gold, but its bemusing band of buccaneers are endearing enough that viewers seeking a comforting watch will find bountiful booty," reads the site's synopsis. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! But not all critics give it that level of praise. "Even with a skilled comedic actor such as Darby at the helm, though, there's only so much mileage they can get out of the soft jokes he's given in these first few chapters, which struggle to land any punchlines beyond the most obvious about the sheer absurdity of a foppish bookworm trying to be a pirate," Variety's Caroline Framke wrote in March, while praising Darby's individual performance and that of co-star Taika Waititi. "Our Flag Means Death finds a new spark of inspiration, in no small part thanks to Waititi's casual charisma and the surprisingly charged chemistry between him and Darby as their characters grow closer." The network has not announced a date for the start of the second season. "We felt the show was special while we were making it, but fans' open-armed embrace of the inhabitants of the Revenge makes heading into a second season all the more sweet. Thanks to our team at HBO Max, our invested executive producers, and our wildly enthusiastic audience for making another voyage to this world possible," showrunner and creator David Jenkins said in a news release. Writer and director Lena Dunham's newest creation, Sharp Stick, will be released in theaters July 29, independent distributor Utopia announced Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The latest film by the Girls creator premiered virtually at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The comedy will now hit the big screen in Los Angeles and New York in late July, with a nationwide release set for August 5. Utopia acquired distribution rights in February. The film stars Dunham, along with Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Luka Sabbat, Scott Speedman, Lena Dunham, Taylour Paige and Jennifer Jason Leigh. "Sarah Jo is a sensitive and naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her disillusioned mother and influencer sister. Working as a caregiver and just longing to be seen, she begins an exploratory affair with her older, married employer, and is thrust into a startling education on sexuality, loss and power," reads a synopsis of the film. "This is Dunham at her most liberated in years. [Her] greatest strength as a filmmaker lies in her ability to create achingly real, relatable characters within a heightened comedic framework," The Hollywood Reporter's Jourdain Searles said in a review. Dunham wrote, directed and produced the film. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/01/2022 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Which couples are still together and which MAFS couples have broken up and divorced? And where are they now? 's first fourteen seasons featured 54 different couples who got married at first sight -- so which couples are still together, who broke up and divorced, and where are they all now?Each season of -- which premiered in the United States seven years ago and is based on a Danish series -- features couples (previously three couples, but four couples on Seasons 8 and 9, and five couples beginning with Season 10) being matched together by relationship experts and agree to marry when they first meet.Complete strangers become husband and wife in a matter of minutes, and the couples' lives are then documented by TV cameras over the course of the next four to eight weeks (eight weeks, in the case of 's most recent seasons).The couples typically enjoy their first night together in a hotel after exchanging vows -- with some couples deciding to consummate their marriage immediately -- and then embark on a honeymoon, move in together, and simply attempt to deal with the struggles of daily life as man and wife.At the end of the extreme marriage experiment, each couple must decide whether they'd like to stay married or get a divorce on "Decision Day."has experienced very mixed results over the years. While a significant number of couples decide to stay together and continue their new marriage at the end of their season, the real world seems to hit them hard after the cameras leave, resulting in the couple splitting up only months later.Do cast members see a different side of their spouses once cameras are gone, or do the romances naturally fizzle over time?Some couples are still together to this day and are extremely happy. Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner from Season 1, for example, have had two children.Several other couples have also had children -- including Ashley Petta and Anthony D'Amico Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd Deonna McNeill and Greg Okotie , and Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd However, there are also relationships that ended badly. Jessica Castro from Season 2, for instance, accused Ryan De Nino of alleged death threats, and she went on to file a restraining order and lawsuit against him.Some couples have also never even made it to "Decision Day" and ended their marriage prematurely, including Season 4 couple Heather Seidel and Derek Schwartz as well as Season 6 couple Molly Duff and Jonathan Francetic Are the remaining couples now lovers, friends or enemies?! What about early season couples like Cortney Hendrix and Jason Carrion, Jaclyn Methuen and Ryan Ranellone, Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell, Sonia Granados and Nick Pendergrast, and Lillian Vilchez and Tom Wilson?And how about more recent season couples like Danielle DeGroot and Cody Knapek Sheila Downs and Nate Duhon Jaclyn Schwartzberg and Ryan Buckley Dave Flaherty and Amber Martorana , and Tristan Thompson and Mia Bally Keith Dewar and Kristine Killingsworth , and AJ Vollmoeller and Stephanie Sersen Click thelink below to see photos of each couple and find out! BEGIN GALLERY >> Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/01/2022 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. reportedly fired Matthew Morrison as a judge for inappropriate behind-the-scenes behavior involving a Season 17 contestant.According to a source close to the Fox reality show, Matthew, 43, was fired from "after he had an inappropriate relationship with a female contestant," People reported "They didn't have sex, but he reached out to her through flirty direct messages on social media," the source said."She felt uncomfortable with his line of comments and went to producers, who then got Fox involved. He was fired after they did their own investigation."The source claimed Matthew and the unidentified female contestant "never met up off-set" but his messages definitely "crossed the line."Representatives for Matthew and Fox did not respond when People requested a comment.Late last week, Matthew had released a vague announcement that he was leaving that had left the circumstances of his exit unclear and left some fans believing he may have left SYTYCD voluntarily.On Friday, just over a week into 's Season 17 broadcast schedule, the Tony Award-nominated Broadway star and former Glee star issued a statement to multiple press outlets about his sudden and unexpected departure from the show.Matthew said he was "leaving" the show, which premiered on May 18, because he "did not follow competition production protocols" during filming."Having the opportunity to be a judge on was an incredible honor for me. Therefore, it is my deepest regret to inform you that I will be leaving the show," Matthew said late last week."After filming the audition rounds for the show and completing the selection of the 12 finalists, I did not follow competition production protocols, preventing me from being able to judge the competition fairly."He added, "I cannot apologize enough to all involved and I will be watching alongside you all on what I know will be one of the best seasons yet."Given the reality dancing competition's audition episodes have already been filmed, Matthew will continue to appear on the season for a couple more weeks.Representatives for Fox told Us Weekly on Friday that the network "will soon announce a new judge to the series for the next wave of the competition starting on June 15th featuring the Top 12 performing for America's vote."An insider told the magazine at the time that Matthew is "disappointed" about his early exit from the series but he's "happy to have left on good terms.""He plans to spend time with his family and is excited about what is next," the insider noted.Matthew is married to 37-year-old Renee Puente, his wife of seven years with whom he shares two toddler children, son Revel James and daughter Phoenix Monroe.Matthew had joined as a member of a new panel of judges for Season 17.Both Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy were replaced by Matthew, pop star and former Dancing with the Stars contestant JoJo Siwa , and former SYTYCD All-Star Stephen "tWitch" Boss.Former judges of include Adam Shankman Jason Derulo , and Paula Abdul Cat Deeley is once again hosting 's currently-airing season. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/02/2022 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Michelle Young has announced she's leaving her job as an elementary school teacher despite her repeated mentions that being an educator is her passion.Michelle, 28, worked as a fifth-grade teacher when she joined Matt James ' The Bachelor season, which aired in early 2021, and she even postponed the subsequent filming her edition later that year so she wouldn't have to disrupt the school year.While Michelle has pressed how teaching is her passion and priority since joining The Bachelor franchise, she is embarking on a career change and revealed her plans for 2023 during Tuesday's episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast."I've decided to step out of the classroom," Michelle declared."Because I need to make sure that one, I'm taking care of myself, but two, teachers and those who are in the profession know that teaching is a profession that is completely built on passion. Our foundation is passion; it's not money, it's not materials, it's not benefits."The Minnesota native, who is making a long-distance relationship work with her fiance Nayte Olukoya -- who currently lives in Austin, TX -- spoke on the verge of tears and admitted this is an "emotional" time for her as well as "a heavy conversation."Michelle said the "difficult" and "realistic" side of teaching out of passion is that the people in those roles are "not valued, supported, taken care of or listened to.""That foundation starts to crack, and I think you can talk to pretty much any teacher and they will tell you that these last two years have been really difficult with the pandemic," Michelle shared.Michelle noted the foundation was already "starting to crack" even before the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020."And these things keep piling and piling and piling, and honestly, we kind of call it this, like, big game of Jenga, where you just keep stacking things on and you keep pulling out from underneath and it gets more wobbly and less supported -- and eventually, it's going to tumble down," she explained."We need to repair those cracks and repair those holes... These last two years have really amplified those cracks. And the result of that, and a big part of that, is teacher mental health and not valuing our teachers."Michelle said being in the classroom and working with students is "incredibly close to [her] heart.""With this cracked foundation, I see myself moving forward outside of the classroom, giving back and raising awareness for teachers... Being in the classroom right now isn't the way to do that, for me," Michelle noted.Michelle told her listeners that while she loves teaching, she's "also burnt out" on teaching."I'm also more than just a teacher," Michelle said, adding how she respects the teachers who will be returning to the classroom next year as well as those who have chosen not to. "It's not an easy [choice]."Michelle acknowledged how it's "been hard to hold back" this decision from the world and she's discussed her career change thoroughly with Nayte as well as family and friends."June 8 is not going to be an easy day for Miss Young, as I'm sure there will be many tears," she said."But I appreciate my supporters and those who understand... It's okay if everyone doesn't see the big picture... of where I'm headed."Michelle -- who confessed there will be some "teacher guilt" -- said she began mulling over her career change when sitting down with a co-worker. The pair had apparently discussed being in "survival mode" working at their school."My co-worker asked me, 'Michelle, how long have you been in survival mode?' And when she asked that, it kind of caught me off guard, to actually stop and think how long I've been in this position," Michelle recalled."And my response was, 'Two years.' I've been in this survival mode [for] two years, where I have just been flying by the seat of my pants but really not necessarily living. [I was just] surviving."Michelle was apparently in "survival mode" even before she competed on Matt James ' The Bachelor season and went "through some crazy and awesome changes because of the show."After finishing as Matt's runner-up on The Bachelor's 25th season, Michelle starred on 's eighteenth season. (ABC made plans around Michelle's teaching schedule, which resulted in Katie Thurston starring on 's seventeenth season in the first half of 2021 and Michelle's season premiering in Fall 2021).Michelle accepted a marriage proposal from Nayte during her season finale."And with getting a fiance, there's just so much going on," Michelle pointed out during her podcast."And as I kind of sat and thought about that and thought about the position that I'm in, it really just highlighted the fact that there's so much going on with our education system."But Michelle insisted her exit from the classroom does not mean she'll never step back into classroom down the road."[And] this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not going to continue working towards a Master's [degree] in administration and potentially get back into that direct line of education," Michelle shared."But it's me stepping away for a year to truly capitalize and push forward and put all of my energy and efforts into my passion in a different way, and really, truly try to push for that change."She reiterated how "staying in the classroom and seeing and feeling that weight" just showed her that "something has to be done."Michelle, however, admitted she's also going to continue reaping the benefits of having starred on The Bachelor franchise by promoting different products in skin and fashion.She also intends to do work for nonprofit organizations and maybe even start up one of her own."It's definitely going to be a balance," Michelle noted of her new goals. "But that balance means I'm one, not in survival mode, and that the balance is also me utilizing that passion I still have for education."Michelle concluded of her decision, which she expects will be heavily criticized, is "the right decision" for herself, even if The Bachelor fans accuse her of turning into "an influencer," which she said "isn't necessarily a bad thing.""It's a weird pressure... [but] I'm really moving closer to changing the world, and I'm not moving away from that," Michelle insisted.Michelle also confirmed her choice has nothing to do with the recent shooting at a Texas elementary school.Nayte later joined the podcast and said he believes Michelle is breaking up with the classroom but not breaking up with teaching, and Michelle said she totally agreed.'s nineteenth season is set to premiere Monday, July 11 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Rolf Parker-Houghton said this sign by his wife, Cynthia, is suddenly missing from its place on Elliot Street, next to a mural on the Harmony Collective Gallery building, and he would like to see it returned. Members of the American Legion and the VFW on Monday, May 30, 2022, visit memorials and cemeteries in Brattleboro, Vt., on Memorial Day, to honor the lives of soldiers that have died. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 79F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies and rain later during the night. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Ryan Goodrich, 36, who also goes by the name of "Ryan Husqvarna," was arrested April 19 in Deerfield, Mass., while attempting to flee south, perhaps to Texas, according to a motion for detention filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Vermont. Husqvarna is a popular brand of motorcycles and power equipment. BRIDGEPORT Glenn Pettway, sought by police for allegedly fatally shooting his girlfriend last Saturday, killed himself following a dramatic standoff with Tennessee police in which he pointed a gun at an infant, police said. Surrounded by dozens of officers from the Jackson, Tenn., SWAT team, bomb squad and investigations unit, Pettway held a gun to the 9-month-old infant as they tried to convince him to surrender Wednesday evening, said Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley. After several hours of negotiations, he said Pettway agreed to hand over the child. Pettway then fled into the house where he fatally shot himself, Corley said. The incident ended a manhunt for the 28-year-old Pettway, accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend, 30-year-old Marisol Dumeng, in her Knoll Place home while he was out on a $1 million bond for a 2018 murder. On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge signed a warrant charging Pettway with murder in the fatal shooting of Dumeng, the mother of four children. At the time Pettway was not only free on bond for a murder but also a $75,000 bond for two incidents in January where police said Pettway sent texts to Dumeng threatening to kill her. A judge subsequently issued a protective order for Pettway to stay away from Dumeng. On Wednesday, acting on a tip received by Bridgeport police that Pettway was hiding out in the western Tennessee city, U.S. Marshals, a Tennessee fugitive task force and Jackson police converged on a home there where Corley said Pettway was living with a young woman and her child. Corley said Pettway barricaded himself in the house. He said the young woman fled, leaving her child behind in the house with Pettway. A hostage negotiations team was sent to the scene and Corley said they attempted to convince Pettway to surrender. Instead, Corley said Pettway went back into the house and came out with the child in his arms, holding the child and the gun so officers could see them. Corley said they managed to convince Pettway to give up the child after several hours and the child was returned safely to its mother. He said they then continued to try and convince Pettway to give up. During the negotiations process decisions for the employment of non-lethal, non-life threatening force were implemented. Sadly in the early morning hours of June 2nd Jackson police were not able to secure Mr. Pettways apprehension without incident, Corley said. He said they sent a robot equipped with a camera into the house and located Pettway lying unresponsive on the floor with a handgun nearby. Although Mr. Pettways decision to take his own life prevented the intended outcome of his safe apprehension to face the charges against him, we are grateful for the collaborative efforts of all involved, Corley said. PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) A publicly owned health system with three hospitals and more than 30 clinics in south Mississippi intends to put itself up for sale or try to merge with another health system. Trustees of the Singing River Health System announced Wednesday that they had voted to make the move. A sale or merger could happen only if supervisors in coastal Jackson County also agree. The supervisors meet Monday. Their vote would then lead to public hearings. Singing River has hospitals in Pascagoula, Ocean Springs and Gulfport. It has more than 4,000 employees. Singing River Health System communications manager Ashley Butsch told the Sun Herald that Wednesday was the first time the board considered pursuing a merger or sale. The health system has been managing complexities of a constantly evolving healthcare industry, according to a news release. Over the last decade, the healthcare industry has continually changed, with community hospitals like ours facing the strongest headwinds. Butsch said the system told its employees about the board's decision before making a public announcement. If a sale or other full integration occurs, the Singing River assets will be sold to or fully integrated with the highest and best bidder that is identified during the formal process, the news release said. The release said Singing River expects to engage in negotiations with Louisiana-based Ochsner Health, but proposals would be considered from other health systems that might submit offers that are higher and/or better than Ochsner Healths offer," WLOX-TV reported. Ochsner President and CEO Warner Thomas said in a statement to news outlets that Ochsner already has a partnership with Singing River Health System and "it is our goal to enter into a long-term fully integrated relationship to continue serving the communities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast together. Ochsner operates a hospital in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and recently expanded operations in a merger with Rush Health System that operates hospitals in Meridian, Mississippi, and western Alabama. Patient care should not be affected as Singing River considers a sale or merger, Butsch said. Patients will continue to see the providers and access services as they always have and Singing River Health System will continue to accept insurance from payers as we do today, she said. Singing River will continue funding the pension plan for current employees and retirees, Butsch said. The hospital system stopped paying into its own pension plan from 2009 to 2014 without telling employees and retirees. That decision was part of a financial crisis at the county-owned hospital system. In early 2018, a federal judge ruled that Singing River must pay more than $156 million to its pension fund over 35 years. Earlier this year, Singing River Health System CEO Lee Bond abruptly resigned to pursue other career opportunities. PIGEON KEY, Fla. (AP) A woman from Illinois was killed and two young children were injured when a sudden storm prompted a boat captain to cut loose their parasail, which then dragged them across the ocean and slammed them into a bridge in the Florida Keys, authorities said. A nearby boater saw them hit the water and rushed to rescue them, pulling the victims into his boat and taking them to waiting paramedics, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release sent Tuesday night. The 33-year-old woman from Schaumburg, Illinois, had already died by the time they arrived at the nearby Sunset Grill Marina, authorities said. Her 10-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew were taken to hospitals for treatment. John Callion, a fishing guide, raced around Pigeon Key to reach them, his fiancee, Kasey Platt, told WPLG-TV. He was pretty frantic on the call. He said, Call 911 right away, Platt told the television station. Callion told the Miami Herald that the Memorial Day storm developed suddenly. It was pretty much flat calm, but you could see the storm coming. All of the sudden, the temperature dropped by 10 degrees and the wind started blowing like crazy, Callion said. The captain on the boat pulling the parasail cut a line tethered to the three victims because the parasail was pegging, or dragging the boat, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report released Tuesday night. The woman and children were then dragged through and across the surface of the water by the inflated parasail until they collided with the Old Seven Mile Bridge, the agencys report said. Mark McCulloh, a parasailing safety consultant from Maitland, Florida, said boat captains should never cut the cord when people are in the air. No, no, no. Thats not even in the cards, McCulloh told The Associated Press. He noted that, generally speaking, a captain is giving up control by cutting the line. You run a huge risk because its windy. When the parasail lands in the water, it doesnt stop moving," he said. Callion, the fishing guide who saw the crash, found the 10-year-old boy battered but awake. The 9-year-old boy was unconscious and wrapped in the parasails lines. It was pretty much the worst thing you could imagine, he said. It was real bad. The Coast Guard and the state's wildlife agency are investigating. Neither responded Wednesday to questions about the boat's captain. Our condolences are with the family and loved ones of those affected by Mondays accident, said Capt. Jason Ingram, Coast Guard Sector Key West commander. This was a tragedy for a family seeking to enjoy their visit to the Florida Keys." STAMFORD A city teen received the max prison sentence of 10 years on Wednesday, months after pleading guilty to felony charges stemming from a 2020 stabbing and a later case where he assaulted five city police officers while trying to evade arrest. Judge Gary White handed Kristian Alvarez, 19, a 20-year prison sentence that will be suspended after 10 years, followed by five years of probation and a $5,000 fine. In March, Alvarez pleaded guilty at Stamford Superior Court Wednesday to first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, criminal possession of a firearm and five counts of assault of a public safety officer. The charges stemmed from two separate incidents: A September 2020 stabbing where a 37-year-old Stamford man was seriously injured in a downtown apartment building, and July 1, 2021, when a gun bust turned armed robbery ended with a failed escape and injuries to multiple police officers. Seven Stamford police officers, some of whom were seriously injured in the struggle to arrest Alvarez in 2021, watched from the court gallery as he was sentenced Wednesday. Two of the officers, Sgt. Brendan Phillips and Officer Matthew Linehan, submitted letters asking the judge to impose the maximum sentence on Alvarez for the serious nature of his crimes. Linehan, who was in a police cruiser that Alvarez rammed during the escape attempt, suffered a traumatic brain injury and may require neck surgery as a result of his injuries. He wrote that not only did Alvarezs actions keep him out of the job for five months, force him to step down from his role in the departments Special Response Team and prevent him from taking an upcoming promotional exam to advance in the department, but it also left him seriously injured only five days before the birth of his second child. This accident impacted every sphere of my life, Linehan wrote in the letter. In a separate letter, Phillips described Alvarezs actions as not a crime of opportunity, but a preplanned, violent criminal act orchestrated by an 18-year-old man. Not only did he participate in the offense, but he recruited and convinced others that this was a good idea to partake, Phillips wrote. Phillips said Alvarezs actions that day showed a complete disregard for the health of others. Supervisory States Attorney Michelle Manning also argued for the maximum prison sentence, citing Alvarezs significant history of crime as a juvenile and a history of noncompliance with court orders. Before being sentenced, Alvarez told the court that he thought of his harmful actions every day and that he would accept the consequences for those actions. To those officers that I injured, I would like to say Im very sorry, Alvarez said. I didnt want to injure you guys, I didnt want to crash the car, I was just scared for my life. After the sentencing, Alvarezs attorney, Wayne Keeney, said that while Alvarezs actions were indefensible, he felt that this clients apology was sincere. This is a young man that has been misguided his whole life, Keeney said. Keeney also commended Stamford police for showing tremendous restraint in not firing their weapons during Alvarezs second arrest. Alvarez was originally charged with first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny, interfering with police, first-degree threatening, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of an illegal high-capacity magazine, illegal sale of a firearm, possession of weapons in a motor vehicle, assault on a police officer, disobeying the signal of an officer and various motor vehicle violations stemming from the two incidents. While out after posting bond in connection to his 2020 stabbing arrest, police were told that Alvarez was reportedly attempting to sell guns on the internet. In response, police organized a controlled purchase of a weapon from Alvarez in July 2021. When police watched Alvarez pull a weapon and put it the head of the person making the purchase, police officers tried to converge on the group. Alvarez then repeatedly rammed his vehicle straight into police cruisers, police reports said at the time. At least five officers suffered injuries including Linehans traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a separated shoulder and more, according to court records. In addition to Alvarez, Jahdiel Rodriguez, 18; Jaylan Jones, 18; and Jackdelys Maldonado, 19, were also charged with first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny and interfering with police. The cases against Jones, Rodriguez and Maldonado are still pending before the court. Jones is scheduled to next appear in court on June 29, and Rodriguez and Maldonado are both scheduled to appear on July 13. A Cambodian woman said a physical assault she suffered at the hands of police officers during a labor protest outside the NagaWorld Casino may have led to the death of her unborn child. Sok Ratana told RFAs Khmer Service that she had been pregnant when she joined the ongoing strike outside the casinos offices on May 11. The police pushed and shoved her during the protest, she said. Fearing they may have hurt her baby in utero, she went to her doctor, who told her that the baby only had a 50% chance to live. Sok Ratana said that she miscarried on May 28. The doctor told her that the baby had likely died two days before he removed it from her womb, she said. Losing my beloved baby has caused me an unbelievable pain that I will feel the rest of my life, said Sok Ratana. This experience has shown me the brutality of the authorities and it has deeply hurt my family. Sok Ratana is one of thousands of NagaWorld workers who walked off their jobs in mid-December, demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of eight jailed union leaders, three other jailed workers and 365 others they say were unjustly fired from the hotel and casino. The business is owned by a Hong Kong-based company believed to have connections to family members of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The strikers began holding regular protest rallies in front of the casino. Cambodian authorities have said their gatherings were illegal and alleged that they are part of a plot to topple the government, backed by foreign donors. Authorities began mass detentions of the protesters, claiming that they were violating coronavirus restrictions. They often resorted to violence to force hundreds of workers onto buses. The labor dispute has turned to a dispute with authorities because they constantly crack down on us without any clemency, Sok Ratana said. I never thought that Cambodia has a law saying that when workers demand rights authorities can crack down on us. She said that authorities worked with the company to pressure workers to stop the strike. She urged the government to better train its security forces to not become violent. Kata Orn, spokesperson of the government-aligned Cambodia Human Rights Committee, expressed sympathy with Sok Ratanas circumstance but said that it was too early to say whether the authorities were at fault. He urged Sok Ratana to file a complaint with the court. We cant prejudge the loss due to the authorities. Only medical experts can tell, he said. We can [only] implement the law. It is applied equally to the workers and the authorities. Sok Ratana said she is working on collecting evidence to file a complaint, but she wasnt confident a court will adjudicate the case fairly. I dont have much hope because my union leader was jailed unjustly for nine weeks. Her changes have not been dropped yet, she said. To me, I dont hope to get justice. From who? I want to ask, who can give me justice? Police violence is a serious human rights violation, Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights told RFA. He urged relevant institutions to investigate the miscarriage and bring those responsible to justice. Labor disputes cant be settled by violence and crackdowns. This will lead to even more disputes and the workers and authorities will try to get revenge, he said. The Labor Ministry has attempted to mediate the dispute between the casino and the union leaders, who have been released on bail, but no progress has been made after more than 10 meetings. Am Sam Ath said the difficulty in resolving the labor dispute might push the government to crack down harder on the holdouts and make more arrests. RFA attempted to contact Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesman San Sok Seiha and the Ministry of Womens Affairs spokeswoman Man Chenda, but neither were available for comment. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Air force fighter planes flew as close as 20 feet to maritime patrol aircraft risking collision, report says Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) fighter jets have repeatedly buzzed a Canadian reconnaissance aircraft on a U.N. mission in East Asia, with over two dozen intercepts deemed dangerous, a media outlet in Canada reported. Buzzing means flying extremely close and fast. On these occasions the Chinese jets came as close as 20 to 100 feet (six to 30 meters) to the Canadian plane, according to a report Wednesday in Canadas Global News. The network quoted anonymous sources in the Canadian government and military as saying the government lodged multiple diplomatic complaints with Beijing for what they called the unsafe and unprofessional conduct of the Chinese pilots. The Canadian maritime patrol aircraft CP-140 Aurora, manned by rotating crews, is currently taking part in U.N. Operation NEON to monitor sanctions against North Korea. A spokesperson for the Canadian Department of National Defence was quoted as saying that the incidents are of concern and of increasing frequency. There have been around 60 such incidents since December with the planes sometimes coming so close the pilots could make eye contact with each other, risking a mid-air collision, the report said. The Chinese government is believed not to have responded to Canadas complaints, the report said. The Lockheed CP-140 Aurora is similar to the Lockheed P-3C Orion which is used by the U.S. Navy for anti-submarine and maritime surveillance. The Aurora is Canadas primary airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, according to the Canadian government website. It provides a full range of maritime, littoral and overland surveillance capabilities for domestic and deployed missions. It is unclear which type of Chinese aircraft were involved in the buzzing incidents. Close encounters continue There have been a number of close encounters between Chinese and foreign military airplanes in recent years. The latest incident took place in March when U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters had at least one close contact with Chinas J-20 stealth fighters over the East China Sea. A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft and a Chinese military surveillance aircraft came within 1,000 feet (305 meters) of each other in the skies over the South China Sea in 2017. The worst incident occurred in April 2001 when a Chinese F-8 fighter jet collided with a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II surveillance plane over the South China Sea, killing the Chinese pilot. The U.S. airplane had to make an emergency landing on Chinas Hainan island and its 24 crew members were detained for 11 days before being released. Strained relationship Canada-China relations have been strained after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive at the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in 2018 at the request of the U.S. China retaliated by arresting two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. The two Canadians were released last September after Meng was allowed to return to China. Relations between the two countries soured again last month after Canada banned Huawei and another Chinese telecom company, ZTE, from taking part in its 5G network development. Chiu Yan-loy, a community officer in Hong Kong's Tsuen Wan district and former leading member of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, won't be lighting candles in Victoria Park this year. The once-annual vigil commemorating those who died at the hands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as it crushed a weeks-long peaceful protest on Beijing's Tiananmen Square has been effectively banned for the third year running. Chiu has already served eight months in prison for taking part in an unauthorized vigil in 2020. Instead, Hongkongers will be remembering the dead in private, amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent under a draconian national security law. Chiu Yan-loy: I have no regrets. It was an honor for me to be sentenced as a dissident-in-mourning on June 4. Commemorating the massacre in itself is not a crime, and making it one is political suppression and nothing more. I choose to stay in Hong Kong to endure this situation. More than 10,000 other people in Victoria Park at the same time of me also risked such charges. If I can carry the can for them, then that's what I'll do. RFA: Will there be other events in Hong Kong? Chiu Yan-loy: It's a luxury to hold a ceremony like that in today's Hong Kong. June 4 commemorations and candlelight vigils are a way of gathering a kind of strength. We won't see June 4 rallies again in Hong Kong, nor any [public] mourning. RFA: What can be done instead? Chiu Yan-loy: When I was in prison, I realized that the most unbearable thing was the feeling of loneliness; a sense that nobody cared about me. Visiting inmates is similar to the spirit of mourning June 4. Spiritual support makes them understand that they are not alone ... that there are still people who care about them. Helping them overcome their loneliness is the most important thing. RFA: How are your former colleagues doing? Chiu Yan-loy: I'm very sad that every one of them has wound up in jail or been suppressed in some way. However, I respect their choices. [Alliance leader Chow Hang-tung] had previously talked with me about her choices before [her prison sentences] and why she made them. I hope she has enough will-power to hang in there. I wish her well. RFA: How are you doing? Chiu Yan-loy: After I got out, I went back to the community to serve my residents through crowdfunding. There are many unknowns in the future, but I will keep up hope and perseverance. Hongkongers should have hope, and keep moving forwards. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Democracy is unlikely to come to China unless a number of circumstances fall into place at just the right time under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), exiled dissidents told RFA ahead of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Wang Dan, a former leader of the 1989 student-led democracy movement in China and the founder of the Dialogue China think-tank, warned that people shouldn't harbor illusions about deliberate political reform under the CCP. He said there was likely a less than 0.1 percent chance that the ruling party would willingly reform itself in a democratic transition seen under the Kuomintang government in Taiwan. Instead, internal divisions over how to deal with a crisis are more likely to weaken the CCP's hold on power, Wang Dan told RFA. "Perhaps if there is a huge crisis and challenge [facing China], generating a certain level of internal disagreement, and the government misjudges and makes the wrong response are wrong, then maybe history will turn," he said. "Without the combination of these factors, I advise everyone to drop any remaining illusions they hold about the CCP," he said. Exiled dissident and political commentator Wang Juntao said CCP leader Xi Jinping's insistence on a zero-COVID policy in response to the pandemic could prove to be just such a crisis, however. "Now that the enforcement methods used to implement zero-COVID disease control and prevention measures have brought disaster to the people, more and more people agree that Xi Jinping is going against the opinions of experts from all over the world, and yet there is no way to make him correct his course," Wang Juntao said. He said that Mao Zedong's initiation of the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) had prompted calls for democracy from within CCP ranks after the late supreme leader's death. Those people understood the need to prevent the emergence of another strongman like Mao, and tried to make power less concentrated, so that the entire party and country were subject to the rule of a single person ever again. But it seems that a similar pattern has emerged under Xi Jinping, he said. Students gather at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, April 22, 1989. AFP The new generation Wang said the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen protests was to be expected under such a repressive system, and that crackdowns on dissent had been ongoing since then. But he said he wasn't pessimistic, because different generations make different meanings out of history. "You have to believe that democratization is the overall trend," he said. "You have to believe that constitutional human rights are based on the basic aspirations of human nature, and you have to believe that the political demands of 1989 are the inevitable destination of human beings and the Chinese nation." "This generation may not have been through the Tiananmen massacre, but they will have experienced their own events, and will soon start connecting their destiny with the events of the past," he said. "When that happens, the Tiananmen protests and massacre will take on a fresh meaning, like a stele [stone carved with a commemorative inscription]," he said. "As long as China remains undemocratized, there will come a time when the next generation shares the same fate we do, unless those in power stop suppressing their struggle for democracy," Wang Juntao said. Wang Dan said most young people in China had heard of the Tiananmen massacre, but were unlikely to understand what took place in detail. "Most people know about June 4th, but they don't know the cause, the outcome, or the ins and outs," Wang Dan said. "But they do know that June 4, 1989 is a sensitive date." "There are actually very few young people who don't know this huge things happened in China," he said, adding that current events could trigger their curiosity. He said that Chinese people often do their own research once they go overseas to study, and are free of government censorship or surveillance. "As long as the wheel of democracy is rolling forward, I'm not worried at all," he said. "From a historical perspective, it's fairly irrelevant whether young people know about June 4, 1989 right now or not." View of a residential building during a COVID-19 lockdown in the Jing'an district in Shanghai, April 8, 2022. Credit: AFP Protests over lockdown In recent days, protests involving hundreds of students have sprung up at university campuses in Beijing and Tianjin, over draconian COVID-19 restrictions imposed on higher education. The scenes at Tianjin University, Beijing International Studies University and Beijing Normal University were eerily reminiscent of the early stages of the 1989 student movement, which later took over Beijing's Tiananmen Square for weeks on end with demands for democratic reforms and the rule of law. Those protests culminated in a bloody massacre of civilians by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on the night of June 3-4, with an unknown number of casualties. In Shanghai, an open letter from entrepreneurs dated May 30 called for the release of all political prisoners and for the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to begin a process of political reform at the 20th Party Congress later in the year, warning of mass capital flight and a widespread loss of public confidence in Xi Jinping's leadership. It urged the industrial sector not to act like "sheep fattened for slaughter" by returning to full production in the wake of the weeks-long Shanghai lockdown. It said the "rule of law" had been reduced to "rule by man", while the economy had been hijacked by politics, leaving millions of COVID-19 "graduates" unemployed, calling on people to "take back their civil rights and rebuild the country." The letter also called on the government to overturn the guilty verdicts against entrepreneurs Ren Zhiqiang and Sun Dawu, as well as punishing officials responsible for "violating the law and disregarding public opinion" as part of the zero-COVID policy and loosening CCP controls on the media. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. China is a glaring example' of repression, US diplomat says. US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain (R) with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) speaks about about the 2021 International Religious Freedom Report, in the Franklin Room of the State Department in Washington, June 2, 2022. China and Myanmar feature prominently in the U.S.s latest report on global restrictions on religious rights and practices, which singles out the two countries for their repression of mostly Muslim Uyghurs and Rohingya. We have seen two genocides of religious minority communities in recent years in China and Burma, said U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain of the Office of International Religious Freedom during a press conference Thursday to release the report. The State Department is required to submit its assessment of religious freedom across the globe to Congress each year. Witnesses and experts provided grim testimony in the report about torture, rape and other human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). It comes as no surprise that the Peoples Republic of China is a glaring example of a government that represses citizens who practice certain religions, said Hussain, who serves as an advisor to the President Joe Biden on religious freedom conditions and policy. The PRC government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs who are predominantly Muslim and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups, he said. Hussain noted Chinas continued use of technologies, including artificial intelligence and facial recognition, to surveil and maintain control of its open-air prison in Xinjiang. Human rights groups and Uyghur advocacy organizations have amassed credible evidence of the severe abuse Uyghurs in Xinjiang have suffered, from mass incarcerations and the destruction of mosques to torture, rape and forced sterilizations. Beijing has angrily denied the accusations, calling them the lie of the century. China continues its genocide of predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minority groups, said U.S. Secretary of State Blinken at the press conference. Since April 2017, more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kirghiz and others have been detained internment camps in Xinjiang. RFA has reported that up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been detained in Chinas vast network of hundreds of internment camps throughout Xinjiang. Chinese officials have said that the camps are vocational training centers designed to offer an alternative path away from terrorism and religious extremism. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress in Germany, said the comments by Hussain and Blinken show that the U.S. stands with Uyghur Muslims and will hold China to account for the Uyghur genocide. Their powerful words should encourage the international community to act to end the Uyghur genocide, he said. China wants to eradicate Islam because it believes Islam is a cancer. China is committing genocide against Uyghur people precisely because we are Muslims. Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Uyghurs, said she was pleased that Blinken called out Chinas gross violations of human rights, genocide and crimes against humanity. Blinkens words reveal to the world that China is like the emperors new clothes, hiding behind lies, she said. There was no immediate comment from the Chinese government about the U.S. report. The report also noted Myanmars repressive treatment of members of the Rohingya ethnic and religious minority group. Violent clearance operations of Rohingya communities in western Myanmar by the countrys military in 2017, including arbitrary killings, torture and mass rape, drove more than 740,000 people to neighboring Bangladesh, where they now living in sprawling refugee camps. In March, based on extensive legal review of the evidence, I made the determination that Burmas military committed genocide and crimes against humanity with the intent to destroy predominantly Muslim Rohingya in 2017, Blinken said, citing evidence of attacks on mosques, use of religious and ethnic slurs, and the desecration of Korans. The military junta that seized power from the democratically elected government in February 2021 had confined 144,000 Rohingya in internal displacement camps in Rakhine state by the end of 2021, the report says, citing information from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The junta also continues to restrict where Rohingya are allowed to travel in Myanmar and has made no efforts to initiate the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, the report says. The Biden administration must look beyond the United Nations for ways to deter North Korean provocations while China and Russia wield veto power, analysts told RFA. China and Russia last week vetoed a bid by Washington at the U.N. Security Council to sanction North Korea for its recent ballistic missile launches. The other 13 council members supported the resolution. The Biden administration needs to pivot to Plan B, Anthony Ruggiero of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies told RFAs Korean Service. The administrations U.S. sanctions last week were a weak response to North Koreas six ICBM tests, he said, suggesting that its May 27 announcement of unilateral sanctions on two Russian banks, one individual and a North Korean company would have little effect. Biden must rebuild the diplomatic, military, and economic pressure campaign against Pyongyang outside the U.N. Security Council, Ruggiero said. Washington has promised to push for more U.N. sanctions if Pyongyang were to test its seventh nuclear weapon, which U.S. and South Korean intelligence believes it is preparing for. We absolutely will, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday when asked whether the Biden administration would act on its pledge. She also blasted China and Russia for voting down last weeks sanctions bid. This was an unthinkable abdication of their responsibilities to the council and to protecting international peace and security, she said. Now they will have to explain their dangerous choice to the General Assembly. Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation, told RFA that such U.S. efforts at the U.N. are mostly bids to impress upon the global community that the DPRK weapons activity still stands as a persistent and growing threat to not only the region but to international stability. Realistically, the Beijing-Moscow pushback on North Korean sanctions is a major obstacle to exacting punishment on the Kim regime for its weapons provocations, she said. The U.S. is aware that, at this point, getting China and Russias cooperation on sanctions is impossible. So Washington is probably not intending for any major breakthroughs on this front. While sanctions are indeed necessary, Kim said, the U.S. would do better to seek an alliance outside of the U.N. to address concerns over North Koreas weapons development. Its one thing to discuss plans for extended deterrence in the region this will not stop or deter North Koreas weapons ambitions, she said. Written in English by Eugene Whong. The International Crisis Group urges the Arakan Army and the military to formalize an informal ceasefire. A resumption of a full-scale conflict between Myanmars military and Arakan Army (AA) insurgents could result in the worst violence Rakhine state has seen in years and put the lives of millions of ethnic minorities in the region at risk, according to a new report by an international NGO. In a report released Wednesday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said AA moves to gain territory in central and northern Rakhine state since it agreed to an informal ceasefire with the military in the latter part of 2020 are likely to prompt intense fighting in the region. It warned that up to 3 million ethnic Rakhines and Rohingyas would be severely affected by the violence and called for the ceasefire to be formalized, despite the AAs declared goal of establishing an independent state for ethnic Rakhines and a bid by Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG) to have the AA join a coalition of anti-junta armed groups. A resumption of war in Rakhine state would have significant impacts for the 2-3 million people in the state, both Rakhine and Rohingya, who have so far been spared the post-coup violence that has engulfed the rest of Myanmar, the ICGs senior adviser on Myanmar, Tom Kean, told RFAs Burmese Service in an email prior to the release of the report. The humanitarian consequences would likely be devastating almost certainly worse than during the two-year war from December 2018 to November 2020, which the state has still not recovered from. Kean said that in researching the ICGs report, both Rakhine and Rohingya interviewees expressed fear of conflict resuming, adding that while many believed such a conflict is inevitable, it is something they neither wanted nor supported. And while many in Myanmar would welcome a partnership against the junta between the AA and the NUG-led opposition, the report suggested that such an arrangement could spark violence that would significantly worsen the living situation for civilians in Rakhine state, which is already reeling from a battered economy and years of communal violence. Instead, Kean urged the AA to secure a formal ceasefire with the military, adding that while the insurgent army must decide for itself how best to achieve its political goals, a renewed war is not the best option. However, he suggested that the AA work closely with the NUG to choose a way to avoid the risk of a recurrence of conflict in Rakhine state. Refugees at a camp in Rakhine state's Ponnagyun township, Jan. 21, 2022. Credit: RFA The view of the people The ICG report follows a recent uptick in tensions between the two sides after the Arakan Army commander-in-chief, Gen. Tun Myat Naing, issued a warning to the militarys Western Commander Htin Latt Oo on Twitter. On May 26, the military and AA fighters clashed near the villages of Abaung-thar and Yote-wa, about six miles from the center of Rakhines Paletwa township, and residents have told RFA they are worried that the two-year-old ceasefire had been broken. Nyo Aye, the chairwoman of the Rakhine Womens Network, called for calm between the two sides in an interview with RFA, noting that it is largely civilians who bear the brunt of armed conflict. When tensions grow, there is a likelihood for more fighting, she said. We find this very worrying. It is our people who suffer because of the fighting. Tensions need to be reduced and Im not talking about one side. I mean both sides need to compromise. Thats the view of the people. An ethnic Rohingya Muslim from a village in northern Rakhines Buthidaung township told RFA that people there do not want fighting to resume. Our only desire is to live in peace, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. If there is fighting, there will be hardship. I am worried about the lives of refugees. We just want the fighting to stop. He said fighting appears likely to resume as the military is regularly entering Muslim villages in Buthidaung, watching for AA movements. Attempts by RFA to reach AA spokesman Khaing Thukha for comment went unanswered Wednesday, but the juntas deputy information minister, Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun, responded to inquiries saying that the military is not deploying troops to Rakhine state and is trying to maintain peace in the region. We only have local security forces who were there [from the previous conflict], he said, adding that the AA claims the military is sending reinforcements to the area to frighten the people. We are committed to the development of Rakhine state, and we are continuing to work for peace and stability. If they want to say the [military] is expanding its presence or launching an operation, they should provide some evidence. Military directly responsible for violence Meanwhile, the ICGs Kean said that if the junta truly hopes to establish peace in Rakhine state and other parts of Myanmar, it must stop oppressing its own people. The military regime is directly responsible for the violence in Myanmar because it launched the [Feb. 1, 2021] coup and refuses to respect the will of the vast majority of Myanmar people, Kean said. Instead, it is using extreme violence to try and cower them into submission, he said of the juntas ensuing crackdown that rights groups say has led to the deaths of at least 1,878 civilians and the arrest of 13,915 more, mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests. Kean noted that despite the militarys brutal tactics, resistance to its rule both armed and non-violent remains strong across much of the country. The military should of course stop abusing its own people, but this alone is unlikely to end the conflict because most people in Myanmar do not seem willing to accept any form of military government, he said. The path to stability is to hand back power to a civilian administration that has the support of the people. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Residents say a ship and a submarine have docked at a naval base, amid fears of new clashes with the Arakan Army. Myanmars military is sending more troops into Rakhine state amid fears that an informal ceasefire with the Arakan Army (AA) is about to collapse. A submarine arrived at Kyauk Phyu township on May 31, after sailing through the Bay of Bengal and traveling up the Than Zit river, according to locals. They said a warship arrived the following day. A resident, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFAs Burmese Service the ship was equipped with heavy artillery and helicopter landing pads. The warship is huge, the resident said. It docked at Number Three Port in Kyauk Phyu and I saw soldiers disembark. I dont know how many there were but I estimate that hundreds of soldiers were on board. The two vessels moved to Number 15 Port at the Thit Pote Taung Naval Base in Kyauk Phyu after the troops disembarked. The township is home to one of Chinas largest infrastructure projects in Myanmar, including the Kyauk Phyu Deep Sea Port. The resident speculated that the troop reinforcements were sent to protect Chinas business interests amid fears of further clashes between the military and the AA. There are a lot of Chinese projects here, the local said. The construction of deep-sea ports for docking submarines was also done by Chinese companies. So if the fighting intensifies I think the military is being deployed to protect Chinas economic projects. Some locals told RFA they were concerned about being able to get hold of basic supplies such as rice, cooking oil and salt as a result of the military reinforcement. When contacted by RFA, a junta spokesman denied that more troops had arrived on May 31. At a news conference on May 19 he said that the military could not be blamed if fighting breaks out in Rakhine state. Military tensions between the military council and the AA have been high since early May, with locals and Rakhine politicians concerned that fighting will soon intensify. An NGO which is monitoring the crisis released a report on Wednesday urging both sides to refrain from fighting. International Crisis Group (ICG) said people in Rakhine state would suffer if the war between the army and the AA breaks out again. Renewed clashes could impact 3 million Rakhine residents The AA began as a resistance group in 2009 and grew into a powerful ethnic army. It fought a two-year war with Myanmars military, which ended with an informal ceasefire in November 2020. The ceasefire has still not been formalized and the AA says it remains committed to establishing an independent state for ethnic Rakhines. Clashes between AA fighters and the military in two villages near Paletwa township on May 26 have raised fears the uneasy truce is about to crumble. The resumption of full-scale conflict between the military and the Arakan Army could put the lives of millions of ethnic minority residents of Rakhine State at risk, according to ICG. It said AA moves to gain territory in the north are likely to affect the lives of as many as 3 million ethnic Rakhines and Rohingyas. ICG senior adviser on Myanmar Tom Kean told RFA the humanitarian consequences would probably be worse than during the two-year war. Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG) has invited the AA to join an alliance of regional armies to fight the military, which IGC said could also lead to an escalation in violence in Rakhine state. The wife of one of the Changsha Funeng NGO workers jailed in the central Chinese province of Hunan says he is being subjected to physical abuse and mistreatment in Chishan Prison. Changsha Funeng co-founder Yang Zhanqing, who now lives in the U.S., has previously said that the three men were targeted because their rights work had received overseas funding, which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards as "collusion with hostile foreign forces," and a threat to its national security. Changsha Funeng sought to prevent discrimination and ensure equality in line with Chinese law by using the courts to strengthen protections for individuals living with disabilities and with HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. Shi Minglei, wife of Cheng Yuan, recently received a handwritten letter form her husband detailing his treatment while serving a sentence for "subversion of state power" handed down by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court in August 2020. She spoke to RFA about the contents of the letter: The letter said that as soon as he got out of the van, he was taken to the high-security wing, where he was detained for three months until April 18. Anyone who has been in a high-security prison area knows that it forms part of a correctional center, also called a strict management center, with poor food and substandard living conditions. There were hourly roll calls taken through the night, and there was a lot of physical abuse, like forced duck-walks, and many other kinds of psychological and physical abuse. The treatment in high-security prisons is tantamount to torture. What I heard is that they learned from the experience of the concentration camps in Xinjiang. He [included one quotation, a couple lines of poetry] written in pain by [Chinese historian] Sima Qian after being tortured, very severely. What this means is that Cheng Yuan has never confessed or pleaded guilty, so they sent him to a high-security jail to try to force him to 'confess.' He also used a couple lines of poetry to express in a very cryptic way ... that he is getting up before daylight to do forced labor and getting back very late from the workshop. He only has two hours to himself in which he has to wash himself and his clothes, so he's also not getting enough time to rest. For example, the molding workshop contains chemicals and harmful gases, and there isn't even any basic protection. They only get regular masks or even fabric masks. Washing frequently doesn't have any protective effect. They distribute disposable medical masks only when the prison leaders come round on a tour of inspection. [Taiwan political activist and former inmate] Lee Ming-cheh told me that most prisoners are taken straight to prison, and even maybe to study centers for study, but not to the high-security wing. High-security prisons are places meant for punishing existing inmates. Cheng Yuan had done nothing wrong when he went to Chishan Prison, but he was taken to the high-security wing, which is standard practice for torture. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The Namangan Flower Festival attracts thousands of visitors each year, but the spectacular, storied event remains little-known beyond the Ferghana Valley. This Uzbek man is preparing for the opening of one of Uzbekistans most charming yet least-known cultural events. The Namangan Flower Festival has been held in Uzbekistans Ferghana Valley every year since 1961 -- except for 2020 due to the pandemic. The festival traditionally opens with a parade of cars covered in fresh flowers. The fragrant convoy drives into the center of Namangan, where the festivities kick off. Celebrated Uzbek photographer Anzor Bukharsky took these images of this years festival, which began amid stormy weather on May 22 and runs through June 5. Bukharsky says he only heard about the obscure festival by chance shortly before it began. The photographer and a journalist friend, Timur Nimanov, immediately jumped into a car to make the five-hour journey there from Tashkent. Bukharsky says the crowded, rain-soaked scene above highlighted a hunger for public celebrations, saying, Uzbeks are not indifferent to such events; they want spectacles. As with most Uzbek public events, the festival is heavily policed. Bukharsky says that from what he could see, however, the officers at the festival were very discreet, thank God. According to Uzbek media, Namangan has been known for its flower production since the 1700s. Uzbekistans Ferghana Valley is a lush, fertile region of the largely arid country. Timur Nimanov, the journalist who traveled with Bukharsky, says last year's event was opened by an official who noted that while "many countries organize military parades in order to demonstrate their power, we hold flower festivals -- symbols of peace, love, and peaceful development." Today, such a statement about military parades might be seen as politicized in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This year no comparisons were drawn to other countries' tastes in public events. The Writers' Association of Iran and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have expressed concern over the arrest of poet and journalist Arash Ghaleh-Golab during a protest over the recent collapse of a building in the Iranian port city of Abadan that left at least 39 people dead. According to a statement from the Writers' Association, Ghaleh-Golab was "beaten up" by security forces during a violent crackdown on protests and remains in detention while suffering from acute respiratory illness and diabetes. The CPJ said in a separate statement that a source familiar with the case said that officers hit Ghaleh-Golab with their fists and kicked him during his arrest, adding that he is being detained without charge at an undisclosed location and not being allowed to contact his family. Both groups chided the government for its response to the collapse of the Metropol building in Abadan, accusing it of attempting to cover up voices that were trying to bring attention to the disaster. "More than a week has passed since these protests, and the government's response, as always, has been nothing but censorship and repression of the people," the Writers' Association said. Ghaleh-Golab has written political commentary and editorials for various local publications. Most recently, his work was published by the state-run website Ensaf News. Crews continue to find bodies in the rubble of the collapsed residential building, with two more found on June 2. The death toll is expected to continue to rise as dozens of people are still missing. The collapse of the unfinished building was one of Iran's deadliest such disasters in years. Authorities have blamed the collapse of the building on local corruption and lax safety and say 13 people, including mayors and other officials, have so far been arrested for construction violations. Iranian authorities must understand that they cant hide the countrys difficult realities and problems by silencing and jailing journalists, Justin Shilad, the CPJs Middle East and North Africa senior researcher, said in its statement. Writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi Tehran has threatened to punish Iranians who worked on the film Holy Spider, a movie inspired by the true story of an Iranian construction worker who killed 16 sex workers as part of an Islamic cleansing of society. Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Ismaili said on June 2 that the film, directed by Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi, was produced abroad and did not have any permission from the government. "If people inside the country have collaborated with this film, they will be punished," he warned. The critically acclaimed film saw Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who lives in exile following a smear campaign about her love life, win the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival on May 28 for her role as a journalist trying to solve the murders in the holy city of Mashhad in the early 2000s. The movie was shot in Jordan after Abbasi was denied permission to film in Iran and many of the Iranians who worked on it live abroad. Ismaili did not give a legal basis for the decision to punish those involved, but it comes after the Ministry of Guidance's cinema organization issued a statement claiming that the film "insulted" the "beliefs and values" of Muslims. On June 1, Tehran said it formally protested to France over the selection of the film at Cannes. The French government has no connection with the festival. Writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi Some reports said it was a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. Others claimed it was essential to the guidance systems of precision munitions, or that you couldn't build a stealth aircraft without it. Priced at from $100,000 to $300,000 per kilogram, a substance called red mercury was one of the hottest commodities hawked on the black market during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The only catch: It doesnt exist. "The whole thing is a bunch of malarkey," a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency told British newspaper The Guardian in 2004. A canister containing a substance purported to be red mercury. (R&W Films/Channel 4 ) In 1992, a Russian government commission had also determined that red mercury was a hoax. Nonetheless, criminals and con men in former Soviet republics saw the opportunity to make some easy money in the shadowy realm of terrorists and rogue states. And one would-be exporter of purported red mercury was a St. Petersburg-based company backed by the citys External Relations Committee (KVS), which was chaired by a KGB-spy-turned-bureaucrat named Vladimir Putin. This report is the third installment of an investigative project by Current Time and RFE/RL's Russian Service examining the scandals and scams that swirled around Vladimir Putin and his associates during his tenure as a St. Petersburg city official in the 1990s. 'The Food...Never Came' In August 1991, security forces in Czechoslovakia received a tip that 60 kilograms of red mercury had been clandestinely shipped out of the Soviet Union and was being stored in a concrete container at the Mosnov Airport outside the city of Ostrava. Armed agents tore the airport apart but found nothing. Two weeks later, the Moscow daily Kommersant published an article on the incident that sought to identify the source of the purported shipment. "As a result of our journalistic investigation, we learned that several Soviet firms were fulfilling foreign orders for red mercury," the article stated. It went on to identify one company that experts believed "had come closest to the industrial-scale production of the substance." That company was called Alkor Technologies Inc., and it would partner in a red-mercury scheme together with the St. Petersburg city committee that Putin was tapped to lead by Mayor Anatoly Sobchak in June 1991. St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak (foreground) named Vladimir Putin (right) to head the city's External Relations Committee in June 1991. The article quoted two Alkor executives as saying that middlemen had offered between $200,000 and $300,000 per kilogram to purchase up to 500 kilograms of red mercury per month. The Alkor sources said they did not know the identity of the ultimate purchasers of the purportedly deadly substance, but that they believed they were "Arab firms." Food shortages were rampant in the Soviet Union and the newly independent states that emerged when it collapsed in December 1991, including Russia. A reform introduced in April 1991 caused prices for basic foods to rise from two to five times virtually overnight. Store shelves were stripped bare. By the end of 1991 many cities, including the newly renamed St. Petersburg, were facing the real prospect of famine. The government decided to cope with the crisis by allowing the limited export of commodities like oil and rare-earth metals to raise funds to purchase foreign food supplies. The plan was for the government to authorize export quotas after Russian firms and local governments identified reliable foreign partners. In reality, however, the commodities often left the country -- but the food never arrived, and the money vanished. "We learned unofficially that at a special session of the [Russian] government, our city had been granted quotas to barter with Western firms -- for metals, timber, oil products in exchange for food," former St. Petersburg lawmaker Marina Salye told journalist Vladimir Ivanidze in 2000. "Putin oversaw this. Time passed. Contracts were signed. Commodities were exported. But the food didn't come. It never came." Former St. Petersburg legislator Marina Salye, who accused Putin's committee of shady barter deals that cost the city $100 million, in 2010, two years before her death. Later, Salye and fellow lawmakers conducted an investigation into Putin and the KVS in which they determined that millions of dollars had disappeared because Putin's committee awarded export quotas to murky companies that disappeared as soon as the money landed in their accounts. The lawmakers urged a criminal investigation and asked Mayor Sobchak to fire Putin and his deputy, Aleksandr Anikin. But nothing was done. 'The Last Great Swindle Of The 20th Century' No one knows how the myth of red mercury began. There is no consistent account of exactly what it was supposed to be or do. It was supposedly a deadly substance developed in a super-secret military laboratory in the waning days of the Soviet Union. Some said it was the key to the next generation of powerful nuclear warheads. Others said it was a nuclear weapon itself. Still others claimed it was the secret ingredient in high-tech guidance systems, while a fourth version asserted that it was vital to the anti-radar coating of stealth aircraft and ships. Sometimes it was described as a powder, or sometimes as a liquid or a gas. The only characteristics that all the stories had in common was that red mercury had a reddish color and that it was fantastically expensive. In 1991-92, dozens of hucksters and entrepreneurs bombarded the Russian authorities with requests to export the substance, claiming that they were able to produce it themselves or had reliable connections with those who could -- and that there were rich foreign customers ready to buy it. All they needed were export quotas and the country's food problem would be solved. The letters and other red-mercury-related documents from this era were collected in a book by Aleksandr Gurov, a former police general who became a Russian legislator and who, together with investigative journalist Yury Shchekochikhin, published the first scandalous exposes on organized crime in the last years of the Soviet Union. From 1992 to 1994, Gurov headed the Russian Interior Ministrys anti-corruption bureau and was a member of its special panel on red mercury, which the commission called "the last great swindle of the 20th century." Government bureaucracies responded variously to these letters. The KGB and its Russian successor insisted the Soviet Union never produced red mercury, as did the Defense Ministry. The Academy of Sciences and the Atomic Energy Ministry insisted no such substance existed. But the hucksters responded with the conspiracy theory that the "deep state" was trying to hide this miraculous substance even from Russian President Boris Yeltsin. In October 1992, a special commission headed by Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi ordered all government agencies to stop considering requests to export red mercury and stated definitively that the substance simply did not exist. "We can assume with certainty that under the cover of deals involving 'red mercury,' massive international financial machinations are being carried out," the commission's report asserted. "It is possible that under the guise of 'red mercury,' valuable strategic materials (platinum, gold, osmium, indium, uranium, plutonium, and others) were exported." A February 1992 warning issued by the U.S. Department of Energy, meanwhile, cautioned that con artists were attempting to dupe buyers with fantastical claims about red mercury. "After careful consideration of the claimed physical properties of the alleged material, it became apparent that 'Red Mercury' does not exist," the warning stated. A February 1992 warning issued by the U.S. Department of Energy about attempts by con artists to sell the fictitious substance called red mercury. (Aleksandr Gurov) The Rutskoi commission listed five companies that were "most active" in promoting the red mercury scam -- Simako (Moscow), Promekologia (Yekaterinburg), two firms tied to the Foreign Economic Relations Ministry, and Ekoprom (Moscow). Promekologia, led by a colorful entrepreneur named Oleg Sadykov, had even successfully lobbied Yeltsin to sign a secret decree in February 1992 granting the firm permission to produce and export to 10 metric tons of red mercury annually. In December of that year, Sadykov delivered 5 kilograms of "red mercury" to a Russian customs laboratory for examination. The analysis found the substance to be a mixture of ordinary metallic mercury and mercury oxide, which gave the compound a brick-red color. The St. Petersburg-based Alkor -- though its executives had boasted in the press about their ability to produce red mercury, placing the company at the heart of the frenzy over the mysterious substance -- was not mentioned in the Rutskoi commission's report. Oleg Sadykov, whom Russian President Boris Yeltsin granted permission to export red mercury, giving an interview to Britains Channel 4 in the early 1990s with a portrait of Yeltsin behind him. (R&W Films/Channel 4 ) A bottle purportedly containing red mercury in the hands of Russian entrepreneur Oleg Sadykov. An analysis by Russian customs found Sadykov's substance was a mixture ordinary metallic mercury and mercury oxide, which gave it a reddish color. (R&W Films/Channel 4 ) $1 Billion The Alkor story began in the late 1970s, when a group of students became friends on Komsomol work projects in remote regions. At the time, young math and physics students from Leningrad State University could earn 1,000 rubles -- about one-quarter of the cost of a low-end Soviet car -- by spending the summer hauling logs and building barracks in Yakutia, Komi, and other corners of the country. In 1987, several such students formed a cooperative called Orion. At first, Orion was in the business of constructing the summer cottages known as dachas, but it soon branched out into a range of new pursuits, from laser technology to leasing cargo ships. At one point, the cooperative boasted 500 employees. By the early 1990s, the cooperative had become so diversified that the original partners decided to split it up. The slimmed-down Orion was run by three former physics students and specialized in technology-related projects. In February 1990, the cooperative created the joint venture Alkor with an American firm called North Shore Trade Enterprise Incorporated. Kommersant described North Shore as "a leading distributor of components for spectrometers on the U.S. east coast." According to U.S. records, North Shore was headed by Vladimir Rodov, a scientist who got his doctorate in Moscow in the 1960s. After emigrating to the United States, he worked for a number of leading technology firms and was awarded more than 20 patents, mostly in the field of semiconductors. In the early days, Alkor specialized in producing optical glass, but it was soon looking to expand into other areas. And it did so with the support of the St. Petersburg government, becoming one of the pioneers of the red-mercury scam. A secret 1992 decree by Russian President Boris Yeltsin granting entrepreneur Oleg Sadykovs company, Promekologia, permission to produce and export red mercury, which does not exist. (Aleksandr Gurov) In the Kommersant article written after the red-mercury raid in Czechoslovakia, Alkor head Ivan Kuznetsov said the company was already in a position to export large quantities of the substance. He claimed the exports could be worth about $1 billion. The Third Partner But there was a third element to the scheme. A new legal entity, the joint-stock company Palmer, was created for the red-mercury project. Alkor owned 52 percent of Palmer, while a U.S. firm called Scientific Ventures Group owned 32 percent. RFE/RL was not able to find any information about Scientific Ventures Group except that it was registered in Maryland in April 1991 and its "resident agent" was someone named Elda Mikhaylova. The remaining 16 percent of Palmer belonged to the St. Petersburg External Relations Committee (KVS), chaired by Putin. Alkor deputy director Ramaz Tadeyev told Kommersant that the inclusion of Putin's committee in the project was seen as "a sort of guarantee of the legal protection" of the red-mercury project. While Putin was able to distribute export permits for timber, oil, and other commodities easily under authority granted by the Russian government, the matter of permission to export a supposedly dangerous substance like red mercury was more difficult. In November 1991, the head of the agency inside the Foreign Economic Relations Ministry that oversaw the assignment of export quotas, Oleg Prasolov, wrote an instruction to the state licensing agency to issue permission to export 400 kilograms of red mercury produced by Alkor to Hungary for the sum of $30 million. Attached to his letter was an expert analysis of Alkor's red mercury by the Academy of Sciences' Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry. The institute concluded, after studying a sample, that Alkors red mercury was ordinary mercury pyroantimonate -- which to this day is sometimes informally called "red mercury" because of its vermillion hue. Mercury pyroantimonate is used in a number of manufacturing processes and can be purchased for about $3,000 a kilogram. Alkors red mercury "does not have military applications," the institute concluded. On the basis of this conclusion, Prasolov argued that exporting the substance did not require any special licensing. An assessment by the Russian Academy of Sciences stating that the substance marked as "red mercury" by Alkor, a company backed by Vladimir Putins committee, does not have military applications. (Aleksandr Gurov) Apparently, Prasolov's letter did not have the desired effect because in January 1992, the state licensing agency received another letter about Alkor -- this time from the St. Petersburg KVS. The letter, which was signed by Putin's deputy, Anatoly Karasev, asked the agency to grant Alkor a license to export red mercury. In mid-March, Prasolov wrote another letter, complaining about the "long time" it was taking to issue the license and asking for the process to be expedited. He attached the letter from Putin's committee to his appeal. RFE/RL has not been able to establish whether Alkor ever exported any of the mercury pyroantimonate that it was touting as a mysterious super-substance. In a January 1992 appeal to federal regulators, the St. Petersburg External Relations Committee, headed by future Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked that its partner, Alkor Technologies Inc., be granted a license to export red mercury. (Aleksandr Gurov) Whether it ever intended to do so is also unclear. Already in the early 1990s, experts were connecting red-mercury claims with various scams, including the export of commodities like uranium or other radioactive elements. Other analysts suspected purely financial scams. For instance, foreign customers could be required to make a down payment in hard currency while the contract would specify the penalty for nonfulfillment be paid in rapidly devaluing rubles. Such contracts offered enormous possibilities for fraud. Alkor continued making its red-mercury claims right up until the Rutskoi commission laid the myth to rest, at least in the eyes of the state. In October 1992, just weeks before the commission released its report, Britain's Sunday Times published an article about the mysterious Soviet invention. The article noted that many international scholars and institutions had denied the existence of red mercury, but also presented the views of several "independent" experts who claimed there was a conspiracy to conceal information about the substance. One of those experts was Alkor's Tadeyev, presented as the scientific director of a "flourishing company in St. Petersburg." He insisted Alkor was producing red mercury. "It can be used to make a nuclear weapon," he told the newspaper. "That's why the prices are so high." Containers supposedly containing red mercury that Russian entrepreneur Oleg Sadykov presented to Britain's Channel 4 in the early 1990s. (R&W Films/Channel 4 ) In the wake of the red-mercury saga, Alkor's founders went on to new successes. Ivan Kuznetsov and Oleg Zakharzhevsky founded the Tavrichesky Bank in 1993. According to the St. Petersburg website Fontanka.ru, they used a car as the banks founding capital. The bank grew rapidly and attracted major corporate clients. The largest of these was Lenenergo, the municipal utilities company. The company held enormous sums in accounts at the bank and its employees were issued Tavrichesky bank cards to handle their salaries. The bank expanded rapidly, opening in Moscow and throughout the Leningrad region. In the town of Sosnovy Bor, which is dominated by the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, Tavrichesky Bank serves 65 percent of the population. In 2014, it was listed as the 105th-largest bank in Russia and the sixth-largest in the northwest region. However, it fell victim to the financial crisis of 2014. It was examined by the central bank, but no major shortcomings were revealed. Nonetheless, by early 2015, Lenenergo employees were reporting delays in getting their salaries. A new central bank inspection found some 36 billion rubles ($520 million) missing, including more than 13 billion ($200 million) from Lenenergo accounts. Since 2015, Tavrichesky Bank has been in state-mandated receivership under MFK Bank. MFK discovered that Tavrichesky had a history of extending loans to its shareholders and their companies. Alkor had been given a 150 million-ruble ($2 million) loan, while Kuznetsov had personally borrowed 5.3 million rubles ($76,000). Kuznetsov and Zakharzhevsky avoided prosecution, but MFK sought a bankruptcy order for Kuznetsov and Alkor's office building was seized. Bankruptcy proceedings have also been initiated against Zakharzhevsky. Kuznetsov and Zakharzhevsky did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article. Alkor Technologies, which has had no connection with Kuznetsov or Zakharzhevsky since 2006, still exists and produces infrared optical components for major international clients. Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, scandals involving red mercury continue to pop up from time to time. In March 2019, four men were arrested in Kyiv for allegedly trying to sell 2 liters of a substance they said was red mercury for nearly 250,000 euros ($263,000). The Russian State Duma has passed a pair of bills to end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the country. The bills passed nearly unanimously on June 7, with only one deputy from the opposition Communist Party voting against. They must be signed by President Vladimir Putin in order to become law. One of the bills would remove the country from the jurisdiction of the ECHR and the other would set March 15 as the cutoff for rulings against Russia, meaning any ruling after that date will not be implemented. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the ECHR "in the hands of Western politicians has turned into an instrument of political struggle against our country. He was quoted by TASS as saying some of its decisions directly contradicted the Russian Constitution, our values, and traditions." He cited an ECHR ruling that Russia recognize same-sex marriages, saying there have been a multitude of such rulings by the ECHR, and Russia cannot agree with this. Russia informed the director general of the Council of Europe (CoE) that it was withdrawing from the court based on Article 7 of its charter under which any member of the council may withdraw following an official notification. The Strasbourg-based CoE overseas the court and its parliament elects the judges who sit on the ECHR. The CoEs Committee of Ministers decided in March to expel Russia after 26 years of membership over its invasion of Ukraine the month before. The two bills passed the Duma the same day that the ECHR ruled on a complaint filed by Russian members of Jehovahs Witnesses, a banned Christian group that for decades has been viewed with suspicion in Russia. The court ruled that the Russian authorities decision to ban the group, liquidate its headquarters and nearly 400 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, and seize property violated the rights of believers. The court recognized that the Russian authorities violated the provisions of several articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The court ruled that Russia must take all necessary measures to ensure that any criminal prosecutions of Jehovah's Witnesses are terminated and those previously convicted for participation in the activities of the organization are released. The court ruled that Russia was obliged in total to pay the applicants almost 3.5 million euros in compensation and return the confiscated property. The decision was issued in the case of Taganrog and Others vs. Russia, which combined 20 complaints filed by Jehovah's Witnesses from 2010 to 2019. The ruling would also affect a case in the Siberian city of Chita, where several Jehovahs Witnesses this week were handed prison terms on extremism charges amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in Russia since 2017. But the implementation of the ruling will be blocked if Putin signs the bills into law. The break with the ECHR would also remove a legal avenue that Russians, including jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, have used in the past to raise cases that had been rejected by national courts. The ECHR ruled in February 2021 that Navalny should be released from prison after being jailed on charges he described as politically motivated. Russia described the ruling as "unlawful." With reporting by Reuters and TASS NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to create the next-generation spacesuits that future astronauts will wear during spacewalks. After failing to design a new suit on its own, NASA has made a daring move by handing the project over to the private sector. NASA said the deal is worth $3.5 billion, a limit that spans the duration of the contract and includes both partial development expenses and future purchases of the suits for agency use. NASA Picks Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace For Moon Mission Spacesuits NASA has previously said that it is working on developing new spacesuits for its astronauts. The government has spent $420 million building these spacesuits and working on them for 15 years. The Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) was the most recent spacesuit they were working on. Unfortunately, they discovered that the delays in constructing a new spacesuit would only cause the agency's Artemis program to be delayed. As a result, NASA announced its partnership with Axiom and Collins to provide the agency much-improved spacesuit. NASA experts defined the technical and safety standards for the spacesuits to be built and the chosen companies agreed to meet the requirements. Both commercial businesses will get access to the technology already developed by NASA. On the other hand, these businesses will be the ones to design, develop, certify and produce the spacesuits that will be utilized for future space operations on the International Space Station and the Moon mission. ALSO READ: President Joe Biden, NASA Will Help Astronauts From Japan Fly to the Space For Moon Landing Vanessa Wyche of NASA's Johnson Space Center said the first new NASA spacesuits in decades were the workhorse for 40 years. "These new capabilities will allow us to continue on the ISS and allows us to do the Artemis Program and continue on to Mars," Wyche said per ArsTechnica. The spacesuit ventures of Axiom and Collins will each get a limited amount of guaranteed funding to develop the new technology. Both teams will be eligible for a $3.5 billion contract to produce spacesuits for NASA missions from 2034 onwards. Axiom and Collins, like the commercial businesses that carry goods and humans to the ISS, do not yet have guaranteed orders under the contract. They will, however, be allowed to compete for mission task orders as early as 2025. It would also involve a demonstration mission outside of the ISS and the Artemis 3 lunar landing in 2025 or 2026, according to NASA. How the Spacesuits Would Look Like The new spacesuit is supposed to be created with diversity in mind, meaning that it will fit every body type, male or female. NASA's spacesuits have been known to cause problems in the past. The spacesuits have been repeatedly chastised. Furthermore, NASA has only conducted one all-woman spacewalk since 2019 because of the challenges that must be overcome by switching out the appropriate spacesuit elements in orbit. As a result, the agency demands that the next generation of spacesuits be engineered to be adaptable. Dan Burbank, a retired NASA astronaut and senior technical fellow at Collins Aerospace said that a spacesuit shouldn't feel like a spaceship. "We want to be able to create an immersive environment that, for the crew member, gives them the most amount of mobility," he told Space.com. The previous EMU spacesuits, according to NASA, are showing indications of wear and tear. The water leak in the astronauts' spacesuits in March was the most recent indication of this. At present point, they are unable to use EMUs aboard the space station to do normal spacewalks. The agency's extravehicular mobility units (EMUs), which have been in service since 1983 and were designed by Collins Aerospace and ILC Dover, will be phased out in favor of new suits produced by Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace. RELATED ARTICLE: NASA SLS Rocket, Orion Spacecraft to Return to Launch Pad 39B in Florida Ahead Another Wet Dress Rehearsal For Artemis Program Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times. A housing advocate is ending his campaign for the Berkeley City Council, saying he could no longer afford to live in the city. Greg Magofna tweeted that he was ending his run to represent District Four because his roommate plans to move out of the Bay Area within the year, forcing Magofna to look for housing outside of Berkeley because he is now priced out. Im being forced to leave Berkeley, and its ironic because I co-founded an organization called the East Bay for Everyone in 2015, fighting for housing, to make sure something like this doesnt happen, Magofna told The Chronicle on Thursday morning. It just really hits hard when you have been fighting for other people experiencing displacement, and you as someone with privilege and with a good salary is displaced, he said, adding that lived lived in Berkeleys District Four for nearly 10 years. Magofna is the director of development and outreach for the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, an organization that seeks to compel cities across California to adhere to state and local laws around housing production in an effort to get more housing built. He previously worked East Bay for Everyone, which advocates for housing, transit and tenant rights, according to his website and LinkedIn profile. In his Twitter announcement, Magofna said his experience of being priced out was not unique to the Bay Area, where the median home value in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area increased about 32% from $1.1 million to $1.49 million in the past two years, according to Zillow data. Magofna said he and his roommate pay $2,800 per month for a two-bedroom apartment and that he doesnt qualify for low-income housing. Now he said he hopes to find new housing where he doesnt have to struggle financially for basic necessities and can save for retirement or potentially buy a home in the future. Im at the point where I dont want to struggle anymore, he said. Part of what my campaign was going to be is fighting for housing of all kinds because we need an all of the above approach. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. In his tweets, he emphasized that he had the mobility and resources to avoid homelessness, overcrowded housing and long commutes. But so many do not, and those are the people we need to fight for, Magofna said. In Berkeley, which for so long had been known to be dominated by anti-housing politicians and residents, city officials are trying to build homes to ease the regions housing and homelessness crisis. The city must also plan to build 9,000 more units over the next decade to meet state housing goals. On Thursday, the Berkeley City Council endorsed a recommendation for thousands of new housing units at two BART stations. Magofna on Twitter thanked the residents, activists and city and state leaders who endorsed or donated to his campaign, and said that he plans to refund all campaign contributions. Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores Berkeley police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Monday for allegedly trying to recruit other high school students to carry out a mass shooting and bombing at Berkeley High School, authorities said Wednesday. The student turned himself in to Berkeley Police Department on Monday afternoon days after police first received a tip about the teens alleged conduct and was arrested on suspicion of possessing destructive device materials and for threatening to commit a crime which would result in death or great bodily injury, police said. Police first received a tip on May 21 that a 16-year-old boy was trying to recruit other students to participate in a school shooting at the high school that included explosives, police said. The next day, police said patrol officers served a search warrant on the teens home and found parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives, and electronic items that could be used to create additional weapons, police said. Authorities said they also alerted Berkeleys Mobile Crisis Team to evaluate the teen. As part of their investigation, detectives with Berkeley polices Youth Services Unit interviewed witnesses, reviewed evidence and obtained a warrant for the teens arrest, police said. Authorities did not provide additional details about the circumstances of the teens surrender. Police said that investigators kept school district officials apprised of any safety-critical information throughout the course of their investigation. The Berkeley arrest comes a week after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The mass shooting prompted police agencies across the Bay Area to increase patrols around local schools last week out of an abundance of caution. In Fremont, police said last week that they arrested a 17-year-old high school student for allegedly threatening gun violence toward a school employee on social media, and for an alleged hate crime. The Berkeley Unified School District is committed to conducting our own separate investigation, within the parameters of our authority as a school district, and as the evidence warrants, pursuing all possible steps, including discipline, that will support student and community safety, Superintendent Brent Stephens said in a statement Wednesday. We want to thank the individuals who came forward to report this threat, Stephens said. Speaking up in this instance allowed for the police to intervene in advance of any harm occurring. Stephens said that police assured school district officials that the teen did not pose an immediate threat to the Berkeley High School community throughout the Police Departments investigation. We relied on the expertise of (Berkeley Police Department) in their assessment of any ongoing risk to our school community after police confiscated what they describe as parts of weapons, Stephens said, adding that the school district alerted administrative and security staff, and kept in close contact with the high schools resource officer. We were also in steady communication with police about the whereabouts of this student. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Counseling services were available at Berkeley High School and all schools in the district on Thursday, Stephens said. Stephens encouraged families and guardians to attend a virtual town hall titled, How to Talk to Children About School Violence, which is scheduled to stream on the Alameda County Office of Educations website at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Anyone with information about this case should contact Berkeley polices Youth Services Unit at 510-981-5715. Lauren Hernandez (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez Alumni of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity at Stanford are suing the university, claiming that Stanford unjustly revoked its recognition of the fraternity chapter last year following an investigation that found that the frat had violated university drug policies. Stanford officials announced in March 2021 that the fraternity, known as TDX, would lose university recognition for six years and have to surrender its on-campus house. In a statement Wednesday, fraternity alumni said that punishment was unprecedented at Stanford and claimed that it was meant to shift blame onto the fraternity for the overdose death of a member in January 2020. Eitan Weiner, 19, the son of two Stanford employees and an undergraduate student at the university, died in January 2020 on a bathroom floor inside the TDX house from a fentanyl overdose after he took counterfeit Percocet pills. Stanford began its investigation into TDX following Weiners death, when officials received a report of illicit substances in the house. In a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, the fraternity alumni, who have organized under the slogan #SaveStanfordTDX, allege that Stanford officials did not grant the fraternity due process during its investigation. The group said in a statement that the university could offer no evidence that any punishment of the fraternity was justified because Weiners drug use was unrelated to any Theta Delta Chi members or activities. Although Stanfords charges were against the TDX Chapter organization, the underlying basis for the charges revolved almost entirely around Mr. Weiners tragic death and his own personal conduct and/or the conduct of his three suitemates, the suit states. Weiner and his suitemates in the fraternity house had purchased the fake Percocet from Matthew Ming Carpenter, a friend of Weiner, according to the suit. Carpenter was criminally charged and was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, according to the suit. Weiners parents had reported seeing marijuana and related drug paraphernalia in their sons fraternity house suite when they went to pick up his belongings shortly after he died. The ensuing investigation found that TDX violated Stanford policies by failing to report the presence of illicit substances in the house, for having opioids present in the house and for having marijuana in the house, officials said. Stanford officials had said in a statement last year that the punishment was not about assigning fault or responsibility for (Weiners) death and that the investigation had found serious lapses in policy compliance by the fraternity that we simply cannot have in our community, for the safety of everyone. Karla Hudson, a Stanford spokesperson, said in a statement that university officials had reviewed the suit, we disagree with it, and we intend to vigorously contest the claims in it. Theta Delta Chi appealed the revocation of university recognition and the loss of its house, but the appeal was denied in June 2021. Susie Brubaker-Cole, Stanfords vice provost for student affairs, said in a statement at the time that she believed that a reset in chapter membership and cultural norms is warranted. Mark M. Hathaway, an attorney representing the fraternity alumni, called the fraternitys punishment draconian and said in a statement Wednesday that Stanford had never imposed such a sentence on a student organization. The fraternity said it has suffered the loss of home and reputation and that the number of people who rush the frat has dropped significantly. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Stanford officials have fundamentally violated the rights of Theta Delta Chi members and alumni, and in doing so, have not only suspended the fraternity from campus without cause, but they have also arbitrarily and unjustly tarnished the reputation of the organization and its individual members, Hathaway said. The fraternity says in the suit that it was denied a meaningful opportunity to present a full defense during the investigation because it was not allowed to cross-examine witnesses during the Organization Conduct Boards hearing and because it was denied access to relevant evidence. Stanford officials have disputed the fraternitys claims that it acted improperly, saying in a statement last year that the fraternity was given access to all of the materials that were given to or used by the OCB and that the fraternity never requested that witnesses be called. The suit requests that Stanford reverse the sanctions against the fraternity and that it reimburse legal fees. Andy Picon (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle More than 15,500 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in Solano County lost power Wednesday, many of them for more than six hours, because of a transmission-level outage, officials said. The power went out for thousands of customers in the area of Dixon and Winters around 3:15 p.m. About 35 minutes later, PG&E crews were able to restore some power, reducing the number of affected residents to roughly 9,000, said JD Guidi, a spokesperson for the utility. Rising seas caused by climate change could ultimately expose thousands of people to hazardous chemicals at San Franciscos biggest redevelopment project and the city is unprepared for the risks, according to a new grand jury report. San Francisco plans to build housing units, commercial spaces and parks in low-lying areas of the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, which hugs the bay in southeastern San Francisco. The project is the citys biggest redevelopment effort since the 1906 earthquake. Yet the San Francisco civil grand jury report warns that groundwater could carry dangerous buried substances to the surface as the water table rises at the site, which was contaminated decades ago with heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and radioactive substances. The result could be catastrophic for health, for environmental safety, and for the resilience of future development, the report notes. Theres so much at stake in the Hunters Point Shipyard, jury foreperson Michael Hofman said in a statement. But inside the City, only a tiny program in the Department of Public Health is engaged with the cleanup. The City isnt prepared to respond when things go wrong. And the City isnt devoting the right resources to anticipate problems like groundwater rise at the Shipyard, while theres still time to do something. The health department did not respond to requests seeking comment on Wednesday, instead forwarding questions to the city administrators office. A spokesperson said in a statement that San Francisco will be carefully considering the recommendations from the report and has already supported a regional study on flood risks, which expects to release its findings later this year. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle San Francisco is currently looking at the entire future hydrological cycle, Bay/sea level rise and coastal flooding, future extreme precipitation, and groundwater rise, the spokesperson said. This includes seeking funding for additional studies such as analysis of known contaminated sites and the potential for rising groundwater to mobilize contaminants. An official with the Navy, which is managing the cleanup of the 638-acre federal Superfund site, said the Navy is aware of the report but has not had an opportunity to review it. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one of multiple agencies overseeing those efforts, said it is currently reviewing the entire report. The report follows a series of investigations by The Chronicle that exposed hazards and oversight failures at the shipyard that have risked the health of San Franciscans for years. The newspaper found that city oversight of the project has been particularly weak, revealing that the health department has often dismissed health concerns while simultaneously helping real estate developers to sell shipyard homes. Other Bay Area outlets have reported on costly mistakes and fraud in cleanup procedures. Every year, the San Francisco Superior Court appoints 19 residents to the countys civil grand jury, which acts as a watchdog of government agencies. It spent the past year interviewing dozens of people about the shipyard cleanup, including officials involved in the process and coastal adaptation experts. For decades now, the Navy and EPA have been trying to clean up the shipyard, which sits almost flush with the bay, before transferring the land to the city for development. But the cleanup strategy was designed when scientists understood far less about climate change and its impacts. And the agencies running and overseeing the cleanup have not evolved with the science, the grand jury found. The cleanup is premised on the Navys claim that it is safe to leave contaminants buried in the soil throughout the site. The Navy often places a layer of dirt or other barriers atop the pollution and relies on what it calls institutional controls warnings and monitoring programs to protect people. But climate change could make those contaminants mobile. According to recent scientific research, as seas rise, ocean water will also push up nearby groundwater. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Existing housing at the shipyard sits on a hill and is not likely to be impacted. But future development, including parts of the shipyard where the city plans to build homes and shared parkland, will happen in lower areas. The report points out that high tides or floods there may carry dangerous chemicals, toxic metals or trace amounts of radioactive materials right up to the surface, onto the sidewalks where children play. The jury found that the current site plans do not take these risks into account: The Navy has not adapted its cleanup strategy to account for rising groundwater and the hazardous substances it could contain; the EPA has not performed studies; and the city has not asked federal agencies to address the threat. The grand jury recommended that San Francisco development and health officials hire expert scientists to make a comprehensive map of groundwater at the shipyard and forecast how groundwater would likely rise as the sea level does. Depending on the predictions, the report suggests, the city might want to revise its development plans. The grand jury also recommended that the Board of Supervisors create a permanent Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup Oversight Committee to monitor the cleanup and hold the Navy, the EPA and state regulators accountable. Their cleanup is predicated on the idea that everything that is dry now will stay dry, said Sara Miles, one of the grand jurors. And that everything that is buried will stay buried. Jason Fagone (he/him) and Cynthia Dizikes (she/her) are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jfagone@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JFagone, @CDizikes This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Francisco police officers and Pride Parade officials have reached a compromise that will enable a small number of police to march in uniform at the June 26 event, after an earlier ban. The citys three largest public safety agencies the police, fire and sheriffs departments will all march together, and there will be three groups of officers in different dress: The command staff will march in the parade in special dress uniforms and will not have weapons, according to Mayor London Breeds office. There will be fewer than 10 other officers with uniforms and weapons to provide support to the command staff. The largest group will not wear uniforms, but can instead wear other clothing such as polo shirts with branded department logos. Breed, who announced the deal at a City Hall Pride flag-raising, and Supervisor Matt Dorsey will also march in the parade, reversing a decision to sit out in solidarity with the police. The deal came together Thursday morning as representatives from the mayors office, the SFPD Officers Pride Alliance and Pride gathered in Dorseys office to figure out a solution to a controversy that has drawn national headlines and divided communities. Talks also occurred Wednesday evening at a public forum on the topic at Mannys, a community space and cafe in the Mission District. Venue owner Manny Yekutiel invited Officer Kathryn Winters, treasurer of the SFPD Officers Pride Alliance, and San Francisco Pride interim Director Suzanne Ford to discuss the impasse. About 75 people came to the more than hour-long event. As the conversation neared its end, it seemed there was potential for compromise, and on Thursday, Winters said the event really helped move the conversation forward. Even though weve been speaking for two years, most of that conversation has been happening during COVID. We had never been able to sit down face to face prior to last night, Winters said Thursday. When you do sit down face to face, its a whole different dynamic. While the the bones of a compromise position were always there, Dorsey said the event at Mannys, along with Wednesday nights lighting of the pink triangle on Twin Peaks, seemed to renew efforts. It really was a reminder last night that we havent had Pride since 2019 and how nice it is to be back, he said. I think that was part of the spirit. I do think there was a real spirit of, Lets get to yes. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The Pride board previously banned law enforcement uniforms this year as a sign of support for those who feel unsafe around police. We didnt ask anyone to hide, or not to denote who they were, Ford previously told The Chronicle. We just did not want full uniforms, out of harm reduction to marginalized members of our community. That was a nonstarter for LGBTQ law enforcement officers who said the request was tantamount to discrimination. The San Francisco fire and sheriffs departments also boycotted the event in solidarity with the police but reversed course Thursday after the agreement. Grand marshals at the event include actor Sherry Cola and Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider. Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RyanKost Policing experts who viewed footage of San Francisco police fatally shooting two homeless men said the incident raised concerning questions, including why so many officers surrounded the men with guns drawn, why so many fired their weapons and whether the supervisor on scene gave them adequate direction. The experts said police could have used better tactics to defuse the situation and disarm one or both of the men without firing their weapons. Despite their questions, however, at least one expert said its unlikely authorities will criminally charge the officers. Police shot the men May 19 under a highway overpass near Mission Bay, as the two fought on the ground and as one appeared to lunge at the other with a knife. During a standoff that lasted for about nine minutes, officers had repeatedly ordered them to drop their knives, though it was unclear whether both had weapons. The state Attorney Generals Office will decide whether the officers actions were justified, and city officials will determine whether the officers violated policy. Police and use-of-force experts who reviewed the police body-worn camera video footage for The Chronicle said the case raises complex legal issues particularly in the killing of Rafael Mendoza, 49, who appeared to be fending off a stabbing by Michael MacFhionghain, 57, at the moment officers opened fire. It feels like a philosophy problem, said Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. If you have reason to think that, of the two bodies fighting, one of them is clearly the aggressor and one is not the initial aggressor, whats the mathematical chance that youll kill the non-aggressor? Oh, gosh. So, so tricky. The incident began when police responded to a report of an assault in progress at Interstate 280 and Mariposa Street and found the two men locked in a struggle on the ground. MacFhionghain held a knife over Mendozas head as Mendoza gripped MacFhionghains wrist. Officers repeatedly ordered MacFhionghain to drop the knife, and fired less-lethal projectiles at him from close range, video footage shows. At least 16 officers eventually gathered around the men, many with weapons drawn. Multiple officers yelled orders. Police attempted to defuse the situation; at one point an officer said there were too many guns drawn, and asked the other officers to step back. After an approximately nine-minute struggle with police present, four officers opened fire after MacFhionghain brought the knifepoint up, downward, toward Mr. Mendoza in a stabbing motion at least two times, San Francisco police Cmdr. Paul Yep said last Friday during a town hall meeting on the shooting. Mendoza died from a gunshot wound, and MacFhionghain died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to a preliminary report by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Christine Cole, executive director of the Crime and Justice Institute in Boston, said she was surprised by the number of officers present for the type of incident, and by the demeanor of many of the officers, who were screaming and using loud voices. Large numbers of police officers not only have the potential to impact the behavior of the two men on the ground, but certainly have the potential to impact the behavior of other police officers, she said. It did not feel, from this observer of multiple angles of different body-worn (cameras), that it was a scene that was orderly, controlled and strategic. Thomas Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant and associate professor of sociology at Emmanuel College in Boston, said the number of officers on scene may have exacerbated the situation. Nolan said the apparent sergeant in charge should have assumed command and taken control of the incident as it unfolded and not allowed nearly as many officers to surround the men. That supervisor seemed to be more concerned with closing highway ramps and playing on the radio than directing the activities of his subordinates, Nolan said. So it seemed as though individual officers are taking it upon themselves to make use-of-force decisions without any kind of guidance or direction. Nolan said police should have designated one officer to continue negotiations and dialogue with the two men and to have given them more space. They certainly could have stepped back, literally and metaphorically, holstered the weapons and try and engage in a conversation with the two combatants on the ground, he said. Still, Nolan said, he expects authorities to determine the shooting was justified and not file criminal charges against the officers. I think the more appropriate question is whether it was necessary, Nolan said. In my view, it didnt have to happen. These guys didnt have to get killed. Separate from the criminal investigation, SFPDs Internal Affairs Division and the citys Department of Police Accountability will conduct administrative reviews to determine whether any policies were violated, and potentially recommend discipline. Disciplinary measures can be imposed by the police chief or the Police Commission, but only the commission can order discipline of more than 10 days of suspension or termination. California law allows police to use deadly force when the officer reasonably believes that its necessary to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person. While footage shows MacFhionghain apparently attempting to plunge a knife into Mendoza just before officers fired their weapons, Mendoza did not appear to pose an immediate threat to MacFhionghain or the officers. However, its unclear whether Mendoza was carrying a knife himself or police believed he was. At one point in the video an officer said, Guy in the blue has a knife, guy in yellow has a knife. Mendoza was wearing blue, and MacFhionghain was wearing yellow. Three knives were recovered at the scene. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. When San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott was asked by a resident at the town hall whether both men had knives, he directed them to Yeps initial report and the comment that suggested they did. The Attorney Generals Office has taken over the investigation from the San Francisco District Attorneys Office, suggesting that there is still some uncertainty about whether Mendoza was armed. California law requires that the department investigate and make charging decisions on any fatal shooting that involves an unarmed civilian. In a statement, officials with Attorney General Rob Bontas office said they would review the case given its uncertainty. Police in California and around the nation have rarely been charged with crimes in cases that bear some resemblance to the San Francisco incident. In 2014, a BART officer shot and killed his supervisor after mistaking him for an armed suspect while searching an apartment in Dublin. The shooter, Officer Michael Maes, was not charged in the death of Sgt. Tom Smith after Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalleys office found that the evidence did not justify criminal charges. David Klinger, a former police officer and a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said there are important distinctions between the legal standard and successful policing. When something like this happens, its a failure, he said. Its something that shouldnt have happened, so we need to understand why. Klinger said that while criminal charges are possible, policy violations may be more likely. For one, he said, no more than two officers should have been designated to potentially shoot. If Im those cops who did the shooting, and Im the commander on scene, Im going to be having some worries, he said. If you end up killing someone who doesnt need to be killed and when I say need Im talking about that legal notion of necessity there should be some discipline. The Attorney Generals Office is investigating 15 other cases from police agencies across California and has not yet made charging decisions in any of them, according to the offices website. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy The California Supreme Court rejected a challenge Wednesday to San Franciscos voter-approved real estate transfer tax, which is higher than the statewide transfer tax rate and applies to more transactions. The tax, endorsed by local voters in 2008 and 2016, ranges from $2.50 to $12.50 for every $500 in real estate transactions. The state tax, enacted in 1967, is limited to 55 cents for every $500 in property sales. But it allows higher taxes by any of Californias 121 charter cities and by any city and county. San Franciscos tax also applies to the value of liens held on a property, personal property and other assets connected to the real estate holding. In addition, the city defines transactions broadly to include changes in ownership of corporations and other entities that possess the property. The owner of two San Francisco office buildings that face nearly $12 million in taxes, interest and penalties contended San Francisco was bound to follow the lower state tax rate. A state appeals court disagreed in March, saying transfer taxes were subject to local regulation and noting that San Francisco is the states sole city and county. The ruling became final Wednesday when the states high court unanimously denied review of the owners appeal. The buildings cover 17 stories at 211 Main St., a few blocks from the Embarcadero, and 11 stories at 260 Townsend St., south of Market Street. San Francisco assessed transfer taxes on the owner, CIM Urban REIT, after a merger in 2014 changed the ownership of CIMs parent company. In a 2020 decision upholding the taxes, Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman said a local real estate transfer tax is a municipal affair that does not implicate significant state interests. The First District Court of Appeal agreed in its March 3 ruling and also rejected CIMs argument that ownership of the two buildings had not actually changed, so they should not be subject to a transfer tax. Although the titles to the buildings had not changed hands, the court said, a 2008 ballot measure, Proposition N, approved by more than 68% of San Francisco voters, allowed the city to levy a transfer tax after a change to the corporate ownership of real estate. Prop. N was intended to avoid evasion of transfer taxes by entities transferring ownership interests in lieu of transferring real property, Justice Henry Needham said in the 3-0 ruling. Needham quoted ballot arguments by sponsors of Prop. N who said multinational companies were costing San Francisco millions of dollars by using shell companies to hide ownership transfers. He noted that the measure, which also increased transfer tax rates, applied only to property worth more than $5 million. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. City Attorney David Chiu, whose office defended the law in court, said Wednesday, We have consistently maintained that San Francisco voters have the authority to choose how the city taxes real estate transactions within its borders, and todays decision by the California Supreme Court confirms that. This ensures that large corporate entities cannot use complicated ownership schemes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Lawyers for the property owners were not immediately available for comment. The case is CIM Urban REIT v. San Francisco, S274032. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Buffalo Bills Brewery, a Hayward institution touted as the first brewpub in America, has closed after nearly 40 years. Owner Geoff Harries announced the closure Wednesday on Buffalo Bills Facebook page. Sadly, Buffalo Bills Brewery is officially closed until the next passing of the mash paddle of this historic and special place, wrote Harries, who started out as assistant brewmaster at Bills. Thank you all so much for the support over the years. It has been an incredible and wonderful journey. He did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. Buffalo Bills was founded in 1983 by Bill Owens, a freelance news photographer who earned national fame with his book Suburbia, a send-up of newly developed housing tracts in Livermore that has sold 50,000 copies since its publication in 1973. He also documented his coverage of the infamous and deadly Rolling Stones concert in Altamont 1969, published in 2019. Owens opened Buffalo Bills at 1082 B St. downtown after being laid off from the Livermore Independent newspaper. He raised $92,000 through a limited partnership of 32 investors. I was a home brewer all of my life, said Owens, 84, a 30-year Hayward resident. I heard California law was changing to allow beer that you brewed yourself to be sold commercially. The law passed in January, in 1983, and I opened in September. Owens, who was both brewmaster and bartender, served the beer directly from the tank, without first drawing it into kegs. It came directly from the source through a 62-foot line. I could pour 3,000 glasses without changing the tap. Owens said he was the first to brew pumpkin ale along with another specialty he called Alimony Ale, because it was the bitterest beer in America. He always had an amber, a lager and a porter on tap. People came from all over the country and from Europe to see what we were doing, he said. Now there are 9,000 microbreweries in the country, a fact he knows as publisher of American Brewer and Distiller magazines, along with some 30 how-to books on beer making and distilling. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Draft Beer in 10 Days was his top seller. In 1997, he sold Buffalo Bills to Harries for $92,000 exactly what he paid for it. It was closed during the pandemic and reopened with limited hours, Owens said. In 2017, Buffalo Bills was honored by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian for being the most historic brewpub in America, Harries noted in his posting. But Buffalo Bills was hit hard during the pandemic. I came close to bankruptcy several times, digging out with credit cards, refinancing my home and risking everything, Harries wrote. But, I always found a way out and a way back on the path to success and preserving this very special place. Owens, meanwhile, just finished work on a graphic novel about a pandemic that is set in a bar in Hayward. Called The Delco Years, it will be published in July and includes 14 characters Owens met at Buffalo Bills. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF Berkeley officials are expected to weigh in Thursday on two competing recommendations for housing at the citys BART stations one that would allow buildings up to 12 stories at each site and another that would permit high-rises up to 18 stories. Less than two months ago, the Planning Commission narrowly decided in a 5-4 vote to recommend that the City Council allow for 12-story buildings at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations. That vote meant that with a state density bonus, 18-story buildings would be possible. The commission voted against city staffs recommendation to allow only seven stories at the sites which could permit close to 12 stories if developers took advantage of state incentives. The commissions recommendation would allow for combined total of 3,600 new housing units at both sites combined as opposed to 2,400 new units with the staff recommendation. Since the commissions decision, residents have come out in full force to pressure the council to back staffs recommendation instead. And some residents are calling for 100% affordable housing at the sites. The City Council on Thursday is expected to do more than just vote on the heights and residential zoning. Its also expected to certify the environmental review and sign off on exactly what the city wants from the developer in this case, a minimum requirement of 35% of the units to be affordable. The city will also likely OK an agreement with BART that lays out a project timeline to select a developer over the next year and design standards. BART would then need to find a developer, vet specific projects and get approvals. Construction likely wouldnt start for many years. At stake is thousands of new housing units that Berkeley needs to meet the state mandates to plan for about 9,000 more units over the next decade. City officials have said because Berkeley has a shortage of easily developable land, BART property and its parking lots are an attractive place for housing. If the council doesnt approve the zoning changes, state law AB2923, which allows seven stories at BART stations, will go into effect. Berkeley wants to pass their zoning changes and vision so that they have a say in what gets built. Without their vote, BART will have autonomy over design standards and other aspects of the project. Officials have been planning housing at the BART stations for nearly three years, and have faced intense opposition to housing at the sites. In 2018, the council voted to oppose AB2923 to make it easier to build housing at BART stations, although the current council has been much more supportive of building at the stations. This is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not just address our housing crisis, but to get a significant amount of affordable housing and to really activate these spaces, said Mayor Jesse Arreguin. But Arreguin said the the Planning Commissions decision resulted in neighbors being very upset that the city could approve a high-rise for the sites. Towers up to 25 stories are currently in the works for downtown Berkeley, but the BART stations are surrounded by low-rise neighborhoods. Arreguin said the council has received thousands of emails, letters and phone calls from residents urging a seven-story maximum. Residents argue that the city should stick to seven stories as a maximum height cap despite state density bonuses that could potentially allow up to 12 stories. A neighborhood group called Welcome Neighbors, Not Towers has collected more than 1,000 signatures from residents that back a maximum of seven stories at the stations. Dozens of residents have put new law signs in their yards distributed by the group that read, Lets welcome new neighbors, not towers. Arreguin said those same signs popped up in his neighbors yards last week. Larry Orman, a retired nonprofit executive who has lived in Berkeley for 50 years, called the Planning Commissions recommendation flabbergasting and said the city staffs recommendation should carry more weight for the council. Orman said the city should approve seven stories with up to 500 units at each site. Orman works with the North Berkeley Neighborhood Alliance, a group that represents 400 households and is against the taller towers. Orman said they dont support building over seven stories regardless of state density bonuses. He said there are ways to accomplish that, but declined to say how. The alliance has sent out a flyer that calls for as close as possible to 100% affordable housing, even if it takes longer to finance and build. Because thats the 100-year need in Berkeley, Orman said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Arreguin said a consultant determined that having 100% affordable at both stations would cost the city $300 million. The city has set aside $53 million to build 35% of the units affordable. He said the council voted Tuesday to place a $300 million general obligation bond on the November ballot that, if approved, could fund more affordable housing at the sites. He said he thinks he projects should offer a range of housing options. These projects, which are really creating whole new neighborhoods in our city, should welcome people from all income levels, Arreguin said. Council Member Lori Droste said the council is likely to approve either seven or eight stories on the site. She said Arreguin is the deciding vote. Matt Lewis, a spokesman for California YIMBY, said he hopes the City Council and the mayor dont do the bare minimum of approving seven stories and instead, they will back the Planning Commissions recommendation. Lewis said all eyes will be on Arreguin, who is the president of Association of Bay Area Governments, which determined the regions housing allocations. I hope that the mayor maintains his leadership position here and doesnt just go for the bare minimum, Lewis said. Once the council makes a decision, BART will launch a search for a developer at the North Berkeley BART station with plans to select one by the end of the year. The city and BART are still negotiating some logistics at the Ashby BART station, but Arreguin said he expects the developer selection to begin next year. Our goal is to try to get this done within 10 years, he said. Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is trying to fight off an effort to recall him from office in next Tuesday's election. On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, Boudin sits down with San Francisco Chronicle Director of News and Fifth & Mission co-host Demian Bulwa to talk about the recall and the state of crime in the city. "I'm working as hard as I can every day to make the city safer for all of us," Boudin says, "and I can't blame people ... for being frustrated. The last two years have presented us individually and collectively with challenges and changes we never could have anticipated." But, he says, "What's unfortunate is that the anxiety and the fear around those changes has been directed at me, and my office has been scapegoated." Here's a partial transcript of that interview. To listen to the conversation in its entirety, click play on the player above or listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. DEMIAN BULWA: Next week, voters will decide whether you will remain San Francisco's top prosecutor. As you're on the campaign trail here, going down to the last days, what are the two or three things that you are trying to tell voters to make your case? Chesa Boudin: You know, the most important thing is for voters to recognize that everybody who they trust, who has done the research, who has dug in to look at the issues, at my record is saying, Reject the recall. Vote no on Proposition H. That's true whether it's the Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. It's true whether you look at the newspapers and editorial boards across the city: The Chronicle, The Examiner, Bay Area Reporter, Chinese-language, Sing Tao and many, many more. Bayview, Bay Guardian and others. And it's also true, if you look at Democratic clubs like the San Francisco Democratic Party, the Bernal Heights Democratic Club, the Latin X Democratic Club, or if you look at organized labor, the Labor Council, the California nurses, the San Francisco public school teachers and our janitors. All of those groups and many, many more are urging voters to reject the recall. Those are folks that see the work we're doing, that have a history of working with the DA's office and appreciate both the challenges and the progress that we've made in the face of really historically difficult two years in office. DEMIAN BULWA: Ive got to imagine some of these conversations are people who are telling you openly that they're going to vote for the recall. I mean, you're talking to individual voters. What are those conversations like? Chesa Boudin: Well, it's interesting. You know, there's a few people who come up to me. Earlier today I was in North Beach, and somebody said they were supporting the recall. And I said, I'd love to hear why. What is it that you think is going to change? What policies has the recall suggested they're going to advance if they prevail? And he didn't have an answer. In fact, that's how that conversation usually goes, because the folks who've spent now about $7 million, largely Republican stock donations to the recall, have not advanced a single policy platform, a candidate or a vision for how to make San Francisco safer. Instead, they've spent their money, their time, used their soap box that they've purchased to attack me and my work without in any way suggesting what could be done to improve the very serious challenges that we face as a city. It's scapegoating, and that undermines the kind of nuanced policy conversations that smart San Francisco voters want us to be having. DEMIAN BULWA: A lot of the criticism, as you know, it does seem to boil down to this one main thing, and that is that you aren't tough enough on crime. You've responded by challenging what is the traditional definition of toughness, saying it can't just be convictions, jail time, prison time. What's been so hard about making that case in San Francisco, a place where you would think that people would understand that case? Chesa Boudin: Well, absolutely. And people do when they look at the facts. The challenge is we're confronting a page straight out of the national Republican playbook. And you look at what Donald Trump did at the national level, and basically he lied over and over and over again, but he did it loud enough and consistently enough and got enough other people in places to repeat those lies, that people started doubting things like vaccines among many, many other things that are basic incontrovertible science. We have the same problem here in San Francisco with the false information being spewed by this recall campaign. It's why The San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner in their editorials pointed out that the recall is really short on data and facts. They're long on anecdotes and spin. San Francisco Chronicle DEMIAN BULWA: All right. I want to follow up on that. We did ask readers to weigh in for this podcast. I want to read you one statement. You've probably heard this before. This person said, He seems to just want to dismiss us all, meaning your critics, as Republicans. His arrogance and unwillingness to try and understand the perspective of middle class, moderate San Franciscans has only augmented our desire to oust him. How would you respond to that? Chesa Boudin: Well, I'm sorry that that's your impression. I mean, look, I'm working as hard as I can every day to make the city safer for all of us. And I can't blame people like that listener for being frustrated. The last two years have presented us individually and collectively with challenges and changes we never could have anticipated. I certainly never expected to have to try and lead my office and prosecute cases in the midst of a global pandemic. And I know it's had a devastating effect on homeowners, on small business owners, on families with school-age children, on all of us. So that frustration is very real, and I empathize with it, I share it. In fact, I wanted to do so many things in this job that I haven't been able to do because of the pandemic. What's unfortunate is that the anxiety and the fear around those changes has been directed at me, and my office has been scapegoated. The Examiner said it really well in their endorsement. The recall will not change any of the real problems. It will not solve any of the real challenges that we, as a city, face and that folks like that listener are absolutely correct to be upset about. And yet, the recall has done an effective job for some folks of making them think that I am responsible for all of the ills in the city: homelessness, drug addiction, poverty, auto burglaries, you name it. Problems that, if we're honest and if we take a moment to reflect, we know predated my tenure and will probably still be here no matter who the next district attorney is five or 10 years from now. DEMIAN BULWA: Okay. I want to get into some of that stuff. We'll get into it a little later, but let's talk about some of the larger forces here. You came into office amid really powerful movements. There seemed to be great momentum for progressive prosecutors like yourself and for criminal justice reform in general. And then, somewhere along the way you probably agree, maybe you don't but a lot of that energy seemed to evaporate in the face of fear of crime. From your perspective, what happened? Did people never really get invested or care about trying reform in the first place? Or is there some other reason that this kind of lost momentum? Chesa Boudin: I think both things are true. I agree to a certain extent. I certainly think that, you know, there was a broad-based national movement, and that movement is what got me elected in 2019, a movement committed to criminal justice reform as a path to safer, stronger communities. I also think that what we're seeing across the country is and this predates in many ways the pandemic, but it's certainly accelerated we're seeing police unions and their Republican allies attack progressive prosecutors, folks committed to reform, whether it be in Philadelphia or Chicago or Los Angeles or here in San Francisco. And it's a really standard playbook. They attack us. They make sure everybody knows our name and associates us with crime in a way that never happens in more traditional, tough-on-crime jurisdictions. And then they try to strip us of our jurisdiction over certain categories of cases. They try to beat us at the polls. And when that doesn't work, they try to recall us. And the interesting thing about it is it's not working. Larry Krasner won reelection in Philadelphia by more than double digits. Kim Foxx in Chicago, same thing. And what we're seeing is, because they can't win in direct head-to-head elections when they actually put forward a candidate and a platform and a vision for specific policies, what they're doing instead is trying to create elections like this one, where nobody's asking them, who is going to replace District Attorney Boudin? What policies are you going to do? Are you going to continue the worker protection unit, the Innocence Commission? Are you going to continue the policy of ending money bail and refusing to prosecute juveniles as adults? Policies that are wildly popular in a place like San Francisco, where our voters understand that criminal justice reform is a path to safer and more just and equitable communities. And so what we see is that the Republican billionaires who are bankrolling this recall effort are hiring folks as spokespeople who say, We're criminal justice reformers. We're progressive prosecutors, without ever giving a single concrete example of a policy or a platform that is indeed reform-oriented or that's popular with voters. Instead, they focus on attacks. DEMIAN BULWA: All right. You contend that they are not winning in all of these places, but in San Francisco, there's now a lot of focus on this race because your supporters are worried that you may lose, that you may be ousted from office. The polls are showing that you're in some trouble here. What is it about San Francisco? Is this a referendum on whether San Francisco is progressive? Is there something about your message or is there something that you have failed to do that's put you at stake here of perhaps losing office? Chesa Boudin: You know, I've certainly made mistakes, Demian. It's been a steep learning curve since Day 1 for me. I've never been in elected office before. I'd never been a prosecutor before. As you know, I came from the public defender's office, and that brought a lot of insight. I have lived experience visiting my own parents in prison for four decades and trying dozens of cases in front of San Francisco juries. And nevertheless, it was a steep learning curve. It was going to be and I knew that coming in and talked about it very openly. What I never predicted or anticipated was a COVID pandemic and two separate recall attempts in my first two years in office. And so those obstacles, those challenges were unanticipated and have made the job a lot harder. I also knew that it was going to take more than a year or two to fix the really deeply entrenched and long-standing failures of this country and the city's approach to criminal justice. I mean, look, when I took office, more than two-thirds of people getting released from state prison across California were re-arrested within a couple of years. It was the definition of a revolving door. And I inherited more than 5,000 cases on Day 1. Twenty percent of those cases were two years or more old. We knew it was going to take time to clear that backlog, to build structures that could actually convert every arrest into an opportunity for intervention and transforming lives away from crime in ways that the status quo, so-called tough-on-crime prosecutors have never, ever managed to do. DEMIAN BULWA: But still, I guess I want to ask you, I mean, what happened? If you were in discussion with some other prosecutors around the country, and they were asking about what happened in San Francisco, is there something you would say like, Hey, don't step into this trap, or Don't do this, because this didn't connect at all? Chesa Boudin: Absolutely. You know, among many other things we could talk about, I think one issue is that two months after I took office, I had to start running my office and engaging with our community remotely, as we all did. And that meant it was a lot harder to really be in community, to partner with community leaders and groups that I didn't already have relationships with if they weren't on my formal schedule over Zoom. There was no opportunity for the kind of informal connections and that working relationship building, trust building. That is such an important part of this job, especially for someone like me who was not an insider in City Hall or the city family, as they call it, but was elected in large part precisely because I was an outsider and represented change. And so I didn't have that opportunity in my first year to build trust and relationships. And I think one of the things that stemmed from that was I kept looking every day I still do at the data. I want to see what the crime trends are. I want to allocate resources within my team and push for resources within all the different agencies that are joint stakeholders in public safety the courts and the police department, of course, the sheriff's department, probation, parole, so many other agencies that we work with every day on issues of public safety. So I've been looking at the data, and it turns out that because of the dramatic ways in which crime trends have changed during the pandemic, not just in San Francisco but across the country, there's a real disconnect between what people are feeling and experience in their neighborhoods, in their homes, and what the data is showing us. And I think it took me and my office longer than it should have to realize that there was that disconnect, and to meet voters and residents of San Francisco where they were at and to really connect with what they were experiencing and feeling, because we were relegated to Zoom. And so we kept looking at big-picture data in ways that wasn't really that useful or helpful. I mean, look, at the end of the day, I have a job that requires me both to lead based on data and evidence-based practices and also to represent the feelings and the needs of all of our diverse communities. And that means I've got to meet voters where they're at, and I've got to represent the feelings that they have, and I've got to make sure that they are feeling safer every single day that passes. For The Chronicle's complete interview with Boudin, click play on the player above or listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. International chips in enticing flavors like Spicy Crayfish have a cult-like following in the Bay Area, with thousands of snack fiends constantly hunting down the newest options. But are these snacks worth the hype? Do Scallop Butter Garlic chips actually taste like seared mollusks? And given they can cost 10-plus times more than domestic offerings, are they more delicious? Seven tasters recently gathered at The Chronicle newsroom to investigate. The tasters, myself along with Chronicle staffers Soleil Ho, Cesar Hernandez, Janelle Bitker, Elena Kadvany, Tara Duggan and Emily Jan, sampled 20 flavors from other countries and found the results can be a huge hit or a spectacular miss. Most overseas Frito-Lay samples were acquired from the Bay Area grocery app Weee! Tasters rated up to 10 points in each of three categories: flavor, texture and accuracy. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle This criteria resulted in unpredictable overall results, as when universally disliked flavors such as Beer from China were nonetheless ranked high for accuracy it tasted uncannily of beer, down to the carbonation so its worth focusing on flavor. Seeing the highlights from the tasting notes might be just as useful as the raw, empirical data, so weve selected some nuggets to share. The flavor category produced a number of ties, starting with two winners for first place, both from China: Numb and Spicy Hot Pot and Pan Fried Matsutake. Flavor builds long after you eat truly mala numbing action, wrote one taster of the Numb and Spicy Hot Pot. I cant feel my face! scribbled another. The Pan Fried Matsutake yielded the happiest vocal exclamations of all for its mix of butter and mushroom-driven umami. It prompted one participant to make exclamations in their notes as well: Ooh! Forest floor flavor! Second place went to Chinas Cumin Lamb Skewer (Wow! Gamey. A delightful surprise) and Thailands 2in1 Seafood Sauce, which cleverly combines two truly distinct flavors in one bag through two different colored chips. Following in third and fourth place, respectively: Pickled Fish from China, which one judge deemed to be pickly, but not really fishy; and Indias Magic Masala, a flavor recently highlighted by Bon Appetit that the panel found to be pleasantly spicy, tingly and crunchy. Thailands Scallop Butter Garlic and Chinas Fried Crab tied for flavor in fifth place, the former described as oceanic Ruffles and the latter as no Dungeness! Salted Egg from Thailand (nice and sulfur-y) and Roasted Fish from China (not a ton of sea flavor) tied for sixth place. Further down the list, a Grilled Pork offering from China landed in the lucky 13th spot the lone wavy chip in a sea of smooth and ruffled options. Everyone seemed to like the chip structure and thickness, but the taste and smell of the pork was off-putting. Well-textured cat food, dismissed one person, reflecting the mood of the group. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Similarly, there were high hopes for Thailands Spicy Lobster, but it was soundly panned (just tastes like MSG) and ended up in second to last place. And pulling up the rear is the aforementioned Beer from China, which one taster said smells like Barney Gumble, the resident drunk from The Simpsons. Even if youre a beer enthusiast, this may not be the one to hunt down. Tamara Palmer is a Bay Area freelance writer. Email: food@sfchronicle.com Yonex Jones newest music video shows the San Jose rapper alternately riding on top of his truck and standing inside of it to sell bags of Spicy Sour Doritos that are only made in Israel. A glass counter display presents an array of chips that arent readily available in the United States, like Chinese Chicken Cheetos from China, Esan Hot Pot Lays Chips from Thailand and Nacho Cheese Doritos from Korea. Asian supermarkets like 99 Ranch have long carried international Frito-Lay snacks, and thousands of Asian chips hit Bay Area homes through local delivery every month, according to the Fremont grocery app Weee! They have a cult-like following among customers who feel compelled to collect each new flavor, like catching Pokemon especially those that are more complex than the average American offering. And more recently, the so-called exotic chip industry has crossed over into hip-hop. (See The Chronicles taste test of these chips here.) Jones sells these global versions of Frito-Lay products and other international snacks off his truck at events and at his TankShop in San Jose. He also supplies snack selections to smoke shops and liquor stores, publicizing the restock drops on Instagram. The chips have also found a home at other surprising outlets, such as Italian deli Alimentari Aurora in San Franciscos Potrero Hill. Salted egg chips from Thailand are a best seller. Its very popular, said owner Dario Barbone. Its a leap of faith sometimes [to buy them], and for some people its a very good one theyre hooked on a flavor they just never experienced. Josie Lepe/Special to the Chronicle But the crossover into a rap culture consciousness and the exotic appellation are newer phenomena credited to the snack division of Exotic Pop, a Houston-based beverage company launched in 2016 that makes branded sodas that feature popular Bay Area rappers Too $hort, Philthy Rich and the late Mac Dre. The Bay Area is a huge market for these international chips, according to Charleston Wilson, Exotic Pops founder and CEO. One thing about the hip-hop culture is that they always want something that other people dont have, Wilson said of the appeal of exotic snacks. Its about being exclusive especially if its something that comes at a high price point. To hold up a bag of Lays, but the Lays are from Korea that you are paying $20 for, its going to make it into music videos, its going to be content for peoples social media handles and its going to be a whole other level of success. Exotic Pop started to blow up right away thanks to social media influencers and hip-hop artists, leading major retailers like Amazon to carry these chips as well, Wilson said. Josie Lepe/Special to the Chronicle A lot of people ask Yonex Jones how to get into the exotic snacks business. I help inspire and help people figure out what they are going to do with themselves, he said. But I also breed a lot of new competition for myself, where everybody says, I can do this, I should be the snack guy, Ive got to figure this out! Jones declines to share his personal favorite exotic chip flavors so that they dont sell out too quickly, but he will happily help a customer find the style thats right for them. I tell everyone to ask themselves when they are picking their flavors: what do you want for dinner tonight? What sounds good on the taste buds? Sometimes we want chicken, sometimes we want some veggies, sometimes we want some seafood or you might want pizza one night, he said. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Regulars who are devoted to specific flavors call Jones constantly to check if their favorites are back in stock, he said. Josie Lepe/Special to The Chronicle The fun flavors, from Turkey Cheetos to Spicy Sour Doritos, arent the only surprises that exotic chips bring to the table. There are also regional differences in the products. The Indian Lays are smaller than the others, for example. The Japanese Doritos are baked. Many chips tend to be thicker than the thin style typically favored in the U.S. We are boring, Jones said. Thats why everybody likes the exotic stuff. Tamara Palmer is a Bay Area freelance writer, professional DJ and publisher of California Eating. Email: food@sfchronicle.com A prominent Sonoma County restaurateur whos been accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by almost a dozen of his former employees has had his application for a new liquor license and use permit denied after opponents told Sebastopol city officials he lacks the professional and moral character to be allowed to operate an alcohol-related business. Lowell Sheldon, who previously co-owned Sebastopol restaurants Fern Bar, Handline, Khom Loi and the now-closed Lowells, had applied to open a Georgian-inspired wine bar and restaurant called Piala. Those plans, though, are distressing for women who have spoken out against him, who say they fear he could create another toxic workplace environment. The citys ruling means Sheldon can still open an alcohol-free restaurant, said Kari Svanstrom, Sebastopols planning director. Sheldon, who is one of three Piala owners, has filed an appeal of the ruling, with a hearing likely to be held in late June, according to the citys planning department. Some members of the Sebastopol community said they plan to fight the restaurant from opening at all and will speak at the June hearing. Sheldon sent a letter to supporters last week urging them to write to the city and speak directly to my character as you know it, not as reported in the media. In the letter, which was reviewed by The Chronicle, he admitted to running his previous restaurant, Lowells, in a sloppy manner that made some of his employees feel uncomfortable or unsafe. In an emailed statement to The Chronicle, he denied sexually harassing anyone, though he said he did make some mistakes and has learned from them. He claims to have received more than 60 letters of support for the new restaurant, and shared seven of them with The Chronicle that argued for giving Sheldon a second chance. I take responsibility for my shortcomings my lack of insight into myself and the workplace were real, he said in an email. Allegations against Sheldon came to light last fall after The Chronicle spoke to eleven women who accused him of sexual harassment or creating a toxic work environment, including a pattern of unwanted touching. Two days after the storys publication, a woman filed a report with the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office, claiming Sheldon sexually assaulted her, as first reported in the North Bay Bohemian. In a November phone call with The Chronicle, Sheldon didnt deny the womans account. Jesse Hom-Dawson, who worked as a communications manager for Sheldons restaurants and alleged that she was once told by him to sit on daddys lap, said she thinks he is still not holding himself accountable. Similarly, Alexandra Lopez, who previously worked as a manager at Fern Bar and has accused Sheldon of inappropriately touching her, said she was both angry and not surprised at the content of his letter. It is more of the same words from Lowell, with none of the sincere contrition or deep understanding of someone who has fully engaged in the process of accountability, she said. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle 2021 In seeking to open another restaurant, Lopez said, Sheldon is creating another world where he is at the very top of the pyramid. She said she is fearful of what he might do with that power over employees. Sheldon, who admitted to behaving inappropriately with some of his former employees in the letter, said hes a changed person and deserves another chance. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. I have learned and changed my approach to running a business with the knowledge that personal life must be separate from business, he said in an email. I take responsibility for my shortcomings my lack of insight into myself and the workplace were real. He said he is trying to move on with his life by making a living in what he was trained to do. His business partner, Jeffrey Berlin, a former manager at Oakland restaurant A Cote, said Sheldon has worked hard to repair the damage hes caused. Lowell has not hidden from his transgressions nor has he attempted to avert or deflect the consequences and public scrutiny that he has incurred. I am one of many people who can attest to the humility and earnestness with which Lowell has listened, absorbed and processed the remonstrations of his accusers, he said in an email. Berlin is working with Sheldon on another property, aiming to redevelop the historic Freestone Hotel into a wine-focused restaurant and inn. The planned venture sparked a change.org petition, which now counts 745 signatures imploring Sonoma County to not move forward with the project. Leah Engel, who worked in different capacities at Sheldons restaurants and accused him of inappropriate behavior with employees, said she feels he hasnt truly learned from his past actions. He needs to understand that we are a part of this community too, and our worries are real, she said. For someone who claims to have done a lot of work, hes showing us that hes a poor listener who does not care about the women hes harmed. Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika Instagram: @shwanika All sorts of restaurants serve wine. But few restaurants have a true wine identity an approach thats distinctive and can be clearly defined. Chez Panisse is one of the few. There is such a thing as a Chez Panisse kind of wine, and for decades, Jonathan Waters was the careful steward of that aesthetic, its gatekeeper and its ambassador, guarding and expanding the notion of what a Chez Panisse wine is. Waters died on Saturday from complications after a bicycle accident. My colleague Jess Lander has a beautiful obituary for him, detailing his enormous influence on the Bay Areas wine community. (Hes not the only towering wine figure who we lost this week: Sean Thackrey, the rebellious, philosophy-loving winemaker of West Marin, died on Monday of cancer. Heres my obituary for Thackrey.) Although Waters was not the first Chez Panisse wine director, he was its longest tenured and, Id argue, its most influential. Ill certainly miss him when I return to the restaurant. He was the picture of the impeccably dressed sommelier, always wearing a neat suit, buzzing around the restaurant with a busy energy that felt, to me, full of joy. When asked about a wine on the menu, he responded quickly and with seemingly encyclopedic knowledge in his soft British accent. If he thought you might not like a wine, he'd say so. So what is a Chez Panisse kind of wine? Its above all a wine designed for food, one that wont overshadow the vegetables on the plate next to it. Its a wine that trades on subtle charms, rather than obvious ones flavors often veer more savory than sweet, more flower than fruit. Its not a trophy bottle, not a collectible. Its almost always a young wine, from a recent vintage. Theres a quietness to a Chez Panisse wine, and often a kind of unhewn, rustic character. These are not the polished, slick, seductive Cabernet Sauvignons that populate luxury steakhouse menus. Neither are they the avant-garde, hazy-bordering-on-opaque bottles that proliferate at natural wine bars these days. A Chez Panisse wine is less cerebral, less complicated than that it may have some rough edges, but its a simple, easy pleasure. While the food at Chez Panisse is militantly local, the wine is not. The restaurant has long favored wines from the south of France a place from which its kitchen, too, takes plenty of inspiration. Case in point: It is often said that the archetypal Chez Panisse wine is Tempier rose, from the southern French region of Bandol. Apparently its the favorite wine of chef Alice Waters, and it is imported into the U.S. by Berkeleys Kermit Lynch, whose discoveries from the French countryside have heavily informed the Chez Panisse wine list over the decades. Tempier rose is a perfect Chez Panisse wine for several reasons. Its gulpable and fresh. Most Chez Panisse-y of all, its marked by its local environment: The wine shows a flavor called garrigue, essentially a melange of the wild, fragrant plants like lavender, rosemary and sage that grow in southern France. And crucially, Chez Panisse was slinging it long before rose was cool, or even taken seriously at all, in the U.S., just as the restaurant devoted itself to careful, local ingredient sourcing for its food long before that was in vogue. Still, Id argue that the ultimate Chez Panisse wine isnt Tempier rose but its house red, the Zinfandel from Green & Red Vineyards. This small estate is located in Chiles Valley, a remote area in eastern Napa County that few wine tourists have ever visited. The winerys founder, Jay Heminway, got to know Alice Waters in the 1960s while teaching at UC Berkeley. A similar sort of back-to-the-land ethos that compelled her to open the restaurant also drove Heminway to start a winery. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. The Green & Red Zin encapsulates so much of the Chez Panisse aesthetic, on top of the fact that, unlike the Tempier, its local. Its a rustic wine, with chewy tannins but also a relentless freshness a bright line of tart, red-fruited acidity. It also often shows its own version of garrigue, reflecting the unique chaparral of its hillsides, especially an unmistakable note of bay leaf. Zinfandel is a Mediterranean grape variety it originates from Croatia which I suppose puts it in line with the southern French grapes that Chez Panisse favors. But the Green & Red tastes like a California wine above all else. Jonathan Waters presided over the Chez Panisse cellar during some particularly revolutionary decades in the wine industry. He witnessed the globalization of wine, as regions throughout the world started making wines from the same set of grape varieties. The cult-ification of certain artisanal French producers and the incredible price increases in coveted regions like Burgundy. The backlash against higher alcohol levels. The emergence of natural wine. Throughout it all, Chez Panisse stayed Chez Panisse. This story was updated to reflect that Jonathan Waters was the wine director at Chez Panisse for more than 20 years. UPDATE: We followed up with regional health officials on Friday about the possibility of a return to indoor mask mandates. Here's what each Bay Area county said. Alameda County will require masks in most indoor public settings again starting midnight Friday, as rising coronavirus cases drive a concerning increase in hospitalizations, county health officials said Thursday. It is the first Bay Area county to reinstate an indoor mask order, which had mostly ended in February once the worst of the omicron-fueled winter surge in cases subsided. The order does not apply to the city of Berkeley, which has its own health department. It also does not apply to K-12 schools, where masks are strongly recommended but not required through the end of the 2021-22 school year; many Alameda County schools have already finished the academic year. The eight other Bay Area counties said Thursday they are not bringing back mask requirements at this time, though they strongly urge residents to do so on their own, with high-quality masks such as N95s, KN95s and KF94s. The California Department of Public Health on Thursday said indoor masking remains recommended, not required, statewide. As of Thursday, five Bay Area counties Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma have entered the high level of community risk as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At that level, hospitals may be under stress due to high numbers of COVID-19 patients, and the CDC recommends all people wear masks in indoor public spaces. Alameda County officials said they expect to also enter that category soon. Rising COVID cases in Alameda County are now leading to more people being hospitalized and todays action reflects the seriousness of the moment, Dr. Nicholas Moss, the Alameda County health officer, said in a statement. We cannot ignore the data, and we cant predict when this wave may end. Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities. Throughout the pandemics many ebbs and flows, mask mandates have served as the most obvious signal that the Bay Area was entering higher-risk situations. Mandates were imposed at times of increasing transmission and lifted once case rates fell back down, only to be reinstated months or weeks later when new surges began. They had appeared to be gone for good in February, when the state dropped its universal mandate as the omicron surge waned and health officials ended most formal pandemic policies in favor of allowing individuals to make their own decisions. Still, health officials said they would bring back restrictions if and when they felt it was necessary, and Alameda Countys announcement Thursday was just that a move to help limit the impact of increasing coronavirus cases on hospitalizations. Daily new cases have surpassed the peak of last summers delta surge and are now approaching levels last seen during the winter surge of late 2020 to early 2021, the deadliest period of the pandemic. Hospitalizations for COVID also are now rising, after staying relatively stable for the first few weeks of the current wave. Daily new hospital admissions of patients with COVID have risen rapidly in recent days, the county said. Alameda County will allow a number of exemptions under the new health order. People will not have to wear masks if theyre working alone in a closed office or room, actively eating or drinking, swimming or showering at a fitness facility, or receiving a medical or cosmetic service involving the head or face that requires temporary removal of a face covering. Also exempt are people actively performing or practicing at indoor live events like theater, opera, symphony, religious choirs and professional sports. And masks will not be required for people participating in religious rituals or people participating in indoor recreational sports at gyms and fitness studios when engaged in periods of heavy exertion. People with a medical condition or disability that prevents the wearing of a mask will also be exempt. Its unusual for one Bay Area county to enact such an order on its own. Typically, health officers from the entire region will reach a joint decision like they did with the early pandemic shutdown and previous indoor masking orders. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. In addition to Alameda County, some universities and school districts have started reimposing indoor mask requirements in recent weeks, including UCLA and Berkeley Unified School District. It probably wont work unless the whole region is doing it, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases physician at UCSF, noting that many residents live, work and socialize across multiple counties, and that the virus doesnt care about borders. Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford, said Alameda Countys decision is prudent, given the recent, sharp rise in hospitalizations. But it may be a hard sell to the public, which has gotten accustomed over the past few months to forgoing masks in most indoor settings. I think it makes sense, he said. Its unfortunate that were back in this situation again. But its also somewhat expected, given we have variants that are immune evasive and transmissible, and people havent been vaccinated and boosted at the rate we need them to be. The sooner you implement this, the more bang you get for your buck as a preventative measure, Karan said. But prevention is a tough sell in this climate, especially when it comes to masks. Catherine Ho (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho Regarding Principals use of racial epithet angers (Bay Area & Business, May 27): I was shocked to read that Asian American school Principal Carol Fong was unable to discuss racism without using the N-word. No person that lacking in common sense should be appointed principal of any educational institution. And how humiliating for the Black students of her school to hear her clumsy speech. We witnessed a huge amount of self-righteousness by Asian Americans in the school board recall campaign against Alison Collins. I suggest the new San Francisco school board should now show some guts and fire Principal Fong. Charles Wagner, San Francisco Dont blame Boudin I believe in law and order. As a fourth-generation San Franciscan lawyer, I followed in the footsteps of my great-grandfather by becoming a career prosecutor. This is personal to me: My great uncle, San Francisco police Officer Edward Maloney, was killed in the line of duty. I worked under six district attorneys because I wanted to promote public safety. Last winter I retired after 31 years. I oppose the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The recall will not make us safer. Ive also observed the misleading rhetoric of the recall campaign. Boudin has new ideas and a unique background that can benefit San Francisco. His record is in no way reflected in the false messages stemming from this campaign. Boudin is filing groundbreaking lawsuits against ghost gun manufacturers, businesses that exploit workers and individuals who attempt to defraud small businesses. And hes doing that while managing the operations of thousands of prosecutions. I found Boudin to be a responsive and caring district attorney. He personally responds to victims who contact him, and his victim outreach and 24/7 work ethic is unmatched. The sad reality is that crime is nothing new in our beautiful city. I have been the victim of robberies but I would never blame any district attorney or the police for my victimization. But for political convenience, some choose to blame Boudin. And contrary to the falsehoods being spread, Boudins office is prosecuting shoplifting, car break-ins and home burglaries. We must not fall for a campaign built on lies; instead, we should vote to uphold our values. Please vote no on Proposition H: Reject the recall. Judith Garvey, San Francisco I stand with Kapler Regarding Boycott the Giants (Letters to the Editor, June 1): Giants manager Gabe Kapler follows his moral compass, and this letter has none. Kapler is taking a stand for gun violence victims and for a country that needs help healing, whereas this letter, in a symbol of our times, raises pettiness to new heights. The 19 children and two teachers killed by an AR-15, thats what this letter should have been about. There is not one single private citizen who needs an AR-15 for anything other than murder. Peter Hagen, Walnut Creek S.F. schools at it again Regarding S.F. schools retire chief as title (Bay Area & Business, May 27): Have members of the San Francisco Unified School District administration learned nothing at all? Chief is a perfectly good and ordinary word used by many organizations and individuals to describe something or someone of great importance. The word does not belong to Native Americans or anyone else. It implies no disrespect or political agenda, except by the thought police who seem to spend their time dreaming up ways for conservatives to create division and ridicule the left. One of the chief contributors to the atmosphere of distrust and lack of respect for the school district is how much effort they spend on stupid, self-destructive exercises like this. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When developer Simon Snellgrove arrived in San Francisco during the Summer of Love in 1967, the native Australian couldnt believe how disconnected the citys waterfront seemed from the people who lived and worked here. Having grown up in Sydney, he was used to a culture where people of all walks of life sailed and boated and fished. Nobody was using the bay, he said. It was dead. I couldnt believe it. Since then Snellgrove has been on a mission to revive San Franciscos crumbling finger piers, and the 75-year-old is hoping to cap off his career with his biggest Port of San Francisco project yet: the ambitious redevelopment of Piers 38-40, just north of Oracle Park and South Beach Harbor. Snellgrove wants to create a family-friendly waterfront playground with a mix of boating, recreation, maritime businesses and food, with a financial engine of office space. Three brick-and-mortar restaurants, with seating overlooking the bay, would occupy a portion of Pier 38. Part of Pier 40, currently a surface parking lot, would become an international food market with eight different micro-eateries. The concept would be similar to the La Cocina food hall in the Tenderloin, an affordable venue where emerging chefs could operate rent-free in exchange for keeping their prices low. Each vendor would have about 2,500 square feet of space. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Snellgrove emphasized that the plan is still evolving. The developer is considering a floating swimming pool and a floating volleyball court. There would be berthing for water taxis, ferries and visiting boats. Two decades ago his company, Pacific Waterfront Partners, restored Piers 1, 3 and 5, reviving a condemned Beaux Arts shed with a mix of office space, restaurants and public promenade. A few years later, he helped the Pilara Foundation turn Pier 24 into a publicly accessible photography center. He helped the port pick locations for the 2013 Americas Cup. But he has also had failures: He spent years planning a housing project at 8 Washington St., only to have it scrapped after a ballot initiative. With 8 Washington Street we designed it and then said you should like it it was a lesson learned, he said. The main difference this time is we want to design it with the community. The Port Commission is expected to vote in July on a term sheet agreement with Snellgrove, who hopes to win final approval this year from the Board of Supervisors. Currently Pier 40 is home to about a half dozen maritime businesses, including North Beach Canvas, City Kayak and Cal Marine Electronics. Snellgrove said the goal would to relocate the businesses during construction and eventually bring them back into the new Pier 40. City Kayak owner Ted Choi said he supports the project and is hoping that it would have enough space for his 150 kayaks to be stored, cleaned and maintained. The piers need to be redeveloped someone has to spend the money, he said. There are plenty of cracks that will become bigger problems if they are not dealt with. Homeless people regularly set up encampments in the buildings. Choi is worried about fires or someone falling into the bay. The development at Pier 38-40, set to cost about $536 million, would be the first Port of San Francisco pier project to tackle sea level rise: the Pier 38 shed would be moved 40 feet to the east, which would allow for the seawall to be rebuilt, and the sheds on both piers would be raised 4 feet. It will include all of the elements we envision for future pier rehabilitation projects: the seismic strengthening, the activation, the water recreation, the diversity of uses, said Rebecca Benassini, the ports deputy director of real estate and development. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Moving the Pier 38 building would allow for a much wider promenade along the Embarcadero, according to April Fame, vice president of development for Pacific Waterfront Partners. If you walk up and down the Embarcadero this is probably the narrowest point compared to all the other bulkhead buildings that you pass by, Fame said. Snellgrove said he wants the project to address equity and racial justice by providing business opportunities for minority-owned businesses. The construction project would be co-managed by the Cornerstone Institute for Anointing, a group that provides career training and employment opportunities to promote economic/self-sustainability in the lives of youths, adults, displaced workers, military veterans, women and other people who are often underrepresented in the workplace, according to its website. Over the past 20 years, the port has had a mixed record when it comes to reviving the former industrial piers, most of which have been underused since the 1960s and 1970s, when cargo business migrated to the Port of Oakland. The successes are noteworthy. The Ferry Building Market Place and Oracle Park each draw millions to the waterfront. The Justin Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27 sends ships around the Pacific, and the Exploratorium revived Pier 15. For every hard-fought victory, other projects died to opposition and economics. Developer TMG Partners gave up on a redevelopment of Pier 38 after costs jumped from $12 million to $20 million. Both Mills Corp. and Shorenstein Properties spent years, and millions of dollars, negotiating to take over 19 acres at Piers 27-31 only to falter to neighborhood opposition. Australian developer Lendlease and the Golden State Warriors each abandoned plans to revive Piers 30-32. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. But Benassini said the the current iteration at 38-40 would benefit from all the development that has occurred in Mission Bay in recent years: Chase Center, the mixed-use project under construction at Mission Rock, UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. Hope springs eternal with the piers they are such gems, she said. We are not surprised to see developers like Simon come back several times. They know the potential value there. Cornerstone CEO Wayne Perry said the project would push for equity, diversity and inclusion. He said the approach should help build support across the city. I do think the politics line up pretty well this time, he said. Who doesnt want a project that is going to deal with sea level resiliency? Who doesnt want to create opportunities for residents of San Francisco? As was the case with Piers 1, 3 and 5 the financial engine for the project would be office space. In total. the two buildings would have 215,000 square feet of office space. Snellgrove said the project would be financed with historic tax credits, bond financing, public grants and equity investment. South Beach resident Katy Liddell, who sits on the ports Northern Advisory Committee, said she supports the project. Its a lot of activities for families and kids and not necessarily high-end restaurants. I love those piers, and its just a shame not to put them to use, she said. If its approved, Snellgrove hopes to start construction next year and open it in 2026. Im in a hurry, Snellgrove said. Im getting old. J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center CEO Michael Phillips has departed the embattled San Francisco skilled nursing facility in the midst of a crisis that threatens to displace hundreds of patients, many of whom are medically fragile. Roland Pickens, CEO of the San Francisco Health Network, announced Phillips departure in a letter to Laguna Honda staff on Thursday. Pickens said he would be taking over as interim CEO of Laguna Honda as the city-run hospital searches for a new leader. The letter did not disclose what led to Phillips departure, but Pickens thanked Phillips for the two years he served as CEO and for making Laguna Honda a model for COVID response. Phillips work during the pandemic saved lives, Pickens said. A spokesperson for the citys health department, which runs Laguna Honda, said in an email that it was city policy to refrain from commenting on individual personnel matters. Laguna Honda is working to avoid closure by getting itself back into good standing with federal and state regulators, who have threatened to pull critical funding from the hospital after a series of incidents that began in July, after staff members reported two patient overdoses, neither of them fatal. In October, state inspectors found a raft of violations, mostly pertaining to the hospitals protocols to keep out contraband, such as cigarette lighters and drug paraphernalia. These discoveries led state regulators to deem the care at Laguna Honda substandard, initiating a six-month correction plan that ended April 14. As the hospital neared that deadline, state health officials conducted a round of inspections and found new problems related to hand hygiene, documentation and infection prevention and control. The hospital, which cares for more than 700 patients, including people with dementia, drug addiction and other complex medical needs who live on campus, has been under intense scrutiny from regulators for years, following the revelation of a patient abuse scandal in 2019. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Last month, hospital officials were forced to begin drawing up plans to relocate patients to other facilities as a condition for keeping federal funds flowing, at least temporarily. Hospital officials said Laguna Honda staff had begun assessing patient needs in order to ensure appropriate placements at other facilities in the event that the hospital were to shut down. Hospital officials previously said they were working to avoid closure by getting the hospital recertified. If that happens, the hospital would resume receiving payments from Medicare and Medicaid, thereby keeping the hospital open. As the hospital seeks recertification with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which funds the majority of our patient care, I am committed to working with staff, patients, families, our union partners and all of our stakeholders to ensure the hospital is successful in this effort, Pickens wrote. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa People line up to speak during a reparations task force meeting at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco on April 13, 2022. (Photo by Janie Har, AP Photo) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AVON LAKE, Ohio (AP) Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. The company says it will invest $3.7 billion in the three states between now and 2026. It also will convert about 3,000 temporary workers to full-time status with pay raises and benefits. A factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, near Cleveland, will be expanded so it can build an unidentified new electric commercial vehicle, with 1,800 new jobs. Ninety more jobs will be added in Lima and Sharonville, Ohio. A plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, that makes big electric and combustion-engine Transit vans will get a third shift of 1,100 workers to handle increased demand. In Michigan, Ford Motor Co. plans to add 2,000 jobs at three assembly plants, and another 1,200 at other facilities. A factory in the Detroit suburb of Wayne that now builds the Ranger midsize pickup will see investment and jobs to make a new Ranger. A plant in Flat Rock south of Detroit will make a new version of the Mustang muscle car. And Ford's Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn will see investment and jobs so it can build more F-150 Lightning electric pickups to meet unexpectedly high demand. The company also will add 600 jobs at a new parts packaging facility in Monroe, Michigan, and another 600 at several Michigan component plants. It's part of Ford's plan to be able to make 2 million electric vehicles per year globally by 2026. Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the company's division that makes internal combustion vehicles, said the EV investments are needed in part because Ford underestimated demand for EVs. As soon as Ford opened reservations for the electric F-150, it began planning to expand the Dearborn plant that makes them, he said. The reservations were so much higher than the (production) capacity that we had put in, Galhotra said. This is the first time in my career that we were expanding the plant before the plant was built. Ford stopped taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning at 200,000, and it's now converting reservations to orders. About two-thirds of those contacted so far are converting, but the company said it didn't have an exact number. In addition, the Mustang Mach-E SUV and E-Transit vans are sold out for the year, Galhotra said. Like other automakers, Ford finds itself adding workers to build both internal combustion and electric vehicles as the industry makes a transition to battery power, said Kristin Dziczek, a policy adviser with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who follows the industry. Although studies show that automakers will need fewer workers to build electric vehicles because there are fewer moving parts, it doesn't necessarily mean big layoffs down the road, Dziczek said. Automakers are producing many of their own EV parts such as axles and electric motors in North America to avoid pandemic-related supply chain disruptions overseas, creating new jobs. Plus there will be worker retirements over the next decade during the transition, Dziczek said. There are so many moving pieces," she said. "It's hard to say what the employment level needs to be. Automakers have been converting temporary workers to full-time status with higher pay to attract entry-level workers during the recent labor shortage, Dziczek said. Ford wouldn't give details of the commercial EV to be built at the Ohio Assembly Plant by mid-decade. The factory has been on the edge of closure for much of its life but has managed to survive. Galhotra says it now has a bright future. News of the expansion couldn't come any sooner for Cody Newsome, a skilled trades apprentice on layoff at the factory, which now makes large vans and trucks. He's hoping the company will bring him back to work as it builds more space and adds workers. This is really huge for us because this is a long-term investment, said Newsome, 28, a third-generation Ford worker. This is not a small little project. So job security, huge. We've been waiting for this day for a long time, said Jason Williams, a union bargaining representative at the plant. Were trying to secure the future for our kids, our families, families of the community. Ohio is offering about $200 million in incentives to Ford, while Michigan is contributing about $150 million. Although there will be a small capital investment in Missouri, there are no incentives for this project. Ford said it already has begun switching the temporary workers to full-time, and it's starting to hire the new workers. The announcement came a year ahead of when contract talks start with the United Auto Workers union. New product and job announcements normally are part of the negotiations. Ford's decision to build three battery plants and one new assembly plant in Kentucky and Tennessee last year raised questions about the company's manufacturing commitment to its home state and region. Michigan politicians worked hard to lure General Motors EV assembly and battery plants in January after losing the Ford plants to the Southern states. It's likely that Ford will build a fourth North American battery factory in the Great Lakes region in a joint venture with SK Innovation of Korea, but Galhotra said he's not ready to make an announcement yet. At the pace Ford is moving with EVs, more production will be needed, Galhotra said, pointing to the Michigan site where the electric F-150 is being built and the commercial EV to be built in Ohio. We'll have more announcements to come, he said. ____ Krisher reported from Detroit. FAIRFIELD The Board of Education has started the search for a replacement superintendent of schools. According to a release from Cooperative Educational Services, the firm hired by Fairfields Board of Education to help conduct the search, the next superintendent is expected to be chosen in early August following a series of interviews with candidates, and then begin work Nov. 1. CES said the community will have the opportunity to participate and guide the search by providing feedback in focus groups and an online survey. The board is excited to partner with CES and is looking forward to engaging the community in our search for Fairfield's next superintendent of schools, Christine Vitale, the BOE chair, said. We hope that all stakeholders take the time to participate in the focus groups and complete the online survey. Capturing and understanding the diverse needs and priorities of the community is an important step in the search process and will guide our work moving forward. The new superintendent will replace Michael Cummings, who announced his resignation in early April, saying at the time that he decided to semi-retire and accept the part-time superintendency of Pomfret Community School. After Cummings leaves his position on June 30, Stephen Tracey assumes the role of interim superintendent. Tracy is a familiar face in Fairfield, having filled the same interim role in 2016 and 2019. CES said it has already begun recruiting candidates and sharing the posting information. The company said it has reached out to nearly 2,000 current superintendents and those certified to serve as superintendent in the Northeast and approximately 7,750 more district leaders and regional superintendent organizations across the country. It said the job opening is also promoted on a number of state and national education-related websites. The CES team will hold focus group meetings to collect feedback and identify desirable leadership characteristics in the next superintendent, the company said in the release. The board also voted to form a search committee to fill the superintendent role permanently, which is lead by Vitale and Vice Chair Nick Aysseh, and includes all BOE members. Vitale has noted the superintendent search will not be public. A schedule for the focus groups can also be found on the superintendent search page on the website for Fairfields schools, as well as an online survey open to Fairfield residents and school district staff. joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com Yesterday was opening day for the brick-and-mortar of Midnite Bagel, at 646 Irving St., from Tartine vet Nick Beitcher and of all the bagel pop-ups over the past few years, his bagels might be the most San Francisco yet. Theres a bagel explosion happening in the Bay Area right now, said Dan Wallner, a San Francisco resident. Ive had Boichik over in the East Bay and Im happy to have something over here on my side of town. Wallner was waiting for his friends to arrive and, although he isnt a bagel fanatic, his former boss, from New York City, always complained about the lack of bagels in the Bay Area. The bagels at Midnite Bagel arent very New York-style, though, and thats OK. Were making bagels that feel right for San Francisco, Beitcher said in a video on his Kickstarter campaign website. Coming up as a bread baker at Tartine, one of the most famous bread bakeries in the world, Beitcher learned the importance of quality whole wheat that goes through the stone-milling process to produce high-caliber flour. Then, its slowly fermented with sourdough starter to create a bagel more reminiscent of a Tartine loaf than a New York bagel. I thought a better use of my experience was to try and give San Francisco a bagel that fit into that scene, Beitcher told the San Francisco Examiner in 2021. I feel like sourdough bagels arent too much of a stretch. Fans of the Midnite brand certainly showed up to support the new brick-and-mortar after four years as a pop-up. There was a long line before the shop even opened at 8 a.m. People were lined up all the way down to Crossroads Trading [a vintage and secondhand clothes store], said Leesh Mummey, general manager at Midnite Bagel. Its our opening day, but everyone was so calm and patient. The grand opening wasnt without hiccups, though. Around 11 a.m., the POS systems, which are connected to the stores Wi-Fi, lost connection and customers paying with credit cards had to wait until the connection returned. It was going too smoothly, Mummey laughed. Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE As I walked inside, the front counter neatly displayed the different bagels, breads and pastries on a long, wooden cutting board. To the left of the cashier are huge baskets filled with the different bagels so the cashiers can easily grab them and bag them. Menu options, which are listed on an old-school, changeable letter board, and a rack of pre-ordered bulk bagel orders both adorn the right side of the shop. The bagels themselves are dense but with a strong sour flavor, like our city is known for. It was almost like a workout to chew the boiled beauties my jaw was worn out from chewing. But like any good workout, the post-exercise high is worth the effort. In a city that is known for sourdough bread, Midnite Bagel is like taking a bite of San Francisco in bagel form. Midnite Bagel at 646 Irving St. is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. SEATTLE (AP) Two boaters accused of illegally approaching endangered Southern Resident killer whales in rented boats were fined for violating regulations that protect the whales, NOAA Fisheries said Wednesday. State and federal regulations require recreational boats to stay at least 300 yards (274 meters) to the sides of orcas and 400 yards (375 meters) in front and behind them, KOMO-TV reported. KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (AP) A woman and her nephew were found dead on Thursday in a North Carolina home which also served as a daycare, and police said they are investigating a double homicide. The Kannapolis Police Department said its officers responded to a home at around 8 a.m. after receiving a 911 call, the Independent-Tribune of Kannapolis reported. STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) A street gang crackdown in central California resulted in 88 arrests and the seizure of 58 firearms, state officials said Thursday. Those arrested this month in Stockton are suspected in a series of violent crimes, including robberies and at least two homicides, California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said in a statement. Congressional Democrats are accusing Amazon of obstructing their investigation into the companys labor practices during severe weather events. Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform have sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, saying the company has failed to produce materials requested more than two months ago. The committee, which launched the investigation in late March, gave the Seattle-based e-commerce company a list of materials to hand over by mid-April. But the company still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by Committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the Committee requested in March, said the letter signed by committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from New York. The letter was also signed by progressives Reps. Cori Bush, of Missouri, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York. Unfortunately, Amazon has failed to meaningfully comply with the Committees requests, obstructing the Committees investigation, they wrote in the letter made public Thursday, adding that the company has only produced an incomplete set of policies and procedures. Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company was surprised to receive the letter. She said Amazon began providing materials to the committee two weeks after receiving the initial request and has produced more than 1,500 pages of information. As we have done from the start, we will continue to work with Committee staff on further document production which includes the most recent materials we shared on June 1, Nantel said. The company's labor policies during extreme weather events has been under increased scrutiny since the December collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, where six people died and another was critically injured in a tornado strike. Last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrapped up its own probe into the incident, concluding that Amazon met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering. But regulators also found safety risks and called on the company to improve its procedures. The letter said the company has not produced any internal communications related to the Edwardsville tornado to the committee, which is doing its own investigation into the incident. The committee is also seeking documents showing how Amazon managed its workforce during other natural disasters, including wildfires in California in 2018. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Australia and China continued their tit-for-tat diplomatic rivalry in the Pacific on Thursday as the foreign ministers from each country paid separate visits to island nations. In Samoa, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that her country would donate a patrol boat to replace a similar one that was wrecked after it ran aground last year. Meanwhile, Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Papua New Guinea to meet with leaders there on the penultimate stop of an eight-nation regional tour. Wang had hoped to ink an ambitious multilateral deal with 10 South Pacific nations this week covering everything from security to fisheries. He couldn't find consensus on that deal but has been notching up smaller wins by signing bilateral agreements with many of the countries hes been visiting. The diplomatic push by China, especially around Pacific security, has caused deep concern among some of the island nations as well as farther afield in Canberra and Washington. Since news of the proposed deal emerged, Wong has made two trips to the Pacific to shore up support for Australia. In Samoa, Wong met with Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa. Wong told reporters that Australia respected the right of sovereign nations to make their own security decisions, but said those decisions "have the potential to affect the nature of the security arrangements of the region. So having a collective consideration of those matters is important." Fiame said she wanted to make clear that while Samoa had signed some bilateral agreements with China, it hadn't favored inking the big multilateral deal at least not right away. She said Samoa and the other nations needed to talk through the issues first. Our position was that you cannot have regional agreement when the region hasn't met to discuss it, she said. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been even more blunt, tweeting: The Pacific needs genuine partners, not superpowers that are super-focused on power. Wang's visit to Papua New Guinea comes ahead of a national election there next month. Wong will next visit Tonga while Wang plans to end his tour with a stop in East Timor. The Beaumont Enterprise has brought on a new reporter, who will be covering a newly-created subject area for the newspaper. Courtney Pedersen, who joined the Enterprise on Wednesday, will cover the environment and relevant regulations enacted by the state and federal government designed to keep Southeast Texas residents safe. Pedersen hails from Kalamazoo County, Michigan. She graduated Central Michigan University this year with a degree in journalism, a minor in legal studies and a certificate in creative writing. While covering environmental regulations, Pedersen will be furthering two of her own interests. Im really into law. So, Ive always been interested in that. But I'm also very passionate about the environment, obviously, because we live here and we need it to survive, she said. I thought this would be a really cool opportunity to make my mark to start something new and learn more. Pedersen has wanted to be a reporter since she was about 6 years old. I found out journalism was a career from watching superhero movies with my older brother, and I was convinced that the only way that I could marry a superhero was to be a journalist, she recalled. I started writing fake little newspapers for my Barbie dolls, and I would make my parents read it, and basically ever since then, I wanted to do journalism. She honed her skills through internships at Public Media Network, the Michigan News Group, and WCMU public radio. She also worked for her student newspaper as summer editor-in-chief, associate editor, managing editor, and most recently, investigative editor. Pedersen leaves behind the Great Lakes for the bayous and beaches of Southeast Texas but acknowledges that Michigan will always be her home. It is where all of her family lives, after all. But right now, shes ready for a new adventure. I just felt like I could do a lot more growing on my own if I wasn't in Michigan, seeing the same people all the time, she said. And I wanted to explore different places, because I can always go back to Michigan. But I feel like if I were to stay there, I would never leave. When she's not working, Pedersen enjoys making jewelry and has an affinity for sloths and Adam Sandler. She likes them separately but would be happy to see them combined. She enjoys Sandlers comedy and approach to life. As a person, I think he's super interesting, she said. He just does what's fun. He just does the acting for fun and uses it as an excuse to just go on vacations with his friends ..." ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) One of the bidders in an oil and gas lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year has canceled the lease it bought, the U.S. Interior Department said. Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of Australia-based 88 Energy Ltd., was one of three entities that won leases during the sale held in the waning days of the Trump administration. It was the only oil company to win a lease in the first-of-its-kind sale for the refuge's coastal plain, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Regenerate Alaska requested the cancellation and its money back, according to a statement provided by the Interior Department's media office that said the lease was canceled and that the Office of Natural Resources Revenue refunded (the) full bonus bid and first year rentals. The statement did not include the amount of the refund. The company bid about $800,000 for the lease along the western boundary of the coastal plain. That part of the refuge is closest to existing oil field infrastructure. ExxonMobils Point Thomson development is to the west on state land. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last summer said it was moving ahead with a new environmental review of oil and gas leasing in the refuge after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said she found multiple legal deficiencies in a previous review that provided a basis for the lease sale. A law passed by Congress in 2017 called for two lease sales. Another sale has not been held. Chevron and Hilcorp previously canceled interests in older leases on a tract of land owned by an Alaska Native corporation within the refuges borders. The energy companies paid $10 million to end their deal with Arctic Slope Regional Corp. The newspaper said 88 Energy did not respond to its requests for comment. The company did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press left through the company's website. Peter Winsor, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement to the AP called the lease cancellations the clearest sign yet that there is zero interest out there in industrializing the wildest place left in America. In last year's sale, Knik Arm Services, a real estate company, won a lease, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority state corporation acquired seven leases. The state corporation is suing the federal government over the lease suspension. Mark Graber, who owns Knik Arm Services, said he's paying attention to the lawsuit. Theres no plan to do anything until the lawsuit is resolved and we can move forward, he said. CHICAGO (AP) A Chicago police officer was taken to a hospital in critical condition Wednesday after she was shot while attempting to make a traffic stop on the city's South Side, authorities said. In a news conference at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police Supt. David Brown said that at 5:42 p.m. two uniformed officers were in a marked squad car attempting a traffic stop in the West Englewood neighborhood. MILFORD, Conn. (AP) A Connecticut state trooper who killed a 19-year-old man while firing seven gunshots into the driver's window of a stolen car in 2020 pleaded not guilty to a manslaughter charge Thursday. Trooper Brian North, who is white, made a brief appearance in Milford Superior Court as relatives of Mubarak Soulemane, who was Black, repeated their calls for North to be convicted and fired. North remains free on bail but is on paid administrative leave with his police powers suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case. North did not comment while leaving the courthouse with about a dozen off-duty law enforcement officers who were there to show their support for him, a smaller group than the one that attended his first court appearance last month. Soulemane's mother and other relatives and supporters shouted Justice for Mubarak, No justice no peace and Fire Brian North outside the courthouse. A virtual hearing was set for Aug. 2 and another in-person court hearing was scheduled for Sept. 15. Soulemane was shot on Jan. 15, 2020, as he sat in the driver's seat of a stolen car in West Haven, after a nearly 30-mile (48-kilometer), high-speed chase from Norwalk on Interstate 95. Other officers had broken the front passenger door window and fired a stun gun at Soulemane, but it did not work. An investigation showed Soulemane had a knife but was boxed in by police and unable to drive away. State Inspector General Robert Devlin found the shooting was not justified. North said in statement to investigators that he believed he was protecting officers on the other side of the car from possibly being attacked by Soulemane when he opened fire. Soulemanes family said he had schizophrenia and his mental health appeared to be deteriorating in the days before the shooting. SEATTLE (AP) A man has pleaded not guilty to rape and voyeurism charges in Seattle after completing a prison sentence in New Mexico for raping a Washington woman there in 2017. Redwolf Pope, who leased apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, was arrested in 2018 after his house guests gave police videos from his iPad that allegedly showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. A Santa Fe jury in 2020 found Pope guilty of rape and voyeurism, and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison, with credit for over two years already served. Pope claimed the incident was consensual. Pope was booked May 19 into King County Jail, where he remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail, The Seattle Times reported. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Pope was charged in 2018 with two counts of second-degree rape against two women inside his Seattle apartment in 2016 and 2017, charging papers say. King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Aubony Burns told Chief Criminal Judge Karen Donohue Wednesday that based on additional video evidence he now faces three counts of second-degree rape and three counts of first-degree voyeurism. Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who last Thanksgiving appeared as a spokesperson for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation to discuss Native-American perspectives on Thanksgiving. Popes LinkedIn page describes him as a co-founder for tech startups and lists him as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade. But Popes heritage and resume have come under scrutiny since his arrest. While he received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association previously confirmed he was not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there. Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said theyve found no record of Popes enrollment, though its unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe. Abigail Echo-Hawk, the executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native womens rights, has said Pope created a false identity and posed as a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey upon our Indigenous women. Echo-Hawk said Wednesday she stands by that 2019 statement and that shes grateful police thoroughly investigated his alleged conduct. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) Bullet fragments lodged in the children's arms and legs. Traumatic flashbacks flooding their nightmares. For the 17 people injured during a mass shooting last week in Uvalde, Texas, healing will be slow in a community mourning the deaths of 21 others. As the tight-knit town of 16,000 holds funeral after funeral and investigators examine how police responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, several of the victims are still in hospitals over an hour's drive away in San Antonio, undergoing treatment for bullet wounds. Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which treated 11 children and four adults in the hours after the shooting, discharged 10 of those patients the same day and transferred five to San Antonio hospitals. The grandmother of the shooter, who was shot in the face before the 18-year-old gunman entered the school, was also hospitalized. On Wednesday, the San Antonio hospitals were still treating five patients, with one 10-year-old girl in serious condition and the rest deemed to be in good condition. Among the injured were several fourth-grade students whose classmates and teachers were shot to death. One young survivor, 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, told CNN that she and a friend used her dead teachers cellphone to call 911 and waited for what felt like hours for officers to arrive. Miah, who suffered a bullet fragment to her back, said she covered herself with a friend's blood and pretended to be dead. Were just taking it day by day, the girl's father, Miguel Cerrillo, told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview Wednesday. The family is raising money for Miah's medical expenses to treat both injuries caused by the bullet fragment and the mental trauma of surviving the shooting. Cerrillo said that while his daughter is now at home, she has not opened up to him about what happened in the classroom. The long-term devastation of the shooting on those who were closest to it hung heavily on their family members this week as they put together fundraising campaigns to help pay for their treatment. Noah Orona, 10, was trying to comprehend not only his wounds, but witnessing the suffering of his friends, classmates, and his beloved teachers," his older sister Laura Holcek wrote on a GoFundMe page for his treatment. Orona had been struck in the shoulder blade by a bullet that exited his back and left shrapnel in his arm, the Washington Post reported. Family members of 9-year-old Kendall Olivarez posted in another fundraising campaign that she would need several surgeries after she was shot in the left shoulder and hit by fragments of bullets on her right leg and tailbone. Her uncle Jimmy Olivarez said Wednesday that Kendall was doing OK." Yet the mental wounds from the shooting rippled out far beyond the hospital beds to a community where parents have held children with racing hearts, where local police face mounting questions about how quickly they acted to stop the shooter and where mental health experts say the scars of trauma will be indelibly etched. They are holding onto this terrible, horrific memory, said Dr. Amanda Wetegrove-Romine, a San Antonio psychologist who attended high school in Uvalde and assisted in community counseling services in the days after the May 24 shooting. Children were having nightmares and clinging to their parents, she said. One third-grader, 8-year-old Jeremiah Lennon, feared he would be killed if he went back to school after surviving the shooting in a classroom next to the room where three of his friends were slain. He was changed by the shooting, his grandmother Brenda Morales said, now sitting quietly, not eating much and just staring into space. Hes changed. Everythings changed," she said. As Erika Santiago attended the funeral this week for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, she recounted how her 10-year-old son, Adriel, watched in horror when the first images came out on the news and he recognized two of his friends from kindergarten: Amerie and Maite Rodriguez. Although the Santiago family has moved and now lives in San Antonio, Adriel did not want to go back to his school: He told me, Mom, I just dont feel safe. Mental health experts said that because most of the victims were children, trauma can have a particularly long-lasting impact. They are in an important stage of development. Their worldview is forming and they are learning whether the world is safe or unsafe, said Dr. Arash Javanbakht, who directs the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic at Wayne State University. Trauma stays with children the rest of their lives, he said, adding that childhood trauma has been linked to a host of health problems later in life. In the communities across the country shaken by school shootings over the years Columbine High School in Colorado, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Santa Fe High School in Texas and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut trauma has manifested for years. Survivors of Columbine, now adults, spoke out in recent days to say news of the shooting reopened the wounds of their trauma. I spent the formative part of my career in a Connecticut elementary school. I will never forget the ripple effect of fear and heartbreak that spread among students and teachers in the aftermath of the horrific Sandy Hook shooting," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement Wednesday as he announced a federal program would be set up to offer mental health support in Uvalde. Mental health experts said a range of support will be needed for the survivors, beginning with what is known as psychological first aid in the immediate aftermath to counseling sessions to address trauma symptoms that can last for months and even years. The ability of the community to come together to heal will also be crucial, with parents playing an important role in discussing emotions with their children. Support and connectedness with community members and fellow survivors can be a powerful source of resilience, collective remembering, collective healing and purpose, said Nicole Nugent, an expert in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder who works as a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Wetegrove-Romine, the psychologist, said Uvalde was a close-knit community where everyone is connected, yet the intense scrutiny of the speed of the police response has also prompted a conflicted grief. She worried that in the small Texas community, where mental health resources are thin and what she described as a culture of stoicism that prevails among many, people won't get help when they need it. She has begun collecting specialized journals to send to adults in Uvalde to help them process their grief. I worry about the long-term resources there will likely be another shooting like this and resources will need to leave" to treat survivors of that tragedy, she said. "What happens to the people of Uvalde? ___ Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Thursday that he expects Denmark to join the European Unions common defense policy after two-thirds of voters who cast ballots in a referendum supported abandoning a 30-year-old waiver that kept the EU country out. There are a series of formal steps before Denmark can be admitted to the defense agreement, Kofod said, including the Danish Parliament giving its approval of the referendum's result. The minister said he expects Denmark to be able to join as of July 1. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CAIRO (AP) For many Libyans, clashes that erupted in the capital of Tripoli last month were all too familiar a deja vu of street fighting, reverberating gunfire and people cowering inside their homes. A video circulated online on the day, showing a man shouting from a mosque loudspeaker Enough war, we want our young generation!" The fighting underscored the fragility of Libyas relative peace that has prevailed for more than a year but it also looked like history was repeating itself. Now, observers say that momentum to reunify the country has been lost and that its future is looking grim. Once again, there are two competing governments vying for control in Libya, already torn by more than a decade of civil war. The clashes in the capital broke out after one of Libya's two prime ministers challenged the other by coming to Tripoli, his rivals seat. Libya has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each supported by rogue militias and foreign governments. The Mediterranean nation has been in a state of upheaval since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But a plan had emerged in the past two years that was meant to put the country on the path toward elections. A U.N.-brokered process installed an interim government in early 2021 to shepherd Libyans to elections that were due late last year. That government, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, briefly unified the political factions under heavy international pressure. But the voting never took place, and since then, the plan has unraveled and left the country in crisis. Lawmakers in Libya's east-based parliament, headed by influential speaker Aguila Saleh, argued that Dbeibahs mandate ended when the interim government failed to hold elections. They went ahead and chose Fathi Bashagha, a powerful former interior minister from the western city of Misrata, as new prime minister. Their position gained the endorsement of powerful commander Khalifa Hifter whose forces control the countrys east and most of the south, including major oil facilities. Dbeibah has refused to step down, and factions allied with him in western Libya deeply oppose Hifter. They maintain that Dbeibah, who is also from Misrata with ties to its powerful militias, is working toward holding elections. Analysts are skeptical. Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at the International Crisis Group, described the Bashagha-Dbeibah rivalry as a feud over legitimacy," with both governments claiming they are legitimate. I dont think they will be able to hold elections this year, she said, and also expressed doubts that U.N. attempts to get Libyan parties to reach a constitutional consensus on the elections will make any progress. The power struggle came to a head on May 17, when Bashagha entered Tripoli and attempted to install his government there. He had help from the powerful Nawasi Brigade militia, led by Mustafa Qaddur, deputy head of Libya's intelligence agency. But Bashagha faced stiff resistance from militias loyal to Dbeibah, leading to hourslong clashes that rocked the city until Bashagha withdrew and a day later set up his government headquarters in the coastal city of Sirte, half way between Libya's power centers in the east and the west. The withdrawal emboldened Dbeibah, who promptly sacked Qaddur and another military official, Osama Juwaili, who heads the military intelligence agency. The dismissal of Qaddur was subsequently reversed by the presidential council an apparent crack within Dbeibah's camp. According to an official close to Dbeibah, the Tripoli-based prime minister is convinced Bashagha could not have entered the Libyan capital without approval or coordination with Juwaili, a powerful figure from the western city of Zintan, and also Qaddur. Juwailis forces, the official said, manned checkpoints and control areas near Gharyan, a town south of Tripoli, where Bashaghas convoy passed on its way to the capital. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence details. Even after Bashagha's withdrawal, tensions remain high in Tripoli. Some, like Libya researcher Jalel Harchaoui, believe Bashagha could make another move on Tripoli or at least attempt to galvanize more support in the area. Given the scars that are now out in the open, such a scenario" is entirely possible, he said. Meanwhile, Libya's prized light crude is again being used as a tool in the power struggle. Tribal leaders have shut down crucial oil facilities, including the countrys largest oil field in the south controlled by fighters loyal to Hifter, who supports Bashagha. The oil blockade which comes as oil prices are skyrocketing because of the war in Ukraine was likely meant to deprive Debeibahs government of funds and empower his rival. Bashagha and Saleh have said the facilities would be reopened on condition that oil revenues be temporarily frozen until rival factions agree on a mechanism to distribute oil funds. The war in Ukraine has distracted the international community but its ripples have been felt in Libya, where Russia has long played an outsized role. Russia has recognized Bashaghas government, which Gazzini of the International Crisis Group says makes it difficult for Western countries to also do so as not to be seen as being on the same side as Russia. For ordinary Libyans, last months deadly violence one person was killed in the fighting was a stark reminder of how fragile the relative peace had been. Chaos and conflict are their feeding ground, said Mohammed Abu Salim, in his 30s and a civil servant from Tripoli, referring to Libya's rival factions. If you really believe that those people will allow free and fair elections, then you are delusional. BRUSSELS (AP) More than 200 firefighters and technical equipment provided by European Union countries will be soon deployed to Greece to allow for a swift response to large wildfires. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said Thursday that Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Norway will take part in the initiative coordinated by the bloc's Civil Protection Mechanism. BOSTON (AP) A Massachusetts plumber who overcharged his customers and failed to pay nearly $1.5 million in taxes has been sentenced to a year in prison, federal prosecutors said. Jared Derrico, 35, of Boxford, was also sentenced this week to three years of probation, and ordered to forfeit $315,000 and pay $1.45 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Boston. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) A former corrections officer at a Kentucky jail has been charged in federal court with using excessive force, officials said. Darrell Taylor, 32, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Louisville on one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett said in a statement. AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The Maine State Housing Authority has detected 408 fraudulent applications in a COVID-19 rent relief program that would've cost the state $6.4 million. In Maine, the state housing authority oversees the federal rent relief money while community action agencies distribute the funds locally. More than 90% of the fraud was detected by the local agencies. All told, the $6.4 million represents more than 3% of the $197.3 million in rent relief from MaineHousing, and the 408 fraudulent applications made up less than 1% of more than 49,000 applications, the Bangor Daily News reported. The Emergency Rental Assistance funds came from two federal COVID-19 relief packages passed by Congress in December 2020 and March 2021. Until recently, recipients could qualify for up to 18 months of rental assistance. The community agencies working with tenants look for the warning signs for fraudulent activity, said MaineHousing spokesperson Scott Thistle. There are red flags that we ask the community action agencies that are processing the applications to look for, including rent that is beyond what would be expected for an area, he said. Martin Meissner/AP BERLIN (AP) The German parliament will set up a commission of inquiry into last year's evacuation mission from Afghanistan and a fact-finding commission on Berlin's two-decade involvement there, lawmakers said Thursday. Senior lawmakers from the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition and from the main opposition Union bloc said in a joint statement that the two panels would be established before parliament's summer break starts next month. BERLIN (AP) German prosecutors said Thursday that they have closed an investigation of people suspected of founding a far-right group calling itself the National Socialist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Deutschland. Stuttgart prosecutors said that they were unable to establish with sufficient certainty after more than three years that the group's aim was to commit crimes, German news agency dpa reported. Fifty-seven people had been under investigation. BERLIN (AP) Germany's federal and state leaders agreed Thursday to try to avoid closing schools and child care facilities if there is another surge in coronavirus cases this fall. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after meeting with the governors of Germany's 16 states that the goal would be to prevent another blanket closure of schools and kindergartens like what happened during previous waves of the pandemic. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Irans health minister said Thursday the country has marked its first day after more than two years without a single COVID-19 death, lauding this as a significant milestone for a nation that long had the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Middle East. The ministry reported 175 new cases over the past day, bringing Iran's number of confirmed cases during the pandemic to more than 7,230,000. Iran's officially registered death toll stands at 141,318. MILWAUKEE (AP) A hot air balloon crashed into train in Burlington on Wednesday night, sending three people to the hospital with severe injuries. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday that police said the crash happened around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday when the balloon crashed into a northbound Canadian National train. LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) The Howard Johnsons restaurant in this upstate New York resort village the last of the once-pervasive eateries serving food under orange roofs with blue spires is closed. The restaurant just south of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains did not open over Memorial Day weekend and is for lease, according to the Times Union of Albany. A post on the Facebook site HoJoLand last week said plastic tables, chair and memorabilia were removed and there were cobwebs on the door. HoJos were well known to baby boomers, who grew up on the restaurants' 28 ice cream flavors and fried clam plates. But they faded away with the rise of fast-food outlets and there only a few operating under the Howard Johnson's name by the beginning of 2015. Restaurants in Lake Placid, New York and Bangor, Maine closed in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The Wyndham Hotel Group has rights to the name and had allowed remaining restaurants to use the brand name based on grandfathered contracts. The restaurant in Lake George was not part of a franchise. There are still Howard Johnson hotels. A man who leased the Lake George HoJos in 2015 after it was closed for several years was convicted of harassing staffers. It reopened under a new operator who kept it running for the past several years, with pandemic-related pauses, according to the newspaper. Bill Moon, the listing agent, said there was interest in the property, which could be used for another restaurant or a different business. Its a great location and just looking for the person with the right vision to take it forward, Moon said. It was not clear if someone who leases the building for a restaurant could still use the HoJo's name. An email seeking comment was sent to the Wyndham Hotel Group. Alex Jones' Infowars and two of his other companies agreed to end their bankruptcy protection case in Texas, according to court documents filed Wednesday and Thursday, weeks after reaching a deal with Sandy Hook shooting victims' families suing the conspiracy theorist for calling the massacre a hoax. The families and the local U.S. trustees office a Justice Department agency that oversees bankruptcy cases had questioned the legitimacy of the bankruptcy filing and sought to throw out the case. Lawyers for the families called the filing a delaying tactic that put their defamation lawsuits against Jones on hold a claim his lawyers denied. Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health consented to dismissing the bankruptcy case after the Sandy Hook families agreed to drop the companies from their defamation lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut. Those lawsuits will continue against Jones himself and his largest money-making company, Free Speech Systems. Trials are pending to determine how much Jones should pay the families, after judges in both states found him liable for damages to the families. Jones, Infowars and others were sued by the families of eight of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to the school. The families said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones followers because of the hoax conspiracy. Jones has since said he believes the shooting did occur. The families' lawyers also have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets also denied by Jones and called ridiculous by one of his lawyers. Infowars and the other two companies filed for bankruptcy protection only days before the first trial on damages was expected to begin in Texas. Jones is based in Austin, Texas. In a court document filed Thursday, an attorney for Infowars said the three companies still have $140,000 in debts remaining that qualify for bankruptcy protection and are not related to the Sandy Hook lawsuits. The deal to end the bankruptcy case awaits a judge's approval. The facts are that these chapter 11 cases were filed in good faith and would still serve a valid bankruptcy purpose, Infowars lawyer Kyung Lee wrote in the document. Nonetheless, the Debtors ... recognize that the dismissal is in the best interests of the Debtors and their estates because the U.S. Trustee continued opposition to the cases." When Infowars filed for bankruptcy protection in April, it listed assets of $50,000 or less and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million, with creditors including relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut, said in a statement that the deal to end the bankruptcy "proves what weve said from the beginning: this bankruptcy was a sham attempt by Alex Jones to pit families against one another and avoid his reckoning with a jury. It didnt work. We look forward to trial. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Government-run surveillance cameras around Iran's capital reportedly were disrupted Thursday, while an exile group claimed it hacked into over 5,000 cameras around Tehran ahead of commemoration of the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic. The Young Journalists Club, an affiliate of Iranian state television, acknowledged the disruption on Twitter after the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq claimed it penetrated the cameras, including around the mausoleum of the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The website for Tehran's municipality also went down, as well as communication systems used by the city, the report said. The semiofficial ISNA news agency later quoted Tehran's municipality as acknowledging the hack. The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq released a video clip it claimed showed the municipality website and others defaced with a graphic that criticized the anti-human Khomeini." It also included an image of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a red X over his face, as well as images of MEK leaders Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Maryam Rajavi, while calling for an uprising until overthrow. Down with Khamenei, Raisi, curses on Khomeini, the graphic read. Massoud Rajavi hasnt been seen publicly in nearly two decades and is presumed to have died. Maryam Rajavi now runs the MEK. Khomeini, who led Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, died June 3, 1989. The hack comes after another cyberassault in January that saw the Rajavis and a graphic calling for the death of the countrys supreme leader played on multiple state TV channels. In October, an assault on Irans fuel distribution system paralyzed gas stations nationwide, leading to long lines of angry motorists unable to get subsidized fuel for days. A cyberattack on Irans railway system caused chaos and train delays. Another hack leaked footage of abuses at its notorious Evin prison. Iran, long sanctioned by the West, faces difficulties in getting up-to-date hardware and software, often relying on Chinese-manufactured electronics or older systems. Pirated versions of Windows and other software are common across Iran. That makes it easier for potential hackers to target the country. The MEK began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It claimed and was suspected in a series of attacks against U.S. officials in Iran in the 1970s, something the group now denies. It supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Khomeini and turned against the cleric. It carried out a series of assassinations and bombings targeting the young Islamic Republic. The MEK later fled into Iraq and backed dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s. That saw many oppose the group in Iran. Although largely based in Albania, to this day the group claims to operate a network inside Iran. Gov. Ned Lamont has vetoed legislation that would have allowed a Connecticut police department to bypass the state's 2020 police reform law and obtain a surplus military vehicle from another community. Officials from the city of West Haven have said the demilitarized vehicle could bolster rescue missions. But the Democrat Lamont opposed making the one-time exception, noting it would be inconsistent with the 2-year-old law that prohibits state and local police from acquiring certain pieces of surplus federal military equipment, including the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle known as an MRAP. Lamont said allowing the exception would be at odds with community-focused policing practices his administration supports. MRAPs were included in the list following several national and local instances of inappropriate use of such vehicles, Lamont wrote in his veto message, released late Wednesday. He said the creation of Connecticut's list of barred equipment, which includes items such as weaponized drones and grenade launchers, had followed an extended public debate regarding the militarization of police. The veto prompted a strong, bipartisan rebuke Thursday from West Haven's state legislative delegation, city police and fire officials and local public safety officials, who said the veto had come as a surprise. The bill had cleared the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support. With all the challenges our state is currently facing it hardly seems plausible that denying West Haven a vehicle that can possibly save lives could necessitate the governors veto, the group wrote in a combined statement. "With two years of work to get this right, including bringing on board some of the strongest voices on police accountability, we as a delegation are shocked and disappointed that the result is a veto. West Haven was well-served by the delegation and that work should matter here. Charles Ferraro, R-West Haven, testified earlier this year that city officials were seeking to obtain one of Farmington's two MRAP vehicles for life-saving measures, especially during severe storms. He said West Haven has been attempting to acquire such a vehicle since 2011 but they've been either too costly or in poor condition. West Haven would have received Farmington's vehicle at no cost. Being a shoreline community, we have experienced numerous devastating storms such as Sandy, Irene, and snowstorm Nemo. These storms caused flooding, downed trees, and debris as well as a historical snow fall total, Ferraro said in written testimony. Farmington had obtained the two vehicles through a federal program that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to request excess U.S. Department of Defense supplies and equipment. Ferraro said there's much misunderstanding surrounding the acquisition of such vehicles." He said the vehicle has been stripped of its military armaments, including one layer of armor. State Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, whose district includes West Haven, noted in written testimony that municipalities are allowed to petition the governor or the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to retain surplus military equipment for relief or rescue efforts in the case of a natural disaster or for other public safety purposes. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut had urged lawmakers to reject the bill during the legislative session, which adjourned on May 4. The group said in written testimony that it opposes legislation that facilitates the unnecessary militarization of the police" in the state. Highly militarized police units and equipment turn communities into war zones, said Jess Zaccagnino, the group's policy counsel. Neighborhoods are not battlegrounds, and no arm of the government should be treating Connecticut residents like wartime enemy combatants. EATONTON, Ga. (AP) Lawyers for a Georgia prisoner on trial for murdering two prison guards admit that Ricky Dubose killed the pair aboard a prison bus but say an abuse-filled childhood left him mentally ill. Ricky Dubose is guilty and intellectually disabled, defense attorney Gabrielle Amber Pittman said in an opening statement. Ricky Dubose is guilty and mentally ill. We are asking you to find Ricky guilty and intellectually disabled. The trial of Dubose began Wednesday in Eatonton, news outlets report. He could be executed if convicted in the fatal shooting of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue while escaping from a prison transfer bus southeast of Atlanta in June 2017. Dubose and Donnie Rowe escaped together and were arrested in Tennessee days later. Rowe was convicted last year of murder in the guards' death. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole by a judge after jurors could not achieve the unanimity required to recommend a death sentence in Georgia. Dubose is accused of firing the gun that killed the officers after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and burst through an unlocked gate. Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the officers pistols and shot Monica, the guard, and then Billue, the driver, both in the head. Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape and roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings. Prosecutors disagree with the defense on Dubose's mental capacity, and the lawyers have argued over psychologist reports expected to be presented during trial. Jurors were chosen in coastal Brunswick over a period of more than three weeks and bused to Eatonton because of extensive pretrial publicity. The trial could last weeks. District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III described Dubose as a predator and an intelligent, calculated criminal, whose actions were swift and decisive. Retrieves a Glock 9, loads it, shoots Christopher Monica, shoots Curtis Billue, kicks a window out of the bus, all of that ladies and gentlemen takes a mere 40 seconds, Barksdale said. If jurors find Dubose guilty but with intellectual disability or guilty but mentally ill," Dubose would not be subject to the death penalty. No matter what the state may allege, Pittman told the jury, Ricky Dubose wasnt a criminal genius who was planning and plotting an escape in the weeks leading up to the crime. Officials say Dubose and Rowe stole at least three different cars while on the run, broke into a home, tied up the couple who lived there and hid out. Barksdale said Dubose asked the woman detained in the Tennessee home for makeup to disguise facial tattoos that include devil-like horns. Pittman said Dubose followed Rowe into making serious, terrible decisions with tragic consequences." Dubose, 29, was serving a 20-year sentence for a 2015 armed robbery and assault in Elbert County when he escaped. He had been in prison earlier, as well. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisiana's Democratic Gov. has endorsed former Navy pilot Luke Mixon in the upcoming U.S. Senate race against incumbent Republican John Kennedy. Mixon is one of two Democrats challenging Kennedy. The other is Baton Rouge activist Gary Chambers Jr., who has drawn more attention with online ads, such as one showing him smoking marijuana while decrying laws that have incarcerated millions who possessed small amounts of the drug. NEW YORK (AP) A man has been arrested on charges of killing a New York City restaurant delivery worker after the owner reported a spate of harassment that began with a complaint about a condiment. Glenn Hirsch, 51, was awaiting arraignment Thursday after being arrested on murder and weapons charges in the death of Zhiwen Yan. Zhiwen Yan was a beloved member of his Queens community whose tragic murder in April was heartbreaking, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted. It wasn't immediately clear whether Hirsch had an attorney who can comment on the charges. A person who answered the phone at his Queens home declined to comment and hung up. Yan was gunned down on a Queens street April 30, while riding a scooter to make a delivery. The 45-year-old had worked for more than a decade for Great Wall, a Chinese restaurant. Owner Kai Yang told reporters at the time that he'd had trouble with a customer since November, when the patron unsuccessfully demanded a refund because he said he didn't get enough duck sauce with an order although the sweet-and-sour condiment was free and self-serve. Yang said he told police in January that the patron had slashed his tires and pulled a gun on him. Another restaurant worker, Sooi Chung, told the New York Post that the customer would sometimes wait outside the restaurant and tell Yang and employees, I remember you. I remember you. Yan, a married father of three, was hardworking and friendly to everyone, neighbors and relatives said. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Pennsylvania's Republican nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano, has offered to sit for an interview with the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and was interviewed by FBI agents last year about it, his lawyer said Thursday. Mastriano, a state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel who won the GOP nomination for governor last month, was seen outside the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, and he was in regular communication with Donald Trump as the then-president sought to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Mastriano's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said Mastriano told the FBI that he did not know about a planned insurrection or any coordination behind the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He previously was approached and sat for a voluntary interview with the FBI and told them the truth about everything that happened that day, Parlatore said. The FBI cleared him. Parlatore said he also provided documents earlier this week to the Jan. 6 committee in response to a Feb. 15 subpoena to Mastriano. Parlatore made the offer of an interview months ago, he said. The committee has yet to schedule an interview with Mastriano, and he has nothing to hide, Parlatore said The submission of documents from Mastriano comes as lawmakers are looking to gather as much testimony and evidence as they can before beginning a series of public hearings next week. The committee has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and collected tens of thousands of pages of documents as it looks to give the American public the most comprehensive look at the events that led to the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries. A Senate Judiciary report released late last year alleged that Mastriano and his wife took part in the January 6 insurrection, citing footage of them passing through breached barricades and police lines at the Capitol. Mastriano has told reporters that he left when things turned violent. Mastriano previously denied breaking any laws that day, and he has not been charged with any crime in connection to the Capitol attack. There is no evidence that Mastriano entered the Capitol building or that he participated in the violence. He has declined repeated efforts by The Associated Press over the past year to interview him about what he did and saw that day. He has called the violence unacceptable. Mastriano was among Trumps most dedicated supporters during the 2020 campaign and has been a prominent peddler of unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen from Trump. He floated a plan in the Republican-controlled state Legislature to undo Bidens victory in Pennsylvania and empower lawmakers to instead award the states electoral votes to Trump. Mastriano later organized bus trips to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and advertised himself ahead of time as a scheduled speaker on the Capitol steps during the afternoon. He has described getting prime seats to Trumps speech before the riot. Trump also endorsed Mastriano for governor. In its subpoena, the Jan. 6 committee also noted Mastriano's presence outside the Capitol the day of the insurrection, saying his public statements indicated you witnessed agitators ... getting in the face of the police and agitators ... start pushing the police up the Capitol steps. Parlatore on Thursday dismissed the committees work as not a real investigation and politically motivated, designed to boost Democrats prospects in Novembers midterm elections. The panel is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Congressional investigators are hoping to learn more about Mastriano's role in a plan to arrange for an "alternate slate of electors from Pennsylvania for Trump after the 2020 election. Those individuals went on to declare themselves the rightful electors and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of the presidential election in the state. Those certificates from the alternate electors were then sent to Congress, where several of Trumps Republican allies in the House and the Senate used them to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. The committee will dedicate a portion of its public hearings to the fake electors scheme and the individuals who helped it come to life. ___ Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/timelywriter. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Marijuana would be legalized for medical use in North Carolina with a physician's prescription and purchased through dozens of tightly regulated dispensaries in a measure receiving initial approval Thursday in the Senate. The legislation, which received strong bipartisan support, could help people facing more than a dozen different debilitating medical conditions in which their doctor declares the health benefits of smoking or consuming cannabis outweigh the risks. The bill's chief sponsors, however, focused on giving relief to patients with terminal illnesses that bring unbearable pain and suffering, while preventing them from having to act illegally. It is our duty as lawmakers to pass legislation that helps people who need our help, said Brunswick County Republican Sen. Bill Rabon, a cancer survivor who has worked on this legislation for five years. It is not going to make them ashamed or reluctant to seek help if it is recommended to them by their physician. Seventeen of the 25 Republicans and all but two Democrats present Thursday cast votes for the bill, which passed 35-10 and needs one more affirmative vote next week before it heads to the House. Many House Republicans have been suspicious about legalizing cannabis in any form. Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday he believed medical marijuana would have to wait until 2023. Legislative leaders are aiming to adjourn this year's work session around July 1. Still, the Senate's affirmative vote, which included a "yes" from chamber leader Phil Berger, shows how far political and public sentiment has come in the Bible Belt state on medical marijuana. Rabon has said that polls show support is strong for the idea across all population groups, including among evangelical Christians. The bill worked its way through several committees last summer before resurfacing this week. Senators have heard from impassioned speakers with severe illness who say marijuana can ease pain or help them lead more normal lives. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of cannabis products, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The time for action in North Carolina is now, said Democratic Sen. Wiley Nickel of Wake County, who recalled how his father used marijuana unlawfully three decades ago as he was dying of cancer. Marijuana for recreational use would remain illegal. Bill opponents have said the health benefits of marijuana remain uncertain and the health risks are great. We spent billions of dollars ... to stop people from smoking (and) were now voting on a new version of Big Tobacco, said Sen. Jim Burgin, a Harnett County Republican who voted no. Under the bill, other qualifying conditions that could lead to legal marijuana access include epilepsy, Crohns disease, HIV/AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder. An advisory board could add to that list. Physicians initially would have to receive 10 hours of training to offer a cannabis prescription. A new Medical Cannabis Production Commission would award licenses to 10 entities that would grow cannabis, process it and sell it. Each licensee could open eight medical cannabis centers across the state. They could sell up to 30-day supplies of marijuana or cannabis-infused products to patients or their caregivers, who would have to obtain registration cards from the state Department of Health and Human Services. The licensees would have to send 10% of their monthly revenues to the state. People could face felonies if marijuana at cannabis centers or production facilities is sold unlawfully. Registered patients who smoke pot in public or near a school or church could face $25 fines. Sen. Julie Mayfield of Buncombe County offered a floor amendment that would have directed the commission to recommend a system that she said would help in-state growers and retailers participate. Language in the measure otherwise would leave the licenses to multistate corporations, she said, leaving small businesses on the sidelines. Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to derail a vote on the amendment. Mayfield was one of the two Democrats to vote against the full bill Thursday. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Nashville Mayor John Cooper says his office is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to reconsider its decision that a contentious school voucher program does not violate a key section of the state's constitution. Last month, Tennessee's highest court ruled that Gov. Bill Lee's 2019 voucher initiative doesnt violate the state constitutions home rule, which says the Legislature cant pass measures singling out individual counties without local support. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina state regulators would set maximum acceptable levels of forever chemicals like those discharged for decades into the Cape Fear River for drinking water in legislation considered Thursday by a state House committee. The measure also would give the state environment secretary power to order a company responsible for excessive levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, to pay for public water system improvements designed to remove the chemicals or lessen concentrations. Without naming the company, the legislation would target The Chemours Co., which a state investigation found had discharged a type of PFAS from its Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County into the air, water and groundwater. But the measure faced strong pushback from several business and trade groups, and not just Chemours a signal that it could be set aside for the rest of this year's session. For years, a little-studied chemical known as GenX flowed down the Cape Fear, which is the primary drinking water source for several hundred thousand residents, including those in Wilmington. Chemours said in 2017 that it would stop discharging the chemicals into the river. Groundwater seepage means high PFAS levels are still showing up downstream. Leaders of two public utilities in the Wilmington region told committee members they were having to raise rates significantly on water customers to pay for roughly $150 million in aggregate improvements to lower or remove PFAS concentrations. Brunswick County Public Utilities raised rates by 40% in January, director John Nichols told the committee. Ratepayers should not be responsible for paying for equipment to treat the water contaminated by PFAS, caused by a responsible party, so they can have safe drinking water to give to their customers, bill sponsor Sen. Ted Davis, a New Hanover County Republican, said at a news conference that also included an endorsement from state environment Secretary Elizabeth Biser. Biser said there are currently no federal drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on national standards. Critics of the measure told committee members it gave too much power to the Environmental Management Commission, which would set PFAS concentration levels that are acceptable for human consumption. The bill says the standards themselves would be exempt from the state's rule-making process, which usually gives the legislature the opportunity to reject executive branch actions. This bill circumvents the traditional processes for new regulations on job creators, Peter Daniel with the North Carolina Chamber told judiciary committee members. Theres no need for a state-by-state approach when the federal government is leading on the issue with a predictable, national, multifaceted and well-funded approach. As for Chemours, lobbyist Jeff Fritz told the committee the company had already agreed in 2017 to eliminate all plant-operating emissions to the Cape Fear River and that it was following a 2018 consent agreement with the state. The company says it has spent or committed to spend $400 million on improvements such as on-site emissions control technology at the plant and remediation. We have engaged with public utilities and counties in the region and have been, and continue to be, willing to find meaningful solutions," the company said in an emailed statement later Thursday. Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro said she was just appalled' by the opposition, saying residents must be protected from dangerous chemicals. Some research shows high levels of certain PFAS may lead to increased risks for kidney or testicular cancer, increased cholesterol levels and health challenges for children, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. GenX is used in industrial processes to make things like nonstick coatings and fire suppression foams. Emily Donovan of Brunswick County with the group Clean Cape Fear pleaded with legislators to pass the bill, saying Chemours contaminated our water supply" and PFAS concentrations remain high despite the consent order. The stakes for my family and my community are too high, Donovan said. No one wants to pay to fix something they didnt break." No committee vote was taken Thursday. Davis said after the meeting that he would be speaking to House leadership about the next steps for the bill. House Speaker Tim Moore said later Thursday the issue could have to wait until the General Assembly session in 2023. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Legislation that would expand North Carolina's Medicaid rolls by hundreds of thousands of adults received final Senate approval on Thursday. The measure, which also contains several other provisions that its authors say would improve health care access and control patient costs, now goes to the House. Speaker Tim Moore reiterated later Thursday that the bill was too complex and time too limited during this annual work session to consider. GOP leaders want to adjourn around July 1. PARIS (AP) A group of NGOs filed a lawsuit on Thursday against three French arms manufacturers for what they claim was their complicity in alleged war crimes in Yemen. They accuse Dassault Aviation, Thales Group and MBDA France of selling weapons and equipment to the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates since 2015, despite widespread evidence that civilians were deliberately targeted. The legal action came as the United Nations announced on Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months, offering a window of hope for peace. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, or ECCHR, Sherpa and the local Yemeni human rights group Mwatana, supported by Amnesty International, announced the criminal complaint with the Paris Judiciary Tribunal during a news conference in the French capital. The Berlin-based ECCHR said the French companies could not plead ignorance. Since 2015, there has been an abundance of international reports from the U.N. but also civil society documenting systematic attacks on civilians ... that cannot be reasonably ignored by any company doing business with the coalition, ECCHR co-director Cannelle Lavite told The Associated Press. The fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014 when the Houthi rebels descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Dassault Aviation makes and maintains Mirage 2000 warplanes, used by Saudi Arabia. MBDA France and Thales produce fighter jets, missiles and guidance systems largely used in the Yemen conflict. Contacted by AP, the three companies did not comment. Yemens war has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The representative of the Yemeni association involved in the legal action against French companies claimed Europe has a double standard regarding weapons destined for conflict zones. He cited the war in Ukraine and the European Union's swift response to alleged war crimes there. Europe, NATO and their allies condemn the use of Russian weapons, but do they condemn the use of the weapons deployed in Yemen? asked Abdulrasheed al-Faqih, executive director of Mwatana. He said that those condemning Russia continue to sell weapons and equipment to those who are behind war crimes in Yemen. I was sad to see there isnt the same consideration for the victims in Yemen," he said. KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A police officer in Kansas who fatally shot a former police detective during a scuffle will not be charged with a crime, officials said. The Wyandotte County Sheriffs Office and the Wyandotte County District Attorneys Office investigated the November shooting of Lionel Womack and found no wrongdoing, the Kansas City Star reported. Jonathan Carter, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Tuesday that no charges will be filed against the Kansas City officer who shot Womack. Police have said two officers confronted Womack following 911 calls about a man standing in a road pointing at the sky and trying to jump in front of traffic. Within seconds of confronting Womack, the former detective had disarmed one officer and pointed the weapon at him, leading the second officer to shoot Womack, investigators said. The confrontation and shooting were captured on police video. Authorities have not released the names of the officers involved. Its obvious they did not want to shoot him, Police Chief Karl Oakman told the Star. They tried everything they could. Womack had a tumultuous relationship with the police department in Kansas City, Kansas. Womack was hired by the department in 2007, promoted to detective in 2018, and fired in August 2020 after numerous policy violations and conduct issues, the police chief has said. Shortly after his termination, Womack alleged in an excessive force lawsuit that a Kiowa County sheriffs deputy intentionally drove over him on Aug. 15, 2020, during an encounter that was captured on dashcam video. The deputy denied the allegations and said hes entitled to qualified immunity. Court records show Womack's wife, Ziontae Womack, has been substituted as the plaintiff in that civil lawsuit, as the administrator of her husband's estate. She is also a detective with the same police department. KENT, Wash. (AP) Law enforcement officials from three agencies shot and killed a man suspected of murder Wednesday in Kent, according to the Seattle Police Department. Members of the Pacific Northwest Violent Offenders Task Force were trying to arrest the suspect on a warrant around 5:45 p.m., police. Officials did not identify the suspect, the Seattle Times reported. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Ohio school districts could begin arming employees as soon as this fall under legislation approved by Republican lawmakers and set to be signed by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine. Democrats said the proposal, which is optional for schools, sends the wrong message a week after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Republicans say the measure could prevent such shootings. Lawmakers fast-tracked the legislation to counter the impact of a court ruling that said, under current law, armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training. SALEM, Ore. (AP) Efforts to get millions of dollars in funding to treatment centers and related services as part of Oregon's pioneering drug decriminalization have been botched even as drug addictions and overdoses increase, state officials and lawmakers said on Thursday. Oregonians passed Ballot Measure 110 in 2020 decriminalizing possession of personal amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs the first in the nation to do so. A person found with drugs receives a citation, like a traffic ticket, with the maximum $100 fine waived if they call a hotline for a health assessment. The ballot measure redirected millions of dollars in tax revenue from the state's legal marijuana industry to treatment. But applications for funding stacked up after state officials underestimated the work required to vet them and get the money out the door, officials testified Thursday before the House Interim Committee on Behavioral Health. Only a tiny fraction of the available funds has been sent. So clearly, if we were to do it over again, I would have asked for many more staff much quicker in the process," said state Behavioral Health Director Steve Allen. "We were just under-resourced to be able to support this effort, underestimated the work that was involved in supporting something that looked like this and partly we didnt fully understand it until we were in the middle of it." Allen, who works for the Oregon Health Authority, told lawmakers in the remote hearing that this $300 million project has never been done before. He insisted it has strong potential, saying officials have over-relied on traditional treatment. The service array, the types of services that are included, the approach, the harm reduction, etc., are all designed by people who have experienced this and have, I think, some really interesting, good ideas about what these service systems ought to look like," he said. "So its an experiment. I think well know more in a few years. Rep. Lily Morgan, a Republican from Grants Pass, said lives are being lost while the state waits for the ballot measure to have a positive effect. Director, youve mentioned a couple of times that youre waiting to see, and yet we have overdoses increasing at drastic rates, in my community a 700% increase in overdoses and a 120% increase in deaths," Morgan told Allen. "How long do we wait before we have an impact that were saving lives? Secretary of State Shemia Fagan appeared before the committee, and described her mother's struggles with heroin and methamphetamine addiction before she recovered. Fagan said Oregon remains in a drug abuse crisis, despite the ballot measure. When the voters of Oregon passed Measure 110, we did so because it was a change of policy in Oregon to improve the lives of people, to improve our communities," Fagan said. And in the years since, we havent seen that play out. ... Instead, in many communities in Oregon, weve seen the problem with drug addiction get worse. Allen acknowledged there has been a dramatic increase in overdoses and overdose deaths statewide and attributed much of the cause to the recent arrival of methamphetamine laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is so powerful that a tiny amount can kill, and illicit pills containing fentanyl. That adds urgency to the effort to provide treatment services and harm reduction, like medication to treat overdoses and needle exchanges, that the measure also pays for, he said. Advocates point out that the services are available to anyone in Oregon, not just those who were cited for possession. Getting these resources out to the community is incredibly important ... not just the harm reduction resources, but people who can support folks who are at risk for overdose," Allen said. "So time is of the essence. Ian Green, an audits manager, said the ballot measure lacked clarity around roles of the health authority and the Oversight and Accountability Council that were established. That contributed to delays, confusions and strained relations, Green said. He also blamed the health authority for not always adequately supporting the council. Council co-chair Ron Williams said most of the available funds still haven't been released. I feel these challenges can be overcome and corrected with deliberate, intentional, focused effort and courageous, solution-oriented conversations, Williams said. The health authority said $40 million in funds have been disbursed. But about $265 million set aside for the 2021-23 biennium still hasn't been spent, said Devon Downeysmith, spokeswoman for the Health Justice Recovery Alliance. Hundreds of providers, which screen the needs of people who use drugs, offer case management, treatment, housing and links to other services, are waiting for those funds. Still, more than 16,000 Oregonians have accessed services through Measure 110 funding, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, which spearheaded the measure. ISLAMABAD (AP) The Pakistani Taliban said Thursday they have indefinitely extended a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad, following two days of talks with a delegation of Pakistani tribal elders that were hosted by the Afghan Taliban. According to Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan group or TTP, the decision was made after substantial progress in the talks with the 50-member team of elders. He did not elaborate and there was no immediate confirmation from the Pakistani government about the extension of the truce. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in their country last August as the U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan. The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 14 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the countrys former tribal regions. Khurasani, the TTP spokesman, said the talks in Kabul would continue in the coming days. There was no statement from the Afghan Taliban, who in the past have only said they offer neutral ground for the talks. The Taliban in Afghanistan have also been encouraging the new government in Pakistan to reach a peace agreement with the Pakistani Taliban. The previous truce between the two sides expired on May 30. So far, none of the cease-fires have paved the way for more permanent peace. The Pakistani Taliban have for years used Afghanistans rugged border regions for hideouts and for staging cross-border attacks into Pakistan and have now been emboldened by the return to power of the Afghan Taliban. The group wants Pakistani government forces pull out of former tribal regions of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, release all the TTP fighters in government custody and revoke all the legal cases against them. The government in Islamabad, on the other hand, wants the Pakistani Taliban disbanded and for the insurgents to accept Pakistans constitution and sever all their ties with the Islamic State group, another Sunni militant group with a regional affiliate that is active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pakistani tribal elders were sent to Kabul as intermediaries because under Pakistans constitution, the government cannot negotiate at least not directly with those waging an insurgency against it. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the last two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions. The Israeli military said forces operating in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem opened fire after being pelted with rocks and makeshift bombs. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Ayman Mheisen, 29, was killed. The health ministry later said a teenager was shot by Israeli troops near the separation barrier west of the city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered. The Wafa news agency, run by the Palestinian Authority, identified the deceased as Auda Sadaqa, 17. The Israeli military said three suspects hurled a firebomb at forces operating near the barrier, who responded with live fire. No soldiers were wounded. Late Wednesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Yabed, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to destroy the family home of a slain Palestinian attacker who had methodically gunned down five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in March. The military said Palestinians attacked the soldiers with stones and firebombs, and that the troops exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Bilal Kabaha, 24, was killed. The Islamic militant group Hamas said he was one of its fighters. Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building and lighting up the night sky. Israel routinely demolishes the homes of slain or captured Palestinian militants, saying it serves as a deterrent, despite an internal army report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. The Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment. The Israeli rights group HaMoked said the attacker's parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the home. It filed a petition against the demolition that was rejected by Israel's Supreme Court. Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops in the southern West Bank killed a Palestinian woman who they say approached them with a knife. The West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago. In recent months, Palestinians have carried out a wave of attacks against Israelis that have left 19 people dead. The military has launched near-daily operations across the West Bank that it says are aimed at breaking up militant networks to prevent more attacks. Clashes at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and the killing of a well-known Palestinian-American journalist have further heightened tensions. The Palestinians and witnesses say Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli fire, while Israel says its not clear if soldiers or Palestinian gunmen fired the deadly bullet. The Palestinian Health Ministry says 63 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year. It does not differentiate between civilians, militants and those who were killed after carrying out deadly attacks. The ministry's count includes Abu Akleh, as well as an unarmed woman and two people who appear to have been bystanders during clashes. DALLAS (AP) A man broke into the Dallas Museum of Art and caused more than $5 million in damage, including smashing three ancient Greek artifacts before he was arrested, police said. Brian Hernandez, 21, is charged with criminal mischief of more than or equal to $300,000, which is punishable by five years to life in prison. He was booked Thursday into the Dallas County jail with bond set at $100,000. Jail records list no attorney for Hernandez. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A Kansas woman who was shot and wounded by Kansas City, Missouri, police last week has been charged with several counts. The Jackson County prosecutor's office charged Leonna Hale, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas, with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, the Kansas City Star reported. CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) One person was killed in Guineas capital during protests against fuel price hikes, the first demonstration since the junta seized control in September in the West African nation, according to opposition leaders and witnesses. The young man was shot dead Wednesday at nightfall in Hamdallaye, a suburb of the capital Conakry that is considered to be a stronghold of opposition parties and junta critics. We demonstrated all day against the announcement by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of an increase in the price of a liter of fuel, protester Amadou Diouma Diallo told The Associated Press. During the day, the riot police used tear gas to disperse us. There was calm. Then at night, the demonstrations resumed. The police came to fire warning shots, killing one young man. We called the Red Cross to come and get the body, but they couldnt come, said Idrissa Kante, another protester. The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, a coalition of civil society groups that oppose the junta, accused the defense and security forces of using live ammunition. The bloody repression of the demonstrations by the defense and security forces contrasts with Col. Doumbouyas takeover speech, in which he castigated the (previous government's) killings of demonstrators and who had pledged not to commit the same, the groups said. The Ministry of Security and Civilian Protection, retired Gen. Bachir Diallo, said the government offers its condolences to the victims and relatives of those who died. I strongly condemn the actions that led to deaths, he said, adding that he has spoken with the director-general of the police to get answers. Diallo told the media Thursday that shooting protesters is not related to the logic of change wanted by the current president. The culprits will be punished at all levels, he promised. Guinea's former President Alpha Conde was overthrown in a coup detat in September by a military junta that now leads the West African country. The head of the military junta, Col. Mamady Doumbouya, says a return to civilian, democratic rule could take more than three years. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians but no Jews during a nationalist march through Jerusalem this week in which crowds of Jews chanted racist slogans, assaulted Palestinians and vandalized Palestinian property, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. Israeli police had said after Sundays march that over 60 people were arrested, but have refused to give a breakdown, despite queries by The Associated Press. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that it checked arrest records name by name, and found that no Jews were among those detained. It said two Jews were arrested in a separate, related incident. Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists participated in Sundays parade -- an annual march that celebrates Israels capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians consider the event a provocation. Israeli police cleared out the area for the marchers, who passed through a Palestinian neighborhood before proceeding to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City to pray at the Western Wall. Large crowds, many of them young Orthodox Jewish youths carrying Israeli flags, gathered at the entrance to the Old Citys Muslim Quarter, dancing and chanting slogans such as Death to Arabs, before continuing on their way. Inside the Old City, the marchers pounded on the gates of Palestinian businesses and scuffled with angry Palestinian residents. Videos captured on social media showed marchers spitting, beating and spraying pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. Fights broke out along the route, as police mainly intervened to protect Jews and forcibly disperse Palestinians. According to the Haaretz report, nearly all of those arrested Thursday were Palestinian. Two Jewish suspects were arrested after the parade in the beating of a Palestinian journalist during unrest outside the Old City, it said. The newspaper compiled the statistics by going through court records in the days after the parade. Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said only a small minority of the flag marchers was responsible for the bad behavior and vowed to prosecute anyone who broke the law. Several other journalists were physically assaulted while covering the march, according to the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media outlets operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It said Israeli participants verbally and physically assaulted a BBC team, and assaulted a France 24 reporter on air. It said Quique Kierszenbaum, a freelance photographer and producer covering the march for foreign media, was pepper sprayed by an Israeli participant and punched in the face by an Israeli Border Police officer. It is unacceptable for a police officer to attack a clearly identified photojournalist who was wearing the wristband police distributed to identify accredited journalists at the event, it said. The association called on police to take action against the officer and Israelis who attacked reporters. Those who attack reporters should be arrested, not protected, by police, it said. Unfortunately, such violence against journalists has become routine. We expect Israeli authorities who profess to respect freedom of the press to put their words into action. Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem have long complained of a double standard in which Palestinian crowds are frequently arrested and violently dispersed by police with clubs, tear gas and rubber bullets, while Jewish settlers often carry out attacks and vandalism with virtual impunity. Israeli police deny such charges, saying they are merely enforcing the law. The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally and considers part of its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Human rights groups say that discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in east Jerusalem is part of a broader system that amounts to apartheid. Israel vehemently rejects that label as an assault on its legitimacy rooted in antisemitism. Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state. The last round of substantive peace talks broke down over a decade ago. HONOLULU (AP) A mans lawsuit in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is the latest challenge to a ban against cockfighting in U.S. territories. An animal welfare group says the lawsuit has no chance of success because of how similar lawsuits in Guam and Puerto Rico have fared. Saipan resident Andrew Sablan Salas, who served in the House of Representatives in the commonwealth's Legislature and previously was Secretary of Commerce in the territory, said in a lawsuit filed last week in federal court that he's been involved in cockfighting since childhood. In 2018, former President Donald Trump signed a law banning all animal fighting in U.S. territories. The law took effect in 2019. Prior to the law, cockfighting had been illegal in the 50 states but not U.S. territories. Despite the ban, Salas' lawsuit said he desires and intends to resume raising roosters for cockfighting purposes" and entering them into cockfights in the territory. The ban intrudes on the internal affairs of the Northern Mariana Islands by criminalizing a popular and traditional recreational activity, and by imposing a moral and cultural standard that has not prevailed there through local democratic process," the lawsuit said. We have no comment while this litigation is pending," said Shawn N. Anderson, U.S. attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Last year, a panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled against a Guam businessman whose 2019 lawsuit argued the ban was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a challenge to the federal law brought by individuals and organizations that argued Congress exceeded its power in applying the ban to Puerto Rico. The Congress has determined that cockfighting is barbaric and inhumane and the federal courts have said the U.S. has the authority to take this action," said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. "This is settled law. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have a relationship with the U.S. government that is different from other territories, including a mutually binding constitutional agreement known as the Covenant, said Salas' attorney, Joseph Horey. The Covenant guarantees the CNMI people the right of self-government, Horey said in an email. Our position is that the anti-cockfight law is not consistent with the US-CNMI Covenant. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW YORK (AP) The police agency that patrols New York Citys main bus terminal has agreed to stop sending plainclothes officers into its public bathrooms to try and catch people propositioning strangers for sex, a type of sting long criticized by activists as a discriminatory relic of an era of crackdowns predominantly aimed at gay men. Under a legal settlement entered in federal court Tuesday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will give its new police recruits LGBTQ+ sensitivity training for the next three years and only reinstate the so-called public lewdness patrols at the Port Authority Bus Terminal if approved at the highest levels. The settlement, announced on the first day of Pride Month, resolves a lawsuit brought by people arrested as a result of the patrols by the Port Authority Police Department. Many had claimed the charges were baseless, brought by officers who targeted men using the restrooms if they perceived them as gay, largely to inflate their arrest statistics. The two named plaintiffs, Cornell Holden and Miguel Mejia, had similar experiences at the bus terminal in 2014, according to the lawsuit. Both described standing at a urinal and having a plainclothes officer stand at the urinal next to them, then step back in an apparent attempt to see their hands and genitals. Police arrested Holden and Mejia on charges of public lewdness, claiming they were spotted masturbating. Both men said they were falsely accused and both were ultimately cleared. The Manhattan district attorneys office dismissed the charges against Holden. Mejia went to trial and was acquitted. This kind of blatant homophobia has no place in policing, and the reforms achieved in this lawsuit aim to safeguard against future abuses like the ones experienced and challenged by Mr. Holden and Mr. Mejia, Molly Griffard, an attorney for The Legal Aid Society, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement. Under terms of the settlement, Holden will receive $15,000. Mejia will receive $25,000. Port Authority officials have denied any misconduct by officers. In an email, a spokesperson for the authority, which also runs area airports and seaports, said it hasnt conducted the patrols in several years and is committed to proper standards of conduct at all its facilities. The training for officers will be performed in conjunction with the Gay Officers Action League. In addition, the Port Authority agreed to designate single-stall, gender-neutral restrooms at the bus terminal and make it easier for people to find complaint forms on the authority's website. Attorney Seth Spitzer, also representing the plaintiffs on behalf of the law firm Winston & Strawn, called it a just outcome for which we simply should not have had to fight so hard. The Port Authority terminal serves roughly 200,000 riders per day at its location on 42nd Street, including commuters and people arriving in the city on long-distance trips from all parts of the U.S. The city's Pride Month culminates in a massive march marking the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, when a crowd of hundreds of people fought back against a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan. New Jersey's Supreme Court has overturned a mans sexual assault conviction because of DNA evidence not because it exonerated him, but because the statute of limitations ran out before the state filed charges once it got a match. Investigators had DNA evidence from the 2001 crime scene and from defendant Bradley Thompson by 2004 but didnt get a conclusive match until 2016, due to the FBIs updating of DNA testing guidance. In a 5-0 ruling Thursday with one justice not participating, the Supreme Court held that the five-year statute of limitations should have begun in 2010, when the FBI standards changed and the state lab could have generated a match. Thompson was indicted in 2017 and eventually convicted of criminal sexual contact and criminal trespass. The state had argued that the statute of limitations should have begun in 2016, when it updated its policy to reflect the new FBI guidance and achieved a match with Thompson's DNA. Two lower courts had agreed. But the high court ruled that under New Jersey law, the statue of limitations began in this case in 2010 - when the state had the capability of matching the crime scene DNA with the defendant's. If the legislature meant to have it start when a match was achieved, it would have written that into the law, the court ruled Thursday. It is doubtful lawmakers envisioned a situation in which the state had both items but that the DNA match would not occur given the systems in place to coordinate, maintain, and compare DNA samples both locally and nationally," Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis wrote for the court. C.J. Griffin, an attorney who submitted a brief to the court in support of Thompson, said the decision is a win for fundamental fairness. All the court did in this case was apply the plain text of the statute, which makes it clear the statute of limitations begins to run when the state has the evidence necessary to make the DNA match, she said in an email. A message seeking comment was left Thursday with the state attorney general's office. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Police have arrested a 40-year-old Sioux Falls man after he allegedly attacked two women. The Argus Leader reported Thursday that police received a call around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday from a 65-year-old woman who said she saw the man by a vehicle and he was acting strange. Police spokesman Sam Clemens said the man started choking the woman before a 58-year-old woman intervened. Clemens said the man pulled out a knife and stabbed the second woman in the chest and arms. Police arrived and took the man into custody. Clemens said the woman who was stabbed was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He said Wednesday that the woman was improving. The woman who was choked didnt require medical attention. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate JOHANNESBURG (AP) A South African court is to rule on efforts to stop British oil giant Shell from conducting any further seismic surveys in the countrys Indian Ocean waters to explore for offshore oil and gas deposits. Environmental and community groups in South Africa's Eastern Cape province won an urgent interdict to stop the surveys in December last year and are now asking the court to permanently halt the operations. This week lawyers representing the Xolobeni community in the Eastern Cape argued that they were not properly consulted by Shell and the government before permission was granted to conduct the survey. Environmental groups Sustaining the Wild Coast and Greenpeace Africa are also part of the lawsuit. Seismic testing is the blasting of sound waves into the sea to determine the size of oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean floor. Environmental groups in South Africa, particularly in the Cape Town area, have demonstrated against the seismic surveys. Experts testified that seismic surveys could harm animals in the ocean, including whales and dolphins, contrary to Shells submission that the surveys were not harmful to marine life. Shell conceded that its seismic surveys would not economically benefit the Xolobeni community. Why should we endanger these animals in circumstances where we have been told by Shell that there will be no economic spinoffs during the survey itself?" advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, representing the Xolobeni community, told the court. Shell failed to conduct proper consultations with the community as required by law, said Ngcukaitobi. There is no evidence that the views of the community were taken into account, as they should have," he said. The original decision to allow the surveys was unreasonable, said Ngcukaitobi. The Xolobeni community regards the ocean as sacred and is part of their traditional rituals to communicate with their ancestors, he said. The seismic testing would interfere with their culture, he said. Shell and government lawyers argued in court that seismic surveys have been conducted for many years and no harm had been recorded. They also argued that the government had taken all factors into account when initially granting Shell approval to conduct the surveys. The Eastern Cape High Court will consider the arguments before ruling on whether Shell should be allowed to continue the surveys or if they should be completely halted. People on the prowl for a new podcast to consume often go for a stimulating option like a political debate or a true crime mystery to quicken the pulse. But when the din of the world becomes too much, listeners often need the opposite vibe: something soothing and sedating, maybe with the sound of static or falling rain. Perhaps a touch of crickets. Enter quietly, on tippy-toes the white noise podcasters. While the top of the podcast charts on Spotify and Apple are still dominated by garrulous, jawboning hosts, these days you can also reliably find a smattering of white noise shows appearing in the mix. Relatively new to the podcast scene, the tranquil programs haves names like Calming White Noise, Best Noise Labs, Relaxing White Noise and Deep Sleep Sounds. Who is behind the popular offerings is a bit of a mystery. To date, the major podcast networks have yet to pile into the field, leaving independent creators to serve the growing market. Curiously, at time when most podcasters clamor for public attention, the white noise podcast creators remain a relatively tight-lipped group. Requests to speak with multiple shows, even those with a contact form, were declined or went unanswered. In one case, the name of a websites owner was hidden its host was listed, improbably, as Earth. Those who did respond to interview requests say they are making good money, winning over fans and marveling at the power of podcast distribution. Collectively, the shows represent a burgeoning and lucrative podcast genre. Todd Moore, a Florida Keys resident, quit his cybersecurity job in 2009 to focus full-time on an app, which he named White Noise. In 2019, he launched a podcast named Tmsofts White Noise Sleep Sounds, using Anchor, Spotifys free podcast-hosting software. Moore says that his white noise show now gets around 50,000 listens per day a figure that would rank in the top 25 percent of all podcasts, according to Marshall Williams, partner and chairman of the podcast ad agency Ad Results Media. Moore and his white noise team yes, he has five employees and contractors offer a subscription plan. But most people listen to the free, ad-supported version. Because Moore doesnt want to interrupt the calming aura of his show, he opts to include only pre-roll ads. Anchor manages the commercial load and pays Moore $12.25 per thousand listens, which adds up to about $612.50 per day, or around $18,375 per month. I never thought writing a little app on a weekend would turn into my full-time life, Moore said. You just never know. Though Moore primarily built his business through his app, he says streaming content now provides the majority of his revenue. In addition to the podcast, he also releases his lulling sounds as music tracks, which generate income from royalties, and as videos on YouTube. Tmsofts White Noise Sleep Sounds, success appears to be tied to various factors: Moore buys ads on Spotify and places house ads around his website and app, which might prompt people to check it out. Spotifys algorithm also can steer listeners toward such podcasts based on their search queries or previous selections. The automated process has already minted at least one accidental white-noise star. In 2019, Brandon Reed, a Walt Disney Co. employee who lives in Florida, started using Anchor to host some white noise programming that he hoped would help his baby son fall asleep. Reed wasnt aiming to build a successful podcast, he said, but soon the Spotify algorithm started pushing people to his show, 12 Hour Sound Machines (no loops or fades). That year, he created three, free episodes filled with hours of static noises. Now, three years later, around 100,000 listeners play his show daily. What began as essentially a cozy sound blanket for his baby, now regularly pops up around the world on Spotifys charts of the most popular podcast episodes. Last year, Reeds show made the top charts in four different countries. I didnt even intend for people to listen to this, he said. At one point last year, it climbed to number 15 on the top podcast chart, putting him in the company of programs like Dax Shepards Armchair Expert and the New York Times The Daily. The amount of production that goes into some of these podcasts, the production value, and then for this silly noise that plays for 12 hours to be in the top 100 feels crazy, Reed said. People are absolutely devouring it. His inadvertent hit has also made the charts on Apple Inc.s Podcasts app and has reached over 26.6 million total listens, he said. Reed now offers a $2.99 monthly subscription, which gives paying customers access to additional sounds and the ability to request new ones. When a chiropractor needed railroad clacking for an anxious patient, Reed went out and captured it. So far, hes made over $10,000 through subscriptions. Listeners also tip him, he says, typically about $5 to $7. Occasionally, they go higher. A person whose rescue dog sleeps to Reeds handiwork once sent him $100 as a thank you. White noise fans tend to be fiercely loyal, Reed says. One time, he changed the frequency of a static track and afterward he heard from a regular listener frantically begging him to change it back because it was the only sound that would put their baby to sleep. Whats funny is how important this has become to people, Reed said. Like Moore, Reed chose to host on Anchor, which Spotify acquired in 2019, because its free and allows for multi-hour episodes, unlike music tracks. These days, 97% of Reeds audience and 94% of Moores listen on Spotify. Typing in sound machine on the service can bring up Reeds program as the top result. Typing in ocean waves or jungle sounds can summon Moores. Though Spotify appears to have stumbled into the demand for white noise podcasts, the shows arrive at a time when all the networks are looking for new hits and are courting a wider array of creators. Last year, Apple Podcasts introduced subscriptions ahead of Spotify. Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc is investing in meditation and other wellness-related podcasts that will be exclusively available through Amazon Music. Despite his early success, Reed says he has no plans to quit his day job. White noise podcasting remains the thing he does for fun. Hes now taking his family on outings to capture various ambient sounds. Reed, who is something of a white noise purist, knows he could make good money with advertisements. But he doesnt include them because he worries the sound of commerce would disturb his audiences restful slumber. Its embarrassing to say how much money I would be making, he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate With the summer months right around the corner, many travelers are sating their wanderlust by planning and booking upcoming trips. In May, Airbnb released a report highlighting the most "wishlitsed" U.S. stays heading into the summer months and a West Texas desert pad made the cut. The post entitled "Top 10 most wishlisted US stays anticipated for summer 2022" includes Airbnb rentals from across the U.S., including a former fire lookout in Fernwood, Idaho, a swanky A-frame in Rockbridge Ohio, a so-called "Earthship" in El Prado, N. M. as well as a number of treehouses around the country. In the Lone Star State, a property known as "Domeland" in Terlingua, described as an "off-grid Adobe Dome near Big Bend," made the top rankings. "This solar-powered dome, located just outside of Big Bend National Park, offers incredible sights of the night sky along with stunning, unobstructed views of the sunrise and sunset," reads the Airbnb post detailing the property. "Guests can take time to unplug and connect with the desert surroundings from this elegant adobe home." Off-the-grid amenities, pricing and more Domeland can accommodate up to three guests and features one bedroom with one bed, a half-bathroom, a kitchen with a stove oven and refrigerator. The property also has a BBQ grill, 31-Mbps Wi-Fi, an outdoor shower and a composting toilet. The listing states that all power within the home is provided via solar energy and the kitchen sink water is pumped from a rain-collection system. It recommends that guests bring their own drinking water, although bottled water is provided onsite "as a back up at cost." The home is situated on an "isolated but easily accessible off-grid setting" within a Dark Sky reserve offering a "completely unobstructed view of a horizon that delivers truly majestic sunrises and sunsets," according to the listing page. Domeland is within an approximately 25-minute drive from Big Bend National Park and is roughly equidistant from the Terlingua ghost town. While the adobe does have a propane heater to warm the home in the winter months, the property page does not include air conditioning on its full amenities list. The description includes a "summertime disclaimer" for the months of June through September, stating that these months "can get hot here in the desert and while the adobe dome gives a good buffer against the outside elements, there is no AC in the dome, just a fan." Additionally, the disclaimer notes that "there are also perimeter windows to entice a night breeze," adding that "bugs and other desert creatures tend to culminate" during the summer months. The property is available to rent for $131 per night, although there are cleaning and service fees added to the total. As of June 1, most dates in June are booked, although there are openings throughout July and August. Dave Roback/AP AMHERST, Mass. (AP) University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who has helped drive a dramatic rise in the school's academic profile in his decade on the job, announced Thursday that he will retire next June. It has been a privilege to serve as chancellor of this great university, Subbaswamy said in a statement released by the university. I will forever treasure the support and friendship of the faculty, staff, students and alumni whom Ive come to know over the past decade and am grateful for all that we have accomplished together." CHICAGO (AP) A U.S. marshal and his police dog were shot during an exchange of gunfire between officers and two gunmen Thursday afternoon on Chicago's Northwest Side, authorities said. The officer, who is with the U.S. Marshals Services fugitive apprehension team, was shot while serving a warrant, said Elorm Blake, a spokesperson for the Marshals Service. With the calendar turning to another month, Port Austin will soon welcome its second Artist in Residence for the 2022 season. Valerie Allen will be Junes artist in the lakeside village, who will create abstract artwork and lead an art session during her stay. A native of the Southern Ohio region, Allen graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She moved to the Mid-Michigan area 40 years ago, spending some time in East Tawas where she first fell in love with boating, sailing, and being on the water. Allen has since taught art at community colleges, museums, and art centers throughout the region, along with doing virtual classes. She recently retired as the curator of Bay Citys Studio 23 to pursue art full time. This residency fits into that game plan, Allen said. It gives me two weeks of studio space, freedom to paint without interruptions, and allows me to interact with the community, which Im looking forward to that. Allen wanted to pursue art after having a very creative high school teacher. She also credited the art programs she took with helping creative minds. That is where I found that I had an aptitude for art. But more importantly, that she believed in me and basically told me that you can do anything you put your mind to. So with strong support from my high school teacher and having to study lots and lots of art history, that just led me on a path of creating art and studying art for the rest of my life. Allen describes her work as being in abstraction with some form of reference to it. During her residency, she plans on concentrating on abstracted landscapes inspired by nature and what she sees in Port Austin. I will be abstracting them by possibly changing, distorting perspective, or adding non-traditional colors, Allen said. So it will be just a version of a landscape or a landscape that nobody has seen before. She plans on using colors specific to the area for her artwork and calling what she creates out of it, The Palette of Port Austin. Aside from teaching art, Allens artwork has been shown at curated art exhibitions across the U.S. She had also participated in artist residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts near Daytona Beach, the Wave Pool art galley in Cincinnati, and with the Golden Foundation in the Central New York region. Her most recent solo exhibit took place at Delta College. Allen is also part of a podcast called Art Ladders: The Creative Climb, where she and co-host Armin Mersmann hold discussions about the creative process with different artists. While in Port Austin, Allen will first be part of a meet and greet from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 5 at the Bee Barn, where locals can meet Allen and get a preview of what she has to offer and will be working on. Later that day, Allen will record an episode of her podcast with Port Austin Artist in Residence organizer Cindy Patrick and other board members. That episode will be available to listen to on Apple Podcasts starting Tuesday. On June 6, Allen will do a walk around Port Austin with any interested community members and talk to them about what they feel artistically about the village. That will last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. On June 11, Allen will host a plein air paint out session at the Bee Barn, where she will give an art demonstration then encourage those in attendance to take an easel to paint whatever they want in Port Austin. That will go from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On June 17, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Allen will have her artists reception and exhibit to display the artwork she created during her stay in the area. After completing her Port Austin residency, Allen will go to Golden Apple Studio in Maine to do a two-week residency there and leading a workshop. I believe that these rural experiences such as Port Austin, these villages and cities that are under a population of 50,000, when they do events like this for artists, it is very important, because it raises the status of art in their region, Allen said. SEATTLE (AP) The Washington state Supreme Court has fined a nonprofit group and its lawyer more than $28,000 for making legally meritless claims alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. The Washington Election Integrity Coalition United was ordered to pay nearly $9,600, and its Sequim, Washington-based attorney, Virginia Shogren, was ordered to pay nearly $18,800 for suing Gov. Jay Inslee, The Seattle Times reported. The fines were imposed last month and announced Wednesday by Attorney General Bob Fergusons office, which defended Inslee in the case. Ferguson said his office also intends to file a complaint against Shogren with the Washington State Bar Association. The sanctions were the latest defeat for the Stop the Steal movement stoked by former President Donald Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Those claims have been rejected in dozens of lawsuits and audits throughout the country as no widespread fraud has been found. The coalition had petitioned the state Supreme Court in October, seeking a ruling that Inslee violated his constitutional duties by allegedly allowing or encouraging the state Department of Licensing to register noncitizens to vote. The court dismissed the case. In its motion for sanctions, Fergusons office wrote that the petition was so devoid of legal merit that there was no reasonable possibility that it would have been successful. The motion noted the petition had been based largely on unsworn statements by a retired Department of Licensing employee who made dubious assumptions about citizenship status of people based on ethnicity. Inslee in a statement said people who intentionally spread lies and undermine our elections must be held accountable. The governor proposed legislation this year that would have criminalized some lies about elections, but it did not advance. Neither Shogren nor the coalition responded to requests for comment from the newspaper. In a website post, the coalition said the sanctions show courts are intent on discouraging any case that will shine a bright light on one of the ways our electoral system is fatally flawed. The coalition is led by Tamborine Borrelli, who has filed to run for Secretary of State this year. Her group also has filed lawsuits against county elections officials, seeking audits of the 2020 election, with similar claims of a widespread conspiracy. Republican congressional candidates Joe Kent and Doug Basler also have signed on as plaintiffs. Six of those lawsuits remain pending in U.S. District Court for Western Washington and could result in additional sanctions. As Moscows war in Ukraine approached its 100th day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Thursday said Russia now occupied one-fifth of the country, with fighting raging from Kharkiv in the northeast to the city of Mykolaiv in the south. If you look at the entire front line and it is, of course, not straight this line is more than a thousand kilometers, Zelenskyy told the parliament of Luxembourg in a virtual speech Thursday. Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometers. He said the Ukrainian territory now controlled by Russia was comparable to the area of the Netherlands. The consequences of the war also appeared to be reverberating far beyond Ukraine on Thursday, with the group of oil-producing nations known as OPEC+ agreeing to a larger increase in supply than planned for July and August. The group suggested in a news release that it was responding to a reopening from lockdowns in countries such as China. But Washington has been pressing for an increase in supply to address the soaring oil prices that are damaging the economies of the United States and other countries and threatening to alienate American voters in midterm elections. Some fear they could also whittle away at support for helping Ukraine battle Russia. On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces struggled to hold onto territory along the wars eastern front, even as officials said its forces were making progress in limited counterattacks in the south, trying to take advantage of Moscows decision to concentrate its campaign and its forces in the east. Amid the intense fighting and heavy losses being suffered by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies, the arrival of ever more sophisticated and powerful Western weapons from the United States and Germany, among others, could soon alter the dynamic on the battlefield. For now, Moscows main military effort is being directed at the capture of Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine that is not in Russian hands. Using their advantage in artillery power, Russian forces have pounded targets in the area for weeks and have now gained control over more than 70% of the city. Ukrainian troops pushed Russian soldiers back several blocks in street battles, a regional official said Thursday, even as Russia renewed its effort to surround Ukrainian soldiers. In other developments: Zelenskyy accused Russia of forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from occupied territories, calling the continuing campaign one of Russias most heinous war crimes. Ukraine has suffered heavy losses in the conflict, and for many soldiers, its cost is measured in fear and pain. The city of Odesa in the south is on alert after a warning about an intensification of Russian activity around Snake Island. Russia seized control of the island in the Black Sea early in the conflict, making it easier for its navy to control the Black Sea and threaten the city. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. By Bay City News Happy birthday, 'Ulysses': It was Feb. 2, 1922, on the occasion of author James Joyce's 40th birthday, that his novel "Ulysses" was officially published (it had previously appeared in serialized form in the literary journal The Little Review between 1918-'20). With its stream-of-consciousness prose, sharp humor and liberal use of literary devices, the book to this day is considered a masterpiece of Modernist literature. Although "Ulysses" is annually celebrated with events and gatherings on June 16, the date on which the novel is set aka "Bloomsday," this year's centennial has inspired more ambitious merriment. In the Bay Area, for example, Joyce fans are invited to take part in Bloomsbay, a month-long series of events named for the novel's protagonist, Leopold Bloom, orchestrated by the Consulate General of Ireland, San Francisco Public Library, Mechanics' Institute, Irish Culture Bay Area, the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco and the Irish Studies Program at UC Berkeley. A blend of streaming and in-person events, Bloomsbay will serve up everything from an exhibition of books inspired by "Ulysses" at the SF Public Library's main branch (Wednesday through June 30); several discussions and presentations centered on Joyce and his masterpiece; a screening of the documentary "Shalom Ireland" and a follow-up discussion on Ireland's Jewish community and its impact on the novel (Sunday); the performance of a song cycle inspired by "Ulysses" led by Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne at Feinstein's nightclub in San Francisco (June 14); a virtual presentation by Daniel Mulhall, Ireland's ambassador to the U.S., on his book "Ulysses: A Reader's Odyssey" (June 17) and much, much more. Organizers emphasize that events are designed to appeal to Joyce worshippers as well as neophytes. You can find a complete list of events at https://irishculturebayarea.com/bloomsbay/. Ive been reading with disappointment some of the recent attacks on diversion programs in San Francisco, and some of the blame cast on Chesa Boudin, our district attorney, for supporting these programs, which offer an alternative to conviction and incarceration. As someone who directly benefited from diversion, I know all too well how valuable these programs are. In the summer of 2021, I was at a breaking point. In my life, I have been a proud Navy veteran, a college graduate and a responsible caretaker for my two elderly parents. But at that moment, I was a man in crisis, and I suddenly found myself in treacherous circumstances, within the jaws of the criminal justice system. I believed myself to be innocent, in fact. I was simply reacting to ongoing trauma and stress. I had long suffered from depression and anxiety, exacerbated by my time in the Navy, and years of instability eventually led me to a point where I was once living in a single room occupancy hotel, struggling to make ends meet while trying unsuccessfully to manage my mental health. I felt I had lost everything. I felt desperate. One of the hotels I had stayed in had tossed out all of my critical papers, including my ID and birth certificate, just weeks before. I was no longer thinking but just surviving. Under all of this pressure, one day in August, I made a mistake; in this altered state, I was accused of swinging a bottle and making threats. This could have resulted in convictions for assault and criminal threats. That moment, my lowest point, could have been the end for me. I could have ended up convicted of a crime, despite the fact that I never intended to commit a crime. The prosecutor agreed to provide me a chance to participate in the San Francisco Veterans Justice Court, a diversion program in San Francisco. The court accepted me into the program. There, I began an intensive program that required me to attend court weekly, participate in mental health counseling, meet with a veteran peer mentor, and work towards finding a stable place to live. I could not passively go through the process the court demanded focus and effort. I was determined to take advantage of the resources and support that the San Francisco Veterans Justice Court provided to me while following all of the requirements set out by the judge, who was very demanding, yet compassionate, kind and fair. Although participation in the court was demanding and challenging, I never felt dehumanized. Everyone there treated me with respect and understanding. They considered my actions in the context of what had been happening in my life. The court held me accountable, but in an environment of support. Through this program, I was able to access the tools I needed to move forward, while also gaining the perspective to understand what had brought me to my breaking point in the first place. It is difficult to adequately describe the impact that participation in this court has had on my life. I was finally able to address my mental health challenges. My case manager connected me with a therapist who I continue to see today not because I have to, but because I want to and know that I need to. Veterans Justice Court helped me understand that. For the first time in years, I have a stable place to live. Veterans court helped me find a great brand-new apartment, and now I am no longer burdened by the constant anxiety that I am teetering on the edge of homelessness. The court even supported me in getting an ID, birth certificate and social security card all of which I need to have a productive and stable life. Because of this court, I am not a statistic. The prosecutor viewed me holistically. I am not just another man of color who is behind bars. My dream is to become an attorney one day, a goal I am working toward by studying to apply to law school. For the first time in years, I believe my dream of being an attorney could be a reality. I hope that my experience is proof that, when you give a person access to compassionate justice, the sky is the limit for what they can become. W.E. Banks is working to become a lawyer. San Francisco Mayor London Breed hopes to implement a new plan aimed at curbing homelessness among the citys transgender individuals, with an emphasis on finding stable housing for trans women of color. Because Breed's plan would prioritize transgender individuals, and because the state courts just struck down a law that requires companies to appoint women to their boards of directors, one may wonder whether the proposal violates the Equal Protection clauses in the U.S. and California constitutions. In simple terms, those clauses say that individuals regardless of immutable characteristics such as gender identity must be treated equally by the law. When invalidating the board of directors law, the court said California "failed to sufficiently prove that [the law's] use of a gender-based classification was necessary" to achieve its purpose. Several California legal experts interviewed by SFGATE said Breeds plan would likely be found constitutionally valid if it were to be challenged in court and that attorneys will have an easier time in federal court than they may have in state court (California's constitution also has an Equal Protection Clause). The reason it is likely to survive in federal court, they say, is because the plan seems to meet the criteria for whats called intermediate scrutiny a judicial standard of review that allows courts to uphold laws that treat people of different genders and sexual identities differently so long as those laws further a legitimate governmental objective. A program to help homeless trans individuals would be allowed so long as it is a reasonable way to achieve a legitimate government objective, UC Berkeley law professor Erwin Chemerinsky told SFGATE. Lessening the problem of homelessness for this population is clearly a legitimate goal and this program seems a reasonable way to achieve it. Breeds plan includes 150 long-term investments through the city's housing subsidy pool program, with another $6 million going toward funding short-term rentals and an additional $500,000 to be used for behavioral health services for transgender people experiencing homelessness. Breed wants to include the plan as part of her two-year budget for the city. According to a news release from Breeds office, the inspiration for the plan came from research that suggests trans people are uniquely at risk of becoming homeless. A 2020 study by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that the number of trans adults living on the street in the U.S. had increased 113% since 2016. Coming back to the idea of intermediate scrutiny, Chemerinskys point is that if Breeds plan were challenged in federal court the citys legal team could use such research to argue that ending trans homelessness in San Francisco is a legitimate governmental objective. If they successfully show that Breeds plan furthers that objective, it seems likely a court would uphold the plan under intermediate scrutiny. UCLA law professor Adam Winkler echoed Chemerinsky, saying the law would likely be upheld if it were challenged. The data shows very strongly that transgender and nonconforming people are far more likely to end up homeless, he said. So, as long as thats the case, a targeted policy that tries to help that community is likely to be permissible because the government has a good reason to do it. However, implementing Breeds plan may be more difficult to do in California than it would be in other states. Thats because state courts are required by Californias Constitution to use a judicial standard of review called strict scrutiny to judge whether they should uphold laws that treat people differently based on gender. Federal courts, on the other hand, mainly use strict scrutiny in cases involving race or religion. The standard for passing a strict scrutiny test is higher than the standard for passing an intermediate scrutiny test, which means attorneys fighting to keep a discriminatory gender law on the books in California courts need to make an extremely compelling case that the law in question furthers a legitimate government objective. The California law regarding women on corporate boards that was struck down failed the strict scrutiny standard. All of this is to say that Breeds plan would likely stand a better chance in federal court than it would in state court, since federal courts generally have more latitude to uphold gender-based laws. Still, both Winkler and Chemerinsky said they believe the plan could survive under a strict scrutiny standard in state court. Winkler added the federal standard could change depending on a Supreme Court decision on affirmative action thats expected to be handed down next year. The conventional wisdom among Supreme Court watchers is that the court will strike down affirmative action and say, You cannot have race-based affirmative action programs, he said. That would have a cascading effect on other kinds of affirmative programs that are targeting people for any kind of benefit, such as affirmative action for women or transgender people. In other words, the conservative majority on Supreme Court may be about to open the door for other federal courts to terminate policies like the ones Breed is proposing. Of course, whether Breeds plan will be challenged in court at all remains to be seen. As Winkler pointed out, it would be difficult to argue that Breeds proposals severely inhibit cisgender homeless people from finding stable housing since San Francisco already has many policies in place that seek to curb homelessness in general. WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, June 2, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Upton has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Northwestern Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey... Eastern Passaic County in northeastern New Jersey... Rockland County in southeastern New York... * Until 530 PM EDT. * At 335 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Wayne, Paramus, Ridgewood, Nanuet, Ramsey, Pompton Lakes, Suffern, Hawthorne, Pearl River, Oradell, Fair Lawn, Wyckoff, Oakland, Glen Rock, River Edge, Westwood, Franklin Lakes, Hillsdale, River Vale and Waldwick. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, June 2, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Upton NY has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Eastern Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey... Southern Westchester County in southeastern New York... Bronx County in southeastern New York... New York (Manhattan) County in southeastern New York... * Until 415 PM EDT. * At 344 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Oradell, or over Paramus, moving southeast at 25 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Expect damage to trees and power lines. * This severe thunderstorm will be near... Bergenfield and Norwood around 350 PM. Fort Lee and Englewood around 400 PM. Yonkers, Harlem and Riverdale around 405 PM. Mott Haven, East Tremont and Bronxville around 410 PM. New Rochelle, Co-op City and City Island around 415 PM. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, June 2, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Upton has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Bronx County in southeastern New York... New York (Manhattan) County in southeastern New York... Queens County in southeastern New York... South Central Westchester County in southeastern New York... * Until 600 PM EDT. * At 434 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 0.75 and 1 inch of rain has fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... New Rochelle, Mott Haven, East Tremont, Throgs Neck Bridge, Laguardia Airport, RFK Bridge, Astoria, Riverdale, Co-op City, Whitestone, City Island, Mount Vernon, Pelham, Woodlawn, Pelham Manor and Fordham. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. Excessive runoff from heavy rainfall will cause flooding of urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other drainage areas and low lying spots. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING Severe Weather Statement National Weather Service Amarillo TX 921 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 945 PM CDT FOR SOUTHWESTERN ARMSTRONG AND EASTERN RANDALL COUNTIES... At 921 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Palo Duro Canyon, or 12 miles east of Canyon, moving northeast at 25 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible. Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Locations impacted include... Lake Tanglewood and Palo Duro Canyon. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. TX . TEXAS COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE ANDREWS BORDEN BREWSTER CRANE CROCKETT DAWSON ECTOR FISHER GAINES GLASSCOCK HOWARD IRION JEFF DAVIS LOVING MARTIN MIDLAND MITCHELL NOLAN PECOS PRESIDIO REAGAN REEVES SCURRY STERLING TERRELL UPTON WARD WINKLER ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR EAST CENTRAL FLOYD COUNTY IS CANCELLED... The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled. FOR NORTHERN MOTLEY COUNTY... At 925 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 8 miles northwest of Matador, moving northeast at 20 mph. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Matador. The National Weather Service in Lubbock has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Southeastern Briscoe County in the panhandle of Texas... * Until 1015 PM CDT. * At 926 PM CDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 2 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar and automated gauges. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Caprock Canyon State Park. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding. In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded roads. Find an alternate route. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, June 2, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Fort Worth has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Western Stephens County in north central Texas... * Until 100 AM CDT. * At 1206 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 10 miles northwest of Breckenridge, moving south at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Hubbard Creek Reservoir and Breckenridge. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection get inside a sturdy structure and stay away from windows. Continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. The National Weather Service in San Angelo has issued a Northeastern Callahan County in west central Texas... Eastern Shackelford County in west central Texas... * Until 115 AM CDT. * At 1210 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 9 miles southeast of Fort Griffin, moving south at 30 mph. HAZARD...70 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect considerable tree damage. Wind damage is also likely to mobile homes, roofs, and outbuildings. * This severe thunderstorm will be near... Ibex around 1230 AM CDT. Moran around 1245 AM CDT. Other locations impacted by this severe thunderstorm include Mccarty Lake, Us-180 Near The Shackelford-Stephens County Line and Us- 283 Near The Callahan-Shackelford County Line. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO LUBBOCK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Lubbock Texas has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Swisher County in the Panhandle of Texas... Southwestern Briscoe County in the Panhandle of Texas... * Until 715 PM CDT. * At 627 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Claytonville, or 13 miles southeast of Tulia, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...Quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected. * Locations impacted include... Silverton, Mackenzie Reservoir and Claytonville. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a West central Brewster County in southwestern Texas... * Until 730 PM CDT. * At 628 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 15 miles south of Alpine, moving southeast at 25 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Elephant Mountain and Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area. ...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 930 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Urban and small stream flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...A portion of western Texas, including the following counties, Andrews and Gaines. * WHEN...Until 930 PM CDT. * IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 629 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. This will cause urban and small stream flooding. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain have fallen. - Additional rainfall amounts up to 1 inch are expected over the area. This additional rain will result in minor flooding. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Frankel City. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a East central Knox County in northern Texas... West central Baylor County in northern Texas... * At 629 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Vera, moving southeast at 15 mph. Red Springs, Vera and Bomarton. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO LUBBOCK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Lubbock Texas has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southern Briscoe County in the Panhandle of Texas... * Until 815 PM CDT. * At 745 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Silverton, moving east at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Silverton, Caprock Canyon State Park and Mackenzie Reservoir. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO LUBBOCK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING Severe Weather Statement National Weather Service Lubbock TX 807 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 815 PM CDT FOR SOUTHERN BRISCOE COUNTY... At 806 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles southeast of Silverton, moving east at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Trained weather spotters. At 806 PM CDT a trained spotter reported quarter size hail in Silverton. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Silverton and Caprock Canyon State Park. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Wilbarger County in northern Texas... Northeastern Baylor County in northern Texas... * Until 900 PM CDT. * At 809 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles south of Grayback, moving southeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Grayback and northern Lake Diversion. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY Flood Advisory National Weather Service Midland/Odessa TX 822 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 1015 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Urban and small stream flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...A portion of western Texas, including the following counties, Martin and Midland. * WHEN...Until 1015 PM CDT. * IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. Water over roadways. Overflowing poor drainage areas. Ponding of water in urban or other areas is occurring or is imminent. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 822 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. This will cause urban and small stream flooding. Up to 2 inches of rain have fallen. - Additional rainfall amounts up to 1 inch are expected over the area. This additional rain will result in minor flooding. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Midland, Odessa, Greenwood, Stanton, Midland International Air and Space Port, Midland Airpark, Cotton Flat, Courtney, Spraberry, Warfield and Stanton Municipal Aiport. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Keep children away from storm drains, culverts, creeks and streams. Water levels can rise rapidly and sweep children away. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 900 PM CDT FOR WESTERN HALL AND SOUTHEASTERN BRISCOE COUNTIES... At 824 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles southeast of Silverton, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Silverton, Caprock Canyon State Park and Quitaque. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Central Baylor County in northern Texas... * Until 915 PM CDT. * At 825 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles southwest of Lake Kemp, moving southeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Seymour, Mabelle and southern Lake Kemp. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Northwestern Archer County in northern Texas... Northeastern Baylor County in northern Texas... * Until 915 PM CDT. * At 836 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles west of Lake Diversion, moving southeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Dundee, Mankins, Lake Diversion and northeastern Lake Kemp. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Lubbock and southwestern Hale Counties through 900 PM CDT... At 837 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 6 miles west of Abernathy, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and nickel size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Abernathy and New Deal. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. LAT...LON 3376 10204 3388 10203 3389 10173 3368 10177 TIME...MOT...LOC 0137Z 275DEG 12KT 3380 10196 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... West central Archer County in northern Texas... Southeastern Baylor County in northern Texas... * Until 1015 PM CDT. * At 936 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles south of Mabelle, moving southeast at 10 mph. HAZARD...Two inch hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Westover. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM CDT FOR EAST CENTRAL BAYLOR COUNTY... At 938 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles south of Mabelle, moving southeast at 10 mph. HAZARD...Two inch hail and 60 mph wind gusts. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. This severe thunderstorm will remain over mainly rural areas of east central Baylor County. This storm is producing large hail. SEEK SHELTER NOW inside a sturdy structure and stay away from windows. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1015 PM CDT FOR WEST CENTRAL ARCHER AND SOUTHEASTERN BAYLOR COUNTIES... At 940 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles south of Locations impacted include... Westover. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO SAN ANGELO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, June 2, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in San Angelo has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Throckmorton County in west central Texas... * Until midnight CDT. * At 1114 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Woodson, moving southeast at 30 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * This severe thunderstorm will be near... Woodson around 1120 PM CDT. Other locations impacted by this severe thunderstorm include Lusk, The Intersection Of Us-183 And Us-283 and The Intersection Of Us- 283 And Ranch Road 209. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Page Content The federal government is struggling mightily to recruit, retain and develop the talent it needs to succeed and earn the reputation of being a "model employer." Agencies and their HR leaders are working to upgrade antiquated systems and processes. The new-hire process currently takes an average of 100 days to complete, double that of the private sector. The Alliance for Digital Innovation hosted a session in Washington, D.C., on May 24 to share steps that federal agencies are taking and to develop a human capital strategy that supports public-sector institutions in a changing world. Currently, Millennials and members of Generation Z make up only 7 percent of the federal workforce. Pam Coleman, associate director, performance and personnel management, at the Office of Management and Budget, was the keynote speaker. A panel discussion followed. Panelists included Toni Benson, cyber education and training lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Victoria Houed, an associate at Schmidt Futures and founder at BlackByte, a nonprofit centered around helping Black women succeed in technology; and Julie Meloni, senior delivery director for technology at Slalom Federal in Washington, D.C. It's 'Wicked Hard' to Find Tech Workers Agencies are looking to automate more processes so they have more time to focus on daily operations. Technology workers (or technologists) are not only the most needed but also perhaps the most challenging to find, the panelists said. "Your technology is only as good as who you have on staff who is working with it, and hiring technologists today is wicked hard; there's so much competition," Coleman said. To her amazement, Houed said, "There's not a central location [such as a government website] for candidates to find these technology jobs. They are listed on a Google Doc somewhere. I'm not even sure who created it. You can find it somewhere on the Internet. Most technology jobs have their own niche online communities where candidates can talk about and share opportunities." Houed said her group creates fellowships to help fill gaps. "There are so many barriers in place from the legacy hiring processes [that] we are creating more and more fellowships until the government workforce can get caught up with the kind of employees it needs," she noted. She said the federal government not only needs technologists to "save the day" and "help us get there [on the innovation front], but we have to train the current workers. These technologists can teach others about things such as cybersecurity, cryptocurrency and Web 3.0." Benson said she's looking to hire the next generation of worker, and that doesn't just mean young workers. It could be those who are seeking a career change. Coleman said the federal government needs to improve its application process and allow agencies to share candidate profiles if there's a candidate who would be a better fit at another agency. "We have a robust internship program so that we can attract early talent and track these workers toward becoming full-time employees," Coleman said. "We want to instill a culture where they say, 'I want to work here.' Our career pathing needs to be a matrix and not a ladder. Employees need to be able to get where they want to go, even if it's with another agency. Lateral moves sometimes are needed for them to be able to make that happen. There's a correlation between customer satisfaction and employee happiness." Avoid Going Off the 'Same Cliff' Meloni said hiring managers and supervisors need to work toward being empathetic and understanding the pain points of the federal workforce. "It's not hiring tech workers or maintaining career civil servants; it's combining both and understanding the importance of that," she said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need more middle managers," she added. "There aren't enough to mentor and guide the new hires. Upskilling them is necessary, or they will become bored and leave. Then we'll just hit the same cliff again if we give these employees a great start and that's all we do for them." Coleman said agencies are embracing the established values set by President Joe Biden's administration: equity, dignity, results and accountability. "We are trying to improve our hiring through innovation and iteration, keep working through things, and be committed to change." Using Data, Values to Drive the Process Coleman said the federal government does not lack people data or analytics. "We have it, but [we] need to figure out how to use our own data," she said. "We need to discover new ways to look at the data and take risks; we have these digital natives on staff, and we should look to them for strategy and solutions." Coleman noted that Biden has repeatedly said he wants the federal government to be a model employer and his No. 1 focus is on the federal workforce. In the administration's eyes, the attributes of a model employer are: Attracting the most-talented candidates who also represent the demographic makeup of the country. Making sure every federal job is a good job, one where the employee feels heard and empowered, can thrive, and is engaged. Offering careers that have a link to the future by reimagining the role. "We need to lead with our values as well as keeping it simple and be clear about what success looks like," with the goal to become a model employer, Coleman said. As Benson put it, "Congress always has tons of new ideas on how to get better, but unless the positions needed to carry these things out are funded, they are simply ideas and not programs." Paul Bergeron is a freelance writer based in Herndon, Va. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and The German Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU will aim to enhance cooperation and encourage the expansion of bilateral relations in trade and business between Indian technology SMEs and German SME companies. The MoU will actively promote investments, joint ventures, and exchange of business delegation with an endeavor to develop strong linkages between both entities for business collaboration in the field of digital technologies. Highlighting the importance of partnership in the digital era, the MoU will also encourage the organization of activities such as seminars, conferences, and roadshows by specialists in India and Germany, as well as conduct trade fairs and exhibitions with an objective of giving Indian SME companies a hands on understanding on go to market strategy with German Mittelstand companies. Executive Chairman of The German Mittelstand. BVMW, Markus Jerger assessed the new cooperation between BVMW and NASSCOM as an important step towards sustainable and long-term relationship between German smaller and medium-sized companies and the Indian IT sector: The signing of the MOU is a formal procedure to legitimize our partnership with NASSCOM. In order to make this coalition work both sides have to commit fully. We have already planned concrete actions and will bring our member companies together in the framework of different occasions, thus we let the know-how to collide and produce new ideas, new initiatives, new business partnerships. In the digital era it is crucial for the backbone of German economy - SMEs digitalize their business processes in order to stay competitive in global market. I am sure that the expertise and resources of our Indian partners in the IT sector could contribute to that. Commenting on the potential outcomes of the MoU, Debjani Ghosh, President at NASSCOM said, The Techade has brought in multiple new avenues for businesses to flourish, especially for the SME sector that has been a critical fulcrum for Indias economic growth. While Germany has excelled in cutting-edge research, R&D and manufacturing, Indias tech SME sector has undergone a massive digital transformation with the use of emerging technologies and Cloud and high skilled digital talent. A strong win-win partnership leveraging the strengths of both India and Germany will be essential in further amplifying the growth factors for the SME sector globally. Highlighting the importance of the MoU signed between NASSCOM and BVMW, Ambassador of India to Germany H.E. Harish Parvathaneni said, The MoU will further strengthen the Digital Partnership between Indian and German business and industry. He mentioned that after the successful visit of Honble Prime Minister last month for the Sixth India Germany Inter Governmental Consultations in Berlin, the scope for cooperation in the digital sector with Germany has gone up tremendously, and will only grow further. German businesses and federal and state governments are increasingly focused on a massive expansion of digitalisation and green technologies to prevent future supply chain disruptions, enhance productivity and to reduce their carbon footprint. AI, IOT, big data and digitalisation present a huge opportunity for the Indian IT industry to partner with Germany. The Industry-driven MoU between NASSCOM and BVMW will act as an important instrument in this regard to facilitate cooperation between the German Mittelstand and Indian SMEs, he added. The strategic collaboration will facilitate the development of mutually beneficial relationships by enabling cross-sharing of non-confidential information on economic and commercial matters, technology landscape, local ecosystem and digital talent to respective members and encourage SMEs on both sides to expand their digital business in India and Germany, respectively. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! This is especially apparent in the travel sector where Australians have found their way to the airport again in record numbers with the most recent numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicating there were 610,000 departures overseas in April alone. ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Jenny Dobak, says: With international borders re-opening in February and the Easter long weekend and school holidays in April, we have seen such an increase in arrivals and departures. Air ticket spending up These is also an uplift in the number of Australians keen to travel right here with Tourism Australias most recent release of its Travel Sentiment Tracker indicating over 70 per cent of those surveyed either considering or are keen to travel domestically and they intend doing it within the next six months. The Travel Sentiment Tracker does highlight people are a little worried about whether they can afford a holiday, especially as headwinds start to hit the economy. Yet despite these concerns, Tubman says CommBank iQs data is indicating there are already solid travel bookings in the year ahead, and thats going to be across all the major categories. Airline and hotel bookings are up and were seeing travel agent booking rise again so our viewpoint for the rest of the year is were not going to see a decline, says Tubman. Tubman says airlines are reaping the benefits as pent-up demand for holidays is reflected in people booking large family vacations to international destinations and this is reflected in the size of bookings with people spending up to $10,000 on airline bookings. This is not necessarily people flying business class but families booking multiple tickets as they head overseas and this is reflected in ticket purchases in the $2000 to $5000 being up 20 per cent with April spending surpassing the 2019 level by 10 per cent, Tubman says. Tubman says were ratcheting-up our behaviours and the new normal seems to mean weve boosted our intention to travel. Domestic recovery And while more of us are keen to get overseas, a huge number of Australians are choosing to travel domestically despite external borders reopening. In fact, were out exploring the whole nation with people from NSW heading interstate rising by 29 per cent on 2019 figures and Victoria by 36 per cent. Moreover, were all in search of warmer climes with Queensland seeing a 43 per cent jump in visitor numbers from NSW and a whopping 78 per cent from Victoria based on 2019 figures. Also seeing strong increases in visitor numbers were Tasmania and South Australia while Western Australia has been slow to see a tourism spike as its borders remained closed until more recently. Interestingly, Tubman says once Australians arrive at their destinations they seem to be spending more on their hotel bookings whether that be more expensive options or longer stays. He highlights how global supply chain shocks in the automotive industry have hit car hire companies and bookings are down as they struggle to find inventory as many of the car hire companies have reduced their fleets and been unable to replace them. A lot of people have just given up trying to book, and usage of hire cars is actually down 25 per cent, but when people do book the price is significantly up, Tubman says. Cruises set to rebound Tubman says the cruise sector, which was one of the fastest-growing pre-pandemic has been slower to recover but as cruise companies begin to spend more on promotion, hes confident the sector will rebound strongly. As for whos travelling, Tubman says the over 55s are catching up for lost time, with 7 per cent more now travelling than 2019 while young families are the most numerous travellers, with almost two-thirds of them having or planning a trip, potentially to reconnect with distant relatives or friends. Based on CommBank iQs figures, Tubman is bullish about the future because consumers are keen to travel across the board. We looked at so many different angles and they all came up positive so I think it is a really good sign. CommBank iQ is a joint venture between the Commonwealth Bank and Quantium, established to unlock the power of Australias largest aggregated and de-identified transaction banking dataset through leading analytics and artificial intelligence. Disclaimer: This information is published solely for informational purposes. As this information has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs, you should, before acting on the information, consider its appropriateness to your circumstances. Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124 and AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 234945. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size After 98 days and $25 million in legal costs, the evidence has concluded in one of the most protracted, complex and costly defamation trials ever conducted in Australia and, fittingly, it played out in the Federal Court in Sydney, the worlds defamation capital. War veteran Ben Roberts-Smiths lawsuit, dubbed in some quarters a war crimes trial masquerading as a defamation action, has left every corner of his life exposed, from his actions on key missions in Afghanistan to his extramarital affair, his unusual dealings with a private detective, and the disintegration of his marriage. The evidence at the trial concluded on Thursday. More than 40 witnesses appeared over 12 months on either side of a six-month COVID-19 hiatus. Roberts-Smith will officially close his case on Friday. Dozens of military witnesses gave evidence with their identities obscured to protect national security information. Much of the testimony was heard behind closed doors to avoid disclosing wartime tactics and intelligence. Next month, Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko will hear the parties closing submissions before writing what is likely to become one of the defining judgments of his career. At the opening of the trial in June last year, Roberts-Smith told the court his life has been ruined by seven articles published by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times between June and August 2018. The articles, he said, wrongly accused him of heinous crimes, including the unlawful execution of prisoners while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, and assaulting a lover during an alleged row in Canberra in 2018. While a separate inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Defence Force into allegations of war crimes and misconduct by Australian soldiers was well underway by 2018, and criminal prosecutions may yet flow from it, no charges have been laid to date. War crimes investigators have watched closely in the defamation case as the newspapers sought to rely chiefly on a defence of truth. Advertisement The media outlets allege Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of six Afghan prisoners, and proving any one of those six alleged crimes would be sufficient to win the case. Ben Roberts-Smiths barrister, Bruce McClintock, SC, arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney in June 2021. Credit:Dylan Coker The 43-year-old former SAS corporal is seeking a damages payout likely to be in the millions of dollars, if Besanko finds in his favour. Actor Geoffrey Rush holds the record for the highest defamation payout to a single person in Australia, at $2.9 million. The bulk of that payout was the value of lost career opportunities, and Roberts-Smith told the court he missed out on a lucrative partnership at consulting firm PwC after the first tranche of articles. But the case, filed in August 2018, has racked up an estimated $25 million to date in combined legal costs. Roberts-Smith has taken leave from his job as general manager of Channel Seven Queensland during the trial, and Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes is bankrolling his lawsuit using private funds. The case In his opening address to the court, Bruce McClintock, SC, one of Roberts-Smiths phalanx of barristers, said false stories about his client murdering prisoners in Afghanistan were constructed by former comrades who had either developed enormous jealousy towards his client or were so traumatised by war as to be confused. He said the domestic violence allegation, also vehemently denied, had a separate and distinct defamatory sting. Ben Roberts-Smiths parents, Len and Sue, arrive at the Federal Court in Sydney in July 2021. Credit:Edwina Pickles Advertisement Roberts-Smith, son of former West Australian Supreme Court judge Len Roberts-Smith, was awarded the Victoria Cross, Australias highest military honour, in 2011 for his role in a highly publicised battle at Tizak, Afghanistan, in 2010. The honour made him a tall poppy, Roberts-Smith believed, and put a target on his back among disgruntled SAS soldiers. His supporters are well known. Former federal defence minister Brendan Nelson, chair of the Australian War Memorial, made a brief appearance in court, describing Roberts-Smith as the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century. But Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for the newspapers, poured scorn on the implausible suggestion that SAS witnesses would fabricate their testimony about Roberts-Smith as a result of jealousy or the product of trauma. Brendan Nelson and Ben Roberts-Smith. Credit:Andrew Meares The media outlets allege Roberts-Smith was involved in the murder of six Afghan prisoners, contrary to the rules of engagement that bound the SAS. The unlawful executions took place over five days in 2009 and 2012, the newspapers allege, and the mastheads called 20 serving and former SAS soldiers to give evidence. Roberts-Smith has denied wrongdoing. He said five of the killings happened lawfully in battle, while the sixth killing did not happen. He, in turn, called 12 current and former SAS witnesses. Nicholas Owens, SC, is representing Nine newspapers against a defamation claim by Ben Roberts-Smith. Credit:Edwina Pickles Advertisement Justice Besanko would have to sift truth from lies, Owens told the court. To win the case, which is a civil rather than criminal trial, the newspapers would need to prove on the balance of probabilities meaning it is more likely than not that Roberts-Smith was complicit in at least one murder. While this is less onerous than the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the so-called Briginshaw principle applies in civil cases involving serious allegations and requires courts to proceed cautiously in making grave findings. The alleged murders Of the six murders alleged by the newspapers, three form the backbone of the case. First, the newspapers allege Roberts-Smith kicked an unarmed and handcuffed Afghan villager named Ali Jan off a small cliff in Darwan on September 11, 2012, before he was shot dead. The village of Darwan. Afghan witnesses and former SAS soldiers have given evidence about the alleged actions of Ben Roberts-Smith while serving there. Roberts-Smith told the court there was no cliff and no kick. The man in question was not a farmer but a suspected Taliban spotter reporting on the movement of coalition forces, he said, and both he and a soldier dubbed Person 11 lawfully fired shots at the man in a cornfield. Person 11, a friend of Roberts-Smith, supported this account. But a former SAS comrade, Person 4, gave evidence he was with both men that day and saw Roberts-Smith kick the cuffed man off a cliff before he heard shots fired, and saw Person 11 with his rifle raised in a firing position. Another former soldier, Person 56, said that either Person 4 or Person 11 disclosed after the Darwan mission that an individual had been kicked off a cliff and ... shot. Advertisement Three Afghan villagers also told the court via audiovisual link from Kabul that the man killed was Ali Jan, a Darwan farmer who was not connected to the Taliban, and that a big soldier kicked him off a cliff. In the second centrepiece allegation, the newspapers say Roberts-Smith was involved in two murders during an earlier mission on Easter Sunday, 2009, after two Afghan men were discovered in a tunnel in a compound dubbed Whiskey 108. They allege Roberts-Smith killed one of the men himself and directed a rookie soldier, Person 4, to kill the second man as a form of blooding or initiation. Photo of the tunnel at Whiskey 108, tendered in Ben Roberts-Smiths Federal Court defamation case. Here again, Justice Besanko must choose between diametrically opposed accounts. There were no men in the tunnel, Roberts-Smith and four of his SAS friends have told the court. Separately, the troop commander on that mission, Person 81, said he was not informed that men were found in the tunnel. He couldnt say, however, that there were none. A former soldier dubbed Person 27 said he did not have any recollection of men being found. Roberts-Smith said two insurgents, not prisoners, were killed lawfully outside Whiskey 108, including one by him. He does not dispute that the man he killed had a prosthetic leg, nor that the leg was souvenired by another soldier and used as a drinking vessel at the SAS base. He did not drink from it himself, he said, but he didnt object to the gallows humour of others doing so. In a dramatic turn, one of Roberts-Smiths witnesses was arrested and charged with harming and resisting a Commonwealth official in the hours following his turn in the witness box, after he was approached by detectives enquiring into allegations of war crimes. He was granted bail in April. An aerial photo of Whiskey 108 marked up in court by Ben Roberts-Smith during his Federal Court defamation case. A former senior Special Air Service soldier who served in Afghanistan with war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has told the Federal Court he couldnt say whether Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of two Afghan prisoners and he relied on his subordinates to give truthful reports about any killings. Person 81, a former SAS troop commander whose identity is suppressed for national security reasons, was the final witness to give evidence in Roberts-Smiths defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times. He was cross-examined about a key issue in the trial, namely the circumstances in which two Afghan men died during a mission at a compound dubbed Whiskey 108 in 2009. Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday. Credit:Kate Geraghty Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, the Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over a series of articles in 2018 he says portray him as a war criminal who was involved in the unlawful killing of unarmed Afghan prisoners. Under the rules of engagement that bound the SAS, prisoners could not be killed. The decorated former soldier denies all wrongdoing and has said any killings in Afghanistan, including two during the Whiskey 108 mission, happened lawfully in the heat of battle. The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Roberts-Smith was involved in six unlawful killings in Afghanistan, including the execution of two men who emerged from a tunnel at Whiskey 108. Disgraced Hey Dad! star and convicted paedophile Robert Hughes will be released from Sydneys Long Bay prison and deported to Britain after being granted parole on Thursday morning. Hughes, 73, was convicted in 2014 of a string of sexual and indecent assaults on girls in the 1980s and 1990s. Former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes outside Central Local Court in 2012. Credit:Wolter Peeters He has been imprisoned ever since, after being refused parole twice since his non-parole period expired in 2020. Having renounced his Australian citizenship in 2019, Hughes will be deported to Britain when he is released from prison in a fortnight. Interpol confirmed authorities there will be notified of his presence and he will be required to report to police within three days of arriving, then annually. Hughes will be required to provide his passport and bank details and notify police of any travel outside the country. In granting Hughes parole, the State Parole Authority considered that the offences were historical and took place in particular settings in which the offender abused his power and his position of trust. He no longer enjoys such power or trust, as a direct consequence of the convictions and the consequent widespread adverse publicity. Robert Hughes leaves court in 2012. Credit:Wolter Peeters The key reasons for release were said to be his below average risk of committing sex offences, his ineligibility for sex offender programs together with his family support and accommodation in the UK, the State Parole Authoritys determination by chairperson David Frearson SC said. Hughes has always maintained his innocence; his wife also believes him to be innocent, but she expressed her intention to ensure that the offender does not have unsupervised contact with children. She advised that she intends to encourage him to engage in psychological counselling, the State Parole Authority said. For those concerned about the ban on plastic bags in which to carry essential purchases (Letters, June 2), providing your own bags of any composition is the obvious solution. Reusable bags are available everywhere, and who doesnt have bags of them? Indeed, there is really no such thing as a single-use plastic bag. Ive been washing and reusing them for 50 years. My grandchildren are fifth-generation plastic bag washers. We would be happy to provide instructions. Meredith Williams, Northmead For years, we have been using and reusing our singlet plastic bags sensibly for plants I grow and sell at markets. Most people reuse these bags. So they are not single use. Now I can return them to supermarkets (who have banned them) for recycling. Then buy a plastic bag or 10 made in Germany, then either return it for recycling or recycle it in my yellow bin. Now I have a couple of kilos of singlet bags that have been used once or twice that I intended to recycle at my market stall that will have to be dumped at my local supermarket. The only difference is that I now have to buy the bags to then recycle or dump them. The only winner is the bloke in Germany who sells us the more fancy plastic bag. Bryan Ellis, Umina Beach As someone who now uses newspaper to wrap waste which cant be composted, I ask how we dispose of leftover unused green bags. Can these be recycled by dumping into bins provided by supermarkets? They cant be given away the idea being to keep them out of the mountains of plastic waste polluting our oceans. Also, using newspaper is problematic, as cutting down trees is also an environmental crime. Its a conundrum. Wendy Crew, Lane Cove North The government has estimated that more than 2.7 billion plastic items end up in waterways across NSW alone each year. Of course, banning them is an important step towards keeping animals in the ocean safe, but even more important than the composition of our shopping bags is whats in them. Eating fish does far more harm to our oceans than carrying them home in a plastic bag. Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear otherwise known as ghost gear is a problem that spells catastrophe for marine life. So while many people are stocking up on cloth shopping bags, those who fish (or eat fish) need to re-examine their personal choices too. Desmond Bellamy, Special Projects Coordinator, PETA Australia PR can dismantle barrel forever Your editorial addresses a major electoral system problem (How to throw pork-barrelling on the scrap heap, June 2). The easiest way to that is to introduce proportional representation, because it is based on multi-member electoral districts. Pork-barrelling is simply not doable and it does not happen in the 90 countries that use PR. But this is not the only advantage. PR results in a co-operative political culture instead of the combative, adversarial system that creates two opposing parties. Klaas Woldring, Pearl Beach Your editorial implies that electoral pork-barrelling actually persuades sufficient numbers of voters in targeted seats to suddenly support the money-giver. Itd be nice if politicians gave us a little credit for being above that kind of blatant bribery. Any last-minute election largesse, especially from a government on the skids, I treat with suspicion, cynicism and a form of gratitude that inclines me to reward the other side, just to be perverse. I suspect Im by no means the only one, and we all know that everything has an eventual cost. Forget the Romans bread and circuses and remember the Greeks Trojan horse. Adrian Connelly, Springwood Kenneth Clark once famously said that whereas he could not define civilisation, he thought he could recognise it. Similarly, most voters might not be able to define pork-barrelling in its many manifestations, but they showed they can recognise it by consigning the Coalition to the opposition benches. To minimise the rot, a stronger ICAC such as that Helen Haines has proposed is certainly needed. It might not be the perfect solution as Barry Ferguson cogently argues (New corruption body wont stop the rorts, June 2) but, if allied to a disinterested public service which eschews partisan politics and acts with regard to national wellbeing, it will be a considerable improvement. Ron Sinclair, Windradyne Off the rails In the hype about infrastructure spending from the NSW state government, I cant recall any mention of anything west of the Blue Mountains (Perrottets $600m light rail pledge, June 2). Well, allegedly some new XPT replacements have been ordered, but will they work? For decades, successive state governments have dismantled and destroyed NSWs extensive rail network. Freight now speeds around the state on increasingly heavy trucks collapsing roads under their weight. Passenger rail services exist, but they are hopeless. So many buses where there used to be trains. Limited timetables. The XPT trains are an archaic disgrace in operation and presentation. More people need to travel to Sydney for example, for medical services thanks to the enduring neglect of the regions. However, its time-consuming and inefficient due to inadequate timetabling of services. Think what real fast train services to major centres (Bathurst, Armidale, Dubbo, Wagga, etc) and reopening of closed lines (eg, to Cowra) could do for services and facilities out here. Peter Thompson, Grenfell What jubilee? To become a permanent member of the ACT Teaching Service, I was required to swear an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. When I expressed my surprise and said that there was no such requirement to teach in England, where the monarch resided, the public servant replied flatly: Just read it. Theres no one here and Im not listening. Forty or so years later, this retired servant of the Queen of Australia observes a distinct absence of local jubilee jollity. If, as a few would have us believe, the monarch offers an essential stability above the fray of politics, where are the ceremonies to celebrate this, and where are the spontaneous street and fancy dress parties? Could it be that this cultural indifference underlines the fact that we believe in ruling ourselves? John Oakley, Wollongong School inequality The gap between most and least disadvantaged students is hardly surprising (Gap widening for poorest students, June 2). COVID isolation revealed the extent of the digital divide as well as the importance of face-to-face teaching for many students. As with so many of the current challenges facing the NSW government, this is about investing in our schools now for the future benefit of our students. Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls The original Gonski reports objective was to design an equitable school funding system, one that ensures that differences in educational outcomes are not the result of differences in wealth, income, power or possessions. After nine years of conservative government, we face the reality that 80 per cent of the federal education budget goes to non-government schools that only enrol about 33 per cent of students. Forget blaming the kids, teachers and parents of the public system and start with the inequity in funding that Gonski recognised 10 years ago. John Black, Anna Bay Lost voice Ray Warren was the best rugby league caller of them all (Rugby League loses its voice, June 2). His ability to let the pictures do the talking was illustrated during a Manly game when Noel Crusher Cleal was barraging his way through one would-be tackler after another. Warren paused for a moment before simply adding, look at this big man. Rabs, we will miss you. Ian Fowler, Asquith Ray Warren might be the voice of TV rugby league but to me the booming voice of Darryl Eastlake was the voice of State of Origin. Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga Calling the tune With the mention of restaurant noise (Letters, June 2), it reminds me of an occasion where my husband politely asked the waitress if the music could be turned down as the volume stopped any conversation between us. The waitress returned and apologetically told us she was not allowed to turn it down the music had to be that loud so the chef and kitchen staff could still hear it. Joy Paterson, Mount Annan Cure for GP shortage Your correspondent (Letters, June 2) listed several ways to save our much needed GPs from extinction. Perhaps their huge HECS debt could be waived if they were prepared to come to rural areas for at least five years? Robyn Lewis, Raglan With the shortage of GPs, we could revert to leeches. After all, with all the rain that we have had, there is no shortage of them. Graham Jarvis, Epping The wave now arriving I agree that the view from Circular Quay station is world-class (Letters, June 2). But even more spectacular is the ocean view from Bombo railway station, one stop north of Kiama possibly the only surf beach in the world with a railway station. John Swanton, Coogee With just 200 students whose interests ranged from physics and chemistry to wood and metalwork, Oberon High School principal Craig Luccarda did not have enough teachers to offer the range of HSC subjects required. He decided to do things differently. Instead of studying six HSC subjects over two years, his students would study three full subjects in year 11 and another three in year 12. That way, a teacher could run art one year and design the next. Craig Luccarda said demand for VET courses had increased since the school-leaving age was lifted to 17. Credit:Kate Geraghty That, for us, is quite significant we can hold more subjects than we would normally be able to, he said. I think most of our kids like the concept of only having to worry about three subjects rather than six. Oberon adopted the so-called compressed curriculum model used by about 20 NSW schools a year, mostly regional schools that, like Oberon, struggled to offer their students enough subjects. Police appeal for information after kidnaping assault south Sydney Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss A West Australian businessman has handed over $4 million in unexplained cash and assets to the Commonwealth following a two-year-long money laundering and tax fraud investigation. Nick Ivanina, 60, was forced to forfeit $3.45 million he kept in Australian and Thailand bank accounts under the names of a relative and business associate, as well as his Burswood apartment after the Australian Federal Police-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce pursued a tip-off about suspicious international banking activity. A WA man has forfeited $4 million in cash and assets, including a riverfront apartment, inset, after being unable to explain to police how it was lawfully obtained. Credit:Getty Images/RP Data While the father of two has not been charged with a criminal offence, Ivanina was unable to explain where the wealth had lawfully come from which led to him agreeing to forfeit the money and assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The law allows for a civil standard of proof and can operate where there is no related criminal prosecution. Residents in Perths hills have had their electricity turned off on the spot and then been hit with a fee of up to $6000 to get it switched back on after Western Power deemed their private power poles unsafe and possible fire hazards. Speaking to Radio 6PR on Thursday, Herne Hill resident Louise Hay said Western Power subcontractors came out to check the power pole located on her property, before informing her it was to be cut off immediately because it was dangerous. Western Power have cut off multiple homes due to privet power poles being deemed unsafe. Credit:Paul Rovere The move left her without power for 10 days. We ended up losing food out of our freezer and theres a granny flat on the same power grid as ours through the same power pole, and the lady in there ended up losing food as well, she said. Australias complex and even contradictory attitude to the British Crown has been on display this week as we mark the 70th anniversary of the accession of the Queen and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appoints a new federal cabinet. On the one hand, respect for Elizabeth II herself has never been greater. She continues to perform her ceremonial duties at 96 with enthusiasm and grace, even though she has mobility issues and had to tour the Chelsea Flower Show last week sitting on a golf cart. Loading Many were moved by her stoical determination to keep going after the death of her husband, Prince Philip. Britain is throwing a four-day party to celebrate her reign and many in Australia will also raise a toast to her. About 80 iconic public buildings around Sydney will be illuminated in royal purple, in her honour. She is well-loved and the Herald congratulates the Queen on her remarkable service. Hamish Douglass no longer ranks among Sydneys billionaire class since stepping down from Magellan in February, but his coffers did well from the property market on Thursday evening when he and his sister Sybella Morris sold their long-held family home in Double Bay. There had been a $30 million guide for the 2300 square metre property when it hit the market less than two weeks ago through Ray White Double Bays Elliott Placks, and sources have suggested it sold for almost that figure. The grand Double Bay home of Hamish Douglass and Sybella Morris sold on Thursday night. The Douglass family have owned the grand six-bedroom residence since 1967 when Douglass and Morris father, the late arts patron and racehorse owner Gordon Douglass, bought it for $74,000. It was listed after the death of their mother Jane last July. Super Netball players have hit out at Netball Australia, accusing the national body of failing to meaningfully consult them before deciding to sell the grand final to Perth this season. The players are devastated both by the decision and the way it has been handled, the Australian Netball Players Association said in a statement on Thursday evening. The Vixens top the Super Netball table but will not host the grand final. Credit:Getty Images It was extremely disappointing to learn of such a major decision after the fact, and yet again not to have been consulted in the process. But it was even more distressing to then be deliberately misled by Netball Australia about the status of the decision and the nature of their engagement with us. The players association said the decision to move the grand final to Western Australia late in the season without consultation was shattering and called for a change of culture at Netball Australia. POINTE BLANCHE:--- Technicians from Hollandia in the Netherlands are scheduled to arrive at the end of the week with additional parts and equipment to carry out repairs to the Causeway Bridge. Currently, the state-of-the-art turning center section of the Causeway Bridge remains closed to maritime traffic until further notice, the Simpson Bay Lagoon Authority (SLAC) said on Wednesday. The repair works are expected to take five days to complete. The Causeway Bridge which was opened in late 2013 to vehicular and maritime traffic utilizes complex advanced technology when compared to the Simpson Bay Bridge. Based on a preliminary investigation regarding the source of the problem, continuous testing by the SLAC team who have been working diligently has determined that the fault sensors of the hydraulic system are the main cause for the bridge not being able to open. If one or more sensors are non-functional, this places the bridge operations in default mode to protect it from damage. Port St. Maarten Group (PSG) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alexander Gumbs and Facilities Manager Benjamin Ortega toured the bridge with the SLAC team who have been troubleshooting the issues. Gumbs said the SLAC team was able to solve some of the initial problems however, some sensors malfunctioned which prompted the team from Hollandia to order new parts for installation. Gumbs further said that he is impressed with the SLAC team in terms of having the knowledge and training to operate and manage the complexities of the bridge. Once the repairs are completed, we will invite the media to the impressive engine rooms under the bridge for a tour. One of the key items for us is being able to share more with the community in terms of information and our objectives, PSG CEO Alexander Gumbs said on Wednesday. In comparison to the Simpson Bay Bridge, the latter only has six sensors verses the Causeway Bridge with hundreds. SLAC carried out a survey of vessels and marinas located between Cupecoy and the Causeway Bridge and has not encountered any vessels that would need to transit via the Causeway Bridge. Officials have also been in communication with French counterparts regarding the Sandy Ground Bridge. SLAC will continue to keep maritime operators, boat owners, and the community updated as to the successful resolution of the technical challenges currently being experienced with the Causeway Bridge, and at the same time apologizes to the maritime community for any inconvenience caused as it continues to work assiduously to resolve the issues. PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, June 1st, 2022, the Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor, Omar Ottley had the honor of welcoming the return of COPA airlines to Sint Maarten. The airline provides a vital service to Sint Maarten by offering direct flights to Central America, which broadens our reach to that market. Today we have two flights resuming weekly from Panama on Wednesdays and Fridays, which from a Ministry of Health standpoint will also make our medical referral process more seamless and ease the burden of travel on our patients. Minister Ottley expressed gratitude to his colleague Minister Lawrence, the Tourism Bureau, the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) staff and the Copa Airlines team, for their efforts in making it possible to welcome back COPA Airlines to our island. It is an honor to stand here today, not only as the Minister of VSA but also as acting Minister of TEATT. Today shows that Sint Maarten is on its way back! Our current arrivals are 85% of May 2019 numbers and the addition of Copa airlines can only bring us closer to or pre COVID numbers.Said Ottley. The Cobalt Market Since the beginning of 2021, prices for cobalt have risen sharply. Somewhat lower prices are the order of the day in the short term. The growth in demand for the raw material cobalt is enormous. The current price pressure has come from a slowdown in electric vehicle demand in China. This is due to the Covid 19 closures. However, experts are fairly unanimous that this disruption is only temporary. In the medium term, they therefore expect an attractive demand outlook. This is because the lockdowns will also come to an end in China and supply chains will visibly normalize. Production is currently growing in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo is still considered a problematic production country. Last year, cobalt demand increased by more than 18 percent. This was due to the strong market for lithium-ion batteries. This development will also continue due to climate change and the increasing acceptance of electric vehicles and will probably gain even more momentum. In the long term, global demand for cobalt is forecast to grow by around 12 percent per year. Whether the supply of cobalt can keep pace with the growing demand is still questionable. There are also political and operational risks in the industry. As the Cobalt Institute recently stated, the cobalt market will be in deficit from 2025. Prices will also remain high to incentivize further investment and prevent larger deficits. Cobalt, as an important raw material of the future, is particularly attractive when it does not come from Congo. This is the case with Canada Nickel Company and its Crawford nickel-cobalt-sulfide project. The project is located in Canada. There is also cobalt in Finland at Mawson Gold\-s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV7pfLIZadQ Rajapalot gold-cobalt project. Current corporate information and press releases from Mawson Gold (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/mawson-gold-ltd/ -) and Canada Nickel Company (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/canada-nickel-company-inc/ -). In accordance with A34 WpHG I would like to point out that partners, authors and employees may hold shares in the respective companies addressed and thus a possible conflict of interest exists. No guarantee for the translation into English. Only the German version of this news is valid. Disclaimer: The information provided does not represent any form of recommendation or advice. Express reference is made to the risks in securities trading. No liability can be accepted for any damage arising from the use of this blog. I would like to point out that shares and especially warrant investments are always associated with risk. The total loss of the invested capital cannot be excluded. All information and sources are carefully researched. However, no guarantee is given for the correctness of all contents. Despite the greatest care, I expressly reserve the right to make errors, especially with regard to figures and prices. The information contained herein is taken from sources believed to be reliable, but in no way claims to be accurate or complete. Due to court decisions, the contents of linked external sites are also co-responsible (e.g. Landgericht Hamburg, in the decision of 12.05.1998 312 O 85/98), as long as there is no explicit dissociation from them. Despite careful control of the content, I do not assume liability for the content of linked external pages. The respective operators are exclusively responsible for their content. The disclaimer of Swiss Resource Capital AG also applies: https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/disclaimer/ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ENFIELD For the first time in more than 35 years, there are plans for trains to stop in Enfield, with construction of a new station to begin in less than two years. Designs will be completed in the summer of 2023, with plans to go out to bid for the project that fall, Garrett Eucalitto, deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation, said at an announcement of the project Thursday. Construction should start in early of 2024, Eucalitto said. ConnDOTs been working on the design in the hope we will get the federal funds and be ready to go with construction starting in about a year and a half after that. The new train station in Enfield will cost about $32 million. The project is funded through a near-even split of state bonding and federal grants, DOT Commissioner Joe Giulietti said. The state bonding will supply $15.86 million, according to a DOT statement. Through the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program, the project received $13.86 million. Enfield will be the newest stop on CTrail Hartford Line, connecting riders from to Amtrak and Metro-North. We had to assure Amtrak everything we were doing fit into their new plans with how many trains they intend to fund on this line going forward, Giulietti said. A new accessible station with a high-level platform will be constructed here. Riders can board and head north to Springfield or south to New Haven and New York. The project is part of an effort by the state to improve rail service and by the town of Enfield to advance its Transit Oriented District plans. There were joined at the announcement by several other officials, including Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both D-Conn. No airport link Direct train transportation from Enfield, or anywhere in the state, to Bradley International Airport is still a dream, Giulietti said. I would love nothing more than to be coming up here and saying, Yeah, we are putting a rail line right into that airport, because thats what modern cities do. Its one of the things well work on toward the future. But in the meantime, we are setting up direct connects from both Hartford to the airport and as well from Windsor Locks to the airport, he said. We can have regular service with a bus that will make the direct connection in going right in to provide the quickest service we can right now, whether we go with rapid transit bus or rail connection in the future. Bringing back the Enfield train station is one step in that process of increasing connectivity and reducing the need for cars in the state, Giulietti said. The Enfield station will be intermodal, with passengers able to transfer to other rail services as well as to the states bus system, Courtney said. An additional $2.5 million was provided through a federal earmark and will assist in making the project intermodal, he said. This is going to be an intermodal project, not just a train station. People literally wont have to get into an automobile to get the benefits of this service, Courtney said. This is a competitive grant. Its almost cutthroat because there are so many applicants around the country going for a limited pot of money. For every award there were five applications across the country. While the $32 million will all go toward the Enfield station, officials hope to acquire funds to construct four other stations across the state: in Windsor, Windsor Locks, West Hartford and North Haven, along with Enfield, Blumenthal said. Theyre going to be on a map of train transportation in a much bigger way, enabling the kind of development you see right here, he said. The increase in federal funds received for transportation in Connecticut is partially due to the states investment in its transportation and infrastructure improvements, Murphy said. We are able to win federal grants at a pretty dizzying pace for transportation projects in Connecticut because the DOT and White House knows that that money is going to be well spent in Connecticut and its going to be matched by state dollars, Murphy said. abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com This story and headline are updated to correct that the new Enfield train station is budgeted at $32 million, with four other new train stations in the planning stages. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Cleanup work was continuing at Binney Pond this week after more than 50 gallons of diesel fuel spilled near Exit 5 of Interstate 95 last week. The Greenwich Fire Department initiated the towns cleanup response, which is now overseen by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. On Wednesday, Greenwich Deputy Fire Marshal Mark Dawson offered an update on the work. They are continuing to monitor (the fuel spill) down at the site, Dawson said. They have cleaned the majority of it, and they are still monitoring the section where it enters the park there, which is the farthest part downstream. The diesel spill took place early May 26 after a truck experienced equipment failure while it was on the I-95 on-ramp northbound at Exit 5, which goes to Riverside and Old Greenwich and is near Binney Park, he said. It was a tractor-trailer, and he had developed a hole in his diesel saddle tank, Dawson said. From there, (the fuel) flowed into a catch basin, which flows down to the Ferris Drive overpass at Brookside Park. Those catch basins empty out into that stream. We chose to go to a known reference point to make sure that we captured everything by going down to the park, he said. The area is easy to access for the cleanup company and is also a good place to stop (the fuel) from entering any farther into the park. Dawson added, When youre dealing with a product thats flowing, you always want to go past the last known point to make sure you capture everything. And thats basically what we did. According to Dawson, the Greenwich Fire Department since then basically has turned over the cleanup to the DEEP. They are the ones that are responsible to maintain and assure the cleanup is made, Dawson said. On Thursday, DEEP Director of Communications Will Healy confirmed that the agency was monitoring the spill. Water booms, which serve as barriers, were placed in the pond, and the source of the contamination was removed several days ago, he said. Were keeping contaminated water corralled, and we will be switching those booms out, Healy said. Were mainly looking for rain to kind of wash the pond out. The rain on Wednesday and Thursday has also helped, he said. No access has been restricted to the park and that is not expected to need to change. Binney Park sees a lot of foot traffic, and the pond is home to ducks, geese and swans and is also used often by turtles in warmer weather. Dawson said Wednesday that he did not anticipate any problems for wildlife due to the fuel spill. This was stopped prior to the pond, he said. According to the town, the spill occurred at about 5:45 a.m. May 26, and a resident reported an odd odor and water sheen in the brook at about 11:30 a.m. that day. Officials then found the leaking vehicle on I-95, and the Greenwich Fire Department began work to contain impact to the main pond. DEEP said that 50 to 70 gallons of diesel had been released and said its environmental cleanup efforts were expected to continue for the next few weeks. Town officials told residents that no lasting environmental impact or impact to nearby water wells was expected from the fuel spill. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will go public with its findings in a prime-time hearing next week, the start of what lawmakers hope will be a high-profile airing of the causes and consequences of the domestic attack on the U.S. government. Lawmakers plan to hold a series of hearings in June that they promise will lay out, step-by-step, how former President Donald Trump and his allies worked feverishly to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, spreading lies about widespread voter fraud widely debunked by judges and his own administration that fueled a violent assault on the seat of democracy. The six hearings, set to begin June 9 and expected to last until late June, will be the first time the committee discloses previously unseen material about what it has discovered in the course of a sprawling 10-month investigation that has touched nearly every aspect of the insurrection. The committee, which has called Jan. 6 one of the darkest days of our democracy, was formed in the aftermath to investigate the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol. Unlike any other congressional committee in recent times, the panels work has been both highly anticipated by Democrats and routinely criticized by Trump and the former presidents allies, including some Republicans in Congress, who complain it is partisan. More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the panel, and only brief snippets of that testimony have been revealed to the public, mostly through court filings. The hearings are expected to showcase a series of witnesses but the committee has not yet publicly released the names. The investigation has focused on every aspect of the insurrection, including the efforts by Trump and his allies to cast doubt on the election and halt the certification of President Joe Biden's victory; the financing and organizing of rallies in Washington that took place before the attack; security failures by Capitol Police and federal agencies; and the actions of the rioters themselves. The hearings are expected to be exhaustive, but not the final word from the committee, which plans to released subsequent reports on its findings, including recommendations on legislative reforms, ahead of the midterm elections. ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Fewer than half of Connecticuts towns and cities filed affordable-housing plans in time for the June 1 deadline that was required by a 2021 law, which itself was a major compromise amid staunch opposition from suburban, mostly affluent communities against state mandates they claim threatened local control. But with no mechanism to actually enforce the law, there will be little repercussions to prod towns and cities to comply with the filing requirements, which are part of a larger law that also establishes a Commission on Connecticuts Development and Future. Among the towns that failed to file are the affluent Fairfield County municipalities of Darien, Easton, Greenwich, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Trumbull and Westport. But officials from Bridgeport, Ansonia, East Haven, Hamden, Hartford, Meriden, New Haven, North Haven, Norwalk, Shelton, Torrington and Waterbury also failed to meet the deadline. Only 81 of Connecticuts 169 municipalities met the deadline to submit their affordable housing plans to the state Office of Policy and Management for posting on its website in addition to local sites. Other municipalities that havent yet filed include Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethel, Clinton, Colebrook, Derby, Kent, Litchfield, Oxford, Seymour, Thomaston, Watertown and West Hartford failed to meet the deadline. In cases where towns or cities have failed to adopt affordable housing plans by the deadline, chief elected officials are required to notify the OPM with the reasons why plans were not adopted on time and provide a date by which plans may be adopted and provided. The state Department of Housing and the Regional Plan Association created a guidebook for municipalities to help in their deliberations at a time the state is experiencing a crisis in affordable housing. Cities and towns have a statutory responsibility to have filed plans by June 1, Chris Collibee, spokesman for OPM Secretary Jeffrey Beckham, said Thursday after the list of participating communities was updated. We anticipate continuing to receive additional filings over the next couple of days. He said OPM will work with the state Department of Housing to contact those towns and cities that have not communicated their plans and work with them to ensure compliance. It is important to note that approximately 20 percent of towns that have not filed their plans have communicated with OPM that they are on track to complete their plans in the near future, Collibee said. The reporting deadline was among the few requirements that emerged from the 2021 legislature, when the issues of racial exclusion and local control broke out in the General Assembly and ended efforts to require local land use officials to create more dwelling units. State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vehey, D-Fairfield, co-chairwoman of the legislative Planning and Development Committee, whose panel originated last years reporting requirement and the June 1 deadline, said Thursday the pressing need for affordable housing units is no secret. Towns missing the deadline This is a list of towns that had not filed an affordable housing plan as of June 2 Ansonia Ashford Avon Beacon Falls* Bethel Bethlehem* Bloomfield Bolton Bridgeport Bridgewater Burlington* Clinton* Colchester Colebrook* Coventry* Cromwell* Darien* Derby Eastford East Granby* East Hampton* East Hartford East Haven* East Lyme* Easton* East Windsor Enfield Franklin Glastonbury* Granby Greenwich Griswold Groton Haddam Hamden Hartford Hartland Kent* Ledyard* Lisbon Litchfield* Manchester Marlborough Meriden* Middlebury Middlefield Montville Naugatuck* New Britain New Canaan* New Hartford New Haven North Canaan North Haven* Norwalk* Oxford Plainville* Plymouth* Pomfret Prospect Putnam* Redding Ridgefield* Rocky Hill Roxbury* Scotland* Seymour Sharon Shelton* Somers Southbury Sterling Tolland Torrington* Trumbull* Union* Waterbury* Watertown West Hartford West Haven Westport* Wethersfield Willington Winchester* Windham Windsor Windsor Locks* Wolcott * Indicates municipality has notified state officials they will not meet the deadline Source: Connecticut Office of Policy and Management See More Collapse I think the big picture is, do we all agree on the definition of a problem and do we agree on the lack of housing stock? McCarthy Vehey said in a phone interview. We know theres a tremendous need. Housing starts in Connecticut have been so low compared to other states and compared to particular times in our state. Municipalities have asked for power to act locally and thats what we did. She recalled that in 2021 any pro-housing bills with legal provisions faced strong objections. While state law has vaguely required the filing of affordable housing plans every five years, last years bill finally provided a deadline date. A plan is a critical first step toward planning affordable housing, McCarthy Vehey said. There is a lot of resistance. Our towns need those road maps and by asking them to create their own plans were asking them to create their own road maps. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said Thursday that the problem goes beyond affordable homes into housing in general, along with traditions of local control and the growing need for dwellings at a crucial time when the economy needs workers. Its frustrating, said the East Hartford Democrat, whose town has also failed to file a plan on time. He noted that building permits have been low throughout the state in recent years. When you think about costs, it depends on the supply, Rojas said in a phone interview. Whether you own a house or rent one its expensive both ways. We always hear that local land-use officials always support housing, but far too often we see less than that. Were giving them the chance to come up with plans informed by local conditions. Kevin Maloney, communications director for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said Thursday that while towns and cities have benefited from resources provided by state officials, many communities, particularly smaller ones with limited resources, have struggled to develop these plans. CCM is continuing to work with the state to support communities in this effort, Maloney said. We are confident towns and cities are working hard to complete these plans. During the legislative session that ended last month, a number of housing initiatives failed, including a bill that would have allowed local housing authorities to buy and develop units in neighboring municipalities. This year, of the 23 bills that originated in and were approved by the legislative Housing Committee, only one became law, requiring municipalities with 25,000 or more residents to create fair rent commissions. Christie Stewart, director of the Bridgeport-based Center for Housing Opportunity, which works in Fairfield and Lichfield counties, said Thursday that some towns will need more prodding that others. But the future of Connecticut is at stake. The legislation has no teeth, but its such a contentious issue that even without teeth its a tiny step forward, Stewart said in a phone interview. They cant bury their heads in the sand. Affordability is relative, but its going to take a pro-active approach and adherence to plans. What remains to be seen is to take these plans and see how they get implemented. How do we prioritize? Stewart said that while some towns, realizing there are no consequences, may never file affordable housing plans, no municipal officials should continue to ignore the need for more housing units. The Center for Housing Opportunity also posts information on meetings of local boards, including the June 7 meeting of the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Commission. Between zoning restrictions and the limited capacity of developers, we have kind of a broken housing system, she said. Heres a challenge: Use your local control and decide where to develop housing options in your towns. This is about pro-active planning for vibrant, sustainable communities while the population undergoes a massive demographic shift. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) Pope Francis has appointed a Los Angeles bishop to lead a southern Minnesota diocese. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Thursday that Francis has appointed Bishop Robert E. Barron to lead the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Barron has served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for the last seven years and regularly posts YouTube videos. He will replace 76-year-old Bishop John Quinn, who has decided to resign. The Diocese of Winona-Rochester covers 12,282 square miles. Nearly 600,000 people reside in the diocese. About 134,000 of them are Catholics. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and announced a $21.5 million settlment with 145 survivors of clergy sexual abuse last year. Barron issued a statement on his Word on Fire website saying he will take over in Minnesota on July 29. He said he was overjoyed and humbled to learn of the appointment. WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Midland/Odessa TX 432 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Reeves and south central Loving Counties through 515 PM CDT... At 432 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 9 miles west of Mentone, moving northeast at 15 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph and nickel size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Mentone and Slash Ranch. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT for western and southwestern Texas. LAT...LON 3158 10381 3173 10389 3192 10361 3171 10347 TIME...MOT...LOC 2132Z 234DEG 14KT 3170 10376 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Northwestern Brewster County in southwestern Texas... Eastern Jeff Davis County in southwestern Texas... West Central Pecos County in southwestern Texas... Southwestern Reeves County in southwestern Texas... * Until 830 PM CDT. * At 434 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Fort Davis, Balmorhea, Balmorhea State Park, Balmorhea Lake, Saragosa, Davis Mountains State Park, McDonald Observatory, Camp Mitre Peak, Star Mountain, Toyahvale, Buffalo Trail Scout Camp, Black Mountain, Fort Davis National Historical Site and Indian Lodge. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded roads. Find an alternate route. Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or creeks. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Andrews and southwestern Gaines Counties through 500 PM CDT... At 435 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 12 miles east of Eunice, moving east at 25 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and nickel size hail. This storm will remain over mainly rural areas of northwestern Andrews and southwestern Gaines Counties. western Texas. LAT...LON 3236 10298 3254 10306 3270 10270 3242 10260 TIME...MOT...LOC 2135Z 255DEG 20KT 3247 10294 MAX WIND GUST...55 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Hazleton, PA (18201) Today Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 76F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Rain showers in the evening then thundershowers overnight. Low 59F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (471) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (808) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (949) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (683) Dec 2021 (693) Jan 2022 (694) Feb 2022 (654) Mar 2022 (740) Apr 2022 (745) May 2022 (748) Jun 2022 (165) At the end of May, the forex reserves of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) stood at 40.920 billion euros, up 1.03% from 40.501 billion euros on April 30 2022, informs BNR. Inflows recorded in May amounted to 3.756 billion euros representing: changes in the minimum foreign exchange reserve requirements of the credit institutions, inflows into the accounts of the Ministry of Public Finance (including the amount resulting from the issuance of Eurobonds of the Ministry of Finance in the nominal amount of 1.75 billion US dollars), inflows into the European Commission's accounts, other.There were also outflows of 3.377 billion euros, aimed at changing the minimum foreign exchange reserves set up by credit institutions with the BNR and interest and principal payments on foreign currency public debt, other.Romania's gold stock remained unchanged at 103.6 tonnes worth 5.141 billion euros, as per the current international prices. Given the evolution of international prices, its value stood at 5.741 billion euros.Romania's international reserves (foreign currencies and gold) as of May 31, 2022 were 46.661 billion euros, compared to 46.533 billion euros as of April 30, 2022.According to the BNR, payments due in June 2022 on the public and publicly guaranteed foreign currency denominated debt amount to about 95 million euros. The Commander of the NATO Battle Group in Romania, Colonel Vincent Minguet, laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to the national heroes in the Heroes' Cemetery in Miercurea-Ciuc, where military and religious ceremonies took place on Thursday, in marking the Heroes' Day, Agerpres reports. Colonel Vincent Minguet laid the wreath together with the commander of the 61st Mountain Hunters Brigade "General Virgil Badulescu," Colonel Nicolae Gabriel Oros.In connection with the significance of the day, the commander of the NATO Battle Group, Colonel Vincent Minguet told the press: "As soldiers, we know exactly what we are doing and we know exactly that this is a tribute to those who have fallen for the sake of defending our way of life and the values we believed in."Colonel Vincent Minguet was in Miercurea-Ciuc, in the context of a joint training programme of the French troops with the Romanian troops from the 61st Mountain Hunters Brigade "General Virgil Badulescu," and with the troops of the 2nd Mountain Hunters Brigade. The Minister of National Defense, Vasile Dincu, says that the Romanians have the duty to thank the soldiers who sacrificed themselves for the country, Agerpres reports. "We must recognize that, on such a day, whatever we say and whatever we do would be too little to equal the immense value of the sacrifice of our heroes. But we have a duty to thank them, not only today, not only at the official ceremonies, but every day, for the country they have left us," he said in a message sent on Thursday, on Heroes' Day.The minister emphasizes that this day "is the moment when the Romanian people honour the memory of the known and unknown heroes, fallen in battles throughout history, for the freedom of the nation, for the defense and reunification of the nation"."Not by chance, Romanians commemorate their forefathers heroically sacrificed on the same day as the celebration of the day when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven. The Self-sacrifice of the Son of the Lord, assumed in the name of all humanity, symbolizes the sacrifice of our heroes who, following the example of the Saviour, have placed above their own being the duty to the Country," he adds.Dincu says that "the heroes of our nation gave their lives in the fight against tyranny, in the fight against injustice, so that Romania would be independent, sovereign and for the Romanians who had remained at home and, especially, so that those who were to be born, could live proudly and freely."He recalls of the soldiers who died, in the recent period, in the theaters of operations."Whether it is the soldiers fallen in the Independence War, in the two world wars or, recently, in the missions in the theaters of operations in the Western Balkans, Afghanistan or Iraq, the fallen have made their bodies a shield for the defense of our nation. They are the few to whom we, the many, owe them enormously," the Minister of Defense said.For him, "heroes are role models for the younger generations and for the next.""The values and principles that have guided their destiny also remain to us as landmarks of responsibility, in order to leave to our descendants a developed Romania, a dignified country and fully integrated in the community of free and democratic states," adds Minister Dincu. The 21st edition of the Ethnic Festival organized by the Center of Culture and Art of western Timis County (CCAJT), and hosted by the Banat Village Museum on Sunday, celebrates the multiculturalism that defines the Banat region through the customs and traditions of its ethnic groups, Agerpres reports. The performance will feature the customs and traditions of Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Roma, Jews, Ukrainians, Czechs and Aromanians, who will display the beauty of folk costumes and will bring on the stage the folk songs and dances that recreate, in a fascinating cultural puzzle, the spirit of good living together, informs a CCAJT press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.Invited to the recital are Vasile Conea, Otilia Duma and Doru Taranu Band.Hailing from Ciacova, Vasile Conea represents the Banat song in all that is most beautiful and authentic, its unmistakable timbre is a true mark of Romanian folklore, and its audience feels every note springing directly from the soul. The artist is known as the "king of the doine [Romanian folk song]", with a repertoire that includes over 400 songs. About himself, the soloist confesses that "my voice has never shaken, but before any show, no matter what stage of your career you are in, it is normal to be nervous. You want everything to turn out perfectly".Otilia Duma, a very appreciated performer from the Banat area, started her artistic career at the age of 18, she collaborated with the Banat Professional Ensemble and released over 100 folk songs.Doru Taranu is a valuable instrumentalist who collaborated with the most famous voices of the Banat folklore and contributed to the launch of many young Banat artists. He collaborated with the Banatul Professional Ensemble and released over 50 CDs with popular music together with well-known artists. On Thursday, the Government approved the establishment of the National Agency for the Development of Health Infrastructure, which is an instrument that will make it possible to accelerate investments in the health sector, primarily of the three regional hospitals, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, informs on Thursday. "It has been announced for the past few days that an emergency ordinance enabling the operation of the National Agency for the Development of Health Infrastructure (ANDIS) is to be debated and approved by the Government, which is also a milestone for us. Beyond that, the most important element is that we hope to have a tool at our disposal that will make it possible to accelerate investment in the health sector. I am referring primarily to the three regional hospitals, which are basically from the Ministry of Health to this agency, but also to at least three investment objectives within PNRR (National Plan of Recovery and Resilience," Rafila stated, after the Executive meeting. He said it was good to have an investment agency, especially in the health sector. "The lack of investment in the public sector over the last 30 years has created great dissatisfaction and limited access to health services. It is important to have such a structure. It is important, however, to find mechanisms to stimulate the recruitment of specialists in the structures of this agency," added Rafila. According to the agreement with the European Commission, the Agency will be headed by a president appointed by the Ministry of Health, for a provisional period of 6 months, Alexandru Rafila added. AGERPRES President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marcel Ciolacu will attend on Thursday a military and religious ceremony on Heroes' Day, celebrated on Ascension Day, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Bucharest, Agerpres reports. The event will also be attended by the Minister of National Defense, Vasile Dincu, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Daniel Petrescu.Similar commemorative events will take place in the country's garrisons, mausoleums, cemeteries and monuments dedicated to Romanian heroes, with the participation of representatives of local authorities, schools, religious denominations, veterans' associations and non-governmental organizations.During these events, the names of the heroes of the Romanian people who fell in duty in the wars fought by the Romanian Army or in missions executed in the theaters of operations will be symbolically uttered.In Bucharest, there will be wreath-laying ceremonies at the Monument of Military Heroes Fallen in Mission in Operational Theaters and on the territory of Romania (Youth Park), at the Monument of the Heroes of the Fatherland ("Carol I" National Defense University), Ghencea Military Cemetery, the Revolution Heroes Cemetery, as well as the "Filantropia" Israeli Cemetery.On Thursday, from 21:00, a concert by the Military Music of 30th Honour Guard Regiment "Mihai Viteazul" will take place on the esplanade of the Palace of the National Military Circle, and starting with 21:30, the military with the 30th Honour Guard Regiment "Mihai Viteazul" will carry out the torchlight retreat procession along the route Palace of the National Military Circle - Calea Victoriei - Eroilor Avenue - Cotroceni Palace - headquarters of the Brigade.According to the Ministry of National Defense, the torches of the 30th Guard Brigade military detachment will be symbolically lit by wounded veterans in the theaters of operations of the Invictus Romania team, accompanied by military students. Beforehand, they will light a torch from the eternal flame that burns at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (18.00) and will run, for about 20 kilometers, along the route: Monument of Military Heroes Fallen in Mission in Operational Theaters and on the territory of Romania in the Youth Park - Monument of the Heroes of the Fatherland in front of "Carol I" National Defense University - Monument of the Heroic Heroes in front of the Cotroceni Palace - Monument of the Sanitary Heroes in the Heroes Park - Monument of the Railway Heroes in the North Railway Station Square, the Arc de Triomphe on Kiseleff Avenue - Monument to the Heroes of the Air on Aviatorilor Avenue - Palace of the National Military Circle (arrival at approximately 21:20).At 10:30 pm, lighted candles and flowers will be laid by students of the "Ferdinand I" Military Technical Academy at the graves of the heroes from the Romanian Ghencea Military Cemetery.In all the places of worship the bells will be tolling at 12:00, and in the public institutions and educational units a moment of silence will be kept as a sign of homage for the heroes of the homeland.The commemoration of the Romanian heroes on the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord was decided by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church in 1920 and later consecrated by two other synodic decisions of 1999 and 2001, when the day was proclaimed a national church holiday.Under Law 379/2003 on war graves and memorials, the 40th day after Easter, the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was proclaimed Heroes Day as a national holiday of the Romanian people. On Thursday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, President Klaus Iohannis welcomed Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, underlining the need to implement as soon as possible the latest measures to increase NATO presence in Romania and elsewhere on the NATO eastern flank. According to the Presidential Administration, discussions at the meeting also focused on the strategic partnership between Romania and Turkey and its development prospects, with emphasis on security and defence, the NATO agenda ahead of a Madrid summit, as well as the security state of play in the Black Sea region. Iohannis mentioned excellent results of the co-operation between Romania and Turkey in bilateral, regional and NATO defence matters, especially their joint participation in multinational exercises and missions under the auspices of NATO, the EU, the UN and OSCE. He also thanked Turkey for its contribution to the deterrence and defence measures on the eastern flank and to NATO components in Romania, underscoring the need to implement as soon as possible the latest measures to increase NATO presence in Romania and elsewhere on the eastern flank, from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, including the NATO battlegroup in Romania. Iohannis praised the Romanian-Turkish co-operation for containing the effects caused by the current energy crisis. As stated in the official press release, in preparation for the NATO summit in Madrid, the Romanian chief of state emphasized the importance of obtaining substantial results for the years to come that will be the basis for NATO's adaptation to the new security challenges. Iohannis highlighted the need for the New Strategic Concept to accurately reflect the new reality in terms of security and to respond adequately to the serious security situation created in the Black Sea region as a result of the war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Regarding the security crisis in the region, Iohannis said that Russia's military invasion of Ukraine posed the worst threat to European security since WWII and strongly condemned the crimes committed by Russian troops against civilians, as well as massive destruction inflicted on inhabited areas and civilian infrastructure. He mentioned Romania's complex efforts in support of Ukraine in political, logistical and humanitarian terms, appreciating Turkey's role as mediator and its efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table to find a diplomatic solution, in accordance with the international law. The President also underscored the importance of supporting Moldova politically and economically, and its management of Ukrainian refugees, as well as in case of a possible new energy crisis. According to the Presidential Administration, Turkey's Defence Minister Akar commended Turkey's bilateral co-operation relations with Romania and highlighted the interest of his country in continuing their development and diversification on all levels. At the same time, Akar thanked Romania for its outstanding contribution to the stability and security of the eastern flank and highlighted the need for regional co-operation as NATO member states and Black Sea countries. AGERPRES. Most Romanians (71.2%) blame Russia for the war in Ukraine, 87.3% of them believe that Russian leaders should be convicted of war crimes, and 65% have a good impression of the fact that NATO and the United States are sending more troops to Romania, shows a survey conducted between May 16 and 21, by INSCOP Research, Agerpres reports. According to the survey, 71.2% of Romanians mention Russia as responsible for the war in Ukraine, 10.4% - USA, 4.5% - Ukraine, 3.9% - NATO and 1.7% - EU.Also, 87.3% of Romanians agree with the statement that "the Russian leaders should be convicted of war crimes in Ukraine", while 7.7% disagree with it.According to sociological research, 65% of Romanians have a good opinion about the fact that NATO and the USA are sending more troops to Romania - compared to 59.2% who had this opinion in February, 31.7% have a bad opinion, down from 35.4% in February.Regarding Romania's attitude within NATO, 51.2% of Romanians believe that our country must fulfill its obligations as a NATO member state and help the attacked allied state militarily, 28% believe that it should not participate in the war, but send medical aid and food.According to the survey, 50.5% of Romanians believe that the acquisition of advanced weapons from the USA helps to strengthen the Romanian Army, and 41.5% believe that this only helps to increase the profits of arms manufacturers.The percentage of Romanians who believe that, by exploiting the natural gas resources from the Black Sea, Romania will no longer be dependent on imports from Russia, increased, reaching 66.9%, compared to 53.2% in February. 26.7% of respondents believe that gas extracted from the Black Sea will be sold in the West and will not remain in Romania.The research was commissioned by the New Strategy Center Association, through telephone interviews, on a sample of 1,100 people over the age of 18, representative of significant socio-demographic categories. The margin of error of the data is plus/minus 2.9%, at a 95% confidence level. The Minister of Environment, Waters and Forestry Barna Tanczos leads the Romanian delegation to the international summit "Stockholm+50", which is taking place on June 2-3, 2022, in the Kingdom of Sweden. According to a relevant ministry's release issued to AGERPRES on Thursday, "Stockholm+50" marks the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972), which prepared the report "We Have One Land". The theme of this year's meeting is "A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All - Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity", being an occasion for all stakeholders to be involved in achieving a sustainable future in relation to people and nature, investment and management. "The conference is co-sponsored by the Kingdom of Sweden and the Republic of Kenya and is an important event in continuing efforts for a healthy planet, an opportunity to reflect on new actions and ambitious commitments to sustainable development," the press release reads. The format of the "Stockholm+50" Conference aims to organize 3 leadership dialogues to identify ways to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Global Framework for Biodiversity post-2020, with reference to the following issues: reflection on the urgent need for action for a healthy planet and prosperity for all; achieving a sustainable and inclusive post-COVID 19 recovery; accelerating the implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development in the context of the Decade of Action and for the achievement of sustainable development. "The latest scientific reports show that we are facing a threefold global crisis caused by climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, including plastic pollution. We strongly believe that at this crucial time, Stockholm+50 offers us the opportunity to respond urgently. in relation to the state of our planet, to effectively address environmental issues, identifying concrete solutions to have a healthy planet for all of us while accelerating progress through the Sustainable Development Goals for a better ecological recovery. As part of our efforts to recover after COVID-19 pandemic, we are focusing on the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, targeting investments and reforms in various environmental sectors such as water, biodiversity, waste and the circular economy," said Minister Barna Tanczos. At the same time, the Secretary of State of the Environment Ministry, Ionut Sorin Banciu, participated together with the Romanian delegation and in the high-level segment of the Conference of the member states to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions of June 1, 2022, which took place in connection with the "Stockholm+50" event. The theme was "Global Agreements for a Healthy Planet: Adequate Chemicals and Waste Management", and the aim of the meeting was to provide an interactive platform for the exchange of experience and a renewed political commitment to implementation of conventions. At the same time, the High Level Segment addressed how the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions have helped address the threefold global crisis related to biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. AGERPRES The Ministry of Finance (MoF) borrowed on Thursday 378.5 million lei from banks, through two government securities issues, according to data transmitted by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). Thus, (MoF) attracted 197 million lei through a benchmark government bond issue maturing at 101 months, at an average yield of 8.08%, and 181.5 million lei, through another bond issue maturing at 42 months, at a yield of 7.99%. Two additional tenders are scheduled for Friday, through which the state wants to attract another 120 million lei to the yields set for bonds on Thursday. The Ministry of Finance planned, in June 2022, loans from commercial banks of 3.9 billion lei, of which 200 million lei through a issuance of discount treasury certificates and 3.7 billion lei through nine government bond issues. To these can be added the amount of 555 million lei through additional sessions of non-competitive bids, related to bond auctions. The total amount, of 4.455 billion lei, is 1.725 billion lei over the 2.73 billion lei scheduled for May and will be used to refinance public debt and finance the state budget deficit. AGERPRES. The commemoration of the heroes from nation to nation, from generation to generation, means a culture of the Romanian soul through which we affirm the consciousness of the national unity and honour the dignity of the Christians, said on Thursday the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel, after the service of commemoration of the heroes of the nation, at the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, Agerpres reports. "By honouring the heroes of the nation we honour our own people and the dignity of the Christians who say that through prayer for those passed to the Lord we show our love stronger than death. People die when they are forgotten, but when they are remembered, when their graves are cared for, when flowers are brought to their graves, accompanied by candles and prayers, then they live, they are in communion with us," said Patriarch Daniel, in the sermon after the service dedicated to the commemoration of the Romanian heroes.The Patriarch of the BOR emphasized that in the Romanian people there is a connection between the Cross and the Resurrection, and our entire history is one of sacrifice and victory.He said that the commemoration of the heroes "is done with the hope that those who sacrificed themselves for the Romanian nation will be honoured by God for their humble and sacrificial love and by the Romanian people, because freedom and unity are gifts from God, but which must be preserved, often defended in history."At the Ascension of the Lord, the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates the day of commemoration of the heroes of the Romanian nation.Several memorial services for the heroes were officiated on Thursday, at the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, in all cathedrals, churches, monasteries, cemeteries, at the crosses and monuments dedicated to them in the country and abroad. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca sent on Thursday a message of respect and eternal memory to the Romanian heroes, stressing that the thoughts are dedicated, with gratitude for the last full measure, to all those who have fallen in the fight for ideals and for a better destiny of their descendants, Agerpres reports. "Today, Romania symbolically intertwines its Christian and historical being, marking at the same time two great celebrations: the Day of Ascension of the Lord and the Day of Heroes. At 12 o'clock, the bells will be ringed in all places of worship, a moment of silence will be observed in the public institutions and the educational units, and after the officiating of the Divine Liturgy of Ascension, the festivities of commemoration of the heroes will begin, at the tombs and commemorative works of Romanian war, as well as at the foreign ones on the territory of Romania. To pay tribute to the memory of those who sacrificed themselves on the battlefield throughout history, the Romanian Government, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the local authorities, associations and nongovernmental organizations, the citizens who come to be present at the demonstrations meet today in deeds and thoughts - and we thank them for joining us," states, on the occasion of Heroes' Day, Nicolae Ciuca.He recalls that for the first time appeared the generous idea of honouring all those who fell on the battlefield, by caring for the graves and maintaining the commemorative works of war dedicated to them, in the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 between the belligerents of the First World War."Romania became the first state to consecrate the commemoration of foreign heroes alongside the national ones. By the Decree-Law of May 4, 1920, it was established that the Heroes' Day to be celebrated on the occasion of the Ascension Day, a similar decision being taken, in the same year, by the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Society tombs of Heroes Fallen in War, founded in 1919 under the high patronage of Queen Marie, inaugurated, in 1923, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and supported the construction, in the interwar period, of numerous monuments and commemorative plaques throughout the country. After the Revolution of 1989, the tradition founded in 1920 was re-knotted, so that today we dedicate our thoughts, with gratitude for the supreme sacrifice, to all those who died in the struggle for ideals and for a better destiny of their descendants," adds Ciuca."Even if our respect is equal to all the heroes, a special thought goes to the Romanian heroes, men and women, to whom we owe the independence, unity and status of our country in the world today. If we have our language, our home, our faith, if we have no security fears, if we start to become regional leaders in important sectors of activity, if our young people can go to study anywhere in the world, in short, if we have identity and future, this is due to those who died with gun in hand, defending our identity and our future. Respect and eternal memory of Romanian heroes! And let's not forget that anyone can become a hero, if what he is and what he has ends up in danger!" says Ciuca. On Thursday, at the Victoria Palace, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca received the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Turkey, Hulusi Akar, with whom he discussed the importance of the bilateral relationship limited to the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, and common concerns about regional and Black Sea security. According to a press release of the Executive, the Prime Minister addressed the issue related to the war in Ukraine and condemned, in this context, the illegal, unprovoked nature and the unacceptable actions on the ground. He referred to the direct link between the situation in the Mediterranean Sea and the need to include the Black Sea as a region of NATO strategic interest in the future Strategic Concept. "The framework for energy cooperation and the role of Turkey in the transit of the necessary quantities of gas to Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine through the Turkish transport system was also addressed. The bilateral agenda, the economic and trade dimension, together with the military cooperation and in the field of defence were among the topics of discussion," the same source said. The Turkish defence minister referred to the regional context, security issues in the area and noted the coherence of views in the relationship between the two states, the government press release said. "The official underscored the close level of bilateral relations and mutual support for the initiatives, noting that Turkey has proposed raising the level of the Poland-Romania-Turkey trilateral and expanding the presence of NATO troops with military and technical personnel. Minister Hulusi Akar underscored the importance of developing multilateral and bilateral military cooperation and the prospect of enhancing excellent relations between Turkey and Romania, including a regional solution to the conflict caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine," reads the abovementioned press release. During his visit to Romania, Minister Hulusi Akar was also received at the Cotroceni Palace, where he held talks with President Klaus Iohannis. AGERPRES President Klaus Iohannis sent a letter to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Official Birthday and the celebration of the Jubilee of Platinum, the Presidential Administration reported on Thursday, Agerpres reports. "On the occasion of the anniversary of the Official Birthday and the celebration of the Platinum Jubilee, I have the great honour to convey to Your Majesty, on behalf of the Romanian people and myself, the warmest congratulations, along with wishes of peace and prosperity for the Royal Family and the British people. The celebration by your Majesty of the Jubilee of Platinum represents a historical moment and a symbol of full devotion in the service of the citizens," President Klaus Iohannis wished to Queen Elizabeth II.Also, in his letter to Her Majesty, Klaus Iohannis expressed his conviction that the Strategic Partnership linking Romania and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will continue to be enhanced, for the benefit of both nations. The University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) of Bucharest is a symbol institution of Romanian education, which contributed to the development of agriculture and animal breeding in our country, and today, more than ever, it is important to talk about the future, namely the importance of agricultural sciences in the current context, President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday, on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of institution's founding, Agerpres. "USAMV is one of the oldest higher education institutions in Romania, an institution that has trained thousands of specialists and pushed the frontiers of knowledge in its field of activity. It is also a landmark institution, which grew with Romania or alongside Romania. (...) Through its graduates, it has contributed to the development of agriculture and animal breeding in our country and through its research it has contributed to the increase of productivity and to the adaptation of this economic branch to the exigencies of the times," reads the message of the head of state presented by Presidential Adviser Ligia Deca at the anniversary ceremony."I think it's more important than ever to talk about the future, not just the absolute past of the USAMV, because this year, the importance of agricultural and veterinary sciences has become clear to everyone. In the context of the war in Ukraine, the problems in the trade of agricultural products have led to both a rise in prices and a sincere European discussion on the importance of food security. The agricultural sciences have been able to contribute to a dramatic increase in productivity in the agricultural sector over the last few centuries, and we need it again today. Even after the end of the military conflict in Ukraine, the challenge of climate change will put pressure on humanity and require unprecedented adaptation efforts. Agriculture and animal husbandry are likely to be particularly affected and adaptation to the new climatic conditions will be necessary to maintain the standard of living of Romanians, Europeans and the world's population in general," reads the president's message.He adds that USAMV "seriously takes on a third mission" - its contribution to the development of public policies in Romania in a broader sense, and the mission of the university is more current than ever. Romania is asking the European Commission for additional funding to manage price increases that could affect infrastructure projects, Sorin Grindeanu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday. "In a joint effort with eight other Member States (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia), we signed a Declaration today on actions at the European level to complete infrastructure investment. We thus want to have additional funding granted to avoid failing to meet the targets set in the signed contracts and the termination of agreements due to rising prices for construction materials. More precisely, we want to support the European Commission through the extention of the eligibility period for the cohesion funds by 2024, based on the model of funds managed by the DG MOVE," he noted. The requested extension aims at the overall goal of completing the TEN-T network on time and maintaining European funding for projects contracted for implementation or planned. "Thus, we avoid a blockage of large infrastructure projects in the European Union due to rising prices for construction materials or the lack/delay of their supply," he added. AGERPRES/ The total volume of Romanian-Iranian trade was 105.1 million dollars on March 31, up 78% from Q 1 2022, according to a statement released by the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB), Agerpres reports. Romanian exports amounted to 83.4 million US dollars, up 71.5%, while imports amounted to 21.7 million, up 108.4%."After a year 2021 in which bilateral trade reported a volume more than five times higher than in 2020, of which exports almost seven times so, the growth trend continued into the first quarter of 2022," according to CCIB.On Thursday in the Miron Vlasto Hall of CCIB old headquarters, the organisation hosted a working meeting dedicated to the promotion of economic co-operation and trade with Iran to mark the visit to Romania of senior Iranian foreign affairs official Mohammad Habibollahzadeh.Participating in the event, also attended by Iran's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Romania Seyed Hossein Sadat Meidani, and commercial attache with the Iranian Embassy Parvin Neginraz, were Romanian businessmen operating in the areas of energy, transport infrastructure, traffic management, information technology, metallurgy, tourism, equipment, and engineering.In the opening, CCIB Chairman Iuliu Stocklosa spoke about the economic potential of the city in a national context, and also about the CCIB activity, with emphasis on its foreign affairs strategy focused on promoting business opportunities outside the community.Habibollahzadeh voiced Iran's interest in developing economic relations and co-operation with Romania taking into account a good track record of Romanian-Iranian relationships, and presented the main strategic axes of Iran's economy.Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, alternative transport routes for Iranian products exported to Europe was discussed, including by sea and later using the Romanian ports of Constanta, Braila, Galati, on the Danube to the countries in the central and western parts of Europe. As many as 182 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 118 from Wednesday, with over roughly 8,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Thursday, Agerprs reports. Of the new cases, 19 were in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 57, and in the County of Maramures - 20.As of Thursday, 2,909,677 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.- Hospitalisations -As many as 484 people with COVID-19, down 14 from the Wednesday reporting, including 32 children, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 79 patients are in intensive care units.Of the 79 patients admitted to ICU, 71 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.- Deaths -According to the ministry, one Romanian infected with SARS-CoV-2 is reported dead in the last 24 hours, a man of over 60, with comorbidities and vaccinated.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,686 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania. As many as 58 migrants from different countries were found, in the last 24 hours, trying to get out of Romania illegally, hidden in four trucks transporting goods to Schengen Area countries, Agerpres reports. The western Arad Border Police informed on Thursday that 36 migrants were found at the Border Crossing Point (PTF) Nadlac II, in two trucks driven by Romanian citizens. According to the documents accompanying the goods, the officers transported vacuum cleaners and refrigerators for commercial companies in Germany and Italy."Following the thorough control of the means of transport, 36 citizens from Nepal, Egypt, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, aged between 18 and 43 years, were discovered hidden in the cargo compartments," the source said.Also, in PTF Nadlac I, during the control of a truck driven by a Turk, carrying watermelon to Luxembourg, 12 people from Syria, Iraq and Turkey were found.In another truck, checked in PTF Varsand, driven by a Bulgarian transporting textiles to Germany, the Arad border guards discovered 10 migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.In all cases, the border guards unfold investigations. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Australia and China continued their tit-for-tat diplomatic rivalry in the Pacific on Thursday as the foreign ministers from each country paid separate visits to island nations. In Samoa, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that her country would donate a patrol boat to replace a similar one that was wrecked after it ran aground last year. Meanwhile, Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Papua New Guinea to meet with leaders there on the penultimate stop of an eight-nation regional tour. Wang had hoped to ink an ambitious multilateral deal with 10 South Pacific nations this week covering everything from security to fisheries. He couldn't find consensus on that deal but has been notching up smaller wins by signing bilateral agreements with many of the countries hes been visiting. The diplomatic push by China, especially around Pacific security, has caused deep concern among some of the island nations as well as farther afield in Canberra and Washington. Since news of the proposed deal emerged, Wong has made two trips to the Pacific to shore up support for Australia. In Samoa, Wong met with Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa. Wong told reporters that Australia respected the right of sovereign nations to make their own security decisions, but said those decisions "have the potential to affect the nature of the security arrangements of the region. So having a collective consideration of those matters is important." Fiame said she wanted to make clear that while Samoa had signed some bilateral agreements with China, it hadn't favored inking the big multilateral deal at least not right away. She said Samoa and the other nations needed to talk through the issues first. Our position was that you cannot have regional agreement when the region hasn't met to discuss it, she said. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been even more blunt, tweeting: The Pacific needs genuine partners, not superpowers that are super-focused on power. Wang's visit to Papua New Guinea comes ahead of a national election there next month. Wong will next visit Tonga while Wang plans to end his tour with a stop in East Timor. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. DETROIT (AP) A judge declined to put a former Detroit police chief on the Republican ballot for Michigan governor, the third candidate to lose a court challenge after election staff said campaign petitions were marred by fraudulent signatures. It's a remarkable setback for James Craig, who has high name recognition in southeastern Michigan and retired as Detroit's top cop last year to make his first run for office. Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher said she must abide by a Michigan appeals court decision released Wednesday that kept two other Republicans, Perry Johnson and Michael Markey, off the Aug. 2 ballot. Gleicher's opinion, dated Wednesday but released Thursday, also cited other reasons. There appears to be no dispute that fraudulent signatures were turned in by paid circulators, though theres no evidence that the candidates were aware of the scam. In a court filing, attorneys representing the Board of State Canvassers called it an unprecedented situation. The candidates were declared ineligible last week as the result of a tie vote by the board. State election staff said Johnson, Craig, Markey, Donna Brandenburg and Michael Brown didnt meet the 15,000-signature threshold because of fraudulent signatures. In Craig's case, election staff said he appeared to have only about 10,200 valid signatures after subtracting 9,879. He argued that the state had an obligation to go line by line, comparing signatures to the eligible voter file before striking them. Only 20% of the suspicious signatures were formally checked. But the appeals court said that wasn't necessary. The board ... had a clear legal duty to investigate, but it did not have a clear legal duty to conduct a comparison of each fraudulent signature against the qualified voter file, the court said in a 3-0 opinion in Johnson's case. The Michigan Supreme Court is the last hope for the candidates. Timing is crucial: The state said it needs to complete the ballot by Friday. Five other Republican candidates have landed a ballot spot, including Tudor Dixon, a former conservative TV news host who has the backing of Betsy DeVos, who was head of the U.S. Education Department during the Trump administration. Kevin Rinke, a former owner of Detroit-area car dealerships, said he's prepared to spend at least $10 million of his own money. He has promoted himself in TV and digital ads. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the fall. Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Today, saving for retirement largely falls on you. Previous generations could work a job until they retired and enjoy a pension covering most of their living expenses. Today, the pension is essentially extinct. Instead, there's the 401(k) retirement plan, an employer-sponsored personal investment account that workers fund with their wages. Unfortunately, about one-third of eligible workers don't participate, putting them behind in building a healthy financial future. Here are three reasons you absolutely must fund your 401(k) plan. 1. You're probably missing out on free money About 8 in 10 employers will help you put money into your 401(k) with a company match, where employers will match your contributions with their own funds. How much they will match ranges across companies. Some will match dollar for dollar, while some will match $0.50 for every dollar you contribute, up to a certain amount (up to about 4.5% of your salary on average). Suppose you make $50,000 a year; you contribute 3% of your salary ($1,500), and your employer matches that, dollar for dollar. Your $1,500 is matched by another $1,500, making your total contribution $3,000. The company match doubled your initial contribution without any investment returns from the market yet! It's as close to free money as you get. You can contribute a maximum of $20,500 to your 401(k) plan each year as of 2022. Many people will have a hard time approaching this limit, but it's beneficial to your financial future if you can at least put enough money to collect the most your employer will match. 2. You'll pay less in taxes The U.S. government also wants you to save for retirement; assuming your employer 401(k) is a traditional plan, your contributions are pre-tax dollars. Let's go back to that hypothetical $50,000 salary. If you contribute 10% of your salary to your traditional 401(k), that would reduce the salary that the government taxes down to $45,000. The more you contribute, the lower your taxable income will be for that year. The catch is that you pay taxes later when you withdraw the funds from your 401(k). Those with different plans like a Roth 401(k) might fund them with take-home pay -- what's left after income tax -- but they can pull the money out tax-free later in life. It's essential to know the difference, so consult your employer about your specific plan. 3. Out of sight, out of mind Each type of 401(k) can have different rules, but helping you build a healthy retirement nest egg is the common thread linking them. The best benefit of employer-sponsored retirement plans is arguably one you might not even realize you're getting. Retirement plans all have safeguards, like early withdrawal penalties, to keep you focused on the long term. Unfortunately, investors can sometimes be their own worst enemies, and it can be tempting to cash in on your growing nest egg to buy that new car you've been eyeing. Your 401(k) and other retirement plans work in the background, and that's by design. The contributions are typically automatic, and you don't even see the money leave your paycheck; it stays out of sight and out of mind, which is good for most investors. 10 stocks we like better than Walmart When our award-winning analyst team has an investing tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Walmart wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Stock Advisor returns as of 2/14/21 The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. MADISON Heres how excited local NASCAR fans are for the top circuits debut in the region Sunday: Some of them already are camping out at the track. Jim Rentz, a truck driver from OFallon, Missouri, parked his camper on a coveted spot inside World Wide Technology Raceway this week and immediately began daydreaming about the competition set to play out maybe 50 feet from where he and his girlfriend, Melanie Thorpe, stood. Well smell the fumes, the tires, the brakes, he said. Were thrilled to death about this. St. Louis is set to be the center of the stock car racing world this weekend the Enjoy Illinois 300 is the hottest ticket in town. Officials said Friday the main event of the festivities, which include a trucks series race Saturday, is sold out, with more than 50,000 expected to be in the stands. The suites are full. And every one of the tracks 1,200 camp sites is booked. Fans who have waited decades on the periphery of the sport can barely contain their excitement. We knew our fans were hungry, track owner Curtis Francois said. The best evidence of that ravenous support so far can be found on the infield between turns three and four, where spots, complete with RV hookups, individual trash cans and fantastic views, went for $3,000 a pop. Robert Bland, 21, of Collinsville, said hed been waiting for the opportunity to cheer on drivers close to home for years. Since I was little, he said, putting his hand out about 3 feet from the ground for emphasis. This is a huge deal to a lot of people. Tom Moreland, 62, who owns a roofing business in OFallon, Illinois, said hes been coming to the track for more than 20 years, from back when it was Gateway International Raceway and struggling to stay in business under previous owners. Normally, he goes to the National Hot Rod Association drag races, held on a strip south of the oval speedway. But this is bigger, he said after setting up his camper. Were excited to see whats its going to be like. A few spots over on the infield loop, retired truck driver Mike Volner, 64, of Arnold, already was impressed. He said he goes to multiple top-tier races a year and has seen crown jewels tracks such as Daytona and Talladega. But we didnt have to drive eight hours to get to this one, he said. His daughter, Samantha Volner, 35, said this weekends music concerts also looked stronger than any shed seen at past races with her dad. Old Dominion and Cole Swindell are among the national acts set to perform. And youve got Nelly, whos from here, she said. Thatll be cool. And for the three days before that? Well cook, take a few naps, and meet new people, Mike Volner said. There will be plenty of opportunities. Campers at the track sported license plates from Oregon to Florida. Oscar Ahumada, of Tucson, Arizona, his wife, Mary, and their dogs Ruger and Winnie, were stopping here on the backend of a road trip to see relatives. After years of watching races in Arizona and Las Vegas, Ahumada said he was excited to see what St. Louis had to offer besides the humidity. His plan for the five days until the race started was simple: Just cook out and relax, he said. Not everyone was so mellow. Stephanie Beckmann, who drove in with her NASCAR fan husband, Craig, from St. Charles County, was less than excited. We could have gone to Hawaii, she lamented. But they were outliers. Rentz, the truck driver from OFallon, said he fell in love with the sport 55 years ago when he saw his first race at Darlington, in South Carolina. His girlfriend, Melanie, thought NASCAR was just for rednecks before she went to Talladega and found herself cheering with everyone else. And Rentz thinks NASCAR is going to win some new fans here this weekend. Hopefully they come back year after year after year, he said. Still, Rentz decided he couldnt stay in the motorhome this week, at least until Friday night. The best seats in the house arent cheap. I have to go back to work to pay for all this, he said. 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. Ian Froeb Ian Froeb is the restaurant critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Ian Froeb 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 I would call the St. Ann home of Sabroso Cocina Mexicana a shopping plaza if I had seen any shopping going on. Sabrosos open sign and the scrolling electronic message board above its entrance are lonely beacons among the other storefronts here: a church, a day care, an adult day care. The chef, Miguel Pintor, and his wife and co-owner, Brandin Maddock, have lived in St. Ann for about a decade. They like the neighborhood, he told me in a phone interview, and the rent of this space across Old St. Charles Road from the erstwhile Northwest Plaza was affordable. Sabroso, which opened in late September, is the couples first restaurant, but a culinary path winds through Pintors life. Born in Mexicos Tabasco state, at age 9 he moved to Mexico City, where his mother has run a taco stand for 40 years. While traveling as a young man, Pintor visited cousins in St. Louis. Out of money, he asked his cousins if he could borrow some. They said no, but they could find him a job, and Pintor began his own culinary career at Red Lobster. He went on to work for the chef Jason Tilford, who with his brother Adam has operated the Mexican restaurants Tortillaria, Milagro Modern Mexican and Mission Taco Joint. Pintor rose to become the culinary director for the multiple-location Mission, but he was laid off at the onset of the pandemic. It was tough, he said, but he realized now was the time to start something new for himself and his family. On your first visit to Sabroso, you might find the interior as confounding as the location. To your right as you enter is a soda fountain, and directly ahead of you, in front of an open kitchen, is a counter where you might be tempted to place an order fast-casual-style. In fact, the restaurant offers table service and ample seating in the more open area by its front and side windows and along a sort of corridor where the decor features both Mexican and pop culture. (On several visits I sat within view of a picture of Optimus Prime.) The most important piece of decor is near the soda fountain, a vibrant state map of Mexico illustrated with notable landmarks (e.g., Chichen Itza) and regional foods. Representing the state of Yucatan is probably the areas most famous dish, cochinita pibil. The slow-roasted pork is also a Sabroso specialty. The meat showcases the spreadable succulence usually associated with rillettes, while a generous garnish of red onion pickled with habanero chiles in lime juice punches up its citrusy essence. You can order this as a plate with rice, beans and tortillas, but Pintor also offers it as a panucho, another Yucatecan dish, one that I hadnt encountered in St. Louis until its nearly simultaneous appearance here and at Alex Henrys Sureste at the Food Hall at City Foundry. The cochnita pibil rests on a bed of refried black beans atop a fried corn tortilla with just enough body to register a slight chew. The beans and tortilla ground the pork with earthiness and a mild sweetness, an assemblage as appealing as your favorite taco. That map of Mexico is really a flex: Pintors range is broad, and Sabrosos menu delights from the Yucatan through Tabasco across the country. Inevitably, he follows birrias path from a traditional stew of Jalisco to the current quesabirria boom, serving the pockets of elastic cheese and deeply meaty beef alongside a little cup of spicy, silky consomme. As you might have guessed, given his mothers career, Pintor knows how to fashion an excellent taco. The corn tortillas are plump with carne asada, chorizo or exceptionally tender carnitas, but while they might spill some of their contents, they somehow hold their form unless, understandably, you sluice your tacos with a little too much of the house salsa verde. Yet it wouldnt surprise me if Sabroso becomes renowned for a couple of dishes ahead of its tacos. The huarache begins as a beautifully painted canvas a large, oval fried-corn tortilla dressed with salsa verde, crema, cilantro, onion, crumbles of queso fresco and, if you like, a substantial portion of steak, chicken or pork and transforms into an engineering marvel. The tortilla has the heft and crispness to support its toppings, yet through the final bite, it retains the sweet, airy pleasure of a fritter fresh from the fryer. Sabrosos tortas might not be as overstuffed as the legendary sandwiches at El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery in Manchester, but you still dont finish these tortas so much as stagger toward the moment you concede the necessity of leftovers. (I couldnt eat more than half at one sitting, and I do this for a living.) Pintor bakes his own telera bread yet another distinguishing touch here and the crusty, light roll cradles each tortas meticulously composed ingredients. I especially loved the al pastor torta, which contrasted the earthy, mildly spicy pork (his mothers recipe) and its accompanying pops of pineapple with the subtle sweetness of avocado. You can actually taste the avocado in Pintors guacamole. You can enjoy that guacamole as a dip with chips, of course, or you can scoop your chips through the thick ChoriMexico dip, queso larded with chorizo and jolted with the spice of the sausage and serrano chiles. The menu is both broad and broadly appealing more than I could take in across multiple visits from Mexican breakfast (chilaquiles verdes) to the tacos nortenos with ground beef. The only thing it lacks, due to its proximity to a church, is a liquor license. I dont know whether Sabroso by itself can power its not-quite-a-shopping plaza back to life. I dont know that it needs to. Its strengths are enough to drive further discussion about St. Louis best and most intriguing Mexican restaurants. Where Sabroso Cocina Mexicana, 11146 Old St. Charles Road, St. Ann More info 314-918-5037; stlsabroso.com Menu A broad range of regional Mexican dishes Hours Dinner Tuesday-Saturday, lunch Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday) How much Carnitas taco $2.95 Al pastor torta $9.95 Huarache with carne asada $11.99 Quesabirria $11.99 Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. If youd like to join Stone Hill Winerys 175th anniversary party, plan a trip to Hermann on June 11. Missouris oldest winery, founded in 1847, will be hosting a jubilee event from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. that features live music, barbecue, barrel making demonstrations, free guided tours and even the release of a limited-edition cream sherry with only 912 bottles available. The winery has quite a history to celebrate. It was once the second-largest winery in the United States and won eight World Fair Gold Medals in the late 1800s. Stone Hill stopped making wine when prohibition hit in the 1920s, but it didnt give up. Instead, it began using its labyrinth of wine cellars to grow white cap mushrooms distributed in the Midwest. In 1965, Jim and Betty Held reestablished the estate as a winery and were pioneers in bringing the Missouri wine industry back to life. The winery remains owned and operated by the second and third generation of the Held family. Over the years it has won numerous accolades including being named the best Midwest winery in 2022 by Midwest Living magazine. The following is an example of one of Stone Hills award-winning Norton wines. Stone Hill Winery 2017 Norton, Hermann, MissouriBought Starrs, 1135 South Big Bend Boulevard, in May for $18.99 Description A great vintage Norton wine, this rich and robust red was awarded best of class in the native wine category at the 2020 American Wine Society Competition. The society is the largest consumer-based wine organization in the U.S. Aged for 12 months in French, Hungarian and American oak barrels, this Norton is dry, complex and full-bodied with ripe tannins. Its an alluring deep purple wine thats a little earthy and tastes of blackberries and other dark fruit with spicy notes. Its a very flavorful wine that calls for hearty foods including game, beef and barbecued meats. Follow Gail on Twitter @GailAppleson. THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose mothers had rising levels of depression during pregnancy appear to have an increased risk of behavioral problems, researchers say. "Our findings suggest that increases in mother's symptoms of depression from preconception to postpartum contribute to children's lower attention and behavioral control, which can raise the risk of problems across the life span," said study lead author Gabrielle Rinne, a psychology graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Parents should know, however, that this can be addressed through early childhood intervention," Rinne said in a university news release. The seven-year study included 125 U.S. women and their children who were followed from before pregnancy until the children were 5 years old. Most of the women were Black or Hispanic and from low-income families. The women were interviewed four times about their symptoms of depression: once before becoming pregnant, twice during pregnancy and again about three months after their baby's birth. When their children were 4 years old, the mothers were asked to describe their child's temperament and behavior, particularly episodes of emotional distress and their ability to regulate their emotions. At age 5, the children were given a computer task to assess their ability to concentrate. Children of mothers whose depression increased during pregnancy did worse on the task than children whose mothers had consistently low symptoms of depression. Children whose mothers had consistently high depression and those whose mothers had consistently low depression had similar results on the task, according to the study. The findings were published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders. It's the first to show that changes in mothers' levels of depression over time may affect their young children's behavior and emotional well-being, the researchers said. "This study suggests that a pattern of increasing depression may adversely affect children," said study co-author Christine Dunkel Schetter, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA. She noted, however, that not all of these kids will experience behavioral problems later, only that their risk may be higher. The study only found an association, and not a cause-and-effect link. "Moms who experience depression or stress at multiple times should know the effects this can have on young children," Dunkel Schetter said in the release. "They can seek evaluation and treatment from a doctor or mental health professional for their children and themselves." More information For more on depression during pregnancy, see the American Pregnancy Association. SOURCE: University of California, Los Angeles, news release, May 31, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses received not the combinations is the key to strengthening your immune system to protect against different variants of the coronavirus, including Omicron, a new study suggests. A team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong also determined that a third shot a booster dose is needed to prevent infection by the Omicron variant. The effectiveness of individual COVID-19 vaccines has been proven, but the protection afforded by vaccine combinations is less clear, especially for at-risk groups. Also, concerns about waning vaccine immunity and new variants makes it important to understand which vaccine combinations are most effective, the researchers explained. For the study, the investigators analyzed 53 studies that included more than 100 million people. In all, they received 24 combinations of COVID-19 vaccine regimens using seven different mRNA and adenoviral vector vaccines. The team found that three doses of any mRNA vaccine seem most effective (96%) against non-severe COVID-19 infections and most effective (95%) in reducing COVID-19-related hospital admission. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are mRNA vaccines. Using an mRNA booster after two doses of adenovirus vector vaccines was 88% effective. Johnson & Johnson's COVID shot is a vector vaccine. Any three-dose regimen of the same vaccine type or a combination of different vaccine types led to greater immunity in all age groups than two doses of the same vaccine, Peter Pak-Hang Cheung and colleagues concluded. Cheung is with the chemical pathology department at Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences. A third mRNA booster dose as part of a regimen of the same or different vaccine types provided much better protection for immunocompromised patients than two doses, according to the study. The findings were published May 31 in the BMJ. It's not clear whether three vaccine doses protect against death from COVID-19, the study authors noted in a journal news release. Due to limited information in the studies, the researchers weren't able to assess the ideal time interval for a prime boost or boosting regimens. But they said the study does show that three doses of the same or different types of vaccines work comparably well in preventing infections, even against different variants, and the findings should help guide public health decisions about COVID-19 vaccination. More information For more on COVID-19 vaccines, go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SOURCE: BMJ, news release, May 31, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children who have had COVID-19 aren't protected against the Omicron variant, but vaccination does cut their chances of infection, a new study shows. "I hear parents say, 'Oh, my kid had COVID last year,'" said senior study co-author Dr. Adrienne Randolph, from Boston Children's Hospital. "But we found that antibodies produced by prior infections in children don't neutralize Omicron, meaning that unvaccinated children remain susceptible to Omicron," she added in a hospital news release. For the study, Randolph and her colleagues analyzed blood samples from 62 children and teens hospitalized with severe COVID-19, 65 children and teens hospitalized with COVID-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and 50 youngsters who had mild COVID-19 and weren't hospitalized. All the blood samples were taken during 2020 and early 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron variant. The researchers conducted lab tests to determine how well antibodies in the samples neutralized five COVID variants of concern: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron. Overall, the samples showed some loss of antibody cross-neutralization against all five variants, but the loss was most pronounced for Omicron, according to the study published online May 27 in the journal Nature Communications. "Omicron is very different from previous variants, with many mutations on the spike protein, and this work confirms that it is able to evade the antibody response," Randolph said. "Unvaccinated children remain susceptible." But the researchers found that children and teens who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine had higher levels of neutralizing antibodies against the five variants, including Omicron. Randolph said she hopes the findings will encourage parents to have their children and teens vaccinated. Only 28% of U.S. children aged 5 to 11 and only 58% of youth aged 12 to 17 had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of May 18, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is set to meet on June 14-15 to consider authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5. More information For more on children and COVID-19, go to the American Academy of Pediatrics. SOURCE: Boston Children's Hospital, news release, May 27, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. COLUMBIA, MO. The pallbearers included two Democratic candidates for statewide office. A Methodist bishop described the dearly departed as the type of citizen which has made our commonwealth great. Not mentioned during the service, if the Columbia Daily Tribunes accounts were complete, was former congressman Willard Vandivers important contribution to the unofficial state boast, which endures in ordinary small talk and on vehicle license plates. Vandiver was buried from Missouri United Methodist Church, near the University of Missouri campus, on June 1, 1932, two days after his death at 78. A son of antebellum Virginia, he was educated in Missouri and was president of Bellevue Institute in Caledonia, Mo., and the state teachers college in Cape Girardeau (now Southeast Missouri State University) until his election to Congress in 1896. Membership on the House Naval Affairs Committee got him a tour of the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1899 and a last-minute invitation to dinner at the citys prestigious Five OClock Club. Vandiver and congressman John Hull of Iowa were the only two who hadnt traveled with formal dinner attire. They agreed to stick together in their humbler garb. But Hull arrived in coat and tails, spinning a tale of a tailor who stitched them in 15 minutes. When it was Vandivers turn to toast and roast, he told the gathering of 200 that Hull had stolen his suit, then said, Im from a state that raises corn, cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. Im from Missouri. You have to show me. The audience loved it. Vandivers fellow congressmen returned to Washington with glowing words for his pithy retort. Or so the story goes. As with most slang expressions, there are many claims of authorship. In 1912, U.S. House Speaker James Champ Clark of Missouri used the phrase during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clark credited Vandiver. So did the New York Herald newspaper and the Literary Digest, an influential weekly magazine. But rumblings of other origins continued. In 1921, the St. Louis Star asked Vandiver, who then was chief federal treasury official in St. Louis. He replied with an essay admitting to authorship, as far as he knew. I have never considered it of such great value as to warrant taking a copyright out on it, Vandiver wrote. In fact it is possible that the real coinage of it may have been prior to the occasion herein referred to, but I have no recollection of having seen it or heard it before that time. A few days later, the Star ran a lengthy letter from William Ledbetter, former editor of the St. Louis Republic and, in his cub days, a reporter for the Kansas City Times. Ledbetter claimed to have heard it in Denver before Vandivers speech, and traced it to miners in Leadville, Colo. Other versions have it uttered in Nevada mining camps in the 1870s or during the Civil War. Who will ever know? By points, history gives Vandiver credit for making it popular. Tim O'Neil is a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Contact him at 314-340-8132 or toneil@post-dispatch.com Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today I get my Busches confused. Theres Adolphus and August. Gussie and Billy. III and IV. So, its not surprising that when I went looking the other day for a piece I had written a few years ago about the Busch family and guns, I couldnt find it. I remembered that after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults, one of the Busch family members had resigned a lifetime membership from the National Rifle Association. This was big news at the time. Historically, the Busch family loves their guns almost as much as their beer. I was searching for the past coverage because of a new kerfuffle involving guns and the Busch family. It turns out, as it has many times in the past, the NRA had a fundraiser planned this summer at the historic Busch family estate known as Grants Farm. Political fundraisers are common at the complex. But coming on the heels of the latest massacre of schoolchildren by a madman with an AR-15, this time in Uvalde, Texas, that news contained a bit of particularly bad timing for Trudy Busch Valentine, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. Valentines opponents in the primary Lucas Kunce and Spencer Toder jumped on the story, at least in the fleeting social media space. Really, it was a few hours of ado about nothing. All three Democrats are opposed to the NRA, in favor of the same gun safety measures, and at polar opposite sides of the gun debate from whichever gun-loving candidate wins the Republican primary. By the end of the day, Valentine had made a donation to Moms Demand Action, a gun-safety group, and convinced the family to drop the NRA fundraiser. Valentine isnt alone among Busch family members seeking sensible gun-safety measures. Thats what I was seeking in my bungled Google and Post-Dispatch archive searches. But I was looking for August III, when I needed to be searching Adolphus IV. Eventually, I found it. After Sandy Hook, in a moment that felt quite a bit like the current environment, Congress considered the most basic of gun-safety measures, universal background checks. Its an idea the NRA used to back. Its a proposal that the majority of Americans have long supported. Republicans funded by the NRA killed the bill. That led Adolphus Busch IV, a hunter and environmentalist, to resign his lifetime NRA membership. It was a strong letter, that Busch made public in the Post-Dispatch and other publications. I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable. In fact, according to a Johns Hopkins University study, 74% say they support background checks, Busch wrote. I am simply unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have a role in your vision. The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established. Your current strategic focus places a priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members. Nearly a decade later, here we are again, with Democrats pushing for the most incremental of gun-safety measures and most elected Republicans continuing to send out mailers to their constituents with pictures of them holding weapons of war, because the NRA has turned Americas gun obsession into a profit center, as gun manufacturers cash in on dead kids. Thats not hyperbole, by the way. After school shootings, gun sales often spike. Former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative, famously said years ago that the interpretation of the Second Amendment that got the U.S. in this spot is a fraud. Thomas Coffin agrees. He thinks relitigating that point, in the court of public opinion, and state and federal courts, is the only way out of this mess. Coffin, a St. Louis native is a retired federal judge who spent two decades as a prosecutor. The way back to a more accurate interpretation of the amendment should begin the same way the current NRA-fueled view became so common, he says, with a nonstop drumbeat of education, and court cases that can turn the tide. The most important thing is to educate the public, Coffin tells me. America has been conned by the industrys propaganda. The politicians hide behind the cover story. Peel away the false narrative and go from there. Coffin spent his life in a courtroom, and thats where the change must happen, with cities and states passing common sense gun-safety measures that will eventually force the gun manufacturers into court where they have to be questioned under oath, and a record can be built. Then, someday, a Valentine, or a Kunce or a Toder, perhaps, can propose the legislation on background checks and ammunition limitations and assault weapons bans that a majority of Americans would like to see become law. That sort of change wont happen overnight. Until then, perhaps we should all head out to Grants Farm, drink a beer and feed the goats. Just keep your guns at home. From City Hall to the Capitol, metro columnist Tony Messenger shines light on what public officials are doing, tells stories of the disaffected, and brings voice to the issues that matter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ST. LOUIS Three federal subpoenas submitted to the St. Louis Development Corp. sought records related to two properties that were the subject of property tax abatement bills sponsored by former Alderman John Collins-Muhammad and Alderman Jeffrey Boyd. The subpoenas, released Wednesday under an open records request, deal with two properties owned by Mohammad Almuttan, who was one of 35 people charged in a 2017 cigarette and synthetic marijuana trafficking sting. Almuttan co-owns and operates several gas stations and convenience stores in the St. Louis area. Most of his federal charges dismissed in April. His lawyer has not responded to requests for comment. Collins-Muhammad, who was reelected last year to represent several north St. Louis neighborhoods near OFallon and Fairground parks, abruptly resigned from the board on May 12, saying in a message on Twitter that he has made mistakes and the weeks ahead will be tough. A source told the Post-Dispatch he was under investigation for bribery. Collins-Muhammad has not responded to requests for comment. According to a May 10 subpoena requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who leads public corruption prosecutions, federal investigators sought all records and communications from SLDC related to tax abatement at 5337 Von Phul Street, a property owned by a company tied to Almuttan. In August 2020, an SLDC agency that processes tax abatement had recommended the tax break for a new gas station on the Von Phul Street site, a vacant parcel near an Interstate 70 ramp by OFallon Park in north St. Louis. Collins-Muhammad sponsored a bill granting a tax break for the project but held it up before final votes by aldermen. A Mike Almuttan who listed an address that matches one of the Almuttans stores on North Florissant Avenue, made at least one $1,000 contribution to Collins-Muhammad in December 2020. Two other subpoenas relate to a property at 4201R Geraldine Avenue, which Almuttan acquired in May 2021 from the St. Louis Land Reutilization Authority, the citys land bank operated by SLDC staff. The LRA board had approved the sale to Almuttan in December 2020. A subpoena requested on March 30 by Goldsmith sought all records and communications since Jan. 1, 2020, relating to the LRAs sale of the property, a vacant industrial building in the Mark Twain I-70 Industrial area of north St. Louis. A second subpoena dated April 1, also requested by Goldsmith, sought all records from SLDC related to tax abatement for the Geraldine Avenue property. The St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, which SLDC operates, had recommended 10 years of tax abatement for the property in November. Boyd, who represents the area in northwest St. Louis, in December sponsored a property tax abatement bill for the Geraldine Avenue property, which passed the board in January. Boyd, who joined the board in 2003 and is one of its longest-serving members, couldnt immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office declined to comment. But on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Missouri sent out a media advisory saying there will be a hearing of public interest at 1 p.m. Thursday. Collins-Muhammad planned to make an initial appearance Thursday in an indictment against him, according to a person familiar with the matter, though the charges against him werent clear. Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JEFFERSON CITY Election officials in Jefferson County may no longer face a ballot dilemma heading into the August primary in the wake of a court ruling Thursday. With ballots for the election expected to be printed in the coming days, a three-judge panel sent a dispute over a candidate for collector back to a lower court for further deliberation. That move means Republican candidate Shannon Roden is likely back on the ballot after she was removed in May. At issue is a lawsuit by the current collector, Michelle Worth, who filed a petition in April asking that Roden be disqualified from running in the GOP primary race. Roden is the wife of Rep. Shane Roden, R-Cedar Hill, who is running for the Republican nomination for the 22nd Senate District seat. Worths petition claims Shannon Roden did not provide in a timely manner a required signed affidavit from a surety company that she meets the requirements to be bonded. Worth also alleged that the Rodens paid their personal property taxes for last year on their vehicles in Cole County rather than in Jefferson County. In Thursdays seven-page ruling, Eastern District Appeals Court Judge John Torbitzky sent the case back to Jefferson County, arguing that Jefferson County Circuit Judge Troy Cardona exceeded his authority in denying Rodens request for a change of judge. After proceeding to trial, Cardona ruled that Rodens name should be stricken from the primary ballot because of the bond issue. Currently, the preliminary ballot in Jefferson County is at the printing company being proofed with a goal of printing the ballots within the next week to 10 days. Jefferson County Clerk Ken Waller said Thursday officials have left a space to insert Rodens name on the ballot. I think well be fine, Waller said. Shane Roden, who is assisting his wife in her campaign, slammed Worth for trying to gain a clearer path in the election. Were seeing this more and more as political bullying, Shane Roden said. Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, had initially filed to run for the post, but later withdrew and filed to run for county executive. Posted at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, June 2. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JEFFERSON CITY Current and former prison workers in Missouri will receive a share of up to $128 million under a preliminary settlement agreement pending in Cole County circuit court. Following a decadelong legal battle, attorneys for an estimated 13,000 past and present correctional officers will present the pact to Circuit Judge Cotton Walker on Tuesday, starting the clock on the distribution of the money. Former correctional officers will receive a share of $33 million after a jury in 2018 determined that they were not properly paid for overtime hours worked at the states 20 lockups. Beginning July 1, current prison guards and sergeants will be paid an extra 15 minutes of overtime for each shift they work for the next eight years. That extra money is worth an estimated $65 million. Attorneys in the case will receive $16 million of the settlement and a $1.7 million payment in each of the next eight years, the agreement notes. The settlement is balanced almost equally between payment for past damages and payment of future wages, the agreement says. The pact was signed by DOC Director Anne Precythe and a representative of the Missouri Attorney Generals office on Wednesday. We got a full and robust recovery, said attorney Gary Burger, who represented the workers. The parties worked creatively to get a resolution on this case. Precythe said the agencys budget staff have begun working out the details of the pact. This issue has been a concern among our staff for several years. Were happy for them, happy to have the matter resolved and happy to be part of the solution, Precythe said in a statement. Pieces of the framework of the settlement began to emerge in April when legislative budget writers inserted nearly $50 million into the states spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The settlement talks have been underway for more than two years after a Cole County jury in 2018 ordered the state to pay $113.7 million to compensate current and former workers at the Missouri Department of Corrections. The case, which began in 2012, alleged Corrections officials did not pay guards for work done once they arrived at their prison. Most officers are stationed within a prisons security envelope, meaning they have to go through a search and a metal detector, turn over cellphones, tablets and any personal property, and are in uniform and in close proximity to prisoners, or on duty and expected to respond, the whole time. The guards also spend time each day on exit procedures, communicating with the next shift and taking inventory of weapons, ammunition and equipment in the case of vehicle patrol officers. Missouris prison workers were already among the lowest paid in the nation, resulting in high turnover rates and staffing problems. Prisoner counts at some facilities have been reduced because of a lack of workers. In the past two years, however, officials have started to boost the pay for Corrections employees and other state workers. Earlier this year they received a wage hike of about 7%. If Walker agrees to the conditions of the settlement, a clock will begin running for workers and retirees to object to the agreement. A final approval hearing will take place in about four months. It is not yet clear how much retirees and former workers will receive. Under the plan, each will get a prorated amount based on how long they worked for the agency. At this point, it is a little premature to put a number on a specific individual, said attorney Mike Flannery, who worked on behalf of the plaintiffs. In an affidavit to the court, Burger said the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate and the court should grant preliminary approval of it. Burger also is representing prison nurses in a similar case in federal court. However, that lawsuit is against Corizon, the company that formerly held the contract to provide medical care to inmates. A settlement hearing in the nursing case is set for later this month. Originally posted at 10:10 a.m. Thursday, June 2. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ill. A 24-year-old St. Louis man died early Thursday after crashing a Ford Mustang head-on into a semitrailer, according to the Illinois State Patrol. The crash occurred about 2:20 a.m. when the St. Louis man was driving eastbound on Illinois Route 185, just west of Mulberry Grove Road, police said. The Mustang crossed into the westbound lane, where it collided with the westbound semitrailer, according to police. Illinois State Police confirmed the 24-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, but as of Thursday morning had not released his name. Investigators did not know what caused the man to cross over the centerline. The truck driver, 65-year-old Larry Temple of Indianapolis, was not injured. The crash occurred in the southeast corner of Montgomery County. JEFFERSON CITY One Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Missouri unveiled a list of endorsements on Thursday that includes some of the state partys best-known figures. Trudy Busch Valentine announced the backing of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, state Sen. Jill Schupp of Creve Coeur, former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt and 20 other politicians in a news release. The officials were lining up behind Valentine, who has been a fundraiser for Democrats, rather than Lucas Kunce, a populist who has raised the most money so far in the U.S. Senate race. Nine other candidates, including Spencer Toder, an entrepreneur from Olivette, also are vying for Democratic votes. The primary is Aug. 2. Valentines list of endorsements followed pushback from some fellow Democrats after the Intercept reported earlier this week that Grants Farm was set to host an NRA fundraiser later this year. Valentine is part owner of the property. After the article was published, Valentine said she convinced the board of Grants Farm to cancel the fundraiser. Trudy shares the Missouri values which we need representing us in the U.S. Senate. She will be a partner I will work with to benefit our state, Cleaver said in a news release issued by Valentines campaign. Valentine entered the race at the close of candidate filing in March as former state Sen. Scott Sifton, D-south St. Louis County, ended his campaign for U.S. Senate. Sifton is backing Valentine. Kunce, a Marine veteran, has his own list of endorsements, including from St. Louis County Councilwoman Shalonda Webb, state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge of St. Louis, Bellefontaine Neighbors Mayor Tommie Pierson Sr. and state Rep. Michael Johnson of Kansas City. The Democratic nominee will face the winner of a crowded Republican primary in the November general election. Former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace in 2018 amid fallout from his extramarital affair and alleged campaign finance violations, has led polling in that race. Aldridge predicted Kunce, a veteran like Greitens, would be a perfect candidate to compete against the former governor. Lucas is the direction that our party is heading in and needs to head in, Aldridge said, and he gets people motivated. I just dont see that from the other candidates that are running, he said. During the campaign, Valentine has emphasized her experience as a nurse and a focus of her campaign has been combating the opioid epidemic. Her son, Matt Valentine, died of an overdose in 2020. Trudy has used her real life experiences as a point of connection for reaching out and helping others, Schupp said. She is smart, capable, down-to-earth and has stepped up to run because she believes she can serve Missourians best as senator. I agree with her! Other Democrats running include Lewis Rolen of St. Louis, Gena Ross of Platte City, Carla Coffee Wright of St. Louis, Josh Shipp of St. Louis, Jewel Kelly of Festus, Clarence Taylor of St. Louis, Pat Kelly of St. Louis and Ronald William Harris of Kansas City. Posted at 12:45 p.m. Thursday, June 2. 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. ST. LOUIS Longtime Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd and former Alderman John Collins-Muhammad were charged Thursday with accepting bribes from a small business owner in exchange for legislation authorizing property tax breaks. Though speculation had grown in recent weeks that Collins-Muhammad faced federal charges after his sudden resignation from the Board of Aldermen on May 12, citing mistakes and a tough few weeks ahead, the indictment of Reed and Boyd, two of the boards longest-serving and most powerful members, came as a surprise to many. The charges are likely to upend city politics. Both Reed and Boyd have been key players on the Board of Aldermen for more than 15 years. Collins-Muhammad, a Reed ally who was first elected in 2017, had been among the boards rising newer members. Reed, 59, is one of the most powerful officials in city government. As president of the Board of Aldermen, a position he was first elected to in 2007, he controls bill assignments to aldermanic committees and presides over the boards weekly meetings. And along with the mayor and the comptroller, he is one of three members of the citys top fiscal body, the powerful three-member Board of Estimate and Apportionment that controls city spending. Reed faces two bribery-related charges, according to U.S. Attorney Sayler Flemings office. Boyd, 58, has been an alderman since 2003 and has run unsuccessfully citywide three times once for mayor and twice for city treasurer. He currently chairs the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee, which oversees development-related matters, including incentives. Because of that position, he also serves on the board of the St. Louis Development Corp., which oversees tax abatement and the Land Reutilization Authority. Boyd is facing two bribery-related charges and a separate, two-count wire fraud indictment alleging he fraudulently sought $22,000 from an insurance company for damage to vehicles that he falsely claimed to own. Collins-Muhammad, 30, was indicted on two bribery-related charges and one charge of honest services bribery/wire fraud. The three men, all Democrats, entered not guilty pleas at a court hearing Thursday afternoon. Boyd declined to comment as he left the federal courthouse. Likewise, Collins-Muhammad and his attorney, Matthew Radefeld, also had no comment. But Reed told reporters after the hearing that he had no plans to resign and that he would continue to be a good steward for the city. An indictment, he said, doesnt mean that youre guilty. The voters know me, the voters know the 20-plus years that Ive served, they know my record, Reed said. Every major development in this city Ive led for 20 years. He said he was obviously stressed about the charges, but that he and his legal team were still digesting the indictment to understand what the case is. And at this point, we received the paperwork when you received it. Do cash rather than checks? The charges followed a two-and-a-half year investigation from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office involving surveillance, hundreds of recorded phone calls and meetings and thousands of text messages and emails, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith revealed in court. Goldsmith, who heads public corruption prosecutions, declined to answer questions because the case is pending but said in a statement outside the courthouse that the three defendants accepted cash bribes and other things of value in pay-to-play schemes for the passage of board bills and other official action. The indictment alleges that Collins-Muhammad and later Reed helped a small business owner obtain a property tax abatement from the city for a new gas station and convenience store on Von Phul Street near Interstate 70 that a businessman was seeking to develop in Collins-Muhammads 21st Ward on the north side. The business owner is referred to as John Doe in the indictment. But the properties mentioned appear to correspond to sites owned by Mohammed Almuttan that were the subject of federal subpoenas sent to the citys development arm. The subpoenas were released Wednesday to the Post-Dispatch in response to an open records request. Almuttan co-owns and operates several gas stations and convenience stores in north St. Louis and north St. Louis County. He had been one of 35 people charged in a 2017 cigarette and synthetic marijuana trafficking sting. Many of his charges were dismissed in April as part of a a plea agreement. His sentencing is set for July. According to a news release issued by prosecutors, Reed is accused of accepting $9,000 in cash from John Doe, the business owner, in relation to tax abatement bills. Prosecutors also alleged that Doe gave Reed $6,000 in cash and $3,500 in campaign contributions for Reeds help in trying to win city contracts for Does trucking company and to obtain city certification for the firm as a minority business enterprise. Do cash rather than checks? Doe asked Reed, according to one conversation outlined in the indictment. Thatll work, yeah, Reed responded. Doe then counted out $2,000 with an automatic money counter. Thats nice, Reed said. Right? Doe responded. Collins-Muhammad is charged with accepting $7,000 in cash, $3,000 in campaign donations, a new iPhone 11 and a 2016 Volkswagen CC sedan in exchange for his help. He sponsored bills to provide property tax abatement for Does proposed gas station on Von Phul Street, a measure Doe estimated could save him $20,000 to $30,000 per year and that finally passed the board earlier this year. Collins-Muhammad began working with Doe on the abatement bill in January 2020, when he accepted an initial $2,500 bribe. Youre saving me plenty of money, Doe said then. Thats our job, Collins-Muhammad replied. Collins-Muhammad also is accused of accepting $3,000 from Doe after setting up a meeting with an unnamed public official who could steer business to the trucking firm. Collins-Muhammad later asked for an additional $2,500 on behalf of the unnamed official but used it to buy a 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV for himself, the indictment alleges. Very pro-business The indictment also details a separate scheme related to Does purchase of a commercial property on Geraldine Avenue in Boyds 22nd Ward, also on the north side, from LRA, which owns thousands of vacant lots and abandoned buildings throughout St. Louis. Boyd said the site could be worth more than $100,000, but he wrote a letter to former LRA director Laura Costello in August 2020 supporting Does $9,000 offer for the property. Doe thanked him. My pleasure, the alderman replied. Im very PRO BUSINESS. But LRA staff responded with a $33,500 counter-offer for the property. The day before a Dec. 16, 2020, LRA board meeting, Boyd told Doe that he had put a little pressure on them and the staff was going to recommend the board accept Does offer of $14,000 for the building. So, um, I talked to LRA and I convinced them that, um, I need them to support what you put down, Boyd told Doe. The LRA board approved Does offer. Boyd then began working with Doe on a tax abatement for the property, accepting cash for the work. At one point, he advised Doe to pump some numbers up on his estimated construction costs. Boyd filled out the tax abatement application for Doe, writing in that he planned to spend $300,000 on the project when Doe told him he estimated just $125,000. No, that dont sound good, Boyd said in one conversation. Because, for $125,000 you dont need tax abatement. Boyd, who chaired the committee where many tax abatement bills went through, also helped make sure the Collins-Muhammad bill related to Does gas station made it through his committee during a February hearing. Itll get out of HUDZ, then itll get to the floor, and only if some of these (expletive) little young white progressives act a (expletive) fool, you know, Boyd said. Prosecutors said Boyd accepted from Doe a total of $9,500 in cash and repairs worth $2,344 to two vehicles Boyd owned. Collins-Muhammad received an additional $1,000 cash, the indictment says, for introducing Doe to Boyd. In the separate insurance-related case, Boyd and Doe are accused of agreeing to split the proceeds of insurance fraud related to a January 2021 accident at Does used car lot in Jennings. After Does insurance company wouldnt cover the damage, prosecutors said Boyd falsely claimed that three of the damaged vehicles were owned by a used car company that Boyd owns. Boyds insurance company ultimately rejected the claim, prosecutors said. Updated at 8:45 p.m. Thursday, June 2. 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. Jacob Barker Jacob Barker is a reporter at the Post-Dispatch. 314-340-8291 Follow Jacob Barker 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 CLAYTON St. Louis County employees could be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave under a new proposal before the County Council, up from two weeks of paid leave currently available. The bill, introduced by Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, and Council Chair Rita Days, D-1st District, would give new parents a total of 480 hours of paid leave after at least six months of full-time employment with the county. Employees currently are eligible for up to two weeks of paid leave to care for a new child, for a seriously ill family member or for their own serious medical condition under a 2019 executive order signed by County Executive Sam Page. The bill would only expand paid leave for new parents, for birth or adoption of a new child. The leave would include 160 hours for prenatal appointments and 40 hours for first-year health care appointments for infants. The proposal would appear to give the county one of the most expansive government paid parental leave policies in the state. Kansas City gives new parents six weeks of paid leave under a policy that went into effect in 2016; Jackson County has given new parents 12 weeks of paid leave since 2020. The city of St. Louis does not offer paid leave for employees. But Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has proposed six weeks paid family leave, a spokesman said Wednesday. Jones in March had announced she would commit $1 million for the plan. County officials did not have an estimate available Wednesday for what the countys expanded paid parental leave would mean for its budget. The council is scheduled to discuss the bill at a hearing Tuesday, including a potential cost to the countys budget. Fitch said he has asked county departments for feedback, including the countys Department of Human Resources and the Civil Service Commission, which promulgates rules for merit employees, as well as the police department and the jail. Asked about the bill during a news conference, Page didnt commit to supporting the bill but said he expects to expand the current policy. I expect us to expand that policy, he said. Were looking at it now, were listening to everyone who has input, folks that understand that this is good public policy, that there are some expenses associated with that. I think well work through that and well get a bill that everyone can agree with. Fitch, a Republican representing parts of West County, said the proposal would help attract and retain county employees. Its a competitive environment out there right now in the jobs world, he said. And he said he considered it a pro-life policy. From a Republican standpoint, if were pro-life, what are we going to do support our employees having children? This is certainly one of those things. Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-5th District, said she considered the proposal a great start but wanted to amend the bill to cover more caregiving situations. I know weve got a lot folks in our workforce in St. Louis County that are younger and taking care of kids but just as many that are older and taking care of aging parents, she said. Fitch said he excluded those circumstances because they are long-term situations and would have a greater impact on staffing than births or adoptions. If thats a discussion that we want to have, to increase that, I think it needs to be done in a separate piece of legislation, he said. Employees can use sick pay or available paid-time-off for the remainder of time to accrue pay while on leave, or take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The 1993 law requires private employers with 50 or more employees to give most workers 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain circumstances, including a new child, to care for a seriously ill family member or for their own serious illness, or for care related to military deployment. But not all workers can afford to take unpaid leave under FLMA, leaving many lower-income workers and single parents out, said Richard von Glahn, with Missouri Jobs with Justice, an advocacy group Fitch said he had been talking to about the bill. Von Glahn said paid leave policies help to ensure equal benefits for workers, and called the proposal by Fitch and Days is a great step in that direction. But he said it should be expanded to include other caregiving situations. A more robust paid family leave policy that can help provide workers with security for all of the caregiving roles they might have would help maintain participation in the workforce and would be an important investment in workers by their employers, he said. Days did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. Posted at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 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. SPRINGFIELD Doctors in Illinois may now perform abortions on minors without notifying the childs parents or obtaining a judicial bypass of the notification requirement. Thats because a bill passed by the General Assembly during last years fall veto session and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker repealing the states 1995 parental notification requirement officially took effect Wednesday. That development came as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to overturn its landmark 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, and as the debate over abortion rights has become a central issue in this years elections. House Bill 370 passed the General Assembly in October despite opposition from some Democrats. It creates the Youth Health and Safety Act that, among other things, declares it to be public policy in Illinois that residents and people coming into the state should have access to reproductive health care, free of unnecessary barriers or bans on particular procedures. It also repeals the 1995 Parental Notice of Abortion law, which did not go into effect until 2013 due to prolonged litigation. Supporters of repealing the law argued that it imposed an undue burden on young pregnant women, especially those who became pregnant through rape or incest, while opponents argued that the notification requirement protected a parents right to guide their childs health care. Those same arguments were reiterated Wednesday as groups on both sides of the issue reacted to the new law taking effect. It is a grave injustice that the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pritzker repealed this law, the Catholic Conference of Illinois said in a statement Wednesday. The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was a broadly-supported, reasonable safeguard that allowed Illinois parents to properly exercise love and care for their children. But the ACLU of Illinois, which lobbied in favor of the repeal, said the new law gives young people more autonomy over their own health care. Prior to today, pregnant young people could make any medical decision without barriers except abortion. Now thankfully they have the same right to make a confidential decision about their health care as everyone else, Emily Werth, staff attorney at the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement. Today abortion is treated just like all other forms of health care in this state. Meanwhile, Pritzker was on the campaign trail Wednesday in East St. Louis, where he hosted an event with local lawmakers and Planned Parenthood of Illinois to tout his support for abortion rights and to criticize his Republican challengers for their opposition to abortion. Every Republican running for governor of Illinois this year wants to make Illinois an anti-choice state. Every single one of them, he said. Asked about those remarks at a separate news conference, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who is leading the GOP pack in recent polls, avoided discussing his views about abortion but instead accused Pritzker of using abortion to sidestep other issues. He doesnt want to talk about the fact that crime is spinning out of control in the state of Illinois. Taxes and wasteful spending is spinning out of control, he said. He doesnt want to talk about the corruption that has prevented us from going forward and progressing as a state. He wants to talk about things that are already determined to be codified law in the state of Illinois. When pressed by a reporter to say whether he would reinstate the parental notification law if he is elected governor, Irvin said, absolutely. Reinstating that law would require action from the General Assembly. ST. LOUIS St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday after attending morning events with regional leaders. Jones was notified Wednesday afternoon she had been exposed to the virus, spokesman Nick Dunne said in a news release Thursday. She then tested positive on both an antigen test and a subsequent PCR test. Jones was asymptomatic as of Thursday morning and is fully vaccinated, having already received her first booster, Dunne said. She plans to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Reno, Nevada, this weekend if she tests negative prior to her departure and remains asymptomatic, Dunne said. Both the citys and CDCs COVID guidelines say those who have tested positive, regardless of symptoms and vaccination status, should isolate for at least five days. If an antigen test is positive on day five, the website says, the individual should isolate for a total of 10 days. The CDC said asymptomatic people should not travel until a full 10 days after the date of their positive test. The mayors office did not provide comment on why Jones is not planning to isolate for the recommended five days. Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, the citys health director, did not respond to a request for comment. The mayor was working from home Thursday and canceled her private engagements Wednesday evening. Dunne confirmed she spoke briefly from home at Hlatshwayo Davis virtual town hall on the status of COVID cases in St. Louis. The mayor pleaded for residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19, noting that her own 14-year-old son has been vaccinated. Prior to testing positive, the citys mayor started Wednesday morning by signing an executive order in her office establishing the citys first LGBTQIA+ advisory board and raising a pride flag to commemorate LGBTQ Pride Month. At that signing was Alderman Shane Cohn, 25th Ward, and Jordan Braxton, Pride St. Louis director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Dunne said both spoke at the event. Shortly after that, she met with a host of local leaders at St. Louis Lambert International Airport to commemorate the first Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Those in attendance included Jason Hall, with Greater St. Louis Inc.; St. Louis County Executive Sam Page; Andy Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings; and St. Louis Lambert International Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge. Page released a statement Thursday morning that said he would take proper precautions, like wearing a mask, and also test for COVID in five days. He noted he is fully vaccinated and boosted. Jones diagnosis comes as COVID-19 case rates in St. Louis and St. Louis County are on the rise, and have surpassed the levels seen during last summers delta surge, health department data shows. The seven-day average of new cases in St. Louis County was 366 on Wednesday, up 10% from one week before. That exceeds last summers surge, which peaked at 325 on Aug. 3. The county health department wrote in a report last week that because fewer people are getting tested, there are likely many more people with COVID in St. Louis County today than there were at the height of that surge. On Thursday, Jones urged people who were not fully vaccinated and boosted to do so. Information on vaccination resources can be found on the citys website and at vaccines.gov. Nassim Benchaabane of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. 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. Yash Shelar, a 14-year-old Academy of the Sacred Heart student, made it through five quarterfinal rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday before being knocked out of the competition. He wasn't felled by spelling, but faltered during a vocabulary round, finishing tied for 23rd place with eight other participants. The challenge was to provide the correct description for "Stockholm syndrome." Yash chose "a persistent doubt concerning one's accomplishments," rather than "a hostage bonding with their captor." The multiple-choice vocabulary round knocked out a number of competitors, including two who tied for fourth place in last year's bee. Yash had advanced to the national competition in March by winning the regional contest, which was sponsored by the Post-Dispatch. He competed Tuesday and Wednesday in Maryland, as the national event returned to its traditional in-person venue after three years of pandemic disruptions and a virtual format. More than 230 spellers made it to the national bee, which began Tuesday with the preliminary round. The national bee concludes on Thursday, when the finals take place from 7-9 p.m. The finals will be broadcast on the ION network, which is carried by many cable and streaming providers, but the channel will vary. A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks. Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said. It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene," Dalgleish said. The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that's what led them to the second floor." Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said. The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week's deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked. Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a catastrophic scene. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available. Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead. St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims. This campus is sacred ground for our community," said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community." Bynum added: Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight." Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his fathers room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows. Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his fathers hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard code silver and level 1 trauma announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room. I wasnt particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me, he said. But it was definitely a this is happening here moment. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school. The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. This story has been corrected to show that information about number dead, weapons used and police response should be attributed to Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. This story has been corrected to show that gunman at Robb Elementary School used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle. Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Congressional Democrats are accusing Amazon of obstructing their investigation into the companys labor practices during severe weather events. Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform have sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, saying the company has failed to produce materials requested more than two months ago. The committee, which launched the investigation in late March, gave the Seattle-based e-commerce company a list of materials to hand over by mid-April. But the company still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by Committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the Committee requested in March, said the letter signed by committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from New York. The letter was also signed by progressives Reps. Cori Bush, of Missouri, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York. Unfortunately, Amazon has failed to meaningfully comply with the Committees requests, obstructing the Committees investigation, they wrote in the letter made public Thursday, adding that the company has only produced an incomplete set of policies and procedures. Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company was surprised to receive the letter. She said Amazon began providing materials to the committee two weeks after receiving the initial request and has produced more than 1,500 pages of information. As we have done from the start, we will continue to work with Committee staff on further document production which includes the most recent materials we shared on June 1, Nantel said. The company's labor policies during extreme weather events has been under increased scrutiny since the December collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, where six people died and another was critically injured in a tornado strike. Last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrapped up its own probe into the incident, concluding that Amazon met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering. But regulators also found safety risks and called on the company to improve its procedures. The letter said the company has not produced any internal communications related to the Edwardsville tornado to the committee, which is doing its own investigation into the incident. The committee is also seeking documents showing how Amazon managed its workforce during other natural disasters, including wildfires in California in 2018. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for U.S. gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations. Such a meeting could also ease a fraught and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammed's brutal ways. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. He is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden would also likely visit Israel. Last week, the White House confirmed that Brett McGurk, the National Security Council Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart. McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudis war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire. For Biden, the political dangers of offering his hand to Prince Mohammed include the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggis killing. Saudi Arabia denies his involvement. Still, Biden stood ready to greet the prince at last October's meeting of leading rich and developing nations in Rome, but Prince Mohammed did not attend. And any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge during his campaign that Saudi rulers would pay the price for Khashoggis killing risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate. Democrats appear less vocal now in demands that the U.S. take a hard line with Saudi Arabias crown prince. Near-record gas prices are endangering their prospects in the November midterm election. A leading congressional critic of the Saudi government, Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, said in an email the United States should reassess its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia. But he and other Democrats are not publicly telling Biden he shouldnt meet with Prince Mohammed. Lawmakers point especially to Saudi Arabias refusal despite months of Western appeals to veer from an oil production cap brokered largely between the Saudi kingdom and oil-producer Russia. The production cap is adding to oil supply shortfalls stemming from Russias invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have privately urged Biden to work to soothe U.S.-Saudi relations as has Israel, which sees the kingdom as an essential player in countering Iran. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. The United States for decades has ensured U.S. or allied aircraft carriers, troops and trainers and missile batteries remain deployed in defense of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, and in defense of other Gulf states. The military commitment recognizes that a stable global oil market and a Gulf counterbalance to Iran are in U.S. strategic interests. From Saudi Arabia, the United States is looking for real assurances that it is going to be firmly aligned with the United States internationally, and not drift toward or hedge by trying to have comparable relationships with Russia and China. That goes beyond just oil, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Shapiro is an advocate of bilateral Abraham accords that have helped establish closer ties between some Arab states and Israel. The United States needs to have some assurance that its going to provide those security guarantees and it has a real partner thats going to be like a partner, said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, often see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as Washington tries to extricate itself from Middle East conflicts to focus on China. Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israel's U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, Shapiro said. Deputy Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited CENTCOM headquarters in Florida last month. Regional coordination was one of the main topics, including, Shapiro said, the possibility of such steps as coordinating the Middle Easts air defense capabilities. Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met last month with the Saudi defense official. Sullivan said he talked energy. CIA Director William Burns visited Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia in April. Biden administration officials bristle at the notion that a stepped-up engagement is simply about getting the Saudis to help ease gas prices. Jean-Pierre said that's a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue, as well as our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis. The president's words still stand, she added Wednesday, of Biden's pledge that the Saudis would pay a price." Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A former Mike Pence aide seeking to oust Indianas Republican secretary of state is embracing Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen while also fending off criticism about twice leaving jobs in that office after being written up for poor job performance. Diego Morales work history has emerged as an issue in his campaign against Secretary of State Holli Sullivan. Its largely happening outside public view as they seek support among roughly 1,800 delegates who will pick the nominee for Indiana's chief elections officer at the June 18 state Republican convention. Sullivans campaign sent text messages to delegates in recent weeks with links to documents critical of Morales job performance in 2009 and 2011. The messages close: Our elections are too important to hand over to someone who is not ready for the job and has a troubled employment history in the exact office he is seeking to hold. The secretary of state oversees statewide policies for elections, which are run by county officials. Morales, 43, dismisses the disciplinary actions as office politics and has worked to connect with delegates through frequent appearances at local Republican events. Sullivan, 49, previously worked in auto plant management and was a state representative from Evansville for seven years before being appointed secretary of state by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in March 2021 when her predecessor retired. Sullivan touts her work toward improving cybersecurity for county election offices and adding small printers to thousands of electronic touch-screen voting machines across the state to create a paper trail of each ballot cast. Morales, meanwhile, has called the 2020 election a scam while pointing to unfounded claims Trump and his allies have made about other states. The former president hasnt endorsed anyone in the race, but Morales is trying to attract Trump supporters. He's pushing voter restrictions that include cutting the states 28-day early voting period in half, requiring new voters to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering, and creating an election task force that would investigate shenanigans." As for the disciplinary actions he faced as a junior staff member in the secretary of state's office, he says he's facing a smear campaign. That was disagreement in leadership, disagreements in opinions, probably office politics, office rivalry, Morales, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teenager with his parents and sisters, said in an interview. Obviously, the government bureaucracy at its best. The disciplinary actions were first reported by The Associated Press during Morales' unsuccessful 2018 run for Congress. Records obtained under Indiana's public records act showed he was fired in 2009 after eight months in Republican Todd Rokita's office due to incomplete work, inefficient execution and a lack of focus. He refused to agree to a work improvement plan and submitted his resignation when he was fired, according to a termination letter. Two years later, Morales left a different position in the office after refusing to sign a work improvement plan under then-Secretary of State Charlie White, a Republican who was himself removed from office in 2012 following a voter fraud conviction. Morales worked just over a month when he was disciplined for poor execution" and failing to complete his work, records show. Morales returned to state government as an aide on the governors staff when Pence took office in 2013 and remained until Pence left to become Trumps vice president in 2017. Some top Pence governors office staffers have defended Morales work and support his candidacy. Rokita, now state attorney general, wrote a message distributed by the Morales campaign saying, As far as Im concerned, Diego left my office on good terms, and I consider him a longtime friend. Sullivan, a former vice chair of the state Republican Party, said qualifications and background are important for the office and that the public documents do not show someone leaving on good terms. I think delegates deserve transparency and because it was a public office and he was a state employee, they have those public documents to review, Sullivan said. Other candidates seeking the Republican nomination are Knox County Clerk David Shelton and Paul Hager, a former Libertarian Party candidate from Bloomington. Sullivan and Morales each raised about $500,000 for their campaigns through the end of March, far ahead of the others. Destiny Scott Wells, an attorney and Army Reserve intelligence officer, is the only Democrat seeking the nomination at the partys June 18 convention. Libertarian candidate Jeff Maurer will also be on the November ballot. Complicating Sullivans candidacy are her links to Holcomb, who despite his landslide reelection win in 2020 has faced conservative criticism over actions ranging from COVID-19 restrictions he imposed to his veto of a bill banning transgender females from girls school sports. Many conservative activists won convention delegate seats in the May primary, even though hard-right challengers to current Republican legislators largely failed. The attention on Morales job history could sway delegates who arent already strong supporters of any candidate, said Steve Shine, whos been the Republican chairman in Allen County, which includes Fort Wayne, for 29 years. That also has the possibility of backfiring and working against those who thought it would help because there are some people who are totally turned off by negativism in any race, said Shine, who hasnt endorsed any candidate. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. BRUSSELS (AP) Thanks to the insistence of Hungary, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has been removed from the latest round of European Union sanctions to punish Russias invasion of Ukraine, four EU diplomats told The Associated Press. The sixth package of sanctions, which includes an embargo on most Russian oil imports into the 27-nation bloc by the end of the year, was approved by ambassadors Thursday following a political deal reached earlier this week by EU leaders. The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because the identity of the new individuals sanctioned has yet to be published. The sanctions will be adopted Friday by the EU Council. Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church had been initially included in individuals the bloc wanted to sanction but the proposal needed to be approved unanimously. It was removed at the insistence of Hungary, which is perceived as Moscow's closest ally within the bloc. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to derail the whole package of sanctions at the leader's summit unless he got guarantees that his country would not immediately be affected by the oil embargo. Hungary is more heavily dependent on Russian energy than most EU nations. The Hungarian government said sanctioning Kirill would have been inappropriate on grounds of respect for religious freedom. Kirill, the head of one of the largest and most influential churches in Eastern Orthodoxy, has justified Russias invasion on spiritual grounds, describing it as a metaphysical battle against the West and its gay parades. If sanctioned, Kirill would have faced travel bans and an asset freeze. Kirill has echoed Putins unfounded claims that Ukraine was engaged in the extermination of Russian loyalists in the Donbas, the eastern region of Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. According to the French presidency of the Council, those who will be sanctioned Friday include members of Russia's security and military apparatus, particularly those linked to massacres in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Also being sanctioned are industrial and technological entities linked to Russian aggression and oligarchs and actors of Russian propaganda and their family members." Russias biggest bank, Sberbank, will now be excluded from SWIFT, the major global system for financial transfers from which the EU previously banned several smaller Russian banks. Among other sanctions, three Russian media outlets accused of propaganda will be prevented from distributing their content in the EU. 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. FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the Pirates of the Caribbean actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage. But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depp's lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couple's apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million. The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious marriage. Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken. Im even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. Its a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously, she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up, he said in a statement posted to Instagram. Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name. The jury found in Depp's favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece. Throughout the proceedings, fans who were overwhelmingly on Depps side lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldnt get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside. A crowd of about 200 people cheered when Depps lawyers came out after the verdict. Johnny for president! one man yelled repeatedly. Greg McCandless, 51, a retired private detective from Reston, Virginia, stood outside the courthouse wearing a pirate hat and red head scarf, a nod to Depps famous role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I do believe that there was defamation, and I do believe that it did hurt his career, McCandless said. I think the jury heard the evidence, and the verdict was just. In evaluating Heard's counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight, and called police. Sydni Porter, 30, drove an hour from her home in Maryland to show support for Heard. She said the verdict was disappointing, but not surprising, and sends a message to women that as much evidence as you have (of abuse), its never going to be enough. The jury found Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million. While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia where Depp was shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle. Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heards attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body. In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a wife beater. The judge in that case ruled in the newspapers favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse. In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heards article which focused primarily on public policy related to domestic violence defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with actual malice. And to claim damages, he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heards piece that detailed the allegations against him. The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors mannerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers. Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a classic murder-suicide. From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners, he said. Theyve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because youre potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now. Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Sparrow helped turn the Pirates of the Caribbean into a global franchise, but hes lost that role. He was also replaced in the third Fantastic Beasts spin-off film, The Secrets of Dumbledore. Despite testimony at the trial that he could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. Heards acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming Aquaman sequel due out next year. Depps lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Posts printing presses and online servers are in the county. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. TRENTON, N.J. (AP) New Jersey resident Shashuna Atwater is still living with the awful smell of sewage that inundated her basement when the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck New Jersey nine months ago, destroying photographs, diplomas and other irreplaceable belongings. Atwater, of Newark, was one of roughly two dozen people who spoke Wednesday during an event in Trenton calling on federal officials to speed up and improve disaster aid. Atwater said she's given all her information to the Federal Emergency Management Agency but still hasn't gotten the financial relief she said she needs to rebuild. She's out of luck with her landlord, too, who told her that insurance wouldn't cover the damage. The aftermath was worse than what you saw when you first looked because here goes the cleaning up part, and youre all alone, Atwater said. We have to do better. Wednesday's event comes nine months to the day since Ida's rains struck New Jersey, leaving 30 people dead in the state, turning roads into waterways, flooding basements and leaving a path of destruction across the state. It also comes at the start of new hurricane season that experts warn could include another round of deadly and costly storms. FEMA has allocated about $250 million in assistance and approved aid for some 45,000 applications, the agency said in an email. In addition, the Small Business Administration has set aside $248 million for Ida recovery and the Housing and Urban Development Department has earmarked $228 million in aid for Ida relief. Some of the cash has stalled at the state level as New Jersey officials work to dole it out, though, said Meghan Mertyris, a community organizer for the New Jersey Organizing Project, which bills itself as a grassroots organization representing the states shore region and an advocate for improving disaster funding after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The state is required to submit a plan about spending the funds, according to the Organizing Project's executive director Amanda Devecka-Rinear. There will also be hearings scheduled in which people can comment publicly, she said. Ida survivors can go to those hearings and make comments about the programs and whether or not they will meet their communities' needs, she said in an email, adding, This shouldnt take so long. The group hosted Wednesdays event outside the statehouse annex building. Democratic Reps. Andy Kim and Tom Malinowski both seeking reelection this year after first winning election to Congress in 2018 appeared alongside affected residents and organizers. Kim said he was sorry for the federal government's response and that people whose homes were ruined in the storm should have gotten help quickly. When they turned to those that they needed the help from, they didnt get it, Kim said. For that I apologize on behalf of our country. That is not the way we treat Americans. That is not the way we treat the people that are here. The people here standing with me theyre not asking for the moon. Theyre asking for fairness. Malinowski echoed a refrain President Joe Biden made in September when he visited areas in the Northeast ravaged by Ida, naming climate change as a culprit. Climate change is here. It is 5, 10 feet of water in your basement. It is your house in the state of New Jersey left in state of complete disrepair, Malinowski said. Speeding up disbursement would require better communication between the federal government and the public, Kim said. He added that congressional oversight could help with that. Shirley Eosso's basement and garage in Basking Ridge flooded during Ida. She said she got $249.99 from FEMA as well as some assistance through a flood insurance policy she carried. She said she attended the event Wednesday to speak up for people who couldn't afford to take off work. The process is broken. The money is there. How do we get it to the people who need it? she said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A gunman who killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the rampage, police said Thursday. The patient called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then killed himself as police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. President Joe Biden addressed the carnage in recent years from mass shootings with AR-style rifles in an address Thursday night. Since the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school killed 21 people, including 19 children, just over a week ago, there have been 20 mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured," he said. After describing the Tulsa shooting as one of those 20 mass shootings, the president said, "That doesnt count the carnage we see every single day that doesnt make the headlines. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. "He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Franklin said Phillips performed the surgery on May 19 and Louis was released from the hospital on May 24. He said Louis called the doctor's office several times over several days reporting he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for additional treatment. Louis called the office again Wednesday complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance, he said. A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a "consummate gentleman" and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said. Love, a 73-year-old retired Army sergeant, was a patient at the clinic but that day he was accompanying his wife, Deborah, for her six-month checkup, said their daughter, Karen Denise Love. Police have received reports that Love held a door shut in hopes of allowing others to flee from the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to reporters questions. Karen Love said her parents were in an examination room with one of Phillips assistants when the couple heard the commotion outside. When they realized it was gunshots, Karen Love said her father grabbed the door handle from inside the room. As they heard this guy going up and down the hall, they knew it was gunfire, Karen Love said. They thought it was someone just shooting people. My dad was trying to hold the door the best he could. Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Franklin said police believe Louis shot himself about 39 seconds after the first officers entered the building. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance." The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed from Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody from Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Doors both the one the gunman entered and the one police did not open for over an hour have been at the center of the investigation into the killing of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the police response to the massacre. School officials under pressure to balance accessibility and safety confront a variety of decisions about the seemingly mundane act of going in and out of a building or classroom. But as the attack on Robb Elementary School showed, such choices can sometimes spell the difference between life and death. State police initially said the gunman entered through an exterior door that had been propped open by a teacher. But a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that the teacher closed the door after realizing a shooter was on campus, but it did not lock as it should have. Inside the school, officers waited for more than an hour to breach the classroom, and state authorities have blamed the head of the school districts small police department for wrongly believing children were no longer at risk. Officials said a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitors key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman. State and federal panels charged with reviewing individual mass shootings have repeatedly advised limiting access to school buildings by locking exterior doors, forcing visitors to enter through a secure door and requiring teachers to lock classrooms while classes are in session. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tells districts that they may be able to delay an intruder by keeping exterior doors locked when they are not being monitored by staff. But schools will still need to ensure that employees "adhere to policies mandating that all exterior doors remain closed outside of student arrival and dismissal times. In its latest guidance, updated in February, the agency also wrote that districts should consider whether measures such as automatic locks on classroom doors could hinder emergency responders. If a school installs automatic locks on classroom doors, they should provide emergency responders with a means of accessing all locked down areas; the office might therefore place master keys or key fobs in a safe but easily accessible location, or provide local authorities with a copy of these devices when first installing any new lock systems." But there are no federal standards or requirements on these points, leaving the decision up to state or local authorities. Those officials must also balance how to keep people safe in case of a fire or natural disaster and the expense of renovating and maintaining schools. Each killing at a U.S. school increases pressure on school authorities to act, nudged on by security companies claiming new products will harden schools and prevent the next tragedy. Ive had people suggest bulletproof glass everywhere or gunshot-detection systems, and its like How far do you go? said Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center. Would you rather have your resources invested in a great teacher or a school that looks like Fort Knox? After the 2018 shooting that left 10 dead at Santa Fe High School outside Houston, Texas lawmakers approved $100 million for school campus hardening projects. According to a governors school safety report in 2019, that money could be used on older buildings for metal detectors, vehicle barriers, alarm systems, security fences, bullet-resistant glass, door-locking systems and other measures. A state-run survey taken during the 2015 school year reported that 96.1% of administrators reported locking campus doors to limit access to the school. Almost 88% of districts used cameras and 79% had a sign-in process for visitors. It's not clear if Uvalde schools sought or received any of that money before last week's shooting. A Uvalde school district spokesperson declined to answer emailed questions about school security. It's also unclear why it took so long for police to retrieve a key from a school official that allowed a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team to finally get inside the classroom. Stephens said ensuring that law enforcement can get into locked classrooms is a crucial part of a school safety plan. He encourages schools to designate that responsibility to multiple people. Security experts warn that physical barriers can only do so much. Human error, faulty equipment or an attackers determination can overcome security measures. Locked doors certainly arent insurmountable. The gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, shot out a window next to the schools locked entrance doors and opened fire again once he entered. Most research backs a more comprehensive approach focused on training educators to spot warning signs in at-risk kids paired with a rigorous safety plan, training for all staff and partnership with law enforcement and other community groups. Chuck Wilson is the co-founder of the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, a collection of security-focused companies and other school-safety advocates that developed their own set of guidelines for schools. They recommend schools at a minimum lock exterior doors while classrooms are in session and lock classroom doors too. It's a lot less convenient, but it's a lot safer in today's world, Wilson said. People who are intent on harming others, "they are creative. They have a lot of time to think, to watch, to observe the ingress and egress, the class changes, before school and after school activities. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A former teaching assistant in suburban St. Louis has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for raping a second-grader at the school and exposing the child to the virus that causes AIDS. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 39-year-old Deonte Taylor was sentenced Thursday after being found guilty in April of three counts of sodomy and one count of knowingly exposing someone to HIV. Taylor also pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for trying to arrange the killing of the boy and his mother. Authorities say the attack happened in 2015 at Lusher Elementary School in Florissant. The boy later tested negative for HIV. WASHIR, Afghanistan Afghanistans Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the countrys massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. On a recent day in Washir district in southern Helmand province, armed Taliban fighters stood guard as a tractor tore up a field of poppies. The fields owner stood nearby, watching. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning poppy cultivation throughout the country. Those violating the ban will be arrested and tried according to Sharia laws in relevant courts, the Taliban deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund, told The Associated Press in Helmands provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Afghanistan is the worlds biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia. Production spiraled over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation. But the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive. The ban comes as Afghanistans economy has collapsed, cut off from international funding in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Most of the population struggles to afford food, and the country has been suffering under its worst drought in years. Noor Mohammed, who owns one poppy field in Washir that was torn apart by Taliban tractors, said his plot of land is small and lacks water, so he cant survive by growing less profitable crops. If we are not allowed to cultivate this crop, we will not earn anything, he said of his poppies. Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. Helmand is the heartland of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It appeared the new eradication campaign was targeting mainly those who planted their crops after the ban was announced. Many others who had planted earlier succeeded in harvesting, going from plant to plant, slicing the poppys bulb, then scooping up the sap that oozes out, the raw material for opium. Akhund, the deputy interior minister, said the Taliban were in touch with other governments and non-governmental organizations to work out alternative crops for farmers. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the eradication campaign will take place across the country. We are committed to bringing poppy cultivation to zero, he told the AP. Its not known how many poppies were planted this season, how much was harvested and how many fields the Taliban have eradicated so far. But Afghanistans production has steadily risen, reaching new heights every year in recent years. In 2021, 177,000 hectares (438,000 acres) were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the U.N.s Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020. The total value of Afghanistans opiates production in 2021 was $1.8-$2.7 billion, up to 14% of the countrys GDP, exceeding the value of its legal exports, the UNODC said in its most recent report. During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the United Nations. However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies. Over the next nearly 20 years, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it only steadily increased: In 2002, around 75,000 hectares were planted with poppies, producing some 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that. During the years-long Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistans opium output is greater than all other opium-producing countries combined. Nearly 80% of the heroin produced from Afghan opium reaches Europe through Central Asia and Pakistan. Centrist Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona continue frustrating their party by protecting the filibuster, that anachronistic Senate rule that has allowed the Republican minority to stymie much of the Biden administrations agenda. Their rationale for this obstructionism is that working with the other side is more productive than steamrolling over them. That notion is about to be tested, as Manchin and Sinema attempt to convert that GOP goodwill theyve supposedly earned into a deal with Republicans on meaningful gun reform following last week's Texas school massacre. If, instead, Republicans entrench with their usual do-nothing response to the carnage (sadly, that still seems the likeliest outcome), this wayward pair should explain the point of continuing to negotiate in good faith with a party that shows none. The filibuster, developed by accident, did serve for a time as a useful lever for bipartisanship. That's changed in today's era of hyper-polarization, which has seen both parties carve limited exceptions to this counter-majoritarian rule rather than work together. The GOP in particular has used it lately to thwart progress that majorities of Americans want on voting rights, health care, child care and, yes, gun reform. Democrats could do away with the rule entirely with their slim Senate majority, but Manchin and Sinema have prevented it, saying such a move would come back to devastate Democratic priorities. As if the filibuster itself isnt doing just that already. But now, with the recent Texas mass shooting providing the latest reminder that Americas national gun fetish is literally killing Americas children (19 of them this time), even some Republicans have cracked open the door to reform. One plan on the table in bipartisan talks involving Manchin is a national red-flag law and universal background checks for gun purchases. Neither measure would seem to have prevented the teenage gunmans rampage in Texas, which dramatized the need for stronger measures like raising the age nationally for gun purchases and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Still, agreement on even those milder remedies could save lives going forward and would represent an important symbolic concession by Republicans, who have until now refused to acknowledge the need for any policy change at all. Whatever happens with the talks, Manchin says he remains opposed to ending the filibuster, calling it "the only thing that prevents us from total insanity." We would argue the filibuster is actually spurring total insanity, in the form of Republican refusal to address gun violence and Democrats' inability to overcome that obstructionism. This is one instance in which we very much hope to be proven wrong. If not, it will be the strongest evidence yet that protecting the filibuster for the sake of elusive bipartisanship is a fools game and, in this case, a deadly one. Regarding Officials: Texas shooter talked about guns in private chats (May 27): I write this as a retired school counselor with 25 years of experience as a counselor at elementary, middle school, and high schools all in St. Louis County. I knew many troubled kids in those 25 years who may have had the potential to do violent harm to themselves or others. Ask any teacher and they will tell you they know those students about whom they are most worried and who might become these monsters as early as the second grade. But in calling these kids monsters, it is important to remember several things. One, they are all someones child. Two, the resources to help such kids are in short supply or often dont exist at all. Three, when school districts cut budgets, counselors, social workers, and others in the school who could intervene to help troubled kids are the first personnel whose jobs they cut to save district money. I intervened in such situations, getting their families the help needed to make positive changes. But finding reputable sources of mental health and family counseling is very difficult, even when everyone involved is willing and financially able. School districts need money to hire more counselors, not to buy more guns. Cathy Marek Chesterfield Lucky little orphans. Actually, they are big orphans bear cubs. They were rescued after their moms were killed and now live happily at the Fortress of the Bear in Sitka, Alaska. Its a not-for-profit organization that protects and cares for rescued orphaned bear cubs who otherwise would be euthanized. Sitka, the only Inside Passage community that fronts the Pacific in the shadow of Mount Edgecumbe, will welcome some 100,0000 cruise passengers this summer. Cruising Alaska continues to be a top item on bucket lists for many families and this summer Alaska is back in earnest with 41 ships and as many as 1.5 million cruisers expected. This picturesque town of 8,500 would also be guaranteed to please the growing number of families who opt to explore Alaska on their own, rather than on a cruise ship. It offers the unique combination of indigenous culture, outdoor adventure (whale watch, kayak, hike, fish or fly on a sea plane to explore the wilderness) and the chance to view bears and eagles, easily and inexpensively, thanks to the Fortress of the Bear and the Alaska Raptor Center, where eagles, including 17 bald eagles, owls, and more, are brought after being injured, Sitka is especially known for its native Tlingit culture. (Their name means People of the Tides, and Southeast Alaska is their ancestral home.) Some 17,000 Tlingit still live in Alaska, carrying on their traditions. There is a modern rendition of a traditional Tlingit clan house in downtown Sitka and the chance to experience native dancing and songs passed down from generation to generation. You wont want to miss the 18 amazing totem poles at the Sitka National Historical Park, first brought here in 1906. Take the mile-long Totem Trail through the temperate rainforest. The park is very significant because of the Battle of 1804, which the Tlingit, who had lived here for thousands of years, fought with Russians who had come to Alaska to hunt sea otters for their valuable pelts. The battle was the last major battle between Europeans and Alaska natives. Today, Sitkas population is close to 13 percent Alaska native. You may be able to watch Alaska native artists at work as kids become junior rangers. The on-site Sitka Cultural Center provides studios for world-renowned Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian artists. Watch Alaska Native artists create wood carvings, beading, textiles, and engraved metals at working studios, including carving totem poles. The restored Russian Bishops House is a lasting reminder of Russian influence here (as is Saint Michaels Russian Orthodox Cathedral). If you have time and like history, the Sheldon Jackson Museum has the states largest collection of Alaska Native artifacts Certainly, you can explore Sitka on shore excursions focused on everything from food (a wildlife quest followed by an Alaskan feast of snow crab and salmon on Holland America); adventure (wilderness sea kayaking on Princess Cruises), salmon fishing on Celebrity. But you can easily navigate on your own, too. Local outfitters are attuned to the ships comings and goings and will get you back in plenty of time. You likely will get a better deal too if you are traveling with extended family than booking four or six or eight shore excursions. Sitka National Historic Park is just a 15-minute walk from the city docks along the Lincoln Street greenbelt. Be forewarned that if you stop at the Sitka Community Playground (accessible to all) the kids may not want to go any further. When was the last time they could experience different water sounds at a playground with the push of the button, ride a dolphin or climb to the top of a lighthouse? Keep your phone or camera handy to snap the adorable sea otters floating in the water. See the Sheldon Jackson Hatchery outside the Sitka Sound Science Center along your walk. See Southeast Alaskas unique marine ecosystem in action at the aquarium and hatchery. Feel spiky urchins and bumpy sea stars in the tidal pool touch tanks or step into the Salmon Bubble to see how fish view the oceans. The hatchery raises and produces millions of coho, pink and chum salmon each year, as well as trains many of Alaskas fisheries biologists and managers. Did you know the Tongass National Forest is the worlds largest intact temperate rainforest? Take a walk along the Indian River Trail past waterfalls, creeks, and rivers filled with salmon. Summer is the best time for whale-watching as gray whales, orcas, and minke whales travel through the Sitka Sound Whale Park, about six miles from downtown, which offers the chance to see marine wildlife from land. There are even free viewing scopes. Consider that if you are lucky enough to see a bald eagle in the wild in Alaska, you wont get nearly as close as you can here at the Alaska Raptor Center. Check out their feathers bald eagles have about 7,000 waterproof feathers and a wingspan of up to eight feet, though they dont even weigh 12 pounds. Some of the raptors can be rehabilitated (there is also the states only avian hospital where surgery can be performed) and released into the wild. Others who no longer can survive in the wild start a new life as educators, teaching visitors. Talk to the veterinarians and educational specialists at the center. At the Fortress, you can get within 25 feet of three populations of bears (just $15 for adults and $5 for kids seven and older) rather than taking an expensive flight to a remote bear habitat. Ultimately, the Fortress hopes some of the rescued and rehabbed bears can return to the wild, although Alaska currently prohibits that. Meanwhile, its clear the bears are loving life in what is an old pulp factory. See Toby, the female brown bear, put her paws together. That means she wants more food. Check out the white heart-shaped patch of fir on Bandits chest. Definitely make time for ice cream locals flock to the old-fashioned soda fountain at the family-owned Harry Race Pharmacy for their homemade ice cream, sundaes and milkshakes. Maybe a Mt. Edgecumbe Eruption. (For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kids Guide to Philadelphia and The Kids Guide to Camping are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.) In 2020 China revealed a new version of their H-6 bomber, the H-6N. This model is modified to perform aerial refueling and carry an ALBM (air-launched ballistic missile). China was already known to be developing an ALBM called the CH-AS-X-13. This is based on the 10.7-meter (35 feet) long, 1400mm (4.6 feet) diameter 14.7-ton DF-21 ground launched ballistic missile that has a range of about 1,800 kilometers and carries a half-ton conventional or nuclear warhead. The DF-21 is a two-stage solid fuel missile. As an ALBM the max range would be 3,000 kilometers. The H-6N was apparently developed to give China a nuclear triad, as the United States, Russia, Britain and France have had for over half a century. The DF-21 is itself a ground launched variant of Chinas first SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile), the JL-1. China has developed several variants of its H-6 twin-engine bomber. In late 2017 a new variant of the H-6 was seen over the South China Sea. The new version was actually an old (2007-8) H-6G which was a bomber model modified to provide updated targeting information for cruise missiles. This involved installing lots of additional electronics inside the aircraft. The new H-6G was seen with two ECM (electronic countermeasure) pods carried under its wings. The H-6G is often seen operating in the West Pacific and the South China Sea. The appearance of the ECM H-6G might explain another H-6 development. In early 2017 there appeared at least one H-6K equipped with an aerial refueling probe. Extending H-6K range so it could reach targets in Hawaii or the American West Coast doesnt make much sense as the risks of being detected and shot down along the way are too high. The appearance of the H-6N explains what the H-6K is needed for. China did not say what its H-6K equipped with aerial refueling was going to do but an H-6 with aerial refueling capability did make sense for an H-6 equipped for electronic warfare. In any event the H-6K in general appears to be largely a development project. Thats because since 2011 only about twenty H-6Ks have entered service and Chinese officials have said they want to develop a modern heavy bomber (H-20) but that takes time and tinkering with the H-6 has always been seen as preferable to making a major investment in a new aircraft design. But adding aerial refueling capability to the H-6G would make it a more useful ECM aircraft as these could jam enemy radars and communications quickly if one the H-6Gs just happened to be in the air at the time of a crisis. The H-6N is the latest version of Chinas largest and most capable long-range bomber and is basically a much improved and modernized version of a 1950s Russian Tu-16. The K and N models have a modern (glass) cockpit that consists largely of five flat screen touch displays rather than the older array of many switches and small analog indicators. These pictures also showed that the H-6K had a new side entry door that could use a stair or a ladder. The H-6K entered service in 2011 after several years of development. The H-6K uses more efficient Russian engines (D30KP2) that give it a range of about 3,500 kilometers without aerial refueling. Electronics are state-of-the-art and include a more powerful radar. The fuselage of the bomber has been reinforced with lighter, stronger, composite materials giving it longer range and greater carrying capacity. The rear-facing 23mm autocannon has been replaced with electronic warfare equipment. The H-6K can carry six of the two-ton CJ-10A land-attack cruise missiles under its wings and one more in the bomb bay. These appear to have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, as they are similar to the older Russian Kh-55 (which could be armed with a nuclear warhead). The CJ-10A is sometimes described as a high-speed (2,500 kilometers an hour), solid fuel missile. But that type of missile is a short range (about 300 kilometers) anti-ship system. The CJ-10A appears to be more of a copy of the American Tomahawk (which uses a much slower jet engine). The CJ-10A can carry a nuclear warhead but usually does not. Armed with CJ-10A the H6K can attack American bases on Okinawa and Guam using air-launched cruise missiles. The H-6K can also carry up to eight anti-ship missiles, making it a threat to American carriers. This became obvious in late 2015 when Chinese media made much of a training exercise over the South China Sea featuring H-6Ks. In that November exercise eight H-6Ks were seen more than a thousand kilometers out to sea and accompanied by electronic warfare aircraft. Four of the H-6Ks flew close to Okinawa and were photographed by Japanese aircraft. This was apparently an effort to demonstrate the Chinese capability to hit targets far from the Chinese mainland, especially American bases in Okinawa and Guam. This was but the latest effort to publicize the H-6K. Earlier China media heavily covered senior officials visiting airbases where the H-6K was shown off with journalists allowed to take close up photos of the aircraft, including the cockpit. Apparently that publicity did not do the trick so the November flights were used for emphasis. There are about a hundred H-6s in service (out of about 200 built). These are Chinese copies of the Russian Tu-16s (about 1,500 built). Although the Tu-16 design is over fifty years old, China has continued to rely on their H-6s as one of their principal bombers. The H-6 is a 78-ton aircraft with a crew of four and two engines. Most models can carry nine tons of bombs and missiles, with the new H-6K able to haul about 12 tons and the H-6N can carry a bit more. Most H-6s carry the CJ-10A and C201 missiles, as well as bombs. It does not appear that China is planning on building a lot of H-6Ks, perhaps no more than thirty. The Russians kept their Tu-16s in service until the early 1990s, but China kept improving their H-6 copy. The H-6K is a capable heavy bomber that may be around for another decade or two. Israel recently revealed that it had suffered another OPSEC (Operational Security) failure following an investigation into who leaked details of the Israeli war on Iranian maritime smuggling. That leak occurred before the attack on an Iranian smuggling operation was to take place and forced the mission to be called off. The leak came from one the 1,200 military personnel who knew about the operation. Only 450 of them had signed the confidentiality agreement that everyone with knowledge of these operations was required to sign. Those who sign the agreement have it explained to them that violation of the agreement is a criminal offense because leaks endanger the lives of Israelis. Western nations, especially Israel and the United States have long had problems with OPSEC failure. In Israel a lot of reserve soldiers are regularly called up for a few months of active duty and often have a hard time adapting to the OPSEC rules. This got a lot worse with the appearance of advanced cell phones (smart phones) in the last decade. The Israeli reservists on active duty carried their cell phones with them and made videos while on duty for the folks back home or to post on social media. Israeli security officials became aware of this when they found that Palestinian and other Islamic terror groups were using this to plan operations to develop anti-Israel propaganda. Israel let the reservists, and Israeli military personnel in general, know how serious this problem was and told the troops to leave the cellphones home or someplace where the geolocation features of the cell phones could not be used by enemy groups. Islamic terrorists in general have a worse problem with members using their cellphones in ways that reveal their location and operations. Many successful counter-terrorism operations are the result of exploiting poor cellphone OPSEC by the terrorists. Most armed forces have this problem and some are more successful dealing with it than others. An example of this can currently be seen in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian have much better cell phone OPSEC than their Russian adversaries, which is one reason why the Russians have suffered much higher losses than the Ukrainians. Its not just cell phones. Over a decade ago a NSA (National Security Agency) employee conducting an unclassified briefing of NSA activities let slip that the NSA found a way to listen in to Islamic terrorist phone calls and halt attacks. The capability was top secret, but not after the NSA briefer screwed up. In 2018 the U.S. Department of Defense banned all personnel in operational areas (usually overseas combat zones) from using commercial devices with geolocation capability (GPS). This included cell phones and PSMs (Physiological Status Monitors) like Fitbit. What triggered this was the discovery that a social network for athletes called Strava had developed software that enabled anyone to track users wearing a FitBit or other GPS enabled PSMs. Dedicated (often professional) athletes joined Strava to exchange PSM information and that led to Strava developing features that enabled user locations worldwide. Turns out that intelligence agencies had discovered Strava as well and reported that they could not only detect PSM users anywhere in the world but could often identify these users by name. Turned out that many intelligence and military personnel used their Fitbits while overseas, often on secret missions. From January to July 2018 the extent and implications of this became quite clear. The intel agencies quickly (and quietly) ordered their personnel overseas (and often at home as well) to stop using PSMs that made their data accessible to public networks, even ones that were not open to the public. These could be hacked. Now there is a market for secure (encrypted) PSMs for military and intelligence personnel. Actually, work on that sort of thing has already been underway. OPSEC will always be with us and those who are better at it tend to win. by Austin Bay June 1, 2022 Communist China's violations of Taiwanese airspace and sea space are a physical indication Beijing targets Taiwan as the world's next Ukraine. At the tactical level -- the level where a shooter seeks a target -- Beijing's sorties probe Taiwan's frontline air and sea defenses, seeking weaknesses and assessing reaction time. At the strategic level -- the Big Picture, which includes diplomacy and economics -- the in-and-out feints of Beijing jets and fast attack warships test Taiwan's allies. The feints ask this question: Do Taiwan's alleged allies have the will to help the island resist a mainland Chinese assault? That's definitely a world-war-sized question. Last week, President Joe Biden said America was committed to Taiwan's defense. Then Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin walked Joe's words back, very adroitly. Hard fact: In the past week Taiwan reported over 30 communist Chinese aircraft violated the island's air defense zone. Twenty of the planes were high performance jet fighters -- death dealers. The probes were the second largest incursion into Taiwan's air defense zone in 2022. It would be hyperbolic to call the air intrusions a specific test of Slow Joe's confused commitment. However, in the Big Picture, there is no doubt Beijing is challenging the U.S. and the rest of the world. China is pursuing aggressive strategic initiatives aimed at achieving global domination. It's based on a mythic world vision where China, a reborn Middle Kingdom, sets the global agenda. Forget "All Roads Lead to Rome." After 2030 (give or take) all critical decisions proceed from Beijing. Middle Kingdom defined: Chinese emperors thought they and their dominions were the center of the world. They were the only civilized human beings on the planet. China ruled. Everyone else? Tributary nations. Now Chinese leader Xi Jinping has adopted the same grandiose schtick. Here's a point pertinent to this essay's strategic analysis: There is nothing private in communist China. Corporations, assets, all organizations and ultimately all people are subjects of the communist state. Being subjects of the state means the decisions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are final. All hail the Middle Kingdom. Which takes us to the Ethiopian drilling rig incident in April 2007 when the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese oil facility in Ethiopia. The attack left 65 Ethiopian troops and nine Chinese workers dead. Seven Chinese workers were taken prisoner. The ONLF regarded oil drilling as theft. China had already formed private security companies (PSCs) but after that incident the PSCs became increasingly powerful. Chinese oil rigs must be defended! But Beijing has moved from protecting rigs to military preparation. In May 2022, Jane's Intelligence Review argued Chinese PRCs provide Beijing with a potentially wider foreign intelligence collection source. They are more than that. PSCs have become forward deployed Chinese military forces. The Jane's report is excellent, but it pulls its punches with lines like the PSCs are "led by former security officers, and their core personnel have been recruited from the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army), People's Armed Police (PAP), and police force." The Jane's report acknowledges that China's premier PSC, the Haiwei Group, "has close ties with the government." Remember: There is nothing private in communist China. Like the giant Huawei electronics corporation (which faces numerous allegations of spying for Beijing), Haiwei's ties to the government indicate it is beholden to the CCP. Jane's makes this sly admission: The connections between the PLA and PSCs are evidence of China's "civil-military fusion (CMF) strategy." Where do the PSCs operate? In mineral rich sub-Saharan Africa and near African and South Asian seaports China regards as commercially and militarily valuable. Beware: Beijing is attempting to create new security "arrangements" in the Pacific and central Asia. I suspect Beijing's PSCs will take their weapons there as well. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2022 / Marvel Discovery Corp. (TSX-V:MARV)(FRA:O4T)(OTCQB: MARVF); ("Marvel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce completion of an airborne fixed wing magnetic survey over the KLR and Walker Uranium Project ("the Property") in the Athabasca Basin. Marvel entered into an option agreement to acquire two ("KLR" and "Walker") large strategically located land packages within the Wollaston-Mudjactic Transition Zone ("WMTZ") of the eastern Athabasca Basin (see press release dated March 29, 2022. The WMTZ hosts the highest-grade uranium mines in the world including (Figure 1): Cigar Lake 1 , 50% owned by Cameco, which hosts 152 million pounds (lbs) of U 3 O 8 at 15.4% U 3 O 8 , 50% owned by Cameco, which hosts 152 million pounds (lbs) of U O at 15.4% U O McArthur River 2 , 70% owned by Cameco which hosts 392 million lbs of U 3 O 8 at 6.58% U 3 O 8 , 70% owned by Cameco which hosts 392 million lbs of U O at 6.58% U O Wheeler Project3, 90% owned by Denison Mines which hosts 109 million lbs of U 3 O 8 in two deposits averaging 11.23% U 3 O 8 The Walker Creek claims straddle the Key Lake Fault Zone, an important corridor for structurally controlled Athabasca Basin type uranium deposits. The airborne magnetic survey covered the former Walker Creek portion of the KLR Property which consists of 10,595 hectares. The survey covered 100m spacings in an east-west configuration for a total of 1,230 line-km. The purpose of the survey was to delineate and map subsurface features, identified in previous programs and which are associated with faulting, conductive lineaments, and radioactive occurrences. The Company has commissioned an interpretation of the survey, which will be integrated with historical datasets, with the intention of defining diamond drill targets. The Walker portion of the KLR Uranium Project package is contiguous to Fission 3.0 Hobo Lake uranium properties. Hosted within WMTZ, the Walker Property lies along the Key Lake Shear Zone and hosts 10 uranium showings and multiple unexplored EM targets (Figure 2). Both properties are easily accessible by highway. In addition, the Company has already completed 32.3 line-km of ground magnetics survey on the Highway North claim blocks within the Key Lake ground. "We are now moving fast. We have done an extensive amount of work preparing for our next phase of exploration with boots on the ground to define drill targets. We have multiple unexplored uranium occurrences on the property intimately related to structure, and as we know structure plays an extremely important key role in providing uranium mineralization pathways and traps. The corridor along the Key Lake Shear Zone represents a tremendous opportunity in mimicking the success of basement-hosted uranium deposits found on the western side of the Athabasca Basin like NexGen Energy's Arrow Deposit. We look forward to mobilizing crews shortly once datasets have been analyzed." stated Karim Rayani, President & Chief Executive Officer, Director. Figure 1. Location of the KLR Uranium Project in the WMTZ Zone. Figure 2. Location of the KLR Uranium Project, neighbors, VTEM conductors, uranium occurrences, and airborne survey coverage. Regional Geology and Mineralization In Saskatchewan, uranium deposits have been discovered at, above, and up to 300m below, the Athabasca Group unconformity within basement rocks. Mineralization can occur hundreds of meters into the basement or can be up to 100m above, in Athabasca Group sandstone. Typically, uranium is present as uraninite/pitchblende that occurs as veins and semi-massive to massive replacement bodies. Mineralization is also spatially associated with steeply-dipping, graphitic basement structures and may have been remobilized during successive structural reactivation events. Such structures can be important fluid pathways as well as structural or chemical traps for mineralization as reactivation events have likely introduced further uranium into mineralized zones and provided a means for remobilization (Jefferson, et al. 2007) (Figure 3). Figure 3. Classic uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin at the unconformity between the Athabasca sandstone and crystalline basement within the WMTZ. The Triple R, Eagle Point, Cluff Lake and Arrow deposits are found within basement rocks of the Crystalline Granulite Domain in the western Athabasca Basin. The KLR and Walker properties lie within the basement rocks just south of the former Key Lake Mine within the WMTZ. Source Searchlight Resources. Both Properties straddle the Key Lake Fault Zone, an important corridor for structurally controlled Athabasca Basin type uranium deposits. The Arrow Deposit, owned by NexGen Energy lies along a similar structural corridor as the Marvel properties. The Arrow Deposit1, which has undergone a Positive Feasibility Study with robust economics contains Probable Reserves of 239.6 million lbs of U 3 O 8 at an average of 2.37% U 3 O 8 and Measured and Indicated Resources of 256.7 million lbs at an average grade of 3.1% U 3 O 8 . The Arrow Deposit is the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in Canada. Qualified Person The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The QP has not completed sufficient work to verify the historic information on the Properties, particularly regarding historical exploration, neighbouring companies, and government geological work. The information provides an indication of the exploration potential of the property but may not be representative of expected results. References Harvey, S.E. (1999): Structural geology of the Deilmann Orebody, Key Lake, Saskatchewan; in Summary of Investigations 1999, Volume 2, Saskatchewan Geological Survey, Sask. Energy Mines, Misc. Rep. 99-4.2. Jefferson, C.W., Thomas, D.J., Gandhi, S.S., Ramaekers, P., Delaney, G., Brisbin, D., Cutts, C., Portella, P., and Olson, R.A. 2007. Unconformity-associated uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In EXTECH IV: Geology and Uranium Exploration Technology of the Proterozoic Athabasca Basin. Edited by C.W. Jefferson and G. Delaney. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 588, pp. 23-68. Cigar Lake1 https://www.cameco.com/businesses/uranium-operations/canada/cigar-lake McArthur River2 https://www.cameco.com/businesses/uranium-operations/canada/mcarthur-river-key-lake Wheeler Project3 https://denisonmines.com/projects/core-projects/wheeler-river-project Arrow Deposit1 https://www.nexgenenergy.ca/rook-1-project/default.aspx#feasibility-study About Marvel Discovery Corp. Marvel, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange for over 25 years, is a Canadian based emerging resource company. The Company is systematically exploring its extensive property positions in: Newfoundland (Slip, Gander North, Gander South, Victoria Lake, Baie Verte, and Hope Brook - Au Prospects ) ) Atikokan, Ontario (BlackFly - Au Prospect ) ) Elliot Lake, Ontario (East Bull - Ni-Cu-PGE Prospect) Quebec (Duhamel - Ni-Cu-Co prospect & Titanium, Vanadium, and Chromium Prospect) Prince George, British Columbia (Wicheeda North - Rare Earth Elements Prospect) The Company's website is: https://marveldiscovery.ca/ ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Marvel Discovery Corp. "Karim Rayani" Karim Rayani President/Chief Executive Officer, Director Tel: 604 716 0551 email: [email protected] Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information: Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements which reflect the expectations of management. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: completion of the proposed Arrangement. Actual future results may differ materially. 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. There is no assurance any of the conditions for closing will be met. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Marvel Discovery Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Alcoa Corporation (AA: NYSE) announced today that it is supplying low-carbon EcoLum aluminum to Hellenic Cables S.A., one of the largest cable producers in Europe with key markets in renewable energy transmission and distribution. Hellenic Cables, the cables segment of Cenergy Holdings, operates five manufacturing plants across three countries and manufactures power, telecommunication, and submarine cables, and compounds. The EcoLum brand is part of Alcoas Sustana family of low-carbon products, the most comprehensive in the aluminum industry, and has a carbon footprint that is approximately 3.5 times better than the industry average. We are very proud to partner with Hellenic Cables and assist them in their stated mission to develop a sustainable energy future, said Kelly Thomas, Alcoas Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. We know that aluminum is a key material for a more sustainable future, and we are the company to deliver with responsible production from mine to metal, all backed by excellent quality and strong customer service. Produced at hydroelectric-powered aluminum smelters, EcoLum aluminum has no more than 4.0 metric tons of CO2e emissions for every ton of metal produced, including both direct and indirect emissions (scope 1 and scope 2) across the entire production chain, including bauxite mining and alumina refining. Alexis Alexiou, CEO of Cenergy Holdings and Hellenic Cables, said Hellenic finds strong alignment with Alcoas strategic priority to advance sustainably. Hellenic Cables is committed not only to reducing its own operational emissions, but to also drive decarbonization activities across the entire business areas of influence, Alexiou said. Alcoa is a key enabler that contributes efficiently in this direction. We prioritize the urgency of deep and immediate mitigation actions, hence EcoLum minimizes our environmental impacts and enhances the value of our products. Aluminum is an excellent alternative to copper in terms of conductivity, mechanical properties, and durability. By using low-carbon EcoLum aluminum, Hellenic Cables customers will have the opportunity to decrease their own scope 3 emissions, by purchasing high-quality cable products with a significantly lower carbon footprint. In its 2022 order book, Alcoa is seeing more than a three-fold annual increase for its Sustana aluminum products. In addition to EcoLum, the Sustana line also includes EcoDura aluminum, which includes at least 50 percent recycled content, and EcoSource, the worlds only low-carbon, smelter grade alumina brand. EcoLum is produced at smelters predominately powered by renewable energy. Today, more than 80 percent of Alcoas global smelting operations are powered by renewables. In addition to Alcoas low-carbon products, the Company has a technology roadmap that aims to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future and support its net zero 2050 ambition. About Alcoa Corporation Alcoa (NYSE: AA) is a global industry leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminum products with a vision to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future. With a values-based approach that encompasses integrity, operating excellence, care for people and courageous leadership, our purpose is to Turn Raw Potential into Real Progress. Since developing the process that made aluminum an affordable and vital part of modern life, our talented Alcoans have developed breakthrough innovations and best practices that have led to greater efficiency, safety, sustainability and stronger communities wherever we operate. About Hellenic Cables Hellenic Cables is one of the largest cable producers in Europe, manufacturing power and telecom cables as well as submarine cables for various industries, including offshore wind and utilities, as well as undertaking turnkey power transmission and distribution projects. Through its fully owned subsidiary Fulgor, Hellenic Cables operates its submarine cables plant in Corinth, Greece, where the production and testing of some of the longest submarine cable lengths without factory joints on a worldwide basis is empowered by the Companys state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. Since 2012, Hellenic Cables has implemented a EUR 230 million-investment plan for the production of high and extra high-voltage submarine cables at Corinth plant. Hellenic Cables represents the cable production segment of Cenergy Holdings SA. For further information, please visit Hellenic Cables website at www.hellenic-cables.com. About Cenergy Holdings Cenergy Holdings is a Belgian holding company listed on both Euronext Brussels and Athens Stock Exchange, investing in leading industrial companies, focusing on the growing global demand of energy transfer, renewables and data transmission. The Cenergy Holdings portfolio consists of Corinth Pipeworks and Hellenic Cables, companies positioned at the forefront of their respective high growth sectors. Corinth Pipeworks is a world leader in steel pipe manufacturing for the oil and gas sector and major producer of steel hollow sections for the construction sector. Hellenic Cables is one of the largest cable producers in Europe, manufacturing power and telecom cables as well as submarine cables for the aforementioned sectors. For more information, visit www.cenergyholdings.com. Dissemination of Company Information Alcoa intends to make future announcements regarding company developments and financial performance through its website, www.alcoa.com, as well as through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls and webcasts. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that relate to future events and expectations, and as such constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include those containing such words as aim, ambition, anticipates, believes, could, develop, endeavors, estimates, expects, forecasts, goal, intends, may, outlook, plans, potential, projects, reach, seeks, sees, should, targets, will, working, would, or other words of similar meaning. All statements by Alcoa Corporation that reflect expectations, assumptions or projections about the future, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Although Alcoa Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that these expectations will be attained, and it is possible that actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained in Alcoa Corporations filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Alcoa Corporation disclaims any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005074/en/ Investor Contact: James Dwyer 412-992-5450 [email protected] Media Contact: Jim Beck 412-315-2909 [email protected] Source: Alcoa LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a- (Excellent) of Kuwait Reinsurance Company K.S.C.P. (Kuwait Re) (Kuwait). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. The ratings reflect Kuwait Res balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. Kuwait Res balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The companys balance sheet strength is supported by a track record of internal capital generation, along with prudent reserving practices and sufficient liquidity to support operations. The companys capital consumption in the BCAR model is predominantly driven by underwriting risk, due to its high premium retention. While Kuwait Res risk-adjusted capitalisation has remained at the strongest level, its BCAR scores deteriorated over 2021, following strong underwriting growth. Kuwait Re reported balanced earnings in 2021, with pre-tax profits of KWD 6.6 million (2020: KWD 5.5 million) equally generated by technical and non-technical operations that translated to a return-on-equity of 10.5% (2020: 9.5%). Enhanced underwriting selection and discipline has resulted in solid underwriting returns in recent years, with the company reporting a five-year (2017-2021) weighted average combined ratio of 95.9%. A noted improvement in Kuwait Res combined ratio in 2021 to 92.2% from 97.3% in 2020 can be attributed to increased earned premium, which helped reduce the expense ratio, and a continued robust loss ratio experience. Kuwait Res business profile assessment reflects its good diversification by geography and product offering. Operations span the Middle East, North Africa, Asia-Pacific and Central and Eastern Europe, where the company provides proportional and non-proportional cover to its cedants. Kuwait Re reported gross written premium of KWD 71.6 million in 2021, a 26% increase on 2020 (KWD 57.0 million), driven in part by favourable reinsurance market conditions in its core markets. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005701/en/ Emily Thompson Financial Analyst +44 20 7397 0291 [email protected] Christopher Sharkey Manager, Public Relations +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159 [email protected] Alex Rafferty, ACA Associate Director, Analytics +44 20 7397 0312 [email protected] Jeff Mango Managing Director, Strategy & Communications +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644 [email protected] Source: AM Best SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BAE Systems Mobility Air Forces Automated Flight Planning Service, or MAFPS, is transitioning operations to Cloud One, one of the first mission-critical applications to complete a cloud migration. BAE Systems is a pioneer for the U.S. Air Force, providing warfighters with improved capabilities for mission management and agile airspace planning. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005089/en/ BAE Systems MAFPS technology dynamically manages fuel-efficient routes and plans flights for Air Mobility Commands cargo aircraft, tankers, and operational support aircraft. (Credit: BAE Systems) The cloud environment will increase the operational availability of MAFPS best-in-class services for our customers, said Meg Redlin, director of Mission Systems at BAE Systems. The systems automation streamlines flight planning for the future of airspace operations. MAFPS operations in Cloud One align with the U.S. Air Forces transformation objectives, breaking from legacy on-premise environments to a cutting-edge architecture. The new approach to agile deployment at the enterprise level provides increased storage, computing, and processing flexibility, and enables faster version upgrades for the software. Factoring in environment and platform constraints, BAE Systems MAFPS technology dynamically manages fuel-efficient routes and plans flights for Air Mobility Commands cargo aircraft, tankers, and operational support aircraft. The software integrates data sources and manages constraints such as weather. MAFPS optimized plans also provide ideal routing and effective planning support so that warfighters can engage anywhere, under any condition. The system is currently fielded at all levels of operation. BAE Systems mission management capabilities afford service men and women automated software solutions to improve mission effectiveness and enhance decision-making in the sky. With more than 30 years of experience delivering flight planning systems, its battle management, auto-routing, multi-domain targeting, ground support, and avionics and armament test equipment provide end-to-end capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense. The development and production of this technology takes place in San Diego, Calif. and Fairview Heights, Ill. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005089/en/ For more information: Shelby Cohen, BAE Systems Mobile: 607-658-6687 [email protected] www.baesystems.com/US @BAESystemsInc Source: BAE Systems A market leader in providing cloud and software platforms for broadband service providers, Calix launches newest research and development center in Bengaluru to engage the best and brightest on a mission to enable even the smallest service providers to simplify their businesses, excite their subscribers, and grow their value SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- To continue driving the innovation behind its industry-leading platforms and solutions, Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) announced the grand opening of the Calix India Development Center (CIDC) in Bengaluru, India. The 21,000-square-foot facility will expand research and development (R&D), Commercial Operations, and Marketing to support the next phase of hypergrowth for Calix. Calix chose to invest in Bengaluru, Indias Silicon Valley, for its new development center because of its position at the forefront of information technology in India. Bengaluru is known for attracting the top talent Calix needs to develop the next generation of solutions that are transforming the broadband industry. A major focus of the CIDC will be to expand the development teams for the award-winning Calix Cloud platform. Calix Cloud is the industrys only purpose-built platform that allows broadband service providers (BSPs) of all sizes to easily access real-time data, analytics, and automation to run an efficient and subscriber-centric business. Calix plans to double the initial CIDC workforce by the end of 2022. Calix has developed its award-winning culture through a unique set of core beliefs and best practices, including: Award-winning technological innovation and a focus on customer success. Calix cloud and software platforms, developed through extensive R&D, deliver unparalleled solutions that allow even the smallest BSP to innovate and transform. Industry-leading Revenue EDGE and Intelligent Access EDGE platforms, combined with the Calix Cloud and Customer Success Services, empower BSPs across the globe to quickly adopt industry best practices to propel their communities forward, become leaders in their markets, and drive back the competition from consumer giants. Calix cloud and software platforms, developed through extensive R&D, deliver unparalleled solutions that allow even the smallest BSP to innovate and transform. Industry-leading Revenue EDGE and Intelligent Access EDGE platforms, combined with the Calix Cloud and Customer Success Services, empower BSPs across the globe to quickly adopt industry best practices to propel their communities forward, become leaders in their markets, and drive back the competition from consumer giants. An award-winning Best Place to Work that employees highly recommend. Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on insights into jobs and companies, elevated Calix to its annual Best Places to Work in 2022 list. Calix ranked #12 of top 50 small and medium businesses across the United States. Ninety-six percent of employees would recommend working at Calix. Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on insights into jobs and companies, elevated Calix to its annual Best Places to Work in 2022 list. Calix ranked #12 of top 50 small and medium businesses across the United States. Ninety-six percent of employees would recommend working at Calix. A flexible hybrid work culture that attracts top talent. Calix has a longstanding commitment to a flexible working environment. This allows CIDC teams to embrace a hybrid working model with colleagues at the new center. The CIDCs hybrid culture is part of why Calix was recognized for its Best Global Culture by Comparably, a leading culture and compensation monitoring site. I am really excited about whats going to happen here, said Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer, to the new CIDC team at the centers launch. We believe there is a huge opportunity across every organization to put roles and jobs into this office. We are very proud of the culture we have built across Calix, a culture that is all about better, better, never best. Thanks to that culture, no one else can do what we have done from a competitive perspective. We will continue to grow rapidly and steadily as we solidify our position as the premier cloud and software platforms company for top broadband businesses. This center represents the next chapter of what promises to be an incredible journey for Calix. Calix has more than 200 open roles across the organization for top talent seeking the best company for culture and leadership. To learn more, visit the Calix Careers page. About Calix Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) Calix cloud and software platforms enable service providers of all types and sizes to innovate and transform. Our customers utilize the real-time data and insights from Calix platforms to simplify their businesses and deliver experiences that excite their subscribers. The resulting growth in subscriber acquisition, loyalty, and revenue creates more value for their businesses and communities. This is the Calix mission; to enable broadband service providers of all sizes to simplify, excite, and grow. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon management's current expectations and are inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this release, and we assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance after the date of this release, except as required by law. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from current expectations based on risks and uncertainties affecting Calixs business. The reader is cautioned not to rely on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information on potential factors that could affect Calix's results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005345/en/ Press Inquiries: Zacharia Jacob [email protected] Investor Inquiries: Investor Relations [email protected] Source: Calix, Inc. Additional Upgrades Include 900 Roof Replacements FORT MEADE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Corvias, a long-term solutions and management partner to the U.S. military, has completed a large-scale effort to install energy-efficient upgrades to nearly all Fort Meade homes to continue to enhance the living experience for military families on behalf of its Meade Communities partnership with the Army. The more than 142,000 improvements at Fort Meade were made possible as a result of Corvias $325 million Solutions Investment, a first-of-its-kind direct equity investment into an established military housing partnership. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005615/en/ Corvias team member installs a new energy-efficient HVAC system as part of the $325 million Solutions Investment by Corvias to enable energy resilience and modernization across six U.S. Army installations. (Photo: Business Wire) Our community will benefit from these enhancements for many years to come, said Peter Sims, managing director for Corvias. We have upgraded homes with the best technology available. As a result, we estimate future utility savings of $240 million across installations, which will be reinvested back into our military communities to benefit our residents. Corvias is leading the energy conservation upgrades in conjunction with Johnson Controls, a global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings. The Fort Meade upgrades include: Water conservation measures, including more than 6,000 low-flow toilets; 8,000 bathroom faucet aerators; 2,600 kitchen faucet aerators; and 4,800 shower heads. All incorporate modern technology that reduces water usage and utility costs. Approximately 112,000 energy-efficient lighting and fixture upgrades, providing each family with a more attractive and resourceful home. More than 1,200 HVAC split systems, which are more reliable, efficient, and long-lasting to help families enjoy more cost-efficient and comfortable housing. More than 2,600 smart" thermostats, which monitor temperature and building humidity. Roughly 1,200 weatherization improvements, including insulation, weather stripping, and energy-efficient windows. Approximately 2,600 water meters, which use the most up-to-date tools to ensure accurate measurement of water consumption and precise usage reports. In addition, the technology provides early detection of water leaks or reverse flow. The Corvias Solutions Investment also includes the renovation of 120 homes in the Heritage Park, Potomac Place, and Patriot Ridge neighborhoods at Fort Meade. This work will include upgrades to kitchens, bathrooms and flooring. As a result of this investment, service members and their families will continue to enjoy newly updated and constructed housing, while Corvias partnership with the Army will benefit through reducing the cost of maintaining its older housing inventory. In addition to the housing upgrades at Fort Meade, the $325 million Solutions Investment will benefit more than 70%, or approximately 16,000, of Corvias-managed homes across Fort Sill, Okla., Fort Riley, Kan., Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Rucker, Ala. The changes are anticipated to save an estimated $240 million over 30 years, allowing Corvias to reinvest those savings back into the military communities to fund additional improvements. Once completed, the energy conservation measures will yield an average annual utility savings of approximately 16 percent of Corvias Army portfolio-wide utility-related operating expenses. About Corvias and the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Corvias is a partner to the U.S. Army as part of the U.S. Department of Defense Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) to revitalize, operate and maintain on-base military family housing. MHPI has enabled renovations, new construction, and water and energy saving initiatives, including the largest solar project in Kansas located at the Fort Riley military housing community, which is part of Corvias partnership with the Army. In 2019, Corvias developed a $325 million Solutions Investment for its Department of Defense portfolio to fund strategic modernization and resiliency improvements to its U.S. Army base housing infrastructure. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005615/en/ Media Inquiries Mary Humphreys (571) 309-5943 [email protected] Source: Corvias New investment from PSG Equity alongside further investment from current shareholders A.P. Moller Holding and Cargill to enable ZeroNorth to look to further accelerate decarbonisation in shipping COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Technology company ZeroNorth has today announced it has raised over $50 million in investment during its recently concluded Series B investment round. The investment from PSG Equity (PSG), a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies to help accelerate their growth, joins further capital injections from ZeroNorths existing investors A.P. Moller Holding and Cargill, who also participated in the round. The news means that ZeroNorth now has a trio of partners that will support the companys ambitious plans for continued growth. The Series B investment, in addition to the support of PSG Equity, will help to accelerate ZeroNorths growth over the coming years, enabling it to continue investing in product innovation, expanding its customer facing teams and pursuing M&A to add data, products and services to the ZeroNorth platform. The investment will also help to enable ZeroNorth to continue to accelerate the green transition of global trade by driving down CO2 emissions in shipping in the immediate term, by deepening the insights generated by its platform, connecting more players across the supply chain and turning data into actions that can underpin value driving decision-making. As a demonstration of this impact, ZeroNorth is on course to help cut CO2 emissions by over half a million metric tonnes in 2022, up from 218,000 tonnes in 2021. Commenting on the announcement, Sren Meyer, CEO of ZeroNorth, said: We are delighted to welcome PSG Equity as a new investor in ZeroNorth. We have ambitious goals and PSG Equity shares our vision of enabling widescale change in how our industry operates. Edward Hughes, Managing Director at PSG Equity, said ZeroNorth has been able to achieve impressive growth in the short time they have been operating. Their clear vision and roadmap for growth as well as the expertise they have been able to attract makes the company an appealing prospect to partner with. Their established track record of success, strong customer feedback and unique blending of maritime and tech together, make us confident they are positioned to be a major player in leading the green transition of global trade. Edward added, PSG Equity will provide strategic expertise honed from working with similar technology companies across our portfolio. We are confident that, together, we will help enable the next phase of ZeroNorths exciting growth journey. Notes to Editors About ZeroNorth Recognising the challenges posed by climate change, technology company ZeroNorth was founded to accelerate the transition to greener global trade. By blending cutting-edge data-driven technology with human expertise, the ZeroNorth platform provides a range of software solutions that are helping the global shipping industry cut emissions and reduce its impact on the climate, whilst maintaining commercial performance. ZeroNorth is a multi-service platform and leading technology developer, which interconnects data into insights and actions, optimising global trade for cargo owners, vessel owners, commercial operators, charterers, and bunker suppliers. The companys software offers a full range of services which support the value chain to increase earnings and reduce Co2 emissions; delivered to customers through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. For more information, please visit: https://zeronorth.com About PSG Equity PSG Equity (PSG) is a growth equity firm that partners with software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth, capitalize on strategic opportunities and build strong teams. Having backed more than 100 companies and facilitated over 400 add-on acquisitions, PSG brings extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Founded in 2014, PSG operates out of offices in Boston, Kansas City, London, Paris, Madrid and Tel-Aviv. To learn more about PSG, visit www.psgequity.com. About A.P. Moller Holding A.P. Moller Holding is the parent company of the A.P. Moller Group. The purpose of A.P. Moller Holding is to develop nyttig virksomhed, i.e., to build businesses that have a positive impact on society. Some of the largest holdings include A.P. Moller - Maersk, Faerch Group, Unilabs, Maersk Drilling and Maersk Tankers. For further information please visit https://apmoller.com/ About Cargill Cargills 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 156 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005684/en/ For media requests, please contact: Rhys Thomas Senior Consultant BLUE Communications [email protected] Maria Gonzalez Prosek Partners [email protected] Source: PSG Equity One of the first CDFIs in the United States brings greater equity to New Hampshires economy BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Eastern Bank Foundation is pleased to announce the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (the Community Loan Fund) as a 2022 Community Advocacy Award honoree for its pioneering efforts in providing loans, capital, training and technical assistance that assist businesses and people across New Hampshire with achieving economic stability. A Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) founded 38 years ago, the Community Loan Fund helps New Hampshire residents gain access to affordable housing, secure jobs, and quality child care, and has reached 170 towns and every New Hampshire county. Impact reported by the Community Loan Fund includes more than $400 million in loans, and the creation or preservation of more than 10,800 affordable housing units and 3,900 jobs. For decades, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund has laid the foundation for many people to thrive in New Hampshire by extending the reach of conventional lenders and public institutions and bringing people and institutions together to solve challenges, said Nancy Huntington Stager, President and CEO of the Eastern Bank Foundation. The Community Loan Fund has pioneered the role of a CDFI as a financing partner in the revitalization of economically distressed and underserved communities, and serves as a catalyst to enable traditionally underserved people to participate more fully in New Hampshires economy. Its work with small businesses focuses on providing loans, capital and technical assistance. It has invested millions of dollars and helped to secure millions more in loans to small businesses in sectors that include manufacturing, technology, retail and energy. It has also facilitated nearly 80,000 hours of technical assistance to small businesses. Steve Saltzman, President and CEO of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund said, The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund aims to transform lives by bringing economic justice to people, neighborhoods and communities that have been historically disenfranchised. Zachery Palmer, Community Business Lender at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund added, Closing the wealth gap and solving disparities takes a multi-faceted, evolving approach. By creating new and innovative capital structures that help businesses in the community with the financial resources and tools to thrive, we are one step closer to an equitable economy. The celebration of Easterns Community Advocacy Award coincides with the Eastern Bank Foundations commitment to economic inclusion and mobility through its philanthropy, volunteerism and advocacy, including to advance equity in the small business ecosystem. Recognizing that entrepreneurs and business owners are building blocks for the local economy, the Foundation seeks to fund organizations that build ecosystems of support for business owners in historically disadvantaged communities, including Black, Latinx, Asian, women, LGBTQ+, Veterans and people with disabilities. Read more about all of the 2022 Community Advocacy Award honorees at: https://www.easternbank.com/communityadvocacyawards About Eastern Bank Foundation Created in 1994, the Eastern Bank Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Boston-based Eastern Bank. Through philanthropy, employee volunteerism, advocacy and collaborations with other businesses and community partners, Eastern Bank Foundation responds to community needs and supports sustainable solutions to our communities most vexing challenges across eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. To learn more, visit easternbank.com/foundation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005863/en/ Media contact: Andrea Goodman Eastern Bank Foundation [email protected] 781-598-7847 Source: Eastern Bank Second quarter 2022 revenue expected to exceed prior outlook and be within a range of $64 million to $66 million Highlights Plan for Long-Term Growth Adjusted EBITDA anticipated to be positive for fourth consecutive quarter Accelerating product roadmap to drive event marketing and demand generation SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Eventbrite, Inc. (NYSE: EB), a global self-service ticketing and experience technology platform, will host its Investor and Analyst Day outlining its market opportunities, long-term strategy, product roadmap, and financial objectives. The world is coming back to in-person experiences, and Eventbrite is leading the way. We are channeling strong consumer demand toward the events on our platform, and many Eventbrite creators are seeing record success. Based on our recent momentum, we are raising our revenue outlook for the second quarter, and we expect to be adjusted EBITDA positive for the fourth consecutive quarter, said Julia Hartz, Eventbrite co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Revised Q2 2022 Business Outlook Based upon current information, the Company now anticipates second quarter 2022 revenue will be within a range of $64 million to $66 million, exceeding the $60 million to $63 million range provided previously on the quarterly earnings call held on April 28, 2022. The Company also expects Adjusted EBITDA to be positive for the second quarter of 2022. We have not reconciled forward-looking Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP measure, because we cannot currently predict with reasonable certainty the ultimate outcome of certain components of such reconciliations, including payroll tax expense on employee stock transactions, that are not within our control, or other components that may arise, without unreasonable effort. For these reasons, we are unable to assess the probable significance of the unavailable information, which could materially impact the amount of future net income (loss). Long-Term Growth Drivers During todays event, the Company will outline its revenue growth drivers and long-term financial model targets to deliver shareholder value. Eventbrite Products The Company will provide an in-depth look at its product roadmap, supporting its evolution from an online ticketing service to a growth platform offering event creators a suite of proprietary marketing tools and features. This creator-centric approach significantly enhances platform functionality and enables creators to efficiently manage their events while seeking to increase the size of their audiences through scalable marketing products. Eventbrite Boost is an innovative marketing tool that enhances creators ability to widen their reach through paid social ads and email marketing. Boost has steadily grown its subscriber base since its introduction in May 2021, and as of May 2022 has surpassed $1 million annualized revenue. The Company plans to release more features to Boost in 2022, including Eventbrite Ads, which will allow creators to advertise their events to the millions of consumers who visit the Eventbrite website and mobile app on a monthly basis. The Company looks forward to providing updates on product development activity as additional products are released. Investor and Analyst Day Information Eventbrite will host a live Investor and Analyst Day today, June 2, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The webcast of the event can be accessed by visiting Eventbrites Investor Relations page, https://investor.eventbrite.com. An archived webcast of the event, along with presentation materials, will also be accessible on the same website following the events conclusion. About Eventbrite Eventbrite is a global self-service ticketing and experience technology platform that serves a community of hundreds of thousands of event creators in nearly 180 countries. Since inception, Eventbrite has been at the center of the experience economy, transforming the way people organize and attend events. The company was founded by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage, with a vision to build a self-service platform that would make it possible for anyone to create and sell tickets to live experiences. The Eventbrite platform provides an intuitive, secure, and reliable service that enables creators to plan and execute their live and online events, whether its an annual culinary festival attracting thousands of foodies, a professional webinar, a weekly yoga workshop or a youth dance class. With over 290 million tickets distributed for over 5 million total events in 2021, Eventbrite is where people all over the world discover new things to do or new ways to do more of what they love. Learn more at www.eventbrite.com. About Non-GAAP Financial Measures We believe that the use of Adjusted EBITDA is helpful to our investors as it is used by management in assessing the health of our business and our operating performance. This measure is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results of operations as reported under GAAP. In addition, other companies may not calculate non-GAAP financial measures in the same manner as we calculate them, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. You are encouraged to evaluate the adjustments and the reasons we consider them appropriate. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our results of operations, as well as provides a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our business performance. Moreover, it is a key measurement used by our management internally to make operating decisions, evaluating performance, and performing strategic planning and annual budgeting. We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as net loss adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, interest expense, loss on debt extinguishment, direct and indirect acquisition related costs, employer taxes related to employee transactions and other income (expense), which consisted of interest income, foreign exchange rate gains and losses, and income tax provision (benefit). Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net loss or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA include (i) Adjusted EBITDA does not properly reflect capital spending that occurs off of the income statement or account for future contractual commitments, (ii) although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the underlying assets may need to be replaced and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect these capital expenditures and (iii) Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest and principal required to service our indebtedness. In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we expect to incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this letter. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by these expenses or any unusual or non-recurring items. When evaluating our performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including our net loss and other GAAP results. Forward-Looking Statements This press 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 involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Companys expectations described under Revised Q2 2022 Business Outlook above; the Companys plan for long-term growth and path to potential profitability; the Companys long-term financial model targets; and the Companys product roadmap, performance and development activity. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, will, appears, shall, should, expects, plans, anticipates, could, intends, target, projects, contemplates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential, or continue, or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. Such statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied in this press release. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to additional risks, uncertainties and factors, including those more fully described in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Further information on potential risks that could affect actual results will be included in the subsequent periodic and current reports and other filings that the Company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements are based on information and estimates available to the Company at the time of this press release and are not guarantees of future performance. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update any of the statements in this press release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005565/en/ Eventbrite Investor Relations [email protected] Source: Eventbrite, Inc. RTHK: Queen Elizabeth's jubilee celebrations off to a flier A beaming Queen Elizabeth waved to cheering crowds massed outside Buckingham Palace on Thursday as Britain kicked off four days of pomp, parties and parades to celebrate her record-breaking 70 years on the British throne. Tens of thousands of supporters waving flags lined the streets of London for a military parade at the start of the four-day Platinum Jubilee. Millions of people across Britain and the world were expected to watch the festivities, join street parties and light beacons in honour of the 96-year-old monarch. Elizabeth, holding a walking stick and wearing a dusky dove blue outfit that she also wore for an official Jubilee photograph, was joined by her son and heir Prince Charles, 73, and other senior royals on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Britain's current head of state has been on the throne for longer than any of her predecessors, and is the third-longest reigning monarch ever of a sovereign state. Opinion polls show she remains hugely popular and respected among British people. The celebrations began with the Trooping the Colour, a military parade held annually to mark the Queen's official birthday, where 1,500 soldiers marched to military music in ceremonial uniforms of scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. Later the crowds moved to the Mall, the grand boulevard running up to Buckingham Palace, where in brilliant sunshine they cheered and waved Union flags as a display of modern and historic planes took place overhead. Fifteen Typhoon jets spelled out the number 70. World leaders including US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis and former British prime ministers were among those sending messages of goodwill. "Thank you to everyone who has been involved in convening communities, families, neighbours and friends to mark my Platinum Jubilee, in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth," the Queen said in a statement as the festivities got under way. "I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me." (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2022-06-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Washington D.C. based Investment Fund is Leader in Cyber Security Investing with Over US$ 1 Billion Invested Across 60 Portfolio Companies Developing Next Generation Products and Services for Cyber Security and Resilience CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GigNet, an international Digital Infrastructure company with an extensive regional fiber optic broadband network in the Cancun region of Mexico, announced today that its Chairman and CEO Paul Moore will be joining the Advisory Committee of Paladin Capital Group. Paladin Capital is one of the worlds foremost investment firms dedicated to cyber security and advanced technology. The firm is headquartered in Washington D.C. and is led by Michael Steed, its Managing Partner. Mr. Steed is also a member of the Board of Directors of GigNet, Inc. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005994/en/ Paul Moore, Chairman and CEO of GigNet Inc. (Photo: Business Wire) Mr. Moore has over 30 years experience as a principal investor and developer of international telecommunications ventures, as well as extensive experience as an officer and director of publicly traded and privately held ventures in a number of industries. He has served as Chairman and CEO since inception, and since 2017 has been focused on the development and expansion of the Companys operations in Mexico. Under Mr. Moores leadership, GigNet Mexico has achieved significant market share in the Cancun region providing advanced, secure broadband services to the hospitality, enterprise, and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) segments. GigNet has invested over US$50 million in Mexico installing a fiber-optic network and comprehensive Service Delivery Platform, and is also developing a new subsea cable from Florida to Cancun for secure international connectivity between the Yucatan Peninsula, the United States, and global Internet gateways. Mr. Moore stated, I am honored to be part of Paladins Advisory Committee. I have known Michael Steed for over 25 years, and I continue to be impressed by his professionalism, business acumen, and his unique ability to identify key investment trends and opportunities at an early stage. The timing is very opportune for GigNet also as we are in the process of bringing to market a suite of new managed cyber security products and services tailored for our existing and prospective clients in Mexico. The Paladin Advisory Committee will provide important insights for GigNets business as well as early access to new technologies that will benefit GigNet Clients as cyber security grows as a mission critical aspect of telecommunications managed services. ABOUT PALADIN CAPITAL GROUP Paladin Capital Group was founded in 2001 and has offices in Washington DC, New York, London, Luxembourg, and Silicon Valley. As a multi-stage investor, Paladin Capital Groups core strength is identifying and supporting innovative companies that develop promising, early-stage technologies to address the critical cyber and advanced technological needs of both commercial and government customers. Combining proven investment experience with deep expertise in global security, cyber technology, and cutting-edge research, Paladin has invested in more than 60 companies and has been a trusted partner to investors, entrepreneurs, and governments for over two decades. Follow the firm on Twitter @Paladincap and visit www.paladincapgroup.com. ABOUT GIGNET GigNet is the Mexican Caribbean brand of GigNet, Inc., a U.S. based international Digital Infrastructure company specializing in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) for enterprise customers including hotels, resorts, retailers, offices, large commercial operations, governmental offices, and medical and educational facilities, as well as fiber-optic transport services for mobile phone operators in the region. Through its Mexico operating subsidiaries, GigNet, S.A. de C.V., and Sanalto Redes Peninsular, S.A.P.I. de C.V., the Company is a fully licensed telecommunications provider in Mexico. GigNet is actively adding customers to its extensive regional broadband network in the Mexican Caribbean, one of the largest and fastest growing tourism and new residential development destinations in the world, with over 25 million annual airport visitors. GigNet is a leader in the Digital Transformation of the region. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005994/en/ For Product and Sales information - Mexico: www.GigNet.mx Jennifer Hamer [email protected] +52.998.154 5220 For Corporate Information: www.GigNetInc.com www.GigNetTV.com Diane Shearin [email protected] +1.847.739.3110 Source: GigNet NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ThoughtLab, a leading global research firm, has joined forces with a broad coalition of business, government, and academic leaders to launch its fourth urban research program, Building a Future-Ready City. This ground-breaking study, conducted together with Hatch, a global engineering company, will examine how cities around the world plan to reinvent their urban environments to meet the post-pandemic expectations of citizens and other stakeholders, and to address their increasing needs for resiliency, sustainability, inclusiveness, and economic development. The pandemic and other market disruptions have heightened the imperative for urban transformation. Now more than ever, urban leaders must adopt a future-ready strategy to address a cross-current of dramatic shifts upending their citiesincluding technological innovation, climate change, rising safety and security concerns, failing infrastructure, and economic volatility, as well as changing citizen behaviors, expectations, and demographics. In my years of conducting urban research, I cannot remember a more disruptive and perplexing time for city leaders, said Louis Celi, CEO of ThoughtLab and director of the research program. Since our last study, cities have experienced unprecedented social, environmental, technological, and economic shifts that require fresh urban thinking. Our current research program will provide city leaders with just thatevidence-based analysis and actionable insights that will help them find their own path to becoming more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and future-ready cities. In the months ahead, ThoughtLab and Hatch Urban Solutions, the urban practice arm of Hatch, will conduct a rigorous benchmarking study of 200 cities across regions, population sizes, and income levels to probe their strategies, investments, and plans for becoming future ready. To assess how these plans align with changing citizen behaviors and expectations, ThoughtLab also will conduct a survey of 2,000 residents in cities in six world regions. To provide city leaders with an actionable roadmap, the research will include in-depth case studies on the urban transformation plans of 15 cities, as well as robust economic and social impact analysis to identify the future-ready strategies that work best. An eBook, benchmarking platform, and other decision support tools developed from the study will be released in November 2022, with an announcement of key findings and calls to action at a global virtual summit organized with Smart Cities World, and in person at the 2022 Barcelona Smart City Expo World Conference. ThoughtLab will also launch a dedicated microsite that will provide regular updates on the program, along with the latest analysis, useful data resources, and shared content. "A future-ready city in a post-pandemic world is one that embraces stakeholder and community engagement, innovation, and technology to cultivate a thriving and enduring community, said Chris Castro, Director of the Office of Sustainability and Resilience for the City of Orlando. These cities will be advanced in using smart technology and data to accelerate progress on the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, improve our collective resilience, and transition to a zero-carbon economy. ThoughtLabs research will help shed light on the path ahead for cities." Actionable roadmap for the future This landmark study, Building a Future-Ready City, will provide city leaders with a comprehensive, evidence-based roadmap for preparing for a transformed, post-pandemic world, with insights into: How citizens across a spectrum of cities expect to change the way they live, work, socialize, and travel in metro areas, and how city leaders are building these assumptions into their longer-term plans. What future-ready goals and investments these cities are targeting and integrating across seven urban domains: living and health; mobility and transportation; environment and sustainability; energy and utilities; public safety; digital infrastructure; and economic development. How cities will draw on technology, innovation, and data, along with citizen engagement, partnerships, and new funding models, to achieve their social, environmental, and economic goals and to overcome the urban challenges ahead. The research coalition for Building a Future-Ready City consists of: Corporate sponsors, including Axis Communications, Cognizant, Dassault Systemes, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, GM, Intel, JLL Technologies, Kearney, NTT, and Visa. including Axis Communications, Cognizant, Dassault Systemes, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, GM, Intel, JLL Technologies, Kearney, NTT, and Visa. Multilateral organizations , including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and United Cities. , including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and United Cities. Associations and think tanks, including the World Economic Forum, Smart Cities Council, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), FIWARE, Open Sustainability Collaborative, GO SMART, Anbound, Reimagining Cities, Renaissance Urbaine, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), and Taipei Computer Association. including the World Economic Forum, Smart Cities Council, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), FIWARE, Open Sustainability Collaborative, GO SMART, Anbound, Reimagining Cities, Renaissance Urbaine, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), and Taipei Computer Association. Academic institutions , including Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, IESE Business School, Nankai University, Peking University, University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), Rochester Institute of Technology - Dubai, Sogang University, Tsinghua University, University of Michigan, and University of Southern California. , including Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, IESE Business School, Nankai University, Peking University, University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), Rochester Institute of Technology - Dubai, Sogang University, Tsinghua University, University of Michigan, and University of Southern California. Government and transportation leaders from Almaty City, Auckland, Austin, Barcelona, Bucaramanga, Cary, Clark County, Dallas, Dublin, Chicago, London, Los Altos Hills, Mumbai, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Orlando, Ottawa, Pearland, Philadelphia, Seoul, Singapore, Sioux Falls, Torrance, Trondheim, and Uppsala. from Almaty City, Auckland, Austin, Barcelona, Bucaramanga, Cary, Clark County, Dallas, Dublin, Chicago, London, Los Altos Hills, Mumbai, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Orlando, Ottawa, Pearland, Philadelphia, Seoul, Singapore, Sioux Falls, Torrance, Trondheim, and Uppsala. Media partners, including Edelman and Smart Cities World. About ThoughtLab ThoughtLab is an innovative thought leadership firm that creates fresh ideas through rigorous research and economic analysis. We specialize in assessing the economic, financial, and social impact of technology on cities, companies, industries, and world markets. Our services include fielding business, consumer, investor, and government surveys; organizing executive interviews, meetings, and advisory groups; conducting economic modeling, AI sentiment monitoring, benchmarking, and performance analysis; and developing white papers, eBooks, infographics, and customer-facing analytical tools. Find out more on www.thoughtlabgroup.com. About Hatch Whatever our clients envision, our engineers can design and build. With over six decades of business and technical experience in the mining, energy, and infrastructure sectors, we know your business and understand that your challenges are changing rapidly. We respond quickly with solutions that are smarter, more efficient, and innovative. We draw upon our 9,000 staff with experience in over 150 countries to challenge the status quo and create positive change for our clients, our employees, and the communities we serve. Find out more www.hatch.com. Research Sponsors and Advisors: Sponsors: Kevin Taylor, Segment Development Manager, Cities, Axis Communications; Andrea Sorri, Segment Development Manager, Smart Cities EMEA, Axis Communications; Angie Merrill, Senior Industry Marketing Manager, Axis Communications; Andreas Goransson, Global Enterprise Segment Marketing Manager, Axis Communications; Euan Davis, AVP, Marketing, Cognizant; Karen McCall, Marketing Director, Cognizant Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant; Rouzbeh Amini, Senior Director, Sustainability Services, Cognizant; Eduardo Plastino, Director, Marketing, Cognizant; Jodi Sorenson, VP, Corporate Communications, Cognizant; Praveen Vyakaranam, Director, Strategy Lead, Digital Cities, Dell Technologies; Anuja Bajpai, Consultant, Marketing Lead, Digital Cities, Dell Technologies; Bill Pfeifer, Director, Product Marketing, Edge, Dell Technologies; William Eggers, Executive Managing Director, Deloitte; Mahesh Kelkar, Executive Manager, Deloitte; David Noone, Senior Manager, Deloitte; Rajit Dey, Content Marketer, Deloitte; Suzette Malek, Global Research Manager, Global Societal Trends & Innovation Insights, General Motors; Chandra Sekhar Talluri, Product Manager, Smart City Incubation, General Motors; Heather Hardman, Product Marketing Lead, Global Future of Roads & Smart City Incubation, General Motors; Max Vega, Smart Cities & Transportation, Strategy & Marketing IoTG, Intel; Sajid Khan, Global Director, Smart Cities & Transportation Strategy & Marketing, Intel; Emily Hutson, Marketing Manager, IOTG, Intel; Susan OConnor, Director, Services and Solutions Product Marketing, JLL Technologies; Abdo Al Habr, Partner, Kearney; Antoine Nasr, Global Head of Government and Economic Development Practice, Kearney; Rudolph Lohmeyer, Partner, Head of National Transformations Institute in the Middle East, Kearney; Swetha Menon, Senior Marketing Specialist, Kearney; Daria Shevchenko, Marketing Manager, Kearney; Eduardo Tarasca, Director of Product Marketing, NTT; William Baver, Vice President, NTT SMART World; Bennett Indart, VP Smart Solutions, NTT; Vito Mabrucco, Global Chief Marketing Officer, NTT; Ted Waddelow, Head of Sustainability & Mobility Policy, Global Policy, Visa; Stephen Cooles, Global Head of Partner Development, Urban Mobility, Visa; Anoosha Livani, Sr. Product Marketing Director, Visa Government Solutions, Visa; Maveric Galmiche, Market Analyst Cities & Public Services, Dassault Systemes; Jacques Beltran, Vice President, Cities & Public Services, Dassault Systemes; Marion Milosevic, Solutions Strategy Director Cities & Public Services, Dassault Systemes; Mahel Abaab-Fournial, Sales Strategy Director Cities & Public Services, Dassault Systemes; Bob Pell, Managing Director, Urban Solutions, Hatch; Daniel Miles, Director, Urban Solutions, Hatch. City Leaders: Bayan Konirbayev, Chief Digital Officer, Almaty City, Kazakhstan; Miquel Rodriguez Planas, Commissioner, Barcelona City Council; Dr. Peter Pirnejad, City Manager, Los Altos Hills, CA; Chris Castro, Director of Sustainability and Resilience, Orlando, FL; Clay Pearson, City Manager, Pearland, TX; Emily Yates, Chief Innovation Officer, SEPTA, Philadelphia; Darron Taylor, Operational Lead, City of Ottawa; Gianluca Galletto, Managing Director, Technology & Innovation Partnerships, New York Housing Authority (personal capacity); Oyvind Tanum, Head of Smart City, Trondheim, Norway; Aram Chaparyan, City Manager, Torrance, CA; Peter Nou, Smart City Pilots & Partnerships, Uppsala, Sweden; Borg Tham, Deputy Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore; Jamie Cudden, Smart City Program Manager, Dublin; Jayant Kohale, Business Advisor, Mumbai; Julia Thompson, Smart Cities Data & Planning Consultant, London; In Dong Cho, Metropolitan Government First Vice Mayor, Seoul, South Korea; Edson Gomez, CIO, Bucaramanga, Colombia; Gia Biagi, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation; Nicole Raimundo, CIO, Cary, NC; Mike Grigsby, Director Innovation and Technology, Sioux Falls, SD; Bill Cashmore, Deputy Mayor, Auckland; Sharmila Muhkerjee, Executive VP, Planning and Development, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Austin; Benjamin Branham, Chief Communications Officer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Bob Leek, Smart Mobility, Parking Enterprise & Mobility Services, Clark County, NV; Jason JonMichael, Assistant Director of Smart Mobility, Austin, TX. Academic Experts: Karen Lightman, Executive Director, Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Joan E. Ricart, Professor, IESE Business School; Eugenie Birch, Professor, Nussdorf Professor and co-director, Penn Institute for Urban Research; Kyung-Hwan Kim, Professor of Economics, Sogang University; Frank Zerunyan, Professor, University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy; Professor Greg Clark, CBE FAcSS, Group Advisor, Future Cities & New Industries, HSBC; Henry Liu, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, M-City; Jian Liu, Professor of Urban Planning & Design, Tsinghua University Tianjin, China; Dr. Yu Qi, Associate Professor Nankai University, Tianjin, China; John Rome, Deputy CIO for Partnerships, Cloud Innovation Center, Arizona State University; Ryan Hendrix, General Manager, Cloud Innovation Center, Arizona State University; Diana Bowman, Co-Director, Center for Smart Cities and Regions, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University; Fengyu Li, VP of the Institute of Urban Design and Innovation at CAFA, China; Prof. Maosheng Lai, Peking University of China; Dr. Sanjay Modak, Chair Graduate Programs and Research Department, RIT of Dubai. Media and Association Partners: Philip Bane, Managing Director, Smart Cities Council; Chris Cooke, Chief Executive Officer, Smart Cities World; Kari Eik, Secretary General, United Cities; Tony Silva, General Manager, Public Sector, Edelman; Yi Wang, Head of Global Development Program, Anbound; Ulrich Ahle, Chief Executive Officer, FIWARE; Cristina Brandtstetter, Chief Marketing Officer, FIWARE; Chungha Cha, Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, Reimagining Cities LLC; Nicolas Buchoud, Founding Principal, Renaissance Urbaine; Sameh Naguib Whaba, Global Director, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, World Bank Group; Jim Haskins, Director of Community Engagement, Open Sustainability Collaborative; Jeff Merritt, Head of Urban Transformation, World Economic Forum; Michelle James, Vice President, Strategic Industry Programs, CTIA; Anita Chen, Deputy Secretary General, GO SMART; Pablo Marmissolle Daguerre, Chief of Staff, United Cities and Local Governments; Jennifer Sanders, Executive Director, Dallas Innovation Alliance. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005296/en/ Lou Celi, Chief Executive Officer ThoughtLab Group [email protected] Gina Egan, Marketing Director ThoughtLab Group [email protected] Source: ThoughtLab RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces it advised Crete Mechanical Group (CMG), a leading provider of HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and building automation services to commercial, industrial, multi-family, government, healthcare, education, and other end markets, on its partnership with Ridgemont Equity Partners (Ridgemont). Alongside the founders and management team of CMG, Ridgemont has provided significant growth capital to enable the continued build-out of a leading network of mechanical services providers across North America. The transaction was led by Brian Lucas, Bill Greven and Sam Funkhouser of the Harris Williams Business Services Group and Luke Semple of the firms Energy, Power & Infrastructure Group. This transaction strengthens the firms experience in the commercial services sector and reaffirms continued investor interest in platforms that provide mission-critical outsourced services, said Brian Lucas, a managing director at Harris Williams. Ridgemont will be a tremendous partner for CMG, and we are excited to see the accelerated organic and inorganic growth that the company will achieve through the partnership. CMG delivers best-in-class HVAC and mechanical services expertise to a diverse customer base, said Luke Semple, a managing director at Harris Williams. We look forward to seeing founders Jake Sloane and Frank Zhang continue to deliver on their strategic vision and grow the companys national platform alongside Ridgemont. CMG is a leading provider of commercial HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and building automation services to industrial, multi-family, government, healthcare, education, and other end markets. CMG provides a range of corporate, financial and accounting, human resources (including technician recruiting and retention), procurement, sales, best practice sharing, and general operational support resources to its national network of regional partners, while still maintaining a degree of local autonomy that promotes cultural continuity and customer responsiveness. CMG is actively seeking new relationships with owner-operators to grow the combined platform across North America. Ridgemont is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based middle market buyout and growth equity investor. Since 1993, the principals of Ridgemont have invested over $6 billion. The firm focuses on equity investments up to $250 million and utilizes a proven, industry-focused investment approach and repeatable value creation strategies. Harris Williams, an investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, advocates for sellers and buyers of companies worldwide through critical milestones and provides thoughtful advice during the lives of their businesses. By collaborating as one firm across Industry Groups and geographies, the firm helps its clients achieve outcomes that support their objectives and strategically create value. Harris Williams is committed to execution excellence and to building enduring, valued relationships that are based on mutual trust. Harris Williams is a subsidiary of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). The Harris Williams Business Services Group has experience advising companies that provide a range of commercial, industrial and professional services. For more information on the firms Business Services Group and other recent transactions, visit the Business Services Groups section of the Harris Williams website. The Harris Williams EPI Group has significant experience advising market leading providers of technology, services and products across a broad range of sectors. These sectors include energy management; infrastructure services; utility services; testing, inspection, and certification services; environmental services; engineering and construction; power products and technology; and energy technology. For more information on the Groups experience, please visit the EPI Groups section of the Harris Williams website. Harris Williams LLC is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is a private limited company incorporated under English law with its registered office at 8th Floor, 20 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB, UK, registered with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales (registration number 07078852). Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH is registered in the commercial register of the local court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under HRB 107540. The registered address is Bockenheimer Landstrasse 33-35, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (email address: [email protected]). Geschaftsfuhrer/Directors: Jeffery H. Perkins, Paul Poggi. (VAT No. DE321666994). Harris Williams is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC, Harris Williams & Co. Ltd and Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH conduct business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005996/en/ For media inquiries, please contact Katie Langemeier at [email protected]. Source: Harris Williams Apple Leisure Groups Javier Aguila to follow Peter Fulton CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced a leadership change positioning Hyatt for continued strategic growth in the Europe, Africa & Middle East (EAME) region. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005628/en/ Javier Aguila (Photo: Business Wire) Javier Aguila has been appointed incoming group president EAME, following the planned retirement of Peter Fulton who looks back on an impressive 39-year career at Hyatt. Aguila and Fulton will work together through a smooth and thoughtful transition and Aguila will officially assume the role in the next several months. The Hyatt family is grateful for Peters leadership and impact throughout a career that spans almost four decades and three global regions. In his latest role as group president, EAME/SWA, which Peter assumed in 2013, he has presided over operational excellence and unprecedented growth for the region, said Chuck Floyd, global president of operations, Hyatt. Aguila is an internal successor, hailing from Apple Leisure Group (ALG), which Hyatt acquired in 2021. He most recently served as ALGs group president, AMResorts Europe and Global Strategy. Aguila joined ALG in 2019 as part of the acquisition of Alua Hotels & Resorts, which Aguila founded and led as chief executive officer. Aguila brings a broad set of experiences and perspectives informed by more than 20 years in hospitality, tourism, private equity and strategic consulting. Javiers appointment is yet another milestone in bringing Hyatt and ALGs joint vision to life, continues Floyd. Adding ALG to our portfolio increased Hyatts European brand footprint by 60% and I am confident Javier is the ideal candidate to continue the regions positive trajectory and lead the team to new heights. This transition comes with a planned geographic realignment for the region, moving oversight of the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of David Udell, group president Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Udells immense experience leading the Asia Pacific region since 2014 sets Hyatt up for continued growth in the Indian subcontinent. Hyatt recently reported its fifth straight year of industry-leading net rooms growth, with a global pipeline of 113,000 rooms, equivalent to approximately 40 percent of Hyatts existing rooms base. The term Hyatt is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates. About Hyatt Hotels Corporation Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company guided by its purpose to care for people so they can be their best. As of March 31, 2022, the Companys portfolio included more than 1,150 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 71 countries across six continents. The Company's offering includes the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Alila, Andaz, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination by Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, Caption by Hyatt, JdV by Hyatt, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, UrCove, and Hyatt Residence Club brands, as well as resort and hotel brands under the AMR Collection, including Secrets Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Subsidiaries of the Company operate the World of Hyatt loyalty program, ALG Vacations, Unlimited Vacation Club, Amstar DMC destination management services, and Trisept Solutions technology services. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005628/en/ Franziska Weber Hyatt [email protected] Source: Hyatt Hotels Corporation E2opens technology will reduce delays, streamline regulatory compliance, improve supplier collaboration and more for multinational retail group AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ETWO), a leading network-based provider of a cloud-based, mission-critical, end-to-end supply chain management platform, announces that Landmark Group, a multinational retail and hospitality conglomerate, has selected E2open to improve competitive advantage for its retail division. Landmark Group will deploy E2open to revolutionize its supply chain operations, covering collaboration on procurement to optimizing transportation planning execution and managing trade compliance. With E2opens network, data and applications, Landmark Groups retail arm aims to reduce transportation costs and increase efficiency; improve visibility and supplier collaboration to monitor the quality of procured commodities; reduce customs delays; and automate and digitize previously manual processes. The need for more resilient and agile supply chain operations has never been more important, as revealed by unprecedented disruptions the past few years. Top brands across the world recognize that technology and connected supply chains are the way forward to create and optimize efficiency while satisfying their customers needs, said Michael Farlekas, chief executive officer of E2open. This is exactly the task Landmark Group is entrusting to E2open - to modernize its supply chain operations with visibility and collaboration to deliver value for a diverse range of customers. We are delighted to welcome Landmark Group as an E2open client. Founded in 1973, the Landmark Group has pioneered leading homegrown brands that are market leaders in their categories across Middle East, Africa, India and has a growing presence in Southeast Asia. The Groups comprehensive supply chain infrastructure includes a full-fledged logistics and distribution division to support its retail operations with 6,000 people, 1,000 vehicles and 35 warehouses. The high-volume retailer has over 8 million square feet of warehouse space including one of the largest privately owned logistics and redistribution centers in Dubai. We are constantly striving to deliver exceptional value and retail experiences and therefore developing an agile supply chain is part of the Groups supply chain vision, said Ashish Sood, Landmark Groups chief supply chain officer. We believe that E2opens platform will empower us to combat disruptions and address dynamic business scenarios through end-to-end data visibility, strong analytics and optimization. Thus, ensuring that we stay aligned with the continually shifting supply chain landscape to support our customer portfolio of leading brands across the globe. About E2open At E2open, were creating a more connected, intelligent supply chain. It starts with sensing and responding to real-time demand, supply and delivery constraints. Bringing together data from customers, distribution channels, suppliers, contract manufacturers and logistics partners, our collaborative and agile supply chain platform enables companies to use data in real time, with artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive smarter decisions. All this complex information is delivered in a single view that encompasses your demand, supply, logistics and global trade ecosystems. E2open is changing everything. Demand. Supply. Delivered. Visit www.e2open.com. E2open and the E2open logo are registered trademarks of E2open, LLC. Demand. Supply. Delivered. is a trademark of E2open, LLC. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. About Landmark Group Founded in 1973 in Bahrain, the Landmark Group has successfully grown into one of the largest and most successful retail organisations in the Middle East and India. An international, diversified retail and hospitality conglomerate that encourages entrepreneurship to consistently deliver exceptional value, the Group operates over 2,200 outlets encompassing over 30 million square feet across the Middle East, North Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Landmark Group has a strong workforce of over 42,000 employees and provides a value-driven product range for the family through its retail concepts: Centrepoint, Babyshop, Splash, Shoemart, Lifestyle, Max, Shoexpress, Home Centre, Home Box, Emax, UAEs first food discounter, VIVA and Styli, the Groups first online-only fashion offering. The Group has also diversified in leisure, food and hospitality with Landmark Leisure, Citymax Hotels, Fitness First and Foodmark - the restaurant division, which operates the Group's own and franchise dining outlets. The Group brands ensure the delivery of a seamless shopping experience to customers through a keen focus on their e-commerce and omni-channel capabilities. As a high-volume retailer, Landmark Group operates the MENA regions largest privately-owned logistics and distribution hub. The company has now advanced to offer 3PL logistics services with the launch its fully automated Mega Distribution Centre at JAFZA, Dubai under the brand name of Omega Logistics. The Group is committed to being an employer of choice and has been recognized over the years, recently being named one of Asias and the Middle Easts top 5 Best Workplaces in 2021 by Great Place to Work. For more information visit our website or follow us on our social media pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005566/en/ Media Contact: 5W PR for E2open [email protected] 718-757-6144 Investor Contact: Adam Rogers AVP Investor Relations, E2open [email protected] 515-556-1162 Corporate Contact: Kristin Seigworth VP Communications, E2open [email protected] Source: E2open BALLERUP, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- As part of LEO Pharmas transformation towards becoming a global leader in medical dermatology, the company today announced a refocused commercial structure to support building a more simple, agile, and competitive company. The commercial responsibilities in the Global Leadership Team (GLT) are consolidated, thereby reducing the number of commercial members. This means that: Region Europe+ and Region International are merged with Global Therapeutic & Value Strategy into a newly established role in the Global Leadership Team: Global Product Strategy & International Operations. The new lead role will be held by Executive Vice President Becki Morison, who joined LEO Pharma in October 2020 as Executive Vice President Global Therapeutic & Value Strategy. Region U.S. is merged with the Canadian affiliate to form Region North America. The new region will be headed by Executive Vice President Brian Hilberdink, who joined LEO Pharma in February 2022 as President of LEO Pharma Inc. in the U.S. Creating a leaner and simpler Global Leadership Team with consolidated commercial representation is a natural next step of the key actions announced in January 2022, focusing on increasing LEO Pharmas competitiveness. The refocused commercial set-up will increase organizational efficiency and alignment across all commercial functions globally and ensure full focus on the launch of tralokinumab across markets for future growth. Becki and Brian both bring strong commercial leadership experience from global and U.S. contexts, which ensures close collaboration across all markets. - A pivotal part of our strategy is to adapt our organization to become more efficient and competitive. As we are simplifying and streamlining the organization, this should also be reflected in a leaner and more agile composition of our Global Leadership Team. We are now taking the step to fully commit to simplifying our organization. With Becki and Brian heading the refocused commercial set-up we are well poised for global growth and for helping more patients, said Christophe Bourdon, CEO of LEO Pharma, and elaborated: - Becki has extensive experience at global, regional and affiliate levels and has successfully increased the competitiveness of brands and businesses across multiple chronic therapy areas and global pharma companies. Through her career, Becki has led significant transformations in key geographies, including Northern European, Australia and the U.S., which delivered significant EBITDA improvement and drove stronger in-market demand. - Brian Hilberdink has more than 25 years of global experience in developing and executing strategy and product launches in the pharmaceutical sector, recently from Senior Sales & Marketing leadership roles for Novo Nordisk in the U.S., Canada and globally - a background which makes him an excellent match for this expanded role. As part of the changes, Monica Shaw, former EVP Region Europe+, will leave LEO Pharma effective June 30, 2022. Guillaume Clement, former EVP Region International & Thrombosis, will continue as member of the Global Leadership Team with responsibility for LEO Pharmas Thrombosis Business Unit. - I want to thank Monica for her contribution and leadership during her time as a valued leader in the Global Leadership Team of LEO Pharma. She has played a critical role in getting the business to where it is today: Supporting the growth of our existing portfolio, preparing our markets for the launch of tralokinumab and supporting the organization during the first steps of our transformation, said CEO Christophe Bourdon. --ENDS About LEO Pharma LEO Pharma is a global company dedicated to advancing the standard of care for the benefit of people with skin conditions, their families and society. Founded in 1908 and majority owned by the LEO Foundation, LEO Pharma has devoted decades of research and development to advance the science of dermatology, and today, the company offers a wide range of therapies for all disease severities. LEO Pharma is headquartered in Denmark with a global team of 5,800 people, serving millions of patients across the world. In 2021, the company generated net sales of DKK 9,957 million. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005471/en/ Henrik Heskjr [email protected] +45 3140 6180 Source: LEO Pharma Report identifies 600+ mobile apps for banking, investing, cryptocurrency and more, examining the risk posed by 10 prolific trojan families targeting them DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Zimperium, the only mobile security platform purpose-built for enterprise environments, today published new research detailing the increasing risk financial institutions and consumers worldwide face due to Trojan horse malware targeting mobile applications. This new report titled, Mobile Banking Heists: The Global Economic Threat, examines more than 600 financial apps, which account for more than 1 billion downloads worldwide, and the degree to which 10 prolific banking trojan families target them. The report provides an audit of who these trojans target, how theyre deployed, how they work, and which countries are most impacted. Not every trojan targeting mobile and banking apps is created equal theyre disseminated differently, use different exploitation techniques, and vary in other degrees of reach and sophistication, said Nico Chiaraviglio, VP of Security Research at Zimperium. Weve seen ad hoc reports of different banking trojans over the past few years, and anecdotally, people may have recognized that theyre increasing in scope and frequency. But until now, no one has taken a step back to analyze and understand the big picture. Thats exactly what our Zimperium zLabs mobile threat research team has done. In addition to a detailed examination of 10 major banking trojan families and the mobile apps they target, the report also chronicles how this threat is increasing. In fact, the malware known as both ExobotCompact.D and Octo was originally discovered in 2017, and is the oldest known banking trojan outlined in this report. The Android / Bianlian Botnet malware is the next oldest banking trojan assessed, and was discovered in 2018. The eight other banking trojans in the report were all discovered since 2020. Among other key findings: The most targeted mobile banking application is BBVA Spain | Online Banking with over 10 million downloads. This one application is targeted by 6 of the 10 reported banking trojans. In the U.S., 121 financial applications are being targeted by banking trojans, accounting for more than 286,753,500 downloads. The U.K. and Italy are the next most-targeted countries with 55 and 43 apps targeted, respectively. The top 3 mobile financial apps targeted by trojans focus on mobile payments and alternative asset investments, like cryptocurrency and gold. These three apps account for over 200,000,000 downloads globally. The most prolific family of banking trojan is Teabot, which is being used to target 410 of the applications listed in the report. Zimperiums research team analyzes several hundred thousand applications each day with state-of-the-art machine learning models and other proprietary techniques. The samples covered in this report were collected and classified using this methodology. To download a copy of Zimperiums report titled, Mobile Banking Heists: The Global Economic Threat, visit https://get.zimperium.com/mobile-banking-heists/ About Zimperium Zimperium provides the only mobile security platform purpose-built for enterprise environments. With machine learning-based protection and a single platform that secures everything from applications to endpoints, Zimperium is the only solution to provide on-device mobile threat defense to protect growing and evolving mobile environments. Zimperium is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and backed by Warburg Pincus, SoftBank, Samsung, Sierra Ventures and Telstra. For more information, follow Zimperium on Twitter (@Zimperium) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/zimperium), or visit www.Zimperium.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005738/en/ Mike Reilly fama PR for Zimperium [email protected] Source: Zimperium CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- PPM America, Inc. (PPM) today welcomes Melissa FitzGerald as the new Vice President, Private Equity Investor Relations in the firms Business Development and Client Relationship Management Team. With 13 years in the investment services industry, Melissa joins the Chicago office from UBS where she was a client relationship manager for the institutional asset management business. Melissas role will primarily focus on leading all aspects of client relations in support of PPM America Capital Partners (PPMACP), the private equity arm of PPM, as well as other parts of PPMs alternative asset classes including real estate and private credit. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005713/en/ Melissa FitzGerald, Vice President, Private Equity Investor Relations Joins PPM America (Photo: Business Wire) The 9-person PPMACP investment team averages 26 years of investment experience including 21 years of average firm tenure. PPMACP has both a dedicated co-investment team and private equity fund investment team, which operate as an integrated private equity team. As of December 31, 2021, the private equity program had $5.39 billion in assets under management with over $10 billion in historical capital commitments across primary funds and co-investments. We are very excited to have Melissa join the business development group to ensure that the private equity team has the resources and support it needs to capitalize on current marketplace demand and PPMs growth in the private equity business, said Mike Welch, Senior Managing Director, Head of Business Development. Her institutional asset management product knowledge and experience creating and managing institutional relationships will allow PPM and our team to continue focusing on delivering a superior client service experience. Prior to serving as the Client Relationship Manager at UBS for six years, Melissa worked in roles at Guggenheim Partners, UBS Hedge Fund Solutions and Ernst & Young LLP. Melissa earned both masters and bachelors degrees in accounting from the University of Michigan. Melissa stated, The combination of experience, long-standing relationships with top sponsors and deal agility across sectors and size differentiates PPM America Capital Partners in the marketplace, and I look to leverage these strengths in my new role. About PPM America Capital Partners Our mission is to be indispensable to our clients. PPMs private equity capabilities were established in 1991 and PPMACP launched PPMs first co-investment fund in 2000. Since its inception, PPMs private equity team has navigated multiple market cycles focusing primarily on North America buyout and growth opportunities. PPMs private equity team manages both primary fund investments as well as sponsor-led co-investments. For more information, please visit PPMs website at ppmamerica.com/our-strategies/private-equity. Founded in 1990, PPM is a US-based institutional asset manager with $75.60 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2022. We have the expertise to provide client investment solutions in public fixed income, private equity and private debt. Our investment approach is guided by team-based values and our firm size allows us to remain nimble and investment-led. PPM is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Jackson Financial Inc. (Jackson, NYSE: JXN), a publicly traded company. Jackson is a US retirement services provider with market leadership supported by its diverse portfolio of differentiated products, efficient and scalable operating platform and industry-leading distribution network. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005713/en/ Julie Bruzek, Senior Managing Director Marketing & Communications P: 312-843-5969 E: [email protected] www.ppmamerica.com Source: PPM America, Inc. SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On June 28, 2021, QAD, Inc. (QAD or the Company) entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Thoma Bravo, LP, pursuant to which (i) holders of QADs Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock would receive $87.50 in cash for each share of common stock they owned; and (ii) certain shares held by the Companys founder Pamela M. Lopker (Lopker), the Lopker Living Trust dated November 18, 2013, the Estate of Karl F. Lopker, and Ms. Lopkers children Bo Lopker and Juliana Lopker could be contributed in the post-transaction private company in exchange for certain securities in the post transaction private company (the Merger). On July 2, 2021, a putative class action complaint was filed (the Action) in the Delaware Chancery Court (the Chancery Court) by Nantahala Capital Partners II Limited Partnership (Plaintiff), against QAD, Lopker, Anton Chilton, Scott J. Adelson, Kathleen M. Crusco, Peter R. Van Cuylenburg (collectively the Director Defendants), Thoma Bravo, LLC, Thoma Bravo, LP, Project Quick Ultimate Parent, LP, Project Quick Parent, LLC, and Project Quick Merger Sub Inc., (collectively, Thoma Bravo). Plaintiff alleged that the Company, Lopker, and the Director Defendants breached QADs certificate of incorporation (the Charter), that Lopker and the Director Defendants breached their respective fiduciary duties, and that Thoma Bravo aided and abetted Lopker and the Director Defendants respective breaches of fiduciary duty. On July 15, the Chancery Court expedited discovery on certain of Plaintiffs claims. On August 2, 2021, the Company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a preliminary proxy statement (the Preliminary Proxy) soliciting stockholder approval of the Merger. On August 12, 2021, Plaintiff filed a motion for leave to file a supplement to the complaint (the Complaint Supplement), alleging that the Preliminary Proxy failed to disclose certain material information. The Court granted Plaintiff's motion for leave to file the Complaint Supplement on August 16, 2021. On September 9, 2021, QAD filed with the SEC a definitive proxy statement (the Definitive Proxy), which supplemented its previously disseminated Preliminary Proxy Statement, addressing certain of Plaintiffs disclosure claims. On September 10, 2021, Plaintiff filed a motion for preliminary injunction, seeking to enjoin (i) the stockholder vote on the Merger until certain corrective disclosures were issued by the Company; and (ii) consummating the Merger unless and until the Merger was amended to remedy an alleged violation of QADs Charter. On September 27, 2021, the Company filed with the SEC a supplement to the Definitive Proxy, addressing certain claims asserted by Plaintiff. On October 11, 2021, the Court heard oral argument and issued a ruling granting in part and denying in part Plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction, requiring that the Company issue certain additional supplemental disclosures concerning the Merger before a stockholder vote could be held, and otherwise denied Plaintiffs motion. On October 12, 2021, QAD filed with the SEC two separate additional supplements to the Definitive Proxy, addressing the disclosure issues upon which the Court granted the preliminary injunction. On November 2, 2021, QAD held a special meeting of stockholders to vote on the Merger, following which the Company filed a Form 8-K with the SEC, announcing that stockholders voted to approve the Merger. On November 5, 2021, QAD and Thoma Bravo consummated the Merger. Following extensive arms-length negotiations, Defendants, the Company and/or their insurers subsequently agreed to pay $2,450,000.00 to Plaintiffs counsel for attorneys fees and expenses in connection with the benefits conferred by the additional supplemental disclosures described above. The Chancery Court has not been asked to review, and will pass no judgment on, the payment of the attorneys fees and expenses or their reasonableness. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005840/en/ QAD Inc. Caleb Finch Public Relations 805-566-6100 [email protected] Source: QAD, Inc. Branch features cutting-edge design and enhanced customer-focused features; Bank donates $50,000 to local nonprofit organization BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Santander Bank, N.A. ("Santander Bank, Santander or the Bank) announced the opening of its new branch in Boston located at 885 Boylston Street. To commemorate the new branch, Santander recently hosted a grand opening and ribbon cutting, during which Santander executives presented a $50,000 donation to representatives from St. Francis House. Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok, who represents the Back Bay, was in attendance to celebrate the branch opening. We have been investing in our branch network, and this iconic location in Bostons Back Bay neighborhood features Santanders innovative design that encourages engaging, consultative client interactions along with a relaxed environment where clients can meet with bankers and other members of the community, said Mike Bruno, Santander Bank Region President for New England North. We look forward to serving the banking needs of local residents and business owners at this exciting new location. The branch is a hybrid of Santanders traditional bank model and its Work Cafe, an innovation hub where local businesses and the community can nurture new ideas and foster collaboration. The enhanced features include a welcome kiosk where clients can check in for appointments, a teller bar, curated music, and a lounge area where clients can relax before meeting with a banker or other members of the community. There also are four offices where clients can meet privately with bankers to discuss their financial needs. To deepen engagement with the community, there are fully equipped conference rooms the public can use for meetings and space for after-hours events. The 24-hour ATM vestibule is available to clients after branch hours. Located in the heart of downtown Boston on Boylston Street, St. Francis House is the largest day shelter in Massachusetts, serving hundreds of individuals experiencing homelessness 365 days a year. The organizations basic, rehabilitative and housing services provide guests with continuous and comprehensive care. Santander has partnered with St. Francis House philanthropically and through volunteer service since 2017. The $50,000 donation is a two-year commitment to help employment-ready homeless adults learn about career pathways, increase their hard and soft job skills, receive workplace clothing, prepare resumes, practice for interviews and gain employment. Santander is committed to supporting our local communities, Bruno said. Our ongoing support of St. Francis House aligns with Santanders values and our dedication to making a difference in the neighborhoods where we live and work. Santander Bank, N.A. is one of the countrys largest retail and commercial banks with $102 billion in assets. With its corporate offices in Boston, the Banks nearly 8,600 employees and nearly 2 million customers are principally located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) - one of the most respected banking groups in the world with 155 million customers in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. It is overseen by Santander Holdings USA, Inc., Banco Santanders intermediate holding company in the U.S. For more information on Santander Bank, please visit www.santanderbank.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005674/en/ Media Contacts: Andrew Simonelli 267-798-6406 [email protected] Nancy Orlando 617-757-5765 [email protected] Source: Santander Bank, N.A. PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: The Combined General Meeting of Sopra Steria Group (Paris: SOP) shareholders took place in Paris today, 1st June 2022 and was chaired by Pierre Pasquier, Chairman of Sopra Steria Group. All 29 resolutions submitted by the Board were approved. The results of the vote on the 29 resolutions are presented hereafter. They are also available on the Groups website, in the investors / shareholders meetings section: The results of the vote Disclaimer This document is a free translation into English of the original French press release. It is not a binding document. In the event of a conflict in interpretation, reference should be made to the French version, which is the authentic text. Total number of shares: 20,547,701 Number of shares with voting rights: 20,527,696 Number of shareholders in attendance or being represented: 1,323 Percentage of shares held by shareholders in attendance or being represented at the meeting 80.09% Number of votes in attendance or represented : 21,836,621 Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 1 Approval of the parent company financial statements for financial year 2021 Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:28:03 21,801,387 99.944 % 12,163 0.056 % 32,551 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 2 Approval of the consolidated financial statements for financial year 2021 Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:28:36 21,801,507 99.945 % 12,045 0.055 % 32,549 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 3 Appropriation of earnings for financial year 2021 and setting of the dividend Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:29:10 21,843,847 99.999 % 160 0.001 % 2,094 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 4 Approval of the report on the compensation of company officers relating to the disclosures mentioned in Article L. 22-10-9 I of the French Commercial Code Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:29:41 21,005,135 96.362 % 793,048 3.638 % 47,918 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 5 Approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional items of compensation making up the total compensation and benefits of any kind paid or allotted to Pierre Pasquier, Chairman of the Board of Directors, in respect of financial year 2021 Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:30:11 21,348,612 97.914 % 454,921 2.086 % 42,568 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 6 Approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional items of compensation making up the total compensation and benefits of any kind paid or allotted to Vincent Paris, Chief Executive Officer, in respect of financial year 2021 Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:30:41 14,233,147 65.163 % 7,609,357 34.837 % 3,597 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 7 Approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:31:12 21,348,061 97.910 % 455,599 2.090 % 42,441 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 8 Approval of the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:31:41 20,013,865 91.629 % 1,828,406 8.371 % 3,830 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 9 Approval of the compensation policy for Directors for their service Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:32:13 21,799,088 99.985 % 3,242 0.015 % 43,771 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 10 Decision setting the total amount of compensation awarded to Directors for their service at 500,000 per financial year Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:32:43 21,815,668 99.981 % 4,066 0.019 % 26,367 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 11 Renewal of the directorship of Andre Einaudi for a term of office of four years Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:33:14 21,630,014 99.203 % 173,740 0.797 % 42,347 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 12 Renewal of the directorship of Michael Gollner for a term of office of one year Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:33:43 21,727,879 99.475 % 114,566 0.525 % 3,656 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 13 Renewal of the directorship of Noelle Lenoir for a term of office of four years Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:34:13 20,944,353 96.060 % 859,011 3.940 % 42,737 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 14 Renewal of the directorship of Jean-Luc Placet for a term of office of two years Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:34:44 20,363,985 93.232 % 1,478,290 6.768 % 3,826 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 15 Appointment of Yves de Talhouet as a Director for a term of office of three years Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:35:14 21,835,613 99.969 % 6,846 0.031 % 3,642 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 16 Renewal of the appointment of ACA Nexia as Principal Statutory Auditor Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:35:45 16,983,303 77.749 % 4,860,527 22.251 % 2,271 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 17 Authorisation to be granted to the Board of Directors to trade in the Companys shares up to a maximum of 10% of the share capital Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:36:14 21,812,919 99.961 % 8,517 0.039 % 24,665 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried 18 Authorisation to be granted to the Board of Directors to retire any shares that the Company may have acquired and to reduce the share capital accordingly Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:36:47 21,682,212 99.309 % 150,776 0.691 % 3,633 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 19 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to issue ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital and/or the share capital of its subsidiaries, with pre-emptive subscription rights for existing shareholders, subject to an upper limit of 50% of the Companys share capital Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:37:16 21,212,090 97.153 % 621,546 2.847 % 2,985 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 20 Delegation of authority to be granted to the BoD to issue ord. shares and/or other sec. giving access to the Companys capital and/or the capital of its subsidiaries, through public offerings (excluding offerings pursuant to 1 Art. L411-2, MFC), without PSR,subject to an upper limit of 20% of Companys capital, or 10% where no priority is granted Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:37:45 20,359,688 93.259 % 1,471,691 6.741 % 5,242 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 21 Delegation of authority to be granted to the BoD to issue ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital and/or the share capital of its subsidiaries, by means of a public offering provided for under 1 Art. L. 411-2, MFC, without PSR, subject to an upper limit of 10% of the Companys share capital per year Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:38:19 20,043,542 91.804 % 1,789,482 8.196 % 3,597 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 22 Delegation of authority to be granted to the BoD to determine the issue price for ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital and/or the capital of its subsidiaries, subject to an upper limit of 10% of the Companys share capital in connection with a capital increase without pre-emptive subscription rights Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:38:52 20,416,378 93.515 % 1,415,930 6.485 % 4,313 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 23 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase, with or without pre-emptive rights for existing shareholders, the number of ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital to be issued, subject to an upper limit of 15% of the size of the initial issue Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:39:20 19,886,029 91.086 % 1,946,092 8.914 % 4,500 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 24 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to issue ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital and/or the capital of its subsidiaries, without pre-emptive subscription rights, in consideration for contributions in kind, subject to an upper limit of 10% of the Companys share capital Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:39:52 21,235,307 97.257 % 598,877 2.743 % 2,437 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried Resolution Type Vote Time Valid for majority Votes not valid for majority (Abstain+Invalid+Not voted) Presents & Represented % of shares capital Excluded voting rights State of adoption For % Against % Shares Votes 25 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to issue ordinary shares and/or other securities giving access to the Companys share capital and/or the share capital of its subsidiaries, without PSR, in consideration for instruments tendered to a public exchange offer, subject to an upper limit of 10% of the Companys share capital Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:40:25 21,636,939 99.100 % 196,514 0.900 % 3,168 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 26 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase the Companys share capital, through the capitalisation of premiums, reserves, earnings or any other item eligible for capitalisation Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:40:58 21,797,049 99.832 % 36,643 0.168 % 2,929 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 27 Authorisation to be granted to the Board of Directors to allot existing or new free shares to employees and/or company officers of the Company and/or related companies, subject to a cap of 1.1% of the share capital, entailing the waiver by the shareholders of their pre-emptive subscription right Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:41:31 20,577,503 94.253 % 1,254,781 5.747 % 4,337 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 28 Delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase the Companys share capital, without pre-emptive subscription rights for existing shareholders, via issues to persons employed by the Company or by a related company, subject to enrolment in a company savings plan, up to a maximum of 2% of the share capital Extraordinary 01/06/2022 15:42:03 21,283,867 97.478 % 550,623 2.522 % 2,131 16,441,308 21,836,621 80.02 % 0 Carried 29 Powers granted to carry out all legal formalities Ordinary 01/06/2022 15:42:32 21,843,304 99.997 % 605 0.003 % 2,192 16,446,048 21,846,101 80.04 % 0 Carried End. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006320/en/ Investor Relations - Sopra Steria Group Olivier Psaume [email protected] +33.1.40.67.68.16 Press Relations - Image Sept Caroline Simon / Simon Zaks [email protected] / [email protected] +33.1.53.70.74.65 / +33.1.53.70.74.63 Source: Sopra Steria Group Spirent Federal engineers will lecture on GPS M-Code, CRPA, & Flex Power testing PLEASANT GROVE, Utah.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Spirent Federal, the leading provider of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) test equipment, will present technical papers and demonstrate new capabilities at the ION Joint Navigation Conference (JNC) 2022, June 6-9, in San Diego, California. Sponsored by the Military Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION), JNC is the largest U.S. military PNT conference of the year, with government, joint service and industry participation. Spirent Federals technical presentations take place Thursday, June 9. Director of engineering, Roger Hart, speaks at 10:35 AM on GPS military code (M-Code) testing. At 10:55 AM, Christopher Hogstrom, product development manager, demonstrates testing GPS anti-jamming technology, controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPA), with Spirent signal simulators. Riley Jacobson, software engineer, shares the final Spirent presentation of the 2022 conference at 11:15 AM. He will discuss Spirent Federals automated solution for Flex Power, which is the reallocation of transmit power among individual signals in modernized GPS satellites, providing a countermeasure against GPS jamming. Spirent Federal will also provide an exclusive first look of in-the-field spoofing testing capabilities. Email us to schedule a demo time. Spirent has supported the military PNT community across five decades, and we will continue to develop our partnerships at JNC each year, said Ellen Hall, president/CEO of Spirent Federal. We invite attendees to visit our booth, #300, in the exhibit hall to see a customized demonstration. Visit https://spirentfederal.com/events/joint-navigation-conference/ for more information. About Spirent Federal Systems Spirent Federal Systems was formed in July 2001 by Spirent Communications as a wholly owned subsidiary and U.S. proxy company. Spirent Federal markets and sells Spirent Communications products in North America. The company also provides value-added features and ongoing customer support. Spirent Federal Systems is headquartered in Pleasant Grove, UT, with support and sales offices throughout the US. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Spirent Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT) is the leading global provider of automated test and assurance solutions for networks, cybersecurity, and positioning. The company provides innovative products, services and managed solutions that address the test, assurance and automation challenges of a new generation of technologies, including 5G, SD-WAN, cloud, autonomous vehicles and beyond. From the lab to the real world, Spirent helps companies deliver on their promise to their customers of a new generation of connected devices and technologies. For more information, please visit www.spirent.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. ********************************************************************************************** View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005653/en/ MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Martin Spirent Federal Systems 801-787-1207 [email protected] Source: Spirent Federal Systems PRINEVILLE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- After two years of questions and distractions, the students from Destinations Career Academy of Oregon (ORDCA), Cascade Virtual Academy (CVA), and Insight School of Oregon Painted Hills (ISOR-PH), online public charter schools serving K-12 students throughout the state, will celebrate their graduation with a virtual commencement ceremony this weekend. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005006/en/ I know some families are still struggling with what to do with their childrens daily education, but for one day, let the students have their shining moment, the recognition of all their hard work, and a celebration of their future, said, Melissa Hausmann, Executive Director. We care deeply about each one of our graduates and we will sorely miss them all. Were so happy they made it to this point and look forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the future. This year, the schools will have 94 graduates across all three schools. Most of the students qualify to take advantage of the Oregon Promise Grant, which helps to pay tuition costs at any community college in Oregon for students who have a GPA of 2.0 or higher. Graduates are exploring in-state opportunities for post-secondary education, including George Fox University, Portland State University, University of Oregon, and Oregon Institute of Technology. Additionally, students are choosing to attend Portland, Mt Hood, Lane, and Chemeketa Community Colleges, to name a few. When asked about specific career paths, the Class of 2022 described exploring HealthCare, Business, Education, and Visual Arts. The class also reported a significant number planning to work either full or part-time while continuing higher education, which they view as a valuable and necessary experience. Students choose online learning for a number of reasonssome are looking to escape bullying, some may have fallen academically off track, and others are looking for an alternative to the traditional classroom setting. Staffed by state-licensed teachers, ORDCA, CVA, and ISOR-PH are authorized online public-charter school programs delivering a hands-on, individualized approach to learning. Students can access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects and a host of electives and attend live online classes taught by state-certified teachers. Each school is inviting all families and friends worldwide to join the celebration. Details of the graduation ceremonies are as follows: WHAT: Destinations Career Academy of Oregon, Cascade Virtual Academy, and Insight School of Oregon Painted Hills 2022 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Saturday, June 4th, 3:00 PM. The ceremony will be available to watch on-demand after the event at this link. CONTACT: For any questions about the celebrations, please contact Executive Director Melissa Hausmann at [email protected] For media inquiries, please contact FaithHoney Anderson at [email protected]. About Destinations Career Academy of Oregon Destinations Career Academy of Oregon (ORDCA) is a full-time online public charter school authorized by Mitchell School District that serves students in grades 9-12 statewide. ORDCA combines traditional high school academics with industry-relevant, career-focused electivesgiving students a jump-start on their college and career goals. As part of the Oregon public school system, ORDCA is tuition-free and provides families the choice to access the curriculum and tools provided by K12, a Stride Company (NYSE: LRN). Stride offers learners of all ages a more effective way to learn and build skills for their future. For more information about ORDCA, visit https://ordca.k12.com/. About Insight School of Oregon-Painted Hills Insight School of Oregon-Painted Hills (ISOR-PH) is a full-time online public charter school serving Oregon students in grades 7-12 and focuses on credit recovery for students who have fallen behind in high school credit, or need more academic support. As part of the Oregon public school system, ISOR-PH is tuition-free, and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nations leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISOR-PH, visit or-ph.insightschools.net. About Cascade Virtual Academy Cascade Virtual Academy (CVA) is an online public charter school authorized by Mitchell School District that serves students in K-12th grade throughout the state of Oregon. As part of the Oregon public school system, CVA is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nations leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information on CVA, visit http://cva.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005006/en/ Media FaithHoney Anderson Stride K12 Corporate Communications [email protected] Source: Stride, Inc. Secure, resilient mission critical network to help police fight crime and protect communities TAIPEI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) will upgrade the Taiwan National Police Agency to a new, nationwide mission-critical communications network. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005492/en/ Safety Secured: Taiwan's National Police Agency and partner emergency service organisations will benefit from a new, nationwide mission-critical communications network from Motorola Solutions. Credit: Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions will support the prime contractor, Mercuries Data Systems Ltd (MDS), to deliver the project for the Taiwan Police Communication Office, National Police Agency of the Ministry of the Interior. The total contract value of the project including contributions from all suppliers is USD $128 million. The four year project will deliver a secure and resilient, private communications system to support public safety and protection in Taiwan. The upgrade to advanced, digitally encrypted radio communications based on the P25 standard is the most significant modernisation of Taiwans mission critical communication system in almost two decades. It will provide Taiwans police agencies with higher quality coverage, new security features and stronger links to enable seamless communication between cities and regional areas. Police and criminal investigation bureaus as well as aviation, roads, civil defense and other specialist units will benefit from interoperable communications that are essential both for everyday use and for providing time-critical coordination during emergencies. Taiwan National Polices Chief of Mobility Communication Section, Li Guan Ying, said the upgrade would provide significant efficiencies for police agencies, enhancing communication and operational capabilities. Taiwan has undergone significant urban planning and development in recent years which has transformed the environment that we operate within, Li said. Our new radio system has been designed to keep officers connected to secure and reliable communication at all times and in any circumstance, from underground railway stations to bustling city areas and beyond, he added. The reach of Taiwans mission-critical communications will be further extended via Motorola Solutions secure communications platform, WAVE PTX. The advanced service will instantly connect teams across different devices, networks and locations, enabling multiple public safety agencies to collaborate with instant voice and data communication via broadband networks. Motorola Solutions Vice President for Asia Pacific, Steve Crutchfield, said the upgraded communications network would meet the daily needs of Taiwans public safety agencies while providing greater flexibility and resilience to cope with peak events and disasters. The new communications system will help Taiwans police services to respond to public calls for assistance with greater speed, precision and confidence, Crutchfield said. Public safety agencies also need to be ready to respond at a moments notice. With the WAVE PTX platform, Taiwans public safety teams, volunteers and other frontline workers will all be able to connect to instant push-to-talk communications anywhere and anytime - regardless of the type of device they carry or the network they are connected to, he said. About Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions is a global leader in public safety and enterprise security. Our solutions in land mobile radio communications, video security & access control and command center software, bolstered by managed & support services, create an integrated technology ecosystem to help make communities safer and businesses stay productive and secure. At Motorola Solutions, were ushering in a new era in public safety and security. Learn more at www.motorolasolutions.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601005492/en/ Damien Batey +61 428 036 806 [email protected] Source: Motorola Solutions New Executives Will Be Tasked with Platform Innovation To Meet the Growing Demand for Decision Intelligence RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tellius, the AI-driven decision intelligence platform, today announced the appointments of Hardik Chheda to Chief Product Officer and John Aven to Head of Engineering. Both Chheda and Aven will focus on expanding capabilities for Tellius Decision Intelligence to accelerate how business and analyst teams uncover diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive insights from across data sources to inform decision making. Chheda brings with him over a decade of experience in data analytics, including executive and product leadership roles at OmniSci, Infor, and Oracle. He had previously held the role of Head of Product at Tellius, helping the company launch from stealth, leading to industry recognition from Gartner. Following his departure from Tellius, Chheda was the VP of Products at OmniSci, where he launched its Freemium offering and led its transformation to a product-led growth strategy. In his new role as Chief Product Officer, Chheda will lead the product teams at Tellius, setting the product strategy and vision for the Tellius platform. Chheda earned his Masters degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. I have been fortunate to be a part of Tellius early journey to build a foundation for success. Customers love our product, evidenced by the best-in-class net promoter score over 90. Tellius was also recognized by Gartner as a Visionary in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms and a Representative Vendor in the 2022 Market Guide for Multipersona Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms, Chheda said. I am excited to be back at Tellius to lead the next wave of platform innovation and build a generational company that redefines how companies use augmented analytics and decision intelligence to make better business decisions. Aven brings 12 years of experience in creating ML and data-driven solutions that drive digital, analytical, and cloud transformations. Prior to joining Tellius, Aven was the VP of Engineering at Mercury Data Science, where he led the Data and Machine Learning Engineering practice as well as focused on product development and IT operations. In his new role as Head of Engineering, Aven will focus on transforming engineering practices, DevOps excellence, and overall quality of product by extending the benefits of automation around infrastructure, security, and DevSecOps in the Tellius platform. Aven received his Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Science from San Diego State University & Claremont Graduate University, and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from San Diego State University. I joined Tellius because theyre solving the analytic headaches I suffered for years, said Aven. The biggest bottleneck for any analytics problem is waiting on data engineering, scientists, or dashboards to answer a one-off question. Time-to-delivery on these questions is always extremely slow, even at a company practicing agile production. Tellius puts data and analytics in the hands of business users to drive faster, better, data-backed decisionsand Im looking forward to working with Ajay, Hardik, and the rest of the team to continue innovating on these capabilities. Decision Intelligence is becoming one of the most sought-after solutions for organizations interested in modernizing their data analytics stack, and I couldnt be happier to welcome Hardik back and to have John join us during such a pivotal time, said Ajay Khanna, Founder and CEO of Tellius. Both Hardik and John will bring their product development and analytics expertise to advance the power of our platform to every data-driven company. With their knowledge, leadership, and bold ideas, Tellius will become the de facto product for empowering every worker, regardless of their analytical skills, with granular insights into what is happening, why metrics change, and how to impact business outcomes. To learn more about Tellius or to request a demo of the companys decision intelligence platform, visit tellius.com. The company is also actively hiring for product and sales talent across the globe. To learn more, visit tellius.bamboohr.com/jobs. About Tellius Tellius is an AI-driven decision intelligence platform that enables anyone to get faster insights from their data. The company helps organizations across industries, including financial services, pharmaceutical and life sciences, retail, healthcare, and high technology, accelerate their journey from data to decisions by augmenting human expertise and curiosity with intelligent automation. The companys platform combines AI- and ML-driven automation with a search interface for ad hoc exploration, allowing users to ask questions of their business data, analyze billions of records in seconds, and gain comprehensive, automated insights in a single platform. Founded in 2016, Tellius is backed by Sands Capital Ventures, Grotech Ventures, and Veraz Investments. To learn more, follow Tellius on LinkedIn and Twitter, or visit www.tellius.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006227/en/ Media: Nicole Metro V2 Communications for Tellius [email protected] (617) 426-2222 Source: Tellius HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Thanks to Vietnam Software Development Industry Insights' list of qualified applicants and dependable information sources, over 800 enterprises and project owners have been able to select a suitable outsourcing provider for entrusting software development. Vietnam Software Development Industry Insights is continually developing itself to deliver the most valuable information to the audience about the worldwide software development scenario, on its road to become a trustworthy access address for companies to consider, as well as the everyday growth of each country's exceptional staff of young engineers. The following is preliminary information on the Asias top five software companies for enterprises that you will most likely need for your project. This will undoubtedly be the most informative platform for you, whether it is a current or new project! Software Development Company No.1: Saigon Technology Location: Ho Chi Minh City & Da Nang City, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City & Da Nang City, Vietnam Company size: 350+ 350+ Areas of service: Enterprise software development, Cloud migration, Offshore software development, Custom software development, AI Development, Offshore testing, Mobile/ Web app development, UX/UI design, etc. Saigon Technology's affordable enterprise software development service pricing and wide-ranging programming knowledge are two of the most important considerations in clients' decision to work with the company. Besides, Saigon Technology is proud to be a successful firm in recruiting and managing the top 1 percent of talented engineers in Vietnam. With this pride, the company has created a mission to bring the greatest service to clients, in the top enterprise software development companies in the Asia. Over a decade of working on 900+ projects has helped Saigon Technology build its reputation as an expert in a variety of sectors, from healthcare and banking to marketing and advertising and logistics. In addition, Saigon Technology is renowned for its high-quality solutions and a focused and professional work attitude. Software Development Company No.2: DiCentral Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Company size: 900+ 900+ Areas of solution for: Supplier, Buyer, Microsoft business, Apps on Microsoft marketplace, etc. DiCentral is a professional in the area of electronic data exchange technology, it is well worth the time to investigate DiCentral. During the company's development, many of the most successful businesses in the Asia have depended on the EDI and supply chain integration expertise offered by DiCentral, despite the fact that the industry has continued to advance throughout that time. When clients employ DiCentral's proprietary and pre-built ERP adapters in conjunction with EDI cloud infrastructure, there are additional opportunities to reduce unnecessary or error-prone data kinds. This results in an increased return on investment (ROI) for the businesses. Software Development Company No.3: FPT Software Headquarters: Ha Noi, Vietnam Ha Noi, Vietnam Company size: 900+ 900+ Areas of service: Digital Consulting Services, Cloud migration, Digital Technology Services, Software development for enterprise, etc. By putting a specific emphasis on the capabilities of a broad pool of Vietnamese engineers, FPT Software has grown into an outstanding enterprise software development firm. The parent company, FPT Corporation (HoSE), of which FPT Software is a division, has been going through a period of sustained growth since the turn of the century. The approximately 900 members of FPT Software's technical team have been the company's greatest source of pride for a significant amount of time. Customers from all over the globe have chosen FPT Software as their go-to outstanding app development company in Vietnam, both in Asia in general and in Vietnam specifically. This recognition comes as a result of FPT Software's strong presence in both of these regions. Software Development Company No.4: NashTech Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Company size: 900+ 900+ Areas of service: Business process, Application management, Data, Digital monitoring, Cloud migration, Software solution consulting, etc. Teams from both NashTech and Nash Squared have a history of working on hundreds of projects across a wide variety of industries, at varying sizes, and for a wide variety of clients. The United States of America, Canada, Australia, and France are just few of the main nations that have placed their faith in the reliability of the Nashtech brand name in the area of technology. A company that encourages engineers to think creatively and be adaptable in the wake of globalization is seen as an emblem by clients who trust their software development to them. Software Development Company No.5: KMS Technology Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Company size: 900+ 900+ Areas of service: Software engineering, Enterprise software development, Technology consulting, Digital operations, Cloud migration, etc. KMS Technology is steady in its desire of the goal that was set under the slogan "Bright minds - Brilliant solutions," and it accomplishes it by consistently following the company's own distinctive leadership philosophy when it is in the process of employing personnel. Businesses, particularly in the Asia region, have placed their confidence in the enterprise software development services offered by KMS Technology in order to assure the outcomes of their projects. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220527005123/en/ Thanh (Bruce) Pham - CEO of Saigon Technology https://saigontechnology.com Email: [email protected] A Member of Forbes Technology Council Mobile: (+84) 913 666 227 Skype: tienthanh.pham (Thanh Bruce Pham) Source: Saigon Technology First quarter 2022 results PORT-GENTIL, Gabon--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: TotalEnergies EP Gabon (Paris: EC): Main Financial Indicators Q1 22 Q1 21 Q1 22 vs Q1 21 Average Brent price $/b 102.2 61.1 67% Average TotalEnergies EP Gabon crude price (1) $/b 97.4 54.4 79% Crude oil production from fields operated by TotalEnergies EP Gabon kb/d (2) 16.5 18.5 -11% Crude oil production from TotalEnergies EP Gabon (3) kb/d 16.5 26.8 -38% Sales volumes (4) Mb (5) 1.99 2.08 -4% Revenues (6) $M 188 139 35% Funds generated from operations (7) $M 30 88 -66% Capital expenditure $M 6 18 -67% Net income $M 21 - 1 n.a (1) The crude price calculation excludes profit oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts, these barrels being handed over in kind to the host state. (2) kb/d : Thousand barrels per day. (3) Including profit oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts. (4) Sales volume excludes profit oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts, these barrels being handed over in kind to the host state. (5) Mb : Million of barrels. (6) Revenue from hydrocarbon sales and services (transportation, processing and storage),, including profit oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts. (7) Funds generated from operations are comprised of the operating cash flow, the gains or losses on disposals of assets and the working capital changes. First Quarter 2022 Results Selling Price In the first quarter 2022, Brent averaged $102.2 per barrel ($/b), up 67% compared to the first quarter 2021 (61.1 $/b). In a favorable price environment, the average selling price of the crude oil grade marketed by TotalEnergies EP Gabon averaged to 97.4 $/b, up 79% compared to the first quarter 2021. Production In the first quarter 2022, TotalEnergies EP Gabons equity share of oil production averaged 16.5 kb/d, down 38% compared to the first quarter 2021. This variation is mainly explained by: The interests divested in seven mature offshore field (Grondin non-operated sector) completed on December 7, 2021. A damage to a subsea electrical cable supplying the Anguille and Torpille offshore fields, which occurred on September 18, 2021. The power supply has been restored on January 15, 2022. A damage on the Anguille offshore field gas compressor which occurred end of January 2022. Repairs have been finalized on April 7, 2022. Partially offset by: A better availability of the operated production from Torpille field following the five-year shutdown. Revenue The first quarter 2022 revenues amounted to $188 million, up 35% compared to the first quarter 2021, mainly due to the average selling price improvement over the quarter. Funds Generated from Operations Funds generated from operations amounted to $30 million in the first quarter of 2022 down 66% compared to the first quarter of 2021, impacted by the working capital variation ($-66 million) due to the price effect on trade receivables. Capital Expenditure Capital expenditure amounted to $6 million in the first quarter 2022, down 67% compared to the first quarter 2021. They mainly include operations related to integrity works, repairs and improvements made on the Anguille offshore field gas compressor and the purchase of electrical pumps. Net Income The first quarter 2022 net income amounted to $21 million, compared to a loss of $-1 million in the first quarter 2021. The first quarter 2022 net income is mainly impacted by the significant prices increase, operational cost and depreciation decrease, partially offset by the tax charge increase. Highlights since the beginning of first quarter 2022 Board of Directors Meeting March 24, 2022 The Board of Directors approved on March 24, 2022 the accounts for the year ending December 31, 2021 and decided that it will recommend at the Annual Meeting on May 31, 2022 that shareholders approve the payment of a dividend of $16.67 dollars per share, for a total pay-out of $75 million. Cape Lopez oil terminal incident Following an incident on April 28, 2022 at the Cap Lopez oil terminal operated by Perenco Oil & Gas Gabon, crude oil reception and export operations have been suspended. This situation led to a production shutdown of TotalEnergies EP Gabon on April 28, 2022. The restart of production operations have resumed on May 17. The impact of the incident on 2022 annual production is estimated to 1,200 b/d. *** About TotalEnergies EP Gabon TotalEnergies EP Gabon is 58.28% owned by TotalEnergies S. E, 25% by the Gabonese Republic and 16.72% by the public. About TotalEnergies TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people. @TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies Cautionary Note The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies Company" and "Company" appearing in this document are used to refer to TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that TotalEnergies SE controls directly or indirectly. Similarly, the terms "we", "us", "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE holds a stake directly or indirectly are separate and autonomous legal persons. TotalEnergies SE cannot be held liable for acts or omissions emanating from these companies. This document may contain forward-looking statements. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are dependent on risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries undertakes or assumes any commitment or responsibility to investors or any other stakeholder to update or revise, in particular as a result of new information or future events, any or all of the statements, forward-looking information, trends or objectives contained in this document. Information regarding risk factors that could have a material adverse effect on TotalEnergies' financial results or operations is also available in the most up-to-date versions of the Universal Registration Document filed by TotalEnergies SE with the Autorite des marches financiers and Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220531005967/en/ TotalEnergies EP Gabon [email protected] Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l [email protected] l @TotalEnergiesPR Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l [email protected] Source: TotalEnergies EP Gabon HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) ("Valaris" or the "Company") today announced that Christophe Raimbault, Vice President and interim Head of Marketing will take on a new role as Vice President - Sustainability and New Energy. Christophe will continue to serve as Vice President and interim Head of Marketing until Matt Lyne joins Valaris as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2022. President and Chief Executive Officer, Anton Dibowitz said, The creation of this new position highlights the Companys continued strategic focus on sustainable business practices that support our purpose of providing responsible solutions that deliver energy to the world. Christophes appointment will drive further momentum behind our commitment to reduce emissions from our operations and partner with our customers to support their ESG efforts, as well as identify and progress opportunities within the new energy arena. About Valaris Limited Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) is the industry leader in offshore drilling services across all water depths and geographies. Operating a high-quality rig fleet of ultra-deepwater drillships, versatile semisubmersibles and modern shallow-water jackups, Valaris has experience operating in nearly every major offshore basin. Valaris maintains an unwavering commitment to safety, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction, with a focus on technology and innovation. Valaris Limited is a Bermuda exempted company (Bermuda No. 56245). To learn more, visit our website at www.valaris.com. Cautionary Statements Statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are 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. Forward-looking statements include words or phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," likely, "plan," "project," "could," "may," "might," should, will and similar words. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to vary materially from those indicated, including the COVID-19 outbreak and global pandemic and the related public health measures implemented by governments worldwide; the cancellation, suspension, renegotiation or termination of drilling contracts and programs, including drilling contracts which grant the customer termination rights if final investment decision (FID) is not received with respect to projects for which the drilling rig is contracted; oil and natural gas price volatility, customer demand for drilling rigs; downtime and other risks associated with offshore rig operations; severe weather or hurricanes; changes in worldwide rig supply, competition and technology; risks inherent to shipyard rig reactivation, upgrade, repair or maintenance; our ability to enter into, and the terms of, future drilling contracts; suitability of rigs for future contracts; governmental regulatory, legislative and permitting requirements affecting drilling operations; our ability to obtain financing, fund capital expenditures and pursue other business opportunities; the effects of our emergence from bankruptcy on the Company's business, relationships, comparability of our financial results and ability to access financing sources; actions taken by regulatory authorities or other third parties, including related to the COVID-19 global pandemic; increased scrutiny of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices and reporting responsibilities; changes in customer strategy; future levels of offshore drilling activity; governmental action, civil unrest and political and economic uncertainties; terrorism, piracy and military action; environmental or other liabilities, risks or losses; debt agreement restrictions that may limit our liquidity and flexibility; failure to satisfy our debt obligations; and cybersecurity risks and threats. In addition to the numerous factors described above, you should also carefully read and consider Item 1A. Risk Factors in Part I and Item 7. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Part II of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as updated in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on the Securities and Exchange Commissions website at www.sec.gov or on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.valaris.com. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005884/en/ Investor & Media Contact: Tim Richardson Director - Investor Relations +1-713-979-4619 Source: Valaris Limited New Additions Lend Healthcare, Technology, Security Domain Experience CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- XSELL Technologies, the leader in conversational AI for contact center agent optimization, has expanded its Advisory Board with the additions of Dr. Chakib Bouhdary, CEO and Founder, Bouhdary Consulting, John Giamatteo, President, Blackberry Cybersecurity, and Dr. Stuart Levine, Chief Clinical/Medical Officer and Partner with Chicago Pacific Founders. Adding Chakib, John and Stuart to our Advisory Board allows us to bring additional wealth of experience and knowledge to our business, not only around exceeding customer expectations, but forging solid client relationships built on trust as we go-to-market, XSELLs CEO and Co-Founder Matt Coughlin commented. The domain experience that each of them offers Chakib across technology and SaaS, John in all things Cybersecurity and of course, the depth of Stuarts understanding of the complex American healthcare system can only enhance our market strategy and positioning. We are excited for the new insights that they will bring to our proven and patented technology solutions. Well-positioned to capitalize on the growing need for real-time, data-driven insights, XSELL has used unmatched AI technology to build an impressive list of Fortune 50 customers. Melding human authenticity and technology-driven insights and efficiencies, XSELL is equity-backed and chosen by market leading companies across healthcare, financial services, CPG/retail, and telecommunications. About Dr. Chakib Bouhdary Dr. Bouhdary joins XSELLs Advisory Board in his capacity as a Global Technology Executive with 30 years of multi-industry experience. Dr. Bouhdary has a proven track record of value creation through digital transformation and has leveraged that experience to establish Bouhdary Consulting, aiming to provide strategic advisory services to companies planning to drive strong growth through advanced digital technologies. Dr. Bouhdary draws upon an impressive career that includes experience as SAPs Digital Transformation Officer; President of SAP Ariba, Chief Strategy & M&A Officer, where he led the transformation of SAP from an On-Premise software company to a highly diversified portfolio of with an increased global presence; and SVP of Value Engineering, where he instituted a value-focused customer engagement model and a global benchmarking program. About John Giamatteo Mr. Giamatteo joins XSELLs Advisory Board in his capacity as President, Blackberry Cybersecurity, building on a successful career leading and growing multinational high-tech businesses. Giamatteo has held leadership roles at both McAfee, a leader in device-to-cloud cyber security solutions for large Enterprises, SMB and Consumers, and AVG Technologies, leading the latter to a successful IPO on NYSE in 2012. Giamatteo also served as president and COO of Solera, COO at RealNetworks and President Asia Pacific of Nortel Networks, living and working in APAC for 7 years, as he led various product business units. About Dr. Stuart Levin Dr. Levine joins XSELLs Advisory Board in his capacity as Chief Clinical/Medical Officer and Partner with Chicago Pacific Founders, where he leads Care Model Innovation and Value-Based Platforms; he is also the Director/Chief Physician Strategist at Google Health. Dr. Levine serves on the boards of a dozen health care companies and was previously the Co-Founder and Chief Medical and Innovation Officer for agilon health, a physician group and IPA platform that integrates and coordinates care in multiple geographies focusing on physician partnerships and delivering full risk care for Medicare Advantage and Medicare ACO Reach senior patients powered by advanced technology. Dr. Levine has spent his entire, distinguished career as a leader in the transformation of clinical care models and delivery system to outcome focused, patient-centered, cost-effective innovative care models. Dr. Bouhdary, Mr. Giamatteo, and Dr. Levin deepen the well of leadership experience, technology focus and domain expertise in place across both XSELLs Board of Directors and Advisory Board, which includes the following: Advisory Board Jake Colognesi, Partner at Sageview Capital Mark Willford, Technology and Business Advisor Board of Directors Frank Jules, Retired President, Global Business AT&T Lawrence Leisure, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Chicago Pacific Founders Narendra Mulani, Accenture Dean Nelson, Senior Partner, Sageview Capital Mary Tolan, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, Chicago Pacific Founders The Advisory Board appointments are effective immediately. For additional information, visit www.xselltechnologies.com. About XSELL Technologies XSELL Technologies was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 2014 on the belief that the behavior of the very best sales agents could be learned, replicated, and amplified to every agent in real-time to transform the way that businesses interact with their customers. Through patented AI technology, XSELL empowers customers to listen, learn and support agents in real-time with the exact information they need to exceed customers expectations and deliver top-performer experiences. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005857/en/ Christina Christensen Vice President, Marketing and Brand Strategy [email protected] Source: XSELL Technologies Oil barrels are pictured at the site of Canadian group Vermilion Energy in Parentis-en-Born, France, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/Files By Laura Sanicola (Reuters) -Oil rose more than 1% on Thursday after U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected amid high demand for fuel, shrugging off OPEC+'s agreement to boost crude output to compensate for a drop in Russian production. Prices were also supported by the European Union's sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which will include an immediate ban on new insurance contracts for ships carrying Russian oil and a six month phase-out on existing contracts. Brent futures settled $1.32, or 1.1%, higher at $117.61 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.61, or 1.4%, to $116.87. U.S. crude oil and fuel stockpiles fell last week, as demand continued to outstrip supply, with commercial crude inventories drawing down even as more strategic reserves entered the market, government data showed. U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by 5.1 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop. Oil prices fell earlier on Thursday as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ states agreed to bring forward oil production rises to offset Russian output losses to ease surging oil prices and inflation and smooth the way for an ice-breaking visit to Riyadh by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, agreed to raise output about 650,000 barrels per day in the next two months rather than the current 432,000 bpd. "While OPEC+ agreed to increase their production quota by a bit more than the market expected, in reality it does very little to add additional supplies as OPEC+ was already falling short of its existing quotas by over 2 million barrels per day," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. Oil has mostly marched higher for several weeks as Russian exports have been squeezed by U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, an action Moscow calls a "special military operation." The market has also seen support from China's gradual emergence from strict COVID-19 lockdowns. Russian production has fallen by around 1 million bpd following sanctions. One OPEC+ source familiar with the Russian position said Moscow could agree to other producers raising production to compensate for its lower output but not necessarily making up all the shortfall. The Kremlin says it can re-route oil exports to minimize losses from EU sanctions, but analysts remain skeptical. "The extent to which this will prove achievable is questionable, however. Russian oil production is therefore likely to fall again in the coming months," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, who also questioned OPEC+'s ability to add considerably more oil to the market. (Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Rowena Edwards in London and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Barbara Lewis) Ford (NYSE: F), along with the United Auto Workers Union, today announced plans to add more than 6,200 new U.S. manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri as part of a $3.7 Billion investment. They also announced that they will be converting nearly 3,000 temporary UAW workers to full-time employees and provide all hourly employees with healthcare benefits on day one. "We've been working very closely with the UAW leadership on this," said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue. These actions are part of the companys Ford+ growth strategy and include plans for an all-new global Mustang coupe and Ranger pickup for North America, as well as an all-new electric commercial vehicle for Ford Pro customers. "Contractually, we don't have to do this, but we think it's the right thing to do," Galhotra said. "We believe and the UAW leadership believes that this is the right thing to do for those employees." These actions come nearly a year ahead of the unions contract negotiations in 2023. Ford is Americas Number 1 employer of hourly autoworkers, and this investment only deepens our commitment to building great new vehicles from an all-new Mustang to new EVs right here in the U.S. in partnership with the UAW, said Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford. I am proud that we are investing in the Midwest and taking real action to provide better benefits and working conditions for our workers on the plant floor. Ford also said that it will invest $1B over five years to improve the "work experience" of its U.S. employees based on feedback from the UAW offering better access to healthy food, better security and lighting in parking lots, better break facilities and new on-site charging stations for electric vehicles driven by employees. Were investing in American jobs and our employees to build a new generation of incredible Ford vehicles and continue our Ford+ transformation, said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley. Transforming our company for the next era of American manufacturing requires new ways of working, and together with UAW leadership, we are leading the way and moving fast to make improvements to benefits for our hourly employees and working conditions for our factory teams. By Michael Elkins FILE PHOTO: The Lightning logo is seen on the side of an all-new Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck outside the Ford Motor World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., April 26, 2022. REUTERS/ Rebecca Cook (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co will invest $2 billion and create 3,200 new jobs in Michigan as it boosts electric vehicle production, the automaker said Thursday. Gabby Bruno, a Ford official, told a Michigan Strategic Fund state meeting that the 3,200 new jobs included 2,000 at the Dearborn, Flat Rock and Wayne assembly plants. The investment will support increased production of Ford's F-150 EV lighting and assembly of a new Ranger pickup truck and a new Mustang. Ford also plans to build a new parts packaging facility in Monroe County. (Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by John Stonestreet) Real Brands Inc. (OTCQB: RLBD) announced today that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to acquire substantially all the assets of Boulder Botanicals & Biosciences Laboratories, Inc. (Boulder Botanical), a manufacturer of white-label and private-label CBD and non-CBD products. The acquisition will include Boulder Botanicals brands, IP, distribution and 27,000 sq. ft. R&D and production facility in Golden, Colorado. On April 22, 2022, Boulder Botanical became a subsidiary of Frankens Investment Fund, LLC. This proposed transaction remains subject to a definitive agreement and due diligence. A formal closing is expected within the next few weeks. Since 2018, Boulder Botanical has designed leading cannabinoid formulations and provided well-recognized, white-label manufacturing services. Highlights of Boulder Botanicals facilities and capabilities include: Original product development and research, consumer products, and fulfillment services for products distributed through some of the nations largest retail channels, including CVS, Sams Club, Target, Whole Foods, Safeway, Costco, 7-Eleven, and Circle K. One of the largest and most efficient manufacturing platforms in the CBD sector. It supports multiple production lines for over 150 proprietary formulations spanning cosmetics, topicals, tablets, drink powders tinctures, ointments, gels, energy shots, roll-ons, supplements, and more. In-house brands that include APRA , SmartLeef , and dozens of white-label brands. Boulder Botanicals production facility is capable of large volume production and scaling. , , and dozens of white-label brands. Boulder Botanicals production facility is capable of large volume production and scaling. 25+ years of combined experience in consumer-packaged goods and compliance. A full complement of certifications and registrations, including FDA-Registered Manufacturing/Distribution & Fulfilment, GMP quality assured, Certified Kosher Ingredient Supplier, CODPHE Licensed Manufacturing Facility, CO Dept of Ag Hemp Seed Seller and Grower License, International Cosmetic Ingredient Assignment Registration for supply Cosmetic Industry. The highest quality and efficacious ingredients with full transparency from seed to shelf. The Boulder Botanicals transaction will augment Real Brands existing portfolio of branded products and expand its distribution capabilities, explained Thom Kidrin, President & CEO of Real Brands Inc. This deal will bring 150 proprietary formulations to Real Brands, and the R&D capabilities to create hundreds more. In addition, it should enlarge Real Brands distribution channels as we shift from primarily online sales via Real Brands own website and small, regionalized distributors to an existing national network with ready access to millions of potential consumers. This outstanding opportunity should enable Real Brands to capture an even larger market share of the booming CBD market, which Vantage Market Research expects to grow to $47.2 billion by 2028. We are pleased to have the Boulder Botanicals business join the Real Brands family under its seasoned management team, said David Frankens, owner of Frankens Investments. Real Brands has the capability to take us to the next level in revenue growth, with the bonus of Turning Point Brands as a strategic equity shareholder. Signage is seen outside of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/Files By Hannah Lang (Reuters) -The U.S. CFTC filed a federal lawsuit in New York on Tuesday accusing Gemini Trust Co of making false and misleading statements concerning a bitcoin futures contract the firm was pursuing in 2017. The agency contends that Gemini, a crypto exchange led by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, violated federal laws governing commodities, and is seeking civil fines and other remedies. Gemini officials "knew or reasonably should have known that the statements and information conveyed or omitted" by the company were false or misleading with respect to how a proposed bitcoin futures contract could be susceptible to manipulation, according the filing. "We have an eight year track-record of asking for permission, not forgiveness, and always doing the right thing. We look forward to definitively proving this in court," Gemini said in a statement. Gretchen Lowe, acting director of enforcement at the CFTC, said in a statement the lawsuit "sends a strong message that the Commission will act to safeguard the integrity of the market oversight process." The CFTC filing noted that Gemini's proposed bitcoin futures contract was particularly significant because it was to be one of the first digital asset futures contracts listed on a designated contract market. In December 2017, a Gemini bitcoin futures contract began trading on the Cboe Futures Exchange under the ticker symbol "XBT," although it was not immediately clear if the CFTC's lawsuit referenced this contract in particular. (Reporting by Hannah Lang in WashingtonEditing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang) FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the 154th National Memorial Day Wreath-Laying and Observance ceremony to honor America's fallen, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, U.S., May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Declaring "Enough, enough!" U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures to address a string of mass shootings that have struck the United States. Speaking from the White House, in a speech broadcast live in primetime, Biden asked a country stunned by the recent shootings at a school in Texas, a grocery store in New York and a medical building in Oklahoma, how many more lives it would take to change gun laws in America. "For God's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?" Biden asked. Biden described visiting Uvalde, Texas, where the school shooting took place. "I couldn't help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, here in America." The president, a Democrat, called for a number of measures opposed by Republicans in Congress, including banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, or, if that were not possible, raising the minimum age to buy those weapons to 21 from 18. He also pressed for repealing the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from being sued for violence perpetrated by people carrying their guns. "We can't fail the American people again," Biden said, pressing Republicans particularly in the U.S. Senate to allow bills with gun control measures to come up for a vote. Biden said if Congress did not act, he believed Americans would make the issue central when they vote in November mid-term elections. The National Rifle Association gun lobby said in a statement that Biden's proposals would infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. "This isnt a real solution, it isnt true leadership, and it isnt what America needs," it said. The United States, which has a higher rate of gun deaths than any other wealthy nation, has been shaken in recent weeks by the mass shootings of 10 Black residents in upstate New York, 19 children and two teachers in Texas, and two doctors, a receptionist and a patient in Oklahoma. Lawmakers are looking at measures to expand background checks and pass "red flag" laws that would allow law enforcement officials to take guns away from people suffering from mental illness. But any new measures face steep hurdles from Republicans, particularly in the Senate, and moves to ban assault weapons do not have enough support to advance. The U.S. Constitution's second amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms. Biden said that amendment was not "absolute" while adding that new measures he supported were not aimed at taking away people's guns. "After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done," Biden said, ticking off a list of mass shootings over more than two decades. "This time that cant be true." PLEA FROM GRIEVING GRANDMOTHER Gun safety advocates have pushed Biden to take stronger measures on his own to curb gun violence, but the White House wants Congress to pass legislation that would have more lasting impact than any presidential order. Biden's evening address was aimed in part at keeping the issue at the forefront of voters' minds. The president has made only a handful of evening speeches from the White House during his term, including one on the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and one about the Texas shooting last week. More than 18,000 people have died from gun violence in the United States so far in 2022, including through homicide and suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group. Canada, Australia and Britain all passed stricter gun laws after mass shootings in their countries, banning assault weapons and increasing background checks. America has experienced years of massacres in schools, stores and places of work and worship without any such legislation. A broad majority of American voters, both Republicans and Democrats, favor stronger gun control laws, but Republicans in Congress and some moderate Democrats have blocked such legislation for years. Prices of shares in gun manufacturers rose on Thursday. Efforts to advance gun control measures have boosted firearm share prices after other mass shootings as investors anticipated that gun purchases would increase ahead of stricter regulations. In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, Biden urged the country to take on the powerful pro-gun lobby that backs politicians who oppose such legislation. The Senate is split, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and a law must have 60 votes to overcome a maneuver known as the filibuster, which means any law would need rare bipartisan support. "The only room in America where you can't find more than 60% support for universal background checks is on the floor of the U.S. Senate," said Christian Heyne, vice president for policy at Brady, a gun violence prevention group. While Biden and Congress explore compromises, the Supreme Court is due to decide a major case that could undermine new efforts to enact gun control measures while making existing ones vulnerable to legal attack. Biden said he received a handwritten note from a grandmother who had lost her granddaughter in Uvalde that read: Erase the invisible line that is dividing our nation. Come up with a solution and fix what's broken and make the changes that are necessary to prevent this from happening again. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons, Mary Milliken, Leslie Adler and Michael Perry) Atlanta, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) (Company) today announced that the Company is planning to release its fiscal 2022 third-quarter earnings results on Thursday, June 30, at 6:00 a.m. (EDT), followed by a conference call at 8:00 a.m. (EDT). Neil Ashe, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Brands, will lead the call. On that day, the webcast, earnings release, and supplemental presentation can be accessed via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at investors.acuitybrands.com after 6:00 a.m. (EDT). The online replay will remain available for a limited time following the call. A replay of the call will also be posted to the Investor Relations site two hours after the completion of the conference call and will be archived on the site. To learn more about Acuity Brands, please visit the Company's website. Acuity Brands uses its website as a distribution channel for material Company information. In addition, financial and other material information regarding Acuity Brands is routinely posted on the Company's website and is readily accessible. About Acuity Brands Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces and light. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL) and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in peoples lives. We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management systems, and location-aware applications. Acuity Brands, Inc. achieves customer-focused efficiencies that allow the Company to increase market share and deliver superior returns. The Company looks to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals. Acuity Brands, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,500 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us atwww.acuitybrands.com. # # # # # Investor Contact: Charlotte McLaughlin [email protected] Source: Acuity Brands, Inc. OTTAWA, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas unions welcome todays re-introduction of a bill to implement the Canada Disability Benefit by Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough. The Canada Disability Benefit will provide critical support for people living with disabilities. Designed properly, this benefit could lift hundreds of thousands of working-age people living with disabilities out of poverty, said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. Our thanks to the many activists and advocates who have worked so hard for so long to make the Canada Disability Benefit a reality. Bruske explained that many people with disabilities live without economic security and face tremendous barriers to inclusion. Women, members of the 2SLGBTQI community, racialized people and Indigenous people living with disabilities and those living with severe disabilities are even more likely to be financially insecure. From barriers to employment to affordable housing to access to care, so many people living with disabilities face unacceptable barriers to economic security, continued Bruske. With rising costs making life even harder, we must make sure the bill is well designed and is a meaningful addition to existing federal, provincial and territorial supports, so help gets to those who need it. Bruske added that Canadas unions will continue to work with the disability community to make sure this bill is a top priority for Parliament to get passed quickly and that, once implemented in each province and territory, leaves no one behind. People living with disabilities deserve to live in dignity. Canadas unions will continue to press MPs to get this bill passed as quickly as possible, concluded Bruske. We urge MPs to fast track this bill and work together to end disability poverty for good. To arrange an interview, please contact:CLC Media Relations[email protected]613-526-7426 Source: Canadian Labour Congress AMBLER, Pa., June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clutch, one of the leading customer data, marketing and NextGen Loyalty Platforms, today announced that it has joined the Microsoft Business Applications ISV Connect program with the launch of three deeply integrated loyalty and marketing solutions. The Clutch suite of rapidly deployable applications cater to the entire Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem, giving Marketing, Sales and Commerce customers the ability to grow revenue through individualized loyalty programs and more relevant marketing. Using Clutch's real-time integration to Dynamics 365, Microsoft customers can access and use more data than ever before, empowering them to provide the kind of one-to-one marketing that consumers expect. "The $5 billion dollar market for customer loyalty management is about more than retaining existing customers," said Ned Moore, CEO of Clutch, "it's about creating individualized experiences, shifting consumer behavior, and driving more revenue over time. Integrating our platform with Microsoft's best-of-breed technology is a huge milestone for us; we are thrilled to expand the impact of our solutions!" The Clutch advantage is twofold. First, the platform can ingest and use any type of online and offline data, providing the currency for highly personalized marketing at scale. Second, machine learning and automation work behind the scenes to make faster, better marketing decisions that optimize marketing spend and increase customer lifetime value. "With these Dynamics 365 integrations, Clutch offers a unique, innovative solution to organizations around the world that focuses on loyalty and marketing solutions," said Toby Bowers, General Manager for Business Applications at Microsoft. "Microsoft welcomes Clutch into the Microsoft Business Applications ecosystem and will offer its customer data, marketing and NextGen Loyalty Platform to Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers and partners," said Toby Bowers, General Manager for Business Applications at Microsoft. Clutch Loyalty for Dynamics 365 Marketing, Sales and Commerce as well as a Business Intelligence Connector tool are certified and available via Microsoft AppSource. About Clutch Clutch's Integrated Customer Data and Marketing platform delivers customer intelligence and personalized engagements for brands to identify, understand and motivate each segment of their customer base. Clutch offers solutions for loyalty, CDP, offer management, stored value and marketing orchestration that use embedded machine learning to increase the value of each customer. Headquartered outside of Philadelphia, Clutch's solutions impact 500 brands and over 65 million consumers across the globe. For more information visit www.clutch.com. Media Contact Kate Atty[email protected] Related Images Image 1: Clutch Logo Logo This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Clutch Logo Clutch Logo Source: Clutch VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diversified Royalty Corp. (TSX: DIV; DIV.DB and DIV.DB.A) (the Corporation or DIV) is pleased to announce that its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of $0.01833 per common share for the period of June 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022, which is equal to $0.22 per common share on an annualized basis. The dividend will be paid on June 30, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 15, 2022. Annual General Meeting The Corporation will be holding its Annual General Meeting of shareholders at 9:00 am (Pacific time) on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 (the Meeting). The Meeting will be held at the offices of Farris LLP, located at the 25th floor of 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. The Corporation sent the materials for the Meeting using the notice and access provisions under applicable Canadian securities laws, which allow the Corporation to provide shareholders with electronic access to the Meeting materials instead of sending a paper copy. Notice and Access is more environmentally friendly, as it helps reduce paper and energy use and also reduces printing and mailing costs. Registered and beneficial shareholders will, however, still receive a form of proxy or a voting instruction form in the mail so they can vote their shares. However, unless a shareholder requests a paper copy, rather than receiving a paper copy of the information circular for the Meeting, a shareholder will receive a notice that has instructions on how to access and review an electronic copy of the information circular and how to request a paper copy. The notice also provides instructions on voting the shares using the various different voting methods provided (internet, telephone, mail). If a shareholder would like to receive a paper copy of DIVs information circular for the meeting, please follow the instructions in the notice. Access to the Meeting materials were provided to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 19, 2022. Full details with respect to the Meeting and instructions on how to attend and vote are set out in the meeting materials, and were filed under DIVs profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and are also available on DIVs website at https://www.diversifiedroyaltycorp.com/investors/financial-and-regulatory-reports/financial-reports-2022/. About Diversified Royalty Corp. DIV is a multi-royalty corporation, engaged in the business of acquiring top-line royalties from well-managed multi-location businesses and franchisors in North America. DIVs objective is to acquire predictable, growing royalty streams from a diverse group of multi-location businesses and franchisors. DIV currently owns the Mr. Lube, AIR MILES, Sutton, Mr. Mikes, Nurse Next Door and Oxford Learning Centres trademarks. Mr. Lube is the leading quick lube service business in Canada, with locations across Canada. AIR MILES is Canadas largest coalition loyalty program. Sutton is among the leading residential real estate brokerage franchisor businesses in Canada. Mr. Mikes operates casual steakhouse restaurants primarily in western Canadian communities. Nurse Next Door is one of North Americas fastest growing home care providers with locations across Canada and the United States as well as in Australia. Oxford Learning Centres is one of Canadas leading franchised supplemental education services in Canada and the United States. DIV intends to increase cash flow per share by making accretive royalty purchases and through the growth of purchased royalties. DIV intends to pay a monthly dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend as cash flow per share increases allow. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The use of any of the words anticipate, continue, estimate, expect, intend, may, will, project, should, believe, confident, plan and intends and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements made in relation to: the amount and timing of the June 2022 dividend to be paid to DIVs shareholders; the date and other details of the Meeting; DIVs intention to pay monthly dividends to shareholders; and DIVs corporate objectives. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of DIV to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking information. DIV believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information included in this news release are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular there can be no assurance that: DIV will be able to make monthly dividend payments to the holders of its common shares; or DIV will achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking information included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. More information about the risks and uncertainties affecting DIVs business and the businesses of its royalty partners can be found in the Risk Factors section of its Annual Information Form dated March 10, 2022 and in its most recent Managements Discussion and Analysis, copies of each of which are available under DIVs profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. In formulating the forward-looking information contained herein, management has assumed that DIV will generate sufficient cash flows from its royalties to service its debt and pay dividends to shareholders; lenders will provide any necessary waivers required in order to allow DIV to continue to pay dividends; the impacts of COVID-19 on DIV and its royalty partners will be consistent with DIVs expectations and the expectations of management of each of its Royalty Partners, both in extent and duration; DIV and its royalty partners will be able to reasonably manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their respective businesses. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. All of the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, DIV. The forward-looking information included in this news release is presented as of the date of this news release and DIV assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law. THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Additional Information Additional information relating to the Corporation and other public filings, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Contact:Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive OfficerDiversified Royalty Corp. (236) 521-8470 Greg Gutmanis, Chief Financial Officer and VP Acquisitions Diversified Royalty Corp. (236) 521-8471 Source: Diversified Royalty Corp. /NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES/ CALGARY, Alberta, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EarthRenew Inc. (CSE: ERTH) (OTCQB: VVIVF) ("EarthRenew" or the "Company"), owner of leading regenerative fertilizer producer Replenish Nutrients, is pleased to announce that it has filed a preliminary short-form prospectus with the securities regulatory authorities in all provinces of Canada (except Quebec) in connection with a marketed public offering (the "Offering") of 32,000,000 units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.25 per Unit (the "Issue Price") for gross proceeds of $8.0 million. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Unit Share") and one common share purchase warrant (a "Unit Warrant"). Each Unit Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.32 per Unit Share for a period of 48 months following the date of issuance. The Offering will be conducted on a best efforts agency basis pursuant to the terms and conditions of an agency agreement to be entered into between the Company, Eight Capital, as lead agent and sole bookrunner, and Raymond James Ltd. (together with Eight Capital, the "Agents"). The Company will grant the Agents an option (the "Over-Allotment Option") to sell up to an additional 15% of the Units sold under the Offering. The Over-Allotment Option may be exercised in whole or in part, to acquire Units at the Issue Price, or Unit Shares at a price of $0.198 per Unit Share or Unit Warrants at a price of $0.052 per Unit Warrant, as determined Agents upon written notice to the Company at any time up to 30 days following the closing date of the Offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for the acquisition of equipment for expansion of production facilities in Alberta and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Offering is expected to close on or about June 21, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. Closing of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance as to whether or when the Offering will be completed. The preliminary prospectus contains important information relating to the Company, the Units and the Offering and is still subject to completion or amendment. The preliminary prospectus is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Companys profile. There will not be any sale or any acceptance of an offer to buy the Companys common shares until a receipt for the final prospectus has been issued. About Replenish Nutrients Replenish Nutrients delivers leading regenerative fertilizer solutions to support a farm system that puts healthy soils and grower profitability back on the table. By combining Canadian-sourced nutrients with our proprietary delivery system, we've developed a sustainable alternative to synthetic fertilizers that enhances overall soil function and biology while providing valuable plant-available nutrients farmers rely upon for healthy crops. To learn more about Replenish Nutrients products, visit our website at www.replenishnutrients.com. About EarthRenew Inc. Replenish Nutrients is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EarthRenew Inc. (CSE: ERTH). Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the use of net proceeds of the Offering; the closing, timing, and size of the Offering, including the satisfaction and timing of the receipt of all required regulatory approvals; and satisfaction or waiver of other conditions to closing of the Offering. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; regulatory risks; other risks of the energy and fertilizer industries and other risk factors disclosed in our public disclosure which can be found under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that these risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. 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. 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. 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 release. For additional information, please contact: Keith Driver CEO of EarthRenew +1 (403) 860-8623 Email: [email protected] Source: EarthRenew Inc. Biopharmaceutical company promotes Jennifer Lee to senior vice president of clinical operations, data management and biostatistics SALT LAKE CITY, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elevar Therapeutics, Inc., a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options, today announced the hiring of Dr. David E. Lilienfeld as vice president of safety and pharmacovigilance and Dr. Honghui Zhou as vice president of pharmacology. Jennifer Lee, who in 2021 joined Elevar as vice president of clinical operations & data management, was promoted to senior vice president of clinical operations, data management and biostatistics. "We are fortunate to bring on someone of Dr. Lilienfeld's stature to lead our drug safety operation, as he's worked for biotech companies at every stage of development and across myriad therapeutic areas, including oncology," said Dr. Saeho Chong, chief executive officer of Elevar. "Dr. Zhou's track record of providing end-to-end clincial pharmacology support for a long list of approved drugs will serve Elevar well as we work toward the commercialization of our products." Lilienfeld comes to Elevar from Recursion Pharmaceuticals, where he was senior director of safety, pharmacovigilance and epidemiology. Recursion is a public biotechnology company using machine learning to candidate drug optimization. For more than a decade, he was also a principal at Write for the Pharm, LLC, a biotechnology/pharmaceuticals/medical device consulting company. Having authored or co-authored more than 100 articles or chapters in books, Lilienfeld is a fellow at the American College of Epidemiology, American Heart Association and International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (for which he was one of the three co-founders in 1985), and has an active medical license in California. He received a Master of Business Administration degree, Master of Science in Engineering (Statistical Computing) degree and Bachelor of Arts (Public Health Opinion) degree from Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Maryland. Zhou, a seasoned clinical pharmacologist and pharmacometrician, joins Elevar after more than 18 years in increasing leadership roles in clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, and pharmacological and translational modeling at Johnson & Johnson (Janssen). As U.S. Head of Pharmacometrics at Janssen since 2018, Zhou oversaw more than 20 pharmacometricians who supported Janssens portfolio in several therapeutic areas including Oncology/Hematology, Immunology, and Cardiovascular/Metabolic Diseases. Zhou is board certified by the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology and has been elected as a Fellow of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (FAAPS) and Fellow of Clinical Pharmacology (FCP) by American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP). Recently, he received the 2022 Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award from the ACCP. He earned a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa and a B.Pharm in pharmacology from China Pharmaceutical University. Lee, who joined Elevar in September from Radius Health, Inc., is responsible for providing operational expertise on the strategy, design, execution and interpretation of data from Elevars solid tumor late-stage clinical programs. She has more than 25 years of life science experience developing clinical strategies into new products, initiating new drug applications, launching new products, and leading clinical operations from Phase I-IV for small molecules, biologics, and cell and gene therapy for multiple therapeutic areas. Lee accelerated numerous therapeutics, resulting in approvals of seven novel treatments and played a critical role in advancement of product candidates to labeling changes, licensing agreements and market applications. "Jennifer has already made an immeasurable contribution to Elevar's clinical development program in the short time she's been with the company," said Chong. "We are excited to expand her role in advancing our therapeutics, moving us closer to delivering on our promise of addressing the unmet needs of cancer patients." Lee earned a Master of Science in clinical research and regulatory administration from Northwestern University and B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago. About Elevar Therapeutics Elevar Therapeutics is a rapidly growing, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company built on the promise of elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options. Elevars lead proprietary drug candidates include rivoceranib (apatinib) and Apealea (paclitaxel micellar). Rivoceranib is the first small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) to be approved in gastric cancer (China, Dec 2014). It has been granted Orphan Drug designation in the U.S., Europe and South Korea and has been clinically tested in over 1,000 patients worldwide in numerous cancer indications. Apealea (paclitaxel micellar) is a non-Cremophor EL based formulation of paclitaxel that received marketing authorization by the European Commission in November 2018, making it Europes first non-Cremophor EL formulation of paclitaxel approved for use in ovarian cancer. Elevar Therapeutics has offices in Utah, California and South Korea, and additional information is available at www.elevartherapeutics.com. Photos accompanying this announcement are available athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4507003a-fa15-4739-9280-8948f1d05ef5https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/045cbe00-d17e-4005-9dec-690c01645294https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e7f88b88-293b-4b1f-a301-2ddd4a165262 Honghui Zhou Elevar Therapeutics adds Dr. Honghui Zhou as vice president. David Lilienfeld Elevar Therapeutics adds Dr. David Lilienfeld as vice president. Jennifer Lee Jennifer Lee, who in 2021 joined Elevar as vice president of clinical operations & data management, was promoted to senior vice president of clinical operations, data management and biostatistics. Source: Elevar Therapeutics VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GoldQuest Mining Corp. (TSXV:GQC, GoldQuest or the Company) is very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Luis Santana Pereyra to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company. Mr. Santana will formally commence his role as CEO on or before September 1, 2022, following a transition period. Furthermore, it is expected that Mr. Santana will join the board of directors of the Company once he formally commences his role as CEO. Mr. Santana will be based in Santo Domingo and will initially be responsible for working towards achieving the Romero Project Exploitation License (the Permit) in the San Juan Province of the Dominican Republic. Luis is a Citizen of the Dominican Republic and is a Qualified Engineer from the Santo Domingo Technological Institute. Luis has more than 25 years of experience in mining and mineral processing and has worked in senior management and executive positions in the design, construction and operation of gold processing plants and mines globally. Luis has an impressive history having worked with Glencore Falcondo and Altonorte Mines in Dominican Republic and Chile, BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Mine in Australia, Barrick Pueblo Viejo Mine in Dominican Republic, Barrick & Shandong Gold Veladero Mine in Argentina and most recently as CEO for Shandong Gold Cardinal Resources Namdini Project in Ghana. Luis is well recognized as a resourceful team leader with a track record of delivering high quality production assets on time, on budget and with exemplary environmental, safety and governance performance. The Company strongly believes that Luis will add value to its operations through awareness, engagement, and accountability of three key strategic objectives: Collaboration by developing a strong culture, Community by strengthening sustainable license to operate, and Company by maximizing economic productivity (production, profitability, and asset value). Late last year the Companys current CEO, Mr. Dave Massola, informed the Board of Directors that he would like to resign from his current position during 2022. The Board has been in the process the last six months of finding a replacement. Mr. Massola has informed the board that his last day will be August 31, 2022. Bill Fisher Chairman of the Board commented Luis Santana joins the company with an impressive career behind him in international mining. We have taken the step of engaging a mine developer as CEO following positive comments by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, and the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, earlier in the year about permitting our Romero project. After an extensive search we were pleased to find a Dominican citizen with extensive international experience in mine development - permitting, building and operating - to guide the company through the next stages of development, thus demonstrating our commitment to the Dominican Republic. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Dave Massola for his years of dedicated service and contribution and wish him well in his future endeavors. Mr. Santana has been granted 2,000,000 stock options at an exercise price of C$0.18. The options have a term of 5 years and vest in three equal installments with 1/3 vesting upon the granting the options, a further 1/3 vesting on the 6-month anniversary and the final 1/3 vesting on the 12-month anniversary. About GoldQuest: GoldQuest is a Canadian based mineral exploration and development company with projects in the Dominican Republic. GoldQuest is traded on the TSXV under the symbol GQC and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W. The Company is well funded to carry out exploration programs and to advance the development of its Romero gold/copper discovery, also located in the Tireo Formation of the Dominican Republic. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forwardlooking statements: Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forwardlooking information that involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forwardlooking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the engagement and services to be provided by the Companys new CEO, the Company obtaining the Permit, the Company Romero Project, the merits of the Company's mineral properties, future programs and studies, and the Company's plans and exploration programs for its mineral properties, including the timing of such plans and programs. In certain cases, forwardlooking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", looks forward, "has proven", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "potential", "likelihood", "appears", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "at least", "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", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forwardlooking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forwardlooking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to economic and political conditions globally and in the Dominican Republic; the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures taken and that may be taken to attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19, employee and contractor health, safety and availability, availability of materials and equipment, travel restrictions, and other risks and uncertainties related to the pandemic; uncertainties inherent in drill results and the estimation of mineral resources; commodity prices; changes in general economic conditions; market sentiment; currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to raise funds through equity financings; risks inherent in mineral exploration; risks related to operations in foreign countries; future prices of metals; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; title disputes or claims; limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Company and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forwardlooking statements, 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 forwardlooking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, do not place undue reliance on forwardlooking statements. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forwardlooking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. Forwardlooking statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable, including expectations regarding mineral exploration and development costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained and that there will be no significant disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. CONTACT INFORMATION GoldQuest Corp Dave Massola Chief Executive Officer - Toronto +1416-583-5606 [email protected] Source: GoldQuest Mining Corp. Atlanta, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gray Television, Inc. (Gray) (NYSE: GTN) announced that veteran broadcaster Chris Fedele became the General Manager of WPTA-TV (ABC/NBC) and WISE-TV (CW) in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, on June 1st. Mr. Fedele, a native of Northeast Indiana, returns home with this appointment. He spent fourteen years at WPTA-TV, serving at various times as the General Sales Manager, Local Sales Manager, and National Sales Manager before a five-year stint as the stations General Manager. Thereafter, he spent ten years as the Director of Sales and Marketing for WLEX-TV (NBC) in Lexington, Kentucky, followed by the past four years as General Manager of Grays WTVG-TV (ABC) in Toledo, Ohio. Mr. Fedele began his broadcasting career at Blair Television in New York after graduating from Ball State University in 1991. About Gray : Gray Television, Inc. is a multimedia company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. We are the nations largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets in the United States that serve 113 television markets reaching approximately 36 percent of US television households. This portfolio includes 80 markets with the top-rated television station and 100 markets with the first and/or second highest rated television station. We also own video program companies Raycom Sports, Tupelo Honey, and PowerNation Studios, as well as Third Rail Studios. For further information, please visit www.gray.tv. Gray Contact: Kevin P. Latek, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Development Officer, 404-266-8333 # # # NEWARK, NJ, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT), a global provider of fintech, cloud communications, and traditional communications services, today reported results for the third quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, the three months ended April 30, 2022. THIRD QUARTER FISCAL YEAR 2022 (3Q22) HIGHLIGHTS (Throughout this release, results are for 3Q22 and are compared to 3Q21 unless otherwise noted. All per share results are per diluted share. Please see the final page of this release for important supplemental information on asterisked metrics.) Key business unit revenue and related metrics: National Retail Solutions (NRS) recurring revenue* increased 101.9% to $10.0 million. Active terminals increased by 1,400 sequentially to approximately 17,900, and payment processing accounts increased by 1,200 sequentially to approximately 9,200. net2phone subscription revenue** increased 42.0% to $14.2 million. Seats served increased by 22,000 sequentially, including nearly 7,000 through the previously announced acquisition of a CCaaS provider, to approximately 279,000. Money Transfer revenue increased 51.5% to $15.5 million. Transaction volumes increased by 27.1% to 2.4 million, with solid growth in both direct to consumer and retail channels. Consolidated revenue decreased 12.2% to $328 million from $374 million. Direct cost of revenue decreased 17.7% to $248 million from $301 million. Consolidated income from operations decreased to $13.3 million from $13.9 million. Net income attributable to IDT decreased to $4.8 million from $36.3 million, and EPS decreased to $0.18 from $1.39. In 3Q22, EPS included the impact of a $0.13 per share loss from marked-to-market investments. In 3Q21, EPS included the positive impacts of both a $0.92 per share reversal of income tax valuation allowances and a $0.21 per share gain from marked-to-market investments. Adjusted EBITDA*** increased to $18.0 million from $17.9 million. Non-GAAP EPS*** was $0.23 compared to $0.47. REMARKS BY SHMUEL JONAS, CEO Each of our three high-margin, high-growth businesses had a very strong third quarter, helping us to again achieve solid levels of consolidated income from operations and Adjusted EBITDA, consistent with our results from the first two quarters of our fiscal year. NRS added nearly 1,400 net POS terminals and 1,200 net payment processing accounts during the third quarter, maintaining the accelerated rate of acquisitions achieved in the second quarter. NRS recurring revenue increased 102% year-over-year, keyed by strong merchant service and advertising sales. Looking ahead, we expect that NRS will sustain robust, high-margin growth in the coming quarters. In particular, we expect advertising and data offerings to benefit from both long-term trends such as the increasing allocation of advertising budgets to out-of-home venues, as well as from seasonal tailwinds including increased political advertising heading into the second half of the calendar year. net2phones strategic focus on the SMB and small enterprise markets within North and South America, efficient execution, and acquisition of CCaaS provider Integra all contributed to solid growth in the third quarter. Subscription revenue increased 42% year-over-year due primarily to the addition of approximately 22,000 seats during the quarter --including almost 7,000 seats from the Integra acquisition. Seat growth was again strongest in our Latin American markets although our U.S. business performed nearly as well. We will begin selling our CCaaS offering in North America in the current - fourth - quarter of our fiscal year and expect its expansion to gradually become a key driver of seat growth and ARPU expansion. BOSS Money, our international remittance business, increased revenue 51% to $15.5 million driven both by a 27% year-over-year increase in transaction volumes and a comparably robust increase in revenue per transaction including both transfer fees and revenue derived from foreign exchange. We continue to build out our disbursement networks, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, and to fine-tune our direct-to-consumer pricing strategies to capture additional revenue and margins. BOSS Money also continues to benefit from its integration into the BOSS Revolution Calling app last October, providing another example of our ability to generate growth by deploying our offerings across multiple channels and platforms. In our Traditional Communications segment, revenue decreased by $59.9 million or 17% to $285.9 million. The surge in demand for paid voice that we experienced during the COVID pandemic is now retreating and exacerbating the impact of the underlying declines in retail calling and wholesale carrier services. Our Mobile Top-Up business underperformed this quarter but we are investing in technology, marketing, and sales to improve its performance. Because Traditional Communications lost revenue overall was skewed to lower margin sales, income from operations from this segment decreased $3.0 million year-over-year to $17.4 million. On a consolidated basis, income from operations decreased $0.5 million to $13.3 million while Adjusted EBITDA*** increased $0.1 million to $18.0 million. We expect that as our growth businesses continue to expand, our consolidated bottom-line results in the coming quarters will increasingly reflect their contributions. CONSOLIDATED RESULTS Results(in millions, except EPS) 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 3Q22 - 3Q21 change (%/$) Revenue $ 328 $ 337 $ 374 (12.2 )% Direct cost of revenue $ 248 $ 257 $ 301 (17.7 )% SG&A expense $ 63 $ 61 $ 55 +13.8 % Depreciation and amortization $ 4.5 $ 4.4 $ 4.4 +1.9 % Income from operations $ 13.3 $ 13.8 $ 13.9 (3.9 )% Net income attributable to IDT $ 4.8 $ 7.5 $ 36.3 $ (31.5 ) Adjusted EBITDA*** $ 18.0 $ 18.7 $ 17.9 +0.7 % Earnings per diluted share $ 0.18 $ 0.28 $ 1.39 $ (1.21 ) Non-GAAP net income*** $ 6.0 $ 8.8 $ 12.3 $ (6.3 ) Non-GAAP EPS*** $ 0.23 $ 0.33 $ 0.47 $ (0.24 ) RESULTS BY SEGMENT(Results are for 3Q22 and are compared to 3Q21 except where otherwise noted) (in millions) Fintech net2phone-UCaaS Traditional Communications 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 Revenue $ 26.9 $ 23.1 $ 16.6 $ 15.6 $ 13.5 $ 11.4 $ 285.9 $ 300.4 $ 345.7 Direct cost of revenue $ 8.2 $ 7.3 $ 6.0 $ 2.6 $ 2.4 $ 2.2 $ 236.7 $ 247.6 $ 292.6 SG&A expense $ 17.9 $ 15.3 $ 11.6 $ 13.8 $ 13.0 $ 11.8 $ 29.3 $ 30.4 $ 30.0 Income (loss) from operations $ 0.2 $ (0.2 ) $ (1.4 ) $ (2.3 ) $ (2.9 ) $ (4.0 ) $ 17.4 $ 19.9 $ 20.4 Adjusted EBITDA*** $ 0.8 $ 0.4 $ (1.0 ) $ (0.9 ) $ (1.9 ) $ (2.6 ) $ 19.9 $ 22.4 $ 23.1 Capital expenditures $ 1.2 $ 1.3 $ 1.3 $ 1.4 $ 1.3 $ 1.3 $ 1.9 $ 1.9 $ 1.9 Fintech Fintech comprises National Retail Solutions (NRS), an operator of a nationwide Point-Of-Sale (POS) retail network providing merchant services, digital advertising, transaction data, and ancillary services, and BOSS Money, a provider of international money remittances. In 3Q22 and 3Q21, the Fintech segment accounted for 8.2% and 4.4% of IDTs consolidated revenue, respectively. NRS Results(Revenue $ in thousands) 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 3Q22 -3Q21 change % POS terminals, active end of period 17,900 16,500 13,100 37 % Payment processing accounts end of period 9,200 8,000 4,900 89 % NRS recurring revenue Merchant services and other $ 4,765 $ 3,810 $ 2,116 +125 % Advertising & data 3,729 3,901 1,958 +90 % SaaS fees 1,462 1,318 856 +71 % Total recurring revenue $ 9,956 $ 9,029 $ 4,930 +102 % POS terminal sales 1,427 1,591 1,454 (2 )% Total NRS revenue $ 11,383 $ 10,620 $ 6,384 +78 % Monthly average recurring revenue per terminal (excl. POS terminal sales revenue)**** $ 193 $ 190 $ 131 +47 % NRS Take-Aways: As of April 30, 2022, NRS POS terminal network comprised approximately 17,900 active POS terminals, an increase of 37% compared to a year earlier, and approximately 9,200 payment processing accounts, a year over year increase of 89%. NRS revenue increased 78.3% to $11.4 million from $6.4 million and recurring revenue* increased by 101.9% to $10.0 million from $4.9 million. The increases were driven by the expansion of the NRS POS and payment processing networks and increased merchant services and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising & data sales. NRS monthly average recurring revenue per terminal**** increased to $193 from $131. During 3Q22, NRS announced a partnership with OnPoint, a leading provider of scan data programs for the independent and small chain C-store market. Through the partnership, OnPoint will promote the NRS POS system and payment processing service to prospective C-store clients. BOSS Money Take-Aways: Transaction volumes increased 27% to 2.37 million from 1.86 million in the year-ago period. Revenue increased 51.5% to $15.5 million from $10.3 million. BOSS Money continued to expand its global payments network including announced expansions of service to Ethiopia and Jamaica. net2phone-UCaaS In 3Q22 and 3Q21, the net2phone-UCaaS segment accounted for 4.7% and 3.1% of IDTs consolidated revenue, respectively. net2phone-UCaaS Take-aways: Total seats served increased 33% to 279,000 at April 30, 2022 including approximately 7,000 seats added through the Integra CCaaS acquisition, from 210,000 a year earlier. Subscription revenue** increased 42.0% to $14.2 million from $10.0 million, led by strong growth in both net2phone's South and North American regions and the addition of Integras CCaaS revenue for the final two months of the quarter. During 3Q22, IDT announced a postponement of the planned spin-off of net2phone, in light of market conditions. Traditional Communications In 3Q22 and 3Q21, the Traditional Communications segment accounted for 87.1% and 92.5% of IDTs consolidated revenue, respectively. Traditional Communications Take-Aways: Mobile Top-Up revenue decreased 12.6% to $115.9 million from $132.6 million. BOSS Revolution Calling revenue decreased 17.6% to $91.8 million from $111.4 million, while minutes-of-use decreased 21.2% compared to the year-ago quarter. The decreases reflect the erosion of the surge in demand for voice calls that began with the onset of the COVID pandemic, on top of the underlying decline of the paid voice communications market. IDT Globals carrier services revenue decreased 24.3% to $67.1 million from $88.6 million reflecting a 24.2% decrease in minutes-of-use as the wholesale paid voice market contracted at an accelerated rate. NOTES ON FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Consolidated results for all periods presented include corporate overhead. Corporate G&A expense increased to $1.8 million in 3Q22 from $1.7 million in 3Q21. As of April 30, 2022, IDT held $136.0 million in cash, cash equivalents, debt securities, and current equity investments. Current assets totaled $371.1 million and current liabilities totaled $315.4 million. Net cash provided by operating activities during 3Q22 was $1.6 million compared to $12.5 million during 3Q21. Exclusive of changes in customer deposit balances at our Gibraltar-based bank, net cash provided by operating activities during 3Q22 was $9.6 million compared to $12.5 million during 3Q21. Capital expenditures increased to $4.8 million in 3Q22 from $4.6 million in 3Q21. IDT EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT & SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION This release is available for download in the Investors & Media section of the IDT Corporation website (https://www.idt.net/investors-and-media) and has been filed on a current report (Form 8-K) with the SEC. IDT will host an earnings conference call beginning at 5:30 PM Eastern today with managements discussion of results, outlook, and strategy followed by Q&A with investors. To listen to the call and participate in the Q&A, dial 1-888-506-0062 (toll-free from the US) or 1-973-528-0011 (international) and request the IDT Corporation call (participant access code: 733921). A replay of the conference call will be available approximately three hours after the call concludes through June 15, 2022. To access the call replay, dial 1-877-481-4010 (toll-free from the US) or 1-919-882-2331 (international) and provide this replay number: 45654. The replay will also be accessible via streaming audio at the IDT investor relations website. ABOUT IDT: IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT) is a global provider of fintech, cloud and traditional communications services. We make it easy for families to communicate and support each other across international borders. We also enable businesses to transact and communicate with their customers with enhanced intelligence and insight. Our BOSS Money international remittance and BOSS Revolution international calling services make sending money and speaking with friends and family around the world convenient and reliable. National Retail Solutions (NRS) point-of-sale retail network enables independent retailers to operate and process transactions more effectively while providing advertisers and consumer marketers with unprecedented reach into underserved consumer markets. net2phones communications-as-a-service solutions provide businesses with intelligently integrated cloud communications and collaboration tools across channels and devices. Our IDT Global and IDT Express wholesale offerings enable communications service enterprises to provision and manage international voice and SMS services. All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words believe, anticipate, expect, plan, intend, estimate, target and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, IDT assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. CONTACT: IDT Corporation Investor RelationsBill Ulrey [email protected]973-438-3838 IDT CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS April 30, July 31, 2022 2021 (Unaudited) (in thousands) Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 97,139 $ 107,147 Restricted cash and cash equivalents 100,957 119,769 Debt securities 22,706 14,012 Equity investments 16,179 42,434 Trade accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $5,061 at April 30, 2022 and $4,438 at July 31, 2021 52,881 46,644 Disbursement prefunding 37,111 27,656 Prepaid expenses 16,676 13,694 Other current assets 27,442 16,779 Total current assets 371,091 388,135 Property, plant, and equipment, net 33,447 30,829 Goodwill 26,490 14,897 Other intangibles, net 10,041 7,578 Equity investments 7,319 11,654 Operating lease right-of-use assets 7,919 7,671 Deferred income tax assets, net 36,598 41,502 Other assets 10,365 10,389 Total assets $ 503,270 $ 512,655 Liabilities and equity Current liabilities: Trade accounts payable $ 27,817 $ 24,502 Accrued expenses 118,285 129,085 Deferred revenue 39,054 42,293 Customer deposits 95,104 115,524 Other current liabilities 35,103 27,930 Total current liabilities 315,363 339,334 Operating lease liabilities 5,322 5,473 Other liabilities 6,326 1,234 Total liabilities 327,011 346,041 Commitments and contingencies Redeemable noncontrolling interest 10,099 Equity: IDT Corporation stockholders equity: Preferred stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares10,000; no shares issued Class A common stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares35,000; 3,272 shares issued and 1,574 shares outstanding at April 30, 2022 and July 31, 2021 33 33 Class B common stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares200,000; 27,725 and 26,379 shares issued and 24,667 and 24,187 shares outstanding at April 30, 2022 and July 31, 2021, respectively 277 264 Additional paid-in capital 295,915 278,021 Treasury stock, at cost, consisting of 1,698 and 1,698 shares of Class A common stock and 3,058 and 2,192 shares of Class B common stock at April 30, 2022 and July 31, 2021, respectively (88,175 ) (60,413 ) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (11,341 ) (10,183 ) Accumulated deficit (33,072 ) (42,858 ) Total IDT Corporation stockholders equity 163,637 164,864 Noncontrolling interests 2,523 1,750 Total equity 166,160 166,614 Total liabilities and equity $ 503,270 $ 512,655 IDT CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (Unaudited) Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended April 30, April 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 (in thousands, except per share data) Revenues $ 328,353 $ 373,831 $ 1,035,494 $ 1,057,022 Costs and expenses: Direct cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 247,565 300,797 796,516 843,116 Selling, general and administrative (i) 62,772 55,148 183,948 161,591 Depreciation and amortization 4,509 4,425 13,333 13,381 Severance 184 67 439 Total costs and expenses 314,846 360,554 993,864 1,018,527 Other operating (expense) gain, net (179 ) 595 (709 ) 1,550 Income from operations 13,328 13,872 40,921 40,045 Interest income, net 85 125 217 223 Other (expense) income, net (5,068 ) 3,815 (24,234 ) 5,608 Income before income taxes 8,345 17,812 16,904 45,876 (Provision for) benefit from income taxes (3,239 ) 18,586 (5,887 ) 12,142 Net income 5,106 36,398 11,017 58,018 Net (income) attributable to noncontrolling interests (335 ) (50 ) (1,231 ) (274 ) Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 4,771 $ 36,348 $ 9,786 $ 57,744 Earnings per share attributable to IDT Corporation common stockholders: Basic $ 0.18 $ 1.42 $ 0.38 $ 2.27 Diluted $ 0.18 $ 1.39 $ 0.37 $ 2.23 Weighted-average number of shares used in calculation of earnings per share: Basic 25,901 25,530 25,706 25,475 Diluted 26,205 26,136 26,455 25,903 (i) Stock-based compensation included in selling, general and administrative expenses $ 1,245 $ 275 $ 1,840 $ 1,215 IDT CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) Nine Months EndedApril 30, 2022 2021 (in thousands) Operating activities Net income $ 11,017 $ 58,018 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 13,333 13,381 Deferred income taxes 4,624 (13,811 ) Provision for doubtful accounts receivable 1,578 1,220 Net unrealized loss (gain) from marketable securities 19,705 (508 ) Stock-based compensation 1,840 1,215 Other 3,486 (4,415 ) Change in assets and liabilities: Trade accounts receivable (8,461 ) 1,626 Disbursement prefunding, prepaid expenses, other current assets, and other assets (20,504 ) (7,961 ) Trade accounts payable, accrued expenses, other current liabilities, and other liabilities (2,566 ) (2,154 ) Customer deposits at IDT Financial Services Limited (Gibraltar-based bank) (9,843 ) (11,078 ) Deferred revenue (948 ) 2,611 Net cash provided by operating activities 13,261 38,144 Investing activities Capital expenditures (13,794 ) (13,455 ) Purchase of convertible preferred stock in equity method investment (1,051 ) (4,000 ) Payments for acquisitions, net of cash acquired (7,546 ) (2,656 ) Purchase of Rafael Holdings, Inc. Class B common stock and warrant (5,000 ) Exercise of warrant to purchase shares of Rafael Holdings, Inc. Class B common stock (1,000 ) Purchases of debt securities and equity investments (11,277 ) (39,347 ) Proceeds from maturities and sales of debt securities and redemptions of equity investments 7,752 18,670 Net cash used in investing activities (25,916 ) (46,788 ) Financing activities Distributions to noncontrolling interests (359 ) (646 ) Proceeds from other liabilities 2,301 Repayment of other liabilities. (1,319 ) (69 ) Proceeds from borrowings under revolving credit facility 2,566 Repayment of borrowings under revolving credit facility. (2,566 ) Proceeds from sale of redeemable equity in subsidiary 10,000 Proceeds from exercise of stock options 137 686 Repurchases of Class B common stock (12,832 ) (4,192 ) Net cash used in financing activities (2,072 ) (4,221 ) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents (14,093 ) 6,652 Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents (28,820 ) (6,213 ) Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 226,916 201,222 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 198,096 $ 195,009 Supplemental schedule of non-cash investing and financing activities Liabilities incurred for acquisitions $ 7,849 $ 393 Shares of the Companys Class B common stock issued for acquisition $ 1,000 $ Cashless exercise of stock options in exchange for shares of the Companys Class B common stock $ 14,930 $ Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for the Third Quarter Fiscal 2022 and 2021 In addition to disclosing financial results that are determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP), IDT also disclosed, for 3Q22, 2Q22, and 3Q21, Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share (EPS), all of which are non-GAAP measures. Generally, a non-GAAP measure is a numerical measure of a companys performance, financial position, or cash flows that either excludes or includes amounts that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. IDTs measure of non-GAAP net income starts with net income in accordance with GAAP and adds severance expense, stock-based compensation, and other operating expense, and deducts other operating gains. These additions and subtractions are non-cash and/or non-routine items in the relevant fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021 periods. IDTs measure of non-GAAP EPS is calculated by dividing non-GAAP net income by the diluted weighted-average shares. Management believes that IDTs Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS are measures which provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding certain expenses and non-routine gains and losses that may not be indicative of IDTs or the relevant segments core operating results. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA, among other measures, as a relevant indicator of core operational strengths in its financial and operational decision making. In addition, management uses Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS to evaluate operating performance in relation to IDTs competitors. Disclosure of these financial measures may be useful to investors in evaluating performance and allows for greater transparency to the underlying supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. In addition, IDT has historically reported similar financial measures and believes such measures are commonly used by readers of financial information in assessing performance, therefore the inclusion of comparative numbers provides consistency in financial reporting. Management refers to Adjusted EBITDA, as well as the GAAP measures income (loss) from operations and net income, on a segment and/or consolidated level to facilitate internal and external comparisons to the segments and IDT's historical operating results, in making operating decisions, for budget and planning purposes, and to form the basis upon which management is compensated. While depreciation and amortization are considered operating costs under GAAP, these expenses primarily represent the non-cash current period allocation of costs associated with long-lived assets acquired or capitalized in prior periods. IDTs Adjusted EBITDA, which is exclusive of depreciation and amortization, is a useful indicator of its current performance. Severance expense is excluded from the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS. Severance expense is reflective of decisions made by management in each period regarding the aspects of IDTs and its segments businesses to be focused on in light of changing market realities and other factors. While there may be similar charges in other periods, the nature and magnitude of these charges can fluctuate markedly and do not reflect the performance of IDTs core and continuing operations. Other operating (expense) gain, net, which is a component of income (loss) from operations, is excluded from the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS. Other operating (expense) gain, net includes legal fees net of insurance claims related to Straight Path Communications Inc.s stockholders putative class action and derivative complaint, expense for the indemnification of a net2phone cable telephony customer related to patent infringement claims brought against the customer, a gain from the write-off of a contingent consideration liability, expense for other legal and regulatory matters, and a gain from the sale of IDTs rights under a class action lawsuit. From time-to-time, IDT may have gains or incur costs related to non-routine legal and regulatory matters, however, these various items generally do not occur each quarter. IDT believes the gain and losses from these non-routine matters are not components of IDTs or the relevant segments core operating results. Stock-based compensation recognized by IDT and other companies may not be comparable because of the variety of types of awards as well as the various valuation methodologies and subjective assumptions that are permitted under GAAP. Stock-based compensation is excluded from IDTs calculation of non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS because management believes this allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons of the operating results per share of IDTs core business with the results of other companies. However, stock-based compensation will continue to be a significant expense for IDT for the foreseeable future and an important part of employees compensation that impacts their performance. In 3Q21, due to continued and projected profitability, IDT was able to release a portion of its valuation allowance that was recorded against its deferred tax assets. This income tax benefit was excluded from IDTs non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS because it was only indirectly related to the current results of IDTs core operations. Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or superior to, income (loss) from operations, cash flow from operating activities, net income, basic and diluted earnings per share or other measures of liquidity and financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, IDTs measurements of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Following are reconciliations of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, which are, (a) for Adjusted EBITDA, income (loss) from operations for IDTs reportable segments and net income for IDT on a consolidated basis, (b) for non-GAAP net income, net income, and (c) for non-GAAP EPS, diluted earnings per share. IDT CorporationReconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited) in millions. Figures may not foot or cross-foot due to rounding to millions Total IDTCorporation TraditionalCommunica-tions net2phone-UCaaS Fintech Corporate Three Months Ended April 30, 2022(3Q22) Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 4.8 Adjustments: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 0.3 Net income 5.1 Provision for income taxes 3.2 Income before income taxes 8.3 Interest income, net (0.1 ) Other expense, net 5.1 Income (loss) from operations 13.3 $ 17.4 $ (2.3 ) $ 0.2 $ (2.0 ) Depreciation and amortization 4.5 2.5 1.3 0.7 - Other operating expense, net 0.2 - - - 0.2 Adjusted EBITDA $ 18.0 $ 19.9 $ (0.9 ) $ 0.8 $ (1.8 ) Total IDTCorporation TraditionalCommunica-tions net2phone-UCaaS Fintech Corporate Three Months Ended January 31, 2022(2Q22) Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 7.5 Adjustments: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 0.8 Net income 8.3 Provision for income taxes 2.7 Income before income taxes 11.0 Interest income, net (0.1 ) Other expense, net 2.9 Income (loss) from operations 13.8 $ 19.9 $ (2.9 ) $ (0.2 ) $ (3.0 ) Depreciation and amortization 4.4 2.5 1.3 0.6 - Other operating expense (gain), net 0.4 - (0.3 ) - 0.7 Adjusted EBITDA $ 18.7 $ 22.4 $ (1.9 ) $ 0.4 $ (2.3 ) IDT Corporation Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited) in millions. Figures may not foot or cross-foot due to rounding to millions. Total IDT Corporation Traditional Communica-tions net2phone- UCaaS Fintech Corporate Three Months Ended April 30, 2021(3Q21) Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 36.3 Adjustments: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 0.1 Net income 36.4 Benefit from income taxes (18.6 ) Income before income taxes 17.8 Interest income, net (0.1 ) Other income, net (3.8 ) Income (loss) from operations 13.9 $ 20.4 $ (4.0 ) $ (1.4 ) $ (1.1 ) Depreciation and amortization 4.4 2.5 1.4 0.5 - Severance expense 0.2 0.2 - - - Other operating (gain) expense, net (0.6 ) 0.1 - (0.1 ) (0.6 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ 17.9 $ 23.1 $ (2.6 ) $ (1.0 ) $ (1.7 ) IDT CorporationReconciliations of Net Income to Non-GAAP Net Income and Earnings per share to Non-GAAP EPS (unaudited) in millions, except per share data. Figures may not foot due to rounding to millions. 3Q22 2Q22 3Q21 Net income $ 5.1 $ 8.3 $ 36.4 Adjustments (add) subtract: Stock-based compensation (1.2 ) (0.3 ) (0.3 ) Severance expense - - (0.2 ) Other operating (expense) gain, net (0.2 ) (0.4 ) 0.6 Release of DTA valuation allowance - - 24.0 Total adjustments (1.4 ) (0.7 ) 24.1 Income tax effect of total adjustments (0.5 ) (0.2 ) - 0.9 0.5 (24.1 ) Non-GAAP net income $ 6.0 $ 8.8 $ 12.3 Earnings per share: Basic $ 0.18 $ 0.29 $ 1.42 Total adjustments 0.05 0.05 (0.94 ) Non-GAAP - basic $ 0.23 $ 0.34 $ 0.48 Weighted-average number of shares used in calculation of basic earnings per share 25.9 25.7 25.5 Diluted $ 0.18 $ 0.28 $ 1.39 Total adjustments 0.05 0.05 (0.92 ) Non-GAAP - diluted $ 0.23 $ 0.33 $ 0.47 Weighted-average number of shares used in calculation of diluted earnings per share 26.2 26.5 26.1 Explanation of Key Performance Metrics NRS Monthly Average Recurring Revenue per Terminal is a financial metric. Monthly Average Recurring Revenue per Terminal is calculated by dividing NRS recurring revenue by the average number of active POS terminals during the period. NRS recurring revenue is NRS revenue in accordance with GAAP excluding revenue from POS terminal sales. The average number of active POS terminals is calculated by adding the beginning and ending number of active POS terminals during the period and dividing by two. NRS recurring revenue divided by the average number of active POS terminals is divided by three when the period is a fiscal quarter. Monthly Average Recurring Revenue per Terminal is useful for comparisons of NRS revenue per customer to prior periods and to competitors and others in the market, as well as for forecasting future revenue from the customer base. net2phone-UCaaS cloud communications offerings are priced on a per-seat basis, with customers paying based on the number of users in their organization. The number of seats served and subscription revenue trends and comparisons between periods are used in the analysis of net2phone-UCaaS revenues and direct cost of revenues are strong indications of the top-line growth and performance of the business. Supplemental Information * NRS recurring revenue is a key performance metric. Please refer to the Explanation of Key Performance Metrics above for an explanation of this metric. ** net2phone subscription revenue is a key performance metric. Please refer to the Explanation of Key Performance Metrics above for an explanation of this metric. *** Throughout this release, Adjusted EBITDA, Non-GAAP net income and Non-GAAP EPS are Non-GAAP measures intended to provide useful information that supplements IDTs or the relevant segments results in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures earlier in this release for an explanation of these terms and their respective reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. **** NRS Monthly Average Recurring Revenue per Terminal is a key performance metric. Please refer to the Explanation of Key Performance Metrics above for an explanation of this metric. # # # Source: IDT Corporation PORTLAND, Maine, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intersolar North America (ISNA) and Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the industrys flagship solar + storage event, is now accepting applications for the third annual Solar Games competition to be held February 14-16, 2023, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Applications to compete are open through September 2, 2022. The Solar Games, the industrys first installer competition, tasks teams with building residential solar + storage systems live in the #isnaesna23 exhibition hall. Taking place in a custom-built stadium, the bracket-style tournament features multiple competitive rounds where teams go head-to-head installing solar modules, racking, inverters, and battery storage. Teams are scored on a point system for quality, safety, speed, and other criteria. The winning team from each round advances until the final-round winner is named Solar Games Championand awarded a $10,000 cash prize. Application Details Installation teams from across the United States are invited to apply to compete. To qualify, all team members must be OSHA 10 certified, and one team member must be NABCEP certified (or a licensed electrician). New for 2023, each team will be provided with $2,000 to help cover travel/lodging expenses. The 2023 Solar Games Champion will receive $10,000; second- and third-place finishers will receive $3,500 and $2,500 (respectively). A six-member advisory board of clean energy leaders helps develop and oversee the competition. Board members include representatives from K2 Systems, ReVision Energy, Rolls Battery Engineering, Twende Solar, Institute for Building Technology & Safety, and Solar Cowboyz. Sponsor-provided equipment will be donated to Twende Solar upon completion of the competition for use in projects that empower under-resourced communities with renewable energy systems. At this time, equipment sponsors include Electriq Power, K2 Systems, JinkoSolar, and Rolls Battery Engineering. Interested companies are encouraged to contact the Solar Games Sales team for more details. The Solar Games celebrate the talent and camaraderie among solar + storage installation professionals, said Wes Doane, Event Director, Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America. The two-day tournament is a highly anticipated and well-attended part of our annual conference and expo, uniting attendees, exhibitors, press, and speakers within the expo hall for a thrilling competition. We cant wait to see what happens in 2023. Get Involved with the Solar GamesNot ready to apply just yet? Interested parties are encouraged to use this online form to connect with event organizers and discuss how they can participate in the 2023 competition. About Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North AmericaIntersolar North America and Energy Storage North America is the premier US-based conference and trade show focused on solar, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure. Dedicated to accelerating the energy transition, the combined event delivers actionable education, invaluable networking, and an immersive exhibit hall experience. Learn more about attending or exhibiting at our February 14-16, 2023 event in Long Beach, CA online at intersolar.us and esnaexpo.com. About Diversified CommunicationsDiversified Communications is a leading international media company with a portfolio of in-person exhibitions and conferences, online communities, and digital and print publications. As producers of these market-leading products, Diversified Communications connects, educates, and strengthens business communities in over 15 industries including: renewable energy, healthcare, natural and organic, food and beverage, and technology. Established in 1949 and headquartered in Portland, Maine, USA, with divisions and offices around the world, Diversified Communications remains a privately held, third-generation, family-owned business. For more information, visit: https://www.divcom.com. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7c3a8bb5-e262-4b27-9d1f-07d8d62e92fe https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8f93b298-eedf-4751-a685-8cc47481d661 Media Contact: Gene Hunt Trevi Communications, Inc. [email protected] 978-750-0333 x101 Solar Games Champion 2022 Solar Games Champion Sol-Up with their $10,000 first-place prize Solar Games Action from the 2022 Solar Games Source: Diversified Communications MONTREAL, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stingray Group Inc. (TSX: RAY.A; RAY.B), a leading music, media, and technology company, today announced that InStore Audio Network has been fully integrated into its offering following the acquisition in January, and the combined entity of the US and Canadian operations is now named Stingray Advertising. This forms the largest in-store audio advertising network in North America, reaching 140 million shoppers each week in over 20,000 grocery retailers, superstores, discount stores and pharmacies. Stingray Advertising delivers targeted audio messaging to shoppers in a captive media environment at the point-of-purchase. This cutting-edge integration focuses on leveraging new technology and giving retailers a way to monetize in-store audio while offering CPG and HBC brands a democratized marketing tool to reach shoppers with optimized OOH media.The current network includes leading retailers like Ahold, Albertsons, Brookshires, CVS, Jean Coutu, Metro, Rite Aid, Safeway, Southeastern Grocers, Tops Markets, Walmart Canada and Weis Market with coverage across Canada and in every DMA in the US.With the recent addition of Walmart Canada into our retail media network plus our use of COMMB and Geopath for proven audience measurement and Hivestack for a versatile programmatic buying solution, we have proven our effectiveness and reliability to our current advertiser base, said Ryan Fuss, Senior Vice President of Stingray Advertising. Our retail footprint, along with both traditional media buying and programmatic options, positions Stingray Advertising as a top media solution for every brand sold in retail store as well as non-endemic brands seeking to reach a captive audience of engaged consumers directly in the retail environment.In addition to retail media, Stingray Advertising helps brands connect to passionate audiences across the Stingray multiplatform ecosystem through broadcast and streaming media which includes concerts, shows, music videos, TV audio channels, and radio stations as well as music and soundscapes across web, mobile and FAST channels.Stingray also has an array of technology-driven solutions to share with retailers to elevate the in-store and customer experience including Stingray Business licensed background music and digital signage as well as Chatter by Stingrays AI-driven customer insights tool that empowers brands to take action and improve their customer experience.Effective immediately, all brand identity, logos, and corporate communication will reflect the Stingray Advertising brand. About StingrayMontreal-based Stingray (TSX: RAY.A; RAY.B) is a leading global music, media, and technology company with over 1,000 employees worldwide. Stingray is a premium provider of curated direct-to-consumer and B2B services, including audio television channels, over 100 radio stations, SVOD content, 4K UHD television channels, FAST channels, karaoke products, digital signage, in-store music, and music apps, which have been downloaded over 160 million times. Stingray reaches 400 million subscribers (or users) in 160 countries. For more information: www.stingray.comAbout Stingray AdvertisingStingray Advertising connects brands to audiences across the Stingray multiplatform ecosystem through broadcast, streaming, and retail media. It is the largest in-store audio advertising provider in North America, delivering commercial audio messages to shoppers in over 20,000 grocery, drug, retail, and convenience stores. The programmatic in-store retail media network provides music programming, retail-specific messaging, and third-party branded messaging to retailers. By targeting consumers at the point of purchase in a captive media environment, Stingray Advertising reaches over 140 million shoppers every week and delivers a proven sales lift for participating advertisers. For more information: www.stingray.com/advertising For more information, please contact: Mathieu PeloquinSenior Vice-President, Marketing and CommunicationsStingray[email protected]1 514 664-1244, ext 2362 Source: Stingray Group Inc. Consolidated shares are expected to trade on or around June 7, 2022. TORONTO, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Further to a press release dated May 9, 2022, Lavras Gold Corp. (TSXV: LGC) (the Company) will consolidate its issued and outstanding common shares (the Common shares) based on 10 pre-consolidation Common Shares for one post-consolidation Common Share (the Consolidation). The Common Shares are expected to commence trading on the Toronto Venture Exchange on a consolidated basis on or about June 7, 2022. Following the Consolidation, the Company will have approximately 41,103,800 Common Shares outstanding. No fractional Common Shares will be issued pursuant to the Consolidation and any fractional shares that would have otherwise been issued have been rounded down or up to the nearest whole Common Share, with 0.5 of a Common Share being rounded up. The change in the number of issued and outstanding Common Shares resulting from the Consolidation will not materially affect any shareholders percentage ownership in the Company, although such ownership will be represented by a smaller number of Common Shares. Letters of transmittal with respect to the Consolidation are being mailed out to the Companys registered shareholders. All registered shareholders will be required to send their share certificates, along with a properly executed letter of transmittal, to the Companys registrar and transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc., according to the instructions provided in the letter of transmittal. Shareholders who hold their Common Shares through a broker, investment dealer, bank or trust company should contact that nominee or intermediary for assistance in depositing their Common Shares in connection with the Name Change and Consolidation. A copy of the letter of transmittal will be posted on the Companys issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Lavras Gold: Exploring to realize the potential of a multi-million ounce district in southern Brazil Lavras Gold (TSXV: LGC) is a Canadian exploration company focused on realizing the potential of the Lavras do Sul gold project (LDS Project) in Brazil. Located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the LDS Project is believed to host an alkaline porphyry gold-copper system. More than 23 gold prospects centred on historic gold workings have been identified on the property, which spans more than 22,000 hectares. The Companys vision is to maximize shareholder value by applying a sustained systematic and technically-based exploration program to the LDS Project and any other opportunities that may arise. Follow Lavras Gold on www.lavrasgold.com, as well as on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Contact information Michael Durose Annemarie Brissenden President & CEO Investor Relations 416-844-6284 416-844-6284 [email protected] [email protected] DISCLAIMERNeither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATIONThis news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward looking information is frequently characterized by words such as plan, expect, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate, may, will, would, potential, proposed and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur. These statements, including statements with respect to planned exploration activities and goals, the proposed Consolidation and the timing thereof, are only objectives and predictions. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is provided, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information, including the risks and factors that generally affect exploration and the uncertainty of exploration results and the ability to obtain regulatory approval for the Consolidation. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Companys Managements Discussion and Analysis and Listing Statement recently filed under the Companys profile on www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or managements estimates or opinions should change, unless required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Source: Lavras Gold Corp Houston, TX, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NuProbe Global, a genomics and molecular diagnostics company, announces the close of its $50M fundraising, co-led by AstraZeneca-CICC Fund, CR-CP Life Science Fund, and Panlin Capital. Existing NuProbe investors Sequoia Capital China, Biotrack Capital, and Yonghua Capital and new investors Pappas Capital, Haoreng Capital, and Deguan Capital also participated in the round. CEC Capital served as the financial advisor for this fundraising. The funds will be used to expand commercial operations, accelerate IVD product clinical studies and regulatory submissions, and develop new genomics and molecular diagnostics technologies. "NuProbe's principle is to deliver the best genomics information to clinicians at reasonable prices so that doctors can make optimally informed decisions on how best to treat patients," said Yingshuang Chai, Co-Founder, and CEO of NuProbe Global. "In the past year, NuProbe has made great strides in new technology innovation, product development, and business expansion. With the strong support from our investors, we expect to make rapid progress over the coming years to improving patient lives globally." "Molecular diagnostics in China require underlying technological breakthroughs to enable broader clinical adoption at the accuracy level fulfilling the clinical requirement," said Bing Chen, VP of Alliance and Business Development at AstraZeneca and Managing Director of the AZ-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund. "We are deeply impressed by NuProbe's status as one of the few genomics startups with world-class intellectual property that can be out-licensed to major multinational molecular diagnostics companies." "High sensitivity DNA biomarker detection technologies are absolutely critical to precision medicine," said Junbao Shan, President of CICC Capital Management, Managing director of AZ-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund. "We see NuProbe's technology, products, and services making a major impact on fields from cancer therapy selection and post-treatment monitoring to reproductive testing and screening and are committed to supporting NuProbe." "We have evaluated many genomics and life sciences startups and found NuProbe to be special," said Yi Zhou, CEO of CR-CP Life Science Fund. "Liquid biopsy is in many circumstances the only available option for many cancer patients for deciding therapy and monitoring response. NuProbe's technologies are uniquely able to deliver affordable and accurate liquid biopsy NGS results to the clinician and patient." "NuProbe's veteran leadership has executed well in turning innovative technology into products and revenue. NuProbe combines world-class innovation with disciplined clinical studies and regulatory submissions, resulting in a strong cadence of product development, launch, and commercialization," said Yuhui Li, Founding Partner of Panlin Capital. "Panlin Capital is committed to supporting NuProbe and its mission and looks forward to NuProbe's continued progress and success." Panlin Capital also participated in NuProbe's last round of fundraising. CEC Capital has always valued genomics and molecular diagnostics companies with platform technologies, innovation capabilities, and global visions, and NuProbe is one of the best. The company has become an industry leader in genetic testing for infertility, proving its product development strength. Said Jin Li, the managing director of CEC Capital, The rapid expansion of tumor-related product offerings will further strengthen the business. We are very honored to partner with NuProbe and witness the profound changes in the genetic testing industry brought by BDA and QASeq technology. Since NuProbe's last round of fundraising in 2021, NuProbe has engaged in research collaborations with several multinational companies, as well as clinical collaborations with over 400 hospitals. In 2021 and 2022, NuProbe researchers published 10 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, and Genome Biology, including collaborations with clinicians from MD Anderson and Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. In 2021, NuProbe obtained ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 quality system certifications for its Suzhou manufacturing site. The new liquid biopsy NGS product based on BDA technology had also received CE Marking recently. "Our Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA) technology enables dramatic improvements in sensitivity, multiplexing, and cost to next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS), quantitative PCR, and digital PCR. Simultaneously, our recently published Quantitative Amplicon Sequencing (QASeq) technology delivers best-in-class sensitivity for copy number variations," said David Zhang, Co-Founder of NuProbe Global and CEO of NuProbe USA, a fully owned subsidiary of NuProbe Global. "We are very grateful for the support and enthusiasm from our new and existing investors. The new funds will allow us to significantly expand our capacity for partnering with biopharma and molecular diagnostics companies, leading to companion diagnostics that positively impact cancer patients' lives." About NuProbe NuProbe is a cutting-edge genomics and molecular diagnostics company with revolutionary molecular diagnostic technologies to improve the sensitivity of sequencing mutations and copy number variations by over 10-fold. NuProbe has sites in Houston, USA, Shanghai, China, and Suzhou, China. NuProbes vision is to offer affordable, timely, and accurate disease state information to enable precision medicine and improve patient outcomes. NuProbes products and services are for Research Use Only and are not intended for In Vitro Diagnostic use. About AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund is a private equity fund jointly initiated by AstraZeneca and CICC Capital, focusing on investment in the medical and healthcare industry. Integrating AstraZeneca's global healthcare industrial advantages and CICC Capital's rich capital operation experience, the fund focuses on the investment fields such as Medicine and biotechnology, Diagnostic techniques, Medical devices as well as Digital health and service, committed to gathering resources to provide portfolio companies with full-cycle support from R&D to commercialization and promoting the development of medical and healthcare innovation in China. About CR-CP Life Sciences Fund CR-CP Life Science Fund is a private equity fund jointly established by China Resources Group and Thailand CP Group, focusing on investing in early and growing companies in the field of life sciences. The fund invests in innovations in the global life sciences to meet the needs of Chinese patients for innovative products, technologies, and services. The fund investment team has rich management and investment experience in healthcare and assists the Chinese business of the invested companies to add value. About Panlin Capital Panlin Capital is an early and mid-stage venture capital institution focusing on the two major fields of healthcare and technology. Panlin's healthcare portfolio companies include Ribo Bio, Apollomics, Biokangtai, Hybribio, RuiYun, Shenogen, and Virogin Biotech. Rachel Reed NuProbe USA Inc 7134850148 [email protected] Source: NuProbe USA Inc GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProStar Holdings Inc. (ProStar or the Company) (TSXV: MAPS) (OTCQX: MAPPF) (FSE: 5D00), a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions, will be featured in the award-winning documentary series Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid. The documentary project is hosted by actor and director Dennis Quaid. Its purpose is to develop and distribute social and educational programming. Watch the Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid Documentary. The innovative series highlights the value of ProStar by exploring the latest topics impacting the world through educational and inspiring stories. In a national spotlight, ProStar aims to educate corporations about the challenges of constructing and maintaining our buried infrastructure. New technologies and ideas are changing the way we build better designs, better materials, better building techniques, says Quaid in the video. This story shows us an example of the latest advances in design and construction practices. ProStar is a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions and is creating a digital world by leveraging the most modern GPS, cloud, and mobile technologies. ProStar is a software development company specializing in developing patented cloud and mobile precision mapping solutions focused on the critical infrastructure industry. ProStars flagship product, PointMan, is designed to significantly improve the workflow processes and business practices associated with the lifecycle management of critical infrastructure assets both above and below the Earths surface. It is an honor to be involved in such a prestigious production that highlights the severity of the condition of buried infrastructure and the resulting threats to the public, the environment, and our economy, said Page Tucker, CEO and Founder. As a proven solution provider, we are always looking for respected platforms that can help increase awareness on the serious issues facing the Nation from not knowing where utilities and pipelines are buried. About Viewpoint with Dennis QuaidViewpoint with Dennis Quaid is an award-winning television program created to educate television audiences. The show is created by a veteran team of tenured producers, writers, editors, and imaging specialists with over 100 years of cumulative experience. About ProStar:ProStar is a world leader in Precision Mapping Solutions and is creating a digital world by leveraging the most modern GPS, cloud, and mobile technologies. ProStar is a software development company specializing in developing patented cloud and mobile precision mapping solutions focused on the critical infrastructure industry. ProStars flagship product, PointMan, is designed to significantly improve the workflow processes and business practices associated with the lifecycle management of critical infrastructure assets both above and below the Earths surface. ProStars PointMan is offered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and seamlessly connects the field with the office and provides the ability to precisely capture, record, display, and manage critical infrastructure, including roads, railways, pipelines, and utilities. Some of the largest entities in North America have adopted ProStars solutions, including Fortune 500 construction firms, Subsurface Utilities Engineering (SUE) firms, utility owners, and government agencies. ProStar has strategic business partnerships with the worlds leading geospatial technology providers, data collection equipment manufacturers, and dealer networks. The Company has made a significant investment in creating a vast intellectual property portfolio that includes 21 issued patents in the United States and Canada. The patents protect the methods and systems required to digitally capture, record, organize, manage, distribute, and display the precise location of critical infrastructure, including buried utilities and pipelines. ProStars Executive management team has extensive experience in the management of both early-stage and Fortune 500 technology companies in the private and public sectors. For more information about ProStar, please visit www.prostarcorp.com. On behalf of the Company,Page Tucker on sales / corporate news releases, CEO and DirectorVasa Dasan on technical update news releases, COO and Director Contact:Joel SutherlandInvestor Relations970-822-4792[email protected] Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such information includes, without limitation, information regarding the terms and conditions of the Companys future plans. Although the Company believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the state of the financial markets for the Companys securities; the state of the technology sector; recent market volatility; the COVID-19 pandemic; the Companys ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; and other risks and factors that the Company is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to the Companys recent Managements Discussion & Analysis filed on SEDAR on April 14, 2022, for a more complete discussion of applicable risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Companys issuer page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/712f1513-0dcb-4b1a-bdcf-0eec2406dad8 VIEWPOINT WITH DENNIS QUAID Watch the Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid Documentary. Source: ProStar CALGARY, Alberta, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX: PSD) (OTCQX: PLSDF) (Pulse or the Company) is pleased to release its inaugural Sustainability and ESG report, for Pulses shareholders, stakeholders and prospective investors. You can view the report using the below link. The report is also available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on Pulses website at www.pulseseismic.com. CORPORATE PROFILE Pulse is a market leader in the acquisition, marketing and licensing of 2D and 3D seismic data to the western Canadian energy sector. Pulse owns the largest licensable seismic data library in Canada, currently consisting of approximately 65,310 square kilometres of 3D seismic and 829,207 kilometres of 2D seismic. The library extensively covers the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin where most of Canadas oil and natural gas exploration and development occur. For further information, please contact: Neal Coleman, President and CEO Or Pamela Wicks, Vice President Finance and CFO Tel.: 403-237-5559 Toll-free: 1-877-460-5559 E-mail: [email protected]. Please visit our website at www.pulseseismic.com. To view the attachment to this press release, please visit: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/28a2961f-7feb-4273-896d-390418d34ecd PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/1e8310ae-3320-4afa-b5c0-d2ce1256532c Source: Pulse Seismic Inc. Dallas, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Associa, the community management industrys largest company, is pleased to announce that Ray Colon has joined the organization as business development manager. In this capacity, he will serve as an inside sales manager and work closely with Associa branches throughout the Western United States to identify and generate new prospect opportunities in targeted local markets. He will further support their efforts by developing business plans that help branches more effectively identify, advance, and close deals to achieve their sales goals. Mr. Colon is a highly skilled business development professional with a demonstrated history of successfully meeting assigned sales goals across a wide range of industries. He joins Associa with more than 15 years sales experience in all facets of business development. Mr. Colons community management industry experience includes work as a business development manager with a leading property management firm. Ray Colon is an excellent addition to Associas business development team, said Leslie Baldwin, vice president of sales for Associa. Ray brings a strong sales background in both the community management and resort management industries to the table. His solid understanding of these sectors promises to help Associas local branches more effectively address and meet assigned business objectives. About Associa With more than 225 branch offices across North America, Associa is building the future of community for nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 11,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise, and trailblazing innovation. For more than 43 years, Associa has brought positive impact and meaningful value to communities. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com. Stay Connected Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa Attachment Tom Womack Associa 214-272-4107 [email protected] Source: Associa Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Restructured t iming of ReveraGen m ilestone p ayments, reducing near-term liquidity needs Secured up to CHF 40 million of additional financing Pratteln, Switzerland, June 2, 2022 Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces that it has renegotiated the timing of an upcoming milestone payment to partner ReveraGen, thereby reducing near-term financial obligations of the Company by CHF 20 million. Santhera has also upsized its existing financing arrangement with certain funds managed by Highbridge Capital Management, LLC (Highbridge) which will provide up to CHF 40 million of additional financing. Santhera expects the combination of these events to extend its liquidity runway into 2023 or up to approval of vamorolone in the U.S. which, subject to priority review being granted, is expected in Q1-2023. Restructured milestone payments reduces near-term cash need by as much as USD 20 million (40%)An FDA approval of vamorolone would have triggered total milestone payments of USD 40 million to ReveraGen. An amendment to the agreement has been negotiated with ReveraGen resulting in a reduction of the approval milestone by USD 20 million in exchange for an increase of the sales milestone by USD 20 million (due if and when vamorolone annual revenue reaches USD 100 million). The approval milestone will be further reduced by monthly payments already made and to be made to ReveraGen in a maximum amount of USD 4 million. In addition, Idorsia is to receive a milestone payment of USD 10 million at the time of the approval. In summary, the new agreement would result in a reduction in the milestone due upon U.S. approval of vamorolone from USD 50 million to USD 26 million, assuming payments totaling USD 4 million being made in advance of approval. Upsized financing by Highbridge of up to CHF 40 million adequate to meet liquidity requirements through Q1-2023Highbridge has committed to increase its existing financing arrangement with Santhera to provide up to CHF 40 million in new senior secured exchangeable notes. Of this amount, around CHF 8.5 million will be used to refinance currently outstanding exchangeable notes. Such a facility allows for periodic drawdowns (based on meeting certain criteria, an assessment of liquidity and other sources of funds, and sufficient shares for exchanges available at the time) and can be exchanged by Highbridge for shares at a discount to VWAP (volume-weighted average price), subject to a variable floor. The maturity of these new exchangeable notes will be May 2024. The new exchangeable notes will pay a fixed interest, which Santhera can pay in cash or in kind at a rate of between 12 - 16% per annum. Andrew Smith, Chief Financial Officer of Santhera, commented: We are pleased with the successful renegotiation of the agreement with ReveraGen which demonstrates its confidence in the commercial success of vamorolone. The additional financing provided by Highbridge is intended to enable funding through anticipated approval. We value their continued support. Together, these measures significantly reduce our near-term financing requirements, especially in a period of market volatility. Funding outlookIn September 2021, Santhera secured mixed equity-debt financing in the aggregate amount of up to CHF 42 million (net), resolving the debt overhang through repayment of the 2017/22 convertible bond and providing sufficient liquidity until mid-2022. In addition to the upsized Highbridge financing announced today, additional capital will be required to support the commercialization of vamorolone, for payment of the U.S approval milestones and to serve Santhera's outstanding debt. The difficult market environment caused by the general downturn of the capital markets and geopolitical volatility have rendered new capital raises challenging. In response, the Company is considering various potential avenues to further bolster liquidity which may include royalty-structured financings and out-licensing transactions in addition to or in lieu of a rights offering and/or PIPE (private investment in public equity)-transaction. In order to reach profitability with vamorolone in DMD, which is currently expected, at the earliest, during H2-2024, Santhera estimates that the Company will need to secure an additional CHF 40-50 million to fund its operations, including U.S. approval milestone payments and its debt service. Following todays announcements, this is around 50% less than the previously communicated funding need of about CHF 100 million. About SantheraSanthera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. The Company plans to complete the rolling submission of its filing for approval for vamorolone with the U.S. FDA in June 2022. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com. Raxone is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact: [email protected] orEva Kalias, Head Investor Relations & CommunicationsPhone: +41 79 875 27 80[email protected] Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment Source: Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG NEW YORK, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the 2022 Annual Business Meeting of The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) on May 14, 2022, Aprille L. Moore of the Junior League of DeKalb County, was honored with the 2022 Rising Star Award. The award is one of the Junior Leagues highest for individual members, and it recognizes women who, in their earliest years of Junior League membership, have demonstrated significant leadership promise consistent with the vision and values of The Junior League mission. When Ms. Moore became a Provisional Member of the Junior League of DeKalb County, it was quickly apparent that she lived by the motto see a need, fill a need. With each service project she works on, she epitomizes the mission of The Junior League, jumping at the opportunity to lead projects and engage with community partners who lean on her leadership. Her work as Vice President of Fund Development, where she is known for encouraging a collaborative effort across Councils to execute programming, is just one example of how Ms. Moore brings her peers together to meet the needs of her community. Laurel Lee-Alexander, AJLIs Past President 2018-2020, who served as this years Chair of the AJLI Rising Star panel, said, Aprille exemplifies strength, community service, and compassion. About The Junior League Since its founding in 1901 by social activist Mary Harriman, The Junior League has evolved into one of the oldest, largest and most effective womens organizations in the world, encompassing more than 125,000 women in over 295 Leagues in four countries. For more than 100 years, the mission of Junior Leagues has not wavered: to develop exceptionally qualified civic leaders who collaborate with community partners to identify a communitys most urgent needs and address them with meaningful and relevant programs and initiatives that not only improve lives, but also change the way people think. In 1921 the Leagues joined forces as an association, which is today known as The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc., in order to bolster their power and amplify their voice through shared knowledge and common causes. Media contact: Rosalia Scampoli[email protected]914-815-1465 Source: The Association of Junior Leagues International BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verde AgriTech Plc (TSX: NPK) (OTCQB: AMHPF) (the Verde or Company) announces that it has filed an Amended Notice of 2022 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the Amended Notice) in respect of its annual meeting of shareholders scheduled to be held on June 30, 2022 (the Meeting) in order to correct a typographical error regarding the time of the Meeting contained in the original Notice. The original Notice stated that the time of the Meeting was 10:00 a.m. (EDT). The correct time of the Meeting is 09:30 a.m. (EDT). The Amended Notice has been filed under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and is also available on the Companys website at https://investor.verde.ag/sedar-fillings/. About Verde AgriTech Verde is an agricultural technology company that produces potash fertilizers. Our purpose is to improve the health of all people and the planet. Rooting our solutions in nature, we make agriculture healthier, more productive, and profitable. Verde is a fully integrated Company: it mines and processes its main feedstock from its 100% owned mineral properties, then sells and distributes the Product. Verdes focus on research and development has resulted in one patent and eight patents pending. Among its proprietary technologies are Cambridge Tech, 3D Alliance, MicroS Technology, N Keeper, and Bio Revolution.1 Currently, the Company is fully licensed to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes per year of its multinutrient potassium fertilizers K Forte and BAKS, sold internationally as Super Greensand.2 By the end of 2022, it plans to become Brazil's largest potash producer by capacity.3 Verde has a combined measured and indicated mineral resource of 1.47 billion tonnes at 9.28% K2O and an inferred mineral resource of 1.85 billion tonnes at 8.60% K2O (using a 7.5% K2O cut-off grade).4 This amounts to 295.70 million tonnes of potash in K2O. For context, in 2021 Brazils total consumption of potash in K2O was 7.92 million5. Brazil ranks second in global potash demand and is its single largest importer, currently depending on external sources for over 96% of its potash needs. In 2021, potash accounted for approximately 2% of all Brazilian imports by dollar value. ________________________1 Learn more about our technologies: https://verde.docsend.com/view/yvthnpuv8jx6g4r9 2 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/2-5-million-tonnes-per-year-potash-mining-concession-granted-to-verde/ 3 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/verde-to-reach-3-million-tonnes-potash-production-capacity-in-2022/ 4 As per the National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects within Canada (NI 43 -101), filed on SEDAR in 2017. See the Pre-Feasibility Study at: https://investor.verde.ag/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NI-43-101-Pre-Feasibility-Technical-Report-Cerrado-Verde-Project.pdf 5 Union of the Agricultural Fertilizers and Correctives Industry, in the State of Sao Paulo (SIACESP, from Sindicato da Industria de Fertilizantes e Corretivos Agropecuarios, no Estado de Sao Paulo). Corporate Presentation For further information on the Company, please view shareholders deck: https://verde.docsend.com/view/3mry2cjznpwm724s Investors Newsletter Subscribe to receive the Companys updates at: http://cloud.marketing.verde.ag/InvestorsSubscription The last edition of the newsletter can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/InvestorsNL-April2022 Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements All Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resources estimates reported by the Company were estimated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards (May 10, 2014). These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. This document contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements" are made as of the date of this document. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the estimated amount and grade of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves; (ii) the PFS representing a viable development option for the Project; (iii) estimates of the capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production, of sustaining capital and the duration of financing payback periods; (iv) the estimated amount of future production, both produced and sold; (v) timing of disclosure for the PFS and recommendations from the Special Committee; (vi) the Companys competitive position in Brazil and demand for potash; and, (vii) estimates of operating costs and total costs, net cash flow, net present value and economic returns from an operating mine. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "envisages", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on Verde's or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to them. The most significant assumptions are set forth above, but generally these assumptions include, but are not limited to: (i) the presence of and continuity of resources and reserves at the Project at estimated grades; (ii) the geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of rock conforming to sampled results; including the quantities of water and the quality of the water that must be diverted or treated during mining operations; (iii) the capacities and durability of various machinery and equipment; (iv) the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices and within the estimated delivery times; (v) currency exchange rates; (vi) Super Greensand and K Forte sales prices, market size and exchange rate assumed; (vii) appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in the economic analysis; (viii) tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operation; (ix) the availability of acceptable financing under assumed structure and costs; (x) anticipated mining losses and dilution; (xi) reasonable contingency requirements; (xii) success in realizing proposed operations; (xiii) receipt of permits and other regulatory approvals on acceptable terms; and (xiv) the fulfilment of environmental assessment commitments and arrangements with local communities. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the correctness of other forward looking statements, such as statements of net present value and internal rates of return, which are based on most of the other forward-looking statements and assumptions herein. The cost information is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs will be in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the relevant period. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur as forecast, but specifically include, without limitation: risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the material identified as Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; the geotechnical characteristics of the rock mined or through which infrastructure is built differing from that predicted, the quantity of water that will need to be diverted or treated during mining operations being different from what is expected to be encountered during mining operations or post closure, or the rate of flow of the water being different; developments in world metals markets; risks relating to fluctuations in the Brazilian Real relative to the Canadian dollar; increases in the estimated capital and operating costs or unanticipated costs; difficulties attracting the necessary work force; increases in financing costs or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any; tax rates or royalties being greater than assumed; changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks relating to receipt of regulatory approvals; delays in stakeholder negotiations; changes in regulations applying to the development, operation, and closure of mining operations from what currently exists; the effects of competition in the markets in which Verde operates; operational and infrastructure risks and the additional risks described in Verde's Annual Information Form filed with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) for the year ended December 31, 2021. Verde cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to Verde, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Verde does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by Verde or on our behalf, except as required by law. For additional information please contact: Cristiano Veloso, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Tel: +55 (31) 3245 0205; Email: [email protected] www.investor.verde.ag | www.supergreensand.com | www.verde.ag Source: Verde AgriTech PLC EDMONTON, Alberta and RED DEER, Alberta and FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The last two years have been hard on everyone, especially children and youth who have missed out on vital opportunities to connect with each other, participate in their community, get active and make friends. This summer, YMCA of Northern Alberta is bringing back play with their summer day camps, swimming lessons and youth leadership opportunities, and they believe that all families should be able to access these opportunities. What many people dont know is that the YMCA is a charity that offers financial assistance to anyone who needs it, so that everyone gets a chance to play. Currently one in four YMCA members receives financial assistance, and the organization processes many financial assistance requests for its popular summer day camps each year. Everyone deserves the chance to participate, says YMCA President and CEO Nick Parkinson. Its why we offer financial assistance to anyone who needs it, and we rely on donations from our generous community to help us do that. This summer, you can make a difference for kids and youth in your community by donating to YMCA of Northern Alberta. This can be done at any YMCA location or by visiting northernalberta.ymca.ca/give. About YMCA of Northern Alberta YMCA of Northern Alberta is a registered charity dedicated to building healthy communities since 1907. From providing quality child care and supporting people in their health and wellness, to providing important housing and community outreach programs, the YMCA of Northern Alberta works to strengthen communities in the Wood Buffalo, Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Red Deer regions. For more information, visit northernalberta.ymca.ca. Contact: Deanna BarkerManager, Marketing & CommunicationsYMCA of Northern Alberta780-566-0004[email protected] Source: YMCA of Northern Alberta A Citigroup (NYSE: C) staffer's fat-finger trade could cost the investment bank losses of $50 million, Bloomberg reported Thursday afternoon. Last month, a Citigroup employee caused a flash crash in European stocks following a mistaken trade. According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, Citigroup is still calculating the losses, and it could rise above $50 million. "A trader in the firms Delta One trading unit in London was working from home during a bank holiday on May 2 when the person incorrectly added an extra zero to a trade early in European market hours," Bloomberg said, quoting a source. The blunder resulted in a significant sell-off across European equities, erasing 300 billion euros ($322 billion) at one point. The employee who made the error is said to have been placed on leave, with recent reports stating Citigroup is looking to overhaul their London trading team linked to the error. By Sam Boughedda Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) shares plunged 8% after-hours Thursday after the New York Post reported that the auction of the company has been "delayed indefinitely", citing sources. This would be a sharp reversal from earlier this year when multiple bidders were circling the company and a bid of $64 per share was submitted. For the last several weeks, media reports have leaked out showing that one by one the bidders were losing interest. Past bidders for the company included Starboard Value-backed Acacia Research, Hudson Bay, Sycamore Partners, Franchise Group, and J.C. Penney investors Simon Property Group Inc and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. It is unclear who is left and what price could be agreed upon by both parties. In mid-May, the company posted dismal first-quarter results and outlook. Sales for the year are now expected to be in the range of 0% to 1% as compared to the prior year. They had seen revenue growth of 2% to 3%. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME) (OTCQB: ACLHF) (the "Company", or "ACME") is pleased to announce that President and CEO Steve Hanson will be meeting and presenting to investors at 121 Mining Investment New York. https://www.weare121.com/121mininginvestment-new-york/ The 121 Mining Investment New York Conference takes place on June 6th and 7th and attracts US and international investors for two days of investment-led panel sessions and CEO presentations. With the rapid demand for securing a domestic supply of lithium, Nevada is at the forefront of mining in the US and remains one of the world's most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment. ACME's CEO Steve Hanson will be presenting an overview of ACME's two Nevada projects including the upcoming drill campaign at Clayton Valley, Nevada, as well as information on ACME's Manitoba projects. About ACME Lithium Inc. Led by an experienced team, ACME Lithium is a mineral exploration Company focused on acquiring, exploring and developing battery metal projects in partnership with leading technology and commodity companies. ACME has acquired or is under option to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in projects located in Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County Nevada, and at Cat-Euclid and Shatford Lakes in southeastern Manitoba. On behalf of the Board of Directors Steve Hanson Chief Executive Officer, President and Director Telephone: (604) 564-9045 [email protected] Neither the CSE nor its regulations service providers accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur and in this news release include but are not limited to the attributes of, timing for and expected benefits to be derived from the drilling program to be carried out on the FLV property. Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling and other sampling results may also be deemed to be forward-looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when and if a project is actually developed. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to fluctuations in metal prices; uncertainties related to raising sufficient financing to fund the planned work in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; changes in planned work resulting from weather, logistical, technical or other factors; the possibility that results of work will not fulfill expectations and realize the perceived potential of the Company's properties; risk of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in the work program; the risk of environmental contamination or damage resulting from the Company's operations and other risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126184 Delta, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Desert Gold Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DAU) (FSE: QXR2) (OTCQB: DAUGF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce results from the first three core holes designed to drill test the depth extent of the Gourbassi West North Zone at its SMSZ Project in Western Mali. All three core holes intersected significant amounts of gold mineralization with a highlight intercept of 1.08 g/t gold over 124 metres* including 1.85 g/t gold over 41.1 metres* and 0.7 g/t gold over 30.6 metres*. The first three holes, which were all core holes, returned wide intervals of gold mineralization and demonstrate that gold mineralization extends to at least 175 metres depth compared to the previous depth extent of 35 metres. A summary of significant intercepts are as follows: FR-22-DD-007 - 1.35 g/t gold over 43.1 metres including 1.66 g/t gold over 13 metres including FR-22-DD-008 - 0.53 g/t gold over 8.2 metres and 0.74 g/t gold over 21.0 metres and FR-22-DD-009 - 0.70 g/t gold over 30.6 metres and 1.08 g/t gold over 124 metres including 1.85 g/t gold over 41.1 metres * True widths are estimated at 60-70 % of drill widths except for the intercept in hole DD-009 which is estimated at 57% of drilled length Jared Scharf, President and CEO, commented, "This is a fantastic start to our 2022 drill program. We are intersecting wide zones of gold mineralization that start at or near surface suggesting real potential for the delineation of a significant gold deposit with good economics. Hole DD009 intersected roughly 160 metres of almost continuous gold mineralization. These initial results are particularly satisfying as the Gourbassi West North Zone is a recent discovery in a previously unexplored part of the property. Gourbassi West North has the potential to significantly upgrade the existing resource at SMSZ as we continue to flesh out this target." Technical Details The Gourbassi West North (GWN) Zone, which was discovered in July 2021, lies near the west side of the SMSZ property package (Figure 4). A total of 94 holes totalling 4,372.5 metres of drilling has been completed over the GWN Zone including 3 core holes totalling 605.5 metres, 14 RC holes totalling 1,854 metres and 78 AC holes totalling 2,066 metres (see Figure 1 for drilling plan view). These holes were designed to test the extent of the GWN Zone for 1,800 metres along strike to a depth of 175 metres. The mineralized zones are dominantly hosted by micro-conglomerate. Lesser amounts of conglomerate, limestone and shale have also been noted. Alteration consists of disseminated veinlet pyrite and local disseminated arsenopyrite is a weakly to moderately sericitized and silicified conglomerate. The widest gold zones occur proximal to the west side of a fault zone at the western contact of a silicified volcanic breccia. Mineralization generally dips steeply to the west, but hole FR-DD-22-009 suggests that locally the mineralization may also dip to the east. Interpreted sections of the first 3 core holes are presented in Figures 2 and 3. A summary of significant intercepts is attached in Table 1 at the end of the release. Assay results for the most of the AC and RC holes are still pending. Currently, the drill is testing a target at Linneguekoto West (Inferred mineral resource of 66,200 ounces at 1.48 g/t gold) with a few holes already completed at Mogoyafara South (Inferred Mineral Resources of 412,800 ounces of gold at 1.08 g/t gold) and Barani East (Measured and Indicated mineral resources of 91,200 ounces of gold grading 1.90 g/t gold and Inferred mineral resources of 133,900 ounces of gold grading 1.54 g/t gold). These mineral resources estimates were presented in a news release on January 17, 2022. Figure 1. Plan view Gourbassi West North Zone and Gourbassi West summarized drill results and completed drilling To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_001full.jpg Figure 2. Section 1487650 North To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_002full.jpg Figure 3. Section 1487775 North To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_003full.jpg Figure 4. Plan Map Mineral Deposits and Zones, significant drill hole intercepts*, soil geochem summary on color-contoured analytical signal magnetic data To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4954/126193_8eb38f7814d4ea97_004full.jpg *All gold grades over width, with the exception of the Soa, Berola and Gourbassi prospects, represent drill holes with the true widths, for most holes, ranging from 60 to 95%. Estimated true widths for the Soa and Berola prospects are unknown. Estimated true widths at the Gourbassi Zones are estimated to range from 60% to 90%. QAQC All auger and drill samples are delivered to SGS in Bamako, Mali where they are prepped. The prepped samples, are both shipped by truck to SGS's facility in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, or remain at SGS's laboratory in Bamako, for Au determination by fire assay. Standards and assay blanks,were inserted into the assay stream every 22 to 30 samples, respectively equaling one control sample for every approximately every 8-15 assay samples. All assay batches are reviewed for quality with re-assays requested 20 samples on either side of standards that assay more than 2 to 3 SD from an excepted value and for blanks that contain more than 10 ppb gold. Ashanti Gold drill results QAQC Procedures for the Gourbassi East and West Zones Certified Reference Materials and Blanks were inserted into the sample stream at the rate of 1:20 samples. Field duplicates are collected at the rate of 1:50 samples. All samples have been analyzed by SGS Laboratories in Bamako with standard preparation methods and 50g fire assay with atomic absorption finish. SGS does their own introduction of QA/QC samples into the sample stream and reports them to Ashanti for double checking. Higher grade samples are reanalyzed from pulp or reject material or both. Hyundai QAQC Procedures Desert Gold does not have any information regarding Hyundai's QAQC procedures at the Linnegukoto West Zone. However, based on follow-up of historic drill results in the Barani Area indicates an acceptable level of accuracy. This press release contains certain scientific and technical information. The Company is solely responsible for the contents and accuracy of any scientific and technical information related to it. Don Dudek, P.Geo. a director of Desert Gold both Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101, have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this press release. On Behalf of the Board "Jared Scharf" ___________________________ Jared Scharf President & CEO About Desert Gold Desert Gold Ventures Inc. is a gold exploration and development company which holds 2 gold exploration permits in Western Mali (SMSZ Project and Djimbala) and its Rutare gold project in central Rwanda. In Mali, Desert Gold's SMSZ property hosts Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 8.47 million tonnes grading 1.14 g/t gold totaling 310,300 ounces and Inferred Mineral Resources of 20.7 million tonnes grading 1.16 g/t gold totaling 769,200 ounces. For further information please visit www.SEDAR.com under the company's profile. Website: www.desertgold.ca This news release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the capital markets, the price of gold; operational, funding, liquidity risks, the degree to which Mineral Resource estimates are reflective of actual Mineral Resources, the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable, and the risks and hazards associated with mining operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States securities act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such act. Contact Jared Scharf, President and CEO, Email: [email protected] Tel. No.: +1 (858) 247-8195 Table 1. Gourbassi West North Zone Significant Drill Intercepts BHID FROM (m) TO (m) LENGTH (m) Au_g/t FR-22-DD-007 42.4 44.1 1.7 0.62 FR-22-DD-007 52.85 56 3.15 0.5 FR-22-DD-007 64.6 66.2 1.6 0.68 FR-22-DD-007 74.2 78.87 4.67 0.36 FR-22-DD-007 124.4 125.4 1 1.05 FR-22-DD-007 148.5 149.25 0.75 0.54 FR-22-DD-007 158.85 164 5.15 0.63 FR-22-DD-007 177 220.1 43.1 1.35 Incl. 185.6 190 4.4 3.22 Incl. 193 206 13 1.66 FR-22-DD-008 22.5 30.5 8 1.07 FR-22-DD-008 34.35 38.85 4.5 0.45 FR-22-DD-008 47 49.65 2.65 0.46 FR-22-DD-008 55.85 57 1.15 1.96 FR-22-DD-008 62.5 70.65 8.15 0.53 FR-22-DD-008 81 102 21 0.74 FR-22-DD-008 75.1 76 0.9 2.42 FR-22-DD-008 106 107.8 1.8 1.61 FR-22-DD-008 109.8 113.2 3.4 0.57 FR-22-DD-008 120 120.7 0.7 1 FR-22-DD-009 41 45.7 4.7 0.4 FR-22-DD-009 54.65 85.25 30.6 0.7 Incl. 70.3 77.7 7.4 1.7 FR-22-DD-009 87.4 211.35 123.95 1.08 Incl. 143 184.1 41.1 1.85 Incl. 186.4 202.1 15.7 1.35 Incl. 206.35 211.35 5 1.72 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126193 New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Duplicent (duplicent.com) has developed many revolutionary, state-of-the-art products to serve the energy, vehicle, and information-technology industries, with more lined up to target other sectors. Duplicent intends to commercialize its technology to have the broadest impact worldwide. Newly developed groundbreaking products include a Liquid Metal Shooting Fusion Reactor, Road Brake, Full Keyboard Phone, Internet Memory, and Geofenced Cloud Applications-all fusing modern engineering with innovation and positioned to be possible catalysts for change. A quick preview: To create a clean, abundant source of energy, Duplicent's Liquid Metal Shooting Fusion Reactor builds on existing heated liquid metal fusion reactors by achieving a higher compression of the plasma. Its smaller core better preserves the heat of the fusion reaction in the liquid metal, thereby maximizing its efficiency. Figure 1 The aim is to potentially make car travel safer with Duplicent's new, advanced Road Brake. This flat rubber pad, deployed from beneath a vehicle, is activated in an emergency to contact the road surface and immediately slow the car by creating friction with the pavement-but causing no damage to the road itself due to its rubber bottom. The Road Brake's surface is three times the area of the four tires combined, making it a more powerful tool to stop any vehicle. Retracted after each use, its low profile renders it invisible under the car during normal driving. Duplicent's one-of-a-kind Full Keyboard Phone actually serves as more of a mini-laptop. Embedded and folded into a smartphone casing is a full keyboard and trackpad that can be removed and unfolded when desired. Desktop software such as office automation tools can easily be used on this phone as well, along with other accommodating features. Figure 2 The cutting-edge advances from Duplicent in Internet Memory and Geofenced Cloud Applications are potentially precedent setting for the worldwide web. While the former uses the internet to create computer memory by suspending information between servers, the latter, a cloud-computing architecture that is among the most user friendly of Duplicent's recent inventions, offers a new way to shop. By allowing smartphone software apps to be hosted and processed in the cloud, it's possible for each app to be dedicated to a geofence (GPS coordinate) location, so that a customer can find and purchase products in a store via a streaming app on that phone, with no downloads necessary. Duplicent Logo About Duplicent Technologies Duplicent, LLC, a diversified technology development company, develops advanced, state-of-the-art products in the fields of energy, braking, engines, phones, computer memory, cloud computing, earthquake mitigation, and aircraft. The company has filed numerous patents, received granted patents, and has many allowed patents globally. Currently Duplicent is in the patenting process across a wide array of technologies to protect its technologies worldwide. Contact: Curren Krasnoff Email:[email protected] Website: https://duplicent.com/ To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126291 Oxfordshire, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Eden Research plc, (OTCQB: EDNSF) (AIM: EDEN) today announced that Sean Smith, Chief Executive Officer, and Alex Aubrey, Chief Financial Officer, will be attending The Investor Summit Group/Harbor Access Food & AgTech Conference virtually. During the presentation, Eden Research plc's executive team will give insight on how their biopesticides have met the regulatory and safety requirements of superiority to existing pesticide and fungicides, an overview of sales growth, current technological advances, and more. They carry the London Stock Exchange "Green Badge" that is given to the companies that are investing in technological innovation to give the planet a better future. Event: The Investor Summit Group/Harbor Access Food & AgTech Conference Date: June 8th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ET Location: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ohET7wCvRLCY-44gGwXREg 1x1s will be available for qualified investors The conference is completely complementary to qualified investors. Please register atComplimentary Investor Registration. Company Description Eden Research is an Agri-Tech company listed in both the UK and the US. Their product focus is on biopesticides, which are terpene based (naturally occurring chemical compounds which are found in plants). They eliminate the need for bulk chemical spraying of traditional herbicides and fungicides. Their proprietary micro encapsulation process eliminates the need for micro plastics in agriculture, and has additional applications in animal health and consumer products. About The Investor Summit Group The Investor Summit Group alongside Harbor Access is excited to host the virtual Food & AgTech Conference: The Future of Food on June 8th. We would like to personally invite you to be a part of this event, which offers 1:1 meeting access to institutional and retail investors as well as a 30-minute recorded live presentation. Food & Ag Tech Company Registration Revolutionary advances are underway in agriculture technology, sustainable food product & packaging, and nutritional innovation. New technologies are creating big opportunities in the fast-growing global food and agriculture market. At this Food & AgTech conference, we'll explore the shifts at the intersection of agriculture and science which underpin the four pillars of food security as stated at the World Summit: availability, access, utilization and stability. Meet the innovative companies, from seed through supply chain, shaping the global economic future of food. About Harbor Access Harbor Access represents and advises small- and mid-cap companies. Whether you are planning an IPO, contemplating a new stock exchange listing or, a listed multi-national seeking a capital raise, we can help optimize your investment story, raise your visibility and connect you to investors and capital sources in the North American and European Equity markets. Investor Relations contact: Richard Leighton, Managing Director, Harbor Access [email protected] +1 (475) 477-9403 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126276 Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Braveheart Resources Inc. (TSXV: BHT) (OTCQB: RIINF) (FSE: 2ZR) ("Braveheart" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a Capacity Funding Agreement (the "Agreement") with the Ktunaxa Nation Council (the "KNC) regarding its Bull River Mine Project near Cranbrook, British Columbia. The Bull River Mine Project is located within amakis Ktunaxa, the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Nation (i.e. Ktunaxa homelands). In this agreement, the KNC represents the Ktunaxa Nation at the direction of the four Ktunaxa First Nation Governments of Yaqit aknuqai'it First Nation (Tobacco Plains), akisqnuk First Nation, Yaqan Nukiy (Lower Kootenay) and aqam. Braveheart has notified the KNC and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation ("EMLI"), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Environmental Assessment Office Office ("EAO") of British Columbia of its intent to begin processing existing mineralized stockpiled material on surface at the mine and then resume underground mining operations. The Capacity Funding Agreement provides a framework for the purposes of information sharing and engagement, and where appropriate, accommodation, between Braveheart and Ktunaxa First Nations. Funds will be used for the purpose of defraying the costs incurred by the KNC in carrying out and completing the regulatory review of the Bull River Mine application in addition to other engagement activities between Braveheart and the Ktunaxa Nation. Ian Berzins, President and CEO commented, "We are extremely pleased to reach this Capacity Funding Agreement with the KNC. It provides for a structured process of information sharing and engagement surrounding the Bull River Mine Project. We look forward to building a long-term relationship with the Ktunaxa Nation." About Braveheart Resources Inc. Braveheart is a mining company primarily focused on two near-term copper production assets in Canada. Braveheart's main asset is the 100% owned Bull River Mine project (>135MM lbs of copper) near Cranbrook, British Columbia which has a Mineral Resource containing copper, gold and silver. Braveheart's latest acquisition is the 100% owned Thierry Mine project (>1,300MM lbs of copper) near Pickle Lake, Ontario which has a Mineral Resource containing copper, nickel, silver, palladium, platinum and gold. Contact Information Braveheart Resources Inc. Ian Berzins President & Chief Executive Officer M: +1-403-512-8202 E: [email protected] Website: www.braveheartresources.com For more investor information, please contact Braveheart at: Manish Grigo Director, Corporate Development M: +1-416-569-3292 E: [email protected] Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements about strategic plans, future work programs and objectives and expected results from such work programs. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; and other risks. Forward-looking information is 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 information and the risks identified in the Company's continuous disclosure record. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this news release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. 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 new release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126354 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Moovly Media Inc. (TSXV: MVY) (OTCQB: MVVYF) (FSE: 0PV2) ("Moovly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Global Partnership Agreement with Bayer AG. Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds, and biotechnology products. Through this agreement Bayer can deploy and use Moovly's platform to make content available globally with content localized and translated etc. automatically using Moovly's advanced features. Ronan Cusack, Associate Director, Global Content Engagement Lead of Bayer AG, "We did an extensive comparison of the online content creation space and market, and ultimately selected Moovly as our partner. The Moovly Studio editor's unique features to turn static assets into dynamic and engaging videos is in combination with their integrated AI subtitling and translation engine were deciding factors. Their support and guidance throughout the selection and implementation process have been excellent and their ongoing training sessions have been very well received. We look forward to growing with Moovly." Moovly CEO, Brendon Grunewald, said, "Moovly is excited to have been selected by Bayer AG given their extensive selection process. This partnership shows that we have the best-in-class video content creation platform, especially when it comes to scaling video production in a global, multi-lingual fashion. This partnership shows the potential of Moovly as a flexible and scalable content creation platform that can adapt to every organization's specific needs." Looking for more info. Bayer AG Website https://www.bayer.com/] Moovly [www.moovly.com] About Moovly: Moovly is the leading provider of creative cloud-based tools to create compelling marketing, communications and training videos and video presentations. Moovly's advanced Studio Editor with millions of assets seamlessly integrated (via partnerships with Getty Images & Storyblocks) is all you need to create engaging video content to promote, communicate or explain your product, service or message. Moovly's API and Automator technologies allow third parties to automate parts or all of the content creation process, including mass video customization, personalized videos (video version of mail merge), automatic content creation or updating by connecting data sources. With clients including users from over 300 of the Fortune 500, small businesses, freelancers and Ivy league universities, Moovly is an intuitive, cost effective choice for DIY creation of engaging video-based content. "Your story begins with Moovly" Files are available for download in our press room at www.moovly.com/pressroom. For additional information about Moovly, please visit www.moovly.com. Brendon Grunewald President, CEO and Director Email: [email protected] Reader Advisory This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information with respect to Moovly's future business plans and the expected benefits of its products. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to, Moovly's inability to continue to commercialize its products or demand for its products decreases or disappears. Other risk factors are set forth in detail in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis dated March 31, 2022 which is available for review under the Company's corporate profile at www.sedar.com. Some other risks and factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information also include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and globally; industry conditions, unanticipated operating events; failure to obtain any necessary third party consents and approvals, if and when required; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; competition for, among other things, capital and skilled personnel; changes in tax laws; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126172 Raleigh, North Carolina--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Plant Health Care, plc, (AIM: PHC) (OTCQB: PLHCF) today announced that Dr. Christopher Richards, Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Hovey, Chief Financial Officer, will be attending The Investor Summit Group/Harbor Access Food & AgTech Conference virtually. During the presentation, Dr. Christopher Richards and Jeff Hovey will give an overview of existing products and technologies, describe how the addressable market for biological products improves farm economics, and detail how the commercial business has consistently delivered impressive sales growth and profitability, as the company is on target for net cash positive returns to shareholders. Event: The Investor Summit Group/Harbor Access Food & AgTech Conference Date: June 8th, 2022, at 11:45 AM ET Location: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Cy0XuHEaRLCylX4TOLmJbQ 1x1s will be available for qualified investors The conference is completely complementary to qualified investors. Please register atComplimentary Investor Registration. Company Description Plant Health Care is a leading provider of biological products, helping farmers to feed the world sustainably. The company shares are listed both in the UK and in the USA. Plant Health Care's core patented products act as "vaccines for plants", making plants healthier, better able to resist disease and stress, thereby improving crop yield and quality. Plant Health Care's Commercial business is driven by sales of Harpin , a recombinant protein which acts as a powerful biostimulant, promoting the yield and quality of crops. Sales of the Group's Harpin product increased by 55% in 2021, as market shares grew in core markets; the Commercial business is profitable and cash generative. Plant Health Care's PREtec (Plant Response Elicitor Technology) platforms are generating numerous promising products. The Group is currently focusing on three products targeting very large market opportunities with a value of more than $5 billion. These products are currently under evaluation with six potential commercial partners. The Group also continues to evaluate further candidate products from its robust pipeline of development candidates for additional crops and indications. About The Investor Summit Group The Investor Summit Group alongside Harbor Access is excited to host the virtual Food & AgTech Conference: The Future of Food on June 8th. We would like to personally invite you to be a part of this event, which offers 1:1 meeting access to institutional and retail investors as well as a 30-minute recorded live presentation. Food & Ag Tech Company Registration Revolutionary advances are underway in agriculture technology, sustainable food product & packaging, and nutritional innovation. New technologies are creating big opportunities in the fast-growing global food and agriculture market. At this Food & AgTech conference, we'll explore the shifts at the intersection of agriculture and science which underpin the four pillars of food security as stated at the World Summit: availability, access, utilization and stability. Meet the innovative companies, from seed through supply chain, shaping the global economic future of food. About Harbor Access Harbor Access represents and advises small- and mid-cap companies. Whether you are planning an IPO, contemplating a new stock exchange listing or, a listed multi-national seeking a capital raise, we can help optimize your investment story, raise your visibility and connect you to investors and capital sources in the North American and European Equity markets. Investor Relations contact: Richard Leighton, Managing Director, Harbor Access [email protected] // tel: +1 475 477 9403 (dir) To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126274 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Queensland Gold Hills Corp. (TSXV: OZAU) (OTCQB: MNNFF) (FSE: MB3) ("Queensland Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of the inaugural drill campaign at our Big Hill property, located in the historic Talgai Goldfield of Queensland, Australia. At total of 1457 metres of reverse circulation ("RC") drilling was completed in 11 holes. All samples have been shipped to the analytical lab (ALS Global - Brisbane) for assaying, with results pending. The objective of the drill program was to gain deeper understanding of the nature and location of the feeder systems beneath the historical workings of the Queenslander mine. All drill holes intersected the Queenslander vein system, providing sufficient samples to determine the continuity and tenor of mineralization approximately 100 metres down dip from the base of historical workings. Specifically, mineralization was characterized by variably developed quartz veining associated with sericite and pyrite with some arsenopyrite alteration. The vein geometry changes from sub vertical, in the area of historical workings, to dip approximately 70 degrees to the south at depth. The Company looks forward to receiving the assays to better understanding the mineralized veining identified under the historic workings. Queensland Gold Hills CEO and Director, Blair Way, commented: "The drill program went very well and, as expected, we encountered mineralization below the historical workings where we were targeting exploration. We were able to complete the program on a shorter timeline than was anticipated as we intercepted the veining in sufficient pierce points to effectively evaluate these potential feeder sites. We look forward to announcing assay results in the coming weeks." Figure 1 Queenslander Workings Multiple Drill Hole Pierce Points To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1454/126162_2969d141d439c821_001full.jpg About Big Hill The Big Hill Gold Property consists of a single Exploration Permit covering 24 square kilometres and encloses two discrete granted mining leases. The permit covers the historic mines of Big Hill, Queenslander, Monte Cristo and Sultan & Taylor of the Talgai Goldfield. Talgai is one of eight historical Goldfields in the broader Warwick-Texas District, active in the late 19th century, which include Canal Creek, Thanes Creek, Leyburn, Palgrave, Pikedale, Lucky Valley and MacDonald Goldfields. These supported both alluvial and reef mining, with the Queenslander Mine distinguishing itself as the first lode gold mine in the state of Queensland with a total production of 4.1Koz of gold at an average grade of 50g/t with some early crushings reported up to 4000g/t. The bulk of production in the historical mines in the Warwick-Texas District occurred from initial discovery in 1864 until the early 1900s. Small-scale activity continued during intermittent periods in the 20th century, with many of the larger historic mines remaining under mining leases but with limited modern exploration to date. About Queensland Gold Hills Corp. Queensland Gold Hills is focused on conducting modern systematic exploration in the historic goldfields of Queensland, Australia. Collectively, the Big Hill Gold Project and the Titan Project cover 110 square kilometers and host 54 high-grade historical gold mines in the Talgai Goldfields of the broader Warwick-Texas District. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Blair Way, Chief Executive Officer & Director Telephone: 1 (800) 482-7560 E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @QLDGoldhills Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian legislation. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "would", "will", "potential", "scheduled" or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Accordingly, all statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future including, without limitation, any statements or plans regard the geological prospects of the Company's properties and the future exploration endeavors of the Company. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same. Readers are cautioned that mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business and accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors are discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for its recently completed fiscal period, which is available under Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126162 Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2022) - Sixth Wave Innovations Inc. (CSE: SIXW) (OTCQB: SIXWF) (FSE: AHUH) ("Sixth Wave" or the "Company") is pleased to announce signing a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with Advanced Extractions Systems Inc. ("AESI") for an exclusive worldwide royalty bearing license to the Company's Affinity" cannabis extraction technology (the "Transaction"). The Company has been working closely with AESI on the design and manufacture of its Affinity" hardware. Affinity" provides a vertical integration opportunity for AESI and allows AESI a comprehensive offering for extraction to purification. Moreover, AESI has a solid track record in the cannabis industry and has successfully expanded into other botanical and nutraceutical markets. These new markets will also require extraction and purification services and will effectively open additional markets for the Affinity" technology and Sixth Wave's patent pending molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) solutions. This MOU is the result of initial due diligence conducted by both companies to assess the value and strength of the Transaction. As part of the overall structure, Sixth Wave will work with AESI to help transition to a publicly traded company. Dr. Jonathan Gluckman, President, and CEO of Sixth Wave, notes, "AESI represents a significant increase in the ability of Sixth Wave to introduce and support faster market penetration of Affinity" systems. AESI has a complete engineering design and manufacturing team, customer support, sales, marketing, installation and service base that would otherwise all have to be grown inside Sixth Wave. Licensing the Affinity" technology allows Sixth Wave to focus on core technology development to expand and diversify offerings with a direct pathway to monetizing those developments within a mature production and sales infrastructure. We are very confident that the relationship will result in a faster and more successful launch of Affinity" and provide a lucrative licensing and royalty stream." Peter Toombs, CEO of AESI, adds, "AESI has a strong history providing extraction solutions to the cannabis and hemp industries and has started to see new contracts and successes in extraction of other botanicals and nutraceuticals. Adding the Affinity" technology to our offerings provides unique competitive advantages to AESI in cannabis and other markets as it will allow us to impact a greater portion of the equipment used in processing along with technological advantages in both extraction and purification. Moreover, the continued development relationship that will be part of the transaction will allow the two companies to effectively address emerging markets such as psychedelics and other high value molecules. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) technology which is the core of Sixth Wave will be able to be brought to market much faster with the added systems engineering, sales, and support infrastructure within AESI." General Terms of the MOU include: Exclusive worldwide royalty bearing license to the Affinity" technology for cannabis, botanical, and psychedelics purification. Options to license Affinity" applications for additional botanicals and nutraceuticals. Upfront license fee to include cash and equity in AESI. AESI would agree to pay an annual percentage royalty to Sixth Wave on a monthly basis for any leases it sells of each AffinityTM unit. Detailed terms related to the Transaction are being negotiated by the parties with the expectation that a definitive license agreement will be completed within sixty days. The Transaction is contingent on a successful public listing of AESI. The public listing of AESI is contingent on successfully negotiating a term sheet with interested parties, complete due diligence, and regulatory approval. Thank you for your continued support. Dr. Jonathan Gluckman President/CEO Sixth Wave Innovations Inc. About Advanced Extraction Systems Inc. Advanced Extraction Systems, Inc. (AESI) provides comprehensive extraction solutions in the cannabis, psilocybin, and biomass industries across the globe. AESI has designed and fabricated total extraction solutions for many of the largest companies in these industries over the past decade, ranging from small bench scale to large industrial installations. Solutions have been designed to meet a variety of region/application-specific quality regulations (CRN, ASME, PED, CE, CSA, CSAus, cGMP, euGMP, Pharma) and cover everything from consulting to equipment to training. AESI constructs its high-quality hardware and associated software from its headquarters facility in Prince Edward Island, Canada by leveraging an engineering team that has extensive experience in the real-world operation of extraction equipment. About Sixth Wave Sixth Wave is a nanotechnology company with patented technologies that focus on extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level using highly specialized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs). The Company is in the process of a commercial rollout of its Affinity" cannabinoid purification system, as well as, IXOS, a line of extraction polymers for the gold mining industry. The Company is in the development stages of a rapid diagnostic test for viruses under the Accelerated MIPs (AMIPs") label. Sixth Wave can design, develop and commercialize MIP solutions across a broad spectrum of industries. The company is focused on nanotechnology architectures that are highly relevant for the detection and separation of viruses, biogenic amines, and other pathogens, for which the Company has products at various stages of development. For more information about Sixth Wave, please visit our website at: www.sixthwave.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Jon Gluckman" Jonathan Gluckman, Ph.D., President & CEO For information, please contact the Company: Phone: (801) 582-0559 E-mail: [email protected] Cautionary Notes This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" including statements regarding the performance of the IXOS, Affinity", and AMIPs" technologies.. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In particular, successful development and commercialization of the IXOS, Affinity", or AMIPs" technologies are subject to risk that they may not prove to be successful, uncertainty of medical product development, uncertainty of timing or availability of required regulatory approvals, lack of track record of developing products for certain applications and the need for additional capital to carry out product development activities. The value of any products ultimately developed could be negatively impacted if patents are not granted. The Company has not yet applied for regulatory approval for the use of this product from any regulatory agency. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/126202 TORRANCE, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AI Spera, the provider of AI-driven Cyber Threat Intelligence platform, will spotlight its latest advanced security solutions at this year's RSA Conference, June 6-9, 2022, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. A key highlight of AI Spera's showcase at the event will be its recently launched Cyber Threat Intelligence search engine, Criminal IP and Attack Surface Management solution, RMR. Attendees are invited to experience to demo of company's solutions and meet the AI and data security experts at booth #935-2 inside the Korea Pavilion in the South Expo Hall. Additional giveaways are also available for anyone visiting the booth. Criminal IP is a comprehensive search engine that detects vulnerabilities of personal or corporate cyber assets in real time and enables preemptive responses accordingly. It is possible to diagnose malicious IP addresses, exploits, threat related images and to conveniently view information of all types of internet-facing assets including banners, certificates, SCADA, IoT, servers, and CCTV, as well as the actionable insights based on country and service-specific statistics in one place. Additional features including domain and certificate search will be updated soon. This solution is now running a free beta service until July and all search features, including API support, are available with simple registration on its website(https://bit.ly/3MaSsFV.) RMR is a SaaS-based enterprise Attack Surface Management solution powered by AI and machine learning. Securing clear visibility into enterprise IT assets on the attack surface, its simple integration gives users the most exhaustive data feeds that cover all the externally exposed digital assets and vulnerabilities within. About AI Spera: AI Spera is a fast-growing company in cyber threat intelligence. Based on AI and machine learning technologies, it is focusing on abnormality detection and data-oriented security solutions. It shores up various areas in which Criminal IP defends against ever-evolving cyber threats, spanning education and research, corporate security teams, white hackers, national agencies, and cybercrime investigation organizations. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ai-spera-to-showcase-cti-search-engine-at-rsa-conference-2022-301559860.html SOURCE AI Spera Inc. Altos Labs commits to funding four CiRA research projects for five years SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Altos Labs (Altos) today announced that it has signed a sponsored research agreement with the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Japan's Kyoto University. Effective May 1 of this year, Altos has committed to fund four CiRA research projects for five years to investigate aspects of cellular rejuvenation programming. "Altos is eager to support the best researchers around the world to unlock the incredible potential of cellular rejuvenation programming," said Altos Chief Scientist and Founder Rick Klausner. "Altos is deeply committed to a long-term research effort that will identify the foundational biological mechanisms of cellular rejuvenation programming. Through our partnership with CiRA, known already as a world-leading center for stem cell research, we aim to generate new knowledge that contributes to the ability to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that occur throughout life." Under the sponsored research agreement, projects are supervised by Altos Senior Scientific Advisor Shinya Yamanaka, who is also Professor and Director Emeritus at CiRA. He does not receive any remuneration from Altos. "With the funding awarded by Altos Labs, these research projects will explore several key areas with the help of iPS cell technologies," said Yamanaka. "These projects have the potential to make meaningful contributions to the growing field of cellular rejuvenation programming and, eventually, to aid in the development of new disease treatments." The research projects will be led by four CiRA researchers: Associate Professor Knut Woltjen 's project is titled Manipulation of aging through refined epigenetic reprogramming . The study will employ a multi-omics approach to study the unique epigenetic changes in rapidly aging cells of the thymus and placenta. The study aims to enable reprogramming systems that provide improved tissue function, efficient self-healing, and safe regenerative medicine applications. 's project is titled . The study will employ a multi-omics approach to study the unique epigenetic changes in rapidly aging cells of the thymus and placenta. The study aims to enable reprogramming systems that provide improved tissue function, efficient self-healing, and safe regenerative medicine applications. Associate Professor Yoshinori Yoshida 's project is titled Targeting the hallmarks of aging for systemic cardiac rejuvenation by using human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells . The study aims to rejuvenate human cardiac tissue healthily, thereby ensuring its physiological integrity and maintenance of its fitness and health span. Researchers will identify and validate key factors in cardiac rejuvenation. 's project is titled . The study aims to rejuvenate human cardiac tissue healthily, thereby ensuring its physiological integrity and maintenance of its fitness and health span. Researchers will identify and validate key factors in cardiac rejuvenation. Associate Professor Kazutoshi Takahashi 's project is titled Conversion of human fibroblast cells to a younger fate by defined factors . The study will capture and analyze the rejuvenation phenomenon that occurs during reprogramming of human cells toward a pluripotent state. Instead of comparing young and aged somatic cells, the study will adopt a new multi-omics approach for comparing normal somatic cells and rejuvenated cells. 's project is titled . The study will capture and analyze the rejuvenation phenomenon that occurs during reprogramming of human cells toward a pluripotent state. Instead of comparing young and aged somatic cells, the study will adopt a new multi-omics approach for comparing normal somatic cells and rejuvenated cells. Junior Associate Professor Taro Toyoda's project is titled Development of a selective cell rejuvenation tool using epigenetic aging models in iPSC-derived islet cells. The project will seek to develop improved partial reprogramming tools that would decrease the risk of tumorigenic cell rejuvenation and specify rejuvenating factors. Under the sponsored research agreement, researchers will be free to publish their results following a review in which patent and licensing options will be considered. About Altos Labs Altos Labs is a new life sciences company focused on restoring cell health and resilience through cellular rejuvenation programming to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that occur throughout life. The company comprises a community of leading scientists, clinicians, and leaders from both academia and industry working together towards this common mission. Altos has operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, and in Cambridge, UK, with significant collaborations in Japan. To learn more visit www.altoslabs.com and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Media Contacts Morgan WarnersFinsbury Glover Hering [email protected] Kim JamesFinsbury Glover Hering [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/altos-labs-announces-sponsored-research-agreement-with-kyoto-universitys-cira-to-foster-cellular-rejuvenation-programming-research-301559712.html SOURCE Altos Labs JACKSONVILLE, Fla., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) is announcing a new CE education program hosted in conjunction with their annual scientific sessions: ASPC 2022 Congress on CVD Prevention. The Imaging MasterClass, titled "Imaging Techniques to Assess Global CVD and CVD Risk", is scheduled for July 28-29, 2022, in Louisville, KY. Information on both programs can be found on www.aspconline.org. The Imaging MasterClass will aim to provide simple principles and techniques for various cardiology imaging studies. The Imaging MasterClass will aim to provide simple principles and techniques for various cardiology imaging studies. The course will be highly engaging and interactive, including practical clinical tips and a debate on the "The Best Strategy for Chest Pain Evaluation in 2022"! Program co-chairs, Dr. Harold Bays and Dr. Alison Bailey, designed this new ASPC MasterClass to give both cardiologists and non-cardiologists alike a unique opportunity for a comprehensive discussion and updates on imaging techniques essential for clinicians engaged in preventive cardiology. The program agenda includes the following topics and faculty lecturers: Cardiac Imaging from a cardiologist and a non-cardiologist perspective; Alison Bailey, MD (Centennial Heart at Parkridge Health System) and Harold Bays, MD (Louisville Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center, Inc.) (Centennial Heart at Parkridge Health System) and (Louisville Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center, Inc.) Coronary Artery Calcium, CCTA, FFR-CT; Matthew Budoff, MD (UCLA Medical Center) (UCLA Medical Center) Role of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular MRI in CVD Risk Assessment; Dinesh Kalra, MD (University of Louisville School of Medicine) (University of Louisville School of Medicine) Cardiac Catheterization, IVUS, OCT; Vikas Singh, MD (University of Louisville School of Medicine) (University of Louisville School of Medicine) Treadmill, Nuclear Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI), Cardiac PET; Ty Gluckman, MD (Providence Heart Institute, Providence St. Joseph Health) (Providence Heart Institute, Providence St. Joseph Health) Practical Clinical Tips for both the cardiologist and non-cardiologist; Alison Bailey, MD and Harold Bays, MD and Debate: What's the Best Strategy for Chest Pain Evaluation in 2022? Functional Imaging; Erin Michos, MD (Johns Hopkins Medicine) Anatomic Imaging; Michael Blaha, MD (Johns Hopkins Medicine) ACC /AHA Chest Pain Guidelines; Martha Gulati, MD (Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute) The ASPC encourages all to join their esteemed faculty to discuss all things related to Cardiovascular Imaging at this brand-new pre-Congress MasterClass. Attendees of the Imaging MasterClass will earn approximately 8 CE/MOC/AAPA credits. About the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) The ASPC is a national organization of healthcare providers and researchers dedicated to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The mission of the ASPC is to promote the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, advocate for the prevention of cardiovascular health, and disseminate high-quality, evidence-based information through education of clinicians. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aspc-announces-a-new-pre-conference-masterclass-on-cardiovascular-imaging-techniques-301560591.html SOURCE The American Society for Preventive Cardiology John Uribe promoted to Chief Financial Officer; Carey Smith returns as Chief Operating Officer EAGAN, Minn., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) today announced the appointments of two executives to its senior leadership team. John Uribe, who has served as the company's vice president of business development for the past decade, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief financial officer. Additionally, information technology executive Carey Smith is returning to Blue Cross as senior vice president and chief operating officer. Both positions report directly to Dana Erickson, company president and CEO. "John and Carey are great additions to our executive leadership team," said Erickson. "Both were ideal candidates, given their respective experience in delivering measurable results and having strong familiarity in working within the Blues' systems. Their strengths are directly applicable to the priorities of our business strategy, which remains centered on delivering the best value and experiences for our members." John Uribe, Chief Financial Officer As senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), Uribe will oversee a division of approximately 300 people, comprising teams across financial planning, tax, treasury, investments, corporate finance, actuarial, underwriting and health economics. Prior to joining Blue Cross in 2012, Uribe was CFO for the Home Service division of Schwan's Company in Marshall, Minnesota. Notable achievements highlighting Uribe's career expertise in business development and financial stewardship include leading major transactions at General Electric's commercial finance division and serving as chief financial officer at RedBrick Health, a private equity backed healthcare technology company. Additionally, Uribe held multiple leadership roles at General Mills, where he helped lead the company's $10.5 billion acquisition of Pillsbury, led multiple international transactions, and oversaw the financial function of a high-profile joint venture with DuPont. Uribe received his bachelor's degree and MBA from Indiana University. Carey Smith, Chief Operating Officer As senior vice president and chief operating officer (COO), Carey Smith has responsibility for all health plan operations, including customer service; claims processing; information technology; data and analytics; performance measurement; vendor management; and consumer experience. Approximately 2,800 associates work for the areas reporting up to Smith. He will join the company's leadership team on June 20. Smith's 30-year career is rooted in the development, implementation and advancement of business technology and operations. In addition to leadership roles at The St. Paul Companies and Ameriprise, Smith was an information technology executive at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota from 2012 to 2017. During this time, Smith developed a transformation strategy to deliver more modernized and proficient IT delivery capabilities. For the next three years, Smith was an SVP and CIO for Constellation Inc., a medical professional liability insurance carrier. In 2020, TwinCitiesCIO a regional leadership network of chief information officers named Carey as a CIO of the Year finalist in its annual ORBIE awards. Smith was most recently in a senior leadership role at Orchard Insurance, a Florida-based specialty property and casualty insurer with more than 10,000 appointed agents throughout the country. Smith holds a bachelor's degree in information technology and psychology from Montana State University Billings. About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota For nearly 90 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (bluecrossmn.com) has supported the health, wellbeing and peace of mind of our members by striving to ensure equitable access to high quality care at an affordable price. Our 2.7 million members can be found in every Minnesota county, all 50 states and on four continents. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blue-cross-and-blue-shield-of-minnesota-announces-two-appointments-to-executive-leadership-team-301560395.html SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Sequoia Capital leads round with participation from Amplify, Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, LiveOak Ventures, Banana Capital, K5/JPMC and other leading angels to support founding team of security engineers from Google KIRKLAND, Wash., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chainguard, the leader in securing the software supply chain by default, today announced it has raised $50 million in its Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Amplify, the Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, LiveOak Venture Partners, Banana Capital, K5/JPMC and CISOs from Google and Square (Block), among others. The company today is also announcing Chainguard Images, the first container base images designed for a secure software supply chain that are continuously updated to achieve zero-known vulnerabilities. Chainguard raises $50m in Series A, introduces Chainguard Images "High profile software supply chain attacks like Log4j have flashed a spotlight on the need to establish a foundation of trust in the software that companies put in production," said Bogomil Balkansky, partner at Sequoia Capital. "Chainguard gives companies confidence in the critical open source software they deploy by providing a low-friction, developer-friendly way of signing and verifying software artifacts so they have a trail to trace if a breach does occur. The Chainguard team are the thought leaders in this space, and it is the right team at the right time in history to tackle this problem." For decades, security was focused on firewalls and perimeter security who gets inside software systems. With the increasingly distributed nature of software development, security concerns today are focused on the software supply chain, where attacks are on the rise across every stage of the development lifecycle and account for $100 billion in damages from the Solarwinds attack alone. Developers must consider the security of their code, build systems, artifacts and everything from binaries to container images and the language packages they're using. Chainguard's vision is a supply chain where every artifact can be verifiably traced back to the source code and hardware it was built on and by whom. The company is making sense of the chaotic security solutions space by seamlessly integrating security into the software development lifecycle. It's a holistic, end-to-end solution from development to production to policy management. The Chainguard founding team includes open source industry veterans Dan Lorenc, Kim Lewandowski, Matt Moore, Scott Nichol and Ville Aikas. The team worked together at Google on many of the world's foundational container projects, including: Minikube, Distroless, Skaffold, Knative, Tekton, Kaniko, ko, and Chainguard's products are rooted in open standards and critical open source projects its founders helped create, including Sigstore, the SLSA framework, and apko. "Security engineers are used to reasoning with roots of trust by using two-factor authentication and identification systems and establishing trust with hardware by using encryption keys. But we don't have that for source code and software artifacts today," said Dan Lorenc, co-founder and CEO at Chainguard. "Our vision is to connect these roots of trust throughout the development lifecycle and across the software supply chain and give developers and CISOs alike confidence in the code they're running in production and the integrity of their systems." With this round of funding, Chainguard will be able to strategize and execute on its mission of securing the software supply chain through an expanded suite of products to serve developers and technical leaders, which includes today's introduction of Chainguard Images. Chainguard Images Introduced Today Base images in software development are the foundation on which most container-based workflows are built and maintained so their security is critically important. These images are among the first points along the software supply chain and today are inconsistently updated, leading to enormous sprawl of images and vulnerabilities in dependencies. Some organizations curate base images for their teams to use, but this still requires keeping the images up to date and vulnerability-free. Chainguard Images solves these problems by providing organizations with a secure set of base images that are fully signed with Sigstore and continuously updated with Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) and Certifications (FIPS, SLSA). Chainguard Images complements the recent announcement of Chainguard Enforce, which addresses additional points along the supply chain and includes policy management, compliance automation and production insights. Customer Comments "We are excited about the prospect of an actively curated base container image distro that has the potential to allow HPE to further enhance software supply chain integrity for our customers," said Tim Pletcher, research engineer, Office of the Security CTO, HPE. "We are partnering with Chainguard to substantially increase our ability to build a secure foundation for supply chain security. Chainguard is working with us to understand our base image use cases to proactively protect the many supply chains we secure," said Emmanuel Odeke, founder and CEO at Orijtech. Additional Comments from Angel Investors "What I appreciate about Chainguard is its pragmatic approach to software supply chain security. They aren't full of big promises; instead, they bring interesting, innovative and thoughtful solutions to a pan-industry problem that will only be solved by the best and the brightest. Chainguard has all of it," said Jim Higgins, CISO at Square and Chainguard angel investor. "The attack surface of modern applications has expanded hugely, leading to significant risk at each link in the build and release chain. Chainguard will enable developers to exert control and enforce policy, reducing the risk of injection of malicious submits, commits, artifacts, or dependencies," said Tom Killalea, Chair of MongoDB and former VP of Technology and CISO at Amazon. "Chainguard is baking in security instead of bolting it on, which is a key differentiation to the approach of other vendors in this space that are tackling a small piece of the supply chain and not the entire thing. Chainguard is addressing every critical point in the software supply chain," said Milan Koch, Partner, Chainsmokers' Mantis VC. "And they really have the best and brightest minds in the industry dedicated to solving this problem. We are thrilled to be a part of the team and this story." For more information or to see a demo of Chainguard Images, or the recently announced Chainguard Enforce, reach out. About Chainguard Chainguard is the leader in securing the software supply chain by default. It is founded by five of the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development and is backed by Sequoia, Amplify, the Chainsmokers and more. Its product portfolio already includes Chainguard Enforce, Chainguard Images and Professional Services. Customers range from Fortune 500 companies in banking, fintech, government and infrastructure to startups and SMBs. For more information, please visit: https://www.chainguard.dev/ Media ContactRay George[email protected]650-922-3825 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chainguard-raises-50m-in-series-a-to-make-software-supply-chain-secure-by-default-introduces-secure-container-base-images-301559970.html SOURCE Chainguard RALEIGH, N.C., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cherry Bekaert LLP ("the Firm") is pleased to welcome Ward Melhuish as Federal Government Sector Advisory Leader and Managing Director in the Advisory Services practice. He will join the Firm's Government & Public Sector Advisory Services leadership team to strengthen and advance our solutions to Federal Government agencies across a full suite of areas including Digital Advisory, Accounting Advisory, Cybersecurity & Information Assurance, Risk Advisory, Grants Management, and Regulatory Compliance. Ward will work closely with Christian Fuellgraf, Government & Public Sector Leader and Denise Lippuner, State & Local Government Advisory Leader. We're committed to bringing in new talent and capabilities - delivering digitally driven and industry-aligned solutions. "I am delighted to welcome a forward-looking leader like Ward, who will drive innovative, digitally transformative advisory and accounting solutions to Federal Government clients," said Christian Fuellgraf, Government & Public Sector Leader and Principal, Advisory Services. "The expansion of our advisory capabilities to the Federal Government through Ward's leadership and our new GSA Schedule Contract will help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the business of government." Ward brings over 25 years of government consulting experience, specializing in cost and performance management services, including strategy development, operational deployment, process improvement, organizational change, human capital management, value-based assessment, performance measurement, cost assessment and analytics. Ward has worked with agencies within the Departments of: Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury and Transportation, as well as independent agencies and corporations such as the United States Postal Service and Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Srikant Sastry, Managing Principal, Advisory Services concludes: "At Cherry Bekaert, we are committed to bringing in new talent and capabilities, allowing us to deliver digitally driven and industry-aligned solutions resulting in better business outcomes for our Government & Public sector clients. Our new Government & Public sector advisory leaders, Christian, Ward and Denise will guide all levels of Government forward to harness their full potential." About Cherry Bekaert Ranked among the largest assurance, tax and advisory firms in the U.S., Cherry Bekaert serves clients across all 50 U.S. states and internationally. Services and solutions span the areas of transaction advisory, risk and accounting advisory, digital solutions, cybersecurity, tax, benefits consulting, and wealth management. Industries served include government and public sector, government contractors, healthcare and life sciences, hospitality and retail, industrial manufacturing, not-for-profit, private equity, professional services, real estate and construction and technology. We exercise a deliberate curiosity to know our clients' industries and work collaboratively to create shared success. Cherry Bekaert is a member of Allinial Global, an accountancy and business advisory global association. Visit us at cbh.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. 2022 Cherry Bekaert LLP. All Rights Reserved. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cherry-bekaert-expands-federal-government-capabilities-with-new-leader-appointment-301559536.html SOURCE Cherry Bekaert LLP DALLAS, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dalfen Industrial continues to add to its Las Vegas Industrial Property footprint with the announcement of its acquisition of a 2-building park at 6475-6485 W Sunset Road in southwest Las Vegas, NV. The opportunity was sourced off-market. Sunset West Logistics Center has a tremendous last mile location in close proximity to I-15, the Harry Reid International Airport and the Las Vegas Strip. Population growth more than 2x the national average in the submarket and broader Vegas cement the metro among the nation's fastest growing. Other companies in the area include PepsiCo, UFC, Greco & Sons, Freeman Expositions and Cort Furniture. "Strong growth dynamics in Las Vegas coupled with limited supply make this acquisition a great addition to our Las Vegas portfolio. We've seen exceptional rent growth and tenant demand in our other Southwest Las Vegas property and the suite sizes at 6475-6485 are well suited to target the same segment." said Rich Weiss, Market Officer for Dalfen. "As evidenced by the five Las Vegas acquisitions in the last year, Dalfen has a strong belief in the market's fundamentals," says company President and Chief Investment Officer, Sean Dalfen. "We intend to continue acquiring and developing last mile properties in this market in the near future". With this acquisition, Dalfen Industrial owns and operates 1.2M square feet across the Las Vegas and Reno markets. About Us Dalfen Industrial LLC, headquartered in Dallas, is one of the largest buyers of industrial real estate in the United States and is a leader in the last-mile property sector. Their investment focus is on strategically located urban infill warehouses and distribution buildings. Dalfen currently owns and operates millions of square feet of premier industrial properties throughout the United States. Media Contact:[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dalfen-industrial-continues-las-vegas-acquisitions-spree-301560272.html SOURCE Dalfen Industrial WILMINGTON, Del., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leland Weaver, President of DuPont's Water & Protection segment, will host a virtual teach-in presentation related to the Shelter Solutions line of business on Tuesday, June 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. A live audio webcast of the presentation can be accessed via the DuPont Investor Relations webpage. Replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation. About DuPont DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com. DuPontTM and all products, unless otherwise noted, denoted with TM, SM or are trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of affiliates of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dupont-to-host-virtual-line-of-business-teach-in-shelter-solutions-301560354.html SOURCE DuPont SILVER SPRING, Md., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is providing an update on additional steps it has taken that will lead to more infant formula available in the U.S. under the agency's recent increased flexibilities. Company (Product Origin): Nestle (Germany) Product(s): Nestle NAN Supreme Pro 1 and Nestle NAN Supreme Pro 2 Type of Formula: General Estimated Quantity: 249,500 cans (about 440,000 pounds or nearly 6.5 million full-size, 8-ounce bottles) Availability: Expected June and July the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is evaluating options for getting the products to the U.S. as quickly as possible. More Information and Where to Find the Products: Expected to be sold on Gerber.com and through other online retailers. The FDA is exercising enforcement discretion for the importation of the infant formula products listed above following the review of information provided pertaining to nutritional adequacy and safety, including microbiological testing, labeling, and additional information about facility production and inspection history. The agency is leveraging a number of flexibilities to bolster the supply of products that serve as the sole source of nutrition for many infants while ensuring the infant formula can be used safely and provides adequate nutrition. The FDA remains in further discussions with manufacturers and suppliers regarding additional supply to ensure there's adequate infant formula available wherever and whenever parents and caregivers need it. The FDA issued guidance on May 16 that outlined a process by which the agency would not object to the importation of certain infant formula products intended for a foreign market or distribution in the U.S. of products manufactured here for export to foreign countries. This guidance also may provide flexibilities to those who manufacture infant formula products domestically and may be able to increase further the quantity of domestically produced product for the U.S. market. The agency has posted a webpage that will be updated with information about additional products headed to the U.S. Ongoing FDA Steps to Increase Availability of Safe, Nutritious Infant Formula The agency's around-the-clock work as part of the all-of-government efforts has already begun to improve supply and availability. The agency expects that the measures and steps it is taking, and the potential for Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis, Michigan, facility to safely resume production in the near-term, will mean more and more supply is on the way or on store shelves moving forward. The FDA continues to advise against making infant formulas at home or diluting formula. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to work with their child's health care provider for recommendations on changing feeding practices, if needed. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also has additional information available at HHS.gov/formula, including information to help families find infant formula. The agency also monitors online marketplaces for fraudulent products and works with major online retailers to remove violative and harmful products offered for sale on their sites. Additionally, since many of these fraudulent products originate overseas, the agency targets and examines these products at ports of entry. The FDA also monitors and follows up on various external signals such as consumer complaints about potential counterfeit and fraudulent products. The FDA will continue to dedicate all available resources to help ensure that safe and nutritious infant formula products remain available for use in the U.S. and will keep the public informed of progress updates. Additional Information: Media Contact: FDA Office of Media Affairs, 301-796-4540Consumer Inquiries: 888-723-3366 The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-infant-formula-update-june-2-2022-301560287.html SOURCE U.S. Food and Drug Administration BOSTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HourWork, a SaaS recruitment and retention platform for quick-serve restaurant (QSR) franchise owners, today announced the closing of $2.5 million in additional Series A funding led by MassMutual's MM Catalyst Fund (MMCF), which joins a noteworthy list of investors including Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund, Positive Sum Ventures, and RelishWorks. This new funding complements HourWork's oversubscribed $10 million Series A funding round completed last month and brings the total Series A raise to $12.5 million. "It is exciting to see so much interest in fueling our mission," said HourWork Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Rahkeem Morris. "The dynamics of the hourly work economy have fundamentally and permanently changed, and this demands a new model for employers and employees." MMCF, whose mission is to invest in Black-led businesses in Massachusetts as well as technology and sustainability-focused companies based outside Boston, is an investor in the company's previously announced Series A round. HourWork will use the funds to scale its customer success, sales, and marketing teams to service the explosive demand for the company's recruitment and retention solutions. "HourWork is one of the rare startups that understands how to advance the interests of both companies and workers in this new world of work," said Diane Henry, Head of Impact Investment Funds at MassMutual. "Its impressive growth trajectory to date reflects an effectiveness in executing on that vision, delivering recognized value to companies while earning trust with workers through an unprecedented time. We believe HourWork has the potential to become a market leader and make a positive impact on the sectors of the economy that rely on hourly work, while contributing to real and sustainable well-being for hourly workers. We are proud to continue our investment in HourWork's success." In addition to the new funding, Carla Harris joins HourWork's Board of Directors as an observer. She is the senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley and serves as the co-portfolio manager of the Next Level Fund, which invests in primarily early-stage technology and technology-enabled companies with women or diverse members as part of the founding team. Harris also serves on the board of directors for Walmart, Cummins Corporation, and MetLife. "HourWork's vision, and the technology behind this vision, is positioned to become an important part of the future of the hourly work economy," Harris said. "Rahkeem's personal story directly informs this vision in unique ways that can benefit both hourly employees and their employers." Founded by CEO Rahkeem Morris and COO Rob Snyder, HourWork's vision is to transform hourly work and the gig economy, providing employers with the ability to dramatically improve applicant flow, eliminate retention challenges, and match demand for labor with workers who have certified skillsets in specific areas and are available to work. Furthermore, the company will work to change how hourly employees maximize their earnings, find work, and market their skills. Morris' personal story of dropping out of high school at the age of 14, and then working 13 hourly jobs over the course of a decade to help support his family, serves as the foundation of the HourWork mission: To save the American Dream for over 82 million wage workers that represent the majority of the workforce. Morris also drives to improve the future of work by serving as Vice Chair at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, which offers a two-year career readiness program, and was appointed to the Commission for the Future of Work for the State of Massachusetts by State Senator Eric Lesser. Currently focused on solving applicant flow and retention challenges for QSR franchisees, HourWork has experienced explosive growth, adding 4,000 franchise locations to the platform in 2021 for a total of over 6,000 locations. This represents 5.3 million hourly workers on the platform. HourWork's customers include franchisees of some of the largest multi-unit operators across iconic QSR brands such as McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Dominos, Wendy's, and many others. The company has also recently expanded its market outside of the QSR industry with the addition of Sodexo and others to its customer roster. About HourWork HourWork offers a new, better way to hire and retain hourly workers in today's understaffed world. Its recruitment and retention platform is used by more than 5,000 quick-service restaurant franchises across the United States. Contact Joe Szynkowski[email protected]618.521.7483 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hourwork-raises-additional-2-5-million-increasing-series-a-round-fund-raise-to-12-5-million-301560051.html SOURCE HourWork CLEVELAND, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KeyBank announced the release of its end-to-end payment facilitation capabilities, allowing software companies to easily own and process payments. The concept of embedding financial products like payments and lending into software is at the forefront of the financial services industry. This release highlights KeyBank's commitment to being a leader in Embedded Banking. KeyBank acquired XUP Payments in November 2021 to help advance its embedded banking solutions. With KeyBank's new end-to-end capabilities, powered by XUP, payment facilitators control more of the client experience by digitally onboarding new merchants, setting and managing risk thresholds, and visualizing their transactions through a robust reporting suite. Software companies can reduce their payment complexities and offer a superior onboarding experience while exercising greater control over risk management and customer service. "Payment facilitation is an imperative for many companies as they look to compete in a rapidly changing environment. We have simplified the experience for software companies by offering a fintech-led, bank-sponsored, processor-powered solution. The launch of these new capabilities is the most recent example of KeyBank providing digital innovation at scale," Ken Gavrity, Head of Enterprise Payments & Analytics, KeyBank. "We're excited to expand our capabilities to further enable KeyBank's clients to simplify the merchant experience and drive new revenue opportunities. These newest capabilities further solidify KeyBank's position as a leader in the embedded banking space, starting with payment innovation." Chris May, President, XUP Payments. Learn more about KeyBank's payment facilitation components by downloading the infographic here. About XUP PaymentsXUP, a brand of KeyBank, is a digital payments platform that provides tailored merchant services experiences to healthcare, commercial real estate, and technology companies. The XUP platform offers a seamless connection between merchants, financial services providers, and acquirers across all channels. XUP combines years of industry expertise with deep payments and technical knowledge to offer products that deliver our clients' desired merchant experience. XUP is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. For additional information, visit us at www.xuppay.com. XUP is a brand of KeyBank National Association. 2022 KeyCorp All Rights Reserved. KeyBank is Member FDIC. About KeyCorp KeyCorp's (NYSE: KEY) roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $181.2 billion at March 31, 2022. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/keybank-expands-embedded-banking-platform-with-new-payment-facilitation-capabilities-301559535.html SOURCE KeyCorp WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has selected a variety of projects that take innovative approaches to broadening student participation in science, technology, engineering, and math to receive awards totaling approximately $12.5 million. The awards will help the sponsoring colleges, universities, and informal education institutions like museums, bring spaceflight inspiration and high-priority research opportunities to students from communities underrepresented in STEM fields. "Reaching students with authentic STEM experiences and opportunities is an investment in the workforce we'll need to meet our nation's goals in space today, and in the future," said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It's vital we continue to collaborate with educational institutions and support their efforts to bring the excitement of NASA's missions to the students in their communities." The awards are funded through three of NASA's Office of STEM Engagement programs: NASA's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which provides meaningful aerospace research opportunities to students in eligible U.S. jurisdictions; Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) for American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement (MAIANSE), which serves Native American and Indigenous communities; and Next Generation STEM (Next Gen STEM), which focuses on sparking a love of STEM among students in grades K-12. Boosting Research that Contributes to NASA NASA EPSCoR's Research cooperative agreements enable college and university students to contribute to studies that align with the agency's priorities and provide a boost to areas that historically offered few opportunities to participate in aerospace research. Through the 2022 NASA EPSCoR Research solicitation, the agency has awarded more than $10.4 million to 14 universities to conduct research and technology development in areas important to the agency's mission. The selected institutions and their proposed projects are: University of Alaska, Fairbanks Translating Hibernation for Space Torpor and Remote Emergency Medicine University of Arkansas, Little Rock Arkansas - ARKSAT-3: Toward the Development of Technologies and Science Missions for Interplanetary CubeSats Flying in Formation as Active Spectroscopy Instruments University of Delaware, Newark High Performance W-band GaN Power Amplifiers for Cloud Doppler Radar Arrays University of Idaho, Moscow On-Demand Manufacturing of Smart Systems for Structural Health Monitoring University of Kentucky, Lexington Multi-Scale Data-Driven Modeling of Radiative Transport Through Thermal Protection Systems Maine Space Grant Consortium, Augusta Metastable Oxygen Nanobubbles to Advanced Life Support Systems in Space Exploration University of Mississippi, Oxford Development of an Improved Visualization Tool for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Mississippi Sound Coastal Waters using Integrated NASA Satellite and Novel Autonomous Surface Vessel Collected Field Datasets Montana State University, Bozeman A Transdisciplinary Approach to Assess Measurements of Albedo Across Snowy Landscapes Using Multiple Sensors at Multiple Scales University of Nebraska, Omaha Femtosecond Laser Functionalized Surfaces for Cryogenic Fluid Management University of New Hampshire, Durham High-Temperature Effective Piezoelectric Composites for Future Space Self-Powering Sensors University of Puerto Rico, San Juan Paving the Way for Astrophysics Research in Puerto Rico Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Planetary Methane in Ultramafic Contexts: Searching for Cyclicity in Methane Emissions at a Planetary Analog Site in Northern California University of The Virgin Islands, Charlotte Amalie Application of UAV and Satellite Based Optical Sensors to Help Preserve the Coral Reefs of the US Virgin Islands West Virginia University, MorgantownSurface States and Doping in Aluminum Prototypes for NASA Detector Development Weaving Indigenous Culture with NASA Missions Through MAIANSE CONNECT, NASA requested proposals centered on the weaving of indigenous knowledge with NASA missions. The solicitation addressed the needs of indigenous communities to be served in culturally relevant and respectful ways. The agency selected three minority-serving institutions to receive nearly $1.3 million in cooperative agreements for four projects aimed at fostering connections between indigenous culture and NASA. While MAIANSE has historically provided support to Tribal Colleges and Universities, MAIANSE CONNECT expanded eligibility to include other institutions, specifically Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions. The selected institutions and their proposed projects are: Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, New Mexico NASA and the Navajo Nation: Weaving Western STEM and Navajo Traditional Knowledge into an Educational Ecosystem Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, New Mexico NASA MAIANSE CONNECTing Scheme for Promoting Indigenous Culture and Ethics among Students (SPICES) with STEM Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa Exploring the Sun and the Night Sky Through the Lens of the Skywatchers University of Hawaii, HonoluluKa malamalama o ka mahina: Building Pathways for Indigenous Lunar Science in Hawaii Supporting STEM in Underserved Communities NASA's Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program has selected an additional informal education organization to help inspire the next generation of explorers and to expand student participation in STEM fields. The agency has selected Adler Planetarium in Chicago and its proposed project, Climate Change and Me: Engaging Young People with NASA Data, Missions and Careers through Immersive Visualizations, Planetarium Programs, and Virtual Experiences. Through on-site and virtual field trips, students in grades 5 through 8 will learn about global climate change concepts, analyze data and various factors that may determine how certain human activities affect the Earth's climate. Adler Planetarium joins three awardees announced in January 2022. The agency will award approximately $800,000 to each of the selected organizations, which will implement their proposals over the next two to four years. Informal education institutions, such as science museums, planetariums, libraries, zoos, and more, are uniquely positioned to reach students, including those who are historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields. TEAM II awards are funded through NASA's Next Generation (Next Gen) STEM project, which focuses primarily on reaching K-12 and informal education to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and astronauts. The STEM experiences funded by TEAM II directly align with NASA missions. NASA's Office of STEM Engagement develops unique resources and experiences to spark student interest in STEM and build a skilled and diverse next generation workforce. For the latest NASA STEM events, activities, and news, visit: https://stem.nasa.gov View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-funds-projects-that-aim-to-inspire-artemis-generation-301560629.html SOURCE NASA The Renowned Cybersecurity Company Brings Decades of Military-Grade Global Defense Expertise to the Commercial Data Center Industry AUSTIN, Texas, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberSecure IPS showcased its pioneering cyber-physical security technology at the Data Center World conference in Austin, Texas this spring. The company's products provide a solution to the critically overlooked areas of physical security in data centers. Its solutions protect critical network infrastructure and access points through sensor-based technology and intelligent software. Overall, it eliminates loops of physical vulnerabilities and offers total visibility to security teams. Data Center World is the leading global conference for data center digital infrastructure; the event brings together IT professionals, technology business leaders, and innovators who are shaping the future of the industry. CyberSecurity IPS introduced its enterprise software solutions to conference attendees by shedding light on the need for holistic data center security, specifically addressing the needs of the commercial sector. Defense organizations and national governments have long counted on CyberSecurity IPS for its unparalleled cybersecurity products. The company was originally founded to secure encrypted data and build alarming infrastructure for the U.S. government's Department of Defense and boasts over a decade of securing the most sensitive assets around the world; its flagship data center infrastructure monitoring system (IMS) has been deployed in over 30 countries across 6 continents. "After years of delivering software capability to the highest military requirements, we saw a clear gap in the commercial space; today we can now speak to our offerings that address the unique needs of commercial data centers," said CEO Scott Rye. "By bringing the same level of protection to the commercial market that governments employ, enterprises can attract more customers," he explained. Unique to the large-scale enterprise market, the Cybersecure IPS Data Protection Suite offers multiple layers of inside and outside plant security using patented, government-certified protection to prevent costly threats and outages. Enterprises can monitor, analyze, and manage data from various protection systems in a single real-time dashboard. Building upon its growing reputation in the commercial sector, CyberSecure IPS is adding to its product suite by applying its software engineering expertise to operational needs. "We are looking at products that will improve data center operations beyond cyber-physical security and speaking to much greater efficiency and control yielding significant ROI, especially for the large commercial data center customers," said Rye. About CyberSecure IPS A global leader in the cybersecurity space, CyberSecure IPS constantly innovates its suite of patented software and hardware solutions which integrate to bring the physical realm under constant surveillance and provide holistic protection. The most advanced national governments and biggest data centers worldwide look to CyberSecure IPS to protect their critical infrastructure. Learn more at cybersecureips.com. Contact: Scott Rye, [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-technology-that-eliminates-common-security-blind-spots-presented-by-cybersecure-ips-at-data-center-world-301560273.html SOURCE CyberSecure IPS LOGAN, Utah, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Micronutrient deficiencies disproportionately affect women and children in low- and middle-income countries. Such deficiencies can lead to systemic and enduring morbidities in individuals and their children, and if left untreated can contribute to death. The World Health Organization estimates approximately half of deaths in young children are attributable to undernutrition. Q-Plex Human Micronutrient v2 (7-Plex) assay optimized for sensitivity, precision, and correlation with other methods. Public health surveillance programs are needed to identify vulnerable populations at risk and to determine the most appropriate interventions to implement. The viability of such programs, however, depends on cost and accessibility. Originally introduced in 2014, the Q-Plex Human Micronutrient assay was developed in collaboration between PATH (Seattle, WA) and Quansys Biosciences (Logan, UT). The assay was designed to accurately measure 7 analytes including nutritional and inflammatory biomarkers and biomarkers of malarial infection that are used together to assess micronutrient status. However, deployment was hampered by a lack of clear reference materials and methods for harmonizing values across the micronutrient community. In response to feedback from experts in micronutrient assessment, Quansys Biosciences engaged in new collaborations with PATH and key stakeholders focusing on addressing global micronutrient deficiency concerns. The new Q-Plex Human Micronutrient v2 (7-Plex) https://www.quansysbio.com/human-micronutrient-v2-7-plex/ features adjusted working ranges for better precision across the physiological range and enhanced sensitivity. Furthermore, Quansys has enrolled in continuous engagement with the Center for Disease Control's VITAL-EQA and Serum Micronutrient Performance Verification programs to maintain accuracy and reduce bias in testing. Finally, protocol optimization decreased the volume of sample required and removed the requirement for a plate shaker, thus improving accessibility for global use by adding flexibility in specimen collection techniques and reducing equipment needs. Quansys and PATH are proud to be able to offer the global nutrition community an improved tool at a very competitive price to support their ongoing health and nutrition (fortification) interventions. About PATH PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to ending health inequity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships, and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world's most pressing public health challenges. Learn more at www.path.org. About Quansys Biosciences Quansys Biosciences is a leader in the development and manufacture of multiplexed assays for protein quantification. Quansys Biosciences Q-Plex Array Technology aids researchers in better understanding of disease. The Q-Plex Technology includes multiplex and singleplex assays built to maximize the quantity and quality of data from biological samples. To support its multiplex assays, Quansys also provides the Q-View Imaging system, consisting of Q-View Software, a user-friendly software package that enables the acquisition and analysis of large amounts of multiplex data, and the Q-View Imager, a high-resolution imaging device used to capture chemiluminescent assays. Quansys Biosciences was founded in 2005. Learn more at www.quansysbio.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/path-and-quansys-biosciences-release-enhanced-micronutrient-biomarker-assay-301559731.html SOURCE Quansys Biosciences Inc. Polish & Slavic FCU Scholarship Program has supported the educational dreamsof young PSFCU members for twenty-two years BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's edition of the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union's Scholarship Program, which has supported the educational dreams of the Polish-American youth since 2001, set two significant records. 488 young PSFCU members were granted scholarships this year, with the total amounting to $551,000 i.e. $51,000 more than the previous record. PSFCU Board of Directors decided to raise this year's scholarship budged so that every applicant who met the formal program requirements could receive an award. Award ceremonies for the scholarship program took place on June 1 at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York and on June 2 at the Cracovia Manor in Wallington, New Jersey, with the third one scheduled for June 4 at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Illinois. Majority of scholarship recipients attending the ceremonies were accompanied by their extremely proud parents. PSFCU President/CEO Bogdan Chmielewski welcomed the recipients at the New York ceremony stressing the importance of ties between the Credit Union and the Polish American community. "Investing in the young generation is the best investment our Credit Union could make," Mr. Chmielewski said. "I congratulate you on the success you have already achieved and I wish you much success in your further professional life, so that you could also translate your academic and professional success to some extent into the success of our entire ethnic group in the United States." First Vice-Chairwoman of the PSFCU Board of Directors, Ms. Malgorzata Gradzki could not hide how proud she was with the young PSFCU members. "We are very proud of you and we hope that in your future career you will not forget about the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union," she said. "I hope that you will all live the issues of the Polish American community - because one of the goals of our program is to encourage you to participate in the initiatives of our ethnic group, in its cultural events, and in our community organizations." As in previous years, this year's edition of the PSFCU scholarship program consisted of two separate parts: for college-bound high-school graduates and for current university students. The program for high-school graduates was coordinated by the New York Credit Union Association. In addition to evaluating the submissions of applicants from several dozen New York credit unions, NYCUA also granted forty five scholarships to the best applicants. Fifteen of the forty five scholarships were issued to young PSFCU members. The program for current university students is an autonomous PSFCU program. Applicants were evaluated by college professors based on their study results, as well as active participation in the life of the Polish American community. Since the inception of its scholarship program in 2001, Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union has issued over six and a half million dollars in scholarships to a total of over 5,500 students. About the PSFCU Founded in 1976 by a group of Polish immigrants to help other ethnic Poles obtain mortgages, the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union now has 21 branches in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, Pennsylvania, a Mortgage Center in New Britain, CT and an operations center in Fairfield, NJ. In addition, PSFCU offers mortgage loans on properties located in the state of Florida. Credit union members can access our services through our Online Banking, accessible on our www.psfcu.com website, or through our mobile app or utilize a Mobile Branch, a specially equipped vehicle used during special events, providing all services available at a traditional brick-and-mortar location. The 45-year-old credit union has over $2.6 billion in assets and serves over 108,000 members. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/record-scholarship-amount-for-a-record-number-of-students-301560610.html SOURCE Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union The Popular Protein Brand is Partnering with Charlotte's What The Fries to Serve Locally Inspired Dishes Delivered Directly to Attendees on Land and in the Lake SMITHFIELD, Va., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, June 11, Smithfield is hosting its one-of-a-kind Hot Grill Summer Cookout and Movie event at Lake Norman, where North Carolina residents and out-of-towners can enjoy a free activity-packed day-to-evening experience spanning land and lake! All are welcome to join the festivities, which will kick off at Lake Norman State Park Picnic Grounds from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Attendees will be treated to free food from a signature menu, lawn games, a live DJ, and giveaways. For the ultimate guest enjoyment, the brand is teaming up with chefs Gregory Williams and Jamie Barnes, owners of Charlotte hot spot What The Fries, to create flavor-packed, locally inspired eats featuring Smithfield St. Louis Style Spareribs, Bone-In Pork Butt, Hometown Original Thick Cut Bacon, and Anytime Favoritesa Cubed Ham. Chefs Williams and Barnes will have their food truck on-site to personally craft their culinary creations including Smithfield Gold Finger Spareribs, Smithfield Spicy Strawberry Vinegar Pulled Pork BBQ Fries, and Smithfield Cubed Ham with Mac & Cheese and serve them up to hungry guests. The best part? Event-goers won't have to interrupt their fun-in-the-sun to indulge. Meals can be ordered using QR codes displayed on Smithfield-branded buoys in the lake or signage on the beach. Food will be delivered directly to boats on the lake by servers on jet skis or on foot, right to attendees' towels on the beach. Once day turns to night, guests are invited to enjoy an interactive movie experience at nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Park Amphitheater in Statesville from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Pop-culture classic "The Goonies" will be shown and an array of favorite summertime games, from cornhole to Kan Jam, will be available for family fun. To make the savory night even sweeter, a range of complimentary snacking options will be offered during the movie, including Smithfield Maple Thick Cut Bacon-sprinkled popcorn and candied bacon. "We're excited to share this one-of-a-kind experience with the North Carolina community, so they can spend a fun-filled day at the lake with their friends and family and enjoy some good food, as well," said Michael Merritt, senior director of brand marketing at Smithfield Foods. "We're delighted to team up with What The Fries on these unique and tasty recipes to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy a taste of the local food scene, along with the Smithfield products that they know and love." "At What The Fries, we're all about creativity and community, so we're excited to be on-site and cooking up delicious meals at Smithfield's Hot Grill Summer event. It's not every day your food gets delivered by jet ski!" said Gregory Williams, chef and owner of What The Fries. "We loved using Smithfield products to craft these truly unique and flavor-packed dishes. We can't wait for guests at Lake Norman to try them," said Jamie Barnes, chef and owner of What The Fries. For further details, visit the official event page on Facebook. Make sure to share your grilling masterpieces this season using the hashtag #HotGrillSummer. For more recipes to elevate your summertime festivities and to find Smithfield products, follow Smithfield on Facebook @SmithfieldBrand, Instagram @SmithfieldBrand, or Twitter @SmithfieldBrand, or visit www.smithfield.com. About SmithfieldSmithfield isn't only a leading provider of high-quality pork products. We're a leading provider of the most important part of any meal: premium, high-quality meat. And we take our meat duties seriously. After all, the rest of the meal is just a side dish. Smithfield products were first introduced in 1936 in Smithfield, Virginia, by people who lived for the love of meat. Today, the Smithfield brand stands for craftsmanship, authenticity, and pure passion as we continue to give meat-lovers across the country the deliciousness they crave: our classic bacon, slow-smoked holiday hams, hand-trimmed ribs, marinated fresh pork, smoked meats, and even more meaty magic. All Smithfield products not only meet our customers' high flavor standards but also meet the highest quality and safety standards in the industry. All while being produced right here in the USA. To learn more about the Smithfield portfolio of products, please visit www.Smithfield.com and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Smithfield is a brand of Smithfield Foods, Inc. About Smithfield Foods, Inc.Headquartered in Smithfield, Va. since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing "Good food. Responsibly." and serve as one of the world's leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. About What The FriesSince 2015, What The Fries has been serving up elevated and unexpected dishes atop hand-cut fries, as well as handmade tots and sandwiches. The Charlotte-based, family-run restaurant and food truck is led by chef/owners Jamie Barnes and Greg Williams, both founding members of the popular dinner series Soul Food Sessions. The food truck was originally launched after the duo made it to the final rounds of auditions for Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race." What The Fries was featured on Cooking Channel's "Southern and Hungry" in 2018 and "Food Paradise" in 2022. The first What The Fries restaurant opened in March 2021. For more information, visit www.whatthefriesclt.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smithfield-to-host-hot-grill-summer-cookout-and-movie-community-event-at-lake-norman-on-june-11-301560612.html SOURCE Smithfield Foods, Inc. Supported by the Knight Foundation, the nonprofit library-centered platform provides all-in-one econtent management and lending ATLANTA, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Palace Project ("Palace"), the nonprofit library-centered platform and ereader app for digital content and services, announced its official launch today. Informed by librarians and supported by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment from the Knight Foundation, The Palace Project is an easy-to-use platform for the management and delivery of ebooks, audiobooks and other econtent and puts libraries at the center of their communities' digital experience. The Palace Project's open-source system empowers librarians to manage collections, hosting and circulation in a single app, while protecting patron privacy and strengthening libraries' direct relationships with their patrons. The Palace App, available for iOS and Android, allows libraries to serve all their econtentfrom all major vendors including OverDrive, Baker and Taylor, Bibliotheca, and Bibliolabsto patrons in one easy-to-use interface. "This community-driven initiative is informed by library values, and ensures an option focused on library needs for maximizing access to econtent offerings for patrons," commented Michele Kimpton, Senior Director of The Palace Project. "Our main objective is to support the mission of public libraries by increasing equitable access to econtent and carrying the relationship between library and patron into the virtual realm." The Palace Project team negotiates directly with publishers to make a variety of unique and flexible licensing models available to libraries via Palace Marketplace, the only nonprofit econtent marketplace. Titles from the five major publishers are offered in the Marketplace, as well as from Amazon Publishing and hundreds of independent publishers. Flexible licensing terms are available on thousands of Marketplace titles, allowing libraries to maximize their budgets and provide access to a diverse range of content beyond the bestsellers. "California is excited about its partnership with LYRASIS and working together to make it easier for Californians to access all the ebooks they want," said California State Librarian Greg Lucas. "Ebooks are becoming more and more popular but they're also expensive. Creating a statewide eLibrary with LYRASIS ensures all Californians have access to the ebooks they want and need." A division of LYRASIS, working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), and funded by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment by the Knight Foundation, The Palace Project is committed to building and expanding a digital future for libraries and their patrons. Palace already serves more than 100 libraries, and is currently onboarding libraries in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington. "The pandemic accelerated libraries' move to digital services to meet people where they are with equitable access to information," said Alberto Ibarguen, president of the Knight Foundation. "The Palace Project is a transformative opportunity to put librarians back at the center of connecting people to information. Having digital access to knowledge is more important than ever to build informed and engaged communities." Drawing on the long tradition of libraries as community centers of citizenship and engagement, The Palace Project name was chosen to highlight the central role libraries play in public life and the idea of public libraries as "Palaces for the People. The Palace Platform Nonprofit, Library-Centered Palace App Free, easy-to-use patron e-reader for iOS and Android No personal data is collected Libraries: Retain identity and branding Provide access to all econtent from multiple sources via one interface Customize patron experience and drive collection use, enhance relationships Palace Manager Libraries: Seamless connection to collection via Palace app Curate and manage econtent from multiple providers Manage user authentication process Create custom econtent lists for patrons Palace Marketplace The Big 5 and Amazon Publishing Nonprofit econtent marketplace Flexible licensing models maximize budgets and offerings, ensure fair author compensation Systems Implementation & Hosting LYRASIS: Home of The Palace Project Provides interoperable, end-to-end system based on open-source codebase Provides onboarding services, low-cost frontline service support Manages software setup and configuration, administers cloud-based hardware About The Palace Project The Palace Project is a suite of content, services, and tools for the delivery of ebooks, audiobooks, and other digital media to benefit public libraries and their patrons. Funded by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment from the Knight Foundation, The Palace Project is a division of LYRASIS, working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). About LYRASIS LYRASIS is a global, non-profit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world's shared academic, scientific, and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions, and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums, and knowledge communities worldwide. LYRASIS organizational and staff values are communication, respect, collaboration, impact, and service. To learn more, visit www.lyrasis.org. DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA (DPLA) Digital Public Library of America amplifies the value of libraries and cultural organizations as trusted sources of shared knowledge. DPLA fulfills its mission by collaborating with partners to accelerate the adoption of innovative tools and ideas to empower and equip libraries in making public information more accessible. To learn more, visit www.dp.la. Media Contacts: LYRASISMeg McCroskey Blum[email protected] 303-857-9893 DPLAKat Williams[email protected] 917-270-4693 Hollywood AgencyRoslyn Flaherty[email protected]508-273-5171 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-palace-project-launches-new-platform-and-app-to-enable-equitable-econtent-access-301560247.html SOURCE The Palace Project Partnership intends to accelerate translation of discoveries in disease biology towards novel treatments for patients with tauopathies. FORT WORTH, Texas , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF), one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative disease research, today announced that it has entered a partnership with the Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ARUK-ODDI) at the University of Oxford. This partnership intends to accelerate the development of novel therapeutics aimed at the treatment of tauopathies, a group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases. The RCF and ARUK-ODDI will work together to take discoveries made by principal investigators within the Tau Consortium through the "valley of death" of drug discovery by applying an integrated drug discovery approach to advance these discoveries to the clinic. The ARUK-ODDI brings best practice target validation, assay development and execution, computational chemistry, and ADME-supported medicinal chemistry. The deep knowledge in basic discovery biology and tauopathy mechanisms derived from the Tau Consortium principal investigators will complement the drug discovery expertise of the ARUK-ODDI team. This partnership aims to pave the way for future partnerships to enable clinical development and commercialization. "This collaborative partnership is a significant step forward in our plans to bring potential treatments closer to the clinic for patients suffering from tauopathies," said Leticia Toledo-Sherman, PhD., Senior Director of Drug Discovery for the Tau Consortium at the RCF. "The Oxford DDI team combines a deep understanding of Alzheimer's Disease, primary tauopathies, and neuroinflammation with critical drug discovery expertise. This combination and their record of bringing academic programs towards the clinic will be instrumental for the success of our therapeutic development efforts." Prof John Davis, Business Development Director for the Alzheimer's Research UK Drug Discovery Alliance said: "The Rainwater Charitable Foundation's Tau Consortium has given many of the world's best tau research teams a unifying alliance that is resulting in more rapid progress towards identifying the key molecular mechanisms at play in tauopathies and the distressing neurodegenerative diseases that they cause. The Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute at the University of Oxford is delighted to be partnering with the RCF to drive forward the translation of the latest scientific advances into novel therapeutic approaches, that we hope will ultimately be of benefit to patients." About the Rainwater Charitable Foundation and the Tau Consortium The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) was created in the early 1990s by renowned private equity investor and philanthropist Richard E. Rainwater. The RCF supports a range of programs in K-12 education, medical research, and other worthy causes. To deliver on its mission to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments for tau-related neurodegenerative disorders, the RCF medical research team manages the Tau Consortium and the Rainwater Prize programs. With over $145 million invested to date, the RCF has helped to advance eight treatments into human trials. For more information, please visit http://rainwatercharitablefoundation.org/, www.rainwaterprize.org, and https://tauconsortium.org/. About Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute The Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ARUK-ODDI) is a research team within the Centre for Medicines Discovery (CMD) at the University of Oxford. The CMD is a grouping of research teams within the Nuffield Department of Medicine with complimentary disciplines and a unifying mission to conduct translational biology and discover novel therapeutic approaches. The ARUK-ODDI was founded in 2014 through a 10M grant from Alzheimer's Research UK, which was renewed in 2020, and is part of a Drug Discovery Alliance, funded by the charity, with parallel institutes in Cambridge and London (UK). The ARUK-ODDI comprises scientific experts in cell and molecular neurobiology, molecular pharmacologists, screening experts, computational and medicinal chemists co-located in world-class facilities at the heart of the University of Oxford's biomedical campus. The ARUK-ODDI's mission is to work up new targets, identified by academic collaborators, and, through collaboration, deliver chemical lead series and proof of concept studies that justify continued development. About Alzheimer's Research UK Alzheimer's Research UK is the UK's leading charity specializing in finding preventions, treatments, and a cure for dementia. Our animation "What is dementia?" explains the essentials of dementia and the diseases that cause it What is dementia? Alzheimer's Research UK - YouTube Alzheimer's Research UK is currently supporting pioneering dementia research projects worth nearly 34 million (equivalent to 47 million US Dollars) in leading Universities across the UK. Find out more at www.alzheimersresearchuk.org and help us share a better understanding about dementia. Contact: Glenn A. HarrisDirector of Business Development & Research Partnerships Rainwater Charitable Foundation[email protected] Related Links http://rainwatercharitablefoundation.org/ View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-rainwater-charitable-foundation-announces-partnership-with-drug-discovery-teams-at-the-university-of-oxford-301556107.html SOURCE The Rainwater Charitable Foundation Roshunda Jones-Koumba to be lauded on-stage at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 12th at the 75th Annual Tony Awards #ApplaudMyTeacher PITTSBURGH, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University announced today that drama teacher Roshunda Jones-Koumba of G.W. Carver Magnet High School in Houston will receive the 2022 Excellence in Theatre Education Award. The Excellence in Theatre Education Award was co-founded in 2014 by the Tony Awards and CMU to recognize top K-12 drama teachers and to celebrate arts education. Jones-Koumba will receive her award at the 75th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 12, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. A panel of theatre experts from The American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League and Carnegie Mellon University selected Jones-Koumba from a nationwide call for entries. Impassioned endorsements from students past and present, along with peers from the arts community in Houston such as The C. Lee Turner Black Theatre Educators' Caucus helped make Jones-Koumba a standout. As one student put it: "I have been in awe of her vision; her tireless work ethic; the countless hours; blood, sweat, tears, money, food that she's given to her students in the community around her. And she taught us, usually Black and Brown kids from inner-city communities, that we could do anything." In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Jones-Koumba is a director at the G.W. Carver Theatre, where the Panther Players Troupe #6753 has earned multiple regional and national awards for their thespian competition pieces and one-act plays. The Panther Players under her direction also have earned multiple Tommy Tune Awards for musical theatre. Among other performing arts laurels, Jones-Koumba is a past recipient of the Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award; the International Thespian Society Inspirational Theatre Educator Award; and she was recently inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame. "Our students are doing amazing things. Many are working actors on stage and on television; some are continuing their education; some are pursuing careers outside of performing. In theatre we accept all, so you're not afraid to be yourself. And that gives you confidence to do anything you want, enables you to work with different people, and to be a better all-around person," Jones-Koumba said. "Theatre is life. I'm very grateful to the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University for this honor." The Excellence in Theatre Education Award recognizes a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated exemplary impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession. Jones-Koumba will receive $10,000 for G.W. Carver Magnet High School's theatre program and tickets to the Tony Awards and Tony Awards Gala. Jones-Koumba's students will also receive a visiting Master Class taught by CMU drama professors. "Theatre education opens students' minds to reveal their potential, whether onstage or off, through artistic expression and inclusivity. That doesn't happen by chance. It happens through hard work, countless hours and a tireless commitment that drama teachers know better than most. Roshunda takes that dedication to a whole new level, and we're honored to present the Excellence in Theatre Education Award to her this year," said Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, and Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League. "In our increasingly complex society, teachers serve as incredible champions and mentors for young people, helping them to discover their passions and achieve their dreams," said Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian. "Roshunda Jones-Koumba is an enthusiastic champion for her students, and her unique theatre education program empowers them to become leaders in any field. That's the power of the arts, and that is why CMU is so proud to present this award in recognition of her impact." Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose will host The 75th Annual Tony Awards, airing live coast-to-coast, on Sunday, June 12th (8:00-11:00 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:00 PM, LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+. Julianne Hough and Darren Criss will host "The Tony Awards: Act One," one hour of exclusive content streaming live, only on Paramount+ (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/4:00-5:00 PM, PT.) View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-tony-awards-and-carnegie-mellon-university-present-the-2022-excellence-in-theatre-education-award-301560110.html SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University Available for Order Now, "Arroway" is a 200,000-Pound Thrust Reusable Liquid Oxygen and Methane Staged Combustion Engine for Medium and Heavy Launch DENVER , June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ursa Major, America's only privately funded company that focuses solely on rocket propulsion, today introduced the latest in its line of engines. Arroway is a 200,000-pound thrust liquid oxygen and methane staged combustion engine that will serve markets including current U.S. national security missions, commercial satellite launches, orbital space stations, and future missions not yet conceived. The reusable Arroway engine is available for order now, slated for initial hot-fire testing in 2023, and delivery in 2025. "Arroway is America's rocket engine of the future," said Joe Laurienti, founder and CEO of Ursa Major. Notably, Arroway engines will be one of very few commercially available engines that, when clustered together, can displace the Russian-made RD-180 and RD-181, which are no longer available to U.S. launch companies. "Arroway is America's engine of the future," said Joe Laurienti, founder and CEO of Ursa Major. "Medium and heavy launch capacity is what U.S. launchers desperately need right now, and because Ursa Major focuses solely on propulsion, we're in a unique position to deliver high-performing, reliable, and affordable engines to meet the increasing market demand, just like we are doing with 'Hadley' and 'Ripley'." Arroway uses a fuel-rich staged combustion architecture with liquid oxygen and methane propellants. Ursa Major designed the components and their arrangement so that most of the engine can be 3D printed. This approach allows for rapid iteration during the development process as well as efficient scaling of production to meet market demand. Advantages of Liquid Methane Fuel Cleaner-burning, more efficient, and lower cost than kerosene Offers flexible architecture options to optimize for reusability Increasing market adoption in the launch industry Advantages of Fuel-Rich Staged Combustion Architecture High performance on specific impulse and thrust-to-weight ratio Suitable for high reliability in mass production, long reusable life, and multiple applications Leverages Ursa Major's experience in closed-cycle technology and provides extensibility to future propellant derivatives Ursa Major's other engines include "Hadley," a 5,000-pound thrust, oxygen-rich staged combustion engine, and the 50,000-pound thrust "Ripley" engine. Hadley was the first American-made oxygen-rich staged combustion engine to be hot fire tested. "Arroway is the rocket engine that the industry needs, and Ursa Major is the right company to build it," said Jeff Thornburg, former SpaceX propulsion executive and Ursa Major advisor. "Launch organizations should consider whether they have the in-house experience, expertise, time, money, test facilities, and organizational fortitude to build their own engines. Ursa Major has demonstrated all of that, and the result is a more rapid and robust product to market. The growing space industry is just starting to learn how difficult propulsion development can be and how long it really takes to qualify hardware in-house, which presents an incredible opportunity for Arroway to serve the industry." No Need to Build In-House With Ursa Major's experience making flexible rocket engines that can be used for a range of missions, from air launch, to hypersonic flight, to on-orbit missions with many restarts, its customers get to launch many years faster at a low price and without the development cost of building engines in-house. The Ursa Major propulsion engineering team has more than 1,000 years of propulsion development experience and thousands of successful flights. It includes world-leading experts in combustors, engine cycles, and turbomachinery from the top American launch companies and engine development programs in the U.S. The company has built and tested more than 50 staged-combustion rocket engines to date and will deliver 24 of them by year's end. Ursa Major designs, tests, and manufactures its engines from its state-of-the-art facility in Berthoud, Colorado, using market-leading technology in analysis and simulation, 3D printing, and proprietary alloys. To date, Ursa Major engines have accumulated 36,000 seconds of run-time, far more than a typical engine is tested prior to first flight. Connect with Ursa Major on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. About Ursa Major Ursa Major is America's only privately funded company that focuses solely on rocket propulsion, bringing high-performance, staged combustion engines to market for space launch and hypersonic applications. Ursa Major customers, ranging from "New Space" startups to enterprise-level aerospace leaders and the U.S. government, get to launch faster, more reliably, and cost-effectively. The company employs the most sought-after engineers from top space programs and universities and is backed by world-class investors including XN and Explorer 1 Fund. Headquartered in Berthoud, Colorado, Ursa Major was named one of the best places to work by Built in Colorado two years in a row. For more information, visit www.ursamajor.com. Media Contact:Jani Strand, General PartnerPerch Partners for Ursa Major[email protected]310.289.3515 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-rocket-propulsion-company-ursa-major-announces-new-engine-to-displace-now-unavailable-russian-made-propulsion-sources-301559893.html SOURCE Ursa Major CALGARY, AB, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Vermilion Energy Inc. ("Vermilion", "We", "Our", "Us" or the "Company") (TSX: VET) (NYSE: VET) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Myron Stadnyk to our Board of Directors. Mr. Stadnyk brings over 35 years of business and industry knowledge, with extensive experience in senior leadership, cost management, operational effectiveness, governance, health, safety, and environment. He most recently served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of ARC Resources Ltd. where he led ARC's transformation from a royalty trust to a top-tier Montney producer demonstrating outstanding strategic leadership. Prior to ARC, Mr. Stadnyk worked at a major oil and gas company in both domestic and international operations. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Crescent Point Energy Corp., Prairie Sky Royalty Ltd. and the University of Saskatchewan Engineering Trust. Mr. Stadnyk holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta and served as a Governor for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers for over 10 years. We are excited to welcome Mr. Stadnyk to our Board of Directors, and look forward to his diverse skills, perspectives and expertise contributing to the ongoing success of Vermilion. About Vermilion Vermilion is an international energy producer that seeks to create value through the acquisition, exploration, development and optimization of producing assets in North America, Europe and Australia. Our business model emphasizes free cash flow generation and returning capital to investors when economically warranted, augmented by value-adding acquisitions. Vermilion's operations are focused on the exploitation of light oil and liquids-rich natural gas conventional resource plays in North America and the exploration and development of conventional natural gas and oil opportunities in Europe and Australia. Vermilion's priorities are health and safety, the environment, and profitability, in that order. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the public and those who work with us, and the protection of our natural surroundings. We have been recognized by leading ESG rating agencies for our transparency on and management of key environmental, social and governance issues. In addition, we emphasize strategic community investment in each of our operating areas. Employees and directors hold approximately 4% of our outstanding shares and are committed to delivering long-term value for all stakeholders. Vermilion trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VET. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vermilion-energy-inc-announces-appointment-of-a-new-board-member-301559671.html SOURCE Vermilion Energy Inc. FORM 4 UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or Section 30(h) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 OMB APPROVAL OMB Number: 3235-0287 Expires: December 31, 2014 Estimated average burden hours per response: 0.5 Check this box if no longer subject to Section 16. Form 4 or Form 5 obligations may continue. See Instruction 1(b). 1. Name and Address of Reporting Person * Tan Farid (Last) (First) (Middle) C/O METROCITY BANKSHARES, INC. 5114 BUFORD HIGHWAY (Street) DORAVILLE GA 30340 (City) (State) (Zip) 2. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol MetroCity Bankshares, Inc. [ MCBS ] 5. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable) X Director 10% Owner X Officer (give title below) Other (specify below) President 3. Date of Earliest Transaction (Month/Day/Year) 06/01/2022 4. If Amendment, Date of Original Filed (Month/Day/Year) 6. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line) X Form filed by One Reporting Person Form filed by More than One Reporting Person Table I - Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned 1. Title of Security (Instr. 3) 2. Transaction Date (Month/Day/Year) 2A. Deemed Execution Date, if any (Month/Day/Year) 3. Transaction Code (Instr. 8) 4. Securities Acquired (A) or Disposed Of (D) (Instr. 3, 4 and 5) 5. Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned Following Reported Transaction(s) (Instr. 3 and 4) 6. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 4) 7. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 4) Code V Amount (A) or (D) Price Common Stock 06/01/2022 A 49,287 A $ 20.31 858,101 D Table II - Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned (e.g., puts, calls, warrants, options, convertible securities) 1. Title of Derivative Security (Instr. 3) 2. Conversion or Exercise Price of Derivative Security 3. Transaction Date (Month/Day/Year) 3A. Deemed Execution Date, if any (Month/Day/Year) 4. Transaction Code (Instr. 8) 5. Number of Derivative Securities Acquired (A) or Disposed of (D) (Instr. 3, 4 and 5) 6. Date Exercisable and Expiration Date (Month/Day/Year) 7. Title and Amount of Securities Underlying Derivative Security (Instr. 3 and 4) 8. Price of Derivative Security (Instr. 5) 9. Number of derivative Securities Beneficially Owned Following Reported Transaction(s) (Instr. 4) 10. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 4) 11. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 4) Code V (A) (D) Date Exercisable Expiration Date Title Amount or Number of Shares Explanation of Responses: Remarks: Exhibit List Exhibit 24 - Power of Attorney /s/ Lucas Stewart, attorney in fact 06/02/2022 ** Signature of Reporting Person Date Reminder: Report on a separate line for each class of securities beneficially owned directly or indirectly. * If the form is filed by more than one reporting person, see Instruction 4 (b)(v). ** Intentional misstatements or omissions of facts constitute Federal Criminal Violations See 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 15 U.S.C. 78ff(a). Note: File three copies of this Form, one of which must be manually signed. If space is insufficient, see Instruction 6 for procedure. Persons who respond to the collection of information contained in this form are not required to respond unless the form displays a currently valid OMB Number. Exhibit 24 Section 16 POWER OF ATTORNEY Know all by these presents, that the undersigned hereby constitutes and appoints Nack Y. Paek and Lucas Stewart, or any of them, the undersigneds true and lawful attorney-in-fact to: (1) prepare, execute in the undersigneds name and on the undersigneds behalf, and submit to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) a Form ID, including amendments thereto, and any other documents necessary or appropriate to obtain codes and passwords enabling the undersigned to make electronic filings with the SEC of reports required by Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or any rule or regulation of the SEC; (2) execute for and on behalf of the undersigned, in the undersigneds capacity as an officer and/or director of MetroCity Bankshares, Inc. (the Company), Forms 3, 4, and 5 in accordance with Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the rules thereunder; (3) do and perform any and all acts for and on behalf of the undersigned which may be necessary or desirable to complete and execute any such Form 3, 4, or 5 and timely file such form with the Securities and Exchange Commission and any stock exchange or similar authority; and (4) take any other action of any type whatsoever in connection with the foregoing which, in the opinion of such attorney-in-fact, may be of benefit to, in the best interest of, or legally required by, the undersigned, it being understood that the documents executed by such attorney-in-fact on behalf of the undersigned pursuant to this Power of Attorney shall be in such form and shall contain such terms and conditions as such attorney-in-fact may approve in such attorney-in-facts discretion. The undersigned hereby grants to each such attorney-in-fact full power and authority to do and perform any and every act and thing whatsoever requisite, necessary, or proper to be done in the exercise of any of the rights and powers herein granted, as fully to all intents and purposes as the undersigned might or could do if personally present, with full power of substitution or revocation, hereby ratifying and confirming all that such attorney-in-fact, or such attorney-in-facts substitute or substitutes, shall lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue of this power of attorney and the rights and powers herein granted. The undersigned acknowledges that the foregoing attorneys-in-fact, in serving in such capacity at the request of the undersigned, are not assuming, nor is the Company assuming, any of the undersigneds responsibilities to comply with Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This Power of Attorney shall remain in full force and effect until the undersigned is no longer required to file Forms 3, 4, and 5 with respect to the undersigneds holdings of and transactions in securities issued by the Company, unless earlier revoked by the undersigned in a signed writing delivered to the foregoing attorneys-in-fact. In affixing his or her signature to this Power of Attorney, the undersigned hereby revokes any and all previously executed Powers of Attorney for the same or similar purposes. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has caused this Power of Attorney to be executed as of this 2nd day of June, 2022. WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (Tribune News Service) The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base welcomed Col. Ariel Batungbacal as its commander Thursday. "I am an optimist," Batungbacal told airmen assembled at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force for the change-of-command ceremony. "I am also a warfighter. I call on all of you at NASIC to ignite that warrior spirit." The last change-of-command ceremony for NASIC, in June 2020, was virtual, with Col. Maurizio Calabrese at that time taking command in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Calabrese was recently confirmed for promotion to brigadier general. With an annual budget of more than $507 million and nearly 4,100 personnel, NASIC is the Air Force's analysis center for foreign air, space and specialized intelligence. In recent years, the center has been tasked with staying abreast of threats posed by China and Russia, countering cyber threats and building the National Space Intelligence Center for the military's newest branch, the Space Force. That work continued even during a pandemic and as a $182 million home for NASIC was being constructed at Wright-Patterson. The new building may welcome workers by mid-2024. Batungbacal is already a group commander at NASIC, leading the Air and Cyberspace Intelligence Group at NASIC. Lt. Gen. Mary O'Brien, Air Force deputy chief of staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations, presided over Thursday's ceremony with high praise for both Calabrese and Batungbacal. O'Brien praised Calabrese in particular for "groundbreaking insights" into threats from China, ensuring the safety of the NASIC workforce during the COVID pandemic and creating a "road map" for creation of the National Space Intelligence Center, which will begin operations at Wright-Patterson in coming weeks. She also mentioned NASIC's work to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. "You continue to be the Air Force's go-to unit for vital intelligence," O'Brien said. O'Brien introduced Batungbacal as "absolutely ready for any future challenges," adding: "She has been on my radar for quite some time." Calabrese had a long list of people to thank in his departing remarks. "There is no playbook for COVID, but I tell you, COVID does not define this command for me," he said. Instead, he focused on efforts to strengthen diversity and inclusion at NASIC, building NASIC's new home, the Air Force's continuing digital transformation and other endeavors. "I leave you in much better hands," he said, telling those assembled: "You are the smartest people in the Air Force." The new National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC) will borrow two squadrons from NASIC. "The NSIC development is being worked through the Space Force," Batungbacal said after the change of command. "So we're really at NASIC focused on ensuring that relationships remain intact because ultimately all of the analysts, their focus is just to get the job done." Batungbacal was commissioned in May 2001 and worked in intelligence from the start of her career, leaving the University of Maryland with dual bachelor's degrees in Chinese and government/politics. She also received an advanced certificate in multi-track diplomacy from the University of Maryland. Based at Wright-Patterson, NASIC is the Department of Defense's primary source for foreign air and space threat analysis. NASIC is the Air Force's service intelligence center, the nation's air and space intelligence center and an operational wing in the Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work. (c)2022 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Defense Department officials told former President Donald Trumps administration that setting up Space Command in Colorado would allow for a quicker path to full operations, but they came away with a decision to move the headquarters to Alabama, according to a new government watchdog report. It remains unclear whether any one person made the final decision. The 14-month analysis from the Government Accountability Office found the Air Force changed requirements during the decision process, which ultimately affected the scoring system for locations vying for Space Command. For interested parties watching and waiting for the selection, such as members of Congress from Alabama and Colorado, it could have led them to believe the process was biased, the GAO found. Colorado congressional members initially called for the GAO to review potential bias in the decision, believing the Trump administration put politics ahead of national security and chose Redstone Arsenal in Alabama over Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. With the investigations now complete, the shortcomings of the Space Command basing process are fully available to [President Joe Bidens] administration. We urge them to review the reports findings, and make a decision in consultation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that prioritizes our national security and mission in space, according to a statement from Colorado lawmakers Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, and Reps. Doug Lamborn, a Republican, and Jason Crow, a Democrat. Space Command, which operated from 1985 to 2002, was reestablished in 2019 just months before Space Force, the newest military service branch, was founded. Space Command is a joint, combatant command that oversees the militarys various space-based infrastructure and operations. Upon its return, the Air Force was tasked with finding a permanent home for its headquarters, which is temporarily operating out of Peterson SFB in Colorado Springs. The Colorado lawmakers also expressed concern about a White House meeting on Jan. 11, 2021, that ended with Redstone Arsenal as the finalist, though Air Force documents provided to the GAO showed Peterson as the lead choice. The outcome was justified with inconsistent documentation and unclear reasoning, the lawmakers said. On Jan. 8, 2021, prepared documents for the meeting showed Redstone as the lead choice. But then, officials learned Space Force would not need as much space at Peterson as originally thought, and some facilities could be renovated instead of built new. This would allow Space Command to be fully operational sooner than the six years projected for new construction, according to the report. The day before the White House meeting about Space Commands location, defense officials moved Peterson to the top of the list because that base would require less construction. They presented their conclusions at the White House meeting, which included former President Donald Trump, former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, former Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and other high-ranking military officials. Two days after the meeting, Redstone was announced as the new home for Space Command. Officials at the meeting said varying opinions were discussed, but overall the conversation was thoughtful, professional, robust and informed. Colorados delegation in Washington has fought for any review of the decision, citing concerns Trump leaned on military officials to select Alabama to woo his political allies in the state. The former president later bragged about making the decision on a radio show in August 2021. Although the Air Force documented the general rationale for selecting Redstone Arsenal in an action memorandum and accompanying documents, there was not consensus among the officials we interviewed regarding who ultimately made the decision to name Redstone Arsenal as the preferred location for U.S. Space Command headquarters, including the role of the then president in making the decision, the report stated. The GAO recommended the Air Force develop guidance for future basing decisions that incorporate best practices from the GAOs analysis of alternatives. GAO used that analysis process to determine the Air Force failed to prevent bias, or the appearance of it, when deciding where to set up the new commands headquarters. Edwin Oshiba, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, installations and environment, agreed to the recommendation. Oshiba also said the decision of Redstone is not final. It still must undergo an environmental assessment that will include all six finalists for the new headquarters. The other four locations, which the GAO noted were far behind the first two, were Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Patrick Air Force Base in Florida and Joint Base San Antonio in Texas. The Defense Department inspector general also reviewed the decision, finding that all procedures were followed, but not all criteria used in the process could be verified. The service agreed to revisit the issues of child care, affordability of housing and access to military and veteran support services before finalizing its decision. Following the inspector general report, which was released in May, officials from Alabama praised the findings. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said the Colorado lawmakers were suffering from sore loser syndrome. To date, I and others from Alabama have largely declined to engage in a public back and forth on this issue because doing so would not have been helpful to national security, he wrote to the Senate Armed Services Committee. For the sake of national security and military readiness, I will strongly oppose further efforts to unnecessarily delay this critical move. Young adult Americans think they know a lot about Army life, but a newly released cross-generational survey showing otherwise is giving the service impetus to fill in the knowledge gaps amid a recruitment crisis. The Army has what Gen Z is looking for in an employer. They just dont know it yet, Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army enterprise marketing, said in a statement issued Wednesday. The Know Your Army national consumer survey found that 73% of respondents ages 18 to 25 claimed familiarity with the Army, the highest level of any generation polled. But survey participants in that age group turned out to be largely unaware of what the Army can offer them. More than half of Generation Z respondents did not realize that soldiers can receive benefits such as tuition assistance and the possibility of earning full college tuition. Regarding early retirement benefits, only 31% were in the know. Another misperception about Army life for 30% of Generation Z polled is that the majority of jobs available to soldiers are combat-related, the Army said. The survey was conducted by the Army in March across a sample of 3,000 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 76. No margin of error was listed. Top brass has previously sounded alarms over the services difficulty finding qualified recruits in that 18-25 age range. We are in a war for talent, Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in May. The release of the polling data comes as the service touts a new advertising campaign that talks up the wide range of benefits associated with military life. Instead of highlighting soldiers in the field, the Know Your Army ads call attention to things such as pension plans, mortgage loan perks and free schooling. The aim is to show how such privileges set the Army apart from civilian employers. Given the difficult recruiting environment, which military officials have blamed in part on a competitive labor market, the Armys 2023 budget request calls for an end-strength of 473,000 active-duty soldiers, even though Congress has authorized the force to grow to 500,000 by 2022. Military officials have said that the cap is temporary and that the Army intends to grow once the recruiting environment improves. EAGLE PASS, Texas About 500 Texas National Guard troops were sent home during the last two months from a security mission along the border with Mexico as military officials shift their strategy to stop unlawful migrant crossings by building more fencing and using boats to patrol the Rio Grande. About 6,000 troops were still stationed along the river as of May 27 on a state-sponsored mission known as Operation Lone Star, according to the Texas Military Department. Another roughly 3,700 are assigned to the mission in other parts of the state, which has not changed. Following the adjutant generals detailed assessment and review of Operation Lone Star, begun just after his appointment to the position, the decision to demobilize some support personnel has been finalized, according to a statement from the department. Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, commander of the Texas Military Department, took over the job March 14, and told state lawmakers in April that he believed his initial assessment would find that using more boats instead of stationary observation posts would allow him to send home some troops and ease lawmakers concerns about the expense of having so many people deployed. The department in April spent more than $293,000 on inflatable boats, trailers and accessories, and more than $246,000 on inflatable life jackets, according to contracts posted online. Troops added about 42 miles of barbed wire and fencing along the Rio Grande within the last two months, and trained Mexican government personnel to do the same, Suelzer said during a May 23 news conference in the city of Eagle Pass, which is on the river. By fortifying the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, he said they can help block crossers from getting into the water. Capt. Mario Cervantes, an engineer and commander of the Texas National Guards Alpha Battery of Task Force Eagle in Eagle Pass, said the coiled barbed wire is a safety element. It is to make sure that we deter and that we tell [people] across a river not to come this way for many reasons. Its so theyll be safe not crossing the river, because this is kind of high flow and rapid waters most of the time, he said May 23 during a tour of his area of operations. Despite those deterrents, four Cuban migrants crossed from Mexico into Alpha Batterys area of operations during the tour. Troops and state law enforcement watched as the men walked alongside the fence recently built by Texas National Guard engineers on a privately owned pecan orchard. Once they reached an opening, the four men sat down and waited for U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrive. An armed soldier stood several feet in front of them as others continued to watch for additional activity on the rivers edge. This is how most interactions take place, but the number of crossings varies week to week and is highly dependent on the weather, Cervantes said. Gov. Greg Abbott first deployed about 500 troops in March 2021 to deter illegal crossings from Mexico into Texas. At its peak late last year, about 10,000 troops were working on the mission and the cost ballooned to about $1.4 billion a year. Some troops sit at observation posts along the river and report potential illegal activity back to state police or Border Patrol agents, while others build fencing and string barbed wire along the Rio Grande. A small group work on brush teams with state police to find drug and human smuggling activity that passed through border communities and moved further inland. Because the mission expanded so quickly, Guard members faced poor living conditions, inconsistent paychecks and a lack of appropriate safety equipment that led some to join a state employees union. It also sparked concern from some state and federal lawmakers. Since then, many of the base camps where soldiers live have been expanded to allow for more privacy and space, officials overcame payroll problems, and Suelzer began reorganizing the workload and structure of the mission. Meanwhile, troops have begun employing the newly purchased boats that can go into shallow water to help deter and keep people from crossing at low water crossings and also to interdict illicit narcotics, Suelzer said. As the Guard changes its tactics, it also has increased prevention efforts should a service member encounter drugs, particularly fentanyl a synthetic opioid that is dangerous in small quantities and commonly trafficked into the United States from Mexico. As a precaution, the Texas Military Department spent about $51,000 to purchase nearly 1,400 doses of Narcan, an opioid overdose medication that is administered as a nasal spray, according to contracts found online. Officials said the medication will be distributed to troops along the border and personnel were expected to begin training on how to use the medication in late May. The Texas Military Department recognizes the significant increases in transnational narcotics trafficking across our southern border and the accompanying increases in fentanyl encounters, according to a statement from the department. Thankfully no TMD members have been exposed to this dangerous drug. Now more than a year into to the mission, troops assigned to the border said they have very little interaction with migrants, but instead report any people suspected of illegally crossing from Mexico into the U.S to Border Patrol agents and the Texas Department of Public Safety. We dont look for [drugs]. Thats not our job, Cervantes said. If theres any suspicion of those, we report it to [Texas Department of Public Safety] and let them know. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa A Marine assigned to Camp Courtney was taken into custody Monday by police who suspected him of drunken driving and a hit-and-run. Lance Cpl. Braydon Chase Smith, 20, was arrested after a pedestrian reported at 8:30 p.m. that Smith struck a parked car in Yomitan village and left the scene, a spokesman for the Kadena Police Station told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. No injuries resulted from the incident, the spokesman said. Patrolling police found Smith 10 minutes later, about a half-mile from the accident scene, the spokesman said. The left front side of Smiths car was damaged, he said. Some government officials in Japan customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity. A breath test by police measured Smiths blood alcohol content at more than four times Japans legal limit of 0.03%, according to the spokesman. Smith was still in custody Thursday, the spokesman said. Although he was stopped by the police while driving, Smith is still denying the fact that he was driving, according to the spokesman. "The Marine Corps takes all incidents and allegations involving misconduct or illegal behavior by service members seriously, Marine Corps Installations Pacific spokeswoman 1st Lt. Ashleigh Fairow told Stars and Stripes in an email Thursday. Driving under the influence of alcohol may result in up to three years in prison or up to $3,842 in fines, according to Japans Road Traffic Act. Leaving an accident scene may result in up to one year in prison or up to $768 in fines, and failing to report an accident could bring up to three months in prison or up to $384 in fines. YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan The U.S. Navys newest flat-deck amphibious assault ship steamed into Tokyo Bay on Sunday, the second port visit of its maiden deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The USS Tripoli arrived at Yokosuka, homeport of the 7th Fleet, for a brief visit, ship spokesman Lt. Davis Anderson told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday. The Tripoli was still at Yokosuka as of Thursday, and Anderson declined to comment on its expected length of stay due to security concerns. The 855-foot flat-deck left its San Diego homeport for its maiden deployment on May 2, just under two years after its July 2020 commissioning, according to the Navy. The ship is with the 7th Fleet to work with U.S. allies and serves as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Davis said. While in Yokosuka, the ship's crew is cleared for liberty both on and off base, 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Mark Langford told Stars and Stripes in a Wednesday email. Davis said all necessary COVID-19 mitigation efforts have been taken, adding that all Tripoli sailors are vaccinated and that they are excited to experience Yokosuka. The Tripolis port call comes one week after the ship concluded a two-day stop at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni on May 22. While there, the ship took on 232 Marines from Marine Wing Communication Squadron 171, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, Marine Aircraft Group 12, and Marine Air Logistics Squadron 12, according to a May 20 news release from the Tripoli. The America-class amphibious assault ship has an expanded hangar bay instead of a well deck, to accommodate the Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighters that are capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. Dubbed a Lightning carrier, the Tripoli in April loaded 16 F-35s, breaking a record for the number of fighters aboard an amphibious assault vessel, according to USNI News. The ship can also carry MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors and a variety of helicopters such as the MH-60S Seahawk. The Tripoli is the second America-class ship, preceded by the USS America, which is homeported at Sasebo Naval Base, Japan. Construction began on a third ship, the USS Bougainville, in 2018 and is expected to launch in 2023. Unlike the Tripoli and America, the Bougainville will reincorporate a well deck to increase operational flexibility without sacrificing aviation capability, according to Naval Sea Systems Command. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa Local authorities plan to protest a Navy pilots decision to jettison an F/A-18 Super Hornets empty fuel tank at sea before landing at Kadena Air Base over the weekend. The external fuel tank was dropped Sunday about 15 nautical miles off Okinawas coast in international waters as a safety measure, according to an email Thursday from Petty Officer 1st Class David Krigbaum, a Navy spokesman on Okinawa. The aircraft landed safely, and no personnel were injured, he said. The prefecture plans to make a protest Friday to the Okinawa Liaison Office of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Okinawa Defense Bureau, an arm of the Defense Ministry, a spokesman for the prefectural Military Base Affairs Division told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. Government spokespeople in Japan customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity. Krigbaum did not say why the Super Hornet, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 5 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, diverted to Kadena. The ship left Yokosuka Naval Base two weeks ago for a regional patrol. The fuel tank washed ashore near Higashi Village, Krigbaum said. A local resident discovered it Monday, the Higashi village spokesman said. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi identified the tank as U.S. Navy property at a news conference Tuesday. Navy personnel retrieved the tank between 12:15 p.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to Krigbaum and a spokesman for the Okinawa Defense Bureau who spoke to Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. A member of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, Keisuke Shimabuku, tweeted a video Wednesday of about 10 U.S. service members picking up the 16-foot-long tank and heaving it into the back of a utility truck on the beach at Higashi. Japanese government authorities in December protested to the U.S. Air Force when an F-16 Fighting Falcon making an emergency landing at Aomori Airport dropped a pair of external tanks onto a rural town in northeastern Japan. Nobody was injured but a sidewalk handrail was damaged. Kishi asked the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base to ground its planes until it could verify they were safe to fly. The wing did not publicly acknowledge that request. Aomori prefecture Gov. Shingo Mimura expressed strong regret that the Misawa fighters were flying again two days after the incident. Americans assigned to the headquarters of U.S. 5th Fleet can get a sampling of India without having to fly or board a ship. Swagat offers south Indian cuisine, a different culinary experience of the subcontinent than the one Americans may be used to back home. The hearty foods common to many Indian eateries in the West chicken tikka masala, aloo gobi, naan come from the countrys northern provinces. The food at Swagat, located in Manamas souk, is lighter but still filling. South Indian foods tend to have less heavy cream, oil, meat and bread, and more coconut milk, lentils and rice. At Swagat, that means you can have a full meal and still be filled with energy to haggle for souvenirs at the nearby gold market. The restaurant may seem small when you first enter, but the upper floor has plenty of tables. As you walk upstairs, youll pass a large menu, where you can see that almost everything costs 1 Bahraini dinar or less. On my first visit, I wanted to try as many flavors as I could, so I ordered a thali for 600 fils, or about $1.60. The waiter brought out the thali, a large, round metal plate, loaded with 10 small bowls each filled with its own dish. One dish had spiced potatoes, and others had yogurt, pickled vegetables, chutneys or fluffy long-grained rice. I sampled each flavor and decided that my favorite was a sweet dessert made from semolina, nuts and saffron. I returned another night to Swagat and ordered a paper dosa. A dosa is like a crepe made of fermented rice and lentil batter, stretched out wafer-thin. This one was formed into what looked like a scroll so large it took up the width of the table. The crispy dosa edges offered a satisfying crunch as I ate with my hands, tearing off portions to dunk in tamarind and cilantro sauces. I washed down my meal with a glass of pineapple juice, light and refreshing like everything else I had tried at Swagat. The friendly waiter, who spoke decent English, recognized me on my second visit. He said most of the clientele at Swagats consists of workers from India, Bahrains largest expat community, marking the place as a local favorite. While the downstairs portion of the restaurant was hectic at times, the upstairs dining area fostered a warm atmosphere, with a few families eating together. The menu includes some dishes from northern India, but I did not have a chance to try them. Instead, I enjoyed the unique tastes of southern Indian cuisine, and I left energized to continue exploring the nearby souk. Swagat Directions: The restaurant is about a three-minute walk from the Bab Al Bahrain entrance to the souk. Uber offers rides from Naval Support Activities Bahrain. Parking outside the souk and walking to the restaurant is the most feasible way of getting there. Hours: 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily; special hours during Ramadan Cost: Most dishes are less than 1 Bahraini dinar Information: Phone: +973 1722 5137 Motion sickness prevented me from achieving my childhood dream of becoming the worlds first astronaut-ballerina-veterinarian. However, I rediscovered my passion for the stars after watching the 2012 anime Space Brothers. This heartwarming film follows two siblings as they fulfill their childhood dream of becoming astronauts for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. JAXAs Sagamihara Campus is less than a half-hour's drive from Camp Zamas main gate, and you can experience the wonders of Japan's space program and score some cool souvenirs for free. When my family arrived at the facility by car, security guards at the entrance seemed surprised to have visitors. At first, assuming we were researchers, they asked for our ID. Once we were able to communicate that we were only there to visit, they led us to a small parking lot on the right. A JAXA employee appeared to walk us into the exhibit area. She spoke English fluently and answered all of our questions about the facilities. We were given hand sanitizer and had our temperatures taken. Then we each had to sign a visitor log. After the formalities, we were given fabric visitors stickers to wear featuring a cute, anthropomorphic spacecraft. Another JAXA employee gave us a file folder with a photograph of the light trail of the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, as it entered Earths atmosphere on December 6, 2020, in Australia. My favorite freebie, however, was a postcard with a photograph from the Nov. 4, 2021, launch of the sounding rocket SS-520-3 from the Norwegian Rocket Experiment Station. The photo has a pearlescent finish that highlights the paleness of the blue sky, the icy landscape, and the white hot streak of the rocket as it tears through the air. The exhibit had several full-sized models of various rockets and spacecraft produced by JAXA, such as a reusable rocket, the RVT-9, and a model of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu, along with descriptions in both Japanese and English. Given that there was a lot of information to read through, my 7- and 1-year-old daughters were mainly interested in looking at the many models on display. Certainly the highlight of the exhibit was the model of the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, which collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu in November 2019 and returned them in December 2020 (as featured in our complimentary file folders). The Hyabusa2 is still in space and on track to reach its final destination, the asteroid 1998 KY-6, by July 2031. There were computer screens displayed showing the real-time location and data of the spacecraft in space. Outside of the exhibit building are two full-size models of launch systems used by JAXA. My family had a great time posing for photos in front of the large rockets. After visiting the Sagamihara campus, we had a greater appreciation for the research done by JAXA and cant wait to visit the JAXA Space Center in Tsukuba next. ON THE QT Location: 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210 Directions: About 20 minutes by car from Camp Zamas main gate. Costs: No admission fee, and parking is free. Times: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. The gift shop is open weekdays only from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Food: The cafeteria has been closed during the coronavirus pandemic, but there are vending machines around the campus. Information: Phone: 42-751-3911; Online: tinyurl.com/32xthr53 Although the website lists the exhibit as closed, that information appears to be outdated. Private tours are also available with a reservation. BAMAKO, Mali A vehicle transporting a Red Cross team came under a hail of gunfire in western Mali, killing a worker for the Dutch branch and the car's driver, the Malian and Dutch Red Cross organizations said Thursday. Witnesses said the gunmen were riding motorcycles when they shot at the vehicle around 6 p.m. Wednesday near Kayes, the aid organization said, adding that the vehicle had been clearly marked with the group's emblem. Two other employees survived the ambush. "The Malian Red Cross condemns with the utmost firmness this incident, which undermines the humanitarian mission aimed at vulnerable populations," the aid group said in a statement announcing the deaths. "Disbelief and sadness," the Dutch Red Cross said on Twitter. "Two Red Cross aid workers have been killed in an armed attack in Mali. One of them was an employee of the Dutch Red Cross. Our flag is at half mast. Aid workers should never be the target." A spokeswoman said that the Dutch Red Cross worker was not a Dutch citizen. "This is terrible news and it touches us deeply. First of all, our thoughts go out to the family members and everyone who knew the affected aid workers," said Marieke van Schaik, director of the Dutch Red Cross. There was no immediate claim of responsibility though jihadis are known to operate in the vicinity. Mali has been battling an Islamic insurgency for a decade now, and much of the country has long been considered off-limits to Westerners for security reasons. While the Kayes region has been less risky than Mali's north, there have been growing reports of extremism spreading in the area linked to a group known as Katiba Macina. Concerns about security in Mali have only deepened since former colonizer France announced earlier this year it is withdrawing its troops from the country after nine years of helping to fight extremists there. The country's military is still being aided by a large U.N. peacekeeping mission that comes under frequent attack from militants. Mali is headed by Col. Assimi Goita, who led a 2020 coup that overthrew the country's democratically elected president. He drew further international condemnation when nine months later, he ousted the country's civilian transitional leaders and had himself sworn in as president. ___ Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed. Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. LONDON A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is "getting worse, not better," despite the secretive country's recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there. At a briefing on Wednesday, WHO's emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about the COVID-19 outbreak there, saying "we have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground." He said WHO has not received any privileged information about the epidemic unlike in typical outbreaks when countries may share more sensitive data with the organization so it can evaluate the public health risks for the global community. "It is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don't have access to the necessary data," he said. WHO has previously voiced concerns about the impact of COVID-19 in North Korea's population, which is believed to be largely unvaccinated and whose fragile health systems could struggle to deal with a surge of cases prompted by the super-infectious omicron and its subvariants. Ryan said WHO had offered technical assistance and supplies to North Korean officials multiple times, including offering COVID-19 vaccines on at least three separate occasions. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the country's first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing. The discussion at the North's Politburo meeting on Sunday suggested it would soon relax a set of draconian curbs imposed after it announced the outbreak in early May out of concern about its food and economic situations. North Korea's claims to have controlled COVID-19 without widespread vaccination, lockdowns or drugs have been met with widespread disbelief, particularly its insistence that only dozens have died among many millions infected a far lower death rate than seen anywhere else in the world. The North Korean government has said there are about 3.7 million people with fever or suspected COVID-19. But it disclosed few details about the severity of illness or how many people have recovered, frustrating public health experts' attempt to understand the extent of the outbreak. "We really would appeal for for a more open approach so we can come to the assistance of the people of (North Korea), because right now we are not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the ground," Ryan said. He said WHO was working with neighboring countries like China and South Korea to ascertain more about what might be happening in North Korea, saying that the epidemic there could potentially have global implications. WHO's criticism of North Korea's failure to provide more information about its COVID-19 outbreak stands in contrast to the U.N. health agency's failure to publicly fault China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. In early 2020, WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeatedly praised China publicly for its speedy response to the emergence of the coronavirus, even as WHO scientists privately grumbled about China's delayed information-sharing and stalled sharing the genetic sequence of COVID-19. BEIJING China's government on Thursday accused Washington of jeopardizing peace after U.S. envoys began trade talks with Taiwan aimed at deepening relations with the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing. Talks that started Wednesday cover trade, regulation and other areas based on "shared values" as market-oriented economies, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It did not mention China but the talks add to gestures that show U.S. support for Taiwan amid menacing behavior by Beijing, which threatens to invade. Trade dialogues "disrupt peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," said a foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian. He called on Washington to "stop negotiating agreements with Taiwan that have sovereign connotations and official nature." Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party's victory on the mainland. They have multibillion-dollar trade and investment ties but no official relations. Beijing says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations. The United States has diplomatic relations only with Beijing but extensive informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. government is committed by federal law to see that the island has the means to defend itself. Zhao accused Washington of encouraging sentiment in Taiwan in favor of declaring formal independence, a step Beijing has said previously would be grounds for an invasion. The trade initiative is "intended to develop concrete ways to deepen the economic and trade relationship" and "advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values," said a statement by the office of USTR Katherine Tai. Taiwan is the ninth-largest U.S. trading partner and an important manufacturing center for computer chips and other high-tech products. President Joe Biden said May 23 while visiting Tokyo that the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan. He said the U.S. commitment to help the island defend itself was "even stronger" following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and expressed support for the island during her second visit in a year to Taiwan. On Monday, China sent 30 military aircraft toward Taiwan in the latest of a series of flights aimed at intimidating the island's democratically elected government. Taiwan's defense ministry said it sent up fighter planes and put air defense missile systems on alert. Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO Another vestige of pandemic life for the U.S. military in Japan is giving way as commands across the country relax their off-base mask mandates. U.S. Forces Japan has amended its health protection order to permit its population to go maskless outdoors where individuals can maintain six feet of social distance. Masks are still required indoors, except while eating and drinking, and on public transportation, including bus and train stations and airports. The off-base mask wear guidance is in alignment with the Government of Japan's guidelines issued in May, USFJ spokeswoman Lt. Col. Brooke Brander told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. Japans guidelines are somewhat more relaxed. They encourage people to remove their masks during the summer to prevent heatstroke, according to public broadcaster NHK on Tuesday. The Japanese are not expected to wear masks even indoors where they can maintain six feet between them and little or no conversation is taking place, according to the NHK report. However, Japan still requires masks in crowded places, hospitals, nursing homes and during rush hour on public transport. Masks have been the most visible sign of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan if not the most controversial. Most people in Tokyo, for example, continue to wear them. U.S. military bases dropped the mask mandate on their installations months ago, with exceptions for medical facilities, among other places. Mask mandates were loosened Wednesday by Naval Forces Japan, headquartered at Yokosuka Naval Base south of Tokyo, and Yokota Air Base, the airlift hub in western Tokyo where USFJ and 5th Air Force are based. Other changes came with the USFJ guidance. The health protection condition is now at Alpha, one step above a routine public health condition that signifies a limited health alert. Restriction of movement, the period of isolation short of strict quarantine required of anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or had recently arrived in Japan, for travelers now applies only to new arrivals who did not take a take a molecular test PCR, for example for COVID-19, before traveling, according to USFJ. New arrivals to Japan with a negative PCR test within 72 hours of their departure, regardless of vaccination status, are exempt from an arrival test and restricted movement, according to the order. Yokotas order specifies anyone over age 2. USFJ reported a seven-day average of 112.7 new cases of COVID-19 daily, with one hospitalization, for the week of May 17-23. More than 50,000 U.S. service members are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa. Japan continues to report tens of thousands of new cases daily. Between May 27 and Tuesday, Japan counted an average of 26,165 infections per day and 34 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. TOKYO Free meals for students on U.S. bases overseas will no longer be available once the 2022-23 school year begins, Navy Exchange Service Command announced Wednesday. Since October 2020, the Department of Agriculture has waived the costs of meals provided by the military exchange services at Department of Defense Education Activity schools overseas. The subsidies aim to ensure that all children had access to nutritious food as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service said at the time. Meal prices in the coming school year will be based on category and grade level, according to a news release from Navy Exchange spokeswoman Kristine Sturkie. Elementary school lunches will cost $3.50, and at secondary schools, $3.75, according to the release. Breakfast for all grades will be $2 but may not be offered at all DODEA locations. Families that qualify for the Free and Reduced Meal Program will pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch, Sturkie wrote. Although no longer free, the Student Meal Program breakfasts and lunches are provided at cost and in accordance with USDA nutrition standards, according to a release Thursday from AAFES spokesman Chris Ward. The department recommends serving students daily portions of whole grains, lean proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat milk. Families that want to receive free or reduced-priced meals are encouraged to apply no matter their economic situation, Sturkie said in the NEX release. Applications can be submitted starting July 1. Applications must be resubmitted each year and can be turned in anytime during the year. KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany Graduation ceremonies have begun at Defense Department schools in Europe, where more than 1,300 seniors are completing their secondary studies. The first batch of graduates in the Department of Defense Education Activity-Europes Class of 2022 walked the stage May 29, when 53 seniors received their diplomas at Bahrain Middle/High School. Most ceremonies are this week. On a stage set up inside Kaiserslautern High Schools stadium on Wednesday, Michelle Howard-Brahaney, the director of DODEA-Europe, told 165 graduates to greet the future with optimism, open minds and open hearts. The experiences youve gained through this will serve you and our country the rest of your lives, she said. A total of 1,375 students are expected to receive their diplomas at 21 schools from the United Kingdom to the Middle East. Graduating class sizes range from seven at Ankara Elementary/High School in Turkey to 183 at Ramstein High School. The high school seniors are part of DODEA-Europes 75th graduating class. The milestone harkens back to post-war Germany, when five high schools opened their doors to the first children of U.S. military members serving abroad. The world has changed dramatically in the 75 years since our mission began, said Stephen Smith, a DODEA-Europe spokesman. However, the spirit of our teachers and administrators is the same now as it was then, infused to the core with determination and innovation. Most of this years graduation ceremonies are being held on U.S. military bases, in facilities such as stadiums and aircraft hangars or in community parks. A handful are off base. Alconbury and Lakenheath in the United Kingdom held their ceremonies this week at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, while Wiesbaden High Schools ceremony will be Friday in the citys stately Kurhaus. Ankaras seven seniors will mark the end of their high school years at a ceremony Friday in the U.S. ambassadors residence. Ramstein cheered on its graduates Thursday in a car parade before sending them off with their diplomas at a ceremony Friday evening in hangar No. 3. Both SHAPE and AFNORTH hold their ceremonies June 10, the last of the DODEA-Europe 2022 commencement events scheduled. The European Union approved a sixth package of sanctions including a partial ban on Russian oil imports after Hungary dropped objections that had been holding it up for weeks. EU ambassadors meeting on Thursday backed the measures, which would represent the EUs toughest yet and are aimed at curbing Russias ability to finance the war in Ukraine, France, which holds the EU presidency, confirmed on Twitter. The measures would forbid the purchase of crude oil from Russia delivered to member states by sea in six months and refined petroleum products in eight months. Pipeline crude would be temporarily spared as a concession to Hungary and other landlocked countries, which rely on Russian supplies through the Druzhba pipeline. The sanctions package will also see Russias biggest bank, Sberbank, cut off the international payments system SWIFT. The same restriction also targets Credit Bank of Moscow and the Russian Agricultural Bank. The measures will be adopted once they are published in the EUs official journal. Sanctions in the EU require the unanimous consent of its 27 nations and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had blocked the latest package of measures for weeks. EU envoys agreed to drop Patriarch Kirill, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church and has been a vocal supporter of President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, from the EUs proposed list of sanctioned individuals, according to people familiar with the matter. Orban first demanded his removal in early May but it wasnt discussed at a meeting when EU leaders met on Monday, the people said. His demand angered many EU ambassadors but they ended up accepting Hungarys demand to ensure adoption. Hungarys intransigence may have destroyed any remaining goodwill with the other 26 members of the EU, one of the people said, adding that Budapest will be more isolated than ever. The package includes a ban on insurance related to shipping oil to third countries, which will take effect six months after the formal adoption of the measures, and aims to restrict Moscows options to divert its supplies elsewhere in the world. During the meeting of EU leaders on Monday, the bloc granted assurances that Budapest could source alternative oil supplies should Hungarys pipeline deliveries be disrupted. EU leaders also made clear earlier this week that this may be the last major package of sanctions for a while as many arent ready to target Russias revenue from natural gas sales. This package is a big step forward, we should pause it right now, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters earlier this week, calling a gas embargo way more complicated. Other measures in the proposed EU sanctions package include: - Banning the ability to provide consulting services to Russian companies and trade in a number of chemicals. - Sanctioning Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast who is closely associated with Putin, according to an EU document. - Sanctioning dozens of military personnel, including those deemed responsible for reported war crimes in Bucha, as well as companies providing equipment, supplies and services to the Russian armed forces. SEOUL, South Korea North Korea says its leader, Kim Jong Un, sent a letter congratulating Queen Elizabeth II as Britain began a four-day celebration marking her 70 years on the throne. North Korea's Foreign Ministry said on its website Thursday that Kim sent a letter congratulating the queen and the British people. It didn't provide further details. North Korea and Britain established diplomatic relations in 2000 and have maintained embassies in each other's capitals despite a steady decline in bilateral ties. North Korea's relations with the West have worsened in recent years as it accelerated its nuclear weapons and missile development in a push to acquire an arsenal that could threaten the United States and its allies in Asia. North Korea has criticized Britain in recent years for supporting international sanctions against the North over its nuclear ambitions and human rights record, and for participating in a new U.S.-led alliance to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines. North Korea has conducted 17 rounds of missile tests in 2022, including its first intercontinental ballistic missile launches in nearly five years, as it pushes brinkmanship aimed at cementing its status as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength. U.S. and South Korean officials say there are signs North Korea is preparing to conduct its first test of a nuclear explosive device since 2017. LONDON Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed" Thursday's events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Friday's service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. "Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country's east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West. With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said. "There's a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends," said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. "And this can go on for quite some time," he warned. Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv had been begging for to shoot down aircraft and destroy artillery and supply lines. Western arms have been critical to Ukraine's success in stymieing Russia's much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday. The Kremlin warned of "absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios" if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia. "This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in the eastern industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing. An estimated 800 people, including children, were holed up in bomb shelters at a chemical factory under attack in the city, the regional governor said. In the neighboring city of Lysychansk, some 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings have been destroyed by nonstop shelling, the mayor said. Britain's Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there has been "some progress" in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but it was too early to give specifics. He said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send the advanced rocket systems, which "really can save the lives of our people and defend our land." Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after Russian forces' abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives. Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother under Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war. A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child. "May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much," she said. Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors. "As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory," he said. Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading. He said "most of them targeted civil infrastructure." British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian analyst, said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms. "Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive," he said. Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive. Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Brink said her top priority "is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression." "There is no place on the planet I would rather be," she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. "President Biden has said that we're going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And that's what we'll do." Brink is Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. ___ Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Press Release May 31, 2022 De Lima welcomes Senate approval of bill increasing pension allowance of elderly Opposition Senator and Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development Chairperson Leila M. de Lima welcomed the Senate's approval on third and final reading of a bill seeking to increase the monthly pension allowance of indigent senior citizens from P500 to P1,000. De Lima, co-sponsor and co-author of Senate Bill (SB) No. 2506, sees the passage of the said measure as "one step towards strengthening our Social Pension program and our ultimate goal to make it inclusive and UNIVERSAL." "As a senior citizen myself, I understand this measure from the advocates' perspective. It is a privilege to age and celebrate the gift of life that God gave us. "But as we reach old age, the decline of senior citizens' productive capacity exposes their sector to various vulnerabilities, and the government must be there to afford them the support they need together with their families," she said. "Sa dapit-hapon ng kanilang buhay, hayaan nating sariwain nila ang lahat ng kontribusyon nila sa lipunan na may dignidad at suportang galing sa pamahalaan. Alalahanin natin ang lahat ng kanilang naiambag sa bayan sa panahong sila ay malakas pa. 'Lahat tayo, tatanda din,''' she added. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), senior citizens continue to be one of the most vulnerable groups of our population. Despite their vulnerability, their number is rising at a rate faster than the country's total population, with the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom) stating on record that the country would have an "aging population" between 2030 and 2035. Under SB No. 2506, which seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 7432, indigent senior citizens shall be entitled to a monthly stipend amounting to not less than 1,000 pesos to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs. It also provides for an alternative manner and form of payment to qualified beneficiaries and mandates the waiving of transaction and service fees, among others. Under the said measure, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is mandated to adjust the amount of the social pension every two years, when necessary. The lady Senator from Bicol stressed that investments on senior citizens is also an investment in the country's economy. "This is not a sunk cost for it will ultimately redound to better health of our senior citizens and greater welfare of their families," she said. "This, in turn, will lead to a stronger and more productive populace. The increased consumption brought about by this measure is just an added bonus for our country's economy," she added. De Lima, a staunch advocate of senior citizens rights and welfare, also filed SB No. 1973 last year expanding the grant of 20% discount and exemption from the Value Added Tax (TAX) of senior citizens to include medicines, supplements, vitamins, herbal products and formulated milk duly prescribed or recommended by physicians. A notorious Russian cybercrime group has updated its attack methods in response to sanctions that prohibit U.S. companies from paying it a ransom, according to cybersecurity researchers. The security firm Mandiant said Thursday it believes that the Evil Corp gang is now using a well-known ransomware tool named Lockbit. Evil Corp has shifted to using Lockbit, a form of ransomware used by numerous cybercrime groups, rather than its own brand of malicious software to hide evidence of the gangs involvement so that compromised organizations are more likely to pay an extortion fee, researchers said. The U.S. Treasury Department in 2019 sanctioned the alleged leaders of the Evil Corp gang, creating legal liabilities for American companies that knowingly send ransom funds to the hackers. While cybersecurity firms have associated Evil Corp with two kinds of malware strains, known as Dridex and Hades, the groups use of LockBit could cause hacked organizations to believe that another hacking group, other than Evil Corp, was behind the breach. Evil Corp is believed to be behind some of the worst banking fraud and computer hacking schemes of the past decade, stealing more than $100 million from companies across 40 countries, according to the U.S. government. Alleged members are on the wanted lists of law enforcement across the U.S., UK and Europe, including accused mastermind Maksim Yakubets, who the Treasury Department said previously worked for Russias Federal Security Service. The 35-year-old Russian man is reported to own a tiger and drive a personalized Lamborghini with a license plate that translates to say thief, according to the U.K.s National Crime Agency. The U.S. has increasingly used sanctions to try to curb cybercriminal operations, including prohibiting American organizations from paying ransom fees to known groups like Evil Corp and cryptocurrency exchanges which are often used to funnel ransom payments. Evil Corps alleged reliance on off-the-shelf software also suggests that sanctions may not be enough to deter the group from extorting money from businesses in the U.S. and around the world, according to Kimberly Goody, director of cybercrime analysis at Mandiant. This shows us that sanctions can be effective in changing actor behavior, such as pushing people to other services, but not always at fully curtailing operations due to the availability of cybercrime tools and services in underground communities, she said. A Treasury spokesperson said it had become aware of such obfuscation attempts, adding that government officials regularly highlight to industry the importance of reporting attacks to so that law enforcement can connect the dots and try to identify the perpetrators. Ransomware attacks typically work by infecting a targets computer by tricking an individual to click on a malicious link while using a corporate device, which in turn infects the organizations network. Once hackers have access to this network or critical files and systems, they will encrypt the data, rendering it inaccessible. The targets are told they can pay a ransom, typically in cryptocurrency, to receive a decryption key and gain access to their systems. Alphabet Inc.s Google announced in March it has agreed to purchase Mandiant for $5.4 billion. NEW DELHI Indian officials held talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan for the first time Thursday since the group took control of the country last year to discuss the distribution of humanitarian assistance, the External Affairs Ministry said. India has no formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, but its envoys have met previously with Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where they have an office. The visit by Indian officials to Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, on Thursday was mainly to oversee the delivery of aid, ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi told reporters. India has said it will follow the lead of the United Nations in deciding whether to recognize the Talilban government. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi received the Indian delegation in Kabul and called it "a good beginning in ties between the two countries." The meeting focused on bilateral relations, trade and aid, Muttaqi's spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said in a tweet. The Indian delegation was led by J.P. Singh, a secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. Muttaqi expressed gratitude for Indian humanitarian and medical assistance to Afghanistan, stressing the importance of the resumption of projects by India, its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and the provision of consular services to Afghans, particularly to Afghan students and medical patients, Balkhi said. The Indian officials said they are seeking positive ties with Afghanistan as in the past, the Afghan spokesperson said. India sent 20,000 tons of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothing to Afghanistan to meet shortages there, Bagchi said. The aid was handed over to the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul and U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization and the World Food Program, he said in a statement, adding that more medicines and food were on the way. Before the Taliban took control, India provided Afghan security forces with training and military equipment but had no troops on the ground. It was also the region's largest provider of development aid to Afghanistan. It has no diplomatic presence left in Kabul after it evacuated its staff ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August last year. ___ Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report. JERUSALEM Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the last two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions. The Israeli military said forces operating in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem opened fire after being pelted with rocks and makeshift bombs. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Ayman Mheisen, 29, was killed. The health ministry later said a teenager was shot by Israeli troops near the separation barrier west of the city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered. The Wafa news agency, run by the Palestinian Authority, identified the deceased as Auda Sadaqa, 17. The Israeli military said three suspects hurled a firebomb at forces operating near the barrier, who responded with live fire. No soldiers were wounded. Late Wednesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Yabed, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to destroy the family home of a slain Palestinian attacker who had methodically gunned down five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in March. The military said Palestinians attacked the soldiers with stones and firebombs, and that the troops exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Bilal Kabaha, 24, was killed. The Islamic militant group Hamas said he was one of its fighters. Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building and lighting up the night sky. Israel routinely demolishes the homes of slain or captured Palestinian militants, saying it serves as a deterrent, despite an internal army report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. The Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment. The Israeli rights group HaMoked said the attacker's parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the home. It filed a petition against the demolition that was rejected by Israel's Supreme Court. Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops in the southern West Bank killed a Palestinian woman who they say approached them with a knife. The West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago. In recent months, Palestinians have carried out a wave of attacks against Israelis that have left 19 people dead. The military has launched near-daily operations across the West Bank that it says are aimed at breaking up militant networks to prevent more attacks. Clashes at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and the killing of a well-known Palestinian-American journalist have further heightened tensions. The Palestinians and witnesses say Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli fire, while Israel says it's not clear if soldiers or Palestinian gunmen fired the deadly bullet. The Palestinian Health Ministry says 63 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year. It does not differentiate between civilians, militants and those who were killed after carrying out deadly attacks. The ministry's count includes Abu Akleh, as well as an unarmed woman and two people who appear to have been bystanders during clashes. CAIRO The United Nations said Thursday that Yemen's warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The development offered a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war though significant obstacles remain to lasting peace. The cease-fire between Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels initially came into effect on April 2. And though each side at times accused the other of violating the cease-fire, it was the first nationwide truce in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab World's most impoverished nation. The announcement, which is the outcome of U.N. efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. "The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties," U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. He said he will mediate between the warring parties to solidify the new truce and to try to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. President Joe Biden welcomed the development and stressed that ending the war in Yemen has been a priority of his administration. "I urge all parties to move expeditiously towards a comprehensive and inclusive peace process. Our diplomacy will not rest until a permanent settlement is in place," he said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "regional and international support will remain critical for the continuation and successful implementation of the truce." The fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict, which eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine. In his statement, Biden also lauded the Saudi government for what he said reflected "courageous leadership" in endorsing and implementing the U.N.-led truce. His remarks came as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have recently pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Biden's initial position was provoked by the gruesome 2018 killing at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi agents, including individuals who worked for the crown prince's office. His remains have not been found. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around the besieged city of Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the Houthi rebels. Later Thursday, the Yemeni government's presidential council expressed its support for the U.N. envoy's efforts and reiterated that that Houthis must be prompted to re-open roads around Taiz, according to the state-run SABA news agency. In a statement, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis supreme political council which runs rebel-held areas, said the Houthis decided to "respond positively" to the U.N. envoy's push to renew the truce in order "to alleviate the suffering" of the Yemeni people, and to allow more time for the implementation of all provisions included in the original cease-fire agreement. In recent weeks, commercial flights have resumed from Sanaa, and fuel shipments have arrived. However, the opening of the roads around Taiz remains a contested issue and both sides have yet to agree on a framework for lifting the blockade on the key city. Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided since the truce first started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. The Norwegian Refugee Council's Yemen director, Erin Hutchinson, expressed hopes that the cease-fire would lead to the reopening of roads so that humanitarian aid can reach those in need and so that more displaced Yemenis could return to their homes. Many Yemenis and observers point to the fact that fighting has been reduced, but not completely stopped. According to the Norwegian humanitarian group, the original truce resulted in a more than 50% drop in the number of civilian casualties in the first month. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, also welcomed the truce extension, expressing hopes it would be conducive to a comprehensive peace. The Saudi-based GCC representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE makes economic policies for the bloc, serving as a Sunni-led Arab counterweight to Shiite power Iran. The European Union's delegation to Yemen welcomed the move in a tweet and underscored the importance of lifting the Taiz blockade. Earlier, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Yemen's humanitarian needs remain high despite improvements since the truce, with some 19 million expected to face hunger this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. "Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year," but only 26% of that amount has been funded, he said, urging donors to pledge money and turn pledges into cash. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. WASHINGTON President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit to Saudi Arabia that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes at a moment when overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for U.S. gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations. Such a meeting could also ease one of the most fraught and uncertain periods in a partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a newspaper critic of many of the brutal ways that Prince Mohammed operates. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June. He could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. The president would also likely visit Israel should he extend his upcoming travels to include Saudi Arabia. Last week, the White House confirmed that NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart. McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudis war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire. For Biden, the political dangers of offering his hand to Prince Mohammed include the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggis killing. Saudi Arabia denies involvement by the crown prince. Still, Biden stood ready to greet the prince at last October's G20 summit in Rome, but Prince Mohammed did not attend. And any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge Saudi rulers would pay the price for Khashoggis killing, Biden vowed on the debate stage during his campaign risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate. Democrats appear less vocal now in demands that the U.S. take a hard line with Saudi Arabias crown prince. Near-record gas prices are endangering their prospects in the November midterm election. A leading congressional critic of the Saudi government, Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, said in an email the United States should reassess its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia. But he and other Democrats are not publicly telling Biden he shouldnt meet with Prince Mohammed. Lawmakers point especially to Saudi Arabias refusal despite months of Western appeals to veer from an oil production cap brokered largely between the Saudi kingdom and oil-producer Russia. The production cap is adding to oil supply shortfalls stemming from Russias invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have privately urged Biden to work to soothe U.S.-Saudi relations as has Israel, which sees the kingdom as an essential player in countering Iran. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday, even as talk of a possible Biden-Prince Mohammed meeting grew in Washington. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. The United States for decades has ensured U.S. or allied aircraft carriers, troops and trainers and missile batteries remain deployed in defense of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, and in defense of other Gulf states. The military commitment recognizes that a stable global oil market and a Gulf counterbalance to Iran are in U.S. strategic interests. From Saudi Arabia, the United States is looking for real assurances that it is going to be firmly aligned with the United States internationally, and not drift toward or hedge by trying to have comparable relationships with Russia and China. That goes beyond just oil, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Shapiro is an advocate of bilateral Abraham accords that have helped establish closer ties between some Arab states and Israel. The United States needs to have some assurance that its going to provide those security guarantees and it has a real partner thats going to be like a partner, said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, often see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as Washington tries to extricate itself from Middle East conflicts to focus on China. Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israel's U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, Shapiro said. Deputy Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited CENTCOM headquarters in Florida last month. Regional coordination was one of the main topics, including, Shapiro said, the possibility of such steps as coordinating the Middle Easts air defense capabilities. Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met last month with the Saudi defense official. Sullivan said he talked energy. CIA Director William Burns visited Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia in April. Biden administration officials bristle at the notion that a stepped-up engagement is simply about getting the Saudis to help ease gas prices. Jean-Pierre said last week after McGurk and Hochsteins most recent travels to the region that the idea that the White House is asking the Saudis to pump more oil is simply wrong and a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue, as well as our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis. The president's words still stand, she added Wednesday, of Biden's pledge that the Saudis would pay a price." ___ Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, on Wednesday finished submitting an application for regulatory authorization of a coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5, according to two people familiar with the matter. The development marked another important step toward providing vaccine for the last segment of the U.S. population that does not have access to shots. The news comes a week after Pfizer-BioNTech announced that three shots of its low-dose pediatric vaccine triggered a robust immune response in young children and was safe. The partners began sending data to the Food and Drug Administration in February. The advance toward a vaccine for infants, toddlers and preschoolers has been an achingly slow and incremental process, with pediatricians and families waiting for an opportunity to vaccinate young children. We recognize parents are anxious to have their young children vaccinated against COVID-19, FDA spokeswoman Abigail Capobianco wrote in an email. She said the agency would move as quickly as possible using a science-based approach. FDA advisers are scheduled to meet June 15 to discuss the three-shot Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine and a two-shot regimen from the biotechnology company Moderna. The agency is expected to act quickly, meaning young children could get their first shots this month. Data on both vaccines has been available only in news releases so far. The FDA review of the details and the all-day session on June 15 with outside experts digging into the data will be critical in showing what is known about how well the vaccines work and any differences between the two regimens. When Pfizer-BioNTech announced the data last week, it unveiled a preliminary analysis that suggested albeit with a small number of cases that its vaccine was 80% effective in preventing symptomatic illness among the youngest children. Pfizer and BioNTech had said the 80% efficacy finding was preliminary and based on 10 cases of covid-19 in the study population as of the end of April. Once 21 cases have occurred, the companies will conduct a more formal analysis of efficacy. The emergency authorization submission includes data on immune responses measured in the laboratory, safety and efficacy, the partners said. Modernas two-shot regimen triggered a strong immune response in young children. And tests in the field showed it was 51% effective in preventing illness in children between 6 months and 2 years old and 37% effective in children ages 2 to 5. Pfizer and Moderna have said their vaccines are safe and tolerable, but the side effects are likely to be scrutinized, particularly the rate of high fevers. Pfizers data may have additional complexity. The third shot was added to its pediatric trial in December after it became clear that two shots failed to muster a sufficiently strong immune response in children ages 2 to 4. The third shot is to be given at least two months after the second shot, but the data in the trial may include a much longer time gap for some children. If there is a longer gap between shots for some children in the trial, it could start a debate about the timing of the shot and whether there should be more time between the second and third shots. If the FDA deems both vaccines safe and effective, it is expected to act quickly. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would then debate how the vaccines should be used, and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky would make a recommendation. About two-thirds of children between 5 and 11 are not vaccinated, according to the CDC. While a vocal segment of parents has been demanding that the FDA move faster to get shots to the youngest children, other parents are expected to move more slowly to get their children vaccinated, or to refuse shots altogether. WASHINGTON President Joe Biden delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to take action against gun violence in an address to the nation Thursday night, calling on lawmakers to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines after a string of mass shootings. If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their outrage to turn gun violence into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He said if Congress won't embrace all of his proposals, they must at least find compromise on other measures, like limiting access to firearms to those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21. How much more carnage are we willing to accept, Biden said after last week's shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack on Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. And those came after the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as racially motivated violent extremism. This time we have to take the time to do something," Biden said, calling out the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to pass legislation. I know how hard it is, but Ill never give up and if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people wont give up either," he added. "I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. All major broadcast networks broke away from regular programing to carry Bidens remarks at 7:30 p.m. EDT, before the start of primetime shows. Biden has used national speeches in the past to speak about the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. But the president has used such addresses sparingly during his nearly 18 months in office, especially during evening hours Earlier Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the Oklahoma shooting, saying, All of us hold the people of Tulsa in our hearts, but we also reaffirm our commitment to passing commonsense gun safety laws. No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough," Harris said. "We need Congress to act. Before marking Memorial Day on Monday, Biden told reporters at the White House that there may be some bipartisan support to tighten restrictions on the kind of high-powered weapons used by the gunman in Uvalde. But he also noted that, while he had taken some steps via executive actions, he didn't have the power as president to outlaw a weapon. He also said that things have gotten so bad that everybodys getting more rational, at least thats my hope," adding, Theres realization on the part of rational Republicans who realize we cant keep repeating ourselves." Visiting Uvalde on Sunday, Biden mourned privately for three-plus hours with anguished families. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, the president pledged: We will. His Thursday night address coincided with bipartisan talks that are intensifying among a core group of senators discussing modest gun policy changes. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said the group is making rapid progress," and Biden has spoken to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, among those leading their party's efforts on the issue. Democrats are hoping Biden's remarks encourage the bipartisan Senate talks and build pressure on the Republicans to strike an agreement. Jean-Pierre said Biden is encouraged by congressional negotiations but the president wants to give lawmakers some space to keep talking. The private discussions in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, are not expected to produce the kinds of sweeping reforms being considered by the Democratic-led House which has approved expansive background checks legislation and will next turn to an assault weapons ban. But even a House package debated Thursday that is less sweeping but includes a provision raising the required age for buying semi-automatic firearms to 21, faces slim chances in the Senate. Instead, the bipartisan senators are likely to come up with a more incremental package that would increase federal funding to support state gun safety efforts with incentives for bolstering school security and mental health resources. The package may also encourage red-flag laws to keep firearms away from those who would do harm. Any major action is still a long shot. While the Senate approved a modest measure to encourage compliance with background checks after a 2017 church mass shooting in Texas and one in Parkland, Florida, the following year, no major legislation cleared the chamber following the devastating massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. __ Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed. WASHINGTON A House panel advanced legislation Thursday that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 as Democrats moved quickly to put their stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by assailants who used such weapons to kill 31 people, including 19 children. The vote came as President Joe Biden gave a prime-time speech about the shootings and told Americans, Let's hear the call and the cry, let's meet the moment, let us finally do something." Partisan positions were clear at the Judiciary Committee hearing, which lasted more than nine hours. In addition to raising the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles, the bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the administration's executive action banning fast-action bump-stock devices and ghost guns that are assembled without serial numbers. The final vote to advance the bill was 25-19, with Democrats accounting for all the yes votes and Republicans accounting for all the no votes. The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised in a letter to Democratic colleagues Thursday that the House will vote on the measure next week, and she promised other votes in the weeks ahead, including on a bill to to create an Amber Alert-style notification during a mass shooting. Pelosi also pledged a hearing on a bill banning military-style semiautomatic rifles. But with Republicans nearly all in opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely putting lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year's elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making rapid progress, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defended his chamber's proposals as popular with most Americans. He dismissed Republican criticism. You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are politicizing' these tragedies to enact new policies?" Nadler said. It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh." Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for? Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted the House bill would do nothing to stop mass shootings. We need to get serious about understanding why this keeps happening. Democrats are always fixated on curtailing the rights of law-abiding citizens rather than trying to understand why this evil happens," Jordan said. Until we figure out the why, we will always mourn losses without facing the problem. Our job is to figure out the why." A chief feature of the House bill requires those buying semi-automatic weapons to be at least 21. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, both were 18 and used an AR-15-style weapon. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy an assault weapon." Thats what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? Theyve got a problem, which means weve got a problem, which means those 19 kids and their parents and those two teachers have a problem, forever," Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., pointed to a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found Californias ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 unconstitutional. I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way to stripping Americans of fundamental rights, Bishop said. The hearing featured emotional pleas from Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to the mass shootings after years of gridlock on gun issues, one of the most riveting coming from Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia. She recalled how her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. She said she dreams of who he would have become. She said racial bias led to his death and those of 10 Black Americans in Buffalo last month and is being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency" in the United States. We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue, McBath said. And we have solutions that a majority of American people believe in. They are common-sense compromises that will keep American children alive. Several lawmakers participated in the hearing remotely, including Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who brandished various pistols in arguing that the bill's provision banning large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds amounted to stopping law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns of their choice. When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, remarked that she hoped one of the guns Steube was holding was not loaded, Steube replied, Im in my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns. It was one of several pointed exchanges during the hearing. Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus. Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure orders requiring the police to seize guns from people considered threats to themselves or others. ___ This version corrects to say Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was the lawmaker who remarked that that she hoped a gun being shown remotely at the hearing wasn't loaded, not Rep. Jerrold Nadler. ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. WASHINGTON NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday sought to underscore the alliance's appreciation of Turkey as an "important ally." He offered the conciliatory words to Ankara ahead of a planned gathering of senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey in Brussels next week to discuss Turkey's opposition to the Nordic countries joining the defense alliance. Stoltenberg made the comments to reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House for what was billed as preparatory talks for the Madrid NATO Summit to be held this month. Stoltenberg said he discussed Sweden and Finland's application to join NATO with Biden and Sullivan and expressed confidence that the alliance would find a path to addressing Ankara's concerns. But Stoltenberg also seemed to go out of his way to note Turkey's value to the alliance. "I think we need to also recognize that Turkey is an important ally. Turkey contributes to our security in many different ways," said Stoltenberg, who noted the country's Turkey's efforts at countering Islamic State militants. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted Finland and Sweden must show more respect for Turkish sensitivities about terrorism since the countries filed their NATO applications. He is refusing to budge over what he says is their alleged support for Kurdish militants. (Tribune News Service) The city of White Settlement has purchased land in the flight path of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth to avoid future development in an area considered high risk for crashes. In September, a Navy training jet smashed into a Lake Worth neighborhood just north of the base, inside the northern crash zone, injuring the two pilots and damaging three homes. The city on Wednesday closed the deal to buy the former Ridgmar Farmers Market and Cowtown BBQ property, under a program that aims to align properties near the airbase with federal safety recommendations. The city used funds from the North Central Texas Council of Governments to purchase more than 4 acres. The final sale price was $2.25 million, according to the former property owner and to the White Settlement city manager. The property, which abuts the south side of the naval air station, had been a farmers market and barbecue joint for years. But the city and the base have raised concerns about its proximity to the runway, said White Settlements city manager, Jeff James. The base is home to about 40 commands with 10,000 active-duty military, Guardsmen, Reservists and civilian employees. The air station runway is also used by Lockheed Martin. Now that the parcel is in the citys hands, it will be repurposed first as a storage area for city vehicles while the public works yard undergoes repairs, and then as a field, James said. These new uses will decrease the number of people who are in and around the property at any given time, which also reduces the safety risks inherent to the location. Its at the end of a runway, so you dont really want a restaurant down there, you dont really want people down there, James said. Those uses will align more closely with recommendations by the U.S. Department of Defense. In an effort to protect both military installations and the people living, working or shopping nearby, the Pentagon has set up crash zone designations near military runways. The Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Bases crash zone extends in mirror images north and south of the ends of the runway. The boundaries of the zone indicate the areas where it is statistically more likely that a plane would crash, because accidents typically occur near takeoff or landing. For each crash zone, the Defense Department makes recommendations on how to most safely use the property. For instance, the properties sitting directly at the end of a runway should not be used for housing or commercial uses, the department recommends. Slightly farther out, housing may be permissible but only if it is low-density. But these are recommendations, not requirements, meaning that many properties within the naval air stations crash zone do not align with federal recommendations. A Star-Telegram investigation after last years crash found that the site had denser housing than recommended, and that there were an additional 200 homes nearby where the Defense Department recommends no housing at all. The former farmers market and restaurant parcel sits directly south of the airstrip, placing it squarely within the area where the military recommends no housing or dense commercial uses. Most recently it was used as a barbecue restaurant and a farmers market. So, those would be two land uses at the end of a military runway that the Department of Defense would absolutely qualify as non-compatible, said Dan Kessler, the Council of Governments assistant director of transportation. Kessler also said that there are additional funds to acquire other properties in the crash zone. The Regional Transportation Board, which is part of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, has set aside $2.7 million to acquire properties in the zone, Kessler said. Three adjacent properties, including the former farmers market property, have been flagged for potential acquisition, according to Council of Governments documents from an April meeting. There is no indication that the remaining two properties will be sold in the immediate future. 2022 Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit star-telegram.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Winston Watusi Music Plus Sometimes you come across a bit of information that youve just got to share. Because one of lifes great pleasures is sharing; be it sharing movies, music or even information. If something brings you pleasure, sharing it brings even more. Youre saying: This brought me pleasure, now I want you to feel that pleasure too. Im a bit of an information junkie so if I come across something I didnt previously know a frequent occurrence and if it pops my intellectual cork, I immediately look for a musical connection so Ive got an excuse to tell yall. Sadly, this week no such musical connection exists. But let me tell you about the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge anyway. It only opened in 2018 and what with Chinas repression of Hong Kong and that ol pandemic, few of us have seen it in person. Here are a few details: its a 55km bridge and tunnel system consisting of three bridges, an undersea tunnel and four artificial islands. Basically, it is all over or under water and cost roughly NZ$25 billion. Maintenance is around NZ$45 million a year. Heres the thing. Theyre very wary of anything happening on the bridge so the general public arent allowed on it you need a special licence. And there are cameras all along the way, checking drivers. And not just any old cameras. These ones detect when you yawn. And if you yawn three times, you are automatically reported to the authorities. True story. Just wanted to share. Glastonbury Meanwhile, music is returning around the world and Englands famous Glastonbury Festival, after two years of being cancelled, has announced a mouth-watering line-up. If I could take a plane anywhere to a festival There are two 80-year olds on the bill, a certain Mr McCartney and Herbie Hancock, and a couple in their late-70s, Tony Christie and Diana Ross. Playing a prestigious slot between Ross and Kendrick Lamar is Lorde. Theres also Ziggy Marley, the Libertines, Billie Eilish, Sam Fender, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Wolf Alice, Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds, Haim, AJ Tracey, Elbow, Foals, St Vincent, Supergrass, Pet Shop Boys, Fontaines DC, Kacey Musgraves, Years & Years, Primal Scream, Sugababes, Suzanne Vega, Richard Thompson, the Waterboys, Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott and literally dozens and dozens more. And thats not mentioning the hundred or so DJs including Calvin Harris and Fatboy Slim. And, closer to home there are local pleasures to enjoy. Jew Brothers Band. All photos: Supplied. Katikati The Katikati Folk Club is back in full swing and on Friday, June 10, will be hosting Aucklands irrepressible Jews Brothers Band at the Arts Junction in Katikati. I hope these guys need little introduction because I dont have the space to explain their good-natured ebullient take on traditional Klezmer tunes and their own songs of a similar style. They are a bunch of fun, and all the better for featuring the likes of virtuoso guitarist Nigel Gavin in their five-piece line-up. Doors open at 7pm and tickets are $20 (members) or $25 (non-members). Its door sales only, with seats limited to 100, so its recommended you arrive early. Looking to later in the year, a couple of gigs at Totara Street have popped up on the radar: firstly Fur Patrol is having another crack at touring after several Covid-cancellations. Theyre at Totara Street on August 19 supported by Wellington trio Soft Plastics, which includes ex-Tauranga musician Sophie Scott-Maunde once taught music by Matt Bodman and a Play It Strange finalist in 2009. The bands latest video, for the song Day Job recently arrived on YouTube. Well connect with Sophie a little closer to the time. Capital Theatre. And Auckland metal trio Capital Theatre is also booked in at Totara Street. Their new album A Hero's Journey drops on June 24 and theyll be hitting the Mount on July 29. They do seem very popular online, with their latest single Delicately Poised apparently being streamed more than 12 million times. Like all online statistics, whether that is real or represents an obscure call centre somewhere in Northern India is anyones guess but, if it is, it probably means they made around $50 on Spotify. Would shorter Council meetings starting at 7pm make you think again about standing for Council? As part of Generation Change / He panoni a reanga, Western Bay of Plenty District Council wants to korero on what changes would allow a more diverse range of people to become a Councillor. Council CEO John Holyoake says to achieve diversity changes to the current Council operating system are needed. Traditionally Council meetings begin at 9.30am on Tuesday and Thursday and are held at Councils chamber at Barkes Corner. It is obvious the existing model doesnt work for the majority of people who have full time jobs or other day time commitments," says Holyoake. We appreciate not everyone can get away from work or pay for childcare, but we cant expect different people to stand if we are excluding them with these restrictions. We want to talk about ways that we could change the model to allow people from all walks of life to stand for Council. Whether retired or semi retired, tangata whenua, a businessperson, community advocate or university student everyone deserves the right to represent their community. Every three years the newly elected Council sets the meeting structure times, duration and frequency but John hopes by having the korero now on what a different model could look like might see a new structure voted in by this years incoming Council. Options include: Meetings running at night after work from 7pm like Councils community boards Meeting duration to be restricted to two hours Meetings one day a month running committees back-to-back rather than on different days Setting a limit of meetings each month Ability to be in-person at Council Chambers or remotely from home Its about thinking differently. Because having different voices around the table makes for more balanced decision making," says Holyoake. But to achieve this there needs to be more flexibility and accessibility for our new Councillors. Regardless of whether you have a full-time job, or other commitments, we want to work with you to make it easier for you to sit on Council by removing barriers and looking at new ways of running things. Were not making any promises, rather acknowledging we need to change too and heres some ways we could potentially do this by working together. Candidate nominations open Friday July 15 and close at midday Friday August 12. Voting documents will be delivered September 16-21 and voting closes at midday Saturday October 8 with preliminary results announced mid-afternoon on Saturday October 8. Visit generationchange.nz for more information on how to stand for Council or a community board, what being a Councillor involves, and how to enrol to vote. SUU Community on the Go Opens Trip to Spain Published: March 18, 2022 | Author: Melynda Thorpe | Category: Academics Cedar City, UT - Southern Utah Universitys Community on the Go adult travel program recently opened registration for its 2022 international expeditions, including an exploration of the cultural wonders of Barcelona and Madrid in October . Throughout the eight-day journey, travelers will be guided by SUU experts in Spanish history, literature and psychology to some of the most spectacular locations in Spain. Experience the culture of Spain from Barcelona to Madrid offers all community members the opportunity to explore important regions of Spain and to learn about Spains art, history and culture. Travelers will also have the added benefit of learning from SUU faculty experts without the stress of planning itineraries or negotiating travel logistics. Explore the cultural wonders of Barcelona and Madrid with exciting day trips to a mountain top monastery and walled, medieval cities led by SUU Professors Jason Stinnett (Spanish), Grant Corser (Psychology) and Jean Boreen, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Renaissance period in Spains history is a remarkable example of resilience and determination, said Dr. Corser, trip co-leader. During this trip we will see a host of 'wish-list' modern and historical sites, experience beautiful scenery, and dive into Spanish art and culture. Travelers will learn historical and cultural contexts for all our destinations while discussing the importance and function of psychological meaning." Arriving in the vibrant city of Barcelona, guests will see the architectural feats of Antonio Gaudi and explore areas like the Gothic district and the famous Las Ramblas. En route to Madrid, by rail, travelers will have an overnight stay in Zaragoza and adventure to Spanish Inquisition sites, remnants of the ancient Roman Empire, and the famous pilgrimage site on the Ebro River. While in Madrid, the group will be guided through the world-renowned Prado museum, Plaza Mayor and many other culturally significant areas. Leaving Madrid, explorers will visit Segovias ancient aqueduct, Gothic Cathedral and former Royal Palace before going to medieval Toledo. The trip will conclude with a lively traditional flamenco tablao and dinner. Community on the Go offers culturally immersive, international travel experiences for adults and is presented by SUU Community and Professional Development. SUU faculty experts curate and lead exploration groups of approximately 20-30 travelers to various parts of the world offering fun, cultural and educational experiences. Activities are flexible and designed using community feedback. Previous Community on the Go trips destinations include London, China, Peru, Paris and Transylvania. For Spain, early bird registration rates of $3,499 per traveler are available through May 31, or until the trip is filled. For more information about SUUs Community on the Go adult travel program, please visit www.suu.edu/onthego , or call (435) 865-8259. Tags: Community and Professional Development Contact Information: Susie Knudsen (435)-865-7759 Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. The draft legislative resolution was approved with 103 votes in favor, 2 against, and 1 abstention. Thus, the Head of State is allowed to travel outside the country from June 7 to 12, 2022. The Summit of the Americas will take place in Los Angeles, California (U.S.) between June 6 and 10. The official letter states that President Castillo will also participate in other Summit-related meetings on June 8, 9, and 11. Con 103 votos a favor, 2 en contra y 1 abstencion, el #PlenoDelCongreso aprobo el Proyecto de Resolucion Legislativa 2169, que propone autorizar al presidente de la Republica para salir del territorio nacional del 7 al 12 de junio. pic.twitter.com/Qnw0Lclu3N In brief: While Taiwan still allows Russia and Belarus to purchase CPUs from businesses within the East Asian country, there are some big caveats: their clock frequencies be under 25 MHz, and performance is limited to under 5 GFLOPS. DigiTimes reports that Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) published a list this week of strategic high-tech commodities banned from exportation to Russia and Belarus. The latter country is included as MOEA believes it could help Russia import such goods. The list, which is in accordance with Category 3 to Category 9 of the Wassenaar Arrangement, covers not only modern chips but also technology that could make or reverse engineer them, including lithography equipment, scanners, and scanning electron microscopes. As for the chips that Russia and Belarus can buy from Taiwan, there are plenty of restrictions; they must not have a performance of 5 GFLOPS or higher. The Nintendo 3DS, for comparison, has a peak performance rated at 4.8 FP32 GFLOPS. Additionally, the exported chips cannot have an ALU wider than 32 bits, more than 144 pins, basic gate propagation delay time of less than 0.4 nanosecond, or an external interconnection with a data transfer rate of 2.5 MB/s or over. Plus, their operating frequency must not reach 25 MHz or higher. The sanctions imposed on Russia over the war with Ukraine have hit its chip supply hard, with Intel, AMD, and IBM stopping sales soon after the invasion began. The situation led to Russia allowing bootleg chip imports and even repurposing components from household items. The government has invested $38.3 billion in Russia's local microelectronics industry in the hope of ramping up production using its current 90nm node and manufacturing 28nm chips by 2030, but Taiwan's new restrictions will likely impact those plans. With sanctions biting, Russia might start using China's Zhaoxin x86 chips, which aren't much use for anything beyond office-based work. A hot potato: In a pair of similarly worded memos sent to SpaceX employees and Tesla executives this week, Elon Musk directed that workers spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week or quit. The CEO's stance on remote work was also clear in another leaked, company-wide email to Tesla staff, requiring that they must work in a main company office and not a remote pseudo location. Whether or not you believe that working from home prevents your colleagues from being productive, Elon Musk certainly thinks his employees at SpaceX and Tesla should return to the office, full-time. The New York Times reports that Musk emailed SpaceX employees this week, demanding they spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week, while those who didn't would be fired. Musk emphasized that senior employees should make their presence more visible, which is why he spent lots of time in the factory with workers on the line. "If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt," he noted. A similar memo was sent to Tesla's executive staff, in which the CEO mentioned the same in-person 40hr/week minimum requirement for employees who wished to work remotely. "This is less than we ask of factory workers," Musk noted, adding that he will directly review and approve particularly exceptional contributors unable to meet this requirement. He also made it clear that the office must be where a worker's actual colleagues are located, and not some 'remote pseudo' office. "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," Musk said, further explaining that while there were companies that didn't have such requirements, it also had been some time since they had shipped a great new product. While hailing Tesla for its achievements, Musk concluded that the company's goal of making the most exciting and meaningful products on Earth won't happen by "phoning it in." The CEO also tweeted a response when asked for comments on his leaked email. In a nutshell: Toyota has created a working prototype of a portable hydrogen cartridge that could make the alternative energy source more feasible for daily use. The idea is similar in concept to a propane tank, allowing users to quickly and easily swap out cartridges as needed. Toyota estimates that one cartridge could supply enough electricity to operate a typical household microwave for 3-4 hours. The canister was developed in conjunction with subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings. It measures roughly 16 inches in length and is seven inches across with a target weight of 11 pounds. The automaker conceded that most hydrogen today is generated with fossil fuels and is used to refine petroleum and make fertilizer. In the future, however, Toyota believes hydrogen will be created using very low carbon emission techniques and will be used in a wider array of applications. Toyota didn't cite any specific use cases for its hydrogen cartridges, but an accompanying graphic depicts use in cars, drones, motorcycles and even to recharge mobile devices. The automaker said the Japanese government is actively working on studies to promote the safe adoption of hydrogen, adding that they are excited to support the efforts. Toyota's main goal, we're told, is to realize a carbon-neutral society where everyone can access clean energy. Their efforts will start in Japan before expanding worldwide. Interested parties can get a closer look at the prototype during the Super Taikyu Series 2022 racing event at Fuji Speedway from June 3-5. Why it matters: Data transfer speeds over fiber optic cables seem relatively finite. After all, even light has a speed limit. There's only so much data that can be crammed into a light package and zipped across a line. However, this has not stopped scientists from looking for innovative ways to move more and more data. On Monday, researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) broke another data-rate record, with an officially recorded speed of 1.02 petabits per second. This rate is 10 Tb/s faster than its previous high-data-rate test in December 2020. And it's more than three times faster than the long-distance test NICT performed last June. To put that in perspective, the researchers pointed out that 1.02 Pb/s is equivalent to sending 127,500GB down the pipe every second or enough to facilitate more than "10 million channels of 8K broadcasting per second." Whatsmore, the researchers say that the technique they used is compatible with existing fiber optic infrastructure, although it is modified for higher speeds and parallel transmission. The custom cable has four fiber optic cores rather than the single core of current lines. Despite this difference, data is only transmitted in one mode per core, meaning existing technology could be retrofitted to receive and read it. Speeds are further enhanced using "wavelength division multiplexing" (WDM). Using WDM increases bandwidth to 20 THz. That pipe is divided into 801 wavelength channels over standard C- and L-bands and the experimental S-band. The team also used new optical amplification and signal modulation technologies to stabilize and amplify the signal. Although the NICT didn't mention further tests, judging by its testing frequency, it's probably safe to expect another long-distance test in about six months. It's worth noting that the team's 319 Tb/s long-distance speed from last year used the same four-core technology as this one but at a bandwidth of only 13.8 THz. Perhaps the team will crank the bandwidth up to 20 THz for the next one and break yet another record. NASA's Parker Solar Probe will soon pass nearby the sun. But, in its 12th sun-grazing mission, it will be 14 times closer to the solar system's central star compared to Mercury. (Photo : Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images) In this handout provided by NASA, The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 12, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity's first-ever mission. This spacecraft is the first one to visit the sun. Although it is just the size of a small car, NASA ensured that it is properly designed to endure the extreme heat emitted by the solar system's solar star at certain distances. "The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, travels directly through the Sun's atmosphere--ultimately to a distance of bout 4 million miles from the surface. Parker Solar Probe launched aboard a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Aug. 12, 2018, at 3:31 a.m. EDT," said the international space union via its official website. NASA Parker Solar Probe To Fly 14x Closer To The Sun Than Mercury According to Space.Com's latest report, the next activity of NASA's Parker Solar Probe will happen on June 1, marking the halfway point of the solar mission. (Photo : Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images) In this handout provided by NASA, The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 12, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity's first-ever mission into a part of the Suns atmosphere called the corona Also Read: NASA Ant Study Reveals Space Laser's Capability To Measure Snow Depth; How Useful Is This? Since it will be 14 times closer to the sun than the first planet in the solar system, the distance that the spacecraft plans to reach is around 5.3 million miles away from the star. This is almost the same distance that it achieved on Feb. 25. When it comes to speed, the Parker Solar Probe can reach up to 364,660 mph. To give you a better idea, it is almost 21 times faster than the speed of the International Space Station. Thanks to this capability, NASA expects the solar probe to reach its targeted distance at around 6:50 p.m. EDT. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), the developer of the solar spacecraft, said that the upcoming sun-grazing mission would encourage NASA and other space agencies to pursue more challenging space activities. Why Parker Solar Probe's 12th Mission is Important JHUAPL explained that the upcoming activity of the Parker Solar Probe is quite essential for space weather observation enhancements. It will allow NASA and other space agencies to understand more about the so-called Alfven surface, the area of a star where solar winds are emitted. If you want to see further details about the importance of the Parker Solar Probe, you can visit this link. Recently, an update for the NASA Mars Orbiter glitch was announced. Meanwhile, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a photo of two dancing galaxies. For more news updates about NASA and its Parker Solar Probe, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: NASA's Next-Gen Artemis Mission Spacesuit Manufacturers To Be Announced; Conference Schedule and Other Details This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For the first time in months, Samsung was able to successfully overtake Apple after the iPhone maker decreased its production volume up to 12.8% in the first three months of 2022. Samsung Leads Smartphone Production According to TrendForce, during the first three months of 2022, the total smartphone production was only around 310 million units. This is because the war in Ukraine and the strict COVID-19 lockdowns in China have weakened the demand to upgrade the device. Samsung was able to defeat Apple because its production sites are located in India and Vietnam, unlike Apple, which relies heavily on its massive production site in Beijing, which was affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. Because of this, it slowed down the production of the iPhone 14. The South Korean brand shifted 73.8 million units in the first quarter of 2022. Apple, on the other hand, manufactured 60 million units. Although it is 11.1% more than its production in Q1 2021, it is still not enough to keep the top spot. Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, Galaxy Flip 3 Nearing 1 Million Sales in South Korea-Surpassing Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy 21 However, Samsung may not be able to enjoy the number one spot much longer. According to ZDNet, sanctions imposed on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine may force the manufacturer to stop shipping its products to the country. This can pressure Samsung's sales in the next couple of months. As for Apple, TrendForce predicts that Chinese brand Xiaomi may overtake the iPhone maker in the second quarter of 2022 if it does not sort out its production issue in its Beijing plant. Meanwhile, other smartphone brands such as Oppo and Vivo are expected to be fourth and fifth on the list. Samsung Tops India's Tablet Sale Not only is Samsung number one in smartphone production and sales, but it is also on top when it comes to tablet sales. According to News18, the South Korean brand overtook Apple as the tablet market leader in India. The company picked up a 40% market share, which is 10% more than its market share in Q4 2021. What played a massive part in the company's higher shipment volume and sales is its new products, the Galaxy Tab S8 and the Galaxy Tab A8. Meanwhile, the iPhone maker only got to release one new iPad tablet. Samsung revealed that the increasing demand for its products in India, and its finance options, made it possible for people to afford to purchase the tablets. The South Korean company was able to go above the $500 bracket, a territory that Apple only reached with its iPads. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for tablets because students and employees needed a device for their classes and work. During this period, Samsung did not have any competition since Apple did not release any tablets in 2020. Experts are now waiting to see if Samsung can keep the top spot in the market, especially now that Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Realme are dipping their toes into the tablet market in several countries, including India. Samsung will have to release more products that will catch the public's interest if it wants to keep its position. Related Article: Xiaomi Overthrows Apple, Samsung in Smartphone Sales Globally-But Growth Might be Temporary This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On June 1, the California Science Center in Los Angeles held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. This 200,000-square-foot exhibit will be added to the Science Center, and it is expected to house the well-known space shuttle that took off 20 years ago, Endeavor. Endeavor is one of three remaining space shuttle orbiters that were flown. California Science Center's New Exhibit The construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is expected to last three years. Once it is done, Endeavour will be placed in a shuttle gallery and in a vertical launch configuration, according to CBS News. The Endeavour will be attached with rocket boosters and an external tank to give off a completely authentic look. The shuttle is five stories tall, has a wingspan of 78 feet, and weighs around 170,000 pounds. Designed by ZGF, the new center will house 150 exhibits all in all, including the exhibit where Endeavour will be put in. The state of California and the California Science Center Foundation raised $280 million to fund the project. The foundation aims to raise around $400 million total via the EndeavourLA campaign program, according to NBC News. Also Read: NASA to Launch $23 Million-Worth 'Space Toilet' to International Space Station on Sept. 29 Jeffrey Rudolph, the CEO of the California Science Center, declared the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center a launching pad for creativity and innovation. He also wants the center to inspire the next generation. Groundbreaking Ceremony During the ceremony, US Senator Alex Padilla talked about California's contributions to science and space. He hoped that the exhibit would encourage and educate today's generation so that they "can lead the legacy." The speaker at the ceremony included congresswoman Maxine Waters, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Former NASA astronauts Barbara Morgan, Gregory Chamitoff, and Garrett Reisman. US Senator Mark Kelly and Governor Gavin Newsom sent recorded messages that were played at the ceremony, according to PR Newswire. The center, which is located in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, is also planning to include a Lucas Museum for Narrative Art, which is dedicated to American film director and creator of "Star Wars" George Lucas. David Knight, who oversaw the production for the Science Center, said that they plan to include the filmed footage of Endeavour's historic move to California and its other milestones in the exhibit. This will be added for educational purposes. When Endeavour was moved to California in 2011, it brought together more than 150 camera operators, including Oscar winner Haskell Wexler and Dan Kneece. The journey of the shuttle began at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the shuttle mounted atop a Boeing 747. The flight successfully landed at LAX and was driven through the streets of LA down to the California Science Center in Exposition Park. Millions of Californians tuned in to watch the historic move, and since arriving at the center, more than 18 million people have visited the shuttle's temporary exhibit. Now that it will have an exhibit of its own, the center expects more tourists to visit. The Hollywood professionals involved in filming the move of Endeavour were also involved in other events related to the shuttle, such as the transportation of its tank in 2016. Related Article: California Science Center Opens 'Journey To Space' 3D Film, Exhibit This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google is combining two of its video-calling apps: the Meet and Duo into a single platform. (Photo : Ramin Talaie/Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 04: Members of the media examine Google's Pixel phone during an event to introduce Google hardware products on October 4, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Google unveils new products including the Google Pixel Phone making a jump into the mobile device market. The move to combine both video-calling apps may help solve the challenges in today's communication tools. According to Javier Soltero, the head of Google Workspace, "What's been really important is understanding how people make the choice as to what tool they're going to use, for what purpose, in what circumstance." Reachability is a primary goal for Soltero, which also led to the integration of Google Meet and Chat into many of Google's other services. However, with all of these additions and integrations, Google's services become complicated and cluttered. For example, now, you can start a meeting from anywhere. However, everything feels and seems crammed together. Also Read: Google Introduces New Interview Warmup Tool The Integration The integration is Google's response to the significant increase in app usage when the pandemic hit. This has led Google to take action to deliver better solutions to users. "The great thing about bringing Teams together is that we've Brough some of the best of both products to each other, strengthened the foundation and... it's now fairly straightforward because of the work we've done over the last few years to take that final step and actually bring them fully together," according to Dave Citron, the director of product for Google's video products Citron. As Duo and Meet join together, Duo will be the default. Soon enough, Dup will also get an update to bring a host of Meet Features into its platform. Also, later this year, the Dup app will be renamed Google Meet, while the current Meet app will be named "Meet Original." Citron added, "The Duo mobile app has a lot of sophistication, especially under the hood. Especially in emerging markets, where network connectivity was sparse or highly variable," he said. Citron also said that Meet is more developed in the web platform, which sets the base of the new combined system. However, in both cases, they want to deliver 100 percent functionality and ensure that no users will be left behind. Google also cleared that users don't need to download an additional app. However, there are still a few kinks that the tech giant needs to fix, such as how users will transition to the new app. This will take a lot of balancing for the company to get it right. Is Duo Getting Removed? The Google Duo app that was introduced in 2016 will not be removed completely from Google's suite of services, especially that it can do a lot of functionalities that you can't do with Google Meet, like the ability to call someone directly instead of waiting or sending links. To put it simply, Duo works like Apple's FaceTime, which is why it's convenient to a lot of users. Related Article: Google Meet Discourages Single Person Meetings: Five-Minute Limitation This article is owned by TechTimes Written by April Fowell 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google Messages responds to a crisis by turning off one of its featured services for the application, the RCS, that supposedly makes texting better in the service. The RCS feature of Google Messages got temporarily shut down in India after a wave of users experienced unwanted ads and spam messages that took over the service. Google Messages Turns Off RCS in India to Avoid Ads (Photo : Google) Google Messages End-to-End Encryption Unwanted ads block most of the text messaging section, and it appears on top of messages, which is annoying for some public members who need the service for their personal or business needs. Now, The Verge reports that Google made an action to combat the unwanted ads, and it is by turning off the Rich Communication Services feature on its Messages app. RCS is a gift for all, as it brings a service that is unparalleled by regular texting that users are familiar with, as it is the service that has ruled for decades now. However, Google's dedication to bringing innovations and new features changed the traditional way, tapping into the unique power of cell towers to transmit RCS data for all. Read Also: Google Messages: How to Delete ALL One-Time Passwords Automatically After 24 Hours Spam Messages and Unwanted Ads in RCS? According to a report last month by 9 to 5 Google, India experienced one of its nastiest problems with a text or chat messaging feature from the company's features. Google Messages saw unwanted ads on its platform, and the company's service is rid of spammy ads that mostly impede their capabilities to send messages and use the app as it is. Google and its RCS Service RCS to RCS messaging gives people a chance to send better text messages from one device to the other, and it would not need WiFi or Data connections to make the message available to others. A recent change in the services brought RCS to a broader view, as Verizon is adopting the feature for their messaging services sent via the SIM cards and through cell towers. However, Apple is not one to adopt RCS as it holds a specific feature on its services known as the iMessage. Unlike Apple, which has a universal messaging application that would send much information over data, Google and Android users do not have it unless they use an instant messaging application. Hence, the RCS is an ideal move for the company in promoting better texting for all, focusing primarily on Android smartphones. Now, this feature is supposedly turned off in India, with the country going back to regular text messaging to reach their loved ones or friends to make conversation temporarily. Nevertheless, people should not fear this as it would not be a permanent thing that Google would employ for its service, especially as it thrives in using RCS. Related Article: Google Finally Brings iOS Reactions to Messages App | Additional Features to See This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samsung jumpstarted the One UI Watch beta program last week for the Galaxy Watch 4 series and encouraged power users to test out the new Wear OS updates before the product's official release. But now, the South Korean tech giant company has launched the first beta update to its enrolled devices. How To Enable the Update? Spotted first by TizenHelp, the One UI Watch 4.5 is finally live for the Galaxy Watch 4 and also the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Along with the update is a firmware version R8**XXU1ZVE7 that weighs 796 MB. The rollout has now commenced in the US and South Korea, and users who want to enable the new update can download it from the Watch 4 Beta plugin. It must be noted that the beta app will only be available for users who have signed up for the beta program through the Samsung Members app. Read also: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Leak Suggests it Reduces Display Crease! What to Expect New Changes, New Upgrades The new beta comes with added features, such as the New Edge/Box Complications and the improved watch screen UI. It has also included an upgraded version of existing watch faces, such as adding a Dial and Index. Additionally, users can also include background animals, characters, and colors. The new upgrade will also enable users to have a dual SIM on their watch and find a UI in the contact section. This means that the user can now choose their preferred SIM for making calls. The existing watch does not have a feature that lets the user select between sims. When you call through the watch, it will automatically be placed through the most used SIM. For the new changes, ONE UI Watch 4.5 will have notable improvements to its notifications, keyboard, calling, and watch screen. The Notifications will particularly reinforce Agif support. This will let users play Agifs on their watch whenever they receive them through incoming messages. The alarm setting was also upgraded with data, snooze, alarm name, and several options. The newest beta will upgrade notifications through a unified composer with draft support that enables notifications to display additional information with subtext field support. Further, the default keyboard will follow up to Gboard through the inclusion of a QWERTY layout and continuous input of voice and handwriting. The update will also feature data and several functions to alarm the watch's settings. Below is the full list of updates for One UI Watch 4.5 Notification Agif msg play will be supported at the message. A new unified composer will be introduced alongside an integrated keyboard, stt, scramble functions, and draft function support . The new subtext field support will display additional information such as a Gmail noti account name. Single unicode emoticon zoom will support noti body enlargement function that consists of one emoticon Call, Contact Dual SIM function & Ul are included. Watch screen New duo edge/box complications are added. The watch screen UI has been upgraded. The watch screen UI has been upgraded. Keyboard Support Qwerty Layout and Continuous Input are added. Support seamless input of Keyboard/ Handwriting/Voice Input was also included. Settings New options for date, alarm name, notification, etc., to alarm setting. Related Article: Samsung to Fall Short on Smartphone Production? Insider Information Reveals-Why? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA discovered a burning exoplanet that is too close to its host star. Because of its orbit position, this heavenly body continues to burn. (Photo : Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt via Getty Images) In this handout digital illustration released on September 15, 2011 by NASA, the newly-discovered gaseous planet Kepler-16b orbits it's two stars. NASA's Kepler Mission discoverd the world orbiting two Stars, the larger a K dwarf and the smaller a red dwarf. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said they have already taken photos of the new super-Earth, and images are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, thanks to the advanced James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The so-called 55 Cancri e is an exoplanet that is 50 light-years away. It is orbiting a Sun-like star. However, unlike Earth-being 94 million miles (151 million km) from the sun-this new planet is only 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km) from its host star. NASA Discovers Burning Exoplanet According to Phys Org's latest report, 55 Cancri e is described by NASA as a hell-like exoplanet. (Photo : Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images) Picture released 04 October 2006 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of a unique type of exoplanet discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. This image presents a purely speculative view of what such a "hot Jupiter" (word dedicated to planets so close to their stars with such short orbital periods) might look like. Also Read: NASA Announces That Their Confirmed Exoplanet Tally Has Reached 5,000 "With surface temperatures far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals, the day side of the planet is thought to be covered in oceans of lava," said the international space union. NASA said that a year on this exoplanet is only equivalent to a few hours on Earth. Since it is so close to its host star, one of 55 Cancri e's hemispheres is locked facing the star. Because of this, the exoplanet is divided into two parts that have very different temperatures. The one facing the sun-like host star is extremely hot, while the other side is extremely cold. In the hot part, the oceans are boiling, rocks are melting, and clouds rain lava are pouring. All these happenings create a thin atmosphere that allows JWST to detect the exoplanet. If you want to see further details about the harsh environment of 55 Cancri e, you can visit this link. Another Earth-Like Exoplanet Discovered While the new 55 Cancri e is too close to its own star, Japan's Subaru Telescope discovered another planet that is in the habitable zone of its host star. Science Alert reported that Ross 508 is located 36.5 light-years away from Earth. This means that it is closer to the planet compared to 55 Cancri e. Although it's the distance from its host star is just right, space experts said that Ross 508 still can't support life. In March, Spitzer Space Telescope spotted the collision of two planets. In 2021, space experts discovered an unusual exoplanet orbiting three stars. For more news updates about exoplanets and other newly-discovered heavenly bodies outside the solar system, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: NASA TESS Satellite Discovers Hidden Exoplanets Within a New Planetary System: Some of Them Could Even Support Life! This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting the United States and other countries across the globe. Now, should you still go on your most-awaited summer 2022 vacation? (Photo : Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images) A sign for Covid-19 Testing is seen at the entrance to Chadstone shopping Centre on June 26, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Victoria has recorded 30 new COVID-19 cases overnight, as testing a blitz has begun in Melbourne suburbs that have been identified as community transmission hotspots for coronavirus. Recently, U.S. residents celebrated the Memorial Day weekend, even though the novel coronavirus infections in the country are five times more compared to the previous records in 2021. Some parts of the United States are still experiencing rising daily infection cases as more and more Americans return to their pre-pandemic habits. But, experts warned that new variants are expected to spread at high levels throughout summer. COVID-19 Summer 2022 According to WDSU News' latest report, the new Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, are now gaining ground against the BA.2 strain. (Photo : Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images) A model of COVID-19, known as coronavirus, is seen ahead of testimony from Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), during a US Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed, July 2, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Also Read: First North Korea COVID-19 Lockdown Now Happening; Experts Say Most Residents Being Unvaccinated is Alarming Previous health studies believed that these new sub-strains are now able to evade the immunity provided by past infections and COVID-19 vaccines. "It's a serious threat. Only a month ago, it was .02 percent," said Dr. David Ho, a microbiology and immunology professor at the Columbia University in New York City. The medical expert, as well as his co-authors, revealed that the antibodies of vaccinated individuals and those who already received their vaccine booster shots are declining against the subvariants of the contagious Omicron. With these details already provided, it is really important to know if you should really go to your summer vacation plans. Here are some factors you need to consider before traveling. COVID-19 Factors You Must Consider Before Traveling In CNN Travel's latest report, Dr. Leana Wen, a health policy and management professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, provided some of the things you need to consider before traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include the following: You need to visit your doctor to check your medical risk for severe COVID-19 illness. Experiencing COVID-19 infections should also be considered since previously infected individuals have low chances of contracting the virus again. You also need to make your plan if ever you get infected by the deadly COVID-19 virus during your summer vacation. In April, FDA approved the new COVID-19 breath test kits. On the other hand, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine received FDA authorization after successful health trials. For more news updates about COVID-19 and other health crises, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: CanSinoBIO COVID-19 Vaccine Receives WHO Authorization After Meeting Health Standards; How Efficient Is Convidecia? This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3's TikTok optimization has been confirmed by Google. This means that users will now be able to use the popular social media app on a larger screen, allowing them to have a better streaming experience. (Photo : Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images) A photo taken on December 14, 2018 in Paris shows the logo of the application TikTok. - TikTok, is a Chinese short-form video-sharing app, which has proved wildly popular this year. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP) For the past year years, tablets and other similar gadgets have been limited when it comes to accessing Google applications. This is because these apps are not designed to work on tablet-focused UIs (User Interfaces). Because of this, Google decided to optimize more than 20 of its Android applications to work properly on gadgets with larger screens. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 TikTok Optimization Arrives! According to XDA Developers' latest report, the apps that Google will optimize, include TikTok, Facebook, and other popular applications. (Photo : Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images) A Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone is displayed at a showroom in Seoul on September 6, 2019. - Tech giant Samsung launched its hotly anticipated first foldable smartphone on September 6, months after faulty screens forced an embarrassing delay of its release. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) Also Read: Samsung to Fall Short on Smartphone Production? Insider Information Reveals-Why? "Big screen, big changes. We're optimizing the Android experience for larger tablet screens. 20+ Google apps will get makeovers so they're easier to use and easier on the eyes," said the search engine giant via its official Twitter announcement post. In the comment section, many fans shared their excitement. On the other hand, there are other consumers who asked Google also to optimize apps on Chromebook devices. Big screen, big changes. Were optimizing the Android experience for larger tablet screens. 20+ Google apps will get makeovers so theyre easier to use and easier on the eyes. Many of your other fave apps are getting updates too. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/qbfs0DLkZM Google (@Google) May 11, 2022 In the comment section, one of the Twitter users said that the Google app optimization in larger screen gadgets is the best enhancement that the tech firm can do for tablets, foldable, and other similar devices. How TikTok on Galaxy Z Fold 3 Looks Like Some of the users had already accessed the TikTok optimization on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. They said that once you open the social media app on the foldable gadget, the application will not be cut off. This means that the app will cover all of your screens, allowing you to see more controls as you browse on TikTok. But, Google still has a lot of work to do to complete its app optimization on devices with larger displays. If you want to see further details about the latest Google app optimization, you can visit this link. On the other hand, some Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 leaks claim that the device will have a reduced display crease. Previously, Samsung's smartphone production was able to overtake Apple, putting the iPhone maker in the second spot. For more news updates about the new TikTok optimization and other activities of Google, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Samsung Launches One UI Watch Beta For Galaxy Watch 4 Series - New Features and Upgrades Added! This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. " " Tarsiers live primarily in the forests of Southeast Asia. They're one of the smallest primates on the planet and a distant cousin of humans. marcophotos/Getty Images The unique characteristics of tarsiers have caused people to call the tiny primates many names since their discovery in the late 18th century: everything from Gremlins and Baby Yoda to Blarp, that tragic looking CGI alien-monkey from the 1998 movie "Lost In Space." So what is a tarsier, and what are their unusual features that make them oddly comparable to some of Hollywood's most notable characters? The tarsier is a small species of primate found living in the forests of Southeast Asia. There are 16 species of tarsiers, and they occupy the dense forests of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. And about those weird features that have gotten them those nicknames: Maybe it's the fact that they can rotate their head 180 degrees? That's a good start. But the most likely reason is their disproportionate eyeball-to-head ratio. Advertisement Tarsiers Are Fascinating Primates To Myron Shekelle, Ph.D., an instructor and research associate in the biology department at Western Washington University, tarsiers are way more than their weird mashup of features; they are a fascinating example of primate evolution. Shekelle has conducted decades of research contributing to what we know about tarsiers and primate evolution. "When I handed in my first grant proposal, which would have been in 1993, or 1994, one of the reviewers commented, 'Shekelle has outlined a career's worth of research,' and now ... I'm just about to the point where I can publish the answer to the questions I posed in that research grant proposal all those years ago," he says. Though every species has different characteristics, tarsiers tend to range in size from 3.5 to 6 inches long (8.9 to 15 centimeters), with tails that can be twice that length, making them among the smallest known primates. Some species of tarsiers have hairless rat-like tails, while others have tufts of fur along the length of the tail or at the end. Tarsiers, like owls, can rotate their head 180 degrees and have round, furry bodies with very long legs. Their ankle bones (tarsals) are particularly long that's where they get their name, tarsier. Their long legs and ankles allow them to jump and leap like lemurs. Their fingers are also exceptionally long, with small sticky pads at the ends to help them cling to trees where they live and hunt for prey. They are the planet's only primate species that is entirely carnivorous. They eat the best that the Southeast Asian forests offer, including insects, lizards and even snakes. " " Tarsiers have long fingers with sticky pads at the ends to help them cling to trees to hunt for prey. Bambara/Shutterstock Advertisement My, What Big Eyes You Have It's impossible to talk about tarsiers without also discussing what large eyes they have. Even for nocturnal mammals, their eyes are enormous compared to their body size they're the biggest eyes of any mammal relative to their body weight. Tarsiers lack a tapetum lucidum, a reflective eye layer that most other nocturnal animals have. "One of the things we know is when you take your flashlight, and you shine it into a forest at night, lots of animals have a very strong eye shine that comes straight back at you. Cats and dogs, lemurs, bushbabies and lorises," Shekelle explains. "Tarsiers don't have that. [Humans], monkeys and apes don't have that." The tapetum lucidum is important to nocturnal vision because it creates more chances for the retina to gather light. "So the tarsier eye had to compensate and became a lot bigger than you'd expect," Shekelle explains. He says that the tarsier's lack of this reflective layer offers researchers an exciting insight into primate evolution. When primates became diurnal, meaning active during the daytime, they eventually lost the need for a tapetum lucidum. "So, it looks like tarsiers spent some amount of time in their history as a diurnal primate. If they then reversed and became nocturnal again, they had perhaps already lost that tapetum lucidum," Shekelle says. " " Tarsiers have huge bug eyes that are missing a reflective eye layer that most other nocturnal animals have. Richard McManus/Getty Images Advertisement Lemur, Monkey or Ape? In 1994, Shekelle and his colleagues identified several new species of tarsiers on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where there was thought to be just a single species. Since the first scientific description of tarsiers was published around 1777, scientists have debated where tarsiers belong on the primate evolutionary tree. They jump, climb and live like lemurs. In contrast, they have similar characteristics to apes and humans, like their lack of a tapetum lucidum. "At the level of genomic data, where we can look at really major changes, the evidence is becoming clearer that tarsiers are our cousins that are related to the monkeys, apes and humans, and they belong in a group we call Haplorhini," Shekelle explains. Wait tarsiers are our cousins? Based on the available data, Shekelle says, yes, that's what the data show. " " You can see from this little tarsier why people have called them everything from Gremlins to Baby Yoda. Stuart Westmorland/Getty Images Advertisement Tarsiers Do Best in Their Habitats Tarsiers are notoriously elusive and difficult to study, especially without the dead giveaway eye shine that other nocturnal species have. Don't bet on seeing them at the zoo, either, because they do poorly in captivity. "Every single group that has been brought into captivity has seen its population go down either very quickly or less quickly, but they all die eventually," explains Shekelle. "I don't think that it has to be that way." Tarsier conservation is becoming an increasingly important topic as some species of tarsiers have made the endangered or vulnerable species list due to their small size, limited population, lack of protected areas, and deforestation and mining. The island of Sangihe in Indonesia has an endemic species of tarsiers the Sangihe tarsier (Tarsius sangirensis) meaning they are only found there. The Sangihe tarsier was recently added to the list of 25 most endangered primates in the world after the island opened to gold mining. Because there are more tarsier species than scientists studying them, Shekelle says it's difficult to know precisely how endangered some species are across these many islands. In fact, he says there's an even smaller island between Sangihe and Sulawesi called Siau Island. It's only about 38 square miles (100 square kilometers) and is home to a critically endangered species he wrote about in 2008 called Tarsius tumpara. Shekelle hopes that more tarsier species won't become critically endangered with some intentional conservation efforts. "If we keep tarsiers in their habitat, like in Indonesia, and we simply throw a 'cage' around them and use somebody who actually knows how to keep tarsiers alive," says Shekelle, "they stay alive, and they breed." It's a systematic process to get tarsiers into a properly controlled environment that requires time, expertise and financial investment. Now That's Interesting Tarsiers are some of the oldest primates on the planet. Fossil records show they once lived all over the world, including in North American and Europe, and date back at least 55 million years. YEREVAN, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. Since 2001, June 1 has been celebrated around the world as the World Milk Day by members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), drawing public attention to the importance of milk as a globally important food. The aim of the day is to promote the widespread use of milk and dairy products in the society, to raise the level of awareness about other aspects of natural milk production: origin, nutritional value, economic significance. By the decision of the UN, the events dedicated to the World Milk Day in 2022 are held under the rubric "Enjoy Dairy". On June 1, a press conference-discussion dedicated to the World Milk Day took place at the Yeremyan Projects Culinary Arts and Hospitality Academy. The press conference, in line with the theme of the day, started with a glass of milk. RA Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan congratulated on the World Milk Day and thanked for such initiatives: "This branch of agriculture is always in the center of our attention, we support it with various programs and tools, we try to promote both the development of production and the involvement of new investments. The production of quality milk is a complex process in itself; it is with pleasure to see that there are organizations that have adopted the principles of high quality milk production, work in a complete closed chain, present high quality products to the consumer". "This day is very symbolic. "Today is the International Children's Day, as well as World Milk Day, which is so important for the healthy and sustainable development of children," said David Yeremyan, Generel Director of Yeremyan Project and added "By joining the World Milk Day campaign with this symbolic event we will continue the "Milk is Love" public awareness campaign aimed at creating and spreading a new culture of using milk and popularizing the usefulness of dairy products". "Working with quality food is the priority principle of our 15-year-old company. When we realized that it is becoming more difficult for us to find dairy products that meet our standards and requirements, in 2019, within the framework of the "from seed to table" concept, we established our full-cycle farms equipped with the latest technology, foddle mill, dairy factory, imported purebred milk and meat-type cattle, and we presented our range of dairy products into the consumer market. Davit Yeremyan also added that the milking process as well as fodder feed distribution in the Company's farms are automated, the milk then reaches the factory by special vehicles without contact with the external environment, as a result of which it retains its taste and quality features. According to Davit Yeremyan, the involvement and cooperation of all structures is necessary to ensure quality dairy products in the market and to popularize the culture of milk consumption. Nanna Skau, Deputy Director and Officer-in-Charge of the UN World Food Program in Armenia, stressed the role of state-business-international cooperation mechanisms in promoting quality milk and dairy production. It is very important that "International Milk Day" is also celebrated in Armenia. Especially now, when we have the problem of food security all over the world, such initiatives raise these issues once again and help children, in particular, to use products which are healthy, natural and rich in vitamins, such as milk. Healthy children are our future, so this is for the future of Armenia. During the press conference-discussion the speakers touched upon the issues of ensuring food security, strengthening the capacity of producers, farms, increasing the profitability of agriculture, as well as the directions of possible involvement of all stakeholders in the sustainable development of the sector. Vahe Danielyan, Head of the Food Safety Department of the RA Food Safety Inspection Body, mentioned that. "Recently, a positive dynamics is observed as a result of control carried out in the activities of both milk production and processing companies. Producers, from milk to finished products, should not allow it to undergo quality and safety changes, it is welcome that we have organizations that carry out the production process in a closed cycle. Vahe Hovhannisyan, head of the Strategic Development Agency (SDP) NGO's "Livestock Development in Armenia: South-North 2" program, added that. "One of our target directions is the milk value chain, within the framework of which we have implemented many programs. We have improved production, provided financial and professional support to farmers, and established leading farms. And all this in order to ensure the quality of milk". Milk production is one of the most important components of the food market as well as one of the main branches of agriculture not only in the whole world, but also in the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, it is very topical for Armenia to raise the issues of creating a qualitatively new culture of milk production with regards to food security and providing natural, clean products and outlining solutions to them. The number of people who repay their mortgages early has increased, and the property market has cooled down and they feel that they are "on the top of the mountain" in interest rates YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The UN has approved Turkeys official request to change the countrys name in all official documents in foreign languages so it will be spelled according to Turkish phonetic norms, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric told the Anadolu news agency, reports TASS. According to the news agency, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres received a letter by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, requesting the use of "Turkiye" instead of "Turkey" in the international arena. The spokesman said the country's name change became effective from the moment the letter was received. Thus, all international forums and official documents from now on will use Turkiye, the way the countrys name is pronounced and spelled in Turkish. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Any escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border negatively affects all processes, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan told reporters today. This was the reason that before the delimitation and demarcation processes we were proposing the withdrawal of troops in a mirrored fashion so that there will be stability in the border, Armen Grigoryan said. He stated that the border security remains on the agenda. We will discuss, and I hope we will find solutions so that there wont be border escalations. Two House-passed bills to aid students who are bullied, sexually assaulted, or who are stuck in troubled public schools were killed Wednesday night amid criticism from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bodi White. One of the bills, by Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, would allow students who are bullied and assaulted to leave and win access to the $5,400 per year in state aid to attend private school or pursue other education options. It is House Bill 452. The other measure would do the same for students of military families, those in foster care and children unable to transfer out of D- and F-rated schools. Advocates praise proposed bills allowing Louisiana families to pick schools, receive aid Officials of two groups Monday praised the push to revamp Louisiana public schools by allowing students to leave classrooms and take the state It is House Bill 33 by Rep. Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice. Both of the proposals were shelved at the urging of White, who said his committee got 200-300 bills in recent days, just ahead of adjournment on Monday at 6 p.m. "We do not know what kind of effect they are going to have," White said. "It is impossible to go over them one by one and figure out how to finance them," he said. "That is our job." Freiberg opposed the push to have her legislation studied, saying it made more sense to let it take effect and see how it does. "I think it is a critical issue in this state and I know most of you do too," she told the committee. Bill to let students leave public schools, and take the money, clears first hurdle Louisiana children would be allowed to leave public schools and take the state aid with them under a bill that won approval Wednesday in the H DeVillier noted that it was the second consecutive year that his plan breezed through most of the Legislature before dying near the finish line. "I just worry about the kids in failing schools," he told senators. "They are not going to have another option." Both bills were backed by The Pelican Institute for Public Policy and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. "Last night's inaction on two parental choice bills was extremely disappointing," Erin Bendily, vice-president for policy and strategy at the Pelican Institute, said in an email. "In a state where half of young kids are reading on grade level, where the highest performing public schools have less than half of kids performing at proficient levels and where bullying ranks the sixth highest in the nation, families with school age children need a lifeline," Bendily said. "Now isn't the time for another study. The Louisiana Department of Education conducted one on these programs just last year. It's time for action." The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up That study stemmed from a 2021 request by state lawmakers. Freiberg's bill won House approval 66-18. DeVillier's bill passed 76-25. Both also won approval in the Senate Education Committee before being sent to Senate Finance strictly to review their impact on the state budget. Lawmaker shelves bill that would let students leave public schools, pursue other options The sponsor of a bill that would allow public school students to use taxpayer dollars to leave and pursue a private school education or other Both bills were said to cost about $224,000 per year. Backers of the bill said the money is already in Louisiana's $39 billion operating budget. The bills would set up education savings accounts, and allow qualified families to access annual state education aid. Opponents called the accounts thinly-veiled vouchers. They said they would benefit well-to-do-families but hurt low-income families by leaving too big a gap for private schools or other options. Backers noted that, just before Freiberg's bill was shelved, Shannon Flores, a single mom who lives in Denham Springs who waited for more than eight hours to testify on another bill, said her oldest daughter was bullied and sexually assaulted in school. "Parents of children should have a choice of schools where their children could function academically," Flores said. That proposal, House Bill 194, would allow students with special needs to leave public schools and take the state aid with them. It won committee approval and next faces action in the full Senate. A fourth measure, Senate Bill 203, would do the same for students with reading problems. It passed the Senate 24-13, won House approval on Thursday 70-26 and was amended to include key parts of the Freiberg and DeVillier bills. The measure next faces action in the Senate. Press Release May 31, 2022 Another gov't witness fails to link De Lima in drug trade, denies transacting with her - Lawyer Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima's camp shared that the recent Prosecution witness failed anew to link the Senator to the alleged illegal drug trading inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) after admitting that he did not have any transaction with the Senator. Atty. Filibon "Boni" Tacardon, one of De Lima's legal counsels, shared that during the hearing, the testimony of Prosecution witness, convicted murderer Joel Capones, highlighted two major points which support De Lima's innocence. "Una is inamin niya sa kanyang cross examination na wala syang transaksyon at hindi nya kakilala si Senator De Lima at kung meron man siyang naging transaksyon, engaged sa illegal drug trade, ito ay kay Jaybee Sebastian lang. "Pero dahil wala na, namatay na si Jaybee Sebastian, hindi na mapapasubalian ni Jaybee Sebastian ang sinasabi nyang transaksyon nya tungkol sa ilegal na droga," he said. "Pangalawang punto na tingin namin na maganda ay nung tinanong sya--nung unang tinanong sya sa direct examination, ang sabi nya nakita nya na may inabot na pera daw si Jaybee Sebastian. Pero nung tinanong ulit namin yun nung cross examination, exact words na sinabi nya ay 'anong pera'?" he added. During the hearing, Capones denied personally knowing De Lima and her former aide Ronnie Dayan, and having personal transactions with them. The hearing before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court, Branch 256 last May 30 was the continuation of the cross-examination of Capones, who alleged that De Lima received drug money from Sebastian - a claim the Senator has firmly denied. With another witness failing to link De Lima to illegal drug trade, Tacardon believed that the Prosecution still has not yet presented strong and sufficient evidence to justify the Senator's continued unjust detention. "Well, so far, we believe na wala pang matibay na ebidensya na naipapalabas ang Prosecution na magju-justify ng continued detention ni Senator De Lima habang dinidinig yung kaso na ito," he said. In his previous testimony, Capones confessed, in open court, his participation in the commission of the crime of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, together with his 13 mayores in Sigue Sigue Sputnik Gang. De Lima's camp previously filed a complaint against Capones and his gangmates for illegal drug trading before the Muntinlupa prosecutor's office, which dismissed it. In seeking reconsideration of the dismissal of complaint against Capones, De Lima's lawyers stressed that "To be clear, we are not questioning the legal principle that a mere confession, and indeed the mere testimony of an alleged co-conspirator, which is not corroborated by the corpus delicti, is insufficient to put a person on trial, much less for conviction. "That has been our unwavering position since 2016. But this complaint against Capones is at the preliminary investigation stage, and yet the DOJ cannot even be moved to lift a finger and issue a subpoena to get him to answer for his own self-confessed crimes? By the same token, the cases against the Senator should never have progressed beyond the DOJ preliminary investigation back in November 2016. Instead, they did their best to waste five years of a human being's life, and an elected Senator's mandate out of fear of the truth she speaks." Prior to Capones testimony, self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, former Bureau of Corrections Officer-in-Charge Rafael Ragos and De Lima's former aide Ronnie Dayan recanted their allegations against De Lima, claiming that they have been coerced and threatened by state agents and key government officials of the Duterte Administration. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia has prepared a very serious package of reforms both in content and physical infrastructure terms for the Vazgen Sargsyan Military University, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting today. You know that we are entering a very important stage of Armed Forces reforms, and this decision [on providing state apartment to an officer who graduated from the military university], I think, should have a vital significance because I have talked about this when I was serving as an MP that its a big problem for us when an officer is serving in Armenia with a rank of a colonel, but has spent most of his life in mountains, so how he could take care of the needs of his apartment? In other words, if there are no proper state mechanisms, its a problem, and with this we want to completely solve this problem, the PM said. He reminded the mortgage program for servicemen which is quite demanded. He said the funding for this program should also be raised. We should move on this path in order to create an opportunity for the serviceman to focus on his professional work by having many social guarantees, the PM said. When Victorias royal commission into Crown Resorts tabled its report last year, it recommended that the maximum fine that could be levied against the casino for a breach of its licence should be increased from $1 million to at least $10 million. By the time new state legislation had been introduced late last year, the maximum fine had been lifted to $100 million. It was initially not clear whether this dramatic increase was political showmanship by the Andrews government, which had been caught napping while overseeing gambling in the state, or was a serious attempt to finally introduce fines of a scale that reflected the disgraceful litany of legal and ethical breaches that the royal commission had found. Victorias royal commission exposed a litany of legal and ethical breaches at Crown. Credit:The Age This week the question was answered. Crown Resorts was hit with a record $80 million fine over the illegal practice of accepting Chinese bank cards at its Melbourne casino to fund gambling and disguising the transactions as hotel expenses. As the royal commission detailed, the casino always knew that the practice, which ran between 2012 and 2016, was legally suspect, but considered it the best way to get around Chinas restrictions on Chinese nationals transferring money out of the country. The limit at the time was $US50,000. To get around this, Crown would charge international VIP patrons a room charge with false expenses of up to $500,000, then allow the patron to pay for it using a credit or debit Chinese-based bank card. Once paid, the amount would then be exchanged for cash or chips. The scheme was discussed for years within Crown, and red flags were raised on several occasions about its legality but nothing was done. AB [INTRA], Roslyn Packer Theatre, June 2. Until June 11 Figures emerge and disappear in a theatrical mist in this work, which uses the latin term for within as its title to refer to the inner thoughts that inspired the mind of its maker, Sydney Dance Company artistic director Rafael Bonachela. The technical quality of this new generation of dancers is excellent. Credit:Laurent Phillip It is the most interesting piece he has choreographed for the company, first appearing in 2018 with a group of dancers who had been with SDC for some time and had made their mark as individuals. This group is mostly a new generation, and their technical quality is excellent, as usual with the SDC. How fortunate we are to be able to say that. But I do miss the originals and the character they brought to the choreography. This brings the large ensemble together in a variety of ways. Sometimes they move together in inventive clusters. More often, they provide an action jigsaw of movement that frames the duets and solos. Not for long, however. As the true story, laced with a few new lies, emerges tweet by tweet, Rahim goes from hero to a thundering zero in a couple of bewildering weeks. This sort of fall from grace is normal, says Farhadi, although the process is accelerated and amplified in our time by social media. Anyone riding high on sudden popularity is ready to fall or, in current usage, to be cancelled. When we make someone an idol, we expect that person to make no mistakes, says Farhadi. And that, of course, is impossible. Basically, the mistake Rahim makes is no different from anyone else, but in that position under the spotlight it has more consequences. Farhadi cant remember when he first knew he wanted to spend his life telling stories. I know it happened gradually. All I know is that when I would hear stories told by members of my family, that was one of the most exciting things happening when I was young. And it still is the most exciting and interesting thing in life for me, hearing other peoples stories. Each person has hundreds of stories in their lives that many people dont know. When somebody passes, those stories pass too. Hero stories such as Rahims, on the other hand, are something of a staple in the Iranian media. Its a kind of propaganda, says Farhadi. They make that person an idol and encourage other people to act like them. But usually, they get forgotten very fast and this rapid ascent and descent ruins their lives. Farhadi traces his own interest in this phenomenon back to university where, as a theatre student, he saw Bertolt Brechts The Life of Galileo, the 16th-century physicist who was both lauded and vilified as a heretic by the Catholic Church. I would always follow news stories about this concept of creating a hero in society. I chose one for a free interpretation in my film, based on this idea. But the news story was only the starting point, he says. The rest I made up. Loading How much he made up is the substance of a legal dispute in Iran, where a former student of Farhadis, Azadeh Masihzadeh, has accused him of copying the story from a documentary she made about a real case in which a man found and returned a bag of gold coins. Farhadi doesnt deny using the same news story but maintains it was in the public domain and widely known. Both of these films have the same idea, he says. And that idea is the idea I brought to my workshop in 2014, about the people who find something valuable, return it to the owner and then become heroes in the media. All my students tried to make a work based on this idea and stories they found in the newspapers. Masihzadeh made a short documentary called All Winners, All Losers, which screened at a festival in 2018. Following the equivalent of a committal hearing, the plagiarism case will go to court. Possible penalties, according to news reports, include forfeiting to Masihzadeh all profits from A Hero which was sold to Amazon in the US or prison. Amir Jadidi plays a man whose story unravels in spectacular fashion in A Hero. Farhadi is phlegmatic about the whole business. We firmly believe that when the experts on copyright give their opinion, we will get the [right] result, he says. This is not anything special or unique. Every year in Iran, there are one or two cases like this. Perhaps he is just used to trouble. According to his long-time French producer, Alexandre Mallet-Guy, each of Farhadis films has been accused by conservatives in Iran of presenting a negative image of the country, while liberals accuse him of letting the regime off the hook. His solution has been to alternate between making films at home and abroad, Mallet-Guy told the Hollywood Reporter. Just so the situation can die down, he said. Its very difficult for him. Farhadi says he has a sense of social responsibility in his filmmaking but within the language of cinema. And I want to emphasise the language because I dont want a social responsibility to take anything away from that, he says. Meanwhile, he steers clear of making obviously political statements, even if some of his public pronouncements might sail close to the wind at home. Loading At last years Cannes Film Festival, for example, he told the press he would like to improve something in the world, his ideal being a future where a child could ask any question freely; nothing would be forbidden in a world without taboos. A critical statement, but couched in the vaguest possible terms. He did draw the line, however, at accepting a special dispensation from former US president Donald Trumps travel ban on Muslims to attend the 2017 Academy Awards. The Salesman won the award for best foreign-language film. Iranian astronaut Anousheh Ansari stepped up to accept it with a speech given to her by Farhadi that could stand as his epitaph. It could, in fact, be the epitaph of our era. Filmmakers create empathy between us and others, he wrote. An empathy which we need today more than ever. That empathy is the guiding spirit of A Hero. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Director Rowan Devereux sees his first film as the opposite of The Castle. Yes, its a low budget Australian film. And, yes, its a warm-spirited comedy. But while the 1997 classic was about owning a home, Devereuxs Evicted: A Modern Romance is about the horrors of renting. Finding an appealing new home for affordable rent in the inner suburbs is even tougher than getting a cheap pair of jousting sticks. A promised second bedroom might turn out to be only reachable by climbing a rope ladder up to an attic. A house may seem ideal ... until you notice one room is blocked off by crime scene tape. An unhelpful real estate agent from one inspection is the same unhelpful real estate agent working for a different company at the next inspection. These scenarios confront four desperate housemates, played by Amanda Maple-Brown, Will Suen, Rose Haining and Clare Cavanagh, who are being evicted from their longtime rental house in Sydneys inner west. Its the castle they dont own, Devereux says. Evicted, which is having a world premiere at Sydney Film Festival, follows the housemates as they hunt for a new home while being buffeted about in the gig economy and facing family and romantic calamities. Advertisement Devereux, who is joined by producer Sophie Saville and three of the actors who play housemates to share rental market war stories, is thrilled their film is in the festival. Its a Sydney film so this is the perfect opening for us, he says. Not surprisingly, Evicted was inspired by being evicted. Devereux was being turfed out of his third home in three years - this one was being demolished for a townhouse development - when he went to a party and shared his angst to friends. The team behind the rental market comedy Evicted: A Modern Romance, from left, actor Amanda Maple-Brown, producer Sophie Saville, writer-director Rowan Devereux and actors Rose Haining and Clare Cavanagh at the State Theatre ahead of the world premiere at Sydney Film Festival. Credit:Jessica Hromas Everyone had the same story - just being constantly moved around and not really having a stable location, he says. He started writing what he sees as a film about his generation, who have grown up with that cliched Australian dream of owning a house but who find it ever more difficult to achieve. Im in my 30s and I still live in a share house and that dream just keeps moving away, Devereux says. So I wanted to talk about generational change [in the film]. Its just become too unaffordable. Advertisement He thought he had pushed the comedy too far with a scene that had the hapless housemates inspecting a house that had a toilet in the kitchen. Then I had an inspection that week - a townhouse in Marrickville, Devereux says. I was looking at the oven and opened what I thought was the pantry and it was the spare toilet - thee feet away from cooking utensils. Its not a house, its a home. The Kerrigans in the 1997 movie, The Castle. Credit: Cavanagh has had a similar experience. I inspected an apartment on King Street once that was exactly the same, she says. The toilet, the whole bathroom, was literally in the kitchen. Maple-Brown has been friends with Devereux for many moves into many homes. Its been like a house party? Another one?, she says. Its a constant housewarming. Advertisement The modern romance of the title refers to the connection that tenants often have with their longtime share homes. You end up being there so long that you feel a kind of affection for it, Devereux says. And it becomes a found family. All the characters in the film have questionable relationships with their parents so they find each other and theyre held together by the house. There is a very inner Sydney scene in Evicted where two of the housemates try to have a serious relationship discussion in an oh-so-trendy coffee shop jammed into a tiny lane between a house and a fence. Getting serious: the housemates from Evicted: A Modern Romance. Credit:Sydney Film Festival That was a real fun scene, Haining says. And it actually was a very tight space that we were trying to work with. It is always surprising how many low to microbudget films get made around the country every year. According to Screen Australia, 45 feature films were shot for less than $1 million in the five years to 2020-21. And some, like Evicted, cost a lot less. Advertisement So how do they do it? Devereux says the budget was $100,000 roughly, partly raised by crowdfunding and extended in clever ways. Three years ago, a film shot for just $4000 screened at the festival. Former Australian Film Television and Radio School student Imogen McCluskey made the drama Suburban Wildlife by recruiting fellow students and friends who were prepared to forgo fees to get a start in the industry and using the schools equipment. If you like Australian films, here are eight others to catch at the festival We Are Still Here: The opening night attraction is an anthology film, consisting of eight interweaving shorts from mostly emerging directors, that is a celebration of Aboriginal, Maori and South Pacific Islander resilience. Blaze: Artist Del Kathryn Bartons debut, which combines live action, animation and puppetry, focuses on a 12-year-old girl (Julia Savage) who unleashes her imaginary dragon after witnessing a brutal crime. You Wont Be Alone: Goran Stolevskis poetic supernatural tale, which stars Noomi Rapace, is about a young shapeshifting witch experiencing what its like to be human in a 19th-century Macedonian village. Seriously Red: Gracie Ottos musical comic drama has chaotic Red (Krew Boylan), who performs a triumphant version of 9 to 5 at an office party, becoming a Dolly Parton impersonator. Lonesome: Craig Borehams queer romance centres on two young men (Josh Lavery and Daniel Gabriel) who hook up for intense sex then find they are drawn closer together as they reveal past traumas. Nude Tuesday: Armagan Ballantynes Australian-Kiwi collaboration, performed in sub-titled gibberish, is about a couple (Jackie van Beek and Damon Herriman) trying to save their marriage at a new-age retreat. 6 Festivals: Macario De Souzas drama has three teenage friends (Yasmin Honeychurch, Rasmus King and Rory Potter) launching themselves into a whirlwind of music festivals after one gets a devastating diagnosis. Sissy: A horror film from Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes about a wellness influencer (Aisha Dee) who runs into her childhood bully (Emily De Margheriti) at a hens weekend in the country. The budget went largely on a film students version of catering - pesto pasta, hummus and carrots - production design, costumes and filming in an Airbnb when they could not source a free location. The just-as-resourceful Devereux and Saville had more money and one advantage - they had a production company, The Story Mill, that had equipment they could use to shoot Evicted. They also called in favours for free locations. All the houses were basically my friends houses, Saville says. I somehow convinced a lot of my friends to let us have 30 people in their house and take it over for a day ... or five days. Advertisement It was pure happenstance that threw Baz Luhrmann and Alex Timbers together at the same dinner party in 2013. They talked theatre and film, and bonded over their mutual regard for the oeuvre of renowned British director Ken Russell. Timbers directed and wrote Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, an emo music stage romp through the life of Americas seventh president. Luhrmann was keen to adapt his iconic 2001 musical movie Moulin Rouge to the stage and emailed Timbers the next day. Moulin Rouge steps out at Capitol Theatre. Credit:Janie Barrett I was incredibly enthusiastic because, you know to me, Moulin Rouge is the holy grail of theatrical adaption in that music is so much part of its lifeblood, and its so emotional in a deep and profound way and its world creation is just beautiful, Timbers says. All those things spoke to me as to why it could be an incredible stage show. At the same time, I was nervous and anxious because its so inherently cinematic what Baz did and so how do you find those analogues for the theatre it felt such a huge challenge. The significance of the new Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen inviting NSW Fire and Rescues former chief, Greg Mullins, to address his first media conference alongside other members of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action cannot be overstated. Former fire chief and climate advocate Greg Mullins address the first ministerial press conference held by Climate Minister Chris Bowen. Credit:James Brickwood In 2013, the very first act of the Coalition governments new environment minister, Greg Hunt, was to disband the Climate Commission, which had been created to provide expert advice to government on the climate crisis. So dismayed were some sacked members of the group at the governments wilful disengagement that they raised private funds and created the Climate Council from the bones of the old commission. The council has since become one of the nations leading climate advocacy groups and a key source of reliable data and commentary on the issue. One of its projects was to form the Emergency Leaders group to inform the public and the government of the rising physical danger to Australians posed by climate change. The removal of the remaining pines over Perths biggest underground drinking water source has prompted a community referral to the states environment watchdog over concerns it will lead to the starvation of endangered black cockatoo species. Curtin University law lecturer and biologist Dr Hugh Finn has made an application to the Environmental Protection Authority, with written support from several cockatoo and wildlife advocacy groups, arguing the state government not replanting pines over the Gnangara Mound was a change in land-use. A protest poster against the removal of pines, a food source for Carnabys black cockatoo, over the Gnangara Mound. Credit:MilesTweediePhotography The Gnangara Mound supplies about 275 gigalitres of water annually to homes, businesses and horticulture but has struggled to recharge as rainfall in the region dropped significantly in recent decades. This has meant several wetlands over the mound have dried up or become acidic and led to a policy where 23,000 hectares of pines planted by the government, which are cut down for use in the building industry, have not been replaced over the water source because of their draw on the resource. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Kazakh FlyArystan airline will operate Almaty-Yerevan direct flights twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The first flight of the airline to Yerevan took place today, on June 2. Journalists and bloggers arrived in Armenia with the first flight. They are going to have a 4-day tour in Armenia. Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Armenia Bolat Imanbayev called the launch of the direct flight between Yerevan and Almaty significant these days connected with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The opening of this flight is very important for our multisectoral cooperation in political, trade-economic, cultural and humanitarian areas, as well as for the development of tourism, the Ambassador said, adding that works are underway with the opening of a new direction, supposedly it will be the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan. Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said the Armenian-Kazakh relations are developing quite actively, and the direct flights will further contribute to the development of relations. Deputy Minister of Economy Armen Arzumanyan added that the regular flights are highly important in terms of development of economic relations. Armenia and Kazakhstan are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, but we do not fully utilize our potential. We are expecting visits of businessmen to Armenia and implementation of numerous joint programs as there are development trends, he said. The cost of one-way ticket of Almaty-Yerevan direction starts from 46,000 drams. Queensland forensic lab under investigation for rape case DNA testing failures Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss After opening in the midst of a disastrous period for the tourism industry, Brisbanes new international cruise ship terminal finally welcomed its first cruise passengers on Thursday morning. The $177 million terminal became operational last year, but its use was limited to a COVID-19 vaccination hub and a stop-off for the Royal Australian Navy. P&Os Pacific Explorer docking at the new Brisbane International Cruise Ship Terminal on Thursday morning. Credit:James D Morgan/Getty Almost seven years after plans for the new terminal first became public, P&Os Pacific Explorer was a welcome arrival for Port of Brisbane chief executive, Neil Stephens. All I would say is its just so good to see a beautiful white cruise ship next to our international cruise terminal, and to really say cruising is back in Queensland, he said. A 73-year-old woman who handed herself in to police following a hit-run collision that killed a young child in Melbournes west has been released. Three-year-old Ethan Nguyen died at the Royal Childrens Hospital on Thursday night after suffering critical head injuries when he was hit by a car on McIntyre Road, in Sunshine North. Ethan Nguyen, who was hit and killed by a car in Sunshine North. The woman, from Heathcote Junction in Melbournes north, handed herself in about 9.20am on Friday morning after police issued a public appeal for help finding the driver. The 73-year-old was questioned by major collision detectives on Friday morning but was released several hours later pending further enquiries. At one point, he claimed, two students pushed him down the stairs resulting in bruises and a bad gash on his knee, but when he reported it and the alleged injuries, the woman at the administrators office said she would pass it onto the principal. Again, he never received any follow-up. He had multiple sessions with the school counsellor, who he said was warm at first but did not acknowledge or record any of his claims of anti-Semitism. I hated being who I was and not being protected by the high school. There are no words to describe how small I felt. How almost dirty I was to be spat at. He said hed try and make himself sick to avoid going to school. I had gotten to that point that I didnt know what else to do, or who else to go to, and I really thought about hurting myself, he said. He told the court at one point a group of students pushed him into one of the toilet cubicles and up against a wall, punched him in the stomach, one of the students pulled out a pocket knife and held it to his neck and threatened to hurt him if he went to the administration office or anyone else again. Loading I was left shaking. I was curled up in that cubicle for I dont know how long I was there for, crying because of what had just occurred. I was scared to get up, I was scared to move, but eventually, I did. And I ran to the administration office and told them what happened, and that I needed something to happen. This had gone too far, he said. He said he demanded to see the principal but again got no reaction. No reaction to the fact a knife had been held up to a students throat. There was no urgency, no concern, nothing. It made me feel possibly a million times worse. The extent of the attacks and gotten so bad and that didnt even provoke a response from the school. Nothing. I didnt feel human. I was so shocked in the lack of care the school provided for such a harsh attack, he said. Arnold-Levy left the school after the alleged knife attack. He contacted the Jewish private school Leibler Yavneh College and a week later received a full scholarship. He said he received no exit interview from Brighton Secondary College and had very little contact until a few months later when, with the support of the wellbeing counsellor, a meeting with principal Richard Minack was arranged. He told the court that Minack denied that he knew about the attacks and denied he was responsible for them but said he felt bad about the experience Arnold-Levy had. I didnt get an apology, I didnt get recognition. I got excuses, and I felt even more belittled after the meeting than I did before, he said. I had once again been put down by the school and refused any kind of closure. Loading He told the court he suffered from extreme anxiety and was hospitalised in multiple cases when going to university, believing there was a chance he could be a target of anti-Semitism again. He is now on anxiety medication and experiences severe panic attacks. He said his anxiety at times is so severe he has lost sensation in one of his arms and was diagnosed with a neurological disorder linked with anxiety. He described his attempt to get closure with the school as having to relive the harassment over and over again without closure. Mediations have really made it feel like this is a joke, he said. Like what happened didnt happen. Like we arent being taken seriously, like this school and the Department of Education doesnt care about the effect it has on the students that they fail to protect, like they refuse to take action and refuse to acknowledge what happened, he said. And having to relive it for two years, going through mediation and meetings its bad enough having to live through it once, but to experience it over and over again, theres just no words. On Wednesday, Chris Young, QC, acting on behalf of the state of Victoria and the education staff, denied the allegations made against them. The four-week trial continues. Premier Daniel Andrews has asked Labors national executive to keep controlling the troubled Victorian branch until after the November state election, in an effort to neutralise internal party distractions. In a move likely to stir factional critics, Andrews has written to Labor national secretary Paul Erickson also asking the partys national executive to decide outstanding preselections and suspend its state conference until after the election. Premier Daniel Andrews and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meet during the federal election campaign in Melbourne. Credit:AFR Andrews intervention comes as The Age can reveal almost 20 per cent of Victorian Labor members did not renew their membership before the renewal cut-off on May 31. The party has lost more than a third of its members since a branch-stacking scandal engulfed it in June 2020. More than 2200 members did not renew their membership this year, adding to 3500 lost last year and the 1100 expelled for links to branch stacking. The steepest declines in this round of renewals were for the Gorton and Calwell branches in Melbournes west, where one-quarter of members failed to renew. Bernie Finn has announced he will lead the Democratic Labour Party into the November state election after being expelled from the Liberal Party for disobedience last week. The state opposition voted to expel the right-wing MP at a party room meeting last Tuesday after he said abortion should be banned in Victoria, even for rape survivors. Right-wing Victorian MP Bernie Finn. Credit:Joe Armao Finn was warned about his inflammatory social media posts several times by his Liberal colleagues before his expulsion from the party. He previously compared Premier Daniel Andrews to Adolf Hitler, described a former female staffer as a rat, and shared several pro-Trump posts during and after the Capitol Hill riots in the US. While the event is a celebration of the institution, it is also deeply personal. Many came in honour of a monarch who has endured a torrid 18 months. She lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, last year. She later caught COVID-19, and physical frailty has on some days rendered her immobile. About 1500 soldiers, 240 horses and 400 musicians paraded from Buckingham Palace and down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, alongside royals on horseback and in carriages. The Queen who used to attend on horseback herself, but recently has travelled by carriage was obliged to watch from the palace as Prince Charles, colonel of the Welsh Guards, took the customary salute at Horse Guards Parade. Prince William conducts a final official review before the Trooping the Colour parade. Credit:Getty He inspected the troops in their scarlet red tunics designed by the Duke of Wellington to create an optical illusion of their numbers and fool the enemy from his position on the parade ground where the Queens dais would have traditionally been placed. Wearing his Irish Guards tunic and bearskin, Prince William rode alongside his father on a horse called George, the same name as Williams eldest son. Anne, the Princess Royal, joined them. Thursday marks not only the start of the Platinum Jubilee, but also the 69th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth, who became queen on the death of her father, George VI, in February 1952. This is the official Platinum Jubilee portrait of the Queen, released on June 2. Credit:Buckingham Palace Earlier, the Queen thanked all those involved in the celebrations ahead of the long holiday weekend of pomp, parties, parades and public holidays to herald her record-breaking 70 years on the British throne. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in convening communities, families, neighbours and friends to mark my Platinum Jubilee, in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth, the Queen said in a statement. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Having flown in from the United States, Prince Harry and wife Meghan made their public return to Britain, but they were said to have watched from a window as non-working members of the family. It is the first time the pair have seen their wider family since they left for a new life in California in 2020. The couple were seen playfully telling some royal children, including Savannah and Isla Phillips and Mia and Lena Tindall, to be quiet as they watched the Horse Guards Parade from the Major Generals Office. Prince Andrew, 62, who settled a US lawsuit in February in which he was accused of sexually abusing a woman when she was underage, did not attend the days festivities. It was later announced he had tested positive for coronavirus in a routine test. Loading He will no longer attend a St Pauls Cathedral service of thanksgiving for the Queens reign on Friday with a palace spokesman saying it was with regret he would not be there. The military parade, which officially opened the celebrations, concluded with the Queen, alongside the next three kings Charles, William and his son George and their families, on the palace balcony watching a fly-past of aircraft by the Royal Air Force. An 82-gun salute was fired in nearby Green Park to mark the occasion, followed by a thundering 142-gun salute from the Tower of London, while noon-time cannon were fired in her honour across Britain and from Royal Navy ships at sea. In the evening (Friday morning AEST), beacons will be lit across the country and the Commonwealth, with the Queen leading the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home. The British royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace watch the RAF flypast during the Trooping the Colour parade. Credit:Chris Jackson/Getty Images Across Australia, royal purple illumination will this weekend light up landmark buildings, including Parliament House in Canberra, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. On Friday, Harry and Meghan will join the other royals at a thanksgiving service at Londons St Pauls Cathedral, while on Saturday royal family members - but not the Queen - will attend the Epsom Derby horse race. Later, there will be a concert outside Buckingham Palace, featuring the likes of Queen, Alicia Keys, and Diana Ross. On Sunday, officials estimate more than 16,000 street parties will take place in Britain, and the British government says some 600 Big Jubilee Lunches will be held in 80 countries from Greenland to New Zealand. Loading Celebrations will conclude with a pageant through the British capital. The Queen is what is great in Great Britain, said Mary-Jane Willows, 69, from Cornwall, south-west England, who was camping out on the Mall boulevard, leading to Buckingham Palace, where lamp posts are bedecked in Union flags. Copenhagen: Danish voters have approved joining the European Unions defence pact in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, signalling a historic shift in the country thats shunned deeper ties with the bloc. The proponents of removing an opt-out clause on EU military cooperation garnered 66.9 per cent of the vote, with 33.1 per cent opposed, public broadcaster DR said late, with almost all votes preliminarily counted. The decision adds to seismic shifts in the European security set-up after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a full-scale war against Ukraine in February. It would also mark the first time in almost three decades that the Nordic nation traditionally sceptical about deeper European integration has moved substantially closer to the trading bloc. The five leaders of the political parties belonging to the National Compromise campaign for a YES, including Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (in purple), in the centre of Copenhagen on Wednesday. Credit:AP The mutual defence clause, enshrined in the Treaty on European Union provides that if an EU country is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other EU countries have an obligation to aid and assist. Until now, it has not applied to neutral Denmark. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Arayik Harutyunyan, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, assures that there is a certain tactic in the negotiation process over the Artsakh issue, adding that with its behavior the opposition cannot force the leadership to deviate from that plans. When asked to comment what the leadership is discussing behind closed doors regarding the ongoing campaigns of the opposition, Arayik Harutyunyan said what is behind closed doors is also behind open doors, the government is taking into consideration the realities. He said the government is public in its actions, statements in the Parliament, during the Cabinet meetings, interviews and contacts with the press. Commenting on the oppositions actions when they are protesting outside different ministries and demand assurances from the representatives of the authorities that Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, Harutyunyan said: If opposition is partnering, it will get partnering answers. If opposition presents some demands and goes beyond morality, civilization, of course, the leadership must respond to it from above, but if opposition continues acting in the same way, it will just be rejected. Look at how that opposition was behaving when they infiltrated in the Foreign Ministry building, how it was behaving with the people who are negotiating for the Artsakh issue, with the Foreign Ministry which implements the governments action plan which clearly outlines also the settlement of the Artsakh issue, with the deputy foreign minister who is going to negotiate. According to Harutyunyan, the opposition is a weak opposition, and its influence is also weak, but nevertheless, it creates problems in the foreign policy field for the activity of these persons. The leadership makes statements and confirmations when it is necessary. There is a negotiation process, and there is a certain tactic in that negotiation process. And it is not the opposition that should force the government and the leadership to deviate from those plans, he said, adding: I want everyone to help the leadership which last year received the vote of the majority of our people. Everyone must respect that vote, not the government and the leadership, but that vote. Our people gave these answers about a year ago, and now trying to deviate some agendas out of despair, sorry, but the current leadership of Armenia is not going to deviate from its strategy and tactic under the influence of a small group, he said. London: The Queen beamed in powder blue. A grin of delight was painted on her face as she stared down the Mall at the hundreds of thousands of loyal subjects who had come just to see her, on this most unprecedented of royal anniversaries. As the first British monarch to mark 70 years on the throne, she let the younger generation take the spotlight for the ceremony. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Louis of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping The Colour in London, England. Credit:Getty Her great-grandchildren grimaced and plugged their ears as the might of the Royal Air Force roared overhead across Londons clear blue June skies. There was no whistling before the artillery shell. The dead older man on the pavement by the neighbourhood shops in Kharkiv, Ukraine would not have heard the incoming Russian salvo that killed him. A younger man sobbed by his corpse. Fifty metres away, I watched humanitarian volunteers, who were in the area during the attack, apply tourniquets on another man. Shrapnel had ripped off one of his legs and arms. He was alive when carried to an ambulance. Maybe, he was going for a coffee at his recently re-opened cafe. A man collects scrap metal at a school that was destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Kharkiv. Credit:John Moore The local florist had opened too. In a bloodied yellow top and with a fresh manicure, the young woman lay injured among shattered glass, metal shards, and the blooms of a Ukrainian spring like blue daffodils and purple lilac. Russian forces are in retreat around Kharkiv, but they continue to lob artillery from 20 kilometres away. Local commanders say it is to maintain terror and tie up medical resources. Nine civilians died on the day I was there. As a public figure, Johnny Depp faced a high bar to win his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard. According to seven unanimous jurors, he cleared it. Depp said his ex-wife defamed him in a 2018 newspaper op-ed in which she alluded to abuse allegations against Depp. His name was never mentioned. The Virginia civil jury ruled in favour of Depp on all three of his counts on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), finding that Heard had not only made false and defamatory statements, but that shed done so with actual malice a higher threshold for cases involving public figures. Jurors concluded Depp should receive more than $US10 million ($14 million). Amber Heard reacts, with her lawyer Elaine Bredehoft at right, as the verdict is read in the courtroom. Credit:Court TV Pool Depps victory was not absolute, though. Jurors also concluded that part of Heards counterclaim had merits. They rejected two of Heards three counts, but found she was defamed by a Depp lawyer who accused her of roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $US2 million. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense of Greece Nikos Chardalias visited today the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. The guests were welcomed and introduced on the history of the Memorial by Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Lusine Abrahamyan. Nikos Chardalias laid a wreath at the Memorial and the guests laid flowers at the Eternal Flame by paying a tribute to the memory of the Genocide victims with a moment of silence. The Greek delegation members toured the Genocide Museum, got acquainted with the exhibits, after which the Deputy Defense Minister left a note at the Honorary Guest Book. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Newly-appointed Ambassador of Syria to Armenia Nora Arisian presented the copy of her credentials today to Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, the foreign ministry reports. Minister Mirzoyan congratulated Nora Arisian on appointment and expressed confidence that she will serve her diplomatic activities for the constant development and expansion of the Armenian-Syrian relations and mutually beneficial cooperation. The sides highlighted the traditional, friendly ties between the two peoples based on mutual sympathy and trust. In this respect they highlighted the role played by the Syrian-Armenian community. In the context of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Syria which marks this year, the sides touched upon the prospects of strengthening the Armenian-Syrian cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats. YEREVAN, 2 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 2 June, USD exchange rate down by 2.38 drams to 443.26 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.61 drams to 473.98 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.08 drams to 7.19 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.73 drams to 556.20 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 52.33 drams to 26291.93 drams. Silver price down by 3.94 drams to 307.97 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams. Batavia, NY (14020) Today Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 71F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 56F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan received Vice President of the Asian Development Bank Shixin Chen on May 2. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the President, welcoming the guest, President Khachaturyan noted that the Asian Development Bank is one of Armenia's key partners and has made a significant contribution to the implementation of reforms in the country's socio-economic development, infrastructure programs, education, healthcare and high technologies since 2005. The President noted that the support of the Asian Development Bank is highly appreciated not only by the Armenian government, but also by the citizens. Vice President of the Asian Development Bank Shixin Chen noted that Armenia is a reliable partner and the bank is ready to expand the scope of programs implemented with Armenia. 70 Percent of Public Schools Report Rise in Students Seeking Mental-Health Help: Study Seventy percent of public schools have seen a rise in students seeking help with their mental health since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new U.S. government study says. Roughly 76 percent of public schools also reported an increase in staff voicing concerns about their students exhibiting symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and trauma, according to the study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an agency within the U.S. Department of Education. The study, based on data collected between April 12 and April 26, 2022, from a total of 830 schools participating in an NCES research program, also finds that 88 percent of respondents did not strongly agree that they could effectively provide mental-health services to students in need, largely because they didnt have the manpower and money to handle the issue. The study does not, however, identify any prevalent causes of the rise in mental health problems among public school students, such as prolonged school closures, abrupt switch to remote learning, and public health restrictions that limited physical activity and social interaction. The largest public school systems in the nation have experienced some of the longest lockdowns. In New York City, nearly 1.1 million students were sent home in March 2020 when then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo put the state on what he called a pause. It wasnt until 18 months later when the Big Apples schools were able to reopen, as the citys 190,000-strong teachers union continued to pressure city officials to delay the return of in-person learning. The Los Angeles Unified School District also struggled to negotiate a reopening plan with its teachers union, which would go so far as to claim that there was no such thing as learning loss for hundreds of thousands of students who were forced into remote learning and that Californias plan to reward schools that reopen was propagating structural racism. The results of the NCES study echo that of a survey published earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Upon analyzing data collected from January to June 2021 on the behaviors and experiences of 7,705 high school students across the nation, CDC researchers found that about 44 percent of them had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness almost every day for two weeks or more in a row, to the point that they stopped doing their usual activities. In addition, nearly 20 percent of students had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9 percent had attempted suicide. The prevalence of having serious suicidal thoughts and attempts was higher among female students than male students, and was higher among white students than black or Asian students, according to the paper. The CDC researchers also noted that high schoolers relying on a computer or a phone for social interaction were more likely to feel suicidal than than those who physically engaged with other people. The same pattern was observed among students who were virtually connected to others during the pandemic (i.e., with family, friends, or other groups by using a computer, telephone, or other device) versus those who were not, the paper stated. Comprehensive strategies that improve feelings of connectedness with others in the family, in the community, and at school might foster improved mental health among youths during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Four injured people can lying on the pavement after an explosion at a bus stop in downtown Yangon in Burma on May 31, 2022. (Burma Military True News Information Team via AP) Accusations Fly After Burma Bombing Kills 1, Injures 9 BANGKOKBurma(also known as Myanmar)s military government and its opponents traded accusations over a bomb that exploded Tuesday in the middle of the countrys largest city, Yangon, killing one and wounding nine others. Photos and videos of Tuesdays bombing that circulated on social media showing the bloodied victims sprawled on the sidewalk were a sharp reminder of the violence that has engulfed the country since the military seized power last year. A story in Wednesdays edition of The Global New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, blamed the Peoples Defense Forces, the opposition movements armed wing, but did not supply any evidence linking them to the blast. It said the attack was made with a handmade bomb planted by PDF terrorists at a bus stop roughly one block from the Sule Pagoda, a city landmark. The blast occurred at 3:20 p.m. and a 30-year-old man died of wounds in his chest and abdomen, state media said. A spokesperson for the self-styled National Unity Government, the main opposition body that loosely commands the PDF and its various local units, pinned the blame on the military government. The brutal genocidal military has been carrying out senseless bombings and killings against its own civilian population across Myanmar, said a statement by Sasa, the NUGs Minister of International Cooperation. Burma has been in turmoil since last years army takeover seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking widespread nonviolent protests that were quashed with lethal force by the army and police. In turn, opponents of the military rule took up arms and are now conducting an active insurgency in many parts of the country. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says 1,876 civilians, mostly in cities and towns, have been killed by the security forces. Their figures do not generally include casualties of war in the countryside. On Wednesday, the international human rights organization Amnesty International accused Burmas military of carrying out widespread atrocities in the eastern part of the country that constitute war crimes and probably crimes against humanity. It charges in a report that civilians from the Karen and Karenni ethnic minorities have been the targets of unlawful killing, arbitrary detention, and forcible displacement. The worlds attention may have moved away from Burma since last years coup, but civilians continue to pay a high price, Rawya Rageh, Amnestys senior crisis adviser, said in a news release. The opposition NUGs Defense Ministry in a Wednesday statement said the ruling military have sought to place blame on ethnic resistance groups and revolutionary forces in similar incidents in the past. Urban guerrillas are part of the resistance movement, carrying out targeted killings of people associated with the military and bombings of establishments with official ties. But PDF-affiliated groups in Yangon posted statements on their Facebook pages denying involvement in Tuesdays blast and accusing the military of staging a provocation. The military government brands its opponents as terrorists in a bid to dent their widespread popularity. Wednesdays newspaper report said the PDF received financial assistance to launch bombing attacks. They also committed bomb attacks using handmade bombs on public roads, streets, bus terminals, and bus stops, it added. Another fatal bombing occurred Tuesday at an education office in Naung Cho township in Shan State in eastern Burma, for which state media likewise blamed the PDF and the NUG. The Global New Light of Myanmar said a headmistress died and six educational personnel and a civil servant were injured. The blast occurred as state schools were preparing for their seasonal reopening. The school system has been a battleground between the military government and its foes, who generally have pressed for a boycott as a sign of rejection of army rule. The non-governmental organization Save the Children said in a statement issued Wednesday that there were at least 260 attacks on schools between May 2021 and April this year, and that explosions in and around school buildings accounted for almost three-quarters of that total. Attacks on schools, teachers, and students have surged over the past year due to the conflict, leaving many of them scared to return to the classroom and, in some cases, with no schools left to attend, the group said. By Grant Peck (Left) Actress Amber Heard arrives at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Va., on May 26, 2022. (Michael Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images); (Right) Actor Johnny Depp leaves the courtroom at the end of the day of his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Va., on May 25, 2022. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Amber Heard Unable to Pay Johnny Depp $10.4 Million, Will Appeal Case, Lawyer Says Amber Heards lawyer revealed on Thursday that her client cant afford to pay the millions of dollars in damages after losing a defamation case against her ex-husband and Golden Globe-winning actor, Johnny Depp, saying she will absolutely appeal the case. A 7-person jury in Virginia reached a verdict on Wednesday regarding Depps defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Heard. Jurors concluded that the 36-year-old Aquaman actress defamed her ex-husband when she wrote a 2018 opinion article for the Washington Post. In favor of Depp, the jury awarded compensatory damages of $10 million and punitive damages of $5 millionwhich was reduced by Judge Penney Azcarate to Virginias $350,000 statutory cap. They also ruled that Depp has to pay $2 million to Heard. It ruled in favor of a counterclaim Heard had filed after Depps lawyer called her abuse allegations a hoax. During an interview on NBCs daily live broadcast, The Today Show, Heards lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, said her client is absolutely not able to pay the $10.4 million in damages the jury awarded the 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star. Actress Amber Heard speaks with her attorney Elaine Bredehoft during a break at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Va., on May 19, 2022. (Shawn Thew/Pool Photo via AP) Bredehoft also said that Heard wants to appeal the case, saying her client has some excellent grounds for it. The lawyer insisted that Heard was demonized by Depps team during the case, claiming an enormous amount of evidence that was used in her UK case was suppressed in the Virginia trial. A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused, Bredehoft said. We werent allowed to tell them about the UK judgment, so the damages is completely skewed. There are no damages, it stopped on Nov. 2, 2020, which is when the verdict came down in the UK. The 6-week-long trial, which drew numerous international headlines, included lurid details of the celebrities short and volatile marriage. Heard testified that Depp physically or sexually assaulted her more than a dozen times. Depp said that he never struck Heard, that she concocted the abuse allegations, and that she was the one who physically attacked him, multiple times. After the verdict, Depp released a statement, saying his life, his childrens lives, and everyone close to him were forever changed in the blink of an eye by the allegations made against him. False, very serious, and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me, the statement read. It had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome, the actor added. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that. Heard wrote in a statement moments after she left the verdicts reading on Wednesday that she is heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. From NTD News Shelves for baby and toddler formula are partially empty, as the quantity a shopper can buy is limited amid continuing U.S. shortages, at a grocery store in Medford, Mass., on May 17, 2022. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) Australia in Talks With US to Supply Infant Formula Australia is in talks with the United States to supply baby food, an Australian government spokesperson said on Wednesday, after the apex U.S. health regulator relaxed its import policy to address a nationwide shortage. Makers of baby food globally are exploring opportunities of supplying to the United States after the easing of import norms. Two million cans of formula from the UK are headed to American shores, while Bubs Australia struck a deal with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week to supply 1.25 million cans. Several dairy firms in Australia and New Zealand, including the worlds biggest dairy exporter Fonterra, were also in similar discussions with the FDA, Reuters reported on Monday. The Australian government will continue to work with the Biden Administration to confirm regulatory arrangements and facilitate exports of infant formula, a spokesperson for Australias Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment, said in an emailed statement. Australian Government agencies have been actively engaging with the Australian infant formula industry to help the secure supply of infant formula to the U.S. The agency didnt provide additional details on the extent of talks with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for New Zealands Ministry of Primary Industry said the country was in a good position to supply to the U.S. market and help them tackle the shortage. He added that the decision to ship baby food to the U.S. rested exclusively with the manufacturers. A logo of a branch of Germany's Deutsche Bank is seen in Cologne, Germany, on July 18, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Banks Ask Judge to Dismiss Terrorism Financing Lawsuit Five international banks asked a judge on June 1 to dismiss a class-action lawsuit accusing them of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, receiving an immediate response from plaintiffs seeking to have the banks motions denied. U.S. terrorism victims and their family members sued the banksDeutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Danske Bank, Placid Express, and Wall Street Exchangelast August, alleging that they allowed al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network to secretly move funds and avoid regulatory scrutiny. According to the lawsuit, the terrorist networks used the banks to fund the creation of fertilizer bombs, which were used to attack Americans in Afghanistan. Defendants aided and abetted and knowingly provided substantial assistance to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, including its Haqqani Network by providing essential U.S. dollar-related financial services to al-Qaeda and Taliban, including Haqqani Network, agents, operatives, and fronts to facilitate the repatriation of millions in overseas, states the lawsuit, filed by U.S. citizens (or their families) who were wounded or killed in Afghanistan between 2011 and 2016. The lawsuit is particularly critical of Deutsche Bank. Even against the depraved conduct exhibited by the other defendants in this case, Deutsche Banks stands out, the lawsuit said, accusing the institution of working with the Russian Mafia in a narco-terrorism scheme. Deutsche Banks personnel directly conspired with known Russian Mafia money launderers to convert al-Qaedas and the Talibans sea of rubles from their Russian opium sales. On June 1, each bank filed a motion to dismiss. Deutsche Bank said in its motion that the 600-page complaint had gaping holes and failed to state a claim against it. Plaintiffs offer little more than threadbare allegations that money moving through Deutsche Bank customer accounts supposedly made its way to terrorist organizations. Plaintiffs do not allege that the Deutsche Bank Defendants were aware of or encouraged any attack or that the bank knew or intended that the terrorists would receive the funds, Deutsche Bank said in its motion. The bank called the terrorist attacks abhorrent, but denied all responsibility for them. Deutsche Bank also argued that the plaintiffs havent even proven that al-Qaeda and Taliban were responsible for the specific terrorist attacks cited in their complaintdespite its excessive length. For example, at one point, Plaintiffs allege that al-Qaeda and its affiliates were solely responsible for authorizing, planning, and committing the attacks. Elsewhere Plaintiffs claim that each of the acts of international terrorism described below was committed by the Taliban, including its Haqqani Network, or jointly committed by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Deutsche Bank said. The other banks filed their own motions making similar arguments. Plaintiffs allege nothing to support a plausible inference that Placid Express knew these entities had any link to terrorism or provided any entity with anything but routine services. Nor do Plaintiffs allege facts about any transactions allegedly made using Placid Express, much less facts that any funds transacted through Placid Express reached any foreign terrorist organization, Placid Express said in its motion. Plaintiffs immediately responded to the banks motion to dismiss, telling a federal judge the same day that the motion should be denied. The plaintiffs reiterated many of their allegations, criticizing the banks for claiming they didnt know that doing business with terrorist organizations would result in terrorism. The only question left is whether terrorist violence was a foreseeable risk of the illicit transactions [the banks] undertook. The answer is yes. As courts have recognized, there is no serious dispute that money laundering and terrorism are not mutually exclusive, the plaintiffs argued in their June 1 response. It has been widely acknowledged that they can go hand in hand, as one certainly can be used to fund the other. U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez, who is presiding over the matter, has yet to schedule a court hearing for the banks motions. YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Suren Papikyan received the delegation led by the Deputy Minister of National Defense of Greece Nikolaos Chardalias. The Armenian Minister of Defense highly assessed the current level of the Armenian-Greek cooperation in the defense sphere, stressed the necessity of developing the cooperation especially in the military-technical direction. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry, Nikolaos Chardalias expressed the readiness of the Greek side to develop cooperation, noting that the warm, friendly relations between the two countries oblige to further deepen the cooperation for facing the existing challenges. Issues related to regional security were also discussed during the meeting. The Minister of Defense presented the security situation following the 44-day war in Artsakh and the existing threats. On the same day, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Karen Brutyan received the delegation led by the Deputy Minister of National Defense of Greece. The possibilities of developing cooperation in the military-technical sphere were discussed. US President Joe Biden (R) meets with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, of New Zealand, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on May 31, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Beijing Criticises US-New Zealand Joint Statement, Threatens NZ Trade Accuses New Zealand of being unable to 'withstand' pressure from US Beijing has slammed the joint statement by the New Zealand and the United States governments that expressed grave concerns on the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) human rights violation record and its current bid to expand influence in the Pacific region. Chinas foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian claimed the statement smeared the CCPs cooperation with Pacific Island countries and that issues in relation to Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong were internal affairs. He also accused the two governments of having ulterior motives to create disinformation about China. In the statement, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said they opposed the unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea and reiterated their grave concerns about human rights violations in Xinjiang and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong. They emphasised the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. Both also noted growing strategic competition in the Pacific and the security agreement between the CCP and the Solomon Islands due to concerns it would fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region and pose national-security concerns to both our countries. Zhao also directly addressed the New Zealand government and said the small nation should adhere to its independent foreign policy, insinuating that its government should further itself from American policy influence. In this image made from video, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian gestures during a media briefing that referred to reports of atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office, in Beijing, on April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Liu Zheng, File) Chinese state-run mouthpiece Global Times described New Zealand as leaning toward the United States concerns about Chinas role in the region. It also accused New Zealand of being unable to withstand pressure from the United States and parroting its anti-China rhetoric. With Beijings economic coercion of Australia as an example of CCP retaliation to actions the regime disapproves of, there are questions about whether this could affect New Zealands economic relationship with its biggest trading partner. Robert Patman, an international relations expert from Otago University, said while this could signal some implications to New Zealand trade, he believes Beijing still makes a distinction between the two trans-Tasman nations. Australia is seen as much closer to the United States, Patman told Newshub. But Geoffrey Miller, an international analyst at New Zealands Victoria Universitys Democracy Project, said the comments were reminiscent of comments made by Beijing to Australia before it rolled out sweeping trade tariffs. This is a very dangerous moment for New Zealand, Miller told The Australian. It might just be a warning signal to back off, but it could be the beginning of something stronger. Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with the Chinese ambassador in a pre-arranged meeting on Thursday morning but said there had not been enough time to bring up the joint statement. It was a meet and greet meeting. It canvased a range of issues in relation to the Pacific, the bilateral relationship, the fact we are recognising 50 years of a relationship with China, Mahuta said. But the ambassador, Wang Xiaolong, threatened New Zealand in a speech to the New Zealand China Council, saying the country should not take its largest trading partner for granted. The joint statement was released following Arderns meeting with Biden in the White House on Tuesday in Washington. The two discussed issues around security in the Indo-Pacific region, climate change, and gun control. Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke speaks to a crowd supporting gun control at Discovery Green across from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on May 27, 2022. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images) Beto ORourke Pushes for Gun Control Laws, Takes Aim at Gov. Greg Abbott in Dallas Town Hall Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke took aim at Gov. Greg Abbott during a gun safety town hall in Dallas on June 1, following the school shooting in Uvalde. ORourke, a Democrat and former congressional representative, appeared at the Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center in the Red Bird area of Dallas. The event also included speeches from gun violence survivors. During the event, ORourke cited a string of gun control measures he supports, including universal background checks, red flag laws, and safe storage laws. He also accused Abbott of not doing enough to address gun violence after mass shootings. Abbott is currently seeking a third term as the states governor. Always he promises, theres going to be some action thoughts and prayers arent enough this time, said ORourke. He then told the audience members: The only way to stop another shooting is to vote. During the event, ORourke also doubled down on his desire to ban so-called assault rifles. ORourke drew national attention during his failed presidential bid in 2019 when he declared he wanted to confiscate legally owned AR-15 and AK-47 sporting rifles, but during his race for governor, he had toned down his rhetoric and begun stating his support for the Second Amendment, apparently in a bid to compete with Abbott. ORourkes appearance in Dallas came shortly after he was escorted out of Abbotts press conference on May 25 following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two adults. At that conference, ORourke approached the platform where Abbott and several other state officials were sitting on the stage and interrupted Abbott, asking When are we going to do something? before yelling, Youre offering us nothing. Moments before, Abbott had told the audience that before arriving at the event, he had asked law enforcement officials at all levels, What is the problem here? to which they had all replied that the issue in the community of Uvalde was mental health illness. ORourke, who was born Robert Francis ORourke, also yelled that the time to stop the next shooting is now, and you are doing nothing before being removed from the auditorium. Later in the press conference, Abbott noted that teenagers in Texas have been able to buy guns for decades and said the Biden administration needs to address mental health issues across the country. Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period, the governor said. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and do something about it. ORourke is widely expected to continue to focus much of his campaign on gun control following the latest mass shooting. Ahead of his appearance in Dallas on June 1, ORourke campaign spokesperson Chris Evans said in a statement to the Texas Tribune that the democrat believes that we should act immediately to prevent the next mass shooting by prioritizing commonsense gun safety reforms that have broad, bipartisan support across the state. This includes popular policies such as repealing permitless carry, passing universal background checks, implementing red flag laws, enacting safe storage laws, and keeping weapons of war on the battlefield by preventing their sale in our communities. On May 31, Abbott issued a disaster declaration in Uvalde to fast-track state and local resources that will be made available to the community in the wake of the shooting. And on June 1, the governor ordered the Texas School Safety Center to conduct comprehensive school safety reviews to ensure all public schools across the state are following the appropriate procedures to maximize safety ahead of the new school year. Abbott also asked lawmakers to begin examining and developing legislative recommendations on school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety, among other issues, to prevent another mass shooting. A February poll from The Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that 43 percent of Texans believe gun laws should be more strict, while 34 percent said they should be left as they are, and 16 percent want them to be less strict. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies hearing on Capitol Hill in Wash., on May 17, 2022. (Anna Rose Layden-Pool/Getty Images) Rubio: Biden Nominees to Federal Retiree Thrift Board Agree to No Investments in Chinese Firms Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced on June 2 that President Joe Bidens four nominees to serve on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) confirmed in writing their belief that Americans shouldnt invest in Chinese firms or those of any other country that threatens U.S. national security. We agree that it is unfitting for Americans to invest in companies from China or elsewhere that undermine U.S. national security. Congress provided the authority to the Department of Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to ban any American from making such investments. We fully support OFACs ability to exercise its authority and we commit that any company banned by OFAC, whether based in China or elsewhere, would not be included in any TSP fund, the nominees told Rubio and Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in a June 2 letter. The four nominees are Dana Bilyeu, Leona Bridges, Michael Gerber, and Stacie Olivares. If confirmed by the Senate, the nominees will join the five-member FRTIB. Rubio, who had previously put a hold on the nominations, said on June 2 that he has now removed his hold so the Senate can complete its consideration. The FRTIB and its Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a vehicle established by a 1984 reform proposed by President Ronald Reagan to convert the federal career civil services main retirement program from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution approach, such as those then being widely adopted in the corporate world. Billions of dollars have since been invested by federal workers in the TSP, making it a potentially lucrative target for sellers of indexed investment tools made up of multiple countries from a wide variety of industries. Last month, Rubio, Cotton, and Tuberville, joined by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), warned FRTIB Acting Chairman David Jones that the board shouldnt implement its proposed new Mutual Fund Window in the TSP that would include multiple Chinese firms, as well as firms based in other countries that represent serious national security problems for the United States. U.S. service-members and other federal employees would likely be shocked to learn that the FRTIB is unaware of which companies make up these approved funds or what risk those companies pose, the senators wrote in a May 24 letter. They do not want their retirement dollars to underwrite the development of the CCPs advanced weapons systems and military modernization. They do not want to be implicated in sponsoring genocide of the Uyghur people, equipping concentration camps, and trafficking in forced labor. They do not want to invest in an opaque mutual fund platform in which Chinese companies do not adhere to federal securities laws or submit to adequate disclosure requirements. When they invest through TSP, they rightly expect the FRTIB will protect them and their investments from these types of dangerous investments. It is evident that the FRTIB cannot live up to that expectation at this time. For these, and several other reasons, we again urge the Board to cancel, or, at minimum, postpone implementation of its Mutual Fund Window initiative until your Board can ensure that no TSP funds are invested in dangerous, non-compliant or opaque Chinese securities, as well as commit to providing TSP account-holders as much transparency as possible about where their hard-earned savings are being invested. The statement by Bidens four nominees suggests that the new window plan wont be carried forward. We know these Chinese companies do not play by the rules, Rubio said in his June 2 statement. There is absolutely no reason the retirement savings of service-members and federal employees should be funding companies working with the Chinese government and military. It is encouraging that these nominees understand their fiduciary duties. I look forward to working with them to ensure retirement funds do not flow to those unaccountable companies. The Florida Republican, joined by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), first raised the issue in 2019 when he challenged then-FRTIB Chairman Michael Kennedy and his board to reverse its November 2017 decision to change the Thrift Savings Plans International Stock Fund (TSPs I Fund) to mirror the MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Investable Market Index (ACWI ex-US IMI). The senators challenge was contained in an Aug. 26, 2019, letter. The MSCI Index is one of the numerous stock market investment tools used by individuals and retirement plan administrators in the private and public sectors to direct participants funds into selective groups of individual equities, thus, at least theoretically, spreading risks and minimizing potential losses. Chinese firms with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese military were among those included in the MSCI Index. That worried Rubio and Shaheen, who questioned if board officials had performed sufficient due diligence concerning the many Chinese firms in the index with financial and other records that are purposely designed to conceal their activities. Among the most prominent examples cited to Kennedy in 2019 by Rubio and Shaheen was AviChina Industry & Technology, which represents the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) and its many subsidiaries. The AVIC complex is controlled by the Chinese government. The entity develops manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, and other weapons systems for the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force, Peoples Liberation Army Naval Air Force, and Peoples Liberation Army Rocket Force, Rubio and Shaheen told Kennedy. The board backed off the plan to follow the MSCI Index after Rubio and Shaheens criticisms. Sen. Steven Bradford attends the MedMen Red Jacket Preparation Launch with Brotherhood Crusade in Culver City, Calif., on November 7, 2019. (Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for MedMen) California State Senate Passes Bill Removing Requirement for Schools to Notify Threats to Police The California State Senate has passed a bill that ends a mandatory requirement for law enforcement officials to be notified if students threaten any violent behavior. Before the bill, SB 1273, was passed, existing law stated that whenever any school official is attacked, assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupilthe employee and any person under whose direction or supervision the employee is employed who has knowledge of the incident are required to promptly report the incident to specified law enforcement authorities. In addition, anyone who failed to report a suspected threat could face a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000. The new bill, which was introduced by State Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Los Angeles) and passed the states upper house on May 26, repeals those provisions. The law was passed just two days after an 18-year-old shooter entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, via a back door that was propped open and opened fire, killing 19 students and two teachers. Sen. Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) is one of the lawmakers who opposed the bill, calling it a terrifying policy that would leave schools more vulnerable to school shootings, citing a mass shooting in Florida that occurred after a student was expelled. Sen. Melissa Melendez speaks in an episode of The Epoch Times California Insider, in Irvine, Calif., on March 19, 2021. (Hau Nguyen/The Epoch Times) I cant believe that just two days after the heartbreaking events in Texas, the State Senate would pass a measure making our children less safe at school, Melendez said. Requiring teachers to report threats of violence in the classroom may be the only warning law enforcement has to prevent a future violent attack. I will remind you that in 2018 of the Stoneman Douglas shooting at the school in which 17 people were killed by a fellow student Nicholas Cruz who had behavioral issues since middle school, said Melendez. He was transferred between schools six times in three years in an effort to deal with these problems. Bradford, the bills sponsor, told the Daily Caller that the previous law has led to alarming disparities in black students, Latinx students, students of color, and students with disabilities, claiming those type of students are most likely to suffer harm and face arrest. SB 1273 will reduce law enforcement involvement in schools and give teachers and administrators, who are often best suited to determine the appropriate response, the flexibility and power they need to support students, Bradford said, adding, Teachers and administrators will still be able to call law enforcement if they believe that is the right response to a particular incident, but they will not be required to do so. Bradfords bill was praised by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as promoting racial equity. Once students make contact with law enforcement, they are less likely to graduate high school and more likely to wind up in jail or prison, the ACLU said in a statement. These harms fall disproportionately on students from marginalized groups: Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students, as well as students with disabilities, are disproportionately referred to law enforcement, cited, and arrested. The bill moves to a vote in the California State Assembly, and then to Gov. Gavin Newsom for signature. From NTD News A child poses next to the two-meter-tall "Lady Liberty," a symbolic statue placed by pro-democracy protesters at a Chickeeduck branch in Hong Kong on June 18, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Chickeeduck Founder Believes CCP Spies Were Monitoring Him in Hong Kong Hong Kong businessman Herbert Chow, the outspoken founder and CEO of Hong Kong childrens clothing retailer Chickeeduck who voiced support for protesters during the anti-extradition movement, has left Hong Kong with his wife for the United States after suffering unprecedented harassment by unidentifiable malicious forces. While he has been forced to end his retail business in Hong Kong ahead of schedule, Chow has said he will seek opportunities to expand his overseas business, and plans to one day return to Hong Kong. Chow told The Epoch Times that pro-Beijing media tracked his whereabouts one week before his departure. He said he suspected that spies from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were surrounding him. As reported by pro-CCP media Da Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po on May 26, as Chow and his wife were checking in to depart from Hong Kong Airport, he was asked by reporters where he was going, whether he was worried about the National Security Law, and whether he would come back to Hong Kong. Chow did not respond to any of their questions. After arriving the United States on May 28, Chow told The Epoch Times Chinese language Precious Dialogue program that he had disclosed his departure only to people who should know, such as his employees. But somehow, the reporters found out and messaged him on Facebook, saying that they knew he was leaving Hong Kong. Chow said he was really flattered to have been tracked by the pro-CCP media, although he believes it reveals that there have been CCP spies around him. Why did Chow leave Hong Kong? He told The Epoch Times that he usually travels aboard every summer for vacation, although he hadnt been in recent years due to the pandemic. He added that it was quite absurd for the pro-CCP media to ask whether he would return to Hong Kong. We should always say no to any absurd harassment. I will start expanding my business overseas, and I will come back to Hong Kong, Hong Kong is my home, he said. During the Occupy Central movement in 2014, Chow used to criticize protesters and lean more in support of the CCP in Beijing as his business was hindered by the disruptions. It was after the anti-extradition protests in 2019 that he realized the CCP and Hong Kong authorities did not listen to all members of the public that they are meant to represent. He then turned his support to the anti-CCP and pro-democracy groups and individuals who were suppressed by the regime. In May 2020 during the anti-extradition movement, Chow arranged for a statue of Lady Liberty holding a Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Times flag to be displayed in a new store in Tsuen Wan. The shopping mall management asked him to remove the statue and refused to renew the lease with him. After that, he believes he was targeted for harrassment by the authorities. His peers and family members were also constantly harassed and followed, and his company smeared by some media, leaving some business partners and manufacturers daring not to partner with him. Chow continued to open street shops and display artworks and products with slogans supporting the anti-extradition movement. By that time, Beijings so-called National Security Law had been enacted by the Hong Kong legislature. Only three days after a new store was opened, dozens of national security personnel and policemen came to search the store. All employee and customer information was recorded, and he was warned by the police not to sell or display any products that violate the CCPs National Security Law. In addition to the pressures facing his Hong Kong stores, he said that several Chickeeduck suppliers in Guangdong had been threatened by mainland police demanding that they stop doing business with Chow. Some suppliers complied with the pressure and ended cooperation with him. Chow found an Indonesian supplier, but after they delivered the second batch of goods, the supplier told Chow that they had received very terrible information about your company. The supplier feared that Chickeeduck would be suspended at any time, like Apple Daily. They then asked Chow to pay in full for the products before they would be shipped, creating difficulties for Chows business capital. The businessman also said that he now covers any Chickeeduck labels on his goods to make sure they arrive in Hong Kong. On Nov. 18 last year, Chow announced that he would end all local business by the second half of 2022. I would rather take one step back and exit, he said. Chickeeduck had as many as 18 branches across Hong Kong in 2019. Chow said he plans to transform the business while adhering to the identity of a Hong Konger. Australia's new deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles takes an oath during a swearing-in ceremony at Government House in Canberra on May 23, 2022. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) China Is Australias Biggest Security Anxiety: Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Australias Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister has said China is Australias biggest security anxiety as Beijing expands its influence among the Pacific island nations. Marles warned that China would maintain an interest in the Pacific, even though Beijing was forced to shelve a sweeping security and economic deal with 10 nations in the region. We can expect China will maintain an interest in the Pacific, and really the point here is we need to be focusing on our own relationships in the Pacific, he told Sky News Australias Pete Stefanovic. Unlike the former [Coalition] government, were actually going to do the work, and I believe if we do the work, we will be the natural partner of choice for the countries in the Pacific. Despite shelving the proposed deal, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) vowed to continue to make greater efforts to advance the comprehensive strategic partnership with Pacific nations. Meanwhile, Beijing and leaders from 10 Pacific nations did pledge increased bilateral cooperation in a range of areas, including scholarships, infrastructure, maritime industries, humanitarian and COVID-19 assistance, and climate change. Australias new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) poses with his new cabinet ministers, Penny Wong (L) and Richard Marles, after the oath-taking ceremony at Government House in Canberra, Australia, on May 23, 2022. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) The Deputy Prime Minister argued that Beijings actions in the Pacific region have affected Australias strategic framework and posed enormous challenges for us. It shapes our strategic circumstances and our strategic circumstances are as complex as they have been since the end of the Second World War and China is a key part of that, he said. We need to make sure we are doing everything we can to have the courage to articulate Australias national interests when that differs from Chinese action. Beijings move to reach a security deal with the Solomon Islands first drew international concern in April. As Wang Yi, Chinas Foreign Minister, embarked on an eight-nation tour of the Pacific, Australia sent its newly appointed Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, to the region to dampen concerns and counter the CCPs influence. Wong travelled to Fiji just before Wang Yi met with government officials in the capital city Suva, promising climate change investment in the Pacific. Liberal Senator James Paterson in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Nov. 21, 2016. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) Liberal senator James Paterson, who chaired the parliamentary committee on intelligence and security under the Coalition, said Canberra needs to be upfront in calling China the biggest security threat to Australia. Its true to say its Australias greatest anxiety, but we should also be honest and speak plainly and say they are our greatest security threat as well, Paterson told Sky News. We are not investing $270 billion over the next decade in acquiring new defence capability just for the fun of it. Were acquiring it because we believe its necessary to deter potential aggressors, including China. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks about about the 2021 International Religious Freedom Report, in the Franklin Room of the State Department in Washington, on June 2, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) China Remains a Glaring Example of Religious Repression: US State Department The Chinese Communist Party continues to be a glaring example of a regime that represses its citizens from exercising religious liberty, according to Rashad Hussain, the U.S. Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. Far too many governments remain undeterred of their repression of their citizens. It comes as no surprise that the Peoples Republic of China is a glaring example here, he said in remarks on June 2 unveiling a 2,000-page State Department report on world religious freedom, 140 pages of which are dedicated to China. The annual report painted a bleak picture for Chinas religious believers, who live under constant threat of punishment for exercising their rights, with religious venues shut down and adherents jailed for distributing materials about their beliefs. Hussain described the far west region of Xinjiang, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in a network of internment camps, as an open air prison. There are thousands of Uyghur family membersdaughters and sons are desperate to know where their parents are, but are terrified of what news they could discover and are wondering whether they will ever be safely reunited, he said. Other faith groups are not spared from the heavy-handed suppression either. The communist regime recognizes five religionsBuddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicismdubbing them patriotic religious associations, and forces religious groups to register with these associations in order to hold worship services. A new regulation effective last May requires all religious clergy to swear allegiance to the CCP and socialism, and create a database of religious personnel. The PRC continues to harass adherents of other religions that it deems out of line with Chinese Community Party doctrine, including by destroying Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Taoist houses of worship and by erecting barriers to employment and housing for Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 2, referring to the acronym for the Chinese regimes official name, the Peoples Republic of China. The spiritual practice Falun Gong, which involves meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings centered around the principles, truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, had an estimated over 70 million adherents in China by 1999, when the authorities launched a nationwide persecution campaign aimed at eradicating the discipline. Since then, millions of adherents have been detained across prisons, labor camps, and detention centers across the country, where they are subjected to torture, brainwashing, slave labor, and forced organ harvesting. In May 2021, Blinken announced visa restrictions against Yu Hui, a Chinese official overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong in southwestern Chinas Chengdu city. At least one adherent became paralyzed as a result of torture in jail during Yus tenure, and another developed a mental disorder, according to Minghui, a U.S.-based website that chronicles the CCPs campaign against the practice. Minghui records showed nearly 6,000 counts of arrests and 10,000 harassment cases of Falun Gong practitioners due to their faith in 2021. Among them, 98-year-old Cai Xiufang from northeastern Jilin Province was held for hours in a metal cage for talking to people about Falun Gong. Over the first six months of 2021, adherents from at least 18 provinces and municipalities, accounting for more than half of China, saw authorities collecting their blood samples and other biometric data against their will, at times breaking into their homes, Minghui reported. Such moves have raised the alarm that the regime may be creating a database for organ matching for potential forced organ harvesting later on. In 2019, an independent panel of experts concluded that the Chinese regime has been killing prisoners of conscience for their organs to sell on the transplant market on a significant scale, an act primarily targeting imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. The European Parliament in May passed a resolution expressing serious concern about reports of persistent, systematic, inhumane and state-sanctioned organ harvesting from prisoners in China, and more specifically from Falun Gong practitioners. A separate section in the State Departments report covering Hong Kong also revealed the shrinking space for religious freedom as the communist regime tightened control in the former British colony. Eight Falun Gong information booths in Hong Kong were slashed and spray painted in what the group described as coordinated attacks last April. Multiple pro-Beijing lawmakers attempted to outlaw the spiritual group under the citys sweeping national security law imposed by the CCP. The law, which criminalizes acts the regime deems as subversion, secession, terrorist activities, or collusion with foreign forces, has been used by Beijing to quash dissent in the city. In June 2021, an unknown group hung banners defaming Cardinal Joseph Zen, an outspoken critic of the CCP, around seven Catholic churches that were planning to hold a memorial Mass for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The 90-year-old Zen was arrested last month for allegedly contravening the collusion with foreign forces provision of the national security law. He has pleaded not guilty and will face trial on Sept. 19. One of the candles lit to mark the anniversary of the massacre of a pro-democracy student movement in Beijing, outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on June 4, 2021. (Kin Cheung/AP Photo) China Suppresses Dissidents as Tiananmen Square Massacre Anniversary Approaches The Chinese communist regime is tightening its suppression of Chinese activists ahead of June 4, which this year marks the 33rd anniversary of the massacre of peaceful student protesters in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times attempted to contact several activists in China ahead of the anniversary, which every year marks a period of increased clamp downs on activists by the Chinese Communist Party. Some of those contacted by The Epoch Times were on a trip, some were under house arrest much earlier than in previous years, and others said they couldnt receive phone calls from outside China. Taking a trip from their hometown while escorted by public security agents is what happens to dissidents before sensitive days, as a way the regime restricts their freedom of expression and their activities. Its also known as a forced trip. The Forced Trip Beijing dissident Ji Feng has been routinely made to take a forced trip for the past 15 years. They are ordering tickets now. I will have to go to the mountain area in Guizhou Province this afternoon, Ji said on May 30. Hes not allowed to stay in Beijing, where multiple universities are currently facing student protests against the strict lockdown measures on campuses. The renowned Peking University, Beijing Normal University, and Tianjin University have had students gathering and protesting; some students shouted, Down with bureaucracy. Gao Yu, a 79-year-old dissident journalist from Beijing, also frequently forced to take a trip, is now too old to travel. Instead, local officials have already visited her home to monitor her. Both Ji and Gao live in Beijing, but they arent allowed to call each other. Ji said, The phone has been blocked for more than a month, including international calls. The 85-year-old Zhang Xianling, one of the Tiananmen Mothers, also suspects the surveillance of the regime has changed from individual stalking and harassing to blocking their phones under the pandemic, Radio Free International reported. Tiananmen Mothers is a group of family members and survivors of the military crackdown that happened in the 1989 Democracy Movement. Ms. Dings son, Jiang Jielian, was killed in the June 4 massacre in 1989. Ms. Ding is one of the organizers of the Tiananmen Mothers. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images) Dissident Hu Feng (pseudonym) has been under house arrest and surveillance for more than a week. My phone is tapped, he said on May 30. Chen Xi, a dissident in Guizhou, a landlocked province in southwest China, has been missing for days, according to Ji. Internet Interference Mr. Qian, a dissident in the coastal province of Jiangsu, said the internet blockade had been tightened recently. The signal has been unstable and frequently disconnects. He commented that the 1989 massacre happened because of the regimes fear that it would collapse. In 1989, Ma Xiaoming, former editor of Shaanxi Province TV Station, was dismissed from his job as punishment for a report he wrote and for participating in local protests and petitions supporting the democracy petition at Tiananmen Square. Ma, now 71, said: For the past 30 some years, my phonesboth home phone and cellphonehave been interrupted. This is human rights in China. Since 1989, Ma has been conducting his own investigation of local cases of human rights abuse. I speak with facts. That frightens the regime. They have been interfering with my telecommunication, interviews, and issuing of reports. Activist Liu Jiacai in Hubei Province said local authorities had suspended his phone for more than a month. The police just notified him that he would be getting a visit from them soon. I suppose its getting close to June 4, the sensitive day, he said. Over 180,000 people participated in a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, where an unprecedented mass demonstration was cleared up by soldiers dispatched by the Chinese communist regime. The number of people who attended on June 4, 2012, set a new record. (Sung Pi Lung/The Epoch Times) There are other activists who have been suppressed recently. Lu Qianrong, a freelance writer defending the rights of Chinese peasants, hasnt been reachable; Chen Jianxiong, a human rights activist in Hubei Province, has been detained by the local police since April and held at the Chibi City Detention Center; and Ji Xiaolong, a dissident in Shanghai, was detained by the police for a day for his online exposure of inhumanity during the Shanghai lockdown. A Big Scar on the Regime: Activist Activist Dong Guangping was a police officer in Zhengzhou City. He lost his job in 1999 because he criticized the regime and participated in a Tiananmen massacre memorial. He was imprisoned for his human rights activities in 2001 and 2014, respectively. He said the massacre was a big scar on the regime, and the CCP couldnt tolerate it being exposed. The regime is good at controlling the people through cellphones or telecommunications, and its purpose is blocking the Chinese voices from being heard by the outside world, he said. Lin Cenxin and Yi Ru contributed to this article. Chinas Youth Unemployment Rate Hits Record-High, While College Grads are Record Breaking 10 Million in 2022 China recently reported its highest youth unemployment rate to date. However, the number of college graduates is also reaching a record high this year. These elements, coupled with an economic decline caused by the communist regimes COVID-19 lockdowns, are making the unemployment issue especially acute. According to data published by the authorities in mid-May, the unemployment rate among Chinas youth aged 16-24 was as high as 18.2 percent in April, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from March, triggering wide concern and discussions in Chinese media. The articles on Chinas major news portals have compared the record-high number with other countries during the same period. An article on 163.com listed the youth unemployment rate of those 16 to 20 in the United States to be 9.5 percent, the unemployment rate among young people under the age of 24 in Japan was 3.8 percent last month; in Taiwan in March, the unemployment rate of young people under the age of 24 was 12.48 percent, and in the UK was 10.6 percent. Chinas youth unemployment rate is basically twice that of European and American countries. It is also 46 percent higher than that of Taiwan and should be considered a very serious situation, the article said. The numbers dont included the college students who will graduate in July this year. Job seekers looking at employment postings at a recruitment fair in Qingdao in Chinas eastern Shandong Province. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) According to data from the Ministry of Education in China, in 2022, the number of undergraduate students graduating from college will hit a record high of 10.76 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.67 million. It is also the first time that the number of yearly college graduates has exceeded 10 million. On May 30, major Chinese media China Business Network published an article titled 4000 People Compete for 30 positions: Chinas 10-million New College Graduates Facing Huge Challenge to Find Job. It was reposted on other major media in mainland China and caused heated discussion on the internet. The article interviewed an undergraduate student named Huang Qian, who majored in English in a top university in Wuhan in central China. She recounted her experience of struggling to find a job. She applied for an English teacher position at a public junior high school in Wuhan. There were 300 to 400 applicants competing for the one position. She also applied for a low-level government job in Shandong Province. There were 30 positions open, but more than 4,000 people applied for them. She hasnt received a job offer yet. Huang also applied to graduate schools, but hasnt been successful there either, as there are so many other undergraduates applying as well. The article became a top search on Chinas internet. A netizen posted, It is difficult to find a job, especially for college graduates who are from rural areas. They have student loans to pay, and cannot find a job after graduation, causing a great deal of mental pressure on them. Another commented, In a year or two, graduates with bachelor degrees will not even be able to find a job in a factory to make screws. In the future, a janitors position may require a masters degree. Students at a job fair for graduates at a university in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China on March 21, 2019. (Reuters) The Chinese regime has been pushing the increasingly large number of college graduates every year to attend graduate schools in order to postpone the employment issue. However, even mainland Chinese media acknowledge that the strategy is not working anymore. An article on 163.com said that on the one hand, Chinas economy is going down and the number of jobs is decreasing; on the other hand, the labor force has increased by more than 10 million. This is a major problem that is troubling and affects social stability. The measures that were adopted in the past to extend the time spent attending school are no longer effective in 2022, the article admitted. According to the 2022 First Quarter Employment Market Report for College Graduates released by the China Employment Research Institute of Renmin University and Chinas major job website Zhilian Recruitment, in the first quarter of this year, the demand for college graduates dropped by 8 percent year-on-year, while the number of job applicants increased by 75 percent year-on-year. Another report recently released by Zhilian Recruitment, 2022 College Student Employability Survey Report, shows that as of May, the rate of male graduates who have signed job contracts was about 23 percent, and only 10 percent of female graduates have signed, both are fewer than last year. Li Yiming, a Chinese current affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times that Chinas economy was already on the decline, but now the politicized COVID-19 prevention measures are another severe blow to the economy. Foreign companies have withdrawn from China, and domestic companies are laying off staff. Employment will naturally be difficult for college graduates. Fang Xiao contributed to the report. A CH-148 Cyclone helicopter and a CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft fly over HMCS WINNIPEG as part of a photo exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region during Operation NEON, Nov. 15, 2020. (Sailor 1st Class Valerie LeClair, MARPAC Imaging Services/CAF Combat Camera via Flickr) Chinese Fighter Jets Buzz Canadian Planes, Putting Personnel at Risk, Says Canadas Defence Department A Canadian military plane was dangerously harassed by Chinese fighter jets during a recent mission in international airspace, the Department of National Defence (DND) said on June 1. The Royal Canadian Airforces CP-140 Aurora Maritime Patrol Aircraft was deployed to Japan and flew sorties between April 26 and May 26, as part of an international effort to support United Nations sanctions against North Korea. In the short span of the deployment, DND says several interactions occurred between the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircraft and aircraft of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). DND said in these interactions the PLAAF did not adhere to international air safety norms, was unprofessional, and put the safety of RCAF personnel at risk. In some instances, the RCAF aircrew felt sufficiently at risk that they had to quickly modify their own flight path in order to increase separation and avoid a potential collision with the intercepting aircraft, says the DND statement. Sources speaking to Global News said the Chinese jets flew so close to the Aurora that pilots could make eye contact, with the Chinese pilots sometimes giving the Canadians the middle finger. In the statement, DND said Chinese aircrews are very clearly visible as they approach and attempt to divert our patrol aircraft from their flight path. The harassment occurred in the context of a UN-sanctioned mission, DND said, indicating the issue was addressed through diplomatic channels. Global Affairs Canada was contacted for comment but said it wasnt able to respond before the deadline. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) contribution to the U.S.-led multinational effort to monitor UN sanctions on North Korea is dubbed Op NEON. The sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council between 2006 and 2017 in response to North Koreas nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile launches. The sanctions cap the amount of coal that can be exported and the amount of fuel that can be imported by North Korea. The U.S.-led Pacific Security Maritime Exchange (PSMX) was created in 2018 to combat North Koreas sanctions evasion. It includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. PSMX partners monitor the countrys use of clandestine ship-to-ship oil transfers to circumvent sanctions. Ships that are identified get ultimately scrapped, according to a U.S. diplomatic note on April 15. Identifying smuggling ships raises the cost for the DPRK [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea] to undermine UN sanctions, forcing the DPRK to attempt to create ever more intricate smuggling networks, usually involving multiple vessels, to transfer just one load of oil, wrote April Kathryn Crummit of the State Departments Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. The Epoch Times contacted the defence departments of France and the U.S. to find out if their personnel has been similarly harassed by the Chinese military, but didnt hear back before publication time. DND said it doesnt track, nor would it comment on, what other countries have experienced. The Australian defence ministry accused a Chinese navy ship of pointing a military-grade laser at one of its surveillance planes back in February, but the incident in the Arafura Sea north of Australia was likely unrelated to North Korea sanctions monitoring. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took power in 2015 he sought to improve relations with Beijing, notably by seeking a free trade deal and considering an extradition treaty. The relations took a severe downturn in 2018 when Canada arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wangzhou in response to an extradition request from the U.S., with China retaliating by arbitrarily detaining Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. This issue was resolved in September when Meng reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, after which Kovrig and Spavor were immediately released. In mid-May Canada announced it was banning Huawei and other Chinese telecom company ZTE from its 5G network on security grounds, drawing the ire of Beijing. The body of an Aboriginal woman has been found partially concealed just kilometres from where a severed leg was discovered on the main road into Darwin. Police believe that she was the victim of a tragic hit-and-run on Monday night and have arrested a man and woman over the incident on the Stuart Highway. It will be alleged that the 23-year-old male was the driver involved in the collision impacting the victim, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Morrissey told journalists on Thursday. It will be further alleged that the 50-year-old female has assisted him in removing the deceased to another location in an attempt to conceal a crime. Police have located the body of a deceased Aboriginal woman in their search for a suspected hit and run victim. Source: NT News The alarm was raised on Tuesday morning when a severed lower leg was discovered near Coolalinga, sparking a large public appeal for witnesses and dashcam footage. Police say they were inundated with information which led them to identify and later locate the vehicle involved in the suspected collision. On Wednesday afternoon, a 23-year old man was arrested in Palmerston and his car seized before a 50-year-old woman was also arrested nearby. Hours later, police finally found what they were looking for. At 11.45pm last night, police attended a location in Jenkins Road, Virginia where they located a deceased Aboriginal female, Det Sn Sgt Morrissey said. We believe this is the victim of the collision. They were partially concealed and the condition of the body was consistent with being struck with a vehicle. The woman's body was discovered on Jenkins Road in Virginia on Wednesday night. Source: Google Maps We believe we have identified the victim, but further forensic testing is being conducted before we make that final confirmation. While the suspected victims family has been notified, an autopsy will be carried out on Thursday. Det Sn Sgt Morrissey claimed there had been a number of hit and run collisions in the Northern Territory so far this year, and that this was extremely concerning. Story continues It is one thing not to render assistance and report the matter but to go further and attempt to conceal a crime is quite terrible, he said. I understand people may panic in such a situation of striking someone, but obviously the consequences for everyone involved are terrible if they go further and conceal it. The pair arrested remain in police custody and are expected to be charged later on Thursday. They are likely to face offences in regards to driving causing death and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Police say information from the public was instrumental in leading to the arrests. Source: NT News Police believe the man had been speeding at the time of the collision, and wasnt known to the victim. Theyve also thanked the public for the information provided over the past few days, and say it was instrumental in the arrests. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Colleague: Tulsa Doctor Was Consummate Gentleman A man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought a rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself, police said Thursday. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin says the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with another doctor, a receptionist, and a patient. We also have a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Media gather as Tulsa police and firefighters respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building in Tulsa, Okla., on June 1, 2022. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips the consummate gentleman and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Authorities said the gunman carried a rifle and handgun during the shooting at the medical building on a hospital campus. Crime and Punishment 2022 Commentary The eruption of mass violent crime over the past weeksshooters in Uvalde, Texas, in Laguna Woods, California, in Buffalo, New Yorkevidences a predictable escalation, an inexorable incremental evolution, of an environment, an atmosphere that fails to discourage criminal activity, developed in large part by a new breed of privately financed progressive prosecutors, entrenched in major urban centers from coast to coast. Its an atmosphere aggravated by a president who, two days after the May 28 massacre in Uvalde, issued an executive order, not directed at the perpetrators of crime, but rather limiting police access to military equipment, and otherwise implementing limitations on the effectiveness of the police. Hardly an appropriate response for a nation in crisis, desperately in need of more effective police protection, and of a White House cognizant of the magnitude of domestic insecurity from upsurging crime. The warning signs have been appearing for a considerable time, and a review of the dissolution of the criminal justice establishment in New York provides the frameworkalthough examination of Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and virtually any major blue-managed city will evidence a near-identical pattern of regression. New York state passed a criminal justice reform bill in 2019 that includes strict limitations on the authority previously granted to judges for the setting of bail in criminal cases. In a March 22 evaluation of the reforms, The Brenan Center for Justice conceded that it is true that New York City saw a sudden increase in crime from 2019 to 2020, with an especially stark increase in murders, which rose from the 319 in 2019 to more than 450 in 2020. While the Brenan Center, a progressive think-tank, argues that theres no direct evidence that the revisions in the law were the principal cause, it would defy credulity to argue that actively enhancing the number of active criminals on the streets of a large city doesnt contribute to the growing level of criminal activity. Particularly when accompanied by mayors who have antipathy for law enforcement authorities, as was the case with Bill de Blasio in New York, and continues with mayors such as Lori Lightfoot, Eric Garcetti, et al. Compounding the negative effects of the 2019 legislation, Mayor de Blasio cut the budget of the New York Police Department dramatically, while simultaneously disbanding the polices highly successful plain-clothes anti-crime units. This defunding of the police became a nationwide phenomenon, an illogical reaction to the increase in rioting and looting following the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. As crime rates soared, the search for explanations was initially limited in scope to the usual suspects, to the logical, oft-repeated root causes such as social unrest, disparity of income, family structure, and drug use. It wasnt until the Jussie Smollett and McCloskeys cases made national headlines that the true, new, root cause came to light, the exponential multiplier effect on criminal activity in all forms. Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago and Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner in St. Louis inappropriately dismissing and mishandling the cases, respectively, brought attention to a new phenomenon: prosecutors who are sympathetic to those arrested for committing violent crimes, and not to their victims; prosecutors who have formal policies that discourage lodging felony charges and who support de-incarceration of violent felons. The driving force isnt difficult to identify. As reported by Scott Bland in Politico as early as Aug. 30, 2016, Democratic mega-donor George Soros has directed his wealth into an under-the-radar 2016 campaign to advance one of the progressive movements core goals. The billionaire financier has channeled more than $3 million into seven local district-attorney campaigns in six states over the past year, a sum that has increased in the ensuing years, as a result of the stunning success this campaign has enjoyed in eroding public safety and the quality of life in major urban centers. His most recent success: The New York County District Attorneys office has historically been one of the most prestigious and respected prosecutorial offices in the country. From the time of the legendary Frank Hogan (served 19421974) to the equally extended tenure of Robert Morgenthau (19752009), the New York DAs office was reputed for gang busting and for sophisticated investigations in prosecutions of crime at all levels, from complex white-collar criminal investigations on Wall Street to violent crime in all its manifestations. For assistant district attorneys, working in the New York DAs office was a step above the other New York City counties, virtually the equivalent of the federal prosecutors office in the Southern District. How rapidly that has changed. Nearly overnight, following the replacement of Cyrus Vance by Soros-backed Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DAs office has been transformed, from one feared by evildoers to one mocked by evildoers. Alvin Bragg speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally at A. Philip Randolph Square in Harlem in New York City, on Nov. 1, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) It has traditionally been part of the responsibility of young assistant district attorneys to rapidly evaluate recent arrests and to determine how best to prosecute them. The decision is made just before or at arraignment, and many factors must be taken into consideration: the nature of the crime, the degree of violence used, the harm caused, the arrestees criminal recordnumber of convictions and time served in prison. These and other factors areor rather, used to beweighed and a decision made as to whether to proceed with the case as a felony or reduce the case to a misdemeanor charge. Additionally, a snap decision had to be made as to how much bail was to be requested for the judge to set. Historically, use of a weapon in the course of a violent crime would virtually automatically lead to felony prosecution, unless the case was so riddled with problems, poor police work, and unreliable witnesses that a felony conviction would be unlikely to result. Guidelines were generally unwritten and focused on seeking a just outcome for the defendant andsignificantlyfor the victims, and for society at large. Now there has been a sea change, and the new New York County District Attorneys Office has established a presumption that virtually all cases will be prosecuted as misdemeanors, if theyre to be prosecuted at all, including egregious cases involving the use of weapons and physical injuries. The offices new prosecutorial guidelines detail with great specificity how the DAs office will proceed with all variety of criminal activity. The question arises, by whom was this statement of policy drafted? Are these guidelines, originally published in the New York Post, based on a template, drafted by those seeking to reinvent prosecution in the United States, disseminated with minor tweaks to all Soros-backed district attorneys? If their purpose is to sow discord by creating an environment where criminal activity soars, then they have indeed been successful. While this district attorney clearly has no street sense or any apparent appreciation for the consequences of under-prosecution of violent crime, there must be other forces at work, empowering and institutionalizing such self-destructive procedures. Misdemeanor charges, while potentially leading to up to one year in prison, in reality rarely conclude with a sentence longer than 90 days, and more often than not, probation with no prison time. By charging serious felony cases as misdemeanors, the deterrent effect of a criminal prosecution evaporates, criminals are incentivized to continue their criminal activity, and police officers are disincentivized from making arrests, knowing the futility of their efforts. Bragg was apparently the recipient of $500,000 in campaign contributions (originally intended to be $1 million) from a Soros-funded PAC. (Are there no limits on campaign contributions to district attorney campaigns?) One can only speculate as to the motivations for making disproportionately large contributions to the campaigns of candidates who have either no criminal justice experience or are committed to a criminal defense philosophy inconsistent with the office they seek, a philosophy that goes well beyond the right to an effective defense for all accused of crime to hostility toward any criminal prosecution and hostility toward all victims of crimevictims, it should be noted, who share the same socioeconomic environment as the criminals by whom they are terrorized. The inevitable result is the dissolution of the invisible webdescribed by the jurist Learned Handthat allows for the functioning of a civil society, such that the entire range of criminal activity becomes commonplace, from the murder of police officers to brazen shoplifting by delinquents filling up bags with unpaid for goods and strolling out of retail stores, sneering at security guards as they pass unchallenged through the exit doors. And ultimately, tragically, to mass shootings in churches, schools, parking lots, and other public venues, such as those that have wreaked such terrible havoc in recent days and times. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A Delta Air Lines aircraft flies past the U.S. Capitol before landing at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 24, 2022. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Delta Air Lines Sees Snapback to Pre-Pandemic Levels Delta Air Lines Inc. said on Wednesday it expects second-quarter adjusted revenue at 2019 levels as pandemic-weary travelers are planning more leisure trips undeterred by the higher prices of tickets, accommodation, and rental cars. U.S. airlines have been buoyed by how quickly travel snapped back from the depths of the pandemic, leaving them struggling to add capacity in part due to staff shortages. Staffing issues, weather-related problems, and COVID-19 cases among employees caused airlines to cancel more than 2,500 flights over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. However, airlines have remained bullish with an eye on strong summer travel demand. Delta raised its operating margin outlook for the current quarter to 13 percent14 percent, compared with its previous outlook of 12 percent14 percent. The Atlanta-based company expects second-quarter free cash flow of $1.5 billion and adjusted net debt below $20 billion, the airline said in a presentation to investors. However, higher fuel prices stemming from the Ukraine conflict have caused Delta to raise its outlook for fuel price per gallon. The company now expects fuel price per gallon to be between $3.60 and $3.70, compared with its previous forecast of $3.20 to $3.35. Last week, Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Corp. Airways also gave upbeat revenue forecasts for the current quarter. By Aishwarya Nair This picture released by the Samoa Observer on May 28, 2022 shows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) and Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa attending agreements signing ceremony between the two countries in Apia. (Vaitogi Asuisui Matafeo/Samoa Observer/AFP via Getty Images) Dont Go Pound for Pound Against Beijing in the Pacific, Win the Grassroots Battle: Former Special Ops Australia, the United States, and democratic allies should avoid engaging in a bidding war with Beijing to win the battle for influence over Pacific leaders, instead, the focus should be on grassroots efforts to build stronger connections with generations of communities, according to a former special forces officer. Heston Russell, who also spent years working behind the scenes in the South Pacific region, said democratic nations could not compete with the Chinese Communist Party in winning over the elites of those countries. Theres a separation between the political level and local population. Most of the population are too busy surviving and going about their everyday lives and are not actively engaged in politics or whats going on, he told The Epoch Times. That allows the political elite to exploit the country, be influenced, be corrupted, and that plays right into the hands of countries with big resources, big regions, big power bases like the Chinese. Russell said Australia and New Zealand needed to look at their own capabilities because going pound for pound against Beijing was unfeasible. Profile photo of Heston Russell, leader of the Australian Values Party, a veteran affairs advocate and former special forces operative. (Supplied) What can we do to shape and influence the local population? We need to look at it over 10, 20, or 50 years, he said. We need the next generation of people growing up in Asia-Pacific to know about Australia. He said democratic nations could work in tandem, with Washington D.C. providing the overarching strategic, financial, and diplomatic framework. In contrast, Australia and New Zealand provided the actual boots on the ground to develop human connections, play sports, build schools, assist with infrastructure, and help with disaster relief. These efforts would eventually galvanise the base and pressure leaders from the ground up while possibly reinvigorating the democratic process. Our systems and infrastructure, even from an economic and commercial perspective, are more set up to better integrate with Pacific islands [than Beijing]. English is the primary languagethese are the small nuances, he said, noting as well the prevalence of Christianity in the region made Pacific communities incompatible with the atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One thing that China is fantastic at doing is, they come in and set up their new Smart City, and they bring the whole digital side with them, he said. Thats where the United States needs people like Elon Musk to throw in their Starlink [satellite internet network] and all this sort of stuff. The CCPs Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, embarked on an eight-nation tour of the South Pacific aimed at shoring up alliances with key leaders that have maintained ties with Beijing, including the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, and Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste. Leaked documents revealed, however, that the CCP has ambitions exceeding that of strong bilateral ties, with Beijing proposing a sweeping 10-nation economic and security bloc in the region. The China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision envisioned the CCP working even closer with Pacific leaders in the fields of free trade, fisheries, pandemic response, as well as sensitive areas such as security, cyber, and maritime mapping. The deal fell over on May 30 during a meeting between the Chinese foreign minister and leaders of the Pacific after a lack of consensus among the Pacific nations over the deal. David Panuelo, president of the Federated States of Micronesia, was vocal in his opposition to the pact, writing to 21 Pacific leaders warning it could trigger a new Cold War. Chinese control over our communications infrastructure, our ocean territory and the resources within them, and our security space, aside from impacts on our sovereignty, is that it increases the chances of China getting into conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand, he said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) speaks during a joint press conference with Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama in Fijis capital city Suva on May 30, 2022. (Leon Lord/AFP via Getty Images) Australian and U.S. leaders have taken steps to counteract Beijings push into the region, including launching the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity to bolster trade and economic exchange between nations. Australias new foreign minister, Penny Wong, also visited Fiji just days after the Labor Party won the countrys federal election. Wong pledged a new era of engagement and more aid for climate change initiatives. While the regional pact had to be shelved, the Chinese foreign minister still managed to secure further diplomatic commitments from the governments of the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. The CCP has also stated it was not giving up on the regional deal. Russell said some Pacific leaders would likely be considering the pact. Pacific island nations, when money is on the table, will work together and talk to each other, he said. The issue is a lot of these governments are filled with corruption. They are filled with people preparing themselves for lives outside politics. Corruption has been an overt and ongoing problem. For example, in the Solomon Islands, 39 out of 50 lawmakers in the countrys Parliamentsupporters of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavarereceived funds from the National Development Fund, which is operated in conjunction with the Chinese Embassy. Further, experts have warned that local Chinese-backed casino developments could be hubs for Beijings influence and expansionist operations. Meanwhile, Eric Louw, a retired professor of political communication and expert in affirmative action, warned that corrupt leaders in developing countries could exploit Western sentiments around climate changeand guilt around colonialismto obtain funding. Unfortunately, the Left has so widely propagated this anticolonial mythology that it is becoming almost impossible to have a sensible discussion about the age of imperialism, he wrote in The Epoch Times. This socialist myth has been sold to many well-meaning but naive liberals through journalists and celebrities, or by screening heart-wrenching and sensationalist television images. During the Cold War days, corrupt politicians in weak, underdeveloped countries from the Pacific to Africa, and Latin America to Asia got rich playing the two sides off against each other, he wrote in a separate piece. Perhaps [leaders like Prime Minister Manasseh] Sogavare thinks the good times are back and that the new Cold War means he can simultaneously get his snout into the troughs of Beijing, Canberra, and Washington. Elon Musk Versus the Woke Cartel Commentary Many criticisms have been leveled against Elon Muskthat hes part of the elite, that Tesla has been the beneficiary of government handouts and exemptions, and that his transhumanist Neuralink is a brain-data-mining operation. Yet his planned purchase of Twitter, his supposed free-speech absolutism, and his subsequent renunciation of the Democratic Party as the party of hate have put Musk squarely in the crosshairs of the woke cartel. Vitriolic Twitter storms, a New York TimesFinancial Times biographical expose, a slew of hit pieces and scaremongering segments in the legacy media, and allegations of sexual harassment have dogged the automobile magnate ever since his Twitter bid. In response, Musk announced on Twitter that hes assembling a legal crew to sue defamers and defend Tesla (and likely himself) against lawsuits. But the best indication that the woke cartel has really gone berserk is its removal of Tesla from the S&P 500s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Index. This last rebuff proves that ESG is a scam. Ive argued that ESG is a means for dividing the woke wheat from the unwoke chaff to assemble a woke monopolistic cartel, but this exclusion is especially hypocritical and ludicrous. Tesla has produced more electric vehicles than any other manufacturer, yet ExxonMobil and JPMorgan Chase rank among the S&P 500s top ESG performers after a recent rebalancing. JPMorgan is the worlds largest investor in oil producers, and ExxonMobil ranks first among those producers. The reasons given for axing Tesla from the index also prove that ESG indexing is political to the core. Margaret Dorn of Indexology Blog wrote: A few of the factors contributing to its 2021 S&P DJI ESG Score were a decline in criteria level scores related to Teslas (lack of) low carbon strategy and codes of business conduct. In addition, a Media and Stakeholder Analysis, a process that seeks to identify a companys current and potential future exposure to risks stemming from its involvement in a controversial incident, identified two separate events centered around claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Teslas Fremont factory, as well as its handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot vehicles. Both of these events had a negative impact on the companys S&P DJI ESG Score at the criteria level, and subsequently its overall score. While Tesla may be playing its part in taking fuel-powered cars off the road, it has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens. What we see through this wider ESG lens is a political spectacle. ESG grading, Bloomberg noted, is a measure of public relations imagery, not environmental performance. Tesla has been besmirched with bad press regarding supposed racial discrimination, and Musks South African provenance is used to support such allegations. In 2018, Business Insider claimed that Musk was a beneficiary of an apartheid emerald mine owned by his father, Errol, and worked by black South Africans. Twitter mobs and other media outlets have continued to repeat the allegation, despite Musks convincing refutation. Tesla and Musk have thus been subjected to the S in ESGthe social or social justice quotient. Diversity, equity, and inclusion means the exclusion of the politically incorrect. This applies to corporations as much as it does to individuals. Musk has been deemed a deplorable, and thus his company doesnt pass social justice muster. As such, Musk has exposed the contradictions within the woke cartels measurement apparatus. Anything that can be used against a company or its owners will be usedwhen the target runs afoul of the woke arbiters, that is. Thats because ESG is an impressionistic, qualitative metric that subjects companies to the whims of a woke dictatorship. Im not suggesting that Musk is a free-market hero or a lowercase libertarian, but theres little doubt that hes become corporate enemy No. 1 for the state-backed woke cartel. The battle shaping up between Musk and the regime will prove to be an important one, if only because it pits the power of the latter against a high-visibility manufacturer and the reputed richest man in the world. What well learn is how powerful the woke cartel is and just how far it will go to infringe property rights and eradicate any remaining legitimate (consumer-based) market criteriano matter how much its moves reek of hypocrisy or how obvious its vendetta. In todays political economy, satisfying shareholders and customers has become less important than ingratiation with the woke cartel and the government that supports it. Corporations fealty to wokeness, state dictates, and state narratives can be explained in terms of a fully politicized economy. Corporations seek to curry favor with the clique in power, and thus theyve become organs of the Democratic Party and the federal government it now runs unilaterally. Woke corporatism is what happens when social democracy or democratic socialism grows to such proportions as to make profiting nearly impossible without political approval. Unfortunately, Elon Musk will learn much more about woke political capitalism in the not-so-distant future. From Mises.org Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Emigrant Surge Driving High-Skilled Brain Drain in Hong Kong: Survey A recent survey by headhunting company Venturenix found that a serious loss of IT talent is occurring in Hong Kong. The survey covered 101 companies of all sizes, including construction, real estate, retail, hotel, and tourism, and sampled the recruitment activities of 200 companies. The recent emigration wave was identified as a major reason for the shortage of IT talent. Yuen Yik-ting, director of Venturenix, said at a press conference in late May that although some companies have significantly increased their salaries for IT positions, the resignation rate in the Hong Kong IT industry has doubled from 12 percent last year to 24 percent this year. The emigration wave has caused the loss of 10,000 to 15,000 IT workers. In the next five years, Hong Kong will need an additional 100,000 IT workers. Yuen said that all countries are competing for IT talent now. The United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada are the most popular immigration destinations for those leaving Hong Kong. Survey from the Chamber According to a survey conducted by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) in March, the city has experienced the most serious loss of skilled professionals recorded in the past 30 years. Although 58 percent of respondents indicated that they expect the emigration-induced turnover rate to stabilize in 2022, some 35 percent of respondents were less optimistic and anticipated more shortages of skilled workers to come. The Chamber conducted an interview and survey of 220 companies from January 10 to 21 this year, and found that the brain drain spans a broad rage of skills, especially engineering and technical services, followed by finance and accounting, information technology, and senior and general management. In terms of organizational hierarchy, most of the lost talent is from middle and senior management. The dominant age group leaving Hong Kong is 30 to 49. According to the survey, the outflow of technical talent has brought pressure to Hong Kong enterprises, and 45 percent of large enterprises believe that this loss has had a serious impact on their operations. Chamber Chairman Peter Wong said Hong Kongs success is built on its highly skilled workforce, making the loss of human capital all the more concerning, especially in the face of an aging population. Hong Kong is facing an exodus of educated workers on a scale not seen since the early 1990s, which will have a material impact on the economy. Given the importance of human capital in Hong Kongs service-driven and knowledge-based economy, there is real cause for concern if we cannot stem the current brain drain, said Wong. As the survey shows, the key reasons for leaving Hong Kong are not so much about career prospects, as 57 percent of the respondents said that the main consideration is better development for their children, and 45 percent said it was the political situation. In 2019, the Chinese Communist Party imposed the Suspect Extradition Ordinance in Hong Kong, triggering mass protests and social unrest, after which many Hong Kongers thought about leaving Hong Kong. Before Hong Kong people move out of the country, they must obtain a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction (CNCC) from the police. Hui Ching-yu, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, told the Hong Kong Legislative Council in December 2020 that data compiled from the Security Bureau and the Education Bureau, showed that the Police Force received about 33,000 applications for CNCC in 2019, 43 percent higher than in 2018. Survey from Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute The survey conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute from March 21 to 24 this year, shows 3 percent of the respondents said they were ready to leave any time; 7 percent said they were preparing to leave; 14 percent plan to leave but have not begun preparations. Among the causes of permanent departure from Hong Kong, 35 percent of respondents emphasized that deterioration of personal freedom and personal safety would prompt them to leave; 16 percent said that the prospects for their family members was the main consideration; 16 percent said political changes in the environment; and 12 percent for personal living standards. The logo of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is seen next to a mural depicting Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 2, 2017. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) Experts Criticize Bidens Changing Policies for Cuba and Venezuela One expert says avid pursuit of Caracas crude follows 'brutal' mugging of energy policy by political reality A discussion hosted by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation gave rise to questions about U.S. President Joe Bidens recent moves to ease restrictions on Cuba and Venezuelaincluding his actions to step up Venezuelan oil production. At a time when the Biden administration is restricting domestic energy, hes giving the [Venezuelan] dictator [Nicolas] Maduro the green light, said Mike Gonzalez, host of the May 31 event Cuba and Venezuela Policy in Bidens America Last Agenda. Gonzalez is The Heritage Foundations Angeles Arredondo senior fellow. On May 16, the White House announced a range of new policies on Cuba. The actions may mark the resumption of a trend under the Obama administration that former President Donald Trump had reversed. Biden has moved to reinstate a family reunification program, eliminate a $1,000 remittance cap, and resume educational travel to the island nation. According to an unnamed senior administration official, the new approach to travel will include specifically authorizing commercial and charter flights to locations beyond Havana. The United States has also permitted John Kavulich, who describes himself as a citizen of both the United States and Canada, to invest in a Cuban companypossibly the first such direct investment since 1960. The Miami Herald reported that the agreement between Kavulich and the Cuban business, which he declined to name, was negotiated by Robert Muse, a Washington attorney. Muse also represented the opposition research firm Fusion GPS in its response to a probe by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. On May 17, a day after announcing its softer policies on Cuba, the Biden administration stated that it would ease some sanctions on Venezuela. It would also allow the U.S. oil company Chevron to negotiate with Venezuelas state-owned oil company, PDVAS. The move came after senior U.S. officials visited Venezuela in early March. Russias invasion of Ukraine prompted the attempt to drive a wedge between Caracas and Moscow, as well as to replace Russian oil with petroleum from the socialist South American dictatorship. Jose Cardenas, a former senior official at the U.S. State Department, suggested that there has been a consistent ideological undertone to the Biden administrations actions on both Cuba and Venezuelaa perception that could be reinforced by its sometimes rocky relationship with Jair Bolsonaro, the conservative president of a top U.S. ally, Brazil. Bolsonaro recently claimed that Biden snubbed him at last years G20 meeting. Cardenas noted that Venezuelas oil production has fallen greatly in recent years, calling into question the wisdom of U.S. overtures to that regime. Victoria Coates, distinguished fellow for strategic security studies with the American Foreign Policy Council, made a similar point. They [the Biden administration] think that theres this mythical supply of Venezuelan crude thats somehow going to save their chances in November. Thats false, said Coates, who served on the National Security Council and in the Department of Energy under Trump. What weve watched unfold over the last 18 months is an energy policy that has been brutally mugged by political reality, in terms of extremely high gas and diesel and natural gas prices. Cardenas and Carrie Filipetti, another Trump administration alum, stressed that the Cuban government had stepped up its repression of dissidents in recent months, following anti-government protests in the summer of 2021. Particularly at a moment where Russia is otherwise engaged, for us to now be extending a hand to the Cubans at precisely the moment where the regime could suffer even more is absolutely insane to me, said Filipetti, whos now affiliated with The Vandenberg Coalition. She and other panelists said Latin America has become the site of a crucial Great Powers competition involving Russia, China, and, to a lesser extent, Iran. Filipetti also took issue with the use of the word migration rather than immigration when describing the massive flow of people from Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries to the United States. I think its a weird word to be using, she said. These are people who are coming to the United States with the intention of immigrating here and living here. I do think its important that we use the language of immigrating, because theyre not just trying to come through. If you want to address the root causes of immigration, addressing the dictatorships in the region is your No. 1 strategy for doing that. Filipetti cited the flight of an estimated 6 million people from Venezuela in recent years in regard to her point. State Department officials didnt respond to a request for comment by press time. Reenactment of one of the many inhumane torture methods used by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in China. (Minghui.org) Math Teacher and Falun Gong Adherent Dies One Year After 19-Year Prison Term in China Math teacher and Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Yaoming died in northeastern China in early April, one year after serving a 19-year prison term for providing facts about Falun Dafa to people. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that follows three core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and doing five slow-moving exercises. After it was made public in 1992 in China, the number of followers had surged to 70 million to 100 million by 1999. That year, the Chinese regime, deeming the practices popularity a threat, launched a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate it. Zhang, who was born in 1963, taught at the Xingshan Mine No. 1 Middle School in Xiangyang District, Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) campaign against Falun Gong. He used to regularly suffer from bouts of pharyngitis, sinusitis, and cholecystitis. However, all these conditions went away after he followed his wife Fan Fengzhen to practice Falun Gong. Fan, an internist at Lingbei Mine Hospital, struggled every winter due to a recurring cough that didnt respond to treatment. She said her health recovered after she began the practice. Freed from the medical troubles, the couple became firm followers of Falun Gong. After the ruling CCP began persecuting the group, they decided to uphold their practice at whatever price. On April 20, 2002, Zhang and several companions tapped into the communist regimes TV broadcast in the city and played a video, according to Minghui.org. They successfully aired a 20-minute video revealing how state broadcaster CCTV falsely claimed in 2001 that five people who allegedly set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square were Falun Gong practitioners. Their rare move alarmed the local authorities, who, in every effort to block the truths from being known to the public, soon launched mass detentions in retaliation. More than 500 people were arrested, including Zhang. A court in the district of Gongnong sentenced him to 19 years in prison in October that year. Math Teacher Imprisoned Zhang was originally incarcerated in the No. 3 Prison in Harbin City along with other followers, according to Minghui.org. However, the authorities became alarmed after a story came to light that an adherent died after being tortured. To lessen pressure from the outside, the authorities channeled all those who were resistant to efforts to make them give up Falun Gong to prisons in the cities of Daqing, Mudanjiang, and Tailai in Heilongjiang Province. In the Tailai Prison, Zhang continued to be tortured, including being suspended above the floor by his arms and deprived of sleep, according to Minghui. He was once released on medical parole due to severe anaemia and hemorrhoids. However, he was sent back in August 2015 and remained there until April 23, 2021. When he was eventually released, his family found him to be extremely emaciated . His wife was taken away by police during a 2022 mass detention, according to Minghui. She experienced torture that included repeated electric shocks from an electric baton while in the Harbin Drug Addiction Treatment Center. Part of the of facility houses Falun Gong practitioners for detention and mistreatment. Minghui.org reports suggest that the oppression of the faith group is ongoing and unchecked, with hundreds of thousands being held in prisons, detention centers, black jails, and brainwashing centers across the country. Michael Sussmann arrives at federal court in Washington on May 18, 2022. (Teng Chen for The Epoch Times) FBI Altered Statement on Intrusion Into Democratic Network Based on Input From Democrats Lawyer A lawyer representing Democrats proposed alterations to an FBI statement on the hacking of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to avoid undermining the narrative from his clients, according to emails released as part of the trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann. FBI officials in mid-2016 were drafting a statement regarding an alleged intrusion into the DCCC network and sent the draft to Sussmann, a lawyer representing the DCCC, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and other Democrats. Jim Trainor, assistant director for the FBI Cyber Division, wrote to Sussmann on July 29, 2016: Michaelour press office is once again getting a ton of calls on the DCCC matter. A draft response is provided below. Wanted to get your thoughts on this prior to sending out. Sussmann zeroed in on the first sentence, which he said seemed to undermine what the DCCC was saying about the reported intrusion. The draft you sent says only that the FBI is aware of media reports; it does not say that the FBI is aware of the intrusion that the DCCC reported. Indeed, it refers only to a possible cyber intrusion and in that way undermines what the DCCC said in its statement (or at least calls into question what the DCCC said),' Sussmann said. Sussmann proposed changing the press release from saying the FBI is aware of reporting on a possible cyber instruction involving the DCCC to saying the bureau is aware of the cyber intrusion involving the DCCC that has been reported in the media and the FBI has been working to determine the nature and scope of the matter. Trainor said the proposed alterations were fine. We try to really limit what we see and not acknowledging too much but the below edits are fine and we will send out, Trainor said. The bureau ended up using language similar to that offered by Sussmann, telling news outlets that it was aware of media reporting on cyber intrusions involving multiple political entities, and is working to determine the accuracy, nature, and scope of these matters. The emails were introduced as exhibits during Sussmanns trial and obtained by The Epoch Times. Sussmann was acquitted on May 31 of lying to the FBI. The FBI headquarters in Washington on Jan. 2, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) According to notes taken by then-CIA Director John Brennan, President Barack Obama received a briefing on July 28, 2016one day before Sussmanns email to Trainor. Brennan told Obama of an intelligence intercept showing that Russia was aware of a plan approved by Clinton to vilify her rival, Donald Trump, by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services. Days later, the CIA informed the FBI of intelligence suggesting that Clintons plan was meant as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server. According to the indictment of several Russian nationals brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, the alleged Russian conspirators gained access to the DCCC network on April 12, 2016. That same day, then-FBI Director James Comey held a meeting with senior FBI officials to discuss how to execute a credible conclusion of the FBI investigation into Clintons use of an unauthorized private email server to conduct government business. The DCCC and the DNC hired CrowdStrike, a private cybersecurity firm, to investigate and remediate the network intrusions. The FBI conducted its own investigation, relying on server images and reports produced by CrowdStrike, with Sussmann playing as the singular point of contact representing the DNC and the DCCC, according to another email introduced during the trial. The CrowdStrike reports sent to the FBI were partly redacted. An email addressed to Sussmann by an FBI agent indicated that receiving the nonredacted versions of the reports was the top priority for the bureau. According to a previous filing by the Department of Justice in the case against Trump associate Roger Stone, the bureau never received the unredacted reports. The FBI has rejected Freedom of Information Act requests for the documents. Other missives entered during Sussmanns trial showed the lawyer becoming upset after the bureau announced that it was investigating the reported intrusion into the DNC network. Sussmann messaged Trainor, questioning the significance of this announcement and requesting the bureau consult with him before making public statements about the DNC case. Trainor apologized, agreeing that when the FBI makes statements we need to be in lock step with victims and partners. Trainor said the statement was an attempt to respond in a more authentic way and that the bureau intended to be equally cooperative partners as we navigate this matter. Thank you for that explanation. You can understand how the statement was confusing to us, Sussmann said. Please try to keep us informed if the FBI says anything else publicly about its investigation. Sussmann was the FBIs point of contact on the investigations into the intrusions into the DCCC and DNC network, according to an email that FBI agent Jennifer Frasch sent in August 2016. Sussmann was close to the FBI for years and had a badge that allowed him access to the bureaus headquarters. Sussmann used the badge to gain entry on Sept. 19, 2016, when he handed over sketchy allegations against Trump to FBI lawyer James Baker. Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland. Former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.) speaks at the Let the Church ROAR National Prayer Rally on the National Mall in Washington on Dec. 12, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) FBI Shared Transcripts of FlynnRussia Calls Without Masking Flynns Name: Report No evidence that requests from Biden, others to unmask Flynn were politically motivated, US attorney finds The FBI distributed transcripts of calls between then-incoming national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Russias ambassador to the United States without shielding Flynns name, according to a newly published report, which also found no evidence that requests from then-Vice President Joe Biden and other executive branch officials to unmask Flynns identity were politically motivated. Flynn and the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, spoke several times after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Flynns identity was made known, or unmasked, to a number of Obama administration officials, who requested the unmasking prior to Trump being sworn in. Portions of the transcripts were reported by The Washington Post before Trumps inauguration, citing a senior U.S. government official. A later article cited nine current and former officials. All likely violated the federal code that prohibits disclosure of classified information. Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, in May 2020 tasked U.S. Attorney John Bash with reviewing the unmasking requests of Flynn and others, with the Department of Justice indicating the frequency and motivation for the unmasking appeared to be problematic. Bashs report was never made public but was published on May 31 by BuzzFeed News after the outlet obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request. Bash, another Trump appointee, said he examined whether any senior officials had obtained Flynns identity in connection with the calls through an unmasking request made ahead of Trumps inauguration. The answer is no. According to the FBI, the Bureau did not disseminate an intelligence report discussing those communications and containing masked USPII for General Flynn before President Trumps inauguration. For that reason, the public disclosure of the communications could not have resulted from an unmasking request, Bash wrote. USPII stands for U.S. person identifying information. That conclusion is consistent with my review of unmasking records, which did not reveal any unmasking request corresponding to a report discussing those communications, and was confirmed by other information, Bash added. But the U.S. attorney, who resigned in October 2020, also said he learned that during the time when Trump was preparing to enter office that the FBI shared transcripts of the FlynnKislyak calls outside of the Bureau without masking General Flynns name. Evaluating that dissemination and determining how the information was provided to the media is beyond the scope of this review, Bash said. An FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email: The FBIs dissemination of information in intelligence products to other executive branch agencies is governed by policies and processes, which are periodically reviewed, and that ensure appropriate protections for privacy and identifying information. Flynn didnt respond to a request for comment. The Obama team leaked partial Flynn transcripts to the media, the media printed them without context, the Obama team unmasked the name as if they hadnt leaked it already, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, who reviewed the report, wrote on Twitter. Grenell declassified the list of officials who had asked for Flynns identity. Former FBI Director James Comey told a congressional panel in 2017 that the bureau was charged with sharing information about Flynns talks with Kislyak with other government agencies. Comey said he passed the information to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, with Clapper briefing President Barack Obama, Biden, and other senior officials. Our people judged it was appropriate, for reasons that I hope are obvious, to have Mr. Flynns name unmasked, Comey said. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later told the committee that he didnt think Flynns name was ever masked, which would have made requests for unmasking unnecessary. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Kislyak, but the Department of Justice found the bureau did not have a legitimate investigative basis to interview Flynn and dropped the criminal case. John Bash, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. (U.S. Attorneys Office) No Evidence Flynn Requests Made for Improper Reasons Bash and his team, which included an FBI special agent and two assistant U.S. attorneys, reviewed unmasking requests made between March 1, 2016, and Jan. 31, 2017. Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2017. The team reviewed records of unmasking requests and underlying intelligence reports, spoke with intelligence and other federal officials, and reviewed classified and unclassified transcripts of former senior officials testifying to Congress. Bash said he didnt uncover evidence that senior U.S. officials unmasked the identities of Flynn or other U.S. persons who were in intelligence reports for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons during the period of time in question. I did not find any basis to conclude that the requests were made for improper reasons, Bash said. Most critically, all but one of the requests that listed a senior official as an authorized recipient of General Flynns identity were made by an intelligence professional to prepare for a briefing of the official, not at the direction of the official. The FBI spokesperson said: The FBI fully cooperated with the review conducted in 2020 by U.S. Attorney Bash. As explained in his report, Bash didnt identify any improper action by the FBI and found that the FBI complied with applicable policies and processes in 2016 and 2017. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA), indicated in 2020 that Biden and others wanted Flynns identity, but they had others submit the actual requests because only certain personnel are authorized to make them. The NSA didnt return a request for comment. Bash noted that it would be hard to uncover abuse of the unmasking process because the legal standard that allows the identity of U.S. persons to be made known is relatively easy for the most senior officials to satisfy, while the NSAs default position means that many unmasking requests are clearly justified as an objective matter, even if secretly made for inappropriate reasons. Unless the senior official ultimately takes some improper action with the USPII, such as leaking it to the press, it would be difficult to detect an inappropriate purpose for making a single unmasking request, he said. Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, speaks before Congress in Washington on April 5, 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) 2 Factors Bashs team concluded it was very unlikely Obama administration officials systematically exploited the process to target Trumps campaign or transition team, largely based on two factors. The first is that intelligence officials review communications and sift out all information on Americans that does not appear relevant to foreign intelligence and national security objectives, according to Bash, citing rules across the NSA, CIA, and FBI. That leaves relatively few Americans for which administration officials such as the vice president can request unmasking. The second is that the bulk of the identities that remain in the reports were routinely revealed based on regular requests by staffers. Presidents and some other senior officials on a daily basis receive whats called the Presidents Daily Brief, a document containing classified information collected by intelligence officials. From at least 2015, briefers presenting the brief would ask intelligence agencies to unmask the identities of most Americans mentioned in documents contained in the brief, Bash found. The justification offered for the request was typically no more than a boilerplate statement that a briefer needed the identities for the morning briefing of a particular official. The request would usually then be granted that morning, sometimes in a matter of minutes. The requests were rarely denied, Bash said. Briefers for the attorney general, FBI director, CIA director, and director of national intelligence told Bash that asking for unmasking ahead of the briefings was standard operating procedure and, in some cases, was also done by their predecessors. Intelligence officials who selected reports for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said the procedure was actually given to them by their predecessors in writing, though the document was not able to be located. An NSA official with 32 years of experience with the agency said the anticipatory requests by briefers had been done since 2008, if not earlier. The director of the brief on March 23, 2017, ordered staffers to stop making the widespread requests. That change was likely prompted by public discussion of unmaskings, Bash said. Grenell said that what took place was illegal. Its illegal for briefers to share the name without a request, he said. That should be corrected. Bash said: Despite finding no evidence of inappropriate unmasking requests, I am troubled by how easy it is for political appointees of the incumbent administration to obtain nonpublic information about individuals associated with a presidential campaign or a transition team. There exists a significant potential for misuse of such informationmisuse that could be difficult to detect, He recommended intelligence agencies adopt stricter safeguards for unmasking requests relating to presidential campaigns or transitions, including implementing a higher standard for granting the requests. IndexBox, Inc. Companies Mentioned in the Report: Dow, INOVYN, Covestro, KEM ONE, BASF, BorsodChem, Runcorn MCP, Vynova, VESTOLIT, Olin Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Westlake Chemical Corporation, Nobian, AkzoNobel, Evonik, Nobian, CABB, Societa Chimica Bussi, Kuhlmann, Ercros, Covestro NEW YORK, May 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IndexBox has just published a new report: 'EU Chlorine - Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights'. Here is a summary of the report's key findings. EU Chlorine Market Statistics Imports 40.6 Million USD Exports 38.9 Million USD Top Importers Italy, Germany, Belgium Top Exporters France, Belgium, Germany The EU chlorine market was estimated at approx. $830M in 2021. Over the last five years, the most prominent market growth rate was recorded in 2018. Consumption reached the peak level of $923M. From 2019 to 2021, the growth of the market remained at a lower figure. REQUEST FREE DATA EU Chlorine Consumption The EU chlorine consumption was estimated at approx. 3.2M tonnes in 2021. Germany constituted the country with the largest volume of chlorine consumption, accounting for 68% of total volume. Moreover, chlorine consumption in Germany exceeded the figures recorded by the second-largest consumer, France, tenfold. The third position in this ranking was occupied by Poland, with a 4.9% share. REQUEST FREE DATA From 2016 to 2021, the average annual growth rate of volume in Germany totaled -1.0%. In the other countries, the average annual rates were as follows: France (-1.3% per year) and Poland (+5.9% per year). REQUEST FREE DATA EU Chlorine Production In 2021, the amount of chlorine produced in the European Union was estimated at approx. 3.2M tonnes. Overall, production was relatively stable from 2016 to 2021. The country with the largest volume of chlorine production was Germany, accounting for 67% of total volume. Moreover, chlorine production in Germany exceeded the figures recorded by the second-largest producer, France, eightfold. Poland ranked third in terms of total production with a 5.4% share. Story continues In Germany, chlorine production declined by an average annual rate of -1.4% over the period from 2016-2021. The remaining producing countries recorded the following average annual rates of production growth: France (-2.2% per year) and Poland (+5.4% per year). EU Chlorine Exports In 2021, the amount of chlorine exported in the European Union declined to 139K tonnes, which is down by -9.1% on the year before. In value terms, exports soared to $39M in 2021. This figure includes trade between EU member countries. In 2021, France (55K tonnes) was the key exporter of chlorine, creating 40% of total supplies. It was distantly followed by Belgium (20K tonnes), Poland (18K tonnes), Germany (12K tonnes), Romania (6.9K tonnes) and Italy (6.5K tonnes), together comprising a 45% share of total exports. The Czech Republic (5.4K tonnes) took a relatively small share of total supplies. In value terms, France ($13M), Belgium ($7.4M) and Germany ($4.3M) appeared to be the countries with the highest levels of exports in 2021, with a combined 63% share of total exports. Export Prices by Country In 2021, the chlorine export price in the European Union amounted to $280 per tonne, picking up by 33% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major exporting countries. In 2021, the country with the highest price was Belgium ($369 per tonne), while the Czech Republic ($127 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. From 2016 to 2021, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Germany (+23.4%), while the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth. EU Chlorine Imports In 2021, overseas purchases of chlorine decreased by -6.7% to 122K tonnes, falling for the third year in a row after two years of growth. In value terms, imports soared to $41M in 2021. This figure includes trade between EU member countries. In 2021, Germany (33K tonnes), Hungary (27K tonnes) and Belgium (24K tonnes) was the key importer of chlorine in the European Union, mixing up 69% of total purchases. It was distantly followed by Italy (8.9K tonnes), creating a 7.3% share of total supplies. The following importers - the Netherlands (5.5K tonnes), Slovakia (4K tonnes), Spain (2.9K tonnes), Austria (2.8K tonnes), France (2.6K tonnes), Bulgaria (2.2K tonnes) and the Czech Republic (2.1K tonnes) - together made up 18% of total volume. In value terms, Italy ($7.8M), Germany ($7M) and Belgium ($5.6M) constituted the countries with the highest levels of imports in 2021, together comprising 50% of total imports. These countries were followed by the Netherlands, Hungary, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Austria and Bulgaria, which together accounted for a further 36%. Import Prices by Country In 2021, the chlorine import price in the European Union amounted to $333 per tonne, jumping by 55% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major importing countries. In 2021, the country with the highest price was Italy ($877 per tonne), while Hungary ($155 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. From 2016 to 2021, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Italy (+34.9%), while the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth. About IndexBox IndexBox is a market research firm developing an AI-driven market intelligence platform that helps business analysts find actionable insights and make data-driven decisions. The platform provides data on consumption, production, trade, and prices for more than 10K+ different products across 200 countries. For more information, please visit Website https://www.indexbox.io Twitter https://twitter.com/indexbox YouTube https://www.youtube.com/IndexBox LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/indexbox-marketing/ Product Coverage Chlorine. Related Links Chlorine Market Iodine, Fluorine and Bromine Market Chloroform Market Halogenated Hydrocarbon Derivative Market Vinyl Chloride Market Contact Information Mekhrona Dzhuraeva Editor media@indexbox.io Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Md., on Aug. 29, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) FDA Being Audited for Handling of Baby Formula Investigation A federal watchdog on June 2 announced an investigation into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its response to problems at a baby formula factory. We will determine whether FDA followed the inspections and recall process for infant formula in accordance with Federal requirements, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said in a statement. The FDA in February forced Abbott to shut down its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, but the move came about half a year after the agency in September 2021 found unsanitary conditions there. Minnesota health officials and a whistleblower also raised concerns in the intervening months with conditions at the plant, prompting questions as to why it took the FDA so long to act. After the plant was shut down and Abbott issued a voluntary recall, shortages of formula began appearinga problem that has still not been solved. The inspector general said it would determine whether the FDA followed applicable policies and procedures to conduct inspections of the Sturgis facility and when overseeing Abbotts recall. The audit is expected to be completed in 2023. An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency intends to cooperate with the review. If the watchdog identifies any actionable items and provides the agency with any recommendations, the FDA will review expeditiously to determine the best course of action, the spokesperson said. In the interim, the FDA has initiated its own review of the actions around the investigation into Abbotts Sturgis, Michigan, as well as the associated response so that we can make improvements to our programs, processes, and decision making. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) applauded the audit, which she requested in February. Revelations since then have made clear that the FDA dropped the balldragging their feet to responding to damning allegations of substandard practices and fraud delivered by a credible whistleblower, DeLauro said in a statement. I commend the OIG for taking this critical step to get answers as to why this unreasonable delay was allowed to occurespecially when a product we feed to our babies was at the center of allegations of wrongdoing. I hope the OIG moves speedily to uncover answers so that we can prevent this crisis from potentially happening again. Dr. Robert Califf, the FDAs commissioner, told members of Congress in May that the FDAs response to complaints about the Sturgis plant was too slow. Still, to this day, I can find no evidence of intentional delay or malfeasance, he said. According to the agency, the whistleblower complaint, lodged in October 2021, was not seen by senior agency officials because of mail issues that officials blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Abbott products were later linked to infections of Cronobacter, a bacteria, in infants, with two of them dying. Authorities said parents of the babies reported using the products. Abbott said evidence of the bacteria was found in the plant but not in any formula. The FDA said a review of Abbotts records showed the company destroyed products due to the presence of Cronobacter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention closed an investigation on May 12. The agency said patient samples did not match the strains of Cronobacter found in Abbotts facility. An FDA analysis is ongoing. Abbott and the FDA on May 16 entered a consent decree that set a pathway to reopen the Michigan factory. Abbott currently projects resuming production on June 4. A NFT (Non-Fungible Token) created by Nigerian digital artist FreddieJacobArt as featured on the OpenSea NFT marketplace, displayed on a phone, and Binance NFT marketplace displayed on a computer screen. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images) Former OpenSea Executive Arrested, Charged in First-Ever NFT Insider Trading Case A former executive at the largest online marketplace for buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been charged with insider trading in a first-of-its-kind case for the Justice Department (DOJ). Nate Chastain, a former product manager at New York-based OpenSea, was apprehended in New York on Wednesday before appearing in the U.S. court for the Southern District of New York, the DOJ said in a press release. The 31-year-old faces one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in NFTs, using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSeas homepage for his personal financial gain, the DOJ said. If found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in prison. An NFT is a type of digital asset that represents real-world objects such as artwork, music, and memes. They are non-fungible, meaning they are one-of-a-kind and are bought and sold online using the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs have gained traction this year, prompting celebrities to cash in on the hype, including award-winning director Quentin Tarantino who auctioned off several uncut scenes from Pulp Fiction as secret NFTs in November. They were auctioned on OpenSea. Prosecutors said Chastains responsibilities while employed at OpenSea included selecting exactly which NFTs would be featured on its homepage; something that was usually kept secret and confidential until they appeared on the page. Officials further alleged that once an NFT was featured on OpenSeas homepage, it would sell for more money. Other NFTs made by the same NFT creator whose digital asset had featured on the home page would also typically see an increase in the price buyers were willing to pay for them, officials said. Between around June 2021 to at least September 2021, Chastain violated the trust and confidence of his employer when he exploited his advanced knowledge of what NFTs would be featured on OpenSeas homepage and secretly purchased dozens of NFTs shortly before they were featured. After those NFTs had been featured on the homepage for OpenSea, Chastain would then sell them on, making profits of up to five times the price he initially paid for them. To conceal the fraud, the former exec would make the purchases and sales using anonymous digital currency wallets and anonymous accounts on OpenSea, prosecutors allege. Charging documents allege that Chastain purchased approximately 45 NFTs in 2021 on 11 separate occasions and sold them for two to five times what he had just paid for them. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: NFTs might be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not. As alleged, Nathaniel Chastain betrayed OpenSea by using its confidential business information to make money for himself. Todays charges demonstrate the commitment of this Office to stamping out insider tradingwhether it occurs on the stock market or the blockchain. Chastain resigned from his role at OpenSea in September 2021. At the time, the marketplace said in a blog post that it has a strong obligation to this community to move it forward responsibly and diligently and that the behavior of one of our employees violated that obligation and, yesterday, we requested and accepted his resignation. The post did not name the individual but added that OpenSea does not take this behavior lightly and had commissioned a third party to conduct a review of the incident and make recommendations about how it could bolster existing controls. OpenSea has since implemented two new employee policies, which prevent workers from buying or selling from collections or creators while they are being featured or promoted by the company, and ban staff from using confidential information to purchase or sell any NFTs, whether available on the OpenSea platform or not. As the worlds leading web3 marketplace for NFTs, trust and integrity are core to everything we do. When we learned of Nates behavior, we initiated an investigation and ultimately asked him to leave the company. His behavior was in violation of our employee policies and in direct conflict with our core values and principles. an OpenSea spokesperson told The Epoch Times. Former Ottawa Police Chief Says He Did Not Request Emergencies Act Former Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Chief Peter Sloly said on Thursday neither he nor anyone in the service he directed asked the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with the Freedom Convoy. I did not make that request. Im not aware of anybody else in the Ottawa Police Service who did, he said. Sloly was testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which is studying expanding the parliamentary precinct in light of this winters large-scale and long-term protest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino have said repeatedly that the public order emergency was declared on advice from law enforcement. Based on these statements, different law enforcement officials testifying before House committees have been asked if they requested or advised in favour of invoking the act. Slolys successor, interim chief Steve Bell, told the same committee on May 17 we didnt make a direct request for the Emergencies Act. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency on May 10 that she did not request the Act nor did she know of any other police leadership that did. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) neither confirmed nor denied it requested the act when asked by The Epoch Times. The decision to declare a public order emergency was made by the Governor in Council, a CBSA spokesperson said. Sloly submitted his resignation on Feb. 15, a day after the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with cross-country protests and blockades demanding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. He had been under intense criticism by opponents of the Freedom Convoy for allowing it to take root in downtown Ottawa and for not being able to clear the protesters and their hundreds of trucks. City councillor Diane Deans said during an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting that the board and Sloly had reached a mutually agreed-upon separation. Sloly told the committee the Freedom protest was unprecedented and unforeseen. The level of organization, the level of counterintelligence, the level of logistics, the level of planning, the level of financial resources, the level of commitment, individually and collective, was on a scale that I had not experienced. Bloc Quebecois MP Marie-Helene Gaudreau asked Sloly how is it that the OPS needed to respect regulations and rules when we know in advance that trucks are coming, holding bombs potentially, and theyre not moving? I can assure you that the characterizations you just laid out are not accurate, replied Sloly. Im not aware of any intelligence that suggested that there were munitions and IEDs attached to any of the vehicles coming. Andrew Chen contributed to this report. An aerial view shows oil tank cars and railroad freight wagons in Omsk, Russia, on May 24, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. (Alexey Malgavko/Reuters) GOP Lawmakers Question Bidens Depletion of Oil Reserves As China Rapidly Strengthens Energy Ties With Russia Republicans on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have raised concerns about how the Biden administrations oil reserve releases may impact U.S. national security. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wa.), the leading Republican lawmaker on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Fred Upton (R.-Mich.), the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Energy, said in a June 2 letter (pdf) to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm that they are concerned that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is rapidly depleting the nations petroleum reserves in an attempt to alleviate energy shortages before the midterm elections in November, and that the Biden administration has failed to come up with a plan to maintain reserves over the long term. As you are aware, the Biden administration recently announced the largest SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] drawdown in history, with plans to release up to 260 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR from October 2021 through October 2022, the lawmakers wrote. They noted that the ongoing drawdown has had few tangible benefits, with average U.S. gas prices now at a record $4.60 per gallon. Before the Biden administration, emergency SPR releases had happened only three times since Congress authorized its establishment following the oil embargo implemented by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in 1973, Rodgers and Upton pointed out. Those three occasions were Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the disruption of the oil markets caused by political instability in Libya in 2011. Beijings Advantage The lawmakers said the current situation particularly was problematic now that sanctions against Russia have shut off many nations trade with the aggressor nation, while leaving China, which seeks aggressively to stockpile oil reserves, the beneficiary of expanded energy transactions with Moscow. The Biden administration is depleting the nations petroleum reserves, while allowing OPEC, Russia, and China to gain geopolitical leverage over the United States, the letter stated. When President Biden announced a 50-million-barrel release from Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in November 2021, the lawmakers noted, the move theoretically was to happen in tandem with similar steps taken by China and other oil importers. But far from lessening its reserves, China actually pulled ahead with crude oil purchases from both Russia and the United States. This happened, the letter noted, despite a surge in oil prices that could only be expected when too much demand chases too little oil on the global markets. Even as the United States and the European Union go the opposite way, enforcing a ban on Russian imports, talks underway between China and Russia may result in even more purchases for Chinas reserves, putting China in a highly advantageous, not to say dominant, position globally. As a result, China may now control the worlds largest stockpile of oil, with total crude inventories estimated at 950 million barrels, Rodgers and Upton predicted. In their letter, the two lawmakers requested information concerning the DOEs plans to manage and maintain the SPR and the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NEHHOR), which are at levels they consider dangerously low as a result of recent and planned releases made by the DOE. They note that the SPR has fallen to its lowest level since 1987 and that if current rates hold, the SPR, whose peak capacity was 727 million barrels, is on track to reach roughly 130 million barrels by 2031. The Biden administration is reportedly considering tapping into the NEHHOR to ease the supply crunch. NEHHOR, which currently contains only 1 million barrels of diesel fuel, could be liquidated in a matter of days, Rodgers and Upton cautioned. At the same time, China is rapidly strengthening energy ties with Russia and expanding its own strategic petroleum reserves with cheap Russian oil, they added. The lawmakers noted that the United States and global energy markets have undergone extensive changes since the SPRs formation in the 1970s, and that in 2015, Congress asked the DOE to undertake a long-term strategic review of the SPR, in addition to investing up to $2 billion to modernize the reserves. Despite the requested review, many questions about the viability of the SPR remain, and are all the more urgent in the light of the reset of global energy supply caused by the Ukraine crisis and Chinas newfound advantages as a buyer of cheap oil from Russia. The lawmakers requested answers from the DOE to a number of these questions in their letter, including: what has been the effect of recent SPR releases on U.S. gas prices; how many barrels of SPR crude oil has the U.S. exports to foreign powers, and which are the top buyers of SPR crude oil; and what plans are in place to refill SPR and NEHHOR. The lawmakers also demanded to know what impact Beijings refusal to act in lockstep with the U.S. release of 50 million barrels from SPR reserves has had on the impact of the coordinated release envisioned by the Biden administration. The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOE for comment. Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Sussan Ley (right) listens to newly elected Leader of the Liberal Party Peter Dutton speak to the media after a party room meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on May 30, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) Hard to Have Rational Debate Around Feasibility of Climate Change Action: Dutton Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said Australians need to be more realistic about reconfiguring the entire power grid to reach net-zero. Its hard to have a rational conversation on this topic with people because youre shouted down for being a backward-looking person, he told 2GB radio on June 2. The fact is if a city like Sydney mandated electric cars tomorrow the electricity grid would collapse because of people plugging their cars in at six oclock at night, theyd go home, have a shower, have some dinner, sit down and watch TV just the peak load of thatit just scientifically cant work, he said. Dutton said he was supportive of renewable energy, but the technology was not advanced enough to consistently support the current way of life. The Tesla electric car charging station in the car park at The Star Casino in Pyrmont in Sydney, Australia, on April 14, 2015. (Ben Rushton/Getty Images) If a discovery was made tomorrow and batteries could give your car a range of 700 kilometres instead of 270 lets hope that happens one day, but I think we need a sober conversation about this topic. Yes, we want to reduce emissions, we want responsible environmentalismits all a given .. but Im not going to stand by and watch families go broke because they cant pay their electricity bills. Read More Younger Voters Given No Chance to Understand Climate Change Debate: Former Deputy PM The global energy crisis has caused wholesale electricity prices to spike by 141 percent in Australia. While a polar vortex in the southern parts of the country has sent electricity demands soaring, leaving households and small business owners deadling with rapidly rising power bills. Volatile wholesale prices have also led small energy retailers to turn away new customers to reduce the cost to their business. By leaving, you are helping yourself while helping to protect those who remain with us because we have no choice but to pass on the wholesale costs were facing, Luke Blincoe, CEO of ReAmped Energy, said in a statement. Renewable energy advocates have blamed the price hikes on the country failing to develop alternative energy sourceswind, solar, and hydrofast enough. However, critics like Queensland Senator Matt Canavan say political intervention in the energy market, which is hampering the opening of new coal-fired generators and offshore drilling plants, has left the market without enough leeway to deal with increased demand for electricity. File photo showing a gas stove. (John Stillwell/PA) This is not complicated. When green policies, like net-zero, shut down coal, gas, and oil supplies, the price of energy goes up. When you restrict the supply of something useful, the price of that thing goes up, he wrote on Twitter on June 1. Dutton also warned that investors would benefit most from increased investment in the renewable sector, not consumers. Weve got to have a frank jolt into reality in Australia about where were headed, he said. When you look at the billions of dollars being made by all of these traders on different renewable energy proposalsthey dont have any regard whether the lights go on or nottheyre making money. Read More AGL Energy Withdraws Demerger Plan, Announces Board Renewal Dutton called for the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to explain to Australians how the country will reach net-zero. I really think [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese has to explain properly to the Australian people what hes proposing because I think prices will go up and jobs will go offshore. If businesses cant get assurances around electricity supplyif there are brownouts or blackouts, and if their bills doublethey will just pack up and go to another country where electricity is cheaper and supply is guaranteed. Increasing climate change action is a focal point of the new Labor government with the centre-left party already pledging to legislate a new emissions reduction target of 43 percent by 2030, instead of the current 26-28 percent. The Albanese government will also push for renewable energy to account for 82 percent of the nations electricity market by 2030currently, Australia sources 64.67 percent (pdf) of its electricity from coal-fired generation. Such a pledge could spell an endor slow downin approvals for new coal, oil, and gas production in the country. Meanwhile, Chris Bowen, the new minister for climate change, said the party would end the climate wars. The Albanese Labor government will seek to end the climate wars by real action on climate change, bringing Australians together and listening to Australians of all walks of life, he told reporters on June 2. We have been elected with a mandate for real action on climate change, ambitious but achievable action, as outlined in the policies we sought a mandate for and will implement. Screenshot from an online video that shows a man (on the ground) fatally shot by a policeman (R), standing next to the man's wife, in Chongqing city, China, on May 30, 2022. (The Epoch Times) He Posed Little Danger to the Police: Eyewitness Account of Fatal Police Shooting in Chongqing, China At around 7 p.m. on May 30 in Chongqing city, central China, a traffic police officer fatally shot a 49-year-old man. The official police statement provided very little information about the incident, claiming the man attacked the policeman first. However, one eyewitness provided a more detailed account to The Epoch Times, raising concerns about the policemans actions. According to the Beipei District Police Station statement published on its social media Weibo account, the unidentified man and his wife attacked the police before he was shot. However, no further details were provided, and no official police video was released. At the time of writing, the Weibo notice, released on the morning of May 31, is the only official statement about the incident. Screenshot of the official Weibo account of Beipei District Police Station in Chongqing, China. The statement was issued on May 31, 2022, about 12 hours after the fatal shooting. (The Epoch Times) Some videos can be found on various Chinese social media platforms, but they only show the aftermath and many onlookers, and none of them captured what happened before the shooting. On May 31, the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times spoke with an eyewitness whose pseudonym is Yusheng. He believes that the police may have overreacted to the incident. According to Yusheng, the incident began with a minor motorcycle accident involving a woman and a couple. They went to a motorcycle repair shop to evaluate the damage, got into an argument, and called the police. A few policemen arrived and tried to mitigate the situation. The wife was unhappy about the police mitigation. Yusheng recalled: Somehow, she threw the policemans hat to the ground. The police then pushed her to the ground. Upon seeing his wife pushed to the ground, the husband confronted the policeman. In fact, the scuffle between the policeman and the woman was a little over one minute. And less than one minute after the man confronted the police, the gunshot was heard. I dont know exactly how it [gunshot] happened. Under normal circumstances, the police wouldnt just pull out their gun. But then we heard the loud gunshot, and everyone was shocked. Yusheng also said the ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later. More police also arrived at the scene, and they grabbed the wife, preventing her from getting on the ambulance with her husband. It happened so fast; nobody knew how the bullet was loaded and how the trigger lock was unlocked; only the police himself knew, Yusheng said. If my wife were pushed to the ground like that, I would have reacted the same way. The husbands action posed little danger [to the police]. The police could have easily held him back with his bare hands. So why use the gun? he added. Yushengs account corroborated another eyewitness report by Chinese news portal Sohu. In addition, many netizens commented on the incident. Some sided with the policeman, with one saying, The police is always right. But others questioned the policemans actions and asked for more evidence. There is no information about where the man was pronounced dead, and his family has not released a statement. The Epoch Times attempted to reach out to the Beipei District Police Station traffic police division for comment. But the call did not go through. The publication also called the higher-level agency, the Chongqing Municipal Police Station. When asked about the police shooting incident, the staff responded, We go by the official statement. Located in south central Chinas Sichuan Province, Chongqing is one of the four municipalities directly under the central governments jurisdiction (bypassing the provincial government), along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. It has a population of over 30 million. As of press time, there have been no updates to the official police statement on Weibo. The report concluded that a procuratorate agency is involved, and the investigation is ongoing. Ning Haizhong and Hong Ning contributed to this report. Hong Kong Government Pays HK$2 Million for a Vaccine-Related Death It has been more than a year since the Hong Kong government began its COVID-19 vaccination program. The latest government data shows that as of May 15, the total number of vaccine doses administered was 16.45 million, and the Department of Health received 7,484 reports of unusual vaccination events, of which, 103 were deaths within 14 days after vaccination. The Food and Health Bureau recently approved a HK$2 million (about $254,790) payout for a death case, the first compensation for death after COVID vaccination in Hong Kong. The government set up a HK$1 billion (about $127.5 million) Indemnity Fund to provide compensation for individuals who suffer from adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination. According to the Report on the Safety Monitoring of COVID-19 Vaccines in Hong Kong, released by the government at the end of last year, a 66-year-old woman died 16 days after receiving her first dose of BioNTech last July. The autopsy results indicated that myocarditis was the cause of death. The governments Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following Covid-19 Immunization (Expert Committee) classed the case as intermediate for the causal relationship to vaccination. Vaccination Relationship Cannot Be Ruled Out: Experts The co-convener of the Expert Committee, Hung Fan-ngai, explained in an interview with a commercial TV program, that the woman had no long-term illness and the autopsy report indicated a type of virus called parvovirus B19 in her body, which can cause acute myocarditis. Since the parvovirus was present for a period of time, the exact cause of the myocarditis cannot be fully explained. There is a small possibility that the vaccine antigen was directly injected into a vein during vaccination, and the vaccine antigen reached the heart, causing myocarditis. He said the relationship between myocarditis and vaccination in this case cannot be completely ruled out. Hung pointed out that a vaccine can cause myocarditis, but mostly in young men. He admitted that the COVID-19 vaccine is not like other vaccines, which usually need 10 years of research and development and 3 phases of clinical testing before medical application. Actual Number of Deaths Unknown Starting on June 1 last year, the Hong Kong government announced no death cases will be reported if the Expert Committee determines that a potential causal connection between the death and vaccination is not found. Hence, the public wont know the actual number of post-vaccination deaths. The move also raised questions from the community about whether the government deliberately concealed the serious adverse effects of vaccination. Cheng Chung-tai, a Hong Kong citizen, pointed out at the question and answer session in Legislative Council, that relevant practices will make people question whether the government is deliberately covering up an unsightly thing. Then Chief Executive Carrie Lam responded that the method of presentation is very important to resolve citizens hesitancy about vaccination. She believes that every time it is announced that someone died after an injection, it may creates an illusion and affect peoples confidence in vaccination. Yuen Hoi-man, vice spokesperson of Health Policy from the Democratic Party, said in an interview with The Epoch Times, that Hong Kongs low vaccination rate is due to Hong Kong peoples distrust of the government. Now that the government has decided not to announce certain relevant statistics, people will become more worried and distrustful. Adults Under 60 Do Not Need a Vaccine Pass: Scholars In order to increase the vaccination rate, the government implemented a Vaccine Passp on February 24, 2022, which enter its third phase at the end of this month. The policy stipulates that except for those who have recovered from the COVID-19 and exempted persons, all people aged 12 and over must receive at least 2 vaccinations before they can enter designated venues, including restaurants, supermarkets, shopping malls, and fitness centers. Professor Gowling Benjamin John, Chair of Epidemiology from LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, and Chan Tak-kwong, Honorary Assistant Professor of the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, jointly wrote in a newspaper recently that the policy severely restricts personal freedom and is essentially mandatory vaccination. They disagree with the governments continued use of coercive policies to vaccinate young adults, and suggest cancellation of the vaccine pass for adults under 60. Chan said in an interview with Radio Television Hong Kong, that the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong will end, mainly after a large number of infections have occurred, not because of vaccines. He expects that the virus will continue to mutate in the future, the current vaccine will not be able to stop the epidemic, and its efficacy will only become lower and lower. Even if young adults are not vaccinated, the rate of severe disease and death is still extremely low. He believes that the government has no reasonable moral or legal basis to continue using the vaccine pass system. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon speaks during the Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit in Washington on Dec. 6, 2018. (Jim Waton/AFP via Getty Images) Im Not Woke, Says JP Morgan CEO Defending Stakeholder Capitalism JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview at a June 1 conference that his push toward stakeholder capitalism was being misconstrued as being woke and that he remained a red-blooded free-market capitalist. Im not woke. And I think people are mistaking the stakeholder capitalism thing for being woke, Dimon told a conference organized by Autonomous Research, according to Financial Times. All were saying is when we wake up in the morning, what we give a [expletive] about is serving customers, earning their respect, earning their repeat business. Stakeholder capitalism goes beyond traditional shareholder capitalism, which focuses on actions that are favorable to its stock appreciation, to encompass socially responsible investing and environmentally sustainable methodology with a responsibility toward its stakeholders, such as workers, community, and other factors. According to Stephen Soukup, author of the book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business, this new capitalism allows a company to act against the interests of its shareholders. Republican politicians have been raising the issue of whether banks, including JP Morgan, were showing discrimination toward certain sectors of the economysuch as gun manufacturers and fossil-fuel-based energy companiesto appease a progressive agenda. Dimon said JP Morgan was quite serious about climate, saying that the United States wasnt getting climate right, according to Financial Times. I dont think people should get involved in some of these issues where its far more detailed than you think and people [are] just getting jazzed up about, you got to do this, he said. No, you dont. Earlier this year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote in the firms annual letter that companies were expected to play a role in decarbonizing the economy and that included everyone from shareholders to customers and regulators. Businesses that fail to cut back their carbon footprint will miss out on billions of dollars of investments, Fink wrote. On May 24, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recommended that money managers such as Fink be barred from voting on behalf of other investors to advance their own political interests, in an interview with CNBC. Because that is not capitalism, that is abusing the market, Cruz said. Cruz said Fink and other progressive CEOs have shifted focus from increasing profits for their companies to taking stances on issues such as climate change and other causes promoted by the political left. The senator also pointed to investment screening that involved controversial ESG criteria. ESG stands for the environmental, social, and governance risk theoretically embedded in a business that isnt accounted for monetarily. Different agencies use varying methods and criteria to calculate ESG. Generally, the environment score is calculated based on the companys performance in treating greenhouse emissions and its role in climate change. The social score evaluates the companys relationship with its stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, and shareholders, while the governance factor considers compliance with municipal, state, and federal laws, board diversity, and other related performance indicators. Opponents have likened ESG to a Chinese-style social credit score for rating corporations in order to weed out companies that dont fall in line politically. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took a jab at ESG investment funds after news broke that German authorities raided Deutsche Bank and asset management company DWS Group because of alleged greenwashing of its ESG funds. Greenwashing refers to processes by which companies falsely present themselves as more pro-environment than they really are. In a June 1 Twitter post responding to the news, Musk wrote, I have yet to see an ESG list that *isnt* fraudulent. He had earlier called ESG a scam following the removal of electric car company Tesla from the ESG Index while Exxon Mobil Corp. remained on the list. According to some analysts, stakeholder capitalism helps foreign nations such as China advance in place of U.S. companies. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray prepares to testify in a hearing on the FY 2023 budget for the FBI held by the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Wash., on May 25, 2022. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Iranian-Backed Hackers Targeted Boston Childrens Hospital, FBI Chief Says BOSTONHackers sponsored by the Iranian regime last year attempted a despicable cyber attack against Boston Childrens Hospital that threatened to disrupt services to patients, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday. Wray, in a speech delivered at a conference hosted by Boston College, detailed the incident as he warned about the rising threat cyber attacks sponsored by nation states like Iran, Russia and China pose to companies and U.S. infrastructure. We got a report from one of our intelligence partners indicating Boston Childrens was about to be targeted, and understanding the urgency of the situation, the cyber squad in our Boston field office raced out to notify the hospital, Wray said. Wray said officials with the FBI were able to quickly get the nationally renowned childrens hospital the information needed to stop the danger right away and mitigate the threat. Quick actions by everyone involved, especially at the hospital, protected both the network and the sick kids that depended on it, Wray said. Boston Childrens Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wray called the incident one of the most despicable cyberattacks I have ever seen and was an example of the increasing risks hospitals and other providers of critical infrastructure face from hackers, including state-sponsored ones. If malicious cyber actors are going to purposefully cause destruction, or hold data and systems for ransom, they tend to hit us somewhere thats really going to hurt, Wray said. By Nate Raymond FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Iranian Hackers Attempted Attack on Childrens Hospital, Russias Cyberattacks Pale In Comparison to Chinas: FBI Director Installing state-sponsored malware is part of complying with Chinese law Hackers sponsored by the Iranian regime attempted a cyberattack against the Boston Childrens Hospital last year, revealed FBI Director Christopher Wray at a June 1 cyber security conference in Massachusetts. In fact, in the summer of 2021, hackers sponsored by the Iranian government tried to conduct one of the most despicable cyberattacks Ive seenright here in Bostonwhen they decided to go after Boston Childrens Hospital, Wray said. Earlier in March, Wray had mentioned an unnamed childrens hospital being targeted by Iranian hackers. According to Wray, the FBI received a report from one of their intelligence partners indicating that the hospital was about to be targeted. The FBI Boston cyber squad rushed to inform the hospital, and the danger was stopped. We were able to help them ID and then mitigate the threat. Wray added that quick actions by everyone involved protected the hospital network and the sick kids who depend on it. Boston Childrens Hospital, a 395-bed facility, in a statement confirmed that the FBI and its staff had proactively thwarted the threat to our network, according to Reuters. Details of the attack were part of a speech on cyber threats from Russia, China, and Iran, and the role of the FBI in handling the persistent barrage of attacks. Wray said the hospital and FBI worked earlier on a series of attacks in 2014 when a hacktivist attacked the facility resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in costs and disrupting operations for days. The individual was caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The hospital and the FBI have since worked closely together, which helped in dealing with the latest attack promptly. Besides this, Wray talked about how the organization disrupted a botnet by Russian agents who were behind some of the most destructive malware ever to be deployed, NotPetya, and attacked the Ukrainian electric grid in 2015, among other international targets. The accumulated investigative work done by the agency along with partners have established connections, motives, and tactics that give a basis for holding the Russian government accountable, he said. But as broad as Russias potential cyber accesses across the country may be, they pale in comparison to Chinas. The Chinese regime operates on a much larger scale, and is extremely methodical and focused on long-term strategic plans to undermine U.S. economic goals and national security. Theyve got a bigger hacking program than all other major nations combined. Theyve stolen more American personal and corporate data than all nations combined. And theyre showing no sign of tempering their ambition and aggression. All companies operating on the mainlandincluding American and foreignoffer a blanket consent to state surveillance, an advantage not shared by Russia. Installing state-sponsored malware is part of complying with Chinese law. Its really a whole-of-government operation to steal research and proprietary secrets from U.S. companies and then undercut prices on the global market. So that companies that play by the rules cant compete. Besides cyber secrets, the Chinese actors target other sectors like agriculture, sneaking into fields to dig up proprietary, experimental, genetically modified seeds. They make use of human spies on the ground to assist hackers back in China. Targeting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server software, Chinese hackers compromised over 10,000 U.S. networks, as well as implanting shells with malicious code that created a backdoor and gave them continued remote access to the victims networks. Wray said that a surgical, court-authorized operation was needed to remove the harmful code from hundreds of vulnerable computers. The Chinese government remains a prolific and effective cyber espionage threat. The FBI is working with like-minded countries to go after people responsible for damaging ransomware schemes. The agency is also working on taking down cybercriminals technical infrastructure and effectively disrupting their operations. Finally, Wray mentioned the agency seizing the criminals financial assets like virtual wallets, and shutting down illicit currency exchanges. The FBI has extended global operations to include nearly 80 more countries within its partnership network. The agency recommends an incident response plan to all companies that operate online, and to include contacting the local FBI field office as part of that plan, before an attack occurs. De Lima congratulates actress Dolly de Leon for 'Triangle of Sadness' Cannes Palme d'Or award Senator Leila M. de Lima congratulated Filipina actress Dolly de Leon after the film where she starred in, entitled "Triangle of Sadness," won the highest award at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in France. In a handwritten letter to De Leon, De Lima said she hopes to have the chance to watch "Triangle of Sadness" and witness firsthand the sterling performance of the actress, who has since been supportive of her. "Congratulations on Triangle of Sadness' winning of the Palme d'Or. I heard you are the talk of Cannes now! Hindi na ako magugulat kung kasunod nito ay Oscars na. I hope I'll have the chance to watch the film and your critically acclaimed performance," De Lima wrote. De Leon played an overseas Filipino worker named Abigail, a cleaning lady on a luxury yacht who leads a couple of world-renowned influencers to survive when they get stranded on an island in Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund's social satire "Triangle of Sadness." During a virtual press conference at Cannes, De Leon shared that "there are a great majority of Overseas Filipino Workers who were domestic helpers in other countries, so I feel like the piece was very important." In her letter, De Lima recalled De Leon's excellent interpretation of "Sa Bilangguan," a poem written by the former narrating her plight as a political prisoner under the Duterte regime, while also highlighting the suffering of all those wrongfully accused like her. "Until now, I still have goosebumps when I remember your interpretation of 'Sa Bilangguan.' Maraming salamat din sa pagtitiwala, Dolly. I look forward to meet and thank you personally for your untiring support, when I am finally free and vindicated," she said. Part of De Lima's poem read: "Ang katotohanan ay laging lilitaw. Walang kasinungalingang hindi nabubunyag." WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: A 10-day-old puppy was found dumped in an esky on the front lawn of a vacant property in Sydney, while council clean up was happening. The puppy was left in the esky on Carpenter Street, in the Colyton, Penrith on Tuesday morning, RSPCA NSW said. When the puppy was found it was about eight degrees outside, with a one-degree windchill. A 10-day-old puppy was found inside an esky left out for council clean up in Western Sydney. Source: RSPCA NSW "Neonatal puppies are unable to thermoregulate, and exposure to these harsh weather conditions would have severely impacted the puppys welfare," the RSPCA said. The puppy was transported to RSPCA Yagoona for emergency veterinary treatment, however, RSCPA NSW confirmed on Thursday the puppy was humanely euthanised. "Despite our best efforts, it is with great sorrow that we can confirm the physical condition of the puppy was deemed cruel to be kept alive, and the puppy was humanely euthanised," an RSPCA NSW spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo News Australia. "This is an incredibly sad situation, and we are hoping that through our public appeal for information, our inspectorate will receive some vital leads for this investigation." The investigation is ongoing and an autopsy will be performed on the puppy to determine the extent of its injuries. RSPCA Inspectors are now looking for the two people who "discovered" the puppy between 8.20am and 8.50am on Tuesday. One man is described as being tall and Caucasian, with a strong build, approximately 70 to 80 years of age wearing a jacket and hat while the other man is tanned with a regular build. Along with the puppy, several other items were found in the esky. Source: RSPCA NSW The second man was accompanied by a yellow Labrador with a harness and coat. Along with the puppy, a red Puma branded t-shirt, a green childrens singlet with a pineapple print and a padded item that appears to be part of a babys car seat were also found in the Styrofoam esky. Story continues Anyone with information regarding the two men or the belongings found in the esky is being asked to contact RSPCA NSW immediately. NSW Police are assisting with the RSPCA inquiries. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Chinese Company Sued in Texas Over 100,000 Allegedly Defective COVID-19 Tests Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when front-line medical workers in the United States were desperate to acquire crucial medical gear and supplies, a Texas-based mobile health company paid about $500,000 for 100,000 antibody test kits from Chinathe only place at the time that was selling the much-needed products. But the kits, which were supposed to fill orders from the U.S. military and state customers, never went further than the warehouse where the products were delivered before July 2020. Following months of delays after a concerning number of the tests were determined to be defective, the Texas-based company, AnyPlace MD, has sued the China-based seller in the Austin division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in hopes of recouping its losses. The contract agreed to in May 2020 required Shane Stevens, CEO and owner of AnyPlace MD, to make a 75 percent down payment totaling $481,125 to Anhui DeepBlue Medical Technology, the Chinese test kit supplier, with the remaining $118,875 due a month later. After receiving the tests, Stevens said he quickly discovered, upon running a sample check, that a significant number of the kits produced false-positive results or ghost lineslines that are hard to interpret and appear to indicate a positive test. An early July 2020 email exchange with a joint venture partner, Reliant Immune Diagnostics, a second plaintiff in the lawsuit, highlighted a screenshot taken from the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations website showing that DeepBlue, along with four other China-based COVID-19 test manufacturers, was flagged by the U.S. regulator as having products that should not be distributed. AnyPlace apparently isnt the only company that has filed complaints about the China-based supplier. In Laredo, Texas, investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized 20,000 DeepBlue test kits, after health department officials determined that the tests had only a 20 percent accuracy rate, according to local media reports from April 2020. Around that time, defective medical supplies from China, such as masks and testing kits, were already drawing backlash from countries such as Finland, the UK, and Ireland, leading to recalls of millions of items. In August 2020, Sweden announced that 3,700 residents were erroneously told they had the virus due to defective testing kits made in China. On July 10, 2020, AnyPlace and Reliant Immune Diagnostics contacted Rallo Holdings, the company that had brokered the deal with DeepBlue, rejecting the goods and asking for a refund. Stevens would spend the next few months trying to get the nearly $500,000 back. When he was eventually connected with Li Zeyu, a DeepBlue representative, in September 2020, Li apologized for the delay in refund, saying that the company was working on securing sales for the products in Mexico or other South American countries, so that there will be not lost or just a small lost [sic]. Why are you guys trying to sell these tests to anyone else? Stevens replied, according to a message history he shared with The Epoch Times. They are not good. Ghost [lines], false positives They are not good tests. Li responded that AnyPlaces allegations about the lab results were not correct, and said that the company had only agreed to the refund because of the FDAs delisting. By the way. deep blue sold about 10 million test kits total. we got bad result and refund less than 50k total. So we dont think there is a big problem in our products, Li told Stevens on the Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Anhui DeepBlue Medical Technology officials didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. The FDA, while not specifically commenting on the imported products from Anhui DeepBlue, told The Epoch Times in an email that it intends to remove tests for which FDA has either issued an EUA or has notified the test developer by email that FDA declines to review, declines to issue, or otherwise decides not to authorize the test for any reason. In an April 2020 notice, the agency had warned that some test developers at the time were falsely claiming that their serological tests are FDA approved or authorized, or falsely claiming that they can diagnose COVID-19. The FDA will take appropriate action against firms making false claims or marketing tests that are not accurate and reliable, it said. According to the lawsuit, the two U.S. firms said that they mistakenly believed that an FDA certificate document shared by DeepBlue, which was issued to mark an antibody test registration with the FDA, would ultimately lead to the product receiving FDA approval. The upfront payment that AnyPlace made represented 50 percent of the companys cash reserves. It hurt us badly, Stevens told The Epoch Times. We had to stop buying COVID tests in the volumes that we were doing for quite some time while we recovered and recouped. The lawsuit was his last resort, he said, and he remains very hopeful for its success. If you ask other folks who have tried to deal with companies in China, they might say that its a low probability. But a lot of times, I just have to do what I think is right. And in the back of my head, Im thinking, what if some other company doesnt have the resources? What if some other companies put everything on the line to try and buy something from them? That would have bankrupted that company, he said. Its dangerous having companies out there that are like this. So I feel its an obligation for me to do it, regardless of the outcome. Armed homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey, stand in front of their house confronting protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's house in the Central West End of St. Louis on June 28, 2020. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Lawyer Couple Who Wielded Weapons in Front of Marchers Appeal Law License Curbs to Supreme Court Defending their home can't justify the violation of their constitutional rights, they argue A Missouri couple who gained folk hero status in the conservative movement for wielding guns outside of their St. Louis home in 2020 to deter a group of trespassing left-wing protesters, including Black Lives Matter activists, are asking the Supreme Court to review law license sanctions imposed on them. The Supreme Court case is McCloskey v. Missouri Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, court file 21-1440. The petition for certiorari, or review, was docketed on May 13. The petition was scheduled to be considered by the justices at their June 2 conference. The disciplinary body waived (pdf) its right to file a response to the petition. For defending their home on June 28, 2020, during nationwide organized protests, some of which turned into riots, by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, Mark and Patricia McCloskey were honored speakers at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Mark McCloskey is currently running for a U.S. Senate seat as a Republican. The primary election will take place in Missouri on Aug. 2. The case, which involved prosecutorial misconduct, received national media attention. Kimberly Gardner, a Democrat and St. Louiss first black chief prosecutor, who has accused local police of racism, was removed from the case in December 2020 by Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II for using the incident in inflammatory campaign fundraising emails. Clark ruled that Gardners behavior raised the appearance of impropriety and jeopardized the defendants right to a fair trial. The McCloskeys state in their petition to the Supreme Court that after the incident at their home, they received hundreds of letters of support from across the United States, including letters from President Donald J. Trump and a letter signed by 14 sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives asking then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney for violating the McCloskeys civil rights in threatening criminal charges against the McCloskeys. The McCloskeys said they were justified in holding firearms outside of their home to dissuade the crowd, which they said meant them harm. However, Mark McCloskey entered a guilty plea to a class C misdemeanor of assault in the fourth degree and agreed to a $750 fine. His wife entered a guilty plea to a Class A misdemeanor of harassment in the second degree and accepted a $2,000 fine. The couple had originally been charged with felony-level unlawful use of a weapon, but prosecutors reached a plea deal with them to reduce the severity of the charges. The McCloskeys were pardoned in July 2021 by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican. Former President Donald Trump praised Parson and the couple after the pardon. Congratulations to Governor Mike Parson of Missouri for having the courage to give Mr. and Mrs. Mark McCloskey a full pardon. They were defending their property and if they had not done what they did, their property would have been completely destroyed and they would have been badly beaten, or deadgreat going Mike! Trump said in a statement to the Missouri Times. Despite the pardons, on Feb. 8, the Missouri Supreme Court indefinitely suspended the law licenses of the McCloskeys after their misdemeanor convictions. The court found that by showing their weapons, the McCloskeys had engaged in unlawyerly conduct involving moral turpitude. At the same time, the court stayed the suspension, subject to a year of probation during which the two attorneys must not engage in conduct that violates the Rules of Professional Conduct, as The Epoch Times reported. Moral turpitude is a legal term describing wicked, deviant behavior constituting an immoral, unethical, or unjust departure from ordinary social standards such that it would shock a community, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. In their petition (pdf) to the U.S. Supreme Court, the couple said the disciplinary action taken against them violates the Second and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The court should rule that as a matter of constitutional law a lawyer does not engage in conduct involving moral turpitude when undertaking actions protected by the United States Constitution, in particular the Second Amendment. The disciplinary body is claiming that an attorney must be punished for using a firearm to defend the lawyers self, family, and home with the use of a firearm, even when the President of the United States commends the lawyers actions, the Governor of the applicable state pardons the lawyers, and the public broadly praises the lawyers for their conduct, the petition reads. The Epoch Times reached out to Leawood, Kansas-based lawyer Edward D. Robertson Jr., who is the counsel of record for the Missouri Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, but didnt receive a reply as of press time. Leader of Now-Defunct Colombian Drug Cartel Dies in US Jail MIAMIGilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, an elderly leader of the former Cali cartel that smuggled vast amounts of cocaine from Colombia to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, has died in a U.S. prison, his lawyer said Wednesday. In 2020, a judge had denied Rodriguez Orejuela, who was in his 80s, early release on compassionate grounds from a prison in Butner, North Carolina. His attorney, David O. Markus, had said at the time that the former drug kingpin was suffering a range of health problems. We were very sad to learn about his passing last night. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time, Markus said Wednesday. God has a new chess partner, the lawyer said, referring to Rodriguez Orejuelas reputation for outsmarting his enemies and rivals, for which he earned the nickname the chess player. Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother, Miguel, built a huge criminal enterprise that succeeded the Medellin cartel once run by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Both operations used violence and killings extensively for intimidation and enforcement. The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers were captured in 1995 and imprisoned in Colombia. At that point, Colombian law prohibited the extradition of its nationals. But under pressure from the U.S, Colombia lifted that ban in 1997. The brothers were found to have been continuing to traffic from prison and criminal charges were filed in Miami and New York. In 2004, Gilberto was extradited; Miguel was extradited the next year. Under a 2006 plea deal that the brothers reached with federal prosecutors in Miami, more than two dozen family members were removed from a U.S. Treasury Department list designating them as part of the Cali cartel. That spared some of them from prosecution for obstruction of justice or money laundering and also allowed legitimate family businesses in Colombia to continue operating. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuelas prison release date had been scheduled for Feb. 9 2030. His younger brother, is serving his sentence at a Pennsylvania prison. Perhaps the biggest legacy of the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers was their ability to quietly corrupt Colombian politics, delivering shoeboxes of cash to Ernesto Sampers campaign prior to his 1994 election as president and buying off much of Congress. While painted in the popular press as less violent than Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel, the Rodriguez Orejuelas brothers were later accused of paying off journalists to suppress news of Cali cartel-related killings. New ranks of narcos quickly replaced the Cali cartel leaders after their arrest and extradition. Many of those successors became leaders of far-right military bands that the U.S. placed on its international terror group list in 2001. By Joshua Goodman Tanks of pro-Russian troops drive along a street during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine, on May 26, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) RussiaUkraine War (June 2): Zelenskyy Says Russia Controls 20 Percent of Ukraines Territory The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, June 2. Click here for updates from June 1. Russia Wont Close Tsar Peters Window to Europe, Kremlin Says The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia did not plan to close the window to Europe that Tsar Peter the Great sought to open 300 years ago even though the West has imposed the most onerous sanctions in recent history over Russias invasion of Ukraine. Russias Feb. 24 invasion has killed thousands, displaced 13 million and raised fears of a broader conflict between the United States and Russia, by far the worlds biggest nuclear powers. President Vladimir Putin says the West wants to destroy Russia, that the economic sanctions are akin to a declaration of economic war and that now Russia will turn towards building ties with other powers in Asia and the Middle East. Asked if Russia would now turn the clock back on Peter Is efforts to open Russia up to Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: No one is planning to close anything. Peter, who ruled from 1682 to 1725, oversaw Russias transformation into a major European power and founded the city of Saint Petersburg, dubbed Russias window to Europe. He founded the Russian Empire in 1721. Putin is a deep connoisseur of history and is well aware of Peters legacy, Peskov said. If we are talking specifically about Peter the Great, Putin very much appreciates the role of this particular individual in the history of our country, he said. Peter sought to import Western technology and battled against traditions that he felt were hindering the development of Russian power, though many of his reforms strengthened Russian autocracy. ____ Zelenskyy Says Russia Controls 20 Percent of Ukraines Territory Russia is currently occupying about 20 percent of Ukraines territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Luxembourgs parliament in a video address on Thursday. We have to defend ourselves against almost the entire Russian army. All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression, he said, adding that the front lines of battle stretched across more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). _____ Moscow Calls EU Move to Phase Out Russian Oil Self-Destructive Russia warned on Thursday that the European Unions decision to partially phase out Russian oil was likely to destabilize global energy markets, calling it a self-destructive step that could backfire on the bloc. EU leaders agreed in principle on Monday to cut 90 percent of oil imports from Russia by the end of this year, the blocs toughest sanctions since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation. The European Unions decisions to partially phase out Russian oil and oil products, as well as to ban insurance on Russian merchant ships, are highly likely to provoke further price increases, destabilize energy markets, and disrupt supply chains, Russias foreign ministry said in a statement. The Kremlin said on Thursday that the oil sanctions would hurt global oil flows and destabilize the worlds energy market. But, of course, Russia will not sell anything at a loss. If somewhere demand is falling that means that in another place it is increasingthe flows are re-routed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told his daily conference call with reporters. European Council President Charles Michel said the move to phase out Russian oil would deprive Moscow of a huge source of financing and put pressure on it to end its military campaign, but Moscow warned that the measures would end up harming the EUs economy. Brussels and its political sponsors in Washington bear full responsibility for the risk of an exacerbation in global food and energy issues caused by the illegitimate actions of the European Union, Russias foreign ministry said. _____ US Engaged in Offensive Cyber Operations Against Russia in Ukraine: NSA Director The head of the U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed the United States conducted cyber operations after Russias invasion of Ukraine. Weve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, [and] information operations, NSA Director Paul Nakasone said in a recent interview. That includes offensive hacking operations he said, without elaborating on the details. Nakasone, who is also a four-star general, said the operations were lawful and conducted with civilian oversight. But his interview with Sky News is the first official confirmation that the United States is engaged in a digital conflict against Russia in its bid to support Ukraine. Read the full article here _____ Ukraine Calls for More Arms Supplies to Help War Reach Inflection Point President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the West on Thursday to step up its supplies of weapons to Ukraine to push Kyivs grinding war with Russia towards an inflection point that would allow it to win. Addressing the GLOBSEC 2022 Bratislava Forum in the Slovak capital by video link, the Ukrainian leader said that divisions in Europe created opportunities for Russia to exploit, but said that Kyiv was grateful for assistance from the West so far. ____ Kremlin Confirms That Yeltsin Son-in-law Quit as Putin Advisor The Kremlin on Thursday confirmed a Reuters report that Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, had quit his role as an unpaid advisor to President Vladimir Putin. I can confirm that about a month ago he stopped being an advisor on a voluntary basis, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Yumashev did not play a major role in decision-making as a Putin advisor, but he represented one of the few remaining links in Putins administration to Yeltsins rule, a period of liberal reforms and an opening-up of Russia towards the West. ____ Kremlin Denounces Western Arming of Ukraine The Kremlin has again denounced Western plans to supply more weapons to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call that the pumping of weapons will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons. Britain said Thursday that it is sending sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine. The pledge came a day after the United States and Germany said they would equip the nation with advanced weapons for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery. Peskov warned of absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios in case they hypothetically try to use these weapons against targets on our territory. This will significantly change the situation in an unfavorable direction, Peskov said. ____ Russia Tightens Grip on Ukrainian Factory City, Decries US Rocket Supplies Russian forces tightened their grip on an industrial Ukrainian city as part of their drive to control the eastern Donbass region and targeted rail links used to ferry in weapons from Kyivs Western allies as the war approaches its 100th day on Friday. Russia has accused the United States of adding fuel to the fire after President Joe Biden announced a $700 million weapons package for Kyiv that will include advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 80 km (50 miles). U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine had promised it would not use the systems to hit targets inside Russia. Biden hopes extending Ukraines artillery reach will help push Russia to negotiate an end to the war. Moscow has said it regards Ukrainian infrastructure used to bring in Western arms as a legitimate target in what it calls its special military operation to disarm Ukraine and rid it of ultra-nationalists the Kremlin says threaten Russian security. Four Russian missiles hit railway infrastructure targets in two places in the western Lviv region bordering Poland late on Wednesday, governor Maksym Kozytskyi said, injuring five people and causing significant damage. Russian forces, backed by heavy artillery, control most of Sievierodonetsknow largely in ruinsafter days of fierce fighting in which they have taken losses, Britains defence ministry said in its daily intelligence report. If Russia fully captures Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it would hold all of Luhansk, one of two Provinces in the Donbass. Donetsks regional governor said Lysychansk was under constant Russian shelling but remained in Ukrainian hands. Besides the advanced rocket systems, called HIMARS, the new U.S. military support package includes ammunition, counter fire radars, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles, and anti-armor weapons. ____ Sweden Wants to Help Ukraine With Economic Aid and Military Hardware The Swedish government said Thursday it wants to help Ukraine with economic aid and military hardware amid a new phase of the Russian invasion. The Swedish government said it wants to donate anti-ship missiles, semi-automatic rifles and munitions, anti-tank weapons and give financial support to Ukraine, Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said. The missiles can reach targets both on land and at sea. The automatic rifle that we will donate can be used with several different types of ammunition that can be used for different purposes, Hultqvist said. Sweden also plans to contribute 578 million kronor ($59 million) to strengthen Ukraines ability to combat Russian aggression at a critical time, a government statement said. ____ US Sending Kyiv Four Rocket Systems to Extend Ukraines Artillery Reach The United States will initially provide Ukraine with four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to extend Kyivs reach in its war against invading Russian forces, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, adding about three weeks of training would be needed. Colin Kahl, the Pentagons top policy advisor, claimed the United States received assurances from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others throughout his government that these new systems would not be fired into Russian territory. But he pushed back at Russias warnings against provision of such precision weaponry to Ukraine, saying Moscow did not have a veto over Western assistance to Ukraine to defend its own territory. ____ Russia Says It Shoots Down Ukrainian Su-25 Fighter Jet Russias defence ministry said on Thursday its military had downed a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet in the Mykolaiv region. It also said in a briefing that it had struck command points of Ukrainian forces near Kharkiv. It was not possible to independently confirm the information. ____ Denmark to Join EU Defense Policy After Historic Vote Denmark will join the European Unions defense policy after a referendum on Wednesday, final results showed, signaling the latest shift among Nordic countries to deepen defense ties in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Denmark is the only EU member that is not part of the blocs defense and security policy. The referendum marks the first time a government has succeeded in abolishing one of several exemptions secured in a 1993 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. Final results showed almost 67 percent of voters were in favor of removing an opt-out to the EUs so-called Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), in what was the largest recorded show of support in a referendum on an EU matter in Denmark. Around 33 percent of voters polled were opposed. The vote to abolish the opt-out is a win for those in favor of greater EU cooperation, while those against have argued that the EUs defense pact is strained by bureaucracy and that Denmarks participation in EU military operations will be too costly. In historic policy shifts, Sweden and Finland this month decided to apply for NATO membership, while both Denmark and Germany have already promised to sharply raise defense spending. Denmark is a founding member of NATO, but the alliances biggest military power, the United States, has signaled European allies must take greater responsibility for their own security. ____ Russia Warns US Rocket Supplies Could Widen Ukraine Conflict Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the supply of advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine by the United States raised the risks of a third country being drawn into the 3-month-long conflict. The plans firstly, overstep all bounds of decency and diplomatic relations and, secondly, are a direct provocation aimed at drawing the West into combat, Lavrov told Russian media at a news conference in Saudi Arabia. The Russian foreign minister was reacting to news that Washington plans to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that could strike with precision at long-range Russian targets. U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with the advanced rocket systems as part of a $700 million weapons package unveiled on Wednesday. ___ US Providing New $700 Million in Military Aid for Ukraine President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced another $700 million in military aid to Ukraine, coming just days after he signed a Congress-passed deal worth $40 billion. The United States will stand with our Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself, Biden said in a statement released by the White House. In the statement, Biden said he is now sending precision, advanced rocket systems after receiving assurances from Kyivs government that it would not fire on targets inside Russia, which would surely escalate the conflict. Thanks to the additional funding for Ukraine, passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, the United States will be able to keep providing Ukraine with more of the weapons that they are using so effectively to repel Russian attacks, said Biden. The advanced weapons include High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) with battlefield munitions, said the president in the statement. We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraines fight for freedom. Read the full article here ___ Ukraine Losing 60100 Soldiers per Day in Fight Against Russia Ukraines president says the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting with Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told American TV channel Newsmax that the most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine, including Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces. The situation is very difficult. Were losing 60100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action. So we are holding our defensive perimeters, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine has largely refrained from disclosing its military losses since the beginning of the Russian invasion, but Zelenskyy previously said the country was losing between 50 and 100 soldiers a day. Jack Phillips, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report. Mater Dei to Reopen Thursday After Credible Threat Prompts Closure SANTA ANA, Calif.It was one week after a gunman in Uvalde, Texas murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School when Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana received a credible threat that resulted in the shutting down of the campus. Students at Mater Dei High School will return to campus Thursdayone day earlier than previously anticipatedto finish out the short remainder of the school year, officials announced. Today, we learned of a credible threat to the Mater Dei campus and contacted the Santa Ana Police Department, Mater Dei President Michael Brennan and Principal Frances Clare wrote to parents and students on Tuesday. Safety and sweep protocols were implemented. We acknowledge the alarming nature of this message; however, we at Mater Dei take all threats made to the school seriously. Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., on May 10, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) The threatening message released to the school is currently being investigated by the Santa Ana Police Department as being created by a former employee of Mater Dei, but it did not target any specific children at the high school which has over 2000 in attendance. Once the threat was received by administrators of the school, the staff made contact with the Santa Ana Police Department who sent in offers to sweep the campus for potential threats. Upon completion, it was determined by officers that there did not appear to be the threat of a shooting, but that an investigation would be underway as students attended their classes online for the remainder of the week. We are not on campus, so it is tough to gauge how everyone is doing. Weve been down the online learning road before, Mater Dei spokeswoman Allison Bergeron told The Epoch Times. Our community is strong and resilient though. Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 1, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Additional security will be activated in patrolling the school while Santa Ana Police Department officers increase their presence in the area, according to Bergeron. We are most grateful to the [Santa Ana Police Department] for their partnership with [Mater Dei High School] in determining that we are in as safe a space as humanly possible, and to our Diocesan personnel for their support as we have worked to determine the most appropriate way forward, Bergeron wrote in a letter to the Mater Dei community. While these few days have been difficult for all members of the community, know that all educators are here to ensure the safety and well-being of our students. The threat to Santa Anas Mater Dei High School also comes with other schools within the city, which recently include a bomb threat at Santa Ana High School in March, along with an incident last week when a man drove onto a sidewalk injuring three children at Santa Anas Taft Elementary School. School shootings have also returned to the United States at pre-pandemic levels of violence but are also reported as increasing, according to Sandy Hook Promise, an activist group formed after the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings that took the lives of 27 people, 20 of which were children aged 7 and under. Parents and family members wait for students on lockdown at Santa Ana High School after bomb and weapon threats circulated at the school in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 10, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Hello, and welcome to the Epoch health podcast. Im your host, Dr. Ann Corson. Today we have with us someone who I think is really a remarkable person. I first learned of Dr. Stella Immanuel, when she stood on the steps of the Supreme Court building in the summer of 2020 and told us that no one had to be afraid anymore, and that we actually had a cure for COVID 19. I actually saw that video that same daynot live time, but that same day, I saw it, downloaded it. And I was amazed that it got 17 million views, you know, in the first few days, before Facebook succeeded in scrubbing it. I was so impressed by your impassioned talk at that time. Dr. Stella Immanuel: Thank you so much, Dr. Ann, for having me. I would say its Providence, or maybe it was Gods plan for my life. Im from Cameroon, Central Africa. I went to medical school in Nigeria, West Africa, I did general medicine. And, in most countries, we are not hyper-specialized. All doctors go through general medicine first, and then sometimes later, they go specialize. So, I did general medicine. I came to this country in 1992. I got into residency. And I took the first residency I got. I got into pediatrics, got to love pediatrics, and I practice pediatrics. When I finished residency, I moved to Alexandria, Louisiana, and I was practicing pediatrics. I was also working in the emergency room to keep my general practice skills. And then kind of, you know, when it got busy in my practice, I just stayed with my practice. A few years ago, I went back to doing the emergency room and eventually closed my practice when my children got older. And I just went, did the emergency room, got me a good schedule where I could do whatever I want, you know. I did emergency room for a while. And then the Lord told me to move to Texas. I was in Louisiana, so, I moved to Houston. And I was going back and forth, working in the ER in Texas and in Louisiana, until I got my Texas license in September of 2019. And then I acquired a practice that was right next door to a bookstore we owned. This guy had passed away, God bless his soul. He was a Japanese doctor, so he had a lot of patients from China, Japan, and Asia. This is where we were in February 2020, when they started talking about the pandemic. Im sitting here, a good 15 20% of my patients are from Asia, and I am terrified about this pandemic coming out of Asia. We had to learn how to take care of COVID. Initially, we got all the PPE, we got the masks, we got everything. We got the PPE suits. We were wearing masks and shields, and we looked as if were going to outer space. A friend of mine, who is a pharmacist, came and told me that they were using hydroxychloroquine in Asia, in China, and in Italy. Being that I trained in West Africa, I was used to the quinoneswe took mefloquine, we took camoquin, levaquin. Growing up we took it as Sunday medicine for malaria. And while Ive been practicing in America, Ive been putting people on, you know, hydroxychloroquine, mefloquine, or whatever, for traveling abroad. So, this was something that was right up my alley. I was used to this medicine. I took it growing up, treated patients with it. We gave it to pregnant women, we gave it to babies, we gave it to everyone, you know. I mean, chloroquine used to itch, but chloroquine had very little side effect, apart from itching. So, I was very happy. I jumped on board, and I started using it. Initially, I just used the malaria dose. And I found out that it worked wonders on a patient that came in with COVID. Within the first one or two days, they got well almost immediately. It was almost miraculous. I was so impressed with the results I was getting. I went online. I was part of this big medical doctor group. I went online, and I was excited. I told them, Wow, listen, hydroxychloroquine is working and, you know, people are getting well. At that time President Trump had got it, but it wasnt much. By then, President Trump had just come out to say that hydroxychloroquine worked. Of course, the Left and everybody collectively lost their minds. Doctors stopped being doctors and were just taking evidence from other doctors. Because usually thats what we do. We talk among each other: What do you think is working? What are you using? And if something is working, we usually copy it. We dont sit down and like, oh no, it doesnt work. It was very surprising that doctors were threatening me, some were threatening to report me to the boards. It became really wild, you know. I got kicked out of many of these doctor groups. I got attacked. I got vilified. It was crazy. That is how we started meeting with, like Dr. Richard Urso, all of us that were just coming out to take care of patients. Dr. Ann Corson: How did you get to connect with these other doctors? Like how did you get to connect with Dr. Richard Urso? I looked for them online. I met Dr. Urso. Also, I saw him on Twitter. So, I looked for his office and I called him. I said, Hey, Richard, I see that youre seeing patients. He was so excited to hear from me. We were just like, holding on to each otherlike, oh my God, finally, theres somebody else thats doing this, you know. So, we started just connecting like that and talking to each other. And that is how we got to meet Dr. Simone Gold, who had done a program in Washington, D.C.two summits. That was the second summit that we were going to D.C. for. So, they invited me and of course, this was already in July. But prior to July, around May, COVID hit Houston. It hit Texas. It was crazy. People were lining up in front of my clinic as if it was Black Friday. We were taking care of patientslike I had seen over 300 400 patients, about 300 something patients. And to me, it didnt make any sense that people were getting well, and they were allowing people to die. Each time I heard about people dropping dead in New York and all over the country, it just broke my heart. And by May, I realized this was not just a medical battle. This was a propaganda battle. Something sinister was going on. Dr. Ann Corson: When I heard you talking about hydroxychloroquine, in my practice, Ive used it for years. We call it Plaquenil, as the brand name here, because it works very well in Lyme patients, because it helps with Babesia. Babesia is a temperate form of malaria. Its a similar organism to malaria that is transmitted by the bite of ticks in this hemisphere and/or in this latitude. And so, we also use it in autoimmune diseases. So, I was very comfortable using hydroxychloroquine. Because it helps with Lyme disease, it helps with Babesia, and helps with viruses. So, it made perfect sense to me. And initially, in that first wave, I didnt have as many patients getting sick because of the way I treat my patientsin a really integrative way. They mostly had their vitamin D optimized. They had their trace minerals optimized. Most of them were on zinc. So, a lot of them, you know, got by it without any problem in that first wave. So, you started to treat, and you started to treat a lot of people, and people started to come to you. How did you sort of deal with this, all of a sudden, this horrible censorship and criticism? You know, for me, Ive been dealing with that in the integrative medicine world for 20 years, because doctors who treat Lyme disease are very ostracized, and you know, they think were quacks. But were the ones who are getting people well. So, Im used to that kind of censoring and censorship, but I suspect that was a new thing for you. So how did you handle that? Dr. Stella Immanuel: It was kind of new. But like I said, it took me a few weeks to realize that what was going on was not really science. It was propaganda. So, by May, I told my friends and doctors: I said, Guys, we are in a spiritual battle. Of course, theres deep spiritual stuff behind it. And were in a propaganda battle. And I told them: I said, You cannot keep coming into a street fight with a suit. So, by May, I took off the suit. And I started kicking back and fighting back just as much. If I went on Facebook, or on Twitter, and somebody said something crazy, I hit back with everything that I had. I hit back with the physical, the medical, the spiritual. I just hit back. So, we started actually just attacking, attacking back, you know. If some, if one of my colleagues was attacked, theyd send us a message: Im being attacked over here. Wed all go and fight back. It became like a war basically. It was crazy. And people were threatening to report me to the boards, and there was so much going on, so we just had to stand. And by July, we were, I was at that point of, you know what, if I perish, I perish. When I was leaving for D.C. that week, I called my family and I told them: I said, You know, Im going to D.C. Im going to expose this; Im not going to let the American people die. Im not gonna let these demons kill us. Im going to expose it. And If I perish, I perish. If I dont come back alive, so be it! Im not gonna sit back and let this happen. So, I was at that point of I dont care if they kill me. So that is where I was. And you know, whenever you get to that if I perish, I perish, you dont perish. So, I was at that point where I could say anything. I was not afraid of anybody or anything. Because I was at that point, you know. When you get to that point, where youre ready to lose everything, youre ready to say anything, and youre ready to fight the battle properly. So that is where I was. Most of the other doctors were still being nice Mr. Doctor, but I went off. I just went off. But God, in his infinite mercy, just used my voice that day to bring hope to the world. Before then, the whole world was terrified. Everybody was terrified. The whole world was caged. And that day, my voice rang out, and He brought hope. It was like a watershed moment. People had been locked up in their homes for three months. Nobody was coming out of the house. The two-week lockdown had become almost a four-months lockdown. Everybody was terrified. And God, in His infinite mercy, just wanted to give humanity a respite. So, when I spoke that, something went off in the spirit. Oh, and of course, the devil decided to attack me. They came against me and ah, it was wild. But like I said, I was trained for this. If you read my book, Let America Live, youll realize I was trained for this. This my destiny. God had trained me for years and years and prepared me for just this time, you know. I was called and trained for such a time as this, just like Esther in the Bible. So, when they came after me, they attacked me. They vilified me. They called me names. They, oh my God, the more they attacked me, the more people talked about mesome vilified methe more people wanted to go see who this lady was. And it was crazy. You know, nothing had ever gone viral. And only God could have made it viral. So, it was wild after that. I came home, and the clinic was wild. People were lined up in the clinic. Some were cussing me out, some were throwing flowers, some wanted my autograph. It was the craziest thing ever! You know, people wanted interviews: the ones that wanted to interview me to twist my words and make me look crazy. The others called me from Trumps demon sperm. They associated me with President Trump, and all the rats against President Trump ate me. Ive never met President Trump. In fact, when he retweeted me, he said, I dont know the lady, and its true. Ive never met President Trump. Oh my God, it made some say that I was being bribed by President Trump to say that, and oh, it was wild. But like I said, I was trained for this. We are warriors, spiritual warriors, and trained for this. So, it didnt faze me that much. I came back home. We started a telehealth service. And then we made sure that were here, practically, to take care of the American people. Weve seen over 120,000 patients over this two-year period. And my team also put together different supplements. We created, like, the COVID supplements. It had vitamin C, D, zinc and more, because we realized that a lot of people were getting sick because they didnt have enough supplements. Im telling you, Dr. Ann, I was one of those doctors. I would have laughed at you in the past. But my mindset has shifted. You know something: Im an MD that for years just treated disease. And we didnt think about wellness. And most of us doctors are like that. To make things worse, a lot of us were so naive. We need to do a postmortem, every single one of us. As I sat in my clinic, Big Pharma would come and give me studies that they did for their medication, and I would take their studies and their results, and I would believe it without questioning it. And I would start prescribing these medications whenI mean, we just did not checkwe just did not think how evil Big Pharma was. We did not even think that these people were trying to sell something, but they were trying to tell us what results they got. I tell people right now, For years, I gave vaccines to children without questioning. Right now, I will not recommend any vaccine until we have independent studies. Im not casting away all vaccines. I grew up in tropical West Africa. I saw children die of tetanus and of measles. So, I know that vaccines are effective, but right now, what? Ten, 15, 20 vaccines? I mean, its for a little baby! Thats a little too much for me now. And I think that we as doctors need to take a postmortem, or we need to start looking at everything that Big Pharma tells us and have independent studies that show us that these things are safe and effective. Look at how they caged us with the COVID shot and told us it was safe and effective, and how much its destroying lives, you know. So, Im saying, weve got to do that postmortem. And Ive woken up, Ive woken up, not just to the devil is bad, and we need Jesus. Ive woken up to the medical system is corrupted. And we as doctors have to take responsibility. And that is one of the greatest shifts Ive had in my mind in the past two years. That is why right now were developing a lot of supplements, were developing a lot of things, you know. Imagine! Right now weve put together what we call CoviLyte (learn more at https://drstellamd.com) that has a lot of supplements in it for people that have had COVID, and they have COVID long symptoms, or have vaccine injury. I mean, now we can have elderberries and ginkgo biloba, and stuff like that in the supplements. Were thinking now on wellness, you know, and thinking on preparedness, because a lot of us were not prepared. And right now, theyve given us a little respite again, I think we should be prepared because it is not over. They just want to win elections. After elections, this thing is going to be on and popping up again. And people are just sitting there like: Oh, great, finally we can go out and go to the mall and go and do a barbecue. We are lying to ourselves. Right now, with the war thats going on, youve got to have iodine in your house. Were preparing iodine where people can order. The last time I tried to order iodine, potassium iodine, I couldnt find it, I had to go through two or three manufacturers to get one that will produce potassium iodine for us. Its insane. We have to be prepared. People have to make sureif youre on insulin, if youre on high blood pressure medicationmake sure you have enough. Make sure you have food or water, everything. We have to be prepared. Dr. Ann Corson: What I think has really been most interesting to me over this process of the last two, a couple, years now: I mean, two years and a few months. You know, as I said, I had my awakening years ago. And you know, really, although I was classically trained as an MD, I really came to learn a lot of naturopathic medicine and nutraceutical medicine and using all kinds of wonderful tools and herbal tools and homeopathic tools to help my patients. But what I think has happened so well is that there are so many doctors like you that have had this awakening. And I think that this is a very special time for people to introspect, like you said, and start to really look at themselves and what theyve been doing in the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, Ive also found that there are doctors that are still very blinded to the official paradigm, the official dogma, that is being propagandized out. And thats concerning, especially the way that the hospitalists are treating COVID patients. Theyre not listening to those of us that have treated outpatients successfully and kept people out of hospitals. Is there any other thing that you can think of that would help the medical establishment, especially the hospitals, try to regain some of the trust that theyve lost of the American people? Dr. Stella Immanuel: We need to look at this thing a little deeper. The hospitals, or the echelon of it, are not people that are good people. These are like demons, demon-possessed people, or something. Im not talking about the regular doctors that are just trying to make a living or the nurses that are taking orders that are being given to them. Im talking about people that run the death campsour hospitals have become death campsthat put together all the protocols and decide what medications are on the formulary or not. There are doctors that have wanted to give people Ivermectin in the hospitals, and it was refused. And there are doctors that are scared to lose their jobs. One of the things that were putting together right now is a paramedical system we created. Im a very practical person, Doc. So, when I get a paradigm shift, I shift practically. One of the things we did, we started the telehealth system. I was very, very fortunate to have had the foresight to build our own telehealth system from scratch. I didnt use any persons platformlike as not, in that craziness, theyd de-platform us. So, we built our own telehealth system from scratch, which is a thing that nobody can take down. We started initially without medications to pharmacists. Pharmacists will stop filling them. And they will not fill them. They will not tell the patients, and they will have a whole bunch of things going on with patients not getting their medicine. So, we called, and we established a lot of mom-and-pop pharmacies. We built a pharmacy portal that they can just go on our website. When we see patients, we drop it in the pharmacy portal for mom or pop pharmacists that are licensed in all 50 states. Theyll be able to just pick up the scripts and fill them. We have doctors licensed in all 50 states that will be able to see our patients. So, we actually started creating a parallel system. Were expanding that to be able to give doctorsI want to come out of the medical industrial complexgive them the ability to help them start their own cash-based practices. Our practices are cash-based, thank God. We have no insurance because they cannot catch us through insurance. So, doctors have to come out of the system. Either youre in the system or youre out of the system. We have to come out of the system and create parallel health care systems. We have doctors that are able tothat need tostart running doctor hospitals that are owned and operated by doctors; and the CEOs are doctors, and patriots, and are not willing to let our people just die like that. Dr. Ann Corson: Ive heard Dr. Simone Gold talk about starting hospitals. Hasnt she talked about that? Dr. Stella Immanuel: I think she is willing to give us something. There are many people working on that. There are some things that weve done I also think its the greatest thing that people could dois to create urgent care centers nationwide. But most importantly, was starting a telehealth care system that lets you see patients around the nation. And we have a network with a company that can bring oxygen to peoples houses nationwide. That is so important! A lot of people went to the hospital with this pandemic because of low oxygen. We have actually what we call the respiratory care kit. Every person needs to get a respiratory care kitwhich has a nebulizer, a pulse oximeter, and incentive spirometerso that you can have it in your house. There were times where I will call in prescriptions and people will not be able to get the nebulizers because the pharmacies will not give them, they do not have them, they have not stocked up. There was a high demand. Get it in your house now. My thing is get prepared, you know, if you can get prepared. For example, iodine, get iodine! If there is a nuclear threat, or nuclear warright now with the threat that is with Russiahave iodine that you can take in your house. Make sure. We need to start decentralizing the hospital thing. And many people go to hospitals that dont even need to go to the hospital. A lot of people go to the hospital with COVID because their oxygen got low. And if you have the pulse oximeter, you can monitor your oxygen at home. Your doctor can know about it; we can know about it if were taking care of you. We can send people into your home to give you oxygen in the house and give you IV fluids in the house and monitor you at home until you get better. That is what we need to do. And then make sure that we have surgical centers by doctors themselves that are going to take care of our patients. If these centersif we have two or three centerscannot take care of the patients, you need to fly them in. We need to create that. We need to just go create parallel systems, you know. Dr. Ann Corson: I really liked that idea of parallel systems. Dr. Stella Immanuel: Yeah, right now, like I said, were putting together a lot of things. One of the things that weve donewe have our supplements, we have the COVID vitamins. We have the CoviLyte, and we have iodine. We have supplements for hair loss because a lot of people with COVID have a lot of hair loss, and a whole bunch of stuff. So, one thing we want to do is put our patients on an auto ship preferred client system. And those are the patients that we will take care of. In the thick of the Delta [variant], we had seen 700 to 800 to 1,000 patients a day. We could not cope. So right now, my thing is that everybody gets hooked up. Whatever the main goal is, wouldnt you get to work putting togethergetting hooked up withthis system that we are putting up together. So that way you have that, okay? We have 10,000 patients that are our patients, that if something happens in there, pull up my book right now. We know that we have 10,000 patients to take care of. Its easier than to have 1,000 patients showing up each day and they dont know what to do. So, the American people themselves have to take responsibility. If theyre going to be hooked up to you, they need to be hooked up to our system. They need to do it now, when things are good, when things are not like crazy, because when things get crazy, it is difficult to sort out who is who. We have been through times when we could not sleep, we were working around the clock. At any time too, we had 2,000 patients waiting to be seen. We had this stomping around to get doctors from all over. It was crazy. So that is why were establishing these systems right nowif you join. Dr. Ann Corson: Yeah, its good that you have this network in place now, which is going to be very helpful. I just want to explain to the listeners what the iodine is for. In case of nuclear falloutjust like there was worry on the West Coast after the Japanese nuclear power plant accidentiodine protects your thyroid. The thyroid gland sits in your neck here. And the radiation will really damage it unless you have iodine, which is a protective thing for the thyroid. So thats why Dr. Immanuel was talking about iodine. But now Id like you to tell us a little bit about your book, Let America Live, because Ive heard you describe that, you know, were really in a spiritual battle of good versus evil. And I know that that can be purchased on your website. Your website, I understand, is DrStellamd.com. So, youve talked about how you know people really need to invoke the power of God to fight the power of the devil, and that the bad people, or the bad guys, you said, are sort of running on devil power. And the good guys have to invoke the help of the Divine now, because human beings alone cant win this battle. We need Gods help. Dr. Stella Immanuel: Yes. My book. My book actually gives you the journey that I took, because the Lord has prepared me for this journey. From 2011 when God showed meeven way back in 2005that there was a manipulation, and like they were manipulating the minds of people, or the globalists working with the devil, you know. And you can listen to what theyre sayingKlaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and all of them, and Yuval Noahthese people. Theyre not hiding it anymore. Theyre out in the open. They plan to take away our free will. They plan to stop us and turn us into human 2.0. They want to corrupt us, and they want to do it through the vaccine. Yuval Noah said that COVID is the best time, the best time that surveillance went under the skin. People think its just surveillance. Its not. If you read in Revelation 13, it talks about the mark of the beast, the name of the beast, the number of the beast. The devil wants to mark you; he wants to take your humanity and turn you into a cyborg or something. And theyre doing that by injecting these vaccines, or these jabs, that have graphene oxide, that have luciferase, that have nanoparticles that they can use to monitor you. But not just that. It changes you spiritually, so that you will no longer heal. Youre corrupted and they can reach you, they can connect you to the internet of things. So, I tell people that have been vaccinated: You have been corrupted, repent, repent, theres still time. This is not the mark of the beast yet. If you read in Revelation 13, from verses 14 to 17, it talks about the mark of the beast, the name of the beast, and the number of the beast. I do believe the mark has not been given yet. But the name and the number of the beast is being injected into people. The Moderna CEO tried to hack the software of life. So, we know this Moderna vaccine is created with luciferase, which is like Lucifer-race, you know? So, Im telling everybody, This is a spiritual battle. We need to wake up to not just this globalist app, but we need to wake up to we need Jesus, we need God. We need Him to intervene on our behalf. If you read my book, it explains it deeply. I advise everybody to get a copy. Not just that, it has prayers in the back, to pray for the nation, to pray for yourself, because right now, Yuval Noah is saying that theyre going to take our free will. Theyre going to corrupt all of us. Theyre going to teach you things that you will learn without knowing. So, we have prayers that youre going to pray to cleanse yourself, to purge yourself of all this stuff that is being injected inside of you. And so, its good that we also have the spiritual power to deal with this physical power and the spiritual nature. Yes, the devil is working with these people. We know that because they are getting away with it. Just human beings cannot get away with this level of evil. And if you listen to them, they want to depopulate us, they want to kill us. They think that were useless feeders. Earth was created for humanity, not for demons, not for Nephilim. They say they want to create an inorganic life that is practically the Nephilim of Genesis 6. Earth was not created for inorganic human beings. They want to create human beingsthey want to create AIs [artificial intelligence] that look like you and Iand there are a lot of them around already. They account for some of the craziness that happened during this pandemic, for some of the doctors and pharmacies that will not take care of patients and nurses. Some of them are just those AIs that have already been created. And we need to wake up to that and know that only Jesus can fight the devil. So, if you go on our website on drstellamd.com right in front, theres a prayer there if youve been vaccinated: how to repent, how to get your genetic material re-cleansed and regenerated by the Lord Jesus. So, you can take it, you can take care of the spiritual battle. And then you can also prepare yourself physically, by like I said, getting all your medications that you need. If youre on insulin, stock up. If youre on high blood pressure medication, stock up. Go to your doctors, go to a random urgent care, and pay them so that you can get more of your medications. Just make sure that you have enough medicine. Stock up food and water. Make sure you have a charcoal grill in the house or something. What if they take down the grid? So, we have to be ready. Ready spiritually. Ready physically. Ready, ready mentally. And make sure you have food, water. Get some solar lights, get something. Just make sure youre ready: toothpaste, toothbrush, and everything that you can use. Learn to create a place where you can survive without electricity. How can you cook your food? Do you have like, you know, something? We need to be ready; we cannot just sit down again and be caught off guard again. We need to be ready. Dr. Ann Corson: I think its very, very important that people understand that we need to reconnect with God. We need to invoke Gods help, because only God can help us in this situation, as you said. The forces of evil have been so powerful, like you said, that human beings couldnt have created that much evil. They couldnt have conceived of that much evil. And so, people really need to understand that they have to ask for Gods help, like you said. And they need to open themselves to that before its too late, before theyve run out of the chance. And they have to understand that, you know, human beings were created in the image of God, and that they need to honor that. And they need to honor the divine within themselves. And thats one of the most important things, I think, that were going to help people through this. I have discovered that a lot of the people that have not been taken up, and not become part of, the mass formation that Mattias Desmet [Belgian professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University] talks about, you know. So hypnotized by the propaganda are often people of faith, and that their faith is really, you know, giving them that perspective: to be able to break through the propaganda and to see whats really going on. So, I think thats wonderful that you have those prayers available on your website to help people in this journey because its not just a medical journey. Its a spiritual journey as well. Dr. Stella Immanuel: And most times, like I tell people, Christians and otherwise: If you dont! Yuval Noah said something, that those that believe in free will, those are the ones that are easy for you to manipulate because when you manipulate them, they think its their free will. What its actually saying is that if you are willful and self-willed and self-driven, and you feel that you dont need God, that its just going to be you, its going to be easy for you to be captured. You got to realize the frailty of your humanity and realize that as human beings, we are going to be influenced by the devil or by God. We cannot just stand on our own. Human beings have authority over this world. But spiritual power is going to influence you one way or another. So, you have to choose between darkness and light. You cannot be independent or stand on the defense. Stand on defense, and youre gonna get programmed. So, I tell people: Dont be willful, submit your life, commit your life to Jesus. Because when you submit your life to Jesus, He takes care of you. Read the Bible, read Revelation 6. Youll see. Read Revelation 13, 14, you will see these things. So now you know whats coming. Read Matthew 24. Read Daniel chapter 2 and read Genesis 6, so that you see these things and a lot of the stuff that were dealing with right now has already been written. This was like, if you read the Bible, this is yesterdays news. Dr. Ann Corson: Do you have an active congregation that you preach to? Dr. Stella Immanuel: Yes. Dr. Ann Corson: How long have you been a pastor? Dr. Stella Immanuel: Ive been preaching for over 20 years. Dr. Ann Corson: Thats wonderful. You have your own congregation, or is this an internet thing? Dr. Stella Immanuel: Yeah, we have, we have a ranch, actually. We call it Bethel Ranch. People come here from all over the country to get deliverance and prayer and get refreshed, get revived. We thought we just had a program. If they go on our website and click on Bethel Ranch, youll see the program too. You can come. People come here from all over because they come together to pray and get deliverance and get refreshed. Because the battle is fierce, especially for leaders. Sometimes this is a spiritual battle. You find out that, as youre fighting and standing up and speaking, people get attacked spiritually, people get oppressed, people get depressed. And that is what we do. They come here to get a spiritual revival, to get refreshed, and they go back into the battle. So thats what we do. Every Sunday. Yeah, on our ranch here, at Bethel Ranch [Pattison, Texas]. You can see on our website. But if you go there to see the programs, we have it monthly, and people can come here and get totally revived and cleansed out. And when Ive traveled all over the country, thats what I do. I try to pray for people and make sure that they get revived and get cleaned out. And people come to me that have been jabbed all the time, and we pray for them. And man, weve seen miracles. So, some people that were paralyzed, get the paralysis released immediately. Weve seen people, most importantly, something changes in their soul. We see them get into tremors. They feel things running up and down where they received the vaccine and stuff like that. And we revive grace and were doing the best that we can. And we hope that people will wake up and just fight. Pray for your family. Pray Psalm 91 over your home and your family all the time. Make sure that youre not caught unawares. Dr. Ann Corson: Well, wonderful. Thank you so very much. This has been a very enlightening talk. And Im so very glad to have at last met you virtually after having heard you speak, you know, so many months ago, and I was so very impressed. And Im very honored that you joined us today on the Epoch health podcasts. Thank you so much, Dr. Immanuel. Dr. Stella Immanuel: God bless you! Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A damaged restaurant in the aftermath of Hurricane Agatha, in San Isidro del Palmar, Oaxaca state, Mexico, on May 31, 2022. (Jose de Jesus Cortes/Reuters) Mexico Death Toll From Storm Agatha Updates to 9, With 4 Missing MEXICO CITYThe death toll caused by Hurricane Agatha in Mexico fell to nine after initial reports of 11 dead, state authorities said on Wednesday. Another four are currently missing, authorities told local media. Agatha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Monday afternoon, touching down with 105 mile-per-hour (169 kilometer per hour) winds near the beach town of Puerto Angel on the Pacific coast, before dissipating on Tuesday as it moved inland. The governor of Mexicos southern state of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat, had said on Wednesday morning that 11 were dead and 33 missing following the storm. State authorities said many of the missing were found after contact was reestablished with Oaxacas remote communities. Oaxacas governor said the tallies of dead and missing were preliminary, and urged people to remain alert. Its important the entire population remains safe. Theres a likelihood of landslides and river flooding, Murat said, speaking by video link at a regular government news briefing. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday morning there was an 80 percent chance that a cyclone would form in the Atlantic from Agathas remnants in the next 48 hours. This system is likely to become a tropical depression while it moves northeastward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next couple of days, the Miami-based agency said. (L to R) Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, speak to the media as they exit the United States District Court Southern District of New York for a hearing related to Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal attorney and confidante, in New York City on April 16, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Michael Avenatti Sentenced to Prison for Scamming Client out of Book Deal Money Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who made headlines for his anti-Donald Trump stance, was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for cheating his former client out of $300,000 in cash from a book deal. Avenatti was convicted of aggravated identity fraud and wire fraud in a New York federal court earlier in 2022. He could have faced two years in prison for the first charge and 20 years for the second. During his sentencing, Avenatti acknowledged that he made a series of mistakes and poor judgment when he represented and bilked Stormy Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Previously, Avenatti said he did not want to appear at the sentencing, but the judge ordered him to. I will forever be branded disgraced lawyer and worse, he also said Thursday. District Judge Jesse Furman said Thursday that Avenattis conduct was so brazen and egregious and said that he took advantage of a vulnerable victim given her unorthodox career and somewhat unorthodox beliefs, referring to Daniels, an adult film actress. Avenatti, meanwhile, still faces a retrial in California federal court in another case in which is being accused of stealing nearly $10 million from five clients. Hes also currently serving a 30-month prison sentence for attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike by threatening to release damaging information to the public unless he was paid. Furman said that part of Thursdays sentence will be served alongside the prison term that was handed down in connection to the Nike case. Avenatti will have to serve two and a half years after the Nike sentence is completed. The disgraced lawyer also has to pay $148,750 to Daniels and $297,900 to the federal government, Furman said. The sentencing marks another chapter in the tumultuous rise and fall of Avenatti, who was heavily featured on MSNBC and CNN during the Trump years as he claimed he would run for president while representing Daniels, who made a series of accusations against the former president. As a guest on mainstream news programs to discuss a lawsuit Daniels had filed against Trump, Avenatti logged more than 100 CNN and MSNBC appearances from March 7 to May 10, 2018, according to an analysis. In that time frame, Avenatti simultaneously gained hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and other social media platforms. But his time in the spotlight quickly came crashing down in early 2019 when he was arrested in New York City over the Nike extortion case. Im not [expletive] around with this, and Im not continuing to play games, he told the Nike attorney, according to court documents. Last month, Avenatti issued an apology letter to Daniels, which was handed to Judge Furman. It is obvious that I failed you in many respects and that I disappointed you and let you down in multiple ways, he wrote, adding: I wish that we could turn back the clock so that the mistakes I made would never be repeated. I am truly sorry. But prosecutors in a sentencing submission last week urged that he should face substantial additional time in prison for a wire fraud conviction and criticized his apology letter, saying the 51-year-old failed to apologize for his actual crime. The defendant certainly had every right to defend himself at trial. But he is not entitled to a benefit for showing remorse, having done so only when convenient and only after seeking to humiliate his victim at a public trial, and denigrating and insulting her for months to her agent and publisher while holding himself out as taking up her cause against the powerful who might have taken advantage of her, prosecutors wrote. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Florida man who suffered 98 percent burns to his body in a horrific accident as a child, and was given only 1 percent chance of survival, has pulled through against the odds. He endured bullies, loneliness, and thoughts of suicide, but the love of his family and their daily prayer got him through. Today, hes a loving father of two and expresses his gratitude to God for everything in his life. Chris Tomlinson, 37, was born in Florida. When he was only two months shy of his second birthday he was burned in an accidental gas explosion in his own backyard. Sharing in detail about the incident, Chris told The Epoch Times: I was outside playing and my mother was watching me. She turned around for a split second, and when she turned back, I was gone. I had wandered off into the utility room where we kept yard tools and such. In there was a gasoline can. The curious toddler then pulled the gasoline can down. It doused him and released fumes. As the hot water heater in the room came on, the pilot light ignited the fumes and gasoline, and Chris was engulfed in flames. My mother found me and tried pulling me out, but kept getting my skin, he said. Eventually she managed to grab hold of me and put me out. Chriss neighbors who witnessed the tragedy that unfolded called 911 and he was then rushed by helicopter to Tampa General Hospital. Chriss devastated family was told he had a 1 percent chance of surviving. He was also the youngest person ever to sustain third degree or worse burns to 98 percent of his body. Hearing this, his family was scared and sad, but they gathered closely with friends to pray, desperate for a miracle and hoping he would survive this through. They depended heavily on their faith in God, said Chris. When Chris was 5, he and his family moved to Massachusetts where he received treatment at Shriners Burn Institute in Boston. However, owing to his condition, life was hard for the little boy. To this day, Chris has no idea exactly how many surgeries he had endured, but claims when he was 13 his mother lost count at 200. Chris remembers little of his early recovery, but knows that he spent most of his summer breaks from school in the hospital and he wasnt able to do most things that other kids did. The medicines made me feel so sick and gross, and I was more scared of that than the surgeries themselves, he recalled. I hated bandage changes because they always stuck to my wounds, and it was so incredibly painful to have raw flesh being pulled and exposed to the air. As a preteen, Chris recalls playing with his toys, trying to be a normal kid, and even though there were some mean kids who said things to him, it didnt really bother him. As a teen, rejection from his peers and his physical limitations started to take a toll. I wanted to be like the other boys, play sports, and look good, he explained. I was even suicidal at a few points in my teen years because I didnt, and couldnt, accept the way I looked. A lot of times, I hid my face in my hoodies, and Id keep my sleeves over my hand and nub I was too embarrassed to be seen. He even began to avoid people, or aisles with people in them, and didnt attend events where teenagers were present. Chris grew up in a faith-filled home. After attending a Christian camp called The Wilds at the age of 13, his own faith intensified and gave him comfort. Although he admits he struggled with his differences, he still had faith in God that there is a reason it happened. Chris felt the hand of God again when he welcomed two daughters: Nevaeh, Heaven spelled backward, now 16; and Trinity, now 13. But his strength was tested once again when his wife of 14 years left him all by himself to care for the children. He felt horrible, abandoned, used, and incredibly depressed, believing that if he looked different, his wife would not have left. He was scared to raise his kids alone, afraid he couldnt provide for them, financially or emotionally. Chris received SSI financial aid, but it wasnt much, and he and his daughters had to be careful with what they spent money on, make food last, and be content with whatever little they had. My girls were, and are, amazing through it all, Chris said. They stepped up just as I had to. They became independent at a younger age than most people and helped Chris with things he couldnt physically do. They also helped him make decisions without their mother. They sought advice from their father and bolstered him when he was down, and even braved scary environments when the trio was briefly homeless. Wed pray together and lean on each other for support, said Chris. I leaned on and turned to God more than ever I truly believe that I wouldnt be alive without Gods help. As Chris learned how to parent two growing girls, his mother and sister also helped out with things he couldnt handle. Chris then moved back to Florida in 2019. Through the course of his life, Chris has had immense family support. However, he has always struggled to find paid work because of the way he looks. Ive been told theres no way I can type, no way I can do things on a computer with one hand, he said. Ive been told the way I look isnt a good image for their company. My health also ties in with the lack of a job; there are some days my joint pains get so bad Im not able to move much and need to rest, and there are some days my left hand cramps up because I have to do everything with that one hand, he continued. My mental health suffers as well, from PTSD, from surgeries, or from the way I was treated by some in my past. Nevertheless, he keeps himself busy by helping do computer and phone repairs for people in need. Despite his lifelong hardships, what has inspired Chris is hearing how his story affects others. Hes received so many messages from strangers saying his story gives them hope that he has made it part of his journey to encourage others to find the light. Chris has even shared a video testimony on social media, reaching thousands. I want to help people know that there is still hope amongst the darkness, he told The Epoch Times. We all go through different struggles in our lives, but we can use that to strengthen and help others. For those who are battling their own difficulties in life, Chris advises: Dont let negativity dwell in your mind and consume you; embrace your differences! Theres a reason you are that way. You have a higher calling from God to show this world that beauty isnt the outside, but truly on the inside. Chriss enduring message is that we are not alone. Gods got you! he said. Lean on Him and He will never, ever forsake you. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter Trainees work on a simulated hostage rescue mission during an airsoft gun training lesson at the shooting range of the combat skill training company Polar Light, in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on May 22, 2022. (Ann Wang/Reuters) More Seek Gun Training in Taiwan as Ukraine War Drives Home China Threat TAIPEI, TaiwanFrom tour guides to tattoo artists, some in Taiwan are taking shooting lessons for the first time in their lives as Russias invasion of Ukraine ratchets up anxiety at the prospect of the neighboring China making a similar move on the self-ruled island. The Chinese regimes growing military pressure on the island, combined with the conflict in Ukraine, has spurred debate about how to boost defenses in Taiwan, which is weighing whether to extend compulsory military service. The Chinese regime claims the island as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. Since the war in Ukraine started three months ago, bookings have nearly quadrupled for lessons in how to shoot airsoft guns, or low-power devices designed to shoot non-metallic projectiles, said an official of a combat skills training company in Taiwan. More and more people are coming to take part, said Max Chiang, chief executive of Polar Light, which is based in a suburb of the capital, Taipei. Some of those who came to the shooting range this year had not handled guns before, he said, adding that numbers had tripled or quadrupled since the start of the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow calls a special military operation. Some in Taiwan fear that the Chinese communist regime, which has never ruled out using force to bring the island under its control, may ramp up the pressure, taking advantage of a West distracted by efforts to support and equip Ukraine in its response to Moscow. Taiwan has raised its alert level but has reported no unusual military movements by Beijing. Those preparing against a threat from the Chinese regime include Su Chun, a 39-year-old tattoo artist who was determined to learn how to use air guns. I wanted to learn some combat skills, including those that are not just limited to using a gun. Maybe skills to be able to react to any kind of situation, he said. But gun training would be useful if the government called up reservists like himself to repulse a Chinese invasion, Su added. Most people dont want to go to war, I also dont want to go to war, but in the unfortunate event of this really happening, I will be mentally prepared. Use of airsoft guns, popular for military simulation, is taught as a competition sport in Taiwan, which tightly controls gun ownership, but many of the movements and tactics involved resemble combat skills, from shooting posture to aiming. The devices use compressed air to carry less dangerous projectiles, such as small plastic balls, to their targets. At the Taipei shooting range one Sunday afternoon, dozens of students picked up air guns for the first time as trainers explained safety guidelines and basic details. There was an urgent need to learn more about weapons after the war in Ukraine, said tour guide Chang Yu, who attended the entry-level course with his wife. The Ukraine-Russia war has made the threat from across the Strait real, said the 34-year-old clad in bullet belt and goggles, referring to the waterway between Taiwan and China. It made us think how we should prepare ourselves if that happens in Taiwan. The couple had assembled protective gear at home, from pepper spray to an alarm system for intruders, he added. Besides the gun training, some politicians in Taiwan have urged the public to start thinking about survival plans for a time when most cities are without electricity and water supplies for days. Lin Ping-yu of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, who is running for a council seat, said the Ukraine war had prompted him to prepare survival kits for his family, complete with emergency food supplies and batteries, in case of the worst. Think about how you can help yourself and others survive, added Lin, the author of a book about the military threat from China. We are facing enormous risks. Risks of losing freedom and democracy, of losing everything in our daily life. By Ann Wang and Fabian Hamacher An Auburn man faces criminal charges after allegedly stabbing a security person earlier this week at a bar where a shooting death took place a couple months ago, the Auburn Police Department said. Auburn Police Chief James Slayton told The Citizen Thursday that a call for a stabbing at Swifty's Tavern, 45 Perrine St., came in at 2:20 a.m. Sunday, May 29. The suspect in the stabbing was later identified to be Gregory J. Jordan, 39, 37 Pulaski St. When officers arrived at the bar the security person was found bleeding from his neck. The man was transported to Auburn Community Hospital for a non-life threatening injury, Slayton said. Jordan was charged with second-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, both class D felonies. He was arraigned at Cayuga County Centralized Arraignment Part Court later that morning and remanded to the Cayuga County Jail. This is not the first time police have responded to Swfty's Tavern in recent months. APD previously said John Wesley Smith III, 37, of Syracuse, was discovered dead of a gunshot wound in front of the bar around 1:40 a.m. March 15. Shameek M. Copes, 28, of 1 Jefferson St., Apt. 1, Auburn, who had been identified as the suspect in Smith's death, pleaded not guilty to counts of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon during arraignment at Cayuga County Court May 27. Love 0 Funny 6 Wow 2 Sad 9 Angry 19 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. New Jersey Republican and U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, former Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) chair, is among 11 House incumbents on the states June 7 primary ballot. Smith is seeking a 22nd term in the House and is the longest-serving Congressional rep in New Jerseys history. (Gary Feuerberg/Epoch Times) New Jersey Republicans Vying for Chance to Flip 2 Congressional Seats in November New Jerseys Democratic and Republican congressional district primary elections feature well-funded incumbents who are expected to breeze to victory on June 7 and advance to the November ballot, where many will face familiar foes in rematches from the 2020 elections. Democrats now hold 10 of the states 12 U.S. House seats with Novembers ballot already set in two congressional districts because Democrat and Republican candidates are unchallenged in their primaries. Of the 10 congressional districts contested in the primaries, Republicans in five are vying to get back onto the general election ballot to unseat Democrats that defeated them two years ago. Only one seat is open, with the pending retirement of Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) in Congressional District 8. Of the remaining 11 New Jersey congressional incumbents, four sitting Democratic House representatives have primary challengers and five dont, meaning theyre guaranteed to be on the November ballot. Both incumbent Republican New Jersey representatives, including Rep. Christopher Smith, the longest-serving U.S. House representative in New Jersey history, face primary challenges, but are expected to advance. The most compelling races could be in the 3rd and 7th congressional districts, where incumbent Democrats in November will meet robustly financed Republicans boosted by post-Census redistricting and growing numbers of Republican voters. Vote-by-mail has been underway for the primary elections for several weeks. May 31 was the last day for registered voters to apply for a mail ballot for the primaries. Early in-person voting begins on June 3. Congressional District 3 New Jerseys Congressional District 3 spans nearly all of Burlington County, with portions of the Jersey Shore in Ocean County. Its represented by Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), whos seeking a third term in November. The Cook Political Report rates Congressional District 3 as a swing district leaning Democratic. Progressive Reuven Hendler, 24, of Beachwood is on the partys primary ballot, but isnt expected to pose much of a challenge to Kim. As of May 18, his campaign hadnt raised enough money to warrant an FEC filing. Kims campaign reported on May 18 that it had raised $4.4 million, spent $1 million, and had $3.9 million cash on hand. According to OpenSecrets, Kims biggest financial support comes from lawyers and law firms ($256,873), securities and investment concerns ($239,263), Democratic and liberal sources ($195,642), and the education industry ($155,580). Three Republicans are vying for the partys nod to challenge the potentially vulnerable Kim in November. Bob Healey, a Burlington County resident whos executive co-chair of the Viking Group, a shipbuilding company that employs at least 1,000 people in the area. He has received the Republican Party line endorsement and the most in contributions. Healeys campaign reported that it had raised $1.2 million, spent $719,376, and had $437,421 cash on hand as of May 18 with at least $260,000 coming from his own pocket. Also on the Republican primary ballot are attorney and realtor Nicholas Ferrara of Hamilton Township and Ian Smith, who owns Atilis Gym. Ferraras campaign is largely self-funded. As of March 31, it reported to the FEC that it had raised $55,335, spent $54,900, and had $435.27 on hand. Smith gained notoriety in 2020 and 2021 by defying New Jerseys COVID-19 pandemic lockdown orders before being arrested earlier this year for a second time for drunk driving. On May 18, his campaign reported to the FEC that it had raised $154,110, spent $80,978, and had $73,132.45 cash on hand. Congressional District 7 New Jerseys Congressional District 7 includes all of Hunterdon County and parts of Essex, Morris, Somerset, Union, and Warren counties. Congressional District 7 is represented by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) who was first elected in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.). The district is rated by the Cook Political Report as leaning Republican. In seeking the partys nod for a third term, Malinowski has only one primary opponentRoger Bacon, a pro-Trump Democrat making his seventh run for public office. Bacons campaign hasnt qualified for an FEC filing, while Malinowskis campaign reported on May 18 that it had raised $5,117,107, spent $1,525,486, and had $3,642,716 in its war chest. According to OpenSecrets, Malinowskis biggest industry support comes from lawyers and law firms ($311,608), Democratic and liberal sources ($244,524), the education industry ($203,139), and securities and investment concerns ($202,028). There are seven Republican candidates seeking to get on Novembers ballot in this swing district to challenge Malinowski, whos regarded as among the most vulnerable of 2022 congressional incumbents. Former Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr.grandson of former U.S. Rep. Robert Kean (R-N.J.) and son of former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, Sr.is regarded as the frontrunner. Kean lost in 2020 to Malinowski by 1 percentage point. But with Congressional District 7 becoming a bit more red following redistricting, Republicans like their chances in 2022. His campaign reported to the FEC on May 18 that it had raised $2.2 million, spent $1.1 million, and had $1.2 million in cash on hand. Challenging the frontrunner Kean is New Jersey Assemblyman Erik Peterson, a 12-year veteran of the state legislature, whose campaign reported to the FEC on May 18 that it had raised $62,194, spent $34,471, and had $27,723 in its war chest. 2021 gubernatorial candidate Phil Rizzo is also on the Congressional District 7 Republican primary ballot. His campaign reported to the FEC on May 18 that it had raised $227,947, spent $149,316.38, and had no cash on hand. Long Valley businessmen Kevin Dorlons campaign reported on May 18 that it had raised $24,743.84, spent $21,477, and had $3,317 cash on hand. John Henry Isemann, 27; Fredon Mayor John Flora; and U.S. Navy veteran Sterling Irwin Schwab are also all on the Congressional District 7 Republican primary. None of their campaigns met the threshold for FEC filings. No Arrests in Mater Dei Threat at the Moment: Police SANTA ANA, Calif.A former Mater Dei High School employee who allegedly sent a threat to the Catholic school that forced its closure will likely not face criminal charges, according to the Santa Ana Police Department. Mater Dei reopened its doors Thursday as students inch closer to their final exams before the summer holidaytwo days after the school officials announced it was closing down for the week after receiving the credible threat. While these few days have been difficult for all members of the community, know that all educators are here to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, Mater Dei Executive Director of Communications Allison Bergeron updated parents and students in an email Wednesday. In the meantime, know that [Mater Dei] is a safe space where you gather with friends to celebrate Honor, Glory, Love, to have fun, to learn, and to enjoy your high school experience. Students will have the option to meet with teachers or counselors if needed on Friday. Police did not identify the former employee. Further details about the threat, how it was sent, and whether it was aimed at anyone were not disclosed. School officials learned about the threat Tuesday and sent a message to parents about the threat that afternoon. Today, we learned of a credible threat to the Mater Dei campus and contacted the Santa Ana Police Department, President of Mater Dei Michael Brennan and Principle Frances Clare said in a letter to parents and students Tuesday. Safety and sweep protocols were implemented, the officials said. We acknowledge the alarming nature of this message; however, we at Mater Dei take all threats made to the school seriously. Santa Ana Police Department officers who conducted a sweep of the campus on Tuesday were able to determine that there did not appear to be a threat of a shooting, but that an investigation was underway into the author of the threat who was profiled by police as being a former employee of the school. The investigation was closed on Wednesday. City News Service contributed to this report. A sign is posted in front of a Tesla service center in Fremont, Calif., on April 20, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Noted Tesla Analyst Sees Auto Pricing Power Shift From Dealers Toward Suppliers Long-lasting global auto semiconductor chip shortages could ease sooner than expected on the back of strong foundry shipments, consumer electronics slowdown and China re-opening, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said on Tuesday. What Happened The analyst who tracks automakers like Tesla Inc and Rivian Automotive Inc said that the new and used car prices are expected to enter a new phase as the market gets flooded with new chips. The analyst says the move could shift the balance to pricing towards suppliers over dealers. We see improved supply chain availability as an underappreciated trigger for the transfer of value from those who have enjoyed pricing power on the down-stream to those who have had to face rising input costs and lower production upstream, Jonas wrote in a note. Like a rusty seesaw on a deserted playground the balance will shift from dealers to suppliers. Why It Matters The report comes close on the heels of worlds second-largest automaker Volkswagen Groups CEO Herbert Diess saying that he sees an improvement in chip supplies. Diess earlier this month said that he expects the automakers global production can recover in the rest of this year. Automakers across the globe have been struggling with severe chip shortages that started in mid-2020 after demand sprung back quicker than expected leading to a supply chain mess. Jonas said, while headlines suggest auto production is still being held up by semiconductor shortages, he does not believe so. Since last October, Malaysia fabs are coming back and foundry production is catching up with demand. Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Cothe analyst notedaccounts for about 50% of global auto MCU production and that it has seen significant improvements through the first quarter, with wafer foundry auto semi output up approximately 60 percent year-on-year. By Rachit Vats 2022 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Ashes and debris are all that remain after what police call a "suspicious" fire occurred at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church near Orolow, Sask., on July 8, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Kayle Neis) Ohio Legislature Endorses Resolution to Place Canada on Watch List for Violations of Religious Freedom A resolution recently endorsed by the Ohio state legislature is urging the U.S. government to place Canada on a special watch list of countries for violations of religious freedom. The Ohio House State and Local Government Committee voted 8-2 on May 18 to endorse House Resolution 194, urging action to address the abuses of religious liberty it says have been on the rise in Canada. We, the members of the House of Representatives of the 134th General Assembly of the State of Ohio, have taken note of the abuses of religious liberty that have gone on throughout the Provinces of Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, the resolution said. It urged U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Congress, through the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), to take whatever action is necessary to address and rectify the situation, and consider adding Canada to the Special Watch List. The watch list is a record maintained by USCIRF of countries where the government engages in or tolerates severe violations of religious freedom, the resolution added. Formed in 1998, USCIRF monitors rights related to freedom of religion or belief abroad and makes policy recommendations to the U.S. President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. Liberty Coalition Canada (LCC), an advocacy group for human rights and constitutional freedoms with legal backing, said in a statement that it has been working closely with Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus (R-Paris Twp.) and Rep. Timothy Ginter (R- Columbiana County) on the resolution. LCC added it has provided the Ohio representatives with written testimonies collected from across Canada, as well as in-person proponent testimonies by others including LCC President Michael Thiessen and Greg Hill from Free to Fly Canada, a non-profit representing a group of aviation professionals and passengers who oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates. LCC said religious persecution of Canadians has escalated in recent years. They cite examples such as the razing and vandalization of church buildings, preventing church congregations from gathering, and imposing heavy fines or imprisonment for pastors who held worship services amid pandemic restrictions. In a file photo from March 4, 20121, supporters rally outside court as Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church appeals his bail conditions after he was arrested for holding church services in violation of COVID-19 rules, in Edmonton. (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson) The resolution cited the case of James Coates, a pastor of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberta, who was jailed for 35 days after refusing to follow a condition of his bail release that required him to halt in-person church services while lockdown restrictions were in place. It also mentioned the case of Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski, who was arrested for organizing church services that did not conform to social distancing and mask-wearing requirements mandated by Alberta Health Services (AHS). Pastor Coates, and perhaps other Canadian pastors, have held services in undisclosed locations, essentially going underground, in order to avoid persecution by government authorities, and to allay congregants fears, the resolution said. Pawlowski was arrested several times during the pandemic, with the longest jail term of 51 days this winter after speaking at a rally in support of the Freedom Convoy at the Coutts border crossing on Feb. 3. The resolution said the restriction orders by AHS that prohibited in-person faith group meetings, and other religious gatherings in private homes intrude into the most sacred liberties of its citizens, those of religious freedom and privacy. All of the Canadian provinces have at times prohibited religious gatherings outright, or have limited the size of religious gatherings, and many provinces still have severe size limitations on religious gatherings either held indoors or outdoors, punishable by harassment, fines, and jail time of faith leaders, thus limiting the parishioners or members ability to attend the assembly of their choice, and generally limiting religious liberty, it said. The Ohio representatives also stated in the resolution that the Liberal governments new law Bill C-4, which bans the practice of conversion therapy in Canada, has a chilling effect on religious liberties due to its overly broad scope. This act is overly broad in scope and has potential negative implications for religious liberties and expression, including a prison sentence of up to five years for merely expressing a biblical view of marriage, thus restricting the ability of religious leaders from expressing sincerely held religious beliefs on marriage and sexuality, the representatives said. Copies of the resolution will be sent to recipients including U.S. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, and Speaker of the Senate of Canada, they added. The UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohammed Faraj al-Mazroui (L) shakes hands with OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo (R) watched by Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih (C) during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, on Nov. 12, 2018. (KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images) Oil Prices Rise as OPEC+ Meets to Discuss Production Brent crude oil prices rose as OPEC+ members met Thursday to discuss production policy for July amid a decline in Russian output. The oil market kept a close eye on the meeting, which includes the 13 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations and 10 non-OPEC partners, including Russia. August futures of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, were trading at $117.59 per barrel as of 5:30 pm UTC, June 2, up from the days opening of around $114.41. Since falling below $100 per barrel in mid-March, Brent oil prices have largely traded above the level. In the past few days, an uptrend has formed, although oil prices fell immediately ahead of the OPEC+ meeting. Compared to May 11, when oil was trading at around $101.45, current prices are up by more than 14 percent. During the meeting, the group agreed to boost output by 648,000 barrels per day in July, and similarly in August. Russian production has fallen by roughly 1 million barrels per day after the country was sanctioned by Western powers for its attack on Ukraine. The EU recently agreed to place an embargo on Russian oil and petroleum products. It has also proposed new sanctions on the shipping industry that could make it more difficult for Russia to export its oil. The Kremlin insists that it can re-route oil exports to compensate for some of the losses arising from EU sanctions. The extent to which this will prove achievable is questionable, however. Russian oil production is therefore likely to fall again in the coming months, said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, according to Reuters. He also questioned whether OPEC+ has the ability to add considerably more oil to the market. The United States and Europe have pressed the group to pump out more oil, considering the current high prices. OPEC is also under pressure to exclude Russia from future OPEC+ quotas. According to Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB, an investment bank, a breakup of the OPEC+ group will allow United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to use their spare capacities to raise output. However, he is doubtful whether these moves will ease the pressure on global oil markets. Minds in the EU and the U.S. are focused on hurting Russian petro-income, he said to The Guardian. More oil from Saudi and the UAE will allow the West to implement sharper bans, forcing Russian oil exports lower while not blowing up the oil price. So net-net there would be no added supply for the market. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed hope that his country will continue working with OPEC. Meanwhile, oil prices are also getting a boost from Chinas emergence from COVID-19 lockdowns. A lockdown placed on Shanghai, home to 25 million residents, ended at June 1 at midnight. A vote sign is displayed outside a polling station during advanced voting in the Ontario provincial election in Carleton Place, Ont., on May 24, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick) Ontario Election Day: Party Leaders Itineraries Ontarios election day has arrived, and candidates will be casting their votes, attending their partys election night events, and awaiting the results. Heres a look at the itinerary of each party leader for June 2. Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford Doug Ford will attend his partys election night event. No time or location was given by his party as of publication time. Ford has campaigned largely on his partys promises to build highways and hospitals, increase the housing supply, and make significant investments in health care, education and critical infrastructure. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath Andrea Horwath will be in Hamilton on election day, starting with voting at Melrose United Church at 9.30 a.m. She will then head to Hamilton Convention Centre, Wentworth Ballroom, at 9 p.m. to wait for the election results. This election marks Horwaths fourth run for the premiers office after her party made gains in 2018 to form the official opposition in the provincial parliament. Her party has proposed implementing universal pharmacare, covering mental health and birth control, and raising the minimum wage to $20 in 2026. Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca Steven Del Duca will cast his vote at 10.30 a.m. at Woodbridge Pool and Memorial Arena in Vaughan. He will proceed to his partys election night event at Paramount Events Centre in Woodbridge at 7 p.m. His partys platform vows to remove the HST from prepared food, ban handguns, and raise the minimum wage to $16 an hour, among other promises. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner Mike Schreiner started the day meeting volunteers and supporters in Guelph, before heading to Guelph City Hall to cast his vote at 10 a.m. His schedule in Guelph for the rest of the day includes more meetings with his campaign team and events with volunteers and supporters. He is scheduled to deliver his election night speech at approximately 10 p.m. at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Guelph Conference Centre. New Blue Party Leader Jim Karahalios Jim Karahalios will be joined by his wife, Ontario MPP Belinda Karahalios, and his partys new candidates at 8 p.m. at The Argyle Arms, a locally-owned British pub and restaurant in Cambridge, to await election results. His party pledges to end all COVID-19 mandates, including a ban on vaccine passports, and to repeal Fords emergency measures. Ontario Party Leader Derek Sloan There is no update from Derek Sloans office at the time of publication. He posted a tweet on Wednesday, promising voters that his party will stand for freedom, family, and faith, including ending all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions if elected. The Canadian Press contributed to this article. 14 year old Zoe Keith, from Boulder, Colorado, competes during the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland on June 1, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Orange County Eighth Grader Reaches Fourth Round of National Spelling Bee LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.A middle school student from Orange County, California, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee after advancing through three rounds of spellingbut stopped in the fourth round on June 1. Jason Khan, an eighth-grader attending McAuliffe Middle School in Los Alamitos, misspelled lepper, a horse skilled in jumping. However, he was closeas he spelled it leper. Among the 234 competitors, Khan is one of the 88 spellers who entered the quarterfinals this year, the first fully in-person Bee since 2019. Khan won the first round by correctly spelling threnody, meaning a poem or song of mourning or lamentation. He then picked the correct word meaning for the multiple-choice question in the second round. The question was What does it mean to upbraid? for which he selected reprimand severely. In the third round, he advanced by correctly spelling diffident, which describes lacking confidence in oneself. According to his Spelling Bee bio, the 14-year-old is part of the associated student body in his school and has a wide variety of interests, including playing board games with his family, riding a bike, listening to music, and reading dystopian fiction novels. This will also be Khans final Spelling Bee, which has been limited to students in eighth grade or below. To date, Orange County has never had a speller win the national spelling contest. The semifinal is on the evening of June 1, and the final is on June 2. The competitors who made it to the final round stand for a group photo during the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland on June 1, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Parents Bill of Rights Limiting LGBT Teachings Passes North Carolinas Senate A bill aimed at strengthening parental rights in their childrens education and upbringing that also prohibits classroom instruction on LGBT sexual orientation and gender identity has advanced through North Carolinas legislative body. Teachers of children in kindergarten through to the third grade would be prohibited from providing classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity under the piece of legislation. It would also require parents to be informed if a child has asked to be called by another name or addressed by a different pronoun. In general, school administrators and employees would not be allowed to keep secret from parents any information related to the mental, emotional or physical health or well-being of their child. School administrators would also have to seek parental consent before providing a child with any counseling service or other non-emergency health care. House Bill 755, known as the Parents Bill of Rights, passed in the states GOP-controlled Senate on Wednesday and will make its way to the states House, which also has a Republican majority. The bill is critical and common-sense, said its main advocate, state Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Republican from Watauga County, when speaking on the Senate floor. She described it as a safeguard for all of our students. North Carolinas governor, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has spoken against the bill and is expected to veto it. Similar pieces of legislation have emerged in many U.S. states as concerned parents and conservative lawmakers push back against the trend of teaching adult topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity to elementary school students. Prior to the bill passing in the states Senate, a former K-3 teacher spoke in support of the legislation, saying that when there are attempts to water down the curriculum with political ideology and try to indoctrinate children, that teachers cannot do their jobs, News Observer reported. The bill includes strong provisions that allow parents to bring lawsuits against the schools if it fails to address concerns about their parental rights. Health care providers could also be liable if they fail to obtain parental consent before giving non-emergency medical treatments for their child, with penalties, including fines of up to $5,000. Bill Pan contributed to this report. Pfizer Asks FDA to Authorize 3 COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for Children Under 5 Says study suggests 3 doses 80 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 Pfizer and BioNTech have completed an application for emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a three-dose COVID-19 vaccine regimen for children aged 6 months to under 5 years old. Pfizer announced the completion of its EUA application on Wednesday, reported multiple outlets. The companies initially asked the FDA for an EUA in February for a two-dose regimen of its 3-g COVID-19 vaccine for the age group, but the agency on Feb. 11 postponed its decision on the application until receiving data on three doses. On the same day, Pfizer-BioNTech announced it would delay completing its EUA request until it receives data on the third dose. The 3-g dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the under-5 age group is one-tenth of the dose adults receive (30 g) and one-third of that given to children aged 511 (10 g). The FDA has since accepted the application to review the data from Pfizer-BioNTech, reported ABC News. The agency said Wednesday it will review the EUA request as quickly as possible using a science-based approach. Pfizer noted in a statement on May 23 that it has gathered safety, immunogenicity, and vaccine efficacy data from its Phase 2/3 trial. The trial showed that a third 3-g dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine elicited a strong immune response, with a favorable safety profile similar to placebo in children 6 months to under 5 years of age, Pfizer said. The vaccine was also 80.3 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 symptoms according to the study, the companies stated. They noted that the figure is based on 10 symptomatic COVID-19 cases from seven days after the third dose and accrued as of April 29, 2022. At least 21 cases are needed to formally determine whether the vaccine is effective. Final vaccine efficacy data will be shared once available, the companies said. In the Phase 2/3 trial, a third dose of the vaccine was given to 1,678 children at least two months after the second dose at a time when Omicron was the predominant variant. The third dose appeared to elicit an antibody response enough to meet the FDA criteria for emergency use of the vaccine, the companies said. Three 3-g doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was well-tolerated in this age group, and no new safety signals were identified, they added. The majority of adverse events were mild or moderate. Albert Bourla, Pfizers chairman and CEO, said that the company is pleased that the vaccine was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response. Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, said that the study suggests that the vaccine provides young children with a high level of protection against the recent COVID-19 strains. Children aged 5 and under comprise the only age group in the United States currently not FDA-eligible for any COVID-19 vaccination. A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation in April found that [o]ne in five parents of children under 5 [18 percent] are eager to vaccinate their child and say they will do so right away once a COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for their age group. The FDA announced Wednesday that it would hold a meeting on June 15 for its independent advisory panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, to discuss the EUA request from Pfizer. The same committee on June 15 will also be discussing Modernas EUA application for the companys vaccine, intended for those 6 months to under 6 years old. Moderna is seeking authorization for a two-dose regimen of its vaccine, each containing 25 g, which is a quarter of the dose for those aged 12 and above (100 g) in the primary course of the vaccine. The vaccines effectiveness in preventing infection, including asymptomatic and mild infection, from the SARS-CoV-2 virus for those aged 6 months to 2 years was only 51 percent, and for those aged 2 to under-6 years was 37 percent, Moderna said in late April. The vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are both based on mRNA technology. The COVID-19 vaccines from these companies have been linked with heart inflammation, including myocarditis and pericarditis, cumulative data from around the world have suggested. Younger populations, especially young men, have been observed to experience these conditions at much higher than expected rates, data from the CDC previously suggested. A small number of deaths from heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccine have been reported. Liz Mumper, a pediatrician and former medical director of the Autism Research Institute, told the Childrens Health Defense in an interview that natural immunity provides a much more durable and broader protection for children than vaccines. She also said that if a child contracts COVID-19, they not only dont need the vaccine but also might be at higher risk of adverse effects if they are made to take them. If kids dont need the vaccines, we do not want to give them the vaccines because we do not have long-term studies on the side effects, and the short-term information we have is actually quite a bit concerning to me, Mumper said. The interview host pointed out that the COVID-19 survival rate among children is 99.98 percent. Vaccine manufacturers are immune from liability for any adverse reactionsunless theres willful misconduct involved. Vaccine providers are required to report any serious adverse effects or vaccination administration errors to VAERS, hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The federal government has a countermeasures program that can compensate eligible persons who suffer serious injury from approved vaccines. But the burden of proof has proven a challenging process. Naveen Athrappully and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. Inspired by the perseverance of the Dukha peoplea community of reindeer-herding families living in harsh conditions on the Mongolian-Siberian bordertwo Spanish photographers traveled to this far, inhospitable land to meet and photograph the families and share their way of life with the world. Both natives of Leon, Spain, 52-year-old Sandra Ballesteros, a nurse by trade, and 55-year-old Miguel Celis Puente, a bank clerk, set off to meet the Dukha in September of 2019. There are only about 40 reindeer-herding families left, divided into two groups, one west of Tsagaan Nuur and the other further north on the Russian border, Sandra told The Epoch Times. To reach the Dukha people is not an easy task. The pairs journey to Tsagaan Nuur from Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, was hosted by expedition specialists, Wind of Mongolia. The travel included three days by car using roads and dirt tracks. From there, they continued on foot and horseback to cross the Darkhad Depression. The Dukha are semi-nomadic and can be, depending on the time of year, more or less deep in the vastness of the Taiga, so few people venture to this remote place, said Sandra. However, for Sandra and Miguel, their photography involves close contact with their subjects. According to them, it is fundamental to achieve that complicity that allows us to break down barriers and let emotions come to the surface. Led by guide Bat and a team of horsemen, they reached the Dukha settlement safely. Over the next five days, their guide helped them establish contact with a Dukha host family as the first snow fell around them. Explaining more about their culture, Sandra shared that a Dukha community comprises two to seven nomadic families named olal-lal, meaning they in the Tuvan language. They move from camp to camp in search of pasture for their reindeer, who feed on a type of lichen that only grows in very cold places, which is the reason they are forced to move several times in the year. The reindeer are fundamental to the existence of their herders, as they get milk, fur, and antlers from them; however, they dont eat their meat. The Dukha instead hunt wild boar, deer, and elk for meat, supplemented by salted tea from reindeer milk, yogurt, cheese, and corn cakes. In winter, the temperature drops to minus 40 degrees. To protect themselves from the cold, the Dukha wear traditional deel, tunic-like coats that reach below the knees and button to one side, which is then fastened by a belt. For their footwear, the Dukha use reindeer skin or the fur from the animals they hunt such as wild boar, deer, and some elk. Nowadays, however, many have taken to buying rubber boots alongside flour, salt, and sugar from the nearby cities of Tsagaan Nuur or Moron. The Dukha people inhabit conical teepees built from sticks and skinsnowadays, most are covered with tarpaulinswith wood-burning stoves inside. Some are timber-floored for insulation, but many are not. The temperature inside is pleasant while the heat of the wood lasts, which is consumed very quickly, then the cold penetrates like a knife, said Sandra, adding, The batteries of the cameras are discharged at subzero temperatures, so sometimes we had to keep them warm between our clothes. But the experience of living with those people in the middle of the forest was worth it, despite the cold and the difficulties of getting there. Sandra recalled with special affection the last night they spent with one Dukha host named Dabaaab, and his wife, Gantuya. We brought some sausage and wine from our land, and we shared it with them while we sang around the wood stove, she said. It was a very endearing moment. During their stay, Sandra and Miguel also learned that Dukha children learn to care for their reindeer from a very young age. Girls and younger women milk reindeer and prepare yogurt, cheese, and tea, while men, young women, and elders will help with herding. Some Dukha men remain with their reindeer throughout the winter, enduring bitter outdoor temperatures to protect their herds from wolves and other predators. Yet, the current conservation laws of the Mongolian government to preserve the Taiga threaten the survival of Dukha communities by prohibiting them from hunting some animals, felling wood for fire, and grazing freely. Both reindeer and Dukha populations are falling in number. The determination of the Dukha to maintain their traditions, and their ability to survive in such hostile environs, compelled Sandra and Miguel to share their story as a moving photo series and open a debate: What should prevail, Sandra posed, the protection of the forest, or people who, for years, have considered that same forest their home and depend on it and its resources to survive? Sandra and Miguel bought their first camera together over 25 years ago, and have traveled for decades in their incessant search for new ways to understand customs, culture, and lives different from their own. They specialize in portraiture. Our photography has evolved with us, as it is part of ourselves, said Sandra. Over time, we have improved our technical means, but that passion for understanding and capturing other cultural realities remains intact. Sandra and Miguel share their photos on their website, and on social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter AUBURN Thomas Adessa believes it's important to teach people about empathy when they're young, and he used compassion for animals to illustrate that lesson Wednesday afternoon. Adessa, humane law enforcement officer with the Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York, held humane education classes in three different classrooms at Herman Avenue Elementary School in Auburn, to emphasize the importance of empathy and compassion toward animals and people. Helping Adessa was his wife, Martha King, a retired clinical therapist who volunteers with the SPCA. Each visit was set to follow the same structure, starting with Adessa explaining who he is and asking the students, by shows of hands, if they have a pet, and then asking each child their names and to talk about an experience they've had with a animal. During the first humane education class, teacher Julie Tabone's students often focused their gazes on what Adessa or King were saying, without students' eyes frequently wandering at their surroundings. King told the students about an instance where she was walking her dog and they came across an alone, emaciated cat, who King said she had empathy for due to the feline's condition. King said she took the feline and fed it cat food and gave it water, and the cat was later taken to a veterinarian. "The vet said, 'Within 12 hours, he would have been dead,'" King said, garnering responses of "Aww" from some adults and children in the room. "So that's how important empathy is, and compassion." The 12-year-old cat, now named Buster, lives with Adessa and King. In between King telling that story, Adessa would enact role-play scenarios with the students. For example, a student read off a card Adessa gave them in which the student said they were sad about their cat dying, and Adessa asked students how they would feel for that other student, with the students saying they would feel said. At one point, Adessa gave a card to Sophie Dautrich, 8, wherein the scenario said she was sad two months after her cat died. Adessa individually asked some students how they would show compassion to Sophie. After some students struggled to respond, one student said they would give Sophie a hug. Toward the end of the first class, every student was given printed-out "compassion hearts," as Adessa called them, in which each student was asked to write their name in the middle of. Adessa asked the children to write the names of animals in their households they care about or include specific kinds of animals, and to write down the names of people they care about. Sadie Davis-Shannon wrote down cats and dogs in her heart, but she also included ferrets and deer, among other creatures. After that class ended and Adessa and King went to the next classroom, Sophie said she enjoyed the class. "I liked the compassion part, I liked that we talked about the kitty, because I really like animals," she said. Tabone said all of the students at Herman participate in a program about dealing with emotions and interacting with others, and her class had talked about empathy and compassion about two weeks ago. She praised Adessa and King's program. Before the classes began, Adessa said he had previously held humane education classes and noted that Carol Russell, the executive director of the Finger Lakes SPCA, wanted to restart the classes. Adessa said he mentioned the humane education class idea in May to Lynn Stock, a counselor at Seward Elementary School. Stock liked the idea and told her principal, Adessa said, and he and King presented to Seward students later that month. Adessa said he feels "compassion starts in class," and believes that, considering recent events in the U.S. and across the world, it is critical to talk about the subjects of empathy and compassion. He discussed why he wanted to approach those concept with children. "Being a father and grandfather gives me a good perspective. I read social media and I pay attention to current events. Our society has to degraded to one degree or another and we need to get back to basics of a kinder, wholesome society and teaching people how to be more compassionate, more empathetic and more sympathetic," Adessa said. "We have to start with them at a younger age and it also starts with the baseline of how you treat an animal is indicative of how you're going to treat a human being." Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 1 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. Pete Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (L), speaks at a press conference while Superintendent Hal Harrell looks on, following a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Police Chief Didnt Know About 911 Calls: Texas State Senator The Uvalde school district police Chief Pedro Pete Arredondo was not informed of panicked 911 calls from people at the May 24 Robb Elementary shooting scene that killed 19 students and two adults, a Texas senator said on Thursday. In a June 2 press conference, Sen. Roland Gutierrez revealed that emergency calls from students and staff inside Robb Elementary School during the active shooter situation did not make their way to Chief Arredondo but instead went straight to the city police. The 911 calls confirmed that students were still inside the school with the shooter, Ramos Salvador. Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes, Gutierrez said. We dont know if it was being communicated to those people or not. Multiple children called 911 inside the classroom while officers were in the Robb Elementary hallway. Hes the incident commander. He did not receive [the] 911 calls, the senator said, adding that this lack of communication was a systematic failure. Arredondo, the commander-in-chief on the shooting scene, has been under public scrutiny as accusations mount that he was responsible for a delayed police response to the shooting. During a May 27 news conference, Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), admitted that the delayed response was a wrong decision. McCraw added that Arredondo thought the 18-year-old was a barricaded suspect instead of an active shooter. Arredondo told CNN that he has been cooperating with DPS investigations. Arredondo has nearly three decades of experience in law enforcement in Uvalde. He began his job as the police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in 2020. Ive been on the phone with them every day, Arredondo told the news outlet. Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council before the May 24 shooting incident and was sworn in as a city councilman on May 31. Arredondo had not spoken publicly since appearing at a vigil, which took place before he was named as the official who gave the order to hold. Arredondo told The Epoch Times that the vigil was a good beginning. I saw a lot of shoulders drop, which means people started to breathe a little bit. And thats one of the first processeslearn to breathe again. Its good to see a good tight-knit community come together, he said. Zachary Stieber, Charlotte Cuthbertson, and Caden Pearson contributed to this report. The mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hrib, at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Prague Congress Center on May 29, 2022. (Michal Kovac/NTD) PRAGUE, Czech RepublicAs the world learns more about China and its government, people are speaking out and expressing empathy for people like the artists of Shen Yun Performing Arts who are dedicating their lives to raising awareness of what is happening in China. The mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hrib, attended Shen Yun at the Prague Congress Center on May 29 and shared his thoughts on the companys mission. I understand that the position of artists like Shen Yun is very difficult in China. I dont think many people can imagine the crazy things that are happening in China, he said. He specifically pointed out the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that benefits the mind and body. Due to its growing popularity during the 1990s, the then head of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, decided to crack down on the peaceful practice. I would also like to say that the position of Falun Gong practitioners in China is very difficult, and I feel very sorry for how the Chinese regime treats people who represent the traditional true Chinese art, said Mr. Hrib. Miroslav Surka at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Prague Congress Center on May 28, 2022. (Milan Kovac/NTD) Professional trumpet player, Miroslav Surka, attended Shen Yuns performance at the center on May 28. For me, it was like opening new windows and looking into history, which is enlightening and it leaves an artistic impression. They are fantastic, everyone, the orchestra, the conductor, I enjoyed it to the last minute, shared Mr. Surka. Shen Yuns orchestra is a unique combination of a classic Western orchestra paired with traditional Chinese instruments. As a musician, it was very inspiring for medifferent culture, different emotions. The orchestra played live, beautifully [and] in style, he said. The Chinese culture seen in Shen Yun is a real presentation of China before communism. Using dance and music, the artists share the beauty of that culture with audiences around the world. It was my first time seeing this beauty. Dancing is the hardest profession because its so physically hard and when you watch those professional dancers, you get the feeling that theyre just flying, but at the same time its so hard. Im not a dancer, but I know this from fellow dancers Ive accompanied as well, said Mr. Surka. Shen Yun uses a patented digital backdrop to extend the stage. The projection allows the artists to travel to the ends of the world and beyond. The animation coupled with the transition into physicality and the dancers and the choreography, the build-up from a professional standpoint, I know what it takes to make it work, said Mr. Surka. Spiritually, Mr. Surka was also deeply touched by Shen Yun. I also felt that it was a kind of message, a kind of spirituality, a return to values that we really miss. It was a kind of invitation, to reflect and understand that belief in oneself. He added that the introduction of Falun Dafa, was enlightening and now of course its up to everyone how they feel and reflect. In addition to the artistic experience, the visual experience, its also a reflection on faith, he said of Shen Yun. Reporting by Veronika Sunova, Milan Kajinek and Maria Han. The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006. Glenn Youngkin is sworn in as the 74th governor of Virginia on the steps of the State Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Punishing Pennsylvania, Liberating Virginia Commentary Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are moving their states in opposite directions. Gov. Youngkin is focused on lowering the cost of living and improving Virginias appeal as a place to do business. Boeings recent announcement that it is moving from Illinois to Virginia is an example of his efforts. Youngkins aggressive pro-jobs push led CNBC to call Virginia the No. 1 state in the country for business. As Youngkin said when announcing Boeing was coming to Virginia, From day one, our goal has been to make Virginia the best place to live, work, and raise a family. Youngkin appears to be meeting this goal. By contrast, Gov. Wolf has been making Pennsylvania more expensive to live in and less attractive to businesses seeking to invest and create jobs. Wolfs most recent attack on the Pennsylvania standard of living was an executive order to have the state join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). This Big Government Socialist left-wing regulatory regime is designed to reduce greenhouse gasesno matter what it costs the average citizen in higher prices and fewer jobs. The RGGI is a coalition of northeastern states that have joined in an economic suicide pact to make their economies less competitive, less desirable for job creation, and a lot more expensive for the people who still live there. New York alone has lost more than 1 million residents in the last decade as they move to lower cost, job-friendly states. This is the kind of anti-citizen, anti-consumer, anti-jobs psychology which is driving people out of the Northeast and toward Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and other less expensive and more practical states. Gov. Youngkin rescued Virginia from going down the job-killing, price-increasing northeastern model. He is orienting Virginia firmly to the Sunbelt job creation, consumer-friendly, lower cost model. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf touting better wages, paid sick leave, safe workplaces, and quality jobs during a visit to Delaware County to outline his workforce plan, in Nether Providence Township, Penn., on Oct. 22, 2021. (Commonwealth Media Service) The cost of Gov. Wolfs anti-fossil fuel initiative will be particularly expensive in Pennsylvania, which is the home of the Marcellus Shale (an enormous source for natural gas that has an estimated 400-year supply). In fact, Pennsylvania is the third largest producer of power in America. So, Gov. Wolfs executive order directly attacks one of his own states greatest assets. Furthermore, according to Scientific American, natural gas has largely replaced coal power in the state and generated 52 percent of Pennsylvanias power in 2020. This shift from coal to natural gas has meant a dramatic reduction in carbon loading of the atmosphere, but instead of accelerating Pennsylvanias production of natural gas Gov. Wolf is punishing it. In the process, hes also punishing Pennsylvanians who must pay their energy bills. According to Sens. Gene Yaw (R-23) and John Yudichak (I-14), the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) projects the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) could nearly quadruple new electricity costs for consumers. The Wolf executive order will be a major issue in the fall campaign for governor. The Republican nominee, State Sen. Doug Mastriano, like virtually all the Pennsylvania Republican legislators, is deeply opposed to raising costs for Pennsylvanians and would repeal the Wolf executive order if elected. The Democrat nominee for governor, current State Atty. Gen. Josh Shapiro, has been wavering on the executive order. His office approved the Wolf executive order but explained that it was only a technical approval of the languages legalitynot a policy agreement. (What a tremendous show of political courage.) Shapiro is going to have a real dilemma. The more that average Pennsylvanians hear about the cost-increasing and job-killing nature of Wolfs executive order, the more they are going to oppose it. However, the left wing of the Democrat Party is deeply committed to regulating greenhouse gasno matter the cost in jobs and prices. Mastriano will clearly have an easier time following the Youngkin example toward lower costs and more jobs. From Gingrich360.com Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. RIP Midge Decter: A Conservative Force to Be Reckoned With Commentary Leadership is a double-barrelled quality. It calls for both personal inspiration and the ability to inspire others. People who go out of their way to invite others to dream bigger, learn more, think more carefully, collaborate and take action, become enormously influential. Such was the legacy of the recently deceased American journalist and author Midge Decter. She regarded serving and inspiring others as not just a choice, but a responsibility. Decter Slipped Away at Age 94 Originally considered a New York liberal, Midge Decter evolved into a trailblazer for the 20th century conservative movement. Decter was among the first influential intellectuals to turn the notion of a Manhattan conservative into something more than an oxymoron. During the ThatcherReagan era, she became an intellectual power to be reckoned with. Writing in the New York Post, former Decter colleague Joseph Bottum described Midge as a conservative den mother and witty force of nature. Bottum noted that Decter slipped away quietly at age 94. It may have been the only thing she did quietly in her entire life, he added. She was a talker, an inveigler and a world-class anecdotalist. Decter emerged as a straight-talking proponent of classical liberal/neo-conservative philosophy that made the election of conservative governments in the UK, Canada, and the United States possible during the late 1970s and 80s. In America, she helped hold together hundreds of writers, thinkers, and activists under the big tent of Reagan conservatism. Intellectuals of all stripes love to quarrel, but when Decter called a meeting, most showed up. She was always willing to cast a wide net for recruits to the cause of Western liberty. Among her best-known quotes was, The time comes, when you have to join the side youre on. She didnt have a lot of time for fence-sitting or equivocation. In the days after Decters death, dozens of eloquent condolences came in from well-known writers, academics, and public figures. One of the most respectful expressions of sympathy came in the form of a tweet from an American midwesterner by the name of Barney Quick. Quick said he had attended a conference put on by Decter at a DC Hotel in 1987. I was just this guy from the Midwest rubbing shoulders with the giants of neoconservatism, but it solidified my path, he wrote. I cant help thinking that Quicks inspirational encounter with Decter was something similar to my own. Fond Memories of a Conservative Icon In the 1980s, I was teaching history and economics at Lower Canada College in Montreal. Then, as now, conservative teachers had little in common with their progressive colleagues. Doors were closed for doctoral studies and appointments at university faculties of education. We tended to look outside of our faculty rooms for opportunities to collaborate with like-minded professionals. It was a little discouraging, but one had to make a living. At the time, my best friends were among a small but feisty group of conservative professors, writers, and political activists in Montreal. I was particularly interested in organizing youth leadership conferences and struck up a friendly cross-border connection with the late Franz G. Lassner, then senior vice president at Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In April 1984, we organized a seminar on Western Hemisphere Security in Montreal. There I met Mark Falcoff, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who told me about a New York-based organization known as the Committee for the Free World. About two weeks after the Montreal event, I received a letter from Decter. Dear Mr. Brooks, she wrote. Mark Falcoff wrote to me suggesting you might be interested in our Committee. I am sending you herewith some material which should give you a fairly concrete sense of what we do. If you are interested, please let me know, and I shall be delighted to add you to our list. Over the following several years, I was thrilled to participate in Committee for the Free World meetings in New York and Washington, DC. When the Committee declared its work complete and disbanded after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Decter agreed to speak at a 1992 Leadership for Democracy youth conference we hosted at Lower Canada College. After that, she sponsored my attendance at a 1993 meeting of the venerable Philadelphia Society. A Smart Cookie and an Inspirational Foster Mother As Joseph Bottum put it in his eulogy for Decter, she was a smart cookie. Decters contentions were terse and convincing. Her books and articles included fierce challenges to radical feminism and other leftist pathologies of our time. Her insightful Liberal Parents, Radical Children was a 1975 social critique that might have been written in the present decade to explain the misplaced rage of college-educated, woke Americans. For a rank-and-file Canadian conservative working on the ground in a hostile education system, Decter was inspirational. Her unique combination of wit and ferocity encouraged others to more persistent action. On subjects related to culture and education, she raised issues that more comfortable conservatives would only brood about in private. Writing in 1985 in the New York Times on the subject of liberal bias in academia and bullying on campus, her observations and insights were prophetic: Beginning sometime in the mid-1960s, she wrote, the countrys colleges and universities, in full view and full consciousness, simply sloughed off the burden of their proper authority as educators of the young and proclaimed themselves instead to be no more than servants of the gathering radical political fashion. Basic texts and indeed subjects were abandoned as irrelevant and the American university became a veritable hotbed of reckless, mindless, anti-Americanism Decter was an inspiring foster mother for all of those who rallied around her. Unlike some tony Tory intellectuals, who appear to hold leftist adversaries in higher regard than less eloquent conservative allies, Decter was a fierce warrior for the side she was on. She was unapologetically anti-communist and a fearless critique of Americas excessive progressive elites. The conservative thinker Yuval Levin called Decter a force for good. Bottum noted that the emphasis really belongs on force. She was one of those people who made things happen, one of those women who pushed things along, he wrote. Should present-day Woke Amerika ever be pushed back to the point that patriotic citizens might, once again, find room to raise statues in celebration of foundational heroes, Midge Decter deserves a place of perpetual honor somewhere on the streets of Manhattan. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. People walk in the street in Shanghai, China, after the lifting of lockdowns on June 2, 2022. (Hu Chengwei/Getty Images) Shanghai Lifts Lockdown After 9 Weeks, but Residents Remain Cautious Cars roar down the streets. Dog walkers roam through city parks. Luxury malls open their doors and turn on their lights. A total of 65 days later, Shanghai has finally come back to lifebut normality seems a distance away. On June 1, officials reopened shops, restaurants, buses, trains, and offices to many of the citys 25 million residents, who had been cooped up in their apartments for more than two months. The prolonged lockdown of Chinas most cosmopolitan city has caused shortages of food and daily necessities. Non-COVID patients have struggled to obtain medicine or emergency care. Residents, including the elderly and children, suffered fears of being separated from their families and sent to quarantine facilities. As the clock struck midnight on May 31, people cheered, cars honked, and fireworks exploded overhead. But not everyone was in a celebratory mood. We could go out of communities freely today. But I dont want to celebrate yet. They might seal off again once a single positive case is recorded, a Pudong district resident surnamed Wang told The Epoch Times on June 1. Id rather be cautious, said another resident surnamed Wu, who lives in Yangpu district. She said she didnt venture outdoors on the first day of reopening. New Frustrations For newly released Shanghai residents, the conditions attached to reopening have brought a fresh set of frustrations. A negative PCR test result from within 72 hours is essential to take the bus and enter offices, shops, and other public venues. Workers scan QR health codes of people entering a shopping mall in the Huangpu district of Shanghai on June 1, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) Long lines became a common sight outside neighborhoods on June 1 and 2. Many people endured an hours-long wait for white-suited health care workers to swab their throats as part of nucleic acid testing. On the microblogging platform Weibo, one person posted a picture of a sign at a booth warning of a 4.5-hour wait. Commuters shared worries about not getting a PCR test on time. The hashtag Shanghai Nucleic Acid Test garnered 220 million views on Weibo on June 2. The mandatory screening, along with the previous citywide lockdown, was a result of the Chinese regimes harsh zero-COVID strategy, aimed at eliminating every infection among communities through mass testing and centrally quarantining anyone at risk. The Chinese regime has announced a plan to set up testing sites within a 15-minute walk for everyone in the country, with officials calling it normalized nucleic acid tests. The requirements mean that residents need to bring their phones and present a green health code on an official app wherever they go, allowing the authorities to track their movements and contacts constantly. Discontent From June 1, shopping malls and supermarkets are allowed to run at 75 percent capacity. Restaurants can resume operation, but dining-in services are banned. Gyms, museums, and cinemas remain closed. Still, about 2.5 million people in the city remain under lockdown, according to officials, and the consequences of testing positive are the same as before: All positive cases will be sent to a centralized quarantine facility, and their close contactsincluding neighborswill be barred from leaving home. A security worker locks a door with a chain in a neighborhood under a COVID-19 lockdown in the Jingan district of Shanghai on June 2, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) The regimes heavy-handed COVID-19 containment measures have provoked rare protests in the tightly controlled country, both online and onsite. Some fenced-in Shanghai residents had banged pans and pots out of their windows and screamed from their balconies to express discontent. Shanghai authorities issued a thank you letter to residents on June 1, with medical staff, health officials, residential committees staff, police, and army members among many receiving a special mention for their contributions. Under the strong leadership of CCPs Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, after more than two months of continuous fighting, the arduous battle to defend Shanghai has achieved a major milestone, the letter reads. The letter was met with widespread criticism on Weibo. Shouldnt those who wield great power and can arbitrarily inflict harm on others be held accountable? one user wrote. What we want is not a thank you, but an apology, another user wrote. Luo Ya and Reuters contributed to the report. Vergil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp, three-month-old puppies available for adoption at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Florida. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times Soaring Cost of Living Causes Spike in Number of Pets Being Abandoned, Surrendered to Shelters 'All of the shelters in the area are full because no one is adopting.' According to a growing number of reports, the soaring costs of food, gas, and housing are causing a spike in the number of family pets being abandoned or surrendered to shelters. In January 2022, the first alarming animal shelter statistics began to emerge. While an average of 6.2 million animals are taken into shelters each year, only about 3.2 million find a home. The other three million are euthanized. Astrid, a 1-year-old mixed breed dog with a heart-shaped marking on her nose, is pictured at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., on May 27, 2022. Shes been waiting for a new forever home for more than a month. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) In March 2022, shelters in Cedar City, Utah, noted a dramatic increase in the number of phone messages being left by desperate pet owners who needed to surrender their pets, receiving as many as 30 calls from mid-January through February. Shelter administrators and staff said the number of strays and the number of pets being surrendered voluntarily are on par with the number of phone calls. In April, shelters across Utah were reporting that millions of pets adopted during the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus) of 2020 were being surrendered again as the high cost of living and the return to in-person working was making it impossible for pet owners to continue to care for their animals. (LR) Shelter Manager Georgionna Waite, Medical Coordinator Sara Marek of the Humane Society of the Nature Coast, and Missy Ritter, Animal Services Coordinator for Hernando County Animal Services sat down with The Epoch Times to discuss the surge in animal surrenders and alternatives to surrender or abandonment. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) In May, Orange County Animal Services in Orlando, Florida, reported a 37 percent increase in the number of surrendered pets compared to the same time in 2021. Officials say the increase in housing costs in the area is the primary reason why people are being forced to surrender their pets. In Hernando County, Florida, shelter administrators are seeing a similar spike in the number of family pets being surrendered or simply abandoned on the streets. Its not as frequent as when COVID initially hit but we have recently had people abandoning pets on property, Sara Marek, medical coordinator for the Humane Society of the Nature Coast, told The Epoch Times. We had a gentleman come in trying to surrender his cat. At the time we couldnt take it in so he did just take the cat and let it loose right in our parking lot. So, unfortunately it is happening. Front entrance to the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Hernando County, Fla., on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) The week before, someone had tied a dog to a pole outside of the gate during the night, which wound up going to Hernando County Animal Services. Shelter Manager Georgionna Waite said the number of animal surrenders is on the rise. James Schmeda, a volunteer at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast, takes one of the shelter dogs for a walk outside in Brooksville, Fla., on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) As far as owner surrender requests, I would say weve seen an increase over the past six to seven months in general, Waite told The Epoch Times, adding that loss of home for the pet owner is the most frequently given reason. Mary, one of many cats waiting for a forever home, is pictured at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) That and having to move to someplace more affordable that simply doesnt allow pets, Marek added. There are a lot of places that just dont allow animals, period. Missy Ritter, the Animal Services Coordinator for Hernando County Animal Services, noted there is also a shortage of pet food supplies everywhere. In my opinion, its gotten better over the past two to three months, versus where we were six months ago, but you go to some stores and you cant find cat food, she said. A reason suggested by Marek for the shortage in cat food as opposed to dog food is this is the time of year known in the shelter community as cat season, when unspayed stray female cats, known as community cats, are giving birth to litters of kittens. It was an opinion shared by Waite and Ritter. During these times, animal lovers in many neighborhoods take it upon themselves to purchase food to set out for these cats and their growing kittens. The cat food shelves at a Publix store in Hernando County, Fla., appear empty during the peak of what shelter staff refer to as cat season on May 28, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) I know its usually very hard every spring to find kitten food, Marek explained. Its hard to find kitten dry food, its hard to find kitten wet food, and when they run out of that, maybe people just start going straight to adult cat food because its all you can find. With the surge in animal surrenders, shelters are also in desperate need of volunteers to help keep staff from being overwhelmed and burned out. Because of staffing shortages, those who are there are often working long hours. Against popular belief, animals in the care of reputable shelters do not simply sit in their cages and pens all day. While the overworked staff concentrates on conducting intake interviews, processing paperwork, and providing medical care for the animals, volunteers help ease their burdens by making sure each and every animal gets fed twice a day and receives plenty of enrichment and exercise. The sign at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., announces they are hiring on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) Volunteers like James Schmeda and Ben Moser make sure the dogs are taken on daily walks and spend time romping in one of the shelters many outdoor play areas. Others like Marie Jones ensure that the cats get individual attention and human interaction while they wait for their new owners to come in and finally take them home. Waite said there has also been a drop in donations, which shelters like HSNC depend upon for the care and welfare of their furry charges. A Wish List of items regularly needed at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) With our facility were seeing a drop in the donations we are requesting, Waite clarified. We use Purina One here. We take in all donations but thats what we feed our dogs primarily. Weve had to switch to Pro Plan, which is better quality food, because its what weve had donated. But thats because there isnt enough Purina One available. Its the same thing with our kittens. Theyve been switch to Purina Kitten Chow because we dont have enough of the Purina One available. Shelters like HSNC rely completely on the generosity of people in the community. Many of the animals who are brought to the shelter are in need of medical care. Some have serious skin conditions. Some have been starved. Others have broken bones. The more serious cases are those who have been physically abused or used as bait dogs in illegal dog fighting. Many of the animals arrive pregnant, and once they give birth, one animal turns into six or eight. Financial donations help them provide needed medical care and to cover staff pay and facility expenses. While financial donations are always welcomed, items needed regularly include food, toys, dog beds, leashes, collars, and cat litter. Asked if they had suggestions for alternatives to shelter surrender or abandonment, Waite said rehoming on the part of the owner is one method of finding their pet a new home, by reaching out to family members, friends, neighbors in the community. Marie Jones, a volunteer at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., surveys the cats play room on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) Ritter suggested posting information about the pets availability for adoption on social media, advising that listing the animal with a small rehoming fee tends to get rid of some of the shadiness behind rehoming an animal online. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals posted a warning on Craigslist that animals given away for free can, and unfortunately often do, meet gruesome fates. Pets might end up in the hands of animal abusers or by someone who is looking for a bait dog for dog fight training. To further assist pet owners in finding a safe and loving new home their pets, there are also online rehoming websites like Pet Adoptions Network and Rehome by Adopt-a-Pet.com, which walk pet owners through a detailed screening process that involves applications and pre-adoption visits with potential new owners. Waite also noted that if you are rehoming your animal online, you can deny people. You dont have to give it to the first person who shows up and says, Yes, Id like your dog. You can still say no. You have to do your best, Marek advised. Go through the vetting questions. You can also contact any shelter and find out what kind of vetting questions they might ask potential adopters. A lot of shelters provide resources on how to rehome on your own. You can even do an internet search for questions to ask. There are lots of options out there. The Little Pet Pantry, located just outside the front gate at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., is fully stocked with free cat and dog food on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) To assist those who are considering surrendering their pets because they cant afford to feed them, HSNC generously gives back to the community by keeping its Little Pet Pantry, located just outside of the front gate, fully stocked with free cat and dog food. Ritter said Hernando County Animal Services (HCAS) is becoming overwhelmed with strays. In fact, Florida law states: It shall be unlawful for any person to harbor, feed and/or keep any stray animal unless he or she has notified animal services within twenty-four (24) hours from the time such animal came into his or her possession. In other words, if you find a stray, shelters like HSNC are not legally allowed to take the animal in. Strays must first go through the countys animal services department. Making matters worse, Ritter said while stray dogs are pouring in, their dogs adoptions have essentially come to a full stop. I looked at a report today and we have two small dogs that have pending adoptions, she lamented. Other than that, nothing. None of our big dogs have adoptions. In fact all of the shelters in the area are full because no one is adopting. So were having a hardship because we are the only shelter in the county that takes in stray dogs, so were having a hardship trying to place all of these stray dogs because theyre coming in hand over fist and were not able to get them out quick enough. Ben Moser, a volunteer at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., plays with one of the shelter dogs in an outdoor enclosure on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) Sadly, the number of strays and surrenders has become so overwhelming that they are being forced to euthanize some of the animals to keep the numbers from getting out of control. As of right now, Ritter said that number is very little. Last week, they had to euthanize one dog. It was the first dog they had to put down in the past several months. Thankfully, Ritter said they have great partnerships and a lot of other rescue services and shelters that come out and take the overflow animals so they dont have to go through the painful necessity of euthanasia. But now that everyone is starting to get full again because no one is adopting, it puts all of the animals at risk. Ritter said shed recently spoken to Pasco County Animal Services, and employees there said theyre having the same issues. They said their contact in Hillsborough County told them the same thing, and that they opened up a warehouse just for new intakes because the Hillsborough County shelter facility was full. Unfortunately, Hernando County doesnt have that luxury, Ritter said. If it keeps on going it could mean we have to euthanize again. Cheyene, one of the many felines available for adoption at the Humane Society of the Nature Coast in Brooksville, Fla., is pictured at the shelter on May 27, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) Marek noted that she has seen an increase on social media of shelters pleading for people to adopt. Especially in the south, she said. Alabama, Georgia, Texas. A lot of states in the south are having trouble moving medium-sized and large dogs. Just nobody wants to adopt and theyre all just flooding in and not going anywhere. In an effort to give the animals exposure to the public to improve their chances of adoption, HSNC holds adoption specials. So does HCAS. In fact, Ritter said an adoption special they held last week helped find five of their dogs a new home. But even with those five that left, Ritter said they were full again by the next Monday morning and had to euthanize. That just goes to show you how may animals are coming in every day, she said. For anyone who wants to help but isnt quite prepared to adopt, Waite, Marek, and Ritter offered a number of ways to help alleviate the pressure on local shelters. Primarily, Foster, adopt, and share. A foster is someone who is willing to take an animal into his or her home without the commitment of adoption. While in a fosters care, the shelter assumes all financial responsibility for food and medical treatments. However, if a foster has room in their home and heart and is secure enough financially to care for an animal, adoption is always preferred. For those who are unable to do either but still want to help, the shelter employees said a lot can be accomplished by sharing the information and photos of available pets with family, friends, and neighbors, especially through social media. The further the reach of the information of the animals we have available, the better the chance we can get an adopter through the door, Waite said. Barn fire at the Ely Fischer farm in Lancaster County, Pa., on Feb. 10, 2022. (Timothy Coover Maytown/East Donegal Township Fire Department Photographer) Fire at Minnesota Poultry Farm Building Kills Tens of Thousands of Chickens Part of a string of fires at food production plants across the country Tens of thousands of egg-laying chickens are estimated to have been killed in a barn fire on May 28 at one of Minnesotas largest egg producers. Wright County fire officials reportedly are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze at Forsman Farms that destroyed the building. Were surveying the damage to see if theres anything beyond the building that suffered structural damage, company spokesman Jon Austin told The Epoch Times. Its a substantial facility with hundreds of thousands of chickens on-site. However, Forsman Farms plans to continue operating in other buildings on-site and five other locations throughout the upper Midwest to maintain egg production levels and supply. Established in 1918, the Howard Lake facility is the companys oldest, producing more than 3 million eggs per day. The company operates with 30 to 40 employees, and none will be laid off because of the fire, Austin said. Because of the highly infectious avian flu, it isnt known when the company will be able to replace the chickens. Thats part of our evaluation process. Thats a factor to take into consideration. I dont know [whether] Ive got a hard number on when or how long, Austin said. There were no people hurt in the blaze, he added. The poultry barn fire is the latest in a series of at least 17 unrelated fires at food and fertilizer production facilities since the start of 2022. On May 26, a grain elevator fire destroyed the 100-year-old M & E Seed and Grain Co. in Prosser, Washington, and left one person with burns. A Canadian Pacific Railway freight train carrying potash, which is used in fertilizer production, derailed in southern Alberta on May 22. The accident remains under investigation. If were part of a pattern, its not one that Im aware of, Austin said of the Forsman Farms blaze. The U.S. Department of Agriculture didnt respond by press time to a request for comment regarding the impact of the fires. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference about the mass shooting at Uvalde High School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 27, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Texas Governor Orders Random School Inspections in Bid to Ensure Culture of Constant Vigilance Directive Comes After Mass Shooting at Robb Elementary School Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has instructed state officials to start carrying out random inspections at schools in the state. The Republican governor directed the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) to coordinate with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop and implement a plan to conduct random inspections to assess access control measures of Texas school districts. Among other reviews, your team should begin conducting in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts, Abbott said in a letter (pdf) to the states school security officials. Staff should approach campuses to find weak points and how quickly they can penetrate buildings without being stopped, he said. This will help determine if schools are prepared to implement and follow the [Emergency Operations Plans] they have already submitted to the state, he added. This will improve accountability and ensure school districts are following the plans they create. The order comes after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old shooter had entered the school via a back door that was unlocked, according to the latest account of the situation by officials. Law enforcement personnel look on as the caskets for Irma Garcia and husband Joe Garcia are carried by pallbearers following a joint service at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, on June 1, 2022. (Eric Gay/AP Photo) In his letter to Kathy Martinez-Prather, the director of the TxSSC, Abbott said more needs to be done after the tragic massacre. He also outlined several measures to ensure that a culture of constant vigilance is engrained in every campus and in every school district employee across the state. State law requires school districts to create school security committees that are required to meet three times a year. Abbott asked Martinez-Prather to contact every school district to let them know they are expected to meet once this coming summer and to carry out several safety measures before the start of the 2022-2023 school yearspecifically by Sept. 1, 2022, and report to the TxSSC by Sept. 9, 2022. The measures include ensuring their security committee reviews their plans in cases of emergency and active threats. It also includes ensuring that all staff and substitute teachers are trained on the safety procedures of their specific campus and that all drills are scheduled before the start of the next school year. Furthermore, the officials must also carry out an assessment of their access control procedures, such as single access points, locked instruction room doors, visitor check-in procedures, exterior door locks, etc. A TxSSC spokesperson told the Texas Tribune that it is designing a program and action items to specifically address the governors directives within the prescribed timelines. On the same day, Abbott sent a letter (pdf) to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dade Phelan requesting them to each convene a special legislative committee to review a series of topics in order to prevent future school shootings: school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety. The committees would make recommendations to the states legislature and the executive branch over what meaningful actions can be taken. Abbott also said in his letter to Martinez-Prather that the TxSSC should immediately begin working with his office and the state legislature on recommendations to improve current school security systems and decide on the funding needed to continue that work. This issue will no doubt be at the forefront of the next Legislative Session. You have my full support to make recommendations for consideration by the Legislature, Abbott wrote. The Epoch Times has reached out to Martinez-Prather for comment. Pete Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (L), speaks at a press conference while Superintendent Hal Harrell looks on, following a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Texas School Police Chief Didnt Know of 911 Calls During Mass Shooting: Official The commander at the scene of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside the building as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday. Democrat state Sen. Roland Gutierrez told reporters that the school police chief, Pete Arredondo, was not aware that children inside the school called 911 during the May 24 shooting. The Democratic senator called it a system failure that calls were going to the city police but were not communicated to Arredondo. I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls, Gutierrez said during a news conference, adding that no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. Questions and criticism have emerged in the wake of the shooting about the police response. A top Texas official last week admitted that police were too slow in their response, while Uvalde and state officials have provided conflicting accounts about what had happened. The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement. Since the shooting, law enforcement, and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later. State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed. In one instance, authorities with the Texas Department of Publish Safety this week confirmed that a teacher actually did not prop open a door before Ramos entered the building and carried out his rampage. They instead said the teacher tried to close the door, but it did not automatically lock as it should have Officials at Robb Elementary School, meanwhile, have said that students will not return in the wake of the mass shooting last week that left 21 dead. Students and staff will not be returning to the Robb Elementary campus. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said in a letter on Wednesday. We are working through plans on how to serve students on other campuses and will provide that information as soon as it is finalized. We are also working with agencies to help us identify improvements on all [Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District] campuses. Funerals for the 19 students and two teachers who died last week have already started, the superintendent said. The school will also continue to provide counseling and support to families and staff for the foreseeable future, adding, We know that our lives will never be the same, but we also know that we will join together to honor the lives we lost and build a stronger Uvalde for those who remain. We are heartbroken over the loss of our teachers and students and hold each of their family members close to our hearts, he wrote. The outpouring of love and offers of help from the local community and across the nation has been extraordinary. We want to express our sincere gratitude for the remarkable support of the community, state, and nation. After President Joe Biden visited Uvalde over the past weekend, Texas state Gutierrez told media outlets that the president told him he would provide federal funding to raze the school and rebuild a new one. A similar situation occurred in Connecticut a decade earlier after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook. Officials in the state moved to demolish the Sandy Hook building and replaced it with a new one. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A special police officer is seen on the roof of the Congress hotel during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on May 24, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images) The Backstory of the Great Reset, or How to Destroy Classical Liberalism Commentary As should be clear by now, Francis Fukuyamas declaration in The End of History: The Last Man (1992) that we had arrived at the end of history didnt mean that classical liberalism, or laissez-faire economics, had emerged victorious over communism and fascism or that the final ideological hegemony signaled the end of socialism. In fact, for Fukuyama, the terminus of history was always democratic socialism or social democracy. As Hans-Hermann Hoppe noted in Democracy: The God That Failed, the last man standing wasnt a capitalist homo economicus, but rather a homo socio-democraticus (222). The end of history, with all its Hegelian pretenses, didnt entail the defeat of socialism-communism, but rather of classical liberalism. Evidently, the big state and big capital were supposed to have reached an inevitable and final detente. The Great Reset is the consummation of this detente. The elite subversion of the free-market system and republican democracy had already been underway for many decades before the end of history. According to W. Cleon Skousen in The Naked Capitalist, elites positioned within major banks, large corporations, leading think tanks, influential publishing companies, the media, tax-exempt foundations, the educational system, and the U.S. government sought to remake the United States in the image of its (former) collectivist archrival since at least the early 1930s. As Carrol Quigley noted in Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (1966), elites propagated socialist, communist, and other collectivist ideologies at home while funding and arming the Bolsheviks in Russia and the communists in Vietnam and promoting international policies that led to the deliberate abandonment of Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia to the communist scourge. For many, the goal of advancing socialism has been most evident in the alacrity with which the institutions of higher education have absorbed and circulated Marxist, neo-Marxist, and post-Marxist collectivist ideologies in their various guises at least since the early 1930sincluding Soviet propaganda, critical theory, postmodern theory, and the most recent variants in the form of critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and LGBT+ ideology. The dreaded long march through the institutions was never a bottom-up, grassroots project. Rather, it was an inside job undertaken by elites in positions of power and influence. When the philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists of the Frankfurt school of critical theory emigrated to the United States in 1933armed with the Marxist theory of revolution and Antonio Gramscis model for socialist cultural hegemonythey hardly inaugurated this march. Rather, they were welcomed by elites and funded by tax-exempt foundations whose work was already well underway.[1] The so-called long march through the institutions was a stampede from within them. To understand the Great Reset, then, we must recognize that the project represents the completion of a centuries-long and ongoing attempt to destroy classical liberalism (the free market, free speech, and liberal democracy), American constitutionalism, and national sovereignty. The idea of resetting capitalism suggests that capitalism had previously been pure. But the Great Reset is the culmination of a much longer collectivization process and democratic socialist project, with their corresponding growth of the state. Despite being pitched as the antidote to the supposed weaknesses of the free market, which World Economic Forum founder and chairman Klaus Schwab and company equate with neoliberalism, the Great Reset is meant to intensify and complete an already prevalent economic interventionism and to use U.S.-led military power to complete this process where economic intervention proves unsuccessful. This explains, in part, the Wests arming and funding of Ukraine against its Russian attacker. I dont mean to suggest that the Great Resets global neo-Marxist economics and its international rather than national economic fascism arent new. They are new, as are the means by which theyre to be brought about. But we must not be so confused as to think that the Great Reset project was born ab nihiloits the culmination of decades of elite thinking and activism. Note 1. The Frankfurt school theorist Herbert Marcuse, for example, was funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. See Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (1964; repr., London: Routledge, 2002), p. iv, where Marcuse acknowledges such funding. From Mises.org Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Conservatives in Cayuga and Onondaga counties, unhappy with the state party's decision to endorse Onondaga County Legislator Julie Abbott for state Senate, are circulating petitions to force a primary in the newly drawn 48th Senate District. Justin Coretti, an attorney with the Cuddy Law Firm in Auburn, has the Cayuga County Conservative Party's endorsement. Before the state Senate maps were redrawn, Coretti planned to challenge Abbott in a Conservative primary. But his petitions arrived late at the state Board of Elections in Albany, which meant he could not qualify for the ballot. But after the state Court of Appeals ruled the previous state Senate maps unconstitutional, a new process commenced. A court-appointed special master redrew the district lines, creating the new 48th district that is comprised of all of Cayuga and part of Onondaga counties. The cities of Auburn and Syracuse are in the district. Democratic state Sen. Rachel May is the incumbent. With the new set of maps, candidates can circulate petitions to qualify for the Aug. 23 primary ballot. Coretti, with the help of the local Conservative Party committees, is collecting signatures to challenge Abbott, a Skaneateles Republican. In a statement that the Cayuga County Conservative Party posted on its Facebook page, Coretti explains why he is running for state Senate. As a member of the committee, he said he was disappointed with Abbott, whom he referred to as "the option presented for the NY State Senate." He also notes that the Conservative parties in Cayuga and Onondaga declined to endorse Abbott. David Pappert and Bernie Ment, the chairs of the Cayuga and Onondaga Conservative committees, said in interviews with The Citizen that there were concerns about Abbott's responses to questionnaires she submitted when running for Onondaga County Legislature. According to the chairs, Abbott revealed she supports abortion rights (the Conservative Party opposes abortion) and red flag laws, which aim to remove guns from individuals who are a threat to themselves or others. (The Conservative Party, which supports gun rights, opposes red flag bills). Abbott told The Citizen that she is "socially moderate." "I'm a female. I have children. I care about all people, regardless of sexual orientation, skin color and wealth level," she said. "If that is offensive to people, then so be it." Because the district crosses county lines, the final decision rests with the state Conservative Party. State Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar previously told The Citizen that he spoke with Abbott for more than an hour. Based on that conversation and discussions with state Republican leaders, the Conservative Party decided to back Abbott, despite local opposition to the endorsement. Kassar said Wednesday that the party continues to support Abbott for state Senate and hopes Conservatives can unite behind one candidate to defeat May in the general election. "We don't get involved in primaries, but we do stand behind our decision," he said, adding that he believes Abbott is the best choice. Coretti thinks Conservative voters have a better option. "Over the past 20 years, I've watched New York degrade into what it is today in large part due to the moderate and liberal candidates that the Republican Party feels it necessary to endorse," he wrote. "Conservative ideals should not be brushed under the rug." He added that he is the only "pro-Second Amendment, pro-law enforcement, pro-small government, pro-life and pro-due process candidate in the race." If Coretti's bid is successful, it could hurt the Republicans' attempt to win the central New York seat. While President Joe Biden won the district with nearly 54% of the vote in 2020 and Democrats have an enrollment advantage, the 48th includes areas that Republicans have won in past elections. But local Conservatives view the primary as a way to send a message. "It's time we took a stand and said NO, to politicians who want our line as a source of votes, but who are not in line with our clearly stated values," the Cayuga Conservatives wrote on their Facebook page. Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 6 Funny 4 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. A person cleans up debris from a broken window at a home FBI agents searched in Hartland Township mobile home in connection of an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in Heartland, Mich., on Oct. 8, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images) The Bad Old Days Have Returned Commentary The first Army Reserve unit that I was a part of while I was in college was a Military Intelligence Detachment (MID) at Ft. Lawton in Seattle. Very close to the World War II-era buildings of the MID was a substantial bunker facility that served as the headquarters of the Seattle-area Nike Missile Air Defense system. All is gone now, but just up the hill are beautiful private homesresidences with a breathtaking sight of Puget Soundthat were converted from former officers quarters. The homes range in price from $2 million to close to $6 million, according to Zillow. They were quite dumpy when they were government quarters. At the MID, the old-timers told me how in the old days (only a few years before), they were part of a massive Army and whole-of-government program to spy on anti-war groups and communist infiltrators. They were heady days until the program was shut down in the mid-1970s. Although we had renewed purpose with the Reagan buildup, the former days of spying on activists in the Seattle area were fondly remembered by many of the old-timers. I felt like I had just missed a special time of defending America from the communist threat. Most thought domestic spying was only a distant memory of the bad old days of the Nixon era. Thats until more recent times, as we now realize that government agencies were spying on presidential candidates and their extended contacts. It looks like federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies have also zealously monitored and infiltrated groups they deemed as threats. The old days are back, but unfortunately it looks like the Deep State isnt defending America but focusing on anyone who questioned the virus lockdown or dared to wave or quote the Constitution. Whitmer Kidnap Plot One of the most iconic figures of the lockdown was Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. During the societal upheavals of 2020 to the present with the Wuhan virus, and urban rioting instigated by groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) with their clear communist connections, she was omnipresent. She seemed to enjoy going out of her way to take away rights and liberties from the citizens of Michigan. But when the alleged plot against Whitmer was announced in October 2020, I had mixed feelings. Extremist activity can never be condoned, especially when its actively threatening and carrying out violence against our Constitution. All groups that do this, left or right, cant receive special treatment and be excepted. But immediately, elements of the alleged plot conducted by the Wolverine Watchmen didnt quite make sense. How Many FBI Agents Does It Take to Penetrate an Extremist Group? Shortly after the announcement of the arrests, media reports and analyses started coming out that painted a confusing picture of the group involved in the plot. At least one of the members had posted anti-Trump tirades, and several were allegedly part of the Boogaloo movement, which is aggressively anti-police and not right-wing (and has allegedly included members of the U.S. military). A report by the U.S. Army Military Academy Center Combatting Terrorism Center rightly points out the Wolverine Watchmen were not white supremacists, but actually quite participative and supportive of BLM protests. I appreciate the CTC analysis, but its also interesting that the Center is delving back into domestic issues. Is this a possible opining for the old days of the Army having a role in domestic surveillance? But nonetheless, the CTC observation runs counter to the Michigan attorney generals narrative that the Wolverine Watchmen were white supremacists, which was often repeated by the media. Words matter, and this description was off the mark significantly. With the recent acquittals and mistrials of four members of the Wolverine Watchmen and the firing and alleged misbehavior of some of the FBI agents and informants involved in penetrating the group, the case against the Wolverines seems to be in trouble. The use of 12 informants and multiple FBI agents to penetrate the group and make 14 arrests makes it appear that over 50 percent of this group were actually government operatives. I think my MID alumni would be perplexed by this overkill of penetration of a group. Fast forward to Jan. 6, 2021, and some have suggested that the plot against Whitmer was preparation for a much larger federal law enforcement operation against those gathering to show support for President Donald Trump. Being a professional planner of many complex inter-agency operations, I say a dry run is always a good idea. The Wolverine Watchmen case hasnt totally run its course, but the trajectory of the case isnt trending well so far for the U.S. government. Meanwhile, its unclear how many Jan. 6 defendants still remain locked up, which is shocking in itself that the truth isnt clear on this number and a disgraceful internment of Americans, which never happened during the Vietnam period. Whats clear is that the bad old days have returned, yet those who protested against domestic surveillance seem to be the ones now conducting it on a much larger and more aggressive scale. Depending on how the elections turn out in November, one of the highest priorities of Congress should be the disassembling of this new surveillance culture and the holding accountable of those in the executive branch who enabled and directed the oppression of U.S. citizens for asserting support for Constitutional America. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Establishment Wins in Sussmann CaseAnd No One Is Surprised Commentary The acquittal of Michael Sussmann is undoubtedly a travesty for American justice. It proves not only that the countrys intelligence agencies have been thoroughly politicized, but alsoand perhaps worsethat the citizens of this nation are rapidly losing the ability for legal recourse to hold our institutions accountable. So much for consent of the governed. The Durham indictment is viewed as a partial success by some, as it was able to leave little doubt that the Clinton campaign was responsible for both inventing and releasing some of the earliest rumors of the Trump-Russia lie. It also proved that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton personally approved the release of the Alfa Bank evidence, positing that the Trump campaign had a provable link to the Kremlin. Well, thats good. Regardless of Sussmanns acquittal, this is further vindication for those who have cried foul play in the Trump-Russia witch-hunt from the beginning. More and more people will be exposed to the truth, and this will help to illuminate further the malicious hand of political corruption lurking in the Washington establishment. After all, sunlight is the best medicine. Right? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what this verdict reveals to us about the worrying state of our republic far outweighs any see, we told you so moral victory. As a matter of fact, that is the crux of what is so alarming about this entire casefurther damning evidence that the Trump-Russia hoax was undoubtedly a political operation does not worry the Washington establishmentarians or our partisan intelligence agencies one bit. Forget about the fact that the FBI promised an investigation into the accusation that the sitting U.S. president was actually a puppet of the Kremlin based on information provided by his electoral competitor. Forget about the fact that the politically motivated information itself has proven to be bogus. The most revealing, disturbing, and generally worrying facet of the entire Sussmann case is that, for those of us who have been paying attention to the trends in American politics as of late, we knew that nothing was going to come of this case. We (rightly) scoffed at the notion that the justice system was going to hold someone like a Clinton campaign lawyer to account for their political misdeeds. The acquittal came as no surprise. Why would one expect anything else of a political system that has come to treat those who refuse to accept the Washington status quo like political dissidents? Meanwhile, the FBI witnesses used their time on the stand to express disgust with Congresss treatment of Sussmann. Margot Cleveland at the Federalist fully recounted the contempt that the current and former federal agents displayed at the notion of a hoax. It was the congressional investigation into the legitimacy of the Trump-Russia narrative that bothered them, not the fact that they were lied to by a political operative working on behalf of an electoral candidate. Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified before the House judiciary and oversight committees on Oct. 3 and Oct. 18, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Again, this should not surprise anyone. Baker, now retired from the FBI, is a regular guest and general darling of leftist corporate media outlets for his outspoken anti-Trump views. Hes just one representative of the increasingly partisan federal intelligence agencies. To quote from Clevelands article: And there was little trust left after the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane on the most ridiculous of pretexts; after text messages revealed Lisa Page and Peter Strzoks anti-Trump sentiments drove the Crossfire Hurricane team members; after the FBI and DOJ obtained four court surveillance orders based on fraud and then illegally surveilled Carter Page; after fired FBI Director James Comey leaked to the press, via an attorney friend, memos he had written following meetings with then-President Trump, to prompt the appointment of a different special counsel; and after FBI agent William Barnett told investigators that he believed Special Counsel Robert Muellers office used the prosecution of Gen. Michael Flynn to get Trump. Why stop at the Russia collusion hoax, though? Former CIA Directors Mike Hayden and Leon Panetta, as well as former Directors of National Intelligence James Clapper and John Brennan, were some of only the most prominent 51 signers of a letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story had all the earmarks of Russian disinformation. They released the letter to the media on Oct. 19, mere days before the November 2020 election. The signers have resolutely refused to apologize for what has proven to be totally false. And why should they? They know they lied, we know they lied, they know we know they liedand everyone knows that there will be no repercussions for their actions. Its the same story as the Russia collusion hoax. Its proponents now know that beyond a reasonable doubt the story is false, and likely knew it earlier. Regardless, left-leaning corporate media outlets will be making their victory laps with the Sussmann acquittal, as if their viewpoints and four years of fearmongering are actually the issues that have been vindicated. Those who use these outlets as their primary source of information will have no clue as to the revelations of foul play revealed in the Durham probe. Special Counsel John Durham arrives at federal court in Washington on May 18, 2022. (Teng Chen/The Epoch Times) Meanwhile, election fraud in 2020 continues to be exposed, seemingly on an exponential rate following the release of the 2000 Mules documentary. For those who claim to care so deeply for the health of democracy, the fact that a U.S. presidential election is proving to be extremely insecure and seriously influenced by voting irregularities would seem to be an important topic of concern. As well as the obvious lies surrounding the collusion allegations revealed through the Sussmann case. As well as the notion that a group of the countrys most powerful unelected bureaucrats undertook a political operation that helped to successfully shift the outcome of arguably the nations most consequential election. Beyond directly influencing the American electorate at the polls, these actions have also done more to sow discord, incite anger, propagate mistrust, and generally undermine social cohesion among the U.S. population than perhaps any other action of the 21st century. One is forced to wonder: are the individuals responsible insulated from this reality as a result of living and interacting in ideologically uniform echo chambers; or, do they rather accept it as the unfortunate but necessary collateral damage of maintaining responsible stewardship over the countrys institutions of power (as defined by their leadership)? Regardless, for the rest of the country, the only logical conclusion is that there are certain royal families in American politics that have immunity to the rules that the rest of us are forced to play by, and the outcome is always the same: they win. Threats to democracy will be limited to the protesting crowds at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. One fact likely lost on many of our political leaders is that the latter were not just upset about election irregularities in 2020; they were expressing anger at four years of constant attacks from every societal angle on the sitting president of the United States, as well as themselves and their beliefs. The Justice Department has secured convictions of Jan. 6 defendants in every single case that have gone to trial (five out of five)the most recent on May 27, carrying a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, Sussmann walks free. Its possible to measure the contribution of his politically motivated actions while on the Clinton payroll to this nations discontent, or its deteriorating trust in democracy. I wouldnt hold my breath for future convictions of others involved in propagating the collusion hoax. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Missing Element in the Debate About Guns Commentary The heightened debate over gun violence following the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is leaving out one critical element. The debate starts at the wrong end. Isaac Newtons Third Law of Thermodynamics states: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. While Newtons laws were about physics, the concept of action and reactionof cause and effectcould be applied in other areas, such as violent people who use guns to kill others. Notice I said violent people, not gun violence. Instead of starting with guns, we should start at the beginning. If voters elect liberal district attorneys and liberal judges who release dangerous criminals, sometimes with low or no bail, that is an action. The opposite reaction is that many of them will commit new crimes. As The Heritage Foundation noted, The most prominent rogue prosecutors are George Gascon in Los Angeles, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, Kim Foxx in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore, Kimberly Gardner in St. Louis, and Rachael Rollins in Boston. There are others, such as Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm. The UK Daily Mail reported that Chisholm told an interviewer, Is there going to be an individual I divert or put into a program whos going to go out and kill? You bet. Chisholms office gave a deferred prosecution to a convicted drug dealer. After his release, the Mail reported, that dealer fatally injected a 26-year-old woman with heroin and then tried to hide her body. The man, Darrell Brooks, was caught but released on a $1,000 bond. Within a few weeks, Brooks drove through a Christmas parade, killing five people. He previously had been convicted of a felony for running over the mother of his children. Once again, an action (low bail for a dangerous criminal) produced a reaction (the deaths of innocent people). In our schools and culture, if the action is to refuse to teach right from wrong, the reaction will be the creation of a generation of people who behave as they wish. The McGuffey readers were used in many U.S. public schools from 1836 to 1936. They contained sayings and lessons designed to conform young people to a standard of behavior that was good for them, their families, and the wider culture. These values included patriotism, respect for parents, honesty, and hard work as a path to success. They also promoted the necessity of religious faith as the foundation for a better life. Heres one excerpt from the 1879 edition: Religion: the only basis of society. How powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God. Erase all thought and fear of God from a community and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole Man. Man would become what the theory of atheism declares him to be. Again, action and reaction. Teaching moral absolutes and faith produced one kind of person. Failure to teach these values, in fact their opposite, has predictably created a different type of human in modern times, the type who shoots up schools and kills children. Can anyone credibly assert that the concepts contained in those old books failed to create adults who respected the law, life, and the property of others as opposed to what is being taughtand not taughtin schools and by culture today? Attempts to ban certain guns wont solve the problem. Recalling and teaching ancient truths will help. That will require a different kind of action than what weve experienced in recent years. Restoring those time-tested values is more likely to produce the different reaction we claim to want, but are unable to get by passing more laws. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A sign posted at Falcon Elementary School in the Huffman Independent School District in Texas warns anyone who may enter school grounds with ill intent that armed staff members will use whatever force is necessary to protect the children in their charge. (Courtesy of Huffman Independent School District.) The Shooting in Uvalde: Would a School Marshal Program Have Made a Difference? School districts with trained Marshals have not had 'any recorded incidents' News Analysis In the wake of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, one question begs for an answer: Would a School Marshal Program have made a difference? After the shooting in Uvalde, in which 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested arming teachers, a strategy thats already been in place for years in another Texas school district. Huffman Independent School District (ISD) in Huffman, Texas, has been training staff members as armed School Marshals for the past four years under a 2013 state provision, which allows school employees to be armed and trained through the states School Marshal Program to respond to threats against students and staff. After applying with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) to enter the School Marshal program, school districts must send their participating staff members to an 80-hour TCOLE training course where they learn about physical security, improving the security of the campus, use of force, active shooter response, and weapon proficiency. Through information gathered in interviews with the Superintendent and Chief of Police for the Huffman ISD and the Deputy Chief of TCOLE by The Epoch Times, it appears that things may have turned out differently had the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District implemented a similar program. Its an incredibly tragic incident that took place in Uvalde, Huffman ISD Superintendent of Schools Benny Soileau told The Epoch Times. Our hearts and prayers go out to those individuals, everybody who is suffering in that particular incident. Reflecting on the happening in Uvalde, we know there is a lot we can learn from things that were done right and things that could have been handled better and we want to make sure that were trying to glean everything we possibly can from that incident and create a safer environment for our children. According to reports from the May 24 shooting, police waited outside for an hour for backup as terrified children called 911 begging for help. One girl called five times. A Uvalde official said he had no idea where the school resource officer was. Soileau said he didnt want to pass judgment on the response of the Uvalde Police Department or school police officers without a full picture of what happened, especially while theres an ongoing investigation. Were just hearing the news reports like everyone else and trying to decipher through what we could do better and what we can learn from the incident based on the news reports, he said. Huffman Independent School District Superintendent of Schools Benny Soileau (L) and Chief of Police David Williams for the Huffman Independent School District, stand before the sign for the Huffman Independent School District Administration Building. (Courtesy of the Huffman Independent School District) According to Soileau, the School Marshal Program was instituted at Huffman ISD after a shooting that occurred in the Houston area almost four years to the day before the Uvalde shooting. On May 18, 2018, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis allegedly walked into Santa Fe High School in Texas, armed with his fathers Remington 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, and opened fire in a first period art class. Eight students and two teachers were killed, and 13 others were wounded. A judge declared Pagourtzis was incompetent to stand trial, and he was committed to a state mental health facility. ne Booking photo of Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the 17-year-old student who entered Santa Fe High School in Texas on May 18, 2018, and opened fire with a Remington 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, killing eight students and two teachers and wounding 13 others. (Galveston County Sheriffs Office) Soileau explained that after the Santa Fe shooting, Huffman ISD officials put together a focus group with community members who talked about all of the possibilities they could implement to make their schools safer. After much discussion, and some occasionally heated debate, the decision was made to pursue the School Marshal Program because it involved in-depth, professional training from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). TCOLE Deputy Chief Michael Antu oversees the agencys special services and enforcement department, which includes the School Marshal Program. He said the legislation dealing with school marshals allowed school districts to become appointing entities, meaning they can appoint licensed individuals that have succeeded in passing the 80-hour school marshal training. According to Antu, School Marshals are armed employees of the school district who have police authority to intervene and cause serious bodily injury or death in order to neutralize a threat. According to a 2018 report by Education News, over 170 school districts across the state of Texas have implemented the School Marshal Program. While some who oppose the Marshal Program have claimed that its ineffective, Antu told The Epoch Times there have not been any recorded incidents in those school districts. While Antu conceded its impossible to say that having an armed Marshal present at Robb Elementary School could have prevented all casualties, he did say that having armed individuals readily accessible will always help in those situations. Having personally been involved in some of the training classes, Antu said he is impressed by the level of courage he sees displayed by the people who are part of this program. Michael Antu, deputy chief of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement over special services and enforcement, which includes the School Marshal Program. (Courtesy of Michael Antu) To see the drive and commitment that these educators have for not only their students but the other staff, what they are able to bring is something that not a lot of people are willing to do, Antu expounded. These folks have stepped up. While he conceded you can never train for a real-life scenario, Antu said they take it very seriously. While most people have handled firearms before, Antu explained that the act of using a firearm to clear a building you walk through every day, or to secure a room you would normally just walk into, causes people to see their everyday world from a different perspective. Teachers who have gone through the program look at their classrooms differently. They become more cognizant of using different layouts for their classrooms to allow for a better view of doors and windows, opportunities for an attacker to enter or for students to use to escape. Your body cant go where your mind hasnt been, so its definitely something that exposes them and prepares them for an unfortunate day if it happens to come and they have to respond, Antu said. They have also had people go through the training and decided it isnt something they were comfortable with. We tell them in that training that they may be exposed to some things that might make them uncomfortable, and thats okay, Antu said. As Soileau explained, the School Marshal Program provides guidance from a legal perspective as to what things they could do well and things that would be challenge moving forward. He added that the strict training regimen has paid dividends for the district in regards to their knowledge of what their rights and responsibilities are in a shooting situation. That responsibility, of course, is to neutralize that threat as quickly as possible, Soileau said. However, this is considered the back end of the training, which Soileau said is not their primary focus. Our primary focus is on prevention, he asserted, and the front end of the Marshal Program is, we think, the most valuable piece, because we want to focus on prevention and never getting to the point where we have to activate our Marshals. At every school in the Huffman ISD, there are signs bearing a warning to anyone who comes on school property with ill intent that staff may be armed and will use whatever force is necessary to protect the students in their charge. Signage at Hargrave High School in the Huffman Independent School District in Texas warns those who may enter school property with ill intent that open carry is prohibited and that staff may be armed with concealed weapons and will use whatever force is necessary to protect the students in their charge. (Courtesy of the Huffman Independent School District) One of the front-end pieces of the Marshal Program is the counseling and social worker program. The social workers aspect is designed specifically to treat social and emotional issues of both staff and students. Huffman ISD currently has two social workers trained to participate in the program. There are also interns gaining certification through participating colleges. Those individuals visit with students and staff who may be experiencing issues in an effort to make sure we are doing everything we can from a preventative measure to avoid ever having to deal with one of these tragic incidents like Uvalde is dealing with, Soileau said. The fact of the matter is we never want to have to create a reactive program only. We want a multi-faceted, multi-layered program that addresses this complex issue at every angle. Asked if Huffman ISD had ever experienced any incidents, Soileau said they have had concerns, explaining that a few years back a young man brought a firearm to school in a backpack. According to a May 21, 2018, report, just days after the shooting at Santa Fe High School, a student at Hargrave High School in the Huffman ISD was arrested after he was caught with a gun in his backpack. The tip had come from a fellow student. A separate report on the same day said a student at League City Intermediate School in the Clear Creek ISD had also been arrested for bringing a gun to school. It is unclear what his intentions were, but the response was swift and immediate by campus administration and we were able to secure that weapon within minutes at the campus level, Soileau said, explaining that the incident wound up being a nonissue because it proved they have the capacity to neutralize these situations and address these concerns as they arise. Chief of Police David Williams for the Huffman ISD said, when you think about our security program here in Huffman, you can think about layers of security. On that very outer perimeter, as Dr. Soileau alluded to, is our counseling services that try to identify and interdict those individuals who may need help, and maybe we can divert them from the criminal justice system and get them the resources and help they need so they dont become a threat in the first place, Williams told The Epoch Times. Along with that is the very important concept that everyone here is part of the security process: students, staff, administration and parents. Everyone has a responsibility that if you see something, say something. As part of their layered security program, Williams said they also monitor social media, the old fashioned way by going through and reading posts. But they hope to incorporate technology in the near future that will make that effort more efficient. We also use technology as a force multiplier, Williams added, camera systems, access control systems, access control profiles, along with hardening the facility through construction redesign for security purposes. In the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, Bosque County Sheriff Trace Hendricks is actively advocating for all school districts within Bosque County, Texas, to implement the School Marshal Program. In Ohio, Republican state legislators have presented House Bill 639, otherwise known as the Student Protection Act. If passed, this would require freshmen in public and private high schools to take a self-defense class, conducted by a school resource officer or a certified self-defense instructor, in order to graduate. The legislation would go into effect in the 20232024 school year. In Florida, 45 of the states 67 county school districts have implemented some form of armed guardian program. Many of these were instituted in the aftermath of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured. Soileau said they have had multiple teams go through the training with TCOLE and the instructors are really adept at what they do. He described how some components in the program are related to the law and what the limitations are in regards to being a Marshal and what their actual charge is as a Marshal. There is a classroom piece with bookwork and then there is the field training. This is a week-long training, Soileau explained, adding that during the week-long training, participants work intensely with munitions through various scenarios designed to ramp up the adrenaline and all of the emotions that come along with those types of situations. Participants also spend time at the range shooting, learning about gun safety and how to maintain their weapon. However, even after the participants pass the class, Soileau said the training with their Marshals is ongoing, even after they are licensed through TCOLE. There are too many times, unfortunately, when we go back and retrospectively look at incidents like what happened out in Uvalde. We can see there were missed opportunities [to] intercede and get folks the help that they need, and thats part of the program, Williams said. By the time you get to the police responding reactively or to the Marshals having to respond reactively, we hope to have deployed enough layers of this security that we interdict the problem in the first place. Undated image of Sophie Cook, an independent candidate at the 2019 general election, standing on the beach in Brighton, East Sussex. (Pete Jones/PA) Transgender Activist Gets Key Role At UKs Crown Prosecution Service The Director of Public Prosecutions has appointed a controversial transgender activist to a key diversity role at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Sophie Cook, a transgender woman who was a Labour Party candidate at the 2017 general election, has been appointed to a new role as the CPSs speak-out champion. But the appointment by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill QC, has been greeted with alarm by some on social media considering Cooks track record of clashing with feminist women. We Are Fair Cop, a group of lawyers and police officers dedicated to removing politics from policing, responded on Twitter on Thursday: State bodies need to ask themselves what is more importanttheir commitment to political neutrality or their continued performative signalling to one minority group? In 2018 Cook appeared on the BBCs Newsnight programme suggesting the word woman should be replaced with womxn to include all those who identify as women and said: I do wonder why people are so offended by it actually the word was invented by feminists, they were quite happily using these words a few years ago all of a sudden, theyre taking offence. Cook has also used the term terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) to describe women like J.K. Rowling who say transgender women are not biologically women. In September, Cook wrote on Twitter: Apart from menstruate [sic] and give birth (just to keep the TERFs happy (are they ever happy?)) nothing. I may not be able to do everything well, but I could potentially do anything just as long as there isnt a required grade. After the appointment, Cook wrote on Twitter: This is an amazing role which gives me the opportunity to make a real difference. But Sarah Phillimore, a family lawyer, wrote an op-ed in The Critic in which she said: It is particularly disappointing seeing our countrys independent prosecuting authority adopt this kind of performative inclusion. In reality, it is promoting the political ideology that elevates gender identity expression above the protected characteristic of sex. In 2017 Cook was Labours candidate at the general election in Shoreham and East Worthing but was not selected to contest the 2019 election and later left the party, standing as an independent and winning only 255 votes. The new role is a four-day-a-week job with a salary of 31,000. A CPS job advert, reported in The Times, said the speak-out champion would be responsible for improving confidence amongst our employees in being able to speak openly about their experiences and said the role would be instrumental in underpinning positive progress in leadership behaviours. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel speaking to the media outside the Ukrainian embassy in London on March 6, 2022. (Yui Mok/PA) UK Conservatives Pushing for Johnsons Resignation Should Forget It: Minister Conservative MPs pushing for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal should forget it, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said. Since the publication of an official report on May 25 on COVID-19 breaches inside Downing Street, 12 Conservative MPs have openly called for Johnson to resign, taking the total number to 28. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the CityFibre Training Academy in Stockton-on-Tees, Britain, on May 27, 2022. (James Glossop/Pool via Reuters) The report, written by senior civil servant Sue Gray, detailed events in which officials drank so much that they were sick, sang karaoke, became involved in altercations, and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family because of pandemic restrictions. Gray wrote that the senior leadership at the centre must bear responsibility for the breaches, which resulted in a total of 126 fines being issued to 83 people, including Johnson, his wife, Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Patel said writing letters of no-confidence in Johnson was a sideshow and the party should be focused on real challenges that we have to find solutions to. We need to concentrate on doing our jobs. Look at what is going on in the world right now, look at the challenges that we face domestically. We cant ignore those, she said. Our job is to deliver on the peoples priorities. They wont thank the Conservative Party for talking about itself at a time when people have anxieties, concerns, apprehensions. Patel also said she thought leadership rows should not overshadow the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Earlier, Johnson claimed that quitting as prime minister over the partygate scandal would be irresponsible. In an interview with Mumsnet released on June 1, he cited huge pressures on the economy, the war in Ukraine, and his massive agenda as his reasons for remaining in his post and not seeking to abandon ship. The prime minister could face a leadership challenge if 54 Conservative MPs15 percent of the parliamentary partywrite to the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady, calling for a vote of no confidence. While only 28 Tory MPs have so far publicly called for Johnson to step down, that doesnt necessarily reflect the total number of formal letters submitted to Brady, which is kept secret. PA Media contributed to this report. Prince William, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles ride horseback during the Trooping the Colour parade at Buckingham Palace in London, on June 2, 2022. (Chris J Ratcliffe /Getty Images) UK Kicks Off Queens Platinum Jubilee Celebrations With Military Parade Celebrations of Queen Elizabeths Platinum Jubilee have started in the UK as tens of thousands of people gathered in central London to watch a traditional military parade known as Trooping the Colour. This was the beginning of four days of pomp, parties, and parades to mark the Queens record-breaking 70 years on the British throne. Thousands of wellwishers draped in Union flags, party hats, and plastic tiaras flocked to central London for the parade. Many had slept on the streets to secure a good position. Members of the public soak up the atmosphere ahead of the Trooping the Colour parade in London, on June 2, 2022. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Queen Elizabeth said in a statement: Thank you to everyone who has been involved in convening communities, families, neighbours, and friends to mark my Platinum Jubilee, in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. The 96-year-old monarch, who is suffering from ongoing mobility issues, stayed away from the parade grounds and chose to watch the event from the Buckingham Palace. But she appeared on the balcony of the palace to take a salute of the soldiers returning from the parade. Queen Elizabeth II stands with Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as the troops march past during the Queens Birthday Parade, the Trooping the Colour, as part of Queen Elizabeth IIs platinum jubilee celebrations, in London, on June 2, 2022. (Chris Jackson /pool/AFP via Getty Images) After the parade, the Queen appeared on the balcony again with other members of the royal family to watch a flypast of over 70 military aircraft. Opinion polls show the monarch remains hugely popular and respected among British people, with one survey this week showing eight in 10 people held a positive view of her, and another found three-quarters thought she had done a good job as queen. Spectators watch the flypast on the Mall after the Trooping the Colour parade, in London, on June 2, 2022. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images) But not everyone shares a positive view of the monarchy. Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic has put up the message Make Elizabeth the last on billboards across Britain. It cited another poll as showing more than half of the public were not interested in the jubilee. Earlier, the celebratory event was briefly disrupted when a number of people ran out in front of marching soldiers on the Mall before they were dragged away by police. The Metropolitan Police later said several arrests had been made. PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report. Ukrainians Whove Fled to Canada Can Now Apply for Government Income Support Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says Ukrainians who have fled to Canada from the war with Russia will start to receive income assistance from the federal government in the next five days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to offer money to newly arrived Ukrainians to help them settle in Canada in early April. The one-time payment of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 perchild will be available to Ukrainians and their family members who arrived under an emergency program that allows them to live, work and study in Canada for up to three years. The government approved 120,668 applications under the emergency program as of May 25 and more than 35,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada between Jan. 1 and May 22. Applications for the financial assistance opened today and payments are expected to be deposited directly in newcomers bank accounts within five days of their applications. The applications opened just in time for the final of three government charter flights from Ukraine to arrive in Canada, carrying hundreds of Ukrainian fleeing the conflict in their country. By Laura Osman Unsafe for Men to Work With Children in Australia Commentary Its a tragic irony that just as the world is finally waking up to the damage to children who miss out on masculine influence in their lives, the moral panic over sexual abuse is driving away the very few men still working with themmen who play a particularly vital role for kids in single mum households. In this current climate, with false allegations unchecked, all men working with children are at risk; however they behave. Talk to a few teachers, and you hear the stories. Like the newly graduated teacher working in a school in Port Macquarie who allegedly ran into problems with a female student who refused to finish the assignment hed set for the class. If you try to make me, Ill tell them that you touched me, the female student allegedly told her teacher. He was lucky. He reported her to the school principal, who suspended her. The teachers story was believed because she was a known troublemaker, but it could easily have turned out badly for him instead. Last month, a long ordeal finally ended for an ordinary Australian family. Their son, Lucas, was found not guilty of sexual contact with a child. The female judge who delivered this verdict said she believed Lucas version of eventsnot the accusations that led him to spend seven months in prison, nor the vicious rumours in the local paper describing him as a pedo that led to death threats on social media. Lucas mother, Debbie Garratt, is a brave woman who has made the considered decision to go public and share with me what happened to her family to warn other parents of the dangers awaiting young men in this hypervigilant anti-male culture. Her story suggests we are reaching the point where it is just too risky for men to take jobs caring for children. It could be risky for men to enter into child caring roles in current society. (NadyaEugene/Shutterstock) Debbie is actually a step-mum to Lucas, but hed had been part of their large, blended family since he was a small child. He was in his early twenties when he decided on a career in childcare. It was a prospect that made his parents somewhat nervous, but they knew children had always flocked to this easy-going, considerate young man, and he thrived in the job, with families often seeking out his babysitting services after hours. One evening in August 2018, he was babysitting for a family he knew well, having cared for their children many times, including the five-year-old girl hed looked after since she was a toddler in nappies. During the evening, he noticed the little girl seemed to be fiddling, apparently bothered by irritated genitals. When he found her scratching herself half-asleep in bed, he quickly swiped the area with a baby wipe, hoping the moist towelette would ease the irritation. It didnt occur to him that this could create a problem until the police came and interviewed him at work the next day. It transpired that early that day, the little girl had mentioned to her mother that Lucas licked me. The mum went on high alert, told the girl to stop talking, called for her husband, and then questioned the child, recording the conversation on an iPhone. In her verdict, the judge commented that the parents reaction contributed to setting in place the whole disastrous sequence of events that followed, which sadly included the girl being interrogated at the police station and taken for internal examinations. When initially questioned by the police, the child denied that Lucas had put his head near her genitals or even that he had touched her, but these negative responses were omitted from the evidence used for the charges and not conveyed to the childs parents. There are important lessons to be learned from this story. Its quite something to hear how the legal aid barrister sold out this young man, pressuring him in a corridor outside the courtroom to plead guilty to avoid further distress to the child. He convinced Lucas that he was bound to be convicted, and this was the only way to get a reduced sentence. The situation can become overwhelming for the men and their families involved. (Jesus Rodriguez/Unsplash) Any parent would identify with Debbies emotion as she describes the resultLucas was convicted and simply whisked off to prison. They werent even able to find out where the authorities had taken him for 10 days. By that time, his guilty plea was all over the newspapers and social media alive with advice about hanging the scumbag animal. We can all imagine the familys relief when the judge affirmed Lucas version of events, stating a number of times that the child must have been mistaken. However, this was not a case of the accused being found not guilty due to insufficient evidence but rather a female judge determining a male was to be believed. And thats quite something. Whats inspirational is Debbies advice to Lucas during the years he spent living at home with his parents, unable to get a job, and nervous about leaving the house. Debbie would make him come with her to the supermarket, telling him to put your head up and demonstrate to everyone that he had no reason to hideaway. Its important not to be caught in shame, she told him. But the same applies to parents. Even after their sons are found not guilty of this type of allegation, most parents like Debbie get caught in shame. The whole ordeal is so overwhelming that they choose to just hide away and try to get on with their liveswhich is perfectly understandable. How rare it is for someone whose child has slipped the noose to come out fighting, willing to subject herself and her family to still more public scrutiny in the hope that others will take heed. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. U.S. President Joe Biden and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attend the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity with other regional leaders via video link at the Izumi Garden Gallery in Tokyo on May 23, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) US Counters China With Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Commentary The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is Americas way of presenting Indo-Pacific countries an alternative to Chinas approach, said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, as reported by CNBC on May 25. Joe Biden made his first trip to Asia on May 2024 since assuming the presidency. On this visit, Biden inaugurated the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), the latest step in Washingtons Asia-Pacific economic strategy. The U.S.-led IPEF is not a free trade agreement. The framework does not grant market access or tariff reduction. Instead, it is designed to counter China. So far, member nations include the United States, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Brunei. The significance of the list is that it includes all of the Quad members, most of the AUKUS members, and many of the APEC members. Taiwan has been excluded, at least for now, although 250 members of Congress supported Taiwans inclusion. Burma, also known as Myanmar, was not invited due to the 2021 military coup, which ousted the duly-elected leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Other countries that have not joined the IPEF are Laos and Cambodia, both considered client states of the Chinese regime. China was also not invited. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has signed the worlds largest free trade agreement with other Indo-Pacific countries, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This is one of many reasons why it was so important for the United States to launch the IPEF and reaffirm its foothold in the Asia-Pacific region. Leaders from the member states pose for a group photo during the 3rd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 4, 2019. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images) The IPEF comes five years after the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement signed by 12 countries in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. After the U.S. withdrawal, the remaining partners went on to form the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). China has since requested to join. Singapore has signaled its intention to join the IPEF while supporting Chinas admission to the CPTPP. Taiwan has also applied to join the CPTPP, but Singapore said that members would have to discuss the matter in detail. So far, the U.S. pivot toward Asia has consisted of strengthening the Quad, providing U.S. nuclear submarines to Australia, and hosting a summit to discuss trade and security with Southeast Asian leaders at the White House. On May 17, Ambassador Joseph Yun was appointed as special presidential envoy to negotiate the continuation of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau. The current agreement with the Marshall Islands and Micronesia will be ending next year and Palaus contract will end in 2024. In addition to being crucial to the U.S.-led China-containment strategy, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Palau are two of the few remaining countries that officially recognize Taiwan. For this reason, it is crucial that the COFA be continued. The White House announced on May 20 that Fiji would be joining the IPEF, becoming the 14th country and the first Pacific Island nation to do so. This is a crucial development, particularly in the wake of the Solomon Islands recent decision to sign a security pact with China. This welcomed news about Fiji came while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was on his way to Kiribati as part of his Pacific Island tour. The small Pacific Island nations are becoming one of the hottest battle grounds for U.S. and Chinese influence. The four pillars of the IPEF are: connected economy, resilient economy, clean economy, and fair economy. These pillars all sound nice, but it has not been made clear what these goals mean or how they will be achieved. Consequently, the framework has been criticized as being symbolic rather than substantive. The IPEF is not a trade deal because then it would need approval from Congress. As a loose framework, the IPEF will be nimbler and capable of reacting to emergent situations, particularly those caused by the CCP. While the IPEF may not be a replacement for a free trade deal like the CPTPP, it does demonstrate the United States increasing commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as recognition of the strategic role these countries play in containing China. The lack of U.S. participation in the CPTPP has left a window open for China to co-opt the Asian nations. The IPEF has at least broken the ice though, sending a signal that the United States will now be a larger presence in the region. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), General Motors' joint venture with Chinese partners SAIC Motor and Guangxi Automobile Group, on June 1 unveiled the Wuling Air ev, Wuling brand's first global NEV model, in Jakarta. The automaker announced on spot that it has become the official car partner of the upcoming G20 Summit and the Wuling Air ev is ready to support the mobility needs during the Summit. Air ev; photo credit: SGMW According to the official images released by SGMW, the Wuling Air ev features a light strip that stretches across the car width in both the front and the rear. Positioned as a mini all-electric vehicle, the Air ev will come with two variants based on the length of wheelbase, according to the information seen in a MIIT's catalogue. The standard version measures 2,599mm long, 1,505 wide, and 1,631 tall with a wheelbase that spans 1,635 mm. With the same width and height, the other one has a wheelbase of 2,010mm and its length is extended to 2,974mm. Air ev; photo credit: SGMW The all-electric model will be powered by a 30kW or 50kW electric motor, and offer two CTLC range options200km and 300km. The model is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of 2022, targeting both the domestic and overseas markets. It is expected to pave the way for the global development of Wuling-branded NEVs. US Engaged in Offensive Cyber Operations Against Russia in Ukraine: NSA Director The head of the U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed that the United States conducted cyber operations after Russias invasion of Ukraine. Weve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, [and] information operations, NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone said in an interview published on June 1. That includes offensive hacking operations he said, without elaborating on the details. Nakasone, who is a four-star general, said the operations were lawful and conducted with civilian oversight. His interview with Sky News is the first official confirmation that the United States is engaged in a digital conflict against Russia in its bid to support Ukraine. Smoke rises during shelling in the city of Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, on May 21, 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images) My job is to provide a series of options to the secretary of defense and the president, and so thats what I do, he told Sky News, a British news channel. It isnt clear when the operations started or how many have taken place since the invasion started on Feb. 24. We remain vigilant every single day. Every single day. I think about it all the time, he said. This is why were working with a series of partners to ensure we prevent that, not only against the United States but against our allies as well. Nakasone also detailed how so-called hunt forward operations enabled the United States to track down hackers and find their tools before they could be deployed. In one such operation, according to Nakasone, U.S. military specialists were present in Ukraine near the date of the invasion. We went in December 2021 at the invitation of the Kyiv government to come and hunt with them. We stayed there for a period of almost 90 days, he told the outlet. Officials later told Sky News that the U.S. team was later withdrawn from Ukraine in February amid a buildup of Russian forces along Ukraines border. The general also made reference to alleged major hacking attempts carried out by Russian state actors to launch cyberattacks on Ukraines infrastructure. Weve seen this with regard to the attack on their satellite systems, wiper attacks that have been ongoing, disruptive attacks against their government processes. This is kind of the piece that I think sometimes is missed by the public. It isnt like they havent been very busy, they have been incredibly busy. And I think, you know, their resilience is perhaps the story that is most intriguing to all of us, he said, describing Kyivs response. On June 1, the Biden administration announced it would send another $700 million in military aid to Ukraines forces, including long-range rockets. The United States will stand with our Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself, President Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House. Those weapons include the high mobility artillery rocket system with battlefield munitions. Shanghai eases its months-long lockdown. But more than 2 million people are still confined to their homes. For those who can leave the house, getting tested for COVID-19 is the new normal. The United States puts more Chinese companies under scrutiny, this time over sanctions. Europe is set to ban most oil imports from Russia. But what will the move mean for China? Cooperation between U.S. National Guard and Taiwans militarythats the word from Taiwans president, during a U.S. lawmakers visit to the island. A poll shows half of surveyed countries are willing to cut ties with China if it invades Taiwan. Most of them are major trading partners to China, the United States included. Topics in this episode: Shanghai Springs Back to Life as Lockdown Lifts Shanghai Lockdown Easing: How Far Away Is Normal? Termites Swarm Shanghai, Numbers Boosted by Lockdown US Considers Blacklisting More Chinese Firms Expert on Impact of EU Oil Ban for Russia Survey: Yes to Cutting Ties With China Over Taiwan Survey: Japan Should Be Ready for War Biden: Working Together With New Zealand U.S. Navy Could Transfer Retired Ships to Allies Free Digital Yuan to Stimulate Economy U.S. Bill Could Bar Digital Yuan From App Stores Expert: Beijings Dismantling of Tibetan Culture Have other topics you want us to cover? Drop us a line: chinainfocus@ntdtv.org And if youd like to buy us a coffee: https://donorbox.org/china-in-focus Subscribe to our newsletter for more first-hand news from China. Follow China in Focus on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChinaInFocusNTD Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@chinainfocus Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/chinainfocus Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTDChinainFocus Gab: https://gab.com/ChinaInFocus Telegram: https://t.me/ChinainFocusNTD Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV Weve seen a lot of T-shirts and memes circulating on social media with some version of the words: Forgive me for anything I said or did during COVID. The COVID crisisalong with disagreements about the severity of the disease, the safety and necessity of vaccines, and the advisability of lockdownshas divided families, estranged friendships, and led to many misunderstandings and hurt feelings. There is no sign that the arguments will stop anytime soon. In some places in America, children are again being forced to wear masks. Other viral threats, like monkeypox, snail fever, and tomato flu are keeping the fear of contagion front and center in peoples minds. A Time for Forgiveness In the midst of one of the most difficult times in recent history, we need to learn to forgive. We have to forgive ourselves and forgive each other. Now, more than ever, is a time for understanding the trauma thats perpetuating abuse, says Diane Brussell, a clinical counselor who packed up her life, sold her home, and fled Canada with her husband and two teenaged sons in just two weeks time back in October of 2021 due to draconian vaccine mandates. In one sense forgiveness is a simplification of the complexity, Brussell continued. Abuse doesnt come from nowhere. Were not designed to hurt other peopleI believe that thats a reactive traumatic state from being hurt. But when Canada announced they were closing the border to any unvaccinated Canadians and wouldnt be letting people out, Brussell and her family knew they could not stay. We knew we had to leave fast, Brussell said. Were still completely uprooted and dealing with so much stress. Were lucky we were able to get out but we really feel like refugees now. Even as you strive for understanding, its important to set boundaries, Brussell said, to stop others from hurting you. Thats the reason her family left Canada for South Carolina: to stop being abused by the Canadian government. The Science of Forgiveness Loren Toussaint is a Professor of Psychologist at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa who has made a career out of studying forgiveness (among other things, he is Vice Chair of the Forgiveness Scientific Advisory Council and President of Forgiveness Foundation International.) As Toussaint explores in detail in his 2015 book, Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health, forgiveness has been linked to better cardiac functioning and cognitive health, and even less lower back pain and better immune functioning. 1,2,3,4 Forgiving oneself may be as important to forgiving others. In 2019, a team of Scottish researchers did a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature about self-compassion. In analyzing the 18 studies they found, the researchers discovered that all of them: reported significant associations between higher levels of self-forgiveness or self-compassion and lower levels of self-harm or suicidal ideation. 5 In other words, if you can practice self-compassion and forgive yourself for your own misdeeds you are less likely to feel suicidal or attempt suicide. However, studying forgiveness scientifically is complicated: What is forgiveness exactly? How do you measure it? How do you know if the act of forgiving causes measurable physical outcomes? In addition, several studies we reviewed seemed to suggest that just saying I forgive you, without emotionally feeling forgiveness did not necessarily confer health benefits. Still, everyone who has ever held a grudge knows how harmful it can be to feel angry, resentful, and unforgiving, and how much lighter and better you feel when you stop ruminating on the wrongs that you perceive have been done to you. The Christian Way of Forgiveness In Western culture, forgiveness looms large in Christianity. Regarding oneself, God will always forgive those who admit and earnestly repent their sins. The Catholic Church is the largest Christian sect with well over a billion adherents. Catholicism requires the faithful to regularly confess their sins to a priest and ask Gods forgiveness. Regarding others, it is made clear in many ways that a Christian must turn the other cheek, judge not, and forgive freely, as Catholics recite in a line of a common prayer in which they ask God to forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. The reciprocity of forgiveness is front and center in this tradition. The Christians role is to forgive, to love ones enemy, and to be humble and charitable. These are deeply moving tenants to live by, no matter what your faith, but being able to forgive always seems to be a work in progress for human beings. Most Buddhist traditions believe in reincarnation. What is happening in our lives now is a direct result of what happened in our previous lives, which will in turn impact our future lives. In this world view, someone who wrongs you now may have been wronged by you in a previous life. If you decide not to forgiveor choose to act vengefullythen bad karma between you and others will accumulate, leading to more trouble for the rest of your life, and possibly in your future lives. Setting Down Your Burden Perhaps youve heard this Zen parable before: Two monks are traveling a long distance. There has just been a heavy rain and the monks come to the edge of a rushing river. As they prepare to cross, the monks see a rich young woman carrying bundles of goods who is also trying to cross the river. Rather superciliously, she asks for their help. Without another word, the older, wiser monk puts the woman on his back and helps her across, bringing her to the dry land on the other side of the river. Instead of thanking him, however, the rich young woman grumbles about how her silk dress has gotten wet and her shoes muddied. The two monks continue on their journey in silence. Finally, after several more hours of walking, the younger monk blurts out, How could that rich lady have been so rude to you?! My son, the senior monk says. I set that burden down hours ago. Why are you still carrying it? The old monk didnt let the young womans rudeness affect him. He did her an act of kindness for the sake of being kind, good, and just. She was unquestionably ungrateful and rude. But that was her burden to carry, not his. The idea behind this parable is that carrying a burdenholding a grudgeis a choice. The old monk had the wisdom not to choose to be burdened. The young monk, still learning to negotiate lifes setbacks and peoples arrogance, allowed himself to be burdened. As hard as it can be for some of us, forgiveness is a skill that can be honed. Toussaint says the key to forgiving someone is willingness and empathy. In order to let go a wrong that has been done to you, its important to see things from the wrongdoers point of view. Luckily, we will all get lots of practice. As we collectively move past the globally mismanaged response to coronavirus, we all have a lot of forgiving to do. References Lawler, K.A., Younger, J.W., Piferi, R.L. et al. A Change of Heart: Cardiovascular Correlates of Forgiveness in Response to Interpersonal Conflict. J Behav Med 26, 373393 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025771716686. Accessed June 1, 2022. Lichtenfeld S, Maier MA, Buechner VL and Fernandez Capo M (2019) The Influence of Decisional and Emotional Forgiveness on Attributions. Front. Psychol. 10:1425. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01425. Accessed June 1, 2022. Carson JW, Keefe FJ, Goli V, Fras AM, Lynch TR, Thorp SR, Buechler JL. Forgiveness and chronic low back pain: a preliminary study examining the relationship of forgiveness to pain, anger, and psychological distress. J Pain. 2005 Feb;6(2):84-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2004.10.012. PMID: 15694874. Accessed June 1, 2022. Owen, Amy & Hayward, R. & Toussaint, Loren. (2011). Forgiveness and Immune Functioning in People Living with HIV-AIDS. Cleare S, Gumley A, OConnor RC. Self-compassion, self-forgiveness, suicidal ideation, and self-harm: A systematic review. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2019 Sep;26(5):511-530. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2372. Epub 2019 Jun 13. PMID: 31046164. Accessed May 31, 2022. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. (CDC/Handout via Reuters) WHO Says Monkeypox May Have Been Spreading Undetected Officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) say the sudden rise in monkeypox cases worldwide suggests that it has been spreading in an undetected manner for some time. We dont really know whether its too late to contain. What WHO and all member states are trying to do is prevent onward spread, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the WHOs monkeypox technical lead, said at a June 1 press conference in Geneva. The virus, which is generally endemic to certain African countries, may have been transmitted for months or years undetected, Lewis said, according to CNBC. An investigation is ongoing. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the same press conference that most monkeypox cases have been reported by homosexual males who sought care at health clinics for sexually transmitted diseases. Monkeypox symptoms generally resolve on their own, although symptoms can be severe in some cases, he said. No deaths have been reported in Europe or North America. Monkeypox is in the same family as smallpox, which has caused pandemics throughout human history, although officials have said it has milder symptoms. Collective immunity in the human population since that time is not what it was at the time of smallpox eradication, Lewis said. Anyone under the age of 40 or 50, depending on which country you were born in or where you might have received your vaccine against smallpox, would not now have that protection from that particular vaccine. The WHO isnt currently recommending mass vaccination for the virus. There is no need for mass vaccination, Lewis said. The virus is mainly spreading via homosexual males, she said, noting that its important to provide those individuals with the information they need to keep the virus from spreading. The United States so far has reported about 19 cases in 10 states as of June 1. Most of the cases have been reported in Europe, namely in the UK, Spain, and Portugal. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its travel advisory related to the recent monkeypox outbreak from Level 1 to Level 2. Cases of monkeypox have been reported in Europe, North America, and Australia, the CDC stated. Some cases were also reported in people who live in the same household as an infected person. Initial symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, a chickenpox-like rash, and a fever. U.S. officials have said that the smallpox vaccine can be effective in preventing the spread and transmission of the virus. The pox-like lesions start out as dark spots on the skin before turning into bumps that fill with fluid. Theyll eventually scab over and fall off, possibly leaving people with scars or skin discoloration. Will the US Defend Taiwan? It Depends on Who You Listen To Strategic confusion in the White House is a threat to us all Commentary Right now, we have strategic confusion at the highest levels of government. President Joe Biden has now, on three separate occasions, said that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if the Chinese regime invaded the island. First in an interview with ABC News in August 2021, then at a CNN town hall event in October, and now on his recent trip to Asia. And three times, the White House staff has had to swoop in and deny that the president meant what he clearly said. In the August interview with ABC News, Biden was asked about Chinese communist propaganda, claiming that the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan meant that Taiwan, too, would be abandoned. He responded by suggesting that Americas commitment to Taiwan was on par with its commitment to its NATO allies. However, we have no mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, and the governing legislation, called the Taiwan Relations Act, only formally commits us to supply defensive weapons to the island nation. White House officials had to intervene and deny that U.S. policy had changed. The White House had to issue another clarification in October after Biden said in a CNN town hall that we have a commitment to defend the island if it is attacked by China. U.S. policy toward Taiwan has not changed; officials rushed in to insist. And just a few days ago in Tokyo, Biden was asked if the United States would get involved militarily in response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Thats the commitment we made, Biden responded emphatically. A White House official later tried to explain away the presidents remark by saying that he was only reiterat[ing] our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself. But he was clearly going further than that. Now, this is not how strategic ambiguity is supposed to work. It is supposed to keep your enemy, in this case, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), guessing. It is supposed to deter Xi Jinping from invading Taiwan by leaving open the question of whether the United States will come to its aid. Instead, the American people are left to guess who is running the White Housethe current occupant of the Oval Office or some unnamed, unelected staffer. Now I have to admit that I dont think much of strategic ambiguity as a policy. After all, Teddy Roosevelt said to speak softly and carry a big stick, not mumble under your breath while waving a twig about. I think we need to deter China by being crystal clear that we will defend Taiwan if it is attacked. But at the same time, we need to arm Taiwan today with weapons, such as anti-ship missiles, to ensure any future invasion will fail. The CCP will not launch an invading fleet if it is likely to be sunk in transit. Taiwanese soldiers launch a U.S.-made Javelin missile during the annual Han Guang live-fire drill in southern Pingtung on Aug. 25, 2016. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images) Right now, however, we have the worst of both worlds. Because of the constant walk backs of Bidens pronouncementsnot just on Taiwan, but on Ukraineno one knows who is in charge of U.S. foreign policy or even what U.S. policy actually is. This is a very dangerous position for the United States, not just for Taiwans future. It wasnt that long ago that Biden variously called for Vladimir Putins ouster, threatened the retaliatory use of (nonexistent) chemical weapons, and told U.S. troops they were headed into the war zone. These verbal blunders were quickly walked back by unnamed White House officials, but the damage had been done. The entire world now knows that the president either does not mean what he says, or is not able to say what he means, or both. This isnt strategic ambiguity, and it is certainly not strategic clarity. This is strategic confusion at the highest levels of the U.S. government. And it puts us all at risk. It is surely no coincidence that CCP leaders, seeing how confused and confusing our president is, seem to be inching ever closer toward a move against Taiwan. Aside from building up its conventional forces, the Peoples Liberation Army is also building several hundred new missile silos. Beijing now says that the United States will pay an unbearable price if it tries to help Taiwan repel an invasion. As Russia continued to build up its forces on Ukraines border last winter, Biden had nothing to offer the beleaguered country except rhetoric. Significant military aid shipments did not begin arriving until after Russian tank columns were deep in Ukrainian territory. And only now, three months into the conflict, has he decided to send long-range rockets to aid Ukraines resistance. But instead of learning from the mistakes he made in dealing with Putin, Biden seems to be repeating them. If this same playbook is followed where Taiwan is concerned, help will arrive too late. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) A $5,000 reward has been given to a person who provided help in capturing an inmate who sparked a nationwide manhunt after escaping with a jail official, Alabamas governor said Wednesday. Gov. Kay Ivey directed the Finance Department to issue a $5,000 reward to a person who provided valuable assistance to law enforcement in securing the apprehension and arrest of Casey White," Ivey's office said in a news release. Ahead of the 2020 election, Twitter users began sharing a post alleging that a tractor-trailer carrying ballots had overturned on Interstate 95 in Connecticut sending the ballots flying into the air and across the highway. The inaccurate post was spotted by a consultant hired by Connecticuts secretary of the state to comb the Internet for election misinformation. After it was reported, Twitter removed the post from its site. Election officials here and nationally are expecting similar falsehoods to proliferate ahead of this years midterm elections. In Connecticut, the state plans to hire a full-time misinformation expert who will earn a salary of $150,000 - part of a $2 million election security and public information campaign by the SOTS. We need to know whats out there before it goes viral, said Scott Bates, deputy secretary of the state. We need to get ahead of the curve and knock down bad information to protect people from misinformation that would get in their way of voting. The person will monitor mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook but also fringe sites such as 4chan where false information is often cooked up before spreading on other sites, Bates said. The misinformation specialist will then reach out to social media companies about removing or flagging posts that contain lies about Connecticuts elections. Were looking for any information that might be wrong about the election process itself, nothing to do with issue sets or candidates, Bates said. But some Republicans are already calling the hire a partisan move and have raised concerns about infringing on free speech. Ben Proto, chair of the state Republican Party, questioned how the person would determine what constitutes misinformation a subjective process on its face. This seems highly political, Proto said. This is just policing what is said about elections, and thats just wrong. The SOTS website already has information readily available on how and where to vote, he added. But Bates said election officials have to be proactive about informing the public how the election process works, particularly at a time of eroding public confidence in the Democratic process. The state previously used federal funds to hire a consultant for $65,000 to monitor misinformation ahead of the 2020 general election. The federal money ran out, so Secretary of the State Denise Merrill lobbied state lawmakers for funding to create a full-time position, which was included in the state budget signed last month by Gov. Ned Lamont. The $150,000 salary is based on average pay for an experienced cybersecurity professional, Bates said, noting the state must compete with the private sector for top talent. Bates said he is aware of two other states California and Colorado that have created similar positions. We believe every election cycle from here on out needs this, Bates said. julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com Beijing (Gasgoo)- At 12:00 p.m. Beijing Time, June 2nd, Chinas major automaker Geely successfully conducted its first satellite launch, shooting nine satellites into orbit forming a high-precision spatio-temporal information network for its intelligent vehicles on Earth. Photo credit: Geely Geelys self-developed Geely-01 constellation consisting of nine satellites was lifted from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The satellites are manufactured by Geelys Taizhou satellite super factory with a designed lifespan of five years. This marked the first commercial one rocket with nine satellites launch in China. Geely said that the satellites will be a major boost to its ongoing electrification and intellectualization transformation. Its space helpers will also comprehensively serve the autonomous driving, marine conservation, unmanned aerial vehicle, logistics, and mapping fields. In the meantime, its premium auto brand ZEEKR will benefit from the satellite remote sensing AI data service, offering users an enhanced onboard experience. In the future, ZEEKR users will be able to look at the world's HD street view generated from the satellites, enjoy the space view of the satellite, and receive real-time remote sensing images via the onboard large screens. Notably, the launch boosted Geely to become the second major automaker to conduct space affairs after Teslas SpaceX. NORWALK In an effort to increase security at local schools, the citys short-staffed police department is paying officers overtime to keep watch outside each school building. The force is asking officers to volunteer for the overtime shifts, but will assign officers to the schools if enough of them do not step forward, according to Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik. Any officer of any rank can sign up for a school position, Kulhawik told Hearst Connecticut Media Group in an email. The assignments require overtime to cover them. In response to last weeks elementary school shooting in Texas, Mayor Harry Rilling directed Kulhawik to station an officer at each school until the academic year ends on June 17. No parent should have to fear for their childs life after they drop them off at school, and its our duty to do everything we can to protect the safety of our children, Rilling, the citys former police chief, said in a statement. Sandra Faioes, the school systems assistant superintendent of business and operations, said the officers have been stationed outside the buildings and are providing surveillance for the campuses. She said the visible law enforcement presence has already helped create a sense of safety for students and teachers who are still reeling from the news of the Uvalde massacre in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. We have a very close working relationship with the NPD and they have been very supportive, Faioes said. In addition to establishing a presence at the citys 18 schools, officers have also been assigned to the Early Childhood Education Center and the NPS Family Center. The department is using overtime spending for the assignments due to a shortage of available officers, Kulhawik said. With several unfilled positions and multiple ongoing police academies, the force is effectively short about 20 officers. The school assignments, though temporary, will add to the departments already soaring overtime spending. According to the findings of a citywide efficiency study, the department is projected to spend more than $4 million on overtime this year a 17 percent jump from the previous year. The department is trying to end the shortage by recruiting more entry-level officers and hiring experienced law enforcement officials who do not need extensive training. But with several resignations expected in the coming months, it is unclear when the force will be fully staffed. Rilling, however, said he expects enough officers will come on board to return the School Resource Officer unit to full staffing by September. The nine-member unit was cut to just three officers after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic to help the department manage the shortage. Faioes said the school system is also taking steps to ensure staff members are familiar with school safety plans in the event of an emergency. She noted the school buildings all feature a single point of entry and a video surveillance system. The system that we have in place is pretty comprehensive, she said. We feel really secure in our schools. richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com STAMFORD An 83-year-old psychologist charged with failing to disclose information about a Greenwich socialite who had secretly filmed two adults and a child was granted a pretrial probation program, which could lead to charges against him being dropped. Judge Gary White granted Jerome Brodlie, a Weston resident with a practice in Greenwich, entry into the accelerated rehabilitation program on Wednesday in a move that was supported by state prosecutors. If Brodlie complies with the programs conditions and does not pick up any new criminal charges over the next six months, then the charges against him will be dropped. Brodlie was arrested on a charge of failure of a mandated reporter to report abuse, a Class A misdemeanor, on Dec. 21, 2021. The arrest was in connection to the case of Hadley Palmer, a Greenwich socialite, who pleaded guilty in January to a host of voyeurism charges that stemmed from incidents in which she knowingly photographed, filmed and recorded three individuals, one of whom was a minor, without their consent, according to court records. Greenwich police said, while investigating Palmer, they learned that Brodlie had intentionally failed to report alleged abuse and neglect to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. Andrew Bowman, who represents Brodlie, described his client as a someone who led an exemplary life and is a selfless and highly competent professional. Bowman said the 83-year-old, who specializes in child and adolescent psychology, has a history of helping those in need after extremely tragic events, like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11. Hes helped people all around the world, he said. In addition to the conditions set by the program, Brodlie was also ordered to make a $500 charitable contribution. Brodlie is next expected to appear at state Superior Court in Stamford in November. Both Brodlie and Palmers cases have been shrouded in mystery since the time of their arrests. Both case files were sealed at the requests of attorneys early on in proceedings, and little information about either case has been made public. Palmer was originally arrested last year on additional charges, including employing a minor in an obscene performance, a Class A felony, conspiracy to employ a minor in an obscene performance and second-degree child pornography, police said. In February, she pleaded guilty to reduced charges of three counts of voyeurism and one count of risk of injury to a minor. Palmer is scheduled to sentenced on Aug. 2. She faces between 90 days and five years in prison, as well as 20 years of probation, and has already served 90 days in prison. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The recent transfer of a murder charge for a Milford teenager from juvenile to adult court was the result of a state law that required that the case be tried in a system where the focus is different and the proceeding is public. Under Connecticut law, defendants 15 years or older charged with murder or other serious felonies are automatically transferred to adult court. Raul Eliah Valle, 16, a student at St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, faces charges of murder and three counts of first-degree assault for the May 14 stabbing death of 17-year-old James McGrath during a fight outside a home on Laurel Glen Drive in Shelton, where three others were also stabbed. Valle at first appeared before a juvenile court judge during a closed door proceeding to determine probable cause. The case was then transferred to adult court. The hearing in the juvenile (court) is merely perfunctory there is no argument it is an automatic transfer up, said Marisa Mascolo Halm, director of the Youth Justice Project at the Center for Childrens Advocacy. There are several lesser felony offenses that are discretionary transfers (to adult court) upon motion of the prosecutor and do provide for some argument. Halm said shes not convinced juveniles belong in adult court, regardless of the crime. In my opinion, all minors and their cases should be handled by the juvenile system, Halm said. The adult system is simply unequipped to do so. Mike Lawlor, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, said adult court offers juvenile offenders a few advantages, including an exemption that can lower sentences due to a defendants age. Juveniles in adult court can also post bail, which juvenile court does not offer, Lawlor noted. There is an irony that people assume consequences are more serious in adult court, Lawlor said. But when you look at the system, thats not the way it works. Valle was released from jail last week on a $2 million bond and confined to his home. Police said the incident began with a fight between Shelton High and St. Joseph High teens at a home in Shelton and continued after Valle and other teens moved to a different house party in the city. In all, four people were stabbed that night. The differences Connecticut has been adjusting the age in which teens can be tried in adult court for a number of years. In 2015, state law was changed to prevent 14-year-olds from being transferred to adult court for Class A and B felonies, which includes murder and manslaughter. The change also eliminated life without parole for juveniles. Defendants 15 years old and older charged with a Class C or D felony, or an unclassified felony, can only be transferred to adult court if the request is granted by a juvenile court judge. Class C felonies include assault, burglary and second-degree manslaughter and Class D felonies include first-degree threatening, criminal mischief and perjury. Juvenile court is generally focused on helping teens and children get back on track while doling out an appropriate punishment. In fact, the terms used in juvenile and adult court vary greatly. For example, in juvenile court a conviction is called an adjudication, parole is after care, a crime is a delinquent act and a sentence is a disposition. Those convicted in juvenile court can go to jail or more accurately a detention center or be confined to their home. All proceedings are conducted behind closed doors. The adult court is about justice and punishment, said Dan Maxwell, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven. The idea is we dont want to treat juveniles as adults because we are labeling them as adults and maybe they will do things like adults, including committing crimes. Maxwell said juvenile defendants can receive a jury trial in adult court while charges in juvenile court are decided by a judge. Punishment depends on what the crime is, Maxwell said, referring to juvenile court. Its whatever is in the best interest of the child. Maxwell said juvenile court sentences often include counseling, classes and enrolling in anger management and mental health services. Rehabilitation or punishment? Adult court is not set up to handle the unique challenges that come with troubled juveniles, Halm said. In adult court, young people, whose propensity for mistakes is actually a feature of their brain development, sit for months and possibly years awaiting a resolution of their case, with very limited access to developmentally appropriate services, Halm said. In the juvenile system, case resolution happens much more quickly, and youth are provided developmentally appropriate services focused on rehabilitation at an early stage, Halm said. Lawlor agreed that the goal of the two court systems is different, with the juvenile court geared more towards rehabilitation. The theory is young kids do stupid stuff they would not do if they were older and there is a lot of science behind that, Lawlor said. On the other hand, Connecticut says if you do something off the charts bad, like murder, thats different. Lawlor said if Valle is convicted of murder, or a lesser crime such as manslaughter, he could benefit from the requirement that the judge consider his age during sentencing. That might be more of a factor for a kid like this, Lawlor said. The mandatory minimum for murder is 25 years. The judge could go beneath the 25 years. Juveniles convicted in adult court for lesser crimes are more likely to receive probation than a prison sentence, Lawlor said. There has been a lot of focus on stolen cars recently, Lawlor said. If youre 17 and it goes to adult court, you are almost certain to get probation (for car theft). You go from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. If you are focused on punishment, you want the adult system, Lawlor said. But you have to change that system too because the vast majority (of juveniles in adult court) never get sent to prison. bcummings@ctpost.com Franc Zhurda/AP TIRANA, Albania (AP) A group of people evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power last year held a protest Wednesday in Albania over the failure to expedite their move to the United States. A small group of families in Shengjin, a town located 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Albanias capital, Tirana, called on the U.S. to speed up the process of their transfer. Some women and children held posters reading, We are forgotten. PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona woman accused of illegally collecting early ballots in the 2020 primary election pleaded guilty Thursday in an agreement with state prosecutors that saw the more serious forgery and conspiracy charges dismissed and limited any potential for a lengthy prison sentence. Guillermina Fuentes, 66, could get probation for running what Arizona attorney general's office investigators said was a sophisticated operation using her status as a well-known Democratic operative in the border city of San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and in some cases fill out their ballots. Prosecutors were apparently unable to prove the most serious charges, dropping three felony counts alleging that Fuentes filled out one voter's ballot and forged signatures on some of the four ballots she illegally returned for people who were not family members. Republicans who have rallied around the possibility of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election where former President Donald Trump was defeated have pointed to the charges against Fuentes as part of a broader pattern in battleground states. But theres no sign her illegal ballot collection went beyond the small-town politics Fuentes was involved in. Fuentes and a second woman were indicted in December 2020 on one count of ballot abuse, a practice commonly known as ballot harvesting that was made illegal under a 2016 state law. The conspiracy, forgery and an additional ballot abuse charge against Fuentes were added last October. Fuentes said little during a change of plea hearing in southwestern Arizona's Yuma County on Thursday, just acknowledging the judge's questions with yes as he asked whether she had read and understood the plea agreement. Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor who serves as an elected board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District in San Luis, could be sentenced to up to two years in prison, but that would require a judge to find aggravating circumstances. The plea agreement leaves the actual sentence up to a judge, who could give her probation, home confinement and a hefty fine for her admission to illegally collecting and returning four voted ballots. Sentencing was set for June 30. She will lose her voting rights and must give up elected office. Attorney Anne Chapman said in an email Thursday that she had no comment on the charges against her client. But she slammed Arizona's ballot collection law, saying it impedes minority voters who have historically relied on others to help them vote. She said this prosecution shows that the law is part of ongoing anti-democratic, state-wide, and national voter suppression efforts. Attorney general's office investigation records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show that fewer than a dozen ballots could be linked to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the tightest local races. The office of Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican seeking his party's U.S. Senate nomination, provided the records after delays of more than 15 months. It is the only case ever brought by the attorney general under the 2016 ballot harvesting law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Investigators wrote that it appeared Fuentes used her position as a powerful figure in the heavily Mexican American community to get people to give her or others their ballots to return to the polls. Fuentes and her co-defendant were seen with several mail-in envelopes outside a cultural center in San Luis on the day of the 2020 primary election, the reports show. The ballots were taken inside and dropped in a ballot box. She was videotaped by a write-in candidate who called the Yuma County sheriff. The reports said the video showed her marking at least one ballot, but that charge was among those dropped. An investigation was launched that day, and about 50 ballots checked for fingerprints, which were inconclusive. The investigation was taken over by the attorney general's office within days, with investigators collaborating with sheriff's deputies to interview voters, Fuentes and others. Although Fuentes was charged only with actions that appear on the videotape and involve just a handful of ballots, investigators believe the effort went much farther. Attorney general's office investigator William Kluth wrote in one report that there was some evidence suggesting Fuentes actively canvassed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them. Collecting ballots in that manner was a common get-out-the-vote tactic used by both political parties before Arizona passed the 2016 law. Paying for ballots has never been legal. Theres no sign she or anyone else in Yuma County collected ballots in the general election, but investigators from the attorney general's office are still active in the community. The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that search warrants were served last month at a nonprofit in San Luis. The group's executive director is chair of the Yuma County board of supervisors and said the warrant sought the cell phone of a San Luis councilwoman who may have been involved in illegal ballot collection. And at a legislative hearing Tuesday where election conspiracy theorists testified, the Yuma primary election case was again a highlight. Its all about corruption in San Luis and skewing a city council election, Yuma Republican Rep. Tim Dunn said. This has been going on for a long time, that you cant have free and fair elections in south county, for decades. And its spreading across the country. VEENDAM, The NetherlandsNalpac has signed a deal with EDC Wholesale to exclusively distribute EDC's PMV20 collection within the United States. The collection includes the colorful Post Modern Vibes, with five vibrators, a butt plug set and a kegel ball set. The PMV20 Collection combines functionality with style and eye-catching colors, at a great price point. The Nalpac team is looking forward to developing marketing and sales programs in collaboration with EDC Wholesale to distribute the line in the U.S. market, Nalpac director of marketing and strategic partnership Phoebe Grott said. Describe promo materials for the line, "The love for art has been the inspiration for the PMV20 collection; to combine colors differently and to stand out. Postmodernism has been the basis for the style, look, and feel of the brand. It is an emerging trend with out-of-the-box ideas that still move with the times. The look and feel of PMV20 are based on five different colors that rotate between the products, so each product has a different composition. The combination of colors is a perfect harmony of mismatch." Davey Ottema, senior account manager at EDC Wholesale commented, The Nalpac team is super excited about the vibrant colors and the materials of the brand. We are sure they are the perfect team to promote the PMV20 collection in the U.S. Im confident that their customers will be as excited as they are. I cant wait to see our house brand roll out in retail and online shops throughout the U.S. For more information about PMV20 or other collections from EDC Wholesale, visit www.one-dc.com or contact [email protected]. The 2023 political race is on. Nigeria's political parties have begun their primaries. On Tuesday, a Presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kingsley Moghalu, stated that 'Nigerians should vote for their future and not their ancestors'. This statement is quite curious. I asked myself in awe, what exactly does he mean by this? with the recent events in the country, one could say Nigeria is not ready for a substantial change. We have seen the exorbitant monetization of the primaries process. This is the same account that lead to the withdrawal from the PDP primary by certain aspirants. Money is always a major feature in Nigerian politics. It is a popular activity amongst the two major parties, with the PDP leading by example. The PDP literally 'dollarised' the primaries, therefore swaying the delegates. The best occupation in the country today is to be a delegate at any party primary. Ordinarily, it is a temporary assignment but it currently seems to be a profitable venture. Most of these delegates are agents of party stakeholders. Getting paid for the duty is the most important aspect of the task to them, regardless of how events turn out later. Some of these delegates even play games with their votes despite the remuneration. A delegate could even collect money from every aspirant and still be selective with votes. An instance was seen in Ondo State, where a senate aspirant seeking a second term in Ondo Central for PDP, Ayo Akinyelure, bought cars for the party leaders and still lost. He has presently asked that his cars should be returned. Also, in Delta state, a House of Representatives aspirant was shocked by his loss, he eventually fainted. There are many other worse cases for aspirants. In all honesty, It is always going to be - anywhere the belly faces, and the tune would always go to the highest bidder. Imagine an event where delegates asked for U.S dollars as inducement. It is indeed frightening. After witnessing the PDP's dollar rain, I engaged a concerned Nigerian; He noted, " Nigerians will never learn, money is not everything. At this stage I can't believe Nigerians would still refer to their stomachs before choosing. With what I saw, a positive change is only a probability in this country". On this note I agreed with him, the electoral process shouldn't be a means to enrichment of the pocket. I wish the statement from Moghalu had come before 2022. It is a very essential quote. Nigerians need to start thinking about a few years from now. They should recall that what is most important is the future of the younger Nigerians and that it is not for sale. A positive change is needed around the nation. Problems are everywhere, yet certain individuals can bring out huge sums to bribe delegates. I think the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should investigate this matter. Many of these politicians are yet to explain to us how they got the money to spend. Aspirants may have to declare their assets before obtaining the declaration of interest forms. It is now obvious that no matter the extent of any law (the Electoral Act 2022), many problems are still personal. Nigeria needs a change. The electoral process needs to change. We need to make progress with the right leader and not a moneybag. And most importantly, let us hope for the best this season. Contact :[email protected] There is palpable anxiety and apprehension in Owerri, the Capital Territory of Imo State over the sealing of the Zenith Bank Branches in Imo State by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. Customers of the Bank are seen walking around the bank in bewilderment as they can neither withdraw from Automated Teller Machines nor have access to the Banking Hall for transactions in all branches in Owerri. Many customers of the bank are moving to the neighbouring states to close down their accounts as the news is spreading like a wild fire. Effort to get the details of the reason for putting the bank's branches under lock and key is still being sought as the internal security of the branches are standing against probing eyes from seeing the Order. Our impeccable source revealed that the sealing of the Zenith Bank Branches is not unconnected with the refusal Imo State Government in collusion with Zenith bank to redeem a debt owed to a notable personality in the state. Details shortly... Bruce Fein, a US-based international lawyer and spokesman for the Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has replied the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Honorable Catriona Laing over her recent tweet concerning the Biafra self-determination. Recall that the British High Commissioner had, on 12th May, joyfully tweeted about her recent meeting with the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief George Obiozor and other stakeholders from the South East geopolitical zone, in which she also said the Igbo leaders were committed to a united Nigeria and would continue to promote it. Laing's tweet partly reads: Good to meet Ambassador George Obiozor, President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and other senior leaders from the South East. I heard clearly their commitment to a united Nigeria and their proposals on how to achieve this. Looking forward to more engagements in the near future. However, in a letter from Kanu's international lawyer, Fein, and addressed to the British High Commissioner, he described the May 12 tweet as astonishing and appalling, and wondered the essence of the meeting and why the British envoy would sound such delighted thereafter. Dated June 1, and titled Re: Biafra Self-determination, Fein's letter, which was made available to newsmen by Kanu's special counsel, Barr. Aloy Ejimakor, reads:Dear High Commissioner Laing, I was astonished, if not appalled, by your May 12 tweet. You voiced delight at meeting with Ambassador President General George Obiozor of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and other senior leaders from the South East. Why the delight or the meeting? Ambassador Obiozor is to Biafrans during their ongoing genocide by the Fulani what Lord Haw-Haw was to the British during the Nazi Blitz? Why would you meet with a quisling? Even more reprehensible was your tacit enthusiasm for a united Nigeria, indistinguishable from a suicide pact for Biafrans. As you know, Nigeria was artificially created by the United Kingdom (UK) at the point of machine guns in 1914. Following its signature divide-and-conquer colonization policy, the UK forced the Biafran people, with a right to self-determination, against their will into a combustible mixture of incompatible ethnic groups under the umbrella of UK sovereignty. The UK decamped in 1960 leaving Nigeria poised to explode like nitroglycerin. The 1967-1970 genocide of Biafrans, aided and abetted by the UK itself, was as predictable as Newtons laws of motion. Prior to compelled unification in 1914, the British negotiated treaties with Biafra. A jus cogens norm of international law endows the Biafran people with a right to self-determination against a Fulani-controlled Nigerian government that has notoriously excluded all Biafrans but a handful of bribable defectors from the corridors of power. One stark fact speaks volumes. No Fulani has ever been prosecuted and punished for murdering a Biafran in the history of Nigeria! Self-determination stands at the apex of all internationally recognized human rights because it is preservative of all others. Self-determination is a shield against oppression by the tyranny of the majority or the ruthless. The UK insisted on self-determination for Protestant Northern Ireland to forestall probable persecution by the Roman Catholic Republic of Ireland. It supported a 2011 South Sudan self-determination referendum to redress the persecution of the largely Black, Christian-Animist minority in Sudan by the Arab-Muslim governing majority. Instead of supporting a united, lawless Nigeria, confected by the British for ulterior motives, you should be advocating a United Kingdom suit against Nigeria in the International Court of Justice for denying the people of Biafra a self-determination referendum as required by Article I of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and an infinite number of corresponding human rights treaties and resolutions. It is the least that the UK can do to atone for its egregious crimes and sins against the Biafran people that have persisted for more than a century. There is no statute of limitations on justice. I expect a substantive response at your earliest convenience. Self-determination is too important to be left to temporizing or tergiversation. COVID downgrade needs time BANGKOK: The Ministry of Public Health has yet to consider when it will reclassify COVID-19 as a communicable disease that requires close surveillance despite the recent easing of more restrictions. Coronaviruscorruptionhealth By Bangkok Post Thursday 2 June 2022, 08:07AM Tourists enjoy foot massage on Khao San Road yesterday (June 1). The Ministry of Public Health has yet to consider when it will reclassify COVID-19 as a communicable disease despite the easing of more restrictions. Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya COVID-19 was declared a dangerous communicable disease in late Feb 2020 by the national committee on communicable diseases to allow health authorities to respond more quickly to contain any outbreaks in the event of a spike in local transmissions, reports the Bangkok Post. Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul recommended waiting several weeks before making a decision on when to revise the status of the virus. When that happens, the government would no longer be obliged to cover related treatment costs. As the severity of the disease and cases have declined, redefining it as a disease under surveillance would mean it could be covered by patients conventional insurance schemes, he said. As the situation changes, the government doesnt want to take on more of a financial burden. COVID-19 patients should resort to their own health insurance packages as is the case for other diseases, Anutin said. Starting yesterday, pubs, bars, karaoke bars, massage parlours and other nightspots in 31 provinces classified as green zones and blue tourism-oriented zones were allowed to resume operation but are still required to close at midnight. Anutin said the number of COVID-19 infections is expected to increase after the new round of easing, but added that if patients do not suffer severe symptoms, it will not affect other sectors. By designating COVID-19 as a dangerous communicable disease, health officials can take more precautionary measures such as prohibiting public gatherings and ordering patients or suspected sufferers or carriers into quarantine. Those who fail to comply may be subject to a fine or other legal action. There are 13 dangerous communicable diseases labelled as such in the kingdom. For those classified as requiring close surveillance, weekly reports must be sent to the provincial public health office and all hospitals and labs must report their findings. Quarantine is not required for close contacts unless the Department of Disease Control (DDC) director-general declares an outbreak. Anutin said the designated committee will propose revising the status to a communicable disease under surveillance. This will be proposed to the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) because the decree on emergency situations remains in force. There are several steps before we get to declare the virus an endemic disease, he said. The ministry held a meeting yesterday on transitioning COVID-19 from a pandemic to an endemic disease. We allowed [nightlife outlets] to reopen because were moving into the mode of a communicable disease, Anutin said. If the situation improves and returns to almost normal, the state of emergency can be cancelled and the virus reclassified, he added. Anutin also said services for general in-patients are expected to return to normal given the latest eased measures. Those considered at low risk of contracting the virus can be accepted as in-patients without having to undergo COVID-19 tests and their relatives do not have to undergo rapid screening. However, COVID-19 testing is required in some cases for safety reasons. Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the DDC, said there are currently 30 diseases that require close surveillance including dengue haemorrhagic fever, which sees seasonal outbreaks, malaria and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars. Meanwhile, Thailand yesterday registered 4,563 new cases and 28 more COVID-19 fatalities, according to the CCSA. This was up from the 3,955 new cases and 21 fatalities reported the previous day. As of yesterday, the daily reports on positive cases by the CCSA will only cover the number of symptomatic patients in hospital. The change was made as the overall situation in Thailand has started to ease. Patong Tunnel, airport expressway projects inch forward PHUKET: Surachet Laophulsuk, Governor of the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT), in Phuket yesterday (June 1) said the Patong Tunnel project was on track for construction to begin in December 2023 and open for service in December 2027. constructiontransport By The Phuket News Thursday 2 June 2022, 04:11PM Construction of the Patong Tunnel project is expected to begin in December 2023 and the roads open for use in December 2027, Mr Surachet said. Photo: PR Phuket Mr Surachet explained the statuses of the Patong Tunnel project, officially called the Kathu-Patong Expressway Project, and the Muang Mai-Koh Kaew-Kathu Expressway Project at a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday joined by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew, Vice Governor Pichet Panapong and a host of other officials. Both expressways will be constructed as Joint Investment projects, Mr Surachet said. For the Patong Tunnel project, EXAT on Mar 29 issued an order appointing a selection committee and on May 20 EXAT signed an Integrity Pact with observers from the government corruption watchdog Anti-Corruption Thailand to participate as independent observers of the selection process, Mr Surachet said. Currently, the essence of the draft invitation announcement is being prepared, as well as the draft documents for private selection and draft investment contracts, as part of the preparation of investor interest assessment (Market Sounding) conducted during January 2023, he said. Construction is expected to begin in December 2023 and open for service in December 2027, he added. Regarding the Muang Mai-Koh Kaew-Kathu Expressway Project, Mr Surachet said that EXAT had signed a contract to hire a consulting group comprising M.A. Consultants Co Ltd, Asian Engineering Consultants Co Ltd, PSK Consultants Co and Pre-Development Consultants Co Ltd to conduct feasibility studies to research the engineering, economics, finance and environmental impact of the project. The project will stretch some 30km, starting at the intersection of Thepkrasattri Rd with Highway 4026, which leads to Nai Yang Beach, EXAT Deputy Governor Gardphajon Udomdhammabhakdi explained during a visit to Phuket in June last year. The expressway will parallel Thepkrasattri Rd all the way through Srisoonthorn and will provide a connection with the main intersection in Koh Kaew, then continue to run parallel with the bypass road to finally connect with with Highway 4029 in Kathu, which will allow motorists to use the Patong Tunnel, he said. Mr Surachet yesterday explained that consulting group now hired began work on April 1 and had 450 days to complete their research, Currently, the feasibility study is underway, he said. According to the operational plan for the project, we have now completed 10.30% of the plan. Construction is expected to begin in December 2024 with the expressway opening for service in December 2027. The plan is to conduct a feasibility study for 15 months, which includes a plan to hold the first public hearing on project orientation, the second public hearing on the result of selecting an appropriate alternative model, and the third public hearing to present a summary of the project, Mr Surachet said. The public hearings are to be held in July 2022, November 2022 and March 2023, respectively, he added. This is to ensure the project implementation is prudent, efficient and integrated. EXAT therefore arranged a meeting to discuss between EXAT and the Governor of Phuket and related agencies regarding details and plans to study engineering feasibility. economy, finance and environmental impact Muang Mai-Koh Kaew-Kathu Expressway Project in order for Phuket Province [the provincial officials] to be aware of EXATs project development guidelines, as well as to exchange ideas that will benefit the project further, Mr Surachet said. Of note, not mentioned in reports of the meeting by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket), Radio Thailand Phuket or national state news agency NNT was that the Patong Tunnel project at last report is budgeted to cost B14.67 billion. The Muang Mai-Koh Kaew-Kathu Expressway project at last report in 2020 was budgeted to cost B30 billion, equating to roughly B1.4bn per kilometre for the-then reported 22.4km route. Also not mentioned were the costs of the feasibility studies already conducted into the two projects, or the amounts being spent on the current round of feasibility studies. Of note, the report by PR Phuket did not recognise Governor Narongs presence at the meeting, despite the fact the Governor sat beside Mr Surachet all throughout the meeting. The PR Phuket report also avoided publishing any photos confirming that the Governor was present. A District Court judge denied a request for a lower bond amount from a Beatrice man accused of sexually assaulting a Beatrice State Developmental Center resident. Allen Evans, 30, appeared in Gage County District Court Thursday morning. Evans has been an inmate at the Gage County Detention Center since his April arrest, after which bond was set at $500,000 with a 10% deposit required for his release. This week his attorney, Kelly Breen, requested a lower bond of $75,000, saying his client has family in the area, no criminal history other than traffic offenses and employment opportunities that make him a low risk to abscond if hes able to post bond. He has no previous criminal history, Breen said. I dont believe hes a threat to abscond. He knew since October 2021 that he was under investigation for the allegations that formed the bases of count one one of the complaint where hes accused to have sexually assaulted a patient at the developmental center. He stands by his not guilty pleas. He wants a trial and he knows he would just be facing additional charges to which he would have no defense if he failed to appear. District Court Judge Rick Schreiner denied the request, saying the seriousness of the offense justified the bond amount. At this point I think given the allegations, and especially given the allegations of at least a probable cause finding that the most vulnerable population in the state is a victim in this matter, it's the same reason the county court set the bond as high as it is, just the nature and circumstances of the offense, he said. Evans was an employee at BSDC at the time of the alleged sexual assault, and following the investigation was arrested for first-degree sexual assault, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a vulnerable adult. In October 2021 investigators with the State Patrol were notified of allegations Evans had sexually assaulted a 34-year-old resident. The victim told an employee that she was sexually assaulted by Evans, according to the arrest warrant. The Department of Health and Human Services previously declined to say what Evans role was at BSDC, though the arrest warrant refers to him as a supervisor. The victim told the worker that Evans had raped her and did something to her in the bathroom. The worker took the victim to Beatrice Community Hospital, and eventually Bryan Health West in Lincoln. The warrant states the State Patrol investigator was told by a sexual assault nurse examiner that the injuries were amongst the worst she had ever observed and included vaginal and anal trauma. While at Bryan the victim told the investigator Evans had also placed her in the shower and sexually assaulted her again before using a towel to clean both of them before throwing the towel in a dumpster. Authorities searched the dumpster outside of the victims residence in the 3000 block of Peterson Boulevard. During the search they found a trash bag that contained a bloody towel, pajama pants and underwear. Testing was done that connected the items to DNA from Evans, as well as the victim. Evans was interviewed at BSDC, and denied sexual contact between the two. A statement from the Department of Health and Human Services following his arrest said Evans was on investigatory suspension pending further action by the agency. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High 23C. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies and light rain after midnight. Low 14C. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. A Billings cab driver previously charged with DUI is now facing multiple counts of criminal endangerment after a wreck on the citys South Side over the weekend. Tiffany Nicole Morrison, 33, pleaded not guilty in Yellowstone County District Court on Wednesday to six counts of criminal endangerment, all of them felonies. The charges followed several collisions allegedly caused by Morrison while she was driving a yellow cab with five passengers. Morrison picked up the five people from a hotel on Midland Road on May 27, court documents say. They asked to be dropped off at MetraPark for a concert. On the way to the concert, the cab collided with another vehicle at First Avenue South and South 36th Street. Morrison was allegedly speeding down First Avenue South at more than twice the posted speed limit, according to statements from witnesses. The woman driving the car hit by Morrisons cab told police she was headed west on First Avenue South prior to the crash. She saw the cab coming eastbound when it lost control and crossed three lanes of traffic while spinning 360 degrees, charging documents say. The cab hit her vehicle on the passenger side. Several witnesses gave police a similar story. Morrison allegedly told police that she was traveling 65 mph down First Avenue South after her passengers told her to drive faster. She said her tires locked, causing her to lose control and strike the womans vehicle. The speed limit along First Avenue South is 35 mph. Police also spoke with the five passengers traveling in the cab. They said Morrison was weaving around traffic and traveling as fast as 80 mph. All five said they never told Morrison to drive faster. Vehicles waiting to turn right toward a fast food restaurant caused Morrison to slam on her brakes and lose control of the cab, according to the passengers. At least one passenger was reportedly injured in the crash. Morrison is scheduled to appear later this month in a change of plea hearing after being charged with DUI and child endangerment in July 2021. She reached a plea agreement with Yellowstone County prosecutors, which was signed by her and filed in court May 19. In exchange for her admitting that she drove under the influence of marijuana with her two children in the vehicle, prosecutors recommended a sentence of three years commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections, all suspended, and a $600 fine. If convicted of any of the six counts of criminal endangerment, Morrison faces the possibility of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. She is currently in custody at Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 4 Sad 1 Angry 13 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. WASHINGTON Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform are accusing Amazon of "obstructing" their investigation into the company's labor practices during severe weather events. Amazon's policies have been under more scrutiny since the deadly collapse of a company warehouse last year in Edwardsville. An EF-3 tornado struck the building on Dec. 10, 2021, as a storm moved through the region, killing six employees. The deceased included Clayton Lynn Cope, 29, of Alton; Austin McEwen, 26, of Edwardsville; Larry E. Virden, 46, of Collinsville; Kevin D. Dickey, 62, of Carlyle; and Etheria S. Hebb, 34, and Deandre S. Morrow, 28, both of St. Louis. Regulators have found that while Amazon's Edwardsville facility met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering, it still had other safety risks. In March, the committee launched an investigation to find out how the company handled the incident and other disasters. But the letter signed by the committee chairwoman said Amazon has not handed over key documents. Amazon has been "obstructing" a congressional investigation into the company's labor practices during severe weather events by failing to produce materials requested of them more than two months ago, according to a letter members sent to CEO Andy Jassy. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which launched the investigation in late March, had given the Seattle-based e-commerce company a list of materials to hand over by mid-April. But the company "still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by Committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the Committee requested in March," said the letter, signed by the committee chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from New York, as well as progressives Reps. Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "Unfortunately, Amazon has failed to meaningfully comply with the Committee's requests, obstructing the Committee's investigation," they wrote in the letter made public on Thursday. Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company's labor policies during extreme weather events has been under more scrutiny since the deadly collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville. Last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrapped up its own probe into the incident, concluding that Amazon met minimal federal safety requirements for storm sheltering. But regulators also found safety risks and called on the company to improve its procedures. The House letter said the company has not produced any internal communications related to the Edwardsville tornado to the committee, which is doing its own investigation. "Over the course of nearly seven weeks, Amazon produced only an incomplete set of policies and procedures," the letter said. The committee is also seeking documents showing how Amazon managed its workforce during other natural disasters, including wildfires in California in 2018. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for U.S. gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations. Such a meeting could also ease a fraught and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, and the United States, the worlds top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a pariah of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammed's brutal ways. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. He is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. If he does, Biden would also likely visit Israel. Last week, the White House confirmed that Brett McGurk, the National Security Council Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart. McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudis war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire. For Biden, the political dangers of offering his hand to Prince Mohammed include the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggis killing. Saudi Arabia denies his involvement. Still, Biden stood ready to greet the prince at last October's meeting of leading rich and developing nations in Rome, but Prince Mohammed did not attend. And any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge during his campaign that Saudi rulers would pay the price for Khashoggis killing risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate. Democrats appear less vocal now in demands that the U.S. take a hard line with Saudi Arabias crown prince. Near-record gas prices are endangering their prospects in the November midterm election. A leading congressional critic of the Saudi government, Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, said in an email the United States should reassess its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia. But he and other Democrats are not publicly telling Biden he shouldnt meet with Prince Mohammed. Lawmakers point especially to Saudi Arabias refusal despite months of Western appeals to veer from an oil production cap brokered largely between the Saudi kingdom and oil-producer Russia. The production cap is adding to oil supply shortfalls stemming from Russias invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have privately urged Biden to work to soothe U.S.-Saudi relations as has Israel, which sees the kingdom as an essential player in countering Iran. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. The United States for decades has ensured U.S. or allied aircraft carriers, troops and trainers and missile batteries remain deployed in defense of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, and in defense of other Gulf states. The military commitment recognizes that a stable global oil market and a Gulf counterbalance to Iran are in U.S. strategic interests. From Saudi Arabia, the United States is looking for real assurances that it is going to be firmly aligned with the United States internationally, and not drift toward or hedge by trying to have comparable relationships with Russia and China. That goes beyond just oil, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Shapiro is an advocate of bilateral Abraham accords that have helped establish closer ties between some Arab states and Israel. The United States needs to have some assurance that its going to provide those security guarantees and it has a real partner thats going to be like a partner, said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, often see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. militarys longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as Washington tries to extricate itself from Middle East conflicts to focus on China. Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israel's U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, Shapiro said. Deputy Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited CENTCOM headquarters in Florida last month. Regional coordination was one of the main topics, including, Shapiro said, the possibility of such steps as coordinating the Middle Easts air defense capabilities. Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met last month with the Saudi defense official. Sullivan said he talked energy. CIA Director William Burns visited Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia in April. Biden administration officials bristle at the notion that a stepped-up engagement is simply about getting the Saudis to help ease gas prices. Jean-Pierre said that's a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue, as well as our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis. The president's words still stand, she added Wednesday, of Biden's pledge that the Saudis would pay a price." ___ Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. BEIJING (AP) Chinas government on Thursday accused Washington of jeopardizing peace after U.S. envoys began trade talks with Taiwan aimed at deepening relations with the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing. Talks that started Wednesday cover trade, regulation and other areas based on shared values as market-oriented economies, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It did not mention China but the talks add to gestures that show U.S. support for Taiwan amid menacing behavior by Beijing, which threatens to invade. Trade dialogues disrupt peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, said a foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian. He called on Washington to stop negotiating agreements with Taiwan that have sovereign connotations and official nature. Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Partys victory on the mainland. They have multibillion-dollar trade and investment ties but no official relations. Beijing says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations. The United States has diplomatic relations only with Beijing but extensive informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. government is committed by federal law to see that the island has the means to defend itself. Zhao accused Washington of encouraging sentiment in Taiwan in favor of declaring formal independence, a step Beijing has said previously would be grounds for an invasion. The trade initiative is intended to develop concrete ways to deepen the economic and trade relationship and advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, said a statement by the office of USTR Katherine Tai. Taiwan is the ninth-largest U.S. trading partner and an important manufacturing center for computer chips and other high-tech products. President Joe Biden said May 23 while visiting Tokyo that the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan. He said the U.S. commitment to help the island defend itself was even stronger following Russias invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and expressed support for the island during her second visit in a year to Taiwan. On Monday, China sent 30 military aircraft toward Taiwan in the latest of a series of flights aimed at intimidating the islands democratically elected government. Taiwans defense ministry said it sent up fighter planes and put air defense missile systems on alert. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate COLLINSVILLE About 15 people gathered outside the Ameren Illinois headquarters in Collinsville Thursday upset with higher utility rates. On May 25, Ameren issued a statement that customers could see average power bills raise around $52 a month because of the increase in electricity supply costs. People speaking at Thursday's event said Ameren Illinois has raised its price of electricity to 10.628 cents per kilowatt hour. "The increase is going to affect families all across the region, especially families that has already been in dire situations because of finances," said J.D. Dixon, an environmental justice organizer for United Congregations of Metro East in Cahokia. He said the increase will mostly affect the elderly and those on fixed incomes. "Incomes are not increasing by 120%, but the energy bills are," he said. "We all know how this heat is and that the older adults in Illinois will succumb to heat strokes and heat injuries." The Rev. Larita Rice-Barnes, Director of the Metro East Organizing Coalition in East St. Louis, called the rate increase "immoral". "We have to always worry about our elderly and their ability to be able to cool their houses," Barnes said. "Ameren has the ability to implement programs so that our families can take advantage of those to help them to be able to pay their bills. "We are demanding that Ameren protect our customers, protect our grids and save our power," she said. Information on Ameren bill payment options are available at amerenillinois.com/options. The company also lists energy and money-saving resources and tips at AmerenIllinoisSavings.com. Zach Chike, the leader of Community Development and Youth Outreach at City of Joy Fellowship in East St. Louis, gave credit to Ameren Thursday for bringing solar power to the area. But he said that does not "undo the decades of injustice and lack of care for our communities". "Communities like ours have been written off in so many ways," Chike said. "East St. Louis was not on the minds of the people in the corporate office." Wyvetta Granger, founder and director of Community Life Line East St. Louis, said the rate increase will affect what people pay to store diabetic medicine or use a nebulizer. "For most of us, we're just going to make an adjustment with cutting out a meal," Granger said, . "For others, it's a matter of health." Sally Burgess, Downstate Lead Organizing Representative for The Piasa Palisades Group, said the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) signed into law in September can offer short and long term impact. "CEJA puts us on a path to 100% affordable, reliable clean energy while insuring our power supply is built right here in Illinois so that Illinoisians are getting jobs," Burgess said. She said Illinois "can't slow down" on the progress that has been made. "We're calling on Ameren to educate their customers in the ways that CEJA can empower their consumers and lower their own energy cost," she said. designer491/Getty Images/iStockphoto The ongoing wonder as to what President Joe Biden will do with his campaign promise to forgive student loans is no longer a concern for more than half-a-million borrowers. Student loan borrowers that attended Corinthian Colleges had their loans canceled with the approval of the U.S. Department of Education. The mass sum of the student loans canceled is $5.8 billion. TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) A Florida police officer will be prosecuted on a manslaughter charge following the fatal shooting of a man he chased on foot last December, authorities said Wednesday. Joshua Payne, an officer with the Titusville Police Department along Florida's Space Coast, turned himself in to jail on Wednesday. EDWARDSVILLE A Granite City man faces felony charges after shooting in the direction of another person Tuesday. Jacob T. Rea, 19, of Granite City, was charged June 1 with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony, and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on May 31 Rea allegedly fired shots in the direction of another person or a vehicle he knows or reasonably should know to be occupied. He also allegedly resisted attempts by a Granite City police officer to place him under arrest. Bail was set at $100,000. Other felony charges filed June 1 include: Justin A. Collins, 33, of Litchfield, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon (second subsequent offense), a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. According to court documents, on March 22 Collins allegedly had brass knuckles. He has prior convictions for unlawful possession of methamphetamine out of Madison County in 2020, and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon out of Montgomery County in 2009, making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $50,000. Mark C. Abercrombie, 48, of Overland, Missouri, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On May 6 Abercrombie allegedly took a Husqvarna back pack blower and an EGO 56V chainsaw valued in excess of $300 from Lowes in Glen Carbon. Bail was set at $30,000. Kimberly D. Hartman, 43, of Alton, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the East Alton Police Department. On June 1 Hartman allegedly took food items valued at less than $300 from Circle K in East Alton. She has a 2016 conviction for retail theft out of Madison County. Bail was set at $20,000. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday who they said had approached them while carrying a knife. Another Palestinian was killed as the army went to demolish the family home of an attacker. The military released a photo of what it said was the knife she was carrying. It said the soldiers were patrolling a highway near the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank. No soldiers were wounded. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Ghafran Warasna and said she was shot in the chest. The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said the 31-year-old had been released from Israeli prison in April after serving three months. An Israeli security official said Warasna was jailed from January to March after attempting to stab an Israeli police officer in the West Bank city of Hebron. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said she attempted to stab the soldier on Wednesday at point-blank range. There were no photos or videos immediately available to confirm the account. The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate said Warasna had worked on and off as a journalist for more than a decade. Dream Radio, a local station in Hebron, said she was on the way to their studio for a broadcast when she was killed. In a separate incident, at least one Palestinian was killed in or near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, according to the Health Ministry, which did not provide further details. Israeli forces were operating in the nearby village of Yaabed in order to demolish the family home of a Palestinian who methodically gunned down five people in Bnei Brak in March. Such operations often ignite gunbattles between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jenin has been the epicenter of a recent wave of violence. Israel has carried out near-daily arrest raids in the West Bank amid a string of attacks by Palestinians that have killed at least 19 people. Tensions have soared following the killing in the West Bank of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera, and an Israeli ultranationalist march through a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Recent weeks have seen at least 35 Palestinians killed by Israel. Some were gunmen killed in fighting with Israel, while others were shot while allegedly throwing stones or firebombs at Israeli troops in the West Bank. But an unarmed woman and at least two people who appear to have been bystanders were also among those killed. Abu Akleh died during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank. The Palestinians say Israeli troops killed her, while Israel says she was caught in the crossfire of a battle and it's not clear if soldiers or Palestinian gunmen fired the deadly bullet. Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing attacks in recent years, often against Israeli soldiers. But Israel has also faced criticism from rights groups who say security forces sometimes use deadly force rather than arresting suspected attackers or stop them with nondeadly force. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state. Nearly 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the territory, alongside a growing population of nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The last serious peace talks broke down more than a decade ago. ___ Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed to this report. EDWARDSVILLE Felony DUI charges filed against a Madison man more than a year ago were unsealed Wednesday. Anthony W. Gregory, 41, of Madison, was charged April 13, 2021 with aggravated driving under the influence while license suspended, a Class 4 felony. The charges, presented by the Madison Police Department, were sealed until he was taken into custody May 31. According to court documents, on March 7, 2020, Gregory allegedly was driving while under the influence of any drug or combination of drugs at a time his license was suspended for a similar offense. Bail was set at $15,000. The Madison County States Attorneys Office also filed a number of other drug-related charges on May 31, including: Tara J. Deck, 37, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on May 30 Deck allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000. John A. Bone, 53, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 27 Bone allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Lisa A. Ray, 50, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 27 Ray allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Amanda J. Matthews, 31, of Girard, Illinois, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 28 Matthews allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Jason E. Waggener, 42, of Litchfield, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 28 Waggener allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Erica N. Mastrolia, 30, of Litchfield, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 29 Mastrolia allegedly had less than 15 grams of heroin. Bail was set at $15,000. Tina M. Moseley, 50, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On May 29 Moseley allegedly had less than 15 grams of ecstasy. Bail was set at $15,000. Austin W.B. Milanos, 26, of Litchfield, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony, and retail theft under $300, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On May 29 Milanos allegedly had less than 15 grams of heroin and had taken saw blades, carpet cleaner, carpet cleaning solution and automobile wipes valued at less than $300 from the Collinsville Walmart. Bail was set at $15,000. A Billings man has been charged with two felonies after police smashed into his home to bring an armed standoff to an end over the weekend. Robert Raymond Janz, 44, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Yellowstone County District Court to two counts of aggravated kidnapping. He is accused of holding members of his family hostage during the standoff. District Judge Colette Davies set the bond for Janz, who has no prior felony convictions, at $250,000 for the two charges. They [police] had some investigative techniques that alerted them to the fact that the defendant was lying in wait with multiple firearms to shoot any officers that came in, said Yellowstone County Prosecutor Ed Zink after recommending the bond amount. Ultimately, they were able to apprehend him without killing him. That was a very real, possible outcome. Billings police responded to reports of a middle-aged man armed with a handgun walking around a neighborhood on the 1700 block of Morocco Drive in the Heights on May 29. Callers told police that he was banging on front doors and screaming, Come out motherf*****s, according to charging documents. Police identified the man as Janz, and found his address on the 800 block of Solita Drive, which intersects with Morocco Drive. After getting permission to enter a neighbors property, an officer spotted Janz inside the home. Officers opted not to confront him at first, court documents said, because hed previously stated he wanted to kill police and had a history of mental illness. Janz also had a warrant for a partner family member assault charge. Officers reached members of Janzs family by cell phone, who said they were being held inside the Solita Drive home against their will, and that Janz had threatened to kill them if they tried to leave. Janz eventually left the house, and four officers spoke with him on the sidewalk in front of his home. He was allegedly armed with a handgun, and refused orders to drop the weapon. When he tried to go back into the house, the door was locked, so he used a chair to climb onto the roof and enter the house through a window. As police took cover behind vehicles in the area, they saw two people trying to escape the house. An officer used his shield to break down some of the fence line surrounding the property, and helped bring them to safety. Two other people were still inside the house with Janz. The Billings Police Department SWAT team responded. Eventually, the remaining two hostages escaped the house through a back window, charges said. Negotiations between police and Janz consistently broke down, with Janz speaking with SWAT only when he stepped out the backdoor to his home to smoke, documents said. SWAT members used an armored vehicle to ram the front of the house, pushing in the front door and tearing away a portion of the homes facade. Police deployed tear gas canisters, court documents said, and shot Janz with beanbag rounds when he came outside. Janz was arrested and taken to a Billings hospital to be examined for any injuries. He entered Yellowstone County Detention Facility on May 31. Those held hostage by Janz told police said he woke up that morning and told them he was going to look for the devil. He allegedly said he was going to either burn down the homes where he found the devil, or shoot the people inside. Investigators recovered as many as 30 firearms from Janzs home when the standoff came to an end, including AR-15s, Police Chief Rich St. John said at a press conference earlier this week. Judge Davies set Janzs bond to run concurrently with his previous PFMA charge, bringing his total bail amount to $300,000. He appeared in court for his arraignment Thursday via teleconference, and is still in custody at YCDF. If convicted of either count of aggravated kidnapping, Janz could be sentenced up to 100 years in prison or be fined up to $50,000. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 4 Angry 4 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. JERSEYVILLE A Jerseyville man was charged after allegedly threatening another person with an axe and assaulting a police officer. Lonnie D. Stamper, 48, of Jerseyville, has been charged with unlawful possession of weapon by felon, a Super Class 3 felony; aggravated assault to peace officer, a Class 4 felony; and aggravated assault, a Class A misdemeanor. According to court documents, on May 22 Stamper allegedly threatened a person by raising an axe with a three-foot handle and 12-inch blade. He also allegedly displayed a knife toward a Jerseyville police officer. The weapons charge stems from Stamper using the axe as a weapon and having a prior felony conviction. Bail was set at $100,000. In an unrelated case, two people were charged with residential burglary. Bradley D. Rulo, 21, and Collin M. Winters, 17, both of Jerseyville, were each charged May 25 with residential burglary, a Class 1 felony; theft, a Class 3 felony; and criminal damage to property, a Class A misdemeanor. According to court documents, on May 19 the two allegedly entered a home in Jerseyville to commit theft, took radio equipment and jewelry valued in excess of $500 and damaged the exterior door. Bail was set at $100,000 for Rulo; no bail information for Winters was available. Other felony charges filed by the Jersey County States Attorneys Office include: Sylvia R. Wedding, 38, of Dow, was charged May 25 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony; unlawful possession of controlled substance, a Class 4 felony; and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor. According to court documents, on May 23 Wedding allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine, less than 15 grams of fentanyl and a glass pipe. Bail was set at $15,000. Deanna L Fry, 32, of Jerseyville, was charged May 25 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony; and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor. According to court documents, on May 24 Fry allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine and a glass pipe. Bail was set at $15,000. TRENTON, N.J. (AP) New Jersey resident Shashuna Atwater is still living with the awful smell of sewage that inundated her basement when the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck New Jersey nine months ago, destroying photographs, diplomas and other irreplaceable belongings. Atwater, of Newark, was one of roughly two dozen people who spoke Wednesday during an event in Trenton calling on federal officials to speed up and improve disaster aid. Atwater said she's given all her information to the Federal Emergency Management Agency but still hasn't gotten the financial relief she said she needs to rebuild. She's out of luck with her landlord, too, who told her that insurance wouldn't cover the damage. The aftermath was worse than what you saw when you first looked because here goes the cleaning up part, and youre all alone, Atwater said. We have to do better. Wednesday's event comes nine months to the day since Ida's rains struck New Jersey, leaving 30 people dead in the state, turning roads into waterways, flooding basements and leaving a path of destruction across the state. It also comes at the start of new hurricane season that experts warn could include another round of deadly and costly storms. FEMA has allocated about $250 million in assistance and approved aid for some 45,000 applications, the agency said in an email. In addition, the Small Business Administration has set aside $248 million for Ida recovery and the Housing and Urban Development Department has earmarked $228 million in aid for Ida relief. Some of the cash has stalled at the state level as New Jersey officials work to dole it out, though, said Meghan Mertyris, a community organizer for the New Jersey Organizing Project, which bills itself as a grassroots organization representing the states shore region and an advocate for improving disaster funding after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The state is required to submit a plan about spending the funds, according to the Organizing Project's executive director Amanda Devecka-Rinear. There will also be hearings scheduled in which people can comment publicly, she said. Ida survivors can go to those hearings and make comments about the programs and whether or not they will meet their communities' needs, she said in an email, adding, This shouldnt take so long. The group hosted Wednesdays event outside the statehouse annex building. Democratic Reps. Andy Kim and Tom Malinowski both seeking reelection this year after first winning election to Congress in 2018 appeared alongside affected residents and organizers. Kim said he was sorry for the federal government's response and that people whose homes were ruined in the storm should have gotten help quickly. When they turned to those that they needed the help from, they didnt get it, Kim said. For that I apologize on behalf of our country. That is not the way we treat Americans. That is not the way we treat the people that are here. The people here standing with me theyre not asking for the moon. Theyre asking for fairness. Malinowski echoed a refrain President Joe Biden made in September when he visited areas in the Northeast ravaged by Ida, naming climate change as a culprit. Climate change is here. It is 5, 10 feet of water in your basement. It is your house in the state of New Jersey left in state of complete disrepair, Malinowski said. Speeding up disbursement would require better communication between the federal government and the public, Kim said. He added that congressional oversight could help with that. Shirley Eosso's basement and garage in Basking Ridge flooded during Ida. She said she got $249.99 from FEMA as well as some assistance through a flood insurance policy she carried. She said she attended the event Wednesday to speak up for people who couldn't afford to take off work. The process is broken. The money is there. How do we get it to the people who need it? she said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate How many buildings have been obliterated in Ukraine? How many limbs lost, children brutalized, refugees put to flight? How many mothers and fathers, sons and daughters killed? How many dreams have been destroyed? There is no accounting of a war that launched in late winter, continued through spring, reaches the 100-day mark on Friday and is likely to drag on for seasons to come. The conflict unleashed by Russian President Vladimir Putin defies statistics. It is a story best told in unsparing images of human suffering and resilience. Associated Press photographers have captured the terror -- people diving to the floor of a Mariupol hospital as bombs fall around them; a mob of refugees, huddled under a bridge. They have captured the tears of grieving survivors, and of families separated by the war. They have shown us the playfulness of a soldier, lightheartedly kicking a ball amid the carnage; of another soldier, leading an impromptu chorale. They have shown us a chilling view of a car driving down a highway, through the sight of a Ukrainian sniper. They have shown us a landscape littered with buildings in ruins and the carcasses of Russian tanks. And so many bodies. Bodies in trenches and half-buried in hillsides and arrayed on pavements and lying in pools of blood and carried in coffins. A soldier spread out like a statue in a Christ-like pose on a metal barrier. An arm extended in the dirt. This is a country that has been transformed in the blink of an eye. A hundred days ago, a bathtub was for bathing; now, it is a place where a little girl and her dog hide from bombs. What will it be like, 100 days from now? JERSEYVILLE A woman was airlifted to a St. Louis area hospital after a single-vehicle rollover accident near the intersection of Delhi and Schafer roads in Jersey County Tuesday. The accident occurred at about 9:58 a.m. on May 31. Jersey County Sheriff Mike Ringhausen said the woman was driving a 2018 Chevrolet sedan west on Delhi Road when for an unknown reason she left the roadway and crossed Schafer Road into a cornfield, where the vehicle rolled over. EDWARDSVILLE A Granite City woman faces multiple felony and misdemeanor charges regarding battery on a 15-year-old boy. Tonisha R. Rogers, 39, of Granite City, has been charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony; two counts of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony; and three counts of child endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on May 21 Rogers allegedly cut a 15-year-old boys face with a knife, causing a laceration about six centimeters deep and several inches in length. She is accused of waiving the knife in front of the youth and a 17-year-old girl. Bail was set at $100,000. In an unrelated case, Lakeya K. Jones, 36, of Alton, was charged with three counts of endangering the life or health of a child, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on March 25 Jones allegedly left a 10-year-old boy, an 11-month-old boy and a 2-year-old girl unattended for more than six hours. It was noted she has a 2013 conviction for endangering the life or health of a child out of Madison County. Bail was set at $40,000. A Godfrey woman was charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Melissa S. Perez, 41, was charged with unlawful failure to register as a sex offender, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on May 27 Perez, who lacks a fixed address, allegedly failed to register weekly with the Alton Police Department or Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to the Illinois State Police Sex Offender Registry, Perez is listed as a sexual predator, with a conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse. She was 38 at the time of the offense, and the victim was 13. Bail was set at $15,000. Press Release May 31, 2022 Senate hails The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) 2019 Awardees Recognizing the extraordinary contribution of Filipinas to nation-building, the Senate of the Philippines adopted a resolution honoring and commending The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) 2019 awardees. Senate Resolution No. 216, taking into consideration Senate Resolution No. 218, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Binay and Sen. Sonny Angara, breezed through the Senate during the plenary session Monday, May 30, 2022. Binay, in sponsoring the resolution, said it was fitting to honor the 12 recipients of the TOWNS award for their commitment to serve the country and for making a positive impact on our nation's development. The 2019 TOWNS awardees were Xyza Dela Cruz Bacani (Humanities); Carmina F. Bayombong (Entrepreneurship); Clarissa Isabelle L. Delgado (Education); Maria Regina Justina Estuar (Science and Technology); Karla Patricia Gutierrez (Performing Arts); Samira A. Gutoc (Peace Advocacy); Dr. Gay Jane P. Perez (Science and Technology); Atty. Patricia Ann T. Prodigalidad (Law); Stephanie L. Sy (Technology Entrepreneurship); Rohaniza Sumndad-Usman (Education); Chiara Zambrano (Journalism); and Dr. Geraldine Zamora (Health and Medicine). "It is particularly fitting this year that we honor our TOWNS awardees right after the proclamation of our new president and vice president. At the beginning of a new administration, let us be reminded of the things that must remain constant, namely service and hope," Binay said in her speech. The TOWNS award is given to Filipinas age 21 to 50 who have shown outstanding dedication, exceptional talent, and careers that have contributed in a positive way to society. The TOWNS Foundation Inc. is a national organization of dynamic and effective women who have been helping transform the lives of the Filipinos. "As a woman, it uplifts my spirit to be reminded of our potential as women, that we could achieve what many think is impossible," Binay said. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa joined Binay in honoring and recognizing the 2019 TOWNS awardees as they expressed hope that they would inspire others to lend their talents in providing a better future for the country. A 23-year-old Helena man accused of threatening a shooting attack on Helena High School is facing an additional felony charge, and his bond has been set at $750,000. The Lewis and Clark County Attorneys Office on Wednesday amended its complaint against Logan Pallister, adding a charge of possession of a silencer. Pallister was charged Tuesday with two felony counts of intimidation and one felony count of possession of explosives after officers received reports that he had made threats regarding a mass shooting at Helena High School and had access to weapons and possible explosive devices. Police added additional information to their affidavit Wednesday, stating they had dealt with Pallister in 2020 when he was carrying several firearms and had guns in a duffel bag in his vehicle. They said that in 2019 he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon in a local grocery store and openly carrying a TEC-9-style weapon while concealing a semi-automatic pistol beneath his coat. Pallister appeared via video from the Lewis and Clark Detention Center before Justice of the Peace Mark V. Piskolich. He did not enter a plea and requested a public defender. A preliminary hearing was set for June 10 and arraignment for June 14. Piskolich also ordered Pallister to undergo a mental health evaluation. He said that if Pallister posts bond, he would have to wear a GPS monitor, could not come within 1,000 feet from any school, could have no contact with any victims, could have no contact with firearms or weapons and could not consume alcohol. He said he would also have to undergo drug testing twice a month. According to police, Pallister told witnesses he idolized and would reenact the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in which two teen gunmen killed 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves, according to a document filed Tuesday in Justice Court. He talked of carrying out a mass shooting at Helena High School. His arrest came a week after a teen gunman entered a school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 children and two teachers. Pallister was arrested early Tuesday in front of his residence. Helena police said he had eight firearms, including three semi-automatic rifles and five handguns. He was taken to the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center. Officials in their amended complaint Wednesday said Pallister told a witness he was going to make bombs to use in a school and showed her the bombs on May 30. The witness said the bombs looked similar to mini-propane bottles, but all silver and with a fuse about 4-6 inches long. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone, police said. Officers said they found photos of Logan posted on websites holding weapons. In one of the photos he was wearing his black trench coat. Officers said this backed up the statement by the witness that Pallister was mimicking the Columbine shooters who were sometimes known as the Trench Coat Mafia. Officers, through search warrants, went to Logans residence and vehicle Tuesday. In the vehicle they said they found what they thought were homemade improvised explosive devices and materials to make such devices. Some of the firearms found had threaded barrels capable of being used for a silencer. In the vehicle they found an ammunition box containing not only ammunition but also a homemade silencer made from a Fram oil filter modified to fit to a firearm muzzle, according to court documents A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent said it had been fired, but had never been registered. Agents also found survivalist literature. There was one catalog that sold devices to speed the firing of a semi-automatic rifle, authorities said. Helena Public Schools was notified of the investigation and the arrest at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Communications Officer Karen Ogden said. She said the school district did not lock down any buildings, as law enforcement said there was no threat to the community at that time. East Helena Public Schools were temporarily placed on "secure" status Tuesday morning as part of the school district's standard response protocol, Superintendent Dan Rispens said in a note to parents. All students and staff were kept inside secure buildings until the secure order was lifted around 9:10 a.m. Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Westerly, RI (02891) Today Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High near 75F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming cloudy with periods of rain after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Here is something for the City to celebrate as the Jubilee party begins. The FTSE 100 is to gain a 45billion-plus newcomer following the release of the 467-page prospectus for the float of Haleon, the health care arm of GlaxoSmithKline. At first glance, the split-out of Haleon, producer of emblematic brands such as Sensodyne and Panadol, might not seem critical to the post-Brexit London Stock Exchange. But other choices could easily have been made. There is a tendency, particularly in the healthcare and tech sectors, for companies to head to New York and other markets on the grounds that London shares trade at a discount to overseas counterparts. Changes: GlaxoSmithKline boss Dame Emma Walmsley has been responsible for floating Haleon Executives at health devices and limb replacement group Smith & Nephew plotted to cross the Atlantic in 2019 but were turned back when it was revealed that the main motive for doing so was that pay and incentive packages for bosses are much higher in New York! In 2018 Unilever proposed to relocate to Rotterdam, more safely hidden away from activists. Among the escapees from the City was the float of Vodafone offshoot Vantage Towers, which went to Frankfurt. It can never be a given that the UK is the first choice for companies. This is in spite of the fact that Vodafone's existence is a tribute to UK innovation and technology and the willingness of the Square Mile to back its ambition. Critics of fat cat pay will find an easy target in Haleon chief executive Brian McNamara. His pay package including incentive shares, pension rights and re-location costs could be worth 10.4m. That would outstrip presplit GlaxoSmithKline boss Dame Emma Walmsley's total pay of 8.2m in 2022 and would be more than double the 4.2m earned by Unilever boss Alan Jope who was ready to pay 50billion in a trade purchase of Haleon. Bringing Haleon to the public markets is a significant milestone for chief executive Walmsley. The former L'Oreal boss has struggled to release value since she took the top job at Glaxo in 2017. Under her predecessor, scientist Andrew Witty, the company wrestled with ethical violations around the globe from the US to China and fell far behind in oncology after doing an asset swap with Switzerland's Novartis in 2015. Walmsley has been required to pick up the pieces. The choice of famed researcher Hal Barron as R&D chief based in San Francisco was seen as an important step but was undermined by his early departure. More recently Glaxo has turned to acquisitions to help pick up the pace of life sciences growth. This week it splashed 2.4bn on biopharmaceutical company Affinivax in an extension of world-leading vaccine operations. The recovery path for Walmsley has not been that smooth. In spite of its vaccine expertise, GSK was a big loser in the race for a Covid jab as UK rival AstraZeneca raced ahead with its life-saving rollout of the Oxford University inoculation. The GSK chief also has found herself in the sights of activist fund managers Elliott Partners. It spotted the valuation gap to other big pharma companies which Walmsley is struggling to erase. Elliott's proposed solution is that Walmsley step down after the healthcare separation and GSK install a chief executive with science credentials to head pharma operations. Haleon will be taking on a chunk of 10bn or so of debt allowing GSK pharma to reduce borrowings and increase capacity for rapid-fire acquisitions. It will keep a minority interest in Haleon on the grounds that dividend income will enable it to ramp up R&D. Pfizer plans to sell down its 32 per cent minority stake in Haleon in a 'disciplined manner' starting as soon as the lockdown period which prohibits sales ends. Transformations do not come cheaply. The biggest winners will be advisers Citigroup, Goldman and Merrill Lynch with the total fees for the demerger and transactions involved amounting to more than 500m. That is almost one-third of the 1.6billion of profit for Haleon in the year ending in March. There is much not to like in the shape of bankers' fees and over-generous remuneration at Haleon. Nevertheless, the demerger should be good for the City. The next important task is for Boris Johnson's limping government to persuade Masayoshi Son of his duty to bring Cambridge-based semiconductor designer Arm Holdings back to London. The splitting off of GSK's consumer healthcare arm Haleon is expected to generate bumper paydays for both its boss and the advisers who worked on the deal. Haleon, which owns brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol painkillers, is due to be spun out from GSK next month and begin trading on the London Stock Exchange on July 18. It will be the biggest stock market debut for a company in London in a decade. It is also expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The demerger is a key plank of a turnaround strategy spearheaded by GSK boss Dame Emma Walmsley as she tries to shift the firm's focus towards drugs and vaccines and boost its flagging share price amid pressure from investors. Brian McNamara, the current boss of the consumer division who will head up Haleon after the demerger, will see his maximum pay packet expand to 10.4m per year from its current level of 4.4m. The sum includes a 300,000 one-off payment which it is understood will be used to help McNamara set up a permanent home in London as well as pay for tax expenses arising from his move to the UK. Meanwhile, Sir Dave Lewis, the former head of Tesco who has been recruited as Haleon's chairman, will be paid a fee of 700,000 per year. Bankers and lawyers assisting with the move are also expected to receive a bumper payday with costs related to the split, stock market listing and other transactions expected to top 500m. It is not known how much of this will be comprised of fees. The details came after it was revealed US drug giant Pfizer planned to sell off its 32 per cent stake in Haleon following the demerger. Haleon will also be taking on around 10billion worth of GSK's debt as part of the demerger which will be to pay a 7billion special dividend to GSK and an additional 3billion to Pfizer. The City expects Haleon to fetch a valuation in the range of 38billion to 45billion when it lists next month, although GSK previously slapped down a 50billion bid for the business by consumer goods giant Unilever, saying it undervalued Haleon's prospects. Swiss giant Nestle also considered making a bid earlier this year in what would have been its biggest deal ever, but backed out. French bank Societe Generale previously said the two businesses could be worth much more than previously thought, with a combined value of as much as 115billion, up from around 90billion today. Following the demerger, Walmsley is planning to focus the remainder of GSK's business on developing new drugs and vaccines. The firm has already hit the acquisition trail to boost its pipeline of new drugs, snapping up Boston-based vaccine maker Affinivax for 2.4billion earlier this week shortly after buying cancer drug group Sierra Oncology for 1.5billion in April. Walmsley, 53, who worked at L'Oreal before joining GSK in 2017, has drawn up a blueprint for consistent growth over the next five years that she hopes will silence her critics and deter predators. She has drawn criticism from activist investor Elliott Advisors, which believes the board should consider other candidates with more pharmaceutical experience for the top job. Elliott took a stake in the company after identifying a significant underperformance compared with AstraZeneca. Frustrations with GSK increased when it fell behind in the quest to produce a Covid vaccine. The takeover of a Welsh graphene firm has been abandoned by its Chinese buyer after a national security probe. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the planned acquisition of Swansea-based Perpetuus by plastics maker Shanghai Kington Technology was called off after he ordered an in-depth investigation into the tie-up last month. 'The UK Government monitors the market at all times to identify acquisitions of potential national security interest. We will intervene where necessary,' Kwarteng added. Perpetuus specialises in making materials from graphene, a so-called 'wonder material' that is hundreds of times stronger than steel despite being much lighter. Probe: Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the planned acquisition of Swansea-based Perpetuus by plastics maker Shanghai Kington Technology was called off It is often used in cars and bikes but is also useful in the electronics and aerospace sectors. The scrapping of the deal comes after the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, the UK's largest computer chip maker, by the Chinese was also called in for review by Kwarteng last week. The semiconductor 'wafers' made in Newport are vital in the computer chip-making process and are used to make products for companies including Dyson. The ditching of the Perpetuus deal will give hope to critics of the Newport takeover that it could also be scrapped, keeping a vital piece of Britain's tech sector out of the hands of a foreign buyer. The issue has been highlighted by the Mail's Back British Tech campaign. Ministers have been reviewing takeovers of firms by overseas firms after complaints that parts of the UK's technology industries were being shipped off abroad. The French boss of AstraZeneca has been given a knighthood for his part in helping develop a coronavirus vaccine. Sir Pascal Soriot, who was born in France but now lives with his wife and two children in Australia, said he was 'truly humbled' to receive the honour. Humbled: Sir Pascal received the award for services to UK life sciences and the response to coronavirus The 63-year-old, who spends much of his time in Britain, where AstraZeneca is based, said: 'Growing up in France, I had many dreams and hopes for the future, but I never thought I would receive a knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen.' Sir Pascal received the award for services to UK life sciences and the response to coronavirus. AstraZeneca developed a Covid vaccine alongside Oxford University that was approved in 2020. The jab was used extensively across the UK and helped reduce the number of people admitted to hospital. Sir Pascal has been chief executive of AstraZeneca since 2012. He made his name early on in his tenure by fighting off a 80billion takeover bid by US rival Pfizer in 2014. AstraZeneca is now valued at over 160billion. Two of the London market's biggest oil firms were in the spotlight after signing a landmark merger deal. Tullow Oil and Capricorn Energy, both constituents of the FTSE250, agreed an all-share tie-up that will create a new entity worth just over 1.4billion. Under the terms of the deal, investors will receive 3.8 Tullow shares for each share they currently own in Capricorn. Fired up: Tullow Oil and Capricorn Energy, both constituents of the FTSE250, agreed an all-share tie-up that will create a new entity worth just over 1.4billion Following the merger, Tullow shareholders will own 53 per cent of the combined group and Capricorn investors the remaining 47 per cent. The two firms believe the deal, due to be completed later this year, will create a 'stronger, more resilient business' focused on Africa that could 'generate significant future returns for shareholders'. Capricorn shares rose 1.2 per cent, or 2.3p, to 200.8p following the news while Tullow dipped 2 per cent, or 1.1p, to 53.5p. It marks a change of fortune for Tullow, which last year saw its future in doubt before striking a 1.4billion refinancing deal. The tie-up has also clarified the outlook for Capricorn, which in 2021 finally settled a long-running tax dispute with the Indian government after agreeing to cough up 556m. The combined group will be led by Tullow's boss Rahul Dhir and plans to set a base dividend worth 48m. 'A merger of equals between Capricorn Energy and Tullow Oil reflects how far both have fallen since their glory days when they were both propelled by exploration success to the ranks of the FTSE 100,' said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. There was other notable activity in the oil and gas sector, with Aberdeen-based John Wood Group announcing the sale of its consulting arm Built Environment for 1.5billion. The division has been sold to Canadian firm WSP Global. While Wood said the sale would help it accelerate its strategy to be 'a leader across energy security and sustainability', the shares tumbled 6.4 per cent, or 15.2p, to 223.4p. It came as the competition watchdog launched an inquiry into BT's joint venture with US media giant Warner Bros Discovery. The tie-up will see BT Sport combine with Eurosport, but the CMA is investigating whether it will lead to a 'substantial lessening of competition' in the market. And the telecoms giant's annual report revealed boss Philip Jansen was paid 3.5m in the year to April, a 32 per cent jump from the year before. The FTSE100 was down 0.98 per cent, or 74.71 points, at 7532.95 while the FTSE250 dropped 0.71 per cent, or 145.05 points, to 20272.90. Energy and telecoms firms were proving to be the biggest weights on the blue-chip index, with National Grid dropping 4.3 per cent, or 50p, to 1121p while Vodafone fell 3 per cent, or 3.8p, to 126.7p. And Rolls-Royce was one of the top risers after analysts at broker Jefferies hiked their target price on the stock to 100p from 95p. Grocery firms were in focus amid hopes they would receive a mini sales boost as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations got under way. However, the excitement caused little movement in the shares, with Tesco mostly flat at 258.9p while Sainsbury's was 227.2p. The festivities also threatened to be gloomy for the wider economy, with Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter warning the Jubilee would hit productivity over the long weekend. She added: 'The Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002 saw production fall by 5.4 per cent and it dipped again in 2012 for the 60th anniversary.' Chemicals group Johnson Matthey dropped 0.5 per cent, or 10p, to 2100p despite completing the sale of its health business. A leading figure at Europe's largest asset manager has accused parts of the private equity market of acting like a 'Ponzi scheme'. Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi Asset Management, said some buyout firms were falsely inflating their profits by selling businesses on to each other and paying higher prices with little regard for actual value. Spelling it out: Vincent Mortier claimed some private equity firms are passing companies between them in a manner similar to a pyramid scheme Private equity firms' tactics can be controversial making their money by snapping up businesses and selling them on for a profit but Mortier claimed some are passing companies between them in a manner similar to a pyramid scheme. He told investors at a virtual press briefing: 'You know you can sell [a company] to another private equity firm for 20 or 30 times [that company's] earnings. 'That's why you can talk about a Ponzi. It's a circular thing.' Mortier added: ' Eventually there will be casualties, but that might not be for three, four, or five years.' Germany's top fund manager has been plunged into crisis over allegations of greenwashing. DWS boss Asoka Wohrmann quit yesterday after citing the 'burden' caused by a former executive claiming the company's 2020 annual report made misleading statements on environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG). Trouble: 50 police officers raided the Frankfurt offices of DWS and its majority owner Deutsche Bank It came after around 50 police officers raided the Frankfurt offices of DWS and its majority owner Deutsche Bank on Tuesday to collect evidence as part of a fraud investigation. The asset management firm was first thrown into disarray when Desiree Fixler last year alleged more than half of the group's $900bn assets were invested using ESG. While DWS has denied the claims, its 2021 annual report, published in March, reported ESG assets that were 75pc less than a year earlier. Wohrmann said: 'In order to protect the institution and those closest to me, I would like to clear the way for a fresh start.' He will step down on June 9 and be replaced by Stefan Hoops. Shares fell 6pc by the close of trading in Frankfurt yesterday. The Community Diaper Bank is a resource for families that provides diaper assistance for families in need up to six times per year. The demand for diaper assistance increased from 90,000 in 2020 to 300,000 in 2021 here in Yellowstone County. The Diaper Bank aims to lessen that burden on families by providing assistance with diapers, wipes, formula, and other needed supplies. United Way is dedicated to promoting the health of the community as well as setting up children and families for successful lives making their connection to Family Promise and the Diaper Bank essential. UWYCs continued partnership with Family Promise allows them to ensure the youngest community members have the access to products that will give them the best and healthiest start to life. United Way Day of Action is volunteer activation across all United Ways to mobilize community members to give, advocate, and volunteer for causes that are the most pressing in their community. This day allows individuals to enrich their community by getting involved. Day of Action events range from meal collections and delivery, offering tutoring to students in need, providing wellness checks to seniors and much more. Here in Yellowstone County, Day of Action focuses on taking care of the families and children that need support. This year, all seven branches of Western Security Bank will collect donations for the drive. Staff and patrons of the bank will be encouraged to donate diapers of any size and wipes to be donated to the Diaper Bank between June 13- 17. The diaper drive will be held on June 21 from 12 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. at the United Way office, 2173 Overland Avenue. The goal is 30,000 diapers, which provides approximately one month supply to families in need in our community. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to host their own diaper drive and drop off their collections during the event. Diapers of all sizes, wipes, and monetary donations will be accepted. The Community Diaper Bank is able to purchase 3 diapers for the cost of one making monetary donations just as valued as physical donations. For more information contact Chrissy Brese at United Way, 406-272-8511 or volcoord@uwyellowstone.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Nearly half of landlords have offered financial support to cash-strapped tenants, according to new research. The survey of 729 landlords found that 44 per cent have come to some form of financial rescue for their tenants. It suggested that landlords have been able to swallow a 7.6 per cent reduction in rent on average. It equates to around 50 a month for each rental property they own. A total of 44% of landlords have come to the financial rescue of their tenants, according to a new study The survey was carried out by Nationwide Building Society's The Landlord Works - a platform to help landlords manage their portfolios - between March 6 and March 24. It asked landlords what financial support, if any, they had given tenants in the past year, along with how they intended to offer support in the future. While many are able to reduce rents, 45 per cent of landlords confirmed that any reduction would harm them financially. And 38 per cent said they intend to keep rents the same for the next year despite the financial challenges. More than half - at 55 per cent - said they need to increase rents in the next 12 months, with one in four planning to raise rents on all of their properties. Landlords with larger portfolios are more likely to increase rents on at least some of their properties, the survey reveals. Three quarters of those who own more than 10 properties aim to increase their rents over the next 12 months, compared to only 44 per cent of those owning between one and three properties. A total of 46 per cent of those landlords with a small portfolio plan to keep rents the same. Where are people getting more help? There are regional differences, with 68 per cent of landlords in Yorkshire & The Humber most likely to increase rents on some or all of their properties in the next year. It is followed by those in outer London at 65 per cent, the North West at 63 per cent and Wales at 63 per cent. Despite the plan to increase rents, 57 per cent of landlords are concerned about whether tenants can maintain their rental payments, with 13 per cent admitting they are very concerned. It increases to 74 per cent of landlords who let to claimants of Local Housing Allowance and 71 per cent of landlords who let to retired people. Landlords in East Midlands appear to be the most concerned about the ability of their tenants to pay rent, at 74 per cent. It is followed by 70 per cent of landlords in Wales and 62 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber. Meanwhile, only 32 per cent of landlords in central London are worried about receiving their rent. The survey suggests that landlords have been able to typically reduce rents by around 50 a month In terms of the support offered to tenants by 44 per cent of landlords, temporary reductions and rental payment holidays are the most common options. The survey suggested that 22 per cent provided a temporary rent reduction, 15 per cent offered a payment holiday and 4 per cent offered a permanent reduction in rent. Only 3 per cent of these landlords lent money to support their tenants' day-to-day living costs. Larger reductions in rent Landlords with smaller portfolios were found to be able to reduce rents by a slightly higher amount. Compared to the average of 7.6 per cent for all landlord types, those with one property can reduce by an average of 8.7 per cent, while those this two or three properties are able to reduce rents by 9.3 per cent. Of those who could reduce rents, 47 per cent said they could keep the reduction going for between three and six months. The 60 per cent of landlords making a full-time living from their lettings activity, and the 51 per cent who are retired are more likely to say they could sustain the rent reduction for more than six months. Some landlords - including some of those who are retired - have been able to reduce rents for more than six months Paul Wootton, of The Landlord Works, said: 'Landlords are facing a real dilemma at the moment in dealing with the continued rising cost of living. It's great to see such a high proportion of landlords feel a sense of responsibility towards supporting these tenants during these challenging times 'On the one hand, there is a need to ensure they can cover the increasing costs associated with their properties and ensure they are following the market. However, as our research demonstrates, they are also acutely aware of the financial challenges facing their tenants. 'It's great to see such a high proportion of landlords feel a sense of responsibility towards supporting these tenants during these challenging times. 'And in a lot of cases, this sentiment has been met by financial support for their tenants over the last twelve months. 'While we will see rents rise over the coming months in many cases, we can also expect landlords to offer continued support at what is a tough time for many.' It comes after property website Zoopla highlighted the financial strain that tenants are under. Its research found that there is a significant increase in the proportion of gross income spent on rent. This is particularly the case in London where it has risen to a significant 52 per cent for a single earner, a level not seen since March 2020. It falls to 26 per cent for sharers and means that a new let agreed for an average rent in London will cost more than 20,000 in rent during the next 12 months. The Yellowstone Roaring 20s Auto Club celebrates its annual car auction, swap meet and car show this weekend. Neil Schlaeppi, who handles publicity for Montanas largest car club, said this year marks the 51st year for the swap meet and the 42nd year for the antique and classic car auction. All of the activities surrounding the Roaring 20s Auto Classic take place at club headquarters and grounds, located at 7400 Grand Ave, and all events are open to the public. Organizers expect about 50 cars, both classic and special interest vehicles, to be auctioned off beginning at 10 a. m. Saturday, June 4. The swap meet, which will be held from 8 a. m. through 4 p. m. Saturday, and 8 a. m. through 3 p. m. on Sunday, will include car and truck parts as well as antiques and flea market items. Adult admission is $5 Saturday and $1 Sunday. Breakfast and lunch are available for purchase both days, as well as homemade pie and beverages. On Sunday, June 5, there will also be a car show from 9 a. m. through 3 p. m., which caps off the weekend. There is no entry fee for the show and shine event, and prizes are awarded by public vote and drawings. The club has 160 family memberships according to Schlaeppi, and the weekend events are designed for the whole family. The Yellowstone Roaring 20s Auto Club is the only Montana car club to own its own clubhouse and grounds. Proceeds from the weekends activities go to maintain and improve the grounds as well as to support a scholarship program for a high school senior studying in the automotive field. When theyre not hosting the annual event, club members participate in car shows and parades. They also display their cars at area retirement homes. For more information about the club visit www.roaring20sautoclub.com, or call Schlaeppi @ 406-656-4319. 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. FILE - Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse as jury deliberations continue in his rape trial in New York, on Feb. 24, 2020. A New York appellate court on Thursday, June 2, 2022, has upheld Weinstein's rape conviction, rejecting the disgraced movie mogul's claims that the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him by allowing women to testify about allegations that weren't part of the criminal case. Kingsport, TN (37660) Today Scattered thunderstorms. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 82F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Russian forces were attempting to extend and consolidate their hold on Ukraines industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Thursday, edging closer to claiming a big prize in their offensive in the eastern Donbas region. But in a boost for Ukraine, locked in a grinding struggle against Russias invading army, the United States announced a $700 million weapons package for Kyiv that will include advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 80 km (50 miles). Russia accused the United States of adding fuel to the fire. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the supply of the rocket launchers raised the risk of a third country being dragged into the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine had promised it would not use the systems to hit targets inside Russia. President Joe Biden hopes extending Ukraines artillery reach will help push Russia to negotiate an end to the war, which on Friday marks its 100th day. After days of heavy fighting around Sievierodonetsk, much of which has been laid to waste by Russian bombardment, Russian troops were inching forward through city streets. Ukraine says about 70% of the city is under Russian control, with Russian troops in the city centre. The enemy is conducting assault operations in the settlement of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraines armed forces general staff said on Thursday, adding that Russian forces were also attacking in other parts of the east and northeast. At least four civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the east and northeast, other officials said. Russia denies targeting civilians. If Russia fully captures Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it would hold all of Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists. Britains defence ministry said in its daily intelligence update that Russia controlled most of the city, which before the war had a population of about 101,000, and that Ukrainian forces had destroyed bridges over the river to Lysychansk. Capturing all of Luhansk would fulfil one of Russian President Vladimir Putins main aims and solidify a shift in battlefield momentum after his forces were pushed back from the capital Kyiv and from northern Ukraine. PINK CLOUD Luhansks regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, told Reuters that civilians were sheltering from Russian attacks under a Sievierodonetsk chemical plant that he said was hit by an air strike on Tuesday, releasing a large pink cloud. There are civilians there in bomb shelters, there are quite a few of them left, Gaidai said. Reuters could not independently confirm the account. About 15,000 people remained in the city, Gaidai said. Gaidai has warned that Ukrainian troops in Sievierodonetsk could be forced to retreat to Lysychansk, which he said was easier to defend from its vantage on a hill. Putin sent his troops over the border on what he called a special military operation on Feb. 24 to disarm and denazify Ukraine. Ukraine and its allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of aggression and the West has imposed stringent sanctions on Russia in a bid to strangle its economy. Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and millions more displaced since the invasion began. Amid worries about the global ramifications of the war, Ukraines grain traders union said this years wheat harvest was likely to drop to 19.2 million tonnes from a record 33 million in 2021. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies, while Russia is also a key fertilizer exporter and Ukraine a major supplier of corn and sunflower oil. Biden is due to meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday in Washington. Stoltenberg told reporters he would soon convene a meeting in Brussels with Swedish, Finnish and Turkish officials to discuss Turkeys opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. WEAPONS PACKAGE Besides the advanced rocket systems, called HIMARS, the new U.S. package includes ammunition, counter fire radars, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles and anti-armour weapons, officials said. The decision to give Ukraine the rocket systems was made after Washington received assurances from Kyiv that it would not use them to hit targets inside Russian territory, which could broaden the war. Ukraine has been seeking Multiple Rocket Launch Systems such as the M270 and M142 HIMARS to provide more firepower at longer range to hit Russian forces well behind the front line. The Pentagon said Washington would initially provide Ukraine with four HIMARS systems. The new supplies come on top of billions of dollars worth of equipment such as drones and anti-aircraft missiles. The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three sources told Reuters. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the supplies would not encourage Ukraines leadership to resume stalled peace talks. Separately, U.S. Cyber Command Director Paul Nakasone confirmed that the United States had conducted offensive, defensive and information cyber operations to support Ukraine. He gave no specific details in comments to Sky News. SOURCE: REUTERS Theres a certain irony to the radar dishes pictured on the cover of Joseph Krausmans forthcoming book Parabolic Dishes. First, because its a physical book after all, not an e-doc transmitted over the air. Not that theres anything wrong with that, its just that the 86-year old Krausman is so actively devoted to the in-person sharing of literature. An Albany resident, hes a reliable presence and thoughtful participant at author talks, poetry readings and writing workshops plus all manner of other cultural happenings in the Capital Region. Its a good thing, writers hearing other writers, said Krausman in his Brooklyn accent. Im a professional neophyte. Started as a kid, made friends and had good teachers. Krausmans titular use of the word parabolic is a poetic play on what is contained in his book, which is 20 short parables, most of them just a page or so in length, plus three stories. The stories are rather recent, but he wrote the parables for his masters thesis at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 50 years ago. Krausman characterizes the form as a loose story that implies something. Its another way of communicating. Im sending a verbal message instead of electrical. There are choice dollops of humor and wisdom in Krausmans puzzling vignettes. His themes are intimate and universal the search for love, the need to make a buck, the urge to create and leave a mark in the world while theres still time. In Krausmans Why Am I Not Marc Chagall? from the new book, a lexicographer considers his options after suffering a head injury. He tries and fails at love and passes the time counting grains of rice. A shrink tells him to pursue the arts so he becomes a drummer and joins an orthodox rock group, The Sons of Purim. Written in first-person voice, the piece concludes: My trunk is packed and my clothes are pressed. I dont look for the boat. When it comes, it comes. Meanwhile, music must be made in this lovely agony and dream: my life. Krausman grew up in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He joined the Army at age 18 and was active duty for two years at domestic postings mostly in the South. Next, he earned a bachelors degree from Brooklyn College, compliments of the GI Bill. A summer visit to Northampton, Mass., convinced him to continue his education in New England. First, he took courses at Mount Holyoke then earned a master's in playwriting from Smith College where he also held a prestigious fellowship. Finally, he took an MFA in fiction from UMass Amherst. Also in Northampton, Krausman served for three years as artistic director of the Pines Theater Festival, which every summer presented a full slate of outdoor concerts and shows. Among the productions was his play, The Ice Cream Parlor, which became the title piece for his collected stage works, published years later. Another of his plays, An Air of Truth once made it to Off Off Broadway. He also has a book of poetry, Monkeyshines." During this same period, Krausman was twice cast in plays alongside Spalding Gray, which led to a long friendship. Gray became famous for his public readings and the 1987 film Swimming to Cambodia. I helped him get a job and so he was always nice to me and gave me tickets, said Krausman, who once drove Gray to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs where he had a booking. Twice Krausman hosted parties in Grays honor after appearances at The Egg. We became friends and I knew him pretty well. Such a sad ending, said Krausman, referring to Grays suicide. Upon Krausmans graduation from UMass, one of his professors wrote a recommendation letter describing a writing style that can be seen in the parables that comprised his thesis as well as in his more recent work: He writes in a pungent, caustic style, crisply eloquent and wryly modern. He has an excellent ear for contemporary idiom and expression and is a keen observer of modern society. His writing is intelligently entertaining without being polemical or precious. With three degrees and some clippings in hand, all Krausman needed was work that paid. During a visit home to Brooklyn, his politically active brother introduced him to Stanley Fink, a rising member of the New York state Legislature and its future speaker. I need a job, Krausman told the lawmaker, and I write fiction. Well, thats just what we do in the Legislature, replied Fink, who helped him find a position in civil service. The job was with the Committee on State and Local Relations and it brought Krausman to Albany in 1981. As a senior research analyst, he wrote books on fire and police departments. He retired in 2000. In retirement, Krausman recalled once as a kid telling his dad that he was bored. You have nothing to do, then read a book, replied his pop. Joe took the advice and over the decades has become the consummate library hound. Besides being a loyal patron of the Albany Public Library, he is also a board member of the Friends and Foundation of the APL. The group hosts book talks at noontime every Tuesday in the Washington Avenue branch and annually honors one local writer as Author of the Year. About 10 years ago, Krausman wrote a short article for a retirement newsletter that gently chastises those folks who complain that theres nothing going on around here. The Capital District is so rich in events that the problem is not that there is nothing to do, but which events should I go to, he wrote. Along the way he has built a strong network of allies and kindred spirits. Joe is an all-around good guy, with a million stories about the famous and not so famous, a man about town who can be found at most literary events in the area such as the Writers Institute programs. While he has never lost his Brooklyn accent and manner, he is a true Albany character. I love him dearly, the local poet and peace activist Dan Wilcox, wrote via email. On Thursday, Aug. 18, Krausman will be the featured reader at the monthly poetry open mic hosted by Wilcox at the Social Justice Center in Albany. Still on the horizon for Krausman is a new collection of poetry, My Heart Is An Onion. His catalog of poems is deep, with a number of award-winning pieces, and the poems are catalogued by topic. This makes it a snap for Krausman to enter contests and participate in readings that have specific themes. If I get a prompt for writing, I already have something food, religion, games, snakes, death. Ive got a lot about death, he said. Producing the new book Parabolic Dishes caused Krausman to look back on his writing as a grad student and observe: I think I wasnt nice enough. Theres a bit of an edge. But maybe someone will get some fun out of it. There are nuggets of Krausmans life in those early parables. In My Literary Heritage, a 20-year-old aspiring writer learns from his mother that a cousin named Bienstock once wrote a book of poetry, but it was entirely in Yiddish. He goes off to find this wizened cousin at the diner where hes known to be a regular. The two discuss the motivations and rewards of the writers life and Bienstock gives him a copy of his book. In real life, it was an uncle who was the writer in the family and he lived in Argentina. One of his three books was in Yiddish, a language Krausman heard in fragments from his parents and in every sermon at the synagogue. Ever the student, he went on to take advanced courses in the language at Oxford University (of all places). I went all the way to Oxford and earned a diploma, he said with a bit of wonder. The aspiring young writer in that story leaves the meeting with his cousin disappointed to have not learned any secrets of the writing trade (there are no secrets), but pleased nevertheless to own a copy of the book and to have gotten a glimpse of a life immersed in literature. I rode home in the dirty subway, clutching the incomprehensible volume. Spangled metaphors danced in my head. I knew the way home, and I felt from deep within, a clenched fist pounding against my heart. Bruce Piasecki describes himself, when he was 16 years old, as an angry, working-class kid growing up on Long Island. Basketball was a big part of his life, but it was the anger mostly at the death of his father that defined him. I was fortunate that I had a teacher named Charles Plummer who pulled me aside and handed me The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. In that elective class we were expected to choose a book, read it and tell the class about it. I wanted to read a book about LSD, but he picked this one out especially for me. As Piasecki began reading it he quickly fell under the spell of Franklin. I loved his sense of humor, and I admired how civil he was during a time when there wasnt a lot of civility. I was certainly not a very civil teenager when I began reading that book, and it took me awhile to learn that skill. Franklins book showed me that being diplomatic gets you further than being antagonistic. I now know it was the influence of Franklin, which explains why I didnt aspire to go to law school. I wanted to do some type of public service, maybe write books, and maybe own my own company. In the 50 years after, Piasecki has accomplished much. He worked as a professor at Clarkson University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the founder and president of AHC Group, which since 1981 has been active in assisting organizations and many Fortune 500 companies in helping them realize their business potential in regard to environmental strategies and public issues. He has also published 19 books, and his most recent, A New Way to Wealth: The Power of Doing More With Less, is an homage to his mentor, Franklin. Franklin has been a lifelong interest of mine," Piasecki said. "After receiving my Ph.D., I got my first job at Clarkson, and one of the classes I taught was Great Books in Western Civilization. I taught Franklins autobiography for 10 years, continually learning from it and realizing now it was the book that shaped me as a writer. One of the things Piasecki especially liked about Franklin was how he educated himself in the ways of the world by observing society and the world around him. He was not a one-dimensional guy. He was fascinated by science, literature, politics and nature. He showed by his example that reading can provide you with a diversity of ideas and give you different ways of thinking about problems. I know the many books Ive read by great writers have allowed me to see the world through their eyes and have helped me with my own creativity. In his latest book, Piasecki is writing about a different way for corporations to function. I call it competitive frugality, and I got the idea from Franklin. Many companies waste much of their time and resources getting nowhere. We live in a digital age, but many corporations have forgotten such classical virtues as building positive relationships. Thats a virtue Franklin had and it served him well. Companies need to cut through the sea of data and as Franklin often wrote do more with less. At one time I believed the government could solve problems like climate change, but now I feel its up to companies, especially some of the global corporations to be more public minded and have a social purpose to enact change. Piasecki has been impressed with how most of the major global corporations have come together to punish Russian President Valdimir Putin for his war on Ukraine. Advanced capitalism today is a complex web of supply chain inter-dependences among the top 500-to-5,000 firms. This new world order is essentially liberal and open based on democratic principles, and they do not tolerate what a dictator like Putin is trying to do. I call this social response capitalism, and I think thats a good thing. Piasecki was one of the first writers, more than 30 years ago, to write about the dangers of climate change, and he served on a White House council in the 1990s with then-Vice President Al Gore. Ive been preaching the idea for companies to cut down on waste as a way to be more frugal for many years," Piasecki said. "Its another way for corporations to promote social good and a positive way to achieve organizational sustainability and growth. In 2021 he and his wife, Andrea Masters, established The Creative Force Fund Award for Social Impact Writers, which awards $5,000 to writers between the ages of 18 to 35 for their work in covering business and society. Themes may include climate change, racial/gender equality, sustainability and innovation. Daniel Sherrell is our first recipient for his book Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World, which is a memoir on the climate crisis framed as a letter to Daniels future child," Piasecki said. "Im optimistic about the future because of young people like Daniel. Ive seen how this younger generation are living lives that are more inclusive and accepting of differences, and they see the severity of climate change on the world. Piasecki believes its important for people to look back upon life, and hes done that frequently in his books. As he looks back upon his life, he appreciates all the friends and family who have influenced him in a positive way. My wife has always supported me even when I gave up a tenured teaching position to start my own business. She and my daughter give me the strength to take chances in life and attempt to live what Ben Franklin preached to do well by doing good. After years of deliberation, leadership at St. Vincent Healthcare announced plans Thursday to replace the hospital with a new facility to be constructed over the course of five years. The decision to build a replacement hospital on the existing site was driven by the results of a cost-benefit review. Based on the age of the existing facility and the investment required to modernize it, leadership found that it would be more practical to construct a new facility. The replacement hospital will be built on the site of the existing campus, along North 27th Street. The site's central location and proximity to the airport and the I-90 corridor will improve access. Previous chief medical officer Dr. Michael Bush and past president Steve Loveless laid the groundwork for the new building. Since taking on the role as chief medical officer in August 2021, Dr. Chris Spoja has prioritized flow of patient care for the new facility as competing interests currently exist between emergency and non-emergency patient care. He acknowledged there are challenges with the current building's layout when it comes to simultaneously meeting the needs of both emergency and non-emergency patients. "Immediate patients, those are a smaller percentage of our patients, so then you have the lions share of the patients come in non-emergently. You want it to be convenient for families and providers. Yet they're put at a lower tier of priority because they...aren't the most emergent," Spoja said. "We want to make sure that we're accommodating appropriately for what will be the lions share of the patients while still having everything in place for the emergent conditions." When a heart attack, stroke or trauma patient comes into the hospital, "we need to prioritize the care of those patients due to the critical nature of their injury or condition," he added. "With the new hospital, we'll be able to optimize patient flow to provide the most efficient care to all of our patients." Spoja plans for the new facility to be the greenest and most efficient hospital in the state. And with the additional space, St. Vs plans to offer new services and expand trauma care, with the long-term goal of becoming a level 1 trauma center, Spoja said. The new site will total 820,000 square feet, up from the 640,000 square feet of usable space in the current hospital. Forty-two beds will be added for a total of 295 patient beds. "The plan is to be ready for the future...we expect this new hospital, state-of-the-art, to last us for the next 40 or 50 years without touching the operational needs for it," said Kirkor Jansezian, chief operation officer. Flexibility will be key in the new structure, with the ability to convert patient rooms quickly into an intensive care unit. Post-COVID airflow will also be improved to meet infection control in patient care areas and increased oxygen capacity will be added to the entire facility. In the current hospital, rooms are too small to accommodate new technologies, said House Supervisor Joan McCoy. For example...the hospital was built before we had CAT scans, McCoy said. Long, sloping hallways and stairs are also significant challenges following uncontained water events that occur often due to old plumping, according to McCoy. An architecture firm and a contractor have been secured to begin on the design phase. Then, when the city approves the plans, construction will begin with a new parking garage and will likely continue for five years until completed. While the enterprise does not have a price tag yet, Intermountain Health will pay for the construction through bond financing. What excites me about this project is the why behind it, said Jen Alderfer, president of St. Vincent Healthcare and the Montana Region. We are doing this to elevate health care in our area for future generations of Montanans, building a healthier community for all of those we serve. Before construction begins, many steps need to take place, including city approval of anticipated planning and zoning variances, and final project approval from the Intermountain Healthcare Board of Directors. Love 9 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. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY - If attorneys with the Department of Justice have their way, the U.S. Supreme Court will take a pass on Alain Kaloyeros. Kaloyeros, the visionary who created Albany Nanotech and SUNY Polytechnic Institute before his epic fall in a $1 billion bid-rigging scheme, is asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of his 2018 conviction on wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges. Kaloyeros is currently serving a 42-month sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Otisville, Orange County. Kaloyeros has already had previous appeals denied by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, and getting the Supreme Court to hear a case is extremely difficult, although attorneys for Kaloyeros have argued that the decision would be important for the court to debate. Kaloyeros believes that his conviction should be overturned because the bid-rigging scheme he participated in with two upstate contractors vying for $1 billion in construction contracts with Albany Nanotech projects in Syracuse and Buffalo didn't result in the state losing money or enriching him unfairly. Kaloyeros was a director of a nonprofit board called Fort Schuyler Management Corp. that made decisions for Albany Nanotech's real estate and construction projects. He was accused by federal prosecutors of misleading the Fort Schuyler board to ensure that two favored contractors were picked as finalists for the projects in Buffalo and Syracuse. Kaloyeros did that, prosecutors alleged, by tailoring the project specifications to match the two favored firms. Of course the Fort Schuyler board was not as independent as, say, a traditional corporate board of directors. Most of those appointed worked with or under Kaloyeros, who held various roles within the State University of New York system. The board rarely if ever went against any recommendations made by Kaloyeros, who ruled Albany Nanotech with almost unchecked power before his 2016 arrest. Prosecutors charged Kaloyeros under what's known as the "right-to-control" theory of wire fraud that covers more intangible fraud, such as fraud that denies someone information they would normally expect to be able to review when deciding on awarding a large construction contract. They claimed Kaloyeros essentially prevented the Fort Schuyler board from realizing there may have been other firms that could have provided better or cheaper services. At trial, it was revealed that when a Syracuse-area contractor had complained to the Fort Schuyler board that the bidding process was not transparent, officials at Albany Nanotech and the board's president were dismissive of the complaint and tried to downplay those concerns. Attorneys for Kaloyeros claim that the Second Circuit appeals court views the "right-to-control" theory differently than other appeals courts, and so the Supreme Court should fix the inconsistency. But attorneys for the Justice Department say in a May 24 filing with the Supreme Court that prosecutors gave clear instructions to the district court jury in the Kaloyeros case that they needed to find that the bid-rigging scheme caused "tangible economic harm" to Fort Schuyler as an entity, even under the right-to-control theory. "They planned to and did receive money from Fort Schuyler after manipulating the bid-submission process in a manner that impeded Fort Schuylers ability to get better services, a lower price, or both from an alternative provider," DOJ attorneys wrote. Sheri Scavone said she was incredibly underpaid for a long time at the start of her career, but she didnt know it. She went on to work for a large medical institution and then saw the same thing happening to others firsthand, especially due to what she believed to be gender discrimination. Seeing how women suffer wage losses compared to men or younger employees lose out on money because of their age has driven her to speak out against the inequities. Scavone, CEO of the Western New York Women's Foundation, now works tirelessly to advocate for others slighted by pay inequities and move government bodies toward adopting policies that will weaken or eliminate systemic pillars upholding wage gaps. provided by Sheri Scavone She sees pay transparency laws as a small but empowering step on the long road driving her mission, particularly for women who are disproportionately affected by such inequities. The Albany County Legislature is currently considering a law that would obligate employers to disclose minimum and maximum pay for job listings. Over half a dozen states have already implemented pay transparency laws and several places in New York, including Ithaca, have as well or are inching toward it. One would think that we have pay equity laws, so, why do we need something like salary transparency? Well, the reality of it is the pay equity laws are not enforced, Scavone said. Data from the Institute for Womens Policy Research (IWPR) showed full-time working women earned just 83 percent of what men made in 2021, based on median weekly earnings. And the disparities widen across racial lines as women of color earn significantly less than white men. "Compared to the median weekly earnings of White men working full-time, Hispanic womens full-time earnings were just 58.4 percent, Black womens 63.1 percent, and White womens 79.6 percent," the report said. The institute determined that if employed women in New York were paid the same as men in similar roles, their poverty rate would be cut by half and if trends continue as they are, women wont reach pay parity with men until 2059. While there may be no direct link between pay secrecy and pay inequality, pay secrecy appears to contribute to the gender gap in earnings, IWPR said in a report. IWPR also discovered that 61 percent of private-sector employees are either discouraged or formally prohibited from discussing wage and salary information compared to 14 percent of employees in public workplaces. For Scavone, pay transparency measures arent an all-encompassing solution but can be helpful in creating some parameters for employers and leveling the playing field a bit. Knowing a positions full pay scale would allow applicants to know what to ask for and better evaluate their fit for a role rather than potentially undervaluing themselves. Policies like this do, in some ways, empower women to negotiate differently, to ask more questions, she explained. Scavone further said it helps women fight back against mommy penalties or unconscious bias that taints peoples thinking in terms of salary for women. Mommy penalties are implicit biases that employers may have toward women because they are mothers or thinking of having children, according to Scavone. Its the idea that a womans salary package can be lower because as a mother, or prospective mother, she will have to take time off from work for maternity leave or child care. Hayward Derrick Horton, a professor of sociology at the University at Albany, agreed. He emphasized that racism and sexism still play dramatic roles in salary determinations. He believes pay transparency laws would put employers on notice and shift some of the power dynamics weight toward job hunters to work in their favor. Horton finds salaries for private-sector jobs are largely determined by the market and thus are more subjective, rather than being set by civil service guidelines or union contracts as public positions are. Lawmakers have much more of a challenge controlling it or even attempting to control that because you don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, he said. Since concepts of capital mobility and globalization exist, companies can very well say theyre going to move to another state or country if they dont like a policy for the sake of protecting their business. Putting more pressure on private companies with additional regulations could send them packing and affect the economic landscape. Both Horton and Scavone agree such threats are an obstacle to achieving pay equity. Those obstacles can bring into question just how much pay equity laws can make an impact in New York. We are a highly bureaucratic state. And so, I think there always is pushback at a business level (against) yet one more regulation, Scavone said. ALBANY This could get a little confusing. Bear with me. OK, so Jim Tedisco is the state senator from the 49th District and was set to run for reelection in the 51st District under those outrageously gerrymandered maps Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the Legislature attempted to foist on voters. Now that those maps have been tossed by the courts and replaced, Tedisco finds himself among the citizens of the newly created 46th District, which includes Schenectady County (excluding Niskayuna and the city of Schenectady), Albany County (without Colonie, Cohoes and Watervliet) and Montgomery County. But that district is represented by Neil Breslin, a Democrat who has been in office for just about forever and includes loads of progressives. So Tedisco, a Republican, has decided he'll instead run for reelection in the 44th District, which includes Niskayuna, the city of Schenectady and Saratoga County but does not include Tedisco's hometown of Glenville. Got all that? Good. Of course, all of this is part of the chaos Democrats created with election maps that were so obviously biased and unconstitutional. Most of the angst resulting from the tossing of the districts has, appropriately enough, been felt by them. But here's the issue for today: The district Tedisco has chosen for himself again, that would be the 44th happens to include the Halfmoon home of state Sen. Daphne Jordan, 62, a Republican, and she is not happy that Tedisco plans to run against her in the upcoming primary. In a scathing statement released last week, Jordan called Tedisco's decision "sad and shameful" and said he lacks the courage to take on Breslin. She was also displeased that GOP party bosses in Saratoga and Schenectady counties quickly endorsed Tedisco, saying the process was unfair and lacked transparency. "I believe that the people must and will decide this, not political bosses, or crony insiders that Jim has either fooled or strong-armed," Jordan added in what can only be described as fightin' words. "Im in this to win it. Im not backing down or going anywhere." When I spoke with her Wednesday, Jordan wasn't backing down, telling me she's heard from oodles of voters outraged by Tedisco's decision. (I've heard from some, too.) "Lots of people can't believe what Jim is doing," Jordan added. "People are angry." That's understandable. I mean, this isn't complicated. Tedisco should run in the 46th district because that's where he lives. Tedisco should not run in the 44th because he doesn't live there. (Update: An earlier version of this paragraph mixed up the districts. See, it really is confusing!) Voters should choose their politicians, in other words, instead of politicians choosing their voters. It is true that a Trump-supporting politician who voted against the SAFE Act and the Reproductive Health Act would be a tough sell to the many voters in Albany who would rather vote for a rat than a Republican, as Tedisco certainly knows. "It would be a disservice to Albany if I tried to stand up and represent it," he told me. "I'd be a fish out of water." I see his point. On the other hand, many Albany County voters aren't progressive and the newly created district includes plenty of red areas, too. Meanwhile, Tedisco's current district (along with the new one he wants to represent) includes deep-blue Schenectady and Niskayuna, and somehow he has made it work. In fact, I'd argue that Tedisco, 71, has been a good state senator. Known for strong constituent service, he has been a force behind significant animal-welfare legislation, for example, and he knows how to make an outraged fuss when the occasion demands it. Remember when that Cuomo fellow tried to make everyone pay $45 for the mandatory replacement of license plates? It was Tedisco who was largely responsible for killing that (his words) "highway heist." Tedisco is certainly more active, vocal and vigorous than Breslin, 79, who was first elected to the state Senate in 1996 and is typically reelected without anything resembling a real challenge. If there is such a thing as an entrenched incumbent, it's Breslin. He is a reliable Democratic vote in the Legislature, though, and that's all some voters in the district will want. But if anyone could make Breslin work and perhaps even sweat, it would be Tedisco, who has significant name recognition and has been among the few Republicans endorsed by New York State United Teachers. At the very least, Tedisco would give Breslin some actual competition and, more importantly, provide voters with a real choice. He might not win, but winning isn't everything. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill Woodstock is many things: quaint, beautiful, artsy, overwhelmed by weekend traffic. But one thing it has never been despite popular belief is the site of a world-famous music festival. That doesnt keep tourists from stopping town historian Richard Heppner on Main Street to this day to ask where, exactly, said festival took place. The answer? Bethel, almost an hour away. Though Richie Havens, The Who, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young never performed in Woodstock at a festival, these days the town still boasts a booming music scene, as it has for many years. Its music-loving residents currently the population is 6,200 are majority part-timers, though Heppner notes this may have changed recently. I cant attest to that number with the pandemic, he says. Woodstock has changed in other ways with the times. Its recently become a hotspot for weddings as well as home to an Asian market that sells fried chicken with a cult following on Fridays. Heres what else there is to know about one of the Hudson Valleys most famous towns. Casey Kelbaugh Whats the story behind Woodstock? Woodstock is best known for its cultural scene, says Heppner. Founded in 1787, Woodstock was rural throughout the 19th century. Industry back then was mostly farming and quarrying. Then, in 1902, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony was founded. Byrdcliffe inspired other art colonies, including Maverick, over the border in Hurley. Historical Society of Woodstock Archives Historical Society of Woodstock Archives Eventually, Woodstock morphed into a full-blown center for fine art, theater and music. We have a Woodstock School of Art, a historical society, and the Woodstock Playhouse, which has been there since the 1930s, all within a mile or two of each other, notes Heppner. The town is also known for its beautiful physical landscape. There are plenty of trails to hike locally, and its a short drive to ski slopes, mountains and fishing streams. The physical environment lead to the art colony itself. The beauty the artists saw in the area goes hand in hand with Woodstock legacy, Heppner says. Scott Heaney / Getty Images Why was Woodstock important? Music. But not how most people think. If you live in the Hudson Valley, you of course know the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair didnt actually take place in Woodstock the town. Still, most people still think of the town in connection with the festival and the musicians who performed there, including Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. John W. Barry In the 60s, a man named Albert Grossman he managed Bob Dylan and The Band, among others came to Woodstock. Musicians quickly followed. Grossman build a studio in the hamlet of Bearsville where people would come and record. Today the complex has been revitalized and Woodstocks music scene is alive and well. Related: 8 most legendary albums recorded in Woodstock The founders of the famous music festival were well aware of Woodstock as a growing music center. But they were planning on thousands of people attending their festival and people in Woodstock objected; there was no place locally for that many bodies. It was never seriously going to be here, but they kept the name, and we reaped the rewards, says Heppner. Where did Woodstock take place? Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter. Bethel, a town around 50 minutes away. I have only been there a couple of times; its a hike, says Heppner, who didnt attend the festival. I was in high school here and my parents wouldnt let me go. Did they try to have another Woodstock? There have been a handful of follow-up festivals since 1969. Saugerties hosted a Woodstock festival in 1994 on Winston Farm. There was one in Rome, New York, too. I dont think it went too well, recalls Heppner. What do people not know about Woodstock? For full-time residents of Woodstock, the biggest community events have nothing to do with music. The biggest day is Christmas Eve, going on since the Depression years, Heppner says. The town gathers at the Village Green. Santa Claus arrives, but nobody knows how he will arrive. Its a mystery, a town secret. Over the years, Santa has climbed down steeples, been shot out of a cannon, arrived on an electric guitar, and has even been lowered down from a UFO. Historical Society of Woodstock Archives Halloween is also a big to-do, with an iconic parade wending through the center of town. Kids trick or treat at all the local businesses. Also, on Sunday evenings, the Woodstock drum circle is a must, often taking place just when the tourists and weekenders make their storied treks back out of town. They bring out congas to the Village Green, says Heppner. Anyone can grab one and start playing. It has been going on for years. Courtesy of Lynsey Smith Lynsey Smith is leaving CBS6 Albany. She made the announcement this week on her social media channels. Her last day is June 3. "Three years ago, you welcomed this Southern girl with open arms and let me tell the stories that matter to you. I appreciate each and every single one of you whove made my time in NY remarkable," wrote Smith on Facebook. "Youve brought me some of the greatest memories Ill hold onto forever except for the snow, the snow Id very much like to forget." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) Enough, enough, President Joe Biden exclaimed over and over Thursday night, as he delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into killing fields." If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their outrage to turn it into a central issue in Novembers midterm elections. Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and said if Congress won't embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21. How much more carnage are we willing to accept? Biden asked after last week's shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. Dont tell me raising the age wont make a difference, he said. The most recent shootings came close on the heels of the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as racially motivated violent extremism. This time we have to take the time to do something," Biden said, calling out the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to pass legislation. For all the passion of Bidens address, and for all his big asks and smaller fallback alternatives, any major action by Congress is still a long shot. I know how hard it is, but Ill never give up, and if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people wont give up either," he added. "I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Adding a stark perspective to young people's deaths, he noted that Centers for Disease Control data shows guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America, ahead of car crashes. Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined, he said. Aware of persistent criticism from gun-rights advocates, Biden insisted his appeal wasn't about vilifying gun owners" or taking away anybodys guns. We should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave, Biden said. This isnt about taking away anyones rights, its about protecting children, its about protecting families. He called on Congress to end outrageous protections for gun manufacturers, which severely limit their liability over how their firearms are used, comparing it to the tobacco industry, which has faced repeated litigation over its products' role in causing cancer and other diseases. Imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where wed be today, Biden said. All major broadcast networks broke away from regular programing to carry Bidens remarks at 7:30 p.m. EDT, before the start of prime-time shows. Biden has given major speeches on the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. But the president has used such addresses sparingly during his nearly 18 months in office, especially during evening hours. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Earlier Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the Oklahoma shooting, saying, All of us hold the people of Tulsa in our hearts, but we also reaffirm our commitment to passing commonsense gun safety laws. No more excuses. Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough," Harris said. "We need Congress to act. Visiting Uvalde on Sunday, Biden mourned privately for three-plus hours with anguished families. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, the president pledged, We will. In his address, he spoke of being passed a note by a woman in a Uvalde church grieving the loss of her grandchild, calling on people to come together and act. His Thursday night address coincided with bipartisan talks that are intensifying among a core group of senators discussing modest gun policy changes. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said the group is making rapid progress," and Biden has spoken to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, among those leading Democrats' efforts on the issue. Democrats are hoping Biden's remarks encourage the bipartisan Senate talks and build pressure on the Republicans to strike an agreement. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is encouraged by congressional negotiations but the president wants to give lawmakers some space to keep talking. The private discussions in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, are not expected to produce the kinds of sweeping reforms being considered by the Democratic-led House which has approved expansive background checks legislation and will next turn to an assault weapons ban. A House package debated Thursday and approved by a committee, 25-19 is less sweeping but includes a provision raising the required age for buying semi-automatic firearms to 21. It still faces slim chances in the Senate. Instead, the bipartisan senators are likely to come up with a more incremental package that would increase federal funding to support state gun safety efforts with incentives for bolstering school security and mental health resources. The package may also encourage red-flag laws to keep firearms away from those who would do harm. While the Senate approved a modest measure to encourage compliance with background checks after a 2017 church mass shooting in Texas and one in Parkland, Florida, the following year, no major legislation cleared the chamber following the devastating massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. __ Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) A 26-year-old murder case has been solved with new DNA technology, police in Florida's capital city said Wednesday. The Tallahassee Police Department arrested Alan Lefferts, 71, for the 1996 killing of James Branner, who was found dead in a room at the Prince Murat Motel following a violent fight. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A gunman who killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa medical office blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the rampage, police said Thursday. The patient called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then killed himself as police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. President Joe Biden addressed the carnage in recent years from mass shootings with AR-style rifles in an address Thursday night. Since the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school killed 21 people, including 19 children, just over a week ago, there have been 20 mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured," he said. After describing the Tulsa shooting as one of those 20 mass shootings, the president said, "That doesnt count the carnage we see every single day that doesnt make the headlines. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. "He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Franklin said Phillips performed the surgery on May 19 and Louis was released from the hospital on May 24. He said Louis called the doctor's office several times over several days reporting he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for additional treatment. Louis called the office again Wednesday complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance, he said. A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a "consummate gentleman" and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said. Love, a 73-year-old retired Army sergeant, was a patient at the clinic but that day he was accompanying his wife, Deborah, for her six-month checkup, said their daughter, Karen Denise Love. Police have received reports that Love held a door shut in hopes of allowing others to flee from the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to reporters questions. Karen Love said her parents were in an examination room with one of Phillips assistants when the couple heard the commotion outside. When they realized it was gunshots, Karen Love said her father grabbed the door handle from inside the room. As they heard this guy going up and down the hall, they knew it was gunfire, Karen Love said. They thought it was someone just shooting people. My dad was trying to hold the door the best he could. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Franklin said police believe Louis shot himself about 39 seconds after the first officers entered the building. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance." The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. ___ Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed from Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody from Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York. BOISE, Idaho (AP) The Idaho Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit over the state's newest anti-abortion law in August but probably after the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling that could overturn the right to legalized abortion nationwide. The Idaho Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it would hear arguments on Aug. 3 in the lawsuit brought by a regional Planned Parenthood organization against Idaho's new law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. That's before most people know they are pregnant. The law seeks to halt access to abortions while avoiding constitutional court challenges by allowing potential relatives of the fetuses or embryos to sue abortion providers for at least $20,000 in damages within four years of an abortion. The law prohibits rapists from filing such lawsuits, but rapists' relatives could. In its lawsuit, the group contends the Idaho law is unconstitutional because it violates a individuals' right to privacy and its enforcement mechanism violates the constitutional separation of powers. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to issue a ruling in a separate case in June or July that is expected to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, another Idaho anti-abortion law enacted in 2020 will go into effect. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. That trigger law makes it a felony to perform abortions or attempt to perform abortions, unless they are done to save a patients' lives or in cases where the pregnancies were the result of rape or incest reported to law enforcement. In cases of rape or incest, patients must provide a copy of the police report to the physician performing the abortion. Such law enforcement reports can take weeks or months to obtain under Idahos Public Records law because they are legally sealed while criminal investigations are underway. The Idaho Supreme Court case will likely move forward even if Roe v. Wade is overturned and Idahos trigger law takes effect. Rebecca Gibron, Chief Executive Officer of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said her organization is looking forward to its lawyers arguing the case. Our claims arise under the state constitution, and therefore will not be affected by the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling," Gibron wrote in an email. "No matter the federal ruling, we will do everything we possibly can to ensure Idahoans can continue to access the care that they deserve, including abortion. SEARSBURG, Vt. A man who served time in state prison was charged with murder in the death of Jessica Hildenbrandt, the 43-year-old Ballston Spa woman whose remains were found in a gravel pit two years ago. On Thursday, Vermont State Police said she was killed by an ex-boyfriend whom she allegedly told authorities she feared before her vanishing. Deven Moffitt, 32, of Bennington, Vermont, was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Hildenbrandt, Vermont State Police said in a news release. Hildenbrandt, originally from Saratoga County, was last heard from in July 2019 and two months later a jawbone eventually determined to contain her DNA was discovered in the pit. Detectives determined that Hildenbrandt and Moffitt had been in a relationship while Moffitt was incarcerated in Vermont, police said. Moffitt is in jail without bail and was scheduled for an arraignment Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. Police said their investigation goes back to Sept. 17, 2019, when a man reported finding what appeared to be a human jawbone at a gravel pit on Somerset Road in Searsburg. Police eventually found more remains at the site. At the time of her disappearance, Hildenbrandt, known as "Red," was living along the border of Colonie and Niskayuna. She spent significant time in the Bennington area. Her two Facebook pages indicated an ex-boyfriend lived there. In March 2019, Hildenbrandt reported to the Windsor County States Attorney Office and later to Vermont State Police that she feared for her life if Moffitt were to be released from prison, police said. A detective interviewed Hildenbrandt, but she ultimately stopped cooperating with the investigation, and law enforcement was unable to pursue the matter further, police said in the news release. On April 1, 2019, she posted an apology on Facebook to people she "hurt through my insane toxic relationship." Her final Facebook post was July 7, 2019. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. The following day, Hildenbrandt posted bail for Moffitt, Vermont State Police said. Evidence shows she was killed in mid-July 2019, Vermont State Police said. A year later, the Vermont Forensic Laboratory identified the gravel pit remains as those of Hildenbrandt through DNA analysis. The Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a homicide that September. In the course of the complex, lengthy investigation, detectives spoke with numerous witnesses and associates of Hildenbrandt and Moffitt; analyzed cellphone calling, text-message and location data; executed digital search warrants; and reviewed call records from the Department of Corrections," a statement from the Vermont State Police read. Hildenbrandt's obituary noted that she loved spending time with family and friends on Sacandaga Lake and was "a good friend, who always was a shoulder to lean on." The Times Union's Wendy Liberatore contributed to this report. Two years after having an expansion approved for its tailings storage to extend the life of the East Boulder Mine, Sibanye Stillwater Mining Co. is seeking approval of two more expansions. Two public meetings are scheduled for June 23 to provide information and take comments on the proposal. The meetings will begin at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. During the first 30 minutes of each meeting, officials from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Custer Gallatin National Forest will give a presentation on the environmental impact statement, the permitting process and a description of the proposed project. A question-and-answer session and the opportunity to provide public comment will follow each talk. The meetings will be held in the Community Meeting Room at the Big Timber Carnegie Library, 314 McLeod Street, and will be live-streamed via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, register for one of the meetings by June 20 at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-scoping-meeting-east-boulder-mine-amendment-004-registration-342367348957 Public comments can also be submitted in writing or online through June 27. Last expansion In 2020, the Custer Gallatin National Forest approved Sibanye expanding its waste rock facility 23 miles south of Big Timber along the base of the Beartooth Mountains. That work was meant to extend the mines life through 2033. Now the multinational mining company is seeking to have a tailings facility in Lewis Gulch and Dry Fork authorized, a total of about 470 acres. The facilities are meant to allow the mine to operate through 2045 and 2047, respectively. For more details, the application for the project is available on the Forest Service website at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=61385. Precious metals The East Boulder Mine is one of the only producers of platinum and palladium in the world. Its sister operation, the Stillwater Mine, operates to the southeast near Nye. Both Sibanye mines target the same geological formation, known as the JM Reef area. Under its expansion plan at the East Boulder Mine, Sibanye Stillwater is proposing to: expand the current mill site area from 249 acres to 723 acres; construct the Lewis Gulch Tailings Storage Facility on 88 acres near the current borrow pit for storage of an estimated 5.8 million cubic yards of material allowing mining to continue until 2043 or 2045; another 39 acres would be disturbed with roads and infrastructure for the tailings pit. To the north of the current mine, Sibanye is also proposing to construct the Dry Fork Waste Rock Storage Area across a total of 96 acres, 46 of which are national forest land. Thirty-five of those acres are in the North Absaroka inventoried roadless area. The storage area would be built in three phases, beginning in 2025 and running through 2035. A new road, bridge, water lines, ponds and an electric tower are part of the project. The new facility would hold another 5.4 million cubic yards of waste rock, extending the mines life to around 2036 to 2047. Both estimates of mine life are based on the current mining rate. Concerns The mines expansion of its waste rock facilities has concerned some downstream landowners who voiced their fears in a September Billings Gazette story. Leon Royer said he was worried that Sibanye-Stillwater and Sweet Grass County commissioners had done little to protect downstream landowners if a dam breach were to occur. The companys own dam breach assessment, released as one of the forms in its application, projects that failure of the structure could result in the East Boulder Campground less than four miles downstream being inundated under 16 feet to 24 feet of water within 17 to 18 minutes. At peak discharge the water flow could hit more than 141,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) at the campground. Even by the time the water reached the Yellowstone River confluence 37 miles downstream, about three-and-a-half to five hours later, the water level would be 3 feet higher and running at more than 70,000 cfs, the report estimated. Critical infrastructure that could be affected by the breach include numerous bridges along the Boulder River and Highway 298 and Highway 90, the report said. Although Sibanye Stillwater is required to model the possibility of the dam failing, company officials have defended the design as the best technology has to offer. The most common reasons for dam failure, the report concluded, are unusual weather events like a 500- to 1,000-year flood, poor design or construction, improper management and/or a significant earthquake. As time goes on and the pond dries up, the tailings should present less of a threat of downstream flooding, the engineers concluded. Support Royer said he's given talks around Sweet Grass County to raise awareness of the issue and to voice his concerns. He has asked the agencies to extend the comment period for the public, saying people need more time to study the issue and reply. He's also urging the DEQ and Forest Service to consider requiring Sibanye Stillwater to dry stacking its tailings, removing the problem of a possible dam breach and flood. "So, we're in the fight now," Royer said. "The local people who understand this are engaged." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate COLONIE A little girl who learned to climb a slide despite being blind will be memorialized with a playground that can be used by vision-impaired children. Charlie Fernandez was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer, just days after starting kindergarten in 2018. She lost her eyesight in January 2020, due to a tumor pressing on her optic nerve, and died in April 2021 at the age of 7. The playground at Saddlewood Elementary, her South Colonie school, was spread out along a narrow stretch of grass, with no fence to help guide students from the slide to the swings. The top of the slide had no delineation to let a blind student know theyd reached the end. This did not stop Charlie from having the time of her life there during recess. Where Angels Play will now build a fully accessible playground at Saddlewood Elementary in honor of her playful spirit. The foundation is fundraising for the effort and will build it next summer. Her favorite thing was to go on the playground, said Jim Plourde of Where Angels Play. She smiled, she laughed and she loved. Charlies mom had a secret dream of building an accessible playground. But she never thought it would happen, she said at Wednesdays announcement. I want a playground that can be used by blind children. When we looked around, there was nothing, Danielle Fernandez said. In New York City, on treatment days, we would go to the playground there and she absolutely loved it. Small adaptations are all thats needed: a fence, a gate at the top of a slide to warn the child that theyve reached the top, and touch-amenities like a sandbox. Maybe steps and tall handrails instead of a ladder to the slide, Fernandez said. The world can be a scary place if you close your eyes I dont know how she did it. At first, Charlie was afraid to go home from the hospital because she couldnt see. But that didnt stop her long. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. She wanted to go on the slide, teacher Sarah Norton recounted of a day when Charlie returned to school after treatment. So myself and one of the aides, I was behind her, there were people at the bottom, we got her up there - and she came down with the biggest smile. The other children clustered around her, Norton recalled. It was a big deal. She wanted to be outside. She wanted to play, she said. There are no vision-impaired students at the school right now, but there are three classrooms led by special education teachers, and many children who could benefit from various adaptations to the playground, she said. And you never know whos going to come in September, she said. GLENVILLE A veteran detective charged with harassment resulting from a domestic dispute involving female neighbors must stay out of trouble for three months and the violations will be dismissed and the court records sealed, attorneys involved with the case said. On Tuesday, Brandon Kietlinski appeared before Glenville Town Justice Jennifer McPhail and agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal to resolve the matter. McPhail issued a three-month order of protection that stipulates Kietlinski must refrain from having any illegal contact with the person who filed the complaint against him. "You can have communications, you can see one another, but you just can't harass, threaten, annoy, intimidate or otherwise commit a crime against that person," said his attorney, Andrew Safranko, who also stressed Wednesday that there was "no factual findings" or admissions of wrongdoing against his client. He said Kietlinski, who has always maintained his innocence, voluntarily surrendered his cellphone "and there was absolutely no evidence of any text messages going from his phone to these complainants." Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen, whose office served as the special prosecutor in the case, did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment. Her office took over the matter after Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney requested his office be taken off the case because of a potential conflict of interest given that Kietlinski is the lead detective in a homicide case. Kietlinski, who has been with the department since 2009, was initially placed on paid leave but returned to work in mid-March after a preliminary review determined there is no reason at this time for him not to be at work, Chief Eric Clifford said previously. The two counts of second-degree harassment, a violation, arose out of the complaints filed by the two Glenville women in what that town's police chief in March characterized as a domestic-related dispute involving "non-contact harassment." Specifically, Kietlinski is accused of sending an affectionate text message to one of the women, expressing his desire to rekindle a romantic relationship. Around the same time, Kietlinski allegedly texted the other woman, using foul language, telling her he knew she had called his job, before finishing the correspondence with "you're done." The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Court papers indicate that Kietlinski, 36, was told to not have any contact with the two women, who live together. On Wednesday, Clifford said the departments Office of Professional Standards internal probe is picking the case back up. If its an ACOD, sounds like its going to be dismissed at some point ... (we) will take that into consideration in writing up our summary and if there is any policy violations that were uncovered in the investigation, theyll be noted, and then well decide what were going to do on it, he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed" Thursday's events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Friday's service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. "Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. ___ Follow AP's coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii CAIRO (AP) The United Nations said Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The development offered a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war though significant obstacles remain to lasting peace. The cease-fire between Yemens internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels initially came into effect on April 2. And though each side at times accused the other of violating the cease-fire, it was the first nationwide truce in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab Worlds most impoverished nation. The announcement, which is the outcome of U.N. efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties, U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. He said he will mediate between the warring parties to solidify the new truce and to try to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. President Joe Biden welcomed the development and stressed that ending the war in Yemen has been a priority of his administration. I urge all parties to move expeditiously towards a comprehensive and inclusive peace process. Our diplomacy will not rest until a permanent settlement is in place, he said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that regional and international support will remain critical for the continuation and successful implementation of the truce. The fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict, which eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine. In his statement, Biden also lauded the Saudi government for what he said reflected courageous leadership in endorsing and implementing the U.N.-led truce. His remarks came as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have recently pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Biden's initial position was provoked by the gruesome 2018 killing at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi agents, including individuals who worked for the crown princes office. His remains have not been found. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around the besieged city of Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the Houthi rebels. Later Thursday, the Yemeni government's presidential council expressed its support for the U.N. envoy's efforts and reiterated that that Houthis must be prompted to re-open roads around Taiz, according to the state-run SABA news agency. In a statement, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis supreme political council which runs rebel-held areas, said the Houthis decided to respond positively to the U.N. envoy's push to renew the truce in order to alleviate the suffering" of the Yemeni people, and to allow more time for the implementation of all provisions included in the original cease-fire agreement. In recent weeks, commercial flights have resumed from Sanaa, and fuel shipments have arrived. However, the opening of the roads around Taiz remains a contested issue and both sides have yet to agree on a framework for lifting the blockade on the key city. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided since the truce first started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. The Norwegian Refugee Council's Yemen director, Erin Hutchinson, expressed hopes that the cease-fire would lead to the reopening of roads so that humanitarian aid can reach those in need and so that more displaced Yemenis could return to their homes. Many Yemenis and observers point to the fact that fighting has been reduced, but not completely stopped. According to the Norwegian humanitarian group, the original truce resulted in a more than 50% drop in the number of civilian casualties in the first month. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, also welcomed the truce extension, expressing hopes it would be conducive to a comprehensive peace. The Saudi-based GCC representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE makes economic policies for the bloc, serving as a Sunni-led Arab counterweight to Shiite power Iran. The European Union's delegation to Yemen welcomed the move in a tweet and underscored the importance of lifting the Taiz blockade. Earlier, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Yemen's humanitarian needs remain high despite improvements since the truce, with some 19 million expected to face hunger this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year, but only 26% of that amount has been funded, he said, urging donors to pledge money and turn pledges into cash. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) The House is swiftly working to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children. Debate on the legislation came as the the White House announced that President Joe Biden would give a prime-time speech about the shootings and his plans to press Congress to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day. Partisan positions were clear at a Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the administration's executive action banning fast-action bump-stock devices and ghost guns that are assembled without serial numbers. The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised in a letter to Democratic colleagues Thursday that the House will vote on the measure next week, and she promised other votes in the weeks ahead, including on a bill to to create an AMBER Alert-style notification during a mass shooting. Pelosi also pledged a hearing on a bill banning military-style semiautomatic rifles. But with Republicans nearly all in opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely putting lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year's elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making rapid progress, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defended his chamber's proposals as popular with most Americans. He dismissed Republican criticism. You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are politicizing' these tragedies to enact new policies?" Nadler said. It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh." Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for? Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted the House bill would do nothing to stop mass shootings. We need to get serious about understanding why this keeps happening. Democrats are always fixated on curtailing the rights of law-abiding citizens rather than trying to understand why this evil happens," Jordan said. Until we figure out the why, we will always mourn losses without facing the problem. Our job is to figure out the why." A chief feature of the House bill requires those buying semi-automatic weapons to be at least 21. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, both were 18 and used an AR-15-style weapon. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy an assault weapon." Thats what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? Theyve got a problem, which means weve got a problem, which means those 19 kids and their parents and those two teachers have a problem, forever," Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., pointed to a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found Californias ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 unconstitutional. I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way to stripping Americans of fundamental rights, Bishop said. The hearing featured emotional pleas from Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to the mass shootings after years of gridlock on gun issues, one of the most riveting coming from Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. She recalled how her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. She said she dreams of who he would have become. She said racial bias led to his death and those of 10 Black Americans in Buffalo last month and is being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency" in the United States. We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue, McBath said. And we have solutions that a majority of American people believe in. They are common-sense compromises that will keep American children alive. Several lawmakers participated in the hearing remotely, including Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who brandished various pistols in arguing that the bill's provision banning large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds amounted to stopping law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns of their choice. When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, remarked that she hoped one of the guns Steube was holding was not loaded, Steube replied, Im in my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns. It was one of several pointed exchanges during the hearing. Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus. Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure orders requiring the police to seize guns from people considered threats to themselves or others. ___ This version corrects to say Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was the lawmaker who remarked that she hoped a gun being shown remotely at the hearing wasn't loaded, not Rep. Jerrold Nadler. ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. As a communication scholar at a large state university, I spent my entire professional career (1974-2019) teaching a course in argumentation and advocacy and studying the role of argument in public discourse. My teaching and research emphasized the importance and necessity of rational and logical reasoning, as well as a willingness by arguers to engage in self-risk by standing in the shoes of others and thus being open to persuasion rather than becoming dogmatic and recalcitrant. Moreover, I assumed that people indeed are capable of detecting, exposing and not being taken in by fallacious reasoning. As I taught my students, spurious and non-rational discourse is practiced by persons of all political and ideological stripes that unsound and invalid reasoning is an equal opportunity problem. Perhaps I have become too skeptical, maybe even cynical. But watching the political events of the past few years makes me wonder whether we now live in a world where the traditional principles of argumentation dating back to the work of rhetoricians in ancient Greece and Rome actually guide and govern our rhetorical behavior in the public square anymore. One need only observe recent volatile political events to understand the severity of my concern. Consider just a few examples illustrating this worry: The politicization of the school shooting in Uvalde Texas. Heated debates about abortion in the wake of the forthcoming decision by the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade. The large number of citizens who accept the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The popularity of a wide array of conspiracy theories. An unwillingness by many Americans to accept science on issues such as COVID and climate change. The prevalence of extreme hatred and racism. The increasing polarization of beliefs and resulting incivility of our interactions with others. The erosion of accepted standards of truth in speech and writing. Obviously, I hope I am wrong. However, if my suspicion is correct, it is not an exaggeration to say that the end of democracy is a real possibility. After all, democracy always has been rhetorically sustained, perpetuated and nurtured by rational deliberation. This has been the case historically despite sharp political differences. Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. As a colleague of mine astutely noted, we must always remember that it is entirely possible for a democracy to vote itself out of existence. Perhaps deliberately or even unintentionally. It is inherent in the concept of the will of the people. Argumentation and its reliance on reasoning and evidence is the key to maintaining the rational discourse necessary to preserve democracy. Selfishly, I hope that what I taught and researched for more than 40 years was not done in vain. As often is said, we are at an inflection point in American history. This demands we think deeply about how we argue and how our political discourse whether that of Democrats, Republicans, conservatives or liberals must be changed to guarantee the survival of this great experiment we call the United States. Put simply, failure to change our rhetoric almost certainly will result in the unraveling of Americas democratic republic. Richard Cherwitz is the Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor Emeritus, Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. New York's Domestic Terrorism Task Force was supposed to start its work in November 2020. It hasn't even met. Now, it faces a Sept. 1 deadline to issue a final report. This is like one of those bad dreams where you realize you haven't attended a class all semester and now the term paper is due, except the stakes are real, and a whole lot higher. It's bad enough the task force has taken as long as it has to conduct a meeting; it would be far worse to try to cram two years' worth of work into three months on an issue that is this complex as well as politically and constitutionally fraught. The task force is now scheduled to hold its first meeting June 15. There is no good excuse for the delay in its startup: Plenty of government work went on through the pandemic and the upheaval in state government prompted by the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August. The panel seems to have fallen off nearly everyone's radar once the hoopla was done. Task force created; all's well. Except, of course, it isn't as we saw just last month with the mass killing of 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket in a minority community, allegedly by a shooter who espoused right-wing "Great Replacement Theory" the idea that racial, ethnic and religious minorities are slowly taking over the United States as part of a plot to supplant the longstanding white Christian majority. For more terrorism, look to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump. The task force has much work to do, starting with setting clear parameters of what domestic terrorism means. The ADL defines it as "a pre-planned act or attempted act of significant violence by one or more non-state actors" in this case citizens or permanent U.S. residents "in order to further an ideological, social or religious cause, or to harm perceived opponents of such causes." But who qualifies? Is it only, say, the person who shoots a gun or drives a car through a crowd of people, or mails out letter bombs? What about those who espouse the conspiracy theories and talk of violent solutions that motivate the terrorist? What about politicians and media personalities who repeat those ideas, overtly or in coded dog whistles? What about social media sites that host such conversations? Where is the dividing line between free speech and the plotting or enabling of domestic terrorism? Who will be marked for surveillance, and under what circumstances? Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. One has only to recall the uproar from Republicans in 2009 program to study potential radicalization of veterans returning from overseas wars by right wing militias and other groups groups whose anti-government, white nationalistic narratives have crept into mainstream conservative and Republican talking points to see the complexity of this. America has struggled with this issue at least since the 1995 bombing of Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It cant be crammed into a few months of occasional meetings. The Legislature should fully appoint the task force and extend its for at least a year, if not the full two it was supposed to have. This is not the kind of assignment you pull off with the bureaucratic equivalent of an all-nighter. I wonder how many Times Union readers were also struck not by what appeared in both Charles Pagels' letter "America must keep its forces out of Ukraine," May 10, and the "Please Remember Me commemoration" photo caption on the same day but by what neither mentioned. Recalling the more than 58,000 members of the U.S. military who were killed in Vietnam, Pagels' letter pleaded for keeping our troops out of Ukraine. With the commemoration, the information in the caption noted that National Grid will hang flags on every utility pole on a four-mile stretch of Route 9 with each flag representing and honoring 10 American military men and women killed in action. ALBANY Legislation that could erase the criminal records of more than 2 million people cleared an impasse at the Capitol in the waning days of the 2022 session after lawmakers eased the concerns of the State Education Department. State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz of Queens, a key Democratic sponsor of the Clean Slate Act, said Thursday evening that the department's objections had been handled. The measure was expected to go to the Assembly floor for a vote, possibly on Friday a day after the scheduled end of this year's legislative session. The legislation would enable someone to have their most recent misdemeanor conviction sealed three years after their case is adjudicated and seven years after their most recent felony conviction if they are not on parole or under other court-authorized supervision. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who sponsored the measure in his chamber, said the legislation is both a "jobs bill" and a "public safety bill." He pointed to a person trying to provide for their family after serving their sentence for a conviction but finding it difficult to land a well-paying, stable job because of their criminal history "punished in perpetuity," the lawmaker said. Some turn to committing new crimes out of economic desperation, Myrie said: "Weve shut every single door. Theyre going to go through the only door they know. Its the only option weve left them." The bill has garnered broad support from labor unions, including the health care giant 1199SEIU, and major corporate sponsors that include JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and Verizon. Gov. Kathy Hochul supports it as well, and placed a version of the policy in her budget proposal earlier this year. But that element was taken out in the final hours of budget negotiations because of concerns over details such as the types of criminal convictions that could be sealed. The governor had said the legislation was among her top priorities after the budget was finished. But Hochul and top state Democrats have focused their attention in recent weeks on responding to mass shootings and shoring up reproductive health care. There also have been distractions that include the indictment and resignation of former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and court decisions that threw out the new political boundaries that had been created by the Democrat-led Legislature. The Senate passed the legislation Wednesday evening, following long debate and opposition from Republicans, who opposed wide swaths of the policy, including which violent felonies could be sealed from the view of private employers. "This makes our lives more dangerous," state Sen. Anthony H. Palumbo, R-Long Island, said. In the past several months, the Education Department has pressed key Democratic lawmakers to back away from the legislation until it addressed the department's concerns. In a rare memo raising concerns about legislation that is not directly related to education, the department argued individuals seeking licensed positions would be able to do so without disclosing their New York criminal history. The measure has been amended numerous times. When it was first proposed 18 months ago by Myrie, a Brooklyn Demcorat, it proposed sealing and expunging criminal records for a wider range of criminal statutes. Proponents contend the legislation gives those with criminal histories the ability to gain employment, rent properties and have other benefits that are often blocked or made difficult by their past convictions. By the time it reached its fourth version on May 28, it had included input from public hearings, law enforcement, prosecutors, business leaders and the criminal justice advocates who have been backing it. The final version includes updates intended to directly assuage concerns from the Education Department. The policy, Myrie argues, would allow the department to access sealed records for those seeking jobs with access to vulnerable populations including children who are also required to submit fingerprints during the hiring process. Department officials had disagreed with Myrie's position on his bill, in particular when it comes to the need for access to sealed records for teachers, aides, bus drivers and custodians, who fall under NYSED's Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability and for some employees under its Office of the Professions. As recently as last weekend, an official with the Education Department told lawmakers that recent changes to the bill addressed some but not all of their concerns particularly for jobs that have direct contact with children. The proposed legislation states that sealed records can be accessed by entities that are authorized by state or federal law to request and receive a fingerprint-based check of an individual's criminal history in relation to a "provision of care or services" to children and vulnerable persons. Some Assembly Democrats had expressed their own concerns that the legislation did not meet the needs of the Education Department. It's unclear if the breaking of the impasse in the Assembly will require changes to the current version of the bill which at this point would have to be accomplished by a new Senate vote that does not appear imminent. Additional changes could also be done in a "chapter amendment" that lawmakers could vote on in the future. ALBANY Jeffrey Fudin, a clinical pharmacy specialist who reported abuses of cancer research patients at Stratton VA Medical Center Hospital in the mid-1990s, leading to a federal investigation and the alleged retaliation against him and another whistleblower, died last week at age 63 following a battle with cancer. Fudin and Anthony Mariano, another former pharmacist at the VA, had faced years of retaliation by hospital administrators after reporting the alleged medical protocol violations in the hospital's once-troubled cancer program, according to records filed in a federal whistleblower court. Fudin, a Delmar resident, was later fired but had his job reinstated by a judge, a ruling the hospital continued to fight. In 1995, Fudin warned hospital and Veterans Affairs officials that cancer patients at Stratton VA were unduly suffering and at risk of dying prematurely because they were being given drugs in violation of medical protocols. At least one patient may have died as a result of the alleged practices, which included giving certain drugs to patients whose medical backgrounds did not fit the criteria for use of both experimental and FDA-approved drugs, according to hospital and court records. Fudin's allegations, which were later supported by Mariano, who was the hospital's pharmacy director at the time, were detailed in a series of Times Union's stories published beginning in 2003. The newspaper's series raised questions about how thoroughly federal officials investigated the troubled cancer program at the Albany VA hospital before a criminal investigation of the research program was launched in 2002. Hospital officials had claimed at the time that Fudin's allegations, which centered on former VA oncologist Dr. William Hrushesky, were not related to the federal criminal investigation. But some hospital workers had disputed that, contending veterans in the cancer program unwittingly may have been used as guinea pigs for years. The criminal investigation centered on two researchers, Dr. James Holland and Paul H. Kornak, who were prosecuted on federal criminal charges. It was alleged they had altered medical records of cancer patients, including those of as many as five who may have died after being given experimental drugs. Kornak, a former cancer specialist at Stratton VA, later pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and fraud in connection with the research scandal that triggered nationwide reforms at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. Kornak was accused of masquerading as a doctor and systematically falsifying the medical records of ailing veterans to enroll them in experimental drug programs. Several of the veterans either died prematurely or suffered agonizing deaths as a result of the experiments, according to federal lawsuits filed as a result of the case. After Kornak was indicted in 2003 on dozens of charges, including manslaughter and negligent homicide, U.S. authorities announced they were widening their investigation of Stratton's cancer research program. Authorities also investigated whether Kornak should have been hired as a clinical researcher at the VA in 1999. At the time, his medical license had been revoked, and in 1993 he pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges in connection with the alleged forgery of a medical license application, records showed. In 2003, Fudin and Mariano, the son of a decorated Korean and World War II Marine Corps veteran, were selected as grand marshals of the Memorial Day Parade in Albany. Neither were veterans but were selected because of the stories detailing their efforts to expose wrongdoing in the cancer research program. Holland, who headed the cancer research program at Stratton VA Medical Center during the time when veterans were alleged to be used like guinea pigs, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 2007, admitting he failed to protect his patients from Kornak. In addition to the one veteran who died, 64 others suffered unduly or were harmed by the forgeries, which involved manipulating their medical backgrounds so they would qualify for drug studies that were lucrative for the hospital and which had furthered the researchers' careers. Instead of investigating the allegations, hospital administrators initially retaliated against the pharmacists and ended the pharmacy's role in monitoring research drugs, according to court records. Mariano, who also had his office moved to a vacant floor on the hospital, had said he eventually was forced to leave his job. In 1999, Fudin and Mariano met with the FBI, outlining their allegations of corruption in the cancer research program. Six years later, the FBI abandoned its investigation, concluding that corruption allegations raised by the two pharmacists were unfounded, according to internal agency records. The FBI's quick exit from the probe came before interviews were conducted with some witnesses, and despite hospital accounting documents obtained by the Times Union that appeared to support some of the allegations. The records indicated that in the 1990s, physicians in the cancer program may have augmented their government salaries with hundreds of thousands of dollars in research money. Thousands more in research funds were moved into non-research accounts and used for other hospital projects, including paving parking areas at the facility, the documents showed. Fudin, in an online post on the day of his death last week, paid tribute to his family, including his wife Robin, and his friends and neighbors for their support as he had battled cancer. "If youre reading this, I am now resting comfortably and hopefully watching over those I most cherished while on earth," he wrote in the post, adding a thanks to his wife for, among other things, having "supported and believed in me throughout the horrible whistleblowing ordeal at the VA in the 1990s through early 2000s." A group of Ramsay residents is trying to get construction of a sprawling Loves truck stop halted pending an appeal before the Butte-Silver Bow Zoning Board, but major excavation work is underway at the site 7 miles west of Butte. Residents in the tiny community have been fighting the project for years but have lost several rounds so far, and when Butte-Silver Bow recently issued building permits, contractors on bulldozers and backhoes went to work. Ramsay residents were told two years ago they could appeal decisions on the permits to the Butte-Silver Bow Zoning Board once they were made, and though they did so within days, construction had already started. The residents, through attorneys, sought a stay on the permits from the county and when that was rejected, asked the courts to intervene. State District Judge Robert Whelan in Butte has set a Thursday hearing on the legal request. The Zoning Board will also consider the residents zoning claims sometime this month, but despite those pending matters, work on the project is underway. Ramsay resident Jim Ayres believes Loves purposefully jumped the gun and the county has allowed it. I feel like they (county officials) are going to go, Well, we cant do anything about it now, they have already started and Loves has already spent a bunch of money. We cant stop them now, Ayres said. The Montana Standard reached out to the Oklahoma City-based truck stop giant for comment Tuesday and as of Wednesday afternoon, had not heard back. Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores announced plans to locate a truck stop next to Ramsay in January 2017. It had 410 locations across the U.S. then and now has more than 530 in 41 states, including in Missoula and Hardin in Montana. The one at Ramsay would include a large convenience store, an Arbys restaurant, a casino, a tire shop and parking for at least 110 semis. Numerous Ramsay residents have opposed the project from the start, saying the truck stop will bring traffic, noise, pollution, transients and crime to their quiet community of about 40 houses. But their attempts to thwart the project have failed so far. Butte Silver-Bows Planning Department says Loves met all requirements for recently issued building permits for a convenience store, fuel canopy, diesel fuel canopy and a tire shop, plus an excavation permit. But Planning Director Dylan Pipinich said his staff cautioned Loves about starting construction with an appeal from Ramsay residents pending before the Zoning Board. When we issued the permits, we told Loves, You know, these guys are probably going to appeal, Pipinich said. And when they appealed, we called them and what we told them is, This is at your risk. We will make you put everything back (if you lose). The legal motion filed in District Court asks all building permits be revoked pending a ruling on the appeal before the Zoning Board. The board will consider the appeal sometime this month but a date has not been set. Judge Whelan issued an order last week telling the county to either stay the permits pending a Zoning Board ruling or show cause on Friday why they should not suspend the permits. Kim Wilson Jr., a Helena attorney representing the Ramsay residents, said the limited issue before Judge Whelan is whether the permits under local laws can and should be suspended pending the Zoning Board ruling. The county says the permits have been issued so there are no more proceedings for county officials to stay. Ramsay residents contend the permits can and should be stayed and if Whelan agrees, Wilson said, in theory construction would be stopped for now. From a practical standpoint, he said, residents are justifiably concerned about construction continuing while an appeal is pending. Residents say Ramsay has had zoning regulations on the books for decades that do not authorize a truck stop. They say Butte-Silver Bow changed zoning maps in 2019 based on a crayon drawing, but past maps show the entire complex falls within Ramsay zoning. Because of that, they say, Loves should be required to get a special use permit or some kind of variance to locate there. They tried to make that case to the Zoning Board during a July 2020 meeting but were told their appeal was premature. Board Chairman Dave Wing said the entire discussion that night would be put in the record and if and when a location permit was issued, and Ramsay citizens wanted to appeal, they could argue all of their points then. The county considers the recently issued permits a location permit. We will no doubt hear this again in the future and I will do so with an open mind, Wing said then. Ayres said Tuesday that residents have been banking on that pledge, but now, before they have gotten that hearing, construction has started. I was assuring people out in Ramsay, Weve got our day coming, dont worry about it, he said. I told one lady, You are not going to see anything (construction) this summer. They cant get it going this summer because they just cant. Obviously they can." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southwestern Broome County in central New York... Southeastern Tioga County in central New York... Northwestern Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania... Northeastern Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania... * Until 730 PM EDT. * At 706 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Warren Center, or 11 miles south of Owego, moving east at 45 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Binghamton, Vestal, Johnson City, Endicott, Kirkwood, Conklin, Port Dickinson, Hallstead, Orwell and Windham. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. ...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Urban and small stream flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...A portion of central New York, including the following county, Broome. * WHEN...Until 1000 PM EDT. * IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. Ponding of water in urban or other areas is imminent. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 708 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. This will cause urban and small stream flooding. Between 1 and 2 inches of rain have fallen. - Additional rainfall amounts up to 1 inch are expected over the area. This additional rain will result in minor flooding. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott, Vestal, Kirkwood, Conklin, Sanford, Windsor, Sanitaria Springs, Chenango Bridge, Harpursville, Endwell, Vestal Center, West Corners, The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Union Center, Maine, Port Dickinson, Port Crane and East Windsor. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR SOUTHEASTERN TIOGA AND NORTHEASTERN BRADFORD COUNTIES WILL EXPIRE AT 715 PM EDT... The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of the warned area. Therefore, the warning will be allowed to expire. However, a new warning was issued for Tioga, Broome, and Bradford, and Susquehanna Counties. However small hail and gusty winds are still possible with this thunderstorm. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM EDT for central New York...and northeastern Pennsylvania. Remember, a Severe Thunderstorm Warning still remains in effect for Bradford and Tioga Counties. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, June 1, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... North central Brewster County in southwestern Texas... East central Jeff Davis County in southwestern Texas... * Until 515 PM CDT. * At 409 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 18 miles northeast of Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport, or 18 miles northeast of Alpine, moving southeast at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * This severe thunderstorm will remain over mainly rural areas of The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. north central Brewster and east central Jeff Davis Counties. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, June 3, 2022 _____ FLOOD ADVISORY Flood Advisory National Weather Service Norman OK 1124 PM CDT Wed Jun 1 2022 ...The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a Flood Advisory for the following rivers in Oklahoma...Texas... Red River near Burkburnett affecting Wichita, Jefferson, Tillman, Clay and Cotton Counties. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If you encounter a flooded roadway, turn around and find an alternative route. Caution is urged when walking near riverbanks. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov. ...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING TO EARLY FRIDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...Red River near Burkburnett. * WHEN...From this evening to early Friday morning. * IMPACTS...At 8.0 feet, Near bankfull conditions extend along the Red River near Davidson... Oklahoma downstream to areas near Burkburnett and Taylor... Oklahoma. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:30 PM CDT Wednesday the stage was 4.3 feet. - Forecast...The river will rise to 7.3 feet early tomorrow afternoon. It will then fall to 6.3 feet and begin rising again Friday morning. It will rise to 6.5 feet early Friday afternoon. It will then fall again and remain below flood stage. - Action stage is 7.0 feet. - Flood stage is 9.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood ...FLOOD ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM CDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues. * WHERE...A portion of northwest Texas, including the following county, Motley. * WHEN...Until 100 AM CDT. * IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. Water over roadways. - At 1123 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. Minor flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in and around the city of Matador and along Highway 70 between between Turkey and Matador. Between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain have fallen. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Matador. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central Cass County through 1215 AM CDT... At 1124 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 11 miles north of Linden, or 16 miles west of Atlanta, moving east at 10 mph. HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and nickel size hail. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Atlanta, Linden, Queen City, Bivins, Douglassville, Domino, Bryans Mill and Red Hill. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio stations and available television stations for additional information and possible warnings from the National Weather Service. LAT...LON 3329 9446 3328 9442 3326 9439 3326 9435 3325 9428 3324 9426 3324 9423 3326 9424 3323 9409 3291 9417 3307 9454 TIME...MOT...LOC 0424Z 280DEG 9KT 3317 9444 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH ...FLOOD ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT TONIGHT... * WHERE...A portion of the Panhandle of Texas, including the following counties, Briscoe and Hall. * WHEN...Until midnight CDT. - At 1125 PM CDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. Minor flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in the advisory area. Between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain have fallen. Turkey, Caprock Canyon State Park and Valley Schools. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Fine Gael Councillor Declan Burgess has said that a series of improvements to the Governments supports for carers will take effect from Wednesday, June 1. The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD is introducing changes to the means test for carers, the first such change in 14 years. This means that many more people in Tipperary will now be eligible for the Carers Allowance. The capital disregard for carers will increase from 20,000 to 50,000. Furthermore, the weekly income disregard for Carers Allowance will increase to 350 per week for single carers, and to 750 per week for a couple. Separately, 5,251carers in Tipperary will be paid the annual Carers Support Grant from tomorrow (Thursday). The annual grant of 1,850 was increased by Minister Humphreys in her first budget as Minister for Social Protection, in recognition of the vital role of carers and the contribution they make to society. It is available to all carers providing full-time care to an older person or a person with a disability, regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. It will be paid automatically to those who are receiving the Carers Allowance, Carers Benefit and those on Domiciliary Care Allowance schemes. Fine Gael is working to build stronger, safer communities. Carers make a hugely valuable contribution to local communities all across Tipperary and Fine Gael in Government will continue to ensure they are supported. Commenting on the changes to the means test, Minister Humphreys said: Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have listened closely to the views of carers the length and breadth of the country. Our carers have endured a particularly difficult two and a half years, dealing with extraordinary daily challenges posed by the pandemic. I am therefore really pleased today to put into effect significant changes to the carers means test the first such changes in 14 years. From today, the amount of capital and savings that are disregarded in the means assessment for carers will be increased from 20,000 to 50,000. I am also increasing the weekly earnings disregard to 350 for a single person and to 750 a week for a couple. These changes are significant and will mean many carers currently on a reduced rate of payment due to means will now qualify for the full rate. Equally, thousands of carers who may not have qualified for a payment at all up to this point will now be brought into the net. I want to take this opportunity to thank all carers in Ireland for the vital and valuable contribution you play in our society and in all our local communities. Your commitment and work in supporting those that need help and support is hugely important and is greatly appreciated. Cashel is to become the Irish and EU headquarters of Integrity, a company providing IT project governance and quality and compliance consultancy services to the life sciences industries. OBriens Farmhouse near the foot of the Rock of Cashel is the new HQ of this British firm expanding into Ireland, offering a range of support services to businesses, from managing computerised system implementations and validation or data integrity programs, right through to skills development, auditing and quality system development. The firm chose Cashel for its attractive location, situated in the heart of Ireland, with ready access to all major cities and a huge pool of talent. Company CEO Chris Reid said he started Integrity in the UK in 1998. It offers IT services to companies in transformation. Ireland has a huge pharmaceutical base and great talent available while Brexit means that Ireland offers the perfect location for a British company hoping to serve the EU market. Its envisaged that a team of employees will operate from OBriens, advising pharmaceutical companies, bio-tech and medical devices manufacturers. Brexit has changed everything for us, says Mr Reid. We need an EU operation to provide some other access to the EU. We are going to establish Ireland as our European headquarters and recruit resources here to serve the EU. Mr Reid said the welcome he received from Tipperary County Council was phenomenal. It was absolutely amazing. We have offices around the UK and Japan. The support we got from the county council, the IDA, Tipperary Chamber of Commerce, was fantastic. It encouraged us to come and set up here and start our first office in Cashel. And what a great location! Its envisaged that Integrity will employ up to 20 people initially but there is no upper limit as its hoped the company will grow as large as its UK parent that employs around 75 experts. Evun Wyer is Ireland Country Director for Integrity Group, which has offices in Great Britain, Ireland, Tokyo, and soon, the US. Their clients include household names such as Johnson and Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, FujiFilm, Pfizer and Allergan. All of those companies have a requirement to meet certain regulatory obligations, and Integrity ensures they meet those requirements as they relate to the computer systems, says Mr Wyer. We have supplementary services, such as project management, service delivery, manage testing services, but they are all related to the quality and compliance element within a Life Sciences organisation. Mr Wyer explains how Integrity helps lead change in an organisation. A company wishes to put in a system. These regulatory requirements are not applicable to all elements of the system. We would help identify which elements fall under this criteria, and help design your system so it is implemented and tested, and adheres to that criteria. We do that using whats called a right-sized critical thinking approach. Its not a one-size-fits-all, as not all systems are the same and not all companies are the same. They shape it to suit the solution to ensure it meets all requirements, and then we deliver that with their software development people or their service provider to get it into production. Mr Wyer says companies may have existing systems, but may need Integritys talents to review them, and ensure they are still fit for purpose and following best practices. The idea is that we will grow the Irish entity to a similar size as the overall group, to service Ireland, with a view to also servicing the European market. This is obviously much more difficult to do following Brexit, added Mr Wyer. Integrity chose Cashel as it wanted to be seen as an Irish organisation serving the whole country, rather than a Dublin-centric organisation. As we came to Cashel, we received a very warm welcome from the local business community, and Tipperary County Council was extremely helpful. Cashel was an opportunity, says Mr Wyer. Its very picturesque, its historical, theres a lot of investment going in, with the Cashel Palace Hotel. And couple that with proximity to universities and LIT, and its so well served with infrastructure. Youre only an hour from Cork, an hour and a bit from Limerick and Dublin - it just made sense. Cashels Cllr Declan Burgess said it was great to see Integrity setting up their European base of operations in regional locations like Cashel. Well done to all involved, particularly County Tipperary Chamber, Will from IDA Ireland and our very own Anthony Fitzgerald, Head of Enterprise at Tipperary County Council. This is an exciting time for Integrity and our great town of Cashel. Cashel has proven time and time again that as a location we can perform and be successful on a national and international level. We are a well connected town and have a bundle of potential. As a local authority we must prepare and plan on how best our community will grow and expand. We must do this right and our upcoming Development Plan will play an integral role. With Integrity adding the recent success of Waystone and of course Amneal our town has truly shown its a great place to do business, added Cllr Burgess. The Netherlands flag was flying high at Our Lady of Mercy NS last week to greet His Excellency Ambassador Adriaan Palm, Ambassador of the Netherlands in Ireland. He was accompanied by Aoife Feeley, Agricultural Officer at the Dutch Embassy. The Ambassador visited the school having received a letter from Izzy Lonergan of Fifth Class as part of a project on the Netherlands. In the letter, Izzy told the Ambassador about her interest in the Netherlands, Anne Frank and the role of an Ambassador and what it was like growing up in the Netherlands. He was so impressed with her letter that he said that he would like to come and visit Fifth Class. He was welcomed in Dutch by Izzy and a guard of honour from Fifth Class girls waving Netherlands flags last Friday morning. The Ambassador greeted a number of classes and staff in the school before he went into Fifth class where he discussed Ireland and the Netherlands role in the EU, sustainability, growing up in the Netherlands, his role as an Ambassador, EU countries sharing of expertise and resources. Ambassador Palm was very generous both with his time and his gifts for the girls and class teacher, one of which were Bee bombs: 18 species of native wildflower seeds mixed with soil and clay. The girls sang part of the Netherlands National Anthem for the Ambassador. It was his first time hearing it sung in English. After tea and scones from Woodview Service Station bakery, the Ambassador was presented with a beautiful Jerpoint Abbey vase from Cahir Arts which the girls chose themselves. A very enjoyable morning was had by all! A Clonmel man and his Ukrainian wife have successfully evacuated her very ill father from war-torn eastern Ukraine to Ireland in a dramatic rescue mission. 58-year-old Victor Thibulin is now in the care of medical staff at Cork University Hospital after being safely airlifted from Poland to Cork by the Irish Air Corps last week. For Andrew Laste from Clonmel and his wife Elen, it is a happy end to a worrying and stressful three months since the Russian invasion began. Victors arduous journey from a hospital in Luhansk in the Russian-controlled eastern Donbas region of Ukraine to Ireland was like a plot from a movie. The rescue mission involved a team of 20-25 paramedics and drivers who transported Victor in relays to Poland via a long, circuitous route through Russia and Belarus under the radar of the authorities in both countries. Victor, who has been seriously ill with diabetes and kidney problems since contracting Covid-19 last November, is currently undergoing tests at Cork University Hospital with Elena by his side. We are so grateful to be able to say we have him in a safe place and Elena has her dad back, said Andrew. The Clonmel man, who runs Emergency Medical Training Solutions in Clonmel with Elena, initially visited Ukraine in March bringing a van load of medical supplies with fellow Stand With Ukraine Co. Tipperary volunteer Anthony Broxson from Carrick-on-Suir. The former firefighter and emergency medical technician spent a month in Lviv doing volunteer work and setting up supply lines for donations from Ireland but also seeing if he could progress efforts to get his father-in-law out of the country. He was unable to make any progress as Victor was so far away and too frail to travel. He and Elenas concerns for Victors safety grew as the Russian military campaign narrowed its focus to the eastern part of Ukraine. The main fighting is currently concentrated just four and a half hours journey from Luhansk, which is also experiencing sporadic bombing. The couple, who live between Grange and Newcastle, decided to travel to Przemysl in Poland in early May and try to find a way of getting Victor out. Andrew said they felt they would have a better chance of figuring out how to evacuate him if they based themselves there. Following their arrival in Poland, they became very concerned for Victors safety when they watched video footage of a hospital being bombed in the city of Severodonetsk just over 100km from Luhansk. Through Elenas contacts in Ukraine, the couple found a group of Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian medics evacuating people from Ukraine. The group agreed to get him out of Ukraine while Andrew and Elena paid them their travel expenses and for their time. Andrew said they initially considered bringing Victor to Poland via Ukraine but due to the fighting and volatile situation in the east of the country it was ruled out as too dangerous. It was decided instead to evacuate him through Russia, an option that was also not without danger. He described how the evacuation was done in a number of stages and took about 38 hours to complete. Victor was taken from the hospital in Luhansk, under orders from Elena and Andrew, and put in a car that transported him over the Russian border just 40 minutes of a drive from Luhansk. Once over the border, Victor was transferred to a private Russian ambulance and ferried by Russian paramedics and drivers to the Belarusian border. In Belarus, he was transferred to another ambulance and Belarusian paramedics took over his care and transport. Andrew said while Belarus was easy to enter it was not so easy to leave and cross into Poland. This was the only part of the journey where they encountered some difficulty and they had to pay a few bribes to get Victor over the border into Poland. Andrew and Elena were in the Polish equivalent of a Woodies Store car park when they received the call that Victor had arrived safely in Poland and they met him and the Belarusian paramedics accompanying him there. Andrew paid tribute to the network of medics and drivers, who through a huge collective effort went above and beyond the call of duty to get Victor safely out of Ukraine into the arms of his family. There is no side for these people. A lot of people forget about that because of the propaganda on both sides (of the war). There are amazing people, no matter what nationality, who want to help fellow human beings. They are very skilled ex-military and paramedics who are just using their skills to help. Victor spent four days in hospital in Bialystok in Poland before being airlifted from Lublin Airport by an Irish Air Corps PC12 plane with a HSE critical care team on board. Elena accompanied him on the flight, which arrived in Cork Airport on Tuesday, May 24. Andrew, meanwhile, drove the van they travelled to Poland in back across the European continent. He arrived in Ireland on the ferry last Saturday evening. Andrew said he wished to thank TD Mattie McGrath and his daughter Triona McGrath for all their work in arranging for the Irish Air Corps to bring Victor to Ireland and for their support throughout the past three months. We wouldnt have been able to get Victor back to Ireland without the airlift from the Air Corps. He thanked Kieran Browne in the HSE for his efforts in co-ordinating the Irish Air Corps medical evacuation and Dr David Menzies, a specialist in critical care at St Vincents Hospital in Dublin for his medical support. Andrew also thanked Dr Simon Walsh and advanced paramedic Paul Dolan, who accompanied Victor on the air lift journey. He says Victors condition has improved in recent days after his long and arduous escape from Ukraine where he worked most of his life as a builder and in recent years as a taxi driver. Elena is just so happy now to have him home here and know he is in a safe place. She is thrilled with the attention he is getting in CUH. They couldnt do enough. The HSE has been absolutely super. The developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline has failed in a last-ditch effort to keep private some records it believes are privileged information but the North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled are public documents. Energy Transfer on May 12 asked the court to rehear a case involving more than 16,000 documents linked to construction security for the heavily protested pipeline. Justices unanimously rejected the request in a May 23 order that did not explain their reasoning. Energy Transfer did not respond to a Tribune request for comment. The attempt was a long shot. The high court last granted a petition for rehearing in 2013, and then only to correct a misstatement in an opinion. The last true rehearing granted appears to be in 2009. "The Supreme Court rarely grants petitions for rehearing," Supreme Court Clerk Petra Mandigo Hulm said. The case involves documents that DAPL security overseer TigerSwan gave to North Dakota's Private Investigation and Security Board during a dispute over whether the North Carolina company operated illegally in the state. That issue culminated with a settlement in September 2020 under which the company agreed to pay $175,000 to the board but did not admit to any wrongdoing. The Intercept nonprofit online news organization sued in November 2020 to get access to the documents for investigative journalism on the extensive and sometimes violent pipeline protests in southern North Dakota in 2016-17. Energy Transfer contended that the documents are privileged, confidential and proprietary." The Supreme Court in late April ruled that the documents are public records, a decision that open records advocates hailed as a victory. Justices essentially concluded that the documents are public because they were received by the board for use in connection with public business. Energy Transfer in its request for a rehearing asked the high court to consider whether documents TigerSwan gave to the board that were unrelated to the board's case are indeed public records. Company attorneys didn't indicate how many documents that might entail. They referred to their request as a "narrow question." Intercept attorney Tim Purdon said he wasn't surprised the Supreme Court rejected the request, given that such petitions "are rarely filed and almost never granted." The Supreme Court has already given Energy Transfer another avenue to try to shield some of the documents from public view. Justices in a second ruling in late April said the company should have been allowed to intervene in TigerSwan's case before the board so that it could seek a protective order for the documents. The court sent the matter back to the board, saying that although the documents overall are public records, "individual documents or parts of documents may be withheld from disclosure if they fall within a statutory exemption." The ruling means the board needs to determine whether any should be withheld because they include Energy Transfer's proprietary information. The 16,000 documents comprise 62,000 pages. The board in a May 23 order laid out the process it will use. Energy Transfer has until June 13 to review the board's proposed redactions and to identify any others it feels are warranted. The matter ultimately will go to an administrative law judge for a hearing on any disputed redactions, then back to the board for a final order. At that point, any records not deemed private under a a legal exemption to the open records law will become public. Board Executive Director John Shorey III declined to comment on how long that process might take, citing the ongoing litigation. Reach News Editor Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com. Love 1 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. On top of Central Towers Walmart Police Station The hospital In the middle of the Hydetown gravel pit pond Pitt Titusville I'd give up and be zombie food Vote View Results Officer who fatally shot ex-detective will not be charged Prosecutors say a police officer in Kansas who fatally shot a former police detective during a scuffle will not be charged with a crime The U.S. Interior Department says one of the bidders in an oil and gas lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year has canceled the lease it bought Ten state lawmakers do not plan to seek reelection this year and eight others are running for other offices Today we share a welcomed fact check and local law enforcement efforts to regain control of "the narrative" that spiraled out of control during the weekend. To wit . . . TKC TOLD YOU SO!!! FINALLY THE FACTS EMERGE WITH PHOTO EVIDENCE OF A LADY CARRYING A GUN WHEN SHE WAS SHOT BY POLICE!!! The photo contradicts so much Internets gossip and even the irrationally exuberant "advocacy" from a newspaper columnist. Here's word from the courthouse . . . A KCK woman, 26, charged for exhibiting a weapon in encounter Friday with police A 26-year-old Kansas City woman has been charged with exhibiting a weapon in her encounter Friday evening with Kansas City police officers, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today. Leonna M. Hale, dob: 1/6/1996, faces Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and the misdemeanor of Resisting A Lawful Detention.* According to court records filed today, Kansas City police responded on the evening of May 27, 2022, to 6th and Prospect Avenue in Kansas City regarding a vehicle involved in a robbery in Kansas City, Kan. The officers located the vehicle at Family Dollar, 634 Prospect Avenue. Officers conducted a car check. A male driver exited and ran from the scene. Two officers gave chase. A second occupant, the defendant, exited the passenger side and went to the rear of the vehicle. Officers attempted to give her commands. They determined she was armed and stated that she pointed a firearm at them and they discharged their firearms at her. Video surveillance from body cameras showed Hale being told to drop the firearm and pointing it at the officers before the officers fired three shots. One officer told investigators she feared that Hale was going to shoot her and she discharged her firearm one time. A second officer also told investigators that he believed the defendant had a firearm pointed at him. Hale was taken to an area hospital for treatment. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker issued the following statement today: Some false narratives about what happened last Friday night at 6th and Prospect Avenue, unfortunately, were relied upon by some media and other sources. Our job, as prosecutors, is to remain neutral and review all evidence. Our review of body cam videos provided the actual accounting of events that night. Our review of the investigation revealed the defendant, although she denied having a weapon at the time of the encounter with law enforcement officers, continually displayed a weapon during her encounter with police officers and also appeared to be attempting to flee. The two officers stated that she was armed with what they believed to be a handgun. Body camera footage confirms the officers statements that Hale was holding a handgun. Still photos, taken from body cam footage, of this encounter also demonstrate a weapon was present and in the hands of the defendant . . . ################## Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Woman shot by KC officers, charged for showing, pointing weapon at police KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 26-year-old Kansas City, Kansas woman, who was shot by officers with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department last Friday, is facing charges for pointing a firearm at police. Jackson County prosecutors on Wednesday charged Leonna M. Hale with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting a lawful detention. KCK woman, shot by police Friday, charged for exhibiting a weapon A 26-year-old Kansas City woman, who Kansas City Police (KCPD) shot Friday evening in the Family Dollar parking lot at 6th and Prospect, has been charged with exhibiting a weapon in her encounter Friday evening with police, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today. Leonna M. Woman, 26, shot by Kansas City police Friday now charged in case A 26-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, woman who was shot by Kansas City, Missouri, police officers Friday night has been charged in the case.Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Leonna M. Developing . . . Right now there's objectively good news about auto production in Kansas City that should spark a great deal about new AFFORDABLE cars produced right here in this cowtown. The sitch . . . The investment at the KC plant, which is part of a larger $3.7 billion investment in the region, will increase production on the Ford Transit and Ford E-Transit EV. Were investing in American jobs and our employees to build a new generation of incredible Ford vehicles and continue our Ford+ transformation, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said. The company looks to produce 2 million E-Transit EVs a year on a global scale by the end of 2026. Todays announcement is great news for our state. For more than 70 years, hardworking Missourians have assembled iconic Ford vehicles," Missouri Gov. Michael Parson SAID. Now, these 1,100 new hourly jobs at the Kansas City Assembly Plant will increase production of the Transit and E-Transit commercial vans, driving Missouris economy forward. The 1,100 new jobs will work on the third shift. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Ford invests in KC plant, adding 1,000+ jobs KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Ford announced the addition of 1,100 new jobs at the Kansas City Assembly Plant, along with a $95 million investment to increase production of two of the companies vehicles. Ford Motor Co.'s plant in Kansas City is adding 1,100 people to meet demand for electric vehicles It's a good time to be in the electric vehicle business. Ford Motor Co. announced on Thursday that it's launching a major expansion here. The company said its Claycomo plant northeast of Kansas City will add a third shift producing its popular Transit and E-Transit delivery vans, requiring 1,100 new workers and a $95 million investment to keep the van production side of the plant running almost around the clock. Ford to invest $95 million, add 1,100 union jobs at Kansas City Assembly Plant KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Assembly Plant announced Thursday morning Ford plans to invest $95 million, creating 1,100 union jobs for a third shift in Kansas City. With the investment comes the intention to increase production of the Transit as well as the E-Transit EV. Ford announces new third shift, 1,100 union jobs to be added at Claycomo plant in Missouri More than a thousand new union jobs are coming to the Kansas City area as part of a massive $95 million investment announced Thursday by the Ford Motor Co. As part of the company's strategy to roll out more electronic vehicles and strengthen its Ford Blue portfolio, officials announced more than 6,200 new UAW jobs in the Midwest, with the Kansas City-area operation getting an entirely new shift of workers. Developing . . . The prolific activist has seemingly already declared victory online. We'll wait to see how the court case turns out. Check her argument and the latest court update . . . "Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, contends in the lawsuit against the Kansas City Police Board of Commissioners that state control of the city's police department is discriminatory and prevents Kansas City residents from having a say in how millions of tax dollars are spent in their city . . ." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com linkS . . . Lawsuit Over Kansas City Police Control Allowed to Proceed KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A lawsuit challenging state control of the Kansas City police department will proceed after a Jackson County judge declined this week to dismiss it. Dismissal denied of 'taxation without representation' lawsuit against KCMO, city council, BOPC A judge ruled Tuesday to deny the motion to dismiss a lawsuit involving "taxation without representation" against the city of Kansas City, Missouri, as well as the mayor, city council, city manager, director of finance and Board of Police Commissioners. Woman sues KC Board of Police Commissioners, pushing for local control KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Gwendolyn Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, says the current Board of Police Commissioners is "taxation without representation." "The only pathway for us to secure local control is either through legislative action of the Missouri Legislature or a statewide ballot initiative," Grant said. Developing . . . Culture war and racially charged politics have created a climate so toxic that people in Kansas City no longer trust any evidence which doesn't align with their worldview. Faulty eyewitness testimony didn't help the situation. Accordingly . . . Over Memorial Day weekend a bystander to a Kansas City officer-involved shooting gave interviews that spread around the world claiming that police shot a woman who was unarmed, offering no resistance with her hands up. The eyewitness was known only as "Shedanja" and global media shared her story with no tough questions asked. Here's a screencap of one of many interviews she provided . . . Credit to Fox4, they actually put a camera on the lady and allowed viewers to decide for themselves. Now, video evidence disputes her allegations. Sadly, global news hasn't bothered to correct or even report the follow-up. But here's the kicker . . . KANSAS CITY ACTIVISTS DISPUTE POLICE REPORTS, PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, SCREENSHOTS AND VIDEO DOCUMENTING THE GUN HELD BY THE LADY SUSPECT!!! Again . . . We'll allow these folks to speak for themselves in these passages reported sympathetically by local media . . . Roughly two dozen people organized in the parking lot beside the Family Dollar at Sixth Street and Prospect Avenue in the Independence Plaza neighborhood. Several challenged the official narrative that has been given by authorities that Hale was armed and presented a threat to the officers. We do not care how they tried to vilify our sister, Dawn Oliver, a community activist, said to the group Wednesday evening. We will show up for ours and we will continue to support her through this long and challenging journey. From a donation-based hack blog . . . "Since the story was released, the MSHP and KCPD have attempted to frame Leonna Hale as a suspect in the alleged carjacking case. But the victim of the alleged carjacking has not brought charges against either Leonna or the male individual who escaped from the police. Leonna is now only being charged with crimes relating to the interaction with police that nearly left her dead, but nothing to do with a carjacking.' Another perspective from recent protest that speaks to the crux of the argument . . . We don't care if she did or didn't do what they said she did," one of Hale's supporters said. "She did not deserve to be shot down." A local dead-tree columnist is deflecting his tacit allegations against police and seemingly defends his decision to trust the lady with a green clown wig on rather than wait for more substantial evidence . . . Toriano Porter tweets . . . This is comical. Headline to my first piece reads: "Did Kansas City police shoot a pregnant woman? We need some substance, not cop speak." First sentence read: "Did two Kansas City police officers shoot an unarmed pregnant woman? I have questions and you should, too." He continues . . . In my second piece, I wrote: "A gun was in the hand of a woman when she was shot by Kansas City police... But the (KCPD) also said Cameron Lamb possessed a gun when he was fatally shot in 2019 by former police detective Eric DeValkenaere. Lamb wasnt armed when he was killed." Not to get hung up on it . . . But the case about Cameron Lamb's death wasn't dependent on a firearm but, instead, hinged on "reasonable search" protocols . . . Also, the verdict is about to be repealed and/or the officer will be pardoned by the Missouri Guv over a decision by a Jackson County judge that runs contrary to mountains of case law. Fact is . . . Toriano Porter was incorrect when he implicitly alleged wrongdoing against police and now he hides behind "just asking questions" phraseology which is the same kind of despicable tactic employed by the talking head scoundrels we all watch on political chat shows every night. Lastly . . . This morning FOP honcho Brad Lemon lumbered his way over to right-wing radio to gloat about the story's evolution. The only problem is that Mr. Lemon never convinced anyone of anything and he has served mostly as a divisive public figure with limited political influence and mostly negative perceptions within the metro executive community and the urban core. Tow truck drivers across Kansas City have no love for the dude either. lulz. In the final analysis . . . The tragedy here is that, as usual, eyewitness testimony proved inaccurate but the people of Kansas City are so blinded by venomous political ideology that no one could dare to show compassion or even consideration for the viewpoint of their imagined opponents. The horrific reality is that facts are seemingly irrelevant to our discourse in Kansas City. Instead, every public dispute merely provides ammunition for warring tribes factions to engage in a continual fight against one another rather than seeking understanding amongst neighbors. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Supporters of Leonna Hale upset over KCPD's response to incident KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Those who know of Leonna Hale wish there would have been a peaceful outcome, rather than what happened Friday night in the parking lot of a Family Dollar at east 6th Street and Prospect Avenue. Hale was shot by a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer during a confrontation. Activists rally for woman shot by Kansas City police Activists rally at a Family Dollar parking lot on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, where Leonna Hale was shot by Kansas City police late last week. Leonna Hale Photo Contradicts Witness Testimony, Public Outrage Still Warranted KANSAS CITY, MO - In the days since news broke that a 26-year old Black woman was shot multiple times by KCPD, then arrested while laying in a pool of her own blood before receiving medical attention, the viral story seemed to reach nearly every national and international news outlet. Developing . . . Just quick note here sent our way from a KICK-ASS TKC READER . . . "Southland support for Theresa Galvin" We appreciate the snap . . . Now here's the big picture . . . Insiders tell us that Former Legislative Chair Theresa Galvin has enjoyed surprisingly good polling numbers and she's closer to matching Frank White than most people realize. In fact . . . The difference betwixt the two candidates is less than 10 points. Make no mistake . . . She'll have a great many challenges to overcome and must first make it past her GOP primary. Still . . . Signs of early support are encouraging for what could be a historic GOP courthouse turnabout. Developing . . . Sanford Health has agreed to gift the Good Samaritan Society nursing home building in Mott to the city instead of selling it with a restriction that it can't be used for health care purposes, but it's likely the facility will still be forced to close this summer. "We can't get a plan together in 60 days," Mayor Troy Mosbrucker said after a meeting between city leaders and Sanford officials. "We're going to try like hell, but there are a lot of steps we've got to do and a lot of hurdles to get over." The city's "goal is health care," but what form that takes isn't yet known, he said. "We want a plan in place so when we get the building we can move forward." The Good Samaritan Society, which merged with Sanford Health in 2019, late last month announced that it would close the skilled nursing facility in Mott on July 22 because it's not sustainable long term. The home has 55 employees and 31 residents, and the announcement angered the southwestern community of 700 people. The city in a statement last week called the building sale restriction "extremely disheartening and devastating" and said it was "dedicated to pursuing and exploring additional options through our legal counsel." Gov. Doug Burgum late Tuesday released a statement saying he and state Department of Human Services Executive Director Chris Jones had spoken with Sanford President and CEO Bill Gassen, who offered to gift the facility rather than sell it. The Good Samaritan Society is an important employer and health care provider for Mott and the surrounding region, and we appreciate Sanfords willingness to work with the community on options for the facility and long-term care in the Mott area, Burgum said. The Good Samaritan Society is "committed to a seamless transition and we offered our support and will continue to provide guidance as they determine potential next steps with the building," Vice President of Operations Aimee Middleton said after the meeting. "Closing a skilled nursing location is always a last resort and we recognize this is a very difficult situation for the community," she said. "In Mott, it has been extremely challenging to hire and retain nursing staff, which makes it very hard to maintain the high-quality, safe care our residents need and deserve." Good Samaritan Society Regional Executive Director Phil Samuelson told the Tribune last week that the coronavirus pandemic has put stress on the senior care industry. He said staffing challenges, a decline in residents and increased operating costs also contributed to the decision to close the Mott facility. He said restrictions on the future use of a property are put in place "in situations like this one when long-term care facilities face ongoing challenges such as difficulty hiring staff and increased operating costs." North Dakota has had a moratorium on adding nursing home beds for decades to align capacity to need. That means the Mott beds could not be shifted elsewhere if the facility remained open. Mosbrucker said the city will be "looking at different possibilities to provide medical services to Mott using that building." Residents of the nursing home likely will be moving to facilities in area communities including Richardton, Glen Ullin, Elgin, Hettinger and Dickinson, according to Mosbrucker. "It's a big challenge," the mayor of 19 years said. "But we'll get through it. The people in Mott are fighters." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 8 Canadas Wonderland is thanking Toronto health-care workers for their ongoing efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic with 3,450 tickets to its park with 17 rollercoasters the third-most coasters in any amusement park in the world. North Dakota farmer Kurt Groszhans is no longer jailed in war-torn Ukraine, but his status is unclear. Mr. Groszhans is no longer in prison; however he is still in Ukraine," said U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. "We continue to work with his family, our State Department and Ukrainian officials in regard to his fair treatment and safety. Hoeven's office said the senator met with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and briefed her on the situation and the need to ensure Groszhans is treated fairly and is safe. The senator's office did not say where the information on Groszhans came from, and did not offer additional details "out of respect for his familys wishes and for security reasons." Groszhans, who is from the Ashley area, decided to in 2017 to move to Ukraine, where his ancestors are from. His farming venture there with a law professor who became a high-ranking Ukrainian government official collapsed in acrimony and accusations, culminating in his arrest last November on charges of plotting to assassinate his former business partner, according to The Associated Press. His family and supporters say the accusations are bogus and designed to silence Groszhans' claims of corruption in Ukraine. Fears for his safety were enhanced when Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 A new book offers a travelogue of Catholic pilgrimage sites that provides a short history of the churchs own pilgrimage through a land it once sought to conquer but then had to accommodate itself to. Like everyones history, its filled with heroes and villains. Tread carefully. [] Kevin Schmiesings A Catholic Pilgrimage Through American History: People and Places that Shaped the Church in the United States is a surprisingly enjoyable book. Surprising, not because I expected his writing to be bad, because I had no idea who he was when I started reading. Surprising because so much of popular Catholic writing tends to be written as if the author were a 75-year-old trying to re-create the happy days of the college glee club of his youth. Theres a gosh golly gee willikers element to it. And understandably. The authors know that almost everyone pees on the Catholic Church, and they think, Gosh-darnit, Im going to tell the good news! Its what most readers of popular Catholic writing want. Catholics often feel beaten up, not just from the secular world, but from the scandals and general shambles inflicted on them by their own leaders as well. They need to see that sometimes the church is what she says she is, and her people what theyre supposed to be. This kind of writing tends to be more apologetic than educational. The astute reader always knows how much whitewash is being applied. A Catholic Pilgrimage Through American History, however, is educational and therefore apologetic. Its a happy history, admittedly, telling the stories of (for the most part) Catholic heroes. But not a naive happy history. Everyone should celebrate their heroes, as long as theyre clear that they are exceptional people and that the church also has villains to lament and a great many influential people who were neither heroes nor villains but mediocrities whose religion was more worldly than we wish it had been. Schmiesing recognizes all this. Parts of the book are painful reading for a Catholic, in the How could they? sense, and other parts distressing in the Why didnt they? sense. I dont know if he intended to do this, but his stories capture well the reality of a church living through history, and how much Catholics find themselves having to respond to events as best they can and how much they are creatures of their time, despite having a religion that speaks to them from outside their time. It should make us reflect on how much were just like the people whose failings we can see now and how little were like the heroes. Schmiesing himself is well placed to tell this story. He teaches church history at Mount St. Marys Seminary & School of Theology in Cincinnati. Hes also the director of research at the Freedom & Virtue Institute, founded and run by the estimable Ismael Hernandez. (He was also an Acton Institute research fellow from 1999 to 2020.) Two things before I start on the book: First, the publicity sheet that came with it had this headline: Historian looks at people, places that impacted our great experiment. Impacted as a verb? Really? From a publisher? Not using impact as a verb may be a lost cause, but a publisher should keep fighting it. Second, the foreword is written by Mike Aquilina, as the editor of the Reclaiming Catholic History series. I didnt realize this till I was some ways into the book and was running late with the review. He is a good friend, and he and his wife were my familys sponsors when we were received into the Catholic Church. But if I hadnt liked the book, I would just have begged off reviewing it. The movement of pilgrim travel reminds us that this world is not our final home, Schmiesing writes in explaining the title. He bases the spiritual value of going to places where holy people have lived or holy things happened on the way the Incarnation sanctified mattermade matter matterand the fact that, as corporeal creatures affected by the world around us, place still does matter. Certain places acquire profound meaning, he continues. They have been sanctified by divine grace channeled through human activity. Usually this human activity involves sacrifice of some kind: labor, charity, orfrequentlythe spilling of blood. He quotes Benedict XVI, who explains that going on a pilgrimage means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shown with particular splendor. (The book includes the addresses of the sites Schmiesing commends.) As he admits, not every place in the book works as a pilgrimage site in this sense. The grave of Dr. Samuel Mudd of southern Maryland, for example, who was a slave-owner and then southern-sympathizer, and quite possibly conspired to murder Abraham Lincoln. Nor would the birthplace of John F. Kennedy count. Maybe the place he was shot. But then, was he a Catholic hero? A Catholic and possibly a hero, depending on your point of view, but not exactly a Catholic hero. A Catholic Pilgrimage Through American History begins with the story of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, Florida. Its nine pages offer a good example of the way the book works. Especially the way it captures the life of a people in history, which was the aspect I most enjoyed. The writer doesnt draw moral lessons from the history. He just tells it, but the lessons are there to be drawn. Schmiesing traces the history of the Catholic Church there from its beginnings in Spanish imperial ambitions through periods of decline and other periods of persecutionthe English often being the churchs baneto the citys status today as a tourist attraction where the cathedral is one of the attractions. Its a city in which Catholics lived through history, making their way the best they could but When Florida moved toward seceding from the Union, the Catholics had to decide what to do about slavery. The opinions of southern Catholics, including priests and bishops, on matters such as slavery and secession generally mirrored those of the non-Catholic majority, Schmiesing writes. Preaching in the cathedral in January 1861, the vicar apostolic of Florida defended slavery as justified by Scripture, natural law, and church teaching, and attacked the abolitionists as fanatical preachers whose followers felt wicked passions. Fr. Augustin Verot was not, however, a crass apologist for slavery. He condemned the way the South practiced slavery. He tried to split the difference between North and South in a way that looks wrong now. By splitting the difference, Verot seems to have tried to find a safe place for Catholics in what was then an overwhelmingly Protestant city and culture, one that did believe in slavery as the South practiced it. On the one hand, Recent papal teaching and the fact that many of the areas slaves were Catholic favored a strong stand against slavery. On the other, much of the churchs membership were descendants of immigrants from Minorca, who werent considered Southern or white, and preaching against slavery would further marginalize the church in a way that could well be dangerous. The Church got by, but it didnt shine. It survived, but who knows the cost of its quietly accommodating itself to a slave culture, and one waging war to protect its peculiar institution. Distressing in the Why didnt they sense, but Im not sure how much better any of us would do, or have done in the contemporary versions of the same situation. Most of the twenty-seven chapters are happier than this one, because Schmiesing writes about heroes. They show that its possible to live in history without serving it. The Agriculture Minister says one reason why some people do not want Local Government reform In a phone call intercepted by the GUR, Ukraines military intelligence, a DPR militant talks about the attitude of Russian forces towards the "voluntarily mobilized" soldiers from the occupied parts of Donetsk region. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraines Defense Ministry on Telegram, according to Ukrinform. The DPR militant told his acquaintance, a Russian military serviceman, about the protests that unfolded in the 115th Battalion of the invaders' army: "An order has been issued to let students go. Their mothers and friends came and staged protests. He says about the attitude of the occupying army towards the "mobilized" soldiers from the DPR: We were told: You are not reservists. Youre volunteers. Everyone who came here is a volunteer." The Russian interlocutor responded by saying that many people in Russia are also unwilling to take part in the war: "We also have plenty of those here at the airport with self-inflicted wounds and injuries. Also, no one wants to go there." As reported by Ukrinform, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Maliar noted issues with motivation observed among those drafted in the occupied parts of Ukraines Luhansk and Donetsk regions. These problems are even greater than those in the Russian army. In Luhansk region, Russian invaders assault Sievierodonetsk and have established control over part of the town. This is stated in the latest report of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 18:00 on June 1, published on Facebook. "In Sievierodonetsk direction, the enemy assaults Sievierodonetsk, has partial success, has established control over the eastern part of the town," the report reads. In Donetsk direction, the enemy launched airstrikes on the area of Avdiivka, New York, Novoselivka, Shcherbakiv from operational and tactical aircraft and near Roty, Pokrovske, and Novoselivka from army aircraft. In Bakhmut direction, the enemy assaults Komyshuvakha but has no success. The occupiers did not conduct active hostilities in Avdiivka, Kurakhove, Novopavlivsk, and Zaporizhzhia directions. In Slovyansk direction, the enemy fired artillery on the Ukrainian units in the areas of Sviatohirsk and Ridne, went on the offensive towards Dovhenke and Dibrivne, suffered losses and retreated. In the Southern Buh direction, the enemy continues to equip its positions and frontiers, conducted air reconnaissance near Ivanivka, Lepetykha, and Zelenodolsk. The enemy increased the intensity of fire damage to the Ukrainian troops in the area of Snihurivka, Vysokopillia, and Zolota Balka. The invaders continue shelling the objects of civilian infrastructure and residential neighborhoods, struck the city of Mykolayiv. In Bessarabsky direction, no significant changes are observed. According to the General Staff, in Volyn and Polissya directions, the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus focused the main efforts on conducting reconnaissance, equipping positions, and conducting combat training activities. The enemy did not take active action in Siversky direction. From the territory of Kursk region, the enemy fired artillery on Ukraines Defense Forces in the area of Bilopillia and Stukalivka, Sumy region. In Kharkiv direction, the enemy focused the main efforts on maintaining the occupied frontiers and restraining the advance of Ukrainian troops. In order to reduce the offensive potential of Ukrainian troops, the enemy fires tube and rocket artillery on the positions of the Defense Forces in the area of Ruski Tyshky, Zolochiv, and Derhachi. The General Staff notes that the enemy continues to oppress the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories. The enemy restricts their movement, takes filtration measures and deepen the humanitarian crisis in these territories. Russian servicemen rob civilians. In some localities, the enemy organizes the restoration of damaged military equipment at the facilities of local enterprises. Thus, the repair of military equipment was spotted in the shops of the Beryslav Machine-Building Plant in the town of Beryslav. The aggressors blocked access for the local population to Ukrainian mobile operators and the Internet almost throughout the entire temporarily occupied territory. ol REVILLA HAILS PANGANDAMAN, OTHER APPOINTMENTS Veteran Senator Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. today hailed the appointment of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Assistant Governor Amenah Pangandaman as the incoming Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management. "Ms. Pangandaman has great expertise in the field, having a unique experience and perspective of one who has worked on both the legislative and executive aspects of the country's finances," the solon expressed. Pangandaman worked in the Senate under late Senator Edgardo J. Angara, Senator Loren Legarda, and closely with the Senate Committee on Finance before working in the DBM and the BSP. "I believe she is the best pick and will bring a breath of fresh air to the DBM leadership where she has also previously served," he added. Revilla also lauded President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.'s cabinet picks former congresswoman Maria Zenaida Angping as head of the Presidential Management Staff; Mayor Christina Frasco as Department of Tourism secretary; Ivan John Enrile Uy as Department of Information Communications and Technology secretary; and broadcaster Erwin Tulfo as Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary. President-elect Marcos earlier appointed Vice President-elect Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio (Department of Education); former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Benhur Abalos (Department of the Interior and Local Government); Atty. Vic Rodriguez (Executive Secretary); Cavite 7th District Rep. Boying Remulla (Department of Justice); former Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan (National Economic and Development Authority); former labor chief Bienvenido Laguesma (Department of Labor and Employment); migrant workers advocate Susan "Toots" Ople (Department of Migrant Workers); Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno (Department of Finance); ex-UP President Alfredo Pascual (Department of Trade and Industry); ex-congressman Antonio Lagdameo Jr. (Special Assistant to the President); and Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles (Presidential Communications Operations Office). "This (appointments) is a good sign for things to come for the country," the lawmaker ended. Many small businesses dont think they do marketing, or need to do marketing. In fact, around 37% of small businesses in a survey of 500 small businesses dont have a website to market their products and services. The basis for this line of argument for many of them is that theyre too busy trying to get customers through the door to be bothered about fancy marketing. However, marketing is a more effortless and surer way to bring in the business they want. This article will reveal some benefits of digital marketing for small businesses and show that marketing truly matters regardless of the business you run. Does Marketing Really Matter? Marketing absolutely matters for businesses of any size. However, building a digital marketing strategy is the last thing on the minds of business owners. They are more concerned with what they consider to be tangible stuff, like, for example, getting the number of customers up. They believe that customers would inevitably find their way to them since they have a great product or service. But unfortunately, although this strategy might bring some customers (after all, who doesnt love great products and service?), its results pale compared to what theyll get if they use digital marketing. The global pandemic and measures to curb its effects have changed the business and retail landscape. Many people have integrated online reviews and searching online into their decision to purchase a product or service. This reveals just how much digital marketing helps small businesses and why it's in their benefit to take advantage of this new situation. The market out there is simply too big and important to be ignored. According to the Global Overview Report, more than 4.6 billion people worldwide use the internet, and 46.3% of them use the internet to research products and brands. Image Source So, what does this mean? Having a great product or service is essential, but its ultimately futile if nobody knows about it. Digital marketing is how you get your product out there and should be part of every small businesss strategy for growth. Why some small businesses dont invest in digital marketing Since marketing offers many benefits, its bewildering to see small businesses fail to invest in it. However, its important to note that these owners have their reasons. Some of the common reasons include: Service-based companies don't need to do marketing. On the surface, this looks like a genuine reason, but it turns out to be smoke and mirrors. As long as youre a business selling something, you can benefit from a sound digital marketing strategy. The business has tried marketing before and it didn't work. Just because youve tried something before and it failed doesnt mean it cant ever work. Have you tried something else? Sometimes, some businesses have started on the right marketing path but fall off because of a lack of patience. Its essential to measure the right metrics in any marketing campaign to judge whether it's working or not accurately. There is plenty of help available to small business owners who want to improve their marketing strategy. The business is small and plans to stay small. Growth isnt for everyone and small businesses that say this cant really be faulted. However, just because you dont want to grow bigger doesnt mean you cant benefit from marketing. For example, marketing can help you increase your retention rate and even improve the quality of customers or clients you attract. Free Guide: Digital Marketing For Small Business Download Now Why Digital Marketing is Important for Small Businesses Relying solely on traditional marketing methods will not achieve the desired results, so small businesses should adopt digital marketing. With so many people connected to the internet, online searches have increased in volume and frequency over the past year. 79% of consumers currently use the internet to find information about local businesses, and a digital marketing strategy makes it possible to be found easily by searchers. Image Source Another reason why digital marketing is excellent for small businesses is that it can turn customers into brand ambassadors. Using digital testimonials can complement the word of mouth way of marketing and since 89% of consumers read reviews before buying products, integrating such testimonials is a no-brainer. Digital marketing widens your reach. By using multichannel, you can increase conversions and reach potential customers where they are. Social media is a gem, with 4.20 billion people using it. So by tailoring your message on the different channels, you can boost your reach over time. Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses It increases your reach You can target your audience at the right time It improves communication at all stages of the buying process Its cost-effective Its easy to tack and monitor Marketing allows you to know customers better It lets the customer come to you Digital marketing increases your revenue 1. It increases your reach Considering that people today are spending more time than ever before in front of their screen, digital marketing offers small businesses a great chance to reach new audiences. Small businesses can use either organic or paid digital efforts to reach these new audiences. 2. You can target your audience at the right time Most digital marketing channels have personalization and segmentation features that allow you to reach your audience with the right message at the right time. For instance, you can send time-limited offers to subscribers on your email list. Or run Twitter ads during specific holidays to target your audience at the right time. 3. It improves communication at all stages of the buying process People rarely go from being unaware of your brand to become customers. Theres typically a buying process they go through, and digital marketing channels help you guide your audience through this process. For instance, you can create valuable content that answers questions your audience might have with your blog. Also, you can use social media to drive conversations and engagement among your audience. 4. Its cost-effective Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing offers a low-cost method to reach your audience. Sometimes, with channels like social media and email marketing, you might not even have to pay to market your products and services to potential customers. 5. Its easy to tack and monitor Most digital channels come with analytics that help you quickly identify what elements work within your marketing strategy. Once you identify an under-performing area of your strategy, you can quickly switch things up and monitor how well the new elements are working. 6. Marketing allows you to know customers better Before starting your business, you likely had an idea of your ideal customer. However, marketing helps you even get to know this ideal customer more. How they interact with your campaigns and marketing messages helps you identify whats important to them and how you can connect better with them. 7. It lets the customer come to you Consistently creating valuable content for your audience helps you build authority and subject matter expertise (SME) in your industry. When people have problems concerning the topics you talk about, its easy for them to turn to you. 8. Digital marketing can increase your revenue. Assuming your conversion rates are constant, it goes without saying that youll make more money if you reach more people and thats exactly what digital marketing helps you do. Using social media, a website, email marketing, and more digital channels, you'll have more avenues to reach more people through at a marginal cost difference than you would if you used traditional or in-person marketing methods. Use Digital Marketing for Small Businesses Digital marketing can have a huge, positive effect on your business. Developing a marketing strategy might take some time, but its time well worth it. No business, big or small, new or old, should overlook the opportunity to generate leads and improve conversions that digital marketing offers. Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2006 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Ukraine has assured the United States that it will not use the provided rocket systems against targets on Russian territory. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a corresponding statement during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who is on a visit to Washington, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "There is a strong trust bond between Ukraine and the United States, as well as with our allies and partners," Blinken said. As for fears that Russia will interpret the provision of new US weaponry systems to Ukraine as an escalation, President Biden clearly warned Putin before the war about the consequences of the Russian invasion, including the US military assistance. "There is no hiding a ball. We have been extremely clear about this from day one with President Biden communicating directly with President Putin. So we have done exactly what we said we would do," Blinken stressed. As reported, the US presidential administration announced it would provide Ukraine with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) with rockets that can hit targets at a distance of 70, not 300 km, although Ukraine requested missiles of longer range. ol U.S. President Joe Biden has confirmed the new security assistance package for Ukraine will include HIMARS with battlefield munitions to defend Ukraines territory from Russian advances. The relevant statement was published by the White House, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. This new package will arm them [Ukraine Ed.] with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances, the statement reads. According to Biden, the United States will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraines fight for freedom. The people of Ukraine continue to inspire the world with their courage and resolve as they fight bravely to defend their country and their democracy against Russian aggression. The United States will stand with our Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself, Biden stressed. A reminder that, on June 1, 2022, the United States announced a new security assistance package to Ukraine, including additional modern weaponry, namely more advanced rocket systems. mk Four civilians have been killed and nine injured in Russias shelling of Donetsk Region over the past day. The relevant statement was made by Donetsk Regional Military Administration Head Pavlo Kyrylenko on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. On June 1, 2022, Russians killed four civilians in Donetsk Region, namely in such settlements as Soledar, New York, Tetianivka and Lyman. Nine more civilians were injured, Kyrylenko wrote. Three more people were reported killed in Russias shelling of Sviatohirsk Lavra. In Kostiantynivka, one more person was registered, who had been injured in Luhansk Region. At the moment, it is impossible to calculate the exact number of casualties in Mariupol and Volnovakha. According to the infographics posted by Kyrylenko, a total of 461 civilians have been killed and 1,202 injured in Donetsk Region since the Russian invasion started. mk The United Kingdom will send multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russia, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Wednesday. Thats according to CNN, Ukrinform reports. Britain will send M270 launchers able to strike targets up to 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) away, offering a significant boost in capability for the Ukrainian forces, according to a statement from the British Foreign Office. The move has been coordinated closely with the United States decision to provide Ukraine with its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) a variant of the multiple-launch rocket systems that will be gifted by the UK, the statement added. The UK stands with Ukraine and has taken a leading role in supplying its heroic troops with the vital weapons they need to defend their country, Wallace said. As Russians tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine, he added. These highly capable multiple-launch rocket systems will enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against Russias brutal use of long-range artillery, which Putins forces have used indiscriminately to flatten cities. The British government also said that Ukrainian troops will be trained on how to use the launchers in the UK, so the effectiveness of the launchers can be maximized. Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed that the U.S. was sending to Ukraine its HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to help the country defend itself against the Russian onslaught. On June 1, two Russian high-speed landing craft were destroyed in the Dnipro-Buh estuary in the south of Ukraine. This is according to Operational Command South, Ukrinform reports. The Russian boats, intended for Russias sabotage and recon operations, were sunk by Ukrainian missile and artillery units in their estuary hideout. "Meanwhile, in the Black Sea, the number of Russian warships threatening missile strikes across Ukraine has risen to three, while no landing vessels are being observed in the area. "The rucists tugged two Raptor boats, hit earlier, away from Snake Island to their base in Sevastopol with the remnants of hope to restore them," the Command added. A total of 21 occupiers were eliminated on Wednesday in the southern direction of the front. Also, the Ukrainian forces destroyed an anti-aircraft system and a self-propelled artillery unit, four T-72 tanks, four armored vehicles, three trucks, three drones, and three field munition depots. Faced with the issue of replenishing manpower to create new strike groups in the south, the Russians are now trying to compensate for the drawback with air and artillery strikes. Read also: Ukraine assures US it will not use provided weapons to strike Russia "A couple of enemy Mi-8 helicopters attacked our positions. No losses. But the unmanned reconnaissance drones collecting aerial data over Mykolayiv region never succeeded in reporting it back as they were shot down by our anti-aircraft missile units, the statement said. Mykolaiv was again fired upon by Pion heavy artillery guns and an Uragan MLR system. 203-mm shells were chaotically fired at residential neighborhoods, while cluster munitions smashed industrial infrastructure. A person was killed and at least three were injured." The threat of missile strikes from the sea, air, and the temporarily occupied territories also remains relevant. Over the past 24 hours, 13 enemy attacks have been repulsed in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions, with two tanks, six artillery systems, eight armored combat vehicles, and four trucks having been destroyed and seven Orlan-10 UAVs downed. This is stated by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an update released as of 6:00 on June 2, Ukrinform reports. The invaders launched missile and air strikes on military and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine. In the Volyn and Polissya directions, certain units of the Belarusian Armed Forces are being rearmed with modern models of weapons and military equipment. The threat of missile and air strikes from the territory of the neighboring country remains in place. The enemy took no significant action in the northern direction. The enemy's units, which suffered losses during the fighting on the territory of Ukraine, are being replenished with weapons and military equipment. From the Russian territory, the enemy fired mortars at the settlements of Seredyna-Buda and Progres in Sumy region, and Leonivka in Chernihiv Oblast. In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy's main efforts are focused on holding the occupied frontiers. In order to reduce the offensive potential of Ukrainian troops, the Russians fired on their positions with artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the areas of Mykhailivka, Prudyanka, and Verkhniy Saltiv. In the Sloviansk direction, the enemy focused on maintaining the occupied positions, conducting reconnaissance, and creating conditions for resuming the offensive. Their artillery shelled the areas of Dovgenke, Kurulka, Virnopillya, and Dolyna. In the Donetsk direction, the enemy continues to fire on the positions of Ukrainian troops along the entire line of contact with mortars, artillery, and jet artillery. In the Lyman direction, the enemy fought in the direction of Raihorodok, suffering losses and eventually retreating. In the Sievierodonetsk direction, the enemy is conducting assault operations in the settlement of Sievierodonetsk. With the support of mortar fire, they stormed the settlements of Bobrove and Ustynivka, to no avail. In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy is storming the village of Komyshuvakha in order to take control of the city, seeing partial success. Fireghts continue. They stormed the settlements of Nahirne and Bilohorivka before withdrawing under Ukrainian fire. In the Avdiivsky, Kurakhivsky, Novopavlovsky, and Zaporizhia directions, the enemy ran no active hostilities. They fired at Ukrainian troops with artillery and mortars in the areas of the settlements of Pisky, Avdiyivka, Uspenivka, Vuhledar, Novosilka, and Orikhiv. In the Novopavlovsk and Zaporizhia directions, the enemy continues fortifying the occupied frontiers, replenishing stocks. In the South Buh direction, the occupiers intensified shellings of Ukraine positions. The settlements of Shevchenkove, Trudolyubivka, Luch, Stepova Dolyna, and Shyroke also came under mortar and artillery fire. The enemy Mi-24 helicopters launched air strikes in the areas of Novohryhorivka and Oleksandrivka. In order to justify the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the Russians continue to spread disinformation about Ukraines forces allegedly stationed in schools, hospitals, and kindergartens. In the Bessarabian direction, no significant changes in enemy action were noted. In the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, Russian warships continue to isolate the area of hostilities, ensuring reconnaissance and fire support in the coastal direction. The enemy continues to block civilian navigation in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. The enemy continues to use the network of civilian medical facilities in the temporarily occupied territories to treat its wounded. The enemy continues to lose unmanned aerial vehicles, now already using UAVs belonging to the Ministry of Emergencies. The Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anusauskas stated that Lithuania had signed an agreement with the Turkish side on an agreement on the purchase of a Bayraktar strike drone for the needs of the Ukrainian army. The top defense official broke the news on Twitter, Ukrinform reports. "Agreement was signed in Turkiye today with the President of the Turkish Defense Agency prof. Ismail Demir on cooperation with the Ministry of National Defense of Lithuania. This agreement paves the way for the purchase of Bayraktar," Anusauskas wrote. Read also: Ukrainian Bayraktar drones destroy two Russian assault boats near Snake Island According to the defense minister, the citizens of Lithuania collected almost EUR 6 million in just three days to buy a strike drone for the needs of the Ukrainian Army. As Ukrinform reported earlier, in late May, Lithuanias Laisves TV launched a fundraiser for the purchase of the Bayraktar drone for Ukraine. Initially, the campaigns goal was to raise the required amount in three weeks. However, the Lithuanians coped faster. Poland will sell three more squadrons of Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. Thats according to the Polish news site Dzennik, Ukrinform reports. The contract for the supply of artillery pieces worth PLN 3 billion ($700 million) has become the largest military export order in Poland in the last 20 years, the statement said. The howitzers will be manufactured at the Huta Stalowa Wola plant, which is part of the Polish Armaments Group. Currently, the plants production capacity is 20-30 artillery pieces per year. The artillery will be delivered to Ukraine in the next few months. Ukraine became the first export customer of this type of weapon. Usually, one of the problems with this type of contracts with other countries, apart from a good offer, was also the lack of involvement of government agencies. This time, officials from the Ministry of State Assets, the Ministry of National Defense and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister acted in unison and -- even more importantly -- effectively. "It is a kind of breakthrough for the Polish defense industry, because we have not had such a large export contract for several dozen years," Dzennik said. In late May, Poland has already provided Ukraine with 18 Krab self-propelled howitzers (three batteries) and trained 100 Ukrainian artillerymen to work with them. Slovakia has signed a contract with the Ukrainian side for the supply of eight Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers to counter Russian aggression. According to Ukrinform, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said this on Twitter. "Glad to confirm that contract for Zuzana2 howitzers for Ukraine was signed - 8 pieces will be delivered to Ukraine," he wrote. Nad also thanked Ukraines Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov for his personal involvement in the negotiation process. Slovak President Zuzana Caputova said in her address to the Verkhovna Rada on May 31 that the Slovak Republic would provide Ukraine with Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers. On February 24, Russia launched a new phase of its war against Ukraine - a full-scale invasion. Russian invaders are shell and bombing cities, towns and villages in Ukraine, torturing and killing civilians. Ukraine's defense forces are offering fierce resistance to Russian invaders. Photo: @JaroNad President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that Russian troops now control almost 20% of Ukraine's territory, but the Ukrainian defense forces have liberated 1,017 localities since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. "Russian troops invaded 3,620 populated localities of Ukraine. 1,017 of them have already been liberated, another 2,603 need to be liberated. As of today, about 20% of our territory is controlled by the occupiers, almost 125,000 square kilometers. It is much more than the area of all Benelux countries combined," Zelensky said in his address to the politicians and the people of Luxembourg, Ukrinform reports. At the same time, the President noted that Russia had launched the war against Ukraine eight years ago. From 2014 to February 24, 2022, Russia controlled almost 43,000 square kilometers of Ukraines territory Crimea and a third of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Zelensky added that currently about 300,000 square kilometers of Ukraines territory are contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance. Moreover, 12 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced persons and more than 5 million, mostly women and children, have left the country. On February 24, Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, ballistic missiles, drop aviation bombs. ol History [ edit ] In 1563, Charles IX of France had an address to the Rouen parliament about forbidding firearms in which he made the following statement: Old French English D'auantage cosiderant que les meurtres, volleries, assassinats, & autres entreprinses, qui troublent le commun repos de nosdicts subects, s'exercent plus par les armes a feu, que nuls aultres : Defendons tresestroictement sur mesmes peines a toutes personnes, de quelque estat, dignite & qualite qu'ils soyent, porter ne faire porter par leurs gens & seruiteurs dedans les villes, ne par les champs, aucune hacquebute, pistolle ne pistolet, ne d'icelles tirer: sinon (...).[1] Considering murders, robberies, killings & other enterprises, which disturb regularly the rest of our subjects, are more caused by firearms than any others: we forbid very strictly with the same punishment for everyone, of any state, dignity & quality they are, to carry or have carried by their people & servitors neither within any town, nor in the countryside, any hacquebute, pistol nor pistolet, nor to use them: except (...) Firearms classification [ edit ] As of September 2015, classification has been simplified to 4 categories:[2] Category A: Category A1: Firearms disguised as another object, firearms with fully automatic fire capacities, firearms of a caliber greater than 20mm, handgun magazine with a capacity greater than 20 rounds, and rifles or shotguns magazine with a capacity greater than 31 rounds. There is an exception for magazine capacity for IPSC (TSV in French) shooter with a certificate of the shooting range where they are registered. Category A2: military material, material to transport or use weapons in combat and combat-gas protection. Category A11: semi-automatic rifle shorter than 60 cm with the stock detached or folded. Category A12 : semi-automatic rifle converted from automatic to semi-automatic. Category B: Category B1: Handguns with a capacity of 20 rounds or fewer. Category B2: Manually operated long guns with a capacity between 11 and 31 rounds, semi-automatic long guns with a capacity between 3 and 31 rounds and smooth bore pump-action shotguns. Category B4: Any firearm chambered for the following calibers: 7.6239mm; 5.5645mm NATO; 5.4539mm; .50 BMG; 14.5114mm. Category B5: Any registered parts of all B-categorized firearms such as bolt, barrel, magazine, etc. Category B6, B7, B8: Specific weapon for riot and order control (not available to civilians). Category C: Generally-accepted hunting weapons in France. Manual operation long guns with a capacity of 11 rounds or less, semi-automatic long guns with a capacity of 3 rounds or fewer. Pump action rifled shotguns with a capacity of 5 rounds or fewer are within C category, as long as they have fixed stocks, fixed capacity of 4+1 or less, barrel length 60cm (23.66 inches) or greater and have overall lengths over 80cm (31 inches). Manually-operated rifles in any caliber must have a barrel length of 45cm (17.7 inches) or greater to be in category C weapon. All shotguns (rifled and smoothbore) must have barrel lengths of 24 inches (60cm) or greater, have fixed stocks, fixed magazines of 2+1 and overall length must be greater than 80cm to be allowed for hunting. https://www.chasseurdefrance.com/pratiquer/les-armes-de-chasse-la-reglementation/ Generally-accepted hunting weapons in France. Manual operation long guns with a capacity of 11 rounds or less, semi-automatic long guns with a capacity of 3 rounds or fewer. Pump action rifled shotguns with a capacity of 5 rounds or fewer are within C category, as long as they have fixed stocks, fixed capacity of 4+1 or less, barrel length 60cm (23.66 inches) or greater and have overall lengths over 80cm (31 inches). Manually-operated rifles in any caliber must have a barrel length of 45cm (17.7 inches) or greater to be in category C weapon. All shotguns (rifled and smoothbore) must have barrel lengths of 24 inches (60cm) or greater, have fixed stocks, fixed magazines of 2+1 and overall length must be greater than 80cm to be allowed for hunting. https://www.chasseurdefrance.com/pratiquer/les-armes-de-chasse-la-reglementation/ Category D: Pepper spray, canne fusil, blank guns, black powder guns (non-metallic cartridge), deactivated guns, guns with a brevet older than 1 January 1900 (with many exceptions) Exceptions to this are all metallic, smokeless-powder firearms made before 1900 are Category C or Category B weapons. Weapons that shoot projectiles in a non-pyrotechnic way with energy between 2 and 20 joules, and anything used or planned to be used as a weapon. Individuals cannot own more than twelve B categorized firearms, cannot own more than ten magazines for a given weapon, and cannot store more than 1000 rounds per weapon. For example, if one owned a 9mm pistol then one could store 1000 rounds of 9mm; if one owned two 9mm pistols then one could store up to 2000 rounds. Individuals can only store 4,000 rounds total in their home at any one time. Hunters can only purchase C category weapons with showing proof of possession of hunting license with the year's validation. Hunters can purchase Category D weapons at anytime whether their hunting license is valid or not. Black powder muzzle loading are allowed to be used for hunting. Ammunition Classification [ edit ] Any handgun ammunition is classified as B, for example, someone who owns a lever-action carbine in C category chamber for .357 magnum needs to have a B categorized weapon to be able to buy .357 magnum ammunition. Some exceptions exist for calibers like in c-6 category. Category B: quota of 2000 rounds per year, maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an id card or resident card and the authorization of ownership to buy those ammunitions. 7.62x39 5.56x45 (.223 Remington) 5.45x39 Russian 12.7x99 14.5x114 quota of 2000 rounds per year, maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an id card or resident card and the authorization of ownership to buy those ammunitions. Category C-6: maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an id card or resident card and the acknowledgment of receipt of ownership to buy those ammunitions. 25-20 Winchester (6.35x34 R) 32-20 Winchester (8x33 Winchester) or 32-20-115 38-40 Remington (10.1x33 Winchester) 44-40 Winchester ou 44-40-200 .44 Remington magnum .45 Colt or .45 long Colt maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an id card or resident card and the acknowledgment of receipt of ownership to buy those ammunitions. Category C-7: maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an ID card or resident card and a hunting licence or a shooting licence and the acknowledgment of receipt of ownership to buy those ammunitions. 7.5x54 MAS 7.5x55 Swiss .30 M1 (7.62x33) 7.62x51 NATO or .308 Winchester 7.92x57 Mauser or 7.92x57 JS or 8x57 J or 8x57 JS or 8mm Mauser 7.62x54 R or 7.62x54 Mosin Nagant 7.62x63 or 30.06 Springfield .303 British or 7.7x56 maximum of 1000 in stock, you need an ID card or resident card and a hunting licence or a shooting licence and the acknowledgment of receipt of ownership to buy those ammunitions. Category C-8: You need an ID card or resident card and a hunting licence or a shooting licence to buy those ammunitions. Auther rifle munition (Ex : 7x64, 9.3x62...) You need an ID card or resident card and a hunting licence or a shooting licence to buy those ammunitions. Category D-1: You need an ID card or resident card and a hunting licence or a shooting licence to buy those ammunitions . Since August 1, 2018 D1 weapon became C categorized. . Category D-2: You need an ID card or resident card and must at least 18 years old with the exception of sportive shooters over 12, for whom a written parental authorisation must be written. Since August 1, 2018 D2 ammunition became D. Storage [ edit ] Category A: Firearms, ammunition and registered firearms parts have to be stored in a gun safe or a safe room. Firearms, ammunition and registered firearms parts have to be stored in a gun safe or a safe room. Category B: Firearms, ammunition and registered firearms parts have to be stored in a gun safe or a safe room. Firearms, ammunition and registered firearms parts have to be stored in a gun safe or a safe room. Category C: Firearms can be stored (unloaded) in a safe or without giving easy access using a lock or have them attached to a wall for example, ammunition have to be stored separated from the weapon (even in a safe). Firearms can be stored (unloaded) in a safe or without giving easy access using a lock or have them attached to a wall for example, ammunition have to be stored separated from the weapon (even in a safe). Category D: Category D1: Firearms and ammunition can be stored in a safe or ammunition have to be stored without giving easy access and firearms(unloaded) have to be stored in a way that they can't be used immediately, by using a lock or have them attached to a wall for example . Since August 1, 2018 D1 weapon became C categorized. Category D2: No Storage restriction. Ownership and purchase conditions [ edit ] Category D requires the owner to be older than 18. Category C requires the owner to be older than 18, have hunting, shooting or ball-trap licence of the current year stamped by a doctor. Category B requires the owner to be older than 18, be affiliated with a shooting range, have attended at least 3 shooting sessions with an instructor, and have a medical certificate. The shooter then receives a 5-year authorization to purchase and own of Category B firearms (and therefore Category C firearms since they are affiliated with a shooting range). Category A11 and A12 purchase not allowed since August 1st 2018 , for gun ownership before its same requirement as Category B . No civilian may carry any weapons in a public place. A special form allows a civilian to apply for a 1-year carry license, which allows them to carry a handgun and a maximum of 50 rounds if they are "exposed to exceptional risks to their life". In practice, such authorizations are rare. Exceptions exist for children and teenagers with a shooting or ball-trap license and parental approval. A child aged between 9 and 12 can own D categorized weapon that shoot projectiles In a non pyrotechnic way between 2 and 20 joules. A teenager aged 12 to 16 can own C and D categorized weapons. They can also own one-shot, rimfire Category B firearms if they participate in international shooting competitions (only with a shooting licence). A shooter between the ages of 16 and 18 who has a shooting, hunting or ball-trap license can own C and D categorized weapons. They can also own Category B firearms if they participate in international shooting competitions(only with a shooting licence). Carrying a gun is defined as having a gun by one's side on a public place ready to use. Transporting a gun is defined as having an unloaded, locked or disassembled gun and having a legitimate reason (personal defence doesn't qualify) for doing so in a public place. A legitimate reason to transport a firearm is a legal document like a hunting, shooting, collector, or ball-trap licence. Hunting, collector and ball-trap licences only work for D and C categorized weapon transportation. A shooting licence works for A, B, C and D categorized weapons. Showing a firearm in public to scare people can be a charge of public disorder. Since the November 2015 Paris attacks, police officers are allowed to carry their service firearms while off duty. The fighting in Ukraine continues on more than 1,000km of the front, and Russia has thrown all its combat-ready military formations into the war against the Ukrainians. Fighting continues on the huge territory from the city of Kharkiv in the east of our country to the city of Mykolaiv in the south. A straight line between them is 454 kilometers long. But if you look at the entire frontline, and it is, of course, not straight, this line is more than a thousand kilometers. Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the frontline for more than a thousand kilometers, Zelensky said in his address to the politicians and the people of Luxembourg. The Ukrainians have to defend themselves against virtually the entire Russian army as all combat-ready Russian military units have been thrown into the aggression, Zelensky stressed. Ukraine daily suffers from Russian missile strikes, the President stressed. Just yesterday, Russia used 15 different cruise missiles. Since February 24, 2,478 missiles have been used. Most of them were aimed at civil infrastructure. The occupiers death toll is already more than 30,000 soldiers. That's greater than the death toll of the Soviet Union in 10 years of war in Afghanistan. Greater than Russias death toll in two Chechen wars. But this does not stop Russia. This state is still ready to lose and kill, Zelensky added. On February 24, Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, ballistic missiles, drop aviation bombs. ol Ukrainian National Guard soldiers have destroyed six Russian Su-25 aircraft since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 this year. Oleksii Hadtochyi, head of the operational department of the Main Directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine, said this at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine - Ukrinform. "Since the beginning of hostilities, air defense units of the National Guard have destroyed 17 air targets, including six Su-25 aircraft. At the same time, two Su-25 aircraft were destroyed by a National Guard conscript using an Igla MANPADS," he said. In addition, Nadtochiy added, National Guard soldiers shot down eight Russian helicopters: six Ka-52s and two Mi-24s. They also downed three drones. Ukraine's Armed Forces have forced the enemy to defend in the Kryvyi Rih direction. According to Ukrinform, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in its latest war update published on Facebook. According to the report, as of 18:00 on June 2, in the Volyn and Polissia areas, the main efforts of the Belarusian armed forces are focused on strengthening measures to protect the state border. "At the same time, forest roads, bypasses and bridges are being mined in the areas bordering our country. The threat remains of the enemy launching missile and air strikes from the republic of Belarus," the report reads. The enemy was not active in the Sivershchyna direction. The movement of artillery and motorized infantry units was recorded. In the Slobozhanshchyna direction, the enemy continues to prepare for the offensive, with units replenishing lost weapons, military equipment and supplies. In order to reduce the offensive potential of Ukrainian troops, the enemy uses artillery to attack the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. The enemy was not active in the Kharkiv direction. The main efforts are focused on keeping control of captured territory and supply routes and holding off Ukrainian Forces. The enemy continues to shell civilian infrastructure in the areas of the settlements of Tsyrkuny, Stara Hnylytsia, Peremoha and Staryi Saltiv. Air strikes were inflicted outside the settlement of Nove. In the Sloviansk direction, the enemy focuses its efforts on creating conditions for the offensive. Russian forces fired on civilian infrastructure in the areas of Dovhenke, Virnopillia, Hrushuvakha, Velyka Komyshuvakha and Husarivka. In the Donetsk direction, Russian occupiers continue to use mortars, artillery and multiple rocket launchers along the entire line of contact. In the Lyman direction, the enemy fired on civilian infrastructure in the areas of Sosnove, Sviatohirsk, Staryi Karavan and Raihorodok. Russian forces carried out assault operations in the areas of the settlements of Studenok, Sosnove and Yarova. In this direction, the enemy intensified the work of electronic warfare. In the Sievierodonetsk direction, the occupiers continue shelling the positions of the Defense Forces and civilian infrastructure in the areas of the settlements of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. The enemy's assault aircraft launched air strikes in the areas of Ustynivka and Borivske. In addition, near Borivske, the enemy carried out assaults but had no success. In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy conducted offensive and assault operations outside the settlements of Komyshuvakha, Mykolaivka, Vrubivka, Berestove and Bilohorivka. In the Avdiivka, Kurakhove, Novopavlivka and Zaporizhzhia areas, the enemy did not conduct active hostilities, trying to strengthen its grouping and restore the loss of weapons and military equipment. Air strikes were launched on Marinka's civilian infrastructure. In addition, shelling was recorded in the areas of the settlements of Vidrodzennia, Dolomitne, Toretsk, Novobahmutivka, Avdiivka, Pisky, Mykilske, Vuhledar and others. In the Southern Buh area, in order to keep control of defense lines, Russian occupiers are destroying the transport infrastructure in areas where the Ukrainian Defense Forces could be advancing. In the Kryvyi Rih direction, the enemy is forced to defend its unprepared positions. The work of electronic warfare was intensified. Russian forces fired at civilian infrastructure in the areas of Shyroke, Lepetykha, Shevchenkove, Osokorivka, Partyzanske and others. In the Black Sea and Azov operational zones, the enemy's naval groups are focused on maintaining a favorable operational regime and blocking civilian shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. The enemy continues to suffer losses in manpower and equipment. According to available information, 115 wounded and 32 dead Russian soldiers were admitted to medical institutions in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk region alone from May 27 to 28, 2022. The Russian Federation has created a serious threat to the water resources of a part of Europe. One of the most important targets for the Russian army in Ukraine today is bridges across rivers. There are occasions when the Russian army strikes missiles three times at the same bridge to completely destroy it. It is impossible to overestimate the threat that Russian aggression has created for the water potential of our entire part of Europe - the center and east, the Black Sea basin, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said, addressing the GLOBSEC International Security Forum in Bratislava. He noted that fighting in Donbas had created a threat of groundwater pollution since 2014. If the flooding of coal mines in Donbas continues including at the Yunkom mine, where an underground nuclear explosion took place in 1979 poison and even radioactive contamination can get not only into the rivers of Ukraine but also into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. While informing the partners about security challenges related to Ukrainian waters, the President also mentioned Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports. The world is on the brink of a food crisis because of this act of Russian aggression, he stressed. As reported, Russia has blocked all ports and trade routes through which Ukraine exports grain to the world. About 20 million tonnes of grain remain stuck in Ukrainian ports. ol The Ukrainian delegation to the OSCE raised the issue of the illegal deportation of about 230,000 Ukrainian children to Russia and granting orphans expedited Russian citizenship. As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, the issue was raised during the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday. "Aunty Ira, I'm in Russia, I was taken here by the Russian military. I'm writing to you in secret, I managed to get a phone for a few minutes. My mother is no longer alive, she was killed under fire. They say I'm an orphan. But I'm not an orphan, I have you, I have grandparents. There are so many children like me here. They say they want to leave us in Russia. And I don't want to stay in Russia! Aunty Ira, get me out of here. I want to go home, to Ukraine," Head of Ukraines mission to OSCE Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk quoted the message sent by a Ukrainian child deported to Russia. As he stated, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, about seven million Ukrainian children have been forced to become adults: "Instead of lullabies, they listen to air raid sirens. They distinguish between the sounds of artillery shells, mines and cruise missiles. Sounds they must not have heard. Their playgrounds are littered with unexploded ordnance. They don't run with a ball, they run away from shells approaching." The ambassador also informed foreign diplomats about the appalling figure: since February 2022 alone, 243 children have been killed due to Russian aggression, 446 have been injured, and thousands have suffered psychological trauma and are constantly under threat. "In addition, some of them are still in danger even after the end of hostilities. At least 230,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia. And how cynical is to sign a decree that expedites granting Russian citizenship to Ukrainian orphans or those left without parental care on the eve of International Children's Day. In fact, the Russian president legalized the abduction of Ukrainian children," Tsymbaliuk said. It is a gross violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the diplomat stressed. "But this is what is called Russia's state policy. First, they come to kill their parents, and then they take children away," said the head of Ukraine's mission to OSCE. On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles. The invaders unleashed mass terror in the temporarily occupied territories. ol Russia must take the first step to unblock Ukrainian food exports by withdrawing its forces in the maritime waters around Ukraine and providing security guarantees against attacks on ports and commercial convoys. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said this on Facebook, commenting on the statement by Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Russians will allow the safe passage of ships with grain if Ukraine demines its territorial waters, Ukrinform reports. Nikolenko noted that Ukraine is working with partners to consider establishing an international mission, particularly under the auspices of the United Nations, which will take over the functioning of maritime routes for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products. "We welcome the preliminary readiness of a number of countries to join the process of restoring security in the Black Sea. As a first step, Russia must withdraw its forces in the maritime waters around Ukraine and provide security guarantees against attacks on ports and commercial convoys, he said. He noted that by attacking Ukraine, Russia laid siege to Ukrainian seaports. "The Russian army has mined part of the sea, constantly trying to break through the defense of Odesa and other coastal cities from the Black Sea," he said. Nikolenko stated that as a result of the Russian blockade, Ukraine has now lost the opportunity to export agricultural products by sea. Alternative land routes will not completely solve the problem due to their low capacity. In addition, Russia is stealing Ukrainian grain from temporarily occupied territories in order to sell it illegally to third countries. "Russia's actions could lead to a global food crisis and, in some regions, even a famine. Russia must immediately unblock Ukrainian seaports, stop shelling Odesa and other coastal cities, withdraw its navy to a distance that will prevent attacks on merchant ships and not create obstacles to international navigation, he said. He said that Ukraine remains committed to finding ways to unblock routes in the Black and Azov Seas to prevent a global food crisis. "We call on the countries whose food security may suffer the most from Russia's aggression against Ukraine to use their contacts with Moscow to force it to lift the blockade of Ukrainian seaports and end the war," Nikolenko said. A group of independent Ukrainian and international experts analyzing the impact of sanctions imposed on Russia, co-coordinated by the head of the Presidential Offce Andriy Yermak and a former national security advisor to the U.S. President, Ambassador Michael McFaul, has called on the European Union to accelerate the introduction of a full embargo on Russian energy to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible. That's according to the President's Office. In a statement, the group said that over the past three months, the democratic world has repeatedly demonstrated unity and the ability to respond to Russia's unjust war against Ukraine. On May 31, the European Union said it had approved the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes a ban on imports of Russian oil by sea, disconnection of Sberbank from SWIFT, the blocking of another three Russian government-run media platforms, and the expansion of personal sanctions. "Such sanctions will deprive Russia of the opportunity to export 90% of its oil to the EU by the end of 2022. Our group welcomes such a statement by the European Union, considering the embargo on Russian energy the most effective economic lever to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine," the group said in the statement. Experts emphasize that pressure on the Russian economy is necessary to prevent the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin from further funding hostilities in Ukraine and to force them to end. In addition, experts concluded that Russia's revenues from energy exports should be frozen in European bank accounts. "At the same time, we believe that the delay in the implementation of the sixth package has reduced the effectiveness of measures previously taken, including restrictions on the financial system. Russia continued to look for loopholes and adapt to sanctions," the group said. Thus, in the time that has passed since the decision was made to reduce dependence on imported energy, Russia has received additional opportunities to adapt, as well as tens of billions in hydrocarbon revenues. "Further delays toward a full embargo on Russian energy will reduce sanctions efficiency. A full oil and gas embargo against Russia is necessary. The European Union must work to accelerate its implementation and make these tough decisions, which are at the same time commensurate to the level of Russian threat, as soon as possible, the document said. The international group is convinced that the sooner such decisions are made, the more painless the reorientation of the economy and preparation for winter will take place. "All the implications of a full embargo are fully addressed, including solutions in our Energy Sanctions Roadmap, which proposes measures to reduce revenues during the transition to a full embargo," experts say. The combination of sanctions a full oil and gas embargo and disconnection of all Russian financial institutions, including Gazprombank, from the global system is capable of bringing the end of Russia's war against Ukraine closer, international experts are convinced. In addition, the democratic world must legally recognize the Kremlin regime as a sponsor of terrorism, limiting any business ties with Russia. "We call for solidarity and determination, not just loud rhetoric. We should not stop at the sanctions pressure, this is the only way to force the Kremlin to end the war against Ukraine," the group said in the statement. The Swedish government will hand over a new batch of military aid to Ukraine amid Russian aggression. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde announced this on Twitter, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Sweden will send anti-ship missiles, anti-tank weapons and 12.7 mm rifles including ammunition to Ukraine. This 4th support package also includes financial contribution to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Total amount includes more than 95 million euros," the Swedish FM wrote. Read also: Slovakia signs contract with Ukraine for supply of Zuzana 2 howitzers Linde stressed that Russia's war against Ukraine must stop. As reported, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been going on since February 24. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying infrastructure and residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, MLR systems, and ballistic missiles. The EU has approved a sixth package of sanctions against Russia over its unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, including restrictive measures against oil supplies and key propagandists and oligarchs close to the Kremlin. According to Ukrinform, a respective statement was published on the Twitter account of the French presidency of the EU. "Ukraine. COREPER II [the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union] approved the sixth package of sanctions, in accordance with the conclusions of the extraordinary European Council of May 30 and 31. The sixth package significantly extends the sanctions against Russia to new areas and provides, in particular, sanctions against members of the security and military apparatus linked, in particular, to the Bucha massacres, entities in the industrial & technological sector linked to Russian aggression, oligarchs & Russian propaganda actors & their family members," the statement said. It says that the said package of sanctions also means reducing the EU's dependence on Russian oil imports. Together with the implementation of national decisions by Poland and Germany, the decision will reduce Russian oil imports to the EU by 92 percent by the end of this year. In addition, according to the report, the sixth package of sanctions includes the disconnection from the SWIFT payments system of three more Russian banks and Sberbank, as well as a Belarusian bank. The sanctions extend restrictions on exports to Russia, particularly in the oil and high-tech sectors, as well as on the provision of services to Russia's refining industry. Three Russian media outlets have been sanctioned for spreading propaganda. In addition, European institutions are banned from providing any consulting services to Russian operators. The package of sanctions must be formally approved by the EU Council and enter into force after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The EU leaders on May 30-31 discussed Russia's military aggression against Ukraine and its implications for the European and world economy and security and agreed to impose an embargo on Russian oil supplies to the EU and extended such restrictions on oil supplies, using sea routes. For European countries surrounded by land and unable to obtain oil from other sources, the import of Russian oil via pipelines is temporarily allowed. The United States will adjust each package of security assistance to Ukraine, taking into account the situation on the battlefield. U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink told this to journalists in Kyiv on Thursday after presenting her credentials to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "A drawdown of $700 million in security assistance is not going to be the last, because it is part of the $40 billion assistance package that has been approved by Congress and signed by the President. So each package is going to be adjusted based on the battlefield situation and our conversations with Ukrainians as to what they need," she said. She noted that the United States is actively coordinating international military assistance to Ukraine with Ukrainian partners. "We all believe that this assistance needs to happen quickly. I do think that there were some problems at first but my understanding is that now it's very quick, within days, less even, of a decision, that the hardware is in Ukrainian hands," the ambassador said. The United States on June 1 announced a new package of military assistance to Ukraine, which includes advanced longer-range missile systems. One of Disney's most popular non-official events is Gay Days, when tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ folks converge on Florida's number one attraction to celebrate themselves and enjoy the wonder of the Disney park. Disney has done a lot to ensure everyone is welcome this year. Orlando Sentinel: Disney bought an ad in Gay Days' magazine featuring photos of a person wearing rainbow Mickey ears and gay and lesbian couples enjoying the parks. The ad begins with the line, "To all that come to this happy place, Welcome!," quoting from Walt Disney's 1955 dedication speech for Disneyland. "During Pride Month and throughout the year, we want everyone at Walt Disney World Resort to feel seen and celebrated not only because of the environment we create, but also because of our meaningful contributions to the community," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger told the Orlando Sentinel in a statement. Disney is celebrating Pride Month by donating $100,000 to the Zebra Coalition, launching themed backdrops and photo opportunities at all four theme parks and Disney Springs and selling limited-time themed food and drinks and merchandise across the resort. Europe must strengthen its unity, including by giving Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and subsequently full-fledged membership. We must strengthen the unity of Europe, true unity. And the main step in this direction should be to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and subsequently full membership. There can be no temptation in Russia to assume that European countries will not support Ukraine in this matter, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said, addressing the GLOBSEC International Security Forum in Bratislava. According to him, if Russia feels that Europe is weak and can leave Ukraine without the obviously necessary decision on candidacy, it will be one of the biggest destabilizing factors for the continent during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. The President also underscored the need to respond to all the challenges and dangers that the Russian Federation creates. Politics, economics, military sphere, food, environment, migration there is no area of our lives in which there is no catastrophe, crisis or threat of catastrophe or crisis due to Russia's actions, he stressed. As noted, the quality of answers directly depends only on unity as any division in Europe is a chance for Russia to continue its aggressive policy. I believe you are aware of this. So, I believe that we will be able to protect our continent and our people from everything that threatens us today, Zelensky stressed. On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles. The invaders unleashed mass terror in the temporarily occupied territories. ol We had no time to gather anything. We fled with only a blanket. Maryam, 24, internally displaced Afghan woman in Mazar-e Sharif Half of Afghanistan's population experiences acute hunger. Some 3.4 million people are displaced due to conflict, and many children are out of school. The health care system is collapsing, fundamental rights of women and girls are under threat, farmers and herders are struggling amidst the climate crisis, and the economy is in free fall. Conflict has subsided, but violence, fear, and deprivation continue to send Afghans across borders, particularly in Iran and Pakistan. Afghanistan is experiencing a humanitarian and displacement crisis. More than 700,000 Afghans were newly displaced inside the country in 2021, 80 per cent of whom are women and children. This comes on top of recurrent natural disasters including drought and earthquake damage and the COVID-19 pandemic with its far-reaching health impacts and socio-economic repercussions. Afghans already constitute one of the largest refugee populations worldwide. Some three-quarters of Afghan refugees are hosted in Iran and Pakistan, with more than 2.2 million registered refugees in the two countries. Afghanistans children are growing up amid this crisis. Some 65 per cent of the Afghan people are children and youth, anxious about their future in the face of insecurity and economic challenges. What is UNHCR doing to help? UNHCR is committed to staying and delivering in Afghanistan. We have activated our emergency response to protect the most vulnerable and assist Afghans with life-saving shelter, support to insulate and warm homes, water and health facilities, core relief items, and psycho-social support both within Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. Amid winter, UNHCR has significantly intensified its outreach with targeted assistance helping families to survive. Critical aid includes household items like blankets, stoves, solar lanterns, insulation kits and support for heating, clothing, and vital household supplies. Preventing the spread of COVID-19 also remains a priority. To help reduce the risk as much as possible, UNHCR is providing buckets and jerry cans in its relief kits to displaced families. These supplies are especially important in areas where access to clean water is difficult. UNHCR has also established hand-washing stations and distributes hygiene kits including soap and face masks. More humanitarian aid is urgently needed. We are ramping up our response, and we need support to protect and assist people forced to flee. Afghanistans needs amount to over US $8 billion in funding this year. The humanitarian plan for responding inside Afghanistan requires US $4.44 billion, the largest humanitarian appeal ever launched for a country. Furthermore, under the Transitional Engagement Framework, the UN requires an additional US $3.6 billion to sustain essential social services, support community systems, and maintain services, particularly for women and girls. These plans will ramp up delivery of life-saving food and agriculture support, health services, nutrition, emergency shelter, water and sanitation, protection, emergency education and other infrastructure and community programming. The regional refugee response plan requires a further US $623 million for 40 organizations working in protection, health and nutrition, food security, shelter, household items, water and sanitation, livelihoods and resilience, education and logistics. UNHCRs requirements within this appeal are US $263 million. Support our work now To find the latest figures, please visit our Data Portal. You can also read the latest external updates on our Global Focus page. Family is family. No matter who you are and where you are born. But every day, war, conflict and persecution are forcing people from their homes and tearing families apart. Today, more than 100 million people are forcibly displaced across the world, and almost half of them are children. This means that many refugee children grow up in uncertainty, separated from their loved ones and deprived the security of family. Maybe for years. UNHCRs Representation for the Nordic and Baltic countries is now launching an art exhibition with childrens drawings in the Finnish capital Helsinki. The objective is to create awareness about this global challenge, to emphasize the universal importance of family as seen through the eyes of children and to highlight how family reunification can help families reunite. The exhibition is created in close cooperation with the Redi Shopping Center, who has generously agreed to host it, and it will run from 13 30 June, displaying numerous drawings about family and family life created by refugee children hosted in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Libya, Mozambique and Romania. The exhibition will also exceptionally be open on 11 June at 13-15 as part of the Helsinki Day celebrations across the city. The exhibition is open also on World Refugee Day, marked globally every year on 20 June a day to celebrate and highlight the strength and resilience of the worlds forcibly displaced people. UNHCR invites everybody to join us at the exhibition to take a look at the colorful, imaginative and powerful drawings from the children, transcending nationalities and backgrounds to underline the love and dependency of family, shared by all children. Exhibition: Families Together the importance of family seen through the eyes of refugee children Monday 13 June Thursday 30 June Kauppakeskus Redi (opposite Tokmanni) Hermannin rantatie 5, 00580 Helsinki, Finland Opening hours: Everyday 10.00-20.00 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter A Very Stable Genius brimming with smug confidence told Jason Selvig of the Good Liars that hammers kill more people than guns and challenged Selvig to look it up on Google. Selvig looked it up on Google and told the Very Stable Genius he was wrong. The Very Stable Genius refused to acknowledge that he was wrong, which is a hallmark of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive bias in which people with low expertise mistakenly think they are more knowledgable than they are. This often leads to overconfidence and poor decision-making. Let's hope the Very Stable Genius doesn't have access to any hammers. From the video: Very Stable Genius: More people and more crime is committed and more people are killed with hammers every year than guns. Look at the facts. Jason Selvig: I will look that up. I don't think that's true. Actually. Very Stable Genius: It's true Jason Selvig: in the United States though? Very Stable Genius: Sir, that is true. Look it up. You can Google it. It's true. It's actually true. Jason Selvig: So the number of murder victims and the weapons used. Okay, number one, s 8,029. Number two, firearms type not stated 4,863. Number three knives or cutting instruments, personal weapons, fists, feet, then rifles at 455, then blunt objects, clubs hammers. 393. The hammers that stat is just wrong. Very Stable Genius: Back to your question. The Second Amendment is still my right and it's still important to me. You have to wonder how many times the Very Stable Genius spouted his false statistic to friends, family, members, and strangers. You also have to wonder if he'll keep telling people that hammers kill more people than guns. Applications opened Thursday for the annual 43North startup contest and this year, all the finalist companies will be competing for the same thing: a $1 million prize. Five $1 million prizes, to be precise. In an effort to remain competitive in a growing venture capital landscape, the Buffalo startup accelerator will invest $1 million in five companies, 43North President Colleen Heidinger announced Thursday. In the most recent competitions, only one company won a $1 million grand prize, while seven other winners received $500,000. 43North officials decided that offering fewer but bigger prizes would attract the most promising startups. "We want to position ourselves in the best light possible to attract the highest quality companies that we can," Heidinger said in an interview preceding Thursday's announcement. "Not only that, but also the companies that have the best fit for Buffalo." Since its inception in 2014, the state-funded business competition has given away $5 million annually to growing startups as a way to attract and cultivate high-growth companies in Western New York. With this year's change, only five companies will get to join 43North's eighth group of winners, fewer than in recent years. Last year, for example, Western New York's artisanal cracker and seeds company Top Seedz took home $1 million while seven others won $500,000. Top Seedz has taken root. Can Rebecca Brady nurture the 43North winner into the next startup hit? If Top Seedz can break through, like past 43North champ ACV Auctions, the company could add jobs and draw more attention to Buffalo as a place to invest in businesses. The amount of venture capital available to startup companies has vastly increased since 43North was founded eight years ago. In 2021, a record-breaking $329.9 million was invested in U.S. startup companies, almost double the previous record set in 2020, according to the National Venture Capital Association. "We don't want to be left behind," Heidinger said. "It's becoming more competitive than ever for us. So in order to stay attractive to founders, and particularly high-quality ones, we thought this would be the right thing to do." Winning companies will continue to receive the same support services from 43North as in the past, including free office space, help with hiring, fundraising and marketing, networking, and mentorship, Heidinger said. In exchange for the investment and support, founders must give 43North 5 percent equity in their companies and move their CEO and half of their staff to Buffalo for at least a year. Companies from around the world can apply until July 8. Then, the hundreds of applicants will be whittled down through three rounds of judging the online written application, a live video pitch and finals in Buffalo. An undetermined number of finalists will be invited to Buffalo to pitch their companies to a panel of judges on Oct. 20 at Shea's Performing Arts Center. Since 2014, 43North has invested $35 million in 59 companies, created nearly 1,100 jobs in the Western New York region, and has a portfolio valuation of $4.4 billion. Buffalo Next Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) Hungary has been pushing for more exemptions to the proposed sanctions against Russia, including the right to resell pipeline crude and dropping top Russian cleric Patriarch Kirill from the list of sanctioned individuals, a EU official told Sputnik. Hungary reportedly stalled the adoption of the sixth package of sanctions at a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels on Wednesday, two days after the European Commission announced that all 27 nations had agreed to ban seaborne Russian oil and allow Hungary to continue importing crude through the Druzhba pipeline. "They discussed again the technical details of the timeframe for reselling Russian pipeline oil products in EU but I believe this is not a very easy topic to find common ground with the Commission," the EU official said on condition of anonymity. Hungary wants to continue selling Russian oil products it refines, while its oil infrastructure is being adapted to crude sourced from elsewhere. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Tuesday EU leaders insisted that Russian oil imports be used domestically and that the pipeline exemption last for a short period. Another demand that Hungary voiced during the Wednesday meeting was to remove Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, from the proposed EU blacklist for allegedly backing Russian President Vladimir Putin and the military operation in Ukraine. "They ask for the removal of Patriarch Kirill from the sanctions list of the 6th sanctions package suggesting they will not give the green light unless Patriarch's name is removed from the list," the source said. The official added that it had caused frustration among EU ambassadors, as Hungary had not mentioned this condition during the EU summit on Monday and Tuesday. The source said that removing Names from sanctions lists had never been easy, especially at a late stage, but suggested "this might be a possibility." European Commission foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano confirmed on Thursday that the list of individual sanctions had not been finalized. "This is the privilege and the competence of the member states to decide when it comes to the sanctions list specifically who will end up on the sanctions list and be adopted for the sanctioning or not these discussions are not finalized yet," he told a news briefing. (@FahadShabbir) BEIJING, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :Pakistan is the world's top five largest milk producers, with over 60 million tons of milk production each year. To further enhance production, Pakistan can learn from China's best practices applied in the dairy sector, said Badar uz Zaman, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of Pakistan. In his remarks on World Milk Day (WMD), he said that Pakistani dairy products and milk are of high-quality and low price, from which Chinese enterprises can benefit through investing. "Top Chinese dairy enterprises showed interest in investing in Pakistan. Some of them visited Pakistan, but due to COVID-19, the development delayed. When the COVID situation gets better, two enterprises will set up their factories in Pakistan immediately", Badar told China Economic Net (CEN). According to the Pakistan Dairy Association, the government should support this industry to boost export and domestic production, especially to control the adulteration of loose milk. "Out of 60 million tons of annual milk production, just 3 percent is processed. Nearly 80 percent of milk is supplied by small farms (less than 10 animals), while the supply from medium and large farms is a mere 1 percent. The reliance on small farmers explains the low milk yield which is of 20 to 25 percent among top-yielding countries", Pakistan Dairy Association stated. Shahid Khan, a dairy farmer, told CEN that local farmers are facing many problems, such as a lack of education, latest storage facilities, transfer of milk, and cold storage. "China is one of the major dairy and milk consuming countries. Chinese technologies are usually low-priced. If we adopt the techniques and technology used by China, Pakistan could advance in this industry", Shahid mentioned. (@FahadShabbir) ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik on Thursday assured Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to resolve all the issues confronted by the oil industry on priority. He gave this assurance while chairing a high-level meeting with representatives of OMCs and the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), a Petroleum Division news release said here. The minister assured the oil industry that all their 'reasonable concerns' regarding finances like Letters of Credit and Turnover Tax would be taken up with the Ministry of Finance. Dr Musadik lauded services of OMCs for timely communications and averting any possible fuel crisis in the country, adding "the government would work in close liaison with the oil industry to ensure maintaining the required fuel stocks. During the meeting, the OMCs categorically stated that they had enough stocks of petroleum products for smooth supply in the country with a strong commitment to maintain the 'integrity of supply chain.'The meeting also expressed the resolve to stop fuel hoarding and illegal practices, if there were any. European consumers will primarily suffer from the embargo on Russian oil, and a large shortage of petroleum products in Europe is not ruled out, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) European consumers will primarily suffer from the embargo on Russian oil, and a large shortage of petroleum products in Europe is not ruled out, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said. "The decisions that the EU makes are, of course, primarily politically conditioned, not at all economically, because as a result of these decisions, European consumers will suffer first of all. We see an increase in prices, not only for oil, but also for oil products. I don't I rule out that there will be a large shortage of oil products in the EU," Novak said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 broadcaster, commenting on the impact of the partial EU embargo on Russia. The Technical Mission from Food And Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO-UN) led by Dr Phoebe Readford along with Dr Ross De Clifford and Dr Muhammad Afzal visited the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore called on Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad here on Wednesday at City Campus LAHORE (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd May, 2022) The Technical Mission from Food And Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO-UN) led by Dr Phoebe Readford along with Dr Ross De Clifford and Dr Muhammad Afzal visited the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore called on Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad here on Wednesday at City Campus. Meanwhile a detailed meeting was held in syndicate room with FAO-UN delegation regarding Lumpy Skin Disease Virus (LSDV) control & adopting preventive measures to save livestock sector (Cattle & Buffalo). Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad and chaired the meeting while Dean Faculty of Biosciences Prof Dr Habib-ur-Rehman, Director Institute of Microbiology Prof Dr Tahir Yaqub, Dr Kamran Ashraf and other senior faculty members of UVAS were present. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad gave detailed presentation regarding UVAS initiatives to combat skin disease Virus (LSDV) in Pakistan. In which he spoke about the Institute of Microbiology submitted projects and ongoing research MPhil and PhD programs, different UVAS publications on LSD, LSDV diagnostic facilities and test conducted in University Diagnostic Laboratory (UDL). He also spoke about the role of LSDV outbreak investigation through questionnaire & personal interview conducted by UVAS Department of Epidemiology and Public Health to curb lumpy skin disease. Earlier, he also spoke about the history of UVAS, various degree programs, research, training and services of UVAS. During the meeting, FAO-UN delegation sought suggestions and technical inputs from UVAS senior faculty member to control LSDV. All the participants of meeting put forward various suggestions to address this issue to save livestock sector. The participants urged on the importance of biosecurity and they suggested that it is necessary to conduct, webinar, workshops and farmers training programs to create awareness among them that how to deal with this disease, preventive measures to control its transmission and suggested register reliable vaccine for the treatment of animal. The participants also suggested to starting various clinical trials on vaccine, study on vector control and prevention of cattle transportation especially in the affected areas to unvaccinated animals (cattle & buffalo). At the end of meeting Dr Phoebe Readford lauded UVAS efforts for the prevention of deadly LSDV disease to save livestock sector in Pakistan. Later, FAO-UN delegation visited various departments of UVAS including Veterinary Academy, Bio-Safety level-3 Laboratory, Pet Centre, Quality Operation Laboratory, University Diagnostics Laboratory and Outdoor Hospital etc. If a bus with 30 or 40 passengers crashed in Western New York, an on-call emergency doctor could hop in their fully outfitted Ford Explorer, switch on the lights and siren and speed to the scene to assist. There, when seconds matter, the specialized doctor could quickly identify and stabilize patients with life-threatening injuries, while evaluating and treating on scene those with minor injuries complementing first responders with clinical expertise while taking pressure off overburdened hospital emergency departments in the process. That's just one example of how a new program unveiled Thursday will work, a partnership between medical transportation provider American Medical Response Inc. and UBMD Emergency Medicine. The Emergency Physician Response Program, which has been in the works for a few months, is designed to expedite treatment by getting trauma doctors directly to the scene of high-severity 911 calls and mass casualty incidents. The announcement comes three weeks after a horrific shooting in which a gunman from the Binghamton area shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. "Sadly, this community understands the importance of having an emergency preparedness and response plan," said Scott Karaszewski, chief EMS officer at AMR. "While we continue to heal as a community, we need to constantly be thinking of ways we can better serve our community, and this program and this partnership achieves just that." Erie County Medical Center's Emergency Department, as the region's Level 1 Adult Trauma Center, receives many patients from serious emergency situations, including the three victims who were wounded in the May 14 shooting and have since been discharged. ECMC and other medical officials praised the new program, noting that trauma care is a team effort and that bringing emergency medical doctors to the scene could benefit Western New York patients for years to come. ECMC staffers were prepared to save lives Saturday. In most cases, they didn't get the chance Within 15 minutes last Saturday afternoon, the Emergency Department at Erie County Medical Center received the three victims wounded in the mass shooting at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue. Horrified, but prepared to help, a team of providers still weren't sure how many victims would be arriving. Until the first ambulance pulled in. The program also comes at no cost to program users or taxpayers and is fully funded by AMR and UBMD, with "no expectation of a financial return on investment," said Thomas Maxian, president of the Northeast region for Global Medical Response, which includes AMR. Maxian did not disclose the total investment for the program, but it includes five fully equipped emergency response vehicles Ford Explorers outfitted with advanced cardiac life support, basic life support, communications equipment and a refrigeration unit for medications. The team will include UBMD EMS medical directors, EMS fellows at the Jacobs School, emergency medicine residents and regional EMS medical directors who will work on a 24/7 on-call schedule that will complement existing staffing within partner emergency departments. AMR said the dispatch process for the new team will be integrated within its current communications structure. Dr. Johanna Innes, the program director of the fellowship in emergency medical services at the Jacobs School, said one of the vehicles will be assigned to Dr. Brian Clemency, a medical director for AMR of Western New York, two of the vehicles will be with fellows, one will be with a resident on their EMS rotation and one will be with EMS attendings like herself. "The great thing about having so many vehicles is that availability will always be there, because we all work clinical shifts," Innes said. "So I obviously can't go to a call if I'm in the ER at ECMC, but if I'm in the ER at ECMC with my truck with me, there's still two fellows, a resident and Dr. Clemency." The program also is noteworthy within Global Medical Response and AMR, the latter of which employs more than 28,000 people who transport 4.8 million patients each year across 40 states and the District of Columbia. Dr. Edward Racht, chief medical officer of Global Medical Response, traveled from Texas for the occasion, noting the Western New York program brings together many different levels of expertise while also training future clinicians. "This is, by far, the most integrated and coordinated field physician response that we have in all of our locations nationwide," he said. It is not yet known when the program will get started. Innes noted the team's physicians will have to go through extensive training to operate the vehicles, which will probably take a few weeks. But once it is rolling, she is sure the unique program will help fill a major gap in the Buffalo area. "Plus, it's free of charge," Innes said. "So it decompresses the ED, it decompresses AMR, and people still get care." Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris. Buffalo Next Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tulsa, United States, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :A gunman has killed at least four people at a hospital building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said -- the latest in a string of mass shootings across the United States in recent weeks. The killings come as Texas families bury their dead after a school shooting left 19 young children dead just eight days earlier. The Tulsa shooting suspect, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun during his attack on the Saint Francis hospital campus, died by suicide, police said Wednesday. "Right now we have four civilians that are dead, we have one shooter that is dead, and right now we believe that is self-inflicted," Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish told reporters. He said officers responded immediately after emergency calls came in reporting that a gunman had stormed into the second floor of the Natalie Building, which houses a clinic on the Saint Francis campus. Police "were hearing shots in the building" when they arrived, according to Dalgleish, who said officers then searched each room and floor while trying to clear the building during what authorities described as an active shooter situation. Police Captain Richard Meulenberg said officers treated the scene as "catastrophic," with "several" people shot and "multiple injuries." It was not clear how many other people might have been wounded. Dalgleish said the entire assault -- from the moment emergency calls came in, to the time officers engaged the shooter -- lasted about four minutes. He also noted that the suspect had yet to be identified. US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, the White House said in a statement, adding that the administration has offered support to Tulsa officials. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 233 mass shootings this year in the United States -- more than one such incident per day in 2022 so far. US media reported the country was hit by a dozen mass shootings over the recent Memorial Day weekend. The United States generally counts mass shootings as involving four or more deaths. - 'Preventable' - Elizabeth Buchner, a legal assistant who lives behind the building where the shooting occurred, said she rushed out of her house when she heard helicopters and a loud commotion coming from the direction of the hospital. "It was the most law enforcement I've ever seen at one place in my entire life," Buchner, 43, told AFP by telephone. She said she witnessed a tactical team rush inside as part of a response that she described as "fast and strong," with "no hesitation." Melissa Provenzano, an Oklahoma state legislator, also praised the officers' swift response. "It could have been so much worse," she told CNN. But she expressed frustration at how such tragedies keep happening in the country. "These things are preventable, and it's time to wake up and address this." - Uvalde funerals - The shooting is the latest in a spate of deadly assaults by gunmen that have rocked the United States in the past month. On May 14 a white supremacist targeting African Americans killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. The shooter survived and is facing charges. Ten days later an 18-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 burst into an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde and killed 21 people -- 19 of them young children -- before being shot dead by law enforcement. On Wednesday one of the two teachers killed in that attack was laid to rest in Uvalde, a day after the first funerals for the children. Gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats. But Biden -- who visited Uvalde over the weekend -- vowed earlier this week to "continue to push" for reform, saying: "I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it."Some key Federal lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of senators worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise. They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the minimum age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove such weapons from people considered a threat to themselves or others -- but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like those used in Uvalde and Buffalo. WINDHOEK, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) --:Namibia will host the 4th Industrial Revolution Conference and Expo from June 7 to 8 in Windhoek, the country's presidency announced on Thursday. The event to be hosted by the Namibia Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Task Force that was appointed by the country's president will run under the theme, "4IR as an enabler of green and inclusive industrialization. ""Set out under the Economic Advancement Pillar of the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, the Task Force is tasked with conducting a country assessment on the readiness of Namibia for the 4IR and making recommendations towards a coherent policy and legislative framework," the presidency said in a statement. The conference, which will be officially opened by Namibia's President Hage Geingob, is expected to host invited local, regional and international delegates. Soledar, Ukraine, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :Russian forces edged closer Thursday to taking a key Ukrainian city after days of intense fighting, tightening their slow squeeze on the eastern Donbas region as Washington warned the war could last months. The industrial hub of Severodonetsk has become a key target for Moscow, and the local governor said that 80 percent of the city was now under Russian control. "Street fighting continues," said Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday on Telegram, pledging Ukrainian forces "will fight for Severodonetsk until the end". Ukraine stopped Russia from seizing Kyiv after its February invasion but the campaign in the east has had a high cost, with President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly saying that up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are dying daily. "The most difficult situation is in the Lugansk region, where the enemy is trying to displace our units from their positions," said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, according to a statement from the military. "The enemy has a decisive advantage in artillery," Zaluzhnyi told France's top general, Thierry Burkhard, in a phone call, adding he want his units to be equipped with weapons of the type used by military alliance NATO. "It will save the lives of our people". Ukrainian forces received a boost this week when US President Joe Biden announced that more advanced rocket systems were on the way. The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) away. They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package unveiled Wednesday that also includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts. But analysts caution the new rockets are unlikely to suddenly turn the tables -- not least because Ukrainian troops need time to learn how to use them effectively. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of "adding fuel to the fire" with the new weapons, although US officials insist Ukraine has promised not to use them to strike into Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there were no signs of Russia pulling back its forces: "As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict." Elsewhere, a missile struck transportation infrastructure near the comparatively stable western city of Lviv, injuring five people, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said. West of Severodonetsk, in the city of Sloviansk, AFP journalists saw buildings destroyed by a rocket attack in which three people died and six others were hurt. And on Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw. The European Union has also sent weapons and cash for Ukraine, while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow. Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline. EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent. The sanctions are biting -- a panel of investors said Wednesday Russia has failed to pay $1.9 million of accrued interest on a sovereign bond. And Russian energy giant Gazprom said its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year between January and May after losing several European clients. Paris, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :Russia's failure to capture Ukrainian capital Kyiv and topple the government in the first days and weeks of its attack on its neighbour have prompted it to reduce its reach, focusing on a slow squeeze in the eastern Donbas region as the war passes its 100th day. This week, Russian troops have solidified their hold on parts of the vital city of Severodonetsk, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that "the situation in the Donbas remains extremely difficult". "The steamroller is indeed advancing, if laboriously," said Mathieu Boulegue of British military think-tank Chatham House. "This isn't a military conquest" of the kind Russia might have hoped for. "In the coming weeks, Moscow will be forced to switch from a war of movement to fighting from fixed positions," he predicted. "It hasn't renewed its equipment, its forces are exhausted. The positions will soon freeze in place." President Vladimir Putin's war, launched on February 24 to horror in the West, may have fallen short of its initial objectives. But with the fall of the key port of Mariupol, Russian troops have established a land link to the occupied Crimean peninsula. Further progress in the Donbas would be welcome news for the Kremlin, which continues to describe the assault as a "special military operation" rather than a war. (@ChaudhryMAli88) SEOUL, June 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) --:A wildfire burned for the third day on Thursday despite firefighting efforts involving dozens of helicopters, the Yonhap news agency reported. The fire broke out on Tuesday morning from a hill in Miryang, some 280 km southeast of the capital Seoul, spreading rapidly to nearby forest lands amid the strong winds and a dry spell. Efforts to bring the blaze under control lasted for three days, mobilizing 53 choppers and about 2,450 personnel. The fire has burned about 700 hectares of woodland. However, no casualties and property damage have been reported yet. UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Jun, 2022 ) :A truce between the Government in Yemen and Houthi rebels has been renewed for an additional two months, UN Special Envoy for the Arab country Hans Grundberg announced Thursday. "By agreeing to implementing and now renewing the truce, the parties have provided a rare glimmer of hope to Yemenis that an end to this devastating conflict is possible," he said in a statement. The extension comes into effect at 7 pm, local time, and under the same terms as the original UN-brokered agreement, which began on 2 April. The conflict began in 2015, a few months after the rebels took over the capital, Sana'a. Over the past two months, the country's people have experienced the tangible benefits of the truce, the UN envoy said. Civilian casualties have dropped significantly, fuel deliveries through Hudaydah port have increased considerably, and commercial flights have resumed at the main airport in Sana'a, after nearly six years, it was pointed out. Additionally, the parties have been meeting face-to-face under UN auspices for the first time in years to make progress toward opening roads in Taiz and other war-ravaged governorates and implementing nationwide military de-escalation mechanisms. "I commend the parties for taking these steps, and for agreeing to extend the truce," Grundberg, the UN envoy, said. "The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties." He added that additional steps still need to be taken, particularly on road openings and commercial flight operations. The UN envoy will continue his engagement with the parties towards fully consolidating all elements of the truce, and a sustainable political settlement to the conflict. "I count on the parties' continued cooperation in good faith to build trust and take meaningful steps towards providing a peaceful future for all Yemenis," he said. Grundberg said he was grateful for international support for the implementation and renewal of the truce, especially Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the members of the UN Security Council. He also underlined his appreciation to Egypt and Jordan for their support in facilitating the resumption of international commercial flights from Sana'a airport. (@FahadShabbir) National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday urged the media to highlight the benefits of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it was crucial, especially in the context of false propaganda against it ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday urged the media to highlight the benefits of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it was crucial, especially in the context of false propaganda against it. "It is Media which can bring people of both countries closer than ever before and it is people to people contact which would make CPEC a win-win for all," he expressed these views while addressing the 7th China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Media Forum organized by Pakistan -China Institute and China Embassy in Pakistan. He said the negative propaganda against CPEC demands strong and deep contact between people of both countries. He said that Pak-China Friendship owes its foundation to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who signed 1st boundary agreement with China back in 1963. The speaker said that Pak-China China Friendship now has become corner stone of Pakistan's foreign policy as Foreign Minister of Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto had his first official bilateral visit to China soon after he took oath as the youngest foreign minister of Pakistan. He said that this Friendship- higher than Himalayas- would continue to play its role for regional development especially by executing all projects of CPEC. He expressed these views while addressing the 7th China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Media Forum organized by Pakistan -China Institute and China Embassy in Pakistan. While mentioning the magnanimity of CPEC for the socio-economic development of the region, he said that this project had always been supported with full vigor by all successive governments in Pakistan. He said that Gwadar was the most important pillar of the CPEC project and its development has transformed and connected the whole region. The speaker said that now Gwadar had become the hub of trade and connectivity due to China's earnest policy for its development. He also said that hydropower projects under CPEC would lessen the energy crisis in Pakistan. He said it was the need of hour to dispel the misinformation and disinformation which was being propagated against projects of CPEC in Pakistan. Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that Parliamentary ownership was pivotal to carrying out projects of CPEC and the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC was overseeing the fast completion of CPEC. He said that this Parliamentary committee would continue to provide Parliamentary ownership to CPEC. The Acting Ambassador of China in Pakistan also talked about the importance of CPEC to take the Pak-China Friendship to new heights of cooperation and welfare for the people of both countries. She said that it was the Media of both countries that could ensure and propagate the benefits reaped due to the completion of CPEC different projects. Senator Musahid Hussain especially appreciated the Speaker's participation in the event. He also talked about CPEC as being a sure catalyst for regional development. (@Abdulla99267510) The former PM claims Nawaz Sharif and Zardari always worked to make the nexus of America, India, and Israel "happy". PESHAWAR: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-June 2ns, 2022) PTI Chairman Imran Khan warned on Wednesday that Pakistan would break into three pieces if the establishment does not "take the right decision". Imran Khan said Pakistan might move towards default if right decisions are not taken. He expressed these words during interview to a local private tv channel on Wednesday. The former Prime Minister said, "The real problem here is of Pakistan and establishment. If the establishment does not take the right decision, then I will give it to you in writing that they will be destroyed, and the armed forces will be the first ones to be destroyed," he said. He warned that the country would default once country is destroyed and the international world would demand Pakistan to move towards denuclearisation as Ukraine did in the 1990s. He revealed, " An Indian think tanks abroad are mulling to separate Balochistan, they have plans, this is why I am putting pressure,". Imran Khan, however, did not disclose whom he was pressurizing. The PTI Chairman claimed that the coalition government would please the United States "in all ways". He argued that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari always worked to make the nexus of America, India, and Israel "happy". He categorically said, ""Their (government) plan is not to make Pakistan strong[...] when I was ousted, there were celebrations in India like Shehbaz Sharif was an Indian [who came into power],". The former PM said that India did not like him in power as he wanted an independent foreign policy. "So when you want an independent foreign policy, you have to say no sometimes." The former prime minister assured that he will march again towards Islamabad, but noted that his protest rally was dependent on the top court's decision. He reiterated his demand to Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial for a probe into the alleged threat letter that his government received from the United States which he claims mentioned ousting his party from power. The Armenian government on Thursday approved the signing of a draft protocol under which Yerevan waives its obligation to hand over samples of dangerous pathogens to the United States in accordance with the 2010 cooperation agreement YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) The Armenian government on Thursday approved the signing of a draft protocol under which Yerevan waives its obligation to hand over samples of dangerous pathogens to the United States in accordance with the 2010 cooperation agreement. "To approve the signing of a protocol to the 2010 agreement between the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations and the US Department of Defense on cooperation in preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens and knowledge that can be used to develop biological weapons... The proposed amendments will exclude the component on transferring samples of requested dangerous pathogens to the US side," a government decree read. The protocol will take into account the forthcoming legislative amendments regulating biological security and, thus, exempt Armenia from the obligation to share pathogen samples with another countries. The document also highlights the need for the authorities to ensure a more balanced approach to international cooperation on biosafety. Under the 2010 agreement, Yerevan pledged to transfer to the US Defense Department samples of the requested dangerous pathogens collected across Armenia for preventive, protective and other peaceful purposes, so that the parties could better identify, diagnose and control disease outbreaks in the country. The document also contained a provision for the sharing of epidemiological data. In February, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine. According to Moscow, Washington has spent over $200 million to develop biological weapons in the facilities. Russia also said that the labs revealed in Ukraine constitute only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities. Following the scandal, the Armenian National Security Service circulated a statement in March urging the relevant authorities to inspect activities of 12 biolaboratories operating in the country and allegedly funded by the US. Representatives of the defense ministries of Belarus and Hungary on Thursday discussed bilateral military ties and exchanged views on the situation in Eastern Europe, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) Representatives of the defense ministries of Belarus and Hungary on Thursday discussed bilateral military ties and exchanged views on the situation in Eastern Europe, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that Col. Valery Revenko, aide to the Belarusian defense minister for international military cooperation, met with Col. Laszlo Zakan, military attache at the Hungarian embassy to Belarus, for talks earlier on Thursday. "During the meeting, the sides discussed the contemporary state of relations in the military sphere between the Republic of Belarus and Hungary. The exchange of views on the issue of the political and military situation in Eastern Europe also took place," the ministry said on Telegram. The general staff of the Belarusian armed forces said earlier this year that NATO actions near the republic's border represent a growing military threat. The general staff claimed that NATO troops had more than doubled in quantity and quality over the past six months. In particular, NATO forces carrying air- and sea-launched cruise missiles started patrolling the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, while the presence of military aviation in Poland and the Baltic states has increased. In this regard, the general staff said, Belarus has developed "complex measures aimed at countering possible threats." NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) Abortion rights advocates saw a problem: Theres a limited pool of medical providers who can legally perform abortions. In some states, one solution has been to authorize more providers beyond just physicians. But to allow other providers such as advanced practice registered nurses, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives to perform early term abortions, changes in state laws were needed. These legislative drives gained increased urgency once a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion showed the justices appear ready to overturn Roe v. Wade. All of these restrictions and bans that were seeing across the country are pointing more progressive states in the direction of, How do we expand care? said Elizabeth Nash, state policy analysist for the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a think tank that supports abortion rights. The proposed provider expansions face pushback from critics. They say letting non-doctors perform abortions could put womens health at risk, especially if medical complications arise, and they question whether mid-level practitioners are qualified. Heres a look at how the provider issue is playing out: WHAT WOULD THESE LAWS DO? The goal, supporters say, is to expand abortion access ahead of a potential influx of out-of-state patients from places where abortion might become illegal. Having more providers will also reduce wait times for in-state patients, and improve access for underserved communities. The various proposals authorize advance practice clinicians to provide medication abortions, in-clinic abortions or both. Abortion rights advocates say these clinicians often perform more complicated procedures such as IUD insertions, early miscarriage management and endometrial biopsies, a procedure where a small piece of the lining of the uterus is removed to check for cancer or other issues. Supporters say randomized trials have shown that aspiration abortions a common early term abortion that involves a suctioning procedure can be safely performed by these clinicians. We know that this procedure is effective and has an incredibly low 1% complication rate, said Amanda Skinner, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. WHO IS OPPOSED? When lawmakers in Connecticut considered a provider expansion bill earlier this year, the states medical society warned of a potential slippery slope toward what it called mid-level providers doing surgical procedures, which are more risky. In submitted testimony, the Connecticut Medical Society said any new law should be very clear about limiting these providers to only doing in-clinic or in-office aspiration abortions. Among those who are against expanding abortion is Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee. Its not a surprise that the states would loosen or change the requirements of who can do them, she said, calling it a sign of desperation that theyre willing to put more womens lives at risk. The focus, she said, should instead be on helping women get through a difficult situation. WHERE HAVE NEW LAWS BEEN PASSED? Responding to the Supreme Court leak, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, recently announced he wants to codify into law regulations adopted in 2021 by the State Board of Medical Examiners, which allow a range of medical providers to perform aspiration abortions, and to set up a fund to pay for training. Four months earlier, he had signed a law guaranteeing abortion rights. We know without access, Murphy said, rights mean nothing. In Connecticut a Democratic-leaning state where Roe is codified into state law a provider expansion bill passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law last month. Abortion clinics in the state are already starting to see patients arrive from Texas, more than 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) away, where a new law restricts abortion after roughly six weeks. Thats according to Skinner, the regional Planned Parenthood CEO, who spoke during an interview at a clinic in New Haven. Right now, she says women face a frustrating two-week wait for in-clinic abortions at Planned Parenthood, the largest provider in the state. Besides Connecticut, laws were enacted in Maryland, Washington and Delaware this year to help shore up their provider pools by allowing non-physicians to perform certain early term abortions. Lawmakers in California are currently considering a bill that would update a 2013 law and allow some nurse practitioners to perform abortions without the supervision of a doctor, as currently required. WHAT ABOUT MORE CONSERVATIVE STATES? Lawmakers in some states where Republicans control the legislature, the governors office, or both have tried to pass legislation expanding the pool of abortion providers. The bills faced an uphill battle. North Carolina is surrounded by states with so-called trigger laws, which would immediately ban abortion if Roe is overturned. The state already has a shortage of physicians who perform abortions, and this will likely get worse if out-of-state women start seeking abortions there, said state Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Democrat. We have 100 counties in North Carolina. Ninety-three of those counties do not have an abortion provider. All of our abortion clinics are centralized in our urban areas, she said. So that is going to cause a big problem even just for women just traveling within our state. We have a large state. Von Haefen filed a comprehensive bill last year to remove what she calls barriers to abortions, including ending a ban on non-physicians performing abortions. That legislation failed, and von Haefen is not optimistic it will come up for a vote this year. The state has a Republican-controlled General Assembly and a Democratic governor. Similar bills to expand the abortion provider pool were proposed in Arizona and Nebraska, but faltered as well. Instead, Nebraska abortion-rights lawmakers and lobbyists said they focused on successfully fighting off a trigger law and two other anti-abortion bills this year. That's according to Sofia Jawed-Wessel, an associate professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who spoke via email as a private citizen and not on behalf of the university. Im certain we will continue to push those pro-choice bills in future sessions, depending on the outcome of Roe and the very likely special session that will be called should Roe be overturned, she said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) The permanent representatives of the EU member states will hold a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday to approve the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, the French delegation, which currently holds EU presidency, said. "The permanent representatives will meet in Luxembourg this afternoon. On the agenda: aggression against Ukraine approval of the sixth package of sanctions," the French delegation tweeted. French diplomats staged a one-day strike Thursday to protest a plan by President Emmanuel Macron to strip foreign envoys of their distinct status, a move they say will weaken Paris's influence abroad Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2022 ) :French diplomats staged a one-day strike Thursday to protest a plan by President Emmanuel Macron to strip foreign envoys of their distinct status, a move they say will weaken Paris's influence abroad. France has the third-biggest foreign service in the world after China and the United States. And it is only the second time in the foreign ministry's history that the institution, which prizes discretion and compromise, has staged an open revolt over a government project. The decree calling for the diplomatic corps' "extinction" was unveiled in April by Macron, who wants to create a single pool of elite "state administrators" capable of transferring smoothly throughout the public sector. Diplomats say removing their special status fails to acknowledge their experience and expertise in defending French interests, by making posts available to all senior civil servants and not just those specifically trained for the foreign service. "The reform says that agents are, in a way, interchangeable," Olivier Da Silva, a diplomat and union chief, told AFP. Canada and Ukraine are invited to attend the next Three Seas Summit to be held in Riga later this month, Latvian Parliamentarian Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica said at a press conference alongside Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Baltic counterparts in Quebec City on Thursday OTTAWA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) Canada and Ukraine are invited to attend the next Three Seas Summit to be held in Riga later this month, Latvian Parliamentarian Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica said at a press conference alongside Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Baltic counterparts in Quebec City on Thursday. "Latvia will host the next Threes Seas initiative Summit and business forum in Riga on the 20 and 21st of June, and we have also invited Canada to support the initiative by participating," Kalnina-Lukasevica said. "We also invited Ukraine to be present in this summit." The announcement comes as Baltic diplomats are in Canada holding talks with Joly on energy, defense, and food security related issues. During the presser, Joly stressed Canada's continued support for an overhauled defense on NATO's Eastern flank amidst increasing tensions with Russia. The Three Seas Summit initiative is a political and commercial platform whose goal is to improve connectivity between twelve EU Member States allocated between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black seas. The representatives of Russian companies are no longer allowed to enter the premises of the European Parliament, its president Roberta Metsola said on Thursday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) The representatives of Russian companies are no longer allowed to enter the premises of the European Parliament, its president Roberta Metsola said on Thursday. "Effective immediately, Russian company representatives are no longer allowed to enter @Europarl_EN premises. We must not allow them any space to spread their propaganda & false, toxic narratives about the invasion of #Ukraine. We will remain united & strong against autocrats," Metsola tweeted. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2022) The United States must figure out how to deal with China's influence in South America through its Belt and Road Initiative, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) head Gen. Laura Richardson said on Thursday. "(China's Belt and Road Initiative) is absolutely something that we need to deal with and we need to counter and we need to figure it out or it's just going to continue to cause insecurity and instability, not just in my region but the entire globe," Richardson said during a virtual panel discussion with the Institute of the Americas. Twenty-five of the 31 countries in the South America region have One Belt One Road Initiative infrastructure projects that are ongoing, and 21 of the 31 countries have signed up for China's Belt and Road Initiative, Richardson said. Richardson pointed out that the US Army Corps of Engineers is also working on projects in South America that can offer an alternative to Chinese-funded infrastructure projects. The Army Corps of Engineers is working with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, on a water resources database for the La Plata River Basin, which affects all five of those countries, Richardson said. In Chile, the Army Corps is providing expert exchanges on issues related to illegal and unregulated fishing, Richardson said. Ecuador, Honduras, Argentina, Peru, and the Dominican Republic are also receiving some type of assistance from the Army Corps, Richardson added. The Belt and Road Initiative is China's international project seeking to promote cooperation between Beijing and over 60 of its trading partners in Asia, Africa and Europe. In February, Argentina announced it will join the Chinese Belt and Road trade initiative and receive funding worth $23.7 billion for various projects from Beijing. (@FahadShabbir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan discussed by telephone with his counterparts from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, boosting defense and security in the Baltic region, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. "National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke by phone today with counterparts from our Baltic Allies to discuss European security in light of Russia's war in Ukraine," Watson said in a press release on Wednesday. "Mr. Sullivan underscored the ironclad US commitment to NATO's Article 5." Sullivan and his counterparts discussed joint efforts to strengthen their collective defense and security, including preparations for the 29-30 NATO Summit in Madrid at the end of June, the release said. The Baltic officials that participated in the call include Chief Security Advisor to the Lithuanian President Kstutis Budrys; Chief Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Lithuanian President Asta Skaisgiryte, National Security Adviser to the Latvian Prime Minister Maris Cepuritis, National Security Adviser to the Latvian President Janis Kazocins; and Director for National Security and Defense for the Estonian Prime Minister Indrek Sirp, Watson said. On Tuesday, Secretary of the US Army Christine Wormuth said that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland would like to see a larger number of US troops stationed in Europe but the Biden administration has no plans to increase the current figure of 48,000. However, Wormuth held out the possibility that President Joe Biden might authorize the deployment of larger numbers of troops to the European theater after the Ukraine conflict. The United States is in respectful discussions with Mexico regarding the latter's request to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas next week, senior director for the Western Hemisphere at the US National Security Council said on Wednesday WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2022) The United States is in respectful discussions with Mexico regarding the latter's request to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas next week, senior director for the Western Hemisphere at the US National Security Council said on Wednesday. "We have just had very respectful conversations with Mexico, and the Mexican President requested that Cuba (be invited to) the summit," Gonzalez said when asked about an option of inviting someone from the Cuban government. "The approach that we've taken is to talk to the leaders in the region, talk to Mexico ... We are still having some final considerations," Juan Gonzalez told a briefing. The Erie County 911 call taker accused of mishandling and cutting off a desperate call by a Tops employee during the mass shooting on May 14 has been fired. The county administration terminated Sheila E. Ayers after her disciplinary hearing held Thursday. Spokesman Daniel Meyer said a hearing was held Thursday morning for a police complaint writer Ayers' formal job title and that the person was no longer employed with the county as of noon. 911 call taker responds to accusation she hung up on Tops employee during mass shooting The call taker said she does not want to be judged before more facts come out at her hearing. Ayers, an eight-year 911 call taker with Erie County's Central Police Services Department, was working in the Enhanced 911 call center the day of the shooting. Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the Jefferson Avenue Tops location, had dialed 911 while hiding behind a customer service counter when the assailant was gunning down people in the store, ultimately killing 10 of them. Rogers said the call taker, whom The Buffalo News learned was Ayers, reprimanded Rogers for whispering and told Rogers to speak up. "She was yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper,' " Rogers said. "And I was telling her, 'Ma'am, he's still in the store. He's shooting. I'm scared for my life. I don't want him to hear me. Can you please send help?' She got mad at me, hung up in my face." In recounting the story to other news outlets, Rogers has also mentioned dropping her phone and said when she picked it back up, the 911 call taker had hung up. When reached by The Buffalo News, Ayers said she was sorry about what Rogers experienced during the shooting, but that Rogers has changed her story about what happened on the call "multiple times." "Im being attacked for one side of the story," she said. Tops worker says 911 dispatcher hung up on her during shooting. The dispatcher is now on leave and faces termination. "I felt that lady left me to die yesterday," Latisha told The Buffalo News on Sunday, as she waited for a worship service to start at True Bethel Baptist Church. Denise Szymura, president of Civil Service Employees Association Local 815, which represents the county's white-collar employees, said the union will file a grievance regarding Ayers' termination, as it would with any CSEA employee fired by the county. County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in the days after the incident that Ayers disregarded her training and that the way she responded to the caller was "completely wrong." The county's call center receives area 911 calls made from mobile phones. Poloncarz said that call takers are trained to recognize that if the person on the other end of the phone is whispering, that means the caller is likely in danger. That danger does not just include active shooters, but also incidents of domestic violence. After Rogers' allegations surfaced, Central Police Services administrators spent the next day reviewing all 911 calls made during the shooting and identified the call in question, Poloncarz said. While it's not clear who hung up on whom, he said, the call taker's response to Rogers was still "completely unacceptable." Ayers was placed on paid administrative leave May 16. "It is our intention to terminate that individual for what was a completely inappropriate response in a terrible situation," Poloncarz said at the time. Poloncarz also said he would release the transcript and recording of the 911 call. But First Assistant Erie County Attorney Jeremy Toth said the call recording and transcript would not be released, despite the fact that a number of other police departments have provided 911 call information to the news media. He pointed to Section 308.4 of New York county law that states E911 calls "shall not be made available" to the public. The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. File photo showing Pope Francis greeting Queen Elisabeth and her late husband the Duke of Edinburgh in the Vatican Pope Francis sends a telegramme expressing his prayers and good wishes for Britains Queen Elizabeth II, on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee. By Vatican News staff reporter This Thursday marks the start of a weekend of celebrations across the United Kingdom on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne. Marking this milestone, Pope Francis has sent a telegramme to the Queen offering his prayers and good wishes. In it, he says: On this joyful occasion of your Majestys birthday, and as you celebrate this Platinum Jubilee year, I send cordial greetings and good wishes, together with the renewed assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will bestow upon you, the members of the Royal Family and all the people of the nation blessings of unity, prosperity and peace. In a previously-unpublished message sent to Queen Elizabeth on 29 March, the Pope said he joins with those expressing appreciation for her persevering and steadfast service to the good of the nation, the advancement of its people, and the preservation of its illustrious spiritual, cultural and political heritage. Care of Creation In recognition of the monarchs commitment to the care of Gods creation, Pope Francis is donating a Cedar of Lebanon to the Queens Green Canopy initiative. He expressed the hope that this tree, "which in the Bible symbolises the flourishing of fortitude, justice and prosperity, would be a pledge of abundant divine blessings" upon her realm. The project invites people from across the United Kingdom to Plant a Tree for the Jubilee. As well as inviting the planting of new trees, The Queens Green Canopy will dedicate a network of 70 Ancient Woodlands across the United Kingdom and identify 70 Ancient Trees to celebrate Her Majestys 70 years of service. The Queen and the Popes Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, met with Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2014. The meeting marked the 100th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See. Following the meeting, Pope Francis gifted the couple a facsimile of Pope Innocent XI's order extending the cult of St. Edward the Confessor. Queen Elizabeth gave the Pope a large basket of food from the estates surrounding her homes; the items included an assortment of honey, a dozen eggs, a haunch of venison, shortbread, juice, preserves, and Balmoral whiskey. Queen Elizabeth has met four Popes as Queen, five in her lifetime. She ascended to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, after the death of her father, King George VI. The monarch first visited the Vatican in 1951 as Princess Elizabeth. The Pope at the time was Pius XII. Queen Elizabeth's first visit as Queen took place on 5 May 1961. She and Prince Philip were received in audience by Pope John XXIII. In 1980, Queen Elizabeth made a state visit to the Vatican and was received in audience by Pope John Paul II. Just two years later he made a pastoral visit to Great Britain. With the dawn of the new millennium, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited the Vatican once again, in October 2000. In September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited Great Britain on an Apostolic Journey on the occasion of the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman and met the Queen in Edinburgh. Police presence at the scene of the shooting at St. Francis hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma A gunman has fatally shot four people at St. Francis Health System campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the latest mass shooting incident in the US that highlights the ongoing discussion on gun control. Pope Francis and Church authorities have called for a culture of life and for the adoption of a path of solidarity as opposed to one of violence. By Vatican News staff writer At least four people were killed in a shooting on Wednesday at a hospital campus in Oklahoma. Police say that the shooter who has not yet been identified is also dead, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to media reports, the gunman, armed with a long rifle and a handgun opened fire at St. Francis hospital campus in Tulsa, in an attack that lasted for about four to five minutes on Wednesday. Unclear motive The motive and the circumstances of the deadly attack are still unclear, but Eric Dagleish, deputy chief of the Tulsa police department, who confirmed the incident, said that police received a call of an active shooter at 16:52 on 1 June. Officers arrived at the scene of the shooting within three minutes, which, they say, helped to ensure that the death toll did not go higher. However, multiple injuries have been confirmed. Dagleish explained that the officers who arrived at the scene heard shots in the building and that is what directed them to the second floor where they encountered the gunman. He described the unidentified shooter as a black male believed to be between the ages of 35 and 40 years. Mass shootings in the US Wednesdays shooting marks another incident of gun violence in the US which is still recovering from last weeks shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed on 24 May, when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary school. On Wednesday, that shooter was charged with domestic terrorism and murder. Before that, on 15 May, a gunman attacked a lunch banquet at a Church frequented by Taiwanese nationals in Laguna Woods, California, killing one person and wounding five others before he was stopped and hogtied by congregants. On 14 May, another 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 10 black people at a Buffalo supermarket, in an attack that authorities say was motivated by hate. US President Joe Biden has been briefed about the shooting and the White House said it was closely monitoring the situation. Last week, speaking after the Uvalde attack, Joe Biden called on Americans to make their voices heard to prevent further gun violence. The Church against gun violence Church authorities have not been silent about the growing number of mass shootings and incidents of gun violence. Following the shooting in Texas, Pope Francis expressed deep sadness over the loss of innocent lives and offered prayers for the children and teachers who were killed in the deadly attack. He also reiterated his call for an end to arms trafficking. "I am praying for the children and adults who were killed and for their families. It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms. Let us all commit ourselves so that such tragedies never happen again," the Pope appealed during the General Audience on 25 May. Likewise, Cardinal Blaise J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago bemoaned the gun violence in the US. "We dont yet know whether the Uvalde gunman took advantage of 'permitless carry,' but we do know that America is awash in guns. We have more firearms than people," he said in a statement after the shooting. As I reflect on this latest American massacre, I keep returning to the questions: Who are we as a nation if we do not act to protect our children? What do we love more: our instruments of death or our future? Cardinal Cupich asked. The US Bishops' Conference also joined in mourning the victims of school shootings and the killing of innocents. " Our Catholic faith calls us to pray for those who have died and to bind the wounds of others", the USCCB said in a statement. "As we do so, each of us also needs to search our souls for ways that we can do more to understand this epidemic of evil and violence and implore our elected officials to help us take action. Sorrow and mourning In a series of Twitter posts on Thursday, Governor Kevin Stitt described the shooting as a senseless act of violence and hatred and asked Oklahomans to come together to support the St. Francis Health System community, and to grieve with those whose lives have been forever changed by the incident. He also expressed gratitude for the quick and brave actions of the Tulsa Police Department and other first responders who did their best to contain a terrible situation. Tulsa Mayor, G.T. Bynum also expressed the communitys profound gratitude for the broad range of first responders who did not hesitate in responding to the incident. As Payton Gendron planned a massacre, he wrote that he had one friend in life, his "buddy Matt." That's how Gendron, in his log, often refers to Matthew J. Casado, 19, who had been a schoolmate for years in Conklin. Gendron said he showed Casado the assault rifle purchased for the slaughter in Buffalo. Went to friend Matt's house today, showed him my illegal XM-15 and he said he liked it," Gendron wrote on Feb. 11. "We talked and hung out for about 2 and a half hours." On Jan. 2 Gendron wrote that he showed Matt another weapon he intended to bring to Buffalo, a Mossberg 500 shotgun. Gendrons log further reveals that over the weeks and months leading up to the attack, Casado fired the Bushmaster XM-15; Gendron would have felt comfortable doing armed exercises with him; and Gendron revealed to his friend that he'd had suicidal thoughts. There is no sign Gendron told his friend he planned to slaughter Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, or was out to kill anyone. Nor is there any sign in Gendron's log that Casado questioned him about his need for new weapons and ammunition, or that Casado expressed concern when considering Gendron's suicidal ideation. In interviews with reporters immediately after the shooting, Casado identified himself as one of Gendron's few friends, if not his only friend. Casado expressed surprise that Gendron held the extreme racist beliefs that fueled his plot, and pointed out to reporters that he is partly Hispanic and he dates a Black woman. Casados mother, Pamela Burdock, told reporters she knew Gendron like a son and couldnt square the person she knew with the one now indicted in the rampage. Neither Casado nor his mother responded to messages seeking comment for this article. "Matt and Payton were best friends," Tim Baker, a neighbor in the mobile home park where Casado and his mother reside, told the Daily Mail. Baker went on to say he watched state police take items from Casado's home shortly after the Buffalo massacre. Among the items taken was ammunition. Casado reportedly called police to tell them Gendron had left some ammunition at his home the day before the shooting spree. The Broome County district attorney, Michael Korchak, has been assisting in the investigation into the crime that occurred 200 miles to the west and recently said he wishes someone had learned of Gendrons plot and dissuaded him. You just wish that he had some friends or someone who would be able to discourage him from this kind of conduct, Korchak said. When The Buffalo News asked about Casado, Korchak said state police and the FBI were interviewing anyone who had access to Gendron in the run-up to May 14. We are exploring every avenue to see what led up to the event, Korchak said. I believe that law enforcement should take a good look at Matt, said John V. Elmore, a Buffalo attorney who represents the estate of Andre Mackniel, one of the 10 people killed at the Tops Markets on May 14. Mackniel's last act was to go buy a birthday cake for his 3-year-old son. Elmore, a former prosecutor, said police should ask what Casado knew and whether he made any overt act that helped Gendron's plans. Much of what is known about the Gendron-Casado friendship comes from the lengthy diary, or log, Gendron maintained as he planned a mass shooting. He published it to a private online chat room on discord.com, a messaging site, shortly before the rampage. Gendron then livestreamed the attack, and the video reveals his face, as well as the rifle, which has markings on it identical to the rifle he photographed for the diary. He remains in the Erie County Holding Center on a charge of first-degree murder. Gendron, in his log, and Casado, in comments to reporters, say they met in elementary school: "Matt has been my friend ever since third grade. We talk some nowadays and I would consider him my only friend," Gendron wrote. Both graduated from Susquehanna Valley High School in June 2021. Casado attended a career and technical education program at Broome-Tioga BOCES and at graduation earned a local award, the Triple Cities Street Club Award, after being nominated by his autobody teacher, a school district spokesman said. Casado now works for Williams Toyota of Binghamton, where a person who took a message for him said he should not be blamed for Gendron's actions. Gendron's log indicates he and Casado shared an interest in guns. Casado, Gendron wrote, was among the first to see his new Mossberg 500 shotgun, which was purchased in December. And 19 days after purchasing the Bushmaster XM-15 rifle at Vintage Firearms in nearby Endicott, Gendron showed Casado the assault rifle, the log says. The rifle was used to target Black shoppers at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue months later. While the weapon was technically legal to own in New York, Gendron would soon modify it to allow a high-capacity magazine that let him fire more rounds without reloading and was prohibited by state law. Gendron acknowledged in his log: "The NY safe act didnt prevent me from buying an 'assault rifle' legally and acquiring high-capacity magazines. He wrote that he would feel safer during his killing spree because anyone with a concealed-carry weapon would lack the same firepower. If the civilians I will be killing had guns that werent limited, I would be much more afraid than I currently am, he wrote. Gendrons log says he showed the illegal weapon to Casado on Feb. 11. They made plans to go and shoot some more the following day. On March 6, Gendron wrote, he and Casado went to a flea market, where Gendron bought more ammunition, though there is no sign he shared his criminal plan with his friend. I had a fun time with Matt, the log says. It was a nice break from preparing for the attack. For March 18, Gendron wrote that he fired the weapon at the state forest to test the full ammunition magazines and all worked great. He went on to say that he would put different springs into the magazines the next day and added: I think Ill go with Matt and do some exercises. But there was no mention of Casado when Gendron wrote of his activities for March 19: Was shooting all of today, all mags worked great, no issues after 135 rounds shot. Then I spent an hour cleaning all but the barrel. As his preparations to kill innocent people intensified, Gendron wrote that he intended to buy new eye protection and ear protection and give the old protection to Casado. The two friends celebrated Casados birthday together on March 25 and played a card game on March 30, the log says. On March 31 the log makes one of its last mentions of Casado. Gendron had already written that he might be mentally ill and has had suicidal thoughts. For example, he wrote in December that he once told Matt about being suicidal at some points in my life. On March 31, Gendron wrote, I was going to kill myself sometime in December I think. He added: I remember I went up to Matts house one day and I thought he doesnt know this is the last time hes going to see me alive.' 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 URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. More than just bullets the latest American military aid package for Ukraine packs a longer-range punch. NATOs leader calls Russias nuclear saber-rattling rhetoric dangerous. A spy agency chief acknowledges America has gone on the offensive against Moscow in cyberspace. Show more Show less The U.S. Secretary of State outlines the Biden administrations China policy. Hello and welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story coming up. But first, making headlines across Asia. Chinas largest city, Shanghai, began to fully return to normal after a strict two-month COVID lockdown expired. The Chinese Foreign Minister visited Vanuatu on his regional island-hopping tour after failing to sign an ambitious deal with 10 South Pacific nations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was impossible to have a clear picture of everything going on in Xinjiang regarding Muslim Uyghurs after the U.N. Human Rights Chief visited last week. Hong Kongs next leader, John Lee, received an official letter of appointment from Beijing a month before he takes over the citys leadership. Search and rescue teams in Nepal recovered the remaining bodies of the 22 victims and the flight data recorder from a plane that crashed in the Himalayas. Passenger train service resumed between India and Bangladesh after a two-year COVID hiatus. The U.S. is planning on "cooperation" between its National Guard and Taiwan's military, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said. Tsai met with U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, noting that Duckworth was one of the main sponsors of the Taiwan Partnership Act, which had received bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, but has yet to become law. In a highly anticipated speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined how the Biden administration is approaching relations with China. VOAs Anita Powell reports. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. policy toward China comes down to three words: invest, align and compete. 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, well compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future. Blinken said that Washington was not seeking conflict with Beijing, and that the United States was committed to defending international law and institutions that he said China wanted to move away from. Under President Xi (Jinping), the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad. We see that in how Beijing has perfected mass surveillance within China and exported that technology to more than 80 countries. How it's advancing unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, undermining peace and security, freedom of navigation and commerce. Blinken stressed that the U.S. also remains focused on Beijings human rights abuses. Its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, along with many other actions, go against the core tenets of the U.N. Charter that Beijing constantly cites, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all countries are meant to adhere to. Beijing's quashing of freedom in Hong Kong violates its handover commitments enshrined in a treaty deposited at the United Nations. President Joe Biden had said the U.S. was willing to use its military to defend Taiwan, which would have been a shift from the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity in which officials have stopped short of such making such pledges. Blinken said U.S. policy remained the same. And Beijing is engaged in increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity like flying PLA aircraft near Taiwan on an almost daily basis. These words and actions are deeply destabilizing; they risk miscalculation and threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. The secretary of state noted the U.S. does not want to decouple from China; instead, it wants to continue trade and investment with the Asian superpower as long its fair and does not jeopardize U.S. national security. Anita Powell, VOA News, the White House. Visit our website voanews.com for the most up-to-date news. This is VOA Asia Weekly. U.S. President Joe Biden hosted K-pop supergroup BTS to raise awareness of anti-Asian discrimination. Members did not answer reporters questions at the White House about what policy changes they proposed to President Biden. The group has faced criticism in its home country South Korea for not speaking out against North Korea. Finally on VOA Asia Weekly, a ban on chicken exports went into effect this week in Malaysia. Malaysias government says the move is due to rising prices of chicken feed. Highly urbanized southern neighbor Singapore gets more than a third of its chicken from Malaysia. So now owners of chicken rice stalls in Singapore worry about the prospects for their businesses. Thanks for watching VOA Asia Weekly. Im Chris Casquejo. See you next week. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country's massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. On a recent day in Washir district in southern Helmand province, armed Taliban fighters stood guard as a tractor tore up a field of poppies. The field's owner stood nearby, watching. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning poppy cultivation throughout the country. Those violating the ban "will be arrested and tried according to Sharia laws in relevant courts," the Taliban deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund, told The Associated Press in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia. Production spiraled over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation. But the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive. The ban comes as Afghanistan's economy has collapsed, cut off from international funding in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Most of the population struggles to afford food, and the country has been suffering under its worst drought in years. 'We will not earn anything' Noor Mohammed, who owns one poppy field in Washir that was torn apart by Taliban tractors, said his plot of land is small and lacks water, so he can't survive by growing less profitable crops. "If we are not allowed to cultivate this crop, we will not earn anything," he said of his poppies. Day laborers can earn upward of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. Helmand is the heartland of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It appeared the new eradication campaign was targeting mainly those who planted their crops after the ban was announced. Many others who had planted earlier succeeded in harvesting, going from plant to plant, slicing the poppy's bulb, then scooping up the sap that oozes out, the raw material for opium. Akhund, the deputy interior minister, said the Taliban were in touch with other governments and nongovernmental organizations to work out alternative crops for farmers. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the eradication campaign would take place across the country. "We are committed to bringing poppy cultivation to zero," he told the AP. It's not known how many poppies were planted this season, how much was harvested and how many fields the Taliban have eradicated so far. But Afghanistan's production has steadily increased in recent years, reaching new heights. In 2021, 177,000 hectares (438,000 acres) were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020. The total value of Afghanistan's opiates production in 2021 was $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, up to 14% of the country's GDP, exceeding the value of its legal exports, the U.N. said in its most recent report. Production stopped, then returned During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the U.N. However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies. Over the next nearly 20 years, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it steadily increased: In 2002, about 75,000 hectares were planted with poppies, producing 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that. During the yearslong Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistan's opium output is greater than those of all other opium-producing countries combined. Nearly 80% of the heroin produced from Afghan opium reaches Europe through Central Asia and Pakistan. Climate change and the economy are emerging as key challenges for Australias new left-of-center government. Almost two weeks after the May 21 election, Labor has now won enough seats to form a majority government after the counting of postal votes. There is also a record number of women in Cabinet. This is far more representative than any government party room has ever been in our history. We are making progress, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Ten women are in the 23-member Cabinet. Analysts believe the appointments carve out space for improving gender parity in what has been a male-dominated political culture in Australian politics. Anika Wells, the new minister for Aged Care and Sport, said shes ready for the task ahead. I feel very honored that I have been given such a big reform task to do in the Albanese Labor government and Im really looking forward to getting started. Cost-of-living pressures were a keen concern for voters leading up to the May 21 election. The COVID-19 pandemic has left Australia with record amounts of government debt following massive jobs and wages subsidies during the pandemic. Managing the economy will be the governments main domestic focus, said Stewart Jackson, a senior lecturer in the department of government and international relations at the University of Sydney. The biggest domestic concern that Labor faces now is the budget and indeed the slowly declining economic situation finds itself in, he said. Australia has tried to counter Chinas growing diplomatic ambitions in the South Pacific. Beijing recently signed a security pact with Solomon Islands but has failed to persuade other island nations to join a broader regional accord. Australia this week sent its foreign minister Penny Wong to Samoa and Tonga. Jackson believes that Canberras commitments on climate change, another key challenge for the Labor government, will be well received within the region. Climate change is, of course, the issue of the day for many of the South Pacific nations, he said. So, actions by Australia on climate change will actually have a positive impact on the South Pacific and certainly Australias slightly frayed relations with near neighbors. China is ever present, but I do believe that the ALP (Australian Labor Party) will look to diplomacy, rather than saber-rattling, to improve the relationship. Australia has had just one female prime minister. But the new parliament is diverse with a record number of Indigenous members, along with others with Asian heritage. And with a majority in parliament, Labors policy agenda will be easier to implement. U.S. President Joe Biden implored Congress in a White House address Thursday night to approve "common-sense measures" to curb the deadly mass shootings that have shocked Americans, calling for new restrictions that he said would help combat gun violence. Biden urged Congress to reinstate the 1994 ban on semiautomatic, rapid-fire assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that expired in 2004. And if we can't ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21, he said, noting that the gunman in last months school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, purchased two assault weapons as soon as he turned 18 and used them to kill 19 students and two teachers. Seventeen others were injured. Biden pushed for other measures, including strengthening background checks for gun buyers, enacting so-called red-flag laws, which allow authorities to confiscate guns for a period of time if someone is a threat or exhibits mental instability, and safe storage laws. Lock it up. Have trigger locks. If you don't and something bad happens, you should be held responsible, the president added. He also pushed to repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability. They're the only industry in this country that has that kind of immunity, Biden said. Imagine, if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where wed be today. The measures he advocated are unlikely to win approval in the politically divided Congress, where lawmakers for years have been at odds over gun legislation. Republicans condemn mass shootings and gun violence but have regularly blocked gun control legislation, saying that the proposed restrictions that Democrats favor would impinge on the freedom of law-abiding citizens and are at odds with the right of Americans to possess guns that is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In his remarks, Biden quoted a letter he said he'd received from a grandmother who lost her granddaughter in the Texas school shooting: Erase the invisible line that is dividing our nation. Come up with a solution and fix whats broken. And make the changes that are necessary to prevent this from happening again. US stands alone Other countries have witnessed gun massacres but the U.S. stands alone in that it has not been able to pass tougher gun control laws in the aftermath of those tragedies. A year after the 1996 school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, in which 16 children and their teacher died, the United Kingdom banned private ownership of most handguns. In the same year, after a mass shooting in Australia that left 35 people dead, Canberra banned nearly all semiautomatic rifles and shotguns and launched a program to buy back more than 600,000 of the weapons from Australian gun owners. In 2019, less than a month after the killing of 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist gunman, New Zealand lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban military-style, semiautomatic weapons and enacted a buy-back program. After mass shootings in these countries people across the political spectrum have come together to make compromises to stop gun violence, said Jonathan Metzl, a sociologist at Vanderbilt University. We don't have that in this country, Metzl told VOA, adding that other countries don't have a corporate gun lobby, such as the National Rifle Association. It is estimated that U.S. civilians own nearly 400 million firearms. About 40% of U.S. adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 30% who say they personally own one, according to a 2021 Pew Research report. Forty-four percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they personally own guns, compared with 20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters. While most Americans own handguns or rifles primarily for protection or hunting, millions carry rapid-fire weapons such as the AR-15. Sixty-one percent of Americans say there should be a ban on the manufacture, possession and sale of semiautomatic guns, according to the latest Gallup poll. Limited restrictions In order to achieve compromise, some lawmakers are attempting to craft more limited restrictions in the aftermath of the three mass shootings within the past month. In addition to the Uvalde school shooting, 10 Black people were gunned down in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, and four people were killed at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical facility. The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday debated a bill it said was an emergency response to the mass shootings. It would raise the purchase age for an assault weapon from 18 to 21 and attempt to curb the sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines and "ghost guns," which are untraceable and unregistered weapons. The measure could pass the Democratic-controlled House as early as next week but is not expected to advance in the Senate, which is divided equally, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. In the absence of broad congressional action, some state lawmakers, including in New York and California, are pushing for tighter gun laws in their jurisdictions. State legislation seldom makes headlines, but its terribly important because, in the American system, states have primary responsibility for gun regulation, Kirstin Goss, professor of public policy and political science at Duke University, told VOA. After the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, Congress passed a bill to incentivize states to enter the records of people who are barred from buying or owning firearms into the national background-check system. But state lawmakers face the same pressure from the gun lobby as their peers in the nation's capital. In the United States this year, there have been 232 mass shootings, defined as incidents in which four or more people, not including the shooter, have been injured or killed. Not a single week has passed without at least four mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. Central African Republic refugees in Cameroon have started returning home after fleeing political and sectarian violence there since 2014. There are around 300,000 C.A.R. refugees in Cameroon, most of them women and children. Hundreds have agreed to return home after Bangui promised peace has returned to their towns and villages. Cameroonian officials handed out food and blankets at a camp in Gado Badzere Wednesday to about 300 Central African refugees who agreed to return home. Gado Badzere hosts more than 30,000 C.A.R. refugees out of 300,000 who fled conflict. Thirty-five-year-old farmer Robert Bissa is one of the refugees who is returning this week to the Central African Republic. He left the C.A.R. in 2017 after a rebel attack on a military base killed civilians and destroyed the shop where he sold his produce. Bissa said he received assurances from his family back home that peace has returned to his village in the south of the C.A.R. He said he intends to go back to his farm and grow beans and groundnuts. Cameroon authorities and the U.N.s refugee agency (the UNHCR) say 2,500 refugees, most of them women and children, have agreed to return home before the end of this year. But UNHCR Cameroon representative Olivier Beer said most of the refugees in Cameroon are still reluctant. Beer said a majority of the refugees have not accepted to voluntarily return because security is unstable in the C.A.R. But he said there are some towns and villages that have been pacified by the C.A.R.s military. A C.A.R. official receiving the refugees on the border said they would be socially and economically re-integrated and that their safety and security would be assured. Cameroons territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said militaries on both sides will protect refugees as they were returning home. Nji said there are still problems of C.A.R. rebels crossing into Cameroon to steal supplies and abduct civilians for ransom. "It is important to reiterate the instruction of President Paul Biya that the departure [of refugees] must be voluntary and the convoy must have all the necessary security measures. We have asked the security forces [military] in Cameroon to accompany the convoy and by the time we get to the boundary (border) the security forces military from the neighboring country [C.A.R.] will continue with the convoy," he said. Violence erupted among armed groups in the C.A.R. in 2013, when then-President Francoise Bozize was ousted by the Seleka, a Muslim minority rebel coalition. In January 2021, hundreds of C.A.R. civilians fled sporadic clashes after the presidential election, many of them to Cameroon. The U.N. says since 2013, close to a million Central Africans have fled conflict to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. The voluntary repatriation of C.A.R. refugees began in 2016 but was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Greek government and shipping industry on Thursday called for a global mobilization to free the crews of two oil tankers held by Iran in an ongoing dispute with Athens. "We call on all nations to act in order to end this unacceptable incident, and to ensure it does not happen again," Merchant Marine Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis told reporters. Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Friday seized the two Greek-flagged tankers in the Gulf, days after Athens said it would deliver to Washington Iranian oil it had seized from a Russian tanker in April. Plakiotakis said last week's incident posed a "threat" to shipping safety and trade and has "cast a shadow" over Greece's top shipping fair Posidonia, which opens Monday with over 1,900 companies from nearly 90 nations participating. Speaking at the Posidonia inaugural press conference on Thursday, Union of Greek Shipowners president Melina Travlos said some of the sailors held by Iran were youths on their first shipping assignment. "The global shipping community must mobilize, nations, everyone. This situation needs to end," she said. Greece's coastguard on Thursday said both ships are moored at the Iranian port of Bandar. The coastguard has identified nine Greeks and a Cypriot on board, but has given no information about other crew nationalities. Iran has said the crews of two tankers were in "good health" and not under arrest. The Revolutionary Guards the ideological arm of Iran's military had said it seized the tankers "due to violations", without elaborating further. Greece has condemned Tehran's detention of the two ships as "tantamount to acts of piracy" and warned its citizens not to travel to Iran. The German and French foreign ministries, in separate statements, condemned the seizure as a violation of international law, and called on Iran to immediately release the ships and their crews. The United States has also strongly condemned Iran's seizure of the two tankers, and demanded their immediate release. Iran has called the statements "one-sided" and "inappropriate interference." Tehran noted that France and Germany "are protesting against the legal measures taken in Iran" while "remaining silent" on Greece's own seizure of the tanker, which it said was Iranian. Assailants fatally shot a Hindu bank manager and a worker in targeted shootings in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday, according to police who blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attacks. Militants shot and wounded two Hindu workers at a brick factory near Chadoora town on Thursday night, Jammu-Kashmir police said in a statement. They were taken to a hospital, where one of the workers from India's Bihar state died. Earlier Thursday, suspected militants shot and killed a bank manager, Vijay Kumar, in southern Kulgam district, a separate Jammu-Kashmir police statement said. Kumar, from India's Rajasthan state, died at a hospital following the shooting. CCTV footage circulating on social media shows a masked assailant walk into the bank and fire shots at Kumar with what appears to be a handgun. The Muslim-majority region has witnessed a spate of targeted killings in recent months. They come as Indian troops have continued their counterinsurgency operations across the region amid a clampdown on dissent and press freedom, which critics have likened to a militaristic policy. On Tuesday, suspected militants, also in Kulgam, shot and killed a Hindu schoolteacher, Rajini Bala. After that killing, Hindu government employees staged protests in several areas, demanding the government relocate them from Kashmir to safer areas in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. They accused the government of making them "scapegoats" and "canon fodder" to showcase normalcy in the region and chanted slogans like "The only solution is relocation." Hundreds of Hindus who had returned to the region after 2010 as part of a government resettlement plan that provided them with jobs and housing fled the Kashmir Valley after the killing of Bala, according to Kashmiri Hindu activists. Some 4,000 Kashmiri Hindus, who are locally known as Pandits, have been recruited for government jobs under the program. Those employees have been on a strike since May 13 after a Hindu revenue clerk was killed inside an office complex in Chadoora town. In the aftermath of the clerk's killing, hundreds of Pandits an estimated 200,000 of whom fled Kashmir after an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989 organized for the first time simultaneous street protests at several locations in the region demanding better security. "We were tricked into thinking that the government is rehabilitating us under an employment package," said Jyoti Bhat, a local Hindu teacher who joined the program seven years ago. "It's turning out to be a death package." Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety. Most Muslim Kashmiris in the Indian-controlled portion support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. When Kashmir turned into a battleground in the 1990s, attacks and threats by militants led to the departure of most Kashmiri Hindus, who supported India's rule, with many believing that the rebellion was also aimed at wiping them out. Most of the region's Muslims, long resentful of Indian rule, deny that Hindus were systematically targeted, and say India helped them move out or allowed their flight in order to cast Kashmir's struggle as Islamic extremism. Those tensions were renewed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 amid a sharp rise in communalism in India, and the Indian government pursued a plan to house returning migrant Kashmiri Hindus in new townships. Muslim leaders described such plans as a conspiracy to create communal division by separating the population along religious lines, particularly after India stripped the region's semi-autonomy in 2019 and removed inherited protections on land and jobs amid a monthslong lockdown and communication blockade. Last year, suspected rebels killed a minority Sikh and several Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, in a wave of targeted shootings in the region. The killings came after India enacted a slew of changes in 2019, such as issuing "domicile certificates" to Indians and non-residents, entitling them to residency rights and government jobs. Many Kashmiris view such moves as aimed at engineering a demographic change in India's only Muslim-majority region. Many Muslim village councilors, police officers and civilians also have been killed in targeted shootings during the period. "It's a disastrous situation. It's not just the [Hindu] employees who are in panic. We all are living in constant fear since 2019," said Sanjay Tickoo, a local Kashmiri Pandit activist, who, like some 800 other Pandit families, did not migrate from Kashmir in the 1990s but chose to stay behind to live with their Muslim neighbors. He said that New Delhi's 2019 changes in Kashmir brought "demons of hate and division" back to the fore. "Killings in Kashmir happen as communalism is fast rising in India," he said. "If there is another large-scale migration [of minorities] from Kashmir to other parts of the country, it will create more difficulties for Muslim minorities in India. Minorities are vulnerable everywhere." India has sent a team of foreign ministry officials to Afghanistan for the first time following the Taliban takeover of the country last August. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi hosted the Indian delegation for a meeting focusing on bilateral diplomatic relations, trade and humanitarian aid, said a Taliban post-meeting statement Thursday. Muttaqi stressed "the resumption of projects by India, their diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and the provision of consular services to Afghans, particularly to Afghan students & patients. Analysts say the visit is significant because it signals Indias decision to engage with Taliban leadership, which, like most countries, it has not recognized. India said the officials will oversee the delivery operations of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and meet international organizations involved in the distribution of the aid. In recent months, India has sent aid consignments of 20,000 tons of wheat, medicine, half-a-million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and winter clothing to Afghanistan. It has also sent vaccine to Iran to be administered to Afghan refugees. India is in the process of shipping more medical assistance and food grains to Afghanistan, according to the foreign ministry. The statement said the Indian team is also expected to visit various places where Indian programs and projects are being implemented. India was the regions largest provider of development aid to Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover last August and had invested around $3 billion in projects that included schools, roads, dams and hospitals in the country since 2001 in a bid to build soft power. The Taliban takeover had posed a strategic setback for India and a reversal of those gains. Now analysts say India wants to rebuild some ties with the country where its arch-enemy, Pakistan, wields considerable influence. India is likely to pick up the threads of some of the development projects it had invested in. It would like to continue some of them, said Manoj Joshi at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. New Delhi has decided to play on the front foot and engage the Taliban. India had allocated about $25 million as aid for the country in the federal budget in February. Indias development and humanitarian assistance has received a widespread appreciation across the entire spectrum of Afghan society, the foreign ministry said. Analysts say that sending an official delegation to Afghanistan could be a precursor to India reopening a small mission in Kabul in coming months. India had shut down its embassy after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and evacuated all its diplomats and staff. This is a pragmatic approach by New Delhi, according to Joshi. If we are not there, then Pakistan will be the predominant player in the country. India has to respond to its own regional imperatives. Among regional countries, India alone was left without representation in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia had not shut down their embassies in Kabul. For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT. 10:17 p.m.: On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury took steps against a Kremlin-aligned yacht brokerage, several prominent Russian government officials, and a custodian of President Vladimir Putins offshore wealth. This action further identifies yachts and aircraft in which sanctioned Russian elites maintain interests. 9:10 p.m.: While the fighting is still brutal in the eastern Donbas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but there has been some progress in the city of Sievierodonetsk. Its too early to give specifics, he said late Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation. Zelenskyy said he was thankful to the United States for agreeing to send advanced rocket systems. These weapons really can save the lives of our people and defend our land, he said. 8:48 p.m.: Brittney Griner cant play with her WNBA colleagues. She cant call them, either. But she can write, The Associated Press reported. In one small bit of normalcy, Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players while she is detained in Russia. Hundreds of emails have been sent by players to an account Griners agent set up to allow them to communicate with her. Its not easy: The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyer after they are vetted by Russian officials. Griner either writes a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she dictates a response if she doesnt have any paper. Griner has been detained for 105 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. 8:14 p.m.: About 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings in Lysychansk, one of only two cities in the east still under at least partial Ukrainian control, have been destroyed by attacks, a local official said Thursday. Oleksandr Zaika, head of Lysychansk City Military-Civil Administration, said on an information telemarathon cited by the Unian news agency that non-stop shelling had knocked out electricity, natural gas, telephone and internet service. Lysychansk is separated by a river from the other city in the region thats still under at least partial Ukrainian control, Sievierodonetsk. It, too, is under Russian siege. 7:27 p.m.: A funeral was held Thursday for a retired Russian Air Force major-general whose plane was shot down while flying a combat mission in his countrys invasion of Ukraine, The Associated Press reported. The Russian state news agency Tass said Kanamat Botashev, a 63-year-old major-general who volunteered to return to service, had been shot down last month while flying over the eastern Donbass region. On May 22, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said a Russian Su-25 attack plane was shot down over the Luhansk region and that the pilot did not have time to eject. News reports at the time tied that incident to Botashevs death, which the Russian government had not confirmed until Thursday. 6:55 p.m.: Two temporary bridges arrive in Ukraine from The Czech State Material Reserve Administration. 6:30 p.m.: Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will meet in Istanbul soon to discuss plans for the establishment of a corridor that would allow the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, Turkeys state-run news agency said Thursday. The Anadolu Agency said the sides are set to discuss a possible route for the corridor, insurance issues and security for the corridor. They are also slated to take up the need to clear the route of mines as well as the creation of a command center that would oversee the mechanism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the need for a corridor for the export of agricultural products during telephone calls with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week. 5:45 p.m.: Ukraine's state-run nuclear power operator, Energoatom, on Thursday denied it might shut down a major nuclear power plant if Kyiv loses control of operations at the site, Reuters reported. The Zaporizhzhia facility in southeast Ukraine is Europe's largest nuclear power plant. Russian troops have taken over the plant, but Ukrainian specialists are still running it. The plant "cannot be turned off from a technical, security, economic or political point of view," Energoatom said in a statement. Last week, Ukraine's state-owned grid operator dismissed as "physically impossible" the suggestion by a Russian official that the plant would supply Russia with electricity. 4:25 p.m.: The European Parliament has banned Russian lobbyists from its premises, its speaker said Thursday according to Agence France-Presse. "We must not allow them any space to spread their propaganda & false, toxic narratives about the invasion of Ukraine," Roberta Metsola said on Twitter. Metsola urged all other EU institutions, including the European Commission and the European Council, to follow suit. 3:30 p.m.: The death of a French journalist in Ukraine this week is serving as a stark reminder of the risks for media covering the Russian invasion. His colleague Maxime Brandstaetter was injured in the same attack. VOAs Sirwan Kajjo has this story. 3:10 p.m.: Oil prices edged higher Thursday after U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected amid high demand for fuel and OPEC agreed to boost crude output to compensate for a drop in Russian production, Reuters reports. 3:00 p.m.: Yelena Sleptsova, a grammar school teacher who managed to escape Sievierodonetsk, a city under heavy shelling in Ukraine's east, recounts getting herself and her mother onto a packed train in Kharkiv. In an interview in Lviv with VOAs Current Time, she said passengers were ordered to sit in darkness while soldiers fired into the air to quell panicking mobs at the train station. 2:45 p.m.: In discussing the state of the conflict nearly 100 days after Russia invaded her country, Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska told the ABC TV network Thursday in an exclusive interview that conceding territory to Russia won't stop the war. "You just can't concede ... parts of your territory. It's like conceding freedom," she said. 2:25 p.m.: Matthew Parker is a U.S. veteran who served in Iraq alongside a Ukrainian American soldier. When Parker heard Russian invaded Ukraine, he decided he wanted to help Ukrainians defend their homeland. He is among thousands of Americans that Ukraine says have joined its new international legion to help protect the country. VOAs Myroslava Gongadze caught up with Parker when he arrived in Poland. 2:05 p.m.: The new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on Thursday said her top mission is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression, and she said the delivery of military aid is being accelerated, according to The Associated Press. There is no place on the planet I would rather be, Bridget Brink told reporters Thursday after meeting and presenting her credentials to Ukraines president. President Biden has said that were going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And thats what well do. 1:52 p.m.: President Putin may have wanted "less" NATO when he invaded Ukraine but instead got "more NATO presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, and also with more members, says NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after meeting Thursday with President Biden and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington on Thursday, VOAs Chief White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports. Stoltenberg commended the US. for its great leadership, both in providing support to Ukraine but also in support to our transatlantic alliance. As far as an assessment on when the war will possibly end, he says that wars are by nature unpredictable. And therefore, we just have to be prepared for the long haul. He reiterated that NATO also has a responsibility to prevent this war from escalating to become a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO, that will cause even more death, even more destruction, even more damage." 1:20 p.m.: Citing Interfax news agency, Reuters says Russia's defense ministry assured on Thursday that vessels carrying grain can leave Ukraine's ports in the Black Sea via "humanitarian corridors" and Russia is ready to guarantee their safety. 1:00 p.m.: Inspired by an act of generosity by Lithuanians, a Turkish manufacturer is donating a drone that will go to the war-torn country of Ukraine, Lithuania's defense minister said Thursday, according to the AP. This comes after Lithuanians raised 5.9 million euros in several days last week, to buy a drone for Ukraine. Lithuanian officials had traveled to Turkey to sign a contract with the producer to acquire it. 12:30 p.m.: The European Union has dropped a move to impose sanctions against Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill to secure Hungary's acceptance of the bloc's latest package of measures against Russia. Diplomatic sources told RFE/RL on Thursday that EU ambassadors agreed to remove Kirill from the sanctions list, which Budapest had insisted upon. All of the bloc's 27 members had to agree to the package in order for it to be approved and officially published on June 3. 12:00 p.m.: As the war in Ukraine approaches 100 days, AP photographers have captured the playfulness of a soldier, lightheartedly kicking a ball amid the carnage; a chilling view of a car driving down a highway, through the sight of a Ukrainian sniper and a landscape littered with buildings in ruins and the carcasses of Russian tanks. 11:40 a.m.: The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia did not plan to close "the window" to Europe, Reuters reports. President Vladimir Putin says the West wants to destroy Russia, that the economic sanctions are akin to a declaration of economic war and that now Russia will turn towards building ties with other powers in Asia and Middle East. 11:15 a.m.: Ukraines soccer team will play against Wales on Sunday in a decisive World Cup qualifying playoff after beating Scotland 3-1 on Wednesday. The Associated Press reports that players were lifted by messages before and after the win in Glasgow from people facing daily risks to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion. 11:00 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Treasury unveiled new Russia-related sanctions. More from VOA Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman. 10:50 a.m.: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that over 5 million children need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. 10:15 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin was treated for advanced cancer in April, a classified U.S. intelligence report says, according to U.S. based magazine Newsweek. U.S. officials have not commented publicly on the report. Reports that any such intelligence community assessments exist or that they have been briefed to the President are not true, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson told VOA. 9:55 a.m.: The Minnesota Zoo has scrapped plans to send a group of Asian wild horses back to their native Russia in light of the war in Ukraine. Citing The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Associated Press says that eight of the endangered horses were supposed to return to a nature reserve in Russia this fall following delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoo officials say they cant afford to take care of the horses any longer and are looking for options, including shipping the horses to another zoo in North America. 9:15 a.m.: Over the past few days, the intensity of shelling on the main road connecting the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has increased significantly. Moscow aims to capture a vital route leading northeast to the twin towns of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk where Ukrainian and Russian troops are engaged in close-quarter combat. Russian forces are also shelling hangars where grain and seeds are stored. RFE/RL's Maryan Kushnir reports from the front line in eastern Ukraine. 9:00 a.m.: The Kremlin has again denounced Western plans to supply more weapons to Ukraine, The Associated Press reports. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the pumping" of weapons will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons. 8:30 a.m.: The head of the African Union, Senegal's president Macky Sall, will meet with President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Friday, Agence France-Presse reports. Salls office says the two leaders hope to discuss "freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilizers." 8:05 a.m.: Russia is currently occupying about 20% of Ukraine's territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Luxembourg's parliament in a video address on Thursday. "We have to defend ourselves against almost the entire Russian army. All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression," he said, adding that the front lines of battle stretched across more than 1,000 kilometers. 8:00 a.m.: Britain says it is sending sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, The Associated Press reports. The pledge comes a day after the United States and Germany said they would send advanced weapons for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery as well to Ukraine. Kyiv is also set to get a diplomatic boost with the formal installation of a new U.S. ambassador on Thursday. 7:30 a.m.: Sweden will provide Ukraine with more economic aid and military equipment that will include anti-ship missiles, rifles and more anti-tank weapons, the Nordic country's defense and finance ministers said on Thursday, according to Reuters. 7:15 a.m.: Fires were still burning as residents surveyed the damage after Russian shelling hit a school and several apartment blocks in Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine. The city was held by Moscow-backed separatists for nearly three months in 2014 before being retaken by Ukrainian forces. RFE/RL reports that the Russian Army is now pushing toward the city from three directions. 6:30 a.m.: The editor in chief of the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, will be selling his Nobel Prize medal later this month to help Ukrainian refugees, Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions said. The current bid for the medal that will be auctioned on June 20 is $260,000. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the story. 5:45 a.m.: Ukraines Donetsk region governor says around 340,000 residents out of pre-war 1.67 million remain in the region, according to Reuters. Russian forces are trying to advance to Kramatorsk from Lyman and Izyum directions, the governor added. 4:56 a.m.: The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday that the European Unions decision to partially phase out Russian oil was likely to destabilize global energy markets, Reuters reported. Brussels and its political sponsors in Washington bear full responsibility for the risk of an exacerbation in global food and energy issues caused the illegitimate actions of the European Union, the ministry said in a statement. 3:45 a.m.: Reuters reported that Russias National Settlement Depository will service the countrys Eurobonds after Citibank stopped acting as a fiscal, transfer and payment agent, the finance ministry said on Thursday. The finance ministry also said that a delay in payments on its Russia-2022 Eurobond that were due on April 4 was caused by unlawful actions of foreign financial intermediaries. 3:00 a.m.: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC+, said it is working on compensating for a drop in Russian oil output, two OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Thursday, as Russias production has fallen by around 1 million barrels per day in recent months as a result of Western sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. One OPEC+ source familiar with the Russian position told Reuters that Moscow could agree to other producers compensating for its lower output, but it may not happen at a Thursday meeting and might not be in full. A Gulf OPEC+ source also said a decision on the matter was highly possible at a meeting on Thursday, Reuters added. 2:30 a.m.: The Slovak Defense Ministry said Thursday that the country will deliver eight self-propelled Zuzana 2 howitzers to Ukraine under a commercial contract which a state-controlled producer signed. The Zuzana 2 howitzer, a modernized version of an older model, uses 155-mm rounds and has an effective range of 40 km (25 miles) to more than 50 km (30 miles) depending on the ammunition type. 2:15 a.m.: The British defense ministry cautioned Thursday that Russian troops might turn their focus to the Donetsk region now that they have made significant gains to capture the key Luhansk city of Sievierodonetsk. Russia has taken control of most of Sievierodonetsk. The main road into the Sievierodonetsk pocket likely remains under Ukrainian control but Russia continues to make steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery, the ministry said in its daily report. But the ministry said Russian gains werent without cost, and Russian forces have sustained losses in the process. 1:30 a.m.: During an interview with Newsmax, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, praised his boss for his devotion to his country. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is brave, hes intelligent, and hes smart, Yermak said. Many people recognize him as a leader not just of Ukraine, but of all of the free world. Since the start of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy has inspired his citizens by staying in Kyiv to lead the fight against Russias aggression, captivating much of the world with impassioned speeches. VOAs Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine looks at how he has evolved into a wartime president. 12:04 a.m.: Russian forces continue their siege of Sievierodonetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, The New York Times reported. A local official said on Wednesday that Russian forces controlled about 70 percent of the city, where only about 12,000 residents remain out of a prewar population of 100,000 after weeks of intense shelling. the Times report said. Ukrainian soldiers there are at risk of being surrounded. With bridges over the Seversky Donets River destroyed or under fire, resupply has become tenuous. Ukrainian officials have been candid about the armys travails while arguing more rapid deliveries of Western weaponry will resolve them. Every day in the current heavy fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Newsmax this week, 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are killed and another about 500 soldiers are wounded in combat. 12:01 a.m.: When she helped launch The Kyiv Independent in November, chief editor Olga Rudenko had no idea that six months later she would be on the cover of Time magazine. But her teams reporting on Russias war in Ukraine propelled their English-language site into the spotlight, with Time describing The Kyiv Independent as the worlds primary source for reliable English-language journalism on that war. Rudenko says she feels she has a great responsibility to her audience, to be the world's window into Ukraine. In this interview with VOA, she shares her commitment to fact-based reporting and how that has been essential in a war where disinformation is high, and journalists find themselves reporting on atrocities happening so close to home. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. The white supremacist charged in the racist massacre targeting Black people at a Buffalo supermarket last month barely said a word during an 8-minute appearance before a judge on new charges Thursday afternoon. Those new charges, revealed Wednesday, include domestic terrorism and 13 other hate crime charges. This is believed to be the first time a person in New York State has been charged with this domestic terrorism crime, which was created by a 2020 state law enacted after an anti-Semitic attack in Rockland County. An Erie County grand jury indicted Payton S. Gendron on first-degree domestic terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three counts of attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime and a weapons possession charge. "In this case, there is overwhelming proof of the defendant's guilt," Assistant District Attorney John P. Feroleto told the judge, arguing that Gendron, 18, remain in custody without bail. Feroleto said Gendron was caught at the scene with a gun in his hand. He also said Gendron had a camera on his person when he was caught and authorities have the video recording of what the camera captured during the attack. Additionally, some of the charges carry significant prison terms upon conviction, Feroleto said. A person convicted of that domestic terrorism count is automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. The first-degree murder charges also carry the possibility of life without parole. Gendron, who drove to Buffalo from Broome County to commit the crime, the prosecutor said, has no ties to the community. County Judge Susan Eagan ordered that Gendron remain held without bail. Gendron's defense attorneys did not argue for his release, but reserved the right to request a change in bail status at a later date. In his only audible words, Gendron said, "Yes, your honor," when asked by the judge if he understood he had a right to be present during the court proceedings. Ten people were killed and three others injured in the May 14 attack at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue, the deadliest mass shooting this year in America until it was followed by another massacre 10 days later at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which the shooter killed 19 students and two teachers. Four people were killed in a mass shooting at a medical office building in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors have turned over to Gendron's defense attorneys video of statements made by Gendron that were captured on police body-worn cameras, Feroleto said during Thursday's arraignment. Security at the courthouse was beefed up again, like for Gendron's prior court appearances. About 30 people watched the proceeding from the gallery. Gendron, shackled at his ankles and wrists and dressed in orange jail garb, was escorted into and out of the courtroom by more than a half-dozen officers. Other officers were stationed around the courtroom. In a news conference after the arraignment, District Attorney John Flynn credited law enforcement agencies that have played a part in the investigation to this point. He thanked FBI Director Christopher Wray for sending 16 victim advocates from the agency to Buffalo to help support victims' families. Police and prosecutors initially charged Gendron with one count of first-degree murder in Buffalo City Court. That charge covered the 10 killings. Gendron may also face federal charges. Gendron was scheduled to return to county court on July 7. Reach Aaron at abesecker[at]buffnews.com or 716-849-4602. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Two years after the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer that touched off months of demonstrations against police brutality, a U.S. public opinion survey suggests solid support among Americans for broad reforms to policing. The study, conducted by the nonpartisan Gallup Center on Black Voices from April 24 to May 17, found 50% of Americans favored major changes to policing in the U.S., while 39% said minor changes were needed to improve how police do their jobs. U.S. adults overall remain steadfast that some reform to policing is needed, whether those are major changes or minor changes with the way we police society, said Camille Lloyd, director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices in Washington. The poll included a survey of 4,000 Black Americans and found that 72% of them wanted major changes to policing, compared with 44% of whites and 54% of Hispanics. Half of Black respondents said they were particularly supportive of eliminating policing against nonviolent crimes and reducing the operating budgets of police departments to shift the money toward social programs. Overall, two-thirds of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with requiring officers to have good relations with the community. They also favored changing management practices so officers with multiple incidents of abuse of power are no longer allowed to serve. Ninety-one percent of Black adults said they supported reforms so that police officers face legal action for abuse of power or unnecessary harm. We found a common theme in the survey of support for fostering better relations with the police and increased accountability for misuse or abuse of power, Lloyd told VOA. The study found Black Americans, like other groups, reported less frequent interactions with police over the last year compared with previous years, but some Black respondents were more likely to describe such interactions as positive compared with what they reported in 2020. The study noted the positive ratings of interactions between African Americans and police still lagged behind the national average for all racial groups. I think our research shows Black Americans want safer communities but dont want to have these negative encounters with the police, said Lloyd. The Gallup Center for Black Voices started its surveys in July 2020. The research is designed to gather public opinions on justice issues that can be monitored over time. The organization has committed to a 100-year study. Policing laws President Joe Biden has called on police officers to deliver both effective crime deterrence and equal treatment of the public. Efforts by his Democratic administration to win support in Congress for a police reform law named after George Floyd, however, collapsed in the U.S. Senate amid Republican opposition last September. The legislation was introduced in 2020 after several high-profile killings of unarmed Black people. With police reform legislation stalled in Congress, Biden used his executive powers last month to tighten rules for federal law enforcement agencies, directing them to revise their use-of-force policies. Additionally, the executive order created a national registry of officers fired for misconduct. The measure also offered grants to the nations 18,000 law enforcement agencies to encourage police to restrict the use of chokeholds and neck restraints when detaining individuals tactics that have been linked to several high-profile fatal encounters between police officers and civilians. Its a measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation, to address the profound fear, trauma, exhaustion" that Black Americans in particular "have experienced for generations, Biden said last month. The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), representing more than 241,000 law enforcement officers, gave the administrations executive order mixed reviews. The group expressed support for the fact that the Biden administration didnt seek to restrict the ability of police officers to protect themselves against lawsuits. The executive order does not recommend Congress take action to eliminate qualified immunity for officers, which is of utmost importance as this legal protection for officers is essential, NAPO said in a statement. Qualified immunity makes it harder to put police officers on trial for using excessive force or for otherwise violating a persons constitutional rights. Promoting policing reforms With a few months remaining before the November midterm elections that will determine which political party controls Congress, civil rights groups are urging the legislature, currently led by Democrats in both houses, to act on police reform legislation. "I think those of us who want this to happen are going to have to be engaged and continue to pressure members of Congress and members of the United States Senate to support reforms to policing, said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. We are going to have to renew our fight for police reform legislation, Morial told VOA. As local and federal efforts seek to curb some police powers, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled a National Law Enforcement Knowledge Lab in April. Its a resource hub for law enforcement designed to promote constitutionally based policing and build trust in communities. Law enforcement agencies nationwide can use the Knowledge Lab to access material on best practices and training curricula, as well as a roster of constitutional policing experts to provide support and counsel. Providing law enforcement with the tools, resources and support they need to do their jobs effectively and fairly makes our communities safer and stronger, said Vanita Gupta, U.S. associate attorney general. Poet and activist Hannah Drake uses her writing to explore the history of racism in her hometown, Louisville, Kentucky an American city that remains highly segregated. Following the wrongful police killing of Breonna Taylor, a young Black woman living in Louisville, Hannah reflects on what freedom and equality look like for Black Americans today. She vows to keep using her art as activism to ensure the history of slavery and its impact on society is always known. No Longer Unknown makes its streaming debut on VOA+ on June 2. An award-winning journalist who fled from Afghanistan last August says the international community must not remain silent on Taliban restrictions for female journalists. Anisa Shaheed, a former TOLOnews broadcaster who on May 23 was named as an International Center for Journalists Knight awardee, says she is troubled by orders that impact the ability of female journalists to work. In an interview with VOAs Dari service, Shaheed said the Taliban mandate that women cover their faces when reporting is not acceptable. I hope these difficult days pass, said Shaheed. Where in the Islamic countries do journalists work like that? This is very painful and upsetting. Shaheed worked with TOLOnews, one of Afghanistans largest broadcasters, for more than a decade. She described that time as an honor, saying journalism allowed her an others to echo the voices of women in the country. The ICFJ praised Shaheeds intrepid coverage of major stories, including an armed attack on a maternity hospital and government mishandling of pandemic resources. The organization noted that as a woman in Afghanistan, Shaheed faced a dual threat. The ICFJ will present Shaheed with its award in November. When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Shaheed left the country. Currently, she lives in Washington, where she works as a freelance journalist. Suffocating freedom of speech But her thoughts are never far from colleagues back in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, from the day the Taliban came to power, they have not only imposed restrictions on the media but also on the people and women, Shaheed said. The restrictions have increased day by day. By ordering women to cover their faces, the Taliban are suffocating freedom of speech, she said. It can only mean one thing and that is that they want to omit women from media and public life. The international community widely condemned the Taliban order and several male journalists went on air on May 22 wearing masks in a show of solidarity with their colleagues. Sharon Moshavi, president of ICFJ, told VOA that the situation for Afghan journalists should not be forgotten. People dont know credible information anymore. They do not have any critical reporting of their government. And the impact of that over time is going to be pretty astronomical, Moshavi said. While media still faced risk under the old government, the return of the Taliban rule swiftly eroded the space for free expression, rights groups say. The country currently ranks 156 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders index, where No. 1 is most free. It is a significant decline on the 2021 rating of 122. RSF says the Taliban return had serious repercussions for media freedom and journalist safety. Being a journalist in Afghanistan has been dangerous for many decades. That is not new, Moshavi said. What is different now, of course, is that the government in power is actively censoring, curtailing press freedoms. A free press is a key pillar for society, Moshavi said. You're not going to have a democracy obviously unless you have a free press. Respect for women Since returning to power, the Taliban imposed strict restrictions. Girls are denied access to high school and women are banned from work and can no longer travel without a close male relative. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on May 25 such polices are an affront to human rights and will continue to negatively impact Taliban relations with the international community. No country has recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan since the group seized power in August 2021. The legitimacy, the support the Taliban seeks from the international community, it depends on their conduct, including and centrally their respect for the rights of women, Price said. Shaheed believes international organizations and rights groups should do more to raise this issue. Today, Afghan girls do not have the right to get an education. Today, Afghan women do not have the right to work. Today, Afghan women journalists do not have the right to show their faces to talk to the people. Their mouths are shut, Shaheed said. Organizations (must) not remain silent in the face of these restrictions. This story originated in VOAs Dari Service. The death of a French journalist in Ukraine this week is serving as a stark reminder of the risks for media covering the Russian invasion. Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, a reporter for the French broadcaster BFM TV, was covering an evacuation operation in the city of Sievierodonetsk on Monday, when shrapnel hit him, according to Ukrainian and French officials. His colleague Maxime Brandstaetter, who also reports for BFM TV, was injured in the same attack. Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region, is the site of intense clashes between Russian forces and Ukrainian troops. Leclerc-Imhoff's death brings the number of journalists killed while covering the conflict in Ukraine since February 24 to at least eight, says the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The nonprofit is examining a further seven cases to see if those journalists were killed while on assignment. "Our main criterion in confirming cases when a journalist's death is related to their work is to establish whether a journalist was engaged in reporting, filming, interviewing or newsgathering," Gulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, told VOA. She says the CPJ was "able to establish that Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff and his colleagues were in the area for newsgathering." In some cases, making that call is harder. "We need to collect more information before we can say whether they died as journalists or became casualties in this war," she said. That includes RFE/RL journalist Vira Hyrych, who died in Kyiv in late April when a Russian airstrike hit the residential building where she lived. Other media groups cite a higher toll for media in Ukraine. The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine puts the total number of media workers killed at 32. Among those are reporters conscripted with the military. Said of CPJ told VOA, "We don't count those who worked as journalists before the war but enlisted in the army and died as combatants." In Ukraine, incidents include journalists killed or injured on assignment, with IPI determining the majority were slain by Russian fire. The risk of physical danger is a key focus for media rights and support groups, some of which set up resource and training centers. The London-based Frontline Club opened a center in Lviv, in western Ukraine, in April to train journalists covering the conflict. Four months into the conflict, the number of journalists arriving in Ukraine has not decreased, says British photojournalist Paul Conroy, who is on the board of trustees. "We thought we might have to scale back our operations in Lviv as the war shifted from the region around Kyiv and the Ukrainians pushed the Russians back, but the numbers are picking up," he told VOA from Lviv. Conroy estimates that up to 3,000 foreign journalists could still be working in Ukraine and says the unexpected nature of the conflict has kept it visible. "There was a genuine thought that it would be a Russian walkover, and it's been anything but that," he said, adding that the fierce Ukrainian resistance has captured the attention of the world. Conroy, who has covered conflicts around the world, including for the British newspaper The Sunday Times, says the Frontline Club has trained about 100 journalists in Ukraine, primarily freelancers. Training focuses on safety, how to behave ethically on the front line, and recognizing weapons systems. "No one can be 100 percent safe in the war scenario," he said, "But there are certain basics that if you know them, then you really increase your odds." In the case of French reporter Leclerc-Imhoff, world leaders condemned the attack. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces fired on an armored vehicle that the 32-year-old journalist was traveling in, and France has demanded an independent investigation. The Kremlin has said it doesn't have information on Leclerc-Imhoff's death. "To draw conclusions, you need detailed information about where it took place, under what circumstances, what is the truth, what is not. We don't have such information," Dmitry Peskov, Russian presidential spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday. French authorities have opened a war crimes inquiry into the reporter's death and UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay also called for an investigation to "identify those responsible for this crime and bring them to trial." "Journalists who work tirelessly in Ukraine to inform us about the reality of the war must be protected from attack," Azoulay said in a statement this week. Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse. U.S. President Joe Biden met with major manufacturers of infant formula on Wednesday, and suggested their ranks should grow, as his administration presses ahead with efforts to boost imported supplies to help ease a nationwide shortage. "We need more new entrants in the infant formula market," Biden said during a virtual meeting with executives from ByHeart, Bubs Australia, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Perrigo Company and Nestles Gerber. Multiple global suppliers are seeking U.S. approval to ship critical baby formula as Biden's administration accelerates what it has dubbed "Operation Fly Formula" to help fill store shelves and calm frustrated parents. With about $4 billion in annual sales, the U.S. baby formula market has historically been dominated by domestic producers, with imports limited and subject to high tariffs. But U.S. parents have struggled to find baby formula in recent months after a February recall of some formulas by one of the nation's main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories, coupled with pandemic-related supply chain issues. The latest administration effort to solve the problem includes an announcement on Wednesday that United Airlines has agreed to transport U.K.-made Kendamil formula free of charge from Heathrow Airport in London to multiple airports across the United States over a three-week period. This first shipment, which includes Kendamil Classic and Kendamil Organic formula, will be available at Target stores across the country in the coming weeks. The administration also secured two flights totaling 380,000 pounds of baby formula from Bubs Australia that will be delivered to California and Pennsylvania on June 9 and June 11, respectively. Biden said on Wednesday he first learned of the severity of the U.S. baby formula shortage in early April. The White House said it had been working around the clock since February to address the problem. U.S. lawmakers have criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for not acting promptly to address the problems that caused the recall at Abbott's Michigan plant, which is set to reopen June 4. The Biden administration has relaxed its import policy and invoked the Defense Production Act to help increase available U.S. supplies, which is still expected to take weeks. It has also said it could use federal resources to help transport supplies to retailers. Two million cans of formula have been sent from the U.K., and Australian manufacturers are also preparing to send in more product. Thorben Nilewski of Organic Family, which makes the popular Holle infant formulas, said in an email that the German company applied for the FDAs temporary approval but has not yet received any feedback. Many U.S. parents rely on baby formula. Fewer than half the babies born in the United States were exclusively breast-fed through their first three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2020 Breastfeeding Report Card. The slavery reparations movement hit a watershed moment Wednesday with the release of an exhaustive report detailing California's role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans, a major step toward educating the public and setting the stage for an official government apology and case for financial restitution. The 500-page document lays out the harm suffered by descendants of enslaved people even today, long after slavery was abolished in the 19th century, through discriminatory laws and actions in all facets of life, from housing and education to employment and the legal system. Longtime reparations advocate Justin Hansford, who is a law professor at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington, called the moment exciting and monumental. "To have an official detail of these histories coming from the state is important," he said. "I know a lot of people say we don't need to keep doing studies, but the reality is until it comes from some source that people think is objective, then it is going to be harder to convince everybody of some of the inequalities described." The report comes at a time when school boards and states across the U.S. are banning books or restricting what can be taught in classrooms, with parents and lawmakers largely opposed to topics of sexuality, gender identity or race. State lawmakers have tried to bar schools from teaching the 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning report that reframes American history with enslaved people at its heart. California is headed in the opposite direction, said Adam Laats, a historian at Binghamton University, who called the document remarkable in its unflinching account, including detailing how police officers and district attorneys in Los Angeles a century ago were members of or had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. "Who children should learn are the main actors in the story of us as a nation has always been a real lightning rod," he said. Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with a study and plan. Cities and universities have taken up the cause, with the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, becoming the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year. On Wednesday, Newsom issued a statement praising California for leading the country on a long overdue discussion of racial justice and equity. State Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is assisting the task force, said, "California was not a passive actor in perpetuating these harms." A similar effort is underway to delve into what Newsom has called California's dark history of violence, mistreatment and neglect of Native Americans. The report by the Truth and Healing Council, due in 2025, could include recommendations for reparations. Many tribes across the country have sought to acquire their ancestral land and co-manage public land. The African American reparations task force, which began meeting in June 2021, will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to the descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overruling advocates who wanted to expand compensation to all Black people in the U.S. "Four hundred years of discrimination has resulted in an enormous and persistent wealth gap between Black and white Americans," said the report by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. "These effects of slavery continue to be embedded in American society today and have never been sufficiently remedied. The governments of the United States and the State of California have never apologized to or compensated African Americans for these harms." California is home to the fifth-largest Black population in the U.S., after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, the report said. An estimated 2.8 million Black people live in California, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation. African Americans make up less than 6% of California's population yet they are overrepresented in jails, youth detention centers and prisons. About 28% of people imprisoned in California are Black, and in 2019, 36% of minors ordered into state juvenile detention facilities were African Americans, according to the report. Black Californians earn less and are more likely to be poor than white residents. In 2018, Black residents earned on average just under $54,000 compared to $87,000 for white Californians. "We don't own homes, and if you look at why there's such a huge disparity between African Americans and white Americans and our ability to hold onto and sustain wealth, it's because we don't own homes," said Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a task force member. The task force's sweeping initial recommendations include prison system reforms. Inmates should not be forced to work, and if they do, they must be paid fair market wages. Inmates should also be allowed to vote, and people with felony convictions should serve on juries. The group recommends creating a state-subsidized mortgage program to guarantee low rates for qualifying African American applicants, free health care, free tuition to California colleges and universities, and scholarships to African American high school graduates to cover four years of undergraduate education. The committee also calls for a Cabinet-level secretary position to oversee an African American Affairs agency with branches for civic engagement, education, social services, cultural affairs and legal affairs. It would help people research and document their lineage to a 19th-century ancestor so they could qualify for financial restitution. People opposed to paying reparations argue that California did not have plantations or Jim Crow-era laws as in the South. But the interim report spells out how California, despite being "free," perpetuated harms that have compounded over generations. It noted that Missouri native Basil Campbell was purchased for $1,200 and forced to move to California's Yolo County in 1854, leaving behind his wife and two sons. Campbell eventually paid off his purchase price, married and became a landowner. But when his sons petitioned for a portion of his estate after his death, a California judge ruled that marriage between two enslaved people "is not a marriage relation." More recently, it said, the home of Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin was assessed at a much lower price because it was located in a primarily Black part of upscale Marin County, where African Americans were forced to live starting in World War II. The report should offer other cities and states and ultimately the federal government a blueprint for seeking reparations, members said. Over the next year, the task force will take on the difficult task of crafting an apology and creating a reparations plan to compensate for and stop the harm. "The big question is: What are they going to do with it? The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods their heads and waits on the task force to initiate the response," said Hansford. "We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address ... the recommendations offered in the report." One girl made other people smile. Another was a creative child who loved mermaids, unicorns and the color purple. A third loved playing softball and worked on her batting swing in her front yard. The families of Nevaeh Bravo, Maranda Mathis and Eliahna Torres held funerals for them Thursday, part of more than two weeks of mourning for the 19 children and two teachers who were the victims of a May 24 mass shooting inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Nevaeh Bravo: A cousin told The Washington Post that the 10-year-old "put a smile on everyone's faces" and described her death as "a nightmare that we cannot wake up from." She and another 10-year-old who was killed, Jailah Silguero, were friends, and an aunt described them in a Facebook posting as "Our Angels." A cousin told USA Today that the two girls were caring, loving and supportive of their siblings. Both families had their funerals at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, with Jailah's set for Friday. The aunt noted that Nevaeh's first name is heaven spelled backward. Maranda Mathis: Her family said in an obituary on the funeral home's website that the 11-year-old "had a huge loving heart" and described her as sweet, smart and "a shy tomboy" who enjoyed spending time outdoors. She had a great imagination and often expressed love for unicorns and mermaids, especially if they were her favorite color, purple, the family said. Her mother told The New York Times that while Maranda was shy when she started school, she opened up and made friends as the year continued. She was a creative girl who loved music, running on school field days, swimming in the river and showing her mother rocks she found. A friend of Maranda's mother told The Washington Post she was "fun," "spunky" and "very smart." Eliahna Torres: The 10-year-old had "the most beautiful smile that could light up your soul," her family said in her obituary on the funeral home's website. "She was a loving and compassionate person who loved to be silly," the obituary said. "Eliahna was a master of jests and loved making people laugh." Her family said she would spend hours watching TikTok videos, but she'd found a new passion softball. She was hoping to make an all-star roster. She worked to improve her hitting, practicing her swing with a ball hung in her front yard by her grandfather outside the home she shared with her mother, aunt and grandparents, The New York Times reported. She responded to calls for her to come in for bed with, "One more." Her family jokingly called her "enfermerita," or the little nurse. Her grandfather told The Times that after he had heart surgery a few years ago, Eliahna accompanied him on his doctor-prescribed walks, helping him to scoop up pecans that fell from the trees shading their neighborhood. She made sure her grandparents took their medications. As a new South Korean government deepens the nation's economic and security ties with the United States, experts are warning that Seoul's long-standing relationship with China is likely to suffer. Early evidence of potential strains was evident in remarks by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who has been sharply critical of U.S. President Joe Biden's newly launched economic framework, a regional grouping that includes South Korea but not China. "The United States has recently put forward a so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and claimed to build a free, open and inclusive new order," Wang said on Monday during a visit to Fiji. It was one stop on a swing through eight Pacific Island nations focused on securing wide-ranging trade and security deals. "If it deliberately excludes China, the largest market in the region and beyond, how can it be inclusive? What the United States is actually doing is putting other countries in a frame of its own standards and rules," Wang continued. Biden launched IPEF on May 23 in Japan, the second leg of his first Asian tour, after visiting South Korea. Newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced he would join the IPEF during a summit with Biden on May 21 in Seoul. In a press conference after the summit, Yoon said Seoul's participation in the IPEF was the "first step" toward building "a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific" in concert with Washington. Composed of 13 countries, mainly in the Indo-Pacific and East Asia regions which represent 40% of global gross domestic product, the IPEF, in part, is a U.S.-led initiative to build supply chain resilience based on fair trade, according to member nations. During his summit with Biden, Yoon also expressed interest in joining the Quad an informal security alliance among the U.S., Japan, India and Australia which Biden welcomed. At a May 24 Quad summit in Tokyo, which Yoon attended virtually, the leaders of the four member-states vowed to "uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion." The Yoon government's decision to join the IPEF and its interest in joining the Quad are an effort "to align" with the Biden administration in the "struggle between democracy and autocracy," said Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian studies at Stanford University. Yoon's position is "a sharp shift from the previous government," he added. Yoon's predecessor, President Moon Jae-in, sought Beijing's support for his efforts to engage with Pyongyang. Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, said Moon "valued China's perceived leverage over North Korea" because he "prioritized engagement" with Pyongyang. North Korea depends heavily on China for trade and economic support, and China is South Korea's top trading partner. But under Yoon, South Korea appears more interested in deepening its ties with the U.S., a realignment that Grossman said "is significantly increasing the odds" that South Korea and China are "headed toward escalating tensions" in the next few years. Beijing views the IPEF and especially the Quad as U.S.-led strategies to contain China's economic and military expansion in the Indo-Pacific and has voiced opposition to Seoul's participation. VOA's Korean Service contacted the Chinese embassy in Washington for comment and was directed to the Chinese embassy in Seoul, which has not replied. However, in a signed April 27 op-ed in the Global Times, a Beijing-controlled news outlet, Lu Chao, director of the Institute of the U.S. and East Asian Studies at China's Liaoning University, said, "If South Korea joins the quadrilateral mechanism to contain China in areas, including military, politics, and diplomacy, it will go beyond the China-South Korea strategic and cooperative partnership to undermine China's interests. We will not allow that to happen." Patricia Kim, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, said, "Beijing has long bristled at moves to strengthen the U.S.-(South Korea) alliance and South Korea's efforts to plug into U.S.-led initiatives in the region." She continued: "Chinese leaders have called on their South Korean counterparts to oppose exclusive regional groupings and may choose to use China's economic leverage to keep Seoul from aligning too closely with Washington and the Quad." Ahead of Yoon's announced membership in the IPEF, Wang warned against Seoul's "decoupling" from China's supply chains. In a virtual meeting held with South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin on May 16, Wang said Seoul and Beijing should work together so that the two "oppose the negative tendency of 'decoupling' and 'cutting off chains,' and maintain the stability and smoothness of the global industrial and supply chains." Also ahead of the Quad summit in Tokyo, Wang criticized the U.S. and Japan for holding the meeting, which Beijing viewed as anti-China. Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said, "Beijing has harshly criticized the Quad and will not be happy if (South Korea) becomes involved, but it will probably voice its concerns in a way that sends a warning signal but leaves the door open for a positive bilateral relationship." Grossman thinks Beijing might respond with either economic retaliation or military exercises. On May 24, when Biden was in Tokyo for the Quad summit, Chinese and Russian bombers and fighter jets entered the Korea air defense identification zone in the Sea of Japan and closely approached South Korea's airspace, prompting the South Korean military to deploy fighter jets. Ellen Kim, deputy director of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Beijing was unlikely to "single out South Korea" among the IPEF members and "retaliate against the country." "But," she continued, "China's response to South Korea's future participation in the Quad could be different. South Korea needs a set of strategies that will enable the country to manage the potential risks in its relationship with China." This story originated in VOA's Korean Service. Suspected terrorists attacked a U.N. peacekeeping convoy in northern Mali on Wednesday, the United Nations said. A Jordanian peacekeeper was killed and three other Jordanians were wounded. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the supply convoy was under sustained fire for about an hour from attackers who used small arms and rocket launchers. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and sent his deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers and the government and people of Jordan, Dujarric said. According to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, the attack was the fifth incident in the northern Kidal region in one week, Dujarric said. "It is a tragic reminder of the complexity of the mandate of the U.N. mission and of its peacekeepers, and the threats peacekeepers face on a daily basis," he said. The Security Council later released a statement condemning the attack and calling on authorities in Mali to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. The statement added that the Security Council "underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law." Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali's northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on civilians and U.N. peacekeepers. Mali's military returned to Kidal, a longtime rebel stronghold in the north, in February 2020, six years after its forces retreated amid violence. U.N. peacekeepers have also been deployed in the north. Deadliest mission The U.N. force has said more than 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.'s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide. The U.N. special representative for Mali, El Ghassim Wane, issued a statement Wednesday saying the U.N. mission remained determined to support Mali's people and government in their quest for peace and security, Dujarric said. In August 2020, Malian President Boubacar Ibrahim Keita, who died in January, was overthrown in a coup that included Assimi Goita, then an army colonel. Last June, Goita was sworn in as president of a transitional government after carrying out his second coup in nine months. In mid-May, Goita's government said security forces had thwarted a countercoup attempt that it said was supported by an unnamed Western government. The accusations of foreign interference came as Goita's regime has become increasingly isolated. A day earlier, the government announced that Mali was dropping out of a five-nation regional security force known as the G5. It was also sharply critical of former colonial power France, which announced in February that it was pulling its troops out of Mali. While Mali's junta initially agreed to an 18-month transition back to civilian rule, it failed to organize elections by the deadline in February. Last month, the government said it would need two more years in power before it could organize a vote. The U.S. government said Thursday that it was trying to shut down sanction evasion measures used by Russias elites, including President Vladimir Putin, to attempt to hide and move money and anonymously make use of luxury assets around the globe. The targets include a yacht brokerage, aircraft, Russian officials and others close to Putin. Targeted yachts include the Russia-flagged Graceful and the Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia, as well as two other yachts, the Shellest and the Nega, both owned by Russian companies. The White House said the new sanctions were imposed "to crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers." In a statement announcing the sanctions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "The United States will continue to support the people of Ukraine while promoting accountability for President Putin and those enabling Russian aggression." The U.S. government said Putin had taken numerous trips on the now-sanctioned yachts as recently as last year. Russias elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move and maintain their wealth and luxury assets, said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. Todays action demonstrates that Treasury can and will go after those responsible for shielding and maintaining these ill-gotten interests," he said. "We will continue to enforce our sanctions and expose the corrupt systems by which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves. Press Release June 1, 2022 Senate ratifies bicam report on creation of PH transport safety board The Senate on Wednesday, June 1, ratified the final version of the bill seeking to establish the Philippine Transportation Safety Board (PTSB). Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services, presented during Wednesday's plenary session the bicameral conference committee report which reconciled the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 1077 and House Bill No. 9030. "If signed into law, this will be an important milestone for this Congress. Ngunit ang totoong magtatagumpay dito ay ang mga komyuter (But the true victors here are the commuters). And to this, I cannot thank enough both the Senate and House panels for prioritizing the overwhelming need of the many," said Poe, who led the Senate contingent in the bicam panel. The PTSB shall be an independent investigatory agency and the primary government body to investigate and determine facts, conditions, circumstances and causes or threats of all significant transportation accidents or incidents. Poe said that for every investigation, the Board would be required to report out both their factual findings in a Factual Accident Report, and their conclusions and recommendations in a Board Accident Report. The contents of the Factual Accident Report shall be binding on all government agencies and shall be taken judicial notice by the courts. The Board Accident Report, on the other hand, shall not be admissible except in administrative cases. Poe said the Senate and House conferees in the bicam agreed to give the PTSB a more pro-active role as a "standard-setting agency tasked with evaluating and developing evidence-based safety standards that are at par with international standards." She said they also maintained a seven-member Board composed of a chairperson and representatives from the land, rail, air, and sea transportation sectors, with two representatives coming from the commuting public. "Sinisiguro nito na bukod sa mga eksperto, ang mga komyuters ay mabibigyan din ng boses sa mga desisyong ukol sa pagpapaigting sa seguridad ng transportasyon sa ating bansa (This would ensure that aside from experts, commuters would also be given a voice in making decisions to strengthen transportation safety in our country)," Poe pointed out. The final version of the bill likewise adopted a provision prohibiting members of the PTSB and employees from holding any other office or employment and engaging in profession or in the active management of a business which may be affected by their functions. "PTSB has a crucial and life-saving mandate, and thus the integrity of its Board and employees should not in any way be jeopardized or compromised," Poe stressed. Poe said the passage of the proposed PTSB Act is long overdue and timely. She said that from 2016 to 2020, 483 accidents have been recorded in the maritime sector, while the road sector reported a 12,487 yearly average death due to road crashes. "Kailangan talaga ng ahensiyang mag-iimbestiga sa mga aksidenteng tulad nito at magsasagawa ng mga hakbang upang hindi na ito mangyari sa hinaharap (We really need an agency that would investigate such accidents and would come up with measures to prevent these from happening again)," Poe said. There is no sign Payton Gendron told his friend Matt Casado he planned to slaughter Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, or was out to kill anyone. Nor is there any sign in Gendron's log that Casado questioned him about his need for new weapons and ammunition, or that Casado expressed concern when considering Gendron's suicidal ideation. "My first thought was that this is not at all what I signed up for," Jenna Whitesell Carson told VOA. "I became a school librarian to educate young minds, not to carry a gun." Carson has worked at a public high school in rural South Carolina for four years. She said she was appalled by the idea of arming teachers to prevent future school shootings. "My second thought was that they definitely don't pay us enough for this. Teachers have so much on our plates already. Now Republicans want to take away our right to not carry a gun?" In the wake of last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, Americans across the political spectrum are once again clamoring for solutions to the country's ongoing gun violence epidemic. The proposed solutions, however, depend on the side of the political divide they come from. While Democratic lawmakers and their allies are calling for legislation that would restrict access to certain firearms and better scrutinize gun purchasers, some Republicans and gun rights advocates suggest putting guns in the hands of teachers and other school staff who volunteer for that responsibility. The rationale for arming teachers has been summed up by Wayne LaPierre, CEO of America's best-known gun rights lobbying group, the National Rifle Association. LaPierre has long insisted that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Many teachers reject that idea. "Children, teachers and education belong in schools not guns," said A.J. Allegra, who has taught in New Orleans, Louisiana, K-12 schools for 15 years. "Imagine your oldest teacher when you were in school firing a gun several times within feet of 25 kids. The image is as preposterous as the idea," he said. Some teachers see it differently, however. Jason Winder has been teaching high school history for five years in Uintah County, Utah. He carries a concealed firearm at school, which is legal in the state. "It's not about being a hero, and it's not about seeking out an active shooter," Winder said. "It's about giving me the best tools to keep my students and myself safe. I can't speak for everyone, but a firearm in my hand will be a lot more effective at stopping someone trying to harm my kids than us hiding in a corner." Nationwide problem According to federal data, since 1970, every state in the U.S. has had at least one incident of school gun violence. Most have had dozens, with California and Texas each suffering well over 100 incidents. The tragedy in Uvalde was one of more than two dozen school shootings in America so far this year. Silver Spring, Maryland, middle school music teacher Jonah Rabinowitz-Buchanan noted that many schools already had armed personnel tasked with protecting students and staff, yet the slaughter continued. He mentioned the shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018 that left 17 people dead. "They had a resource officer who had a gun, and he fled the scene," he said. Robb Elementary School in Uvalde also had a resource officer. "The Uvalde officer wasn't even in the building. What good are they?" Rabinowitz-Buchanan said. "How does that equate to schools needing more guns?" Sergeant Keith Mott, a 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, agrees that operating a firearm should not be a priority for teachers. Rather, he thinks the focus should be on the failures of resource officers. "The resource officer is the first line of defense," Mott said. "Teachers, on the other hand, have enough to do just trying to educate our children. That's their goal, and there's no reason they should be armed in the pursuit of that goal." But some educators want an extra line of defense. Angelica Garcia works at schools in Saginaw County, Michigan. Teachers aren't allowed to carry guns, but she wishes she could. "Last week showed us again that teachers can't rely on others to save us and our students in a threatening situation," she said. "No one came to the aid of those students or teachers." At the very least, Garcia says, schools should have more nonteaching personnel armed and ready to intervene during an emergency. But, she adds, teachers who volunteer to be trained and to carry a gun would ideally be present in every wing of the school. "You need them nearby to prevent the loss of life," she said. "I care about my students like they are my own children. If need be, I want to protect them, not just to sit there with a stapler in my hand like a sitting duck." Solutions Ryan Petty's daughter, Alaina, was one of 14 students killed in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Since then, he's become an activist, attempting to make schools safer by supporting legislation allowing teachers to voluntarily carry a gun in school if they are trained and certified to use it. In 2020, conservative Governor Ron DeSantis appointed him to the Florida Board of Education. "I've heard many law enforcement officers say two guns are better than one, and three are better than two," he said. In school shootings, seconds count, Petty said. The average attack takes just over five minutes, he said, but it takes law enforcement an average of five to seven minutes to respond. "In a 2019 report by the U.S. Secret Service, only 1 out of 42 school attacks were stopped by responding off-campus law enforcement," he said. "Having an armed resource officer and other armed staff members gives schools the best chance to save lives." Most teachers aren't convinced. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 73% of American teachers did not want to carry guns in school. New Orleans teacher Allegra sees guns as the root of the problem. The Giffords Law Center listed nearly 100 publicly reported instances of guns being mishandled at schools in the past five years. "We already have more guns than any other nation on the planet," Allegra said, "and have more gun deaths than any other nation on the planet. Isn't the connection between those statistics a little obvious? The solution is to reduce the number of guns circulating in our country, to reduce the ability for Americans to purchase high-powered automatic weapons, and to increase criminal charges against those found with illegal weapons in their possession." Other teachers say the focus should be on diagnosing mental illness and/or keeping school buildings secure. Thomas Cotter teaches middle school band in South Carolina and a member of his school district's safety and procedures team. He believes the U.S. is too hesitant to diagnose and treat mental illness. "We need to pay better attention to that," he told VOA, "and pass red flag laws that deal with threatening language on social media. Violations should result in weapon confiscation. You don't have a right to a gun when you're making illegal threats." Cotter also advocates for a single public entrance at all schools. He said a resource officer should monitor that entrance to maintain security. "I think of this all from the perspective of being a father of two. How do I want my children's teachers to act?" Cotter asked. "I'd rather them worry about locking a door than chambering a round. A locked school, not an armed one, is one that is safe and can make kids feel safe. That's important." Garcia, the ESL teacher, doesn't completely agree. She believes having responsible teachers and staff carrying guns will make schools safer. "And it's not like children should see the gun or know teachers are carrying one," she noted. But despite their many differences in opinion, most teachers share an end goal. "The goal is to make sure our children feel safe, but also to ensure they are safe," Garcia said. "At the end of the day, we all just want to go home to our families, for our families to come home to us, and for us all to live to see another day." Yemen's warring parties agreed to extend a U.N.-brokered truce for two months under the same terms as the original deal that was due to expire on Thursday, the U.N. envoy to Yemen said. Delegations from the Saudi-backed government and the movement are expected to return to the Jordanian capital Amman to continued talks, Yemeni official said. The truce had seen a halt to major military operations in Yemen and cross-border attacks in the seven-year war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group, and helped to ease a humanitarian crisis that has left millions hungry. "For the past two months, Yemenis have experienced the tangible benefits of the truce," United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. The truce is the most significant step in years towards ending the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and added tensions to an already strained relationship between Riyadh and Washington. Grundberg said it had provided "a rare glimmer of hope." The renewed agreement will allow for fuel ships to continue to dock into Houthi-held Hodeidah port and some commercial flights from the airport in the capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the group. There had been intense efforts to salvage the deal which was threatened by stalled talks on reopening roads in disputed Taiz, where Houthi troops have imposed a siege for years. The United Nations is also seeking to start broader political discussions including on shoring up Yemen's devastated economy, government revenues and public sector salaries. Riyadh wants to exit a costly war that had been in military stalemate for years with the Houthis controlling most big urban centers. The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis after they ousted the internationally recognized government from the capital Sanaa. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces are occupying about 20% of Ukrainian territory as the war approaches its 100th day on Friday and fighting continues on several fronts. Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometers, Zelenskyy told the Luxembourg parliament in a virtual speech Thursday. He said the Ukrainian area controlled by Moscows forces is comparable to the entirety of the Netherlands. Zelenskyy did not say how much territory Russia has captured since the start of its invasion February 24. Moscow seized Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Russia-backed separatists had also captured parts of the eastern Donbas region, where fighting is the most intense now, prior to the invasion. Ukraine said Thursday its forces have recaptured 20 small towns and villages in the Kherson region in the southern part of the country. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their assault on Sievierodonetsk, the last major city nominally held by Ukraine in the Luhansk region in the eastern part of the country. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled about 70% of the city as fierce street battles took place. Britain's defense ministry said Russia has taken control of most of the city. The ministry said Ukrainian forces control the main road into Sievierodonetsk, with Russia making "steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery." A Ukrainian official said Kyivs forces were hoping to recapture territory lost earlier in the war in southern Ukraine in part to tie up some Russian forces more focused on fighting in the Donbas region. This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances, Biden said in a Wednesday statement. We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraines fight for freedom. Biden used the acronym for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Administration officials said this new weapons package is tailored to the needs of the current phase of conflict, which is unfolding in Ukraines east. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said Wednesday the United States is sending four of the new rocket systems, and that it will take about three weeks to train Ukrainian forces to use them. He declined to say where that training would take place but said the systems are on the European continent. What the HIMARS will allow them to do is to get greater standoff range against targets more than 70 kilometers away, he said. So right now, the howitzers we provided them have about a 30-kilometer range, the HIMARS have more than twice that, which will allow them, even with fewer systems, greater standoff. And the other thing that distinguishes this is an extraordinary amount of precision. Speaking in Washington alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said its not clear how or when this conflict will end, but that NATO wants to see Ukraine in a position of strength when peace talks happen. Blinken said Russia holds the power to slow or stop the conflict. Biden wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times, released late Tuesday that he does not seek war with Russia. As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow, Biden said. So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the supply of rocket launchers to Ukraine raises the risk of expanding the conflict, and called Ukraines push for weapons from its Western allies a direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. weapons shipments do not encourage the renewal of peace talks. The decision to send more advanced weapons follows earlier reluctance on the part of the Biden administration. White House officials told reporters late Tuesday that the new weapons package the 11th such tranche of weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine includes the rocket system, counter-fire radars, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles and other anti-armor weapons. The U.S. is also sending more helicopters, more than 200,000 artillery rounds and a package of spare parts to help the Ukrainians fix their existing equipment. Russian forces continued their push to capture the city of Sievierodonetsk, key to its efforts to seize the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled about 70% of the city as fierce street battles took place. Britain's Defense Ministry said Russia has taken control of most of the city. The ministry said Ukrainian forces control the main road into Sievierodonetsk, with Russia making "steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery." Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information also came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Cannabis is a drug crop with a long history in Africa. Alongside coca and opium poppy, it has been subjected to international control for nearly a century. The International Opium Convention of 1925 institutionalised the international control system and extended the scope of control to cannabis. In 1961 a new international convention was adopted to replace the existing multilateral treaties for control of narcotic drugs. The prohibitionist framework it provided for control of cannabis was adopted by post-colonial African states. These official efforts succeeded in driving cannabis production underground and limiting its contribution to citizens livelihoods. But they failed to eradicate the crop. Paradoxically, many African states that persecuted citizens for cannabis related offences for years are now promoting legal cannabis production. Over the past five years 10 countries have passed laws to legalise production for medical and scientific purposes. These include Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Eswatini, Rwanda and Morocco. South Africa has also legalised the private growing of cannabis plants by adults for their own personal consumption. The cannabis policy liberalisation in Africa has been brought about by two main factors. One is the lobbying by local activists. Cannabis use is still criminalised in most African countries. But even in the most conservative ones there are emerging debates ultimately aimed at spurring cannabis policy reforms. The other factor is the emergence of the global legal cannabis industry projected to grow to nearly US$200 billion by 2028. For state authorities, policy changes are aimed at opening avenues for scarce foreign exchange revenue critically needed to boost stagnating economies. But there are still policy and practical concerns requiring attention if the cannabis sector reforms are to have a positive impact on the economy and citizens livelihoods. These include the need to ensure participation of ordinary producers in the legal cannabis sector. This is because the emerging regulation frameworks seem to favour corporate businesses over smallholder farmers. The liberalisation of the cannabis policy in Africa is primarily for production for medical and scientific purposes. Production, trade and consumption of cannabis outside of these purposes remain criminalised. The production by many smallholder farmers, who historically were custodians of the cannabis plant and knowledge, is not covered by the new regulations. It means their cannabis related livelihoods are still in contravention of the laws. Among other conditions, producers must acquire a license from state authorities. There are various types of licenses and fees for cannabis manufacture, distribution and research. These can range from US$5,000 to US$50,000 in Zimbabwe. In South Africa the gazetted fees range from R9 200 (US$579.27) for an export permit to R25 200 (US$1,586.69) for the manufacture permit. The highest licence fees have been reported in Lesotho and Uganda. Here, they range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to a couple of million dollars. The average farmer in these countries cant afford these kinds of fees. Additional requirements include tax clearance certificates, bank guarantees, compliance with cultivation guidelines and security guarantees. For authorities, these preconditions are designed to secure an end-product that could be easily abused if not properly regulated. They seem to be aimed also at ensuring that governments do not lose on tax revenues from the emerging industry. However, the limited scope of legal production, the high license fees and business set-up costs and other conditions are likely to limit participation of many smallholder producers who lack resources to set up legal cannabis businesses. We are involved in a pan-African research project which aims to develop a deeper understanding of cannabis in Africa. We focus not only on its traditional uses, but on its contemporary growth as an economic cash crop, and source of livelihoods in a global context where drug policy is in flux. Run jointly by the universities of Bristol and Cape Town, the project is gathering new empirical data in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. This will be used to examine the historical and contemporary place of cannabis in African rural and urban settings. Our research also involves capturing the experiences of ordinary citizens, beyond the official narrative of medical and scientific production. Our initial observations show that the risk of corporate capture of the legal cannabis industry, and exclusion of smallholder producers, is serious. Because the license fees are high, many smallholder producers cannot afford them. This leaves corporate businesses as the main holders of licences. In Uganda, for instance, only one company is currently licensed by the government to produce medical cannabis. The strict regulations include a minimum capital of US$5 million and a bank guarantee. This is clearly a deterrent to most aspiring producers. In Zimbabwe, the government licensed dozens of new investors for cultivation and processing of medical cannabis in 2021. The beneficiaries are established agribusinesses and large-scale commercial farmers. Similar concerns in Malawi and South Africa led small farmers to protest against the licensing process in November 2020 and April 2021. Jacob Nyirongo, the chief executive officer for the Farmers Union of Malawi, argued: The question is, if you buy a license at $10,000 what kind of market price for cannabis (must) a farmer (get) to make a profit? Other conditions attached to licenses are also obstacles for smallholder producers. For South Africa, applicants need to comply with certification, be registered, and provide police clearance, among other conditions. Police clearance, in particular, may affect those with past criminal records for the illegal production, possession or consumption of cannabis. Early insights from our research show an emerging legal cannabis industry with a limited role for smallholder producers. This limits the industrys ability to contribute to livelihoods of the poor and the majority more widely. Further, the limiting of legal cannabis production to medical and scientific purposes excludes production activities of many existing smallholder producers. This perpetuates their criminalisation. It also creates a dual model where established businesses benefit from the reforms while small producers activities remain outlawed and suppressed. Legalising cannabis production for medical purposes is all very well. But ensuring the participation of ordinary citizens and producers in the industry is the big challenge facing African states. The risk of corporate capture of the industry is a real possibility WASHINGTON Ukraines most stalwart backers in the West are promising there will be no let-up in support, despite increasingly tough talk from Russian officials. The U.S. permanent representative to NATO said Wednesday in Washington that recent Russian gains in eastern Ukraine have failed to shake the alliances resolve, with members continuing to have faith in Kyivs forces. "Collectively at NATO, I think we do hope and believe that Ukraine will ultimately prevail," Julianne Smith told the Defense Writers Group. "The level of ... respect that you see across the alliance for Ukrainian forces right now is quite high," Smith added. We see moments where Russian forces advance. We see moments where Ukrainian forces are successfully able to push back." Smiths comments come a day after Washington announced it would send more advanced weapons systems to Ukraine, including the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems known as HIMARS. U.S. President Joe Biden defended the decision in an editorial piece in The New York Times late Tuesday, saying the advanced rocket systems will help Ukraine to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield. Ukrainian officials have been asking for such systems for weeks, saying they are needed to counter Russian artillery that has enabled Moscows gains in the Donbas region. Russia Wednesday criticized the U.S. decision, accusing Washington of escalating tensions. "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during a visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, further called the move a direct provocation, aimed at involving the West in military action." The U.S. ambassador to NATO rejected such concerns. U.S. military aid to Ukraine has all evolved and changed over the last couple of months, I think, quite naturally, Smith said, adding the message to Kyiv about the parameters for that assistance have remained relatively clear. We are not in a position to support you with equipment that can attack Russian territory," she said. "NATO allies are united that NATO will not become a party to this conflict." Separately, Smith welcomed overtures by Turkey to Russia to help forge a path toward peace talks in general and negotiations aimed at ending the Russian blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odesa, which has prevented the shipment of needed grain. Smith also said NATO allies are not expecting much to come from Ankaras efforts. "We're skeptical that at this juncture it's going to lead to some sort of major breakthrough, she said. "There's no indication that Russia is taking any of this seriously or negotiating in good faith. Some information from Reuters was used in this report. U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday the United States is providing Ukraine with a $700 million package of more advanced rocket systems and munitions as the Russian invasion enters its fourth month, but White House officials say Ukraine has vowed not to fire those rockets into Russian territory. This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances, Biden said in a Wednesday statement. We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraines fight for freedom. Biden used the acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Administration officials said this new weapons package is tailored to the needs of the current phase of conflict, which is unfolding in Ukraines east. As the fight continues to change, the Ukrainians come to us with their priorities, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said Wednesday. We make our own assessments. We are always measuring things against what the Ukrainians need, our assessment of the battlefield, but also things like the impact that it has on our own armed forces, especially when we're drawing things out of our own stockpiles. He said the United States is sending four of the new rocket systems, and that it will take about three weeks to train Ukrainian forces to use them. He declined to say where that training would take place but said the systems are on the European continent. What the HIMARS will allow them to do is to get greater standoff range against targets more than 70 kilometers away, he said. So right now, the howitzers we provided them have about a 30-kilometer range, the HIMARS have more than twice that, which will allow them, even with fewer systems, greater standoff. And the other thing that distinguishes this is an extraordinary amount of precision. Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps Forces Reserve colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA Ukraines assurances, while notable, rest on delicate premises. The Ukrainians could use the (HIMARS multiple launch rocket system) to strike targets in the Russian homeland, because of course in many places, the Ukrainians are right up on the border, he said. And this is a risk, because the Ukrainians have said that they won't. But in the heat of battle, you never know what they're going to do. You know, many Ukrainians, of course, are very angry, understandably, at what the Russians have done, and it would not be inconceivable that some commander might shoot at a target in Russia. Speaking in Washington alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said its not clear how or when this conflict will end, but that NATO wants to see Ukraine in a position of strength when peace talks happen. Wars are unpredictable, he said. We were able to predict the invasion. But how this war will evolve, it's very hard to predict. What we do know is that almost all wars end at some stage at the negotiating table. ... I have trust and confidence in the political leadership in Ukraine that they can make the hard judgments and decisions on negotiations and what to agree to, when negotiations at some point will start. Blinken said Russia holds the power to slow or stop the conflict. Its Russia that is attacking Ukraine, not the other way around, he said. And simply put, the best way to avoid escalation is for Russia to stop the aggression and the war that it started. It's fully in its power to do so. Specifically with regard to weapon systems being provided, the Ukrainians have given us assurances that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory. There is a strong trust bond between Ukraine and the United States, as well as with our allies and partners. Biden wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times, released late Tuesday that he does not seek war with Russia. As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow, Biden said. So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the supply of rocket launchers to Ukraine raises the risk of expanding the conflict, and called Ukraines push for weapons from its Western allies a direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. weapons shipments do not encourage the renewal of peace talks. We believe that the U.S. is deliberately pouring oil on the fire. The U.S. is obviously holding the line that it will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, Peskov said. The decision to send more advanced weapons follows earlier reluctance on the part of the Biden administration. White House officials told reporters late Tuesday that the new weapons package the 11th such tranche of weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine includes the rocket system, counter-fire radars, air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles and other anti-armor weapons. The U.S. is also sending more helicopters, more than 200,000 artillery rounds and a package of spare parts to help the Ukrainians fix their existing equipment. Russian forces continued their push to capture the city of Sievierodonetsk, key to its efforts to seize the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled about 70% of the city as fierce street battles took place. Britain's defense ministry said Russia has taken control of most of the city. The ministry said Ukrainian forces control the main road into Sievierodonetsk, with Russia making "steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery." Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Ukrainian servicemen patrolled trenches in the frontline Donetsk region on May 29, 2022, as they fight off Russian attempts to capture more land in the eastern part of Ukraine. (Reuters) Nelson Gables by Knute Nelson has recently transitioned 11 of their 59 assisted living apartments to accommodate enhanced assisted living for individuals who require additional care. This change comes after having discovered the need that existed within the building and the Alexandria community. Note to potential thieves: If you're going to commit a crime, maybe don't do it in a building next door to one teeming with police officers. West Seneca police on Wednesday arrested a man after they said he stole a purse from a woman in her 90s at the entrance to the West Seneca Community Center and Library, which sits just feet away from the police department headquarters on Union Road. Timothy Bleuer, a 24-year-old from West Seneca, was charged with two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, which are Class E felonies, and a misdemeanor charge for criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree. He was released and will appear in West Seneca Town Court later this month. Bleuer held the door open for the woman and, as she passed by, grabbed her clutch purse and ran north up Union Road, according to a tweet by West Seneca police. Officers soon noticed a man fitting the description of the thief crossing Union Road near Center Road, and soon found him hiding inside the Tim Hortons bathroom. Woolly bully: Fleecy fugitive leads police and SPCA officers on a chase The ewe finally was captured outside the Polish Villa restaurant on Union Road in Cheektowaga by West Seneca Patrol Officer Joseph Milewski and turned over to the SPCA to await return to its owners. Bleuer was found in possession of $113 in cash in the same denominations described by his alleged victim, and when officers received consent to search the suspect's nearby apartment, the tan jacket he was described as wearing at the time of the crime was found. So were the woman's purse, credit cards and identification cards. The West Seneca Community Center and Library, at 1300 Union Road, sits just north of the police station. It shares a building with the town's chamber of commerce, public library, a Spot Coffee and the West Seneca Youth and Recreation Department. Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at btsujimoto@buffnews.com, at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10. 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. 2 Jun 18:59 UTC: First to report: VolcanoDiscovery after 5 minutes. 2 Jun 19:01: Now using data updates from GFZ ... [show all] ... 2 Jun 19:03: Epicenter location corrected by 4 km (2.5 mi) towards NE. 2 Jun 19:07: Now using data updates from USGS 3 Jun 15:34: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 39.4 to 35.0 km (from 24 to 22 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 5.3 km (3.3 mi) towards N. 3 Jun 17:50: Epicenter location corrected by 4 km (2.5 mi) towards NNE. Update Thu, 2 Jun 2022, 19:12 A moderately shallow magnitude 5.5 earthquake was reported early morning near Tandag, Surigao del Sur, Caraga, Philippines.According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake hit on Friday, June 3rd, 2022, at 2:54 am local time at a moderately shallow depth of 39.4 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.A second report was later issued by France's Reseau National de Surveillance Sismique (ReNaSS), which listed it as a magnitude 5.3 earthquake. Other agencies reporting the same quake include the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) at magnitude 5.2, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) at magnitude 5.7, the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake at magnitude 5.5, and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) at magnitude 5.5.Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake was probably felt by many people in the area of the epicenter. It should not have caused significant damage, other than objects falling from shelves, broken windows, etc.In Arrasasan (pop. 5,100) located 22 km from the epicenter, Tago (pop. 6,300) 29 km away, and Tandag (pop. 29,000) 34 km away, the quake should have been felt as light shaking.Weak shaking might have been felt in Bah-Bah (pop. 28,600) located 75 km from the epicenter, San Francisco (pop. 18,500) 77 km away, Bayugan (pop. 40,600) 83 km away, Bislig City (pop. 67,600) 86 km away, Talacogon (pop. 15,600) 96 km away, and Butuan (pop. 309,700) 104 km away.VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you're in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app . This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake. An exercise simulating a global monkeypox outbreak was organized, in March 2021, by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Munich Security Conference. As the annual meeting in Munich could not be held due to the Coronavirus pandemic, video discussions took place in February. Monkeypox only appeared in Europe and North America in May 2022. The Nuclear Threat Initiative had organized other comparable exercises in 2020 and 2019. They were coordinated in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the World Bank. No information has filtered regarding the 2022 session (photo). These exercises are separate from those organized in the context of the Davos Forum by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Harvey Weinstein Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Harvey Weinsteins sexual-assault conviction was upheld by a New York State appeals court on Thursday, June 2. We reject defendants arguments, and affirm the conviction in all respects, the appeals court said in its opinion. Weinsteins legal team argued his appeal before the Appellate Division, First Department, on December 15, 2021. His appeals lawyer, Barry Kamins, told the five-judge appeals panel the disgraced movie mogul was in a stranglehold during his Manhattan state court trial because prosecutors were permitted to introduce a number of allegations that had nothing to do with the charges. The jury was overwhelmed by such prejudicial, bad evidence. This was a trial of Harvey Weinsteins character that people were making him out to be a bad person, Kamins argued. Even if the [prosecution] had successfully identified a proper basis for admission of prior acts which it did not [the] probative value was clearly outweighed by its prejudicial effect. Kamins continued, He was in a legal vise in this case. Valerie Figueredo, an appeals attorney with the Manhattan DAs office, hit back, maintaining that testimony from Young, Dunning, and Wulff was directly probative of [Weinsteins] state of mind. The panel questioned how bringing in so many uncharged bad acts didnt bias jurors against Weinstein. Here come three other women who claim I did the same thing to them, but Im not being charged with that thats prejudicial, one jurist said. You know what? There are trials every day where we have defendants who have a rap sheet a mile long a mile long; theyll have 20 felony convictions on their rap sheet and Ive seen no judge say, Go ahead, go to town on all of them, another judge reflected. They usually just let one or two in. Weinsteins team has also argued that Burkes decision to allow a juror who had penned a novel involving predatory older men to sit on the jury thwarted his right to be tried by an impartial jury. Juror No. 11s fixation with matters of consent and predatory older men, and her lack of candor about it, raises troubling questions about whether she prejudged Mr. Weinsteins guilt and whether she had a personal agenda to see him convicted that single-handled obliterated the judicial process, Weinsteins attorneys wrote in appeals papers. When this judge refused to discharge this juror, it was a reversible error, Kamins said during Weinsteins appeal proceeding. Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree on February 24, 2020, following a nearly seven-week trial. Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting two women: Jessica Mann and Mimi Haleyi. Mann, once an aspiring actress, testified that Weinstein raped her at a Midtown East hotel in early 2013. Haleyi said that Weinstein forcibly perform oral sex on her in the summer of 2006 at his Soho home. Weinstein, now 69, was found not guilty of one first-degree rape count and two predatory-sexual-assault counts. Justice James Burke sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison on March 11, 2020. Weinsteins lawyers submitted their appeal on April 5, 2021, fighting against his conviction and sentence. Their arguments, both in the appeals paperwork and appeals proceedings, were largely rooted in claims that Burke erred in allowing prosecutors to discuss so much evidence about Weinsteins alleged prior bad acts. These uncharged accusations of sexual misconduct included testimony from Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff, and Lauren Young. Weinstein is currently jailed in Los Angeles where he also faces sexual-assault charges. St. Aloysius Regional Catholic School in Springville is slated to close this month after 143 years in operation. With a current enrollment of only 50 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and only 13 students registered for next year, the school's Board of Trustees recommended the closure. The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has accepted the board's recommendation and will help current students find placement in other Catholic schools and will help teachers find new positions elsewhere. The school has been in operation at 186 Franklin St. since 1905, and in 1997 it became a regional school supported and governed by 11 parishes. Parish support has diminished, however, and the diocese ended its subsidy program for all diocesan regional schools two years ago. Timothy Uhl, secretary of education for the diocese, said that rising costs and the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be insurmountable obstacles to keeping the school open. More than 12,000 students are enrolled in 61 Catholic schools within the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. 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. When it comes to threats of violence in schools, law enforcement and school districts are taking no chances. In East Aurora, that meant closing schools two days after a threat had been made and a person had been charged. Student arrested in threat at East Aurora High School Superintendent Brian Russ notified parents Thursday night that all school buildings in the district were to be closed Friday. A reported threat made on the morning of Wednesday, May 25, was responsible for closing the district's schools Friday, May 27. The district did not notify parents of the threat until Thursday, May 26, when Superintendent Brian Russ announced classes were canceled for May 27. The superintendent said in an email to parents he canceled school "in an abundance of caution, in light of recent events, and out of respect for the mental and emotional well-being of our students, families, staff, and community." The decision was backed by police. At this time, theres no games, theres no joking around. All that kind of thing is taken very serious, and I believe the result is him being charged with making that threat, East Aurora Police Lt. Patrick Welch said. But the lawyer for the 14-year-old accused of making the threat said there was no need to cancel school May 27 and by doing so, the district made a bad situation worse. I question that entire closing, and its necessity, said the youth's attorney, R. Anthony Rupp III. In the wake of a host of school shootings and threats of violence, districts across the region have closed schools or canceled classes until they say schools are safe. Lockport shifts to remote learning because of frequent social media threats The Lockport City School District announced Tuesday that it will shift all grades to remote learning for the rest of this week, and perhaps longer, because of frequent social media threats that have closed the high school three times in the last 15 days. After a mass shooting at a Michigan school Nov. 30, Lockport High School closed for three days over a 15-day period, and the district shifted all schools to remote learning after frequent social media threats. Schools in Allegany-Limestone shifted to remote learning one day in December after learning about a social media post, and neighboring Olean also closed. Schools in Batavia also closed one day in December after an online threat to district buildings. In the East Aurora case, the student was in social studies class May 25 and lost a trivia contest, his attorney said. After class, students went into the hall, and the youth uttered something that referenced the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, which had occurred the previous day, Welch said. The comment was reported to the administration, which notified the school resource officer. The youths father took him home, and police conferred with the Erie County Attorneys office, which indicated the teenager should be charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony. He was arraigned the evening of May 25, and released to the custody of his attorney, Welch said. Rupp said by the time schools were closed May 27, three police officers, two outside counselors he said were contracted by the school district, two judges and a probation officer had interviewed the teenager and did not raise concerns about him being released on his own recognizance. Lockport 9th-grader arrested in online threats that closed schools The 14-year-old boy was charged with two counts of making a terroristic threat and two counts of falsely reporting an incident, Police Chief Steven K. Abbott said. What they did to my client is they destroyed him, Rupp said of the school district, questioning that if his client was such a threat, why didn't the district notify parents May 25 and cancel school May 26? How did he become such a greater threat between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening? The superintendent did not return several telephone calls requesting a comment. The timing of the school closing is connected with the states Red Flag Law, according to police. After the youth was released to his parents May 26 by a Family Court judge, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn filed a petition to invoking the state's red flag law, which takes away firearms from people who may do harm to themselves or others. A judge signed the order at 6 p.m. and ordered that any firearms in the familys home be turned over to East Aurora Police by 9 p.m. Our agency contacted the juveniles father to advise him of the red flag petition. He did, in fact, surrender all of his weapons, with full cooperation, that night, Welch said. He said the reason school was canceled May 27 and not May 26 is because the student had been released the evening of May 25 to the custody of his attorney to appear the next day in Family Court. Rupp said there was discussion at the arraignment of removing the firearms, which he said are used for hunting, from the home. It was too late to remove them that evening, so the youth was put into a gun-free environment, he said. His father had already agreed to take the firearms to a relatives house, and did that, Rupp said. Because he was released back to his parents with no supervision of his attorney, thats why the red flag petition was put forth to the court, Welch said. Welch said when the superintendent conferred with police the evening of May 26, the weapons had not yet been surrendered. So the superintendent, instead of waiting until midnight to decide whether or not to cancel school, he just basically erred on the side of caution. He canceled school the next day, he said. Rupp, the attorney for the student, said the incident could have been handled as a disciplinary matter, with a substantial punishment and suspension. But by closing schools May 27, he said the district turned the youth into a pariah. If he had been a threat, one or two of those judges would have ordered him detained, Rupp said. He said the student said he had tried to make a joke in the hallway. Should he be in trouble for that? Oh yeah, he said. I agree this isnt something you take lightly. But he accused the district of deliberately heightening community concern by closing schools after the firearms had been removed from the youth's house the evening of May 26. Rupp said the school had scheduled a conference with the superintendent, and the student and parents were in the school parking lot the morning of Thursday, May 26, when they received word it had been canceled. The student was suspended sometime that day, although the family did not notice the hand-delivered suspension notice on the front door until the following Sunday, Rupp said. This is a boy Ive known for years. Hes a kid. He made a terrible mistake, Rupp said. "He uttered something that he probably didnt quite think through before he did it, Welch said. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated which day Rupp questioned why school was not canceled. 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. Grace Hunt, daughter of Amy and Ed Hunt and granddaughter of Hank and Linda Nelson, has worked as hard as could possibly be expected in her last year in high school. With not only her senior year to complete, she has spent the last two years in high school also completing an AA degree from Grays Harbor College in the Running Start program. With completion of two years of college work as well as her senior year's work, she will graduate with her high school diploma and her AA degree together at graduation on June 11. Grace has done her Running Start work from home with her computer, causing some changes in the family's routines. At times she had to ask that the house stay quiet while she works and takes tests. Grace decided on Oregon State University as the next step in her education. She made this decision based on the zoology program available on campus in Corvallis, Oregon. She has been actively engaged with large animal work by helping her grandfather, Hank Nelson, with his herd of Hereford cattle next door to the Hunt house. She has made spreadsheets to keep track of vaccinations, illnesses, new babies and other details for every animal. She has witnessed and, if necessary, helped with calves being born. She has named the calves and helped raise them. Grace is grateful for her years in 4-H, not only for what she has learned about raising animals but for other programs in 4-H, such as leadership. She has always been interested in outdoor conservation, thanks to her years working with her grandfather. She also expressed admiration for her grandmother who is always trying new things. For Grace, having watched her grandmother be so creative, so much so that Grace is always trying new things, and if she doesn't quite get it the first time, she learns and tries again. Grace likes the distance from Corvallis to Grays River so she can come home easily for holidays with her family, including her sister who is attending Washington State University in Pullman. She looks forward to getting involved in OSU's student activities since over the last two years she had little time to engage in much social life. She recently learned there are two other students from home attending OSU, too. Grace expressed deep respect and gratitude for her parents over these past two years. Her parents encouraged her in everything and never compared her with her sister which was important to her. Most importantly, her parents made it clear they trust her to make the best choices for herself. Whether Grace eventually studies animal husbandry or environmental science and research, she will be a winner and another fantastic alum for Naselle/Grays River Valley High School. Updates have been coming in from Ron Wright, advisor to the Wahkiakum High School and 4H Mecha Mules robotics team, which is in Washington D.C. and Maryland this week for a little international robotics competition and a tour of the capitol. One thing is certain, it's hot. On Sunday, the team flew from Seattle to Washington D.C. after their initial flight was canceled. No harm done, except their seats were no longer together. They arrived at their hotel and headed to a nearby store to forage for food, while getting a feel for the neighborhood. After, the group gathered for an evening meeting to make plans for the following day and give out the $50 bills that some kind and anonymous donor wanted the students to have to buy souvenirs. "Thank you, thank you," Wright wrote in his first update. On Monday, Smartrip cards were purchased for everyone. They are required for travel on the Metro. "The Metro station manager was very helpful getting us through that purchasing process and planning our trips," Wright wrote on the second day. "When he asked if our trains back home operate as well as his, he was very surprised to hear my answer, 'Ummm, no, we don't have any.' He replied as if hearing something unheard of: 'You mean you all have to get around by car?' I continued to tell him that we don't even have a single stoplight in our entire county. The look on his face said that he did not believe me. After further discussion, he told us: 'You will see more people at any time on the Capitol Mall than you have in your entire county.'" The group has learned to navigate turnstiles, taken long escalator rides, and done a lot of walking. They visited Arlington Cemetery, and an unannounced visit by President Biden to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was witnessed by Wright, who had taken a trolley to the site. "I was sitting about 35 yards from General Milley as he spoke and from President Biden," Wright said. " I assume you can find their speeches online if you want, and they were good, but the really impactful part was to be in this crowd of veterans and Gold Star families and feel the emotions with them as they listened to the speakers." Unfortunately the crowd and security issues prevented the students, who were walking to the Amphitheater, from being there. On Tuesday, the group headed to the Capitol Building, and this time, they were a little more prepared for the heat, Wright said. A tour was provided by staff from Jaime Herrera Beutler's office along with a member of the Capitol sfaff, who added a lot of backrground information. "The highlight for most of us was standing under the Capitol dome and feeling the majesty of the place," Wright wrote. The team also enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria, and Wright wholeheartedly recommends the experience to anyone planning to travel to the capitol. In the evening after it cooled down a bit, the group headed to the National Mall to see the Washington Monument. Courtesy of Jessica Vik Visiting Arlington Cemetery. "It is spectacular, day or night, but especially so at night," he wrote. "The grounds of the Mall and surrounding areas are really well kept. For a city that big, that concentrated, it really is a shining example of what can be done. It is hard to figure out how to say this nicely, but I will try: the D.C. area really stands out when we think about the cities we know in the northwest: Seattle or Portland. It just feels like the city itself is saying with its subtle breath, 'I am special, and I am cared for.'" Wright was happy to report that the students and chaperones were picking up another skill: navigating the subway in an urban environment. A summary of the coming updates will be printed next week. To The Eagle: In case MSM hasnt reported this, delegates from different countries met recently in Geneva, Switzerland behind closed doors. The talk was about Bidens proposed 13 amendments that would grant new powers to WHO. Under the proposed amendments, Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus could declare a public health emergency in any country whether they agree with it or not. Delegates from Africa disapprove of the amendments; so should we. Do you know what this means? This should be one of the proofs of what the Biden administration is trying to do; to get rid of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Why else would he and his party rejoin WHO, CCP, NATO and other global organizations? We would be stripped of our rights and freedom here in our country and other countries will be affected by it as well. His proposed amendments have nothing to do in regard to health emergencies and the pandemic as they said it would. WHO is part of the CCP. I no doubt believe its a ploy to pursue control for global world order. I believe this is why Trump when he was President, severed ties with WHO, NATO, CCP and other global organizations. Imagine during his term as president, he tried to work together as a team to make America great. Knowing now their agenda, they had no desire to. Yes, Trump may talk foul and talked locker room talk but hes not the only one. Thank goodness, with the harassment and lies they and the MSM put on him, Trump fought and did what he set out to do as a President to MAGA. My Mom and Dad taught me not to heed ill words to anyone but in this case, I find myself talking just as foul as Trump seeing Biden, Kamala, Pelosi and the likes of them for who and what they are. Do your research. Dont give in to tyranny and stand up for your rights. Toni Below Cathlamet Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that his office successfully sought sanctions from a group pursuing a frivolous legal challenge of the 2020 election, along with its attorney. The sanctions order comes after Ferguson defeated the frivolous lawsuit. The Washington Election Integrity Coalition United (WEICU) has been ordered to pay $9,588.80, and its attorney, Virginia Shogren, has been ordered to pay $18,795.90 as sanctions for bringing a case totally devoid of legal merit. Ferguson will also file a complaint against Shogren with the Washington State Bar Association seeking further discipline. That complaint will come in the next few weeks. As part of its case WEICU alleged that non-citizens were fraudulently registered to vote. The court found the Coalition offers no competent evidence of voter fraud based on noncitizen voter registration. Attorneys and organizations who attack our democracy and abuse our legal system must face accountability, Ferguson said. We will continue fighting to protect our elections from these baseless lawsuits that push the Big Lie. Misinformation and disinformation is a threat to the functioning of our democracy, said Gov. Jay Inslee. Those who intentionally spread lies and undermine our elections must be held accountable. I appreciate the attorney generals efforts to ensure truth prevails. WEICU filed this lawsuit against the state in Washington State Supreme Court, alleging hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in the 2020 general election were altered. The group offered no evidence for this claim, and the lawsuit was dismissed due to multiple legal deficiencies. Because of the frivolous nature of the case, Ferguson asked the Washington Supreme Court to impose sanctions against the WEICU and Shogren. The court agreed, and ordered the group and Shogren personally to pay the states costs in defending the case. WEICU also filed separate lawsuits in eight counties: Whatcom, Clark, Snohomish, King, Thurston, Pierce, Lincoln and Franklin counties. Loren Culps frivolous lawsuit challenging the 2020 election In January 2021, the campaign for gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp filed a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election. The complaint included sweeping, baseless assertions of voter fraud. The Attorney Generals Office responded by informing the attorney for the campaign that we would seek sanctions if the campaign continued with its irresponsible lawsuit. In response, the Culp campaign dropped its lawsuit the next day. The following is an excerpt from the Attorney Generals message to the Culp campaigns attorney: [Your] claims are also factually baseless. For example, counties have contacted individuals the Campaign identified as deceased and found either that the voter died after voting, or that the voter was, in fact, alive. In many instances, the alleged discrepancies cited by your declarant Mr. Schow reflect trivial variations in the voters address, for example listing an address as N instead of North. Secretary Wyman invited Mr. Culp to bring any concerns to her for investigation, but he refused. Numerous counties likewise invited your declarant, Mr. Schow, to share his data regarding alleged irregularities so that the claims could be investigated and addressed. He likewise refused. If either Mr. Schow or Mr. Culp had accepted those invitations, the Secretary and the counties could have demonstrated precisely how the allegations are false or do not undermine the validity of a voters registration. The Campaign simply did not conduct a reasonable investigation to assert the type of claims alleged here. Finally, the claims are made with an improper purpose of undermining confidence in a free and fair election. Mr. Culp lost the election by more than 545,000 votes. Rather than concede gracefully, Mr. Culp has used this lawsuit to distract from the magnitude of his loss and to sow confusion. Mr. Culp also fundraised off his baseless allegations, even as the country has erupted in violence stoked by the types of reckless allegations made in this litigation. This past week has put into stark relief the damage that has been wrought by such untruths. As an officer of the Court, you have an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation before filing a lawsuit and not to fuel the fire consuming this country with unfounded claims of voter fraud. We hope that you will reconsider your actions in light of this information and the events of the past weeks. If you decline to dismiss the case voluntarily, our motion for sanctions will seek all costs we have incurred in responding to the complaint. 30 Virus-free. http://www.avg.com The 76-year-old man accused of dumping hundreds of used McDonald's coffee cups on the front lawn of a former co-worker has written a letter of apology to the homeowners and has sent them a check for about $2,800 to cover their expenses in trying to catch whoever was doing this to them. Placeholder while article actions load A recent national analysis contained a deeply disturbing finding that has generated little public discussion when it should be causing an outcry: Nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began. Most states have seen enrollment declines for two straight years. In New York City, K-12 enrollment has dropped by an astounding 9%. Given that state education funding formulas rely on student population numbers, a large reduction in students will lead to a corresponding reduction in school budgets. Thats the law of supply and demand. Otherwise, at this rate, the public will soon be paying teachers to lead half-empty classrooms. The message to educators and elected officials could hardly be clearer: Too many public schools are failing, parents are voting with their feet, and urgent and bold action is needed. Until now, however, the only governmental response has been to spend more money too much of which has gone to everyone but our children. Advertisement Since 2020, Congress has sent an additional $190 billion to schools, in part to help them reopen safely and stave off layoffs. But in many districts, union leaders resisted a return to in-classroom instruction long after it was clear that classrooms were safe. And by and large, remote instruction was a disaster. By one analysis, the first year of the pandemic left students an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading, with much larger gaps for low-income schools. Its abundantly clear that money was far from the biggest challenge facing public schools. The U.S. spends more per pupil on public education than virtually any other country, and many districts have struggled to spend all the federal funds theyve received. Others have splurged on sports. Now, after students have fled public schools in record numbers, states are paying more to educate fewer children. That might have been acceptable if students were showing great improvement. Instead, we are paying more for failure. Advertisement Meanwhile, enrollment at public charter schools has been moving in the opposite direction, thanks to their success, even as their federal funding has not risen in the last four years. From 2020 to 2021, nearly 240,000 new students enrolled in charter schools, a 7% increase year over year. Many charter schools around the country have long waitlists, and no wonder. In states and cities with strong accountability laws, charters have a proven academic track record of outperforming district schools. One recent nationwide analysis found that districts with a higher share of charters yield higher reading and math scores as well as higher graduation rates on average. Other research has found that the benefits are especially pronounced for Black, Latino and low-income students. Charter schools educate 7% of all public-school students, yet they receive less than 1% of total federal spending on K-12 education. As more parents opt out of traditional district schools, that imbalance should be corrected, as charters struggle to afford the teachers they need to serve their growing student populations, often in low-income communities. The idea that we would allow public charter-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to be deprived of great teachers so that we can staff schools with declining enrollments as though they were full makes no sense whatsoever until factoring in politics. And then it makes perfect sense, because so many elected officials are beholden to union leaders who oppose charters. Advertisement Recently, union influence over the federal Department of Education led to an outrageous proposal to erect new barriers to funding charter schools. Instead of making it easier for educators to open more charters to meet parental demand, the DOE proposed to do the opposite. After a bipartisan backlash, there are signs that the department may reconsider the proposal. The White House should insist on it and go further, by treating public charter-school students as equals in terms of funding and insisting that traditional district schools embrace the accountability standards that have made charters so popular with parents. That might lead some parents who have opted for home schooling or parochial schools to revisit their options and help stave off deep cuts to schools with declining populations. Otherwise, the shameful failures of the public school system will continue, hurting another generation of the most vulnerable children. For the U.S. to remain the worlds strongest economy, and to make any substantial progress on matters of racial justice, that is not an outcome Americans can afford to accept. The new enrollment data sends a stark signal. Schools will have to adjust to dropping enrollments either by getting smaller or by getting better. You cant lose the students and keep the teachers. Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, and UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load President Joe Biden recently tightened financial sanctions on Russia another notch, pushing it closer to defaulting on its debts. A missed interest payment this week has triggered a significant insurance payout. Keeping up this pressure on President Vladimir Putins regime is justified but its no game-changer. Russias main economic vulnerability remains its exports of oil and gas. Thats where the US and its allies need to keep their focus. Russia has been working hard to maintain its debt payments, proving if nothing else that Putin regards default as a further blow to his credibility. His officials had been able to exploit a sanctions loophole that allowed the payments to be made, but the US has now closed this channel. Even creative alternatives, like allowing foreign creditors to open accounts in Russian banks in rubles and hard currency, appear unlikely to stave off the inevitable. The sums at stake are modest. Russia has been shifting away from dollar debt for much of the past decade, cutting its debt burden to less than 20% of gross domestic product. And it was already blocked from new borrowing. Forcing an outright default wont hit creditors harder than theyve already been hit, because most of the debt has already been sold or written down. Advertisement This is mainly about Putins standing especially at home. Hes long boasted that he saved Russia from the financial chaos of the 1990s, including its default on domestic debt in 1998. He moved quickly early on to repay International Monetary Fund loans and (eventually) Soviet debt. The government built up a strong balance sheet and ample reserves. This hard-won reputation for financial prudence has now been upended. Unfortunately, the further humiliation of outright default wont end the war. To advance that goal, the alliance needs to concentrate on halting Russias imports of industrial components and, above all, curbing its exports of oil and gas. Theres been progress on both. Flag carrier Aeroflot, for instance, has been cut off from foreign manufactures, while the latest industrial production figures show a sharp contraction anywhere that outside components are required. And this week, the Europe Union has agreed to ban seaborne purchases of Russian oil, while also targeting maritime insurance for tankers with Russian crude, which makes it far harder for Moscow to divert supplies to other buyers. In due course, with the UK joining in, that will be a body blow. Unfortunately, the oil embargo will take months to kick in, punishing Europe immediately as prices rise in anticipation while allowing Russia to continue funding its war machine. Alongside speedier action, far more needs to be done to bring alternative buyers onside if Moscow is to be cut off. Concentrated work needs to begin on curtailing European gas purchases, which infrastructure makes far harder to replace. Advertisement Embarrassing Putin with a formal debt default would be well and good. But stopping the war demands a renewed commitment to economic isolation. More From Bloomberg Opinion: To Quit Putins Gas, Europe Must Tack With the North Sea Wind: Andreas Kluth Theres One Way to Wean India Off Russian Weapons: Mihir Sharma McDonalds Exit From Russia Ends a Hopeful Era: Therese Raphael The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The world is struggling with simultaneous energy and climate crises. To solve the first could require undoing all the progress made toward greener power and cleaner air. But it doesnt have to be that way. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Euphoria for electric cars and the powerpacks that run them has obscured a more immediate and distinct need: batteries to run homes and businesses, as countries across the world deal with the repercussions of an ongoing power crisis. Despite the worsening state of energy and rising electricity prices, existing technologies arent being put to use. Instead, everyone is just thinking about the steepening cost of generation, paralyzed by the thought of escalating bills and more frequent blackouts. Theres a simple solution: Store the energy and use it when the need arises. As the market for EV batteries expands and evolves, large industrial-scale powerpacks energy storage systems, or ESS are being overlooked as a potential solution to this power crunch. The market for the former, for instance, is expected to grow to $500 billion over the next two decades, while that of ESS wont even make it past $100 billion, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. The latter is what we need far more urgently. Advertisement EV excitement has, no doubt, pushed development of battery technology overall and therefore helped ESS along as well. However, it hasnt been driven by active concerns about our energy needs. ESS are typically large, stationary powerpacks that can store excess energy from grids and other sources for later use, or when demand is peaking. As renewable energy contribution to power supply increases across the globe, the ability to store it and use it when people or businesses need it will become more important. Whats underappreciated about these systems is that they benefit from all the EV battery developments like better energy density and safety, but dont have the same problems or constraints. One big issue is size, for instance. Electric car batteries need to be small, high-energy and safe. Its been difficult to get all three factors operational at the same time. But for ESS, size isnt an issue since they dont need to be housed in a moving vehicle. That reduces one variable. Advertisement In addition, factors that worry EV buyers about smaller batteries are different: Energy density doesnt matter as much, nor does how far they need to take a vehicle, or the range. Thats key: this issue has driven manufacturers to push for other formulations that are expensive and tough to deploy commercially. What matters is charging cycles, battery life and frequency. Viable options like lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, powerpacks, are underestimated. Life cycles and other metrics for stationary battery use are improving. Most materials used in this type are abundant, although prices have risen in recent months. They can operatefor several thousand cycles of charging and discharging. All this means that existing technologies have come far enough to make ESS a reality even for a few hours a day. Several manufacturers are already onto the imminent need for such systems, investing billions in building out these energy storage systems. Advertisement The worlds largest battery company, Chinas Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., has been actively expanding its work in this area. Its sold these products at six projects in Texas to an independent power producer. The looming issue is upfront costs. Analysts often talk about how unviable these systems are, but in reality, there are too many unknowns to make accurate estimates on how steep industrial-scale energy storage projects will be. The running expenses will depend on improvements including the quality of products and the life cycle of powerpacks and these have both come a long way. Bottom line is, the status quo isnt sustainable its already cracking, and its time to look for solutions. But are governments and companies willing to put ESS to use and boost adoption? The smart move would be to provide incentives, tax cuts, or consumer awareness programs to push things along. Ultimately, the upfront costs need to be brought down and that requires talking about something less exciting than electric cars. Advertisement China, for instance, has been widely deploying LFP chemistry. As part of its goals to have 30 gigawatts of energy storage systems over the next three years, it plans to slash costs to help businesses adopt and deploy these systems. Notably, it will ensure energy security to maintain its global supply chain heft. Thats not been a consideration for many others. A recent MIT study on energy storage noted that the current policy focus on short-term decarbonization goals has encouraged both public and private attention toward relatively mature technologies. That means markets and money havent pushed hard enough on new uses of storage and more effective energy utilization, since they continue to fly under the radar, set apart from mainstream policy. Until they focus on the future, we should start worrying more about more blackouts and power shortages as climate change and extreme weather combine to put energy supplies at risk. Advertisement More From Bloomberg Opinion: Get Ready for Even Bigger Electricity Shocks: Javier Blas The U.S. Is Losing the EV Battery Race: Anjani Trivedi U.S. Needs a Strategic Reserve for Green Energy: Conor Sen This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia. Previously, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load A robot army is beginning its march across rural America, promising to transform the future of food. Twenty-five intelligent machines were dispatched last month to the Midwest and the Mississippi Delta, where they will advance over newly planted fields at 12 miles an hour, annihilating baby weeds. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Produced by John Deere and created by the startup Blue River Technology, these robotic weeders look much like standard industrial sprayers at first glance, but each is rigged with an intricate system of 36 cameras and a mass of tiny hoses. They use computer vision to distinguish between crops and weeds and then deploy with sniper-like precision tiny jets of herbicide onto the weeds sparing the crop and ending the common practice of broadcast-spraying chemicals across billions of acres. The See and Spray Ultimate robots are expensive, enormous, wildly complex machines currently accessible only to industrial-scale farmers, but within a few years their impact on the environment and human health could be nothing short of spectacular. They are in the vanguard of a wave of reimagined agricultural equipment that will help farmers produce more food on less land with radically reduced chemical applications. Advertisement Intelligent machines can treat plants individually, eventually applying not just herbicides but pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers on a plant-by-plant rather than field-by-field basis. This kind of hyper-precision may do more than ratchet down agrochemical usage, also allowing for more diversity and crop-mixing on fields, so that larger farms can begin to mimic natural systems. Meanwhile, robotic planters and combines are already showing yield improvements of up to 2%, and robotic harvesters could eventually alleviate increasingly grueling farm work and labor shortages. Robots on farms, for all their environmental and ethical promise, raise plenty of concerns some valid, others spurious. They will add cost and complexity to farming equipment, making farmers increasingly reliant on Big Ag companies like John Deere. In the beginning, they will strengthen the dominance of large industrial operators while eluding the local small and midsize farmers who are essential to sustainable and resilient food systems. So as the era of artificial intelligence in farming dawns, manufacturers, the Biden administration and investors should be thinking about how to develop this market responsibly. Funding should be steered to the development of smaller, more affordable machines while also supporting a rental economy that enables local and midsize farmers to lease, if not own, this next-generation equipment. The US Department of Agriculture should also create rebate and tax-credit programs to help farmers affordably trade out old machinery for new. Advertisement See and Spray is one of seven AI products that John Deere now has in development, including robotic planters, self-driving tractors and combines that meticulously separate wheat from chaff. All are equipped with dozens of cameras and algorithm-crunching data processors that examine, analyze and measure every plant and seed on a field. Were doubling down, tripling down on investment in robotics and machine learning, Jorge Heraud, Deeres vice president of automation and machine autonomy, told me. Having grown up working on (and weeding) his grandparents tomato farm in Peru, Heraud founded Blue River Technology, which Deere acquired in 2017 along with its See and Spray prototype for $305 million. In five years, Heraud has helped grow Deeres AI team to 400 people from 50. Many skeptics Ive talked with question whether this equipment will ever be widely adopted. Deere says it already has more demand than its ready to meet: Heraud decided to release only 25 in its first fleet because the company is still honing the financing and servicing model. Currently, Deere is charging an upfront price that they wont disclose (its at least the cost of a standard sprayer of this size, about $500,000), plus an ongoing per-acre fee that may be charged monthly or annually and includes software upgrades and maintenance. Heraud plans to increase the fleet by a factor of 10 annually, so that by 2025 the company will have thousands of robotic weeders on the market. Advertisement The worry that intelligent machines will simply make industrial farms bigger and farmers lazier, less responsible stewards of the land is unfounded. These kinds of advanced technologies have extraordinary potential to help farmers improve the health of their soil and the quality of the food they produce by drastically reducing the use of harmful chemical herbicides such as glyphosate, Dicamba and 2,4-D. Twenty billion gallons of herbicide are currently applied annually by sprayers worldwide across one billion acres of farmland. When See and Spray technology is integrated into all sprayers sold by the company, which Heraud says could happen within a decade, the volume of herbicide deployed on these farms could plummet to four billion. Future generations of the equipment may also be able to significantly curtail the use of fossil fuel-derived fertilizers, which, when overapplied, fuel climate change. Governments can help allay concerns with incentives: The California Air Resources Board provides a helpful model, offering farmers rebates for upgrading their existing machinery to models with cleaner engines. The USDA and investors can also encourage the development of a rental economy by incentivizing and funding young companies like Nutrien Ag Solutions in the US and Hello Tractor in Africa that function like the Ubers of agriculture, enabling small and midsize farmers to lease or acquire fractional ownership of next-generation farm equipment without having to maintain it or learn the technology. Advertisement Venture capital can be directed to support new players in the AI market. One young startup, Earthsense, is developing robots the size of microwaves that rove around farms removing weeds. Deere is also working on smaller, more affordable machines. For better or worse I strongly believe for better the era of AI agriculture has arrived. And if investors and government officials do their part to support the responsible development and adoption of this technology, the result would be nothing short of a paradigm shift toward sustainable farming. Virtually every aspect of food production, from planting to processing, could be revolutionized, making it feasible to feed a hotter, more populous world. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Food Crisis Is Bad; Crop Insurance Makes It Worse: Adam Minter Advertisement Worlds Food Baskets Need a Better Safety Net: David Fickling In Singapore, a Chicken Ban Is a Serious Threat: Daniel Moss This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Amanda Little is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering agriculture and climate. She is a professor of journalism and science writing at Vanderbilt University and author of The Fate of Food: What Well Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Talk is easy. Political change is hard. In Australia, its more than two centuries overdue. Claiming victory in last months election, new Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses first words were a vow to redress the unfinished business from the colonial invasion of 1788. His promise to commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart a set of political demands from Indigenous groups, first outlined in 2017 puts Australia on the path to the most substantive constitutional change its seen in more than half a century. If the resulting referendum succeeds, the country may wind up with a new First Nations elected chamber, an array of treaties with state and federal governments, and a truth and reconciliation commission. The symbolism of Albaneses words echoed his Labor predecessor Kevin Rudd, whose first major speech to Parliament after winning the 2007 election was a long-delayed apology to Aboriginal children removed from their families. Politically, however, Albaneses task is far more challenging. No referendum has passed in Australia since the 1970s. If such a vote succeeds, it will mark just the beginning, rather than the end point, of Australias reckoning with its dispossession of First Peoples. Advertisement Adopting the Uluru Statement would ensure Indigenous people are given a seat at the decision-making table where it comes to laws and policies that affect us, Dani Larkin, a legal lecturer at the University of New South Wales and Bundjalung and Kungarykany woman, told Seven News this week. In contrast to the US, Canada and New Zealand, Australias first colonists didnt agree to any treaties with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people whose land they took. Until the second half of the 20th century, many Indigenous people in rural areas worked for nominal wages that were little different from slavery; they couldnt vote in federal elections until the 1960s, and werent counted in the census until a 1967 referendum. To this day, Indigenous household income is about half that in other homes and life expectancy is about eight years shorter. Conventional politics has been ill-suited to addressing this injustice. At roughly 3.3% of the population, Indigenous Australians lack either the force of numbers that helps give the Maori a larger role in New Zealands public life, or the legal recognition of sovereignty through which many Native Americans exercise a measure of self-government. Advertisement Public policy no longer requires the imprimatur of the Aboriginal people; Aboriginal participation in the decisions taken about their lives is negligible, Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and constitutional lawyer instrumental in the drafting of the Uluru Statement, wrote in a 2015 essay on the halting process of reform. It is a distraction, an indulgence even. Opinion polling on the main elements of the Uluru Statement shows consistent, but relatively shallow support for its measures. That makes it politically risky ground for Albanese. Referendums must be backed by a majority of people in a majority of Australias six states to pass. They stand the best chance of succeeding when theyre supported by both sides of politics, as in the 1967 vote. Theres no guarantee that will happen this time. The new opposition leader, Peter Dutton, boycotted Rudds 2007 apology speech, and stands on the right of a party that lost many of its moderate legislators at last months election. Hes not yet committed to a position on the Uluru Statement, but his Liberal-National Coalition government blocked moves toward a referendum over five years in power. Should he turn a no vote into an issue to rally Australias tattered conservative forces, hed likely have the support of right-wing media organizations whove historically opposed improvements to Indigenous rights. Advertisement The most likely model for the constitutional change would include brief clauses establishing an Indigenous representative body, but allow the chambers precise form to be worked out by Parliament. That will save the referendum process from getting hung up on technical details, but also raises the prospect that future governments may pass fresh legislation to diminish the body. It wouldnt be the first time thats happened. Former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty with Indigenous people at the time of the countrys bicentenary in 1988. The proposal was described as utterly repugnant by conservative opposition leader John Howard, and ultimately went nowhere. An elected Indigenous representative body established in its stead in 1990 was dismantled 15 years later by Howard, who was by then prime minister. The Rudd government set up a new representative chamber in 2010, only to have it defunded when the Coalition returned to power in 2013. Achieving change with the advisory chamber envisaged by the Uluru Statement must also contend with a long history of impressively researched, diligent Indigenous advice to government thats been comprehensively ignored by those in power. The thousands of pages of parliamentary reviews, agency reports, books and articles already written on the statement during a time when political action has been all but non-existent are a fresh example. Advertisement And yet, there are signs that Australia is finally changing. Acknowledgements of Indigenous land ownership, still relatively rare when I migrated here 13 years ago, are now routinely given at the start of public performances, parliamentary and legal hearings, as well as on websites and email signatures. Many of the more than 600 Indigenous languages once thought to be destined for extinction are being robustly revived. An Indigenous cultural renaissance of literary, artistic, musical and theatrical works goes from strength to strength each year. A lackluster revision to the heritage laws that allowed Rio Tinto Group to blast a 46,000-year-old cave site in 2020 suggests theres a long way to go on land rights, arguably the most insidious and lingering injustice bequeathed by colonial invasion. But recent legal cases have even marginally enhanced the limited rights afforded under Australias native title regime. That gives reason to hope that the current push will succeed where others have failed. The 1967 referendum is remembered now as a high point of Indigenous advancement but its actual text made relatively minor changes, acting more as a symbol and catalyst for wider reform than as the mechanism which brought social change about. Advertisement The three decades of progress that vote ushered in were followed by three more decades of reversals and retrenchments, but the arc of history may finally be bending again. Indigenous people have been calling out for their rightful place in Australia for two centuries. The country may finally be ready to listen. More From Bloomberg Opinion: How the Legacy of a Civil Rights Hero Was Dismantled in Australia: David Fickling Miners Carve Themselves an Ugly Heritage: David Fickling Is a 46,000-Year-Old Site Less Sacred Than Profits? David Fickling This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load MILAN Even as the European Union decided to reduce Russian crude oil imports by 90% by the end of the year, Italy has become the only country in Europe to increase them, an unintended consequence of EU sanctions against Russia. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Meant to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the EU oil embargo is now putting at risk one of Italys largest refineries, located in Sicily, which would deal an economic blow to the depressed regions economy. Italy agreed with its EU partners to cut Russian crude imports by 2023, a move that Premier Mario Draghi called a complete success, that just a couple of days ago wouldnt have been believable. But Rome also has to deal with the fate of the refinery in Sicily owned by Russias Lukoil. As a result of previous sanctions against Russia, ISAB Srl has paradoxically gone from processing 15% of Russian crude to 100%. Advertisement Thats because banks have refused to take the risk of extending credit to Russia-controlled ISAB that would allow it to buy oil from non-Russian sources, even if not specifically barred from doing so, said Matteo Villa, an energy analyst at the ISPI think tank in Milan. Ships continue to arrive at the port-side refinery with crude oil from the Russian parent company. Italy in May received about 400,000 barrels of Russian oil a day in May, four times the pre-invasion levels, according to the Kpler commodity data company. Of that total, ISAB received 220,000 barrels a day from Russia. Italy is the only country in Europe increasing oil imports, Villa said, going from the sixth-largest importer of Russian oil to the the largest in the three months since the invasion. The plant employs 3,500 people at three production sites, including a refinery, gasification and electricity cogeneration plant, in Sicilys Syracuse province, and risks closure if a solution isnt found before the embargo kicks in. The plant and related activities generate half of the provincial gross domestic product and 8% of the regions economic activity, processing one-fifth of Italys crude oil imports. Advertisement The refinerys future was already at risk in the longer term, due to Italys energy transition to more sustainable sources. The embargo has only increased the sense of urgency to find a solution. The mood today is even worse than yesterday, said Fiorenzo Amato, the secretary general of the Filctem Cgil union in Syracuse. The industrial hub ... employs many people, giving families the chance to live. Since learning of the embargo, refinery workers are growing more concerned about their future. It will be a disaster, said Marco Candelargiu. We hope they find a solution. You cannot destroy a province. The choice was made a long time ago to base the economy prevalently on the refinery. Villa said one solution would be for Italy to temporarily nationalize the refinery, a move permitted for energy emergencies under Italys Constitution, but a week of discussions has yielded no agreement. Advertisement As an Italian-owned refinery, ISAB would be able to get the necessary financing to purchase crude from other sources and keep operating while longer-term solutions are sought. This is important for employment in Sicily, for the provisioning of gasoline and diesel to Italy and for our own political face-saving in Europe, Villa said. ___ Santalucia reported from Rome. ___ Follow APs coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Jacqueline Kennedy made a point of wearing her pink, blood-spattered Chanel suit on the plane back to Washington after her husband was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Aides encouraged her to change. She refused. Let them see what theyve done, she insisted. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Kennedy, who had a deep understanding of the power of imagery, was widely photographed in her suit. Those photos became part of the historical record as well a catalogue of the raw violence that has always coursed through American life. Photos of the blood-soaked back seat of John F. Kennedys limousine, with crushed rose petals on the floor, also got around. But the photos that have affected me the most photos that didnt circulate widely and surfaced on the internet long after JFKs assassination are from his autopsy.(1) They show the young president as the victim of a grisly murder. Part of his head has been blown away, and there is a gaping, bloody hole at the base of his throat, where another bullet passed through. His eyes stare upward, open and blank. Advertisement Photographs of murders and other atrocities force people to decide how much reality they want to absorb. If JFKs autopsy photographs had been released in 1963, would they have had a greater impact than the poignant, wrenching images of his wifes suit? It depends on how you define impact and how the uses and abuses of photography come into play. The massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead in Uvalde, Texas, has also launched a debate about how much of a tragedys reality is suitable for public consumption, even though no crime-scene photos of those victims have been released. Still, sorting through hypotheticals about the pros and cons of disseminating graphic images from the shooting, as many thoughtful people already have, is essential to memorializing and responding to what happened. Much of that debate has focused on the news medias responsibilities. Should photos of murdered children in Uvalde be published, or should the privacy of grieving families be respected? The wishes of families come first. The Kennedys were trying to preserve their dignity and memories when deciding which crime scene photos to release, just as the Uvalde families rightly are today. Advertisement At any rate, when it comes to the impact of photos, legacy media isnt the most important actor in the gun debate. It may have been decades ago, before the internet and social media arrived. Gun-control advocates can now launch messaging campaigns on social media that expose the grotesque realities of gun violence without trespassing on the privacy of victims and their loved ones. In that context, the impact of graphic photos also doesnt have to be defined by whether it changes gun policy or peoples minds in the short term. If weve learned anything about violence in the U.S., its that too many Americans have too much tolerance for other peoples suffering. Theres no quick fix for that. But showing people the reality of gun violence consistently, responsibly and without flinching matters over time. And anyone hoping to end gun massacres in the U.S. should consider whether most of the images they encounter after shootings actually force them to grapple with reality or simply airbrush it. Advertisement Jacqueline Kennedy in a bloody dress evokes sympathy more than horror, perhaps. Her husbands shattered head evokes horror, because the violence he was subjected to is so evident. Emmett Tills mother left his casket open at his funeral, so mourners and the media would be forced to grapple with something horrible, too. That helped set the civil rights movement in motion. Horror may spur people to action more directly than sympathy. Gun violence needs to be seen and understood as horrible and unacceptable, just as carnage from genocide, lynchings and other obscenities is unacceptable. And photos from mass murders need to do more than elicit sympathy, without dishonoring the dead, if they are going to spark the kind of outrage that eventually brings change. More From Bloomberg Opinion: Why America Doesnt Know How to Stop School Shootings: Julianna Goldman Advertisement How to Start Solving Americas Gun Culture Problem: Carmichael and Wilkinson Americas Allies Just Dont Get Its Gun Obsession: Lara Williams (1) I dont know how the autopsy photos found their way onto the internet. The National Archives has the originals and it says it has never released them. Neither the federal government nor the Kennedys have contested the authenticity of the autopsy photos on the web. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Timothy L. OBrien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering U.S. business and politics. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta Platforms Inc., is resigning after 14 years of running the company alongside Mark Zuckerberg. It was time to write the next chapter of my life, she said in a 1,542-word post on Facebook accompanied by effusive comments from her fellow executives at the company. Her departure had been anticipated for some time. An investigation last year by the Wall Street Journal analyzing internal Facebook data found that the percentage of staff reporting to Sandberg, 52, had been shrinking in recent years. There were also rumors, according to a person close to the company, of tensions with Zuckerberg and of rival factions forming on their executive and PR teams. Sandbergs legacy is mixed. She was pivotal in helping the company reach an unparalleled scale of more than two billion active users after Zuckerberg poached her from Google in 2008, when he was just 23 years old, to grow Facebooks ad business. She did so with enormous success: About 97% of Facebooks $117 billion 2021 revenue came from selling ads. Facebooks unstoppable growth made her a billionaire on paper. Advertisement But Sandbergs skill in growing the business came at a price for Facebooks users, for healthy discourse and arguably for democracy itself. Fake news was running rampant on the site in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump was swept to power. More recently, a whistleblower accused the company of contributing to the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill because of an underinvestment in safety. For Facebooks critics, the company was causing damage to society because of a growth-at-all-costs mindset driven by Sandberg and Zuckerberg. Some executives who worked with Sandberg have spoken out. Roger McNamee, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist who helped broker her first meetings with Zuckerberg in 2008, went on to write Zucked and point out that Facebooks enormous size made it almost impossible to moderate the different languages and cultures of its users. The co-founder of messaging app WhatsApp, Brian Acton, also chafed at Sandbergs fixation on growth. A few years after he sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, he proposed monetizing the app through a metered-user model, charging businesses a fraction of a penny for large numbers of messages. But in a 2018 interview, he recalled Sandberg shooting down the idea. Her words were, It wont scale, he told me at the time. Advertising was the ultimate route to greater profits. Advertisement Yet now, Sandberg is leaving just as that money-generating machine is in doubt. Facebook recently said it would take a $10 billion hit in its 2022 revenue as a result of Apples iOS privacy lockdowns. And Zuckerbergs drastic pivot to the metaverse has seen the company already spend more than $10 billion on new technology still many years out from potential mainstream adoption. While Zuckerbergs own Facebook feed has been filled with updates about the metaverse or skunkworks projects like gloves that can receive haptic feedback so that you can touch things in virtual reality, Sandberg has been quiet about the high-tech initiative. Her role for years has been to steer the mundane side of the business while Zuckerberg chased more exciting projects. In earnings calls she often played up Facebooks contribution to small businesses and pushed for journalists to cover the issue. She testified before Congress in the place of Zuckerberg and would attend the World Economic Forum at Davos while Facebooks CEO stayed behind. Advertisement A former senior executive at Facebook once told me that the one thing they knew for sure about Zuckerberg and Sandberg was that they would leave the company only if Wall Street wanted them to. That meant a drop in the companys share price below a certain threshold such as $100. Metas stock closed at $188 on Wednesday, a ways off that baseline, but thats also a 50% drop from the $378 level it was trading at last year. Facebooks market capitalization flirted with $1 trillion at that time, and its now hovering around $500 billion. Another key figure in Facebooks growth story has left, too: Peter Thiel, who was Facebooks first outside investor and a guiding hand for Zuckerberg, recently stepped down from the companys board of directors after 17 years. Though Zuckerberg has said publicly that he will remain CEO in the coming years, his apparent obsession with virtual reality leaves Facebook looking increasingly rudderless. Advertisement Sandbergs and Thiels departures come at a moment of great financial uncertainty for Meta. Its unclear how the company plans to make money in the metaverse, or how much more the privacy changes from Apple will cost, or how extensively it might have to redesign its algorithms for users in Europe under forthcoming online safety laws there, potentially hurting its growth prospects. In February, Meta reported its first-ever decline in daily active users, suggesting its business may have peaked. If Sandberg is leaving on a low note, it could have been lower if she had waited longer to depart. The silver lining for users, and perhaps for democracy itself, is that some of the executives who steered Facebook toward an irresponsible scale are finally out. If Zuckerberg ever relinquishes his grip on the company as majority controller of its voting shares, it raises a greater prospect of new leadership that might prioritize safety over growth. But for now, the companys future looks ever more uncertain. More From Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Advertisement Facebook Has Probably Peaked. What Can Mark Zuckerberg Do Now?: Parmy Olson Facebook and Googles Ad Addiction Cant Last Forever: Parmy Olson Fact-Checking Social Media Posts Isnt Working: Faye Flam This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of We Are Anonymous. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Fagan is first woman to lead Coast Guard Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Adm. Linda Fagan was sworn in Wednesday by President Biden as the 27th commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, becoming the first woman to lead the service. With her appointment, Fagan also becomes the first female service chief in American history. Fagan, 58, succeeds Adm. Karl L. Schultz, who is retiring. Fagan was previously vice commandant, a role she assumed last summer. Her decades of Coast Guard service include a tour on the heavy icebreaker Polar Star the only woman aboard the ship as well as assignments on every continent. She is also the Coast Guards first Gold Ancient Trident, which means she is the officer with the longest service record in the marine safety field. Felicia Sonmez Los Angeles area faces water restrictions New restrictions on outdoor water use went into effect for more than 6 million residents in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday. The rules, set by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, limit outdoor watering to one day per week in many jurisdictions while others opted to stay below a volume limit as authorities try to dramatically reduce urban water use amid the record-breaking drought fueled by the warming climate. Advertisement The goal is to cut water use by 35 percent as California is in its third consecutive year of severe drought, there is measly snowpack in the mountains, and reservoirs have dwindled to record lows. Water authorities have described the situation as an emergency requiring more severe restrictions than in the past but they also warn they might be just a prelude to further cuts. If conditions dont improve by September, Metropolitan Water District officials have warned they might ban outdoor water use entirely. Since the new rules were announced in April, the drought in the West has not let up. The most recent data from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that 76 percent of the American West is experiencing severe to exceptional drought, an area home to some 55 million people. Major reservoirs along the Colorado River such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell are down to their lowest levels in decades. Joshua Partlow Advertisement Deputy won't face charges in shooting Two court-appointed prosecutors declined Wednesday to charge a Wisconsin sheriffs deputy in the 2016 fatal shooting of a man sleeping in a park, saying they didnt believe they could defeat a self-defense argument. The decision echoes a district attorneys finding years ago that Joseph Mensah had acted in self-defense when he shot Jay Anderson Jr. Mensah was a Wauwatosa police officer at the time but has since become a Waukesha County deputy. The special prosecutors, Milwaukee attorney Scott Hansen and La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, spent months reviewing the case and repeatedly found they couldnt overcome the self-defense argument. Mensah came upon Anderson, who was 25, sleeping in a car after hours in a Wauwatosa park in June 2016. Mensah said he fired after Anderson reached for a gun on the passenger seat, and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm declined to charge Mensah later that year. Associated Press GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load LONDON Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Advertisement Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. Advertisement The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed Thursdays events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. Advertisement They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Fridays service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Advertisement Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Advertisement Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. Advertisement The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. ___ Follow APs coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load SRINAGAR, India Assailants fatally shot a Hindu bank manager and a worker in targeted shootings in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday, according to police who blamed the attacks on militants fighting against Indian rule of the disputed region. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Militants shot and wounded two Hindu workers at a brick factory near Chadoora town on Thursday night, Jammu-Kashmir police said in a statement. They were taken to a hospital, where one of the workers from Indias Bihar state died. Earlier Thursday, suspected militants shot and killed a bank manager, Vijay Kumar, in southern Kulgam district, a separate Jammu-Kashmir police statement said. Kumar, from Indias Rajasthan state, died at a hospital following the shooting. CCTV footage circulating on social media shows a masked assailant walk into the bank and fire shots at Kumar with what appears to be a handgun. Advertisement Muslim-majority Kashmir has witnessed a spate of targeted killings in recent months. They come as Indian troops have continued their counterinsurgency operations across the region amid a clampdown on dissent and media freedom, which critics have likened to a militaristic policy. On Tuesday, suspected militants, also in Kulgam, shot and killed a Hindu schoolteacher, Rajini Bala. After that killing, Hindu government employees staged protests in several areas, demanding the government relocate them from Kashmir to safer areas in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. They accused the government of making them scapegoats and cannon fodder to showcase normalcy in the region and chanted slogans like The only solution is relocation. Hundreds of Hindus who had returned to the region after 2010 as part of a government resettlement plan that provided them with jobs and housing fled the Kashmir Valley after the killing of Bala, according to Kashmiri Hindu activists. Some 4,000 Kashmiri Hindus, who are locally known as Pandits, have been recruited for government jobs under the program. Advertisement Those employees have been on a strike since May 13 after a Hindu revenue clerk was killed inside an office complex in Chadoora town. In the aftermath of the clerks killing, hundreds of Pandits an estimated 200,000 of whom fled Kashmir after an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989 organized for the first time simultaneous street protests at several locations in the region demanding better security. We were tricked into thinking that the government is rehabilitating us under an employment package, said Jyoti Bhat, a local Hindu teacher who joined the program seven years ago. Its turning out to be a death package. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety. Most Muslim Kashmiris in the Indian-controlled portion support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Advertisement When Kashmir turned into a battleground in the 1990s, attacks and threats by militants led to the departure of most Kashmiri Hindus, who supported Indias rule, with many believing that the rebellion was also aimed at wiping them out. Most of the regions Muslims, long resentful of Indian rule, deny that Hindus were systematically targeted, and say India helped them move out or allowed their flight in order to cast Kashmirs struggle as Islamic extremism. Those tensions were renewed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 amid a sharp rise in communalism in India, and the Indian government pursued a plan to house returning migrant Kashmiri Hindus in new townships. Muslim leaders described such plans as a conspiracy to create communal division by separating the population along religious lines, particularly after India stripped the regions semi-autonomy in 2019 and removed inherited protections on land and jobs amid a monthslong lockdown and communication blockade. Advertisement Last year, suspected rebels killed a minority Sikh and several Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, in a wave of targeted shootings in the region. The killings came after India enacted a slew of changes in 2019, such as issuing domicile certificates to Indians and non-residents, entitling them to residency rights and government jobs. Many Kashmiris view such moves as aimed at engineering a demographic change in Indias only Muslim-majority region. Many Muslim village councilors, police officers and civilians also have been killed in targeted shootings during the period. Its a disastrous situation. Its not just the (Hindu) employees who are in panic. We all are living in constant fear since 2019, said Sanjay Tickoo, a local Kashmiri Pandit activist, who like some 800 other Pandit families did not migrate from Kashmir in the 1990s but chose to stay behind to live with their Muslim neighbors. He said that New Delhis 2019 changes in Kashmir brought demons of hate and division back to the fore. Killings in Kashmir happen as communalism is fast rising in India, he said. If there is another large-scale migration (of minorities) from Kashmir to other parts of the country, it will create more difficulties for Muslim minorities in India. Minorities are vulnerable everywhere. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load JERUSALEM Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians but no Jews during a nationalist march through Jerusalem this week in which crowds of Jews chanted racist slogans, assaulted Palestinians and vandalized Palestinian property, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Israeli police had said after Sundays march that over 60 people were arrested, but have refused to give a breakdown, despite queries by The Associated Press. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that it checked arrest records name by name, and found that no Jews were among those detained. It said two Jews were arrested in a separate, related incident. Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists participated in Sundays parade -- an annual march that celebrates Israels capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians consider the event a provocation. Advertisement Israeli police cleared out the area for the marchers, who passed through a Palestinian neighborhood before proceeding to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City to pray at the Western Wall. Large crowds, many of them young Orthodox Jewish youths carrying Israeli flags, gathered at the entrance to the Old Citys Muslim Quarter, dancing and chanting slogans such as Death to Arabs, before continuing on their way. Inside the Old City, the marchers pounded on the gates of Palestinian businesses and scuffled with angry Palestinian residents. Videos captured on social media showed marchers spitting, beating and spraying pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. Fights broke out along the route, as police mainly intervened to protect Jews and forcibly disperse Palestinians. According to the Haaretz report, nearly all of those arrested Thursday were Palestinian. Two Jewish suspects were arrested after the parade in the beating of a Palestinian journalist during unrest outside the Old City, it said. The newspaper compiled the statistics by going through court records in the days after the parade. Advertisement Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said only a small minority of the flag marchers was responsible for the bad behavior and vowed to prosecute anyone who broke the law. Several other journalists were physically assaulted while covering the march, according to the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media outlets operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It said Israeli participants verbally and physically assaulted a BBC team, and assaulted a France 24 reporter on air. It said Quique Kierszenbaum, a freelance photographer and producer covering the march for foreign media, was pepper sprayed by an Israeli participant and punched in the face by an Israeli Border Police officer. It is unacceptable for a police officer to attack a clearly identified photojournalist who was wearing the wristband police distributed to identify accredited journalists at the event, it said. Advertisement The association called on police to take action against the officer and Israelis who attacked reporters. Those who attack reporters should be arrested, not protected, by police, it said. Unfortunately, such violence against journalists has become routine. We expect Israeli authorities who profess to respect freedom of the press to put their words into action. Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem have long complained of a double standard in which Palestinian crowds are frequently arrested and violently dispersed by police with clubs, tear gas and rubber bullets, while Jewish settlers often carry out attacks and vandalism with virtual impunity. Israeli police deny such charges, saying they are merely enforcing the law. The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally and considers part of its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Advertisement Human rights groups say that discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in east Jerusalem is part of a broader system that amounts to apartheid. Israel vehemently rejects that label as an assault on its legitimacy rooted in antisemitism. Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state. The last round of substantive peace talks broke down over a decade ago. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load CAIRO The United Nations said Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The development offered a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war though significant obstacles remain to lasting peace. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The cease-fire between Yemens internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels initially came into effect on April 2. And though each side at times accused the other of violating the cease-fire, it was the first nationwide truce in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab Worlds most impoverished nation. The announcement, which is the outcome of U.N. efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties, U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. He said he will mediate between the warring parties to solidify the new truce and to try to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. Advertisement President Joe Biden welcomed the development and stressed that ending the war in Yemen has been a priority of his administration. I urge all parties to move expeditiously towards a comprehensive and inclusive peace process. Our diplomacy will not rest until a permanent settlement is in place, he said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that regional and international support will remain critical for the continuation and successful implementation of the truce. The fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict, which eventually descended into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine. Advertisement In his statement, Biden also lauded the Saudi government for what he said reflected courageous leadership in endorsing and implementing the U.N.-led truce. His remarks came as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have recently pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House. Bidens initial position was provoked by the gruesome 2018 killing at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi agents, including individuals who worked for the crown princes office. His remains have not been found. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around the besieged city of Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the Houthi rebels. Advertisement Later Thursday, the Yemeni governments presidential council expressed its support for the U.N. envoys efforts and reiterated that that Houthis must be prompted to re-open roads around Taiz, according to the state-run SABA news agency. In a statement, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis supreme political council which runs rebel-held areas, said the Houthis decided to respond positively to the U.N. envoys push to renew the truce in order to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, and to allow more time for the implementation of all provisions included in the original cease-fire agreement. In recent weeks, commercial flights have resumed from Sanaa, and fuel shipments have arrived. However, the opening of the roads around Taiz remains a contested issue and both sides have yet to agree on a framework for lifting the blockade on the key city. Advertisement Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided since the truce first started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. The Norwegian Refugee Councils Yemen director, Erin Hutchinson, expressed hopes that the cease-fire would lead to the reopening of roads so that humanitarian aid can reach those in need and so that more displaced Yemenis could return to their homes. Many Yemenis and observers point to the fact that fighting has been reduced, but not completely stopped. According to the Norwegian humanitarian group, the original truce resulted in a more than 50% drop in the number of civilian casualties in the first month. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, also welcomed the truce extension, expressing hopes it would be conducive to a comprehensive peace. The Saudi-based GCC representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE makes economic policies for the bloc, serving as a Sunni-led Arab counterweight to Shiite power Iran. Advertisement The European Unions delegation to Yemen welcomed the move in a tweet and underscored the importance of lifting the Taiz blockade. Earlier, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Yemens humanitarian needs remain high despite improvements since the truce, with some 19 million expected to face hunger this year, including more than 160,000 who will face famine-like conditions. Aid agencies need $4.28 billion to assist 17.3 million people across the country this year, but only 26% of that amount has been funded, he said, urging donors to pledge money and turn pledges into cash. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Belarus on Wednesday expanded the death penalty law to include attempted terrorism, in a move that could radically ramp up the government's pressure on the country's beleaguered opposition. Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a law allowing the death penalty for an attempt to commit a terrorist attack. Previously, it could not be handed down for an unfinished crime. Belarus' leading human rights groups and opposition politicians have spoken out against the law. Belarus is the only country in Europe where the death penalty is still in place. The new law amends Belarus' Criminal Code and applies in cases of plotted acts of international terrorism and murders of government officials or public figures. It has been approved by the country's parliament. Authorities in Belarus started actively bringing terrorism charges against opposition figures after Lukashenko won his sixth term in office in a disputed 2020 presidential election, triggering a wave of mass street protests that drew up to 200,000 people. Lukashenko's government responded with a violent crackdown, detaining more than 35,000 people and brutally bearing thousands. Key opposition figures have been either jailed or forced to leave the country. In March 2021, the prosecutor general's office launched a criminal case on the charges of preparing a terrorist act against opposition leaders Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Pavel Latushka and others. The latest arrests on terrorist charges involved so-called railway partisans" suspected of sabotaging the Belarusian railways to hinder supplies of Russian weapons to the frontlines in Ukraine. Introducing death penalty for attempted terrorism is a direct threat to activists opposing the dictator and the war (in Ukraine), Tsikhanouskaya told the AP. I call on the international community to respond and consider any instruments for preventing political murders in Belarus. Belarus' Helsinki Committee, the Viasna human rights center and the Human Rights Against Death Penalty group have issued a joint statement noting that the new amendments create prerequisites for serious abuses and arbitrary application of the death penalty. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. There are days now when you can almost forget about the virus. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are still being infected with COVID-19 daily, but after more than two years and millions of lost lives, the pandemic has given way in headlines and breaking-news crawls to older and more familiar atrocities. The rhythms of life have returned to something like their pre-pandemic tempo. Bars and restaurants are packed, theres a wedding boom, and in the US, the Memorial Day weekend looks likely to kick off a busy summer travel season. Any peace weve reached with the virus may be only a temporary, uneasy one. Credit:Bloomberg But remember how giddy we all were for a virus-free summer last year? It was in May 2021 that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised that Americans who had been vaccinated could take off their masks and forget about social distancing in most settings. Then, during a successful campaign to vaccinate millions of people, the White House began preparing a Fourth of July bash to declare a summer of freedom from the virus. You know how that turned out. The vaccination rate was too low, and just when we thought wed licked it, COVID wriggled free. First the Delta variant spread widely, then Omicron and its many subvariants. Masks were ordered back on. Boosters were soon recommended for people older than 12. And in the year since what was once billed hot vax summer, about 400,000 more Americans died from COVID-19. Its a tough world out there for some of the 46th parliaments biggest culture warriors. George Christensen, who resigned from the Liberal Party before the election and then failed to get re-elected for One Nation, is now shilling $99 annual subscriptions to his daily Substack newsletter. Change of jobs: George Christensen. Credit:John Shakespeare For my little girls sake I just cant do this job for free, the former MP told his loyal subscribers. Will it be enough to replace his $211,250 per year backbench salary? Well Gorgeous George is boasting on his newsletter about turning down a cushy three-year $350,000 per annum government job so he could keep on posting. I still want to fight for my daughters freedom and her future, just like I want to fight for your freedom and future, he wrote. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Alexei Ratmansky is clearly distracted. Sitting in the Australian Ballets Southbank studios during a break in rehearsals, the acclaimed choreographer has a lot on his mind. Not only is he in the process of conveying his vision of Harlequinade, the lost ballet created in 1900 and resurrected by him in 2018, but his thoughts are with family and fellow artists in Ukraine. Born in St Petersburg but raised in Kyiv, Ratmansky considers himself Ukrainian: his elderly parents are still in the country, his wife Tatiana is Ukrainian, and Ratmansky was a dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet from 1986 to 1992, rising to the role of principal. The Russian invasion bites deep. Its painful, its a very difficult experience. We communicate every day in hope that everything is going to be all right. So for me its a constant fear, he says quietly. His parents have since moved out of Kyiv to a safer place: but as he points out, nowhere has been safe since the Russians invaded in February. On the day the invasion began, Ratmansky was in Moscow choreographing a new ballet for the Bolshoi Ballet (where he was artistic director from 2004 to 2008) he left immediately to return to his adopted home of New York, where he is artist in residence for American Ballet Theater. He says he will not return to Russia until the invasion has ended and those responsible have been tried for war crimes. Its a catastrophe, what happened, in all aspects cultural, moral, economic, everything, he says. Its a collapse of whole idea. Brett Chynoweth as Harlequin in The Australian Ballets Harlequinade. Credit:Pierre Toussaint To say that Ratmansky is in demand as a choreographer is something of an understatement: the 53-year-old has been described by New York Times critic Alasdair Macaulay as the most gifted choreographer specialising in classical ballet today. He has made ballets for companies around the world, including the Royal Danish Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi and Mariinsky (formerly the Kirov) in Russia, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. As renowned dance writer Joan Acocella put it in a 2011 New Yorker profile of Ratmansky: No one who can afford to call him hasnt, it seems. Advertisement Australian audiences will remember his Cinderella, which was first staged here in 2013 a witty, colourful romp of a ballet that pushed the dancers to the limits of their capabilities. Now hes back, and again with something mercifully fun in mind: his production of Harlequinade, which he describes as an archaeology. What he means is that he wanted to revive a ballet that was originally choreographed 120 years ago by legendary ballet-maker Marius Petipa (who also choreographed some of the worlds most famous ballets, including Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty). So he had to do some digging. He set about exploring the original notation a written record of the steps the dancers are asked to perform and piecing together the ballet so that it is as close to Petipas 1900 version as possible. And so we unearth bits and pieces of this lost ballet and we put it together, he explains. His is a flying visit to instruct the local dancers in his version of the ballet, which he originally choreographed for American Ballet Theater. While Harlequinade has a love story as its foundation, it is primarily a comedy in the style of commedia dellarte, an improvised style of theatre popular in Italy in the 16th to 18th centuries. Ratmansky found the notation in archives held at Harvard University the fact that a 1900 ballet was notated at all was a miracle he says, and there was perhaps a second miracle that they have survived. TAKE 7: THE INSIDE STORY OF HARLEQUINADE Created in 1900, Harlequinade disappeared for years following the Russian Revolution. The local production will use 70 young dancers from ballet schools around Victoria, one of the largest casts of children in the traditional ballet repertoire. Harlequinade is based on the traditions of commedia dellarte, a witty, abrasive entertainment that burst out of Italy in the mid-1500s. The shows sets and costuming, which were created by Robert Perdziola, were inspired by the original designs held in the collection of a museum in St Petersburg. The ballets 175 costumes cost an average of $US5000 ($7000). The main source of the choreographic text of Harlequinade was a set of notations written out in the Stepanov system, made up of lines, dots, arrows, Xs and Os, across three staves, each corresponding to a different part of the body. After the Revolution the notations were spirited out of the country. In 2014, Alexei Ratmansky and his wife Tatiana taught themselves how to read this seemingly impenetrable code with the help of manuals created at the end of the 19th century. It might be tempting to think that in the 120 years since Harlequinade was originally choreographed, the technique of dancers, and the way ballet itself is performed, would have changed radically. In some ways, this is true, just as a host of other factors in ballet the flooring, dancers bodies and what we know about health and nutrition, staging, technology, even the design of pointe shoes means dancers can do a range of different steps today that might not have been possible or even thought of in Petipas day. Advertisement But I very much disagree with the idea that the technique of the dancers is so much better now, says Ratmansky. I think its just different. Harlequinade centres around the love between young couple Harlequin and Columbine, which looks as though it may be thwarted by Columbines rich father he considers Harlequin too poor to marry his daughter, so he has Columbine locked up by his faithful servant, Pierrot. However, with the help of Pierrots wife, who is sympathetic to the couple, and a good fairy who gives Harlequin a magical slap stick, the lovers are united. I feel more Ukrainian now than ever because Im proud of this country ... Nothing can be compared to what the Ukrainians are experiencing. Alexei Ratmansky Classical ballet more often deals in tragedy than comedy, and Ratmansky says this too, is a challenge: while there is a lot of mime to the audience, he does not want the dancers to slip over into hammy. You have to have a sense of timing and you have to somehow read the audiences reaction, he says. You shouldnt oversell it. Technically, too, it asks much of dancers: Its a challenging thing to do, there are a lot of hops on pointe, the speed of the steps is very different sometimes its quicker than were used to now, he explains. The transitions between the steps are different and there is also a lot of engagement with the audience again, something rare in classical ballet. With its bright colours and almost cartoonish sensibility, Harlequinade offers the audience an escape from their modern lives, Ratmansky says. And because the dancers use mime to communicate with the audience throughout the ballet, the mime is like a secret language that the audience learns as the ballet progresses. Ako Kondo as Columbine in Harlequinade. Credit:Pierre Toussaint Advertisement For me whats important about Harlequinade is that it creates a world on stage. The world is so different from whats going on now. The harmony in it, the good humour, the good heart of it, should soothe the pains of today for the audience. Ratmansky and Tatiana, who has family in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraines west, have been glad of the respite of coming to Melbourne to polish Harlequinade. On his all-black outfit, Ratmansky wears a small badge of the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag: the invasion, and the people in danger, are never far from his mind. I feel more Ukrainian now than ever because Im proud of this country, he says. Then he pauses for a second and adds: Its a big drama for me, but nothing can be compared to what the Ukrainians are experiencing. Its on another level completely. Loading He has been in touch with many Ukrainian dancers since the war began, even though most of his professional connections are now in Russia. In March he posted on Facebook the devastating news that Artyom Datsishin, a principal dancer with the National Opera House of Ukraine, had died in a Kyiv hospital from injuries he sustained under Russian artillery fire. He was a beautiful dancer loved by his colleagues, Ratmansky wrote. Unbearable pain. Now, Ratmansky says, he feels very much part of Ukraine and will do what he can to promote Ukrainian ballet. Ukraine has to win, but at what price? he asks. The fact the world is watching this invasion like a Netflix series, seeing people being killed every day, seems surreal to him. It tells me that the whole system is not working, something new has to come out of that. He has been somewhat heartened by the widespread support the Ukrainians have had from other countries, and I hope that this will be the beginning of the worlds reaction on aggression and unjustified wars. It is constantly occupying his mind. I was always thinking that were so lucky, our lives are luxury, he says. But here we go again. However, even amid the worry, anger and grief, Ratmansky still finds a place for optimism: I think after all this ends its going to be a renaissance of Ukraine, and Im very much looking forward to it. Advertisement It is clear from Chinas recent overtures to Australia that it regards the new government in Canberra as a chance to reset bilateral relations, which have fallen to their lowest ebb since Deng Xiaopings reforms started in the late 1970s. The new Labor government, too, may see advantage in a reset. Clearly, Australian businesses hope for an improvement in bilateral relations that will see our once-booming trade with China restored. And many people in the community, sensing the Morrison government had been too forward-leaning in labelling China as an adversary, would welcome a return to more hospitable relations. Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit: Indeed, the wisdom of Duttons breathless claims of impending war with China was never clear, either in relation to domestic appeal or international bravado aimed at ingratiating Australia with Washington. The recent turn of events Chinas reaching out to Australia, and its diplomatic forays in the Pacific are a challenge to the new Labor government to understand and reflect the reality of competing strategic interests with China, and to act with nuance to explore avenues for mutually beneficial co-operation and re-establish a firm basis for high-level dialogue. Loading Now Im just hanging out in my lounge room all dressed up nowhere to go and Im just tired of the fight. I dont know what to do anymore, I dont know how much I can fight to just do the basics like fly, deliver a speech and make money. Liddell said she had been inundated with messages from other travellers with similar experiences after sharing her ordeal on social media. She encouraged her supporters to complain to Qantas and Jetstar. In a statement, Jetstar said large lithium batteries were considered dangerous goods and, as such, required special clearance. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority defines dangerous goods as items or substances that pose a risk to health, safety, property, or the environment when transported by air. Rechargeable lithium batteries are considered a risk due to their volatility in high temperatures and flammable nature. The airline said Liddells booking had been made through a travel vendor and did not include the requirement to travel with a 25-kilogram lithium battery-powered wheelchair. We will reach out to our travel partners to ensure all requirements for customers travelling with a battery-powered wheelchair are clearly communicated on each booking to prevent situations like this from happening again in the future, the statement read. Jetstar said it had spoken to Liddell to apologise for the incident and had issued her with a full refund and a travel voucher. Liddells experience in Queensland comes just weeks after former disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes, who is blind, was told he and his guide dog could not pass through a body scanner at Adelaide Airport together. Innes, who is lodging a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over the incident, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald he had heard dozens of stories from people with disabilities who had terrible airport and airline experiences. Former disability commissioner Graeme Innes has complained to the Human Rights Commission over his treatment at an airport. Credit:Paul Harris This is typical of the way airlines treat people with disabilities, he said. They have thumbed their nose at the Disability Discrimination Act for 20 years. He said negotiations with airlines to improve the treatment of passengers with disabilities had fallen on deaf ears and the only way to ensure carriers followed appropriate procedures was to enshrine them into the law, like in the US. Jetstar is one of the worst offenders because they have a policy of only letting two people in wheelchairs travel on a plane at a time, he said. Loading If we said only two parents can travel with a pram on each flight, Australians would be outraged, but we tolerate this wheelchair apartheid. Innes said passengers with a disability were treated differently than able-bodied people and asked to follow separate rules to fly such as notifying airlines of battery-powered wheelchairs days in advance. This is not an isolated example, this is a regular occurrence, he said. Lorna McDonough-Brown, a retired 84-year-old from Newcastle, NSW, was made to wait for more than four hours at Melbourne Airport while Qantas verified her assistance dogs accreditation. After being diagnosed with bilateral vestibulopathy a condition that causes chronic unsteadiness McDonough-Brown sought full accreditation for her Pyrenean mountain dog, Aragorn. They had travelled together by air at least seven or eight times since 2018, but were stopped when trying to board their return Jetstar flight from Tullamarine Airport, with Qantas head office saying that proper documentation for Aragorn was missing. Although McDonough-Brown was eventually allowed to board the flight, she was disappointed by the lengthy delays and miscommunication across airlines. I just dont think this should happen, McDonough-Brown said. A walker wont take me where I need to go ... and Aragorn isnt about to explode on the plane. At my stage of life, to be sitting in the airport with that hanging over my head... Its disgraceful. McDonough-Brown will lodge an official complaint to Qantas, encouraging the company to streamline policies involving assistance dogs and other disability aids across airlines. In 2009, Jetstar apologised to Paralympian Kurt Fearnley after he criticised the airline for making him check his personal wheelchair in with his luggage. Fearnley said at the time he chose to crawl through Brisbane Airport rather than use an unsuitable chair offered by the airline. In 2018, Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott also complained he had been left on a plane without his wheelchair being brought to the gate and urged Australian airlines to sort their shit out. It is inhumane and unfair taking peoples independence away and not caring about it, he tweeted at the time. Travel delays latest: British Airways and EasyJet cancel more flights as aviation bosses slammed over holiday chaos British Airways has announced the cancelation of at least 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow on Wednesday as airlines struggle to cope with soaring half-term holiday demand. The airline says passengers were given advance notice. Meanwhile EasyJet has cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh. It comes after as a Cabinet minister slammed aviation bosses for the chaos at airports in Britain stressing they were warned months ago they needed to recruit more staff. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab accused airline chiefs of a lack of preparation for the upsurge in people who have booked foreign holidays. Tens of thousands of families have had flights cancelled or delayed in recent days and there are fears the problems will get worse in the summer months. Mr Raab told Sky News: There has clearly been a lack of preparation for that surge back of demand of holidaymakers. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has been talking to the industry for months now, saying that this would come and they need to make sure you have got your recruitment in place. I dont think the airline operators have done the recruitment that they should have done and taken the advice that the Transport Secretary gave them. Transport Secretary warns airlines that chaos cannot be repeated over summer holiday 19:42 , John Dunne The aviation industry must do their bit to resolve problems which have led to chaotic scenes at airports across the country, the Transport Secretary has told travel bosses. Grant Shapps said while he understands there have been resourcing strains on the aviation sector, that is no excuse for poor planning and overbooking flights. He described scenes at airports with lengthy queues and flight cancellations as heart-breaking as some holidaymakers had hoped to take their first trips abroad after the pandemic. More than 150 UK flights were cancelled on Wednesday the eve of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend. Story continues On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Shapps and aviation minister Robert Courts led what the Department for Transport described as a productive meeting with senior leaders from the aviation industry including airports, airlines and ground handling companies. Following the meeting, Mr Shapps warned that there cannot be a repeat of such disruption over the summer. He said: Were grateful to those airlines and operators who have continued to deliver good services despite the current pressures and we recognise that not all operators have been affected in the same way. I also understand the resourcing strains on the aviation sector but it does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service. The companies who have seen the most disruption need to learn from those who ran services smoothly. We will continue to monitor the situation closely to make sure consumers dont lose out from any further disruption. He said he and Mr Courts have made the changes needed to allow the sector to prepare for summer, but now we need industry to do their bit. He added: We have been crystal clear run services properly and according to schedule or provide swift, appropriate compensation. We do not want to see a repeat of this over the summer the first post-Covid summer season and will be meeting again in the coming weeks to understand the progress that is being made. Transport minister Shapps seeking answers from airline bosses as 150 UK flights cancelled 16:34 , John Dunne Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and minister Robert Courts were due to meet aviation leaders on this afternoon to discuss the problems as 150 UK flights were cancelled today alone. EasyJet cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh. British Airways axed 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow, but the airline says passengers were given advance notice. Mixed reports from Gatwick 15:51 , Josh Salisbury While many passengers travelling from Gatwick have reported significant delays, others seem to have had smoother experiences. One said on Twitter: Amongst all the negative I wanted to say thank you! Small wait at baggage drop on Monday, nothing out of the ordinary and security was smooth, flight landed as scheduled and Im tweeting from my sun lounger. Another said: I got to Gatwick 3 hours early. Queue for vueling check-in was 35mins. Queue for security was less than 5mins. A lot easier than I expected. A third added: Fair play - at Gatwick_Airport and checked in with the friendly TUIUK staff with no queues and no problems. 19 million drivers to hit roads over Jubilee holiday 15:51 , John Dunne An estimated 19 million drivers will hit the road at some point over the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, a new survey suggests. Some 53% of respondents to an AA poll of 13,062 motorists said they will drive at some point between Thursday and Sunday. They will face record fuel prices, with the average price of petrol reaching 174p per litre on Tuesday, while diesel climbed to 183p per litre. AA president Edmund King said: The Platinum Jubilee will not be just an extended bank holiday. The AA survey points to 57% of people in the UK celebrating the event in some way other than just watching it on the TV or choosing not to celebrate at all. In many ways, a family or local community-orientated celebration is perfect for marking the event. Away from the local street parties, some roads will be busy. The AA warns drivers to be prepared for some delays around supermarkets and other shopping centres. Heathrow Airport advise arriving at least three hours before flight 15:09 , Elly Blake If you're travelling soon, it's best to arrive at the airport three hours before both a European and long haul flight to allow sufficient time for the additional checks required to travel. For answers to our frequently asked questions, visit https://t.co/3zuJbipnXl pic.twitter.com/ae0lxL0Jqy Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) June 1, 2022 Union chiefs call for urgent talks with Sadiq Khan in bid to avert Tube strike 14:39 , Elly Blake Union leaders are calling for urgent talks with London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a bid to avert a 24-hour Tube strike. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union are set to walk out on Monday, threatening travel chaos immediately after the Jubilee weekend. The union is protesting over job cuts and a looming threat to pensions. Theres no point in our union continuing to sit opposite management representatives who have neither the inclination nor the authority to negotiate a settlement, when the power lies with the Mayor RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: We are demanding a direct face to face meeting with mayor Sadiq Khan to sort this mess out. Theres no point in our union continuing to sit opposite management representatives who have neither the inclination nor the authority to negotiate a settlement, when the power lies with the Mayor. The mayor of London has tax-raising powers. Just four banks made a profit of 34bn last year and are set to pay out over 4bn in bonuses to London traders. A windfall tax on those profits would more than adequately fund Londons transport network. Mayor Khan must choose either the take on the Tory government and demand a just funding deal for Londoners or attack loyal Tube workers who keep the capital moving day in day out. Passengers vent their frustration over Gatwick travel chaos 14:07 , Elly Blake Our reporter Esra Arahu is on the ground at Gatwick speaking to passengers about their experiences. A group of four has told the Standard they were left stranded overnight at Gatwick airport, after being forced to wait four to five hours at baggage reclaim for their luggage. The group, including a two-year-old child and a heavily pregnant woman, landed back in London late on Wednesday from Antalya in Turkey. They only managed to leave the airport by noon on Thursday and said the wait had been really hard on them. The wait was torture, especially with a baby and a pregnancy.The service was terrible, one of the group said. Meanwhile, another passenger, Joanna Sadec, 58, and her family arrived at the airport with hours to go before their 11:05 am flight. They waited to find they had received a notification telling them that their flight was cancelled Ms Sadec said: Nobody was helpful. We were given a number to call but there was nobody there. They then sent us to a gate to collect our luggage but there was nobody there. The service was really poor and only one person tried to help us. She said that she is now being forced to take another flight from Luton on Friday. Unite: Travel chaos is because thousands of jobs have been cut 13:15 , Elly Blake Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: The UKs airports are in crisis because thousands of jobs have been slashed and working conditions attacked. Our money was handed over to firms without any strings attached. Literally hundreds of millions went to the aviation sector during the pandemic, and instead of bringing stability those firms have brought us chaos. They did not protect jobs, many just used public money to prop up their share price or to pay for fire and rehire to hammer pay and conditions. That is why we are where we are. Its time for public money to have a hard-wire link to jobs. No more handouts without responsibilities. Taxpayers do not pay firms to sack their workers and cut their pay and conditions. Calls for Army to save Jubilee weekend from travel chaos 13:11 , Josh Salisbury The Liberal Democrats have called for the Army to be deployed to stop the chaotic scenes at airports up and down the country. Families' half-term getaways have been thrown into disarray and now they face the prospect of a long weekend spent sleeping in airports and sitting in traffic jams, the partys transport spokesperson Sarah Olney said. "We need drastic action now to tackle this travel carnage and break the logjam. "That's why drafting Britain's best and brightest logistics minds from the Army to get things moving again is a no-brainer. "Conservative ministers need to get a grip on this chaos at the 11th hour to save the jubilee weekend. Empowering the Army to run point from a command centre would do just that." Airlines UK: Industry didnt know when Covid restrictions would be removed 13:00 , Elly Blake Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said the aviation industry did not know when restrictions would be completely removed or how much flying would be possible this summer. It added that the vast majority of the many tens of thousands of UK-departing flights a week are operating as scheduled. All remaining coronavirus rules for people entering the UK were lifted on March 18. Labour accuses the Government of being missing in action' 12:45 , Elly Blake Labours shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused the Government of being missing in action. In a letter to Mr Shapps, she called for a series of measures such as accelerating security checks for new airport staff and working with the aviation sector to tackle chronic low pay. She said: Passengers and our world-class businesses are demanding action. Its time for the Government to take their fingers out of their ears and take practical steps. All remaining coronavirus rules for people entering the UK were lifted on March 18. Labour: Govt should move heaven and earth to stop transport chaos' 12:44 , Josh Salisbury Labours shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary Lisa Nandy said Wednesday any government worth its salt would be moving heaven and earth to stop the misery and the chaos unfolding at airports. She said: The Government was warned all the way through the pandemic that the loss of skilled staff was going to create problems. They need to show some leadership and take some ownership of this crisis - get around the table with management and with workers representatives in the travel industry in order to end the chaos. We need a proper post-Covid plan to get the industry back on its feet and get things moving again, including filling recruitment shortages that have emerged as a result of the pandemic. Speaking in Wakefield, Ms Nandy added: When things go wrong, its the Governments job to step up and try and fix it. Grant Shapps: Travel firms have oversold flights' 12:30 , Elly Blake The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines and airports repeatedly called for sector-specific financial support during the Covid-19 crisis as Government travel restrictions suppressed demand. They are now struggling to recruit new workers and have their security checks processed. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed travel firms have seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity to deliver. He went on: This must not happen again and all efforts should be directed at there being no repeat of this over the summer. Mr Shapps has demanded a meeting with airports, airlines and ground handlers to find out whats gone wrong and how they are planning to end the current run of cancellations and delays. Pictured: Departures at Gatwick South Terminal on Thursday 12:21 , Elly Blake Gatwick South Terminal (PA) Gatwic South Terminal (PA) Cirium data shows 377 flights cancelled from UK airports in last week 11:43 , Elly Blake Aviation data firm Cirium said 377 flights from UK airports were cancelled in the seven days up to and including Tuesday. Gatwick has been the most affected, with 151 cancellations, followed by Manchester (41), Heathrow (36), Bristol (27) and Edinburgh (19). Some 10,794 flights are scheduled to depart from UK airports between Thursday and Sunday. Airline passengers have been hit by disruption for several months, with the situation worsening this week due to the rise in demand sparked by the half-term school holiday and the four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend. Flight chaos continues on eve of Platinum Jubilee bank holiday 10:52 , Elly Blake Holidaymakers face more chaos on the eve of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend. More than 150 UK flights were cancelled on Wednesday and passengers who could travel were forced to wait in long queues at airports. EasyJet cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh. British Airways axed 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow, but the airline says passengers were given advance notice. Tui Airways is continuing to cancel six daily flights at Manchester Airport, which represents a quarter of its schedule. One easyJet passenger tweeted a photograph from Manchester Airport at 4am showing a long queue of people in a car park outside Terminal 1. He described the situation as carnage, adding: Took two hours 45 minutes to get through most of that was bag drop. Now on the aircraft, but due to shortage of ground crew, theres going to be another delay of approximately 50 minutes. Another easyJet passenger said they had to wait for two hours and 40 minutes to receive their luggage after landing at Gatwick Airport shortly before 3am. He said this was simply not good enough. Passenger travelling from Gatwick to Luton after flight oversold 10:41 , Elly Blake One passenger has told reporter Esra Arahu that he has been separated from his flights after his flight was oversold. William Lloyd, 29, was due to get the 7.40am flight to Murcia in Spain. However, he was told he had to book a new flight and now has no choice but to travel from Gatwick to Luton, and will now touch down much later than his friends. He told the Standard: With the exception of [an EasyJet employee], the customer service has been absolutely poor. Mr Lloyd added that he had been on the phone to customer service for half an hour, with no success. Some travel disruption continues at Gatwick Airport 10:27 , Elly Blake Holidaymakers are reporting queues in some parts of Gatwick Airport. However, others are praising the airport for their organisation and say the queues are not that long. One uploaded a picture of a long queue for a food outlet, while others reported flight cancellations and delays to pick up baggage. The queue for Pret at Gatwick. Like this everywhere. They could possibly do with a few more places (security fairly efficient mind) pic.twitter.com/SgobtDyY22 Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) June 1, 2022 However, some passengers said they had relatively easy journeys through check-in and security. One person wrote on Twitter: For what its worth, flying from #Gatwick at 0910 this morning, arrived at 0645 or so and got through North terminal (easyjet) security within 30 minutes. No sign of any issues yet today. Well see about my flight... Another posted: I made it from the @GatwickExpress and completely through security at @Gatwick_Airport South Terminal yesterday in literally 10 min flat. Record timing and it was very busy! TfL announces changes to some Tube stations over Platinum Jubilee weekend 10:14 , Elly Blake Transport for London (TfL) has announced planned changes to station access for the Queens Jubilee events on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 June for the following stations: Charing Cross: closed from 15:00 on Saturday. Westminster: interchange only from 10:00 on Sunday. St Jamess Park: closed from 15:00 on Saturday and from 13:00 on Sunday. Hyde Park Corner: exit only from 16:00 until 21:00 on Saturday, closed from 21:00 on Saturday and exit only from 14:00 until 16:00 on Sunday, closed from 16:00 on Sunday. However, TfL has said that most of its services will be running, with no planned closures in central London. They are warning customers to be please be aware that at times, we may need to use some short-term safety measures, such as queuing or changes to the way you enter or exit a station. Please follow the advice from station or event staff and follow signage. Queues at Stansted Airport 10:05 , Elly Blake Pictures on social media show large queues at Stansted Airport as wait to clear through security. Stansted Airport currently. Total chaos. If youre flying today def get here 3 hours early. pic.twitter.com/2GBOyH4ggQ Chas (@chasdoesnot) June 1, 2022 Stansted airport security anyone.. pic.twitter.com/tBdsRIKQP0 Zak Shayler (@z_shayler) June 1, 2022 One passenger, flying from Stansted said there was total chaos and recommended people arrive three hours early for their flight. Another said that despite long queues to get to the front, security checks itself took 22 minutes. A third person wrote: OK, well, the dreaded queues at Stansted are there... but theyre not as bad as they say. I didnt have to wait for three hours, basically. Might be busier later. Raab says the Government wants to help airlines deal with recruitment issues 08:49 , Elly Blake Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said he does not know if aviation bosses are looking to access tax records that would help them to recruit staff more quickly. He told Sky News: I dont know the details of that. But I do know that weve made some changes on the regulatory front because we know that theres a demand for recruitment and we want to help the airline industry deal with that. Holidaymaker flying from Manchester says delays simply not good enough 08:43 , Elly Blake One easyJet passenger tweeted a photograph shortly after 4am from Manchester Airport showing a long queue of people in a car park outside Terminal 1. He described the situation as carnage, adding: Took two hours 45 minutes to get through most of that was bag drop. Now on the aircraft, but due to shortage of ground crew, theres going to be another delay of approximately 50 minutes. Another easyJet passenger said they had to wait for two hours and 40 minutes to receive their luggage after landing at Gatwick Airport shortly before 3am. He said this was simply not good enough. Travel disruption may partly be down to airlines overbooking - Raab 08:32 , Elly Blake Chaos at airports may be partly down to airlines overbooking the number of passenger on planes, a Cabinet minister said on Wednesday. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab also accused aviation bosses of not properly responding to warnings given months ago that they needed to recruit more staff. He told BBC Breakfast: We provided 8 billion to the sector during the pandemic. There are regulatory changes that we made to make it easier to recruit. But at the same time the sector has got to respond to that pent-up demand that is coming back. The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has been talking for months with the sector about making sure that they have got the recruitment in place to deal with the resurgent demand for travel. He added: We will work with the sector but its ultimately up to the aviation and the holiday sector to make sure that they have got the staff in place. If there are smart things we can do with the recruitment, then of course we want to work together with them. We want to facilitate those holidays. But ultimately, its up to those businesses to respond to their demand and frankly the advice has been there for months now from the Transport Secretary to deal with those recruitment issues. So fundamentally, the responsibility is on them to get their capacity in place to deal with their customers and consumers. There has been some questions about whether they have overbooked. We often find this with aviation, with airline bookings, they overbook and that is part of the economic model. They have got to address those issues. If there are smart and sensible and pragmatic things that the Government can do to support them, of course we will do it. But fundamentally this is for those businesses to step up and plan and deliver the things that we have been saying would come through as confidence in travel returns. BA cancels more than 120 short-haul flights at Heathrow 08:18 , Elly Blake British Airways has cancelled at least 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow on Wednesday. The airline says passengers were given advance notice. EasyJet has cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh. A BA spokesperson said: Its been a challenging period for the entire industry and at British Airways were completely focused on three priorities: our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience. We took action to reduce our schedule to help provide certainty for our customers and are giving them maximum flexibility to either rebook with us or another airline as close to their original departure time as possible, or to receive a full refund. British Airways facing disruption over pay dispute 07:47 , Elly Blake British Airways (BA) check-in staff at Heathrow airport will be balloted for strike action next month in a dispute over pay. Unite union said on Monday it would ballot 500 staff at the UKs busiest airport. A vote in favour would result in disruption at the height of the summer peak. Unite said BA management had refused to reverse a 10 per cent pay cut imposed during the pandemic, and that its members were rightly furious and ready to take action. A strike by our members will make an immediate impact on the service to customers, so I urge BA to get a grip and restore these workers pay immediately, said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. Dominic Raab: Theres a bit of finger pointing going on 07:29 , Elly Blake Justice secretary Dominic Raab has said there has "clearly been a lack of preparation" for the surge in demand of people wanting to travel. He told Sky News that the transport secretary Grant Shapps had been "talking to the industry for months now, saying this will come". "There's a bit of finger pointing going on at the moment," he said. Mr Raab added that airline operators had not done the recruitment they should have done, ahead of the summer season. However, he added the surge in demand was a sign of post-pandemic recovery, adding: "It's good news holidaymakers have the confidence to be taking these trips". Getting around London this Platinum Jubilee weekend 07:04 , Elly Blake TfL have confirmed all of their Tube and rail services will running as usual over the bank holiday weekend but some lines may be closed to cope with the huge numbers of people expected in the capital for major events including the BBC concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday night. Plans in place already mean Charing Cross and St Jamess Park station will be closed after 3pm on the day while Hyde Park station will be exit only after 4pm and is planned to close after 9pm. St Jamess Park station, which is just a short walk from the palace, will close from 1pm on Sunday while Westminster will be closed from 10am through travellers can still change between the Circle, District and Jubilee lines. Revellers taking advantage of the special late licensing hours can use the Night Tube on the Central, Jubilee and Victoria lines on Friday and Saturday and the cancellation of planned strike action on the Friday means Green Park and Euston will be open though further industrial action may take place on Monday after the end of the four-day weekend. TfL expects its buses to run as usual but Arriva is advising customers to check their routes while FirstGroup is running a Sunday service on Thursday and Friday. It also warned that interchange at Bond Street, Kings Cross St Pancras and Green Park stations will be much busier than usual and particularly on Saturday night. Services in general will be busier on Satu and Sunday night though TfL are advising people to avoid driving in central London with many streets packed with partygoers and official events. Some cycle routes are also likely to be closed or diverted so cyclists are warned it check their routes before setting off. Londoners should check their journeys before travelling this weekend - TfL 06:54 , Elly Blake Londoners have been warned to check their journeys before they travel. Huge crowds are expected to descend on the capital for the four day Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations. There will be road closures and some stations will close as well in a bid to manage the large numbers of people travelling through the city Julie Dixon, TfLs Interim Customer and Revenue Director, said: There will be lots to see and do in the capital over this historic weekend and we expect the celebrations will be popular. To help people make the most of everything thats happening, were planning to run a normal service with no planned works or closures, including services all weekend on the newly opened Elizabeth line. Services will be particularly busy on Saturday night and during the daytime on Sunday. Public transport, walking and cycling will be the best ways of getting around and wed encourage people to check their journeys before they travel in case of any disruption, either on our website or by using the TfL Go app. Grant Shapps demands meeting with aviation bosses 06:53 , Elly Blake Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has demanded a meeting with aviation bosses to find out whats gone wrong as travel chaos worsens across the country. In a statement on Tuesday evening, Mr Shapps said the Government had done its part, adding that airlines and ground handlers need to ensure there is no more disruption. Mr Shapps referred to the 8 billion given to the aviation industry during the pandemic as well as legislation he introduced last month which allows new aviation recruits to begin training before passing security checks. He said: Its been very distressing to see passengers facing yet more disruption at airports having well-earned holidays cancelled and plans left in disarray. Weve been clear that industry leaders need to tackle the issues we saw at Easter head-on. Passengers queuing at airports (PA Wire) Although some steps have been taken, we are still not seeing the progress we need to. He said the Government will be meeting with airports, airlines and ground handlers again to find out whats gone wrong and how they are planning to end the current run of cancellations and delays. He added that operators seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity to deliver despite Government warnings. Government has done its part, he said. It is now on airports, airlines and ground handlers to make sure everyones well-deserved holidays can go ahead free from the major disruption weve seen in recent days. Good morning 06:51 , Elly Blake We will be bringing you all the latest on travel across London and the UK as travel chaos is expected to contine today. It comes as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has demanded a meeting with aviation bosses to find out whats gone wrong as travel chaos worsens across the country. Airlines continued to axe flights on Tuesday with passengers forced to wait for hours at airports including Manchester, Heathrow, Gatwick and Bristol. Heathrow passengers trying to board their flights claimed they had never seen queues as long as those on Tuesday morning. Passengers have been hit by disruption for several months, with the situation worsening this week due to the rise in demand sparked by the half-term school holiday and the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday period. The Canadian Press NEW YORK (AP) The two Democrats challenging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's bid to keep her job criticized her Tuesday for her past backing from the National Rifle Association and the deal she reached to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer money on a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Hochul, appearing in her first debate Tuesday night, defended the stadium deal and said her positions on guns had evolved in the 10 years since she got a favorable rating from the NRA while running for reelection Press Release June 2, 2022 Senate body OKs report recommending that socmed platforms be held accountable for disinformation AS THE 18th Congress draws to a close, a Senate committee has approved a report recommending that social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Tiktok be held accountable for the spread of disinformation. Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, drafted the report contained in approved Senate Resolution 953 on social media disinformation. "To discourage inaction by the social media platforms, malice should be presumed on the part of the publisher (i.e., social media platform) if the libelous comment is made by a fake or fictitious person and such platform fails to take down the libelous content within a reasonable time," the report recommended. The report noted that legislation needs to be broad enough to capture these techniques that the disinformation producers use to elude accountability. It also wants government offices to ensure that their employees are not engaging in or spreading disinformation and hate speech outside of their official functions. Chaired by Pangilinan, the committee held four hearings on the rise of social media platforms and the rapid advancement of technology, where journalists, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa, academicians doing research on networks of disinformation, representatives of advertising and public relations agencies, a retired Supreme Court justice, and other government officials presented their positions. The report, approved on the last session day of the 18th Congress on June 1, also wants to amend the law on libel making the use of fake accounts/fake names in making libelous comments as per se proof of malice. "Social media platforms should be held accountable," it said. It also seeks the revision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 to enable it to deal with the exponential rise of the use of social media platforms on disinformation activities. "The Comelec should play an active role in combating disinformation during elections given that a representative democracy is not possible with rampant disinformation," it added. The other recommendations in the draft committee report are the following: 1. Refile the SIM card registration bill. Persons spreading hate speech and disinformation hide behind fake accounts and fake names. The SIM card registration bill may help in determining the identities of these disinformation and hate speech peddlers. Penalties should be imposed on telcos that violate the said law; 2. File a bill that will compel social media platforms to require users to prove their identities before they can proceed with the social media platforms' service. Peddlers of disinformation and hate speech usually hide behind fake names and fake accounts; 3. File a bill requiring influencers or social media personalities with large following to disclose to their followers whether they received material or monetary considerations with advertisers, politicians, and personalities. The bill should be patterned after the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosure rules where the FTC requires influencers to disclose whenever they have any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand, including receiving free or discounted products and other perks; 4. Require government offices to have policies governing their employees' "sideline" digital media work while handling their respective official social media accounts. Government offices that maintain official social media accounts, such as the PCOO, should have a policy regulating their employees digital work outside of their official functions; 5. Campaign finance regulations should bring in transparency and accountability. People hiring digital campaigners should be compelled to disclose what campaigns they have commissioned, how much, and who are the people involved. Also, campaigns now take on very different formats, such as influencers posting or hashtags that are made to trend; 6. Pass the following legislative measures: a. Impose administrative sanctions against government officials or employees who use government resources to wage disinformation campaigns against the public it is supposed to serve; b. Strengthen the capacity of the educational bureaucracy to produce high-quality textbooks; c. A memory law patterned after that of Germany, that penalizes the denial of agreed-upon historical truths, subject to the right to freedom of expression and with assurance of independent judicial intervention; d. Strengthen the capacity of the government's own massive media and information infrastructure to report the news independent of government influence; e. Hold social media platforms accountable and treat them as information utilities; f. Strengthen the capacity of the public to become critical and discriminating users of content by reviewing and improving the Department of Education's current Media and Information Literacy or MIL program for high school students; g. Prohibit creators of harmful content to monetize their content; 7. Promote a "whole of society" approach that will require a lot of monitoring, civil society support, and support for independent audits. Ensure the participation of all stakeholders, especially the social media platforms, advertisers, media, and public relations agencies; 8. Social media platforms should be more transparent in relation to microtargeting. These platforms should also provide the necessary tools for advertisers to better monitor and have more control over their ad placements. This is in response to the advertisers and media agencies which said that it is "practically impossible" for them to monitor their ads that were inadvertently placed in content of disinformation; 9. Social media platforms should be made responsible for its algorithms, which in some instances, create a cycle of feeding harmful, inflammatory, or untrue content to its users. They should be compelled to release the details of their algorithms and core functions to trusted independent researchers to determine if such algorithms artificially amplify false and manipulative information on a wide scale; 10. Social media platforms should allow advertisers to do a detailed audit on where (i.e., specific page, channel, or video) their ads appear; 11. Social media platforms should extend their direct reporting system for requests for takedown to civil society organizations as well. Reporting should be more open to the public; 12. Social media platforms should have policies requiring collaboration with civil society groups, advertisers, media agencies, and government; 13. The academe and civil society groups should be allowed to help in the direct reporting of takedown requests which is currently only available to law enforcement agencies. 14. Government and/or social media platforms should consider accrediting independent civil society groups, nongovernmental organizations, or members of the academe to review content and identify which channels are purveyors of disinformation; 15. Academe and civil society groups should collaborate with regional and global institutions to have a wider perspective in combatting disinformation; 16. Advertisers and its creatives and media agencies should be in constant dialogue with social media platforms to ensure clean and credible content and improve algorithms for the proper placement of advertisements; 17. The 4As, MSAP, ASC, PANA, IMMAP, and other similar associations should update their self-regulatory standards, including their respective Code of Ethics, to encourage transparency and accountability in digital marketing; 18. The KBP should expand the coverage of its self- regulatory standards to cover the social media accounts and podcasts of its anchors; 19. Government should provide more support or social safety nets to digital workers; 20. Government should fund more research on networked disinformation; 21. Government should identify the role of government officials in disinformation efforts (based on its fact-checking efforts, most online disinformation are from government officials); 22. Government should focus on strengthening enforcement actions and compelling compliance of internet service providers with their obligations under the Cybercrime law; and 23. Schools should have a multi-platform information literacy and critical thinking in the basic education curriculum, similar to Finland's model. As part of the offering, China's chemical giant, the Yahua Group, plans to make a strategic investment of C$5 million in units Ultra Lithium Inc. (TSX-V:ULI, OTCQB:ULTXF) has announced that due to strong investor demand it has amended its previously announced C$7,003,000 non-brokered private placement to include flow-through units. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based exploration company with a focus on the acquisition and development of lithium, gold, and copper assets, said the net proceeds from the sale of units will be used to fund the exploration of the companys properties in Argentina, Canada and Nevada and for general working capital purposes. The company said it will raise C$7,003,000 from the sale of units of the company at a price of C$0.235 per unit, and flow-through units of the company (FT units) at a price of C$0.25 per FT unit for gross proceeds of up to C$2 million. READ: Ultra Lithium reports encouraging progress at its Laguna Verde lithium brine project in Argentina Each unit will be made up of one common share and one half of one common share purchase warrant. Each FT unit will consist of one common share to be issued as a flow-through share and one half of one warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to buy one non-flow-through share at a price of C$0.30 for a period of 12 months after the closing date of the offering. Red Cloud Securities Inc is acting as a finder in connection with a portion of the offering, said the company, and finders fees will be paid in line with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. As part of the offering, China's Yahua Group plans to make a strategic investment of C$5 million in units. Founded in 1952, Yahua is one of the earliest chemical companies established after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. The Chinese public limited giant currently focuses on the lithium and civil explosive industry. Ultra Lithium noted that the offering is subject to getting all the standard regulatory approvals. The unit shares, warrant shares and any common shares that are issuable from any finders warrants will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day. Ultra Lithium holds a brine lithium property in Argentina, hard rock spodumene type lithium properties in northwestern Ontario, and a brine lithium property in the Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. The company also holds other gold and base metals properties in Argentina. Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive Rep. Ron Kind returned last week from a bipartisan Congressional Delegation visit to Belgium, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The delegation, led by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., participated in discussions and meetings with senior government officials and local leaders and focused on affirming shared values with partners, highlighting the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and strengthening transatlantic trade relationships. It was an honor to join my colleagues on this bipartisan, trade-focused Congressional Delegation visit, said Kind. The United States shares a special relationship with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Ireland. We remain committed to these friendships, and it was great to get the opportunity to reaffirm and strengthen these vital bonds. During the first leg of their trip, the delegation was welcomed to Brussels, where they were hosted by the European Commission and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The leaders discussed economic sanctions against Russia and a shared commitment to holding Putin accountable for his unprovoked war on Ukraine, ongoing work to improve trade relations with the European Union and joint efforts to counter the harmful practices of non-market economies. The lawmakers next traveled to London, where they met with Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer, as well as other members of Parliament, to discuss how they will continue to support the people of Ukraine and underscored their commitment to the Good Friday Agreement in bilateral meetings with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Trade Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Meetings were held with President Michael D. Higgins, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney in Dublin to further partnerships and demonstrate commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. Meetings were also held with leaders in Belfast from the Alliance Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Ulster Unionist Party. Members of the delegation were: Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), Committee on Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Committee on Ways and Means Congressman Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Committee on Ways and Means Congressman Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on the Budget Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Committee on Ways and Means Congressman Mike Kelly (R-Penn.), Committee on Ways and Means Congressman Mike Doyle (D-Penn.), Committee on Energy and Commerce Congressman David Joyce (R-Ohio), Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Ethics Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.), Committee on the Judiciary, Committee on Rules Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Today Clouds and a spotty leftover shower around sunrise, then becoming partly sunny. Tonight Becoming cloudy with some rain and a thunderstorm late; some heavy downpours possible around sunrise. Tomorrow Some leftover rain early, some heavy, and maybe a thunderstorm, then drier with some sun later in the day with some brisk winds. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Mostly cloudy with a few showers with a rumble of thunder possible.. Tonight Mostly cloudy with a few showers with a rumble of thunder possible. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. When one is looking for new books and especially new authors, they will often visit the library and with good reason. According to Columbus Public Library Customer Service Manager Kelli Keyes, that's what libraries are for. "That's what a library does is get their name out there, help them out," Keyes said. To fulfill that purpose, Columbus Public Library will host 19 Midwestern authors, mostly from Nebraska, at an author fair at United Methodist Church on June 4. This is the most authors they have ever had for this event, Keyes said. The event will feature a keynote speaker and allow all the authors 10 minutes to read an excerpt from their books, should they so choose. "I kind of focus on one author each year, so it's different," Keyes said. To find the participating authors, Keyes has a roster of past attendees who she contacts and asks to invite their author friends. The keynote speaker, Tasha Hackett of Stromberg, wrote "Bluebird on the Prairie," a Western romance with touches of comedy and an underlying theme of hope from grief. "Well, the idea is she finds her hope again, speaking about how I found hope after grief and idea that everyone has experienced grief in some way, some level," Hackett said. Hackett said she and her husband had originally planned, years ago, to write a zombie apocalypse Western romance, but shortly after she started writing, she realized she wasn't able to write about zombies because she thought they were gross and she didn't know much about them, so she changed direction. "As I started, my idea was then 'how can I encourage women, give them hope, show them hope?' I realized I couldnt write this story," Hackett said. Hackett's main character, a young widow, lives with her brother and tends to his toddler, giving her some purpose following the death of her husband. A mysterious stranger rolls into town on his way to California and shows her what hope is. "Everyone has experienced grief, so how do you find happiness without just building up all these walls?" Hackett said. "I think we naturally try to do that, 'Im not gonna try to be happy again because it will hurt when it's taken away.'" Hackett said she's not her main character but that she understands her and her emotions, having gone through loss and grief herself. "She's a widow, I have not lost a husband. I did miscarry a baby, so that's my connection with something that I really love was taken away and dealing with that," Hackett said. Hackett is currently developing her next book, still waiting on some editing. After her experience writing the first book, she has worked out a system that involves waking up at 4 a.m. to write. "Im a mom with four kids so this was like having a second job, rationalizing that in my mind," Hackett said. "Why am I doing this, I don't have to do this, nobody's paying me to do this." The other authors range in genre from devotional to motivational to mystery thriller, religious fiction, historical fiction, children's books and everything in between. Samantha Kooyman from Feed Your Sweet Tooth will also have treats available at the fair. "She'll be there with her treats to help with the reading. It'll be a lot of fun," Keyes said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Allentown, PA (18103) Today Sun then clouds; breezy with a few showers and a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening; no severe weather expected. . Tonight Mostly cloudy with a few showers or a rumble of thunder. In the more than two years since COVID-19 arrived in Pennsylvania, the science behind the disease has grown exponentially in treatment and vaccine development. It also means that advice on how to deal with the disease is not as straightforward. Statistics about current COVID-19 community levels, methods of prevention and recommendations on quarantine and isolation are all based on a layer of factors and metrics that can be used to individualize the information, but can also confuse those seeking a single answer. Currently the U.S. Centers for Disease Control labels COVID-19 Community Levels to be relatively low in the Midstate, but with medium to high levels across much of the northern part of the state. That community level standard in the default map on the CDCs website incorporates multiple pieces of information, such as hospitalizations, deaths, cases, vaccinations and community transmission. That CDC map currently shows 52 counties in the state in the medium or high level for COVID case counts as of May 26 (up from 40 counties on May 19, 21 counties on May 12 and 11 counties on May 5). Cumberland County remains in the low level of spread category. CDC updates its community data every Thursday afternoon. Pennsylvania now has 29 counties in the state in the high category and 23 counties (including Adams and York counties) in the medium category. If someone looked at community transmission of COVID-19 alone similar to how the CDC used to map the disease then all but three counties in Pennsylvania would be deemed as high, including Cumberland County. Dr. Catharine Paules, infectious disease specialist at Penn State Health, said the CDC information now looks more at risk statistics, but she can confirm that COVID transmission is high in the Midstate, even if hospitalizations are only starting to tick upward. Its a nuanced way of looking at risk levels, she said. We dont know what the next few weeks will bring ... but for an individual risk, I know that a lot of COVID is out there. Its that individualization that will impact medical recommendations for how the public should handle prevention. Paules sees a lot of oncology patients who are at high-risk of a severe infection for the disease, and for those patients, she recommends being up to date on vaccinations and wearing a mask. She said she recommends N95 or KN95 masks for the immunocompromised and high-risk patients, but well-fitted surgical masks would help with prevention for the general public. That decision to mask up is something she urges for both people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and those who want to protect themselves from the disease, even if they are vaccinated and boosted. Even though Im at low risk for getting it, my 80-year-old grandmother I like spending time with is at risk, she said. And even if I am at low risk, I really dont want to get it and be out of work for five days, or couldnt help my patients or become at risk for long-COVID. Previous reports have indicated that many who have long COVID, or COVID-19 symptoms that persist for months, are those who only had mild cases initially of the disease. Like the prevention recommendations, the CDCs quarantine and isolation recommendations are also individualized. The CDC has an online calculator that determines quarantine and isolation days depending on levels of exposure and vaccination status. According to the CDC, those who were exposed and are not up-to-date on vaccinations should quarantine for five days and wear a well-fitted mask until day 10, while those who are exposed but are vaccinated dont have to quarantine, though mask-wearing is recommended through 10 days after exposure. Those who test positive and show symptoms are told to isolate for five days, but wear a mask for another five days after that isolation ends. Paules said she believes most people are still contagious through 10 days, which is why the mask recommendation is longer than the quarantine or isolation period. Paules said those who are vaccinated and boosted should have good protection against the disease, at least in terms of contracting a severe infection, but come the fall, she recommends people keep an eye on their vaccination status. The further away we get from immunity or if they had COVID and were getting further away from the infection, Im very concerned about complacency following us into the fall, she said. For now, Paules said masking, vaccinations and avoiding large groups will be key in avoiding a COVID-19 infection, but options are available in the Midstate for those who dont. Paules said the Pfizer drug Paxlovid is a pill that can be taken outpatient at the onset of symptoms to help prevent severe infections, and those who test positive can also have their primary care doctor contact Penn State Health for outpatient infusions of Remdesivir or monoclonal antibodies, which should also help prevent hospitalization or death if taken right away. There are all these therapeutics available to patients even outside of hospitals that I dont think people know we have, she said. Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A tractor-trailer driver was killed in a crash on Interstate 81 early Wednesday morning in East Pennsboro Township, according to State Police at Harrisburg. Police said Daniel Coughlin, 53, of Columbus, Ohio, was driving a tractor-trailer south on I-81 near mile marker 64.5 at 4:27 a.m. Wednesday when he failed to make the left curve in the highway. The tractor-trailer exited the north side of the road, entered the right shoulder and struck the rear end trailer of a tractor-trailer that was illegally parked along the right shoulder of the highway. Coughlins tractor-trailer then continued into the grassy roadside, struck a light pole and overturned onto its passenger side. Coughlin was wearing a seat belt, but was transported to UPMC West Shore and pronounced dead at the hospital. The driver of the other tractor-trailer, Mihail Maistrenko, 70, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was not injured, but his trailer was towed from the scene. Police are still investigating the incident. Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason. 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. LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne. Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color a military parade that has marked each sovereigns official birthday since 1760. It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody has got the same mission, said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. All the horrors thats been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen. Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britains longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the milestone of seven decades on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II watches from the balcony of Buckingham Place after the Trooping the Color ceremony in London, Thursday, June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP) Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving church service Friday after experiencing some discomfort at events on Thursday. The palace said with great reluctance the monarch has decided to skip the service at St. Pauls Cathedral. The queen has had trouble moving around in recent months, and has pulled out of many public events. But Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II symbolically leads the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Thursday June 2, 2022, on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Over 1500 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories will come together to light a beacon to mark the Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarchas 70 years of service. (Steve Parsons/Pool via AP) The Jubilee celebrations go on for a long weekend, and it was not immediately known how the news would affect Jubilee events on Saturday and Sunday. The palace says the queen greatly enjoyed" Thursday's events and it showed. She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70. The Queen's guards march during the Trooping the Color parade at Horse Guards, London, Thursday, June 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress designed by Angela Kelly, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals though not Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who gave up front-line royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from their home in California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursdays Trooping the Color with other members of the family. They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also, handily, excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew will also miss Friday's service of thanksgiving after testing positive for COVID-19. Britain's Prince Charles, left, with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis her grandson, covering his ears with his hands, next to his mother Kate Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte her daughter, at right, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers drawn from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. Many people have taken advantage of the long weekend to go on vacation. And 12 protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. Yet the jubilee is giving many people even those indifferent to the monarchy a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and the huge changes that have taken place during Elizabeths reign. From left: The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Tim Lawrence, Princess Anne, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor and Prince Edward gather on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, as they watch a flypast of Royal Air Force aircraft pass over. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP) Former Prime Minister John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers during the queens reign, said the monarchs stoic presence had helped steer the country over the decades. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years, he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. This country does like a good party. Royal fans sing the national anthem as they gather along the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions, Elizabeth said. I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron called Elizabeth the golden thread that binds our two countries and former President Barack Obama recalled the queens grace and generosity during his first visit to the palace. Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world, Obama told the BBC May the light of your crown continue to reign supreme. A handful of workers walk down the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince Williams wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away, for the Trooping the Color ceremony. The annual tradition is a ceremonial reenactment of the way battle flags, or colors, were once displayed for soldiers to make sure they would recognize a crucial rallying point if they became disoriented in combat. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role during the event Thursday as he stood in for his mother as he has more and more of late. Royal fans take a selfie as they stand alongside the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday June 2, 2022, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The events over a long holiday weekend in the U.K. are meant to celebrate the monarch's 70 years of service. (AP Photo/David Cliff) Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son Prince William. Tens of thousands of locals and tourists lined the route between palace and parade ground to take in the spectacle and the atmosphere. I was right at the front ... Im very proud of the queen, said Celia Lourd, 60. "Shes been my queen all my life and I think we owe her an awful lot for the service shes given to the country. So I wanted to come to show my support today and say thank you. ___ Follow AP's coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (AP) The front lawn of Lydia Larces home is strewn with debris: Remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower marble lie between dumpsters. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles more than a year after Hurricane Laura tore through Lake Charles. Lydia Larce stands in front of construction containers outside her home in Lake Charles, La., on Thursday, March 31, 2022. More than a year after Hurricane Laura wreaked havoc on area, Larce is living in a FEMA trailer behind her home. She fears that emissions from the oil and gas industry including the growing number of liquid natural gas export facilities along the Gulf Coast will worsen global warming. "Our politicians in D.C., they're not taking it seriously," she says. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (AP) The front lawn of Lydia Larces home is strewn with debris: Remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower marble lie between dumpsters. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles more than a year after Hurricane Laura tore through Lake Charles. Larce, like many in Southwest Louisiana, has what she calls storm PTSD. Tornado warnings trigger anxiety. She fidgets and struggles to sleep. "The fear and the unknown it has me on an edge, Larce said. Im scared. A string of devastating hurricanes has torn through this region in recent years. Nationally, too, there have been more Category 4 and 5 hurricane landfalls in the past five years than in the previous 50 years combined. Larce and her neighbors know they are on the front lines of climate change. Her region is now the epicenter of a trend that she fears will make those disasters even more destructive. Developers plan to build a series of liquefied natural gas export facilities across Southwest Louisiana, already the heart of the industry. Even in a state with a heavy industrial base, these facilities are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Louisiana. Theyre an absolute powerhouse for greenhouse gas emissions, said Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy. Thats because these export facilities tend to burn off, or flare, natural gas. Greenhouse gases are raising global temperatures and fueling extreme weather, from wildfires to violent storms like the ones that have pummeled Larces hometown. We all are living in chaos," Larce said. For a while, it looked as though an era of steadily expanding fossil fuel facilities might be ending. Last year, after taking office, President Joseph Biden announced his intention to fight climate change by eliminating fossil fuels from electricity generation by 2035 and by sharply reducing emissions from the rest of the economy. Yet since Biden became president, the U.S. has become the worlds largest exporter of liquefied natural gas as demand for the fuel, known as LNG, has escalated. Eric Tarver talks with employees on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at the Toyota dealership his family owns in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Tarver, who's also a school board member for Calcasieu Parish, is one of many residents who support the expansion of the liquified natural gas, or LNG, industry in the Lake Charles area. Though Louisiana offers a property tax break of 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals there, Tarver says the tax benefits are still huge for the schools and other government agencies. He also says resulting jobs have been a "shot in the arm." To opponents of the LNG expansion on the Gulf Coast, he says, "The global demand for LNG is going to be there whether the U.S. serves it or not." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Russias invasion of Ukraine suddenly intensified the push. It heightened demand for natural gas, especially for countries in Europe that relied on Russian energy but now need to cut those ties. Seizing the opportunity, the natural gas industry promoted U.S.-produced LNG as a way to fill the gaps, and prices for the fuel have skyrocketed. American terminals are now exporting gas at full capacity, which is why the expansion of the terminals has accelerated. It is along the Gulf Coast, in a line from Louisiana to Texas, where the new and proposed export terminals are clustered. Talk to some locals and government officials and you'll hear unqualified support for the facilities in this battered region. Its a significant boon to our economy, because it provides good, high-paying jobs, said Eric Tarver, a member of the Calcasieu Parish School Board and chief financial officer of Lake Charles Toyota. More than that, its a tremendous amount of tax revenue that just dwarfs what weve had from any other industry. But some long-time residents often the ones who've lost the most to the storms dispute those claims, saying that few of those coveted jobs end up going to people who grew up in the region. REGION IN DISTRESS Scattered across the neighborhoods of Lake Charles, blue tarps cover dozens of dilapidated roofs. Bungalows, pockmarked by gaping holes, are marred by broken siding and boarded-up windows evidence of the damage inflicted by Hurricanes Laura and Delta more than a year ago. Yet with few other options, some residents are living here under the tarps. I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb, said Roishetta Ozane, a single mother of six and an organizer for Healthy Gulf. An outspoken critic of the expansion of LNG facilities, Ozane warns her neighbors that the emissions worsen global warming and violent storms and impair their community's air quality. She has raised money, organized food drives and helped neighbors navigate government agencies to obtain relief after disasters hit. Now is the time to get peoples attention, to open their eyes that climate change is real, Ozane said. Theyre going to continue to bring these facilities here. Weve already had these major hurricanes here. Where are we going to live? As she drives around a predominantly Black area of Lake Charles, past shuttered businesses and crumbling homes, Ozane's phone buzzes with requests for help. Are you living in a FEMA trailer? she asks one caller. Text me what you need. Eric Tarver stands on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in the service area of the Toyota dealership his family owns in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Tarver, who's also a school board member for Calcasieu Parish, is one of many residents who support the expansion of the liquified natural gas, or LNG, industry in the Lake Charles area. Though Louisiana offers a property tax break of 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals there, Tarver says the tax benefits are still huge for the schools and other government agencies. He also says resulting jobs have been a "shot in the arm." To opponents of the LNG expansion on the Gulf Coast, he says, "The global demand for LNG is going to be there whether the U.S. serves it or not." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) There are other helpers here. Cindy Robertson is one of them. In her front yard bursting with daisies and ferns, she refills a pantry box that she stocks each morning to help feed homeless neighbors. By mid-afternoon, its nearly empty. Her neighborhood has endured seven federally declared disasters in two years, and she's grown increasingly concerned, even though her family worked in coal mining. Robertson, 62, runs a nonprofit to help vulnerable people recover. From her house, with its seascape paintings and tapestries, she provides water, sleeping bags and tents. With a succession of LNG terminals opening around her, she worries that her region hasn't yet seen the worst. The more we have more pollution from greenhouse gases," she fears, the worse our storms are going to get. A few miles away, Cameron LNG began exporting LNG in 2019. Further south, Venture Global Calcasieu Pass is shipping its first loads. Still another LNG company, Driftwood, recently broke ground to build an export facility. Thats on top of more than a dozen oil, gas and chemical processing plants surrounding her community. Robertson would much prefer increased investment in renewable energy, in line with Biden's stated priorities when he took office. Instead of focusing on LNG, expanding what they already have... we need to take all that brainpower and all that money and put it into expanding our renewable resources, Robertson said. EXPORTS SURGING The use of wind, solar and other renewable energy has grown as prices of solar components and wind turbines have plunged. But so has the worlds thirst for natural gas. In February, the U.S. exported 317 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas six times times the amount five years earlier. Investment in LNG terminals catapulted from nothing in 2011, before the U.S. export industry existed, to $63 billion over the next decade, according to Rystad Energy. The firm projects that investment could swell an additional $100 billion over the next two decades. That's despite warnings from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure alone would cause global warming to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) a level that scientists say would bring dangerous consequences. Roishetta Ozane drives through Lake Charles, La., on Thursday, March 31, 2022. As she drove, Ozane, clean energy organizer for an organization called Healthy Gulf, pointed out the many homes and businesses that have been damaged or lost during hurricanes in recent years. She is helping lead the fight against the expansion of export facilities for liquified natural gas, or LNG, in the Lake Charles area. She fears emissions from those facilities and others is making climate change and resulting hurricanes worse. "I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb," Ozane said. "We have to put people before policy." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine Of the eight terminals now exporting LNG, five lie on the coast of Louisiana and Texas. At least 16 more plus four expansions are proposed or under construction, nearly all along that same stretch of Gulf coastline. The projects are backed by Exxon Mobil, Qatar Energy, Total Energies and numerous other global energy giants. Financing for several proposed plants comes from BlackRock, Vanguard and Mitsubishi, according to Global Energy Monitor. At Cameron LNG in Hackberry, Louisiana, storage tanks loom over the wetlands next to rows of intersecting pipes. There, gas is treated to remove impurities. Then it's cooled to a liquid at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to flow onto ships. In a narrow channel, a huge French vessel called LNG Endeavor, escorted by tug boats, heads for the facility, dwarfing the homes it passes. Were delivering a cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuel, said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, the industry's lobbying group. The U.S. can use that to help defuse some of the geopolitical issues around the world by delivering a reliable fuel source. Initially, Biden's administration held off on approving requests that would expand the LNG industry. But after the war in Ukraine began, the Energy Department allowed some facilities to upgrade, increasing how much they could produce. The U.S. is exporting every molecule of liquefied natural gas that we can to alleviate supply issues in Europe, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March, urging the oil and gas industry to ramp up production. Asked whether boosting fossil fuel exports contradicts Biden's climate goals, Granholm told The Associated Press we have got to do both." She said she believes the United States can help its allies, reduce the cost of fuel and transition to more sustainable options. Since the war increased the need for alternatives to Russian gas, some European LNG import projects that had stalled are being revived, said Emily McClain, a vice president at Rystad. Its really showing were not quite ready to table gas and move to cleaner or greener energies, McClain said. Riedl said he would like the administration to do even more, by approving any of the proposed LNG export terminals. Louisiana offers a property tax break of up to 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals. Even with those tax breaks, the increased property tax income provides a windfall for the area, said Tarver, the school board member. With Driftwood LNG beginning construction of a facility, the expected jobs are a shot in the arm after a devastating series of disasters, Tarver said. That the world is looking to the Gulf Coast as an energy supplier is, he said, a source of pride. John Allaire watches flames flare from a liquefied natural gas export facility next to his oceanside property in Cameron, La., on Friday, April 1, 2022. Allaire, a retired environmental engineer in the oil and gas industry, is upset about emissions and noise and light pollution from a flare that has been burning frequently since the Venture Global LNG opened at Calcasieu Pass in recent months. "That big orange glow it's all night and all day," he says. Allaire is fighting a second export facility, proposed by Commonwealth LNG, that would be even closer to his property. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Thats a very powerful thing to us locally, just because were big Pro-America, proud American people here," Tarver said. Others, like Ozane, argue that the tax breaks give away too much. We have a big homelessness problem," Ozane said. "Our schools look horrible. If LNG is doing so much for the state, why is it like that? CLEANER THAN COAL? Down the road from Cameron LNG, a new export terminal has opened about a mile from John Allaires beachfront home. His property, where he's lived in an RV for 17 years since Hurricane Rita washed away his bunk house, is a refuge for spawning shrimp and diving sea birds. When his children were young, Allaire brought them fishing and hunting there. At sunrise, the dark sky begins to crack into shades of orange and gray. A bright orb on the horizon looks like the rising sun. Its not. Its a flare from Venture Globals Calcasieu Pass LNG, the latest export terminal to open. The flare, a mixture of flames and smoke that pours out when the facility burns natural gas, had been burning non-stop for a week, Allaire said. Thats pure profit and pollution going up the stack, he said. Allaire, 66, a retired environmental engineer for an oil company, doesn't oppose oil and gas use. His property sits on a former oilfield. But he fears the destruction of the wetlands he loves: The soft waving cordgrass where black rails hide, the pelicans diving down over the lapping water to catch fish. Commonwealth LNG has proposed another export terminal, sandwiched between Allaire's yard and the LNG terminal that just opened. It would cover about half the ponds that are packed with blue crabs and mud minnows. Im glad theres still places like this left I really dont want to see it paved over, Allaire said. The wetlands he loves play a beneficial role for climate, too. They absorb carbon dioxide. And they provide a buffer from storm surges. Together, the four LNG export terminals on the Gulf Coast emitted nearly 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 comparable to all of Costa Rica, according to the Global Carbon Project. The LNG plants are tied to climate change in another way, too. Along the whole pathway to export, from the wells where companies drill to the ships getting loaded with LNG, methane the powerful greenhouse gas that's the primary ingredient of natural gas can escape. And it does, from leaky wells, pipelines, compressors and storage tanks. In the Permian Basin, one of the world's richest oil and gas fields, well heads and pipelines are leaking far more methane than previously thought, according to a study that concluded that 9% of the gas produced in New Mexico's side of the basin is leaking. That's a shocking leakage estimate, Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University and chairman of the Global Carbon Project, an international research group, said about natural gas. At that that rate, he said, the leaking methane alone is warming the climate more than the carbon dioxide that would be released if all the produced natural gas were burned. Natural gas proponents say it's better for the climate than burning coal, because it releases fewer emissions when burned. But gas isnt substituting for coal in most places, Jackson noted. Instead, as energy demand grows globally, natural gas is being used in addition to coal and other sources. According to projections by the Energy Information Administration, natural gas use will drive an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. from 2037 to 2050 as the nations population and its reliance on gas grow. The Free Press | Newsletter Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. To show it's trying to limit its environmental impact, Cameron LNG reduced its emissions by 10% from 2020 to 2021. It's also built 500 acres of tidal marsh, using material it digs up when dredging the canal. But residents who are enduring the trauma of relentless storms know any facility that adds emissions to the atmosphere magnifies the likelihood of destruction in vulnerable communities. In building more LNG export terminals," Jackson said, were locking in emissions for decades to come. ______ Associated Press journalists Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report. Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (AP) The front lawn of Lydia Larces home is strewn with debris: remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles after hurricanes tore through Lake Charles. Lydia Larce stands in front of construction containers outside her home in Lake Charles, La., on Thursday, March 31, 2022. More than a year after Hurricane Laura wreaked havoc on area, Larce is living in a FEMA trailer behind her home. She fears that emissions from the oil and gas industry including the growing number of liquid natural gas export facilities along the Gulf Coast will worsen global warming. "Our politicians in D.C., they're not taking it seriously," she says. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (AP) The front lawn of Lydia Larces home is strewn with debris: remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles after hurricanes tore through Lake Charles. Larce, like many in Southwest Louisiana, has what she calls storm PTSD. Tornado warnings trigger anxiety. She struggles to sleep. "The fear and the unknown it has me on an edge, Larce said. A string of devastating hurricanes tore through this region in recent years. Nationally, too, there have been more Category 4 and 5 hurricane landfalls in the past five years than in the previous 50 combined. Larce and her neighbors know they are on the front lines of climate change. Her region is now the epicenter of a trend that she fears will make those disasters worse. Developers plan to build a series of liquefied natural gas export facilities nearby. Theyre an absolute powerhouse for greenhouse gas emissions, said Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy. Eric Tarver talks with employees on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at the Toyota dealership his family owns in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Tarver, who's also a school board member for Calcasieu Parish, is one of many residents who support the expansion of the liquified natural gas, or LNG, industry in the Lake Charles area. Though Louisiana offers a property tax break of 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals there, Tarver says the tax benefits are still huge for the schools and other government agencies. He also says resulting jobs have been a "shot in the arm." To opponents of the LNG expansion on the Gulf Coast, he says, "The global demand for LNG is going to be there whether the U.S. serves it or not." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Greenhouse gases are raising global temperatures and fueling extreme weather, including storms like those that pummeled Larces hometown. For awhile, it seemed as though an era of expanding fossil fuel facilities might be ending. Last year, President Joseph Biden announced his intention to fight climate change by sharply reducing emissions. Yet since Biden became president, the U.S. has become the worlds largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as demand for the fuel escalated. Russias invasion of Ukraine intensified the push, heightening demand for natural gas, especially for European countries reliant on Russian energy. The natural gas industry promoted U.S.-produced LNG as a way to fill the gaps. American terminals are exporting gas at full capacity, so expansion of the terminals accelerated. The new and proposed export terminals are clustered along the Gulf Coast, where some locals are supportive. Its a significant boon to our economy, because it provides good, high-paying jobs, said Eric Tarver, a member of the Calcasieu Parish School Board. More than that, its a tremendous amount of tax revenue that just dwarfs what weve had from any other industry. But other locals say few of those coveted jobs go to long-time residents. Eric Tarver stands on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in the service area of the Toyota dealership his family owns in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Tarver, who's also a school board member for Calcasieu Parish, is one of many residents who support the expansion of the liquified natural gas, or LNG, industry in the Lake Charles area. Though Louisiana offers a property tax break of 10 years to companies that build LNG terminals there, Tarver says the tax benefits are still huge for the schools and other government agencies. He also says resulting jobs have been a "shot in the arm." To opponents of the LNG expansion on the Gulf Coast, he says, "The global demand for LNG is going to be there whether the U.S. serves it or not." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) REGION IN DISTRESS Scattered across Lake Charles, blue tarps cover dozens of dilapidated roofs, evidence of the damage inflicted by hurricanes. I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb, said Roishetta Ozane, an organizer for Healthy Gulf. A critic of the expansion of LNG facilities, Ozane warns neighbors that the emissions worsen global warming and violent storms. Now is the time to get peoples attention, to open their eyes that climate change is real, Ozane said. Nearby, Cindy Robertson refills a pantry box in her front yard to help feed homeless neighbors. Her region has endured seven federally declared disasters in two years. With a succession of LNG terminals opening around her, she fears her region hasn't yet seen the worst. Roishetta Ozane drives through Lake Charles, La., on Thursday, March 31, 2022. As she drove, Ozane, clean energy organizer for an organization called Healthy Gulf, pointed out the many homes and businesses that have been damaged or lost during hurricanes in recent years. She is helping lead the fight against the expansion of export facilities for liquified natural gas, or LNG, in the Lake Charles area. She fears emissions from those facilities and others is making climate change and resulting hurricanes worse. "I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb," Ozane said. "We have to put people before policy." (AP Photo/Martha Irvine Instead of focusing on LNG... we need to take all that brainpower and all that money and put it into expanding our renewable resources, Robertson said. EXPORTS SURGING The use of wind and solar energy has grown as prices for such renewables have plunged. But so has the worlds thirst for natural gas. In February, the U.S. exported six times times the LNG it did five years earlier. Investors poured $63 billion into building American LNG terminals over the past decade, and could spend $100 billion more over the next two decades, according to Rystad Energy. That's despite warnings from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure would cause global warming to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) a level scientists say would bring dangerous consequences. Of the eight terminals now exporting LNG, five are in Louisiana and Texas. At least 16 more are proposed, nearly all in those states. The projects are backed by Exxon Mobil, Qatar Energy, Total Energies and other global energy giants. John Allaire watches flames flare from a liquefied natural gas export facility next to his oceanside property in Cameron, La., on Friday, April 1, 2022. Allaire, a retired environmental engineer in the oil and gas industry, is upset about emissions and noise and light pollution from a flare that has been burning frequently since the Venture Global LNG opened at Calcasieu Pass in recent months. "That big orange glow it's all night and all day," he says. Allaire is fighting a second export facility, proposed by Commonwealth LNG, that would be even closer to his property. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Were delivering a cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuel, said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, the industry's lobbying group. The U.S. can use that to help defuse some of the geopolitical issues around the world by delivering a reliable fuel source. Initially, Biden's administration didn't approve requests to expand the LNG industry. But after the war in Ukraine began, it allowed some facilities to upgrade, increasing how much they could produce, and encouraged the oil and gas industry to boost production. Asked whether encouraging fossil fuel exports contradicts Biden's climate goals, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told The Associated Press, We have got to do both," adding the U.S. can help allies, reduce fuel cost and transition to cleaner energy. CLEANER THAN COAL? At sunrise on the Gulf Coast, the dark sky cracks into shades of orange and gray. A bright orb on the horizon looks like the rising sun. Its not. Its a flare from Calcasieu Pass LNG, a new terminal which opened about a mile from John Allaires beachfront property. A retired environmental engineer for an oil company, Allaire doesn't oppose oil and gas use. But he fears a proposed terminal which would cover about half the ponds here packed with mud minnows and spawning shrimp. Im glad theres still places like this left I really dont want to see it paved over, Allaire said. Together, the four LNG export terminals on the Gulf Coast emitted nearly 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 comparable to all of Costa Rica, according to the Global Carbon Project. The LNG exports are also tied to climate change because methane, the main ingredient of LNG, is a powerful greenhouse gas. And methane escapes in large quantities from leaky wells and pipelines. The Free Press | Newsletter Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Natural gas proponents say it's better for the climate than burning coal, because it releases fewer emissions when burned. But in most places globally, gas isnt substituting for coal; it's adding to coal and other energy sources, said Rob Jackson, a professor at Stanford University. According to the Energy Information Administration, natural gas use will drive an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. from 2037 to 2050. In building more LNG export terminals," Jackson said, were locking in emissions for decades to come. ______ Associated Press journalists Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report. Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. AVON LAKE, Ohio (AP) Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. FILE - In this April 25, 2021 file photo, the blue oval logo of Ford Motor Company is displayed on a sign over a row of vehicles at a dealership in east Denver. Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models, the company announced, Thursday, June 2, 2022. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) AVON LAKE, Ohio (AP) Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. The company says it will invest $3.7 billion in the three states between now and 2026. It also will convert about 3,000 temporary workers to full-time status with pay raises and benefits. A factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, near Cleveland, will be expanded so it can build an unidentified new electric commercial vehicle, with 1,800 new jobs. Ninety more jobs will be added in Lima and Sharonville, Ohio. FILE - This Oct. 24, 2021 file photo shows a Ford company logo on a sign at a Ford dealership in southeast Denver. Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models, the company announced, Thursday, June 2, 2022. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) A plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, that makes big electric and combustion-engine Transit vans will get a third shift of 1,100 workers to handle increased demand. In Michigan, Ford Motor Co. plans to add 2,000 jobs at three assembly plants, and another 1,200 at other facilities. A factory in the Detroit suburb of Wayne that now builds the Ranger midsize pickup will see investment and jobs to make a new Ranger. A plant in Flat Rock south of Detroit will make a new version of the Mustang muscle car. And Ford's Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn will see investment and jobs so it can build more F-150 Lightning electric pickups to meet unexpectedly high demand. The company also will add 600 jobs at a new parts packaging facility in Monroe, Michigan, and another 600 at several Michigan component plants. It's part of Ford's plan to be able to make 2 million electric vehicles per year globally by 2026. Ford Motor Co. plant manager Jason Moore raises his arms during a news conference, Thursday, June 2, 2022, in Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford announced it will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. (AP Photo/David Richard) Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the company's division that makes internal combustion vehicles, said the EV investments are needed in part because Ford underestimated demand for EVs. As soon as Ford opened reservations for the electric F-150, it began planning to expand the Dearborn plant that makes them, he said. The reservations were so much higher than the (production) capacity that we had put in, Galhotra said. This is the first time in my career that we were expanding the plant before the plant was built. Ford stopped taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning at 200,000, and it's now converting reservations to orders. About two-thirds of those contacted so far are converting, but the company said it didn't have an exact number. In addition, the Mustang Mach-E SUV and E-Transit vans are sold out for the year, Galhotra said. Like other automakers, Ford finds itself adding workers to build both internal combustion and electric vehicles as the industry makes a transition to battery power, said Kristin Dziczek, a policy adviser with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who follows the industry. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine speaks during a press conference, Thursday, June 2, 2022, in Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford announced it will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. (AP Photo/David Richard) Although studies show that automakers will need fewer workers to build electric vehicles because there are fewer moving parts, it doesn't necessarily mean big layoffs down the road, Dziczek said. Automakers are producing many of their own EV parts such as axles and electric motors in North America to avoid pandemic-related supply chain disruptions overseas, creating new jobs. Plus there will be worker retirements over the next decade during the transition, Dziczek said. There are so many moving pieces," she said. "It's hard to say what the employment level needs to be. Automakers have been converting temporary workers to full-time status with higher pay to attract entry-level workers during the recent labor shortage, Dziczek said. Ford wouldn't give details of the commercial EV to be built at the Ohio Assembly Plant by mid-decade. The factory has been on the edge of closure for much of its life but has managed to survive. Galhotra says it now has a bright future. JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef speaks during a press conference, Thursday, June 2, 2022, in Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford announced it will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. (AP Photo/David Richard) News of the expansion couldn't come any sooner for Cody Newsome, a skilled trades apprentice on layoff at the factory, which now makes large vans and trucks. He's hoping the company will bring him back to work as it builds more space and adds workers. This is really huge for us because this is a long-term investment, said Newsome, 28, a third-generation Ford worker. This is not a small little project. So job security, huge. We've been waiting for this day for a long time, said Jason Williams, a union bargaining representative at the plant. Were trying to secure the future for our kids, our families, families of the community. Ohio is offering about $200 million in incentives to Ford, while Michigan is contributing about $150 million. Although there will be a small capital investment in Missouri, there are no incentives for this project. Ford said it already has begun switching the temporary workers to full-time, and it's starting to hire the new workers. The announcement came a year ahead of when contract talks start with the United Auto Workers union. New product and job announcements normally are part of the negotiations. The Free Press | Newsletter Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Ford's decision to build three battery plants and one new assembly plant in Kentucky and Tennessee last year raised questions about the company's manufacturing commitment to its home state and region. Michigan politicians worked hard to lure General Motors EV assembly and battery plants in January after losing the Ford plants to the Southern states. It's likely that Ford will build a fourth North American battery factory in the Great Lakes region in a joint venture with SK Innovation of Korea, but Galhotra said he's not ready to make an announcement yet. At the pace Ford is moving with EVs, more production will be needed, Galhotra said, pointing to the Michigan site where the electric F-150 is being built and the commercial EV to be built in Ohio. We'll have more announcements to come, he said. ____ Krisher reported from Detroit. A Newburg man was killed Wednesday in a police-involved shooting in Virginia before local officials discovered a woman they believe he murdered in Franklin County. State Police at Chambersburg said Derrick Glen Avey, 42, was killed in a shooting Wednesday in Prince George County, south of Richmond in Virginia. Before Pennsylvania State Police learned of that Virginia incident, State Police at Chambersburg said they were called to the 8900 block of McClays Mill Road in Lurgan Township, Franklin County, at 6:04 p.m. Wednesday to assist another law enforcement agency with an investigation. Police said a woman at the residence had not been seen or heard from in several days, and police began a search of the property where they discovered a womans body in a wooded area behind the property. The woman was identified as Kyline C. Avey, 41, of Newburg, and police said she suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Police said Kyline is Derrick Aveys wife. State Police initiated a homicide investigation with the Franklin County Coroners Office and Franklin County District Attorneys Office, but they learned that their suspect, Derrick Avey, was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Prince George County, Virginia, prior to the Kylines body being discovered. The Richmond Times Dispatch, which is owned by The Sentinels parent company Lee Enterprises, reported that a man, whom Pennsylvania and Virginia State Police confirmed was Derrick Avey, was shot and killed after he confronted officers with a firearm during a slow-speed pursuit that started at 12:28 p.m. Wednesday near Hopewell, Virginia. The newspaper reported that Hopewell city officers and a federal agent positioned their vehicles to block Aveys vehicle, when he pulled up nose-to-nose with the police vehicles and confronted them with a firearm. The newspaper reported that Derrick Avey had died at the scene after multiple officers discharged their firearms. Virginia State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting. No law enforcement personnel were injured, according to Virginia State Police. An autopsy for Kyline Avey is scheduled for Friday. Police said the investigation in Franklin County is ongoing and there is no threat to the public. Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason. 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. MONTREAL - The new chief executive of Canadian National Railway Co. did not apologize on behalf of her company for the absence of francophones on its board of directors. CN Rail locomotives are moved on tracks past cargo containers sitting on idle train cars at port in Vancouver, on Friday, February 21, 2020. The new chief executive of Canadian National Railway Co. has refused to apologize on behalf of her company for the absence of francophones on its board of directors. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck MONTREAL - The new chief executive of Canadian National Railway Co. did not apologize on behalf of her company for the absence of francophones on its board of directors. Tracy Robinson told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that she is committed to appointing a French-speaking director from Quebec very soon. The Free Press | Newsletter Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Speaking partly in French, a language she has been learning since joining the railway three months ago, Robinson told the standing committee on official languages that the Montreal-based rail company has identified a large number of qualified candidates. She said CN is "leading by example," noting that two-thirds of senior executives and 90 per cent of executives working in Quebec speak French. Canada's largest railway was plunged into a linguistic storm when the Montreal-based company failed to replace Quebec premier Jean Charest, who resigned to run for the federal Conservative party leadership, with another francophone. Robinson is the second CEO from a company subject to the Official Languages Act to appear before the committee in recent months. Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau was put on the spot following an outcry over a speech he delivered mostly in English in Montreal last fall. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2022. Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR) GAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) Americans may soon get a new COVID-19 vaccine option -- shots made with a more tried-and-true technology than todays versions. The big question: Why should they care? Novovax COVID-19 vaccine's incubate in flasks at the company research laboratory in Gaithersburg, Md., on May 24, 2022. The company is hoping to find a niche among some of the unvaccinated millions who might agree to their more traditional protein vaccine as a shot. (AP Photo/Angie Wang) GAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) Americans may soon get a new COVID-19 vaccine option -- shots made with a more tried-and-true technology than todays versions. The big question: Why should they care? After long delays, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide within weeks whether to authorize Novavax's vaccine. Its late in the pandemic for a new choice, with about three-quarters of U.S. adults already vaccinated. But the company is hoping to find a niche among some of the unvaccinated millions who might agree to a more traditional kind of shot -- a protein vaccine and also to become a top choice for boosters, regardless of which type people got first. Only about half of vaccinated adults have gotten a booster. The Novavax vaccine already is used in parts of Europe and multiple other countries, but FDA clearance is a key hurdle. And health experts are closely watching to see if a new tool offers advantages, either in enticing vaccine holdouts or maybe even offering somewhat broader immunity. What Ive seen of the Novavax data so far is its a really impressive protein vaccine, said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry. WHATS DIFFERENT? The Novavax vaccine trains the body to fight the coronavirus by delivering copies of its outer coating, the spike protein. Those spike copies are grown in insect cells, purified and packaged into nanoparticles that to the immune system resemble a virus, said Novavax research chief Dr. Gregory Glenn. Then an immune-boosting ingredient, or adjuvant, that's made from the bark of a South American tree is added that acts as a red flag to ensure those particles look suspicious enough to spark a strong response. Its basically a soap bubble. Its made of stuff that you find in root beer, Glenn said. When an immune cell sees that, it becomes quite activated. ... We supercharge the immune response. Protein vaccines have been used for years to prevent hepatitis B, shingles and other diseases. Its a very different approach than the Pfizer and Moderna shots. Those so-called mRNA vaccines have saved countless lives and changed the course of the pandemic but still, some people are uncomfortable with the new technology that delivers genetic instructions for the body to make its own spike copies. A third U.S. option, from Johnson & Johnson, isn't as widely used. WHY SO LATE? Manufacturing problems held up the vaccine globally, but Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said those problems have been resolved and are well behind us. The company said more than 40 million doses had been distributed by March to countries in Asia, Europe and elsewhere. Novavax, a small biotech company, created the vaccine in its research lab, but the Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker and other factories produce the shots. Erck said the Serum Institute recently passed an FDA inspection, clearing the way for the agency to finish evaluating the vaccine. HOW WELL DO THE SHOTS WORK? Earlier in the pandemic, large studies in the U.S., Mexico and Britain found two doses of the Novavax vaccine were safe and about 90% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. When the delta variant emerged last summer, Novavax reported a booster dose revved up virus-fighting antibodies that could tackle that mutant. Now an even more contagious branch of the coronavirus family tree is dominant, the omicron mutant and its relatives. While none of the worlds COVID-19 vaccines have proved as strong against omicron, Glenn said lab tests show Novavax shots do trigger cross-protective antibodies. Like other vaccine makers, Novavax is brewing shots updated to better target omicron. It opened a study in Australia to test how well an omicron-targeted booster revs up immunity in people who initially got Pfizer or Moderna doses. The Free Press | Newsletter Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. And in flasks full of insect cells in the companys Maryland-based research lab, scientists are designing spike proteins to match even newer omicron siblings, in case theyre needed. WHAT'S NEXT? On June 7, the FDAs scientific advisers will publicly evaluate evidence backing the Novavax vaccine for adults -- and almost certainly will debate when and how it might be used as a booster. If the FDA authorizes the vaccine, the next step would be recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use it. European regulators are considering expanding Novavax shots to teenagers based on a U.S. study of those as young as 12 during last summer's delta wave. The company plans further tests in younger children soon. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. TORONTO - Ontario's right to disconnect policy comes into effect today. Here's what you need to know: A couple are silhouetted against the smoke filled sky as they both look on their smart phones in Britannia Beach, B.C., Friday, October 2, 2020. Ontario's right to disconnect policy comes into effect today.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward TORONTO - Ontario's right to disconnect policy comes into effect today. Here's what you need to know: What happened? Late last year, the province enacted Bill 27: Working for Workers Act, 2021, that requires employers with 25 or more people on staff as of Jan. 1, 2022 to have a policy as of Thursday that outlines how they will ensure workers are able to disconnect from the workplace after hours. What does it mean to disconnect from work? The Act defines disconnecting from work as "not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or sending or reviewing other messages, to be free from the performance of work." What does this policy mean for employers and employees? Employers must provide staff with a written copy of the policy. The policy applies to all employees, including management and executives. Other details: Starting in 2023, employers with 25 workers or more will need to have a written policy on disconnecting from work in place before March 1 of that year. The Free Press | Newsletter Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. For employers with multiple locations, all workers across locations must be included in the count. How did we get here? Inspired by a 2016 law giving workers in France the right to turn off electronic work devices outside of business hours, Canada's federal government started reviewing labour standards and mulling whether to give workers the right to ignore work-related messages when at home in 2018. A committee convened last October was expected to analyze the issue and provide then-labour minister Filomena Tassi with recommendations in the spring. But the province opted not to wait for federal regulations. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2022. OTTAWA - Ukrainians who have fled to Canada due to the Russian invasion of their home country will begin receiving financial support from the federal government in the next five days, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Thursday. Ukrainian nationals arrive at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, Sunday, May 29, 2022. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says Ukrainians who have fled to Canada from the war with Russia will start to receive income assistance from the federal government in the next five days.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes OTTAWA - Ukrainians who have fled to Canada due to the Russian invasion of their home country will begin receiving financial support from the federal government in the next five days, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Thursday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in early April that Ottawa planned to offer money to newly arrived Ukrainians to help them settle in Canada. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has criticized the government for not acting on those promises sooner, as thousands of Ukrainians some without a previously arranged place to stay or much money have already arrived in the country. The one-time payment of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child will be available to Ukrainians and their family members who arrived under an emergency program that allows them to live, work and study in Canada for up to three years. The government approved 120,668 applications under the emergency program as of May 25 and more than 35,000 Ukrainians arrived in Canada between Jan. 1 and May 22. Applications for the financial assistance opened Thursday and payments are expected to be deposited directly in newcomers' bank accounts within five days of applying. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "This one-time financial assistance will be crucial in addressing the immediate challenges faced by Ukrainians who have left so much behind to find a safe haven in Canada," Fraser said in a statement Thursday. The applications opened just in time for the last of three federal government charter flights from Poland to arrive in Canada, carrying hundreds of Ukrainians who had fled the conflict at home. Ukrainians who arrived on those flights were offered temporary hotel accommodations for up to 14 days if they did not have somewhere suitable to go once they landed in Canada. In a statement, the minister's office said the Immigration Department is looking to extend that offer to all Ukrainians who arrive under the emergency program in key cities across Canada. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2022. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the federal government had provided three charter flights from Ukraine. Manitobas Crown attorneys office is facing new questions about how it prosecutes police, weeks after a judge acknowledged key prosecutorial decisions forced him to acquit a veteran Winnipeg officer. Manitobas Crown attorneys office is facing new questions about how it prosecutes police, weeks after a judge acknowledged key prosecutorial decisions forced him to acquit a veteran Winnipeg officer. Speaking for the first time since the May 9 acquittal, Jamie Cote, who accused patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy of assaulting him, told the Free Press he feels let down by the Crowns handling of the case and treatment of him. "I dont feel like the Crown attorney was really on my side. He said he believed me completely, but then told the judge not to believe me that the police were telling the truth and I wasnt," Cote, 36, wrote in a statement provided by his lawyer, Karl Gowenlock. "It makes me feel like the case was set up to fail from the beginning. I dont know how anyone could have faith in that system." It makes me feel like the case was set up to fail from the beginning. I dont know how anyone could have faith in that system. Jamie Cote Gowenlock said the Crowns case risks undermining public trust in prosecutions of police officers. Cote said he has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder since the March 28, 2017, incident. "I am required to take medication daily now to suppress the regular migraines and headaches I get frequently due to the head trauma I received that night," he wrote. "The concussion really affected my ability to do physical labour for a long time and I almost lost my landscaping business. That night changed my entire life." The Manitoba Prosecution Service is considering appealing Cassidys acquittal, a spokesman for the province said. Cote is proceeding with a lawsuit against Cassidy and the City of Winnipeg, after filing a statement of claim in March 2019. Cassidy and the city, which declined to comment, have not filed statements of defence. The civil case was paused pending the outcome of the criminal trial. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Last month, provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner found Patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy not guilty of assault causing bodily harm. "Hopefully, this process will be able to provide Mr. Cote due compensation for the financial, physical, and psychological damage that was inflicted upon him, as well as some degree of justice and accountability for those responsible," Gowenlock wrote in an email. Last month, provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner found Cassidy not guilty of assault causing bodily harm. He said the Crowns decisions gave him reasonable doubt as to the officers guilt. In the wake of the trial, Gowenlock wants Manitoba Justice to return to using independent special prosecutors in all cases involving police officers. "Only they can prosecute the case without conflict and, just as importantly, the appearance of conflict," he wrote. "The solution is very clear, but it would cost Manitoba Justice more money. Personally and professionally, I feel thats a small price to pay to maintain public faith in the justice system." The province tends to use a Crown attorney from a different region in Manitoba who has no "previous association" with an accused officer or witness officers. "Personally and professionally, I feel thats a small price to pay to maintain public faith in the justice system. Karl Gowenlock Brett Rach, a Crown who normally works in Brandon, was the prosecutor in Cassidys case. A spokesman for the province said the Manitoba Prosecution Service "carefully" reviews each case and considers whether independent counsel is required. "Manitoba Crown attorneys take their role seriously and a fair and just prosecution is always the goal, but it is understandable that someone may be disappointed in the outcome of a case if it does not go their way," the spokesman wrote in an email. Brandon Trask, an assistant professor of law at the University of Manitoba, said the use of a private lawyer or a prosecutor from a different province is "worth considering" given public perception. "Justice must be done, but it must also be seen to be done," said Trask. "(Crown attorneys) are intended to be independent from police, and it can always be awkward in that role because, at times, a Crown can be asked to give legal advice to police." Cassidy had been accused of following Cote from La Salle to Winnipeg and punching him in the head during what was alleged to be a "high-risk" traffic stop. Justice must be done, but it must also be seen to be done. Brandon Trask In court, Cassidy claimed Cote chased his van out of La Salle at high speed, after the off-duty officer followed the Winnipeg-based landscapers vehicle to several houses while returning home from work. Cassidy told court he became suspicious, as there had been break-ins in the area. Cote testified he and a roommate were delivering flyers for his business when a van started following them. After Cassidy called 911, a marked police car was waiting as he and Cote drove into the city on St. Marys Road shortly after 1 a.m. The assault is alleged to have occurred after Cote pulled over and Cassidy arrived at the scene in his van. Cote told court an officer forced him to the ground on his stomach and another male, alleged to be Cassidy who wasnt in uniform, and was not carrying handcuffs or a firearm punched and kneed him in the face. Cassidy claimed he tried to pull Cote out of the truck, and punched him because he saw something metal in his hand. Cassidy said he punched Cote a second time because he was still resisting on the ground. Crown attorney Rach accused Cassidy of lying about seeing a possible weapon to excuse the assault. Police officers who responded to the 911 call described "nothing untoward" in Cassidys use of force or techniques, the court heard. Gowenlock said positions taken by the Crown made a conviction impossible, noting the prosecutor asked the judge in a closing submission to accept Cassidys testimony about the use of force applied during the arrest. JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Karl Gowenlock, lawyer for Jamie Cote, who accused police officer Sean Cassidy of assault, at the Manitoba Law Courts. Gowenlock said the Crowns case risks undermining public trust in prosecutions of police officers. "I dont know what the Crowns reasoning was, and I dont want to presume, but it is difficult not to see it as a result of the conflict that arises when Crown attorneys are tasked with prosecuting police," he wrote. Gowenlock also took issue with the Crown calling the other officers as witnesses for its own case. "The evidence of the other police present at the arrest was presented as reliable even though it contradicted the evidence of Mr. Cote and, in my opinion, is not consistent with the surrounding circumstances and common sense," he wrote. "They have a very strong personal stake in providing a version of events where nothing untoward happened at the roadside arrest, because anything else would mean they had some level of culpability, as we allege in Mr. Cotes civil suit." Lerner told court the Crowns position on Cassidys use-of-force testimony called into question all of Cotes evidence. At the same time, the judge said he didnt believe Cassidys version of the events in La Salle and during the Perimeter Highway chase, testimony on which Cassidy was not cross-examined by the Crown. Lerner told court he had to acquit Cassidy because he was "in a position of uncertainty as to who, and what, is to be believed in this case." In response to Cote and Gowenlocks comments, Lisa LaBossiere, who represented Cassidy during the trial, said it would be "inappropriate" for anyone to comment on the prosecutions handling of the case "without having complete disclosure, understanding Crown strategies and responsibilities, and sitting through the entire trial." Gowenlock said he wants to know what, if any, consequences Cassidy faced within the Winnipeg Police Service, calling its internal process "opaque." Winnipeg police refused to disclose how it handled the matter internally. "Patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy was acquitted on charges of two unrelated matters on March 10, 2022, and May 9, 2022," police spokesman Const. Jay Murray wrote in an email. "He has since returned to the workplace." Cassidy was acquitted in March of logging into a police database to fix his own school zone photo-radar speeding ticket, despite a judge finding his defence was "almost implausible." The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In 2019, he was charged with unsafe storage of a firearm and possession of a restricted weapon at an unauthorized place. The first charge was later stayed, and he pleaded guilty to the second charge in 2020, receiving an absolute discharge. chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @chriskitching RCMP used a Taser to arrest an Ontario man who allegedly wielded a large knife in a dangerous manner as he smashed objects inside a Headingley truck stop Wednesday. RCMP seized this knife following an incident at the Flying J Travel Center Wednesday. (Handout) RCMP used a Taser to arrest an Ontario man who allegedly wielded a large knife in a dangerous manner as he smashed objects inside a Headingley truck stop Wednesday. Officers cleared customers and staff from the Flying J Travel Center, located on the Trans-Canada Highway just west of the Perimeter Highway, and attempted to speak to the 39-year-old man when they arrived at about 6:30 p.m. About 10 people were inside the business when officers arrived, Manitoba RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel wrote Thursday in an email. She said the man, from the northern Toronto suburb of Maple, was travelling alone through the Winnipeg area. The suspect was in a highly agitated state and was armed with a large fixed-blade knife, according to police. It was believed by officers on scene that a substance of some kind could have been a factor, but we have no medical confirmation of that and can only speak to what we saw, Seel wrote. As officers attempted to speak to the suspect, he began to harm himself by running into fixed objects inside the business, an RCMP news release stated. Police said a Taser was used, bringing the suspect to the ground, where was arrested for his own safety and that of the officers. A knife was seized. RCMP said the man suffered minor injuries from self-inflicted harm, and was taken to hospital for treatment. He was later arrested for mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The man, who wasnt identified by police, was released with a date to appear in court. Stephanie Myers, a spokeswoman for Pilot Flying J, based in Knoxville, Tenn., said the company is offering support to staff affected by the incident. The safety and well-being of our team members and guests is always our main concern, Myers wrote in a statement. Nothing is more important to us than providing a safe and secure environment for our team members and guests. She said the company is co-operating fully with police. chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @chriskitching The worst flood in the history of Peguis First Nation has become even more dangerous amid the recent downpour. The worst flood in the history of Peguis First Nation has become even more dangerous amid the recent downpour. Most of Manitoba was drenched with between 30 to 60 millimetres of rain May 30-31, with strong winds gusting over 100 km/h in some areas. The storm caused tree damage and power outages, and brought even more flooding to low-lying areas. About 2,000 Peguis residents are already in their fourth week away from home since emergency evacuations began in the community some 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Those who remained approximately 1,500 encountered washed-out roads and had to rebuild local dams. "We continue to be not only in recovery mode but in response (mode) for certain houses," Chief Glenn Hudson said Wednesday. Sixteen First Nations in Manitoba, including Peguis, have needed emergency help dealing with floods this spring. Theyre calling on levels of government to work together on prevention instead of responding to regular, repeated evacuations. "I think well get more accomplished working together," Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs acting grand chief Cornell McLean said. Many Interlake region communities have been hit hard with flooding on a nearly annual basis and climate change "is here to stay," McLean said. He said AMC wants to work with the federal and provincial governments on flood prevention measures such as new dikes and clearing culverts and ice jams before flood season begins. It makes more sense to be proactive rather than pay for recovery efforts every year, he said. McLean said the province has so far not responded to such requests. WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES We continue to be not only in recovery mode but in response (mode) for certain houses, said Peguis First Nation Chief Glenn Hudson. "They always point the finger back; its federal responsibility. Meanwhile, the treaties go as far as the shoreline, they dont go on to the lake, as Im told. So its provincial responsibility. Its their waters that are flooding us." Meantime, Peguis has been working with the federal government and the Red Cross, and has not officially requested emergency help from the province, Hudson said. He said a long-term flood protection strategy is necessary one that includes First Nations communities in the construction of retention ponds and diversion. Peguis is seeking long-term support from Ottawa and has so far had 170 homes assessed as unlivable, due to this seasons flooding. Evacuees are staying in hotels in Winnipeg, Brandon and Selkirk, and theres increased risk of people experiencing substance abuse, domestic violence and racism while theyre temporarily housed, McLean said. "Its very stressful. Weve had people that have passed away; we had a young lady that overdosed in one of the hotels," Hudson said. "This has had a dramatic effect actually, a traumatic effect on a lot of people." The provincial government stated 23 municipalities and 12 First Nations communities have requested provincial help due to flooding. A spokesperson said Manitoba is working with the federal government on the response in First Nations communities, but didnt provide details on long-term flood prevention projects. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Unfortunately, this flooding event is still underway and the focus of the provincial government is responding to the unfolding needs of Manitobans, their communities, and their flood-fighting infrastructure," a spokesperson stated in an email. "Manitoba continues to work with federal agencies supporting the response to flooding on First Nations." The Colorado low weather system that brought the most-recent rain to Manitoba travelled up to northern parts of the province Wednesday. It is expected to head south again Thursday, meaning more rain is in the forecast. The storm system is also projected to head east toward Ontario, said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. After Thursday, she said, "we should see several days of sunnier, drier conditions." katie.may@freepress.mb.ca An iconic former movie theatre built in the heart of the North End more than a century ago now faces the wreckers ball. An iconic former movie theatre built in the heart of the North End more than a century ago now faces the wreckers ball. Plans to demolish the historic Palace Theatre came as news to much of the Selkirk Avenue community, after its owner filed a request to the City of Winnipeg to refund an inspection fee because it had decided to tear it down. The 501 Selkirk Ave. structure and its iconic facade has played many roles over the years, including movie theatre, department store and flea market. It is owned by the University of Manitoba and has sat vacant since 2002. The U of M filed a request to the citys property committee (to be discussed June 6) to have the most recent inspection fee refunded "taking in consideration the building in question will be demolished (in the) next couple of months." ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The historic Palace Theatre at 501 Selkirk Ave. has played many roles over the years, including movie theatre, department store and flea market. "The University of Manitoba has (made) several attempts to find a new use for the building or to sell, without positive result. Last year, the University of Manitoba decided to demolish the existing building and clean the site," a memo from U of M project manager Dan Ionescu, dated May 11, reads. A construction company has been hired and an application for demolition has been made. The building has to be inspected annually, and the U of M is requesting the fee ($1,248) it paid earlier this year be refunded in full. Despite the buildings origins constructed in 1912 and designed by notable architect Max Blankstein its not listed as a historical resource with the city and there are no protections in place for its facade. Heritage Winnipeg executive director Cindy Tugwell said Wednesday she plans to register to speak at the Monday meeting despite the report only calling to approve or deny the refund because theres no other opportunity for her to speak out against the "ridiculous" demolition process. "My argument would be: what happened to the process that youre talking about waiving a fee to a building thats imminently going to be demolished and wheres the justification for it to be demolished?" she said. ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Palace Theatre is owned by the University of Manitoba and has sat vacant since 2002. "But the process, if a building is not (heritage) designated, allows for the city department of property and development, the urban planners, to give a demolition permit when they see fit, which disallows anybody to argue." When asked what influenced the U of Ms decision and what the university planned to do with the space, public affairs executive director Myrrhanda Novak said the institution is "committed to community consultation and the overall well-being of the neighbourhood." "We welcome discussions with interested community groups before making decisions on how to proceed with the structure," she said in a brief email. The citys process leaves sites like the Palace Theatre as "sitting ducks," Tugwell said, adding Heritage Winnipeg would be calling for greater protections for historical buildings without heritage status during the upcoming mayoral election. "The city needs to look to stop allowing demolitions of these buildings, unless its last resort Heritage is an excuse to protect it, but where is the citys green policy to say we are not going to lose these buildings anymore, unless they absolutely cannot be retrofitted, or redeveloped?" ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The doors to the historic Palace Theatre remain locked while the owners could not find another use for the building and want to have it demolished. Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said the refund request was the first hed heard of the demolition plan. "Itd be a shame to lose (the building), we could use some event space," he said Wednesday. Eadie said he would speak at the Monday meeting to ensure if the demolition permit is approved, its only after the city has proven the building is either is beyond repair or something new will be rebuilt in its place. "They cant get a demolition permit and just leave it vacant three years," he said. "We wont allow that." Community advocate Michael Redhead Champagne has been calling for the revitalization of the Palace Theatre for years. He was part of talks between the North End Community Renewal Corp. and U of M to turn the space to a neighbourhood venue in 2020. ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Despite being constructed in 1912 and designed by notable architect Max Blankstein, the building is not listed as a historical resource. As a member of the newly-formed North End Historical Society, Champagne said the Palace Theatre was one of the buildings that came to mind when new members discussed monuments to recognize at its first meeting last month. "To see such energy from the community around the Palace Theatre in the last few months, and then to just see the plans for demolition that were obviously proceeding concurrently to that, just feels quite jarring," he said. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Area resident Steven Snyder, who plans to run in the Mynarski ward in the upcoming municipal election, called the idea "another nail in the coffin for the Selkirk area." "Every block you can walk past, there is at least one boarded building, quite a few vacant lots A vacant lot, especially as prominent as that location will be just an eyesore," Snyder said, adding he hopes local pressure can keep the file in the spotlight. "If the community reaches out and they say, Hey, we do have an idea for this location, and the community really puts pressure on the U of M theyre a government institution, we can build changes." Champagne said he understands partial demolition if theres structural problems but the buildings facade is an important part of the North Ends history and should be preserved as such. "For me, I would like to see the Palace Theatre become a theatre again. I would like to see it become a venue for our community to share our thoughts and ideas." malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Manitobans can expect significant progress on the provinces surgical and diagnostic backlog in the coming months, Premier Heather Stefanson said. Manitobans can expect significant progress on the provinces surgical and diagnostic backlog in the coming months, Premier Heather Stefanson said. "We want to ensure that Manitobans get the health care, the surgeries the diagnostic services they need, when they need it," Stefanson said Wednesday, the final day of the spring legislative session. "I think were going in the right direction," Stefanson said. On Tuesday, Doctors Manitoba estimated the surgical and diagnostic backlog to include 166,903 cases, a decrease of about 2,300 cases from last month, signalling a peak in cases accumulated throughout the pandemic. Stefanson said the province is making progress to whittle down the backlog and deliver health care in a timely way now that the majority of health-care workers have returned to their regular positions. "I think well make significant headway over the course of the next number of months," Stefanson said. In a statement to the Free Press, a government spokesperson said the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force is looking at multiple short-term options to deliver surgeries and tests, including increasing the number of people going out of province for care, to build interim capacity. "Our government is confident in the work of the (task force) and knows that outcomes are already being achieved," the statement said. "There are no options that are off the table to reduce the pandemic backlog." The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Meantime, Sanford Health Fargo vice-president of operations Brittany Sachdeva said the North Dakota health system is working toward an agreement with the provincial government to accept Manitobans for orthopedic surgery, including joint replacements. The provincial government had inked a contract with Sanford Health to provide spinal surgery for Manitobans. As of May 19, 20 people had spine surgery at Sanford and seven were on deck, the province said. "We continue to work closely with Manitoba clinical leaders and remain committed to providing high-quality specialized care for a select number of patients," Sachdeva said in a statement. In a statement to the Free Press, a government spokesperson did not comment specifically on the expanded surgical partnership with Sanford Health. However, the province acknowledged the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force is looking at "multiple short-term options to deliver surgeries and tests," including increasing the number of people going out of province for care. Staff Premier Heather Stefanson said she has no problem hiring a former staffer who got a large severance when he left former premier Brian Pallisters inner circle a few years ago. Premier Heather Stefanson said she has no problem hiring a former staffer who got a large severance when he left former premier Brian Pallisters inner circle a few years ago. Pallister had been fiercely opposed to staff returning to the public payroll after parting ways and collecting severance, but Stefanson has decided to do just that by hiring back longtime Tory adviser Philip Houde. JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Last June, Philip Houde received nearly $85,000 in severance, according to public-sector disclosure. Houde was Pallisters chief of staff from 2016 to 2019 and chief executive officer for the Economic Development Office until April 2021. Last June, he received nearly $85,000 in severance, according to public-sector disclosure. As a senior officer with the government during the 2020-21 fiscal year, Houde earned $174,305. Houde will replace Jordan Sisson as the Stefansons chief of staff next week. NDP finance critic Mark Wasyliw said the Tories are failing to practise what they preach, and called on the party to ensure Houdes severance is paid back to the government. In 2017, Pallister railed against the NDP after the party hired Liam Martin as chief of staff for its leader, Wab Kinew. Martin was former premier Greg Selingers chief of staff for more than two years and received just over $146,000 in severance when he left in 2014. The NDP used taxpayer money as a slush fund for its staff, Pallister said. He demanded the party pay back the severance given to Martin, who earned $92,920 annually. "This is the type of thing that troubles taxpayers. This is not a practice we should be respecting," Pallister said in 2017. "It does us all discredit This is a very great way for people to make double salaries its not fair, its not right." Wasyliw said the Tories should stick to their principles and, to be ethically consistent, severance given to Houde should be paid back to the government. "Theyve made a lot of hay around here saying that somehow the previous government had done something wrong, so if thats their case they need to sort of live up to that," Wasyliw said. Stefanson, who said she has known Houde for decades, said he has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Asked if the severance should be paid back, Stefanson said Houde fulfilled his contract and severance was paid under the terms of his employment agreement. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Thats fair," Stefanson said. The flare-up of a six-year-old dispute over severance epitomizes the dynamic between the NDP and Tories, Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said. "You have two parties who spend most of their time angry at each other for doing the same thing and never fixing it or taking responsibility for it," Lamont said. Both parties have tolerated a "revolving door" of staff who leave, collect severance and return to government, he argued. "They get a golden handshake and a golden parachute, and a soft landing, and then they get all of it again," Lamont said. danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca I was recently driving through Turkana county in northern Kenya, where I was visiting as part of my work with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, when something exciting happened: the driver had to turn on the windshield wipers. Opinion I was recently driving through Turkana county in northern Kenya, where I was visiting as part of my work with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, when something exciting happened: the driver had to turn on the windshield wipers. In Winnipeg, this is a common occurrence, especially in recent weeks. But not in Turkana. This was the first time, I was told, it had rained in the last year. The county is in the midst of a deep drought, receiving infrequent and insufficient rain since 2019. So, the pitter-patter of rain on our car was a cause for excitement and celebration. Drought is not new to Turkana. People are used to coping with dry conditions. But droughts are happening more regularly and lasting longer than they used to, and the strategies people used in the past are no longer enough to cope with these worsening shocks. Most people in Turkana raise livestock for their livelihood. Owing to the drought, it is increasingly hard to find water for livestock or vegetation for them to eat. County officials reported to us that 80 per cent of boreholes and water pumps are now dry. Much of the vegetation animals rely on has been consumed and will not grow back until there is more rain. As a result, livestock are getting sick and dying. And since livestock are not in good health and there is a glut in the market, prices are down. Whereas people could once expect to get 4,000 Kenyan shillings (C$45) for a goat, they are now lucky to get 1,500 KES (C$17). In addition to the drought, the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically slowed investment and halted construction projects, meaning many people lost their jobs. Just as in Canada, most public-health measures are now lifted in Kenya, but economic activity has been slow to return to normal in Turkana. To make matters worse, food prices have started rising dramatically. In recent months, the price of basic staples such as maize flour and vegetable oil has doubled. A bag of maize that cost 1,300 KES in December now costs 2,500 KES (C$28) in Lodwar, the capital of Turkana. To make matters worse, food prices have started rising dramatically. As a result of the drought and these other impacts, the Kenyan government describes Turkana as being at alarm status, with the National Drought Management Authority of Kenya reporting that 70 per cent of the Turkana population is now at risk of food insecurity. Malnutrition, particularly among children, has seen a dramatic uptick and is now 33 per cent higher than normal. The Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Gardener What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. A monthly email from the Free Press with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Unfortunately, the Turkana experience is not unique. Hunger is on the rise globally, with 193 million people now considered acutely food insecure, according to the recently released Global Report on Food Crises. This is an increase of nearly 40 million people, or 25 per cent, from last years record high. Conflicts, natural disasters and the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the worsening situation. As Russia and Ukraine are both major food exporters, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to large food-price increases globally, with disastrous effects for those already on the margins. In the coming months, more people than ever will experience hunger. The situation is grim, but not hopeless. In Turkana I got the opportunity to see the work of ADRA Kenya, a partner of the Foodgrains Bank, that we are supporting with funding from the government of Canada. ADRA Kenya is providing 6,660 KES (approximately C$75) per month to households so they can buy food and meet household needs. Participants said that, as a result of this assistance, their families no longer went to sleep hungry and children are no longer experiencing malnutrition. In addition to meeting short-term needs, ADRA is also helping people diversify their incomes. Women and men are starting farms in places where irrigation is possible, establishing businesses and improving the pastureland for their livestock. The project is meeting immediate needs, while trying to lessen the impact of the frequent and worsening shocks people in Turkana are experiencing. The rain we experienced that day did not last long. The drought in Turkana continues. With the situation continuing to worsen in Turkana just as it is in many other parts of the world it is critical that we do not turn our backs on the hunger crisis that millions of people are facing. Stefan Epp-Koop is program manager for Canadian Foodgrains Banks HERD program, which does humanitarian and development work in eight countries around the globe. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 15 churches and church agencies working together to end hunger. Why would Premier Heather Stefanson forge ahead with plans to dramatically reduce the frequency and scope of regulatory oversight for Manitoba Hydro rates in the face of mounting opposition? The explanation may come from the last two paragraphs of a story that appeared in Wednesdays Free Press. Why would Premier Heather Stefanson forge ahead with plans to dramatically reduce the frequency and scope of regulatory oversight for Manitoba Hydro rates in the face of mounting opposition? The explanation may come from the last two paragraphs of a story that appeared in Wednesdays Free Press. The story focused on a campaign launched by the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition a diverse group with a pronounced emphasis on environmental issues to stop Bill 36. The coalition is just the latest voice to join a broad and powerful constituency of opponents that believe Bill 36 is dangerous: consumer advocates, anti-poverty groups, large industrial power users and First Nations lobbies. And yet, despite all the concern thats been expressed, Stefanson pushes forward with the bill. Why she insists on doing this is a point of great debate both inside and outside the Progressive Conservative government. Largely thanks to former premier Brian Pallister, the Tories have been enveloped by an irrational fixation with Manitoba Hydro. In particular, the Tories contend the former NDP government mismanaged the construction of the Keeyask generating station and Bipole III transmission line, adding billions to the Crown utilitys debt. However, although the Tories claim Bill 36 is the antidote to NDP mismanagement, there is very little in the draft law that addresses those concerns. In fact, by reducing the role of the PUB and increasing the influence of the provincial cabinet, this bill could do more to destabilize Manitoba Hydro than the NDP ever did. More importantly, why would Stefanson pursue a bill that no one outside government thinks is a good idea? That question brings us to the last two paragraphs of the story in Wednesdays Free Press. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Why would Premier Heather Stefanson pursue a bill that no one outside government thinks is a good idea? The story described efforts of the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition to urge people concerned about Bill 36 to speak up. To date, that hasnt happened in a broad, grassroots kind of way. The Free Press reported that when the Progressive Conservative government attempted with Bill 64 to eliminate school divisions and trustees, a tidal wave of opposition ensued. As the story noted, when that bill was sent to committee, more than 500 people and organizations registered to make presentations. That kind of response, along with anecdotal feedback Tory MLAs were getting back in their constituencies, convinced Stefanson to withdraw the bill once she became premier last fall. Now, compare that to the reaction the government is facing over Bill 36. As of Monday, only five delegations were registered to speak on the bill. There is no way to get around the fact Bill 36 has not moved Manitobans the way Bill 64 did. Thats too bad because, in so many ways, Bill 36 is potentially more impactful and dangerous than anything proposed in Bill 64. Bill 36 limits both the frequency and scope of PUB hearings. More importantly, it would impose new debt-reduction targets that interveners at the PUB have argued would trigger years of higher-than-necessary rate increases. The targets in the bill referred to as debt-to-equity ratios are much more aggressive than anything Hydro has been forced to contend with in the past. When Hydro floated the possibility of tweaking the ratios by lowering the amount of debt allowable, interveners and subject matter experts in utility finances convinced the PUB they were largely unnecessary and inappropriate for a Crown-owned monopoly. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Bill 36 limits both the frequency and scope of PUB hearings regarding Manitoba Hydro rates. Upset the PUB turned thumbs down on these more aggressive debt-reduction targets, the Tory government has decided to take the regulator out of the picture. That, along with allowing cabinet to set hydro rates by decree, make this one of the most cynical and potentially harmful initiatives ever undertaken by the PC government. And, as the authors of a botched hospital reorganization and one of the worst pandemic responses in the country, that is saying something. The Energy Justice Coalition is operating on the belief that, if they can spark a groundswell of opposition, the government will blink. Based on the experience with Bill 64, they are not wrong. Even so, its unclear that Manitobans care that much about the Tory meddling with Hydro rates. That is odd given that Hydro has been a potent political issue for many years now. The Free Press | Newsletter Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. During the Doer-Selinger years, the NDP thrived by alleging the Tories would (if re-elected) privatize Manitoba Hydro and leave Manitobans vulnerable to the same market forces that led to skyrocketing electricity prices in Ontario and other provinces. The Tories have never even mused about privatizing Hydro. But based on a decision by the Progressive Conservative government in the 1990s to privatize the former Manitoba Telephone System (now Bell MTS), the Hydro allegation always seemed to find some traction in the heat of an election campaign. You would think that, after an experience like that, a PC government would be cautious about messing with Hydro rate-setting and regulatory oversight. As of yet, theres been no evidence to suggest Stefanson sees any risk. The premier seems content to hold course until some sort of unambiguous proof about Bill 36s lack of popularity rears its head. Of course, if she has misjudged the level of concern about this bill, she wont realize it until the fall of 2023, when the next general election is scheduled. And by then, it will be too late. dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com An advertising slogan adopted by Airbnb is belong anywhere. Some people in Winnipeg suggest with considerable fervor that Airbnb doesnt belong anywhere near them. An advertising slogan adopted by Airbnb is "belong anywhere." Some people in Winnipeg suggest with considerable fervor that Airbnb doesnt belong anywhere near them. City council is being pushed to regulate the short-term property rental business, of which Airbnb is the most prominent platform. Councillors got an earful during presentations last week and quickly learned that when it comes to this issue, the hospitality industry can get downright inhospitable. Submissions described how houses which rent space for up to 12 adults per day dubbed "ghost hotels" because the property owners are nowhere to be seen operate in Winnipeg residential areas, frustrating local residents with extra traffic, noise, excessive partying, drug dealing and sex-trade transactions. TRIBUNE MEDIA TNS DREAMSTIME / TNS FILES City council is being pushed to regulate the short-term property rental business, of which Airbnb is the most prominent platform. This unsavoury image is typically countered by the owners of short-term rentals, who insist its unfair to use a few bad examples to sully the whole industry as nothing more than dens of debauchery and lawlessness. Its understandable that the proprietors of such properties view the issue through the lens of their personal economic interests and insist existing laws are sufficient to stamp out criminal activities. But, with all due respect for their entrepreneurial get-up-and-go, theyre wrong if they suggest theres no need for increased regulation. Most other cities have found a need to control the short-term rental industry, and its time for Winnipeg to catch up. Such places in Winnipeg arent currently licensed, and arent subject to the fire and safety checks of other hospitality businesses such as hotels. They should be. Also, they arent currently required to pay a business tax like traditional hotels. They should, and the taxes they pay should help pay for the inspections of the premises. Some interested parties would have council go even further. The Manitoba Hotel Association is on the record as proposing short-term rental owners only be allowed to rent sections of their primary residences. This requirement would revert to the original purpose of Airbnb when it began in 2007, that people would rent out a room or suite within their personal living space. AIRBNB IMAGE Airbnbs in Winnipeg arent subject to the fire and safety checks of other hospitality businesses such as hotels. The concept has evolved, however. Some dealers in real estate have found it lucrative to purchase several condos or houses, never intending to live in them personally but instead renting them out to a succession of short-term lodgers via online platforms such as Airbnb. While a regulation requiring owners to live on the premises would likely help stabilize the behaviour of renters, some councillors have recommended requirements that are even more stringent, such as requiring owners of short-term rental properties to inform neighbours about upcoming rentals and also provide immediate neighbours with a schedule for each new arrival. These measures would seem excessive, and possibly violate privacy rights of both the property owners and the incoming renters. Its too late to hope council takes action before summer tourists start booking rooms. Council delayed its vote on the issue last Thursday, and directed it back to the property and development committee for further discussion. That discussion should include a survey of other cities: some places have chosen the extreme of an outright ban on short-term rentals, while others have chosen the other extreme of an unrestricted, Wild West-style absence of rules. Most have forged a middle ground. For Winnipeg, the middle ground should, at the least, include mandatory licensing, and a tax and safety inspections similar to those required of hotels. Visitors to this city who choose accommodation via sites such as Airbnb deserve assurance that the places are safe and reputable. And whats good for the guests is also good for the long-term reputation of Winnipegs short-term rental industry. ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) Africa must be part of a united global fight against monkeypox, the World Health Organization's Africa office said Thursday, as countries in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere respond to unusual outbreaks of the disease. This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. Quebec's Health Department says 52 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the province.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner-CDC via AP ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) Africa must be part of a united global fight against monkeypox, the World Health Organization's Africa office said Thursday, as countries in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere respond to unusual outbreaks of the disease. "We must have one connected global response to monkeypox to avoid it becoming endemic in more countries," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa director, said in an online briefing. As countries in the developed world find ways to limit the spread of monkeypox, "it is very important that ... we make sure that we share those tools, we build capacities all over the world to respond to these outbreaks," she said. "What is extremely important now is to avert any potential for a repeat of the inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines experienced by African countries early in the pandemic," Moeti said. Monkeypox is ordinarily found in countries in West and Central Africa with tropical rainforests but recently the disease has been discovered in more than 20 countries including Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, Israel and Australia. More than 500 cases have been reported, many apparently tied to sexual activity at two recent raves in Europe. No deaths have been reported. So far, sequencing has not yet shown any direct link to the outbreak outside Africa, health officials say. Meanwhile, seven of Africa's 54 countries have reported the disease and there have been about three times as many monkeypox cases as usual. There have been more than 1,400 suspected monkeypox cases and 63 deaths in African countries where the disease is endemic Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Nigeria according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But only 44 of those suspected cases have been confirmed, said Dr. Fiona Braka, who leads emergency operations at WHO Africas office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. Part of the reason for the wide gap between suspected and confirmed cases is the limited testing capacity in African countries, said Braka. Just 10 countries in Africa are able to test for the disease, she said. The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. To improve the fight against monkeypox in Africa, health workers must engage with communities in ways that minimize any stigma around the disease, she said. She said more information is needed about animal-to-human transmission as well as human-to-human transmission. Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox, and smallpox vaccines are estimated to be about 85% effective against monkeypox, according to WHO. The countries in the developed world have started using smallpox vaccines and are considering the use of antivirals to battle their outbreaks of the disease. Doctors in Africa say those resources should also be available to help them. One of the worst-hit countries in the continent is Congo which has had 465 suspected cases and nine deaths from the disease this year, health authorities said this week. Nigeria, one of the four African countries where monkeypox is endemic, has seen sporadic cases every year since 2017. It has confirmed 21 monkeypox cases so far this year, according to Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, head of the countrys Center for Disease Control. Nigerian health authorities have scaled up a digital surveillance system which has helped in the early detection of cases, he said. "It is important that we do all that we can to stop this," said Adetifa. "We are in a globally connected world We are not safe until everybody is safe." A man who blamed his surgeon for continuing pain after a recent back operation bought an AR-style rifle and opened fire hours later at a Tulsa medical office, killing the doctor and three other people in an attack that ended with him taking his own life, police said Thursday. Tulsa police and firefighters respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Wednesday, June 1, 2022. in Tulsa, Okla. Multiple people were shot at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus Wednesday. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) A man who blamed his surgeon for continuing pain after a recent back operation bought an AR-style rifle and opened fire hours later at a Tulsa medical office, killing the doctor and three other people in an attack that ended with him taking his own life, police said Thursday. The gunman called the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. That physician, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and patient William Love, police said. The attack occurred on the campus of Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa. The chief identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in United States including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Louis carried a letter that said he was targeting Phillips, Franklin said. The letter made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way, Franklin said. He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery. Tulsa police respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Wednesday, June 1, 2022. in Tulsa, Okla. Multiple people were shot at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus Wednesday. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) A phone number listed for an address for a Michael Louis in Muskogee was not working Thursday. Phillips was an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinics website. He once served as lead physician for Tulsas WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to the Tulsa World. Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a "consummate gentleman" and a man that we should all strive to emulate. He said the three employees who were killed were the three best people in the entire world and that they didnt deserve to die this way. Tulsa police and firefighters respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Wednesday, June 1, 2022. in Tulsa, Okla. Multiple people were shot at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus Wednesday. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) Police believe Louis bought his weapons legally, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the afternoon of the shooting and a handgun on Sunday, the police chief said. Franklin praised the law enforcement officers, 911 operators and emergency for their immediate response to the attack Wednesday. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday. Our training led us to take immediate action without hesitation, he said. Thats exactly what officers do and thats what they did in this instance." The Free Press | Newsletter Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Tulsa Police talk to a young man at Memorial High School as he waits to be reunited with a family member who was evacuated from the scene of a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building Wednesday, June 1, 2022. in Tulsa, Okla. Multiple people were shot at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus Wednesday. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last weeks deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers. Democratic leaders have amplified their calls for greater restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. Oklahoma House Democrats on Thursday called for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but thats unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled Legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen firearms restrictions. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too soon to talk about firearms policy. A pro-firearms group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, is an influential force at the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without the previously required background check or training. The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities. Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. Those shootings have left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, the database says. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings. A St. Paul man has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he ran an online pornography scheme that victimized at least 500 girls across the United States and elsewhere. The Pioneer Press reports that 31-year-old Yue Vang entered the plea on Thursday to two counts of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of interstate communications with intent to extort. Prosecutors are seeking a 72-year prison sentence. According to court documents, Vang created fake female profiles online to entice girls to create sexually explicit video images and send them to him. Prosecutors alleged he knew they were all under 16 because their ages were posted in profiles or they told him. Teel Plastics was named Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year for large companies in a ceremony in Milwaukee on May 19. The award recognizes Teels efforts across a wide array of activities, from safety and employee engagement to customer service and financial performance. The panel of judges recognized Teels growth, including opening a new plant in February 2021, and its rapid work in expanding capacity and developing medical products to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Jerry Pritchett, Teels CEO, thanked employees during his acceptance speech and highlighted some of the challenges the team was able to overcome, including supply chain issues and rising costs. Despite the challenges, Teel grew rapidly in the medical, piping, and water treatment markets, doubling in revenue over the past three years. Pritchett credited this growth to Teel making products that address important problems society is facing here in Wisconsin and around the world. Also featured was Teels culture, established by prior family owners and the companys Wisconsin roots. Teels employees worked through the pandemic making medical device components and swab sticks for COVID test kits. Our people worked hard through the pandemic and took on incredible challenges for customers, Pritchett said. Teel won Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year for 2015 in the small company category. For more information, visit teel.com. A criminal complaint filed in Columbia County alleges the suspect of a March shooting in Wisconsin Dells fired into a vehicle full of people. Mason L. Acuna, 22, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. He is also charged with one count of felony bail jumping and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Acuna was arrested by U.S. Marshals in April. He was apprehended in Lafayette, Indiana, and extradited back to Wisconsin. Online records show Acuna is in custody at the Dane County Jail. There are currently no hearings scheduled in this case. According to the criminal complaint filed on May 23, a Wisconsin Dells police officer was dispatched on March 30 around 6 a.m. to South Frontage Road for a report of multiple victims with gunshot wounds. Two officers arrived at the scene and found a car in the middle of a parking lot with a man lying on the ground outside the rear passenger door. The man was identified as Victim No. 3 in the complaint. The officer reported the man had a gaping gunshot wound to the back of his left arm and two small wounds on the front of his arm. Another man on scene referred to in the complaint as Victim No. 2 told officers he had been shot in the right side of his chest. An officer reported seeing a long horizontal wound across his chest but did not see any obvious entry or exit wound. As the officer began to identify witnesses, he was also attempting to calm them down. Witnesses told police the shooting took place somewhere on Vine Street in Wisconsin Dells between the 600 and 800 blocks. One person told the officer a shooter allegedly walked up to the vehicle and fired into the vehicle before driving away. During the investigation, police were informed there were seven people in the vehicle that was shot at, which was more than the vehicle had seats for. One of the victims was interviewed by police on March 30. The victim told police that Acuna was seen allegedly holding a gun standing outside the car in the alley of Vine Street. The victim told police they believed Acuna would shoot them. Online court records from an open February case in Eau Claire County for possession of marijuana list Acunas address as being in Mount Horeb. Last year, Acuna entered a no contest plea to being party to a crime of felony robbery with threat of force. The charge stemmed from a 2019 incident in West Baraboo when Acuna was allegedly part of a group of men who robbed a man of $250 in cash and clothes in Haskins Park. Court records also show various traffic citations against Acuna in several Wisconsin counties, including Columbia, Dane and Sauk counties. 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. Ice Age Trail Alliance members across the state are preparing for an increase in foot traffic Saturday as they recognize National Trails Day. The Lodi Marsh segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail will celebrate National Trails Day with the Mammoth Fun Run & Hike. The 6K jaunt starts and ends at Doctors Park on Main Street in Lodi, with shuttles taking people to the trailhead beginning at 8 a.m. The race itself will begin at 9 a.m., with trail prizes and homemade treats available to participants. According to Melissa Pierick, director of marketing and community relations for the Ice Age Trail Alliance, events like these are a perfect opportunity to relax and enjoy nature before the onslaught of summer weddings, graduation parties, and other warm-weather events. Its about coming together again on the trail, said Pierick. If anybody thinks they cant do it, they should just go out and try it. In total, the Ice Age Trail encompasses 1,200 miles all within Wisconsin, one of 11 National Scenic Trails. According to data from the Ice Age Trail Alliance, around 60% of Wisconsin residents live within 20 miles of the trail, which spans from the St. Croix Falls in the west to Sturgeon Bay in the east, and as far south as Janesville. Over the course of the pandemic, Pierick says the many segments of the trail have seen an explosion of growth, with significant increases in foot traffic. Its her hope, she added, that events like the Mammoth Fun Run & Hike will add to that growth, bringing more people out to enjoy the trail. For Pierick, the trail offers more than just her day job: its an escape from the daily grind, an opportunity to slow down and relax while enjoying nature. She hopes that others can do the same on Saturday. When you get on the trail, your natural focus becomes what youre doing currently, she said. I think it just puts you in a different frame of mind. Pierick says that many people still dont know about the trails existence right in their own backyards. Some, she added, are aware of it and get intimidated by its length. The plethora of different segments and difficulty levels, she said, should put them at ease. Anybody can hike, she said. Any age, any level of fitness. Pierick said she hopes Saturdays turnout reflects this, allowing more first-time hikers to experience the trail and enjoy National Trails Day. The day itself was introduced by the American Hiking Society in an effort to bring more attention to trails across the country. Each year, on the first Saturday in June, some hikers celebrate the day by cleaning up local trails, picking up garbage and debris. This year marks the 30th annual National Trails Day, and Pierick says she hopes to see a good turnout of people enjoying all the Ice Age Trail has to offer. Were really lucky in this country to have a lot of trails that are accessible, 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. Rising talent to explore community theatre and policies in Germany Masters student Relebohile Mabonda wraps up a performance and prepares to join the German Chancellor's Fellowship Programme for prospective leaders. The programme, knows as the German Chancellor's Fellowship Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, supports future decision makers and thought leaders across various fields of studies. Mabonda whose research is titled An analysis of stakeholder relationships and the social potentials of culture through the example of community art centres in South Africa and Germany, seeks to produce strategies that can enhance the potential of community art centres in South Africa. With the results from her research, Mabonda hopes contribute to academia and influence policymakers to recognise the value of the arts and community art centres. This builds on her previous research titled Ke mang ya ba ranthanyang? (Who is ripping them apart?) An Analysis of Township Community Art Centre Stakeholders in Democratic South Africa. Raised in Daveyton, Mabonda first tasted the power of the arts whilst in boarding school in Lesotho taking part in school plays. She was fascinated by storytelling and poetry. On her return to South Africa she joined the local community theatre and this saw her perform in many townships. She later joined the State Theatres Youth InTrust and won the most promising performer. Wanting to understand her craft better, Mabonda enrolled at Wits for a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts followed by a BA honours specialising in Applied Drama: Theatre in Education, Communities and Social Context, both attained with distinction. She has performed at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown. A rising performer, writer and director, Mabondas work is driven by the mission to contribute to social and therapeutic changes in communities. Consequently, her postgraduate studies focus on impact of stakeholders and leadership on community art space and how these influence cultural policies in South Africa. Mabonda says she is looking forward to her trip. Germany has a better understanding of arts, politics and innovative cultural policies driven by the idea of social inclusion, something that we in South Africa need for community arts and art spaces. Her school is equally excited. I am delighted with this opportunity and see it opening many doors of success for this gusty young woman, says Avril Joffe, Postgraduate Programme Coordinator and lecturer in Cultural Policy and Management at Wits University. About the fellowship: The German Chancellor Fellowship is open to citizenship from South Africa, Brazil, China, and the United States of America. For admission, prospective students need to have completed their first degree in fields such as politics, business, media administration, society or culture. In addition, students need to also demonstrate leadership experience. During their one year programme, students must implement a project that supports their career development, has social relevance and a lasting public impact. I am looking forward to participating in the fellowship, I believe this programme challenges the perception that research papers are submitted to gather dust on library shelves. This fellowship promotes knowledge sharing with peers on a globally scale and integrates various perspectives to contribute significantly to the cultural sector, particularly municipal leaders and policy makers, concludes Mabunda. In Germany, Mabunda will be hosted by the IFA (Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen). Prior to starting classes in October, she will undertake a three-months language course to help with the transition. A 16-year-old boy was arrested this week after police learned he was allegedly recruiting students to carry out a mass shooting at a high school in Berkeley, California, authorities said Wednesday. Police received a tip on May 21 of the teens alleged plot targeting Berkeley High School, which also included a possible bombing, and obtained a search warrant for his home, Berkeley Police said in a statement. The search turned up parts to explosives and assault rifles as well as several knives and electronic items that could be used to create weapons, police said. Authorities also prepared a mental health response through the citys Mobile Crisis Team to evaluate the teen. He turned himself in Monday, police said, and was arrested on suspicion of possessing destructive device materials and threatening to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury. The Alameda County District Attorneys Office declined to comment because the person arrested is a juvenile. The discovery of the reported mass shooting plot comes as the US grapples with a series of mass shootings that have left communities across the country grieving. Last week, an 18-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. Less than three weeks ago, 10 people were killed in a racially motivated shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. And Wednesday, at least four people were killed and several were hurt in a shooting at a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said, in what became Americas 233rd mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. CNN and the archive define a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. In a letter to the school community, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens thanked those who came forward to report the alleged threat. Speaking up in this instance allowed for the police to intervene in advance of any harm occurring, Stephens wrote. Story continues He said the school had been in contact with the police department since the onset of the investigation, which is ongoing. CNNs Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com The Great Dismal Swamp is a geological marvel. It was beneath the sea for millions of years before the Swamp developed. Naturalists and other scientists regard it as one of the most outstanding outdoor laboratories in the world. When the Continental Shelf's last substantial change occurred, this natural gem emerged as a landform. Geography And Climate Of Great Dismal Swamp The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia with a dramatic surreal sky. Often referred to as the Dismal Swamp, the Great Dismal Swamp is a big swamp that is situated in the Coastal Plain region between the cities of Norfolk and Elizabeth City, in the southeastern part of Virginia and the northeastern part of North Carolina. It is highly wooded and has natural elevations ranging from 10 to 20 feet above sea level. The Pamlico Formation (also known as the Great Dismal Swamp Terrace) rises to 25 feet or more along the western edge, establishing a natural border. According to some estimates, the original swamp covered over one million acres. At present, the Great Dismal Swamp covers an area of about 1,940 sq. km. The Great Dismal Swamp's climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, and Albemarle Sound. It experiences a humid subtropical climate, with long humid summers and mild winters. The average temperature of Virginia is 60 F, and rainfall occurs all year, with 45.74 inches of precipitation and 8.8 inches of snowfall. During the winter, northwesterly winds impact the Great Dismal Swamp, whereas southwesterly winds influence it during the summer. History Of Great Dismal Swamp Great Dismal Swamp Canal. It is uncertain who found the Great Dismal and when. Colonel William Byrd II examined and described the North Carolina/Virginia state border across the Swamp in 1728. Colonel Byrd proposed draining the marsh and creating a north-south channel across it to link the waters of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina's Albemarle Sound. George Washington visited the Swamp and formed both the Dismal Swamp Land Company and the Adventurers for Draining the Great Dismal Swamp with numerous other famous Virginians and North Carolinians. This group intended to drain the Swamp cut the trees, and farm the area. In 1763, the company paid $20,000 for 40,000 acres of Swamp property. Washington oversaw the mapping and excavation of Washington Ditch, which runs from the western tip of the Swamp to Lake Drummond, and Riddick Ditch was finished in the late 1700s. These ditches worked together to move logs out of the Swamp while also draining it. The adventurers quickly learned that the process of emptying the Swamp was huge and abandoned that portion of their strategy to focus on lumbering. They harvested several cypress trees for shipbuilding and cedar trees for shingles and other items. The Dismal Swamp was a well-known path and location for freedom seekers. This was the most complex and dangerous route, full of insects, snakes, and wild creatures. Many runaways ended up in this desolate location. Many freedom seekers decided to seek sanctuary in the Great Dismal Swamp amid a colony of runaways known as maroons. Because of the Swamp's unique characteristics, vast colonies were able to establish a permanent shelter. It was difficult to apprehend a fugitive after they entered the Swamp. However, special-trained dogs were used on occasion to catch runaways. Colonies were formed on high ground in the Swamp, with primitive cottages built. Preservation Of The Great Dismal Swamp Painted Turtles in Great Dismal Swamp. Conservation groups across the United States began demanding the preservation of the remaining Great Dismal Swamp and the restoration of its wetlands in the mid-20th century, which was recognized as vital habitat for a broad range of birds, animals, plants, and other living things. The Union Camp Corporation, a paper company located in Franklin, Virginia, with substantial land holdings in the region, granted over 49,000 acres of land to the Nature Conservancy in 1973. The property was transferred to the US Fish and Wildlife Service the following year. During this period, the National Park Service designated a 45,611-acre section of the swamp as a National Natural Landmark in 1973, owing to its unique combination of geological and ecological features. The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974 authorized the establishment of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge has about 107,000 acres of wooded wetlands, with the 3,100-acre Lake Drummond at its heart. The refuge's resource management initiatives strive to recover and sustain the swamp's natural ecological variety, including its water supplies, native plant types, and animal species. Lake Drummond View of Virginia's Lake Drummond on a sunny day. Lake Drummond is a freshwater lake situated at the heart of the Great Dismal Swamp. The lake's origins are unknown. Several hypotheses have suggested the lake's origin, including that the lake was formed by a meteor/comet strike, a fire that burnt a deep hole in the peat soil, or sustained winds during the last ice age that built an artificial barrier of sand that impeded normal drainage. Lake Drummond and part of the Great Dismal Swamp are protected by the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, which was established by the Dismal Swamp Act of 1974. The lake has a low nutrient content due to the leaching of acidic elements from nearby peat soils. A few fish species are there, including crappie, bowfin, and longnose gar. Great Dismal Swamp Today Today, the swamp is a vibrant ecosystem and one of Virginia's most attractive sites to explore. The swamp has a lot to offer, from nature paths to exhilarating activities in and around Lake Drummond. Unfortunately, the swamp has been plagued by fires during droughts and drier seasons in recent years. It is not uncommon for the marsh to catch fire, and smoke may be seen from Richmond. Today, Lake Drummond is the hub of activity in the swamp, drawing fishermen, tourists, and boaters, but the refuge does not permit camping. At least two injured in shooting at funeral in Wisconsin Four people were killed in Tulsa on June 1 after a gunman, who was later found dead, opened fire on the second floor of a medical building, authorities in Oklahoma said. Press Release June 2, 2022 Senate approves bicam report on bill improving farmers' access to financial services, training programs With the end in view of enhancing access of agricultural communities to financial services and programs that increase productivity, the Senate ratified last week the bicameral conference committee report on the bill repealing Republic Act No. 10000 or the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009. Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, sponsored the report harmonizing the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 2494 and House Bill No. 6134 or the Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Financing Enhancement Act of 2022. Villar said concerns were raised because banks would rather pay penalties than lend money to farmers, fisherfolks and other agricultural stakeholders. She said more than increasing penalties to ensure bank compliance, she finds merit in the proposal to consolidate the loan allocation for farmers and fisherfolks and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB). Mandated under the bill is an agriculture, fisheries, and rural development financing system through government and private banking institutions to improve productivity, income, competitiveness and welfare of the rural community beneficiaries, particularly the farmers, fisherfolk, ARBs, agrarian reform communities, settlers, agricultural lessees, amortizing owners, farmworkers, fishworkers, owner-cultivators, compact farmers, tenant farmers, and members of their household and their micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) as well as farmer's and fisherfolk's cooperatives, organizations and associations. The financing system shall consist of loans and investments to finance activities that enhance productivity and increase income of an agricultural and fisheries household, thereby promoting agricultural sector productivity and competitiveness, as well as sustainable development of rural communities. Toward this end, all banking institutions, whether government or private, except newly-established banks for a period of five years from date of commencement of the banks' operations, shall set aside a credit quota, or a minimum mandatory agricultural and fisheries financing requirement of at least 25 percent of their total loanable funds. Banks may comply with the mandatory credit requirement by lending to rural community beneficiaries to finance agricultural and fishery-related activities or comply with the requirement through other means such as lending for the construction and upgrading of infrastructure, including but not limited to, farm-to-market roads, as well as the provision of post-harvest facilities and other public rural infrastructure that will benefit the rural community. A salient feature of the reconciled version of the bill is the creation of a special fund collected from penalties wherein 20 percent would be allocated for agricultural- and fishery- related organizational- capacity- and institution- building programs and activities. This will be implemented by the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines with the help of training providers as well as the Agricultural Credit Policy Council and the Cooperative Development Authority. Villar noted that these training programs will equip farmers particularly ARBs, as well as members of their household and the MSMEs, and agrarian reform communities with the appropriate knowledge and skills to improve their welfare, competitiveness, income and productivity. As a certified measure, Villar expressed confidence that President Rodrigo Duterte will immediately sign the bill into law. ### __________________________________________________________ Senate, inaprubahan ang bicam report sa bill para palakasin ang acess ng mga magsasaka sa financial services, training programs PARA paigtingin ang access ng agricultural communities sa financial services at mga programang makadadagdag sa produksyon, pinagtibay ng Senado ang bicameral conference committee report na nagpapawalang bisa sa Republic Act No. 10000 o ang Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009.inisponsor ni Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson ng Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, ang report para pagtugmain ang magkakasalungat na probisyon ng Senate Bill No. 2494 at House Bill No. 6134 o ang Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Financing Enhancement Act of 2022. "Concerns were raised because banks would rather pay penalties than lend money to farmers, fisherfolks and other agricultural stakeholders. She said more than increasing penalties to ensure bank compliance, she finds merit in the proposal to consolidate the loan allocation for farmers and fisherfolks and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB," ayon kay Villar. Itinatakda sa bill ang agriculture, fisheries, at rural development financing system sa pamamagitan ng government at private banking institutions. Mapapabuti nito ang productivity, income, competitiveness at kapakanan ng rural community beneficiaries, partikular ang mga magsasaka, mangingisa at ARBs, agrarian reform communities, settlers, agricultural lessees, amortizing owners, farmworkers, fishworkers, owner-cultivators, compact farmers, tenant farmers, at mga kasapi ng kanilang household at micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) pati na rin ang farmer's at fisherfolk's cooperatives, organizations at asosasyon. Nakapaloob sa financing system ang pautang at investments upang pondohan ang mga aktibidades na makatutulong sa productivity at makadadagdag sa kita ng agricultural at fisheries household. "Toward this end, all banking institutions, whether government or private, except newly-established banks for a period of five years from date of commencement of the banks' operations, shall set aside a credit quota, or a minimum mandatory agricultural and fisheries financing requirement of at least 25 percent of their total loanable funds," sabi pa ni Villar. "Banks may comply with the mandatory credit requirement by lending to rural community beneficiaries to finance agricultural and fishery-related activities or comply with the requirement through other means such as lending for the construction and upgrading of infrastructure, including but not limited to, farm-to-market roads, as well as the provision of post-harvest facilities and other public rural infrastructure that will benefit the rural community," dagdag pa niya. Tampok sa reconciled version ng bill ang pagbuo Ng special mula sa multa kung saan 20 percent ang ilalaan sa agricultural- at fishery- related organizational- capacity- at institution- building programs and activities. Ipatutpadmito ng Land Bank of the Philippines at Development Bank of the Philippines sa tulong ng training providers pagi na rin ang Agricultural Credit Policy Council at Cooperative Development Authority. "These training programs will equip farmers particularly ARBs, as well as members of their household and the MSMEs, and agrarian reform communities with the appropriate knowledge and skills to improve their welfare, competitiveness, income and productivity," giit pa ni Villar. Bilang certified measure, kumpiyansa si Villar na agad itong lalagdaan ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte para maisabatas.### HOLLISTON A retired local pastor was rescued last week by New Hampshire first responders after suffering a medical emergency while on a hike. Jerome Janisko, 82, was able to walk out of Monadnock State Park last Thursday in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, with assistance from paramedics and conservation officers, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department. Janisko, who retired in 2011 after 43 years as pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Holliston, was on a hike with his wife at about 1:45 p.m. Thursday when he passed out, fell and hit his head, according to the release. Other hikers stopped to help. They were able to provide GPS coordinates to rescue workers, helping to lead them to where Janisko and his wife, according to the release. Conservation officers, paramedics and rangers from the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources found Janisko less than a quarter-mile from Old Toll Road. It took them until about 4 p.m. to get Janisko to an ambulance, where he was taken to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene. His condition was not available on Monday. "Paramedics were able to improve Janisko's condition to the point he was able to walk out, with assistance, to the waiting Jaffrey-Rindge Memorial ambulance," according to the release. "This incident is a good reminder to all people recreating in the outdoors to dress appropriately, hike with a partner or group, and carry the necessary equipment. Having appropriate gear aides in safety." Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime. This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Holliston man rescued after medical incident in New Hampshire Clwyd South MP given tour around state-of-the-art poultry processing facility The MP for Clwyd South was recently given a tour around a state-of-the-art factory in Wrexham to learn more about the investment the company brings to the local area. Maelor Foods has operated a poultry processing facility in the area since 2015, creating 251 jobs and has invested over 20 million into the facility. It is one of the most advanced of its kind in Europe, processing home reared chickens of the highest standard, supplying retailers and food service companies. It sources the chickens from a wide range of farms including 12 in Wales three of which are in the Clwyd South/Wrexham area. During the visit, Mr Baynes was able to learn more about the company and their plans for the future including investing further in Clwyd South such as creating new jobs and improving sustainability. Mr Baynes was also able to understand the ways in which Maelor Foods engages with the local community through sponsoring Marchwiel Villa FC, providing a minibus service for a local care home and also raising money for Nightingale House Hospice. Mulkh Mehta, Director of Maelor Foods, said: Im grateful to Simon for taking the time to visit us and find out more about our state-of-the-art facility. Im pleased Simon recognised the contribution Maelor Foods makes to the Clwyd South economy and the work we do to support the local community. We look forward to working with him more closely as we look to invest in our future. After the visit Simon Baynes MP said: It was a pleasure to visit Maelor Foods and to learn more about the company and their aspirations for the future. I was impressed to hear how the company is going from strength to strength and the ways in which Maelor Foods engages with the local community. I wish Maelor Foods the very best for the future. Wrexham-based manufacturer recognised at prestigious business awards A Wrexham-based manufacturer of backup electrical power systems has been recognised at a prestigious UK-wide business awards. Riello UPSs Multi Power solution claimed the Power Product of the Year prize at the Excellence Awards, an annual celebration co-hosted by the Electrical Review and Data Centre Review publications. The company, which is based on Wrexham Industrial Estate and employs around 70 staff, received the accolade at a black-tie ceremony staged at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London earlier this month. Multi Power is Riello UPSs best-selling modular solution that provides backup power in data centres and other mission-critical environments. It triumphed over four other finalists, with judges praising the products pay as you grow scalability, exceptional energy efficiency across all loads, and high power density in a compact footprint. Leo Craig, Managing Director of Riello UPS, commented: Its fantastic to earn this recognition at one of the UK electrical industrys most respected events. Multi Power is one of our flagship products and this award helps reinforce its longstanding reputation for performance, efficiency, and scalability. In addition Riello UPSs Technical Services Manager Jason Yates was a runner-up in the Technical Leader of the Year award, a new category to celebrate people who have demonstrated exceptional technical leadership and exemplify the values of the industry at large. Based at a 24,000 square foot warehouse on Wrexham Industrial Estate, Riello UPS is one of the countrys leading manufacturers of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). A UPS offers invaluable battery backup during power outages. It provides emergency electricity until backup generators kick in, as well as keeping computers and ICT equipment running long enough to safely shut-down with minimal risk of data loss. The Excellence Awards is hosted in partnership by the influential industry publications Electrical Review and Data Centre Review. It aims to celebrate excellence, best practice, innovations, and technical developments across the electrical and data centre industries. The 2022 awards featured prizes in 16 categories covering both products and projects across areas such as sustainability, innovation, and energy efficiency. Kenny Mintz spots a Bigfoot in Byesville during his walk to raise awareness and funds for three charities. Carlisle, Pennsylvania resident Kenny Mintz found his walk across Guernsey County last week to be positive and uplifting. Mintz, an Army veteran, left Washington DC April 1 to start his seven-month, 3,000 mile journey he named Kenny Walks Ac America. His mission is to raise money and awareness for pancreatic cancer and veterans. Mintz arrived in Guernsey County after traveling through Barnesville. His route took him from Putney Ridge Road, through Lore City, onto the Great Guernsey Trail and into Dogtown/Buckeye Ville where he stopped at Fran's Bar. "Everybody was real friendly and struck up a conversation. It was like everybody knows everybody," Mintz said. "You meet like one or two people and they share your information with other people and they start responding like, 'oh look that's my farm that you took a picture.'" Veteran Kenny Mintz takes a break from his cross country walk and rests on a bench on The Great Guernsey Trail. Mintz was recounting a story about a man on a four-wheeler herding cattle when a patron told him that was her ex-husband. "I was like this is amazing. It's connecting the dots and that's what's fun about doing this walk," Mintz said. "I want to connect with people, I want to meet people. I want to see America. This is the country I served for 34 years and this is what I was fighting for and I want to see what it's all about." Mintz said he was not disappointed by Guernsey County and he loved the beautiful countryside and friendly people. "It was friendly. It was beautiful and the weather was good. I have been really impressed with Ohio so far. I have never spent much time in Ohio and it's been fantastic. "I stopped at that little bar and they treated me like I was like a celebrity or something," Mintz said. "We were taking pictures and laughing and talking and it felt good. It really made me feel good about our country." Mintz's motivation for the journey started with his mother, who passed in 2020 after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Story continues He recalled how brave she was to take him at the age of 4 to start over in Washington DC after separating from his father. She then decided to move out to California, where she started a successful business. According to Mintz, his mother had a fantasy about California being the promised land. "I was watching my mom fight cancer and just said I would really like to walk across America after I retire from the Army." Mintz served one tour in Iraq and three in Afghanistan. He said he has seen his share of untimely deaths and decided life is for living now because you never know when something might happen. Mintz is promoting and raising money for three charities on his journey across America; the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which his mom asked him to do before her death, Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund, which provides scholarships to children of fallen soldiers, and Independence Fund, an organization to reunite units that served together in combat. Mintz is encouraging the people to follow his journey at Kennywalksacrossamerica.com and to make donations to the charities. He expects to arrive in Chillicothe today or Thursday. After that he will move on to Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky and St. Louis Missouri. Mintz said most of the time he usually walks by himself but he would be open to local people joining him as he passes through their area so they can share stories of the area with him. His journey will end sometime in October at Swami's Beach in Encinitas, California. This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Vet found local area uplifting in his walk across America Nearly five years after the horrific fire that killed 72 people in Londons Grenfell Tower and the government inquiry that began three months later, barely anything has changed. The burnt out Grenfell Tower tower block building nine days after the June 14, 2017 fire. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Despite testimony revealing the criminal wrongdoing of manufacturers and builders, and the corruption and negligence of government officials, not a single prosecution has been brought forward nor a significant piece of legislation adopted incorporating the recommendations of the inquirys Phase 1 report. All those in corporate and political circles responsible for the Grenfell atrocity were given guarantees of immunity from prosecution by the inquiry. The inquiry is now concluding its Phase 2 hearings, with a remit to establish why the fire took place, and is set to conclude in Julyaround one month after the June 14 anniversary. A report will then be written on its five years of deliberations. There have been 18 weeks of Phase 2 hearings this year, serving only to magnify the crimes previously revealed. This included Module 6, examining the role of central government in undermining fire regulations before the fire. Testimony showed that the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government (2010-15) considered scrapping building control entirely as part of its red tape review; that senior fire engineer John Lewis of the National House Building Council suspected cladding manufacturer Kingspan of concealing failed fire tests years before Grenfell, admitting to the corrupting influence of the desire to collaborate with industry; and that the government rejected basic competency standards for fire risk assessors to avoid burdens on business. Witnesses testified that the government had failed to heed the lessons of the 2009 Lakanal House fire, which also involved non-compliant highly combustible cladding, leading to the deaths of six people in south London. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) simply dismissed the findings of a report into the Lakanal fire and Stephen Williams, the minister responsible for building regulations in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), never bothered to read the document. When the inquiry began Module 4 in mid-April, focusing on the response of local and central government in the immediate aftermath of the fire, lawyers for the bereaved told the inquiry that those searching for their loved ones were treated like criminals and that Conservative Party-run Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council officials sought to instil fear about Grenfell survivors as its response to the fire collapsed. Given the councils complete failure to offer any humane response to the survivors of the fire, anger erupted in the local community, with hundreds of people storming Kensington Town Hall on June 16, 2017, to demand those responsible for the deaths be brought to justice. Providing aid to the fire victims and bringing those responsible to justice was the furthest thing from the minds of Prime Minister Theresa Mays government, concerned above all with the social fallout. Meetings in the Cabinet Office briefing rooms on June 16 included several members of staff from Downing Street but were also attended by officials from the Ministry of Defence. Senior civil servant Mark Sedwill emailed that the RBKC was completely out of their depth and we should have prompted a DCLG intervention earlier. The following day Sedwill, who formerly served as Mays national security advisor at the Home Office, suggested designating someone as gold minister to handle the situation: They would have to drop everything else. I fear this will become our New Orleans otherwise. This expressed the governments concern above all with a similar outbreak of social unrest that had occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the United States. In questioning Katherine Hammond, former director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), inquiry lead counsel Richard Millett QC asked, Did his presence [Sedwills] indicate to you something of what was really going on, namely that there was a national security concern which required his expertise? Millett added, The reason I ask you is because we know from earlier evidence that there had been civil unrest in Kensington, at the town hall, I think, before Mr Sedwill entered the scene, and there is, in his own words, a reference to Hurricane Katrina, our New Orleans. Hammond denied that Sedwills intervention was required due to the threat of civil unrest. In order to divert popular anger into safe, controllable channels, May established the official inquiry. The Tory government has since spent years ignoring its findings, despite initial promises to adopt suggested legislation. This is even as thousands of buildings in London and nationwide remain serious fire hazards. Latest government statistics show that 111 buildings over 18 metres with the same ACM (aluminium composite material) that spread the fire on Grenfell Tower have still not completed remediation. Of these 58 have yet to have their cladding removed, and 31 have had no work done on them at all. Residents in these blocks have lived in fear of another Grenfell for years, with all remedial work initially scheduled for completion by June 2020. The government boasts to have implemented about half of the inquirys recommendations. But these include standard advice such as having all fire and rescue services ensure that their personnel at all levels understand the risk of fire taking hold in the external walls of high-rise buildings and ensuring that the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue service with information about the design of its external walls. Even the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, an advocate of the capitals super-rich property developers, said it was extremely concerned about the consequences of inaction, and about ministers having failed to complete a single recommendation. Last month, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the government would retain the stay put emergency fire policy that played a major role in the mass death at Grenfell, including 41 percent of its disabled residents. She claimed the legal obligation on building owners to draw up personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) for residents as recommended by the inquirywould not be proportionate nor practical nor safe to implement, and that stay put was generally safer. Instead she suggested that fire services receive the location of disabled residents, but only in buildings known to be serious fire risks! Savage cost-cutting and deregulation by successive governments led to Grenfell Tower being transformed from a safe building into a death trap. Cost is yet again cited as the reason why nothing will be changed. The Home Office consultation response paper on PEEPs states, We calculate that for just a single member of staff to be on-site 24/7, it would cost approximately 8,800 to 21,900 per building per month. Grenfell United, made up of the families of victims and survivors of the fire, denounced the Home Office report as a disgrace. London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe said PEEPs was a key recommendation, adding, It is vitally important that people feel safe in their homes and have certainty about how to leave their building. At the same time, the LFB announced that more than 1,000 buildings in the capital have serious fire safety failings. Summing up the governments contempt for the victims of the inferno was the April testimony of Eric Pickles, former Secretary of State for the DCLG. He denied that adopting the coroners recommendations after the Lakanal fire would have prevented Grenfell, that the deregulation frenzy under Cameron had anything to do with the disaster and referred to 96 victims at Grenfell rather than 72confusing it with the number killed in the Hillsborough disaster. The final tally of those who died at Hillsborough was actually revised up to 97 with the July 2021 death of Andrew Devine. After over 30 years of hearings, coroners reports, inquests and an inquiry, not a single person was ever brought to justice for the Hillsborough deaths. While discussing the deregulation frenzy of the Cameron government he served in, Pickles told Millett to use your time wisely as he had a busy day ahead. Millett retorted, Your department was always subject to the deregulatory agenda and you are now seeking to recast that narrative and to underplay what was in truth an enthusiasm by your government for a deregulatory agenda, which led to a complete absence of proper checks and balances so far as concerns fire safety. Inside Housing reported that among the documents Millett produced was a letter from Pickles to Tory Chancellor George Osborne and Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg that outlined a plan for regulatory ins and outs from his department. In a table, Part B (Fire safety) was listed as an overall regulation out, with estimated savings of 25.4m per year. For further information visit the Grenfell Fire Forum Facebook page Recent reports from health officials in California have indicated that the state is experiencing a sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with an exceptionally high positivity rate in the San Francisco Bay Area. The states health department revealed that, as of May 28, the top three counties include Contra Costa, with 12.3 percent, and Marin and Solano, both with 10.9 percent. Experts warn that gatherings associated with the Memorial Day weekend will exacerbate the situation, leading to further infections and hospitalizations. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay Area reported a COVID-19 incidence of 54 per 100,000 residents on May 20, an 80 percent increase from the previous weeks 30, while hospitalizations nearly doubled over the last month to a total of 1,708. Teachers protest for stronger COVID-19 safety protocols outside Oakland Unified School District headquarters on Jan. 7, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) This significant upsurge has emerged as part of the pandemics sixth wave under conditions in which, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on May 20, the United States seven-day moving average daily case rate increased by 18.8 percent relative to the previous week, along with the 24.2 percent rise in hospitalizations, both largely driven by the highly infectious and immune-evading BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariants. The official numbers put out by the CDC, however, are likely an underestimate of the infection rate, as they fail to account for asymptomatic infections or sick individuals who do not get tested. Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), recently told the New York Times that as many as one in 20 people are asymptomatic but infectious with COVID-19. Recent data has pointed out that even infected individuals who feel fine can later suffer from long-term complications caused by COVID. Rather than stimulating calls for the immediate closure of schools and nonessential workplaces or even the reinstatement of mask mandatesnecessary measures that effectively curtail transmissionstate and local officials have largely responded to this latest surge with feckless recommendations for indoor masking, in line with the Biden administrations adamant opposition to any collective strategy to elminate SARS-CoV-2 in favor of forcing individuals to learn to live with the virus that has already killed at least one million Americans. Almost two weeks ago, parroting Bidens rhetoric, California's Chief Epidemiologist and Deputy Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Dr. Erica Pan intimated that residents ought to resign themselves to learning how to live with this virus, despite that it continues to throw curveballs and could develop into variants capable of evading our immunity to an extent that we really have a much larger impact on our infrastructure. Pan further dismissed even limited measures such as broad mask requirements and stated that a mask mandate would be considered only if there is an increase in deaths that is really unusual severely. In response to last weeks discovery in local wastewater of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariantswhich are even more transmissible than BA.2 and BA.2.12.1Santa Clara County Deputy Health Officer Dr. George Han threw his hands up, stating that the continual introduction of more and more subvariants into his jurisdiction is to be expected. Amid rampant spread of COVID-19 in the county, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo has admitted to becoming infected with the virus. On May 23 Liccardo tweeted that he is thankful that my vaccination has prevented any serious symptoms and encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, mask up indoors, and utilize free covid tests. This was not followed by any endorsement of future lockdowns or even mask mandates, measures that would have prevented his own infection. San Jose, which has a population of just under 2 million, is the largest city by population in the Bay Area and the tenth largest city in the US. Despite walkouts of students in the Bay Area last January to demand adequate masking and outdoor seating, in May spokespeople for the San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District rejected any changes to their mask-optional policies. On May 19, the Chronicle reached out to several public school officials in the region, including spokespeople for the San Francisco and Oakland school districts, who uniformly rejected any changes to their mask-optional policies. Representing the former, Laura Dudnick, seeking to assuage students and parents concerns, said that the district is following public health guidance and strongly encouraging vaccines and. .. masking. Most Bay Area school districts are taking their lead. Exemplifying the bankruptcy of this policy, in early April about 90 out of 600 attendees at San Mateo High Schools prom event, held at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, tested positive for COVID. As the Mercury News reported, though students were strongly recommended to wear masks, many chose not to. While many officials openly downplay the mounting threat of the current surge, some schools have been forced to implement stricterthough still limitedmeasures to appease their constituents. Berkeley Unified School District reinstated its mask mandates last Monday, which were lifted following Governor Gavin Newsoms mid-March ending of the statewide mandate, for the remaining two weeks of the school year. According to the districts public information officer Trish McDermott, this decision was made at the recommendation of a city public health officer in the face of rising infections, often involving at least three or more. .. occurring in the classroom, sometimes as many as five or six. As early as late April, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, which serves 50 stations throughout the region, began requiring riders to mask up until at least mid July. To encourage compliance, BART police is providing masks to unmasked riders and imposing $75 citations on those who violate the mandate. Regional health experts largely concur on the causes of the upsurge. UCSF infectious disease specialists Dr. George Rutherford and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong point to BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, which are 30-50 percent and 25 percent more transmissible than the parent Omicron virus, respectively. Further factors, notes Dr. Wachter, include the regions high proportion both of residents who have been able to work remotely during the pandemic anddue to loosened restrictionssuddenly been exposed to the virus, and of those who have never become infected. The evidence is a damning indictment of the response to the pandemic by both Democratic and Republican officials at the federal, state, and local levels, who march in lockstep with each other imposing the same unscientific, expressly anti-working-class policies in the interests of the financial elites. The purpose of these policies is not to protect the broad masses of American workers but, on the contrary, to ensure the unimpeded generation of profits from their labor, whatever the cost in lives and livelihoods. To defend its own interests against the ruling class rapacious policy of mass death, it is vital for workers in California to form rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the trade unions and the Democratic Party, in workplaces and schools throughout the state. We urge all who agree with this perspective to contact the World Socialist Web Site today and help build and expand the West Coast Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees. One of the central questions in biology is how life first evolved from inanimate matter, known as abiogenesis. It has long been hypothesized that the origin of life on Earth involved the evolution of molecules, floating in the primordial soup 4 billion years ago, that assembled themselves into structures that self-replicate. Two recently reported research projects bring us closer to an understanding of possible mechanisms by which that took place. At the most basic level, a living organism is one that can reproduce itself by incorporating raw materials from its environment (i.e., nutrients) and use these materials to make more or less identical copies of itself. In order for the copies to resemble the original, there must be a recorded pattern, a code, which determines the form of the copies. All life on Earth is based on two complex molecules: deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), which constitute the code by which the information to construct and reproduce an organism is recorded and implemented. Both are composed of chains of chemicals known as nucleotides. Sets of three nucleotides specify a particular amino acid. The sequence of these nucleotide triplets in any given DNA or RNA molecule constitutes a code that can specify a series of amino acids which together compose a particular protein. Proteins are a basic building block of living organisms. Graphic representation of a loop of RNA. Highlighted are the nucleotide bases (green) and the ribose-phosphate backbone (blue). This is a single strand of RNA that folds back upon itself. (Credit: Vossman , via Wikimedia Commons). DNA is the famous double helix, the structure of which was first discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick. Its structure consists of two parallel strands of nucleotides entwined helically. RNA exists as a single strand of nucleotides, though it can form double strands and thereby replicate itself. In addition, not only must living organisms reproduce themselves, but they must have the ability to adapt to a changing environment, in other words, to evolve through succeeding generations, classically known by the Darwinian phrase descent with modification. Otherwise, if replication were perfect every time, no change would occur, and the pattern would simply be repeated ad infinitum, like the growth of a crystal, and the myriad living organisms that have existed on Earth would never have evolved. How did these properties originate? The current dominant theory, known as the RNA world, formulated by Walter Gilbert in 1986, holds that the first living organisms were based on RNA as their genetic material, with DNA-based organisms evolving later, presumably as an evolutionary development from an RNA ancestor. In the first of the two recent studies, a Japanese team, based at the University of Tokyo, used RNA sequences that, under specific conditions, spontaneously replicated themselves and underwent modification in subsequent generations (Mizuuchi, Furubayashi, and Ichihashi, Evolutionary transition from a single RNA replicator to a multiple replicator network, Nature Communications, March 18, 2022). They posed their research question as follows. An origins-of-life scenario depicts Darwinian evolution from self-replicating molecules, such as RNA, toward complex living systems. How molecular replicators could develop complexity by continuously expanding information and functions is a central issue in prebiotic evolution. This team conducted a long-term experiment in which they encased RNA molecules obtained from Escherichia coli (a common bacteria), in water-in-oil droplets, heating them, and introducing additional nucleotides as raw material. They found that over time, as new copies of the RNA molecules were generated, the original sequences mutated, creating distinct lineages. Notably, the new lineages did not undergo further mutations at the same rate and began to differentiate due to imperfect replication, indicating the potential for different evolutionary trajectories and, in effect, manifesting the potential for different evolutionary fitness which would have been subject to natural selection. They also found that different lineages interacted with each other in replication, creating a complex, interdependent system. The researchers concluded, Our results provide evidence that Darwinian evolution drives complexification of molecular replicators, paving the way toward the emergence of living systems. Thus, natural chemical processes not only produce molecules that replicate themselves but launch a self-sustaining trajectory to increasing complexity. One of the team, Ryo Mizuuchi, explained to OnlySky, The simplicity of our molecular replication system, compared with biological organisms, allows us to examine evolutionary phenomena with unprecedented resolution. The evolution of complexity seen in our experiment is just the beginning. Many more events should occur towards the emergence of living systems. He added, We found that the single RNA species evolved into a complex replication system: a replicator network comprising five types of RNAs with diverse interactions, supporting the plausibility of a long-envisioned evolutionary transition scenario. A second experiment was conducted by a different set of researchers, based at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany (Muller et al, A prebiotically plausible scenario of an RNA-peptide world, Nature, May 11, 2022). This team set out to examine how, prior to the appearance of DNA, the first life forms, based on RNA, could begin to assemble amino acids into proteins. It had been previously observed that RNA strands become increasingly fragile as they lengthen, thus posing the question of how RNA could assemble more than short segments of amino acids, also known as peptides, which are intermediate steps in the construction of proteins. It has long been known that nucleic acid strands in both RNA and DNA contain segments that code specifically for the assembly of amino acids into proteins and others the function of which was unclear. The research by Muller et al demonstrates that these non-coding segments of RNA can bond with amino acids to form structures, some relatively complex, that strengthen the RNA strand and form a scaffolding on which longer segments of amino acids can be assembled by the coding sections of the RNA. The German research appears to address earlier criticisms of the RNA-world scenario which contend that RNA alone could not have fulfilled the necessary replicatory and information storage functions necessary to initiate life. RNA by itself does not have what one critic called computational reflexivity, the capacity to accurately reproduce itself. These critics proposed an RNA-peptide world in which combinations of these two molecules had this property. This is what the German team has found. In many modern organisms, DNA functions as the primary mechanism by which genetic information is stored in order not only to direct the growth and function of an individual organism but also to transmit the code to produce the next generation. RNA operates in a supportive role within a cell, functioning to transfer sections of code to assemble the necessary amino acids to construct specific proteins in intra-cellular structures called ribosomes. The combined results of these two studies provide key details regarding the initial evolution of life from non-life. Many questions remain. How did DNA develop? How did RNA become incorporated in a subordinate role within cells where DNA functions as the primary information repository? Nevertheless, the results of these two research projects contribute to the demystification of the origin of life and reinforce our understanding that living things, including humans, do not embody some mysterious divine spark, as religion would have it, but instead are the product of natural, scientifically understandable laws of the material world. And, furthermore, that if suitable, though not necessarily identical, conditions exist on other planets in the Universe, life is likely to exist elsewhere as well. The number of people living in internal displacement around the world reached 59.1 million at the end of 2021, up from 55 million and 50 million in 2020 and 2019, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)s annual global report. There are an additional 26.6 million registered refugees living outside their country of origin, taking the total number of forcibly displaced people to 86 million. Internally displaced people wait for aid in Djibo, Burkina Faso, Thursday May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick) To put this figure in context: the equivalent of the population of Germany, or more than one percent of the worlds 7.9 billion population, have been driven from their homes. And this is only the recorded number. The real figure is higher. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose annual Global Trends Report on forced displacement is due to be published on June 16, puts the total number including asylum seekers at more than 100 million. The record number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is the result of wars, conflicts and violence provoked or directly waged by the imperialist powers, as well as natural disasters, often created or exacerbated by the activities of the worlds giant corporations and their governments. Last year saw 38 million new IDPs created, with sub-Saharan Africa the most affected area. More than five million people were displaced in Ethiopia alone, the highest figure ever for a single country in one year, due to the civil war against Tigrayan rebels that has spread to neighbouring provinces. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Afghanistan and Myanmar also registered unprecedented numbers of IDPs in 2021. The DRC has for decades been the arena of largely unreported and forgotten wars, fought by shifting alliances aided and abetted by neighbouring countries and the local kleptocrats they serve, for control of the countrys vast mineral resources. These are of critical importance for the global manufacturing of the lithium-ion batteries used for electric vehicles (containing cobalt), electronic devices (containing tantalum, tin and gold) and infrastructure (copper for transmission lines). Over 4.5 million Congolese are displaced within the DRC due to violence in the Kasai, Tanganyika, Ituri, and Kivu regions, while more than 864,000 Congolese refugees were recorded in 2021. The DRC also hosts large numbers of refugees from neighbouring countries. The Middle East and North Africa has recorded the smallest number of new IDPs in 10 years, as US-orchestrated conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq have to some degree subsided while Washingtons attention is focused on Russia. The overall number of those fleeing evictions, death threats and ethnic cleansing perpetuated by sectarian violencetypically young jobless men, single mothers and unaccompanied childrenremains very high. While natural disasters triggered the most internal displacements, conflicts and violence compounded the scale of these disasters, forcing people to flee several times. There were multiple, overlapping crises in Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia and South Sudan that affected food security and forced people from their homes. The knock-on effects of the COVID pandemic, including loss of employment and global travel restrictions, also exacerbated the situation. Some 25.2 million (41 percent) of the worlds IDPs are under the age of 18. They will suffer the lifelong disadvantages, including the psychological impact, that flow from being forced to live in squalid refugee campslittle more than prisons for the worlds most vulnerablerife with disease and exploitation. More than 25 percent of the worlds refugees are from Syria, with around 6.7 million Syrians in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey as a result of the imperialist-instigated civil war. In Lebanon, where there are no formal camps, more than one million Syrians are scattered around the country, often in overcrowded temporary shelters. A view of the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, 2017 (Credit: Flickr / UN Photo/ Sahem Rababah) Roughly 10 percent of the worlds refugees, 2.6 million, are Afghan by birth and living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. Of those Afghans still living in their home country, most are in areas directly affected by conflict, forcing continual internal displacement. The country has suffered natural disasters including floods, landslides, earthquakes and drought. Nearly four million South Sudanese people have fled their homes, with around 2.6 million displaced to Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and the DRC. In December 2013, war erupted between rival factions of the ruling elite for control of newly established South Sudans oil resources. An increasing number of people are fleeing neighboring Sudan amid ongoing poverty, drought and famine that fueled mass protests in the run up to the pre-emptive military coup in April 2019 and the subsequent violence of the military junta. Sudan is at the same time the fifth largest country of asylum for refugees, including the largest population of refugees from South Sudan. More than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees have fled ongoing violence in Myanmar since August 2017, with many of the stateless Rohingya ending up in the worlds largest refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. Another sectarian conflictin the Central African Republic (CAR), ongoing since 2012has displaced more than one million people, more than 20 percent of the countrys five million population. Around 10 percent of Eritreas populationover 492,000 peopleare living overseas as refugees due to the social and political instability and violence fueled by US and European imperialisms bid to control energy resources and the strategic location on the Red Sea, through which much of the Middle Easts oil exports pass. Thousands have died attempting to flee the war zones created by the imperialist powers throughout Africa and Asia in their quest for markets and mineral resources. The European Union has adopted a policy of mass murder, all but obliterating the right to asylum by refusing to accept refugees, leading to more than 3,000 people dead or reported missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean and the Atlantic last year according to the UNHCR. The UN body appealed last April for $163.5 million to assist and protect thousands of refugees and asylum seekers. This and similar appeals by UN agencies for humanitarian aid fell on deaf ears. The major powers are using the war in Ukraine and the recession engulfing the world as a pretext for reducing already limited humanitarian aid available to people viewed as so much surplus labour. There has been barely any mention of the latest displacement figures in the worlds press. Wars, conflicts and disasters and the ensuing misery are not only normalized but becoming the policy of choice for the major imperialist powers and their puppet regimes in the worlds poorest countries. The numbers of IDPs and refugees are already out of date. The war in Ukraine that began on February 24 had by the beginning of May caused more than eight million of Ukraines 44 million population to flee their homes, with a further 6.8 million taking refuge outside Ukraine. This far exceeds the UNHCRs initial estimate that four million Ukrainiansnearly 10 percent of the populationwould be displaced internationally because of the war. Most have fled to neighbouring Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia. Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, commented, The situation today is phenomenally worse than even our record figure suggests, as it doesnt include nearly eight million people forced to flee the war in Ukraine. The US/NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has caused the largest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. The globally displaced and refugee population is likely to reach a new high by the end of 2022 as Washington and NATO massively expand the war in Ukraine and threaten China. The ever-deepening crisis of capitalism, exacerbated by the pandemic, poses ever more starkly the urgent necessity of building a massive anti-war, anti-capitalist movement and socialist leadership in the working class that will put an end to imperialist war and poverty. The school year is now completed and summer has arrived. Kids have plenty of possibilities for summer fun: playing outside, swimming, camping, family vacations and so much more. But students can add another exciting option to their summer to-do list: music and theatre summer camps. Four excitement-filled camps taught by some of the areas most talented musicians and teachers will take place at the Mineral Area Fine Arts Academy on the Mineral Area College campus. Each camp has an end-of-the-week showcase on Friday evening. Show Choir Camp June 6-10, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Catch A Wave with this summer camp full of high energy, choreography, lights, costumes and solo opportunities for students in eighth grade through college. And the best news? There are still openings available for students to take part in Show Choir Camp. The Little Surfers Show Choir is geared toward students in third to seventh grades. They will rehearse after the regular show choir camp from 4-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 1-3 p.m. on Friday. A combined rehearsal will take place on Friday. Cost for this camp is $40. Sherry Francis directed the first MAFAA show choir camp last year. The performers formed a special bond of friendship and it was an overall incredible experience, she said. It was something I will never forget. Francis said learning a set of music with harmonies and solos along with challenging choreography and dance formations in only five days is not a simple task. But these amazing students brought excellence and star qualities like no other, she said, referring to last years camp. Most importantly and amazingly, they felt like a family almost immediately. The magic of music is beyond words. Francis said this years show choir camp is super cool. Just imagine, school is out and what better way to kick off the summertime fun then with an enormous beach party, she said. Youre gonna want to hang ten and dive in because Surfs Up! The show choir camp for eighth graders to college students will include upbeat music from The Beach Boys to Teen Beach Movie and more. According to Francis, this one-week camp will be the biggest beach party the Mineral Area has ever seen! Both show choir groups will each perform on Friday evening and then do a combined song. Theatre Camp June 13-17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Students are encouraged to act out in theater camp. From improvisation and readers theatre to dance and musicals, there is something for everyone interested in theatre. Seventh graders to college-age students are invited to take part in this camp. Participants will be grouped by age and experience. Each class will have its own agenda and activities, largely based on the age and attention span of the students. We try our best to break the day up by doing various activities, to make it feel less like work, and we try to make it a fun environment, said Jason Carr, MAFAAs theatre director. He said 72 campers participated in last years theatre camp. This year, the goal is to surpass 100 participants. There is zero experience required to participate in this camp, said Carr, just a positive attitude and a willingness to learn and have fun. Students who participate in the theatre camp will not only learn how to express themselves creatively, instill confidence and make new friendships. We just start with the absolute basics with the youngest age group and work to more advanced stuff with the older participants, said Carr. He said one of the most important things hell teach the students is how to be heard. Projection, diction and articulation will all be covered for each age group. Theyll also focus on facial expressions, action and interaction, and how to move no stage. More advanced students will do some improvisation, pantomime and character development. Carr said with the growth of the academy and the overwhelming support from the community, they are expecting all of the summer camps to have larger numbers than last year. Out of all the skills hell teach the kids, one thing is the most important thing for them to acquire: new friendships. But to me, making friends is one of the most important aspects of the fine arts, he said. The connections we make in these adventures turn into long-lasting friendships. I also want the kids to have fun. If they dont enjoy this sort of stuff, theyre arent going to be able to get the most out of it. Once they develop a love for theatre, the other stuff starts to fall into place. Big Band Camp June 27-July 1, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Students in seventh grade to college level who play trumpet, trombone, saxophone, guitar, bass, vibraphone, drums or piano and have at least one year of instruction or are proficient on their instrument are encouraged to take part in this camp. Students will be paired together based on experience and will spend the week gaining valuable education in being part of a big band. Theyll also learn about the history of jazz, improvisation, various jazz styles and more. This camp was a huge success last year, said Amanda Dement, director of MAFAA, and we hope to add many more students to the bands this year. Members of the Mineral Area Kicks Band, as well as other talented educators will staff the Big Band Camp. Dement said shes excited to see what this year brings with more students being able to attend. She added that students must not have previous experience in jazz to be part of this camp. As long as they are proficient in their instrument, theyll learn the basics up to the most advanced. Middle School Band Camp July 11-15, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This summer camp is specifically for students who have completed their first or second year of band and will include small and full band rehearsals, master classes, music theory classes, team building opportunities, and more. Students will be paired with peers of the same ability and experience to allow them the best opportunity to grow and gain confidence with their instrument. Dement said MAFAAs summer camps are a great way to provide a sample of what the academy is about: great experiences, inspiring connections and instruction that is tailored to the needs of each student. We have an exciting, talented and passionate group of teachers for every camp that who are looking forward to providing a memorable educational experience and inspiring young people to find new things to love or refine the talents they are already growing in, she said. Dement said the camp is an overall incredible experience for both students and staff. No matter what the students emotions are on the first day of camp, it is so rewarding to see them step out of their comfort zone and be impacted by the arts, she said. Everyone learns so much, makes new connections, and discovers more about who they are and how they can embrace what makes them unique. One of Dements favorite things about the camps is being part of a students life to watch them grow into what they love. Several local businesses sponsored lunch for one of the 15 days of MAFAA camps last year, including El Tapatio, Bow Tie Catering, BOGO Sandwiches, SugarFire Smoke House Farmington, Coljacs, Pizza 101 South, East Missouri Action Agency, Park Hills Save A Lot, Jimmy Johns, Desloge Little Caesars, Pasta House and Subway. Currently EMAA is providing lunch for three of the four camps. For businesses who would like to sponsor a lunch for the remaining camp, contact Dement immediately at mineralareama@gmail.com. Registration for MAFAAs summer camps must be completed at least three days prior to the first day of that camp. Cost is $95 per camp and includes an end-of-week performance. On the first day of each camp, parents need to escort their students inside so they can finalize registration details. More information can be found on the academys website at mafinearts.org. Call 573-518-2265 for more information. Pam Clifton is a contributing writer for the Daily Journal Love 0 Funny 1 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. Spain has officially entered a seventh wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the highly infectious and immunity-evading Omicron BA.2 and XE, XT and BA.2.12.1 subvariants, even as it also becomes an epicentre of the monkeypox outbreak. People walk along a boulevard in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) On April 20, the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government lifted compulsory masking, one of the few remaining public health measures left in place after the opening measures in March. Since April 20, nearly 2,000 people have died of COVID-19. On May 28, there were 6,980 people hospitalized in Intensive Care Units (ICU), 1,300 more than the 5,635 hospitalized on April 20. The 14-day notification rate of newly reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population is 663. However, this only counts the cases in people over 60. An incidence of more than 500 cases per 100,000 people is considered high risk. The Ministry of Health registered 45,919 new cases of coronavirus this Friday, including 22,120 that occurred in people over 60 years of age. The total number of recorded COVID-19 infections now stands at 12,360,256, or over one-quarter of the population. In addition, 260 deaths have been recorded in the last week, making the official deaths from COVID-19 106,341 people. This is a significant underestimate. According to an investigation published by The Lancet magazine in March, from December 2019 to December 2021, excess deaths in Spain from the virus stand at 162,000, 64 percent higher than the official figure of 98,900 reported in December. The data show that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a serious danger. The PSOE-Podemos government has, however, reacted with complete indifference, continuing its let it rip strategy of mass infection, allowing COVID-19 to continue to infect, incapacitate and kill tens of thousands. Key to this policy is normalising the virus by equating its treatment with the flu. Over the last two months, the PSOE-Podemos government eliminated practically all restrictions and controls on the spread of the pandemic. These include: The requirement to self-isolate if infected with COVID-19, other than in vulnerable settings like elderly homes. Limiting access to accurate PCR tests, now only available on medical prescription. Lifting mandatory use of indoor masking, except on public transport and in health centres. Removal of almost all measures in educational centres: quarantines; safety distancing of 1.2 meters between pupils; the bubble system; fixed seats on school buses; and preventing parents from re-entering schools and participating in face-to-face tutoring. This PSOE-Podemos policy is rooted in class interests: to treat economic health and human life as comparable, with the former prioritised over the latter. After eliminating quarantines, the Health Ministry established that sick leave should no longer be given to close contacts of COVID-19 patients or to those exposed to COVID-19. Even those infected who are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms are denied sick leave, a measure the capitalist class sees as essential to keep workers on the job. These measures have been denounced by health professionals. Last week, Margarita del Val, a virologist and immunologist coordinating the Interdisciplinary Thematic Research Platform on Global Health from the Spanish National Research Council established in March 2020 to fight the pandemic, denounced the PSOE-Podemos removal of monitoring of the virus. During the first International Summit on Pandemic Management held in Valencia, she stated that we are in a very difficult time. She said, We have little data and we dont know what will happen, but Im almost sure that when Christmas comes, with our usual behavior, we will catch other respiratory diseases and Covid. Dr. Francisco Jose Saez, the head of the Occupational Health Working Group of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), also denounced these measures. He told the digital newspaper Acta Sanitaria that the lack of monitoring of incidence in those under 60 years of age clearly falsifies pandemic data. He said doctors do not understand that if you have a sick patient under 60 years of age [with COVID-19], this will not be recorded. This explains why the prevalence of the disease is falling in Spain. Health professionals are also suffering from the states refusal to consider COVID-19 an occupational disease. Saez explained that if a health professional has complied with all the health and safety measures, and gets infected, they will be told that you have not caught the disease here and you will have caught it at home. In other words, if you get it, it was by mistake. Saez noted: right now, sick leave is not being given to people who get COVID-19 in a nursing home. They are being told that they can go back to work without problems if they put on the mask ... but if, later, one of these people develops Long Covid, it will not be recognised as such. The PSOE-Podemos government is not only condemning millions of workers to infection, but also leaving them defenceless against Long COVID. An estimated 10 percent of those infected suffer from Long COVID. According to the Multidisciplinary Working Group on the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1 million people are likely suffering from it in Spain. Long COVID is not even considered an illness in Spain, however. Patients with this condition do not receive specific medical care for it and cannot get sick leave. Maria Lorenzo, a member of the working group of the Persistent Covid Asturias collective, said: We depend on the family doctor to believe us when we tell him our symptoms, if not, he refers us to mental health services. Even Health Minister Carolina Darias acknowledged in March of this year that the Spanish health system did not have enough information on Long COVID. At that time, she announced that a study had been requested from the Carlos III Institute. But this is a cynical ploy. The study was entrusted to Ferran Barbe, a pulmonologist who has publicly downplayed the virus and even denied its existence. The studys lack of rigour has been reported to the Ombudsman by organisations including the Long Covid ACTS Patient Groups and Associations Platform, the Long Covid Aragon Association, the Madrid Persistent Covid 19 Collective, the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), the SATSE Nursing Union and the State Confederation of Medical Unions. They point out that the sample of patients in the study is too small to be representative, and that the study questionnaire is biased to avoid the fundamental symptoms of Long COVID. None of this is an error or a coincidence. The PSOE-Podemos government is seeking to reduce sick leave and allocate the minimum health resources to treating the sick. The aim is to force the more than 1 million people affected to go to work while sick, and to save as much money as possible on their health treatment. At the same time, the European Union is spending billions of euros on sending weapons to Ukraine to wage war on Russia. The PSOE-Podemos criminality in relation to COVID-19 is a warning about how it will react to the monkeypox outbreak. Spain has 142 cases of monkeypox, making it an epicentre of the virus in Europe. Luckily, all cases are evolving well and are mild, but limiting the contagion is essential. For this, early diagnosis and isolating the patient is important, something which the PSOE-Podemos government has already proven to be hostile to against COVID-19. The virus is now spreading rapidly in seven regions in Spain, with the Madrid region leading with at least 66 cases. US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that Washington will deliver advanced longer-range missile systems HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) to the Ukrainian army, as part of yet another $700 million in military aid that the White House announced on May 31. This latest tranche brings the total direct military aid committed by the Biden administration since the beginning of the war three months ago to $4.6 billion. Hours after this announcement from Washington, Politico reported that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Biden had spoken Wednesday morning about the transfer of US-made M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS). UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are set to discuss further details on the deliveries on Thursday morning. Out of all of the imperialist provocations of recent months against Russia in their proxy war in Ukraine, the US and NATO delivery of longer-range missile systems is one of the most dangerous. Both the HIMARS and MLRS are advanced long-range missile systems which, depending on the munition, can launch rockets as far as 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, away. According to CNN, both are fired from a mobile vehicle at land-based targets, which would allow the Ukrainians to more easily strike targets inside Russia. As for munitions, the US will deliver the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets that can strike targets that are 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, away. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Biden said that these missiles will enable them [the Ukrainian army] to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine. The delivery of these advanced missile systems is clearly meant to shift the balance of forces in the imperialist proxy war in Ukraine against Russia back to Ukraines NATO-backed military. Unlike in the first stage of the war, when Ukraines military and paramilitary could drag down Russian forces in bloody urban fighting, the war is now almost entirely fought in East Ukraine, and artillery is playing a much bigger role, giving Russia an advantage. After a humiliating first stage of the war and major military losses, Russia has made significant advances in recent weeks. The strategic port city of Mariupol is now under Russian control, enabling the Kremlin to form a land bridge between the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea and the territories around Donetsk and Lugansk, which have been held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Russian forces also appear to be in the process of taking over the strategic city of Severodonetsk (or Sievierodonetsk). Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged last week that his army was losing between 60 and 100 men each day in the war in the Donbass while 500 are being wounded on a daily basis. Many estimate that Ukrainian losses may be even higher. Above all, however, the HIMARS and MLRS deliveries raise the direct prospect of Ukraine firing missiles far into Russian territory. Leading Russian officials have made stark warnings of the potential escalation of the war and its expansion beyond the borders of both Ukraine and Russia. Commenting on the first reports about the impending deliveries of these systems last week, Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated, We have warned the West in the most serious manner that they are, in essence, already waging a proxy war against the Russian Federation with the hands, bodies and brains of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, but this [such deliveries] will constitute the most serious step toward an unacceptable escalation. Dmitry Medvedev, the head of the Russian Security Council and one of the most bellicose politicians in Moscow, warned on May 30 that, in case of attacks on Russian cities, Russias armed forces would carry out strikes on the decision-making centers responsible for coordinating these strikes, noting that Some of them are not at all in Kiev. The White House announced the extraordinarily provocative move with the empty assurance that the US would only deliver munitions that can strike 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, and that the Ukrainian government had given assurances that it would not strike targets in Russia. This is a charade. Munition deliveries can be changed at any moment. In fact, in the past two months, in which Washington has passed more than $54 billion of aid for Ukraine, it has revised, time and again, what had earlier been proclaimed off limits. Even before Washington rammed through a $40 billion aid budget for Ukraine in May, the US had committed over 90 155mm Howitzers and over 200,000 155mm artillery rounds; 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; over 5,500 Javelin anti-armor systems and over 14,000 other anti-armor systems. The US has since begun delivering Harpoon anti-ship missiles via Denmark to Ukraine, as well as the M109 Paladin armored self-propelled howitzer, the same anti-ship missiles and mobile artillery systems that the US Navy and Army are using. Now, US weapons manufacturers are looking forward to over $17 billion in weapons contracts, just from the $40 billion war bill. And the word of the government of Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky, which is parading neo-Nazis from the Azov Battalion as heroes and the best defenders of Ukraine, is worthless. In an interview Tuesday night, Zelensky claimed, We are not planning to attack Russia. We are not fighting on their territory. We have the war on our territory. In fact, there already have been multiple air strikes on targets from the Ukrainian side on arms depots and factories, as well as villages in the Russian Kursk region. Dozens of Russian civilians have been wounded, and at least two have been killed; many residents of the border region have been relocated. The Russian Defense Ministry has recently increased its troop and artillery deployments to the Kursk region. Ukrainian officials have refused to either confirm or deny that Kiev was behind these attacks, but even outlets like the Wall Street Journal now openly write that Ukraine has been carrying out strikes on Russian territory. A Russian official, speaking to the government-controlled Izvestiia newspaper, noted that the US does not recognize Crimea as part of Russia or the so called Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent, as the Kremlin does. Strikes on these territories with the HIRMAS or MLRS could therefore be justified as legitimate by both Kiev and the White House but still provoke major retaliation by Russia. Since March 2021, the retaking of both the Donbass and Crimea has been part of Ukraines official military doctrine. In a lying op-ed for the New York Times, Biden claimed that the US does not seek a war between NATO and Russia and does not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia. The US president must take his readers for fools. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia was not only provoked deliberately for many years. Every step the US has taken since the beginning of its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has been aimed at escalating and expanding the conflict. While the White House and its subservient media work overtime to lull the public about the dangerous implications of these reckless policies, denying or downplaying the threat of nuclear escalation, the Wall Street Journal has now revealed that there has been a series of urgent meetings in the administration to map out how Mr. Biden should respond if Russia conducts a nuclear detonation in Ukraine or around the Black Sea. Officials will not discuss the classified results of those tabletop exercises. Are you a teacher, parent or student in Baton Rouge? Write us to report on how the layoffs have impacted you and your school. Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana [Wikimedia Commons] Teacher shortages are creating crisis conditions throughout the state of Louisiana, where there are more than 2,500 certified teacher vacancies. According to State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumely, an estimated 50,000, K-12 students, roughly 7 percent of the total, are directly affected by teacher vacancies. However, this leaves out the indirect impact on students whose teachers are stretched thin, sacrificing planning periods and taking on extra work to cover the shortages. Students have been herded into cafeterias and auditoriums to be supervised because there is no one to teach them, an increasingly common practice across the US. A recent report by the state Legislative Auditor found that Louisiana has the fifth-highest percentage nationwide of uncertified teachers, at 9 percent compared to the national average of 3.2 percent. The state also has the fourth-highest percentage of inexperienced teachers, with 16.1 percent of teachers in their first or second year, compared to the national average of 11.7. Within charter schools, the percentage of uncertified teachers jumps to 49.7 percent, compared to only 7.9 percent in traditional public schools. Following Hurricane Katrina, the entire city of New Orleans was converted into the countrys first all-charter school district. The staffing shortages extend beyond the classroom. Louisiana employs one school psychologist for every 3,300 students, nearly one-seventh the National Association of School Psychologists recommended ratio of one for 500. This is enough to place the state in the bottom ten nationwide. Stop-gap legislative efforts to bandage the shortage include a miserly $1,500 pay raise for teachers, a pending bill that would incentivize retired teachers to return to work while still receiving retirement benefits, and a proposed scholarship fund to recruit high school students into the profession. According to the National Education Association, in the 2020-2021 school year, Louisiana ranked 43 out of 50 for average teacher salary at just $52,472 compared to the national average of $65,293. It is within the context of severe shortages that a recent mass layoff took place in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools district (EBR). In May, despite a budget surplus and over 600 vacancies for the 2022-2023 school year, at least 230 employees were informed that their positions were being eliminated. The employees, including both teachers and staff, were told they could apply for or be reassigned to vacant jobs at other schools. According to The Advocate, 54 schools lost at least one position, and 23 schools lost at least five positions. One middle school, Park Forest, will lose eight teachers. Educators, parents and students responded with outrage to the announcements, holding protests at local school board meetings. EBR Superintendent Sito Narcisse, architect of the revised staffing formula that led to the reassignments, has been a particular focus of their anger. An online petition begun by a parent urging the school board to review Narcisses contract and vote no confidence has received over 2,300 signatures. Comments on the petition reveal that the layoffs will have a devastating impact on the fine arts classes, orchestra and other treasured elective programs. One bus driver wrote, Im a tired, stressed and fed up bus driver. This has been the worst year in all of my years. Weve had so many drivers quit and even more planning to retire. We deserve someone who cares about us. I sat in meetings with this man and his blatant disrespect and disregard for the bus drivers is unbelievable. If he doesnt care about the school district as a whole, then he should not be in that position. The Advocate reported that Narcisse claimed in an email to district personnel that his decision was meant to ensure every child is served by qualified and effective personnel, in order to ensure their success. He continued, This redistribution of talent has resulted in some employees being impacted and given the opportunity to serve at another school or in another capacity with the district as we focus on effectively meeting the needs of each child (emphasis added). What nerve! Amid an historic nationwide teacher shortage, teachers are given the opportunity to reapply for another job with the district that just fired them. Identity politics has also been invoked to support this blatant attack on public education, with Narcisse garnering the support of prominent African American business and nonprofit representatives. A press conference held in his support included members of the Baton Rouge Black Chamber of Commerce, the Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP, 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Baton Rouge, and other Democratic Party-linked organizations. Their claim is that the forced reassignments are a legitimate method of staffing experienced teachers into the most underfunded and poor performing schools, which will improve education for African American students. In their view, scarcity of resources is not the problem, only that scarce resources should be equitably divided. Eugene Collins, president of the East Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP, went so far as to blame teachers for the crisis in education. Referring to the fact that after this latest attack many teachers will look for work in other districts or leave the profession altogether, he said, If these teachers are going to leave the district and have a mass exodus because they dont want to teach poor kids, something is not right with that. This cynical declaration is totally divorced from reality. The mass exodus from the teaching profession, which has reached record levels following two years of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is the result of decades of bipartisan attacks on public education funding, low wages, grueling working conditions, lack of administrative support, and physically dangerous school environments. Thousands of educators and students have died as a result of the forced reopening of schools during the pandemic, and schools are known to be one of the most significant vectors for community transmission. The Uvalde, Texas massacre, the latest episode in the decades-long school shooting epidemic, has further illuminated for educators the low regard that the corporate political establishment has for their and their students lives. For their parts, the local teachers unions have not made any effort to mobilize educators against this attack on their jobs. In a statement to The Advocate, the president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators, Valencea Johnson, merely stated that the district was taking a step in the wrong direction. Neither the Association nor the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers appear to have gone so far as to release a press statement on the eliminations. This is in line with the role of the unions throughout the pandemic, from the local to national level, which collaborated with both the Trump and Biden administrations in their efforts to force millions of educators and children into infected classrooms so that their parents could be forced back into infected workplaces. Major strikes over the last two years in Chicago, Minneapolis, Sacramento and elsewhere were shut down by the unions, which strong-armed their members into accepting sellout contracts and dangerous working conditions. Educators in Baton Rouge and Louisiana must be warned that attacks on their jobs, wages and working conditions will only increase as the crisis in public education intensifies. The unions, which are directly tied to the Democratic Party and help to serve the interests of the capitalist system, have demonstrated that they will do nothing to defend their members lives or livelihoods. The World Socialist Web Site encourages educators and parents to fight to defend public education by joining and building the growing network of independent rank-and-file committees in every city and school. These committees are the basis upon which a mass movement of the working class can organize across the US and internationally to secure safe, fully funded and staffed schools for all students and teachers. Since the advent of the Omicron phase of the COVID pandemic, the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have evolved into far more contagious versions without losing any of their intrinsic pathogenicity or virulence. They have also proven to evade immunity provided by the current mRNA COVID vaccines. Effectiveness against symptomatic infection even after a booster is proving short and fleeting. One of the leading examples of this process, South Africa, is currently riding out its fifth wave of COVID infection, with the new BA.4 and BA.5 variants dominant. A recent population-based COVID seroprevalence study (which reviews blood evidence from large populations rather than individuals), found that 97 percent of the population had significant antibodies either from vaccination or previous infection. But the presence of these antibodies was no barrier to the new infections. The implication here is that no combination of previous vaccination and infection will ever bring the pandemic to an end. Herd immunity, the claim that rising antibody levels will reduce the population vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 to such a low level that the virus will die out for lack of hosts, is a myth. Against the claims by government officials and the corporate media that COVID-19 has become endemic, it would be more correct to say that the pandemic has become permanent. The evidence is mounting that SARS-CoV-2 is proving to be a very fit pathogen. It adapts to population immunity while maintaining its intrinsic virulence. The politically convenient construct of coronavirus evolving into ever-milder versions, peddled incessantly in the corporate press, has proven false. The researchers who investigated the estimate of prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in South Africa in March 2022 recently said in a press conference, The infectious pressure of the Omicron variant was extraordinarily high to have produced such a significant bump in prevalence at this relatively mature stage of the epidemic. It is hardly possible to imagine much higher prevalence values. South Africa was the hardest-hit country on the African continent, with reported COVID deaths exceeding 101,000. However, the World Health Organizations recent study on excess deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 found excess deaths in South Africa exceeded 239,000. Since the new year, another 10,000 COVID deaths were registered, implying that the excess death toll is probably well over a quarter million for the nation with almost 60 million inhabitants. This puts South Africas COVID deaths per capita at one in every 240 people, ahead even the United States, which has a rate of one in every 330. The nature of the evolution of these variants is critical to understanding the course of the pandemic into its third year. In a new study uploaded on to the bioRxiv preprint server for biology by the Sato Lab, based at the University of Tokyo, found that the latest subvariants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, as well as BA.2-related variants that have acquired mutations in the L452 amino acid residue of the viruss spike protein, were more contagious than the original BA.2 variant. Figure 1: Virological features of BA.2.12.1 and BA.4 and BA.5 in vivo. (Source: Sato Lab) More so, antibodies induced by previous infection with BA.1 and BA.2 are less effective against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. Immunity based on recent prior infection with the BA.1 and BA.2 provides little protection against later variants. In animal studies on hamsters, the BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 appear to replicate more efficiently in lung cells with stronger binding to these cells. Additionally, when these animals were sacrificed and their lungs evaluated under the microscope, there was more pathologic injury and inflammation to the vasculature and lung tissue from the newer variants than the original BA.2. The authors wrote, The relatively more severe disorders in the lungs of BA.4/5 infected hamsters than those of BA.2 infected hamsters were supported by the more efficient spread of BA.4/5 than BA.2 in the infected lungs. Altogether, these observations suggest BA.4/5 is more highly pathogenic than BA.2 in a hamster model. They warned, A simplistic assumption without conclusive evidence implies that SARS-CoV-2 will evolve to attenuate its pathogenicity. However, we argue against this notion with at least three observations. First, the Delta variant exhibited relatively higher pathogenicity than the ancestral virus in an experimental animal model. Clinical studies also provide evidence suggesting the higher virulence of the Delta variant than the other prior variants including the Alpha variant. Second, although the Omicron BA.1 variant was less pathogenic than Delta Omicron BA.2 acquired the potential to exhibit higher pathogenicity than that of Omicron BA.1. Third, here we demonstrate that the Omicron BA.4/5 are more potentially pathogenic than Omicron BA.2. Therefore, our observations strongly suggest that SARS-CoV-2 does not necessarily evolve to attenuate its pathogenicity. In plain language, SARS-CoV-2 is not evolving in the direction of a relatively harmless seasonal flu, as the propagandists of endemicity claim. New variants are equal to or worse than their predecessors in terms of the damage they do to the human organism. These laboratory studies are crucial. But real-world clinical data provides additional insight on the complexity of an ever-evolving dynamic between the viruses and the populations that are their hosts. This week the New York Times published an important report that underscored how much deadlier the Omicron wave was for older people than Delta. As the Figure 2 below demonstrates, the death rate among those 65 years and older was 163 percent higher during the Omicron wave as compared to Delta, despite the increased immunization among the elderly. The current BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 waves that are passing through the US have seen hospital admissions rise despite the greater prevalence of boosters among the elderly as compared to the population in general. Dr. Sharon Inouye, a geriatrician, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical school, told the Times, I think we are going to see the death rates rising. It is going to become more and more risky for older adults as their immunity wanes. Figure 2: Mortality for elderly population across the Delta and Omicron waves. (Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) The White House earlier in May admitted that their modeling for the fall and winter projected possibly 100 million infections, far more than recorded during the three months of the BA.1 wave. They also acknowledged the possibility of a considerable rise in fatalities. In this regard, the elderly, who often have high co-morbidities, as well as the immunocompromised, face a significant threat to which both the Democrats and Republicans have no response. In the first three months of 2022, 40 percent of all COVID deaths were among vaccinated individuals. Indeed, officials of the White House coronavirus task force will resort to the usual we could not have predicted things would get so bad as they have repeatedly done in their press conferences. Additionally, as Inouye aptly stated, It just seems that now the onus is put completely on the individual. Its not like its made easy for you. With mask wearing completely falling off and any form of isolation or even serious restrictions at an end, without any meaningful evidence to base any risk assessment, the population is facing an endless assault as the society flies blind through the pandemic. Masses of people will be subjected to one or two COVID infections each year, with the concomitant risk of Long COVID and substantial deterioration of their overall health. The recent experience in South Africa with BA.4/5 confirms that only an elimination strategy, carried out on a worldwide basis, can bring this pandemic in permanence to an end. Over ten years ago, the months of November 2010 to January 2011 saw the Australian state of Queensland suffer its worst flooding since 1974, generated by what was, at the time, the states highest average rainfall on record. A woman trapped on the roof of her car awaits rescue during the Toowoomba flash flooding in 2010 [Image: Wikipedia] Low-lying suburbs of Brisbane, the state capital, and over a hundred communities were devastated by the floods, resulting in the deaths of 33 people, and more than 200,000 residents were displaced. What also made this catastrophe significant, as partly revealed in the final report released by the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry (QFCI) in 2012, was the lack of warnings given or preparations made by the then state Labor government, under Premier Anna Bligh, which could have significantly reduced the losses of life and property. Now, in the wake of even more widespread and destructive floods two months ago, answers must be demanded. Why, despite the damning evidence from the 2011 floods, have tens of thousands of people in both Queensland and neighbouring New South Wales (NSW) again lost their homes and livelihoods? And why have communities that were deluged ten years ago been impacted again? As in 2011, the worst-affected residents are in low-lying working-class areas where many people have moved because of sky-rocketing property prices and rents, often not being told of the flood risks by real estate agents and landlords. Based on the testimonies of 345 witnesses, the QFCIs final report acknowledged that government authorities were fully aware that the deluged areas were susceptible to flooding disasters, well before 2011, and measures could have been taken to reduce the carnage that resulted. But like the interim report released by the QFCI in August 2011, the final report obscured how that devastation was made possible by the actions of both the federal and Queensland governments. That included permitting development in flood-prone areas, a lack of funding for emergency services and disaster management, and a dysfunctional coordination of rescue efforts, with no single agency in charge, as a Flood Risk Management audit had warned in September 2010. Shortly after the final reports release, residents of the severely-damaged Lockyer Valley region west of Brisbane accused the QFCI of failing to answer critical questions, such as why no prior warning was given before affected areas were impacted. Yet that breakdown was repeated this year when residents in many places, including the regional city of Lismore in northern NSW, were only alerted to evacuate after floodwaters had already hit, and were left to rescue each other. Some of the reports conclusions were found later to have contradicted evidence given by witnesses to the QFCI, including how the collapse of a quarry wall in the town of Grantham, west of Brisbane, had contributed to the deaths of 12 people. The final report had insisted that the walls collapse had made no difference. On the subject of insurance, the report found that most companies offered no protection against flood damage, and those that did had varying definitions of it. Many policy holders were unaware that flood damage was excluded from their cover. Despite the supposed introduction of a national standard in June 2012, no answer was given to the financial elites domination of the insurance industry. As a result, over the past decade corporate insurers have driven up premiums beyond the means of working-class families. Many residents who lost their homes in the 2022 floods were not insured when their properties were inundated. Despite a commitment by the Bligh Labor government to implement the findings of the flood commission, many remain unfulfilled. These include a recommendation to construct a flood levee around Brisbanes central business district, despite this being raised again in a 2017 report on disaster resilience by Arcadis, a design and consultancy firm. Since taking office in 2015, the current state Labor government of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has also not proceeded with critical upgrades to the Wivenhoe Dam, west of Brisbane, including a proposed $900 million expansion. That is despite the dam overflowing in 2011 and not meeting national safety standards since 2002. A major upgrade to the North Pine Dam, north of Brisbane, is still under consideration by the state governments SEQWater, despite warnings from a dam safety expert to the inquiry in 2011. Ongoing cuts to emergency services, well before this years floods, also left these largely volunteer agencies unprepared to effectively respond. In 2019, a state parliament budget estimate hearing revealed that 19 branches of the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES), including eight in the town of Mackay, had closed since November 2015, and at least 900 volunteers had resigned in the previous three years. Furthermore, despite being proposed as early as 2004, a national warning system, which would have introduced common classifications for natural disasters across all states and territories, has not been introduced. It was again recommended last year by a royal commission inquiry into the 201920 bushfires calamity. Overall, nothing has improved since the 2011 floods. The response is dominated by the continued prioritisation of capitalist profit interests over the need to address underlying climate change, along with the neglect of victims of natural disasters, and repeated cover-ups of government and business responsibility. Like the $5.6 billion flood relief package created by the federal Gillard Labor government in 2011, paid for by a $1.8 billion flood levy imposed upon the working class and $3.8 billion of cuts to social services, similar packages for this years floods have been earmarked primarily for businesses. Families being rescued in Maryborough, Queensland, February 2022 [Source: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services] As the Socialist Equality Party said this year in its March 6 statement Australias floods: An indictment of capitalism: The floods that have shattered communities across large areas of Australias eastern states over the past week have further demonstrated the indifference of governmentsCoalition and Laborfor the health, lives and livelihoods of ordinary working people. Coming on top of the 201920 bushfire catastrophe and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the floods have further laid bare their failure to take the necessary steps to protect the population from such disasters. That statement outlined a series of urgently-needed measures to address the increasing climate-related disasters and explained that they demonstrated the need for the total reorganisation of society on a socialist basis so that it is planned rationally and democratically to protect health and lives, and meet social need. The statement called for the formation of independent rank-and-file committees in workplaces and working-class areas and neighbourhoods, independent of the pro-capitalist parties and trade unions, as the basis for a political fight for a workers government to implement the necessary socialist measures. Meltdown: Three Mile Island is a well made and intelligent review of the 1979 nuclear accident, the worst in US history, which resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor core and came within 30 minutes of a catastrophe that would have killed thousands and left much of the American Northeast uninhabitable for centuries. The four-part television documentary, directed by Kief Davidson, was released last month on Netflix. The mini-series traces the disaster and its aftermath, mainly through the experience of three residents of Middletown, the small Pennsylvania city where the reactor was located, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, and the account of whistleblower Rick Parks, a leader of the clean-up crew tasked with removing the debris four years after the accident. There is an ample documentary record of the aftermath of the accident, including various investigations and public hearings, and protests by residents of Middletown. This is skillfully combined with a dramatized reenactment of the events in the reactor control room on the day of the accident and of the experience of Parks during the clean-up in 1983. Many of the participants in these events are shown in news video footage in 1979 and 1983 and then interviewed four decades later, adding a human element that is emotionally compelling and actually adds to the audiences understanding of the disaster. Others are interviewed on the government side of the events, including the insufferably smug Lake Barrett, the top official of the Nuclear Regulatory Committee at the Three Mile Island site during the clean-up, who brushed aside Rick Parks concerns about the dangers of the procedures employed by Bechtel Corp., the giant construction firm that was contracted to carry it out. The events of March 1979 have entered into history, although they may be less familiar to the current generation than to those who lived through them. In the early hours of March 28, 1979, alarms went off in the control room of Unit Two at the Three Mile Island nuclear power generating station, which had only been brought on line a few months before. Instruments showed the temperature of the reactor core was rising, and at the same time, the level of water in the cooling chamber was also rising. The operators, poorly trained for such an emergency, could not make sense of such contradictory results. The decision was taken to shut down the pumps, which sent water into the cooling chamber, to avoid overflowing. This, of course, led to the reactor core overheating even more. It was later determined that a release valve in the coolant chamber had stuck in the open position, leading to a reduced flow of water through the chamber and a dangerous rise in the core temperature, which was headed towards meltdown. Eventually, the mistake in shutting off the pumps was recognized, water flow was restored and the reactor core began to cool but not before half the core had melted down, and a significant release of radioactive material took place. Both the event itself and the cover-up which followed were driven by the profit concerns of Metropolitan Edison (MetEd), the company owning the site and the main utility in south central Pennsylvania. MetEd and its parent company General Public Utilities (GPU) have since been swallowed up in a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions. (First Energy, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, with $11 billion in revenue and $1.1 billion in profits, is the current incarnation.) MetEd concealed the accident from state authorities for hours, until radioactive iodine was detected near the plant, inciting widespreadand entirely justifiedfears among residents of Middletown and the broader public. The corporate media descended on the area, along with top state and federal officials, including several days later President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and former officer of a nuclear-powered submarine. Their goal, expressed through the operations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was to safeguard the nuclear power industry and corporate America as a whole. There was a specific interest on the part of President Carter, since nuclear power played a key role in his energy policy under conditions of a mounting crisis over the supply of gasoline and diesel because of cutbacks in production by the OPEC countriesa crisis that would contribute significantly to Carters defeat in his reelection bid in 1980. The first two episodes of Meltdown deal with the events of March 28 and the weeks which followed, as the impact is felt in the lives of Joyce Corradi and Paula Kinney, two young women with small children, and local school child Nicole Remsburg, herself only six years old, who has a family connection to the Three Mile Island facility that is only revealed much later. Paula Kinney Joyce Corradi Corradi and Kinney are seen in news reports of contemporary protests against the effort by Metropolitan Edison to resume power generation at Three Mile Island. The company claimed that since Unit One was undamaged, it could safely be restarted even while the struggle continued to contain and suppress the ongoing crisis at Unit Two. Then both are interviewed, more than 40 years later, reflecting back on their experiences. Remsburg adds the perspective of an adult, looking back on what she understood as a child. The interviews are intercut with excerpts of news footage showing the major events, including the corporate announcement of the release of radioactive material, a subsequent announcement of the emergence of a hydrogen bubble inside the reactorwhich led to a further release of radioactive gasseshearings before the NRC and President Carters visit to the site, where he sought to reassure the American public that there was no real danger in nuclear power. The documentary cites the conclusion of expert analysis of the near disaster: Unit Two came within 30 minutes of a full-scale meltdown, which would have resulted in an explosion and ejection of radioactive material on the scale of Chernobyl, the catastrophe in Ukraine seven years later, or even worse. Thousands would have died, either from the blast itself or from the immediate effects of radiation. Thousands more would have died of cancer over many years. The area downwind of the plant would been rendered uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries. Given the prevailing westerly winds, Philadelphia, New Jersey and the New York City metropolitan area would likely have experienced the worst consequences. The third and fourth parts of Meltdown concern the events of 1983, when Bechtel came in to conduct the clean-up of Unit Two, based on the conception that the damaged reactor had sufficiently cooled and that it was safe to do so. Rick Parks was one of the clean-up supervisors, hired because of his expertisehe was trained in nuclear reactors in the Navyand his fervent belief in the viability and necessity of nuclear power generation. Bechtel was an extremely well-connected corporation, with two of its top executives joining the administration of President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989): Secretary of State George Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. And it was absolutely ruthless in its pursuit of its corporate objectives, responding to the objections of Parks and others with demotions, transfers and ultimately firings, as well as more heavy-handed and criminal methods. Parks is ultimately forced to contact the Government Accountability Project (GAP), an organization with extensive experience in assisting whistleblowers, particularly in the nuclear industry. (Executive producer Carla Shamberg first met GAP and learned of Rick Parks during her work on Erin Brockovich (2000), an exposure of the impact of chemical dumping in California by Pacific Gas & Electric.) GAP and Parks appeal to the NRC to halt the scheduled use of the polar crane, so-called because it is positioned directly above the reactor core, to lift the molten top half of the reactor and allow it to be safely removed, so work could go forward on the presumably undamaged lower half. Parks and his colleagues were concerned that the polar crane, built hastily after the accident, had not undergone safety checks. If it failed, dropping the molten top half into the bottom half, the result would be the same catastrophe narrowly escaped in 1979an uncontrolled explosion and massive radioactive release, with mass death and widespread contamination. Some of these events are dramatized in Meltdown, while others are described dispassionately by Parks today, who is a competent and convincing narrator. A survivor of throat cancer (the result either of his exposure to radiation at Three Mile Island, or his longtime smoking habit, or as he says, more likely both), the technician has made many sacrifices, some of them shown in the program. Rick Parks Parks is only one of many cases of cancer from Middletown, none of them directly traceable to the Three Mile Island disaster, but occurring at a disproportionate rate, two to three times what would have been expected. After his long battle with two giant corporations, Bechtel and MetEd, and the government agencies which served their interests, it is Parks who draws the final conclusion in the documentary: Well never have a viable nuclear industry in this country until we take the profit motive out of it. The director and producer do not draw such sweeping conclusions, but they allow Parks to do so, and the case they make over four hours is absolutely unanswerable. Meltdown vindicates the contemporary analysis of the disaster made in the pages of the Bulletin, the US forerunner of the World Socialist Web Site. The first issue of the Bulletin published after the accident at Three Mile Island was made public devoted its front page to the subject, under the headline, Govt Lies on Nuclear Disaster. We described the event as a class crime, for which the capitalist class and its state were responsible: The profit-bloated nuclear industry has, with the blessing of the capitalist state, cynically transformed millions of people into guinea pigs. Every section of the ruling class and above all the Government are implicated in this monstrous crime. They are the ones who have introduced the terms meltdown' and hydrogen gas bubble into everyday vocabularywith millions of lives hanging in the balance. At last report, 200,000 people have either already fled or are preparing to flee the area. We explained that under capitalism, nuclear power had been developed for only two purposes: to use the power of the atom to incinerate millions in a new imperialist war, and as a source of profit for giant energy companies and Wall Street. A later commentary in the Bulletin denounced the claims of the corporate media and political pundits that the growing protests against the development of nuclear power reactors were based on popular ignorance and even superstitition. We argued: Never in history has there been a working class as wedded to the most modern technology as is the American working class today. The grave danger, however, is that the forces of production remain in the hands of the capitalist class which uses every single development in science to better prosecute its drive for profits and to prepare for new imperialist wars. Subsequent coverage in the Bulletin documented the insignificant penalties imposed on Metropolitan Edison, the cover-up carried out by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Carter administration as a whole, and the continued dangers for the working class population from mismanagement and corruption of the nuclear power industry. In 1983, we headlined the firing of Rick Parks by Bechtel after he exposed the dangers in the clean-up operation, and quoted one of his more pungent responses to the company, in which he accused it of Gestapo-like tactics. Meltdown is well worth seeing, both for its exposure of corporate and government criminality that came close to producing a major catastrophe, and for its depiction of the powerful resistance from working-class residents of Middletown and a concerned and principled technical expert. Under conditions of a worldwide pandemic where the ruling elite overrides the concerns of science and public health to impose a policy of let it rip, these issues have enormous contemporary relevance. Sri Lankan police are systematically unleashing repression against activists involved in nationwide anti-government protests demanding the resignation of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, and an end to the escalating social catastrophe. Gotabaya Rajapaksa [Credit: AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena] These protests, which erupted across Sri Lanka in early April, were fuelled by intolerable price rises and shortages of essential itemsfood, medicine and fueland lengthy power cuts. Tens of thousands of people, including workers, youth and the poor, gravitated to and occupied Galle Face Green, making it the main protest centre. On May 9, thousands of thugs from Rajapakses Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) brutally attacked unarmed protesters at Galle Face Green and in front of Temple Trees, the prime ministers official residence, injuring about 100 people. The police did not stop the thugs but allowed them to roam freely. Police later used teargas and water cannons to disperse the attacks but did not arrest any of them. The most recent victim of the police repression against the protesters is Rathindu Suramya Senaratne, prominent among activists at Galle Face Green. Popularly known as Ratta, Senaratne is an actor, filmmaker and regularly posts videos on YouTube. Senaratne was summonsed to the Slave Island police station where he was arrested on May 30, accused of unlawful assembly and obstructing police during his involvement in a protest outside the Colombo Fort courts on May 25. He was brought before a magistrate and bailed on a 100,000-rupee surety on May 30. Rathidu Suramya Senarathna (Image: Facebook) In fact, the group, including Senaratne, were demonstrating outside the Colombo Fort courts over the May 9 attack. The group was demanding justice for the Galle Face Green protesters, and the arrest of other perpetrators of the attack. A few days earlier, 14 protesters, who were eyewitnesses to the violent May 9 attack, were banned from travelling abroad and ordered to surrender their passports to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The ban was imposed by the court, following a police request. Those targeted include Jagath Manuwarna, a famous teledrama actor, and Jeewantha Peiris, a Catholic priest, both complainants of the May 9 thug attack. Senaka Perera, head of the Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners and a lawyer for those targeted, told the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) yesterday that the order obtained by the CID for surrender of passports was illegal under Sri Lankan law. He also said that he had just been informed by CID that its officers would be visiting him to obtain a statement. This was part of the ongoing witch hunt, he said. In a separate incident, Wekendawela Rahula, a Buddhist monk, was summoned to the Walasmulla police station on May 26 and taken into custody. Police have questioned him about a damaged a statue in memory of President Rajapakses parents near their ancestral home, the burning of the Walasmulla Pradeshiya Sabha (local government authority) chairmans home, and several other incidents. Rahul, who denies any involvement in these events, has been a prominent campaigner for protection of the environment since 2005. He is due to be before the courts again on May 31. The police, on the pretext of prosecuting people allegedly involved in violent acts, including damaging the property of ruling party politicians after the May 9 assaults, have taken 1,808 persons into custody from across the island. About 780 of these people have been remanded. According to media reports, the majority of those arrested were from lists of political opponents prepared by SLPP politicians and the partys local leaders. These repressive measures, taken with the blessing of the government of President Rajapakse and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, are part of the regimes preparation for a broader crackdown against working people and youth. The May 9 thug attack was a deliberate provocation initiated by the SLPP leadership, particularly former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, in order to create a pretext for increased state repression. The Galle Face Green protest movement attracted support from hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Millions of workers participated in a general strike on April 28 with another general strike and a hartal (small business closures) on May 6 involving almost every section of workers and the oppressed. While workers powerfully demonstrated their determination to defend their rights, the trade unions called these strikes to divert this anger under the wing of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). These opposition parties were calling for an interim regime to keep the mass opposition within safe parliamentary channels. Terrified by this explosive movement of the working class, President Rajapakse imposed a state of emergency on May 6 with the power to mobilise the military, ban strikes, proscribe organisations, impose censorship and other anti-democratic measures. Thousands of workers and other sections of the population flooded onto Galle Face Green to oppose the right-wing thug attacks on May 9. They demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible. Health, postal and port workers immediately walked out on strike, they were joined the next day by other sections of the working class, compelling the unions to call a general strike. Retaliatory violence also erupted in many parts of Sri Lanka in response to the May 9 assaults, with the homes of some government ministers and MPs set on fire. Rajapakse seized on this situation and deployed the military onto the streets with orders to shoot on sight those deemed to be rioters. The unions immediately capitulated to these repressive measures, and on May 11 called off an indefinite strike that began on May 10, a day after the thug attacks. Heavily-armed soldiers and military vehicle in Colombo enforcing curfew. [Image: Facebook] Fearful of the mass anger over the May 9 thug attack, the Sri Lankan attorney general ordered police to immediately arrest 22 people, including former ministers who planned and led the violent assault at Galle Face Green on protesters. Only eight of those named have so far been arrested. Former Highways Minister Johnston Fernando, for instance, was summoned to the police headquarters on May 24 but released after being questioned for five hours and recording a statement. The attorney general initially ordered the arrest of Deshabandu Tennekoon, the Deputy Inspector General of Police and in charge of Colombo. This order, however, was later changed to transfering Tennekoon out of Colombo. Nothing has happened to ex-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, who allegedly made a speech inciting the SLPP goons. He has just been questioned by CID officers. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) immediately called for the mobilisation of the working class to defend the protesters and their democratic rights and the dropping of all charges. At the same time, it warned about retaliatory attacks. An SEP statement on May 11 said: Without a progressive political perspective outbursts of anger, such as led to the destruction of property on Monday night, only strengthen the hands of the government and reaction. The SEP and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) vehemently condemn and oppose the brutal state measures aimed at suppressing the anti-government protests. We urge workers to come to the defense of these activists, as part of a broader struggle for the defense of all democratic rights. The SEP, however, does not support the politics of the pro-capitalist, middle-class groups leading the Galle Face protests. These formations have publicly demanded an interim regime, general and presidential elections, and for the regime to resolve the enormous social crisis. These demands echo those of the SJB, JVP and pseudo-left Frontline Socialist Party who are all dedicated to defending capitalist rule. There is no solution to the immense social problems and an end to the suppression of democratic rights within the existing social order. The worsening social disaster in Sri Lanka is a product of the global capitalist crisis, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and now the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The trade unions have played the main role in blocking any independent intervention of the working class, thus facilitating the government draconian measures. The defence of all social and democratic rights can only be advanced through the establishment of workers action committees at every workplace, in the plantations, and all working-class neighbourhoods, independent of the unions. By mobilising its independent strength, the working class can rally the rural and urban poor in the fight for socialist policies: for nationalisation of banks, big companies and large estates under the workers control, and the repudiation of all foreign debts. The implementation of these policies requires the bringing to power of a workers and peasants government, as part of the struggle of international socialism. Dozens of citizens streamed in and out of the Bonne Terre Senior Nutrition Center Wednesday to give blood in honor of a life that was taken. A memorial blood drive had many of the late Bonne Terre Patrolman Lane Burns surviving friends and coworkers signing up to donate blood to the American Red Cross at a time when blood stores are critical. The Red Cross issued an urgent press release in January noting that, amid COVID-19s Omicron wave, the blood shortage had reached crisis levels it hadnt seen in a decade. Julie Gustafson, representing the St. Louis branch of American Red Cross, said the need is still critical. Wednesdays drive goal was 25 units and I think well go over that. One unit of blood can save three peoples lives, she said. And we had 25 people sign up in advance, but weve had quite a few walk-ins, too. Not only is this a chance for them to meet a critical need, its a way to feel like theyre doing something positive in the memory of an officer who lost his life under tragic circumstances. Patrolman Burns and a fellow Bonne Terre officer, Corporal Garrett Worley, were responding to a disturbance in the early morning hours of March 17 at a motel when the gunman fatally shot Burns and wounded Worley. The gunman was killed at the scene. I wish I could say this was the first time Ive seen a memorial blood drive held for an officer, but its my third, Gustafson said, adding that an Illinois trooper and an Illinois police officer were the reasons for the other two memorial blood drives. Amy Brenneke is a full-time St. Francois County deputy and a part-time Bonne Terre police officer who worked alongside Burns. She said it was the first time she was able to give blood since she kicked cancer six years ago. I knew Lane for 10 years, working at the sheriffs department and Bonne Terre PD, she said. In March of 2016, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and between that time and being declared in remission in June 2016, I had eight blood transfusions. This is the first time I can give blood, and it means a lot to do it in Lanes memory. Bonne Terre Parks Director/Building Inspector Kenny Farkas just finished giving blood before picking up a bag of cookies. Anyone who does that job (policing) means a lot, they keep our town safe, theyre giving selfless service to the community, he said. For what they get paid, Im so thankful to Prop P voters (who approved Aprils first-responder dedicated, 1-cent, city sales tax), because that instantly helped those in the fire and police departments in this small town. And I just wanted to give in Lanes memory, too. City Clerk Mary Topping said she gives blood as frequently as she can she keeps track of when she can give again and tries to stay local. She said she was amused to find out she was in an impromptu blood-giving competition of sorts with Farkas that morning. He popped up and asked a nurse, Did I beat her? He thinks he beat me giving blood, because he was done before me, she chuckled. But Im doing a Power Red, so its taking me longer and itll be about 112 days before I can give again. According to the American Red Cross website, a Power Red is similar to a whole blood donation, except a special machine is used to let donors safely donate two units of red blood cells during one donation while returning the plasma and platelets to the donor. They can be scheduled in advance at https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/types-of-blood-donations/power-red-donation.html. Cher Robinson, the director of the Senior Nutrition Center where the blood drive was taking place, was asked what donating blood in honor of Burns memory meant to her. Dont ask, Ill start crying, she said. When asked if she frequently gives blood, she answered affirmatively. Ive got pins for giving, Ive been donating blood since I was 16, she said. Its especially needed right now, theres such a shortage. Weve hosted drives here at the center throughout the year, but today is especially meaningful. Several local blood drives are planned in the Parkland during the next few weeks. Details can be found at https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive. Sarah Haas is the assistant editor for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at 573-518-3617 or shaas@dailyjournalonline.com. 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. University of Virginia law professor Richard Bonnie is part of a group that looks for the reasonable compromise in the gun safety debate. What keeps you going is the hope that you can find a middle ground to make some steps forward, Bonnie told The Daily Progress a few days after an 18-year-old used an AR-15 assault rifle to slaughter 19 fourth graders and two adults in a Texas elementary school. Risk-based firearms policy aims to find the proper balance between rights and risks, just as we do with regulation of all other dangerous consumer products or the environment. We wish Bonnie and others in the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy luck. Here is what National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre told the NRA national convention a few days after the mass murder in the small city of Uvalde. There can be no freedom, no security, no safety without the right of the law-abiding to bear arms for self-defense. As the NRA sees it, if access to guns costs innocent childrens lives, it is just the price of freedom. This is bad news for this countrys kids and folks like Bonnie. Very little wiggle room exists along a hard line that caters to an industry enriched by selling weapons designed to kill people. Those sales represent a significant part of many gun makers business plans. They are, at some level, death dealers. A path to reason is the crucible of the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy and other groups committed to weighing gun safety against gun rights. Bonnie and his consortium colleagues have very rational ideas about what would have saved lives at Robb Elementary School last week. Why in the world do we allow an 18-year-old to buy and carry a hand gun, much less a semi-automatic weapon, given what we know about the impact of emotional distress on adolescent judgment? the professor asked. The answer Texas Gov. Greg Abbott provided shortly after laws he supports allowed a teenager to buy two assault weapons and 375 rounds of ammunition was as cynical as it was ridiculous. I hate to say this, but there are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas, Abbott said at a press conference as parents grieved the shooting deaths of nine- and 10-year-olds. We need to realize that people who think, Well, maybe if we implement tougher gun laws, its going to solve it, Chicago, LA and New York disprove that thesis. This absurd, inappropriate and insensitive non-sequitur bounced so hard off the wall of reason that it made Abbott sound like an accessory before the fact for future mass shootings. If such craziness cannot motivate a majority of Texans to vote Abbott out of office, they invite bloodbaths like the one they just experienced. Bonnie designed laws for emergency protective orders to temporarily detain people who act as if they are threats to other or themselves. He thinks those laws may have worked to thwart the Uvalde shooter who sent hints to friends that he planned something violent. Sometimes, said Bonnie, youve got to intervene to put the fire out. Still, Bonnie knows that red flag laws by themselves are not a solution. Requiring purchasers of assault weapons to be at least 21 would be a natural place to start, he said. The consortium has risk-based data to back up the recommendation. Letting an 18-year-old buy an assault weapon without having to prove anything except that they are 18 and have not been convicted of a crime or involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital is indefensible in my view as a parent and [as] a student of adolescence, Bonnie explained. What is also indefensible is that so many Republicans in Congress or state legislatures disagree. Sacrificing school children on an altar of assault weapons, like the AR-15 used to slaughter the children of Uvalde, ought to be a an outrage that demands changes in access. If it isnt, no steps forward exist, much less any middle ground. Thank you for reading! To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99. Fundraiser for the Corvallis Sister Cities Association's Uzhhorod (Ukraine) Refugee Fund. Earl Newman, an artist and screen printer who lives in Summit, has created and donated a screen-printed poster illustrating support for Ukraine. Two hundred numbered posters will be printed; several framed posters will be available. The prints will sell for $100 each to be donated to the refugee fund; framed prints will cost extra. Information: 541-760-8081 or caroltrueba@gmail.com. Rally to support Ukraine, noon to 2 p.m. Saturdays, Benton County Courthouse, 120 NW Fourth St., Corvallis. All are invited to come show solidarity with Ukraine in an event that is not antiwar or anti-Russia but pro-Ukraine. Those attending can bring Ukrainian flags, sunflowers and signs showing support. Updates on the humanitarian aspect of the war will be given. Information: 7442117@gmail.com. Fundraiser to support refugee fund: Four-notecard packs and 8 x 10 prints featuring paintings by Corvallis sisters Allessandra Bakker, 16, and Isabella Bakker, 13, are available for purchase at Visit Corvallis and Benton County Historical Societys Corvallis and Philomath museums for $25 and $30, respectively. Proceeds go toward the Corvallis Sister Cities Associations Uzhhorod Refugee Fund. Fundraiser to help children of Ukraine: Monique Arnold of Corvallis and her teenage daughters are "making quilts to cover the world." The project has raised a total of $4,275 that has been donated directly to USA for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Corvallis Sister Cities organization for Uzhhorod, Ukraine. The quilts are sold every week via Facebook auction, continuing for the next few weeks at https://www.facebook.com/groups/391673602349315/permalink/555540949295912/?sale_post_id=555540949295912. Uzhhorod Council launches "Beanies and Backpacks:" The Corvallis Sister Cities Association Uzhhorod Council is launching a pilot program to provide refugee children in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, with new backpacks filled with school supplies as they prepare to enroll in school. To add emotional support to the project, the council is trying to collect 80 new Beanie Babies stuffed animals from the community and send them along with the backpacks. To support "Beanies and Backpacks," bring a new Ty Beanie Baby to the lobby of Citizens Bank, 978 NW Circle Blvd. in Corvallis, by Monday, June 6, so a volunteer can deliver them to Uzhhorod. Information: Pete Bober at boberp@comcast.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Police officers secure the scene after a shooting at TOPS supermarket in Buffalo, New York, U.S. May 14, 2022. Jeffrey T. Barnes/Reuters A suspected gunman left 10 people dead and 3 injured at a Buffalo supermarket. He now faces 25 charges including attempted murder and first- and second-degree murder. He could receive a life sentence without parole. The 18-year-old shooting suspect accused of opening fire in a Buffalo supermarket has been indicted on 25 counts including Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate in the First Degree, The New York Times reported. The shooting suspect surrendered to police on May 14 after live-streaming the massacre that left 10 Black people dead and three others injured. He faces three charges of attempted murder along with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, according to the indictment posted by local outlet WKBY. He also faces a charge of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. The Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate in the First Degree charge could land the suspect a life sentence without parole. The shooting began just after 2:30 pm in the parking lot of Tops supermarket before the suspect went inside the store carrying an AR-15-style rifle. The suspect detailed his plans online for months prior to the mass shooting. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black and two were white. Police called the shooting "racially motivated." "This is a community where people love each other. The shooter was not from this community," Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a press conference the day of the shooting. "In fact, the shooter traveled from hours outside this community to perpetrate this crime on Buffalo." "This man was motivated by hate against people he never met for no reason other than the color of their skin," Buffalo attorney John Elmore, representing two victims, told The Associated Press. The Buffalo shooting was the worst of 2022 for under two weeks before the Uvalde shooting killed 19 children and two teachers. The suspect's arraignment is scheduled for Thursday. His attorney and Elmore did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Insider The CW announced an additional summer slate of programming, which includes new scripted series Bump and Leonardo, debuting Aug. 11 and Aug. 16, respectively, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the channel. The network also announced the return of Devils, set for Aug. 16 at 9 p.m., and Killer Camp on Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. Bump, an Australian comedy series, will make its U.S. debut with back-to-back episodes. The show follows 17-year-old over-achiever Olympia (Nathalie Morris), who is shocked to discover shes in labor after being rushed to the hospital with severe pains. Suddenly, her 10-year-plan with her boyfriend Lachie (Peter Thurnwald) and best friend Reema (Safia Arain) comes crashing down, especially given that the babys father is actually Santis (Carlos Sanson Jr.), the son of her mothers work crush. Meanwhile, Leonardo a historical drama about Leonardo da Vinci starring Aidan Turner as the artist, as well as Freddie Highmore, Matilda de Angelis and Giancarlo Giannini will premiere before the sophomore return of the financial thriller series Devils, which was originally set for a June 30 release date. Created by The X Files producer Frank Spotnitz and Doctor Who writer Steve Thompson, Leonardo will trace da Vincis personal and professional struggles against the backdrop of Renaissance Italy. Based on Guido Maria Breras novel I Diavoli, Devils centers on Massimo (Alessandro Borghi), the iron-fist leader of a top investment bank, and his mentor Dominic (Patrick Dempsey). After the latter passes him up for a promotion, Massimo finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation and bitter international financial war. Satirical reality competition show Killer Camp will also make its second season return ahead of a new episode of Dynasty. Story continues Heres the schedule thus far: Monday, June 6 8 p.m. ET/PT Roswell, New Mexico 9 p.m. ET/PT In the Dark Wednesday, June 22 8 p.m. ET/PT The Flash 9 p.m. ET/PT Wellington Paranormal 9:30 p.m. ET/PT Wellington Paranormal Wednesday, July 6 8 p.m. ET/PT Mysteries Decoded 9 p.m. ET/PT Wellington Paranormal Friday, August 5 8 p.m. ET/PT Killer Camp 9 p.m. ET/PT Dynasty Thursday, August 11 8 p.m. ET/PT Bump 8:30 p.m. ET/PT Bump Tuesday, August 16 8 p.m. ET/PT Leonardo 9 p.m. ET/PT Devils Todd and Julie Chrisley at an event in 2014. Heidi Gutman/USA/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images The defense in the fraud trial of the Chrisleys rested Thursday. Attorneys will give their closing arguments on Friday before the jury gets the case. The Chrisleys are accused of a conspiracy involving defrauding banks and the IRS. The defense in the trial of Todd and Julie Chrisley have rested their case after three days of testimony from employees, accountants, and a tax agent. A majority of the defense case was an effort to show the federal jury that the reality TV couple had made an effort before and after they were investigated by the IRS to pay their taxes. Emails presented to the jury showed Todd Chrisley emailing his accountant, Peter Tarantino, who is also on trial as a part of the conspiracy asking about the status of his taxes. A tax expert who investigated the Chrisleys' case on behalf of the defense testified that the couple eventually after they became the center of a federal fraud investigation paid all of their back taxes to the IRS, with the exception of past due fees and other penalties. Video: What the eye in every conspiracy theory actually means Prosecutors allege that in the years before "Chrisley Knows Best" aired, the couple took out at least $30 million in loans from banks which they lied to receive and spent it on a lifestyle they couldn't afford. When they became famous, earning $6 million in the first three seasons, the couple tried to hide their money from the IRS, prosecutors said. The couple is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, five counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of tax fraud. Julie Chrisley is also facing one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The Chrisleys' accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of willfully filing false tax returns. They have all denied the charges. The Chrisleys and Tarantino declined to testify on their own behalf. Story continues Todd Chrisley and Faye Chrisley USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Chrisley family members were called the stand Prosecutors alleged that Todd and Julie Chrisley signed over their loan out company to Todd Chrisley's mother, Elizabeth Faye Chrisley, as soon as they found out the IRS was looking into their finances. The defense called Faye Chrisley and Todd Chrisley's daughter, Lindsie Chrisley, to testify. Both women told the jury that the reason the "7C's Productions" bank account was put in Faye Chrisley's name was so she could sign checks for the Chrisleys when they were in LA filming the "Chrisley Knows Best" spin-off "Growing Up Chrisley." That didn't explain why Faye Chrisley was listed as President or owner of the company, or a member of the board of directors, on various documents sent out by the family. Faye Chrisley testified that she was never an owner of 7C's, which the family said was created simply as a loan-out company where they could be paid for their television appearances. "I have never owned it. I don't want it," Faye Chrisley testified. Closing arguments in the case are expected Friday, and the jury will begin deliberations by the end of the day, Judge Eleanor Ross said Thursday. Read the original article on Insider EXCLUSIVE: Ellen Degeneres start her new life and takes some quality time in Marrakech Ellen Degeneres ends her show after 19 seasons.Inside Ellen DeGeneres last show: The entire place was crying. 29 May 2022 Pictured: Ellen Degeneres. Photo credit: Love Marrakech / MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA863357_012.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency] mega Ellen DeGeneres is enjoying a much-deserved vacation after wrapping her time on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Over Memorial Day Weekend, DeGeneres jetted off to Marrakech, Morocco, with her wife, Portia de Rossi. As the comedian was photographed in a white linen shirt and khaki pants, the Arrested Development actress wore a blue-and-white-striped outfit. DeGeneres, 64, had planned to visit Africa this year to help set up her educational campus that's dedicated to saving Rwanda's gorillas. "I'm opening up my campus in Rwanda next year, and I want to be more involved with conservation and everything that matters to me as far as the environment and animals," she told The Hollywood Reporter in May 2021. In that same interview, DeGeneres announced her plans to end her long-running talk show after 19 seasons. "I'm a creative person, and when you're a creative person you constantly need to be challenged, which is why I decided to host the Oscars or why I decided to go back to stand-up when I didn't think I would," she said at the time. "I just needed something to challenge me. And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore. I need something new to challenge me." RELATED: The Ellen DeGeneres Show's Last Dance: What It Was Like on Set for the Final Episode DeGeneres said she previously intended to "stop after season 16," though she ultimately signed on for three more seasons. "I knew that would be my last. That's been the plan all along," she added. "And everybody kept saying, even when I signed, 'You know, that's going to be 19, don't you want to just go to 20? It's a good number.' So is 19." Ellen DeGeneres is seen during a taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Michael Rozman & Sarah Haas/Warner Bros. DeGeneres's series concluded its run on May 26. The final episode included first-ever guest Jennifer Aniston as well as Pink and Billie Eilish. De Rossi, 49, was also present for the momentous occasion. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Story continues As she wrapped up the series finale, DeGeneres was filled with tears while thanking the show's dedicated fanbase. "To all of you who have watched me and supported me, thank you so much for this platform. And I hope that what I've been able to do in the last 19 years has made you happy, and that I was able to take a little bit of pain away from a bad day or anything you're going through," she began. "And I hope I've been able to inspire you to make other people happy and to do good in the world, to feel like you have a purpose. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again: If I've done anything in the past 19 years, I hope I've inspired you to be yourself your true, authentic self," she continued. "And if someone is brave enough to tell you who they are, be brave enough to support them, even if you don't understand. They're showing you who they are, and that is the biggest gift anybody can ever give you. And by opening your heart and your mind, you're going to be that much more compassionate and compassion is what makes the world a better place" DeGeneres then concluded, "Thank you so much for being on this journey with me. I feel the love, and I send it back to you. Bye." Eric Trump is coming to town to headline a conservative "Rock the Red" rally, a 12-hour event slated to kick off at 10 a.m. on June 11 at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion in Ocala. The event, hailed by local Republican officials as a way to energize the party, will also feature Donald Trump allies Roger Stone and Joe Flynn. Speakers will also include businessman Patrick Byrne, author Angela Stanton-King, musician Bryson Gray and radio political pundit Karyn Turk, as well as Don Neuen and Donna Fiducia of Cowboy Logic. Ocala rally: President Trump hits familiar themes, energizes crowd at campaign rally Trump video: Trump speaks at Ocala campaign rally 2020 rally: Trump rally in Ocala draws anticipation and a lawsuit The event is scheduled to end with a viewing of "2000 Mules," a documentary that far-right conservatives say proves that the election Donald Trump lost in 2020 was stolen by underhanded vote tampering. Critics say the film further spreads Trump's election fraud falsehoods. Local Republican leaders say the rally is needed to energize the party heading into the midterm elections, which could determine what influence Donald Trump still has on conservatives and the Republican Party. Don Browning, a staunch conservative and local school board member, said Wednesday that all "political rallies during an election year are home runs." Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, will be the keynote speaker at the "Rock the Red" event planned to begin at 10 a.m. on June 11 at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. Brigitte Smith, chairwoman of the Marion County Republican Party, said the event is important to Marion County. Ironically, the Marion County Republican Party officers will be in Jacksonville that day for a quarterly Republican Party of Florida meeting. "This will energize the conservative base and move conservatives forward," said Smith, adding that "2000 Mules," from director Dinesh D'Souza, who also directed "2016: Obama's America," is a must see. Michael Saxe, the local Republican party's vice chairman, said he's very excited that the event will stir up the conservative base. Story continues "I think it's very important that we have an event like this in Marion County," Saxe said. On Audacity and Facebook, News/Talk 97.3 THE SKY has been promoting the event, calling for "Patriotic Floridians to rally ... for a full day of conservative superstars to educate, motivate and activate Americans who love our country." The post says: "See Eric Trump, son of the 45th President and passionate advocate for the conservative policies and take no prisoners attitude that will Make America Great Again." The post also calls Stone a "seasoned political operative, speaker, pundit, and bestselling author featured in the Netflix documentary 'Get Me Roger Stone.' " Tickets start at $20. Here are the different packages: $20: Premiering Dinesh D'Souza's "2000 Mules" movie. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. Movie starts at 9 p.m. This is included in the day pass. Must buy movie pass if you do not buy event pass. $25: Pre-sale general admission ticket, which includes the movie premiere of "2000 Mules." First come, first served general admission seat. $59: Free parking and premium seating on main floor. Ticket also includes movie entry. This is also first come, first served seating. President Donald Trump points to supporters after arriving for a campaign rally at the Ocala International Airport in 2020. $149: Two-day RV event camping pass for Friday and Saturday nights. It includes power & water only. Event tickets are not included, Must have ticket for the event. RV spots are first come, first served. Must arrive on Friday only. Check-in at 4 p.m. Friday. $2,000: Two green room VIP tickets (four tickets for nonprofits or candidates), which includes reception with Eric Trump and two Rock the Red shirts, as well as one meal and two drinks per person. Call Justin at (864) 345-3017. Joe Callahan can be reached at (352) 817-1750 or at joe.callahan@starbanner.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeOcalaNews. This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Eric Trump to headline 'Rock the Red' political rally in Ocala, Florida The post What the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Verdict Means for Depps Future Career appeared first on Consequence. It seems like an inevitability, at this point: Johnny Depp will be back on the big screen again soon. Not that hes felt exactly absent from our screens over the last several months, as his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard raged not just in a Virginia courtroom but across the entire Internet. The resulting decision was not a clear-cut victory for either side, but with Depp being awarded $10 million in compensatory damages in comparison to Heard being awarded $2 million, the jury made it clear who they thought was more in the wrong here. However, while Depp fans are treating yesterdays verdict as a clear-cut victory for the star, the question becomes: What happens next, at least in terms of Depps career the very thing he accused Heard of damaging? One Hollywood producer told Consequence that they didnt see Wednesdays verdict making too much of a difference: Even before all this, he was mostly just doing supporting roles in studio movies and only starring in indie and foreign-financed projects, and I imagine that will remain the same. Regardless of the verdict, studios and producers dont desire unnecessary controversy around their $100-200 million investments. While that may mean there are no tentpoles on the horizon, it does seem likely that the star will announce a notable role soon, especially given the current passion of his fanbase. However, one franchise that very likely wont feature Depp again is the one that catapulted him into a new level of fame. Bruckheimer told The Sunday Times in May 2022 that the future of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise did not include Depp, saying that Were talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts one with her, one without [Will Depp be back?] Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided. Pirates of the Caribbean- Curse of the Black Pearl Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Buena Vista) Story continues Not that Depp wants to return as Captain Jack Sparrow, as he testified earlier in the trial when asked by Heards attorney, If Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film?, Depp confirmed that that statement was true. Thats just one role off the table, though, and in the earlier decades of his career, Depp had demonstrated a remarkable range when it came to his work, with one commonality, as he told Rolling Stone in 2018: The monofilament that goes through all my characters, if you really look, theyre all fuckups. Theyre broken. Hes had plenty of chances to show off that range of broken men in the years since 2016, when Heard first came forward with abuse allegations: Playing an evil dark wizard in the first and second Fantastic Beasts films, investigating the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur murders in City of Lies, getting murdered himself in Kenneth Branaghs star-studded adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, and, let us not forget, voicing the acclaimed role of Sherlock Gnomes in the animated film Sherlock Gnomes. Depp was asked to resign from the Fantastic Beasts franchise following the 2020 trial where he unsuccessfully sued a British paper that had labeled him a wife beater; his output as an actor has definitely declined in the last two years though there was also a pandemic happening, and he continued to do voice work and starred in the indie drama Minamata. johnny depp minamata What the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Verdict Means for Depps Future Career Minamata (Vertigo Releasing) Right now on the horizon is the French period drama Jeanne Du Barry, which was presented at Cannes for pre-sales and is set to star Depp as King Louis V, with actor/director Maiwenn playing the woman who eventually became the Kings mistress. The film has yet to go into production and theres been no reporting on whether or not it managed to make any progress on the sales front, but one can only imagine that financiers were first waiting to see how Depps legal situation would resolve itself. (Consequence has reached out to the companies involved with Jeanne Du Barry to ask about the projects current status, and will update this post accordingly.) Again, Depp will be back on screen soon enough (we live in a world where even Kevin Spaceys still getting acting work, after all), but perhaps not as the center of a studio tentpole. And that probably has less to do with the outcome of this trial and more to do with the in-depth reporting about his behavior during the production of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. While making Pirates 5, Depp reportedly became known for being habitually late to set and wearing an earpiece instead of learning his lines, and while the latter might not cost a production too much in terms of money and resources, a stars lateness on that scale can have a direct effect on a films budget. Thats the part of Depps reputation that might have the more lasting impact on his career and Amber Heard writing an opinion piece for the Washington Post cant be blamed for that. What the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Verdict Means for Depps Future Career Liz Shannon Miller Popular Posts Subscribe to Consequences email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox. Photo illustration by Getty Images A Louisiana Senate committee gutted a bill to expand concealed carry gun rights in the state, moving instead to arm teachers in schools in response to the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre. The Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee stripped the language of House Bill 37 by Oil City Republican Rep. Danny McCormick to allow adults 21 and older to carry a concealed gun without requiring a permit or training. Instead, Gonzales Republican Eddie Lambert replaced the language by adding an amendment to allow schools to voluntarily designate teachers with training to carry concealed weapons. Lambert said his amendment was in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were killed. "Do we pass something that may prevent something (like Uvalde)?" Lambert said. "Whose rights are we going to put first? Last year Lambert voted in favor of an almost identical bill to expand concealed carry gun rights and for an unsuccessful override of Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto of the bill. But Lambert said the Uvalde shooting demands action. "This better addresses an issue on everybody's minds how to eliminate a threat in schools as soon as possible." McCormick has said his bill "wouldn't have had any effect on the Texas shooting." More: Louisiana on cusp of expanding gun rights following Texas elementary school shooting Read this: Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to testify at Ronald Greene investigation hearing "The only guy who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy or gal with a gun," McCormick said. "My bill is designed to make it easier for the good guy to have a gun." "My bill sends a clear message to people that we aren't willing to compromise when it comes to their Second Amendment rights," McCormick said Wednesday. McCormick's legislation had cleared the House on a 65-26 vote. Edwards has generally been a reliable vote for gun rights expansion bills, but last year he vetoed a similar concealed carry expansion bill because he believes the current law requiring in-person training and a permit "strikes the right balance." Story continues "Our current system strikes the right balance of ensuring that people can bear arms while also keeping reasonable permitting and training processes in place," Edwards said last year. "It is not too much to ask that a person who wishes to carry a concealed weapon in public be required to attend basic marksmanship and safety training so they understand the regulations associated with such an action." Edwards hasn't said whether he would veto McCormick's bill, but his spokesperson said last week: The governor reviews bills before he commits to if he will veto them. That said, the concerns he expressed last year about the importance of keeping reasonable permitting and training processes in place certainly havent gone away." McCormick said his bill to remove permit and training requirements "won't turn us into the wild, wild West." "It removes the government tax and red tape that stand between law-abiding citizens and their Second Amendment rights," McCormick said. "I trust individuals with their rights." Twenty-five states have enacted similar laws, which supporters describe as "constitutional carry" because they believe the U.S. Constitution already grants people the right to possess concealed guns. Louisiana is already what's known as an "open carry" state, which means people can carry visible firearms without a permit. Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana Senate panel guts bill to expand concealed carry gun rights PROVIDENCE As he waits for a liver transplant, his health continuing to decline, Jack Bresnahan imagines his life after the organ is found. First on his list of things to do: buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Joey. Shes very supportive of me, but the health conditions and the financial conditions have had an impact on our relationship, Bresnahan said. I met her when we were 19, and we're going to be 30 this year. I still haven't been able to make enough money to buy a ring to propose to her. And Ive known I wanted to marry her since the day I met her. Jack and Joey would like to get married, but Jack says first he needs to resolve his health problems through a liver transplant. An elementary school teacher whose condition does not allow him to work full-time, Bresnahan at age 6 was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, an auto-immune disease that gradually scars the liver. Last year, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. For six years, he has been on waiting lists for a donor. Livers for transplantation can come from a person who has just died or from a living person willing to donate half of their organ. Because of its blood supply and other anatomical features, the liver, uniquely among the organs, can be surgically divided without harm to the donor. The donor's remaining liver regrows and returns to its normal size, volume and capacity within a couple of months after the surgery, according to the Mayo Clinic. At the same time, the transplanted liver portion grows and restores normal liver function in the recipient. A national organ donor shortage With a national shortage of livers for transplantation, an organ from a deceased person has not come Bresnahans way. Nor have any friends or relatives been a match for a living donation (compatible blood type and good donor health are among the requirements). And so, hoping for the kindness of a stranger, he and his medical team have issued a public appeal. Because there is no liver transplant program in Rhode Island, he turned to Yale New Haven Healths Center for Living Organ Donors, which evaluates donor candidates and arranges for the two related operations. Story continues Jack Bresnahan in his Providence apartment. Selfishly," he says, "I'm thinking if I got a donor today, my quality of life would be completely turned around. Id be able to afford that ring for my girlfriend. I'd be able to start saving." In an interview with The Journal, Yale New Haven Healths Dr. AnnMarie Liapakis, a member of Bresnahans team, spoke of the challenges of finding donors for the Rhode Island man and others on waiting lists. According to the federal governments organdonor.gov website, 11,891 patients in the U.S. were on waiting lists last year but only 9,236 transplants were performed, a result of continuing donor shortages. Many died before getting a chance. With $35-million upgrade, Hasbro Children's Hospital is transformed into a gem "It's a limited resource in terms of deceased donor organs, compared to the number of people waiting, said Liapakis. So that's why we look to living-donor liver transplants to provide increased opportunity. Of course, if we didn't have to ask healthy people to step forward and give of themselves, we wouldn't. But that's the current landscape right now. Dr. AnnMarie Liapakis In screening potential donors, Liapakis said the Yale program considers more than biological compatibility. We do assure that donors are educated and that we set appropriate expectations so that they have support time off and resources to help them through the donation and recovery period, she said. Of course it's illegal to pay for organs, but what is available is support to cover lost wages, child or dependent-care expenses, so that it shouldn't cost a donor to come forward. For 46 days, RI family didn't know their father had died, was buried in unmarked grave Asked about safety, Liapakis said as with any operation, there is some risk. Transplant programs do everything they can to minimize risk and protect donor safety. That's the priority. The risk of a very serious complication is actually very small [Minor] complications are readily treated and resolved quickly and most donors will report a very positive experience. 'It's really heartbreaking' Another member of Bresnahans team, Dr. Uyen Kim To, said she has gotten to know him well during the years he has been her patient. He loves his work. He's very dedicated to his community and his family and it's really heartbreaking that despite all his efforts, he hasn't found a compatible donor. Numerous people have stepped up but the process of finding a match sometimes is difficult and he's getting sicker every day. Dr. Uyen Kim To Dr. To said she urged Bresnahan to go public with his plea. I pushed him really hard to get his message out because he has so much to offer, she said. This is a young man who did nothing to his liver to be so sick. Hes a tremendous asset to his community, to the children he teaches, and he puts that as a priority over himself. Bresnahans biography and his public appeal are available at https://bit.ly/3z6vfSj Jack and Joey with Jack's dog, Finch. Selfishly, I'm thinking if I got a donor today, my quality of life would be completely turned around, he told The Journal. Id be able to afford that ring for my girlfriend. I'd be able to start saving. We could start a family, we could maybe eventually get out of these small apartments [where they have lived] and build up a little bit financially. He added: But if you're not a match with me, you could be that match for someone else. To learn more about living donations, call toll free toll-free 866-YALE-TXP (866-925-3897) or visit https://www.ynhh.org/services/transplantation/center-for-living-organ-donors This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence man needs liver transplant to save his life The remnants of Hurricane Agatha, which slammed into Mexico earlier this week, could regather strength to become the first named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm, now entering the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico after crossing the Yucatan peninsula, is likely to become a tropical depression or tropical storm while it moves slowly northeastward, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned on Thursday. If the depression reaches wind speeds over 39mph (63 kph), it will be named Tropical Storm Alex, the first of the 2022 hurricane season which officially began on 1 June. The NHC gave an 80 per cent chance of the storm becoming a cyclone in the next two days, and also warned that heavy rainfall is possible in southern Florida, as well as parts of the Bahamas and Cuba. Hurricane Agatha left at least 11 people dead and 33 missing in Mexico after flooding and mudslides, the Associated Press reported. The governor of the state of Oaxaca, Alejando Murat, said rivers burst their banks and swept away homes, while some people were buried under earth and rocks. 8 AM EDT Jun 2: A system near the Yucatan Peninsula is likely to become a tropical depression or tropical storm in the next day or two. Tropical storm watches or warnings may be required for portions of western Cuba, South Florida, or the Keys later today. https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/SHa1CjRkWM National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) June 2, 2022 The hurricane hit land on the Oaxaca coast on Monday with sustained winds of 105mph and isolated stronger gusts. It made history as the strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall in May for the eastern Pacific season. The winds gradually weakened as the storm moved inland over Oaxaca before it was downgraded to a tropical storm. Story continues A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour, according to the NHC. Terminology varies across the globe - in the western North Pacific, hurricanes are typically called typhoons, while similar storms in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean are called cyclones. For climate scientists to assess whether the climate crisis influenced the strength of Hurricane Agatha would required whats known as an attribution study. Experts have previously found that while the annual number of tropical cyclones has not changed globally as the planet heats, the likelihood of more intense and destructive storms has risen. Major tropical cyclones have become more frequent across the world, according to the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an initiative by climate scientists to provide robust assessments of climate changes role in the aftermath of an extreme weather event. The climate crisis is heating up the worlds oceans, and that warmer water is super-charging cyclones and hurricanes. Climate change therefore creates the conditions in which more powerful storms can form, intensify rapidly and persist to reach land, while carrying more water, the group says. WWA has also found that extreme rainfall from tropical cyclones increased substantially and storm surges are higher due to sea-level rise. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers retrieve the boat that capsized on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at Lake Pueblo. Fort Carson officials confirmed three days later that Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Prindle and his wife, Jessica, died in the accident. The man who died when the boat he was on with 12 other people capsized on Lake Pueblo over the weekend was a soldier stationed at Fort Carson who had deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq, Army officials said Wednesday. The woman who died in the same accident was his wife, they said. The couple had been married for 10 years and had four children, according to a GoFundMe page set up by a relative. They died trying to help their children survive, the fundraiser for the family said. More: Body of 2nd victim of Lake Pueblo boat capsize recovered, identified The body of Jessica Prindle, 38, was pulled from the water by Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers shortly after the boat capsized in high winds on Sunday evening. A recovery team used sonar equipment to search for her 30-year-old husband's body after he was reported missing following the accident. The search for Joshua Prindle took nearly 36 hours, and was called off once as the wind picked up again, but he was eventually found in deep water and pulled from the reservoir on Tuesday about 5:45 a.m. "The 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson can confirm that Staff Sgt. Joshua Prindle and his spouse passed away in the boating incident at Lake Pueblo this weekend," a spokesperson for Fort Carson said in a statement Wednesday. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Staff Sgt. Prindle, as we continue to work with the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department to investigate the incident." 'Both were kind-hearted people' Everyone on the boat that set out Sunday on Lake Pueblo was a member of Jessica Prindle's family, her brother, Jesus Ramirez, said on the GoFundMe page he set up for the family. The boat overturned about 7:30 p.m. as strong winds battered Pueblo County, tipping its 13 passengers, including eight children, into the cold waters of the reservoir. All the children survived, as did three of the five adults on the boat, which had the capacity to hold just six to seven passengers, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Travis Duncan. Story continues The Prindles' children were onboard with their parents, Ramirez indicated on the GoFundMe page. He described his sister and brother-in-law as "kind-hearted people who would do anything to help anyone, and in their last moments that is exactly what they did by helping their children survive." One child was badly injured in the accident and had to be airlifted to a hospital. The other survivors were treated for hypothermia. None of the injured passengers have been identified. More: Here's what to know about water safety after Sunday's boating accident at Lake Pueblo Jessica Prindle "loved working with children and was starting her own party planning company," her brother wrote on GoFundMe. Joshua Prindle joined the Army in October 2010. A year later, he deployed to Afghanistan for an eight-month tour of duty. He deployed there again in 2013, and did a six-month tour in Iraq in 2018, according to information provided by Fort Carson, where he had been stationed since June 2020. This tragedy hits the Mountain Warrior Brigade hard," said Col. Andy Kiser, commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. "Staff Sgt. Prindle was a valued member of our team, and his loss is felt across the formation. Our focus now is to assist the family in their time of need." Karin Zeitvogel can be contacted by email at kzeitvogel@chieftain.com. This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Lake Pueblo boat capsize victims were Army sergeant and his wife Derek Berry has certainly found his niche in the hospitality industry, specializing in pop culture (and typically nostalgia-tinged) themed pop-up restaurants. His projects have been inspired by the likes of 90210's Peach Pit, Breaking Bad, and, most famously, Saved by the Bell. That latter "Saved by the Max" restaurant proved so popular it traveled around the country. For his latest project, Berry is diving into a similar era of classic television in the hopes of replicating that huge hit: a Golden Girls pop-up restaurant. Slated to open in Beverly Hills this July, the Golden Girls Kitchen promises to be "a fully functioning restaurant and bar that transports guests the moment they walk through the doors and into the world of this endearing fan favorite." And importantly, the fast casual concept which will have a focus on desserts is officially licensed by the show itself, making for a truly authentic experience. "Bringing Golden Girls to life has always been a dream of mine," explained Berry, who is launching the kitchen through the events platform Bucket Listers where he serves as director of experiences. "Our team is confident that both die hard fans of the show and first timers alike will leave with a deeper appreciation for the show's lasting legacy." Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Bea Arthur as Dorothy Petrillo Zbornak, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux heo Westenberger / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images Attending the pop-up will require tickets, which will sell for $50 a pop, but comes with a reserved seat, a guaranteed dining window, a choice of an entree, and cheesecake. Additional items will be sold a la carte and if you prefer to dine while watching reruns from the comfort of your own couch, you can even order for local delivery. As for the food, The Golden Girls Kitchen will serve items like Sophia's Lasagna (meat or vegan), The Dorothy: A Miami Style Sandwich, and Blanche's Georgia Style Cookies though organizers say "local chef collaborations" will also occasionally land on the menu. Meanwhile, the full beverage menu will offer drinks such as Tea Arthur and Rose on Rose. Story continues That said, the key to the experience is the venue itself and the Instagram-worthy photos that hopefully come with it. "Cozy up to the kitchen table, grab some sun on the lanai, or snap a selfie in front of everyone's favorite palm print," Bucket Listers writes. "Take a spin through Shady Pines on your way to the popup store featuring an exclusive range of brand new Golden Girls merchandise, not available anywhere else." Finally, throughout the pop-up's run, the Golden Girls Kitchen promises other surprises like special events, panels, and additional merch drops. Tickets aren't available yet, but the event is already up on the Bucket Listers website where interested fans can join a waiting list for notification of when they go on sale. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Getty/Getty Amber Heard will owe Johnny Depp about $10 million despite a jury awarding him $15 million. The presiding judge lessened the punitive-damages award to Depp because of limits set by state law. Depp was also found liable for defamation against Heard and owes her $2 million. Amber Heard will owe her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, just over $10 million in damages even though a jury awarded him $15 million when it ruled in his favor in his defamation suit against Heard. That's because the presiding judge lessened the $5 million punitive damages awarded to Depp to $350,000 because of limits set by state law. The jury also found Depp liable for defamation against Heard, awarding her $2 million, which means Heard will owe Depp a net penalty of $8.35 million. Depp took Heard to court, accusing her of damaging his career with false domestic-violence allegations. Heard filed a countersuit against Depp. A Virginia jury in the case returned a verdict on Wednesday following the six-week trial and found that Heard defamed Depp with the accusations. The jury awarded the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star $15 million in his suit against Heard $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. But Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive-damages award to $350,000 to follow Virginia law. "In accordance with law, I will amend the punitive-damages award to the statutory cap of $350,000 on Mr. Depp's award," Azcarate said. Jurors in the case also found Depp liable for defamation against Heard when one of his attorneys claimed her allegations of domestic abuse were a "hoax." Read the original article on Insider Badge of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office ASHEVILLE - A trial has been scheduled for a former Buncombe County Sheriff's deputy and his wife, who both face multiple child abuse charges. At a court appearance June 2, Matthew Lund, 37, and Aimee Lund, 40, were told they will each be tried July 18 for four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and four counts of misdemeanor child abuse. All the charges are misdemeanors. District Court Judge Julie Kepple presided over the hearing where the Lunds made a brief appearance. One bailiff exiting the courtroom smiled and gave both a fist bump. Another law enforcement officer who passed by squatted down where the Lunds were sitting, smiled and asked how they were doing. Past reporting: Former Buncombe sheriff's deputy and wife alleged to have nailed children's windows shut Other news: Deputy, school resource officer, fired, charged with child abuse; 2nd dismissal The Citizen Times previously reported that the Lunds were charged in July 2021 with keeping four children ages 2, 4, 7 and 13 inside a residence and bedroom without food, water or access to a bathroom. Arrest warrants said that the couple nailed the children's windows shut and locked their doors. The Lunds were licensed foster parents, the Citizen Times previously reported. It is unknown whether the charges were related to foster children in their custody. The arrest warrants for the child abuse charges say that the Lunds, who lived in Leicester at the time, committed the abuse as parents, but according to the Buncombe County Register of Deeds Office, which maintains birth records, neither was listed as a birth parent of any children born within the county. Matthew Lund was terminated from the Buncombe Sheriff's Office July 23, 2021, by Sheriff Quentin Miller. Lund began working for BCSO in 2013, according to his personnel record. He was also fired from a position at the Hendersonville Police Department in 2012, following a controversial on-duty shooting. No criminal charges were filed against him in that case. Story continues The Lunds were mostly quiet in the courtroom June 2, exiting soon after they arrived to speak privately with an attorney before their names were called, and only answering questions about their legal representation before hearing that their trial would be July 18. Law enforcement: SBI investigating school resource officer's use of force on Fletcher Elementary student SBI investigates SRO: Fletcher Elementary SRO investigated by SBI: Officer fired more than once previously Assistant District Attorney Blythe McCoy will prosecute the case, according to the district attorney's office. Matthew Lund is being represented by attorney Ted Besen, and Aimee Lund is being represented by Catherine Perez, according to the county public defender's office. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation into the Lunds at the request of Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams and the Sheriff's Office July 22, 2021, the Citizen Times previously reported. A spokesperson with the SBI did not immediately respond to a question asking whether the investigation was ongoing June 2. Ryan Oehrli is the breaking news and social justice reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email coehrli@citizentimes.com or call/text 252-944-6816 for tips. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: July trial set for former Buncombe deputy charged with child abuse People embrace at a reunification center set up at Memorial High School after a mass shooting at the Natalie Medical Buidling in Tulsa, Okla., Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (Joseph Rushmore/The New York Times) Gannon Gill was wrapping up an appointment with a new patient Wednesday when a loud noise startled him. A few seconds later, he heard it again. Gill, a physician assistant and a hunter, recognized those sounds as gunfire. There was an initial What was that? said Gill, who runs an orthopedic urgent care clinic at the facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was the site of a deadly shooting Wednesday. He turned to his patient and said, Lets go. I dont think this is good. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times He would later learn that some of his colleagues hid in bathrooms or storage closets. He guided his patient through the labyrinth of exam rooms and interlocking hallways, away from the sound of the gunfire. They ran into a small group of colleagues, who joined them. Gill crouched, moving quickly toward the closest exit. He and the group made it through the front door of the office and hustled to the parking garage. They were out in less than a minute. Once in the garage, he discovered his phone in his pocket and called his wife. Dont freak out. Im alive, he recalled telling her. He asked her to bring his car keys, which he realized he had left behind. It became clear to Gill the area was safe, and he stayed in the garage with his colleagues, where they called others they could not account for. One man in the garage, a patient, told Gill that he and his wife had encountered the gunman during the attack. The shooter told him and his wife to leave and he was not there for him, Gill said. Gill said he had a hard time remembering some details about a pretty scary day. You see this stuff on television or the news, he said, but you dont think its ever going to happen in your workplace. 2022 The New York Times Company Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (D) is hopeful that a House delegation due this weekend on the island will return to Washington, D.C., ready to quickly move a bill to update the U.S. territorys status. The delegation, led by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will be in Puerto Rico to get feedback on a proposed bill introduced last month that would allow Puerto Ricans to vote between becoming a state, an independent nation or an independent nation with a treaty of free association with the United States. Pierluisi, who favors statehood as an alternative to the current territorial status, said he believes all options in the proposed bill are democratic, unlike the current status. The three options that are given to the public or the people, the residents of Puerto Rico, the American citizens of Puerto Rico, are fully democratic I have to admit that the three of them, Pierluisi told The Hill. I much prefer statehood than the others. I think thats actually the logical next step for Puerto Rico, but I respect the other two and people should be able to vote for them as well. The proposed bill was born out of a long negotiation process between Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (R). The negotiations were hosted by Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and endorsed by Grijalva, whose committee has oversight over the territories. The negotiations were in essence a proxy debate in Washington over status, the center of gravity of Puerto Rican politics. On one side, Soto and Gonzalez-Colon favored statehood and sought a binding plebiscite with a yes-no vote on that option. On the other side Velazquez a longtime opponent of statehood sought a broader convention to define status alternatives for the territory. But the negotiators, including Hoyer and Grijalva, all publicly agreed that the current status amounts to unacceptable U.S. colonialism. Story continues Pierluisi said his main concern with the upcoming fact-finding mission is that some Puerto Rican politicians will try to make the case for things to remain the same. I know some of the leaders of the Popular Democratic Party do not like the fact that the territory status was left out of this plebiscite, said Pierluisi. But I hope that Chairman Grijalva and co-sponsors of this bill in the making will stand strong for the principle that we should decolonize Puerto Rico, we should get rid of the current undemocratic status of Puerto Rico and allow the people of Puerto Rico to choose among the three non-territorial status options we have available, he added. Since the 1950s, two major parties have ruled over the islands limited self government. The Popular Democratic Party has traditionally favored the territorial status known in English as commonwealth or in Spanish as Estado Libre Asociado, which translates to free associated state. The New Progressive Party, to which Pierluisi and Gonzalez-Colon belong, is a staunch pro-statehood party. But the islands political system has been shaken up, now with five parties represented in the legislature and competing for a say in the territorys future. Grijalva, who will be accompanied on his fact-finding mission by Velazquez, Gonzalez-Colon and Ocasio-Cortez, is due to meet leaders of all five major parties. If the consensus survives any additions to the bill text wrought during the trip, time will be short for Congress to move on it. The plan is to drop or introduce the bill within two weeks or so, then mark it up very expeditiously at the committee of jurisdiction, the Natural Resources Committee, and then take it down to the floor for a vote as soon as the calendar allows, ideally, that that would happen before the August recess, said Pierluisi, a former resident commissioner. If time allows and the consensus holds, the bill is expected to pass the House with some bipartisan support. But it faces long odds in a deeply divided Senate with few legislative days left in an election year. The next challenge will be to get the Senate to address the matter, said Pierluisi. But I hope that we find a way for the Senate to take action on this matter as well. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A Walmart in rural Williston, North Dakota, where the company is a top-five employer. North Dakota has a "trigger law" that would automatically ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, potentially spurring a spike in turnover and absenteeism. Andrew Burton/Getty Images If Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will automatically be criminalized in 13 states with "trigger laws." Top employers in those states including Walmart, McDonald's, and Amazon may face a crisis around recruitment, turnover, and health care. The Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, top public employers, have created no plans for the potential end of Roe. If the Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade in June considered all but certain since a draft decision was leaked May 2 major US companies may find themselves facing shock waves inside their organizations. But most companies appear unprepared for what's to come. Insider has identified the companies that would face the most immediate impact: those with the largest workforces in states with "trigger laws," where abortion bans would automatically take effect if the court strikes down Roe. Thousands of their employees may soon be facing unintended pregnancies without access to abortion care. Over two-thirds of Americans want to uphold Roe v. Wade, and the majority support women having access to legal abortion for any reason, per a recent Wall Street Journal poll. Walmart, McDonald's, Amazon, the Department of Defense, and Roark Capital Group, a private-equity firm that owns Arby's, Dunkin', and the Cheesecake Factory, top the list, as they are among the largest employers in all 13 trigger-law states. Workers at major brands including Kroger, UPS, Lowe's, Tyson Foods, Marriott, and Dollar General would also be heavily affected, as each company is a top employer in at least four states with abortions bans that would be triggered by the overturn of Roe. Insider's analysis was based on proprietary data that identified and ranked the top 25 employers in all 50 states. The Politico leak effectively gave companies several weeks to prepare for the disruption ahead, yet few appear to have taken advantage of the warning. Insider contacted every company and federal agency that is a top employer in at least three trigger-law states to ask whether they'd developed plans for how to handle risks to recruitment, retention, and healthcare costs if Roe v. Wade were overturned. Story continues Most of these companies declined to speak with Insider. Amazon stands alone among the major employers in these states in having made a public commitment to covering the cost for employees to travel for healthcare including abortions. This article originally published in May 2022. Turnover and absenteeism are expected to rise if Roe is struck down Employers in states where abortion bans take effect may face higher rates of turnover and absenteeism, research shows. Unplanned births can reduce women's workforce participation by as much as 25%, and women denied abortions faced higher degrees of unemployment and financial distress, including unpaid debts, evictions, and bankruptcies. More than 150 economists signed an amicus brief in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case which the Supreme Court is considering as it decides whether to uphold Roe v. Wade arguing that "abortion legalization has had a significant impact on women's wages and educational attainment, with impacts most strongly felt by Black women." The reverse is also true, according to Kate Bahn, the chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She told Insider by email that for workers already facing barriers, reductions in abortion access would most likely have particularly severe effects. "Industries that employ these groups of workers," she said, "may be impacted by limited educational and economic opportunities for workers who are impacted by reduced access to abortion care." Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen underscored the economic implications of a potential Roe reversal during testimony at a hearing of the Senate banking committee. "I believe that eliminating the rights of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades," she said. Industries as varied as meatpacking, fast food, and warehousing are already facing labor shortages. Insider's analysis found that major brands in these sectors are also top employers in numerous states facing imminent abortion bans, which could have a rolling impact as workers grapple with unintended pregnancies. The meat producer Tyson Foods, with 120,000 US employees, is a top employer in four of the 13 trigger-law states, while the retailer Lowe's, with 340,000 global employees, is a top employer in five. Kroger, with 420,000 global employees, most of them in the US, is a top employer in eight. And Yum! Brands, the parent company to KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, with 23,000 US employees, is a top employer in 12. "Long-term labor shortages in sectors like childcare and K-12 education could be further worsened by attacks on the rights of women, who are disproportionately workers in these sectors," Bahn said. Data from 2014 showed that nearly a quarter of women had an abortion during their reproductive years; in trigger-law states, that may soon mean extended time off for travel to seek an abortion out of state or an exit from the workforce for those who can't obtain one. Largest US employers across the 13 trigger law states Alex Ford/Insider The top employers in these states also include several federal agencies, most notably the Department of Veterans Affairs, a top employer in 10 trigger-law states; the US Postal Service, a top employer in 11; and the Department of Defense, a top employer in each of the 13 states with abortion trigger laws. Insider filed public-records requests to each of these agencies requesting planning documents covering how they would manage their workforces if Roe were overturned and trigger laws took effect. The DoD and the VA said they searched and no such records existed. The Postal Service told Insider "the records you are seeking are outside the responsibilities of this office." None of these agencies would comment to Insider about their lack of plans. 'Are we going to have a brain drain?' Just three days after Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion was leaked, Senate Democrats held a press briefing to announce an effort to codify abortion rights into federal law. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington called the moment "a political earthquake." "What are we going to do as employers here in the United States Senate?" asked the former tech executive who is now chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. "What are we going to do about federal agencies? Do you think people are going to want to go and work in NASA in Florida or Texas if that state precludes a woman's right to choose?" "Are we going to have extra money in the budget so people can travel to a state so they can get their healthcare rights?" Cantwell asked. "Or are we going to have a brain drain because people aren't going to want to work for federal agencies located in a state that doesn't protect a woman's right to choose?" The reversal of Roe would pose particular challenges to the Department of Defense, as service members would face the prospect of being involuntarily transferred to a state where they would lack abortion rights. Recently, the Air Force produced guidance for military families affected by state laws criminalizing gender-affirming care. "The Defense Department must recognize that the involuntary transfer of service members to Texas places parents of transgender dependent children in peril," Tammy Smith, the former chief of Army personnel, recently told the Defense News Network. "They may be charged with child abuse by Texas authorities." Service members based in states that ban abortion may soon face the prospect of criminal charges, too. The DoD declined to comment. Full coverage of Insider's investigation into abortion-ban "trigger laws": Concerns about attracting talent are now quietly rippling through the private sector. "For the first time in history, people are thinking beyond doughnuts and benefits," said Robynn Storey, a headhunter who is CEO of Storeyline Resumes. "Political stances are definitely one of those things." Shelley Alpern is director of corporate engagement for Rhia Ventures, a social-investing firm that produced a 2020 report on the business case for reproductive health. She said recruitment could become a problem for companies that declined to take a stand on reproductive rights. "Employers can say goodbye to being able to attract top female talent if they do not support women's access to abortion with their policies," she said. A KFC restaurant in Kentucky, where its parent company, Yum! Brands, is a top employer. Kentucky has an abortion trigger law on the books. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Several top employers in states with trigger laws also have headquarters there, including Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas; Yum! Brands in Louisville, Kentucky; Tyson Foods in Springdale, Arkansas; and HCA Healthcare, a hospital chain in Nashville, Tennessee, that is a top employer in five trigger-law states. Emily Martin, the vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women's Law Center, said these firms might soon face headwinds in attracting talent to their headquarters. "It could be a real challenge for employers to recruit women, and people who can become pregnant," she said, "to work for them in states that have really embraced these radical extremist bans." Companies are scrambling behind the scenes Insider reached out to the top employers in trigger-law states with a range of questions about whether they had conducted risk assessments related to how a reversal of Roe v. Wade might affect their workforce and company policies. Insider also asked whether the companies had audited their political contributions for conflicts with their corporate values. Walmart, Berkshire Hathaway, and UPS, all top employers in numerous trigger-law states, each gave more than $200,000 to the lawmakers behind these laws, according to a separate Insider analysis. Most of these companies declined to comment to Insider. But behind the scenes, many companies are scrambling to figure out their next step. Yelp was one of the first publicly traded corporations to announce, in early April, that it would cover travel costs for employees going out of state to seek abortion care. A Yelp executive told Insider that calls from companies had poured in since the decision was announced. "Many companies are reaching out about this issue," said Yelp's chief diversity officer, Miriam Warren. "This shows us that companies big and small, and across a number of industries are concerned about this issue and they also want to do something to safeguard their employees." Miriam Warren, the chief diversity officer at Yelp. Warren says "many companies are reaching out" since Yelp announced it would cover travel costs for employees' abortion care. Bruce Yan/South China Morning Post via Getty Images The nation's leading family-planning provider has also seen an increase in the number of corporate executives, including CEOs, reaching out for advice. "Planned Parenthood organizations have seen an influx of corporate and business interest, asking how they can support abortion access by establishing their own best practices to support their people, to providing core business contributions, to public communications," said Nadia Khamis, the director of corporate engagement at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She declined to name companies that had reached out. Other companies appear to be waiting until the Supreme Court issues a formal decision this summer or waiting to let their peers take the lead. Tina Opie, who advises Fortune 500 companies on issues involving diversity, equity, and inclusion, said she hadn't yet heard from any business leaders on the issue. "It's been quiet," she said. "I think that people are waiting for the actual decision before commenting." 3M, a top employer in South Dakota, a trigger-law state, is one of those companies. "We understand and respect this topic is an important and deeply personal one for many people," a 3M representative told Insider. "We appreciate there is a lot of speculation, as there has been in the past. If the law were to change, 3M would evaluate what it means and how it impacts employees." Malia Lazu, the CEO and founder of The Lazu Group, a diversity-and-inclusion consultancy, told Insider that many leaders were still assessing the landscape. "CEOs are going to remain cautious until they really understand how to enter the conversation in a way that's responsible," she said. "That's either going to be because more businesses do this and there becomes a standard or because the people demand of these companies that they do it." At Rhia, Alpern has advanced several shareholder proposals regarding political spending and abortion rights. She said a company's "appetite for risk," its tolerance of criticism, and the personalities of senior leadership all played roles in determining whether it would take action. So did industry culture and the culture of each business's geographical base. She said that while many businesses were taking proactive approaches behind the scenes, others appeared to be delaying action. Some experts attribute this hesitation to the lack of gender diversity in companies' senior leadership. Dee C. Marshall, the CEO of the diversity consultancy Diverse & Engaged, said she believed many CEOs weren't responding in part because "abortion isn't believed to be a wealthy CEOs issue or concern because it doesn't directly impact he/she/they/them." "They also tend to fear speaking out on matters impacting women and underrepresented individuals," she said. Even employers that have set themselves up as leaders on diversity, equity, and inclusion have remained silent. Walmart highlights the number of women in its workforce and its commitment to promoting DEI. But a representative told Insider the company did "not lobby on this issue" of abortion access and declined to comment. McDonald's, too, describes itself as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion, saying on its corporate website, "Few companies on the planet are better positioned to make a difference than McDonald's." But the company did not respond to requests for comment from Insider. Healthcare companies risk employees being criminalized Employers in the healthcare space could face specific legal issues if abortion trigger laws take effect. In a post-Roe landscape, both patients seeking an abortion and their healthcare providers could be at risk of prosecution. Seventeen hospital systems and healthcare chains are top-five employers in trigger-law states, including Sanford Health, which is a top-two employer in both North Dakota and South Dakota. "Sanford Health is carefully evaluating the potential impact a final Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade would have on our healthcare providers and the patients we serve across the rural Midwest," Jeremy Cauwels, the chief physician at Sanford Health, told Insider in a statement. "Ensuring the health and well-being of our Sanford Health family is our utmost priority." In some instances, healthcare employers could be also looking at a more mobilized, politically charged workforce. Erica Bland-Durosinmi is the executive vice president for SEIU Healthcare, which represents some 90,000 frontline healthcare workers most of whom are women in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri, a trigger-law state. Few union members are talking about leaving Missouri, she said. Instead, conversations center on how to support protecting access to "legal, safe abortions." "People are very tied to their communities," Bland-Durosinmi said. "We're no strangers to fights and protests and standing up in the streets and fighting in the legislative halls to make sure that people have rights that they deserve." Even companies outside the healthcare field may soon face a complex calculus in strategizing how to provide consistent coverage to their employees. More than half of Americans get their health coverage through their jobs; now companies may face the prospect of adjusting their healthcare offerings, state by state, with regard to abortion access. "The vast differences in the types of available abortion coverage will lead to uneven access for many employees, public and private alike," Osub Ahmed, the associate director for women's health and rights at the Center for American Progress, told Insider by email. "It also will impose a significant administrative burden on employers, who will need to sort through complicated billing questions." Lauren Hoffman, a colleague of Ahmed's who is the associate director for women's economic security, predicts that companies such as Yelp, Citi, and Amazon, which have announced that they will cover abortion-related travel costs, may run into "retaliation from politicians who do not support abortion." With a raft of copycat bills modeled after Texas's SB 8, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who assists a pregnant person in obtaining an abortion, Hoffman said employers could face legal liability, including "harassing lawsuits," if they decide to assist employees in getting abortions out of state. Yet Alpern said companies should not assume bold policies will incur the wrath of radical anti-abortion forces without a careful risk assessment. "I want to give credit to the companies that really have gone out on a limb in this environment," she said. "Although I think most of these companies think that the limb is a lot shakier than it really is." "Companies should move forward as a group," Alpern added. "That's one way to blunt a lot of negative feedback, blowback, or protests from the extremist side." Additional reporting by Nicole Einbinder and Abbie Shull. 68% of respondents said they wouldn't like to see the court completely overturn Roe 68% of respondents said they wouldn't like to see the court completely overturn Roe Read the original article on Business Insider A WEAVE IN TIME: For its sixth project at Milans Salone del Mobile, Loewe and creative director Jonathan Anderson will continue to delve into craft, focusing this time on traditional weaving techniques. Highlighted throughout Weave, Restore, Renew is the idea that repairing is central to being sustainable while bringing uniqueness and extra character, an approach that sits right at the crossing of respect for the environment and respect for the product, according to Anderson. More from WWD Across this whole project, we celebrate the regenerative power of handwork. I am proud we have created a series of items that rewire the relation with time, wear and tear, delivering a message of evolution and transformation which is progressive and uplifting, he continued. Visitors to the international furniture and interior design trade show will be able to see leather, straw and paper turned into striking functional items. The ancient Coroza technique is used for hats, baskets and rain coats, here by artisan Alvaro Leiro. - Credit: Yago Castromil/Courtesy of Loewe Yago Castromil/Courtesy of Loewe For Repaired in Spain, the Spanish fashion house tasked artisans Idoia Cuesta, Belen Martinez, Santiago Besteiro, Juan Manuel Marcilla with breathing new life into 240 distressed baskets by mending them with leather strips. Elsewhere, straw was the main material of the Coroza series of bags and baskets with distinctive fringing that nods to the ancestral technique of that name from the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia traditionally used to make raincoats, hats and baskets from pliable natural fibers. In addition to these, 2019 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize finalist Young Soon Lee used recycled newspapers woven using the traditional Korean technique called Jiseung for a series of totes. Shoppers in Milan will have first dibs on a selection of repaired baskets and small accessories starting Monday at the Loewe flagship on Via Monte Napoleone, with some also available on the brands e-commerce, before they become available in other cities including Tokyo, Seoul, New York and Paris. Story continues The Salone del Mobile, which takes place from Tuesday to June 12 at the Fiera Milano exhibition center on the citys outskirts, is celebrating this year its 60th edition and will be focusing on sustainability, a hot topic not only in fashion but also in design, its president Maria Porro told WWD earlier this year. Best of WWD Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. The claim: Texas doesn't have a hotline for suspected school shootings, but does have a hotline for reporting women entering Planned Parenthood Soon after the shooting massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, some social media posts claimed that Texas had a hotline for reporting abortions but not one for school shootings. "Texas doesn't have a hotline if you see a man go into an elementary school classroom with his AR-15, but it does have a hotline if you see a woman go into a Planned Parenthood parking lot with her car," reads a post from the Twitter account of satirical writer Andrew Bradley, who uses the alias Betty Bowers. This post was shared on Twitter more than 43,000 times and on Facebook and other platforms hundreds and hundreds of times. "Pro-life my ass,'' wrote one Facebook user in a post of a screenshot of the tweet. The post was shared more than 350 times. However, the tweet is not based in fact. While there is not a dedicated phone number for reporting mass shootings, 911 is the ''hotline'' for reporting such emergencies, federal authorities said. There is, however, no public or state-run hotline for reporting women who go to Planned Parenthood centers in Texas, according to our research. Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks USA TODAY reached out to Bradley and users who shared his post for comment. Abortion rights supporters rally at the Texas Capitol on May 14, 2022, in Austin, Texas. State has no abortion-reporting hotline, 911 for emergencies In an email to USA TODAY, Bradley said the tweet's claim about Planned Parenthood refers to a website that Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, established last year to solicit tips from citizens about suspected illegal abortions. "I took some liberty in referring to it as a 'hotline,'" he wrote. In 2021, a Texas law went into effect, making it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Still, only citizens are allowed to enforce the law. They can sue clinics or others who violate it. Police are prohibited from enforcing the law. Story continues In response, Texas Right to Life set up ProLifeWhistleblower.com in July 2021, encouraging Texans to submit anonymous reports on people who could be sued under the law, including women, doctors and clinics. The site went dark after a judge barred Texas Right to Life from suing Planned Parenthood over the abortion ban, CBS News reported. While the anti-abortion group pledged to restore the site and continue collecting anonymous tips, it never went back up. Domain hosts such as GoDaddy.com dropped or refused to host the website because of policies against collecting private information about third parties without their consent, the Washington Post reported. Currently, the domain redirects to the Texas Right to Life homepage. USA TODAY didn't find any evidence that a public hotline for reporting abortions exists. There is, however, evidence that pro-life groups may still be collecting information on women who enter Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions by taking photographs and recording license plate numbers, according to MIT Technology Review. In a comment to USA TODAY, Bradley wrote that the content on his Betty Bowers Twitter account is "somewhat satiric," though he "strives to be truthful." "The point I was making... (is that) Texas seems far more concerned with whether a woman goes to Planned Parenthood than if a young man enters a school with an AR-15," he wrote. The second part of Bradley's tweet that there is no hotline to report mass shootings is also misleading. The National 911 Program, which is part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, confirmed to USA TODAY that Texas does have a "hotline" for reporting emergencies like a potential school shooting to police and other officials 911. "The number to call in Texas and across the United States to report any emergency is 911," wrote Lucia Sanchez, NHTSA's director of media relations. "A person entering a school with a gun would be considered an emergency." Texans, like all Americans, can call 911 to get police, fire or emergency medical assistance, according to the program's website. Fact check: Plan B still legal in Missouri as Supreme Court considers fate of Roe v. Wade Our rating: False Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Texas doesn't have a hotline for suspected school shootings but does have a hotline for reporting women entering Planned Parenthood. The number 911 serves as a hotline for reporting emergencies and would handle reports of an armed gunman entering a school, the National 911 Program said. Texas doesn't have a hotline for reporting women who enter Planned Parenthood. 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: No Texas hotline for reporting women at Planned Parenthood Jun. 2LEWISBURG Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, Weis Markets executives and Dairy Association officials kicked off the sixth annual Fill a Glass with Hope program Wednesday by delivering two truckloads of fresh milk to families in need as distributed by the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank partners as part of World Milk Day. A fundraising goal of $100,000 was announced by Jane Clements, Chief Executive Officer, Feeding Pennsylvania, as part of a partnership formed among Feeding Pennsylvania and member food banks, the Pennsylvania Dairymen's Association, and American Dairy Association North East. Monies raised will enable member food banks to purchase fresh milk directly from their local dairies in order to distribute it to families in need. Fill a Glass with Hope launched statewide at the 100th PA Farm Show in 2016. Each member food bank became licensed as a charitable milk sub-dealer by the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing board, allowing them to purchase milk from dairies at a reduced price. That reduced price is further subsidized by donations and sponsorships. The program has distributed more than 21 million servings of fresh milk since inception through the charitable food network of pantries, soup kitchen, shelters, and feeding programs. Former Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Charlie Batch was also on hand representing the Pennsylvania Dairy Association. "I am in support of what you all are doing here, making sure milk is available for kids, as they start their day," he said. "I am humbled to be here with this group. I want everyone to know how important the Fill a Glass with Hope is to the people of Central Pennsylvania." Redding, the keynote speaker, said, "hunger is with us every day of the year. and to the folks who produce dairy, weather doesn't matter. They are here for us and taking care of us in so many ways. Thank you to all of Pennsylvania's dairy producers and processors, and thanks to Weis Markets, who through the years have been anchored here, and buy from Pennsylvania farmers." Story continues Redding said he is inspired by the Fill a Glass with Hope. "At the end of the day, it is about hope." Making ends meet Farmer Dina Zug, of Mifflintown, said "I'm proud to represent all of my fellow dairy farmers. We see that this is an important campaign. It's an initiative that showcases our dedication to producing wholesome, nutritious milk. and also in ensuring that is available to families in our communities." This program makes it possible to help children, because milk is essential to their growth, Zug continued. After her remarks, Zug noted how difficult it has been to make a living as a dairy farmer over the years. On Wednesday morning, the price of a Class 1 gallon of milk was $4.03, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "This year is one of those once-in-a lifetime years that we had way back when," Zug said. "The price of milk is relatively good right now for dairy farmers. But the cost of feed and all of our other costs of production are going up too. We strive to maintain a low cost of production as much as we can. We'll switch around different kinds of feed that might not be as expensive to help offset the rising feed cost." Colombian prosecutors gave permission in 2003 for Rodriguez Orejuela to be extradited to the United States The former head of Colombia's once-powerful Cali drugs cartel has died in prison in the United States. At one point, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela controlled the vast majority of the world's cocaine trade and was an arch-nemesis of Pablo Escobar. The 83-year-old was even nicknamed the Chess Player for his skill at staying one step ahead of rivals and the law. But in 1995 his luck ran out - he was arrested in Colombia and eventually extradited to the US in 2004. The former cartel leader was serving a 30-year federal prison sentence in North Carolina where his family says he died of an illness on Tuesday. At the height of his powers, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela ran the Cali drugs cartel with his brother Miguel. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the pair's Cali gang was responsible for 80% of the world's total cocaine trade by the mid-1990s. That monopoly was only achieved after 1993, the year Rodriguez Orejuela's long-time arch-nemesis - Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellin cartel - was killed by police. In 1995 Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was arrested at his luxury apartment in Cali, Colombia While Escobar's Cali gang had a fearsome reputation in Colombia for violence, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers tried to portray themselves as respectable businessmen. They later admitted to using bribes to secure friendly treatment from powerful politicians, many of whom they were close to, and were never pursued as actively by authorities as their Medellin rivals. Rodriguez Orejuela even preferred to describe himself as an "honest drugstore magnate" - a reference to the chain of pharmacies owned by the family. But in practice the Cali cartel was ruthlessly violent. For years, its members battled it out with their Medellin rivals for control of lucrative cocaine markets and supply routes. The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers deployed bombs and vigilantes - and were believed to be behind the Pepes group responsible for the deaths of more than 60 of Pablo Escobar's relatives and associates. Hundreds of gang members, drug dealers, and ordinary people were killed in the bloody turf conflict which gripped Colombia throughout the 1980s as a result. Story continues The Cali cartel's demise eventually began in 1995, when police arrested Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela at his luxury home in Cali, where he was reportedly crouching in a wardrobe. Within a year of his arrest, some six of the cartel's seven leaders were either dead or behind bars. His younger brother Miguel, arrested two months after Gilberto, is currently serving a prison sentence in the US. You might also be interested in: WASHINGTON Here's a look at how area members of Congress voted May 20 through May 26. There were no key votes in the House last week. Senate Senate Vote 1: APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Stephanie Davis to be a judge on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Davis, a U.S. district court judge in Michigan since late 2019, was previously a federal magistrate judge, assistant U.S. attorney and private practice lawyer in Detroit. The vote, on May 24, was 49 yeas to 43 nays. YEAS: Sherrod Brown D-OH NAYS: Rob Portman R-OH Senate Vote 2: OVERSEEING ELECTIONS: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Dara Lindenbaum to be a member of the Federal Election Commission. Lindenbaum had most recently been an elections lawyer at a private law firm in Washington, D.C. A supporter, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Lindenbaum "has expressed a willingness to work with the other commissioners and find consensus to do the important work of the agency." The vote, on May 24, was 54 yeas to 38 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH, Portman R-OH Senate Vote 3: NEW JERSEY JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Evelyn Padin to be a judge on the U.S. district court for New Jersey. Padin has been a lawyer at her own law firm in Jersey City since 1995. A supporter, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Padin's "years of experience with New Jersey's legal system, coupled with her broad legal expertise, make her well-suited to serve on the federal bench." The vote, on May 25, was 51 yeas to 43 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH NAYS: Portman R-OH Senate Vote 4: COLORADO JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Charlotte Sweeney to be a judge on the U.S. district court for Colorado. Sweeney has been a private practice lawyer since 1995, specializing in employment discrimination law. A supporter, Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo., said Sweeney's "obvious credentials, her integrity, and her much needed experience more than qualify her for this role." The vote, on May 25, was 48 yeas to 46 nays. Story continues YEAS: Brown D-OH NAYS: Portman R-OH Senate Vote 5: MORTGAGE FINANCING: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Sandra Thompson to be director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Thompson has been a senior official at the agency since 2013, and previously was a long-time official at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. A supporter, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called Thompson "an exceptional nominee, with decades of experience in mortgage markets and federal financial regulation." The vote, on May 25, was 49 yeas to 46 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH NAYS: Portman R-OH Senate Vote 6: EPA OFFICIAL: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Henry Christopher Frey to be the Environmental Protection Agency's assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development. Frey has been an official in various roles at the EPA, from 2006 to 2018, and a professor at North Carolina State University since 1994. A supporter, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said Frey "has the experience, intellect and integrity to lead this indispensable office." An opponent, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized Frey's past support for economically harmful power plant emissions restrictions. The vote, on May 25, was 51 yeas to 43 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH, Portman R-OH Senate Vote 7: GOVERNMENT WORKER REVIEWS: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Cathy Harris to be a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board for a seven-year term ending in 2028. The Board hears appeals of disciplinary matters and other claims brought by federal government employees. Harris had been a private practice lawyer in Washington, D.C., specializing in employment law. The vote, on May 25, was 48 yeas to 46 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH NAYS: Portman R-OH Senate Vote 8: DOMESTIC TERRORISM: The Senate has rejected a cloture motion to end debate on a motion to proceed to the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 350), sponsored by Rep. Bradley Scott Schneider, D-Ill. The bill would authorize actions against domestic terrorism by the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Department. A supporter, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said: "This bill will give the government the tools to monitor, find, and arrest these evil actors before they have a chance to inflict violence on their communities." An opponent, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said it would wrongly create new government powers to investigate soldiers and others based on a presumption of guilt. The vote, on May 26, was 47 yeas to 47 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH NAYS: Portman R-OH Senate Vote 9: FOREIGN SERVICE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Marcia Bernicat to be director general of the Foreign Service. Bernicat is a career member of the Foreign Service at the State Department, serving in numerous roles, including ambassador to Bangladesh, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. A supporter, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Bernicat "has a deep understanding of the inner-workings of the Department and valuable overseas experience." The vote, on May 26, was 82 yeas to 10 nays. YEAS: Brown D-OH NOT VOTING: Portman R-OH This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Here's how Ohio senators voted May 20-26 Aerial of Pazaislis Monastery in Lithuania Andrius Aleksandravicius/Courtesy of Lithuania Travel Digital nomads have the best of both worlds: the security of a job with the ability to travel. But after a few tours around the globe, it's easy to settle into bland coworking spaces that feel uninspiring. To fight digital nomad fatigue, Lithuania is offering itself as a destination for remote workers to settle down without having to give up travel. Aerial of Pazaislis Monastery in Lithuania Andrius Aleksandravicius/Courtesy of Lithuania Travel About one hour outside of the Lithuanian capital of Vilinius is a tree house haven nestled in the forest. The Varena Treehouse is a minimalist tree house complex in southern Lithuania along the Merkiai River. If you're someone who gets distracted by urban scenes, the tranquil getaway could be your saving grace. You won't have very many distractions in the middle of the woods. And after a stressful day, you can unwind with a walk through the trees, then a soak in the open-air bathtub. Exterior of the Varena Treehouse in Lithuania Andrius Kundrotas/Courtesy of Lithuania Travel For those looking to learn a bit more about the local culture, you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about buckwheat, a growing culinary trend in Lithuania, at the nearby Grikucis Homestead. The center offers educational programs on buckwheat sowing, preparation, and cooking. Interior of the Tech Spa in Lithuania Courtesy of Lithuania Travel Or you could lean into seclusion and stay at a monastery. Monte Pacis is a hotel operating in the Pazaislis Monastery near the city of Kaunas. (It's one of only a few hundred hotels operating in active monasteries in the world.) Whether you opt for the hotel's class baroque-style rooms or the monastery's guest house, you'll be able to take advantage of the calm atmosphere. The monastery is famous for its Linden Tree Alley, which some call a "reading room among the flowering Pazaislis lime trees." And if you dine at the on-site restaurant, you can try out wine produced by the monks themselves. When the workday is over, head to the nearby Kaunas Reservoir beach, just a short walk away. Story continues TEMA gallery on the shore of the Curonian Lagoon_Coworking space in Klaipeda in Lithuania Andrius Kundrotas/Courtesy of Lithuania Travel Lithuania also has several other unconventional accommodations for workers, including an ultra-modern coworking space in the city of Klaipeda (known as the country's "teleworking capital"), a "Tech Spa" in the historic wellness resort of Druskininkai, or a remote farm in the village of Radiskis. Exterior of Farmers Circle in Lithuania Courtesy of Lithuania Travel International visitors to Lithuania are no longer required to provide COVID-19 tests or provide proof of vaccination to enter the country, according to the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania. Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure, currently based in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or at caileyrizzo.com. FILE PHOTO: TB2 drone of Turkish drone-maker Baykar is seen at a stand during the first day of SAHA EXPO Defence & Aerospace Exhibition in Istanbul By Andrius Sytas VILNIUS (Reuters) - Manufacturer Baykar and Turkey's Defence Industry Agency will donate a Bayraktar TB2 advanced combat drone to Lithuania for transfer to Ukraine, after Lithuanians crowdfunded nearly 6 million euros to buy it, Lithuania's defence ministry said on Thursday. Baykar will deliver the drone in a few weeks. It will be painted in the colours of the Lithuanian and Ukrainian flags, according to the ministry, which had said last week it would arrange to buy the craft. "We came to Turkey to agree on conditions for the drone purchase, but they prepared the most pleasant surprise possible for us," Deputy Defence Minister Vilius Semaska said in a statement. Baykar confirmed its donation in a Twitter post that included photographs of Semaska with a drone at its premises. "The people of Lithuania have honorably raised funds to buy a Bayraktar TB2 for Ukraine. Upon learning this, Baykar will gift a Bayraktar TB2 to Lithuania free of charge and asks those funds go to Ukraine for humanitarian aid," the company said. Hundreds of people chipped in to buy the drone for Ukraine as a show of solidarity in its war against Russia, which also once ruled Lithuania. A total of 5.9 million euros ($6.2 million) was raised in just 5-1/2 days, mostly in small donations, according to Laisves TV, the Lithuanian internet broadcaster that launched the drive. About 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) of the funds raised will be used to pay for armaments for the drone, the defence ministry said, with the rest used for other help for Ukraine. Kyiv has previously bought dozens of the TB2 drones, which have proven effective in recent years against Russian forces and their allies in conflicts in Syria and Libya. Ankara, which has good ties with both Kyiv and Moscow, is not among NATO members that have sent heavy weapons to Ukraine. Lithuania is also looking to purchase a Bayraktar or a similar drone for its own military, Semaska told Reuters. "We are looking into a TB2 but it could also be a TB3 or another drone armed with missiles," he said. ($1 = 0.9335 euros) (Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Catherine Evans) Russia Ukraine War Arms Package In this May 23, 2011, file photo a launch truck fires the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) produced by Lockheed Martin during combat training in the high desert of the Yakima Training Center, Wash. Credit - Tony OvermanThe Olympian/AP President Joe Bidens decision Wednesday to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike targets from dozens of miles away gives Kyiv a new, much-needed advantage in their hard-fought war with Russia. After months imploring the U.S. to send long-range missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian military will soon have a weapon with roughly twice the range of the current artillery pieces they are using to fight the better armed Russian troops that have invaded the eastern part of their country. Moscow has noticed. Speaking with reporters after the announcement Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the U.S. of dangerously escalating the war, raising the specter not only of increased fighting in the country, but potentially spreading it beyond Ukraines borders. The U.S. is deliberately and diligently pouring oil on the fire, Peskov said. In fact, the decision to provide four U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) was debated for weeks before Biden felt comfortable to send the weapons, administration officials say. Even then, the president wanted multiple assurances from Ukraine, including from Zelensky himself, that HIMARS would be solely used as a defensive weapon and not fired into Russian territory, the officials say. As a safeguard, the rockets that the administration decided to provide have a maximum range of around 48 miles, the officials said, rather than more advanced HIMARS munitions, some of which can travel up to 300 miles. Such deliberation has become a recurring theme in the three-month-old fight. From the start, Biden has been pushed to send more and more shipments of sophisticated, American-made arms. Every few weeks, he faces the same dilemma: how far can the U.S. go to provide much needed military aid without escalating to open war between its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and Russia? Finding the right balance is the driving factor behind every aid decision inside the White House and Pentagon since Russian President Vladimir Putin order Feb. 24 to invade Ukraine, officials say. We are mindful of the escalation risk, Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters at the Pentagon. But in the first instance, were focused on what we think the Ukrainians need for the current fight. Story continues Read More: TIMEs Interview with Volodymyr Zelensky Around 90% of the worlds nuclear warheads belong to Russia and the United States and these arsenals loom large as the Biden Administration seeks to keep pressure on Putin to stop his military campaign. The White House wants to maintain a posture that can prevent or limit escalation. As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow, Biden wrote in an New York Times op-ed, explaining his decision. So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia. If Putins forces continue to be bogged down fighting a smaller, less capable Ukrainian army, many experts fear the danger of a wider, more catastrophic confrontation with the West will rise. Putin has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons in response for the U.S. backseat role in the war. It remains unclear what repercussions Ukraine faces if HIMARS rockets do strike Russia either accidentally or on purpose. Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters Wednesday that Moscow doesnt believe in Ukraines promises not to use the new weapons outside its borders. The White House has been forced to adapt its strategy at nearly every turn in the conflict. In March, the Biden Administration postponed a long-planned military test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile out of fears that Russia would see it as threatening. A week later, the U.S. rejected a proposal to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with 28 MiG-29 fighter jets for similar reasons. Throughout the war, Biden has restrained from engaging in tit-for-tat nuclear threats in response to Putins fiery rhetoric. At the same time, Washington and its allies have found ways to bolster Ukraine in its fight. At first, after Putins February 24 invasion, the U.S. and its European allies levied sweeping economic sanctions. Then they increased the quantity and quality of arms they provided Kyiv. As the weapons flows steadily increased, they began providing weapons-training to the Ukrainian military outside the country. The Biden administration has repeatedly insisted U.S. troops will not fight in Ukraine, but the president has redoubled defenses in surrounding countries by moving roughly 14,000 troops eastward in Europe, principally in Poland to provide training and reassurance to allies. Ukraine is not a NATO member, but it borders four nations that are: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The U.S. and other NATO allies have pledged to protect their eastern and central European members under the alliances defining Article 5 mutual defense commitments. The U.S. is also placing any blame for escalation at Moscows doorstep. The Russians can end this conflict anytime they want, Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters at the Pentagon. If they are wary of escalation, all it takes is one man to say stop. And they can do it. Kahl said it will take around three weeks for the U.S. and NATO to train the Ukrainians on HIMARS. Its important for them to get trained on the systems to get familiar with the systems, he said. We will be in a position to rapidly surge additional munitions as appropriate if the battlefield evolves. HIMARS is a wheel-mounted version of the track-mounted Multiple-Launch Rocket System (MLRS) that U.S. and NATO forces use in Europe. Each system fires six precision-guided rockets that will boost Ukraine artillery range by more than two-fold from the current 20 miles with the U.S.-provided M777 howitzers. This will be key in the Donbass where the war has become an artillery duel with the two nations exchanging fire each day. Read More: Hope Gives You the Strength to Act. Portraits of Russians Risking Everything to Support Ukraine The Ukrainian military faces an escalating fight in the south and east against a much larger, more technologically advanced enemy. HIMARS will not alter that fundamental equation, Kahl said, but it will provide Ukraine with more capability to defend itself. Its a grinding conflict, Kahl said. No system is going to turn the war. This is a battle of national will. The HIMARS announcement Wednesday came as part of a larger $700 million military aid package. The assistance includes a wide range of weapons systems for the Ukrainian military designed to help them fight off the superior heavy forces Russia is putting into the field. The transfer includes Mi-17 helicopters, advanced radar systems, Javelin missiles, and other anti-armor weapons. The weapons and equipment are being sent under a so-called presidential drawdown authority, which allows Biden to transfer the hardware from U.S. stocks without Congressional approval in order to speed up delivery in an emergency. The Pentagon has launched around-the-clock supply missions, delivering eight to ten planeloads of anti-aircraft and anti-armor missiles, remote-controlled drones, rounds of ammunition and laser-guided rockets each day. Biden has now committed $5.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since taking office last year. Last October, Jensen Ackles was in New Mexico filming the Western "Rust" when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set. And now another tragedy closer to home the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas has deeply affected the actor. As a performer who loves action and adventure, Ackles, 44, has wielded firearms onscreen most recently as demon-hunting Dean Winchester on CWs long-running show Supernatural and in his newest gig, as superhero Soldier Boy on Season 3 of The Boys (streaming Friday on Amazon Prime). And he understands that tragedies happen constantly. But what occurred last week in Uvalde where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school shook me more as a dad than what happened right before my eyes, because that was premeditated. And what happened on Rust was an accident, says the Texas native, who lives in Austin with his family (wife Danneel, 9-year-old daughter Justice and 5-year-old twins Arrow and Zeppelin). 'I just needed a break': Jensen Ackles on 'The Boys,' toxic masculinity and 'Supernatural' spinoff As a father living in Texas, Jensen Ackles was deeply affected by the recent Uvalde school shooting. Last year, Ackles was working on Rust with actor/producer Alec Baldwin when, during a rehearsal, Baldwin discharged a replica Colt that killed 42-year-old Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. The incident immediately shuttered production on the film and sparked a series of lawsuits. In April, New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau issued a report blasting "Rust" producers for "plain indifference" and noted they "willfully violated" known industry safety protocols in imposing a nearly $137,000 fine for firearms safety failures. You can chalk it up to negligence or try to point a finger at anybody," Ackles tells USA TODAY. "At the end of the day, it was a horrible, horrible accident that ended with a life. Unfortunately, those do happen all the time around the world everywhere. You don't normally witness them like I did, and it's certainly shocking and jarring. It makes you value life even more than you had." Story continues In a Hollywood Reporter interview last month, Rust producer Anjul Nigam said he expects to finish the film after an investigation into the shooting is completed, but I'd be pretty shocked if that happened," Ackles says. "Time has passed now (and) everybody's kind of moved on, which is very unfortunate because I would've loved for the world to see what Halyna was doing. 'She was an inspiration': 'Rust' star Jensen Ackles pays emotional tribute to Halyna Hutchins We were only about a week and a half away from being done with that film, so there was a lot of footage in the can and she was doing something really exceptional, he says. She was an incredible talent, and I wish there was some way to get it out there to the masses, but I don't know that that's possible. Weighing more heavily on his heart and mind these days are "the school shootings, the church shootings and the grocery store shootings, Ackles says. That's a whole conversation that is certainly being had and needs to be had in a wide variety of ways. My 5-year-old twins graduated from preschool (last Thursday). It was weird, because I was celebrating them and excited for them. But at the same time, in the back of my head, I was like, Im glad I don't have to put my kids back in school for the next however long. It's scary and it doesn't need to happen. Contributing: Marco della Cava This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Boys' star Jensen Ackles talks Uvalde shooting, 'Rust' tragedy In recent times with the rise of Asian culture and the COVID-19 pandemic my identity as an Asian American is suddenly in the spotlight. From articles celebrating the many cultures that make up my community to the social media posts featuring Asian models, there seems to be a sudden wave of faces that look like mine. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the #StopAsianHate movement, this increase in Asian visibility seems to be more important than ever. In an era where my community and I face endless oppression and hatred, I have realized the importance of speaking loudly, solidifying my stance and assisting others in doing the same. Yet when I attempt to take part in activism, I tend to ask myself: why am I hesitating? More from NextShark: South Koreas Supreme Court overturns gay sex convictions of soldiers in a landmark ruling Finding the root of hesitation Like other young Asian Americans, I found safety within my community and looking Asian. But as I walked into a University of Virginia classroom for the first time in my life, my heart stopped and I hesitated. Coming from a culture that emphasizes collectivism, many of us, including myself, have been taught to remain silent to maintain the alleged peace of society. But, as we have seen, this peace comes at the price of our most vulnerable, whether that be children, our elders or other members of our community. When I spoke with other Asian American students, however, the topic of activism was taboo. Yes, activism was promising; but it was also loud and disturbing. And as my father stated protesting was dangerous and would leave a permanent record, especially with the violence seen in the media today. As I attempted to share my desire for activism and in-person movements, I was met with concerned glances and half smiles from my peers. More from NextShark: Parents sue Pennsylvania police, local prosecutors for fatal shooting of son Christian Hall Education's role Story continues As students, the classroom is where we are meant to thrive and grow. From memorizing mathematical equations to participating in heavy discussions, the classroom becomes a space where students are allowed to express, defend and reconsider their values. But it can also be a space of self-censorship and scrutiny, making sure we have the correct opinion. This, I believe, is where our activism begins. In the midst of education, our voices force others to listen and take our perspectives into account. In an environment where many of us have been considered invisible, participation in the classroom is an opportunity to try testing out one's unique voice. The classroom becomes a place where we are unavoidable. More from NextShark: Savita Halappanavar's story takes the spotlight amid intensified debate on Roe v Wade overturning Through education, students are given the opportunity to form their own thoughts and opinions, solidifying what our identities mean to us and the world we live in. This experience is given to us, and it also impacts our peers who share our classrooms. AAPI placement in the classroom AAPI students, however, remain in the outer circle when it comes to the classroom. This can be seen not only in the rise of schools mandating Asian American studies, but also in how AAPI students perceive themselves in the classroom. As Asian American students, we are expected to conform to the stereotype of being studious, quiet, introverted and high-achieving. More from NextShark: Tokyo set to recognize same-sex partnerships starting November Examples of this expectation are enforced not only within AAPI families, but also through media representation. This expectation creates a contrast between the stereotypes of the East (AAPI) and the West. While the Eastern stereotypes expect academic and introverted qualities, Western stereotypes promote outgoing and extroverted qualities. Thus, it can become easy for AAPI students to become lost while balancing two aspects that polarize one another. If a student chooses to conform to one stereotype, they are seen as ignoring or lacking the other. As a result, silence echoes as we attempt to decode where we belong in our own schools. Many of todays AAPI students, including myself, have encountered racism in the phrase Go back to where you came from. This is indicative of how AAPI individuals are perceived as foreigners regardless of their status as American. Further, we have a tendency to internalize criticism, racist remarks and perceptions such as the model minority myth, thereby leading to us focusing on our faults. Doing so allows stereotypes and negative mindsets to bleed into our performances in the classroom, impacting how we carry ourselves and interact in an environment where we are encouraged to be loud. The expectation given to active students in a classroom is one that involves participation and extroverted behaviors, those that conform more to Western expectations. However, this is contrary to the ideologies and stereotypes that have been enforced upon AAPI throughout their lives. This creates an inner conflict and heightens anxiety when it comes to not only high academic achievement and embodying the model minority myth, but also how we are allowed to be loud. Additionally, we are tasked with navigating the academic world of politics, free speech and correct opinion. So, what can we do? As we continue down our path as an AAPI community, it is imperative that we encourage one another to peel apart the layers containing our own disdain for ourselves. This begins by separating how we have been perceived by society and who we truly are as individuals. By confronting the reality of our identities, we can take accountability not only of ourselves, but also of those who have fallen victim to the hatred that is so abundant in our society. As AAPI students, we are not only given an opportunity to pursue education something that was refused to many of our ancestors but we are also placed at the forefront of the future. Thus, by speaking out and amplifying other voices of our community, we can become an unavoidable reality that represents us and those who have been silenced in the past. To anyone considering engaging in activism as a student, in or out of the classroom: Take the first step, whether that be by raising your hand to speak in class or by joining a local demonstration. With those initial steps, hopefully you experience an environment where you can find confidence in your identity and the passion that comes with it. Featured Image via Getty Images You are the owner of this article. Yakama Nation Behavioral Health Services and the Yakima Valley Museum in Yakima are hosting "Weave With Us" gatherings from 3 to 5 p.m. this Thursday and the last Thursday of the month in June, July and August. A man who shot his victim multiple times allegedly based on hallucinations will receive a new trial because the state's second-highest court found Jefferson County law enforcement misled him about the constitutional right to an attorney prior to his confession. Deetya Vuppala, 13, from Bellevue, Wash., competes during the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 31, 2022, in Oxon Hill, Md. Washington Attorney General Bob Fergusons office has announced fines against the Washington Election Integrity Coalition United and its attorney over frivolous lawsuits claiming voter fraud in the 2020 election. The Catholic archbishop in San Francisco says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be denied Communion for her support of abortion rights. Its a flareup of a debate that has previously ensnared other Catholic pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden. That debate is sure to become more common with the Supreme Courts expected overturning of Roe v. Wade, forcing abortion policy front and center in Congress and in legislatures. Which makes this a good time to reiterate a valid principle regarding taxation, one that also happens to be federal law: A church or any other religious organization has every right to take a stand on abortion or any other topic. But when it casts that position in explicitly partisan terms, publicly condemning political parties or individual politicians by name, it has crossed into the realm of political campaigning, making it ineligible for tax-exempt status. The Internal Revenue Service grants automatic 501(3) tax exemption to churches and other nonprofit organizations with the condition that the organization does not participate in, or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office. Note that the relevant issue isnt whether the organization participates in public debates of topics that may be political in nature thats protected by the First Amendment and doesnt violate tax-exempt status. The issue is whether the organization voices support or opposition to specific politicians or parties. With that standard in mind, consider last weeks written announcement by Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, archbishop in San Francisco, that Pelosi would be denied Communion unless and until she (agrees to) publicly repudiate her support for abortion rights and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance. Cordileones stance is different only in tone from the fiery sermon recently delivered by Tennessee Baptist Pastor Greg Locke, who called Democrats demons and declared, You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. Locke voluntarily gave up his tax-exempt status when faced with a formal complaint to the IRS over the comments. The Roman Catholic Church typically is far more circumspect in its pronouncements than right-wing zealots like Locke and, indeed, Pope Francis official position is that pro-choice American politicians arent subject to punishment by church policy despite the churchs anti-choice stance. Still, the Vatican should be mindful that rebellions by conservative church officials like Cordileone could theoretically threaten the churchs tax-exempt status. The issue goes beyond abortion. The churchs relatively new stance against capital punishment, made official in 2018, could present pro-death-penalty Catholic politicians with the same internal dilemmas that pro-choice Catholic politicians have long faced. While priests, preachers and pastors may legitimately weigh in on those and other controversial issues, the taxpayers arent required to give them a break once they cross the line from principle to partisanship. YORK In 2021, York County had its highest number of people on probation ever, according to a report made this week by Carrie Rodriguez, director of District 5 Probation. Rodriguez made her annual report for the York County Commissioners during their regular meeting and said there were 506 people, in York County, who were on probation during the 2021 calendar year. That compares to 318 in 2020; 361 in 2019; 299 in 2018; and 290 in 2017. She said the number correlates with the higher number of people charged with and convicted of felonies. In 2021, of the 506 probationers, 461 were adults and 45 were juveniles. Of the adults, 72% were men and 28% were women. When it came to the juveniles, 94% were male and just 6% were female. She said the recidivism rate for York County, for adults who completed probation, shows that 76% have had no new law violations and 24% have had new law violations. Rodriguez says probation and post-release supervision continue to be effective, according to a study done by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Regarding post-release supervision, the study said individuals who recidivated attended fewer classes during post release supervision than did those who did not. The fewer the sessions attended, the higher the likelihood of recidivism. Most importantly and most interestingly, releasees who attended more classes during post release supervision were less likely to recidivate regardless of whether they had a prior incarceration or not, even though those with prior incarcerations were more likely to recidivate overall. Therefore, attending classes served to offset some of the effects of prior criminal history. She also noted the problem solving court success in the joint effort between York and Seward County as 68% of participants graduated and 32% were terminated from the program. Of those who graduated, 87% have had no new law violations with only 13% being re-arrested for further offenses. Probation does random drug tests on all probationers in 2021, 4,419 drug tests were collected from probationers. Rodriguez told the commissioners the cost of probation is much lower than the cost of incarceration. She presented numbers that reflected that, noting these figures were from 2019, so the costs are likely higher than presented. The cost of juvenile probation, per day, is $20.99, adult lower-risk probation is $4.51 a day; adult high-risk probation is $6.67 per day; while prison on average costs $105.83 a day per inmate and the average cost of jail in District 5 per inmate is $54.40. She also noted that if York County had to expressly pay for all the probation services that are provided here, it would cost the county $1,120,370.75 a year. Because it is mostly funded by the state, the cost to the county is much lower than that. The countys costs include providing workspace for the probation office and $32,970 as the countys cost share with other counties in District 5. She noted that the requested amount for the next fiscal year for York County has gone up by approximately $2,000 over last year due to the growth in usage and the population. The commissioners will consider the request when they formulate the budget for the next fiscal year which will be done over the course of the summer with budget approval in the early fall. 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. YORK Russell Vassar, 31, of York, has pleaded not guilty in a case involving the use and possession of methamphetamine, in York County District Court. He appeared for arraignment before Judge James Stecker. He was arrested when an officer with the York Police Department stopped him at Third and Platte Avenue for an alleged traffic violation. The officer says in his affidavit filed with the court that he knew Vassar due to numerous prior contacts. The officer said Vassar agreed to a search of his person, during which the officer found a knife. And a search of the vehicle resulted in officers finding a glass pipe with rubber tubing which contained a white residue that field tested positive for methamphetamine, a scale with methamphetamine on it and a butane torch lighter. He has been charged with a Class 4 felony. A jury trial has been scheduled for later this year. Karbi Anglong: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that no Muslim man should marry three women as he advocated for an equal share of the property for the wife. Assam Chief Minister also called for a legal divorce in the community instead of giving Talaq. "Assam government is very clear that no Muslim man should marry three women. Dont give Talaq, give divorce legally. An equal share of the property should be given to daughters like sons. Give 50 per cent share of the property to the wife. Views of the government and the common Muslims are the same," CM Sarma said during a press conference on Wednesday. Giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the reduction in "discrimination against students of the northeast", Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the progress took place due to the PM`s outreach to the region in the last few years. The remarks of the Chief Minister came while addressing a press conference on Wednesday where he said that such discrimination against the students has "gone down to a huge extent". "If you look at the last 2-3 years, because of PM Modi`s huge outreach to the northeast now racial discrimination against students of the northeast has suddenly gone down to a huge extent," Sarma said. Later in the day, the Assam CM took to Twitter to laud PM Modi`s "visionary leadership", and said that he has "repositioned India as a strong global power". "A new wave of growth & development has swept across NE in the past 8 years under Adarniya @narendramodi Ji's guidance. On behalf of the people of Assam, I express my heartfelt gratitude to Hon`ble PM for unlocking NE`s potential, making it a new engine of India`s growth," he tweeted. Germany will purchase 60 Boeing Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to replace its ageing CH-53 fleet, putting an end to a long-delayed decision in the midst of the Ukraine conflict. It should be mentioned that Chinook helicopters are used by a variety of armed units around the world including the Indian Air Force. "With this model, we are strengthening our ability to cooperate in Europe," German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said during an address to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, without specifying how much the helicopters would cost. According to past planning data, the Bundeswehr was set to acquire 45 to 60 heavy-lift helicopters for some 4 billion euros ($4.29 billion), to be delivered between 2023 and 2029. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a major policy shift for the country after decades of attrition of the armed forces, pledged in February to sharply increase defence spending and inject 100 billion euros into the Bundeswehr after Russia invaded Ukraine. With the 100 billion euros, Scholz aims to bring the Bundeswehr`s weapons and equipment back up to standard after decades of attrition following the end of the Cold War. The lion`s share of the special funds, some 40 billion euros, will be spent on air capabilities, according to a draft seen by Reuters and defence sources. A crucial argument for the Chinook was its global use, German Chief of Defence Eberhard Zorn told reporters. Also read: Srinagar Airport strongly dismisses' Rahul Gandhis claims on exodus of Kashmiri Pandits More than 500 Chinooks are in use by the U.S. Army and forces in Europe, which means spare parts are readily available, so the helicopters can be operated for a long time. The CH-53K is only used by the U.S. Marines and Israel, Zorn said. The decision marks a blow to Boeing`s rival Lockheed Martin, which had also competed for the order. Boeing, with its trademark tandem-rotor Chinook, and Lockheed`s Sikorsky, with its CH-53K, are the only Western companies offering this type of military helicopter. Over recent years, the Bundeswehr has repeatedly postponed its decision on buying new heavy-lift helicopters. It relied heavily on the old CH-53, which it had been flying since the 1970s, for its mission in Afghanistan. The operation revealed the ageing helicopter`s shortcomings, with much maintenance work needed to keep it in the air. With inputs from Reuters SpiceJet has announced that from July 1 to July 31, it will fly 37 special flights between India and Saudi Arabia for Indian Haj pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina. According to the latest information, flights will begin departing on June 5 and will continue until June 20. The flights are expected to depart from Srinagar airport, according to reports. "The special flights from Srinagar will depart for Medina between June 5 and June 20. Return flights from Jeddah to Srinagar are scheduled from July 15 to July 31," the airline's statement said. It claimed that SpiceJet is the only Indian airline operating Haj flights this year. "SpiceJet had in the past operated special Haj flights from Gaya and Srinagar, ferrying around 19,000 pilgrims to and from the holy pilgrimage," it noted. The operation of special Haj flights is set to resume after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also read: LOT Polish Airlines launches Warsaw-Mumbai direct flights; will operate twice a week Meanwhile, Spicejet is also working on providing internet services in its Boeing 737 Max planes. Recently, SpiceJets Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Ajay Singh said the airline will induct more Boeing 737 Max aircraft over the next few months, and it hopes to start broadband internet service on its planes soon. The airline has a fleet of 91 aircraft, out of which 13 are Max planes, and 46 are older versions of Boeing 737 aircraft, according to its website. In his email to employees on the 17th anniversary of the airline, Singh said the carrier continues to fly with the highest loads month after month and expects to soar even higher in the coming months. With inputs from PTI The Srinagar Airport authorities have denied that Kashmiri Pandits have departed the Valley, as claimed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The administration issued a statement after Rahul Gandhi indicated in a tweet that many innocent people are being killed in Jammu and Kashmir and that a new migration of Kashmiri Pandits has begun in the Valley. The airport administration also requested that such rumours not be spread. "We strongly rebut this sensational rumour-mongering. We handle between 16 thousand to 18 thousand passengers every day. Today also the number of passengers is average. There is no heavy rush of the minority community, as rumoured by this tweet. Please do not spread rumours like this," Srinagar Airport said in a tweet. The Congress leader also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate steps to restore peace in the union territory. Further attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress MP said those who should be protecting the Kashmiri Pandits are busy promoting a film. Also read: Haj 2022: SpiceJet to start special flights to Saudi Arabia for pilgrims starting from June 5 "Bank managers, teachers and many innocent people are getting killed every day; Kashmiri Pandits are fleeing. Those who have to protect them have no time to promote the film. BJP has only made Kashmir its ladder of power. Take immediate steps to restore peace in Kashmir, Prime Minister," he said in a tweet. Meanwhile, BJP leader Kavindra Gupta said that the government and security forces have worked in the past and will continue to do so, and these people will not survive. He also assured me that the situation will come under control soon."For the last two years, the security forces and the government have made efforts to maintain peace in Kashmir. For the condition which has been created for a few days, the administration has made a new way for the security. Yesterday the administration also said that all the people should be taken to a safe place," said Gupta. Attacking the previous governments in the Valley, the BJP leader said, "The governments of those who have been running for 70 years, whether it was Rahul Gandhi`s Congress or the PDP government around it, this is started during that period. These are the people who support Pakistan; today, they remembered all of these things; these are the people who question the security forces and the surgical strikes and don`t take them seriously."He said that after the incidents of killing, it is obvious that there is a palace of fear, and the Home Minister Amit Shah has said that a major operation is needed. Another BJP leader, Ravinder Raina, said that terrorism has flourished in Kashmiri because of the wrong policies of Rahul Gandhi`s Congress. It is the Congress party which has contributed to terrorism in the Vallery. Rahul Gandhi and his party have sympathies with terrorists, who have killed lakhs of Kashmiris. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Digvijaya Singh, and Shashi Tharoor have glorified Pakistan and the terrorists of Pakistan, May I ask whose leaders are they?"He further said that the whole world knows that the sympathies of the Congress party have been with the forces supporting the separatists and Pakistan. "Congress has always supported Pakistanis," he added. Earlier in the day, a bank manager was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. On Tuesday, a 36-year-old migrant Kashmiri Pandit and high school teacher Rajni Bala was shot dead by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last two months, two civilians - including Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat -- and three off-duty policemen were killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha are likely to hold a high-level meeting here in the national capital on June 3 over the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory in the last few days, official sources said. It is learnt that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh will also participate in the meeting that is expected to start on the scheduled date in the first half of the day. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, as well as Director-General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldeep Singh and Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, are also expected to attend the meeting. (With inputs from ANI) An unruly passenger was handed over to London's Heathrow Airport administration by Vistara airline for abusing and misbehaving with crew members onboard. The incident took place while the flight was on route to London, said an airline official on June 1. Vistara spokesperson said the passenger was taken into custody for investigation upon arrival at London Heathrow. "There was an incident involving an unruly passenger that was reported on our flight UK17 from Delhi to London on May 30, 2022. The incident was reported to the local authorities, and the passenger was taken into custody for investigation upon arrival at London Heathrow. Also read: Vistara Early Monsoon Sale: Domestic return airfare at only Rs 1,699; Rs 14,249 for international flights Our staff is cooperating with the authorities, as required," the spokesperson said. "Vistara stands firm with its zero-tolerance policy against unruly behaviour that endangers the safety, security, and dignity of its customers and staff," the spokesperson added. (With inputs from ANI) Live TV #mute Patna: In good news for lovers of Bihars mouth-watering delicacies, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has initiated the process to facilitate manufacturers and producers association seeking Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Bhojpur's Udwantnagar 'Khurma', Gaya's 'Tilkut' and delicious 'Balu Shahi' of Sitamarhi district. "We are providing assistance to the producers/manufacturers associations seeking GI tag for Khurma', Tilkut' and 'Balu Shahi', Chief General Manager, Nabard-Bihar, Sunil Kumar said. Kumar said applications for the same will soon be filed by the producers with the GI Registry for these products. We are in the process of facilitating registration of producers association who will be applicants for GI registration for these three products, he said. Earlier three applications from Bihar have been recently filed with the Geographical Indications Registry (Chennai), seeking a GI tag for Hajipur's famous 'chiniya' variety of banana, Nalanda's popular 'Bawan Buti' sari tradition and Gaya's 'Pattharkatti Stone Craft' with the support of NABARD. The applications seeking GI tag for Hajipur banana, Nalanda's Bawan Buti sari tradition and Gaya's stone craft have already been filed by associations of farmers, weavers and organisations associated with skilled stone craftsmen of the respective areas with the support of NABARD, Kumar said. The CGM further said, NABARD-Bihar has identified six potential products of the region, including Khurma, Tilkut and Balu Shahi, to be registered under GI. Bihar is a state of taste, where one can find delicious food items. NABARD is playing an important role in the GI registration process and post GI initiative including marketing linkages, branding, promotion and recognized first organization in the country, who has specific GI Policy and schemes. NABARD, under the Ministry of Finance, is mandated for providing and regulating credit and other facilities for the promotion and development of agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas with a view to promoting integrated rural development and securing prosperity of rural areas. Bhojpur's Khurma is very much liked by foreigners. It is so juicy along with the sweetness from inside that the taste reaches the heart directly from the tongue. The same is the case with the famous Tilkut of Gaya. Tilkut is a unique treat made from sesame seeds and jaggery and is quite popular outside the country also. Balu Shahi a delicate sweet of village Runni Saidpur in Sitamarhi is also very popular in the country. These products of Bihar must get GI tag, said the CGM. A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain items or products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin. Such products with a GI tag are protected under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Recently, the Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) accepted the plea to rename Bihar Makhana as Mithila Makhana and also suggested further amendments in the brand logo to better reflect its origins apart from identifying and protecting the product's GI rights. Other products of Bihar that have already got GI tag, include Katarni Rice, Jardalu Mango, Shahi Litchi, Magahi Paan and Silao Khaja. Dehradun: 'Samrat Prithviraj' - a Bollywood movie starring Akshay Kumar which releases on Friday (June 3) will be tax free in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami made the announcement on Thursday. Sharing the information on social media, the Chief Minister said,"People must see this film based on the life of emperor Prithviraj Chauhan and full of the spirit of patriotism and valour." Earlier on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have also declared the movie tax-free. Originally titled Prithviraj, the film was renamed as Samrat Prithviraj following a court litigation filed by Karni Sena a week ahead of its scheduled release. In March 2022, Karni Sena started protesting against the film, seeking assurance from the makers that the film would not tamper the historic facts. The film with Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chillar in lead roles releases in theatres in - Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, on June 3. Manushi, who is making her acting debut with the film, will be seen as Princess Sanyogita. For the unversed, Sunny Deol and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan were the original choice for roles of Prithviraj and Sanyogita. Akshay had said that the film was based on the life and daredevilry of the "last Hindu Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan who shed every drop of blood in his body to defend Bharatmata". "Our film salutes the courage and valour of the mighty king and we hope that the people of our nation are inspired by his values of protecting his motherland at any cost," the actor had said, according to a press release. The movie also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, Manav Vij, Ashutosh Rana, Sakshi Tanwar in pivotal roles. It has been directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi and produced by Yash Raj Films. Meanwhile, the film has been banned in Kuwait and Omar due to unknown reasons, and put on hold in Qatar. Live TV MUMBAI: After Kuwait and Oman banned the release of `Samrat Prithviraj`, Qatar now has put a hold on the Akshay Kumar-starrer. 'Samrat Prithviraj' is based on the life and valour of the fearless and mighty King Prithviraj Chauhan. Akshay is essaying the role of the legendary warrior who fought valiantly to protect India from the merciless invader Muhammad of Ghor in this visual spectacle. A source working in overseas territories, on conditions of anonymity, says: "The issue is unnecessarily getting coloured with a religious lens in these countries. People should view a film that`s based on history and is authentic from a neutral perspective. The fact is that India was looted by invaders who happened to be Muslims. The fact is that Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan fought one such invader and tried to protect India till his last breath. One should view history for what it is." The source adds: "After a ban in Kuwait and Oman, now another Islamic country, Qatar, has put the film's release on hold. Indians living in these countries won`t be able to see the film and that`s really unfortunate. A film like this comes once in a lifetime for everyone to see and enjoy and celebrate one`s history." "People are trying to deny Indians of this moment. Better sense should prevail." 'Samrat Prithviraj' has been directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi. Manushi Chhillar plays the role of King Prithviraj`s beloved Sanyogita. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, Manav Vij, Ashutosh Rana and Sakshi Tanwar in other pivotal roles. Originally titled Prithviraj, the film was renamed as Samrat Prithviraj following a court litigation a week ahead of its scheduled release. The film is set to release this Friday (June 3) in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in 2D and IMAX formats. Live TV New Delhi: In an apparent bid to encourage a significant section of its employees to voluntarily retire, Air India on Wednesday reduced the eligibility age from 55 to 40 and announced cash incentive. The Tata Group took control of Air India on January 27 after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year. Since April, the airline's chairman N Chandrasekaran has rejigged the top management of the airline, bringing in senior and middle-level executives who have worked in other companies of the Tata group such as Tata Steel and Vistara. In a communique sent to employees on Wednesday, the airline said that according to the existing regulations of Air India, permanent employees can avail voluntary retirement if they are of 55 years of age or more and they have worked in the carrier for 20 years. As an additional benefit, the carrier is reducing the age eligibility from 55 years to 40 years for cabin crew members who are in grades "S-3, S-5, S-7, E-0, E-1, E-2, E-3, E-4 and E-5", clerical and allied staff who are in grades "S-2, S-5, S-6 and S-7" and unskilled employees who are in grades "S-1, S-2, S-3, S-4 and S-5", it noted. "An ex-gratia amount will also be provided to the aforementioned employees, who apply for voluntary retirement from June 1, 2022 to July 31, 2022 as a one-time benefit," it said. Also, employees who apply for voluntary retirement between June 1 and June 30 will also receive an additional incentive over and above the ex-gratia amount, it added. Also Read: Social media rules are all set to change, Centre to set up grievance appellate committee "The acceptance of your application for the above benefits and the date of release shall be subject to management's discretion," it stated. Also Read: Sensex, Nifty rebound after two-day decline as large-cap stocks rally New Delhi: Top Indian companies have shown resilience in post pandemic business conditions and TATA Group, with its brand value up 12 per cent to $24 billion, continues to be the most valuable brand in the country, a new report showed on Wednesday. Taj Hotels (brand value up 6 per cent to $314 million) is the strongest brand in the ranking with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 88.9 out of 100 and a corresponding AAA brand rating, according to leading brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. Brands in the banking (brand value up 16 per cent), IT services (brand value up 15 per cent) and telecoms (brand value up 7 per cent) sectors in India achieve high brand value as the economy is recovering from the impact of Covid-19. Infosys (brand value up 52 per cent to $12.8 billion) has overtaken LIC (brand value up 28 per cent to $11.1 billion) to become the second most valuable Indian brand this year. "Infosys has shown impressive growth this year, making it the fastest-growing IT services brand globally of 2022, thanks to its commitment to clients and focus on innovation," the report mentioned. Reliance (brand value up 5 per cent to $8.6 billion) achieved some marginal brand value growth to retain fourth position, while the State Bank of India (brand value up 29 per cent to $7.5 billion) improved one ranking position to increase from 7th to 6th. TATA Group retains its top position "as it led by example through the Covid-19 crisis by innovating using technology to reach the masses". "The brand strengthened its strategic business and leadership initiatives with brand building activities across the globe. The brand`s growth with sustainable and inclusive actions at its core is the driving force behind brand TATA," said the report. The pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns hit the hospitality sector the most and brands had to re-invent their strategies to remain relevant to the need of tourists. "The hospitality industry is recovering as five-star business hotels in metropolitan cities across the country have seen occupancy reach 75 per cent to 80 per cent in the past month," the report noted. Year 2022 is a tipping point for the Indian IT services industry - as in it, the industry crossed $200 billion in total revenue and $5 million in total workforce. TCS (brand value up 12 per cent to $16.7 billion) and Infosys (brand value up 52 per cent to $12.8 billion) are among the top 3 most valuable brands globally at the second and third spot, respectively. The Indian telecommunications industry is making its mark globally. India is the world`s second-largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base of 1.16 billion users. Airtel (brand value of $7.7 billion) ranks No 1 in telecommunication sector in India with an impressive 28 per cent growth in brand value. At second position, Jio (brand value up 5 per cent to $5.1 billion) shows gains in growth followed by VI (brand value of $767 million) which continues to be resilient despite its numerous business challenges. Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Thursday rejected ED's objection to restrain Abhishek Banerjee from leaving the country and allowed him to travel to Dubai for medical treatment. Abhishek Banerjee will be able to go abroad for eye treatment. Abhishek will be accompanied by his wife Rujira when he goes to Dubai. The High Court responded to Abhishek's petition but on one condition. ED has to be informed where Abhishek is being treated at a hospital in Dubai and where he is staying. Calcutta High Court has also said that the air tickets and phone numbers of Dubai will have to be shared with the ED. Abhishek Banerjee and his wife are not named in the FIR. When called, he went to the ED's office. information has been given. As a result, there is no question of non-cooperation in the investigation, Abhishek's lawyer claimed. The ED had objected that Abhishek could go abroad and meet Vinay Mishra. Their question was, what is the problem that Abhishek is not being treated in India? The ED had accused Abhishek of concealing medical information. That is why the ED had objected to Abhishek's foreign travel even for medical reasons. The ED expressed apprehension that Abhishek may flee to Dubai. However, the Calcutta High Court dismissed the claim. The High Court then asked a counter-question. According to sources, the High court had asked the ED, "When you know Vinay Mishra is in Dubai, what action did you take?". Hc questions ED's objection to Abhishek's foreign travel. Earlier, Abhishek Banerjee had written to the ED asking not to summon him in the coal smuggling case from June 3 to 10. Because he is going abroad for medical treatment. According to sources, the ED then banned him from leaving the country in response. Abhishek then moved the court seeking a stay on the ED ban. Incidentally, the Trinamool leader recently made headlines after he described a couple of judges as biased and operating at the behest of some forces. "I feel bad to say that a couple of members of the judiciary are acting at the behest of others and as agents. They are ordering for CBI verdicts in petty cases. They are putting a stay in murder cases. This is unthinkable," Banerjee said at a public rally in Haldia on May 28. On May 30, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar informed that he has instructed the state chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi to initiate action Banerjee over his anti-judiciary comments. This ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore-rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. In September last year, Banerjee, the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), was grilled for the first time and his statement was recorded under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). (With inputs from agencies) BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar has written a letter to Uddhav Thackeray and requested him that Ahmednagar city should be renamed as "Ahilyanagar" soon. Because it is the birthplace of Queen Ahilyadevi Holkar. In his letter, he writes that these are not just his demands, these are the sentiments of the people. Earlier on May 31, Padalkar and his workers celebrated the birth anniversary of Ahilyadevi at her birth place, Chondi. But he targeted the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, saying that the police had prevented the common people from coming to Chondi village as Sharad Pawar and his grandson Rohit Pawar were there. Padalkar said, "It is very shameful that Sharad Pawar, the mentor of Nawab Malik, who has a connection with Dawood, uses this opportunity to launch his grandson." In the letter, Padalkar writes, "When the Mughal soldiers were demolishing the Hindu temple, Ahilyadevi Holkar rebuilt them. She saved hindu culture. She is an example to every Hindu. That is why Ahmednagar should be renamed as Ahilyanagar." He asked the question to the Uddhav Thackeray government, "What history do you want to convey to the people? Is it the Mughal Empire or the Ahilyadevi? The Uddhav government should take a decision to change the name at the earliest so that people know that the remote control of this government is not in the hands of Sharad Pawar." New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi has reportedly tested positive for Covid-19. Congress' Randeep Surjewala told news agencies, "Congress president Sonia Gandhi tests positive for Covid-19. She has developed mild fever and some symptoms and has isolated herself and has been given requisite medical attention. As of today, her date of appearance before ED on June 8th stands as it is." Sonia was asked to appear before the agency on June 8 in an official notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while Rahul, who is reportedly not in town, was asked to join the investigations on June 2 but the former Congress president sought a time after June 5, as he is not in the country, party sources said on Wednesday (June 1). "When the Congress was not scared of the British and their atrocities, how can the ED notices break the courage of Sonia Gandhiji, Rahul Gandhiji and the Congress party. We will fight...we will win...we will not bow down...we will not be afraid," Congress tweeted from its official handle. "Both the leaders will appear before the ED...we will face them. We are not a bit scared, overawed, or intimidated by such tactics," senior party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a press conference on Wednesday along with chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, as they attacked the Narendra Modi government. Singhvi further said that it is a politically motivated case and doesn't warrant any merits to be investigated. Surjewala and Singhvi confirmed that the Gandhis will join the probe whenever ED wants it. According to Singhvi, the National Herald is published by Associated Journals Ltd, which had accumulated debts, following which Congress pumped in around Rs 90 crore over decades. "AJL did what every company in India or abroad does. It converted its debt into equity. Rs 90 crore equity was assigned to a new company Young India," he said. The Young India, in which Sonia, Rahul and some other Congress leaders held shares, was registered as a not-for-profit company and through the transaction, the AJL became a debt-free company, Singhvi said. "There was not even a transfer of a small property, there was no transfer of money. Where is money laundering then? Where is the money? No money was transferred...Yet a case of money laundering was registered. Young India cannot use the money in any form which it gets because it can neither pay dividends nor accumulate profit that it can give," Singhvi said. As Delhi Chief Minister continues to give a clean chit and defend his Health Minister Satyendar Jain, the BJP on Thursday said that Arvind Kejriwal`s honesty certificate is a joke. In-charge of BJP`s national information and technology department Amit Malviya said that Kejriwal recently inducted Kodihalli Chandrashekhar into AAP and farmers` union expelled the latter for demanding Rs 35 crore to end KSRTC strike. In a tweet Malviya said: "Recently in Karnataka, Arvind Kejriwal inducted Kodihalli Chandrashekhar in AAP. This week, farmer`s union expelled the same Chandrashekhar, after a TV sting showed him demanding 35 crore to end KSRTC employees` strike, he led in 2021. Kejriwal`s honesty certificate is a joke!." Last month, Chandrashekar had joined AAP in presence of Kejriwal in Bengaluru along with the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRSS) faction led by him to contest next year Karnataka Assembly polls. Chandrashekhar was reportedly sacked as the president of KRRS after an alleged sting operation was aired by a Kannada news channel, in which he, who led the KSRTC employees` strike in April last year, is purportedly seen demanding Rs 35 crore to end the stir. On Tuesday, Union Minister Smriti Irani hit out at Kejriwal for giving a clean chit to Jain, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Earlier, the BJP had demanded Kejriwal and Jain`s resignation and alleged that the Delhi health minister had been acting at the behest of the AAP supremo. A court here on Tuesday sent Jain to the agency`s custody till June 9. Jain, who was arrested on Monday evening, was produced before Special CBI Court Judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court. Live TV That's what it's called a dip in the sea of love! Even the raging river could not stand in the way of her. After swimming in the river for an hour from Bangladesh to marry her boyfriend, a young woman came to Sundarbans. She is 22 years old. The Bangladeshi girl tried to cross the border to marry her boyfriend. Unable to do so, she chose the waterway to meet her lover. The raging rivers of the Sundarbans, the wildlife, the Royal Bengal Tiger - the fear of nothing was built in the young woman's mind. She ran to the person she loved as she swam through the raging river for an hour, showing her bravery. She entered Bengal from Bangladesh by swimming in the river to catch her lover's arms. An Eternal love Story Avik Mandal of Bengal is in love with Krishna Mandal, a young girl from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi girl was introduced on Facebook. Their love affair begins. But how long does love last on Facebook? They have to be tied up, one has to be four hands! Krishna couldn't stand it anymore. The mind was yearning to meet the beloved. But she don't have a passport! How to travel to India? So she decided to cross the border illegally. Choose the waterway. With the indomitable desire to cross a submerged river, she went down to the Matla river in the Sundarbans. According to police sources, Krishna first entered the Sundarbans. Sunderban is especially known for the Royal Bengal Tiger. After swimming in the river for about an hour, she reached her destination. What happened Next Did Krishna find her boyfriend Abik? She could get along with his lover, or all her efforts went in vain? No, Avik was also anxious to wait for Krishna. The wait was over there. Krishna has come to the top and is caught in the arms of Avik. Krishna was also married to Avik at the Kalighat temple in Kolkata three days ago. But there was no place for them here in India. Krishna was arrested on Monday for allegedly entering the country illegally. Krishna was arrested by the police. According to sources, Krishna may be handed over to the Bangladesh High Commission. Earlier this year, a Bangladeshi teenager had crossed the border and entered India to buy chocolates. The teenager, identified as Iman Hossain, swam a small river to get his favourite chocolate bar and crossed the border into India through the gap in the fence. The boy was handed over to the local police. He was then produced in court. He was then remanded in 15-day judicial custody. Now let's see what happens to Krishna. What will happen to their love if Krishna is handed over to the Bangladesh High Commissioner after her arrest? Won't she be tied up with Avik anymore? They can't meet anymore! Krishna-Avik's love affair has been overshadowed by this uncertainty. Maybe the love birds will have to leave, no one knows! New Delhi: Several Union ministers including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are slated to visit Jammu and Kashmir in the months of June and July under BJPs outreach programme and to also take a stock of the development work in the erstwhile state. As per ANI sources, the visit comes ahead of the proposed elections in J&K, which can be held in the coming six months. "District Development Council elections have been done and the Council has been formed. The process of delimitation has been completed and the delimitation of 90 assembly segments has been framed. Now the review of the voter list is to be done. There is a possibility of elections in Jammu and Kashmir within the next six months," sources told the news agency. Rajnath Singh will visit J&K on June 17 and as per BJP sources, over 25 Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Sarbananda Sonewal and Prahlad Patel will also pay a visit in June and July, ANI reported. These ministers will interact with common people, hold discussions with the administration and assess development work in the areas assigned to them. The BJP-led NDA government ministers will also inaugurate several development programmes in Jammu and Kashmir. BJP began the outreach programme in J&K after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019. In 2020, 36 Union Ministers visited the UT, while the next year, 70 Ministers visited J&K to review the security and development status of the region. The visit also comes in the backdrop of recent targeted killings of civilians and cops in Jammu and Kashmir. Many Kashmiri Pandit employees have been agitating against the J&K administration and raising anti-BJP slogans demanding relocation to safer places amid the recent killings of the community members. (With agency inputs) Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar chaired an all-party meeting on the caste census amid the Centre's reluctance to undertake the exercise nationally here on Wednesday, and agreed to conduct a state-specific survey. He clarified that it will be a survey much larger in scope as it will take into account people belonging to all religions and their socio-economic conditions. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said "The necessary cabinet clearance will be given soon and we will ensure that the work is completed fast by fixing a time limit." In presence of delegates of all parties, the Bihar CM said that the exercise will be given the name 'jaati adharit ganana' (caste-based headcount), adding that there was unanimity among members of all parties on the issue, as had been evident earlier when unanimous resolutions favouring a caste census were passed by the state legislature in 2019 and 2020. Responding to a query about the all-party meeting taking place nine months after a delegation from the state had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for the demand, Nitish Kumar allayed apprehensions about further delay, adding "The meeting had to be put off because of various reasons, including elections. But now, the wheels will move fast. We will soon be putting out advertisements and commence training of personnel." Kumar reportedly stressed that it was wrong to believe that the BJP, his ally in the state as well as the Centre, was 'opposed' to a caste census, a charge repeatedly made by opposition parties like the RJD, adding "The Centre expressed its inability. It does not mean they (BJP) were opposed (to caste census) at any time. Their representatives accompanied us when we met the PM. You can see their representatives here." The BJP was represented at the meeting, among others, by Deputy CM Tarkishor Prasad and state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal. The chief minister, who belongs to the JD(U), said the findings of the survey will be shared with political parties and the public from time to time, making use of all communication forums, including social media. He, however, evaded questions about the mammoth exercise costing the impoverished state a bomb. Nitish Kumar's former deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who is currently the leader of the opposition and was present at the meeting as a representative of the RJD, was of the view that the state's survey should get financial aid from the Centre. Yadav told reporters, "I have shared my view at the meeting. The NDA has 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The remaining one is with the Congress. In Rajya Sabha, we have presence and so do other parties from Bihar. We all may jointly raise the demand for Central assistance." Notably, the caste census has become an emotive issue in Bihar where politics has been dominated by OBCs, whose last headcount was conducted during the British raj. Nitish Kumar, who owes his own rise in no small measure to the Mandal uprising, had headed the all-party delegation that met the PM last year and, after the Centre expressed its inability to extend the census beyond Dalits and tribals. (With Agency Inputs) New Delhi: India witnessed a massive spike in daily Covid-19 cases on Thursday (June 2, 2022). With 3,712 new Covid-19 infections being reported in the last 24 hours, India's total tally of cases rose to 4,31,64,544, according to Union health ministry data updated today. The active caseload stands at 19,509. India recorded 5 new deaths in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 2,584 recoveries in a day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,26,20,394, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.22 per cent. #COVID19 | India reports 3,712 fresh cases, 2,584 recoveries, and 5 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total active cases are 19,509. Daily positivity rate 0.84% pic.twitter.com/OKMxpv3Olj ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022 An increase of 1,123 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The ministry also informed that the active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.74 per cent. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.84 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 0.67 per cent, according to the ministry. The cumulative doses administered under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 193.70 crore on Thursday at 8 am. The last 24 hours saw a total of 4,41,989 Covid-19 tests being conducted in the country. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea`s claims of progress in the fight against a Covid-19 outbreak, saying it believes the situation is getting worse, not better, amid an absence of independent data. North Korean state media has said the COVID wave has abated, after daily numbers of people with fever topped 390,000 about two weeks ago. Pyongyang has never directly confirmed how many people have tested positive for the virus but experts suspect underreporting in the figures released through government-controlled media, making it difficult to assess the scale of the situation. "We assume the situation is getting worse, not better," WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said during a video briefing Wednesday. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people of Telangana on the state's formation day on Thursday (June 2, 2022). PM Modi in a tweet said that the people of Telangana are synonymous with hardwork and unparalleled dedication to national progress. "Greetings to my sisters and brothers of Telangana on the state's Formation Day. People of Telangana are synonymous with hardwork and unparalleled dedication to national progress. The culture of the state is world renowned. I pray for the well-being of the people of Telangana," PM Modi said in a tweet. Greetings to my sisters and brothers of Telangana on the statess Formation Day. People of Telangana are synonymous with hardwork and unparalleled dedication to national progress. The culture of the state is world renowned. I pray for the well-being of the people of Telangana. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 2, 2022 Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh to become a state on this day in 2014. June 2, 2022 marks Telanganas 8th foundation day. Following a massive people's movement that lasted several decades, Telangana was carved out of erstwhile unified Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014. In 2014, it was formed as Indias 29th state. Currently, it is known as the 28th state as Jammu and Kashmir was made UT in 2019. Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday attended an event to mark the state formation day in Hyderabad. Rao had earlier said that the formation of Telangana was made possible due to the sacrifices made by people, and it has been built with the same spirit. On the occasion of the state`s formation day, the government released a 172-page `progress report` highlighting the developmental works carried out to benefit the public. In its report on the occasion of the state formation day, the government laid down the schemes that have benefitted a large chunk of the population in the state through Shaadi Mubarak, KCR kits, Kalyana Laxmi, Rythu Bima, Rythu Bandhu, Aasara pensions among others. (With agency inputs) Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chillar-starrer 'Samraat Prithiviraj,' a period movie based on the chronicles of brave Hindu ruler Prithviraj Chauhan is set to release in theatres on Friday. However, the film has once again highlighted the issue of misrepresentation of Indian, especially Hindu kings, in the history books of India for several decades. Prithiviraj Chauhan, who fought with invader Mohammad Ghori for years was presented to the students in Indian history books as a loser, who lost the battle against the Islamic invader. However, in reality, Prithviraj Chauhan first defeated Ghori in a battle of Tairan in 1191 and captured his army in a war. Though, the Hindu ruler later released Ghori and asked him to Afghanistan, the real story of Chauhans bravery and heroism never found its place in the history books while the Islamic invader like Aurangzeb, Akbar, Humayun, and Babar are celebrated. In today's DNA, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary sheds light on the double standards of the previous governments in the representation of Hindu rulers in the NCERT books and discusses how these brave Hindu rulers and the stories of their valour were hidden from the students while anti-Indian invaders were served as heroes. In 2021, a think tank named Public Policy Research Center analysed NCERT history books and found that Hindu rulers were not given equal importance as Muslim rulers in these books. As per the survey, the name of Muslim ruler Akbar is mentioned 97 times while Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb were mentioned 30 times each. However, famous Hindu ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj finds only 8 mentions in NCERT books while Bravehearts like Rana Sangha and Maharana Pratap are mentioned hardly once or twice. The truth of Prithviraj Chauhan In most history books, it is written that Mohammad Ghori, who was an Islamic invader, defeated the king of the Chauhan dynasty, Prithviraj Chauhan in the second battle of Tarain. The textbooks also present Ghori as a skilled strategist and a great warrior. However, the truth is that in the year 1191, Mohammad Ghori was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan in the first battle of Tarain and at that time Prithviraj Chauhan did not kill him but let him and his army return to Afghanistan. At the time, India was one of the most wealthy nations in the world and invaders like Mohammad Ghori wanted to plunder these resources. And that is why in 1192, a year after the first battle of Tarain, he fought with Chauhan again and this time, he won but by deceit. Why did Prithviraj Chauhan lose the second battle of Tarain to Ghori? Prithviraj Chauhan lost the second battle to Mohammad Ghori due to division among Indian rulers and their lust for power. At that time, King Jaichand of Kannauj, who was also Chauhans cousin, had supported Mohammad Ghori against Prithvi Raj Chauhan in the hope of annexing the throne of Delhi. Jaichand lent his military to Ghori to fight Prithviraj and felt that he had hammered his nail into the power of Delhi, however, Mohammad Ghori killed Raja Jaichand soon after the war. New Delhi: Ghulam Nabi Azad, who started his political innings with Indira Gandhi, has refused to work in the number two position in the Congress, as per sources. In the upcoming Rajya Sabha election, Azad wasn`t offered a ticket. However, before declaring the candidate for Rajya Sabha, Sonia Gandhi met Azad and spoke to him expressing Congress` plan for him. According to sources, in his conversation with Sonia Gandhi, they did not talk about the Rajya Sabha election but asked Azad whether he would be comfortable working in the number two position in the organization. In response to this question, Azad said, "Today a generation gap has come between the youth running the party and us. There is a difference between our thinking and their thinking. So the youth are not willing to work with the party veterans."Azad has been ill for the past few days and was also admitted to the hospital. In fact, the party decided to send Imran Pratapgarhi, the chairman of the party`s minority wing, to the Rajya Sabha, while working toward uplifting the youth leadership. This decision was taken by Rahul Gandhi to which Sonia Gandhi agreed, said sources. Imran is both `youth` and `minority`, so he can hit the targets in Congress. As Congress could not give tickets to the minorities, Sonia Gandhi asked to accommodate Azad in the organization, stated sources. With Azad going to the Rajya Sabha, the equation of the leadership of the Congress inside the Rajya Sabha would have deteriorated. At present, Mallikarjun Kharge is the Leader of the Opposition, a post earlier held by Azad. Kharge was appointed the Leader of the Opposition after Azad retired. Azad is currently a member of the party`s working committee and a member of the political affairs group recently constituted by Sonia Gandhi. Sources said, for the past few days, Azad is not even taking much interest in the party works. In the Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur, Azad spoke very little in the meetings of the committee. "After reshuffling in Haryana following Bhupendra Hooda`s pact with Rahul Gandhi, Hooda was no longer active in G23. Sibal also left the party. Wasnik and Vivek Tankha got the Rajya Sabha, due to which Azad`s importance or rather power as the leader of this group has been greatly reduced. Seeing the right opportunity, the party also offered not to send him to the Rajya Sabha and work in the organization", added sources. However, according to sources, Sonia Gandhi did not tell Azad his specific role as to how he would get the number two status. "Will he be made the Vice President or the Working President or the General Secretary of the organization, this was also one of the reasons that Azad did not show interest in Sonia Gandhi`s offer", sources added. Now all eyes are on Azad`s next step. Azad, who has worked for the Congress for several decades, was offered to send to the Rajya Sabha by a regional party from Bihar. He turned it down saying that `his last time will be spent under Congress` flag.` Kolkata: A Hyderabad-based startup has launched its services in Kolkata of delivering liquor in 10 minutes, the firm said in a statement. Booozie, the flagship brand of Innovent Technologies Private Limited, claimed it is India's first 10-minute liquor delivery platform. Online liquor delivery is already offered by several companies but none have the 10-minute service so far, it said. The service was launched in the eastern metropolis after approval from the West Bengal State Excise Department, the statement said. "Booozie is a delivery aggregator that picks up liquor from the nearest shop, with 10-minute delivery by using innovative AI which predicts consumer behaviour and order patterns," it said. ALSO READ | Delhi government to allow bars to serve liquor till 3 am - Details here Innovent Technologies said it has created a B2B logistics management platform, which will optimise the delivery costs thereby making Booozie an affordable platform. "We welcome the move by the West Bengal government to open doors for aggregators to ease the deficit in the consumer demand and current supply in the market. "With the advent of cutting edge technologies and Booozie's commitment to responsible drinking, most of the apprehensions associated with liquor delivery such as delivery to under-age persons, adulteration, excessive consumption etc. Have been addressed," said Booozie co-founder and CEO Vivekanand Balijepalli. Ex-Congressman and Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel has joined BJP in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Earlier, he had said that he would work as a small soldier to serve the nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Patel performed a pooja at his residence in Ahmedabad, ahead of joining the BJP. "With the feelings of national interest, state interest, public interest, and social interest, I am going to start a new chapter from today. I will work as a small soldier in the noble work of service to the nation under the leadership of the successful Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi," Patel tweeted. Posters welcoming Hardik Patel to the Bharatiya Janata Party were put outside the party office in Gandhinagar ahead of the former Congress leader's induction into the BJP. Hardik catapulted to the political centre stage in 2015 when he spearheaded the Patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat, building the campaign in the run-up to the 2017 state Assembly elections. Initially, Patel demanded the OBC status for the Patidar community. Subsequently, it was transformed into a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). With the BJP government accusing Hardik of fomenting trouble, the Anandiben Patel-led Gujarat government kept on slapping cases on Hardik during the Patidar quota agitation. In fact, Hardik Patel's emergence on the political scene in the state put the then chief minister Anandiben Patel in a spot. In 2016, Anandiben Patel announced her resignation from the post. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patel joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He, was then, appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee in Gujarat in 2020. However, he accused Congress leadership of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party in 2022. On May 19 this year, Patel resigned from the party and stated that Gujarat Congress leaders were least bothered to address real issues of the state but were more focussed on ensuring that the leaders who come from Delhi to Gujarat get "chicken sandwich" on time. (With agency inputs) Gandhinagar: Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday. The youth leader, who recently quit Congress, said that he will work as a "small soldier" to serve the nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Expressing his thoughts on social media, Patel tweeted "With the feelings of national interest, state interest, public interest and social interest, I am going to start a new chapter from today. I will work as a small soldier in the noble work of service to the nation under the leadership of the successful Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi." "I am going to start a new chapter from today. I will work for the country under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi," tweets Hardik Patel He had recently quit Congress and will join BJP today. pic.twitter.com/wkfSvj3xQC ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022 Posters welcoming Hardik Patel to the BJP were put outside the party office in Gandhinagar. Hardik catapulted to the political centre stage in 2015 when he spearheaded the Patidar reservation stir in Gujarat, building the campaign in the run-up of the 2017 state Assembly elections. Gujarat | Hardik Patel performs 'pooja' at his residence in Ahmedabad. He will be joining Bharatiya Janata Party today. pic.twitter.com/AqMboWjs7e ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022 Initially, he demanded the OBC status for the Patidar community, but it was later transformed into a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). The then BJP-led Gujarat government of Anandiben Patel accused Hardik of fomenting trouble and slapped cases during the Patidar quota agitation. His emergence on the political scene in the state put the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in a spot and she announced her resignation from the post . In 2016, Anandiben Patel . Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patel joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He, was then, appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee in Gujarat in 2020. However, he accused Congress leadership of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party in 2022. On May 19 this year, Patel resigned from the party and stated that Gujarat Congress leaders were least bothered to address real issues of the state but were more focussed on ensuring that the leaders who come from Delhi to Gujarat get "chicken sandwich" on time. Patel had also alleged that Gujarat Congress leaders tried to disrupt his political effort "sitting in the AC chambers". New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has released the IGNOU 2022 examination form for June TEE on June 1. The candidates willing to take the term end examination (TEE) are required to fill and submit their examination form before June 25, through online mode. The IGNOU offers candidates an opportunity to take admission to various programmes in UG, PG and research level programmes, along with a variety of diplomas, certificates and vocational training. The candidates need to pay a fee of Rs 200 each for theory and practical examinations. They need to pay IGNOU UG PG TEE June Exam Form 2022 fee through online mode using credit card, debit card or net banking. The candidates interested to get admission to Indira Gandhi National Open University's programmes should follow the latest information given below. - The IGNOU TEE online exam form for June 2022 is available from June 1. - The last date to submit the IGNOU exam form 2022 is June 25, 2022. - They need to pay Rs 200 as IGNOU 2022 application fees for exam form. - The students who get delayed and failed to fill up the form till the last date will have to pay late fees of Rs 1100 till June 30. - They can complete the IGNOU TEE exam form June 2022 online mode visiting the official website- exam.ignou.ac.in. - The students should know that they will not be allowed to take the exam without filling the IGNOU exam form 2022. Students should follow the steps given below to fill their the IGNOU Examination Form 2022 1- Visit the IGNOU's official website - ignou.ac.in. 2- Now click on "Online submission of examination form for June 2022 TEE". 3- Take your time to go through general instructions prior to submitting the online examination form. 4- Now click on the Proceed to fill the online application form. 5- Enter your programme code, enrollment number, and select your exam center region. Finally hit submit. New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday (June 2) issued heatwave warning for several parts of Northwest India for the coming two days. As per the weather department, the mercury is likely to rise by about 2C during the next two days in most regions in Northwest India and fall by 2-3C thereafter. No significant change in maximum temperatures very likely over rest parts of the country during next 5 days, the IMD said in its statement. IMD issues heatwave warning The MeT department has notified heatwave conditions for six states. The heatwave is likely in isolated places including Rajasthan on June 2 and 3, over south Punjab, south Haryana, south Uttar Pradesh and north Madhya Pradesh on June 3 and 4 and over Maharashtras Vidarbha from June 2-5. As for Delhi, the IMD said heatwave is unlikely in the national capital this week. Monsoon enters Northeast The southwest monsoon is set to enter north-eastern regions of the country and likely to bring heavy rains over Assam and Meghalaya over the next two days, the IMD said. "Southwest monsoon has further advanced into some parts of northwest Bay of Bengal, some more parts of northeast & eastcentral Bay of Bengal and most parts of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland," the weather department said today. The IMD has also predicted fairly widespread rainfall over coastal and south interior Karnataka, Kerala, Mahe and Lakshadweep and over the next five days. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, North Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal are likely to receive isolated to scattered rains during next five days. The southwest monsoon arrived in Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of the normal onset date of June 1, the weather office had said. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: For the first time since the Taliban's capture of power in Kabul, India has sent a team led by a senior diplomat to Afghanistan to oversee the delivery of its humanitarian aid and meet with senior members of the Taliban. The team, led by JP Singh, the external affairs ministry's point person for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, will meet the senior members of the Taliban and hold discussions on India's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, according to an official statement on Thursday. An Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson said that acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi received Singh and the team and the discussions focused on India-Afghan diplomatic relations, bilateral trade and humanitarian aid. "A team led by the Joint Secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), is currently on a visit to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of our humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan," the MEA said in a statement. It said New Delhi's development and humanitarian assistance have received a widespread appreciation across the entire spectrum of Afghan society and the Indian team will meet the "senior members of the Taliban, and hold discussions on India's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan". India has not yet recognised the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. However, it has been sending aid to the people of Afghanistan to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the country. At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the team will try to visit various places in Afghanistan where India-assisted projects and programmes are being implemented. He, however, did not provide details such as the composition of the team, duration of the trip, places to be visited by it apart from Kabul and its scheduled meetings. "I think you are reading far too much into this visit. This visit is about our humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan," Bagchi said responding to a volley of questions. Asked whether India will reopen its embassy in Kabul, he did not give a direct reply and said the local staff continued to function at the mission. "Post-August 15 last year, in the light of deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, it was decided to bring back all India-based officials. However, the local staff continued to function and ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of our premises there," Bagchi said. He said the local staff have also been assisting in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. To a question on whether India was looking at recognising the Taliban regime, Bagchi only said New Delhi is engaged with the international community on issues relating to Afghanistan. "We are engaged with the international community on what is their expectation from the Taliban. We will continue to engage with the international community on issues relating to Afghanistan including the issue of recognition," he said. "India has historical and civilisational ties with Afghan people and those long-standing ties will continue to guide our approach to Afghanistan," he said. In September last year, after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, India's envoy to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met senior Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai at the Indian embassy in Doha. In its statement, the MEA said the team will meet representatives of the international organisations involved in the distribution of humanitarian assistance. In a series of tweets, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said Muttaqi welcomed the delegation to Kabul, "calling it a good beginning" in ties between the two countries. Balkhi said Muttaqi also expressed gratitude for the Indian humanitarian and medical assistance to Afghanistan and stressed the resumption of projects by India, its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and the provision of consular services to Afghans. "The Indian delegation said they sought positive relations with Afghanistan as in the past and that they would continue their assistance, adding that India would consider assisting and working with Afghanistan in various fields," he said. Balkhi said India has recently opened up its borders and ports for exports from Afghanistan leading to an increase in supplies compared to past years. "They would provide further facilitates in this area to help Afghanistan further increase its exports & strengthen its economy. To end, they agreed to expand interactions between the two countries," he said. India extended humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and it has already dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance consisting of 20,000 metric tonnes of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and winter clothing, according to the MEA. These consignments were handed over to the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital in Kabul and UN agencies including the World Health Organisation and the World Food Programme. Furthermore, India is in the process of shipping more medical assistance and foodgrains to Afghanistan. "In continuation with our developmental partnership with Afghan brethren, we have gifted one million doses of India-made COVAXIN to Iran to administer to Afghan refugees in Iran. We have also assisted UNICEF by supplying almost 60 million doses of polio vaccine and two tons of essential medicines," the MEA said. It said India's development and humanitarian assistance have received widespread appreciation across the entire spectrum of Afghan society. "In this connection, the Indian team will meet the senior members of the Taliban, and hold discussions on India's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan," the MEA said. It said India has historical and civilisational ties with the Afghan people and these longstanding linkages will continue to guide our approach. India has been concerned about the developments in Afghanistan. It hosted a regional dialogue on Afghanistan in November that was attended by NSAs of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The participating countries vowed to work towards ensuring that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for global terrorism and called for the formation of an "open and truly inclusive" government in Kabul with representation from all sections of Afghan society. A declaration released at the end of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan said Afghan territory should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist acts. ALSO READ: Terrorist groups now enjoy greater freedom in Afghanistan, says UN report; Taliban reject claim New Delhi: Three soldiers were injured in a blast that took place in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday (June 2, 2022) morning, police said. According to the Jammu and Kashmir police, the blast took place in a private vehicle after which the injured soldiers were hospitalised. The officials also informed that the nature and source of the blast have not been ascertained yet and are under investigation. "A #blast took place inside a private hired vehicle at Sedow, #Shopian. 03 soldiers injured & shifted to Hospital. Nature & source (blast due to grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or malfunctioning of battery) of blast being investigated & will be shared, said IGP Kashmir," Kashmir Zone police tweeted early this morning. A #blast took place inside a private hired vehicle at Sedow, #Shopian. 03 soldiers injured & shifted to Hospital. Nature & source (blast due to grenade or already planted IED inside vehicle or malfunctioning of battery) of blast being investigated & will be shared: IGP Kashmir Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) June 2, 2022 Earlier, on Wednesday, one civilian was injured after being shot at by terrorists in Shopian district. Police informed that the civilian was injured and his condition is said to be stable. "The terrorist fired upon one civilian Farooq Ahmad Sheikh in Chidren, Keegam area of Shopian. He got injury in leg and has been shifted to hospital. His condition is stated to be stable," the Kashmir Zone Police tweeted. As per the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the incident took place at the High School Gopalpora area of Kulgam. She was taken to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The incident took place days after Kashmiri TV actor Amreen Bhat was killed by unidentified terrorists in Budgam`s Chadoora area in Jammu and Kashmir on May 25, while her 10-year-old nephew was injured. Earlier, Rahul Bhatt, an employee of the Tehsil office in the Budgam district`s Chadoora, was shot dead by terrorists in the Budgam on May 12. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at BJP and said that after Health Minister Satyendar Jain, deputy CM Manish Sisodia will be arrested! Jain, who holds health, power and home portfolios, was on Monday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to money laundering. "I'd already announced a few months back that Central government is going to arrest Satyendar Jain in a fake case. Reliable sources have suggested to me that Manish Sisodia is going to be arrested soon, Centre has ordered all agencies to form fake cases against him," Kejriwal said. Check out the interaction here: Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/55ErfeEbTO Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 2, 2022 Satyendar Jain, who holds health, power and home portfolios, was on Monday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a case related to money laundering. Calling Sisodia the "father of education movement in Delhi" and the best education minister of independent India, the Delhi chief minister said he has worked to improve the future of children studying in government schools. "Not only in Delhi, but he gave hope to children across the country that they can get good education in government schools. I want to ask the parents of children studying in government schools, 'Is he corrupt''," he said. Accusing the Centre of trying to stop the good work being done in education and health sectors in the national capital under Sisodia and Jain, Kejriwal said their arrests is a loss to the country. "I urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrest all the AAP MLAs in one go. Arresting them one by one puts a brake on the good work being done. Arrest them together so that after the arrest (when they are released), we can carry on the good work," he said. (With ANI inputs) Maharashtra HSC Result 2022: Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) is expected to release the Maharashtra SSC, HSC Results 2022 soon. MSBSHSE is going to release the Maharashtra SSC, HSC Results on its official website in June. Students who appeared for Maharashtra Board (Maharashtra Board) 10th, 12th standard examination wll be able to check their scorecard on www.mahresult.nic.in, once released. In the meantime, Maharashtra School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad, while speaking at the event, shared the date for the declaration of Maharashtra HSC Result 2022. She informed that the Maharashtra HSC Result 2022 would be released next week. As per the past trends, Maharashtra SSC Result 2022 date, it is likely to be released within 15 days of HSC Results. Maharashtra School Education also clarified that the state education department would soon hold a press conference to announce the HSC and SSC result dates. According to the reports, about 35 lakh candidates (roughly 20 lakh in SSC and 15 lakh in HSC) are waiting for their results in the state. The results are delayed due to teachers strike who refused to evaluate the answer sheets. New Delhi: A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Rahul Gandhi were asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper, sources have now learned that Rahul Gandhi is currently on a foreign tour and is likely to arrive in the country on June 5. Congress party sources told ANI on the condition of anonymity that "Rahul Gandhi left the country on May 19 to participate in various public programmes in London that were held on May 20 to May 23. Since then, he has not returned to India." "Rahul Gandhi is expected to be back home by June 5 after which he will seek another date from the ED for questioning in a money laundering case," sources said. Sonia has been asked to appear before the agency on June 8 in an official notice by the ED while Rahul, who is not in town, was asked to join the investigations on June 2 but the former Congress president sought a time after June 5, as he is not in the country, party sources said on Wednesday." "When the Congress was not scared of the British and their atrocities, how can the ED notices break the courage of Sonia Gandhiji, Rahul Gandhiji and the Congress party. We will fight...we will win...we will not bow down...we will not be afraid," Congress tweeted from its official handle. Meanwhile, senior Congress party leaders discussed and deliberated upon the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. "Rahul Gandhi participated in these discussions," told a party leader to ANI on anonymity. "Both the leaders will appear before the ED...we will face them. We are not a bit scared, overawed, or intimidated by such tactics," senior party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a press conference on Wednesday along with chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, as they attacked the Narendra Modi government. Singhvi further said that it is a politically motivated case and doesn't warrant any merits to be investigated. Surjewala and Singhvi confirmed that the Gandhis will join the probe whenever ED wants it. According to Singhvi, the National Herald is published by Associated Journals Ltd, which had accumulated debts, following which Congress pumped in around Rs 90 crore over decades. "AJL did what every company in India or abroad does. It converted its debt into equity. Rs 90 crore equity was assigned to a new company Young India," he said. Young India, in which Sonia, Rahul and some other Congress leaders held shares, was registered as a not-for-profit company and through the transaction, the AJL became a debt-free company, Singhvi said. "There was not even a transfer of a small property, there was no transfer of money. Where is money laundering then? Where is the money? No money was transferred...Yet a case of money laundering was registered. Young India cannot use the money in any form which it gets because it can neither pay dividends nor accumulate profit that it can give," Singhvi said. Many people's emotions are associated with partition. Many people could not accept the two pieces of the country from the heart. According to them, the partition of the country is a completely wrong decision. But a senior Congress leader said, "Partition was a wise decision. At the same time, Sajjan Singh Verma, a former cabinet minister of Madhya Pradesh, praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a freedom fighter. According to the former Madhya Pradesh Minister, former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah took the right decision at the right time on partition. Dividing the country was a very wise decision. After this, he praised Jinnah and said, "Jinnah fought for freedom, it should be remembered by all. He did not break the country. He made the right decision at the right time." Sajjan Singh Verma also took a dig at the BJP over the religious-caste divide. "Will the definition of a freedom fighter change just because he (Jinnah) was a Muslim? This culture is being imported by the BJP. On January 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while making his speech, had said that Nehru and Jinnah were responsible for the partition in 1947. The people of the country should thank these two leaders. Because they made the right decision at the right time." He added, "If Jinnah had not partitioned the country, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and PM Narendra Modi would not have enjoyed their power now." Naturally, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding his comments. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh on Friday (June 3) where he will inaugurate several projects. As per the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Modi will attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the UP Investors Summit at around 11 am and lay the foundation stone of 1,406 projects worth over Rs 80,000 crore in Lucknow. "The projects encompass diverse sectors like agriculture and allied, IT and electronics, MSME, manufacturing, renewable energy, pharma, tourism, defence and aerospace, handloom and textiles etc. The ceremony will be attended by top industry leaders of the country, PMO said, as per ANI. Later, the PM is also slated to accompany President Ram Nath Kovind to visit Pathri Mata Mandir in a Kanpur village. At around 1:45 PM, PM will reach Paraunkh village, Kanpur, where he will accompany President Ram Nath Kovind to visit Pathri Mata Mandir. Thereafter, at around 2 PM, they will visit Dr B R Ambedkar Bhawan, which will be followed by a visit to Milan Kendra at 2:15 PM, the PMO said in a statement. The statement mentioned that Milan Kendra is the ancestral home of President Kovind, which was donated for public use and converted into a community centre. Modi and Kovind will then attend a public function at Paraunkh village at 2:30 PM. Notably, the 2018 UP Investors Summit was held on February 21-22 with the first groundbreaking ceremony held on July 29, 2018 and the second groundbreaking ceremony on July 28, 2019 In the first groundbreaking ceremony, the foundation stone of 81 projects valued at over Rs 61,500 crore was laid, and in the second groundbreaking ceremony, the foundation of 290 projects was laid with investments of more than Rs 67,000 crore. (With agency inputs) A 31-year-old schoolteacher was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants in Ayodhya on Wednesday afternoon, said Uttar Pradesh police. The victim was identified as Supriya Verma, wife of Uma Nath Verma. In a conversation with ANI on Wednesday, the Superintendent of Police of Ayodhya, Vijay Pal Singh said, "On Wednesday, unidentified miscreants killed a pregnant teacher in broad daylight with knives. This incident took place in the Shri Ram Puram colony of Ayodhya`s Kotwali area when the teacher was alone in her house." Police teams have been formed and the attackers will be caught soon, he assured. Teacher Supriya Verma, a resident of Pathanpur Atrauli in Sultanpur district, lived here with her husband and mother. Husband Umesh Verma is also a teacher. "On Wednesday, around 11 o`clock, husband Umesh Chand Verma had left his wife at her in-laws` house and went to the bank with her mother-in-law. When he returned from there, he opened the door and found his wife covered in blood. Immediately, she was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared that Supriya was brought dead. The marks of stab wounds were found on the body of the deceased," he said. The police said that the attackers are being searched through CCTV cameras. The police lodged an FIR of murder under Section 302 of the IPC at Ayodhya police station and further investigations were underway, he said. Expressing grief over the incident, former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet, questioned the safety and security of women in the state. He said the incident happened when the police force was deployed in the city at every nook and corner. Yadav said teachers were the target of state government as well as criminals. Live TV Karbi Anglong: Giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the reduction in "discrimination against students of the northeast", Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the progress took place due to the PM`s outreach to the region in the last few years. The remarks of the Chief Minister came while addressing a press conference on Wednesday where he said that such discrimination against the students has "gone down to a huge extent"."If you look at the last 2-3 years, because of PM Modi`s huge outreach to the northeast now racial discrimination against students of the northeast has suddenly gone down to a huge extent," Sarma said. ALSO READ: Arvind Kejriwals honesty certificate a joke: BJP Later in the day, the Assam CM took to Twitter to laud PM Modi`s "visionary leadership", and said that he has "repositioned India as a strong global power"."A new wave of growth & development has swept across NE in the past 8 years under Adarniya @narendramodi ji`s guidance. On behalf of the people of Assam, I express my heartfelt gratitude to Hon`ble PM for unlocking NE`s potential, making it new engine of India`s growth," he tweeted. Earlier, Sarma on Wednesday said that the State Cabinet will decide by August 15 on a separate classification for indigenous minorities who have not migrated to Assam from other places.The chief minister said, "We are in process of identifying another set of minority people who are not migrated to Assam, their origin to this soil. The committee which was constituted for this purpose has given us certain parameters that who should be considered an indigenous minority. I think the cabinet will come to a decision on this before August 15."Muslims are recognized as minorities as of now along with Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and other communities irrespective of their migration status. Till the Supreme Court does not make any other interpretation, whoever is following Islam they are the minority as per the definition of the Minority Commission. There is no problem to identify it. But, Assam is on another journey to identify the indigenous minority," Sarma added. Loudspeaker row: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday told his party workers that he was looking at ending the issue of loudspeakers (atop mosques) permanently for which "wider support of people" would be needed. In a letter uploaded on his Twitter handle, Thackeray said loudspeakers had become a national issue after the MNS took it up. "We have to end the loudspeaker issue permanently. All you need to do is to ensure that my letter will reach to every household in the areas where you reside. We need wider support of people for our demand (of banning loudspeakers)," he said in the letter. Thackeray, during his Gudi Padwa rally in Mumbai on April 2 and later in Aurangabad, had said that loudspeakers atop mosques must be removed, failing which his party workers would play Hanuman Chalisa at high volume to drown out Azaan. The MNS has contended that its loudspeaker drive was more a social one than religious, adding that the use of loudspeakers at high volume was affecting the health of people, including Muslims. Jammu and Kashmir: On the rising targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus in recent days, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimlineen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday said that the ruling BJP government only sees Kashmiri Pandits as electoral issues and not as humans, reported ANI. He also condemned the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley and alleged that a 1989 era-like atmosphere is being created in the disputed territory. Referring to the Kashmiri Hindus genocide, Owaisi also said that the present government is making the same mistake that was made in 1989 by not letting the local leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Modi government is not learning lessons from history. The Government is making a mistake similar to what was done in 1989. In 1989 too political outlet was shut down, and politicians of the valley (Kashmir) were not allowed to speak. They are making the same mistake, ANI quoted Owaisi as saying. Condemning the recent killing in Kashmir, Owaisi added, 1987 elections were rigged & its result was seen in 1989...They see Kashmiri Pandits as electoral issues and not as humans. They don't allow the local politicians to speak. Such things are giving way to terrorism. Its onus lies on the Modi government. Meanwhile, Panun Kashmir and IkkJutt Jammu on Thursday condemned the unabated killings of Hindus in Kashmir and demanded that they be immediately shifted to safety. Panun Kashmir is an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits while Ikkjutt Jammu advocates separate Jammu statehood. Amit Shah reviews security situation in Kashmir Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union Territory which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12. Doval along with RAW chief Samnat Goel closeted with Shah for over an hour at the home minister's office at North Block this afternoon, official sources said. Kochi: With a day left for the outcome of the Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll on Friday, the heartbeats of both the Congress and the CPI-M leaderships in Kerala have increased. While many expected the turnout to be the highest ever since the constituency came into being in 2011, however, when the polling ended it turned out to be the lowest ever with 68.77 per cent. On Wednesday, a last-minute final analysis of the voting statistics was being done by the rival political fronts and at the end of the day, the CPI-M leadership appeared to have more smiles on their faces. Analysis showed that while the turnout in the Left strongholds was above 75 per cent, in areas where Congress has an upper hand the turnout was less than 60 per cent. The election became a necessity after the sudden demise of two times Thrikkakara`s Congress legislator PT Thomas in December last year. And even though the Congress perhaps for the first time without any internal squabbles named the widow of Thomas -- Uma Thomas as their candidate and was the first to hit the campaign trail, the CPI-M after a while decided to go for a non-political Catholic Christian candidate, an interventional cardiologist -- Joe Joseph, while the BJP decided to field their veteran -- AN Radhakrishnan. The edge in the campaign trail that the Congress candidate had was almost wiped out with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leading the campaign from the front, Not to be left out around 75 of their legislators and the entire Vijayan cabinet was stay put at Thrikkakara, till the last day of campaign. Vijayan began his campaign on the plank of development and picturised the Congress as one against development. However, this failed to bring in much enthusiasm among the voters. The people towards the end of the campaign took up the issue of a fake video against their candidate and on the day of voting, the police arrested a person who they claimed was the activist of the Indian Union Muslim League- the second biggest ally of the Congress-led UDF. Incidentally, one feature of the by-election was a massive influx of electoral campaigns in social media and on Thursday it was a smear campaign against Uma. "All what I do in the name of PT Thomas is my personal thing and I dismiss all the things said against me with the contempt it deserves. We are confident that we are going to win and this increased hate campaign now against me is because they have realised what`s going to be the result," said Uma. But Joseph, who on Thursday got back to his job of seeing cardiac patients at the private hospital here where he works, said he is resuming his duties. "I did not want a day to be lost, so I decided to get back to work. In our camp we are all confident and buzzing with activity. It seems a pall of gloom has befallen the Congress camp. We are supremely confident that we will hit a century with a six," said Joseph. The BJP candidate Radhakrishnan, who till the end of polling, said he will be the winner, but on Thursday he said he will get more votes (over 15,000) than his party candidate got in the 2021 April Assembly polls. And now with just hours left to know who is the winner, certainly for the traditional rivals, it`s going to be a nail-biting finish when the counting of votes begins at 8 am on Friday. UP Board Result 2022: Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) or UP Board Result 2022 will soon release UP 10th, 12th Board Results 2022. Once released, the results will be made available on the official websites upresults.nic.in, results.upmsp.edu.in. UP Board will declare both UP 10th and 12th Board Results 2022 on the same date. However, there is no update on the date and time for the declaration of the UPMSP UP Board Result 2022. Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad held class 10th exams from March 24, 2022 to April 11, 2022 and class 12th exams were conducted from March 24, 2022 to April 20, 2022. UP Board Result 2022: List of Websites - upmsp.edu.in - upresults.nic.in - upmspresults.up.nic.in UP Board Results 2022: Steps to check scores - Visit the official result website - upmsp.edu.in - On the homepage, click on the UPMSP UP Board result link and fill in your credentials - Click on submit after entering your login details - Your results will be displayed on the screen - Download the results and take a printout for future requirements According to the reports, over 47 lakh students appeared for the UP Class 10th and Class 12th board exam this year. On the first day of the UP Board 2022 examinations, 4.1 lakh students missed the Hindi exams for both Classes 10 and 12. Meta Platforms Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, whose close partnership with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg powered the growth of the world`s biggest social network, is leaving the company after 14 years, she said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. The announcement initially sent the social media firm`s shares down 4%, but the stock was nearly flat in after hours trade. "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote. Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan will take over as chief operating officer, Zuckerberg said in a separate Facebook post, although he added that he did not plan to replace Sandberg`s role directly within the company`s existing structure. "I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products," he said. Olivan has worked at Meta for more than 14 years and has led teams handling Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Sandberg`s departure marks an end of an era for Meta, which is shifting focus toward hardware products and the "metaverse" after years of scandals over privacy abuses and the spread of conspiratorial content on its platforms, as well as plateauing user growth on its flagship app Facebook. The second-in-command to founder Zuckerberg, who was 23 years old when he hired her, Sandberg is one of the most visible executives at the company and the lead architect of its often-criticized ads-based business model. Bringing management experience and knowledge of the then-nascent digital ads industry, she transformed Facebook from a buzzy startup into a revenue behemoth, while also positioning herself as the face of feminism in corporate America. At the time, Facebook was making $272 million in revenue, for a net loss of $56 million, according to regulatory filings. By 2011, a year before the company`s initial public offering, its revenue had shot to $3.7 billion on $1 billion in profits. Meta ended 2021 with revenue of $118 billion and earnings of $39.4 billion. Sandberg said in her post that she will continue to serve on Meta`s board after leaving the company in the fall. When asked about her next steps, she told Reuters she was focusing on philanthropy at a "critical moment for women." "We`ve hired so many great leaders. I feel really good about that. The next leadership team is in place to take the company forward," she said, mentioning Chief Business Officer Marne Levine and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg by name. STAUNCH DEFENDER Sandberg has been a staunch defender of Facebook over the course of its many controversies, consistently arguing that executives were learning from their mistakes and honing the company`s tools to better police against harmful content. She told Reuters last year that she and Zuckerberg had a responsibility to fix systems that had failed, while rejecting reports that she was losing power at the company. "People love headlines about corporate drama, and I think it`s fair to say they particularly love headlines about sidelining women," she said in the January 2021 interview. Sandberg`s tenure covered both Facebook`s original settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2011 for privacy violations and a subsequent blockbuster $5 billion settlement for violations of the earlier deal. She and Zuckerberg were among those that then-Commissioner Rohit Chopra said should have faced more investigation for their roles in the company`s behavior. Under her leadership, the company was buffeted by revelations in 2018 that U.K. consultancy Cambridge Analytica had improperly acquired data on millions of its U.S. users to target election advertising. The same year, U.N. human rights investigators said the use of Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate speech that fueled violence against the Rohingya community in Myanmar. She courted additional criticism when she told Reuters early last year she believed events around the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol were largely organized on other platforms, although researchers had identified similar activity on Facebook as well. Whistleblower Frances Haugen late last year accused the social media giant of repeatedly prioritizing profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation, and said her lawyers had filed at least eight complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under former President Bill Clinton. A Harvard University graduate, Sandberg is the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead." Srinagar: A bank employee from Rajasthan was shot dead on Thursday by terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. The Bank Manager of the Elaqahi Dehati Bank, Branch Kulgam, Vijay Kumar was shot inside the bank premises. Vijay Kumar was rushed to a hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way. This is the sixteenth target killing this year and the second in Kulgam within 60 hours. The bank manager was on duty when he was attacked by terrorists, who fired multiple bullets at him. Kashmir police official said terrorists fired upon a bank employee (manager) at Ellaqie Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora village in Kulgam district. He received grievous gunshot injuries in this terror incident. He is a resident of Hanumangarh Rajasthan. Area cordoned off." Officials told Zee News that a Bank manager of Elaqahi Dehati Bank was fired upon by terrorists when he was on duty at Arreh Mohanpora Branch in Kulgam. Meanwhile, the area has been cordoned off by the forces and a search operation has been launched to trace attacker terrorists soon after the attack. Earlier on May 31, a Hindu school teacher was shot by terrorists when she was entering her school in the Gopalpora village of Kulgam. The school teacher, Rajni Balla of samba area of Jammu, too succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. According to reports, a terrorist outfit 'TRF' has claimed the responsibility for the attack on the bank manager in Kulgam. It has threatened to carry out more such attacks. While condemning the killing, National Conference Vice President and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah said, "So very sorry to hear about the targeted killing of Vijay Kumar. Tweeting to condemn an attack and condole a death is becoming a mind-numbingly regular thing. Its heartbreaking to see families destroyed like this." Notably, the target killings have become a big challange for security force, who so far have failed to break the module of terrorists who carry the target killings. On May 12, a Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat was shot inside his office at chadura. After his killing, a TV actress was shot in her home and then a school teacher in Kulgam was killed. It's the 16th target killing this year. Srinagar: Some unidentified terrorists on Thursday shot dead a migrant labourer in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam, several hours after a bank manager was killed in Kulgam. Another migrant labourer was seriously injured in the attack and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Sharing more information, the J&K Police said, "Preliminary investigation reveals that terrorists had indiscriminately fired upon two outside labourers identified as Dilkhush Kumar, resident of Arnia Bihar and Rajan, resident of Punjab - working in a Brick Kiln - at Magraypora Chadoora area of District Budgam." Preliminary investigation reveals that terrorists had indiscriminately fired upon 2 outside labourers identified as Dilkhush Kumar, resident of Arnia Bihar and Rajan, resident of Punjab - working in a Brick Kiln - at Magraypora Chadoora area of District Budgam: J&K Police ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022 "The duo had received critical gunshot injuries and were immediately shifted to hospital for the treatment of their injuries. However, one of the injured Dilkhush has succumbed to his injuries whereas the condition of the other injured is stated to be stable." the J&K Police added. The duo had received critical gunshot injuries and were immediately shifted to hospital for the treatment of their injuries. However, one of the injured Dilkhush has succumbed to his injuries whereas the condition of other injured is stated to be stable: J&K Police ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022 The targeted killing of Kashmiri Pandits and non-Muslims in J&K has rattled the Union Territory forcing Union Home Minister to call a review meeting over the situation with top-level officials including NSA Ajit Doval on Friday. Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, NSA met Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union Territory which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12. Doval along with RAW chief Samnat Goel closeted with Shah for over an hour at the home minister's office at North Block this afternoon, official sources said. Details of their meeting were not known immediately but they were believed to have discussed the situation in restive Kashmir. Shah will chair the high-level meeting on Friday to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight which comes at a time when terrorists have been carrying out targeted killings in the Valley. Doval is also expected to attend Friday's meeting which will be chaired by the home minister. The latest killing comes hours after Vijay Kumar, a bank manager with the Ilaquai Dehati Bank, was shot in the Kulgam district on Thursday. He was a native of Rajasthan. Terrorists shot dead Kumar inside the bank premises, the eighth targeted killing in the Valley since May 1 and the third of a non-Muslim government employee. Various political parties have attacked the BJP over the Kashmir situation and sought answers from the local administration for the spurt in targeted killings. Dakshina Kannada: Authorities in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka on Thursday suspended 6 students for wearing hijab despite several warnings to them. In another instance, 12 students were sent back for wearing hijab while attending classes. Six girl students of the Uppinangadi Government Pre University College have been suspended for repeatedly violating hijab guidelines. The principal of the college took the decision to suspend the students after holding a meeting with college lecturers. The 6 girl students were informed about the government order and the decision of the High Court prohibiting wearing of hijab in classrooms. Though the authorities of Mangaluru University College near Hampanakatte have been sending back students wearing hijab, 16 girl students who came wearing hijab on Thursday demanded that they should be allowed to attend classes. The college principal denied their entry into classrooms and sent them back. The decision was taken in the Syndicate meeting. The students had also gone to the District Commissioner`s office and had complained about not being allowed to attend classes while wearing hijab. The DC had counselled them to follow the rules of the government and the court order. However, the students did not budge and came to the college on Thursday wearing a hijab. The hijab row, started by 6 students of Udupi Pre-University Government Girl`s College, became a raging controversy in the state making international headlines. The Special Bench of the High Court, which was constituted to hear the matter, ruled against wearing any religious symbols including hijab in classrooms. The court had also dismissed the petition filed by students seeking permission to wear hijab in schools. New Delhi: When two creative people get married, it is difficult for both to grow simultaneously without intruding into each others space. Think Abhimaan where Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri essayed those fictional characters so perfectly. But this is the 21st century. Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna have a marriage where they have divergent views on almost all aspects of creative pursuits and yet they manage to make the relationship work. Sometimes even across continents. Twinkle spends a lot of time with son Aarav who is studying in London these days. She herself is honing her skills in fictional writing while her husband Akshay is set to make waves one way or the other with his latest film `Samrat Prithviraj`. He very candidly says that he divides time between London and India, picking up any role that offers him a chance to shoot in London. Akshay is a family man through and through- a doting father, a dutiful son and brother and an equal partner to his wife. While speaking exclusively to ANI on a whole gamut of issues, Akshay grins when asked about `pind da munda` marrying into South Mumbai sophistication. He says "It works very weirdly. I have no idea. She thinks there, I think there (We think in two opposite directions)." Akshay has a child-like way of accepting what comes his way in life, he admits that he is a sponge when ideas come his way. Acutely conscious that he is not as well read, as educated as his wife, he says he reads her articles, and listens to her views, her opinions just as he does when meets with learned people. And that sometimes spurs his creative instinct. "If asked and not why did you do it. If asked, then she will give me a suggestion. If she asks me to read her column, I will read it. If she asks what I think about it; I will say this is not a good thing. If not asked, I keep myself aside. I don't interfere with her life, she doesn't interfere with mine." he said. A big void in his life is the passing away of his mother with whom he shared a very special bond. His only sibling, his sister lives in the same building as him. In the interview to ANI, he mentions how work-life balance is extremely important for everyone. On the subject, Akshay said, "It is very important that you keep a balance in your life." He spoke of how a few days ago he had gone to a village for shooting where he visited a farmer`s house for tea. "I will tell you the truth, though his house was really small there was happiness all around, even more than mine, though I have everything." "They were happy because there are not stressed about anything. They wake up in the morning and go to work, in the evening they eat dinner before sunset. They work for the entire day, their children go to a school nearby. They have kept a balance." "They told me that in the night `I tell my children stories from the Ramayan and they go to sleep, sometimes I so tired that while narrating I myself fall off to sleep while they don`t`. So, I realized that they have kept a life balance and this is a thing to learn, to go back to our basics, we are not in our basics." Prithviraj, which is directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi, is set to release on June 3 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Manushi Chhillar, Sanjay Dutt and Sonu Sood are also a part of the period drama.The film is based on the life story of brave and mighty king Prithviraj Chauhan and portrays the great warrior`s valour and valiant fight against the cruel invader Muhammad Ghori. Virginia: Popular American actor Johnny Depp on Wednesday (June 1, 2022) won a high-profile defamation case between him and his ex-wife, Amber Heard. The jury in Fairfax, Virginia, began deliberating on this matter on last Friday. Depp sued Heard for USD 50 million after she wrote an op-ed for `The Washington Post` in 2018 in which she called herself a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Heard countersued Depp for USD 100 million in which said she claimed that she has endured domestic violence during their 15-month marriage. The jury has awarded Johnny Depp USD 15 million in damages. Amber Heard has also won part of her libel case against Johnny Depp over articles in a privately owned newspaper, in which Johnny Depp`s former lawyer described her claims of domestic abuse as a hoax. The jury has awarded Amber Heard USD 2 million in damages. Soon after this verdict came out, Johnny Depp officially released a statement on his Instagram account which read, "Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye." "False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already travelled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled," Depp wrote. "My decision to pursue this case, knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable worldwide spectacle into my life was only made after considerable thought. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that," Depp said. Depp mentioned, "I am, and have been, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media. I wish to acknowledge the noble work of the Judge, the jurors, the court staff and the Sheriffs who have sacrificed their own time to get to this point, and to my diligent and unwavering legal team who did an extraordinary job in helping me to share the truth." Depp said that the best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. "Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes," he said. On the other hand, Heard expressed disappointment over the verdict. She penned out a note on Twitter which read, "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I`m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I`m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously." "I believe Johnny`s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK. I`m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American -- to speak freely and openly," she said. After several years of dating, Depp and Heard married in a very private ceremony in their home in Los Angeles in 2015. On May 23, 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and obtained a temporary restraining order against the Oscar-nominated actor. She alleged that Depp had physically abused her during their relationship, and said it was usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Mumbai: A 30-year-old film actor allegedly tried to commit suicide in his Andheri-based home, a police official said on Thursday (June 2). Sarfaraz, a junior artiste, consumed phenyl and he was discharged from hospital during the day, the DN Nagar police station official added. He has named two functionaries of a film federation for harassment and taking money to provide him jobs and both have been asked to record their statements in this regard, he said. No FIR has been registered in this matter and probe was underway, he added. Live TV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 31 released the 11th instalment of financial benefit under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN). Modi transferred an amount of around Rs 21,000 crore to more than 10 crore beneficiary farmer families. Each beneficiaries of PM-KISAN) across the country is eligible to get Rs 2000 in his/her bank account. What to do if you haven't recieved PM-KISAN 11th instalment of Rs 2,000 on your bank account? There might be a certain group of eligible farmers who might not have recieved the 11th instalment of Rs 2,000 under PM KISAN. If you too are one among the farmers who have not received Rs 2000 in your account under, then you can register your complain at the PM Kisan Helpdesk. You can lodge your complain from Monday to Friday. Apart from this, you can also contact pmkisan-ict@gov.in to register your greviances. You can call this helpline number 011-24300606. Alternatively, you can also dial up the following phone numbers: PM Kisan Toll Free Number: 18001155266 PM Kisan Helpline Number: 155261 PM Kisan Landline Numbers: 011-23381092, 23382401 PM Kisan's new helpline: 011-24300606 PM Kisan's another helpline: 0120-6025109 E-mail ID: pmkisan-ict@gov.in PM KISAN Scheme was launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2019, aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. While lakhs of eager farmers are waiting for the disbursal of Rs 2,000 in their account, there are several farmers who are not eligible for the PM KISAN Scheme. National Commission for Minorities chief Iqbal Singh Lalpura has urged the Railways to provide halt for certain trains at Kiratpur Sahib for the benefits of Sikhs pilgrims. For the benefit of Sikh pilgrims, the National Commission for Minorities chief Iqbal Singh Lalpura has urged the Railways to provide halt for certain trains at Kiratpur Sahib. In a statement, the NCM said there is a railway station at Kiratpur Sahib but pilgrims coming from eastern India on certain trains have to face difficulty in immersing the remains of their relatives as these trains don't halt there. Also read: Deccan Queen Express: Indias first deluxe train completes 92 years of service It is also the gateway to Himachal Pradesh. The place is as sacred to Sikhs as Haridwar or Varanasi is for Hindus, the statement said. "The Minister of Railways has been requested to solve the problem of Sikh pilgrims by ordering the halt of all trains passing through Kirat Pur Sahib," the statement said. (With inputs from PTI) Live TV #mute Taipei: In a first such move, Apple is reportedly planning to shift some iPad production out of China to Vietnam amid Covid-lockdowns in and around Shanghai, a media report said on Wednesday. According to a report in Nikkei Asia, the iPhone maker has asked multiple component suppliers to build up their inventories to meet future shortages and supply chain issues. "The iPad will become the second major line of Apple products made in the Southeast Asian country, following the AirPods earbud series," said the report. Apple shipped 58 million iPads last year. China's BYD, which is one of the leading iPad assemblers, helped Apple build production lines in Vietnam. According to the report, it "could soon start to produce a small number of the iconic tablets there". The Cupertino, California-based tech giant has also asked suppliers to move quickly to secure supplies of some chips for the upcoming iPhones. "The requests apply to all of Apple's product lines -- iPhones, iPads, AirPods and MacBooks," said the report, citing sources. Apple was yet to comment on the report. Shanghai on Wednesday began reopening the city and restoring the normal order of production and living, on the premise of containing the overall risk of Covid-19. According to reports, Shanghai ended its two-month citywide lockdown, cautiously giving free rein to 2.67 million businesses to resume operations. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company's latest earnings call that "we have estimated the constraints to be in the range of $4 to $8 billion and these constraints are primarily centred around the Shanghai corridor". "The Covid-related disruptions are also having some impact on customer demand in China," added Apple CFO Luca Maestri. More than half of Apple's 200 main suppliers have facilities in Shanghai and the surrounding regions. In Shanghai, 31 companies run production facilities that supply to Apple. New Delhi: Garena Free Fire releases redeem codes on everyday basis. The 12-digit redeem code consists of alphabets and numbers. Players can get rewards such as skins for in-game weapons and characters to improve their gaming experience. Garena Free fire is banned in India. However, if you are located outside India, you can access the reward codes and redeem them. For that you will be required to visit official Garena Free Fire reward site and log in to your Facebook, Google, Twitter IDs to access the Free Fire redemption page. Check out the Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for June 2, 2022 X99TK56XDJ4X 8F3QZKNTLWBZ MHM5D8ZQZP22 WEYVGQC3CT8Q 3IBBMSL7AK8G 4ST1ZTBE2RP9 J3ZKQ57Z2P2P GCNVA2PDRGRZ B3G7A22TWDR7X FF7MUY4ME6SC SARG886AV5GR How to Redeem Garena Free Fire codes for today, 2 June 2022 Step 1: Go to the official Garena Free Fire redemption portal Step 2: Log in on the portal with either your Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, VK, or Huawei ID. Step 3: Enter a redeem code in the designated text box. Step 4: Click on the Ok button to get free rewards in your game account. Disclaimer: Garena Free fire is banned in India. Hence we advise people to adhere to government rules New Delhi: A US-based Dalit civil rights organisation on Thursday accused Google of having a casteist and hostile workplace practices. However, Google has denied the allegations. Caste discrimination has no place in our workplace. We also have a very clear, publicly shared policy against retaliation and discrimination in our workplace, Google spokesperson Shannon Newberry told The Washington Post, which was the first to report about such an alleged work practice inside the company. An Indian-American employee of Google has resigned in protest. In a statement, Equality Labs, the leading Dalit civil rights organisation dedicated to caste equity, alleged that Google management revealed its lack of caste competence and endangered its employees as they allowed caste bigotry and harassment to run rampant in the company. As reported by The Washington Post, Equality Labs' executive director, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, faced discriminatory claims within Google that led to the cancellation of a Google News diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) talk on caste for April's Dalit History Month. During this time, opponents to caste equity internally circulated disinformation about Soundararajan and Equality Labs to derail the civil rights event until its ultimate cancellation, Equality Labs said in a statement. The movement towards caste equity is one rooted in love, empathy and justice, said Soundararajan. "I cannot find the words to express just how traumatic and discriminatory Google's actions were towards its employees and myself, as the company unlawfully cancelled a talk about caste equity. Google must address the casteism within its workforce that allows for these attacks to occur and continue," she said. In response, Tanuja Gupta, a project manager at Google News, founder of Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration and an original organiser of the Google Walkout, championed more than 400 of Google's workers to stand up to caste discrimination from Googlers who oppose caste equity, Equality Labs said. Gupta's team members were doxxed as a result of the planned talk, and their safety was jeopardised. Google management retaliated against Gupta with an HR investigation and punitive corrective action that forced her resignation, as she no longer felt safe at the company, it said. Having been at the company for 11 years, I had many reasons for leaving, but this was the only one I needed. In the process of doing my job and promoting caste equity at the company, I saw four women of colour harassed and silenced, Tanuja Gupta, former Google project manager, shared in her June 1, 2022 resignation email to over 15,000 Googlers. The reality is that these are not isolated events, this is a pattern. We are deeply concerned that Google would retaliate against people for championing safer workplaces and caste equity, said Alvina Yeh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO. Also Read: Swiggy offers 3 more benefits with Swiggy One membership: Free deliveries, exclusive offers and more As a labor constituency organisation representing AAPI workers, we know that supporting racial justice means fighting caste discrimination. Our members have taken a strong stance for caste equity, and we know that this is an attack on the entire labor movement. We condemn the actions of Google management," Yeh said. Also Read: Liquor home delivery: Maharashtra government to stop service, heres why New Delhi: The Centre plans to set up a grievance appellate committee to look into appeals filed by individuals against decisions of grievance officers of social media platforms. Besides, the panel has to dispose of the appeals within 30 days of receiving them and its decision will be binding on the intermediaries or the large social media companies concerned, according to a notification to amend the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The proposed move assumes significance against the backdrop of instances of accounts, including that of celebrities, being blocked by social media platforms such as Twitter for alleged violation of respective community guidelines. "The central government shall constitute one or more Grievance Appellate Committees, which shall consist of a Chairperson and such other Members, as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette," the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said in the draft notification. The aggrieved person can appeal against the decision of the grievance officer concerned before the committee within 30 days of receipt of the order. "The Grievance Appellate Committee shall deal with such appeal expeditiously and shall make an endeavour to dispose of the appeal finally within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal. Every order passed by the Grievance Appellate Committee shall be complied with by the concerned intermediary," the draft notification said. The rules for social media companies came into effect from May 26, 2021. It mandated large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to enable identification of the 'first originator' of the information that undermines the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, or public order. Under the rules, significant social media intermediaries -- those with over 50 lakh users -- are required to appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. These personnel have to be residents in India. Meity has sought comments on the draft notification till June 22. Since the implementation of the rules in May last year, various social media platforms, including Facebook, have been coming out with monthly compliance reports. In its compliance report for April, mobile messaging platform WhatsApp said it banned over 16 lakh accounts of Indian users in April to prevent harmful activities on the platform. There has been a rise of around 37.82 per cent in hate speech on social media platform Facebook and 86 per cent jump in violent and inciting content on Instagram in April, as per the monthly report released by Meta. Also Read: Sensex, Nifty rebound after two-day decline as large-cap stocks rally Meta company was earlier known as Facebook and WhatsApp is also part of Meta. Also Read: Taj Mahal among most viewed places on Google Street View; check which country, city topped the list New Delhi: Google Street View was launched by the tech giant in 2007. In the past 15 years, the technology has helped millions of users to get a sneak peek of places before physically going there or seeing them again and again to relive their memories. However, its not an American or a European tourist destination that has been visited the most on Google Street View, but Burj Khalifa in Dubai. In the second and third spots are France's Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal in India. It is to be noted that the Taj Mahal has been featured in the list of popular tourist destinations on Google Street View. In a similar list released in 2015, the Taj Mahal was in the list of top ten tourist places visited virtually on Google Street View. Undoubtedly, the Taj Mahal is one of the most popular destinations in the world. Being one of the seven attractions in the world, the Taj Mahal welcomes more than 7 to 8 million visitors, with more than 0.8 million foreign visitors in a year. The iconic fort was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1632. Google Street View also came up with the list of most visited cities on the platform, Indonesias capital Jakarta is the most searched city on Google Street View. For the unversed, the city is known for its Komodo Dragons, which are a major attraction for tourists worldwide. In terms of country, Indonesia is the most visited country on the virtual platform, followed by the United States, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and Spain at the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th spots, respectively. Also Read: Motorola's new affordable smartphone moto e32s launched in India Google said in a blog post that Google Street View has more than 220 billion pictures from over 100 countries; all collected in the span of the last 15 years. Also Read: Ford India workers' sit-in protest moves into day 4, employees seek better severance package Kolkata: The Wes Bengal unit of the BJP on Thursday warned the Mamata Banerjee government to cut taxes in fuel prices in the next 15 days, failing which the party threatened to hold massive protests across the state. According to reports, the BJP has threatened to go on agitation if the West Bengal government does not cut taxes on fuel in the next 15 days. Speaking to reporters, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the state government should give some relief to the people when the Centre has cleared all the GST dues. "West Bengal has received its GST dues from the Centre. It should now bring down the prices of fuel. They should reduce the price of petrol by at least Rs 5, and the price of diesel by Rs 10," he said while speaking to PTI. Attacking the Mamata regime, he said, "The Centre has twice reduced fuel prices, but the state government has not lowered taxes even once." The BJP would wait for 15 days, and if the state does not take any steps, it would hit the streets, Majumdar said. "If they don't reduce the fuel prices, we will hit the streets. We will also march to state secretariat Nabanna to fight for people's rights," he said. The Centre has cleared the entire GST compensation payable up to May 31 by releasing Rs 86,912 crore to the states, as per the Finance Ministry. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in the country on July 1, 2017, and states were assured of compensation for the loss of any revenue arising on account of the implementation of GST for a period of five years. TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the state government would reduce the taxes on fuel, once the Centre clears all the dues. "The state government has already said that once the Centre clears its dues amounting to Rs 97,000 crores, it would reduce the taxes on fuel prices. Once they clear the dues, the state won't levy taxes on oil for the next five years," Ghosh said. (With PTI Inputs) Ramallah: A Palestinian young man was killed and six others were injured on Wednesday during clashes with the Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian health authorities said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a press statement that Bilal Kabaha, 24, was killed after he was shot by Israeli soldiers in the chest and leg during clashes in the village of Ya`bad, west of the Jenin city. It added that six other young men were injured by live ammunition, including one shot in the abdomen and the other in the face. The two casualties were transferred to the hospital, and are in critical condition, the statement said. Palestinian eyewitnesses said clashes broke out when an Israeli army force stormed the village with a bulldozer to demolish the home of Deya`a Hamarsheh, a Palestinian who carried out a shooting attack in Tel Aviv that killed five Israelis on March 29. During the Israeli army force raid on the village, Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers traded fire, said the eyewitnesses. An Israeli army spokesman said in a statement that the Israeli army force carried out a regular military activity in Ya`bad village to demolish the home of the Palestinian who carried out the shooting attack in Bnei Brak in Tel Aviv. Earlier on Wednesday, a Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli soldiers at an Israeli army checkpoint near al-Aroub refugee camp close to the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The health ministry said in a short press statement that Ghufran Warasneh, a 29-year-old woman from the refugee camp, was killed after Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint shot her in the chest. ALSO READ: Aether Industries IPO GMP today, expected listing price suggest listing gains for bidders, check details Israeli media reported that Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint opened fire at Warasneh, who was carrying a knife and tried to stab one of the soldiers at the checkpoint. Mexico: The death toll caused by Hurricane Agatha in Mexico fell to nine after initial reports of 11 dead, state authorities said on Wednesday. Another four are currently missing, authorities told local media. Agatha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Monday afternoon, touching down with 105 mile-per-hour (169 km per hour) winds near the beach town of Puerto Angel on the Pacific coast, before dissipating on Tuesday as it moved inland. The governor of Mexico`s southern state of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat, had said on Wednesday morning that 11 were dead and 33 missing following the storm. State authorities said many of the missing were found after contact was reestablished with Oaxaca`s remote communities. ALSO READ: IGNOU Exam form 2022 released: Check ignou.ac.in to apply for June TEE Oaxaca`s governor said the tallies of dead and missing were preliminary, and urged people to remain alert. "It`s important the entire population remains safe. There`s a likelihood of landslides and river flooding," Murat said, speaking by video link at a regular government news briefing. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday morning there was an 80% chance that a cyclone would form in the Atlantic from Agatha`s remnants in the next 48 hours. ALSO READ: Sri Lanka food crisis: PM Narendra Modi assures President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of fertiliser supply "This system is likely to become a tropical depression while it moves northeastward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next couple of days," the Miami-based agency said. Kyiv: Russian forces were attempting to extend and consolidate their hold on Ukraine's industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Thursday (June 2), edging closer to claiming a big prize in their offensive in the eastern Donbas region. But in a boost for Ukraine, locked in a grinding struggle against Russia's invading army, the United States announced a $700 million weapons package for Kyiv that will include advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 80 km (50 miles). Russia accused the United States of adding "fuel to the fire". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the supply of the rocket launchers raised the risk of a "third country" being dragged into the conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine had promised it would not use the systems to hit targets inside Russia. President Joe Biden hopes extending Ukraine's artillery reach will help push Russia to negotiate an end to the war, which on Friday marks its 100th day. After days of heavy fighting around Sievierodonetsk, much of which has been laid to waste by Russian bombardment, Russian troops were inching forward through city streets. Ukraine says about 70% of the city is under Russian control, with Russian troops in the city centre. "The enemy is conducting assault operations in the settlement of Sievierodonetsk," Ukraine's armed forces general staff said on Thursday, adding that Russian forces were also attacking in other parts of the east and northeast. At least four civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the east and northeast, other officials said. Russia denies targeting civilians. If Russia fully captures Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it would hold all of Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists. Britain's defence ministry said in its daily intelligence update that Russia controlled most of the city, which before the war had a population of about 101,000, and that Ukrainian forces had destroyed bridges over the river to Lysychansk. Capturing all of Luhansk would fulfil one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's main aims and solidify a shift in battlefield momentum after his forces were pushed back from the capital Kyiv and from northern Ukraine. Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and millions more displaced since the invasion began. Amid worries about the global ramifications of the war, Ukraine's grain traders' union said this year`s wheat harvest was likely to drop to 19.2 million tonnes from a record 33 million in 2021. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies, while Russia is also a key fertilizer exporter and Ukraine a major supplier of corn and sunflower oil. Biden is due to meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday in Washington. Stoltenberg told reporters he would soon convene a meeting in Brussels with Swedish, Finnish and Turkish officials to discuss Turkey`s opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. New York: A United Nations report has come pout with some startling revelations. It claimed that terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda enjoy greater freedom in Afghanistan now than at any time in recent history as the past ties with the Taliban have the potential of making Kabul a safe haven for extremists. "The relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaida remains close, with the latter celebrating the former`s success and renewing its pledge of allegiance to (Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada)," an AP report citing the UN report said. The report by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which assessed the presence of Al-Qaeda and Daesh groups in Afghanistan, said "Member state assessments thus far suggest that Al-Qaida has a safe haven under the Taliban and increased freedom of action. Ayman al-Zawahiri has issued more frequent recorded messages since August, and there is now proof of life for him as recently as February 2022." Tolo News stated that the UN report estimated an approximate presence of "180 to 400 fighters affiliated with Al-Qaeda" from countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan who are settled in "Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Paktika and Zabul provinces." "Taliban are starting to see the National Resistance Front challenge fading while recognizing ISIL-K as a more long-term and serious threat," the report, which was released by the United Nations Security Council, further said. Experts in the report which was circulated on Monday reportedly said that the terrorist-linked to both Al Qaeda and the militant Islamic State (IS) group are successfully advancing in Africa, especially in the turbulent Sahel. According to them, IS continues to operate "as an entrenched rural insurgency" in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, Afghanistan`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) issued a statement rejecting the UN report stating that Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Emirate have a "close" relationship and that foreign groups are in Afghanistan. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan again reaffirms its commitments and reassures all that none shall be allowed to use the territory of Afghanistan against others," the statement said, as per Tolo News. Pakistan sends 50-member team to Kabul to discuss cease-fire Pakistan's government on Wednesday sent a 50-member delegation of tribal elders to Kabul to negotiate an extension of a truce with the Pakistani Taliban that expired this week, according to an AP report. Talks between the two sides that led to cease-fires in the past have been mediated by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in their country last August, as the US And NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan. The TTP has been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan over the past 14 years and has long fought for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country's former tribal regions. The development comes after the latest cease-fire expired on Tuesday. A similar truce between the TTP and Pakistan, brokered by the Afghan Taliban last November, lasted a month. However, none of the cease-fires has paved the way for a more permanent peace agreement. Both sides have remained silent about earlier talks in Kabul, the sticking points between them and also about the chances of an extension to the latest cease-fire. Analysts say a more permanent deal could be possible if either side is willing to show flexibility on what is or isn't acceptable to them. (With Inputs from Agencies) Kyiv: The US and Germany have pledged to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east. Germany on Wednesday said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the US announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The US is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory. The Kremlin accused the US of pouring fuel on the fire. Western arms have been critical to Ukraine's success in stymieing Russia's much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east. But as Russia bombards towns in its inching advance in the east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for more and better weapons and accused the West of moving too slowly. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, hailed the new Western weapons. I'm sure that if we receive all the necessary weapons and strengthen the efficient sanctions regime we will win, he said. The new arms could help Ukraine set up and hold new lines of defense in the east by hitting back at Russian artillery pieces that have been battering towns and cities and by limiting Russian airstrikes, said retired French Gen Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France's military mission at the United Nations. "The NATO countries the European nations and the Americans have progressively escalated the means that they are putting at Ukraine's disposal, and this escalation, in my opinion, has had the aim of testing Russian limits, he said. Each time, they measure the Russian reaction, and since there is no reaction, they keep supplying increasingly effective and sophisticated weaponry. Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision US weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Defence Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight. ALSO READ: Russian forces reach centre of Ukraines industrial city The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million package of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more. The rockets have a range of about 50 miles (80 km) and are highly mobile. Ukraine had pushed unsuccessfully for rockets with a range of up to 186 miles (300 km). Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not trust assurances that Ukraine will not fire on Russian territory. We believe that the US is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire, he said. Col Gen Mikhail Mizintzev later went further, directly accusing Ukraine of planning to fire US-provided missiles from the northeastern Sumy region at border areas in Russia. The claim, which he said was based on radio intercepts, couldn't be independently confirmed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine's push for more weapons is a direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting. He warned that the multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict. Sane Western politicians understand those risks well, he said. As the new weapons shipments were announced, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Regional Gov Maksym Kozytskyy said five people were wounded in Wednesday's strike, and the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage was still being assessed. Germany's promise of IRIS-T air defence systems would mark the first delivery of long-range air defence weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war. Earlier deliveries of portable, shoulder-fired air defence missiles have bolstered the Ukrainian military's ability to take down helicopters and other low-flying aircraft but didn't give it enough range to challenge Russia's air superiority. Germany has come under particular criticism, both at home and from allies abroad, that it isn't doing enough. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the IRIS-T's surface-to-air missiles are the most modern air defense system the country has. With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air attacks,? he said. The radar systems will also help Ukraine locate enemy artillery. A regional governor said Russian forces now control 80% of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow's efforts to complete its capture of the Donbas, where Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have fought for years and where the separatists held swaths of territory even before the invasion. Luhansk Gov Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops were advancing in the city during fierce street battles with Ukrainian forces, though he noted that in some districts the Ukrainian troops managed to push them back. The only other city in Luhansk that the Russians have not yet captured, Lysychansk, is still fully under Ukrainian control, he said, but is likely to be the next target. The two cities are separated by a river. If the Russians manage to take full control over Sievierodonetsk within two to three days, they will start installing artillery and mortars and will shell Lysychansk more intensively, Haidai said. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting. He turned the focus to children in his nightly video address, saying 243 of them have been killed in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing. The real numbers could be higher, he added, as his government doesn't have a full picture of areas under Russian occupation. ALSO READ: How to change photo in Passport? Here is all you want to know Zelenskyy also said 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across that vast country: The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return. In southern Ukraine, a regional governor sounded a more positive note, saying Russian troops were retreating and blowing up bridges behind them. They are afraid of a counterattack by the Ukrainian army, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolayiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Katie Britt and Mo Brooks exchanged insults Thursday as a potential debate ahead of the June 21 Republican Senate runoff has apparently been nixed. The Britt campaign said Brooks wanted a circus, not a debate, and wanted no part of the final circus act of Mos career while Brooks said Britt was weak and his campaign questioned her claims as a Christian conservative. Efforts by media outlets across the state to organize a Senate debate have apparently been shut down with Britt opting not to take part. Katie Britts flip-flops are too numerous to count, Brooks said in a statement Thursday. In the primary, she said a candidate who wont debate should not get any citizens vote. Now, yet again, she flip-flops as she gets more shrill, more negative and more vitriolic. While I disagree with June Katie Britt, I agree with April Katie Britt. If she is too weak to stand on a stage and take Mo Brooks on, how can anyone expect her to take on Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, or any of the other Socialist Democrats that are destroying America. Brooks comments came after a statement Thursday from a Britt spokesman said that Brooks doesnt want a debate; he wants a circus. Thats the only thing hes capable of. The Huntsville congressman said the night he won a spot in the runoff with 29% of the vote that he would agree to a debate, adding that he understood that Britt would agree as well. The day after the primary, in which Britt former chief of staff for Sen. Richard Shelby as well as former head of the Business Council of Alabama collected 45% of the vote, her campaign did not respond to an AL.com inquiry about if she would debate Brooks before the runoff. Katie Britts debate refusal is an admission of profound weakness at a time America needs fighters in the U.S. Senate, not pushovers, Brooks said in a statement Thursday. As my record reflects, I am exactly the fighter America needs at this critical juncture in history. The Alabama Republican Party said it has offered for months to organize a debate for the partys Senate candidates. Before the primary, chair John Wahl said Mike Durant, who finished third in the primary, said he would not participate in a debate after Britt and Brooks said they would. Wahl has since said he hoped for a debate before the runoff. He doesnt want to talk about his do-nothing record, because he hasnt accomplished anything for Alabamians throughout his 40 years living off the taxpayer dime, Britt campaign spokesman, Sean Ross, said of Brooks in a statement Thursday. Instead, Mo Brooks will undoubtedly resort to embarrassing our state with false, desperate personal attacks. We are seeing his lies get more blatant by the day, and there is no way that a constructive or substantive debate can occur with his continually devolving behavior. Katie wont participate in the final circus act of Mos career she will continue to work tirelessly and travel to every corner of Alabama to share her conservative message, listen to Alabamians, and answer their questions. The Brooks statement also took issue with Britt branding her candidacy as a Christian conservative candidate, describing it as a brazen, poll tested, campaign identity. The Brooks campaign urges voters to read Katie Britts statement for debate flip-flopping, and ask three questions, the statement said. Is Britts statement Christ-like? Is Britts statement conservative? Does Britts statement reflect the proper demeanor of a U.S. Senator? After being canceled last year because of Covid-19 lockdowns, the annual European-Vietnamese Documentary Film Festival will return in early June, showcasing diverse topics from 11 participating countries. Jointly organized by the European Union National Institutes for Cultures (EUNIC) and Vietnam National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio (DSF) since 2009, the event this year will take place for 10 days to screen 20 documentaries, half from the host country, and half from eight EU countries, the U.K. and Israel. The films, to be shown for free from 7 p.m. every evening from June 3-12 at DSFs headquarters in Hanoi, cover a wide range of personal, artistic and social themes from drug addiction and career adaptation, to music and painting, to rural migration, xenophobia and climate change. The European selection includes critically acclaimed and award-winning documentaries like German director Wiebke Popels 2020 documentary "My Way" about composer Helmut Lachenmann, which won best film at the Dock of the Bay music documentary film festival in Spain in 2021, and director Paloma Sermon-Dais "Petit Samedi" about a 43-year-old drug-addict, which won best documentary at Belgian cinemas Magritte Awards in 2022. A scene in director Paloma Sermon-Dais 'Petit Samedi' about a 43-year-old drug-addict. Photo courtesy of the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Vietnam Over the years, whenever possible and suitable, the festival organizers have made an effort to expand the event to Ho Chi Minh City in addition to Hanoi, as well as provide special screenings and workshops for young, independent filmmakers from other Southeast Asian countries. For every evening of screening, pairs of European and Vietnamese documentaries have also been carefully curated to be screened alongside each other to provide viewers an opportunity to compare and contrast the two filmmaking traditions. Vietnamese documentaries for instance are known for their relatively shorter durations (about 30 minutes compared to the feature length of European documentaries), and made-for-TV style with plenty of narration and talking-head interviews, while European films are more experimental in story-telling and other aspects. Style aside, the topics of the Vietnamese documentaries at the upcoming 12th festival include such heady subjects as director Do Huyen Trangs 2019 ''Nhung Vung Dat Hoi Sinh" (Reviving Lands) about intractable Agent Orange consequences left over from the American War, Tran Phuong Thuys and Trinh Quang Tungs 2019 "Mau Lieu Hanh" (Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh) about a powerful folk religion, and Nguyen Van Kiems 2019 "Chuyen Co Tich O Ban Rao Tre" (Fairy Tales in Rao Tre Village) about the fight to stop the practice of consanguineous marriage that causes severe health problems among the Chut ethnic group in central Ha Tinh Province. NASA Partners with Industry for New Spacewalking, Moonwalking Services "NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to advance spacewalking capabilities in low-Earth orbit and at the Moon, by buying services that provide astronauts with next generation spacesuit and spacewalk systems to work outside the International Space Station, explore the lunar surface on Artemis missions, and prepare for human missions to Mars." Spacesuits aboard station declared a "no-go" pending analysis of recent helmet water leak, CBS "The aging shuttle-era spacesuits aboard the International Space Station have been declared "no-go" for operational, normally planned spacewalks, pending analysis to determine what led to excess water getting into an astronaut's helmet during a March excursion, officials confirmed Tuesday." Keith's note: The NASA press release says total contract value is $3.5B if all of the contract options are eventually exercised but there are no details on how NASA funding is accomplished or the value of these two individual contracts. Oh yes - there is no mention of how these suits will help NASA deal with current suit issues on ISS right now. The earliest that these suits might be tested is apparently in the 2025 timeframe according to Axiom and Collins - maybe. As to whether they will be ready for an actual lunar mission i.e. Artemis 3 - that's anyone's guess since no one knows exactly when that flight will happen. NASA declined to answer the "when" question with regard to spacesuit testing. Both companies suggest the 2025 time frame but provided no other detail. NASA would only say "mid-2020s" for when these spacesuits will be in use. When asked about water in helmets of current ISS EVA suits the NASA rep only says that they are studying it. When asked what the value of each contract the NASA person said that it is going to be published in the source selection documents in late June. So .. one has to assume that NASA still does not know - otherwise they'd tell us, right? Spacesuit companies were asked how much they've invested already. Axiom Space would not answer other than to say that they spent what they spent and "you can go figure it out". The Collins Aerospace guy had no number to offer either. Again, so much for transparency in this government/industry partnership Oh and despite NASA awarding contracts worth up to $3.5 billion for new spacesuits for the ISS and the Moon - no one actually has pictures to share of the spacesuits that $3.5 billion from NASA will buy. One media question asked why NASA is going to spend more money on spacesuits than a Human Lander System since it would seem that a lander is more complicated than a spacesuit. Answer - a fast talking NASA guy: moon ships are moon ships and spacesuits are spacesuits. Meanwhile no one at NASA has any idea when an actual Moon landing will happen. Tunas on a refrigerator truck in central Khanh Hoa Province, January 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc Agriculture, forestry and fisheries exports rose by 20.3 percent year-on-year in the first five months to US$13.08 billion. They accounted for 8.55 percent of the countrys exports, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. High growth was seen in fisheries, rice and cassava products. Fisheries exports grew by 45 percent to $4.75 billion thanks to growing demand. Shrimp and pangasius shipments were worth $1.8 billion and $1.2 billion, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers. It was followed by rice and cassava, whose exports rose by 14 percent year-on-year to $386 million and 38.7 percent to $636 million. The construction site of Ben Thanh station of HCMC's metro line No.1 in front of Ben Thanh Market, April 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran The Quach Thi Trang Roundabout in front of the Ben Thanh Market is set to return five years after it was cleared to build a metro station. The reestablishment of the roundabout, which was first built in 1914, has been assigned to the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture. The citys administration has asked the department to complete the re-establishment plan and submit it before Jul. 15. The plan must include works to put two statues back at the roundabout. In 2014, HCMC moved from the roundabout a statue of Quach Thi Trang, a student who died in a protest against the Saigon regime during the Vietnam War. A year later, the statue of Tran Nguyen Han, a military expert who contributed significantly in Vietnams fight against Chinese invasions in the 15th century, was also moved. Quach Thi Trang Roundabout in front of Ben Thanh Market in HCMC's District 1 in 2012. Photo by Flickr/Astacus In 2017, the entire roundabout was demolished for the construction of the Ben Thanh station, one of the three underground stations of HCMCs metro line No.1. The four-story station goes 32 meters below ground and is 236 meters long and 60 meters wide. It will be the most important of three underground stations on the route, which will run 19.7 km from Ben Thanh Market to Suoi Tien theme park in Thu Duc City. It will also serve as an interchange with lines No. 2, 3 and 4 when they are built. The other two underground stations of the line are the Opera House station in front of the Opera House and the Ba Son which is close to the Saigon River. Built at a cost of VND43.7 trillion ($1.89 billion), the metro line No.1 will have 14 stations with the remaining 11 being on the surface or elevated. The much-delayed line is more than 90 percent complete and is expected to start commercial operations late next year. Hanoi's iconic Long Bien Bridge would undergo a complete evaluation in the next two-three months prior to its reparation, according to the Vietnam Railway Authority. Tran Thien Canh, deputy head of the authority, on Thursday said a plan to evaluate Long Bien Bridge has been prepared. The 120-year-old bridge has suffered several instances of damage, with two holes appearing along its surface this month, he added. The bridge is supposed to be evaluated once every five to 10 years. The last time an evaluation took place was in 2012. Following the evaluation, authorities would prepare a project to repair the bridge, which is expected to commence in 2023. "This time, we aim to make it so that the bridge could function safely until 2030, when it would be replaced by the No. 1 urban railway line Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi," said Canh. Regarding the recent damage to the bridge's surface, the authority said the road surface is already outdated, which harbors traffic safety risks. A hole 60 cm wide and 100 cm long on Long Bien Bridge, Hanoi, May 28, 2022. Photo by Ha Hai Company While cars and certain other vehicles are banned from using the bridge from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., many still use it, especially during rush hours. Nguyen Quoc Vuong, director of the Ha Hai Railways company, which manages Long Bien Bridge, said the company would erect plates to cover up gaps along the bridge and erect signs that warn people against large gatherings, among other measures. Long Bien Bridge, crossing the Red River, began construction in 1898 and opened in 1902. It was originally intended to serve the rail industry. It was damaged in certain sections during the Vietnam War. From 1995 to 2010, reparation of the bridge cost VND116 billion ($4.99 million) in total. In 2015, it was repaired with VND300 billion to make it safe enough until 2020, when the No. 1 urban railway line would be constructed and replace it. But to date, the railway project has not even begun. The maintenance cost for the bridge in 2021 was VND8.5 billion, and over VND9.7 billion in 2022. Ho Chi Minh City wants to have a special mechanism that grants it greater autonomy to be continued after a pilot period ends this year. In November 2017, Vietnam's economic hub HCMC was granted extra autonomous decision-making power to help it develop to its full potential as per Resolution 54 passed by the National Assembly (NA), the national legislative body. Under the resolution, which entered effect from January 2018 to end-2022, the city could raise and add additional fees and charges to regulate its residents' behavior and increase budget revenue, make changes to the tax collection policy, raise the income of cadres and civil servants, and decide on land-use changes for farmland. "The pilot period is too short for the scheme to have a significant impact," the citys Deputy Chairman Vo Van Hoan told a conference on Wednesday. Until now, the city has yet to make full use of the mechanism and has not increased budget revenue as expected. HCMC has a "huge" demand for investment and development but financial resources are limited, said Hoan. The central government had approved a public investment capital of more than VND140 trillion ($6 billion) for the city in the 2021-2025 period. "The sum is only enough for projects that had already been approved in the 2016-2020 term. For the ongoing term, no projects had been funded," he said. Hoan said the city is working on a proposal on making draft adjustments to the resolution, in which the city asked the parliament to grant it long-term autonomy exceeding the five-year pilot period. The city wants to have its own mechanism in different areas, including investment, finance and budget management, urban area development, environment protection, decentralization as well as a separate mechanism for Thu Duc City. It is expected that by the end of this year, the proposal would be submitted to the NA for consideration. Attending the conferment, economist Tran Du Lich, a member of the Government Advisory Group, said for decentralization, ministries and the central government should only act in the role of inspection when it comes to construction projects, and leave the city more power to decide for its own, to avoid complicated administrative procedures. Tran Hoang Ngan, director of the municipal Institute of Development and Research, said last month that HCMC still has many things to do and that it might not even have used half the mechanisms granted by the resolution. "The city has not been able to take full advantage of the resolution because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It needs two more years to make a more standard assessment," he said. Ngan said the problems that have not been resolved, like earnings from the equitization of state-owned companies or public property auction proceeds, are mostly "due to the complicated legal procedures that apply across the country, not just in HCMC." Therefore, the city should make proposals to the NA and have such obstacles removed, he added. One day more than 10 years ago, my father and other villagers were shocked and terrified after watching the Hau River "swallowing" a section of National Highway 91. The incident happened in Chau Phu District, An Giang Province. Father lit incense and prayed at the family's ancestral altar, then brought some wine to the river bank as offering to Ba Cau - a patron deity for those making a living from the river. In the mind of someone who'd lived almost his entire life by the river, my father immediately interpreted the river's abnormal fury as a bad omen. When I told him that it was not caused by any supernatural force, but partly because people had been extracting sand from the riverbed, causing erosion, he and some village elders didn't believe it. They all said that along the eroded section there had been no sand mining in years, and there were only some happening a little bit upstream. I explained that when the river's sand is taken away, its flow will change. These changed flows could create whirlpools or "smash" directly into the riverbanks, causing erosion. Each natural river is formed over centuries, over millennia actually. Nature endows them with the attributes of balance and stability. When humans intervene, the balance is broken. The ongoing excessive sand mining in the Mekong Delta, coupled with upstream countries constructing many hydropower dams along the Mekong River, have resulted in the river being unable to fully replenish its sand and soil. To "balance out" this deficiency, rivers have to wear away their riverbeds or banks, leading to riverbank erosion, which in turn causes the collapse of structures and houses along the banks, as well as the destruction of the vegetation and structures meant to protect them. Even when the people of my hometown began to understand the issue, they could only watch helplessly as sand mining vessels operated busily in great numbers across all the rivers in the Mekong Delta. Currently, the delta's An Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Soc Trang provinces and Can Tho City have a total of 76 sand mines licensed for operating publicly. As much as 500 kilometers [310 miles] of riverbanks and coasts in the delta have been eroded, destroying nearly 2,000 houses and displacing 20,000 households. The people of the Mekong Delta have a habit of settling down and making a living along the banks of rivers and canals. Erosion incidents, which have been happening more and more frequently, has caused people to live in constant fear, anxiety and insecurity. Authorities in some localities have helped people relocate and resettle to avoid the risk of erosion, but this is only a temporary solution as changes in the living environment would have other consequences, disrupt people's lives and vocations, and break the cohesion between families and villages. A section of the National Highway 91 next to the Hau River in the Mekong Delta is eroded away, May 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Cuu Long Throwing good money after bad The people are the ones most affected by riverbank erosion and subsidence in the Mekong Delta. But provincial authorities are still licensing sand mining businesses, and at the same time pouring money into resolving the consequences of this activity. The people might not know where the huge amounts of money businesses have paid for sand mining licenses have gone to, but it is their tax money that the state is using to combat erosion. This is one vicious cycle with the people being at the receiving end of all the negative consequences. The arrests and handlings of illegal sand mining cases are still being reported by the press every day. Despite this, sand mining is still rampant in the Mekong Delta. The difficult thing is that people cannot differentiate between illegal sand miners and state-licensed ones. The people cannot supervise them and the authorities cannot handle them effectively, so the "sand bandits" are becoming even more blatant with their banditry. It is perhaps not possible to end the mining of river sand for construction, ground leveling and road heightening activities, all of which require huge amounts of sand. However, we need to keep in mind that human impacts on any part of the Mekong River system would cause changes to its general structure, resulting in grave consequences. Therefore, instead of licensing river sand mining businesses in a local and inconsistent manner as they have been doing in recent times, provincial authorities need to discuss a feasible, scientific and synchronous solution. The licensing needs to have a solid basis, based on the assessment of experts to minimize any impacts on the environment. We need to evaluate the difference between the amount of sand accreted from upstream and the amount of sand mined across the delta annually, and use this data to develop a sustainable sand mining policy. In the long term, research projects to produce artificial sand need to be taken into account as replacement for river sand that is being depleted at a scary rate. Currently, there is no shortage of legal regulations on the management and exploitation of mineral resources, including river sand. However, without strict supervision and enforcement, the gutted rivers will keep crying out for help, till their tears run dry. The process, labeled the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, follows an agreement President Joe Biden announced last week with 12 Asian economies, which excluded Taiwan. Like that effort, the discussions with Taiwan will not involve tariffs or market access -- items that would require congressional approval, officials said. "Both sides will work at pace... to develop an ambitious roadmap for negotiations for reaching agreements with high-standard commitments and economically meaningful outcomes," the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. Despite the limited scope of the talks, which a senior administration official said was in keeping with the "unofficial" relationship with Taipei, they are likely to anger Beijing which bristles at any sign Washington is treating the self-governing democracy as an independent nation. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and opposes its participation in international fora including a Pacific trade pact. Beijing has engaged in frequent saber rattling to show its displeasure: China on Monday made the second largest incursion into Taiwan's air defense zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of "increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity." Biden also is under pressure to deepen ties with the island after a bipartisan group of 52 senators urged him to include Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) launched last week, which includes about 40 percent of the global economy. They argued in a letter to Biden that leaving an important trading partner out would "allow the Chinese government to claim that the international community does not in fact support meaningful engagement with Taiwan." 'Robust' relationship A senior official said there is still time to add Taiwan to that effort. "We didn't include Taiwan in the initial launch. However, going forward, we intend to take a flexible and adaptable approach to IPEF participation," the official told reporters. The official reiterated Washington's "long-standing one China policy," but said the Biden administration also maintains a "robust unofficial relationship with Taiwan and... is committed to deepening it." Deputy USTR Sarah Bianchi and Taiwan's lead trade negotiator John Deng met on Wednesday to launch the new initiative, which the trade agency said "is intended to develop concrete ways to deepen the economic and trade relationship, advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, and promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for our workers and businesses." On 19 September 2012 the European Commission set out its plans to develop a global initiative that will create opportunities for some 10,000 people from 2014-2020 to volunteer worldwide in humanitarian operations. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative will provide a path for Europeans eager to help practically where help is most urgently needed. The number of natural and man-made disasters in the world has significantly increased over the last years and this trend is unfortunately likely to continue. Humanitarian organisations need more well-prepared people to support them helping communities struck by disasters. Many Europeans are eager to help practically where it is most needed. The EU Aid Volunteers' initiative will provide them with the opportunity to do so. Most existing volunteer schemes have a national focus. 'EU Aid Volunteers' will bring volunteers and organisations from different countries to work together in common projects. European standards in this field will provide a quality label denoting proper training for volunteers, recognisable by interested citizens and organisations, which increase the impact of humanitarian aid. What exactly will change? The Commission proposes to develop European standards for managing volunteers in humanitarian projects and a European training programme. Trained volunteers will be deployed as EU Aid Volunteers in humanitarian projects worldwide. A network of EU Aid Volunteers will be created, so they can interact with and support each other before, during and after deployment. Other people can also get involved through online volunteering supporting volunteers already in the field or helping humanitarian organisations with tasks that can be done from home on a computer. Who can apply? EU Aid Volunteers have to be over 18 years of age and have to be citizens or long-term residents in the EU and certain other European countries. The initiative is open for different profiles of candidates: They can be newcomers, i.e. people who want to gain experience in the humanitarian sector, and experts or retired citizens who want to help out with their specialist knowledge. Preparation and deployment opportunities will depend on the level of skills and competences. Inexperienced volunteers will not be sent to projects where security is a concern. How will it work? The Commission proposes to certify humanitarian organisations that adhere to the European standards of managing humanitarian volunteers. These organisations will in turn identify suitable humanitarian projects and apply for EU grants to deploy EU Aid Volunteers. EU Aid Volunteers are trained together and will be examined after the training as to their readiness to be deployed. Where needed, the training can include office-based experience in a European humanitarian organisation, before going into the field. The proposed initiative also includes training for local staff and volunteers of organisations in countries hit by disasters where the EU Aid Volunteers will work. Who will benefit and how? EU Aid Volunteers will get professional training and experience in the field. Humanitarian organisations & disaster-struck communities will get better more and prepared volunteers. Local organisations in these countries will also get better-trained staff and volunteers and will benefit from capacity building measures including training and job shadowing in European humanitarian organisations. Some 10,000 people will be deployed over the period 2014-2020. The scheme will also include training for 7,000 local staff and volunteers of organisations in countries hit by disasters and an online volunteering dimension: Another 10,000 people are expected to support the EU Aid Volunteers as 'online volunteers' with tasks that can be done from home on a computer, for example helping out with translations, graphic designs or providing advice and support. Funding The budget for the EU Aid Volunteers initiative is 147.9 million from 2014 to 2020. This funding will be used for putting in place an extensive capacity building and training package for EU Aid Volunteers, for volunteers and staff in third countries and for the deployment of volunteers. Videos Related information 08/01/2014 Responding to the serious damage caused by recent flooding in the Eastern Caribbean region, the European Commission's Department of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection ECHO has released more than 300 000 to bring immediate relief to those most affected by floods. On 24 December 2013 severe rains and high winds struck due to an unexpected Low Level Trough System passing through the Eastern Caribbean. The trough caused severe floods, landslides and damage to critical infrastructure and homes in St Lucia and St Vincent & Grenadines, leaving 15 people dead and around 220 000 affected. The immediate aid priorities are access to safe water and sanitation, health, housing, and distribution of relief items such as hygiene kits and jerry cans. The potential for an increase in water and vector borne diseases, especially dengue, is of concern. As a major contributor to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the IFRC, the European Commission has agreed to direct 104 834 of its DREF contribution to help bring relief to the victims. The aid will be channeled through the Red Cross National Societies of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The EU's assistance will support distribution of food and relief items, access to water and sanitation, and hygiene promotion to minimize the risk of diseases. In addition, ECHO has granted 200 000 to the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to restore health services and reduce the impact of the disaster on public health. The European Commission's disaster preparedness programme (DIPECHO) is currently funding four projects in the affected region, specifically in St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Dominica. Related information 16/01/2014 - During the donor conference in Kuwait, Commissioner Georgieva pledged additional funding of 165 million on behalf of the European Union to assist the suffering people of Syria. She also pleaded for the children of Syria during her speech to the participants Every family affected by this terrible crisis, every life crushed by its consequences is a tragic loss. "But this tragedy is magnified when we consider its impact on the lives of children, who are the future of Syria when this madness finally ends as we all know it must and will in a negotiated political settlement. That is why we strongly support the No Lost Generation initiative which aims to protect the youth of Syria and provide the education they need to rebuild their country. See the entire speech Related information 17/01/2014 - The European Commission and OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, are co-chairing a high-level meeting on the humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic (CAR). On Monday, 20 January, representatives from UN agencies, donor countries, NGOs, the Red Cross family and states of the region will gather in Brussels. They will take stock of the main challenges on the ground, identify priorities for action in this emergency and work together to make sure that humanitarian organisations have the necessary resources to assist the victims. The humanitarian crisis in CAR has escalated in recent months and today affects the entire population of 4.6 million people. Nearly 60% (2.6 million) are in need of immediate aid, but reaching them is complicated by insecurity and violence. Around 886 000 people remain internally displaced, out of which 512 000 are currently staying in the capital. Sixty percent of these are children. The European Union is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Central African Republic, with funding of over EUR 76 million in 2013. The contribution from the European Commission alone amounted to EUR 39 million in 2013. Funds are being used to improve the protection of civilians and provide the most vulnerable with access to health services, food, decent shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene. Moreover, the EU has organised repeated humanitarian aid flights from Europe and the region to ferry relief supplies and aid workers into the country. Related information 20/01/2014 - The international community pledged over EUR 366 million at a high-level meeting on the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) today, as donors rallied to help the stricken country in response to a dramatically deteriorating situation. Organised in Brussels by the European Commission and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the conference mobilised funds from the European Commission, EU Member States and other donors including the United States, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. A new overall figure of humanitarian assistance was announced -EUR 150 million- together with a further contribution of almost EUR 216 million in stabilization and development funds. This will scale up both the immediate life-saving interventions and short to medium-term assistance. The European Commission has increased its support by 45 million since the onset of the current emergency. The aid targets the most acute needs of the population such as shelter, food, health, protection, water, sanitation and hygiene. "Central Africans are enduring a major humanitarian tragedy and their suffering is truly appalling. The international humanitarian community assembled in Brussels today is determined to reinforce assistance and provide urgently needed aid to the most vulnerable", said Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. "I am deeply disturbed by the impact of the crisis on ordinary people in CAR. The brutality, violence and sectarian nature of the crisis concerns us all. The UN's humanitarian agencies and NGO partners are scaling up their presence across the country and are delivering as fast as security and access conditions allow - under the leadership of a Senior Humanitarian Coordinator - following the declaration of CAR as one of our highest level emergencies", said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos. "Through the successful mobilisation in Brussels today, 90% of the funding requirements estimated by the United Nations will be covered. This is a decisive moment in the face of the dramatic humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic", said France's Deputy Minister for Development Pascal Canfin. The Central African Republic ranks among the world's poorest countries and has been embroiled in a decade-long armed conflict. The surge of violence in December 2013 exacerbated this situation and today half of the 4.6-million-strong population is in need of immediate aid. Almost a million people have been internally displaced, half of them in the capital Bangui alone. More than 245 000 Central Africans have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Related information Almost 500 000 people remain displaced in the capital Bangui. Photo credit: EU/ECHO/Pierre-Yves Scotto 23/01/2014 - Amid the violent conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) , the European Commission continues to airlift urgently needed relief supplies into the country. Today, a plane has ferried 80 tons of relief supplies from Nairobi, Kenya into the CAR capital Bangui, including emergency shelter, blankets and basic household items such as soap and kitchen utensils. This latest operation is part of the reinforced engagement of the European Commission to address the increasingly acute humanitarian situation in the country. A similar airlift was operated recently, providing emergency shelter to over 100 000 of those uprooted due the conflict. The European Commission has also deployed its humanitarian air service ECHO Flight to transport relief goods and aid workers to CAR, and has previously sent a shipment of 37 tons of medical supplies from Europe. The situation in the Central African Republic has dramatically deteriorated in the last months with almost a million people internally displaced (IDPs), approximately half of those in Bangui alone. The European Commission is the largest relief donor to CAR and has committed EUR 45 million in relief assistance since the onset of the current emergency in December 2013. On 20 January, the European Commission and UN OCHA co-hosted a high level meeting on the humanitarian situation in Central African Republic, where the international community pledged EUR 366 million for life-saving interventions and short to medium-term assistance. Related information The Red Cross, in its project funded by ECHO following the passage of Hurricane Sandy in Jamaica, is building houses using construction techniques which are hurricane-resistant and earthquake-resistant. Being prepared is being resilient. Croix-rouge francaise / Emeline Decoray 31/01/2014 - The European Union is reaffirming its commitment towards disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean with the launch of the new Disaster Preparedness (DIPECHO) action plan 2013-2014. In total, 8.5 million have been earmarked for disaster preparedness and reducing the vulnerabilities related to natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. The action plan aims at reaching out to more than 650 000 people in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, enabling them to be better prepared to face natural hazards. All actions are conducted in close collaboration with national disaster management offices and with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDEMA). The 2013 hurricane season tested once again the efficiency of disaster preparedness actions in the Caribbean and showed how relevant they are in the efforts to assist the most vulnerable communities. The heavy rains and the landslides produced by tropical storm Chantal in July 2013 in several Caribbean islands resulted in the activation of early warning systems developed in previous projects carried out within DIPECHO in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. The preparedness, the level of organization and the necessary equipment (radios, shovels, loudspeakers, waistcoats, etc.) allowed the population to evacuate timely towards shelters pre-identified in the framework of EU-funded humanitarian projects. Since 1994, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department ECHO has allocated close to 55 million to disaster preparedness in the Caribbean region and more than 406 million (290 million only for Haiti) to respond to disasters and emergencies in the region. Related information 3/2/2014 - The European Commission today has announced it will give 142 million in humanitarian funds to the Sahel region of Africa in 2014, which is once again suffering because of a severe food and nutrition crisis this year. In addition, many people in Mali are in need of humanitarian aid as a result of the situation in the North. In 2014, severe acute malnutrition rates continue to surpass emergency thresholds in many regions of Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria. The lean season, the difficult months between two harvests when food and resources become scarce, has started early for many in the Sahel. One and a half million children are at high risk of severe malnutrition this year. The EU funding will provide 57 million in emergency relief for people affected by the overall Sahel food and nutrition crisis, 28 million to assist victims of the Mali crisis, 7.5 million for the food crisis situation in Nigeria, where the North is experiencing the most challenging situation; 29.5 million for Chad, which is in a complex crisis with an increasing number of refugees; and 2 million for North Cameroon. An additional 18 million is planned in EU development funding to provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to build resilience in northern Mali. This funding will prioritise life-saving nutrition care for children and mothers and provide food assistance, access to basic health services and clean water for the most vulnerable people. It will also ensure that hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people in West African countries continue to receive vital aid. Related information 24/2/2014 - The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Syria's humanitarian crisis which, for the first time, demands both the Syrian government and the opposition to provide immediate access for humanitarian forces to deliver aid, anywhere needed in the country. Commissioner Georgieva expressed her relief at the approval of the Resolution and her hope it would be a turning point for the people of Syria while awaiting a political solution to the crisis. In its Resolution, the Security Council demanded that "all parties allow delivery of humanitarian assistance, cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival, and enable the rapid, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians who wished to leave. It demanded that all parties respect the principle of medical neutrality and facilitate free passage to all areas for medical personnel, equipment and transport". It also "called on all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, to promptly allow unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations agencies and its [sic] partners, including across conflict lines, and to ensure that aid reached people through the most direct routes". Related information 11/03/2014 - The European Commission will provide life-saving assistance to 100 000 victims of the violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) who have been forced to flee to Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The funding comes from the Commission's support of 45 million to CAR since the escalation of the crisis in December 2013. It will help the most vulnerable people seeking to meet their basic humanitarian needs including shelter, food, health, protection, water, sanitation and hygiene. Half of the funding will be spent in Chad, which is facing the biggest influx. "Central Africans may have found some respite from the appalling violence in their country but, even so, their suffering continues in neighbouring countries. There is currently little prospect of them being able to return home and they urgently need our help just to survive their ordeal, " said Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. "With the rainy season on its way, we are bound to face a much more critical humanitarian situation unless the international community does more to support these innocent people now. And it is absolutely essential that all Central Africans who have been forced to flee their homes are given a chance to return safely in particular the many Muslims who have had to flee the inter-religious violence of recent months." The on-going crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has already forced more than 188 000 people to take refuge in neighbouring countries. At least 87 000 refugees and returnees have arrived in Chad, 62 000 in Democratic Republic of Congo, 27 000 in Cameroon and 12 500 in Republic of Congo. They all need humanitarian assistance. Background The Central African Republic ranks among the world's poorest countries and has been embroiled in a decade-long armed conflict. The surge of violence in December 2013 exacerbated this situation and today more than half of the 4.6-million-strong population is in need of immediate aid. More than 650 000 people have been internally displaced, 230 000 in the capital Bangui alone. Related information Policy References Stories from the field Photos stories Additional EU sites on the Central African Republic 13/03/2014 - During her short stay in Baghdad yesterday, Commissioner Georgieva announced that the EU would increase its humanitarian funding for Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) from 4 million in 2013 to 7 million in 2014. The additional 3 million will be dedicated to the increased number of displaced Iraqis due to recent violence. The Commissioner also appealed for access to those affected by the renewed fighting in the country. She also called again on the authorities who have generously been hosting Syrian refugees to maintain an open border policy. The Kurdish part of Iraq is currently hosting 95% of Syrian refugees who fled to escape the crisis in their country. Her visit to this region coincides with the anniversary of the start of the Syria crisis. Related information Factsheets Campaigns Additional sites 14/03/2014 - On the eve of the third anniversary since the Syrian conflict broke out, Commissioner Georgieva is visiting Syrian refugees in Iraq. From the Iraqi-Syrian border she stated: We must not let this tragedy slip into political oblivion because of other crises. On this third and shameful anniversary of the Syrian conflict, it is my heartfelt wish that there will not be a fourth." More than 2.5 million men, women and children have fled Syria over the past three years, of whom 230 000 have found shelter in Iraq. The Commissioner recognised that despite Iraq's own problems,its door has been open to vulnerable Syrians fleeing from their country. She also reiterated the call to improve access of humanitarian aid to those in need inside Syria. "It is vital that tangible progress be made on implementing the UN Security Council Resolution on the humanitarian situation in Syria she said. The European Commission also announced today it would provide additional 1 million to allow the continuation of the polio vaccination campaign, conducted inside Syria by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). It will assist in the inoculation against the disease of 2.5 million children under the age of five. For Syrian children, who make up over half of the 2.5 million refugees and 9.3 million people in need of assistance inside Syria, the outbreak of polio last year was yet another scourge, adding to the horrors of violence and insecurity that they have experienced over the past three years. This additional funding will increase the outreach of the vaccination campaign, but hardship and deprivation can only be halted if a political solution is found to this devastating conflict. Syrian children are "No Lost generation. The international community cannot allow this to happen. Related information 17/03/2014 For the third time, the European Commission is transporting urgently needed humanitarian assistance directly into the conflict-stricken Central African Republic (CAR). The aid is needed as the humanitarian situation in the country remains dramatic. "The humanitarian needs are enormous with the entire population affected by the ongoing crisis. Over 232 000 people are uprooted from their homes in Bangui alone and over 650 000 people are displaced throughout the country. Their lives depend on our assistance and we must deliver it now," said Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Today, a transport aircraft will take off from Oostende, Belgium for the CAR capital Bangui, carrying around 100 tonnes of relief supplies, including medicines, therapeutic feeding, water, sanitation items, telecommunication equipment and two vehicles to support aid operations. Ten humanitarian non-governmental organisations are involved in the airlift, namely: Medecins du Monde (MDM), the Spanish, Dutch and French sections of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Action contre la Faim, the French Red Cross, Save the Children, Merlin, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Premiere Urgence - Aide Medicale Internationale and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Back in December 2013, when the humanitarian crisis in CAR took a big turn for the worse, the European Commission organised a daily air bridge for relief workers and relief goods between Cameroon and Bangui, using planes from the EU's humanitarian air service, ECHO Flight. The Commission also organised cargo flights with relief goods (notably medicines and emergency shelter materials) to CAR, from Europe and from Kenya, in December and January 2014. Background The Central African Republic ranks among the world's poorest countries and has been embroiled in a decade-long armed conflict. The surge of violence in December 2013 exacerbated this situation and today more than half of the 4.6-million-strong population is in need of immediate aid. Today's airlift operation is part of the reinforced engagement of the European Commission to address the increasingly acute humanitarian situation in the country. The European Commission has been supporting life-saving activities in CAR with 45 million alone since the escalation of violence started in December 2013. For the last five years, the European Commission has been one of the countrys main donors. The European Commission provides support in several sectors including protection, access to health care, food and nutrition, drinking-water distribution, sanitation services, logistics and humanitarian coordination as well as catering for the needs of those directly affected by fighting. The Commission also delivers aid to the growing number of refugees from CAR in neighbouring countries. A team of European humanitarian experts is there monitoring the situation and working closely with partner organisations to ensure that aid reaches those who need it most. Related information Policy References Stories from the field Photos stories Additional EU sites on the Central African Republic Kjell Gunnar Beraas/MSF Kjell Gunnar Beraas/MSF 28/03/2014 - Following the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, the EU is assisting with 500 000 to help address the situation in Guinea and its neighbouring countries. The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) has also sent a health expert to Guinea to help assess the situation and liaise with the local authorities. This is the first Ebola virus outbreak registered in the region. Current numbers indicate 103 suspected and confirmed cases in Guinea including 66 deaths; eight suspected cases in Liberia including six deaths; as well as six suspected cases in Sierra Leona of which five have died. No vaccine or treatment is currently available for this highly contagious virus, one of the world's most lethal, with a death rate (CFR) of up to 90%, depending on the strain. "We are deeply concerned about the spread of this virulent disease and our support will help ensure immediate health assistance to those affected by it," said Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. "It is vital that we act swiftly to prevent the outbreak from spreading, particularly to neighbouring countries." The funding will be used by the Commission's humanitarian partner organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres for clinical management, including the isolation of patients and psychosocial support, the tracing of suspected cases as well as the training and supply of personal protective equipment for health workers. Community-based awareness raising initiatives will also take place in order to help diminish the risk of the further spread of the virus. The EU is closely monitoring the situation with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). It is also working with international partners, notably the World Health Organization (WHO), to track the outbreak. Related information Croix-rouge francaise / Emeline Decoray Croix-rouge francaise / Emeline Decoray 08/04/2014 Today's Commission communication on reducing the impact of natural and man-made disasters constitutes a cornerstone in shaping a common EU position. Titled "The Post 2015 Hyogo Framework for Action", the communication sets the ground for a common European voice on the renewed international (UN) framework for disaster risk reduction - the so-called post 2015 Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). The European Commission urges EU Member States, the European Parliament and other stakeholders to engage in dialogue and develop a common position, based on the key principles, proposed for the new framework. The communication promotes an improved accountability, transparency and governance of the new post 2015 HFA, and suggests measures for encouraging the implementation of the framework. It underlines that the new framework should contribute to sustainable growth and lead to increased business opportunities. Background The "HFA: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters" is a 10-year plan, whose objectives are making the world safer from natural hazards and building disaster resilience. It was adopted in 2005 by 168 UN Member States and is due to expire in 2015. A wide consultation process is therefore currently taking place on shaping the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction. Once finalised, the new framework will be endorsed at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in Sendai (Japan) on 14-18 March, 2015. Related information Memo Communication and working documents Fact sheets Stories from the field Photo stories Audio-visual material EU/ECHO/Malini Morzaria EU/ECHO/Malini Morzaria 14/04/2014 - Due to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in South Sudan, the European Commission is ready to boost its life-saving assistance by 45 million to prevent an appalling tragedy in the country which is affecting the whole region. This upcoming funding has been announced during a high-level meeting on the South Sudan humanitarian crisis in Washington, organised by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the EU's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). After the meeting the participants stated: "The international community must stand by the people of South Sudan in its hour of greatest need. Unless action is taken now up to a million people could face famine in a matter of months". EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, who was representing the EU at this meeting expressed her grave concern: "We are currently very close to South Sudan becoming one of the biggest protracted humanitarian crisis of our time. The international community needs to prevent this from happening at all cost. Over one million people have been displaced within and outside of the country, affecting the whole region. Over three million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid and these numbers keep rising day by day without any prospects for improvement". More and more South Sudanese refugees are arriving to overcrowded sites in Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya. Internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees are completely dependent on humanitarian assistance. More than half of the South Sudanese population, some seven million people, are at risk of food shortage. The new funding will support immediate life-saving activities such as distributing essential food and non-food items, as well as providing shelter, health, protection, water, hygiene and sanitation. Two thirds of the amount will be provided to assist people in need within South Soudan, and the rest will address the needs of South Sudanese refugees in the neighbouring countries. The funds come from the European Development Funds and are therefore still subject to final approval by the EU Member States. Commissioner Georgieva also stressed the need for all parties to allow humanitarian access to Sudanese people in need: It is critical that neutral, impartial and experienced humanitarian workers can reach vulnerable people to deliver the assistance necessary for their survival. Background The humanitarian situation in South Sudan is critical ever since armed violence broke out in the capital of Juba on 15 December 2013, and subsequently spread to several states in South Sudan. More than 800 000 people have been internally displaced and around a quarter of a million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The dead and the wounded are estimated to be in the tens of thousands. The main humanitarian needs are for food, clean water, health-care, shelter, sanitation, hygiene and protection. The current humanitarian response capacity is insufficient and might decrease further since the rainy season has started earlier than usual, making access to many parts of the country even more difficult. The UN has therefore declared South Sudan a "Level Three" crisis. The European Commission is making 95 million available in 2014 to respond to the unfolding and intensifying humanitarian crisis in the country and to support South Sudanese refugees in the neighbouring countries. A team of humanitarian experts of the Commission is on the ground monitoring the situation, assessing needs and overseeing the use of EU funds. Related information Stories from the field Photo Stories Audio-visual material Additional EU sites on South Sudan 28/04/2014 - With the increase of natural and human-made crises worldwide, building the resilience of individuals and communities is of key importance. Today, the European Commission is opening its first edition of the 'EU Resilience Forum', bringing together experts from EU Member States; partner organisations such as the UN, Red Cross, the World Bank, NGOs and civil society; as well as donors including the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Participants will jointly assess the overall progress made to date, exchange best practices and lessons learnt, and outline a way to further reduce vulnerabilities in risk-prone environments. Organised by the Commissions' departments for Development and Cooperation (DEVCO) and Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), the event will serve as catalyst for the global efforts to support people in areas facing recurrent disasters or conflicts - to prepare for, withstand and recover from stresses and shocks. Addressing root causes rather than dealing with their consequences lays the foundation for that approach. The Commission is strongly committed to boosting the resilience of the most vulnerable. It has been instrumental in endeavours to break the vicious cycle of drought, hunger and poverty in regions like Africa - with the 'Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative' (AGIR) in the Sahel and West Africa and the 'Supporting the Horn of Africa's Resilience' (SHARE) . The Commission's Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) has also proven successful in limiting damage when hazards strike. Furthermore, the recently adopted Communication on the post 2015 Hyogo Framework for Action sets a common EU position towards reducing the impact of natural and human-made crises across the globe. Acting now to reduce future suffering and loss is vital ethically correct and cost effective: investing 1 in preparedness can save up to 7 in response operations. In 2013, over 20% of the European Commission's relief funding was used for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and two-thirds of all projects included DRR activities, reaching out 18 million people worldwide. Related information Factsheets Policy references Stories from the field Photo-stories Videos Additional ECHO pages The new Azraq Camp is now ready to receive the latest influx of Syrian refugees. Credit: UNHCR The new Azraq Camp is now ready to receive the latest influx of Syrian refugees. Credit: UNHCR 30/04/2014 - Three years into the Syrian conflict, Jordan officially opened a third refugee camp today to accommodate the never-ending flow of Syrians fleeing the violence. The Azraq camp, which was jointly set up by the Jordanian government and the UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR), will take in new refugees as well as reuniting members of families already in the country. This new camp will provide some respite from the traumatic experiences of the new arrivals. The new state of the art camp will house up to 130 000 people at full capacity. The camp already has water and sanitation facilities and an infrastructure to provide services for 30 000 people. Two schools, play areas, and numerous sanitation facilities have also been constructed. One of the two health centres in the camp, a secondary health hospital, has been jointly funded by the EU and the Italian government. Contrary to Zaatari camp, which was set up in 2012 in just two weeks, this new camp has been carefully designed, taking into account the lesson learned from the first experience. There are decentralised service networks (e.g., food and water distribution points, schools and play areas, healthcare installations, etc.),and the housing units are grouped into communities and have private cooking and cleaning areas. UNHCR/Jared Kohler UNHCR/Jared Kohler Currently, 5 000 existing shelters can host up to 25 000 people but the number of refugees in Jordan is rising rapidly. There are now over 588 000 registered refugees in Jordan and UNHCR estimates that some 300-600 Syrians cross into the country every day. Overall, only 20% of Syrian refugees are estimated to be residing in the camps set up by the government, leaving the remaining 80% living in urban areas in rented accommodation and improvised shelters. Many of the refugees are from rural Syria, are extremely poor and have been displaced several times before entering Jordan. All have been exposed to sustained violence and have had to flee at a minutes notice. This new camp will ensure a safe haven for the immediate future until a sustainable peace can be negotiated and Syrians can return home to rebuild their country. Related information 15/05/2014 [LAST UPDATE: 26/05/2014] - Upon the requests of Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, suffering the worst floods in over a century, the European Union is providing coordinated assistance through its Civil Protection Mechanism. The vast majority of EU Member States have already offered assistance and new offers keep coming in. Most of the civil protection assistance has already arrived to the countries affected. Nearly 500 relief workers from the Member States have been deployed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. In addition, two EU Civil Protection teams and a humanitarian expert are assessing needs supporting national authorities on the ground. So far, Serbia has been offered rescue boats, high capacity pumps and operational teams from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Slovenia. Bosnia & Herzegovina's requested assistance in rescue and evacuation helicopters, motor boats, generators, sandbags, tents, blankets and humanitarian aid kits. Responding to the request, offers have been made by: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK. Furthermore, EU Civil protection teams are present in countries, assessing the needs, coordinating the incoming assistance and supporting local authorities in Serbia and in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The European Commission also co-finances of the transportation cost to deliver aid to the affected countries. The team deployed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have directly rescued over 1500 people in BiH alone. Background Due to continuous rainfall that started on 13 May 2014, extreme floods have hit Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, affecting and displacing thousands of people. Over 60 people have been reported to die in the worst floods in the region in more than a century. In Serbia, more than 34 000 people have been evacuated so far from the affected areas and over 30 000 households are without electricity. In Bosnia & Herzegovina the situation remains still complex due to numerous landslides, causing houses collapsing and road damages. Rescue teams are evacuating the population at risk. Many cities still have neither electricity nor running water and there is a shortage of bottled water, food, medication and blankets. Related sites Factsheets Reports Related sites 01/06/2014 A major EU civil protection exercise, EU PROMETHEUS 2014, is underway in Attica, Greece, testing cooperation and response capacities of Member States through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Teams from Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Croatia are participating, alongside the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). The teams are combatting a simulated twin disaster on the ground. According to the scenario, a huge wildfire near populated areas has affected an industrial zone resulting in an explosion. Wild-land fire suppression and rescue operations have to be carried out simultaneously and populated areas need to be evacuated. The extent of the disaster calls for EU assistance. The Greek, Italian, Cypriot and Croatian teams practice search and rescue, aerial and ground fire-fighting skills and equipment. Technical support is being provided by German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), while the Lithuania Civil Protection Authority is involved with a scientific advisory role. The decision making process for requesting international assistance and the role of the ERCC are being tested as well. The exercise EU PROMETHEUS 2014 is co-funded under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and is the first exercise conducted in accordance with the new EU civil protection legislation that came into force on January 1, 2014. Related information Photo Credit: Pio Arce/Genesis Photos - World Vision Photo Credit: Pio Arce/Genesis Photos - World Vision 5/06/2014 - Seven months after Typhoon Haiyan, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva is again visiting the areas affected by the disaster. The visit takes place on the occasion of a high-level conference between Asian and European countries which calls for further fostering of international cooperation in disaster preparedness. "My visit to Tacloban has been a stark reminder of the devastation which hit the Philippines last November. Seven months on, the need for assistance remains, but I am encouraged to see people rebuilding their homes, replanting their fields, or reopening their businesses," said Commissioner Georgieva. "Nature is a truly awesome force and its inevitable that some mega-disasters like Haiyan are beyond our power to prevent. But we can do a lot to reduce the magnitude of their consequences by addressing climate change and through better preparation." Amongst the many tragic disasters that have affected the world in recent years, the 2013 typhoon Haiyan, the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China are amongst the most vibrant reminders of the need and importance of reinforcing cooperation in disaster management. Recent devastating floods in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina underscored that Europe also faces challenges in coping with disaster. In addition to humanitarian assistance deployed in the immediate aftermath of Haiyan, the European Commission carries out disaster preparedness programmes (DIPECHO) in Asia and other areas of the world prone to recurrent catastrophes. DIPECHO aims to increase the capacities of the local populations to face disaster consequences. The Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Manila from 4 to 6 June 2014 will highlight lessons learned and best practices in disaster risk reduction and management based on the experience of Haiyan and other mega-disasters. The "Tacloban Declaration" will be endorsed by the participants and contribute to the post-2015 international framework on Disaster Risk Reduction to be adopted in March next year. Background Typhoon Haiyan (locally named Yolanda) was the strongest cyclone ever recorded. It struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013, causing massive devastation in the central regions. Over 6 200 people have been officially reported dead, more than a thousand are missing, four million were displaced and 14-16 million affected, out of which 6 million were children. The humanitarian assistance provided by the European Commission to the survivors amounts to around 30 million (ca. PHP 2 billion). This contribution has made a difference for around 1.2 million people. The overall EU's humanitarian assistance for Haiyan, including the funding coming from the Member States, amounts to over 180 million (ca. PHP 11 billion). In addition, since 1998, 7.7 million have been released by the European Commission to the Philippines for disaster preparedness measures (DIPECHO). Related sites Factsheets Related documents Stories from the field Photo Stories Photo Albums on Flickr Audio-visual material IRAQ: Another humanitarian emergency unfolds in the Middle East 12/06/14 - The security situation in Iraq continues to rapidly deteriorate following the attacks of armed opposition groups targeting the governorates of Ninewah, Salah Al-Din, Diyala and Al Anbar. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant now controls the city of Mosul and most of the Ninewah governorate. As a result of the fighting, a large-scale humanitarian crisis is developing with several thousand people being displaced. Preliminary estimates indicate that approximately 500 000 people have been displaced from Ninewah so far, about 100 000 IDPs arrived in Erbil and 200 000 in Dohuk in the past two days. Some 100 000 people are said to be stranded around the checkpoint areas between Ninewah and the Kurdish northern governorates. "Tragically all our worst fears have now been realised. The roots of this latest crisis are complex and include the alienation of the beleaguered Sunni Arab population, a state of generalized violence, opportunistic armed opposition groups and a spill over effect from the terrible war raging in Syria. In the coming days the full extent of this new humanitarian crisis will become clearer and the European Commission stands ready to offer further assistance." said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. The European Commission is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to offer further assistance. Related information UPDATE: High-level event to mark end of Commission's mandate as ODSG's Chair 30/06/2014 - [LAST UPDATE: 02/07/2014] - The European Commission for the first time since the establishment of the Group has been at the steering wheel of the Donor Support Group (ODSG) of the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). A High-level Meeting took place close to Brussels to mark the end of the Commission's chairmanship and pass on the baton to Denmark, the next chair of the Group. Further marking the conclusion of the European Commission's chair of ODSG, Turkey and Estonia announced they would be joining the group. "Both Turkey and Estonia have become significant actors in the global humanitarian aid landscape", said Commissioner Georgieva. Turkey's membership to the ODSG is of particular note with its important role in hosting the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 and Estonia is also becoming an important humanitarian donor. Started in July 2013, the chairmanship of the ODSG has been led by the EU's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). ECHO's main priorities during its one-year term have been the improvement of OCHA's field performance in humanitarian crises and the enhancement of outreach and partnerships between the ODSG Members and other humanitarian partners. As part of the first objective, a field mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo was organised during ECHO's chairmanship, as well as regular consultations and meetings to discuss strategic approaches in humanitarian assistance. For the second objective, along with an outreach mission to Mauritania, ECHO has compiled an analysis of areas of collaboration with partners and multilateral organisations, and is organising a dedicated event alongside the High-level Meeting. The Partnership event will bring together the ODSG Members and a number of partners from different global regions to find improved ways of collaboration. The top items during the agenda of the High-level Meeting were the review of the ODSG's work plan for the next four years and the Group's new terms of reference. The High-level Meeting and the Partnership Event are took place in Genval from 30 June to 1 July 2014. Background The ODSG was established in 1998 by a small group of donors. It has since then grown and now brings together 27 top OCHA donors in a unique informal constellation, serving as a "sounding board" and a source of advice on policy, management, budgetary and financial questions. The ODSG also handles key policy issues concerning the humanitarian system and its coordination. The previous, current and future chairs form the ODSG 'troika', which has the role of liaising on behalf of donors with OCHA throughout the year. Currently the troika is made up of Germany, ECHO and Denmark and the following 'troika' will be comprised of ECHO, Denmark and Sweden. Originally published on 30/6/2014 More information The Taliban is continuing to adopt policies oppressing women, in part as a substitute for addressing the acute economic crisis and failure of inclusive governance in Afghanistan, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington. He spoke after the Taliban published a decree in May ordering women to cover their faces in public, and ideally wear the all-encompassing burqa. The order is another signal of a return by the Taliban to the harsh restrictions the group put on women the last time it held power, two decades ago. The decree also urges women to stay inside unless necessary for important work, and it outlines punishments for male relatives in cases where women fail to comply with the new dress code, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. The directive followed the Talibans March 23 decision to bar girls from accessing education after the 6th grade. State Department Spokesperson Price joined many in the international community in expressing deep concern over the Talibans recently expressed policies toward women and girls. U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West tweeted, The Talibans policies toward women are an affront to human rights and will negatively impact their relations with the international community. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was alarmed by the Talibans decree, and he urged the Taliban to keep their promises to Afghan women and girls. Spokesperson Price noted that after the Taliban seized power in August, they made commitments to the international community and, most importantly, to the Afghan people, to respect the rights of women and girls. The United States, he declared, will work with its allies and partners to increase pressure on the Taliban for their failures to live up to their promises. Weve addressed it directly with the Taliban, he said. As Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield told CNN May 8, We have done everything possible to support Afghan women, and well continue to call out the Taliban for their actions. She noted that this action redoubles our commitment to supporting Afghan women moving forward. In the meantime, the United States continues to be the worlds largest humanitarian provider to the Afghan people, observed Spokesperson Price. Well continue, even in the midst of the setbacks on the part of the Taliban, to do all we canto support directly the Afghan people in a way that doesnt benefit the Taliban. In what some analysts said was a surprising move, Gold Fields Ltd. is stepping up to become one of the worlds top four gold producers by acquiring Yamana Gold. South Africa-based Gold Fields has mines in South Africa, Australia, Ghana and Peru and is developing the Salares Norte project in Chile. Canada-based Yamana Gold has operations in Canada, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. The company owns 50% of Canadas biggest gold mine, Canadian Malartic in northwestern Quebec. Agnico Eagle is the other 50% partner in Malartic. Gold Fields and Yamana announced on May 31 that they had entered into a definitive agreement under which Gold Fields will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Yamana. The shares will be exchanged at a ratio of 0.6 of an ordinary share in Gold Fields. The transaction implies a valuation for Yamana of $6.7 billion and represents a premium of 33.8% to the 10-day volume-weighted average price of Yamanas shares. A Reuters story said, The acquisition is the largest mining deal in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region in a decade, and the third-largest South African transaction since 2014. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both Gold Fields and Yamana and is expected to close in the second half of 2022. Gold Fields will remain headquartered in Johannesburg. When the deal is complete, it is anticipated that current Gold Fields shareholders will own about 61% of the combined company, and Yamana shareholders will own about 39%. On the day of the announcement of the acquisition, Gold Fields shares fell 23% and Yamanas shares rose around 12%. A press release on Gold Fields acquisition of Yamana said, The combined group has the potential to create significant long-term value for shareholders through greater scale, an industry-leading portfolio of assets, an enhanced production profile with significant growth potential, operational and geological synergies, and a strengthened financial profile for future growth and shareholder returns. Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said the acquisition will result in a combination with much greater capacity and potential value than the sum of its parts. Each company brings with it a unique set of skills and geological knowledge, enabling the combined group to enhance its assets more efficiently over the long-term than they could as separate companies. Yamana Gold Executive Chairman Peter Marrone said, The combination of Yamana and Gold Fields creates a world-class, globally diversified company with regional relevance across premier, rules-based mining jurisdictions that is underpinned by low-cost, long-life mines. In 2021 the worlds top 10 gold producing companies were U.S.-based Newmont with attributable gold production of 5.971 million ounces, followed by Canadas Barrick Gold, 4.437 million ounces; Russias Polyus, 2.717 million ounces; South Africas AngloGold Ashanti, 2.472 million ounces; Gold Fields, 2.34 million ounces; Canadas Agnico Eagle Ltd., 2.086 million ounces; Canadas Kinross Gold, 2.068 million ounces; Australias Newcrest Mining, 1.887 million ounces; South Africas Harmony Gold, 1.54 million ounces; and Englands Endeavour Mining, 1.536 million ounces. Nevada Gold Mines, which is owned 61.5% by Barrick and 38.5% by Newmont, produced 2 million ounces of gold in 2021, putting this joint venture in line with many of the largest gold producing companies in the world. Yamana produced 884,793 ounces of gold and 9.2 million ounces of silver in 2021. Agnico Eagle completed a merger with Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. in February 2022 in a $10 billion deal. Kirkland Lake produced 1.433 million ounces of gold in 2021. In 2021, Agnico Eagle and Kirkland Lake Gold produced a combined total of 3.519 million ounces of gold, and Gold Fields and Yamana produced a combined total of 3.225 million ounces of gold. Based on these numbers, when the combination of Gold Fields and Yamana is complete, Gold Fields may be the worlds fourth largest gold producer, just behind Agnico Eagle. 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. ELKO Authorities in Utah and Nevada are involved in the search for a 19-year-old man who was reported missing from Box Elder County last week. Dylan Rounds, 19, went missing from Lucin, Utah, on May 25, according to the Box Elder County Sheriffs Department. Lucin is less than 10 miles from the state line and about 20 miles from Montello. Rounds is described as 5-foot-10 and weighing 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. His parents live in Idaho, according to a report on EastIdahoNews.com, and they are offering a reward in the case. An investigation into his disappearance and whereabouts is ongoing, said a post from the Box Elder County Sheriffs Department. Anyone with information may contact them at 435-723-5227 or the Elko County Sheriffs Department, which has also been advised about the missing person report. All the information we are getting leads us to believe he is still in Utah, said Undersheriff Justin Ames. The department recently spent more than three weeks looking for a 19-year-old from California before suspending the search. Aidan Clune of Sonoma County traveled from California to Utah on April 26, then drove back to Nevada and traveled south on U.S. Highway 93 the following day. He parked his pickup truck on the shoulder and wandered into the remote area about 10 miles north of Currie. We will continue the investigation into his disappearance until the case is solved, the sheriffs office said on May 24. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 6 Angry 2 ELKO A West Wendover man has been sentenced to prison for driving under the influence. Marselo Escobedo, 40, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence with one or more prior felony DUI convictions, and was sentenced May 19 by District Judge Kriston Hill to 24 to 60 months. He was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. According to the Nevada Department of Corrections, Escobedo was also sentenced in May 2016 for felony DUI and served a year in prison. He was also on the Elko County Sheriffs Most Wanted list in 2013 and 2014 for failure to appear for sentencing on a third-offense DUI from 2007. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 1 ELKO Nevada Gold Mines has pledged $500,000 to the Elko Institute for Academic Achievement to be paid over the next three years toward a new school, which EIAA is currently seeking bids to construct. EIAA owns the property and has an $8.1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, but the cost of the project has climbed over the past four years from $6 million to roughly $10 million. With these substantial increases in the construction budget we have become even more grateful to our community supporters, and Nevada Gold Mines has definitely made an enormous impact on our project and the ability to continue, said Lori Lynch, vice principal. We are proud to be able to kick off EIAAs capital campaign with a $500,000 pledge. This build was an easy decision for our Community Development Committee to approve as it aligns well with NGMs Community Development Strategy and our focus on education, said Alissa Wood, NGMs head of communities and corporate affairs. EIAAs expansion will provide much needed additional support to students in STEM while also promoting early career exploration and workforce development, which will become invaluable in preparing students for future careers she said in the donation announcement. The NGM Community Development Committee, comprised of local community members who work together to determine the most impactful investments for communities, reviewed and recommended the pledge as a priority. The charter school also received approval in May from the Elko County Board of Commissioners for $500,000, with $200,000 coming from the general fund and $300,000 coming with the final release of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. Additionally, Elko City Council approved money for the school project. We have gotten confirmation from the city in the amount of $250,000 plus $176,600 in ARPA, Lynch said this week, also reporting a pending award from the Pennington Foundation. These are all contingent on the contract being signed with the general contractor, which is scheduled to be awarded on June 21, she said. In addition, Lynch said Western Nevada Supply has contributed $25,000 to start, and we have several others in the $5,000 range. The invitation to bid for general contractor services is for the new 30,000 square-foot facility that will include two classrooms per grade from kindergarten through eighth. Designs are complete and plans have been submitted for permitting. With our current facility at capacity and more than 270 on a waiting list, we are thrilled to be moving forward with this project, said Lynch. The charter school opened in 2009 and is now at 1031 Railroad St. There are 198 students. The new school will have the capacity for 396 students. Lynch said construction is expected to begin July 1 and projected completion is August 2023 in time for the 2023-2024 school year. The school will be built at College Parkway and Ruby Vista Drive. A new EIAA brochure states that there will be 19 classrooms, including one special education classroom, a multi-purpose room, kitchen, library and playgrounds. EIAA stated that it has always been reliant on its per pupil income to construct and/or maintain facilities because charter schools are not eligible to receive facility funds from the state nor do they receive any local tax dollars to put toward facilities. To compound the financial burden, the Nevada Legislature changed the law two years ago to require Nevada Charter Schools to be subject to prevailing wages, resulting in a significant increase in overall cost to the project, according to EIAA. Previously, charter schools were exempt from prevailing wages due to not receiving any facility funds from the state to pay for the higher rates. On top of this additional cost, the state also created a new distribution formula that would decrease the amount EIAA receives per pupil income by roughly 19 percent, the academy stated. The brochure says the school receives $7,906 per pupil. We have worked hard to become fiscally sound while continuing to increase student achievements during very challenging times and have received recognition from the Charter Authority and state on our academics, fiscal responsibilities, and operations, said the charter school principal, Ashley Perkins. The more money we can raise through the Capital Campaign means more DSA (per pupil) funds can be put towards academics for our students, she said. The brochure outlines the types of donations for the new school, such as a personalized bench for $15,000 and naming rights ranging up to $500,000 for the lunchroom, and welcome pavers at the new school entry with the number of lines and characters ranging from $150 to $5,000. Donations can be made through the website eiaanv.net or people can call the school at 775-738-3422 and ask for Perkins or Lynch. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 ELKO A truck driving on Interstate 80 crashed and blocked both travel lanes Friday night before it was struck by an SUV. The driver of the SUV, who was killed in the crash, has been identified as a man from Salt Lake City. Nevada State Police responded to the crash on Interstate 80 about 12 miles west of Carlin at 11 p.m. May 27. Preliminary investigation determined that a Freightliner combination tractor with trailer commercial motor vehicle was traveling west on Interstate 80 in the right travel lane. The CMV was traveling too fast for the wet roadway conditions resulting in the driver losing control of the vehicle, NSP reported. The CMV struck the left guardrail and was re-directed back across the travel lanes where it struck the right guardrail. The CMV partially jack-knifed, resulting in it blocking the shoulder and both travel lanes. Fatal crash closes I-80 west of Carlin overnight ELKO A fatal crash on Interstate 80 closed the freeway overnight west of Emigrant Pass. An Acura SUV was also traveling west on the Interstate in the right lane and approaching the crashed truck. The driver failed to decrease speed, resulting in the front left of the Acura striking the right rear of the CMVs trailer, stated NSP. The driver of the Acura, 25-year-old Juan Alvarado-Martinez of Salt Lake City, did not survive the crash and was pronounced dead on the scene. The remaining occupants of the Acura were transported for medical treatment. The truck driver was not injured. I-80 closure planned night of June 18 for bridge demolition CARSON CITY Interstate 80 between Battle Mountain and Carlin will be closed overnight on June 18 as the Nevada Department of Transportation The crash is being investigated by the Nevada Highway Patrol Northern Command East Multi-Disciplinary Investigation and Reconstruction Team. Anyone who was a witness to this incident, or has any information regarding the crash, is asked to contact Trooper Mitch Payne of the NHP Elko Office at 775-753-1111. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 4 Angry 0 ELKO A local woman died Tuesday night in a motorcycle crash near Elko. The crash occurred around 10:08 p.m. as the motorcycle was traveling toward Spring Creek on State Route 228 about five miles north of Jiggs, according to Nevada State Police. Excessive speed and impairment are suspected. The drivers name is not being released until next of kin have been notified. Further details will be reported when available. It was the second fatal crash on a northeastern Nevada highway in the past five days. The driver of an SUV was killed last Thursday on Interstate 80 when the vehicle struck the rear of a semi driving down the west side of Emigrant Pass. That crash also occurred at night, around 10:57 p.m., according to Nevada State Police. The truck blocked both westbound travel lanes, and two other vehicles crashed into guardrails trying to avoid it. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 25 Angry 3 Idaho wildlife officials say an attack by two wolves panicked a flock of sheep and 143 died after they ran into a gully where they were crushed and suffocated. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services on Thursday confirmed the sheep deaths in mid-May in southwestern Idaho in foothills north of Boise. The area is popular for recreation such as mountain biking and hiking, and also has deer, elk and large predators such as bears, mountain lions and wolves. Sheep owner Frank Shirts says it's the worst incident of wolf predation hes experienced since wolves were released into central Idaho in 1995. General secretary's article demonstrates resolve to attain low-carbon transition General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping has stressed incorporating the concept of harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature into the country's economic and social development, highlighting it as one of the vital characteristics of China's socialist modernization. The construction of ecological civilization should be implemented without fail, he stressed in an article published on Wednesday in the latest issue of Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee. Stressing the important role of green development, he also reiterated the nation's strong resolve to achieve its low-carbon transition, despite difficulties and challenges. Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, noted that historical, transformative and comprehensive changes have been achieved in the country's construction of ecological civilization thanks to a series of major strategic arrangements since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012. The past nine years have seen the occurrence of heavy haze effectively curbed and the number of black, odorous water bodies significantly reduced, he said in the article. The country has made "concrete steps" toward building a beautiful China. China accounts for 25 percent of the global net increase in leaf area from 2000 to 2017, said the article, citing data from NASA satellites. What has happened proves that the construction of ecological civilization and green, low-carbon and circular development not only meet people's ever-growing demand for a beautiful environment, but also enable China to achieve higher-quality development that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and secure, the article said. Xi's article was strongly endorsed by Wang Jinnan, head of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning. From 2013 to 2020, the country's GDP increased by 94 percent, while the number of cars increased by 150 percent, Wang, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said during a recent online event. Despite these increases, many indexes on resources and environment have been declining, Wang noted, signaling the positive changes achieved by China's greening endeavors. During that period, the nation's energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped by 16 percent and its carbon emissions per unit of GDP declined by 22 percent. However, Xi's article emphasizes that China still faces many difficulties and challenges in promoting the development of its ecological civilization. Traditional industries still take up a large share of China's industrial structure, and strategic emerging, high-tech industries have yet to play a dominant role in driving economic growth, said the article. With its energy mix not yet fundamentally transformed, the root causes of pollution in some key regions and industries remain to be addressed. China aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and realize carbon neutrality before 2060. The tasks in realizing these targets are immense, Xi said in the article. The country's low-carbon transition will not come easily and it will be a process of "learning by doing", said Wang Yi, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institutes of Science and Development. The country needs to foster new economic drivers based on constant theoretical research and practice, said Wang, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body. It's a new long march for China to promote the construction of ecological civilization and realize its climate targets. "The country needs to cross the river by feeling the stones," he added. Xi said in the article that harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature is a top concern as the nation forges ahead in meeting the social and economic development targets set for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. In the period, China has entered a critical moment when environmental protection is progressing from quantitative to qualitative changes, the article said. Unremitting efforts to promote green, low-carbon development are needed during this period. "I have stressed many times that the causes of ecological and environmental problems are rooted in growth modes and lifestyles," Xi said in the article. "To establish and improve a green, low-carbon and circular economic development system and promote the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development is the fundamental solution to the country's ecological and environmental problems." The article reiterated that the nation must guard against misconduct caused by misunderstandings; for instance, some regions attempt to vigorously introduce projects with high energy consumption and emissions to counter downward economic pressure. Related government bodies and regions should tighten thresholds and stop projects that go against the central government's requirements. To promote global sustainable development, he called for active participation in global environmental governance, and strengthening international cooperation in the fields of climate change, marine pollution control and biodiversity conservation. Efforts should also be made to advance the modernization of China's governance system and capacity on the environment. Party committees and governments at different levels should "undertake their political duties in building ecological civilization while ensuring that the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee are fully implemented". Pfizer vaccine for children was transported to the cold storage warehouse of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. (Photo: PANO) The Australian Embassy in Vietnam on June 1 said that all of the above vaccines were delivered to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from May 20 to May 28. This transfer brings the total number of vaccine doses supported by Australia to Vietnam to more than 22.2 million doses, including 7.8 million doses of vaccine used in the COVID-19 adult vaccination program; along with more than 7.2 million doses of Moderna vaccine for children to kick off the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children. Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said that Australia is proud to cooperate with Vietnam since 2021 in providing vaccines and launching a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign for adults. I am also very pleased that Australia was able to share 14.4 million doses with Vietnam to support the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children, bringing the total number of vaccines that Australia has provided to Vietnam to more than 22 million doses, she said. In addition to vaccine sharing, the Australian Government is also providing a comprehensive support package worth AUD60 million to support the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination in Vietnam. Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative confirmed that as the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, vaccines are the optimal choice to help reduce deaths and other impacts caused by COVID-19. She added that UNICEF is pleased to join hands with the Australian Government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnamese children, as well as support partners in strengthening the capacity of the health system and immunization system, with the aim of effectively and equitably distributing the COVID-19 vaccine./. Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan speaks at the event. (Thanhuytphcm.vn) Giving a congratulatory speech at the event, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee Vo Van Hoan expressed his pleasure with the recent positive development of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and the United Kingdom, which was reflected in the mutual visit of the two countries' leaders, increasing trade and investment, and most notably, the successful signing of the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA). At the local level, Ho Chi Minh City is always interested in promoting a comprehensive cooperation relationship with the UK. In trade, in 2021, two-way trade turnover between Ho Chi Minh City and the UK reached USD500 million. In investment, as of April 2022, the UK had 211 investment projects in the city with a total investment capital of approximately USD896 million, ranking 11th out of 116 countries and territories investing in Ho Chi Minh City. The good relationship between Ho Chi Minh City and the UK is not only reflected in trade-investment figures, but also through cooperation projects within the framework of the Prosperity Fund such as the project to deploy a smart bus ticket system and construction of a drainage system in Ho Chi Minh City. The city always appreciates the support of British partners for the city in training staff, and sharing experience in building and developing smart cities. Mr. Hoan pledged that the city would always create favorable conditions for the operation of the British Business Association and wished to continue to receive the attention and support of British partners in the future, especially in areas where the UK has strengths and the city has needs, such as education, finance, urban infrastructure development and climate change response. The city will always create favorable conditions to carry out activities to promote cooperation between the two sides, contributing to further deepening the Vietnam - UK strategic partnership, he said. Speaking at the event, the UK Ambassador to Vietnam Mr. Gareth Ward and the UK Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Oliver Todd affirmed that the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the UK is increasingly developing despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also expressed their wish to strengthen the cooperation relationship between the two countries during the post-pandemic recovery process, especially in the field of green energy development and climate change response./. Shenzhen TV: US Secretary of State Blinken said in his China policy speech that We have profound differences with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Government. But those differences are between governments and systems not between our people. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: Secretary Blinkens remarks are part of an attempt to sever the strong bond between the CPC and the Chinese people. China firmly rejects that. The Chinese people are fully aware of the ill intention of the US to suppress and contain Chinas development and hinder the Chinese nations rejuvenation. Moves like this that are designed to sow discord will not succeed. Any US politician who knows the basic facts about China knows that our Party is founded for the people and nurtured by the people. The leadership of the CPC is the choice of history and of the people, and is endorsed in Chinas Constitution. Chinas development would not be possible without the leadership of the CPC. Under its leadership, the Chinese people have, through arduous struggle and hard work, established the Peoples Republic of China and freed themselves from bullying, oppression and subjugation. Under the leadership of the CPC, China has created the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. It has also lifted over 800 million people out of poverty and led 1.4 billion people to modernization. Over the course of just several decades, China has completed a journey that took Western developed countries several hundred years. The CPC has grown into the largest governing party in the world. Its membership has expanded to over 95 million from just over 50 when it was founded. What is the secret code of the CPCs long governance success? It puts people first and believes that The country is the people and the people are the country. Id like to share with you two figures, both released by US institutes. A Harvard University survey among the Chinese people spanning over a decade found that more than 90 percent of respondents are satisfied with the Party and their government. Last year, as many as 91 percent of Chinese interviewed by Edelman, a top global public relations consultancy firm, said they trust their government, the highest record over a decade and all over the world for years running. The US politicians say they respect the Chinese people. Then please respect the history and facts, respect the development path and political system chosen by the Chinese people and respect the CPC that represents the fundamental interests of the Chinese people. What the world needs urgently is efforts to jointly protect the lives and health of humanity, promote world economic recovery and uphold global peace and tranquility, not moves to manipulate people into accepting the fallacy of democracy vs. authoritarianism or exaggerate differences in political system between countries, still less divide the world by drawing ideological lines. We hope the US will stop making these meaningless attempts and focus its energy and time on keeping its own house in order. The US should seek to play a constructive role in world peace and development. Xinhua News Agency: According to reports, the US, UK, France and Germany are pushing for the IAEA Board of Governors in a draft resolution to rebuke Iran for failing to answer longstanding questions on uranium traces at undeclared sites. The move is likely to anger Iran and that in turn could damage prospects for rescuing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. What is Chinas comment? Zhao Lijian: I have noted relevant reports. China opposes relevant countries pushing the IAEA Board of Governors to pressure Iran through adopting a resolution. Facts have proven time and again that pressuring does not help solve problems. It only increases tension and escalates the situation. The talks on resuming compliance with the JCPOA are currently at a crucial juncture toward conclusion. Being confrontational at the IAEA Board of Governors will only undermine the agencys cooperation with Iran and disrupt the negotiation process. We believe that the pressing task at the moment is to facilitate a successful conclusion of the negotiations and bring the JCPOA back to the right track. Once the implementation resumes, it will be much easier to find the solutions needed for resolving the issues related to the IAEAs safeguards in Iran. Now is the time for the US to make key political decisions, actively respond to Irans legitimate concerns and work toward an early consensus on outstanding issues. All relevant parties need to create the necessary conditions and a favorable environment for this. The Paper: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the centennial celebration for the Foreign Affairs magazine that China poses the most serious long-term challenge to the rules-based order. He noted the profound difference between the US and China is this: The order that weve sought to build very imperfectly, but that weve sought to build, is profoundly liberal in nature. The order that China seeks is illiberal. What is Chinas comment? Zhao Lijian: Earlier this week, we already made Chinas position very clear on the US so-called rules-based international order". Blinken claimed that theyve sought to build an imperfect but liberal order. What does an imperfect but liberal order mean exactly? Does it mean the US can do whatever it wants, while other countries must always follow the US orders and fall into line with the US? Does it mean the US can arbitrarily attack other sovereign countries militarily, while other countries can only watch and say nothing? Does it mean the US can wantonly impose illegal, unilateral sanctions on other sovereign countries, while other countries must comply? Or does it mean the US can unscrupulously attack and smear other countries and deprive other countries of their sovereign rights, security and right to development, while the only thing other countries are left to do is to sit on their hands with their mouths shut? This is not liberal; this is no order; this is hegemony, highhandedness and bullying; and this is an attempt of the US and a small number of other countries to make rules that suit themselves. I do not think people of the world would want the kind of imperfect but liberal order peddled by the US. What they want is an equal and shared right to security, development and prosperity for all. It is high time that the US reflected on itself and took real responsibilities for world peace and development. The US and China are indeed different in some ways. China has always been committed to upholding the international order underpinned by the UN Charter and international law. We are a force for world peace, for global development and for defending the international order. What China upholds is true multilateralism, and universally recognized international rules and order that have the support of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world, who have observed and benefited from the rules and order. AFP: The US and Taiwan launched talks aimed at deepening trade relations yesterday. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: China firmly opposes all forms of official interaction with the Taiwan region by countries having diplomatic ties with China, including negotiating or concluding agreements with implications of sovereignty and of official nature. Lately the US has made frequent moves and kept devising schemes on Taiwan. They are nothing but attempts to breach the one-China principle, bolster Taiwan independence separatists and disrupt peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory. The government of the Peoples Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This is a consensus of the international community and a solemn commitment made by the US in the three China-US joint communiques. If the US insists on playing the Taiwan card, it will only lead China-US relations to a dangerous situation. The US must abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques, stop all forms of official interaction with Taiwan, stop negotiating agreements with implications of sovereignty and of official nature, and refrain from sending any wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces. We would also like to make it clear to the DPP authorities that they need to give up at once on the idea that they could seek independence with US support, because the more ambitious they are, the bitterer their failure will be. Bloomberg: The Biden administration signaled on Wednesday that they are prepared to take a tough stance enforcing a ban on imported goods from Xinjiang. Thats unless companies provide clear evidence that the goods are free of forced labor. Does the foreign ministry have a comment on this latest signaling from the Biden administration on forced labor? Zhao Lijian: We have rebuked US lies on "forced labor" in Xinjiang many times. The so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, in disregard of facts, maliciously smears the human rights conditions in Chinas Xinjiang, grossly interferes in Chinas internal affairs, gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, and violates market rules and commercial ethics. China expresses its firm opposition. If implemented, the Act will seriously disrupt normal cooperation between Chinese and American businesses, undermine the stability of global supply chains, and eventually hurt the US own interests. We urge the US to refrain from enforcing the Act, stop using Xinjiang-related issues to interfere in Chinas internal affairs and contain Chinas development. If the US is bent on doing so, China will take forceful measures to firmly defend its own interests and dignity. CNR: The armed conflicts in eastern DRC have continued to escalate recently. The anti-government armed group M23 has launched attacks targeting civilians and UN peacekeepers, causing casualties and leading to deteriorating security situation in the region. The governments of the DRC and Rwanda have pointed fingers at each other, adding to bilateral tensions. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: China is closely following the situation in eastern DRC. We are concerned over the deteriorating local security conditions. We firmly oppose and condemn armed attacks on civilians and UN peacekeeping personnel. China calls on relevant sides to exercise restraint and resolve disputes through peaceful consultation so as to restore stability at an early date. We appreciate all efforts towards promoting peace and development in eastern DRC and stand ready to work with the international community to play a constructive role in resolving the issue there. China Daily: From May 23 to 26, a series of meetings have been successfully held, including the BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting, the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Culture, the first meeting of the BRICS Joint Committee on Space Cooperation and the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education. Some outcome documents have also been released. Could you offer more details? Zhao Lijian: Thank you for your interest in the meetings. Recently, the BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting, the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Culture, the first meeting of the BRICS Joint Committee on Space Cooperation and the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education have been successfully held. Officials at ministerial level from BRICS countries have conducted in-depth exchanges of views on cooperation in such areas as industry, culture, space and education. They reached broad consensus and released multiple outcome documents. To be specific, the 6th BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting adopted the Joint Declaration of the 6th BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting, agreeing to promote the digital transformation of traditional industries and beefing up cooperation in industrial chains and supply chains. The Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Culture adopted the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Agreement between the Governments of the BRICS States on Cooperation in the Field of Culture (2022-2026), and all parties agreed to uphold inclusiveness and mutual learning and deepen practical cooperation in the field of culture and contribute BRICS strength to the progress of human civilization. The meeting of the BRICS Joint Committee on Space Cooperation adopted documents on the joint committees terms of reference, agreeing to improve the BRICS countries capability for remote sensing satellite constellation, jointly enhance the efficacy of the data and better serve the sustainable socioeconomic development of the BRICS countries. The Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education reaffirmed the joint commitment to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals on education and specified the priority and direction for the BRICS countries cooperation in education going forward. As the BRICS chair this year, China will host the 14th BRICS Summit and other events. With the active support of all parties, more than 60 meetings and events have been successfully held. This has been highly praised by all parties, and contributed positively to deepening practical cooperation across the board and yielded fruitful results for BRICS leaders meetings. Going forward, a series of meetings and events will be held under the BRICS framework. You are welcome to continuously follow and support them. Specific information will be released in a timely manner through the official website of the 14th BRICS Summit and other channels. Phoenix TV: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an interview with Japanese media before his upcoming trip to Asia that the US concern over the Ukraine crisis wont distract us from facing the challenges to a free, stable and secure Indo-Pacific region. He also indicated that Washington is willing to expand arms aid and military training for Taiwan. Does China have any response? Zhao Lijian: We have always firmly opposed US arms sales to Chinas Taiwan region, which gravely infringes on Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity and interferes in Chinas domestic affairs. The US should abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques and stop arms sales to and military contact with Taiwan. If the US truly wants a free, stable and secure Indo-Pacific region, then it should stop the erroneous practice of ganging up and stoking political antagonism and military confrontation in the region, and play a constructive role in enhancing mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries. *** In observance of the Dragon Boat Festival, the MFA regular press conference will be adjourned on June 3 (Friday), and resumed on June 6 (Monday). During the recess, you can reach the Spokespersons Office by fax, email or WeChat. On Dragon Boat Festivals, we Chinese people eat Zongzi (sticky rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves) and race dragon boats. We also hang calamus and mugwort on doors to deter insects, drive away evil spirits and diseases, and bring good health. In a sense, the Dragon Boat Festival is the oldest health and epidemic awareness day in China. Tomorrow will be this special day. I hope the festival will bring you happiness and auspiciousness. Have a good Dragon Boat Festival! Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan receives the UK Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward. (Photo: hcmcpv.org.vn) He made the statement during his reception for outgoing UK Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward on June 1. According to Mr. Hoan, Ambassador Gareth Ward has regularly participated in activities to promote British tourism, education and culture, as well as the British country and people, to the people of Ho Chi Minh City and all of Vietnam. Mr. Hoan thanked Mr. Gareth Ward for his contribution to strengthening the relationship between the UK and Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City. During the time when Vietnam was facing the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the 4th wave, the British Embassy in Vietnam and the British Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City had many practical support programs for Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City. Discussing some development orientations of Ho Chi Minh City in the coming time, Mr. Vo Van Hoan hoped that British organizations and businesses would participate in the development of the project on developing Ho Chi Minh City into an international financial center when it is approved, or the project on building the city into a smart city; and expand cooperation programs on English teaching in Ho Chi Minh City. Mr. Gareth Ward thanked the city's leaders for taking the time to welcome him and expressed his delight at the development of the strategic partnership between the two countries, especially in the fields of security and defense, climate change and health. The UK and Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City, have a lot of potential in development cooperation in areas such as green finance and renewable energy. Particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, many British investors and businesses are very interested in these projects on infrastructure investment and smart city construction. Therefore, he also hoped that the City People's Committee would soon consider and support the adoption of a technical standard framework in the Global Future City project for the project to be officially implemented. In the field of education, the Ambassador said he believed that in the coming time, the two countries will continue to have many cooperation programs to train the young Vietnamese generation with good capacity, adding that he hoped Ho Chi Minh City will create conditions for the British Council to expand its operations./. According to the Reuters sources, the Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said. The sale of the General Atomics-made drones could still be blocked by Congress, the sources said, adding that there is also a risk of a last minute policy reversal that could scuttle the plan, which has been under review at the Pentagon for several weeks. Read more: US President Administration Gave New Details on Plans to Hand Over Missile Systems to Ukraine Ukraine has been using several types of smaller shorter range unmanned aerial systems against Russian forces that invaded the country in late February. They include the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE, and the Turkish Bayraktar-TB2. MQ-1C Gray Eagle But the Gray Eagle represents a leap in technology because it can fly up to 30 or more hours depending on its mission and can gather huge amounts of data for intelligence purposes. Gray Eagles, the Army's version of the more widely known Predator drone, can also carry up to eight powerful Hellfire missiles. The sale is significant because it puts an advanced reusable US system capable of multiple deep strikes on the battlefield against Russia for the first time. The administration of President Joe Biden intends to notify Congress of the potential sale to Ukraine in the coming days with a public announcement expected after that, a US official said. A White House spokesperson referred inquiries to the Pentagon and a Pentagon spokesperson said there was nothing to announce. Turkish Bayraktar-TB2 UAV Money from the recently passed $40 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative has been set aside to fund both the possible sale and the training needed for the drones, the US official and one of the people familiar said. Generally the MQ-1C is a much larger aircraft with a max take-off weight around three times that of the Bayraktar-TB2, with commensurate advantages in payload capacity, range, and endurance, said drone expert Dan Gettinger with the Vertical Flight Society. The MQ-1C is also compatible with a greater variety of munitions than the Bayraktar-TB2. The Ukrainian Bayraktars are equipped with 22 kg (48 pound) Turkish-made MAM-L missiles, around half the weight of a Hellfire. RQ-20 Puma AE UAV Training on the UAV system made by General Atomics usually takes months, Gettinger said, but a notional plan to train experienced Ukrainian maintainers and operators in a handful of weeks has been proposed in recent weeks, the sources said. Arming the drones with Hellfire missiles will be done via a future Presidential Drawdown Authority once training on the drones has been completed, the US official and one of the sources said. Up until an announcement on Wednesday that Ukraine would get four HIMARS rocket systems, the Pentagon has stressed that smaller systems such as Javelin anti-tank systems and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which allies are shipping to Ukraine via truck near-daily, are most useful. Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin Corp jointly produce Javelins, while Raytheon makes Stingers. EU ambassadors make official decision on sixth package of sanctions against Russia with oil embargo The ambassadors of the member states of the European Union at a meeting of the Committee adopted an official decision regarding the sixth package of sanctions for Russia for the war against Ukraine, which, among other things, includes an embargo on oil transported by sea, which will amount to 2/3 of all exports. This was reported to Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday by a diplomatic source. The decision has been made officially. Patriarch Kirill is excluded from the list," the source reported. The decision must then be published in the official Journal. The publication is expected on Friday. U.S. President Joe Biden has announced another package of military assistance to Ukraine to include, in particular, the multiple-launch rocket system HIMARS. "Today, I am announcing a significant new security assistance package to provide timely and critical aid to the Ukrainian military," Biden said in a statement published by the White House on its website on Wednesday. "This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions," he said. No other details were provided in Biden's statement. U.S. media reported earlier citing a high-ranking official at the U.S. Administration that the estimated worth of the new aid package is $700 million. The new package of security assistance to Ukraine will include HIMARS ammos that have an approximate range of 80 km, the media said. Additionally, the new security assistance package for Ukraine will include aerial surveillance radars, anti-tank Javelin systems, anti-tank guns, artillery shells, helicopters, tactical vehicles and spare parts, according to reports citing the U.S. source. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the U.S. trusts Ukraine's promise not to use the weapon systems delivered by Washington to attack Russian territories. "The Ukrainians have given us assurances that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory," Blinken said when asked by reporters at a press conference that he attended together with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg." "There is a strong trust bond between Ukraine and the United States, as well as with our allies and partners," Blinken said, commenting on Kyiv's promise. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has called the deportation of Ukrainian people to Russia, including children, one of the most despicable crimes. "Russia is also pursuing a consistent criminal policy of deporting our people. Forcibly deports both adults and children. This is one of Russia's most heinous war crimes. In total, more than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been deported so far. These are orphans from orphanages. Children with parents. Children separated from their families," he said on Wednesday night in a traditional video message. The Russian state, he said, "disperses these people on its territory, settles our citizens, in particular, in remote regions." "The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people, but to make deportees forget about Ukraine and not be able to return. But we must find a solution to this challenge as well. And ensure that all those who killed, tortured or deported Ukrainians are held accountable," said Zelensky. "The inevitability of punishment is a principle that Ukraine will definitely teach Russia. But first of all, we must teach it on the battlefield that Ukraine will not be conquered, that our people will not surrender, and our children will not become the property of the occupiers," the president said. As a result of missile strikes carried out by Russian troops on the territory of Lviv region on the evening of June 1, railway infrastructure facilities in Stryi and Sambor districts were damaged, head of Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytsky said. "Last night, between 22:45 and 22:55, rocket attacks were carried out on the railway infrastructure in Stryj and Sambor districts. Four enemy cruise missiles were hit. They were launched from the Black Sea," Kozytsky wrote on Facebook. The railway facilities are significantly damaged, he noted. Many trains are delayed. Specialists of Lviv Railway are working on the restoration of communication. "There are five wounded (three in Stryi district, two in Samborsky). Four people are in a state of moderate severity. They are located in the hospitals of the region. One has minor injuries, he was not hospitalized. Fortunately, there are no fatalities," the head of the Administration added. War in Ukraine wreaks devastating consequences for children at scale and speed not seen since World War II UNICEF Nearly 100 days of war in Ukraine have wrought devastating consequences for children at a scale and speed not seen since World War II, experts from the UN Children's Fund UNICEF have said. At least 262 children have been killed and 415 injured in attacks since 24 February. One hundred days of war in Ukraine have left 5.2 million children 3 million children inside Ukraine and over 2.2 million children in refugee-hosting countries in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said in a press release. Based on reports verified by OHCHR, on average more than two children are killed and more than four injured each day in Ukraine mostly in attacks using explosive weapons in populated areas. Civilian infrastructure on which children depend continues to be damaged or destroyed; this so far includes at least 256 health facilities and one in six UNICEF-supported 'Safe Schools' in the country's east. "Hundreds of other schools across the country have also been damaged. Conditions for children in eastern and southern Ukraine where fighting has intensified are increasingly desperate," UNICEF said. At the same time, UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell said that without an urgent ceasefire and negotiated peace, children will continue to suffer and fallout from the war will impact vulnerable children around the world. "UNICEF continues to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and to protect all children from harm. This includes ending the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and attacks on civilian infrastructure. UNICEF is appealing for full humanitarian access to safely and quickly reach children in need wherever they may be," UNICEF said. In Ukraine, UNICEF and partners have distributed life-saving health and medical supplies for nearly 2.1 million people in war-affected areas; enabled access to safe water for over 2.1 million people living in areas where networks have been damaged or destroyed; reached over 610,000 children and caregivers with mental health and psychosocial support; and provided learning supplies to nearly 290,000 children. Almost 300,000 vulnerable families have registered for a UNICEF-Ministry of Social Policy humanitarian cash assistance programme. UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. First modular camp for IDPs in Kyiv region opened in Borodianka with participation of Polish PM Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshev and Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday opened the region's first modular camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borodianka (Kyiv region), the press service of the ministry has reported. "The communities that need these modules for those whose housing has been destroyed by the enemy. Of course, this option of residence is temporary. The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development is now actively developing medium- and long-term options for solving housing needs and restoring damaged housing stock in the de-occupied territories," the ministry's press service said, quoting Chernyshev. The minister said that the village of Borodianka was chosen as the first settlement in Kyiv region, where a modular camp was installed, since it suffered "catastrophic losses." "In the settlement, 552 private houses and 24 apartment buildings, two schools and all administrative buildings have been partially or completely destroyed. Therefore, the modular camp will temporarily resettle 352 people, including women, children and the elderly, left without a roof over their heads after the occupation," the ministry said. The minister said that it is planned to install the same camps in Bucha, Makariv, Ivankiv and Hostomel (all Kyiv region), as well as in the suburbs of Chernihiv. "The modular camp consists of four monoblocks with 40 modules each. It includes residential and toilet/shower modules, laundries, dining rooms, games and administrative modules. The camp has lighting, heating and is fully furnished. This camp, like the previous ones, which are installed in Lviv, were transferred by the Polish government free of charge, including delivery, assembly and furniture," the ministry said. The minister expressed gratitude to international partners, in particular, the government of Poland, who provide support to Ukrainian refugees and join in the placement of IDPs on the territory of Ukraine. "Modular camps have an optimal type of construction that fully meets the requirements and characteristics of the climate and is comfortable for temporary accommodation of citizens at any time of the year," the ministry said. The participants of the Ukrainian-Polish intergovernmental consultations confirmed their readiness to actively involve all the necessary bilateral and multilateral instruments to ensure that Ukraine is granted the status of a candidate country for membership in the European Union during the meeting of the European Council on June 23-24, 2022. "The Polish side reaffirmed its strong support for Ukraine's membership in the European Union and NATO which corresponds to the free democratic choice of the Ukrainian people," the Department of Communications of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reported on Wednesday. Consultations were held in Kyiv on June 1, following which the parties also confirmed their readiness to continue joint efforts to stop the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and restore the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, noted the importance of investigating the crimes of the Russian side. "Poland will assist in expanding the capacity of ports, railway and road infrastructure in order to supply Ukraine with the necessary goods, including fuel, " the message reads. Poland confirmed its commitment to swiftly implement the MoU on strengthening cooperation in railway sector signed on 23 April 2022 to support Ukrainian exports of food products and stressed its readiness to support the agricultural production capacities of Ukraine in order to maximize the harvests in the upcoming season; Ukraine confirmed its readiness to provide all information necessary to operationalize such support. The parties also confirmed their readiness for active cooperation in the reconstruction of Ukraine in the postwar period. "Poland will focus its reconstruction efforts on Kharkiv region, " the secretariat of the Ukrainian government said. In order to enhance cooperation, the Polish Institute in Kyiv will resume work from June 1, and the Consulate General of Poland in Lutsk will resume work from July 1. The Ukrainian side agreed not to introduce any restrictive measures on imports from Poland and pledged to cooperate with the Polish side to lift existing restrictions on the import of goods from Poland to Ukraine, including agricultural products. The parties also agreed to intensify cooperation in order to improve the efficiency of the functioning of checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish section of the state border. Dust swirls over the Arabian Peninsula in this image captured by the Suomi NPP satellite in July 2018. NASAs upcoming Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) will help scientists better understand the role of airborne dust in heating and cooling the atmosphere. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory Called EMIT, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation will analyze dust carried through the atmosphere from dry regions to see what effects it has on the planet. Each year, strong winds carry more than a billion metric tons - or the weight of 10,000 aircraft carriers - of mineral dust from Earth's deserts and other dry regions through the atmosphere. While scientists know that the dust affects the environment and climate, they don't have enough data to determine, in detail, what those effects are or may be in the future - at least not yet. Launching to the International Space Station on June 9, NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument will help fill in those knowledge gaps. EMIT's state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer, developed by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, will collect more than a billion dust-source-composition measurements around the globe over the course of a year - and in doing so, significantly advance scientists' understanding of dust's influence across the Earth system. Here are five things to know about EMIT: 1. It will identify the composition of mineral dust from Earth's arid regions. Desert regions produce most of the mineral dust that makes its way into the atmosphere. They're also largely remote, making it difficult for scientists to collect soil and dust samples over these vast areas by hand. From its perch on the space station, EMIT will map the world's mineral dust source regions. The imaging spectrometer will also provide information on the color and composition of dust sources globally for the first time. This data will help scientists understand which kinds of dust dominate each region and advance their understanding of dust's impact on climate and the Earth system today and in the future. 2. It will clarify whether mineral dust heats or cools the planet. Right now, scientists don't know whether mineral dust has a cumulative heating or cooling effect on the planet. That's because dust particles in the atmosphere have different properties. For instance, some particles may be dark red, while others may be white. The color matters because it determines whether the dust will absorb the Sun's energy, as dark-colored minerals do, or reflect it, as light-colored minerals do. If more of the dust absorbs the Sun's energy than reflects it, it'll warm the planet, and vice versa. EMIT will provide a detailed picture of how much dust comes from dark versus light minerals. That information will allow scientists to determine whether dust heats or cools the planet overall, as well as regionally and locally. 3. It will help scientists understand how dust affects different Earth processes. Mineral dust particles vary in color because they're made of different substances. Dark red mineral dust gets its color from iron, for example. The composition of dust particles affects how they interact with many of Earth's natural processes. For instance, mineral dust plays a role in cloud formation and atmospheric chemistry. When mineral dust is deposited in the ocean or forests, it can provide nutrients for growth, acting like fertilizer. When it falls on snow or ice, the dust accelerates melting, leading to more water runoff. And for humans, mineral dust can be a health hazard when inhaled. EMIT will collect information on 10 important dust varieties, including those that contain iron oxides, clays, and carbonates. With this data, scientists will be able to assess precisely what effects mineral dust has on different ecosystems and processes. 4. Its data will improve the accuracy of climate models. In the absence of more specific data, scientists currently characterize mineral dust in climate models as yellow - a general average of dark and light. Because of this, the effects that mineral dust may have on climate - and that climate may have on mineral dust - are not well represented in computer models. Color and composition information gathered by EMIT will change that. When the instrument's data is incorporated, the accuracy of climate models is expected to improve. 5. It will help scientists predict how future climate scenarios will affect the type and amount of dust in our atmosphere. As global temperatures rise, arid regions may become even dryer, possibly resulting in larger (and dustier) deserts. To what extent this might happen depends on several factors, including how much temperatures rise, how land use changes, and how rainfall trends change. By incorporating EMIT's global dust source composition data into models and predictions, scientists will gain a better understanding of how the amount and composition of dust in arid regions may change under different climate and land-use scenarios. They'll also gain a better understanding of how these changes may impact climate in the future. More About the Mission EMIT is being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. It will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's 25th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. Once EMIT begins operation, its data will be delivered to the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for use by other researchers and the public. To learn more about the mission, visit: https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/ Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Russia should withdraw its forces in the sea area around Ukraine and provide security guarantees about non-aggression on ports and commercial convoys, said spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko in response to the statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Russian Federation is ready to let grain ships into the Mediterranean Sea if Ukraine demines ports. "Ukraine is working together with its partners on the possibility of creating an international mission, in particular, under the auspices of the UN, which will take over the operation of sea routes for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products. We welcome the preliminary readiness of a number of countries to join the process of restoring security in the Black Sea. As a first step, Russia should withdraw its forces in the sea area around Ukraine and provide security guarantees about non-aggression on ports and commercial convoys," Nikolenko wrote on Facebook on Thursday. He recalled that by attacking Ukraine, Russia had besieged Ukrainian seaports. The Russian army has mined part of the sea area, is constantly trying to break through the defense of Odesa and other coastal cities from the Black Sea, the Foreign Ministry spokesman added. "As a result of the Russian blockade, Ukraine has now lost the opportunity to export agricultural products by sea. About 22 million tonnes of grain are stuck in ports and cannot reach end consumers, primarily in Africa and Asia. Alternative ground routes will not completely solve the problem, because they have low throughput. In addition, Russia steals Ukrainian grain in the occupied territories in order to illegally sell it to third countries," Nikolenko said. According to him, the actions of the Russian Federation can lead to a global food crisis, and in some regions even to famine. The spokesperson of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that the Russian Federation should immediately unblock Ukrainian seaports, stop shelling Odesa and other coastal cities, withdraw its navy to a distance that will prevent an attack on merchant ships, and not create obstacles to international navigation. "Ukraine remains committed to finding ways to unblock routes in the Black and Azov Seas in order to prevent a global food crisis. We call on the countries whose food security may suffer the most from Russia's aggression against Ukraine to use their contacts with Moscow to force it to lift the blockade from Ukrainian seaports and stop the war," Nikolenko wrote. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the extension of sanctions to all Russian employees and judges who work for war and repression. "We need even more sanctions against Russia for the war. As soon as the sixth sanctions package starts working, we all have to prepare the seventh package. All Russian employees who work for the war and all Russian judges who work for repression should be sanctioned," he said, speaking via video link in the Luxembourg Parliament on Thursday. "Their assets and other sanctioned persons, both individuals and legal entities, as well as the assets of the Russian state, which are stored in foreign jurisdictions, should be frozen. That's it," he said. According to Zelensky, "it is necessary to find a legal opportunity to confiscate them and send them to compensate for the losses that Russia inflicted on the victims of the war. This will be fair and instructive for the aggressor. It must be shown that European unity transcends any doubts about Europe's ability to defend its values." Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has appealed to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member countries of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf to support Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression and to help resolve the global energy and food crisis caused by the war. "We hope that the Gulf states will play an active role in resolving the current global food and energy crisis, which Russia is using as instruments of war and pressure on the international community. It is time for decisive action and confident steps. Yesterday, the EU agreed on a sixth sanctions "oil" package against Russia. This is an opportunity for the Gulf countries, for the benefit of themselves, to help the West overcome its energy dependence on Russia. Ukraine is also interested in long-term and effective solutions in this area," Yermak said in an address published by the press service of the President of Ukraine. In this regard, Yermak proposed several initiatives aimed at deepening cooperation in these issues. "First of all, I would like to propose the establishment of a special Advisory Council under the auspices of the Head of the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for your region. I would be happy to see foreign ministers as well as people with powers similar to mine there. This council could be a useful platform for discussing pressing issues such as grain supplies and energy security. But not only. I think it would be appropriate to use this forum to address issues that affect the interests of the GCC and their allies," he proposed. To this end, Yermak clarified, within a week or two, the candidacy of a special representative may be agreed upon to discuss organizational issues, in particular the mandate of the Council, and its secretariat may be created. "Together, we can find ways to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe that can be caused by the food crisis. It bears reminding that a number of Islamic countries in Africa and South Asia are already at risk, " he reminded. He also called on the Gulf countries to join the international sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation. "The application of international economic sanctions is absolutely necessary. Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is blocking all legally binding decisions, despite the unanimous international condemnation of its illegal invasion. Economic pressure must deprive Russia of the financial, technical and technological resources to wage this war, as well as subsequent aggressive wars," Yermak said. "I personally coordinate the work of the Yermak-McFaul international expert group aimed at strengthening sanctions against Russia. The goals of our Sanctions Action Plan include a total ban on Russian energy exports, the expansion of sanctions against the financial sectors of Russia and Belarus, the strengthening of transport and insurance sanctions, the expansion and strengthening of trade embargoes and personal sanctions. We call on the Gulf Cooperation Council to join the sanctions regime against the Russian Federation and in no way assist Russia and certain members of its authorities in avoiding existing restrictions," he urged. Separately, he also highlighted the information exchange between Ukraine and Arab countries. "Ukraine wants to become more open and understandable to the Arab world. Therefore, we are ready to facilitate the opening of offices of Arab state television companies in our country. We will provide them with an adequate level of security. In our opinion, Europe is too self-centered, so Ukraine offers the Arab world to work together to expand its horizons. In particular, through the tools of soft power provided by television, " the head of the Presidents Office said. He also called on the Red Crescent to organize a representation in Ukraine at the same level as the Red Cross. "Another proposal concerns finance. Ukraine is preparing to launch the National Sovereign Fund. The agricultural industry and land banks should become its leading assets. We offer your sovereign national investment funds cooperation in this and other areas, " Yermak added. In addition, he pointed out, the Ukrainian side, together with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has created an advisory group that will provide proposals on security guarantees for Ukraine. "We invite leading figures in security, politics and diplomacy from your countries to join this group. The criminal aggression of a permanent member of the UN Security Council has shown that the world needs a radical update of the international security system. President Zelenskyy's idea is to start building the foundations for a new world order based on the system of security guarantees for Ukraine. I am convinced that the Arab world should play a leading role in this process," Yermak stressed. In addition, he pointed out, Ukraine is interested in future economic cooperation during the post-war recovery period, and can offer a wide space for investment. "Thanks to the unwavering determination of the Ukrainian nation, military prowess and assistance from friendly countries, Ukraine will definitely win. It will become a regional leader in Eastern Europe. Russia has one prospect - a gradual decline. Ukraine, on the contrary, will develop rapidly. Please think about your own economic interests. After our victory, Ukraine will become the world's largest construction site. And we invite you to join this process. I am confident that we will not just continue our joint projects, but expand our cooperation as much as possible. Including in the field of agriculture, transport, tourism, defense, IT," Yermak explained. "Today, we call on the Gulf states to provide us with financial assistance to strengthen our resilience. And immediately after the war - we offer you to take part in the reconstruction of our country. We invite you to join large-scale infrastructure, transport and humanitarian projects that will affect the future of the entire continent. We know that the leadership of your countries demonstrates wisdom and focus on strategic perspectives," he concluded. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional organization comprising six Arab countries: Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Saudi Arabia. JSC Ukrzaliznytsia notes an increase in the number of passengers returning to Ukraine from Western countries. "We have loaded trains in the West-Kyiv direction, we have a growing passenger traffic on the West-Kharkiv route, domestic transportation - Chernihiv and other directions is growing. We see people returning back to their homes," Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of Ukrzaliznytsia, told the Interfax-Ukraine agency. According to him, now the occupancy of trains in the West-Kyiv direction is more than 90%. As reported, the Kyivstar mobile operator confirms the trend towards the return of Ukrainians home after a forced evacuation. Enemy tries to surround Ukrainian troops in Severodonetsk, but there is no need for their withdrawal - General Staff The enemy is trying to encircle the Ukrainian troops in Severodonetsk, but at the moment there is no need for their withdrawal, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Hromov said. "Yes, the enemy is trying to encircle our troops... All activities, all actions that are carried out by both military personnel and units as a whole, consist in the implementation of a single plan. At this time, according to the plans of the command, of the General Staff, there is no need for our military units to withdraw from the territories that you named," Hromov said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center in Kyiv on Thursday. So he answered the question of whether the Ukrainian troops are ready to retreat from Severodonetsk in the event of a threat of their encirclement by the Russian military. Hromov noted that fierce street fighting continues in Severodonetsk. "The subdivisions will carry out tasks with all the available forces and means, with the available resources," he said. The representative of the General Staff pointed to the danger of the capture of Severodonetsk by Russian troops. "In the event of the capture of Severodonetsk, we will have to defend along the river bank and will also fight in urban areas," Hromov said. The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has completed an investigation into the criminal proceedings on suspicion of MP Viktor Medvedchuk of treason and attempted plunder of national values, the SBI reports. "Investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation have completed a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings on suspicion of Viktor Medvedchuk, MP of Ukraine from the political party Opposition Platform for Life, of committing criminal offenses under Article 111 (high treason) and Article 438 (violation of laws and customs war) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the Bureau said in a telegram channel on Thursday. The State Bureau of Investigation reports that the indictment has been sent to court. The Bureau recalls that Medvedchuk is accused of attempting to plunder national values together with another MP of Ukraine from the Opposition Platform for Life, who is on the wanted list, as well as officials of the Russian Federation, it concerns illegal oil and gas production in the Black Sea shelf in region of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Also, as they say in the message, according to the investigation, the MP of Ukraine provided the leadership of Russia with assistance in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine. "He collected information about the places of deployment of military formations of Ukraine, conducting combat training events, assisted in involving citizens of Ukraine into implementation of measures to the detriment of the state in order to destabilize the socio-political situation," the State Bureau of Investigation notes. Russian hackers carry out new cyber attack on Ukrainian govt agencies using topic of salaries The Ukrainian Government Computer Emergency Response Team CERT-UA, which operates as part of the cyber defense center of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, reports that Russian hackers are carrying out another cyber attack on government agencies, this time using the topic of salary changes. CERT-UA warns of new dangerous e-mails with the file "changes in wages with accruals.docx" that were received by employees of state organizations in Ukraine. Opening a document is fraught with damage to the computer by the Cobalt Strike Beacon malware. CERT-UA initiated measures to block the domain name and the corresponding server. Ukraine calls on partners at level of govts, local authorities, individual companies to help Ukrainian cities and regions - Shmyhal Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that Ukraine calls on partners at the level of governments, local authorities, and individual companies to help Ukrainian cities and regions, which will be a great example of solidarity. "The government has already launched the first stage of restoration in the liberated territories. Right now we are repairing roads and individual houses, demining, restoring electricity, gas and water, building temporary housing for thousands of people who have lost it. Therefore, we ask our partners for help," Shmyhal said during an online speech at the GLOBSEC 2022 forum. According to government estimates, the total losses to the Ukrainian economy due to the war are already reaching $600 billion, and there is a huge amount of work ahead. "We don't want to just restore brick and concrete. We want to build a new state. Therefore, the recovery plan for Ukraine is written according to the Build Back Better principle. Ukraine wants to apply a unique combination of approaches to recovery," the head of government stressed. According to him, the matter concerns a regional approach, which involves the patronage of the allied countries, sister cities, international corporations over the Ukrainian regions and their assistance in reconstruction. Russian ships continue to block civilian navigation in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. "In the Black Sea and Azov operational zones, enemy ship groups are focusing on maintaining a favorable operational regime and blocking civilian shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea," the General Staff said in a statement released on Thursday. On Monday, June 6, at 12.00 the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a discussion entitled "Internal political situation. In anticipation of aggravation?" Participants: Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov; political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; political expert, director of the Politics analytical center, candidate of political sciences Mykola Davydiuk, Director of Ukrainian barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the Youtube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. During its first couple hundred days in Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover saw some of the most intense dust activity ever witnessed by a mission sent to the Red Planet's surface. Not only did the rover detect hundreds of dust-bearing whirlwinds called dust devils, Perseverance captured the first video ever recorded of wind gusts lifting a massive Martian dust cloud. A paper recently published in Science Advances chronicles the trove of weather phenomena observed in the first 216 Martian days, or sols. The new findings enable scientists to better understand dust processes on Mars and contribute to a body of knowledge that could one day help them predict the dust storms that Mars is famous for - and that pose a threat to future robotic and human explorers. "Every time we land in a new place on Mars, it's an opportunity to better understand the planet's weather," said the paper's lead author, Claire Newman of Aeolis Research, a research company focused on planetary atmospheres. She added there may be more exciting weather on the way: "We had a regional dust storm right on top of us in January, but we're still in the middle of dust season, so we're very likely to see more dust storms." Perseverance made these observations primarily with the rover's cameras and a suite of sensors belonging to the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), a science instrument led by Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia in collaboration with the Finnish Meteorological Institute and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. MEDA includes wind sensors, light sensors that can detect whirlwinds as they scatter sunlight around the rover, and a sky-facing camera for capturing images of dust and clouds. "Jezero Crater may be in one of the most active sources of dust on the planet," said Manuel de la Torre Juarez, MEDA's deputy principal investigator at JPL. "Everything new we learn about dust will be helpful for future missions." Frequent Whirlwinds The study authors found that at least four whirlwinds pass Perseverance on a typical Martian day and that more than one per hour passes by during a peak hourlong period just after noon. The rover's cameras also documented three occasions in which wind gusts lifted large dust clouds, something the scientists call "gust-lifting events." The biggest of these created a massive cloud covering 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers). The paper estimated that these wind gusts may collectively lift as much or more dust as the whirlwinds that far outnumber them. "We think these gust-liftings are infrequent but could be responsible for a large fraction of the background dust that hovers all the time in the Martian atmosphere," Newman said. Why Is Jezero Different? While wind and dust are prevalent all over Mars, what the researchers are finding seems to set Jezero apart. This greater activity may be linked to the crater being near what Newman describes as a "dust storm track" that runs north to south across the planet, often lifting dust during the dust storm season. Newman added that the greater activity in Jezero could be due to factors such as the roughness of its surface, which can make it easier for the wind to lift dust. That could be one explanation why NASA's InSight lander - in Elysium Planitia, about 2,145 miles (3,452 kilometers) away from Jezero Crater - is still waiting for a whirlwind to clear its dust-laden solar panels, while Perseverance has already measured nearby surface dust removal by several passing whirlwinds. "Perseverance is nuclear-powered, but if we had solar panels instead, we probably wouldn't have to worry about dust buildup," Newman said. "There's generally just more dust lifting in Jezero Crater, though average wind speeds are lower there and peak wind speeds and whirlwind activity are comparable to Elysium Planitia." In fact, Jezero's dust lifting has been more intense than the team would have wanted: Sand carried in whirlwinds damaged MEDA's two wind sensors. The team suspects the sand grains harmed the thin wiring on the wind sensors, which stick out from Perseverance's mast. These sensors are particularly vulnerable because they must remain exposed to the wind in order to measure it correctly. Sand grains blown in the wind, and likely carried in whirlwinds, also damaged one of the Curiosity rover's wind sensors (Curiosity's other wind sensor was damaged by debris churned up during its landing in Gale Crater). With Curiosity's damage in mind, the Perseverance team provided an additional protective coating to MEDA's wires. Yet Jezero's weather still got the better of them. De la Torre Juarez said the team is testing software changes that should allow the wind sensors to keep working. "We collected a lot of great science data," de la Torre Juarez said. "The wind sensors are seriously impacted, ironically, because we got what we wanted to measure." More About the Mission A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. The decision to leave Belarus was made a long time ago - and this means a complete termination of all relations that takes time to finalize. When the war started we did not want to leave our people in Belarus. However, the compromises are no longer possible - we transfer business control to a local team so they could decide their destiny. We finally take the Parimatch brand away from Belarus. The holding transfers the services and client support to the management of the local team in Belarus, which is no longer part of the Parimatch holding. The holding will no longer receive profit from the company operating in Belarus, either today or in the future. We expect to bear substantial losses as a result of this decision. We are in the process of breaking off relations with the Republic of Belarus in compliance with all laws and ensuring the continued safety and support of our employees and customers. During the transition period, the services will remain available in Belarus and will be managed by the new owner. Earlier, the company announced the withdrawal of the franchise from the Russian Federation. The platform has not been available there since March, and Parimatch brand is prohibited to use. Despite the magnitude of this decision, we as a company are confident in the future of our business and strive to deliver quality and reliable services to our customers worldwide. We urge you to stop speculation on this topic. Parimatch has been building its reputation over the years. We are proud of numerous worthy deeds for society, honesty to customers and partners, and care for employees. We are ready to defend our position in court. The strongest argument on our side is the truth. And the funds that competitors sent to black PR and custom publications would be better directed to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine is above All! Egyptian political activist Yahia Hussein Abdel-Hady received on Tuesday a presidential pardon after he was sentenced to prison last week to four years in prison for intentionally spreading false news about Egypt locally and internationally, his lawyer Khaled Ali confirmed. Egypt seeks scientific, technical and pharmaceutical partnership with Africa to localise all types of coronavirus vaccines, Egypt's Presidential Adviser for Health Affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din said. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with international consultants Monday to review a revised draft of the Egyptian tourism promotion strategy that comes amid global disruptions to the crucial economic sector. UN investigators on Tuesday blamed Israel's continued occupation and discrimination against Palestinians for the endless cycles of violence in the decades-long conflict, prompting angry Israeli protests. Japanese and NATO officials agreed Tuesday to step up military cooperation and joint exercises as they shared concerns that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is causing a deterioration of the security environment in Europe and Asia. The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries including Russia will raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for a global economy suffering from soaring energy prices and the resulting inflation. The government is ready to offer all forms of support and facilitation necessary to host the headquarters of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) in Egypt, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Sunday. Madbouly made his remarks during a meeting with a delegation of the African Union (AU) Commission to discuss the establishment of a headquarters for the African Medicines Agency (AMA) in Egypt, in the presence of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar. He invited the AU delegation to pay a field visit to the New Administrative Capital's diplomatic district which can host the agency's HQ, asserting the great importance Egypt attributes to the AMA as organisational platform for African pharmaceutical industries and public health improvement in Africa. Madbouly also reviewed Egypt's drug manufacturing capacities, including technological infrastructure and long-standing expertise. Egypt has the largest the pharmaceutical city in the Middle East and oldest vaccine center in Africa and the Middle East Africa (VACSERA), Madbouly said. Egypt is also one of the few manufacturers of COVID vaccines, the prime minister added, noting the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) had recently been accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for home-made and foreign vaccines. EDA Chairman Tamer Essam and Assistant Foreign Minister for African Organisations Ambassador Soha El-Gendy attended the meeting. Search Keywords: Short link: The model developed by the scientists includes the history of the rotation of the sun but also the magnetic instabilities that it generates. CREDIT Sylvia Ekstrom / UNIGE All was amiss with the Sun! In the early 2000s, a new set of data brought down the chemical abundances at the surface of the Sun, contradicting the values predicted by the standard models used by astrophysicists. Often challenged, these new abundances made it through several new analyses. As they seemed to prove correct, it was thus up to the solar models to adapt, especially since they serve as a reference for the study of stars in general. A team of astronomers from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (UNIGE) in collaboration with the Universite de Liege, has developed a new theoretical model that solves part of the problem: considering the Sun's rotation, that varied through time, and the magnetic fields it generates, they have been able to explain the chemical structure of the Sun. The results of this study are published in Nature Astronomy. "The Sun is the star that we can best characterise, so it constitutes a fundamental test for our understanding of stellar physics. We have abundance measurements of its chemical elements, but also measurements of its internal structure, like in the case of Earth thanks to seismology", explains Patrick Eggenberger, a researcher at the Department of astronomy of the UNIGE and first author of the study. These observations should fall in line with the results predicted by the theoretical models which aim at explaining the Sun's evolution. How does the Sun burn its hydrogen in the core? How is energy produced there and then transported towards the surface? How do chemical elements drift within the Sun, influenced both by rotation and magnetic fields? The standard solar model "The standard solar model we used until now considers our star in a very simplified manner, on the one hand with regard to the transport of the chemical elements in the deepest layers, on the other hand for the rotation and the internal magnetic fields that were entirely neglected until now", explains Gael Buldgen, a researcher at the Department of astronomy of the UNIGE and co-author of the study. However, everything worked fine until the early 2000s, when an international scientific team drastically revised the solar abundances thanks to an improved analysis. The new abundances caused deep ripples in the waters of the solar modelling. From then on, no model was able to reproduce the data obtained by helioseismology (the analysis of the Sun's oscillations), in particular the abundance of helium in the solar envelope. A new model and the key role of rotation and magnetic fields The new solar model developed by the UNIGE team includes not only the evolution of rotation which was probably faster in the past, but also the magnetic instabilities it creates. "We must absolutely consider simultaneously the effects of rotation and magnetic fields on the transport of chemical elements in our stellar models. It is important for the Sun as for stellar physics in general and has a direct impact on the chemical evolution of the Universe, given that the chemical elements that are crucial for life on Earth are cooked in the core of the stars", says Patrick Eggenberger. Not only does the new model rightly predict the concentration of helium in the outer layers of the Sun, but it also reflects that of lithium which resisted modelling until now. "The abundance of helium is correctly reproduced by the new model because the internal rotation of the Sun imposed by the magnetic fields generates a turbulent mixing which prevents this element from falling too quickly towards the centre of the star; simultaneously, the abundance of lithium observed on the solar surface is also reproduced because this same mixing transports it to the hot regions where it is destroyed", explains Patrick Eggenberger The problem is not fully resolved However, the new model doesn't solve every challenge raised by helioseismology: "Thanks to helioseismology, we know within 500 km in which region the convective movements of matter begin, 199,500 km below the surface of the Sun. However, the theoretical models of the Sun predict a depth offset of 10,000 km!", explains Sebastien Salmon, researcher at the UNIGE and co-author of the paper. If the problem still exists with the new model, it opens a new door of understanding: "Thanks to the new model, we shed light on the physical processes that can help us resolve this critical difference." Update of solar-like stars "We are going to have to revise the masses, radii and ages obtained for the solar-type stars that we have studied so far", says Gael Buldgen, detailing the next steps. Indeed, in most cases, solar physics is transposed to case studies close to the Sun. Therefore, if the models for analysing the Sun are modified, this update must also be performed for other stars similar to ours. Patrick Eggenberger specifies: "This is particularly important if we want to better characterise the host stars of planets, for example within the framework of the PLATO mission." This observatory of 24 telescopes should fly to the Lagrange point 2 (1.5 million kilometres from Earth, opposite the Sun) in 2026 to discover and characterise small planets and refine the characteristics of their host star. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Thousands of Israeli nationalists, some of them chanting ``Death to Arabs,'' paraded through the heart of the main Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, in a show of force that risked setting off a new wave of violence in the tense city. The crowds, who were overwhelmingly young Orthodox Jewish men, were celebrating Jerusalem Day -- an Israeli holiday that marks the capture of the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians see the event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim Quarter, as a provocation. Last year, the parade helped trigger an 11-day war with Gaza militants, and this year's march drew condemnations from the Palestinians and neighboring Jordan. Israel said it deployed thousands of police and security forces for the event, and violent scuffles between Jewish and Palestinian groups erupted inside the Old City before the parade began. As the march got underway, groups of Orthodox Jewish youths gathered outside Damascus Gate, waving flags, singing religious and nationalistic songs, and shouting ``the Jewish nation lives'' before entering the Muslim Quarter. One large group chanted ``Death to Arabs,'' and ``Let your village burn down'' before descending into the Old City. Police cleared Palestinians out of the area, which is normally a bustling Palestinian thoroughfare. At one point, a drone flying a Palestinian flag flew overhead before police intercepted it. Ahead of the march, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that ``flying the flag of Israel in the capital of Israel is an obvious thing,'' but also urged participants to celebrate in a ``responsible and respectful manner.'' Bennett later issued a statement instructing police to show ``no tolerance'' toward the racist groups. He described them as a ``minority that came to set the area on fire'' and vowed to prosecute violent extremists, a step that few Israeli governments have taken in the past. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the racist groups ``a disgrace.'' Thousands of people normally take part in the march through the Muslim Quarter, including some who shout out nationalistic or racist slogans toward the Palestinians, before making their way to the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter on the other side of the Old City. Last year, after weeks of Israeli-Palestinian unrest in Jerusalem, authorities changed the route of the march at the last minute to avoid the Muslim Quarter. But it was too late by then, and Hamas militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem as the procession was getting underway. That set off 11 days of heavy fighting. Sunday's march came at a time of heightened tensions. Israeli police have repeatedly confronted stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators in the disputed compound in recent months, often firing rubber bullets and stun grenades. Despite the recent unrest, Israeli leaders decided to allow this year's parade to take place along its traditional route through the Muslim Quarter. Ahead the march, there were small scuffles between Israeli nationalists and Palestinians, who threw chairs and bottles and shouted ``God is great'' at the marchers. Some marchers sprayed pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. In one video shared on social media, a young Jewish man kicked and sprayed an older Palestinian woman in the face, sending her crumbling to the ground. Police also fired rubber-tipped bullets and used clubs and pepper spray to disperse Palestinian protesters from the area. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said 62 people were injured, including 23 who needed hospitalization. Israeli police said they arrested over 50 suspects suspected of disorderly conduct or assaulting police officers. It said five officers were injured. Ahead of the march, over 2,500 Jews visited Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site inside the Old City, as Palestinians barricaded inside the Al Aqsa Mosque threw rocks and fireworks. Al Aqsa is situated on a hilltop compound revered by Muslims and Jews. The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, and the Palestinians are fiercely protective over what they consider to be a potent symbol of their national aspirations. The compound also is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount and revere it as the home of the biblical Temples. The competing claims to the site lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have triggered numerous rounds of violence. Police also said one of the Jewish groups ``violated visitation rules'' and was removed. Israeli media said the group had unfurled Israeli flags in the compound. Under longstanding arrangements known as the ``status quo,'' Jews are allowed to visit the compound but not pray. In recent years, however, the number of Jewish visitors has grown significantly, including some who have been spotted quietly praying. Such scenes have sparked Palestinian fears that Israel is plotting to take over or divide the area. Israel denies such claims, saying it remains committed to the status quo. Among the visitors was Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of a small ultranationalist opposition party and a follower of the late racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who entered with dozens of supporters under heavy police guard. Palestinians shouted ``God is great'' as Ben-Gvir, accompanied by Israeli police, shouted ``the Jewish people live.'' Police said they locked the gates of the mosque and said they made 18 arrests. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of ``playing with fire irresponsibily and recklessly.'' Jordan condemned Ben-Gvir's visit to the site and warned that the ``provocative and escalating march'' could make things deteriorate further. Jordan controlled east Jerusalem until Israel captured it in 1967 and it remains the custodian over Muslim holy sites. Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that isn't internationally recognized and claims all of the city as its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Gaza's Hamas rulers praised what they called ``the great heroism'' shown by Palestinians at Al Aqsa earlier Sunday. ``The Islamic Palestinian Arab identity of the Al Aqsa Mosque will be protected by our people and their valiant resistance with all their might,'' said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the group. The group, however, may be wary of getting involved in another round of fighting. Gaza was hard hit in last year's war, and the territory is still struggling to repair the damage. In addition, some 12,000 Gazan laborers are now permitted to work inside Israel as part of efforts to maintain calm between the enemies. Renewed fighting could risk losing those jobs, which have given a small boost to Gaza's devastated economy. Search Keywords: Short link: Saudia Arabia, Russia and their allies are likely to stick to their policy of modest oil output increases when they meet Thursday after the EU banned most imports from Moscow. European Union leaders agreed on Monday to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports, tightening economic screws on the country over its invasion of its neighbour Ukraine. This has caused oil prices, which have already hit record highs so far this year, to soar further amid pressure on the 23-member OPEC+ to open tabs more widely and relieve the market. Brent, the international benchmark, hit a two-month high above $124 per barrel while the US contract, WTI, topped $119. But analysts say OPEC+ will stick to its strategy of only slightly increasing output when it holds its monthly videoconference on Thursday as it remains united with Moscow. "With Russia being one of the two most important members of the alliance (alongside Saudi Arabia), any decision on increasing output has become highly political," Craig Erlam, analyst at trading platform OANDA, told AFP. "Both because (Russia) cannot sell what it's already producing as a result of sanctions and perhaps even because it wants prices to be uncomfortably high and maintain pressure on countries it considers 'unfriendly'," he said. The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries chaired by Saudi Arabia and their 10 partners led by Russia drastically slashed output in 2020 as demand slumped because of the coronavirus pandemic and worldwide lockdowns. They have been increasing output modestly to the tune of around 400,000 barrels per day each month since last year and have resisted pressure by top consumers, including the US, to open the tabs wider. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, an analyst with Swissquote bank, said Thursday's meeting "looks like a formality". "There is little hope to see OPEC countries announcing anything that would give a relief to the market," she said. - Unable to meet quotas - Analysts have also noted even if the group was willing to increase its output, several of its members have fallen short of the quotas, resulting in a lower supply to the market. "Ultimately, the group is missing its already modest targets by increasingly large margins every month so you have to question just how impactful any increase would be if countries simply don't have the capacity to increase further," Erlam said. In a statement Friday, the Group of Seven wealthy countries noted OPEC's "key role" and once again called on "oil and gas producing countries to act in a responsible manner and to respond to tightening international markets". OPEC was set up in 1960 and joined by the 10 partners through a 2016 declaration. Its mission is to "ensure the stabilisation of oil markets". But OPEC+ is "expected to push back against calls by the West to speed up its oil output increases, sticking to its existing plans instead," said Victoria Scholar, an analyst at Interactive Investor. Search Keywords: Short link: Israeli occupation troops shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli army claimed that a Palestinian woman armed with a knife approached a soldier ``conducting routine security activity'' north of the West Bank city of Hebron and that soldiers opened fire. It said that no soldiers were hurt in the incident. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the woman, identified as Ghafran Warasna, died after she was shot in the chest near the Al Aroub refugee camp outside Hebron. The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that Warasna, 31, was released from Israeli prison in April after serving three months. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, sources told the Palestinian Red Crescent that the Israeli army blocked ambulances from reaching Warasna for 20 minutes. She died upon arrival at Hebron National Hospital. Israeli crackdown on Palestinians has intensified in recent weeks with near-daily arrest raids by the army in Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank following a string of attacks by Palestinians that left at least 19 Israelis dead. Tensions have soared following the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera, and an Israeli ultranationalist march through a Palestinian thoroughfare in east Jerusalem. Recent weeks have seen at least 35 Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces. Many of them were carrying out attacks or were involved in confrontations with Israeli troops in the West Bank. But Abu Akleh, an unarmed woman and two apparent bystanders were also among those killed. Rights groups say Israel often uses excessive force. Search Keywords: Short link: The war in Ukraine is heaping further pressure on Africa's fast-growing population of vulnerable people, a UN refugee official says. Cereal prices have surged because of the slump in exports from one of the world's bread baskets. In Africa, rising food costs are sharpening the impact of conflict and climate change, which have already driven millions into poverty or forced them from their homes, Raouf Mazou, assistant high commissioner at the UNHCR refugee agency, told AFP. "Across Africa, rising prices and reduced food aid caused by the war in Ukraine will increase the vulnerability of refugees and other forcibly displaced populations and increase the risk of inter-communal tensions," Mazou said in an interview. "Food, fuel and fertiliser costs have skyrocketed and the decline in purchasing power is hitting the most vulnerable households the hardest, including refugees and displaced people." Mazou spoke by telephone from Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, where he attended a special summit of the African Union at the weekend to discuss the continent's humanitarian crises. Mazou said Africa already faced "displacement on an unprecedented scale" through the double crunch of climate-related disasters and conflicts. The AU Commission estimates that 113 million people will need urgent assistance in 2022, while 48 million of those affected are refugees and internally displaced. "Floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense, seriously affecting countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan," said Mazou, a diplomat from the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville. Climate-conflict cycle "Disasters linked to climate change risk not only worsening poverty, hunger and access to natural resources such as water, but also increasing instability and violence," he added. He gave the example of Cameroon's Far North region, where herders, fishermen and farmers have begun to fight over access to scarce water resources. At least 100,000 people have fled their homes, moving inside Cameroon or to neighbouring countries. In the southeast of the continent, cyclones have battered Mozambique, where growing violence and unrest in the north have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, said Mazou. "The Sahel is on the front line of the climate crisis, with temperatures rising 1.5 times faster than the global average. This only worsens conflicts over limited resources, making life even more difficult for those who have been forced to flee their homes," he added. Mazou said humanitarian aid was falling far behind the accelerating needs. "We are already seeing this with further cuts in food aid to refugees in Mozambique and Zambia," he said. "Rations will also be reduced for refugees in Sudan next month, among other countries." In the longer term, more needed to be done to shore up protection against climate change and to open up suitable land for farming, he said. "The impact of the war in Ukraine on the cost and availability of food around the world... highlights the importance of taking advantage of the vast amount of fertile land available in Africa to end unnecessary dependence on imports," said Mazou. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt is preparing to host the first edition of Africa Health ExCon, the biggest medical exhibition and conference on the continent, in New Cairo from 5-7 June. The conference will be held under the slogan "Your Gate to Innovation and Trade" at Al-Manara International Conference Centre in New Cairo district. The three-day conference, organised by the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement (UPA), will see the participation of 2,000 delegates representing government health entities from Africa and the Middle East. Over 350 companies operating in more than 102 countries will take part in the conference, unveiling the latest medical technologies and outlining the best practices for sustainable healthcare on the continent. Africa Health ExCon will include 350 sessions and 20 workshops featuring more than 800 international medical speakers and experts. The conference sessions will showcase the latest technologies in the field of medicine as well as initiatives that support the Africa ExCon as a sustainable platform that connects international healthcare partners together. In this regard, the conference is set to offer a unique opportunity for global representatives of the healthcare sector to explore innovative medical supplies and equipment as well as other medical fields. The initiatives to be discussed during the conference include the Egyptian Cervical Cancer Elimination initiative that aims at protecting Egyptian and African women from cervical cancer. This is in addition to the Egyptian presidential initiative for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) cases launched in mid-2021. Sessions of the conference will discuss various topics including medical tourism, public health and population challenges. Africa Health ExCon will also offer training opportunities in the medical sector through sessions and workshops. Egypt as Africas health tech hub Africa Health ExCon, which will be held under the auspices of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, will help put Egypt on track to become Africas health technology hub, said Bahaa El-Din Zidan, chairman of the UPA. The conference will also stimulate Egypts leadership role in line with its strategic vision and will support the infrastructure development strategies implemented in the African countries to boost the quality of health care services offered to their peoples. Over the recent years, Egypt has repeatedly affirmed its readiness to support the healthcare system in Africa, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. In April, the Egyptian government said it is ready to offer all forms of support and facilitation necessary to host the headquarters of the planned African Medicines Agency (AMA) in Egypt. Last year, Egypt cast the foundation stone for the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundations heart centre in Rwandas capital of Kigali and also inaugurated the AFRI Egypt Medical Center for Health Care in Ugandas Jinja. Egypt, a producer of coronavirus vaccines, has repeatedly affirmed plans to export vaccines to African countries after reaching self-sufficiency. Egypt has also reiterated its calls for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to African countries. Search Keywords: Short link: EgyptAir launched on Thursday a direct flight from Cairo to Irelands Dublin for the first time as part of the newly-launched route between the capitals of the two countries. The Egyptian flag carrier said in a statement that it will operate four weekly flights to and from Dublin using the Airbus A320neo, which provides 16 seats in business class and 126 seats in economy class. The opening of this new route comes as EgyptAir is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year as the company is keen to expand its air services, the statement said. EgyptAir called on passengers to book their flights between Cairo and Dublin by contacting customer service via phone at 1717 or through the official website. Amr Nabil, CEO and chairman of EgyptAir, announced the opening of the new route in February, saying Irelands location in Western Europe makes Dublin Airport a strategic hub for travellers to all of Egypts tourist destinations. Managing Director of Dublin Airport Vincent Harrison welcomed the step, hailing Cairo as one of the worlds great cities. Harrison said the airport will closely cooperate with EgyptAir to promote the new route. In 2018, Ireland said 50,000 Irish tourists visit Egypt annually. Search Keywords: Short link: The Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) has launched its first regional headquarters in Cairo during the group's 2022 annual meetings, which are being held in Sharm El-Sheikh under the auspices of Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. "The cooperation between Egypt and the IsDB Group has been strengthened by the bank's selection of a regional headquarters in Cairo, [which enriches] the outstanding development role played by the IsDB and opens up new horizons for cooperation between the two parties, Egypts Minister of Planning and Development and the countrys governor at the IsDB Hala El-Said. The minister added that the headquarters will manage and follow up on projects and cooperation with all stakeholders in Egypt and neighbouring countries, which will hence fortify cooperation between the various financial institutions of the Bank Group and the business community. Egyptian, Arab, and African nations will benefit from the services provided by these institutions. During the second day of the meetings, President of the IsDB Group Muhammed Al-Jasser said that supporting the private sector is key for the banks operations in Egypt, adding that integration between the public and private sectors is essential to achieve economic growth in all the IsDBs member countries amid the ongoing challenges. Al-Jasser also noted that the IsDB eyes seizing the investment opportunities the Suez Canal Economic Zone provides, adding that the Suez Canals new extension has enhanced Egypts trade position in the global market. Al-Jasser added that the total project portfolio between the IsDB Group and Egypt has amounted to $17.8 billion since its inception in 1974. This portfolio covers energy (60 percent), agriculture (18 percent), real estate (11 percent) and mining (9 percent). On a wider level, Al-Jasser said that the Banks Group extended over $162 billion for 11,000 projects to its 57 member countries. He also revealed that the Group will expand the lending process to help member countries navigate the ongoing crisis and its serious repercussions. Minister El-Said noted that Egypt is the largest contributor to the IsDBs capital, with $17 billion invested through the end of March 2022, including 303 projects that have been completed with a total value of $10.5 billion, in addition to 64 ongoing projects. She added that the governments priority is to support the private sector to play a greater role in the countrys economy, asserting that it is the key partner to the countrys economic development and the main creator of job opportunities. To that end, Egypt has so far invested EGP 6 trillion in infrastructure projects over the past six years to create a suitable business climate for the private sector, according to El-Said. Moreover, the COVID-19 shock followed by the war in Ukraine and its severe implications have pushed the government to prioritise agriculture, industry and information technology sectors to be the main areas the second wave of reforms is focused on. Developing these sectors is essential for Egypt to address the external shocks, El-Said explained. Meanwhile, El-Said revealed that 13 agreements and MoUs will be signed during the IsDB annual meetings, which target supporting export, developing the countrys infrastructure and financing, as well as enhancing the private sector. The minister urged the international and regional community to expand in providing concessional and blended finance, not loans, to help the countries growing and developing, especially amid the climate change crisis. In addition to IsDB, the Group includes the E.E. Bank Institute for Development, which is mandated to lead the development of innovative knowledge-based solutions to support the sustainable economy and Islamic finance; the Islamic Investment Insurance and Export Credit Foundation, which represents the group's insurance arm against political risks and export credit; the Peace Foundation for Private Sector Development; the Islamic International Trade Finance Corporation; and the Peace Solidarity Fund for Development, which works to reduce poverty by improving health care and education services, as well as financial support to enhance production capacity, including job financing. Search Keywords: Short link: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inspected on Thursday various environmentally friendly development projects in Sharm El-Sheikh in preparation for Egypt hosting the 27th session of the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27) in the Red Sea city in November. The prime minister toured development projects at the airport, the entrance to the city from the airport, El-Salam road, and the construction sites for a number of new hotels. The PM also toured ongoing project to develop and expand Sharm El-Sheikh International Airport. Accompanied by a number of ministers and state officials, Madbouly also inspected two fueling stations for public buses that are under construction, the first of which is designed to charge 140 electric buses, while the second is designed to fuel 120 natural gas-operated buses. Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir said the 100,000 square metre electric charging station will also be used for maintaining and cleaning the buses, adding that the natural gas fueling station stretches over 3,000 square metres and is located in the citys Nabq neighborhood. The buses are expected to be delivered on 30 September. El-Wazir also reviewed the current plan to establish 50 new electric charging stations in different places at the city to serve private electric cars, saying that 10 stations had already been built and the rest will be to be built in collaboration with a specialised private sector company as a part of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi directives to transform Sharm El-Sheikh into a green city by the start of the conference. He also pointed out that they are coordinating with the communication ministry to set up a mobile application for these stations, in addition to providing accommodations to bus drivers and placing road signs directing drivers from hotels to the COP27 halls. The transport minister stressed that the construction work is being carried out around the clock in anticipation of COP27. In late May, South Sinai governorate announced that 27 national projects will be finalised in Sharm El-Sheikh ahead of COP27, including the construction of a flyover on the Middle Road (King Salman Road), five axes linking El-Salam Road with the Middle Road and the Ring Road. The projects also include the construction of three solar power plants, an environmentally-friendly municipality building, central park, mall, and the bank complex in El-Nour district. Search Keywords: Short link: The TV said the bus was attacked near a village in a desert area of the province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq. It did not say whether the bus was attacked with machinegun fire, a missile or a roadside bomb. The report gave no further details and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Large parts of Deir el-Zour were once controlled by the extremist Islamic State group, which in 2014 proclaimed a so-called ``caliphate`` in a third of both Iraq and Syria. In the past, Syrian authorities have blamed such attacks on IS and its sleeper cells, which have been active in eastern and central Syria, despite IS militants losing areas they once controlled in 2019. Search Keywords: Short link: EU ambassadors on Thursday dropped the leader of Russia's Orthodox church from a proposed blacklist, allowing them to agree a new round of sanctions after opposition from Hungary, diplomats said. "Another strong package of sanctions was agreed today against Putin and the Kremlin," tweeted EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. "This will reduce Russia's capacity to finance its war." Budapest had stalled final approval of the fresh wave of sanctions over the war in Ukraine, including a ban on most Russian oil imports, by demanding that Patriarch Kirill be taken off the list. EU leaders on Monday thought they had clinched agreement on the new measures after giving in to Hungarian premier Viktor Orban's demand to exempt Russian oil arriving via pipeline. But the other 26 nations had to buckle again to wrap up the package in the face of Orban's obstinacy after he insisted the Russian church leader's name also be removed. An EU diplomat said there was "some frustration and disappointment" with Hungary, but an acceptance that securing the broader measures after weeks of haggling was more important. 'Freedom of religion' Kirill, 75, is a fervent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has backed his military campaign in Ukraine. Orban, the closest EU leader to the Kremlin, had said he opposed adding Kirill to the list as it would contravene "freedom of religion". EU officials say the new sanctions will see some 90 percent of Russian oil exports to the EU halted by the end of the year as the bloc tries to halt funds flowing to Moscow's war machine. A diplomat said other EU nations had refused to give in to a further demand from Orban to keep being able to sell on the Russian oil he will still receive. The move is seen as the most powerful sanctions taken to date against Moscow after five previous waves of punishment that have rocked the Russian economy. The package also includes disconnecting Russia's largest bank Sberbank from the global SWIFT payment system and a ban on three more Russian state media outlets. Other prominent additions to the asset freeze and visa ban blacklist include Putin's alleged girlfriend Alina Kabaeva and military personnel suspected of war crimes in Ukraine. The sanctions should be formally adopted later this week when they are published in the EU's official journal. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a contract to purchase 4650,000 tons of wheat from Russia, Bulgaria and Romania in what is reportedly the countrys largest wheat purchase since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February. According to GASC, it purchased in an international tender 175,000 tons from Russia, 240,000 tons from Romania and 50,000 tons from Bulgaria. The purchase from Russia will be shipped from 20 to 31 July and the wheat from Romania will be shipped between 1 and 10 August, GASC said in its statement. According to wheat traders who spoke with Reuters, the wheat quantities were purchased at cost of $480 per ton, an increase of 41 percent from Egypts last purchase from before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Egypt, one of the worlds biggest wheat importer, received 80 percent of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine last year due to its high quality and competitive pricing and the two countries geographical proximity. In media statements on Wednesday, Yasser Tawfik, the head of the Procurement and Storage Sector at the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trades Holding Company for Silos, revealed that Egypt is awaiting the arrival of five cargo ships carrying wheat imported to four countries. The cargo ships are arriving in the first week of June from Bulgaria (55,000 tons), France (63,000 tons), and Russia (63,000 tons), and a Ukrainian cargo ship that departed from Bulgaria is on its way to Egypt. There is also an Egyptian cargo ship that has not yet departed Ukraine. Egypt imports 12 to 13 million tons of wheat per year, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity in 2020 an online data visualisation platform focused on the geography and dynamics of economic activities across the globe. The government has announced that it is diversifying its import sources from a new list of countries, at the top of which is India, which has exempted Egypt from its recent wheat export ban. In the first week of May, Egypt signed a deal to import 61,500 tons of Indian wheat. Egypt is expected to source around 6 million tons of wheat this season around 2.5 million more than in 2021. According to the Egyptian Cabinet, Egypt has a strategic reserve of wheat that can cover domestic consumption for four months. Search Keywords: Short link: Russia hopes Turkey will "refrain" from launching an offensive in northern Syria, a diplomatic spokesperson said Thursday, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed threats of a military campaign targeting Kurdish "terrorists". "We hope that Ankara will refrain from actions that could lead to a dangerous deterioration of the already difficult situation in Syria," Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. Search Keywords: Short link: A Cairo misdemeanour court sentenced a man to one year in prison and an EGP 20,000 fine for physically assaulting his wife and causing her injuries that left her incapacitated for 20 days. The Public Prosecution charged the man in May for assaulting his wife, Mary Magdy, after a video showing the attack went viral online. In the video, which provoked outrage on social media, a man can be seen repeatedly striking a woman with a wooden plank. On 13 May, the victim and her daughter filed a complaint with the prosecution accusing the husband of assaulting her with a knife and a wooden plank over a family dispute. The viral video resulted in a social media campaign calling for the husbands arrest, with Magdys name trending for a number of days. Magdy, a mother of three in her 30s, told the media that she suffered abuse from her husband for a long time, and had previously filed four complaints against him with the police. She also said that she received help from the National Council for Women and the Ministry of Social Solidarity the video went viral. MP Amal Salama is proposing an amendment to some articles of Egypts penal code that would toughen the punishment on husbands for beating their wives. Articles 242 and 243 of the countrys Penal Code 58/1937 stipulates that the penalty for hitting a wife is one year in prison and a maximum fine of EGP 200, and a maximum of five years along with a fine of EGP 300 for those who injure or beat others in a manner that results in injuries or permanent disability. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt has sent its sincere condolences to the Jordanian people, government and families of the victims of an armed attack on a UN peacekeeping convoy in west Africas Mali on Wednesday. Egypt stresses its full support to the sisterly Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in this painful incident, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Wednesday, expressing Egypts strong condemnation of the attack. The terrorist attack near the town of Kidal in northern Mali wounded four Jordanian peacekeepers, one of whom died from his wounds, according to the UN. The convoy remained under the attackers sustained fire for about an hour. The attack is the fifth of its kind in the Kidal region in just one week, according to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The country has been fighting an extremist insurgency over the past decade. The UN said the attack was carried out by members of a suspected terrorist group using rocket launchers and other arms. In March, MINUSMA said more than 250 peacekeepers had died in the west African country since 2013 as the mission has remained under a daily threat. With more than 18,000 personnel, MINUSMA is one of the UNs largest peacekeeping missions worldwide out of 12 operations with a total of 90,000 peacekeepers. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts Foreign Minister and President Designate of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) Sameh Shoukry said it is important to focus climate efforts on the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and affirmed the necessity of closing the funding gaps related to the climate crisis. Shoukry was speaking in a session titled The Path to COP27 organised as part of the 2022 annual meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), currently in session in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Shoukry added that is Egypt exerting its utmost efforts to ensure the success of COP27 which is set to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November but this depends on all parties being aware of the fact that we are all engaged on the same path. Funding dedicated to combating climate change should be boosted and all relevant stakeholders should be engaged in this action, Shoukry said. The FM highlighted the huge funding gap affecting developing countries in particular, saying that despite the progress achieved so far, the road towards meeting the needs of all countries is long. The huge funding gap between developing and developed countries, especially in Africa, is one of the major issues Egypt has been raising in conferences related to climate change in the past few years. Egypt has vowed to address the needs of the African continent to confront climate change at COP27. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts economic reforms have enabled the countrys economy to withstand various crises, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a speech on Thursday during the inauguration of the annual meetings of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group. The IsDBs annual meeting is being held this year in Sharm El-Sheikh city for the first time under the patronage of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. The PM hailed the attendance of a large number of senior representatives of governments, civil society and regional and international financial institutions as well as diplomatic envoys, saying that this reflects the importance of the IsDB meetings. The meetings are being held under the theme Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability. At the inaugural session of the meetings, a documentary film on the IsDB was screened to review the bank's objectives for development. The film shed light on the bank's endeavors to enhance education for all and help displaced children enlist in schools and secure their future, in addition to other efforts to assist member states in standing against global challenges pertaining to food security, water, sanitation, health and renewable energy. The film also highlighted the cooperation of the IsDB with international partners to achieve the global objectives of realising a better and sustainable future for all. Search Keywords: Short link: The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, will speak with President Vladimir Putin in the southwestern Russian city of Sochi on Friday, Dakar said. The visit is aimed at "freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries", along with easing the Ukraine conflict, Sall's office said Thursday. The visit was organised after an invitation by Putin, and Sall will travel with the president of the African Union Commission, his office added. The AU will also receive a video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, though no date has been set. The war in Ukraine has sent the cost of fuel, grain and fertilisers skyrocketing around the globe, which is being acutely felt in African nations. Both Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat and other cereals to Africa, while Russia is a key producer of fertiliser. The UN said last month Africa faces an "unprecedented" crisis caused by the war, compounding difficulties facing the continent, from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this week, Sall made an appeal to European Union leaders to help ease the crisis on key commodities. He said their decision to expel Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system could hurt food supplies to the continent. "When the SWIFT system is disrupted, it means that even if the products exist, the payment becomes complicated, if not impossible," Sall said via video link. "I would like to insist that this issue be examined as soon as possible by our competent ministers in order to find appropriate solutions," he added. Sall acknowledged that Russia's blockade of Odesa had harmed Ukrainian food exports, and he backed UN-led efforts to free the port. Russia has come under a barrage of sanctions from the West following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, in a bid to punish Moscow for the military intervention. Search Keywords: Short link: Rebels have killed two people and abducted three others in an attack in Ethiopia's southwest, regional authorities said Thursday. The assault in the Gambella region on Wednesday targeted farm workers, said Ugetu Ading, head of communications for the Gambella regional government. He said the attack was carried out by the Gambella Freedom Front and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), both rebel groups and the latter active in the neighbouring region of Oromia. The government was carrying out a manhunt for the attackers, Ugetu added. The OLA last year forged an alliance with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a group that long dominated Ethiopia, but since November 2020 has been mired in conflict against the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Gambella also borders South Sudan, and has in the past suffered intrusions over the frontier by armed fighters from that country. Search Keywords: Short link: Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as troops elsewhere demolished the home of a Palestinian who gunned down Israelis in an attack earlier this year. The Ministry identified the man as Ayman Mheisen, 29. The Israeli occupation military said forces operating in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem were pelted with rocks and explosive devices. The troops responded with live fire, according to the military. Meanwhile, a blast from the home demolition in the West Bank village of Yaabed lit up the night sky early Thursday. Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building. The military said forces exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen at the scene. The Palestinian whose home was demolished methodically gunned down five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in March. Israel uses home demolitions as a deterrent to prevent further attacks. Critics see the tactic as a form of collective punishment. On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a local journalist who the occupation state claimed had been carrying a knife. The events come during a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, where a spate of Palestinian attacks set off near-daily arrest raids by Israel in the West Bank. The tensions were further fueled by clashes at a key Jerusalem mosque and the killing of a well-known Palestinian-American journalist. The Palestinians and witnesses say she was killed by Israeli fire, while Israel says it's not clear if soldiers or Palestinian gunmen fired the deadly bullet. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Ayman Mheisen, is the fourth Palestinian to be killed within the last 24 hours, after Bilal Awad Tawfiq Kabha, during confrontations in the town of Yaabed, and the young woman, Ghufran Warasna, who were shot by the Israeli occupation forces, at the entrance to Al-Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron.and Yasser Attia al-Masri, from the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, succumbed to his injuries during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in May 2021. At least 19 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks in recent months. At least 35 Palestinians have been killed by Israel. Some were gunmen killed in fighting with Israel, while others were shot while allegedly throwing stones or firebombs at Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank. But an unarmed woman and at least two people who appear to have been bystanders were also among those killed. Search Keywords: Short link: The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has announced four new cases of Monkeypox, in line with the UAE health authorities' policy on the early detection and monitoring of the disease, the UAE news agency WAM reported. "Monkeypox is a viral disease, but usually a self-limited one, if compared to COVID-19. It's mostly transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, including bodily fluids, and respiratory droplets, or with material contaminated with the virus. It can also be passed to the baby in the womb," the Ministry said in a statement. MoHAP urged all community members to follow appropriate preventive measures and careful precautions while travelling and stay safer in large crowds and avoid risky behaviours. It also reassured all community members that the UAE health authorities are taking all necessary measures, including investigation, examination of contacts, and monitoring their health. Search Keywords: Short link: By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Labor and Social Security Minister Sahil Babayev has said that strengthening the social protection of the population is one of the main directions of Azerbaijans socio-economic policy, Azernews reports. He made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation of the International Monetary Fund on a visit to Azerbaijan. Speaking about the social reforms the country conducted, the minister noted a significant increase in social payments over recent years. He mentioned that another package of reforms aimed at increasing social benefits in Azerbaijan since the beginning of 2022 has been implemented, and an additional AZN2.1 billion ($1.2bn) was allocated for this package with 3.4 million people to benefit. Babayev stated that over the past four years the number of labor contracts across the country has increased by 30 percent and the payroll by 2.2 times. As of May 1, the number of employment contracts had increased by 7,000 from the beginning of the year, he added. The self-employment program has been expanded several times, and 49,000 families have been involved in the program over the past four years, he opined. Moreover, the minister noted that the social support measures implemented in the country in the post-war period have already covered 100,000 people and provided them with 175,000 social services. During the meeting, the participants discussed the social reforms implemented in Azerbaijan in recent years and innovations in the labor market. Emirati businessman Omar Abduallah Al-Futtaim, the CEO of Al-Futtaim Group, said on Thursday that the group is working on expanding its investments in the Egyptian market despite economic challenges, and that it plans to inject from $700 million to $1 billion in investments in Egypt during the next three years. Al-Futtaim made the comments in a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and other Egyptian officials. Madbouly said Egypt welcomes foreign investment and praised the achievements of the Al-Futtaim Group during its 40 years of activity in the Egyptian market, a statement by the cabinet said. The PM said the state seeks to enhance the role of the private sector in investments, and that the State Ownership Policy Document has been prepared and is being presented for community dialogue in preparation for its implementation. Madbouly said that the document aims to reassure local investors, attract more foreign investments, and enhance the confidence of international institutions in the Egyptian economy. The state's policy document aims to delineate its presence in the economic sectors and activities to increase private sector participation. The document will specify the sectors from which the state plans to exit and those where it will continue during the next three years, according to a previous cabinet statement. For his part, Al-Futtaim said messages reflected in the State Ownership Policy Document are reassuring, and he expressed his optimism about the contents of the Integrated Industrial Partnership Initiative for sustainable economic development between Egypt, the UAE and Jordan. On Wednesday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged enhancing coordination and close cooperation between the state's ministries and relevant bodies to expedite the activation of the newly-launched partnership industrial initiative with the UAE and Jordan. The initiative was launched in a tripartite meeting during a visit by a delegation from the Egyptian government headed by Madbouly to the Emirati capital. As part of the initiative, the UAEs government announced on Sunday that it is allocating an investment fund of $10 billion for joint projects with Egypt and Jordan. The fund will be run by Abu Dhabi Development Holding to support and accelerate the projects arising from the initiative. The PM affirmed the possibility of inviting investors from the Al-Futtaim Group's partners to visit Egypt to consider investment opportunities. Search Keywords: Short link: June may be busting out all over Egypt is in greater rapture. It is the year of 2022, and a recurring Egyptomania is penetrating the world once again as in 1789 with the Napoleonic invasion of this ancient land. Its influence continued through the 19th and 20th century. A most fascinating event took place in 1922 when British Egyptologist Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun. The mania for all things Egyptian reached its peak and was fondly referred to as the Tutankhamun mania. The enchantment and appeal has never faded, but that is a story for another day. This year, 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of this amazing discovery, the golden tomb of king Tut in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The pharaohs story and artefacts have captivated the hearts and minds of people around the world, since the tombs discovery. To say it was the most spectacular event of the century, is a grave understatement. Interest in Egypt is now heightened by the expected opening of the biggest museum in the world, to house 100,000 treasures from the ancient world, to open its doors later this year. There is more. The breathtaking deciphering of the Rosetta Stone by Jean-Francois Champollion, took place in 1822, 200 years ago. This gave us the key for understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. What a year for Egypt. Suffice it to say that the international interest in Egypt has suddenly exploded. The world media is practically residing in this ancient land, besides the courthouse in Virginia with Johnny Depp an Amber Heard, of course. Compare that to the astounding civilsation, culture, and superb architecture that has baffled many a scholar to this day. Among the myriad achievements is one that seems to get less attention than it deserves. It is the Egyptian obelisk. Named obelisk by Greek historian Herodotus, (Gk. for spit), its Egyptian name was tekhenu, meaning to pierce, the sky. This sleek and slender monuments adorns many capitals around the world. It has been imitated, replicated, copied and borrowed the world over, but the astonishing architecture started here in Egypt, in the same era as the Great Pyramids of Giza during the 5th and 6th dynasties, (2494-2184 BC). Technically, building the pyramids has been unraveled and understood, miraculous as that might be, however the obelisk is still a puzzle. Carved out of granite from the Aswan quarries as one single block of stone, weighing several hundred tons, with a square base, this four-sided, rectangular column gradually tapered to a pointed top reaching the sky, is unparalleled. Carving and decorating it is impressive enough, but raising it from the ground to stand straight and tall, pointing to the heavens, remains an unsolved mystery. Modern day efforts and trial tests were performed by archaeologists and engineers to replicate the raising of such a massive block, using ancient Egyptian methods, to stand in an upright position, have failed. British engineer Mark Whitley spent six years calculating height, weight, position, ropes, human help but finally gave up, finding it too dangerous an experiment. He figured the ancients probably kept trying again and again until they succeeded. What a lesson to learn. If you have never noticed an obelisk, this tall structure tapered four-sided column with a pointed top, it is time you should. Only 23 or 30, of the original obelisks remain. Italy has more obelisks than Egypt 11 of them. Egypt has 5. Others adorn prominent sites in London Paris, Istanbul, UK, the Vatican and Poland. Do not confuse the Washington monument, a modern day structure to honour George Washington, founder of the nation. The Egyptian monument represented a given pharaoh, expressing the fusion of earthly and divine power, a solar symbol of creation and regeneration. With a square base, the structure gradually tapered high up in a pyramid shape, called pyramidion. One could say it was a replica of a pyramid, only taller, more graceful, more slender, a spectacular monument dedicated to the solar gods. To create this monolithic structure from one single piece of stone is impressive enough. How they got it to its designed spot without todays modern technology is an unsolved mystery, one of the many mysteries of this astounding civilisation. An ancient Egyptian monument adorns several world capitals. It is a bittersweet affair. On the one hand it reminds the world of the greatness and durability of this land; on the other, we realise that they were either stolen, bought or offered as gifts by foreign rulers of Egypt who had little regard for its ancient culture. As an example of the importance of ancient Egyptian treasures, the two obelisks, standing in front of the Luxor Temple, were offered to King Charles X of France in 1830. The journey took six years. A special ship was built to accommodate the load. Operated by 350 gunmen and sailors 200,000 people watched at the Place de la Concorde to see the obelisk rise. France never went back to pick the second Luxor obelisk. Adorning the elegant Place de la Concorde, the Egyptian obelisk is the oldest monument in France. It is not French, Roman or Greek. Western civilisation originated in Greece or Rome, so they say. Think again. Greece and Rome invaded Egypt for hundreds of years. They learned from Egypt, mother of all civilisation. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 June, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said he's convening a meeting of senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey to try to overcome Ankara's objections to the two Nordic countries joining the alliance. Stoltenberg told reporters that the talks will be held in Brussels ``in a few days with senior officials,'' but provided no further details. ``I'm confident that we will find a way forward,'' he said. Roused by security concerns over Russia's war on Ukraine, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last month. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blocking their path. He has said they're not doing enough to fight Kurdish extremism. Asked how long it might take to end the standoff, Stoltenberg said his goal is before the NATO summit. US President Joe Biden, Erdogan and their NATO counterparts are meeting in Madrid from June 28-30. ``We want to make sure that all allies have their security concerns taken into account, and that includes Turkey,`` US Secretary of State , said. Search Keywords: Short link: "The level of... respect that you see across the alliance for Ukrainian forces right now is quite high," Smith added. "We see moments where Russian forces advance. We see moments where Ukrainian forces are successfully able to push back." "Collectively at NATO, I think we do hope and believe that Ukraine will ultimately prevail," Julianne Smith told the Defense Writers Group. The U.S. permanent representative to NATO said Wednesday in Washington that recent Russian gains in eastern Ukraine have failed to shake the alliance's resolve, with members continuing to have faith in Kyiv's forces. Ukraine's most stalwart backers in the West are promising there will be no let-up in support, despite increasingly tough talk from Russian officials. Smith's comments come a day after Washington announced it would send more advanced weapons systems to Ukraine, including the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems known as HIMARS. U.S. President Joe Biden defended the decision in an editorial piece in The New York Times late Tuesday, saying the advanced rocket systems will help Ukraine "to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield." Ukrainian officials have been asking for such systems for weeks, saying they are needed to counter Russian artillery that has enabled Moscow's gains in the Donbas region. Russia Wednesday criticized the U.S. decision, accusing Washington of escalating tensions. "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during a visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, further called the move "a direct provocation, aimed at involving the West in military action." The U.S. ambassador to NATO rejected such concerns. U.S. military aid to Ukraine has "all evolved and changed over the last couple of months, I think, quite naturally," Smith said, adding the message to Kyiv about the parameters for that assistance "have remained relatively clear." "We are not in a position to support you with equipment that can attack Russian territory," she said. "NATO allies are united that NATO will not become a party to this conflict." Separately, Smith welcomed overtures by Turkey to Russia to help forge a path toward peace talks in general and negotiations aimed at ending the Russian blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odesa, which has prevented the shipment of needed grain. Smith also said NATO allies are not expecting much to come from Ankara's efforts. "We're skeptical that at this juncture it's going to lead to some sort of major breakthrough," she said. "There's no indication that Russia is taking any of this seriously or negotiating in good faith." The event started with a packed press briefing that was viewed on a livestream by more than 230,000 people. Boy band BTS, also known as BTS, visited the White House on Tuesday to meet U.S. President Joe Biden and discuss anti-Asian hate crimes. BTS thanked the White House and the president for the invitation and stressed the importance of diversity and tackling crimes targeting Asians. The group's leader RM said, "We thank President Biden and the White House for giving this important opportunity to speak about the important causes, remind ourselves of what we can do as artists." Biden later tweeted, "Thanks for all you're doing to raise awareness around the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination." Some 400 people formed a line stretching 250 m in front of the Korean Embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, the first day it started issuing tourist visas again after a two-year halt. The first Japanese national to apply for a tourist visa had waited in line since 7 p.m. Tuesday. By 4:50 a.m. the person who got in line found themselves in 54th place, and after 9 a.m. the queue swelled to more than 400 people. "We were only able to process 200 people and had to send home some who were at the back of the line, but more people got in line afterwards," an embassy staffer said. Demand was much higher than expected. Pent-up demand was stoked over two years of lockdown by hugely popular Korean TV dramas like "Crash Landing on You" and "Itaewon Class" and K-pop juggernaut Bangtan Boys, also known as BTS. "The application process for tourist visas is complicated and I had no idea so many people would show up to apply," an industry insider said. For now, visa applicants must submit a copy of their passports, photo and plane ticket and visit the embassy in person, and it takes two to four weeks to process a visa. The proportion of China in Korea's total exports has fallen to the lowest since 2008. Korea continued to suffer a trade deficit as exports to China slumped. Korea posted a trade deficit of US$1.7 billion in May, remaining in the red for a second month, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday. This year's cumulative deficit until May amounted to $7.8 billion. The main reasons are that the cost of energy imports skyrocketed due to sky-high international oil prices, while mass lockdowns in big Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing hit Korea's exports. China took up only 23.4 percent in Korea's total exports in the January-May period, the lowest since 2008's 21.7 percent. The proportion surpassed 20 percent for the first time in 2005 and never dropped below 24 percent since 2009, peaking at 26.8 percent in 2018 and hovering at about 25 percent until last year. Exports of petroleum products to China more than halved on-year in May, while shipments of general machinery and displays also decreased by about 20 percent. Prof. Sung Tae-yoon of Yonsei University said, "We're not only taking a blow from turbulence in the global supply chain due to the lockdowns in big Chinese cities but also suffering dwindling exports." Cho Kyung-yup of the Korea Economic Research Institute said, "We need to reduce dependence on China and instead explore more North American and European markets." KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2022 - 19:37 | All, Japan Shimane Prefecture in western Japan approved Thursday a plan to restart a nuclear reactor of the same type as those that suffered meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The green light for the No. 2 unit at Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s Shimane nuclear plant in the prefectural capital of Matsue was announced by Gov. Tatsuya Maruyama in a prefectural assembly session. The company is seeking to restart the reactor in 2023 at the earliest. Inactive since 2012, it will likely be the country's first boiling water reactor to be restarted since the Fukushima disaster. Japan has been gradually restarting idled nuclear plants. But the reactors brought back online have been limited, so far, to another type -- pressurized water reactors. "I understand that (nuclear power) plays a certain role" in Japan's energy policy, Maruyama said. "I thought that restarting is unavoidable at present, so I decided to accept it." Some residents visited the assembly to hear the governor's remarks from the audience seats. "I have opposed nuclear plants. Not to mention the danger, I think it is very unstable as an energy source. I want (the governor) to work by looking at citizens, not the state," Masafumi Ashihara, a 72-year-old civic group member, said. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference the central government will ensure safety is prioritized. The Shimane plant is the only one in the country located in a prefectural capital. It is some 9 kilometers away from the prefectural government office. In Japan, evacuation plans must be formulated for people living within 30 km of a nuclear plant. About 460,000 people in six cities across Shimane and Tottori prefectures live within the evacuation area for the Shimane plant. The other heads of local governments in the area have already approved the plan to restart the reactor. Still, concerns remain among residents over how effective the evacuation plan would be in a nuclear accident. In Matsue, around 28,000 people who will need assistance evacuating, such as elderly residents, live within a 5 to 30 km radius of the plant, while approximately 1,700 such residents live in a 5 km radius, according to a survey by Kyodo News. Both figures are the highest among municipalities that host nuclear plants in Japan. "We would need to thoroughly inform people, who may or may not be concerned about an accident, of the evacuation plan," Maruyama said at a press conference. Chugoku Electric cleared national safety standards in September 2021 for restarting the reactor. The utility is scheduled to complete its safety measures next February. By Miyuki Wakabayashi, KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2022 - 13:50 | Feature, All, Japan A large-scale donor milk bank began operating in Tokyo in April, helping mothers get premature newborn babies their required nutrients -- a promising step forward in a nation with hardly any such facilities available. Breastmilk is known to boost babies' immune systems and protect those born underweight. Many mothers who give birth prematurely often have trouble breastfeeding or producing breastmilk. But there are only two donor milk banks in Japan, including the newly opened Nippon Foundation Human Milk Bank. The other one is also in the Japanese capital, but the number of hospitals offering mothers donated breastmilk is also limited. A 30-year-old woman who works in Tokyo gave birth to a baby boy more than two months earlier than expected in an emergency Caesarean at a hospital in the city last December. At birth, the newborn weighed only about 1,000 grams and was immediately admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The mother could barely move because of acute pain following childbirth and struggled to produce breastmilk. She felt shocked and sorry for having given birth to "such a small" child, she said. Following her doctor's advice, she immediately decided to use donor milk until she could adequately breastfeed her baby, who continued to grow without any significant health issues. "My stress was alleviated. My boy and our family had been saved," she said. Donor milk banks pasteurize breastmilk, donated by registered women, for freezer storage, and supply it to hospital NICUs on demand. There are more than 750 milk banks in over 60 countries. Mothers who produce more milk than necessary to feed their own babies register. The Nippon Foundation Human Milk Bank, which opened on April 1, has freezers capable of storing up to 5,000 liters of milk, enough for about 4,000 babies, per year. The aim is to have each donor supply milk on more than three occasions or more than 3 liters. With some 160 women having registered as of the end of April, "we got off to a favorable start," said Mari Tanaka, an executive director of the milk bank. The other donor milk bank is in the head office of Pigeon Corp., a nursey goods manufacturer, and can store donor milk for up to 1,000 babies per year. Some 7,000 babies are born prematurely with weights of less than 1,500 grams per year in Japan, and an estimated 5,000 of them need donor milk. As premature babies are born before their internal organs develop enough in the womb, they risk falling ill with such diseases as necrotizing enterocolitis or death of tissue in the intestine. Studies in Japan and abroad have confirmed that breastmilk reduces the risk of the illness as it effectively provides premature babies with a good nutrient balance to contribute to the growth of the digestive tract. There are still only a small number of Japanese hospitals where donor milk is accessible. Although there are hundreds of NICUs, only about 60 of them have contracts to receive donor milk from the two banks. "We want to step up publicity to have hospitals recognize the merits (of donor milk)," said Tanaka. To achieve a nationwide supply of donor milk, Katsumi Mizuno, professor of pediatrics at Showa University, stressed the need to strengthen relations with local governments so a blanket contract covering an entire prefecture can be concluded. KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2022 - 21:00 | Others, All A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to pay a total of 73.5 million yen ($566,000) in compensation to current and former residents of Tamura City in the west of the complex hit by the March 2011 disaster for emotional distress. But the 525 plaintiffs, who sought 11 million yen per person in damages from both Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and the Japanese government, are considering appealing the ruling, some of them said in a press conference. The Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court recognized the plaintiffs' claim that they were anguished by losing previous joy, such as picking nearby wild plants and forging community ties, but dismissed the case against the state. Presiding Judge Yohei Motomura noted that a government organization's assessment released in 2002 of danger posed by possible quake-induced tsunami for the nuclear complex lacked accuracy, but it was still difficult for the state to foresee the magnitude of tsunami that hit the plant. "Even if the government had exercised its regulatory authority and had TEPCO take countermeasures, it could not have been possible to prevent the tsunami from triggering the accident," the judge said, awarding 2 million yen to each plaintiff. Given that the plaintiffs had received compensation in the form of a monthly consolation fee of 100,000 yen from TEPCO through August 2012, the court ruled that most of the damages awarded in its ruling have already been paid. A devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast on March 11, 2011, triggered reactor meltdowns at the nuclear complex and sent plumes of radioactive material in the air. Some areas of Tamura sit within a radius of 20- to 30-kilometers from the plant and were designated as emergency evacuation preparation zones the next month in the event of a worsened situation. The designation was lifted in September 2011. Similar cases have been filed across Japan accusing the company and government of negligence over safety concerns about the plant. Related coverage: Japan nuclear regulator OKs plan to release treated Fukushima water By Trend Current energy crisis has demonstrated the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor in strengthening energy security and the achievement of decarbonisation goals in Europe, as well as of the Shah Deniz gas field as a source of natural gas supply to Europe, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and Minister of Mining and Energy, Prof. Zorana Mihajlovic, PhD, told Trend. She believes that further development and construction of new gas sources in the Caspian region will significantly contribute to the security of supply of this energy source to Europe, and therefore to the Republic of Serbia after the construction of the interconnectors that is currently in progress. In addition, the Southern Gas Corridor is recognized as a pipeline that could transport hydrogen in the future, which is important for the energy transition and further steps towards the use of fully green fuels. When we complete our interconnection with Bulgaria, it will allow for other suppliers to appear on our market and to reduce dependence on only one supplier. We expect to intensify cooperation and discussions with Azerbaijan regarding this matter, which is why it is important that, during the visit of the delegation of the Ministry, among other things, an Agreement on cooperation in the field of energy and mining was signed between the two governments and we had a meeting with the Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan, noted Serbian deputy prime minister. Mihajlovic said Serbia expects that by activating new deposits with confirmed natural gas reserves in the Caspian region the country will be able to secure additional quantities of natural gas for its needs and that the construction of interconnections will become a transit route to other countries in the region. This would further increase the energy stability and security of the entire region, she added. Serbian deputy prime minister went on to add that underground natural gas storage facilities are an essential factor for the stability and security of natural gas supply. Serbia has one underground natural gas storage facility with a capacity of 450 million cubic meters; it is planned to expand it to a capacity of 700 million cubic meters. In addition, it has been agreed with Hungary that Serbia will store 500 million cubic meters of gas in this countrys storage facilities, which will enable the stability of supply during the upcoming winter. One of our plans is to start a construction of an underground natural gas storage facility Itebej next year, with a capacity of 1 billion m3. The construction of this storage facility alongside the already existing one would ensure the security of supply of the domestic market and increase energy security, said Mihajlovic. She pointed out that energy security is currently the most important issue in Europe and all countries are seeking to ensure the security of supply of energy and energy generating products. KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2022 - 21:27 | All, Japan A Japanese-born American said Thursday she has filed a lawsuit with a Japanese court claiming that the country's nationality law, which bans its citizens from also holding a foreign nationality, violates the Constitution. Yuri Kondo, 75, who currently lives in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan and filed the lawsuit at the Fukuoka District Court, said at a press conference with her legal team that acquiring U.S. citizenship should not have automatically stripped her of her Japanese one. Kondo, who was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, moved to the United States in 1971 to attend graduate school and began practicing law in Arizona in 1997. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 2004, she attempted to renew her Japanese passport in 2017 but her application was rejected. She is currently in Japan on her U.S. passport. Kondo claims that Article 11 of the nationality law, which stipulates that Japanese citizens automatically lose their nationality upon gaining a foreign nationality, violates the right to pursue happiness and equality as guaranteed by the Constitution. "Nationality is an important human right, and it is illegal to automatically take it away from someone without their consent," she said. The Tokyo District Court in January 2021 rejected a similar lawsuit filed by eight men and women residing in Europe, ruling that Japan's nationality law is constitutional. The plaintiffs have appealed. KYODO NEWS - Jun 2, 2022 - 22:01 | All, World Queen Elizabeth II appeared at a traditional military parade in London on Thursday, opening celebrations to mark 70 years since her coronation. The parade, known as Trooping the Color, kicked off a series of special events running through the weekend to celebrate the platinum jubilee. Thousands of royal fans of all ages and nationalities lined the procession route hoping for a chance to see the monarch. Lynette Bailey, 64, from Essex in southeast England, was in the crowd with her children and grandchildren. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime event. I don't think my grandchildren will see another platinum jubilee," she said. One couple from London in their 60s, who also attended the queen's diamond jubilee in 2012, said, "We think she has been an amazing queen for seventy years...we want to celebrate everything she's done for us." The queen ascended the throne in February 1952 following the death of her father, King George VI, and was crowned on June 2 the following year. The 96-year-old is the first British monarch to reach a platinum jubilee. In 2016 she became the world's longest-serving living monarch, following the death of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Festivities will include nationwide street parties and a star-studded concert featuring acts such as Queen and Elton John. National celebrations will conclude Sunday with a pageant recreating major moments from the queen's reign. The milestone follows a difficult period for the royal family, which saw the death of the queen's husband, Prince Philip, in April 2021 and the withdrawal from royal life of her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle the previous year. Some uncertainties had remained surrounding appearances by the monarch during the celebrations. The queen has had to miss number of recent engagements due to mobility issues, with Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, standing in. Norbert Aime Melingui Ayissi, history and economics lecturer at the University of Douala, speaks during an international colloquium in Yaounde, Cameroon, on May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Luo Yu) China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is building an open platform of cooperation and injecting growing impetus and stability into development of French-speaking African countries, experts said during a three-day international colloquium in Cameroon capital city of Yaounde. YAOUNDE, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is building an open platform of cooperation and injecting growing impetus and stability into development of French-speaking African countries, experts said during a three-day international colloquium in Cameroon capital city of Yaounde. The conference on BRI in Francophone Africa gathered hundreds of attendees including politicians, scholars, representatives of Chinese companies and college students. Wang Dong, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cameroon, said at the opening speech that the BRI aims to strengthen the global connectivity, to enhance the level of trade and investment cooperation and to promote the international cooperation in production capacities and equipment manufacturing. Wang Dong, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cameroon, speaks during an international colloquium in Yaounde, Cameroon, on May 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Luo Yu) Jimmy Yab, president of the China-Africa Francophone Observatory, a think tank on relations between China and Francophone Africa that organized the colloquium, said that joint efforts and win-win cooperation are the main traits of the BRI. Jimmy Yab, president of the China-Africa Francophone Observatory, a think tank on relations between China and Francophone Africa, speaks during an international colloquium in Yaounde, Cameroon, on May 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Luo Yu) Leaders in French-speaking African countries should take advantage of the initiative to enhance development of the continent, he said, adding that BRI was a veritable win-win cooperation. "This mode of partnership is not what we have seen before. The BRI is not development aid, it is cooperation between two partners, Africa and China, where partners sit on the same table. China attaches particular importance to infrastructure because it is development, as we say in our region 'when the road passes, development follows'," Yab said during the colloquium. Ronie Bertrand Nguenkwe, an economist and researcher at the University of Yaounde II, said the contribution made by the BRI has proven in a practical way that the initiative is based on cooperation, the exchange of benefits and common interests. "The partnership with China is different, it's different in terms of approach, the win-win approach, and the fact that we do not feel a certain domination in the partnership, and this is an important aspect for African countries. And knowing that things are changing, what we saw 50 years ago is no longer what we see today," Nguenkwe said. The BRI has become a popular platform for international cooperation, and has continuously supported African countries to improve infrastructure, said Norbert Aime Melingui Ayissi, history and economics lecturer at the University of Douala, specializing in development cooperation. "This initiative gives hope, hope that things will be done differently. African governments have to do everything possible to work with China to ensure the objectives of Belt and Road are realized," he said. Louis Dominique Biakolo Komo, lecturer of African and Comparative Philosophy at the University of Douala, noted that BRI is an exemplary mode of cooperation which is inclusive and seeks to develop the world. Louis Dominique Biakolo Komo, lecturer of African and Comparative Philosophy at the University of Douala, attends an international colloquium in Yaounde, Cameroon, on May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Luo Yu) "It is a cooperation of a country (China) which was victim of imperialism and which has a different vision of the world that fits squarely with the aspirations of Africa," Komo said. Thanks to its participation in the BRI, Cameroon has improved its infrastructure, restored industries and generated employment opportunities, the experts agreed. Xu Huajiang, General Manager of China Harbour Central Africa Division that designed and constructed some major projects in Cameroon including the Kribi Deep Sea Port and Kribi-Lolabe Highway, said that globalization and regionalization have become a general trend of development and should be embraced by African countries. "Only openness, tolerance, inclusiveness and interconnection can create mutual assistance and mutual benefits. So, it is necessary to strengthen the 'hard connectivity' of infrastructure and 'soft connectivity' of system rules and promote the four-in-one interconnection of land, sea, sky, and network," Xu said. The seminar, which began on Wednesday, have discussed five principal subjects of economic cooperation, green development, digital development, socio-cultural development and security. Photo taken on Nov. 23, 2021 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) - The United States has repeatedly stated that it is working to improve ASEAN centrality, but its recent launch of the IPEF "appears to be yet another strategy to undermine ASEAN centrality," said a Cambodian academic. - "How can the U.S. claim to work to strengthen ASEAN centrality while paying attention to some ASEAN members and ignoring others? This is a kind of disbanding a group, not a show of solidarity," he said. PHNOM PENH, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) led by the United States is another strategy to undermine the centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and to create divisions among the bloc's member states, a Cambodian academic said on Monday. In an opinion piece published in the English-language newspaper Khmer Times, Seun Sam, a policy analyst at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the IPEF, which includes a dozen Indo-Pacific countries, has been designed to provide a counterweight to China's economic clout in the region. He said the IPEF was joined by seven ASEAN members, with the exception of Cambodia, the 2022 ASEAN chair, Laos, and Myanmar. Photo taken on Dec. 30, 2021 shows a view of the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Xinhua/Xu Qin) The United States has repeatedly stated that it is working to improve ASEAN centrality, but its recent launch of the IPEF "appears to be yet another strategy to undermine ASEAN centrality," Sam said. "How can the U.S. claim to work to strengthen ASEAN centrality while paying attention to some ASEAN members and ignoring others? This is a kind of disbanding a group, not a show of solidarity," he added. Sam said it should be noticed that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10 ASEAN member states and their five FTA partners, namely Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. ASEAN's existing trade blocs and partners "should be valued," Sam said, adding that the United States only works with the countries that have high trade exchanges with it and does not pay attention to those that may require their assistance, and even "accuses them of being too close to their competitors," he said. There are also worries that the commitments the U.S. government has made concerning the IPEF are more symbolic than practical and its policies may not be durable, he added. "Overall, it is clear that the U.S. is working to decentralize ASEAN rather than unite it, as the country has always wanted to bring many initiatives into ASEAN, such as AUKUS, Quad and now the IPEF," Sam said. Photo taken on May 16, 2010 shows employees of the State Grid Ningxia Ultra-high-voltage Electric Power Co., Ltd and local people setting up grass grids in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua) YINCHUAN, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Looking at the southwest edge of the vast Maowusu Desert from above, one would not expect to see a green corridor of vibrant vegetation stretching across the wasteland. The spectacular 25-km corridor, paralleling an array of high voltage transmission towers, lies in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The towers, part of China's west-to-east power transmission program, have been safeguarded by the vegetation mainly consisting of grass and shrubs, which stabilize the sand and reduce desert-induced damage. The infrastructure is also part of the world's first 660-kilovolt direct current power transmission project. Operational in 2011, the project has transmitted over 330 billion kWh of electricity from the country's resources-rich west to the more developed, power-thirsty east. "In the past, it was all moving sand here and we couldn't drive in. We had to walk near the towers and patrol in the desert on foot," said Bai Lu, an employee of the State Grid Ningxia Ultra-high-voltage Electric Power Co., Ltd. Besides, challenges such as accumulated sand burying tower legs or tower foundation exposure due to backfill soil being blown away by winds also increased the difficulty of the maintenance work. "At that time, most of our efforts were focused on maintaining foundations of transmission towers in the desert, otherwise there would be a risk of the towers falling," Bai added. To tackle the challenges, the company Bai works at launched a campaign in 2012 to stabilize sand dunes along the transmission lines. "We were lacking in experience at first, and the survival rate of grass and trees planted was low. We consulted with the forestry department later to jointly roll out a plan for sand stabilization," said Yan Nanzheng, deputy general manager of the company. We have transformed the drifting sand dunes into fixed or semi-fixed sandy land by setting up grass grids, and then planted seedlings of Caragana korshinskii Kom and sowed mixed seeds of Artemisia desertorum Spreng and other species in the grids to restore vegetation under the towers, Yan added. The company also used drones to survey the grass grids to improve the efficiency of the restoration work. In the past decade, the campaign has added 1,446 mu of grassland (about 96.4 hectares) to the area. The areas once afflicted by sand-related disasters have been transformed to fixed sandy land, with weaker sand storms and signs of life emerging, said Bai. "Wild animals can be seen now and then during the patrol work," Bai said, adding that the transmission failure and the operation and maintenance pressure have been greatly reduced. Photo taken on May 29, 2020 shows fixed sandy land around the 660-kilovolt direct current power transmission project in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua) Cellphone photo taken on May 1, 2022 shows Dowa Village in Nagarze County in Shannan, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. With an altitude of 5,070 meters, Dowa Village is located at the foot of the Mongda Kangri Mountain and by the Puma Yumco Lake. (Xinhua/Shen Hongbing) LHASA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- In the eyes of Wangdu, 31, the most beautiful landscape in the world is in his hometown, a small village at 5,070 meters above sea level in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Situated next to the Puma Yumco Lake in the city of Shannan, Dowa Village, home to only 40 households, is one of the highest villages in the world. For generations, villagers herd sheep for a living. "I'd like to do something to make my hometown better known," said Wangdu, who runs the first hostel in the village. Benefiting from the improved education and social development, the village now has witnessed a vital change with young people like Wangdu returning home and contributing to its transformation. Born into a herders' family, Wangdu still remembers he had to help his parents with herding during vacations when he was young. "Sometimes, we had to leave home for a month," he recalled. Cellphone photo taken on May 1, 2022 shows Dowa Village in Nagarze County in Shannan, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. With an altitude of 5,070 meters, Dowa Village is located at the foot of the Mongda Kangri Mountain and by the Puma Yumco Lake. (Xinhua/Shen Hongbing) In 2013, Wangdu was enrolled at Tibet University in the regional capital Lhasa, becoming one of the first university students in the village. Four years later, the graduate majoring in broadcast decided to return home. "It's a pity that few people knew about the breathtaking view with the surrounding snow-capped mountains and the beautiful lake here. I want to do something to turn my hometown into a tourist resort," he said. In 2017, Wangdu opened the first homestay business in the village, providing 11 beds. To promote tourism, he went to Lhasa to find travel agency partners, issued brochures and opened accounts on online short video platforms. At the same time, as part of the government's efforts to fight poverty, villagers bid farewell to shabby houses, and had concrete roads built right to their doorsteps. Now, villagers live in brand-new Tibetan-style houses. Equipped with tap water facilities at home, they no longer had to carry water from the lake. Villagers take turns to take care of the sheep, with the spared labor force being able to have other jobs. The improved facilities have also brought more tourists. In 2019, receiving the government's support for entrepreneurship, Wangdu upgraded his homestay into a lakeside hostel with 14 rooms, hiring five villagers for cleaning and cashier work. Cellphone photo taken on May 1, 2022 shows a road and Tibetan-style houses in Dowa Village, Nagarze County in Shannan, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. With an altitude of 5,070 meters, Dowa Village is located at the foot of the Mongda Kangri Mountain and by the Puma Yumco Lake. (Xinhua/Shen Hongbing) During the peak seasons, such as the National Holiday last year and the Lunar New Year this year, the hostel was full. The tourists are from across the country, including the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu. Wangdu named the rooms with the nearby mountains and lakes, such as Puma Yumco, to make the places better known. Migmar Tsering, director of the village committee, said three tea houses and two stores have been opened in the village. The village was lifted out of poverty in 2018. Last year, the per capita disposable income of the village surged by 16 percent to 16,933 yuan (2,540 U.S. dollars). Apart from promoting tourism online himself, Wangdu also invited Tibetan online celebrities to come for livestreaming to help with the promotion. "I hope more tourists come so that more villagers will benefit from the tourism industry," he said. Photo taken on June 1, 2022 shows humanitarian assistances of rice and wheat in Kabul, Afghanistan. A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) KABUL, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. Each family received one bag of 50 kg wheat and two bags of rice, each bag weighing 50 kg, Mawlawi Jan Mohammad Sayeq, an official with the State Ministry for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters after distributing the assistance. "We distributed these items to destitute families, flood affected people and displaced citizens," Sayeq told reporters at a press briefing here. The rice and wheat delivered to the needy families on Wednesday came from neighboring China and Kazakhstan, Sayeq said. "I am thankful to China and donor nations and bodies that are assisting Afghans in this critical stage. I am also calling upon the government to check the prices of basic needs in local market," an aid recipient Nik Mohammad who is the head of a four-member family, told Xinhua. Another beneficiary of the assistance Mir Agha Nuri also said, "The skyrocketing prices in market and impoverished economy have destroyed our life." More than 22 million out of 35 million Afghan population are facing acute food shortage and the war-torn country would face a humanitarian catastrophe if not assisted, according to aid agencies reports. People receive humanitarian assistances in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022. A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) People receive humanitarian assistances in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022. A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) People receive humanitarian assistances in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022. A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) People receive humanitarian assistances in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022. A total of 700 needy families in Afghanistan received humanitarian assistances including rice and wheat here in Kabul on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) Zhu Yu attends a dancing class in southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) GUIYANG, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Yao Dunyi's piano lesson in school began at 4:40 p.m., after regular academic classes finished. Yao, a third-grade student at No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County in southwest China's Guizhou, the province that once had the largest impoverished population in China, sat in front of a piano and began to practice under the guidance of a teacher. Just three years ago, she was still crammed into a small classroom with other students from various grades back in her home village of Gantian. "At that time, there were only about 10 students and one teacher, who only taught Chinese and math, in my class," she said. In 2019, her family was relocated to a settlement on the outskirts of Rongjiang County under the poverty relief policy. Her family of six moved into a new home of 120 square meters. Long Anbo, the headmaster of the No. 4 Primary School, said the school was built for the convenience of the relocated children in the settlement, and began its operation in the autumn of 2020. Currently, there are over 2,700 students. The local government has set up a special bus line, making it only 10 minutes for students to commute from the settlement to the school. Before the relocation, however, students had to walk for at least an hour every day to reach their former schools. While Yao was practicing piano, Zhu Yu, some 480 km away, was learning to dance with her schoolmates. The 14-year-old used to live in Wuli Village in the county of Hezhang, where the barren land had forced villagers to become migrant workers. She and her grandmother were left behind. She became interested in dancing at five when she accidentally watched a dancing competition on TV. With no one to teach her, she had to imitate dance moves in front of the TV. In 2018, her family was relocated to Hezhang County seat. She had more opportunities to practice dancing with professional guidance. She has even participated in government-organized performances in 22 once poverty-stricken villages. For Zhu and Yao, moving out of the mountains not only improves their living environment but also gives them opportunities to see the outside world and experience more. According to data released by the education department of Guizhou, the province has invested more than 18 billion yuan (2.69 billion U.S. dollars) since 2016 to ensure that relocated school-age children enjoy the same educational resources as their urban peers. Aerial photo taken on May 19, 2022 shows the No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) Students of No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County attend class in southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) Students of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School visit the Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, as part of the Children's Day celebrations, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) ADDIS ABABA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese construction giant China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on Wednesday celebrated Children's Day by inviting Ethiopian school children to visit a local railway station and create awareness among them. The CCECC along with the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway Standard Gauge Share Company (EDR) on Wednesday organized a visit for a group of students from Jemo No. 2 Elementary School to the Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, as part of the Children's Day celebrations. "Today is International Children's Day and as part of our social responsibility, we have invited lots of students to pay a visit to our station and help them experience railway service," Huang Yupeng, manager of freight at the Furi-Lebu Railway Station, told Xinhua. The visit was said to be part of an effort to create a sense of belongingness among the school children and the community living along the railway route. "It is also a good time to sow hope in the hearts of the children that this railway is theirs and they would protect like their eyes in the future," said Huang. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti electrified railway, also known as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, contracted by China Rail Engineering Corporation (CREC) and CCECC for construction, is the first transboundary railway on the African continent. It is a flagship project of China-Ethiopia cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the EDR, the electrified railway has cut the transportation time for freight goods from more than three days to less than 20 hours and reduced the cost by at least one-third. "I have never thought that a train has such a wide space internally and operates in electric power," said Kidist Mekuria, one of the 38 students who happened to visit the station for the first time. "The visit was so important because our students have gained knowledge about the historical background and overall operation of the railway," said Zenebech Banjaw, the deputy director of the Jemo No. 2 Elementary School. The majority of residents living along the route are often said to have little knowledge about the railway service as the electrified railway involving new technology is something new in Ethiopia. Three months ago, Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway commenced a commuter train service with 19 stations to help residents of communities along the route enjoy the railway service. "The community living along the route has little knowledge about the railway service and sometimes they move along the rail along with their cattle," said Banjaw, adding Wednesday's event will help the community refrain from doing the same through the students. A student of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School communicates with an employee of Chinese construction giant China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) during a Children's Day celebration at Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Students of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School interact with an employee of Chinese construction giant China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) during a Children's Day celebration at Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Students of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School experience the train at Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, as part of the Children's Day celebrations, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Students of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School visit the Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, as part of the Children's Day celebrations, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Students of Jemo No. 2 Elementary School experience the train at Furi-Lebu Railway Station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, as part of the Children's Day celebrations, June 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (R) and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attend a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, June 1, 2022. The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to a global food crisis that will hit developing countries the hardest, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in Stockholm on Wednesday. (Ninni Andersson/Government Offices of Sweden/Handout via Xinhua) STOCKHOLM, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to a global food crisis that will hit developing countries the hardest, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in Stockholm on Wednesday. Guterres met with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to discuss the security situation in Europe, recovery from the pandemic and the green transition. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is creating suffering and devastation, and "must end now," Guterres said at a press conference after the meeting. He also called for swift decisions to counter the food crisis that could arise from the conflict, putting developing countries most at risk. The situation is fueling "a three-dimensional global crisis for food, energy and finance" that is affecting "the most vulnerable populations, countries and economies," he warned. A "perfect storm" is threatening to destroy the economies of many developing countries," he added. The food crisis cannot be resolved effectively unless Russia's manure and food production, and Ukraine's food production can reach world markets again, he emphasized. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Russia and Ukraine are the world's largest and fifth-largest wheat exporters, respectively. Together, they provide 19 percent of the world's barley supply, 14 percent of wheat and 4 percent of maize, making up more than one third of global cereal exports. In Ukraine, which is known as the breadbasket of Europe, the conflict has left unharvested wheat that was planted months ago, while maize and sunflowers sown when the conflict broke out were left unfertilized. It is estimated that Ukraine's grain production may fall by more than 50 percent in the current season. Moreover, Russia is the leading producer of fertilizers, accounting for 13 percent of global production. Restrictions on Russian fertilizer exports due to the U.S.' sanctions have led to a surge in global fertilizer prices. This has forced farmers in Brazil, the United States and other major agricultural countries to reduce their use of fertilizers, which could affect future harvests. Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (R) and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attend a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, June 1, 2022. The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to a global food crisis that will hit developing countries the hardest, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in Stockholm on Wednesday. (Ninni Andersson/Government Offices of Sweden/Handout via Xinhua) United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, June 1, 2022. The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to a global food crisis that will hit developing countries the hardest, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in Stockholm on Wednesday. (Ninni Andersson/Government Offices of Sweden/Handout via Xinhua) By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has held a series of meetings with foreign officials in Baku on the fringes of the Baku Energy Week to weigh up the pros and cons of energy cooperation at a time when the global market is under huge strain, Azernews reports. Cooperation with Romania At a meeting with Romanian Energy Minister Virgil Daniel Popescu, the Azerbaijani minister looked into issues of supplying natural gas and oil, as well as the Black Sea submarine power and digital connectivity project between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Romania. In this regard, they discussed the possibility of exporting green energy to Europe at the expense of the huge wind energy potential of the Caspian Sea through this project. Shahbazov emphasized that the use of wind energy in the Caspian Sea is in the interest of investors, adding that the agreement to be signed in this direction soon will increase the export opportunities of green energy. Cooperation with Italy As part of the Baku Energy Week, Parviz Shahbazov also held a meeting with Italy's Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Ecological Transition Vannia Gava. During the meeting, they discussed the development of energy cooperation between the two countries, underlining the importance of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in strengthening Italy's energy supply and its position in the European gas market. Shahbazov noted that natural gas supply through TAP plays an important role in energy cooperation with Italy, Azerbaijan's largest trading partner. He added that by the end of the year, gas exports to Italy under short and long-term contracts were projected at 9.5 billion cubic meters, and by increasing the capacity of TAP, it is possible to supply more natural gas not only to Italy but also to other European countries. The parties also exchanged views on cooperation with Italian companies in the field of renewable energy, as well as support for the demining process of Azerbaijan's liberated territories. Cooperation with Kazakhstan During the meeting with Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov, the sides discussed bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy and the status of the energy markets. Moreover, the opportunities associated with the transportation of Kazakhstan's energy resources to the world market were evaluated. In addition to the transit of Kazakhstani oil and oil products through Azerbaijan, the measures taken at the level of working groups to deliver liquefied natural gas to Azerbaijan via the Caspian Sea were also discussed during the meeting. HONG KONG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said on 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 these areas. About 105,000 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 people, 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 170 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 319 additional cases through self-reported RATs, official data showed. BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- While claiming "not looking for conflict or a new Cold War," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rehashed the same old "China-threat" theory in the China policy of the current White House. Experts say it reveals Washington's Cold War mentality. Produced by Xinhua Global Service TEHRAN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Thursday slammed the anti-Iran statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as "repetitive" and "destructive," and said such a statement shows the "entirely wrong" approach and "strategic bewilderment" toward Iran by some member states. Such "threadbare" GCC statements fail to have any other function but create regional tensions, and are apparently aimed at "neutralizing" the outcomes of the Islamic republic's diplomatic move and interactions with neighbors, friendly states and partners, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh. On Wednesday, the GCC's Ministerial Council held its 152nd session in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh. In a statement issued at the end of the meeting, the GCC criticized Iran's regional strategies and missile program. Commenting on the request by some GCC member states to be part of the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, Khatibzadeh said the 2015 agreement and the UN Resolution 2231 have made it clear which countries are the signatories to the international treaty and can take part in the negotiations. Therefore, making such requests, Khatibzadeh said, only demonstrates the depth of the council's failure to see the realities. The GCC has turned into the biggest arsenal of U.S. and Western arms and ammunition and is in no position to pass comments on Iran's defensive missile program and military and defense policies, he added. Students of No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County attend class in southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) GUIYANG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Yao Dunyi's piano lesson in school began at 4:40 p.m., after regular academic classes finished. Yao, a third-grade student at No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County in southwest China's Guizhou, the province that once had the largest impoverished population in China, sat in front of a piano and began to practice under the guidance of a teacher. Just three years ago, she was still crammed into a small classroom with other students from various grades back in her home village of Gantian. "At that time, there were only about 10 students and one teacher, who only taught Chinese and math, in my class," she said. In 2019, her family was relocated to a settlement on the outskirts of Rongjiang County under the poverty relief policy. Her family of six moved into a new home of 120 square meters. Aerial photo taken on May 19, 2022 shows the No. 4 Primary School in Guzhou Township under Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) Long Anbo, the headmaster of the No. 4 Primary School, said the school was built for the convenience of the relocated children in the settlement, and began its operation in the autumn of 2020. Currently, there are over 2,700 students. The local government has set up a special bus line, making it only 10 minutes for students to commute from the settlement to the school. Before the relocation, however, students had to walk for at least an hour every day to reach their former schools. While Yao was practicing piano, Zhu Yu, some 480 km away, was learning to dance with her schoolmates. Zhu Yu attends a dancing class in southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Minghong) The 14-year-old used to live in Wuli Village in the county of Hezhang, where the barren land had forced villagers to become migrant workers. She and her grandmother were left behind. She became interested in dancing at five when she accidentally watched a dancing competition on TV. With no one to teach her, she had to imitate dance moves in front of the TV. In 2018, her family was relocated to Hezhang County seat. She had more opportunities to practice dancing with professional guidance. She has even participated in government-organized performances in 22 once poverty-stricken villages. For Zhu and Yao, moving out of the mountains not only improves their living environment but also gives them opportunities to see the outside world and experience more. According to data released by the education department of Guizhou, the province has invested more than 18 billion yuan (2.69 billion U.S. dollars) since 2016 to ensure that relocated school-age children enjoy the same educational resources as their urban peers. VIENNA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, on Thursday agreed to significant oil output increases in July amid calls for the alliance to help contain the surging oil prices. The group agreed to increase oil production by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, higher than its previous monthly increases of 432,000 bpd. The 29th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting decided to advance the planned production adjustment for September and "redistribute equally" the 432,000 bpd output increases for July and August, according to an OPEC statement released after the meeting. The statement, however, did not confirm the 648,000 bpd production hike in August. The OPEC+ production plan for August, according to the group's practice, will be announced at its next ministerial meeting, which is to convene on June 30. According to the statement, Thursday's meeting noted "the most recent reopening from lockdowns in major global economic centers" and the expected capacity increase of global refinery after seasonal maintenance. The participants also "highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets for both crude oil and refined products." Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown via video in Papua New Guinea, June 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) PORT MORESBY, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Cook Islands on Thursday pledged efforts to deepen bilateral practical cooperation and promote closer relations. Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown and visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the pledge during a meeting via video. Wang is here on a visit to Papua New Guinea, the seventh leg of his current tour to Pacific island countries starting from May 26. China and the Cook Islands, which have respected and treated each other as equals, Wang said, have seen steady progress in bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields since the establishment of diplomatic ties, with their trade value soaring by nearly 300 times. China has worked actively in carrying out livelihood projects to help the Cook Islands, and conducted tripartite cooperation with New Zealand, which played an active role in boosting the Cook Islands' socio-economic development and local people's living standards, said the Chinese foreign minister. The two countries have supported each other in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and seen their friendship further upgraded, Wang said, noting that China is willing to use the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to further increase mutual trust and deepen practical cooperation so as to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples. Wang noted that China is willing to discuss plans for next-step cooperation based on the development needs of the Cook Islands, and both sides can expand cooperation on tourism, infrastructure, sub-national programs and education to facilitate the country's economic recovery. China is also willing to build on the experience of past success to explore more tripartite cooperation, Wang said. Brown thanked China for its long-term and huge support for the development of the Cook Islands, and its selfless assistance to his country's fight against COVID-19 despite its own tough anti-pandemic tasks. He spoke highly of the positive contributions made by Chinese enterprises and local governments to the infrastructure construction and improvement of people's livelihood in the Cook Islands. The sound relationship and close cooperation between the Cook Islands and China stand as a strong illustration of China's vision of treating small countries sincerely and practicing mutually beneficial win-win cooperation, he said. The Cook Islands cherishes its relations with China and firmly believes that its future is closely linked with China, Brown said, noting that the island country stands ready to work with China to push for greater development of bilateral relations in the next 25 years. Brown said that his country supports strengthening tripartite cooperation, especially on large-scale projects. He also noted that the Cook Islands attaches great importance to the mechanism of the China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the next steps for cooperation proposed by China, and is ready to work with partners of island countries to strengthen communication and coordination for better response to various challenges brought by the pandemic. Wang said that all parties agreed the China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting has become a useful platform and effective mechanism for overall cooperation between China and Pacific island countries, and are willing to continue to push forward this process and jointly build up more consensus for regional development. China has released its Position Paper on Mutual Respect and Common Development with Pacific Island Countries, and put forward proposals and measures for further cooperation, he noted. China has engaged in exchanges with Pacific island countries for nearly half a century, with bilateral cooperation always focused on economic development and people's livelihood, the Chinese foreign minister said. China will remain a good friend and partner of Pacific island countries to jointly address challenges, seek common development and build a community of a shared future between China and Pacific island countries, he added. Wang stressed that any attempt to smear China-island countries cooperation with the outdated mindset of geopolitical rivalry will find no support among the friends of island countries and thus will go nowhere. Believing that Pacific island countries have the wisdom and capability to overcome temporary difficulties and regain vitality, Wang expressed hope that Pacific island countries will strengthen solidarity and uphold open regionalism. The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in Chinese language education and encourage young people of the Cook Islands to learn Chinese, so as to train more envoys of friendship. Both sides also agreed to continue supporting each other in international affairs. Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown via video in Papua New Guinea, June 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi(R) meets with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown via video in Papua New Guinea, June 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Economic and trade cooperation between China and Australia saw stable development in 2021, with China remaining Australia's largest trading partner in goods, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday. Bilateral trade amounted to approximately 231.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, a rise of 35.1 percent year on year, according to ministry spokesperson Gao Feng. China's imports from Australia reached 164.82 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, jumping 40.6 percent from a year ago, Gao said. Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Australia, Gao said that economic and trade cooperation has been one of the most active and vibrant driving forces promoting bilateral relations over the past 50 years. "The sound and stable development of China-Australia relations serves the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples, and contributes to the peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region," Gao said. The spokesperson expressed the hope that the new Australian government will face up to cruxes in bilateral relations, treat China and China's development in an objective and rational way, and make more efforts to increase mutual trust and cooperation, so as to create favorable conditions for the healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations. American youths sing a Chinese pop song "Because of Love" at the 2019 New Year Gala for Chinese and American Youth at the Chinese embassy in Washington, the United States, on Feb. 16, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang voiced hope that Chinese and U.S. students could learn together, improve together, become partners and companions in their future careers and make greater contributions to China-U.S. relations. DALLAS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to support Chinese language education in the United States so as to promote the long-term, stable and healthy development of China-U.S. relations, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said Tuesday during his visit to the U.S. state of Texas. He made the remarks when addressing students at the International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas), a public charter school serving more than 21,000 K-12 students at 20 campuses in the state. Qin voiced hope that Chinese and U.S. students could learn together, improve together, become partners and companions in their future careers and make greater contributions to China-U.S. relations. "Language creates communication. Communications lead to understanding and trust. Therefore, American students learning Chinese are critical and fundamental to build the mutual understanding and trust between China and the U.S.," said the ambassador. "The Chinese language has the largest number of speakers in the world. Learning Chinese is an important chance for me," said Nicholas Goldring, a graduate from ILTexas and now a sophomore in China's Beijing Language and Culture University. "I love Chinese language and culture. My future jobs will be related with my interests in Chinese," said Goldring, also a winner of the Chinese Government Scholarship. People visit a lantern display celebrating the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., the United States, Jan. 29, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) Hilton Sampson, a rising 10th grade student and the champion of Chinese Bridge Competition 2022 in the group of high schools in Texas, has learned Chinese for more than one year and has known several hundred Chinese characters so far. "Learning Chinese offers me a wider audience to communicate with and work with them to become friends. I will do business in the future and being able to communicate in Chinese will definitely be beneficial," he said. Zachary Bolzan, principal of ILTexas College Station K-8, shared his experience on how ILTexas develops creative approaches to motivate students to learn Chinese. "The kids at our school can get a golden ticket, which allows them to get a special lunch date with the Chinese teachers," Bolzan said. "I expect that our students will have a better understanding of the Chinese people and Chinese culture. And they will be able to see what either the media says or what they read on the Internet. They'll get to understand it for themselves," said Stephanie Mott, principal of ILTexas Windmill Lakes-Orem High School. URUMQI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Every Saturday is bazaar day in Tashmirik Township in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Nearby villagers swarm into the bazaar to purchase everything from daily necessities and farming tools to local delicacies and fruits. At noon, trucks, cars, and electric motorcycles fill the parking area outside the bustling bazaar, instead of horse- and donkey-drawn carriages, which used to be key transportation means for locals. Before entering the bazaar, villagers would scan their health code and receive free face masks to follow anti-epidemic requirements. "Almost every villager, except the elderly and children, has a smartphone, which makes code scanning very easy," said Aynur Aikmu, managing director of the bazaar. Delicious food is always the greatest appeal to the bazaar's visitors. Stewed mutton, roast fish, baked samosas... as soon as people walk into the market, the aroma of cuisine takes over their senses. Abliz Wulayin has been running a restaurant at the bazaar for more than a decade. Payment codes are posted on restaurant doors, windows, and tables. "I earn over 10,000 yuan (around 1,490 U.S. dollars) during a bazaar day. Customers often choose cashless payment, which is really convenient," he said. The perfect match for hot food is homemade yogurt with shaved ice. With a tricycle, Atonguri Khader has been selling the local cool drink at bazaars for six years. "I go to four bazaars a week and sell over 300 cups of yogurt a day," she said while ladling yogurt into a cup for customers. In the past, it was hard to have yogurt with shaved ice in summer as ice-making required great efforts, said Atonguri, recalling that ice was often taken from rivers in winter and preserved in cellars until summer. "What was worse, ice made of unpurified river water often caused stomach problems," said Atonguri. "Thanks to the convenient transportation in rural areas nowadays, I can get ice blocks that meet hygiene standards from the city of Kashgar within one hour. Now I have more customers." At the fruit stalls, apart from local seasonal fruits such as apricots, cherries, cantaloupes and watermelons, mangoes, lychees, pineapples and bananas that were shipped from south China can also be seen at the bazaar. These fruits are no longer rarities in remote villages, thanks to the development of cold-chain logistics, said Aynur Aikmu. "Mangoes are very popular among villagers. We serve guests mangoes to show hospitality." "The growing variety of goods, the new ways of payment... rural bazaars are taking on a new look," said Mirza Abdullah, a farmer at the bazaar. "But the food taste doesn't change and the price of commodities is still favorable." KIEV, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Ukraine and Poland on Wednesday signed a string of bilateral documents in the fields of defense, energy and regional development, the Ukrainian government press service reported. The agreements were inked during the intergovernmental consultations in Kiev in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki. In particular, the two countries agreed to set up a joint commission that will prepare recommendations on the format of the Ukrainian-Polish joint venture for the manufacture of weapons and military equipment. "This will take our defense and military cooperation to a new level and allow us to create modern types of defense weapons," Shmyhal said. Besides, Ukraine and Poland signed a joint declaration on cooperation at the level of border services and a document on developing Ukraine's communities as a part of the country's post-conflict recovery. In addition, the governments of Ukraine and Poland inked a memorandum to strengthen their cooperation in the energy sector. Shmyhal and Morawiecki agreed to hold the next meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish intergovernmental consultations in Warsaw in 2023. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijan and Serbia have signed an agreement on cooperation in the energy and mining sectors, Azernews reports, citing the Energy Ministry. The agreement was signed between Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Mining and Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic during the meeting on the fringes of the Baku Energy Week. The agreement aims to rationally use the potential of both countries' energy and natural resources and provides for cooperation in the energy sector, especially natural gas and renewable energy sources, as well as the promotion of the mutual investments in mineral exploration, regulation, energy efficiency, and establishment of joint ventures. The document also reflects the continuation of cooperation to support the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor. Moreover, during the meeting, the parties emphasized that the diversification of the Southern Gas Corridor with interconnectors is important for Serbia and the Balkan countries, as well as for Azerbaijan as a supplier. They also discussed the Serbia-Bulgaria (Nis-Dimitrovgrad) gas pipeline, which will allow Serbia's integration into the Southern Gas Corridor. In addition, the sides discussed the Serbian-Romanian and other interconnectors, as well as natural gas, cooperation in the field of renewable energy sources, and the possibility of implementing joint projects. Azerbaijan and Serbia collaborate in a variety of economic sectors. The Azerbaijan-Serbia Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed in 2013, and the Joint Action Plan on Strategic Partnership, signed in 2018, laid the groundwork for the development of relations. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Serbia amounted to $9.2 million in 2021. The upcoming Summit of the Americas "has failed," Sacha Llorenti, secretary general of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), said Tuesday. The 9th edition of the summit is to open on June 6 in the U.S. city of Los Angeles without the participation of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which were excluded by the United States. At a press conference, Llorenti said it is clear that the meeting is "neither a summit nor a Summit of the Americas." He expected some countries won't attend "in protest of the exclusion while those that do attend will protest the exclusion." The debacle reflects the "decline of U.S. hegemony" in the region, where "the real integration platform" is the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), said Llorenti, former Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations. The United States has no interest in promoting democracy or human rights and "what it wants is for its conditions to be imposed and its interests prioritized above the common interests of the region," he said. The United States has traditionally attacked Latin America's integration mechanisms, while ALBA-TCP has sought to "strengthen CELAC ... and the regional integration processes as the only way to face global challenges" in Latin America and the Caribbean, Llorenti added. Produced by Xinhua Global Service In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative. To date, 149 countries and 32 international organizations have joined the initiative, which is now becoming "a belt of prosperity" and "a road to happiness" benefiting people across the globe. NEW YORK, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Three victims were confirmed dead in a deadly shooting incident on Wednesday in Tulsa in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, CNN reported. The shooter took his own life, the report said. Earlier reports said police were responding to an "active shooter situation" at a hospital in Tulsa, and multiple injuries had been confirmed. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (3rd L) meets with Micronesian Secretary of Foreign Affairs Kandhi Elieisar via video link, in Papua New Guinea, on June 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) PORT MORESBY, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Micronesian Secretary of Foreign Affairs Kandhi Elieisar said on Thursday that Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's "cloud visit" to the Federated States of Micronesia highlighted the mature and strong relations between the two countries. Welcoming the "cloud visit", or a video meeting, paid by the Chinese state councilor, Elieisar said China has been sincere and cordial in conducting pragmatic, productive cooperation with Micronesia since the establishment of diplomatic ties. China has made significant contributions to the socio-economic development of Micronesia and helped the Pacific island country fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, noting that the two sides have always trusted and respected each other on multilateral issues. Micronesia is looking forward to further strengthening the friendly relations with China to realize win-win cooperation with mutual benefits, Elieisar said. Wang said China and Micronesia have made fruitful achievements in their relations since they established diplomatic ties more than 30 years ago, and the two countries should stick to the right path and stride toward the goal of win-win cooperation. The two-way trade grew by over 30 percent last year, which fully demonstrated the potential of bilateral cooperation, he said, urging the two sides to further dovetail the Belt and Road Initiative with the Blue Prosperity Micronesia. Wang also called for extended cooperation in the fields of agri-fishery, infrastructure, trade and investment, as well as tourism, so as to send positive signals for enhancing friendship, cementing mutual trust and opening up the future. Wang and Elieisar also exchanged views on the cooperation between China and Pacific island countries. The second China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting has just been successfully held, and all participants gave full credit for the significant outcome China and Pacific island countries have achieved through enhancing unity and coordination over the past nearly 50 years, Wang said. The participants also hailed China's unremitting efforts in safeguarding the regional stability and development, he added. He said China has established a dialogue platform in the form of the foreign ministers' meeting to carry out collective dialogue and regional cooperation with the island nations. He added that China is keen to strengthen coordination with the island countries, drive the two engines of bilateral cooperation and regional coordination to simultaneously play their roles, and form synergy to boost the independent and sustainable development of the island countries. Wang said the exchanges between China and island countries over the past nearly 50 years prove that the exchanges have never and will never affect the regional security and stability. China focuses on economic development and cares about the improvement of people's livelihood. China is building roads and bridges instead of seeking military presence in the island countries, he noted. The Chinese side released a position paper after the meeting, which further demonstrated China's positive attitude and unveiled specific measures in carrying out cooperation with the island countries. Wang said China and other developing countries, including Pacific island countries, will continue grasping their development rights firmly, speeding up development and rejuvenation, achieving common prosperity and promoting fairness in the world. Elieisar appreciated China's crucial role in the successful holding of the meeting, and expressed gratitude to China for treating Pacific island countries as close friends. He said Micronesia is willing to coordinate with all other concerned parties to forge a partnership with mutual respect, understanding and trust. The U.S. flag flies at half-staff on top of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 24, 2022. At least 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) HOUSTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were shot dead after a hospital campus shooting on Wednesday in Tulsa, the second largest city of U.S. state Oklahoma, authorities said. The gunman, who was reportedly armed with a rifle at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, was also dead, Tulsa Police Department said on social media. XIAMEN, June 2 (Xinhua) - Over a thousand paddlers from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan participated in a boat race on Thursday in celebration of China's upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. A dragon boat is generally long and narrow, with its prow carved as a dragon's head and the stern as a tail. Each boat can carry dozens of participants, including rowers, drummers and steerers. The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar and falls on Friday this year. Traditions such as eating zongzi, or glutinous rice dumplings with various fillings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, are also observed on the day. Produced by Xinhua Global Service VIENNA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, on Thursday agreed to significant oil output increases in July amid calls for the alliance to help contain the surging oil prices. The group agreed to increase oil production by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, higher than its previous monthly increases of 432,000 bpd. The 29th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting decided to advance the planned production adjustment for September and "redistribute equally" the 432,000 bpd output increases for July and August, according to an OPEC statement released after the meeting. The statement, however, did not confirm the 648,000 bpd production hike in August. The OPEC+ production plan for August, according to the group's practice, will be announced at its next ministerial meeting, which is to convene on June 30. According to the statement, Thursday's meeting noted "the most recent reopening from lockdowns in major global economic centers" and the expected capacity increase of global refinery after seasonal maintenance. The participants also "highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets for both crude oil and refined products." OPEC+ slashed oil production massively in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hammered demand. In July 2021, the group agreed to raise oil output by around 400,000 bpd each month to gradually unwind the output cuts. Before Thursday, the oil producer group had been sticking to its plan of gradual output increases, while ignoring repeated calls from major consumers, including the United States, to open taps wider to rein in soaring oil prices. Thursday's decision came as crude prices remained high amid continued tight supplies, demand recovery and geopolitical tensions. Prices for both the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude have hovered around 110 U.S. dollars a barrel in recent weeks. Earlier this week, the European Union decided to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports, further heightening supply concerns. NANJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong has called for solid flood control efforts as the country enters its main flood season. Wang, who heads the country's flood control and drought relief headquarters, made the remarks during an inspection trip to provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu. From Wednesday to Thursday, Wang visited several places and learned about local flood control preparations. He said that meteorological forecasting and emergency response mechanisms should be strengthened, flood prevention facilities should be examined, and relocation plans should be improved to protect the safety of people's lives and property to the greatest extent. YAOUNDE, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Some 300 refugees left Cameroon to return to their homes in the neighboring Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday in a voluntary repatriation process. Two groups of refugees, 150 refugees from Gado Badzere refugee camp in the Lom and Djerem Division of the East region and 150 from Batouri town in the same region boarded buses as they began the journey. By the end of the process which will run from June to September, 2,500 CAR refugees residing in the East, Adamawa and the Northern regions of Cameroon would have returned home, said Cameroon's Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji who officially launched the repatriation process at the Gado Badzere refugee camp. "It is a relief because we have about 300,000 CAR refugees in Cameroon. For almost seven years they were regularly supported (by the government). The departure is voluntary and convoy must have maximum security," Nji told reporters after launching the departure. "Those who know that their village of origin is not secured are not going to return," added Olivier Guillaume Beer, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to Cameroon. The voluntary repatriation of the CAR refugees began in 2019 after a tripartite agreement was signed among the Cameroonian government, the CAR, and UNHCR. The CAR has been wracked by violence, since Seleka rebels ousted then President Francois Bozize in 2013 which has forced nearly half of the country's population, to migrate and depend on humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. NEW DELHI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) imposed a fine of 1 million Indian rupees (12,892 U.S. dollars) on a private airline for violating safety regulations, officials of the civil aviation watchdog said Thursday. The Air Vistara has been fined for letting an improperly trained pilot land a flight with passengers on board. The violation was detected recently at an airport in the central Madhya Pradesh state. "Vistara has been fined INR 10 lakhs by DGCA for violation of takeoff and landing clearance given to first officers without conducting any training," an official of the DGCA told media. The pilot, who was the first officer on the flight, landed the aircraft at the Indore airport recently without first getting the requisite training in a simulator. "This was a serious violation endangering lives of the passengers on board," the official was quoted as having said. According to officials, first officers are trained to land aircraft in simulators before being allowed to do it with an actual aircraft that has passengers on board. By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli The current state and prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and bp were discussed on June 1, Azernews reports, citing the Cabinet of Ministers. The discussion was held between Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov, bp Executive Vice President for Production and Operations Gordon Birrell, and Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gary Jones. The sides stressed the importance of projects implemented by bp in Azerbaijan and also touched upon the negotiations with bp on the construction of a solar power plant in the liberated territories. To recall, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the Energy Ministry and bp in February 2021 on the cooperation in assessing the potential and conditions required for large-scale decarbonized and integrated energy and mobility systems, including renewable energy projects in the regions and cities of Azerbaijan. bp has been present in Azerbaijan for 30 years, operating major oil and gas exploration, development, and transportation projects. To date, together with its co-venturers, BP has invested around $84 billion into projects it operates in the country. In Azerbaijan, bp directly employs around 2,270 Azerbaijani citizens who make up over 90 percent of the companys professional staff. SUVA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Fijians have been urged to get the vaccine booster dose as the current noticeable hike in COVID-19 cases indicates an urgency to step up efforts to increase the booster dose coverage. Fiji's Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong has urged the Fijian public to get the booster dose, and a list of vaccination sites is provided daily by the Ministry of Health, according to reports by Fijivillage news website on Thursday. Based on international evidence, the ministry recommends the booster dose interval for eligible population be reduced to three months after the second dose in recognition of the risk of a surge in COVID-19 cases. This is because of the need for vaccine protection, slow booster dose uptake, increased international travel with the relaxation of border measures and ongoing outbreaks in various parts of the world. The aim of the booster dose campaign is to administer 250,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. This requires a minimum of 32,000 doses to be administered weekly for eight weeks from June to July this year. Fong said COVID-19 booster dose priority populations are people over the age of 18 years who have had their first two jabs, adding that those over the age of 60 years can receive an additional dose or the third dose, followed by a booster or the fourth dose for healthcare workers, port staff, tourism workers, and that anyone aged above 18 who has taken their first booster dose can receive a second booster dose after an interval of four months. Fong said the return of most of the medical immunization staff has helped ensure support for escalating the ministry's vaccine booster coverage program. In the days from last update until Tuesday, there were 66 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the country. The ministry said that over the recent six weeks, Fiji has had 461 positive cases, of which 175 were local cases and not related to travel. In the South Pacific island country, 129,510 people have so far received their booster doses, or 29.5 percent of the eligible population. CANBERRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have discovered a previously unknown koala population in a major boost to conservation efforts. In a study published on Thursday, Australian National University (ANU) researchers revealed the existence of a "significant" koala population in the Kosciuszko National Park, a colder, more arid landscape than traditional koala habitats. The survey, which was undertaken with the New South Wales (NSW) National Parks and Wildlife Service, observed male koalas at 14 sites in the park, prompting hopes that the area could become a refuge for the species. "These findings are important because of the area's elevation, which we hope will make the populations more resilient to climate change," ANU ecologist David Lindenmayer said in a media release. "Kosciuszko is going to be one of the last places in NSW to really experience some of those extreme temperatures. And so it will be ... a really important refuge for beasties like that, that could otherwise be quite climate sensitive. I'm pretty excited about what we're finding," he was quoted by The Australian newspaper as saying. "It's not going to solve the problem but it's reassuring that we might have more of a hope ... than we originally thought." Australia's federal government in February officially listed the koala as endangered after a decline in population numbers due to land clearing and bushfires. Earlier in the year, it announced an additional 50 million Australian dollars (35.8 million U.S. dollars) in funding over the next four years for koala recovery programs. Experts have warned that without major intervention the species could go extinct by 2050. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, 60,000 koalas perished in the catastrophic 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires in Australia. COLOMBO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Terminal operators of Sri Lanka's Colombo Port on Thursday told media that they are not affected by the economic crisis in the country and port activities will continue seamlessly. Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority Prasantha Jayamanna said that the port continues its operations as usual. "We have developed strategies and mechanisms to optimally operate the three terminals in the face of any possible disruptions stemming from fuel supplies or workforce turnout. Port of Colombo has a buffer stock of fuel and most effective shift patterns in place to ensure smooth operations," he said. Romesh David, CEO of South Asia Gateway Terminals, the first public-private partnership container terminal in the country, said that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Lanka IOC provide them with a continuous fuel supply. SEOUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A wildfire burned for the third day on Thursday despite firefighting efforts involving dozens of helicopters, the Yonhap news agency reported. The fire broke out on Tuesday morning from a hill in Miryang, some 280 km southeast of the capital Seoul, spreading rapidly to nearby forest lands amid the strong winds and a dry spell. Efforts to bring the blaze under control lasted for three days, mobilizing 53 choppers and about 2,450 personnel. The fire has burned about 700 hectares of woodland. However, no casualties and property damage have been reported yet. SEOUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Diplomats from South Korea and Japan held working-level talks here on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, including the maritime survey near disputed islets and release of radioactive waste water into the ocean from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. Lee Sang-ryol, director-general for Asian and Pacific affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry, met in Seoul with his Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi. They reaffirmed views that the two countries need to rapidly improve bilateral ties, exchanging opinions on issues of mutual concerns such as the exchange of personnel. Regarding the maritime survey conducted by South Korea in its eastern waters near the disputed islets of Dokdo, called Takeshima in Japan, Lee stressed that Dokdo is the inherent South Korean territory historically, geographically and by international law. Lee told the Japanese diplomat that the South Korean government can not accept any issue raised by the Japanese side over Seoul's legitimate activity done in accordance with the international law and domestic laws. The Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency was forecast to continue its maritime survey near Dokdo until June 18. Meanwhile, director-general-level officials of South Korea and Japan held a separate video conference earlier in the day to discuss issues on the handling of radioactive waste water from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. With relevant government officials in attendance, the two sides virtually held a briefing and a question-and-answer session over the safety of Japan's plan to dump the nuclear waste water into the Pacific Ocean. While expressing its concerns about the plan, South Korea urged the Japanese side to take responsible measures that are safe from scientific perspective and comply with international laws and standards. The two sides agreed to continue communication and consultations on the issue. The Japanese government planned to release about 1.25 million tons of nuclear waste water from Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean spanning 30 years from 2023. by Xinhua writers Bai Xu, Yue Dongxing CANBERRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian publisher Harold Weldon believed that he has embarked on the Long March for three times, literally and symbolically. "It teaches us all to never give up whatever your circumstance," he told Xinhua in an interview. Weldon, 56, is a writer and China advisor. His first Long March started in 1985. Growing up listening to stories of ANZAC, or Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, in World War I, which was significant in Australia's national identity, he found himself fascinated by the Long March story of the Red Army in China since he was a teenager. An opportunity came in 1985, when his father Kevin, owner of a big publishing group Weldon International, talked with the Chinese government to do a special commemorative album on the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Long March. "We thought it would be a good idea to show the world sort of the unknown China through the lens of the story of the Long March," he recalled. They invited dozens of photographers from around the world along sections of the routes. But Weldon, a 19-year-old who just left school, of course didn't complete the journey. "When we did that trip, we were tired and hungry, and we only walked about 50 kilometers of the 10,000 kilometers," he said, laughing. It was his most impressive experience in China. "A good beginning is half the battle," Weldon quoted a Chinese proverb in Mandarin. He remembered being warmly welcomed everywhere he went, especially at the village level. The team went to beautiful mountains and visited different minority groups with their unique culture, and believed that the album showed the whole world "the beautiful China that they didn't realize existed apart from the rice paddy." He showed Xinhua several diaries he kept along the way. On the yellowed pages were old photos, beside which he recorded in different colors his experience. On one page, he posted a photo of the Red Well in China's Jiangxi Province, and wrote down the story: it was dug by the Red Army and the late Chairman Mao Zedong for villagers who lacked drinking water. In another photo, Weldon, a thin man then, was swimming in the Dadu River in southwestern China's Sichuan province, which became famous after Mao mentioned it in his famous poem The Long March. Twenty-five years later, he did the project again, which he then called the New Long March. "So much had changed," Weldon said, looking back at the two journeys. He noted that 1985 was about the start of China's rapid growth. "I've seen the rise of China," which has embraced the world and become more globalized, he said. During the years he also saw a growing interest in Chinese culture in Australia. "China has this great civilization for 5,000 years," he said. "The Chinese culture is so strong." The Melbourne Chinatown is believed to be one of the oldest in the West, and the oldest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Currently, Australia is home to more than 1.2 million people of Chinese ancestry. Weldon said that the Beijing Olympics in 2008 promoted Chinese culture around the world. "That was an amazing time...The opening ceremony was Chinese culture at its utmost." Talking about his life involved in the cultural industry, Weldon described it as "passionate" was convinced that culture could help enhance understanding. "Through that you build trust," he said. "Then we were able to introduce our Australian business friends (to China)...and Chinese businesses to come here." "The cultural projects are like the real bridge, and over the bridge we have been able to help with trade and business." In his view, people-to-people ties are at the center of any bilateral relationship. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Australia, in which the publisher said he had been a part for 37 years. He is confident about the future of the China-Australia relations. "It's just like the Long March. It's one step at a time." As Weldon sees it, the Long March spirit was "never giving up". "We needed that sort of spirit to keep us going." Citing an old Chinese saying "10,000 li begins beneath your feet," Weldon said he would like to play his "small part" in the efforts. "I arrived (in China) in April 1985 and began a journey that I'm still on. I'm still on the Long March." DHAKA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The central bank of Bangladesh Thursday withdrew fixed U.S. dollar-taka exchange rate, allowing the market to set the price based on demand and supply. Md Serajul Islam, spokesperson and an executive director of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), made the announcement. The latest BB move aims at restoring stability in the foreign exchange market after the central bank's latest measure did not yield much effect. The central bank of Bangladesh at the end of last month set a uniform USD-taka exchange rate for international trade to rein in currency volatility. Md Serajul Islam said that the bank took the decision as inflow of inward remittances had declined sharply in the last couple of days. "This has created shortage of the American greenback in the market," Islam was quoted as saying in a report of leading English newspaper The Daily Star. The BB communicated the decision to banks verbally and the move has already come into effect. The central bank of Bangladesh has so far depreciated the taka against the U.S. dollar seven times this year alone. BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine: The governments of Ukraine and Poland on Wednesday signed a string of bilateral documents in the fields of defense, energy and regional development, the Ukrainian government press service reported. The agreements were inked during the intergovernmental consultations in Kiev in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki. In particular, the two countries agreed to set up a joint commission that will prepare recommendations on the format of the Ukrainian-Polish joint venture for the manufacture of weapons and military equipment. - - - - Russian forces took control over the eastern part of Severodonetsk city, the administrative center of the Ukraine-controlled part of the Lugansk region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sergey Gaidai, head of the Lugansk regional military administration, said on Facebook that Russia seized some 80 percent of Severodonetsk. Street fighting in the city continued and Ukrainian forces carried out counterattacks in some parts of Severodonetsk, Gaidai said. - - - - The United States will send medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine in a new security assistance package, senior administration officials said Tuesday. A 700-million-U.S.-dollar weapon package will be formally unveiled Wednesday, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which are to enable Ukraine to fire more precisely at targets in its eastern part, the officials said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukrainian officials had offered assurances that the HIMARS would not be used to strike targets inside the Russian territory. - - - - The United States is "purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire" by continuously providing military assistance to Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "The United States, obviously, really adheres to the policy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian," Peskov told a daily briefing, commenting on Washington's plan to supply additional weapons to Kiev. ZAGREB, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Croatia is expected to adopt the euro on Jan. 1, 2023. After the transition period from Jan. 1 to 15, 2023, Croatia will only use the euro, Plenkovic said at a press conference after meeting with European Commission official Valdis Dombrovskis. Meanwhile, Plenkovic urged Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric to "monitor the situation" to avoid an increase in prices. Beginning in September this year, shop prices will be reflected in both the Croatian kuna and euro. For his part, Dombrovskis said Croatia's expected use of the euro would be "a historic achievement" for the country a decade after it entered the EU. by Xinhua writers Deng Xianlai and Xu Yuan WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday met virtually with baby formula manufacturers to discuss how to accelerate domestic production of baby formula and ramp up imports of the product, all aimed at resolving the months-long shortage affecting families across the nation. The president conceded to reporters after the roundtable that it was not until April that he was aware of how seriously the shutdown of one plant of the nation's major baby formula producers would affect the supply of the product. Representatives of the baby formula industry hosted by the White House, however, told the president that they knew how bad the shortage could get almost immediately after the closure of Abbott Nutrition's production facility in Sturgis, Michigan, in February due to safety concerns. Those closely following the ongoing crisis have said that the shortage was caused by the pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions and exacerbated by Abbott's problem, but it also reflects the deep-rooted dysfunction of the U.S. economic and political system where public interests are sacrificed as a result of industrial monopoly, government-business collusion and partisan politics. SLOW REACTION In February, Abbott shut down its Sturgis plant and recalled three brands of powdered infant formula produced in the facility, after four babies who consumed the formula were hospitalized with bacterial infections, with two of them dead. For the week ending May 8, out-of-stock rate nationwide for baby formula hit 43 percent, up 13 percentage points from April, according to statistics from Datasembly, which analyzes about 11,000 stores. Grocery chains have been placing caps on the maximum number of cans of baby formula each customer can purchase. Inside a huge four-storey Target store in Fairfax, Virginia, a sales assistant told Xinhua that a full lane of shelves on which baby formula used to be stacked have been empty "for months," and that the chain store's locations across a large swath of the state have all been running out of supply. Compounding the situation were reports of price gouging. The average price of the most popular baby formula products increased as much as 18 percent over the last 12 months. The Biden administration has been accused of taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the rolling crisis. A whistleblower report raising the alarm of contamination at Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis plant was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 20, 2021, U.S. House Representative Rosa DeLauro said in a press release recently. "The FDA did not interview the whistleblower until late December 2021. According to news reports, FDA did not inspect the plant in person until January 31, 2022," DeLauro said. It was only until mid-May that the FDA finally put out a statement encouraging the "importation of safe infant formula and other flexibilities to further increase availability." INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY On May 16, Abbott and the FDA both confirmed they had entered into a consent decree in which both sides agreed on a path forward for the Sturgis factory to restart production while safety protocols are obeyed during operation. Abbott said in a statement that from the time the Sturgis facility reopens, "it will take six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves." In fact, the near-complete dependence on domestic production and the extreme concentration of the production chain are the very reasons why the baby formula industry in the United States is so prone to catastrophic shortage like the current one. Just three companies, including Abbott Nutrition, control 95 percent of baby formula sales in the United States, according to Amanda Starbuck, a research director at the Food & Water Watch group, a Washington-headquartered non-governmental organization dedicated to food safety research. "Why has our government allowed for ... just three companies to control so much," Starbuck was recently quoted by the AFP news agency as saying. She argued for the passage of "comprehensive antitrust legislation in order to better scrutinize companies, to break up companies that have gotten so big that they're abusing their market power." GOVERNMENT-BUSINESS COLLUSION Dakotah Lilly, an independent analyst, recently wrote in an article carried by Russia Today that U.S. baby formula shortage "is a symptom of a broken system." Questioning the FDA's delayed response to the whistleblower report and the absence of charges that should have been levied against those responsible for the crisis, Lilly said the shortage exposed the fact that "we have a government and a corporate world that share one bed and one bank account and work closely together to ensure that regular people continue to be crushed and squeezed as long as their profits are maintained." The United States needs a government that fights "against established economic power and oligarchs who continue to win their fights at the expense of everyday people," he added. PARTISAN POLITICS For years, it has become too customary in the United States that any issue, as long as it has a contradictory nature, can be weaponized by politicians to attack their opponents and serve their own partisan interests. The same now happened to baby formula's supply chain, which has devastated families across the nation. Former President Donald Trump recently lashed out at Democrats, blaming the Democratic-controlled Congress for approving billions of U.S. dollars' worth of assistance to Ukraine while ignoring the sufferings of hungry babies in the United States. "There is a massive formula shortage, but no one is talking about it. It is a national disgrace," Trump said. Calling the baby formula shortage "outrageous and unacceptable," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement "this problem has been developing in slow motion for several months now, but the Biden administration has been characteristically sluggish and halting in response." Initiated by the Democrats, the House passed two bills on May 18, one of them authorizing 28 million dollars in emergency funding to the FDA to alleviate the current shortfall and head off future shortages. The legislation still awaits the approval of the Senate and its fate is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Shumer, Democrat of New York, said his chamber will try to pass something through a unanimous consent, which could be blocked by the objection of any single senator. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) plays a great role in ensuring Europes energy security, Azernews reports, citing Deputy Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Energy Resources at the U.S. Department of State Laura Lochman. She made the remarks at the 27th Energy Forum in Baku on June 1. The Caspian region as a whole and the Southern Gas Corridor play a crucial role in the EUs energy security, she said. Emphasizing the importance of the transition to green energy, Lochman stressed that the U.S. supports the EUs energy transition policy. We also appreciate Azerbaijans efforts in this regard, she opined. Hungary wants Azerbaijani to be Europe's key gas supplier Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto noted that Hungary wants Azerbaijani gas to become the main gas source in Europe. However, to implement this idea, its necessary to develop the infrastructure and potential of the Caspian region, he said. He underlined that Hungary is committed to the supply of energy resources from Azerbaijan. Instead of wasting efforts on getting rid of dependence on Russian raw materials, its necessary to think about how to develop the existing infrastructure to establish new supplies, he said. The minister added that energy prices, as well as the lack of pipelines, complicate this process. Green energy corridor through Azerbaijan Speaking at the forum, Romanian Energy Minister Virgil Popescu stated that Romania and Azerbaijan can provide a corridor, as far as the production of green energy is concerned. We can create a green corridor by establishing the supply of renewable energy through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and further to Europe, he said. The minister mentioned that Romania is considering the possibility of diversifying energy resources and Azerbaijan will play an important role in this context. It is also planned to produce the first volumes of gas in the Black Sea by the end of June, and these resources will also help neighboring countries, he added. Azerbaijan Moldovas main partner in diversifying energy supplies Moldovas Deputy Prime Minister, Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Andrei Spinu stressed that Azerbaijan is the main partner in terms of diversifying energy supplies to Moldova. Gas prices in Moldova have increased five times over the past six months, and the market collapse hit the most vulnerable countries, such as Serbia and Moldova, which dont have their own energy sources, he said. The deputy prime minister also emphasized Azerbaijans very high potential both in traditional and renewable energy sources. Its necessary to create a mechanism of solidarity. We wont achieve success if a mechanism for the security of supply isnt developed. Moldova is open to all discussions on the above issue, he said. Italy intensifies cooperation within SGC Italys Undersecretary at the Ministry of the Ecological Transition Vannia Gava noted that Italy is intensifying cooperation within the Southern Gas Corridor project. Saying that Italy wants to increase the capacity of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to 20 billion cubic meters, she stressed that this will play an important role in terms of ensuring supplies to Greece and Italy. Gas supplies via the Southern Gas Corridor to Italy have increased to 7.2 billion cubic meters. Additional 4 billion cubic meters have been imported since the beginning of 2022," she added. Gava added that now it is planned to increase supplies to 20 billion cubic meters. "Issues of energy security and energy transition are the prerogative of Italy's energy policy. We will continue to work with partners on the development of infrastructure and the diversification of supplies," she said. Azerbaijan most reliable energy partner for many years Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov stressed that Azerbaijan has been showing itself as the most reliable energy partner for many years. Azerbaijan is a reliable energy partner. Today, Europe needs to diversify supplies and develop cooperation with the Caspian region, he said. Additionally, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Mining and Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic stated that Serbia is discussing gas supplies from Azerbaijan through Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria. We discussed with Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov the possibility of supplying Azerbaijani gas through the IGB interconnector, she said. The deputy prime minister added that Serbia is 100 percent dependent on energy supplies from Russia, so the diversification of supplies is vital. HOUSTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Five people, including the shooter, were killed in a hospital campus shooting on Wednesday evening in Tulsa, the second largest city of U.S. state Oklahoma, authorities said. Tulsa Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said the shooter was reported "down" around 5:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT) and the situation at the building, which was active about four to five minutes, was being treated as "a catastrophic scene." "We know there are multiple injuries, and potentially multiple casualties," the Police Department said in a Facebook post. The shooter was armed with a rifle and a handgun and fired both weapons at the Natalie Medical Building, a physicians' office building on the St. Francis Hospital campus, according to Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. Dalgleish said the shooter's fatal wound was self-inflicted. Police have not identified victims or anyone specifically targeted by the gunman. There had been 213 mass shootings in the first 21 weeks of 2022 in the United States, including 27 school shootings and up to approximately 10 mass shootings every week, reported media organization The New Republic on Saturday, citing the Gun Violence Archive. "This is a uniquely American phenomenon, for no other reason than the fact that, unlike everywhere else in the world, there are too many readily available guns in America," said the report written by Jason Linkins, deputy editor of the magazine. UNITED NATIONS: Albania has taken over the rotating leadership of the United Nations Security Council for a month. According to the Council's work plan for the month, Albania plans to hold two signature events: an open debate on strengthening accountability and justice for violations of international law, and a ministerial-level open debate on the role of regional organisations in implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda in contexts of political turmoil and forcible power seizures, according to reports. Briefings and consultations on the United Nations Office in Central Africa and the Lord's Resistance Army, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the mandate renewal of the authorization for member states to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya bound for or from Libya are among the African issues. A briefing on the secretary-report general's on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 of 2015, which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear programme, is among the Middle East concerns. \In June, the Council is set to convene to discuss two European problems. On June 6, a briefing on the maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine is scheduled. In addition, the council will convene its annual meeting on bolstering EU-UN cooperation. New Australian Govt ministry sworn in for the first time Anthony Albanese sworn in as Australia's new prime minister Slovenia's parliament approves new center-left government ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has warned that if polls are not called, the country may descend into civil war. "We'll see if they let us go to elections through legal and constitutional procedures, otherwise this country would descend into civil war," the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head said in an interview, according to reports. The former premier further stated that returning to the National Assembly was "out of the question" since doing so would entail "accepting the conspiracy" that toppled his government. According to report, Khan said he was waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on his party's request for security for protestors, following which he stated he will announce the date for the next march. The PTI Chairman confessed that as Prime Minister, he did not have absolute control, implying that the real power centres in the country were elsewhere, and that "everyone knows where that is." Khan said his administration was "weak" when it came to power and had to seek coalition partners, and that if the circumstance arose again, he would call re-elections and seek a majority government or none at all. "We couldn't move since our hands were shackled. Power was not with us. Everyone knows where the power lies in Pakistan so we had to depend on them," he said without detailing any further who he was referring to. Pakistan-TTP agreed to extend cease-fire agreement indefinitely Pakistan govt proposes 4.8 pc budget deficit target to IMF Slovenia's parliament approves new center-left government COPENHAGEN: Denmark has voted to join the European Union's (EU) defence accord, ending a 30-year opt-out from the bloc's common security and defence policies. According to preliminary results from Statistics Denmark, a great majority of Danish citizens, or 66.9%, voted in favour of the move in a referendum held on Wednesday. The Nordic country will now have a seat at the EU table to discuss military cooperation. A total of 65.76 percent of the 4,260,944 voters cast ballots in the election. "I believe it is the right thing for Europe, for Denmark, and for our future," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said after voting earlier in the day, feeling that Denmark may be more united on EU policy than ever before. Denmark could not take part in EU military operations or collaboration on the development and procurement of military capabilities because of the defence opt-out. Furthermore, the country was not required to offer military assistance or supplies to EU-led initiatives in conflict zones, nor to take part in operational decisions or planning. In March, the Danish Parliament voted to hold a referendum on the Russian-Ukraine conflict on June 1 as part of a new multi-party defence pact. Furthermore, according to the agreement, Denmark aspires to fulfil NATO members' objective defence spending of 2% of GDP by 2033, with efforts beginning in 2024. About 20% of Ukraine's territory is under Russian control: Zelensky Shehbaz furious as Imran Khan says Pakistan will cut up into 3 Russian forces seize part of major city in eastern Ukraine ISLAMABAD: Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's new prime minister, retaliated against his ousted predecessor Imran Khan on Thursday, accusing him of making "naked threats against the country." According to media reports, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman cautioned in an interview that if the establishment did not make the right decision, the country will split in three. He cited this as his reason for "putting pressure" on the powers that be. In a reference to the interview, Sharif, who is in Turkey for a three-day visit, advised Khan to tone down his threats and termed him "unfit" for public service. "Do your politics," he urged, "but don't go beyond and talk about Pakistan's disintegration." Khan said in an interview with Bol TV: "If the establishment does not make the proper judgments, I can guarantee that they will be annihilated, as would the army, because what will happen to the country if it goes bankrupt? "Pakistan is on the verge of default. Which institution will be (worst) hit if it happens? The army, to be precise. What concession will we be forced to make if it is hit? Denuclearisation. "If the correct decisions aren't made now, the country is on the verge of committing suicide." "Indian think tanks abroad are considering separating Balochistan; they have plans," the ousted prime minister added, without specifying who he is pressuring. Country to descend into a civil war if elections are not announced: Imran Khan I will also sell my clothes to give cheap flour to the people..., announces the new PRIME Minister of PAK Imran Khan dissatisfied with low level of popular engagement in Azadi March MIRYANG: Despite firefighting efforts involving dozens of helicopters, a wildfire in South Korea raged for a third day on Thursday. The fire that started on a hill in Miryang, about 280 kilometres southeast of Seoul, on Tuesday is spreading quickly, thanks to high winds and a dry spell, according to news reports. As soon as activities resumed on Thursday morning, forestry and firefighting officials despatched 53 helicopters to resume their firefighting efforts, as well as 2,450 personnel to join the battle later in the day. The Defence Ministry said, there were 16 Army helicopters and three Air Force helicopters among the choppers. On Thursday, the military planned to send 590 service members to assist with the firefighting efforts. As of Thursday, the fire had destroyed over 700 hectares of forestland, with a 73 percent fire suppression rate. There have been no reports of injuries or property damage as of yet. As of Thursday, the Korea Forest Service maintained its maximum Level-3 wildfire reaction posture. US, S.Korea, Japan pledge efforts to end N.Korean provocation N.Korea appears to be carrying out operations at Yongbyon nuclear complex UN Security Council to vote on North Korea sanctions on Thursday Ethiopia is set to receive USD 200 million in financial help from the World Bank, according to a World Bank official. In a social media post, Minister of Labour and Skills Development Muferiat Kamil said, "The fund will be used to produce skilled people and strengthen the ability of state-owned technical and vocational training schools." Kamil stated that she met with World Bank officials to discuss methods to provide Ethiopians with high-quality work opportunities. Both parties also had discussions about broad strategic concepts. The Ethiopian government and the World Bank struck a USD300 million funding arrangement in May to support the reconstruction and recovery of Ethiopia's conflict-affected districts. The USD300 million funding will be used to fund programmes aimed at assisting populations in conflict-affected areas in regaining access to fundamental services such as education, health care, and water supply. The initiatives will be carried out in a number of districts across Ethiopia's conflict-torn Amhara, Afar, Tigray, Oromia, and Benishangul-Gumuz regional states. World Bank alerts danger if Lebanon fails to undertake reform Centre finalising consultation paper on cryptocurrencies, consults World Bank, IMF World Bank approves USD169 mn credit for disaster risk management in Cambodia Lithuanias Defense Ministry gets green light from Turkey to buy Bayraktar drone for Ukraine 2 June, 04:58 PM Bayraktar drone (Photo:REUTERS/Aziz Karimov) Turkey has agreed to allow Lithuania to buy a Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to send to Ukraine, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas announced on Twitter on June 1. Russia's war against Ukraine - the main events on June 2 Lithuania raised nearly EUR 6 million ($6.4 million) for the purchase in just three days, the defense minister noted. Earlier, Lithuanian TV presenter, founder of Laisves TV and public figure Andrius Tapinas was reported to have raised over EUR 5 million ($5.3 million) in three days for the Bayraktar TB2 drone, that would be sent to the defenders of Ukraine. Read also: UK agrees to supply Ukraine with MLRS The fundraising campaign started on May 25, and in the evening of May 28, during a special broadcast, the journalist announced that he had already raised the required amount. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Kathmandu, June 2 Nepal has started exporting electricity that could not be consumed due to an increase in power generation to India. According to the Nepal Electricity Authority, electricity generated from Trishuli and Devighat hydropower plants will be exported to India. The authority joined the energy exchange market of Indias NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited last year. Electricity for each block is sold at different prices. India has set a limit of INR 12 per unit. Accordingly, Nepal will get a maximum price of INR 12 per block. On average, electricity will be sold at Rs 6.28 per unit, says the authority spokesperson Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai. According to Bhattarai, technical preparations are being made for the sale of electricity from Kaligandaki A Hydropower Project to India. The authority has also called for tenders to sell the surplus electricity produced in Nepal during the monsoon at competitive rates to India. Proposals have been sought from Indian companies for the sale of 200 MW of electricity generated from hydropower projects in Nepal. Nepal has received approval to sell up to 364 MW of electricity in the Indian market. Of that, 200 MW is planned to be sold to the highest bidder. The remaining electricity is planned to be sold at the Indian Energy Exchange. India has given approval to NEA for sale in the Indian market considering the electricity generated from six power plants in Nepal as a source. The electricity stored in the country will be exported through Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 KV inter-country transmission line. Nepal has received approval to export 364 MW of electricity generated from NEA-owned Trishuli, Devighat, Kaligandaki A, Madhyamryangdi, Marsyangdi and private sector Giran Ventures Liko Likhu-4. The local elections in Nepal are almost over; all but one local units result is yet to come out. Many had hoped that the elections this time would be different for women. But, even though their numbers have increased, their representation is found to be declining. The downward trend Designation 2017 2022 Mayor/ Chair 18 25 Deputy mayor/Vice-chair 700 562 Ward-chair 61 69 In the 2017 elections, only seven women had become mayors of various cities, but this year 13 have won the mayoral elections in their respective municipalities. In rural municipalities, 11 women had become chairs in 2017. This year, that number has gone up to 12. If you look at it from a leadership point of view, this is positive. But, political analysts say that when it came to womens representation, it was not what people had expected. The women who have been elected in the leadership roles are those elected in the deputy role in the last elections. Their development and willingness to work put them in the position to take up leadership positions, says senior advocate Usha Malla Pathak. But, she argues she did not see the level of enthusiasm seen in the 2017 local elections as not many women gave in their names for leadership roles. I think political parties didnt want to see any woman. The parties not giving them space is very sad to see, says Pathak. One reason for the lack of womens interest in the posts of deputy mayor and vice-chair is the coalition between Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, JSPN and Rashtriya Janamorcha. Compared to last year, the number of women in deputy positions was low at 138. In 2017, a total of 700 women had been elected either as deputy mayor or vice-chair. But, this year, only 562 were elected for these posts. This shows their representation has gone down even though the year saw seven more mayors and eight more ward chairs than in 2017. Deep divide If you look at the percentage of these figures, things are quite dire. Only 25 women became chairs of rural municipalities or mayors. This is only 3.34 per cent, nearly 1 per cent more than the last elections. As usual, the leadership roles have been dominated by men. The number of women in the posts of deputy mayor and vice-chair has gone down. In 2017, 276 had become deputy mayors. This year, only 226 were elected. When it comes to rural municipality vice-chairs, the number has gone down too as only 335 women were elected compared to 424 in 2017. While women covered 93 per cent of the deputies and vice-chairpersons, this time, only 75 per cent of these seats are occupied by them. Men dominate political parties and always want to stake their claim when it comes to power position. Plus this year, due to the coalition, the representation has been even low. When the number of female candidates was low, the representation going down is normal, says Pathak, who believes political parties used a loophole in Nepals law by not giving in names of women for the positions of deputies. Nepal has 6,743 wards. On average, 69 wards have got one woman ward chair this time. This is only a 1.02 per cent representation. In 2017, the situation was even dire as only 61 women won after contesting for ward chairs. If you look at things on a whole, out of the 34,888 positions up for grabs, women were elected in 14,379 positions. But, this number is just high because of the mandatory rule of having two female (one Dalit) members each in wards. If you take that away, only 1,096 women were elected. Yet, the number was low this year, as in many wards, there were not enough female candidates, especially from the Dalit communities. How are women in Nepals top parties? CPN-UML CPN-UML won in 204 local units. But, out of these, only 10 women were elected. This is a mere 4.09 per cent. Similarly, it won 237 deputy and vice-chair seats, where 213 women were elected. Nepali Congress Nepali Congress won the leadership in 326 local units, where only nine women were elected. When it comes to deputy mayors and vice-chairs, Nepali Congress won 298 seats, where 225 women were elected. Maoists Centre The Maoist Centre won 121 seats, but only four of them are women. Only 63 women were elected deputy chairs as the Maoist Centre won 128 seats. This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Shusha- the historic Azerbaijani city in Karabakh - will play host to the signing of a new energy contract in two days, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov broke the news. He made the remarks during the opening speech at the 27th Baku Energy Forum. Such sustainable initiatives show prompt international interest in the green energy course of the Azerbaijani president, which sets renewable energy sources as a strategic priority in the country's development, he said. The minister noted that this is a proper reaction of investors to the call for the use of the rich renewable energy potential of the countrys liberated territories in the green energy zone concept with zero emissions. The center of Azerbaijan's transformation into a green growth country is Karabakh-Eastern Zangazur as a green energy zone based on the use of fully renewable energy and the Caspian Sea, which has a potential of wind energy of 157 GW, and these geostrategic places will also be the source of green energy exports from Azerbaijan, he said. Shahbazov added that the export routes include the Zangazur corridor and new transmission lines planned over the Black Sea. Noting that Azerbaijans green agenda, supported by multidisciplinary reforms in the energy sector, coincides with global development trends, the minister stated that Azerbaijan will be the country expanding energy partnerships with neighboring countries and Europe on many alternative sources thanks to the export of gas, green energy, and clean hydrogen to be saved ahead. Moreover, stating that the global energy architecture has been redesigned in line with energy security and climate challenges, he noted that green energy is the preferred source of diversification in energy supply. He added that such a synergy of energy security and decarbonization is the modern global trend that accelerates the green energy transition and turns it into a driver of energy independence. In a complex reality, the new solutions focus on the development of energy countries, as are netto-energy importers, where about 80 percent of the world's population lives. The transformation of this traditional oil and gas platform into an energy forum is a manifestation of changes in the national energy sector, he said. Speaking about the countrys gas export, Shahbazov stated that today Azerbaijani gas accounts for 13-90 percent of the total gas consumption of different countries. Some 29 billion cubic meters have been transported to Turkey and Europe via TANAP and TAP up to now, and 6.8 billion cubic meters of gas in five months of this year. It is expected that by the end of the year this figure will reach 16 billion cubic meters, and the export of Azerbaijani gas to Europe will exceed 10 billion cubic meters, he said. Shahbazov also took part in discussions on new opportunities and challenges in the changing world during the energy transition. " " The piece titled "Indian Killing White Man," circa 1882, is part of the Vincent Price Ledger, which is part of the ledger art collection held by The Met in New York City. Public Domain Note: In deference to the artists' visions, HowStuffWorks did not crop any ledger art to our usual site dimensions. A colored pencil drawing of a horse on lined paper features a male rider dressed in colorful clothing. He's carrying a shield and pointing a gun at a second man, a white man dressed in blue who's also on horseback. The white man is bleeding from a wound in the lower abdomen. Several other colorful horses are visible, as are what appear to be bullets or arrows flying through the air. This description is of a piece of ledger art included in the well-known Vincent Price Ledger Book, which was owned by and named for American actor Vincent Price. Although Price owned the drawings and the book, they were created by an anonymous Cheyenne artist around 1875 and provide real-life depictions of what life was like for Plains Indians at that time. Advertisement What Is Ledger Art? Ledger art is a form of drawing practiced by Plains Indians during the late 19th century. While there have been plenty of Anglo artists who have painted and sculpted romanticized scenes of the American West, ledger art provides first-person accounts of how the Plains people viewed themselves, according to director of Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Henry "Chick" Monahan. In fact, in a 2016 essay for JSTOR Daily, Ellen C. Caldwell cites art historian Janet Catherine Berlo who said ledger art created a counter-narrative of U.S. history. Within these works, viewers can find references to politics, journalism, ethnography, history and more, if they know how to decode them. "Although a drawing can be simple looking, there's a lot of information in there," says Monahan. "It can draw you in and make people ask questions. It opens a discourse on the culture from that time period." This tradition began as warrior art, and the artist who would not be considered a professional artist in the Western, contemporary sense focused on drawing himself. (Yes, it was a male tradition.) The artist depicted himself dressed in a manner people who knew him would recognize. He recorded his battles, social status, personal achievements and positions of leadership or authority. Later, the art was dubbed "ledger art" because the pieces were drawn in accountant ledger books that became available to the Indians as more white Americans moved into the West. But the history of these types of works is much longer. " " This undated piece shows two figures and is attributed to Cheyenne Indian Red Eagle. It is part of the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution Advertisement Historical Development of Ledger Art The earliest forms of this type of drawing included pre-contact rock art. In the book "Plains Indian Rock Art," authors James D. Keyser and Michael A. Klassen explain that various types of rock art date back more than 5,000 years. Like later ledger art, the scenes on rock art could range from victories in battles to images of daily life. Etched on hard surfaces, petroglyphs were unsurprisingly simpler, while painted pictographs could include a variety of colors, according to Museums of Western Colorado. By the late 18th century, Plains peoples painted these important scenes on buffalo hides, which were easily transported, unlike rock art. And like war shirts, these hide paintings were biographical documents in which men recorded events that took place in their lives. The paintings continued for years as new events occurred and were added, such as war honors and personal achievements. By the 19th century, U.S. Western expansion and trade brought ledger books into the Plains communities, and the artists began using this lined paper for their drawings. In these books, each page might contain a single event as the artist continued to fill the pages. It was this era that gave the art its name. Artists used a variety of materials, such as graphite, colored pencils, Indian ink and watercolors, to create their works. Over time, additional materials were incorporated. Not only did the mediums shift, but the depictions in ledger art did also. That's because the relationship between the Plains peoples and the U.S. government changed. By the end of the 1870s, the U.S. government had forcefully relocated the Plains peoples to reservations. One particular warrior artist who created images while imprisoned at Fort Randall was the great Lakota Chief Tatanka Yotanka, better known as Sitting Bull. Some of his images are now housed in the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. According to Plains Indian Ledger Art (PILA), "Plains artists added scenes of ceremony and daily life from before the reservation to the repertoire of their artwork, reflecting the social and cultural changes brought by life on the reservation within the larger context of forced assimilation." Once the Indians were in U.S. captivity, they had fewer opportunities for war honors, and artists began depicting more hunting scenes and "ceremonial" subject matter in ledger art. " " Four Horns drawing of Sitting Bull with shield in battle with Crow Indians, circa 1870, is part of a 55-drawing collection of war deeds attributed to Sitting Bull and Jumping Bull. The collection is housed at the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution Advertisement The Significance of Ledger Art As we mentioned, ledger art touches on ethnography, political science, journalism, sociology, tribal history, American history and more, Monahan says. Many 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century works depicting Native Americans were painted by non-Native Americans and provide unrealistic images of them. "These are first-person accounts," says Monahan. There is a lot of information in these drawings when you learn how to decipher them, and they show how the artists viewed themselves, not how someone else viewed them. The widespread tradition of creating ledger art dissipated in the early 20th century, although some artists kept it going. One example is the Walter Bone Shirt ledger, which was created around the turn of the century. Not much is known about the artist, other than he was a Brule Lakota and his Indian name was likely Never Misses. A few of his pieces are held in private collections. Contemporary artists do still continue the tradition of ledger art, today. Native American artist Dwayne "Chuck" Wilcox, uses ledger art as a form of political satire. He honors the tradition and seeks to share a continuing view of how natives see the European culture. Another modernization of the art has been the entrance of women artists into this historically male artform. Consider, for example, Dolores Purdy. For more than two decades, she has used "the same medium of antique paper and colored pencils" to create "a contemporary version from the female perspective," her website says. Today, Purdy's work is for sale at Monahan's Morning Star Gallery. " " Dolores Purdy, who is a member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, is a prominent female contemporary ledger artist. Most of her pieces, like this one titled "Going for Dinner," are full of bright colors and vivid imagery. Dolores Purdy Advertisement Collecting Ledger Art Today If you're interested in acquiring pieces of ledger art, you will find both historic and contemporary options. Of course, you need to find a trusted dealer or gallerist selling the work and examine the condition of the piece if it's old. "Find out what you like," Monahan says, but purchase for quality, authenticity and personal taste, he advises. The oldest pieces created in ledger books are mostly found in institutions and museum collections. And there are still some complete, intact ledger books today. So for the average collector, look for individual sheets, which can still cost anywhere from thousands of dollars to more than six figures. Now That's Interesting For many years, the Plains Indian Ledger Art project (PILA) has worked to digitize ledger art drawings the late 19th century for research and public access. You can view 42 ledgers, like the Bad Eye Sketchbook or the Arrow's Elk Society Ledger, on the site here. (For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) * Euro zone April PPI grows 1.2% m/m * Remy Cointreau rises on topping profit, upbeat outlook * Airline SAS rises on reports of takeover offer (Adds comment; updates prices, details) By Susan Mathew and Bansari Mayur Kamdar June 2 (Reuters) - European shares bounced on Thursday, led by industrial and luxury names, with gains limited by lingering worries over slowing economic growth and rising prices. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.6% after losing nearly 2% over the last two sessions. Volumes are expected to be subdued as London markets are closed for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee bank holidays. French spirits group Remy Cointreau climbed 4.9% on beating full-year profit estimates and providing an upbeat outlook for this year and beyond. Other luxury stocks followed suit. LVMH, L'Oreal and EssilorLuxottica were up between 1.7% and 3.1%, providing the biggest boosts to the index. Oil stocks edged lower even as crude prices erased earlier losses after OPEC+ agreed to boost crude output to compensate for a drop in Russian production. Shell's Amsterdam listing and Equinor declined 0.5% and 1.9% respectively. Data showed Euro zone producer prices rose 1.2% from the previous month in April, below economists' expectations of 2.3% rise. This followed data earlier this week that showed consumer prices in the region rose to a record high. Government bond yields jumped to multi-year highs as inflation data this week boosted expectations that the European Central Bank might accelerate its tightening path. "The interest rate expectations are moving quite fast," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. "We have seen that this week, the inflation numbers in Germany and the Euro zone came significantly higher than expected. So that's having an extremely hawkish impact on the central bank expectations to the point that in July meeting some analysts are actually pencilling in even a 50 basis point hike." Story continues Swiss consumer price data on Thursday showed inflation increased by the highest level in 14 years during May. In the U.S., private payrolls increased far less than expected in May, which would suggest demand for labour was starting to slow amid higher interest rates and tightening financial conditions, though job openings remained extremely high. Investors eyed non-farm payrolls data on Friday that could decide how stocks will end this week as investors fret over the pace of monetary policy tightening by the central bank. Markets have been gripped by slowing growth worries as global central banks scramble to tame surging inflation without tipping economies into recession. The STOXX 600 is on course to end the week about 0.6% lower. Among other stocks, Scandinavian airline SAS firmed 1.3% on a report that a group of foreign investors is exploring a takeover. (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) The Zacks Medical-HMO industry is expected to continue benefiting from the well-performing Government business, driven by contract wins and growing membership. The health insurance industry in the United States is more commonly referred to as the HMO space. An aging U.S. population and continuous pursuit of a M&A strategy are likely to provide a boost to the performances of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated UNH, Anthem, Inc. ANTM, Humana Inc. HUM, Centene Corporation CNC and Select Medical Holdings Corporation SEM. About the Industry The Zacks Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) industry consists of entities (either private or public) that take care of the basic and supplemental health services of its subscribers. Companies in this space primarily assume the risks involved and assign premiums to health and medical insurance policies. Industry participants also provide administrative and managed-care services for self-funded insurance. Services are generally provided by a network of approved care providers (called in-network), which include primary care physicians, clinical facilities, hospitals and specialists. However, out-of-network exceptions are made during emergencies or when it is medically necessary. Health insurance plans can be availed of by ways like private purchase, social insurance or social welfare programs. 4 Trends Shaping the HMO Industry's Future Continued Membership Growth: Industry players can continue to devise affordable health insurance plans and extend them across several U.S. communities on the back of sound Medicare and Medicaid plans. Forming part of the Government business, these enhanced plans continue to fetch several contract wins from state authorities and result in growing membership. An uptick in membership fetches increased premiums, which sounds well as premiums remain one of the most significant contributors to revenues of any health insurer. An Aging U.S. Population: The Medicare plans, which are primarily intended for people aged 65 or above, might continue to remain in solid demand driven by a rising aging population in the United States. According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), one of the operating branches of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the number of people aged 65 and older has grown more than 17-fold since 1900. The count of the same age group is projected to surge from 54.1 million in 2019 to 80.8 million within 2040 and 94.7 million by the next two decades (per the ACL). The industry participants can capitalize on a rapidly aging population through their a wide array of Medicare plans or upgraded healthcare services. Story continues Pursuit of M&A Strategy: The HMO industry continues to witness a solid merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy that intends to expand capabilities, bolster global presence and boost the customer base of the industry players. The primary aim behind these deals is to enhance the quality of care and bring about diversification benefits, which are crucial to strengthening ones market position. M&A bankers at Morgan Stanley remain optimistic about 2022 being a solid year with respect to M&A deals. Their positive assumption is based on the fact that all the elements that led to record deal-making activity last year continue to persist in 2022 as well. Technological Advancements: The industry has been gradually embracing the ongoing trend to go digital and undertaking significant investments for developing virtual healthcare solutions. The use of chatbots and AI-based voice, assistants, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), mobile-based apps, robots, cloud computing, and analytics, among other technologies, have been easing the delivery of healthcare services, boosting operational efficiencies and reducing unnecessary expenses. Though the investments might result in escalating costs for health insurers, the virtual services continue to fetch regular revenues and drive their margins in the long term. Zacks Industry Rank Instills Optimism The groups Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all-member stocks, indicates bright near-term prospects. The Zacks Medical-HMOs industry, which is housed within the broader Zacks Medical sector, currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #79, which places it at the top 31% of more than 250 Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. The industrys positioning in the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of a positive earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are upbeat about this groups earnings growth potential. The industrys earnings estimates for 2022 have increased 5.2% from the past year. Given the bright near-term prospects, companies in the space are expected to gain heavily. Before we present a few stocks that you may want to buy or retain in your portfolio, lets take a look at the industrys recent stock-market performance and valuation picture. Industry Outperforms S&P 500 & Sector The Zacks Medical-HMO industry has outperformed not only the Zacks S&P 500 composite but also its sector as well in the past year. In the said time frame, the industry has gained 18% against the S&P 500s 2.9% decline. The Zacks Medical sector has slumped 19.7% in the same time frame. One-Year Price Performance Industry's Current Valuation On the basis of the forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is commonly used for valuing medical stocks, the industry trades at 19.23X compared with the S&P 500s 17.73X and the sectors 20.23X. Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 20.64X and as low as 12.5X, with the median being at 17.27X, as the chart below shows. P/E Ratio (Past 5 Years) P/E Ratio (Past 5 Years) 5 HMO Stocks to Watch Out for We are presenting two stocks from the space currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and three stocks carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. UnitedHealth Group: The Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group operates as a health care and well-being company. This Zacks Rank #2 HMO should continue to gain on the back of solid contributions from its UnitedHealthcare and Optum businesses. Well-performing Medicare and Medicaid businesses are expected to drive UNHs performance in the days ahead. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UnitedHealth Groups 2022 EPS indicates a 14.4% increase year over year, having moved up 0.4% over the past 60 days. UNH delivered an earnings beat in each of the last four reported quarters, the average surprise being 3.73%. The expected long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 14.8%, better than the industry average of 14.5%. Price & Consensus: UNH Select Medical: The Pennsylvania-based Select Medical remains one of the largest U.S. operators of critical illness recovery hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics and occupational health centers. The company, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, should continue to benefit from consistent top-line growth, driven by solid segmental contributions. Constant efforts to bolster its network of rehabilitation hospitals through either strategic buyouts or joint ventures with well-established healthcare systems are expected to buoy the healthcare providers performance in the days ahead. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Select Medicals 2022 earnings has moved up 1.4% over the past 30 days. SEM boasts of an impressive Value Score of A. The expected long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 15%, better than the industry average. Price & Consensus: SEM Anthem: Based in Indiana, Anthem remains one of the largest health benefits companies across the United States in terms of medical membership. ANTM carries a Zacks Rank #3. Premium rate increase and higher membership resulting in solid top-line growth, coupled with steadily undertaking acquisitions and collaborations, should benefit Anthems results The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Anthems 2022 EPS indicates a 9.7% increase year over year, having moved up 0.1% over the past 30 days. The bottom line of ANTM outpaced earnings estimates in each of the last four reported quarters, the average surprise being 6.01%. The healthcare provider boasts of an impressive VGM Score of A. Price & Consensus: ANTM Humana: The Kentucky-based health and well-being company remains committed to catering to millions of medical and specialty members. The Zacks Rank #3 healthcare provider should benefit from a solid Medicaid business line on the back of several contract wins and growing membership. The pursuit of acquisitions might contribute to the long-term growth of HUM. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Humanas 2022 EPS indicates a 19.4% increase year over year, having moved up 0.4% over the past 30 days. HUM beat earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 5.94%. Price & Consensus: HUM Centene: Based in Missouri, Centene operates as a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise. CNC carries a Zacks Rank #3. The trend of growing revenues stemming from solid Medicare and Medicaid businesses, several contract wins and expansion across different regions should continue in the days ahead. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Centenes 2022 EPS indicates a 6.6% increase year over year. The consensus mark for 2022 earnings has moved up 0.5% over the past 30 days. CNC boasts of an impressive VGM Score of A. The expected long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 14.2%. Price & Consensus: CNC Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Humana Inc. (HUM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Centene Corporation (CNC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Select Medical Holdings Corporation (SEM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Anthem, Inc. (ANTM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Aflac Incorporated The Aflac Parents House is also used as a comprehensive support center for consultation and events related to pediatric cancer. Philanthropy Caring for others is at the core of Aflacs culture, and 2021 was no exception. While supporting our customers every day, we still dedicated time and energy to making a difference in our communities. Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Since 1995, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta has become nationally renowned as one of the leading childhood cancer, hematology, and blood and marrow transplant programs in the U.S. With innovative research programs and cutting-edge treatment options, the five-year survival rate for childhood cancer has improved dramatically, from 20% in 1965 to greater than 80% today. This worthwhile cause is very near and dear to the heart of the Aflac family, including the Aflac Foundation, Inc., our executives, employees and the field force, whose generous contributions help to provide a steady flow of funding for research. In total, Aflacs contributions to the Aflac Cancer Center have exceeded the $160 million mark as of April 2022. This generosity has greatly contributed to the Aflac Cancer Centers success and distinction in research, which has earned the Aflac Cancer Center recognition as one of the top pediatric cancer programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report. Aflacs commitment is not only positively impacting kids with childhood cancer, but also those with rare blood disorders, including sickle cell disease a disease that is not widely known or understood. The inspiration for Aflacs efforts to help address challenges brought on by sickle cell disease, in relation to larger disparities in pediatric health care, are largely centered on the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta: The Aflac Cancer Center is the most prolific provider of sickle cell disease care in the U.S., caring for nearly 2,000 pediatric patients each year and regularly performing blood and marrow transplants. In 2020, it was rated No. 1 in the nation for total sickle cell disease discharges in 2020 with 2,000-plus total patient visits, according to the Public Health Information System Data. Story continues Aflac Parents House A large part of being a well-respected and trusted company includes being a compassionate and socially responsible company. Aflac Japan recognizes that social responsibility is an essential element of our purpose. As a company, the Aflac Japan family cares deeply about our communities, and it is our privilege to help where we can. When a child is diagnosed with cancer or other serious medical conditions, he or she often must travel to Tokyo or Osaka from other parts of Japan to receive treatment, which is often an ongoing process. To help provide a level of assistance, the first Aflac Parents House, which was established in 2001 through a donation from Aflac Japan, serves as a home away from home where pediatric patients and their families can temporarily live together while they support their childs battle with cancer or numerous other serious illnesses. The Aflac Parents House is also utilized as a comprehensive support center for consultation and events related to pediatric cancer. In memory of Jean Amos, who passed away in November 2019, Aflac Japan has renovated the Parents House and established the Amos Room with memorial donations from Aflac Japan executives, employees, group companies and sales agents. These individuals also support the operation of Parents House by donating hygiene products and daily necessities so that children and their families can stay in the building with peace of mind, even as concerns over COVID-19 infection continue. The Aflac Parents House is also used as a comprehensive support center for consultation and events related to pediatric cancer. Cancer Awareness Classroom Aflac recognizes the duty and responsibility that comes with being the pioneer and leading company for cancer insurance. As the pioneer of cancer insurance, consumers have placed their trust in our company and our products. We work hard each day to be good stewards of that trust. At Aflac Japan, for example, in cooperation with all 47 prefectures, we actively educate people about cancer prevention and the importance of early detection. For example, in the Tokyo suburb of Chofu City, where Aflac Japan has major operations, the company cooperates with the local government to provide cancer education and developed cancer classes for all junior high schools in the city. In December 2021, Aflac Japan co-hosted a cancer screening awareness seminar with Chofu City on Aflac Japans official YouTube channel, with the aim of spreading a correct understanding of cancer screening. Aflac Japan All Ribbons Aflac strives not only to provide peace of mind to our policyholders, but also compassionate help to our employees. With that in mind, in 2017, Aflac Japan pioneered a volunteer peer-based employee community called All Ribbons for employees who have experienced cancer. The name was chosen to reflect the wish of community members to support each other and their Aflac colleagues who have experienced various types of cancer. The All Ribbons group members provide support to fellow employees battling cancer and struggling to balance treatment and work. All Ribbons participants are provided with opportunities to share their unique experiences battling cancer, including tips for remaining balanced in their work life. Employee consulting services are also provided. In addition to these support activities, the All Ribbons group also hosts panel discussions which often take place at the All Ribbons Cafe which is a meeting place for employees where cancer services information is available. Volunteering Aflacs steadfast philanthropic initiatives and volunteerism are grounded in leaving our duckprints. In the U.S., employees and independent sales agents have donated more than $160 million to support pediatric cancer research, treatment and the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center through April 2022. In Japan, we support those facing childhood cancer through initiatives such as the Aflac Parents House, where children being treated for diseases such as childhood cancer and their families can stay at a low price; scholarships for high school students who have lost their parents to cancer or who have experienced childhood cancer themselves; and support for the Gold Ribbon activities and more, including initiatives to improve the cancer screening rate in Japan. My Special Aflac Duck In Japan and the U.S., Aflac Incorporated believes in doing good for future generations. That takes shape in many ways within the Aflac family, but most prominently in our dedication to children and families facing childhood cancer. We know it takes more than medicine to help children cope with cancer. Thats why Aflac delivers My Special Aflac Duck free of charge to children in the U.S., Japan and Northern Ireland to assist them as they undergo cancer treatments. Its an investment for the children, their families and their futures. In addition to supporting the treatment and research of childhood cancer, Aflac wanted to do more. We wanted to give children with cancer something they could literally hold on to something that would give them joy and help them on their journey. Aflac delivered on this commitment in 2018 with My Special Aflac Duck, our smart comforting companion that helps children feel less alone by using interactive technology during their cancer treatment. A compatible web-based app enables children to mirror their care routines, including medical play, lifelike movement and emotions to engage and help bring comfort to children during their cancer care journey. Ultimately, My Special Aflac Duck helps kids recognize that theyre not alone in their lived experience; creates positive associations with the treatment regimens to inspire adherence both in and out of the home; and provides coping mechanisms anytime, anywhere, for anyone. Each year, more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S., and Aflacs goal is to gift each newly diagnosed child, age three and up, his or her very own My Special Aflac Duck completely free of charge. Through the Aflac Childhood Cancer Campaign, Aflac Cancer Center and now, My Special Aflac Duck, Aflac is committed to providing support, hope, time and resources to children with cancer. Having helped more than 13,000 kids cope with cancer, My Special Aflac Duck is finding some new friends. In early 2022, Aflac U.S. expanded the reach of its award-winning program to include children with blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. Housed in custom packaging, these new duck accessories are tailored especially to help children with blood disorders such as sickle cell cope with their unique care routines; they include a warm blanket, port-IV adapter and a new digital experience on the accompanying free app. Sawyer Guillory was born with sickle cell disease and received his twin brother Saxtons bone marrow as his cure. Both were part of Aflacs pilot program in 2021 to provide a new version of My Special Aflac Duck to children with sickle cell disease. The Guillory family is grateful that both of their sons, Saxton and Sawyer, are now healthy. About her twins and her familys experience, Shea Guillory said, Saxton and Sawyer are two peas in a pod. They were born together; they were wombmates. Sawyer was literally born with his cure. When they informed me that Sawyer had sickle cell anemia, I was devastated; I was at a loss for words. The doctors told me that we needed the best care for Saxton, which is how we came to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. Saxton was Sawyers bone marrow transplant donor. He went through the surgery and the procedure with his brother. The level of care that my son received at this hospital is hard to describe. It means so much to me. Sawyer and Saxton received a My Special Aflac Duck, and Sawyer named his duck Daxton after his twin brother. I am in love and in awe with everything about the Aflac Duck. It helps to give kids a way to express themselves. Its a wonderful tool, and I think the more patients that have the opportunity to be able to use it, I think it would help them tremendously. Health care providers can visit myspecialaflacduck.com for more information and to request My Special Aflac Ducks for their pediatric patients with cancer and sickle cell disease. Download the 2021 Aflac Business & Sustainability Report here View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Aflac Incorporated on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/aflac-2021-business-and-sustainability-report-philanthropy-903086894 Altos Labs commits to funding four CiRA research projects for five years SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Altos Labs (Altos) today announced that it has signed a sponsored research agreement with the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Japan's Kyoto University. Effective May 1 of this year, Altos has committed to fund four CiRA research projects for five years to investigate aspects of cellular rejuvenation programming. Altos announces sponsored research agreement with CiRA. "Altos is eager to support the best researchers around the world to unlock the incredible potential of cellular rejuvenation programming," said Altos Chief Scientist and Founder Rick Klausner. "Altos is deeply committed to a long-term research effort that will identify the foundational biological mechanisms of cellular rejuvenation programming. Through our partnership with CiRA, known already as a world-leading center for stem cell research, we aim to generate new knowledge that contributes to the ability to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that occur throughout life." Under the sponsored research agreement, projects are supervised by Altos Senior Scientific Advisor Shinya Yamanaka, who is also Professor and Director Emeritus at CiRA. He does not receive any remuneration from Altos. "With the funding awarded by Altos Labs, these research projects will explore several key areas with the help of iPS cell technologies," said Yamanaka. "These projects have the potential to make meaningful contributions to the growing field of cellular rejuvenation programming and, eventually, to aid in the development of new disease treatments." The research projects will be led by four CiRA researchers: Associate Professor Knut Woltjen 's project is titled Manipulation of aging through refined epigenetic reprogramming . The study will employ a multi-omics approach to study the unique epigenetic changes in rapidly aging cells of the thymus and placenta. The study aims to enable reprogramming systems that provide improved tissue function, efficient self-healing, and safe regenerative medicine applications. Associate Professor Yoshinori Yoshida 's project is titled Targeting the hallmarks of aging for systemic cardiac rejuvenation by using human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells . The study aims to rejuvenate human cardiac tissue healthily, thereby ensuring its physiological integrity and maintenance of its fitness and health span. Researchers will identify and validate key factors in cardiac rejuvenation. Associate Professor Kazutoshi Takahashi 's project is titled Conversion of human fibroblast cells to a younger fate by defined factors . The study will capture and analyze the rejuvenation phenomenon that occurs during reprogramming of human cells toward a pluripotent state. Instead of comparing young and aged somatic cells, the study will adopt a new multi-omics approach for comparing normal somatic cells and rejuvenated cells. Junior Associate Professor Taro Toyoda's project is titled Development of a selective cell rejuvenation tool using epigenetic aging models in iPSC-derived islet cells. The project will seek to develop improved partial reprogramming tools that would decrease the risk of tumorigenic cell rejuvenation and specify rejuvenating factors. Story continues Under the sponsored research agreement, researchers will be free to publish their results following a review in which patent and licensing options will be considered. About Altos Labs Altos Labs is a new life sciences company focused on restoring cell health and resilience through cellular rejuvenation programming to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that occur throughout life. The company comprises a community of leading scientists, clinicians, and leaders from both academia and industry working together towards this common mission. Altos has operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, and in Cambridge, UK, with significant collaborations in Japan. To learn more visit www.altoslabs.com and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Media Contacts Morgan Warners Finsbury Glover Hering morgan.warners@fgh.com Kim James Finsbury Glover Hering kim.james@fgh.com Altos Labs Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/altos-labs-announces-sponsored-research-agreement-with-kyoto-universitys-cira-to-foster-cellular-rejuvenation-programming-research-301559712.html SOURCE Altos Labs Surgeons treating victims of firearm violence highlight 13 recommendations from ACS Firearms Strategy Team that can reduce deaths and serious injuries WASHINGTON, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, leaders from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) called for bipartisan solutions to reduce the rising numbers of deaths and serious injuries that are arriving in trauma centers on a daily basis due to firearm violence. During an ACS news conference at its Washington, DC office, surgeons outlined important attainable steps that can be taken to accelerate an effective response to reduce firearm violence. "Firearm violence is a growing public health crisis that must be immediately addressed. This is a public health crisis, not a political debate. The American College of Surgeons is committed to crafting solutions that save lives and minimize preventable death," said ACS Executive Director, Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS. "We are unwilling to wait for another tragedy to befall another community when we believe we have a series of actions that will have an impact." She explained that trauma surgeons are practical problem solvers who see and live through this crisis every day treating patients who are victims of attempted suicides, homicides, and who suffer other grievous injuries from firearms. "We must be an integral part of the solution to reduce the rising number of deaths we see every year." Dr. Turner said the ACS wants to work with and educate legislators about firearm injury prevention "so that we can incorporate what we know, in a data driven way." FAST recommendations provide common ground The ACS Committee on Trauma convened the Firearms Strategy Team (FAST) in 2017 consisting of highly regarded trauma surgeons, many of whom are avid firearm owners. Their singular mission was to develop an effective strategy to reduce firearm injury, death, and disability. The recommendations first introduced in 2018, and renewed today, are the product of broad consensus. Story continues The FAST recommendations cover 13 areas and include background checks; registration; licensure; firearm education and training; safe storage practices; red flag laws; addressing mental health issues; and more research to better inform an approach going forward and to help address the root causes of violence. The full-text article appears in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. "These comprehensive recommendations provide a road map to a solution and can have an immediate impact on saving lives," said Eileen M, Bulger, MD, FACS, Medical Director of ACS Trauma Programs and one of the leaders who helped develop the FAST recommendations and spelled them out at the news conference. From the frontlines Trauma surgeon, Ronald M, Stewart, MD, FACS, provided a compelling front line perspective of the crisis. Dr. Stewart, chair of the department of surgery at University Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, explained he has been in the unfortunate position of caring for victims from two of the largest mass shootings in modern U.S. HistorySutherland Springs First Baptist Church and the Uvalde School shooting, and described the injuries inflicted by high-velocity weapons as "horrific." The fact that their current patients are improving "brings us joy," he reported. But they all have a long road ahead to deal with both the physical and emotional impact of this shooting. "This moment of crisis will have a lifetime of impact on these innocent souls. Our teams are working to facilitate healing in a way that minimizes long term effects." Dr. Stewart, a former Chair of the ACS COT, credited decades of work from the COT in setting organized, regional trauma systems of care that make real life saving difference in communities. "In many ways, South Texas has a model trauma and emergency health care system built on the ACS model." He also pointed out that newer recommendations to administer whole blood quickly to seriously injured shooting patients is now a factor in saving lives. He commended ACS trauma leaders for advocacy work in educating and training people who are bystanders to control serious bleeding through its STOP THE BLEED program as another life-saving measure that's made an impact in improving survival too. But he pointed out that these are treatments, "and treatment is not enough, these tragedies are preventable. We can prevent these atrocities." As for the severity of the problem, he noted that in 2020 firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Not the leading cause of traumatic death, but the leading cause of death. Dr. Stewart believes that the "ACS COT has proven that people who significantly differ in their views on firearms can and will enthusiastically work together to reduce unnecessary death and suffering from firearm related injury and intentional violence." Broad support for consensus recommendations to reduce firearm violence Patrick V. Bailey, MD, MLS, FACS, a pediatric surgeon by training, who currently serves as a Medical Director in the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, observed that the FAST recommendations were developed through "a very deliberative process that included the participation and perspective of other surgeons who like me were also gun owners, but who seek to reduce the impact of gun violence on our country." Dr. Bailey does not believe these recommendations "pose an undue burden on the rights of individual gun owners" and said that he hopes these recommendations will be viewed by a Congress that comes together in a bipartisan way to "enact substantive legislation directed at mitigating gun violence." Other initiatives provide pathways Other advocacy work initiated by the ACS COT that was highlighted today included a brief overview by Dr. Bulger of its Improving Social Determinants to Attenuate Violence (ISAVE) workgroup. ISAVE presents strategies for trauma centers to address the root causes of violence. The work that came out of the COT's 2019 Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention was also highlighted. The Summit included active participation by 44 professional organizations that gathered to identify collaborative ways to address the firearm violence problem. The organizations developed recommendations based on a consensus of all participating groups. At the close of the summit, a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address the issue emerged that included focusing on recognizing firearm injury as a U.S. public health crisis and taking a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address it; researching it using a disease model; engaging firearm owners and at-risk communities to develop firearm injury prevention programs and empowering the medical community to function in the best interest of its patients in variety of palpable ways. Full proceedings from the Summit were published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The important work started at the inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention will continue, announced Jeffrey Kerby, MD, PhD, FACS, current Chair of the ACS COT. "This fall, we will reconvene and cohost the Summit to bring together subject matter experts from across the house of medicine. We must continue to build our collective will and work creatively to address the root causes that have led to this epidemic." He believes the ACS COT recommendations provide an immediate path for moving forward. Dr. Kerby, who is Brigham Family Endowed Professor and director of the division of trauma and acute care surgery for the department of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), explained that he regularly speaks with trauma surgeons across the nation. "We are all deeply disturbed by the inordinate amount of firearm injuries and death we must constantly address. My own trauma center has seen a 40% increase in the number of firearm related injuries just in the last two years, and these numbers continue to increase. We are in the midst of an epidemic of firearm violence, and we need to act. I have to believe that as a country, we can do better." About the American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 84,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-american-college-of-surgeons-calls-for-urgent-bipartisan-action-to-address-the-firearm-violence-public-health-crisis-301560532.html SOURCE American College of Surgeons Blender Bites Limited VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blender Bites Ltd. (the Company, Blender Bites or Blender), (CSE: BITE, FWB: JL40, WKN: A3DWAM), an award-winning Canadian company involved in the development and marketing of a line of premium, organic and plant-based pre-portioned frozen functional foods, provides a summary of its shareholder update call, held on June 1, 2022. HIGHLIGHTS Q2 2022 Revenue Performance During Q2 2022, the Company witnessed increased revenues compared to same quarter last year (Q2 2021), and also compared to the previous three month period ending January 31, 2022 (Q1 2022). In Q2 2022 the Company saw revenues of $1,281,441 compared to $172,922 during Q2 2021 which represents a 641% increase, with respective cost of goods sold being $1,024,609 and $120,992. Q2 2022 revenues were also significantly increased by 64.5% compared to Q1 2022 (Q1), where Q1 saw revenues of $779,121, with cost of goods sold of $596,000. Q2s positive revenue results reflect the teams dedication to deliver strong growth and, ultimately profitability for the Company. Revenue Projections Assuming the maintenance of order sizes from existing customers, recurring orders from the Worlds largest club store chain in Western Canada, and the securing of an additional, pending, US Club Store division, the Company anticipates generating roughly C$10 million in revenue by the end December 2022. The Company has pre-ordered sufficient raw materials at fixed prices for anticipated production necessary to satisfy the projected revenue for the calendar year ended December 31, 2022, and has sufficient working capital on hand to fulfil projected orders. The Company is dependent on third-party supply chains to deliver raw materials necessary for production, however, and disruptions in deliveries could result in delays in order fulfilment. US & Canada Expansion The Company will continue to focus on the future and the development and execution of upcoming projects and its aggressive expansion plans to generate value for new and existing customers, as well as shareholders. Story continues The United States represents a significant segment of the smoothie market which is expected to reach US$17 billion by 20261, at a CAGR of 10.1%, and the Company will look to capitalize on this significant market segment with the roll out to additional grocery retail and club stores within other major markets in the US. The Company has initiated discussions with some of these distribution businesses. The Company believes that with its successful expansion into Southwest US club stores and more recently into Western Canada club stores, in conjunction with the successful execution of our aggressive US expansion plan as well as its nationwide Canada roll out, will position the Company to continue its upward trajectory and strong growth heading into 2023. ABOUT BLENDER BITES Blender Bites is a Canadian company involved in the development and marketing of a line of premium frozen food products with a focus on functionality. Blender Bites was founded in 2016 and was first to market in Western Canada with a pre-portioned easy smoothie product that is free of any unnecessary inner plastic packaging. Blender Bites products are certified organic, vegan, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free and soy free. They contain no added sugars and are made in Canada. Blender Bites products are distributed internationally across Canada and the US, and are currently sold in over 900 stores, including Sobeys, Safeway, Save on Foods, Whole Foods Market, Buy-Low/Nesters, IGA and Fresh Street. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Blender Bites Limited Chelsie Hodge, Chief Executive Officer For further information, contact Blender IR Team at: Email investors@blenderbites.com Telephone 1-888-997-2055 CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon several 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, and uncertain capital markets. Readers are cautioned that 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. 1 https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/smoothies-market. Hundreds of students at Brandywine School District's three high schools staged a walkout Thursday to protest gun violence and remember the 21 people who were fatally shot last week at a Texas elementary school. The walkout is the latest instance in which students across the country are protesting gun violence and pushing lawmakers to enact stronger gun control. "We hope to just have more of an impact on those that are involved in, you know, state legislation to be able to have direct contact and be able to inspire or incite any kind of legislation changes at that level," said 16-year-old Evan Gant, who will be a senior at Brandywine High School next year. Brandywine High School students walk around the track during a walkout in protest of gun violence Thursday, June 2, 2022. The walkout started at 9:30 a.m. at the district's three high schools: Brandywine, Concord and Mount Pleasant. Natalie Tobin, a 16-year-old Brandywine High School junior, said she had invited community leaders, including Delaware lawmakers, to the Brandywine High protest. "I'm hoping those people, seeing how much we care about it, is going to help them realize they need to push for more action in our government," she said. At Brandywine High, students walked around the school's track for 21 minutes honoring the 19 children and two adults shot dead on May 24 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. As the students walked, a marching bass drum was beat every four seconds representing how often a person is shot. Every minute they walked, they announced the name of another Uvalde victim, all of whom were killed by a man who officials said legally purchased two assault rifles and scores of ammunition last month for his 18th birthday. Brandywine High School students walk around the track during a walkout in protest of gun violence Thursday, June 2, 2022. Students across the nation have been staging walkouts at schools and college campuses since last week to protest gun violence and demand stricter gun controls. More: It shouldnt have happened here.' Before Texas shooting, Uvalde was a place for families, friendship Maddie Ahmadi, a junior at Essex High School in Vermont who serves on the national advisory board of Students Demand Action, decided a walkout was the only option: "Our lives are more important than schoolwork," she told USA Today. Story continues Ahmadi blasted out calls to action on social media and notified her school's administration. "This didn't feel like a time to ask for permission," she said. That demonstration took place midmorning the day after the Texas massacre. It also became the first of a string of student walkouts across the country in response to the Uvalde shooting, according to USA Today. More: 'This didn't feel like a time to ask permission': After Texas school shooting, students walk out for gun law reform Students at Brandywine High School walk out in protest of gun violence Thursday, June 2, 2022. Fifteen-year-old Lola Fenning helped organize the walkout at Brandywine High after hearing from Mount Pleasant High students. She said she decided to do this because she's seen no action after writing to state lawmakers. "I think that maybe if we try a different way, maybe they'll hear us," Fenning said. Fenning, who will be a sophomore next school year, said she and others plan to be more socially active in the years to come. "And for different causes, not just this," she said. "Racism, anti-Semitism, all these things, because I think this is really important." The student-led protests also have the support of school administrators. "The student leaders coordinated with their building leadership to plan meaningful events bringing attention to gun violence occurring across the country," said Danielle Pro-Hudson, Brandywine School District spokeswoman. Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware students protest gun violence in wake of Texas shooting June 2 (Reuters) - Russia has taken control of most of Ukraine's industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, Britain's defence ministry said on Thursday. Britain said Ukraine likely remained in control of the river line in crossing sites between Sievierodonetsk and the neighbouring town of Lysychansk, and in the city of Lyman. In both locations, Ukrainian forces have destroyed existing bridges, the ministry added in the intelligence update posted on Twitter. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Russians control 70% of the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, citing a provincial governor. (Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair) By Trend Azerbaijan is ready to enter a new level of renewable energy development, General Director of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Francesco La Camera told Trend. "Azerbaijan is ready to further develop its renewable energy potential. The country can really benefit from this. Azerbaijan has a huge potential for using wind and solar energy," he said. According to IRENA general director, the organization successfully cooperates with Azerbaijans Energy Ministry and directly with Minister Parviz Shahbazov. "We now see major projects being funded, such as the joint project with Masdar [UAEs Renewable energy company], and another with Equinor [Norvegian Petroleum refining company], he noted. Azerbaijan is committed to diversifying its energy system, and we will continue to work to help the country in any possible way," added Francesco La Camera. Setting A New Hospital Record For The Largest Donation Received in its 123-Year History PASADENA, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Charles Huang, chairman of the Charles Huang Foundation, today committed a $7 million donation to San Francisco's Chinese Hospital, the largest donation to the hospital of its kind. The donation ceremony was officiated by former San Francisco Mayor, Mr. Willie Brown today at Chinese Hospital with Dr. Huang and Foundation board members, Chinese Hospital's Board of Trustees, and its senior management. Historic Donation to Chinese Hospital Check Presentation by Charles Huang Foundation Former Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown; Dr. Charles Huang, Chairman of Charles Huang Foundation; Mr. Kitman Chan, Chairman of Chinese Hospitals Board of Trustees; Dr. Jian Zhang, CEO of Chinese Hospital San Francisco's Chinese Hospital receives the largest donation of its kind from the Charles Huang Foundation Caption: Historic Donation to Chinese Hospital Check Presentation by Charles Huang Foundation Former Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown; Dr. Charles Huang, Chairman of Charles Huang Foundation; Mr. Kitman Chan, Chairman of Chinese Hospital's Board of Trustees; Dr. Jian Zhang, CEO of Chinese Hospital "The Chinese Hospital is the kind of institution I want to support the most. It has an excellent tradition of caring for the local community, especially those less privileged groups. Education and Healthcare have always been the top priorities of my Foundation. This is also why, after making significant donations to my two alma maters in the UK and China, I chose the Chinese Hospital as the recipient of my first charitable donation in the US," said Dr. Huang. "Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed anti-Asian, particularly anti-Chinese sentiment in American society. I hope that my donation can also show the American society that Asian Americans, in particular Chinese Americans, do care about our communities and give back to our communities in order to make our communities better and stronger." The donation will fund redevelopment of the hospital outpatient tower infrastructure and creation of innovative programs that meet the healthcare needs of the Community. The renovated building will be named as the "Charles Huang Foundation Outpatient Tower." and provide additional capacity and services, including new subacute care beds and surgical suites, laboratory and administrative improvements, and mental health programs and nutrition services. Story continues Dr. Jian Zhang, CEO of Chinese Hospital, said, "We're grateful to Dr. Huang for this generous gift which will allow us to expand much-needed services for our local community." Mr. Kitman Chan, chairman of Chinese Hospital's Board of Trustees, added, "This remarkable gift will enable the expansion of outstanding healthcare services San Franciscans need." About Dr. Charles Huang and Charles Huang Foundation Dr. Charles Huang is founder and chairman of Pasaca Capital Inc., a California-based multi-billion-dollar evergreen fund with a global portfolio of companies in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, TMT, industrials & automation, and entertainment. Prior to founding Pasaca Capital, Dr. Huang has achieved exceptional success as a visionary leader ahead of his time in investment banking and automotive sectors. He was recognized as having "the Midas touch" because of his unrivaled stock selection skills and impeccable stock market calls. Through the foundation, Dr. Huang has made substantial donations to his alma mater, including a $70 million donation to the University of Strathclyde, UK, a $40 million donation to Wuhan University, China, and a Hospital in Arcadia California. In 2022 AAPI Heritage Month, Dr. Huang was recognized as one of the distinguished AAPI leaders and received the honor of "Excellence in Business" by California AAPI Legislative Caucus. In 2021, Dr. Huang was named "Philanthropreneur of the Year" by the California State Assembly. Pasaca Capital was named "Business of the Year". The Charles Huang Foundation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a mission to accelerate and encourage education, health-related research, and entrepreneurship on a global platform. The Foundation works in partnership with governments, foundations, corporations, and institutions to establish educational and business opportunities that maximize the potential of aspiring scholars, researchers, and entrepreneurs. www.charleshuangfoundation.org/ About Chinese Hospital Chinese Hospital is a community-owned, not-for-profit organization based in San Francisco's Chinatown. It's mission is to deliver quality health care in a cost-effective way and is responsive to the community's ethnic and cultural uniqueness. It traces its roots over 100 years to 1899, when the Chinatown community opened the Tung Wah Dispensary to provide eastern and western medicines for Chinese immigrants who could not access mainstream health facilities. A brand new replacement hospital opened in 2016. www.ChineseHospital-SF.org. Pasaca Capital Inc Logo (PRNewsfoto/Pasaca Capital, Inc.) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/business-leader-innovator-and-philanthropist-dr-charles-huang-donates-7-million-to-chinese-hospital-301560635.html SOURCE Pasaca Capital, Inc. June Dairy Month Initiative part of Real California Milk's #CADAIRY4GOOD program focused on increasing access to nutritious dairy foods for families in need TRACY, Calif., June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With one in five Californians currently struggling with food insecurity, partnerships between farmers and food banks are an essential tool in fighting hunger. In commemoration of World Milk Day and June Dairy Month, the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) announced a partnership with Feeding American and the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) to provide access to nutritious dairy foods at sites serving families in need throughout the state. California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross speaks during the donation event at the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. Behind is Andy Knowlton, Feeding America, and Maria Houlne, California Association of Food Banks. A pilot program announced during a June 1 donation event at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services in Sacramento, will provide five truckloads of cheese shreds in one-pound packages for distribution at 11 Feeding America and California Association of Food Bank sites. That's more than 3 million servings or 3.6 million grams of protein to nourish families. Part of the CMAB's #CADAIRY4GOOD, the pilot is phase one of an ongoing partnership with Feeding America that will deliver over $1 million in resources to food banks and feeding programs to source California dairy foods including cheese and fluid milk, one of the most requested and least donated items at food banks. California Agriculture Secretary, Karen Ross, was onsite to help make the announcement, stating: "California dairy farmers have a long history of supporting the communities where they live and work. I'm pleased to join Real California Milk, Feeding America, and the California Association of Food Banks during dairy month to launch this partnership that provides products like cheese, a rich source of protein and other essential nutrients, to programs that serve families throughout the state." "Farmers feed people, it's core to their personal values," said John Talbot, CEO of the CMAB. "California dairy farmers are passionate about nourishing communities everywhere with the wholesome goodness of milk. We're grateful to Feeding America for support to expand the reach of these essential resources." Story continues The California cheese donation will be distributed to 11 food banks Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Feeding San Diego, Orange County Food Bank, Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, Second Harvest Santa Cruz County, SLO Food Bank, Food Share of Ventura County, Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano, Central California Food Bank and Second Harvest of the Greater Valley. These food banks have 3,095 community partner distribution organizations, including soup kitchens and pantries, and collectively distributed nearly 360 million meals in 2021 alone. "Many of our neighbors are forced to make difficult decisions between paying for food or other essentials including housing. Low-income households spend one-third of their budget on food which means rising food costs can have a dramatic effect on food security," said Sam Schwoeppe, Senior Account Manager, Agri Sourcing Partnerships for Feeding America. "Public-private partnerships like this are an essential way to support the vulnerable members of our community and allow us to stretch resources to increase access for all members of the community." "Our food banks continue to serve more than 1.5x pre-pandemic demand and we don't anticipate that stopping any time soon," said Maria Houlne, Director of Farm to Family for the California Association of Food Banks. "Food donations and grants from famers and organizations like CMAB, coupled with public initiatives like the state's CalFood program that allows food banks to purchase California-grown foods, are essential for food banks to meet that demand. Access to food is a basic human right." The #CADAIRY4GOOD platform focuses on increasing access to nourishing dairy foods for families throughout California. In 2020 the CMAB provided more than 1 million servings of milk through grants to food banks in the state and in 2021 delivered 14 refrigeration units to school milk pantries in the Central Valley. Phase two of the 2022 program will focus on fluid milk with community milk drives and grants for food banks during September Hunger Action Month. California is the number one dairy state. Its 1,100 family dairy farms are focused on delivering the wholesome goodness of California milk while creating a greener, more sustainable future for dairy in the state. About Real California Milk/California Milk Advisory Board The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is funded by the state's dairy farm families who lead the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. With a vision to nourish the world with the wholesome goodness of Real California Milk, the CMAB's programs focus on increasing demand for California's sustainable dairy products in the state, across the U.S. and around the world. Connect with the CMAB at RealCaliforniaMilk.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. About Feeding America Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 6.6 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. About California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) The California Association of Food Banks leads the collective effort to end hunger in California. Every day, CAFB works to ensure its 41 member food banks have the tools and resources they need to do what they do best: feed our communities, while also working to change the systems that create hunger in the first place. Learn more at cafoodbanks.org. About Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services (SFBFS) Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is a local, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. SFBFS is dedicated to assisting those in need by alleviating their immediate pain and problems and moving them toward self-sufficiency and financial independence. With a staff of 90 and a volunteer force of 11,000, SFBFS is committed to feeding 250,000 seniors, families and children each month. Learn more at sacramentofoodbank.org. California Milk Advisory Board Logo (PRNewsfoto/California Milk Advisory Board) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-dairy-families-partner-with-feeding-america-and-the-california-association-of-food-banks-to-shred-hunger-with-pilot-project-delivering-more-than-190-000-pounds-of-cheese-to-feeding-programs-throughout-the-state-301560353.html SOURCE California Milk Advisory Board Chef Alfonso Poncho Martinez Jon Endow When the Covid-19 pandemic hit South Los Angeles, a shortage of available ingredients from Oaxaca forced Alfonso "Poncho" Martinez known for his crunchy and savory tlayudas to hastily pivot to tamales, made with masa from Los Angeles' beloved Kernel of Truth Organics. Though the tamales regularly sold out, tlayudas and moronga are the true paragon of Martinez's cooking. His food provides not only a through line back to Oaxaca, where he and his wife, Odilia Romero, are from, but also a critical connection to L.A.'s Indigenous communities from Mexico and Central America. For the foundation of his tlayudas, Martinez slathers asiento, or settled fat from pork lard, on a thin corn tortilla imported from Oaxaca. Earthy black beans are then spread on top, followed by a layer of hand-shredded, buttery quesillo, a cheese from Oaxaca. Chopped cabbage and, if desired, a sprinkling of spicy, salted chorizo make for the final cover giving it that perfect, seasoned crunch before the tortilla is folded over and grilled over an open flame fueled by mesquite wood. Meanwhile, the moronga, the recipe for which comes from Romero's hometown of San Bartolome Zoogocho, is good enough to change many minds about blood sausage. It's a punchy, smoky, and slightly spicy link with an aromatic note, thanks to yerba santa. It lacks the cakey consistency and iron aftertaste that turn off so many. Martinez is a member of the Zapotec Indigenous community from Oaxaca, and at Poncho's Tlayudas, he is recreating his traditional cultural recipes. "I started to learn when I was 11 years old, first making sopa de huevo, then salsas with the metate," he says. After moving to L.A., he held stints as a dishwasher, barista, breadmaker, and cook at UCLA and various restaurants. Tired of working unsatisfying jobs, Martinez decided to start learning recipes from Romero's father. "He taught me how to make moronga. Then I worked with Odilia's mother, who was making food for community events, and then I started to make tlayudas," he says. Thus began his tlayuda pop-up on Fridays, a new chapter in Martinez's career and, most importantly, a real family business. Story continues Romero is the cofounder and executive director of Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), a nonprofit organization that works with Indigenous communities in L.A. They provide interpretation services in courts and hospitals, train LAPD officers to recognize Indigenous-language speakers, and, during the pandemic, they distributed food and monetary aid from the Undocu-Indigenous Fund and administered COVID-19 vaccinations. CIELO addresses the needs of Indigenous people from Mexico and Guatemala, who often get lumped in with Latin communities, even though they may have completely different needs and sometimes don't speak Spanish fluently. "People impose their label on us. And that's very dangerous; it's deadly. If we don't have an interpreter, we could be given the wrong medication. The other day, one of my clients called me and said, 'I'm in the hospital. Someone told me that I don't need an interpreter because my son is just getting three shots.' But they don't even know the shots they are getting without one," says Romero. Similar to her husband's story, the journey to L.A. is made by many of the city's restaurant workers: "I think 46% or 47% [of the Indigenous community] works in the food industry," says Janet Martinez, cofounder and vice executive director at CIELO. It's no coincidence that CIELO's offices sit adjacent to where Martinez hosts his tlayuda pop-up every other Friday; each tlayuda, whether accompanied by moronga or tasajo (grilled beef), increases the awareness of Indigenous people in L.A. as a vibrant, living community. Now that his tlayudas and moronga are dialed in, Martinez is fine-tuning other recipes with the help of his sister. Her time in their mother's kitchen will enable her to help him perfect their family's dishes. Perhaps these other specialties will create even more visibility for Indigenous migrants in L.A. Follow Poncho's Tlayudas on Instagram @ponchostlayudas or visit ponchostlayudas.com; learn how to support CIELO at mycielo.org. NEW YORK, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The " Crowdfunding Market by Type (P2P lending, Equity investment, Hybrid, Reward, and Others) and Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa) - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 " report has been added to Technavio's offering. With ISO 9001:2015 certification, Technavio is proudly partnering with more than 100 Fortune 500 companies for over 16 years. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Crowdfunding Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 The potential growth difference for the crowdfunding market between 2021 and 2026 is USD 239.78 billion, as per the latest market analysis report by Technavio. The report also predicts the market to witness decelerating growth momentum at a CAGR of 16.81% during the projected period. To get the exact yearly growth variance and the Y-O-Y growth rate, Talk to our analyst . Key Market Dynamics: Market Driver: The free-of-cost promotion through social media is one of the key factors influencing the market growth positively during the forecast period. Social media is a common platform adopted for many crowdfunding campaigns, allowing the tracking of referral traffic to the websites. Thus, with social media, an enterprise can promote an idea free of cost, which is likely to drive the global crowdfunding market during the forecast period. Using crowdfunding campaigns as avenues for crowdsourcing is another major factor supporting the crowdfunding market share growth. Market Challenges: Time consumption will be a major challenge for the crowdfunding market during the forecast period. Crowdfunding is a process, which includes several stages involving product development, finding investors for initial investments to fund marketing expenses, product registration, and expenses related to making the product compliant with standards if any. The delays in delivering the projects sometimes result in customers withdrawing from the projects, refunds, and in some cases, a complete refund on the investments to the customers. Such delays and failures in the crowdfunding market result in reduced customer/investor confidence in investing in crowdfunding campaigns. Story continues To learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges available with Technavio. Read our Sample Report Revenue-Generating Segment Highlights The crowdfunding market report is segmented by Type (P2P lending, Equity investment, Hybrid, Reward, and Others) and Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa). The P2P lending type segment held the largest crowdfunding market share in 2021. The segment will continue to account for the highest share throughout the projected period. The growth of the market can be attributed to the several government initiatives from across the globe supporting the growth of the market in this segment. Individuals can access the funds for spending on planned activities in a shorter time as P2P lenders liquidate the fund before the end of the terms for which the loan is availed. 63% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. China and Australia are the key markets for global crowdfunding market in APAC. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions. The increasing Internet and smartphone penetration will facilitate the global crowdfunding market growth in APAC over the forecast period. View our sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments and regional opportunities Top Companies Mentioned To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here Related Reports: Buy Now Pay Later Market by Channel, End-user, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Foreign Exchange Market by Trade Finance Instruments, Type, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Crowdfunding Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 16.81% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 239.78 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 18.97 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 63% Key consumer countries US, China, Australia, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AngelList Holdings, LLC, CircleUp Network Inc., ConnectionPoint Systems Inc., Crowdcube Ltd., Crowdfunder Ltd., DonorsChoose, FUELADREAM Online Ventures Pvt. Ltd., Fundable LLC, Fundrise LLC, GoFundMe Inc., Indiegogo Inc., ioby, Ketto Online Ventures Pvt. Ltd., Kickstarter PBC, Milaap Social Ventures India Pvt. Ltd., Patreon Inc., RealCrowd Inc., Seedrs Ltd., Chuffed.org Pty Ltd., and Kiva Microfunds Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Market overview 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers 4.4 Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition 5 Market Segmentation by Type 5.1 Market segments 5.2 Comparison by Type 5.3 P2P lending - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 5.4 Equity investment - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 5.5 Hybrid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 5.6 Reward - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 5.8 Market opportunity by Type 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation 7.2 Geographic comparison 7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.8 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.9 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.12 Australia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 7.13 Market opportunity by geography 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape 9.3 Landscape disruption 9.4 Industry risks 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors 10.3 AngelList Holdings, LLC 10.4 CircleUp Network Inc. 10.5 ConnectionPoint Systems Inc. 10.6 Crowdcube Ltd. 10.7 Crowdfunder Ltd. 10.8 Fundable LLC 10.9 Fundrise LLC 10.10 GoFundMe Inc. 10.11 Indiegogo Inc. 10.12 Kickstarter PBC 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology 11.5 List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crowdfunding-market-size-to-grow-by-usd-239-78-bn--63-of-the-growth-will-originate-from-apac-17-000-technavio-research-reports-301557892.html SOURCE Technavio Photo credit: Gohar World The internet is full of quirky kitchen gadgets and accessories to help you make breakfast. There's the butter mill that perfectly spreads butter onto a piece of toast; the microwave bacon rack makes crispy strips without the splatter; and plenty of egg tools for the perfect poach, fry, or hard boil. Now, there's an accessory that truly celebrates the most important meal of the day: the Egg Chandelier centerpiece from Gohar World. Available for $298, this wrought-iron candelabra can hold up to 11 eggs on your dining table. If you want to up the ante, you can dress them in lace and satin with their $28 Egg Dress. Launched by artist sisters Laila and Nadia Gohar, the tableware brand injects surrealism and humor into otherwise ordinary objects. The Gohar sisters premiered their line of 40 housewares last month, and the egg chandelier isn't the only unusual product available. Others include a salami candle, a satin baguette tote bag, and a chicken foot pearl necklace. The products may look funny, but Gohar World takes the production process very seriously. They source their materials from artisans all over the world and use traditional methods to make their textiles, glassware, and candles. Some of their products are even handmade by members of their family. "My grandmother Nabila in Egypt wasnt satisfied with how the bows were originally produced," Laila says about the baguette bag. "So, without telling us, she took matters into her own hands, literally, and hand stitched all the bows herself." The egg chandelier is also a family affair: the design was directly influenced by the fence at Laila and Nadia's childhood home in Cairo. Will it become this year's "it" centerpiece? Only time will tell. You Might Also Like ILUS International Inc. NEW YORK, NY, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Emergency Response Technologies Inc (ERT) is a public safety acquisitions company focused on disruptive technology which protects assets and saves lives. ILUS International (OTC: ILUS) currently owns 100% of ERT, which was created as a public safety focused subdivision of ILUS. ERT has now acquired control of the fully reporting OTCQB company, Wikisoft Corp., which currently trades under the ticker WSFT. ILUS CEO Nick Link has taken over as Chairman of Wikisoft Corp. with ILUS Managing Director, John-Paul Backwell, Chief Operating Officer, Louise Bennett, and Chief Financial Officer, Krishna Moorthy, taking seats on the Board of Directors for the company. More information on the change of control of Wikisoft Corp. can be found in their most recent press release published on 2 June 2022: https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/WSFT/news/story?e&id=2231797 ERT will update the relevant social media and websites during the next week. For further information on the companies, please see their communication channels: ILUS Website: https://ilus-group.com Wikisoft Website: www.wikisoft.com Email: IR@Ilus-Group.com Source: ILUS Related Links https://ilus-group.com Forward-Looking Statement Certain information set forth in this press release contains "forward-looking information", including "future-oriented financial information" and "financial outlook", under applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Except for statements of historical fact, the information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements and includes, but is not limited to, the (i) projected financial performance of the Company; (ii) completion of, and the use of proceeds from, the sale of the shares being offered hereunder; (iii) the expected development of the Company's business, projects, and joint ventures; (iv) execution of the Company's vision and growth strategy, including with respect to future M&A activity and global growth; (v) sources and availability of third-party financing for the Company's projects; (vi) completion of the Company's projects that are currently underway, in development or otherwise under consideration; (vi) renewal of the Company's current customer, supplier and other material agreements; and (vii) future liquidity, working capital, and capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management's beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements contained in this presentation are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, 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. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has provided guidance to issuers regarding the use of social media to disclose material non-public information. In this regard, investors and others should note that we announce material financial information via official Press Releases, in addition to SEC filings, press releases, Questions & Answers sessions, public conference calls and webcastsalso may take time from time to time. We use these channels as well as social media to communicate with the public about our company, our services, and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, considering the SEC's guidance, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our company to review the information we post on the following social &media channels: website: https://ilus-group.com Twitter: OTC_ILUS Story continues Note: ILUS Coin does not sit within ILUS International Inc (Ilustrato Pictures International Inc), so the public are recommended to follow the correct Media Channels relating to the public company OTC: ILUS. While the broader market and stocks in several major sectors, like tech, are in the red due to macro headwinds, energy stocks have been rallying this year. Improved demand following the reopening of global economies led to higher oil and gas prices. Also, Russias invasion of Ukraine caused supply disruptions and a further rise in energy prices. However, oil and gas prices have been volatile recently and might continue to be due to several factors including tight supply, the impact of the European Unions decision on a potential embargo of Russian oil, and the easing of Chinas Covid-19 lockdowns. Against this backdrop, using the TipRanks Stock Comparison tool I placed ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), and Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) against one another to pick the energy stock that Wall Street analysts believe will continue to rise even after a strong run thus far in 2022. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips TipRanks stock comparison tool enables comparison of up to 10 stocks across several parameters, including analysts consensus ratings, analysts price targets, yearly gains and market capitalization. Ticker Company Price COP ConocoPhillips $115.37 XOM Exxon Mobil Corporation $97.68 SLB Schlumberger Limited $46.40 Energy Stocks: ConocoPhillips (COP) a sign in front of the Conoco Philips office building Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com ConocoPhillips is one of the leading exploration and production companies, which boasts $93 billion of total assets and operations in 13 countries. The company bolstered its position with the $9.5 billion acquisition of Shells (NYSE:SHEL) Permian Basin assets in December 2021. Elevated prices and higher volumes helped ConocoPhillips deliver adjusted earning per share (EPS) of $3.27 in the first quarter (Q1), reflecting a considerable increase from 69 cents in the prior-year quarter. However, the company guided for lower Q2 production of 1.67 to 1.73 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared to about 1.75 million in Q1. ConocoPhillips cited the impacts of seasonal turnarounds planned in Europe and Canada and unfavorable weather experienced in April in Bakken as the reasons for a lower production outlook. Story continues Given its strong cash flow generation, ConocoPhillips boosted its 2022 shareholder returns by 25% to $10 billion, with the incremental $2 billion distribution to be made via share repurchases and variable return of cash (VROC) payments. It distributed $2.3 billion to shareholders in Q1 through share repurchases, ordinary dividends, and VROC payments. Recently, Barclays (NYSE:BCS) analyst Jeanine Wai raised her price target on ConocoPhillips to $132 from $131 and reiterated a buy rating. Wai believes that payout yields will be a primary driver of stock price movement this year for exploration and production companies like ConocoPhillips, with the sustainability of yield gaining more importance as the year progresses. Overall, ConocoPhillips scores a strong buy consensus rating based on 12 buys and two holds. The average ConocoPhillips price target of $129.31 implies upside potential of 12.62% from current levels. Shares have advanced 41.7% year-to-date, making it one of the great energy stocks out there. Exxon Mobil (XOM) Exxon Mobil Stock Is on the Way Back, but It Will Take Some Time Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com The surge in energy prices helped integrated oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil double its Q1 EPS to $1.28 despite booking a 79 cent per share charge related to the companys planned exit from Russia. However, even after excluding this significant charge, the companys adjusted EPS of $2.07 missed analysts expectations. Q1 results were impacted by weather, unfavorable mark-to-market derivative effects, and the price timing effects in the downstream business. Exxon generated free cash flow of $10.8 billion and returned $5.8 billion to shareholders in Q1, including $2.1 billion through share repurchases. Exxon has now tripled its buyback program to up to $30 billion through 2023. Argus (NYSE:ARGU) analyst Bill Selesky expects Exxon to gain from robust energy market fundamentals, an improving balance sheet, lower capital expenditure, and higher free cash flows. Selesky increased his 2022 EPS estimate to $9.52 from $6.40, as he expects continued high commodity prices over the remainder of the year. Based on his bullish views, Selesky raised his price target for Exxon Mobil stock to $104 from $92 and reiterated a buy rating. Overall, Wall Street analysts are cautiously optimistic on the stock, with a moderate buy consensus rating based on 10 buys and 11 holds. Given the 40% year-to-date rise, the average Exxon Mobil price target of $95.18 implies a slight decline from the current levels. Energy Stocks: Schlumberger (SLB) slb stock Source: Valentin Martynov / Shutterstock.com Oilfield services company Schlumberger is benefiting from rising energy investments and a revival in exploration and production activities amid strong demand. Despite suspension of its Russian operations and supply chain challenges, Schlumberger generated upbeat Q1 results, with revenue rising 14% to nearly $6 billion. Adjusted EPS grew 62% to 36 cents driven by significant year-over-year margin expansion in the Well Construction, Reservoir Performance, and Digital & Integration segments. Based on its robust fundamentals, Schlumberger announced a 40% increase in its quarterly dividend to about 17 cents per share. HSBC (NYSE:HSBC) analyst Abhishek Kumar believes that Schlumberger will gain from accelerated investments in the short-cycle U.S. land market triggered by the rise in oil prices and increased investments by many countries to secure oil supply and boost production capacities. The analyst feels that Schlumberger is well-positioned to enhance its margins through price hikes despite pressures related to commodities and workforce on the supply side. Kumar believes that improved earnings over the next two to three years should translate into higher free cash generation and increased shareholder returns through higher dividends and share buybacks. In line with his optimism, Kumar upgraded Schlumberger from a hold to a buy and increased the price target from $40.60 to $44.20. Other analysts are in agreement with Kumars bullish stance, with the stock scoring a strong buy consensus rating based on 14 unanimous buys. The average Schlumberger price target of $50.73 implies 10.73% upside potential from current levels. Shares have rallied 26.4% so far this year. Conclusion Shares of these three energy stocks had an impressive run so far this year due to strong demand and a spike in energy prices. However, analysts see a higher upside potential in ConocoPhillips stock. Aside from regular dividends and share buybacks, the company has been rewarding its shareholders with VROC payments thanks to robust cash flows driven by a surge in oil prices. Whats more, ConocoPhillips scores a Perfect 10 on TipRanks Smart Score system, indicating that it is more likely to outperform the market. This is a data-driven score that evaluates a stock based on eight key factors, including technical and fundamental indicators. While all of these are great energy stocks to buy, ConocoPhillips is a standout in the energy sector. On the date of publication, Sirisha Bhogaraju did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines. Sirisha Bhogaraju has over 15 years of experience in financial research. She has written in-depth research reports and covered companies across various sectors, with a primary focus on the consumer sector. Sirisha has a masters degree in finance. The post Which Energy Stock Could Continue to Fuel Higher Returns? appeared first on InvestorPlace. Accudo biostimulant wins Best Biostimulant Product category PHILADELPHIA, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FMC Corporation Logo. (PRNewsFoto/FMC Corporation) FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC), an agricultural sciences company, was recognized with the top honor in the Best Biostimulant Product category at the 2022 World BioProtection Awards for its Accudo biostimulant. Awards across nine categories recognized outstanding accomplishments in the field of biopesticides and their positive impact on crop protection at the World BioProtection Summit in Birmingham, UK. Accudo is a microbial biostimulant and strong root colonizer that enables growers to maximize crop quality and yield. The use of this unique and versatile biostimulant has demonstrated more than 15 percent yield increase, improved crop appearance and vigor, strong early establishment and enhanced crop development under select stress conditions. "We are pleased that Accudo biostimulant has been recognized with this prestigious award," said Dr. Benedicte Flambard, global director of FMC Plant Health. "Biostimulants are important tools for growers and are foundational components in FMC's biologicals portfolio. Leveraging FMC's expertise and core capabilities, we are discovering and developing biologicals that can help crops overcome difficult growing conditions, fight pests and disease, and assist in regulating a plant's uptake of nutrients and water. FMC is helping growers around the globe witness the incredible benefits of biologicals while demonstrating how biologicals work hand-in-hand with synthetics in an integrated approach." Accudo biostimulant is currently available from FMC in South Korea, Greece, Turkey and Germany. About FMC FMC Corporation is a global agricultural sciences company dedicated to helping growers produce food, feed, fiber and fuel for an expanding world population while adapting to a changing environment. FMC's innovative crop protection solutions including biologicals, crop nutrition, digital and precision agriculture enable growers, crop advisers and turf and pest management professionals to address their toughest challenges economically while protecting the environment. With approximately 6,400 employees at more than 100 sites worldwide, FMC is committed to discovering new herbicide, insecticide and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations and pioneering technologies that are consistently better for the planet. Visit fmc.com to learn more and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Story continues Accudo is a trademark of FMC Corporation or an affiliate. Always read and follow all label directions, restrictions and precautions for use. Product listed may not be registered for sale or use in all states, countries or jurisdictions. Statement under the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current views and assumptions regarding future events, future business conditions and the outlook for the company based on currently available information. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. These factors include, among other things, the risk factors and other cautionary statements included within FMC's 2021 Form 10-K filed with the SEC as well as other SEC filings and public communications. FMC cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the above cautionary statement. FMC undertakes no obligation, and specifically disclaims any duty, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which they were made, except as otherwise required by law. Chris Johnson of FMC (center) accepts the Best Biostimulant Product award at the 2022 World BioProtection Awards for FMC's Accudo biostimulant Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fmc-corporation-recognized-at-2022-world-bioprotection-awards-301560461.html SOURCE FMC Corporation Ford said that it wants to restructure its dealership model, including building an e-commerce platform where customers can shop for and buy EVs at non-negotiable prices in an effort to match Teslas profit margins. I feel like when that second quarter last year profit came out for Tesla and they showed like a $15,000 premium, it totally changed my world, CEO Jim Farley said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday. It was an epiphany. It was like the angels sung, it was like, 'Oh my god, we can make more money on EVs than our ICE.' Farley's comments in a lengthy interview came one day before the automaker announced it would spend $3.7 billion to hire 6,200 union workers to staff several assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri in a bid to sell 2 million EVs a year by 2026. Farley said he expects massive consolidation among dealers, suppliers and automakers as the industry begins building more EVs. His comments come at a precarious time for car prices due to the supply chain crunch and instances of dealerships gouging customers for new vehicles. In the future, dealers wont hold any inventory, he added. Instead, the vehicles will ship directly to the customer, with remote pickup and delivery. Their business will change a lot, Farley said. There will be a lot of winners and losers, and I believe, consolidation. He did not give a timeframe for the shift to online sales or elaborate on Fords plans for its dealer network. Transitioning to an online-only sales model would entail numerous challenges, because automakers have limited control over their dealership networks. Car dealers are protected by state laws and spend millions of dollars annually on lobbyists to maintain their status. Tesla operates retail stores but has no dealerships, which is a key advantage in cutting middleman costs and retaining profits. Meanwhile, Ford is changing more than just the way it sells cars. In a historic restructuring in March, Ford separated its EV business from its combustion unit. Profits from the combustion business, which is called Ford Blue, will fund the growth of the EV unit, called Ford Model e. Story continues Farley likened his vision for the automaker's sales model to Targets strategy of leveraging its physical stores to compete with Amazon. Target could have gone away, but they didn't, he said. They used their expertise as a physical retailer to their advantage, but they modernized the e-commerce piece. It's exactly what we have to do on the retail side, Farley said. Weve got to go to a non-negotiated price. We've got to go 100% online so that the inventory goes directly to the customer with 100% remote pickup and delivery. Farley said Ford is working with dealers to transition into the future. I believe on the retail side, we can do things post-warranty and remix the marketing spend to have a better experience," he said. I think our dealers can do it, but the standards are going to be brutal. They're going to be very different than today. Clarification: The original story said Ford is going 100% online. That doesn't mean Ford is getting rid of its in-person dealerships, according to a spokesperson. June 2 (Reuters) - Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen at 41.81 million cubic metres (mcm) on Thursday, compared with 41.2 mcm on Wednesday. An application to supply gas via another major entry point, Sokhranovka, was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Edmund Blair) By Trend Natural gas production has increased significantly during the COVID 19 coronavirus pandemic, Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Mohamed Hamel said at the 27th Energy Forum in Baku, Trend reports. According to him, natural gas production will continue to grow in the short term. Hamel noted that investments in this sector will be significantly increased, and cost of gas will grow. "World's population will grow rapidly by 2050, which will lead to an increase in demand for natural gas. Today, we assume that significant growth will be observed in the Asian region. We predict that natural gas production in the medium-term will be in second place after renewable energy sources (RES)," Hamel said. Hamel also noted the need to introduce modern technologies in the production process. Speaking about decarbonization, Hamel added that hydrogen production will increase to 600,000 tons by 2050. Google has banned the training of AI systems that can be used to generate deepfakes on its Google Colaboratory platform. The updated terms of use, spotted over the weekend by Unite.ai and BleepingComputer, includes deepfakes-related work in the list of disallowed projects. Colaboratory, or Colab for short, spun out from an internal Google Research project in late 2017. It's designed to allow anyone to write and execute arbitrary Python code through a web browser, particularly code for machine learning, education and data analysis. For the purpose, Google provides both free and paying Colab users access to hardware including GPUs and Google's custom-designed, AI-accelerating tensor processing units (TPUs). In recent years, Colab has become the de facto platform for demos within the AI research community. It's not uncommon for researchers who've written code to include links to Colab pages on or alongside the GitHub repositories hosting the code. But Google hasn't historically been very restrictive when it comes to Colab content, potentially opening the door for actors who wish to use the service for less scrupulous purposes. Users of the open source deepfake generator DeepFaceLab became aware of the terms of use change last week, when several received an error message after attempting to run DeepFaceLab in Colab. The warning read: "You may be executing code that is disallowed, and this may restrict your ability to use Colab in the future. Please note the prohibited actions specified in our FAQ." Not all code triggers the warning. This reporter was able to run one of the more popular deepfake Colab projects without issue, and Reddit users report that another leading project, FaceSwap, remains fully functional. This suggests enforcement is blacklist rather than keyword based, and that the onus will be on the Colab community to report code that runs afoul of the new rule. "We regularly monitor avenues for abuse in Colab that run counter to Google's AI principles, while balancing supporting our mission to give our users access to valuable resources such as TPUs and GPUs. Deepfakes were added to our list of activities disallowed from Colab runtimes last month in response to our regular reviews of abusive patterns," a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. "Deterring abuse is an ever-evolving game, and we cannot disclose specific methods as counterparties can take advantage of the knowledge to evade detection systems. In general, we have automated systems that detect and prohibit many types of abuse." Story continues Archive.org data shows that Google quietly updated the Colab terms sometime in mid-May. The previous restrictions on things like running denial-of-service attacks, password cracking and downloading torrents were left unchanged. Deepfakes come in many forms, but one of the most common are videos where a person's face has been convincingly pasted on top of another face. Unlike the crude Photoshop jobs of yesteryear, AI-generated deepfakes can match a person's body movements, microexpressions and skin tones better than Hollywood-produced CGI in some cases. Deepfakes can be harmless -- even entertaining -- as countless viral videos have shown. But they're increasingly being used by hackers to target social media users in extortion and fraud schemes. More nefariously, they've been leveraged in political propaganda, for example to create videos of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy giving a speech about the war in Ukraine that he never actually gave. From 2019 to 2021, the number of deepfakes online grew from roughly 14,000 to 145,000, according to one source. Forrester Research estimated in October 2019 that deepfake fraud scams would cost $250 million by the end of 2020. "When it comes to deepfakes specifically, the issue that's most relevant is an ethical one: dual use," Vagrant Gautam, a computational linguist at Saarland University in Germany, told TechCrunch via email. "It's a bit like thinking about guns, or chlorine. Chlorine is useful to clean stuff but it's also been used as a chemical weapon. So we deal with that by first thinking about how bad the tech is and then, e.g., agree on the Geneva Protocol that we won't use chemical weapons on each other. Unfortunately, we don't have industry-wide consistent ethical practices regarding machine learning and AI, but it makes sense for Google to come up with its own set of conventions regulating the access to and ability to create deepfakes, especially since they're often used to disinform and to spread fake news -- which is a problem that's bad and continues to get worse." Os Keyes, an adjunct professor at Seattle University, also approved of Google's move to ban deepfake projects from Colab. But he noted that more must be done on the policy side to prevent their creation and spread. "The way that it has been done certainly highlights the poverty of relying on companies self-policing," Keyes told TechCrunch via email. "Deepfake generation should absolutely not be an acceptable form of work, well, anywhere, and so it's good that Google is not making itself complicit in that But the ban doesn't occur in a vacuum -- it occurs in an environment where actual, accountable, responsive regulation of these kinds of development platforms (and companies) is lacking." Others, particularly those who benefitted from Colab's previously laissez faire approach to governance, might not agree. Years ago, AI research lab OpenAI initially declined to open source a language-generating model, GPT-2, out of fear that it would be misused. This motivated groups like EleutherAI to leverage tools including Colab to develop and release their own language-generating models, ostensibly for research. When I spoke to Connor Leahy, a member of EleutherAI, last year, he asserted that the commoditization of AI models is part of an "inevitable trend" in the falling price of the production of "convincing digital content" that won't be derailed whether or not the code is released. In his view, AI models and tools should be made widely available so that "low-resource" users, especially academics, can gain access to better study and perform their own safety-focused research on them. "Deepfakes have a large potential to run counter to Google's AI principles. We aspire to be able to detect and deter abusive deepfake patterns versus benign ones, and will alter our policies as our methods progress," the spokesperson continued. "Users wishing to explore synthetic media projects in a benign way are encouraged to talk to a Google Cloud representative to vet their use case and explore the suitability of other managed compute offerings in Google Cloud." A two-day food art, and wellness festival featuring exciting collaborations between some of Thailand's finest chefs, a creative bar takeover, art therapy workshops, and more plus all profits go to charity Bringing together famous local chefs, emerging artists, award-winning mixologists, and cutting-edge DJs, The Hamlet for Good promises a weekend of memorable feasting, painting, and partying from 18 19 June 2022. Special room rates are available for ticket holders. Net proceeds go to support humanitarian assistance for victims of conflict. BANGKOK, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ASAI Bangkok Chinatown hotel in the heart of the city's renowned Chinatown district is fully embracing its promise to uniquely link guests and visitors with incredible local experiences by serving as the official host venue of The Hamlet for Good a unique two-day mini-festival featuring exciting culinary collaborations, a creative bar takeover, art therapy workshops, and other unique activities, on 18 19 June 2022. The Hamlet for Good event programme Arranged by the same team behind the independent Hamlet bar-camp set-up at Thailand's annual Wonderfruit Festival, The Hamlet for Good will see the hotel serve as a base for artistic and culinary discovery in Bangkok's buzzing Old Town. Visitors will enjoy a pick of activities featuring emerging artists, celebrated mixologists, talented DJs, and a who's who of Thailand's dining scene. Alongside three exclusive dinners held at three nearby venues, the tasty offerings include a creative Sunday Brunch at the hotel's JAM JAM Eatery & Bar. The event will get off to an artistic and inspiring start on Saturday 18 June with a choice of two engaging daytime workshops at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown namely Art Therapy with Peace Please and Watercolour Paints with Sansuwanya. Here, participants will be able to enjoy a mindful pause and paint their way to a serene and happy state with expert guidance from the artists. Story continues In collaboration with Play Art House, a local tastemaking art gallery, the hotel will also transform into a unique art space featuring curated masterworks from 15 emerging artists presented in 16 different rooms. Designed as an interactive experience, the exhibition will feature an inspiring blend of mediums and expressions. Guests will be able to hop between the rooms, meet each artist, hear the stories behind their artworks, and even buy pieces to take home. In the evening, a choice of three 'four-hand or 'six-hand' collaboration dinners will begin at 18:30 at three partnering venues. Chefs Paolo Vitaletti (Appia Trattoria) and Billy Bautista (Billy's Smokehouse) will team up for some memorable meaty treats at Patina; Chefs Napol 'Joe' Jantraget (Samlor), Koranat 'Tle' Robkob (Mother), and Jirapat 'Sept' Praphotjanaporn (Aunglo by Yangrak) will get together for a 'Charoenkrung Reunion' to showcase reinterpretations of popular Thai dishes at Baan Rim Naam; and Chefs Bo & Dylan (Bo.Lan) and Num Weerawat Triyasenawat (Samuay and Sons) will present sustainably sourced ingredients from around the kingdom in a flavourful Thai menu at Hong Sieng Kong. After dining, a free eco-shuttle tuk-tuk service will bring diners back to ASAI Bangkok Chinatown for complimentary access to a creative bar takeover featuring the mixologist wizards from the award-winning Teens of Thailand cocktail bar, and a special appearance by tastemaking Bangkok-based DJ crew, Transport. Expertly crafted concoctions and inspired beats will keep the party vibes going late into the night in the hotel's atmospheric and spacious courtyard. The following day Sunday 19 June the feasting fun continues. Guests, visitors and locals alike can opt to start the day the mindful way with a morning yoga session with Kru Jah, or head straight to the hotel's JAM JAM Eatery & Bar to tuck into a delicious, creative brunch by Chefs Chalee Kader (100 Mahaseth) and Prin Polsuk (Samrub Samrub Thai). Chef Chalee's renowned 'nose-to-tail and root-to-fruit' approach, coupled with Chef Prin's passion for reinterpreting and reviving traditional Thai recipes, promises to result in some seriously tasty dishes for diners to enjoy. Tasteful brunchy beats from DJ Kwoala, a live painting session by Bangkok-based artists Trey Hurst and Karina Retuert, and a stirring live performance by National Symphony Orchestra member The Cellist Flat will further delight the senses during this highly memorable Sunday brunch feast. Unique artworks created during the live painting session will also be auctioned, giving diners the chance to get their hands on one-of-a-kind pieces while raising additional funds for charity. Each dining experience at The Hamlet for Good is priced at just THB 3,000++ per person and includes one welcome drink. Special drinks pairings created by event sponsors Campari, Aperol, and Wine Garage will also be available. Workshops start at just THB 1,750 per person. All net proceeds will go directly towards supporting humanitarian aid for victims of conflict. To ensure food lovers, partygoers, and budding artists can easily enjoy everything The Hamlet for Good has to offer, ASAI Bangkok Chinatown is offering special room rates starting at just THB 1,500 per night. This includes complimentary access to the creative bar takeover (THB 550 on the door for non-guest / non-dinner ticket holders) and puts the festival and neighbourhood experience right on one's doorstep. Special room rates are available via direct booking at asaihotels.com or Tel: 02 220 8999. Dinner and workshop tickets are available at ticketmelon.com/asaihotels/thehamletforgood2022 For more images, please visit The Hamlet for Good library The Hamlet for Good Programme of events Saturday 18 June 10:00 12:00 Art Therapy with Peace Please (THB 2,000 per person) 14:00 16:00 Watercolour Paints with Sandsuwanya (THB 1,750 per person) 11:00 20:00 ASAI Play Art Fest (Featuring the work of 15 emerging artists in 16 different rooms) 18:30 22:00 Chefs Paolo & Billy: Dinner with Campari at Patina Chefs Joe, Tle, and Sept: Dinner with Aperol at Baan Rim Naam Chefs Bo & Dylan and Num: Dinner with Wine Garage at Hong Sieng Kong Each dinner is priced at just THB 3,000++ per person and includes one welcome drink. Dinner tickets also include free access to the Teens of Thailand bar takeover and Transport Live experience at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown. 19:00 late Teens of Thailand Bar takeover at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown Tickets are THB 550 on the door and include one welcome drink. (Free entry for dinner ticket holders). Early bird THB 450 via Ticketmelon. 19:30 late Transport Live for a Good Cause at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown Tickets are THB 550 on the door and include one welcome drink. (Free entry for dinner ticket holders). Early bird THB 450 via Ticketmelon. Sunday 19 June 9:00 10:00 Morning yoga session with Kru Jah (THB 400 per person) 11:00 15:00 Chefs Chalee & Prin: Brunch with Wine Garage at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown (THB 3,000++ per person including one welcome drink). 11:00 -13:00 Brunchy Beats with DJ Kwoala 13:00 15:00 Live Painting Auction with Trey Hurst and Karina Retuert accompanied by live play from The Cellist Flat SOURCE ASAI Bangkok Chinatown Holberton With the opening of a new campus in Tripoli, Libya, in January 2023, Holberton School is now operating in 15 countries. This will be the 34th Holberton School campus in the world! SAN FRANCISCO, June 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holberton School , a project-based college alternative educating the next generation of software engineers, today announced the opening, in January 2023, of a new campus in Africa, based in Tripoli, Libya. With the opening of its fourth campus in Africa, Holberton aims to advance its mission of reducing the IT talent gap in Africa by training 1.5 million new African students in computer science and software engineering by 2030. The school campus will be located in downtown Tripoli from January 2023 and will feature open spaces and working areas that can accommodate 250 students at the same time. Therefore, Holberton School Libya will make education accessible to a broader section of the Libyan population through its 12- and 18-month computer science programs. According to Faruq Khalifa, the founder of both Holberton School Libya and Change Initiative 90, Holberton School Libya will not be just another IT School. It is part of the Change 90 initiative to empower youth and women to build a better future by building technology-based startups. Today, no intensive program to obtain internationally recognized IT education exists in Libya. Thus, by bringing Silicon Valley-caliber software engineering education to Libya, Holberton School aims to use its Tripoli campus to train 500 students during its first five years of operation in Libya. About Change 90 Initiative The Change 90 Initiative provides unique entrepreneurship programs and services to an underserved population at the very early stages of developing their businesses. For example, support is given before business incubation and accelerator involvement through the 3-Day & 90-Day Challenge through advising, financing, mentoring, and network development. Story continues About Holberton School Holberton School was founded in Silicon Valley by Julien Barbier , with campuses worldwide. The school is premised on the belief that a world-class education should be available to everyone regardless of background, gender, or ethnicity. Thats why Holbertons college-alternative program offers students a new type of education that is globally relevant. Accordingly, its graduates have gone on to work as software engineers at top international employers, including Apple, MercadoLibre, Pinterest, Google, Rappi, and LinkedIn. In addition, Holberton School uses project-based and peer learning to expose software engineers to practical instruction and theoretical principles. Go to www.holbertonschool.com to learn more. Contact for press inquiries: Alexandra Jouis press@holbertonschool.com Incap Oyj Incap Corporation Press release 2 June 2022 at 3:00 p.m. Incap Slovakia opened new production machinery in Namestovo Incap Slovakia opened a new selective soldering machine and a new SMT line in its Namestovo factory to be able to change the production setup according to the customers needs. Incap Slovakia invested EUR 1.4 million to replace one of the current SMT (surface-mount technology) lines and to add a new selective soldering machine to the factorys equipment. According to Miroslav Michalik, Managing Director of Incap Slovakia, the investment is done through an operational renting model, which suits the companys fast and agile production processes. The new machinery was opened with a ceremony on 29 April 2022 and is already in operation. Our product mix and variety of customer projects require us to provide high flexibility while constantly increasing our production capacity and maintaining the highest quality of the products. Therefore, the renting model suits our factory as it allows us to offer our customers fast and high-value service while maintaining our competitive advantage, Michalik explained. With these upgrades, we will make a step to be ready for Industry 4.0 that will drive our efficiency and product quality improvements. The new SMT line was provided to Incap Slovakia by SMT Renting and will include the latest placement technology. Our SMT line will assure our core competence of building PCBAs, the heart of the electronic products, and will be used for placement and soldering of SMD parts on raw PCBs. By upgrading our line, we will increase the line placement capacity from 20,000 to 50,000 placements in an hour, Michalik stated. The new selective soldering machine was provided to Incap Slovakia by SMT Renting and allows mounting components which do not tolerate the heat of a conventional soldering process. Also, the components can be mounted on both sides of the circuit board where precise soldering is needed. Since our offering as an EMS company is really wide, we must pay close attention to each customers needs - how they develop their products and what they need for that. This kind of new equipment helps us offer the highest quality service, to be closer to our customers and make sure they succeed in their business, said Michalik. Story continues Incaps factory in Slovakia, based in Namestovo, provides a competitive-cost volume manufacturing option for customers in addition to featuring a dedicated hall for the automotive business. The factory is experienced in electronics manufacturing since 2008, and it has 5,200 square meters of total floor space to serve customers from global companies with operations in Europe. Incap Slovakia provides specialist, niche PCB assembly, complete product build and electromechanical assemblies. Photos of Incap Slovakia: https://incapcorp.com/media/#1627833370239-0ab33e25-28fd INCAP CORPORATION For additional information, please contact: Miroslav Michalik, Managing Director of Incap Slovakia, tel. +421 911 350 136 Otto Pukk, President and CEO, tel. +372 508 0798 Distribution: Principal media www.incapcorp.com INCAP IN BRIEF Incap Corporation is a trusted partner and full service provider in Electronics Manufacturing Services. As a global EMS company Incap supports customers ranging from large multinationals and mid-sized companies to small start-ups in their complete manufacturing value chain. Incap offers state-of-the-art technology backed up by an entrepreneurial culture and highly qualified personnel. The company has operations in Finland, Estonia, India, Slovakia, the UK and Hong Kong and employs approximately 2,500 people. Incaps share has been listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd stock exchange since 1997. Straits Research - Market Research Strategy | Strategy Consulting | Business Research | Business Consulting | Market Research The global Insurtech market size is expected to reach a valuation of USD 114,489 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 46.10% during the forecast period 20222030. New York, United States, June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insurtech focuses on applying technological advancements to the existing insurance sector paradigm to extract cost advantages and efficiencies. Influenced by the phrase fintech, Insurtech is a portmanteau of the concepts "insurance" and "technology." The insurance organization's perception is ripe for growth, and upheaval drives Insurtech companies' and venture capitalists' investments in the space. Insurtech is pursuing opportunities that traditional insurance companies are less likely to follow, such as providing ultra-customized policies, social insurance, and dynamically pricing premiums based on observed behavior leveraging new data streams via Internet-enabled devices. Get a Free Sample Copy of This Report @ https://straitsresearch.com/report/insurtech-market/request-sample Rising Demand for Reinsurer Support and Customer Benefits about Insurtech to Drive the Insurtech Market Reinsurers actively engage in two key roles: supporting Insurtech via funding and offering necessary underwriting capabilities. Reinsurers are designing digital technologies and putting capital into Insurtech. For example, Munich Re-established Digital Partners, a digital technology provider with direct investments in certain Insurtech. - Ping A funded fin leap, a FinTech and Insurtech ecosystem incubator that Hannover Reinvested in. - Swiss Recreated a separate subsidiary for iptiQ, its white-labeling digital insurance platform. iptiQ is a digital B2B2C platform that offers digital processes to partners and protective goods to clients. It creates alliances to sell insurance through well-known brands. Reinsurers are turbocharging Insurtech development , especially for Insurtech full carriers, via these strategic bets while also maintaining their place as the custodian of asset allocations from across the insurance sector. Consumers drive Insurtech because they can give value to any element of their lives. It permits friends, family, and other members of the community to be covered as well. Consumers are involved throughout the process from registration through claims, and they even have a voice in who sits on the insurance claim jury panel during a hearing. Customers benefit from increased knowledge and participation. The majority of people nowadays work entirely on their smartphones. Customers want the same mobile convenience when it comes to insurance. Consumers can use Insurtech to study, confirm, and make decisions from the comfort of their own homes. By checking the progress of claims from their mobile devices, insurers and consumers will save time. As a result, consumer benefits such as empowerment, ease of access, convenience, better security, and personalization propel the global Insurtech market forward. Story continues Insurtech Market Opportunities are Burgeoning Over the forecast period, the Insurtech market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 46%. Surprisingly, development is being driven by large full-service carriers Lemonade, Root, and Metromile and a plethora of smaller enterprises. This one-of-a-kind incident highlights how Insurtech is finding momentum with clients and growing. This expansion has been facilitated by the growing digital environment, which has increased mobility, travel, health, and home coverage possibilities. As a result, many industry groups are eager to cooperate with Insurtech to take advantage of this mutually beneficial potential. Insurtech enablers are launching new projects and collaborating with significant software businesses to get into the market. - Upptec, a Swedish vendor of content-based automated claim technologies for home and travel insurance, has joined Guidewire PartnerConnect as a Solution Partner to assist underwriters with claim content automation. Buy Now Full Report @ https://straitsresearch.com/buy-now/insurtech-market/global/ Impact of COVID-19 The COVID-19 outbreak increased the demand for coverage and provided chances for new participants. Risks such as health and family security, accidents, property loss, and natural disasters have long been addressed by individuals and groups. Customers who were taken aback by COVID-19's massive impact are now putting health and safety, financial security, and business continuity at the top of their priority list. Attitudes and actions toward insurers, on the other hand, have altered. Consumers desire a smooth digital experience throughout the insurance process after the pandemic. They're looking for businesses that prioritize the CARE equation, including Convenience, Advice, and Reach as essential pillars of customer engagement. As a result, people's desire to buy insurance increased. Most insurers focused on tackling the new problems by implementing a smooth transition to a remote-work environment and providing premium relief. According to the Insurance Information Institute, US auto insurers declared USD 10.50 billion in refunds, discounts, dividends, and credits to thank policyholders who drove less frequently during COVID-19. For the global Insurtech market, the post-pandemic period will be key. Due to a lack of understanding about Insurtech 's benefits and skilled individuals working with innovative technologies, the market's growth is anticipated to be limited. Factors such as the increased need for reinsurance support and varied customer benefits, on the other hand, are expected to drive market expansion throughout the forecast period. Regional Insights North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa make up the market's five regions. North America and Europe are the two most important markets for Insurtech. Insurtech solutions are getting increasingly popular as clients spend more money on insurance-related products. Second, these solutions provide property and health insurance options that are flexible and adaptive. The growing number of Insurtech businesses also fuels North America's market expansion. Europe is expected to be the second-largest Insurtech market, with an expected market value of USD 34,182 million by 2030. The region is likely to grow significantly due to many rising economies and financial hubs in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Local insurers are seeking to offer low-cost insurance premium options. As smartphone penetration increases across Europe, the regional market will grow. Due to the increased use of data-driven analysis by investors, Asia-Pacific is expected to be one of the fastest-growing regional marketplaces. The regional market will likely benefit companies from developing economies such as Thailand, Singapore, India, and China. Business digitalization has far-reaching ramifications for regional economies, education, and employment across Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, among other things. To develop private-sector jobs and encourage partnerships, Saudi Arabia prioritizes digital transformation in its 2030 Strategy and National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020. Such a fast-rising economy will almost probably bring unequaled market potential during the foreseeable future. Get a Free Sample Copy of This Report @ https://straitsresearch.com/report/insurtech-market/request-sample Key Highlights The global Insurtech market was valued at USD 3,774 million in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 46.10 % by 2030. By type , the health type segment is expected to reach USD 31,944 million by 2030 . By service , the support and maintenance service segment is expected to be dominant over others. By technology , the cloud computing technology segment is expected to reach USD 28,052 million by 2030 . By end-user , the healthcare segment is expected to reach USD 12,890 million by 2030 The global Insurtech market is geographically divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe were the two significant regional markets in 2021. Competitive Players in the Global Insurtech Market Damco Group DXC Technology Insurance Technology Services Majesco Oscar Insurance Quantemplate Shift Technology Trov Inc. Wipro Limited ZhongAn Insurance Acko Coya Global Insurtech Market: Segmentation By Type Auto Business Health Home Specialty Travel Others By Service Consulting Support and Maintenance Managed Services By Technology Blockchain Cloud Computing IoT Machine Learning Robo Advisory Others By End-User Automotive BFSI Government Healthcare Manufacturing Retail Transportation Others By Regions North America Europe Asia-Pacific Latin America The Middle East and Africa TABLE OF CONTENT 1 Introduction 1.1 Market Definition 1.2 Market Scope 2 Research Methodology 2.1 Primary Research 2.2 Research Methodology 2.3 Assumptions & Exclusions 2.4 Secondary Data Sources 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Overview 4.1 Report Segmentation & Scope 4.2 Value Chain Analysis: Insurtech Market 4.2.1 Vendor Matrix 4.3 Key Market Trends 4.3.1 Drivers 4.3.2 Restraints 4.3.3 Opportunities 4.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis 4.4.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.4.3 Threat of Substitution 4.4.4 Threat of New Entrants 4.4.5 Competitive Rivalry 4.5 Environment & Regulatory Landscape 4.6 Forecast Factors & Relevance of Impact 4.7 Macro-Economic & Geopolitical Scenario 4.8 Parent Market Overview 4.9 Technology Landscape 4.10 Market Share Analysis 4.11 Potential Venture Analysis 4.12 Regional Price Trends 4.13 Raw Material Trends 4.14 Cost Structure Analysis 4.14.1 Labor Cost 4.14.2 Consumables 4.14.3 Maintenance Cost 4.15 Covid-19 Impact Analysis: 4.15.1 Pre and Post Covid-19 Market Scenario Analysis 4.15.2 Market Recovery Timeline and Challenge 4.15.3 Measures Taken by Top Players 4.15.4 Quarterly Market Revenue and Growth Forecast till 2021 4.15.4.1 North America 4.15.4.2 Europe 4.15.4.3 Asia-Pacific 4.15.4.4 Central and South America and the Caribbean 4.15.4.5 The Middle East and Africa 5 Type Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.2 Auto 5.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.3 Business 5.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.4 Health 5.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.5 Home 5.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.6 Specialty 5.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.7 Travel 5.7.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 5.8 Others 5.8.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 6 Service Overview 6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 6.2 Consulting 6.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 6.3 Support and Maintenance 6.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 6.4 Managed Services 6.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7 Technology Overview 7.1 Introduction 7.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.2 Blockchain 7.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.3 Cloud Computing 7.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.4 IoT 7.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.5 Machine Learning 7.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.6 Robo Advisory 7.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 7.7 Others 7.7.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8 End User Overview 8.1 Introduction 8.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.2 Automotive 8.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.3 BFSI 8.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.4 Government 8.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.5 Healthcare 8.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.6 Manufacturing 8.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.7 Retail 8.7.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.8 Transportation 8.8.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 8.9 Others 8.9.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 9 Regional Overview 9.1 Introduction 9.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume) 9.2 North America 9.2.1 Economic Overview 9.2.2 Market Scenario 9.2.3 U.S. 9.2.4 Canada 9.2.5 Mexico 9.3 Central and South America and the Caribbean 9.3.1 Economic Overview 9.3.2 Market Scenario 9.3.3 Brazil 9.3.4 Argentina 9.3.5 Colombia 9.3.6 Rest of Central and South America and the Caribbean 9.4 Europe 9.4.1 Economic Overview 9.4.2 Market Scenario 9.4.3 Germany 9.4.4 France 9.4.5 The U.K. 9.4.6 Italy 9.4.7 The Rest Of Europe 9.5 Asia-Pacific (APAC) 9.5.1 Economic Overview 9.5.2 Market Scenario 9.5.3 China 9.5.4 Japan 9.5.5 India 9.5.6 Australia 9.5.7 South Korea 9.5.8 Rest Of APAC 9.6 Middle East 9.6.1 Economic Overview 9.6.2 Market Scenario 9.6.3 South Arabia 9.6.4 The UAE 9.6.5 Qatar 9.6.6 Oman 9.6.7 Turkey 9.6.8 The Rest Of Middle East 9.7 Africa 9.7.1 Economic Overview 9.7.2 Market Scenario 9.7.3 Nigeria 9.7.4 South Africa 9.7.5 The Rest Of Africa 10 Competitive Landscape Manufacturers & Suppliers 10.1 Competition Dashboard 10.2 Industry Structure 10.3 Damco Group 10.3.1 Business Overview 10.3.2 Financial Performance 10.3.3 Recent Developments 10.3.4 Portfolio 10.4 DXC Technology 10.5 Insurance Technology Services 10.6 Majesco 10.7 Oscar Insurance 10.8 Quantemplate 10.9 Shift Technology 10.10 Trov Inc. 10.11 Wipro Limited 10.12 ZhongAn Insurance 10.13 Acko 10.14 Coya 11 Conclusion & Recommendation 12 Acronyms & Abbreviations For More Information, TOC, Query or Customization Before Buying, Visit @ https://straitsresearch.com/report/insurtech-market/toc Market News In November 2021 , property and casualty insurer Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. established a relationship with Slide, an Insurtech P&C carrier. Due to this relationship, the former company would use Slide's skills to better underwriting and rating judgments. In October 2018 , Acko teamed up with DriveU to develop a program covering car owners who hire drivers to take them to various locations. Separately, SoftBank Investment Advisers business manager Kabir Misra's RPS Investment Fund is allegedly in talks to invest up to USD 5 million in Acko. In May 2018 , Coya was on the verge of acquiring a German insurance license, which would give the company access to all 550 million European Union people under BaFin's supervision. Property, accident, personal responsibility, and personal finance are among the products in the works. In September 2018 , in terms of policies per employee and customers per human, Lemonade outperformed traditional carriers. The loss ratio for Lemonade has decreased from 260% in the first half of 2017 to 130% in the first half of 2018. In August 2018, Tokio Marine Holdings, Japan's largest P&C insurance group, announced a strategic enterprise relationship with Metromile to license Metromile's Connected Intelligence Platform. The platform was approved for the first time by Tokio Marine Holdings. News Media Indias Shrinking Auto Business is Shifting Insurers Focus to Non-Auto Business The Rising Penetration of Health Insurance to Spike Breast Lesion Localization Methods Demand Will reconciliation software transform banking operations in near future? European Banking Sector to Get Severely Impacted After the COVID Breakout Have a Look at the Related Research Report Insurance Analytics Market : Information by Component (Tool, Services), Business Application (Claim Management), Deployment Mode, Organization Size, End-User, and Region Forecast till 2029 Agriculture Reinsurance Market : Information by Product (Managed Crop Hail Insurance, Multi-Peril Crop Insurance, and Forestry Insurance), and Region Forecast till 2026 Cyber Insurance Market : Information by Product (Standalone Cyber Insurance, Packaged Cyber Insurance), Enterprise, Application, and Region Forecast till 2026 Agriculture Insurance Market : Information by Product (Managed Crop Hail Insurance, Multi-Peril Crop Insurance), Organization (Government, Private) and Regional OutlookForecast Till 2026 About Straits Research Pvt. Ltd. StraitsResearch is a market intelligence company providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision-makers. Straits Research Pvt. Ltd. provides actionable market research data, especially designed and presented for decision making and ROI. Whether you are looking at business sectors in the next town or crosswise over continents, we understand the significance of being acquainted with the clients purchase. We overcome our clients issues by recognizing and deciphering the target group and generating leads with utmost precision. We seek to collaborate with our clients to deliver a broad spectrum of results through a blend of market and business research approaches. For more information on your target market, please contact us below: Phone: +1 646 480 7505 (the U.S.) +91 8087085354 (APAC) +44 208 068 9665 (the U.K.) Email: sales@straitsresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Horsman's appointment reinforces NFP's growing P&C business in Canada TORONTO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NFP, a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager and retirement advisor, today announced that Emily Horsman has joined the company as head of Canadian National Broking. Horsman will lead efforts in building NFP's national broking platform in Canada alongside Canadian broking and business line leaders and underwriting partners. She will also collaborate closely with NFP's US broking colleagues and lead carrier relations in Canada. Horsman will report to Mark Wiens, head of Commercial Insurance for NFP in Canada. "I'm extremely excited to welcome Emily to NFP as we continue to grow our P&C business in Canada," said Wiens. "This hire reflects our firm commitment in continuing to execute on our North American P&C strategies," said Wiens. "Emily is a thoughtful and influential leader. She will concentrate on our growing mid-market P&C business, while providing support across our Small and Midsize Enterprise and Complex Risk Solution teams. Emily is well respected for her knowledge, personal touch and overall professionalism, and we're excited for her to help shape our future success." Horsman has more than 20 years of broking, underwriting and leadership experience. She joins from Markel Canada, where she served as vice president, Alternative Distribution. Prior to this, she served as vice president, broker for Willis Towers Watson. She worked in a variety of broker and underwriting roles for Aon Reed Stenhouse and ACE INA Insurance. Horsman earned a Fellow, Charter Insurance Professional designation from the Insurance Institute of Canada and a Canadian Risk Management designation from the Global Risk Management Institute. "It is an honor to join the NFP team in Canada," said Horsman. "NFP's people-first culture meshes perfectly with my leadership and customer service style, and I look forward to helping shape our future success in Canada." Story continues About NFP NFP is a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager, and retirement advisor that provides solutions enabling client success through the expertise of over 6,900 global employees, investments in innovative technologies, and enduring relationships with highly rated insurers, vendors, and financial institutions. NFP is the 9th best place to work for large employers in insurance, 7th largest privately-owned broker, 5th largest benefits broker by global revenue and 13th largest broker of US business (all rankings according to Business Insurance). Visit NFP.ca to discover how NFP empowers clients to meet their goals. Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nfp-appoints-emily-horsman-head-of-canadian-national-broking-301559668.html SOURCE NFP Corp. May 5Staff and volunteers with Santa Fe-based The Food Depot focused their second annual Star Wars-themed May the Fourth food drive on filling the needs of wildfire evacuees. Workers at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society scurried this week to make room for displaced pets. Other local organizations are taking donations of money, food, clothes and hygiene products to distribute to those in need. "While this is a light-hearted and fun event that we are happy to host once again," Food Depot Executive Director Sherry Hooper said in a statement about Wednesday's food drive. "We are well aware of the serious events happening around us with our fellow New Mexicans." With tens of thousands of people from an estimated 15,500 homes on mandatory evacuation orders due to the growing Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fire a more than 160,000-acre blaze stretching between Las Vegas, N.M., and Mora local organizations are increasing efforts to ensure people and animals who fled their homes have the resources they need. The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management also announced Wednesday it is leading an effort with several state agencies to establish a Joint Information Task Force to provide consolidated information on wildfires and aid available to affected residents. The effort includes a wildfire website, nmdhsem.org, with a link to a disaster assistance form, and Facebook page, facebook.com/NewMexicoDHSEM. The state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance advised residents at risk of evacuation to keep important documents such as birth certificates, insurance policies and health insurance cards in fireproof boxes and to take photos of each document. Residents also should include a list of medications and a week's supply in the box, the office said. After an evacuation or news of home damage, the office said, a homeowner should contact their insurance carrier to file a claim. Some insurance policies pay for additional living expenses during an evacuation. Story continues Many evacuees have sought assistance for pets that couldn't join them at a shelter or relative's home. Murad Kirdar, a spokesman for the Santa Fe animal shelter, said volunteers recently transferred animals to sites in Utah and Albuquerque to make room for at least two dozen cats that evacuated along with their owners amid the wildfire. The shelter is at capacity and doesn't have room to take in more dogs, he added, but it's still able to make accommodations for displaced felines. The shelter also is working to provide evacuees with pet essentials. "We're offering free dog and cat food, treats, cat litter, blankets, towels [and] candles. So if anyone has extra at home, we encourage them to donate it," Kirdar said. How to get help Evacuation shelters: * Old Memorial Middle School gym in Las Vegas; call 505-429-0336. * Glorieta Adventure Camps; contact Josh Nelson at 505-757-6161, ext. 713. * San Miguel County Public Works in Las Vegas; call 505-652-8728. * Penasco High School gym, contact Melissa Sandoval at 575-779-3057. * Red River Convention Center; call 575-754-1708. Pet and livestock shelters: * The Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society is taking in cats displaced by the fire; call 505-983-4309, ext. 1606. The shelter also is offering supplies for displaced pets and requests donations. * The Santa Fe County Fairgrounds is taking in dogs, cats and chickens; call 505-471-4711. * The Zamora arena is being used to temporarily house livestock and horses; contact livestock inspector Matthew Romero at 575-643-6805. * The Pecos arena is sheltering livestock and horses; contact Freddy Lujan at 505-930-3986 or 505-757-3986. * The Taos County Sheriff's Posse Arena is being used to house livestock and horses; contact livestock inspector Ruben Baca at 575-770-1490. Where to donate * The Santa Fe Fire Department's Station 5, 1130 Siler Road, is accepting donations of food and supplies between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. Items requested: nonperishable foods, sports drinks, children's clothing and toys, diapers, personal hygiene items and paper products, as well as animal feed, troughs, hay, bowls and crates. * The All Together New Mexico Fund is accepting monetary donations at alltogethernm.org. Grants from the fund will go to emergency shelters, food and water distribution and access to medical support. * The State Employees Credit Union is accepting monetary donations that will go to the "Northern NM Fires" fund. The credit union also is accepting nonperishable food items, bottled water, new and unused blankets, clothing and hygiene products. * Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity is accepting goods at the ReStore, 2520 Camino Entrada. Requested items: nonperishable food, hygiene products, cleaning products, feminine products, clothes, diapers and baby food. The Food Depot Disaster Relief Fund is accepting money, food, water and hygiene items for evacuees and emergency responders. Visit thefooddepot.org/disaster-relief. Republicans tie themselves in knots trying to deflect role of guns in killings May 28 To the Editor: Some politicians may have painted themselves into a corner in responding to the two most recent mass shootings. In order to deflect the role played by guns in the killings many elected officials and announced candidates mostly Republicans, it would appear have tried to shift the blame onto people "with mental health issues." Keep in mind that these are the same people who have been in full support of cutting taxes and federal and state budgets, which very often has resulted in a reduction or even loss of many mental health training and treatment programs. It is acknowledged by everyone responsible for residential and community supervision programs that government funding has been and continues to be totally inadequate to meet a growing need. In placing the blame on the shooter as the sole cause of the death and destruction these same politicians have identified Payton Gendron's (the alleged Buffalo shooter) reliance on the so-called "replacement theory" as evidence of his mental instability. The problem with that, and perhaps a more accurate description than they intended, is that this same belief has been adopted or supported by a number of their own Republican colleagues: Reps. Paul Gosar of Texas, Elise Stefanik of New York, Matt Gaetz of Florida, with Tucker Carlson of Fox News being a leading spokesman. If this is evidence of Gendron's derangement and I would say that it is then logically it should apply to the politicians who also support the claim, who take the position that "immigrants" and people of color are somehow a threat to "the American way of Life." Recent polls indicate that a very high percentage of Republicans agree with the replacement theory to one degree or another. Gendron may have been at one extreme, but the question is where do we draw the line? Doesn't it make more sense that rather than pointing the finger at those who suffer some form of mental illness, we simply eliminate the means that allows a few to become mass murderers? A "crazy person" armed with a knife is a threat; that same person with an AR-15, as we have seen, is a killing machine, bringing death and destruction to whole communities. Story continues The Republican leadership is correct in focusing on mental illness, even in the absence of any more killings, and they should be held accountable for the funds necessary to provide adequate identification and proper treatment. At the same time they should not be allowed to shift the blame. You cannot pull a trigger unless there is a trigger to pull. Anthony McManus Dover National policies victimize our children May 27 To the Editor: The recent school massacre in Texas is one more indication of how little the Republican Party values the BORN children. In fact, Texas just passed more loosening of restrictions on guns and 50 U.S. senators cant bring themselves to even debate gun laws, let alone pass any legislation that might help alleviate the ever increasing mass shootings in this country. Since they refused to extend the ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004, the country is now awash in 20 million assault rifles. Thats more than the armies in most countries possess. And of course there is the almost unlimited rounds of ammunition available. And after every mass shooting, gun sales increase. It is now a sacred cow for the Republican Party: "Font touch our guns in any way! We are a party beholden to the NRA they write our policies and support our campaigns." To add to this total disregard for children, the United States is at the bottom of the list worldwide for childcare. We are the only wealthy country which does have national paid parental leave. And 25% of mothers return to work two weeks after giving birth. 50% of Americans live in childcare deserts places without adequate child care. Eleven million children live in poverty children under 5 are the poorest of any age group. Yet Republicans in Congress refused to extend the child care tax credit which reduced child poverty by 30%. When are we as a nation going to care for our children? And I mean the ones already here, born, and needing child care, nutrition, education and love? What will it take to come to our senses and quit this infantile culture war stuff and work to have a safe and loving country for this generation and the next?? Do we care? We know what we need to do now we need to have people in our state and federal governments who will do their job. Pass the child care tax credit and extend preschool care for all children. Ban assault weapons, strengthen background checks, limit ammo clips. This is just for starters. Please help me fight for legislation to end this slaughter and for policies that will help our 11 million children already here. That would be pro-life indeed. Linda Cunningham Portsmouth Keeping republic depends on commitment to virtue and liberty May 28 To the Editor: Has the republic failed the people, or have the people failed the republic? In an account by James McHenry, a founding father and signer of the United States Constitution, that was written on Sept. 17, 1787, about an encounter between Benjamin Franklin and an anxious lady named Mrs. Powel, who accosted him outside Independence Hall, asked What type of government have you delegates given us? Franklin replied, A republic, madam, if you can keep it. The arguments over the ratification of the Constitution between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists have been shrouded in anonymity, due mostly to the passage of time and the avarice of politicians and their associated political party. What is more, and certainly unfortunate, since the 1960s, society has placed other priorities ahead of the need to "keep the republic" and instead have dreamed of utopian ideals. The consequences that came with the attraction to utopian ideals sought during the 20th and 21st centuries, has led to an increase in control and restrictions placed upon society by a stronger, more centralized, and out of reach federal government. With utopian ideals comes equality in the form of restraints and servitude, whereas in a republican form of government, equality is delivered in the form of liberty. Moreover, because each individual is born with different qualities, they cannot by nature be equal, and since they cannot be equal, a society based on equity, cannot exist. Therefore, utopian ideals are a fallacy. The origins of the American form of republican democracy derive from the valued life experienced during the early days of the republic, when dedication to liberty, law, and custom, held by the merits of virtue, was embodied by the people. Hence, only when the people are committed to virtue and liberty, can the republic be kept. David Hussey Greenland This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Republicans use twisted logic on role of guns in killings: Letters Scatec ASA Oslo\ Cape Town, 2 June 2022: Scatec ASA, a leading renewable energy solutions provider, today signed the power purchase agreements for the three Kenhardt projects in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) alongside the South African government. A first of a kind in Africa, the project will provide 150 MW of dispatchable renewable energy from 5:00 in the morning to 21:30 in the evening based on a hybrid installation of 540 MW of solar PV capacity and 1.1 GWh of battery storage. The Scatec projects were the sole renewables only projects awarded in the technology agnostic RMIPPP programme. This demonstrates the attractiveness, commercial viability and universal application of hybrid renewable energy facilities. Todays signing acknowledges this landmark achievement by the government, as well as the private sector in achieving this milestone in the RMIPPPP process. With these agreements being signed, we are working towards financial close under the timelines and conditions as stipulated by the authorities, says Scatec CEO Terje Pilskog. According to the agreements signed, financial close is to be achieved within 60 days from the signature date. Once financial close has been reached, Scatec will start construction of the projects. This unique solar and storage project signifies change within Africas renewable energy landscape and will be one of the largest renewable energy and storage projects in the world, adds Pilskog. Scatec will own 51% of the equity in the project with H1 Holdings, our local Black Economic Empowerment partner owning 49%. Scatec will be the Engineering, Procurement and Construction provider and provide Operation & Maintenance as well as Asset Management services to the power plants. The Standard Bank Group is acting as lead arranger and debt provider alongside a lender group including British International Investment and they will provide non-recourse project financing to the projects. Story continues For further information, please contact: For analysts and investors: Andreas Austrell, VP Investor Relations, Tel: +47 974 38 686, andreas.austrell@scatec.com For media: Meera Bhatia, SVP Communications, meera.bhatia@scatec.com About Scatec Scatec is a leading renewable energy solutions provider, accelerating access to reliable and affordable clean energy in high growth markets. As a long-term player, we develop, build, own and operate renewable energy plants, with 3.5 GW of installed capacity across four continents today. We are targeting 15 GW of renewable capacity to be in operation or under construction by the end of 2025, delivered by our 600 passionate employees who are driven by a common vision of Improving our Future. Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SCATC. To learn more, visit www.scatec.com or connect with us on LinkedIn . This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act With summer on the horizon and temperatures rising, there are more than a few ways to beat the heat in Eastern Connecticut. For starters, you've got a myriad of lakes and coastal beaches to choose from. You can always swing by a drive-in or ice cream shop for a shake or cone to help cool off. Plus, there's likely a movie theater or two nearby to take in the air-conditioning and catch what's new. If you're looking for something mildly adventurous, you can always give kayaking a try. Not sure where to start looking? We've got plenty of different options and destinations to choose from. Some may be right in your backyard. Summer forecast: Farmers' Almanac predictions for summer weather in CT Visit one of Connecticut's public lakes On the border between Bozrah, Montville and Salem sits a cozy little lake open to the public. You'll find Gardner Lake State Park on its south shore in the town of Salem. Boating, swimming and even fishing are all popular. Barbara Hernandez of North Stonington, front, and her daughter, Jarelis Bentes of New London stay cool on their jet skis Tuesday at Gardner Lake in Salem. Admission is free for in-state residents. Mashamoquet Brook State Park in Pomfret offers another swimming hole for folks as well. The name Mashamoquet is Native American for "stream of good fishing." Rich with history, the park offers hiking, camping, fishing and swimming for the whole family. Take a dip at a local beach You'll have to drive a little bit but there's no shortage of oceanside destinations in Southeastern Connecticut. New London's Ocean Beach Park, Groton's Eastern Point Beach, Niantic Beach or Stonington's DuBois Beach are just a few of the dozens of options you have to choose from. Most spots have ample parking and plenty of other attractions as well, such as restaurants and shops. How the baby formula shortage hit CT: A pediatrician, a mom and a nonprofit CEO explain. Jha Lampkins of New London with a fish he found on the beach Tuesday at Gardner Lake in Salem. Admission is free for in-state residents. Grab some ice cream Connecticut has no shortage of roadside stops if you're looking for a cool, delicious treat. Check out The Main Moose in Columbia, Hank's Dairy Bar in Plainfield, Harry's Place in Colchester, Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, Berry's Ice Cream & Candy Bar in New London and Salem Valley Farm's Ice Cream. Most spots will have frozen yogurt, as well. Story continues Kacey Kruzel of Pomfret bought his dog, named Bolt, a Puppy Bites ice cream treat at the grand opening of Ra Ra's Ice Cream Shop Friday at Owen Bell Park in Dayville. The warm weather business near the back parking lot at Owen Bell Park features soft and hard ice cream, ice cream cakes and birthday parties. Catch a movie With theaters open, a classic way to beat the heat returns. Tickets are available for all sorts of flicks, whether you want adventure with the new "Top Gun" movie, your Marvel fix with "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness," or some offbeat comedy with "Brian and Charles." Visit the Gallery Cinemas in Colchester, AMC Classic in Lisbon, Regal Waterford, Niantic Cinemas or Mystic Luxury Cinemas to get your movie fix. Don't forget the popcorn! Try something new with kayaking Sisters Sandy Dondero, left, and Dee Ethier, both of Norwich stay cool in their kayaks Tuesday at Gardner Lake in Salem. Admission is free for in-state residents. Mystic is chock-full of options for beating the heat, kayaking included. Blue Heaven Kayak & Paddle Board Rentals is a premier spot to give it a go, with $25 an hour prices for a single or $40 an hour tandem kayaks and $30 an hour paddleboard rentals. Norwich Pride: A Pride flag won't fly on Norwich City Hall this June. An alternative is in the works. Clinton, Connecticut has you covered as well. The Indian River Marina offers kayaking, paddleboarding and canoeing rentals for new and experienced visitors alike. It's an easy walk to downtown Clinton as well, with shops and restaurants to visit once you've had your fun. This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: 5 things to do this summer in Eastern CT: Beaches, ice cream, movies By Azernews Ayya Lmahamad President Ilham Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan plans to export electricity to Europe once the Zangazur corridor comes operational. He made the remarks speaking at the official opening ceremony of the 27th International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition on the sidelines of the Baku Energy Week. We export electricity to four neighboring countries and plan to export electricity to Europe and for that, we want also to activate the Zangazur corridor, which could be an important transportation route, not only for cargoes but also for electricity, he said. Noting that Azerbaijan is working on this issue and already started practical investment, he added that diversification for all is important. Therefore, I think, now those who underestimated the potential of Azerbaijan as a reliable transiter, now will change their mind and we see initial hints of that, and we are ready. We are ready to help everyone who needs help. We are ready because we have a political will, he said. Aliyev stressed that his government's policy is always aimed at building bridges and strengthening cooperation, adding that Azerbaijan has the infrastructure, a brand new seaport, railroads connecting the country with all destinations, highways, and a number of international airports. After we complete three international airports construction, one already has been completed, in the liberated territories will be nine, and a geographical location. So, the transit potential of Azerbaijan also should be taken into account while we are planning our future plans with respect to oil and gas cooperation, he said. At this point in time, it is worth recalling that Azerbaijan has increased electricity output by 2 billion kWh, bringing the volume to 27.8 billion kWh in 2021. Last year, electricity imports increased by 15 million kWh to 151.5 million kWh, while exports increased by 526.4 million kWh to 1.6 billion kWh. New Research, Representing 33,000 Plan Sponsor Clients, Highlights Insights and Retirement Plan Trends BALTIMORE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- T. Rowe Price released today findings from its latest Defined Contribution Consultant Research Study. In partnership with Schaus Group, T. Rowe Price surveyed 32 defined contribution (DC) consultants and advisory firmsthat provide services to more than 33,000 plan sponsor clients and report nearly $7.2 trillion in assets under advisementto look at marketplace trends and factors driving plan sponsor decisions. "The retirement ecosystem is changing rapidly, and we find the consulting and advisory community evolving their businesses to address both obstacles and new opportunities", said Michael Davis, Head of Defined Contribution plan specialists, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. "This survey combines insights from across the DC platform at T. Rowe Price with survey data provided by the consultant and advisor community. The Schaus Group was a great partner in bringing together this research, which provides new perspectives on how consultants and advisors are working alongside their plan sponsor clients to help participants prepare for retirement and seek broader financial well-being." Survey results revealed key themes, including greater insight into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) adoption, support for the continued evolution of target date investments and retirement income solutions, and growing interest in financial wellness programs, especially in response to the COVID pandemic. While there is broad interest in ESG, the majority of consultants report plan sponsors are looking for further clarity on the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed guidelines before making ESG investments a part of DC plan investment options. With respect to implementation of ESG, 40% of study respondents indicated preference for actively-managed ESG investment strategies; only 10% said passive ESG investment strategies were preferable. Additionally, respondents indicated that more detailed ESG screening, reporting, and monitoring should be provided by investment providers. Story continues With respect to target date solutions, consultants strongly support an increased focus on Collective Investment Trust (CIT) based target dates and the pursuit of blend solutions that deliver the benefits of both active and passive investment management. Of note, these cost containment trends received greater support than simply increasing the use of passive investment management. When looking at features that could strengthen the trend of participants remaining in their DC plans postretirement, lower cost for comparable investments versus a rollover IRA, flexibility in drawing down assets, and investment solutions that generate income were ranked highest. Consultants also report simple systematic withdrawal capabilities as the most appealing retirement income solution despite limitations. However, multi-asset investment solutionsmanaged accounts with income planning features and target date investments with embedded managed payout featuresfollow closely behind. Addressing greater financial wellness, 76% of consultants report that plan sponsors signaled greater interest in emergency savings, and 60% report greater interest in debt management. In contrast, most respondents reported fewer than 25% of their plan sponsor clients currently offer emergency savings programs. More positively, 83% of plan consultants expect this figure to increase in the next three to five years. Additionally, consultants are seeing plan sponsors evaluate investment managers' diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) baseline reports to satisfy basic due diligence. However, further integration of DE&I information into plan and investment decisions may require evolution, as only 31% of plan sponsors are using DE&I information to actively drive decisions on new investment options. "We are pleased to have released this new iteration of the Defined Contribution Consultant Research Study with T. Rowe Price," said Stacy Schaus, founder and CEO of Schaus Group. "This study allows the industry to delve deeper into critical topics and themes in the retirement market and spotlight important views from consultants and advisory firms that have capacity to shape how employer sponsored retirement plans might adapt from here." The Defined Contribution Research Study was conducted at the end of 2021 during the continued coronavirus pandemic. The executive summary is available here. ABOUT THE DEFINED CONTRIBUTION RESEARCH STUDY The 2021 Defined Contribution Research Study was conducted by T. Rowe price in partnership with Schaus Group. The study population includes 32 defined contribution consulting surveyed from September 20, 2021, through November 8, 2021. You may visit troweprice.com/dcio and refer to the 2021 Defined Contribution Research Study material for highlights from this study. Participating firms also received a custom report comparing their firm's responses to the aggregate responses. For questions, please contact your T. Rowe price representative. ABOUT T. ROWE PRICE Founded in 1937, T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ-GS: TROW) is an independent global asset management company with $1.42 trillion in assets under management as of April 30, 2022. The organization is focused on delivering investment excellence and retirement services for institutional and individual investors. Our strategic investing approach, driven by independent thinking and guided by rigorous research, helps clients feel confident in pursuing financial goals. troweprice.com, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/t-rowe-price-releases-latest-defined-contribution-consultant-research-study-301560334.html SOURCE T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty The origin behind giraffes long necks has long fascinated scientists. For more than a century, the going theory was that it was due to evolutionary pressure to reach leaves and other foliage to eat. However, it turns out, it might be due to a more X-rated reason: sex. In a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers in China have discovered fossils of a new giraffe species dating back 17 million years ago. These fossils show a short-necked animal, dubbed Discokeryx xiezhi, with a thick-boned skull and complicated head-neck joints adapted for headbutting. The new finding lends credence to the idea that neckingmale giraffes clubbing each other with their necks and shoulders in ritual combat while fighting over matesmay be the main or at least contributing force behind the giraffes long-necked evolution. This Tiny Robotic Crab Is the Worlds Smallest Remote-Controlled Walking Robot A large part of why the necks for food evolutionary theory has prevailed is in no small part to Charles Darwin. The English naturalist was the first to propose that the spotty giraffe developed its nearly 600-pound neck through successive generations reaching for foliage just out of reach. For many years, this theory was accepted and the giraffes neck became a textbook case for natural selection. But in 1996, zoologists Robert Simmons and Lue Scheepers proposed that the necking competitions between males favored the evolution of ever-longer necks through sexual selection, where impressed females mated with the long-necked champions, reported National Geographic in 2013. But living giraffes cant tell us everything about how they evolved, which is where fossils come in. In the new Science paper, the researchers discovered that D. xiezhi had thick helmet-like skulls that were quite plastic and flexible. The creatures also had enlarged neck joints that would have given early giraffes the ability to headbutt each other at high speeds. Story continues The peculiar head-neck morphology was most probably adapted for a fierce intermale headbutting behavior, comparable to neck-blowing in male giraffes but indicative of an extreme adaptation in a different direction within giraffoids, the authors wrote in their paper. The Pet Spider Black Market Is a Sprawling and Dangerous Web The researchers also noticed D. xiezhis tooth enamel had the second-highest average of carbon-13, a radioactive form of carbon used for dating, compared to all herbivores existing alongside it. Carbon-13 can provide evidence of the ecology and habitat of a long-dead animal and these findings seem to suggest our modern giraffes early ancestor was likely an open-land grazer residing in areas uninhabited by other herbivores. The researchers hypothesize that because D. xiezhi didnt have any competition when it came to food, necking and the inevitable mating with the strongest, long-necked champion alone might have driven the giraffes evolution. These new fossil records paint a better picture of what early giraffes roaming the ancient world looked like and how their behaviors and environment may have shaped their modern physiology. While its still yet to be seen whether these fossils outright dismiss the necks for food evolutionary theory, it definitely makes you consider these magnificent, gentle-seeming animals in a pugilistic new light. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here 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. The Queen on the balcony at Buckingham Palace (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire) Meghan Markle is a role model and beacon of hope for many Black Americans. Her story resonated with me strongly my mother is biracial, and Markles words about the racism she experienced felt sadly familiar. Watching the right-wing British media attack Markle, and then watching how the royal family stayed silent in the face of it, was a painful experience. Now, on her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II has a chance to change things by making a formal apology to the descendants of those exploited by Britains imperialist past. As the longest-standing monarch in British history, the queen commands the respect of Brits and Americans alike. Indeed, it is no secret Americans care about the British monarchy and spend a lot of time watching them from the 23 million Americans who watched the televised wedding of Prince William and Kate, to former President Obama telling Prince Charles that Americans love the monarchy more than their own politicians, to survey data showing that 68 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Queen Elizabeth. The queen making a formal apology for Britains colonial past would have an undeniable effect, rippling across nations. This is a golden opportunity for her to leave a powerful legacy that changes the world order. A survey on public opinion also found that just over 60 percent of Brits are either proud or neutral about their colonial past . But the tides are turning. Instances ranging from the 2020 protesters dumping a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into the River Avon in solidarity with Black Lives Matter to Jamaican protests demanding reparations during Prince William and Duchess Middletons recent visit indicate that anti-imperialist social justice movements are becoming more and more prominent. Rather than ignoring such activists, Queen Elizabeth now has an opportunity to meet their concerns head-on and to move the world in a new direction. After all, most of her familys wealth was built on the backs of Black and brown people. Story continues Ideally, a genuine apology from the queen should pay respect to lives lost serving in the British armed forces (one million Indian troops served on Britains behalf in the First World War, for instance); hours of forced labor; opportunity cost in building infrastructure; lost languages and cultural practices; and the extraction of natural resources. But even if it didnt incorporate all of these elements, acknowledging slavery and its continuing effects today would start some vitally important conversations. I firmly believe that if the British queen openly addresses racism and the impacts of colonialism on todays society, American politicians will be pushed to do so as well. The US is failing to step up to lead due to its own internal gridlocking, and our next generation will inherit climate change, an increased risk of pandemics, and other issues that can only be solved with a cooperative and progressive global order. Apologies from heads of state are a great place to start. And history shows us that formal apologies do work and do change societies. Germanys formal apology and condemnation of the Nazis after the Second World War is a powerful example of this the nation now has some of the strongest anti-hate speech and anti-white supremacy laws in the world. German Criminal Code prohibits sharing Nazi symbols or sharing statements denying the Holocaust occurred . In 2008, Australia issued a formal apology to its Indigenous people for forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families and attempting to destroy Indigenous culture. And this year, the Canadian government and the Pope apologized for cultural genocide of First Nations peoples, particularly for placing First Nations children in boarding schools against their will that were aimed at erasing their cultural traditions and preventing them from speaking their first languages. Importantly, this Canadian apology led to action: $31.5 billion has since been put towards repairing Canadas child welfare system and delivering reparations to the First Nations peoples who experienced abuse in that system. In contrast, the Confederate was not removed from the official Mississippi state flag until 2020 and although California unveiled the first ever slavery reparations report this week, momentum round the conversation seems to have slowed to a halt in DC. Kimberle Crenshaws Critical Race Theory explains how racism lies at the foundation of US social institutions, laws, and society, maintaining intergenerational lifelong inequality based on race. One practical way to deconstruct racism and to right those wrongs is to offer reparations to the descendants of slaves living in the US. The reparations process cannot be launched successfully without a common consensus that the descendants of imperialists and slave owners continue to reap the socioeconomic benefits. An apology explicitly recognizing bias would force Americans and Brits alike to finally grapple with the ugly truth that racism has driven a lot of public policy in our nations. Centuries of imperialism were a collective action, but Queen Elizabeth has the worlds attention during her Jubilee, and she can utilize this to begin the transitional justice process. I hope shell take the opportunity. The Dr. Yum Project, which works to help families and communities overcome barriers to eating well, is holding its first in-person fundraiser on Friday since the pandemic began. YumFest 2022 is for adults only and will be held from 69 p.m. Friday at Highmark Brewery, 390 Kings Highway in Stafford County. Many activities will be held outside including dinner from food trucks with fare such as quesadillas, gourmet burgers and vegan and vegetarian options. Sponsors A. Smith Bowman Distillery will provide bourbon tasting, FredNats will furnish outdoor games; and Hard to Tell will play live music for dancing. Tickets to the casual event are $85 per person and available at the Dr. Yum Project website at doctoryum.org. Tickets include the meal and open bar, craft beer and bourbon and an assortment of desserts. Lockdowns in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19 brought changes to the Dr. Yum Projects fundraising approach as well as to its core programs. Its in-person cooking school and Preschool Food Adventure Curriculum, which Dr. Nimali Fernando helped write in 2013, started in Fredericksburg with eight pilot programs. The lessons focus on introducing preschoolers and their families to nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables, and are being taught in 280 classrooms in 18 states, including 30 Head Start programs. The curriculum expanded into Alabama last fall and the National Head Start Association asked the Dr. Yum Project to partner with it, according to a press release. Young kids during the pandemic may not have the normal experiences and education around food, like going to the grocery store or gathering in large groups to share meals, Fernando said. Teachers across the country are telling us that our program is helping to bridge that gap. At the same time that the pandemic limited in-person participation, board members of the Dr. Yum Project noticed that many of the tools and programs theyd developed were needed more than ever. We really had to figure out quickly how to get the information we had been developing locally to as many families [and] homes as possible nationwide, says Heidi DiEugenio, programs director and founding board member. The team started doing weekly demonstrations live on Facebook and recording videos to help families cook easy, affordable and delicious meals. As the problem of food insecurity grew, the team shared handouts to help families come up with customizable recipes with food pantry ingredientsincluding some they may not have used before. The handouts were distributed locally and caught the attention of food pantries in other areas, according to the Dr. Yum Project. As a result, the organization will give its annual Changemaker Award to Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank President and CEO Dan Maher for his leadership of the Hunger Action Coalition in Planning District 16. 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. When Top Gun became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1980s, few if any thought a sequel would ever see the light of day. Miraculously, here we are 36 years with a sequel that is even more daring and electric than the original in Top Gun: Maverick. Although more than 30 years have passed, Maverick (Tom Cruise) is still the same old Maverick. Hes never heard of this thing called fear, and he still has his issues with authority. Maverick continues to be a test pilot for the Navy, but hes reminded his days as a pilot could be nearing the end. A stern Rear Admiral Cain (Ed Harris), Mavericks superior officer, informs him drones are the future. After a snarky line or two by Maverick, Cain sends Maverick off to the Fighter Weapons School in San Diego. Mavericks old friend, now Admiral, Tom Iceman Kazansky (Val Kilmer) has requested Maverick to train a class of elite pilots. A perplexed Maverick travels to San Diego, but lets his commanding officers know hes not really the instructor type. Unfortunately for Maverick, Vice Admiral Beau Cyclone Simpson (Jon Hamm) does not care. The class includes an Iceman-resembled Hangman (Glen Powell), an arrogant but talented pilot whos mostly despised by his peers. Theres also a kind-hearted female pilot in Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), whos as fierce as she is determined. And as fate would have it, theres also Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of Goose, who died in Mavericks arms in the first film. For the next several months, Mavericks job is to train the pilots on a mission to fly into enemy territory to bomb a uranium enrichment plant. This mission requires perfection with zero room for error. In order to get his pilots to successfully complete the mission and come back alive, Maverick will need to keep Admiral Simpson off his back in questioning his unusual teachings, and attempt to establish a relationship and trust with his late best friends son in Rooster. It takes about 30 seconds when Kenny Loggins Danger Zone blasts through the theaters speakers for a smile to appear on your face. And that smile never leaves. If summer blockbusters are supposed to be action-packed and fun, Top Gun: Maverick epitomizes how a summer blockbuster is intended to be made. Cruise has established himself as one of the great action stars of all-time, but he doesnt always get enough credit for how brilliant of a dramatic actor he is. With every daring flight scene, hes equally dialed in for the films emotional scenes. Powells Hangman is a welcoming addition to the franchise, giving the audience someone to roll their eyes at. But Miles Teller, a household name in his own right, brings a stubborn and desperate portrayal of Rooster that captivates, as he tries to do right by his father while also working to escape his massive shadow. Top Gun: Maverick is everything youre looking for in a popcorn sequel and more. It has humor, action, heart, and almost as much charm and charisma as its leading star. While it plays a little too safe, its a slight critique for a film that is better than the first film in every conceivable way. Much like its titular hero, Top Gun: Maverick exceeds both the odds and expectations. Grade: A Blake Kavan works for a technology company in Fremont, NE. In his spare time, he loves to watch and write about movies, primarily of the action and thriller genres. He will contribute reviews for movie enthusiasts to read and enjoy for major motion pictures released. Blake can be reached at blakekavan11@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Mary Loftis knows folks born in 1957 or 1958 are probably getting lots of mail right now. And that mail is most likely about Medicare insurance. Such mail can leave recipients wondering if theyre going to fill out paperwork correctly. It can be tough for parents or friends trying to help a loved one wade through the paper blizzard. Thats where Loftis can help. Loftis is a Nebraska State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) counselor and shes planning an informational presentation on pre-Medicare issues. The public is invited to the program starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 23, in the UNL Nebraska Extension in Dodge County office, 1206 W. 23rd St., Fremont. This is a free, informational program and nothing will be marketed or sold. Topics include: How and when to apply for Medicare. Do you want to keep working and delay Medicare, then what? What is meant by Part A, Part E and Part D? What are those Medicare Advantage plans that are on TV? Do you need Medicare or supplemental insurance? What do you need to consider when choosing a plan? Information also will be provided on how people can protect themselves from scammers. Medicare is confusing with all the different options, Loftis told the Tribune. Attending one of these SHIP-sponsored events will provide you with unbiased options and information. Absolutely no selling. Loftis encourages attendees to bring a friend or sibling. Four ears are better than two to understand Medicare options, Loftis said. Space is limited. To provide an adequate number of handouts, please RSVP by noon, Thursday, June 23, to the UNL Extension in Dodge County office at 402-727-2775 or UNL Extension in Burt County at 402-374-2929. 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. Futures and Commodity Market News BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) Investee Advent Energy Appeal re PEP 11 Permit Extension Perth, Australia, Jun 01, 2022 (ABN Newswire via COMTEX) -- BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) advises that investee Advent Energy Limited's (BPH 36.1% direct interest) 100% subsidiary Asset Energy Pty Ltd has applied to the Federal Court pursuant to section 5 of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth) and section 39B of the Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) to review the decision of the Commonwealth-New South Wales Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority (Joint Authority), constituted under section 56 of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Cth) (Act), to refuse to vary and suspend the conditions of Exploration Permit for Petroleum No.11 (PEP 11 Permit), pursuant to section 264(2) of the Act, and to refuse to extend the term of the PEP 11 Permit, pursuant to section 265 of the Act. The application was made in December 2019. Asset Energy Pty Ltd is a 100 % owned subsidiary of Advent Energy Ltd and has lodged the appeal as Operator for and on behalf of the PEP11 Joint Venture Partners, Bounty Oil and Gas NL (ASX:BUY) and Asset Energy Pty Ltd. About BPH Energy Limited: BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) is an Australian Securities Exchange listed company developing biomedical research and technologies within Australian Universities and Hospital Institutes. The company provides early stage funding, project management and commercialisation strategies for a direct collaboration, a spin out company or to secure a license. BPH provides funding for commercial strategies for proof of concept, research and product development, whilst the institutional partner provides infrastructure and the core scientific expertise. BPH currently partners with several academic institutions including The Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT). Contact:David Breeze admin@bphenergy.com.au www.bphenergy.com.au T: +61 8 9328 8366 Source: BPH Energy Limited COMTEX_408071837/2525/2022-06-01T19:53:47 Copyright (C) 2022 ABN Newswire. All rights reserved. During its nearly 20-year insurgency, the Taliban remained a largely coherent fighting force despite succession crises, competition from Islamic State-Khorasan, and a deadly war against foreign and Afghan forces. But as the Taliban has attempted to transform from a guerrilla force into a functional government after seizing power in August, there have been mounting reports of infighting within the militant group. A senior Taliban official last week became the first to openly criticize the Taliban leadership for its repressive policies in Afghanistan. Experts say the rare public rebuke has lifted the lid on widening rifts in the hard-line Islamist group. There are unprecedented differences within the Taliban leadership, says Michael Semple, a former European Union and United Nations adviser in Afghanistan. Experts say the Taliban, made up predominately of Pashtuns, is divided along ethnic, regional, and tribal lines. There are also differences among the militant over policy, they say. There is believed to be growing competition between the Haqqani network -- a Taliban faction based in the east -- and a faction of Taliban co-founders in the south of the country. There is also a smaller and less powerful faction of ethnic Tajik and Uzbek Taliban commanders who are based in northern Afghanistan. There have also been rifts between the Taliban's relatively pragmatic political figures, hard-line field commanders, and radical clerics who are bent on implementing their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. "The differences in matters of policy and moderation are really secondary," says Semple, a professor at Queens University Belfast. The more serious differences are squabbles over the division of powers and privilege. These are the real divisions that the Taliban worry about. But Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator who has tracked the Taliban since its emergence in the 1990s, says most of the rifts within the Taliban are merely differences of opinion and do not amount to factional infighting. The Taliban are very serious about their unity and cohesion, he said. If someone works or talks against their policies, they are isolated, pushed out, and even killed. Yousafzai cites the examples of former Taliban ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef, ex-foreign minister Abdul Wakeel Muttawakil, and moderate Taliban leader Agha Jan Motassim, all of whom were demoted for showing dissent. Meanwhile, Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, who formed a splinter group in 2015, was killed in a suicide bombing last year. The Taliban are a complete dictatorship, and everyone within its ranks must accept this fact, said Yousafzai. Ruling With A Baton Last week, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, publicly criticized the Taliban leadership for banning girls from attending secondary school. We must aim for winning the hearts of our people rather than ruling over them with batons, Stanikzai, the former head of the Talibans political office in the Gulf state of Qatar, said in a televised speech on May 22. Semple says political figures like Stanikzai who support ties with the West and the inclusion of non-Taliban political figures in the government do not have guns and dont command the loyalty of fighters. Since returning to power, the Taliban has imposed a series of restrictions on women, including on their appearance, access to work and education, and freedom of movement. The rules are reminiscent of the Talibans first stint in power in the 1990s, when the militant Islamists deprived women of their most basic rights. In March, the Taliban dramatically backtracked on its pledge to reopen high schools for girls. It came after repeated promises to allow all girls access to education, a key demand from the international community for any future recognition of the Taliban-led government. Observers said the policy reversal reflected rifts in the Taliban leadership. The U-turn was made by Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has the final say under the clerically led system. Akhundzada likely opted to appease ultraconservatives within the Taliban, experts said. Talib On Talib Violence Ibraheem Bahiss, an Afghanistan expert, says it is unusual for Taliban officials to publicly oppose the policies of the spiritual leader. The public opposition [from Taliban officials] to recent government decisions could be partly a way to figure out how to navigate intra-movement differences and influence policies," he said. Bahiss says the Taliban is divided into two camps. He says one believes that restrictive decrees will make international recognition and sanctions removal harder to achieve. The other, he says, believes that compromises will not lead to better ties with the West and the group should instead focus on bolstering its Islamist credentials and consolidate its control. The Taliban appear divided in reemploying policies similar to their emirate of the 1990s or treading a new path still in line with their ideology, he said. But Semple says the infighting within the Taliban has moved beyond bickering over policies. He says he has documented regular cases of Talib on Talib" violence in Afghanistan. Any idea that they are so united that they could never fight against each other is complete nonsense, he said. Price: Range from free on June 7 and for the children's orchestra concert at 11:00 a.m. on June 16 to $30 for festival orchestra concert tickets, $35 for festival artist concert tickets: (719) 389-6552, https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/summermusicfestival/attend-concerts/tickets.html Where: Packard Hall, 5 W. Cache La Poudre St., Tava Quad, next to Armstrong Hall, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Hillside Community Center, 925 S. Institute St., Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N Cascade Ave. When: Sunday through June 24 Schedule PH: Packard Hall, 5 W. Cache La Poudre St. TQ: Tava Quad, next to Armstrong Hall, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St. HCC: Hillside Community Center, 925 S. Institute St. CAC: Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N Cascade Ave. Tuesday: An evening of song in honor of Peggy Shivers, featuring Brian Major, Baritone, 7:30 p.m., PH Thursday: Festival artists concert, works by Vaclav Nelhybel, David Sampson, Valerie Coleman, Antonin Dvorak, 7:30 p.m., PH Saturday: Outdoor festival orchestra concert with the Pink Hawks, works by Aaron Copland, Gua Wenjing, W.A. Mozart, Igor Stravinsky, 7:00 p.m., TQ June 12: Festival artists concert, works by Franz Schubert, Heinrich con Herzogenberg, Andre Jolivet, James Stephenson, Johannes Brahms, 2:30 p.m., PH June 14: Outreach concert, works by Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch, Igor Stravinsky, 1 p.m., HCC. June 14: Festival orchestra concert, works by Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch, Igor Stravinsky, 7:30 p.m., Celeste Theatre, CAC June 16: Children's concert: "Carnival of the Animals" with Ormao Dance Company, 11 a.m., Celeste Theatre, CAC. June 16: Pre-concert recital and festival artists concert, works by Steven Christopher Sacco, Georg Philipp Telemann, Richard Wagner (arranged by Max Reger), Claude Debussy, Joaquin Turina, George Tsontakis, 6:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., PH June 18: Concerto readings, 2 p.m., Celeste Theatre, CAC June 20: Festival artists concert, works by Kenji Bunch, Ben Robichaux, James Stephenson, Louise Farrenc, 7:30 p.m., PH June 23: Pre-concert recital and festival artists concert, works by Peter Gane, Susan Cahill, Duke Ellington (arranged by Novacek), Heinrich Sutermeister, Amy Beach, Nino Rota, Cesar Franck, 6:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., PH June 24: Festival orchestra concert, works by W.A. Mozart, Bela Bartok, Antonin Dvorak, 7:30 p.m., Celeste Theatre, CAC June 13, 15, 17: Music at midday concert with festival fellows, 12:15 p.m., PH June 20, 22, 23, 24: Music at midday concert with festival fellows, 12:15 p.m., PH By Trend US President Joe Biden's congratulatory letter addressed to Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries is another display of attention to Azerbaijan and its president, as well as an indicator of the country's authority in the region, Azerbaijani MP Azer Badamov told Trend. According to Badamov, in the letter, the US president, highly appreciating the work done by Azerbaijan in the energy sector, noted that the country plays a big role in the energy security of Europe. "The US president, in his congratulatory letter on the occasion of Azerbaijans Independence Day, also noted the high appreciation of cooperation with the country and expressed support for the new reality created in the region," he said. The US supported the implementation of Azerbaijan's oil strategy from the very beginning. Since then, the oil and gas export routes established by us to carry out oil and gas exports have become more important today. At a time when, following the introduction of Western sanctions, steps were taken to refuse Russian oil and gas, Azerbaijan's oil and gas resources have acquired big importance," the MP noted. He also noted that the US president in his letter touched upon the role of Azerbaijan in realizing the huge potential of the Trans-Caspian cooperation in terms of stabilizing regional and global markets. "Azerbaijan, using its geography very effectively, has launched transit routes for international transportation. Geopolitical events in Europe make it important to revise the map of routes along which international transportation is carried out, Badamov pointed out. North-South and West-East transit transport routes, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Baku International Trade Port and the Southern Gas Corridor have made international transportation more secure and profitable. In general, all projects in which Azerbaijan participates play a big role not only for the country but also in stabilizing the world economy. The US president also highly appreciated the attraction of investments to Azerbaijan to create alternative energy sources, the MP further said. By developing the alternative energy sector, Azerbaijan has joined the global challenges against global climate change. The congratulatory letters of the US president testify to his support of our state policy," added Badamov. A Trump administration decision to uproot U.S. Space Command and move it to Alabama lacked credibility and transparency, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released Thursday. The GAO findings confirm what congressional insiders whod gotten an early look at the report told The Gazette in April as well as exclusive reporting by the newspaper last year about the fundamentally flawed process behind the surprise announcement, on Jan. 13, 2021, awarding the permanent headquarters of Space Command to Huntsville, Ala., rather than its longtime provisional home of Peterson Space Force Base, in Colorado Springs. The report found significant shortfalls in the transparency and credibility of the process leading up to that decision, which former-President Donald Trump later boasted had been made by him alone. We reviewed the Air Force's process for identifying the preferred location for U.S. Space Command headquarters (and) assessed the process against 21 'Analysis of Alternatives' best practices, which can help increase transparency and avoid the presence or appearance of bias, according to a summary of the report from the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. Those best practices of a high-quality analysis were organized into four groups based on characteristics: Was the analysis comprehensive, well-documented, unbiased, and credible? The Huntsville decision received an overall failing grade. "We found that the Air Force's process did not substantially meet 3 of these 4 characteristics leading to significant shortfalls in its transparency and credibility," said the GAO, which went on to recommend "establishing guidance that incorporates our best practices." Colorado lawmakers and leaders immediately responded, calling for a new basing evaluation or an about-face from the nations highest office, if they can get it. Because thats what it will take. The GAO report today confirmed what we have stated throughout that the process that recommended moving Space Command out of Colorado Springs was vastly flawed," Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said in an email to The Gazette. "Citing 'shortfalls in transparency and credibility,' the report specifically gave low scores in three of the four assessment categories covering documentation, credibility, and bias. Its difficult to imagine a more condemnatory characterization of the process." The investigation is one of two federal probes in recent weeks to document serious deficiencies in the process that resulted in the command's planned move to Huntsvilles Redstone Arsenal. A report from the Department of Defenses inspector general, released last month, focused more on the timeline that led up to the basing decision. While that review found the Huntsville decision was justified based on the criteria defined by the Air Force, it also found the White House dismissed recommendations from top Pentagon brass, who argued that leaving Space Command at Peterson Space Force Base would allow it to more quickly reach full operational capability to defend the military's constellation of satellites, while saving taxpayer cash. Over the past year, weve repeatedly raised concerns that the previous administration used a flawed, untested, and inconsistent process to select a location for U.S. Space Command. The reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Defense Inspector General both confirm that the basing process lacked integrity and neglected key national security considerations," read a Thursday morning statement from Colorado lawmakers Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Jason Crow. We now know that in a White House meeting in January 2021, senior military leadership recommended Colorado Springs as the preferred location for Space Command due to the unique ability of Peterson Space Force Base to reach Full Operational Capability significantly faster than any other potential location, and at a significantly lower cost. However, following this meeting a different location was announced as the selection, and justified with inconsistent documentation and unclear reasoning." Members of the Colorado delegation urged the Biden administration to reconsider keeping Space Command in Colorado Springs. With the investigations now complete, the shortcomings of the Space Command basing process are fully available to the Biden Administration. We urge them to review the reports findings, and make a decision in consultation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that prioritizes our national security and mission in space," they said. The American people must be able to trust that this decision is objective and provides for our national security and leadership in space. Peterson remains the only and best home for U.S. Space Command. While documenting missteps, the reports from the Office of Inspector General and the GAO didn't outright call for reversal of the Alabama move. But the conclusions from each add ammunition for a congressional fight over where the command should be housed, and increase pressure on the Biden administration to reconsider the decision. "I think it's very clear the Biden administration has all the information it needs to reverse this decision, Suthers said, during a press conference downtown Thursday afternoon. He said the conclusion of the GAO report was what he expected, and it was more revealing than the report released by the Department of Defense's inspector general. "The Government Accountability Office report that came out today has a different emphasis" than the DoD inspector general report, Suthers said. "This was much more a critique of the Air Force process" recommending moving Space Command from Colorado Springs "than it was a determination of whether they followed their own process." "The two reports together certainly give all the ammunition thats needed for a decision to step away from a decision that was made by the Trump administration basically a week before he left office a decision which, by the way, he has consistently taken single-handed credit for in his visits to Alabama," Suthers said. Suthers said most importantly no money has been spent yet to support Space Command's move to Huntsville. "There's two aspects to this," he said. "The executive branch makes the decision. The legislative branch funds the decision. As of this point in time ... no money has been expended in support of move to Huntsville, and I think that's important to note. It's not like we've flushed any money into that process. From a cost-saving perspective, leaving (Space Command in Colorado Springs) is clearly the right path." Speaking with the Gazette Thursday afternoon, Rep. Doug Lamborn said the GAO and OIG reports together make a solid case for the bi-partisan coalition pushing for a redo. They seemed to move the goal post during the process, as to how important they considered certain factors to be, said the Colorado Springs Republican, the top GOP representative on a House subcommittee that oversees military space operations. "This gave some more ammunition to our side. The Huntsville people can cherry pick and find things that would favor their preferred outcome, but I would contend that those are more minor issues. While some of the criteria that landed Huntsville on top have merit, those factors are not considered in context, or in a properly-weighted system, Lamborn said. Some of it is structural. Its a lower cost of housing and construction than in Colorado. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to uncover that, said Lamborn, who requested the GAO report last year. But the most critical factors to me point to Colorado Springs. At the top of that list is Full Operational Capability. We reach that faster in Colorado Springs than anywhere else, including Huntsville." And given how serious the threats are, we cant afford to spin our wheels for two or three years waiting, he said. The IG report concluded that basically under these criteria they did an adequate job despite going against top military advice but the GAO asked the question, What if the criteria were flawed? Whats clear now is that it was, he said. We think we need to redo the whole process, or at least convince the Biden administration to make an independent decision to reverse the decision, he said. Those who have influence with the Biden administration, those on the other side of the aisle, need to urge them to overturn the decision. Lamborn said hes also working to try to intervene legislatively, and hopes there may be an opportunity for that at an upcoming National Defense Authorization Act budget meeting on Capitol Hill. Potentially we might have an opening to offer language that would cause us to revisit the decision, he said. Its important that we have (bipartisan) legislative support in both the House and Senate to get that over the finish line. We dont want to do it if its not going to be a success. Gazette reporter Breeanna Jent contributed to this story. Carlos Diaz, who is accused of killing four people over an ongoing drug dispute in April, had the filing of his charges pushed back two weeks. The prosecution on Wednesday asked Judge Chad Miller of the 4th Judicial District Court for additional time to determine the charges to file against Diaz in the April killings. Diaz, 21, is currently in El Paso County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder in the killings of Joseph Moore on April 22 in El Paso County and an unidentified male at a car wash in Colorado Springs on April 25. Diaz also has a warrant out for his arrest in Pueblo County on suspicion of first-degree murder in the killings of Manuel Zegarelli and Veth Finnell-Vigil on April 25, according to court documents. An affidavit acquired by The Gazette details that Diaz allegedly shot and killed all four men over theft and drug-related disputes. The affidavit states that Diaz himself confessed to all four killings, but claims to have done so in part because he had been, or was going to be, sexually assaulted by two of the men. Judge Miller gave the prosecution two weeks to prepare, and scheduled a date of June 15 for filing of charges. Miller noted that in addition to the filing of charges, the court will discuss a preliminary hearing date. GOLDEN The Colorado State Patrol has already seized more fentanyl pills in 2022 than it did in all of 2021, state officials said Wednesday, and fatal overdoses linked to the drug are expected to increase again this year. Five months into 2022, more than 2.08 million pills containing fentanyl have been seized by the patrol this year, compared to 1.66 million in 2021, Col. Matthew Packard told reporters. Keith Weis, who runs the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, called the recent increase "really staggering." "Concurrently, it's also expected that the numbers of fatal drug overdoses related to fentanyl will climb well beyond the numbers reported by (state health authorities) in 2021," he said during a news conference that also featured the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver and the FBI. Fatal overdoses in Colorado tied to fentanyl steadily rose for several years before exploding in 2020, which officials have attributed to the pandemic and to a shifting, increasingly unstable drug supply from Mexican drug cartels. They reached their highest point, in Colorado and nationwide, in 2021 907 Coloradans fatally overdosed after ingesting fentanyl last year, a 66% increase from 2020 and quadruple the total from 2019. Officials from law enforcement and from organizations that work directly with drug users, say fentanyl pills are widely and cheaply available. They've largely replaced heroin as the primary opioid on the illicit market, and fentanyl powder is increasingly found mixed into other drugs, like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine often without the user's knowledge. Law enforcement officials have noticed the ever-growing amount of seizures for months. David Olesky, with the Denver office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in late February that in years past, if the agency "had a (seizure) of 100 of these pills or even a 1,000, it was celebratory event, because it was so rare." At that point, more than 800,000 pills had been seized in Colorado between Oct. 1 and late February, he said. Law enforcement officials know they're not catching all of the pills, as evidenced by the growing number of seizures and growing number of overdoses. But just how many is unclear, officials said Wednesday. "It's a drop in the bucket," Packard said of the number of pills seized. "It's not fun to say, but that's the god's honest truth." Debate on how to address the crisis dominated this year's legislative session, with lawmakers passing a bill at the eleventh hour last month. Part of that bill, which Gov. Jared Polis has signed into law, is increasing penalties for people who distribute a substance containing fentanyl that led to someone's death. That hadn't existed in state law before, but federal authorities have the ability to charge dealers with causing a death. U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan told reporters that his office achieved its first death-resulting-in conviction last year. Another 14 people have been indicted since then on a similar charge relating to fentanyl. He said his office is prioritizing fentanyl cases; 50 indictments were handed down in 2021 alone, more than any other year. A former Colorado Springs man has been arrested in an investigation of sexual assault on a child, according to police. Carlton Ranquist, 63, was arrested in April in Maine on two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and two counts of sexual exploitation of children, police said. Ranquist has been extradited to Colorado Springs and is being held at the El Paso County jail. He is scheduled to appear in El Paso County Court on June 24. Police said the CPSD Crimes Against Children Unit has identified two juvenile victims. An investigation began last July after a report was made about sexual assault on a child between 2015 and 2017, police said. Another victim between 2008 and 2010 was identified during the investigation. Ranquist was a longtime resident of Colorado Springs before moving to Maine in 2020, according to public records. Police said Ranquist volunteered as a Bible study teacher in 2013 at Colorado Springs Central Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Springs detectives are asking anyone with information on unreported incidents involving the suspect to call 719-444-7000. Two people are dead after being caught in a coal pile landslide Thursday at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo. The victims, who are employees of subcontractor Savage Systems, were about 25-30 feet up on an 80-foot-tall coal pile when the surface below them gave way, said Pueblo Fire Department PIO Erik Duran. Duran said the two men, one his 20s, the other in his 30s were fully exhumed around 4:30 p.m. Officials found the victim around 3 p.m. and the second shortly there after. Duran said medical personnel on scene determine that resuscitation efforts would not be viable, effectively saying they were dead on scene. Duran described the coal pile as "very unstable." He added that he did not know what caused the landslide but that such information would come from Savage. A Flight for Life helicopter and ambulances were standing by. Duran said that the sheer weight of the landslide and the possibility of suffocation are the biggest dangers to the victims. According to the Pueblo Fire Department, the city received a 911 call at about 8:40 a.m. Thursday about multiple people being trapped following a landslide. Technical rescue teams were dispatched, Gazette news partner KKTV reports. Click or tap here for livestream video from KKTV. Return to gazette.com for updates on this developing story. Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country Sign Up View all of our newsletters. By Azernews By Orkhan Amashov Nine days after the Brussels-mediated meeting that took place on 22 May, the EU issued another statement, this time by Barend Leyts, Spokesperson of European Council President Charles Michel, reaffirming commitment to the Azerbaijani-Armenian peace process. Far from being a routine written communication penned for the sake of duty-bound formality, the document issued on 31 May seems to have been designed to serve a specific purpose, which could be properly understood against the backdrop of the past week's tensions between Baku and Yerevan. In addition to reinforcing the EUs increasingly pivotal role, using the conciliatory tone befitting a peacemaker, it clarifies some of the points in the European Council Presidents original post-meeting statement, placing a particularly subtle emphasis on some of the issues that have assumed heightened importance in the context of the internal volatility permeating Armenia. The third trilateral meeting mediated by Charles Michel was a profoundly plausible development within the peace negotiations for myriad reasons, amongst which the most critical was reinforcing the slackened momentum, providing a sufficient degree of clarity as to the interstate normalisation agenda. The immediate impact of the 22 May convocation was a long overdue meeting of the border commissions. To this effect, the 31 May statement refers to the paramount importance of ensuring stability and security along the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as delimitation will be pursued. The rest of the statement seems to be replete with subtle formulations aimed at a certain degree of perceived inclusivity and pervasiveness. It states that in order for a lasting and equitable peace to be attained all outstanding issues at hand, including those pertinent to discussions on the future peace treaty and those addressing the root causes of the conflict must be addressed. It specifies that both the factors leading to the First Karabakh War (referred to as the First Nagorno-Karabakh War) and that the renewed hostilities in 2020 are to be looked at by all stakeholders. If one is tasked to consider all sound probabilities and ascertain the reasonable scope of "interpretational meaning" emanating from the language employed, it is obligatory to adopt an approach inclusive of a wide range of theoretical eventualities. Such an observer cannot help but discern that the document in question avoids terms or nomenclatures that Baku would have found unacceptable, but there are undercurrents expressed via seemingly innocuous expressions, which on close inspection may give rise to some degree of pervasiveness, from which the Armenian side might taken have ill-conceived solace. It has not been lost on an incisive observer that, with some stretching of the imagination, the point on addressing the root causes of the original conflict might entail the resurrection of archaic issues, and the concept of all stakeholders is not exactly unambiguous. On a different note, the statement emphasises the importance of terminology. It is specifically mentioned that the post-meeting statement should not be interpreted as favouring a pre-determined outcome of discussions either way and all matters, including the rights and security of all populations must be addressed. This is a clear allusion to the ethnic Armenian population of Karabakh expression used and its implications in the context of the negotiations. In the context of connectivity, the statement clarifies that no extraterritorial claims with regard to future transport infrastructure exist and any speculation to the contrary is regrettable. Here, the focus is undoubtedly on Bakus Zangazur Corridor project, and the aim is to judiciously soothe Armenias sovereignty concerns. The regime that will govern the future passage remains a point of disputation. There is no question of any territorial claim expressed by Baku in relation to the "corridor", but some of the terms propounded seem to have caused exceeding perturbation for the Armenian side. The statement specifically refers to the need to "prepare populations for peace" and the paramount role that public rhetoric plays in this regard, welcoming the leadership demonstrated by both Baku and Yerevan. Neil Watson, a British journalist who has written on the region extensively over the past decade, believes that the statement is carefully worded and notably even-handed, yet it enhances the key purpose of achieving the normalisation of the relations and striking a peace deal. When it comes to the point on placating Armenian concerns, the view tentatively maintained by the author of this article, Watson begs to differ, and seems to be of the opinion that the pivotal thing is not to fall into the trap of over-thinking perceived subtleties and ascribing disproportionately large importance to these at the expense of far more consequential considerations. What is clear, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that the EUs importance has significantly increased over the past couple of months and Brussels is increasingly conscious of the criticality of cultivating an image of a trustworthy and fair honest broker. As the statement suggests, Tovi Klaar, the EUs Special Representative for the South Caucasus, will visit both countries soon to follow up on the progress. At this historic juncture, Brussels appears to be uniquely primed to play a historic role in helping the parties towards striking a monumental peace treaty. The crucial aspect is to ensure that the wheels are continuously in motion. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and current chair of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), gives a news conference on the sidelines during the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., September 23, 2019. REUTERS/Yana Paskova/Files Fountain police on Wednesday arrested a man after receiving reports of a bomb threat outside a Walmart, according to a news release from the d Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits a place of a fight with Russian troops during Russia's invasion to Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli Azerbaijan's historic victory in the 44-day second Karabakh war has inspired the whole Turkic world, Rector of ADA University Hafiz Pashayev has said. He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 7th International Congress of Social Sciences (INCSOS) at ADA University. Describing the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from Armenian occupation as a special page in the countrys history, he informed that congress participants will visit Azerbaijans Shusha city and see the consequences of Armenian vandalism, as well as also get acquainted with the construction and restoration work underway there. He also spoke about the importance of holding this congress. I believe that there will be many interesting and productive discussions, and new ties will be established. More than 520 guests arrived at the Congress, and more than 1,000 scientists sent their scientific research. This Congress will strengthen our academic ties and enhance cooperation between universities," Pashayev added. In turn, Parliaments Chairperson Sahiba Gafarova noted the great importance of the dedication of the congress to Azerbaijans Karabakh region. Its very important to inform the academic circles about the realities pertaining to Karabakh, as well as reflect them in the scientific literature and pass them to future generations, Gafarova said. She emphasized that another important goal of the congress is to consider the political, historical, sociological, and cultural foundations, prospects for the development of relations between fraternal countries, as well as the development of new ideas and initiatives which will contribute to this process. She added that the mentioned issues have been reflected in the topics of the congress meetings. Moreover, it was pointed out that the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from Armenian occupation and the consequent processes showed that Azerbaijani-Turkish unity and solidarity are the main factors ensuring peace, security, cooperation, and prosperity in the region. She added that they meet the interests of all countries, including the fraternal Turkic states. "Ensuring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has created new opportunities for strengthening the unity of the Turkic world," Gafarova noted. Meanwhile, Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Sentop noted that the ongoing congress will also be useful in terms of bringing the Karabakh realities to the attention of the world community. "Our desire is for the international community to hear the fair voice of Azerbaijan," Sentop said. Further, the speaker noted that Turkey wishes for the even greater strengthening of the Turkish-Azerbaijani unity. He added that Turkish officials traditionally make their first visits to Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani officials - to Turkey. Talking about the destructions in Karabakh, the speaker noted that they show what enemies of culture and nature the Armenians are. He noted that the consequences of almost 30 years of the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands, the Khojaly genocide, and other crimes committed during the period of occupation should be assessed by scientific sociologists. "I visited these territories. Sociologists will also visit these territories and see it all with their own eyes," Sentop emphasized. Speaker of Turkey's Grand National Assembly Mustafa Sentop, Speaker of Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Majlis) Sahiba Gafarova, rectors of many universities, and other representatives of the education sector participated in the event. The event is jointly organized by the Azerbaijani Parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and the International Balkan University. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks after the House of Representatives passed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 27, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts A Colorado woman has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Colorado Springs and five Colorado Spring police officers for brutal and unconstitutional assault and an unlawful arrest, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Gazette. Tara Hadam a former resident of Colorado Springs attended a Black Lives Matter protest on South Nevada Avenue on June 2, 2020, to demonstrate against police violence after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis late May that year. According to the lawsuit, Hadam was sprayed in the face with noxious chemicals and arrested on false charges by Christopher Pryor, Dale Peterson, Blake Evenson, David Brockman and Jason Reeser of the Colorado Springs Police Department. In the lawsuit filed by Frank Law Office LLC, attorneys Adam Frank and Cameron Bedard claim that police did not have a warrant authorizing the arrest, nor did they have probable cause that a crime was committed. Hadam was charged with disobedience of public safety orders under riot conditions and obstructing a peace officer, according to Frank. She was acquitted by a jury on Sept. 28, 2021. Hadam filed a complaint in December 2021, but nothing came of it. "Based on documents obtained by Ms. Hadam in response to open records requests, Ms. Hadam learned that CSPD chose not to even initiate an investigation of her complaint," the lawsuit said. Evidence in the lawsuit allegedly shows Hadam protesting peacefully and exercising freedom of speech at the time of her arrest. The news footage shows Ms. Hadam doing nothing but standing still, holding her hands in the air, and occasionally unsuccessfully trying to wipe the chemical spray out of her eyes, the lawsuit said. Hadam was allegedly sprayed in the face four times with oleoresin capsicum spray, commonly known as pepper spray, while she faced officers with her arms in the air. Officers allegedly arrested Hadam by surrounding her in a bearhug, lifting her off the ground and placing her in handcuffs. After being restrained, she was allegedly sprayed a fifth time at point-blank range with MK-9 crowd control fogger, intended for controlling large crowds, the lawsuit said. "She was peaceful, she was doing nothing wrong and the polices response was emblematic of the significant police brutality problem that the Colorado Springs Police Department has, Frank said in an interview with The Gazette. The lawsuit also claims that Colorado Springs is liable for the officers actions during the protest. This is not the first time Colorado Springs police has faced scrutiny over their response to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Another woman protesting on the same day as Hadam was awarded a $175,000 settlement from the city of Colorado Springs in February after she filed an excessive force lawsuit. Celia Palmer sued the city, Sgt. Keith Wrede and another officer, Wesley Woodworth, after the officers allegedly "ambushed" Palmer and her friend, "tackling both of them," then "slammed" Palmer to the ground. A jury trial has been requested in federal court for Hasam's lawsuit. The defendants have 60 days to respond. "The Colorado Springs Police Department is unable to speak about matters under litigation," Sgt. Jason Newton of the police department said in an email. "In the end, we want the facts to be able to speak for themselves and justice to prevail." The Gazette reached out to the city of Colorado Springs for comment but has not received a response. United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Cole Finegan answers questions about the significant increase of recent fentanyl seizures and overdoses seen by law enforcement during a press conference on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at the Colorado State Patrol Academy gymnasium in Golden. A man who spent nearly three decades behind bars before ultimately being acquitted of the charges may not sue the Denver prosecutors and law enforcement officials whose missteps contributed to his wrongful incarceration, the federal appeals court based in Colorado ruled on Tuesday. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov As part of the Efes-2022 international drills in Turkiye, the Azerbaijani personnel completed the following stage's tasks, Azernews reports, citing the Defence Ministry. The participants successfully completed the duties of discovering and destroying an explosive device hidden in a car by a theoretical terrorist detachment and inflicting air strikes on fictitious enemy installations, in line with the drills plan, the ministry reported on June 2. It added that the missions of marines approaching the shoreline and taking the high ground, as well as performing search-and-rescue operations and evacuating the injured, were also fulfilled. The servicemen in the drills successfully completed actions such as rescuing a seized ship and disembarking naval special troops from helicopter to ship. The multinational drills, where Azerbaijan is being represented by the personnel of the Separate Combined-Arms Army of Nakhchivan and the Naval Forces, will last until June 9. The Efes-2022 multinational exercises are being held in four stages. Meanwhile, activities aimed at enhancing the level of military personnel training and combat capabilities of Azerbaijan Army units continue in line with the instruction of high command. Under the annual training plan, a ceremony was organized to award certificates and berets to personnel who successfully finished the Commando Training Courses, the ministry said in a separate report. A minute of silence was observed at the event to commemorate Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, and Shehids (Martyrs) who lost their lives for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. The national anthem of the country was performed. The value of the Commando Training Courses based on Turkish Armed Forces experience was stressed at the graduation ceremony. The speakers emphasized the importance of such courses in raising the professional level of military personnel and wished the soldiers well in their future military duties. Following the presentation of certificates and berets to the servicemen, who successfully finished the training, the military personnel marched solemnly in front of the podium. The first commando military unit was inaugurated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on December 24, 2021, during a visit to the liberated Khojavand region's Hadrut settlement. Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan will create many commando brigades across the country. President Aliyev described the creation of the commando brigade unit in Hadrut as a significant event of strategic importance. Experts described the creation of commando brigades in Azerbaijan as a new stage in the national army building. It was also assessed as a clear message for supporters of revanchist ideas in Armenia. Compared with 2018 and 2019 pre-pandemic years the numbers have dipped slightly under a reservation system aimed at crowd control. Still, Rocky Mountain National Park remains one of Americas busiest national parks, with 4.4 million visitors counted in 2021. The trend is similar at Colorados other three national parks. Also before the pandemic, Black Canyon of the Gunnison showed signs of mass discovery in its remote place on the Western Slope, surpassing 400,000 visits for the first time. The Great Sand Dunes cracked 600,000 last year for the first time in its almost 90-year recorded history. And in the states southwest corner, Mesa Verde continued a pattern of 500,000-plus in 2021. The point: Its increasingly hard to find the wild sides of the states premier nature treasures. For the most adventurous, we offer these tips: Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve You wont be alone at the campgrounds. But they are no less a splendid place to drink in the celestial show that graces the sky over this otherworldly land. The sky is a designated International Dark Sky, for the Milky Way and galaxies that glimmer bright above. For a greater chance at solitude, you can secure a backcountry camping permit and venture into the swooping, soaring dune field, letting the moon and stars be your light as you go. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park The most popular way to experience this vertical realm is from above, from a vehicle along South Rim Drive. Perhaps the most memorable way: plunging straight into the canyons perilous depths. From South Rim, there are three standard routes: Gunnison (most traveled), Tomichi (most technical) and Warner (longest). Youll need a permit for all and, of course, a load of physical and mental might. Mesa Verde National Park Theres a complex story of how the government acquired this amazing set of Indigenous cliff dwellings. On the other side is perhaps an even more impressive set across 125,000 acres, double the size of the national park. No, this is not Mesa Verde. This is Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park, owned and managed by the tribe and limited to outsiders who book in advance and explore with a guide. Its different for how rugged and untouched it is. Rocky Mountain National Park The parks highest point is no hike, rangers warn. The 14,255-foot Longs Peak requires climbing skills, fitness, and mental and emotional fortitude. The faint of heart wont fare well on the Keyhole route, so named for the narrow passage awaiting along a sheer, craggy face. Thats only one harrowing moment of a journey which includes stretches called Trough, Narrows and Homestretch covering 15 miles with 5,100 feet of elevation gain. Related: By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli The celebration in Baku of Queen Elizabeth's 70th anniversary on the throne testifies to the friendly relations between Azerbaijan and the UK, Azernews reports, citing British Ambassador to Azerbaijan James Sharp said. Noting that 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ambassador pointed out the symbolism of the coincidence of these two dates. Further, Sharp noted that the presentation of a Karabakh horse to Queen Elizabeth II as a gift on behalf of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also proves the warm relations between Azerbaijan and the UK. The ambassador added that the Karabakh horses stunned the audience at the recent London Olympia International Horse Show. A reminder that Queen Elizabeth II was presented with a gift from President Ilham Aliyev - a Karabakh horse Glory. The horse presented to the Queen was brought to Windsor Castle and handed over to the new owner with a certificate containing all the information. Notably, among the special gifts presented to Her Majesty Elizabeth II in 1956, was the Karabakh horse Zaman. The gift was presented by Nikita Khrushchev but this horse was not shown at the Windsor Castle. Azerbaijan and the UK are cooperating in different spheres of the economy. There are already 30 years of successful cooperation between the two countries in the oil and gas sector, which entered a new stage of development in line with the challenges of the global energy sector. The energy sector accounts for $28.8 billion out of $30.6 billion of the UK investments in Azerbaijan's economy. The UK is also the biggest investor in Azerbaijan. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $667.8 in 2021. Of the total turnover, Azerbaijani exports to the UK amounted to $396.6 million while import was $271.1 million. The UK contributed over AZN 1 million (500,000) to Azerbaijans recovery efforts and demining activities in its liberated lands, the UK embassy reported earlier. awarded $1 million to professors involved with digital humanities research, and last year the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $2 million on Last summer Googledigital projects.A. awarded $1 million to professors involved with digital humanities research, and last year the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $2 million onB. awarded $1 million for professors involved in digital humanities research, and last year the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $2 million forC. had awarded $1 million to professors involved with digital humanities research, and last year the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $2 million onD. awarded $1 million to professors involved with digital humanities research, but last year the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $2 million forE. awarded $1 million to professors involved with digital humanities research, whereas last year the National Endowment for the Humanities was spending $2 million on_________________ A lawsuit alleging that Graham police and Alamance County sheriffs deputies engaged in voter suppression by dispersing a 2020 march to the polls with pepper spray appears close to a final settlement. With the help of a mediator, 19 plaintiffs struck a deal with law enforcement officials that would pay each plaintiff about $17,700 and oblige Grahams police chief to meet with them, court documents show. The plaintiffs, including four children, agreed not to litigate Grahams much-disputed protest ordinance for six months. Though the lawsuit is nearly resolved, the debate about what really happened that day, and who is at fault, most certainly is not. The parties disagree on nearly all of the key facts, states the settlement agreement submitted to the court for approval. Graham, a bedroom community for the Triangle and the Triad, was one of the most active Black Lives Matter protest sites in the country in 2020. After a federal judge found that summer that local restrictions on demonstrations were likely unconstitutional, people gathered downtown almost daily to protest racism, police violence and the Confederate monument that still sits outside the towns historic courthouse. Law enforcement officers and counter-protesters who said they were protecting the monument and backing up officers often showed up too. On Oct. 31, 2020, the Rev. Greg Drumwright led the I Am Change March to the Polls. Roughly 200 people walked from an African Methodist Episcopal church to a rally under the Confederate monument in Court Square. The groups final destination was supposed to be the polling place a block away, but police dispersed the crowd with pepper spray before the trips final leg. The law enforcement agencies said that marchers did not obey their orders to clear the road and that organizers brought a prohibited gas-powered generator onto courthouse grounds, which was a hazard. A deputy who was part of a team sent to seize the generator was injured in the ensuing scuffle. Toddlers and people in their 80s were among those affected by the chemical irritant. A video clip of a disabled woman seizing violently as she struggled to breathe put Graham in the national media spotlight. Experts on policing demonstrations told The News & Observer at the time that the the use of pepper spray flies in the face of best practices. Two federal civil rights lawsuits were filed within days of the event. One case, involving the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was settled last year. Drumwright, an Alamance County native now based in Greensboro, is the lead plaintiff in the case approaching resolution. He and the other plaintiffs were represented by attorneys with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the ACLU of North Carolina, the global law firm Mayer Brown and Keith & Associates, based in Greensboro. The settlement agreement followed a magistrate judges order subjecting plaintiffs to deposition questioning as long as nine hours and forcing them to pay a portion of the cost. The final terms as they apply to child plaintiffs must be approved by a judge. A hearing has been set for June 14 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Though the lawsuit originally sought systemic changes, a ban on the use of pepper spray against peaceful protesters included, the agreement does not require the Graham Police Department or the Alamance County Sheriffs Office to alter any policies or practices. For that reason, Drumwright called the deal bittersweet. We understand now what the law, through this case, will and will not allow for, Drumwright said in an interview with The News & Observer. We had to put much of what we wanted to achieve through this case on the back burner, having that understanding. He said the agreement left him unsettled because people questioning police actions continue to be arrested in Graham. In April, officers arrested three people and detained a juvenile after a group approached police to record a traffic stop. Meanwhile, criminal cases against march participants continue to make their way to the courts. Drumwright said he hopes the federal government will investigate the local patterns and practices that he believes discriminate against Black people. The Alamance County Sheriffs Office was previously investigated for its treatment of Latinos; that case ended in settlement in 2016. Tony Biller, an attorney for Graham, said the police department has voluntarily made changes since the march to the polls, including adding quarterly de-escalation training for officers. Police Chief (Kristy) Cole was newly installed at the time the lawsuit was filed, Biller wrote in an email. She was already committed to and has engaged in several efforts to improve Grahams community policing and communications. An attorney for Alamance County declined to comment on the case before a judge approved the final terms. All video recorded by law enforcement during the march has yet to be released. Last summer, a Superior Court judge ordered the agencies to give the video to a coalition of news organizations, but Graham appealed. Oral arguments in front of a panel of judges with the N.C. Court of Appeals is scheduled for June 7. Sound of Judgment, an investigation and documentary published last year by The News & Observer and ProPublica, plumbs the history of the areas ongoing unrest. Within the confines of the outer fence at Montana State Prison, the staffing shortage has touched all corners of the facility from education to security. Warden Jim Salmonsen has made no secret of the thinning workforce. At a legislative interim committee meeting in January, he told lawmakers the prison is "never fully staffed in a shift," and that the facility was operating on a 20% vacancy rate. During a media tour of the prison on Wednesday, Salmonsen, who has worked at the prison 33 years and held the warden's office since late 2020, said that number may have crept higher in the time since. "We've had a staffing issue for 10 years, but nothing to this magnitude," he told reporters in the Secure Adjustment Unit on the high-security side of the prison. Montana had one of the nation's highest rates of voluntary quits among workers during the pandemic, according to a January report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. That, combined with historically low unemployment and lower labor force participation, has made it difficult for employers to hire, the Fed said. The Department of Corrections started pulling together a recruitment and retention committee from its facilities and various divisions to find ways to consolidate resources and root around for untapped employee pools. Jim Anderson, the Public Safety Bureau chief, said Wednesday the committee's work is just getting off the ground, but the group will look to career fairs and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls as potential recruitment groups. In the meantime, cross-training employees from different facilities will help the department be more agile to staffing needs, he said. "We're one DOC," said Anderson, whose position was created as part of the Department of Corrections' reorganization last year. "We have a lot of resources spread across the state." Despite the workforce troubles, Salmonsen remains encouraged by the work that happens at all levels inside the prison and he said he is honored to be the warden. Montana Correctional Enterprises, the prison's workforce and training program, is a clear point of pride and was a main feature of Wednesday's media tour. The wood shop produces furniture, and elsewhere inmates do upholstery work and stitch up prison uniforms. And the automobile repair garage maintains the work vehicles, allowing the prison to, in many ways, sustain itself. Inmates make between 40 and 80 cents an hour. Still, there's no mistaking the prison's needs, which have existed since before Salmonsen was the facility's top official. In 2020, correctional officers from Pine Hills, which at the time only housed juvenile inmates, were transferred to MSP to fill vacant posts, Salmonsen said. That was right before "the bottom fell out" due to a COVID-19 outbreak among staff. The Montana National Guard was deployed to the prison to fill in for ill employees, less than a month after Salmonsen was named warden. The need for recruitment and retention, particularly at the state prison outside of Deer Lodge, has prompted lawmakers to huddle with Gov. Greg Gianforte about finding solutions to a long-term problem that's escalating. The union president reported staff have been put on mandatory overtime lists and few people have applied for open jobs, even after a $2 raise in the prison's new contract with the union. The prison closed a unit of the facility last month, in part to reduce the number of mandatory posts. These adjustments make due with the workforce the prison has, but a plan to draw in new employees remains elusive. "Obviously it's one of our main concerns and topics we're focusing on," Anderson said of the new committee's work. "We were doing a ton of things before. But we're just trying to consolidate those efforts and put all of our resources going one direction. We need nurses and mental health professionals just as much as we need correctional officers and all that stuff." The prison's education program, for example, typically has a capacity of 150 inmates that can take classes, which run five days a week for six hours per day. Education Director Marisa Britton-Bostwick said that cap is now closer to 90. The prison's infirmary, too, has staffing needs. But, as medical services manager Melissa Scharf points out, it's not just the state prison; health care providers and corrections nationwide are clamoring for more employees. "It's difficult," she said. The clinic at MSP currently has two traveling nurses to supplement the infirmary, which sees 20 to 25 inmates a day. Scharf herself was a traveling nurse who decided to stay. She likes working with the population and the skill with which her team is able to assess the needs of patients, some of whom arrive at the prison with unaddressed medical needs. At the mental health block on the Secure Adjustment Unit, Salmonsen explains every inmate requires two correctional officers to be transported to see a therapist or a doctor. Without full staffing, transportation can be limited. With inmates suffering from mental health crises, it's also important they become familiar with the correctional officers on their block to maintain trust. "Keeping a regular crew here is very important," Salmonsen said. Big changes may be coming for the prison, which was built in the 1970s. While staffing is priority, infrastructure needs have also become an area of focus. Anderson said Wednesday the prison is "kind of outdated," and the department will need to "look at a more efficient way of doing business." That could mean retooling the space in its agricultural setting or moving the facility somewhere with a bigger potential workforce pool. The Montana Women's Prison in Billings doesn't suffer from staff shortages the same way the Montana State Prison or the private prison on the Hi-Line do. Anderson said all options are on the table. "We don't have any formal plans," he said. "We're just recognizing in the future, you know, the next five to 10 years, we're going to have to do something. And so we're just starting to explore those options. Population base is one thing to consider, state land is another. There's just so many factors that we have to look at." Anderson also echoed Salmonsen in lauding the prison staff who have remained on duty despite the tough working conditions. Correctional officers don't usually get the same applause as police or firefighters, yet their work is no less important for public safety in Montana, he said. "I'm proud of our people," Anderson said. "They're working under hard conditions, and having overtime shifts and holding people over, and our people are still working really hard and coming to work. We're looking to go to (the Legislature) and ask for more (funding). We want their wage to be competitive with detention centers across the state." 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. DECATUR Talk is cheap, but for those wanting to learn more about promoting community peace and restorative justice, it's free. Macon County Adult Redeploy Illinois will host a free DEI+A training for Macon County residents from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays throughout June at the Salvation Army Community Center, 229 W. Main St., Decatur. The first class will be Saturday, June 4. Advance registration is requested, but will be accepted at the door on the first day of the event. The training will be conducted by consultant and trainer Nicki Bond. Weekly topics include diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as well as disparity and disproportionality and becoming an ally. The event is sponsored by The Community Foundation of Macon County, Millikin University and Salvation Army. Snacks will be available during the classes. TRAINING SCHEDULE June 4 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility June 11 Unconscious Biases and Micro-aggressions June 18 Systemic Issues: Disparity and Disproportionality in Communities June 25 Becoming an Ally: Bystander and Upstander Intervention According to Keyria Rodgers, director of criminal justice at Millikin University, the purpose of the training is for individuals to gain knowledge and grow in their understanding of the multifaceted components of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, to help them become better leaders, advocates, community members, and supporters of our schools, communities, families, businesses, and more, she said. A different theme will be presented each Saturday, so come prepared to listen, learn, and engage. Participants will receive information at least one day before each workshop. After the training, they will be given a certificate with a total number of completed hours and continuing education credits and other Professional development hours. Although it has been offered free to Macon County residents, the training is valued at $20,000. If you want your voice to be heard, this is the place to be able to come, Bond said after the training was announced in May. Were going to create an inclusive and safe space to be able to have dialogue and conversation. The discussions will include biases, privilege, discrimination, harassment, trauma and other topics. Its going to be pretty intense, Bond said. According to Rodgers, participants throughout Macon County would benefit from the training, especially those working with diverse populations. Its open for anyone who wants to learn about how to improve their responses to other people, she said. How to be better community members, family members, case workers, police officers, teachers, business owners. Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR Love 0 Funny 1 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. DECATUR A Decatur police arrest warrant describes a mans attempt to stab his ex-girlfriend to death with a screwdriver. Corey M. Smith, 49, is accused of smashing his way into the house where the 51-year-old victim had been staying with a female friend to "get away" from him, her boyfriend of the last two years. The friend, 43, who owns the house in the 2800 block of East Locust Street, said Smiths ex-girlfriend had been a guest for three days when the attack occurred. There had been the sound of someone hammering on the back door and side windows the night of May 5 and she saw the 51-year-old victim open the door, only to quickly try and close it again. The ex-girlfriend had then described being immediately attacked:"...Corey kicked the door open and entered the residence, she is quoted as saying in the warrant, sworn out by Detective James Weddle. She said Corey then stabbed her multiple times with a screwdriver before turning and stabbing (her friend) with the screwdriver as well. Weddle said police found the former girlfriend with stab wounds to her left thigh, left buttocks, left elbow, right bicep and upper chest area. Her friend witnessed the attack but told police she believed he was only punching the other woman and had not seen the screwdriver in his hand. (The 43-year-old friend) did not realize she had (also) been stabbed in the altercation until after she saw the blood and the puncture wound to her abdomen, said Weddle. Police initially considered the wounds on both women to be life-threatening and both were treated at Decatur Memorial Hospital. Smith was found and arrested May 11 and is due back Friday in Macon County Circuit Court for the first appearance of his defense counsel. He has yet to enter a formal plea on two counts of attempted murder plus a charge of home invasion. He also faces a charge of aggravated battery inflicting great bodily harm and a charge of aggravated domestic battery. And a further charge also accuses him of theft: his former girlfriend said Smith fled in her pickup truck after the attack. The defendant is being held in the Macon County Jail with bail set at $5 million, requiring him to post a bond of $500,000 to be released. A motion he made to reduce bond at a previous court hearing May 19 was denied. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid 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. By Trend The sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, which comprises an embargo on tanker deliveries of Russian oil to EU member-states postponed for six months, can be finally approved on June 1-2, President of the European Council Charles Michel said, Trend reports citing TASS. "I can confirm that the legal text [of the EU Council Regulation on sanctions - TASS] is already being edited. This is a matter of hours. We expect the legal text will be approved tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow," Michel said. The EU summit agreed after debates lasting for nearly a month the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. Further to the partial deferred embargo on Russian oil, it is expected to comprise the black list expansion, disconnection of Sberbank and two more Russian banks from SWIFT and the ban on broadcasting of three Russian TV channels in the EU. DECATUR Police report that a man walked up to three young people fishing in Lake Decatur, announced Ill kill all three yall and opened fire in their direction as they fled. A sworn affidavit from Decatur Police said the victims, two men aged 19 and 20 and an 18-year-old woman, had been fishing Tuesday evening in Nelson Park near the Lake Patrol and Beach House area when the masked 18-year-old gunman approached them. The 19-year-old male victim is quoted as telling police he knew the man slightly by his nickname TayTay. He said he just walked up to them, threatened to shoot them, and pulled a handgun from his waistband. The three victims told police they started quickly walking up the hill toward 22nd Street with the gunman in pursuit. (The 20-year-old victim) advised when he was near the guardrail at the intersection of Cantrell and 22nd Street, the man was trailing them and began firing from the firearm approximately three times at them, said the affidavit, which was signed by Officer Clayton Zilz. The 20-year-old said he fled westbound on Cantrell Street, pursued by the gunman who followed him for about two more blocks before breaking off the chase. The other two victims sought refuge inside the nearby business, where an employee said they burst in asking for help shortly after she had heard the sound of gunshots. Police responded swiftly and caught up with the gunman at the intersection of South 20th and Decatur streets. Zilz said he refused commands to stop and fled on foot but was overtaken and arrested in the 1700 block of East Johns Avenue. Zilz said a Macon County Sheriffs Office deputy and his K-9 partner Maco backtracked the gunmans flightpath and the dog sniffed out a 9mm handgun with a missing magazine. The magazine was not found but Zilz said police did recover two spent 9mm bullet casings from the area where the gun had been fired. Questioned by police, Zilz quoted the man as admitting he had opened fire but claimed it had been in self-defense. The officer noted the man was wearing an ankle monitor and had been sentenced to eight months at a youth detention center in December of 2021 following a conviction for residential burglary. After Tuesdays arrest, he was booked on preliminary charges of the aggravated discharge and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was also charged with the unlawful possession of a handgun, resisting/obstructing police and obstructing justice. A check of Macon County Jail records Wednesday showed he remained in custody with bail set at $100,000, meaning he must post a bond of $10,000 to be released. All preliminary charges are subject to review by the state's attorneys office. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHICAGO - An officer on a U.S. Marshals Service task force as well as a police dog were shot during an attempted arrest Thursday on the Northwest Side, officials said. The shooting occurred at about 1:20 p.m. in the 5200 block of West Belmont Avenue, where Chicago police and members of the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force were attempting to arrest a wanted person, according to Chicago police statement about the incident. During the course of the arrest, the offender fired shots, striking a deputy U.S. marshal, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. A U.S. Marshals Service K-9 dog was also struck. A Chicago police officer returned fire but did not strike anyone, the statement read. Paramedics responded to an animal hospital at 3305 N. California Ave. where they found the marshal who had been shot in the hand, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt, who said the person shot declined to be taken to a hospital. Merritt earlier said they were called to West Belmont Avenue for the shooting. Two people were arrested and an investigation is pending, according to Chicago police. The officer who returned fire will be placed on routine administrative duties for a period of at least 30 days, per department protocol. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability will investigate the officers use of force, according to the police statement. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today A few passing clouds. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Robber makes off with wristbands for aquatic complex Case was just one of the odd calls that New Braunfels police worked over the holiday weekend As summer concert series kick off and the festival season gets into full swing, the Tri-Cities has plenty of live music options to choose from. Here are four ways to catch some outstanding live music in the Tri-Cities this weekend. Border Bash returns to State Street in Bristol for its 22nd year Friday at 6 p.m. Folk/reggae band The Soulamanders of Johnson City open things up at 6:30 p.m., followed by Americana group Buffalo Rose of Pittsburgh at 7:30 p.m. Held at the Downtown Center located at 810 State St., Border Bash is a free, family-friendly summer concert series that is hosted by Believe in Bristol and includes kids activities and food vendors. Twilight Alive begins its summer concert series in Kingsport on Friday at 7 p.m. with Journey tribute band Departure. The free concerts are held on the 100 block of Broad Street. No coolers are allowed; however, beer is available for purchase on the street. Concerts are held on Friday nights throughout the summer, and attendees are encouraged to bring a chair. Blue Plum Festival, a free two-day event with a sizable music lineup on two stages, will be held in Johnson City on Friday and Saturday. Friday nights headliners include touring rock bands Mo Lowda & the Humble of Philadelphia at 8:30 p.m. and The Vegabonds of Nashville at 10 p.m. Saturdays headliners include folk-rock act Drivin N Cryin of Atlanta at 8 p.m. and alternative group Wilderado of Oklahoma at 9:30 p.m. Local acts Donnie and the Dry Heavers (8 p.m. Friday) of Kingsport and Fritz & Co. (5:30 p.m. Saturday) of Abingdon are also set to perform. In addition to music, the festival stretching from Founders Park to King Commons Park, includes vendors, a wellness area, a Ferris wheel, a kids zone and more. Sounds of Summer celebrates its 25th anniversary of free summer concerts in Bristol Saturday beginning at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Center by the Country Music Mural. Bristol bluegrass band Breaking Tradition opens the night up for country music trio Texas Hill (Craig Wayne Boyd, Adam Wakefield and Casey James). Sounds of Summer continues Tuesdays and Thursdays through August. Attendees are welcome to bring chairs. Food will also be available from local vendors. Scholle IPN increased its investment in Chilhowie and the Smyth County economies Wednesday by doubling down with a $31.1 million expansion that will bring 75 new jobs to the area. I am so excited that we get to be here today to talk about a huge commitment by one of your beloved employers already doubling down in Smyth County, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told those gathered at the announcement of the companys increased commitment that includes expanding its facility be 73,000 square feet. This is not a foot in the pond; this is jumping in deep and going under water. The Virginia plant competed with Georgia and Illinois operations for the project, according to a release from Youngkins office. Smyth County, the Mount Rogers Regional Partnership and the Town of Chilhowie worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to secure the project in Virginia. Youngkin previously approved a $600,000 grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund to assist the county with the project. Im most excited for the folks who work here and the ones who will work here, Youngkin said. Growth means opportunity, and when you see a company grow, you know that means opportunity for everybody who works there now and will work there in the future. Youngkin said he spent a lot of time in Southwest Virginia during his campaign. A subject that came up frequently during his visits, he said, was economic opportunities in the region. He said he was happy to be a part of bringing bringing new jobs to the area. Headquartered in Illinois, Scholle IPN is one of the worlds largest packaging manufacturers, specializing in packaging solutions like barrier films, ergonomic fitments and universal connectors for bag-in-box fountain drink dispensing systems. Opened in 1997 with a 100,000 square-foot facility that produced packaging for the soft drink industry, the Chilhowie plant underwent its first investment cycle in 2019, according to Gil Graham, the companys director of operations and quality for North America. The 2019 expansion saw the plant grow to 150,000 square feet and employ nearly 200 people. Today, the companys workers produce flexible packaging for things like soft drinks, cleaning products and motor oil, and serve big-name businesses like the Kraft Heinz Company, Pepsi and ECO Labs. These are household names that trust Scholle IPN to deliver their products to market, Youngkin said. Graham noted the hard work, dedication and support the company received during its 2019 expansion. He said the decision to invest in the Chilhowie plant was an easy one to make. A lot of times, people will ask me Why Southwest Virginia? Why expand? The answers pretty simple. Its the people. All these employees are loyal to us, they work hard every day and they perform at exceptional levels, he said. And then, its the community, our partners that are all around us. Look at how many people are here to support us. And its not just today. Theyre going to support us for months and years to come to make this expansion just as successful as the last one. U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith pointed out that he saw representatives from at least four counties and three towns at the announcement. And thats because when we do economic development in Southwest Virginia, its not just one county thats going to benefit, Griffith said. When you bring 75 jobs and I know you know this, governorbut when you bring in 75 jobs, that changes the equation in the region, not just in Chilhowie or on one end of Smyth County. It has a far reach and we are very, very appreciative of that. Both Griffith and Rye Valley District Supervisor Lori Deel credited the companys employees for the growth. This wouldnt happen without your hard work, showing up every day and doing a great job, so we appreciate you all so much, Deel said. To Scholles leaders, Deel said, We appreciate your strong community partnership and all you do for us locally and recognizing the opportunity for continued growth here. Thank you for choosing us. Plant Manager Ricardo Bernardo said he looks forward to the new capabilities the expansion will bring. I know that this will make our life easier. Our quality will be better, our performance will be better, and mainly, were going to bring a lot more things for the people here, he said. So, 75 new jobs a lot of opportunity for people to grow, and help develop our community. Wrapping up his part of the announcement, Youngkin presented Graham and Bernardo with a Virginia flag. The flag, Youngkin said, had flown over the state capitol. I would ask that you fly it here in front of this new facility to represent the great partnership that we have and to always know that we are so supportive of your continued success and expansion and appreciative of your commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Youngkin said. Thank you both. Support for Scholles job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System and other higher education partners with funding from The Virginia General Assembly and the Youngkin administration. HICKORY Veterans Coffee Connection, a coffee group for veterans of all ages and branches of military service, will meet Wednesday, June 8, at 8:30 a.m. at Outback Steakhouse on Lenoir-Rhyne Boulevard in Hickory. The group, sponsored by Carolina Caring, is designed to be a welcoming place for veterans to meet other veterans in the area. This free gathering, which meets on the second Wednesday of every month, is a great place to share a cup of coffee, enjoy doughnuts provided by Krispy Kreme and swap stories. Carolina Caring for Veterans is proud to be a Level IV partner of the We Honor Veterans program, an awareness initiative spearheaded by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. For more information, contact Cindy Stamey, Carolina Carings Director of Community and Veteran Relations, at cstamey@carolinacaring.org or by calling 828-466-0466. Carolina Caring, founded in 1979, is an independent, community-based, nonprofit health care provider. It specializes in programs that offer relief from chronic conditions, serious illnesses, and the challenges they bring, including palliative medicine and hospice care for all ages, primary care and grief counseling. Currently, Carolina Caring serves 12 counties across western North Carolina and the Charlotte region. For more information about Carolina Caring, call 828-466-0466 or visit www.CarolinaCaring.org . The day started out like any other for Ethan Beam. He got ready for work, albeit running a little behind, and set off for the drive to Boone on N.C. 181. Its a commute he makes nearly every working day, save for the occasions he opts to take U.S. 321 instead. But that commute took a turn for the worst when he saw a truck bearing down on him. I had like a little premonition that something was about to happen, Beam said. About that time, I seen him coming around the curve in my lane and he tipped over, probably two or three car lengths away. That started a dramatic series of events that left Beam with a broken arm. He started to tip and ... like the top of his hood hit the center of my grill, and he just, like, flipped across the top of my truck and down the side of it, Beam said. All I could see for a little bit was mostly glass and smoke, but once everything kind of came to a stop and I actually slid up to a stop, I started seeing all of the gas cylinders theyre spinning around in the road, expelling the gas out of them and theyre taking off, going up under the truck and stuff like that. All I could think was to get out and get away from it. When he could tell the crash was imminent, Beam said he drove his work truck as far off the road as he could get and pulled his legs flush against his seat. That was the only reason that I was able to get my legs free and get out because the floorboard and dash and everything crushed in, Beam said. I visibly knew that my arm was broken. I could see that it was L shaped, it went down to my wrist and then my hand was pointed off to the right. He said he checked to make sure he could feel his toes, wiggling them in his shoes. The dash was pushed down against his knees to the point that he couldnt wiggle his legs, but he was able to get out of the truck by leaving his shoes inside it. When he got out of the truck, he said he dropped to his knees in prayer. I have a little boy due Nov. 4, Beam said. I was just glad to be able to get out, walk away. I was glad I was still able to walk on this earth and, hopefully, be here to see my little boy show up. Trooper J.M. Baker with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol told The News Herald the crash occurred when the truck carrying canisters of gases went into a curve at around 45 mph and went left of center. The suggested speed in that curve was about 20 mph, Baker said. The driver of the truck, Chad Sales, told troopers he thought his brakes went out. Baker said a review of the trucks brakes Wednesday showed they had not been properly maintained and had failed. Sales, of Fletcher, was charged with driving left of center and exceeding a safe speed, Baker said. Beam said he has seen countless wrecks on that stretch of highway, and that he hoped people would pay attention. Just be careful, Beam said. You never know what lays around the next curve. Everybody needs to slow down and just take precautions. Watch out for the motorcycles, theres a lot of motorcycles up there this time of year. The truck Beam was driving the day of the crash, a 2014 Ford F-150, belonged to his company. He said the company asked if he wanted another Ford when they replace the totaled truck. I was like, darn skippy, Beam said. It saved me one time, hopefully the next one will save me again if that was to ever happen again. Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at cmurphy@morganton.com or at 828-432-8941. Follow @cmurphyMNH on Twitter. 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. " " President Harry Truman addresses a joint session of Congress, asking for $400 million and American military advisers for Greece and Turkey to avoid the spread of communism. (Seated behind him are Arthur H. Vandenberg (left), the president pro-tempore of the Senate, and Joseph W. Martin Jr., the Speaker of the House.) Bettmann/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Ever since George Washington and King George started going at it, foreign policy in the United States has been a ticklish affair. Stay out or jump in? Be aggressive or be possessive? Stand on your own or seek help? Lead or follow? Put up walls or call for them to be torn down? The answers are never easy. That's what makes the Truman Doctrine so impressive. Few, if any, American foreign policy stances have held the weight, lasted as long or changed the world as much as the Truman Doctrine, the post-World War II strategy designed to contain the spread of communism and hold America's wartime ally, the Soviet Union, in check. Even today, with other global threats emerging and a stated "America First" foreign policy, the ideas behind the Truman Doctrine endure and inform the country's worldview. "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures," Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the U.S., said in a speech to a joint session of congress March 12, 1947, laying out the center beam of what came to be known as the Truman Doctrine. "I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way." With the Truman Doctrine, America stepped away from a largely isolationist history, took the lead in battling communism and furthering democracy, and forged relationships with nations militarily, economically and otherwise that endure today. Advertisement What Is the Truman Doctrine? Less than two years after the end of World War II, many nations, especially in Europe, were in economic shambles and ripe for exploitation. Two of them, Greece and Turkey, had major problems with insurgents and faced political uncertainty without outside aid. Even the once-mighty British were mired in the struggles of rebuilding their war-shattered country. They could no longer chip in to help others. So the Greeks and Turks instead turned to the U.S. And Truman, a Democrat, turned to Congress Republicans held both the House and the Senate looking for $400 million in foreign aid. (That's more than $4.6 billion in today's dollars.) "There was a key meeting at the White House in late February with congressional leaders, and George Marshall, who was Secretary of State ... made a strong pitch, and so did Dean Acheson, who was the Undersecretary of State," says Sam Rushay, the supervisory archivist at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri. "They talked about the merits, and the urgency of doing something to help. The British had announced they were going to withdraw, and [Marshall and Acheson] didn't want there to be a vacuum; that might mean the Soviets would step into that vacuum." After Truman's speech before Congress, a push to pass the Greece-Turkey aid bill was championed by Marshall, Acheson and others. They managed to bring over even staunch isolationists like Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio), though some influential voices such as former vice president Henry Wallace and conservative journalist Walter Lippmann remained opposed. Pitching a new foreign policy initiative, one that went against long-held isolationist tendencies, to a Congress run by the opposition party and a war-weary American public, was a tall order. "There was a lot of selling to do. And selling it, I think, was the right word," says Rushay, "to try to sell it to the American people, and to Republicans, and to conservative Southern Democrats, who were very influential, as well; that this was really a good thing, because it was in our interest." In the end, the idea that commerce between the U.S., Eastern Europe and the Middle East could be negatively impacted and that the Soviets could gain more power by stepping in, something that could alter world politics for generations to come was enough. The Greece-Turkey aid bill passed convincingly, Truman signed the bill in May 1947, and America set out on a new path in Europe and, eventually, other places in the world. " " Defense Secretary George C. Marshall (seen here with President Harry Truman) helped write the Marshall Plan, which generated extensive investment into Europe after WWII. Marshall won the Nobel Prize for peace for his efforts. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Advertisement What It Meant, What It Still Means The journalist Lippmann coined the term "Cold War," what would become a decadeslong standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that began at the end of World War II. The implementation of the Truman Doctrine was one of its major milestones. In 1948, the so-called European Recovery Plan it's otherwise known as the Marshall Plan was signed into law, designed to help rebuild Western Europe and further block any communist inroads. Without the new foreign policy outlined in the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan would not have been possible. In 1949, the U.S. and 11 other nations in North America and Europe, in order to "guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means," formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO, which now boasts 30 member countries, has ever since acted as a deterrent to Soviet and communist expansionism. Even before the Truman Doctrine became official policy, its theories were in use. As World War II was ending, the Soviets occupied Korea, prompting the U.S. to send troops to the peninsula in a standoff that eventually exploded into the Korean War. Immediately after World War II, the Soviets and the U.S. squared off over Iran, too, and Germany. In 1954, well after the Truman Doctrine was initiated, president Dwight Eisenhower warned of a "domino" effect if communists prevailed in Southeast Asia, a prelude to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Ronald Reagan built upon the Truman Doctrine with the Reagan Doctrine of the 1980s, which not only called for containment of Soviet expansionism but the backing of anti-communists everywhere. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War ended. But the basic ideas behind the Truman Doctrine containing communism, championing democracy, helping others internationally remain important to many modern-day politicians. "The Truman Doctrine was sort of an explication of a new foreign policy, very international-minded," Rushay says. "For Truman, it was in the self-interest of the United States to work with other nations in the interests of peace and resisting war and resisting maybe a verbal war that you see through the United Nations, where he was very active. Truman helped build a structure of peace through the Truman Doctrine, through the United Nations, through NATO, through the Marshall Plan. "There's a real ideology behind it. But, fundamentally, Truman saw it in the U.S.'s best interest." " " Dwight Eisenhower, seen here with President Harry Truman in 1951, continued Truman's plan to squash communism when he became president, even warning of a "domino effect" if communists prevailed in Southeast Asia. Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images Now That's Interesting Former United Kingdom prime minister Winston Churchill gave a speech in Missouri in 1946 Truman was there warning of a communist expansion across Europe and calling for a reply that avoided war. An "Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent," Churchill said. "Surely we should work with conscious purpose for a grand pacification of Europe, within the structure of the United Nations and in accordance with its Charter. That I feel is an open cause of policy of very great importance." A year later, Truman made his pitch to Congress. By Trend President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon will visit Uzbekistan on June 2-3, Trend reports citing Kun.uz. According to Asia-Plus, during the visit, he will hold talks with the leadership of Uzbekistan. The parties are expected to sign a number of important documents. The agenda of the upcoming talks includes the development of cooperation between the countries in the trade-economic, transport-communication and cultural-humanitarian spheres. It should be recalled that on May 30, a regular meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on Trade and Economic Cooperation was held in Dushanbe. Within the framework of the event, a meeting of the heads of government was held. The sides discussed the current state of bilateral relations and prospects for intergovernmental cooperation between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in areas of interest, and issues on the agenda of the next meeting of the commission. " " A statue of Theseus slaying the half-man, half-beast Minotaur by Italian neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova stands in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images From slaying the Minotaur to expanding the power of Athens, the Greek mythological hero Theseus has a lot going for him. But, as "Olympians" author and artist George O'Connor explains, Theseus is a hard character to like. "When I was a kid, when I first got into Greek mythology, Theseus was my guy," O'Connor says. "I've always liked the underdog and I felt like Theseus had to struggle and work for what he got, but then he goes on to do a couple of things that are really hard to accept." O'Connor is a New York-based author, illustrator and cartoonist, best known for his 12-volume "Olympians" series, which takes classic renditions of various Greek myths and retells them for readers of all ages. While the series allowed him to translate his lifelong passion for myth into dynamic and relatable form, it didn't come without its challenges. "Greek mythology deals with a lot of subject matter that we would traditionally not consider very cool for kids," O'Connor says. "But I also feel like you can't remove the teeth from Greek mythology. You do it a disservice. You might as well not be doing Greek mythology. So, in my adaptations, I have very much decided just to put the stuff out there in a very matter of fact way, without much judgment, but also without being explicit." While the "Olympians" series rarely features blood, O'Connor says that he made an exception when it came to the telling of classic tale Theseus and the Minotaur. To unwrap why, of course, we really have to dig into the myth itself. Advertisement Who Was Theseus? Theseus was, first and foremost, the mythical founder-hero of Athens, tied explicitly to the ancient city. He was described in glowing terms by Athenians to champion their values and power. He is often described as the Earthly son of King Aegeus, but he is also the son of the powerful sea god Poseidon. He was raised by his mother on the island of Sphairia, but his father left sandals and a sword for the boy beneath a great boulder. When Theseus grew older, he was able to move the rock and find the items, revealing his royal destiny. In O'Connor's telling of the tale, this is a key moment. The young Theseus is able to lift the boulder, causing him to suspect his own divine lineage, but the items hidden beneath speak only to mortal kingship. It is the beginning of a life defined by both entitlement and endless grasping. "His whole trip from there on in is to claim as much power as possible," O'Connor says. Advertisement Is Theseus a Hero or a Villain? When he discovers his connection to Aegeus, Theseus travels overland to Athens, overcoming six labors in the process. While these encounters bear all the hallmarks of heroic exploits, he also goes on to commit less wholesome acts including kidnapping Helen of Troy as a child, so that he might marry her after she matures into the beauty of legend. But Theseus' most famous adventure comes in his journey to the island of Crete, where Greek myths describe the tyrannical rule of King Minos, who hides his son, the Poseidon-cursed man-bull known as the Minotaur, in a vast subterranean maze. Minos throws Athenean tributes human victims into this maze, to be slaughtered by the monster. When Theseus himself comes in the place of one of the Athenian tributes, he sets himself up on a collision course with the mythic beast-man. Naturally, Theseus overcomes the Minotaur but he does so not through strength and bravery, but through secret knowledge and betrayal. It all begins with his seduction of Minos' daughter Ariadne, who is also secretly the Minotar's half-sister. "Theseus shows up and he has the bearing of a god," O'Connor says. "He's beautiful. He's super strong. He's very tall. He looks like an Olympian. He seduces Ariadne and she betrays her family, her culture and everything by giving him the famous string that he uses to get out of the labyrinth. She also sneaks him a weapon in some versions of the story. Basically, he wouldn't have managed to kill the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth without her." " " Theseus stands, reflected in the blood of the slain Minotaur, in a panel from "Poseidon: Earth Shaker" by George O'Connor. First Second, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group Of course, it's easy to forgive a little underhanded cunning in the defeat of a monster but what Theseus does next is much harder to accept. "Afterward, Theseus and Ariadne leave Minoa on a ship and he literally just forgets about her. They set shore on the island of Naxos and he just abandons her there. This woman gave up everything in her life for him, but he just forgets her and goes on! It ends up being a happy story for her, as she eventually meets Dionysus, which is really a step up in my opinion. But yeah, he's just a use-them-and-leave-them type." Advertisement The Minotaur Gets a Bad Rap? If this were not bad enough, many later interpretations of the myth portray the Minotaur in a far more sympathetic light. After all, his monstrous state is not the result of his own doing, but Poseidon's punishment on Minos for his unwillingness to sacrifice a special white bull. Poseidon cursed Minos' wife with a monstrous birth and the Minoan maze became the Minotaur's prison. O'Connor says that he doubts the Minotaur's bloodthirsty nature, given that neither bulls nor humans are known for eating people plus he drew on such inspirations as Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The House of Asterion," which retells the myth from the monster's own point of view and uses his proper name: Asterion, which means "the starry one." "I love that story," O'Connor says. "You don't realize that it's the Minotaur at first. It takes you a while to figure it out and then Theseus comes in and kills him. There's a great line in the story from Theseus that I quote in the book. He asks, 'Can you believe it, Ariadne? The Minotaur barely defended himself.'" Once more, it's hard to get behind a hero whose most famous adversary can be interpreted as a prisoner who doesn't even fight back. O'Connor depicts the death of the Minotaur as a bloody encounter, driving home the violence of the act, and during Theseus' final embrace with Ariadne, he depicts the hero gazing away from her, eyes already on the next conquest. But Theseus has one last move of selfishness up his sleeve. According to the myth, he was instructed to hoist a white sail as he returned to Athens, to let his father King Aegeus know his struggle against Crete had been successful and he had survived. Instead, he flies a black flag and Aegeus throws himself from the palace walls in anguish. Guess who is king of Athens now? "I write him as a villain," O'Connor says. "I think he's a more sinister figure than a heroic one." Now That's Interesting The name of Theseus is also remembered for something unrelated to kidnapping and monstercide: a thought experiment known as "The Ship of Theseus." It is said that the Athenians preserved the hero's ship upon his return from Crete, but this required them to regularly replace parts of the vessel as they decayed or broke. Eventually, this meant that every part of the original vessel was replaced. Does the ship remain the original ship throughout this gradual replacement? If not, at what point does it become something different? This quandary provoked debate during the time of Plutarch, just as it does today, almost two millennia later. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has issued a critical alert warning for a newly-discovered Microsoft Office exploit Follina which is already causing havoc in Australian organisations but was initially dismissed by the software giant as being a "non-security related issue". The exploit enables a remote actor to run code on the privileges of the user that selected or opened the malicious document. Microsoft has confirmed the remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), which can be triggered simply by opening a malicious Word document. The vulnerability is now tracked as CVE-2022-30190, but in April 2022, at the time of its discovery by security researchers, it was a zero-day exploit with no assigned ID. This means that the RCE flaw was under active exploitation by threat actors before Microsoft even became aware of it. The absence of an identifier gave rise to the moniker Follina, assigned by security researcher Kevin Beaumont, who was among the first to write about it. Due to the public availability of several proof of concept (PoC) examples, the potential impact of exploitation, and the massive attack surface, this zero-day is considered one of the most critical vulnerabilities of the year to date. Discovery and exploitation While the public disclosure of CVE-2022-30190 came on May 27 by Japanese researchers of Nao Sec, members of the Shadow Chaser Group saw active exploitation first in April and reported it to Microsoft. This collective of cyber security students hunts APT indicators of compromise for fun, education, and research contribution. But Microsoft dismissed their report as a "non-security related issue" in April, so the tech giant inadvertently allowed the exploitation to continue for another month. Proofpoint researchers have published evidence of a Chinese APT (advanced persistent threat) group exploting Follina by delivering ZIPs containing Word documents that trigger it. Fixing and workarounds At this time, there's no fix available for CVE-2022-30190, and Microsoft hasn't provided an estimate for when a fixing patch is coming. The next "Tuesday Patch" is set to roll out on June 14, 2022, but the zero-day will most likely be addressed by an out-of-band security update. The official workaround advice provided in the Microsoft guidance published on May 30, 2022, is to disable the MSDT URL protocol altogether. Unfortunately, even if the users don't need this function, the change can only be applied by modifying the registry, which comes with its own risks. ACSC has also recommended that corporate networks should block all Office applications from creating child processes. Many experts have underlined that the industry hasn't had the time to study this flaw thoroughly, so even this "messy" workaround might not be effective against all possible attacks. Flaw and impact CVE-2022-30190 gives remote actors code execution abilities on several Microsoft Office versions, including fully patched Office 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021, all widely used in state and private sectors. The problem lies in how MDST is called from specific applications, including MS Office, using the URL protocol. This enables a remote actor to run code on the privileges of the user that selected or opened the malicious document. The first cases of actual exploitation seen in April used the zero-day for executing PowerShell on the system, but as security researchers underline, dropping payloads on the target system is also possible. Microsoft highlights other potential repercussions in its advisory, including data manipulation, new account creation, program installation, and information disclosure. While technically, the flaw is triggered via a local mechanism, the vector is still practically remote, as the exploit-triggering document is sent via email, and the payload dropped is controlled by a remote actor. During the subsequent testing from the infosec community to verify the vulnerability after its disclosure on May 27, 2022, one of the involved security firms, Huntress Lab, developed a zero-click attack through an RTF document. Huntress Lab's attack removes the need to trick the victim into opening the document, as merely selecting it would evoke MDST from the preview tab in Explorer, triggering the exploit on all Windows versions. Australian fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband services are slower and less reliable than those in New Zealand, according to a new comparative analysis that blames pricing and technical decisions made during the design of National Broadband Network (NBN) services. Prepared as a joint project between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC), the new Measuring Broadband Trans-Tasman report compared the results of the two countries broadband monitoring programs and found NZs Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) fibre services are consistently faster and more reliable than the NBN. Outside of the evening peak period of 7pm to 11pm, 100/20Mbps NBNs Ultrafast broadband plans which run across fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections downloaded data as quickly as those in NZ, with an average 102.1Mbps compared with 101.2Mbps. Yet as network usage increased, particularly during night-time peak hours, the Australian broadband services slowed down 4.5Mbps compared with 2.3Mbps on NZ services. Australias absolute fastest Ultrafast NBN 1000 FTTP plans were slower than those in NZ 745.6Mbps download speeds compared with 808.1Mbps in NZ and failed nearly twice as frequently, with 0.9 outages per week compared with 0.5 outages per week in NZ. The differences in upload speed were even more pronounced: although Australian 100/20Mbps plans delivered an average 18.2Mbps compared with 22.3Mbps in NZ, the fastest FTTP plans uploaded data at just 45.7Mbps less than one-tenth the 507.2Mbps average speeds over NZs UFB. ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey was sanguine about the results, ignoring the pronounced differences in the superfast plan speeds to argue that the NBN generally compares well to equivalent connection types in New Zealand. The differences in upload speeds, she said in announcing the results, are due to differences in how they are configured specifically, that New Zealands UFB overprovisions both its upload and download services, whereas the NBN only overprovisions its download speeds. Under-overprovisioning to blame Overprovisioning refers to the amount of extra bandwidth that retail service providers (RSPs) allocate to support peak surges in usage, providing headroom that is quickly filled during peak hours when large numbers of consumers finish dinner and fire up their streaming video and chat services. Because the NBNs long-criticised access pricing model links their wholesale costs to the amount of bandwidth they provision, Australias cost-conscious RSPs are forced to balance end-user speeds against their own profitability. While there are no technical impediments to the NBN matching New Zealands busy hour and upload performance, Brakey said, NBNs access charging model and approach to provisioning upload traffic on fixed-line connections appear to be causing some busy hour and upload metrics to fall below New Zealands. Last month, industry figures slammed an NBN Co proposal to vary its pricing through 2024, with telecommunications expert Paul Budde warning that the changes will make the NBN less affordable, blaming botched government policies and calling for the new Labor government to intervene to resolve longstanding issues around NBN accessibility and performance. Shout it, shout it, shout it upload Australias Measuring Broadband Australia program which, like the NZ program, uses SamKnows devices to measure the performance of NBN services in consumers homes has a long history of revealing problems with the networks configuration. An 2019 review found that 13 per cent of all NBN services were underperforming, for example, while another review later that year found that little had changed. Two years later, a December 2021 analysis found that NBN consumers were only getting 97.2 per cent of expected download speeds and 84.9 per cent of expected upload speeds. At that point, Brakey said, given the growing importance of upload speeds to how consumers use their broadband services, the ACCC is keeping a close eye on how clear retailers are with their customers about upload speeds. After the new analysis found NZ fibre services to be technically superior to the NBN, however, Brakey suggested the demonstrated speed differences dont matter because most consumers, even with multiple family members online at the same time, do not require the fastest plans currently available in Australia, and have a good broadband experience on plans with lower download speeds. NBN Co recently committed to upgrading 600,000 premises to FTTP services by years end, promising access to faster speeds and reducing the load on fixed-wireless broadband services. Wireless broadband services are the only type of broadband access that runs faster in Australia than NZ, with an average 36.4Mbps delivered over fixed wireless services compared with 29.2Mbps in NZ although the NZ services nonetheless upload data more than four times faster, at an average 17.0Mbps compared with 4.0Mbps. New Zealands fixed-wireless services are significantly less reliable, however, with 4.2 outages on average per week compared to just 1.3 outages per week in Australia. NBN Co has repeatedly considered throttling fixed-wireless services to maintain performance, potentially blocking 4K streaming and preventing extreme users from consuming too much bandwidth. KANNAPOLIS The Kannapolis Police Department is investigating a double homicide that occurred Thursday morning at a home on James Street. Police said officers responded to a home on James Street around 8 a.m. Thursday, June 2, after receiving a call to 911. Officers found Sharon Chambers, 61, and her nephew, Benny Sloan, Jr., 46, dead in the home Chambers, who owned the home, also operated the B&T Learning Center, a daycare, at the residence. The B & T Learning Center is a 3-star daycare that serves children ages 1-12, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child Development and Early Education. Police said the incident was domestic related and that no children were at the residence when the incident occurred. The investigation continues and additional information will be released later, police said. Contact the Kannapolis Police Department at 704-920-4000 with information about the incident. To remain anonymous and qualify for a reward, contact Cabarrus Area Crime Stoppers at https://cabarruscrimestoppers.com/submit-a-tip/ or 704-93CRIME. CONCORD Founding physician of the Substance Use Network (SUN) Project in Cabarrus County received the Karen Ponder Award for his work with pregnant mothers with a substance use disorder. Dr. Russell Suda received the award May 24 event at the Parish Hall in All Saints Episcopal Church in Concord. The Award is the Karen Ponder Award was created following the retirement of Karen W. Ponder from Smart Start in honor of her exceptional leadership which resulted in bettering the lives of young children and families across the state. The award is given annually to a community early childhood leader in North Carolina. It recognizes the contribution of community volunteers who are advocates, civic leaders, faith leaders and others. Nominees must exemplify a passionate commitment to the vision of a stronger community for children and families and have the ability to lead and inspire others in pursuit of that vision. The SUN Project aims to develop a compassionate cross-sector collaborative system of compassionate care that uses best practices to support the health, safety, well-being and recovery of pregnant patients with a substance use disorder, their infants, and families. Suda became interested in building a better resource network for pregnant women with substance use disorder after seeing pregnant women in his obstetric practice over the last 30 years. Gina Hofert, a director with the SUN Project, explained how Suda first approached her with the idea. "He noticed that some of his patients were suffering with substance use disorder," Hofert said. "He realized that as a doctor alone, he could do the medicine, but he couldn't provide what else they needed. He could give them the best 15 minute appointment as an obstetrician. But if mom was going home to abusive situations or not going home to a home at all, there still wouldn't be a good outcome." Hofert helped write a grant proposal to the Cannon project to help get the SUN Project started. The project was granted $65,000 for its first year. Later the project received a $150,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2020. The project has created a network of public and private resources to help pregnant mothers with substance use disorder receive better coordinated care. Hofert said the SUN Project is one of two organizations to approach care in this way. "We have created a whole collaborative network whose core work happens at the monthly coordination care meetings. It is not uncommon for this type of structure to happen in a hospital or in a clinic, but it is very unusual for people from DSS, the hospital, public health and other private organizations to sit at the same table and coordinate individual cases," Hofert said. "We are the first in the state to have the legal mechanisms to do that. There is one other organization in the country who is doing this, and it is based out of Vermont." Before receiving the award, Suda made it clear he was grateful for the recognition but hoped it brought attention to the work the project is doing. "I want peopel to know about the project so they can support it," Suda said "I want to emphasize that substance abuse is a chronic disease that requires a lot of resources to combat. But giving people the resources they need to create a productive life and a productive environment for their child is far more effective than dealing with the after affects of substance use. These are people who could otherwise be lost. We should never shame someone who uses substances and then becomes pregnant. Rather we should encourage them to seek care and tell them how courageous they are when they do seek care. They don't always heart that, and they don't hear it enough." One mom who was one of Suda's patients in the SUN program. She spoke at the award ceremony. Brooke Kennedy was seven weeks pregnant when she entered the program. When she got up to speak at the ceremony, she handed her six-month-old to Suda to hold. "I am proof that this program works," Kennedy said. "When I say this program changed my life, I mean it. It has." Kennedy said she wants to encourage other women who are going through the same struggles. She later thanked Suda for his care. "When I say he has helped me in more ways than one," she said, "he has helped me get back my life and helped me have my son," The U.S. Forest Service is warning visitors to Pisgah and Nantahala national forests that bears are coming alarmingly close to humans and even circling campsites in western North Carolina. Forest visitors have reported bears tearing down bear bags from trees, carrying off backpacks, spending hours near campsites and being unaffected by efforts to scare them away, the forest service said in a news release. The rise in bear encounters coincided with the three-day Memorial Day weekend and was concentrated in the Pisgah, Appalachian, and Nantahala Ranger Districts, officials said. No injuries were reported, and details of specific bear encounters were not released. Its the second summer in a row that bear alerts have been issued for Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. In June 2021, reports of aggressive bears led to a temporary ban on camping along the Appalachian Trail in the area, from Double Springs Shelter to Backbone Rock Side Trail. Wildlife experts say bears are taking an opportunistic approach to finding food in the national forests, using the supplies campers and hikers bring with them. The predators are relentless, too, and will often stay in the area of the incident for multiple hours, the Forest Service says. North Carolinas most recent bear-attack fatality was a 2020 incident involved an Illinois man killed while camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, McClatchy News reported. In September 2021, a couple was injured by a bear along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, the National Park Service reports. The couple was having a picnic on a grassy hill near the Folk Art Center, when they were alerted to a bear by their dog, NPS officials said in a news release. Over the next several minutes, there were repeated attacks by the bear while the couple retreated with their dog to the safety of their vehicle. The couple drove to Mission Hospital where they were both treated for their injuries and released. Blame it on the pandemic. Or just the complexities of life itself. Mental health concerns, alcohol abuse, drug use, suicide all seem to be on the upswing. The number of behavioral health professionals available to help? Not quite on the upswing. According to Lisa Elwood, Ph.D., associate professor and director of clinical psychology at Ponce Health Sciences University, Missouri has a shortage of mental health workers, with all but two counties rated as whole shortage areas and the others listed as partial shortage areas. Projections suggest that both Missouri and the Midwest region will continue to have fewer psychologists than estimated demand in 2030. During the pandemic, mental health concerns generally seemed to increase along with the barriers to access to needed help, and many patients found themselves struggling, Elwood said. Switching over to telehealth was, and continues to be, very helpful. Established in 2018 in the Globe Building in the heart of downtown St. Louis, Ponce Health Sciences University is responding to the need for more behavioral health professionals by preparing students with a world-class, culturally competent education. This education provides them the skills to not only become healthcare providers but also to be able to tackle the cultural deficit in healthcare services within their own communities. Our program is well aligned with the needs of the people in the community. Because we are a health science university and look forward to working closely with our medical school in the future, our curriculum focuses on interdisciplinary studies, she said. Students are required to take classes on addiction, mood and anxiety, and neuroscience, among others. Our program also strives to integrate the consideration of diversity and cultural competence throughout its curriculum and activities. Elwood said the school recruits students from underrepresented and diverse populations residing within communities throughout urban and rural areas where healthcare systems are either collapsing or nonexistent. Coursework is designed around evidence-based theories and research to consider physiological and environmental contributions to symptoms and operate as part of an interdisciplinary treatment team when beneficial. We want our students to become strong critical thinkers, Elwood said. We need our mental health professionals to understand the physiology of an issue and recognize if a patient may need more interdisciplinary treatment. For example, mental health concerns tend to exacerbate health symptoms and can even increase severe and pre-existing chronic health problems. Working together with medical providers, emergency technicians and community organizations is sometimes the best outcome for a patient. We teach our students to recognize the importance of this and to act on it. Graduates of the program will have a wide variety of employment options to choose from. Elwood said the graduates may end up working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a private practice, a state hospital, a forensics setting or somewhere within a community or nonprofit organization. The stigma of mental health issues is being reduced in some ways today, she said. People are more comfortable with the idea of mental healthcare and that is okay to admit to self-stressors. We are doing better at prompting ourselves to think about what we need and where we need to get that help from. Student voices These three students from the original cohort at Ponce Health Sciences University, St. Louis, praise their experience at Ponce and their preparation for their chosen careers. Bailey Durbin reflects on her time and experience at Ponce this way: I am reminded of how much growth is occurring within the field of clinical psychology. When having conversations about mental health, varying providers are now including mental health under the umbrella of health overall. I believe this push towards integrated healthcare, and learning from my program about the importance of biopsychosocial factors, will be how myself and other future clinicians will best set clients up for success. Anita Santiago describes her experience at Ponce as exceptional, and says students do well because they are supported academically and personally. This program challenges us to give back in our professional work and the community at large. I am currently serving as the president of the Association of Black Psychologists, St. Louis chapter. I receive an amazing amount of encouragement for my community work from the Ponce faculty. They truly understand my passion for mental health and go above and beyond to support me. Erin Francis says Ponce has strengthened her knowledge of biopsychosocial factors and their impact on health and illness. Studies here continue to develop me into a clinician that is keenly aware of the various factors that impact health and health behaviors, as well how they influence healing. I must say, though, that it was the heavy emphasis on statistics and neuroscience that integrated my learning across courses and prepared me to become both a researcher and practitioner. Humorously, my complex, intellectual quote that I hope you take away from us is Everything is neurological. Students looking for a PsyD in clinical psychology should visit stlouis.psm.edu for more information. This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Last year, Brick Zurek, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks in the Loop, found working conditions at the store becoming increasingly untenable. People coming into the store threatened and screamed at baristas. One person, after being served a cup of scalding hot water, poured it on the manager, Zurek said. On top of that, the store was short-staffed, sometimes with just a few baristas tasked with serving a line out the door. Zurek had read on Twitter and in the news about Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York, who were pushing to unionize their stores. Zurek thought about the threats, the violence, the unrelenting workload, and wondered: What if we had a bigger say? What if we could make it so that wasnt allowed? Zurek has worked for Starbucks for about two and a half years, and at the Loop store at Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue since it opened in October. Last fall, workers there began discussing the possibility of forming a union. Zurek reached out to Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that now represents Starbucks workers across the country. In January, baristas at the store became the first in Chicago to file for union representation. Votes in a union election there will be counted June 7. Nine Chicago-area stores followed Zureks in filing for union representation. Last week, baristas at two Starbucks in Edgewater won union elections, becoming the first in the city to unionize. Union elections for four other Chicago Starbucks are scheduled in June. Nationally, workers at more than 270 Starbucks have filed for union elections, according to late-May data from the National Labor Relations Board. The company has pushed back, prompting numerous complaints from the agency alleging violations ranging from illegally firing workers who are seeking to organize to illegal surveillance. The NLRB has filed federal court actions seeking reinstatement for workers in two states. Of the 121 elections that have been held nationwide as of Monday, baristas have lost 14. (A handful of results are being contested.) The Starbucks campaign is one of the most visible in a recent upsurge in labor organizing: Between October 2021 and the end of March, union representation filings with the National Labor Relations Board were up 57% when compared with the same period in the prior fiscal year. Workers in industries that have traditionally been thought of as difficult to unionize are organizing in greater numbers, in campaigns spearheaded by workers themselves in which professional labor organizers have taken a backseat. Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island stunned the mainstream labor world when they voted to unionize with the Amazon Labor Union, although their win has yet to be replicated in another Amazon facility. During the pandemic, Chicago saw its first major museum union form at the Art Institute, where museum workers were joined by support staff at the museums school. Last month, adjunct professors and lecturers at the school announced they would attempt to join them. Last week, Chicago employees at Intelligentsia Coffee announced they had filed with the NLRB to vote on unionizing with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which also represents workers at Colectivo Coffee. Last year, workers at Amazon warehouses in the city staged walkouts, as did employees at the El Milagro tortilla company. Both groups say their activism led to material gains in their workplaces. (Both companies dispute that worker activism led to those improvements.) Workers at Moline-based John Deere went on strike, as did workers at snack-food giant Mondelez. In the last couple of months, technicians at WTTW and graduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago went on strike before both groups reached agreements with their employers. Workers at two city McDonalds walked out in May. Workers, labor organizers and academics say the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an existing trajectory set in motion by low wages, income inequality, poor working conditions and a pervasive feeling among workers that they lack a voice on the job. And from hospitals to grocery stores, many workers took note of how their workplaces failed to protect them from the virus. I had to risk my life every single day to sell magnets, said Alexa Reymann, a retail sales associate at the Art Institutes museum store who returned to work in early 2021 before vaccines were widely available, and when many people on public transit eschewed masks. People really saw the willingness of their bosses to let them die, said Gabriel Winant, a labor historian at the University of Chicago. At the same time, said Robert Bruno, who directs the labor studies program at the University of Illinois, economic changes brought on by the pandemic, like a tight labor market, have given workers more leverage. Because of the pandemic, and supply chains and labor shortages, the conditions structurally have now aligned with their level of grievance and raised consciousness, Bruno said. And they feel and theyre correct to feel this way that they have more power. At first, some of Zureks fellow baristas at the Loop Starbucks were hesitant about signing union authorization cards, the first step toward seeking union representation. What turned the tide, Zurek said, was when a man came to the store in December, threatened and harassed people, then threatened to come back with a gun and shoot all of us. We had been asking for a security guard there for months, said Zurek, who uses the pronoun they. And the answer was always, Oh, weve got to wait to hear from Seattle and see what they say. The next morning, shift supervisors at the store had a meeting with corporate Starbucks employees, whom Zurek felt were dismissive of the baristas safety concerns. (About two weeks after the workers filed for a union election in January, Starbucks placed a security guard in the store, they said.) Starbucks did not respond to requests for comment on the shooting threat or its response. Shortly after the man threatened to shoot employees at the Loop Starbucks, he came back and glared and gestured at baristas from outside the store, Zurek said. Thats when the cards got signed, they said. Then it was very clear, this is how we keep ourselves safe, right? Because theyre not going to do it for us. Were the ones that are moving all the packages The first legal step workers take toward joining a union is to sign union authorization cards. If the majority of employees in a workplace sign cards, their employer may choose to voluntarily recognize their union. If the employer does not, the union drive moves to an election, which can occur when 30% of employees have signed authorization cards. After winning an election, workers bargain for a legally enforceable contract with their employer, a process that can take months to years. Labor organizers see a contract as the gold standard for workers to ensure better wages and treatment in a workplace. Even though there are things that we do enjoy about working there, theres no guarantee that theyre going to be there tomorrow, said Anna Feuer, an acquisitions and collections manager who works in the Art Institutes library, unless we put it in a contract and make sure that they cant take it away from us. The Art Institute union began bargaining with museum leadership in May. In a statement, a museum spokesperson said the Art Institute supported the right of staff to unionize, and said it looked forward to working toward an agreement that meets the needs of all parties while allowing all of us to continue to deliver on our mission of sharing our singular collections with our city and the world. The Art Institute also said it met or exceeded all local and state health guidelines during the time before vaccines were widely available. The museum heard and was responsive to staff concerns and made a number of accommodations, including for those who take public transportation, the museum spokesperson said. Public approval of unions in the U.S. is at 68%, the highest its been since 1965, according to Gallup polling. Union approval is higher among young people and people of color, with 74% of workers 18 to 24 saying theyd support a union in their workplace, a percentage that rises to 75% among Hispanic workers and 80% among Black workers, according to a White House task force report released in February. Black women were the demographic most likely to say theyd vote in favor of a union, with an approval rate of 82%. Those statistics arent surprising, said DeAngelo Bester, the executive director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice in Chicago. When youve been exploited on the job, or were excluded from jobs for years, you know that collective bargaining and collective action is the way to go, he said. Despite the uptick in organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, union membership in Illinois remains similar to pre-pandemic levels, with 13.9% of wage and salary workers in the state belonging to a union in 2021, compared with 13.6% in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, 10.3% of workers belonged to unions in 2021, the same percentage that belonged to unions in 2019. If were going to see the actual level of union density in this country change, its going to take the kind of activity were seeing now continuing and in fact growing over a period of years, rather than months, Winant said. Filing for an election with the NLRB can be a daunting process. Workers are often fearful they could lose their jobs or face other kinds of retaliation from companies. Federal law protects workers from being fired or retaliated against for union activity, but employers sometimes break the law. A 2019 analysis of unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB found that employers were accused of illegally firing workers in 20% to 30% of union elections. And the process of unionizing can take a long time. On average, it takes 409 days for a newly certified union to sign its first collective bargaining agreement, according to a 2021 analysis by Bloomberg Law. In Chicago, teachers at the Old Town School of Folk Music have been bargaining for their first contract after voting overwhelmingly to unionize with the Illinois Federation of Teachers more than three years ago. Speaking at a May rally outside the school in Ravenswood, the Rev. C.J. Hawking, the executive director of Arise Chicago, a workers rights organization, noted the organization had been working with the music teachers for four years. Sweet Lord! a member of the crowd called out. Sweet Lord, Hawking said. Can I get a witness? The schools executive director and CEO Jim Newcomb said he rejected the suggestion that the school is dragging out negotiations in any way, and said its relationship with the staff is 100% a partnership between the two teams at this point. Some employees who organize their workplaces choose not to pursue formal union elections with the NLRB. In Chicago, thats a strategy being taken by Amazon warehouse workers who are part of the group Amazonians United Chicagoland. A few days before Christmas 2021, Ted Miin, a Chicago Amazon worker, helped organize walkouts at Amazon facilities in Gage Park, where he works unloading and sorting packages for delivery, and in west suburban Cicero. Workers had learned that employees at other Amazon facilities had received raises that pushed wages up to $18 an hour; at the time, the starting wage at Miins Gage Park facility was $15.80 per hour, he said. Workers wanted $3 raises and sufficient staffing levels. Were the ones that are moving all the packages in here, said Miin, who has worked at Amazon for over three years and is a member of Amazonians United Chicagoland. About a month after the walkout, Miin said, workers won raises of about $2 per hour. Sufficient staffing is still a challenge, he said. In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Richard Rocha said the raises were part of a regular wage review process that occurred over several months. Miin said Amazon employees in Chicago, wary of turning their energy toward what could become a drawn-out legal process, dont plan to file for an election like the one in Staten Island. The group continues to organize; last week, workers at the Gage Park facility walked out in protest of a workers firing. Were happy for our coworkers trying this strategy, Miin said. For us, we would rather engage in the type of organizing were doing now. Laura Garza, worker center director at Arise Chicago, which has coordinated with El Milagro employees on their organizing campaigns, said many workers at the company would like to see a labor union represent them. Still, she said, there is fear of retaliation. Garza said shortly after employees sent a demand letter to the company last summer, El Milagro brought in a consultant from an anti-union firm, though workers were not seeking to form a union. Some employees are scared their immigration status could be used against them. It terrifies people, Garza said. Risking your own livelihood is not easy. Employers that are opposed to unions often argue that workers are better off without a union in between themselves and management, sometimes describing unions as middlemen or outsiders without workers best interests at heart. Starbucks has said it believes the company and its employees are better together as partners, without a union between us, for instance. I think some peoples perceptions sometimes of how a union comes to be in a workplace is a little skewed, said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Unions dont come about, Reiter said, when someone rolls up in a car one day with a bunch of union authorization cards. Most successful union organizing campaigns are organic, Reiter said. They start in the workplace and they build over time. A ripple effect Pedro Manzanares has worked for the El Milagro tortilla company for almost two decades. Over the last five years, he said, working conditions deteriorated as demand for the companys high-quality tortillas increased. Instead of hiring more workers, they just increased the speed of the production machines, said Manzanares, a member of the workers organizing committee at El Milagro. If they had the machines at 50%, they just rose it to 75% and kept the same number of workers, and there came a time when it tired us all. Last September, workers at Manzanares plant in Little Village walked out, protesting low pay and unsafe working conditions. In March, the Illinois Department of Labor found the company had committed flagrant violations of state labor law for allegedly denying workers proper meal breaks. In April, El Milagro workers announced some improvements in pay and working conditions, saying they were no longer required to work seven days a week and the company had installed air conditioning in lunchrooms. Manzanares, who said he had never received a raise of more than $1 at a time in his 19 years at the company, saw his salary increase from $15.30 to $18.50 an hour. He now works five days a week instead of six. The company has disputed the raises are the result of workers activism. It also disputes the Department of Labor findings, saying in April the company welcomes an unbiased review of the evidence, including facts that should have been considered as part of a fair and reasonable investigation. We have achieved some things in regard to salaries and work conditions, but there is still a long way to go, Manzanares said. And were not going to give up on this. After working with El Milagro employees, Arise heard from workers at the El Ranchero tortilla chip factory who said they had been inspired by the efforts at El Milagro, a ripple effect common with organizing campaigns, Garza said. Workers at El Ranchero, which is operated by a company called Authentico Foods, alleged during a public protest last month they had been unjustly fired after seeking support from Arise in addressing low pay and alleged labor law violations. The one thing that workers said to us, Garza said, was, Well, we saw what the workers at El Milagro did, and we said why cant we organize? Why cant we have our own demands of the company? In a statement, Authentico President Alejandro Castro said the company did not comment on employee concerns. We have an open-door policy through which our employees are welcome and encouraged to discuss and resolve their concerns with management, Castro said. We value our employees and always have their best interests in mind. Whether these ripple effects will translate into significant union growth in the U.S. remains to be seen. Winant said a renewal of the labor movement on a massive scale is unlikely without legislative or regulatory change. The NLRB, plagued by staffing and budget issues, lacks the capacity to administer unionization cases at a fast clip. Winant also said the agency lacks the legal teeth required to curb employers power. You need some legal mechanism, Winant said. And the legal mechanism is broken right now. In April, the NLRBs general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, filed a brief asking the board to reinstate a legal doctrine called Joy Silk, which would make it significantly easier for workers in the U.S. to join unions by requiring employers to recognize and bargain with most unions if the majority of workers sign union authorization cards. Despite challenges ahead, workers in Chicago speak about the future with cautious optimism. Reymann, the retail associate at the Art Institute museum store and a member of the museum workers bargaining committee, had never been in a union before the Art Institute staff voted for one. Many of her past jobs were not full time. I started working when I was 16 in a pizza shop in Ohio, she said. Ever since then, everything afterward has been retail. This is a new road that Im going down, Reymann said. For not just AIC, but for myself and for my colleagues. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Azernews By Osman Ozgan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey will conduct a counter-terrorism operation in the north of Syria to secure its southern borders, Yeni Shafak daily has reported. Addressing the Justice and Development (AK) Party's Parliamentary Group Meeting, Erdogan said that Tel Rifat and Manbij will be cleared of terrorists in the 5th operation to be carried out in Syria. We are entering a new phase of our decision to create a 30-kilometer-deep safe zone along our southern borders. We are clearing Tel Rifat and Manbij from terrorists. Then we will do the same, step by step in other regions. Let's see who will support these legitimate security steps of Turkey, who will try to hinder them," Erdogan stressed. Erdogan emphasized that the West, which is indifferent to the security problems and humanitarian tragedies along Turkey's southern borders, found itself in the middle of a similar crisis with a hot conflict that started in the north of the Black Sea. Those, who have faced a very small part of the burden for only 3 months and started to clamor, we have been dealing with it for 11 years. Those, who used their opportunities to increase their own welfare instead of contributing to the security alliances, for which Turkey bore all the burden for years, came to NATO's door after the Ukraine crisis. Swedish and Finnish applications for NATO membership is the product of such a process, Erdogan stressed. Speaking about Sweden and Finland's possible admission to NATO, Erdogan stated that Turkey will reject their membership as long as these nations support terrorist organizations. We immediately and openly declared that we are against the NATO membership of both countries because of their support to the terrorist organization PKK and its affiliates. NATO is a security agency. NATO is not a support organization for terrorist organizations, Erdogan emphasized. The Turkish leader said that the words of those, who host the representatives of the terrorist organization PKK and its affiliates at the highest level, that they respect Turkey's efforts in the fight against terrorism, are not credible. Will a country that is so intertwined with terrorist organizations take a resilient stance against the common enemy? Will those who refer to our effort to secure our southern borders from terrorists as an "occupation" stand with us against the common enemy? We will not change our stance until we find satisfactory, conclusive, clear answers to these questions and see binding documents, Erdogan emphasized. The Turkish president also commented on the recent manners of Greece, underlining that from Libya to Karabakh there are chants of victory wherever Turkey supports its brothers. We have and are breaking every plot made on our region that will have negative consequences for us, he said. Recalling that Turkey made a High-Level Strategic Council agreement with Greece a while ago, Erdogan said that Turkey canceled that agreement due to Greeces irresponsible manners. I informed my foreign minister as well. We broke our agreement with Greece at the High-Level Strategic Council. By eliminating this agreement, I informed my colleagues that we no longer have bilateral conversations with them, and you won't either. Because Greece is heading in the wrong direction," Erdogan added. A former nurse in Winston-Salem was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in federal prison. Investigators said she injected herself with opioids and replaced the drug which was supposed to be administered to surgical patients with saline solution. Emilee Kathryn Poteat, 32, of Danville, Virginia, worked at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center. She pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Dec. 8, 2021, to one count of tampering with a consumer product. U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs sentenced Poteat to four years, six months in federal prison. Poteat also has to pay a $3,000 fine and, when she gets out of prison, she will be on three years of supervised release, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of North Carolina. Poteat is already serving a three year prison sentence for tampering with consumer products at Sovah Health-Danville hospital. Poteat was a registered nurse licensed by the Virginia Board of Nursing. From July to November 2020, she worked as a contract nurse in the Clinical Pre/Post Procedure Unit at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Poteat had access to a machine that stored vials of injectable hydromorphone, an opioid derived from morphine, according to court documents. At Forsyth Medical Center, the drugs are stored in sealed vials locked inside drawers. The only way to access the drug is with an authorized fingerprint and a password. A nurse or other authorized personnel also has to enter the specific prescription information for an actual patient before getting the drugs. Poteat removed the vials containing hydromorphone and injected the drug into herself. Then she injected saline solution into the vials to cover her tracks and used glue to replace the lids on the vials, according to federal prosecutors. Poteat put the contaminated vials back into their containers, resealed them and put them back into the locked drawers, knowing that CPPU nurses might administer the compromised and tampered-with vials of injectable hydromorphone to surgical patients at the hospital, the news release said. The hospital gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration three suspect vials of injectable hydromorphone. The FDA laboratory showed that each of the vials had been tampered with and that two of the vials were missing their seals. One vial didnt have its cap cover and tamper seal. According to court papers, that one vial showed evidence that a hypodermic needle had been inserted to remove the drug and replace it with saline solution. An investigator said Poteat admitted that she had tampered with the vials of hydromorphone. Poteat stated that she removed the vials from the Pyxes machine, went to the bathroom, drew down the drugs and injected them into her bloodstream, court documents said. Poteat was accused of doing the same thing in Danville. In a February news release, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia said that, beginning in January 2020, Poteat diverted and tampered with vials of fentanyl and injectable hydromorphone that was intended for patients at Sovah Health-Danville. On May 19, 2020, the hospital discovered that the tops of several vials had been either removed or tampered with. Out of 20 vials of fentanyl that were inspected, 14 of them had tops that popped off while the remaining ones had tops that fell off when they were touched. One of the vials had a dry white film around the rim that appeared to be superglue, according to the news release. Investigators said Poteat was interviewed three times before she admitted that she had tampered with the drugs and that she had a substance abuse problem. According to the Virginia Department of Health Professions website, Poteats license is currently suspended. 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. Expanding Medicaid coverage to between 450,000 and 650,000 North Carolinians is now in the hands of the N.C. House after the N.C. Senate gave final approval Thursday to a bipartisan, multilayered healthcare reform bill. House Bill 149 was approved by a 44-1 vote on third reading, despite objections from the the states not-for-profit health-care systems. The bill would change how the state handles requests for new medical services and equipment. Not-for-profit hospital worry that change would allow large for-profit groups to offer only more lucrative services, leaving not-for-profits systems to treat the sickest patients, likely without health insurance, who come into emergency departments. The bill is also expected to get a lukewarm reception in the N.C. House. Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, has signaled there is little expectation the chamber will take up the bill before the projected end of the 2022 session in early July. Thats even though HB149 contains a controversial work requirement pushed by House GOP leadership in 2020-21. HB149 also has several years-long GOP healthcare priorities, such as loosening certificate-of-need medical laws to make North Carolina more attractive to for-profit groups. The quid-pro-quo nature of HB149 reflects the reality that few, if any, of the healthcare reform elements could advance to a Senate vote in a standalone bill. CON laws A key element of HB149 is changes to the states certificate-of-need (CON) laws. Those certificates are required from state health regulators before providers can build new health care centers or add certain equipment. The goal of the CON process is limiting unnecessary duplication of services in a community. Sens. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, and Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, have favored for years non-Medicaid expansion solutions for healthcare reform. Krawiec and Hise have said that easing CON laws to allow competition from for-profit groups for ambulatory surgical centers and equipment could serve to lower the cost to patients of many elective and outpatient procedures, such as knee replacement and colonoscopy. This comprehensive strategy will reduce the cost and increase the availability of care across the state while offering a lifeline for our rural hospitals, Hise said. Krawiec and Hise have cited Republican talking points that Medicaid expansion, as proposed in HB149, is preferable to having the federal government force the 12 non-expansion states into cooperating. There is no public evidence the Biden administration is considering compelling expansion to those states. However, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Biden administration has denied Medicaid expansion waivers from several states, such as Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and Texas, that would have required new enrollee to pay a monthly premium and/or meet a work requirement. The N.C. Healthcare Association responded to HB149 clearing the Senate by applauding the Medicaid expansion language and the potential of an additional $1.5 billion in federal funding to the state. But, the association also warned about a potential consumer impact of the CON section of the bill. The NCHA said HB149 contains troubling language that will erode hospitals ability to care for their community and negatively impact the relationship between patients and their providers. The NCHA has warned in that scenario, healthcare costs would go up for most patients since there would be a greater likelihood of hospitals absorbing more bad debt patients choosing not to make payments who can afford them and increased demand for charitable care write-offs. All of which has the NCHA still proposing that legislators decouple those (Medicaid expansion) provisions from the remaining harmful provisions even though legislative analysts say it would derail HB149 from reaching Gov. Roy Cooper. The NCHA defends current CON laws by saying hospitals do not operate in a traditional free-market environment that CON opponents want to establish in North Carolina. Hospitals have a moral and legal obligation to care for all regardless of the patients ability to pay, the NCHA said. When hospitals provide care without adequate reimbursement, costs rise for everyone, including for those with insurance. Modifying the current CON law would hurt the stability of rural hospitals by carving out elective and outpatient procedures, which are the lifeblood of community hospitals, while allowing niche medical organizations without such federal regulation to cater to commercially insured patients. The NCHA said the latest version of HB149 would make telehealth services which have surged in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic subject to more insurance sector bureaucracy to make it harder for providers to care for patients through modern technology. Next steps HB149 cleared the House by a 113-1 vote on May 6, 2021, when it was solely about requiring health benefit plan coverage for the delivery of healthcare services through telehealth. Senate bill sponsors of HB149 added the Medicaid expansion language, as well as other healthcare elements, to HB149 on May 26, 2022. Because the Senate amended HB149, the House could accept and approve the changes, which sends the bill to Cooper. More likely, House Republican leadership will express concerns about, if not reject, some of the added Senate legislation. In that event, a concurrence committee could be formed by the two chambers to address their differences, which could take days, weeks or months to resolve, if at all. Legislature analysts question whether House Republican leadership believes there is enough time over the next four weeks to pursue the concurrence committee effort. Rep. Donny Lambeth of Forsyth, the lead Republican proponent of Medicaid expansion in the House, said Thursday that I do not anticipate that the House will take up the Senate bill. The short session is dedicated to updating the (state) budget, and lots of work is going on related to the budget. Some House Republican leaders, including Lambeth, have said they prefer that a joint oversight legislative committee complete its work this fall and make recommendations before voting on HB149. The committee held several meetings before the start of the 2022 session as part of a 2021 state budget compromise reached between Cooper and Republican legislative leaders. The Access committee did great work, but that committee did not finish its work or make a recommendation to the General Assembly. That committee needs to finish its work, Lambeth said. Berger said Wednesday that for HB149 to become law, there are 120 (House legislators) on the other side of this building that weve got to start work on. Im going to do my part of that, and I ask that all of you do it as well. Background Medicaid currently covers 2.71 million North Carolinians, which increased by nearly 27% or 588,611 people since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Those who might be eligible under the expanded program are between the ages of 18 and 64 and earn too much to qualify for Medicaid coverage, but not enough to purchase coverage on the private insurance marketplace. A sizable portion of enrollees during the pandemic likely would qualify for expansion coverage. Perhaps the most controversial element in HB149 is a Republican-backed work requirement, which could disqualify the state from receiving federal COVID-19 relief money. The proposed work requirement for new Medicaid recipients has received grudging support from some Democratic legislators. The federal relief law would provide North Carolina $1.5 billion over two years to treat traditional Medicaid patients if it accepts expansion and, most important, agrees to not put stipulations on enrollees. Legislative fiscal research analysis staff told legislators last week they did not believe North Carolina would be eligible for the relief money if HB149 contains the work requirement provision. Berger said May 25 the plan is to pass the bill with the work requirement included, and then well deal with whether or not we can convince the Biden administration or the courts that this is the right thing to do. Berger said that, while the work requirement is being litigated, unemployed enrollees would remain eligible and not be denied. An approved amendment submitted by Hise would require the state Department of Health and Human Services to submit to the CDC within 30 days of the bill becoming law any waiver necessary to implement the work requirements intended to be a contingency for participation in NC Health Works. If CDC denies the NC Health Works waiver request, the department is required to resubmit the waiver if there are new developments from the CDC. Lambeth cited Thursday the work requirement language does need some work before the House would take it up. The work requirement is not likely to be approved by CMS. That is what they have signaled to us. So, we should shift to an optional jobs-training program, which many states are now using in lieu of a work requirement. 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 state Senate cast a historic vote Thursday on a proposal to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. Bipartisan Senate Bill 711 is the latest attempt at medical marijuana in North Carolina and the first to ever receive a vote on the Senate floor. It passed Thursdays reading 35-10, with eight Republicans and two Democrats voting against. A third vote is set for Monday's floor session that is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., but is likely to be delayed until early evening. If approved, SB711 would then move to the N.C. House, where experts say an uphill battle awaits. This bill is designed to help people who often cant help themselves, Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, the primary sponsor of the legislation, said during Thursdays floor debate. Although Rabon did not use medical marijuana as part of his treatment for cancer, he said his own experience, coupled with discussions with other cancer patients, convinced him of the need for making the option available. It can help a number of people at the end of their life at a time that they need compassion what time they have left should be as comfortable and as easy as they can be, Rabon said. Theres not anyone in this room who has not had someone in their family, or a close friend, that could have benefited from this legislation. Sens. Wiley Nickel, D-Wake, and Kirk deViere, D-Cumberland, said their support for the latest medical marijuana bill comes from the benefits it could provide to military veterans living in North Carolina, particularly those dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Nickel cited his father, who died from cancer and used marijuana illegally to ease his pain in his final months. It will allow people to legally and safely enjoy the time they have left, Rabon said. I really believe this is going to do that. Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, voted no after her amendment was tabled. It would have allowed more North Carolina hemp growers, manufacturers and retailers to participate in the medicinal marijuana pipeline. House considerations If approved on third reading, SB711 will be sent to the N.C. House for discussion. Its unclear whether a House vote will occur given expectations that the short session will end by early July and because the House Republican leadership is focused on the 2022-23 state budget. Legislative analysts caution that House Republicans tend to be more conservative on socioeconomic issues, such as medical marijuana. If all 53 House Democrats voted for the medical marijuana proposal, it still would require eight GOP votes for SB711 to pass the chamber in its current form. It is likely House GOP leadership would tweak the bill. Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said Thursday she defers to House GOP members on the likelihood of the House passing the Senates medical marijuana bill. The Senate bill is a much narrower version of the bills we have been filing, Harrison said. I was hoping it is narrow enough that it could garner the necessary House support, but it does appear that the Republican caucus is very split on the issue. That said, it is long past time to enact this important legislation that could provide needed relief for many North Carolinians. Potential opposition from House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and House majority leader John Bell IV, R-Johnston, could derail the vote during the current session, said John Dinan, a Wake Forest University political science professor and national expert on state legislatures. At this point, we have to rely on the comments of (Moore and Bell), who have cast significant doubt on plans to consider medical marijuana legalization or Medicaid expansion this session, Dinan said. That increases the likelihood that the bills would be considered again next year by newly elected House and Senate members. 12-year journey SB711 is the latest in numerous attempts over the past 12 years to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The bill has been on an arduous path since being introduced during the 2021 session. It requires the medical marijuana system to pay for itself following initial money to set up the system. The funding would come mostly from license fees and a monthly fee equal to 10% of the gross revenue derived from the products sold at medical cannabis centers. The bill previously was amended to reduce the number of medical cannabis centers from eight to four, two of which would be located in the states 20 Tier 1 counties likely Mecklenburg and in the Triangle. Forsyth and Guilford counties are in Tier 2. During Thursdays floor debate, bipartisan sponsors and supporters pointed to examples of how medical marijuana could benefit constituents. Opponents expressed concern that the legislation would serve as a gateway to legalized marijuana in North Carolina by 2024; that the licensing fee for vendors is too low; that a license should not be be sold; and that the potential profit levels need to be lowered. Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, who has been among the bills skeptics, was not present for Thursdays vote. Sen. Paul Lowe, R-Forsyth, who is a co-sponsor, voted yes. Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Lee, said he voted against SB711 because of his concern that it would allow Big Marijuana to flourish in North Carolina following legislative efforts to limit the influence of Big Tobacco. Marijuana does not treat the ill, but only masks the symptoms, he said. Sen. Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, has questioned the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana. He also said he was concerned legislators would be removed from the regulatory process so that it would be left up to doctors to determine who qualifies for medical marijuana. But Hise voted yes Thursday. Rabon called SB711 the tightest, best-written bill, seeing what other states did wrong and trying to omit those pitfalls. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to do this, and we jumped through them the right way. We have been calculating, methodical, written and rewritten, taken things out, taken advice to come up with a final product that every person in the legislature can be proud of. That included his amendment Thursday that would bar physicians from advertising that they offer medical marijuana. It also addressed potential conflicts of interest between physicians, independent testing laboratories and suppliers. It will be, from start to finish, traceable and trackable to every single supplier, grower, manufacturer Rabon said. Lowe said his support comes from his belief that the use of medical marijuana will help many North Carolinians with their chronic and debilitating health issues. Our citizens should be able to take part in medicine that will help them, compared with using opioids as painkillers, he said. 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 N.C. Senate is set to cast a potentially historic vote Thursday on legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes in North Carolina. Bipartisan Senate Bill 711, titled NC Compassionate Care Act, is on the agenda for Thursdays noon floor session for the first of two potential votes of approval. The Senate Rules and Operations committee recommended SB711 Wednesday following about 40 minutes of debate among legislators and a series of public speakers. If the Senate approves SB711 Thursday for what is known as the second reading, it advances to a required third reading where more limited debate occurs. The third reading is likely to take place in session Monday or Tuesday since the bill has statewide financial implications. SB711 is the latest in several attempts over the past 12 years to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The bill has been on an arduous path since being introduced during the 2021 session. Before Wednesdays recommendation from the Rules and Operations Committee, it cleared, in order, the Judiciary, Finance, Judiciary a second time and Health Care committees the latter on Aug. 26. Opponents, who included Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, expressed concern that the legislation would serve as a gateway to legalized marijuana in North Carolina by 2024; that the licensing fee for vendors is too low; that a license should not be allowed to be sold; and that the potential profit levels need to be lowered. The pathway through the state House could be equally daunting, if not more so, according to political analysts. Key supporters The bills odds of clearing the Senate are considered promising given that Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, and chairman of Rules committee, is one of its three primary sponsors, along with Sens. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, and Michael Lee, R-New Hanover. Rabon, a cancer survivor, has said the legislation would not serve as a gateway to recreational marijuana use. After explaining the key details of the bill during the Rules and Operations meeting, Rabon cited several statewide polls that demonstrate strong bipartisan and socioeconomic support for limited legalization of medical marijuana with a doctors prescription. It is hard for me to ever say that I have seen a poll, in my 40 years in the political spectrum, where there are 78% to 82% approval rates ... except on whether water is wet, Rabon said. Rabon said 37 states have approved some form of medical marijuana. It is my opinion that no state has done it as well as were attempting to do it. It is the tightest, best written bill, seeing what other states did wrong and trying to omit those pitfalls, Rabon said. We want to give citizens of this state who need and deserve compassion in their care, and this bill does nothing more than that. Several legislators praised the deliberate and open-minded approach that Rabon and other bill sponsors have taken in shepherding SB711 to the Senate floor. Lowe said his support comes from his belief that the use of medical marijuana will help many North Carolinians with their chronic and debilitating health issues. Our citizens should be able to take part in medicine that will help them, compared with using opioids as painkillers, Lowe said. Background The bill requires the medical marijuana system to pay for itself following initial money to set up the system. The funding would come mostly from license fees and a monthly fee equal to 10% of the gross revenue derived from the products sold at the medical cannabis centers. The bill previously was amended to reduce the number of medical cannabis centers from eight to four, two of which would be located in one of the states 20 Tier 1 counties likely Mecklenburg and in the Triangle. Forsyth and Guilford counties are in Tier 2. Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, has said the reason for not having revenue projections yet is that North Carolinas approach is different from that of other states with medical marijuana laws. There really are no projections on how many North Carolinians will be eligible, and there is no best-practice legislation to look at, Lee said. Opposing views Sen. Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, has questioned the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana. Where are the FDA recommendations on medical marijuana? Hise asked during the Health Care committee debate. What is the one thing they say it treats or cures? I know this bill has its path, but this is not about patients and receiving treatments. This is about placing North Carolina on a path that will make it more acceptable to legalize marijuana. Hise said that while I applaud many of the things theyve done in this bill, he expressed concern that additional patient care exceptions will be added in future sessions if SB711 becomes law and that legislators will be removed from the regulatory process and leave it up to doctors to determine who qualifies. Maybe society is changing to accept this, Hise said. I just didnt want to be part of taking the first steps. Several public speakers during Wednesdays committee meeting repeated concerns about the bill serving as a gateway to recreational marijuana use or that the medical benefits dont outweigh the societal impact. Restrictive bill Bill sponsors and other senators supporting the legislation have said it represents what Sen. Wally Nickel, D-Wake, called the most conservative and restrictive medical marijuana bill in the country. This bill is narrowly tailored to offer medical marijuana to those with legitimate medical needs, Nickel said. As a primary reason for legalization, the bill says modern medical research has found that cannabis and cannabinoid compounds are effective at alleviating pain, nausea and other symptoms associated with several debilitating medical conditions. Recreational marijuana use is not something we want in our state, Lee said, but added that the prohibition should not keep North Carolina from doing the right thing for people with chronic and debilitating conditions. Lowe has said bill sponsors reviewed legislation in other states in piecing together SB711. We realized that, for some states, it has worked out well, while for others it was just a recreational product, Lowe said. Thats not the goal with this particular bill 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. Shani Fleming is an associate professor in the Physician Assistant Leadership and Learning Academy at the University of Maryland Baltimore Graduate School in Baltimore, Md. Bettie Coplan is an associate professor in the PA program at Northern Arizona University in Phoenix, Ariz. Deanna Bridge Najera works at the Carroll County Health Department in Westminster, Md., and practices in the ED at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, Md. Delilah Dominguez practices at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. Patricia J. Devine is director of community outreach and the HEALWA program at the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise. The views expressed in this article are the authors' own and do not reflect those of their employers. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank Diane Bruessow, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, and Christina Wojnarwsky, PA-C, MPH, ATC, for their assistance with this manuscript. Article In Brief Mohamed Elashwal left his family and life in Saudi Arabia for a clinical rotation and research position at Yale. Now he is heading to Yale for a neurology residency. For the early years of his life, Mohamed Elashwal lived in Tanta, Egypt, surrounded by his brothers, mother, father, and extended family. It was an idyllic time, with weekends spent in the Egyptian countryside at property his family owned, filled with apple and orange orchards, mangoes, and figs. As a child, Elashwal recalled, he was a deep thinker and always inquisitive. He loved listening to the stories his mother, a pediatrician, shared about her patients and asked questions about scientific findings. So too, from an early age, did he carry a strong moral compass. At the age of 5, when a neighborhood boy made fun of his aunt, who with her father (Mohamed's grandfather) had achondroplasia, a skeletal problem that leads to dwarfism, he stood up to he child in a gentle way. Elashwal's life changed when he moved from Egypt at the age of ten when his parents decided to pull up their roots for better opportunities for their three sons, and themselves. They moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a community with three million other Egyptians. When we moved from the environment where I was surrounded by all my close family and friends I had made since childhood, I realized that I left a part of myself with them, said Elashwal. I remember to this day the moment we got the visa to travel. I was with my grandmother and was so happy and excited. But then once I made eye contact with her, I felt an outpouring of tears because I realized then I would be leaving her. But Elashwal did adjust to his new environment. He did well in school, and when it was time to go off to college, Elashwal applied and was accepted to Alfaisal University, a new private school in Riyadh, where he would study medicine. At 18 years old, Elashwal was still unsure what being a doctor really meant. But things came together one class at a time, and he came to appreciate the responsibility of taking care of people when they are most vulnerable, he said, adding, If you can empower patients to understand their disease, they are better able to deal with things. If you can empower patients to understand their disease, they are better able to deal with things.MOHAMED ELASHWAL During his first clinical year nothing excited him until the first day of his neurology rotation on morning report. He literally sat on the edge of his seat listening to the neurologist explain the first case. Myasthenia gravis, he shouted even before his hand went up to answer the question of what the symptoms suggested. I was hooked. It was love at first sight. In 2018, he traveled beyond the Middle East for the first time. The medical student was offered a spot as a research assistant at Yale University School of Medicine and worked for John Elefteriades, a cardiac surgeon. He would return to Yale again September 2021 for a clinical rotation and worked on clinical trials with multiple sclerosis patients. At Yale, he remembers one woman with Wernike-Korsakoff's dementia. He would arrive to her bedside everyday and she would never remember who he was. He could tell that she was heartbroken by her condition. And one day, out of the blue, she said: You think I am crazy? He offered her comfort in the few seconds that she seemed to be herself, and she smiled. Within moments, she was gone again. It is this social part of medicine that is so gratifying to me, he said. In March of 2021, he texted the associate program director at Yale on Twitter and a month later applied for a neurology elective. He also attended the virtual AAN Annual Meeting and saw the associate program director in the virtual poster room and he said he hadn't forgotten him. After doing his neurology rotation he was convinced Yale was the place to go for his residency. He was able to get an interview right before he was set to fly home. The 10-minute virtual interview was with the chair of the department followed by another four-hour interview with the residency program team. Jeremy Moeller, MD, FAAN, the neurology residency program director, told Elashwal that he had just received a phone call from the attending who worked with him; he gave him a stellar recommendation. All Elashwal had to do was wait. That waiting ended on March 18, when he was notified that he had matched to Yale. His parents were with him when he read the email. His mother videotaped his learning about his acceptance. Elashwah said he intends to keep the video for when he is an older version of himself to see how far he has come. He knows where he is going, at least for the next four years. After that, he will decide whether he wants to practice neurology in the US or take what he has learned back home. He is not sure that he will have the kind of access to neurology patients in Saudi Arabia, but he has lots of learning before that time will come to decide. Lincoln police have kept quiet publicly about a shooting that left two men dead in a central Lincoln duplex early May 22. But in search warrants filed in Lancaster County District Court, investigators described a deadly shootout between Patricio Urias and Zachariah Palomo (identified in the documents only by their initials and month and year of their births), and a third man caught in the crossfire. Chief Teresa Ewins this week declined to provide additional information about the case, citing the still ongoing investigation. But last week, Police Sgt. Trent Petersen and Officer Chris Fields gave additional detail in affidavits asking a Lincoln judge for permission to search the duplex at 230 N. 30th St. and the contents of an iPhone seized from the surviving victim, 19-year-old Jose Soto, at the hospital. Petersen said starting at 2:21 a.m. multiple 911 calls sent officers to 30th and P streets, where they were directed to the basement and police found Urias, 42, and Palomo, 26, both shot several times. Despite efforts to save them, they died at the scene, which reflected a violent fight to the death. "Bullet holes were observed in the basement bathroom walls, and bullet casings scattered about the main basement living room and bathroom entrance," Petersen wrote. He said they appeared to have been fired from two different-caliber firearms. At a news conference after the killings, police said they found two firearms at the scene. A .45-caliber handgun located between the living room and bathroom door, and a shotgun that left holes in the living room ceiling. Petersen said blood was on the bathroom floor, the basement living room floor and basement bedroom. A trail of it led from the living room out of the house and to a parking lot. There was more on the stairs from the south entrance door that led to the basement. A witness told police the two men had gone into the basement bathroom together, where people went to use drugs, then the gunshots started. That's when Soto, who was near the bathroom door, was hit by gunfire. He called 911, and a woman at the party when the shooting started took him to the hospital. This week, when asked for additional details including whether police at this stage in the investigation believe anyone else was involved in the shooting, the number of shots fired and amount of drugs found at the scene Capt. Todd Kocian said the department would hold a news conference when its investigation is completed. The homicide capped a violent four-day span in Lincoln that left three men, including Urias and Polomo, dead and several others injured. On May 19, 57-year-old Henry Lee Jones was killed in a fight outside his central Lincoln home. Two people, Derrick Pearson and Briana Jelinek, face charges of manslaughter and first-degree assault in what police described as a confrontation in a property dispute. Early May 21, three people were injured by gunfire on a sidewalk outside Gravity after an altercation inside the night club near 11th and O streets. No arrests have been reported surrounding that incident. Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger Love 1 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. A man was arrested Thursday afternoon after a standoff that lasted several hours at a house near 13th and D streets. Law enforcement officers with the Lincoln Police Department, Lancaster County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Marshals Service gathered outside the Lincoln home Thursday afternoon in what the police department called a "tactical situation." The significant police presence, which included an armored sheriff's office vehicle, continued for several hours. Authorities communicated with the man through a megaphone, urging him to come out of the home. A loud bang was heard by reporters in the area around 4:30 p.m. SWAT and K-9 units entered the house around 5 p.m. and came out with a young man in handcuffs around 5:45 p.m. 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. Evelyn Mejia News intern Evelyn Mejia is a news intern and current sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She covers breaking news and writes feature stories about her community. Follow Evelyn Mejia Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today An inmate who went missing from the Community Corrections Center-Lincoln last week has been arrested, according to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. James Crihfield was granted permission for a personal furlough to go to a local hospital on Wednesday. An alert indicated he removed the electronic monitoring device he was wearing. The Lincoln Police Department arrested him on Sunday, the Corrections Department said. He was booked in the Lancaster County jail. Crihfield began a 43-month sentence on July 14, 2021. He was convicted of multiple charges of theft by deception and second degree forgery all out of Lancaster County. He was tentatively set for release on Oct. 11. CCC-L is one of two community custody facilities in the state's prison system where inmates are allowed to participate in work opportunities, attend school and religious services with prior approval and without direct supervision. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Azernews By Economy Service Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called on Turkish businessmen to invest in his country, Yeni Shafak newspaper reports. Sharif, who was in Turkey on an official visit at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made the remarks at the Turkey-Pakistan Business Forum, organized by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB). I invite all Turkish business people to my country. We have learned from mistakes we made in the past. I am not making any political accusations. We will roll out the red carpet in our country and serve you Turkish coffee, Sharif said. In addition to Prime Minister Sharif, Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Trade Minister Mehmet Mus, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan Federal Trade Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Pakistan Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pakistan's Ambassador to Ankara Muhammed Syrus Sajjad Qazi, TOBB President Rifat Hisarciklioglu and many Turkish and Pakistani business people attended the forum. Speaking at the forum, Sharif drew attention to the fact that Turkey is a country that has made great progress in recent years thanks to its visionary and dynamic leader Erdogan. Turkey is a country that has the world's leading contractors. It carries out many successful construction and infrastructure projects around the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia," he underlined. Pointing out that $1.1 billion in the trade volume between the two countries is an insufficient figure, Sharif said: Unfortunately, the fraternal relationship between Turkey and Pakistan is not adequately reflected in trade relations. Economic barriers and obstacles between the two countries should be overcome. Whatever is necessary should be done in this regard. The prime minister emphasized that they aim to increase the trade volume between Turkey and Pakistan to the level of $5 billion in three years. We have everything necessary for this. When that happens, I will be the happiest person, he added. Stating that they learned from some wrong practices of the past, Sharif sincerely apologized to Turkish business people who had been mistreated in Pakistan. I apologize to you for what had happened in the past, I express my regret. I apologize to you for whatever has been done against Turkish business people," he said. Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus said that the trade volume between the two countries is approaching $1 billion. Despite the Covid-19 outbreak in 2021, our trade with Pakistan increased by 22.5 percent compared to the previous year. During President Erdogan's visits to Pakistan, a target of $5 billion was set. When we look at the first four months of this year, there is an increase of approximately seven percent compared to the same period of the previous year. This is pleasing, but we are far behind the level, Mus stressed. According to Mus, the discussions on the trade agreement between the two nations are underway and they believe that with the contract in question, the objective of $5 billion would be exceeded first, followed by further targets. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President, Rifat Hisarciklioglu, emphasized that although Turkey and Pakistan have close relations in every field, the trade volume between them is insufficient. Our mutual investments are also not at the level we want. Turkey's total direct investments in Pakistan are around $1 billion. There are a total of 233 Pakistani capital firms in Turkey. In the 2000-2020 period, the amount of direct investment made by Pakistani companies in our country is around $691 million. Our contracting companies have realized important projects in Pakistan as well as all over the world. 71 projects worth approximately $3.5 billion have been successfully completed by our companies, he noted. Hisarciklioglu added that the business community is concerned about protectionist trade practices and that a well-designed free trade agreement between the two nations would be advantageous. As a businessman, our most important problem is visa-related. We are friends, we are brothers. Visa application stands before us as a serious obstacle in front of trade. At least we need to save the business world from this visa problem. Support us. Let's do more mutual trade," he emphasized. Last October, a small group of ambassadors from the International Quilt Museum ventured to New York to visit with 91-year-old Joanna S. Rose, who was gifting them her extensive collection of red and white quilts. Rose died three weeks later, but not before passing on her legacy. And what a legacy it is. Her collection, gathered over years of searching flea markets and antique stores, features 650 quilts that represent three centuries and various hues of red and white. Last month, the quilt museum opened a show featuring the Rose collection that will run through the middle of September. "It's spectacular," said longtime Lincoln resident Sally Campbell, a former president of the Lincoln Quilters Guild. "It's going to blow people's minds." There are so many mind-blowing aspects to this story, from packing and transportation of a collection that has been appraised in the neighborhood of $650,000 to the exhibit itself, which could only feature 81 quilts because of the museum's limited space to the way people are flocking to see it. "We've had our two biggest months ever," said Carolyn Ducey, the quilt museum's curator. "It's always gratifying to hear the gasps out of people who come here to see this show. We've gotten that." Ducey was charged with the unenviable task of paring the exhibit to 81 a far cry from when, for her 80th birthday, Rose's husband Daniel spent more than $1 million to showcase all 650 quilts for five days in the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. At that time, it was the largest exhibition of quilts ever held in New York. "It was an amazing show," Ducey said. "We tried to follow their lead in setting up our show. It took three months to develop and there was a lot of back and forth." Unlike the Park Avenue Armory, which featured high ceilings and allowed the exhibit to be set up with some of the quilts spiraling vertically from the rafters, the quilt museum is limited by 16-foot ceilings. "We tried to keep in mind the armory show and be just as creative," Ducey said. "With a red and white collection, you'd be surprised at the different colors and different hues." One of the most eye-catching quilts was created in 1860 by a woman named Lavinia Rose (no relation to Joanna) in Cortland, New York. She married into a blended family with 11 children and this particular quilt signed and featuring a religious message was made for her oldest stepson. "I'm always thrilled when we have a known name," Ducey said. "We can find out quite a bit about them through census records." It's one of the things that makes the quilts so interesting, Campbell said. Every one of them has a story. Each of them is a piece of history. "That's the fascinating part," she said. Getting the quilts here required a large moving truck and plenty of cardboard to box each quilt, meticulously folded, separately. In addition, they were frozen while in transit to kill any bugs or insect eggs, which have been known to damage quilt collections. Once in Lincoln, they were moved to the on-site storage rooms at the museum. With the red and white collection, the International Quilt Museum now has more than 8,000 quilts in its possession. Joanna knew that we were going to be able to take care of her collection and that was hugely important to her, Ducey said. There are not a lot of museums that would be able to absorb this number of quilts. "... The fact that the show is all red and white quilts, and that Nebraska is all red and white, it fits the International Quilt Museum on a whole other level." Reach the writer at 402-473-7391 or psangimino@journalstar.com. On Twitter @psangimino 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. A 23-year-old rural Dodge man died in a farm tractor rollover crash on Wednesday morning. Samuel Christensen was northbound on County Road 4, south of Dodge, when the crash occurred, the Dodge County Sheriffs Office reported. Deputies were dispatched at 7:24 a.m. to the scene, which is about a mile south of Nebraska 91. An investigation showed that Christensen was driving a John Deere tractor pulling a baler, when the tractor entered the east ditch of the roadway and rolled over, coming to rest in a farm field. Christensen was pronounced dead at the scene. Family members became concerned when Christensen did not return home when expected. Dodge Fire and Rescue personnel assisted at the scene. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 June 10 is the deadline for mail-in and online voter registration for the June 28 special election. Anyone registering to vote for the first time or voters who have moved, changed their name, or want to change their political party affiliation must have the mail-in registration form postmarked no later than June 10, according to Lancaster County Election Commissioner David Shively. The June 28 special election congressional election will decide who will serve the remaining six months of what had been 1st District Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's ninth term. Two state senators were chosen by their respective political parties: Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks and Republican Mike Flood. They both will also square off in the Nov. 8 general election in a battle for a two-year term after winning the primary vote. Voter registration is available online at nebraska.gov/apps-sos-voter-registration/if a voter has a Nebraska drivers license or state identification card. Mail-in registration forms are available at most post offices, banks and libraries. In addition, voters may download a voter registration form from the election commissioners website and mail it to the election office. The website address is: lancaster.ne.gov/election. Residents may also register to vote in person at the Election Commissioners office, 601 N. 46th St., Lincoln, NE 68503 through June 17. Questions?: Call 402-441-7311. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Iowa authorities were searching for a 20-year-old woman who is feared drowned after a boat sank late Sunday in the Missouri River near the town of Modale. The Harrison County Sheriff's Office said it was contacted about 11:55 p.m. Sunday about a boat that took on water and sank with a woman aboard. The boat reportedly sank just south of the Remington Boat Launch. According to a report from Washington County in Nebraska, deputies were at the Cottonwood Marina in Blair about 11:30 p.m. Sunday when they learned about the missing woman. Witnesses told the deputies that a woman was asleep in the cabin of the boat when it sank. Several people who were on the boat had to be rescued, authorities said. First responders included deputies from Harrison and Washington counties as well as several area fire departments, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Southwest Iowa Dive Team and the Yutan (Nebraska) Dive Team. Recovery efforts were suspended Monday night because of hazardous weather conditions but were set to resume when conditions improved. Anyone with information about this incident may contact the Iowa Department of Natural Resources at 515-725-8200 or the Harrison County Sheriffs Office 712-644 2244. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The widespread adoption of remote work across the U.S. has left local employers learning to compete with out-of-state companies offering big-city salaries. The magnitude of the change over the last two years is staggering. In January 2020, fewer than 3% of applications for U.S. job postings on LinkedIn were for remote work. Now, small and mid-sized cities such as Wilmington, North Carolina, and Sarasota, Florida, have seen that share rise to over half. Its been a boon for white-collar workers who live in these cities. They can now apply to offers nationwide and often get higher pay. But its strained firms that could once count on local professionals to fill open positions in fields like technology, accounting or marketing without having to worry about corporate giants like Facebook or Airbnb Inc. Remote work is affecting all sorts of industries: Regional grid operators from Arkansas to Indiana report that engineers are being poached by rivals amid the rush to electrify everything. Theres more competition for workers in local markets and in ways that local employers have not had to deal with before, said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, a website that collects pay information submitted by employees. This absolutely puts upward pressure on wages for these local markets. In Madison, Wisconsin, where the networking platform LinkedIn found about 42% of applications were for remote jobs, Planet Propaganda has been feeling the effects of that competition. Before the pandemic, the advertising firm would receive as many as 50 applications for new positions and could typically fill them within six weeks. Now, even with the help of recruiters, higher pay and perks, its taking months, said Emily Steele, a managing director at the company. When you take standard of living into account, the salary that were giving is comparable to New York, Steele said. But its different if someone is living here and gets to pay Madison costs of goods, costs of services but then has a New York salary. For perspective, the average hourly wage in Madison is roughly 16% below the New York City area, and home values are about half. To remain competitive, Planet Propaganda offers a tight-knit company culture and more reasonable hours than large companies based on the east and west coasts typically do, Steele said. Ripple effects Theres a domino effect from the work-from-anywhere revolution. Those able to get a big-city salary spend the extra cash at stores, restaurants and gyms, a windfall for the local economy. But theyre also driving up housing prices, and leaving many local workers struggling to keep up. Theres a whole series of ripple effects that occur from this, said Ross DeVol, president and chief executive officer of Heartland Forward, a nonprofit think tank focused on economic performance in the center of the U.S. Poonam Kahlon, 36, made the switch to a fully remote role in February. The mother of two young children had moved near Wilmington, North Carolina, in June 2019 to be head of human resources at a local company. Now she works for a firm headquartered in New Jersey. Pay wasn't the main driver for her she wanted a better work-life balance and more time with her kids and husband. Employees like her are pushing local companies to offer hybrid options and higher wages. They're going to miss out on good talent if they are not being flexible with the workforce, she said. Lisa Leath, founder of a Wilmington-based HR consulting firm that primarily serves businesses in Southeast North Carolina, said remote work has also helped attract talent from all over the country, lured by the lifestyle and the beaches. Were having to look at compensation basically every month or every other month to make sure that we're on track with market because it's hard enough to find folks, she said. So when you get your team whole, you want to make sure that you retain them. Poaching engineers Almost 1,000 miles away in Little Rock, Arkansas, nonprofit grid operator Southwest Power Pool is also having a hard time retaining workers lured by remote job offers from far-flung employers. Southwest Power Pool, which serves almost 19 million people across more than a dozen states, has seen company-wide turnover roughly double to about 8% to 9%, Chief Executive Officer Barbara Sugg said. At least half of those leaving are engineers, but information-technology employees are also being lured away with salaries that are often 30% to 50% higher than pay at the grid, she said. Most employees who left for other jobs have remained local. All seven of the state and regional grid operators on the continental U.S. said they faced similar challenges. At Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves 42 million people in states including Indiana, Iowa and Michigan, highly trained engineers and other staff are being poached by rival grids, utilities and renewable power developers. As a result, grid operators are beginning to allow some employees to work from home, raising wages and encouraging people with different experience levels to apply for roles they might not have considered before. Southwest Power Pool has even hired three fully-remote employees who live in other parts of the state and country something that was unheard of for grid operators before the pandemic. Nationwide, local businesses are getting creative. Paul McDonald, senior executive director at the staffing agency Robert Half, said that many smaller companies are leaning into hiring candidates that may not have all of the technical skills needed and then training them. Benjamin Jones, chief executive of Mobile reCell, an IT company based in Fishers, Indiana, has employed a similar strategy: Weve focused on the philosophy of giving people opportunities from a young age. Sugg, the Southwest Power Pool CEO, emphasized the need to adapt to the new world. The reality is people in Arkansas can work anywhere now, she said. The world around us has just changed on a dime and we need to change with it. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 With the summer festival season heating up, everyone starts checking weekend weather forecasts. Thats especially true for Scott Fisher, who is bringing the Outta Sight Kite Flight back to Kenoshas Kennedy Park. The free outdoor event attracts hundreds of kites and kite fans to the Downtown lakefront. Were thrilled to be coming back to Kenosha, said Fisher, president of Milwaukees Gift of Wings kite and aviation store and the kite events creator and organizer. This is the 20th annual kite festival it skipped 2020, like so many events and Fisher said the location, right on the Lake Michigan shoreline, is ideal. Kennedy Park is probably one of the top 20 areas in the country for kite flying because of that wind off the lake, he explained. Perfect kite-flying weather, he said, is a good, consistent wind of 10 to 12 miles per hour. That lake breeze always cools things off, and the kites fly really well. The weather, he said, is our biggest concern each year. After 20 years in Kenosha, weve seen it all: Funnel clouds, lightning strikes, freezing weather, hot weather, too much wind and not enough wind. Having no wind is rare, but every once in a while, it does happen. More often than not, he added, the weather in the park, since its right on the lake, it just beautiful. We checked the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, and it looks like the wind conditions will be in the kite-flying sweet spot. Temperatures will be in the low 70s, so bundle up when you head to the festival. As for rain? Theres a small chance of late showers on Saturday, and a 40% chance of getting wet on Sunday. The Canadians are back! In 2021, the U.S. border with Canada was still closed, meaning those giant kites from Up North which have included whales and an iconic red octopus were missing in action. Not so this year. Alex Dagenais from Montreal and the Canadian Dream team will be back with their 150-foot octopus, 100-foot manta ray and 100-foot whale kites, Fisher said. To make up for the lack of those flying giants in 2021, the festival debuted Kenoshas Got Kite Talent, featuring large kites from the local area. There arent a lot of people who have giant kites, Fisher said before the 2021 festival, but a lot of people have big kites. We are inviting as many people as possible to come down and fly a kite. We especially want very large kites. The local kite talent search was so successful, Fisher said, that we had a guy at the festival, Jake Peters of Kenosha, who is now part of our team. Ironically, Peters cant be at the local festival this weekend, but Fisher and his team are on the lookout for 2022 contest participants. We were so excited to see all the kite talent in 2021, he said. There are a lot of talented and creative kite flyers out there. Whether youre flying giant kites, stunt kites or kites of your own designs, thats what we want to see. A winner will be announced both Saturday and Sunday. The winners will receive gift certificates to local restaurants, and the festival will make a donation to the Epilepsy Foundation in honor of Connor Doran. He finished 12th on Season Five of Americas Got Talent and has perfected the art of indoor kite flying. He usually performs at the Kenosha kite festival but is not traveling yet, due to his epilepsy. Candy ... and brats! Visitors to the kite festival should be on the lookout for candy dropping from the sky during the popular Kids Candy Drop, which happens three times on Saturday and Sunday. Also back this year is the Brat Drop, for adults. Fully cooked bratwursts are attached to parachutes and float over the (hungry?) crowd. Other highlights include: The Grand Launch at noon both days. Organizers are hoping 400-500-some kites will be launch simultaneously to the tune of Mary Poppins Lets Go Fly a Kite. Professional kite team performances. The pros start at 12:20 p.m. both days. Teams include No Knots, which flies kites with four lines, in unison. Its like the Blue Angels, but with kites, Fisher said. Theyll be putting on three or four shows a day. Mike Delfar, a stunt kite flyer from Milwaukee. Hes been kite flying for 30 years and is a world champion, Fisher said. Hes a class act, a good guy and is really good at his sport. Performances by the flying team Fire & Ice. Milwaukees own professional kite flyer, Paul Koepke, will be performing with Fire & Ice, also featuring Kathy Brinnehl. The Kids Mad Dash. This popular event is 2:30 p.m. each day. The first 100 kids who sign up will receive free kites both days. Note: You must participate in the Mad Dash to get a free kite, sponsored by the City of Kenosha. Happ y anniversary Fisher is thrilled the local festival has lasted for two decades and counting. You start something and it goes along and goes along, he said. Youre at five and then 10 years and then its 20 years. The kite festival remains so popular, he said, because its one of those things that people can do thats fun, thats free, thats family, thats community. And its relaxing. A lot of the credit, Fisher added, goes to the Kenosha Parks Department, which is so great to work with every year. The Franklin resident calls Kenosha my adopted city. Ive met so many great folks there over the years. Events like the kite festival, he said, usually only last four or five years, but this event has lasted because the public loves it and the mayors weve only had two since we started in Kenosha love and support it, too. The Outta Sight Kite Flight is organized by the city of Kenosha with Gift of Wings and the Kite Society of Wisconsin and Illinois, with the support of local sponsors. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CALEDONIA On her first visit to the Racine County Fair, Taylor Schaefer walked through the pig barn and saw exhibitors smiling and having fun getting ready for their big moment. Then a third-grader, Schaefer turned to her father and told him that she wanted to be just like those people. The happiness and the environment was something I wanted to be a part of, she recalled. So began a career in Wisconsin agriculture that has led Schaefer, now 21, to assume one of the states most high-profile roles as an advocate for farming: Alice in Dairyland. Starting July 5, the Caledonia woman will spend the next year spreading awareness of agricultural issues in public appearances and promotions throughout the state. For 75 years, the Alice in Dairyland contest has selected one woman to serve as a statewide farming ambassador through the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Schaefer, who was selected from among six finalists last month at a ceremony held in Madison, becomes the first Racine County woman to hold the Alice in Dairyland title since 1978. Those who know Schaefer say she won the contest because she possesses strong communication skills and an ability to connect with people on a personal level. Shelly Mayer, owner of a Washington County farm where Schaefer spent last summer as an intern, said Schaefer demonstrated her talents while planning special events for the business and participating in area farmers markets. Taylor has a very outgoing and magnetic personality, Mayer said. Everywhere she goes, she makes her next best friend. Schaefer, the daughter of Darrell and Carolyn Schaefer, grew up on a farm in the Franksville area of Caledonia. After her first county fair experience in third grade, she joined 4-H and became a regular competitor at the county fair. After graduating from Franklin High School in Milwaukee County, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduated last month with bachelors degrees in animal sciences and life sciences communication. She was active in the Association of Women in Agriculture and the Badger Dairy Club, and she landed a job with the Mid-West Farm Report, a radio program originating in Madison. Mid-West Farm Report director Pam Jahnke said she and her colleagues were abuzz on the night they heard Schaefer had been named the next Alice in Dairyland. Were super proud and excited for her, Jahnke said. We think shes going to do a great job. Predecessors The last Racine County woman to be Alice in Dairyland was Laura Jean Oldenberg, a home economics teacher who held the role in 1978. After being tabbed, Oldenberg said, according to a Journal Times report from the time, "The 18-year-old who left Burlington seven years ago would never be up on this stage. She would be out there in the audience wondering how that girl had the nerve to stand up there. At least three Burlington women had won the title before Oldenberg: Merrie Jule Barney in 1959, Beth Bartosh in 1964 and Janice M. Findlay in 1976. In 1986-87, Liz Cunningham-Henry, who had previously lived in Racine, was Alice. Following her one-year assignment as Alice in Dairyland, Schaefer is uncertain what career path she will take. But she has definite plans to remain active in agriculture, and she hopes serving as Alice in Dairyland will lead to new opportunities. This position really opens a lot of doors, she said. I just want to learn, and I want to be involved in agriculture. The role of Alice in Dairyland is a contract position with the state agriculture department that pays $45,000 for the year. Applicants must be women, at least 21 years old and residents of Wisconsin. Candidates are judged on their abilities in public speaking, communication, partnering with others in the agricultural community, developing informative campaigns about ag, and their understanding of or experience in farming. Schaefer captured the title by defeating other applicants from Mauston, Antigo, Coon Valley and elsewhere. Schaefer embarks on her year as Alice in Dairyland with an understanding that she will, in a sense, be representing Racine County as she travels the state. Coming from Racine County, she said, means that she understands how agriculture co-exists alongside urban areas like Racine, and how farmers can interact with neighbors who have never set foot on a farm. She hopes to embody that spirit and carry that rural-urban message with her. My heart is in Racine County, she said. I owe a lot to Racine County for who I am today. Thats definitely a message I will take with me. 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. BURLINGTON Federal investigators are sending a balloon specialist to explore an incident Wednesday night that injured three people after a hot-air balloon collided with a moving train. The Burlington Police Department initially said three adult occupants of the hot-air balloon all suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. By Thursday, all three were released from the hospital, identified as pilot Jimmy Winder, 62, of Bristol, Wisconsin, and passengers Nikolay Veltchev, 37, of Barrington, Illinois, and Elena Petrova, 36, of Arlington Heights, Illinois. According to police, witnesses on the scene reported that the airborne balloon appeared in distress over Burlington and, during its descent, collided with a northbound Canadian National Railroad train. Canadian National spokesman Jonathan Abecassis declined to comment on how fast the train was traveling or other details of the incident. Abecassis referred questions to local authorities. The balloon operator, Lake Geneva Balloon Co., said Thursday a balloon pilot and two passengers were injured, and that two of them it was not clear which ones had been released by the hospital. John Trione, chief pilot and manager of the balloon company, said the crash occurred as the pilot was attempting to land on a road in a park while a freight train was moving through the area. The balloon and its occupants were pulled into contact with the train, Trione said. Weather conditions at the time were unremarkable, with clear skies and mild winds. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are helping state and local police investigate the incident. NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said the federal agency should have a preliminary report within two weeks, and that it could take a year or longer to produce a full report on the incident. Weiss said the NTSB gets involved whenever there is an accident involving an aircraft, including hot-air balloons. A balloon specialist from Denver, Colorado, is being sent to help with the investigation in Burlington, Weiss said. Asked whether the government has ever before seen a collision between a hot-air balloon and a moving train, Weiss said: We get a lot of unusual cases lets just leave it at that. We see a lot of things. Burlington police said they were called at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday to the scene of the incident in the 400 block of Calumet Street, near Downtown Burlington. Providing assistance with the injured people were the Burlington Fire Department and other fire departments from Waterford, Rochester and Kansasville. Two patients were flown to Froedtert by helicopter ambulance, and one was transported by a ground ambulance. Ryan Lamp, who works at the nearby Caseys General Store, 100 S. Dodge St., told a reporter that many customers told him a hot-air balloon flying over an industrial building appeared to hit a chimney and then crash and collide with a moving train. The police department asked that anyone with information about the incident contact the Burlington Police Department at 262-342-1104 or via email at rjones@burlington-wi.gov. The department said Canadian National Railroad, the Racine County Sheriffs Office and Racine County Communications also assisted at the crash site. Canadian National and the Wisconsin State Patrol are helping with the investigation. On Facebook, some people posted photographs that they said showed the balloon in flight shortly before the crash. In some photos, it appeared that more than one balloon was present. Lake Geneva Balloon Co., based in Lake Geneva, provides sightseeing balloon rides for tourists and other visitors. On clear days, the companys balloons are often seen floating high in the sky over the Lake Geneva area. According to the companys website, Trione received a commercial pilots certificate for hot-air balloons in 2000, and he created Lake Geneva Balloon Co. two years later. In the companys statement Thursday, Trione said the company has a 20-year record of safety, but that all flights are being suspended for a week because of the crash. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our guests, he said. Our entire company is devastated. Of the three injured people, Trione said, Their recovery is our most important consideration, and our hearts and prayers are with them. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 2 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. UVALDE, Texas (AP) President Joe Biden grieved with the shattered community of Uvalde on Sunday, mourning privately for three hours with anguished families of the 19 schoolchildren and two teachers killed by a gunman. Faced with chants of do something as he departed a church service, Biden pledged: We will. At Robb Elementary School, Biden visited a memorial of 21 white crosses one for each of those killed and first lady Jill Biden added a bouquet of white flowers to those already placed in front of the school sign. The couple then viewed individual altars erected in memory of each student, the first lady touching the children's photos as they moved along the row. After visiting the memorial, Biden attended Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where several victims families are members, and one of the families was in attendance. Speaking directly to the children in the congregation, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller tried to assuage the fears of the youngsters, some appearing about the same age as the victims. You have seen the news, you have witnessed the tears of your parents, friends, he said, encouraging them not to be afraid of life. You are the best reminders to us that the lives of the little ones are important." As Biden departed church to meet privately with family members, a crowd of about 100 people began chanting do something. Biden answered, We will, as he got into his car. It was his only public comment during roughly seven hours in Uvalde. Biden later tweeted that he grieves, prays and stands with the people of Uvalde. And we are committed to turning this pain into action, he said. The visit to Uvalde was Bidens second trip in as many weeks to console a community in loss after a mass shooting. He traveled to Buffalo, New York, on May 17 to meet with victims families and condemn white supremacy after a shooter espousing the racist replacement theory killed 10 Black people at a supermarket. Both shootings and their aftermath put a fresh spotlight on the nations entrenched divisions and its inability to forge consensus on actions to reduce gun violence. Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died, Biden said Saturday in a commencement address at the University of Delaware. We have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer. Biden also met with first responders before the trip back to his home in Delaware. It was not clear if the group included officers who were involved in the immediate response to the shooting. Biden visited amid mounting scrutiny of the police response. Officials revealed Friday that students and teachers repeatedly begged 911 operators for help as a police commander told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. Officials said the commander believed the suspect was barricaded inside an adjoining classroom and that there was no longer an active attack. The revelation caused more grief and raised new questions about whether lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, who was ultimately killed by Border Patrol tactical officers. The Justice Department announced Sunday that it will review the law enforcement response and make its findings public. Its easy to point fingers right now, said Ronnie Garza, a Uvalde County commissioner, on CBS Face the Nation, before adding, Our community needs to focus on healing right now. Mckinzie Hinojosa, whose cousin Eliahna Torres was killed Tuesday, said she respected Bidens decision to mourn with the people of Uvalde. Its more than mourning, she said. We want change. We want action. It continues to be something that happens over and over and over. A mass shooting happens. Its on the news. People cry. Then its gone. Nobody cares. And then it happens again. And again. If theres anything if I could tell Joe Biden, as it is, just to respect our community while hes here, and Im sure he will, she added. But we need change. We need to do something about it. Authorities have said the shooter legally purchased two guns not long before the school attack: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. He had just turned 18, permitting him to buy the weapons under federal law. Hours after the shooting, Biden delivered an impassioned plea for additional gun control legislation, asking: When in Gods name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Over the years, Biden has been intimately involved in the gun control movements most notable successes, such as the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and its most troubling disappointments, including the failure to pass new legislation after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. As president, Biden has tried to address gun violence through executive orders. He faces few new options now, but executive action might be the best the president can do, given Washington's sharp divisions on gun control legislation. In Congress, a bipartisan group of senators talked over the weekend to see if they could reach even a modest compromise on gun safety legislation after a decade of mostly failed efforts. Encouraging state red flag laws to keep guns away from those with mental health issues, and addressing school security and mental health resources were on the table, said Sen. Chris Murphy, who is leading the effort. While there is nowhere near enough support from Republicans in Congress for broader gun safety proposals popular with the public, including a new assault weapons ban or universal background checks on gun purchases, Murphy, D-Conn., told ABC's This Week that these other ideas are not insignificant. The group will meet again this coming week under a 10-day deadline to strike a deal. There are more Republicans interested in talking about finding a path forward this time than I have ever seen since Sandy Hook, said Murphy who represented the Newtown area as a congressman at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. And while, in the end, I may end up being heartbroken, I am at the table in a more significant way right now with Republicans and Democrats than ever before. AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington and AP video journalist Robert Bumsted in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting This story was first published on May 30, 2022. It was updated on June 2, 2022 to correct the spelling of one of the first name of one of the shooting victims. She is Eliahna Torres, not Eliahana Torres. 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 Wisconsin Democrats on Thursday announced a joint effort with national party leaders they are calling the largest midterm coordinated campaign in state history, with the goal of reelecting Gov. Tony Evers and defeating Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. The effort dubbed Forward for Wisconsin is a partnership that includes the state and national Democratic parties, Evers' campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Democrats promised to target rural parts of the state, which have been trending toward Republicans in recent elections. The effort will also target communities of color, college students and tribal members. All of those voters traditionally side with Democrats, but turning them out in a midterm election will be particularly important for Democrats in the nearly evenly divided state. "Sounds like what we've been doing for years," Wisconsin Republican Party spokeswoman Anna Kelly tweeted. "Better late than never I guess?" President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by less than 21,000 votes in 2020, nearly the same margin that Donald Trump won it by in 2016. Evers won in 2018 by just over 29,000 votes. But history is not on Evers' side. The candidate of the president's party has lost the last eight races for Wisconsin governor. Four Republicans are running in the Aug. 9 primary to take on Evers. They are former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, construction company co-owner Tim Michels, business consultant Kevin Nicholson and state Rep. Timothy Ramthun. Both sides in each of those races are already dumping millions into television ads. Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Paul Farrow said Thursday at a WisPolitics.com event that he expected both sides to spend a combined $700 million on all the races this year, which would be a state record. "It's going to be incredible," Farrow said. Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said the $700 million estimate is not "outside the realm of possibility." Both the Senate and governor's races are high priorities for Republicans and Democrats nationally. Johnson's race could determine which party controls the Senate. And if Evers loses, Republicans will be able to enact whatever laws they want given the large GOP majority in the state Legislature. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul is also up for reelection, as is longtime Secretary of State Doug La Follette. Republicans running to take him on want to transfer election duties to that office and away from a bipartisan commission, increasing the stakes in what is normally a sleepy race because the office currently has almost no powers or responsibilities. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Azernews By News Center Turkish Baykar Companys Technical Director Selcuk Bayraktar has said that after Ukraine war the whole world is a customer of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Yeni Shafak daily has reported. Bayraktar made the comments to Reuters at TEKNOFEST, the world's largest aviation, space, and technology festival, which was held in Baku, Azerbaijan in late May. "Bayraktar TB2 is doing what it was supposed to do taking out some of the most advanced anti-aircraft systems and advanced artillery systems and armoured vehicles. The whole world is a customer," he stressed. Speaking about Ukraine's resistance, Bayraktar said: The occupation is illegal; thats why TB2 is helping the honorable people of Ukraine to defend their country." Drawing attention to Azerbaijan's war in Karabakh, he stressed: The illegal occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh has been a wound since our youth. As engineers developing technology, it's an honor to help our brothers and sisters regain their land." Speaking about the future projects, the entrepreneur announced that Bayraktar TB3 UAV will make its first flight at the end of 2022 and MIUS Kizilelma unmanned fighter aircraft in 2023. TEKNOFEST, the world's largest aviation, space, and technology festival, which took place in the international arena for the first time, was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 26-29. The festival was visited by 300,000 people for four days. In the festival held in Baku Crystal Hall and Seaside Boulevard National Park, the winners of the technology competitions held in 10 different categories received their awards from Turkish and Azerbaijani Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev respectively. Nobel laureate Turkish scientist Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar also attended the festival, which attracted great attention in Azerbaijan. 1. Yes. Expect rolling blackouts if hot temperatures persist. The grid cant handle the strain. 2. Yes. No significant steps were taken after the grid failed during last years winter storm. 3. No. Texas power officials have been preparing for the hot weather. The grid will be OK. 4. No. If some brown-outs are needed, fine. Thats just part of protecting the system. 5. Unsure. Its hard to know how much stress the energy grid is designed to handle. Vote View Results Killeen, TX (76540) Today Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. Record high temperatures expected. High near 100F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov The Azerbaijani State Border Service seized over 316.2 kg of drugs and some 8,010 psychotropic pills in May, Azernews reports, citing the service. The State Border Service maintained its efforts to ensure reliable border protection and combat smuggling, illegal migration, and drug trafficking. Border guards were forced to use guns in line with the law against drug traffickers on one occasion, and one AKM-74 submachine gun, abandoned by drug traffickers, was seized. Smuggled products worth AZN15.8 million ($9.2 million), including tobacco, wine, and antiquities, were confiscated as part of the anti-smuggling campaign. The service further added that over the said period, 41 people were detained for illegally crossing the state border, 27 of them were citizens of Azerbaijan, two Iran, two Ukraine, one India, one Uzbekistan, two Tajikistan, two Morocco, two Pakistan, one Ivory Coast (Cotte d'Ivoire) and one Lithuania. In an effort to combat illegal migration, 25 people were detained in 23 cases after attempting to cross the state border with forged passports of the EU member states, permanent residence cards, ID cards, and Schengen visas. Some 123 people were detained in 85 cases for violating the rules of the border regime and appropriate measures were taken against them. As a result of anti-crime measures, 230 people wanted by the law-enforcement agencies were detained and handed over to the relevant authorities. Some 357 people who were barred from leaving Azerbaijan were unable to leave, and 27 people, who were previously barred from entering the country, were denied entry. Measures are being taken to organize reliable protection of the state borders, the report concluded. KEARNEY A Kearney man must serve 15 days in jail as part of his sentence for leading police on a pursuit in May 2021 with speeds reaching more than 150 mph. Haydyn Premer, 20, also was placed on 15-months probation for misdemeanor operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest. He was sentenced in May in Buffalo County District Court. Under the standard conditions of his probation Premer must complete the community-based intervention program, including outpatient counseling, and complete classes in responsible thinking and crime/victim empathy. Judge Ryan Carson approved Premer for work release, and gave him one day credit for time already served in jail. Around 11 p.m. May 25, 2021, a Nebraska State Patrol trooper saw two vehicles and a motorcycle on U.S. Highway 10 north of Kearney drag racing. The trooper tried to contact the vehicles, passing one of them before catching up to the motorcycle and a dark-colored Ford Mustang, both traveling more than 120 mph, court records indicate. The Mustang accelerated and the trooper began a pursuit at speeds in excess of 150 mph. A Buffalo County Sheriff deputy joined in the pursuit as the Mustang passed vehicles in a reckless manner before moving on to Highway 40 where it continued to outpace the officers at speeds over 150 mph. Officers lost contact of the car for about 30 minutes, records indicate, when the 911 communications center received a report of a dark-colored Mustang broke down north of Kearney near the intersection of Highway 10 and 170th Road. The caller reported seeing two individuals run from the car, then another vehicle arrived in the area a short time later. When officers arrived at the scene, records indicate they obtained the cars registration information, which included Premer as a registered owner. Premer later was contacted and arrested. About 10 days ago, I pulled the plug on my career. After 21 years of driving a special needs school bus, I retired on May 19, the final day of classes for the 2021-22 school year. As the day approached, I prepared in the same manner as I have for all the important dates of my life by making a fancy count down calendar and doodling in the margins. Over the past two decades I have dealt with icy streets, late parents, cranky students, cranky co-workers and cranky traffic lights. Now I must deal with people who want to know my plans. What are you going to do after you retire? The Kearney Public School District has a tradition of allowing retiring staff members to write up a short paragraph highlighting retirement plans. I felt offended by the question, What are you going to do after your retirement? Unless I have this totally wrong, retirement is the time you spend after your final day of work, before your final day of living. I understood the gist of the question and wrote about my desire to write a tell-all novel about a topographically disoriented school bus driver or train for a second career as a professional wrestler, at the age of 68. At the event to honor the retirees, where a member of the school board stood and read the responses, my exceedingly clever quip only elicited a few chuckles from the back row. A ballroom filled with school employees, still years away from retirement, is a tough audience, indeed. All this retirement nonsense set me to thinking about how we, as a society, define ourselves through our work. Years ago I stopped asking, What do you do for a living? and substituted a better question, What occupies your time? Yes, I enjoyed driving a school bus, but I always considered it as a means to an end, as a way to put food on the table so I could write and create. Writing and creating has always occupied my time and my mental energy. I started working part time for the Kearney Hub almost 16 years ago. One co-worker warned me that I shouldnt tell the public that I only worked part time as a journalist and I should not admit to driving a school bus. I never took that suggestion seriously. Instead, I kept my job as a bus driver out of the newspaper; something about not biting the hand that feeds you, I guess. Now I feel free to write about the Kearney Public School district because they would have to rehire me in order to fire me. Like almost every retiree, I have a long list of things I want to accomplish during my retirement. I remember my father telling me that after he finished a career selling insurance, he had more things to do than ever. Hes also the one who told me to retire first, during my 20s and 30s while I still felt healthy, and then work in my later years. I still plan to write for the Hub, although as a freelancer. I intend to take graduate classes in creative writing and I hope to continue to thrash my 18-year-old son at chess. Other than that, I will fill my time with a variety of countdown calendars, always leaving time to doodle in the margins. Rick Brown, is a freelance entertainment writer and founder of Yard Light Media. For 2022, the citys Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) released an updated list of the 10 Most Endangered Historic Properties in La Crosse. This annual initiative intends to raise awareness and encourage the preservation of historic properties potentially at risk of irreparable damage or demolition due to neglect, natural disaster or redevelopment. Unchanged from last years list are a row of three American Foursquares with Prairie-style detailing on the 1200 block of Vine Street. These structures, built between 1917 and 1919, are some of the last remaining original residences in a neighborhood now dominated by large apartment complexes. In the early 20th century, Foursquares were appealing because of how well they maximized the space of small city lots. They were also some of the first affordable, middle-class homes to include modern amenities once limited to elites. Evidence of their popularity is seen through the numerous kit models offered by suppliers such as Sears, Montgomery Ward, Aladdin and the like. These three homes, however, appear to be custom-built, as no matching plans could be found in the prevailing mail-order catalogs of the time. La Crosse has a finite number of Foursquares, so preserving this cluster of fine examples would benefit the community. The property in the middle of the grouping 1222 Vine St. first belonged to Edward and Edna Weimar. They took up residence here a little over three years after their wedding. They were both children of long-time La Crosse residents descended from German immigrants. Edward was particularly well-known for being active in local music ensembles. Before living in this home, the couple had resided with their parents. Though it isnt readily apparent who built these three Foursquares, Ednas father may have played a role given his city directory listing: Rochelt, Frank J., carpenter, contractor and builder. Contracts taken for all kinds of buildings and executed under his personal supervision by the best of skilled labor. Edward had just started a job at the National Bank of La Crosse shortly before moving into this house around March 1918. Prior to that, he was employed as a stenographer, bookkeeper and clerk for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Previous to marriage, Edna had been a domestic servant for lumber-baron Frank Hixon and lived in his 1431 King St. mansion for several years. After nine short months in the home, Edward became tragically ill and died on Christmas Day at only age 28. He passed during the height of the 1918 pandemic, when many younger individuals were sadly stricken with Spanish-Flu-induced pneumonia. Edna, herself, was so sick that she wasnt even told of her husbands death right away. Edna and their 3-year-old son, Raymond, continued to reside in the home, taking on borders to make ends meet. These included her sister Hattie Rochelt, a Standard Oil Co. clerk, Hattie Rasmussen, a Batavian National Bank bookkeeper, and Nina Hendrickson, an Inter-State Oil Co. stenographer. In May 1919, Ednas parents, Frank and Ida Rochelt, bought the house next door, presumably to help support their recently widowed daughter. At the time, they would have been in their late 50s. The following year, Edna got remarried to Edwards younger brother, Arthur Weimar. Arthur had been working for Ednas father as a carpenter since her 1914 marriage to Edward. After the sudden death of his father-in-law in 1928, Arthur gained employment with the U.S. Postal Service and worked as a mail carrier for over 24 years before retiring around 1961. The 1922 and 1924 city directories both list two sets of students staying with Edna and Arthur, whose home was only four blocks from La Crosse State Normal School known today as UW-La Crosse. At that time, the campus consisted of merely two buildings. Prior to construction of the first official dormitory in 1951, students were generally required to either live with family or have the school administration place them in pre-approved host residences. In addition to paying rent, homeowners also sometimes expected students to help with cleaning, cooking, child care, and other chores.The 1922 university catalog boasts: arrangements are made for the accommodation of students in some of the best homes in the vicinity of the Normal School. This is a great advantage to the students, and is a source of satisfaction to their parents as well. The Weimars still resided in the house when Edna passed away in 1969. Arthur moved to a smaller home on Coulee Drive the year after she died. He passed in 1975 at the age of 81. The two other homes in this row of American-Foursquares only had short-term residents early on. The westernmost house in the group 1218 Vine was most likely the first of the three built. During its initial years, it was occupied by Emma and Arthur Maltman. They were in their late-20s, had recently moved from Illinois and then left La Crosse shortly thereafter. While living here, Arthur Maltman worked as a stock clerk at the La Crosse Tractor Co. The home on the eastern side of the grouping 231 13th N. (previously, 1226 Vine) was most likely the last of the three built. Henry Putman, his wife Annette and 84-year-old mother-in-law Georgia Stiles moved into this house around 1919. The 53-year-old had just relocated from Minneapolis to be the general sales manager for the La Crosse Rubber Mills. Putmans job must have paid well because he bought an even more impressive home, worth triple the value, just three blocks to the south of this one a few years later. Fortunately, the Weimar and Maltman houses retain several of their essential architectural elements, such as original wooden siding, siding shingles, front doors, soffits and leaded-glass windows. The Maltman house especially stands out because it features a distinctive bracketed gable over its front entrance, and the Weimar house has a noteworthy two-story stairwell bay that gracefully terminates just before its roofline. Hallmarks of the Putman house include a less common layout and bracketed entrance hood. Regrettably, it has experienced more unfortunate renovation compared to the other two, and many of its architectural features have been lost, altered or covered up, such as its wood siding, front ribbon windows and side porch. It would greatly benefit from more historically appropriate siding that restores the horizontal color and texture variant on the top third of the home. Wisconsin Historical Society photos from the 1980s show the three houses in good condition. Sometime around the early 2000s is when they were all converted to college rentals, and they have deteriorated significantly since then. Over time, the other historic homes surrounding them have been torn down to build thriftily-constructed, large-scale student housing, putting them at even greater risk of being demolished for the same purpose. Restoring these homes would reinstate some of the neighborhoods original character, as well as highlight and preserve an important piece of social history. Just because they are currently relegated to college housing doesnt mean they cant be preserved. Even though rental upkeep might be more challenging due to tenant issues, some of their worst deterioration, like exterior rot, are in no way the fault of student occupants. On Wednesdays and Sundays in May, The Tribune will continue to publish articles on HPCs list of La Crosses 10 Most Endangered Historic Properties. Basic information about each property can also be found on the citys heritage preservation website. Anyone seeking more information regarding this project or wanting to nominate endangered historic properties for future lists can contact Tim Acklin in the City Planning Department. Laura Godden is a La Crosse heritage preservation commissioner and UW-La Crosse Murphy Library archivist/assistant professor, and Evelyn Gaunt is an archaeology major and Murphy Library student archivist. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Just days after Fort McCoy held the Armed Forces Day Open House, where thousands of people visited the post, installation leaders held a special Community Leader Engagement on May 24 for local law enforcement leaders from several Wisconsin cities near the installation. More than a dozen of those leaders from Monroe County, La Crosse County, Sparta, Black River Falls and other nearby municipalities gathered at Fort McCoy to see the posts mission firsthand. Community Leader Engagements like this one allow for our local and regional leaders to develop a better understanding of the mission that Fort McCoy supports, and this specific event offers the added benefit of highlighting some outstanding training venues available to our local law enforcement agencies, said Christopher Hanson of the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office, which helped organize the engagement. Our Community Leader Engagement events are part of an award-winning program developed to strengthen ties with regional and local communities and give them a more thorough overview of what Fort McCoy is all about, Hanson said. Previous engagements were invaluable to improving support and cooperation with the installation during Operation Allies Refuge/Welcome, which made our job here at Fort McCoy much easier. During their visit, the community leaders received a driving tour of the installation and made stops at the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility on South Post, training areas on North Post, Garrison Headquarters and McCoys Community Center, where they received a lunch. Garrison Commander Col. Michael Poss led the engagement visit, and he was accompanied by Command Sgt. Maj. Raquel DiDomenico, Hanson, Public Affairs Officer Tonya Townsell, Public Affairs Specialist Kaleen Holliday and several other garrison personnel. Community outreach is an important part of the Army mission. According to the Army, as stated at https://www.army.mil/outreach, the Army is about more than ensuring our national security at home and abroad, its about giving back and getting to know the communities that support us. It can also be important for community leaders to see the installation that provides a significant economic impact to their communities. Fort McCoys total economic impact for fiscal year 2021 was an estimated $1.93 billion, above the $1.479 billion reported for FY 2020, garrison officials announced. The Fort McCoy Executive Summary, available on the installation website, www.home.army.mil/mccoy, shows the installation makes continuous improvements to provide a training plethora of training capabilities for service members. Throughout the last decade, Fort McCoy experienced unprecedented facility modernization, training area development and expansion, increased training and customer support capability and improved quality-of-life opportunities, the summary states. From unmanned aerial vehicles, to urban training facilities, to live-fire ranges and virtual-training environments, Fort McCoy is prepared to meet the training needs of the Army in the 21st century. More Community Leader Engagements are planned, Hanson said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee Supreme Court justices fired numerous questions Wednesday at a company that is challenging lawsuits alleging its workers were sickened or died after cleaning up the nation's worst coal ash spill, which happened more than a decade ago. Oral arguments centered on Jacobs Engineering's contention that the workers' claims should fall under a Tennessee law that limits legal challenges involving exposure to silica, a component of coal ash. Workers who participated in the cleanup of the 2008 spill at Tennessee Valley Authoritys Kingston Fossil Plant and their family members watched intently in court, many wearing Remember Kingston pins. Mark Silvey, an attorney for the workers and families, said there would be virtually no kind of claim that would not be covered by the Tennessee Silica Claims Priorities Act" under Jacobs' interpretation. Some examples, he said, are if a bag of concrete, which contains silica, falls on someone's head as they walk through a construction area; if someone is killed with a brick, containing silica, and the family wants to sue for wrongful death; or if there was a product liability issue with irritation from children's diapers, which can contain silica. Justice Kirby Holly said the court has to consider how the interpretation would apply otherwise, noting further that breakfast cereal and the pain reliever Motrin contain silica. If I eat a breakfast cereal and my claim is that it had ground glass in it, according to your definition, I think I would be completely precluded from immediate injuries that took place, Kirby said. Dwight Tarwater, an attorney representing Jacobs, said the law has a spectacularly broad definition of what it would cover and that includes the alleged illnesses the workers suffered as a result of their exposure to coal ash. "The words say what they say, they mean what they say, he said. He said if opposing attorneys have questions about the scope of the law, they should take it up with state lawmakers. He also noted that coal ash has a large concentration of silica. Would it apply to a 'brick' situation? Probably not, from just a commonsense standpoint," Tarwater said. "But the words say it would. The words say that it's to be interpreted broadly. The words say it applies to any contact with, any inhalation of." The worker's attorneys argue the silica law was never meant to apply to cases like theirs. The act specifically refers to silica, which is just one component of coal ash. The components they believe caused the worker injuries include arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury and radium, but not silica. The law also refers to claims for very specific injuries silicosis and pulmonary fibrosis that are not at issue in this case. The law requires anyone pursuing claims for exposure to silica or mixed dust to file a doctors report concluding that the exposure is a substantial contributing factor to the patients illness. For plaintiffs bringing wrongful death claims on behalf of a loved one, they must also show the worker was exposed to the dust for at least five years. Workers with lung cancer are subject to the five-year provision too and additionally must show that their cancer was diagnosed at least 10 years after their first exposure to the dust. In court filings, Jacobs said the vast majority of plaintiffs either didnt file the doctor reports, filed inadequate reports, or didnt meet the time restrictions. For example, one worker died from lung cancer in 2015, less than seven years after the spill, so that worker's family should not be allowed to sue, according to Jacobs. The workers attorneys also have argued it is too late to bring this challenge. The case already went through the first part of a two-part federal trial in 2018, when a Knoxville, Tennessee, jury found that Jacobs breached its duty of care to the workers. The jurors said Jacobs actions were capable of making the workers sick. Whether those actions actually did make them sick, and thus made the victims eligible for monetary damages, was left for a subsequent trial or trials. Mediation ordered by the judge was unsuccessful, but a new trial date has not been set as Jacobs continues to pursue legal challenges. Twice, the company has asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to find that it is immune from being sued because it was acting on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal agency. The court has ruled against Jacobs both times, most recently last month. Tennessee's Supreme Court got involved because the federal judge asked it to interpret the state law. Jacobs attorneys have said the company did its best to manage the cleanup in a way regulators said was safe. It has not been proved that Jacobs or even coal ash is to blame for any illnesses, and the Environmental Protection Agency classifies coal ash as nonhazardous. On Wednesday, Silvey mentioned Jean Nance, who worked in the office from 2009 to 2013 on the cleanup job, but ultimately died of an aggressive form of leukemia in 2015. Silvey said Nance's claim would be dismissed under the company's legal interpretation. Nance's brother, Mike Dunn, and other family members wore big pins displaying a photo of her face as they watched. Afterward, they were cautiously hopeful. I'm just hoping something can get resolved, Dunn said. Jean, she knew she wasn't going to make it. But she was interested in the other workers. 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 CAIRO (AP) The United Nations said Thursday that Yemens warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months, a rare spot of good news for a country plagued by eight years of war. I commend the parties for taking these steps, and for agreeing to extend the truce," U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a statement. "The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties. The ceasefire between Yemens internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels first came into effect on April 2 the first nationwide cease-fire in the past six years of Yemens civil war. The announcement, which is the outcome of UN continuous and concerted efforts, came only few hours before the original truce was set to expire later on Thursday. Grundberg vowed that he will continue to mediate talks between the warring parties to ensure the consolidation of the new truce, and to eventually reach a political settlement to end the conflict. The fighting erupted in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. The provisions of the original truce included reopening the roads around Taiz, establishing two commercial flights a week between Sanaa and Jordan and Egypt, and also allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hodeida. Both Sanaa and Hodeida are controlled by the rebels. Fighting, airstrikes and bombardment have subsided during the truce, which started in early April, and the rebels have ceased their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two pillars of the Saudi-led coalition. Yemens war has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians. It has created now one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. 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 Pope Francis has appointed the Most Rev. Robert E. Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. His installation Mass has been set for Friday, July 29. Bishop Barron, born on November 19, 1959, in Chicago, spent his childhood in Detroit and then in a suburb of Chicago. He studied at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before being ordained a priest on May 24, 1986. After serving as an associate pastor for three years, Bishop Barron was sent to study at the Institut Catholique de Paris where he completed his Doctorate of Sacred Theology. Bishop Barron served as professor of theology at Mundelein Seminary from 1992 to 2015 and also served as its president-rector from 2012 to 2015. Bishop Barron launched his Word on Fire Catholic Ministries in 2000 and has been broadcast extensively throughout the world. His 10-part documentary, Catholicism, aired on public television in the United States and he is the first priest since Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen to have a regular national program on a commercial television network. Bishop Barron, through his clear teaching and love of the Gospel, has been able to share the truth of the Gospel to millions through the internet and, in particular, social media. Barrons Word on Fire website hosts daily blog posts, weekly articles and video commentaries and Bishop Barron has over 3.1 million Facebook followers, 517,000 YouTube subscribers, 349,000 Instagram followers, and 198,000 Twitter followers. On receiving the news of his appointment, Bishop Barron said: I am overjoyed and humbled to receive this new assignment as the ninth bishop of Winona-Rochester. I look forward immensely to getting to know the good people, priests, and pastoral ministers of the diocese. I will have to brush off my Chicago winter coat, which has remained unused for the past six years in Santa Barbara! My fondest hope is that I might be a good spiritual father to all the Catholics of southern Minnesota. I am filled with joy that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Robert Barron as the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, said Most Rev. John M. Quinn. His commitment to evangelization and missionary discipleship will bear great fruit in the coming years. A press conference will be available via live stream on the Diocesan website (www.dowr.org) at 11 am. The Diocese of Winona-Rochester serves the 20 southernmost counties of Minnesota with more than 130,000 Catholics and 107 parishes, four high schools, 30 elementary schools and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary on the campus of St. Marys University in Winona. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 FPT builds large educational complex in Ha Nam FPT Group started work on an educational complex in the northern province of Ha Nam on May 31. At the event. (Photo: VNA) The 11.9ha complex, named FPT Unischool Ha Nam, is scheduled to open in a year. It will provide training for about 10,000 students. Addressing the launch, Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee Truong Quoc Huy said he hopes the complex will open soon and become a source of high-quality human resources for Ha Nam and the country as a whole. The province will provide the best possible conditions for FPT to complete the project, he noted, adding that it always welcomes major enterprises like FPT and potential investors in education, industry and information technology. Huy also expressed his hope that with its experience and capacity, the group will assist Ha Nam to quickly and effectively conduct digital transformation and train high-quality manpower. FPT CEO Nguyen Van Khoa said his business will reserve the best resources for all levels of education, from general to tertiary education, in Ha Nam to create skilled human resources and contribute to local development. As the leading tech firm in Vietnam, FPT is currently the only enterprise to build large educational complexes in key economic hubs, including Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho and Binh Dinh./ The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series is headed to Madison, Illinois this coming weekend for the 2022 Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter. Most eyes will certainly be on the favorites like Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, and Denny Hamlin, but here are three drivers who might be being undervalued a bit. Check out three sleepers in the upcoming 2022 Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter. Click here to make your NASCAR picks Sleeper Picks and Predictions for the Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR Cup Series Race on June 5, 2022 Where: World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison When: Sunday, June 5, 2022, green flag at 3:30 PM ET Broadcast: FOX Line: View current odds for Enjoy Illinois 300 Daniel Suarez (+4000) Suarez won the 2022 NASCAR Cup All-Star Open race and then placed fifth at the main All-Star Race. However, he was not able to sustain his momentum from those races, as he was unable to finish last weeks 2022 Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway due to an accident. Still, its not such a bad idea to place action on Suarez, whos got a total of 10 top 10s on races on an intermediate track (1 mile) in his career, thus far. Last month, he finished 14th in Dover during the 2022 DuraMAX Drydene 400 presented by RelaDyne. He also finished ninth last March at the 2022 Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Austin Dillon (+6000) Like Suarez, Dillon also failed to finish the race last week because of an accident. Hes been fairly competitive this season, though, and it could just be a matter of time before he sticks his first win of the year. Dillon has made it to the top 5 in three of 12 starts this season and also six times in the top 10. He is winless in his career in races done on intermediate tracks (1 mile) but six top 10s and 29 top 20s suggest that hes not too bad when hes revving his engine in such locations. Brad Keselowski (+6000) Since 2011, Keselowski has not finished a season winless, and if that trend is to continue this year, then we are all just waiting for him to get his first W of the campaign. In 71 career starts on intermediate tracks (1 mile), Keselowski has garnered three wins and 22 top 5s to go with 37 top 10s. Hes also got a career average finish on that kind of track of 11.8. Click here to make your NASCAR picks 429 total views, 1 views today Comments comments Q Properties, a subsidiary of Q Holding, has appointed ATGC to carry out the early works construction on the first phase of Reem Hills, the exclusive $2.2-billion residential gated community on Abu Dhabis iconic Reem Island. A major luxury development, Reem Hills comprises a private beach, man-made hill, islands, canal, retail and community facilities including parkland and open spaces, schools, mosques, community centres, club houses, cafes and restaurants, leisure areas for walking, exercise and biking, and transport options. ATGC, an associate partner of Apex Investment, is a full-service commercial and residential real estate organization specializing in providing a complete range of solutions in the construction field. Since 1998, the company has developed an enviable reputation in a wide range of projects and services across the region, having been instrumental in various phases of projects as diverse as Abu Dhabis Landmark Hotel, the Civil Defence Training Academy, villa projects in Khalifa and Mohamed bin Zayed cities, Nakheel Palace and the City of Lights on Reem Island. The scope of work includes the establishment of the site, provision of haulage access, general earthworks phased to suitable permissions, site clearance and removal of existing utilities ahead of the commencement of the permanent works. It will also include earthworks up-filling for the man-made hill after which the project has been named. This phase is scheduled for completion 180 days from the commencement date, stated Q Holding CEO Majed Fuad Odeh after signing the contract with ATGC Chairman Ahmed Amer Omar Saleh at a ceremony held in the presence of Dr Sam Ani, ATGC CEO and other senior officials. "As a specialist company with niche solutions for the works involved, ATGC will play a major role in the creation of a $2.2 billion luxury residential project of Reem Hills being developed by the Q Properties with Royal Development Company as project managers," noted Fuad Odeh. The contract will involve ATGC forming the central hill from which the villas, townhouses and apartments will have views over the landscaped open areas towards the beaches and canal, and we are very excited to be working with them on this unique development, he added. Saleh said: "ATGC is a perfect fit for this prestigious phase of Reem Hills, offering as we do our expert general contracting services, which have been in demand across the region since 1998. Not only do we provide a complete range of solutions for the scope of work required, we strongly believe in empowering our people, and our clients, with the information they need to take advantage of our skills and strategies to succeed through performance." "Our mission is to contribute to the evolution of the fast growing construction industry in the region, and by contributing to the unique features of the Reem Hills development, building the man-made hill for example, we are proudly fulfilling this vision," he added.-TradeArabia News Service UAE-based Jubail Island Investment Company (JIIC) has awarded a AED40 million ($11 million) contract award to Al Dhafra Pipeline & Contracting Company (APCC) for its new 66-berth Marina in Marfa Al Jubail, with completion set for mid-2023. One of Abu Dhabis leading ground engineering contractors, APCC, will be responsible for the construction of the quay wall and associated infrastructure along the marinas edges and platforms. According to JIIC, the Marina is being built as part of the grand Marina District within Marfa Al Jubail. The waterfront districts concept and schematic design are in progress with AE7, the renowned design consultant. Expected to be handed over by mid-2024, this new destination will provide residents and visitors with a luxury waterfront destination built along a stretch of shoreline, overlooking the Abu Dhabi Skyline. The AED10-billion ($2.72 billion) Jubail Island project, owned by JIIC and developed and managed by LEAD, will be home to an idyllic collection of six residential village estates located between Yas Island and Saadiyat Island. The district within Marfa Al Jubail, set to launch in October, will consist of 41 elegantly designed townhouses and 18 spacious apartments, located in one building block, amid some of the UAEs most beautiful landscapes and surrounded by mangroves and wildlife. Offering residents a relaxed way of living, the townhouses will feature two typologies including G+1 and G+2, with both the townhouses and apartments available with up to three bedrooms, offering up to 290 square metres of space. As well as luxury residential space, Marfa Al Jubail will offer unrivaled amenities, anchored by a luxury Yacht Club complex and boardwalk containing restaurants, alfresco cafes, and eateries. All of which will offer a haven for boating enthusiasts as well as friends and families looking to enjoy the bustling waterfront. On the new contract, Engineer Abdulla Saeed Al Shamsi, Operations Corporate Director for JIIC, said: "We are thrilled to have officially signed the contract with APCC for Marfa Al Jubail. Set to be completed in mid-2023, the Marina will offer residents a holistic lifestyle within Jubail Island." "Marfa Al Jubail will be part of the array of social attractions and amenities within the island, that is unlike anything else in the capital," noted Al Shamsi. "The contract signing reinforces JIICs commitment to developing a landmark destination and a premier marine community that is synonymous with luxury living," he added. Britain is celebrating Queen Elizabeth IIs 70th year on the throne. The four-day celebration, called Platinum Jubilee, began Thursday with a parade called Trooping the Color. The yearly military parade has marked the monarchs official birthday since 1760. The queen appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with a small group of family members for a military flyover. Thousands of people were on the parade route. Many carried British flags, party hats or plastic crowns. Youre never going to see this again in your lifetime, one woman said. At least not in mine, maybe not in my daughters. ... 70 years -- it is all I have ever known. The 96-year-old queen is Britains longest-serving monarch. She is the first to reach 70 years on the throne. The celebration of Elizabeth's reign includes a service Friday at St. Pauls Cathedral in London. There will also be a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a performance put on by thousands of people from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned around the country, a tradition that began with the queens coronation in 1953. Several protesters were arrested Thursday after getting past barriers and onto the parade route. The group Animal Rebellion claimed responsibility, saying the protesters were demanding that royal land is reclaimed. The jubilee is giving many British people a chance to think about the monarchy and the changes that have happened to the country since she took the throne. Fourteen prime ministers have taken office since Elizabeth became queen. Former Prime Minister John Major said her presence has helped provide direction for the country. The queen has represented our better selves for over 70 years," he told the BBC. In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the celebrations. The Commonwealth is a group of 54 nations, most of which are former territories of the British Empire. For many, the event is the first chance for a big party since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Other world leaders also sent their congratulations. French President Emmanuel Macron said the Queen is one of very few constants in the world. And former U.S. President Barack Obama added, Your life has been a gift, not just to the United Kingdom but to the world. The long weekend's first event, Trooping the Color, refers to a battle flag, or color. The yearly tradition is a reenactment of the way battle flags were once shown to soldiers during fighting. Each year a different unit in the armys Household Division has the honor of trooping its color. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards has the spotlight during the Platinum Jubilee. Riding on horseback, Prince Charles, representing the Queen, received the salute from the guards along with his sister, Princess Anne, and his son Prince William. There is also some attention on those who will not be present. Prince Andrew, the queens second son, settled a lawsuit in which he was accused of sexually abusing an underage woman. He is not expected to attend the celebration. The Queens grandson Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan stepped down from royal duties. They watched the parade but were not present at the palace. Opinion studies show Elizabeth remains very popular and respected among British people. One study showed eight in 10 people held a positive view of her. Another one found that three-quarters of British people thought she had done a good job as queen. Im Dan Novak. Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press and Reuters. ___________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story jubilee n. a special anniversary monarch n. a person such as a king or queen who rules a kingdom or empire coronation n. a ceremony in which a crown is placed on the head of a new king or queen constant adj. happening all the time or very often over a period of time reenactment n. to repeat the actions of salute n. an act or ceremony that shows respect for someone In the city of Varanasi, India, Muslims and Hindus have shared a place of prayer for almost three hundred years which is separated by only a wall. On one side, there is a mosque for Muslims. On the other side, there is a Hindu temple. Until a month ago, the place was considered an example of how the two religions can exist together in an area marked by conflict. Now groups of Hindus want to pray inside the Gyanvapi mosque area. They have asked a local court to hear their case. Their argument is that the mosque was built on the ruins of an old Hindu temple that was destroyed by a Mughal emperor hundreds of years ago. They say the mosque area has Hindu statues inside. But the mosques leaders disagree. The legal case is the most recent example of nationalist Hindu groups demanding land that they say belongs to them. They believe thousands of mosques were built on top of Hindu temples. Historians say that these numbers are overstated. They say only a small number of temples were destroyed for political reasons, not religious ones. India is officially a secular country. But Hindu nationalists have tried to make India into a religious country. Religious minorities, like Muslims, have come under attack. Legal cases have increased fear within Muslim populations about their religious centers. In 1992, a crowd of Hindu nationalists destroyed the Babri mosque built in the 1500s. The destruction led to violence between Muslims and Hindus, leaving more than 2,000 people dead. Most were Muslim. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is an Indian political expert. He said that bringing many cases before the courts is a way to keep the Muslims from showing their religion in public and that their faith is no longer accepted. The two communities in Varanasi disagreed, but they did not let the disagreement worsen until last week. The local court ordered the Gyanvapi mosque to be inspected after five Hindu women asked the court for permission to pray there. The lawyer of the five women, Hari Shankar Jain, said there was video evidence that a stone object inside the mosque was a representation of the Hindu god, Shiva. It was found inside a water pool used by Muslims to purify themselves before prayers. "The land on which the mosque is built belongs to Hindus and should be returned to us," Jain said. The local courts ordered the mosque blocked off and banned Muslims from gathering there. Indias Supreme Court overturned the lower courts ruling. But it still blocked the area where the stone rests, leaving part of the Mosque unavailable to Muslims. Now a higher court in Varanasi has taken up the case. The leaders of the mosque have questioned the legal claims and said that the stone area was the base of a fountain. Lawyers for the Muslim side have said that these actions against the mosque are illegal because of a 1991 law called the Places of Worship Act. It says any religious area should be kept as such and not changed from the day that India won its freedom from Britain, on August 15, 1947. More and more cases end up in court as Hindu citizens ask to pray in mosques around the country. This has helped Prime Minister Modis nationalist party in their campaign to support Hinduism. A lawyer for the Gyanvapi mosque, Nazim Pasha, said these actions are a careful pattern meant to gain the support of Hindu nationalists. Im Caty Weaver. And Im Faith Pirlo. Saaliq and Krutika Pathi reported this story for the Associated Press. Faith Pirlo adapted it for VOA Learning English. _______________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story mosque n. a building that is used for Muslim religious services temple n. a building for worship or religious observance emperor -n. a man who rules an empire secular adj. not religious: of or relating to the physical world and not the spiritual world: of, relating to, or controlled by the government rather than by the church faith n. the belief that something is good, right and able to be trusted; also in reference to a religion fountain n. a structure or device that provides water that, in some cases, sends a stream of water into the air worship v. to show respect and love for God or for a god especially by praying, having religious services, etc. pattern n. something that happens in a repeated way A new report suggests many online education systems gathered private information on children as they studied at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report was released by the international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organization says it examined 164 education technology, or EdTech, products used in 49 countries. Of the 164 EdTech systems studied, HRW said 89 percent appeared to be involved in activities that risked or infringed on childrens rights. Such products had the ability to follow childrens online activities, in most cases secretly, and without the consent of children or their parents, HRWs report found. Data collected included the identities of children and their families and where they performed their school work. Other information collected included who their friends were and what technology devices they used. HRW said most of the online learning products it examined either sent or provided access to advertising technology companies. In doing so, some EdTech products targeted children with behavioral advertising, the report said. This kind of advertising can target individuals with personalized content and advertisements that follow them across the internet. HRW said that with the exception of Morocco, all governments studied in the report endorsed at least one EdTech product that risked or undermined childrens rights. The group said its investigators began examining the educational products in 2021. At the time, schoolchildren across the world were using EdTech products at home because pandemic-related restrictions prevented in-classroom learning. The report states that data gathering took place in virtual classrooms and educational settings where children could not reasonably object to the collection methods. The report noted that it was not possible for HRW to reach a definitive judgement about the companies aims in the data collection effort. The investigators said their reporting was based only on what it observed in the data and the companies and governments own statements. Human Rights Watch said it shared its findings with EdTech companies, advertising companies and governments covered in the report. It said several technology companies denied collecting data from children, while others said their products were not designed for childrens use. Some advertising businesses denied knowledge that data on children was being sent to them. Some EdTech companies also questioned HRWs research methods. ST Math is an American-based online learning system. It said in an explanation of its privacy policies that HRW examined the wrong website for its report. ST Math said its main website that HRW looked at is designed for marketing purposes. It noted that investigators should have examined its other web-based system, which is designed for students and teachers. The company said that system does not have tools to collect data and follow user activity. Reporters from major media organizations in 16 countries assisted in the investigation. In its reporting, The Washington Post said some user data from online learners was shared with major advertising-based companies including Facebook and Google. A Google spokesperson told the Post the company is investigating the reports claims. The company said it is prepared to take action if it finds any of Googles data privacy rules were violated. A spokesman for Facebooks parent company, Meta, told the newspaper it restricts how businesses share childrens data and also limits how advertisers can target children and teens. HRWs report calls on governments to pass and enforce modern child data protection laws that provide safeguards around the collection, processing and use of childrens data. It also urges companies to stop these collection methods. Albert Fox Cahn directs the New York-based Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. He reacted to the report on Twitter. "We already knew technologies were being abused and putting kids at risk, he tweeted. But this report is important because it shows the scale of harm and how the same mistake is being made by educators and governments around the world." Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on a report from Human Rights Watch. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Quiz - Report: Online Education Systems Tracked and Shared Data on Children Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz _____________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story infringe v. to limit someones rights of freedoms consent n. permission for someone to do something access n. the right or chance to use or look at something endorse v. to declare publicly that you support a person or action undermine v. to make someone less confident or make something weaker virtual adj. used to describe something that can be done or seen using computers or the internet instead of happening in a physical place definitive adj. clear, sure and not likely to change scale n. the size or level of something Western nations promised to send even more and better weapons to Ukraine, as Russian forces are close to capturing an important city in the east. Germany said Wednesday it will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. And the United States shipment will include modern, medium-range rocket systems. Western weapons have been very important to Ukraines success in fighting Russias much larger and better equipped military. The supplies made it possible for Ukraine to prevent Russia from taking its capital early in the war. Russia has had to instead center its attention on the eastern industrial Donbas area. As the war goes on, Ukraine has continued to ask for more and better weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sometimes criticized Western nations for moving too slowly in sending arms. Military experts say Russia is hoping to take over the Donbas before any weapons arrive that might help Ukraine fight Russia off. Germany has especially come under criticism, both at home and from international allies, that it is not doing enough. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the missiles it will send are the most modern air defense system the country has. Scholz said Germany and the U.S. are working together on their moves. In addition to the rocket systems it has promised, the U.S. will send helicopters, anti-tank weapon systems, vehicles, extra parts and more, said two senior American officials. One official said that the rockets, with a range of 80 kilometers, will give Ukrainian forces a greater ability to target Russian forces inside Ukraine. But they could not reach far into Russian territory. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday the Kremlin does not trust Kyivs promises that the rocket systems will not be used to attack Russia. We believe that the U.S. is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire, Peskov said. Russian forces advancing The announcements come as a Ukraine official said Russian forces now control 70 percent of Sievierodonetsk. The city is important to Moscow's efforts to complete their capture of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Russian-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for years in Donbas and the separatists already held large areas. Donetsk and Luhansk are the two areas that make up the Donbas. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on the Telegram messaging app that some Ukrainian troops have pulled back from the city. But he later told The Associated Press that the troops who remained were fighting in the streets. Lysychansk is the only other city in Luhansk that Russians have not yet captured. It is still fully under Ukrainian control, Haidai said, but it would likely be next. I'm Dan Novak. Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press. ________________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story range n. a specified distance deliberate adj. done or said in a way that is planned or intended : done or said on purpose diligent n. careful hard work region n. a part of a country, of the world, etc., that is different or separate from other parts in some way Dubai-based upmarket vacation rentals platform Luxury Explorers Collection has announced its Middle East expansion with the launch of its premium holiday homes in the kingdom. Towards the end of 2021, Luxury Explorers Collection debuted two of its most highly-anticipated vacation rentals. This included an ultra-luxe penthouse in the heart of Dubai Marina and an opulent mansion in Emirates Hills. To date, the company has a total of 20 listings currently in operation across prime locations in Dubai. A new property in Abu Dhabi is also in the pipeline to add to its rental listings in Dubai and Makkah. "Governments in the region have put a lot of efforts in diversifying the economy away from oil and a vital sector that has consistently been mapped in strategies for transformative development, particularly in the GCC, has been tourism," remarked Mohammed Sultan, CEO for Luxury Explorers Collection. "Taking our brand to Saudi Arabia is not only an important part of our strategic vision, but it is a testament as well to our commitment to support tourism and hospitalitys path to recovery, and ultimately, long-term growth," he observed. Sultan revealed that introducing Luxury Explorers Collection to Mecca market will give them the right exposure in Saudi Arabia. "Our Makkah properties are spacious apartments and penthouses accessible to Haram and with an uninterrupted Kaaba view. We will also offer full concierge services, including in-house chef, delivery attendants, butlers, and housekeeping staff," he said. Sultan pointed out that on top of this, the Dubai upmarket vacation rentals platform is developing a more forward-looking strategy for future investments in the kingdom/ As per this, there is a plan to expand in Riyadh to serve the corporate markets and families for holidays and weekends in the capital. "This is also in the hope of supporting the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which has set an ambitious target of 100 million tourists by 2030," he added. Tourism and hospitality were among the sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, however, Sultan revealed that it was during these most challenging times that Luxury Explorers Collection thrived. "We always have this vision to re-imagine and re-invent the way people enjoy their holiday break, and Covid-19 opened up a unique opportunity for us to realise this vision. We were quick to recognise the need for exclusive properties without compromising the luxury lifestyle," stated Sultan. "Hence we responded by providing the kind of upscale properties, complete with premium amenities and personalised concierge services: big premium-furnished spaces where they can effectively social distance, while guaranteeing enhanced privacy and increased security in terms of health and hygiene protocols," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Mehdi J. Hakimi (Stanford Law School) has posted Relentless Atrocities: The Persecution of Hazaras (Michigan Journal of International Law, Vol. 44 (Forthcoming 2022)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: As one of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Hazaras are Farsi-speaking and mostly Shia Muslims in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. They are also distinguishable by their Asiatic appearance. Hazaras have suffered considerably under various regimes throughout Afghanistans history by enduring, inter alia, recurring massacres, enslavement, and forced displacement. The plight of Hazaras has not improved despite Afghanistans accession to the Rome Statute in 2003. Indeed, the assaults on Hazaras have intensified in recent years, targeting virtually every aspect of their lives. This Article argues that the recent and ongoing attacks against Hazaras constitute a crime against humanity. In particular, I showelement by elementthat there is a reasonable basis to believe that the assaults on Hazaras amount to persecution based on ethnic and religious grounds pursuant to Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the global community must take urgent actions to investigate the relentless atrocities against Hazaras and hold the perpetrators accountable. Failure to do so, as echoed by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, may lead to a full-blown genocide. The Article proceeds in four Parts. Part I contextualizes the discussion with a brief history of some earlier atrocities perpetrated against Hazaras. Part II examines the recent and ongoing attacks on Hazaras which fall within the ICCs jurisdiction. Part III analyzes the crime against humanity of persecution under the Rome Statute and the requisite evidentiary standard to launch a formal probe. Part IV applies the relevant legal framework to the situation of Hazaras and shows that the persecution of Hazaras has been and continues to be committed with impunity. Omans Ministry of Labour started implementing a decision to cut down the fees charged against issuance and renewal of non-Omani manpower licenses. The fees will be slashed by more than 89% for companies that comply with the target Omanisation percentage, reported Oman News Agency (ONA). Accordingly, the renewal fee for First Class Companies will be RO301 ($780) for a period of two years, and in case of adherence to the target Omanisation percentage, the fee is cut down by 30% to RO211. (Earlier, this class was charged a fee of as much as RO2001). The fee for Second Class Companies is brought down to RO251 (Compared to RO601 to 1001 earlier), and in case of compliance with the target Omanisation percentage, the fee is cut down by 30% to RO176. The fee for Third Class Companies is set at RO201, and in case of compliance with the Omanisation percentage, it comes down by 30% to RO141 (Compared to RO301 to 361 earlier). In the case of private non-Omani workers licenses, the fee for recruiting 1 to 3 domestic workers is RO101; It will be RO141 for the employment of four or more expat workers. In the segment of farmers and livestock herders, the fee is RO141 for recruiting not more than 3 workers, and it will be RO241 for recruiting four or more workers (compared to RO301 earlier). The fee for renewal of licenses for issuance and renewal of licenses for expat workers in small and medium enterprises (holders of Riyada cards) will be RO100 in case the number of workers ranges between 1 and 5. For the recruitment of 6 to 10 workers, the new fee is RO150, in condition that the firm employs at least one Omani citizen. In the construction sector, the fines charged against delay in renewal of licenses will be waived in case the renewal takes place before September 1, 2022. An 18-year-old who was pulled unconscious from Lake Como on Sunday has died, the Town of Geneva Police Department announced in a press release on Wednesday, June 1. The town police department was dispatched on Sunday, May 29, at approximately 7:57 p.m. to a residence off South Shore Drive for a man with no pulse who was pulled from the water. Life-saving efforts were administered and the teen was transported to Mercy Medical Center, then to the University of Madison hospital. However, due to the injuries sustained the teen died on Monday, May 30. The man has been identified as Adam Jablonski, 18, from Vernon Hills, Illinois. The Town of Geneva Police Department was assisted by Lake Geneva Fire and Rescue Departments, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Walworth County Sheriffs Department and the Walworth County Medical Examiners Office. The investigation is currently ongoing. No additional information was release about what the teen was doing before he was pulled from the water. Gov. Ned Lamont has vetoed legislation that would have allowed a Connecticut police department to bypass the state's 2020 police reform law and obtain a surplus military vehicle from another community. Officials from the city of West Haven have said the demilitarized vehicle could bolster rescue missions. But the Democrat Lamont opposed making the one-time exception, noting it would be inconsistent with the 2-year-old law that prohibits state and local police from acquiring certain pieces of surplus federal military equipment, including the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle known as an MRAP. Lamont said allowing the exception would be at odds with community-focused policing practices his administration supports. MRAPs were included in the list following several national and local instances of inappropriate use of such vehicles, Lamont wrote in his veto message, released late Wednesday. He said the creation of Connecticut's list of barred equipment, which includes items such as weaponized drones and grenade launchers, had followed an extended public debate regarding the militarization of police. The veto prompted a strong, bipartisan rebuke Thursday from West Haven's state legislative delegation, city police and fire officials and local public safety officials, who said the veto had come as a surprise. The bill had cleared the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support. With all the challenges our state is currently facing it hardly seems plausible that denying West Haven a vehicle that can possibly save lives could necessitate the governors veto, the group wrote in a combined statement. "With two years of work to get this right, including bringing on board some of the strongest voices on police accountability, we as a delegation are shocked and disappointed that the result is a veto. West Haven was well-served by the delegation and that work should matter here. Charles Ferraro, R-West Haven, testified earlier this year that city officials were seeking to obtain one of Farmington's two MRAP vehicles for life-saving measures, especially during severe storms. He said West Haven has been attempting to acquire such a vehicle since 2011 but they've been either too costly or in poor condition. West Haven would have received Farmington's vehicle at no cost. Being a shoreline community, we have experienced numerous devastating storms such as Sandy, Irene, and snowstorm Nemo. These storms caused flooding, downed trees, and debris as well as a historical snow fall total, Ferraro said in written testimony. Farmington had obtained the two vehicles through a federal program that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to request excess U.S. Department of Defense supplies and equipment. Ferraro said there's much misunderstanding surrounding the acquisition of such vehicles." He said the vehicle has been stripped of its military armaments, including one layer of armor. State Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, whose district includes West Haven, noted in written testimony that municipalities are allowed to petition the governor or the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to retain surplus military equipment for relief or rescue efforts in the case of a natural disaster or for other public safety purposes. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut had urged lawmakers to reject the bill during the legislative session, which adjourned on May 4. The group said in written testimony that it opposes legislation that facilitates the unnecessary militarization of the police" in the state. Highly militarized police units and equipment turn communities into war zones, said Jess Zaccagnino, the group's policy counsel. Neighborhoods are not battlegrounds, and no arm of the government should be treating Connecticut residents like wartime enemy combatants. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Theres one Arbys left in Madison. The Arbys at South Gammon Road and the Beltline closed in 2016. Then the one on East Washington Avenue closed, followed by the Arbys on Park Street. So, to try the chains limited-time Wagyu Steakhouse Burger, I went to the last remaining Madison Arbys, on the outskirts of town, next to a Phillips 66 station at the Dutch Mill Park & Ride off Stoughton Road near the Beltline. The place is drive-thru only now because of staffing issues, and when I arrived at 4:15 p.m. on a Thursday, three days after the release of the companys burger, the first in its 58-year history, signs on the menu board showed that it was temporarily out of stock. The young woman at the window said it had sold out by noon and told me they would have the burger when the shop opened at 10 the next morning. When I showed up at noon that Friday there was no line, so I got my burger ($7.37 with tax) and ate it in the car while it was still warm. Wagyu refers to all Japanese beef cattle, according to the American Wagyu Association. Wa means Japanese and gyu is cow. Its disappointing that Arbys burger is adulterated: 52% American Wagyu and 48% ground beef. Wagyu cattle were first brought to the United States in 1975 and American Wagyu beef is the result of cross-breeding Japanese Wagyu with high-quality continental breeds of cattle. The much-advertised, highly marbled beef is cooked sous vide style, meaning in water inside a vacuum-sealed pouch, to make it even more on trend. It was certainly thick for a fast-food burger, more like what you would expect at a tavern or table-service restaurant. Arbys boasts that the 6.4-ounce burger is 50% bigger than McDonalds Quarter Pounder. The patty was tender and cooked medium-well with a pink center. The burger had American cheese, a red tomato slice, red onion, plus a hint of shredded lettuce. I didnt detect pickle, but it could have been minimal as well. The creamy orange sauce, comparable to the Big Macs special sauce, and toasted brioche bun added a lot. Arbys website says it has 1,285 calories, or more than half the 2,000 calories a day the FDA recommends for the average person. The We Have the Meats chain has been getting a lot of attention for this burger, which it says has been in development for more than two years. Arbys is owned by Inspire Brands, the second-largest restaurant company in the United States, and also the parent company of Jimmy Johns, Dunkin, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings and Sonic. There are roughly 3,400 Arbys in the U.S., according to Technomic, which does food service research. For comparison, there are about 14,000 McDonalds. Morgan Newton, a manager at the Madison Arbys, said they ran out of the Wagyu burger sometimes during the first week, but that its no longer a problem. She said they now know how many theyre selling, which is 40 to 50 a day. Newton said the restaurant sells about the same number of Wagyu burgers as its classic roast beef sandwiches. Its definitely one of our most popular, she said. Longtime Arbys franchisee Kevin Breitfelder closed his Arbys on Gammon Road six years ago and opened Sliced Deli a week later in its place. He closed Sliced in 2018 for redevelopment of the property. Contacted Wednesday, Breitfelder, who spent 27 years working for Arbys, said he wasnt aware of the Wagyu burger, and added that he probably wouldnt go out of his way to try it. You certainly have to be interested in something like a Wagyu burger. I definitely love Wagyu beef, he said. So, it would be interesting to see how they pull it off, I guess. Arbys claims the burger, available through July, is the highest-quality burger the fast-food market has ever seen, and yes, the chain does manage to pull it off. Diner's scorecard Restaurant: Arby's Location: No. 4 Collins Court Phone: 608-222-2400 Website: arbys.com Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Prices: Wagyu burger $7.37 including tax Credit cards: Accepted Accessibility: Yes Outdoor dining: No Delivery: Through DoorDash Service: Good Bottom line: Arby's claims its "Wagyu Steakhouse Burger," available through July, is the "highest-quality burger" the fast-food market has ever seen, and that's a statement of fact. Read restaurant news at go.madison.com/restaurantnews. Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Nations are falling short in their efforts to get rid of toxic PCB chemicals that pose a risk to human health and the environment, researchers report. Were only six years out from the Stockholm Conventions deadline to responsibly eliminate PCB stocks, but shockingly little progress has been made, said study co-author Lisa Melymuk, an assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were widely used for their insulating and flame-retardant properties, but were banned in the late 1970s by many countries, including the United States, because of their threat to environmental and human health. However, the chemicals are still present in transformers, capacitors and building materials in many countries. A new study found that only 30% of nations that agreed to responsibly eliminate their stocks of PCBs by 2028 under a treaty called the Stockholm Convention are on track to meet the deadline, and 42% don't know the amounts and locations of PCBs in their countries. More than 10 million metric tons of PCB-containing materials remain worldwide, according to the paper, published June 1 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The United States, the world's largest producer and user of PCBs, is not party to the Stockholm Convention. It has decreased its significant stocks of the chemicals by only about 3% since 2006, the research team said. The researchers also warned that the inability of global agreements like the Stockholm Convention to effectively manage PCBs raises concerns about dealing with other toxic chemicals found in numerous products, like highly persistent PFAS (per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances) and chlorinated paraffin chemicals. Global mismanagement and inequities make elimination of these persistent chemicals unlikely. This analysis is an international wake-up call to limit the production of hazardous chemicals, like PCBs. We just cant clean up the mess that they create, study co-author Veena Singla, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a University of Toronto news release. More information There's more on PCBs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. SOURCE: University of Toronto, news release, June 1, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. The roof had all but succumbed to water damage. Animals had burrowed indoors, interior fixtures were missing or crumbling away and the heating and plumbing systems were shot. The Seth Peterson Cottage was unlivable. In 1989, volunteers set about restoring the last building commissioned in Wisconsin from the world-famous, Wisconsin-born architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The renovation lasted until 1992, when the Seth Peterson Cottage became an overnight destination for countless travelers who would stay there and experience, firsthand, the magic of living in a Wright-designed building. The Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy group will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the cottages restoration and its success as a self-sustaining nonprofit with a special open house June 12. The public can drop by for tours and to take in the history, architecture and towering woods that envelop the home. Perched atop a steep wooded hill on Mirror Lake, an hour north of Madison, the cottage is built of Wisconsin sandstone and other local materials. Though just 880 square feet, the interior has a breathtaking spaciousness. William Wesley Peters, Wrights chief assistant, described the intimate home as having more architecture per square foot than anything else Wright designed. It was commissioned in 1958 by Seth Peterson, a young fan of Wrights work who after high school unsuccessfully applied for admission to Wrights Taliesin Fellowship as an apprentice. Peterson, a native of Black Earth, later took a job as a computer operator for the state and bought a cottage property on Mirror Lake. In time he persuaded Wright, then nearly 90, to design a home for him and his fiancee. Neither man saw the cottage completed. Wright died in April 1959. A year later, Peterson took his own life, just two months shy of his 24th birthday. The cottage was sold to the Pritchard family of Milwaukee, who owned it for six years before it was purchased by the state Department of Natural Resources. While the DNR bought many cottages around the lake for demolition in order to create Mirror Lake State Park, it recognized the significance of a Wright-designed building and left it intact. They essentially boarded the place up where it sat for 23 years, said Bill Martinelli, a Conservancy member who helped with the cottages restoration. For all that time, it was a piece of art sitting out in the woods. A group of volunteers rallied by the late Audrey Laatsch, who owned a cottage on another side of Mirror Lake, formed the nonprofit Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy, raised $350,000 and hired architect John Eifler to direct the restoration. Three years later, the cottage became the first Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structure that members of the public could rent for a weekend getaway. Today, the cottage is booked two years out. Stays cost $325 a night with a two-night minimum. June and October, the most popular months for rentals, are already full for 2024. The Conservancy operates the cottage under a renewable lease with the DNR. Staying there is the ultimate in relaxation, said Tim McNeely of Georgetown, Kentucky, who has visited the cottage every year since 2001. A self-described Frank Lloyd Wright aficionado, McNeely and his wife spend their time there reading, listening to music and marveling at the surrounding landscape. Theres no TV. For years my cell phone wouldnt work there, McNeely said. You get away from all those things that you do every day and go into total relaxation mode. Centered around a massive stone fireplace, the Seth Peterson Cottage incorporates many of the features that Wright is known for, said Martinelli: an openness to nature, the use of natural materials such as stone, glass and wood, and the way it is sited on the property to take advantage of natural light. The inside borrows space from the outside, he said. Renting out the cottage has been a very successful project for us financially and helped people get a better idea of the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Make your house a home For the holidays: Get inspiring home and gift ideas sign up now! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. AVON LAKE, Ohio (AP) Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. The company says it will invest $3.7 billion in the three states between now and 2026. It also will convert about 3,000 temporary workers to full-time status with pay raises and benefits. A factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, near Cleveland, will be expanded so it can build an unidentified new electric commercial vehicle, with 1,800 new jobs. Ninety more jobs will be added in Lima and Sharonville, Ohio. A plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, that makes big electric and combustion-engine Transit vans will get a third shift of 1,100 workers to handle increased demand. In Michigan, Ford Motor Co. plans to add 2,000 jobs at three assembly plants, and another 1,200 at other facilities. A factory in the Detroit suburb of Wayne that now builds the Ranger midsize pickup will see investment and jobs to make a new Ranger. A plant in Flat Rock south of Detroit will make a new version of the Mustang muscle car. And Ford's Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn also will see investment and jobs so it can build more F-150 Lightning electric pickups to meet unexpectedly high demand. The company also will add 600 jobs at a new parts packaging facility in Monroe, Michigan, and another 600 at several Michigan component plants. It's part of Ford's plan to be able to make 2 million electric vehicles per year globally by 2026. Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the company's division that makes internal combustion vehicles, said the EV investments are needed in part because Ford underestimated demand for EVs. As soon as Ford opened reservations for the electric F-150, it began planning to expand the Dearborn plant that makes them, he said. The reservations were so much higher than the (production) capacity that we had put in, Galhotra said. This is the first time in my career that we were expanding the plant before the plant was built. Ford stopped taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning at 200,000, and it's now converting reservations to orders. About two-thirds of those contacted so far are converting, but the company said it didn't have an exact number. In addition, the Mustang Mach-E SUV and E-Transit vans are sold out for the year, Galhotra said. Like other automakers, Ford finds itself adding workers to build both internal combustion and electric vehicles as the industry makes a transition to battery power, said Kristin Dziczek, a policy adviser with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who follows the industry. Although studies show that automakers will need fewer workers to build electric vehicles because there are fewer moving parts, it doesn't necessarily mean big layoffs down the road, Dziczek said. Automakers are producing many of their own EV parts such as axles and electric motors in North America to avoid pandemic-related supply chain disruptions overseas, creating new jobs. Plus there will be worker retirements over the next decade during the transition, Dziczek said. There are so many moving pieces," she said. "It's hard to say what the employment level needs to be. Automakers have been converting temporary workers to full-time status with higher pay to attract entry-level workers during the recent labor shortage, Dziczek said. Ford wouldn't give details of the commercial EV to be built at the Ohio Assembly Plant by mid-decade. The factory has been on the edge of closure for much of its life but has managed to survive. Galhotra says it now has a bright future. News of the expansion couldn't come any sooner for Cody Newsome, a skilled trades apprentice on layoff at the factory, which now makes large vans and trucks. He's hoping the company will bring him back to work as it builds more space and adds workers. This is really huge for us because this is a long-term investment, said Newsome, 28, a third-generation Ford worker. This is not a small little project. So job security, huge. We've been waiting for this day for a long time, said Jason Williams, a union bargaining representative at the plant. Were trying to secure the future for our kids, our families, families of the community. Ohio is offering about $200 million in incentives to Ford, while Michigan is contributing about $150 million. Although there will be a small capital investment in Missouri, there are no incentives for this project. Ford said it already has begun switching the temporary workers to full-time, and it's starting to hire the new workers. The announcement came a year ahead of when contract talks start with the United Auto Workers union. New product and job announcements normally are part of the negotiations. Ford's decision to build three battery plants and one new assembly plant in Kentucky and Tennessee last year raised questions about the company's manufacturing commitment to its home state and region. Michigan politicians worked hard to lure General Motors EV assembly and battery plants in January after losing the Ford plants to the Southern states. It's likely that Ford will build a fourth North American battery factory in the Great Lakes region in a joint venture with SK Innovation of Korea, but Galhotra said he's not ready to make an announcement yet. At the pace Ford is moving with EVs, more production will be needed, Galhotra said, pointing to the Michigan site where the electric F-150 is being built and the commercial EV to be built in Ohio. We'll have more announcements to come, he said. Krisher reported from Detroit. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The U.S. and Germany pledged on Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east. Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the U.S. announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The U.S. is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory. The Kremlin accused the U.S. of pouring fuel on the fire. Western arms have been critical to Ukraines success in stymieing Russias much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east. But as Russia bombards towns in its inching advance in the east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for more and better weapons and accused the West of moving too slowly. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidents office, hailed the new Western weapons. Im sure that if we receive all the necessary weapons and strengthen the efficient sanctions regime we will win, he said. The new arms could help Ukraine set up and hold new lines of defense in the east by hitting back at Russian artillery pieces that have been battering towns and cities and by limiting Russian airstrikes, said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of Frances military mission at the United Nations. "The NATO countries the European nations and the Americans have progressively escalated the means that they are putting at Ukraines disposal, and this escalation, in my opinion, has had the aim of testing Russian limits, he said. Each time, they measure the Russian reaction, and since there is no reaction, they keep supplying increasingly effective and sophisticated weaponry. Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Defense Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight. The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million package of security assistance for Ukraine from the U.S. that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more. The rockets have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and are highly mobile. Ukraine had pushed unsuccessfully for rockets with a range of up to 186 miles (300 kilometers). Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not trust assurances that Ukraine will not fire on Russian territory. We believe that the U.S. is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire, he said. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintzev later went further, directly accusing Ukraine of planning to fire U.S.-provided missiles from the northeastern Sumy region at border areas in Russia. The claim, which he said was based on radio intercepts, couldnt be independently confirmed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraines push for more weapons is a direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting. He warned that the multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict. Sane Western politicians understand those risks well, he said. As the new weapons shipments were announced, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said five people were wounded in Wednesday's strike, and the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage was still being assessed. Germany's promise of IRIS-T air defense systems would mark the first delivery of long-range air defense weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war. Earlier deliveries of portable, shoulder-fired air defense missiles have bolstered the Ukrainian militarys ability to take down helicopters and other low-flying aircraft but didnt give it enough range to challenge Russias air superiority. Germany has come under particular criticism, both at home and from allies abroad, that it isnt doing enough. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the IRIS-T's surface-to-air missiles are the most modern air defense system the country has. With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air attacks, he said. The radar systems will also help Ukraine locate enemy artillery. A regional governor said Russian forces now control 80% of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscows efforts to complete its capture of the Donbas, where Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have fought for years and where the separatists held swaths of territory even before the invasion. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops were advancing in the city during fierce street battles with Ukrainian forces, though he noted that in some districts the Ukrainian troops managed to push them back. The only other city in Luhansk that the Russians have not yet captured, Lysychansk, is still fully under Ukrainian control, he said, but is likely to be the next target. The two cities are separated by a river. If the Russians manage to take full control over Sievierodonetsk within two to three days, they will start installing artillery and mortars and will shell Lysychansk more intensively, Haidai said. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting. He turned the focus to children in his nightly video address, saying 243 of them have been killed in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing. The real numbers could be higher, he added, as his government doesnt have a full picture of areas under Russian occupation. Zelenskyy also said 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across that vast country: The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return. In southern Ukraine, a regional governor sounded a more positive note, saying Russian troops were retreating and blowing up bridges behind them. They are afraid of a counterattack by the Ukrainian army, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolayiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Jill Lawless in London 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. BURLINGTON Federal investigators are sending a balloon specialist to explore an incident Wednesday night that injured three people after a hot-air balloon collided with a moving train. The Burlington Police Department initially said three adult occupants of the hot-air balloon all suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. By Thursday, all three were released from the hospital, identified as pilot Jimmy Winder, 62, of Bristol, Wisconsin, and passengers Nikolay Veltchev, 37, of Barrington, Illinois, and Elena Petrova, 36, of Arlington Heights, Illinois. According to police, witnesses on the scene reported that the airborne balloon appeared "in distress" over Burlington and, during its descent, collided with a northbound Canadian National Railroad train. Canadian National spokesman Jonathan Abecassis declined to comment on how fast the train was traveling or other details of the incident. Abecassis referred questions to local authorities. The balloon operator, Lake Geneva Balloon Co., said Thursday a balloon pilot and two passengers were injured, and that two of them it was not clear which ones had been released by the hospital. John Trione, chief pilot and manager of the balloon company, said the crash occurred as the pilot was attempting to land on a road in a park while a freight train was moving through the area. "The balloon and its occupants were pulled into contact with the train," Trione said. Weather conditions at the time were unremarkable, with clear skies and mild winds. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are helping state and local police investigate the incident. NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said the federal agency should have a preliminary report within two weeks, and that it could take a year or longer to produce a full report on the incident. Weiss said the NTSB gets involved whenever there is an accident involving an aircraft, including hot-air balloons. A balloon specialist from Denver, Colorado, is being sent to help with the investigation in Burlington, Weiss said. Asked whether the government has ever before seen a collision between a hot-air balloon and a moving train, Weiss said: "We get a lot of unusual cases let's just leave it at that. We see a lot of things." Burlington police said they were called at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday to the scene of the incident in the 400 block of Calumet Street, near Downtown Burlington. Providing assistance with the injured people were the Burlington Fire Department and other fire departments from Waterford, Rochester and Kansasville. Two patients were flown to Froedtert by helicopter ambulance, and one was transported by a ground ambulance. Ryan Lamp, who works at the nearby Caseys General Store, 100 S. Dodge St., told a reporter that many customers told him a hot-air balloon flying over an industrial building appeared to hit a chimney and then crash and collide with a moving train. The police department asked that anyone with information about the incident contact the Burlington Police Department at 262-342-1104 or via email at rjones@burlington-wi.gov. The department said Canadian National Railroad, the Racine County Sheriffs Office and Racine County Communications also assisted at the crash site. Canadian National and the Wisconsin State Patrol are helping with the investigation. On Facebook, some people posted photographs that they said showed the balloon in flight shortly before the crash. In some photos, it appeared that more than one balloon was present. Lake Geneva Balloon Co., based in Lake Geneva, provides sightseeing balloon rides for tourists and other visitors. On clear days, the company's balloons are often seen floating high in the sky over the Lake Geneva area. According to the company's website, Trione received a commercial pilots certificate for hot-air balloons in 2000, and he created Lake Geneva Balloon Co. two years later. In the company's statement Thursday, Trione said the company has a 20-year record of safety, but that all flights are being suspended for a week because of the crash. "Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our guests," he said. "Our entire company is devastated." Of the three injured people, Trione said, "Their recovery is our most important consideration, and our hearts and prayers are with them." The Dane County Sheriff's Office has finished its investigation into the shooting of unarmed Black man by two Division of Criminal Investigation agents in February, formally turning over the probe to the District Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to charge the two agents. However, the District Attorney has asked for more evidentiary follow-up, which is being completed, Sheriff's Office spokesperson Elise Schaffer said. The four-month probe into the shooting of Quadren Wilson, 38, of Beaver Dam, was led by the Sheriff's Office since DCI, which usually investigates police shootings, was involved in the incident. "Sheriff's detectives and crime scene investigators have spent the past several months conducting a very thorough and detailed investigation of that day," Schaffer said. Wilson's family and attorney have said he was shot five times in the back by the DCI agents, who have been previously identified by the Sheriff's Office as Mark Wagner and Nathan Peskie. Wilson was arrested during a massive, multi-agency operation involving nearly two dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agents at the intersection of American Parkway and East Park Boulevard in Madison on the morning of February 3. Two unmarked police vehicles had boxed in Wilson's vehicle before DCI personnel shot him. Wilson pleaded guilty to drug charges in May that were brought against him after the shooting and is serving a three-year prison sentence. While any charging decision against Peskie and Wagner is pending, questions remain over why such a large law enforcement contingent was used to apprehend Wilson. The 38-year-old had been wanted on a Department of Corrections warrant, but his attorney, Stephen Eisenberg, maintains that Wilson had been in regular contact with his parole officer leading up to the shooting. The Sheriff's Office has not said how many times Wagner and Peskie shot at Wilson nor how many bullets actually struck him. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi has previously criticized the Sheriff's Office handling of the investigation, saying that it lacked transparency. 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. Globally, 733 million people still have no access to electricity, and 2.4 billion people still cook using fuels detrimental to their health and the environment and at the current rate, 670 million will remain without electricity by 2030. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a key factor in slowing progress toward universal energy access, while the energy crisis arising from the war in Ukraine may lead to further setbacks. Progress of SDG 7 slows The 2022 edition of Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report shows that the impacts of the pandemic, including lockdowns, disruptions to global supply chains, and diversion of fiscal resources to keep food and fuel prices affordable, have affected the pace of progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030. Advances have been impeded particularly in the most vulnerable countries and those already lagging in energy access. Nearly 90 million people in Asia and Africa who had previously gained access to electricity, can no longer afford to pay for their basic energy needs. The impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on energy have been compounded in the last few months by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has led to uncertainty in global oil and gas markets and has sent energy prices soaring. The shocks caused by Covid-19 reversed recent progress towards universal access for electricity and clean cooking, and slowed vital improvements in energy efficiency even as renewables showed encouraging resilience. Today, Russias invasion of Ukraine has triggered a global energy crisis, driving huge price spikes that are causing particularly severe impacts in developing economies. Many of these economies were already in dire financial straits as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, and overcoming these difficulties to get on track for Sustainable Development Goals will require massive and innovative financial solutions from the international community, said Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency. Africa least electrified Africa remains the least electrified in the world with 568 million people without electricity access. Sub-Saharan Africa's share of the global population without electricity jumped to 77% in 2020 from 71% in 2018 whereas most other regions saw declines in their share of the access deficits. While 70 million people globally gained access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, this progress was not enough to keep pace with population growth, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report finds that despite continued disruptions in economic activity and supply chains, renewable energy was the only energy source to grow through the pandemic. However, these positive global and regional trends in renewable energy have left behind many countries most in need of electricity. This was aggravated by a decrease in international financial flows for the second year in a row, falling to $10.9 billion in 2019. SDG7 targets also cover energy efficiency. From 2010 to 2019, global annual improvements in energy intensity averaged around 1.9%. This is well below the levels needed to meet SDG 7s targets and to make up for lost ground, the average rate of improvement would have to jump to 3.2%. To remain committed In September 2021, the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy brought together governments and stakeholders to accelerate action to achieve a sustainable energy future that leaves no one behind. In this context, the SDG 7 custodian agencies, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as they launch this report, are urging the international community and policymakers to safeguard gains toward SDG 7; to remain committed to continued action towards affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all; and to maintain a strategic focus on countries needing the most support. Key highlights on SDG7 targets Access to electricity The share of the worlds population with access to electricity rose from 83% in 2010 to 91% in 2020, increasing the number of people with access by 1.3 billion globally. The number without access declined from 1.2 billion people in 2010 to 733 million in 2020. However, the pace of progress in electrification has slowed in recent years which may be explained by the increasing complexity of reaching more remote and poorer unserved populations and the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meeting the 2030 target requires increasing the number of new connections to 100 million a year. At current rates of progress, the world will reach only 92% electrification by 2030. Between 2010 and 2020, every region of the world showed consistent progress in electrification, but with wide disparities. Electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 46% in 2018 to 48% in 2020, but the regions share of the global access deficit rose from 71% in 2018 to 77% in 2020, whereas most other regions, including Central and Southern Asia, saw declines in their share of the access deficits. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than three-quarters of the people (568 million people) who remained without access in 2020. Clean cooking The share of the global population with access to clean cooking fuels and technologies rose to 69% in 2020, an increase of 3%age points over last year. However, population growth outpaced much of the gains in access, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, the total number of people lacking access to clean cooking has remained relatively stagnant for decades. Between 2000 and 2010, this number was close to three billion people, or one-third of the global population. It dropped to around 2.4 billion in 2020. The increase was primarily driven by advancements in access in large, populous countries in Asia. In contrast, the access deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa has nearly doubled since 1990, reaching a total of around 923 million people in 2020. A multisectoral, coordinated effort is needed to achieve the SDG 7 target of universal access to clean cooking by 2030. It is critical that the global community learns from the successes and challenges faced by countries that have attempted to design and implement clean household energy policies. International public financing for renewable energy needs to accelerate, especially in the poorest, most vulnerable countries. We have failed to support those most in need. With only eight years left to achieve universal access to affordable and sustainable energy, we need radical actions to accelerate the increase of international public financial flows and distribute them in a more equitable manner, so 733 million people who are currently left behind can enjoy the benefits of clean energy access, said Francesco La Camera, Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency. Renewables Ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy implies accelerated deployment of renewable energy sources for electricity, heat, and transport. Although there is no quantitative target for SDG 7.2, custodian agencies agree that the share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption (TFEC) needs to rise significantly, even though renewable energy consumption did continue to grow through the pandemic, overcoming disruptions to economic activity and supply chains. While the share of renewable capacity expansion rose by a record amount in 2021, the positive global and regional trajectories mask the fact that countries where new capacity additions lagged were those most in need of increased access. Moreover, rising commodity, energy and shipping prices, as well as restrictive trade measures, have increased the cost of producing and transporting solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, wind turbines, and biofuels, adding uncertainty for future renewable energy projects. Renewable shares need to reach well over 30% of TFEC by 2030, up from 18% in 2019, to be on track for reaching net-zero energy emissions by 2050. Achieving this objective would require strengthening policy support in all sectors and implementing effective tools to further mobilise private capital, especially in least-developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing countries. Energy efficiency SDG 7.3 aims to double the global rate of annual improvement in primary energy intensitythe amount of energy used per unit of wealth createdto 2.6% in 201030 versus 19902010. From 2010 to 2019, global annual improvements in energy intensity averaged around 1.9%, well below the target, and the average annual rate of improvement now has to reach 3.2% to make up for lost ground. This rate would need to be even higherconsistently over 4% for the rest of this decadeif the world is to reach net-zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050, as envisioned in the IEA's Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. Early estimates for 2020 point to a substantial decrease in intensity improvement because of the Covid-19 crisis, as a result of a higher share of energy-intensive activities in the economy and lower energy prices. The outlook for 2021 suggests a return to a 1.9% rate of improvement, the average rate during the previous decade, thanks to a sharper focus on energy efficiency policies, particularly in Covid-19 recovery packages. However, energy efficiency policies and investment need to be scaled up significantly to bring the SDG 7.3 target within reach. International financial flows International public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy decreased for the second year in a row, falling to $10.9 billion in 2019, despite the immense needs for sustainable development in most countries and growing urgency of climate change. The amount was down by nearly 24% from the previous year and may be worsened by the pandemic in 2020. Overall, the level of financing remains below what is needed to reach SDG 7, particularly in the most vulnerable and least developed countries. The decrease was seen in most regions, with the only exception in Oceania, where international public flows rose by 72%. The bulk of decreases were concentrated in Eastern and South-eastern Asia, where they fell 66.2%; Latin America and the Caribbean, where they dropped by 29.8%; and Central and Southern Asia, where they declined by 24.5%. Although the private sector finances most renewable energy investments, public finance remains key to attract private capital, including for creating an enabling environment for private investments, developing the needed infrastructure, and addressing perceived and real risks and barriers for investments in the energy transition. International public flows to countries that lack the financial resources to support their energy transitions constitute a large part of the international collaboration that will be needed for a global energy transition that would bring the world closer to achieving all SDGs. Indicators and data Tracking global progress for SDG 7 targets requires high-quality, reliable and comparable data for informed and effective policymaking at the global, regional, and country levels. The quality of data has been improving through national and international cooperation and solid statistical capacity. National data systems improve as countries establish legal frameworks and institutional arrangements for comprehensive data collection for energy supply and demand balances; implement end-user surveys (e.g., households, businesses, etc.); and develop quality-assurance frameworks. However, after the pandemic hit and disrupted the rate of progress toward Goal 7, more investment in quality statistics is needed to know where we stand and how to get back on track. This is especially important for developing countries, particularly Least Developed Countries, to inform their national energy policies and strategies to ensure no one is left behind.-- TradeArabia News Service A tip led to the recovery of a Memorial Union Terrace chair stolen in 1978, UW-Madison police said. We solved a big one, folks, UW Police said in a Facebook post that recounted how the chair was seen in a garage in Verona by someone who contacted UW police. The UW police investigation revealed the chair was taken from the Terrace in 1978 when the thieves were in college and, The perps turned over the chair and we returned it to our friends at the Union. No citation just a verbal warning. Police added that anyone in possession of a stolen Terrace chair can return it to the Terrace or police with no questions asked. UW Police spokesperson Marc Lovicott told the State Journal that Terrace chairs are a hot commodity and an iconic item that brings certain feelings and memories everyone from the area knows exactly what it is when they see it! Unfortunately, he said, the chairs are so beloved that theft is pretty common, noting a Wisconsin Alumni Association story in 2015 that reported about 250, or 25%, were taken in 2014. Union staff estimated that 60 to 70 chairs would be stolen annually and would plan accordingly, the story said. At the time, Wisco Industries was making about 300 chairs per year, and they cost about $250. The cost now is more than $300, Lovicott said. While Lovicott said that like all crimes, we take theft seriously, in the case of this weeks recovered chair, just a verbal warning was given. Its officer discretion when it comes to verbal warnings, Lovicott said. In this case, because the chair theft was 40-plus years prior, a verbal warning seemed like the most appropriate route. 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 retired Milwaukee police sergeant is suing WKOW-TV for defamation after the station misidentified him as a similarly named retired Milwaukee officer who, as a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent, was involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black man in February on Madisons Far East Side. WKOW-TVs story, reported by Tony Galli, concerned Mark P. Wagner, a former detective with the Milwaukee Police Department who retired in 2018 and subsequently went to work at DCI, who was involved in the Feb. 3 shooting of Quadren Wilson. Wilsons family has said Wilson was shot five times in the back during a traffic stop by DCI agents. Gallis story, which appeared on Feb. 21, claimed that Wagner, as a member of the Milwaukee Police Department in 2002, shot and killed a suspect in Milwaukee, and was later cleared of any wrongdoing. The lawsuit states, however, that the officer involved in the 2002 shooting was a different Mark Wagner. It was Sgt. Mark D. Wagner Jr., who was not involved in the Quadren Wilson incident. Mark D. Wagner Jr. retired from the Milwaukee department in 2019. He was never a DCI agent. About two weeks after the shooting, the Dane County Sheriffs Office had identified the agent involved in the Wilson shooting only as Mark Wagner, without a middle initial. No decision has been issued yet by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne about whether either Mark P. Wagner or his colleague, Nathan Peskie, will face any criminal charges. The Sheriffs Office announced Wednesday night that it had finished its investigation of the shooting and that the District Attorney had requested more evidentiary follow-up. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Dane County Circuit Court by Brookfield attorney William Rettko on behalf of Mark D. Wagner Jr., alleges that even after WKOW became aware of the error, the station ran the false story at least once, and had failed to use ordinary care in checking on the identity of DCI Agent Mark Wagner before running the story, despite having contact information for state Department of Justice spokesperson Gillian Drummond. DCI is part of DOJ. As a result, Mark D. Wagner Jr. has suffered humiliation, loss of reputation, and physical endangerment to him and his family entitling him to compensatory damages, the lawsuit states. He is also entitled to punitive damages because the story continued to run and remain posted on the stations website after the station was told it was erroneous, which was done in reckless disregard for the truth, the lawsuit states, and damaged Mark D. Wagner Jr.s reputation. No damages amounts were specified in the lawsuit. WKOW-TV general manager Anna Engelhart and news director Dani Maxwell did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The lawsuit states that Gallis story included archive video from WISN-TV in Milwaukee about the inquest that followed the fatal shooting involving Mark D. Wagner Jr., and states that a civil lawsuit later filed by the suspects family was settled by Milwaukee for $50,000. The story also included a comment by Wilsons attorney that it was concerning that even after having killed a suspect 20 years earlier, Wagner did not take a more cautious approach to arresting Wilson. It wrapped up by stating that Wagner could not be reached for comment and that records about his tenure in Milwaukee and hire by DCI were not available. That night, the lawsuit states, a DCI employee texted a link to the story to the DCI Leadership Group and called DCI Administrator Tina Virgil. Drummond was also contacted. Just before 9 a.m. on Feb. 22, Drummond emailed Maxwell and told her of the error. WKOW issued a correction, stating that Galli had relied on independent sources and other research for his story. But before the correction was posted, the story had run at least once after WKOW was told the story was erroneous, the lawsuit states. 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. Shortly after the progress pride flag celebrating the beginning of Pride Month was raised over the Capitol on Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers expressed concern that the packed field of GOP challengers vying to face him this fall would discontinue the now 4-year-old tradition if the Democratic governor is defeated in November. Evers also used the occasion to charge that a Republican governor could push efforts to ban books in the state, primarily those focused on the LGBTQ community. Evers comments follow a Wisconsin Examiner story on Tuesday regarding discussions among some Republican lawmakers looking into books found at school libraries on topics including the LGBTQ community, gender identity and sexuality. They are going to be putting themselves in charge of banning books in the state of Wisconsin and you can be damn sure that some of its going to be directly related to LGBTQ community efforts, Evers told reporters outside the Capitol Wednesday. Just think about that: This Legislature and Republican governor would be banning books in the state of Wisconsin. Its breathtaking. As he seeks a second term this fall, Evers has touted his veto authority and ability to block conservative measures ranging from election administration and abortion rights to gun laws and other efforts. With Republicans likely to maintain, if not grow, majorities in both the state Assembly and Senate this fall, a GOP victory in the gubernatorial race would let conservatives enact any legislation that gets through both chambers. The top Republican gubernatorial candidates include former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, former Marine Kevin Nicholson, state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, and construction business owner Tim Michels. Asked about Evers comments, Nicholsons spokesperson Courtney Mullen said in an email that Nicholson would sign into law a Republican-backed bill dubbed the Parental Bill of Rights, which would allow a parent or guardian to sue a school district or school official if they dont allow parents to determine the names and pronouns used for their child at school; review instructional materials and outlines; access any education-related information regarding the child; receive advance notice of any polls or surveys conducted in the childs classroom; request notice of when certain subjects will be taught or discussed; and opt out of a class or instructional materials for reasons based on either religious or personal conviction. Kevin believes that parents should have easy access to the curriculum used to teach our students and our teachers, and that parents should have the right to get their kids out of environments where they believe inappropriate material is taught, Mullen said. Kleefischs spokesperson Alec Zimmerman said the former lieutenant governor believes in the legalization of same-sex marriages and agrees with President (Donald) Trump that its settled law no longer up for discussion, but added: Rebecca will not use flags over the Capitol as political props. Its not surprising that Tony Evers is playing to the most ideological extremes of his party, Michels campaign adviser Chris Walker said in an email. As a lifelong educator and politician, he should be more concerned with the ABCs, not CRT, referring to critical race theory, a graduate-level theoretical framework that examines how American political and social systems help perpetuate racism and which educators say is not taught in schools. He failed Wisconsins students when they needed him most, and it is time for him to go. Ramthuns campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 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. More than two years after UW Hospital nurses asked managers to recognize the revival of a union lost after a 2011 state law, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul on Thursday said the hospital can contract with its employees and set their terms of employment via a voluntary collective bargaining process. Kauls nonbinding opinion, a boon for labor rights, came after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in March asked him whether UW Hospital is prohibited under state law from voluntarily recognizing and engaging in collective bargaining with a union. The UW Hospital Board has repeatedly said it could not recognize or bargain with a union under state law. Nurses at UW Health got one step closer to the union recognition theyve fought so hard for! state Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said on Twitter after Kaul issued the opinion. While this opinion runs contrary to statements in the legislative history, Legislative Council opinions and our own internal and external counsels review, we respect the Attorney Generals opinion and will be discussing these conflicting legal opinions with our Public Authority Board at its next meeting, UW Health spokesperson Emily Kumlien said in a statement. Amid the legal debate, nurses have drawn attention to what they say are difficult working conditions that threaten patient safety as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Families need our attention now more than ever, but with the staffing and retention crisis its difficult to give the care they need, Kelly OConnor, a UW Hospital nurse, said in an SEIU statement Jan. 13. Kaul didnt reach any conclusion as to whether UW Health, one of the largest employers in Dane County, is required to collectively bargain. But he did state the mandatory bargaining provisions in the labor-focused Wisconsin Employment Peace Act appear to apply to the hospital. Even if that statute isnt applicable, Kaul noted, UW Hospital would still be able to engage in voluntary collective bargaining with SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, which is trying to reestablish the union dissolved after the passage of former Republican Gov. Scott Walkers 2011 Act 10. Unlike other public employees affected by Act 10, which banned collective bargaining except for cost-of-living pay increases, UW Hospital workers are not state or municipal employees. When the hospital became a public authority separate from the university in 1996, it acquired its own special status. How Act 10 and other laws apply to that status has accounted for most of the legal arguments over whether UW Health can recognize the union for collective bargaining. At the time of Walkers signature legislation, hospital administrators said they didnt ask for the law to abolish unions at the hospital but that it did. In 2014, when a contract for about 2,000 nurses and therapists represented by SEIU expired, they lost the union. In December 2019, shortly before the pandemic began, nurses announced they were restarting the union and asked the UW Hospital Board to voluntarily recognize it. Initially, the nurses called for a meet and confer process, which is what Madison Teachers Inc. and the Madison School District used after Act 10 to develop an employee handbook. Recently, the nurses have called for full collective bargaining of a contract. The UW Hospital Board and hospital leaders have repeatedly said the law doesnt allow them to recognize and bargain with the union. A May 20, 2021, memo from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council seemed to back the position of the board, formally known as the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority, or UWHCA. Act 10 removed the authority for UWHCA to recognize a union as an exclusive bargaining representative for employees, the memo said. An Oct. 4, 2021, memo appeared to reach a different conclusion. Act 10 simply deleted the obligation and duty for UWHCA to engage in collective bargaining with its employees, and did not replace the former duty with language prohibiting collective bargaining, it said. Kauls opinion is most closely aligned with the second memo. Not only is there no statutory bar to voluntary bargaining, but the statutes governing the Authoritys powers plainly encompass bargaining as a means to contract with its employees, he said in the opinion released Thursday. Its time for UWHCA management to do the right thing, come to the table and bargain in good faith, state Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said in a press release Thursday. After the most challenging two-year period for health care workers in generations, their labor must be honored and they must have a union voice in the workplace moving forward. 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 Madison City Councils Executive Committee is recommending that Bill Tishler fill a vacancy in the 11th District on the West Side created by the resignation of Ald. Arvina Martin. Tishler, a senior instructional media producer for UW-Madison, holds a bachelors of science in art from UW-Madison and masters of arts in liberal studies from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He was recommended by the Executive Committee on Wednesday from among six candidates. The others are Peter Anderson, Jesse Czech, former Ald. Steve Holtzman, Gary Peterson and John Nicholas Schweitzer. The full City Council will consider the recommendation, and an earlier Executive Committee recommendation that former Ald. Matt Phair fill a vacancy in the 20th District created by the resignation of Ald. Christian Albouras, at its next meeting on Tuesday. The appointed council members will begin serving immediately and at least until a new member is elected in April 2023. Tishler said if appointed, he intends to run for the 11th District seat next spring. Phair said he doesnt intend to run to retain the 20th District seat, although he didnt rule it out. Martin, elected in 2017 and reelected in 2019 and 2021, resigned from the council effective May 25 to focus more on her family, personal life and a new job at Emerge Wisconsin, an organization that assists Democratic women seeking public office. Albouras, elected in 2019 and reelected in 2021, and his family will be leaving the citys Meadowood neighborhood and moving into a new home on the West Side outside the 20th District. His resignation was effective on May 20. Last month, the council appointed Erik Paulson to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Ald. Lindsay Lemmer in the 3rd District on the Far East Side. 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. Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. has five locations, three in Madison, one in Fitchburg and one in Wausau. Its about to get a sixth: This one in Japan. A Great Dane production brewery and tasting room is planned for Akiu Onsen, a tourist town in Sendai, about two hours north of Tokyo. Rob LoBreglio, brewmaster for Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., which he co-founded in 1994, said he has deep ties to Japan and has been planning the brewery there for about eight years. LoBreglio will be CEO and brewmaster for Great Dane Brewing in Japan. Its been such a long time coming that part of me still doesnt even really believe that its happening, he said. He said the Japanese brewery will feature current Great Dane beers and new ones. In Wisconsin, the Great Dane is a brewpub, meaning a restaurant and bar that has a brewery on site. With the Japanese operation, LoBreglio said, his focus will be much more on packaging the beer. If you want to draw a comparison, we hope to be more like Wisconsin Brewing Company or Ale Asylum, Karben4, New Glarus, those types of breweries. Thats what were going to try and do. Were going to be focusing less on restaurant operations, he said. Definitely a distinctly different model. Construction is set to begin in August or September in a former rice field with LoBreglio hoping to have beer on shelves throughout Japan by next April. LoBreglios longtime friend, Shinji Muramoto, whos from Sapporo, Japan, and owns Muramoto Hilldale, will serve as president, overseeing the brewerys tasting room, which will serve food. Where in Madison, Muramoto does Japanese food with an American twist, there, hell do American food with a Japanese twist. He definitely wants to have a good chunk of the menu be a homage to Wisconsin, LoBreglio said, adding that Muramoto has been trying hard to find someone to import cheese curds. In the mid-90s, LoBreglio met Tetsuya Kiyosawa, through his brother, whos a professor of Japanese studies at Oxford Brookes University in England. Kiyosawa was passionate about becoming part of the industry and trained under LoBreglio for two years at the Great Dane Downtown. When he returned to Japan, he worked in the beverage industry, including at Yo-Ho Brewing Co., one of Japans largest craft breweries. At Great Dane Japan, Kiyosawa will oversee distributor relations, brewery productions and community involvement. He and I always remained friends and discussed the idea of doing a project together. This is the culmination of that, LoBreglio said. In theory, you could say it was first talked about in 1995. Into the game The brewery in Japan gained added strength when LoBreglio met Phil Dawson, a former Madison-area sports media personality who became a certified brewer and moved to Sendai with his wife, who was born in Japan. Dawson, who has lots of connections to the Japanese craft beer scene, will be an assistant brewer. Great Danes co-founder and president, Eliot Butler, is also an investor in the Japanese project. The Great Dane produces about 7,000 barrels of beer a year, the majority of it sold in the brewpubs, LoBreglio said. For the past five years, it has also been packaging its beer in cans and selling it throughout the state through Frank Beer Distributors. Four of its flagship beers and seasonal specialties are sold in grocery and liquor stores. The tasting room at the Japanese brewery will offer 12 to 14 beers on tap, including Great Dane regular and specialty beers, similar to whats offered locally. Time to go LoBreglio plans to live in Japan almost full time for the first few years. He said a lot of his friends and family have been expats, and it has always been on his bucket list to spend a good chunk of time in another country. Professionally, I am really excited as a brewer to have this challenge to go and create a new brand and a new flagship beer in Japan. He said he sees it as an opportunity to help the craft beer movement in Japan solidify and grow. Personally, I feel like Bilbo Baggins at the end of the Lord of the Rings. Im quite ready for another adventure. Read more restaurant news at: go.madison.com/restaurants 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. Gundersen Health System and Bellin Health are looking to join forces, with a planned merger to increase access to resources, providers and services to better serve patients in their combined four-state coverage areas. On Wednesday, La Crosse-based Gundersen and Green Bay-based Bellin announced the entities are deep into discussions regarding a merger, with final agreements anticipated to occur over the coming weeks, followed by a required regulatory review. Finalization could be possible yet in 2022. We still are not at the finish line yet ... but we feel really good and excited about where we are at this point, says Dr. Scott Rathgaber, CEO of Gundersen. Between the two, Gundersen and Bellin serve Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, southeastern Minnesota and northeast Iowa, and combined would include 11 hospitals, more than 100 local clinic locations, and around 750 each clinicians and advanced practice clinicians. Bellin currently employs around 5,000 across its sites, and Gundersen 9,000. No jobs will be cut, and new positions may open if growth occurs. The missions, visions and values of the two health care systems complement each other, says Bellin Health president and CEO Chris Woleske, and teaming up would enhance care and expand the supply chain. We want to continue to be able to provide great care across our region, high quality, at a fair price. Thats been our mission for a long time and we want to continue to expand on that...when we look around for partners, thats what were looking for, Rathgaber said. It was very clear, Rathgaber says, that Bellin has the same DNA, so to speak they really believe in the same things ... and have a great heart in caring for their community. This merger would bring new opportunities to expand this important community-minded work, he said. We are two not-for-profit health systems that take what we earn and re-invest those dollars back into our communities and into patient care ... to improve health outcomes, specifically for marginalized individuals and broadly for everyone in our care. Through this model, we also work hard to lower or maintain premiums on health plans, which reduces costs for the employers and businesses we serve. Bellin and Gundersen patients will still be able to see their regular care team. Pending merger finalization, plans will be implemented to broaden the network of services, technology, and digital healthcare tools such as virtual visits. Together the systems would also work to advance population health efforts, which look at physical, mental and financial wellbeing, and continue to prioritize health equity, preventative health and behavioral health. One of the beautiful things about this is patients will continue to have their same provider they have a great trusted relationship in the same location they are used to seeing them, Woleske says. What might change is that across the geography there may be more expertise in certain specialties ... access to more care will be readily available through the expanded network we put together. Gundersen would maintain its La Crosse headquarters, and Bellin its Green Bay headquarters. Leadership would be balanced to ensure shared decision making and equal representation, with Rathgaber serving as system CEO and John Dykema, currently chair of the Bellin Health Board of Directors, in the position of board chair. Woleske would serve as system executive vice president and regional president of the northern counties. At present, Rathgaber says, We intend to keep the legacy names that people have come to know and trust. Over time we will have discussions on how we can bring those together in some way that acknowledges the past and the great work that has been done for a century in each place, and also the new commitment and new trust with the combined organizations. Clinicians at Gundersen, Rathgaber said, have responded positively to a potential merger, noting, When you pick your partners right, you align it with what you believe is important and your purpose of care, its a pretty easy sell...Its really heartening that our staff see the benefits of this for our communities and our patients. Woleske says on the Bellin side, there has been a great deal of excitement, and she anticipates staff being eager to meet, grow, learn and engage together. Our health systems have been successfully fulfilling our missions, but we know that we will thrive and best serve our patients and communities by finding partners with shared missions and strategic visions, Rathgaber said. We are proud and fortunate to have found such a partner in Bellin Health. The two health systems will provide updates in the coming weeks and month, including on their websites, bellin.org and gundersenhealth.org. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Decades of work havent shrunk the oxygen-depleted dead zone that forms each year in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting that this year's will be about the 35-year average. That's nearly triple the goal for reducing the area with too little oxygen for marine animals to survive. Combining models developed by five universities resulted in a forecast of about 5,364 square miles (13,893 square kilometers), NOAA said in a news release. Thats a hair lower than the five-year measured average of 5,380 square miles (13,934 square kilometers) and about 15% smaller than last year's measurement. In 2001, a federal-state task force set a long-term goal of reducing the dead zone, or hypoxic area, to 1,900 square miles (4,920 square kilometers) about 35% of the current average. The action plan to reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone was established over 20 years ago, yet this years forecast is comparable to the 35-year average zone, said the University of Michigan's Don Scavia, who leads one of several research teams working with NOAA. Clearly, the federal and state agencies and Congress continue to prioritize industrial agriculture over water quality, Scavia, professor emeritus at the School for Environment and Sustainability, said in a news release on the university's website. The Gulf dead zone is largely created by urban and agricultural runoff and discharges of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Mississippi River, which drains 41% of the continental United States. In the Gulf of Mexico, the nutrients feed an overgrowth of algae, which die and sink to the bottom, using up oxygen from the ocean floor up as they decompose. Fish, shrimp and crabs can swim away. Animals that are slower or fixed to the bottom cannot. The Gulf dead zone remains the largest hypoxic zone in United States waters, and we want to gain insights into its causes and impacts, said Nicole LeBoeuf, assistant administrator of NOAAs National Ocean Service. The modeling we do here is an important part of NOAAs goal to protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management. The problem is by no means unique to the United States. The number of dead zones throughout the world has been increasing in the last several decades and currently totals over 500, Louisiana State University scientists Nancy Rabalais, who has studied the phenomenon since 1985, and Eugene Turner wrote in a separate release Thursday. The one that stretches along most of Louisianas coast and into Texas waters is the second largest human-caused coastal hypoxic area in the global ocean, Rabalais and Turner wrote. Models used by NOAA were developed by the agency and scientists at LSU, Michigan, William & Marys Virginia Institute of Marine Science, North Carolina State University, Dalhousie University and the U.S. Geological Survey, which provides Mississippi River nutrient data. Some of the universities also release their own forecasts. LSU's, which sees nitrogen levels in May as the main driver for the area's size in July, forecast its size this year at 5,881 square miles (15,233 square kilometers). The Interagency Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force uses NOAAs hypoxia forecast models and USGS nutrient monitoring to set nutrient reduction targets across the Mississippi watershed states. Officials noted that the bipartisan infrastructure law signed in November 2021 includes $60 million over five years for the Environmental Protection Agency to support nutrient reduction strategies in the watershed. The Hypoxia Task Force has a transformational opportunity to further control nutrient loads in the Mississippi River Basin and reduce the size of the hypoxic zone using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, said John Goodin, director of EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. This annual forecast is a key metric for assessing the progress the Hypoxia Task Force is making. To confirm the size of the hypoxic zone and refine the forecast models, NOAA supports a monitoring survey each summer. Because hurricanes and tropical storms roil the water and mix in oxygen, one in the two weeks before the cruise could significantly reduce the dead zone. "If a storm does occur, then the size of the zone is predicted to be 56% of the predicted size without the storm," or about 3,294 square miles (8,530 square kilometers), Rabalais and Turner wrote in their forecast. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Align Technology, a leading global medical device company has announced the launch of its iTero Element 5D Plus imaging system in the Middle East. The iTero Element 5D Plus Imaging System provides a new comprehensive approach to clinical applications, workflows and user experience. Building upon the success of the iTero family of scanners, the iTero Element 5D Plus Imaging System offers doctors superior visualisation capabilities and cutting-edge digital scanning performance that delivers a seamless scanning experience, enhancing digital adoption, and productivity. With the iTero Element 5D Plus imaging system, doctors can simultaneously record 3D, intraoral colour and near infrared imaging (NIRI) images with just one full arch scan, in as little as 60 seconds. The scanner can help doctors further optimise patient experience, supporting minimally invasive treatment and a radiation free diagnosis. Key market Angelo Maura, General Manager Middle East & Africa at Align Technology, said: Launching the iTero Element 5D Plus Imaging Scanners in the Middle East is a significant milestone for us, as we continue to solidify our presence in this key market. The iTero Element 5D Plus Imaging System is more than just a scanner - with this new imaging system, doctors in the region can now efficiently and effectively scan patients during routine visits and visualise treatment options together that result in informed decisions for optimum oral care. We are committed to supporting the regions continued digital advancement through our research, investment, and innovation to expand the realm of digital possibilities for doctors and their patients. The iTero family of intraoral scanners helps doctors provide their patients with a holistic understanding of their dentition, visualise their treatment outcome, make real-time adjustments to simulations, and easily project corrections and extractions. With unique features, such as the iTero TimeLapse Technology, dentists and orthodontists can provide real-time updates, track and show patients their teeth movements and gingival recession over time. 3D models The iTero Element 5D Plus imaging systems offer 3D models for restorative and orthodontic work, diagnosis, analysis instruments, NIRI technology, and intraoral camera imagery. The iTero Element 5D Plus Imaging Systems are commercially available now in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. A pioneer in digital orthodontics, including the Invisalign clear aligner system and iTero intraoral scanners, Align Technology brings the latest advances in digital dentistry with the use of 3D printing, creating the opportunity for trained professionals across the world to straighten millions of smiles in a gentle, non-invasive manner. Align Technology invests approximately $250 million into R&D and innovation annually. Align Technology operates across more than 100 markets.-- TradeArabia News Service Quote "You can't even bury your loved ones." RACINE Multiple people were shot Thursday afternoon during a burial in Graceland Cemetery. In an alert at 3:47 p.m. Thursday, the Racine Police Department said "At 2:26 p.m., there were multiple shots fired at Graceland Cemetery. There are victims but unknown how many at this time. Ascension All Saints Hospital, which is treating an undisclosed number of victims from the shooting, is on lockdown "out of an abundance of caution" following the shooting, an Ascension Wisconsin spokesperson said. The cemetery's property abuts the hospital's. Hospital lockdown According to a statement from an Ascension Wisconsin spokesperson, this is what Thursday's lockdown entailed and was enacted because of the following: "The safety of our associates, patients, visitors and providers is our top priority. Due to a situation offsite, increased security measures have been put in place at Ascension All Saints Hospital. Patients are still able to keep previously scheduled appointments and the emergency department is currently accepting patients. However, out of an abundance of caution, the number of open entrances into the hospital has been reduced and additional security screenings have been implemented." At the hospital Members of a group who gathered at the hospital afterward told journalists that the shooting occurred during the burial of Da'Shontay "Day Day" King, who died Friday, May 20, after he fled a Racine police officer and was shot. The state investigation into the fatal police shooting is ongoing. One woman outside the hospital's emergency room said her daughter had been shot and was being treated inside. "I can't even go to a funeral," the woman said, describing the moments of the shooting as "like a movie." Another woman said "You can't even bury your loved ones." Both of those women outside the hospital declined to share their names, for fear of their own safety. Many children King was a father of four were in attendance at the funeral. The mother of one of the children told The Journal Times that three of the children were at the burial and that they all "are OK ... Just shaken up." The scene Several streets in the area have been blocked off. Law enforcement officers could be seen inside the cemetery soon after the shooting, interviewing witnesses and standing near the white casket carrying King's body, resting aboveground near the hole it appears it was supposed to have been placed in. K-9s were also searching the area. Multiple casings and evidence markers littered Lathrop Avenue, between Haven Avenue and Graceland Boulevard. Evidence markers could also be seen within the cemetery. Area residents said they heard 20-30 shots. One woman said "it sounded like firecrackers." Park High School students were released 10 minutes later than normal, due to the nearby crime scene, once law enforcement assured school leaders that it was safe to do so, Racine Unified spokesperson Stacy Tapp wrote in an email. Mount Pleasant Police officers and Racine County Sheriff's Office deputies have also responded to the scene. Seeking witnesses A message from the Racine Police Department: If any citizen has any kind of video footage of the incident at Graceland Cemetery, please email Lt. Chad Melby at Chad.melby@cityofracine.org or Sgt. Justin Koepnick at Justin.koepnick@cityofracine.org. Cops Following pressure from Racine area Republican legislators, Alderman Henry Perez, himself a retired Miami police officer, called for his fellow City Council members and the mayor to immediately spend federal stimulus funds to increase staffing of the Racine Police Department rather than waiting for voters to possibly approve a $2 million referendum in August. "Can we wait any longer to fund our police?" Perez wrote on Facebook. "Fund now and use the ARPA money!!! I am calling you out City Council!!!" City administration says that spending the money now likely wouldn't translate to more officers on the street for at least a year, and there's no guarantee the city could keep those new officers on staff when the American Rescue Plan Act expires at the end of 2024. Six new RPD officers were sworn in Wednesday, bringing the department's total staffing of active sworn officers to 171, eighteen short of the budgeted cap of 189. From Jan. 1, 2018-May 20, 2022, more than 80 officers have left the department, including 42 retirements. Eleven of those 42 have come in 2022. And from Jan. 1, 2018-May 20, 2022, the RPD has hired a total of 61 officers. Running for their lives Three young men who were playing basketball at Lockwood Park, immediately west of the cemetery, said they were nearly shot. About 10 minutes after a funeral procession had gone by, they said they heard shots and the fence behind them was repeatedly hit. Tre Brantley, one of the men, started running to his car the moment he heard shots. He could only hope his brother, Kellyn Foster, was safe and following him; he was. They both got into their car and ducked down, praying they wouldn't get hurt. "This has got to stop," Brantley said of the gun violence. MADISON, Wis. (AP) The University of Wisconsin System's new president said Thursday that he wants to continue a freeze on tuition for in-state graduates through at least the next academic year. Jay Rothman took over as president on Wednesday and held a short question-and-answer session with reporters Thursday. He said system officials plan to present their 2022-23 budget to regents next week and that the spending plan will include the freeze. Tuition for in-state undergraduates has remained flat for the last nine years. Republican legislators imposed the freeze in the 2013-15 state budget. University officials complained about the freeze routinely for years, saying it hurt their revenue and the state wasn't providing enough aid to offset the losses. Republican lawmakers voted last year to lift the freeze but regents chose to keep it in place for the 2021-22 academic year. Rothman said his core objectives are keeping college affordable, maintaining enrollment levels and attracting students from underrepresented groups. Extending the freeze is a crucial step toward all three goals, he said. He declined to say if system officials plan to ask legislators for more money to offset the freeze in the next state budget. He also defended the regents' decision to hire UCLA law school dean Jennifer Mnookin as UW-Madison's new chancellor, calling her a gifted academic." He said people will be impressed with her when she starts the job in August. Republican lawmakers have bashed Mnookin as an extreme liberal, pointing to tweets in which she voiced support for COVID-19 vaccine mandates on California campuses and critical race theory, which purports that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions. They've also criticized her for donating to Democratic candidates and causes. Rothman served as chairman and CEO of the Foley & Lardner law firm before the regents picked him to take over as UW president. He replaced Ray Cross, who retired in 2020. Former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson served as interim president before Rothman was hired. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. In 2020, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana was the top recipient of money from members of the gun rights industry. According to Open Secrets, his campaign received a total of $142,653 for the 2019-2020 cycle. That put the so-called gun lobby at 33 on the list, far behind other industries like real estate and accounting. Health professionals alone gave roughly seven times more money to Scalise ($1,072,904) than the gun lobby did. Meanwhile, individuals who simply put down retired, instead of any industry at all, gave 100 times more, just shy of $14 million. Scalises corporate-connected and PAC donors tell a similar story. You wont find the NRA, Smith & Wesson, or anybody else from the gun lobby among the top corporate or PAC contributors. And yet, Scalise often touts his A+ rating from the NRA. For some opponents of gun rights, this is shocking since Scalise was gravely wounded in 2017 by a mass shooter. The brush with death, Scalise would say a few months later (in the wake of another mass shooting), only fortified his support for gun rights. Say what you will about Scalises views on guns, they werent bought and paid for by the gun lobby. The same holds for the Republican Party generally. In 2020, the NRA gave less than $1 million directly to candidates putting it 996th on the list of top donors. It spent $5.4 million on lobbying, making it the 169th most lavish lobbyist. As Stephen Gutowski, founder of The Reload, a site focused on gun issues and politics, wrote in The Atlantic, since 2012, the NRAs highest contribution ranking has been 294th, and its highest lobbying ranking has been 85th. And yet, this claim that politicians like Scalise, and the GOP generally, are owned by the gun lobby is an article of faith for many. When some Republicans made the questionable choice of speaking at the NRA convention in Texas, just days after the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, the New York Times declared, There is no better manifestation of the gun lobbys total capture of so much of the GOP. This gets the political reality backward: The gun lobby is the tail, not the dog. Indeed, the NRA is a hot mess, and has probably never been weaker. Its even tried to declare bankruptcy. Whatever you think of its policies, the GOP is not captured by puppet-masters who have its balls in a money clip, in Jimmy Kimmels colorful phrase. Republicans are following the will of their voters, or at least the voters who reliably turn out and vote on gun issues, particularly in primaries. Indeed, something is cowardly, lazy and undemocratic about blaming everything on the gun lobby. Politicians and activists have a tendency to pick fights with the opponents they want, rather than the ones they have. By demonizing a few unaccountable villains pulling the strings behind the curtains, advocates for tighter gun laws dont have to confront the reality that millions of Americans simply disagree with them. A Pew Research Center survey in 2021, for instance, found that around half of Americans dont believe that stricter gun ownership laws will lead to fewer mass shootings. Compare the way the media talks about abortion rights vs. gun rights. Planned Parenthood and similar groups give at least as much to Democrats, but the only people who regularly use the phrase abortion lobby are abortion rights foes. Supporters and the press frame their position as ones of heartfelt conviction that reflects the views of Democratic voters or even women generally. To the extent groups such as the NRA and Planned Parenthood influence politics, its by informing, galvanizing and representing voters not by bribing politicians. Some blame the Senates undemocratic structure because less populous and more rural red states are over-represented, and support for guns and gun ownership is higher. Even if you buy this entirely, the Senate isnt the source of the stalemate. Voters are. Democrats need swing state voters, and those voters resist New York-style gun control. Besides, if your strategy for passing sweeping new legislation requires getting rid of the Senate, then you dont have a strategy. All of this may change because of the horror in Uvalde, Texas, and I certainly hope lawmakers find some workable reforms, even if comprehensive solutions are unlikely. But if Uvalde does break the logjam, it wont be because the gun lobby loosened its grip. It will be because voters changed their minds. Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch: @JonahDispatch. The Dane County Board on Thursday should press forward with an outside investigation of the county zoo, rather than slowing and diluting the boards efforts at the last minute, as the county executive has requested. Sup. Patrick Miles, of McFarland, the countys first board chairman of color, is right to keep the focus on repeated and troubling allegations of racism and mismanagement at the Vilas Zoo on Madisons Near West Side. Miles and other supervisors hope to pass a resolution tonight to hire a retired and well respected judge to conduct an independent and thorough review of zoo management. Their proposal deserves wide support. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi resisted calls in recent weeks for such an inquiry. He appears confident in the zoo director he hired a decade ago, Ronda Schwetz, despite a string of damaging controversies under her leadership. Just two days before the County Board is set to vote tonight, Parisi proposed a more general and expensive assessment of the progress we have made on racial climate and culture across county government since 2016, when the county created an Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI). Parisi has led the county since 2011. Following the Wisconsin State Journals April 17 report 2 Black zookeepers leave amid deaths of animals, the OEI released the results of its two-week look at the zoo. The OEI confirmed a predominant theme of toxicity that includes racist and sexist comments, a lack of employees of color and an us vs. them dynamic between management and some workers. The OEI also blamed staff for gossiping and slandering colleagues. The countys internal review was important. But problems at the zoo go back years and beyond disturbing allegations of racism. The public needs reassurance that its beloved Vilas Zoo is run in a professional and effective way for visitors, staff and animals. Thats what a higher-profile and outside investigation of the zoo would provide, as Sups. Jacob Wright of Madison, Dana Pellebon of Fitchburg and Tim Kiefer of Waunakee have wisely proposed. The only two Black zookeepers at Vilas Zoo resigned on strained terms to take jobs at larger zoos this year. They alleged racism, unfair treatment and retaliation by management. Other workers confirmed a difficult work environment, poor morale and unnecessary harm to animals in the State Journals April report. All of that was on top of Schwetzs 2018 blunder, when she shared a hotel room at a work conference in Seattle with an employee of the opposite sex under the guise of saving money. The employee accused Schwetz his boss at the time of a drunken sexual assault. Schwetz was ordered to complete a drug and alcohol class and to follow court rules for an assault charge to be dismissed. Thats not a good look for the county zoo. And before that, the Henry Vilas Zoological Society accused Schwetz of making sexually explicit and demeaning comments to society staff. The society then lost its role in operating services at the zoo. Lots of bad blood still simmers over the societys breakup with the zoo. How does Schwetz still have her job? The County Boards resolution would help determine if Parisis trust in Schwetz is warranted, and whether changes at the zoo are needed. The resolution calls for a retired circuit court judge to serve as an outside investigator. The judge will look into allegations of racism, but also broader questions about animal welfare and how zoo leadership deals with whistleblowers, discipline, union activity and staff morale. The County Board would spend $50,000 on the investigation, with a report due by Oct. 1. Parisi tried to trump the boards resolution Tuesday by proposing a $150,000 review of county governments racial climate by a culturally competent organization that is external to county government. That might make sense in the future, given a Wisconsin Watch report last week raising questions about a toxic environment in the Medical Examiners Office. But Parisi appears to be springing his idea to try to stop the County Board from more directly assessing the zoos performance. Parisi cites a county attorneys opinion that the County Board doesnt have the authority for such a review. But a lawyer cosponsoring the County Board resolution disagrees. Parisi should let the County Board probe play out without launching an expensive legal battle at taxpayer expense. This isnt going to be anything like Michael Gablemans ham-handed and never-ending review of the 2020 presidential election, as Parisi ridiculously suggested Tuesday. Sup. Miles will appoint an esteemed and neutral judge. Gableman was picked by a partisan-driven Republican legislative leader. The zoo probe should move forward tonight while Parisis far less targeted proposal works its way through county committees in the coming months. Wisconsin State Journal editorial board The views expressed in the editorials are shaped by the board, independent of news coverage decisions elsewhere in the newspaper. STAFF MEMBERS KELLY LECKER, Executive editor SCOTT MILFRED, Editorial page editor PHIL HANDS, Editorial cartoonist COMMUNITY MEMBERS JANINE GESKE SUSAN SCHMITZ WAYNE STRONG An Idaho legislator who lost his primary election race by six votes earlier this month says he will seek a recount of the votes in his bid to be elected to the Idaho House of Representatives. Rep. Scott Syme, R-Caldwell, will submit a letter to the Idaho Attorney Generals Office formally requesting the recount after the State Board of Canvassers certify election results by Wednesdays deadline, Syme told the Idaho Capital Sun. Syme said he is requesting the recount because the results were so close, but he will accept the results of the recount no matter what the outcome is. I am good with it either way, Syme said. Really and truly if it does come out the same, then that is just I dont know if bellwether is the right word but that is proof our elections are sound, they are secure and we need to stop this big lie that is going around that our elections arent secure. Syme said he has already requested a recount with the Attorney Generals Office, but was advised to resubmit it after election results are certified to ensure his request complies with a section of state law that allows a recount to be requested within 20 days of the canvass of such election. What I can tell you is the request for the recount has to go through the Attorney Generals Office, then they will contact the county sheriffs and have them sequester all the ballots, Syme said. Complete but unofficial election results released by the state show that Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, defeated Syme by 4,636 to 4,630, a difference of six votes. The unofficial election results will become official following this weeks canvass and certification, after which Syme will submit his recount request. That race, a Republican primary election for District 9s Seat B in the Idaho House, was the closest legislative primary election result in the state this year. Boyle and Syme are incumbent legislators who used to represent separate, neighboring legislative districts. But due to the 2021 redistricting process that involved redrawing Idahos political boundaries based on population, Syme and Boyle were drafted into the same district and decided to run against each other rather than retire. Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck said the recount will be free for Syme, since the margin between the two candidates was less than .1%. State election results showed Boyle won 50.03% of the votes cast, while Syme won 49.97%. Under Idaho law, the state will pay for the recount because the margin was so small. No other Idaho legislative or statewide primary election result was within the .1% margin or five vote difference that qualifies for a free recount in Idaho law. However, candidates who lose by a larger margin than that may still request a recount if they are willing to pay for it, Houck said. The cost for such a recount is $100 per precinct, Houck said. In the District 34 Republican primary election for District 34s House Seat B, former Rep. Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg, defeated incumbent Rep. Ron Nate, also R-Rexburg, by 36 votes, 2,641 to 2,605. Nate could not be reached for comment. Houck said he has heard a recount will also be requested in that District 34 race. If Nate does request a recount, he could choose whether to pay to have one, some or all of the precincts results recounted. What happens with a recount of Idaho legislative primary election results? After Syme requests the recount, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden will order the county sheriffs to sequester the ballots, and issue an order for the recount. The order will specify the time and place for the recount, which must be conducted no more than 10 days after the order for the recount was issued, according to Idaho law. Both candidates, or their representatives, as well as the public will be allowed to witness the recount. State law stipulates that the attorney general will be the final authority on any questions raised during the recount. As for the recount itself, under Idaho law, a random selection of ballots will be tallied by hand and the same ballots will also be tabulated using an electronic ballot tabulating system. If the margin of difference between the two counts is .25% or less, then all of the remaining ballots in the recount will be tabulated using the electronic ballot tabulation system. If the difference is more than .25%, all of the ballots will be counted by hand. Under state law, a candidate would have 24 hours to appeal the results of a recall. District 9, where Boyle and Symes race took place, covers three counties a portion of Canyon County and all of Washington and Payette counties. Syme wants to observe the recount and would like the recounts in the three counties to take place at separate times. I want to be there for it, Syme said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 REXBURG The director of a former English teaching program is back in the United States after being jailed in China for more than 2 years. Alyssa Petersen was greeted with hugs and tears by her parents and other family members at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Sunday afternoon. It was kind of surreal until we finally saw her at the airport. Then it was finally real, said Clark Petersen, Alyssas dad. We had the whole family there. It was a neat family reunion. Police in Chinas Jiangsu Province arrested Alyssa in September 2019 while she was working as the director of China Horizons. She and her boss, Jacob Harlan the owner and founder of the company were accused of illegally moving people across borders. The Rexburg company arranges for college students to visit China and teach English to students. The case garnered the attention of United States lawmakers with the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which sent a letter to President Donald Trump in January 2020. The commission called the Chinese governments imprisonment or arbitrary detention of Americans deeply concerning and said that the arrests of Alyssa and Harlan coincided with the detention of a Chinese official in the U.S. on visa fraud charges. Friends and family members posted updates on a GoFundMe page, which raised over $50,000 to help cover legal fees. A trial was finally held for Alyssa in China in May 2021, and she was found not guilty, according to her father, but she remained in jail for the next 12 months. The case stalled as the prison and court systems closed due to COVID-19, and communication between Alyssa and her family was extremely limited. Weve been able to send letters, and sometimes she was able to get them depending on whether the consulate was able to visit with her. If the consulate was able to visit, she could communicate through them to us, but the last year and a half has been few and far between, Clark tells EastIdahoNews.com. Petersen declined to elaborate on the conditions his daughter endured while in custody but says he and his wife Carrie Petersen were never able to speak with Alyssa on the phone. They relied on friends in China for updates and prayed for her safe return. Earlier this month, Alyssa was sentenced to serve 2 years in jail with credit for time served and a release date of May 23. On Sunday, she was taken to an airport in China, where she called her parents. They let her call to say she was on her way home. It was a 13-hour flight to Los Angeles and then she had a three-hour flight to get home to St. Louis, Clark says. She is resting, is glad to be home, and looks forward to eating food instead of rice. As she said, hell is finally over. Harlan is still in China and the future of his case remains uncertain, but his wife says on a GoFundMe page that she hopes he will be released soon. Alyssa is taking time to process the events of the past few years before speaking in detail about it publicly, her family said, but has a message for everyone who prayed for her and offered help. I would like them to know that their support has been felt. It helped me survive, she said. There are other people who are still experiencing what I went through, and they need the same support, help and love. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 TIRANA, Albania (AP) A group of people evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power last year held a protest Wednesday in Albania over the failure to expedite their move to the United States. A small group of families in Shengjin, a town located 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Albanias capital, Tirana, called on the U.S. to speed up the process of their transfer. Some women and children held posters reading, We are forgotten. Some 2,400 Afghans were evacuated to Albania in August and September 2021 and given temporary shelter in Shengjin and another resort town, Durres. Non-governmental organizations from United States and other countries provided financial support for accommodating them. The Albanian government said at the time that it would house thousands of Afghans for at least a year before they moved to the United States for final settlement. More recently, the government pledged to keep them for longer than a year if their U.S. visas were delayed. The Foreign Ministry says 900 of the evacuees remain in Albania. Those no longer in the European country went to the U.S. and Canada. Bledar Shima, the manager of a resort in Shengjin sheltering 350 Afghans, said the property has not been paid for six months. Shima urged the Albanian government to intervene, according to private TV station Top Channel. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The issue of student loan forgiveness is bubbling back to the surface of the national news cycle. This is not surprising given that midterm elections are right around the corner. It would be somewhat craven to assert Democrats are bringing the issue back up to win favor with voters in November. To be fair, this issue has been hanging around the national scene since at least 2015 and the Biden Administration has been considering some kind of forgiveness program since the President took office. Together with the issue come the complaints about student loan forgiveness. As a former lifetime Republican, I do believe there are reasonable fiscal and, perhaps, moral arguments to made about why student loan forgiveness should be limited and tightly tailored to those who need it most. I would also favor a program in which loan forgiveness is more generous toward certain degrees or certificates such as career-technical students (mechanics, electricians, etc.), teachers, engineers, medical professionals and the like. Call me old-fashioned, but Im not too eager to spend tax dollars forgiving student loans for NYU art history majors. However, one of the most popular arguments against student loan forgiveness is also the most petty and short-sighted one. Its the classic, I had to pay off my loans so everyone else should too rebuttal. This is similar to the argument my 6-year-old nephew makes when he refuses to go to bed because his 11-year-old brother gets to stay up a half-hour later. For the record, I came to Idaho in 2006 with about $47,000 in student loan debt which I paid off in full a few years later. I had no opportunity for student loan forgiveness then, and I wont have any in the future since the debt is gone. That being said, I have no problem with current student loan borrowers receiving some kind of relief. Just because I didnt benefit from it doesnt mean others shouldnt. By definition, progress in whatever form it takes, benefits the current generation in ways the rest of us missed out on. For instance, Ive never benefitted from Obamacare or Medicaid Expansion. When I was in college and without health insurance, I couldnt be on my parents healthcare plan or apply for Medicaid. Todays young men and women can stay on their parents plan until theyre 26-years-old or purchase a plan under the Affordable Care Act. Many of our grandparents did not have access to Medicare. Are you suggesting we take that benefit away from the millions of Americans who receive healthcare under the program? Even the ones who take out more from Medicare than they put in? How about Social Security? And dont get me started on the Right-Wingers who clamored for handouts during the financial crisis to help save their homes (I saw hundreds of those people in bankruptcy). Many of those folks managed to discharge their mortgage debt and get out from under it. Student loan borrowers do not have the same luxury as student loans are almost never discharged through the bankruptcy process. The average student loan debt for Idahos 218,000 borrowers is somewhere around $33,000 according to various web sites that track the numbers. That amounts to $7.2 billion in total student loan debt in Idaho. The entire Higher Education Budget for the Gem State this year is less than $650 million. Half of those borrowers are under the age of 35, which means more than 100,000 older Idahoans are on the hook for student loan debt. While Idahos average student loan debt is lower than the national average, we also have one of the lowest income rates in the country. In other words, $33,000 is big chunk of change. Some sort of student forgiveness would bring much-needed relief to thousands of Idahos working families who struggle not only under the weight of student loan debt, but sky-rocketing property taxes and a state government that favors Californians over Idahoans. In my opinion, a responsible and narrowly tailored student loan forgiveness program is an investment in our kids and families. Its not a handout. However, if you feel otherwise, dont be a hypocrite about it. All of us have missed out on opportunities that now benefit the younger generations. Thats how progress works. Thats how it should be. Jeremy J. Gugino is a Democratic communications volunteer. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 BOISE The 2022 summer season is expected to put additional strain on Idahos outdoor recreation resources. To address the ongoing demand, state and federal agencies in Idaho are launching the Recreate Responsibly Idaho (RRI) campaign for the third year. As Memorial Day weekend kicks off, RRI is a source for recreation resources to help preserve and protect Idahos unique outdoor recreation opportunities for today and tomorrow. Why RRI? Beginning in March 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, record numbers of in-state residents and out-of-state tourists flocked to Idaho to go hiking, biking, ATV and UTV riding, whitewater rafting, fishing, camping, hunting, and participate in other outdoor recreation opportunities. The increase put strain on recreation infrastructure and land management staff. Continued population growth and ongoing pressure on outdoor recreation facilities in Idaho is why it is critical to recreate responsibly. How RRI will empower recreationists? Recreate Responsibly Idaho 3.0 has launched on social media, including Facebook and Instagram. The Recreate Responsibly Idaho (RRI) website is updated with a quiz to test your recreation knowledge, provide boating tips, off-road trail guidelines, etiquette, campfires and how to enjoy the state. The website and social media outreach will help create a recreation community that supports Idahos responsible recreation. Whats at stake? Over the past two years, a record number of recreationists camped at Idahos 30 State Parks and National Forest campgrounds statewide. Boating on lakes and rivers increased, as well as fishing and hunting. During this time, state and federal officials saw many incidents of poor behavior on public lands such as dumping trash, campfires left burning, and poor boating and trail use etiquette. This could decrease the enjoyment of the outdoors, lead to closures, or cause a wildfire that destroys the landscape. Idaho has been the fastest-growing state in the nation, so we expect new residents and visitors will be looking for places to play outdoors along with our long-time residents, said Steve Stuebner, RRI campaign coordinator and outdoor expert. Bringing all those users together with the same mission to preserve and protect Idahos world-class outdoors ensures we all can enjoy what we love about Idaho and be sure it stays the Idaho we love. The 2022 Recreate Responsibly Idaho campaign will present these new features: A media campaign will work to engage outdoor recreationists via the Recreate.Idaho.gov website with digital, social, radio, and broadcast advertisements. The Idaho RRI website invites outdoor users to take a fun and informative quiz about outdoor ethics and practices. The RRI outreach team, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho Department of Commerce, and Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission, has created new RRI social media channels on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. They will share information about outdoor issues on RRI social media channels every week throughout the summer recreation season from Memorial Da y to Labor Day. The RRI outreach team will work to share its resources with business partners and conservation partners to strengthen the message and expand its impact. Issues that RRI will emphasize include the following: Pack it in, pack it out. Pack out your garbage and everything you brought on your outdoor outing. Bring extra trash bags in case you encounter more trash to pick up. Fire safety guidelines to ensure campfires do not pose a threat to Idahos public lands. Monitor campfire restrictions, use the designated grill or campfire ring, and completely extinguish campfires with water. Rangeland issues such as remembering to close gates when you pass through in your vehicle, so cattle or sheep stay in grazing pastures and leaving guard dogs in the woods. Being courteous on boat ramps, launch your boat quickly, and move out so the next group can access the ramp. ATV, UTV, and motorbike safety for young riders (helmets are required for youths under the age of 18) and experienced riders. How to find trip-planning resources for exploring Idaho through Visit Idaho, Idaho Parks & Recreation, Idaho Fish & Game, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. No fireworks are allowed on public lands and other fire safety tips. Have more than one destination in mind when you head outdoors in Idaho. Campgrounds, recreation areas, and lodging properties are requiring reservations and are mostly full. Have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D in mind before you go. You may not get your first choice. Being courteous on the trails with other users and practicing good trail etiquette, such as the Happy Trails campaign in the Boise Foothills. Mind your wake when boating on Idahos lakes. Life jacket safety. For more information, go to recreate.idaho.gov. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Today is Thursday, June 2, the 143rd day of 2022. There are 212 days left in the year. In the Henry Bulletin in 1922: AXTON R.F.D.: The farmers through this community are busy preparing tobacco land. Mr. Aubrey Holland left for Kentucky Thursday. We all regret his going, for he will be missed through this community. Mrs. Edd Powell was on the sick list, we regret to say. 1947: During anniversary services held at the First Baptist Church, five local speakers paid glowing tribute to the service rendered by the Rev. J.P. McCabe, pastor of the church here since June 1, 1907. A number of congratulatory telegrams, including one from President Truman, were read. Also in 1947: The Martinsville-Henry County office for the sale and distribution of Virginia state automobile, truck and other motor vehicle license tags will be moved from the county circuit court clerks office to the state police departments headquarters at the county office building, fronting Franklin street, it was announced by John H. Matthews, local distributor. 1972: Stroller: A note Thursday from Sandra J. Hunt of Arlington including a clipping from the (Washington) Evening Star. It said Mr. and Mrs. Donald Roberts of Middleton, Ohio, were uncrating a new dresser in their bedroom when a 2 -foot rattlesnake crawled out from the crate The furniture store told them the snake must have got into the crate while it was on a loading dock in Bassett, where the dresser was manufactured. Well, as far as were concerned, wed be happy if the furniture folks exported all the rattlesnakes from here to somewhere else. Also in 1972: PHOTO SALE: AD: Attention graduates. If youre not planning to go to college we have an interesting career opportunity for you at SALE KNITTING. We need alert young people. No experience required. Complete training program. 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. Dabur Herbl Toothpaste, a leading name in oral healthcare, unveiled its campaign that reiterates positive environmental action. Focusing on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEPs) theme for the year Only One Planet, the brand plans to highlight living sustainably in harmony with nature via its various initiatives. Joining hands with the Emirates Environmental Group, Dabur Herbl Toothpaste plans to promote the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle culture by rewarding consumers with new toothpastes in lieu of used and empty toothpaste tubes and cartons. Tubes and cartons The collected empty tubes and toothpaste cartons will be processed further by the brands ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impact. These consumers who are submitting the tubes and cartons will then get a chance to participate in a plantation drive organised by Dabur Herbl Toothpaste, whereby they will plant a tree in their name to ensure green footprint and active participation that will make a difference. Speaking about the novel initiative, Vineet Jain, Head of Marketing - Dabur International said: At Dabur, we have always tried to integrate sustainable and responsible business practices for a clean and green space. Over the years, this global event has highlighted crucial issues like sustainable consumption, eco-conscious growth, and environmental protection. The Only One Planet slogan for 2022 makes us pause and ponder over our lifestyle choices to replace them with sustainable and eco-friendly ones. We hope to experience an enthusiastic contribution to the empty toothpaste tubes exchange programme as well as at the plantation drive. World Environment Day, an initiative by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is celebrated on June 5 and is an annually celebrated global event that highlights positive environmental action. The employees at Dabur International along with their families will also participate in the activities mentioned above to contribute to a sustainable and responsible way of living. People can visit the Emirates Environmental Group at Jumeirah 1, Villa No. 117A, JMR 68 - Dubai from June 5 to June 15 to contribute to this green campaign and be a part of the plantation drive from June 20 - June 25. Along with the exchange of empty toothpaste tubes for new Dabur Herbl Toothpaste and the plantation drive, Dabur is also committed to increasing awareness and establishing new practices that will help tackle growing environmental concerns.-- TradeArabia News Service On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper and North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) Secretary Reid Wilson participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of Bobs Creek State Natural Area in McDowell County. North Carolina is a beautiful place, from the shining coast to right here in the foothills, Cooper said. Bobs Creek State Natural Area will help protect our water quality while providing a space for North Carolinians to gather and enjoy nature. The official opening of Bobs Creek State Natural Area is the result of years of hard work and generous donations to the state, said NCDNCR Secretary Wilson. As the property of the people of North Carolina, this area and its unique ecosystems will be permanently protected. We look forward to future low-impact recreational opportunities, such as hiking or bird watching. Foothills Conservancy of NCs staff and board of directors are honored to have Governor Cooper join our land trust for this momentous occasion, said Foothills Conservancy Executive Director Andrew Kota. Bobs Creek State Natural Area protects one of the state's most significant ecological landscapes, benefitting the citizens and local economy in McDowell County and the entire region of Western NC for years to come through future outdoor recreation opportunities. We are so grateful to Governor Cooper and our legislators, partners in federal and state government agencies, conservation partners and private donors who were instrumental in establishing Bobs Creek State Natural Area, said State Parks Director Dwayne Patterson. We look forward to protecting these lands for generations and offering low-impact access so that North Carolinians and our visitors can come to appreciate North Carolinas Foothills as much as we do. In 2017, Governor Cooper signed House Bill 353 to establish Bobs Creek State Natural Area in McDowell County. There were three phases of land acquisitions that led to the completion of the natural area. With more than 6,000 acres of space, Bobs Creek contributes to a landscape network of nature preserves connecting the South Mountains to the Blue Ridge slope. The state natural area will be managed by the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation for passive recreation, water quality protection, preservation of rare plants and diverse natural ecosystems. The division oversees the state's 41 state parks and supports other recreation providers. North Carolina has become a leader in the fight for the planet. Last month, Governor Cooper released his recommended budget for FY 2022-2023, Building on Success, which includes investments to advance clean energy, prioritize clean air and water and upgrade wastewater and other critical infrastructure. In January 2022, the Governor signed Executive Order 246 which lays out the next steps to transition North Carolina to a clean energy economy and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while creating economic opportunities across the state. The Foothills Conservancy is a nonprofit dedicated to conservation in Western North Carolina by permanently protecting land and water for the benefit of people and all living things. Tuesday evening, leaders and residents from McDowell County and the city of Marion gathered on the McDowell Courthouse lawn to remember and honor the victims and survivors from recent mass shootings. They gathered to honor and remember those people who were killed and injured at the shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The vigil came one day before the latest mass shooting on Wednesday in which two doctors and two others were killed in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical building. Local community leaders, including Mayor Steve Little, School Superintendent Mark Garrett and City Council member and candidate for N.C. Senate District 46 Billy Martin joined the community at the candlelight vigil, according to a news release. Both the Rev. Dr. Erin Kirby of St. Johns Episcopal Church and Margarita Ramirez, executive director of Centro Unido Latino-Americano (CULA), addressed the local community at the vigil. We are joining together tonight to try to get our hearts and minds around the two most recent mass shootings of people who were simply and quietly going about their lives, said Kirby. As we try, and fail, to understand how this just keeps happening, it is hopeful to come together and honor the victims in an act of simple human compassion. You who are gathered here tonight bring within yourselves the love that is at the core of our true being we stand here with our candles warmed by the light of the sun that is only a pale reflection of that great love. We pray that God, in whose image of unending love we are created, will give us strength to hold on to the faith that God has in us, asking that we can live up to that honor, and to renew in us a commitment to pray and take action that can overcome those things in our culture which foster violence, added Kirby. Participants were asked to close their eyes and place their hand over their heart. We stand with the families that lost a love one during this horrible act, said Ramirez. We feel their pain and frustration, we hurt together with them. We send them all of our healing energy and love. The crowd of more than 40 residents held their candles; as they were lit one by one, as each victims name and age was called out, and their presence was acknowledged. Then with guidance from Bishops United Against Gun Violence a statement was read. With a reminder that one does not pray in lieu of summoning political courage, but in preparation for doing so, read the statement. Then all were invited to join in this litany and our commitment to take action so that our country can be freed from the epidemic of gun violence. It seemed to be an arduous journey as the local community prayed for all the victims of the 64 incidents of mass gun violence in this nations public and private spaces. As the vigil concluded, Margarita Ramirez let the community know about their program. Healthy Minds of CULA was created in order to raise awareness for mental health in McDowell County and North Carolina at large, she said. We intend to educate the community on mental health issues and the repercussions of letting sudden unattended psychological changes go out of control. Four of our staff members are certified in both QPR Suicide Prevention and Mental Health First Aid and Teen Mental Health First Aid. We will use these trainings to educate the community on mental health crises for themselves, their families and their friends. Our methods for doing so will be done in the form of public forums, in-person or virtual workshops and mental health-related events. Remember, we are NOT certified to treat or diagnose, but we can assist, empathize and refer you to a specialist. You dont have to do this all by yourself you have a family that cares at Centro Unido Latino-Americano. All of our services are completely free and for all. Once the vigil ended, members of the crowd hugged each other. And as the crowd dispersed, some participants were inspired to write with chalk on the courthouse sidewalk while others were propelled to discuss solutions. However, all went away having taken the time to be present with their community to remember and honor the victims of mass shootings in America, according to the news release. It was a very spiritual experience calling attention to the senseless and horrific gun violence in our country, Martin stated as he reflected on the candlelight vigil. The vigils organizer, Michelle Price, said she would like to encourage students, parents, teachers and community leaders to gather information to be sure that they are aware of signs of children and teens struggling with mental wellness and acts of bullying; to ensure you are empowered with the tools to help others work through difficult times as we never know when someone else will need our help. Dubai-quartered Al Futtaim Group plans to invest up to $1 billion in the most populated Arab country, Egypt, over next three years. Dubai-based Al-Futtaim Group said it is eyeing investments in Egypt worth $700 million to $1 billion over the next three years, the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement seen my Reuters. The North African country is currently the destination of investments by Gulf Arab states. Egypt is expected to receive $22 billion to be used in overcoming a currency crisis, the third such rescue in a decade, as analysts watch for greater exchange rate flexibility to avert future crises, Reuters notes. A family business, Al-Futtaim Group according to its website brings the quality and reputation of more than 200 companies into your life. The company is one of the most progressive regional family businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Macky Sall will travel to Moscow this Thursday, June 2. This is what sources at the presidency in Dakar indicate. The Senegalese head of state, in his capacity as current chairman of the African Union, is due to meet his counterpart Vladimir Putin, to bring the voice of Africa in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A conflict that weighs heavily on the continents economies. The departure is scheduled this Thursday morning, towards Moscow. Macky Sall will be accompanied by Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission. According to our interlocutors at the Presidency, there is no plan to stop in Kiev in the wake: A trip to Ukraine will be the subject of another sequence. This trip to Russia, Macky Sall had announced during the visit of the German Chancellor to Dakar on May 22. We want peace, we are working for a cease-fire, this is the African position said the head of state. While Senegal abstained from the first vote of the UN resolution condemning Russia, Macky Sall poses as a mediator. The Senegalese president has repeatedly stressed the consequences of the conflict for the continent, including the rising cost of hydrocarbons, and the difficulties of access to wheat, largely imported from Russia and Ukraine. He should therefore plead for supply facilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had expressed to Macky Sall his wish to address the African heads of state. No details at this stage on a schedule. The Senegalese president should leave Moscow on Friday to attend the ECOWAS summit in Accra. The Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to release two Rwandan soldiers detained amid rising tensions between the two neighbors, Angolan President Joao Lourenco said Tuesday. The announcement came after talks on Tuesday between the Angolan leader and DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi. At the request of his Angolan counterpart, (Mr. Tshisekedi) agreed to release two Rwandan soldiers recently captured in the territory of the DRC, said Lourencos office. This measure is intended to help reduce tension in relations between the two countries, they added. Lourenco then had a conversation by video conference with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Luanda also said. Following these talks, the Rwandan and Congolese leaders reached an agreement to meet face-to-face in the Angolan capital, at a date to be announced. A diplomatic row between Kigali and Kinshasa has intensified in recent days, with both sides trading accusations of aiding armed militias in the volatile eastern DRC region that borders Rwanda. Rwanda last week accused the Congolese armed forces of firing rockets into its territory and said two of its soldiers were abducted during a patrol by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group active in eastern DRC. The Congolese army in turn said Sunday that the two soldiers had entered its territory and had been taken into custody A peacekeeper from the United Nations mission in Mali was killed and three others wounded Wednesday morning in an attack on their convoy in Kidal (north), Minusma spokesman Olivier Salgado announced on social networks. The injured peacekeepers are part of the Jordanian contingent of the Minusma, a security official said on condition of anonymity. Minusma had earlier referred to a terrorist attack without specifying the alleged perpetrators. Their convoy came under direct fire from small arms and RPGs (rocket launchers) for about an hour, Salgado said in an initial tweet. Unfortunately, one of the peacekeepers succumbed to his injuries as a result of this mornings attack, he added later. With some 13,000 troops, Minusma, created in 2013 to support Malis political process, is the U.N. peacekeeping mission with the most casualties. A total of 172 of its peacekeepers have died in attacks, according to the mission. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new Liverpool-led study, published in The Lancet Public Health, offers evidence that rising child poverty rates are contributing to an increase in children entering care in England. Children in care face adverse health outcomes through the life-course, relative to their peers. In England, over the past decade, the stark rise in their number has coincided with rising child poverty, a key risk factor for children entering care. Researchers from the University of Liverpool, together with colleagues at the University of Huddersfield, examined data from 147 local authorities, over a 5 year-period (2015-2020). Linking data on the number of children living in low income families, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, with data on rates of children entering care from the Department for Education, the researchers estimated the contribution of changing child poverty rates to changing care entry rates within areas. Between 2015 and 2020, a 1 percentage point increase in child poverty was associated with five additional children entering care per 100,000, controlling for employment trends. The researchers estimated that, over the study period, 8.1% of care entries were linked to rising child poverty, equivalent to over 10,000 additional children. The short-run costs to local government alone are an estimated 1.4 billion. Lead author Davara Bennett said: "This study offers evidence that rising child poverty is a major preventable driver of the increase in children being removed from the family home and taken into local authority careone of the most drastic State interventions into families' lives. In England, the double burden has fallen disproportionately on the North East and parts of the North West. National anti-poverty policies are key to safely tackling adverse trends in care entry. This would, in turn, relieve the unsustainable pressure on local authority budgets increasingly devoted to costly placements for children in care at the expense of preventative children's services." Senior author Professor David Taylor-Robinson said: "This study shows that rising child poverty is putting unnecessary stresses and strains on families, increasing the risk of children being abused or neglected and ending up in the care system. This is all the more shocking since child poverty is preventable in a rich country like the UK." Explore further More evidence that poverty leads to child abuse and neglect More information: Davara L Bennett et al, Child poverty and children entering care in England, 201520: a longitudinal ecological study at the local area level, The Lancet Public Health (2022). Journal information: The Lancet Public Health Davara L Bennett et al, Child poverty and children entering care in England, 201520: a longitudinal ecological study at the local area level,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00065-2 A graph showing the vaccination progress (as of May 2022) of a group of low- and middle-income countries, where the RDD method is particularly applicable. The number inside the circle indicates the age cut-off in the respective country. Credit: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has demonstrated how to measure vaccine effectiveness (VE) in the absence of adequate public health data, offering an easy-to-implement alternative to measuring VE and keeping data-deficient countries informed when formulating and adjusting their vaccination and immunization policies. The development of effective vaccines offers us the best hope in strengthening our global effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking advantage of a well-established medical recordkeeping system and a wealth of public health datasets, many developed countries are already measuring VE for their populations using test-negative design (TND)the prevailing VE measurement which compares the vaccination status of persons receiving either positive or negative results in the same test. But measuring VE could be difficult for low- and middle-income countries. This is because while the health authorities in these countries may know how many people in the total population were vaccinated, infected, or hospitalized, they often don't know whether a particular person who tested positive was vaccinated or not. Without such knowledge of personal vaccination status, the standard TND methodology could not be used. As a result, current VE study efforts tend to be skewed toward the world's more affluent countries. For example, VIEW-hub, a comprehensive database of 249 COVID VE studies (as of early May 2022), contains only 16 large-scale studies (50,000+ subjects) from low- and middle-income countriesof which half are from Brazil. Much of Asia and Africa is left out in the database, and such underrepresentation may create an information void for public policy in some of the most populous countries in the world. Now, a research team led by Prof. Abhiroop MUKHERJEE and Prof. George PANAYOTOV from HKUST and Prof. Rik SEN from the University of New South Wales has demonstrated how to estimate VE even in the absence of such personal data. The team exploits the fact that many governments applied age-based eligibility cut-offs when rolling out their vaccination programsmeaning that at some point citizens above the cut-off age are eligible for vaccination, whereas those below are not. Panel A shows that the vaccination rate for age groups just above the cut-off age (45 years old) is significantly higher than that of those below, while panel B shows how such a jump caused a drop in COVID infections exactly at that same age. RDD measures of VE are based on the relative sizes of these two jumps at the cut-off age. Credit: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Using a simple statistical model called the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD), the team then compared the various COVID outcomes (positive cases, positive cases with high CT value, hospitalizations, deaths) of groups of individuals above and below the cut-off age. These groups are very close in age, and hence assumed identical in terms of health conditions or their exposure to disease. This allows one to calculate VE with less data than required by standard VE methods. A key input for RDD-based VE measure is the proportional drop in COVID outcomes at the cut-off age, which is factored into the calculation along other inputs, including the vaccination rates corresponding to the same age groups. In their application of the above RDD method and an extended measure called breakthrough-based RDD to public health data in India, the team has found that even one dose of the vaccines used were 55% effective against infection and 80% against hospitalizations during the Delta wave in early 2021. The data contain over 8 million observations on COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, as well as 140,000+ hospitalizations in West Bengal, an eastern state in India, where a 45-year age cut-off was imposed from March to April 2021. The research findings were recently published in Science Advances. "VE could differ between populations as individual countries' pre-existing exposure to COVID-19 could vary. Helping individual countries to understand whether and how well vaccines are working for their populations can help ascertain vaccination policy. For example, if a country finds that the one-dose VE for its population is high enough, it might make sense for them to provide first doses to more people, rather than insisting on two doses for fewer peopleif vaccines are scarce," said Prof. Mukherjee, also the Liwei Huang Associate Professor of Business at HKUST. "Having accurate VE estimates can also help health authorities decide whether vaccinated populations will be spared severe outcomes, which is critical for deciding whether to 'live with the virus.'" Prof. Mukherjee added that almost all countries usedand are still usingage eligibility criteria for COVID vaccines, so the RDD measures are widely applicable, and will be particularly helpful in data-deficient countries where public health data infrastructure is not good enough to apply standard VE measurements. More information: Abhiroop Mukherjee et al, Measuring vaccine effectiveness from limited public health datasets: Framework and estimates from India's second COVID wave, Science Advances (2022). Journal information: Science Advances Abhiroop Mukherjee et al, Measuring vaccine effectiveness from limited public health datasets: Framework and estimates from India's second COVID wave,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn4274 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Mount Sinai researchers have validated for the first time that a simple blood test called a liquid biopsy could be a better predictor of whether cancer immunotherapy will be successful for a patient with lung cancer than an invasive tumor biopsy procedure. Their study was published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research in June. The liquid biopsy tests for a biomarker of PD-L1, a protein and target for a type of immunotherapy called checkpoint inhibitors, which helps the patient's immune system attack and kill cancer cells. This study showed that testing the blood of lung cancer patients for the PD-L1 biomarker gave more accurate predictions of the response and survival for patients with lung cancer than testing for PD-L1 in tissue from lung cancer biopsies, the current standard of care. The biomarker in blood, named EV PD-L1, comes from extracellular vesicles, which are particles shed from tumor cells. A decrease of PD-L1 in extracellular vesicles in blood could therefore become a useful test to predict which patients with non-small-cell lung cancer could benefit from immunotherapy. "These results will have an impact in the search for biomarkers to predict for immunotherapy outcome in patients with lung cancer as no truly reliable biomarkers have been found yet," said senior author Christian Rolfo, MD, Ph.D., MBA, Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Associate Director for Clinical Research in the Center for Thoracic Oncology at The Tisch Cancer Institute, and President of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy. "If validated in larger prospective cohorts of patients, as we are working on now, this protein could complement or substitute for the tissue PD-L1 as the standard of care in these and other types of tumor patients receiving immunotherapy, especially because it is minimally invasive and can be repetitive during treatment, being able to detect changes in the tumor during the treatment in real time." Researchers collected blood samples from two cohorts of 33 and 24 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer receiving immune-checkpoint inhibitors before and at the ninth week of treatment. They also included a group of 15 patients receiving chemotherapy as controls. Extracellular vesicles were isolated from blood samples and the protein expression of PD-L1 was measured in each group at both time points. Researchers also measured imaging scans of patients' tumors before treatment and evaluated them with an innovative imaging technology called radiomics to create a full model for prediction of immunotherapy response. This study, led by Dr. Rolfo, included collaboration of experts in radiomics and medical oncology from the United States, Mexico, and Italy. Explore further Blood test predicts response to immunotherapy Saudi Arabias Ministry of Investment (MISA) and Swiss multinational pharmaceutical corporation Novartis, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand the kingdoms biopharmaceutical capabilities. The agreement builds on Novartis rapidly expanding footprint in Saudi Arabia, with the cumulative total contribution to GDP of the corporation in the kingdom predicted to reach $857 million by 2024. MISA and Novartis will work together to expand local investment activities in areas of Cell & Gene (C&G) therapy, transfer of technologies, clinical research development, next-generation therapies to reduce the burden of treatment on Saudi Arabias national healthcare budget, and building local talent and capabilities. Cell and Gene centres The MoU includes the co-creation of Cell and Gene centres of excellence, implementation of a long-term strategic co-manufacturing plan, and an aim to reach 75% Saudisation. Khalid Al Falih, Minister of Investment said: The Ministry of Investment remains committed to ensuring that innovative investors can take advantage of emerging opportunities, particularly within our burgeoning healthcare and life sciences sector. As the kingdom continues to diversify its economy through Vision 2030, our National Investment Strategy has made the kingdom a stable and competitive destination, as doing business has become quicker, easier, and less costly than ever before, because of policy and regulatory reforms. I encourage more investors to explore the world of opportunity available in Saudi Arabia. Increasing investor confidence Dr Sara Althari, Managing Director of Biotech & Pharma and Advisor to the Minister of Investment, said: This agreement illustrates the increasing confidence of leading healthcare and pharmaceutical corporations in the kingdoms local capabilities, as well as the lucrative investment opportunities available in the kingdoms growing biotechnology sector. Through partnerships like this, we are tapping into the immense potential of our healthcare ecosystem to harness innovation and deliver highest quality care both locally and in the wider region. This MoU builds upon agreements signed over the past year between the Ministry and global leaders in the pharmaceutical sector, including Jannsen, AstraZeneca, GSK, and Roche, indicating a growing recognition among global pharma brands of the investment opportunities available in the Saudi life sciences sector.-- TradeArabia News Service Two schoolgirls conducting cognitive tests in Barcelona. Credit: Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) Road traffic noise is a widespread problem in cities whose impact on children's health remains poorly understood. A new study conducted at 38 schools in Barcelona suggests that traffic noise at schools has a detrimental effect on the development of working memory and attention in primary-school students. The findings of this study, led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), have been published in PLoS Medicine. The study, which forms part of the BREATHE project and was led by researchers Maria Foraster and Jordi Sunyer, included 2,680 children between 7 and 10 years of age. In order to assess the possible impact of traffic noise on cognitive development, the researchers focused on two abilities that develop rapidly during preadolescence and are essential for learning and school attainment: attention and working memory. Attention includes processes such as selectively attending to specific stimuli or focusing on a specific task for a prolonged period of time. Working memory is the system that allows us to hold information in the mind and manipulate it over a short period of time. When we need to continuously and effectively process information stored in the working memory, we use what is known as complex working memory. The field work for the study was carried out over a 12-month period in 2012 and 2013, during which participants completed the cognitive tests four times. The aim of these tests was not only to assess working memory and attention, but also to study their evolution over time. Over the same period, noise measurements were taken in front of the 38 participating schools, as well as in the playgrounds and inside classrooms. On completion of the yearlong study period, the findings showed that the progression of working memory, complex working memory and attention was slower in students attending schools with higher levels of traffic noise. By way of example, a 5 dB increase in outdoor noise levels resulted in working memory development that was 11.4% slower than average and complex working memory development that was 23.5% slower than average. Similarly, exposure to an additional 5 dB of outdoor traffic noise resulted in attention capacity development that was 4.8% slower than average. Differences between inside and outside the classroom In the analysis of outdoor noise at schools, higher average noise level and greater fluctuation in noise levels were both associated with poorer student performance on all tests. Inside the classroom, greater fluctuation in noise levels was also associated with slower progress over the course of the year on all cognitive tests. However, children exposed to higher average classroom noise levels over the course of the year performed worse than students in quieter classrooms only on the attention test, but not on the working memory tests. "This finding suggests that noise peaks inside the classroom may be more disruptive to neurodevelopment than average decibel level," commented ISGlobal researcher Maria Foraster, lead author of the study. "This is important because it supports the hypothesis that noise characteristics may be more influential than average noise levels, despite the fact that current policies are based solely on average decibels." "Our study supports the hypothesis that childhood is a vulnerable period during which external stimuli such as noise can affect the rapid process of cognitive development that takes place before adolescence," explained ISGlobal researcher Jordi Sunyer, last author of the study. Noise exposure at home The researchers used the 2012 road traffic noise map of the city of Barcelona to estimate the average noise level at each participant's home. In this case, however, no association was observed between residential noise and cognitive development. "This could be because noise exposure at school is more detrimental as it affects vulnerable windows of concentration and learning processes," commented Maria Forester. "On the other hand, although noise measurements were taken at the schools, noise levels at the children's homes were estimated using a noise map that may be less accurate and, in any case, only reflected outdoor noise. This, too, may have influenced the results." The study adds to the body of evidence on the effects of transport on children's cognitive development, which to date have been observed at schools exposed to aircraft noise as well as at schools exposed to traffic-related air pollution. The researchers underscored the need for further studies on road traffic noise in other populations to determine whether these initial findings can be extrapolated to other cities and settings. Explore further Wind farm and traffic noise found to stimulate the brain during sleep More information: Exposure to road traffic noise and cognitive development in schoolchildren in Barcelona, Spain: A population-based cohort study, PLoS Medicine (2022). Journal information: PLoS Medicine Exposure to road traffic noise and cognitive development in schoolchildren in Barcelona, Spain: A population-based cohort study,(2022). 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004001 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Australian doctors are more likely to be sued for medical negligence if they are unhappy, overworked, working in rural areas, or if they have suffered a recent injury or illness according to new research from the University of Melbourne. Published today in the British Medical Journal Open, the Australian-first study also found that doctors with an "agreeable" personality were less likely to be sued. The research team led by Dr. Owen Bradfield and Professor Matthew Spittal, analyzed the responses of over 12,000 Australian doctors to the Medicine in Australia Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) survey between 2013 and 2018. Doctors who completed the survey answered questions about their age, sex, specialty, personality, health, life satisfaction, working conditions, and whether they had previously been sued. "This allowed us to analyze and correlate work, health and personality factors with a doctor's risk of being sued," Dr. Bradfield said. Just over five percent of the doctors surveyed reported being named in a medical negligence claim during this period. The findings were more pronounced for male doctors than female. "It is critical that we try to better understand why some doctors are sued. A mistake by a doctor can have tragic consequences for patients and can be costly for the health system," Dr. Bradfield said. "Patients who suffer harm from a medical error can sue the doctor concerned in order to seek redress, answers, and assurances that mistakes will not be repeated. Therefore, understanding why that doctor made a mistake and was sued can help us reduce medical errors and improve healthcare quality." Professor Spittal added knowledged gained from earlier studies show older male doctors who performed surgical procedures and who had prior complaints were at the highest risk of claims. "However, because not all older male surgeons are actually sued, we suspected that work, health, and personality factors might also hold the key to explaining these differences," Professor Spittal said. Dr. Bradfield said the identification of additional risk factors could be important for employers, regulators and health practitioners who care for unwell doctors. "We need to reduce doctor fatigue by addressing long working hours. We also need to create supportive work environments and target interventions that improve doctors' overall well-being, such as through healthy lifestyle and positive psychology programs. This could reduce the risk of doctors being sued, and improve patient safety," he said. Explore further 1 in 7 doctors in Norway exposed to violence from patients More information: Owen M Bradfield et al, Vocational and psychosocial predictors of medical negligence claims among Australian doctors: a prospective cohort analysis of the MABEL survey, BMJ Open (2022). Journal information: BMJ Open Owen M Bradfield et al, Vocational and psychosocial predictors of medical negligence claims among Australian doctors: a prospective cohort analysis of the MABEL survey,(2022). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055432 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain As prices for genetic testing go down and awareness of what these tests can do goes up, more and more people are choosing to have their DNA analyzed. One limitation to these tests is that even when they are conducted with guidance from a doctor, genetic variants may be detected whose roles in disease risk are not fully understood. In a commentary published on June 2 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers examined how these "variants of uncertain significance" (VUS) can be introduced by underrepresentation of certain ancestry groupsas well as ways to reduce their incidence in genetic databases. "A great deal of effort goes into broad-based projects that aim to recruit diverse segments of the population," says first author Paul Appelbaum, director of the Center for Research on Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics at Columbia University. "What's different about our contribution here is the recognition that broad-based recruitment will need to be complemented by more focused efforts that take group concerns into account." There are a number of practical and ethical reasons that VUS are important to address. Tests that yield a VUS fail to generate information that is useful clinically. Additionally, although current guidelines discourage clinicians from making treatment decisions on the basis of a VUS, many clinicians and patients may feel compelled to act on them anyway. Discovery of a VUS can lead to anxiety, distressespecially variants in genes known to increase the risk of diseases like cancerand, in some cases. even drastic interventions like prophylactic surgery. In this paper, the investigators focused on particular cultural issues among two ancestry groups, as well as culturally informed ways to address and overcome those issues. For the first groupthe Sephardi Jewish community in New Yorkthey used data collected by the Dor Yeshorim project, an effort created to reduce the incidence of genetic diseases in the Jewish community, especially Tay Sachs. The second group was the Silent Genomes Project, an effort housed at the University of British Columbia that aims to reduce healthcare disparities and improve diagnostic success for children with genetic diseases from Indigenous populations in Canada. "Both of these groups have specific cultural reasons for being hesitant to provide genetic data. By working with them to find ways to address their concerns, we can overcome these hesitations," Appelbaum says. Appelbaum acknowledges challenges in scaling up these kinds of efforts to reach other underrepresented populations and the lack of a one-size-fits-all approach. "For each of these groups, we need to recognize the reasons for their underrepresentation and work with them to find ways to address those concerns," Appelbaum says. He adds that it's vital to obtain more funding for targeted recruitment efforts and to develop a governance structure that involves the relevant communities in an ongoing fashion. "It's crucial to know the frequency of variants in the population," Appelbaum says. "And given differences in variant frequency across population groups and the prevalence of population-specific variants, comparisons with reference data from a specific ancestral group may be crucial. That's true in both clinical settings and in research." Explore further New tool more accurately uses genomic data to predict disease risk across diverse populations More information: Paul S. Appelbaum, Is There A Way to Reduce the Inequities in Variant Interpretation Based on Ancestry?, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2022). www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(22)00160-4 Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics Paul S. Appelbaum, Is There A Way to Reduce the Inequities in Variant Interpretation Based on Ancestry?,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.012 Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the press conference after the Conference of Minister Presidents in Berlin, Thursday June 2, 2022. Credit: Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP Germany's federal and state leaders agreed Thursday to try to avoid closing schools and child care facilities if there is another surge in coronavirus cases this fall. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after meeting with the governors of Germany's 16 states that the goal would be to prevent "another blanket closure" of schools and kindergartens like what happened during previous waves of the pandemic. Scholz said while the situation is expected to further ease during the summer months, authorities are preparing for a possible rise in cases this fall. Germany has seen a steady decline in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in recent weeks, but still reported almost 50,000 new infections Thursday. The country's disease control agency says it is increasingly recording a new subtype of the omicron variant previously detected in South Africa and Portugal. The Robert Koch Agency has urged people over 70 to get a second booster shot of the vaccine to prevent serious illness if they contract COVID-19. Explore further Germany mulls new COVID restrictions as omicron advances 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Participants were randomized to receive their cigarettes in one of three pack designs: a blank pack, a standard commercially available U.S. pack, or a package with a graphic warning label used on cigarette packs in Australia (under license from the Australian government). Credit: Under license from the Australian government Smokers in the United States who received cigarette packs with graphic warning labels hid their packs 38% more often. However, smokers stopped hiding their cigarettes when they returned to regular packs without the graphic labels, reports a multi-institutional group of public health experts led by University of California San Diego. "In a randomized clinical trial, we demonstrated that smokers in the U.S. who received cigarettes in packs with graphic warning labels were less willing to display the packs in public. It has been hypothesized that this behavior could reduce perceptions by teens that it is socially acceptable to smoke, perhaps explaining why mandated graphic warning label packs are associated with reductions in teen smoking," said first author John P. Pierce, Distinguished Professor at the Hebert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego. In a paper published in the June 2, 2022 online issue of JAMA Network Open, Pierce and colleagues at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, California State University San Marcos and San Diego County Public Health Services manufactured special cigarette packs that incorporated graphic images of a diseased foot, a newborn with a breathing tube, or throat cancer on cigarette packs in Australia (under license from the Australian government). Study participants included 357 smokers living in San Diego who agreed to purchase their preferred brand of cigarettes from a study website. Participants were randomized to receive their cigarettes in one of three pack designs: a package with a graphic warning label, with a blank pack, or in a standard commercially available U.S. pack. Approximately 19,000 packs were delivered to participants. Graphic warning labels are used on cigarette packs in more than 120 countries. Despite being mandated by the U.S. Congress in 2009, implementation of graphic warning labels has been held up by legal challenges by the tobacco industry. "Prior to the study, we found that many smokers in the U.S. were discrete and reported hiding their usual pack in public settings. The packs with graphic warning labels had their main effect on those who were least likely to hide their packs prior to the study," said senior author David R. Strong, professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health. "We found no evidence that graphic warning-labeled packs changed smoking behavior over the year-long study." Individuals continued to smoke as often as they did before and after the study. During the study, participants were asked, via interactive text messaging, if over the previous four hours they placed their packs where others would not see them. Changes in consumption and smoking status were assessed at the end of the three-month intervention and at the end of the 12-month study. Participants who received cigarettes in a standard U.S. pack, or in a blank pack that had no marketing, did not change pack hiding behavior. Smokers randomized to the graphic warning label arm reported that they increased pack hiding over the first four weeks of the intervention and continued at the new level until the end of the intervention. After they stopped receiving the packs labeled with graphic warnings, they quickly reverted to baseline pack hiding levels. When social reactions were queried at the end of the study, the group with graphic warning label packs reported that observers had aversive reactions to the cigarette packs while those in the blank pack group reported that observers expressed a positive interest in the study, said the authors. Co-authors include: Sheila Kealey, Eric C. Leas, Matthew D. Stone, Jesica Oratowski, Elizabeth Brighton, all of UC San Diego; Kim Pulvers, CSU San Marcos; and Adriana Villasenor, San Diego County Public Health Services. Explore further Graphic warning labels on cigarette packaging changes perceptions More information: Effect of Graphic Warning Labels on Cigarette Pack-Hiding Behavior Among Smokers; The CASA Randomized Clinical Trial, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Effect of Graphic Warning Labels on Cigarette Pack-Hiding Behavior Among Smokers; The CASA Randomized Clinical Trial,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14242 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain How does the media's portrayal of tobacco and e-cigarette use affect whether young adults decide to smoke? That's the overarching question two recent studies from Penn's Annenberg School for Communication aimed to answer. The first, published in the Journal of Communication, found that negative media coverage of these behaviors mattered in reducing intent to smoke, an effect stronger for current smokers than for nonsmokers. A second, shared in the journal Communication Research, found that views about the prevalence and acceptance of tobacco and e-cigarette use changed for young people depending on the medium on which it was viewed. "This project measured media coverage of these issues in a very intensive way," says Robert Hornik, the Wilbur Schramm Professor Emeritus of Communication and Health Policy and project investigator for this work. "We had 85 million tweets in our database. We measured old media and new media. We did our best to determine what the media said about tobacco and e-cigarettes every day for three years." The work evolved under the auspices of what was then a new federal initiative from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) called the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science grant program. In 2013, Hornik received nearly $3.5 million to study how communication about tobacco products was changing in a shifting media environment, part of a Center grant of more than $19 million. In nearly a decade since, his team has published a dozen papers on this work, including the two latest. Hornik led the research on the influence of public communication on decision-making around smoking. As Penn doctoral students, Leeann Siegel, now a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH's National Cancer Institute, and Jiaying Liu, now an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, led the study about norms. "These are obviously studies about tobacco, but they're also about media effects and how to think about them," says Siegel, whose current work applies the methods and theories of communication research to smoking-cessation interventions. "This project has taken a lot of energy over a lot of years for a lot of people. These two papers are crucial outcomes." For the first paper, the teamwhich included Hornik, Laura Gibson, and several others from Penn, as well as colleagues from the University of Chicago and elsewheremonitored the daily media landscape from May 2014 through June 2017. The work included what the researchers dubbed "long-form" outlets50 major U.S. newspapers, The Associated Press wire service, eight broadcast news outlets, and more than 100 websites popular with a young adult subset, as classified by Nielsenplus the social media outlets Twitter and YouTube. Each week, the researchers used supervised machine learning to delineate any tobacco-related content from the previous seven days as either for or against smoking. Simultaneously, they conducted a weekly phone survey to 13- to 25-year-olds in the U.S. More than 11,000 initially responded, with nearly 4,500 completing a second interview six months later. The surveys asked questions such as whether participants had ever smoked, how likely it was they might try to quit, and how they felt about a series of statements regarding tobacco use. The researchers then analyzed the datasets side by side. Across all platforms but YouTube they found a significant association between anti-tobacco messaging and lower intentions to smoke among the U.S. youth and young adult population. The same wasn't true, however, for positive coverage of tobacco products, which didn't move the needle in either direction. "The original study gave us a chance to ask the big question about the effect of the entire media environment, not about specific messages," Hornik says. "It's quite an unusual project in that sense. There hasn't been anything quite of this scale before." The second study, which used a similar methodology as the first, was meant as a follow up to a 2019 Journal of Communication paper led by Liu and involving Siegel and others in Hornik's lab. It analyzed media depictions of tobacco use and their role in normalizing such behavior. Here, they considered two facets: "population norm" mentions or descriptions of the behavior at a population levelfor example, summary statements like "X percentage of high schoolers use e-cigarettes"and "individual use depictions," instances of someone using or discussing their use of tobacco or e-cigarettes. "We anticipated that any type of depiction of an individual using a tobacco product would make young people believe tobacco use was more common and more approved of," Siegel says. "We found that in some cases. The more they appeared in long-form texts, the more likely people were to report the behavior was normative." Social media, on the other hand, went the opposite way. "The more individual use depictions on YouTube, the less likely people were to say tobacco use was common. The more depictions of tobacco use on Twitter, the less likely people would say that their close friends would approve of the behavior," she says. "We have some hypotheses for why this played out, but we're not yet able to figure out the root cause." They found no effect from population norms content. Hornik and Siegel say the work has several implications. In terms of norm perceptions, media do "have an effect, but it may not necessarily be straightforward," Siegel says. There's more work to do to understand the real-world consequences. Regarding media influence on tobacco-related behaviors, Hornik says the results suggest "media coverage overall was anti-tobacco and reduced youth interest in tobacco use. Although much research focuses on effects of specific messages and is often concerned about single instances of pro-tobacco content, our focus finds that media coverage writ large is negative and predicts reduced use." Explore further Emphasizing short-term effects can help prevent and reduce youth smoking More information: Robert Hornik et al, The Effects of Tobacco Coverage in the Public Communication Environment on Young People's Decisions to Smoke Combustible Cigarettes, Journal of Communication (2022). Robert Hornik et al, The Effects of Tobacco Coverage in the Public Communication Environment on Young People's Decisions to Smoke Combustible Cigarettes,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/joc/jqab052 Leeann Siegel et al, Not All Norm Information is the Same: Effects of Normative Content in the Media on Young People's Perceptions of E-Cigarette and Tobacco Use Norms, Communication Research (2022). DOI: 10.1177/00936502211073290 Journal information: Journal of Communication , Communication Research By using mass spectrometry-based proteomics, researchers were able to measure the intensity of important proteins (biomarkers, peaks in the graph) and therefore diagnose alcohol-related liver disease at an early stage. Credit: Lili Niu / Novo Nordisk Foundation, Center for Protein Research Two or three drinks every day could put your liver in danger. Using proteomics and machine learning, researchers now present a revolutionary tool to predict whether an individual has alcohol-related liver disease and if an individual patient is at risk of disease progression. In comparison to the current state-of-the-art clinical tests, this tool is non-invasive and just as accurate, if not superior. The study has been published in Nature Medicine and is a collaborative effort between the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry, Germany and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) Center for Protein Research (CPR) at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Southern Denmark. A whopping 25 percent of the world's population live with fatty liver disease, a condition caused by the storage of extra fat in the liver. In fact, two to three alcoholic beverages a day can put your liver in danger. While this does not necessarily affect your health, fatty liver does indeed put you in risk of developing severe liver diseases, such as cirrhosis, over time. Even today, a doctor must perform a liver biopsy at a specialized clinic in order to determine your individual risk. Such a biopsy is performed by pushing a needle through your skin and into your liver to remove a tissue sample from your liver. It is necessary yet invasive, and associated with complications such as bleeding. Now, a research team led by Professor Matthias Mann at the MPI of Biochemistry and at the NNF-CPR have developed a new diagnosis tool to predict whether an individual has fatty liver disease and if a patient is at further risk of disease progression. First author and postdoc at CPR Lili Niu explains, "Detection of different types of liver injuries is important, because it improves disease management for the patients. Because of the typically silent progression of liver diseases, there is an urgent need to implement easily accessible screening programs in at-risk populations for early diagnosis." Early detection of liver diseases In the study, the researchers were able to identify hundreds of proteins from each blood sample of the patients. The blood samples were analyzed using a mass spectrometer, a type of very advanced weighing scale, that measures molecules with extreme precision. After identifying and measuring the proteome (total of the proteins in the sample), they used machine learning to find proteins related to the presence of different forms of liver damage. Lili Niu says, "We identified three panels of biomarkers that can detect significant fibrosis, mild inflammatory activity and any steatosis, all of which are different ways the disease can manifest itself in the tissue." In short, these biomarkers are what the researchers were looking for in the blood samples, as they can detect any of the above-mentioned liver injuries and help predict if a patient is at risk of disease progression. "In the end, it only took us two weeks of measurement time to analyze the samples from 596 individuals in the main cohort and another 63 in a validation cohort, and this throughput combined with the proteome depth is unprecedented," Niu concludes. By using a simple blood sample, the researchers were able to predict the patient's risk of alcohol-related liver disease, which affects six percent of the general population"with performance superior or comparable to existing state-of-the-art clinical tests," adds Niu. 'Mass spectrometry is just better' Matthias Mann, the corresponding author who leads the Proteomics and Signal Transduction group at the MPI of Biochemistry and the Clinical Proteomics Group at NNF-CPR, says, "We are interested in rolling this out as a screening tool for the general population or at-risk populations, such as alcohol over-users, for early detection of liver diseases. We will continue biomarker development with mass spectrometry-based analysis for its specificity and systematic aspects, among other advantages. Further, we want to develop other assays for other diseases as well." The researchers are excited about the paper's findings, since this screening method could make potentially life-saving tests accessible to the broader community, but with no side effects for the patients. Moreover, this method can potentially be further developed to be used not only for the diagnosis of liver disease, but also for other diseases. Clinical Professor and Chief Physician Maja Thiele, who was responsible for recruiting and investigating the 659 participants for the study together with her colleagues at Odense University Hospital and University of Southern Denmark, concludes, "With the current diagnosis tool, you have to travel to a centralized and specialized clinic to get either the liver biopsy or advanced imaging tests. With this technology, you potentially just need a tiny blood sample taken at your general practitioner." Thiele further adds, "No doubt this is the future. It is a fantastic screening tool, and answers everything we need to know about the patients. From a single blood test, we can measure liver fat, inflammation, and scar tissue in the liver." Explore further Scientists pinpoint how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increases risk of vascular diseases More information: Lili Niu et al, Noninvasive proteomic biomarkers for alcohol-related liver disease, Nature Medicine (2022). Journal information: Nature Medicine Lili Niu et al, Noninvasive proteomic biomarkers for alcohol-related liver disease,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01850-y Perceptions of doctors views on COVID-19 vaccines. A sample of the adult Czech population (n = 2,101). a, Distribution of the prior beliefs of respondents about what percentage of doctors would like to get vaccinated. b, Distribution of the beliefs of respondents about what percentage of doctors trust approved COVID-19 vaccines. The dashed line shows the true value, based on the responses of doctors in the Supplementary study. The red and blue colors show the percentage of those who underestimate and overestimate, respectively, doctors own vaccination intentions (a) and trust in the COVID-19 vaccines (b). Credit: Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04805-y A new research study shows that public misperceptions about doctors' views on COVID-19 vaccinations reduce willingness to get vaccinated. The study documents that the vast majority of medical doctors in the Czech Republic trust and support vaccination, but that there is a widespread belief among the public that doctors' opinions are divided and that only about half trust the vaccines. Informing people that there is a broad positive consensus among doctors persistently increases vaccination uptake by the public. Thus, effectively communicating doctors' true views can play an important role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was published in the most recent issue of Nature. The authors of the study conducted extensive questionnaire surveys to identify the medical community's views on vaccination against COVID-19, and then surveyed public perceptions of doctors' views. Finally, they examined the effect of providing information about doctors' actual views on individuals' decisions to get vaccinated. "We found that clearly communicating the strong consensus of the benefits of vaccination among doctors is a cheap way to persistently increase interest in vaccination," says one of the study's co-authors, Michal Bauer of CERGE-EI in Prague. The first survey took place in February 2021 among Czech doctors from all parts of the country. It focused on identifying doctors' views of approved COVID-19 vaccines. Of the 10,000 doctors surveyed, a full 90% trusted the vaccines. Furthermore, 90% had already been vaccinated themselves, or planned to be. As many as 95% of doctors stated that they would recommend vaccinations to their healthy patients. However, most of the Czech public was unaware of this consensus in the medical community. This was discovered thanks to the second survey, which took place as part of a Life During the Pandemic survey conducted in partnership with PAQ Research, 2 which involved 2,101 respondents. Respondents estimated what percentage of doctors trusted the vaccines and wanted to be vaccinated themselves. About 90% of the public sample underestimated the level of support for vaccination within the medical community. On average, people thought that only about 60% of doctors trusted the approved vaccines and that only around 57% of doctors wanted to be vaccinated themselves. In March 2021, a randomly selected half of the respondents received correct information about the opinions of doctors about vaccination, i.e., that 90% trust the vaccines. The other half of the respondents did not receive this information. This allowed the researchers to reliably estimate the role that knowledge of the real views of the medical community plays in the willingness to be vaccinated. For the next nine months, the researchers monitored the respondents to see if they got vaccinated. The information provided not only corrected misperceptions about doctors' views on vaccination, but also increased vaccination uptake by 4.5 percentage points. The percentage of people who chose not to be vaccinated therefore fell by as much as 20%. "The effect on vaccination was stable and lasting. Even a one-time provision of information increased vaccination uptake for at least 9 months, and also increased demand for the third dose," explains study co-author Julie Chytilova of Charles University in Prague. The authors of the study believe that the documented public misperceptions about the views of the medical community are likely caused by a journalistic norm, to provide equal time and space to opposing views on controversial topics discussed in media. This practice attracts the attention of viewers and creates the appearance of an objective journalistic approach. However, it can distort perceptions in the society about the degree of dis/agreement among experts and undermine the ability to overcome societal challenges. "Journalists should therefore try to provide information not only about differences of opinions among experts, but also about how common different views are," says Chytilova. "The inaccurate public perceptions that experts are divided, despite the fact that a broad consensus in fact exists, is very likely relevant in a number of other areas, such as the climate change debate, and it may undermine the societal support required to solve fundamental national and global problems," adds Bauer. The lessons from this study very likely apply to a number of other issues, and the current pandemic is just one example of a more general phenomenon. More information: Vojtech Bartos et al, Communicating doctors' consensus persistently increases COVID-19 vaccinations, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature Vojtech Bartos et al, Communicating doctors' consensus persistently increases COVID-19 vaccinations,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04805-y Provided by CERGE-EI Credit: CC0 Public Domain The children typically show up at hospitals scattered across the country, one or two at a time, with symptoms like unexplained vomiting, diarrhea and jaundice. These are the classic signs of hepatitisinflammation of the liveryet in many cases, no cause is ever identified. That's why the nation's disease detectives are so intrigued by the evidence emerging from more than 200 pediatric hepatitis cases dating back to October, including a handful from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Close to half of the children, including an initial nine identified in Alabama, tested positive for an adenovirusa type of virus not normally associated with hepatitis. It's possible that the virus has been responsible all along for many of the cases for which no cause is ever identified, CDC officials said at a briefing. An investigation remains underway, in cooperation with officials in 32 other countries where cases have been reported. As of Friday, 650 cases are under investigation worldwide, the World Health Organization said. The CDC also is investigating whether some sort of "co-factor" is involved, causing the children to become sicker from the adenovirus than would otherwise be the case. Among the early possibilities considered: the virus that causes COVID-19. And investigators are looking for other possible causes of the hepatitis, such exposure to drugs, toxins, or food, but so far an adenovirus infection remains a leading theory, said Jay Butler, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases. The unusual cluster last fall in Alabama was the first clue. "This is the type of shoe-leather epidemiology that our disease detectives are trained to do," he said. Six of the U.S. children died, and 15 have needed liver transplants, whereas symptoms were moderate or mild in the rest. The CDC did not specify where the six deaths occurred in order to protect patient privacy, agency officials said. St. Christopher's Hospital for Children has reported two cases to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said Janet Chen, section chief of infectious diseases at the North Philadelphia hospital. She noted that the likelihood that COVID plays a role in the unknown hepatitis seems to be weakening. But it's too soon to rule it out entirely. "If the last two years have taught us anything, COVID is involved in a lot of things," she said. The liver is a complex organ, ridding the body of toxins while making other substances that are essential for survival, among them proteins used in clotting blood. The organ also is involved in producing cholesterol, and it stores energy in the form of glucose. Hepatitis is a catchall term for inflammation in the organ. And while other viruses are known to cause it (the hepatitis viruses A, B, and C are the most common), adenoviruses have been implicated only in cases where the child's immune system is compromised. The unusual cluster last fall in Alabama pointed epidemiologists in the direction of the adenovirus. In cases where the virus could be subjected to genetic testing, labs have identified a specific type called adenovirus 41. For children whose samples are no longer available for viral testing, the other case details are still valuable in establishing the scope of disease, said Jim Squires, an associate professor of pediatrics in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. That hospital has identified several such cases that meet the CDC's broad definition for inclusion: children in whom a type of liver enzyme was elevated, he said. "It's getting a denominator of how many cases are out there," said. Still, Squires agreed with CDC officials that the adenovirus was a possible culprit in the recent cases. Yet uncertainty remains. Generally, the adenovirus was not found in the children's livers, but in their blood. As more and more hepatitis cases have been identified, COVID is looking less likely as a contributing factor. The percentage of cases in children who turned out to have a recent or current infection with the coronavirus has dipped below 20%, the CDC's Butler said. If the adenovirus turns out to be the prime culprit, it could, in theory, be prevented with the same tool we've used against COVID: a vaccine. A vaccine that protects against two other types of adenoviruses is recommended for members of the U.S. military, though no adenovirus vaccine is on the recommended schedule for children. "I think everything's on the table," said Chen, of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. "We have to kind of wait and see how this plays out." Explore further Mysterious liver illness seen in kids in US, Europe 2022 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Proposed neural network model architecture and learning rules to simulate creative processes based on novelty, including DT, abstraction, and improvisation. Credit: Jacobs University "Many believe that creativity is assigned to a single brain region. But that is not the case," says Radwa Khalil. Together with scientists from South Africa and Australia, the neurobiologist at Jacobs University Bremen has proposed a computer-based model that assigns creative processes to neural networks in the brain. Depending on the type of creative activity, these networks can be designed differently. The research results have recently been published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Creativity is understood as the creation of novel, useful and surprising solutions. The researchers argue that the associated cognitive processes, such as the ability to abstract, improvise, or think divergently, involve different brain areas that are interconnected. These areas include the cerebellum, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and basal ganglia. Different areas are activated depending on the type of creativity. The similarities and differences between these types of creativity and their neuronal circuits are described by the model with the help of algorithms. Dopamine plays an essential role as a critical modulator for controlling and optimizing creative neural pathways. With this proposed neural network model, the scientists, for the first time, provide a unified framework for seemingly three different forms of creativity. "With this starting point, we hope to thoroughly contribute to a better understanding of the underlying neuronal mechanisms," said Khalil. "The more we know about these mechanisms, the more specifically we can promote creativity and possibly contribute as promising interventions for people with relevant disturbed brain areas." Explore further How our knowledge of the world embedded in brain connectivity shapes our creativity More information: Radwa Khalil et al, A neurocomputational model of creative processes, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2022). Radwa Khalil et al, A neurocomputational model of creative processes,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104656 Provided by Jacobs University Bremen With deals worth over AED25 million ($6.81 million) signed during the show, Gulf Print and Pack (GPP) 2022 concluded on a high note at the Dubai World Trade Centre last week. Sales of machinery and equipment were the biggest contributors to the total, with Canon closing over $2.5 million in sales and Kodak reporting in excess of $1 million at GPP from May 24 to 26. Other exhibitors that confirmed having made substantial sales during the event included Vinsak and Heidelberg. Ricoh International reported selling 46 units of its ProTM series of printers which it showcased during the event, with expectations of more sales deals being signed immediately after the show. Contracts for print and packaging jobs made up the rest of the deals sealed at the show. Daily attendance In addition, GPP organisers say the decision to move from a four-day show in past editions to a three-day event in 2022 was vindicated with daily attendance increasing by 15%, resulting in an impressive 7,535 visitors from over 90 countries to the show, cementing its position as the leading trade show for the commercial and package printing industry in the Middle East and Africa region. Barry Killengrey, Event Director of Gulf Print & Pack 2022, said: On the shows return after a three-year hiatus, were delighted to have provided the industry a great platform to do business and jump on a path towards recovery and growth. Theres a lot of optimism that we can carry forward to the next edition of the show. Luis Penades, Channel Programme Director, Kodak commented: We are very happy about the outcome of our participation in the show. Weve met a lot of potential customers and received over 200 leads that exceeded our expectations. During the show, we closed contracts in excess of $1 million, with many more deals expected to be signed after the show through our channel partners. 300 new leads Impressed with the international profile of the event, Ranesh Bajaj, Director of Vinsak said: We had excellent footfall from across the Middle east and Africa, the visitors were quite focused and from the domain and hence the enquiries were very relevant. While it was an excellent platform to meet our existing customers in person after 2-3 years, we also had more than 300 new leads of companies that we met first time at the show. We have sold multiple units of our new VINSAK High Build machines to customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Africa. Additionally, we also closed two orders for Lombardi presses. Meanwhile, Simon Howells, GM of Xerox Emirates says the team had a great experience at the event and received great feedback on their stand. We have been overwhelmed with enquires for our Iridesse Production Press in particular, the new colours, and indeed unique colours, have really captured customers attention and are delighted to show them how Xerox can grow their business in 2022, and beyond. Echoing the same sentiment, Roger Nicodeme, General Manager, Heidelberg Gulf was pleased with their participation at this years edition of the show, saying Gulf Print and Pack 2022 is a success. We have met customers, serious buyers, from the whole Middle East, and we managed to sell more than 10 machines during the show.-- TradeArabia News Service Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Pretend the COVID-19 pandemic never happened. People still would have died across Canada, and the number of deaths would have been somewhat predictable based on data from previous years. Dr. Kimberlyn McGrail, a professor in UBC's school of population and public health, examined all "excess deaths" across Canadian provinces during the first 19 months of the pandemic, and how many of those were attributed specifically to COVID-19. Excess deaths are deaths above and beyond what would have been expected under normal circumstances. UBC News spoke with her about the findings, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Why look at "excess deaths" rather than just COVID-19 deaths when trying to understand the pandemic? The pandemic had a direct effect on deaths, in that people got the virus and unfortunately some died from it, but the pandemic also had other effects. People delayed care, or had surgeries, diagnostics and appointments cancelled, which can lead to poorer outcomes. We also had other public health events going onparticularly in B.C. with the ongoing tainted drug supply and the heat dome in the summer of 2021. Those things were potentially affected by the pandemic. So overall mortality is a better indication of what's actually happening at the population level. How do we know how many deaths were expected? I used data provided by Statistics Canada. They look at trends in the population's size and age in the five years preceding the pandemic to model what would have been expected in 2020-21, absent the pandemic. What did you learn about excess deaths across Canada during the pandemic? Excess mortality is just an estimate, but the experience across the provinces, according to what Statistics Canada is telling us, is very different. We saw very little to no excess death in the Atlantic provinces, and quite high excess deaths in western provinces. What are some possible explanations for this wide variation? One of the challenges is that a number of different things could contribute to this variation, and it's probably not one or another, but a combination. For COVID-19 deaths, differences in COVID-19 reporting practices could be contributing. Each province defines and counts COVID-19 deaths in different ways, and reports them at different speeds. For overall excess deaths, it could be because provinces differed in their responses to COVID-19. It could be because of the additional public health events going on. Or it could be the broader implications of COVID-19, like cancelled surgeries and delayed diagnostics. There may also be some inaccuracy in the modelling of expected deaths by Statistics Canada. Your study shows that excess deaths far exceeded COVID-19 deaths in some provinces. How is that possible? I'll use the heat dome in the summer of 2021 as a particular example. The B.C. Coroners Service has now attributed almost 600 deaths to that event. You might say that's not related to COVID-19. However, so much policy attention was being placed on COVID-19 at the time. Some of the precautions, with people being locked down, limited activity and so on, might have contributed to how we responded to the heat dome, which in turn could have contributed to deaths. For example, lots of older people living alone didn't have the usual level of social support and people checking on them. What does this study reveal about the way data is collected and reported across provinces? Probably the most important thing to underline is that good, timely data are essential for health care system planning. There has to be clear understanding of what the trends are and the most likely reasons for those trends so appropriate decisions can be made. Given the variation in excess mortality across provinces, it's really important that we have a pan-Canadian conversation about trying to understand which potential causes are related to that, and come to some agreement about common data, timeliness and definitions. Clearly we're going to have health events and pandemic-type things happen again. This is the opportunity to have those conversations. That's how we're going to make sure we're prepared for the next event. Explore further An analysis of excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic across Canada More information: Kimberlyn McGrail, Excess mortality, COVID-19 and health care systems in Canada, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2022). Journal information: Canadian Medical Association Journal Kimberlyn McGrail, Excess mortality, COVID-19 and health care systems in Canada,(2022). DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.220337 Lesions at hospitalization on day 11 post-symptom onset of monkeypox case imported to Australia from Europe, May 2022. Lesions on the upper limbs and trunk were in various vesicular and crusted states. Credit: Hammerschlag et al, Eurosurveilance Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, which means it can be transmitted between animals and humans via direct or indirect contacts. Following the eradication of smallpox and the end of universal smallpox vaccination, monkeypox is currently the most prevalent orthopoxvirus infection in humans. Since May 2022, an evolving outbreak of monkeypox cases has been reported by several countries worldwide, mainly affecting young men self-identifying as men who have sex with men. Four rapid communications published in Eurosurveillance today describe cases diagnosed in Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. UK: one outbreak, three separate incidents Vivancos et al. describe the epidemiology and the public health response of a monkeypox outbreak in the UK, with 86 confirmed cases of monkeypox virus infections between 7 and 25 May 2022. The authors grouped the currently known cases into three distinct incidents: an isolated laboratory-confirmed case following travel to Nigeria, two confirmed monkeypox cases from a separate household cluster including one case whose infections had already clinically resolved (no laboratory confirmation); and as the third incident, 82 laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases that are neither linked to the two other incidents nor in which patients reported travel to areas where monkeypox is endemic. While investigations are still ongoing to determine whether the cases in incident 3 might have been infected outside the UK, sexual health histories have identified links to sex on premises venues, private sex parties, and the use of geospatial dating apps, both in the UK and abroad. In the group linked to the third incident, information on gender was available for 79 cases, all of them men. Among these, a vast majority, 66 identified as gay or bisexual or other men who have sex with men. So far, no single factor or exposure that links the cases has been identified. According to Vivancos et al., "The current outbreak signals a change in basic assumptions about the epidemiology of MPXV in Europe with profound implications for surveillance and control," and constitutes the first reported sustained transmission of MPXV in the UK with evidence of human-to-human transmission through close contact, including in sexual networks. Possible previously undetected spread of monkeypox suspected in Portugal Portugal confirmed the first ever case of human monkeypox in the country on 17 May 2022, and Duque et al. describe the outbreak detection of thus far 96 confirmed cases of monkeypox from the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region. Symptom onset for the first cases in Portugal was reported as early as 29 April 2022. Most of the patients were not part of identified transmission chains, nor could a link to travel or contact with symptomatic persons or animals be established. According to the authors, this suggests possible previously undetected spread of monkeypox. Among the 23 confirmed cases Duque et al. describe, 14 were HIV positive and the most common symptoms were exanthema (n = 14), inguinal lymphadenopathy (n = 14), fever (n = 13), genital ulcers (n = 6). The authors hypothesize "that MPX has been circulating below the detection of the surveillance systems. Although some cases have a clear epidemiological link, the lack of an identified exposure in others raises unanswered questions." Samples from seminal fluid in Italy positive for monkeypox Vita et al. provide the clinical description of the four monkeypox cases reported in Italy, in adult men presenting with different clinical pictures from existing literature as the skin lesions were asynchronous, ranging from single or clustered spot to umbilicated papule with progressive central ulceration, and finally, to scabs. Lesions were mostly located in genital and perianal sites. Biological samples from seminal fluid were positive for monkeypox viral DNA in all four patients, with a quantification cycle range from 27 to 30. Based on this, the authors hypothesize that "although these findings cannot be considered definitive evidence of infectivity, they demonstrate viral shedding whose efficiency in terms of transmission cannot be ruled out." Risk of bacterial superinfection In their case description, Hammerschlag et al. share data on a virally suppressed HIV-positive patient who presented with a genital rash in Australia following a visit to Europe in May 2022, who was later hospitalized. The clinical presentation in this case was considered atypical given the presence of rash exclusively on the site of sexual contact 3 days before developing fever and due to the preponderance for lesions in a central distribution with the least lesions present on the face and extremities after the rash disseminated. The authors highlight that "hospitalization of our patient was not for severe manifestations of the monkeypox viral infection but to enable diagnostic evaluation, pain management and treatment of bacterial superinfection" and that the patient's normal CD4+ T-cell count and supressed HIV viral load on antiretroviral therapy "were potentially important factors in preventing more severe outcomes from his monkeypox infection." Explore further Argentina reports 2 cases of monkeypox Provided by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Endemic to Central and West Africa, monkeypox has been making headlines in Europe and the United States. An initially small outbreak of the poxvirusa relative of the much deadlier smallpoxhas been rippling through countries including Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada. A case in Massachusetts was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week and, at the time of this writing, additional cases have been identified elsewhere in the United States. The first human case of monkeypox, so named because it was first discovered in a colony of research monkeys, was diagnosed in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, limited cases have been seen outside Africa, typically owing to global travel from places in Africa where monkeypox is endemic. The disease is known for its characteristic lesions, but generally starts with flu-like symptoms like fever, fatigue, and body aches. A rash can emerge a few days after the onset of fever, with lesions progressing through various stages before scabbing over and resolving in roughly two weeks. It's transmitted by close contact with infected people or their clothing or bedding, entering through broken skin, mucous membranes, or the respiratory tract. Most people recover, though the disease is considered to have a fatality rate between 3 and 10%. Penn Today spoke with researchers Gary Cohen and Robert Ricciardi of the School of Dental Medicine and Stuart Isaacs of the Perelman School of Medicine, who have collaborated for decades on research related to developing vaccines and therapeutics for poxviruses. They weigh in on what to look out for in the latest outbreak, how governments and clinicians are preparing, and why monkeypox is nothing like COVID-19. Can you share some basic information about monkeypox and how it compares with its relative, smallpox? Isaacs: Poxviruses are very big DNA viruses; they have about a 200,000 base pair genome. Compared to HIV, an RNA virus with a 10,000 base pair genome, or coronaviruses, which have about 20,000 base pairs of RNA, poxviruses are 10 to 20 times bigger. They carry a lot of genes that interact with the host immune system. Members of the poxvirus family, like cowpox, smallpox, and monkeypox, are distinct, but there are enough protein similarities that immunity to one gives cross-immunity to others. Thus, the vaccine used to eradicate smallpox is protective against these other poxviruses. Both smallpox and monkeypox create these similar rash lesions that are very characteristic and very observable. But smallpox is only found in humans, which was one of the reasons it was able to be eradicated; there was no animal reservoir. Once you stopped human-to-human transmission, you could stamp it out. Monkeypox has an animal reservoir, and it keeps jumping into humans. There's also some human-to-human transmission, like we've been seeing recently. Smallpox is much more deadly in a nonimmune personthe fatality rate is 30%whereas monkeypox is considered milder with a lower fatality rate. Ricciardi: If you're under 50 years old, you've probably never had the smallpox vaccine. The more senior members of society who received the smallpox vaccine years ago have about 85% protection against monkeypox due to the commonality of many genes in both viruses. Unlike RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, which rapidly accumulate mutations, monkeypox is a DNA virus, which tends to mutate far less often. So, while we have all these new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that continue to emerge, a frequent occurrence of new monkeypox strains is less likely. Consequently, the vaccines and therapeutics that were produced years ago against smallpox are expected to remain effective against monkeypox virus. Are any groups particularly vulnerable to monkeypox? Isaacs: Even 30, 40, 50, 70 years after a childhood smallpox vaccination, people are probably protected from severe disease or death. You could still get monkeypox and show some lesions and some symptoms. Those who are unvaccinated will be susceptible and could have serious outcomes. Monkeypox is likely to be more severe in the very young and people who are immunocompromised and pregnant. Those were groups who had problems in smallpox times as well. How is your research connected to monkeypox? Cohen: I came to Penn in the 1960s and started working on poxvirus. I learned a great deal. Penn at that time was a hotbed of biochemical virology. I did my postdoc, got a job at the dental school, and went into herpes virology as smallpox receded as a threat. And I didn't come back to it for a few decades. Isaacs: After medical school and residency I had gone to the NIH to do a postdoc and fellowship and worked with one of the most prominent pox virologists in the world. When I got a job here at Penn I continued to study poxviruses in my own lab. Shortly after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks in 2001, the National Institutes of Health funded centers to address bioterrorism, and Penn played a big role in what was called the Middle-Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, or MARCE. We had a poxvirus project where we were developing new therapeutics and next-generation vaccines. The government was looking to develop a next-generation vaccine because the historical smallpox vaccine, which helped eradicate smallpox and also prevents monkeypox, has lots of mild side effects but also some serious and concerning adverse effects. Gary's group was heavily involved in developing therapeutics using monoclonal antibodies. That was almost 20 years ago, and at that time the MARCE advisory panel for our group told us that monoclonal antibodies were too expensive and too hard to pursue. So we kind of put that on the backburner and put all of our energies into a subunit protein-based smallpox vaccine. Gary's group made recombinant proteins that could be purified, and my group worked with the proteins mixed with adjuvants and vaccinated mice and challenged them. This protein-based vaccine looked promising, but the NIH was also looking at other next-generation vaccines and ended up going with a vaccine called modified vaccinia virus (MVA) vaccine, a further attenuated, nonreplicating smallpox virus. Ricciardi: I was also asked by NIH to join MARCE to develop a smallpox drug based on a novel viral target we were working on. Even though we made substantial progress in a short time, by twist of fate MARCE funding ended due to the U.S. government accepting a completely different smallpox drug ST-246, now called Tecovirimat. Importantly, Tecovirimat is also approved for monkeypox. As an aside, my former Penn graduate student Alfred Del Vecchio was involved in discovering ST-246 in a small startup company under the medicinal chemist inventor Thomas R. Bailey, who is currently one of my collaborators. Fortuitously, however, our work on developing a smallpox drug has led our lab to produce the very first drug candidate for a different poxvirus called Molluscum Contagiosum, which is a skin disease of children and immune compromised individuals. What are you keeping an eye on in terms of what's happening with this latest outbreak? Cohen: Monkeypox has a two-to-three week incubation period, which could mean that the cases we're seeing now were all exposed around the same time, and then those individuals traveled elsewhere. If this outbreak continues to expand and we understood which people were exposed, then we could do ring vaccination, vaccinating their close contacts. One other important element of this latest outbreak is that many of those affected seem to be gay men. Having had a close-up view of what happened in 1982 with HIV, I think we need to be very careful about not stigmatizing this disease or people who get it. It can be passed by any kind of close contact. In 1982 various social conventions stood in the way of us getting control of HIV, and it turned into a pandemic. COVID-19 and monkeypox are very different diseases, but are there any lessons from the pandemic that we might apply to thinking about this outbreak? Isaacs: It's hard not to compare the current widespread monkeypox outbreak to COVID: here's this zoonotic infection that started and then spread worldwide. The good news is that monkeypox isn't a new virus, and we have a better toolkit to battle it than we had for SARS-CoV-2 back in 2020. We have vaccines that should be protective, and we have therapeutics that should work in patients who are becoming seriously ill. The other good news is that the monkeypox virus doesn't spread efficiently from person to person unless there's close contact. By isolating infected people and avoiding close contact, this current outbreak could burn, but whether we can do that is still unknown. Ricciardi: At this point, while there's no cause for panic, we still need to be cautious by being fully prepared with vaccines and therapeutics. We need to remain aware of the number and location sites of the monkeypox infections. For each infected person, the CDC and health officials need to immediately employ contact tracing. The public should be reminded periodically as to how the virus is spread and its symptoms. On the scientific side, stockpiling of the new smallpox vaccine and the Tecovirimat drug are in place as first lines of defense. However, as a precautionary measure, additional therapeutic drugs against monkeypox should be developed in the event of resistance to Tecovirimat as well as any adverse reactions that may be experienced by some individuals. For these reasons, it is always wise to have an assortment of drugs available for treatment. Explore further How concerned should you be about monkeypox? THE DUTCH Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (DCCP) has lauded outgoing Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade for his support to the D... THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose mothers had rising levels of depression during pregnancy appear to have an increased risk of behavioral problems, researchers say. "Our findings suggest that increases in mother's symptoms of depression from preconception to postpartum contribute to children's lower attention and behavioral control, which can raise the risk of problems across the life span," said study lead author Gabrielle Rinne, a psychology graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Parents should know, however, that this can be addressed through early childhood intervention," Rinne said in a university news release. The seven-year study included 125 U.S. women and their children who were followed from before pregnancy until the children were 5 years old. Most of the women were Black or Hispanic and from low-income families. The women were interviewed four times about their symptoms of depression: once before becoming pregnant, twice during pregnancy and again about three months after their baby's birth. When their children were 4 years old, the mothers were asked to describe their child's temperament and behavior, particularly episodes of emotional distress and their ability to regulate their emotions. At age 5, the children were given a computer task to assess their ability to concentrate. Children of mothers whose depression increased during pregnancy did worse on the task than children whose mothers had consistently low symptoms of depression. Children whose mothers had consistently high depression and those whose mothers had consistently low depression had similar results on the task, according to the study. The findings were published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders. It's the first to show that changes in mothers' levels of depression over time may affect their young children's behavior and emotional well-being, the researchers said. "This study suggests that a pattern of increasing depression may adversely affect children," said study co-author Christine Dunkel Schetter, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA. She noted, however, that not all of these kids will experience behavioral problems later, only that their risk may be higher. The study only found an association, and not a cause-and-effect link. "Moms who experience depression or stress at multiple times should know the effects this can have on young children," Dunkel Schetter said in the release. "They can seek evaluation and treatment from a doctor or mental health professional for their children and themselves." More information For more on depression during pregnancy, see the American Pregnancy Association. SOURCE: University of California, Los Angeles, news release, May 31, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A wide-ranging health care access bill penned by Republicans that includes covering hundreds of thousands of additional North Carolina adults through Medicaid received initial approval Wednesday from the state Senate. Support was nearly unanimous in the chamber for the measure, which also loosens practice restrictions on specialty nurses and eases government scrutiny of medical construction and equipment. The bill's anchor Medicaid expansion represents a dramatic turn for its prospects in North Carolina after being blocked for a decade by GOP elected officials. Still, House Republicans aren't interested in considering expansion during the annual work session expected to end around July 1, Speaker Tim Moore said recently, potentially leaving the issue for the fall or 2023. A final Senate vote is expected Thursday before the bill moves to the House. Senate leader Phil Berger and other Republicans had been adamantly opposed to adding adults to the Medicaid rolls through the 2010 Affordable Care Act. They had argued the state Medicaid program was broken and Washington couldn't be trusted to keep paying 90% of the costs for insuring adults who otherwise made too much to received traditional Medicaid. North Carolina is one of a dozen states that hasnt yet accepted expansion. But Berger said last fall he was willing to consider expanding Medicaid as part of budget negotiations. Now he says that the state's Medicaid program is fiscally sound and Congress probably won't lower the federal governments 90% share. North Carolina also would receive an additional $1.5 billion over two years to treat traditional Medicaid patients if it signs up. Medicaid expansion has evolved to the point that its good state fiscal policy," said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican, said on the Senate floor before the vote of 44-2. We will not get a better deal to expand Medicaid than we have right now. Last week, Berger, Hise and others unveiled expansion within a multipronged effort that includes several other health care reforms that they say will help increase the number of providers and services in rural areas. Provisions that would allow nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and others to practice independently without a physician's supervision are opposed by the state's leading doctors association. Democrats led by Gov. Roy Cooper have sought expansion for years, and senators in his party, while taking issue with portions of the broader bill, praised Republicans for a monumental step. It does my heart good that even though it took 10 years, yall are there. Praise the Lord, said Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Guilford County Democrat. Nothing is more important than a persons health. The expansion proposal would likely cover 500,000 or 600,000 people whose income reaches up to 138% of federal poverty guidelines. Although about 2.7 million North Carolina residents are now enrolled in Medicaid, some current consumers whom the state has been required to keep on the rolls during the COVID-19 pandemic would ultimately be covered by expansion. The states 10% share of expansion expenses would be paid through a new assessment on hospitals. The NC Health Works program also would include a work requirement for expansion recipients. Similar mandates by other states have been struck down by federal courts or blocked by President Joe Bidens administration. Expansion would go forward even if a work mandate doesn't get approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The bill also would scale back and streamline certificate of need laws that require health regulators to sign off on expansion plans by medical providers. The legislation would require health insurers in the state to cover telehealth services. And in-network health facilities would have to alert patients before an appointment when out-of-network providers are scheduled to provide care. The conservative John Locke Foundation and the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity opposed the legislation, saying that expansion would result in higher federal deficits, not better health care. For years, most state senators have rightfully recognized that Medicaid expansion is bad medicine for North Carolina, said Locke Foundation CEO Amy O. Cooke said in news release. Their changed view is disappointing. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Nations are falling short in their efforts to get rid of toxic PCB chemicals that pose a risk to human health and the environment, researchers report. Were only six years out from the Stockholm Conventions deadline to responsibly eliminate PCB stocks, but shockingly little progress has been made, said study co-author Lisa Melymuk, an assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were widely used for their insulating and flame-retardant properties, but were banned in the late 1970s by many countries, including the United States, because of their threat to environmental and human health. However, the chemicals are still present in transformers, capacitors and building materials in many countries. A new study found that only 30% of nations that agreed to responsibly eliminate their stocks of PCBs by 2028 under a treaty called the Stockholm Convention are on track to meet the deadline, and 42% don't know the amounts and locations of PCBs in their countries. More than 10 million metric tons of PCB-containing materials remain worldwide, according to the paper, published June 1 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The United States, the world's largest producer and user of PCBs, is not party to the Stockholm Convention. It has decreased its significant stocks of the chemicals by only about 3% since 2006, the research team said. The researchers also warned that the inability of global agreements like the Stockholm Convention to effectively manage PCBs raises concerns about dealing with other toxic chemicals found in numerous products, like highly persistent PFAS (per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances) and chlorinated paraffin chemicals. Global mismanagement and inequities make elimination of these persistent chemicals unlikely. This analysis is an international wake-up call to limit the production of hazardous chemicals, like PCBs. We just cant clean up the mess that they create, study co-author Veena Singla, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a University of Toronto news release. More information There's more on PCBs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. SOURCE: University of Toronto, news release, June 1, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children who have had COVID-19 aren't protected against the Omicron variant, but vaccination does cut their chances of infection, a new study shows. "I hear parents say, 'Oh, my kid had COVID last year,'" said senior study co-author Dr. Adrienne Randolph, from Boston Children's Hospital. "But we found that antibodies produced by prior infections in children don't neutralize Omicron, meaning that unvaccinated children remain susceptible to Omicron," she added in a hospital news release. For the study, Randolph and her colleagues analyzed blood samples from 62 children and teens hospitalized with severe COVID-19, 65 children and teens hospitalized with COVID-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and 50 youngsters who had mild COVID-19 and weren't hospitalized. All the blood samples were taken during 2020 and early 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron variant. The researchers conducted lab tests to determine how well antibodies in the samples neutralized five COVID variants of concern: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron. Overall, the samples showed some loss of antibody cross-neutralization against all five variants, but the loss was most pronounced for Omicron, according to the study published online May 27 in the journal Nature Communications. "Omicron is very different from previous variants, with many mutations on the spike protein, and this work confirms that it is able to evade the antibody response," Randolph said. "Unvaccinated children remain susceptible." But the researchers found that children and teens who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine had higher levels of neutralizing antibodies against the five variants, including Omicron. Randolph said she hopes the findings will encourage parents to have their children and teens vaccinated. Only 28% of U.S. children aged 5 to 11 and only 58% of youth aged 12 to 17 had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of May 18, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is set to meet on June 14-15 to consider authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5. More information For more on children and COVID-19, go to the American Academy of Pediatrics. SOURCE: Boston Children's Hospital, news release, May 27, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.